Weeds (Showtime)

So I'm getting Showtime free for 9 months or so! One of the series on Showtime is "Weeds."

Weeds is about this suburban widow, Nancy, who sells weed to make money to support herself and her two sons. Much better than "Desperate Housewives." The characters on the show are dark and hilarious. I especially love Doug and Andy, two druggies on the show. Doug is a CPA and Andy (Nancy's brother-in-law) just mooches off of Nancy. The show takes place in the town of Agrestic (what a weird name for a town).

The show has many weird and funny characters. Celia is the head of the PTA, has cancer, and went to extreme lengths to make her young daughter lose weight. She substituted her daughter's candybars with laxative bars, and the poor girl ended up not making it to the restroom in time in school. Eekola. Andy, Nancy's brother-in-law, is going to Hebrew school to become a Rabbi to avoid going to Iraq to fight (he believes the war on Iraq to be immoral). He had enlisted in the army to begin with to impress a girl. And now he refuses to fight for oil (go Andy!).

Weeds has really great dialogue. It covers manyyy issues, and usually puts in a few political comments here and there. "Weeds" is very addictive! I don't know what I'll do when my Showtime subscription ends! Probably just rent it once it comes out on dvd. It's seriously one of the funniest shows on tv right now!

I give the show a 4 out of 5 stars! (Minus 1 for all the R-rated crap that I don't care to see). Ya'll don't wanna miss this show. It's seriously that good!

Amelie (2001)

Amelie. This is a unique French film, which I happened to rent after seeing it listed as a favourite on many people's favourite movie lists.

It's about this mousey girl, Amelie, who vows to do good for other people if she can: Find the owner of a little box of treasures that was hidden in her apartment long ago by a boy, now a grown man, and make him smile by returning that box to him.

She also falls in love with this man who hangs around photo booths in subway/train stations, and she sends him on a little adventure to find her.

The positives of this movie:

The dialogues. It's quirky and imaginative. It talks about everyday events/things in a way that makes it seem extra special, and it makes you realise how you overlook the quirks of people you care about and the quirks of life. The cinematography. The angles and colours of each scene keep you engaged. The story itself is amusing and heart-warming.

The negatives:

The absolutely unncessary sex and strip club scenes. Once again, a little charmer of a film with unncessary crap, that otherwise would've been a perfect film and enjoyable for the entire family.

Amelie reminded me a lot of myself. She wants to do good for others and make them smile. Yet, she herself is shy and reserved, without many friends. But she has a really good heart and wants to be loved. She is quirky in a cute, adorable way.

I absolutely love what she does for her father. The travelling gnome. I wonder if this is where Travelocity got the idea from?

I rate it a 4 out of 5 stars. (Minus 1 for the added crap.)

People Will Talk (1951)

(Due to boredom, I am reviewing movies I have seen before, which are coming to mind now.)

People Will Talk is about an arrogant yet charming doctor who falls in love with a pregnant woman and marries her to save her honour. Sweet. Yet, I felt the "love" was underdeveloped in the story. This made the movie seem quite unrealistic to me. How many charming, good looking doctors would marry a woman, hardly knowing or loving her, to save her honour? Yet, in the movie, he was supposedly in love with her. But the love story wasn't built up all that well.

There was another story line going on as well. But it really comes to culmination in one scene of the movie towards the end. It would have been nice if it had been spread evenly throughout the movie. So until that one scene, you really aren't too sure of what is going on exactly.

My favourite scene in the movie is when the doctor and two of his friends are playing with their train set, and they get into an argument due to timings of the train releases. Was quite funny. Grown educated men acting like little children.

Still, I shall give this film the benefit of the doubt. It was released in 1951, and it is a sweet little story that is refreshing to watch today. A little charmer amonst all the crap that Hollywood produces. So based on this, I would definitely recommend it. Although unrealistic, leaves me hopeful that there might be some decent men out there, somewhere. Well, one can dream. :)

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Crash

This is an excellent movie about racism and prejudices that exist in today's world. The lives of several people intertwine in LA, California in this film, showing the implications of racism, and how it can come to haunt you at a later time. It's quite touching. Brought many tears to my eyes. Everyone really must watch this movie.

Spoiler Alert!

The saddest scenes, for me, were the following (brought many tears to my eyes):

When the woman gets into a car accident, and the man who sexually harrassed her is trying to pull her out, yet she is too afraid to be helped by him. When the Persian man shot the child (luckily there was no bullet). And when the white police officer shot the young black man.

The only complaint I have about this movie is the sex-scene, which was entirely unncessary. But you know Hollywood--sex sells.

Definitely a 5 out of 5 stars.

Grey's Anatomy--Season 2 Finale

I am eagerly awaiting the 3rd season of Grey's Anatomy. It's quickly become one of my favourite shows. ER is too dramatic and has been running for too long, they are out of fresh ideas. Scrubs is mostly just comedy, no drama. Haven't seen House. But Grey's Anatomy has a great balance of drama and comedy, medicine and life.

Spoiler Alert!

