Wow - this book was as close to “right on the mark” as one could get. In the final Harry Potter book, author J. K. Rowling wraps up a decade long story of a young boy who discovers that he is the most famous wizard of his time. Harry’s arch-nemesis, Lord Voldemort, killed his parents when Harry was a baby. Each of the seven books deals with Voldemort’s return to power and his ultimate goal of killing Harry Potter. But, chances are that if you’re reading this book review, then you probably don’t need me to explain the beginnings of the Potter story.

The first thing that I want to say about this seventh and final installment of the Potter series is that the last 100 or so pages did exactly what the tens of millions of Harry Potter fans needed it to do: it wrapped up the loose ends and then gave a quick snapshot of 19 years into the future (more on that later). The brilliance of Rowling’s final chapters make the dissatisfaction of other finales become more pronounced…

One of the things that is especially well done in the final book is the story of Albus Dumbledore, his family history, and the introduction of his brother, Aberforth. The pesky Rita Skeeter makes her way back into the story as a filthy, low-down reporter once again. The climax of the Dumbledore storyline comes in two scenes, surprisingly. The first is when Aberforth meets Harry and explains his side of the story around his mother and sister’s deaths. The second is when Albus meets Harry in King’s Station after Harry is “killed” - or in proper terms - after Voldemort destroys the Horcrux hidden within Harry. More on that scene in a minute. I cite this scene specifically because it shows the younger fans of these novels that even the all-knowing, seemingly all-powerful, and inherently “good” character that was Albus Dumbledore had his flaws in life. A resentment towards his responsibilities as the oldest member of his family, a lust for ultimate power, and a predisposition towards telling half-truths are some of the many flaws in Albus. This is a great lesson for the reader as it shows that even the best of the best have their hidden secrets - this subplot made Albus Dumbledore more human.

Another part of the story was excellently written revolved around the Malfoy family and Dumbledore’s constant assertion throughout the series that love is the strongest force out there. Voldemort’s inability to understand this concept is displayed as he constantly bosses around Draco Malfoy in his mother and father’s presence after he takes over their home. Though it is not written, I suspect that the devolution of her son in front of her fellow Death Eaters awakens that deep magic that Lily Potter used to protect Harry when Voldemort attacked. One could guess that this deep magic is simply love, but that is for Rowling to talk about since these are her books and her creations. Narcissa’s betrayal against Voldemort is perfect story swerve that leads us to a magnificent final scene.

In this final scene, Voldemort is outside of a broken Hogwarts demanding that all surrender to him as he has the “dead” Harry Potter at his feet. Thanks to a few giant distractions and an onslaught attack by magical creatures including the centaurs of the Forbidden Forest, Harry is able to sneak away as the Second Battle of Hogwarts begins. These final scenes are satisfying for a few reasons from this point forward. First, you get four epic-style duels between the series’ good and evil characters. It begins with Voldemort dueling with Professors McGonagall and Slughorn and the Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt. Finally, after seven books, these professors are allowed to show their true magical prowess! A second duel is taking place between Bellatrix Lestrange (who easily becomes the most evil witch on the planet during book seven) and Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, and Ginny Weasley. When Ginny nearly dies from one of Bellatrix’s spells, Mrs. Weasley jumps in front of the girls yelling, “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!”

Easily the best line of the book - that instantly made Mrs. Weasley one of my favorite characters.

Mrs. Weasley goes on to kill Bellatrix in what had to be Rowling’s way of showing that the deep magic that is “love” will always overcome the lust and destruction that is evil. When Voldemort sees this, though, he is enraged and attempts to attack Mrs. Weasley, which leads to Harry revealing himself (and shocking everyone in the room). What follows next is brilliantly written as Harry shows his intelligence by logically proving that he is in possession of a stronger wand than Voldemort’s Elder Wand. When both wizards perform their “signature” spells, Harry’s logic proves true as he acquires Voldemort’s wand and kills him on the spot.

There are other magnificent scenes depicted in this book including the Gringott’s break-in and escape on the blind dragon, the torture of Hermione as Dobby saves the gang in the Malfoy basement, and the opening sequence when Hedwig dies as seven Harry Potters leave Privet Drive at the same time. Which brings me to another matter in this book and all of Rowling’s books - death of the supporting characters. While we are not hit with major deaths from any of the core group of characters, we are hit with Severus Snape, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey, Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and her father, Dobby, and Hedwig’s death in the final installment of the series. Other characters are killed including Minister Scrimegour and Bathilda Bagshot, but the big deaths in the book are really of Lupin, Tonks, and Fred (at least I think so).

