Reviews and More

Long before bespectacled boy wizard Harry emerged on the scene, the most famous Potter in the literary was Beatrix, author of some 23 children’s books, including The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. I loved Beatrix Potter’s books when I was a child (I think I preferred the wonderful illustrations to the stories themselves), but never really gave much thought to the author’s life and how she got the books published. So when I heard about the 2006 film Miss Potter, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to gain some additional insight into Potter’s life and times.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens in London of the early 1900s, where Beatrix Potter (played by Renée Zellweger) is an unmarried woman in her thirties, living at home with her mother and father. We immediately get the sense that there’s something unusual about Beatrix: she talks to her drawings and calls her creations her friends. Indeed, they are the only friends Beatrix has.

Beatrix is also an oddity in that she refuses to accept the Victorian notion that the only things women should ever aspire to do are get married, have children, and run a household. Instead, Beatrix wants to be a writer, so she takes her portfolio to the Warne publishing house where she presents The Tale of Peter Rabbit to brothers Harold (Anton Lesser) and Fruing (David Bamber). Much to Beatrix’s surprise, the brothers agree to publish the book, and to give Beatrix full control over how the finished product will look.

Soon after Beatrix’s initial visit to the Warnes, she receives a follow-up visit from a third brother, this one named Norman (Ewan McGregor). It turns out that Norman had been bothering Harold and Fruing about joining the firm and contributing to the family business, but since Norman had no experience, his elder brothers were reluctant to take him on. Then they figured that Beatrix’s “bunny book” would be a great project to pass off to Norman: it would get him off their backs and if he screwed up, it wouldn’t be a big loss.

Norman tells Beatrix that he understands what his brothers are doing, but he’s intent on showing them that they’re wrong about him. As a result, he takes Beatrix’s book very seriously and puts a lot of thought into the printing, binding, and marketing of Peter Rabbit. Beatrix works closely with Norman throughout the process, and they’re both very proud of the way the book turns out. Moreover, they’re ecstatic when The Tale of Peter Rabbit becomes an instant hit, leading them to immediately start planning for a follow-up.

The rest of the film then deals with various aspects of Beatrix’s life after her initial success with Peter Rabbit, including her budding romantic relationship with Norman; her close friendship with Norman’s sister Millie (Emily Watson); an unexpected tragedy; and Beatrix’s move to the countryside where she purchased several working farms and fought to preserve the land.

My Reaction: I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie! It was so easy to get involved in the story and it was just so different from everything else that I’ve been watching lately that I couldn’t help but like it. That’s not to say it was without its problems, but still — all things considered, it was pretty good.

I never realized that Beatrix Potter was such a strong-willed woman or that she had to overcome so much resistance from her mother regarding both her books and her unwillingness to marry any of the men that her mother selected for her. I also had no idea that Beatrix Potter was so involved in land preservation back then or that her legacy in that cause lives on to this day.

As far as the cast went, I thought Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson gave excellent performances here. Watson in particular did a great job in her limited role as Millie, and I have to concur with other reviewers who wondered if she would have been the better choice as Beatrix. While Zellweger was okay, someone wrote that her performance was “strained” — and that’s precisely the right word here. Just look at her facial expression in 90 percent of the scenes. Strained is the only way to describe it.

Overall, I felt that Miss Potter was a pleasant departure from the typical Hollywood fare being trotted out in front of audiences today. I give it 7.0 stars out of 10, and with a running time of just 92 minutes, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t at least give this film a try!

Whenever I watch movies in which the action takes place a hundred or more years ago, I wonder how the set decorators decide on what kind of furniture and other props to use in each scene. Do they refer to books from the time period? Do they consult historians? Do they just rely on their own imaginations? I would hope that they’d check books and photos from the time period whenever possible in order to give the film a more authentic feel, but I guess you never know what happens in Hollywood!

Then once they decide on a particular style, do they have a crew that builds everything from scratch? That sounds pretty labor-intensive and time-consuming, so maybe they just order the bigger set pieces from Century furniture or something like that. I’ve seen Century’s Claridge collection, and can tell you that it would look perfect on the set of some period piece directed by Ang Lee!

Anyway, I’m starting to get interested in what happens behind the scenes of movies, so maybe I’ll look up a definitive answer soon.

Are any of you readers out there Annette Bening fans? I first noticed her in The American President when she played that lobbyist that the widowed president falls in love with, and I really liked her as Lester Burnham’s real estate agent wife in American Beauty (for which she received an Oscar Nomination for outstanding lead actress).

However, I haven’t seen Bening in any major releases since then, which makes me wonder what she’s been up to in the past few years. Do any of you guys know if she currently has any projects in the works? I’d really like to see some of her other films — without having to resort to Mars Attacks!

Last night’s Entourage was a filler episode that didn’t serve to advance any of the season-long story arcs at all. So we didn’t get any more info on Vince’s next project with Billy, nor did we hear anything more about how Medellín is being received in the industry (meaning speculation from the leaked trailer). Instead, we got two subplots, one involving a bet among the guys and the other involving Ari’s quest to get his son into the same exclusive private school that his daughter goes to.

