Shooting Stars

Alright. I promised the other day that I would talk about the new Transformers movie, as well as a new John Barrowman sighting. So here you go:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. If you go to it expecting... well... another Transformers movie, you'll be fine. If you expect anything else, you'll be disappointed. Shia LeBoeuf does well as the hapless anti-hero. Megan Fox is fine as the scantily-clad (and way too hot for the hero) heroine. And the rest of the human cast are fine. Shia's family is great. And there's even a very very small shot of Matt Iseman (the "Go-to Guy" from Style Network's "Clean House"), if you pay attention to one of the scenes with Josh Duhamel in it. And, yes, there's two Autobots (the good guys) who are just as racist-ly drawn as all of the critics are saying. But, again, if you've seen any of the hype, you know all this, already.

It's loud. It's fast-paced. Lots of people and robots get shot. Lots of things blow up rather spectaculary as the non-shot people and robots travel all over the globe. And it's best to not try to figure out how you get from point A to point B, let alone getting to point C. But it's fun. Overall: A-, because they spent way too much time showing us the "conversion" of the machines from car to robot. Waaaaaayyyy too much time.

And now on to John Barrowman... In case you've forgotten who that is, I give you this:

Through the miracles of modern technology, I was able to catch Season 3 of Torchwood last weekend. I will say here and now that I do not plan to say anything about how I was able to watch it (although I gotta tell you that if it were up to me and technology I wouldn't be seeing it for another couple of years, at least). But here's the deal: for whatever reason, the folks at BBC1 had decided that this year they weren't going to run a full series of the immensely popular show but, instead, show a five-night miniseries all in one week. We did them one better: we watched it all in one night.

I had forgotten how many people died in the course of Series 1 and Series 2, and I found myself floundering a bit at the beginning as I got my bearings. But then I got caught up in it all and although I was kind of tired, there was no dragging me away before watching all 5 hours.

Don't worry. For any of you who might be Torchwood fans, I won't be giving you any spoilers. I will only say this: The story was captivating, compelling, and completely unexpected. Unfortunately, after the 5th hour had ended, I was left with the feeling of having eaten a wonderful meal out at a fancy restaurant with friends, which had been spoiled by everyone leaving and sticking me with the bill. It was that feeling of "I really enjoyed our time, but I'm not sure I ever want to see you again."

And it was made all the harder because John Barrowman is still dreamy. +sigh+ But, to paraphrase a friend of mine out in Baltimore: Some [stars] are like that -- You can't live with 'em, you can't shoot 'em.

(Oh. And I do want to see them again. Really. Just not right away...)