Gnomeo and Juliet

So, the CGI animated movie Gnomeo & Juliet came out to DVD fairly recently. I actually saw it in theaters with my wife. I really hadn't been expecting much from it. I had seen some trailers and it looked like nothing more than a cheesy kids cartoon that made use of stupid jokes and a public domain story. And I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Maybe I should lower my expectations for every movie I watch.

Anyway... Spoilers abound, but really there shouldn't be much to worry about, because I'm expecting you know the outline of the story, if nothing else.

Catching up.

Let me be frank here... Catching up sucks.

Hmmm... maybe I should specify. Procrastination sucks, because then you have to catch up. This is a big problem with me personally, mostly because I like keeping caught up, but once I get behind I have a hard time getting caught back up to where I should be. Then it spirals into a vicious cycle of wanting to do what I know I should but feeling too embarrassed about having fallen behind to catch up. It makes no sense, but I do it anyway. I'll often make token attempts at catching up, no matter what, but it usually takes me a bit longer than I want before I finally hold fast and actually catch up. Sometimes it's too late, but other times... It's... not.

Wow... that sounded a lot more pathetic than I meant it to.

Bottom Line: Catching up is no fun, but it is possible. Though it's always best not to fall behind in the first place. Moral of the story: Don't procrastinate!

The Smurfs promotional cereal.

So, even if you've been hiding under a rock, you've probably heard about the new Smurfs movie, what with all of the new promotion merchandise out there. Some of it is expected, like toys and whatnot; some of it is cool, like reprintings of the original comics; and some of it is... well, it's not uncommon merchandise for a kids movie, but I always scratch my head at it, like promotional cereal.

Dark and Stormy Night

I can't believe that I haven't reviewed any Larry Blamire movies yet. Shame on me.
So Dark and Stormy Night is a classic "Old Dark House" murder mystery movie made in 2009. Old Sinas Cavendar has died, and those closest to him have gathered on the old Cavendar estate for the reading of his will. He was an incredibly rich old man from a very wealthy old-money family. There are two people who are most likely to inherit the bulk of his estate: his nephew, Burling Famish Jr. and his ward, Sebasha Fanmoore. However, Burling's wife and her lover are scheming to get their hands on what they can as well, but the servants are hiding a dark secret related to it all. Into this volatile mix are thrust two intrepid reporters trying to out-scoop each other, as well as a few other poor souls stuck at the mansion. They all claim to be there by chance, but are any of them telling the truth?

Brimstone

Brimstone is a great, yet very little-known, short-lived TV series on FOX. (Wow a well-made, genre tv series on FOX that got axed after not quite a season. That never happens, does it?)
Facetiousness aside, this series was basically Firefly before there was Firefly, only with no DVD sales to provide a relatively happy ending.

Avatar: The Last Airbender, the live action movie.

I was disappointed in this movie. Very disappointed, and this after you consider that I went in with low expectations. There was a lot of potential in the movie, but it simply didn't live up to it. This movie's biggest problem was summed up at the beginning of the credits. Written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shamaylan. He made this movie all about himself. That was his biggest sin in the movie. It was so obviously a vanity piece. If he had made making the movie about making an awesome movie, it could have been great. But instead he made it to show everyone how awesome Shamaylan is, and that didn't work so well.

Now, having said that, I'm going to disagree with a lot of what's I've heard against the movie. In fact, despite all of the many, MANY problems with the movie, I still think that it contained the seeds of a much better movie.

As you may have noticed...

... My "one review a week" has become rather less than once-a-weeky. I will be doing my best to make up for lost time. I beg the indulgence of anyone who actually read the blog with regularity. I claim various life changes as an excuse. (Moving, moving again three weeks later, helping my wife get ready to visit her parents, getting ready to move to a different state and start a new job, and so on...)

Reviews will start back up, though they will not be as fancy and picture/hotlink filled as they have been. At least, not at first. I will also be doing my best to make up for lost time with extra reviews until I am caught up. Until then, the schedule will be even more sporadic than it had been. I apologize for any inconveniences this has caused anyone.