Vince/Eric/Turtle/Drama: Drama thinks Eric has been moping around over Sloan for far too long. According to Drama, Eric’s problem is that he can’t have unemotional, detached sex. He always has to be nice to the girl, follow up with phone calls and flowers, etc. That’s why E hasn’t been able to bounce back since the big breakup. Eric, of course, denies that this is the case, so Drama proposes a bet: He’s got $5,000 that says Turtle will hook up with a stranger before E does. Vince agrees to the bet and takes E to a hotel pool. Drama takes Turtle to an Internet cafe… to check out Craigslist!!!

Eric ends up meeting some British chick named Heather, but he can barely talk to her. He’s nervous or whatever, and doesn’t seem that interested in her. Then, he sees Sloan at the club, which really throws him off his game. They have a very awkward conversation, and E somehow gets the idea that he should call Sloan later to resolve their relationship once and for all. Too bad that when he does call her, she says that she moved on long ago. That’s when E decides to go back to Heather at the hotel.

Meanwhile, Drama finds some strange girl for Turtle. They meet in a parking lot, and she’s far better looking than either of them expected. But Turtle feels that there’s something not quite right about her, especially when she sends him to pick up her dry cleaning before coming over to her place and especially when the item Turtle picks up is a big rabbit suit! It turns out that the woman is a “plushie,” someone who likes to have sex while dressed up in plush costumes!! That’s just too weird for Turtle, but Drama has no problem stepping in to get some action.

Ari/Mrs. Ari: The principal at the private school where Ari’s daughter goes still refuses to budge in terms of letting Ari’s son in, so Ari and Mrs. Ari have no choice but to check out public schools in the area. When they see how wild and out of control the kids in public school are, Ari decides to get serious about persuading Mr. Preston, the private school principal, to change his mind.

He goes to a private detective friend of his and lays out the case. Ari wants Mr. Preston followed 24/7 so that he can find some dirt on the guy and use that to blackmail him. A bit later, Ari gets a call from the detective to come meet him at his office. Ari arrives to see that there’s another detective there as well. It turns out that some other disgruntled parent beat Ari to the punch and had Mr. Preston tailed for a week. Unfortunately, the guy is a model citizen and has never done anything wrong, so Ari’s got nothing to blackmail him with.

Ari is just about to give up, but learns that his son’s best friend will be going to the private school in the fall and his son will be devastated if he can’t go too. Ari then visits Mr. Preston at home and decides to beg the man (he even produces a few tears for the scene). Mr. Preston isn’t moved by Ari’s tears, but there is something Ari can do for him. It turns out that Mr. Preston’s son works in the mail room of some no-name agency in town. If Ari can get him a decent job at Miller Gold, then Preston will let Ari’s son into the school. Needless to say, it’s a done deal.

My Reaction: I thought it was hilarious that Drama decided to check out Craigslist ads to find a girl for Turtle! If you’ve never read through those ads, then you’re really missing out on a good laugh. They are totally wild and I somehow can’t believe that half of them are even real. Anyway, I thought this part of the bet was funny, but Eric’s half was boring, just like Eric. How that guy ever even got Sloan in the first place is a mystery to me. He has all the charm of a paper bag and seems as much fun to be around as an IRS auditor.

Ari is my favorite character on the show, but I wasn’t feeling his storyline in this episode. He’s not that funny when he’s interacting with normal people like the school principal. He needs to be around the quirky Hollywood types for his real personality to shine through.

Anyway, “The Day Fuckers” was a decent episode. Not the best of Season 4, but definitely not the worst either. Nevertheless, here’s hoping next week brings something a bit better!

I was talking to a friend the other day about movies that feature dogs either as main characters or as prominent companions to main characters. Her son is currently going through a phase where he just loves dogs and wants to watch every single dog-related movie out there.

The first movie I thought of was Beethoven, because who can ever forget the havoc wreaked by that huge St. Bernard. I also remembered Turner & Hooch (starring Tom Hanks), though I have to admit that I never knew what kind of breed Hooch was. (Well, I just looked it up and it turns out Hooch was something called a Dogue de Bordeaux.) There are plenty of others, I’m sure, but I couldn’t think of all that many during our conversation. My Dog Skip, Cats & Dogs, and Best in Show were also mentioned, as well as Fred the Basset Hound in Smokey and the Bandit.

Anyway, not all of these movies are appropriate for my friend’s five-year-old, so if you have any other suggestions, please let me know! And from what I understand, the kid prefers to watch live-action movies featuring these dogs rather than animation or films that rely on CGI (like Scooby-Doo).

Back in March I told you about an author named Richard Harris who was giving away free MP3 downloads of his brand new book before the title was even available in stores! I’m not one to pass up freebies, so I immediately grabbed the entire thing and was completely satisfied with the smart, fast-paced, and entertaining thriller I listened to. Now I’m here to follow up on my initial post and tell you that The Capo’s Mistress by Richard Harris is finally available in hardcover at bookstores across the country, as well as at Amazon.com.

As if the prospect of reading an engrossing tale about ex-cop Mike Driscoll’s exploits in the nowhere town of Virginia City, Montana, and how his love for the beautiful Mary Carter leads him to Las Vegas where he unexpectedly gets entangled with the mob weren’t enough to interest you, Harris is sweetening the pot by offering even more freebies to some lucky readers (how this guy makes money is a mystery to me!). Harris is planning to give away 10 personally signed copies of The Capo’s Mistress in a random drawing held at the end of September. All you have to do to be entered in the drawing is visit the author’s official website and register for a chance to win a free signed copy until September 30, 2007.

