Tour De France

The Tour De France is starting on Saturday. This will be the last year for Lance Armstrong the 6 time winner of the Tour. He is, of course, attempting to make his last year count setting his sights on the yellow jersey. If anyone hasn't watched cycling or the Tour De France before, I highly recommend that you do. This is a very fun and exciting sport to watch, not to mention your last chance to see Lance race. OLN is the station that you will find your best coverage on, they do a good job and air the stages several times a day. Most of the best coverage is early in the morning but they do air repeats. Those of you who enjoy Tivo, as I do, set up a season pass and you won't miss a thing.
There are many resources on the Internet to find info on the Tour. You can just search for Tour De France in the google search box on my page.
Here are a couple of links to get you started. For the beginners, check out the Bicycling.com link for a Glossary of cycling terms, so you know what they mean when they say things like Peleton.
Bicycling.com
OLN
Official Tour De France site

Confirmation

As if we needed it we received confirmation today that the baby is in fact a girl. Everything looks good so far, no obvious problems at this point. Brooke and I were excited to see how big the baby is getting. She is almost 9 1/2" long now and about 12 oz. Brooke feels her move around a lot and the ultrasound tech had to be patient because she was moving so much. Sounds like she is going to take after Brooke, she can't sit still. We are also starting to get the nursery in order. We now have a crib and a dresser/changing table. Of course after moving them into the room, Brooke decided that they were on the wrong walls (which still need painting), so the decorating begins.

Batman Begins and Stuff

I have posted a review of the new Batman Begins movie. Check it out here.
Brooke has made it back from Cleveland and had a great time. I guess technically our baby has had her first airplane flight now. Brooke is starting to feel the baby move around now and it's fun to be at that stage, except at bed time when she can't sleep because of the baby moving.
Update on Robbie 2, yes we have more Robin Eggs in the nest under our deck. Robbie II seems to be a better mother than Robbie 1 so far. She is out there sitting on the eggs every day.

Batman Begins (* * * *)

The new Batman franchise has started with a bang. Batman Begins is the first of a series of "new" Batman films with an entirely different look and feel than the previous films. I am giving Batman Begins 4 stars, it was a really good movie. I was skeptical about this movie and actually I didn't even want to see it until my friend Jeff saw it and told me how good it was. I am just getting a little burned out with the comic book genre and I think Hollywood is becoming over saturated with movies that are not original. There is too many sequels, and movies based on comic books or novels. So when I saw they were making another Batman movie I was really disappointed, and especially because it's another Batman movie about the beginning, didn't we already see that? We did already see how Batman becomes Batman, but not like this. In fact, this is how we should have seen it so many years ago, maybe the earlier Batman franchise wouldn't have gone to crap. Beware if you haven't seen it, spoilers ahead.

The first thing that was good about this Batman movie is that it was entirely different than any of the previous films. Instead of trying to build upon what was already there the film makers decided to start from scratch, with everything, even the story. Christopher Nolan who isn't really well known directed the movie, and brought a really good style to it, the colors and the settings were really unique and impressive. Check out one of his earlier films Memento which is also really good.

