Dexter

I have been watching "Dexter," another great show by Showtime. It has the actor that played David in "Six Feet Under." He works in blood forensics. His particular job is figuring out how someone died by their blood splatter. At night, he is a serial killer....

It sounds really dark, but it's actually really comical. Definitely in a dark way, but comical none the less. Anyone who liked Six Feet Under would like Dexter, it's comical in the same way.

He has had an uncontrollable urge to kill people all his life. His dad (who is a cop) realizes this at a young age, and decides to teach him to use that in the right way. This means for him to only kill bad people.

So, he lives by what his father teaches him all his life, and you watch him go through his dual life. It's an addictive, interesting, and humorous television show.

Walk Hard

"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story," was one of the funniest movies I have watched in a while. I normally really hate spoof movies. They are never funny to me, and they usually make fun of movies that I liked. Walk Hard is another spoof movie, this time about Ray Charles and Johnnie Cash.

This movie made me laugh every five or ten minutes. Laughs are few and far between for me when I watch most movie that are supposed to be funny. It's not because I don't have a sense of humor, it's because I just don't think stuff on movies is funny most of the time.

So this movie is loosely (very loosely) based on the lives of the two singers. You can tell when they are mimicking something that was on the movie "Ray" or "Walk the Line," but they turn it into some sort of twisted alternate storyline. For instance, they have Ray's little brother killed by Ray on accident with a machete instead of accidentally drowning in a tub of water.

For some reason, the actor playing Dewey (John C. Reilly) who we all know is in his 40's, starts out the movie when he's like 14. So that was a little strange... but it was still funny.

If you want a silly movie that will make you laugh, this is a great movie to watch.

Feast of Love

I really liked Feast of Love... I figured it was going to be another pointless romantic comedy, which I enjoy so I would have watched it anyway. It was still a romantic comedy, but the characters and plot were so well written and developed that it set it apart from others of it's kind.

The story was centered around a man named Bradley. It starts out with his marriage that he's been in for six years. His wife soon meets a woman, that she falls in love with (I know not the stereotypical way to go, but it was really believable and sweet the way they fall in love), and shortly leaves her husband for. You don't see much of the wife after that, but it's a fitting ending for her, and you know she's happy.

The man was actually a really good, loving husband, so you feel sad for him rather then happy like you do in some movies like this. He ends up meeting another woman, who he doesn't know it but is sleeping with a married man (who is a complete jerk) on the side. She is an independent, fierce woman, and likes Bradley because he is sweet and sensitive, and she likes being a lady for a change.

The two marry, Bradley is really happy, but they keep showing scenes with the woman where you realize that she is actually in love with the married man. They haven't been seeing each other since she told him she was to marry Bradley, and run into each other later. The man leaves his wife, and sadly, the woman leaves Bradley.

Bradley is alone, and heartbroken again. He intentionally cuts off the tip of one of his fingers, claiming he want his outside to feel the way his inside does (awwhh! This was so sad). Thankfully, Bradley falls in love with his nurse at the hospital, and this relationship works out.

I loved this movie because it was about the best and worst things about being in love. It was beautifully written, and the character of Bradley was completely lovable.

There will be blood...eventually

I just watched There will be Blood, and was sadly disappointed. Everyone kept talking about it, and how great of a movie it was, so I guess I had pretty high expectations. This film is set in the early 1900's and is mostly about a man and his young son who are involved in the oil business. The boy's mother died in childbirth, so he is raised by his father, and acts as his father's business partner. The boy loses his hearing when there is an oil explosion, and the father ends up sending him away since the boy can no longer help him work. The father starts to lose his mind, and the plot is about that decline.

If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a oil man, you should watch this movie.

This movie was soooo slooooooow...... I almost fell asleep a couple of times. It was two and a half hours long, and probably about a quarter of it there wasn't anyone talking. There wasn't even any dialog the first ten minutes. There were a ton of drawn out scenes where you had to watch the actors walking for a minute or two, while some strange music was going on in the background. Sometimes they would zoom in on people's faces for way longer then necessary. I guess they were trying to portray the mood, and how people were feeling through the way it was filmed rather then on dialog.

Even so, the acting was superb, and the directing was definitely different than usual. That was probably why so many people liked this movie. It seems that people think artsy movies are somehow profound. As long as it's filmed and played out different then normal, it's a good movie. I liked this movie for the acting. The main role must have been a hard one to play. You starting out really liking the main character, and slowly came to despise and pity him.

Sweeney Todd

I recently came across a movie review from the great Roger Ebert at rogerebert.com on a movie I just watched, Sweeney Todd the demon barber of fleet street. This movie was directed by Tim Burton, and I was reminded of "The Nightmare before Christmas" while watching it.

In his review, Ebert writes; "The bloodiest musical in stage history, it now becomes the bloodiest in film history... But we know that going in and are relieved that Burton has played true to the material. Here is one scenario that is prove against a happy ending." I had heard that this movie was extremely violent before watching it, so it definitely didn't come as a surprise. Although, it was a little strange that the blood in the film had a pinkish tint. My only guess was that it wasn't intended to look like a horror film.

