Summer Movie Round-Up (or Fall DVD previews)

Well, I didn’t get to have much of a summer break (because I ruptured my Achilles Tendon – where have you been?) but I did get to see a lot of the summer (and spring) movies.  Here’s my break-down from best to worst.

Iron Man - previously mentioned that one here.  Great, great, great.  Good acting, special effects, story, everything.  Just what a summer movie should be.

Hancock - Will Smith is summer movies.  He does a great job here.  So does Jason Bateman – could anyone not like him?  I miss Arrested Development!!!  You need to see Hancock.  Great story.  Very well done movie.

Hell Boy 2 – probably the biggest surprise of the summer.  Really, really good show.  Good story.  Interesting characters.  Funny, full of action.  Sleeper hit for me.

The Dark Knight - pretty dark movie but actually very good.  Another must see especially if you liked the first Christian Bale Batman.  Was the Joker an Oscar worthy performance?  No, but good.

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan - WOW!!  I didn’t expect anything from this Adam Sandler vehicle but was I ever pleasantly surprised.  It was genuinely funny.  It had a number of laugh out loud moments and the story was okay.  Well worth a watch.

Transsiberian - a Woody Harrelson pic.  A good one.  A real, sleeper must-see.  Very Hitchcockian.  Look for it.  Watch it.

Wanted - Another kind-of surprise to me.  I expected to dislike this one as just a fluffy action movie churned out for the summer crowd.  It was, but it was also very watchable.  I enjoyed it.

Kung-Fu Panda - I admit it, I like Jack Black.  This kid’s movie was pretty entertaining but was really a kid’s show.  I’m pretty smart.  I picked up on that right away.

Indiana Jones 4 - nothing special here.  Take it or leave it.  Better yet, watch Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Wall – E -I guess it was okay.  There wasn’t any dialogue for like the first 45 minutes.  Actually, the show kind of drove me nuts but I think kids like it.

The Incredible Hulk – Ed Norton does an okay job.  Tim Roth does an okay job.  But the story is boring and the abomination isn’t right and doesn’t show up early enough in the movie.  I’m also tired of superhero types who whine about it.

Chronicles of Naria 2 - dark, complicated.  Who is the audience for this stuff?  Not kids.  Not me.  And I read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe over and over as a kid.

The Love Guru - I was so disapointed in Mike Myers.  What a waste of time.  Maybe one or two parts will make you smile.  The rest – ugh.

The Happening - maybe the biggest disapointment of the summer for me.  Dumb story, bad acting, and awful ending.  Real waste of time.

P.S.

Baby Mama - This was an early Spring release and out on DVD pretty soon but you NEED to see this.  Great chemistry in the actors.  Great story.  Awesome writing.  Fantastic show.  I laughed so hard I wanted to stop the show because I thought I would miss more funny stuff.

 

Guess that’s it.  There’s a few others I haven’t gotten to yet (like Step-Brothers) so I’ll let you know after I see them.  I’ve seen almost everything so if you ever want my opinion on a film – just ask.

Enjoy.

Another Update on my Achilles plus I start Writing!

Well, I’m about 5 weeks post-surgery on my Achilles.

This has been fantastically tough.  Not the worst injury a person could have but certainly a bad one.  I’ve come to realize it is worse than I originally wanted to believe.

Being on crutches and being so immobilized has been very difficult.  I tend to be an active guy – very into sports and very physical most of the time.  But even the simplest, most mundane jobs are beyond me.  I can’t mow the lawn, carry the garbage cans to the curb, play soccer in the backyard with my kids.  Nothing.

So I was starting to go a bit stir-crazy and, all the while, getting more confident, and less paranoid, moving around UNTIL I had a bit of a slip going up the stairs in my house.  This was over a week ago.  Missed a step or something.  Went down on the bad foot (a little) and rolled away quick.  It scared the SHIT out of me (sorry for the language).  I had flashes of having to go through surgery again, having to start recovery from step one – all the wasted weeks until now.  I was literally in a panic.  It’s only now, over a week after that tumble, that I’m starting to not have panic attacks every time I think of stairs.  Stairs are the worst for crutches!!!!

I’m okay.  I didn’t damage my Achilles on the fall.  It’s still healing along.  I have some mobility back.  Pretty tight around my ankle though.

Anyway, over the last month of feeling bad, missing out on summer, and losing business in private practice – I made a decision.  I didn’t want to look back on this time as complete lost time.  I didn’t want to have to think about the months that went past and me with nothing but a high score on Super Mario Galaxy to show for it.  So I started the book project I’ve talked about here in earlier blogs.  I started the group home hostage taking story.

And it has gone pretty well.  I write almost every morning.  I can get through about a chapter per sitting.  It helps that the book was mapped out quite a bit over the last number of months.  I even have a good ending (which I won’t tell you here).

So, I’m here, I’m struggling, and I’m writing.  Hope your summer was more fun than mine.