This final book in Larsson’s Millennium crime fiction trilogy is an adrenaline rush, and is being touted as the best being saved for last. The usual suspects are all included once again: whiz computer hacker Lizbeth Salander, and journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who must work together to unravel a decades-old cover up about the man who shot Salander in the final pages of the previous book. The man was her father, a Soviet intelligence defector.

Get it now via Amazon

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Pretty Little Liars hits every teen soap cliché and then some in its pilot episode. Based on Sara Shepard’s popular young adult novels, the new ABC Family series focuses on a clique of four high school girls grieving after their Queen Bee Alison (Sasha Pieterse) goes missing. A year after Alison’s disappearance the girls start to get messages from a mysterious ‘A’ who threatens to reveal deep dark secrets only Alison could have known. The concept initially began as a television show, but it first morphed into an ongoing eight-novel series. Eventually, like a lot of women’s fiction, the series finally made its way to the small screen. There’s a rule in the entertainment industry: boy books become movies, and girl books become TV shows (Twighlight being a notable exception). While it’s no Gossip Girl, the pilot does manage to show promise that it’ll be better than most ABC Family’s other teen fare.

The pilot sets up the mysteries of the season’s 10-episode arc. Wild child Aria Montgomery (Lucy hale), insecure Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), bookworm Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario), athletic Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell), and their Queen Bee Alison DiLaurentis spend the night at a sleep over in the woods, but Alison soon goes missing. Jump ahead to a year later with Aria returning to Rosewood, Pennsylvania after an extended trip to Iceland with her family. Things have changed and the girls have drifted apart. Hanna has now taken Alison’s place as Queen Bee and Spencer and Emily are dealing with their own personal lives. Soon, each girl gets a taunting message that threatens to unveil their dark secrets to the world: Aria’s new relationship with her English teacher Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding), Hanna’s shoplifting, Spencer’s crush on yet another of her sister’s boyfriends, and Emily’s same-sex kiss with new neighbour Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson). When Alison’s dead body turns up the girls get a creepy “I’m still here, bitches” text message at her funeral.

The pilot’s weakness and the show itself really, is that there are too many characters and storylines to keep up with. Adding to the confusion is the fact that many of the young actresses look alike, looking more like the Plastics than the real teens. When all the actresses are together it’s easy to confuse them, especially considering most of them look old enough to have graduated from college. It doesn’t matter if the actresses playing them are different ethnic groups, each girl looks like a petite, made-up, designer-wearing, manufactured clone of all the other – even Emily’s female love interest. Teens usually try to blend in, but what’s ridiculous is that all the students at the local high school looks like models. Even the male love interests look alike. Yes, these characters are eye candy, but to the point of near distraction. In addition to their confusing (and slightly disturbing) similarities, each character not only has to grapple with a secret, but various love interests, and family secrets as well. It’s likely that this works better in book format, but it doesn’t entirely translate onscreen. Typically these teen clique dramas have many characters, but they have less immediate back story information. There’s even less to be said about the acting, which is all forced and stiff. But the action keeps things moving along at a fast enough pace for all this to be bearable.

Pretty Little Liars’ real strength isn’t with the characters, but with the secrets and mysteries of the plot. Each secret, despite only adding to the confusion, is jucier than the last. It’s incredible that ABC Family is able to pull off some of the adult material (like the teacher/student relationship), but it manages to do so while somehow remaining family-friendly. Some of the secrets are contrived, as they pass certain clique-lit signposts. But the scandals, however contrived, are adult enough to hold your attention. The show isn’t to be taken seriously – it has more potential to be guilty pleasure than a mainstream hit. Some of the plot points are so rehashed they’re laughable (the cheating parents, the teen bitch), but it’s scandalous enough to work. The male teacher and female student affair is shocking, but the girl-on-girl kissing is old hat by now. It has all the trashy sex of a teen Sex and the City, the teen bitchery of Mean Girls (though decidedly less wit) all wrapped up in some sort of cheap Lifetime knock-off. Pretty Little Liars is part salacious murder mystery, part embarrassment. It’s hard to tell if all this stuff is subtle parody. Even if it isn’t, the self-seriousness of the show might just lend itself to some pretty twisted brilliance. It can’t lose either way. If it’s a parody, the parents will get it. If it isn’t their teens won’t care.

