jcp or J.C. Penney is overhauling the way it does business

J.C. Penney, or jcpenney as it will know be known has just implemented a major overhaul in the way it will conduct it's retail business.  In times when stores are dropping like flies, jcpenney is trying to reinvent itself and stay afloat in the current marketplace.

J.C. Penney has managed to survive changes in business since it first began in 1902 and has been evolving ever since. In more recent years, we've seen the dropping of automatically mailing heavy catalogs to everyone.  You now have to buy them, at the store if you want one.  I've seen prices slowly inch up and quality slowly go down to where I lost all interest in anything but the sales.  Then the sales (which now take place daily, with expensive daily colored print ads in our local newspapers) didn't even hold my attention anymore.  Quality wasn't good enough, sales weren't good enough, and when you have one every day, it begs the question "Why not just lower the prices and save yourself some advertising costs?"   And it appears they ARE listening.

A little further note to jcpenney...the store in La Grande, Oregon is in desperate need of an update or a new location (probably new location given that this one is not at all handicapped accessible, it is overcrowded and dark and not at all inviting).  Can you hear me now?  I just don't like the store.  The dressing rooms suck canal water...they are bad.

I've gotta tell you that their new TV ad is as annoying as most.  A lot of people screaming because they are tired of the old way and want to be heard.  jcpenney is listening.  But an advertisement where we listen to people literally screaming and yelling is a total turn off and an insult to screaming people.  Just lay out a simple ad campaign.  It doesn't need to be cute or trendy, just intelligently tell us..."you've been asking, we've been listening".  Yes, you may send me my royalties for that ad slogan.   Also I say to you jcpenney, offer free shipping on catalog orders shipped to home on EVERY order, EVERY day with NO MINIMUM purchase.  Customers want this.  Trust me.

First of all, there's the new logo, which is supposed to invoke the American flag.  Boo...Hiss...I don't give a crap about that, nor does the American flag make me go ga-ga for a store.  It's fluff and stuff and irrelevant. Plus, start reading labels on jcpenney items...are they made here?  Not too terribly much.  So that new logo is all about taking advantage of the current surge in patriotism...not about who they are as a company.

Then there is the "new" name.  Again I say...big deal.  Who cares?  The name and the logo probably cost them a fortune to design and implement...and for what?  Do people really care about that?  "Oh, I am so bored with the J.C. Penney name and logo.  If only they would change that, I would shop there more."  Nope. Never heard that.

Then there is the doing away with the overload of print ads and sales.  Saving paper and not saturating us with daily sales is a good thing.  But, um, did you really need to send out that expensive splashy 95 page "ad" announcing these changes?  It features some prices, and color photos of some new items, but...no catalog numbers or how to locate them online.  I'm still having trouble finding some of the items shown in this um...is it a non ad?  That...was a waste of money and paper.  It gives me the info I've printed in this blog, on two pages (and it didn't need two pages to do it).  The rest of the info is incomplete.  More of an expensive teaser that then confuses me when I try to find the same prices online, or where the item is located.  A catalog number would have been really dandy.

Last but not least, there is a new pricing system.  Whoa Nellie...hold the phone...did they say new pricing system?  Now they might have my attention!  Up to now I was just hearing Charlie Brown's teacher say "Wha wha wha wha, bla bla bla".  Overall, the plan is to reduce prices across the board by around 40% every day and do away with sales and print ads.  The new catalog I have (which honestly, I'm going to tell you again, stop wasting money on big color ads that have very little in them).:

"In praise of fresh air
This year, we turn 110.  We're fine with growing old.  We're not fine with growing stale.  So, to celebrate, we're going to throw open the windows and let in some fresh air.


We're rethinking and reimagining, and if we find that we've picked up any bad habits over the decades, we're going to leave them far behind.


We're simply going to treat people as we'd like to be treated ourselves. Fair and square.


We won't make anyone jump through hoops to get a good price.  We won't fill mailboxes with junk.  We'll have great prices every day and spectacular prices that last a whole month.  And it won't stop there.


We'll keep dreaming up new ways to make you love shopping again, matching our calendar to the rhythm of your life.


Because we're not interested in being the biggest store or the flashiest store.


We want to be your favorite store."

