Reviews and More

I think it’s safe to say that most moviegoers have an irrational opinion about at least one famous actor or actress in Hollywood. For me, it’s Johnny Depp. I cannot stand him and usually end up hating his movies, despite the fact that they are (more often than not) highly acclaimed by both critics and audiences alike. I have no idea why I don’t like his acting; I just don’t.

I had heard that the 2004 film Finding Neverland, based on the true story of Sir J.M. Barrie’s odd relationship with a woman and her cildren, was very good. But I stayed away from it until now because Depp was in it. What a mistake that was!

The truth is that Finding Neverland was an absolutely delightful movie in nearly every respect. Depp stars as Barrie, who, back in 1903 was just coming off a big box office failure. Charles Frohman (played by Dustin Hoffman) is the man who owns and operates the playhouse where Barrie’s works are staged, and he demands a big hit the next time out or Barrie is finished.

We get the feeling that Barrie is the kind of writer who requires a great deal of inspiration to get something out on the page. Fortunately, he finds an incredible source of inspiration as he’s reading on a park bench one day. That’s when he observes the widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and her four boys playing in the distance. Barrie ends up becoming friends with the family, and spends more time with them than he does with his own wife (played by Radha Mitchell).

The rest of the film shows how Barrie’s relationship with the family blooms, how other people start talking about the unusual arrangement, how Barrie’s wife wonders what’s going on, how Barrie tries to win over the eldest child Peter, and how Barrie finally comes up with the story of Peter Pan.

I was completely won over by this story and by all the performances in it. I can finally see why everyone says that Johnny Depp is one of the best actors of our generation, and I really enjoyed Freddie Highmore’s turn as Peter. Winslet also held her own as the sick widow, and is slowly becoming one of my favorite actresses.

Finding Neverland is a wonderful film that is both entertaining and emotionally charged. I give it 9 stars out of 10 and think that you’ll really enjoy it!

Everybody knows that buying magazines one by one at the newsstand isn’t a very economical approach to satisfying your reading habit. Instead, it’s much cheaper to subscribe to the magazines you read most often. And the best way to subscribe is to do so through a website like MagsDirect.com.

MagsDirect.com offers a huge selection of magazine subscriptions at nice discounts. I checked the prices on two of the titles that I currently subscribe to, and sure enough, the advertised prices were as low as anything I’ve ever paid before. In fact, MagsDirect.com consistently offers the lowest prices allowed by the publishers, so you know you’ll be getting a good deal. You can also send gift subscriptions through that site, so go check it out!

I first came across The Aeneid in high school Latin. We spent an entire year translating a couple of the Books of that epic, which was a task I actually enjoyed. As a result, I went on to read The Aeneid in its entirety on my own a few years later.

The story is about the founding of Rome and follows the adventures of Aeneas as he escapes from Troy after the city was sacked by the Greeks and makes his way to a new land. The journey is arduous — mostly because he has incurred the wrath of Juno — but he eventually makes it.

Critics of this book claim that it is little more than a second-rate ripoff of both The Odyssey (the first six books dealing with Aeneas’s travels) and The Iliad (the last six books leading up to the final showdown with Turnus). I don’t really get into those scholarly debates though; I just know that I enjoyed The Aeneid more than The Odyssey, but slightly less than The Iliad.

By the way, the translation does matter. I recommend Robert Fitzgerald’s version — you won’t be disappointed!

I just heard of a service that I think sounds great for those of us who often work on more than one PC throughout the day. I’m always switching between my laptop and desktop, and it’s a pain when I have to go retrieve a particular file from the computer that I’m not on. That’s why I think I’ll give iRemotePC a try.

iRemotePC offers users free remote desktop and file transfer service, which means I’ll be able to access the files on either of my computers as long as they’re hooked up to the Internet (they always are anyway). All it takes is a simple download and I’ll be good to go. I can’t wait to try this out!!

I’ve never been much of a Cameron Diaz fan. Sure, I’ve seen (and liked) a bunch of her films, but I did so in spite of her rather than because of her. And I’ve never felt compelled to watch one of her movies more than once — not even There’s Something About Mary. So I wasn’t in a huge rush to see In Her Shoes, the 2005 Curtis Hanson film that also stars Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine.

I finally did get around to it, however, and was pleasantly surprised at what I saw. Again, Diaz wasn’t the highlight of the film for me, but at least she didn’t bug as much as she normally does.

She stars as a completely aimless woman named Maggie Feller. Though in her late 20’s or early 30’s, Maggie doesn’t have a job or a place of her own. Instead, she spends time shuttling between her father’s house and her sister’s apartment, depending on who will put up with her for the time being.

Maggie’s sister Rose (played by Collette) is the complete opposite of her. Rose is a lawyer who is smart, successful, and independent. In addition, Rose is the “plain” sister, while Maggie is the better-looking one who has no trouble getting men to sleep with her.

That turns into a problem when one of Maggie’s conquests happens to be a guy that Rose was starting to really like. When Rose walks in on them, she understandably flips out and tells Maggie that she never wants to see her again.

The rest of the movie follows each sister separately as they try to carry on without each other. Maggie goes to find her long-lost grandmother (MacLaine) in Florida, while Rose quits her job and then takes up with an ex co-worker named Simon (Mark Feuerstein).

I thought In Her Shoes was an excellent movie about female relationships and the bond of sisterhood. The first 30 minutes dragged a big, but after that, the story became very interesting and engrossing. I was worried that this was going to be just another chick flick, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine both turned in wonderful performances here. I vaguely remembered Collette as the mom in The Sixth Sense, but haven’t really seen her in anything else, so her turn as Rose was a nice surprise. MacLaine, of course, is a great actress, so I was definitely expecting a solid outing from her (and wasn’t disappointed).

I give this movie 7 stars out of 10 and definitely recommend that you see it!

I’ve lived in suburbs my entire life. I grew up 9 miles away from downtown Chicago, and as a kid I’d often dream about living in one of the towering skyscrapers that I always saw. But I never quite got to that point, and now that I have a child, I doubt that city living is in my future.

That’s why I get so jealous every time I hear that another one of my single friends is moving downtown. A couple weeks ago, one of these friends brought a brochure of Chicago condos to look at when we met at a restaurant for lunch. Of course all the units offered spectacular views of the city and would allow her to be right in the middle of all the action, which is exactly what she wants. She hasn’t found anything yet, but when she does, I know I’ll be a frequent houseguest!

I’ve got friends and relatives living all over the world, so sometimes it can be a nightmare for me to coordinate phone calls. I can never remember the different time zones, whether or not a particular place observes daylight savings time, etc. That’s why I’m glad I found TimeAndDate.com.

TimeAndDate.com makes it easy for me to tell exactly what time it is anywhere in the world. But there’s so much more to the site than just the World Clock. For example, one of the coolest features it the Day and Night World Map, which shows you the position of the sun at the current time and shows you which countries are experiencing daylight and which ones are engulfed in darkness. You can also determine at what time the sun will rise and set in a particular location, set your own personal clock for the locations you want, and perform instant date calculations for future events.

All in all, TimeAndDate.com is a very cool, very useful site. Check it out!