Greek Episode Recap 6/1 (New Format!)

Quick Note: I liked using a lot of pictures for the last episode's recap, but it took too long, and eventually ended up being way too much. I'm going to keep it much shorter visually and try to add more text. I know this recap is late, but hopefully I can get the next one up within a couple days. I'm just waiting for the screencap site I use to load their pictures.

This episode was the first to start off with Jordan and Rusty officially dating. As excited as the audience was to see their romance progress, we were quickly interrupted by a bored and lonely Casey. Since Max is in England for a month, Casey doesn't have anyone to make plans with and ends up foring herself on her friends. She runs into Rusty and Jordan when they are out to eat, and once she is ditched by her own friends, she joins her brother's date and makes it her own social outing. Rusty and Casey end up fighting over who gets time with Jordan until she points out that she feels like a remote control being fought over by siblings. I still felt bad for Rusty because Casey came off so obnoxious. I hate girls that don't have a life outside their boyfriend, and it made me mad to see Casey had NOTHING to do without Max. And the fact that she would ruin Rusty's social life when he is just getting it together was pretty lame.

This story line was saved for me when the two siblings talked at the end of the episode. When Rusty said "If you had told me why you wanted to hang out, I probably would have gone to Dobbler's with you." I smiled. It was a good message that everyone should just let people know when they need them instead of just being upset over it later. My favorite line of the episode, though, was when Rusty was talking to Cappie about the problem.

Rusty: Casey would always go out when we were in high school, and I would stay at home watching Joan of Arcadia with my mom.
Cappie: Is that the show with the all the Navy Lawyers?
Rusty: That's JAG. I watched that afterwards with my dad.

Calvin's little story development was pretty interesting....in the hot sense. Calvin discovers one of his other frat brothers is gay, and the next day, Calvin is assigned to be his new roommate. Ashleigh tells him there is no way they can be just roommates and insists something will happen, but Calvin brushes it off. Unfortunately, being in close quarters with a half naked fellow gay frat brother doing crunches ends up being harder than he thought. He avoids any romantic involvement in this episode, but we all know that's coming. It'd be nice to see Calvin date again. He needs some loving, too.

The last part worth mentioning in this somewhat filler episode is the story between Cappie and Evan. As new brothers in a secret society, they are trying to keep up some sort of friendship. This attempt is thwarted by a fellow sister in the society whom they both have an eye for. Lucky for the guys, the girl turns out to be a crazy pet killer. She describes how she killed her first three pets by accident when she is doing the sharing ritual in front of the society members, and both Evan and Cappie (and probably the whole group) are pretty appalled.


I love when she stars describing how she used to love an animal so much that she squeezed it all the time, and Cappie makes a comment like "Please tell me this pet was a horse." They soon find out it was a cat, and it doesn't end well.....

This week's episode (the Homecoming one) was really good, so look for that review soon. I'm also really excited about the season finale, but I'll miss this show when it goes on hiatus until August.

Double Dose of Pushing Daisies

ABC sadly axed Pushing Daisies from finishing up it's second season and returning next Fall for round three. They ran 10 episodes through December last year, and then it was canceled. However, viewers found out that they actually had three episodes left to show. Instead of waiting for the DVD release, ABC is now playing these episodes on Saturday nights at 10 pm. They've played two so far, so the series finale is this week. Here is a quick recap and review of my thoughts on the episodes shown this month.

First, we had a playful episode entitled "Window Dressed to Kill." There were two main plot lines in this one, the first dealing with tracking down the murderer of window display designers in a department store, and the other dealing with Olive helping out old "friends" from the past.

We find out that when Olive was little, her parents paid little attention to her. To correct this, Olive stowed away in a car being stolen by a couple of thieves. The thieves wanted to return her right away, but she refused to give up any information on where she came from. The thieves eventually tracked down her parents and brought her home, but they had fallen in love with how cute Olive was, and were upset to see her parents hadn't even noticed she was gone. They threatened her parents if they didn't show their daughter the love she deserved, so the parents had them sent to jail for kidnapping.

The thieves escaped prison in present day and track down Olive to help them escape to Canada. Randy Mann, a taxidermist from a previous episode played by David Arquette, agrees to help Olive by driving them across the border. Ned tags along, too, and pretends to be Olive's fiancee to keep up her happy life charade she had presented in her letters to the convicts. Of course, chaos ensues and leads to a temporarily revived Rhino chase and a simple costume trick by nuns. It's not to be missed.

I loved that Ned compared himself to Superman throughout the episode as he strives to play the normal Clark Kent side of his life with Olive. Randy tells him that Superman is awesome and why would anyone want to be Clark Kent, and Ned finds out who he really is and embraces it. It's quite cute and helps jumpstart the revival of the show.

