Journal of Media Consumption

Movie Review #120 and 121

2011-10-17T20:22:00.002-04:00

Can't remember if I've missed reviewing some movies, but here are the ones I remember.

Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fan's Hope was a movie I saw at TIFF. It roughly follows 4 stories of various people and their reason for heading to Comic-Con -- the old dude comic book dealer, the girl making crazy costumes in her garage, the young nerdy boy planning on asking his nerdy girlfriend to marry him, and a couple of guys hoping to break into the comic book illustrator business. Entertaining but nothing earth-shattering, and was about 20 minutes too long.

The Hangover was a stupid comedy that was actually pretty funny if you are in the mood for that kind of film. It added a bid of twist to the typical stupid comedy plot by the whole "we got drugged and can't remember what happened last night in Vegas" trick. I probably even laughed more consistently than in "Bridesmaids" even though the latter gets better ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. All you feminists out there should be warned that Hangover's few female characters are limited to "controlling bitch" and "beautiful whore with a heart of gold". (Bridesmaids was more female friendly but still made fun of fat women .... one day you will get a bit classier, Hollywood comedies!). On the progessive side, I have found raunchy comedies no longer use female nudity for shock, but now use only male nudity! Rotten Tomatoes gave it 78%.

Book Review #82

2011-09-05T10:46:00.002-04:00

5 years later than everyone else, I finally read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. It really perplexed me why these books were so popular. Nothing happened for the first 150 pages. The major plot point resolved itself before the last 100 pages of the book. The book alternates between boring digressions about lawsuits and newspapers to the major plot line about solving an old murder case. I think the violence in the novel is more shocking because you were lulled into complacency by the mundane stuff. In the end (without giving away spoilers), I found the "shocking" ending to be kind of ridiculous, it's so shocking that it actually because ridiculous. Even crazed killers have to have some plausibility. However, when the novel gets going, it is quite a page-turner .... one night I still have 150 + pages to go but read the ending ahead knowing that I couldn't sleep without knowing what happened. (I felt quite guilty about this but then I heard a guy on CBC discussing reading endings ahead of time. He said that experiments showed knowing the ending of a book does not harm, and it sometimes actually improves, your appreciation of a book).
I may sound critical but I will probably read the next 2 books, as they are laying about my home, and the reviews improve for the sequels. 2834 Amazon reviewers gave this book an average of 3.5 stars.

Book Review #78-81

2011-08-01T13:42:00.005-04:00

I loved the quirky little book "Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes" by Jenny Anderson and Paula Szuchman. Written humorously but with serious research (by hiring professionals to conduct their "Exhaustive, Groundbreaking and Very Expensive Marriage Survey", quoted in full many times during the book!), the authors look at economic theory to maximize spousal happiness. They intersperse real economic theory with examples from actual marriages to illustrate their points. Unfortunately, one of the findings was it was best not to split chores 50 / 50 but to have each person do what they are relatively better at. Which means I'm making dinner for the rest of my life. 37 Amazon reviewers gave this book an average of 4 stars.

I couldn't resist, I picked up another Laura Ingalls Wilder related book. "The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie" by Wendy McClure. (Off topic, I think the early 2000s nonfiction literary contribution will be the rash of titles following the format of "Short title: Long Explanation".) Nowadays you don't even need to do some kind of crazy one-off experiment to land a non-fiction book deal, you can just document your personal obsession! This is an imperfect book, but I still enjoyed it. Wendy finds her old LHOTP books and renews her childhood obsession with it. She buys a butter churn, explores Laura related literature, and embarks on a road trip with her very patient fiancee to the various home sites of Laura. The author twitters as #halfpintingalls, so her offbeat sense of humour colours all her observations in the novel. The book lacks a certain cohesion but for anyone with a strange obsession with these books, it is a fun read. It leads one to reflect on how a certain book, read at a certain time in your life, can have a resonance and impact that stays with you forever. 40 Amazon reviewers gave it an average of 4 stars.

Already having read "Predictably Irrational", I now had to read "The upside of irrationality: the unexpected benefits of defying logic at work and home" by Dan Ariely. I guess I have found out I have quite an interest in behavioural economics because again I found this to be another enjoyable book. The first chapter we learn how large financial bonuses are not helpful for performance (because the looming massive bonus will actually hinder a worker's performance). Other topics touched on include meaningful work conditions makes work more enjoyable, we tend to overvalue things we make (hence the existence of Ikea), the biases we have towards our own ideas, why we like revenge, the pitfalls on online dating, etc. My favourite study was the one where it was found almost all animals enjoy working for food instead of getting freely fed, except for cats! 96 Amazon reviewers gave this book and average of 4 stars.

I was practically forced to read "Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World" by Jane McGonigal. But it was a lot less academic than I thought it would be, and I was happy that the author had scientific justifications for my video game addiction. However, I found her arguments about the appeal of the social problem-solving games she has been involved in to be lacking. I have seen "World Without Oil" and it is boring. I think these games lack the wide appeal of Plants vs. Zombies. Indeed, I would like to see more of the literature of the addictive nature of pressing buttons and things happening, since Farmville, not World Without Oil, is one of the most popular games out there. I am also very jealous of the kids who get to go to the school that is made similar to a video game. 51 Amazon reviewers gave an average of 4.5 stars.

Book Review #77

2011-08-01T13:24:00.002-04:00

Well, using the Kindle has me reading a bit more now. In keeping with my theme that reading about eating well will spurn me to eat better, I read "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable North American Appetite" by David Kessler. Since I've read quite a bit about food-related matters, a lot of the basic concepts in the book wasn't so new to me, although there certainly was a lot of extra detail I hadn't heard about. The author gives convincing evidence that the food industry has us all hooked on various combinations of salt, sugar, and fat, and details the science behind our addiction to these substances. Various animal studies show how large amouts of the bad stuff lead to addictive-like behaviour and overrules our internal biological mechanisms for self-regulation. One study that stood out for me was the addictive like behaviour of lab rats to junk food was on par with heroin. The author also outlines the extend of manipulation of the food industry to make processed food palatable in terms of consuming the most amount of food in the least amount of time. The last chapters deal with some techniques to deal with our overeating urges, which I often need when dealing with places selling chocolate gelato. Indeed, I most appreciated the first chapters, with spoke with people, both obese and thin, who felt that all the challenges of life paled in comparison to resisting a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. I can relate! 336 Amazon.com reviewers gave this book an average of 4.5 stars.

Movie Review #118 & 119

2011-08-01T10:55:00.005-04:00

I'm really behind on my reviews. I've probably forgotten some stuff (oh the shame!)

Recently I saw No Strings Attached on an airplane (limited selection). This romantic comedy was neither romantic nor comedic. In short, it was terrible. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 49%.

Much better was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. Although the movies always paled in comparison to the books (and it's too easy to fall into the "but they left out this part..." trap), this was a fitting ending to the series. I hear J.K. Rowling has been waiting to publish any new books until the last movie came out, so at least there's still something to look forward to ...
Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 96%.

Movie Review #117

2011-05-01T13:36:00.002-04:00

As part of Avoiding UFC Fight Party, I ventured to see "Kaboom" at the new TIFF film centre. The description was "the first great paranoid, dystopian sex comedy in the history of cinema". I call it "the most ridiculous movie I have ever seen." But not the worst movie I've ever seen, it was entertaining in it's own way. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 54%.

Book Review #76

2011-05-01T13:32:00.002-04:00

"Bossypants" by Tina Fey, is of course, beyond awesome. Not that I'm biased because she is my favourite celebrity in the whole world. The only thing missing is the "real" Tina Fey ... everything is for maximum comic impact, but Tina is stilling keeping truly private stuff truly private. Anyways, Tina, will you be my friend? 162 Amazon reviews gave it an average of 4.5 stars. All the reviews who gave it less than 5 stars are total morons.

Book Review #76

2011-04-03T20:24:00.002-04:00

I believe the Happiness book I read a while back recommended "The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life" by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. However, I didn't really get anything out of it. It suffered a lot from the illness of many self-help book - lots of positive ideas but not a clear way to apply any of it to your own life. One of the authors is a classical conductor and the musical metaphors were hard to relate to for a non-classical music person. (I have yet to hear a classical music piece that has brought me to tears, but that seems to be an everyday occurrence in Mr. Zander's life, along with many other transformational moments). As I read this book, I pictured Jack Donaghy reading it. 138 Amazon readers gave this book an average of 4.5 stars.

Book Review #75

2011-03-11T08:36:00.002-05:00

I finished Douglas Coupland's quicky Massey Lecture book "Player One". I didn't hate it, but it had the hallmarks of Dougie's typical problems: all characters have the same voice and are essentially Doug's voice, and plot falls to a standstill when characters start telling stories at the end. Sometimes I think Dougie should just publish a non-fiction novel of his quirky thoughts, which are the big draw for me when reading his books anyway. A big 10 readers gave this book 4.5 stars on Amazon.com -- not statistically relevant.

Movie Review #116

2011-03-11T08:31:00.002-05:00

I finally saw Facebook: The Movie ... I mean The Social Network. It was a good movie but did strike me as the best movie of the year ... I think because I have an obsession with The Truth, and this movie was all about taking The Truth and messing with it. Even the most fervent searches on Wikipedia could not reveal The Truth, due to the evilness of the Non-Disclosure Legal Document. But the guy who performed the Twins was excellent, after seeing The Twins for real on CNN. The movie also cause me to have "In the Hall of the Mountain King" spinning in my head for days. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 96%.

Movie Review #115

2011-02-05T15:57:00.002-05:00

Checked out the Netflix movie "Planet B-Boy", a documentary about the world breakdancing competition (in Germany !?). It was awesome. Now I want to breakdance or at least watch a breakdancing competition. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 87%.

Movie Review #114

2011-02-05T15:53:00.003-05:00

I really liked "Fantastic Mr. Fox". The animation was awesome, but so was the story and the quirky lines. A nice change from all the cutesy-animation movies out there. Go see it. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 93%.

Movie Review #113

2011-01-03T09:38:00.002-05:00

"Man on Wire" is an award winning documentary about a guy I had never heard of, Frenchman Phillipe Petit, who is the world's only public high-wire performance artist. In 1974 he and a team of buddies, after plotting for months, got into the World Trade Centre, strung a wire across the two buildings, and Phillipe walked the wire for 45 minutes until giving himself up to police. Pretty amazing stuff, this documentary is about a guy obsessed with wire walking and it is pretty crazy how he manages these stunts. And in the innocent times of 1974, when arrested, the judge decided to throw out all charges on condition that Phillipe performed free for kids in Central Park, which Phillipe happily did. A good documentary but with my ultra-short attention span, an hour program would be better than 90 minutes. Rotten Tomatoes gave this film a crazy 100% !!! Phillipe still performs even though he is 60 something, although nothing as ridiculous as the WTC.

