The Visitor

I finally got a chance to watch The Visitor this weekend. It's clear to see why Richard Jenkins received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Jenkins plays a widowed Connecticut college professor with a completely empty life who goes to NY for a conference and finds a pair of illegal aliens living in his apartment. As he befriends the young couple he discovers a passion for playing the African drum and begins to find some meaning in his life. If you haven't seen this yet, add it to your movie rental queue.

Frost/Nixon, Revolutionary Road, Rachel Getting Married

I had another movie blitz weekend. I started off with Frost/Nixon starring Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost. I was just a baby when this happened in the early 70s so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to follow all the intricacies of the plot, but it wasn't a movie like that at all. It focused more on Frost and how he had to hustle to pull off his famous interview with former disgraced president Richard Nixon. Frank Langella did a phenomenal job bringing an unexpected depth to Nixon, which is what made this such a fabulous movie.


Revolutionary Road, starring one of my favorite actresses, Kate Winslet, and Leonardo DiCaprio, was a deep and uncomfortable look at couple in the 50s who are frustrated with their ordinary lives and struggle to make more of themselves before it's too late. I think it speaks to all of us, though hopefully we are dealing with these issues better than Kate and Leo. It's not a happy movie but its grittiness and realism makes this incredible.

Rachel Getting Married is an indy movie about a girl who leaves rehab to attend her sister's wedding. It's definitely an indy movie because it focuses way too much on the sister's goofy wedding. I think there was just the right amount of family interaction, though, which is the point of this movie. It stars Anne Hathaway as the addict and there's a fabulous scene with her and her screen mom, Debra Winger, that gets to the heart of the family issues and the addiction. I would have gladly sacrificed wedding screen time for a longer scene between those two phenomenal actresses. It's clear to see why Hathaway got an Oscar nomination for this performance.

Bride Wars

It was another cold day here in Michigan so my mom suggested Bride Wars with Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The premise of the story is that two best friends get engaged at the same time and accidentally book the same wedding date. Of course, neither would cave on giving up their day and they start doing mean things to each other. It was funny to see how creative they could get! It's not the best movie, but it was fun to watch and, unlike most movies, this one has a happy ending. Maybe put this one on your rental list.

Outlander Book Series

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting book reviews lately. I've been reading my way through the Outlander series again, but this time on my Kindle and thought I'd do just one post for the whole series. It's about 5,0o0 pages of small print so it took me awhile to get through it all. It's historical fiction with adventure, romance, and a smidge of sci-fi. This series follows the lives of Jamie and Claire in the 18th century and takes us from Scotland to France to Jamaica to the New World. I would recommend these books to anyone who doesn't mind investing the time to read really big books.

Movie Reviews

I caught a couple more movies this weekend. Gran Torino, starring Clint Eastwood, is a powerful story that's ultimately about redemption and sacrifice. Clint Eastwood plays a crusty old Korean War vet who hates everyone because the world has changed and he refuses to change with it. He unwittingly befriends the Hmong teenage girl next door then sets out to reform her brother. It's an incredible story that gets my split vote (with Doubt) for movie of the year. Go see this movie.

I also saw Slumdog Millionaire which won the Golden Globe last night for best picture. It's a harsh look at the gritty life of a child growing up in the slums of Mumbai. It's a beautifully told story and, of all the Oscar-contention movies I've seen, <slight spoiler alert> it's the only one with a happy ending. No one makes movies with a happy ending anymore and I didn't know how much I missed that until experiencing the end of this movie. Go see this one too.

Movie Reviews

Happy new year everyone! I had a nice long break from work and managed to see several movies. I'm doing them all in one post with only brief reviews for each.

I'll start with the one I think is the "must-see" movie of the bunch that I saw. Doubt, starring Merryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, is an incredibly powerful movie based on a Pulitzer winning play. Merryl Streep plays nun who is the principal at a Catholic school who is convinced that the head priest (played by Hoffman) has done something inappropriate even though she has no evidence or proof. Like any good piece of theater, it lays the situation at the viewers' feet and we are left with many questions to ponder about what we possibly would have done in that situation. You must put this on your list of movies to see.

