TV Review: Cash Cab

Ok, we don’t often review TV shows, let alone game shows, but there is one game show that no one I know has heard of and we love it. It is called Cash Cab.

Cash Cab is a game show that is apparently a transplant from the United Kingdom. Here’s how it works. Unsuspecting passengers hail a taxi on the streets of New York. When they get in the cab and tell the driver their destination, they find out that this is no ordinary taxi. Suddenly, the ceiling of the cab flashes with checkerboard lights and bells go off. The host then informs the passenger(s) that they are now on a game show that takes place right there in the cab. The driver/host is comedian Ben Bailey. Currently, reruns air twice each weekday beginning at 6 PM PST on the Discovery Channel, but apparently a new set of episodes is set to be taped in Spring of 2006.


The driver/host of the Cash Cab, then states the rules of the game and offers them the chance to get out of the cab if they do not wish to play. Passengers are asked a series of trivia questions on the way to their destination. If they get three questions wrong the host pulls over and makes them get out of the cab, empty-handed of course. In other words, three strikes and you’re out . . . of the cab that is.

The first four questions are worth $25. The next four questions are worth $50, and any question after that (until they reach their destination) is worth $100. Another fun feature is that if a contestant has won more than $200 and the cab is caught at a red light, a Red Light Challenge is given. In the Red Light Challenge, the host asks a question with multiple correct answers (for example, “Name 5 major American-based airlines”), the passenger then has 30 seconds to list them. If they name all the items in the list, they win $250. If, however, they don’t get all of the answers they don’t get a strike against them or lose any money.

Passengers are also given two "Shout-Outs" during the ride, a Mobile Shout-Out, where the contestant can make a phone call to a friend, and a Street Shout-Out, where the driver pulls over and the contestant flags down a passerby and asks them the question they are stuck on.

When the cab reaches the contestant’s destination, the host then gives them a chance to double their money by answering a video double-or nothing question (one of the seat-backs has a video monitor). The passenger does have the option of just taking the money and running. They usually are able to play 3 different rounds per show.

Overall, this is such a fun show. Even my kids, who don’t know many of the answers (you can take a sample quiz at Discovery online) love to watch it and ask for it by name now. If you have cable, check it out on the Discovery channel. You’re in for a fun ride.

Movie Review: Peter Jackson's King Kong

Kong 201

When Peter Jackson had such huge success from making The Lord of the Rings books into movies, it’s not hard to imagine that he would have had a virtual blank check to make whatever he wanted after that. Who wouldn’t take that opportunity and use it to fulfill a lifelong dream? That’s exactly what Jackson did when he made his new version of King Kong.

You can really tell, too, how much he loves the original movie and the story surrounding it. He stays remarkably true to the original while fleshing out areas that painfully fall flat in the outdated mode of moviemaking of the ’30s. He adds soul to the characters—including Kong, adds Weta’s masterful special and visual effects, and adds modern sensibilities to otherwise corny dialogue lifted from the original to make it ring true (without resorting to lines like, “What’s your sign?” a la 1976’s version with Jessica Lange).

For the few uninitiated viewers, King Kong is the story of moviemakers who go on a safari-type expedition to an uncharted island hoping to make an adventure movie. What they find is a 25-foot gorilla that is keeping the locals in a state of fear. To appease the beast, Ann Darrow is sacrificed to Kong, who eventually develops a protectiveness of her.

I really enjoyed this movie. I saw it twice in the theater and it’s a really fun ride. It’s essentially a chase film, with some great creature fights. Peter Jackson also manages to make the connection between Ann and Kong believable and touching, something not previously done very well. Except for one part, the special effects are flawless too. The digital reconstruction of 1930s New York is amazing and the Jungle settings are lush and painterly.

As I mentioned in Monday’s review of the 1933 version, I loved all the inside jokes and references to the original. My favorite is the production that occurs on the stage when Kong is presented at Radio City Music Hall. If you see the original, you’ll know that what was on the stage with the costumes and music, was a direct lift from the original 1933 sequence from Skull Island.

There are a few quotes that Jack Black had to deliver as the filmmaker Carl Denham which were direct lifts from the original. It was nice to see them delivered in a believable way, since they were actually very corny things to say. Things like, “We're millionaires boys, and I'll share it with all of ya. In a few months his name will be up in lights on Broadway... KONG! THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD!” and then later “Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes; it was beauty killed the beast.” These lines actually work because of how well Jack Black plays this character and the kind of person we end up believing him to be.