Rowling showed another act of brilliance when she included an epilogue, showing the main characters 19 years into the future. As one could have predicted, Harry and Ginny Weasley are now married and have three children: James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter, and Lily Potter. It’s obvious who the children are named after. Ron and Hermione are also married with a child and we are also shown Draco Malfoy with his son. The most telling part of his appearance is the slight nod he gives Harry and Ron on the platform as their children board the train to Hogwarts. From my perspective, this shows the reader that the Death Eater movement is truly gone and that Malfoy has obviously learned the error of his ways. Good stuff.

Now, pulling myself out of the Harry Potter world for a minute, I think the true magnificence of Rowling’s final book is the fact that it is final and there is a definite ending. Unlike other major entertainment phenomena, the Harry Potter series has paid off for the fans who invested a decade’s worth of time, effort, and enthusiasm for the books. Rowling justly rewards Potter fans with a story that gets progressively “grown up” over the course of the seven books and a story that comes to a definitive ending. Not to mention that Rowling breaks with current trend of having some shady of gray be the ultimate winner. In the Harry Potter series, good clearly defeats evil and the heroes are rewarded with what appear to be full, healthy lives during the glimpse that we see 19 years after the final battle. It was actually a refreshing change to read such a decisive ending.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I give this book my highest recommendation and if you are not a Harry Potter fan, than I would recommend the entire series to you (even if you know what happens in the final pages of the final book). A job well done by J. K. Rowling.

Wow. This movie absolutely rocked. From start to finish, this movie was about as close to awesome as anything that I’ve seen yet this summer. I admit that I don’t know much about Michael Bay (the movie’s Director), but from now on when I see his name associated with a film, I’m watching it!

I guess it would be hard to say that the robots in the movie did a good job, but it would be fitting to say that the script was great. The dialogue was very well put together and the way that the human characters performed was excellent. Hey - how weird is that? In today’s movies you have to delineate between human performers and computer generated performances!

Shia LaBeouf is absolutely terrific in his role as Sam Witwicky. He plays a sort of not-quite the school nerd, but still unpopular kid who is incredibly smart with electronics (sounds like most of today’s kids). He plays the role well due, in part, to his comedic dialogue which is near perfect. One of my favorite scenes in the movie had the following dialogue between Shia and his parents when he wouldn’t open the door to his room:

Ron ‘Sparkplug’ Witwicky: 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… stand back from the door!
Sam ‘Spike’ Witwicky: What’s up?
Ron ‘Sparkplug’ Witwicky: What was that light we just saw?
Sam ‘Spike’ Witwicky: What light?
Judy Witwicky: Why are you so filthy and sweaty?
Sam ‘Spike’ Witwicky: I’m a child. I’m a teenager!

Shia says these lines to perfection - you really have to see it to appreciate how funny it is!

The sound effects for the transformers was very reminiscent of the old cartoon series, which was a nice touch. I’m sure that the computer folks behind the movie could have easily put new sounds into the movie and made the transformations sound different, but the old sounds were nice. The ease of transformation is completely different from the movies and old Hasbro toys, though! Watching Optimus Prime or Bumble Bee go from truck/car to Auto Bot is something else. The same is true with all of the transformers. Great use of computer generated imagery there.

If I had to criticize anything about the movie (and that would be hard), it would be that the love story between LaBeouf and Megan Fox (who plays Mikaela Banes) is too forced at times. I mean it’s alright, but it sometimes seems like scenes relating to their love story are added just so they can be there. I would also criticize the fact that there isn’t enough character development with the military at the beginning of the movie or the “super geeks” who help decifer the Decepticon code. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if these characters didn’t pop-up again and again in the movie in situations where you’re supposed to care about them.

This movie could have easily been 5 hours if the love story and the “other” characters had a chance to develop…which I probably wouldn’t have been opposed to sitting through and watching.

All in all this is definitely a must see movie - and not just for Transformers fans, either. I give the movie my higher recommendation for an action movie. Trust me - you’ll love it!

The other night I had the opportunity to watch Al Gore’s award-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” in a downloaded format. I’ll be honest - even though I don’t like Al Gore too much, I thought that he did a great job narrating this documentary and teaching the “lesson” of the documentary. Now, whether or not I agree 100% with his message is another story that we’ll get to in a minute. But in terms of whether or not this documentary should have won the Oscar? Oh yeah - it was a job well done by all involved.

