Nothing Like the Holidays is a Puerto Rican flavored Christmas movie.  Funny, but sometimes very sad, the movie is about a family getting together for Christmas.  It's very formulaic---one son coming home from war to face a broken romantic relationship, one son who married a Jewish lawyer who the family doesn't really warm up to, and a daughter who is returning from Hollywood after sort of failing at an acting career.  Of course, lots of other complications arise during the four days they are together.  I enjoyed the film and was happy *SPOILER ALERT* that the film does end seemingly happy with lots of their problems resolved.  This was not much of a surprise, but I do worry sometimes that new directors want to try something else and have the movie end sadly.

And believe it or not, I have never seen A Christmas Story!  I watched it tonight for the first time and enjoyed it quite a bit.  I usually dislike narrated films, however, the narration in this film didn't bother me as much as it normally does.  The movie is quite likable and is a 100% family film.  I highly recommend this to anyone who hasn't seen it yet (if there is anyone like that left!)

I took a break from my busy schedule and saw two movies today.  The first was Yes Man, a hugely disappointing film starring Jim Carrey.  It was trying to be a Liar, Liar, but got no where close.  I think I smile a few times, but there were no big laughs in the film.  The story is about a man who, in an attempt to improve his life, has decided to say "yes!" to everything.  Some of the situations are fun, and other are outright lame.  A definite "miss" of a film.

The second film was Seven Pounds a film that one should only see if they do not know what the story is.  Anyone planning to see this film should see it NOW, before someone tells you what's going on.  I went into it, not knowing what it was about and I was fascinated by the film.  In the long run, however, the film has a few flaws and a few problems (which, of course, I cannot discuss here) and stole away from the final enjoyment of the film.  (anyone who has kept tropical fish as a hobby will recognize one problem I am referring to!).  An interesting film, but not worthy of a total endorsement.

Once again, I felt a little awkward buying tickets today.  I had to say "three seniors for Twilight, please."  I originally had no plans to see that film, however, it made a mint at the box office and a sequel has already been announced.  I had to go to see what was going on with this film.  I knew it was a "teen film" but I took my chances anyway.  I was intrigued by the film, especially when I saw a review of the film and the writer was amazed at how successful the film was despite having no sex or blood in it!  What!!!...I thought all "teen films" have sex in it!

The film was quite entertaining.  The lead actor, who played the young vampire, was, indeed, quite mesmerizing with his appearance.  Adding interest to the film was the whole concept of "good" vampires.  Never bored during the film, I plan to see the sequel!

Rather than watch the election returns we decided to watch an old movie instead.  In This Our Life (1942) is an old Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland movie.  They play two sisters.  One is named Roy and the other is named Stanley.  I watched another old movie once and it also had a female character named Stanley.  Apparently the name Stanley was once common for girls.  Well, one sister (Bette Davis)is a wild scheming on one and she manages to steal away her sister's husband.  As you see, she is not a very nice person.  The rest of the movie is basically about how the good sister deals with her and how she tries to fine happiness again.  This is an excellent movie for a rainy afternoon (or election night!)

One interesting language note:  The word "chic" is pronounced as "chick" in this film.  I have always found it interesting to note language changes over the decades.  Another interesting change from the 1930's is the pronunciation of the word "alias."  Back then the accent was not on the first syllable but on the second.  Also, "valet" was always pronounced with a hard "t."   Finally, "chablis" was said not in the French manner but quite American with a "bliss" as the second syllable. 

Ugly Betty started out really bad this season.  It was as if different writers were doing the series.  I game it a few more chances, and it feels like its back on track.  Last week they wrapped up a whole bunch of dreary and badly written storylines.  It almost seems like someone in charge realized right away how the show was going in the wrong direction.   Sooooo....Ugly Betty was fun last night and I forgive them!

The Office just keeps getting better and better.  Tonight's episode was like one of the five best they ever did.  Writing is everything in television, and it is amazing how the creators of this show keep the players in character.  As in real life, people never really change.  So many shows on TV have writers who get bored and run out of ideas so they have people who hate each other suddenly like each other.  This is OK sometimes when they build up to it and there's a legitimate reason for that to happen.  Too many times there's no real reason for two such characters to start liking each other.  So far, there's none of that on The Office.  It's always great to see how each character is going to respond to the latest office event.  It's always fun!

I really enjoyed An American Carol, a movie which spoofs Michael Moore and his documentary filmmaking.  I really didn't expect it to be as funny as it was.  Going into the theater I actually expected it to be rather dumb and I was prepared to leave after 15 minutes if it was indeed dumb.  So many of the recent spoof movies lately have really missed the mark and I sort of expected this one to do the same.  However, I found myself laughing quite hysterically after the first minute.  The fun kept up and the movie proved to be quite entertaining.  It's a real feel good movie with great things to say about our country and the things that made this country great!  One of my favorites this year!!

