New stuff!

I have been dreadfully behind on posts, I know, but I've been holding down a full-time job at Giant Multinational Corporation, rehearsing for an off-off-Broadway musical that opens this weekend, exercising, auditioning, writing a book, learning poker, dating and trying to keep in touch with friends all at the same time. That's not even counting personal projects. So it's been a little crazy. There's good news though. I finally finished my legal project, which always makes me happy because it sucks, I've been shopping too much but found amazing deals, I have my very first starring role & I have a new boyfriend! He's terrific. I honestly thought I couldn't upgrade from Sexy Englishman but what do you know, miracles happen. Our first date was election day - go Obama! - & 3 days later we made it official. It's been a few days over a month now. I'm scared, of course, but I'm trying very hard to open up & trust that he's for real. It helps that I've met his family & if we don't see each other every day he misses me (& tells me so, even more importantly).

I'm pretty nervous about my show. It is kind of my responsibility for it to go well, since my character is the only one with a story arc and I am central to almost all the scenes. I keep freaking out, as I usually do, but also tell myself to calm down & be effective. Speaking of being effective, I've stopped drinking for a while to lose weight (that's going pretty well) & I finally stopped shopping. I just need to find time to sleep more. Which I should probably go do right now. Wish me luck, everybody!

Punisher: War Zone even worse than first Punisher

I actually quite liked the first Punisher (I mean the one a couple years ago, I don't know if that was also a remake). Thomas Jane is handsome & convincing, one of my favs Rebecca Romijn graces the screen with her "ordinary girl" persona, & there's just enough torture to keep me happy while still watching. But let's be honest, some of the dialogue in that one was really awful. At least the story more or less hung together. If it's improbable that one man could set up such an elaborate revenge while evading or killing all his enemies, the story did make it pretty easy to suspend disbelief.

New Punisher, on the other hand, barely makes sense. There were so many times when I turned to the Boyfriend (he's new, more on him later) like "WTF???" "No one noticed that?" The police force is basically letting the Punisher (Ray Stevenson) do their dirty work for them. To his credit, the actor actually does a pretty good job with the dreck they gave him. Although it's incredible how he manages to mow everyone down, all the time, no matter what. And the continuity of the story is almost non-existent. My biggest problem with this movie, though, is the absolutely gratuitous gore. I like watching torture & violence, believe me, but this was way too much. We do not need to see the one mobster's super-messed up face every other shot. (& calling himself Jigsaw? Come on. No one can take that seriously after Saw.) I really could have done without every exploding head, not to mention impalings, broken limbs, etc. If you thought Hostel was bad, you'll hate this. This was one long series of lovingly-filmed death throes. I was almost relieved to hear silly dialogue because it was a temporary respite from all the murder.

I did like some of the cleverer fight scenes, but even then it was hard to not think how unreal they were. If you've gotta see this, don't waste $12+ on a ticket. Get it on Netflix & keep your finger on fast forward.