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Weeds (Showtime): A suburban California widow, Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker) deals pot to make ends meet for her two songs, Shane and Silas, after the unexpected death of her husband, Judah.

Nancy Botwin is the worst decision maker I have ever met. I'm surprised the kids are still alive, and she's not in jail serving 3 consecutive life sentences being someone's jail b****.

Throughout the seasons I sympathized for her. She kept getting into these situations where you felt she was backed into a corner, and certain people, mostly Celia Hodes, repeatedly ruined plans that poor Nancy had made.

But no. If you look at all of it closely, Nancy made all her decisions not for her kids, but for very very selfish reasons that have continued to lead her in a downward spiral of near death and constant corruption. No one has EVER benefited from her decisions. Not even her!

Here's the rundown:

• She starts her own growhouse behind her dealer's back, with another associate of the dealer's.
  
• She MARRIES a DEA agent thinking it will keep her secret safe.
• Gets him killed for getting involved.
• Tracks down his ex-wife out of curiosity only to be friends with her.
  
• Assigns her oldest son to work for her weed botanist to get responsibility after he had been acting out a few times.
• Pursues a relationship with her new boss, the mayor of Mexico, and also her boss as drug smuggling.
• Moves on to deal coke.
• Mercy kills her grandmother by smothering her with a pillow.
  

So it seems I'm the only one on the planet that did not know Fight Club (by Chuck Palahniuk's) was based on a book.

Anyway, so I pick up the book and start reading... then stopped about halfway through. Here are the two main reasons why:

1. I don't know if it's because I saw the movie already, but this is one of those rare ones where the movie follows the book pretty closely, page by page, so it's like reading a book for the 10 billionth time. You already know what's happened so what's the point of continuing when you can see the hotness that is Brad Pitt or Edward Norton on screen portraying these characters?
   
2. Try reading the journal of a person with multiple personality disorder or better yet... someone with ADHD. The writing is all over the place and it gets impossible to stay focused and interested in the character when it's like reading two people talking at the same time.

I'm really bad when it comes to movies. I haven't seen a lot of Kubrick's stuff and evident by the title of the post, I JUST NOW saw the Godfather movies. I know that Godfather II is considered not only the greatest sequel to ever be made... but the greatest film period. It's always up there on the list as either #1 or #2 (next to Citizen Kane).

Why?

What was so great about Godfather II? The first one was a lot stronger for me. It had a consistent storyline where you have a progression of the story that went along steadily. The only thing I liked about the second one was going back to how Vito became successful and became who he was, and how. They should've cut out about 20 minutes of filler stuff from the first movie and inserted Vito's backstory... and you'd have the perfect Godfather movie!

I can understand Vito's rising from an orphan to being Don Corleone is supposed to run parallel to Michael's rise to power, but it just didn't work.

As an overall film it was great to watch, simply because as mentioned before, I love movies that tell stories in a biographical style. But as a film overall I just didn't see what the big deal was with Godfather II. If you look at the two together, it's great. So as much as everyone flamed poor Mr. Vincent Canby, from the New York times, I totally agree with him:

It's a second movie made largely out of the bits and pieces of Mr. Puzo's novel that didn't fit into the first. It's a Frankenstein's monster stitched together from leftover parts. It talks. It moves in fits and starts but it has no mind of its own. -Rotten Tomatoes

My friend raved to me about this game and said it's probably one of the most frustrating yet best games out on the market.

Right now I'm being swept away by de Blob still, so I haven't put too much time into this one... but this one is one of those games that flew under the radar. My co-worker seems to think it's because the name "Zack and Wiki" resembles to close to that Disney show "Zack and Cody" so people write it off immediately.

Anyway, this game goes for about $20 at your local GameStop and it's worth it. It's also a major bonus that it's about half the cost of a regular game.

Incredibly cute storyline of a little boy, Zack, who longs to be a pirate and find the lost treasure, while guided by his flying monkey, Wiki. You solve painstaking mind boggling puzzles to get to a treasure chest, where you get a piece of the pirate who was cursed, who will help you retrieve his treasures, when you put him back together again. Make a wrong move and you die. You can either choose to start from the beginning or continue with a life.

Now here's the catch... You have to buy lives, and each time you buy them they get exponentially more expensive.

This game is probably the best use of the Wii-mote. You have to use the Wii-mote realistically. How do you go about using the controller to open a Wii-mote? With a real umbrealla you press a button to open it. On the Wii, you press "1".

I'm really impressed with the incredible detailed use you get out of the Wii-mote.

Get the game before it ends up like Ikaruga, where you'll end up getting it for double the price it is now.

Let's start with a little History lesson:
de Blob was originally developed as a free downloadable game for Windows by eight students studying Game Design and one student studying Game and Media Technology in the Netherlands. THQ noticed the game and was very impressed with the team's work, and acquired the rights to the game. THQ handed over the game to Blue Tongue Entertainment and Helixe and the companies each developed their own versions for different consoles.
- Wikipedia

Picked this one up this weekend. I did my research beforehand, and read the reviews, and was shocked to find the ratings were anywhere from an 8.5 (critic rating) to a 9.5 (user rating), considering I had not even seen so much as a commercial or ad campaign for this at all.

