Movie: Toy Story III
Like/Don't Like: Loved. No, really.
Camille has been Without Gall and cooped up in the house since Friday and felt like it was time to get out. So we picked up some ice cream in honor of Grandma and went to the movies. Neither of us was particularly excited to see this movie because we're both hard hearted curmudgeons. Or, you know, we're just not that excited about animated movies. But it was either that or the A-Team and I'm still not sold on that movie. Why mess with a classic?
Well, let me tell you, I was wrong to not be excited. So wrong. Because this movie was great. I laughed, I cried, I laughed again, and then again. The story was fresh and there were enough new characters and a good plot line to keep it interesting the whole way through. It was suspenseful and heart warming and funny. And kind of scary in parts. The kids in the audience didn't really seem scared but there is a droopy eyed baby doll in it that FREAKED ME OUT. Oh, the nightmares I will have over it. But that's just me. It probably won't even faze you when you see it. Which you should. Soon. Because it's that good. And this coming from a hard hearted curmudgeon.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
How the Earth Changed History
Show: How the Earth Changed History
Channel: National Geographic
Time: What, Like I'm your TV Guide? Look it up.
Like/Don't Like: I'm putting in my pocket protector and pushing up my glasses. It brings out the geek in me big time.
You may not know this about me but I'm a huge geek when it comes to geology. Nothing sucks me in faster than a good show on how lakes or mountains or islands are formed. I can spend hours reading about plate tectonics and erosion and rock formations. You may have to give me a wedgie and shove me in a locker to shut me up about it but I make no apologies.
This is a week long miniseries about how the geologic changes on the planet have affected the course of human history. How China has become so fertile and rich and how, conversely, Australia has suffered from decades of drought because of the exact same winds. How people continually live on major fault lines (Hi!) because they're rich in natural resources. It's hosted by a Scottish geologist, so his accent is entertaining - especially when he gets excited about rock formations. And it focuses on one specific geological condition - say wind or fire - and shows how they have created not just the earth but also the societies that live on it. It's fascinating.
It's showing this week but I'm sure there will be reruns of it. And the next time I see you I promise not to rumble on too much about volcanoes.
Channel: National Geographic
Time: What, Like I'm your TV Guide? Look it up.
Like/Don't Like: I'm putting in my pocket protector and pushing up my glasses. It brings out the geek in me big time.
You may not know this about me but I'm a huge geek when it comes to geology. Nothing sucks me in faster than a good show on how lakes or mountains or islands are formed. I can spend hours reading about plate tectonics and erosion and rock formations. You may have to give me a wedgie and shove me in a locker to shut me up about it but I make no apologies.
This is a week long miniseries about how the geologic changes on the planet have affected the course of human history. How China has become so fertile and rich and how, conversely, Australia has suffered from decades of drought because of the exact same winds. How people continually live on major fault lines (Hi!) because they're rich in natural resources. It's hosted by a Scottish geologist, so his accent is entertaining - especially when he gets excited about rock formations. And it focuses on one specific geological condition - say wind or fire - and shows how they have created not just the earth but also the societies that live on it. It's fascinating.
It's showing this week but I'm sure there will be reruns of it. And the next time I see you I promise not to rumble on too much about volcanoes.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The Dante Club
Book: The Dante Club
Author: Matthew Pearl
Like/Don't Like: Once I got passed the ickiness I liked it a lot.
Several years ago a friend recommended this book to me. I got it, started reading and then stopped about 30 pages in. Details are fuzzy as to why.
Fast-forward to last year. I read and loved The Last Dickens. It wasn't until the end when I realized that the same guy wrote The Dante Club. So I vowed to give it another shot.
And now the fuzzy details have cleared up. The beginning is gruesome. It is not for the weak-stomached or faint-hearted. There are bugs. Lots of them. Particularly maggots. And Matthew Pearl is a very skilled writer in making you squirm.
He is also a very smart writer. Smart as in he knows a lot of stuff. And he spends the first third of the book dumping that stuff on you. To the point where it can drag a bit and confuse you as to who's who. Every man in the story has outrageous facial hair and is or at one point was married to women named Fanny. It took me quite some time to get everyone straight in my head.
This is historical fiction taking place in Boston at the end of the Civil War. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is translating Dante's Divine Comedy into English with the help of his friends, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and JT Fields. This is the historical part. The fiction part is that a mad man is on the loose and is killing people in very Dantean fashions. Hence, the maggots. The four men recognize the patterns and set out to figure the whole thing out.
