Holli Rausch

So we get a call from Bryce and Lindsey last weekend.  They want a compromise.  They want Miles and I to watch the first three episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and they’ll watch the first season of LOST.  Considering LOST is so awesome, we figured we could sacrifice three hours for two new fans.  Even though the compromise seemed like a last minute thought, as LOST was already queued up in their DVD player.  This compromise was made under the conditions that Miles and I post our thoughts, good or bad, about what we watched.  And Bryce had to Twitter while they watched (in an effort to get him to Tweet more often) and Lindsey had to post about it at least once.

It almost seems like a less funny Scrubs.  There are even parallel personalities of characters.  A female doctor often getting hit on and not taken seriously by patients because of her looks and femininity.  A female of a minority race (who I know later falls in love with) A black surgeon.  A doctor who picks on the interns and is seeking to be chief of their specialty.  A male doctor who is shy, and self-conscious and often mistaken to be or joked about being gay.  A doctor who is a womanizer and makes everything dirty. So in that case, it was a little annoying that I’ve already seen characters like them.  I had to get past it.

The show itself was pretty decent.  I think I would have liked it more if I hadn’t seen enough medical-type shows already.  So what would have won me over, wouldn’t have been the situations with patients, it would have been their relationships with each other and their lives outside the hospital.  I have heard enough from others and seen enough on the morning shows the following days and through roommates to know that later on there are a lot more things going on, like with George and Izzy and another character we haven’t met yet, and Burke and Christina and Meredith and Shepherd (not as cool as LOST’s Shepherd).  So it’s hard to judge interactions between characters in the first three episodes, because there’s not enough development there.

If ABC had all the episodes online (like they do for LOST), then it’s likely we’d continue watching from time to time.  Probably not several in one night, like we’ve been known to do, however.  But since they don’t, and we had to buy these three episodes to keep up our end of the deal, then it’s probably not too likely we’ll continue.  Because we’re not hooked and don’t see ourselves getting “hooked” like we are to our few shows we are faithful to.  But I’ll stop calling it Gay’s Anatomy (even though it’s so much more fun and that wasn’t part of the deal).

As a little extra joy, I watched Can’t Buy Me Love today on ABC Family or something – starring none other than a very young Patrick Dempsey.  Ha.

Ha.

I got into Sex and the City when they started playing reruns on TBS my freshman year of college. Kind of a guilty pleasure show. Somewhere in between then and now, I’ve forgotten that it used to be on HBO. Many words were changed and scenes cut for the TBS version of the show. And what they show on HBO, they also can and will show in movies. So it was a lot racier than I had expected (very naively, considering the name of the show). Putting that surprise aside, the movie was closely in line with the show.

The writing was clever and the plot wasn’t too girly, and almost never romantic – a staple of the series. In the title credits, they quickly catch the audience up on the main characters. Very quickly. Probably because almost anyone who goes to see the movie would already know the characters’ back story. But they included it for the poor husbands who get dragged to it. Luckily, my poor husband has “seen” the show and knew enough to not be lost. But not enough to follow along with the little things fans know but the movie doesn’t bring up. I’d bet most of my readers are in that category or one of less-knowledgeable viewers.

The plot was surprising – the trailer kind of tricks you into thinking one thing, but there’s a whole lot more going on. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), as always, narrates the show because she’s a writer and is typically writing about what the audience is viewing. Not many other shows or movies could pull this off, but they do a great job. I’ve really come to respect Sarah Jessica Parker’s acting – she chooses her roles well and pulls them off with style. Her continued characterization of Carrie Bradshaw was no exception. And her relationship with Big (Chris Noth) was not quite as messed up as usual, which was nice to see. Parker has a great scene towards the beginning of the movie where she’s attacking Big with the flowers in her hand, and that was perfectly orchestrated. A great scene for both characters.

My favorite character, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) was as cute and innocent as ever, along with her husband Harry (Evan Handler – Dave or Ricky, anyone?). The relationship between Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and Smith (Jason Lewis) at the beginning of the movie surprised me, but the outcome of it all did not. It was very Samantha and Cattrall did a great job with her character and humor, as always. At first, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) seemed out of character, but I think it’s because she was happy, and she was nearly never happy on the show. Her normal behavior came back in place as her husband Steve (David Eigenberg) messes things up. His screw up seemed very out of character for him, but his fess-up and remorse definitely was Steve. And the more I think of it, people make mistakes out of character often.

No visual effects to comment on, which was a little relieving, actually. And as most of my readers don’t know/care anything about the above paragraph, I’ll keep this review shortish to spare you. A great reunion show. All in all, a great movie. For fans of the show. But expect it to be HBO-ish. If you know it’s happening, it’s not as scary.

This gets a 4 out of 5 stars.

We’ll probably be renting next week, as no movies are coming out that we’re excited to see in the next few days. Any suggestions?