If you like reading action-packed stories about crime, the mafia, and Vegas, then I know you’ll really enjoy The Capo’s Mistress by Richard Harris. Visit richard-harris.com today to order the hardcover edition of this book or register for the drawing to win a free copy. You won’t be disappointed!

As you can tell from the previous book reviews posted on this site, I haven’t been reading anything really challenging lately. For the last year or so, I’ve been delving into the crime/mystery genre and consuming works by authors such as Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly. While those types of books have a fair amount of entertainment value, no one would claim to get an intellectual workout from reading them. Because of this, I’ve recently been forcing myself to read at least a couple of pages per day from books that would be found on high school or college lit class reading lists. So even though it took me a couple months, I can now say that I’ve read A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): A Passage to India is set in 1920s India at the time of British colonialism. As a result, Forster spends a great deal of time describing tensions between the native Indian population and British government officials, and several of the interactions between characters carry politically significant overtones. I’m not going to pretend that I understood any of Forster’s political statements at all, even with the help of the GradeSaver ClassicNotes study guide, so this review is going to deal only with the major plotline of the book.

There are essentially three central characters in this book: an Indian doctor named Aziz, a British university administrator named Cyril Fielding, and a British traveler named Adela Quested. After giving some background information about these characters, Forster has them all meet at a so-called “bridge party,” a social gathering designed to bridge the gap between the two cultures.

Dr. Aziz is portrayed as someone who allows himself to get carried away during conversations with the British. Before he knows it, he ends up inviting Adela, Fielding, and another woman named Mrs. Moore on an all-day expedition to the Marabar Caves. This was a rather unusual move at that time because the Indians and British usually didn’t mix together outside of the bridge parties, especially when an Indian was the one doing the hosting.

On the day of the expedition, Fielding is late meeting Aziz, Adela, and Mrs. Moore at the train station. The train takes off without him, leaving Adela and Mrs. Moore alone with Aziz and his servants. Again, this was a highly unusual situation at the time.

Rather than put off the outing, Aziz decides to go forward with it. He’ll be the consummate host and show Adela and Mrs. Moore part of the “real India” that they both desire to see. Unfortunately, the caves turn out to be a huge disappointment to both Adela and Mrs. Moore. It’s physically taxing to hike up to the caves, and once inside, the caves have a strange smell and echo. Mrs. Moore doesn’t like the expedition, so she decides to sit and rest while Aziz and Adela go on with a single guide.

On the hike up to the next cave, Adela starts asking Aziz questions about his deceased wife. This was an improper line of conversation and it shakes Aziz up a bit. He goes into a different cave by himself to think about what’s going on. When he comes out, he sees the guide sitting by some rocks, with Adela nowhere to be found. Aziz asks where Adela is, and the guide says she’s in one of the caves alone. Aziz begins a frantic search, but finds no sign of Adela except for her binoculars, which he scoops up. He then sees Adela down at ground level talking to another Englishwoman who has finally brought Fielding to join the party. Adela looks upset, and the two women soon speed off in the car.

Upon returning to the city of Chandrapore, Aziz is arrested. It seems that Adela was sexually assaulted in the last cave and she says Aziz did it. Fielding is outraged, believing from the start that Aziz is innocent, but Aziz has no rights in the situation. He’s hauled off to jail to await trial on the criminal charges.

The rest of the novel then deals with the trial and the fallout from the alleged crime of an Indian man assaulting a British woman.

My Reaction: I think that the political turmoil Forster described is just too far removed from today’s society to be relevant or even comprehensible to the average reader (especially one from the U.S. who might not know much about Britain’s history in India). So a lot of what Forster had to say was completely lost on me, and that made parts of the novel quite boring. Specifically, the beginning (where Forster was setting the stage for subsequent happenings) and the ending (which seemed to drag on far too long) were very difficult for me to get through.

The middle of the book, which dealt with Adela and Aziz, was interesting to a certain degree. Of course, since A Passage to India was written in 1924, the author spends a great deal of time hinting around at things instead of spelling them out. For example, when describing what happened to Adela in the pivotal cave scene, Forster simply uses the word “insulted.” Adela was insulted in the cave. These days, it’s quite a leap from “insult” to “sexual assault,” so even though you can infer Forster’s real meaning from the seriousness of the court proceedings against Aziz, it could be confusing to someone not reading carefully.

It’s hard for me to review a critically acclaimed book like A Passage to India when my opinion goes against that of the experts. But that’s just the way it is sometimes, I guess. I thought the book was mostly boring and the characters weren’t very memorable at all. I wouldn’t read this book again, nor do I recommend it to others. In fact, A Passage to India earns just 4 stars out of 10 on my enjoyment scale. It’s a snoozefest, folks!

I’ve been to Europe for vacation several times, but on each trip, my travels were limited to a single country only. I’ve never been able to take a couple months off, buy a Eurail pass, and see the entire continent by train. It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to do the backpacking thing anytime soon, so I think I’m better off just planning visits to the countries and cities that I’m most interested in. Right now, that means Spain.

First of all, I love art museums, so traveling to Madrid to see the Prado is at the top of my list of things to do. I also think it would be incredible to run with the bulls in Pamplona or see the amazing architecture in Barcelona.

