"Where You Live, Where You Are, Be A Staaaaaaaar"

Wow, sorry about the extended hiatus. I've been wrapped up in job hunting and cleaning my room for the first time in two years and helping out with my family's garage sale. And I'm kind of at a loss for what piece of history to talk about next. I have one last teen queen planned, but I want to read a couple more books about her first. Any history topic suggestions?

Also, since I have been sunburned and this made me feel ill, I have been sitting here with my laptop and watching a movie on YouTube that I watched as a child. So today you get a movie review! Won't that be fun? (just nod and smile; it'll be over soon).

The movie I watched is called Life Size. It has young Lindsey Lohan and Tyra Banks in it. It's about this girl whose mother died not too long ago and she decides to raise her mother from the dead and ends up instead bringing an Eve doll (pretty much black, anatomically correct Barbie) to life. Mishaps ensue, the girl is very much at odds with the doll until (shock, awe) she finds herself growing to like the doll woman just when the doll decides she needs to return to being a doll.

Okay, first of all, I think we should take a moment to realize that this girl, who is like twelve, is using necromancy to raise her dead mother from the grave. And she gets the ritual for this in a book that she partly stole (she only paid $63 out of the $150 it cost).

I personally, have nothing against magic. I read a lot of books, watch a lot of movies, love Harry Potter. But the movie doesn't even address the seriousness of what she was trying to do. What would have happened if her mother had come back from the dead? Would she be anything like she was before? Yes, it's kind of chuckle-worthy that the girl instead animated a doll, but I almost feel like they should also remind kids that necromancy is not the answer (just say no, kids ;) )

To me, there didn't really seem to be bad acting in this. But I'll also be the first to admit I'm a little slow when it comes to identifying bad acting. Oh sure, none of it was award worthy, but all the characters seemed pretty believable and constant. Particularly Tyra as the Eve doll.

There was one nagging thought left over when I finished watching it though: Does Eve ever get to be happy just for herself? Yes, I know she's a doll and who knows what thoughts are running around in that pretty little head of hers. But it didn't seem like there was something she loved that she wanted to do.

And, since she left the girl's dad (who she seemed to really like) to return and save the whole doll line, I gotta wonder, does she get the chance to fall in love? Because at the beginning when she first met that dad, she said there were no guys like him in Sunnyvale. So does she get to meet some man doll from another line and have tiny plastic children sets, or is she just going to be rah-rah, I'm a role-model and that's all I need? Just a ponderance.

Now, this movie isn't stellar, but it's not completely terrible. It occupies a kind of lower tier, middle ground. It's one of those cheesy made-for-TV Disney Channel-esque movies. It probably would also be more entertaining if I was not a twenty year old young woman. But younger girls (seven through eleven or twelve) would probably find it fun to watch.

So yeah, that's all I have. The movie is on YouTube if you want to check it out. And hopefully I will have something else to write about on Wednesday. Oh, and I'll try to get a book video posted soon. Warning in advance: it's going to be long.