I’m a little bit divided on this movie. The visuals are great, which we’ve come to expect from Dreamworks (the makers of Shrek), and the story is cute and fun - definitely something you’ll want to bring the kids to if you’re looking for something cartoony. But I didn’t really like something about the movie - not sure what it was, though.

Actually, I think it was Jerry Seinfeld. He didn’t attempt to change his voice in any respect nor did he attempt to create a new character voice. There was little excitement behind his vocal performance, too. It was just like watching the Seinfeld sitcom…with bees. Very weird.

There was also the almost too obvious “green” overtones in the movie. I don’t really know if it’s worth making a movie with such strong underlying currents. Yeah, I’m all about a greener lifestyle and a harmonious environment, but if you’re making a kids’ movie, then focus on making the kids happy!

I thought the story, itself, was sort of lacking. The idea that a bee can speak and start a revolution against the honey industry is a bit of a stretch. Of course, without accepting that premise you really don’t have a movie. I thought the movie started strong, though, with the shortened “training” time for a bee and how they spend the rest of their lives in one occupation working for the betterment of the hive. The story got interesting when Seinfeld went out with the gathering bees to gather pollen and then cross pollinate the local park. But as soon as it hit the love story/bee revolt I quickly lost interest.

If you can get this movie on DVD from a friend, it’s probably worth watching for the amazing graphics alone. But don’t go out of your way to spend any money on buying the DVD or spending a gross amount of money renting it.

The Asbury Park Press has the second highest circulation in the state. Pretty impressive (the Star-Ledger far outpaces the Press). Last week, the Press flipped over to a new, higher-tech website over at APP.com.

I’ll be honest - I think the new website is garbage. I used to be able to find all of the Monmouth County news in one spot and now it’s broken down by township. Listen, as a webmaster and Owner of a website design company I understand the desire for increased hits. Higher hits lead to greater click-through rates on advertisements and thus more income. Simple enough to understand.

But good grief…to have to click on each hometown to get Monmouth County news in total - it’s just too tedious for me. Like most of the online news consuming public, I only have a short period of time in the morning where I check for top stories in my area. By no means do I have the time to check each and every hometown so I can get my total Monmouth fill.

Here’s hoping that Gannett doesn’t destroy the Daily Record website next.

By now it should be obvious that I’m a Smallville freak (not to be confused with a meteor freak). My story is simple: I bought Season 1 on DVD one day because it was selling for $20 and I had only ever heard good things about the show. I plowed through Season 1 in a few days and immediately ran out to get Season 2 (even though I was extremely sick and wasn’t moving out of bed at the time)! I managed to get through the first 4 seasons while Season 5 was still on the television. So I didn’t watch and waited for Season 5 to come out on DVD, watched it in 2 days, and then began watching Season 6 last September.

Of course, my schedule screwed me and I started missing shows so I stopped watching completely…which means that I had to wait an entire year for the f’ing DVDs to come out! I bought the DVDs earlier this week, watched them all, and still managed to miss the first episode of Season 7. Thank God I have DVR these days!

Season 6 was great. The show has grown-up so much over the last 5 years that it’s really become a great show with many adult themes. Sex, desire, marriage, lust - all of these play a major part in many of the episodes. This is the season that sees Lana Lang marry Lex Luthor and ultimately “explode” in the final episode. We follow Clark track escaped convicts from the Phantom Zone (which is where Zod exiled Clark at the end of Season 5). In fact, Season 6 ends with Clark fighting against the last - and strongest - escapee from the Phantom Zone.

One thing that really pissed me off about this season was the fact that Lana seemed to wind up in the hospital in the majority of the episodes. At one point, I think she was in there for a few episodes in a row! How long can you play out that storyline before it gets old? We get it, she’s physically weak, emotionally tempered, and sexually strong. We know! Move to the next friggin’ level of her character development!

The introduction of Jimmy Olsen was good for the show - or at least I think so. His interaction with Chloe really brings a different side of her character out for the fans to enjoy. It also clearly puts Clark in his own little world where he’s essentially alone. I mean even his Mother has Lionel Luther to lean on! Oh, and speaking of Annette O’Toole and John Glover, they (once again) steal the season with their acting. As do Chloe and Lois Lane (Erica Durance). Tom Welling is also great as Clark Kent as is Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor.

But honestly, at this point in the show’s history it is unnecessary to go over the excellence of the cast. They’re good - and if you don’t believe me then watch on Thursday nights at 8pm on The CW.

Season 6 was a great season and I’m looking forward to another excellent season!

Absolutely friggin’ hilarious! I don’t know what it is about Seth Rogen’s movies, but they are unbelievably funny - better than any other brand of comedy out there today. If you’ve seen the movie, the entire “McLovin” character is worth the price of admission and you know what I’m talking about! Here is a kid, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who has never been in a movie, commercial, or even a short film before. He’s not a celebrity and he’s not a multi-million dollar actor. He’s just a nerdy looking young kid who played a character that leaves a lasting impression that is easily on par with Napoleon Dynamite. Mintz-Plasse was awesome!

And it wasn’t just McLovin that lit up the screen. Young actors Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are equally as great at their respective parts as soon-to-be high school graduates who are struggling with the fact that they are virgins. Now, don’t think that this is one of those wimpy teen movies where you’ve got some stupid drama storyline about the guy getting the girl and then a lame teen love song pops up in the background. Superbad is FAR from that type of boring, repetitive type of teen drama. FAR from it.

