A fast-paced, romantic, fairy-tale adventure. Mixes equal parts swashbuckling, whimsy, satire, and risqué humor. Violence runs the gamut from slapstick to quite serious. Not scary. Captain Shakespeare was hilarious and the ghosts provide satisfying comic relief throughout. Stardust is in many ways like The Princess Bride with higher production value. Recommended for the whole family. [...]

I’d read a few bad reviews of this prior to seeing it.1 It doesn’t quite live up to expectations—it’s formulaic and predictable—but it has its moments of charm and grace. The story is really about Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman) fulfilling her destiny while Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) and the Emporium take supporting roles. I wish [...]

This is a remake of the classic musical The Music Man (1962). It is faithful to the original with strong performances by Matthew Broderick and especially Kristin Chenoweth (who I was first introduced to as Olive Snook on Pushing Daisies—now I see her everywhere). The supporting cast (Victor Garber, Molly Shannon, Debra Monk) does a [...]

A quest for the fountain of youth spanning the interlocking timelines of a 16th century conquistador, a present day research scientist, and a 26th century astronaut. Not what I expected. The film, drenched in a feeling of desperation and sadness, is sometimes far out, often very beautiful. Poetic. The climax didn’t move me but I [...]

Very funny. A crescendo of British comedy with a satisfying and touching ending. The scene with the friend and Uncle Alfie is worth the price of admission. Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly) has moments of genius. Also, it’s directed by Fozzie Bear so this is one of the few DVDs where watching the extras is [...]

I’ve been gaming on almost a daily basis since the mid to late 70s. First Pong (yes, Pong) then an Atari 2600 and later on every computer platform I’ve ever used including Commodore 64s, TRS-80s, Atari 800s, Apple IIs, Amigas, PCs, Macs, and Linux. I was such a hardcore gamer that in 1999—and I swear [...]

A quiet and seemingly simple love story about a German mail-order bride attempting to start a new life in a Minnesota farming community in the 1920s. Inge and Olaf show us what commitment, friendship, and strength of character really are. Beautifully written, beautifully acted, beautifully photographed. Recommended. Sweet Land (Netflix)

I just finished watching the premiere episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It wasn’t terrible and it’s got Summer Glau (who shall always be River for me). But the first episode was essentially an abridged version of Terminator 2 (right down to a visit with the Dyson family) and ended by setting up the [...]

A to-do list in Tomboy Last week I asked for some help finding a new note taking application. I was becoming frustrated with BasKet Note Pads because, despite all of its great features, it would intermittently delete notes when I moved them (obviously, unacceptable). Otherwise, BasKet is a very good application for general note taking [...]

I was recently contacted by a representative of sumolounge.com and asked if I’d like to review one of their bean bags. I’m not exactly in the market for bean bag furniture but our boy has a bean bag and I thought the kids might like another one so… why not? They shipped me a free [...]