Friday, December 24, 2010

True Grit, Tron, The Fighter, and Other Movie Reviews

True Grit was awesome! The gritty tale of a girl seeking justice for the man who killed her father is a pretty main stream movie for the Cohen brothers. I was impressed that the young girl who stars in the movie was not overshadowed by Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. I definitely recommend it. It's one of my top five favorite movies of the year.

The Fighter was a good movie, but the most impressive part was Christian Bale. He'll definitely get an Oscar nomination for his role. While this is the story of a boxer, there wasn't an over-abundance of fight scenes. It's a movie about a dysfunctional family and how they cope with the up and coming success of one of their own.

Tron pretty much stunk. Visually it was great and the acting was fine. But the plot was boring and predictable, and the dialogue was truly awful! The only redeeming part of the movie was Michael Sheen as Zeus. Unfortunately the movie was called Tron, not Zeus, so we didn't get to see much of his character. If I was a 12 year old boy and this was my first sci-fi movie I would have liked it, but I'm not and I expect more when I see a movie.

I also rented a few movies. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work was good. It was a reminder to me that Joan Rivers is still as sassy and hilarious as she ever was. Notorious, the story of Biggie Smalls, was just ok. It was too long and, therefore, a little boring. Gone Baby Gone is probably the best most forgettable movie ever made. I had seen this one before and it was interesting, but something about it makes you forget it as soon as it's over.

Bookwise, I'm still plugging my way through the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Narcissus in Chains was excessively long and full of passages that I could easily skim read. I think this book marks the turning point for the series and the books are going to start going downhill from here. I'm still determined to make it through them all, though.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Last Sacrifice, The Tourist & Real Vampires Have More to Love

I read Last Sacrifice, the conclusion to the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, in a day. It was incredible. I appreciate that she had an overall story arc in mind for the series, which included a dynamic ending. I was on the edge of my seat the entire story with action-packed excitement from start to finish. Even though it's technically classified as YA, I definitely recommend this series to any fan of the urban fantasy genre.

And speaking of Last Sacrifice...Richelle Mead is currently on a book tour and she made a stop in Michigan! She did a reading, answered some questions, and signed books (note the picture related to this post). She was very down to earth and seemed to enjoy meeting all her fans. Very cool.

What wasn't cool was the latest book in the Glory St. Clair series by Gerry Bartlett, Real Vampires Have More to Love. It was the same story with the same people doing the same things they've already done. As opposed to Vampire Academy which had a specific structure to the series, it's clear that Bartlett is just writing books with nothing specific in mind. Very lazy writing. I'm disappointed in this one.

I also went to see The Tourist starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. The critics are beating it up pretty hard. I didn't think it was that bad. Despite being predictable, it was an entertaining spy film. It's not a must-see movie, but you should at least try to catch it when it come to cable.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Faster, The Hurt Locker, & Fistful of Charms

Faster, starring Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) and Billy Bob Thornton, was a fun action movie romp. I love watching Johnson take down the bad guys to correct injustice! Johnson is released from prison for being the driver in a bank robbery, and immediately starts gunning down the people involved in his brother's murder. Thornton plays a crooked cop mere days away from retirement who gets assigned to this case. Also mixed up in the plot is a psychopathic killer who's hired to take down Johnson before he can finish killing everyone on his list. It's definitely not a must-see movie, but if you like action flicks then put this one on your list.

I finally got around to renting The Hurt Locker. I hated it. One of my biggest pet peeves is when there is NO PLOT! It's so aggravating. I thought I was going to get a small semblance of a plot when I Ralph Fiennes walked on screen, but he was killed about five minutes after his grand entrance. Eventually I started pushing buttons on the remote to my new blu-ray player to find out how much time was left in this torturous piece of crap, but I hit a wrong button and stopped the disc completely. When I went back to the disc it didn't save my spot so I just ejected the disc. What's the point? There was no plot so it's not like I missed some big ending where questions were answered and story lines wrapped up. Faster was much more entertaining.

I just finished my re-read of A Fistful of Charms, the fourth book in The Hollows series by Kim Harrison. This is such a great series! I'm having a lot of fun re-reading it. In this book, Rachel starts to use demon magic (black magic) but for good reasons. She continuously struggles with her choices but ultimately she is who she is, and that's a person who would do anything in her power to help her friends. The price of invoking demon magic is big splat of black smut on her aura to make up for the imbalance she created in the universe. Either before or after she dies, she's has to work to remove the smut before she can go to heaven. The usual characters are afoot in the story: Ivy is a mess, Jenks is human-sized, and Nick is a turd. If you like the urban fantasy genre, definitely pick up The Hollows series.
I also read A Bite Before Christmas by Heidi Betts. It's a series of three novellas that feature vampires at Christmastime. It wasn't bad for a Kindle freebie, but it's not a must-read either. I just didn't want this one to sit around too long like my other Kindle freebies because of the Christmas theme. If it's still free and you like vampire books then download it.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Next 3 Days, Blade Runner, Anita Blake 1-9

I just got Netflix and the first movie I decided to stream on demand was Blade Runner, a futuristic movie that explores what means to be human. What a great movie! It really stands the test of time. My only complaint is that Sean Young's acting was bad, but it was offset by the awesomeness of Rutger Hauer who will forever be my favorite bad guy.

The Next Three Days, starring Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks, was just ok. My mom wanted to go to a movie and it was either this one or Love and Other Drugs, and I'd rather stab my eyes out than see that stupid looking piece of crap. Three Days was predictable so the pace didn't really need to be as slow as it was. You can wait for this one to come out on cable.

I've been working my way through the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book series by Laurell K. Hamilton and just finished the ninth book out of 19. I knew that they weren't going to knock my socks off. The first eight were ok. The ninth one, Obsidian Butterfly, was pretty good, though. The main point against them is that LKH started writing this series in the early 90s. I think if I had started this series back then I would have loved them, but they don't quite stand the test of time. I'm still planning to continue with the series. Ten more to go to catch up, and #20 coming out in the summer. I was hoping to have this series finished by the end of the year but I don't think that's going to happen.