Valkyrie was a better movie than I thought it would be. I thought that knowing the outcome of the assassination attempt on Hitler would render the movie somewhat pointless. But I was on the edge of my seat engrossed in the complexities of how these people were not only going to assassinate him, but take over the SS and make peace with the Allies. If you don't get to the theater to see this, you should put this on your rental list.

The Reader was also a very good movie that you should put on your watch list. Kate Winslet stars as a 30 year old German train conductor who seduces a 15 year old boy whom she asks to read aloud to her the books he's studying in school until one day when she abruptly moves away without saying goodbye. Years later when he is in law school he attends a trial of Nazi war criminals and sees that she's one of the defendants. He comes to a realization that she's hiding a deep secret and will go to any lengths to keep it hidden, even if that means she'll get a harsher sentence in the trial. It was a very interesting study about the character and her desperation regarding this secret.

I also went to see Synecdoche, New York starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's a weird indy movie, which I was in the mood to watch. Only see this if you're jonesing for a weird indy movie.

And last, I rented The 25th Hour starring Edward Norton. This is another really good movie that I missed back in 2002 and finally caught up with. He's a convicted criminal who is going to jail and this is the 24 hours leading up to his imprisonment. I'm glad I finally saw this one. It's been sitting around for almost two months (since I got my Kindle). This is very well acted with Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Am I a Philip Seymour Hoffman fan girl? Hmm....

My New Religion

I just picked a religion this morning, and I decided on The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (see car logo on the left). The Flying Spaghetti Monster was established after bible thumpers decided to come up with 'intelligent design' to skirt the courts' rulings against creationism being taught in public schools as a science. This movement uses ambiguous references to an unspecified intelligent creator. What a crafty way to get around using the word God.

Even craftier was Bobby Henderson who professes a belief in a supernatural creator that resembles spaghetti and meatballs, which fits quite nicely into the profile for 'intelligent design.' Sayeth our prophet Bobby, "I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence."

Prophet Bobby goes on to mock intelligent design's assertion that correlation implies causation by creating a chart linking the decline of pirates since the 1800s to the increase in global warming, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Bobby points to Somalia as his case and point: it has the highest number of pirates and the lowest carbon emissions of any country. So there!

Look people, I'm all for everyone's right to worship the religion of their choice. But the place to teach your kids your religious principles is not in a public school biology classroom. That's what your church is for.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

I was a little disappointed with The Day the Earth Stood Still. I liked it because I'm a total sci-fi buff and the special effects were great, but it was missing two main elements that made up the basis of the original movie from the '50s. The alien guy doesn't try to reach the world leaders to tell him why he's here, nor does he try to communicate anything about why he leaves. In this version, only Jennifer Connelly knows and I guess we're just supposed to assume everyone will listen to her later on. These key missing elements created a movie without a lot of cohesion in the plot.

On the plus side, Gort totally rocked! He looks the same as the original, which was cool because he's very menacing looking, except he's like 20 stories tall. Freakin' awesome! They did some cool things with Gort but I wish they could have figured out how to do more with him, especially since the main story line with Keanu Reeves was a little loose. If I was film editor on this, I would have cut back to Gort a lot more to watch him do stuff.

If you're a sci-fi fan I would say to catch this on cable or DVD, but overall I would have to recommend the original over this remake - cheesy '50s special effects and all. It was a much better story and the point is (sadly) still very relevant today.

The Power of Pop Culture, Teenagers, and the Internet and the Korean Guy who Profits from it All

So I'm a Twilight fan and a hack at the piano, so I thought I'd look to see if Bella's lullaby from the Twilight movie was available to purchase as sheet music. I looked at a couple sheet music websites and didn't find it so I Googled it. That's when I realized the craziness occurring in the online community at large.

One guy - one guy!!! - said hey, this particular song would be a good choice for Bella's lullaby in the movie. Now all the Twihard piano players have adopted it for themselves as Bella's lullaby. It's a beautiful piece of music called River Flows in You by a Korean piano player named Yiruma, and it's a much better song than the one featured in the movie - I'll give that to all the Twihard pianists.

On You Tube, there are tons of videos entered for this song. Some just show people performing the song, others have made visual montages to Twilight to go along with the music, and all mention the song as Bella's lullaby. ???

