Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Real Steel

Hello Everyone!

We finally have a new movie review for you tonight!  Thanks to weather and internet outages, I haven't been able to update the blog.  Our movie review tonight comes from my friend, Melissa over at Gothic Charms!  Enjoy!

Real Steel (2011)

Stars:

Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Dakota Goyo

We start watching this movie and I'm thinking... Ok, this is just Stallone's "Over The Top" for this generation, right? With a little Rock'em Sock'em Robots, big boy style.

Boy meets father for the first time and finds him sorely lacking. Father displays to everyone time and again that he's just not father material...even taking his son "shopping" for robot parts in the middle of the night and abandoning him there. This guy lets everyone down: his kid, his girlfriend and his bookies.

So along the movie the father matures a bit and the kid's happy, their Bot is coming along well in the fights and it's time to put up or shut up - get a big fight. Father and Son are happy after the fight until the father's past catches up with him and he and child get beat up, losing everything. The father betrays his son and heads off without him, proving to the world yet again that he's a sorry excuse for a father.

What comes next is the eventual maturing of the father and then it's bonding time - where father and son get together to battle the beast of the bots - ZEUS. 

In a way this movie IS a typical underdog story where the kid gets a parent, the guy gets the gal and everyone lives happily ever after.....However, the bot fights are really awesome to watch - and even funny in one case. Most women would agree that watching Hugh Jackman taking his shirt off would be worth watching, regardless of the plot. However the story is likeable and enjoyable (and the guys get to see Evangeline Lilly in very little clothing.)

My pet peeve: enunciation. You go half the movie thinking the bot's name is ADAM when it's ATOM. For such high paid actors you'd think a little enunciation wouldn't be too much to ask! LOL

Overall, I give this movie 4 skulls. It's a great "feel good" movie, kids will like it, geeks will like it, women will enjoy it and men will dig the carnage! 

 

Awesome review, thanks Melissa!  I've been wanting to see this movie, it sounds really good!  If you have seen the movie and want to share your thoughts, be sure to leave a comment!  We are also looking for more movie reviews, so if you're interested please send me a message!  :)  

We will be doing our giveaway in October so stay tuned!

Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Crafts for Kids

Hello everyone!

I hope this post finds you getting ready for Halloween!  I will be attending the Witches Night Out event at our local pumpkin patch on Friday night...I'm so excited!

I realize that most of our content on the blog is geared more towards the adult crowd, but as we want to make this a place for everyone, we have a couple of Halloween crafts for kids!  I remember loving the crafts we did in school!  I don't have kids so I don't know if Halloween is as big in schools now as it was when I was in school, so I think it's important to keep the Halloween craft ideas alive at home!

The first craft we have is from the website Spoonful.  They have come up with a great craft idea called "Closet Monsters"!

Courtesy of Spoonful.com

I think these are REALLY cute and a very easy activity for your children to do, with your help of course!  They could make these for their everyday clothes, or make them special for their Halloween costumes!  It seems that they have used wire hangers for this project, but you could just as easily use the more durable plastic hangers!  For the full tutorial visit the link below:
http://spoonful.com/crafts/closet-monsters?nav=time&cmp=NLC-NL|Spoonful|DailySpoonfulNewsletter|DailySpoonful|General||091012|||famM|


The second craft I have for you tonight isn't really a craft, but an activity page.

Courtesy of Spoonful.com

Isn't this cute?  A connect-the-dots dragon activity page!  I love how he's roasting his marshmallows with his own breath!  In the background you can see the spires of the nearby castle!  This will be fun for your little ones to color!  I found this on Spoonful as well...you can download the full sized picture below:
http://spoonful.com/printables/dragon-connect-dots-game?nav=time&cmp=NLC-NL|Spoonful|DailySpoonfulNewsletter|DailySpoonful|General||091012|||famM|

I'll keep my eye out for other kid crafts and remember, if you find something you'd like for me to share, please feel free to send it on to me!  Also, if anyone makes the closet monsters, please send me a picture...same goes for the dragon picture!  I would love to feature you and your children's artwork here!  :)

Happy Hauntings!

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Spiders 2: Breeding Ground

Happy Friday everyone!

We have another blast from the past for our movie review tonight!  This review was written by my co-owner, Chas, back in 2006!  If you're a member of our Yahoo group, you can view the original post here!  Hope you enjoy the review!

