rlaws-34175 Reviews

Cinderella (1997 TV Movie)

Lovely

[9/10 · 7 May 2024]

It's a good idea to watch things again sometimes when you're older. When I first saw this movie I felt that they'd gone overboard with the diversity by having parents who couldn't have had the children they had. For instance when has a Black woman and a white man had an Asian child. At first also I couldn't understand how a white woman, even had her first husband been black, could have possibly given birth to one white daughter and one Black daughter. I thought the idea of diversity was a very good one, but when there's no rhyme or reason to it, and they've just thrown in different races in randomly, it doesn't make any sense. In fact, it makes a mockery of it in a way. However, watching this time, I realized how the Stepmother could have easily had one white daughter and one Black daughter, because genetics are strange. When I was 14 a family moved into our Church congregation. The wife was from Mexico and had a dark olive complexion with brown eyes and dark brown hair. The husband was very white with blond hair and blue eyes. It took all of us a while to realize that neither of their daughters were adopted. The thing is that just as in this version of Cinderella, the two real life sisters were polar opposites. One was very fair with blond hair and blue eyes, while the other sister had her mother's dark olive complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. So as I was watching this movie this time, wondering how a white woman had given birth to a Black daughter and a white daughter, I remembered that family I grew up with, and realized that rare though it may be, one child can resemble, almost exclusively, one parent, while the other child, can resemble the other parent almost exclusively. Suddenly that made sense to me. The Stepmother's second husband was obviously Black, so it makes sense that her first husband would have been Black as well. The actors who played those roles did an excellent job. Brandi did an excellent job as Cinderella. She had great chemistry with Paolo, who played the Prince. He was excellent in that role. I loved Whoopi Goldberg as the Queen, although, as I said I don't see a Black woman and a white man having an Asian son. Personally, I think Victor Garber could easily have been replaced by an Asian actor. He was okay as the King but he lacked the personality that Whoopi Goldberg brought with her as the Queen. So, I guess he's really the only casting issue I have. I loved Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother. However, I thought they could've done a better job on her dress. The gold fabric was lovely but I didn't like the cut or the high neckline or the gaudy jewels. Otherwise she was lovely, and obviously she could sing beautifully. All of the singing was great.

I did have issues with some of the costumes and sets. The costumes and sets at the dance were lovely, except for the Stepsisters. However, the regular costumes and many of the shops and houses looked like they came out of a Dr. Seuss book. I looked forward to this version coming out because I love the one with Leslie Ann Warren, but the sets left a lot to be desired from back then. I looked forward to better sets and better effects. I liked the better effects and Whitney Houston really was delightful as the Fairy Godmother, her whole personality, not just her incredible voice. I was very impressed with Brandi, Paolo, Bernadette Peters, the two Stepsisters, and Whoopi Goldberg who was hilarious as the Queen, and of course Jason Alexander was great as well. As I said, the only change I'd make is Victor Garber, and not just because of his race. I just think he didn't shine as much as the King, anyway, so they may as well have made it more likely for the King and Queen to have an Asian child. As I said, you can go overboard with diversity. When you do, it detracts from the movie, and makes what should be lovely ridiculous. I think it's great that they wanted all different races, but make it believable.

I do wish they'd made a Barbie doll of Brandy and Paolo in their costumes from the dance. Those costumes are so lovely.

Cinderella (I) (2015)

Always a favorite

[10/10 · 18 April 2024]

Cinderella has always been one of my favorite movies. I've loved it ever since I was a tiny child. My brothers regretted giving the cartoon to me for Christmas when I was six because I watched it constantly. The only fault that I have to find in this version is that it's not a musical like the animated version that it's based on. I miss the music. I know it has the one song, but one song sung over and over (except for a couple of bars from another song) does get a little tedious, especially when it gets stuck in your head. Lilly James and Helena Bonham Carter can obviously sing, so I see no reason why the few songs in the original should've been cut out. Otherwise, I love that Cinderella and the Prince meet before the ball, and begin to fall in love there. I love the ball gown and the beautiful wedding gown. Helena Bonham Carter does an excellent job as the Fairy Godmother. She's beautiful, and funny. She does a great job of being the slightly off balance, quirky Fairy Godmother who messes up on a few things and almost forgets to change Cinderella's dress, just as in the animated version (although, some of her mistakes are different). It's fun to know that she's been watching Ella the whole time as she did know that Ella's mother believed in Fairy Godmothers, because she'd heard her. I love her dress as well. The actors all did an excellent job in their respective roles. Cate Blanchett is always a great actor. It's almost tragic when you can see what she's feeling just from the expressions on her face. There's one scene in particular where she almost makes me want to cry. Obviously she didn't marry Ella's Father for love, and she is used to a very different style of living, but that doesn't mean she didn't want to be happy there. Her expressions are so eloquent on the last night before Ella's Father leaves for his last trip. She's throwing a party and Ella is talking to her Father. Lady Tremaine comes out of the party with a smile on her face and her eyes are bright and she's searching for her husband. Unfortunately, when she does find him and Ella, she overhears him telling Ella that she should be kind to her Stepmother and Stepsisters even though they can be trying at times, Lady Tremaine's face begins to fall. The he follows up with talk about how Ella's Mother is the heart and soul of the house. Cate Blanchett's expression is absolutely tragic in that moment. She's just found out that her husband finds her and her daughters trying and that she's living under the constant memory of Ella's Mother. She doesn't love her husband either, but we humans are a curious bunch who can still feel unhappy and jealous when someone who should love us doesn't, and so it is with Lady Tremaine. She doesn't like living in a house where she's haunted by the ghost of her husband's late wife and where she and her daughters are "trying." That scene shows just a small bit of Cate Blanchett's acting ability. It's the one time I actually feel sorry for her. The ballroom scene is every bit as lovely as you could wish for and the blue gown that Cinderella wears is so beautiful. It was perfect. I also love the wedding gown as it is also gorgeous. Richard Madden who plays the Prince also does a great job. He stands his ground about who he wants to marry and he simply does a great job as a man who is falling in love, and who is growing into his own man. The fact that he tells his Father that he doesn't believe they need to look beyond their borders for strength shows a great deal of strength of character in him. Also, he's a wise enough man to not be fooled by the scheming Grand Duke. I often wonder what the Grand Duke is getting out of this marriage contract to the Princess Chelina. When he tells the Captain that he's already promised the Prince to her, you get the distinct impression that even the King doesn't know, even if he did signal for her to step aside to meet his son. The Prince certainly didn't know as he was in the garden telling Cinderella that they'd try to pair him off with a girl of their choosing. That indicates that he certainly doesn't know that he's been promised in marriage. The Grand Duke is power hungry and Kit is wise enough to know that so that he doesn't leave him to his own devices when searching for Cinderella. Overall, it's a lovely film. It could just have used some of those lovely songs from the animated version, like "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes." I miss those.

Beauty and the Beast (I) (2017)

Loved this version

[10/10 · 10 April 2024]

I'm a big fan of fairytales. My favorites are the ones that I grew up with: Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Beauty and the Beast. I actually bought this movie sight unseen. We were getting ready to go out of town and I decided to stop and buy it even though I'd never seen it and a friend of mine didn't like it, and we actually have very similar taste in movies and books, but it had just come out on Blu Ray, and I really wanted it, and I've been grateful ever since that I bought it. I have very much enjoyed the live action Cinderella except that I greatly missed the music. When I found out that Beauty and the Beast was going to be a musical, I was delighted. At first, I was a little surprised about the very different dress for the dance scene, but I was open to the change and now I think it's lovely. I can't say I like it better than the original, but neither do I like it less. I think they both have their merits. According to the trivia there were people who disliked that the dress wasn't just right and Emma Watson got blamed for not wanting to wear a corset or wearing a dress that was too heavy. I have to say I'm with her on both counts. I think the effect is beautiful as is. I still absolutely love the ball gown and the wedding dress in Cinderella as well, but I thought Emma Watson still looked beautiful in her dress even without a corset. I will admit that Emma Watson's regular clothes annoy me no end. I don't mind the shoes or the random fabric on the left side of her dress where she puts the loaf of bread that she buys in the beginning in a pocket, but having half of her skirt on her right side pulled up and tucked into her waistline so her underwear ( back then that would've been her underwear) is showing, looks ridiculous.

