Rapunzel (2010) Review- 5 out of 5 stars

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I haven’t liked very many of the new computer animated features, but this one is pretty good. I look for the following criteria for computer generated animation:

hair/fur quality/flow
gravity realism
lip sync
escape

Obviously, since this movie was all about hair, it seems they took extra care in getting it right. The way it flows with the wind and character movements, the way it randomly falls, and the sheen is fantastic! So for hair alone, this one is the best I have ever seen.

The gravity and actor movements are excellent. Very realistic! They must have had real actors staging the movements in this. The “mother” reminds me of Edina from Absolutely fabulous. Disney is known for the large eyes on their characters and these characters have HUGE eyes. Taking up almost half of their faces.

The lip sync and mouth movements are right on, with very believable staging.

When you combine all of these with perfection, you get the “escape”. That’s when you can stop seeing it as computer generated and see it as almost real.

The story is very interesting with the hair being magical and keeping the “mother” young. The chameleon is cute, but not overly disney cute. The songs are forgettable, though. They need to go back to old disney style before broadway, before Alladin, etc. The thug song sounded like “old disney”. I think Disney now does everything with translating it to a broadway show in mind.

The scene when she first leaves the castle is very funny!

I loved the mime as well!

Devil (2010) Review- 3 stars out of 5

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If this had been a TV show, it would have gotten a better rating. It’s TV quality. Very few special effects. The “bad” things happen when the lights are off. The previews for this movie showed all the special effects and it made it look like a classic horror/suspense-type movie. It’s not. It’s a cop drama with a little supernatural thrown in. The narrator tells the entire story in the first few minutes of the film. M. Night Shama… whatever his name is, has impressed me before with the Village (one of my favorite movies of all time!) and Sixth Sense, of course. But I think this one should have been made for TV. He should get his own show-30 minutes-and do twilight zone stuff. I think it would go over well!

So, if you can manage how slow this is (to stretch it out to 90 minutes), it’s something you should catch on TV, but don’t pay to rent it.

New Twist On Fast Food-“Gourmet” On The Cheap

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“Gourmet” is in quotes for a reason. 🙂

If you’re like me, you like the dollar menus at fast food joints. Well, I got sick of the same old same old and decided to switch it up a bit to make it more interesting. Here’s a few combinations/changes that might make your value menu sparkle!

WENDY’S: CHILI CHEESEBURGERS AND CHILI FRIES ($4)

I like their double stacks, which are 99 cents here. This is what I order:

2 doublestacks
value fry
99 cent chili

Open up the doublestacks and put a spoonfull of the (drained) chili for nice Chili Cheeseburgers! Then pour out your fries on the wax wrapper and pour the rest of the chili on them for Chili Fries! They have cheese sauce there for a quarter, I think, so you could add cheese to the fries as well. Very hearty meal!

BURGER KING: QUADSTACKER for $2!

Order 2 Buck Doubles ($1 each). Remove the 2 patties from one and place them on the other burger for a Quad Stacker! (Feed the extra bread to the birds in the parking lot.) If you haven’t had a quad stacker, the flavor tastes like old burger king before they started microwaving everything. You know, the flame broiled taste. They charge $5 for a quadstacker, so this is the same thing for $2!!

If you have any combinations you want to share, add them to the comments or send them to me!

I had to share this Best of Craigslist…

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Ok, so they aren’t all funny or gross or stupid… This one was very touching. Get out your kleenex!

Shadow Kitty – Thank You – m4w

Date: 2010-02-17, 9:00AM PST

 

Dear whoever left me “Shadow”,

I work in public accounting and lead a pretty miserable life. We work horrible hours and I have almost no time to do anything else in life. One day (December 1st, 2009) after leaving work at 1am, upon heading to the parking lot, I noticed a box in front of my silver bmw. Scared of what was inside, I imagined it to be either a) a bomb, or b) full of baby kittens. Hesitantly, I gently tapped the box with my foot, nudging it knowing the chance of it being a bomb was pretty low. The box felt light – too light to be a box of kittens. In fact, no one meowed when it shook. So I took an even greater risk and peeked inside. I see a tiny baby kitten sitting inside with an empty water dish, soft pillow and warm blanket. Never having thought I would own a cat, I was about to leave the kitten there for someone else to find. However, it was approximately 35 degrees outside and with no food or water, the kitten would surely struggle through the night. So I placed the large box in my passenger seat and brought the kitten home with me.

The tiniest cat I have ever seen, she has the softest black fur, sweetest face and gentlest personality. On the box, in a child’s handwriting an index card was scotch-taped to the side saying “Cat’s home” and written on the box was “Shadow”. Whatever the circumstances were, since you packed the box with the water dish, pillow and blanket, I can only imagine how much you wanted her to have a good home. This note is a simple thank you, and letting you know she has a wonderful home now and she has brought so much joy into my miserable life. Things are starting to look up, and I will be making life changes soon and hope to find new employment. As far as I know, an angel left Shadow for me that night.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/1604951280.html

Best of Craigslist:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/