The murder mystery of the episode is left in the hands of Chuck and Emerson since Olive and Ned are otherwise engaged. The set up of the mystery is fun, and it's cool to see them try to solve a case without Ned waking up dead people. It's not the best plot of the series, but most episodes are just bright and childish and don't rely on an intricate plot. That is what made the show really fun and refreshing. I'm sad that I only have one episode left to watch. P.S. Look out for the guy who played Stanford in Sex and the City. He plays the department store owner.

This past episode, "Water and Power," gave a lot of background on Emerson, and managed to keep it pretty interesting. A Dam owner, Roland Stingwell, dies a rather unfortunate death, and when Emerson is hired to investigate, we find out Emerson had already known the deceased quite well. The owner used to be romantically involved with Lila Robinson, Emerson's baby mama. When Emerson was hired to track Lila when she ran off during the day, he got to know her and they fell in love. Unfortunately, Emerson was no better than Stingwell at keeping Lila around, and she eventually took off with his daughter Penny. Lila, played by Angel and Firefly's Gina Torres, spoke to Stingwell the day of his death, so she quickly becomes a top suspect because of her con artist background. She asks Emerson to clear her name, and threatens to take Penny away forever if he doesn't.

By bringing Penny into the mix, everyone starts getting involved to help Emerson out. Even Emerson's hillarious dog trainer girlfriend comes back and corners Lila to seek out her motives. Olive recruits Randy to help as she tries to decide if he can be her rebound or a real shot at happiness. Ned and Chuck ponder why people love as they see Emerson go to great lengths for his daughter. Luckily, everything works out pretty well. As always, to get to the ending, we see a lot of crazy investigating by the characters, including Chuck and Ned hiding away in a trunk to follow Lila and ending up stripped down to their underwear on the side of the road.

I enjoy learning about different characters, so focusing on Emerson was a good move since we only new the superficial facts about his past. I also love his girlfriend and how she uses her dog training methods on Emerson, so it was great to see her again. I wonder if she will be in the finale.

And for all you loyal Pushing Daisies fans, here's a news tidbit. Both Anna Friel and Lee Pace are on the emmy ballots this year. Hopefully their great work will earn them an official nomination!

Favorite Series in 10 or Less: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

It seems appropriate that I would begin my "10 or Less" series with my favorite series of all time: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For this particular series in my blog, I will choose a canceled show that I have seen every episode of. I will go through the list of episodes and pick my top ten of all time to share with you all. Buffy was REALLY hard for me to narrow down. My initial list was 16 when I was being very picky, and by the time I got it down to 12, I was agonizing over what to cross off. Then ordering the final 10 was also extremely difficult, but I think the final result reflects my feelings for the show quite well. I must make a quick warning that I have always been a fan of Buffy and Angel together, so this ends up showing a lot in the list. You'll have to let me know what your favorites are if you watch the show.

10. The Body, Season 5, Episode 16

This episode stood out among many of the others because of how real and silent it was throughout its duration. I think there is little to no music in the episode, and the characters' reactions are raw and ugly at times to convey the tragedy of sudden death. The episode starts with Buffy coming home to find her mom dead on the couch, with no evidence of murder. Her mom had been in and out of the hospital in previous episodes because of a brain tumor, but she had been given a clean bill of health. The show divides into segments showing how each person deals with the death, starting with Buffy. She calls 911 and tries to do CPR, but ends up cracking a rib. The paramedics come and she has a brief fantasy that her mom wakes up and was saved just in time, but this is quickly shattered when the paramedics pronounce her dead and leave Buffy with the body. Giles comes to help her, not knowing what she called him for, and Buffy yells at him that they can not touch the body before collapsing into grief.
The episode continues with a poignant scene when Buffy has to go tell her sister at school what has happened. Both girls end up crying in the hallway while classmates watch from the window silently wondering what is going on. Buffy's friends gather at Willow's before meeting the family at the hospital in the next segment, and you see that they are all at a loss of what to do to help their friend. Anya gives a particularly amazing speech about not understanding death and grief. She gives it from a perspective of someone who is newly human, but it strikes a chord with those in the audience who remember the confusion of the first death in their life.

But I don't understand! I don't understand how this all happens... How we go through this. I mean I knew her, and then she's.. there's just a body, and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead anymore. It's stupid, it's mortal and stupid! And Xander's crying and not talking, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, Well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch ever and she'll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why!

I think that speech makes this one of my favorites. The writing and acting for this episode was just fantastic. It's hard to watch because it feels so real, but it captures the feelings anyone would have in that situation.

