4.5 Razors

Juno

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Juno
  • IMDb: link

“Look, in my opinion the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what-have-you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out of your ass.”

Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is a bit of an outcast at school with a small circle of friends including cheerleader Leah (Olivia Thirlby) and her best friend Bleeker (Michael Cera) who she decides to sleep with, which leads to some unforeseen consequences.

On discovering her pregnancy, and quickly dismissing the other options after a trip to the local abortion clinic, Juno decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. She finds Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) from and ad in the Penny Saver and everything seems like its going to work out, but this is a comedy so you know there will be some bumps along the way.

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The West Wing

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • Title: The West Wing
  • tv.com: link

“Shows about politics don’t work.”
—Aaron Sorkin (discussing the many concerns the network had with the show’s concept)

“The people I have met have been extraordinarily qualified.  Their intent is good.  Their commitment is true.  They are righteous, and they are patriots.”
—Ainsley Hayes (“In This White House”)

the-west-wing-castThe West Wing broke many of the rules of television.  Discussing politics, morality, foreign policy and the world, political wrangling, real life issues, legislation and the creation of law, and real world problems.  For seven years the staff of President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) raised debate and discussion in the country by presenting a view of government that was hard-working, knowledgeable, passionate, patriotic and smart.  And, somehow, it made it all interesting, entertaining, and must-see TV.

The show was praised by former White House staffers in presenting the pace and challenge of the job.  One of the trademarks of the show was the “walk-and-talks” which filmed the characters walking and talking through the halls of The West Wing  They were simply too busy to sit down.

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Death has Never Been so Funny

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Death at a Funeral
  • IMDb: link

death-at-a-funeral-poster

lnto everyone’s life, and death, it seems a little chaos must fall.  Death at a Funeral brings out all kinds of zaniness as friends and family gather to bury one of their own and end up nearly killing each other as things get further and further out of control.  Director Frank Oz gives us one of the year’s best films and the best comedy of 2007 so far.

A death in the family brings together a group of mourners each struggling with their own lives and creates the catalyst for the hilarious and the absurd as nothing goes as planned.

The dutiful son Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) tries to comfort his mother (Jane Asher), who is driving his wife Jane (Keeley Hawes) crazy with her constant snips, and prepare to give the eulogy everyone expects his brother Robert (Rupert Graves), the famous author from New York, to give.

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Death Done Right

/ / Books & Magazines
  • Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  • Wikipedia: link

I’ve been reading the Harry Potter series for just over nine years now.  I’ve spent countless hours reading and rereading the books, discussing them with my friends, and even protesting a radio station for ruining the last book’s ending on-air before I finished it.  With all of my history with the books, is it even close to possible for series author J.K. Rowling to end this story that I’ve grown up with to my satisfaction?

The book starts out in line with the other six entries into the series.  Harry gets picked up from Number Four, Privet Drive and is escorted to the Burrow for another half-summer spent with the Weasleys.  The only difference is that on the way there, Harry is nearly murdered and one of his friends actually is.  Rowling makes it fairly clear from the beginning: this is war.  People are going to die and they won’t stop dying unless the enemy bites the dust himself.

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Rebirth of a Hero

/ / Comics
  • Title: Green Lantern: Rebirth
  • Comic Vine: link

Green Lantern: Rebirth

In late 2004 the state of the Green Lantern was a mess.  Ron Marz’s (also known as Satan in many comic book circles, and rightly so) ill-conceived “Emerald Twilight” storyline, which turned one of the greatest heroes of the DC Universe into a murderer, had destroyed the legacy of the old comics, killed off the Green Lantern Corps, and left one new and unproven Lantern, Kyle Rayner, to carry the franchise.  Hal Jordan became a villain, then later died in a final heroic act before returning as the Spectre.  It was a mess.  DC, wanting to undo what it recognized as one of the biggest mistakes in its 70+ years of operation, turned to Geoff Johns to fix what Marz had screwed-up a decade before and return Hal Jordan and the Corps to the stars.

Kyle Rayner returns to Earth with the body of Parallax.  Elsewhere the Spectre seems to be losing control and the heroes of the DCU gather together to once again stop a man who was once one of their own only to find others with power rings in their way including Guy Gardner, Kilowog, and John Stewart, and the last of the Guardians of the Universe, Ganthet.

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