Another thing that people have thrown at Emma Watson as an insult is that she got bored during the "Be Our Guest" number, and crew members had to keep her entertained to make her laugh. While there would have been cues to laugh, etc., please remember that Emma Watson would've been sitting alone at that table. The only actor to do a motion capture dance in that scene was Ewan McGregor. He was nervous about his dancing, however and requested to do it alone. The other characters don't have the range of movement that Lumiere does and were therefore unlikely to have done any motion capture scenes. There would have been cues, possibly music but doubtful as that stuff is usually added later, but mostly Emma Watson sitting alone at a table without much to do, and without the stimuli that we see in the delightful final, CGI version of "Be Our Guest." Even a lot of vocals in those cases are done separately and added later, including the music. So picture yourself sitting alone at a table with some cues telling you when to laugh, and think of how bored you'd be, and how much you'd need the stimuli of those around you. Also remember that what we see as a five minute scene can take hours or days to film, depending on how they're doing it. If she'd just been sitting alone for five minutes I'm sure she'd have been much less bored, but having a degree in Theatre and Film myself, and mostly working on film, the amount of time it takes to set up a scene, then film, reset, re-film, etc. Is tedious. When I wasn't needed (I was crew) I sat in another room and crocheted, because of the time it took to reset the camera and lights after I'd already reset the set. Just remember filming takes far longer than the final cut. After all, in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, even veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen (funnily enough Cogsworth in this) had to do some acting alone in a green room for the Bag End scene, granted he was even more alone, but Emma Watson was still alone enough, and he admitted in the extras for that movie that the lack of the other actors and other stimuli almost made him cry. Now Emma Watson would've had a bit more company, but she still wouldn't have been surrounded by all those other characters anymore than Sir Ian McKellen was surrounded by the dwarves and the hobbit, she just had more of a set and some crew members. A friend of ours also worked on crew in film. He got so bored doing the same old thing over and over again that he actually quit film and went back to Law School, and eventually worked with a family member of mine. He found it tedious to just sit there doing the same thing over and over again. Why shouldn't Emma Watson have trouble with that in a scene where she's basically alone and she's relying on cues from the crew? Just remember that it can sometimes take hours or even days to shoot a few minutes of film.

Now getting back to the dress and those who are angry about the lack of weight and fullness in the dress, especially comparing it to the absolutely beautiful Cinderella ball gown, and it is beautiful, but in this case I'm glad Emma Watson held her ground. I love that Dan Stevens's little girl designed the preliminary sketch, and that they built off of that. I'm exceedingly glad that it was not too heavy especially. Several years ago my Mother and I went to see a production of Beauty and the Beast through Broadway across America when it came to our home town. One of the things we looked forward to the most was the beautiful dress for the dance. We were terribly disappointed when the dress looked nothing at all like the cartoon dress. It didn't resemble anything close to yellow or gold and was frankly ugly. This was before this movie came out. Anyway the skirt was obviously heavy. Halfway through the iconic dance, the skirt fell right off the actress. She was a professional and she simply stepped out of the skirt and continued dancing with just her much lighter weight underskirts, but it really ruined the entire show, because that dance is a big part of when they fall in love. The dress in Cinderella is absolutely beautiful. I especially love it because I love butterflies, but you'll notice that it's not exactly like its cartoon version either, so I also love that they did something a little different with Belle's dress here. It's a lovely dress, and thankfully it probably never fell on the floor at any time during the dance, whether rehearsing or taping, causing Dan Stevens, in his stilts, to trip on it and break something. Perhaps it's time to think of what the actors go through than just what we think it should be. In fact I just read about that gorgeous blue dress for Cinderella and it was very heavy. According to the trivia it took Richard Madden, who played the Prince in Cinderella, quite a while to get the hang of doing the lifts during the Cinderella dance scene when it's just the Prince and Cinderella dancing. Richard Madden in Cinderella had a very hard time lifting Lily James, as tiny as she is, because of the extremely heavy dress. If he had been on stilts as Dan Stevens was, imagine the many accidents and broken bones that could've happened. Overall, I never noticed that anything lacking in Belle's dress. I just saw a lovely dress and a lovely dance scene that I wished had gone on longer, but perhaps that would've been too difficult with stilts.

Another complaint to look at; Emma Watson's singing. People pointed out how horrible it was that songs had to be changed somewhat to fit her voice. Oddly enough, none of us have the same vocal range. I thought they did a great job making the songs still true to the original songs, but also rewriting a little to fit Emma Watson's voice range. I thought they sounded lovely, and the changes were only a little noticeable if you're being picky. Yes I did hear all of them, but she still did a very good job singing. I loved the song that Dan Stevens sings when he lets Belle go. I know it's not the same song as in the Broadway Production that basically deals with the same thing, "If I Can't Love Her," but I still love this song in this movie. It's beautiful.

Overall I loved this show. I loved the songs. I loved the beautiful yellow/gold dress. I love the dress at the end when they're all human again and Belle and the Prince are dancing together. I love the Prince's costumes at the iconic dance and the end dance. I love how well they all did singing and with their different personalities. I love the touch that when the Beast is furious that they gave her a room and is demanding that she comes down for dinner, after they've explained their reasoning, Plumette hides behind Lumiere when the Beast is shouting. I love that as the Beast gets better and as Belle comes for him because she is in love with him, Agathe becomes more beautiful to fit the spell she has put on the castle. I love that she kept an eye on things and didn't just leave the Beast to his own devices. She found the right woman and she made sure that Belle made it to the castle. Overall it's a lovely story that is very well acted and well done.

Downton Abbey: Episode #4.2 (2013) Season 4, Episode 2

Great episode for the most part but-

[9/10 · 9 April 2024]

I love the series Downtown Abbey except that I don't like all of the scheming that goes on. I didn't mind Thomas and O' Brien as much this time because I knew what to expect, but I'd forgotten that "Mr. Barrow," who earned his new title and his home and not going to jail due to John and Anna Bates' help, decided to help the already scheming Edna Braithwaite to set up Anna. What really gets me though is how easily both Lord and Lady Grantham believe the story. Lord Grantham knows very well that Thomas is a thief and a liar. As for Lady Grantham, to believe that Anna is capable of deliberately destroy a piece of her clothing simply to discredit Edna Braithwaite whose only "reference" as a lady's maid is from a dead woman and her insistence that they rely solely on Mrs. Hughes's recommendation which only states that she's a good kitchen maid but says nothing about her abilities as a lady's maid, etc, while Anna has never in all her years of service done anything to harm anyone. In fact she helped the Countess and Lady Mary to carry a man's body across the house and never said a word, yet both of them are foolish enough to believe these two people, one whom they hardly know and one who is a known thief and a liar (he's like a cockroach you can't get rid of; I really hate scheming.) They ignore Anna's many years of exemplary service and help in bizarre situations in which she tells no one what happened, and yet Lord and Lady Grantham are so ready to believe those two over Anna whose never put a toe out of line. For crying out loud, no wonder the Earls of Grantham can't seem to hold onto their money when they're that gullible.