Book Review #74

2011-01-03T09:26:00.002-05:00

I need a little inspiration in my life right now, so I read "The Art of Non-Conformity" by Chris Guillebeau. This quick read (hint: get it from the library) is supposed to be a how-to book on how to live life differently (i.e. don't work for "The Man"). Rather than a specific how-to book, it spends more time on what happened in the author's life and how he chooses to live his days. Unfortunately, for most of us, making a website that makes us enough money to live on is probably not going to happen. Chris also assumes everyone has or wants goals similar to him, such as lots of world travel, and doesn't worry about things like having a retirement pension (because downer events like car accidents or illness that might impede your ability to work into your senior years don't happen to cool people like Chris). That being said, it can be inspirational to hear about stories about people who choose to live unconventionally to find some energy to make some kind of change in your own life. 116 Amazon.com reviewers gave this book an average of 4.5 stars.

Movie Review #112

2011-01-02T10:35:00.004-05:00

I watched the documentary "Maxed Out" on our free Netflix subscription. This 2006 documentary is pre-recession discussion on the burden of debt in American and how people get sucked into credit with the crazy interest rates. Credit card companies act like leeches sucking most of their money out of young and poor people, knowing full well that they can never pay it back. Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 88% but I thought it didn't really qualify as a great documentary. It wasn't that engaging, didn't address any personal responsibility towards credit, and the big message that Credit Card Companies are Evil wasn't exactly new to me.

Movie Review #111

2011-01-02T10:30:00.003-05:00

I didn't get the stop-motion animated film "Coraline". It was waaaay too scary and disturbing for little kids, but not adult-orientated enough to keep my attention. Animation was great but after the first 30 minutes the film seemed to drag for me. Apparently the critics at Rotten Tomatoes disagreed, giving it 89%.

Movie Review #110

2011-01-02T10:17:00.002-05:00

"My Kid Could Paint That" is a documentary about a NY state 4-year old whose abstract paintings start showing in real galleries and selling for thousands of dollars. Halfway through the documentary, a "60 minutes" show casts doubt on whether the 4-year old actually paints the pictures or gets a lot of help from her dad. This is a movie-within-the-movie as the filmmaker himself becomes close with the family but yet struggles whether to believe the allegations of fraud are true, and wonders how his movie will impact the family. In the end there is no absolutely conclusive proof either way and the filmmaker tries to show what he sees and lets the audience decide. [Spoiler alert: it seems really obvious to me that the 4-year old was getting lots of help. Attempts to get the girl to be taped while painting results in a painting that looks a lot less sophisticated that the others. The mother seemed to be innocent to it but the father looked really guilty, all shifty and sweaty, he even resembles "Balloon Boy's" dad!] Really enjoyed this documentary about the meaning of art, hype, and the importance of the story behind the art. I tried to find out what happened to the girl now (the movie was from 2007) ... there still is a website up but I don't know if the paintings still command thousands of dollars. Google and Wikipedia, you have failed me! (The paintings are quite nice, I would hang one in my living room). Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 94%.

Movie Review #109

2010-11-20T10:34:00.002-05:00

I went to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" with some trepidation, after glancing at reviews that varied from "the best one yet" to "long and boring". In the end I was pretty satisfied, after being pretty disappointed in the last film, which lacked a certain charm and had ackward editing of the acting scenes. In this film, the 3 kids have finally turned into real actors. The movie starts and ends with action, but has the same problem as the 1/2 half of the book ... the kids are camping out in the wilderness and not a lot goes on, and it gets a bit boring. The director could have picked up the pace either by editing out a bunch of it or switching to the storyline of what was going on in the wider world. I have always felt that with the "Harry Potter" movies is that they are pretty to watch but pale in comparison to the complexity of what goes on in the books. They will never truly satisfy the die-hard fan who fantasizes about a 50 hour exact replication of the novels (which I would probably watch quite happily). The movie barely touches on the doubt that that Harry has about Dumbledore's motives so it will be interesting to see if they talk about this more in the next film. This movie feels like the 1/2 half of a very long film so now we all have to wait until July ... boo. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 78%.

By the way I have never seen anyone write about the super obvious lifting of themes from Lord of the Rings (the burden of the locket, wandering around lost in the wilderness)... why is that?

Movie Review #108

2010-11-14T10:42:00.003-05:00

"Rachel Getting Married" is a dramatic tale of a girl in drug rehab who comes home for a weekend for her sister's wedding and soon havoc ensues. Moments of dysfunctional family interactions are interspersed with wedding scenes over the weekend. The director used a handheld camera and made the movie with a very real-life feel, where all the actors never knew if they would be in a scene or not. On the plus side, this was an interesting piece of filmmaking. On the negative side, there were quite a few points where you felt you were a bored guest at someone else's wedding (especially near the end, when all the family secrets were out). 20 minutes edited out of this film would have helped the pacing a lot. Also strange was the fact that the family and friends were a mixed-raced artistic bunch doing their own weird wedding traditions which wasn't any point of contention. I just couldn't understand why a white woman and black man marrying would decided to wear saris and have Indian food. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 85%.

Book Review #73

2010-10-18T20:41:00.002-04:00

Why would I read "Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman behind the Legend" by John E. Miller? Because as a 10-year-old kid I was obsessed with these books and pioneer life. I was fascinated about how damn hard and bizarre life was back then. Plagues of locusts! Balls of fire! Butchering the pig and using its bladder as a balloon! The weird names of people! (Royal? Almanzo?) Being jealous of your sister cause she has blond hair! Nearly starving to death in the winter when the trains stop! (I remember the website Jezebel once had a discussion on the Little House books and was happy to see other readers shared my same obsession). The books end when Laura gets married at age 18 to start up her own farm with her husband. It's embarassing to admit you like these novels when most people have their impressions from the TV show, which completely defiled the novels and barely touched on the truth.

In the pre-internet age, I was distraught in not knowing about what happened to the Ingalls clan. Although I read a biography many years ago, I don't think it was very good. This book has tons of details, and a rather dry look at a lot of historical information to give some context around Laura's life. Unfortunately very little information is given on the Laura's family. The truth that comes out is, Laura and Almanzo's life was of struggle and poverty like most pioneers at that time. After numerous tragedies (death of a baby son, house burning down, crop failures, and Almanzo becoming slightly crippled after a bout of diphtheria) in De Smet (where Laura's family was), they eventually ended up in Mansfield, Missouri where they eked out a living on their own farm. Other than building a nice farmhouse, financial security only came through contributions from their daughter Rose who became an accomplished writer, and through Laura's books that she wrote (with heavy editing and coaching from Rose) in her 60s. The main points that really struck me were
1) Laura only wrote for some local newspapers about farming but managed to write the books in her 60s and 70s ... even with Rose's help, an amazing accomplishment.
2) Laura wrote herself as a spunky, light-hearted, rebellious girl, but her real-life personality was more conservative, conventional, and religious. Rose was much more the rebel.
3) I still haven't figured out why Laura only had one child (how does that work in the pre-birth control era?)
4) Laura had good genes. She lived into her 90s, outliving all of her younger siblings. Almanzo also lived a long time despite his earlier poor health. Laura's long life is remarkable in that she started in the horse and buggy age and ended up living into WW2 and the atomic age.
5) Boys were cursed in her family. Laura's Ma, Laura, and Rose each had a boy that died as an infant. All 3 seemed to be so traumatized by the incidents they rarely spoke of it after it happened.
6) What I find kind of sad was that the books focused so much on the closeness of the Ingalls family, but this all ended once Laura moved. After Laura moved away, she rarely saw her family again ... she travelled once back home before Pa died, and the next time she made it back home her Ma and sister Mary had already died. Likely poverty and the difficulties of traveling before the automobile kept her from visiting. Very little in terms of letters and personal correspondence existed from Laura, so it is not really known how close she stayed with her family. The core relationship in Laura's life was with her daughter Rose. And she was definitely the dominant figure in her relationship with Almanzo, whom little is known about on a personal level.
7) Rose eventually becomes one of the founders of the American Libertarian movement.

There are loads of Laura biographies and maybe I'll check out another, but I'm not sure how much more information I really need. My need for "what happened" is mostly quenched.

Movie Review #107

2010-09-27T20:40:00.002-04:00

I didn't expect too much from "Religulous" in terms of actually being a great film, and it delivered on its mediocrity. Bill Maher interviews a bunch of religious people, trying to challenge their beliefs but mostly playing the scenerio for laughs and 1-liners. What would be a more interesting movie to an atheist like me is ask some truly intelligent religious folk how they reconcile religion and morality and science ... something I would always wonder about the religious science / medical people I know.... Rotten Tomatoes gave it 70%.

Movie Review #106

2010-09-12T14:26:00.003-04:00

I really need to start listening to my gut instincts and ignoring Rotten Tomatoes. That website gave Ghost Town 85% and said it was really funny. It was, in fact, not. It was completely predictable and not very funny at all. I had more laughs watching 5 minutes of the new season of the IT Crowd. 20 minutes into the film I started playing games on my Ipod to make watching it bearable. Please, zip.ca, send me a better film next time.

Movie Review #105

2010-09-06T18:49:00.003-04:00

"Up in the Air" was an okay but not great movie. George Clooney plays a man with a job firing people at various corporations. He loves his lifestyle of constant travelling until he meets a woman where he realizes maybe real relationships aren't so bad. Ultimately the film seemed unbelievable because what guy with the charm and looks of George Clooney would want a job traveling around firing people and collecting millions of frequent flyer miles as a goal of his life? Everyone know air travel is miserable now. Plot aside, the writing and characters were pretty good. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 90%.

I'm behind ....

2010-08-22T10:50:00.006-04:00

I'm really behind on my movie and book reviews ....

Movie Review #103

"Happy-Go-Lucky" was another one of those movies where myself and the meta-analysis powers of Rotten Tomatoes just don't agree, who gave this film a whopping 93%. Poppy is a relentlessly happy 30-year old, who ends up taking driving lessons with a much less happier and crankier driving instructor which taxes her sunny personality. That's mostly it for plot. I guess most reviewers were taken in by the personality (and acting) of Poppy, but I found her personality really annoying. Rather than being charming sunny, she could never shut up, even for a second, she constantly giggled and mumbled "funny" comments, and many of her comments and jokes came off as inappropriate. For example, she hurts her back, goes to a (male) physiotherapist wearing skimpy underwear and fishnets, and constantly giggles and makes vague sexual jokes during her appointment. Is this how a happy person is supposed to cheer up the world? Maybe this is the kind of English humour I don't understand. I was annoyed at her after the first 10 minutes, so you can imagine how much she cheered me up by the end of the movie.

Movie Review #104

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is a comic book coming to life in Toronto. Features the best use of Casa Loma in a film. I definitely enjoyed it, although I think it's audience is limited to people who enjoy videogames and the younger generation. And I still find Michael Cera's generic character to be rather annoying. But because I have ADD, I did enjoy the fast editing and ridiculous dialogue. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 81%. I also found myself yearning for Ramona's haircut and blue or purple hair .... don't think I could pull it off though ....

