Yet another one

Another new entry is up at ~Snerkology~. I had no troubles reaching my minimum quota for WordGoddess this month!
- posted by Laura @ 4:33 PM

 
I had to laugh

I'm not sure that Selila meant this entry to be funny, but I laughed (and empathized, being a veteran of a school play or two myself) anyway.

Sorry, Selila!!!!
- posted by Laura @ 9:26 AM

 
Another Movie

I watched "Whale Rider" last night. I admit that I'd seen it on the shelf in the video store prior to the Oscars, but wasn't interested in watching it until I saw that the girl in the lead role was nominated. She was also adorably awe-struck of Johnny Depp, to which Marie and I kept staying, "Awww!" And also, "I'm sooo jealous!"

I really liked it, though Calvin gave up halfway through and went to bed. I cried most of the way through it (oh, the poor, unloved, misunderstood little girl! oh, the poor whales! oh, a happy ending!). I was really impressed with the little girl (looking it up... her name's Keisha Castle-Hughes), she performed the role with incredible depth. Plus, she had to learn some pretty hard chants and act out some pretty emotional scenes, and it seemed effortless to her.

We'd seen the chanting and warrior dancing at the luau in Hawaii, and I'm not sure, but I think one of the dancers actually played as an extra in the movie. It was a neat little movie, though I'm not exactly sure what gave it the PG-13 rating.

Anyway, I recommend it!
- posted by Laura @ 9:05 AM

 
Two days in a row

Another new entry is up. ;)
- posted by Laura @ 5:19 PM

 
New Entry, New Design

There's a new entry up on the journal. Both the entry pages and the index page have a new design.

I'm also going to start keeping secrets, so sign up for that notify list if you wanna stay in the know!
- posted by Laura @ 6:38 PM

 
Six Movies and Two Books

May contain some spoilers, so if you haven't seen Mona Lisa Smile, Under the Tuscan Sun, Matchstick Men, Pieces of April, The Missing, or Intolerable Cruelty, well, head's up. And if you haven't read "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown, or "The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold, head's up on that, too.



Mona Lisa Smile: Ih. The message was an obvious one, and the whole thing was very Dead Poets Society, but without the whole student suicide thing. New teacher, first hated, pisses off faculty but finally endears students, is forced to make a decision based on her morals, chooses to quit rather than sacrifice her values. Students are devestated but go on to be Wonderous and Successful due to their Favorite Teacher!

Under the Tuscan Sun: This movie made me want to move to Tuscany. The scenery! The Italian men! Very sweet movie, and Diane Lane was quite good. She has a way of laughing out loud at herself at various points during the movie that was very endearing. The whole "bitter protagonist, though bereft of Love, finds it all around her and gets her heart's desire in the end, though not in the way she was expecting" thing has been done three bazillion times, but if you're up for three bazillion and one, this is a good take on it.

The Missing: Not Tommy Lee Jones' best performance - I think he could have done more with the character - but Cate Blanchette was quite good, and the girl that played her youngest daughter was EXCELLENT. The movie was quite a bit darker than I thought it was going to be, and graphically gory in some places, but it was a good action flick.

Matchstick Men: Very good, and Nick Cage nailed his character. You can see the plot twist coming from a mile away (I called it, I believe, within the first twenty minutes of the movie), but it was really quite entertaining. A good departure from the standard movie fare out there.

Intolerable Cruelty: Very skippable. Was this made by the same guy that did 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'? The cinematography seems remeniscent (man, am I missing spell check right about now). Because what worked for that movie, didn't work for this one. Very much a farce, but done poorly, with no art. Blah. The dialogue sucked. Poor George, he's so pretty.

Pieces of April: I didn't even make it through this one, it was SO BORING. Just Katie Holmes trotting from apartment to apartment with an uncooked turkey, trying to be flippant and all artsy with her nonchalant uncaringness and her punked out hair, and failing completely. I turned it off about halfway through and went to read a book.

Speaking of books...

Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown: I liked it, like I liked "The DaVinci Code". Some parts were a wild departure from reason and got the old eyes a-rolling, but the underlying theory and historical connections were all very interesting, as usual. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist myself, but some of the theories posed were interesting to think about. At least the plot twists aren't easy to anticipate, which is the thing that drives me nuts about most books and movies.

The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold: For fans of her Miles books, this is a departure from Science Fiction and into Fantasy. But her character development is just as strong, and the story line has excellent momentum. I think I'd read pretty much anything by her, but this is a quality book and I'll read the subsequent novels in the series. Interesting world with an interesting theological structure, and Bujold continues with her delight in politics, plots, and heroic triumphs.

Heh. I could do this for Bookweek and get paid, huh? :)


- posted by Laura @ 4:35 PM