Another part that really made me laugh when I caught it on my second viewing (which was embarrassing because I was the only one in the theater who was laughing) was a scene where Carl Denham and Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody’s screenwriter character) were working over their script and they start talking about killing off the first officer right at the beginning. Well, I had to laugh, because in the original, Jack Driscoll was the first officer, not a screenwriter at all. So in essence, Peter Jackson killed off the first officer by eliminating him from the movie and making Jack a writer instead. It was funny that they talked about it that way.

The ultimate hat-tip to the original for me was the fight between Kong and the last t-rex. Everything from the wrestling style of fighting, to the jaw-breaking, to the chest-beating afterward was taken directly from the original and I took it as one of those necessary elements that I would have missed if it wasn't there.



There’s one part of the movie that highly bothered me, though. It might sound silly, but it involves a large herd of brontosaurus-type dinosaurs stampeding through a canyon with the entire main cast running for their lives as they dodge the dinosaur’s legs. So, why did this bother me so much when I’m ok with the thought of a 25-foot gorilla falling in love with a normal proportioned woman? Well, part of it is the fact that it looked like the actors were either running on a treadmill, or just in place. Another is poor compositing of the people and the animals—I never really believed that they were actually there. They should have been knocked around much more than they were. Up until and after this part, everyone seemed to be restricted to normal physical limitations, but here, they were almost super human. Ultimately I think this part could have been fixed by just having everyone climb into cracks in the canyon and narrowly escape the stampede. That would have been better than trying to run with it.

The only other thing that I find distracting in Peter Jackson’s movies is his incessant need to give everyone (and everything) a back-story. This, of course is ultimately so that there is more of an emotional payoff when those characters meet grizzly ends, but it also takes up a lot of screen time that could have been used to focus on the main characters, or to shorten the movie so that it’s more palatable to casual audiences—3 hours and 8 minutes is a long time.

So, would I recommend this movie? Of course. These complaints are literally the only problems I had with the whole movie which otherwise is a spectacular thing to see. I loved it, and if you’re up for a great adventure, you will too!

Book Review: The Princess Academy

You Can Be a Princess Too

When I was in 8th grade, my family built a house and moved to a housing development up on the hill. The houses in this area were typically a bit larger and a bit more expensive than the neighborhood we moved from. This also meant that I had to go to a different junior high school. After a while, I heard all kinds of comments from people, like “The kids at that school are all stuck up.” I couldn’t understand how someone could be so prejudiced against people they had never met. I was the same person I had always been, but by association, they were calling me stuck up too. That hurt.

Prejudice/misunderstanding is just one of the threads running through the latest book by Shannon Hale, The Princess Academy, though she doesn’t hit you over the head with it. Now before you start thinking strange things about me for reading a “Princess” book, you should know that it was selected as a 2006 Newbery Honor Book (awarded to authors of the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children), so you know it has to be fairly decent. That said, I still felt a bit self conscious letting people see what I was reading. So, I guess that would be one of my complaints. Putting “princess” in the title alienates so many readers, especially in the youth fiction circles.

That title is great if you are a young girl who longs to be Cinderella or Ariel, like my daughter, and yes, they will love it. But, you should get your boys to read it too, if they are masculine enough to read a book where all the main characters are girls. I wasn’t way back then, but I guess I am now . . . kind of.

Let me also echo one of my favorite authors, Orson Scott Card who gave glowing reviews to all three of Shannon’s books, “Some of the best contemporary literature is being written and published for children. And I'm not just talking about Harry Potter . . . I just read a book that is, quite frankly, better than any of the Harry Potter books . . . The title is, of all things, Princess Academy.”

While Princess may not match Harry Potter’s level of excitement and probably won’t sell as many books, I have to say that Shannon Hale has become my current favorite author (sorry Orson). I have now read all 3 of her books and have been thoroughly engaged in all of them. And so have all of my friends that I have gotten to read them, oh, and their friends too.

Shannon is a master of characterization. She gets you to care about and invest in the characters she brings life to. For me, this is a hard thing to do in a fantasy book, since I am not much of a fan of “traditional” fantasy. I can’t wait for her next book, which gratefully will be in September of 2006, a book called River Secrets (pre-order at Amazon), a follow on to her first two books The Goose Girl and Enna Burning.