I have to give it to Michael Cera. His character on the too-soon canceled FOX series, Arrested Development, was classic. His constant self-guessing and self-unassurance (that might not be a real world) made his character (George Michael Bluth) one that you wanted to watch over and over and over again. And if you don’t believe me, go grab the first season of Arrested Development on DVD and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. Cera brings that hilarious, not-quite-sure of himself character to full force in Superbad.

On the other hand, the already widely known Jonah Hill reprises a type of character that he’s good at already; namely the loudmouth jerk friend. Hill and Seth Rogen (who plays a police officer along with Bill Hader) bring that same feel that you get in Knocked Up and the 40-Year Old Virgin to this movie.

A few months ago I said that Knocked Up would be one of the rare movies that I buy on DVD. Well, this summer has now seen two rare hits with Superbad right up there on the funny scale. I recommend this movie and - now that it has been out in the theaters for a while - you might be able to catch it playing without a large crowd or without a bunch of annoying people ruining the movie. I caution this, though: pay attention to the movie because you’ll miss tons of hilarious comments if you’re not focused on what’s happening!

Enjoy!

According to BestSyndication.com, The Simpsons Movie took in $25 million last week. That’s down from the over $70 million it made the previous week. The Simpsons Movie is a summer blockbuster, folks.

And it’s easy to see why.

I enjoyed this movie, though I will admit that it seemed like a longer version of a regular episode. The characters and settings are drawn extraordinarily well and the movie has the look and feel of a “big time” cartoon production.

Just like South Park’s movie, I imagine that this will be a big DVD seller and that some goodies will be on the DVD. The plot to the movie is fun and simple - the lovable Homer goofs up again, breaks his daughter’s heart, and is forced to find a way to make it all better at the end of the movie.

If the movie is still in a theater near you, I suggest going to watch a matinee (or whatever the low-cost time period is for your local theater). As for the DVD - I think it’ll be a great rental for most and a great purchase of hardcore fans of The Simpsons.

This is the second Dale Carnegie book that I’ve read and - just as with the first - what I like about the book is that it actually sticks to the title. Unlike many of today’s “self-help” and “self-improvement” books that simply tell you a philosophy or explain a way of life that is unattainable for 95% of the American public, the Carnegie series actually delivers on their titles.

Carnegie gives many lists and examples of effective public speaking. Now granted, I think I’m a pretty good public speaker as it is, but this book sort of takes everything that I use when I prepare my speeches and puts it down on paper. I suspect that this is the case with many of the speakers who have read this book or taken the associated courses. And that’s the beauty of the series, folks.

This is a series that takes the ideas and thoughts of those people who are already good at a specific skill and puts them into print for everyone to read! Carnegie does this even better by making sure that the ideas and thoughts are shared across a broad spectrum of users and not just one or two success stories. Again, this is where the contrast with today’s self-help/improvement books comes in. Just because one person living one specific type of lifestyle is able to, for example, lose weight/get a job/get rich quick that doesn’t mean that anyone who purchases the associated “How to” book will achieve the same results.

In fact, given the rash of such books in today’s marketplace it’s almost a given that the end-user will fail. Not so with the Carnegie series. By vetting his practices across a broad spectrum of users, Dale Carnegie actually works towards his readers’ final success.

Again, another great book in this classic series. I highly recommend it.

Ugh. This movie had a bunch of really, really funny scenes, a bunch of awkward scenes, and a really shallow storyline. I’m sure that you can guess it already, but Chuck (Adam Sandler) and Larry (Kevin James) are two straight firefighters who attempt to fool the system so that Chuck’s kids get his benefits if anything should happen to him.

I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that this movie made a ton of money on its opening weekend (you slap Sandler’s name on a comedy and it’s an automatic gold mine) or the fact that the movie was actually made. All of the cliché stuff is in here, folks. Sandler falls in love with a woman while he’s faking being gay. All of their straight friends turn weird and start treating them differently when they find out that they are “gay.” There is some pro-gay stuff with the use of the word faggot and Sandler knocking out a preacher outside of a gay party.

You get it, right?

Throughout the movie both men are put in situations surrounded by the extremes, which climaxes with the two men walking into City Hall to defend their gay nuptials. On one side is a bunch of gay men wearing flamey clothing and on the other side are a bunch of straight religious folks. Blech. And as I’m sure you can imagine, all of the situations where their “friends” turn on them wind up reconciled at the end of the movie.

In addition, Sandler’s character says and does some absolutely horrendous things regarding James’ deceased wife. Granted, James’ character is way too tied up over his wife’s death, but some of Sandler’s comments and actions were just gross. Another part of the shallow plot.

I only watched this movie because I managed to see it for free. But otherwise, folks, I would stay away from this one or save it for some type of movie night or something. Yeah, the funny scenes are a really funny. And there are a bunch of cameos from guys like Steve Buscemi, Dan Akroyd, Nicholas Turturro, Rachel Dratch, David Spade, and Lance Bass. But the shallowness of the story and the obvious storyline progression is really hard to watch.

My recommendation? Funny movie. Not worth going to see in the theaters or buying on DVD.

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!