Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

Grade: B-

"Truly delightful. Best Potter yet!" That was my instant review of the latest installment of the Harry Potter saga. It was 2:40ish in the morning on July 15th, and I had just seen what I still consider to be one of the better Harry Potter movies. I have read all 7 of J.K. Rowling's masterpieces multiple times, so it is impossible for me to simply view this movie as a separate entity from the books. Were I able to view this film purely as the 6th installment in a series of movies, I would have given it an A-. As it stands, I cannot say that I really liked this movie. I have to chalk my initial review up to excitement and exhaustion.

All in all, this movie was fine as the 6th installment in a long sequence of movies. As the embodiement of the 6th book in a series of fantastic tales it falls far below what was expected. The trailer for this movie depicts action and adventure, which makes for a good trailer but doesnt exactly depict an accurate portrayal of the film.

Please be warned that there are spoilers in this review. If you have not seen the movie please watch for the movie spoilers sign and stop reading. If you have not read the book, get off the internet and start reading something real. Seriously, what is wrong with you?

The 6th Harry Potter film starts where the 5th one left off. Death and destruction in the Ministry of Magic, Voldemort's return is now widely known, and rumors of Harry Potter's legend abound. The beginning of this movie was true magic. Harry Potter is growing up and it is undeniable. Daniel Radcliffe has played his role well throughout his Harry Potter career, and he is no longer the little boy with glasses. Sure the glasses are still there, but there is no way to look at this person and see a boy. If his physique and 5 o clock shadow dont convince you that Harry is all man, then his interaction with a beautiful waitress will do the trick.

This film covers Harry's 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The 6th year at Hogwarts brings new challenges to the students in the classroom, they are now on specific tracks toward their career aspirations. Harry's worst subject, Potions suddenly becomes a lot more interesting when he stumbles upon an old Potions book belonging to someone who calls themselves The Half Blood Prince. In addition to higher level N.E.W.T. classes, Harry is captain of the Quidditch team. Outside of school activities he is enlisted to help Headmaster Dumpledore on a quest to find out as much about the life of Tom Riddle, or Lord Voldemort as he is more commonly known, so that he may eventually be destroyed.


I think this movie falls into two categories, parts I liked because they depicted what I saw in my head when I read the book, and parts I hated becuase they purposefully went away from the well written story it was based on. There is, admittedly, a smaller more obsure portion of the movie that would fall into a third category: parts I liked even though they deviated from the story I love.





WARNING BOOK SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!





The beginning sequences of this film, in fact the first 15 minutes or so were spectacular! They perfectly set the tone for the rest of the film. The world is not a safe place any longer, even Muggles are noticing that something is not quite right in the world. The first scene is shot in Imax and that choice immediately throws the viewer into the action. Instead of sitting back and watching destruction, you are experiencing the destruction.

From here the movie takes a turn. A lot of people have complained that nothing happened in the movie, and to some extent they are correct. However this stayed true to the book, granted in the book you get a lot more ventures back in time to see glimpses into who Tom Riddle really is. There are two books in the Harry Potter series where Lord Voldemort himself does not appear, the Prisoner of Azkaban and the Half Blood Prince. They are also, interestingly, the only books whose titles refer to an indivudual person. These books are more character stories, than action stories. In the Prisoner of Azkaban we learn all about the friendships of Harry's parents and their fellow Maurauders. In the Half Blood Prince the story focuses more on Harry and his group of friends. The development of the Harry and Hermione's friendship on a fraternal level is key to elements in the last book. The development of Hermione and Ron's romantic relationship, or lack of one, is a story that readers have been yearning for.

If you have not seen the movie, and are the type of person who watches the Harry Potter movies without partaking in the joy that is the book series, I suggest that you stop reading here. For the film viewer, this movie is quite good. Go into it expecting to see a personal story of love and friendship and I think you will enjoy yourself. There will be more Harry Potter excitement in the next two movies, but this one is definitely a character study, or at least it is supposed to be.

If you havent seen the movie yet because you are like me and love the Harry Potter books so much that you have trouble really enjoying the movies, keep reading fellow Potterite, keep reading.

