Currently Reading & Finished

Just finished reading Heather Brewer's The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod - 12th Grade Kills - Book 5. Excellent! Thoroughly enjoyed the entire series...and I'm not a teenager reading it! The last 3/4 of the book, she really amped up the action, violence, vampire behavior, etc. Well done! And the cliffhangers & surprises kept me on the edge of my seat!

Just started reading Karen Marie Moning's ShadowFever - which is Book 5 in her Fever series. I read the first four of the series last summer, absolutely falling in love with the characters. She made me want to pull my hair out waiting to find out what happened next. Well, I'm only about 18 pages into the newest book and the emotions she is having her main character experience are heart-wrenching! Can't wait to dive back into the pages tonight!

Twilight Saga - Eclipse-Nominated for Razzie Award

The 31st Annual Razzie Awards announced their choice in nominations. The "winners" will be awarded on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at Hollywood’s Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. These awards go to the movies they consider the WORST for the year.  This is NOT an award anyone jumps and down to receive. Many of the movies were sequels, prequels or remakes. The Razzie Awards are announced the day before the Oscar nominations.

http://www.razzies.com/   Official site

 http://www.twilightthemovie.com/   Official Movie site

To the many hordes of Edward/Bella/Jacob fans in the Twilight Series, complete shock accompanied the screams of "What? No way!" echoed off walls this morning.  The unbelievable announcement was made that the TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE had received 9 different nominations for Razzie Awards.

Local area resident Chris B., states, "Eclipse shouldn't have gotten all those Razzie nominations. There were many movies last year that were terrible and yet aren't listed under any of the Worst Categories."

The cast of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse shares the highest number of nominations for Razzie Awards for 2010 with M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender".

And yet, Eclipse was last year’s 4th biggest money-maker. Strange. It will be interesting to see what happens when the remaining two movies in the series are released. Even though these awards tend to be embarrassing, much attention is being given to the possible recipients. It may not be a bad thing for the all the people involved in the Twilight franchise.  Attention can be a good thing. 

Here are the categories Eclipse is nominated for:

WORST PICTURE

WORST ACTOR:

Taylor Lautner 

Robert Pattinson

WORST ACTRESS

Kristen Stewart

WORST SCREEN COUPLE / WORST SCREEN ENSEMBLE

The Entire Cast of TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jackson Rathbone

WORST DIRECTOR

WORST SCREENPLAY

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

Other Nominees for Worst Picture besides Eclipse include:

The Last Airbender

The Bounty Hunter

Sex & The City 2

Vampires Suck

Reading Heather Brewer's 12th Grade Kills

I'm currently reading Heather Brewer's Twelfth Grade Kills -The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod - #5 in the series. Starting last summer, I began reading the first book in the series, and mingled amongst several other books I've been reading since then, have worked my way to the last one. The books in order are as follows:
8th Grade Bites, 9th Grade Slays, 10th Grade Bleeds, 11th Grade Burns, 12th Grade Kills. Heather Brewer lives in the St. Louis, Missouri area and one day I would love to sit down and talk vampires with her! Especially since I only live about 40 minutes from good ole' St. Louis. I've thoroughly enjoyed her books, falling in love with the characters as if I really knew them. Vlad is so endearing as he struggles through his teenage years as part human/part vampire; let alone trying to find his place in this world and survive (literally) onslaughts coming at him from all angles. I just read in 12th Grade Kills, the gentle jab/poke/razzing at "Twilight" (which I  love!) when Vlad gets lip gloss on his lips and goes to wipe it off...because, you know, vampires didn't sparkle. I chuckled!!

Primeval - Duncan, Matt and Rex

Primeval, airs on BBC America, Saturdays at 9/8C. (The local channels are listed at the end of article.)  In Episode 2, on January 8, 2011, Connor locates his old friend, Duncan. Together they stumble across a dead body at the docks. A creature that had lived in the sewers is responsible. The team (including Abby) tracks down and kills the deadly creature and Connor's position is reinstated, after proving his value to the ARC operation. 

Okay, who is Duncan, you might ask? Duncan was last seen in Season 1, Episode 4. He, as stated, is Connor's friend, and is determined to discover all the secrets to Connor's work. He has wild, paranoid thoughts and is obsessed with conspiracy theories. He and another friend, Tom, gave Connor a Roswell keychain that had a tracking device in it. A dodo bird swallowed it and Duncan and Tom ended up tracking the dodo instead of Connor. They caught the dodo, which was infected with a parasite, it bit Tom who became infected and later died.  Now our memories are refreshed with who Duncan is in this new season.

