The Last Airbender (2010) - Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Noah Ringer

Panned by the critics when it was released, I finally watched The Last Airbender this morning on my streaming Netflix account.

The last M. Night Shyamalan movie, Netflix ranked it as the most popular movie of the day.

I watched it. And it wasn't half-bad. In fact, it was better than bad. It was pretty good.

A take-off of the popular children's animation series Avatar: The Last Airbender, the story is about a world where four countries are at war. Once held together by the peaceful reign of a single avatar that controlled the 4 elements--earth, wind, air and fire--the avatar disappeared and war began. Each country has a breed of benders that can shift the elements of their country. Only the avatar, who can bend all four, can bring them peace. Suddenly, he returns, ready to bring them back to peace.

The movie stars Noah Ringer, as the last airbender, Dev Patel, as the wronged fire prince.

With awesome special effects and some great martial arts, the movie was produced by two of the TV shows producers and long-time Hollywood producer Kathleen Kennedy. She got her start with Steven Spielberg on his production of E.T.

Phoebe in Wonderland - Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman (2008)

Phoebe in Wonderland takes an extremely interesting movie takes a different spin on Alice in Wonderland, and examines the world of a a 9-year old girl struggling with self control in her rigid, rules-based world.

The directorial debut of Daniel Barnz, the movie is based on a screenplay that he wrote 10 years prior.

Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota Fanning, shows herself to be just as formidable of an actress as her sister. At the tender age of 10, she firmly hold the center of the stage.

Patricia Clarkson, fast becoming one of my favorite actresses, gives another sublime performance. Her acting is so effortless that you don't even recognize it as acting. She just IS.

The story is a fascinating look at a young girl's struggle with compulsive behavior and the anxiety it causes in her obviously bright and artistic family. Bill Pullman plays Phoebe's father and is an English professor. Felicity Huffman, of Desperate Housewives fame, struggles with motherhood and her attempts to finish her dissertation. And Bailee Madison, as Phoebe's younger sister, is a bright light as her supportive, yet frustrated younger sister. All give very strong supporting performances.

And another favorite of mine, Campbell Scott, makes an appearance as the school principal.

Dead and Gone (2009) by Charlaine Harris - from the series that spawned "True Blood"

The only reason I don't despise this book is because I only paid $1 for it at a garage sale.

One of the books that spawned HBO's "True Blood" series, Sookie Stackhouse lives and works in a small town outside of Lafayette, Louisiana.

At the risk of sounding like one of her more uptight and judgmental enemies, she consorts with vampires, werewolves and fairies--clearly another class of people.

One of the most basic flaws that rubbed me through the whole book was her spelling of the name "Tray". It is bad enough when it is spelled "Trey" but to purposefully misspell it "Tray" is unforgivable in my mind.

Then all the vampire mythology is twisted and bended to the author's needs--a similar issue that I had with the Twilight series.

How can authors transgress 100s of years of established vampire and werewolf mythology to write this junk? All of a sudden a werewolf transforms not into a wolf but a border collie because it would be easier for humans to accept? Come on!

And these books are really grizzly. Very grizzly. Crucifixions, torture, sex. Which is okay, but the cover is very misleading and makes it appear to be a young adult book. I wouldn't let my young adult read them!

As I said, I am really glad I only paid a $1.