Category Archives: Review

These aren’t so much reviews as contemplations on the subject matter. What I loved, what pissed me off, what intrigued me, what I disliked, what made me think, what made me beg Google for answers.

Les Miserable – Segerstrom Center For The Arts (OCPAC), Costa Mesa, CA

An all around decent production. Nice to see it on the big stage again. Biggest problem? The pace. Now it’s Les Mis, so I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong! 😉 The pace wasn’t too slow, but too fast! When we got to intermission, we felt like we were both out of breathe and that we had just run a marathon! Fantine was not impressive. How did a white baby Eponine grow into a black adult Eponine? A reverse Michael Jackson??? And why did she have to try and turn her one song into a pop ballad? No turntable. Instead they had a giant projection screen for a cyclorama. Didn’t really notice it as an awesome effect until Valjean drags Marius from the barricades to the sewer….it was AMAZING!! Speaking of the barricades…meh.. My first major encounter with Les Miserable had the barricades being formed by massive rotating robots … Continue reading →

Men In Black 3 (2012)

Men In Black 3 – Ultraluxe Cinema 14 at Gardenwalk, Anaheim, CA

An excellently crafted third outing with the MIB. Josh Brolin was amazing as a young Agent K. Just absolutely, 100% nailed it. Wait, time travel makes sense to me, but the film’s climactic battle doesn’t. *Wifey fix* Oh, so traveling back in time less than 10 minutes or so doesn’t create a major paradox where you occupy the same physical space as yourself 10 minutes ago, but functions more like the Omega-13 device in Galaxy Quest where you basically hit the Undo button, but only the person pushing the button on the device remembers what’s going on, regardless of who else travels. And I’m desperate to understand why Agent K was so cold to Agent J in the original normal timeline. Is it really as simple as the fact that Boris lives and justice wasn’t really served? Wifey seems to think so and I’m inclined to accept it after watching … Continue reading →

Renaissance Pleasure Faire 50th Anniversary Visit

Why oh why did we think we’d actually have time to get to Faire this year when we bought the half-off tickets last Christmas? Regardless that I took emergency time off from work in order to go, we had a fairly decent time! We went as mortals with fancy masks (she found hers and then made me a matching one). Agenda: Arrived around 1pm and did the valet parking The Wit Of Will (hey, that’s a Bold and Stupid Man!) Lemon ice! Magnificent Humble Boys (ah Shelby) A spot of Broon on our way to the back of faire (why is this car getting larger and larger? I know, right?) Sky Kings Falconry Merry Wives of Windsor Poxy Boggards Wander for food and drink (only one public water fountain? O_o) Glance at the Joust To The Death (pretty) Moonie and Broon’s final show of the day Valet the car and … Continue reading →

Million Dollar Quartet – Segerstrom Center For The Arts (OCPAC), Costa Mesa, CA

A delightful romp that, unlike the fanciful show Tin Pan Alley that theorized a meeting between the legendary Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin, details an actual event where four legends of rock and roll met under the same roof. On December 4th, 1956, Sam Phillips – creator of Sun Records, has coerced and cajoled Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley to “come home” and visit the place where they all got started (or in Lewis’ case where he was about to get started). So aside from having an evening of chart-topping rock-and-roll hits, you’re also treated to a bit of a history lesson regarding rock ‘n’ roll and how it came about. My knowledge of the events were sketchy at best and influenced mostly by Scot Bruce’s speech about Sun Records during his show and the Johnny Cash biopic Ring Of Fire. But it was absolutely … Continue reading →