There were several classic scenes from this tale of complicated high school friends and enemies that were recreated on the silver screen very well. Ron playing Quidditch was hilarious, and Cormack McLaggon is the perfect specimen of the boy you love to hate. Jim Broadbent nails the role of Horace Slughorn, he hits that exact strange mark between good guy and power grubbing creep that is Horace Slughorn. Jessie Cave will thrill you as Lavendar Brown, her delivery of the line "Where is my Won Won?" is everything you faithful readers have been waiting for. I could truthfully go on and on about all the ways that this cast delivered the characters of this movie in ways that are still blowing my mind. The acting is superb, they truly transcend the characters off of the screen and into your hearts.

While the acting was spot on, the directing and screenwriting were shoddy at best. Scenes like Katy Bell's bewitchment and the cave will chill you to the bones, they are evocative of the graveyard scene in the Goblet of Fire where possibly the scariest moment in Potter history was brought to life better than we ever could have hoped for. Other scenes like Harry and Ginny's first kiss and the showdown between Death Eaters and Dumbledore flopped like lifeless fish as it seemed that the director just didnt nkow how to handle them. I have said before that the brilliance in Harry Potter lies in the details. JK Rowling paints a picture beautifully, tying together so many elements, really allowing the reader to live in the world she has created. When the creative team behind these movies decides to walk away from the scenes laid out by their Muse, they do a severe injustice to themselves.

And that's the way I see it.

The Ugly Truth

Grade: B

No offence to the big wigs in Hollywood but this summer has been a little lacking in quality movies. During a typical summer I would probably not be willing to shell out the cash for a movie like this one. Luckily for me the theater in my town offers $5 matinees and I was just in a movie mood this weekend. I truly enjoyed The Ugly Truth and so now I must thank Hollywood for failing to produce anything outside of robot and weird animal movies.

In addition to being slightly bored this weekend, I chose this movie because of the lead actors. Katherine Heigl has been a favorite since her days as an alien in New Mexico. I love Gray's Anatomy and particularly like what Heigl does with her character Izzy. Gerard Butler is incredible. He scared the mess out of me as the Phantom,even if his falsetto will never be on the same level as Michael Crawford. He won my heart as the author of letters from beyond the grave in PS I Love You. Going in to the theater I was looking forward to a nice standard chick flick, I was not disappointed.

The Ugly Truth gets it's name from a cable access television show where Gerard Butler's character, Mike, tells what he considers to be the truth. The gist of his program is that men want women with big boobs, round butts and who are willing to get on their knees occasionally. Well that would be the PG way to describe his advice anyway. Katherine Heigl plays Abby, a Type A television producer who works on a morning show with sliding ratings. She is actively seeking a boyfriend who will meet the criteria on her checklist of the perfect man, examples of which include being successful, liking cats and being into red wine.

Abby and Mike meet when Mike is added to the staff of the morning show in order to boost ratings. In addition to growing the show's ratings like crazy, Mike helps Abby by teaching her to be the kind of woman that a man wants. Through his advice Abby starts dating Colin, the handsome doctor who meets all ten items on her checklist. From here typical chick flick antics ensue.

Now in school you learned that a C stood for average work and that a B represented something that went a little beyond what was expected. You may be wondering what set this movie apart from it's hundreds of rom com counterparts. This movie sets itself apart in three ways for me. First, the lead characters are fantastic, you instantly like them. Next, the supporting cast does a great job of adding color and humour while not stealing attention from the main theme of the movie. Lastly the comedy in the film is superb. Often in a romantic comedy you get the romance shoved down your throat and the comedy falls to the wayside. This movie found a great balance of sentiment of humor.

The on screen chemistry between Heigl and Butler was surprising, I was unsure of how these two dynamic actors would merge on screen, but it worked well. Butler sends out this bad boy with a heart vibe that makes you want to slap him and kiss him all at the same time. Mike is definitely the type of character you want to cheer for. At first you hate him for being a pig and then you get these glances into his actual personality, as it contrasts with the person he tries to be on tv, and you end up rooting for him. This plays well off of Heigl's character who is looking for love on paper but doesn't really know how to deal with it in real life. Heigl is one of the most beautiful actresses in America, yet she manages to make you believe that her character has trouble finding men. You can imagine yourself being friends with this girl, sitting with her at happy hour and hearing the latest story of a date gone bad.