Besides the fact that they attribute it to Edna suddenly being head housemaid when she left the house under Anna in the hierarchy, but Anna hardly knew Edna during those days because she was in the Highlands with Lady Mary. Frankly, I don't think Anna would dress Lady Grantham is asked. She is actually friends with Lady Mary, and she's been taking caring of all the girls for years. She's close to Lady Mary, not so much to Cora, except for when she helped carry a body across the house with Cora and Mary. A woman who helps out like that and never says a word to anyone, deserves to be at least given the benefit of the doubt over a known liar and thief and some woman who has to meet in the village because of her Aunt, but has no problem ditching the Aunt to go live at Downtown Abbey again, and as I said all on the reference of a supposedly dead woman and Mrs. Hughes recommendation that would only have talked about her as a hard worker as a housemaid, not a lady's maid! It's amazing how gullible those two really are.

Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2019)

Hilarious and Gross at the same time

[8/10 · 6 March 2024]

I binge watched the first nine episodes in one night because this show was so awesome. I would have watched more that night if I hadn't needed to go to bed. While I found the show hilarious, I never did go back because Netflix has been making so many bad decisions lately, with content and cliffhangers that we'd cancelled our subscription before I got to actually go back. I'd always planned to and even though I no longer had access to Netflix, it annoyed me when I looked it up again and found out they'd gotten rid of it without a good ending. There were times I really did want to go back to it because I was really curious about the strange disease that had turned Sheila into one of the undead. I also really loved the relationships in this between Sheila and Joel who still love each other dearly. In some ways this happening to Sheila brought them closer together. They also got a closer relationship with their daughter Abby and next door neighbor Eric became like a son to them and a love interest for Abby, whom he's always had a crush on. The cast was absolutely amazing, and not just Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. I admit I took my little hiatus because I got busy. I always intended to go back though, until I had no access anymore. Oddly I can usually handle bloody shows fine. Blood and gore and swearing didn't bother me much. I've watched Lethal Weapon and Die Hard many times and both have blood and gore and profanity. The only difference is the lack of cannibalism, which I admit was not a favorite part. On the whole, though I'd say this is a hilarious series, and I really wanted to find out what the peculiar disease that plagues Sheila actually is. I'm sorry they canceled it so that it wasn't wrapped up properly, and you never do get closure in this, so apparently I never would have gotten to find out what really happened to Sheila and others. Like I said I always planned to go back to Santa Clarita and discover more about the Hammond family. And it's not just that Sheila and Joel become even closer, but they have a closer relationship with their daughter Abby. Eric is a really great character also. This show is hilarious and it is full of great characters who have great chemistry together on screen. Executives doing that on shows I like is the bane of my existence!!!!! Why can't they just at least give even a few extra episodes to tie up the loose ends and give the fans a proper ending that explains what was going on?

Perhaps what we really need is a movie. Remember the Veronica Mars movie got its funding from an online campaign where fans donated the money to see what more of their favorite teen detective was up to. Joss Whedon also did that for the fans of his short lived series, Serenity. He made a movie to tie up all the strings from the approximately 13 episode series that had gained a huge cult following and demanded more. Perhaps, if enough fans demand more, we can at least get a movie that'll tie up all of the loose ends. Just a thought! It'd also be nice if the series ended up on another streaming service, or even a DVD set, (and yes I know that's very out of date these days,) because even without a decent finale I'd still like to learn more about the Hammond family, no matter how much I dispute the very realistic cannibalism!

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

Not like any other Cinderella story you've ever seen

[10/10 · 28 January 2024]

Even when I was six years old, it bothered me that the Prince and Cinderella "fell in love at first sight," at the ball. I knew that wasn't how things worked. I still loved the story and drove my brothers crazy by watching the cartoon constantly, causing them to regret giving it to me as a present. Even at that young age I knew that people needed a chance to get to know each other before they could actually, truly fall in love. They might be attracted to each other at first sight but love is a different situation entirely. When the trailers for Ever After came out, I was older and I was delighted to see that someone had chosen to do a Cinderella story where the Prince and the Cinderella character meet, and fall in love over time.

Some mentioned a likeness to Titanic and if you liked that movie then you were more likely to like this one. Some even called Rose's finance a caricature. While I agree that it's absurd to have her spitting off the side of the ship, Cal is not a caricature. In that day and age, many men considered it their right to punish their wives with violence. It wasn't until later that violence towards one's wife and children became something that was wrong in the eyes of the law and society as a whole. My own great grandmother divorced her first husband because he was a violent alcoholic, and the stories my grandma told me were stories of violence and terror. So don't ever call that character a caricature.

There is a distinct difference between Titanic and Ever After. Ever After is still based on a fairy tale. Yes they brought in some real life people but very few and they changed the timelines a good bit so they would fit the story being told. This was done deliberately in order to make a more realistic story.

Most things in Titanic were true except for exactly how the ship broke in half. She didn't break in half until after she was completely submerged, and the main characters. They did the main characters that way so they could run throughout the entire ship and manipulate the romance they wanted, but Titanic itself is far from a fairy tale and to compare a true tragedy with a few fictional characters to a fairy tale with a few real people shows a terrible disrespect to those who died and those who lived to watch the horror that was Titanic.

And learn to make some allowances because even though Every After was written to seem real, it obviously isn't. It's still a fairy tale. And it's a very well written and different type of fairy tale. It's delightful in its difference. I still love the other Cinderella movies out there that I've seen and I love this one. It's a more intelligent movie in many ways as you watch the progression of the characters throughout the film. It's true that Danielle isn't like other Cinderella characters for the most part, the exception being A Cinderella Story, who also has a Cinderella character who saves herself and who is a bit of a tomboy. Danielle does use lessons that her father taught her to get through everything that she goes through and, in the end to save herself.

I love Danielle's relationship with her Father. In many ways, though, I suspect that made the Baroness dislike her even more. The Baroness did not love Danielle's Father in the least, but she is extremely vain, coupled with a great belief that she should be the center of the world. You can tell by the look she gives Danielle when they first met that she's sick of hearing about Danielle since her new husband, "speaks of nothing else," and of course when Auguste is dying, he glances at his new wife but he makes a great effort to try to comfort his daughter and he tells her twice that he loves her. Those are his last words and it took everything he had to say them. Rodmilla looks at Danielle as he does that, watching her. She doesn't care for Auguste, except for his money, but she still believes that she should be the center of his universe.

I do wish I'd seen this earlier in life, though, because little Danielle's bargaining powers are much greater than mine were at age two when I asked for three pieces of construction paper from my Mother. She said I could have one and I countered with, "Okay, I'll take two." I only got one because my Mother was going to make sure that her toddler knew who was in charge, however she's always wondered how her two year old learned to bargain. Danielle bargains far better. She gets her Father to agree to only be gone for a week when he's supposed to leave again in two weeks time (a fortnight is two weeks). I could've used the tips, or perhaps I simply needed a games of rock, paper, scissors to really get the deal I wanted as it certainly worked for the young Danielle.

She certainly has a way of getting Prince Henry to actually listen to her. She scolds him for not even glancing at the other men after he gave one man back his life. The next news she hears is that the Prince has gone to his Father and asked him to release those men and from then on anyone who sails must be compensated. She also scolds him for not interacting with many peasants. After the tennis match, he makes an effort by asking to meet the Baroness's servants after Marguerite points them out. And, of course, there's the university, where anyone can learn, no matter their station. That is inspired by Danielle. I suspect on two points, one because of her passionate love of books. The other because she did quote Utopia, which talks about allowing his people to be ill educated from early on, and their manners corrupted from infancy then of course they'll go on to a life of crime. His university idea will help even the poorest people to get an education, so they won't be ill educated and their manners won't be corrupted leading them to a life of crime.