The finale of season 2 was quite good. I was absolutely shocked at Meredith and Dr. Shepard. I really do not like Meredith's character at all. What is her character anyway? Karev is the goodlooking arrogant one. Izzie is the one who gets emotionally involved with her patients and truly cares for them. Christina is the extremely competative one. George is the nice guy that gets walked over. Who is Meredith? I feel she doesn't really have a strong character. Unless you wanna call her the whore of the show. But I'd like to hope there is more to her than just that.

I was extremely disappointed to see Meredith and Dr. Shepard hook up in the hospital. She was dating a nice vet, while he has his wife. I was very disappointed in Christina for abandoning Dr. Burke in his time of need.

I really like Izzie's character. She reminds me of myself quite a bit. What she did was a bit unethical, yes. And it could've cost Denny his life. But she did it all out of love. I think she can and should be forgiven. I was glad she finally said yes to Denny's proposal. He's such a charmer. Man, wouldn't I love a guy like that! But incredibly sad at the end when Denny died. Made me cry!

I was happy to see Karev take care of Izzie after Denny died. That was awfully sweet of him. Karev has a heart afterall.

Liked the season finale. The prom bit was quite funny. And in the end when Izzie was all dressed up, after having tried on so many dresses, only to arrive to see Denny dead, was quite sad and romantic, to see her with her pretty pink dress crying while laying next to him!

Can't wait until season three. But I am quite disappointed that the show centers around Meredith, the character I like least. Unless they give her character more substance, they should make the show center around another character. Although it is pretty balanced out as it is, I suppose.

Definitely rate Grey's Anatomy Season Two a 5 out of 5 stars!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Definitely a must see! A great sequal to *The Curse of the Black Pearl* !!

As expected, Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp gave a stellar performance. Especially Johnny Depp. The way he walks, talks, his facial expressions, everything is just great!

The movie was incredibly funny with many great action scenes. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can't wait until the next movie is released.

The ending leaves you hanging, wanting to know what will happen next. But although it's "incomplete," you will still feel there was some closure in this sequal. The plot moves along very nicely and you are left satiated just enough at the end, but still thirsty for more.

Spoiler Alert!

I was a bit shocked at the end when William Turner (Orlando Bloom) decided to help bring back Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), even after Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) had kissed him! I guess we'll have to wait and see why. William Turner deserves better than that (i.e., me)!!

I absolutely loved when William Turner and other crew members of the Black Pearl were stuck in those hanging cages and were swinging back and forth, and also the scene when William Turner, Jack Sparrow and the other guy whose name I can't remember were all fighting for the key. That was great.

Definitely 5 out of 5 stars!

Closer

I saw the movie Closer this weekend. Starring Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. This movie is very R-rated and I personally wouldn't watch it again. It's about infidelity. There were huge time gaps in the film. For example, you'd see one scene, then the next scene would be 1 year later. Left out a lot of parts, so much left for us to figure out on our own. There were some really humourous parts, but dark humour.

I wonder, is this how messed up people really are? All the film did for me was reaffirm that men are scum. Some women, too. But mostly men. Spoiler Alert! A man (Jude Law) had an affair with a married woman (Julia Roberts). Well, finally Julia's character gets her husband to sign the divorce papers, but only after sleeping with him one more time. Jude Law's character finds out she slept with her husband to get the divorce papers signed, and this drives him absolutely mad. How incredibly messed up is that? So hypocritical the characters were. In the end, Julia gets back with her husband.

One thing I was confused about was Natalie Portman's character. She uses an alias while living in London. But when Clive Owen's character asks her what her real name is (in a strip club), she tells him. Yet, she never told her boyfriend (Jude Law).

I really didn't see a point to this movie. The only "point" I could see was that people are messed up. What else? We know that already. I think pervish people will thoroughly enjoy this movie. Non-pervish people can enjoy it as well, to see how pervish and stupid people can be! I wonder how realistic this movie is. Is this how people who have affairs really behave? Well, I hope I never find that out for myself!

I'd rate this movie a 2.5 out of 5.

Project Runway--Episode 4

On the last episode, Keith was kicked off the show for possessing pattern books in his room, which is against the rules. He claims to have never used them. And I don't believe any of the room mates (other contestants on the show) ever saw him use them either. So I think a stern warning would've done well. Although Keith did break the rules a few other times as well. But it was sad to see him leave like that, especially when he was the leader of the team for the particular project in this episode and his team was one of the two finalists for winning the project. Sad, indeed.

Angela actually won the challenge. This lady seriously has 9 lives. How she managed not to get kicked off the last two times is beyond me. I think the judges have made too many errors and given her too many chances. And the only reason she won this last time, I believe, was because of the two team members she chose to work with. If it hadn't been for them, her outfit would have been as hideous as the last few dresses she had designed!

So far, I loved the "Designers Best Friend" challenge, where the designers each had a dog and had to design an outfit for the model which complemented the dog and told a story. It was cute! The dogs were especially adorable. Especially Laura's dog. Also, I was sad to see Malan go. He didn't deserve to be kicked off...