Book Review #72

Back to scary environmental books! The Canadian author of "Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller", Jeff Rubin, was an economist who predicted the high oil prices that happened in 2000. I did enjoy this book, for it was easy-to-read (with the exception of a few concepts around oil prices that I will probably never understand) and it had a matter-of-fact tone (rather than scary forecasting) about the likelihood of rising oil prices and implications, and opportunities, that would have around the world. Better take that trip to Australia while I can!

Book Review #73

It's been a while since I finished "Superfreakonomics" by the superfreaks Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner so I don't remember too much. What stands out are the chapters about how car seats for kids aren't better than regular seat belts, and how teaching monkeys about the concept of money (coins in exchange for food) lead to monkey prostitution (they should make a nature show about that...). Less convincing were the "quick-fix" suggestions for global warming. A fun read although not as great as the original Freakonomics.

Book Review #74

"Juliet, Naked" is classic Nick Hornby, dealing with the familiar themes of young adult angst and love. It is one of his best novels, so if you are a fan, this should be on your reading list. Notice how my reviews today are getting shorter and shorter?

Book Review #75

I thought "The Happiness Project" would be really cheesy. In one of these "let's try something out for a year" books, Gretchen Rubin spends time researching what makes people happy, and tries a different angle on making herself happy each month. However, I really enjoyed most of the book, probably cause the author seems to share quite a few personality traits with yours truly (e.g. prone to crumpiness, enjoy's children's literature more than adult literature, conflict with spouses and chores, etc.). Now since Gretchen is a writer, she had a lot more time to spend on these projects than the average person with a full-time day job. I think many of her projects to make her happy were quite time-consuming. But I suppose the point is to pick and choose what you are able to do. Gretchen has a website with a "happiness toolkit" for people to pursue their own project, and I just may do that ....

Movie Review #102

2010-05-15T16:36:00.002-04:00

I saw "I bought a rainforest" at Hot Docs. It follows a not very Swedish looking Swedish dude who wonders what happened to the money he and thousands of other Swedish schoolchildren raised to "save the rainforests". He eventually travels to Costa Rica and Guatemala in search of "his" rainforest. The main character (whom I sat beside at the theatre) is not a very charismatic guy. He doesn't say much and doesn't give any info about his own life / career. He looks rather lost and out-of-place in all the scenes in the jungle. This film could have been much improved in some more background about what is happening in the world rainforest scene, and why there is little talk about saving the rainforest campaigns now compared to 20 years ago. Still, it ends on an optimistic note, rare in today's environmental films.

Movie Review #101

2010-05-15T16:33:00.003-04:00

When "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" came out, many critics called it "Forrest Gump with a guy aging in reverse". That's a pretty accurate description. A beautiful looking film, it was overly long and rather boring by the end. The film was basically ruined for me when Benjamin does something that seems to completely break with character. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 72%.

Movie Review #100

2010-04-25T10:38:00.002-04:00

Saw "Food Inc." as we taped it from CBC. Nothing in this film will be new to you if you've read Michael Pollen's books or Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" (except for the glory of seeing how animals are treated with your own eyes). It isn't flashy fun like the doc "Supersize Me" but a serious and sobering look at modern agriculture today. A good eye opener if you haven't read the books, but the books provide a lot more detail and in-depth look at the issues. All these movies are convincing me that the world governments are run by a bunch of evil old white guys who make a lot of money for big corporations (especially in the USA). I am grateful that food policy in Canada is at least a tiny bit better than the States for not being completely bought out by the food lobbyists. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 97%.

Movie Review # 98 and #99

2010-04-04T15:25:00.004-04:00

I go from not seeing movies for 3 months to two in 1 day. Yowsers!

Movie Review #98

I only went to see "Hot Tub Time Machine" cause I felt like a stupid comedy, John Cusack was in it so it should be good, and I heard a favourable review on CBC radio. Well John Cusack must be pretty hard up for money to be in this flick. I enjoy stupid - original, or stupid - slapstick, or stupid - silly (i.e. "Blades of Glory"), but I'm not into stupid - really gross, or stupid - really sexist, or stupid - really predictable, or stupid - with annoying obnoxious characters. Big thumbs down! Rotten Tomatoes gave it 62% - way too high!

Movie Review #99

"James Bond - Quantum of Solace" was a renter. It wasn't as good as last year's Bond flick, but it had the requisite chase scenes ... in a car, in a boat, on foot, in an airplane, as Bond defies death over and over, kills a bunch of people, and sleeps with some random woman. The action scenes are so fast you can barely see what is happening. Nothing special but way better than the previous flick! I still haven't figured out what a Quantum of Solace is. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 63%.

Movie Review #97

2010-01-17T20:53:00.003-05:00

"Spring Breakdown" was a straight-to-video comedy starring the very talented Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, and Rachel Dratch. Before I saw it, I knew it got terrible reviews and the writing was supposed to be way bad. In fact, I only knew it even existed because of the website "Jezebel". But how can I avoid seeing something with Amy and Rachel in it? Because of my low expectations, I actually enjoyed the movie. Yes, the writing was kind of crap and cliche, but it was still kind of funny, and Amy's and Rachel's weird facial expressions and physical comedy make me laugh every time. I would even deem to say it was better than "Baby Mama". I think the reviews and straight-to-video treatment is pretty harsh considering the bad Adam Sandler films that only had 1 or 2 good laughs (anyone remember "The WaterBoy"?) "Spring Breakdown" got 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. To be honest, I enjoyed this film way more than "The Barberian Invasions" !!! Am I low class or what?

Movie Review #96

2010-01-10T19:44:00.002-05:00

I saw an older Quebecois movie, "The Barbarian Invasions". This movie got great reviews and supposedly is a great character movie with lots of deep things to say about death, politics, money, etc. The plot revolves around a dying (and womanizing) professor as his friends and family gather around him in his last days, including his son whom he has little in common. I have to be honest, this movie was a big "meh" to me. A lot of the wacky french humour seemed to revolve around the professor's past sexual exploits. By far the most humorous parts for me was the portrayal of the Canadian health system and how the professor's son gets anything he wants by paying off people. The movie makes the Quebec hospital look 3rd world with dozens of people in the corridor ; the son pays off "the unions" and gets his dad a private room in an abandoned floor (ha ha! like that would ever happen!); the son's doctor friend in the States looks at the medical records and recommends that the dad use heroin for pain relief, and so the son gets a junkie to come inject his dad everyday ... it was entirely hysterical. Considering this movie won Best Foreign Film, I think no wonder Americans hate socialized medicine if they saw what was in the film. Aah, medical accuracy, out the window in sacrifice for entertainment.

Movie Review #95

2010-01-02T19:42:00.007-05:00

(Mild spoiler alert). I read that when James Cameron saw "Star Wars", he was devastated, because it the was movie HE had dreamed making. Oh James, must you go down the dark side like George Lucas, where years and millions can be spent on technology, but you can't even hire some decent writers? "Avatar": yes, there was cool 3-D, and the nature scenes were engrossing. The film was pretty enjoyable for the first 2/3, even with the cheesy lines, army vs. nature stereotypes, etc. But the deficits were hard to ignore at the end, with the big Ewoks vs. Stormtroopers battle. And why would the army try to blow away the natives within 15 minutes after trying a diplomatic solution for months? The enviro-nature-hippy-native Indian message was a little too much by the end, with making the deity that the natives worshipped made all too "real". The soundtrack was entirely forgettable. There was no emotionally involvement in the characters, no sniffling in the audience to be heard when characters got killed (unlike poor Leonardo deCaprio in Titanic) -- it was all quite predictable. A beautiful but entirely forgettable movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 83%.

Book Reviews #71-72

2009-11-09T18:57:00.003-05:00

Book Review #71

I read "Enough Bull: How to Retire Well Without the Stock Market, Mutual Funds, or Even an Investment Advisor" by David Trahair after I read his previous financial book (see book review #68). I was rather disappointed as many of the ideas seemed like a rehashing of "Smoke and Mirrors" and again, the writing was sloppy and bits definitely felt rushed. Let me summarize the book: don't invest in mutual funds. Invest in GICs. Pay off your mortgage first. Or just read the first book.

Book Review #72

"Generation A" is my favourite of Douglas Coupland's recent novels. And not just because I got him to autograph it for me. It's full of the witty observations Coupland is known for. And finally, Douggie knows how to flesh out some characters that all don't sound like exactly the same person. The only thing I'm not too sure of it the stories-within-the stories part near the end ... it slows up the plot and goes on for quite a while. But I'll forgive that ... Coupland has also finally make a novel with a fantastical plot that is believable at the same time.

Movie Review #92-94, TV Series #?

2009-11-08T20:02:00.006-05:00

I'm way behind on my reviews. Here's what I remember seeing:

Movie Review #92

"Capitalism: A Love Story" was rather long and not nearly as engaging as Michael Moore's other films. To be fair, it's harder to make money seem as emotionally engaging as school shootings or health care. There were lots of 50s film clips to film the void, but Michael had a hard time finding the shocking stories about money ... everyone is already numb to the fact that the 1% rich control everything and we all just got screwed. The most disgusting story was probably the fact that some corporations take out life insurance policies on their employees and cash in if they happen to die. Lovely. Michael tries to rouse the audience into becoming socialists but I'm pretty sure the US is not ready to handle that yet. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 75%.

Movie Review #93

"Mamma Mia" is a movie I wanted to see although not sure why ... I have already seen the musical. Partly to see Meryl Street sing? In general musicals seem to work much better on the stage than on movies and this film is no exception. But it's enough to get you wanting to spin ABBA one more time. The most amusing part of the film was the fact that all the male leads were chosen for hunkiness and not singing ability, and then the poor chaps were forced to sing. And yes, Pierce Brosnan cannot sing at all, but at least you can see he is trying. Meryl, of couse, can pull it off. Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 53% ... I guess critics aren't ABBA fans.

Movie Review #94

Most critics seem to either love or hate "Where the Wild Things Are" but I lie somewhere in between. Didn't really love it, but didn't hate it. I have to respect the concept, which is basically using the boy travelling to the island of Wild Things as a metaphor for the kid working out his own issues of jealousy, anxiety and lonliness. The Wild Thing with the voice of "Tony Soprano" didn't really work, I kept thinking he would break someone's kneecaps. The vision and execution of the film is to be respected, but I guess as an adult, a movie about child-like thought processes wasn't that interesting to me. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 71%.

TV Series: Spaced

This Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) series was on British TV way back in 1999-2001. Only two seasons, but it is really funny. The plot is about two singletons who pretend to be married to secure an apartment "for married professionals". Simon Pegg plays a 20-something comic book store worker; his roomate is a too-talkative aspiring writer who does anything to avoid actual work. Weird house-mates and friends round out the cast. My favourite character was the bike courier by day / raver at night who could find rave music in all everyday noises. The plots are bizarre with lots of flashbacks / dream sequences, and many references to movies / TV / pop cultre. Needs to be watched with English subtitles to understand the dialogue!

