Posted by barb on Oct 23, 2004 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
Without too much reflection, this was a good, suspenseful movie, well-suited to the big screen (I suspect that it would lose a lot on a TV screen). The build-up worked well, and if the promos hadn’t given away one of the best moments, it would have made the entire audience jump. The conclusion, however, was unsatisfying. Neither my husband nor myself could exactly say what happened or why. And, upon further review of the plot over dinner later, we discovered that much of it just didn’t make sense. Of course, that’s okay, as long as we weren’t thinking it during the movie…
Posted by barb on Oct 22, 2004 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
This is one of those classics where everyone knows the story, whether or not they’ve seen the movie — a man and his wife and child move into a secluded hotel as caretakers for the winter. The isolation starts to get to the man (that, and the “ghosts” in the hotel), and he starts to go insane.
It was hard to forget The Simpsons take on this while watching, so I had some ideas what was coming. Having said that, this was one of those great suspense-building movies that would have been sooo much better on a big screen (and without my husband asking if I wanted some pudding just as we got to one of the most suspenseful scenes…)
Posted by barb on Oct 17, 2004 in
Movies ??/5 stars
I’m not sure what to say about this one. Overall I didn’t really like it — much of what happened was incomprehensible, the story jumped from point to point, completely losing it’s focus throughout much of the film, and it was quite dark. On the other hand, it was great to see Meg Ryan in something other than a romantic comedy (yes, I know she’s done a few others, but I haven’t seen them). This was a gritty, lusty, and dark film that we don’t usually see the likes of Meg Ryan in.
Posted by barb on Oct 15, 2004 in
Movies 4/5 stars
This is certainly better than the crap we saw last weekend. At it’s most basic, this is a Cinderella story. However, it’s wrapped in a fun cloak where Cinderella..er.. Ella is given the “gift” of obedience at birth by a fairy. This means that Ella will honor any direct request made of her.
It was entertaining to watch Cary Elwes playing the evil regent running the kingdom until his nephew, Char, could be coronated — he obviously had a lot of fun with the role.
Posted by barb on Oct 11, 2004 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
Kevin Spacey plays an out-of-luck single parent, Quoyle, who returns to Newfoundland with his daughter, Bunny, and aunt, Agnis, to start a new life. I was worried that this was going to be another of the myriad look-at-how-bad-life-is-for-these-ordinary-people movies that I seem to have been watching endlessly over the past several months. However, this one at least picks up after the first half hour or so, and becomes a movie I actually wanted to finish (rather than one I looked forward to merely surviving).
Quoyle, his daughter and aunt move into the home where his aunt grew up with Quoyle’s father, and try to turn it into a home again. Quoyle finds a job writing the shipping news in a small, local paper, and turns his eye toward a local widow. While it felt like it plodded at times, this was a fairly good movie that I’d recommend for a video rental one night.
Posted by barb on Oct 10, 2004 in
Books by Robert Youngson
I was expecting a book full of vignettes about scientists who truely blundered — ignoring facts and massaging data to the point of very bad results. Instead, for the most part, the book is full of tales of scientists who “blundered” because they didn’t know any better, generally from a lack of technology or data to chose between two or more options. In several cases, it seems that Youngson was stretching to describe a “blunder” just to include a favorite topic in this volume.
I’m not saying this wasn’t a good book — the topics are adequately covered and at a level that most people should be able to grasp. However, it was not what I was expecting, which was a bit of a disappointment.
Posted by barb on Oct 10, 2004 in
Movies 3/5 stars
Disney has not put out a great animated film in a long time…and this was not it. It wasn’t bad, but it felt like every other Disney animated film of the last several years. The music even had a familiar feel, especially the first song which was very much like the opening song in The Lion King. It’s time to shake things up in the Disney animation studios…
Posted by barb on Oct 10, 2004 in
Movies 2/5 stars
Glad we waited until this came to the cheap movie theater — it was not good. I think part of my problem was with the acting. In particular, I didn’t like the portrayal of Lawrence Robertson, the rich robot tycoon, and I wasn’t convinced of Bridget Moynahan’s stiff Dr. Calvin. Moynahan seemed to grab onto the role was the character became more likable, but by then the damage had been done.
I’m not burdoned by having read Asimov’s work that this is based on, but from the credit (“Suggested by Asimov’s work), I’m guessing it’s no where near what he wrote. I have it on my to-read shelf, and am looking forward to reading the “good version.”
This might be worth a rental, but don’t bother seeing it in the theater.
Posted by barb on Oct 9, 2004 in
Around DC,
Books,
Pictures Andrew and I went downtown for the National Book Festival organized by the Library of Congress.
This event has been happening annually for the past three years (this is the fourth festival), and each year more authors and a greater variety of genres are added to the schedule. This is the first year that there has been a Science Fiction & Fantasy Pavilion, with eight featured authors. This might explain why this is the first year Andrew and I have gone.
We started the day by buying copies of Frederik Pohl’s newest book (not even available on Amazon last weekend), and then made our way to the Teens & Children Pavilion, where E. L. Konigsburg was giving a reading.
I remember reading Konigsburg’s Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth when I was in grade school, and I absolutely loved it! I re-read it last year before releasing another copy through Bookcrossing on Halloween. She read from her latest book, The Outcast of 19 Schuyler Place. From the two excerpts she read, I’m very much looking forward to reading it! She also relayed a touching account of having lost both her editor of thirty years and her husband of fouty-five years within a year of each other, both from pancreatic cancer. This is the first book that she’s published that neither of them saw the finished copy.
We left Konigsburg’s Q&A session a bit early to line up for her signing. That was an affair! She was scheduled to sign from 11 AM – Noon. We were in line at about 10:45 AM. My book was signed at about 12:10 PM. Andrew left a bit early to catch Frederik Pohl’s reading. (I was bummed to miss part of it, but I’d been in line so long, it was becoming a moral imperative to get my book signed.)
I missed out on Pohl’s reading, but Andrew said that it was a bit stilted. However, I did make it for most of his Q&A session, which was quite good. At 84 he’s a lively guest, if not entirely optimistic about the future of the human race.
Next, Neil Gaiman read from a work-in-progress, Anansi Boys. I don’t know if I’m a Gaiman fan or not, but Andrew is, so we stayed for the reading. The only thing I’ve read by Gaiman was Good Omens, written with Terry Pratchett. I hated, hated, hated that book, but it’s hard to know if it was because of either of the authors or if I just didn’t like the way they worked together. I’ve since read more of Pratchett and have enjoyed some of it. But, Gaiman’s reading was quite fun, and Anansi Boys is comedic, at least the portions he read (not his normal style, according to Andrew), and sounded like something I might want to read. We’ll see.
I left while Gaiman was reading a second excerpt so that I could line up for Frederik Pohl’s signing. This line went faster than Konigsburg’s line, though I’m not sure why — perhaps there was less chit-chat, and there certainly seemed to be fewer people slowing down the line with pictures. I had Andrew snap one while Pohl was signing my books.
Posted by barb on Oct 7, 2004 in
Books The National Book Festival is coming up on Saturday down on the capitol mall in DC. One of my favorite sci-fi authors, Frederik Pohl, will be there talking at the Science Fiction and Fantasy pavillion (12:15-12:55 PM) and signing books (2-3 PM). I’m hoping that they will have advance copies of his new book, The Boy Who Would Live Forever, but Andrew and I are scouring the local used bookstores for other books that I’d like him to sign in case they don’t.
I’m also trying to think of which books I should release.