6 posts tagged “reviews”

but that's nothin' considerin' what happened to Lottie's whole house.  This is one of those books that has sat, and sat and sat on my "to be read" shelves.  Quick, sweet read.  Oh, the angst of adolescence.  And of course, I cried at the end.  But I really liked it, it's Haworth's first novel and it's a treat.  She makes you feel like you know small town Florida.  And after Tangerine by Bloor, you already know that there are lots of lightning strikes in Florida.  Wow, can you tell it's almost midnight and therefore my iq has sunk with the time?  Perhaps I ought to just go to bed, but first, I'll see what else is in the bag!

My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath.  It's actually an ARC, which is good because I noticed a typo and I hope they fixed it.
I have a mixed opinion of Horvath.  I am using the Pepins and Their Problems for a paper that I am writing and I really can't stand that book.  But, Trolls, I found distressing/disturbing in a way that makes me like Horvath very much.  It's not often that stories can make me FEEL uncomfortable, most things I read might tug at my heartstrings, make me cry, or thrill, but uncomfortable, disconcerted? That takes knack. 
Anyways, My One Hundred Adventures was wonderful.  I did feel so sorry for Ginny at the end, but hello, if you read my blog, you know I'm pretty psyched for Sasketchewan. 
So, 2h15min gone in my 48.

Second in the Book of Time series by Guillaume Prevost.  Originally written in French.  The series takes place in Canada and then in various time periods around the world.  I really like that the adults are more flawed than the adolescents which is a far more accurate reflection of reality than perpetuating the myth that one eventually gets it together when one is an adult. 

I know that the 08-09 season hasn't ended yet, but I thought that I would put some thoughts down anyway.

I am not looking forward to CSI:NY because someone major is supposed to die. If it's Hawkes, I will be so, so sad, well any of them really.  But crushed if it's him. Though if it is, I would imagine it to be for Kal Penn/Kutner like reasons.  He was classmates (I think) with Obama at Harvard and was certainly active in the campaign.  CSI:NY was absolutely superb right before the 07 writers' strike and I feel like it never quite hit that level again.  This season has been fine, but there was an incredible energy in those first few months of the 07-08 season that I wish they could get back to.  Still, I think they need each and every one of the characters to make the ensemble click.  Hawkes and Sid are the two most vulnerable to me and I would have a very hard time with the writers going down either path.

CSI, the original Vegas one, has been a revelation this season.  I think Peterson did the exact right thing leaving.  Not that I didn't cry and miss him, but wow, Laurence Fishborne as a mid-life career change from Doctor/Professor to a CSI Level 1 (entry level) has been amazing.  The choices that the writers have made in terms of storytelling (as in not linear) have really freshened up the show in its ninth season.  After seasons 7&8, the show was a bit fatigued and heavy with its own weight.  I would put this season up against 4,5, or 6 for pure enjoyment.  Rashomama (season 6) is still my hands down favorite episode, but season 9 has been one of the best.

In Plain Sight has just started up its second season.  Mary McCormack as Marshall Mary Shannon is a fabulously written character.  The last episode with the therapist was fantastic. 

CSI:Miami. Argh! I can't believe I've gotten sucked into watching this!  David Caruso drives me nuts.  The former ME drove me nuts (why couldn't they have had someone relatively normal like on the other two, the original woman made me hit the mute button and the new one, while beautiful, is popping pills and therefore not long for this world, I imagine).  The color saturation aside (it is a very beautiful show to watch, I love love love the colors!), I'm pathetic, it's the blossoming romance between Calleigh Duquesne and Eric Delko that has me tuning in every week because it sure as hell isn't the quality of the writing or acting.  But I had caught enough episodes from previous seasons to be excited when I watched a random one in which there were some really cute sparks.

Cold Case, Bones, NCIS and Criminal Minds.  I watch them, I enjoy them for what they are.  Cold Case makes me cry.  Bones, they're all just so pretty. NCIS, who wouldn't want to watch Mark Harmon do anything.  Even sleep.  And Criminal Minds, Garcia is just way cool. 

Ugly Betty.  I dread watching it. But I do anyway because I know that I will enjoy it.  It really seemed to jump the shark when Colin absconded with all the money.  That was a stupid and hasty plot move.  Now with Ashley Jensen's departure, it will be harder for me to tune in.  But I love the colors, and Horta's take on family is just wonderful, so I continue to watch and hope that they pick up again with the quality.