9. Tabula Rasa, Season 6, Episode 8

This episode is really silly and fun, and gave the audience a break from all the drama that was going on in the show at the time. Willow casts a spell to make her girlfriend, Tara, forget about all the witchcraft she has done so that she won't leave her. Unfortunately, the spell backfires and makes everyone forget who they are. The entire cast is together when the spell takes affect, so they immediately begin accusing each other of causing the memory loss, and then move on to debating government conspiracies. Some of the characters are able to figure out their names by finding I.D. cards, papers, and in one person's case, a name necklace. Buffy is not one of these people, and decides to name herself Joan. Dawn argues with her about this being a stupid name, and they figure out that they are probably sisters because of the way they are bickering. While this was a lucky guess, the rest of the group misinterprets their relationships. Willow thinks she is Xander's girlfriend because she is wearing his jacket, Anya thinks she is married to Giles because they are both listed as owners of the magic shop, and Spike thinks he is Giles' son because they are both British and seem to hate each other.
Things get crazier when they start getting attacked by Spike's enemies and Buffy realizes she must be some kind of superhero because of her abilities. Spike claims he is strong, too, so they both set out to fight the bad guys while the rest of the group escapes through the back tunnels. Giles and Anya stick around to try to find a magical solution, but Anya ends up conjuring an enormous amount of bunnies (one of her only fears). The spell eventually wears off, but everyone is left unhappy because they must go back to all of the drama that is going on. Definitely worth watching for a laugh, but you might want to switch to something else once they get their memory back if you don't want to be depressed.

8. Angel, Season 1, Episode 7

Okay, this had to be on the list because of how much I love Angel. Angel is actually introduced in the first episode of the series, but this is the episode in which Buffy finds out he is a vampire. Dun dun duuuuuuuuun. Of course this is after she has developed a major crush on him, so she has a lot of emotions to work out.
Angel saves Buffy in the beginning of the episode from a three on one attack, and she insists he stay at her house since it's dangerous outside (not knowing he can very well take care of himself). He's a gentleman and sleeps on her floor next to her bed, and she brags about this the next day to Willow and Xander as she begins the typical teenager gushing about her guy. The next night they kiss after they both admit they can't stop thinking about each other, and he decides this is the perfect time to show her he's a vampire. Boys.
Darla, Angel's sire, shows up on his doorstep to convince him to kill Buffy, while Buffy's friends convince her she needs to kill him because it's her job. They go to fight each other, but realize neither of them has the guts to do anything. Angel confesses to Buffy that over a hundred years ago he was cursed with a soul, and now feels guilt and sadness over the mass murders he caused in his earlier years. Buffy begins to sympathize, but they are interrupted by a pissed off Darla who opens fire on them both (this was one of the few times guns were used in this show). Angel ends up killing Darla himself, and he and Buffy agree to "see each other around" which apparently is code for "become destined lovers." Gotta love a good romance story. Twilight has nothing on these two.

7. The Gift, Season 5, Episode 22

Spoiler Alert: Buffy dies. Yes, this episode shocked me more than any other show has (although that is a big statement, so take it lightly). Season 5 has a long story line about Buffy's new found sister, Dawn, and how she really isn't Buffy's sister, but instead a key to another dimension in which a woman named Glory is an evil god. Glory has been trying to find the key to open up the doors between the two worlds and end her life as a human, but it takes her awhile to figure out it's Dawn, let alone that the key is a human. Wow, that summarizing sounds so bizarre, but if you watch the show, it makes sense I promise.
By this episode, Glory has Dawn, and is getting ready to do the ritual to open up the portal. The ritual involves draining Dawn of her blood, so Buffy and her friends must get there and stop it before it's too late. They have to be creative since Glory is immortal, but they end up using a rather large hammer and a wreaking ball to slow her down quite nicely. Unfortunately, Glory has a really creepy assistant to perform the ritual for her, and Dawn's blood starts opening the portal before Buffy can reach her. The only way to close the portal (which is currently bringing in ginormous demons from another dimension) is to close it by draining the rest of Dawn's blood. At this moment, Buffy realizes Dawn was made from her own blood, and knows that when she was earlier told "Death is your gift" by a spirit guide, it meant her own death. She can die to save Dawn and the world. She gives one final speech to Dawn that we hear after she has already jumped into the portal and died, and I think at this point I was a complete mess.

Dawn, listen to me, listen. I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles… tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I'm okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world… is to live in it. Be brave. Live… for me.

I cried for about 20 minutes. I managed to compose myself during the Angel finale that immediately followed, but at the end of that episode, Angel is informed of Buffy's death. I started crying all over again. Damn you Joss Whedon for tugging at my heartstrings!