Sometimes it's hard to watch because the Baroness and Marguerite are so particularly cruel. I think, though, that that's why they put in somewhat shy, and kind Jaqueline, along with Gustave and the three servants who've known Danielle since she was a child. They help to mitigate the cruelty of the Baroness and Marguerite to a point, although, I admit that I still cannot watch the part the day after she and the Prince are together with the Gypsies. The Baroness and Marguerite are particularly cruel there and it's very hard for me to watch.

I do find it funny that the Baroness was supposedly trying to treat her daughters to be ladies but Marguerite practically falls out the front door when the Prince first visited their house. She throws a fit in front of the Queen and screams at the top of her voice. I'd say that the Baroness failed drastically in turning Marguerite into a true lady. The one who seems to have benefited the most from those lessons is Danielle, as she probably paid attention from the outskirts in order to make the Baroness like her more. Even Jaqueline is not quite as ladylike as expected, but she is better that her sister, who shows a distinct lack of decorum several times.

Overall I love this movie. I love the main characters and I love that they write in real people to make it seem as though it really did happen. It's a fun movie and one that's worth watching over and over again.

The Incredible Dr. Pol (2011– )

Definitely Incredible!!! Love it!!!

[10/10 · 10 November 2023]

I've had animals since I was 2 years old. My oldest sibling was 6 and my Mom was beginning to notice that we were afraid of animals, so she and my Dad decided it was time to get one so we'd see they weren't scary. It was actually perfect timing because the perfect cat showed up at our door and adopted us. He was full grown so we don't know how old he was when we got him but he was an awesome kitty. When I was 12 I burned my hand badly and Blackie sat next to me all day long. He never left my side. We've had many, many special animals over the years, dogs and cats. They're remarkable, and it's amazing how much they understand. Dr. Pol reminds my Mom and I of our own vet here in Texas. Our vet isn't nearly as loquacious and outgoing but the animals love him, and he loves them. He can often tell what is wrong just by looking as Dr. Pol often can. The first time we went to him, our dog had an ear infection. I had taken her to a different vet, who was our vet for a short time, he wanted to do all kinds of expensive testing to find out everything, and he was going to charge us an absolute fortune. After calling my Mom, I decided to leave. They were going to charge us $50 simply for lifting her ear and taking a glance that lasted about a second. I was outraged because he hadn't done anything. They took the $50 off the bill then. My Mom called a friend who used to breed dogs and she told us about our current vet. He took one look at our dog's ear, knew exactly what kind of infection she had without doing a million tests, gave us the medicine and charged a fraction of the cost. Our animals love him. When he'd pick up our dog to take her back for x-rays, she'd start smiling and she'd relax. It was like she was going, "yeah, I'm with my good friend!!!" Even our kitties are at ease with him. He works with his wife too, except that she's the other vet in the practice. She does take care of the books still though, we think. He often forgets to charge for some things, but she remembers thankfully, so they can stay in business. It's always amazing to me how much our precious animals understand us. I visited a friend who had bought a purebred Ragdoll, in large part because they were supposed to be cuddly. This little girl wasn't what they expected. I finally really got to hold her when she was five (I'd been away for college) and she was fine, just meowing, talking a lot. Immediately my friend's family starting running the poor thing down. The brother insisted she shouldn't be crying, the mother insisted that my friend should've gotten a refund, etc. I told them that maybe if they quit criticizing her so much she'd quit crying so much. They made fun of me. I gave them examples of our own cats. They said it was just our tone of voice, or in the case of one cat, that well he was probably just following my Mom for no reason, not because she told him he'd get to talk to me on the phone if he did (again college, and he loved talking to me on the phone.) Cats never just follow anyone and this cat in particular never just followed anyone. He followed my Mom and then crawled all over her until she'd called me and put the phone to his ear. I finally told them they simply didn't understand animals. Sure enough, ten years later, for various reasons, we got custody of my friend's Ragdoll. She was crabby at first, although she still pitched right in to take care of me like my own kitty and my Mom's dog already did, because I'm disabled. After two weeks of constant reassurance suddenly her expression changed and there was real hope in her eyes. I had already put a collar on her, everyone thought I was nuts, but she was proud of her collars. She jingled her bell everywhere she went. She became ours. When our family visited she basked in the attention they gave her, there was no crying and complaining. When my friend came to visit I'm afraid our little Ragdoll only let her pet her if Melodie (the Ragdoll,) was in her kitty bed on my Mom's bed. That was her safe place and she had no intention of leaving us. She had become our beautiful, bright-eyed girl. I'm afraid I've seen some things that are anomalies from what Dr. Pol has said. We got Blackie fixed because he got in a fight over territory with a neighborhood cat, and the owner insisted we get him fixed (she foolishly put her hand in the middle of a cat fight and got scratched,) but we did get him fixed. He kept fighting over his territory for the rest of his life. When our female kitty, Panther went into heat (back then there wasn't such a big thing about fixing your animals) my parents thought it would be good for us kids to see that part of nature. Unfortunately Panther and Blackie had a very strong bond. She wouldn't go near another male and, in spite of the fact that he shouldn't have had the desire to do it (it'd been years since Blackie had been fixed) Blackie did his best to get Panther pregnant. We finally gave up and got her fixed.

We do love watching Dr. Pol though. I'm always curious about the dairy farms because, although I've never been to one, my Grandma grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio. Her family has worked it for generations and they still do work it. They're very successful at it. Watching Dr. Pol is the closest I get to seeing what kind of farm my Grandma grew up on and what her family still works at. I love the fact that no one at the Pol clinic gives up easily on saving an animal. They all do their best to think outside the box and go above and beyond. I also love seeing all the different animals that they see that no other vet would take on. I love how proud Charles is of his Dad. I love the people in the clinic. Dr. Brenda is awesome as well. And of course you have to give Diane props for taking care of everything else that comes through the office. She keeps the office running so her husband can just focus on the animals. I love that they make such a great team. They're amazing, the whole clinic/family. It's a show I can watch over and over again. I love that they really understand the animals. For instance, they would never run down an animal verbally and assume the animal couldn't understand. They know how special animals are and they know that they understand more than most people think. There's a bond between people and their animals. My Mom is the first to admit that I understand if something is wrong with my Lilly better that she does. The one time I was too sick to go to the vet with her, I wrote down detailed instructions about my concerns. I can always tell if something is wrong, just as she can tell when something is wrong with her puppy. We know them well enough to tell. I do get a kick out of the concept of how far is really far to people. I frequently drive farther just to go to my own doctors and frankly to our vet. Of course, in the area where we live you go through several small cities and developments to get there. It used to be country but it's growing. There are a few ranches you can see that refuse to change and we love that. In the middle of our growing city, right down the road from our house is a little cattle ranch that refuses to sell. We love it every time we drive by and see the cows resting in the shade of the trees and wandering through the small pond that's there for them to cool off. Other times of the year the field has bales of hay spread throughout it. We love it. We're always worried that they're gonna cave and sell but so far so good. We love that there's a small, family ranch in the middle of our city. And on a side note, speaking as a Texan, beans don't belong in chili. 😉

Titanic (1997)

Certainly an Epic

[10/10 · 5 November 2023]

It's funny over the years how your views change on things. This movie came out when I was only 16 years old. I saw it with friends in the theatre more times than I'd ever seen any other movie in theaters. We girls even talked the guys into going along all the time. I heard so many different takes on it as well. My aunt was incensed that James Cameron used a fictional couple instead of focusing on all of the amazing stories there were to tell. I understand why he did though. This way he could tell a story that had the true people in it but he was able to manipulate the main characters. I do know that the most amazing story that my Aunt told us that she thought ought to have been in this movie was that of a third class family. They'd had second class tickets on another ship but that ship's crossing was cancelled, and they were given third class tickets on Titanic. The husband was thrilled because third class on Titanic was supposed to be better than second class on the original ship, but his wife worried constantly. People kept declaring the ship "unsinkable," and that to paraphrase, "no higher power could sink this ship." She was a woman who believed that it was a very bad idea to tempt Higher Powers, so every night she sat up on the deck and kept watch so that if something happened she could get her family out first thing. The night Titanic hit the iceberg, she saw it and knew Titanic would go down, so she got her family up and in life belts and on deck. She and her children were some of the few third class passengers to get on lifeboats and survive the sinking because she had her family on deck, ready to go, before they locked down third class.