The documentary is basically Al Gore giving a lecture with some interesting charts and graphs on a huge projection screen. This is intermingled with scenes from Al’s research and his 2000 campaign for the United States Presidency. Okay, this is the first area where I’ll take issue with Gore - it seemed at times that he included an unnecessary political commentary (specifically about his loss in 2000). Listen, we know that he doesn’t like President Bush and we know that while he won the national popular vote, he actually lost the Florida vote by a mere 543 and that’s all he needed to win the election.

If Al Gore was sitting next to me, I’d say something like, “Bro, you lost the election. Get over it.” Contrary to popular extremist belief, there was no foul play and FOX News didn’t somehow make President Bush win the election (in fact, the truth is they hurt his chances at winning by releasing information about his drunk driving record the weekend before the election). But I know the extremists don’t want facts to get in the way of a good anti-Bush story, so we’ll leave that where it lies…

Back to the documentary - I liked the message that Al Gore presented towards the end of the film. He essentially said, “Hey, we goofed up and we heated up the earth. But all is not lost - we CAN do something about it and YOU can do something about it. This is what you can do…” and then he proceeds to list out a bunch of things that we can do as a worldwide community, a nation, and individuals to change the earth’s climate. Some far-right or anti-Gore thinkers stop at this point and complain about the science and how Al Gore is lying about certain facts and that he exaggerates other facts. Well, I admit that it sounds more like he is telling a story that he just so happens to have science to fit as opposed to letting the science tell a story, but I guess I just neglect to see a problem with his methods.

In other words, most of what he is saying is true, even if it’s not to the extreme that he presents it as. You can’t lie or exaggerate basic facts like, “the earth’s atmosphere is made up of chemicals A and B.” Comments like that are just comments on scientifically proven facts. Now, can he exaggerate when he says that New York City will be under water in a few decades? Sure. That’s probably a bit much and I don’t believe that enough research has been done on enough variable-based situations to prove that we’ll be losing the wealthiest island in the world by 2050. But is the overall message worth over-inflating a point like this?

Well, yeah.

Is it so bad that people start to conserve more energy? Isn’t that a good thing? In fact, this is a nonpartisan issue. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can all agree that energy efficiency is something that we all need to be concerned about, whether you define that efficiency as better gas mileage, creating less carbon emissions, or recycling. This is an issue that everyone can - and does - get behind.

So do I think you should go out and get a copy of this movie? Sure, I’d recommend watching it. Maybe I wouldn’t put this in the “must buy” column and I probably wouldn’t put it in the “see at all costs” column, but it was a good documentary. Job well done by Al Gore…now if he could just get over the fact that he lost in 2000, he might be less despicable!

Not that this has a major impact on me since I’m a happy Sirius Satellite radio subscriber, but WCBS-FM in New York City is back to playing the oldies! This is really a great story of the people “voting with their feet” as the station changed its format over 2 years ago to a new “hip” style. The people voted by walking away from the station in droves - and they took the lucrative advertising revenue with them.

The new format was called Jack-FM and their slogan was, “Playing what we want.” Well, it seems that absolutely no one gave a shit about what music they were playing as they went from 8th in the New York market to 16th. This just shows you, again, how out of touch the powers-that-be at CBS are with the contemporary marketplace. Idiots.

I distinctly remember family members telling me how upset they were when 101.1 switched from oldies with Cousin Brucie (who can be heard on Sirius, by the way) to playing whatever some idiot marketing genius thought Generation X wanted to hear. This was just a horrible, dumb, stupid business move and whoever thought of it and put the “ok” on it should be fired immediately. Not only was the oldies format in 8th place in New York, it was the #1 rated oldies station in America. Why would anyone want to change that?!?

But stupidity with radio decisions isn’t anything new in New York. Let’s not forget that K-Rock switched from the #1 rock channel in the city while it had Howard Stern to some bullshit called FREE-FM after they lost him. Since the ratings for that style went straight to the shitter, in May CBS Radio brought K-Rock back and dumped their sub-par at best talk show format. Again, if I was at CBS Radio at a higher level and I knew who originated the idea to switch to an all-talk format in the wake of Howard Stern’s departure, I’d fire the person on the spot. How do you take the #1 rock station in both New York City and Northern New Jersey and just change it to an all-talk format? Idiots! But then again, this is the station that is keeping Opie and Anthony on the air when they routinely score 0.0 in the ratings for the New York market. Actually, their ratings may have gone up, but they’ve been a dismal failure since they entered New York.

I digress…

It’s good to have the oldies back on in New York City. The fans of 101.1 didn’t deserve to have their station snatched away from them and I’m glad that the stupid, iPod format of Jack-FM was a miserable failure.