We begin with the story of young Bruce Wayne and how he attains his fear of bats, by falling into a cave as a child and being swarmed by them. The story continues as Bruce grows and his parents are murdered by a thief attempting to rob them one night. Bruce grows up and has much anger inside, feeling that the death of his parents could even have been his fault. He resorts to a life of crime, although due to the death of his parents despises criminals. In a way, his life of crime is chosen so that he can learn about criminals and he ends up enjoying fighting with them in prison. He is approached by a man named Ducard who tells Bruce that he can help him find his way, so upon his release from an Asian prison he makes a journey to see this man. He receives training from Ducards master Ra's Al Ghul the leader of the League of Shadows, his training consists of learning to battle his fears as well as physical training. He is also taught about justice, and the purpose of the League of Shadows, to rid the world of evil. Upon completing his training Bruce is placed in a situation where he must execute a murderer or he will not be able to leave the League alive. The League believes that the only way to bring justice is to kill criminals and they have a plan to destroy all of Gotham City in the hopes to build it again from scratch. He refuses to execute the prisoner and must fight his way out of the league. Thinking he has left Ra's Al Ghul for dead in the burning building he caries Ducard away and leaves him to be cared for. Bruce returns to Gotham City, his home as a boy, with the intention of cleaning up the city somehow. He returns and is reunited with his former childhood friend, Rachel Dawes who is now a district attorney trying to make Gotham a better city as well. With the help of his butler Alfred and Luscious Fox an employee in the research and development department of Wayne Enterprises, Bruce begins to become Batman. He and Alfred create the Bat Cave and with the help of Fox Bruce is given access to many of the cool gadgets that make Batman's weapons. He begins his cleansing of Gotham by seeking the crime boss, Carmine Falcone. During his investigation into Carmine he realizes that the drug trade is not what it seems. There is someone that is smuggling something other than drugs through Carmine's dealers, and Carmine doesn't know much about it. He finds out that Carmine is being used by none other than The League of Shadows, to smuggle a hallucinogenic substance into the city's water system. He discovers that Ducard did indeed survive and he is actually just the alter ego of Ra's Al Ghul himself. Their intentions are to drug the entire city of Gotham with this substance therefore tearing the city apart and then they can begin to rebuild a city without the crime and corruption it now has. Well, of course Batman with the help of the policeman Jim Gordon, Luscious Fox, Alfred and even from Rachel is able to stop the League of Shadows and save the city from destruction. Now he will focus on getting rid of the bad guys one by one and saving the innocent.

I know that was a long summary of the plot for this movie, but that is another thing that was great about the movie. The story was deep, there were a lot of twists and exciting situations although it wasn't so difficult to put together that it didn't come together in the end. In fact the ending of the movie was great, there was even a little foreshadowing about the villain for the next Batman movie, The Joker. There was even a few nice theme's in this Batman, don't let fear conquer you, one person can make a difference, when we fall down it's so we can get back up again stronger and I am sure many others that people will find.

By far though, the best thing about this movie was the acting. I know that the producers and Christopher Nolan as director took a long time to pick the cast, they obviously felt that it was important to get the right people. I really think it paid off, there are some new people and there are some big names in the film such as Liam Neeson who plays Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul, Morgan Freeman as Luscious Fox and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon. All of the actors did a really great job. Morgan Freeman didn't have a lot of screen time but was good at playing his usual supporting role as the always wise and experienced character. Liam Neeson was great, the good thing about Neeson's character is the he gets to be the guy who trains Batman and also the villain in the movie, he does a great job pulling it off and showing both sides of his character. Gary Oldman was really funny and when he delivered his funny lines it wasn't cheesy or lame, it was funny. Due to all the publicity with Tom Cruise, everyone now knows who Katie Holmes is. I was a little worried that she might not be so good in the film but she really was, she did a good job and I was surprised. It's too bad that she overshadowed the movie so much about her relationship with Tom Cruise because she has not been asked to return for a sequel, the other actors have already signed on to do it. One person who I only knew from one film was Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane, this was the Dr. that created the Hallucinogenic drug. He was really good as his alter ego The Scarecrow as well as the Dr. Cillian actually auditioned for the part of Bruce Wayne/Batman but was turned down, although they liked him enough to give him this part. They did pick Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, some people know him and some don't. He was a child actor in the late 80's starring in Empire of The Sun a Stephen Spielberg movie set during World War II. (If anyone hasn't seen Empire of The Sun, it is a great movie, also starring John Malkovich.) Anyway, Christian Bale has been in a few movies since Empire of The Sun but they haven't been big hits or real popular. (IE: Rein of Fire). But he was really good as Batman and Bruce Wayne. He looks the part and was especially good during the fight scenes early on in the film before he heads back to Gotham. I thought it was good to pick someone young, that could grow with the series.

