Review of the Day:Body By Bethenny

Wanted to try a new workout so I searched the On Demand menu and I found this one. I don't watch The Real Housewives of New York City, but I know Bethenny Frankel has written some cookbooks and lost her baby weight after giving birth. So, I was willing to give it a try. She says she wants you to unleash the "skinny girl" in you. I said I have just the one?

Anyway, it's basically a yoga workout. I'm not really a big fan of yoga. I stuck with it though. The workout is lead by yoga instructor Kristin McGee. It's a very basic yoga workout. I liked that Kristin and Bethenny gave us choices on how to perform some of the poses. Like instead of doing a chaturanga they said we could do a child's pose or go straight into downward dog. Kristin and Bethenny seemed to get a long well and I liked that it didn't seem scripted. They chatted like two friends taking a class together. Sometimes Bethenny would talk over or interrupt Kristin so that was a little annoying.

It's a basic, but challenging workout. It did raise my heart rate and it flowed at a nice pace. The one pose I could not do was the back bend. Was too scared to try it. There was a 10 minute strength training workout with some really basic moves like bicep curls, tricep kickbacks and shoulder presses. We did about 2 sets of 12 of each. Then there was a booty bonus. Three standing exercises specifically for the booty.

I like the workout and for those days I don't feel like sweating buckets or jumping around the room for an hour I would do this workout instead.

Review of the Day: Shred-It with Weights

Another day, another insane intense workout. Ok, I've been doing level one of this workout for a couple of weeks because it's On Demand. My husband got me the DVD for my birthday. Level one is intense. I used a 15 lbs. dumbbell because I don't have a kettlebell. On Demand there is just the level one workout and no recommendations of what to use. So, I used that. The weight seemed fine until I had to do the Turkish Get Up. That exercise you lay down on the floor holding the kettlebell up. You must sit up and then push yourself off the floor. I've tried this with weight and without and I still have trouble doing it.

So, when I get the DVD I find out if you don't have a kettlebell you should use 3-8 lbs. dumbbell. I tried the second level with the 15 lbs. dumbbell and quickly switched to 5 lbs. and that felt too light. I think I might try 10 lbs. next time. The second level is definitely more difficult. I found myself stopping to catch my breath and I had to modify some of the exercises like the plank row because I wasn't able to do the twist with it and the push-up because I didn't feel comfortable pushing up on the dumbbell.

Jillian as usual was encouraging and motivating. The music kept me energized. I've heard some people complain about her form. I'm not a kettlebell user so I don't know if her form is perfect or not. I know that this workout is a nice mix of cardio and strength. My heart rate was up for most of this workout. I had a pretty good sweat going on. Each section is only 30 minutes, but by the end you feel like you have had a good all over body workout.

I might go back to level one for another couple of weeks because level two is significantly more difficult.

Review of the Day: Jackie Warner Xtreme Timesaver Training

I have to say this was the most intense 30 minutes of my life and that's a good thing. Jackie Warner is a celebrity personal trainer and she commands sometimes $400 an hour. She's worth it! In this DVD she you can get a whole body workout in about 30 minutes. Not only is this a strength training workout, but it also makes your heart rate go through the roof. So, it's also a cardio workout as well. That's why she calls it 2 workouts in 1.

It starts off with a brief warm-up. During the warm-up she warns you that this is a shoulder heavy workout. She explains during the workout that she likes to get her celebrity clients "Red carpet ready" by building out the shoulders so they have a v-line and that will makes the midsection look smaller. Here are the sections:
*Shoulders & Glutes
*Quads & Arms
*Hips, Chest & Back
*Core & All over body

The workout consists of exercises that work the lower and upper body at the same time. Each exercise is done for 1 minute. Sometimes that minute seems to last forever. She's motivating and it really feels like you are getting a personal training session.

It ends with a cool down and stretch. And by the end of the workout you feel like you have really accomplished something and that stretch feels really good. I highly recommend this DVD especially if you are short on time. You will get an amazing workout in 30 minutes.

Review of the Day: Dark House

A former foster home where there was a gruesome murder spree is turned into a haunted house. You don't see the murders, but during the opening credits get the idea that it was gruesome because you see blood splatter on dolls and stuffed toys and the sound of children screaming.