The pilot shows that Pretty Little Liars could go in a couple of directions. It could end up being just teen fluff or trashy fun. It all depends on whether the 10-episode season is filled with too much juice. Either way, if the subsequent episodes are as bearable as the pilot, Pretty Little Liars will be good enough to sustain itself through the summer.

NB: On June 28, 2010, following the successful ratings for show, ABC Family ordered an additional 12 episodes for season one of Pretty Little Liars, bringing the initial 10 episodes total to 22.

It’s hard to figure out if The Back-Up Plan is respectable because so many romantic comedies are terrible in comparison, or because it holds up on its own. It’s certainly better than other romantic comedies Jennifer Lopez has starred in. Lopez is a tip-off to a film’s quality (or usual lack of quality), and audiences have, over the years put with The Wedding Planner, Monster-In-Law, and Maid in Manhattan, so putting up with something that is noticeably better shouldn’t be difficult. Lopez is the lone movie veteran in the movie’s main cast and crew. Director Alan Poul has made his name by directing episodes of must-see TV shows like Six Feet Under, Rome, and Big Love. Writer Kate Angelo wrote episodes of Will and Grace and The Bernie Mac Show, while lead actor Alex O’Loughlin starred in shows like The Shield and Moonlight. Despite being clichéd, The Back-Up Plan is satisfactory mostly because of its alluring characters and surprisingly good performances.

Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) is a single New Yorker who longs for a child, even though the right guy hasn’t come along yet. Against her friends’ advice she decides to get artificially inseminated. Life, inevitably, plays a twisted joke on Zoe and almost immediately after the procedure she meets Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) in a taxi. Of course, they’re polar opposites. She lives in the city, he lives upstate. She wants children, he has never even thought about it. She owns a pet store, he makes goat cheese (nobody is ever a corporate drone in these comedies). Ignoring her better judgement she starts dating him. In the meantime she joins a single parent support group and discovers that she’s pregnant. When she reveals this to Stan, neither is sure if he will choose to stick around or leave.

Most of The Back-Up Plan’s charm comes from the characters. Jennifer Lopez brings her usual sass and focused determined, but most of the neediness of some of her past characters is toned down. The role isn’t a stretch for her by any means, but Zoe is less harsh than some of Lopez’s previous heroines. What was once shrill is now more playful – almost as if her slightly manic heroines have been written down into actual human beings. Zoe isn’t written as a character giving up who she is for a boyfriend or husband. A lot of female leads in romantic comedies have to stop being so career-oriented to land a man. Zoe, on the other hand, is self-made woman and doesn’t expect to give that up. She goes after what she wants – man or no man. Artificial insemination isn’t a popular choice for a single person to make, but she does it anyway.

The Back-Up Plan’s real stand-out is Australian actor Alex O’Loughlin. Aside from the obvious ease with which he handles Stan’s required American accent, O’Loughlin does more with the role than the movie requires. He could have been perfect, but there are moments when Stan is hesitant about Zoe’s pregnancy, and O’Loughlin’s performance has remarkably, some depth. You can feel Stan’s apprehension, his uncertainty about doing the right thing – he’s not even sure what the right thing is. What might have been written as momentary indecisiveness, O’Loughlin actually plays for what it is – a monumental choice – one nearly as huge as the choice Zoe has made.

The chemistry between Lopez and O’Loughlin is natural, but there’s never anything other than their fights and makeups and the comedy is inconsistent. Some of it is general comedy about pregnancy and looming motherhood. The funniest moments are usually the most painful and awkward ones. Poor Zoe is trying to get herself – pregnant belly and all – into a car, for example. Or her nauseous mood swings, which are bewildering than funny. Most of the comedy though, has at its heart characters forced into uncomfortable situations. The worst of the humour lies with the women in Zoe’s single parent support group. Each basket case is an even bigger freak than the last, which Zoe learns almost instantly when one woman tells her about giving birth right in the chair Zoe sits in. All this goes even more awry when one member forces them all – Zoe and Stan included – to witness her natural home water birth. It is a totally horrifying look at birth – some will find it funny, and others won’t. The movie also gives a grim reflection of the parents who grumble about parenthood. If it isn’t Zoe’s best friend and mother-of-three, Mona (Michaela Watkins) drunkenly grumbling about her kids, it’s a dad (Anthony Anderson) Stan talks to, who describes fatherhood as being most awful, momentarily amazing, and then awful again.

The good news about The Back-Up Plan is that the movie isn’t as terrible as its marketing suggests. It is actually one of Jennifer Lopez’s better films. The problem with actors who churn out the same old formula is that when that formula is slightly above-average, it’s hard to get the masses to care anymore.