As with her other two books, it took me a couple of chapters to get into Princess, but when I did, I was completely hooked. In Princess, the priests of the king prophesy that the future princess will come from an obscure corner of the kingdom. The problem is that only rough, uneducated villagers who quarry stone for a living make their homes there. Thus it is decreed that an academy must be set up on the top of Mount Eskel to bring these girls up to an acceptable level, if possible. But not all of them WANT to become princess. On the flipside, the villages look down on the “lowlanders” with the same amount of contempt. Neither side can concede that any good thing can come from the other land.

There is also an element of magic in the story that can be compared to mental telepathy. It is so believable that you have no problem accepting that it could be true. The story also shows that through education, the villagers are able to unlock their potential and seize their own destiny. The lowlanders and mountain folk alike learn that you can’t use an overgeneralization to characterize a group of people.

Ok, now on to the few criticisms I have. Toward the end of the story, a love connection is revealed. While it was believable, it felt quite rushed, given the pace of the rest of the book. That to me was just a bit unfulfilling, and left me feeling slightly cheated.

Also, while I did come to love the main character Miri, she seemed a bit of a Pollyanna. She never seemed to have any internal struggles with right or wrong. She did have confidence issues, which made her real enough, but I guess I just wanted more.

Overall, Hale makes you feel like you belong with the rest of the villagers and are part of their world. She makes you invest in her characters and causes you to yearn and agonize along with them. I love to read her stories and can’t wait for her next book. Although I didn't feel that The Princess Academy was quite as good as Goose Girl, I still highly recommend it. If you are a lover of good writing, read this Newberry Honor Book, then share it with children and friends alike.

Movie Review: The Original 1933 King Kong

Kong 101

I believe that a prerequisite to watching Peter Jackson’s new version of King Kong is to watch the original 1933 version. As is said in an interview on this recent DVD release, the ability to take any story and make it into a fantastic movie using special effects, didn't really start with Star Wars, but with the original King Kong—I believe it too!

Sure, the movements of the beast are a bit jerky and his fur buzzes around him as if there are a dozen cyclones whirling around him at any given time, but the truth of the matter is, I thought it was still interesting and fun to watch.


The melodramatic acting is fun to watch too (almost a special effect in itself). You can see how sensibilities have dramatically changed over the years about how to act. This movie is a great specimen of acting in a way that is the polar opposite of subtle.

I bought the 2-disk special edition on a whim because Jackson’s version was soon to be at the theaters and it was packaged as a King Kong Collection with Son of Kong and the original Mighty Joe Young. Since Peter Jackson had commented repeatedly about how much inspiration he received from this movie as a child to become a filmmaker, I thought it would be a good idea to check it out. It pays off too, when you watch Jackson’s version, there are many inside joke treats that you’ll only understand if you’ve seen the old one. One quick example is (in the new version) when Carl Denham (Jack Black) is being told names of actresses that could work in his film, one of them is “Fay”, who Carl dismisses as already being busy with an RKO Picture. Well, RKO is the producer of the original Kong and Fay Wray was the original Ann Darrow.

One of the most unexpected twists to this visit to this classic picture is how much my 6 and 8-year-old daughters loved it. I think sometimes that I tend to count out older movies as options for entertainment for my kids because of the lack of ultra-realistic CGI special effects—so unfounded. My kids were tense at the suspenseful points, they thought the funny parts were funny… it was great! If you’re looking to show your young kids King Kong and are worried that Jackson’s version might be a bit too much, check out the old one, it might be just the ticket.

On the DVD, there's also a documentary titled, "I'm Kong: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper." Historically speaking, it was amazing to learn more about this man who was the original director of Kong and how the character of Carl Denham was almost autobiographical.

With Peter Jackson’s updated version coming out on DVD tomorrow, I thought this would be a good segue into a review of the new one, which will come later this week.

Movie Review: Howl's Moving Castle

The only Japanese animation that I’ve seen is Star Blazers, back when I was a kid. I really enjoyed it, but I think the advent of Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon turned me off of the whole genre.

Earlier this year, however, I saw the trailer for Howl's Moving Castle, and I had to re-watch it two or three times just to take it all in. Every second of it seemed like a work of art. I had also heard some positive things about the movie that made me want to see it.

Well, after searching for it at my local video store and seeing that their one copy was always rented, I grew desperate and went ahead and bought it and watched it with my 8-year-old daughter.

In short, I loved it. I loved just about every moment of it! Every frame of this movie could be framed as a work of art. I’ve never seen a traditionally animated movie with backgrounds that had so much depth and realism as this one.

And the story was great too! It’s a story that could be compared to the fantasy of The Wizard of Oz, with it’s unique characters and surreal vistas. There are a few moments where it’s very clear that many people will interpret what they are seeing very differently.