It is a very pretty song and I finally found the sheet music and plan to start hacking away at it in the near future. So I thought today that I should download this song from iTunes so I can listen to it anytime I want, because when I play a song it tends to not sound the way it's supposed to (I said I was a hack). So, lucky me, this Yiruma guy has a best of album on iTunes that has the song I want. You know that Popularity scale that's featured for each song in the iTunes store? Well, all of his other songs have one bar, meaning his mom downloaded the album so he wouldn't feel bad, and River Flows in You is rated at maximum popularity! The previously obscure and unheard of Yiruma is raking in the dough and gaining popularity all because one guy - one guy!!! - on the Internet thought this sounded like an appropriate song to use as Bella's lullaby in the Twilight movie.

And that, my friends, is the story of the power of pop culture, teenagers, and the Internet and the Korean guy who profits from it all.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

What a fun little read The Tales of Beedle the Bard was! In case you live under a mushroom, this is the book of fairytales wizards tell their children in the Harry Potter universe. This book was mentioned in the final installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and played a key role in helping Harry defeat Voldemort. JK Rowling had hand written and illustrated seven copies of this book about year ago, giving six away to people close to her and auctioning off the seventh for her charity, the Children's High Level Group. She has now released the book for mass consumption with all the proceeds going to the same organization. This release, however, contains annotations on each of the five stories from Albus Dumbledore himself and was translated by Hermione Granger from the original runes! What a fun idea that adds to the pure enjoyment of the book.

I, being the the ultimate Harry Potter geek that I am, sprung for the deluxe edition. Wowee! It came in a nifty box that looks like a large leather book. Inside the box on the left side is a package of collectors edition prints of the illustrations in the book. On the right side is a burgundy velvet sack with a gold drawstring and JKR's signature stitched in gold at the bottom. Inside the bag, of course, is the book.

And what a book it is! It's a small book bound in brown leather with silver adornments and blue gems in each of the four corners and on the clasp. In the middle is a large silver adornment with a skull that has the blue gems for eyes. Each of the five silver adornments has a picture on it representing each of the stories. It's quite a book to behold. It also had a green bookmark ribbon attached to the binding to you can easily mark your favorite story. (If any of you marked The Warlock's Hairy Heart you're sick and twisted.)

The book begins with an introduction in Jo's handwriting explaining that these stories are the Wizard equivalent to our Muggle fairytales, such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. She goes on to explain that magic was usually the cause of the problem in our Muggle stories, but that magic in these Wizarding stories is readily available to the characters and it doesn't make their lives any easier at all (a theme that's been carried over from the main Harry Potter books). She also tells us that Dumbledore created this annotated version about 18 months before The Lightning Struck Tower (a chapter that left me breathless and stunned) and he left these papers in his will to the Hogwarts archives.

The five stories are The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock's Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump, and, of course, The Tale of the Three Brothers which played in integral role in the final Harry Potter book. I'm not going to summarize the plot of each of the stories. I want you all to read them for yourselves for the pure enjoyment of it, because they are purely enjoyable - especially with Dumbledore's notes. They all center around the same ideas as Muggle fairytales - good things happen to kind and virtuous people and bad things happen the greedy and malicious.

This is a must read for everyone who has read the Harry Potter books. And if you haven't read the Harry Potter books yet, then get off my blog and crawl back under your mushroom!

Just After Sunset

Just After Sunset, the latest book by Stephen King (one of my top 5 favorite authors), is an interesting collection of short stories ranging from scary-freaky to non-nightmare inducing even though most (but not all) deal with a little bit of supernatural booga-booga. He was inspired to compose this after editing a collection of short stories in 2007 when he realized he forgot the art of writing short stories. I'm glad he found it again. I always enjoy his writing, but this isn't a must-read that I plan to force on my friends (as I have in the past with other books). I think the reason maybe that the thing I like most about his writing is his ability to write characters, and these short stories don't allow him enough time to develop them the way novels do. Regardless, he's a great writer and this is worth checking out.

Twilight

I was impressed by the Twilight movie. It stayed true to the book and successfully carried the characters we all know and love onto the silver screen. Before the movie I wasn't sure if I liked Kristen Stewart as Bella; Kristen seems so aloof in interviews it didn't seem like she had enough energy to put into a major movie role. But soon after the movie started I knew the casting crew got the absolute perfect actress. She got Bella's disaffectedness as well as her desperate need to break through it.