Buy The Back-Up Plan @Amazon – DVD | Blu-Ray

Proposition bets – a bet is made for a very specific outcome of a match. For e.g., guessing that team X will beat team why in the soccer match by 2 goals to nil. Learn more about soccer betting.

Parlays -typically involves multiple bets (usually up to 12), for example four different wagers in a four-team parlay, whereby the bettor wagers that all four bets will win. If any of the four bets fails to cover, the bettor loses the parlay, but if all four bets win, the bettor receives a substantially higher payout (usually 10-1 in the case of a four-teamer) than if he made the four wagers separately.

Teasers – allows the bettor to combine his bets on two or more different games. For example, he/she can adjust the point spreads for the two games, but realizes a lower return on the bets in the event of a win.

Run line, puck line or goal line bets – these are wagers offered as alternatives to straight-up/moneyline prices in hockey, soccer or baseball betting respectively. These bets feature a fixed point spread that (usually) offers a higher payout for the favorite and a lower payout for the underdog (both in comparison to the moneyline).

Interested in doing sports betting online? Be sure to check out the Sports Betting Spot, the ultimate online guide to sports betting where you can learn tips and tricks about hockey betting, soccer betting, boxing betting, football betting, baseball betting, basketball betting, and more.

The book is masterfully structured like individual short stories from all the characters’ points of view, except that they are not short stories, though each could actually stand on its own. Rather, they are a coalesce to form an absorbing tale that would be fun to read by the pool this summer. It’s available at Amazon, but you could also check your local bookstores for it as well.

Short review by SL

How do you disappear for 10 years, reappear at the top of the Billboard albums chart, selling over 500,000 albums in the first week of release, and over a million in mere weeks? Well, for Nigerian-born Sade Adu, that’s exactly what happened when the acclaimed singer and her band released their sixth studio album in February, 2010.

On the title track, Adu chants, “I am lost but I don’t doubt/Tall I ride/I have the will to survive” over arresting military beats. It’s the angriest track Sade has ever done. Opener The Moon and the Sky, reminiscent of By Your Side, has the jazz and funk singer waxing poetic – “You’ll always know the reason why we could have had the moon and the sky” and indeed, the album itself is poetic with these beautiful kinds of couplets throughout.

On Morning Bird she sings, “You are the blood of me/the harvest of my dreams/there’s nowhere I can find peace/and the silence won’t cease”. With Bring Me Home she entreats, “Put me on a plate with petals and a fire/and send me out to sea/turn my angry sword against my heart/and let me free.” For lovers of good writing and fans of Sade, there’s plenty here and admittedly, it works great as background music, but if one isn’t inclined to actually pay it attention, that’s all it will ever, be to some.

Best tracks: Babyfather; Soldier of Love; The Moon and the Sky.

Review and purchase Soldier of Love online – Amazon | iTunes

Our plane tickets are confirmed, but we’re still finalizing on where to stay. Our search for a great place to stay has narrowed to this beach resort – http://www.seasidemb.com. It’s called SeaSide, and it’s located by the ocean in North Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach Hotel reservations are a hot competitive ticket, so we need to make our decision real fast. There are almost 500 hotels in the Myrtle Beach area but according to some reports, summer reservations need to be confirmed real early because the rooms go so fast.

Got any feedback on Myrtle Beach Accommodations? Please let us know.

From the Johnson family – Billings, Montana

1. A big flat screen television – if he’s a soccer fan, given that the World Cup is on for the next few weeks, he should find it particularly useful.
2. Electronics or gadgets – a new cellphone (iPhone 4 maybe?), a snazzy digital camera or maybe even a laptop.
3. Tool kit – most Dads think they’re Mr. Handyman around the house; feed the ego and get him a neat new toolkit.
4. Discs – CDs (music), DVDs (movies) or video game discs, let the man be entertained!
5. Clothes – new shorts, shirts (casual and dress), jeans, socks and the like are always welcome.

Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, likely has what you seek and more. Be sure to check ‘em out as you shop online – save time and money.

