Two Movies in One Week!!!

It's been sort of a crazy week.  I watched two movies!

"The Three Musketeers":  This updated version of the classic tale is wall to wall fun.  With lots of action, some humor, and a great role for Orlando Bloom, this is easily the best movie I've seen in quite a while. 

The story has all the elements of other Musketeer stories, including young D'Artagnan coming to join the Musketeers, the evil Cardinal Richelieu, the battle against Europe's foremost swordsman and finally D'Artagnan's acceptance into the Musketeers.  But, what this story has that others don't is some really good effects, updated stunts, and great action sequences.  Plus some of the more traditional battles are reinvented. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 hours I spent watching "The Three Musketeers".  This is easily a 4 star movie, and I recommend it if you are in the mood for action and a good laugh.

"The Last of the Mohicans":  It's entirely possible that I am the only person in the world who hadn't seen "The Last of the Mohicans", and frankly, I could have remained the only person in the world to not have seen this movie.  I just don't get it...I don't understand how it can be so critically acclaimed?  I think Nuke put it best today when he stated something to the effect that I have the movie tastes of the average Joe, and to truly appreciate this movie, you need to have the movie tastes of a film critic.

That said, I did feel like this movie had one of the best film scores ever, so I still rate it 3 stars.  But it would have been 2 stars if not for the seriously good music.  If you like movies such as "The English Patient", and if you haven't already seen this 1993 film, give "The Last of the Mohicans" a shot.  If you didn't like "The English Patient", you won't like this.

Is This What Most People Deal With?

Many people over the past 2 days have said to me, "why don't you blog anymore?", or something to that effect.  Note, I am defining "Many" as 3 people.

But, I do have a blog topic today.  I read a headline today that Rick Santorum is suspending his campaign for President, virtually handing the Republican nomination to Mitt Romney.  Now, I don't think Mitt is a bad guy, and I'll vote for him in the general election, but I'm not excited about it.  I haven't ever been excited about a candidate for President in my voting life...EVER!!! 

I was hoping this year would be the one where I could really get behind a candidate for President.  I assumed, wrongfully, that the debacle called Obamacare and the disastrous Obama Presidency would embolden my fellow conservatives to finally vote for the real conservative choice in the Republican primary.  But, as we do every year, we settled for the "moderate", letting the media tell us that Rick Santorum and Ron Paul wouldn't be able to beat President Obama in the general election.  Too many of my fellow conservatives bought the media lie that Mitt was the only candidate who stood a chance against President Obama, and now we're left with a choice between a moderate conservative and a hard core leftist...just like we had 4 years ago, and we know how that turned out.

But enough of my whining.  What I really started pondering is this...do most Americans feel this way every election year, whether because of apathy or just the general lack of good candidates we seem to be able to find?  I am left to conclude that 75% of the country feels this way, and frankly, it stinks. 

Wouldn't it be fun to have a real debate in this country about the issues of the day?  Wouldn't it be so great to have someone who can really articulate their position without fear?  But instead, we have 2 politicians...we have 2 guys who are gonna sling mud, nuance everything they say, and if elected, there won't be a big difference between the two.  Frankly, I wouldn't vote at all this year, except I am convinced that Mitt Romney will attempt to dismantle Obamacare, or at least he will remove the mandate that faith based organizations have to provide contraception and abortion in their health plans.  That's really the only issue I am voting on this year.

I hope that I'm wrong about Mitt Romney.  I really hope that he has become more conservative than he was as Governor of Massachusetts.  And, I sincerely hope that he gets elected and immediately repeals Obamacare and institutes fiscally responsible policies.  I'm just very skeptical that any of this will happen.