Movie Monday - The Wolverine

Did you miss movie Monday last week?  Me too....  But Ivy's back!!  I asked my dear wonderful husband to do a guest posting for me last week but he "forgot" so instead I did nothing.  Oh well but like I said Ivy's back and we went to the movies and saw The Wolverine.

I have to say we like our action movies but the summer doesn't leave us with many other options.  My hubby is a big comic book nerd so I've seen all the X-Men movies and like them.  In The Wolverine Logan (aka The Wolverine if your not a comic nerd) played by Hugh Jackman is pouting away being surly and making friends with a bear somewhere in cold, remote Canada when he is tracked down by the very anime looking Yukio played by Rila Fukushima.  She was sent by her employer to track down Logan and bring him back to Japan to say good by to an old dying man (Yashida).  It turns out Logan saved Yashida a guard at the POW camp where Logan was imprisoned from dying during the bombing of Nagasaki.  Yashida wants to repay Logan for saving his life and offers to take away his curse of immortality.  Logan says thanks but no thanks and then promptly gets tied up in the disintegrating family's politics because he just can't leave well enough alone and you know he's the hero so he does hero stuff.  Then there's the awkward love interest with Yashida's granddaughter thrown in the middle.  Don't get me wrong there is a ton of action to watch and I must say some really good action scenes.  My favorite is the one on the bullet train.  I saw this in 3D only because the time for it worked the best.  There were a few scenes in the beginning where I was glad we were seeing it in 3D but then the rest was a let down.  So I say if you want to see it in 3D do but if you don't want to pony up the extra $3.50 don't you won't really miss anything.

I've been giving some thought as to how to rate the movies.  Since I didn't get any suggestions my idea is pop corn buckets.  And considering one of my favorite things about going to movies is pop corn, I think this works well.  So the maximum pop corn buckets is 5.  I'm going to give The Wolverine 3 1/2 out of 5 pop corn buckets.

Movie Monday - Despicable Me 2

This week is a little bit different.  My usual partner in crime on Mondays, my friend Ivy is on vacation so I didn't get to a movie yesterday.  But my kids went to see Despicable Me 2 with my mom and so I decided to make them the reviewers this week.

Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is recruited to fight evil with the Anti-Villan League where he meets Lucy (voiced by Kristen Wiig).  There are new bad purple minions and really bad guy and Gru ends up saving the day and ends up with the girl.  OK so I haven't actually seen the movie so I am doing a very short synopsis based on what my kids told me happened.  Both my 9 almost 10 year old son Noa and my 5 year old daughter Marley loved it.  Marley said her favorite part were what she called the purple aliens (evil purple minions).  Noa said his favorite part was the big battle at the end where Gru saves the day and his favorite little yellow minion is Dave (I have no clue which minion Dave is!).  Now for the adult take.  My mom liked it even though she fell asleep during it.  Soooooo make of that what you will.  I have to say this was not one of kids summer movies I was excited about, which is why my mom took my kids.

I have no clue what I will do next week since Ivy insists on having a two week vacation and visit with family and abandon me.  Maybe I'll bust out and see a movie all by my lonesome or I'll have my hubby be a guest blogger and review Man of Steel. 

Movie Monday - White House Down

I know this didn't get posted last night.  I was just too tired.  After I got home from the movie I pretty much just went to bed.  But here it is better late than never.

So this week I saw White House Down starring Channing Tatum as Cale and Jamie Foxx as President Sawyer. The synopsis is basically that Channing Tatum's character Cale works as a capital police officer who gets a job interview for the Secret Service.  He takes his daughter with him because she loves everything having to do with the President and the White House. After Cale's terrible interview at the White House,  it is taken over by a bunch of home-grown terrorists. There's a twist here both Ivy and I saw it coming so it wasn't a very good twist. Lots of shooting and crashing of helicopters and cars and strange political situations ensue. And Channing Tatum saves the day.  The end.

I wasn't overly excited to see this movie because I've already seen it and it was called Olympus Has Fallen. But I was wrong. I actually liked White House Down better than Olympus Has Fallen. I like Channing Tatum in this movie, a lot and Jamie Foxx was an interesting take on the president. I actually found myself -don't laugh- crying during one scene of the movie. Not sobbing crying just a couple tears in a very emotional scene. But crying nonetheless.  I also liked it because it had a little bit of humor and it wasn't as violent as Olympus Has Fallen.  Don't get me wrong there's still a lot of violence but it's Die Hard type movie violence and not the more realistic violence with blood like in Olympus Has Fallen.  Ivy and I were both in agreement that we liked this better then Olympus Has Fallen and the fact that it had eye candy Channing Tatum helped immensely. Overall a good summer shoot 'em up thriller. Just the sort of movie my Granddad would have liked.