Finding fun activities to fill my days wouldn’t be a problem, but finding cheap hotels in Spain might prove to be more difficult. Because of the nature of my husband’s job, we can very rarely plan for a vacation months in advance. Usually we’ll find out just a couple weeks ahead of time, which usually leaves us scrambling to make last-minute arrangements, which can be extremely expensive.

That’s why I like the concept behind CheaperthanHotels.co.uk. I first learned about this site a couple months ago, and ever since then I’ve been going back to check and compare hotel rates in various Spanish cities. I’ve found that CheaperthanHotels has the competition beat in terms of offering the lowest rates on both last-minute (inside 21 days) and year round (outside 21 days) hotel accommodation in Madrid, as well as cheap hotels in Barcelona, Pamplona, San Sebstian, or any other top destination in Spain.

Paying for hotels is one of the biggest drains on any traveler’s wallet, so I know perfectly well how important it is to shop around until I get the best deals available. Now that I have CheaperthanHotels bookmarked, I can run a quick search for accommodation in virtually any city in the world before I visit and can reserve quality hotel rooms at truly affordable prices. I can’t wait for our next vacation so I can try this service out!

USA Network’s Burn Notice and HBO’s Entourage continue to be the only two television shows that I’m watching this summer that are showing new episodes every week. I find that I really look forward to Thursday and Sunday nights so that I can finally see some first-run programs since I’m getting tired of all the reruns of my other favorite shows. Anyway, I just finished watching the newest Burn Notice ep, which was called “Family Business.” Here’s a quick recap of what happened:

Odd Job of the Week: We can thank Michael’s brother Nate (Seth Peterson, in a recurring role) for landing yet another gig for the recently burned spy. This time the client is a man named Jake Miller (Scott Michael Campbell), who works security at a small airfield in Miami. Jake is having problems with the Zamars, a family that owns a private jet at the airfield. The Zamars supposedly operate an import/export business, and they have a hangar full of expensive-looking furniture to prove it. Later, it’s revealed that they’re actually arms dealers.

The Zamars have generally been nice to Jake in the past, taking him to basketball games, giving him expensive tequila, and even loaning him money so he and his wife can buy things in preparation for their new baby. But now Eli Zamar, the father, is starting to lean on Jake for favors. At first, he wanted Jake to change the arrival and departure times of the Zamar jet. Jake thought that was pretty small-time stuff, so he went along with it. But now the Zamars want Jake to completely erase a flight from the manifest. That’s obviously a much bigger deal and something Jake doesn’t want to get involved in.

Unfortunately, the Zamars aren’t giving Jake a choice in the matter. They said if he doesn’t cooperate, they’re going to go after his wife. That’s when Jake brought Nate in to help, and that’s when Nate went to Michael. If they can get the Zamars to back off, they’ll get $1,000.

Burn Notice Progress: Michael didn’t make much headway this week in terms of tracking down who burned him. The only things that happened on this side of the plot were that Fiona discovered a bug in Michael’s car (planted by Sam); Sam broke into Michael’s apartment (with Michael’s blessing) to retrieve a classified document about the burn notice, which Sam then handed over to the FBI; and that the two FBI agents who had been tailing Michael will now be replaced by people from a different government agency. No one knows which one though.

Character Development: We got a bit more backstory regarding Michael and Nate’s home life. Nate was pissed that Michael had the car even though Nate said he spent a lot of time working on it too, so Nate dug up the will to prove his point. It turns out that Nate was correct. There was no mention of the Charger in the will, and Madeline (Sharon Gless) finally admitted that she just told Michael that because she wanted him to feel that his dad loved him. Nate and Michael flip for the car, and of course Michael wins. But Nate gets the last laugh as he swipes Michael’s wallet before heading out the door.

My Reaction: I thought this was a decent episode, but not the strongest offering of the season thus far. I wish there would have been more activity towards uncovering the source of the burn notice, but I guess that sort of thing takes a lot of time, so I can see how there would be slow periods of not getting any info at all.

The odd job of the week was fairly interesting, and I did like how Michael’s entire crew keeps contributing to these cases. Even Fiona showed that she was worth something in this ep when she went into the hangar “by mistake” and scouted the place for Michael. That was a good scene, and was definitely a scam that none of the guys could have pulled off. She was actually tolerable for most of the episode — until she started flirting with Michael again!! Sorry, but I’ll never get used to that aspect of the show!!!

I also thought “Family Business” was full of great one-liners. I laughed at several points during the show, but the best line of all came from Michael at the beginning of the ep. He’s at the airport to pick up Nate, who is a bloody mess after getting his ass kicked by Eli Zamar. Nate tells Michael not to start with him because he’s just getting work, like Michael said he should. So Michael looks at him and replies, “Lying in a crumpled heap in an airport parking lot… How’s that pay?” Jeffrey Donovan’s delivery on that line was just perfect!!

Looking forward to next week!

I know we’re just barely at the end of July here, but it’s never too early to start thinking about Halloween! I used to love Halloween when I was younger and would put lots of time and effort into my costumes. In recent years, I moved away from the whole dress-up aspect of Halloween, but am starting to get back into the spirit now that my son is old enough to enjoy trick-or-treating. In fact, I’m already looking through this season’s newest Halloween costumes to ensure that my son can get a good one!