Then they lay out their new patriotic (barf) pricing "Fair and square.  3 kinds of pricing; red, white and blue.  1 happy return policy; any item, anytime, anywhere.  It's that simple":
Red = Everyday prices.  No need for coupons.  No weekend sale.  Red prices mean great prices everyday.
White = Month-long values.  The best stuff of the month on sale for the entire month.  Just look for the white price.
Blue = Best prices.  mark your calendars.  Every First and Third Friday we mark it way down.  On February 3rd and 17th, wee it in blue, and grab it quick!"

Did this actually do away with sales???  Um...not exactly.

Regarding that shipping I mentioned.  You can currently receive shipping free to your local store with no minimum purchase requirement, or free to your home with a $69 purchase.  I say go all the way jcpenney. Offer free shipping to our homes every day with no minimum purchase.  You can do it, I know you can.  I often shop online, and free shipping is one determining factor (along with overall price and quality) of whether or not I choose to order.

Forbes Magazine calls jcpenney one of the most interesting retailers to watch for 2012 and further says that the new structure can succeed (despite some critics saying this new idea will kill jcpenney dead as a doornail forever and ever Amen).   I think they're making an effort.  Now, not for a minute do I think they restructured this for the shopper...because they care that much about US...they did it because they are sinking and they had to do or die.  THAT'S usually when they start thinking of us, the shoppers that make or break them.

Have you shopped the "new" jcpenney?  What have you noticed?  What do you think of these changes?  I'm about to go online for the first time in a very long time and look around.  I like the dropping price idea.  As for month-long values and first and third Friday values, I'll have trouble remembering this, so I'm not sure how important that is.  Perhaps if I'm looking for something specific, I'll look again on the first and third Friday to see if what I'm thinking of ordering drops any lower.  Overall, I just want really good prices everyday.  And clearance racks are fun (both online and in store).  J.C. Penney simply got too expensive for my budget as the quality dropped.

Did I mention I want free shipping to my house...no minimum?

And, um, before you get to waving that "American flag" symbol of a new logo too much, while jcpenney is an American company, its products are not largely produced here.  So if that matters to you, it's a consideration to read the labels of where each product is manufactured.  If you're gonna wave that flag jcpenney, wave it all the way...no more sweat shops or outsourcing to other countries.  Or is that what the American way is?

Television Series Premier Review: Touched with Kiefer Sutherland

We watched the premier of the new series Touch starring Kiefer Sutherland (as Martin Bohm) and David Mazouz (as Jake Bohm).  You'll also recognize Danny Glover in this series.

The basic storyline is that Martin is at the end of his rope trying to juggle the intense needs and expense of a child with special needs (autism without speech) following the death of his wife.  He's had to relocate, and job hop to keep pace.  Jake manages to escape from even a specialized school...multiple times to climb a tower at exactly 3:18.

In this first episode, Jake is starting to show the audience and his dad (and even the uppity social worker) that he communicates through number patterns.  Further, he has the added ability to predict future events through these patterns.

I was literally spellbound and totally absorbed in the program and unaware of anything else going on around me.  I was riveted.  If this episode is indicative of of the series.  I'm a fan already.

I was talking to a friend of mine about this episode.  Our beef?  We are both social workers, and we are both parents of special needs kids.  Or beef is how the parent is always demonized and the social workers are either A. always right or B.  always all about removing kids from the home with a sanctimonious air.  For starters, on the occasions when Jake ran off unsupervised, he was in the care of a specialized school that Martin was paying to educate and supervise Jake while Martin was at work.  So why would a child be removed from the home due to parental "failure" when Martin had done all that could be expected of him.  Someone should have been all over that specialized school.  We also both have a beef with the predominate cultural norm of parent bashing for everything...especially when it comes to special needs kids.  By and large, the parents are the experts on the disorders their children have AND the individual ways in which their child copes/presents/adapts etc with it.  The role of the parent as demon has go to stop.  Nuff said.  Fix that part Tim Kring (creator of series).

In the review below, they speak of the child as having supernatural powers.  I sort of have always viewed special needs kids as ALL having supernatural powers.  In many ways they are far advanced from us "normal" folk.  They are evolving us to places where communication is different and less cumbersome, where creativity and other ways of viewing the workings of the universe is different.  I tend to see these kids less as disabled than more evolved and it is US that has the disability by quickly labeling what is outside the norm as problematic vs advanced.  I agree he displays supernatural talent.  But who knows, maybe as we advance as a species, we will one day fully understand how predicting future events through patterns, numbers, or vibrations makes perfect sense.  Just because we don't yet understand something doesn't make it wrong and our old or usual ways right.   I think Jake displays what we would call autism and perhaps even what we would call being a savant.  Predicting future events makes him extra special...in a good way.