Two years after the first Iron Man, some things remain the same, while others have changed. The things that haven’t changed are the things that matter most – Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Palthrow), Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr’s) business associate, Stark’s best friend, Lieutenant Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, the Iron Man suit, and of course, Stark Industries. What has changed is that Tony Stark must deal with not one, but two villains in the form of Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) and Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell). The aforementioned Rhodey is still by his side, but he’s now played by Don Cheadle. Tony also has a mysterious new assistant, Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson), and where Tony once worked alone and never took orders, he now sometimes answers to Nicky Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the chief of SHIELD. The other change is the sequel’s quality – it isn’t as good as the first Iron Man, and though the original was an entertaining piece of pop culture, Iron Man 2 is a less fun, berserk ride.

Iron Man 2 begins six months after the first movie and Tony Stark is even more famous. His Iron Man identity is public knowledge and he singled-handedly privatized world peace with his Iron Man suit. But, the American government doesn’t want the suit getting into the wrong hands and in an effort spearheaded by Senator Stern (Garry Shandling), Congress commands that Tony Stark hand over the weapon to the Defence Department. Stark is convinced that his competition (including Justin Hammer) is years off from copying the Iron Man technology. At the same time Tony’s arc reactor which has kept him alive since his capture in Afghanistan is now killing him. In his vulnerable state he is ambushed by Russian physicist Ivan Vanko – a man hell-bent on getting revenge on Tony Stark for the perceived misdeeds of Tony’s deceased father, Howard Stark (John Slattery).

Like many superhero sequels, there are almost too many characters crowding Iron Man 2. The most powerful and memorable of all is Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko. Vanko’s hulking body is covered in prison tattoos, his mouth full of gold teeth, and Rourke snarls about half of his lines in Russian, and his accent in English works. While Vanko is terrifying and even more, in his violent Whiplash alter ego, he never feels like a real threat. In their first encounter Iron Man dispatches Whiplash, who is then promptly tossed into jail. Whiplash says he attacks Iron Man to make “God bleed” so people can “cease to believe in Him”. But what Whiplash forgets is that he bleeds too in this fight. If Iron Man can defeat Whiplash he’s dying and unprepared, Whiplash is no longer an unbeatable threat.

Where Mickey Rourke nearly outshines Downey Jr., Sam Rockwell may well be his doppelganger, personality-wise. Rockwell was once considered to play Tony Stark, and here you get a chance to ser what Rockwell would have done with the role. Rockwell’s Justin Hammer is a lot younger than the comic book defence contractor, but here he could almost be Stark if Hammer wasn’t such a greedy hotshot. Rockwell plays him with the same twitchy strangeness he’s done so brilliantly a few times before, but his faux elegance (you’ll get distracted by the self-tanner on his hands in one scene) turns it up a notch, and Rockwell is always fun to watch.
Scarlett Johansson is nothing more than eye candy in the movie’s first act, but by the end Natalie Rushman (or Black Widow in the comic books) has genuine kick-ass fierceness. Naturally, she wears a sexy catsuit, but her fight scenes aren’t for lusty fanboys. She doesn’t simply kick ass – she annihilates.

Iron Man 2 rests on where it goes and where it doesn’t go. Tony Stark, like in the first movie, doesn’t do teenage angst. He embraces his power. The Iron Man franchise might be for kids, but its heroes and villains are most certainly not for children. What the movie agonizes over is the big picture stuff: should the Iron Man weapon be kept in private and increasingly reckless hands, or should be handed over to a military industrialized government? You know where Stark stands, but both sides of the debate are brought up, and Iron Man 2 plays with politics. Not surprising in the Iron Man universe, but surprising for a tent-pole picture.

While Iron man 2 is both politically relevant and breezy as the first – everything with what is wrong with blockbusters, especially their sequels, is heightened. The movie is louder and bigger than ever and not in a good way. Iron Man 2 is a hulking, clumsy picture. The villains have larger weapons and flashier powers, but for all their flash, they are not substantially threatening enough. The endless metallic melees between the Iron Man suit and Stark’s enemies are shrieking, fiery and confusing. The other half of the fight scenes are Rhodey in another weaponised suit battling Stark, after Stark has too much to drink – the intentions of this illogical battle are never really clear and neither is the ease with which Rhodey handles the new suit. What was once ultracool necessity is now just plain ultraviolence. The suits are bigger, shinier, more destructive – and for what? The villains aren’t much of a threat, so why beef up the armour?

Tony Stark is a likeable as ever, and Pepper is ever-faithful. But the background noise around them, rather than immediate danger is what puts the film not only out of the original’s reach, but out of the reach of other superhero sequels like Spider Man 2 and The Dark Knight.

Get It Iron Man 2 on DVD