Daily Archives: 07/15/2013

In Memoriam: Cory Monteith

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In the face of Cory Monteith’s tragic death Saturday, at age 31, from as-yet-unknown causes, I find myself revisiting my first experience with Glee.  I read a lot about the show during its first 13 episode run but never tuned in, despite it seeming right up my alley (as a big fan of musicals).  I think I was just turned off by the excessive praise it was getting, as I tend to be wary of anything that seems to inspire unanimous opinions.  But I was curious so I checked out the pilot episode online during the show’s midseason hiatus and I was sold.  I ran out and bought the first half of season one on DVD, and my wife and I started to watch it over the course of a couple of days.  One night, 2 episodes before the midseason finale, we decided to head to bed around midnight.  But we both lay there for a while, unable to sleep, until we decided we just had to finish the show.  We returned to the living room and watched the rest of the episodes, even if it meant we were up until 2am or later.  That’s the sort of feeling that Glee inspires in people.

Cory Monteith was of course a big part of that. Continue reading →

Review: Despicable Me 2

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In the time since we last saw Gru, Margo, Edith, Agnes and the minions, they have grown into a family.  Gru plays loving father to his three, adopted daughters, going out of his way to cater to them as individuals.  His life of crime is behind him, and he and Dr. Nefario have turned his secret lair into a jams and jellies factory.  At Agnes’s birthday party, Gru dresses up as a fairy princess to fill in for the one he’d hired for the party, while the moms of the other kids at the party keep trying to set him up with their single friends.

However, when an arctic research station is stolen, along with a chemical that can turn the most gentle bunny into a vicious, purple killer (between Despicable Me 2 and The Lone Ranger, vicious bunnies are having a moment), the Anti-Villain League decides to turn to Gru for help.  After initially turning them down, he reconsiders and joins forces with them, in part to partly fulfill the longing for his old way of life.  He’s assigned an AVL agent, Lucy Wilde, and the two of them set up shop (literally) in a mall where they suspect the chemical has been taken.  And all the while, Gru’s minions seem to be disappearing. Continue reading →