The Wry Side of Life

I watched Sucker Punch for 99 cents and I'm glad that's all I spent. While I think Zack Snyder is a step up from Michael Bay; he too shares the same flaws. He's good with visuals, but has issues with story beats and is clueless when it comes to weaving a cohesive story. The story is about a girl named Baby Doll, who accidentally kills her sister while defending herself from her evil stepfather's attacks. She is sent to an insane asylum, where in 5 days a doctor will come and give her a lobotomy. She develops a plan to escape after going into her dream world, where a Raydenesque character tells her she needs to retrieve four items and the fifth one will be revealed at the appropriate time. She teams up with other patients, Amber, Blondie, Rocket and Sweet Pea to bust out of there. Don't these sound like names of the Pussycat Dolls? This movie was a point of contention for some critics over whether it was exploitative of women or empowering. I stand on the side tha...

(If you haven't seen the Private Practice season finale proceed with caution. Spoilers ahead) Have to admit that I was very close to being over Private Practice, but they had to go and suck me right back in. It all started with the Sam and Addison break up. I can understand if they broke up and it was for a believable reason. Trying to force someone to have a child by a certain time frame seemed rather unreasonable, and I felt like she needed more time to deal with her mother's death. She then proceeded to get involved with a new character played by Benjamin Bratt. You almost thought she was going to run away with him, and then boom there she was at the end in bed with Sam. Her resolution to their problem? She was going to have a baby on her own, but she was also going to stay in a relationship with Sam. I believe that this is a brave decision on the part of the showrunner and writers to go this route. It would have been so easy to use Sam's reluctance to have child...

If you are a fan of Sex and the City you might remember this episode called La Douleur Exquise translated as The Exquisite Pain. This is one of my favorite episodes of the series because it equated that relationships can turn masochistic and not in the typical sense. In the beginning of the series it seemed like no matter what Big did to Carrie she would keep coming back to him. It is in this episode that she realizes she is in a masochistic relationship with him, and that she keeps hurting herself over and over. It reminds me of my own bittersweet relationship with my own Mr. Big. I think part of the reason you keep going back is you assume that your love is so powerful that the other person will change because of it. When they don’t a sense of disappointment sweeps over you and you try harder. However, there is a time and place when the realization takes over that the pain is not worth it. It’s like taking a razor blade to your arm and you keep cutting and cutting. I like to use exam...

Every time a New Year rolls around we all seem to want to make some kind of New Year’s resolutions. How about this one? Why wait till New Year’s when you can start today? I’ve resolved that we shouldn’t have to wait to get started. We all know what we want to accomplish. For instance for myself, I’ve resolved that I will lay the foundation for big changes that will improve and enhance my life. I will not be waiting till New Year’s. I’m starting today and so can you! Lately, I’ve come across this idea of why we don’t get what we want and why we continue to suffer. I had a friend who was going to lose her job because her company was relocating to Arizona. They gave her the option of moving to Arizona and work over there. She at first decided that she was going to do it, and had started making plans. A month to go before the move and she starts having panic attacks. Fear had taken a firm grip on her mind, and she became convinced that she could not handle the move. Fear is a...

Oh boy, how does one of your favorite shows become a show you hate? It’s called shoddy writing and for part III in my series I’m focusing on Brothers and Sisters. What is wrong with this show? Shall I count the ways? Let’s start with the very first episode of the new season. The season started with advancing the story a year forward. This was to allow the youngest son Justin to go off to war and come back. He came back to Robert, Kitty’s husband in a coma, Scotty and Kevin owning a restaurant with Saul, Sarah unemployed but dating a hot guy, and Holly suffering with memory loss. Ojai Foods and politics were the core through line of Brothers and Sisters. It was what made the show unique as well gave it more depth than a typical family drama. With the new writing regime these things have been decimated. Characters are fighting over ridiculous things and the stories have been the most uninspired piece of shoddy writing I have ever seen. First off, my biggest problem is the Hol...

I just finished watching season 2 of True Blood, and I have to say I have mixed feelings about the show. I do enjoy Alexander Skarsgard in his role as Eric Northman. I love how he says his lines with an added subtext. The scene that stood out was when Eric and Bill meet outside of Queen Sophia's house and have an exchange. Eric just lords over Bill that he has bonded with Sookie (in this series it means that when you suck the blood of a vampire they can feel what you feel and you start to have sexy thoughts about them). You felt as if Eric was taunting Bill asking for him to hit him in the face so he could go cry to Sookie about how mean Bill was. I found the Sookie and Eric sexy dream sequences to be very sensual and tender. Another aspect I enjoyed was when Godric appeared on the scene. He is Eric's maker, and Sookie was enlisted by Eric to find him. *Spoiler* When Godric makes the decision to end his life by staying out in the sunlight he has a touching scene with Eric. E...

This is my first time watching the World Cup games, and I have to say I'm very excited about it all. No matter what I don't think the United States should regard what happened last Saturday as a failure. They had a wonderful run and I think great things are around the corner. I would like to focus on the Ghana soccer team for this post. I have a friend who is from the Ivory Coast. His soccer team was knocked out in the first round, and told me he would be supporting Ghana from here on out, because they were the last African team. He said that it didn't matter what their nationalities were because their victory was for all of Africa and not just Ghana. I thought what beautiful sentiment to have. He said they would be going to a Ghanaian restaurant that night to celebrate the win. I have also read from fans of the Mexican team saying they were rooting for North America. Combining both U.S. and Mexico as teams to root for. Unfortunately, you will not hear Americans saying t...