Reviews and More

Has it really been more than a month since I posted my thoughts on Season 2 episodes of The O.C.? I guess so! I’ve been so busy trying to get through regular movies as well as all the DVD box sets that I’ve purchased recently that I sometimes forget about the shows I had queued up. See, once I finish watching something, I write it down on my To Be Reviewed list, which I keep on my desk. Unfortunately, because of the sheer number of items on the list, it’s impossible for me to keep up with everything in a timely manner. But enough of these excuses; lets get back to Seth, Ryan, Summer, and the rest of the Newport gang!

As usual, since The O.C. isn’t even on the air anymore, this post isn’t going to contain standard recaps of each ep. Instead, I’m just going to list a few thoughts that occurred to me while watching this block of episodes, which included “The SnO.C.,” “”The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn’t,” “The Family Ties,” and “The Power of Love.”

– This is completely random, but I was watching bits of the series pilot again and saw that they had Ryan smoking while he was waiting outside the Cohen house while Sandy tried to convince Kirsten to let him in. Do you remember that? Well, the writers never addressed his smoking habit again! It was like, one minute he was a cigarette-smoking bad boy (yeah, there’s an original image) and the next he was a clean-cut Cohen all the way around. Ha!

– I don’t get why Caleb was so reluctant to admit the true nature of his involvement with Lindsay’s mom. He would rather have gone to jail than say he had an illegitimate daughter? Caleb said one reason for his silence was that he didn’t want to hurt Kirsten. Give me a break! She’s an adult, not a child. That whole thing didn’t make sense to me, especially since the revelation didn’t turn out to have the earth-shattering effects that Caleb thought it would.

– Ryan and Lindsay are a MUCH better couple than Ryan and Marisa ever were. I know that’s not how a majority of O.C. fans felt, but I can’t help it. Lindsay might be boring and bland, but at least she doesn’t freak out over every little obstacle life tosses her way.

– Marisa, on the other hand, continues to annoy with her incessant “angry teen” act. She comes off as more of a spoiled brat than anything else, and it makes me feel sorry for Julie Cooper — which I don’t think is what the writers intended. She is so tiresome that I usually end up fast forwarding through her scenes now.

– Seth’s whole “bad boy” routine to try to impress Alex was just dumb. A year ago, before Ryan arrived, Seth was a totally anonymous loser who didn’t have any friends at all. Now I guess he’s cool by association because he’s had three hot girlfriends in a row (Anna, Summer, and now Alex). Don’t get me wrong, Seth is my favorite character on the show, but even I feel this is stretching things quite a bit.

– Yes, I did say that Alex is hot, which is a 180-degree turn from what I felt the last time I posted about The O.C. But she fixed her hair between then and now, which made all the difference in the world. I can’t see past bad hair and couldn’t tell that Alex actually looked decent under those bangs and purple highlights. Now I know and I stand corrected.

– The double-date setup between Alex & Ryan and Seth & Lindsay was comical. Can you say awkward?? Yikes.

– I’m really surprised that Zach hasn’t started bothering me yet. I totally want Summer to get back together with Seth ASAP, so usually this would be the point where the fill-in significant others begin grating on my nerves. But Zach seems to be a keeper — especially when he hauled off and punched Seth outside the SnO.C. dance. That move was a long time coming, and Seth totally deserved it.

– What’s up with Sandy forgetting his 20th anniversary? That was way out of character and seems to spell trouble for the once-idyllic Cohen marriage.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this block of eps. I promise my next O.C. post won’t be a month in the making!

Now that schools around the country are back in session, it’s time to start thinking about homework, term papers, and other projects. I remember how much I dreaded having to work on those types of major assignments, mostly because I didn’t have anyone to help me when I got stuck on something. As a result of not having access to timely homework help, I often had to pull all-nighters trying to work through my issues, and I often had to settle for lower grades as well.

Fortunately, things are a lot easier for today’s students, thanks in large part to the Internet. Now it’s possible to complete big school projects entirely from home using information that’s available online. In addition, the Internet gives students access to online tutoring services from places like TutorVista.com.