Spiders II: Breeding Ground (2001)

Rated `R' For violence and gore, language and nudity

Plot Description:

Alexandra (Stephanie Niznik) and Jason (Greg Cromer) are rescued at
sea by a passing ship that happens to be the floating laboratory of
crazed Dr. Grbac (Richard Moll). This is very bad news for the
healthy young couple as the nutty doctor implants spider eggs in the
bodies of humans to create giant spiders; Jason is next, unless Alex
can defeat Grbac and a horde of escaped spiders. ~ Buzz McClain, All
Movie Guide

My Review:

This is a Low-budget horror and big-time fun. The opening of the
movie was very well done. When Alexandra and Jason are on the ship
the crew are friendly, a bit too friendly. The special effects were
decent. One could sense that they did not take this movie too
seriously. If you have arachnophobia I would suggest staying away
from this movie. If you want a nice Saturday night horror flick, I
would recommend this movie. I give it a three skull rating.

Thanks for the review, Chas!  This movie sounds like it's full of creepy crawliness...I am not a fan of spiders, so I am not sure I would ever watch this!  What about you?  Have you seen this movie and have a comment to make about it? Let us know!  And remember, if you'd like to do a movie review just send me a message on our Facebook page or here on the blog!  :)

Happy Haunting!

Halloween Night Recipes~Pumpkin Soup

Hello everyone!

We finally made it to September...come on Autumn!!  :)  I have had intentions for quite some time to transfer some of the Halloween recipes I've had for years onto the blog.  I want to categorize them eventually to make them easier to find once they've been posted here on the blog.  We've been holding an open discussion over at our Facebook page about what features you, the reader, want us to start posting.  Julie came up with a great suggestion...instead of candy or other sweet Halloween recipes (though we will post those as well, don't worry!) she was really interested in actual meals.  This reminded me of some of the Halloween meals I've come across in several of my magazines.  These are meals you could serve at a Halloween party, take to a potluck dinner, or just make for your family!  My wonderful friend, Brenda, who has become one of my main researchers for this blog found the recipes that I will be posting this week.  Be sure to check out Brenda's art page: Emmy Bunter Art Dolls and her band: Fish with Feathers!

Our recipe for this week is Pumpkin Soup!  Brenda found two really great recipes for this dish which is why I'm sharing both.  This first recipe Brenda found in one of her Linda McCartney books (yay for a Beatles related post!).

Pumpkin Soup
from LINDA'S KITCHEN by Linda McCartney (Little, Brown)
Serving Size: 6

1 3/4 pounds pumpkin, cleaned and cut OR 4 cups pumpkin cubes
1 1/2 quarts water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3/4 cup chopped parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan, simmer pumpkin cubes in the water until they are very tender.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan and sauté onions until golden.

Purée pumpkin and liquid in a blender or food processor, or press through a strainer, and return to pan.  Add the sautéed onions and parsley. Season to taste and heat through.

(PER SERVING: 89 calories; 4.9 g fat (0.6 g saturated fat; 50% calories from fat); 0 mg cholesterol; 120 mg sodium. Note: Analysis includes 1/4 teaspoon salt.)

Notes:
This warming soup can be garnished with toasted pumpkin seeds.

I love the suggestion of toasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish!  Here is the second recipe:

Pumpkin Soup
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
•1 tablespoon margarine
•1 onion, diced
•1 16 oz can of pumpkin purée
•1 1/3 cups vegetable broth
•3 cups milk
•1/2 tsp nutmeg
•1/2 tsp sugar
•salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, cook the onion in the margarine for 3-5 minutes, until onion turns clear. Add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Cook over medium heat for another 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!
Makes 4 servings.

Nutritional Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 190, Calories from Fat: 63
% Daily Value
Total Fat: 7.0g, 11%
Saturated Fat: 1.2g, 6%
Cholesterol: 0mg, 0%
Sodium: 388mg, 16%
Total Carbohydrates: 24.3g, 8%
Dietary Fiber: 4.9g, 20%
Sugars: 13.1g
Protein: 9.2g
Vitamin A 356%, Vitamin C 11%, Calcium 9%, Iron 17%


I love the fact that this recipe uses nutmeg!  You can have a lot of fun in the way you serve these soups.  You could serve it in a bread bowl or you could hollow out a pumpkin, find a bowl that will fit inside your pumpkin and fill your bowl with the soup.  This leaves zero chance of your soup leaking out of your pumpkin and makes for easy cleanup!  :)  You could also add a spooky element and use a skeleton ladle which you can purchase at a party store.

Hope you enjoyed our first recipe post!  I had fun writing it and can't wait to write more!  If you try these recipes, please let me know how they turn out!  That being said, PLEASE share your Halloween recipes with me!  If you have a blog/website/page and you submit a recipe, I will mention your site in the blog post.  It's an easy way to get free advertising plus, we want you (the reader) to be as involved as you possibly can be! 

Happy Eating and Happy Haunting!