6. Graduation Day, Season 3, Episodes 21-22

This is one of my favorites because it has personal significance. It was actually the first episode I ever watched live. I saw the preview for it when I was in 5th grade and decided that a show involving a giant snake, graduation, girl fights, and a slow motion vampire bite was well worth my attention. I was not disappointed.
The episode is another climactic ending to a long story line that was built up throughout the season. This one involved the immortal town mayor preparing himself to transform into a giant snake demon to take out Sunnydale. He was able to recruit Faith, the only other living slayer, who turned away from Buffy mid-season in favor of the dark side. She shoots Angel with a poison arrow in the beginning of the two part episode, infecting him with a disease whose only cure is slayer's blood. Buffy goes after Faith to get the anecdote and manages to mortally wound her. Faith jumps off a ledge to avoid saving Angel, and she ends up in a coma in the hospital later. Buffy then decides she is Angel's only hope for survival and convinces him to drink from her. The drinking scene is pretty epic, but it doesn't compare to the full blown fight at the end.
Buffy is somehow able to recruit the entire senior class to help with her plan to blow up the giant snake demon. There is a part where Buffy yells "Now!" at graduation and every student takes off their cap and gown to reveal concealed weapons they armed themselves with. It's great. There is also an awesome shot of vampires (trying to run away from the students) that end up facing a menacing group of guys, whose front runner is none other than a pissed off Angel.
The saddest part of this episode is when Angel leaves. Buffy sees him from a distance in the last few minutes of the episode and gives him that knowing look of goodbye. He then walks off into the smoke without a word. I didn't get this when I first saw it because I had no idea of the back story, but after watching the seasons leading up to this point, I was much more emotionally involved. I'm glad Angel got his own series, but I always looked forward to those few crossover episodes.

5. The Prom, Season 3, Episode 20

Ah, the prom. It comes up in every teenage drama. The girl gets the guy, they have that perfect dance, and they are in love forever. Not quite for Buffy. In this episode, Angel realizes he can never give Buffy a normal life and decides to break up with her. She tells him as he is breaking it off, "I want my life to be with you." He stares at her for a minute and then says firmly "I don't." She doesn't know how life will go on without him, but he says he will leave after Graduation to make it easier. Angel is then labeled by audiences as a douchebag. Especially for breaking up with Buffy right before prom.
The break up is heart-wrenching to watch, and you can't help but shed a few tears when Buffy shares her pain with Willow. "I feel like I can't breathe, Will. I feel like I can't breathe!" I think every girl can relate to that, and maybe even some guys, too. There is no need for some dramatic demon story, so they just throw in some hell hounds that are raised to attack prom-goers and call it a day. Buffy saves everyone as usual and manages to find the time to make herself look pretty for prom at the end.
The best part of the episode comes when the senior class presents Buffy with an award for all her efforts in protecting the school and town. The somewhat nerdy kid Jonathan gets up and reads the following speech before presenting Buffy with a decorative umbrella:

This is actually a new category. First time ever. I guess there were a lot of write-in ballots, and, um, well, the prom committee asked me to read this... We're not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you, but that doesn't mean we haven't noticed you. We don't talk about it much, but it's no secret that Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here. But whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you, or helped by you at one time or another. We're proud to say that the Class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. And we know at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class offers its thanks, and gives you, uh, this. It's from all of us, and it has written here, "Buffy Summers, Class Protector.

Such a great moment in the Buffy series. And then they follow this with Angel showing up to be Buffy's date just for the night. They dance to the beautiful "Wild Horses" and the episode fades to black. Perfect.

4. Earshot, Season 3, Episode 18

Earshot actually didn't air when it was originally supposed to. They had to delay the airdate because it dealt with threats on a high school, and Columbine had recently happened in the previous week. The episode starts out with Buffy killing a random demon and absorbing some of it's blood. Because of this, she is told by Giles that she might develop an aspect of the demon. She worries about growing a tail or horns, but then soon discovers she developed telepathy instead.
This power seems great at first. Buffy uses it to answer before the smart kid in English and torment Xander for his inappropriate thoughts, but then she becomes overwhelmed with the voices in her head. The only voice she can pick out is a quiet "This time tomorrow, I'll kill you all." Buffy can't help to figure out who it is because she is so weakened by her condition. That leaves the detective work up to her friends at school. Xander quickly accuses the lunch lady, but everyone ignores him and goes down a list of students. They interrogate each student pretending they are from the yearbook, and are able to narrow it down pretty quickly.
Angel helps find a cure for Buffy from an identical demon, and soon she is back at school tracking down the potential murderer. She thinks it is Jonathan because she spots him with a gun in the school tower, but when she confronts him, she finds out he was planning a suicide, not a murder. Xander wanders into the cafeteria to eat some jello and discovers the lunch lady pouring rat poison in the kid's food. Hysteria ensues with Xander knocking over everyone's lunch tray to prevent them from being poisoned, and Buffy fighting to get the meat cleaver out of the lunch lady's hand. It's a pretty great ending, and it includes a serious thought about suicide. Buffy is able to calm down Jonathan and tell him everyone deals with pain, and that he is not suffering alone. She shares some of her own pain, too, extending the message that everyone suffers, but it's just how you deal with it that makes the person.