TutorVista.com offers professional tutoring for students in grades K-12, as well as college students in subjects such as English, Chemistry, Geography, Statistics, Economics, History, and Math. Moreover, TutorVista also offers test preparation courses for the SAT, GRE, GMAT, and others. Students who use TutorVista.com will receive personalized attention to ensure that their questions get answered, which is definitely the best way to promote true learning.

I checked out TutorVista.com’s prices and found them to be very low compared to rates I’ve seen on other sites. There are several different tutoring packages to choose from, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that fits your needs. Best of all, TutorVista.com’s services are available 24×7, which is certainly not the case at other sites.

Don’t get left behind this school year. Start things out right by getting on board with TutorVista.com as soon as possible!

I’m a big fan of Thomas Hardy’s novels, so I’m not sure how I could have missed the film Jude, which came out in 1996. I’d never even heard of this Michael Winterbottom film adaptation of Jude the Obscure until a few weeks ago when I was looking up some of Kate Winslet’s older work. I immediately added the title to my movie queue and finally got to it a couple days ago. Really, I shouldn’t have bothered.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens with a scene of Jude Fawley (played by James Daley) as a small boy. He lives in poverty with his Aunt Drusilla (June Whitfield) in the English countryside and doesn’t seem to have many prospects in front of him. In fact, it’s very likely that he’ll just end up taking over his aunt’s bakery and living a simple life in Wessex.

But then Jude meets a tutor named Mr. Phillotson (Liam Cunningham) who encourages the boy to study hard so that he can eventually enter Christchurch University and become a scholar. From that point forward, Jude devotes all of his free time to the study of Greek and Latin, dreaming of making it to Christchurch someday.

The film then skips several years to show Jude as a young man of university age (now played by Christopher Eccleston). Although Jude still studies the classics, the practical nuisances of life are getting in his way. He has to perform manual labor as a stonemason in order to make ends meet and he keeps putting off his departure for Christminster. It’s also around this time that Jude meets a woman named Arabella Donn (Rachel Griffiths), a pig farmer’s daughter. They have sex, and when she thinks she’s pregnant, Jude marries her.

Things don’t work out between them, especially when Jude comes to the conclusion that Arabella tricked him into marriage. Arabella isn’t happy with Jude either, especially since he hasn’t given up on his Christminster dreams. She leaves for Australia; Jude finally goes to Christminster.

While there, he takes more work as a stonemason and also meets up with his cousin Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet). Sue is a progressive thinker in a time when women weren’t supposed to have opinions on social issues, and eventually Jude falls in love with her. But there are complications, of course, and Sue somehow ends up marrying Phillotson the tutor. After a while, however, she can’t bear to be with Phillotson anymore, so she and Jude run off together.

The rest of the film then deals with Jude and Sue’s relationship and the hardships they face because they decide to live together “in sin.” Jude gets fired from jobs as soon as his bosses find out about his situation, they get kicked out of their rented rooms, and they have to move around a lot. Their children further complicate the situation, and things get bleaker and bleaker until the tragic end.

My Reaction: I haven’t read Jude the Obscure in years, so I don’t have all of the details at my command as I write this review. But I can say that I distinctly remember feeling sympathetic towards Jude in the novel, whereas I simply couldn’t stand him in this movie. He seemed like such a selfish, weak-willed oaf here; I saw none of the sheer determination to rise above his station that drove Jude in the novel. I’m sorry, but showing a few scenes of him studying Latin was not enough to convey his desires.

The biggest problem I had with the film was the relationship between Jude and Sue. There was absolutely zero chemistry between Eccleston and Winslet, and, forgive me for being so shallow here, but the filmmakers did not cast a handsome enough actor in the role of Jude. This guy was so ugly that it was distracting! Seriously, even as plain as Winslet looked as Sue, they just didn’t look like they belonged together as a couple. It was very hard for me to accept that they were deeply in love or that Sue was “disgusted” by Phillotson but not by Jude.

Moreover, I didn’t like the early portrayal of Jude and Sue’s relationship, the part right after she left Phillotson and the cousins are free to be with each other. Winterbottom decided to show their happiness by having them romp on the beach, ride bicycles, and play drinking games together. Those scenes seemed so out of place that I almost forgot what movie I was watching. Plus, this depiction strengthened the impression that Sue and Jude were more like brother and sister than lovers, which gave their relationship more of an incestuous feel than it had in the novel.