Howl's Moving Castle is a fantasy about a young girl name Sophie who has an encounter with a mysterious wizard named Howl. Sophie is soon transformed into a 90-year-old woman by the jealous Witch of the Waste. Knowing that she can't stay in her home in her transformed state, Sophie sets out on a journey to find some way to break the spell and return herself to normal. What follows is a wonderful adventure.

There were only two things that distracted me initially in this movie. The first was that I didn’t think there was enough of a relationship built between Sophie and Howl at the beginning of the movie. I wished I could have seen more of Sophie before she was transformed, and maybe have seen that there was more of an emotional connection between the two of them.

The second was a technical animation issue. In traditional animation (Disney feature stuff) there is usually one drawing for every two frames of film, which is called animating “on twos.” In CGI animation, it’s usually one new image for every frame of film, or “on ones” which gives the animation a much more fluid look. I was expecting at least “twos” in this feature film, but it was clear at the beginning to me, that this movie must have been animated on “threes” or “fours” which made the movements a little distractingly choppy. I quickly got used to it though and didn’t mind it as much.

Pixar directors Pete Docter and John Lasseter and Disney were in charge of creating the English language translation and dub for this release and the voice cast features such notable actors as Lauren Bacall (Key Largo), Christian Bale (Batman Begins), Jean Simmons (Spartacus—no Bryan, not the one from KISS), and Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents). Never once during this movie did I experience the “Godzilla effect” where their mouths are saying something their voices weren’t.

I don’t believe I’ve ever left an animated movie with such a feeling of wonder as I did with this one. I really want to watch it again to relive the majesty of it and to see if there’s anything that I can understand in a new way from it all.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys animated films as a viable source of entertainment and story telling. This is not a comedy—though it does have its funny parts. It is a fantasy with a more cinematic than cartoony feel to it.

By the way, as one of the biggest signs that my daughter liked it, she immediately wanted to play it with me pretending that I was Howl and she was Sophie. She was even doing a British accent. She also kept asking me if she could watch it again, and again…

Now my homework assignment is to check out other Studio Ghibli productions such as Spirited Away, Nausicaa, and Princess Mononoke. Any suggestions?

Book Review: The Rule of Four

The Ruling: What’s This Book Four?

I had been looking forward to reading The Rule of Four for a while, ever since my brother-in-law had sung its praises. I ravenously tore into the book only to grind to a halt. The book is written in first person point of view (here’s an example from the book, “I’m lying back on the old red sofa in our dorm room . . .”). My reading pace slowed, and then it slowed again as the reading got more tedious. There are very few people who can pull off first person narrative. The main problem with it is that it constantly plays tricks with your brain. The words are saying “I am, or “I go,” but your brain is saying “No I’m not. I’m lying in bed reading this book.”

This style, along with additional elements, turned me off very quickly. So, if my brother-in-law ever reads this, I apologize up front, but I didn’t much care for the book.

The story is of four undergraduate roommates who are drawn into the obsessions of several characters toward the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book published in 1499. The book is a cryptic story, part illustrated encyclopedia, part odd novel. Scholars have been trying to unravel the secrets hidden in its pages for 500 years. As the Hypnerotomachia starts to yield its encrypted secrets, murders occur for no compelling reason.

Ok, so you’re sitting back thinking it sounds like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Although the book jacket draws comparisons between the two novels, they have very little in common. The stories behind The Rule of Four and The DaVinci Code are based on secret codes hidden in old texts and works of art, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. The main problem with Rule of Four is that it can never make up its mind if it is a suspenseful action thriller (a la DaVinci Code) or a coming-of-age story.

Quite often, the book interrupts the head of steam it has built up only to delve into extended flashbacks into the characters’ past relationships with each other. Sometimes these tangents would last for a chapter, derailing any action that had taken place. What’s more, the timeline of these events is so close to the present action that it leaves you wondering why the authors didn’t just tell the whole story from beginning to end. I must confess that all these flashbacks did was confuse me as to which time I was reading about, the present or the near present. Did that that scene just happen or did it happen a week ago?


Another problem: so the authors went to Ivy League schools . . . I got it. Now why do I care? The authors do a great job at painting a picture of banal college events like eating clubs and other places at Princeton. The problem is that these scenes do little to move the story along or to enhance character development. Even toward the end of the book, I had trouble remembering which of the four friends did what, “now was that the EMT guy or the orphan? Or are they the same person?” What’s more, I cared very little what happened to the characters because of this lack of development.