Book Review #69

2009-08-31T13:18:00.002-04:00

I finished the last JK Rowling extra book "Quidditch Through the Ages". It was cute but not as entertaining as "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". However, it contained the only Canadian reference in the Harry Potter lexicon (apparently we have produced some excellent Quidditch teams such as the Moose Jaw Meterorites).

Book Review #68

2009-08-23T10:38:00.003-04:00

Now I'm not really thinking about retirement (except in my dreams), but I picked up "Smoke and Mirrors: Financial Myths That Will Ruin Your Retirement Dreams" by David Trahair after I saw him in the Globe and Mail. In a section that focused on how individuals invest, David was a financial writer who thought most mutual funds were a scam and invested most of his money in safe investments like GICs. So this was a book I had to read. This is a thin book, and not the greatest written book -- in pretends it is for people with not a lot of financial know-how, but then expects them to be able to use the Excel documents contained in a included CD-ROM and encourages them to buy a business calculator. However, I did enjoy the fresh ideas that are so different than normally heard in the press. Basically the author is saying that it is in the financial institutions' best interest to sell you lots of RRSPs so they guilt with facts like you'll make 10% every year and that you should start investing when you are 20 to take advantage of compound interest and you'll need at least $1 000 000 or you'll be poor on the streets.
The author advocates paying off all debt, including mortgages, before investing any money in RRSPs. (He seems to mention the idea that taking your RRSP refund and using it on the mortgages is not a horrible idea but that people may not be disciplined enough to do so). He uses examples to explain the math, some which get pretty complicated. He explains how RRSP income needed is usually a lot less than 70% of your presently earned income. He explains how RRSPs rarely make the returns that we are sold on, and that it's ridiculous to expect people in the 20s to make huge contibutions when they are starting to build their life. He talks about how mutual funds eat up profits with their fees. And one of his main points is that it is best to optimize your RRSP rather than maximize it. If you end up saving up much more than you really need, you actually get penalized in terms of clawbacks on the gov't pensions, being forced to withdraw a certain amount and getting taxed on it, and tax laws that eat up your RRSP if you die early than expected. It may be better to invest excess funds outside the RRSP. The author also talks about getting a good rate on mortgages, the different time of life insurance, and buying vs. leasing a car. He mentions that rather than everyday frugality of say "skipping the $5 latte to build savings" it is much more efficient to save big on big purchases such as the mortgage.
I am interested in reading the author's new book which just came out which focuses more on safe investing for retirement ... I'm on the waiting list at the library for it ... review to come!

Movie Review #91

2009-08-23T10:26:00.004-04:00

I rented "Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgandy" because several people told me it was one of Will Ferrell's funniest moviews. Well, I wish I could remember who those people were, because I must never to listen to them again. This movie took up 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back. There were tons of comedic star actors in it; unfortunately I guess they didn't spend any of their budget on writing the script. I like a stupid fun movie as much as anyone, but this movie didn't even pretend to have any consistency of characters or a real plot. I think a movie needs a little more comedic content than a 1970s setting. Thumbs down! Rotten Tomatoes gave it a shockingly high 65%.

Movie Review #90

2009-08-15T15:25:00.003-04:00

I watched another Futurama movie, "Bender's Game". It was definitely the weakest of the movies ... it really dragged near the end and wasn't that funny. The plot was uber bizarre and ended up as a Lord of the Rings spoof ... several years too late. I heard the show is coming back ... that's great because it does much better in a 30 min format.

Movie Review #89

2009-08-09T10:11:00.003-04:00

I rented "Get Smart" hoping for a stupid but funny action flick. It was mostly stupid. There were definitely some funny parts, but there were also some super-lame failing-miserably-at-being-funny parts (fat jokes? really?) . Rotten Tomatoes gave it 53%, which might have been a little harsh.

Movie Review #88

2009-07-19T09:53:00.002-04:00

"Lars and the Real Girl" is a sweet, odd film about a weird loner guy who buys a mail-order sex doll and starts acting like it's his real live girlfriend. Brought to his doctor by his concerned brother & wife, the doctor suggests that everyone around him goes along with the delusion until Lars works through whatever issues he is having. The ending is entirely predictable shortly into the film, but nevertheless the movie works. Not deeply moving or anything, but cute and quirky. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 81%.

Movie Review #87

2009-07-19T09:33:00.002-04:00

I have to admit I was slightly disappointed in watching "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". Many of the reviews said it was the best ever Harry Potter movie, and I disagree ... I found the last one ("Order of the Phoenix") to be better (although Rotten Tomatoes, yet again, would heartily disagree with me). At 2.5 hours, it lacked a great action scene -- it cut out the fight against the Death Eaters who break into Hogwarts at the end of the novel. I still find that there are certain scenes in the entire franchise that end up feeling kind of stilted with off-timing and a lack of flow. On a positive note, there's lots of humour in the film, mostly revolving around Ron and his girlfriend Lavender Brown. However, now that Hermione is a hottie, it's kind of unbelievable to see her pining after goofy and insensitive Ron. Similarly, Ginny is really disappointing ... partly because her acting chops are way behind the other kids, and partly because her character is so hollow. She hardly has any lines, most of the scenes she's just standing there ... it's hard to believe Harry, who has a bunch of new admirerers, would fall for her. The books gave her way more personality.
Certainly not a bad movie, but I think the movies (especially the later ones) have to cut so much out of the plot and characters out from the books that they end up as pale imitations of the novels. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film 84%.

Book Review #67

2009-07-12T17:13:00.002-04:00

I don't think I can take many more "this is how to save the planet" books. "Common wealth - economics for a crowded planet" is written by the economist Jeffrey Sachs. The author goes over the main challenges the world is facing and gives his possible solutions of what must be done. Again, I just couldn't get through this -- it read way too much like a boring textbook. And although his ideas are good, the notion that the world's countries could actually get it together to do any of it just seems kind of sadly laughable. (Does "sadly laughable" make sense?)

Movie Review #86

2009-07-12T11:09:00.003-04:00

I saw Bruno cause the trailers were hilarious, and Borat was pretty funny. Turns out, I could have stayed home, since the best (and most clean) jokes were in the trailers, and the rest of the film was filled with a lot of crude gay jokes. Very crude! There were some funny parts where Bruno makes everyone around him very uncomfortable ... but most of them were more uncomfortable than funny. And I can't believe I saw a couple of fathers with their 12 year old sons. You know, everyone has a story of seeing a movie in their childhood that was inappropriate for their age. I think those 12 year olds just saw theirs. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 70%.

Book Review #66 and Movie Reviews #82-85

2009-06-21T10:02:00.005-04:00

Again I am behind on my reviews....

Book Review # 66

In my Harry Potter madness a few months ago I decided I needed to read everything JK put out. And so I read "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them", a fundraiser JK wrote for Comic Relief. Again a very short read, and cute, but not as satisfying as "The Tales of Beedle the Bard". The book was supposed to be an exact replica of Harry Potter's textbook, complete with scrawls written by his classmates while they were bored in class -- this made me laugh the most as a reminder of what I used to do as well ....

Movie Review # 82

"Up" is basically another Pixar 3D giant crowd-pleaser movie hit. It manages to make a grumpy old man into an interesting main character. And for once, the talking animals are all stupid, which makes them funnier. I was feeling overly emotional when I saw this and cried about 3 or 4 times during the course of the film. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 97%.

Movie Review # 83

"Across the Universe" was a Movie Channel freebie, an odd musical featuring Beatles songs. I heard that it was a big hit with teenagers. To be honest, I couldn't make it through the whole film and was fast-forwarding it near the end. The plot was basically ripped off from Hair, there was very little emotional depth to the many characters or the storyline, and the musical numbers were over wrought and a little too psychedelic. On the plus side, a couple of the new musical arrangements were done well, and the main actor Jim Sturgess was pleasant eye and ear candy (nice accent!). Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 54%.

Movie Review #84

"Semi-Pro", another Movie Channel freebie, is definitely not Will Ferrell's top work. It's pretty bad, in fact. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 21%, which seemed a little harsh to me. I did laugh a few times.

Movie Review #85

I saw Pineapple Express at a friend's house. It's basically a Seth Rogan / Judd Apatow stoner movie, as a drug dealer and his friend are on the run when one of them witnesses a murder. It was actually funnier than I thought it would be -- not crazy funny, but consistently low-level funny. It would probably be hilarious if one saw it under the influence of such substances that the movie was about. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 68%.

Book Review #65

2009-05-17T19:00:00.003-04:00

(Spoilers ahead, but believe me, you don't want to read these books). Against my better judgment, I tried to read the Twilight sequel "New Moon". Now, the first book was horrible, but it was kind of fun to make fun of it. This novel just continued the awfulness and started to make me angry. Why is this series so popular? The writing is terrible. The situations are unbelievable. Now I understand that this series is for 12-year-old girls, and 12-year-old girls are all about having crushes on guys, and 12-year-old girls become fanatically attached to anything pop culture they like (for example, note the success of New Kids on the Block), but these books have sold 42 million copies. There are more than 12-old-girls reading these books. I read the plots about the last 2 books on Wikipedia, and read some of the comments on Amazon. The plot gets more ridiculous. The 4th book was so bad that even some of the die-hard fans felt really disappointed (basically, everyone gets a happy ending and there is no sacrifice made with any of the main characters; and the characters all act differently than in the other novels, killing any consistency; Bella and Edward's big sex scene is barely described but of course Bella becomes immediately pregnant followed by a violent and disgusting birth scene ... oh yeah and vampires are not supposed to be able to reproduce so that kills any internal consistency; there's a big showdown with the evil vampires but then it's all a big misunderstanding and the evil vampires let the good guys go without a fight; Bella's other love interest - the werewolf - "imprints" on Bella's child and will end up being her soulmate when she grows out of childhood .... uhh, ok, no sex in these books but borderline pedophilia is okay....there's more but I won't bother explaining it all).
I know teenager girls are dumb but there's no excuse for these horrible books with shallow characters and unhealthy, stalker-ish relationships. I'm sad that the author gained royalties from me buying the first two books in ignorance.

Movie Review #81

2009-05-17T18:55:00.003-04:00

This barely counts, but I watched half of "Be Kind, Rewind" which I had taped on the PVR when we had the free movie channel. Then realizing I was wasting my life on a boring movie that was supposed to be funny but was not, I stopped watching. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 66%. Far too generous, Mr. Tomatoes. And Mr. Jack Black, I'm sorry, but your first major movie performance (in High Fidelity) was by far the highlight of your career. I'm tired of you now.

Movie Reviews #78, 79, 80

2009-05-11T19:20:00.002-04:00

Oh my, I'm behind on my reviews.