House, M.D. is long one of my favorite shows.  I was devastated by Kutner's suicide because he seemed like the only undamaged one on the whole show and then Bang! turns out he was more permanently damaged than any of the others.  But if Kal Penn hadn't have wanted to leave, he wouldn't have been.  He was like House, but whole.  And then civic duty took over.  Curses!  I am so glad that Chase and Cameron have finally gotten over the whole real life broken engagement thing to work together again because I sure like them better than anyone on the B team now that Kutner is gone.  I hope that they have a lot more screen time next season.

The Mentalist seems to have lost some of its zip from earlier this season.  Hope it picks up again.  I think its because they're trying to stretch the Red John storyline far longer than they should.  The show doesn't use it quite frequently enough to keep it as a thread, which makes me worry that they want it to last over many seasons.  Grrr. 

Eleventh Hour.  Poor, poor version of the English original which starred, hello, Ashley Jensen (and some bald guy named Patrick Stewart).  Picked up a little when they brought in the kid who voted for the first time on West Wing, but it hasn't been on in so long, did they cancel it and I missed that memo?
(eta: apparently it was only an 18 episode season, so that would be over. I wonder if it will return.)

Fringe.  Joshua Jackson and John Noble are not reason enough for me to continue watching beyond this season, though they do have a natural chemistry as well as some as great lines.  But yeah, chalk this up to Heroes and Lost status.  Too caught up in itself to keep my attention. 

Little Mosque on the Prairie, the only half hour sitcom I make time for.  All the arabic I needed for Morocco, I learned from this show.  I love it. 

Listener, another import from Canada.  Cute, kind of on par with Criminal Minds/Bones/Cold Case.  One of my favorite parts of the Toby's character is just how respectful he is of other people's physical space.  Most likely due to the fact that he can't shut out their thoughts.  And his partner, Oz, is adorable and so funny.  It's a show that succeeds at multicultural without it being in your face.

Dollhouse.  Joss Whedon's new project.  I love Whedon's writing.  Speed, Buffy (movie and tv series), Firefly/Serenity.  But I'm not a fan of all his work.  Never got into Angel and as I'm not a huge fan of Eliza Dushku, I have had a hard time getting into Dollhouse.  I will watch it next season, probably, but we will have to see how this season ends before I actually commit.  Today it felt like Paul Ballard's character was channeling Capt Reynolds, and that the actor was channeling Nathan Fillion.  The voice pattern was totally the same.  And yeah, really just not a Dushku fan. 

Castle. Nathan Fillion's new tv show.  Not totally sold on it.  It only started in March and while I appreciate all the redheads, the lines seem a little forced.  I get glimpses of wit and sparkle, but it's just a flash every now and then.

Numb3rs.  I <3 this show.  The relationship between Don and Charlie, the sons and their father, Charlie and Amita, Charlie and Fleinhart (also known as the Biscuit from Ally McBeal) are so lovingly written.  They're not dysfunctional!!!  And the use of math is just way cool.  Yeah, I love, love, love this show.  Charlie Don't Surf being the best episode of this season. 

Lie to Me.  It's okay.  Another show that works as a diversion, though with the added bonus of making me so much more conscious of body language.

No vampires this season.  I hope that next season there are some new and exciting shows to watch.  I won't watch all nineteen of these next season.  I will keep House, Numb3rs, CSI and CSI:NY, Little Mosque, In Plain Sight and Ugly Betty for sure.  Anything else better have a bang up (preferably not literally) end to the season.    

I went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still on Wednesday.  Since last spring, I have actually started going to see movies in the theater in this town.  I have one card that gives me a discount on Thursdays and the cinema offers its own discount card for its theaters in Geneva and Lausanne that brings the price down from stratospheric to merely American.  The theater that I tend to go to is similar to a multiplex in the States and the VO (original language) showings are rarely crowded.
 
Some colleagues of mine and I have started going to dinner and a movie probably about once a month, so I've been reminded of the pleasure of watching a film on a massive screen.  I'm pretty easy to please; a consistent plot, decent script and I'm ready to suspend my disbelief.
 
I have never seen the original of the Day the Earth Stood Still.  I've seen stills from the movie, but actually watching it doesn't interest me.  I lived through the last twenty years of the Cold War and I prefer to read my old science fiction than sit through really bad special effects, unless we're doing it MST3K style.  Bad special effects being anything that pre-dates my birth because for some reason, the effects in Star Wars, Jaws, and other older movies don't strike me as cheesy.
 
