PopRox9139

This modern day Prince and the Pauper meets The Parent Trap actually does not seem so bad considering that I am not a big fan (I am putting this lightly) of the Olsen Twins, or Mary Kate and Ashley as they prefer. The story is vaguely entertaining and has the prerequisite kids-are-superior-to-adults-and-know-what's-best-for-them-more-than-they-themselves-do lesson to it (Man, that's a lot of dashes...or is it hyphens? That always confused me.). On the bad side, they actually have the twins trying for accents. Mary Kate as the street-wise urchin Amanda uses a kinda New Yorky accent, but only around her fellow orphan children, surprisingly. The rest of the time she seems to talk fairly normally, which is a little inconsistent. Then again, I do not know anybody from New York, so maybe they only let their accents out when they want to? Ashley as the upper crust poor little rich girl Alyssa uses a partial British accent that consists wholly of her talking very slowly so that she can enunciate and sound all hoighty-toighty. It actually makes her sound less "well-bred" and more "bad actor." Both twins' accents often slip and they talk normally in several scenes. These details combined with the "gee, are we supposed to dislike her or something?" stepmother, the over-establishment of the vast differences in the girls' lives, an extremely rare case of identical strangers, and enough cute kids and sugary sweet moments to give any sweet tooth a headache are just some problems. I hate to be nitpicky, but during the scene where the girls are mistaken by their respective friends as the opposite girl, how come no one noticed the differences in wardrobe? Yes, they were almost similar, but one was wearing short overalls, the other long, one had a flannel shirt and the other did not, etc. Oh well, I won't lose sleep over it either way. Finally, I do recommend this movie if only to see the Olsens when they were still cute, and also because it is probably the last box office hit they will ever have. (Yes, I went there!) (Er...and I hope that Mary Kate recovers well. Hey, my heart is not total ice!)

After Buffy the Vampire Slayer was canceled, I was also on the outs with every other show I had previously watched, and had almost nothing left. There was a great big void in my TV watching schedule, and it was filled with this show. If I had only heard the description for Joan of Arcadia, I know that I would never have watched it. Let's face it, the premise alone sounds pretty lame. Fortunately, I saw a commercial for the show one day while flipping through the channels, but was still skeptical. The commercial was on again and again, incessantly telling me to watch this show, and finally I decided to give in and watch the show, even though I probably wouldn't like it. The pilot episode was good, and the episodes that followed were good as well. The Girardis are a realistic portrayal of a family, not too perfect yet not overly exaggerated either. The kids are funny and intelligent, from the snippy Joan to the dorky Luke to the sarcastic Kevin, and the parents actually seem to love each other and their kids. Joan's friends, Grace and Adam, are another highlight. Grace is great as the rebellious girl without a cause and I liked her instantly, even though I did think she was a boy. Adam, on the other hand, took me a little more time. I recognized him from when he huffed paint on 7th Heaven, which did not exactly endear me to him. By the end of the very first episode he was in, however, I fell in love with his character. What is unique about this show is that the main character talks to God, who appears in various forms and assigns Joan tasks. The tasks always have unexpected results, and there is always a message in what Joan has to do, a message that is thankfully not beat into the audience with a sledgehammer, but is subtle and genuine. This is a moving show that deals with human experience quite well. Without a doubt this is the best new show this year.

I wanted to see this movie from the very first time that I saw the preview. I visited the website for the movie once a week and watched the preview. I even wanted to see it in the theaters, which unfortunately never happened. Anyways, when I rented the movie, I had high expectations. I wanted to like this movie. Unfortunately, by the time it was over I almost hated it. The movie wasn't too bad at first, I kind of liked the plotting high school kids. The gay undertones between them were disturbing, due in large part to the constant outbursts of my mother who kept asking, "Are they gay lovers?" when she was not asking if Ryan Gosling's mother drank while pregnant because of how closely his eyes are set. On behalf of my mother, I apologize to Mr. Gosling, and his mother. Overall, the movie was not too bad when it was just a couple of kids trying to get away with murder, they just had to add a strong female detective who becomes suspicious of them for no real reason that I can think of other than that it suits the plot, and the movie goes downward until an ending that I personally hate so very much that it renders the rest of the movie unwatchable. I swore never to watch this movie again just because of that ending, and I have not.