After last week’s review, I got worried. Readers were commenting on their low expectations of Prince Caspian and because of my review, might go see it when they otherwise wouldn’t have. That worries me because I went into the movie with low expectations/little interest. If a reader goes to the movie with the expectations of how great I thought it was, they might be let down because they’re going in with a different view. If I had seen the movie where expectations were met, I may not have been raving about it as much. So, this being said – take my reviews with a grain of salt. They will skew your movie watching if you take them to heart and they are skewed by my own perceptions. See the movies with your own thoughts going into them so you can have the most accurate perception of them. If you can’t do that without my thoughts in mind, then it might be a good idea to wait to read my reviews until you see the movie yourself.

More specifically, take this review with a large grain of salt because I haven’t seen all of the Indiana Jones movies, nor remember anything of what I have seen, and therefore wasn’t as big of a fan as some of you may have been…so my comments and criticisms might just be how the Indiana Jones franchise is. But my views are strictly from outside of the Indiana Jones’s following, so don’t get your feathers ruffled up about it.

The movie pretty much met my expectations, which were low. The best way I can describe it is that it felt like I was on a Walt Disney World theme ride. The believability isn’t quite there. Take the safari ride, for instance. Even though you are looking out for poachers and end up chasing them, you really don’t believe it is happening – even with puffs of dirt shooting up around you to simulate bullets. But your safari tour guide sure does keep on trying, doesn’t he? That’s what I felt like in this movie. The story was sub-par and the overall feeling was over-the-top and somewhat campy. I never felt any sense of danger for our hero, Henry Jones, Jr. In fact, there were several moments where I thought, “This reminds me of something that would happen in a Scooby Doo movie.”

I thought Harrison Ford did a good job portraying his character, for as much as I could remember of how he used to portray Indiana Jones. Even in his age, he seemed rugged and tough and ready for a fight. And his character was even pretty close to his age – late 50s, maybe 60s. However, I couldn’t help but wonder – with all the (well-choreographed) stunts, what percentage was Harrison Ford actually in the movie?

Shia LeBeouf and Cate Blanchett’s performances were sub-par. The only thing going for Blanchett was her accent. Otherwise, I couldn’t take her seriously as an enemy. Unfortunately with Shia, it’s hard to keep from thinking about him as Louis Stevens. As much as I try to look past it, that’s just the way it is. Hopefully he’ll make smart moves about his character choices and become a great actor. Last night, I compared his possible future to that of Mark Wahlberg. Assuming he makes the right choices. His character in Indiana Jones, Mutt, was to “Fonz”-like for me and he didn’t pull off the tough guy act. However, I did really enjoy the fight scene in the diner with the greasers vs. the preppies. Nice.

Overall, I wasn’t a fan of the character interaction. Miles put it nicely by saying that it seemed they were more interested in the mystery rather than in their situation. Instead of being concerned that the person next them wants to kill them, they ask questions about what they know. And that person freely gives them the honest answers. It seemed to me, that it would have been more in Indiana Jones’s character to lead Irina Spalko on the wrong trail.

If you weren’t planning on seeing this movie, it’s probably a good idea to see something instead. If you’re a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, it’s a good performance by Harrison Ford as a last hurrah in this franchise.

Some little perks, The Janitor from Scrubs and Charles Widmore from LOST have small appearances.  I give this a 3 out of 5 stars.

Miles and I started The Movie Club. There are only two members and we intend to keep it that way. Every week, we will see a new movie. If there are none in the theater we’re even slightly interested in, we’ll rent. Miles was voted in as President, but the VP can overrule any decisions – as well as overthrow the President. Any “review” I do of the movies shouldn’t be much of a spoiler. Certainly not of important things. But if you want to see the movies first and make up your mind, you may want to skip my reviews until then.

Last week, we saw Iron Man. I will be the first to admit that I was skeptical. The trailer looked decent, but I knew nothing of the Iron Man / Tony Stark character, nor cared about him. I only went because my husband wanted to. It was amazing. Robert Downing, Jr. (and his humor) really made Tony Stark likable and made you want to root for him. I think if he had been more conceded or arrogant, I wouldn’t like him as a superhero – but maybe that’s the kind of guy Stark was in the comics. I’m not sure. The seamless integration of photo realistic effects was really quite impressive. The computer in his helmet (and home) was believable as an intelligent type of technology, as well as the robotic “characters” in Stark’s shop. The story was not only believable, they made it applicable to current culture and events – even though the story was conceived a few decades ago. The interaction between Pepper and Tony was entertaining and well executed. Gwenyth Paltrow did a great job walking the line between being enchanted by Stark’s charm and putting him in his place. So not only were the effects amazing and believable, so was the story. And the music. It fit in so perfectly, you wouldn’t even know, until you heard it, that the Iron Man theme didn’t actually play until the credits. And then there’s a little extra for those who are respectful enough to read the credits. All in all, it’s in my top two superhero movies released to date. Maybe number one, but that decision is too close to call.