Once I got over the ickiness at the beginning and got used to his style of information overload I could hardly put it down. It moved along at a pretty good pace. The majority of the information he dumps on you was pretty interesting. And the mystery was great. I love it when I'm completely surprised by the killer. I mean, I was shocked! I gasped rather loudly.
I should put it out there that you don't have to know anything about the four main characters or Dante to enjoy it. I didn't know anything about him or the Divine Comedy other then that there are various circles of Hell. But you should probably have an appreciation for literature in general. The mystery can stand alone but you're going to get a lot of literary critique with it.
Author: Matthew Pearl
Like/Don't Like: Once I got passed the ickiness I liked it a lot.
Several years ago a friend recommended this book to me. I got it, started reading and then stopped about 30 pages in. Details are fuzzy as to why.
Fast-forward to last year. I read and loved The Last Dickens. It wasn't until the end when I realized that the same guy wrote The Dante Club. So I vowed to give it another shot.
And now the fuzzy details have cleared up. The beginning is gruesome. It is not for the weak-stomached or faint-hearted. There are bugs. Lots of them. Particularly maggots. And Matthew Pearl is a very skilled writer in making you squirm.
He is also a very smart writer. Smart as in he knows a lot of stuff. And he spends the first third of the book dumping that stuff on you. To the point where it can drag a bit and confuse you as to who's who. Every man in the story has outrageous facial hair and is or at one point was married to women named Fanny. It took me quite some time to get everyone straight in my head.
This is historical fiction taking place in Boston at the end of the Civil War. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is translating Dante's Divine Comedy into English with the help of his friends, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and JT Fields. This is the historical part. The fiction part is that a mad man is on the loose and is killing people in very Dantean fashions. Hence, the maggots. The four men recognize the patterns and set out to figure the whole thing out.
Once I got over the ickiness at the beginning and got used to his style of information overload I could hardly put it down. It moved along at a pretty good pace. The majority of the information he dumps on you was pretty interesting. And the mystery was great. I love it when I'm completely surprised by the killer. I mean, I was shocked! I gasped rather loudly.
I should put it out there that you don't have to know anything about the four main characters or Dante to enjoy it. I didn't know anything about him or the Divine Comedy other then that there are various circles of Hell. But you should probably have an appreciation for literature in general. The mystery can stand alone but you're going to get a lot of literary critique with it.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Letters to Juliet
Movie: Letters to Juliet
Like/Don't Like: Let's all take a vacation to Italy. We'll eat gelatto!
I suppose as far as romantic comedies go this one was harmless. It didn't have any of the ridiculous slapsticks that seem to be peppering the genre lately - for which I was incredibly grateful. And the premise of helping an old lady find love was sweet (We all agreed later that Vanessa Redgrave is one classy broad.) The leading man was awkward and jittery through the entire first half of the movie and that made me feel slightly awkward and jittery. But then there were all those scenes of them driving through the Italian countryside. Rows of twirling cypress trees have a very calming effect on me.
Like/Don't Like: Let's all take a vacation to Italy. We'll eat gelatto!
I suppose as far as romantic comedies go this one was harmless. It didn't have any of the ridiculous slapsticks that seem to be peppering the genre lately - for which I was incredibly grateful. And the premise of helping an old lady find love was sweet (We all agreed later that Vanessa Redgrave is one classy broad.) The leading man was awkward and jittery through the entire first half of the movie and that made me feel slightly awkward and jittery. But then there were all those scenes of them driving through the Italian countryside. Rows of twirling cypress trees have a very calming effect on me.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Just Wright
Movie: Just Wright
Like/Don't Like: Just Wrong
You know how people who go through traumatic events together share a special lifelong bond? War buddies and survivors of plane crashes - those types. So no matter how far apart they are or how many years separate them from the event they still can call each other up and say, "Hey, remember that time we were marooned on an island?"
Well, I had my Band of Brothers experience tonight with 8 other girls watching this movie. We all went out to celebrate Camille's birthday and had a grand time at dinner before hand. We were giggly and full and relieved we weren't in line for Sex and the City II, where there appeared to be a skanky dress and laughably inappropriate-for-a-movie-theater high heel shoes dress code going on. And it's a Queen Latifah movie, and well, I think she's great. I mean, she doesn't really have a wide range or anything but she plays sassy really well, and we all know how much I love the sass.
