Posted by barb on Jun 21, 2003 in
Movies 3.75/5 stars
I don’t care what other people say. I had fun. Is The Hulk the same as the TV show? Most definitely not. Is The Hulk the same as the comic book? I don’t frankly know (and don’t really care).
Andrew pointed out that it may have been more difficult to get into this movie because there was no clear super-villain. Perhaps. For much of the movie, the Hulk’s biggest battle is with himself. But in some ways that battle is more graspable for us normal people than a super-villain. We all have that inner struggle against lashing out when we’re angry, but most of us don’t have a super-villain-type enemy.
Posted by barb on Jun 17, 2003 in
Movies 4/5 stars
This is a very difficult movie to watch. A former neo-Nazi (Derek; Edward Norton), fresh out of prison, endeavors to keep his brother from following in his foot steps. Black and white flash backs tell the story of Derek’s seemingly inevitable path to jail for murdering two black men who were prowling around his house. We also see the signs of the same path being followed by Danny (Edward Furlong), Derek’s brother.
While the content may be hard to watch, this is definitely a worthwhile, and important, film.
Posted by barb on Jun 16, 2003 in
Movies 4/5 stars
The movie follows a young man (Homer; Tobey Maguire) on his first venture away from the orphanage where he grew up. Homer was trained as a doctor at the orphanage (and the director (Dr. Larch; Michael Caine) hoped Homer would succeed him. But Homer needed to see more of the world.
Woven through the main story are statements about abortion, racism, and incest, which make it difficult to watch at some points. However, they also make the story full and rich.
Posted by barb on Jun 14, 2003 in
Concerts We bought tickets for the NSO “Gershwin Galore” show at Wolf Trap a couple weeks ago. We figured that it had to stop raining all the time by then, so we bought lawn tickets. Hee hee hee. Our county was under a storm warning pretty much all day, and in the afternoon we went to Target to get a couple lawn chairs to sit on, since the lawn would undoubtedly be wet. While we were there, the clouds rolled in. About a half hour later, while checking out a local used bookstore (McKays, which had a very large selection of sci-fi!), the rain started pouring down.
Well, nothing to do but go to the concert with an umbrella.
As it turned out, the storm must have passed to our south, because we didn’t get rained on, and in fact the clouds broke up just enough to see a couple of stars. The storm didn’t dissipate, though, because right as the orchestra was hitting the last note, a flash of lightening sparked in the distance.
Pieces that we heard:
Cuban Overture — I quite liked this one. I had forgotten that this one was first, and wondered why the Piano Concerto had a Caribbean feel to it. Duh!
Piano Concerto in F
Rhapsody in Blue — always love to hear this one. It reminds me of my first date with Andrew nearly three years ago, when we went to see Fantasia 2000
Porgy and Bess suite
Posted by barb on Jun 8, 2003 in
Around DC,
Movies I wanted to see Spellbound, so as a reward for working so hard yesterday with such spectacular results (see yesterday’s entry), Andrew took me up to Bethesda to see it. He also took me to lunch (yummy portabella fajitas at the Austin Grill) afterwards.
One of our favorite used bookstores is in that area of Bethesda, too, so we poked around there for a while. I found a pop-up book of the Universe (cool!) and an oversized book on celestial maps. Unfortunately I did not find Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, the second in Frederik Pohl’s Heechee series. Of course, the state of the sci-fi section was such that if you weren’t very motivated, you would never find a single book (lots of books on far too little shelf space).
Overall a very good day, making yesterday all the more worthwhile.
Posted by barb on Jun 8, 2003 in
Movies 4.5/5 stars
This is a documentary following 8 children participating in the National Spelling Bee. Excellent film.
Posted by barb on Jun 6, 2003 in
Movies 0/5 stars
I want that hour and a half of my life back. Yes, I know the movie is actually about 2 hours, but I didn’t even finish. The story and characters were one dimensional and completely uninteresting.
Posted by barb on Jun 3, 2003 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
Fun, fluffy movie of the old Saturday morning cartoon. I can’t actually remember the cartoon, so I went in with a fresh mind. I found it fun, but easily forgettable.
Posted by barb on Jun 2, 2003 in
Books by James P. Hogan
A million years ago a wayward, malfunctioning alien ship landed on Titan to start a robot factory.
A million years later, 20th century humans embark on a mission, purportedly to determine the suitability of a site on Mars for colonization. Instead, the mission is “rerouted” to Titan, and only the mission “brass” knows why.
What they find is a thriving robot colony in the equivalent of Earth’s medieval period. The brass sets out to exploit the robots for the financial gain of the US and Europe. One unlikely alliance of the usurped team sees the robots for what they are — sentient beings made of a different kind of biology.
I quite enjoyed this book, despite Hogan’s tendency to rant (in this case about the stupid masses who desire to keep themselves ignorant). The story is quite engaging.
Posted by barb on May 30, 2003 in
Movies 2.5/5 stars
Fluffy romantic comedy starring JLo. Every time I watch a JLo romantic comedy, I swear it will be my last. But then I watch another one. She’s not going to take over for Meg Ryan or Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy genre, but I have to admit that she’s not all bad.