For three years I have paid my bills online using the online bill payment feature at Regions bank.  I hold both a savings and checking account with Regions bank.  I am pleased with the customer service, interest rates, and features each of these accounts offers, so putting my money in an account from which I can pay bills works well for me. The system is very easy to set up, and from ...

A couple months ago we found ourselves in a bind with a very high credit card balance and no way to reduce our interest rate below 20%.  I have a bank account with Regions Bank and called them to see if they offered a credit card at a lower interest rate we could transfer our money onto.What Regions Bank offered me was a cash advance.  I think I had probably received offers for such a...

AAA (American Auto Club) Tour Books are great for planning and executing road trips.  They are helpful in locating hotels, motels, and restaurants. They are free (to AAA members)!AAA Tour Books are also a useful resource for planning destination vacations by providing information on attractions, points of interest, and restaurants.The books vary in composition.  They may contain a spe...

Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is an FBI agent focused on her work. She wears simple, not very feminine clothes, no makeup, no fancy hairdos - just a ponytail. Primping up does not interest her, she's got other things to do and is content with herself, as well as with the fact that she is not considered a beauty. When the FBI urgently needs to send someone undercover as a beauty pageant parti...

This beautiful rendition of George Eliot's complex novel is a pleasure to watch. Multiple plotlines are handled in a smooth and balanced way, switching from one to another seamlessly. The well-chosen title reflects the essence of the story: "Middlemarch" is a town, and the viewer gets to see the lives of so many of its people that choosing one and naming the story after them would...

"He knows no fear. He knows no danger. He knows nothing" - goes the tagline, one of the best and most appropriate movie taglines ever. Rowan Atkinson stars in this hilarious comedy as Johnny English, a clumsy secret agent who finds himself in the spotlight when all other agents are wiped out by an explosion. ("This is the most secure location in all England, sir." KABOOM!!) ...

Professor Dorr (Tom Hanks) rents a room from an old widow Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), instantly charming her with his manners and personality. What Mrs. Munson does not realize though is that the elegant professor is the leader of a criminal gang planning to break into a casino money storage - from her cellar. Pretending to be an orchestra, the gang asks for permission to have music rehearsals...

I own both the 1985 and 2006 versions of Bleak House, a mini-series based on a Charles Dickens novel. This review pertains to the earlier one, starring Denholm Elliott and Diana Rigg.I had bought this DVD shortly after reading the novel; I just couldn't wait to see it come alive on the screen. I was not disappointed, although certain things were changed and some parts of the plot edited out...

It was a bit embarrassing when I had asked for The Muppet Christmas Carol movie at my local library and was told to go look in the Children's section. Still, I proceeded to get the DVD. I love the Muppet Show, and I am a big fan or Michael Caine who stars in this movie together with Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the gang. A Christmas Carol is also one of my favorite stories, ...

Wuthering Heights is based on a timeless and rather unconventional novel by Emily Bronte. This movie version of it was filmed in 1992. The two leading roles are played by Ralph Fienness (Heathcliff) and Juliette Binoche (Catherine). Both are well cast, and both give an excellent performance. Juliette Binoche also plays Cathy, Catherine's daughter. I do not like the same actresses playing mo...

Perhaps you are familiar with the story of Mozart and Salieri; perhaps you aren't. In either case, I would greatly recommend this movie. I personally knew the basics: Salieri, a prolific but not very talented composer, was jealous of Mozart, a music genius; it had been debated for quite some time whether Salieri poisoned Mozart or not. The movie gets right to this point, starting with the a...

This is an Americanized version of Charles Dickens's timeless Christmas story. The American Scrooge is called Benedict Slade, and he lives in the Depression era New England. He is a hard-hearted old businessman who begins his Christmas by calling in people's debts and handing out repossession notices, which triggers the ghosts' visits later that day. The ghosts show him his past, pr...

When Grace Hawkins comes to work as a housekeeper at the vicar's family at a small English town of Big Wallop, she finds the family to be far from happy. Mr. Goodfellow, the vicar, is struggling to make his boring sermons better. He appears to have lost all connection with his wife and two children who each live their separate life. The wife, Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas), is about to start...

Cedric Brown (Colin Firth) is a widower and a father of seven unruly kids who keep driving away their nannies one after another. Nanny #17 runs away screaming after the kids make her think they have cooked and eaten their youngest sister. After that, the nanny agency closes its doors in Mr. Brown's face. As he stands there hopeless, he hears a mysterious voice that tells him he needs Nanny ...

Graham Marshall (Michael Caine) is a calm, hard-working business executive who hopes to get a well-deserved promotion. His demanding wife (Swoosie Kurtz) hopes he gets it too; although Graham is rather successful, she always wants more, and always finds something to gripe about. To his shock, Graham discovers in the last moment that he is passed over by a snotty younger co-worker Robert Be...

Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) is a writer and booklover who lives in New York. She loves British literature and finds it hard to believe that her beloved British authors are so difficult to find in the United States. She searches and searches, only to be quoted exorbitant prices when books she wants happen to be in stock. Finally, she gives up and sends a query letter to Marks & Co, a used b...

Steve Martin stars as Inspector Clouseau... The role is a challenge as it will be inevitably compared to Peter Sellers's performance, loved by many. I have not watched that one for a very long time, so I was able to take a more or less unprejudiced look at this new version. I would describe it as a rather mediocre comedy that survives only because of Steve Martin. His antics as the bumbling...

Mel Brooks tells the story of the famous Transylvanian vampire, casting Leslie Nielsen as the title character, Count Dracula. Nielsen has been in so many comedies that just having him in a movie promises some good laughs. This one is no exception. Nielsen's Dracula is a rather unordinary one. While he has all the powers that belong to a vampire, he is also beset with unfortunate clumsiness ...

I was a bit skeptical when I had rented out this DVD - a movie about Queen Victoria and her husband Albert. While I like historical pieces, I just did not think there would be enough drama in this true story account to hold my interest. I am happy to report that I was wrong. I don't know how much fiction is added into the story, and I don't care. This is one excellent movie. Victoria, p...

This is a very unusual movie, in more ways than one. It is about faith - Christian faith - real and fake; not something Hollywood turns its attention to very often, unless it wants to portray Christianity and Christians in a negative way. That's what I thought this movie was about as well when I first started watching it. Steve Martin plays a fake faith-healer who travels around the co...