Movie Review #78

A couple of weeks ago we really felt like going to the theatre, but there was nothing much good on, so we ended up seeing Monsters vs. Aliens (in 3-D!). The 3-D is fun but it's amazing how fast you get used to the spectacle -- by the end up the movie you barely even notice. Basically this is a kid's movie, it's cute but doesn't contain a lot of jokes for adults. Not a bad film, but no Wall-E. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 72%.

Movie Review #79

I rented Sex in the City even though I knew it would be a crap film. And indeed, it was a crap film. The TV show was pretty good at its peak but it was overhyped and tired near the end of its run. The movie should have been called Shopping in the City. Entire scenes are filmed with clothes being the main subject. Suddenly the four women all seem to be multimillionaires. Carrie is as self-involved as ever. Miranda freaks out when Steve has a one-night stand even though they hadn't had sex in 6 months ... apparently she never thought that Steve might consider that a problem. Charlotte's fertility problems that lasted a season or two in the TV series miraculously resolve. Charlotte and Miranda complain about how busy motherhood is but seem to be able to drop everything to go to Mexico for a week. My favourite part of unrealism was how Carrie and Big try to have a wedding and they both seem completely devoid of any family members. Basically this movie killed any charm of any of the main characters. Producers of Hollywood: please don't try to make another movie of this.

Movie Review #80

Aah, finally something positive. I can honestly say that Star Trek was the best film I have seen in a long time. And it accomplished this by not being a "Star Trek" film, but by being the perfect little summer movie with a great balance of action, writing, plot twists, humour (lots of it), cheesy pathos, good acting, while throwing a bone to the Star Trek geeks (yes, Uhuru still wears mini-skirts). And even though I find time-travel plots convoluted and kind of lazy (cause they make no sense and writers seem to make up the rules) it sets up the new Star Trek francise as using all the familiar character in an "alternative" universe so they don't have to be bound by all the past Star Trek stories. Very clever. And it's PG so I don't have to worry about excessive gore!

Book Review #64

2009-04-13T20:14:00.002-04:00

I also just finished "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell. Mr. Gladwell goes over many reasons that the simple rag-to-riches, man-works-hard-and-reaches-success stories are rarely accurate, and that a multitude of reasons are behind every great man or woman's success. For example, Mr. Gladwell finds that even the most gifted people put in 10 000 hours of practice into their chosen field before they reach greatness. (I've worked as a pharmacist for over 10 000 hours so I figure I'll reach greatness any time soon ... actually I finally feel like I kind of know what I'm doing now ... greatness = competence for me ....). Cultures with a legacy of respect where it is impolite to question your superiors have more plane crashes because the captains screw up and no one takes charge. Asian kids do better at math because their language makes counting easier so they have a head start, plus they spend more time in school. Etc, etc. The stories are pretty fascinating, although I was rather horrified to hear about the schools in the USA who are making low-class kids into big achievers by havng them go to school from early in the morning to 5 pm and then they have 2-3 hours of homework -- these kids go to bed at 11 pm and get up at 5:45 am and then fall asleep in class. That's just not right at any age.

Book Review #63

2009-04-13T20:08:00.003-04:00

So I finally read a Margaret Atwood book I didn't hate, "Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth". Much has been said about Ms. Atwood's uncanny timing of releasing a book about debt at pretty well the exact same time the market collapsed. She must be some kind of genius! Me, I was just happy to read an Atwood book that I understood without needing remedial English classes. Also, it was non-fiction, which is always a plus. And just like the other critics, I hated the last chapter, which tells a Scrooge-like fable of us humans living in the debts of environmental destruction. Right message, but believe me, Scrooge is the wrong messenger. Someone needs to do more research on how to change people's minds about the environment without annoying them completely.

Movie Review #77

2009-03-22T20:40:00.002-04:00

I only saw "Girl, Interrupted" because I could "tape" it with the PVR from the free movie channels. A walk down memory lane to remember Winona Ryder in her pre-shoplifting days and Angelina Jolie in her pre-having 8 children days. For many reasons, this movie wasn't very good. I'm tired and don't really feel like getting into details. But Rotten Tomatoes agreed with me, it gave it 52%.

Movie Review #76

2009-03-22T20:34:00.002-04:00

I finally saw "Shaun of the Dead" and it was pretty funny. It lost a little bit of steam near the end when it got a bit more serious, but how serious can a movie be where everyone is turning into a zombie and it takes the lead character a couple of days to notice? The zombie violence was fairly cartoonish despite the "R" rating -- maybe that was more for the cursing. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 91%.

Book Review #62

2009-02-22T09:37:00.004-05:00

Once I went into Chapters and saw a big promotion for a midnight release of some teenage vampire book by Stephenie Myer. Then I heard that the Twilight books were outselling Harry Potter in Canada last year (or some similar statistic). So I had to regress to YA novels and read Twilight. To summarize: shocking disappointment. It started out okay, typical YA territory. Isabella "Bella" Swan (yup, that's her name) moves from her mom to live with her dad in a small, rainy town. Meets gorgeous vampire Edward in new high school. Falls in love with him cause he's really hot. Edwards falls in love with her because her blood smells awesome. Feels conflicted cause he loves her (not sure why) but also wants to eat her (well, suck her blood). And that's about it for about 400 pages, until a bit of random conflict at the end.

(Mild plot spoilers) So in the style of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update "Really??" segment ... this is some of my criticism: So Bella is so good looking that 4 or 5 boys have huge crushes on her but she is oblivious to her own good looks? Really?? Bella instantly has a bunch of kids who want to be friends with her even though she is a loner who shuns school dances, is clumsy to a point of ridiculousness, sucks at gym glass, and spends every night going home, cooking for her dad and doing her homework?? No interest in popularity in high school?? Really ??? Edward and his siblings are very old but because of their young looks they just keep going to different high schools over and over to take biology 101 for the 53rd time even though their "dad vampire" is a little more ambitious and works as a doctor? Really??? Edward's vampire family tries to live a moral high ground by feeding on animals, claims to try to integrate with real humans but basically keeps to themselves and doesn't talk to other humans?? So what's the point?? Really?? Bella's "falling in love" seems entirely based on Ed's good looks. What depth of character! Really, by the middle of the book I felt like I was reading a Harlequin romance. Edward shows his love by basically being a stalker. And Bella likes it. Really?? The vampires stay away from the sun because they ... glitter! Really?? (As an Amazon reviewer wrote ... they are Glam-Rock Vampires.) Bella and Edward stay in the realm of PG physiciality because too much making out makes Edward wants to kill Bella. The author is a Mormon. Really ??? I could go on and on ....

I'm shocked that this book could reach the level of popularity it did. I have read reviews (written by adults) that loved these books. 3753 Amazon reviewers gave it an average of 4 stars (although the 300 or so 1-star reviews are pretty funny and in agreement of my own opinion). I mean, the book isn't "Shopaholic" bad, but the writing is definitely not quality material. Unfotunately, I already bought the sequel in the airport before I had gotten through the first book. Which may mean I have to keep on reading....

Movie Review #75

2009-02-22T09:24:00.002-05:00

"Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs" was better than the first Futurama movie I saw. There were lots of laughs, although once again 90 minutes seems too long and the plot gets more and more ridiculous as time goes on. Still, probably funnier than 80% of comedies I see.

Book Review #61

2009-02-17T17:30:00.002-05:00

"Bring on the Apocalypse" is a collection of essays written by George Monbiot, the climate-change killjoy who wrote "Heat". I will admit I did not read the whole book ... actually I didn't read much of the book. Why? a) it was depressing b) it was depressing stuff I have already read and c) most of the British-only stuff was too local for me. This collection came out in 2008 but some of the essays are from way back in 2004. Really, Obama is prez now, so I don't want to read about Bush and the Iraq war. I need my depressing material fresh.

Movie Review #74

2009-02-08T13:36:00.003-05:00

Saw "Slumdog Millionaire" last night. Pros: great cinematography / editing / music / and acting (for the most part). Cons: watching horrible things happen to orphans for 90 minutes -- not as "uplifting" as the critics made it seem; predictable ending; watching movies set in India always freaks me out a little and brings up memories from my 6-year-old mind. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 94%.

Book Review #60

2009-02-01T09:51:00.002-05:00

Well I eased myself back into reading books after the Harry Potter binge with none other but "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by JK Rowling. Unlike the Potter books, this one can be easily polished off in half an hour. It's a cute collection of wizarding fairy tales with added funny notes by Mr. Dumbledore himself. A cute little read.

Book Review # 59 (kinda)

2009-01-26T18:56:00.002-05:00

My numerous readers may have noticed I haven't posted a book review since August. This is because (a) I subscribe to way too many newspapers and magazines and (b) I decided to reread ALL the Harry Potter books. Which has somehow taken 5 months. I actually don't recommend rereading them all at once, because it definitely starts to feel repetitive, and certainly some select books (hello, #4) could have used more editing. But reading the last one was a real treat, especially since I zoomed through it the first time in one weekend. Critics have not always been so friendly to JK Rowling, but anyone who maps out a crazy fantasy world in 7 books while they are unemployed and unpublished has my full respect. Plus JK loved "The Smiths". Now back to regular reading! I have 3 books to pick up at the library....

Movie Review #73

2009-01-11T11:06:00.004-05:00

I checked out "Death of a President" after hearing it got good reviews at a past Toronto Film Festival. It it is a fake documentary about the fictional assassination of George Bush and the political aftermath. Turns out, it was really quite boring. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 37%, so I guess most of the critics agree with me. Which begs the question: how come so many movies with great buzz at the Toronto Film Festival end up actually being kind of crappy?

Movie Review #72

2009-01-11T10:59:00.003-05:00

In continuing with the 'Classics I Have Missed' theme, I watched the 80s action classic "Die Hard" which I missed the first time around. I'm not big on action movies in the first place (so much fighting ... so many loud crashes) but I can see why this was a hit for the average non-fussy action movie fan. The film both makes fun of and revels in all the action movie cliches (no matter how sure it seems like the bad guy dies in the end, he always comes back...) The most amusing part of watching these "old" films in checking out the 80s fashion (perms! shoulder pads!) and use of technology ... in one of the early scenes, Bruce Willis is quite bedazzled by the office building electronic directory system. Still, I don't think I'll bother with Die Hard 2 or 3. Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 94%.

Movie Review #71

2008-12-14T20:53:00.004-05:00

I put "Raiders of the Lost Ark" on my Ziplist because when the new movie came out in the summer, I realized I never watched the first one. So I watched it this afternoon, and realized, yes I have seen it, I just had no memory of it. The truth is, I don't see what was so great about this movie, and I guess I never did. I think I watched the third Indiana Jones movie too, and it also seemed like nothing special. I won't be watching the new one, in any case. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 94%.

Movie Review #70

2008-11-30T16:53:00.002-05:00

"Stranger than Fiction" is about a man who discovers he is the main character of a novel being written by a writers-block afflicted woman, who always ends up killing her main characters. I found it pretty boring; it wasn't that funny, the romance was unbelievable, and even I could predict the ending a mile away. I prefer Will Ferrell in ridiculous comedies. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 73%.

