Hey Look -- It’s Another Scott Pilgrim Review!

So, my sweet husband took me to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for our anniversary.  I would make a pithy comment about the 12th year being “comics” but, for us, every anniversary is the comics anniversary.

So, Scott Pilgrim.  I liked it, I liked it a lot.  But that was pretty much a given.  What’s more surprising is the parts I expected to dislike didn’t bother me so much.  

You see, I love the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.   I also love Edgar Wright.   I like Kieran Culkin, and Brandon Routh and Chris Evans.  I like Beck.  I like video games and 8 bit art.  So, most of this movie is in my wheelhouse.

Movie Review -- The A-Team

Let me start by saying -- I didn't watch the original A-Team.


I was only allowed an hour of TV a week as a little girl, and 30 minutes a day as a teen.  And I can pretty much guarantee that the A-Team wouldn't have been appropriate viewing, in the eyes of Mom.   I think I saw half of one episode of the original show -- it had something to do with smuggling watermelons.


So, other than knowing the basic setup of the plot, and of course, that Mr. T pities fools, I had no prior knowledge of the characters or what the movie was "supposed" to be like.


So why, you may ask, did I go in the first place? I went because it was my hubby's birthday, and unlike me, Hubby is well versed in '80's TV.  He was pumped for this movie.


And, it was better than I thought it would be.    Lest that seem like damning with faint praise let me make it clear,  I went into this movie with one expectation -- that it was going to suck.  Hard. 


It didn't suck.  In fact, parts of it were downright fun.  Sometimes, particularly in the summer, all I want from a movie is cute boys and explosions.  This had both, so I was reasonably content.  

Movie Review: Disney's Alice In Wonderland

Disney's Alice in Wonderland

Directed by Tim Burton

Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway and Crispin Glover.

Although it’s against geek orthodoxy, I’ve never been a big Alice in Wonderland fan. I’ve always liked the elements of Wonderland, particularly the Red Queen, but not the book itself.

It’s not really that surprising though, seeing as the book is rife with talking animals, and according to this article in the New Scientist the whole book is really about algebra. As we’ve discussed before, talking animals are a big NO in my book, and the same goes for books about math. (I’ve hated The Phantom Tollbooth for well unto two decades, ever sense my 6th grade reading teacher forced it upon me.)

Again, fighting the geek consensus, but I’m at best a casual Tim Burton fan. My favorite movie of his, The Nightmare Before Christmas, really isn’t his, it’s Henry Selick’s. Burton is just too strange for me sometimes. I like weirdness (seen every episode of The Prisoner, remain oddly fascinated with Lady Gaga) but there has to be a point behind it, and sometimes, I think Burton …doesn’t really have one.

Taking those to things into account, I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. The trailers made it look like Mad Hatter --Plus Alice! However, I have an 8 year old who likes spunky girl stories and a husband who’s much more invested in Tim Burton than I am, so we went.

And surprisingly, I liked it. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.