Ceiling Down!!

A friend of mine recently had the ceiling in one of the rooms in her house collapse. There didn't appear to be any water damage nor were there animals running around in the ceiling. It just fell for no apparent reason. I wonder if she going to contact her insurance company to see what the home insurance quotes would be for the repairs. We contacted our insurance company we started having problems with our ceiling, but that was due to water damage not shoddy workmanship. (Well, there was some shoddy workmanship thanks to the previous owner thinking he could fix things properly.) I wish her luck getting it fixed quickly and cheaply!

Movie review: Hachiko: A Dog's Story

Based on a true story, Hachiko tells the tale of an akita named Hachiko. On the way home from work one day, college professor Parker (Richard Gere) found a puppy wandering around a train platform. The train station attendant (Jason Alexander) can't keep the dog at the station so Parker brings him home. When the owner can't be found, his wife, Cat (Joan Allen), reluctantly allows him to keep little Hachi. Soon Hachi and Parker form a strong bond. Hachi walks Parker to the train station every morning and greets him at the same station every evening. When Parker suddenly dies at school, Hachi is devastated. He continues to wait for Parker to return from work, despite the family's efforts to deter the behavior. Ten years later, Hachi dies at the train station - still waiting for his master.

I've wanted to see this movie for awhile. My family owns a shiba inu, which is similar in appearance to an akita. Despite knowing how the movie ends (it's a true story so it's kinda like knowing how Titanic ends), I still found myself crying as Hachi desperately waited for Parker to return. Granted, you need to overlook a few things in order to truly enjoy the movie. Cate, Parker's wife, is pretty terrible in the beginning. Since she's not a main character, you don't get to see her change. She's set up as an antagonist for Hachi and Parker and, while that softens a bit, there isn't a turn around for her. Sure, we feel bad for her by the end...but we kinda feel bad for everyone, not just her.

So, if you love dogs and are willing to shed a few tears by the end of the night, snuggle up with your furry friend and pop in the DVD. However, if you aren't in it for the heartwarming story, there isn't any other reason to watch it. Since it's basically the story of a man and his dog, you'd probably find yourself bored before it reaches the halfway mark.

A music review will be coming!

I finally got a chance to listen to Ai Kago's new album. There will be a review coming, but I want to listen to it a few more times first. So...Thursday. I will review the album on Thursday. Promise. For now, I will read a bit about Richard Willich. He seems to be this prominent businessman who is super into religion and helping his community via charities. On one hand, I applaud him taking his time and money to help those less fortunate than him. On the other hand, he seems to try to cram religion down their throat while he's doing it. I can't approve of that part. But maybe I'm misreading some things. I'll have to find out a bit more about him. Maybe he really is a nice guy that isn't forcing his religion onto others. Then again, if that was the case, why mention his religion at all?

I am not that old...

I made the mistake of looking in the mirror the other day. Somehow I have managed to get these "furrowed eyebrow" wrinkles between my eyebrows. They make it look like I'm always mad or something. It's really from me squinting to keep the sun out of my eyes. Note: Buy sunglasses. A lot of the wrinkle cream reviews talk about cheeks or foreheads. I'm not sure if my eyebrow wrinkles fall into the forehead category. I'll just tape my eyebrows up and it'll be all better! ^_^

Happy Easter!

Try not to eat too much candy! Even the best appetite suppressants can't defeat the power of the Cadbury Egg or the deliciousness of the Peep. Between Valentine's Day chocolates and Easter baskets, there must be a ton of chocolate floating around peoples' insides. Now if only they could make it so you don't gain weight from chocolate but it still tastes awesome. Get workin' on that scientists!

TV review: Modern Family

Somehow I have forgotten to talk about THE best show of the season - Modern Family. The show is a look into an extended family with a sort of reality show spin to it. There are three separate households that are related to each other. There's Jay's (Ed O'Neill) house where he lives with his second wife, Gloria (Sofia Vergara), and her son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez). Then there's Claire's (Julie Bowen), Jay's oldest child from his first marriage, house. She lives with her husband Phil (Ty Burrell) and her three children, Hayley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter), and Luke (Nolan Gould). Finally, there's Mitchell's (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) house. He lives with his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and their adopted baby girl, Lily.