Now back to this actual movie, as a 16 year old I loved the romance between Rose and Jack. My Mother, of course, always had to tell me that it was highly unlikely that a young woman of her breeding and a young man of his background would stay in love for long; that it was more of a shipboard romance. Those romances do occur, of course. As I got older and was in my 20's and 30's, I agreed with my Mother. I still loved watching the movie. I love the clothes and I loved to pretend that the romance could happen, that love could conquer all. Now, watching this movie in my early forties, I can see how Rose and Jack's love could have and actually did last, on her part. She never did let go of him. The thing is that Rose was brought up in the wealthy circle but she viewed the people in it as narrow minded. She saw them all as being the same, especially her mother who was selling her to the highest bidder, no matter how he might actually treat Rose. Inside, before she ever met Jack, she already dreamed of the kind of freedom that Jack's life gave him. She was suffocating in the bounds of a society that had rules to control every part of her existence. When she finally really got to know Jack, when they're talking together the day after she almost committed suicide, she sees a freedom in him that she longs to have. In her Jack sees the spirit to take that freedom and run with it if she just will. He sees more than the proper, docile young lady. He sees in her what no one else does. He sees the rebellious side that matches his own rebellious side. The side they both have to disregard convention. When she goes down to third class with Jack to the party they have down there, she has more fun than she's probably had in her whole, suppressed life. For once she gets to let loose and be a 17 year old young woman. She gets to just have real fun, not suppressed "fun." I can again see how the romance between them works and it's obvious that she truly does want that kind of life because instead of finding her mother and Cal on the Carpathia after Jack is dead, she hides out in steerage, gives her name as Rose Dawson, and proceeds to do all of the things she and Jack talked about doing and more. She earns her own way, she rides in the surf side saddle, she learns to fly a plane, she acts, and eventually she even gets married and has children and grandchildren; a family who loved her, just as Jack wanted her to and just as they would have done together if he'd lived. She didn't NEED the money and the high society that her mother was so desperate to cling to. For years I wondered why she didn't give Mr. Lovett the Heart of the Ocean at the end but I think part has to do with the fact that she'd finally gotten all these people who had so little respect for what happened (note Mr. Bodine's comment, "Oops, someone left the water running,") to truly SEE and I'm not sure she wanted to undo that but more importantly, the diamond was a burden to her. It was a reminder of a cruel man and a selfish mother. It was a piece of bondage. But she couldn't just get rid of it because it was too well known. People would have begun to realize that Rose had not died on the Titanic. When she finally did throw it overboard right over Titanic, she breathed a huge sigh of relief, like a big burden had just been lifted. I think, even more than my first theory, that's the one that works. She needed to be rid of the burden.

The disaster part of it was, of course, exceedingly well done. I admit, after reading several first hand accounts of the sinking, and all of the survivors reported the same thing, they did NOT see Titanic break in two pieces. They simply saw it go down in such a way that it was eventually standing up vertically, before sinking under the water completely. I initially attributed this to the tumult of the night and the trauma they went through. James Cameron and others had come up with the way he showed the ship sink because of how far apart the two sections were on the ocean floor. Now I've seen his 20th anniversary documentary and he does a lot of research into how the Titanic really went down and finally came to the conclusion that it did, in fact, go down in one piece and it broke in two once it was completely under water. My Mom was always surprised that my Dad liked to watch Titanic with her. It turns out that they liked different parts of the movie. She loved the beautiful clothes and the beautiful sets and all of that from the first part of the movie. Dad loved watching the disaster part because it was very well done. He was always sad at the lives that were lost but he separated himself from that reality and watched a well done disaster movie. The one thing that does annoy me is that James Cameron didn't let Molly Brown be the woman she really was. She didn't just sit meekly down in her lifeboat and stay there. After a little while she got back up and threatened to throw the crewman overboard if he didn't go back for survivors. She IS called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" for a reason and not just because of a somewhat fictionalized Debbie Reynolds movie.

It is true that the first class men did try to help get the women into boats. I read the book written by Colonel Archibald Gracie right after the sinking. He helped with others to do this. When JJ Astor asked permission to accompany his pregnant wife and was told, "no," He accepted that gracefully and helped get people in the boats as well. Madeline Astor, who may or may not have had more than her fur stole since many didn't dress warmly enough because they didn't believe the ship was sinking, gave her stole to a THIRD class woman (almost unthinkable in those times) so the woman could keep her little boy Filly warm. Madeline was, herself, five months pregnant and probably cold, but she didn't want the little guy to be cold. Colonel Gracie helped get women and children off the ship, then he went and helped cut down the submersibles. They were able to get two boats right side up but not the other two they were working on. As Titanic went farther down, he and several men, held onto the bottom of one of the submersibles that they hadn't been able to get right side up. Many people tried to get on and they allowed as many as they could until the thing began to have trouble staying afloat. Those in the water mostly accepted this and swam away. After waiting for the life boats to come back only Colonel Gracie and Lighttoller were still alive. He died eight months later from complications of hypothermia and diabetes. His last words were, "Get them in the boats. Get them in the boats." Most of us, I think, know about the Strauss's and how Mrs. Strauss declared that she'd been with her husband for fifty years and she wasn't going to leave him now.

I suppose part of what I'm trying to get at is that there are so many remarkable stories from the real Titanic that no matter which way James Cameron went, he'd be criticized. If he told some of the stories and not all, the descendants of those left out would've been hurt and angry. He didn't have time to tell ALL of those amazing stories. He only had time to tell some things and the sinking does take up as much as the love story. The Titanic hits the iceberg at about 1 hour 38 minutes out of a 3 hour 15 minute film.

I saw another version of Titanic that was made for TV a year before this one came out. They tried to put more of the real passengers in there but it didn't work. They made Colonel Gracie look like a buffoon. The only child, Lorraine, from first class who died, died because her mother couldn't find her baby boy and she wouldn't get on a lifeboat without him. Her baby was already on a boat with his nurse. It was miscommunication. But the movie mixed the nurse up with another woman of the same name who had drowned her own baby. That woman's family were furious. Thing is even if Cameron had tried to just do real stories he'd still be in trouble with family members.

Try Julian Fellowes's mini series. It's fascinating, telling the story through all walks of life. I don't know how many of those people were real but some certainly were.

Titanic 1997, is a great movie. They needed to show the chaos too because that's why ships have safety drills now. And chaos reigned in the end.