David Mazouz is a relative newcomer on the scene. He's appeared in a few things over the last couple of years.

If you missed the first episode, you can catch up by watching it on this link. Just scroll down to the video marked "full episode" that shows a timeline of 50:14 minutes. I love that at his young age, he has already mastered person first language when referencing those with special needs.

I find it interesting that yesterday I did a review of the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly close that has a child with autistic characteristics, AND a character in the film who doesn't speak.  And today a review about a child with autism who doesn't speak.  Interesting, no?  No, Willow...it's just YOU.

Here is a trailer combined with a review



This is an interview with David Mazouz...just so you know he really can talk :-) But probably never will on this series.

Movie Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a story of grieving and healing in the aftermath of 9/11.  It is based on a 2005 book by the same title by Jonathan Safran Foer.  We join the family approximately a year following 9/11.

The Schell family loses dad/husband (Tom Hanks) in the World Trade Center.  Mom (Sandra Bullock) and Oscar (Thomas Horn) are working their way through grief.  This process is compounded by Oscar's sensitivities (which are rumored to perhaps be Asperger Syndrome).

Oscar is extremely intelligent, hyper-focused on facts and figures, highly anxious, super sensory sensitive, and fearful of just about everything.  He finds a key among his father's things, and in an attempt to move closer to his father, and not let him go, Oscar embarks upon a journey to find the lock that the key fits.  In the process, his real healing begins.  He meets people along the way who have all experienced losses of one type of another.

This film got mixed reviews.  I've included a segment from PBS Ebert's At The Movies in which both reviewers gave it a thumbs down.  While I think I understand what they are saying, and why, I found the movie to be extremely moving, while also quirky.  I often wondered about Sandra Bullock's seemingly peripheral participation, but I think this was Oscar's story more than it was about his mother's process.  And in grief, it is not uncommon for people to pull into themselves and be unavailable.  Perhaps this was how they chose to show that.  Tom Hanks is only shown in flashbacks as a similarly quirky, yet fun-loving father/husband.

You could have heard a pin drop in the theater.  It has a mesmerizing quality.  Perhaps that's due to the variety of feelings people still hold about 9/11.  I'm not sure.  My husband found "Oscar" annoying.  I think that's often how kids with behavioral disabilities are perceived.  So was that intentional?  I'm thinking it was.  I found him difficult yet endearing.  A puzzle.  A genius.  A bit of a savant at times.

So do I recommend it?  I'm not sure what to say.  I think people could go either way on this film.  I found it different, interesting, and emotionally moving.  But I also understand the criticisms I've read about it.  Honestly, in my opinion, Thomas Horn (Oscar), should win a slew of awards for his role.  He carried the movie, pretty much on his own.  His dialogue was complex and rapid fire.  He WAS the movie.   Sidebar:  Thomas Horn is a relative unknown but once won the kid's version of Jeopardy.

Max Von Sydow gives an endearing performance as "the renter" without speaking a single word of dialogue.

I guess you'll just have to take a chance, since it may be a crap-shoot as to whether or not it will speak to you....if it doesn't look interesting from the previews, maybe skip it in the theater and rent it later if you're on the fence.



Use this link to watch the review that is contrary to mine...they both gave it thumbs down.

Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

A friend of mine recommended this book to me.  She said it is a "must read".  So I bought it.  She didn't tell me anything about it, and I didn't read up on it, I just ordered it and dove in.  It's not at all what I was expecting.  I think, perhaps, at first, I was thinking it was a work of fiction.  But fiction it is not.  Stranger than fiction, it just might be.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the story of a poor black family and their matriarch, Henrietta.  Henrietta gets cervical cancer which eventually kills her.  She is treated at John Hopkins medical center (in what used to be the negro section).  Without her knowledge or consent, her cervical cancer cells are taken to grown in cultures for research.  This was in the early 1950's.  The cells have been bought and sold and multiplied so many times and are all over the world.