The three households interact, much like any family would, but each is punctuated with a dialogue directed at the camera/crew. This gives the show a better look into the family dynamics. Instead of just showing the tense relationship between Jay and his out-of-the-closet son, Mitchell, there will be a scene focusing on how the pair interacts, but then the camera will cut to a monologue with each character separately telling how they relate to either each other or the situation. While this sounds like it could be boring, it's often the funniest part of each episode.

This mockumentary way of telling a story isn't particularly new. Christopher Guest does it in all of his movies. However, it is new to a weekly television series. It can be rather difficult to get the storyline across to the audience without getting distracted by the various monologues. Yet it works here. Both the writing and the acting is absolutely brilliant. The show airs on Wednesday nights at 9PM on ABC. I'm not sure if it's available on Hulu, but ABC often reruns episodes. You definitely need to catch this one!

Movie review: The Proposal

After a long day of running errands, my husband and I loaded up Netflix to see what looked interesting. Interestingly enough, they recently added The Proposal - a movie we both wanted to see but were too cheap to pay more than our monthly Netflix fee to see it - to the online streaming queue. So we snuggled up and clicked Play.

Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) is the young executive assistant to chief editor Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock). Tate is a hardworking, pushy woman that is the target of much of her office's hatred. When she finds out that her visa has expired and she is about to be deported back to Canada, she forces Paxton to marry her. Knowing that she needs him, Paxton agrees...as long as she gives him a promotion and promises to publish his manuscript. The pair take a trip to Paxton's hometown in Alaska to break the news to his family during his grandmother's (Betty White) birthday party. Tate, who had been orphaned at 16, finds the heart that she had deeply hidden from everyone.

Yes, it is pretty much your standard romantic comedy. However, I firmly believe that this genre is where Sandra Bullock excels. And besides, the term "romantic comedy" doesn't automatically mean the movie will suck. Both my husband and I enjoyed the movie a lot. I thought that the on-screen chemistry between Reynolds and Bullock was amazing. Not only were they able to fight well, but they were also able to show that sexual tension that can exist between a man and a woman that argue constantly. Meanwhile, Betty White was fabulous as Paxton's grandmother. There needs to be more roles written for this brilliant woman. On the down side, I wasn't particularly fond of Mary Steenburgen as Paxton's mother or of Craig T. Nelson as his father. Despite knowing what these two actors are capable of, both of their performances came off wooden and bland. They are seriously just there to round out the "perfect family." Luckily, Nelson's character is barely there and Steenburgen's gets overshadowed by White so it's rather easy to ignore them altogether.

If you have about an hour and a half to kill, The Proposal isn't a terrible way to spend your time. Just don't expect to come away with a whole new look on life or anything. Enjoy it for what it is - a really good romantic comedy.

Jmovie: Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs Dai-Shocker

Title: Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker Release date: 8/8/09 Genre: Tokusatsu Cast: Masahiro Inoue, Kanna Mori, Ryouta Murai, Moe Arai, Ryuichi Oura Plot: The worlds are merging together, destroying each other. Only by killing all of the Riders from all of the various worlds can one world be saved. Or is that the real solution? What is good: Watching the Kamen Riders fight was interesting. What is bad: Gackt's cameo was awful. Letter rating: B- Overall: I've never watched Kamen Rider in any of its forms. As a matter of fact, the only reason I wanted to watch this was for the Gackt cameo. Unfortunately, the Gackt cameo was terrible. Despite not knowing anything about the series, the movie wasn't too bad. I was able to keep up with the plot, for the most part, and it was kinda cool to see all the various incarnations of the Rider. The main downside was that the movie was only 66 minutes so it was more like a special episode then a full-length movie. They probably could have spent a little more time fleshing out some things or let the battles go on a little bit longer. As a whole, I had a decent time watching it.