Were-Puma's....who knew.

Dana Marie Bell wrote a pretty good series (The Halle Shifter Series) and was my first introduction to any other shifter than a wolf. I have to admit, while I was surprised, it was very easy for me to accept the mythology presented. A sucker for the underdog-from-high-school-made-good story, I really liked that this series showed women who appear to have been weak actually ending up being much stronger than even the men in their lives. They overcome some serious adversity to become powerful leaders in their community.

Along with the ability to have cross-breed mates (puma and wolf) and homosexual mates, it makes me believe that the bloodline mixes might make for some interesting babies and definitely all too human-like scenarios all while maintaining the solidarity of the "one true mate" mythology.

The way I read books is sort of like reading a movie into my brain. I visualize. The descriptions in books need to allow me to visualize or I feel disconnected. So, the scenes are well written and the sex scenes were just...hot. My mind was all a whir with some delicious little films.

But foremost in my mind is the response Emma gave to her mate, Max, in the first book "The Wallflower" when he "kidnapped her with food" and she found out he was not only her mate but a shifter.
"I've never understood the woe-is-me thing. I mean, the hottest guy in town just told me he wants me bad enough to bite me and make me like him, and now he wants to drag me home and ravish me. I'm going to, what, run screaming into the night? Oh, no! I'm a Puma now! My life is over! Sob! I mean don't get me wrong, it still freaking me out a bit, and it's probably going to cost me a fortune in bikini waxing, but it's not the end of my world." 
I would like to think this is how I would react under similar circumstances. And the fact that they ask if they will need to use a litter box, if they are going to have kittens instead of babies, and they call each other Lion-O and Garfield....I can relate to these people.

Don't watch "The Watch"

Movie: The Watch
Starring: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Richard Ayoade

Where to start?  Hmmmm.  Let's go with my rating based on our standard questions

1. Would we pay full price to see this movie in the theater? 
• Sadly, we did pay full price to see this in the theater and are really ticked off that we did.  Soooo not worth it.  I wouldn't recommend seeing this in the theater at all.  Potentially, not seeing it at all would be a good choice.  BUT, we had to kill time and Expendables II was not out yet and we had either a) seen all the other movies in the theater we wanted to see or b) they were not showing during the time frame we had open.
2. Would we buy the DVD?  Full price or Discount Bin?
• Not just no but h-e-double-hockey-sticks no.  Will not be purchasing ever.  

Now, let me tell you why.

- I am not a big Ben Stiller fan but thought the script and the rest of the cast ensemble might be able to pull this off.  I was wrong.

- The only thing worth seeing in this was Vince Vaughn.  As good as he was, he just couldn't carry this whole movie by himself.

- Jonah Hill was just plain creepy and not "he was acting the character creepy" but "I think his weight loss might have turned him stalker crazy".

I am not going to waste any more of my time on this because it was just that bad.  If you have seen the trailer, you have seen most of the good parts of this film.  If it comes on TV for free, I will be changing the channel.

I want my Ted-dy bear

Haaaaaaaahaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaa.   Wait, I can't stop laughing.  Haaaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaa.

OMG this is a great movie.  I like some of Seth MacFarlane's early work in Family Guy, American Dad, and such but he has become so obvious in his political stance and really unbalanced in his presentation of people he disagrees with that I had almost written him off.  Ted is a bit of his redemption.

Irreverent, dirty, and just downright gross in some places, I loved every stinkin' minute of this movie.  Top it off with the continual Flash Gordon references and the amazing appearance of Sam Jones, I almost pee'd my pants.

My hubby and I rate movies by asking the following questions:

1. Would we pay full price to see this movie in the theater?
2. Would we buy the DVD?  Full price or Discount Bin?

So based on this criteria- I would pay full price to see this movie in the theater more than once and I plan on buying for full price- maybe even BlueRay with digital copy and DVD included.

Nana nana nana nana- Dark Knight Rises

So let me tell you up front, I am not a Christian Bale fan.  Add to that the fact that I am biased to the Tim Burton Batman movie where Jack Nicholson played the best Joker ever.  And I have not been willing to see the other 2 Dark Knight Batman movies in the theater.  This was a movie I went to see because I love my hubby and he was practically drooling every time the topic came up.


This was a good movie.  Surprisingly, I really like it.  I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did and I think it is for a these reasons:  

1. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson- need I say more. 
2. There was only one time in the script where I questioned the reasonable logic of a normal person.  The rest of the script was good.  It was predictable but not in a bad way.  Everything was subtle enough to make it easy to just be entertained. 
3. While I was questioning Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, she was really good and looked hot..hot..hot with a very nice couple of bum shots on the Batcycle.
4. Tom Hardy was a really good Bane with a voice cross between Liam Neeson and Sean Connery.  The script for Bane was incredibly well written. It was ear candy through the whole movie.
5. Seeing Matthew Modine play a wus was interesting.  He played a shockingly good jerk.
6. Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Who knew this cutie could play such a great Blake/Robin.  He was amazing and we almost saw more of him than Batman.  Since that was Christian Bale, worked for me.
7. Christian Bale only had a few scenes where you could see him or he opened his mouth.   For the rest, he was covered up and disguised as Batman so I was able to block out that it was him.  Helped a lot.  I kept seeing Val Kilmer in my mind.  Yum.

So, Yes, as much as I hate to put money in Christian Bale's pocket and encourage people to continue to cast him in things, I have to recommend this movie for all the other factors that are not him.  It was worth paying full price in the theater to see this epic film.

Gotta love a Chase

Author: Lauren Dane  Series: The Chase Brothers

First off, let me just ask.  $5 pitcher of beer on a Friday night and there is change to be had by the server. Where is this bar and why am I not there?

The 4 books in this series are easy to read.  I love family and how important it is to all the characters.  The fact that it is a focal point makes me really happy.  And I am glad the Chase boys are able to transfer from serial daters to monogomous so easily. 

Tate in the 4th book was my favorite leading lady in the series because being short and curvy and looking in the mirror and acknowledging that she is lovely but not gorgeous is something I can relate to but as my hubby so lovingly points out to me...one person's Rosie O'Donnell is another person's Audrey Hepburn.  He thinks I am beautiful.  I think he is mistaken but who am I to argue or burst his bubble. 

But, I have to give it up to Polly Chase, the family matriarch.  That woman marches to the beat of her own drum and demands people step in line.  Apparently that kind of hutspa comes with age and I am not quite there yet.  That and I just have no desire to spend the time and investment in to the hairspray it takes to keep her helmet hair.

Valkyries Rock!

After reading Kresley Cole's "Immortals After Dark" series, I have decided that I want to be a Valkyrie when I grow up.  I will take being a Mercenary Witch as my second choice.

Who wouldn't want to be an immortal, smokin' hot, super-strong, slightly crazy bad ass with a wicked cool t-shirt collection who can take on the strongest creatures with witty repartee and some serious kung fu.  Add in the ability to see my friends future path and be able to get them there like Nix, as well as having any of the lore be a potential mate (vampire, werewolf, demon, vemon/dempire, etc)...SOLD!

So Nix is a little forgetful and well..way off on the crazy train.  Who isn't?
So you have to die a violent death in glorious battle and be struck by lightening to become the daughter of the gods.  Death for a moment in time in exchange for pointy ears, rippin' claws, wee fangs, and a hell of a shriek...and a couple of new parents...ok.
So any strong emotions you have manifest as storms.  At least he knows when your faking it and can adjust his technique accordingly.
I can deal with all of that. Where do I sign up.