Another winning part of this movie is the supporting cast. The news anchors on the morning show, played by are fantastic and hilarious. They are exactly what you imagine Regis and Kathee were like when the cameras are off. Heigl's romantic interest, Dr. Colin, is the definition of the type of guy you always thought you wanted. The actor in this role did a fantastic job of being the perfect man on paper yet still not being Abby's Mr. Right.

The comedy in this scene comes from both situations and characters. Character traits reveal themselves in uniquely funny situations and are continually funny throughout the movie without getting stale. Abby has a happy dance that makes you want to laugh both with her and at her at the same time. Abby's control freak leaps out during a blind internet date with amusing results. There is also a scene with a personal pleasure device that is a must see. What sets this scene apart from others you may have seen is that the film directors know exactly where the line is and they moan and gasp there way right up to that line but dont cross it.

As a frequent viewer of romantic comedies I have become a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to endings. Going into a film like this, you know that 98% of the time that the leads will end up together. The trick to creating a good ending then is to bring that moment to you in a way that is unexpected or at the very least do so with minimal cheesiness. This movie leads you up to that moment with a lot of promise. The scene is set for a fantastic ending. I wish they had left it there and let us imagine why happened and what was said.

I believe that a lot of yours view of movie come from the mindset with which you go into the movie. If you go in expecting greatness and get something that is only good, you tend to think that it was actually bad. For this film you should go in expecting some stereotypical chick flick scenes. Expect foul language and some comments that would make your mom blush. This movie was good not great, cute not life changing. A decent filling for a few hours to kill at the cineplex when you have already seen Harry Potter.

And that's the way I see it.

Roast Chicken, Twice Baked Potatoes, Carrots and Apple Pie

When we lived in Germany I loved how often we went to the grocery store. I think the Europens have it right when it comes to food shopping, keep your kitchen stocked with some basics and then hit the store almost daily for your dinner ingredients. Usually when I head to the grocery store I already know what I need to get. I have a list and I try to map out my trip to not waste extra movements or time in the store, I am an engineer after all. There is something almost magical about those times when you are in a grocery store without a clock or a list hanging over you, the idea that your dinner can be anything you can imagine. I encourage you to hit the grocery store every once in a while without a menu in mind, there is a whole store full of ingredients waiting to inspire you and occasionally your best creations will come from stumbling across a sale on something you might not ordinarily think to purchase.

My roomates and I often email back and forth about what we would like to make for dinner during the day. Its a nice distraction from work, and it makes us feel like real people instead of office drones. This past week one roomate had a craving for rotisserie chicken, and we had some leftover store brand potato salad, so that was the plan for dinner. I had to go to the store to get a prescription filled, so picking up the required ingredients for dinner that night fell to me. The rotisserie chickens just looked sad that day, already dried out and kinda small, it did not look like good eats. So, as often happens, I decided to alter our dinner plans a little bit... ok a lot. In the meat section I saw that whole chickens were on sale, and that i could purchase a 6 lb bird for less than the 3 lb already cooked shriveled little guy up front. I grabbed the chicken and suddenly I was inspired. I was going to make a real old school Leave it to Beaver Sunday style dinner. I had never roasted a chicken before, but all those moms on sitcoms did it and they always looked to yummy, surely I could pull this off.

I decided that store bought potato salad would have never hit June Cleaver's table, and what better thing to go with hot roast chicken than a baked potato. A twice baked potato, that would be better. So I grabbed some bacon and cheese and I was all set to bake some potatoes twice. I must add here that twice baked potatoes are a favorite of mine, but we never had them at home. As I remember it, an excuse was given that they were too much trouble; I think secretly my mom just didnt like them.

Sepaking of my mom, we recently got to spend a good amount of time together. Time with family has been rare these days as my parents live in a different country. She was home for about 2 months before she had to go back oversees and I got a little spoiled having her around. I must have been feeling guilty about the twice baked potatoes, I knew she would frown on them. So to appease my guilt, and bring a little bit of her back home, I decided to make two of her specialties: carrots and apple pie. She is known around the world (literally) for her apple pies, and I have always loved the way she made carrots.