I know a lot of other viewers have complained about the horribly depressing events depicted in the film, specifically, of the murder-suicide carried out by little Jude. But this didn’t bother me because that was part of the story Hardy wanted to convey. Hey, in the book, Jude dies all alone, so at least the film didn’t go that far, right?

Overall, I thought Jude was a far cry from the novel, not so much in content as in interpretation and feel. I couldn’t get over the looks of the actor cast in the lead role, and that pretty much ruined the movie for me. I give it 4.0 stars out of 10 and urge Hardy fans to pass this one up.

I grabbed the Fifth Season of Friends from my brother last week and have been watching those shows for the past couple of days. I haven’t really watched any Friends episodes in syndication since the series went off the air a few years ago, so it’s been nice to check in with the gang. I’m surprised at how well this show has held up over time. Most of the stuff is still funny all these years later… in fact, I think Friends and Seinfeld are the only sitcoms I can watch over and over again like this.

One criticism I remember about the show is how people said it would be impossible for Monica (a self-employed caterer) and Rachel (an entry-level buyer) to afford their apartment. I totally agree with that! First of all, the apartment is HUGE! I mean, I’ve never had an apartment that big, even when I was paying $1500/mo. for a place in the suburbs with an attached garage. Second, they’ve got expensive furnishings in there. Monica and Rachel didn’t choose affordable Studio RTA furniture for their place; it looks like they went all out with the most expensive stuff they could find. Again, this is not something you’d expect from young single women who are just renting.

But those are just nitpicks, really, and don’t detract from my enjoyment of the show at all. Man, I wish this series was still on!

The 2006 independent film Half Nelson is not the kind of thing that I would ordinarily go out of my way to see, which is probably why I’ve waited so long to watch it. But there was just so much buzz about Ryan Gosling’s performance as a drug-addicted school teacher that I finally broke down and decided to rent it last weekend. Unfortunately, like most movies that generate a lot of media attention, Half Nelson failed to live up to the hype — at least in my opinion.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Gosling stars as Dan Dunne, a history teacher at an inner-city junior high school. The film opens with a short scene at Dan’s rundown apartment in which he wakes up from an obvious drug-induced stupor just in time to clean himself up a bit and get to work. However, he still looks like crap when he enters the classroom: greasy, disheveled hair, wrinkled clothes, the whole works. None of his students seem to care about this, which makes it apparent that this is how Dan usually appears to them.

Dan is what some people might call a “functioning coke addict.” He uses drugs on a daily basis, yet manages to hold down a job and coach the girls basketball team. But some days are better than others for him. When he’s thinking clearly, he can discourse eloquently about dialectics and the ability of opposing forces to butt heads and eventually effect change. This is not part of the curriculum, but the students seem interested in what Dan has to say.

When Dan isn’t thinking clearly, he does stupid things like smoke crack in the girls locker room after a basketball game. Then he passes out, only to be discovered by Drey (played by Shareeka Epps), a student whose deadbeat father forgot to pick her up. Instead of freaking out and looking for another adult in the building (or simply running away), Drey decides to help Dan. Once Dan sobers up, he realizes that his job could be in jeopardy, so he stays clean for a few days and watches Drey anxiously. When nothing happens, he goes back to his old ways.

From that point on, the film shows how Dan and Drey grow to understand each other and even form a real friendship. Even as a basehead, Dan is the most positive male influence in Drey’s life, while Drey serves to remind Dan that he still has the ability to connect with people. The movie ends on an ambiguous note, leaving viewers to decide for themselves how Dan and Drey’s lives turn out.

My Reaction: I thought the beginning of Half Nelson was really strong. The characters were interesting enough to hold my attention and keep me watching, but then after about 30 minutes things fizzled out. I read that Half Nelson was originally an award-winning short that the filmmakers decided to turn into a full-length piece, and it definitely felt that way. There simply wasn’t enough genuine material to fill out a more robust running time, and the overall story suffered because of this. They repeated the party-wake up hung over-go to work looking like crap cycle too many times for my tastes.

Yeah, I understood his lifestyle after 10 minutes. Could we move on, please?