It all seemed so promising.
And then Common came on. He played the man who's suppose to fall in love with her - and that would have been fine and believable except that a.) they had sub-zero chemistry and b.) he has sub-zero acting skills. I know that Common is a rapper but I've never heard any of his music. But based strictly on his acting abilities, he had better stick with his day job. Knights of Columbus, he was BAD! Painfully bad. Awkwardly bad. There were moments when I had to avert my eyes because I was so embarrassed that he was so bad. And it was slow. And long. And Paula Patton had freaky teeth, like her dentist just laid a set of veneers over her original teeth, thus making them too big for her mouth. It was distracting. But also a relief because then I could focus on them instead of how crappy the movie was.
At the end of it we all gathered in the lobby and stood in stunned silence over what we had experienced - knowing that this would be the day that forged our friendship forever.
Like/Don't Like: Just Wrong
You know how people who go through traumatic events together share a special lifelong bond? War buddies and survivors of plane crashes - those types. So no matter how far apart they are or how many years separate them from the event they still can call each other up and say, "Hey, remember that time we were marooned on an island?"
Well, I had my Band of Brothers experience tonight with 8 other girls watching this movie. We all went out to celebrate Camille's birthday and had a grand time at dinner before hand. We were giggly and full and relieved we weren't in line for Sex and the City II, where there appeared to be a skanky dress and laughably inappropriate-for-a-movie-theater high heel shoes dress code going on. And it's a Queen Latifah movie, and well, I think she's great. I mean, she doesn't really have a wide range or anything but she plays sassy really well, and we all know how much I love the sass.
It all seemed so promising.
And then Common came on. He played the man who's suppose to fall in love with her - and that would have been fine and believable except that a.) they had sub-zero chemistry and b.) he has sub-zero acting skills. I know that Common is a rapper but I've never heard any of his music. But based strictly on his acting abilities, he had better stick with his day job. Knights of Columbus, he was BAD! Painfully bad. Awkwardly bad. There were moments when I had to avert my eyes because I was so embarrassed that he was so bad. And it was slow. And long. And Paula Patton had freaky teeth, like her dentist just laid a set of veneers over her original teeth, thus making them too big for her mouth. It was distracting. But also a relief because then I could focus on them instead of how crappy the movie was.
At the end of it we all gathered in the lobby and stood in stunned silence over what we had experienced - knowing that this would be the day that forged our friendship forever.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sherlock Holmes
Movie: Sherlock HolmesLike/Don't Like: A solid Like.
By sheer coincidence I read a few of the Sherlock Holmes stories just before this movie came out. I'm very glad I didn't see it in the theater because I think I would have been a little annoyed with the liberties that were taken. But as I have no memory for things I read I only had a vague discomfort about it and then got over the whole thing and enjoyed the movie.
The story sort of gave me the creeps (secret society practicing the dark arts), and also, was a little dull, and I have a hard time watching fighting sequences with all those realistic sound effects. I can close my eyes through the rough parts but I can still hear the bones snapping. Eek. But Sherlock Holmes is one of the best literary characters of all times and Robert Downey Jr. played him expertly. Well, for a pumped up action hero - which is a bit ridiculous - he played him expertly. I also think he would have done a great job with the traditional more cerebral/less punchy Holmes with the deerstalker cap. He got the essence of him - making him the smartest guy in the room and knowing it. Jude Law was surprisingly good as well. I say surprisingly because I'm always surprised when I like him in something. The mustache helped - as it always does.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Gentlemen Broncos
Like/Don't Like: Um. Well. Okay, yes, I'm on board with this.
As a general rule I'm not much for movies with excessive vomiting or other gross-out humor. I'm a sensitive soul. And I usually max out with a Jared Hess movie about an hour into them.
But there were several times during this movie when I laughed loud and hard. So yes, I liked it. I liked it mostly because of Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, who played a sci-fi writer. And Sam Rockwell, who plays essentially the same character he played in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - which is not a bad thing.
The story is sparse, and also irrelevant because the whole point of these types of movies is to have a succession of random scenes that show off funny characters and non-sequiturs. If you know this going in you'll love it. Especially the scene where we learn how to make up sci-fi names. It is hilarious and also dead-on.
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