So there it was my perfect old school Sunday dinner: roast chicken, twice baked potatoes, carrots and apple pie. It must be noted that they only thing out of this list I have ever made before is carrots. The twice backed potatoes turned out flawlessly. There is not much to say about the potatoes. Anything flavored with cheddar, bacon, butter and sour cream is going to be good; end of story. My moms carrots recipe is to microwave the carrots with a layer of water so they steam, a tab of butter and some sugar for flavoring. I used a little of the bacon grease instead of the butter to add flavor to the carrots and I steamed them on the stove with a little sugar. Easy as pie, well actually the pie was a little more complicated. Granny smith apples, nutmeg, cinamon, butter and pumpkin pie spice completed the stuffing. I have to admit I used a store bought crust. The most important thing in makeing an apple pie is to make sure that your apple chunks are all the same size so that they cook evenly. The pie crust was a little big for the pie tin that we had so I ended up with some extra crust. I used part of the extra to make a flower design on the top of the pie. The remaining crust was spread with butter, sprinkled with cimamon and sugar then rolled up and baked. It's like a pie appetizer, or a chef's snack, a must have with any pie baking experience.

Three out of four menu items were exceuted without much trouble, all turned out really well and I was quite happy with them. The chicken was trickier. I dont know if you have ever purchased a whole chicken, it is a little gross. I have only ever made one whole bird prior to this exercise and that was a turkey during the holidays. It received wide acclaim from everyone at the party where it was served. To be fair, however, I must also state that everyone who consumed it had also consumed a fair amount of poinsettias (cranberry juice and champagne, kicks mimosas in the butt) before the turkey so they may have not been the best judges.

The chicken was covered with feathers, they were tiny tiny feathers smaller than a strand of hair, but feathers nonetheless. They were everywhere. I tried to pull out as many as I could but after about 30 minutes I just had to stop so I could get the stupid thing in the oven. I was, however, able to get out all of the feather shafts. They were hard little plastice like tubes that were embedded in several parts of the body. My hope was that the small feathers would burn off in the oven, but I knew that the feather shafts would be unpleasant to chew on. After stuffing the cavity with bits of apple and onion I gave the outside a nice rub with some butter and seasoning. Finally, I layered the breast meat with strips of bacon. Please stop before you judge me, adding volume to the chicken breast keeps the breast meat moist. Additionally, as I had already used bacon in my other menu items I thought it would be a nice way to tie the flavors of the meal together. The bacon fat bastes the bird while it is cooking, remove the strips about 20 to 30 minutes before the chicken is done and you will still get a lovely brown skin that is quite tastey.

All of this would have worked perfectly except for one tiny mishap in the cooking process. I started the oven at 450, to give the skin a good browning, and then the plan was to turn it down to 350 to continue cooking the remaining time. Our oven is a little tricky and when I turned down the heat I actually turned the oven off and never restarted it. Luckily I did not open the door to the oven at all for the next 30 minutes so the temperature did not drop below 250, however it did make for some undercooked chicken when we first attempted to sit down for dinner. Another 20 minutes in a hot oven did the trick and the chicken actually tasted pretty good, if slightly drier than I would have liked.

My tips for raosting any whole bird are simple. I recommend stuffing the cavity (after you remove the gross bits) with anything aromatic. Carrots, apples, oranges, onions, and lemons work best in my opinion. Always coat the bird lightly with oil or butter. This helps the skin brown nicely. Use simple seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder all work nicely. Add something on top of the breast meat. You can put stuffing between the skin of the breast and the meat itself if you do not want to eat the skin. If you are a skin person, add some stuffing to the outside of the skin and remove it before the final half hour of baking. Make sure to truss your bird. Trussing is simply tying the wings and legs so that they sit in close to the body, this ensures that they do not overcook while you wait for the body of the bird to come up to temperature. I skipped this step this time, but doing so led to wings that were quite dry.