This was more a story of revenge. They didn't want you to feel scared while watching it, they wanted you to feel satisfied with him exacting his revenge. I wasn't sure I would like this movie, I don't think I have ever watched a musical all the way through. I really only watched it because one of my co-workers has been raving about it since she watched it in the theater. The first ten minutes, I almost turned it off. I guess it' s just hard for me to focus on the movie when you learn the entire plot from songs. This movie is literally 90 percent songs. Knowing that my co-worker was going to ask me how I liked the movie, I continued to watch.

After getting past the fact that there were going to be so many songs, I actually became really interested in the story, and began to care about the characters. The songs were brilliantly written and composed, and if you were paying attention, described what was going on, and what the characters were thinking and feeling. I became intrigued and wanted to know the ending.

When Ebert writes that the scenario is prove against the happy ending, he means that by all standards this movie does not have a happy ending, but you don't feel sad and disappointed at the end. All of the main characters end up dead, but only after there is nothing left for them, and you feel like maybe it's better then if they lived.

What would you do?

The Mist, another Stephen King novel turned into a screenplay, was not what I expected. If it weren't for the shocking ending, I would of hated this movie. Luckily, the ending was so sad and unexpected that I will at least remember this movie. I watched the special features on this movie, and the director actually went with a company with a lower budget so that he could have the movie end this way.

When I heard the title "The Mist," I assumed it would be somewhere along the lines of The Fog. To my surprise, it was actually a movie about science fiction creatures coming out of the mist and killing people.

The first monster you see is a giant creature with tentacles that eat people. You later come across spiders with acid spray, giant locusts', dragon-like things, and something that resembles the aliens from War of the Worlds (It even makes the same sound.) A bunch of people get trapped in a supermarket, not able to go outside because the creatures in the mist will get them. There's a crazy religious woman who keeps telling everyone this is god's will, sacrifices need to be made... blah, blah, blah. People keep trying to leave, and keep getting killed.

Eventually a small group of people (the main character, his young son, a woman who has been helping take care of the son, an old woman, and an old man) somehow make it to a car in the parking lot (even though everyone else who tries dies) and decide to drive as far as their tank of gas will get them, hoping to drive out of the mist. They eventually run out of gas, and their still in the mist.

They all look at each other, and I guess silently decide they would all rather kill themselves then let the mist get them. There is only four bullets, and five people. The main character states, "don't worry, I'll figure something out." As his son wakes up and looks at him, the camera angle backs up, giving you an overhead view of the car. You hear four gunshots, see the blood, and the bodies slump over, and know that he just killed everyone in the car. He gets out of the car, attempting to get the monster to come kill him. Right at that moment, the mist clears, and the military comes and saves the day.

The movie ends there with him crying on his knees in the middle of the street. Maybe this wouldn't of been so sad to me if he wouldn't of killed his five year old son, especially because he could of just waited another five minutes and they all could of lived. Anyways, definitely a disappointment for a Stephen King fan.

Oscar Winning Blood Fest/ Nuclear Bombs

No Country for Old Men was bloody, violent, and surprisingly interesting. I say surprisingly because I don't normally care for action movies. I watched it because it won the Oscars, so I assumed it must have been pretty good.

It's a story about a poor man who lives away from civilization. While out hunting one day, he stumbles upon the remains of a bloody shootout. He goes to investigate, and discovers a few million dollars, and a truck full of heroine. My first thought was, walk away, obviously you don't want to mess with these people. Alas, that's easier said then done. Of course he takes the money.

He sends his wife to her mother's for her safety, then embarks on a heart-pounding cat and mouse chase. In the meantime there's a ruthless killer you are witnesses walking around killing people with his silenced shotgun. He also has an air tank that might be something used to euphenize cattle which shoots a rod out of the end at an incredible speed, puncturing you brain and killing you instantly. He also uses this air tank to blow out the locks on door handles. You hear a split second of a noise, and he's inside your house. This completely terrifying guy is of course who goes after our main character.

The acting, directing, and filming of this movie was superb. I don't think I have ever seen a more terrifying hired killer. I loved every minute of this movie until the last ten minutes where all the drama and suspense they had built died out. They spent the whole movie having this guy outwit the people sent to kill him, then had him killed without even showing him die. There was a quick scene where they showed the police finding what had been a bloody shootout.

Either way, still a great movie. What should we have learned from this movie? If you find a bunch of cash surrounded by dead men who have been shot, leave it alone! You know someone is going to come after that money.

I just started watching the extremely addictive television drama, Jericho. It takes place in the small town of Jericho, somewhere in Kansas. There is a nuclear bomb dropped over Denver, and the town people later find out that numerous places across the United States have been bombed. The police force is very small town, and don't really know what to do. There is a mysterious black man who seems to have all the answers. They keep showing scenes where he is doing something you know is wrong, but you don't know why, or what exactly. The townspeople are in fear of radiation poisoning, and of some unknown force that bombed the United States. This was a great idea for a T.V. show, something I had wondered about before.

What would it be like if nuclear bombs were dropped in the U.S.? Scary thought!