And what’s the deal with inner-city schools anyway? Are they so hard up for teachers that even an obvious crackhead can make the cut? Not to mention one who thinks nothing of grinding up against an underage student in the middle of a school dance??? As long as the students like the guy, I guess there’s no harm. Yeah, right.

I couldn’t help but think of what would have happened if the same scenes had played out at a suburban school with a black Dan Dunne and a white student. Uh huh, the cops would have been involved in no time. But again, apparently anything goes in the city.

As for Gosling’s performance, I know he was nominated for an Oscar and everything, but frankly, I didn’t think it was anything mind-blowing. Was he good? Sure. Was he you-have-to-see-this-film-because-of-him great? No, not really. In all honesty, all he seemed to do was walk around in a daze and rub his face with his hands. It didn’t strike me as anything truly special. But hey, what do I know about acting?

And once again we had filmmakers who decided that tripods are for hacks. What is up with all this handheld camera work crap? I had to watch this film in small doses because of the constant shaking. I think it took at least six sittings to get through the whole thing, which is obviously a lot. When will filmmakers learn that the old handheld technique doesn’t make your movie “edgy” or “gritty” or “real.” It’s nauseating and vomit-inducing, thank you very much.

Overall, I was supremely disappointed with Half Nelson and give it just 5.0 stars out of 10. I know I’m in the minority with this sentiment, but I think the film should have just remained a short. There was very little substance here, and despite all the talk of the supposed realism of the subject matter, I found most of the scenes (as well as the basic premise) hard to believe.

After studying Latin for a total of six years in high school and college, I wanted nothing more than to visit Rome and see all the historical sites that had become familiar to me through the pictures in my textbooks. I eventually did make it to Rome in the year 2000, and it was the best vacation I’ve ever had! Unfortunately, we were only able to stay in the city for five days, which wasn’t nearly enough time to see all the famous Rome tourist attractions. I guess the only way to remedy the situation is to go back again someday!

The first time we went to the Eternal City, my husband and I were not yet seasoned travelers. As a result, we didn’t know where to go to find the best discount Rome hotels. We trusted a local travel agent to set things up for us, and we ended up staying in a dump that cost us an arm and a leg. Plus, it wasn’t even near the center of the city, so we had to commute quite a ways just to get to the interesting stuff.

Needless to say, the next time we go, we’re going to reserve our Rome hotel through a reputable travel website like EasytoBook.com. The prices I’ve seen on that site are amazing considering the kinds of rooms we can get and the general location of the hotels. We could be right in the middle of all the action for even less than we paid all those years ago!

Going back to Rome is high on our list of things to do in the near future, so hopefully we’ll be able to make the trip within the next couple of years. I can’t wait!

I’m not really big on “chick flicks” (despite being a woman), but every once in a while, I’ll break down and watch a few. Last weekend was one of those times, and I ended up watching the 1999 film Anywhere But Here starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. I generally like Sarandon’s work (as long as I remember to overlook her political views) and I’d seen Portman in a couple of things before, so I figured I’d enjoy this movie. How wrong I was!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Sarandon plays a woman named Adele August who seems to be going through a midlife crisis. She packs up her belongings and her daughter Ann (Portman) into their old Mercedes, and makes a cross-country trip from Wisconsin to Beverly Hills — even though she doesn’t have money, a place to stay, or a job lined up.

We soon see that Adele is one of those people who can’t tell a straight story. No matter what the situation, she has to embellish the truth or tell outright lies, either about herself, Ann, or their motives. The lies range from Ann wanting to be an actress (she doesn’t) to Adele being married to a doctor (she isn’t), and nearly everything between. This tendency of Adele’s exasperates Ann to no end, although Ann isn’t exactly consistent with how she deals with the lies. Sometimes she goes along with the stories; at others, she calls Adele out right in front of the person Adele is lying to.

At any rate, the two manage to get an apartment outside of Beverly Hills (but in the school district) and Ann secures a teaching job. But if you think that means Adele and Ann’s lives are settled, you’re dead wrong. What follows is a series of events designed to show just how frustrated Ann is by her relationship with Adele. Most of the time, Ann wants nothing more than to leave Adele behind and go to college back east, but Adele pretends not to even notice this animosity.