On a slightly different note.  I suppose it would help the movie reviews if I came up with some sort of rating system. I have no idea off top of my head what that would be. The star ratings are overdone and so are the grades ABC. So I'll give it some thought and think about another way to rate movies because I think it might help. But if you have any suggestions as to how you think I should start rating the movies please comment and let me know.

Update: I now have the popcorn bucket scale rating!  5 is the maximum.  My rating for White House Down is 3 popcorn buckets out of 5.

Custom Order Spotlight

I get a pretty good amount of custom orders through my Etsy shop each month for mobiles and ornaments (I pretty much customize ANYTHING in shop FYI).  But I just wanted to share some of my latest custom creations because unlike my other pieces I never get to see them again once they are shipped off to their new homes.  So this is like a trip down memory lane from the last few months.

Coral, green & turquoise flower mobile with accents of pink, yellow, blue and purple in solid paper.

Coral, white, brown, light pink and yellow flower mobile in solid and patterned paper.

Beach inspired outlet covers.

Pink, turquoise, gray and purple flower mobile with solid and patterned paper with different flower sizes.

Light & dark purple, turquoise and vintage sheet music combined in a flower mobile.

Movie Monday - The Heat

I'm going to start this off saying if you find bad language offensive then stop reading RIGHT NOW.  I don't usually use foul language on my blog but I am going to in honor of The Heat.  So read on if you don't mind a fuck or a shit thrown into a movie review.

Tonight I saw The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.  Sandra Bullock plays a socially awkward, by the book FBI agent named Sarah Ashburn who is sent on assignment to Boston to bring down a big time drug king pin in order to secure a promotion.  She is forced to partner with Melissa McCarthy's charter Shannon Mullins who is an out of the box (waaaayyyyy out of the fucking box) Boston cop.  Lots of shooting, bad language, laughs and family dysfunction follow.

The Heat was FUCKING hysterical.  I am using all the bag language in honor of the movie and well to tell the truth I like to cuss I just save it for real life.  I just didn't feel I could review it with out throwing in a few.  Melissa McCarthy is a comic genius.  Now I know a lot of her lines were probably scripted but her delivery is the shit!  But as funny as Mellisa is Sandra Bullock is THE perfect straight man to Melissa's insanity.  I have not honestly laughed that hard in a movie since Bridesmaids.  I was laughing so hard at one point I was crying.  Ivy and I agreed it was one of the best movies we've seen in a very long time!!  Oh and for those of you other 30 somethings out there like me you will enjoy a cameo by Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block!!

Update: New rating scale added since first posting.  My rating is 5 out of 5 popcorn buckets.

 

Movie Monday Part 2 - Monsters University

Ok so I know I promised this movie review sooner in the week but it was the end of my semester at my teaching day job and that comes with a mountain of paperwork to deal with.  So here it is.  Last Monday I went to two movies.  Yes, I did.  I went early in the day with my mom and kids to see Monsters University and then later that evening I went again on my usual date with Ivy to see World War Z (read the review for it here).

Back to my Monsters University review.  I was very excited to see this one.  I love Monsters INC. so I decided to tag along with my mom to see this one with my kids.  In Monsters University we see Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal), Sully (voiced by John Goodman) and even Randall (voiced by Steve Buscemi) getting to know each other in college.  It's all a cute lesson about not judging people/monsters by their appearance or lack of scariness and throw in a little Revenge of the Nerds Disney style and you have Monsters University.  My kids said they loved it.  My mom and I thought it was cute but a little long and not as good as the first.  I know, I know most sequels are not as good but when we're talking about Disney/Pixar who DID make Toy Story 2 and even Toy Story 3 as good if not BETTER than the original the bar is high in my book.  Honestly what I think is missing is the sweetness of Boo the little girl in Monsters INC. and Sully's relationship.  We did not see it in 3D because the price starts to really add up when your paying for 4 people to see a 3D movie.  I honestly did not miss anything seeing it in 2D.  Unlike some other animated movies I've seen in 2D and thought wow now that would be awesome in 3D (Despicable Me) I never had that thought during Monsters University.  So I say skip the 3D but go see it your kids will love it.