Yikes!  The new television season has begun with a big thud!  Because I love television, I have always looked forward to the fall television season where networks roll out their new and returning shows and hope that us viewers will fall in love with them.   Well, they should try a little harder.  So far, this season, almost everything has been awful.

I already talked about Fringe and Privileged.  Fringed was too complicated and Privileged floundered in its second week.  Two and a Half Men returned on Monday with a show revolving a little to much around sex.  It seems TV writers think that sex jokes are automatically funny.  I turned it off halfway thru the show.  The show following that show, Worst Week, was not any better.  At least Gossip Girl (my guilty pleasure) was good that night.

On Wednesday, Gary Unmarried premiered.  Once again, a show where writers automatically think sex jokes are funny.  Too bad the writers don't try harder and write some jokes that are genuinely funny.

The worst thing that happened to me was the return of Ugly Betty.  The show's production company moved to New York and apparently some stars, producers, and writers didn't want to move there. Their absence resulted in a show that had no resemblance to the wonderful show that I loved for two years.  Not only were major characters missing, some of the regular characters were not acting like they should.  It was like a totally revamped show.    The show was so bad that I am done with it...there's no way that show, seeing how bad it was on the first episode, can ever redeem itself!

The one bright shining star right now is The Office.  Their one-hour premiere was right on.  The writing, along with the performances, were brilliant.  All the characters stayed true.

The fall TV season has arrived and now we get to sample the shows the networks are rolling out and it is up to us to decide their fate.  I watched two shows tonight and only one of them worked for me.  Priviledged, which appears on the surface to be a teen show is really rather interesting and funny.  It's well written and it captured my interest.  Its a show populated with characters that are filthy rich who live in Palm Beach, Florida.  I will give it another try next week.

The show that went overboard last night was Fringe.  Developed by J. Abrams, the mastermind behind my favorite show Lost, I gave it a try and thought I was going to love it.  However, the show was quite full of itself.  Very arty direction and fast cutting does not make a show.  They also used some strange device of floating titles to let you know what city they were in.  The device was annoying.  After about 30 minutes I turned it off.  The plot was getting as confusing as Alias used to get.   Maybe it would have played better if they had edited the 90 minute premiere to a more concise 60 minute show.

Pineapple Express is one funny movie.   It's a story about a process server/stoner (Seth Rogen) who accidentally witnesses a drug killing.  He drags his stoner/supplier friend along with him as they try to stay alive as the bad guys try to kill him since Rogen witnessed the murder.  It's written quite well, with dialogue that seems quite realistic for two stoners.  There's also a great cast of supporting players.  Overall, a great time at the movies.

Later in the day I watched The Night They Raided Minsky's.  This 1968 movie, which was intended to be a love letter to burlesque of the 1920's fell totally flat.   William Friedkin (Pre-Exocist) directed it.  I can see the intent of the writer and director...they wanted to show 1960's audiences what burlesque was all about.  Part of the film were parts of sketches that they probably did back in the 1920's.  However, like the film itself, the execution of these sketches did not do justice to burlesque.  I rented the film mainly because it was Burt Lahr's last film.  Unfortunately, he passed away during filming and very little of him got on film.  Jason Robards stars, along with Britt Ekland.

Maybe I have too much time on my hands right now...I went to another bad movie!  I was a excited to see Journey to the Center of the Earth.  It was in 3-D (I really like 3-D movies) and the one review I read (I should have read others!) said the movie was like an amusement park ride (I love amusement park rides!)

The movie started out interesting...the story pays homage to the original book by Jules Verne and introduces an interesting angle---perhaps the book was based on a real event.  Brandon Fraser's character in the movie has a brother that disappeared in Iceland believing in the book was true and disappeared while trying to find the center of the Earth.  Brandon Fraser then takes his nephew to Iceland and hires a female guide to go up the volcano where the entrance might be to the center of the earth and looks for any clues to his brother's disappearance.  So far, so good.  The movie totally fell apart once they get inside the cave.  The story becomes totally unbelievable and I was unable to go along for the rest of the movie.  The clincher comes near the end when the nephew (WHILE IN THE CENTER OF THE EARTH) gets a cell phone call from his mother!  (everybody should sign up for THAT coverage!)

Finally, the 3-D (provided by a company called Real-D) was disappointing.  I don't exactly know why Real-D is not as interesting as other 3-D processes.  Monster House was also done in Real-D and that also was disappointing.  However, Beowulf was terrific in 3-D (they did not use Real-D).

This movie almost made by Truly Abysmal Pictures list but failed because the first 30 minutes was, indeed, interesting.  It was the last hour that was abysmal!

I guess I do have too much time----I've never written this much before!