Book and Movie Reviews

I just finished reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward. I loved these books about a secret underworld of vampires that's slowly crumbling under archaic, oppressive traditions. The Brotherhood are a small group of men fighting the lessers, a cadre of undead scum created by the Omega (the devil). The vampire society is lead by a king, also the leader of the Brotherhood, who is trying desperately to stabilize society while the lessers wreak havoc. Each book in the series delves into the background and issues of specific characters while pushing the overall story forward. Many people in the on-line book club I belong to have a favorite character, but I couldn't possibly pick just one. I love them all!

I can't wait to read more in this series. The next book in this series is due out in April. Her latest book, Covet, is the first in a companion series. I will be reading it in the near future (once I straighten out my massive tbr list). I really liked these books and recommend them if Urban Fantasy is your reading genre of choice.

I also saw a couple movies this weekend. Law Abiding Citizen, starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx, was pretty good. Butler plays a man whose wife and daughter were murdered during a robbery. One of the bad guys gets the death penalty, but the other bad guy gets free after a few years in prison because he made a plea deal and ratted on the other guy. Butler spends the rest of the movie getting back at all the people who essentially let this second felon walk. It's very well made. If you don't get to the theaters to see this one, put it in your rental queue.

The other movie I saw was Good Hair, a documentary by Chris Rock about African-American women's hair. It was informative, funny (no surprise there with Chris Rock at the helm), and very well made. He explores all aspects of hair products and styles while interviewing many people ranging from common everyday people to celebrities. The most revealing aspect for me was what a HUGE business this is just because women don't like their hair! And this statement applies to white women as well, even though this movie specifically focuses on black hair. Definitely see this movie, no matter what race you are. After watching this, I swear I won't complain about my hair as much. (If I said "never" you'd know I was lying.)

Battle of the Blades - Week 4

This is still my most favorite show on TV right now. This week's musical theme was R&B, and the guest judge was Lanny McDonald. Lanny still has his giant 'stash, it's just white now instead of red.

Craig Simpson and Jamie Sale TOTALLY BLEW ME AWAY! I was screaming 6.0! 6.0! at the TV. Craig is skating really, really well (in spite of a back injury), they both have a great feel for the music, AND he was the first guy to do an actual jump!! A waltz jump, if you've never done a jump in figure skates, can be difficult. The judges only gave them 5.9's. I thought Dick Button might cave and give them a 6.0 but he didn't. He's probably saving it for the last episode or two.

Claude Lemieux looked great too. I still predict Lemieux and Simpson in the final two. Tie Domi got stuck with some crappy slow song I've never heard before, but he skated pretty darn well to the music with his partner (even if he is still in hockey skates). Daneyko and Richer were OK, but not fantastic. I'm guessing these are the two that will be in the skate-off tonight. We shall see!

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Daneyko and Domi were in the bottom two tonight. Domi skated very well. Daneyko did pretty good too, but not as good as Domi. Daneyko had a little bit of a flub on one of the lifts, but even discounting that his program didn't measure up to Domi's and he was booted off.

Battle of the Blades - Week 3

Week three and the pressure is ON! Tonight they skated to Latin music, and for the first time we're starting to see who's got the skating chops to make it. Most pairs skated well. Stephane Richer turned in a solid performance, while Tie Domi was fun to watch (as usual) and probably remains the crowd favorite.

Ken Daneyko was a little klutzy and he dumped his partner on her butt. Ron Duguay and Barb Underhill were a bit lackluster in their performance. I'm guessing those are the two that will be in the skate off tomorrow night.

After tonight I'm predict that the final two skaters will be Craig Simpson and *cough gag choke* Claude Lemieux. They both are skating exceptionally well, and they don't look like clumsy lumbering hockey players. I'm seriously impressed with their skating. The only thing either of them lack is the training to do spins and jumps, otherwise you'd never guess that weren't trained figure skaters.

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I was half wrong. The two players skating off on Monday night were Ron Duguay and Tie Domi. Tie's performance maybe wasn't technically advanced but he sold his "Rico Suave" performance to the judges. Ron Duguay's performance was similar to last nights: underwhelming. Ron was sent home. No more looking at his fake tans or perfectly coiffed hair (or his bad disco shirts).

Battle of the Blades - Week 2

Ho-lee-KOW! Last week when they announced that everyone would be skating to Frank Sinatra music on their second week, I thought it was a dirty trick to play on all the hockey players who are still getting used to figure skates. But they all looked really great this week. All the men wore figure skates except for Tie Domi, who did great anyway. I was especially surprised at how well Mr. Clean look-alike Ken Daneyko did.