The Bottom Line... Batman Begins is really good, the story is deep, fun and intense, the acting is great and the film makers started from scratch to distance themselves from the less good earlier batman films. Because of this I am giving it 4 stars. There is a lot of action and the pacing is fast, the movie does not get boring. The music is thrilling and helps keep the mood of the film up, the look and feel of the move is unique and there are just some great "cool factor" things in the movie. ("Cool Factor" = Things that make you think to yourself "That's Cool"). I am recommending this movie to pretty much anyone, even if you are not a Batman or a Comic Book fan, it's just a well made movie. Batman is rated PG-13 and it is violent, there is no sexual content and no bad language, there are some frightening scenes. Although the film is violent, Batman doesn't use guns and if he does actually kill people, you don't see it. As always if you are worried about your kids seeing it, go see it first and decide if they can handle it.

Comments

Thanks to those who post comments on the site. Everyone please feel free to post comments whether to criticize or praise my posts. This helps make the site fun and helps me to be objective about my movie reviews, plus we all get pointed to things we hadn't noticed before. (IE: See Dayton's post on The Prisoner of Azkaban, about sunshine being in only one scene, that was cool.) The whole idea is to discuss entertainment, which for movies, I know Dayton, Jeff and I see it as one of our hobbies. If anyone would like to submit a full review of a movie you have seen (Even if I have already reviewed it), e-mail it to me and I will be happy to post it up.

I Have Google

You may have noticed the Google search bar that has now appeared at the top of my page. Feel free to search using your favorite search engine right from my Blog, or click on the Google logo above to go right to Google's homepage. You may want to read my post here, about cool things you can do with Google.

Happy Birthday Carly!

Happy Birthday today to my niece Carly Stone!

I hope she gets what she wanted for her birthday :-)  Jasper might have a friend for the summer.

 

More Nice Fish!

More nice fish! Here are a couple of nice fish my Dad and I caught up in Hyrum yesterday.

Nice Fish!

Nice Fish!

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Head on over to My Movie Blog to read my review of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (* * *)

I was able to make it out and see the much anticipated movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I am giving the movie 3 stars, although I was almost tempted to give it 2. What saved the movie was that Brad Pitt and Vince Vaughn were actually pretty good in it. I also tend to like Brad Pitt in movies, so that helped as well. This movie was ok, there were some funny scenes and I always tend to like movies about assassins. The best part of the movie was surprisingly the best "minivan" chase scene ever. (Note to my sisters: even after this movie minivans will still never be cool) I was just pretty disappointed, especially knowing the previous work by director Doug Liman (IE: The "Bourne" movies) and seeing the trailers. This movie looked really good and I really wanted to like it, but it just let me down. As always there are spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

The plot is very basic which is actually fine with me, but there is a really lame attempt at a plot twist near the end. The story revolves around the two main characters John and Jane Smith, a boring married couple living in suburbia. Come to find out each of them is actually a highly trained assassin, although neither of them know that about each other. I thought that the dynamic between these characters was cool and would make the movie fun, but it just didn't deliver. They just made them too boring, I guess it was supposed to be funny how boring they really were but it was, well, just boring. John and Jane are sent to kill the same person and end up making an attempt to kill each other, although they are unaware of their identities at the time. Assuming their identities were now exposed they each are given an ultimatum by their respective companies to kill each other or they would in turn be killed by the companies. Doing research to find out who each other is, they in fact find out that their respective spouse was the one trying to kill them. From here on out there is a lot of them trying to kill each other. They come to find out that this was all planned, it wasn't an accident they were sent to kill the same person. In fact each of their companies wanted them to kill each other, they thought that two competing assassins, married and living in the same house was a bad idea. Yes, that's the attempt at a plot twist. As you might have guessed, they band together in an attempt to save their lives. Which in turn, makes their marriage much better and they live happily ever after.

Another thing against this movie is that it was hyped way too much. I liked the trailers and thought the movie looked really good, I was excited to see it. The publicity spawned by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's alleged affair just shot the hype through the roof. Proof in the fact that it made over $50 million on opening weekend. I did have high expectations, but for me none of it had to do with the hype. I happen to like all of the actors involved in the movie as well as the director, so maybe moviegoers with lower expectations will like it more. However Brooke seemed to feel pretty much the same as I did.