Movie Review #69

2008-11-12T19:09:00.003-05:00

"Millions" is a movie directed by Danny "Trainspotting" Boyle, not to be confused by his recently released "Slumdog Millionaire". Set in England with actors with cute British accents, it tells the tale of a family of a dad and 2 boys, 7 and 9, whose mom has died, as they move to a new house. The younger boy finds a bag of cash one day and has only a short time to spend it before the country converts to the Euro. The movie has a fantastically quality to it as the younger boy deals with his mum's death by obsessing and fantasizing about Saints. The boys are definitely better child actors than most which is a plus in any movie featuring kids. The movie trys really hard to be sweet and charming, and although it was enjoyable, I wouldn't call it a must-see. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 88%.

Movie Review #68

2008-10-13T09:41:00.003-04:00

"Stardust" is a quirky fantasy movie based on a Neil Gaiman novel. It was definitely a strange movie, with a plot I won't even begin to try and explain, big visual effects, and 'Princess Bride' type humour. Although all the elements didn't meld together perfectly to make an amazing movie, all in all it was pretty entertaining and a welcome change from the usual Hollywood fare. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 76% which I thought was rather on the low side (but hey, I liked it better than "Juno").

Movie Review #67

2008-09-21T09:05:00.003-04:00

I had big expectations for "Juno" and I was sorely disappointed. I really don't understand why everyone thought this was such a fabulous movie. Juno spoke in quirky one-liners for the entire movie. Everything she said was clever or funny or referenced something obscure from the '70s. And how many 16-year-olds do you know who can do that while they completely selflessly decide to have a baby for someone else? But despite this selflessness, she treats the father of the baby like an idiot, until she realizes, like, she's totally in love with him. And the indie soundtrack was annoying. Between this movie and the latest Batman flick, I realize I'm determined to dislike what the masses love. In a movie like Juno, this stunning character trait of having the ability to go against the grain and be my own person would make me insanely well-loved and popular and cool. Too bad that doesn't happen in real life. Of course, on Rotten Tomatoes it scored big at 93%.

Movie Review #66

2008-09-15T19:28:00.002-04:00

I finally made it to the Toronto International Film Festival this year and saw a documentary "The Dungeon Masters" which focuses on three Dungeons and Dragons "Masters" (game leaders) and how they came to be so obsessed with the game. The documentary does a good job at slowing peeling the layers of the player's psychology to provide some understanding on why they are so into D & D. It also provides lots of laughs on the way (it is not difficult, though, to make fun of the uber-dorky world of D & D). Two of the players evoke sympathy while the third just seems like a total asshole. All seem to have a need to control a little world of their own while the rest of their lives are in some disarray. Remember, bad dice need to be punished !

Movie Review #66

2008-08-31T11:16:00.003-04:00

I thought I might dislike "Knocked Up" because I heard it was sort of sexist, with again the dorky unemployed guy somehow getting the hot girl with no sense of humour. But most of the film was pretty funny, with the loser guy talk getting the biggest laughs. The main problem was that it was too long (2 hr 13 min for a comedy?), losing steam and humour near the end as characters shouting at each other replaced the jokes, and it had a pretty stupid delivery scene. Would have much better with some editing. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a shockingly high 91%

Book Review #58

2008-08-17T20:02:00.002-04:00

I read "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky in short spurts over a very long period of time, so this review will be short. Basically the author discusses new technology and how it has changed the way people can organize. He's got some good points on why some social tools work while other ones don't. That's all I have to say today. 21 Amazon reviewers gave this book an average 4.5 stars.

Movie Review #65

2008-08-04T19:36:00.002-04:00

OMG, "The Dark Knight" is the best movie ever made! Nooooot. Well I finally had to see what all the hype was about. So yes, it had big action sequences and numerous plot twists and a very twisted Joker. But at the end of the day, it didn't leave me with any lasting feeling. The darkness of the Joker isn't something I really enjoy watching, especially after a news week of a random beheading. I don't think making movies darker and darker is such a great trend. What ever happened to the fun summer action movie? And there were some big plot holes at the end that bugged me a lot (anyone who knows me knows that a big plot hole will send a movie sliding down my personal rating scale). So go see Ironman instead. Or even Batman Begins.

Movie Review #64

2008-08-04T10:16:00.002-04:00

"WALL-E" was a pretty good movie, even if it had one of the worst previews I had ever seen. The computer animation these kids comes up astounds this old lady's brain. Who knew you could make a movie about robot love in the midst of an apocalyptic earth? Rotten Tomatoes gave it 96% (even more than the best movie ever made, the Dark Knight!)

Book Review #57

2008-07-13T21:00:00.002-04:00

I had some big hopes for "The Better World Handbook - Small Changes that Make a Big Difference" by Ellis Jones and others. It started out strong, giving good arguments for not being cynical and really believing that small changes, cumulatively, is what often starts the snowball of big change. It then goes through "7 foundations for a better world" covering the principles of economic fairness, peace, ecological sustainability, deep democracy, social justice, simple living, and revitalized community, and gives a bunch of depressing statistics about how the world is so far away from such values. But when the book finally got to the changes, I found it was a lot of the same changes I have already thought about doing or know about. Maybe this book is better for people who haven't ever thought about making changes. My other disappointment was with the simplistic attitude is took to some major life-changing suggestions. For example, under the section "children" it mentions how we need to slow population growth. So the suggested actions are "limit your amount of children to 0, 1 or 2 kids", "adopt" or "be a foster parent". I'm not saying these are bad suggestions, but adopting or being a foster parent are not exactly simple and easy things to implement. Another disappointing point was that the chapter on political action was pretty short, considering a lot of the 7 foundations they first talked about required political action.
All in all, this is a book better for the newly enlightened person rather than the jaded old cynic. A whole 6 reviewers on Amazon.com gave this an average of 4.5 stars.

DVD review #4

2008-07-13T20:45:00.002-04:00

"Planet Earth" is a 4-DVD British-made series that spent $25 million capturing some amazing nature footage. Unlike a traditional nature documentary, each show focuses on one type of natural habitat (oceans, forests, tundra, etc.), skipping across the world and showing the most spectacular footage they could find. Unlike most modern documentaries, it doesn't try to depress us with pointing out how it all is dying away -- instead it aims to inspire with the wonders that are out there (okay, there's one exception with a dying polar bear). Truly there are landscapes and animals that are shown that I never knew existed (some bird mating rituals are way more exciting that the same old lion taking down a deer).
At the end of each section there is a little vignette showing the documentary team trying to get the footage -- I often found this part to be the most interesting part (and horrifying, in the case of the giant bat cave with meters of guano and cockroaches). Those people have some crazy patience -- some shots took weeks of waiting to get.
My only criticism is that sometimes the show is so focussed on showing off their great photography is that they can forget to tell you where they are shooting, or give a rather vague explanation. And much of the excitement is gleaned from predator - prey fights -- as I noticed the show on "forests" was a little boring due to the lack of such fighting.
Not having watched nature shows in some time, it is amazing how quickly one can forget that nature is really, truly cruel; it ain't Disneyfied furry animals -- it's eat or be eaten. It's amazing how one tends to always root for the prey animals -- even though in real life, we are the top predator.

Book Review #56

2008-05-20T19:12:00.002-04:00

I heard great things about George Monbiot's "Heat - How to Stop the Planet from Burning" but I couldn't really get into it. Basically Monbiot states the case that in order to stop global warming, we need to make a 90% cut in our carbon output by 2030. Then he goes through some major human needs, such as energy for homes and transportation, and outlines how it could be done. The most interesting part was near the beginning, where Monbiot talks about the global warming denial business, which apparently is partly funded by Phillip Morris (!!) (I'm still not sure why? Is cigarette smoke part of carbon output? Or are they just a stakeholder in all Evil industries?) and how sham "scientists" who are really industry-funded get popular media coverage. This despite the fact that any journalist who tries to investigate their credentials could uncover a bunch of broken references and made-up figures. The idea for carbon credits and trading was also a good idea. But the rest of the book was full of figures and math and didn't mean much to me, since the thought of the world cutting the carbon output that much by 2030 is absolutely laughable to me. It also is depressing since he drives home the point that all my little environmentally friendly actions are completely undone 1000 fold by my occasional airplane trips (which I am still not prepared to give up until everyone else does). And the difficulties with solar and wind power were also a big downer. People, prepare for the apocolypse! A mere 21 Amazon reviewers gave this book an average of 4.5 stars.

Movie Review #63

2008-05-10T09:17:00.004-04:00

I checked out "Ironman" in the new Yonge-Dundas AMC 24 (!) theatre which seems to have taken the last 8 years to build. Thumbs up to the theatre - digital screen and sound, more leg room and seats that tilt back, and best of all, absolutely no ads !! Just the AMC logo and some nice classical music before the previews start. That alone may get me there instead of Yonge-Eglinton which always makes me wonder why I am paying to watch ads. So Ironman is getting great reviews ... it is a bit different from the typical superhero movie because a 1) the hero is not the same old brooding, misunderstood strong silent guy; instead he is an arrogant playboy-type 2) the movie is funny and 3) the CGI stuff is pretty amazing. That being said, I found the best special effects were all about the Ironman suit; the big climax at the end with Ironman fighting his enemy was rather short and reminiscent of watching "Transformers". Two guys in big suits fighting always looks silly. All in all, a good summer popcorn action movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 93%.

Book Review #55

2008-04-27T19:04:00.002-04:00

I have a bad relationship with David Foster Wallace. Many years ago I slogged through the extremely long "Infinite Jest" and hated it. It took me some convincing by my sibling to read "Consider the Lobster" which is a collection of essays, on various topics from the adult pornography awards to a lobster festival to being on the road with the presidential campaign. I didn't read every essay - there was no way I could get through an essay on correct grammar and one on Joseph's Frank Dostoevsky (I don't even know what that means). I didn't love the book. Wallace has some great ideas, but I hate his writing style. It seems so over-the-top, pretentious, and scattered with so many bizarre and long footnotes that makes it painful to read. And he loves really long sentences. (His last essay in the book was full of text boxes and arrows, as if footnotes weren't annoying enough). It's the kind of writing only an English Major would like, or possibly, understand. What also shocked me, was in one of his essays about his hometown, he mentions his church. He doesn't exactly strike me as a big believer in God. Isn't he too cool for Church? This shall be the end of my relationship with David Foster Wallace.

