TV Series Review: Warehouse 13, Season 1

The SyFy channel has hit on a winner with "Warehouse 13", at least through 1 season. I thought NBC's "Heroes" was a winner after one season too, so future seasons will tell.

"Warehouse 13" follows Secret Service Agents Pete Lattimer (played by Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (played by Joane Kelly) as they begin their new job working for a government storage facility called Warehouse 13. But, Warehouse 13 isn't just any old warehouse...it's where the government stores objects with inherent magical powers, such as Edgar Allen Poe's pen, which grants the user the ability to make anything they write come to life. The job of Agents Lattimer and Bering is to collect these artifacts, and store them safely away from the general public. The job allows them to use some of the more interesting artifacts, such as the Tesla, which is a gun that renders its victim immobile and wipes their memory...for about 3 minutes. They are lead in this effort by Artie (played by Saul Rubinek), the agent in charge of Warehouse 13. As the season moves on, the agents encounter more dangerous artifacts, and more dangerous villains.

I think people who typically like SyFy originals will like this show. McClintock and Kelly play off each other very well, and end up making a good team. The supporting characters are all unique and add to the show rather than detract from it. The effects are low budget, but that's what we expect from a SyFy original. Also, it's not a huge time committment, as the season is very short...maybe 13 episodes. I know I really enjoyed the season and look forward to season 2. I'm trying to be more stingy with my 5 star ratings, but this show was close. In the end I gave it 4 stars, though it may be 4.49ish.

He's a Lemon

Today I was pondering the state of our country and our President. President Obama's approval rating is still 53%, according to Real Clear Politics. This is despite the fact, that again according to Real Clear Politics, 53% of Americans think our country is on the wrong track. How can the President maintain a 53% approval rating when so many people think our country is going down the wrong path? I'm not even going to get into the debacle that is his health care reform "plan."

Then it hit me...President Obama is a Lemon. Stick with me here. In the election, Obama got 53% of the vote, or real close to it. His approval rating is 53%. Coincidence? I think not!

What I think we have here is the same thing that happened to me when we bought a Kia Sedona minivan in 2002. We have to make some long drives to visit family, so we decided to purchase a minivan, but we went with a Kia Sedona, because it was inexpensive. When I say we, I mean I...the smartest person in my house was never too crazy about the idea.

We owned that van for 3 years. In that time, we had it in the shop several times, we found that it didn't get the advertised gas mileage, it wasn't that comfortable on long drives, and the seats were hard to remove. However, it took me 2 and a half years before I would admit that buying the vehicle was a mistake. It took 2 and a half years before I no longer "approved" of the minivan.

This is exactly what is going on with Obama. The 53% of this country who voted for him hasn't given up on him yet, despite mounting evidence that he isn't the man they voted for. He claimed to be a moderate who would work across party lines, yet he never meets with Republicans. He said unemployment wouldn't go above 8%, but, sadly, we're closing in on 10%. He claimed that the real war was in Afghanistan, and when he was President that's where he'd fight the war on terror. But now that his handpicked General for Afghanistan wants 40,000 additional troops, Obama is waffling...playing politics rather than being the Commander-in-Chief. And again, I won't go into the debacle that is his health care "plan."

What we're learning is that Barack Obama is no more qualified to be President than your average State Senator (which he was until 4 years ago),...or Sarah Palin. He didn't have enough experience or substance for the job, but too many were fooled by his eloquent speeches and carefully crafted persona. As a nation, we bought a Kia Sedona...and now we all have to face the fact that he's a lemon.

Movie Review: Inkheart

"Inkheart" is a Brendan Fraser movie that does a great job of minimizing Brendan Fraser to the point where he doesn't suck all the life out of it. Though, everybody in the movie, but Fraser, has a British accent. But, the minimalization (is that word?) of Fraser worked...I ended up really liking this movie, rating it 4 stars.

"Inkheart" is loosely based on a children's book of the same title. I say loosely, not because I've read the book, but because I've been told that the movie and the book are quite different. Also, because it seems like all movies based on books are loosely based. "Inkheart" centers around Mo Folchart (Fraser) and his daughter Meggie. Mo is a bookbinder who always searches the bookstores he visits for a certain book. Unbeknownst to his daughter, when Mo reads aloud, he brings characters in the book he is reading to life. The adventure begins when the evil Capricorn (played by Andy Serkis, who was Gollum in Lord of the Rings) tracks down Mo and his daughter. Capricorn was brought to life out of a book, and wants Mo to bring more characters to life, in order to carry out his evil plans.

Overall, "Inkheart" kept me interested. I think it started out slowly, but picked up pace about 30-40 minutes in. Paul Bettany is really good as Dustfinger, and like I said, Fraser didn't annoy me. The young girl in the movie, Eliza Bennet, is very good for a child actor. Of course, it's hard to look bad next to Brendan Fraser.

I think I'm going to let my kids watch this one. It's definitely PG for a reason, but I think any kid who can handle a good adventure movie and a little suspense would like "Inkheart".