A little girl, Claire enters the foster home and finds the children dead and a woman covered in blood with her hand in a garbage disposal. As a result of seeing this horrific scene Claire now a grownup and an actress suffers night terrors, panic attacks and depression for which she takes medication. She doesn't like taking the medication so her psychiatrist suggest she go back to the Darrode house and face her past and her fears.

This is where Walston Ray (Jefferey Combs) comes in. He is the creator of the haunted house. He offers Claire and her fellow acting students 300.00 a day to perform in the haunted house that was the Darrode Foster Home. It's not your normal everyday haunted house. It has an amazing holographic system. Claire does some research on the new haunted house and finds pictures of the Darrode Foster Home murder spree on the internet.

Now there were a couple of things I had some problems with. First of all this woman, Claire is so terrified to go back to this house, but when money is mentioned she accepts the job and talks the other actors into it with no hesitation. Also finding all of those pictures so easily on the internet wasn't believable.

I did find the movie to be enjoyable, the acting in some cases was a little bit over the top. The special effects were great, but I thought it took a little to long to get to the horror. When everything started happening it was non-stop and gory. If it was a real haunted house I would definitely want to go. By the end of the film you're left with a feeling that you're not sure what really happened.

Review of the Day: Amy Bento All Pump Extreme Workout (2008)

I've decided that I need to do more strength training because earlier this year I was doing it 3-4 times a week and I was losing weight. I've tried an Amy Bento Kickboxing workout before and I wasn't impressed with her cuing, but when I heard that this workout was about 120 minutes of strength training I was intrigued. I rented this DVD from Blockbuster.

This workout works every muscle in your body with a variety of combinations that you repeat at least 3 times. I noticed that my heart rate was up and I was sweating quite a lot. Her cuing is a lot better on this one and she does keep you motivated. You start off with a warm-up, then go to upper body, legs, core and then stretching. The core work didn't have your typical exercises and they were very challenging.

I found myself skipping some parts because I don't have a body bar, tube or step. I do have some complaints about this workout. Most of the exercises did include the step. She didn't modify really any of them for people who want to work out on the floor. I would modify by doing the same exercise on the floor and in the case of the body bar I would just use a hand weight. Sometimes she told us what weight she was using, but most of the time she didn't. I did like that she would change the step height and weights on camera. So, it was like she was doing it along with you and you didn't have to pause the DVD.

If you are short on time and can't do the whole 120 minutes there NRG pre-mixes that range from 40-80 minutes. I would recommend this workout to someone who likes a challenging strength training workout. Particularly if you have all of the equipment. If you don't like me and still want to do it and modify it in your own way I would say take a chance and try it.

Review of the day: Carriers

I rented this movie from the Horror section at Blockbuster. It's not really Horror to me it's more of a Thriller. Brian, his girlfriend Bobby, his brother Danny and friend Kate are trying to outrun a viral pandemic and get to the brothers childhood beach vacation spot. They run into a father (Frank)and his daughter (Jodie) who is infected. Frank and Jodie are stranded because they ran out of gas.Frank heard that there was a hospital that had an antidote for the virus. When their car breaks down they give Frank their gas in exchange for use of his car. When they get to the hospital they find one lone doctor and several children who are infected. There's a heartbreaking scene with the children that made me want to jump through the screen to help them.

Frank and his daughter's plight is something that stayed with me even after the movie was over. Because Brian decided he didn't want to take the Frank and Jodie any further they left them at the hospital. I wondered did he keep trying to save his daughter or did he give up. Some of the decisions made in this movie I thought were callous, wrong and selfish. I wondered if I would have made some of the same decisions. I guess we will never know until we are faced with this situation.

I enjoyed the movie, but was disappointed that it wasn't an Horror movie. I thought the acting was very good and it had some very suspenseful moments.

Review of the Day: The Woods Have Eyes

I didn't think I could get a page worth of notes from this movie. I was terribly disappointed in the entire movie. The writing was horrible. Here's a sample of some of the lines: "They can smell you from a mile away. They're hillbillies." "I have the eyes of an eagle and the scent of a bear." The acting was just as bad. With a storyline that took 20 plus minus to see some type of action. Which turned out to be the local yocal Clemmie accidentally killing a girl named Billie Jo.