I was also afraid that Robert Pattinson was just a pretty face and didn't have the acting chops to pull off the depths of Edward's character. I'm so pleased to have been so wrong! Robert got all the little nuances of Edward and made it fun to watch his character's transformation. Also, a nod to Robert for writing that nifty piece of piano music for the movie. I will be looking on line for the sheet music in the very near future.

Much of the book, especially the first half if I remember correctly, takes place in Bella's thoughts. The movie makers didn't seem to have any difficulty in getting everything across to the viewing audience. I like the first scene in biology class where we see wings behind Edward from a stuffed bird, which was a nod to Bella's description of Edward in the books as an angel. The choice to cast all unknown actors made it easier to slip into the world of Forks, Washington and the secret subculture that lurks beneath the surface. And, of course, I love all the Cullens - even snotty Rosalie. They made me want to be a Cullen vegetarian vampire too! Ok, I wanted to be one since way back when I was reading the books, but now I want to be one even more!

It's a good movie. If you have any interest at all, and can maybe stand a few giggles and gasps from fan girls during the movie, I recommend you see this one.

All A-Twitter

So my brother's been hounding me for a while now to get on Twitter. I keep asking him what the point of it is and he never gives me an answer (because there is no point). The best I can get from him is that it's Web 2.0, whatever that means. So I created an account a couple days ago figuring that some meaning or purpose would eventually surface after I tried it out. Nope. I feel no need to post the minutiae of my day to no one in particular. Nor is it interesting in the least to follow other people who are equally as boring but try to hide it by posting lots of meaningless garbage. The only thing that could salvage this is if I could find some some smart alec who can make me laugh. But so far no dice.

Quantum of Solace

I'm not a fan of the Bond franchise, but I really enjoyed Quantum of Solace. The Bond movies have always been all flash and no substance until the last movie, Casino Royale. It seems like they revamped the franchise and actually put some thought into the movies and the casting. The scripts are better, but I think the main difference is that Daniel Craig is an exceptional actor that can bring some depth to the character for once. And, of course, Judy Dench totally ROCKS as M. If they keep this up I might actually have to call myself a Bond fan.

To read a more in-depth review check out http://jandkatthemovies.blogspot.com/.

Kindle

I got a Kindle from Amazon two weeks ago and I'm totally hooked! I didn't think I'd love this device as much as I do. There are over 180,000 books available to be directly downloaded onto the Kindle (no computer is needed). I chose to download the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon as my very first Kindle books. I'm really enjoying re-reading them while I play with all the features on the unit, the best of which is the built in dictionary which is quick and helpful. The screen isn't back lit, and therefore doesn't hurt your eyes. It's actual ink that electronically rearranges when you "turn" the page so it reads just like a book. Also, there are six different font sizes from size 7 to size 20 that you can choose at any time. You can place bookmarks, make annotations, and "clip" pages. Check out the Amazon website to learn all of the super-cool things it does. If you are an avid reader I highly recommend getting one of these.

Underworld / Underworld Revloutions

My friend is big fan of the Underworld movies so he loaned them to me to watch this weekend. They weren't very original but as a sci-fi buff I enjoyed watching them. They're full of action, special effects, and vampyres - totally up my alley. The main story centers around a centuries old feud between vampyres and werewolves with a heaping dose of betrayal mixed in to stir up the plot lines. They aren't must-see movies, but give them a try if you like this sort of thing.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore is a hilariously silly book about faith and redemption. (I bet you weren't thinking I'd say that about a book with that title, huh?) Tucker Case is a pilot who, after completely screwing up his life, finds himself on a tiny island in Micronesia. This island is the home of a people who worship a WWII pilot named Vincent who landed on their island during the war and helped them get rid of the Japanese and gave them food and supplies. Tucker is in the employ of the people exploiting the natives and risks his life to save these people, with the help of Vincent's ghost.

The overall plot is a little heavier than the title of the book suggests, but it's full of Christopher Moore's smart alec sarcasm and, as usual, lines and scenes so funny that I was laughing out loud. I recommend checking this book out for a good read and a great laugh.

