Salad Is Slaughter

I’m finally getting around to writing up the movie reviews from last weekend.  Unfortunately they didn’t have Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in stock so that’s going to have to wait.

Fever Pitch  B+  Jimmy Fallon plays one of humanity’s most pitiful creatures, the Boston Red Sox fan.  At least they were pitiful until the St. Louis Cardinals pulled the second biggest choke job in the history of the game (the first being last year’s New York Yankees ALCS loss).  Drew Barrymore learns what it’s like to fall for a guy who has another passion in his life, and she just has to deal with it.  This is a funny and entertaining movie with some nice baseball references.

The Longest Yard  B+  Adam Sandler and Chris Rock have some great chemistry in this remake of the Burt Reynolds 1974 classic.  Yes, some of the characters are stereotypes, but they have enough interesting twists that it isn’t annoying.  Sandler is a disgraced quarterback who gets tossed into a Texas prison.  The warden wants some hints on how to improve his guard’s semi-pro team.  Sandler suggests a warm up game against the inmates and with Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds builds a team.  It’s worth watching.

Sahara  C  Action, adventure, and things blowing up.  It’s okay to see once but the formula has been done to death.

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I’ve been a Mandy Patinkin fan when I first saw him in Dead Like Me.  Yeah, I know he’s been in a ton of other shows, but they were programs that I had never watched.  When I saw the commercials for Criminal Minds and noticed that he was the star, I was intrigued. 

They had me hooked with the first episode.  Patinkin plays an FBI profiler who understands deviant criminal behavior, and comes up with a profile of a suspect based upon a number of factors.  The show is basically CSI, but it uses psychology instead of DNA.  The writing is excellent, the characters are interesting, and the acting is first rate.  Now there’s one more show to record on Wednesday nights.

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Her Royal Highness and Absolute Ruler of the Hofer Household, Queen Boo the First has been here over a week now and she’s starting to get comfortable.  We’ve been watching the dogs pretty closely and won’t let them linger too long around her, and she’s getting used to them as well.  She also got used to us almost immediately.  Boo was very shy and timid at first but quickly realized that Janet and I were a good source of petting, playing, and treats.

We started off keeping her in a kennel when the dogs were in the room, and letting her have the run of Janet’s office during the day.  Since Janet works from home, Boo gets human contact she needs, and she has a lot of room to run around and get exercise.  I’ve gotten more than one IM from Janet telling me that our new kitten was (literally) climbing the walls.  Boo also used to scamper to a hiding place whenever we came into the room.  Now she just looks to see who it is.

When she first arrived Boo would hiss if one of the dogs got too close to her kennel.  Within a day or two she ignored them, and now she will go explore.  She does keep a safe place – on top of the subwoofer or in the fireplace wood bin behind the wooden bear – available in case the dogs get too curious.  We also watch the dogs pretty closely.  We wouldn’t want any unfortunate incidents.

Boo still sleeps in the kennel because we don’t want her rooming around at night with the dogs while we’re sleeping.  When I bring her upstairs at night she demands to be let out for playtime.  Apparently, Boo thinks that 10:00 PM is a great time to roll around on the bed and play with a ball and attack pillow cases.  We play for a while then she’s locked up.  Within the next couple of weeks, after the dogs are more used to her, she’ll be allowed to go where she wants at night.

The dogs are starting to accept her.  Rolfe is becoming a bit too possessive of Boo and doesn’t like when the other dogs get too close to her.  We’re trying to break him of that habit.  Last night Rolfe snuggled next to me and gave Boo a kiss.  Boo responded with a kitty-kiss.  It was kind of cute.  I still don’t trust Rolfe completely yet, but he’s getting close.

Boo is also really pushy about getting released in the morning.  When I get up to let the dogs out to pee, she starts meowing because she wants to play.  She doesn’t care that the dogs are running around, she wants out.  That’s when I move her into Janet’s office.

Introducing a kitten into a house full of dogs is a slow process, but I’m pretty happy with the progress that we’re making.

We have a new addition to our family.  Her name is Boo (after the little girl in Monsters Inc.) and she’s about 10 weeks old.  So far the dogs are curious about her, and Boo doesn’t know what to think about them.  Right now we keep her in her carrier when the dogs are around until everyone gets used to each other.  She’s gray and black and has white boots.  She’s really shy, so the name fits.

The new television season begins next week for most broadcast networks, but Fox has jumped the gun on several shows. I caught a couple of them this week, and for the most part it’s disappointing; more of the same tired retreads.

The Simpsons: The first episode this season had Homer loaning his house to Fat Tony to make (as Marge put it) a “snuggle film.” While the show had its moments, I did wonder if they have completely run out of ideas for the folks in Springfield. Just last season they had an episode where Ned Flanders rented a room to some college girls who operated a webcam site. It was almost the same script. People have been saying for the past couple of seasons that maybe The Simpsons has run its course and should be put out to pasture. If last season and the first show of this season are any indication, those people are correct.

The War at Home: The only reason we saw this is because it came on right after The Simpsons. Dad and Mom have to deal with the daughter who wants to be a slut and a son who they suspect is a homosexual transvestite. The show was okay, but they really need to kill that damned laugh track. I liked it, but I predict this show will last only one season.

Family Guy: Consistent high quality and well worth watching.

Bones: The story of a forensic anthropologist who helps the FBI solve crimes. In other words, another CSI rip-off. Bones is so bad on so many levels its hard to know where to begin. The characters are one dimensional stereotypes who have no redeeming qualities. The scientists are portrayed as squinty-eyed nerds who never come out of the lab and who have no interests outside of their specialty. If the writers of this crap had ever met any real scientists (I’ve worked with dozens over the years) they would have found that in most cases scientists are far more well rounded and interested in a variety of topics than the general population. The FBI guys are gung-ho bruisers who have no cognitive abilities but prefer to charge around like a bull in a china shop.  They have no respect for forensic science and the people who do it. The script was hackneyed, banal, trite, stale, and unoriginal . Have I said yet that I didn’t like the show?

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