Posted by barb on Jul 4, 2004 in
Movies 4/5 stars
This was a fun movie, and probably the best fictional movie Andrew and I have seen in a while. The first several minutes are very frustrating, as Viktor Navorski (Hanks) lands in New York and is taken into custody in customs. His country has undergone a civil revolution, and all travel permits have been suspended for its citizens. Navorski’s passport is no good. But the frustrating part is that Navorski doesn’t speak much English (only what he has in a traveller’s cheat sheet in front of him), so he doesn’t know what’s going on. The movie picks up, after he starts living in the terminal, learning English and interacting with the terminal’s regular employees.
Side note: I think I really embarrassed Andrew. There was a guy two rows back from us that was talking on his cell phone. Andrew looked back, and then I looked back, made direct eye contact (or so I thought), and gave him a dirty look. He continued talking. I turned around again, and said fairly quietly, “Get off your phone.” Apparently it was too quiet to break through his more-interesting-than-the-movie conversation. So, I turned around again, and said again, “Get off your phone.” This time, though, I’m pretty sure that at least half the theater could hear me. Believe it or not, the message got through to him this time. He got off his ^%$#@ phone. What an ass.
Posted by barb on Jul 4, 2004 in
Books by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg
This is a fun main-stream science book. The authors use comic book characters as a jumping-off point to discuss a variety of science topics. The subjects ranged from the possibility of life on other planets (inspired by Superman) to mutants and Darwin’s theory of evolution (from X-men) to the possibility of using a black hole as an endless energy supply (from the Green Lantern). There was a fun discussion about how strength scales with size, the thrust of which was that a 50 foot ant would not have the strength, proportionately, that a 1 inch human would. (The discussion was inspired by Ant Man, but reminded me of Bug Park, a fun book by James P. Hogan from a few years ago.)
It’s not necessary to be a comic book fanatic to enjoy this book. I don’t follow any comics, but the authors give enough description of each character they deal with that I felt very comfortable that I knew enough. The science itself is well-written and understandable (though I did skip much of the black hole discussion, since I’m more than familiar with that subject).
Posted by barb on Jul 2, 2004 in
Movies 3/5 stars
We’ve had this movie in the house for almost two months. It’s three hours long, and really more of a committment that either of us has had time for lately. We rented it because it’s one of those films that it seems everyone should see. It’s about an attempted escape of 250 prisoners from a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany during WWII.
The tone of the movie really reminded me of Hogan’s Heroes, and I suspect that the movie was an inspiration for the show. The problem, though, was that the movie really took the subject matter too lightly. I wonder if they thought that it was the only way to ensure an audience, but I just found it disconcerting. Especially when the chipper music started just after we saw one of the men killed on the prison camp barbed-wire fence.
Posted by barb on Jul 1, 2004 in
Movies 3/5 stars
I’m not burdoned with having seen the original, so I had no expectations in mind. This remake took a more humorous path than the original (or so I’ve heard), and I thought it was fun. Great cinema? No. Fun? Yes.
Nicole Kidman did a credible job, but I kept thinking that Meg Ryan might have been better (that, and Kidman kept reminding me of Ryan). Bette Midler was fun as a angst-filled author, mother and wife. Matthew Broderick’s performance came and went — he’s good at the goofy, nerdy-type, but, as Andrew pointed out, at the climax, his delivery was somewhat wooden.
There were more holes in the plot than we could count, but it was still an enjoyable diversion for an evening.
Posted by barb on Jul 1, 2004 in
Books The Hubble Space Telescope site has a page of writing inspired by Hubble images. Weird.
Ooo…and some cool abstract images, too.
And interpretive dance (!).
Posted by barb on Jun 30, 2004 in
Movies 1.5/5 stars
Already this one is fading from my mind. Ten strangers come together and are stranded at a motel one stormy night. And there’s a murderer among them. Less than halfway through the movie, I blurted out who the murderer was, and was correct. The twist was not terribly surprising, and the ending was expected.
Posted by barb on Jun 26, 2004 in
Books by Vicki Leon
Another in the series of Uppity Women series. Fun, quick, bite-sized bios of women from the Renaissance.
Posted by barb on Jun 24, 2004 in
Movies I had first heard of Control Room through the Beyond the Multiplex series on Salon. I was surprised when Andrew metioned that a local theater was showing it, and he’d like to go.
Control Room is a documentary on the Arab TV channel, Al-Jazeera. It begins in March 2003, just before the US “military operations” in Iraq. We follow things at the control room in Qatar but also at the American “CentCom” (Central communications) where the American military attempts to control the media output of the war. We also see the Al-Jazeera reporter in Baghdad, which has not been adequately explained (a bit of a coincidence that an Al-Jazeera reporter and two other reporters were killed during the same campaign).
Is Al-Jazeera slanted? Duh. But no more so than, say, FOX or CNN are slanted in favor of the US. Equally interesting to the difference in reporting styles of the Arab and US is the stories of the employees at Al-Jazeera. For example, the senior producer confessed that he would take a job at FOX News in a second if they offered and he would “trade the Arab nightmare for the American dream.” He plans on sending his children to university in the US and have them stay.
Thought-provoking film. Of course, though, the right people won’t see it.
Posted by barb on Jun 17, 2004 in
Books by J. K. Rowling
Like the movie, this third installment in the Harry Potter book is so far my favorite. The plot is a drastic turn from the you-know-who trying to kill Harry through some minion plot of the first two books. Plus, the characters are really feeling comfortable in their setting, with some romantic tension developing between Hermione and Ron.
In this book, a prisoner has escaped from Azkaban prison — the wizards’ prison. This person is Sirius Black, who betrayed Harry’s parents to you-know-who, causing their deaths. It is believed that Black is back to finish what his master started. All of this is going on with the backdrop of Harry’s third year at Hogwarts.
Posted by barb on Jun 14, 2004 in
Movies 2.5/5 stars
Not bad, not great. If possible, this one was cheesier than the first (not that cheesy is bad, but this one went just a bit too far). I preferred Bill Murray as Bosley…Bernie Mac just wasn’t Bosley. (I realize that Murray was off filming Lost in Translation, and since that was an Oscar-winning film, it was certainly the right choice. However, based on my opinion of Translation, it would have preferred if he had done Full Throttle.)