Movies and Books

Been trying to get a few things processed here:

Movies

Wild Hogs - (2007)  This is one of those movies that looks like it might be a lot of fun but you're afraid it's going to be just awful.  Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H. Macy, Martin Lawrence, Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei, even Jill Hennessy in a small role.  Those are talented people.  In a movie about a group of middle aged guys who like to ride motorcycles and decide to go on a road trip together.  Like I said, could go either way.  In the end this was much more to the good than I feared.  Early on I don't think they trusted the material and went for some cheap, lame sight gags but as they went on it got better.  In the "Additional Material" section the director admits that the script became more of a guideline as the actors just had fun with the roles.  Not a great movie but a lot of fun and an excellent laugh quotient.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - (2008) This one has been on my list for a while.  At almost 3 hours long this was something of a tough sell to watch streamed on my computer.  It's about a man whose body ages in reverse to his life.  The movie felt like it lasted a lifetime to me.  Beyond that Brad Pitt's character Benjamin keeps talking about taking advantage and living the life but never seems to rise above being a rather passive observer of his life.  His love affair with Cate Blanchett's character Daisy is interesting as their physical ages flow past each other in opposite directions.  I disliked their final meeting, it just rang as selfish on Benjamin's part to me and the whole wraparound narration was fine except - what on earth was the point of including Hurricane Katrina?  It was totally unnecessary.  So I kinda liked this one.  But expecting more from it (rather than the lower expectations of Wild Hogs) it scored lower than the decidedly lesser comedy.

Books

Been doing some reading on my Nook Color so these are e-books although several of them are also available IRL.

Deadish - Naomi Kramer - A fun, very short book about a girl who is murdered by her boyfriend and haunts him to try and figure out what he did with her body.  It's quite funny and a quick read but with a real let down at the end.  The ending comes out of no where and makes no sense.  Really too bad, otherwise quite good.

The Key to the Da Vinci Code - Stewart Ferris -  I enjoy Dan Brown's books without taking them particularly seriously as either history or theology.  He writes a good story that's fun to read.  But there is history behind it and I hoped to delve a little deeper into with this book.  My advice?  Don't bother.  What a total waste of time.  The key to Mr. Ferris is that he doesn't like the church and he thinks the Bible is total propaganda.  He starts off talking like an objective historian but quickly slides into the assumption that of course the Holy Grail is the blood lineage of Jesus.  Without offering the tiniest smattering of support.  Rubbish.

Shakespeare in an Hour- Christopher Baker - What a great book(part of a series on playwrights) that introduces you to the person behind the plays.  Some time is spent looking at the work but it's mostly getting to know Shakespeare as best we are able in his context.  An excellent read, I was honestly sorry it was done.

Syndrome - Thomas Hoover - This is a nookbook, in other words, FREE!  Full length novel in the manner of Michael Crichton.  It's about stem cell research and the nefarious uses that an evil corporation might put it to.  Not badly written and I enjoyed it immensely.  I have another of his books in my queue to read.  This one displayed a problem I've run into with a couple e-books.  The font changes from a serif to a non-serif font for no apparent reason.  Plus sentences get broken peculiarly resulting in strange
settings on the
page.  Just like this one.  Weird.

Blackout - Connie Willis - First e-book that I borrowed from the local library.  The story of time traveling historians who go back to the period of the Second World War and discover that they might just be stuck.  Ran into some of the same kinds of e-book weirdness I mention above but another good story.  The characters sometimes irritate me because they're rather easily panicked at times but I think it's believable because they see time travel as so every day and predictable that when it goes wrong they're not prepared to deal with it.  What I wasn't prepared to deal with was the publisher's decision to tear this book in half for no apparent reason.  There was no indication prior to the last page when you suddenly discover "The exciting end of Blackout is in Connie Willis's next book "All Clear" "  Really ticked me off.  Plus the library currently own a copy of the ebook or the physical book!  Argh.

That's pretty much it so far.  Added another Dick Francis title to my list.  You may simply assume that I love all Dick Francis novels.

Peace