The film continues in this manner throughout, showing us bits and pieces of the lives of these two women and how they manage to deal with circumstances — and with each other. We see Adele failing to pay the bills, going off the deep end over a guy who viewed her as a one-night stand, and wanting to solve every problem with ice cream or a restaurant meal. We see Ann vacillating in her feelings for Adele, while being a moody, angry teenager at nearly every turn. The women finally grow to understand each other a little bit at the end of the film, just before Ann goes off to Brown.

My reaction: I thought this was a terribly boring movie. I am not the kind of person who needs things exploding on screen every five minutes to be entertained, but I do need to see something happen. Instead, we just witness very slow-moving character arcs for both Ann and Adele, and frankly, the payoff simply wasn’t worth the wait.

One of the biggest problems I had with this movie was the Natalie Portman character. I couldn’t stand Ann and thought she was just a big brat. Yes, she needed a true mother figure, not a flighty manic-depressive older sister wannabe who can’t face reality, but I hardly think that excuses Ann’s actions. She was a downright bitch to her mother on numerous occasions, even when Adele’s mistakes didn’t warrant that kind of treatment. No matter what Adele did, I got the feeling that she loved Ann; I didn’t get that same feeling from Ann about Adele. Ann was just… tiresome.

Oh, and what was the point of having the cousin die in an accident? I didn’t understand the need for that.

It took a great deal of willpower to watch this entire movie without turning it off or fast forwarding through Portman’s pouting. I wouldn’t do it again, though, and urge you not to put yourself through the same torture. I give Anywhere But Here just 4.0 stars out of 10. Avoid it!

Since I’ve been complaining about Michael Connelly so much lately, a couple of readers have taken pity on me and have sent in some book recommendations. I’d never heard of these titles before, so the only thing I have to go by is what these people are saying. I guess it won’t hurt to put them on my list for now. I can always bump them off if something better comes along!

Anyway, one of the recommendations is Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. It’s apparently about a retired mortgage life insurance salesman who develops a late friendship with his nephew and a young girl just when he had resigned himself to living out the rest of his years in quiet solitude. Could be interesting, I suppose.

Another recommendation was for Home Land by Sam Lipsyte. It’s about a bitter man who writes tons of letters to his school’s alumni magazine complaining how everyone from that alma mater is a total loser. This book sounds like it could be funny.

And a third recommendation was for Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. It’s about a poor girl who gets a scholarship to an exclusive prep school. That seems like a subject that’s been done to death (the kid from the wrong side of the tracks), but this recommendation comes from someone whose judgment I trust, so who knows.

If you’ve read any of these, let me know if you think they’re worthwhile!

I can’t call myself a Wesley Snipes fan, but I have enjoyed several of his movies over the years, including Major League, White Men Can’t Jump, New Jack City, and Mo’ Better Blues. Heck, even Passenger 57 was an okay action movie for something made 15 years ago. I haven’t been paying much attention to Snipes’ career recently, but I just took a peek at his IMDB.com page and saw that almost all of his recent movies are straight-to-video (or DVD, I guess) efforts, including 2005’s The Marksman (which I didn’t know was STV before I rented it). What happened to Snipes? What did he do to piss off the powers that be in Hollywood?

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Snipes stars as a military marksman known only as The Painter. He works with a Special Forces unit that’s deployed to Chechnya in order to stop terrorist Egor Zaysan (played by Dan Badarau) from setting off a live reactor and causing mass destruction in the area. The military unit also has a secondary objective of rescuing a few hostages, American scientists who for some reason were helping with “research” for the reactor.

It doesn’t take much effort for the team to secure the hostages, which leads the Painter to believe that something else is going down. His hunch is correct, as one of the hostages turns a gun on her rescuers and starts shooting members of Painter’s team. The ones that aren’t killed are themselves taken hostage, leaving the Painter to fend for himself for a while.

The Painter eventually does figure out the truth, and he manages to take out the terrorists and rescue his team before being safely extracted from the region.