The movie starts out with 3 city boys going up to be with their other family members in the woods. The movie is supposed to be inspired by true events. It starts off slow. I guess letting us get to know the characters. But as usual there is a story about the very woods they plan to go hiking in. There's a killer called Cappy. So,we know who our villain is. The boys get lost in the woods. They do find Cappy's house. Clemmie is in the house trying to wake up a dead Billie Jo. He then grabs one of the boys through a window. Cappy just happens to be Clemmie's dad. He wants to protect his son. So, he, Clemmie and another son go after them. There's a police search for the boys. They search the entire night and most of the second day. It's kind of hard to believe they didn't find them quicker.

I won't tell you the ending, but it's kind of anti-climatic and rather unnecessary. One good thing about the movie was the special effects makeup.

Review of the Day: Rec

If you watch Rec you will immediately realize that it's very similar to Quarantine (2008).  Actually Quarantine was a remake of Rec.  It's almost a scene by scene remake, but there are some differences I noticed right away. Both movies start out the same with a reporter and her cameraman at a firehouse following fireman around late at night.  They walk around the firehouse and have a little banter. Then the fireman get a call and the reporter and her cameraman follow them to a call that is located at an apartment building. After that Rec is very similar to Quarantine, but the noticeable difference is the police officer in the building with the rest of the people seems to be in more contact with the police and other officials outside.  In Quarantine the police officer seemed to be as clueless to what's going on as the other people in the building.  Also, the police or whomever is over the loudspeaker speaking to the people on the inside are a lot more polite.  They ask for the cooperation of the quarantined people and thank them several times.  In Rec the reporter interviews many of the people who were quarantined.  It was like they wanted us to get to know the apartment inhabitants better.  Also, in Rec you never see the cameraman's face.  At least I don't remember it.  In Quarantine we saw him several times.   Another big difference between the films is that in Rec there is quite a long time when nothing happens.  In Quarantine there's something happening every couple of minutes at least.  Because I'm a big horror fan I liked Quarantine better because of the constant action, but I would have to say that the original Rec was very good.  I enjoyed it and was on the edge of my seat the entire film.

Personal Training with Jackie: Power Circuit Training

I did this workout last week and I have to say it is an amazing workout. The only complaint I have is that she didn't tell you how much weight she was using or suggest how many pounds you should use.  It's broken down into several circuits.

• 15-Minute Total Body Circuit
• 40-Minute Total Body Circuit
• 15-Minute Abs Only Circuit
• 15-Minute Upper Body Circuit
• 15-Minute Lower Body Circuit

I did all of the circuits and I like that she is straight to the point and quick about her workouts.  She doesn't mess around.  The workout didn't drag.  Although the workout was tough it went by very quickly.  In the circuit there's a series of exercises.  After you do the exercises once you then do them again, but faster.  That's called a Power Burn.  I was sore for several days after this workout.  I rented it from Blockbuster.  I plan on buying it soon.

One Missed Call 3

One Missed Call is a series of Japanese movies that has one American remake.  In this final movie a young schoolgirl named Asuka plots revenge against the classmates that teased and tormented her.  It's up to another fellow classmate Emily to help save them.  The action takes place on a school trip to Korea.  While her classmates are in Korea Asuka is killing them off one by one via the internet.  Whenever they heard the "Ringtone of Death" panic would set in and the kids also start turning on each other when they find out they can forward the calls and escape death.

I have to say that I have enjoyed all of these movies and was sad to see that this was the last one.  The ending did make it seem like it was definitely the final one. It was suspenseful with just the right amount of gore.

Date Night

This was a movie that my DH rented that stars Tina Fey and Steve Carell 2 of my favorite actors. It starts off with us getting to meet the family and seeing what their daily life is all about.  The couple are very similar to my DH and I.  They love each other, but have busy careers and a busy home life and don't have much time for each other.  I could really relate to that.   So, every week they have a date night.  After they find out that close friends are going to separate Phil decides he wants to take his wife Claire into the city for a date night that's something different.  They try to get reservations in this place called Claw, but can't so when they arrive at the restaurant they take another couple's reservation.  Of course these people have stolen something from this unsavory character played by Ray Liotta.  There are a lot of car chases, a meeting with a shirtless Marc Wahlberg and lots of shooting by the two guys chasing them. I have to say that I did enjoy the movie.  I could definitely relate to the Foster's married life. I think Tina Fey and Steve Carell had great chemistry.  I would love to see them again in another movie.  There were some parts I thought were a little crazy and unrealistic, but it was good fun.