The last thing I expected from this film was slow pacing, but it was really slow moving. The movie really dragged and honestly a lot of it was really boring. There is just a lot of scenes with lame dialogue and repetitive action as well as banter between both of the main characters. As you would probably expect from a movie like this there is a lot of funny dialogue, delivered really well by Brad Pitt and not so well by Angelina Jolie. I thought there were some funny scenes, including as mentioned before, the very funny chase scene with the minivan. The actions scenes were really not very well done, there is a lot of blurry and dark scenes. I really expected the action to be creative and fun, due to the previous Doug Liman movies, but it was really mundane and repetitive. A lot of the action was insanely ridiculous and things happened like cars flipping and exploding with really no reason, so it was hard to figure out what was going on.

As far as acting goes Brad Pitt rarely disappoints and he really doesn't in this. I think that Brad does a good job with the character and I thought he delivered his, poorly written, dialogue well. But it definitely not on par with really any of his previous performances. Angelina Jolie was just not very good in this, she is normally a good actress but it seems she was only cast in this role for "eye candy". She always seemed to be wearing something that was "distracting" from her performance and the camera just zeroed in on her lips way too many times. The dialogue was not written very well and she really didn't save it, she was boring in delivering her lines and she just wasn't believable. The best acting in this movie was by Vince Vaughn, he was hilarious with the comedy lines and just did a good job. His character is small, playing Eddie, who it's hard to tell is either John Smith's boss, friend or co-worker. I was disappointed that his screen time was limited, he should have had more.

The Bottom Line... Mr. and Mrs. Smith is pretty good, there are some funny lines and a good chase scene involving a minivan that just made it fun. Unfortunately the movie is really slow, the action is mundane and really hard to see, and the acting is just ok. If you were planning on seeing this movie, I would still recommend that you do. If you were questioning on whether to see this or not, you can probably miss it or rent it on DVD later. Either way, when you do see it, lower your expectations and you will probably enjoy it. Rated PG-13 there is violence, and quite a bit of sexual references as well as some questionable clothing worn by Angelina Jolie. I would even be a little bit weary of a 13 year old seeing this entirely due to a few sexually charged scenes. Despite the fact that I didn't like it much, there is a lot of moviegoers out there seeing it, enough that I expect there to be a sequel.

If you have or haven't seen Mr. and Mrs. Smith, whether you agree with me or not, make sure to let me know what you think. Post a comment.

The G.I.M.P.

The two pictures below were edited by me using The G.I.M.P. in about 15 minutes or so (I am sure it's not the best you have seen, but for 15 minutes and a "first timer" it's not bad). So if you are looking for an alternative to the very expensive Photoshop, then I recommend The G.I.M.P.. It is a free photo editing program that is closely related to Photoshop and near as powerful. You can download it by clicking here. The program is really easy to use if you have ever used Photoshop, but will take some time to learn if you haven't. Most of it's uses are for advanced photo editing and because it's open source there are tons of add-on's to download and make the program even more powerful. If you are interested in an easy photo editing and organizing software check out my post about Picasa here. (Click on the Before and After pictures for bigger versions)

After

Before

What Can't Google Do?

I thought this information might be useful to some of you.  Google has some "extra" features that many people might not know.  Actually some very handy features.

First Google can be a calculator, not just a simple calculator but it can actually do some complex equations.  Try it, just key in something like 2 x 2, Google will come up with the answer.  Click here for an explanation on how to do more complex equations.  You can also use the calculator within Google to do conversions.  Say you need to know how many quarts are in a gallon, just try "1 quart in gallons" in the Google search bar and it will convert it for you.  It will convert most units to any other reasonable unit you need. 

Google can also be a dictionary, just put the word define in the search bar followed by a space and the word you want defined.  Try "define architecture" you will see a book icon and a link for the definition of your word. 

Have you ever tried Froogle, this is really handy to find the lowest price of something you want.  Just go to Froogle and search for the product you are looking at purchasing, Froogle will then find any online retailers selling it as well as the price of the item, you can then sort by lowest price and there you go.

