Whip It - 4/5 Stars

OK, I've been slack and totally forgot about doing my reviews, which are also good practice if I do want to pursue this writing-thing at some point.

Whip It stars Ellen Page in an atypical coming of age story directed by none other than Drew Barrymore herself! Page plays a 17-year-old outsider who on a whim decides to try out for a roller derby league, to discover that she's really good at it! The problem is that her mother is a "bit" disapproving.

Barrymore has never directed before, but you would never know it because this baby is one of the best little comedies I've seen in a while. On top of great comedy bits, the dramatic scenes all ring true and none of it seems phony.

Barrymore also doesn't take the starring role, she takes the unglamorous role in the picture and seems to be having the time of her life.

Page is just as good as she was in Juno, if not even better.

You'll have a good time if you decide to check out this movie. Whip It! Whip It good!

The ever-circling years

It Came Upon The Midnight Clear

For lo! the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When, with the ever-circling years,

Shall come the Age of Gold;

When peace shall over all the earth,

Its ancient splendors fling,

And all the world give back the song,

Which now the angels sing.

It's that time again, the CD player (yes, I still use one) is churning out a classic hymn of the season, the stomach is full from Thanksgiving feasting and I'm thinking again about this time of year.

Whether it's singing in the choir, shopping for loved ones, enjoying a timeless classic TV special with Charlie Brown or one of his friends, the Christmas Season is such a mix of things for me.

Many want to totally separate the divine from the secular, but if you think about it God is everywhere, so what is there that can't be divine? I'm not saying that your Big Mac is a divine gift, but isn't it really? You have been given money from a job you have, or some other source of income and you've been given the free will to choose what you eat.

There are so many things that make the season for me, some already mentioned, others like spending time with family, seeing what wild creations my neighbors come up with to entertain me as I drive by their house, or the joy of Christmas Eve service where I finally pause for a second or two in the hustle of the season to really ponder what it all means, that a tiny baby born over 2000 years ago came to give His life for mine on an old cruel tree.

I hope that however you celebrate this time of year, you will ponder these things in your heart, enjoy good times with friends and family and prepare to have a truly happy new year.

Best wishes to you and yours this Christmas Season! OK, it starts officially tomorrow I guess, but I'm a little early.

Oh, and don't get busted, by any doors tomorrow!

Surrogates 3/5

I used to write film reviews, but quit due to the fact that it was just too much of a pain to do it on my website. Since I have the blog though, I think I'll start reviewing films as I see them. I don't know if anyone will ever read them, but it's good exercise for the old noggin anyway. :)

Surrogates is set sometime in the future where pretty much everyone lives their lives being hooked up to a virtual reality version of themselves. These alternate versions are robots, and all seems well and good until two humans that were hooked up to their surrogates ended up dead, in the real world when their surrogate died.

The premise is based on a graphic novel, and is a great sci/fi premise for a movie.

The problem is that the pace and acting are not exactly stellar in the movie. Bruce Willis is good, but the supporting cast just didn't blow me away.

If you are a sci/fi fan you will probably enjoy this one, but you won't be missing anything if you wait to rent it.

3/5 stars.

Professional what?

Today I was at an employer for an interview and it really shocked me how far our society has come in so many ways.

The main thing I noticed was one of the young ladies that was coming for a second interview.

She had on: A lacy top that looked like something you would wear going to the club, which when she bent over showed a crack about a foot long, and jeans!

No this wasn't a big bank job or anything, but there was nothing about her appearance that would have made me want to hire her if I was a supervisor.

I see this more and more with 18-25 year olds having no clue how to dress professionally, or how to act that way when dealing with people.

I mean honestly, what is wrong with parents now that they let their kids go out of the house for an interview looking this way?

It's no wonder you still see places where you have to wait on the staff member to get off their cell phone so they can serve you.

And I'm not saying you have to be dressed in a suit and tie, but at least have a nice shirt/blouse (tucked in) and some kaki's or something along those lines.

What goes around...

It's a funny thing, lately most of the CDs (yes I still buy those and only download out of print stuff for the most part) that I have bought have also been released on LP!

Yes, LP, as in long play RECORD.

It's pretty bizarre that 20 years ago LPs were old hat and you just had to get a CD player and now things are going in reverse.  It used to be that you had to buy the CD to get a bonus song or two.  

Now, the record version is being released with bonus song(s), that you can only get on the record and not the CD!  Talk about what goes around, comes around!

To make things even stranger, Cheap Trick is releasing their new album on EIGHT TRACK! Who actually has one of those tape melting monsters anymore?  :)

I guess it's true what the Bible says: "There's nothing new under the Sun".

Transformers - Stupidity of the Fallen

Today I had the chance to do the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen "IMAX" Experience. I'd rather call it the IMAX Jr. Experience, since the screen was only 2 stories tall and not 5 stories tall like it should have been to really be an IMAX.

I loved 90% of the movie, but the other 10% is really what this entry is about.

Spoilers are ahead, so you've been warned.

My biggest gripe with the movie is this: When Transformers debuted, it came out as a cartoon for kids of my generation to push one thing, a toy.

As you can imagine, it didn't include THREE jokes about A: A dog humping another dog (on screen both times) or B: A robot humping a human.

It also didn't include several sexually explicit scenes, even if they are short, that would NEVER have made it into the cartoon.

Hollywood has been out of touch for many decades now, but I'm disgusted and saddened that they think it's appropriate to do these types of things in a movie where they know TONS of families will take their small children to see the movie because they love the characters.

When it comes down to it, Hollywood - Grow up.

Now many of you will read this and think "Wow, Wes needs to come out of the 19th Century!", but frankly I don't care anymore. If something is wrong, it is wrong. It doesn't matter if it is politically correct, if something is wrong, it's wrong.

OH HI OH!

That's right, it's time I hit the road again for another coaster somewhere.

This weekend I head up to Cincinnati to ride Kings Islands' newest creation Diamondback.  

The coaster is in the 235 ft tall neighborhood, honestly I can't keep up with the stats on coasters much anymore.  But they usually just top each other by 5 ft each time it seems.

And on another positive note, I've finally gotten back to working on my book, yes book!

It's all done on the digital version, and now I need to print it off and start shopping for an agent, to see if anyone likes it.  Wish me luck!