No doubt millions of women and girls are swooning over the tall dark and handsome Alcide, the werewolf on True Blood season three who has come between Bill and Sookie to help protect her and has befriended her. Hey, there’s even been a little flirtation between these two, who are both getting over past loves. For Sookie, Alcide acts as both a werewolf protector – hey, there’s lots of evil doers out to get her this season, and as a friend whose shoulder she can cry on about her Bill the vampire woes.

The actor who plays Alcide, the hottest werewolf this side of the border, Joe Mangianello, apparently likes the WWE, and the WWE must like him too, seeing how many zoom ups the camera did of him at a recent show in  LA.  My husband watches WWE matches, and he called me in the room to show me. He stuck out like a sore thumb, all handsome and dark, and all, and he seemed to really be getting in to the show, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

Most stars think they’re too cool to get into pretty much anything, so that won him some extra brownie points in my book – hey, it doesn’t take much, he is the hottest actor on the show this season I must say.

Speaking of True Blood, I’m so glad this season has been worlds better than the last one. Season two really disappointed me with the story on the maynad (the monster and the explanation for why she existed were both totally preposterous, and the dumb lines and ridiculous story lines were nauseating).  But season three has gotten back to being fun, fast and intriguing.

We’ve had a lot of racy scenes this season, and they’re really exploring a lot on the sexual front with different twists on that note.  The last episode where the awesome Russell Edgington, the vampire king of Mississippi, rips out a man’s spinal column on national television had everyone on the edge of their seat, and thanking the Lord that True Blood decided to add this character to the cast.

Eric’s story line has been a good one too, both steamy and unpredictable, and there’s been a lot of skin on the men this season, I must say, so it’s nice to have a show that has eye candy for both the ladies and the men, and love stories for everyone – hey, gay, lesbian, straight, both – they’ve got a little bit of something for everyone!

Once in a while, I’ll go against my best instincts and I’ll rent a total, no-shame chick flick that no guy could possible stand. I watch it by myself, and my husband watches or does his own thing, it’s kind of a tradition in our house that we go our separate ways with entertainment once in a while.  This time, the movie of choice for my romantic comedy/drama was one that had an ensemble cast which was directed by Gary Marshall.

The ensemble casts included Jennifer Garner and Ashton Kutcher in two of the bigger roles, as best friends.  Other supporting cast members were Jessica Alba, Shirley Mclaine, Hector Elizondo, Patrick Dempsey, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Eric Dane and so on and so forth. With so many hunks, how could a movie go wrong for a chick?

Well, there were multiple levels of “wrong” with this movie. It was poorly acted, but I don’t know why that surprises me when Ashton Kutcher was essentially the lead.  Also, it was extremely contrived and of course filled with cliches and bad attempts at humor.

The bright spot was Anne Hathaway, who can actually act.  Everyone else pretty much fell flat in this one.  I didn’t care what the hell happened to any of these characters, and none of them were believable as lovers.  The sappiness factor was so way over the top that I wanted to gag at many scenes.  The movie so tries to please everyone, with an interracial love story, a gay love story, and a best friends-turned-oh-I-suddenly-think-I-love-you story.

None of it worked, none of it was believable and I can’t believe I finished this piece of garbage all the way through. This is what you call a paycheck movie, the actors probably know it’s garbage, they just do it for the paycheck and hope us suckers rent it!  Oy!

The hubby and I just watched the comic book based movie “Kick Ass” and I found it pretty entertaining. I definitely don’t think it was great or the most entertaining movie I’ve seen in a while or anything so dramatic as that, but it was worth the rental!  The movie is based on a short comic book series about a regular sixteen year old kid named Dave Lizewskin, who is played by newcomer talent Aaron Johnson.

He’s just a regular, sort of dorky guy who happens to also whack off a lot as we find out in the first ten minutes of the movie.  He begins to get tired of his average life of playing video games and watching DVD’s and starts to fantasize about becoming a super hero. He buys a cheap superhero costumes that looks similar to a loose fitting west suit, in the color of green with yellow piping, and he wears yellow work boots to top off the amateurish look.

He calls himself “Kick Ass” after getting into a fight with a couple of no do-gooders, and after his first run in with guys who used to steal his lunch money, where he is stabbed and then run over by a car, he has several body parts replaced with steal. So now, he can’t feel pain as much as others can.

Of course, you’re seeing that the story is totally ludicrous, but that’s the point.   So is an eleven year old girl who can kick more ass than any super hero ever, but that’s probably the best part of this over the top fantasy movie about regular kids becoming super heroes.

Christopher Minz-Plasse, who played the geeky McLovin in his breakout role in “Role Models”, is the child of mob boss Frank D’Amico, who intends to kill kickass when he suspects he is behind the slayings of several of his drug pushers, when in fact it is the eleven year old girl played awesomely by Chloe Moretz and her father, played by Nicholas Cage, Hit Girl and Big Daddy, respectively.

Kick Ass crosses paths with the crime fighting father and daughter duo, and learns that he’s not the only crime fighting super hero in town.  From here, paths cross, and realistic blends with pure fantasy .Some of the most enjoyable and over the top screen time is with the 11 year old super hero girl who kicks more ass than anyone else with her wicked karate moves and blistering verbal abuse.  Definitely a trip to watch – definitely not kid safe though.