Just because the seasonal costume store at the mall isn’t set up yet, that doesn’t mean I can’t start shopping for Halloween products right now. There are plenty of web retailers who offer a wide assortment of costumes, makeup, and accessories on a year-round basis. For example, I was browsing through halloween-store.com the other day and very impressed by their huge selection of popular costumes in all sizes. You just know Harry Potter costumes are going to be big this year, so halloween-store.com has plenty of those on hand. There are tons of Shrek, Star Wars, superhero, and other costumes available as well.

I like how I can browse through the costumes on the site by type or size because this allowed me to go straight to the toddlers costumes to find something that could fit my son. I came up with several options, printed out the pictures, and will let my son choose which costume he likes best. Then I have to show it to him again in a few weeks to make sure that he hasn’t changed his mind before I actually place my order!

Anyway, if you want to get a jump on finding your Halloween costume this year, avoid the crowds by shopping online at halloween-store.com instead!

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that a friend of mine dropped off his entire collection of Michael Connelly audiobooks for me. I wasn’t exactly planning on reading (listening to) the whole series, but since the CDs are right here, I figured why not. So I ripped the discs, loaded the MP3s onto my iPod and made my way through The Concrete Blonde, Connelly’s third novel in the Harry Bosch series.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): LAPD detective Harry Bosch is in trouble again. This time, he’s being sued by the widow of Norman Church, a man that Bosch shot four years ago in the line of duty. Bosch thought Church fit the description of a serial killer nicknamed The Dollmaker, and when Bosch busted into Church’s apartment to arrest him, Church reached for something under his pillow. That’s when Bosch, thinking Church was going for a gun, fired first. It turned out that Church was reaching for a toupée.

Fortunately for Bosch, the police department recovered enough evidence in Church’s apartment to link him to several of the murders, allowing them to close the book on the Dollmaker case for good. But Bosch still broke protocol by storming the apartment without backup. He was therefore sanctioned by the department and transferred to the Hollywood Homicide desk as a result.

That wasn’t the end of Bosch’s troubles stemming from the Norman Church case, because now his widow is bringing a wrongful death suit against Bosch. The widow is represented by Honey Chandler, a top L.A. lawyer who has a knack for winning civil cases and extracting hefty punitive damages verdicts from the jury. That’s why she’s referred to as “Money” Chandler more often than not.

Bosch, on the other hand, is being represented by an attorney named Beck, who is on the city’s payroll. Beck would be no match for Chandler, but Bosch wasn’t too worried about the verdict. After all, since he shot Church in the line of duty, the city was on the hook for the tab, not him.

While the court case is going on, Bosch receives an anonymous note from someone telling him that he shot the wrong guy four years ago. The Dollmaker is still at large, and to prove it, the note directs Harry to a spot where he can find another body. The police go there, and do indeed find a body encased in concrete.

The rest of the novel then deals with the ongoing trial as well as the investigation into the possibility that the Dollmaker is still out there. As you might expect from a Connelly novel, there are a few twists and turns along the way, plus a surprise ending.

My Reaction: I liked The Concrete Blonde a lot. This is more of the type of story I was expecting from the Connelly series: Bosch tracking down a serial killer rather than going after bank robbers and drug smugglers. The serial killer storyline was compelling and held my interest throughout — unlike the courtroom drama.

I realize that Connelly had to give a lot of time to the trial in order to set a complete scene for the reader, but I felt that those episodes dragged on far too long in some places. For example, did we really need to hear all the speeches from the lawyers? Boring. Sure, give us the testimony, the exciting stuff. But speeches? Blah. I started to dread the court stuff towards the end of the book, as it took time away from the real action.

I have to admit here that Connelly had me completely fooled on two counts: the killer and the final victim. I knew that the killer couldn’t have been Ray Mora because there was such a singular focus on him at the beginning that it just felt wrong. I was waiting for Connelly to mislead me, and that’s what happened. But then I thought it was the professor, which of course was wrong, and I thought, like Harry, that the final victim would be Sylvia.

However, I felt somewhat cheated when it was revealed that the killer was the reporter Bremmer. That seemed to just come out of left field, as though Connelly simply wanted to pin the blame on a character that the reader was familiar with, yet that was completely expendable. Bremmer had been mentioned in one of the previous novels, and Bosch liked the guy. To suddenly make him be this longtime serial killer seemed like a real stretch.

Nevertheless, I still liked The Concrete Blonde. It was definitely the best out of the three Connelly books I’ve read, and I’m giving it 7.0 stars out of 10.

My husband’s grandmother was recently placed in a nursing home. Her health has been slowly deteriorating over the years, and she’s now got a few issues that can’t be taken care of at home. It was a hard decision for my mother-in-law to make about her own mom, but it’s really for the best.

We went to visit for the first time last weekend and were encouraged by what we saw. Unlike most of the other residents, my husband’s grandmother wasn’t hooked up to a respirator, portable oxygen concentrator, or a monitor of any kind. It made us feel good to see that, comparatively speaking, she was doing pretty well.

Anyway, we’ll keep visiting as often as we can, and we hope that her status remains the same!

