Funny Comedies and Ryan Reynolds is Buried Alive...

After a Christmas hiatus from my blog, I am now back and ready to write again.  I saw quite a few comedies over the break.  Little Fockers was a predictable sequel, funny but forgettable, while The Green Hornet was surprisingly fresh.  Seth Rogan's script was hilarious but not as vulgar as his previous films.  He makes a dynamic duo out of The Green Hornet and his sidekick, Kato, bringing a very old story back to life.  The violence was similar to Kick-Ass in its intensity while the gadgets would have made MacGyver proud.  Overall a fantastic popcorn movie!
On DVD, I recently saw Buried starring Ryan Reynolds, a fascinating film from a technical standpoint.  The entire movie is set inside a coffin.  Through camera movement, lighting, sound and acting the viewer sees only what the director intends and imagines the rest in their own mind.  It is intense, uncomfortable, and suspenseful even though you never see what is outside the coffin.  A technical achievement to say the least, I imagined myself in the same circumstance while watching this film.  I was emotionally attached to the ups and downs of our hero and (Spoiler Alert!) became distraught when his  rescue attempt failed at the very end.  A depressing ending to an amazing film by Rodrigo Cortés of Spain.

Christmas is upon us!

Well, it's that time of year again, Christmas.  It is and always has been my favorite holiday.  The 25 Days of Christmas on the ABC Family Channel is a personal favorite for the holidays as there is a new Christmas movie every night.  Putting up the tree, stringing Christmas lights and sitting by the fire roasting marshmallows is another highlight (of course if I still lived up north, the roasting marshmallows would make more sense but oh well). I also love receiving Christmas cards in the mail.  It is a special way to remain in touch with people you don't see very often.  You get to see pictures of their family, kids, pets, etc... and I always place these on my fridge.  I have so many on there now that it is hard to see what color the door is.  Unfortunately, I have not always been very consistent about sending cards, but I have succeeded for the past two years.  This year I made my Christmas cards on Shutterfly and they are so cute I just had to post them here.  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with friends and family and celebrate the many blessings God has given you this year!

Christ Is King Religious Christmas Card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

TV Season 2010 Pulse Check

Back in September I wrote two blogs on my favorite new Dramas and Comedies of the 2010 season. It is now time for a pulse check - how are they doing so far, are they still beating or on life support?

Beating Strong - Raising Hope
This show still makes me laugh. When the scripts are good so are the episodes. There have been a few blah ones, but overall I am really enjoying this blue collar family and their hilarious predicaments. Jimmy is the underdog you want to root for. He isn't the smartest guy in the world but he puts his new daughter first. His parents aren't the best but they sure try hard and Maw Maw is priceless.

Having Heart Trouble - The Event and Outsourced
Unfortunately The Event is becoming a bore. It is falling into the same pattern of Flashforward where it starts out intriguing and then can't keep the excitement going. I still have a few episodes on the DVR and I'm not dying to watch them.
Outsourced has lost it's hilarity. The first few episodes were great, hilarious, but now the writing has faltered and they are no longer as funny as they were in the beginning. In fact, I have not finished watching the last two episodes. I turned them off mid show and deleted them. Meh.

On Life Support - Undercovers
I can't believe I am saying this but I have lost the desire to watch this show. It has nothing to do with the cast, they are great, it is the writing
(JJ Abrams is obviously busy doing other things and it shows, bummer). There is no urgency in their missions. There is nothing at stake. In Alias, the fate of the entire world was always at stake as well as Sydney's life. There was so much intrigue, twists and turns that if you missed an episode you had to find out what happened, asap. It was a huge water cooler show. The critics and network executives at NBC agree with me about Undercovers as the show was just cancelled for good this week. The ratings were low and with no huge stars to keep it afloat the network decided to take it out of it's misery.

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Christmas is almost here, Time for Holiday cards!

My favorite holiday of the year is almost here and in preparation I am planning on ordering Christmas cards from Shutterfly.  There are so many great designs to choose from it is hard to decide which one but I am always partial to Snowflakes, of which they have quite a number to choose from.  So far these are my favorites, Family Snowfall, and Wisemen's Journey.  But if you just want to look at all of the photo cards, here is the link - Flat Photo Cards.  Another cool thing about these cards is the fact that Shutterfly is having a special offer for Bloggers, 50 free cards for blogging about Shutterfly.  How cool is that.  Here is the link if you want to join me, 50 Free Cards from Shutterfly.  So enjoy the holiday preparations, the time with family, and remember the gifts are not what is important, Jesus and his gift to us is the reason for the season.  Spend it with those you love and cherish your time together.

Fall TV Season 2010 - Comedy

I'm rather embarrassed to mention the two new comedies that I enjoyed during premiere week. They are quite irreverent and not very PC. I'm honestly not sure if these shows will last anyways, but their first episodes made me set the DVR to record them for the next few weeks. The first show is Outsourced on NBC. It airs right after The Office which is a great lead in to this politically incorrect show about a manager who is sent to India to handle a novelties call center. Everyone has called for help or been called by their credit card company from a call center in India. We all know the accents and the frustration. This show demonstrates the other side of that phone call. It's a job, with little pay and little understanding of American culture. Like The Office, the characters all represent people we have known in our own jobs taken to extreme comedic proportions. Manmeet uses the call center to pick up women. He spends his time telling overweight, 55 year olds who smoke how gorgeous they are instead of selling them products they don't need. Gupta is the annoying coworker who talks non-stop about things no one wants to hear and doesn't take any hints when people don't want him around. I was immediately hooked. The other comedy I enjoyed was Raising Hope. It's a white trash show like Roseanne but with a heart, as the main character ends up with a baby and he has no idea what to do with her. He does realize that he needs a car seat for her and sets out to pawn his possessions using his only form of transportation that is safe for her, a shopping cart. That is the "family shopping cart," the one they use over their fire pit when they grill outside for dinner. Once again the characters are what carry this show. The mother and grandmother, played by Martha Plimpton and Chloris Leachman respectively are superb. Leachman actually wears only a bra for most of the episode which is both gross and hilarious at the same time. And former Goonie, Plimpton, as irascible as ever, was a delight to see on the screen once again. My only concern is whether the show can stay funny beyond the first few episodes. Only time will tell.


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