A surprisingly solid and suspenseful film. Solid acting all around by William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, and even Kevin Costner.

Rating: Matinee

Watched Baz Luhrmann’s Australia on blu-ray this weekend. The movie seemed to be two movies in one. The first part was light and breezy. The second half had a more serious tone. Fair acting by most of the cast. Some of Nicole Kidman’s hysterics were getting on my nerves though. The film is beautifully shot, with gorgeous scenery throughout the film. If you watch it in HD or blu-ray you may enjoy it more.

Rating: Cable TV

Fair acting, but a weak story. Not exactly a memorable movie.

My Rating: Neutral

Solid action from beginning to end. But the story falls short of the superb Casino Royale. The Bond character doesn’t develop as much as he did in the previous movie. Daniel Craig still kicks butt though.

Eastwood’s solid acting skills are on full display in this movie. The other actors, some apparent first-timers, are not so great. The movie moves at a brisk pace, with a mixture of humorous and dramatic moments. Eastwood’s character is more William Munny than Dirty Harry.

Grade: B+

On a previous version of janella.com…

…when I would write a movie review it would be long. Time is short, so my new movie reviews - when I have a chance to watch a movie - will be short. It won’t be extremely insightful, but it will convey what I feel about the movie.

For The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:

Brad Pitt grows young while Cate Blanchett grows old. Acting done well by both, and Fincher’s direction was spot on. But the ending left me unsatisfied.

Grade: C-

If I update my “current” iTunes tracks, it’ll cost me about $15. I’m waiting until they update their whole catalog to DRM free. I’ll then decide whether I should upgrade them or not.

Happy 60th Birthday and Happy Retirement

My iPhone Contacts Disappeared!: While I was out and about today, my iPhone contacts disappeared. I noticed this when I received a text message from someone on my contact list, which showed their phone number instead of their name. I’m guessing my over-the-air sync with Mobile Me was the cause since I have seen this sync problem before but only with my iMac and dot Mac. But when I got online, my Mobile Me account and my iMac contacts were fine. At this point I don’t know what happened. It sucks to lose your contacts for no apparent reason when you’re out on errands. I wonder if this has happened to anyone else?

For the last couple of months, I’ve had the urge to start running. I was never much of a runner. My lack of endurance only allowed for short sprints. But I think all the walking Farrah and I did in England, France, and New York has made me realize you can get far on your feet. This fact, plus the cost of gas, is making self-powered transportation a good alternative to driving. Maybe I need to invest in a couple of bikes? At the least, I think we’re going to try to hike more, possibly on Sundays.

At about 5:30 PM yesterday Farrah heard a large crashing sound in our backyard. It seems the old lemon tree we have there decided to partially crash.

The other half of the tree is up and seems to be holding well.  We trimmed a few branches from its side just in case.

Anyone need any lemons?