Matt Damon is one of my favorite actors, so it was nice to see that he was finally recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I know this kind of recognition doesn’t actually mean all that much, given the fact that there aren’t exactly strict requirements to secure a star, but still…. It just wasn’t right that Britney Spears, the Olsen twins, Ryan Seacrest, and Donald Trump all had stars but Damon, a legitimate actor, didn’t!

Anyway, that’s not an issue anymore, and from Damon’s comments during the induction ceremony, he seemed genuinely thrilled to finally be included on the Walk.

Here’s an AP Photo of Damon and his wife during the festivities:

I mentioned earlier that I had one of those weekends at the video store where I just couldn’t seem to find anything that I hadn’t already seen. So after I got tired of browsing through all the available choices, I just started grabbing DVDs without even reading the back of the box to see what the movie was about. One of the titles that I happened to grab was True Women, mostly because it starred Annabeth Gish, Dana Delaney, and Angelina Jolie and because I’d never even heard of it before. It wasn’t until after I got home that I realized I was about to watch a TV miniseries! But by that time it was obviously too late to do anything about my mistake, so I just decided to go ahead with the film.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): This movie is three hours long and deals with so many different topics that it would be impossible for me to summarize it within the confines of this blog post. So instead of giving an extended summary as usual, I’m going to just give a very general one that should at least give you and idea of what the film is about.

As True Women opens, we see two young girls catching tadpoles in a creek somewhere in the Deep South in the 1830s. The girls are Euphemia “Phemie” Ashby (played by Tina Majorino at this point) and Georgia Lawshe (Rachel Leigh Cook). The two girls are best friends and do everything together, despite their different backgrounds (Georgia is one-quarter Cherokee, which in that world was akin to being a “Mudblood” in Harry Potter’s world. A man riding feverishly up to the house interrupts the girls’ playtime, and it’s learned that Phemie’s father died of a heart attack on his way home. She’ll have to go live with her sister Sarah (Dana Delaney) in Texas.

The girls write to each other, but their letters never reach their respective destinations. As a result, both grow up to be quite different form what they once were as children. Phemie (now played by Gish) has witnessed brutal attacks by Indians and has seen many of the menfolk around her get killed (including Sarah’s husband Bartlett) and many of the womenfolk ravaged. Phemie eventually goes off to school, where she develops a moral conscience and comes back more or less a social activist.

Meanwhile, although Georgia (now played by Jolie) saw some of the same types of brutalities, the occurrences didn’t affect her in the same way. She’s simply concerned with getting married, having children, running a very successful cotton plantation, and treating her slaves as fairly as possible. When she and her husband move to Texas, you just knew a reunion with Phemie was right around the corner.

The rest of the miniseries then deals with how the two women make it through various historical events, such as the Civil War and the women’s suffrage movement. Sometimes Phemie and Georgia handle these hard times on their own, sometimes they have each other to lean on. They do eventually reconcile fully, and learn to meet at least halfway on social issues.

My Reaction: I’ve never really evaluated a TV miniseries before, so you’ll have to bear with me on this one. I know that I should probably cut True Women some slack for being overly melodramatic at certain points (it was presented by Hallmark, after all), but beyond that, I think I’ll hold it to the same standards that I apply to theatrical releases.

One problem I had with the movie was how the plot was all over the place. The script tried to deal with too many different issues, and despite having three hours to develop the storylines, it still felt that a lot of things were rushed. I would have preferred it if just a couple of plots were chosen and developed thoroughly; it probably would have made for a far more satisfying viewing experience.

Other than the plot issues and the decidedly melodramatic feel, I thought the rest of the movie was actually pretty good. The performances were excellent, and that probably had as much of an impact on my enjoyment as anything else. I really liked Dana Delaney in this, and thought Annabeth Gish was good as well. I even liked Angelina Jolie’s performance (usually she bugs me), so that was an added bonus.

From what I’ve read about True Women, I guess the filmmakers (or the original source, which was novel of the same name by Janice Woods Windle) took lots of liberties with the historical events covered by the story. Personally, I wasn’t expecting to get a history lesson here, so the inaccuracies didn’t bother me at all.

On the whole, True Women was easy to watch despite the three-hour running time. There was always something happening, so there wasn’t any time for me to get bored. I’m giving the miniseries 6.5 stars out of 10, and think that it’s worth renting if you missed it when it first aired on TV.

All my friends and family know that I write movie reviews for this blog, so I usually get a ton of questions from them about various films. They always want to know if I’ve seen a particular movie, what I thought of it, and if I would recommend it to them. Plus, I always get asked what my favorite and least favorite movies are.

I find that it’s pretty hard to come up with a list of what I consider to be the worst movies, mostly because I tend to put those out of my mind immediately. There are a few that I can think of that I personally found to be excruciating experiences, but I know other people have enjoyed them immensely. For example, I thought The English Patient was horrible, but it won for Best Picture, so that shows where my tastes lie!

Of course, I’ve hated several movies that were also widely panned by the critics. Gigli with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez is one, and that god-awful Crossroads with Britney Spears was another. I also hated Glitter (that Mariah Carey fiasco) and Kazaam with Shaq.

With the possible exception of The English Patient, I don’t think anyone can argue with my choices for worst films ever! What do you guys think? Are there any movies that you absolutely hated? Let’s hear what they are!