This is the story of Henrietta, her family, her cells, scientific research, ethics, and capitalism.  The book was researched over many years by science writer, Rebecca Skloot, who eventually won the trust of several family members so that she could learn the story of HeLa.  Cell samples were, at that time, identified by the first two letters of the "donor's" first and last name.

When you read this book, be sure to read the Afterward.  It outlines how tissue samples are treated.  You might be surprised to know that anything that has been cut from your body, is likely stored somewhere for use.  Huge profits can be made from this, and informed consent with regards to tissue use, once it leaves your body, is only a marginal "suggestion", not a legal mandate.

The book is fascinating and horrifying at the same time.  What was and still IS done, in the name of research, science and progress is astounding.  In Henrietta's day, it was overt.  She was of a race and class that had no rights.  Today things still happen in much the same way, but have become more covert.  What you don't know, supposedly won't hurt you. 

The photo on the left is a microscopic view of stained HeLa cells as they appeared in a magazine.  Millions of researchers and biologists have heard of or utilized HeLa cells, never knowing her story, the human story.  Cells that made millions for science, untold billions for pharmaceutical companies, came from a woman whose family and herself could not afford medical insurance or medical treatments that her cells provided.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is both biography and historical document.  According to the book, Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball, in conjunction with HBO announced in 2010 to make the book into a movie.  I'm not sure where that stands in terms of start or completion.  If anybody knows, let me know.

Old Letter to A Psychic (John Edward)

Cleaning out old emails and documents from the computer is a good thing right?  It sure is taking me back to some old processing.  I found this letter to Psychic John Edward from 2004...the early stages of my spiritual awakening.  I can remember going to his website and looking into the eyes of this exact same photo (the website is different now) and calling is spirit to me to help me with what was going on at my house.  Then I wrote to him.  I never did get a response (well not in writing and not so I was aware of it).

Here it is, in all its rawness.  Sorta makes me feel a bit vulnerable and silly sharing it, but maybe other people have had similar experiences or have felt the same?  No Willow, just you! :-)  Oh, surely not.

John Edward

Get Psych’d Inc.

P.O. Box 383

Huntington, NY 11743

September 2, 2004

Dear John,

            I am just going to write, and trust that the universe will see that the letter finds you.  I know you are really busy and have many demands on your time, but I’m just gonna put this out there and then maybe I’ll feel better.  I have been having intense psychic experiences for almost a year and I feel lost most of the time.  I don’t have a freaking clue what I’m doing or why this is happening.  I felt a connect to you because about the time I was feeling really lost, my sister began to be awakened at the exact time your program aired (6:30 a.m. on UPN) with a strong urge to watch your show.  Then my mother began taping it for me because I don’t have cable.  My sister said she felt like the message was to connect us.  I went to your web site and your large photo is the first thing to load and it is hard to explain, but I’m sure you’ll understand, it was like we were looking at each other, not like I was looking at a photo.  And I just said “GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME WITH THIS!!”.  I’ve been using a divining rod as I learn to “hear” the spirit information, using it to get yes/no confirmation.  For a few days, I was sensing that your higher self, had indeed come to check out the scene.

            I am currently reading Crossing Over, and listening to the CD of Understanding Angels and Meeting your Guides.  Then about the time I’m starting to feel like I need to contact you, your program is no longer on the air in our area…sort of like you were on long enough for me to plug in and know you exist.

            So hard to make a long story short, but I will really try.  I have always felt “intuitive” about people and on occasion would know about a minor future event.  I have always seemed to sense when people were nice people or not nice.  I have spent a lot of time afraid, and maybe within the last three years or so began to feel afraid and like I was being watched and intimidated.  My sister seems to feel she is surrounded by guides, angels and lots of light and I feel like I am stalked by shit.  A big astral dumping ground.  I don’t know how to manifest love and light or to make this scary stuff go away.

            I met somebody in October of last year who knows of this spirit world stuff and got 4 spirits to leave my house.  Then slowly it was as if there was a “vacancy” sign on and the spirits came in larger and larger numbers.  My friend said he thought I am a portal rather than having portals in my home.  He felt I need to create or find boundaries.  I’m not doing very well at this.  I’ve taken medication and that didn’t make it go away.  I live along the Oregon Trail and have literally millions of pioneers pass through, some Native Americans, and I had a stretch of time where I had tons of male, teen suicide spirits, and tend to get lots of male energy of the bully/abusive variety.  They screw around with my computer, make specific noises in my house sort of like their door bell, and I never feel like my space is my own.  If it seems like they need or want help, I try to assist them in crossing over.  Sometimes they are just passing through. 