I didn’t care if the narrator got the girl or not. I didn’t care if a friend of theirs was killed or this professor or that. I just didn’t care. At one point the main character is forced to choose between his girlfriend and the Hypnerotomachia. I just didn’t buy that at all. Some people trumpet that level of dedication as being “intellectual” (the novel is touted as an intellectual DaVinci Code). If that’s what it is to be an “intellectual,” you can keep all that. I call that an unhealthy obsession akin to alcoholism.

So why did I finish it. Well, first because I wanted to give it a fair chance, after all, my brother-in-law loved it, so I kept reading hoping that it would get better. Second, after you have invested all that time in a project, you want to have something to show for it. I had to finish it.

Go read the Amazon reviews; people either love it or hate it, just like me and my brother-in-law. Can I recommend it? Definitely not, but you might like it (by the way, you can pick up a used hardback on Amazon for .01). I for one am left scratching my head as to how this made it to the New York Times bestseller list. Brilliant marketing, I guess.

Music Review: Rosie Thomas - If Songs Could Be Held

Not since buying my first Crowded House Album when I was in high school have I enjoyed an album so thoroughly as I am enjoying Rosie Thomas’ “If Songs Could be Held”. I hadn’t heard of her until I was checking out of the iTunes music store when I was buying Brandi Carlile's album, and Rosie was one of the referral links.

Rosie Thomas’ music is unpretentious, non-preachy, gentle and melodious. Every song is full of thoughtful lyrics and wonderful acoustic accompaniments. Some comparisons could be made to some of the softer tunes by Sheryl Crow, or Sarah McLachlan but without the gloominess.

I consider this to be one of my favorite recent discoveries and I’m looking forward to discovering more from her.

When Good Foreshadowing Goes Bad

A long time ago I heard the following quote that I just found again in Wikipedia:

"An example of foreshadowing might be when a character uses a gun or knife early in the play/film/narrative. Merely the appearance of a deadly weapon, even though it is used for an innocuous purpose - such as being cleaned or whittling wood - suggests terrible consequences later on."

When I first heard it, it was credited to Alfred Hitchcock, though I’m not sure if he’s really the source. Ever since then, I’ve noticed this done in movies—which is bad because it really shouldn’t be something you notice. There are many times when I see this at the time of the foreshadowing and at that moment I try to figure out how that’s going to come into play later, thus taking me out of the movie watching experience.


My first, most obnoxious example is from the movie Paycheck, starring Ben Affleck. There is a moment when he sits down with his boss who gives him a cigar. Ben Affleck’s character makes a point of looking up at a smoke detector and the camera zooms in close to it as he asks his boss if the cigar smoke is going to set off the alarm. The close up of the alarm and the dialogue about it made me feel like the filmmakers were whacking us over the head with the fact that it was important and we needed to remember that later. It was used later, though not as importantly as I thought it would be.


Another example of when foreshadowing goes bad is actually done in two movies that I otherwise really liked. I guess we can call it the “superior officer pep-talk.” It occurs in the movies U-571 and The Core.


In both movies, the highly qualified and willing junior officer has a moment where the superior officer tells them why they are being passed up for a command position. They are both told that what they lack is the experience making the “hard decisions.” Both of these end up being resolved by the commanding officer getting killed, and then the juniors are put in a position where everyone is going to be killed if they don’t order or allow one crewmember to die.

If you ever see a movie where someone gives someone else that kind of "you're not good enough because you haven't been tried" speech, you'd better believe there's going to be some trials experienced (and overcome) before the credits roll.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate foreshadowing, but I really wish it wasn’t used as a cheap gimmick that sends up a flag as if to say, “Woohoo! Look at me, I’m going to be important later!”


I like the kind of foreshadowing that has it’s own purpose at the time, but you forget about and then it surprises you when it becomes important. An example of this is in The Family Man, starring Nicolas Cage as Jack. In the beginning, the character that starts him on his “glimpse of what could have been” gives him a bicycle bell. Jack thinks that it’s a tool to call this guy back when he needs help, but when it doesn’t work his daughter takes it and thanks him for the gift. It isn’t until the end of the movie when we’re feeling as comfortable as Jack is with his alternate life, that his daughter rings the bell on her bike and our hearts sink because we know that even though it was good, it’s not going to last.

So, have you experienced any intrusive foreshadowing? Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by how something resurfaced in a way that you weren’t expecting? Feel free to leave a comment and we’ll talk about it!