Titanic: Sinking the Myths (2017)

So Many What If's

[2/10 · 3 November 2023]

For years there have been movies and books debating what really happened to the Titanic. Why did it really sink? This is simply another one, but one apparently done from the book of a survivor whose name isn't even in the passenger list. There are so many theories. One documentary even claimed evidence that the Titanic's sister ship was the one that actually went down. The Olympic was docked right next to where the Titanic was being finished and some speculate that the White Star Line wanted to let it sink under Titanic's name so they could get the insurance on a new ship since the Olympic had already been in two accidents. Personally I don't believe that anymore than I believe these theories. With that one they described the differences in the ships and I studied the two ships including the real footage of the Titanic taking off that begins James Cameron's famous films. I compared that to pictures and descriptions of the Olympic and other pictures of Titanic and I find it's highly unlikely. There were a terrible, tragic series of events that happened to bring Titanic down. Personally I think we can all look at the conspiracy theories till pigs fly but we won't know the real truth in this lifetime. The ship lies on the ocean floor and is disintegrating every day. Personally I believe that's where we'll find the true story. The only place that can show us what was wrong is with the ship itself and it doesn't change in the telling. The major problem however is how can researchers truly come to a conclusion based on a few facts that change in the telling and a ship they can barely access that is disintegrating day by day. There are a few things that do seem to be consistent, the lookouts had lost their binoculars, the water was crystal clear which meant that it wouldn't be splashing against an iceberg to warn them further in advance of the iceberg's location. In many versions there seem to have been some strange goings on with the distress flares. It's true that the crew would know better what color of flare to shoot, but that doesn't mean that the many eye witness accounts were wrong about what colors they were actually seeing. That's another thing that is consistent; the color of the flares that the people saw, whether they were the correct colors or not that doesn't change what people saw. Also the wire lines were clogged and the man on the nearby Californian had gone to bed for the night and did not get the distress signal from the Titanic. Many ships that did get it, thought it was a joke because Titanic was unsinkable. And even if Titanic hit an iceberg none of them thought she'd go down so fast that she'd be gone before help arrived. Also, at that time, there was some confusion in the actual distress signal. For years it had bed CQD, at the time that Titanic went down they were in the middle of changing the distress signal to the still used, S. O. S. Titanic, if I remember correctly, was actually putting out both just in case. There were far too few lifeboats and no drills on how to handle a calamity. One thing that they absolutely should have done that many other ships had already done, including the Californian, is that Titanic should have stopped for the night. They had so many iceberg warnings, a very clear sea that made icebergs harder to see, but instead of following the example of others, in their hubris, they sped up. Thankfully because of this tragedy every ship that goes out now has to have enough lifeboats and they have to do drills on how to get into those lifeboats in case of an emergency so that there won't be the chaos that went on that night when people finally realized that they really were going down. I can't say that I know much about the fires that were already going on in the boiler room. I'm woefully ignorant on such things but it makes sense to me that they may have been deliberately set in order to get the large ocean liner started warming up and getting the fuel working before hand. I don't know, I'm not an expert but I know that it took a bit to get the older cars started and Titanic was the biggest ship of her day. It's just a thought and probably completely wrong.

If you want to read a really good and accurate first hand witness account of the sinking of the Titanic, read Colonel Archibald Gracie's account, rather than relying on one given years later by someone who wasn't even on the ship's list. Colonel Gracie wrote his as soon as he reached home while it was fresh in his mind. He went through all views of the sinking. He helped load the lifeboats with 2nd Officer Lighttoller and helped get down the ones that were upside down. Then when the ship was really going down and they hadn't gotten the last lifeboat that they'd cut loose right side up, he and Lighttoller clung to the bottom of it with others until he was finally rescued by another lifeboat after he watched from a relatively close vantage point the Titanic actually go down. He died 8 months later from complications of hypothermia and diabetes and he was still so upset by the sinking that his last words were, "get them on the boats. Get them on the boats." He was a historian and a great reader and loved to tell everyone about history so his book is extremely detailed, and you can actually be certain that he was on the Titanic and that he watched it go down.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

How could they destroy Jim Phelps????

[5/10 · 9 July 2023]

When I first saw this movie I really enjoyed it. Tom Cruise was awesome, the action sequences and storyline were also awesome. It was fun to watch the team work and then to watch Tom Cruise's makeshift group break into Langley for the Noc List. The stunts were lots of fun to watch. My Mother didn't like it as well as I did because she'd watched the television series and, to her, turning Jim Phelps into the bad guy was heresy. I didn't understand particularly and I just enjoyed the movie but later in life I finally got to see the original series and it is amazing. I have to admit that now it's rather stinks that they turned Jim Phelps into the bad guy. It was terrible to do that to Jim. He didn't deserve it. He would never have turned into a traitor and killed his team. I think it would have been an awesome movie if they had created it to be a prequel to the series. If Tom Cruise had played a young Jim Phelps before he got his own team and then still use the same movie script, that would've been great, or if they'd just left Jim Phelps out of it altogether and just had a completely different team, I really could've gotten on board with either of those. But as it is, I can't bring myself to watch it anymore because they destroyed a beloved character from the original series and there were plenty of ways to still have Tom Cruise as the hero and not turn the awesome Jim Phelps into a traitor, something he wouldn't have done.

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Wonderful Movie

[10/10 · 6 July 2023]

I've been watching this movie for over 40 years and it continues to be a favorite. I used to really get annoyed by Tootie; throughout the whole movie. I never understood her morbid streak although I did love the "Cake Walk Song/Dance" that she does with Judy Garland's Esther. As an adult I think she's a lot cuter and her peculiarities are more cute than before. The only issue I have with this film is their attitude to Tootie and Agnes's behavior on Halloween. They put a stuffed dress, that looked like a real lady in the dark, on the trolley tracks in the hopes that the trolley would go off the tracks. To minds that young I know they wouldn't have thought much about the people they could've hurt or killed if there had been an accident but the adults certainly knew better and other than Rose getting after Agnes briefly and their Mother scolding Tootie very briefly for lying they not only don't punish her for lying and trying to derail the trolley but they actually give Tootie extra ice cream because she cut her lip and had to have stitches and she didn't cry. I'm sure that if their plan had succeeded and someone had been injured or killed that those affected would have been just fine with Tootie and Agnes not getting punished because Tootie didn't cry about having a couple of stitches. I now skip that part as it infuriates me. They were young but as my Mother always told me when she was punishing me for something and my defense was that I didn't know, she'd always reply, "Well, now you do."

Now that my rant is over, I really do love this movie. It brought us some beautiful songs, especially the classic "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which thankfully Judy Garland insisted on changes to the original which was extremely depressing and certainly not something you want to sing at Christmas time. I'm also amazed at the extent of Mary Astor's career. She was a star during the age of Silent films and was one of the few who made the change to "Talkies," but she even made it into color, this film actually being the second time that she played Judy Garland's Mother.

The songs are delightful, the costumes fun, the sets lovely and the storyline a simple bit of uncomplicated, peaceful fluff that certainly can cheer you up anytime you need it.

Beyond Paradise (2023– )

Absolutely Delightful! Love seeing Humphrey again!

[10/10 · 27 March 2023]

I love the series Death in Paradise. I've watched almost every episode as it's come on Amazon Prime, and am always looking forward to more. There have been four detectives so far but my favorite, by far, is Humphrey. He's my whole family's favorite. We were so sorry to see him go even though we certainly did prefer the way he left to the way his poor predecessor left. Every time we went back to watch reruns of Death in Paradise, we watched the ones with Humphrey. When we saw that Humphrey was back with Martha in Beyond Paradise, we were delighted. We haven't been disappointed either. It still has a quirky cast in a small town that is delightful. I do enjoy the way Humphrey explains how the crime was committed, as there hasn't yet been a murder in the first three episodes that I've been able to see on Amazon, but the way he explains the crime is similar in some ways to Death in Paradise as it shows us how it happened and yet it has a twist to it since Humphrey tells his coworkers what happened and then makes the arrest. It's so much fun to see Humphrey and Martha again. I had really liked Martha on Death in Paradise, even though she was only on for a short time, so I'm really happy to have a series that is Humphrey and Martha together. I truly hope they keep making it.

Bewitched (1964–1972)

Delightful Show!!! Has Rewatchability!!!!