My favorite was Craig Simpson who skated an honest-to-God pairs program with his partner Jamie Sale. He even did a few spirals as well as some lifts. I think they had the best performance, but the judges liked Claude Lemieux and Shae-Lynn Bourne the best. But again, they all turned in really great performances. I'm so impressed.

We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see which two pairs get the least amount of votes before we find out who'll get booted off next. Based on tonight's performance I'd go with Glenn Anderson who tripped on his toe pick and fell, then tripped on his toe pick again getting up. Shortly after that there was a very shaky lift that had me yelling "oh $hi+" because I thought he was going to drop his partner, Isabelle Brasseur. In spite of these mistakes, it was still a pretty good performance. If he can turn in a stellar performance tomorrow night, the judges might save him.

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As predicted, Glenn Anderson was in the bottom two, as well as Stephan Richer for the second week in a row (not quite sure why he keeps ending up in the bottom). Glenn skated much better in the elimination round. His lift toward the end of the program was solid, and led to a little bit of a different ending than what we saw on Sunday night (the correct ending, I'm assuming). But the judges voted him out.

The best part about this elimination round was Don Cherry calling out Dick Button for being excessively mean toward Glenn Anderson. Having followed figure skating for a couple decades, I'm used to Dick Button ripping apart the skaters. I don't think Don Cherry expected his harsh criticism since this show is just for fun and they're all skating for charity. It just goes to show you that the bitchiness of the figure skating world permeates everything it touches. Too bad.

Battle of the Blades - Week 1

OMG! Battle of the Blades is my new favorite show! It's on CBC every Sunday and Monday for the next six weeks. This show pairs hockey players with figure skaters to see how well the hockey players adapt to figure skating. It's hosted by Ron MacLean and Kurt Browning, and the judges are Dick Button and Sandra Bezic with a guest judge each week. This week's judge was Kelly Hrudey who you could tell had a lot of fun watching the big brawny hockey players skate a little routine with their partners.

The pairs are Bob Probert and Kristina Lenko (see photo), Claude Lemieux and Shae-Lynn Bourne, Glenn Anderson and Isabelle Brasseur, Stephane Richer and Marie-France Dubreuil, Ken Daneyko and Jodeyne Higgins, Tie Domi and Christine (Tuffy) Hough-Sweeney, Craig Simpson and Jamie Sale, and Ron Duguay and Barbara Underhill.

It's a lot better than you might think because the hockey players already know how to skate. Most of them have adjusted pretty well to the toe picks on the figure skates, but a few of them obviously didn't because they ended up wearing their hockey skates. Probert, Domi and Duguay all wore their hockey skates, but then Barbara Underhill sported a pair herself for this first round.

The judges gave the highest marks to Duguay who clearly visited Studio 54 a time or two when he played for New York. It kills kills kills me to say this, but if I had voted it would have been for Claude Lemieux. *choke choke, gag gag* Seriously, Lemieux and Bourne had the most elements in their program, including a full overhead lift, AND Lemieux did the whole thing on figure skates! I was really impressed. Actually I was impressed with all of the guys who all did a lot better than I had expected....except for Probert. *sigh*

I wish I could say my Red Wing skated figure eights around Domi, but he clearly had the hardest time adjusting to the fluidity of movement needed for figure skating. And after the skate-off on Monday between Probert and Richer (who had the two lowest vote tallys), the judges voted off Probert.

Next week the remaining seven pairs will be skating to music by Frank Sinatra, and the guest judge is going to be........drum roll........Don Cherry! YES! Grapes himself will be critiquing Tie Domi's ability to adapt a lovely skating routine to a lilting Frank Sinatra melody. (No, pigs aren't flying and hell hasn't frozen over.) If that's not enough to get you tune in then I don't know what is.

Pandorum

Pandorum was a good action /sci-fi flick reminiscent of the Alien movies. It was a little predictable but well made and fun to watch. It did have a nice little twist at the end, and God knows I love those!

My friend had a question about a key plot point, and when I pointed out the scene where we got that information she grumbled something about having someone else give us the information instead of the guy who's hard to understand. My one complaint was that at the end of every scene someone had to say "We've got to get out of here." It was obvious by everything that was going on in the plot that it was crucial for them to keep moving. I don't think they had to remind us quite so often. But hey, if you can roll with that and focus your listening on the mumbly guy's big scene, you're sure to enjoy this thriller.