3. Pangs, Season 4, Episode 8

Remember I mentioned crossover episodes? This is one of them, and the first of which Angel appears in Buffy after leaving the show. Angel comes to town because his friend had a vision Buffy was in danger. He decides it would be better not to tell her he's there, but he somehow manages to run into all of Buffy's friends at some point in the episode. Every time they see him, they assume he is evil again, and he has to keep correcting them as he gets increasingly frustrated with their accusations.
Buffy makes it her goal to have a normal first Thanksgiving at college, so she prepares a dinner for her friends at Giles' house. This is interrupted by many things, including Spike begging for help since he can't eat anything (he was previously implanted with a chip that made it impossible to attack anyone as a vampire without feeling intense pain) and indian spirits claiming revenge for the Europeans bringing them diseases way back when. Buffy, Giles, and a tied up Spike are attacked by the spirits at home and fend for themselves until the rest of their friends arrive with Angel. Spike can't do anything, but provides excellent commentary, like saying "Watch the heart!" when being repeatedly shot with arrows, and yelling at Buffy to "Undo it! Undo it!" when she causes a spirit to transform into a wild bear.
They make it out alive and manage to salvage a small dinner, which Buffy is immensly proud of. Everyone is happily eating (minus Spike) until Xander accidently lets it spill Angel was there the whole time right before the credits go up. "Oops" is all you here when the screen goes black. I loved this episode for the Angel come back, but also for all the parts that had me laughing. I was always continually impressed with the writing for this show.

2. Surprise, Season 2, Episode 13

I still remember watching this episode on the fancy VHS tapes I bought in middle school (TV on DVD did not exist yet). I was actually very familiar with it because I had read the novelization first. Those novels were my only connection to pre-Graduation Day episodes, so it took me awhile to piece together the show's past before it was finally re-runned on FX.
Surprise is a big part of the Buffy/Angel saga. It's Buffy's birthday, so of course, something tragic happens. The group finds out Spike and Drusilla are re-forming the Judge, an ancient demon that couldn't be killed and was instead separated into pieces and dispersed among the Earth. If he gets put together, he can just look at someone to kill them. At Buffy's surprise party, she runs into a group of vampires moving one of the pieces (an arm to be exact). She gets a hold of it, and the gang decides Angel should take it to some remote location to keep it safe. He must leave Buffy for months, breaking her heart. He gives her a Claddagh ring (since I saw this, I always wear one, too) to show his love right before they part, but there is no need for goodbyes because the vampires catch up with them and get the arm back.
Buffy and Angel try to stop them, but they fail and are nearly killed once the Judge is assembled. They flee back to Angel's apartment and profess their love after almost losing each other. They also finally sleep together. Too bad sleeping together makes Angel lose his soul and turn evil again. That tragic thing I was talking about....this is it. I always stop the episode right before he loses his soul and pretend they are just happy. It wouldn't make for good TV, but it would be nice.

1. Becoming, Season 2, Episodes 21-22

This is the third season finale on my list, and in my mind, the best episode of the series. It's another two-parter, but each episode has it's own purpose. Angel is still without a soul and has killed a lot of people in Buffy's life by this point. His next plan is to open the moth of Acathla to swallow the world into hell.
The first episode of the two sets up the final battle between Angel and Buffy by killing off even more characters, and taking many others out of the running with injuries. It also consists of flashbacks showing how Angel came to meet Buffy and why he moved to Sunnydale. We find out he acutally saw Buffy when she was called to be a slayer, and that when they met in the pilot, he already knew her pretty well. It was interesting to see this bit of history, and how the weak, but kind-hearted Angel of the past parallelled with this horrible monster in the present.
A side-plot develops in which Willow figures out how to curse Angel again with a soul. Her first attempt is thwarted, but she manages to complete the curse on her second try. Unfortunately, the evil Angel has already opened the mouth to hell, and the only way to close it is to kill him. Buffy has only a few moments with the Angel she fell in love with, so she hugs him, kisses him, and tells him everything will be all right. He acts as if he just woke up and doesn't seem to remember anything, so when Buffy tells him to close his eyes, he doesn't expect that she will plunge a sword into him. But she does, to the dismay of fans everywhere. This final act emotionally destroys her, so she leaves Sunnydale without telling her friends and the final sight of the episode is a "You are now leaving Sunnydale" sign. They also play Sarah McLachlan's "Full of Grace" after she kills Angel to really drive the emotion home.