If you need to find a business, use Google.  Just key in the name of the business in the search bar followed by your area code.  Such as "pizza hut 84405", Google will return the address, phone number and a map for any "pizza hut" in your area. 

There are a lot more features of Google that will save you time and effort.  Such as maps, stock quotes, weather, and language translation.  Click here to learn more, you will be amazed what your favorite search engine can do.

Zeke!

Zeke!

Angie

Angie, Zeke's Girlfriend.

Fishing

Testing out "The Tracker" at Willard Bay.

Happenings

Well not a lot has been going on lately. Brooke did have yesterday and today that she didn't throw up at all, I think that's days 7 and 8. We are hoping that is a really good sign, she is also starting to get a lot of her energy back.
If you get bored head on over to my other Blog and read some movie and music reviews. Or even go out and see one of the movies I have recommended and make some comments. Don't forget to click on the "Archives" or look at "previous posts" to see old posts and reviews that won't appear on the main page, or might require a lot of scrolling to see.

Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban (* * * *)

Well a little preface to this movie review. I never really got into the Harry Potter stuff much when it first came out. I liked the first movie and so we bought the DVD but felt a little trapped in buying the second and third films, just because we couldn't only have the first one. Well I am glad I did. Lately I have been listening to the Harry Potter books (I am currently on The Goblet of Fire) and finding myself getting drawn into the stories more than before. Because I had only seen The Prisoner of Azkaban in theaters and hadn't even watched the DVD we bought, I figured I should check it out again. Most of you have seen the movie or read the book so I am going to keep this pretty brief.
I liked The Prisoner of Azkaban and actually think it's the best Harry Potter movie so far. It's close with The sorcerer's Stone, which I also liked very much. I am giving the movie 4 stars.
I think this movie was a lot of fun to watch and it was really well made. Of special note are the special effects which are much better than either of the previous two Harry Potter films and the unique direction of this film vs. the others. The introduction of a new director, Alfonso Cuaron, definitely helped to change up the series a little bit. I especially enjoyed the "time turner" parts of the film, which are quite a bit different than the book but must have been difficult to transfer to film. There is also the introduction of the character Sirius Black played very well by Gary Oldman. In general the acting in the movie isn't great, it's mostly kids so I didn't expect much. But as mentioned before Gary Oldman is excellent as well as Alan Rickman as professor Snape.
It's always difficult to take a book and put it on screen, but being required to cut out a lot of content I still think the film makers did a really good job with this one. The pacing is good and there are just some really fun, clever things in the books as well as this movie in particular.
The Bottom Line... Because most people have either already seen this movie or read this book I am going to jump straight to The Bottom Line. If you liked either of the previous Harry Potter films and haven't seen this one yet, go out and see it. You will definitely like the change of pace the new director brings even if you are a bit bored and tired of the whole Harry Potter thing. Of course the next two films are already in the works so get used to Harry Potter movies being around for a while. Which is another reason why everyone should catch up on the films if they haven't seen the second or third yet. With several more films to come you will probably come upon a situation where you are invited to see one of the later movies at the theater or at home with friends or family. Stay caught up and then you won't have to fill in the gaps later as well as finding yourself getting into it later and having to play catch up. (IE: Molly watching Star Wars Episode I and II in one night so she could go out and see Episode III and know what is going on). The movie is PG-13 and there is some scary scenes and events so if you have kids under 13 that really want to see it, go watch it yourself and judge for your kids if they should see it or not. The film is a lot of fun and if you get to know the characters I think most people will be drawn into the story and enjoy this, as well as the upcoming Harry Potter films.

More Star Wars Stuff

Star Wars is sitting at $282 million going into this weekend. It's sure to break $300 by Monday. The film is looking to continue with the Star Wars tradition and make tons of money. So far it's the 4th highest grossing Star Wars movie ever, soon to pass The Phantom Menace and Attack of The Clones who are $302 and $307 million respectively. I don't see Episode III having a problem beating $307 million to be the most successful of the three prequels. It's also already the 24th highest grossing movie of all time and will surely climb much higher on that list, even by the end of this weekend.

