Media Roundup

Some of the movies and books I've read over the past few months.**

Movies

NothingLike theHolidays

I decided to watch a movie one night around Christmastime. So I went to the theater by myself, and picked the next movie playing, which happened to be NothingLiketheHolidays. The only thing I knew about it was that it starred JohnLeguizamo and DebraMessing.

The movie was oooookay. Not a great plot, but I really enjoyed the actors in it- I love FreddieRodriguez especially. Added bonus, it was set in the HumboldtPark neighborhood of Chicago, where I used to go to church. It made me nostalgic for Chicago.... but also very glad I wasn't there in the winter anymore. All in all, not the best Christmas movie ever made, but fun enough.

Twilight
Watched Twilight with Sarah while she was home for winter break. It was.... interesting. They took a lot of the dialogue straight out of the book... and the dialogue in the book was BAD. So to hear it said out loud make me cringe. Of course, the most important part of the movie was the Big Love Story. The two main characters are supposed to be shy, brooding teenagers. RobertPattinson and KristenStewart were good enough, but it irritated me that the shy, brooding teenagers had to stutter, or start talking and then catch themselves, or talk reaaaallly slowly, to show that they were so shy and brooding. I wanted to yell at them to just spit it out. Also, it seemed to me that they modeled the vampire hunting crouch after gorillas.

That being said, it was an entertaining movie. Just like the book was bad but engaging, so was the film. But, the most entertaining part of the entire experience was sitting in a theater with teenage girls. This group in front of us shrieked when Edward first came on the screen, giggled or wooooo'd when Edward and Bella looked into each other's eyes, and laughed inappropriately when Edward was saving Bella at the end (sorry for the spoiler, but I highly doubt anyone reading this blog who hasn't watched Twilight yet has any intention of watching it in the future.)

SlumdogMillionaire
I heard a lot of good things about this movie, and I was not disappointed. It was so, so good. The story was sweet, the kids were amazing, and I thought it was visually stunning. And DevPatel was amazing. I thought he was really engaging, and really subtle. I loved how it combined humor and tragedy, love and hate, passion and cruelty. Even the soundtrack rocked.

ForbiddenKingdom
Watched this on DVD at Phil's place. Not as bad as I thought it would be. That being said, it was REALLY REALLY BAD. Awful. Everything about it was bad and made no sense. JackieChan and JetLi deserve better. Hell, even the dumb white kid deserves better.

CasinoRoyale
Finally watched this on DVD. I made the mistake of watching QuantumofSolace withtout watching this first, so I had to suss out on my own who Vesper was. His beloved scooter? Watching this made the other one much more decipherable. I thought it was better than the second one. And man, that DanielCraig is good looking in a tux. Wooo. He's not a very good looking man... until you see him as Bond, and then all of a sudden he's so freakin' sexy. Also, Bond has very bad luck with women. Everyone he sleeps with dies a horrible death. He must have some kind of bad luck sperm.

EagleEye
I watched most of this on DVD. Missed the last twenty minutes, which kind of sucks. It would've been nice to see how it ended. But the parts I did see were preposterous. On the plus side, it was the first movie I've seen on blue ray, and combined with the HD tv, it was pretty fantastic looking.

MammaMia
Also saw this on DVD. BAAAAAD. But, fun. I enjoyed singing along. When I wasn't cringing at PierceBrosnan's awful voice. But MerylStreep is MerylStreep. And Mrs.Weasley was funny.

Movies I want to watch
Coraline
Milk
Push
Watchmen
InBruges
DarkKnight

Books

YiddishPolicemen'sUnion by MichaelChabon
FANTASTIC book. I loved it. The plot is so creative and so interesting, the characters are vivid and weirdly likeable. His way of describing the scenery, the weather, the characters, everything, were unique and spot on and I found myself re-reading sentences and paragraphs just to marvel at the language. I really enjoyed this book.

Twilights 3 and 4 by StephanieMeyers
I liked the last two twilights waaaaay better than the first two. Neither of them are that great, and StephanieMeyers is really awful at writing dialogue, but the plots are fun and move a lot faster than the other two. A lot more happens, a lot more peril and action and less whining and staring at each other breathlessly. The last book was particularly action packed, although I thought the ending was incredibly anticlimactic. In conclusion, the Twilight books are basically StephanieMeyers not so subtle way of advocating against pre-marital sex and abortion, and for true love and keeping the baby even if it kills you.

Currently reading:
TheBrief WondrousLife of OscarWao

Currently listening to:
SlumdogMillionaire soundtrack
FeedtheAnimals by GirlTalk
Juno soundtrack

** I started writing this a month ago, and completely forgot about it.