            Once I felt a car accident and at least vaguely knew the names/family of the two that died…but they haven’t died and this experience felt like it was in current, real time.  I’m a master’s level social worker and I have worked in home health and hospice, at a domestic violence shelter, with high-risk teen parents, and am currently working at a dialysis unit.  Sometimes I know when somebody is going to die.  Sometimes I dream about it and sometimes I just sort of know it.  Sometimes I know if somebody is in danger but I don’t have “proof”.

            I went on vacation and staying in motels became a problem….I would end up in rooms with suicide spirits or murder spirits and would have tons of flashes of what happened.  I feel dark angry spirits around me a lot.  Lots of times we work through it and they move on, but why don’t I have lots of happy experiences?  Why do I get the cranky spirits?

            I have, on occasion been able to receive a message to pass on to a loved one and I feel like I am on the verge of this gift becoming something useful I can help people with and am on the verge of feeling ready to use it, but everything is so random right now and things seem like they are far more negative than positive.  It isn’t as simple as me learning to “think positive” or “what you think about, you bring about”.  I really need some solid ideas and concrete examples of how to get a handle on what is going on.  I don’t want to say no to the gift, but I don’t feel like I have any knowledgeable support around me.  I live in a SMALL, rural town and I just feel so lost and like nobody understands what I’m going through.  Sometimes I feel really crazy, and sometimes I am just afraid I have unknowingly invited darkness into my world.

            John, I just don’t fucking GET IT.  I’m 43 and in a year it is like my world just imploded.  I don’t know what brought this on, but feel like God is calling me to take an uncharted path that is WAY outside my comfort or knowledge zone.  I don’t even know what I expect you to do if you even got this letter.  Maybe you can give me wisdom telepathically, or fly by in your dreams and take a look and let me know what gives.  I’m only working 6 hours a week right now and very much in transition as to what I want to do with my work life.  I know this fits in somehow.  I don’t know how far I can develop this but am feeling like maybe I’m supposed to do private counseling with those experiencing loss…maybe as they near a loss and post bereavement work and if my skills developed, medium work.  I don’t know how to start or what to do.

            I feel like my deceased father is near me and so is my maternal grandmother, and I think during a meditation with your CD I met “Joyce” a Victorian suffragette and part of her message had to do with standing up and being vocal but in ways that are less taxing in terms of being invested in outcomes.  Other than that, so far, I have not successfully tapped into my guides.  I just feel like screaming.  I hate waiting for things to “unfold in their own time”.   I have information and experiences coming to me faster than I can even keep up while at the same time having almost no understanding of it or what to do with it.  I also don’t have a support network of people to remind me that I’m probably not schizophrenic.

            I’m grasping John.  I’m out here swinging in the breeze and I’m not having a great time.  If there is anything you can do, or any thoughts you can send to enter my meditations, or if you could do or think or say or suggest anything that might help my feet connect more firmly with the path.  This stuff really makes me question my sanity, and being in the mental health business, I KNOW how a counselor would receive it.  Can you say “extended stay at the loony spa?”  Makes me start to wonder about all of the people I used to think were crazy.  Maybe they really do hear voices and see people…what a concept!  I don’t hear anyone and don’t see anyone but sense messages much like I would hear myself say “don’t forget to buy toilet paper”.  There are occasionally smells, and there are sounds (scratching/popping in closets, a large can of soy sauce in the cupboard that is the new doorbell, it makes a warp/pressure change "boink" sound when spirits arrive), sensations of being watched or of having somebody stand directly over me and my grandmother’s clock tends to chime at interesting points in conversations or thoughts.  Sometimes a bunch of names will start spilling into my head or a scenario, or for days I’ll wake up at the same time until I figure out it is a spirit who died at that time trying to get my attention or help.