My Reaction: The first thing I noticed about The Marksman is that it totally felt like the straight-to-video production that it was. By that I mean, it was clearly a low-budget effort, and the overall viewer experience suffered because of that. For one thing, this was supposed to be an action movie, but there are very few real action sequences, particularly in the first hour or so of the film. Second, it seemed as though the filmmakers used stock footage for some of the establishing shots (like of the aircraft carrier out on the ocean). You don’t have to be watching in hi-def to see that these patched-in pieces are far grainier than the rest of the movie, which of course was totally distracting. And finally, it was painfully obvious that the production team couldn’t afford the services of a script doctor to help flesh the film out a bit.

Furthermore, I had a hard time getting into this movie because there was zero character development along the way. We only learned bits and pieces about the Painter, like how he screwed up an operation in Bosnia and how he had an affair with government official Amanda Jacks (Emma Samms), and both of those points were glossed over very quickly. As a result, I didn’t care if he succeeded or was killed, captured, tortured, etc. I suppose the argument could be made that Painter was supposed to be a mysterious person, but I think that’s pretty lame. Why risk alienating your audience like that?

The Marksman wasn’t a good movie, but it wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen, either. I give it 3.5 stars out of 10, and assure you that there’s no reason to rush right out to rent it!

My husband works very long days and hardly gets any vacation time during the year, so the last thing he wants to do is attend company functions on the weekends. While we can skip the summer picnics and trips to Great America, we absolutely cannot avoid the Christmas party or the annual awards banquet. These are stuffy events where the men sport tuxedos and the women wear elegant formal dresses, which is not our type of scene at all.

Nevertheless, since we have to go, there’s nothing to do but try to make the most of it. I actually don’t mind the parties very much once we’re there; it’s the preparation part that really gets to me. I hate combing through rack after rack of dresses at the department stores in search of the perfect evening gown. I hardly ever find one that I like in my size, and when I do, the price is usually far more than I can afford to pay.

So this year, I’m going to try something different: I’m going to shop for my dress online. I’ve heard some very good things about a website called ElegantMart.com. I checked the site out for myself today and was very impressed by what I saw. Elegant Mart has an amazing selection of beautiful evening dresses in a wide variety of styles and colors, from standard black to sexy red, glamorous gold, and many more.

In addition to this great selection, I was won over by Elegant Mart’s discount pricing policy. The prices I saw on the site were much lower than anything I could get at the local mall. Plus, Elegant Mart offers free shipping and doesn’t charge sales tax to anyone outside of California — two more reasons to shop there!

I’m all for convenience when I shop, so I’m anxious to try Elegant Mart the next time I need a new evening gown. If you’re looking for a formal dress for prom, graduation, work functions, museum galas, or any other black-tie affair, I recommend checking out ElegantMart.com. I think you’ll be surprised at how many fabulous dresses are available right there at your fingertips!

I’d heard so many good things about author Michael Connelly that I spent most of the summer listening to several of his audiobooks, hoping that I would discover the intriguing stories that his fans credit him with. Unfortunately, while I’ve found his works to be somewhat interesting, I don’t like the way he writes his main characters. I don’t sympathize with them, don’t root for them, and don’t want them to win. As a result, his books are a chore for me to get through, so I’m admitting defeat. Having just finished The Poet, I’m giving up on Connelly for now. I’m just not his target audience.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Jack McEvoy is a seasoned reporter with the Rocky Mountain News. He covers the “death beat,” so it’s his job to write stories about the most sensational murders and accidental deaths in the state. He has interviewed countless witnesses soon after their loved ones have been buried, and can’t help but feel that there’s a definite element of sleaze to his job. Nevertheless, he likes it well enough that he hasn’t sought to move on, even after 17 years.

Jack’s life is turned upside down when he gets the news that his twin brother Sean, a police officer, was found dead in his car, with no evidence of foul play. All signs point to suicide, particularly since Sean had recently become obsessed with the unsolved murder of Theresa Lofton, a young co-ed who was found brutally murdered and mutilated in Denver. There were no clues and no leads, and Sean couldn’t let the case go.

Jack decides to write a story about cop suicides in general, and Sean’s death in particular, deciding that this would be the best way to deal with the pain of losing his brother. During the course of his research, Jack discovers some eerily similar cop suicides in different locations across the country. Each cop was working on an unsolvable, grisly murder at the time of his death. Each cop committed suicide under circumstances that seemed a bit odd. Jack pursues the matter and uncovers what might be the work of a serial killer.

