A Bunch of Quick Movie Reviews

Wow, a post other than photos and Twitter updates! Yeah, I’ve been a bit behind in reviewing movies that I’ve been able to watch the last couple of months. Yes, even with Mia, work, and all the things life has to throw at you, there is still a little time to enjoy a movie. Well, I enjoyed some of them. Others were not so good.

Karate Kid (2010) - Why remake this movie? They should have just called it “Kung Fu Kid” considering that’s what Jaden Smith is learning. Jaden Smith overacts and Jackie Chan doesn’t get enough screen time. A valiant effort to not use the same script, but it falls short. Rating: Rental

Robin Hood - Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett aren’t bad in this movie. It’s just that the story isn’t compelling at the least. Rating: Cable TV

Inception - This is the last film we saw in the theater. I thought it was great, not realizing it was a long film. I would have liked to have seen some of the scenes in IMAX, but overall I was satisfied to watch it on the big screen. If you get this on blu-ray, I hope you have a large screen to watch it on, to get the full effect. Rating: Full Admission

The Losers - Action-packed movie, but no characters to care about. Zoe Saldana was the only thing going for this movie. Rating: Rental

The Blind Side - Likable actors and characters. Good solid story. I can see why Sandra Bullock was nominated for an Oscar (not sure she should have won it though). Rating: Matinee

She’s Out of My League - A predictable movie with a few funny moments. The shaving scene, and the outtakes of it, were a bit disturbing. Rating: Cable TV

Killers - An awful movie. A waste of time. I’m not sure why I bothered renting it. Oh, I know why. I rented Mr. & Mrs. Smith at the same time. I wanted to compare the two films. At least I watched one good film. Avoid Killers all costs. Rating: Cable TV

Date Night - Tina Fey and Steve Carell are hilarious in this film. But I thought it would have been funnier than it turned out to be. Rating: Cable TV

The Book of Eli - Strong performance by Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. Not sure if Mila Kunis worked in this film for me though. The ending was a surprise, but not enough for me to watch the movie again. Rating: Rental

Shutter Island - Well told story. Solid acting. Looks gorgeous in blu-ray. I wouldn’t mind watching it again, though I don’t think it holds up with repeat viewing. Rating: Matinee

Hot Tub Time Machine - Good funny movie that reminds me of the teen movies of the 80’s. Rating: Matinee

Kick-Ass - I was expecting funny/violent, which it started off as. Then it turned serious/violent. Action sequences were nice, but the overall tone of the film didn’t work for me. Rating: Rental

Zombieland - Another solid funny movie. Even though zombies scare Farrah, she sat through this film and enjoyed it. Worth a repeat viewing. Rating: Full Admission

Side Effects

It has been a week now since I’ve started to take the antibiotics meant to cure what ails me. I find it funny how drugs that are meant to help cure you make you feel so blah. I guess it’s just how your body interacts with the drug, teaming up with your immune system to defeat whatever is bothering you. I suppose that’s why they put all those funky adverse effects on the label. You know the ones like “may cause diarrhea, nausea, and bleeding from various orifices”.

The two antibiotics I’m ingesting - Ciprofloxacin and Metronidazole - have been unkind to me. After taking Metronidazole, I get hot flashes during the day. After adding Ciprofloxacin to the mix, I get lightheaded and nauseous. It makes functioning a bit difficult. I can’t drive a car. When I’m a passenger in a car I feel car sick immediately. I can’t stare at a computer screen too long because I’ll start to feel more ill. (BTW - I’m composing this via an iPad/iPhone app called Dragon Dictation.) If you do searches on both drugs (here and here) you can see that the side effects could be worse. Thankfully they aren’t.

At this point, I have 2 1/2 days more of the medication to take. I’ll take my last pills on Saturday morning, suffering through the effects throughout the day. I’m hoping Saturday night and Sunday will be much better. Later, I’ll have to follow up with the doctor to see what the heck cause my issue in the first place. Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious. Hopefully, I won’t need to take these medications again.

Been Ill

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting lately, especially missing the weekly Wednesday Mia photo post. But I was sick. Actually, I still am a bit ill.

The short story:

  • Woke up with a stomach ache Tuesday morning. Thought nothing of it. Took a couple of antacids hoping it’d go away.
  • Wednesday morning I woke up with more localized pain on the left side of my abdomen. (By the way - this was also Mia’s first day at daycare. More on that in a later post.) By afternoon I had cold and hot flashes.
  • Wednesday afternoon I was able to get an appointment with a doctor. Turns out I had a 102.6 fever, but of course, I felt cold so I didn’t notice. He prescribed antibiotics - Ciprofloxacin and Metronidazole - as well as getting a blood test.
  • The doc’s diagnosis is either stomach flu or diverticulitis.

At this point, the pain in my belly is still there, but it has lessened in strength. The medication I’m on is throwing me for a loop. I’m taking Ciprofloxacin and Metronidazole. I’m getting nauseous on one antibiotic and getting hot flashes with the other. Fun huh? Unfortunately, you can’t just stop taking the antibiotic - a 10-day course - so I’ll be suffering for a while.

I’m not sure if it’s diverticulitis or the stomach flu, even though the doctor feels it’s the former. The long-term treatment for diverticulitis is a change in diet. I guess that wouldn’t hurt. Either way, I’m stuck with these antibiotics for the next several days.

When Did Yahoo! Start Doing This?

Yucky! Yahoo!

I went to log into my Yahoo! Mail account, which I haven’t done in quite a while - since I don’t really use Yahoo! Mail any longer. And I’m presented with this full-blown ad. Granted, it doesn’t look too distracting. Thank goodness it’s not a pop-up ad, but still, I see enough ads on the Internet. I just want to log into my account!