            This is a big random mess and I want to be able to use it if it is a gift rather than a curse (which is sort of feels like now).  Seems like on the few programs of yours I got to see, you have rarely experienced really negative, dark energy.  Does that mean I’m bad?  Does it mean I’m a shit magnet?  And what do I do about it?  I don’t know how to find somebody who is good at what I need to learn.  I get a LOT of migraines, especially when spirits are around.  I get them more than once a week and I check out fine medically.  I feel like Harry Potter and my scar hurts.  I need to practice my patronous charm.

            Thanks for anything and everything.  I hope this letter finds you.  It will if it is supposed to.

Sincerely Confused,

As I reread this, 7 years later, I remember those feelings, all of them.  They all come flooding back.  While I still don't have clear direction, I'm far more at ease.  As I finally quit fearing and blocking, there was less negativity around me.  It didn't happen by my thinking happy thoughts.  It ended up happening when I was so tired and so scared that I just didn't have any scared left.  That's when I just gave in and surrendered.  And things began to lift.

I'm not a psychic groupie.  I don't have the resources to buy all the books and CDs and DVDs and travel to attend group readings or pay for a private reading where I am on a waiting list for years to pay $800 for an hour.  That's just not real life for me.  I also don't have cable so I miss most of these shows even though I very much enjoy them.

I notice on other interesting thing.  Just this week, I was asking as I drifted off to sleep if I could be aware of my spirit guide.  I sort of heard the name "Joy" but figured I imagined it.  If you look above, 7 years ago, when I did a meditation, I asked and got the name "Joyce".  I find that interesting.  Maybe if you call them by the wrong name, they don't mind so much...or they'll correct you.

Here is a clip where John Edward explains how he works



Here is a segment of John Edward on the Maury Povich show



And, not surprising, not everyone is a fan or a believer. Here is a comedic parody about John Edward

Book Review: Once Upon A Potty by Alona Frankel

Yes, well, I told you I was going to review some of our family faves in children's books, right?

This is an obscure little book that we had all kinds of fun with.  It made us laugh.  Alona is from Tel Aviv, Israel where, their training potty's are a bit different than ours, more like a chamber pot or a vase.  We laughed at that.

The story (and there is a girl version too) is of Joshua and Joshua's mother, learning about potty training and patience and mastery.

Here is a bit of the text (and imagine this...there is matching illustrations....not kidding:

"Just like you, Joshua has a body, and this body has many nice and useful parts:  A head for thinking,  eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, a mouth to talk and eat with, hands for playing, A pee-pee for making wee-wee, legs for walking and running, a bottom for sitting and in it, a little hole for making poo-poo."

We didn't call any of that by those names.  We used "penis", "poop", "pee" and I don't know if we even discussed the anus much beyond "bottom".  So both of us got the giggles saying these different names.  It is a short little book with cute illustrations.  Our copy even has my son's early "ink creations" scrawled in the front of it.  It's a treasure.  Originally written in 1975 for Alona's son Michael, it has become a classic.

I haven't read or seen the girl's version, so I don't know what they call her "junk"...maybe the same...but with pictures of girl junk? Anybody have the girl version? In the girl version, the child's name is Prudence.

It's OK to laugh during potty training.  We tried to stick with the correct medical terminology as best we could, but giggling sometimes happens.

Movie Review: Captain America

We rented Captain America; First Avenger from Netflix.  I'm going to confess something.  We rented it less than a week ago and I've already forgotten the plot.  That's how memorable it was.

A dweeby, weeklying, really wants to serve his country but keeps getting 4F rejections.  Finally, he is accepted for his heart and determination, but as a risky science experiment to create a super soldier in the lab.  It appears to have been a success, and Captain America is born.

He has to fight the bad guy, a Nazi with the same technology.  It's 1942.  You know Captain America has to win, right?

I was a bit bored overall, and the story was not very riveting.  However, I did enjoy the special effects and cinematography, and it was well acted.  The same technology that was used to age Brad Pit backwards in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was used to make Captain America grow from short, slightly built weakling, to tall, super-buff soldier.

It is PG 13 for violence and a mature theme/plot.  When the Nazi dude takes his mask off, kids might get nightmares...he does get a bit Voldemort-ish.  If you like the long string of action films based on comic books, then you might like this too.  I think it was entertaining while it lasted, but utterly forgettable.  Good to rent, but glad I didn't pay full ticket price to see it in the theater.



But of course, being a glutton for punishment, I'll have to go see the upcoming sequel: The Avengers.