Book Review #54

2008-04-27T17:05:00.003-04:00

I borrowed "On Beauty" by Zadie Smith from a friend, and I really had to finish it since I've had it for almost a year. The synopsis stolen from Amazon.com:

"Howard Belsey is a middle-class white liberal Englishman teaching abroad at Wellington, a thinly disguised version of one of the Ivies. He is a Rembrandt scholar who can't finish his book and a recent adulterer whose marriage is now on the slippery slope to disaster. His wife, Kiki, a black Floridian, is a warm, generous, competent wife, mother, and medical worker. Their children are Jerome, disgusted by his father's behavior, Zora, Wellington sophomore firebrand feminist and Levi, eager to be taken for a "homey," complete with baggy pants, hoodies and the ever-present iPod. This family has no secrets--at least not for long. They talk about everything, appropriate to the occasion or not. And, there is plenty to talk about...."

The fiction curse lives on ... I could never really get into this book. The plot jumped from character to character, but no one really seemed real, except for perhaps Howard. It seemed more like character studies than a plot .... there was no real climax, the book just ended after a while. I was skimming by the end. 191 Amazon reviewers gave it an average 3.5 stars.

Movie Review #62

2008-04-27T16:59:00.003-04:00

I saw "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" cause I felt like a dumb comedy and the reviews were quite favourable. Indeed it was pretty funny, although probably funnier at the theatre than if I had rented it at home. It even dared to have a "R" rating which was great because it kept the teenagers out of the theatre. And for once, I was willing to forgive the familiar "normal guy gets super-hot girl" theme because for once, there was very little gratuitous female nudity but plenty of full-frontal gratuitous male nudity. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 85%.

Movie Review #61

2008-04-14T19:23:00.002-04:00

"Hot Fuzz" is made by the same people who brought us "Shaun of the Dead" which I have not seen yet because I thought it would offend me with too much zombie gore. Well turns out "Hot Fuzz" is way more violent that "Shaun", and I survived it. The tale is of a London cop who is so successful at catching criminals, his jealous higher-ups send him to a small peaceful village in the country side. That is, until the bodies start piling up! Even though the film passed my personal G-rated violence meter, I did like it a lot because it was very, very funny. I was cracking up the entire time. It basically spoofs the typical cop-buddy flick and slowly turns into a typical cop-buddy flick -- satire that is actually funny! And it had the most ridiculous ending ever. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 89%.

Movie Review #60

2008-04-14T19:10:00.002-04:00

"Thank you for Smoking" was one of these movies that was supposed to be a funny satire but rarely actually made me laugh. It shows the point of view of a spin doctor that works for the tobacco industry, and how he shows his 12-year-old son that his job is honorable. The scene where the anti-smoking lobby kidnaps him and tries to kill him by slapping on a bunch of nicotine patches on him was the funniest part of the movie. It was well produced and entertaining enough, but at the end I wasn't really sure what the point was or if I got anything out of it. And the sex scenes with Katie Holmes were so brief that you know that Scientology has something against impure depictions of its followers. I can't believe this film was "bad" enough to garner an R rating -- the US ratings system is crazy . Katie, go back to Dawson's Creek! You can't act now that Scientology has kidnapped your free will! Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 86%.

Book Review #53

2008-04-02T19:56:00.002-04:00

I finally finished the 560 page epic "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Jared Diamond. Like "Guns, Germs and Steel", the point of the book can be summed up in the introduction, with the rest of the book backs up his points in sometimes mind-numbing detail. Diamond's 5-points on why certain societies collapse are 1) environmental damage 2) climate change 3) hostile neighbours 4) decreased support from friendly neighbours 5) the society's response to its problems. This book was alternately fascinating and boring -- I enjoyed reading about the Vikings in Greenland (they had problem with point 3, since they would kill any outsiders they encountered; they starved to death because they had a taboo against eating fish). I also learned that Iceland is one of the most fragile yet successfully managed environments, and that Australia may only be capable of supporting 8 million people. Some of the details about the archaeological evidence was fascinating -- who knew that we can learn from fossilized sheep lice? But at other points the details regarding evidence gets repetitive and too detailed. However, overall it was a good read. The last chapters deals with whether are own planet is headed for a collapse, and although Diamond tried hard not to be completely pessimistic, a lot of it is pretty depressing.

DVD review #3

2008-03-16T17:08:00.003-04:00

"30 Rock" is my new favourite show. Tina Fey is my new hero. And I feel we share the same brain and the same odd quirks of personality (except that she's better looking and funnier than me). Can't wait until the season 2 DVD.

Book Review #51 and #52

2008-02-23T19:57:00.002-05:00

While lying on a beach in Mexico, I chose some food books for beach-reading: "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan, and the Pollan endorsed "What to Eat" by dietician Marion Nestle. Pollan's book discusses the errors of nutritional science (it is almost impossible to study the effects of one factor in the diet in a human population) and the false science of reductive nutritionism --- reducing the nutrition of an overall diet to components of vitamins, minerals, fibre where food is processed, nutrients are added back, and the food is marketed as healthy. Pollan's basic premise for healthy eating is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants". He also brings up points rarely discussed -- in human history, humans have thrived on all sorts of diets - mostly meat, mostly vegetables, high-fat, low-fat, etc. The fact is that humans through evolution have thrived on their local diet, which explains how traditional cow-herding cultures have lots of lactase, while the rest of the world is lactase-deficient. The one thing that is true, Pollan says, is that the Western Diet is universally bad, with the high sugar levels, highly processed food, and industrialized food production that produces substandard products. Pollan's rules are to

1) Eat nothing that your grandmother or great-grand mother would not recognize. (Being of mixed heritage, I don't know whether I should eat spicy curries or boiled plain potatoes).
2) Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar b) unpronounceable c) more than 5 in number or that include high-fructose corn syrup
3) Avoid food products that make health claims
4) Shop the peripheries of the supermaket and stay out of the middle
5) Get out of the supermarket whenever possible
He also suggests choosing healthy animal products (i.e. organic / well-raised), buy a freezer to stock up on quality meat and produce, eat like an omnivore (diversify), eat well-grown food from healthy soils, eat wild foods when you can, pay more and eat less, eat meals at a table, with others, eat slowly, and cook and grow food if possible.

Nestle's book covers a lot of the same ground, and she also preaches the more whole grains, fruits and veggies, avoid processed food approach. She examines the modern supermarket and covers the major food groups and the dilemmas with each, touching on details like hydrogenated oils and omega-3s that Pollan doesn't cover. I would have never thought a nutrition book would be so interesting, but even though I have read a lot on nutrition, I learned tons from this book. From a historical perspective she discusses a lot of the evils of the individual lobbying groups on promoting their own foods any way they can, and the huge influence they have in government regulations. (For example, the recommended amounts of dairy servings has been increased from 2 to 3 in the USA purely to lobbying -- there are dairy-free cultures who have less osteoporosis than Western cultures) A lot of the regulation-type information (like labeling) is USA specific so I'm not sure how it compares to what is going on in Canada. Some of the information is quite depressing, for example the chapters on fish show the suppression of safety info regarding mercury content, and that the fishing industry itself doesn't seem to care if they overfish themselves to extinction, leaving not a whole lot for consumers to do. Again and again, Nestle is angry that all the big food decisions (eg safety, origin of food labeling) is put upon the consumer to figure out while the government shirks the responsibility. This book also inspires one to eat better and more ethically ... and although I didn't do too well with the all-inclusive buffet, hopefully I'll fare a little better back at home. Once I finish off the bag of chessy poofs.

Movie Review #59

2008-02-10T09:59:00.000-05:00

"Ratatouille" was enjoyable fare with amazing computer animation and a family-friendly storyline. For all the rave reviews (Rotten Tomatoes gave it 96%) I thought it might have been funnier and edgier, but maybe all it takes today to make a high-ranking movie is to make a film that doesn't completely suck.

DVD review #2

2008-02-03T09:21:00.001-05:00

I would like to say I finished all of "The Sopranos" but less than halfway through the last season I just couldn't do it anymore. After my "Six Feet Under" experience I swore I would stop watching when it didn't get enjoyable anymore. "The Sopranos", like so many series, peaked earlier on and it would have been better to end the series at its peak. The best thing about the show was the length allowed it to build and explore so many complex relationships. Tony was such a compelling character, balancing his cruel mafia life with a family that was falling apart and his own psychological turmoil. And the show had brilliant moments of humour and drama that was often superior to anything you would see at the movies. On the down side there was a level of glee in exploiting the sex and violence of the mafia world, which I got really tired with by the end. And by the end, some of the shows were rather boring and dragged on. Anyway, it was much easier for me to stop watching and read the plot synopsis' on-line ... I could even catch the last scene on YouTube.

Book Review #50

2008-01-28T19:14:00.000-05:00

"Getting to Maybe" by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman, and Michael Patton is a "guide to social innovation", a study on how social change happens, and the complex relationships between the individual and society. It wasn't a bad book, but it is aimed more at people who are within a non-profit or business or government organization. I didn't really get much out it, and I'm still not sure how to change the world. I'm really tired today so that's my whole review.

Movie Review #58

2008-01-20T13:52:00.001-05:00

"Transformers" - well what can you expect from a movie based on little toys? It started out deadly serious, then went into teenage movie silliness with badly failed attempts at humour, then went all-out goofy once the robots really started kicking ass. But sort of entertaining in a bizarre way. Would have benefited from about 30 minutes edited. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 57%, lower than I expected.

Movie Review #57

2008-01-12T10:50:00.000-05:00

I think I chose the 1964 film "Dr. Strangelove - or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb" because it was one of the few movies on Rotten Tomatoes to get 100%, and because I've always been fascinated by that weird title. "Dr. Strangelove" is a satire on the nuclear arms race; a crazy general commands a nuclear strike on Russia, and the President tries to to stop it. It was a funny movie, more funny-weird than funny-ha ha. James Earl Jones has his first movie role -- see him when he's thin and is voice isn't so deep! I learned from the DVD documentary that the originial ending had a giant cream-pie fight in the War Room, which may have made a better ending than what was in the film. Ah, the good 'ole days when we worried about nuclear annihilation and not global warming ....

Book Review #49

2008-01-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

Nick Hornby's latest book "Slam" is a young adult novel aimed at the 9-12 set. It features the tale of a 15-year old boy who finds a girlfriend that ends up pregnant. Nick does a good job of getting into the typical slightly-dense brain of a young teenage boy. Our protagonist talks about his problems to his Tony Hawk poster (who talks back only from quotes from his own autobiography) which is pretty amusing. There are lots of funny lines relating to how only a 15-year-old can think. One thing I didn't really like was the gimmick of having the main character being whizzed into the future for short periods of time, but maybe I'm just sick of time-traveling in books.... 15 Amazon reviewers gave this book an average of 4 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review #56

2007-12-31T10:43:00.000-05:00

Just saw "Futurama - Bender's Big Score" which is a direct-to-video full-length Futurama episode. I would say that overall it isn't as good as the individual episodes, with more silly humour and less clever satire. Futurama works overall better as a 30 minute show than a 90 minute video. However, it did make me nostalgic to watch the TV shows over again. 162 Amazon reviewers gave it an average of 4 stars.