Book Review: Where the Red Fern Grows

His Only Pet Experience

My son and I just finished "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls (1961). We started out reading it as a family, but my 5-year-old daughter didn't seem to have much interest. That was when my son (age 9) and I switched to the audio book. We listened to it about 2 times a week in the car as we drove to and from karate practice (a 20 minute drive in each direction).

I remember reading Red Fern when I was a kid. It was one of the first big books that I read entirely on my own. We also read it as a class in grade school, I believe. Even though the main character, Billy Colman's backwoods world of the Ozarks was completely foreign to me, I could totally see this barefoot boy running through the woods with his beloved hounds. Rawls has a way of making young readers feel empowered by making Billy so determined and relentless in his goals.

For those who haven't read it, the book is about a boy (Billy) growing up in rural northeastern Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Billy works two long, hard years to earn enough money to buy a pair of coon hunting dogs. The trio becomes the best of friends and the best coon hunters anyone has ever seen.

Largely autobiographical, Rawls' story is infused with a strong sense of integrity and a 1960's black and white sense of right and wrong. To me, this kind of "morality tale" is very refreshing in this day and age of grey areas and ambiguity.

Although the milieu of this story was utterly foreign to my son too, he embraced it from the beginning. He had never heard of coon hunting nor did it ever enter his mind that there were people who couldn't afford shoes. He can't even really relate to being so enamored with a pet, as almost everyone in our family has allergies including him. Since he breaks out after just petting a dog, this book will likely be his only pet experience (unless you count our Chinese fighting fish named Sagwa, but he wasnít much fun).

(SPOILER ALERT- if you don't know the plot of the book—yeah, right, like who doesn't—do not read this paragraph) The most touching moment of the book came when we were driving across town to my son's wrestling tournament. We were in the final chapters of the book where both of the dogs died. I noticed that my son had his faced turned to the window and he wouldn't look at me. I figured he was sad and decided not to bother him. Sure enough, it wasnít long until he was wiping his eyes. I felt for him, but at the same time I thought it was cool. "How many books make you care so much about a character that you get choked up when they die?" I thought, as I swallowed to make the lump in my own throat go away.

Go pick up a copy of this classic today and read it with your kids or give it to them as a gift. They will likely love it as much as you did. If you haven't yet read it, you will be glad that you did. I also plan on watching the 2003 version of Red Fern (there is also a 1974 version), so look for that review to come soon.

Book Review: Jim Henson, The Works

Everyone who knows me as an adult thinks that I must have been a huge Disney fan as a child. While I've always enjoyed Disney films and shorts, my childhood was focused mainly on three things: Peanuts, Star Wars, and The Muppets.

This week's book spotlight is Jim Henson, The Works — yet another of my most prized books in my library. In it, we not only read biographies and histories of the characters that we've grown to love, but we also learn about some of the projects that he would have liked to have produced and how much of an artist and visonary Jim Henson really was.

The book contains some of the most creative and unique page layout designs that I have ever seen. I especially enjoy the small "Jim Henson: The Early Years" book which is about a quarter of the page dimensions of the rest of the book which is tipped-in to the binding. The entire volume appears to have been assembled as thoughtfully and lovingly as you can imagine Jim doing all of the projects during his life.

In a nutshell, I would highly recommend this book—not just to people who are fans of the Muppets, like myself, but to anyone who likes to have a peek into what makes creative people tick, and maybe glean some inspiration in the process.

What made me decide to comment on this book—besides seeing it on my bookshelf every day at work—is my recent purchase of The Muppet Show: First Season on DVD. I was a little nervous when I first got it that I wouldn't enjoy the humor as much as an adult as I did when I was a kid, but I couldn't have been more mistaken. It is so nice to see the sophisticated wit in the writing of this show that still makes me laugh out loud. I was also happy to see that my 5 & 7 year old daughters also laughed quite a bit at the show and often ask to watch them over again. The shows still have value today as great entertainment and I would highly recommend them.

Movie Review: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Mr. and Mrs. Pitt... er, uh... Smith

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are stars. No doubt about it. If you need proof just watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith—a super secret spy/assassin/black ops (never defined) farce about two people from two competing agencies get married and then get assigned to kill each other. At least that was the impression I got from the trailers, but it turns out in the movie, the fact that they were assigned to kill each other was supposed to be a secret that was revealed two-thirds into the movie. Oh well, just another movie that had some secrets of the plot blown by the trailer.