As I’ve said in previous Harry Potter movie reviews, I really like the books better than the movies. I’m not sure exactly what is lost in the translation of these books, but there is something about the movies that leaves me feeling empty. Honestly, it’s probably the fact that it takes so long to read the book and you get very involved in the storyline while reading, but who knows?

I thought that the movie version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was okay - nothing spectacular. Not too bad, not an award-winning film, but certainly not a bad movie by any means. There was so much more in the book in terms of details, yet the movies provide a great visuals for future readings (but of course, there is only one book left to read so it doesn’t really matter any more, huh?). The ending fight scene in this movie is very well done as is the part played by Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge.

For those of you that don’t know, Umbridge is a snobby, giggly bureaucrat who comes in and takes over the magical Hogwart’s Academy. This is a role that you’ve got to have real talent to play because the character needs to conform to a variety of descriptions, which Staunton does well.

Severus Snape is also played brilliantly again by Alan Rickman as is Albus Dumbledore by Michael Gambon. Of course, Daniel Radcliffe was great as Harry Potter (and thank God he was fully clothed throughout the entire movie). The rest of the teenagers in the cast also performed well. There is a certain manner of their performance that is very “regular.”

By that I mean that you can watch one Harry Potter movie and then watch the next and feel as though there is very little break in the character developments, which is great. This is something that the novels accomplish by simply repeating a ton of information (J. K. Rowling isn’t writing hundreds upon hundreds of pages with 100% brand new material, folks - maybe 80% new at best). Anyway, it’s nice to have a smooth character development with the characters in the movies.

That being said, the Potter movies are facing a big problem in the coming years - namely that these “kids” are all hitting and completing puberty! There’s something about having young children begin these movie roles and then having grown-ups in the final movies that doesn’t quite jive with the books. I mean Radcliffe (who turns 18 next week) has already performed NAKED on the stage in London! Seems sort of weird that he’s playing a teenage wizard of 15 or 16 years old and then he’s naked next to a horse in between movies. Blech!

So here’s hoping that the movies continue to come out quickly for obvious reasons. As for The Order of the Phoenix, I don’t think you need to go out and see this one in the theater unless you’ve got little buggers who won’t stop screaming until you take them to see it! This is probably a good movie for a movie night at the house or a bored afternoon DVD rental. Good performances by all, though.

FOX News debuted a show a few weeks (months, really) ago called the Half Hour News Hour. It’s a right-wing take on the Daily Show, Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, and the Colbert Report. The show has absolutely dominated its competition in its time slot on cable news. Yet it gets universally panned by critics.

Seems about right!

Listen folks, the hard truth of our world is that television programming is DOMINATED by programming from the far left and the liberal point of view. It just is. Anyone who watches Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and doesn’t think that the show has a huge liberal bend is just batty. And quite frankly, the humor that Jon Stewart spews is no more “factual” than the humor that the hosts on the Half Hour News Hour spew. Both shows tell fake news as real news, but only Stewart’s news is actually taken as fact by the brainwashed young masses…

And this is a fair blog - the AM dial is completely controlled by the right wing pundits, as is most talk radio. Do those hosts tell the complete truth? Well, sometimes, but they certainly have an agenda that they are pushing - that’s clear.

What I find really saddening about the media universally bashing this FOX News comedy show is that it proves things that the brainwashed masses just don’t want to admit. For example, this show is, in fact, a success and by NOT admitting that in their reporting, the major media sources show their anti-FOX bias. Remember, we’re not talking about the USA Network or network television channels like NBC or CBS where getting 1.4 million viewers is a miserable failure. This is a cable news channel. CABLE NEWS!

Make no mistake about it - to draw in numbers like that for a half hour comedy show is impressive and a huge success. But don’t expect to see that fact put out there in the mainstream media…that would ruin their obvious falsehood that the show is a failure for the right-wing and the FOX News Channel! If you want to watch a funny half hour of television, then check out the Half Hour News Hour. Is it the funniest 30 minutes on television? Absolutely not - check out Scrubs or the Office for that! But is it better than the 50+ “Bush is an idiot” jokes that you’ll get on the Daily Show and the “President Bush is Stupid” jokes you’ll get on Weekend Update?

Absolutely. And don’t believe just me - the numbers speak for themselves!

The television ratings for the Live Earth concert apparently were a failure. In the United States, the concert was watched by about 2.7 million people. In the United Kingdom, a few hundred thousand more watched - I think their total was around 3.1 million. But in the reports that I’ve read bashing the show, there is no mention of the over 8 million folks who watched the concert on MSN. Of course 8 million viewers online is a bad number in a global marketplace of 6 billion potential viewers, but it is certainly not a failure.