The last time I went to the video store, I had one of those days where it felt like I’d already seen everything on the shelves. I had all the New Releases covered, which meant that I had to venture over to the inner aisles to try to find a movie I had missed when it was out in wide release. Of course, I often forget that if I skipped a particular film made within the last five years or so, there was probably a good reason for it (namely, that it got horrible reviews). That was definitely the case with Alex & Emma, the 2003 romantic comedy starring Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson — but I made the mistake of renting it anyway.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): As the film opens, we meet author Alex Sheldon (played by Wilson). He’s sitting in front of his laptop trying to come up with a good opening sentence for his next novel. Adam’s severe case of writer’s block is interrupted when two tough-looking goons bust down his door and demand the repayment of a $50,000 gambling debt. Alex begs for more time, saying that he doesn’t have the money now but as soon as he turns in a manuscript to his publisher, he’ll collect a $125,000 advance. The goons rough him up a bit, give him a 30-day deadline, and then inexplicably set fire to his laptop before leaving. Why would they remove Alex’s only means of making back the money he owes them?

The reason becomes clear in the very next scene: the burning of the laptop was merely a plot device to throw the two leads together. That’s because now in order to complete his novel, Alex has to retain the services of a stenographer. And instead of getting stuck with a no-nonsense 50-something spinster with gray hair (pulled back in a bun, of course) who wears bifocals on a granny chain, Alex gets the beautiful young Emma (Hudson). Unfortunately for this film, the plot contrivances become even more transparent and unbelievable from this point forward.

Anyway, Emma conveniently agrees to defer payment for 30 days until Alex receives his check from the publisher. She then types away as Alex dictates his novel to her (and I should note that the writer’s block has suddenly disappeared). From there, we get the old film-within-a-film technique, where Alex’s novel comes alive on the screen. So we see Alex in the role of Adam, the protagonist in his novel. And we see Emma as various minor characters in the novel, plus we get a whole new love interest named Polina (Sophie Marceau) and a rival named John Shaw (David Paymer).

The rest of the film shows how Alex gets the novel written with lots of real-time feedback from Emma, how he’s able to pay off his gambling debts (which the goons decide to double up despite Alex meeting the deadline), and how Alex and Emma inevitably fall in love after spending so much time together.

My Reaction: There were really so many problems with Alex & Emma that I hardly know where to begin — but I’ll take a shot anyway. First of all, the novel that Alex wrote completely sucked! There’s no way a piece of crap like that would have gotten a $125,000 advance from a publishing company. I know this was just a romantic comedy and that we weren’t really supposed to believe that Alex could generate a work on par with Dostoevksy’s Gambler (written, by the way, under the exact same circumstances), but it would have helped the film if the book was halfway decent.

Another problem I had with this film is that Alex and Emma had no chemistry whatsoever. The audience wasn’t given any reason to believe that these two could have fallen in love. We didn’t see it happening because the filmmakers didn’t show it happening. We get a single Day Out montage, but that’s it. I couldn’t see Emma falling for a compulsive gambler like Alex in the first place.

Moreover, there weren’t any obstacles in Alex and Emma’s way. In every romantic comedy, there has to be an obstacle, a rival that gets in the way of the leads being together. But in this movie, the real Polina doesn’t show up until close to the end and it felt like her scenes were just tacked on. We didn’t really believe that Alex was in love with her and was facing a tough choice between Polina and Emma, so what was the point of having Polina show up at all?

And finally, the screenwriter didn’t do a very good job of making us feel the urgency of Alex’s situation. It’s like the writer assigned an arbitrary deadline and that’s it. Yes, we got two scenes of the goons trying to threaten Alex, but they came off more as caricatures than as real villains. So when Alex was dictating his novel, I didn’t get the sense that he was doomed if he didn’t finish it.

Overall, I thought Alex & Emma was far too contrived from start to finish and really suffered from a lack of chemistry between Wilson and Hudson. As a result, I give this movie just 4.5 stars out of 10.

Training camps are set to get underway this weekend, which means that the NFL regular season is just around the corner. If you’re like most football fans, you probably wager on at least a couple of games during the year, either out of a desire to make Sundays a bit more interesting or in an attempt to win some serious cash. Regardless on your reasons for betting on football, you should never put your hard-earned money on the line without reading through some expert analysis and picks first.

One of the most reliable websites out there for expert NFL picks is TodaysPicks.net. TodaysPicks.net has been providing sports bettors with daily picks since 1997, and in that time, they’ve posted a verifiable 73.4% winning percentage on NFL, NCAA, MLB, and NBA picks. That means that if you bet with the TodaysPicks.net experts, you can expect to win roughly three out of every four wagers — and that can translate to significant profits.

Right now, TodaysPicks.net is offering an Early Bird NFL Season Special for just $215, which is more than 50% off the regular price. When you buy a season package like this, you’ll be able to access 6-10 quality picks every single week. These picks will be available before 11am ET, giving you plenty of time to review them and place your bets. This Early Bird special is only valid until the end of July, so you’ve got to jump on the offer now if you want to save a couple hundred bucks.

