Worst Harry Potter Tats

In honor of HP 6, here are the worst Harry Potter tats. I mean WOW. I think the #5 (pictured above) is actually the worst of them all, particularly given that it covers a woman's entire thigh!! WTF. As gross as it is, though, the tattoo work itself is impressive---look at those teeth! They might leap off her leg and rip apart my soul into a series of horcruxes!

Smark sent me this too and gets mad when I don't give him credit.

50 Movies for 50 States

Excuse my absence...I have GOT to get a new laptop! Mine is officially dead, so I use Mark's old desktop, which is in our un-air-conditioned den. Add five weeks of 100+ degree heat and you get almost no blogging from Leslie.

Anyway, here's a fun list/interactive map from Rotten Tomatoes, my favorite and most trusted source for movie reviews (along with Netflix user ratings). In celebration of July 4, the site chose movies that they feel best represent each of the states in the US. Before I started clicking around, I though, what are they going to do about obscure states like South Dakota and Wyoming and Delaware? Little did I know (or little did I remember, I should say, having seen all these), Dances with Wolves, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Fight Club are set in those states respectively.

Some of my faves from the list:

Oregon: The Goonies
Kansas: The Wizard of Oz (obviously)
Georgia: Gone with the Wind (obviously)
Alabama: Fried Green Tomatoes
Idaho: Napoleon Dynamite
Illinois: Blues Brothers
Ohio: Bye Bye Birdie
West Virginia: We Are Marshall
North Dakota: Fargo (obviously)
New Jersey: Clerks

And of special note, New Hampshire gets "On Golden Pond," a GREAT movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Peter Fonda in the late years of their careers (1981). It's a tearjerker but a must see. I saw it with my grandparents when I was young and it has stayed with me for years. Bring lots of tissues.

Georgia gets the picture for this post because I miss it. Lots.

"Where The Wild Things Are" Trailer

I had no idea this wonderful classic kids' book was being made into a movie!! And directed by Spike Jonze...even better. One of my all-time favorite books growing up--both the story and the illustrations are amazing. This trailer looks AWESOME. I'm there in a heartbeat.

The Musical is Back!

I used to be REALLY into the Oscars in high school...I would have seen nearly all the movies, ranked my favorites, organized pools with my friends, etc. In recent years, especially since I have had Netflix, I don't see nearly as many movies in the theater, which means I haven't seen most of the Oscar pics until after they come out on DVD. I've still watched the Oscars most years but not been very into it. There have definitely been a series of boring shows that didn't exactly have me on the edge of my chair.

Well....enter Hugh Jackman. What a great job he did last night! The show was funny, sharp, fresh, and frantically paced (in a good way). My top two moments:

2) Ben Stiller spoofing Joaquin Phoenix's weird appearance on Letterman. Dead on.

1) "The Musical is Back!" sequence: FABULOUS. This clip isn't the best quality, but you get the picture. Beyonce can do no wrong. My only complaint was that Amanda Seyfried from Mamma Mia is way more awesome than she sounded---I don't know if it was nerves or a bad mike, but you could hardly hear her and the guy from Mamma Mia. Also, I love Zac Efron and all, but if they were going to use him he should have sung songs from Hairspray instead of HSM.

Man on Wire

When I get movies from Netflix, they tend to languish for a week or two until I've watched all my discs of TV series. I had "Man on Wire" for three weeks before I finally popped it in the DVD player last night...and WOW. This film, though techically a documentary, views like a great suspense thriller. The story traces the events leading up to and following French tightrope walker Phillipe Petit's unbelievable feat of walking a wire between the Two Towers of the World Trade Center. He and a group of accomplices planned the stunt for years, beginning even before the Towers were constructed. Phillipe himself is the primary interviewee for the film, but many of his friends and accomplices are featured as well. It's amazing to watch his friends talk about the event: it happened over thirty years ago now, but the simultaneous joy and terror they felt is completely fresh on their faces. A couple of them are even moved to tears as they tell the story. Phillipe, on the other hand, talks about facing death with an astounding nonchalance that leads you to conclude that he is either brilliantly enlightened and spiritually secure...or 100% bat crazy. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle.

Watching video clips of Petit's FORTY FIVE MINUTES spent walking the wire (eight crossings in all, including rest time during which he lays down on the wire) is a very strange experience. There is no doubting the sheer beauty of what he did, for one. Sitting on my firmly grounded couch, thirty years in the future, my heart was in my throat and I felt extremely moved as I watched. At the same time, I felt it impossible to ignore the feeling that there is something insensitive about the way he discusses the events without a single mention of 9/11. It may have been the filmmakers' choice and not Petit's, but it feels very strange to have no mention at all of what his feat means today in light of the horrors of victims jumping from the buildings. I don't think acknowkledging this unavoidable lens would have taken away from his feat--it might even make it seem more triumphant and transcendent.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Why I hearted this movie (or, why this is the exception to my general dislike of romantic comedies):

1) JASON SEGEL. Star of two great shows, Freaks & Geeks and How I Met Your Mother, Jason Segel single-handedly (single-personed-ley?) makes this movie. He's a goofy yet brooding, sensitive, and big-hearted boyfriend dumped by his movie star girlfriend. In the always necessary convenient coincidence of the romantic comedy, he takes a vacation alone to Hawaii only to find his ex and her new boyfriend staying at the same resort. You as a viewer root so intensely for him to be happy because he's just so freaking likable and vulnerable. He's the Jim Halpert of movies.

2) MILA KUNIS: I'm not a huge fan of That 70s Show but when I do watch it, Jackie is one of my least favorite characters. Surprisingly, though, I really liked her in this movie. She's a confident, funny, and non-needy woman in contrast to Sarah Marshall, the narcissist and co-dependent. I loved when she tells Jason Segel to "stop being so sensitive."

3) DRACULA ROCK OPERA WITH PUPPETS: Jason Segel's character is a musician who writes tv scores, but he has a dream of writing a Dracula rock opera acted by puppets. It's a funny recurring joke throughout the movie, and in the end you finally get to see his masterpiece. I'd pay money to see that!

Unfortunately, the talented and beautiful Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall is pretty bland in this movie. I think she is AAAAAAMAZING as Veronica Mars (and, gotta admit, as the voice of Gossip Girl) but this script does not leave her much room to become anything more than a one-dimensional character in skimpy clothes. Thankfully, there are some good cameos to distract you...Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, and at the very very end, Jason Bateman for about five glorious seconds.