Deathly Hallows and MANY other reviews

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 was EXCELLENT! Very good movie making and story telling. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie. I can't wait for the last installment to come out next summer. You definitely need to see this one. I'm going again this weekend, and it probably won't be the last time I see it.

Fair Game starring Naomi Campbell and Sean Penn was another excellent movie. It's a dramatization of the true story of the undercover CIA agent that got outed by the a-holes in the Bush administration. My only warning is that you will be so angry by the time the movie is over, but it's very well done.

Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine was a fun action movie, but you can wait for DVD.

The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead was SO FREAKING AWESOME!! This is one of my most favorite book series ever! I highly recommend them. The last book in the series comes out on December 7th. I'm going to a book signing on December 12th, so I'm pretty geeked to meet her.

Full Dark, No Stars is typical Stephen King. It's the train wreck you can't look away from because his writing is so good. I always recommend Stephen King.

Unfortunately I've also read a few stinkers: Immortal by Allison Cassatta which I couldn't even finish, Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox which I had to skim read just to finish, and Immortal Beloved by James Simon which had a good story but was full of typos.

Currently, I'm working my way through the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I'm on the seventh book in the series. So far they're all ok but nothing special. I wouldn't recommend them, but I'm still going to continue the series.

Due Date, Good, Alfie & Every Which Way But Dead

Due Date, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galafianakis, was funny but not as funny as The Hangover. A funny, outrageous plot pits Downey's uptight character against Galafianakis' flaky idiot. It's definitely worth seeing.

Good stars Viggo Mortensen as a regular German guy who lets himself get swept up in the Nazi-ism in the 1930s. He is a "good" guy who doesn't take action to oppose Nazi forces and lets his Jewish friend get taken away to a concentration camp. It's a good movie that explores character weakness instead of strength in the face of Nazi forces. Definitely worth renting.

Alfie, starring Jude Law, is incredibly boring. Don't waste your time on this.

Every Which Way But Dead, the third book Kim Harrison's Hollows series, is fabulous! It was fun re-reading it to soak in all the details. I love watching Rachel take on the world even though she's kind of a mess. Great scenes between her and Al, and her and Trent. I definitely recommend this urban fantasy series.

Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Conviction, and Other Reviews

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest kicked ass! I thought this third movie held its own with the first two and was a fantastic way to wrap up the series. Noomi Rapace, once again, turned in a stellar performance as Lisbeth Salander. My favorite scene was watching her walk toward the courtroom in her full hard-core goth gear (see picture on the left). If you can tolerate subtitles, I highly recommend watching all of these movies.

Conviction stars Hillary Swank as the sister of a man convicted of murder, played by Sam Rockwell. The movie was very well done, but the story itself is pretty incredible: not only what the woman did to free her brother, but all the legal crap that kept setting them back. This is definitely worth watching.

Two movies that aren't worth watching are Paranormal Activity and The Fourth Kind. Both were slow, boring, and didn't deliver. Don't even bother putting these in your rental queue.

I've been a little slow in my reading lately. Wolf Tracks by Vivian Arend, the forth installment in the Granite Lake Wolves series, was good. I also read Scat by Carl Hiaasen, which was an excellent book aimed at the 9-12 age bracket. I appreciate immensely that he didn't dumb-down his writing and that he kept the story entertaining through humor and several well-developed subplots. This is a great book for a young reader.