The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

There are action movies and then there are Michael Bay movies.  Something really separates the men from the boys on this one...though I'm not really saying that Bay's movies are more like men than boys here.  Rather there is a huge, slightly emotionally manipulative, highly illogical feel that comes with watching one of Bay's movies.  Granted, there's a reason he still is making movies...because sometimes you want something big, emotionally manipulative, and highly illogical to take your mind off of things.  From his first film, Bad Boys , to his latest, Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon ...you can sense that there is a boy directing these films who is pretending to be a man (and I mean that in the nicest way possible).  Such is the case with one of Bay's biggest and longest productions, where he depicts a world about to be destroyed by a global killer asteroid and throws together a grab bag of personalities who are hell-bent to stop it.  This film was meant...

Ah, finally motivated to write a whole fresh blog post for today.  I'm feeling very good today actually, seeing as I had a very relaxing weekend of solitude and films, actually got some festering chores done, and finished a script I was working on.  It wasn't an original work sadly, rather it was a remake of Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill ...see 2010's De Palma A'la Mod for info on that fabulous film...and I'm very proud of it despite the fact it will never be produced.  However, it is the first written work I have finished in years and I'm suddenly motivated to finish more...particularly the original works that I started so long ago.  I'm currently waiting for my friend Will to finish reading it, but he keeps gushing about how much he loves it.  Anyway, I decided to write about a film I took a very special liking to when I saw it this summer because of the amazingly witty script and the way I found myself relating to the main character (gender differe...

Ok...this goes to show how often I read my own blog to see how it looks.  But it has come to my attention that you can't see a frackin' thing on it because of all the Photobucket crap all over the screen.  So I've gone back and deleted all the posters and pictures from the blog and the majority of those have disappeared.  I've also gone back to Google Adsense because I'd like to see if I can make a few cents (so click on some of those ads please).  Hopefully my blog will be more readable and user friendly now...and of course, not frickin ugly.  OH!  And before I forget, I'm a huge Janet Evanovich/Stephanie Plum fan so when I heard that they were finally making a movie of Miss Plum's first adventure, One For the Money, I was totally stoked.  Now the official trailer has been released and I couldn't be more pleased to see that it is following the book very closely (and the actors, whom I had doubts about - particularly Miss Heigl - are actually fitting m...

This week has been an especially draining one for me, mostly because I think I've finally realized that...despite my skill...I really don't want to be a teacher for the rest of my life.  What's equally draining is that I have no idea what I'd do instead.  I mean, I have a degree and a license I paid good money for (well, and that dad paid taxes for) but it really only qualifies me to teach.  So I guess I've felt a little trapped this week...and of course, having some already difficult and uncooperative classes doesn't help.  So I've reached into my shelves this week for some movie comfort food...films that are colorful, funny, and just make me feel good.  This week, in honor of their glorious return to the silver screen come November, I decided to revisit my old friends, The Muppets.  And what better way to talk about The Muppets than to discuss their first movie.  So let's get "movin' right along" as we watch The Muppet Movie . When th...

I just spent an entire weekend watching the Star Wars movies again...having just got them on Blu-ray this weekend.  I also made my first batch of hollendaise sauce ever to put over fried pork chops last night for dinner, which was an adventure.  We're in Week 5 (Week 4 by the calendar) and I'm still getting the hang of taking care of block classes every day, but I'm coping.  I just wish I didn't see complete disdain on every one of my students' faces.  It wears on you when you're blamed for the limitations of your subject (something I have little to no control over).  Oh the plus side, I've never had a class that ran too short and I am impressing my colleagues, which is good because I'm hoping to get good recommendations for if and when I even decide to move on from my school. Something of film-related interest...the latest trailer for The Muppets went online last week and boy is it a hoot.  It is a full-blown spoof of the trailer for David Fincher...