You play as this gelatinous blob that is going around restoring color to the worlds. I.N.K.T. has taken over everything. The people are spend mindlessly wandering around in a black and white society with no fun, parties, activities, etc. You go around collecting paint to put the color back and defeat the I.N.K.T. agency.

The upside:

• The graphics are phenomenal. They're intensely clean, bright and just really great on screen.
  
• Overall storyline - Reminds me of the perfect blend of Mario Sunshine with Jet Grind Radio.
• Soundtrack - I only have 3 songs, but I love them. Can't wait to find the rest of them.
• Insanely cute characters. Think Pikmin with Animal Crossing talk. ;-)
• Uncomplicated missions - Sometimes it's a nice break to do some games where you don't have to find a feather to give to the old lady who will then give you a bowl who you have to take to the merchant just to get a gem to get a power so you can move a rock.
  

• Inconvenient save points. Unless you can dedicate a full hour to this game then don't bother starting it. You can't save the game until after you have defeated an entire town sector. It's not a ridiculously insanely hard game to get through but it does get kind of annoying if you have two jobs and you want to put 20 minutes here and there.... Okay that might be just me then.
• The jumps - I haven't quite gotten the hang of the jumping thing. When I jump it's hard to control (for me anyway) where I want to jump and land. Also the jumping distance is inconsistent. Sometimes I can jump really high, otherwise I'll end up stuck to the wall and have to slowly drip down.
  
• Movement - It does get dizzying after awhile. x_x Again it might be because I haven't put much time into it, but as you "walk" through you leave trails of paint behind you. I'm thinking the trails of paint effect your position in the game. You can't stand still. You end up drifting and moving around where the blobs of paint are, which does get annoying if you need to stand still for a moment, and you keep falling off buildings.
• Challenges - I'm hoping the challenge levels pick up a bit, otherwise it's going to be redundant. How many times can you paint buildings a certain color and NOT get bored with it?
  

I love fairy tales, which is probably why I still watch Disney movies and cartoons. The imagination and the buildup of it is the ultimate story. You have a beginning with the goal/dream of the character who goes through quite an adventure to get to the end. How can you not love fairy tales?

So here's the tale this movie revolves around:
Long ago humans lived in harmony with water nymphs, the Narfs. As time passed humans on land moved more and more inland breaking ties with the Narfs. Without the communication and guidance from the Narfs, humans on land became increasingly violent and disruptive towards one another. So the Narfs starting sending in their most precious ones to guide them once more. According to the legend, Narfs have the ability to see into the future. Based on that they know who their "Vessel", person they have to meet, is going to be. The Vessel is said to have a major impact on the world, but needs to see the Narf in order to be inspired and directed where he/she needs to go. All the Narf has to do is make sure the Vessel sees her.

Scrunts are animals made of twigs and grass who try to prevent the Narfs from accomplishing their mission. But there is an understand that Scrunts will not attack on the night of the Narf's departure, for fear that they will be punished by the Tartutic's. Sometimes rogue Scrunts will attack regardless of the rules. The Tartutic's are three monkey-like animals that keep justice between them. They are said to be evil.

The entire movie takes place on this story. A Narf, Story, is stranded after completing her mission. A rogue Scrunt has attacked her repeatedly when she tries to leave. And so she seeks the help of the landlord to apartment complex, Cleveland Heep, help her, who researches the story from one of his neighbors, a Korean college student who has a mother who knows all about this bedtime story.

As the movie continues there is more to the story of how to help her get back to the giant eagle, who will help her get back home. Like if she has obstacles there is a select group of humans who can help protect her. A Guardian who can ward off the Scrunts. An Interpreter who can see signs in simple things to guide them. A Healer, to... well heal her.

What I loved was the realistic spin to this fairytale. What I didn't like were the inconsistencies:

1. The fact that the Korean lady knew of this bedtime story and made-up words like "Narf", "Scrunt" and "Tartutic" were somehow translated from Korean to English.
2. Where were the Tartutic's all along? Weren't they supposed to come punish the Scrunt's for attacking her when she tried to leave the first time?
   
3. If she is allowed to have helpers like the Guardian, or the Interpreter, to help her get to the eagle, and they're allowed to see the eagle, then why can't she tell these people she's allowed to see them?
4. I wasn't quite clear on the "ceremony". What was the purpose of the 7 sisters? 5 of them were actual sisters, so where did the Interpreter pick the other 2 from?
5. This is going to sound weird but given the circumstances, I find it hard to believe that everyone would believe such a fairytale is really true. Think about your landlord coming to you and saying "I really found Cinderella, and she needs help finding her glass slipper. Can you help?"