Wendy's Blog

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TMR: Tommy's Monthly Review: August Review

[Guest-blogging tonight is Tommy]

Before we get to my review, I'll answer some questions that you may be asking.

What is 'Tommy's Monthly Review'?

In this section, I'll be reviewing movies that I saw. I will be grading the films that I see.

What are the grades?

Here are the grades of the section:

Thumb Grade: Thumbs up OR Thumbs down

Alphabet Grade: A through F (E not included in these grades). + and – can be added into the letter grade. That means that A+ is the best grade, and F- being the worst grade.

Star Grade: 1 to 5 stars. Halves like 3 and a half stars are included in these grades.
Percent Grade: 0.1% to 100.5%.

When will this section come out?

As the title of this section says, it will come out every month.

Now let's get to the review.

This month's review:

The Simpsons' Movie

Grades:

Thumbs Grade: Thumbs up

Alphabet Grade: A

Star Grade: 4 and a half

Percent Grade: 98.9%

The setup: Homer saves a pig who is about to get turned into pork and keeps him, and soon causes an environmental crisis.

What Works: The film is 98% funny.

What Doesn't Work: Plopper (the pig) (a.k.a. Spiderpig OR Harry Plopper) is one of the funniest characters of the film, but he doesn't appear much.

Great Scene/Line:

Scene: At the beginning of the film, during the 20^th Century Fox studio logo, Ralph Wiggum comes out and yells “Da Da Da Da (pause) Da Da Da Da (pause) Da Da Da Daaaaa!”

Line: A mob with everyone in Springfield (except the Simpsons) chants 'We Want Homer!' over and over again.

Rating: PG-13, for irreverent humor throughout.

In 1987, Matt Groening created 'The Simpsons' as a series of shorts for a show called 'The Tracy Ullman Show'. After three seasons of shorts, in 1989, a prime time series called by the same name, was made. The first episode was called 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' which was (and I'm not kidding here) a Christmas special. After 18 seasons of the show, in 2007, their movie was released, and it's still playing in theaters. This film is what I'm going to review right now.

The film is goofy indeed, and charming in a silly way. There are a lot of gags in the movie, and nearly all of them might make you laugh. However, you may feel that the film's humor is going WAY overboard. (When I saw the film, I thought that didn't matter.)

Parents be warned: This film does contain a couple of nudity scenes. One of them includes a sequence in which Bart- you guessed it- skateboards naked. The part is funny- but it's also a reason to not bring little and some big kids to the movie.

As long as the show doesn't get canceled, get bad reviews, or have a series finale, the Simpsons- Homer, Marge, children Bart and Lisa, little baby Maggie, and all their friends and their show for years to come. Maybe they'll make a sequel to this great film!

All of this was written by:

Thomas 'Tommy' Nicholas Gennaula

Harry Potter Epilogue

It's true. In the end Harry Potter moves to NYC to become a yoga instructor. He is eventually adopted by Angelina Jolie....

(snicker... snicker...)

I finished the last Harry Potter book yesterday. As the NY Times said "good old fashion closure." They did NOT just sit at a table waiting for french fries and then fade to black.

Can't wait to see the movie!

Fun at Strong

Strong Museum of Rochester, NY makes it into WIRED via geekdad.

My kid gets deep on me...

"Dad, when we die, does God delete us?"

--Tommy Gennaula, 1:15pm

Oy Vey!

Just a balloon away from a Darwin award...

Although this stunt has not earned a real Darwin Award, it has gotten honorable mention before (for another guy).

Lawn chair man, lawn chair man
Flying high, you had a plan
You touched the sky, then touched the ground
Proving that your plan was sound
Pity that the chair got away

What you get

The other morning Wendy and I awoke to the sound of our wonderful sons screaming at each other... at the top of their lungs.

And my lovely wife turns to me and says: "I'm thinking about What do you get when you fall in love?... it isn't pretty."

Confessions at a coffee shop

A few nights ago Wendy and I had a free night (meaning we had childcare at home). None of the movies out really interested us so we ended up at the Riverview Coffee Shop where we could sit and read. I pulled out the book I was trying to finish up that night and started reading. During the course of the hour or so it took me to finish the book I had a few people come up to me and ask me if I liked the book--plus a couple of explanations (or confessions--take your pick) as to why they had read the book.

The book had been recommended to me by Wendy. It was a family tale that spanned several generations. Wendy is a fairly fast reader. Even with that, she read this one very quickly and told me about certain things in the book. But she was careful not to give away too much since she thought I should read it too. The book was Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. This is one of those books from the Oprah's Book Club.

Having now finished it I can say that it is a really good book. It definitely presents a point of view that not many people have. For me it was the family story that I found so interesting. Towards the beginning of the book many secrets of the family are explained. The fun is reading, waiting for these secrets to come out and see what effect they will have.

But back in the coffee shop I had fun with the two separate "explanations" (confessions) I got from 20-something guys. "Do you like it? Yeah, I read that book. My girlfriend made me read it. It was really good." I wondered why each guy had to add "my girlfriend made me read it." Was it the "Oprah" sticker on the front of the book? I also wondered why they felt they had to explain it to me? At a bit past 40 I look like Fred Flintstone with a goatee. Back in college I was told that I look like "a very intelligent truck driver." Was it something about the juxtaposition of Fred Flintstone reading an Oprah book that allowed to them to ask how I liked the book and then follow it by the confession?

Who knows. In any case, it is a good book that I would recommend.

Back to Latin

The Pope has OK’ed the use of the Latin Mass. I have conflicting views regarding this action. I am very much a post-Vatican Council II Catholic. I grew up with all the changes. I don’t see a problem caused by variations regarding liturgy. But I also love the sound, the music of Latin.

When I started music school I was not very familiar with the masses and requiems that had been written by musicians through the ages. There is a beauty to the sound of “Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Dona nobis pacem.”

I understand the concerns caused by the Good Friday liturgy in Latin. (See the NY Times article.) I’m not looking forward to having the priest face away from the congregation. I don’t want to hear Latin every Sunday. But I would like to hear such a mass from time to time.

The Light Rail to the MOA (Mall of America)

I had an adventure with Tony yesterday. Tommy and Wendy had plans to go see a show at the Children’s Theatre and then have dinner. I asked Tony what he wanted to do with me. We got on the Light Rail at 50th street. It was nice to get in the train since it was so hot outside.

Neither of us had been all the way southward to the MOA before. We went past Fort Snelling and the cemetery. When we got to the mall Tony wanted to play at the arcade right away. Afterwards we checked out Barnes and Noble, had dinner in the food court, and then stopped at Game Stop.

Tony convinced me that it would be OK if he used his money to buy Super Smash Brothers Melee even though it is a Teen game and he is only 12. You see, in Europe it is a 12 and up game, so it would be OK. They learn fast.

Wendy and Tommy had a great time and stopped at Chris and Rob’s Chicago style restaurant on the way home. They have NASCAR posters all around the place which Tommy thought was very cool.

Today we were just going to try to stay cool. Major thunderstorms just rolled through our area now, so hopefully the temperature will come down.

Today is...

...too darn hot!

93 degrees today. I hate really hot weather. A day to clean out things in the basement.

I may have to renounce my membership in "Minnesotans for Global Warming."

Today is...

...the Fourth of July.

It's hot. We're just going to take it easy today. I've been doing some garden work, but now I'm down in my "scriptorium" at the computer.