Tonight we saw Speed Racer on DLP. I was also skeptical of this movie. Mostly because I was afraid I’d have seizures from all the fast-moving colors. Let me just say that I knew in the first thirty seconds that I was disappointed. The extreme contrast between the brightly colored animation and the low-lit practical shots was just as disturbing as looking at a poorly super-imposed image. The shadows on the actors’ faces didn’t make sense and really looked flat when composited in with the effects. The parts where the style looked decent were when no practical shots were used – mostly when there was a wide-angle shot or very fast motion blurs. If the whole movie had been done with the effects, I maybe would have liked it. Maybe it would have even been forward-thinking. Either the technology isn’t up to speed enough to pull off this style, they didn’t put enough time and thought into executing it, or this style will never make it in the movie world. The only scene I enjoyed in this movie was when Speed Racer was sitting in the locker room at the beginning of the movie. There, and only there, did I feel that the “look” worked. And I don’t think there were any effects on those shots. One positive result of the movie is that Matthew Fox was in it as Racer X and seeing him sent my mind off to distant and beautiful lands of LOST theories and wonderment of the upcoming finale episodes. *ahhh*

All of this being said, I don’t know much about Speed Racer the character or show, and so maybe this style makes sense for keeping in line with it. But I know enough about anime to know that it probably doesn’t keep in line with it. And if it does, I still didn’t like the style. I did, however, enjoy reading Miles’s twitters about the movie. See them here. Also, the DLP might have been good but it’s hard to tell with a movie you can’t enjoy.

I hear Tony Stark will be making an appearance in The Hulk this summer, with Edward Norton, and you can bet your bottoms The Movie Club will be in attendance. A sequel to Iron Man has been announced for a release date of April 30, 2010.

I give Iron Man a 5 out of 5 stars and Speed Racer a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I thought I’d write a post summing up what’s been going on in my life.

I’ve been having sleeping issues. I’ve kind of had sleep issues my whole life. But more recently, I’ve been waking up anywhere from one-eight times a night. One night I woke up every half hour or so, and really didn’t get sleep at all. I took the afternoon off from work the next day. I’m light-sensitive, sound-sensitive, and movement-sensitive. I know when Miles gets out of bed and returns to bed and often wake up (luckily, he very rarely gets out of bed). I sleep with a sleeping mask and ear plugs but still wake up to sounds in the night. I have a hard time getting comfortable and I think that’s due to my back issues.

I’ve been going to the chiropractor for the last two years because about eight years ago, I stepped in an irrigation trench-thing while detasseling in a corn field and it caused my hips to be crooked, causing my spine to make up for the shift in weight/pressure on one side. I wear an insert in my shoe to make up for it, but as soon as I walk barefoot, it starts overcorrecting again, causing pain. I had back issues before, but it was more stress-induced and could be worked out with a good night sleep or back rub. Now that’s not enough. And now it’s keeping me from falling asleep quickly. I hadn’t been realigned since before the wedding, mostly because I didn’t want to bother finding another chiropractor that I could trust. But it’s gotten to the point where I need to get readjusted. Unfortunately, our insurance doesn’t cover chiropractic health. Most places the alignment fee is like $35 which isn’t bad, except that I should be going every other week to be pain free. Until we have it insured, I’ll just be going when I absolutely need to. Which will be more often than 5 months from now on.

I’ve been having headaches. It started with two (about two-three weeks apart) that may have been migraines. I’ve never had a migraine before, and don’t want to spend money going to the doctor to find out if they were, but they were the most intense head aches I’ve ever had before. The second one being so bad that when I tried to move, I felt like I was going to throw up. Since then there’s been a dull pain in my head, it feels like it’s behind my left eye and there hasn’t been a day in the last three weeks that I haven’t noticed it. At night, even with the sleeping mask, it feels like my left eye is wide open in a lit room. Causing more issues falling asleep.

I have a chiropractic appointment for Wednesday. I’m hoping it will take care of all my recent problems – head aches, back/neck/shoulder aches, and sleep problems. And to be honest, those are the main things going on in my life right now because it’s hard to think of anything else.

Quick things that have been going on: I got 3rd place in 3D design in Beadle Mania, to which I didn’t submit anything (a professor of mine submitted my character animation of the baby). It’s nice to have a paycheck and be able to put some money away for a future house (I’d like to live in a neighboring small town, like Harrisburg). I’m totally loving LOST and can’t wait for the finale, even though I know it means waiting 8 months for a new episode. I’m listening to a lot of design/media/geek related podcasts lately and it keeps my mind busy at work. I do plan to post about “The Movie Club” soon, and the explanation of it won’t be in the form of a riddle. Or lame.