The early estimates were that roughly 2 billion people watched, saw, or heard the Live Earth concert. Remember, if I’m a Nielsen rating household and I’m watching the concert, what’s to say that 3 of my family members aren’t watching with me? And what about the radios that played the concerts live like Sirius Satellite Radio?

I’m more inclined to believe in the 2 billion number than the “dismal failure” crowd. Listen, I know that Al Gore was the guy behind these concerts and that he’s a whack job on occasion (I’m not his biggest fan at all), but why bash the point of the concert because of the politics of the man behind it? The Live Earth concert is the largest entertainment event in the world’s history. That’s a huge accomplishment, even for a whack job liberal like Al Gore!

So I congratulate Al Gore and his band of merry misfits for their accomplishment. In fact, I even watched “An Inconvenient Truth” over the weekend just to see what his point of view was about the environment. Sure, most of his science seemed to conveniently fit his message, but I essentially don’t have a problem with Al Gore fooling the masses on this issue. Let me explain…

If we, as a country and a world community, become more reliant on renewable energy and reduce our carbon emissions then the future is only bright for everyone. There is no real downside here. I don’t see how global warming - or, if that term is too decisive for you, then let’s just call it relying on renewable energy sources - is a political battle. Republicans are for something called “energy independence” which is essentially ending our reliance on foreign oil. President Bush has also allocated a butt ton of public dollars towards researching hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Democrats like Al Gore are pressing for similar policies. Both political parties support using energy efficient light bulbs and solar power in your home, if possible. Everyone supports recycling, hybrid vehicles, flex fuels, and conservation…

So why does this issue become a political one? Better yet, why bash the Live Earth concerts? That’s just dumb.

But then again, when politics (or things of a political nature) are discussed in any setting in America these days, the conversation turns pretty stupid pretty quickly. It’s unfortunate.

Joe sent me a copy of the direct to DVD Dead Silence a couple days ago and I just got a chance to view it last night. Despite being self labeled as a “movie geek” I’m normally not a fan of horror movies. The acting is usually way over the top and horrible for me to enjoy, the premises are too stupid for me to enjoy, and basically I’m a big wuss who scares easy!! Having said that, I was pleasantly suprised with this film. It was done by the same people who brought you saw, Leigh Whannell and James Wan. I have to say, these guys do know how to make a suspenseful, creepy film.

It starts off with our main character, Jamie (played pretty well by Ryan Kwanten), receiving a mysterious package at his door. He and his wife Lisa open it to reveal a mini casket with a doll (a creepy as all hell doll!) laying inside. When Jamie is out getting dinner for the couple, Lisa gets murdered, quite horifically, by something that is unseen. Everything goes quiet right before it happens, almost a “calm before the storm” type of feeling. Naturally Jamie is the prime suspect in the case. Donnie Wahlberg of NKOTB fame plays Det. Jim Lipton in the film, and he also does a pretty nice job here. Some of the best scenes in the movie are of Det. Lipton and Jamie.

The movie then goes to the town of Raven’s Fair, Jaimie’s home town, which seems to hold a big secret. As the movie progresses, and the more plot develops, the more and more intrigued I was with the story. The director did a nice job of drawing you into this ghost story, making you think you know what is really happening but in reality there is always more that meets the eye. It was filled with so many suspenseful, down right scary sequences that makes you wonder how was it actually filmed? The ending, I must say, was what really brought it home for me. I don’t want to give anything away, so all I’m going to say is the ending really caught me by surprise and was a nice way of finishing off the film. Overall, I enjoyed the movie, even though I couldn’t sleep for hours!! Well acted, well directed with an interesting story will always lead to an enjoyable film. Coming from someone who normally doesn’t enjoy this type of film, I would defintely recommend it to anyone who wants to see a movie and be entertained. You can be sure just about all of your emotions will be hit while watching it! Just don’t forget to “Beware the Stare of Mary Shaw………”

It seems like direct to DVD movies might become more popular. This was a fairly big movie, with en established horror director and writer with a pretty well rounded cast. This could have definitely gotten a major release, but with less and less people going to the movies anymore why not just get it right to audiences at home. There are a lot of people who would rather just stay home, rent or buy the DVD, and watch it on their big screen TV, so why not appease these people, especially with movie ticket/concession prices through the roof. I really wouldn’t be surprised if more films get a straight to DVD release in the future.