Highlander

Wow! What a craptastic 80s movie! When I was in college in the early 90s one of my roommates told me to check out Highlander because we're both into sci-fi. So this weekend I finally did (over two decades after it originally came out in 1986). It was fun to watch because everything about it was a cliche, from the "cop speak" to the (now crappy by current standards) special effects. I'm sure my roommate was right and that I would have loved it back then. I'm not even sure if the main character was really Scottish (he hardly had an accent), but Sean Connery was in it and he is.

It must have touched a lot of people, though, because I see it spawned three sequels and a TV show (none of which I've seen or plan to see). The biggest kick I got out of it was the bad guy played by Clancy Brown. I first recognized him as an actor in the HBO series Carnivale in which he played Brother Justin (also the main bad guy). He later showed up in Lost as the original guy in the hatch (who was then joined by Desmond) who was also the guy in Iraq that got Sayid to torture his own leader for information. So it was fun to see him in this really early acting role. But I wouldn't recommend it without being in the mood to watch a bad 80s sci-fi movie.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

With a title like The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove you know you're going to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the characters and the plot. A sea monster from the depths of the ocean decides to come ashore in a town full of goofy characters. Its feeling of randiness permeates the whole town. Meanwhile, the town psychiatrist had most of the town on antidepressants and decides to substitute placebos for everyone. It's a crazy and fun read, as are all the books by Christopher Moore.

Restraint

Restraint is a psychological thriller where a pair of desperate fugitives take an agoraphobic man hostage in his home. But over the course of the movie the man somewhat befriends the female fugitive and eventually the tables turn giving the the hostage the upper hand. It was a well acted movie with an interesting plot. It's a little light on the action, but the psychological play between the three characters is fun to watch unfold. You should add this one to your rainy day movie queue.

Body of Lies

This was a fabulous movie made for an intelligent audience. I recommend you put this on your must-see list. To read a full review, please go to my other blog http://jandkatthemovies.blogspot.com/

Kill Your Darlings

Kill Your Darlings is a weird dark comedy. The main character is writing a script about suicide (which of course is complete crap), and his day job is taking pictures of hamburgers and other food for print ads. He ends up finding several suicidal people when he road trips to Vegas with a flaky girl named Lola. Meanwhile, a small group of suicidal people are also traveling there for a reality TV show for a famous psychologist. This movie was weird at first, but the more it went on the more I liked it. It had a happy ending that left me with a warm fuzzy. If you're up for an odd indy movie check this one out.



So you're asking yourself if it was so weird why did I rent this movie that no one's ever heard of? The answer is simple: eye candy. I rented this because Alexander Skarsgard is in it; I didn't even read a synopsis before I rented it. But my plan backfired on me a little because his character is a suicidal cross dresser. Whatever.

Practical Demonkeeping

Practical Demonkeeping, Christopher Moore's first novel, is about a man who unwittingly called up a demon from hell 90 years ago and can't get rid of him. Having read a few of his later novels, you can see in this first one the beginnings of his smart alec sense of humor. It's a funny book, but riotously so as the others I've read. It was a fun read full of wacky characters and crazy situations.

Grave Surprise

Grave Surprise is the second book in Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly mystery series. Harper was struck by lightning as a teen and can now sense corpses and their causes of death. This book starts with her attending a university class about paranormal events as a guest "speaker" which takes place in a cemetery on this day so Harper can demonstrate her talent. The professor's goal is to expose her as a fraud, but she, of course, is not. In the process of (accurately) naming the causes of death for all the bodies in the old cemetery, she comes across a grave with two occupants, the second being the body of a missing girl that Harper was trying to locate a year ago in another city with no success. The plot centers around her attempt to solve the mystery to clear her name in this suspicious set of circumstances.

Grave Sight

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris is the first book of a mystery series featuring the character Harper Connelly. Harper was struck by lightning as a teenager and has since had the ability to sense corpses nearby and tell how they died; a freaky "gift" to be sure. I like that she's not a typical cute and spunky heroine, and that she has character flaws. Harper needs her step-brother, Tolliver, around her to keep her nerves at bay.

Harper and Tolliver travel to a small town to locate the body a missing teenage girl. They find the body, but various occurrences keep preventing them from leaving town which forces them to solve the mystery of her death themselves. The ending is satisfying because it's nice and messy. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series.