So, I knew going into watching a movie called “Hot Tub Time Machine” that it would have almost no cerebral qualities. I knew that this would be (hopefully) a stupid, ludicrous movie about 4 guys going back in time via a hot tub to the 80′s with a lot of laughs.

Well, the stupidity and contrived nature were there, but the laughs were unfortunately few and far between. I blame it on the overacting and absurdity of the dialogue.  The biggest over actor in the movie is oddly also the guy who conjures up the most laughs, Rob Corddry.  He plays the “asshole friend” who can’t stop acting like he’s still in his teens and can’t take control of his life as an adult.

One of the funniest scenes is at the beginning of the movie before we figure out that all of his acting is a little over the top, with him in his car in the garage coming home from a long night of boozing, air drumming, singing and guitaring to a motley crue song.

The cast is rounded out with the hilarious Craig Robinson of standup and The Office fame, and his part is sadly reduced to the most pathetic of the guys, with lame dialogue that doesn’t exploit his usual good timing. Instead he comes off as the sidekick “oh hell no” guy that adds little to the movie. Disappointing, because I thought he’d add the most valuable comedic integrity to this movie.

John Cusack, whom I have always had a huge crush on since his stint in multiple eighties teen angst movies, also doesn’t give much as the straighter of the guys, but also the most self involved and crybaby of them all.

Some of the laughs are cheap too. They use the old larger than life cellular phones joke that we’ve seen in so many other tv shows and movies.  But some of the clothes are great and really do remind you of your days in the eighties, especially if you’re a generation x’er like me.

Overall, this movie could have done a whole lot more with the comedy aspect, but it just fell short with cliches and predictability. There was really no  big intelligence behind it, which is essential for all really good comedy movies.

It must be a Mel Gibson month for us, because we just rented his follow up directorial debut to The Passion of the Christ, which I also plan to rent and watch soon, Apocalypto.  I guess that all his negative publicity as of late for his phone altercations with his now ex baby mama put him front and center in our minds or something.

Apocalypto is another controversial movie of his, which got mixed reviews when it came out. I remember the main complaint was that it was extremely violent and gory.  And that it is, but I actually have an overall decent review to offer for this movie. It is subtitled. I’m not sure exactly what language they are speaking, but it does make for a more authentic movie, although there are definitely some flaws that make that authenticity disappear momentarily.

This movie is about the violent Mayan civilization, but more so about a small tribe they ransack and take many prisoners from.  Jaguar Paw, a member of a tribe that is far removed from the unknown-to-them Mayan civilization, find himself in the middle of a ransacking of his peaceful, happy village.  He witnesses the violent death of his father and of several of his tribesmen and tribeswomen, and is forced away from his very pregnant wife and young son, whom he secretly deposits into a cavern to hide them away from the Mayans.

We find out that the men they take from the village are set up as sacrifices to the Gods, whom the Mayans believe are angry with them since their crops are draughted and their people sick with a disease.   The rest of the story is how Jaguar Paw extracts himself from the situation.

The acting is very good throughout, but some of the dialogue is hoaky, especially considering that the F word is used once and that just makes it sound not only non-authentic, but also ludicrous.  There is one scene that involves the birthing of a baby that is totally ludicrous as well, but I’ll let you see that scene to make your own decision.

Overall though, Mel made a good movie. It is very violent, and some of it may have you hiding your eyes like a child.  It actually piqued my interest in reading more about the Mayan civilization and finding out how they came to an end.

So I just finished the massive tome I’ve been reading, one of Stephen King’s latest books which is at a massive plus 1,000 pages – not unusual for the notoriously prolific writer.  Under the Dome is a great book. At times it’s dark, and the rape imagery will definitely disturb the female readers – I know it did me.  Although it clocks in at just over 1,000 pages, King keeps your rapt interest by doing what he does best – weaving a tale about character you come to know and love, even if your time with each of them is limited because of the large “ensemble cast” in this one.

Under the Dome is a book that I could definitely see made into a movie, but it would have to be crafted by a master movie maker or it could decidedly come out cheesy and poorly done.  The story line goes like this. Folks in a town called Chester’s Mill are living their small town lives when a mysterious clear dome smacks down over their town, cutting off most of the fresh air supply and trapping all of it’s inhabitants, as well as causing havoc at first from it’s sheer physical presence in the form of things like airplane accidents and car accidents.

The story follows several of the town’s inhabitants, many of which we instantly know are the “good guys” and also about half of which we instantly loathe as the evil ones.  King really makes you hate the characters that he weaves as evil control freaks, and that’s why he’s so gifted as a writer.  In this ensemble cast, you know who’s good and who’s not, and you’re rooting for the “good guys” from the beginning, hoping he doesn’t take them from you in a violent death.

I’d say that this story is not only somewhat of a commentary on ecological issues such as air pollution and us not taking care of mother earth the way we should be, but also on how small and insignificant we are when we think we are very significant, if that makes any sense.  The story also may have some parallels to some well known politicians and I also wonder if he meant to draw parallels to the Bush administration or whether this might not have been accidental.

As you follow the characters, you are overcome with emotion at the trials and tribulations the “good guys” are put through, and on the edge of your seat for their survival.  That’s all I can tell you without giving away the story, but ultimately, this is another tale about the battle between good and evil ala “The Stand”, only under a dome where everyone has been sequestered from the real world and now is involved in it’s own little ecosystem and crooked politics.