Book Review #48

2007-12-31T10:35:00.001-05:00

I had heard that Christopher Hitchens "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" was a better book than Dawkins "The God Delusion" but I would disagree. Dawkins could be a bit obnoxious, but also funny and entertaining, and definitely wrote the more readable book of the two. Hitchens writes as if he assumes all of his readers have degrees in history and English lit. I don't, so I had no idea what he was talking about half the time when he talked history. Dawkins touches more on the philosophy and science of determining the nature of existence, while Hitchens discusses more on the actual contents of the Bible / Koran and the lack of evidence for the events discussed in it; this was probably the most educational part of the book for myself. But all in all, I didn't get much from the book and wouldn't recommend it. 686 Amazon reviewers (too bad it wasn't 666 ... haha) gave it an average of 3.5 stars.

Book Review #47

2007-12-09T10:43:00.002-05:00

Lot of people seem to be loving "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. I am not one of them. The book follows the love story between Clare and Henry. Henry happens to time-travel between different points in his life, mostly going backward, sometimes going forward. My three big beefs with this book: 1) The time travel makes no sense. Listen, I'm a sensible person; I realize in the history of literature, no time travel book has ever made sense. But, in this novel, the author breaks her own internal rules of time travel constantly. Henry usually won't tell anyone what happens in the future, because that messes things up. Oh, except that lots of times he tells people information. He even wins the lottery to buy a house, a fact that's treated like nothing (why isn't he spending his life getting rich?). The very last scene breaks a key internal rule, just for the sake of dramatic effect. 2) This was supposed to be a Great Love Story. But I never got a sense of the characters. Clare is a rich girl who seems to fall in love with Henry just cause he shows up near her house every since she was a kid. I never get any sense of Clare's real personality. She's an artist. That's about it. Henry is a punk-rock lover, an occasional jerk who beats up people, oh, and a librarian. Uh huh. Again, the only reason Clare and Henry seem to like each other is because "it was meant to be". Oh yeah, and they have lots and lots and lots of great sex all the time. Maybe is should be a great Lust Story. The beginning is actually a little creepy to me, with a much older Henry hanging out with a much younger Clare knowing they are going to me married one day. And in real time, Clare is 8 years younger, which is extra creepy. I guess she has a thing for older men. 3) Halfway through the book, I got really fed up, when Clare, at the ripe old of 24, decides she has to have a baby. I am absolutely sick of reading fiction books where all the woman care about is having a baby, and it is a way for everything to become Happy and Wonderful and all the hurts and pains of the world are now okay .... I'm so sick of it. So I started skimming the rest of the book just to get to the ending. The second half of the book was ridiculous, I have no idea why this novel is so popular. 1541 Amazon reviewers gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I'm going back to reading non-fiction books on the impending environmental armageddon.

Movie Review #55

2007-12-03T21:07:00.000-05:00

"Beowulf" is a bizarre, 3-d computer-generated cartoon based on real actors. If I knew what the plot was before I went to see it, I'd probably skip it. It's a very old legend that doesn't have much of a point (according to Wikipedia, it sounds like the movie takes some liberties to add some cohension to the story). Stretched out into a full-length movie, it got really boring. Plus I was stuck in a large IMAX theatre and really had to pee by the end of the film. The 3-D was pretty neat, especially the landscape shots ... it made me think that the "Lord of the Rings" films would look pretty cool in 3-D. The CGI actors looked a bit like toy doll versions of their real selves. There was no humour in the film but everyone laughed when Angelina Jolie showed up as a beautiful naked woman demon, who had a long tail and looked like she was wearing ... high heels. Uh huh. And even though this was a 14A computer-generated film, it was really quite gruesome in parts. Really, is that necessary? I need to stick to my PG violence level. Also bizarre was that the Saturday night crowd in downtown Toronto was so quiet and well-behaved. Now, that is quite strange. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 70%, really quite high. If you saw it in non-3D it would really suck.

Book Review #46

2007-11-18T10:01:00.000-05:00

Douglas Coupland tends to inspire a love-them or hate-them feeling for his books. His latest novel "The Gum Thief" has been getting okay but not amazing reviews. But I like most of his books, because I'm okay with the notion that it's his observations on modern life that provide the interest, more so that the plot or characters. Douglas must be going through a mid-life crisis, because he returns to a darker, more depressing tone. The novel is written from many points of view, and includes a novel-within-a-novel ("Glove Pond") being written by one of the characters I definitely enjoyed this book, even if the ending was a little unsatisfying. I found it amusing how he set it in "Staples", the most depressing store in the world (I so agree - those stores are soulless, and there are the most unhelpful teenagers working there). Also amusing was the 23-year-old girl's personal revelation when she runs into Johnny Depp.... not that I could relate. Random fact: look up "The Gum Thief" on YouTube and view cutsy promo videos put out by the book company. Random fact: people who read "The Gum Thief" don't post Amazon reviews (there are only 6 on the USA site).

Movie Review #54

2007-11-04T10:23:00.000-05:00

"This Film Is Not Yet Rated" is a documentary about the USA movie ratings board and how ridiculous and biased the process is. The film is okay, but not as gripping as other documentaries on more serious subjects. All the interviews get sort of boring; the only excitement is watching the filmmaker hire a private investigator to find out the identities of the board members. You can pretty well learn all the interesting points by reading the Wikipedia entry:
"Other revelations in the film include: the discovery that many ratings board members either have children 18 and over or have no children at all (typically, the MPAA has suggested it hires only parents with children between the ages of 5 and 17); that the board seems to treat homosexual material much more harshly than heterosexual material (this assertion is supported by an MPAA spokesperson’s statement in USA Today that "We don't create standards; we just follow them"); that the board's raters receive no training and are deliberately chosen because of their lack of expertise in media literacy or child development; that senior raters have direct contact in the form of required meetings with studio personnel after movie screenings; and that the MPAA's appeals board is just as secretive as the ratings board, its members being mostly movie theater chain and studio executives. Also included on the appeals board are two members of the clergy (one Catholic and one Episcopalian, who may or may not have voting power)."

So that's pretty well it. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 83%.

Book Review #45

2007-11-01T20:17:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, I just couldn't finish "What is your Dangerous Idea?: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable" edited by John Brockman. The book consists of short essays (short meaning a couple of paragraphs up to a few pages) of what leading intellectuals would consider their most "dangerous" idea. To be honest, I have come across a lot of these ideas in my other readings (damn, I'm so well read now.) Some ideas were lame (thanks for solving global warming in 3 pages) and others were just overly technical. When there was something interesting, the essays seemed too short. 1/3 of the way in, I started skimming. I guess I rather concentrate on one, really good idea. 9 Amazon reviewers gave this an average of 4.5 stars.

Movie Review #53

2007-10-21T21:16:00.000-04:00

"Hackers" was awesome! Oh wait, I meant to say that the soundtrack was awesome. Someone lent us this movie so we could laugh at the cutting-edge technospeak. The winning line was "Wow! A 28.8 bps modem!" Also bizarre was the romance between a 20-year-old Angelina Jolie and the other main actor Jonny Lee Miller (who played "Sickboy" in "Trainspotting"). That dude is probably thinking today, Woah! I can't believe I made out with Angelina Jolie back in '95! Now's she is part of the Most Famous Couple in the World! A few reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes gave this film 37% (a little low, I think).

Book Review #44

2007-10-14T11:25:00.000-04:00

"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan is a great, but depressing look at food. Michael looks at the dominance of corn and corn-based food in today's Western market (he likens koalas:eucalypt leaves as Americans:corn). This leads to a discussion on industrialized beef (brought up on corn, which they were never meant to eat), and a personal viewpoint on hunting and gathering when Michael goes looking for mushrooms and hunting for boar. The sections on corn and beef were the best by far, although I still don't understand the economics of growing so much corn that it rots -- but I do understand more of how corn has come to dominate agriculture. Also fascinating was the look at some cutting-edge farmers who are trying to use a mini-ecosystem on their farm to produce meat and vegetables ... it gives a powerful argument to why eating some meat could be a good thing for the earth. And the look at the production of organic salad shows just how industrialized the process is. The hunting / gathering stuff was less interesting -- basically Michael finds out that hunting is thrilling and exciting, but having to clean and dress meat is as disgusting as you could imagine it. Overall this book leaves me with more guilt about not eating all locally produced, organic food and meats. Well, at least I buy the organic, cruelty free eggs. 279 Amazon reviewers gave this book an average of 4.5 stars.

Movie Review #52

2007-10-14T11:20:00.000-04:00

"For Your Consideration" was rather disappointing. It just wasn't as funny as I had hoped. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 51%.

Moview Review #51

2007-10-14T11:15:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure why I rented "Something's Gotta Give". I suppose it's because I heard so many people say how hilarious it was. There were some funny parts, but the movie dragged by the end (comedies should never be over 2 hours !! 90 minutes is better ...) and delved into familiar romantic comedy ridiculousness. It got 69% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Book Review #43

2007-09-25T19:31:00.000-04:00

I believe I read "Big Babies -- Or: Why Can't We Just Grow Up?" by Michael Bywater because of a favourable review in a newspaper. After reading this book, all I can think of is ... Can Someone Publish all Of My Crazy Rantings? That would be a good way to make a living. I thought this was a more serious book of the infantilization of everyone in society ... but it is just rants about everything that bugs the author in relation to the subject. I think he is supposed to be funny, but I wasn't laughing. In fact, I agreed with a lot of what he ranted about, but he just comes off as a cantankerous, cranky, very annoying old English man. (Although I did enjoy this line: "But in an accompanying press release, typed out by someone whose soul must surely been sucked out by the Dementors of Azkaban...") And most of his points weren't anything too groundbreaking. Okay, advertising treats us all like babies and tries to brainwash us. Yeah, thanks for that original thought. Other ideas seem a little ridiculous ... he seems very upset about all the signage in cities. I guess London would run well without traffic lights and signs. He also gets very upset about people in their 30s and 40s that listen to music that 20somethings listen to. There is only 1 review on Amazon, so apparently most people were smarter than me and avoided this book.

Moview Review #50

2007-09-09T11:52:00.001-04:00

The "Simpsons Movie" was like a really-long, very funny episode of the Simpsons (like the ones that were on 8 years ago). But as I heard the CBC radio reviewer say, any true fan may feel a little bit of disappointment that it's not "The Best Movie Ever Made". That's about all there is to say about the film. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 88%.

Movie Review #49

2007-09-09T11:39:00.000-04:00

I rented "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" for some Canadian content in my life. When a body is found hanging over a road sign at the Quebec - Ontario, a bad-boy Quebecois cop and a straight and narrow Toronto cop have to work together on the case. This is a weird movie (and not just because it is bilingual) which switches from humorous banter of French-English tensions to occasional serious moments of tension and violence as they hunt down a serial killer. Basically all the banter between the cops is quite hilarious; there are some truly great lines. But I found the switch to a more dramatic edge to be disorientating ... it would have been better if they kept with the light tone for the whole movie. A mere 7 reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes gave it 57%.