Update: New rating scale added after the original posting.  My rating is 3 popcorn buckets out of 5.

 

Movie Monday - World War Z

This week I've already seen two movies.  But I'm only going to review one right now.  I will review the other one later in the week.  So tonight I saw World War Z starring Brad Pitt.  Ok so Brad Pitt plays an ex UN employee who (I think) is in the middle of taking his family on vacation or on a trip when the zombie apocalypse happens.  In the middle of the apocalypse he is contacted by a big wig from the UN to help figure out the whole zombie virus/contagion origin.  He leaves his family because he's got no other option and goes on a mission to find ground zero for the zombie virus/contagion.  Lots of suspenseful  moments then follow.  He figures a few things out and that's really about it (at least without giving away anything).

I'm not a fan of horror, so I was a little uncertain how gory this was going to be.  It's not gory really at all, but creepy and suspenseful yes.  Overall I liked it and so did Ivy.  It's pretty nail biting suspenseful and we both jumped a few times.  There are some plot holes but if you just kinda overlook those it's all good.  We saw it in 3D and I didn't think it was worth it.  There was nothing that really stood out about the 3D unlike some other summer movies I've seen in 3D (Star Trek totally worth the 3D).  The only reason we did see it in 3D was because it was the only good time it was showing.  So if you like zombie movies and or Brad Pitt then this is a good bet but skip the 3D.

Update: Movie rating added after the original posting.  My rating is 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

 

My Hubby Rocks!

We all know I sell origami mobiles, bouquets and lots of other cool things on Etsy.  If you didn't know that well then you must be a first timer to my blog!  But anyway I've been wanting to have my own website for my business Katiemade Crafts. 

You know it's quite expensive to have a website designed especially for you.  If you go cheaper but not all that cheap you can use an online template.  But that's pretty cookie cutter if you ask me.  BUUUUUTTT I have a wonderfully talented husband who can build custom websites.  So I put him to work!  My website is not 100% complete but it's pretty close.  So please stop by and take a look and let me know what you think!! katiemadecrafts.com

Oh and if you ever find yourself in need of a custom website, custom software, any computer upgrades or repairs or networking issues my husband James can help!!  You can contact him through his website here (www.jepcomputers.com).

Movie Monday - The Internship

We can all agree I pretty much suck at keeping up with this blogging thing.  So as I was sitting in my very cool mom mini van waiting for my friend Ivy to get to the movie theater, inspiration stuck.  I love going to the movies.  In fact I go just about once a week.  It's my escape from the real world for 2 hours.  I'm lucky enough to have found a friend who loves the movies too.  Ivy and I manage to sneak away once week to see whatever movie catches our fancy.  So anyway it hit me that I should at the very least blog about the movies I see every Monday. 

So this week I'm reviewing The Internship starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.  The basic premise of this movie is two middle aged salesmen (Vaughn and Wilson)  lose their jobs and decide to try to win coveted jobs at Google through their summer internship program.  Lots of Vaughn rants and nerd references abound. My favorite was the Quidditch match.  Yes, there is a Quidditch match and if you don't know what Quidditch is you most likely won't get 90% of the jokes in the movie.  But I laughed through all of it! In fact Ivy and I agreed it was one of the better movies we've seen a long time.  We both really loved the actress Rose Byrne who played the part of Owen Wilson's love interest.  It also made me want to get a job at Google.  But most importantly Google I now know you have Google Wallet, Google Drive and a whole host of other products I just can't live without.  Aside from all the product placement I really enjoyed The Internship immensely.

Fancy Smancy Pictures

Okay let me just start by telling you I am not a photographer.  I wish I were a photographer,  but I'm just not. I try the best I can to take really good photos of my work, but let's be honest no one is EVER going to pay me to photograph anything.  I really find it incredibly funny that I actually was paid to take professional portraits at one point not that long ago.  Let's just say that career ended pretty quickly.  That's also a story for different time.  So it's a good thing there was a professional photographer at the Handmade Wilmington Pop-up Artisan Market the other weekend.  He did a fabulous job capturing capturing some wonderful pictures of my stuff. I just wanted to share the pictures he took because I think they're awesome and I wish I could take pictures that well.  Maybe mine would be half as good if I had a better camera but that's not really the point.