Anyway, back to the “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are stars” conversation. Who can question it when they are put in a movie together with—aside from Vince Vaughn in his throwaway role—not one single other recognizable actor and a gigantic budget to pull off some of the most spectacular explosions and gun/fist fights you’ll ever see pulled off in a suburban neighborhood. Because it has these two stars in it, I’m sure the studio knew that they would bring in the box office numbers so they could throw the extra budget into it to make it something exciting and well executed.

And they pull it off too. It’s a fun ride. The cinematography was very well done—except for some unexplained shaky camera moves. The thing that was lacking was an emotional attachment. I think it’s interesting that their names were John and Jane Smith because these were really generic performances for these actors. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were exactly the same people I’ve seen interviewed by Barbara Walters. There were some moments that could have been touching that I thought fell flat—Possibly because it was such a Pitt-Jolie vehicle—with little or no acting going on at all.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who is up for a good roller coaster ride. There’s plenty of action and eye-candy to interest the most casual of viewers. But don’t go looking for any heart or back-story, what you see is what you get.

Movie Review: Escape to Witch Mountain

Can't Escape the Classics

It’s nice to know that the classics still span the generations. One movie I remember loving as a child was Escape to Witch Mountain. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my wife loved it too. I don’t quite remember why we decided to show it to them, but we rented the DVD for my son and daughter (age 9 and 5 respectively). My kids love to just sit down with a bag of microwave popcorn (or two) and noisily crunch away.

Escape to Witch Mountain was a Disney film made back in 1975. It was about a pair of orphans, Tia (Kim Richards) and Tony (Ike Eisenmann), who have psychic powers, mostly telekinesis and telepathic abilities. An evil millionaire discovers the children’s powers and plots to exploit them for his own nefarious plans (heh, heh, heh. “Mine is an evil laugh.”). Tia and Tony have one chance for freedom, Escape to Witch Mountain.

Ok, I must admit that one of the most endearing qualities of this movie is the chemistry created by the two siblings. Ok, so maybe I had a crush on Tia when I was little. But I have read other reviews by women who were equally as impressed by Tia. Admittedly though, they were both decent kid actors, no Haley Joel Osment by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad.

When the movie was over, my son said, “Thanks for renting that. We love movies where kids have powers.” I think we all at one time or another wished we had powers. Somehow, when so little is under your control, it is just cool to imagine that you have an ability that no one else has.

One cool feature on the DVD is an interview with Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann as Adults. Kim has changed a little bit (although her voice didn’t) but Ike looks just like he did as a kid. Reminiscing with former child actors is always cool, even if you didn’t have a crush on them.
Needless to say, this is a film that both children and adults can watch together and enjoy. The sequel however, “Return to Witch Mountain” left a little to be desired in my mind (but my kids still liked it).

TV Review: ABC’s Invasion

I’m a hybrid, he’s a hybrid, she’s a hybrid, we’re a hybrid, wouldn’t you like to be a hybrid too?

Back in September I became interested in ABC’s TV show, Invasion. I liked the premise that there was something in the water that was mysteriously replacing people. I also liked the pace of the show. Instead of knocking us out every week with huge revelations, there was a slow peeling away of secrets that was promising to reveal something rather intriguing. Besides, even though the national timing was bad, the initial hurricane sequence was pretty exciting—especially for someone who lives in the hurricane-free Pacific Northwest.


Well, it’s been a while that the show is on, and though there have been many things that have happened, I’m starting to wonder if the show really knows where it’s going.

I was about ready to stop watching the show altogether until I saw a commercial for last night’s episode. I thought it looked promising so I decided to watch it. I have to say, it was interesting. This hybrid (that’s what they call the replaced people) girl has gotten pregnant by another hybrid and she looks like she’s very close to having babies. This is raising the question of whether the hybrids are the goal of if they are just a breeding ground to bring around some new, more terrifying creature.

So while I’m intrigued by the story, I’m finding myself uninterested by some of the revelations that are being made. Last night there was a medic who was introduced who was later revealed to be a notorious hybrid from a previous invasion in another place. I found myself not even being moved by that huge revelation at all.

I guess another part of my confusion on this show is that it’s not very clear who the bad guys are. OK, so we know that getting replaced and becoming a hybrid is a bad thing, but not all of the hybrids are bad people. So exactly what, or who, are we supposed to be afraid of?

I’ll probably stick around for the rest of this show because now it seems to be progressing at a more exciting pace, and I’d even recommend it to others, but be warned, this is even more of a serial drama than ABC’s Lost—if that’s possible. At least Lost has a story in the flashbacks that gets somewhat resolved by the end of the episode. Invasions episodes are more like chapters in a television novel.