Summer Movie Series: Up

Up

This is a warning to all 8-year-olds- Never leave your candy bar unattended!

Pixar did it again. They completed yet another film that draws in large audiences and leaves them with uplifting (no pun intended) thoughts on their way out. I was pretty impressed with this movie, but not necessarily blown away. It ended up being exactly what I expected in many ways.

The movie starts out introducing a young Carl Fredricksen, a kid enticed by the idea of great adventures. He soon runs into a loud and enthusiastic girl who shares the same interests, and even though she does all the talking, he falls in love with her from day one. They eventually marry, and the movie shows their entire life together in a memorable montage.


From innocent picnics, to saddening news about children, the couple sticks together and never gives up on their goal of one day travelling to Amazonia, their childhood dream. Unfortunately, life gets in the way, so they never quite make it. However, Carl decides it is up to him to see the trip through, so he turns his house into an aircraft with thousands of balloons, and sets out to South America. He quickly realizes he has an unexpected passenger, the 8-year-old wilderness explorer named Russell. At first Carl sees him as a liability, but quickly the kid proves to be loyal and helpful throughout the trip.

The two make it to their destination early in the movie, but that is when the true adventure begins. Kevin, a colorful but highly intelligent bird, and Dug, a dedicated talking dog, meet up with the new travellers and end up getting Carl and Russell into (and out of) trouble. These two characters really make the movie. Dug comes off really well because he says all the things you pretend your own dog says. He gets distracted by squirrels, loves a good game of fetch, and does whatever he can to help his master. He is also quick to love!



Kevin says a lot without talking. S(he) takes a quick liking to Russell, who repeatedly asks Carl if they can keep him. Russell worries what will happen to Kevin when Dug mentions taking him as his prisoner, so he makes Carl promise to help him, cross his heart. Russell's attitude reminds Carl fondly of Ellie, his late wife, so he goes along with him and vows to keep the bird safe. This becomes difficult when the two meet up with Carl's childhood idol, Charles Muntz, whose only goal in life is to capture a bird of Kevin's species to prove its existence to the world.


Once Carl catches on that his idol doesn't match up to his expectations, he and Russell must find a way to escape, save Kevin, and finally make it to Amazonia Falls. Muntz's dog servants were fun to watch, especially the Doberman leader, Alpha. Alpha's collar often gets damaged, causing his voice to come out much different at the amusement of the audience and other characters in the movie. This little bit to the movie just adds to Pixar's genius at really taking "it's the little things that count" to heart.

The only thing that I feel was missing was maybe some more bonding between Carl and Russell. They could have had a chat about Elllie maybe, because Russell is never told directly about Carl's back story. They just become friends because of the circumstances they are in. Other than that, I enjoyed it. I would agree with Orlando Sentinel and give it four stars. It's not Finding Nemo, but it's also not to be missed.

Go see this movie. Go for the colorful palette for the animation. Go for the background 40's musical theme that keeps on throughout the film. Go for the endless laughs from Russell, Kevin, and Dug. Go because everyone in the world sees Pixar movies. Or finally, go see it for the short film before it, Partly Cloudy. You can't help but love the idea of clouds making babies for storks. And focusing on the one cloud and stork team in charge of the problem baby animals? Fantastic.

Summer Movie Series: Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me to Hell

It's mine! My own! My precious!

I had not planned on seeing this movie. I saw the trailers on TV, and decided that a movie about crazy old ladies and flies going up your nose was not my cup of tea. To my dismay, a reunion with old friends turned into a movie outing, and guess what had been chosen to see? Yes, I was dragged to see Drag Me to Hell. Seems appropriate.

This movie is RIDICULOUS. I didn't even want to post a review because I hate thinking about it, but I figured I should try to address all types of movies, so here we are. The movie starts out with a flashback to 1969 in which a little boy visits a medium because he has been cursed by gypsies. The curse causes a person to be harassed by an evil devil spirit, the Lamia, for three days before being dragged by said spirit to hell. The boy is cursed because he stole a necklace from a gypsy cart. WTF. A seven year old shoplifting does not translate to horrible death to me. Gypsies must be sensitive. Remind me not to offend one later. To make sure we see how bad the curse is, the boy is not saved, and instead the floor opens up to a fiery hell and hands come up to pull him down. Flash forward to present day.


Alison Lohman plays Christine, a young farm girl turned loan officer, who is up for a promotion. To get the promotion, she has to show that she can turn people down for loans and not always be so nice. Because Christine is apparently the most unlucky girl on the planet, she decides to start being mean when an old gypsy comes in begging for an extension on her house loan. The movie starts adding a gross factor around this point, too. The lady coughs up what can lightly be described as flem multiple times, and also takes out her teeth at the desk. If I had known it would only get worse from here (grossness-wise), I would have walked out. There is a vomiting corpse later people. How do you vomit when you are dead?!?!? I digress. The lady is denied the loan and feels she is shamed, so she decides Christine deserves to go to hell. She attacks her in a parking garage, has a ridiculous (and again, really gross) fight with her, and then curses her with a button. Yes. A button (reference first picture).


