I think this is my opinion on it
Don’t have the wherewithal to write a full review so here’s a quick rank.
Sahara. 3 of 5 stars
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. 3 of 5 stars.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. 4 of 5 stars the second time through.
Monster in Law. 3 of 5 stars. Much funnier and better than I thought.
As I had mentioned the other day, I had a good start for this month in reading 3 books. Getting ahead by reading a lot of The Shadow of the Wind. Well, I went ahead and finished it off that night (or morning considering I finished at 2 in the morning.)
What a read. The blurbs on the cover liken the author (Zafon) to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I see were they’re similar. Some of the book was magical realistic, but it was more. I liked it a lot. Like the characters in the book I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. A
Even taking two classes and my continuing work schedule, I was able to get a few books in. Of course they were both written by my favorite, Sarah Vowell. I also had gotten further in the Best Travel Writing of 2004 book — almost to the end (although the last few have been real downers being about traveling in war torn foreign lands). I will one day finish this book.
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. I thought this was seriously funny. I never imagined that killing presidents would be so. While the story of Lincoln’s assassination is fascinating, Garfield and McKinley’s are equally interesting as well. Vowell is a very entertaining writer. She wears her GenX id front and center. You could feel the sarcasm in words, yet she gets across how much history fascinates and motivates her. I love that. She is a great voice of our geneartion. A++
(I also bought the book on CD. While I can take her for 15 minutes at a time 4 hours of Sarah Vowell gets on you at times. If not for Jon Stewart. I would’ve hated her. Stewart’s turn as President Garfield was hilarious. It has given me a different view of the guy. Jon Stewart as well)
Take the Cannolis by Sara Vowell. While this is a collection of essays that were written somewhere else, they are still fresh and funny. I liked her take on Tom Cruise. The fact that Ms. Vowell is deeply immensed in pop culture as am I has me attracted to her writings. This book lacked the hilarity of the previous only because each topic/essay had to be treated as one. B
May has started on a bang as I am reading Shadow of the Wind and would have finished today if not for writing my final report for school.
It’s just about summer movie season. And to get a start, I caught the latest remake of The Amityville Horror. Not the movie I wanted to watch (The Upside of Anger), but was coaxed into it. In fact I was called out when I complained that it would scare me. It did, but I think it was more because of knowing that something sudden was going to happen. Anyway the movie was standard haunted house. Creepy ghost children. Bleeding walls. Voices telling the occupants to get out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What sucked about this version, they had to explain why it was haunted. You will not believe it, or you would’ve guessed it. Indian graveyard! Plus scary missionary! What?! Dumb. Don’t watch this until it is the only thing on TV.
1 of 5 stars.
The battery on my laptop is going quickly, because I just got the 20″ Apple Display, that I have to review the two movies I saw this weekend
Guess Who. And in starring in Sydney Poitier’s role as the awkward part of an inter-racial couple is Ashton Kutcher. America has just been punk’d. It was weird watching this flick. It was a marketed as a comedy, but had some tones of the original on which it was modeled after. There were some flat spots because of the need to harken back to the original. It was maddeningly a mixed bag. Funny at times, stupid serious at others. It was a train wreck in the making.
2 of 5 stars.
Sin City. Don’t believe the hype. I have read 3 of Frank Miller’s comic books from this series. They were awesome, especially when I went through my high end pulp fiction phase (think: the black lizard imprint of vantage (?)), yet placed on the big screen, the dialogue sounds awefully bad. The stories were straight revenge. I wish they done the “Dame to Kill for” story, but I think they weren’t after the femme fatale plot of many noir flicks. This was Death Wish for the comic book geek set.
3 of 5 stars.
March has come to pass and a quarter of the year is done. How am I doing in my doing in my quixotic quest to read 3 books a month? Surprise! After not reading anything last month I finally finished a book not including my assigned school reading. The tally is 2 and a half in January, a quarter in February, and one in March for a grand total of, drum roll please, 3 and three quarter books. My pace is one third what it should be. I am not planning to take a class in the summer, so hopefully, I can make up for the lost time. One question, if I finish off the books I should’ve read, do I count them as a book for the month or for the month that it should’ve been finished?
This month’s book was Sarah Vowell’s Assasination Vacation. It was the book she described on the 2nd disc of the Incredibles DVD. I found it very humorous, and quite good. The blurbs on the jacket are correct and she has a unique literary, and vocal, voice. I plan to read some of her other stuff. A+
While I went in expecting a terrible movie, I was pleasantly surprised by this comedy. It wasn’t as bad as the reviews made out to be and it wasn’t as bad as the lack of audience for it has been.
Be Cool was a meta movie. It knew that it was only a movie and played itself out as one. In fact the story line was explicitly told in the first scene. If you kept this in mind the movie was fun. I like that it was meta. It had Swingers. It had Pulp Fiction. It had weaved a wonderful story. I liked it.
3 of 5 stars.
As promised, my review of Constantine. I don’t want to dwell to long on why I did not like it. Go watch Little Nicky. Same plot. Less laughter. I wanted it to be good. The previews made it look good. It ends up that watching it was bad. I was bored. Really bored. Go watch Little Nicky. It is much more entertaining than Constantine.
2 of 5 stars.
Pete’s (of APCB) day job is to review movies. I read his take before watching the movie. It is one that I agree upon. The movie is good for the time frame that it is released, solid for a romantic comedy, and well crafted by everyone involved. Naturally, seeing it the day before Valentine’s day meant lots of couples. Seeing it as a Sunday matinee meant lots of Jewish couples. Seeing it the first weekend meant a crowded theatre. I imagine that it business will be good for Will Smith this weekend.
Romatic comedies always make me squirm. You may know this about me if you read the previous post, but I like movies to end with the boy not getting the girl. Yet all romantic comedies end with the boy and girl living happily ever after. Hitch is no different, but after watching In Good Company yesterday, Hitch is like a breath of fresh air. It made me happy and I am a sucker for movies that make me feel good. (Man I must like a lot of different films!)
As a movie, Hitch follows the normal conventions as other romantic comedies. Boy and girl meet cute. Boy established a rapport with the girl. That rapport is messed up usually by a Three’s Company like misunderstanding. Boy tries to re-establish the rapport, but is rebuffed. Then the third reel unrolls and the boy wins the girl back in the end. And they lived. Happily. Ever. After. Will Smith is charming in this film. Eva Mendes could’ve been hotter. I was especially attracted to the Allegra Cole girl. Anyone know who she is? Short haired blondes do it for me every time. The movie was enjoyable. It would be a wonderful date movie. Now if only I had a date doctor myself to fix me up…
3 of 5 stars.