Obviously, purchasing a season package is a great way to save money and make sure that you have picks from Opening Day in September all the way through the Super Bowl in February, but you can also buy single-game picks as well. TodaysPicks.net posts a couple of featured picks on the site every day, and you can just select the ones you’re interested in. In addition, you can sign up for an email newsletter that contains several free picks, as well as in-depth analysis and other inside information. Plus, don’t forget to read the general sports handicapping info on TodaysPicks.net to get some insight into how it all works.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the 2007 NFL season to start! The Bears should repeat as NFC North champs, and could even make it back to the Super Bowl in Arizona. Maybe I’ll even be brave enough to put some money on them this year — if the experts over at TodaysPicks.net pick them first, that is!

I finished watching the entire first season of The O.C. a few weeks ago, and have already started on Season Two. Unfortunately, I don’t have the complete DVD set for the second season (nor do I plan on buying it), so getting through these eps is going to take much longer as I have to try to borrow the discs from friends or whatever. At any rate, I have managed to watch episodes 2×01-2×04, which were called “The Distance,” “The Way We Were,” “The New Kids on the Block,” and “The New Era,” respectively. Here are some of the highlights from those shows.

- I’m glad the writers addressed Seth’s sailboat issue and told us that he only made it as far as Santa Barbara! That whole sailing-to-Tahiti things was ridiculous and needed to be cleared up.

- How depressing was it to see Ryan living with Theresa and working construction? Yikes.

- Marissa’s freak-out by the pool when her mom confronted her was unintentionally comical. I can’t believe anyone ever thought Mischa Barton was a good enough actress to play a major role in this show. I’m tired of her brooding, drinking, and general woe-is-me attitude. Grow up already! Oh, and dating the gardener? Is there a bigger rich-girl cliché than that (besides dating the pool boy).

- I think Summer and Zach are a good interim pairing. I know Summer will end up with Seth eventually, but at least Zach is believable as a replacement boyfriend in the meantime. I hate it when shows like this put two characters together who would never work out in a million years just so we can see how the relationship crumbles. I could actually picture Summer dating a guy like Zach, so I don’t mind seeing them together.

- Seth and Alex on the other hand??? This is precisely what I’m talking about when I say that there’s no way in hell a pairing would work out. Seth and Alex?!! First of all, are we supposed to believe that she’s only 17 years old? I know all the actors on this show are way beyond their high school years, but at least they’re passable as high school kids. Not Olivia Wilde, though! She looks about 30 years old here! (And yes, I realize she was just 21 IRL at the time….)

- And what is up with Alex’s bangs? Hate. them.

- Caleb putting Julie in charge of the Newport Group didn’t seem believable at all. Why do shows like this insist on making it seem as though it doesn’t matter who’s in charge of high-powered multimillion dollar companies? Come on! If that kind of situation ever came up, Kirsten would definitely have been appointed CEO.

On the whole, I think the second season is starting out pretty slowly. I don’t like how there’s so much of a focus on Caleb’s legal woes because that’s pretty boring, but I do like where some of the other storylines are going. Can’t wait to watch some more eps!

Zac Efron, the 19-year-old star of Hairspray and the upcoming High School Musical 2, is one of the most popular teen celebrities on the planet right now. He’s got tens of thousands of adoring fans all over the world, and I’m sure many of those fans would love to get their very own Zac Efron cartoon doll, which can then be used as an avatar on websites, MySpace pages, and online forums, as well as in e-mails and just about anything else you can think of. Well, now you can get a Zac Efron cartoon doll by visiting CartoonDollEmporium.com today!

CartoonDollEmporium.com (or CDE for short) is the leading dress-up games website on the Internet. CDE is completely free and gives you access to over one hundred dolls in lots of different categories, including Celebrities, Fantasy, Fashion, Video Games, Geeks, and more. You can then dress up these dolls, grab some HTML code, and paste the dolls onto your site — just like I’ve done with the Zac Efron doll!

The CDE website also has tons of other fun activities for you to enjoy. For example, there’s a very active forum where you can interact with other members to talk about things like dolls, dress-up games, school, guys, or life in general. There’s also an arcade where you can play nine different games, interactive lobbies where you can doodle or give your doll a makeover, fun quizzes, a music player, and much, much more. With all of these activities available on a single site, it’s no wonder that CDE attracts more than 4 million visitors per month!

I spent some time on the CDE website and have to say that it was simple to use. I dressed up my Zac Efron doll and was able to paste the HTML code here on my blog with no problems (and I’ve never even tried anything like this before). The forum was laid out in a way that makes it easy for newcomers to figure out what’s going on, and all the other parts of the CDE site that I mentioned above were a breeze to navigate as well.

Overall, I think CartoonDollEmporium.com is a very cool site that will appeal to dress-up game fans of all ages and experience levels. Whether you’re just getting started with this hobby or have been into it for a while now, I’m sure you’ll love all that CDE has to offer. Check out the site and sign up for a free membership today!

I just read that the search for Bob Barker’s replacement as host of The Price is Right has ended. Comedian Drew Carey confirmed that he has reached a deal with CBS to take over as host of the longest-running game show on television. Carey has previously had his own sitcom (The Drew Carey Show, which aired from 1995-2004) and has hosted the comedy ad-lib show Whose Line Is It Anyway since 1998 (is it still on the air? I’m not sure.)

Anyway, I’ve never watched Carey in anything, so I don’t have an opinion on him being selected as Barker’s replacement. I think it would be hard for anyone to come in and take over The Price is Right — at least in the early going — but hopefully it works out for everyone!