New DVD Releases Coming Tuesday, March 7, 2006

There are a few movies coming out on DVD this week that are worth noting. Among them are Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Jarhead.

There are two, however, that I’m more interested in that aren’t getting much press.

First is Howl's Moving Castle. I’ve never watched any form of Anime since watching Star Blazers as a kid, but this movie has me interested. I’m planning on renting it and sharing my thoughts on it here.

Another movie that I’m interested in catching on DVD is the original The Shaggy Dog. I watched this as a kid and I remember liking it, but with Disney’s upcoming release of the updated The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen, Disney has seen fit to capitalize on the hooplah and get the original one out.

Personally, I’ve enjoyed the original versions of Disney’s movies much more than the remakes. It could have been my childhood crush on Hayley Mills, but in my opinion, the original The Parent Trap was much better than the new one with Lindsay Lohan. I felt the same way about Freaky Friday (maybe I just don’t enjoy watching Lindsay Lohan all the time—I didn’t even attempt Herbie Fully Loaded).

So, what do I remember about the original The Shaggy Dog? Not much. It looks like the DVD has an original theatrical black and white version plus a color version. So was it filmed in color but distributed in black and white? I can’t imagine that they would have a colorized version.

I think the thing that makes the old one appeal so much to me is that I get fed up with old movies being thought of as outdated or somehow bad because they don’t have all of the new CGI visual effects that they can do nowadays. I also have this fear of these “outdated” movies being locked away because they are looked at as being obsolete in much the same way George Lucas has locked away the original releases of the original Star Wars Trilogy—but that’s a long discussion best left for another time.

There have been enough modernized remakes of classic movies that I’d like to hear anyone’s opinions comparing the old ones vs. the new. Do you think that your age and whether having seen, or not having seen, the old one affects which one you like better?

Book Review: Charlotte's Web

Somehow I was asked, or volunteered by my wife, to read to my daughter's second grade class. I thought it would be fun so I said sure.

Her teacher picked E.B. White’s Charlotte's Web for me to read. I have to say, I was great fun! It's an easy book to read and the kids really enjoyed the voices that I did, especially Templeton's (who ended up being the voice I'd used for Professor Snape while reading Harry Potter to my daughters).

The book is about a runt pig that narrowly escapes being culled by an 8-year old girl named Fern, who names him Wilbur and stays close to him as he grows and is sold to her Uncle Zuckerman.

Wilbur soon learns that the fate of all pigs is to be killed in the fall and served up as ham and bacon for the family in the winter. Wilbur doesn’t want to die and finds a spider named Charlotte who becomes his friend and vows to do all she can to save his life.

This is a heartwarming tale about friendship, loyalty and about giving of yourself for others. I’m usually a pushover and I actually found it hard in a couple of places not to get choked up as I read to these 7 and 8 year-olds—somehow I just didn’t think they would think it was cool to see a big grown man like me weep.

The animated movie that was made a few years back followed very closely this book. Which was good and bad -- bad because many of the children had seen the movie and so anticipated things that were coming, but I think also good because it might be nice for the children to see it portrayed so closely after reading or listening to the book themselves.

By the way, if anyone wants to be a hero, take some time out of your day to read to kids. They will love every minute of it and you’ll feel like the greatest person in the world. If you have kids, it will mean so much to them to have you in their classroom like that. I always feel 10-feet tall when I leave. Now I need to figure out what I’m going to read next to the kids.

What the heck is a “groundling” anyway?

Ok, so I’ve had some questions about where the term “Groundlings” comes from. Well, way back in jolly old Elizabethan England theaters would often be built “in the round” (pictured here) where the covered galleries were filled by wealthy aristocrats who would pay as much as half a crown for their seats.

The theaters also had cheap areas that were filled by what were called the groundlings—the poorer audience members who would only pay one English penny for admission. They would have to stand around the stage in the dirt (or in the mud depending on the weather) to take in the show.

The groundlings also had the reputation of becoming unruly if they lost interest. It’s for them that much of the comedy and lowbrow, bawdy humor was written into the plays.

So why is this called Groundlings Review? Well, it’s because we’re a common group of people who like movies, books, and games and like to talk about them. We’re not journalists. We’re not film students or in the industry in any way. We just like to be entertained and would like to make our opinions known—hopefully in the process we can encourage a few people to see something that might have gone overlooked and help you to stay away from something better left unexperienced.

Hopefully you’ll join us regularly and participate in the commentaries.