Joaquin Phoenix's Bizarre appearance on David Letterman

I found this on the net today. If you haven’t heard, Joaquin Phoenix has recently retired from acting to start a musical career. At least that is what he has told everyone, there have also been some reports out there stating that his retirement from acting for music is one big prank of some sort. I don’t know what to make of his recent decisions, just as I can’t seem to make sense from the following clip from Joaquin Phoenix’s really strange appearance on David Letterman the other night.

Follow this link to see the video for yourself.

Movies arriving this weekend

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a lot of great stuff this weekend. Horror fans may be excited for the new Friday The 13th, which is coming out on that date, which is interesting. The International actually looks somewhat interesting. Then there is Confessions of a Shopaholic. There are still releases from previous weeks still in theaters, so I am sure you will still find something to see this weekend for Valentine's Day. You do have a lot of different choices out in theaters right now, so variety is good. If you choose not to go to the theater this weekend, there are many good releases on DVD and Blu-Ray as well. Hopefully you have something good picked out to do for Valentine's Day.

Home Theater

I have probably talked about this on my blog before, but it is a topic that has interested me ever since I have gotten into the DVD groove 9 years ago. This advancement has changed the home entertainment industry.

Home theaters is the way of taking the feeling and enviroment of being in a movie theater and bringing it home. If you ever go to a bookstore like Barnes and Nobles, or maybe even Best Buy, you look for magazines like Home Theater, Electronic House, and Sound & Vision, and you will see that the statement can be taken literally. When I first learned about home theaters 9 years ago, it totally changed the way that I saw the potential of actually watching a movie at home.

Pictures like the one above show the potential that one can do to set up a home theater, which is amazing. I don’t have the money to do this, and probably not everyone can go this far with the advanced equipment, however we do have so many open options to us that allow us to set our own little home theater for a reasonable price. A simple home theater can be set up by getting a big screen TV along with a surround sound system and a DVD or Blu-Ray player.

If you want to see how a decent home theater can be built, you can go to a specified home theater store, and one example is Theater Xtreme. I like going to these stores because they are fun to just sit down and see demo rooms on what a home theater can look like. Yes, I don’t have the money to get one so advanced, but they are still fun to see. It blows my mind on how the home entertainment industry has changed. It is great to see that the feeling of going to the movies can be brought home. Of course, it is always fun to go to the movies to check out the new releases.

Speaking of the home entertainment industry, there are a few movies coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow. There is W., which is the story of George Bush, played by Josh Brolin. We also are getting Back to the Future on DVD again, this time, they are being released as individual movies, so if you only liked the first one, you can pick that one up and not have to worry about the other two. Unfortunately, it is only available on DVD for the moment, not Blu-Ray, but I am sure they will release one soon. As well, they are releasing Street Fighter on DVD and Blu-Ray, Street Fighter was released back in 1994, it starred Jean Claude Van Damme, and is based on the popular video game back in the day. They are releasing a new Street Fighter movie at the end of this month, so this movie is probably trying to promote the new film. There are other releases tomorrow as well.

Inkheart Review

I got to see Inkheart today, and I actually have to say I was a little surprised, better than I thought. I missed out when it first opened, because of the family challenge last month. Some people said they weren't impressed with it as they hoped, so I worried it wouldn't be that good, well, I have to say that I was really impressed with the movie, I really enjoyed it. It is about a guy who can bring stuff he reads out of the page and into our world, and when he brings a person from a page of a book out to our world, someone from our world gets trapped into the book, and that's what happened to his wife, so he goes looking for the book Inkheart to help bring her back. I recommend this one to anyone looking for a nice fantasy escape, it is very entertaining.

Movies this coming weekend

If you are looking for a movie to see this coming weekend, besides what is already out, you have a few choices coming up. We have a sequel to Steve Martin's The Pink Panther, once again the Pink Panther diamond is stolen and must be recovered, I am sure to expect a bunch of laughs. Next we have Coraline, it is a stop motion movie, almost like The Nightmare Before Christmas, so the fans of that movie will for sure want to check that movie out. Then we have Push, starring Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning, they have special powers and are being chased by a bunch of people who want to use their power for themselves. Last we have He's Just Not That Into You, a romantic comedy, I don't know too much about the plot. I think both Push and Coraline look interesting and may be worth checking out. But there are choices for all of you this coming weekend.

Of course, if you just want to stay home and watch a movie at home, get Madagascar 2, which comes out on Friday.

Taken Review

Like I said, I was planning to go to the movies today, and that did happen. I went to go see the movie Taken. If you weren't completely following the Superbowl this weekend, you might have heard about this movie, it became the number one movie this weekend, with about $25 million. I really enjoyed this movie, Liam Neeson is the star, and he plays a father to a daughter that gets kidnapped, and he goes after the kidnappers to get his daughter back. It is pretty intense, but I highly recommend it.

As well, TV spots from the Superbowl this weekend are online now. You can follow this link.

There are some pretty cool spots, I am really excited for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. There will be plenty to look forward to this summer.

Lessons learned

As I told you, this past month I have been on a spending diet, in which I have only spent my money on needs. The only exceptions to wants was if I had gift cards. As I kept you informed, I did spend a little on wants, but it was bought using the gift cards that I had, so I was alright. Anyway, with the challenge over, I decided to do a little reflecting on this challenge. I have to admit, with being in college at this time and with difficult money situations, I felt that things this month weren't entirely different, except for the fact I couldn't spend cash on wants entirely, I have always tried to watch out on how much I buy. A number of reasons I do so, I like to try to hold on to a bunch of money and save it for future uses. For example, a TV isn't cheap (maybe a little bit compared to a long time ago) so I like to try to save money so I can get one some day. I feel that when I actually have the money to buy some big wants that I want, I feel I have accomplished something. I remember when I purchased the surround system, it felt like a worthwhile purchase because I put my own effort into getting it, as always I do get help, but when I have a little of my effort put into the purchase, it makes it even more valuable. I feel that there are so many great things we can buy out there, and if we learn to save our money for those things, it's great. So with that, I obviously won't be using all of my money this week, I will go to the movies but won't have to buy a whole lot that I want.

This week in DVD and Blu-Ray releases, there isn't a whole lot of excitement, except for Madagascar 2. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend picking this one up this week, it is very funny.

Also, during the Super Bowl this weekend, there have been some movies previewed that are coming out this summer. There has been one for Transformers 2 and GI Joe. The Transformers one looks really good, but I am looking forward to a more full preview, since they only showed 25-30 seconds. The GI Joe one looks really cool, I am excited for that.