[9/10 · 19 March 2023]

I've been watching this series since I was a child when it was on Nick at Night. As soon as they started putting it on DVD about 20 years ago, I began buying it until I had all 8 seasons. Now I've started buying the digital on Prime. It's one of the few things that I watch over and over again. I admit that the first two seasons are my favorites. As someone who studied set design in college, I have fun watching for all the changes in sets that they made over the years. I do sometimes wonder how many right arms Phyllis Stephens has. She always declares that she'd "cut off her right arm rather than interfere," yet she's constantly interfering. The only reason that I gave this series a 9 instead of a 10 is because of Dick Sargent (Darrin #2). I really did NOT like the changes he made to the character and the changes that were made to the entire show with him in it. Whenever Dick York (Darrin #1) got angry, he was almost more like a little puppy dog that you felt sorry for. Even when he was sarcastic, he wasn't malicious. The second Darrin was always sarcastic and nasty. When he yelled at Samantha it felt more threatening because he was tall and he used that height to literally bend over her and scream at her. His expressions were nasty and sarcastic and there was no sense that he really loved Samantha, let alone enough to stick around. When he was in the show, it affected everything. With Darrin #1, Samantha still went out on occasion with Endora and she had a better relationship with her. Even Darrin got along okay with her once in a great while. With Darrin #2 Samantha's relationship with her family is more strained as well. It just doesn't have as good a climate on the show as it did with Darrin #1. I mean it was a relief to have a Darrin character again since Dick York's health had gotten so bad that he was hardly in any episodes in Season 5. I just wish they could have found someone who had better chemistry with not just Elizabeth Montgomery but also with the rest of the cast. I know Dick Sargent was a very good actor as I've seen him in other things where he did an excellent job, but I do not think he was the right choice to play Darrin Stephens. I often don't watch all the way to the end of the series anymore because of that. Of course I miss Alice Pearce's Gladys Kravitz. No one could really be a good substitute for her and I really did miss Marion Lorne's Aunt Clara. I'm glad they didn't even try to get a new Aunt Clara, that they just created a new character with similar but slightly different problems of her own in practicing witchcraft. Of course the main problem with watching them on DVD or digital is that you can see so clearly that the writers recycled ideas a lot. I'm sure the original audiences didn't notice as much unless they had a memory like my Grandfather's. But either way, it is a delightful show. I still like it better than "I Dream of Jeannie." That one's fun but it just misses the magic that is Bewitched!

Contagion (2011)

Rather Chilling

[10/10 · 1 March 2023]

It's amazing how accurately this portrays the COVID outbreak. I know many have already commented on the similarities. I found it to be a fascinating movie. It honestly reminds me of the book "The Titan" that was printed years before the Titanic was built and yet it gave such an exact account of what happened with the Titanic, even down to where in the Atlantic the ship would hit an iceberg. I know they don't know what exactly started the COVID outbreak and I know some believe that it was done on purpose but I do know that one theory has to do with bats. In this movie they figure out that the disease came from a bat that contaminated pigs in China. They don't really know how it happened but at the end of the movie it shows how the bat's diseased parts ended up in the pig food and the pigs were then sold to a restaurant where patient 0 ate and then traveled home from China, bringing the virus with her. We may not know exactly what started COVID but it started in China and one theory did point the finger at bats that were being studied in a lab out there. Anyway, it is a fascinating movie anyway but when you add on the events that began 9 years later, it becomes a rather remarkable movie.

Overboard (2018)

Eh...Not Really Memorable

[1/10 · 28 February 2023]

It's always risky to do a remake. Doing a remake of a classic that started Goldie Hawn is pretty much suicidal. Throw in that the original classic was Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and I really don't understand why they bothered at all. I watched this only about a year ago and all I really remember is that it has the basic storyline as the original but with gender reversal. For some reason it's the norm these days to do a remake of a classic and reverse the gender roles instead of coming up with something new and original. Oh, I also remember that she worked and went to nursing school. Otherwise it's pretty much gone from my memory. There just wasn't anything in it that was worth remembering. The actors don't have anywhere near the screen presence that Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have. There's a reason those two are still so well known and loved. The first movie was perfect as is. Why mess with what already was perfect and delightful?

Charmed: Wrestling with Demons (2001) Season 3, Episode 12

Annoying

[2/10 · 16 February 2023]

I was very unimpressed by this episode. I thought a lot of the ideas behind it were solid. I liked the ultimate loan shark who gets people into the Demon Training Program and I thoroughly enjoyed the consequences of Phoebe's Lost and Found spell. I found Pru to be intolerable and competently unbearable in her sanctimonious attitude. Phoebe had finally told her about Cole and Pru is furious. When Phoebe points out that she ought to understand considering that they are risking their lives to save a part demon who was born human and is about to graduate from the training program but she can't give Phoebe any slack for wanting to save a half demon whom she was in love with. Pru insists that it's not at all the same thing because Cole was born evil and Pru's ex-boyfriend wasn't. It's true there is a difference there. I believe the difference is in Cole's favor though. He was born half human, half demon and raised a demon. He didn't have a choice about who he was until he merry Phoebe and learned what it felt to be good. Then he chose to be good. He could've destroyed them, but he saved their lives instead by sending Phoebe back to her sisters to fix the Power of Three. On the other hand Pru's ex, was born human, but he chose to gamble, he chose to go to a loan shark and ultimately he chose to go through the training program and become a demon. It just the Charmed Ones being in the right place at the right time that kept him from becoming a full demon. In my opinion that makes Cole the better of the two.

Hidden Figures (2016)

Amazing Movie!!! Amazing Women

[10/10 · 5 February 2023]

This movie was truly amazing to me. It opened my eyes to not just things going on back then but to things that go on today. It's horrifying to me to think that it took this long for these Black Women to be recognized for their work at NASA, essential work. I live in an area where there aren't many African Americans. I've spent my whole life in a majority Hispanic area. The few African Americans I've met are well educated, sophisticated, etc., they never stood out from everyone else. They were respected in our community. Because I didn't live in those areas with lots of inequality because as I said there aren't many African American people living here, I didn't see the inequalities still going on today. Watching this movie opened my eyes a little wider to what I already knew was going on back then but it's also opened my eyes to what's still going on now. I started to notice that in movies, unless they're major stars, African Americans still play the bad guys or they play the servants, in the majority of the case. There's still such a large bridge to gap in this world to gain equality. We haven't come far enough from the 1960's when the events of this film were occurring to today. It's perhaps not as overt in some ways as it was then but this movie did open my eyes to a lot that was going on in this world that I never noticed before.

9-1-1: Eddie Begins (2020) Season 3, Episode 15

Finally did a Baby Jessica episode

[8/10 · 19 January 2023]

I figured that at some point one of these shows would do a story about the Baby Jessica mine rescue that occurred in Texas in the 80's. I was just a kid and even I was glued to the TV watching the rescue. It haunted me for years. They did a good job recreating the story but adding a few twists of their own. It was very exciting. Like many others I could've done without all of the war stuff in Eddie's past. If I want to watch war shows and movies, then I do. I don't watch this series for that stuff. I don't watch for all of the personal drama either. There's plenty of drama in my own life. Otherwise a good episode.

The Great Pottery Throw Down (2015– )

Delightfully Fun

[10/10 · 30 May 2022]

I love this show. I've been fascinated by pottery and sculpture since I took art when I was 12. I remember being devastated after my perfectly sculpted bear blew up in the kiln because the girls camp teacher didn't tell me beforehand that I needed to hollow him out. Watching people with experience and learning from them and the experts who judge them is great fun. I wish they hadn't done the "Greek Week" in Season 3 because the potters are amateurs for the most part. They don't have degrees in this and expecting them to sculpt a perfect nude figure was, in my opinion, beyond all of their capabilities. They had to have a winner but no one's was that good. As a huge fan and owner of many hand painted Royal Doulton Pretty Ladies Petites which are made from bone China, I wish the other seasons, besides Season 1, would work with bone China again. For me, it was fascinating to watch. It's amazing how hand painting anything can change its character, so that's fun to see as well. Overall, I highly recommend this series.