The Ultimate Marvel Movie Marathon – AMC 12 @ DownTown Disney, Anaheim, CA

$40, 6 movies, 14 hours. Special intro segments for each film (part of our “training package” for the Avengers Initiative) by SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson. An absolutely amazing and incredible experience. Not only to be packed in a theatre for 6 movies with a like-minded crowd of enthusiasts, but to experience, in it’s entirety, the subtle weaving and artistry that Marvel Studios has been constructing since they first gambled on taking control of their own movie properties in 2005, “after Marvel Enterprises declared independence by pacting with Merrill Lynch to produce a slate of films that would be distributed by Paramount Pictures” (PickMyVideo Review of Avengers). I can’t actually think of any other property in recent history that could result in this kind of amazing … “ness”. I mean maybe a Star Wars marathon would count, but nothing even really comes close. Marvel took a gamble, played their cards right, … Continue reading →

The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

The Pirates: Band Of Misfits – Century 20 At Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! IT’S BASED ON PIRATES IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS!!!! AND THE AUTHOR WROTE THE SCREENPLAY!!!! Hugh Grant does an amazing accent and gives an amazing performance as The Pirate Captain. David Tennant is charmingly buffoonish as Charles Darwin. Brendan Gleesan and Martin Freeman sneak in there too. An all-around amazing film from Aardman, whom I think I’m going to start calling the British Pixar But With Puppets.

Mirror, Mirror – AMC 12 at Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA

Nice cameo by Sean Bean. Armie Hammer is a fascinating cross between Ryan Gosling and Ewan McGregor. And his wardrobe was AMAZING!!!! If I could turn off my not-medically-diagnosed-OCD I would love to wear the jacket with the long, flowing cloak. Lily Collins was delightful and super cute. I especially liked her costume in the second half of the film (although her ball gown was nice too). When the credits started, the musical number struck me as odd until I saw the director’s name and then I stereotypically deduced that this was the huge Bollywood ending. My bias for Bollywood not withstanding, it was a very lavish and well put together piece that made reading the credits very difficult. 😉 Alan Menken did the music?!?! Well even the Sherman brothers got to do Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 😉 Yay Nathan Lane! A very wonderful performance as always. Do I have … Continue reading →

The Hunger Games – AMC 30 at The Outlets

An excellent adaptation! I loved getting to actually see the behind the scenes of how The Arena and the broadcasting of the games worked. By the end it made sense that it was basically a holodeck with the safety’s off. 😉 Interesting having District 11 rioting after Rue’s death. And having her and Thresh be black….kind of an obvious commentary? Donald Sutherland as President Snow was brilliant! Very happy to see the author take such an interest in her intellectual property by executive producing and helping with the screenplay.

John Carter Of Mars – UltraLuxe Cinema, GardenWalk, Anaheim, CA

AN AMAZING FILM!!!! GO SEE IT NOW!!!! IGNORE THE STUPID AS HELL MARKETING!!!! The marketing for this film makes it seem like it’s just a guy fighting aliens film, but there is so much more beautiful stuff than that. Funny thing is, you can see a lot of similar elements to Tarzan (at least at the very core of the story) which really makes me want to go read all of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Oh…didn’t the marketing tell you? This story is based on a 100 year old book! Of COURSE they didn’t mention it….they didn’t believe in it. That’s why they released it in March. NO faith. Which is so sad since Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E) directed expertly and Michael Giacchino composed amazingly epic themes (as always – you know: Up!, Star Trek, Space Mountain, etc). But enough out of me. Go buy the Blu-Ray and show Disney … Continue reading →

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Started Sunday night, finished Monday night. It’s that gripping and exciting. I’m very interested in picking up/borrowing the sequels just to see what else happens to the world Suzanne Collins created. Having watched some trailers for the upcoming film, I am reminded of how unusual my brain is. Examples: When I started reading, despite the description of the forest around it, District 12 in my head has a blood red sky/hue to it because of the war. The forest was green and lush, just not District 12 itself. The Capitol was envisioned similar to Coruscant from the Star Wars prequels. Katniss looked like a hooded, elvish princess about 90% of the time (during the games or in the forest that is). Rue reminded me of Susie Johnston from Phineas and Ferb. Thresh reminded me of Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver. Cato looked like Billy from Boxer Hokey. I can’t wait … Continue reading →