The rest of the movie shows how the curse torments her and the multiple attempts of Christine trying to remove it, including an unfortunate detour from her usual animal rights activist ways. The movie is good at keeping you guessing at who will ultimately die, or if no one will die. I was surprised by the ending. I knew something bad was coming because I guessed what was wrong with the last attempt, but I thought a different character would face the consequences. You'll have to check it out if you want to know how it ends, though I don't ever recommend seeing this unless you LOVE horror movies.

I honestly don't know how this movie is getting good reviews from critics. I would give it two stars, mostly because it made me laugh sometimes. There is one big climactic scene with a seance that gets pretty crazy. And by crazy I mean there is a dancing possessed man and talking goat.


I was scared sometimes just because things were popping out, but the story itself isn't that scary to me. The scares are balanced out well with laughs and grotesque incidents, so I praise Raimi for that. Otherwise, really regretted paying $10 to see this.

Summer Movie Series: Night at the Museum- Battle of the Smithsonian

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch nervously wait to hear which one of them is still in the running to become America's Next Top Model

This movie has the same problem as Wolverine- trying to introduce way too many characters in the short span of the movie. There was no need for back story for this bunch (because everyone recognizes the historical figures and pop culture icons), but unfortunately, the many new introductions did take away from developing the plot.

Night at the Museum 2 starts out with Larry Daley, our hero night guard, moving on from the guarding business and now starring in infomercials boasting his own products. He visits his old museum when he can to check on his friends who now feel ignored and abandoned. They are especially resentful because no one was present to speak on their behalf when the board made the decision to replace most of the displays with new holograms. Now half of the museum is being sent to the Smithsonian for long term storage without the tablet! Larry feels sorry for everyone, but claims he can do nothing and moves on. This wouldn't really make for an interesting story, so the monkey steals the tablet to take to D.C., forcing Larry to follow and save his friends from new enemies.


He quickly encounters Kahmunrah (older brother of the true tablet owner) and discovers he is a flamboyant Hank Azaria with a lisp. I love a good bad...bad guy. Hank Azaria is hilarious from beginning to end. From recruiting Napoleon, Al Capone, and Ivan the Terrible....er....Awesome....to criticizing Darth Vader's cape, he doesn't stop with the laughs. His plan to take the tablet is weakly written, though, and is pretty vague. He uses it to open a door to the dead to resurrect an army, but he needs to know the code for the tablet to do so. He assumes Larry must have this knowledge, and gives him one hour to decipher it before he starts killing off his trapped friends from the New York museum. The movie is a little disappointing in this respect because I liked the characters from the old movie, and in this one, they are barely shown. They explain this by keeping the old characters trapped in a storage box being guarded by Al Capone's men, but I feel like they could have escaped and contributed more to the story.


To appease the moviegoers, Amy Adams bounds in the movie as Amelia Earhart with an enormous amount of energy and spunk to make up for the lack of old characters. She is a fast talker, and even though she is always amusing, I found her a little hard to keep up with. One minute she's rambling on about adventure, and the next she is trying to fly her old plane just for fun. I think they needed to make her character a bit more competent and focused. Amelia tags along with Larry and helps him decipher the tablet's code by finding new museum figures to ask. One of my favorite scenes during this quest is when they resort to asking bobble head Einsteins. These quirky little guys are eager to help and finish each others thoughts as they give their two cents on the answer to the tablet. And...they do it with an attitude.


I also was highly amused by the giant red balloon dog statue that bounded around in the background of some scenes. I couldn't find a picture of him in the movie, but I did find a picture of the actual sculpture by Jeff Koons. The statue is nameless and never talks, but once it hops into screen, you can't help but giggle at its playfulness.


I had fun watching this movie, but I don't recommend going to it for the story. It mostly relies on your interest in museum figures and your ability to be dazzled by special effects. But that can be fun, too. They expanded on what they could bring to life, and now include moving paintings and pictures that you can jump into. This allows for a small extra plot involving the soldier kissing the war away picture and a cell phone, but you have to wait for the credits to see the result. It comes early on, so don't rush out of the theater.

I feel bad giving yet another 3 star rating, but that's how this movie was for me. The characters are fun to watch, and you leave with that same urge (like the first movie) to go to the nearest museum and wander around for hours. I just hope they don't make a third installment. Then I think museum attendance might start to go down....