Science-fiction is a genre that I have always enjoyed text-wise.  I have a huge amount of respect for authors who can create so thoroughly these worlds and scenarios well beyond our current reality.  I have an excellent, some might say over-developed, imagination, but it's all based on the reality I know.  I'm not out there creating new worlds and codes of ethics.  Asimov's three rules still blows my mind.  As a teenager, I probably read more fantasy than sci-fi, but I would read anything that took me away from my reality.  (Not that my life was particularly difficult, it wasn't.  I was a white girl in suburbia, how bad could it be?  I just wanted to read about different.)   I'm still a sucker for apocalyptic (post or pre) fiction and it doesn't even have to be of good quality.
  
Sci-fi is an interesting genre on its own, though because a sci-fi story is never just science fiction; murder mystery (I, Robot), western (Serenity), adventure (pick a Star Trek).  Sci-fi helps us cope with the existential questions that make our brains hurt if we think about them head on.  What does it mean to be who we are?  What is human?  Connie Willis, who I have written about many times before (okay, 2 or 3) writes science fiction and is amazing at posing questions and answers in a way that clarifies the human experience (All Seated on the Ground).

So, The Day the Earth Stood Still.  The movie itself was short.  Not even two hours and considering how much they could have done, wow, I feel like there was a lot missing.  I have an immense amount of admiration for the person who visualized the space craft and Gort's powers.  Not the eye laser thing, that's been done, but the other one.  The one that nearly gets us all.  That was pretty cool.  And the space craft were beautiful, little worlds unto themselves.
I know I will probably be excoriated for this, but I'm not a huge Jennifer Connelly fan.  Maybe it was the way her character was scripted, but Helen seemed incomplete.  I never got the feeling that she was grieving for her husband.  Her step-son asks, "you miss him, too?" and it was kinda like, yeah, kid had to ask because none of us could tell.
  
I have a couple friends who don't think much of Keanu Reeves' acting (I say they've never seen the Gift) and think that having him play an alien detached from the human experience is typecasting.  Playing a Christ-like figure in a sci-fi movie, it might be a little been there done that for him, but in his career, there are bound to be a few repeats.  Regardless, I've decided his next film should be a western.  Given how much sci-fi/fantasy he's already done, it's time for something new (and he really has done every other genre). I don't know how well his looks would translate to the 19thc. Wild West, but it could work.  Anyways, the alien Klaatu experiencing humanity was pretty disconcerting.  You weren't quite sure what he was going to do next.   Still, it's a safe film, because you know that we survive.  The aftermath of Klaatu's visit would make for a more interesting story.  How do they rebuild society and do they screw it up again? (Given humanity's track record I would say that's pretty much a given)  And besides, the aftermath would a post-apocalyptic story, my very favorite kind. 

John Cleese as Professor whatshisface was fine.  There was some snickers from people around me, but I'm not a Monty Python fan, and I didn't like a Fish Called Wanda, so I don't necessarily identify him only with comedy.  His character in Silverado, now that was cognitive dissonance and quite unfunny.  Professor whatever his name was a much smaller role than I thought it would be.

Jaden Smith is adorable, but I read in the WaPo review that he was supposed to eight to which I say, you've got to be freakin' kidding me.  He was so not an eight year old, skewed much more toward 10 at least.  His character as shown was on the inconsistent side and I think that some of the other key moments for him must have gotten cut.
The editor was a little too trim happy, I think.  I know in my academic writing that succinct is my buzzword, sometimes to the detriment of other people (including the one grading) understanding everything as I want them to, and I think the person editing this film suffers the same problem.
 
I enjoyed it.  It doesn't take much for me to like a movie and this one should be a crowd pleaser.  It asks some good questions, makes you think a little bit, though not too much.  Definitely a popcorn rather than cotton candy type of film.  I'm going back to see it again on Wednesday as a friend of mine who likes sci-fi even more than I do wants to see it and couldn't go this week. 
 

But I forgot.  I am not going to review my "books read" on this blog like I thought I was.  I love Librarything.com and I have my books/dvds catalogued over there.  They have a section for reviews.  I might as well stick them up there.  I just need to figure out if there is a way to review books that are not in your collection. I'm sure it's not a problem, because Tim and Abby think of things like this.  So, there you go.  For the second time in a month, I will be copying and pasting all those damn reviews.