Matt is the new ARC team leader after Danny disappeared through an anomaly. There is mystery surrounding him and he doesn't open up with the team members.  He has a strong military background and is a survivalist.  He will break the rules in order to save lives. Matt has introduced some new EMD weapons. He has been shown meeting with a man named Gideon.  What is Gideon referring to when he mentions that one of them (on the ARC team, we believe) could be "it"? And that Matt should be cautious? The mystery remains unsolved and leads us to suspect that whatever it is, will be major to the storyline.

Connor and Abby's old boss, Lester, has softened to them. It's endearing watching him try to not show too much emotion and concern for them, but we can tell he missed Abby and klutzy Connor during the year they were in the Cretaceous. Lester kept their old lockers in storage, just in case they ever returned.  Awww... And he supported and pushed for Connor to get his position with the ARC reinstated.

Thank goodness Connor and Abby are still on the show. Their romance is sweet and it's wonderful to see the two of them together as a couple.  Abby has such spunk and heart. Connor provides humor at all the right times.  Let's not forget Rex, the little dinosaur that Abby took care of like a pet! To see him fly into the scene and land on the table, allowing Abby to scratch him was a special treat to know he was still alive...and appeared to remember Abby as his buddy. 

Too bad there aren't more episodes planned in the works. It appears that this season will only have seven episodes.

Primeval  --  LOCAL CHANNELS:

Charter Communications, channel 113

DirecTV - channel 264

Dish Network - channel 135

"Supernatural" - Sam, Dean and Castiel

Supernatural, CW's hit TV show, returns with new episodes on Friday, January 28 at 9/8c. Jensen Ackles (Dean), Jared Padalecki (Sam) and Misha Collins (Castiel) blend paranormal horror with a touch of humor that fans love. After Season 5 ended with the apocalypse, I was concerned how this season would play out. The original plan was to have the series end with Season 5, but at the last moment it was picked up again for another year. My husband tends to fall asleep during the show, but not this year. He's managed to stay awake (which says something for the show). We love the interactions between the characters. Very natural and the teasing back and forth is hilarious. A lot of questions need answered, but isn't that normal for any show of this caliber? Sam appears to have his soul back with the cliffhanger episode in December, although he's shouting he doesn't want it back-who knows how he may change? If the so-called wall/mental block in his mind holds up, he should be fine, according to Death. If the wall crumbles, Sam could be a raving lunatic having the images of hell, his time there and all the memories of it brought back in full force. Dean getting a chance to play Death for a day may have given him some revelations about life and souls and the importance to what part he and Sam will play in the future of the world. Castiel continues to deal with the civil war between the angels. God is still AWOL and who will be the next in charge of heaven is at stake. Castiel's quips are priceless; the dead-pan bantering with Sam and Dean are perfect. All three have lines from episodes that could be quoted time and again for their distinct delivery and comic-relief for a situation they're ultimately stuck in. Season 6, Epi.3 - Castiel: "What part of 'I don't know' escapes your understanding?" And he's not saying it like a joke, but as fact. Love it!

"Devil" - on DVD-Keeps You Guessing Thriller

I recently watched  Devil, PG-13, 1 hr, 21 min, out on DVD & Blu-ray, from producer M. Night Shyamalan. Five strangers are trapped in an elevator and discover that one of them is the Devil in disguise. Without giving away too much...A bad or evil aura in a certain space had opened the door to the Devil . He takes on a human form to torment people before taking their souls, enjoying the misery he creates and seeing the expressions on his victim's faces. Everyone on that elevator is on the Devil's  *#!* list and discovering what those reasons are is part of the thrill ride for the viewer. When the Devil is around, things don't behave normally and he creates doubt and confusion in your mind. Innocent people get caught in the crossfire and we know what happens to them. Big surprise twist at the end on who ends up being the Devil in disguise. One of the movie taglines is: "Bad things happen for a reason." Inquiring minds want to know if the Devil manifested the body of that particular person or did he take over the body and mind of an existing person. And without spoiling things, another mystery was the "bite marks"...why this just a method to torment? I wondered if the Devil had possessed her body with the marks as the point of entry. Interesting. This movie is one of three in a similar style produced by Shyamalan under the title The Night Chronicles. The second movie will be called  Reincarnate, slated to shoot in 2011. Other screenwriters and directors will collaborate to make his creative ideas come to life with these movies. Shyamalan has had several movies out in the last few years that did not live up to their hype, and that's not just my opinion. But Devil was a short, solid, character-driven, well-delivered movie that will keep you sitting on the edge of your couch!