Greek Episode Recap 5/25

Greek 5/25/2009

This is my first episode recap post. It will take some time to find a good format, but I'll start with a picture heavy post first to see how that works out. Greek is actually my favorite show on television right now (including those that have already wrapped for the season). The writing is always well-balanced (not too depressing or too happy) and fresh. I'm going to recap this episode by dividing it into the three main plot lines. First is the short, but funny adventures of Rebecca and Evan. These characters haven't interacted much since the beginning of the show, so it was fun to see them together. Here is how their story played out:

First, Rebecca's car was towed for parking in the faculty lot. Since Ashleigh had to study, Evan surprisingly offered to take Rebecca to the impound lot to retrieve her car since she needed to get to her laptop to turn in a paper.

No one was at the impound lot, so they tried to jump the fence to just get the laptop out of the car.

Unfortunately, the reincarnation of Kujo stood between them in the car.

After a few failed attempts, they managed to trap themselves in the car. Rebecca finished her paper and sent it in wireless, and the two realized they might be able to form some type of friendship despite all of the awkwardness.

I thought this side plot was great. The rest of the episode was tense, so it was nice to watch these two characters try to thwart a guard dog, especially after it swallowed Rebecca's remote control. They had to lure the dog near the car so the key would wirelessly unlock it, and this became higly amusing as niether one was able to outrun the dog, and instead opted for hiding in it instead. I'm glad it all worked out okay =D

Casey agreed to study with Cappie for their midterm since he invited a third girl he was dating to come along. Unfortunately, the new girl brought someone else Cappie had recently slept with, and so Casey and Cappie had to flee the study group and settle for studying elsewhere.

They tried the library next, but after things got too intimate on a crowded couch, they left and finally ended up at the Kappa Tau house.

Rusty showed up and explained his crisis with Jordan and how he decided that he could never be just friends with her. Casey and Cappie saw the obvious parallels to their relationship, which made things uncomfortable.

Cappie confessed his fears that no one will ever match up to Casey, and decided he will never find out unless he cuts her out of his life. They reluctantly agreed to end their friendship.

I'm a Cappie and Casey Forever person. Although I love Max, too. It reminds me of Ugly Betty a bit with Henry/Betty/Matt, but unlike Matt, Max is actually likable. I'm sure these two (Cappie and Casey) will eventually end up together. It just has to be the right time. Once they are together, though, the series will probably end. Their unrequited love story is the backbone of the show, and keeps it going (and good!) episode after episode.

And finally, Jordan and Rusty. Jordan had previously stated she and Rusty couldn't be friends after she kissed him when she was still dating Andy. But she decides she misses him and asks as innocently as possible if she can be a part of the guys' study group.

Dale and Calvin like the idea of a fourth person to spread out the art midterm material, so they leave it up to Rusty, who quietly agrees.

Before the study group starts, Jordan clears the air with Rusty by saying she wants her friend back. Rusty likes the idea of having Jordan at least as a friend (rather than no Jordan at all), so he says okay.

The study group is going great with Dale's crazy schedule and special Trivial Pursuit questions, but then Jordan's cell phone keeps ringing.

It's Andy, but she ignores the calls. He gets a hold of her by calling Calvin's phone, and breaks up with her.

After discussing the Sistine Chapel for their midterm, Rusty decides to re-create it for Jordan (who has seen it in person) by projecting it on the ceiling. This particular shot reminded me of the Breakfast Club for some reason...

The plan works perfectly as expected.

And Jordan can't get over how amazing it is, and in this moment, falls for Rusty.

Apparently going against her feelings, she gets back together with Andy when he calls back. Rusty decides it is too painful to be just her friend, and confesses that he had loved her from the moment he met her and tried to be cool with her dating Andy. She's overwhelmed and leaves him standing in the middle of the street.

At the art midterm the next day, Rusty gets passed a note from Jordan.

The professor thinks he is cheating, but Jordan stands up and tells him they aren't cheating. She goes on to ask him to read it outloud to prove it.

The note describes how she fell for Rusty the night before, and that she wants to be with him because he is new and is not the safe guy she usually dates like Andy.

The professor gives him back his midterm and tells him to talk to Jordan after class. The last line of the episode is Rusty happily muttering to himself "She fell for me!"

Wow. I LOVED this. How amazing was this storyline? My parents just happened to be in the room during the episode, and even my dad cracked a smile when the professor read the note aloud. It's that great "underdog gets the girl' story that just resonates with everyone. The Sistine Chapel scene was great, and made me wish a guy would project it on my ceiling. Or better yet, take me to see it in person ;) I can't wait to see how their little romance evolves. It took 9 episodes for them to get together, so I'm hoping the relationship lasts for awhile and doesn't get messed up right away by something stupid (reference Lana being infused with kryptonite right after she and Clark are back together....ugh Smallville, why?).