Review: Devil

M. Night Shyamalan is back!

After the mega success of The Sixth Sense, his movies seemed to slowly roll down the hill.

I mean, Unbreakable was a movie I had to watch a few times in order to appreciate it .. Signs go really.. really hokey at the end with the whole alien finger under the door stuff .. I thought The Village showed some an upswing but then by the time The Lady In The Water and The Happening came out I no longer got excited anymore by his films.

I only watched Devil because 1) I was bored and 2) My cousin Charlie raved about it on a Facebook post.

Yea.. I'm just soooo discriminating, huh? LOL!

Anyway.. I'm glad I was bored and that Charlie raved about it because this movie.. THIS movie is CLASSIC Shyamalan!

The premise seems simple. Five people get stuck in an elevator. But it never is simple.. and OMG!! I so want to get into the plot and everything but I SOOOO don't want to ruin it for anybody.

Ok.. so there's the Detective, who's 90 days sober after coming to terms with the hit and run death of his wife and son. He gets a call about a suicide and while he's checking that out, receives another call about the people stuck in the elevator, one of whom seems to have been assaulted.

And it all goes from there..

And like classic Shyamalan, you have no clue what your going to get banged with in the last 10 minutes.

The movie is only 80 minutes or so.. not very long.. but it will keep you on the edge of your seat.

My only regret is that I ran out of Gummi Bears five minutes into the movie.

Watch this. I guarantee you'll be talking about it every chance you get to every one you see!

Review: Tomorrow When The War Began

Are you old enough to remember 1984's Red Dawn? The movie that had teenage girls drooling over Patrick Swayze and C Thomas Howell as mid western teens who band together with the friends to fight off the Russians who invade their town?

Fast forward 20 some odd years and you have Tomorrow When The War Began.

Tim's been after me to watch this movie but you know, I'm well past the age of drooling over young studs (*cough*) banding together when their town gets rolled over by a foreign army.

OR so I thought.

With nothing else better on the horizon, I conceded.

And I'm glad I did.

After spending the weekend in the bush, seven friends return home to find the families gone and their town and farms deserted. They quickly find out that a foreign army (not named but Asian by the actor portrayal) have invaded their place in Australia.

So what do they do? Do they hide? Do they become martyrs? What CAN they do?

Well, of course they do something. It wouldn't be a movie otherwise.. but what was intriguing was how morality played with their minds and hearts.

I'm not going to get into specific plot scenes for a reason. Researching the movie, I found out that the story came from the first of a seven book series written by John Marsden. I had thought that the movie ended rather abruptly but realized that the end left the window open for sequels.

Although I thought that some scenes were unbelievable, the story centers more on how these kids had to cope with losing their families, stepping out into a war and relying on their instincts to carry them through.

It was a good movie.. so good that I'm going to order the series to find out what happened. Definitely 2 thumbs up.

Review: Cyrus

If you were thinking (like I was) that this movie was going to be in the category of The 40 Year Old Virgin or Hot Tub Time Machine then you're going to be WAY off base.

The premise is ripe for that type of comedy:

Lonely, depressed man (John C. Reilly) fall for lonely, depressed woman (Marisa Tomei) who has an adult son (Jonah Hill) who's maybe just a little bit too close to his mother.

Can you just come up with about 50 or so potential scenes that would have you busting a gut?

Yea.

Me too.

Only this isn't a comedy like that. It's not even a dark comedy. It's really just bizarre. Too bizarre even for me.  And I like bizarre. But this is like, weirdo bizarre.

Reilly's John meets Tomei's Molly at a party where his ex wife and her future husband insist on getting him wrecked so that he can loosen up and meet women. He bombs.. of course.. but winds up striking up a convo with Molly as he pees in a bush. He appreciates her banter.. She appreciates his willingness to sing Human League karaoke. They hook up after the party and he drops head over heels over lose all sense of thinking ability.

John learns about Cyrus when he stalks her house while she's at work and Cyrus invites him in. There's something off about him.. there's something off about how he interacts with his mother.. there's just something off about the whole damn thing and it's creepy.

It takes John a while, but pretty soon he catches on that Cyrus is hell bent on breaking him and his mother up because he wants her all to himself. Molly is so wrapped up in her son (there's a picture of her breast feeding him when he was like, 7 or something) and can't admit the fact that this kid is 22 that it destroys the relationship.

I guess if I hadn't already had it in my mind that this was going to be one of those gross over the top comedies, I may have been able to get into it for what it is.. but you know, one of the first scenes is of John's ex wife catching him masturbating while he insists he just has jock itch so I don't think I'm wrong in expecting a different kind of movie. Plus, it was draggy.. very, very draggy.. omg.. SO draggy!

So no, I can't recommend this one. In fact, I can't even think of an instance where you'd want to watch it so just forget it even exists.

Review: The Tourist

If you need any further evidence that the universe is off kilter and maybe.. just maybe the Mayan's were right about the world ending in 2012.. then let me offer this:

There would have been NO WAY to convince me that I would not love a movie with both Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.

But then comes The Tourist.

I think, perhaps, this was suppose to be a different movie. Maybe one with just the right mix of sarcasm, wit and intelligence.

Hell.. maybe even one with a good script.

Hell.. MAYBE even one with good acting??????

Oh how it pains me to say these things!!

You know the story, right? European Femme Fatal seduces dopey American only to have Dopey American fall in love with her and screw up the plan that caused her to involve him in the first place.

It's been done before.. only better.

Angie's looking haggard (guess six kids will do that to you) and while she's always been easier on MY eyes, she had my ears bleeding with her fake British accent. It's almost as bad as Demi Moore's in The Scarlet Letter. Trust on that one.

Johnny Depp, as the Dopey American, practically sleep walks through the movie. It was all I could do to keep from shouting, "... come the hell ON, will ya?" .. Yes. That bad.

I will say that the movie redeemed itself in the 10 minutes or so but really, it was far too little.. far too late.

Pass on this one.. I wouldn't even part with a buck at the Red Box for it.

Good Eats: Saltine Toffee Cookies

You are going to HATE me.

No.

Really.

You are.

No question.

The other day I was over at my mom's. She had been to an Cookie Exchange with my aunt and came away with a sandwich baggy full of these creamy, caramel-ly, squares of mmm mmm goodness!

Now, I'm not a chocolate eater. I'm a caramel eater, no doubt.. but chocolate ain't really my gig but these were too awesome to not have in my possession. When I got home at around 10-ish, I told Tim that he absolutely, positively HAD TO EAT ONE RIGHT NOW.

Big mistake.

He killed the baggy in about 7 minutes. The whole baggy. Leaving none for me. I soooo didn't have any sympathy when he spend the rest of the night with his head in the toilet.

Anyway .. here's the recipe. It's really easy to make.

Ingredients
4 oz saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 chopped nuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 400
Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in a single layer
In a sauce pan, combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes.
Immediately pour over saltines and spread it over crackers completely
Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 6 minutes
Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top
Let sit for 5 minutes
Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts
Cool completely and break into pieces

THAT'S IT!!! Can you STAND it?? Who's going to make these more then just at Christmas time?? And the best is, you can get as creative as you want to get with the toppings... how about mint chocolate?? Hmmm? Or crushed peppermint sticks?? Hmmmmmm???  Yeaaaa... I thought so!!

If you're a little uncomfortable with making your own caramel, you can always just melt the already made ones.. just a thought.

So yea.. give these a bake and let me know how you like them!