The Vampire Diaries - Elena and Elijah: The Deal

The Vampire Diaries returns Thursday, January 27 on The CW with an episode appropriately titled, "The Descent." The last new episode on December 9 left us with finger-tapping, head-scratching cliffhangers as it wrapped for the mid-season finale. Tyler experienced his first werewolf transformation with Caroline offering support. Rose, the vampire, was bitten by the new character, Jules, the female werewolf, who left a nasty mark with lasting consequences. But one information-loaded scene that will effect the forthcoming storyline was the "deal" assumedly made between Elena and Elijah. Fans have focused on other interactions and events in the episode and had only a miniscule amount to say about that scene. A refresher: Elijah offered to protect Elena's friends and family. She, in turn, will try to stay out of trouble and will be used as bait to draw out the ancient, dominating vampire, Klaus. Elijah wants  Elena alive and Klaus dead. He stated that if he wanted Elena or her friends and family dead, he would have already killed them by now. If news gets out that Elena is a doppelganger, vampires will want to capture her to take to Klaus for his approval and reward. Elena must stay alive to allure Klaus to Mystic Falls so Elijah can dispose of him. Spells from witches (Bonnie and another that Elijah knows)  can keep everyone safe. Something to consider: Elijah swears that he keeps his promises - he wants Elena safe and will keep all the people she cares about protected, but once Klaus is dead, if that actually does happen, will he just walk away from Elena or does he have another agenda up his sleeve for her? 

Also, Elijah says his goal is to NOT break the curse of the moonstone, which is interesting. A refresher on the curse: Centuries ago, an Aztec shaman cast the curse. The moonstone BINDS the curse. Vampires cannot tolerate the sun; werewolves can only transform during a full moon and are unable to control themselves. A Petrova doppelganger (Elena) needs sacrificed to BREAK the curse. Her blood along with a vampire, a werewolf, the moonstone and a witch to do the spell are all needed to break the curse. Katherine has been trying to break the curse. She wanted to present to Klaus all those "ingredients" so the curse would be broken and she could win Klaus' approval and then he'd leave her alone. Those "ingredients" were: Elena with the Petrova bloodline, Caroline as the vampire, Mason (killed)/Tyler (newly transformed) as the werewolf, the moonstone and Bonnie as the witch.

When the show returns in January, Damon will be pressing Jules for a cure to the werewolf bite she gave Rose in order to save her. Of course, Jules says in the preview to put a stake in her heart. And what happened to their theory that a werewolf bite would kill a vampire? Rose is stomping around alive...so far. The Vampire Diaries winter break will be agony for dedicated fans. How many more weeks till the show returns?! When? Thursday, January 27!!

"Fringe" - The Observers Intrigue

Fringe - Nominated for favorite SciFi/Fantasy show by People's Choice Awards, will return on Friday, January 21, 2011. The bold move to a Friday is usually considered a death time slot for shows but if any show has the ability to survive, it would be Fringe. Especially with this teaser: An Observer will be making an appearance as he contacts the team to help him correct a mistake he thinks he made. Did you realize that in every episode of Fringe an Observer can be found if you watch close enough for him? Under most circumstances, his appearance is very brief and fleeting but in some episodes the camera focuses directly on him. Many fans would argue that these beings are seen only a few times throughout each season, with a few episodes featuring one or several as main characters. But if you dive into researching on the internet, some sites provide the precise frame or clip of the scene proving that an Observer is actually in every episode. You'll be slapping yourself on the forehead wondering why you never noticed him while watching the show! An Observer is usually lingering near the vicinity in which the Fringe characters are involved in an unusual discovery. They appear at important moments in human history, reaching far back in time, and at "Pattern"-related events. Observers are bald, approximately middle-aged men with no eyebrows, dress in suits and hats, and carry briefcases. They watch and observe and are not supposed to interfere, unless it is to correct a mistake of their own making. Observers keep tabs on our universe and report their findings to an unknown party on some type of communication device. The Observers seem to be named after our months; for example: December and August have been names mentioned in past episodes. Observers are calm, reserved and prefer not showing any emotions; although they are capable of emotions, as witnessed when one shed tears. It remains a mystery as to what their true role and overall mission are in the storyline, but they appear to be a crucial underlying element to the plot, and tend to stir up quite a debate among fans.