Charmed (2018– )

Meh

[2/10 · 14 May 2022]

While there are some reviews that I believe to be too harsh, such as one that criticized the show because one of the sisters punched a guy, and later that same guy was a victim of a demon that they saved, and they told him that if he told it was his word against theirs. When I read that review I was horrified until I decided to watch the first episode where these things happened. The one sister punched the guy after he said some really horrible things about a rape victim who had tried to commit suicide and was currently in a coma (the man in question, who later turned out to be a demon, was a rapist who was guilty.) However, not only did this young man tell the sister that it was the victim's word against the professor's, but he also said that the sister's mother, who had just died, deserved to die because she had encouraged the several victims to come forward about this man. Basically, when the sisters' later told him that when he saw them kill the demon, if he said anything, it would be his word against theirs, it was simply a statement of what he had already said himself earlier in the show.

I'm a big fan of the original series, and like others, I was hoping that this one would be a continuation; a story about their children taking over for them, instead of just a reboot because apparently we can't come up with new things, only slightly modified versions of originals. I did go ahead and watch the entire first season, but I never did go back to the show, that's why I gave it 2 stars. I was mildly interested in the storyline to begin with but making one of the sisters part demon and other issues like that just made it so that I did not really care whether I saw the next seasons. Honestly, the way they ended the first season felt like a good ending to a mediocre show, so I didn't feel the need to continue, and I haven't. It's not as terrible as I thought it would be based on some reviews, but it's not nearly as good as the original, and as long as I can watch the original, I see no reason to waste my time watching the new one.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2008–2009)

Absolutely Delightful!

[10/10 · 30 April 2022]

This is a perfectly lovely series in all ways. It brings the beautiful country of Botswana to life for those of us who do not have the means of health to travel. The leasing lady, Precious, is beautiful with a very soothing, lovely voice. I love that she doesn't care that she doesn't have the perfect waistline. She's achieved a confidence in herself that many can only hope to achieve. She had the strength to get out of a terrible marriage and to rebuild her life. Her secretary is a delight. She's such a kind soul who, though she needs the money, refuses to take a wage until her boss is making money. I believes in the detective agency and in her boss. The mechanic friend is a good, kind man, as is the hair dresser from next door. They are both men who will always have Precious's back. All in all, it is an absolutely delightful show.

Ella Enchanted (2004)

Terrible! Destroyed a lovely story

[2/10 · 8 April 2022]

I'm updating my original review that I don't think had been published yet. It's not much different but after reading some other reviews from people who took an "I'm so far above you ALL in my knowledge of changing the format of a book into a film," I've decided to add a few points myself in those regards. I have BA in Theatre and Film. I've worked in both on books that have been adapted for film and for theatre. All three are different and therefore all three require different ways of telling the same story. For those "I'm so much more intelligent than the rest of you," reviewers please note that yes, changes are not only inevitable, they are necessary to capture an audience's attention and to tell a story in about two hours or less, that it would normally take a few days to read (granted that you don't read straight through.) However, The Ella Enchanted movie did not just change to fit the story better into a movie format, it bears little resemblance to the book at all.

It added many unnecessary plot lines that have nothing to do with the book at all. I hate the political issues that were added. I watch fairytales to get away from the real world not to have more of it shoved in my face as basically a real world story told in fairytale format. I say real world in the sense that Char is essentially on par with a hit Hollywood actor, they have segregation, slaves, and the typical over the top evil person who murders his or her way into what they want. There was so much anger and controversy added to the story that did not need to be there. Those things that were added were not needed to make this book "better" on screen. Just like any other Cinderella story there is enough conflict in the book already from the cruel Stepfamily, plus the addition of the curse that is put on Ella at birth. Even though I really hate that they added the so called master villain I can understand that because in the book one of the reasons Ella doesn't want to marry Char is that she's afraid that someone will make her do just what his uncle tries to make her do. Showing it happen is a better device in a movie than trying to explain Ella's fears. The way she gets rid of the curse in the book is far more powerful and it lines up better with her mother telling her that she's stronger than any curse. In the book, her love for Char and her fear of hurting him, allows her, after a big struggle, to finally break free of the curse on her own. She doesn't look into a mirror and command herself. That's frankly too easy.

I would have enjoyed this movie so much more if they hadn't tried to bring real life into it, such as the political issues that we face right down to the opening of a new mall. Those additions to a lovely little love story took a great deal away from what is supposed to be a fairytale; a place where we can escape the troubles of our world, not bring them with us.

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)

Delightful

[10/10 · 6 April 2022]

I very much enjoyed the first Princess Diaries and therefore looked forward to this sequel when I heard it was coming out. I found it to be delightful. Very few sequels are as good as the original, but this one was just as good. It was different, of course, but just as good. I do wish that she could have married Nicholas at the end but I do understand why they didn't go that way. Part of the point is proving that she could and would be allowed to rule the Kingdom of Genovia without being required to have a husband to basically do it for her. But I wouldn't have minded if they'd found some way to show that some years had passed and she finally got to marry the man she loved.

I loved hearing Julie Andrews sing again. I know it wasn't as it once was because of that terrible, botched surgery, but it was lovely to hear her again. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be the surgeon in that situation, not just because of law suits, but destroying Julie Andrews' singing voice would be like walking into a museum and destroying a great work of art. Nevertheless, I loved hearing her sing again even if it wasn't at her old standard of excellence.

I also loved how the relationship between Clarice and Mia had grown. They were so close in this movie and that was lovely to see. I did love Mia's speech at her abandoned wedding asking the men to think of their daughters, sisters, and granddaughters and asking themselves if they'd force them to do what they're trying to force Mia to do, marry someone she doesn't love just so she can rule a country that she is the rightful heir to.

Overall, I found this movie to be a lot of fun and wonderfully delightful.

The New Mutants (2020)

Underwhelming and plain boring

[1/10 · 9 January 2022]

I've been a fan of the X-Men movies for years so I thought this would probably be good. How very wrong I was. It was difficult to figure out what the kids' abilities were to begin with. Of course, we're not supposed to what the main character's ability is to begin with. They develop relationships with each other that don't extend beyond, "hey, you're nice, let's get together." There's no real feeling there. It's rushed. The entire script is rushed. Has the feel of a low budget made for TV movie that doesn't have any real plot. Oh, it's a school for mutants. If you're really good you go to the next place. Oh, wait, it's a program to decide who the strongest mutants are so they can turn them into weapons. Time to kill the one adult there and run off. Yup, a lot of thought went into that. I'm pretty sure a child wore it. That's the amount of depth and scope of character and story that this movie is made of. I'm shocked it ever got made.

Sense & Sensibility (2008)

Beautifully Done

[9/10 · 23 December 2021]

I saw Emma Thompson's version of Sense and Sensibility when I was 15. I loved it. I loved the actors, I loved the screenplay, everything. I never thought I'd see another one that I liked as well. I can't say that I like the screenplay better but I do think it's well done. I never thought that anyone would play Elinor as well as Emma Thompson but Hattie Morahan has matched her, possibly even done better. I haven't decided yet, and I'm a big fan of Emma Thompson so it means a lot to say that someone else played a role as well or better than she did. I feel that Charity Wakefield's performance was almost as good as Kate Winslet. I think Kate Winslet was just a touch better. I'm afraid I do prefer the other Willoughby. He's more dashing. As far as Colonel Brandon, for me, no one will ever be able to be Colonel Brandon but Alan Rickman. David Morrissey does a good job but Alan Rickman simply was Colonel Brandon. The rest of the cast do a good job, and are mostly comparable to the 1995 version that I've loved. I do think this one is definitely worthy of owning. It's very good.