Lessons learned from this cooking experience:
1 - Always check to make sure your oven is actually on
2 - If you are going to cook a whole bird plan time to defeather
3 - Don't forget to buy butchers twine, trussing is a must
4 - Bacon and cheddar makes everything better
5 - Apple Pie is America's dessert for a reason

Total Price of Meal: $30 (plus excellent chicken sandwhiches the next day)
Entrees, Wine and Dessert for 3 at a Resteraunt: $72

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: D-

The fact that I saw this movie is part of the reason that I wanted to start posting my own reviews of movies. I read on some review somewhere that despite the images the title suggests it was actually a cute romantic comedy. Seth Rogen is typically funny, he cracked me up as Bob in his guest appearance on Dawson's Creek. Elizabeth Banks is cute and funny, love love loved her on Scrubs. These things added up to me looking forward to this film.

I expected the leads to fall in love, I expected them to discuss having sex in somewhat graphic terms, I even expected to see nudity. What I did not expect was full on porn during portions of the film. This movie was as raunchy, and disturbing as the title would imply. I am not the kind of person who minds a little blue humor. I am actually the queen of That's What She Said jokes. That being said, you have to know when enough is enough. I dont believe that the word anal has ever been used in a movie more than it was in this one.

The movie starts out innocently enough, Zack and Miri live in a crappy apartment together. They have been friends since high school, they both have crappy jobs and they haven't paid their bills in months. At their high school reunion Miri plans to seduce the high school BMOC, and Zack plans to get hammer trashed and hook up with married ladies. It turns out the the high school stud is gay, and his boyfriend is a gay-porn star in California. He describes the things he does in movies with astounding detail. This scene actually made me dislike Justin Long, a difficulkt task considering Dodgeball is a go-to funny movie fave. When they find that their power and water have been shut off because they havent paid their bills they head to a bar. Surprisingly enough while they can't afford to pay for the services they use, they can afford to pay for several beers at 5 bucks a pop. Instead of choosing to make better choices with their money, because that would make for a more realistic and probably better movie, they choose to produce a porn film and sell it to their high school alums through the mialing list they got at the reunion.

From here the movie chronicles their attempts to find people to star in the movie. They hold auditions, which turn out to be akin to a sexual talent show. Their potential dirty names for the movie are uninspired and unhumorous, I could dream up funnier porn names and I dont get paid to write movies. This movie has made me lose my faith in Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen. I would list Dogma as one of my favorite movies, I love Knocked Up, this did not hold up to the high standards of humor that were estabilshed in those earlier films. Humor in this movie was only delivered through the "Oh my did they really just say/do that?" type of situation as opposed to anything that would actually qualify as a joke.

If I wanted to watch people have sex with each other, I would go to an adult video store and purchase an actual porno. I do not want to watch people have sex with each other, no judgment to those of you who do, it's just not my viewing option of choice. When I watch a movie I want to be able to invest in the characters, to feel like I could be freinds with them. With this movie you learn nothing about the characters (outside of the title two) outside of the fact that they are willing to have sex on film and they have special sexual skills. I felt no closeness to anyone in the movie, you dont get the glimpse into their lives that is needed to connect with a character. When I watch a movie I want to see a good story. The film leaves almost every story line unfinished. They wrap up the main relationship and that is the only closure that you get.

All in all this movie fell flat (no pun intended). It was awkward to watch, I thanked my lucky stars that I chose to view this alone. It wasnt more disgusting than it was funny. I felt no compassion for any of the characters as I was not given any motivation to feel so. The story had no ending. Can I please have the 101 minutes of my life back?

And that's the way I see it.

Hello World and Other Thoughts

Hello World! I am Audrey, a 25 year old engineer in Atlanta. While my job title sounds like I am a boring, pencil pushing nerd (and truthfully my job is exactly that) outside of work I am an entertainment junkie. Movies, books, music, television you name it I love it. I studied Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech, but my favorite class that I took while there was called Shakespeare and Film. In that class I got the opportunity to write a movie review, it was so much fun. I decided that telling my more recent movie reviews to my little brother is not enough of an outlet for me, plus I think he is tired of hearing about movies he has no desire to see.

In addition to loving the world of entertainment, I love to cook. The food network is permanently on my tv. Inspired by the new movie Julie and Julia, I thought I would share my adventures in cooking as well. I have no desire to learn Frech cuisine, but I do love new recipes. My efforts dont always turn out well, but they are always entertaining.

Hope you like what you read, if you dont, well let me know. A lively debate over the merits of the latest romantic comedy sounds awesome! :)