More Music Info

Well here is a little bit more music info if anyone is looking for something new to listen to. First off I picked up the new Audioslave album, Out of Exile, a few days ago. It's good and is pretty similar to their first album. So if you liked them before you will probably like them again. The album has a mix of some pretty good "rock" songs and some slow stuff too. Then there is a band called Carbon Leaf, Dayton made me a CD of some of their stuff quite a while ago. Recently the band has been getting quite a bit of radio play and I even noticed in Best Buy the other day they were playing on the TV's. It's kind of "pop-folk" music but a nice change from the normal stuff.

In Good Company (* * *)

I am giving In Good Company 3 stars, it was pretty good and I liked it. Even with 3 stars as a rating I am still going to recommend this movie to most. If I could describe why with one word I would say because it's refreshing. Truly, that was pretty much the best thing about In Good Company, just that it wasn't the same as everything else and it wasn't what I expected.
The plot is really simple and with this film, that was okay. Topher Grace plays Carter Duryea, a young hot shot manager at a large company. When Carter's company takes over a smaller company he takes the job of 50 something Dan Foreman. To complicate things Carter dates Dan's daughter Alex played by Scarlett Johansson. Through complications at work and at home the two learn to respect each other and learn from each other. Yes, that's it, the plot is very basic but it works. I am sure you are thinking that there will be many jokes and awkward situations regarding the relationship with Carter and Alex, but it's not one of those movies. The movie is mostly about Dan and Carter, like I said it's not what you will expect.
The cast of the movie is good, having Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid in this movie is really how I was drawn to it. I didn't realize it before but was pleased to see Marg Helgenberger, from CSI, in the film. Her part is small, but I really find her pleasant and it was nice to see her play this part because it is so different from her CSI character. I haven't seen Scarlett Johansson in much, but she seems to get a lot of praise for any part she plays. I was interested in seeing her in this and she didn't disappoint, I agree that she is a good actress. With In Good Company, her character was not really complex but she added a lot of realism to it. Of course everyone knows Topher Grace as Eric Foreman from That 70's Show, and it's going to be difficult for him to escape that. It was a little bit difficult to see him in such a different role, but I thought he was really funny and really was a good leading actor. As he departs from That 70's Show and does more films it will be easier to see him as someone else. Dennis Quaid was also good in his role, he seems to be getting more popular lately, and rightly so. I think his acting is getting better and as a result he is getting better parts. He played this character well, the good thing about him is that he just has that feel for a regular person, he doesn't scream "celebrity" every time I see him on screen. He looks like he could be just like any of us, I like that.
As mentioned before the plot isn't really that complicated but it does keep you guessing a little bit. One of the great things about this story is that it's realistic. I found myself relating to the situations very well, and I think that was what really drew me into the story. Because I could see situations like this in real life I cared about the characters and the things that happened to them in their lives. The story does move a little slow and the music really didn't help with that, but I didn't really mind. I enjoyed just sitting back and watching the story unfold, I rarely like slow paced movies so I have to give this movie a lot of credit for keeping me interested. There are a lot of funny moments but the film isn't really a comedy, it really isn't a romantic comedy either. I just think it's basically just a good story with some comedy, drama and a little romance. Another great thing about the film was that it didn't end how I expected or really how I wanted, but it was a good ending and I felt good afterward, maybe I should classify it as a "feel good" movie. There were a lot of good messages and themes to the story, and I really liked that the movie portrayed a functional family that loved and supported each other. It's rare in Hollywood that we see this, it's usually some disfunctional family with kids that hate their parents. I really think that people want to see happy families on film, it's nice for a change.
The Bottom Line... In Good Company is, well, a good movie. It's not complex and it's not going to win any Oscars, but it's worth watching. There is a great family dynamic portrayed that I thought was good. It's PG-13 and really doesn't have much material in it that would be offensive to people, there is very minor bad language with no "f" words and maybe one "off-color" joke. I don't really see many 13 year olds being interested in the movie, but if they were to see it I wouldn't be worried. The best thing about In Good Company is that it was different, and it was time, I found the film a refreshing change to the mundane films that Hollywood is churning out these days.