The FBI then gets involved in the investigation, and Jack somehow manages to keep himself on the case. He gets to tag along with FBI agents in exchange for not publishing the story, which might tip off the suspected killer, nicknamed The Poet because of his affinity for quoting Edgar Allen Poe in the suicide notes left with the cops’ bodies.

The rest of the novel then chronicles the FBI investigation as they scramble to find The Poet before he strikes again. In addition, there is a romantic subplot involving Jack and an agent named Rachel Walling, plus the usual twists and turns you’d expect from a crime thriller.

My Reaction: I tried very hard to come up with a couple of positive things to write about this novel because a couple of readers have taken me to task about writing such negative reviews of Connelly’s works. So here goes. One thing I liked about The Poet was the way we got numerous chapters from Gladden’s point of view. Connelly hadn’t used this technique in his previous novels and I found it to be very effective here. The Gladden POV chapters were some of the most interesting in the entire novel; I really can’t imagine what the book would have been like if everything was told from Jack’s POV.

That being said, I unfortunately found that many features of this novel irked me and made my listening experience less than enjoyable. Here are some of the problems I had with The Poet:

– I absolutely HATED the romantic subplot involving Jack and Rachel. Am I really supposed to believe that these two people would fall into bed together within 24 hours of meeting, especially when they’re working to track down a serial killer? Give me a break. That was totally unprofessional and I just couldn’t see a character like Rachel taking that road.

– Nitpick: I couldn’t STAND how Connelly had Jack refer to his first romp with Rachel as “making love.” Real people don’t talk that way about sex, not when it’s with someone they’ve known for a single day. And to have a guy say that made the description even more jarring.

– Here was another Michael Connelly protagonist that I didn’t like. Jack McEvoy seemed like such a whiny, self-important schmuck with an exaggerated sense of entitlement. Everybody had to give him what he wanted because his brother was killed. Whatever.

– Having Backus be the serial killer at the end? Where the hell did that come from? Connelly didn’t play fair with that one. If he’s gonna pull a killer out of left field, then he damn well better take the time to explain the guy’s motivations. What set Backus off? Why did he do it? I realize that we don’t always get those answers in real life, but this is a work of fiction and there’s more or less an understanding that the author will reward readers who stick it out til the end with a decent explanation of what has happened.

– Another criminal FBI agent in a Connelly work. What’s he got against the Bureau?

Overall, I thought The Poet started out strong, and then fizzled out into a complete bore. The middle was very slow-paced and the end was completely unsatisfying. I give The Poet 4.5 stars out of 10 and am relieved to say that I am done with Connelly for the time being.

A good friend of mine is a native of Virginia, and he asked me if I knew offhand of any movies that were filmed in whole or in part in that state. I didn’t (I usually don’t pay attention to locations unless they’re extremely exotic), but I was curious enough to look up the info for myself.

It turns out that quite a few films have been in the Old Dominion State, including a number that I’ve actually seen, like Silence of the Lambs, No Way Out, G.I. Jane, Navy Seals, Rules of Engagement, Sommersby, Hannibal, and a bunch more.

There have also been some lesser-known works filmed there, including 2006’s Nocturne, which was set in a famous Virginia bed and breakfast. I don’t really know anything else about that title, though.

It’s kind of fun to see which movies have been set in your hometown, especially if you live outside the standard locales like New York, L.A., and Chicago!

Last night’s episode of Entourage was called No Cannes Do, and it seemed like not a whole lot happened in the 30 minutes. I was hoping for something more, especially since there’s only one episode left before the traditional mid-season hiatus, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. At any rate, the recap is going to be short and sweet today, so let’s get right to it.

Vince/E/Turtle/Drama/Ari/Billy: All of these guys are trying to make it out of LAX to Cannes in time for the first public showing of Medellín, but thanks to a terror alert, all flights are delayed for several hours. In fact, many flights, including the one that the boys are supposed to be on, get canceled entirely. It’s then up to Ari to try to find a way for them to get to France.

Ari manages to get them a ride on Sydney Pollack’s private jet, but there would only be five spots available. Turtle offers to stay behind, but Vinnie wouldn’t hear of it. Either the whole team goes together, or none of them do. Even Billy agrees to this arrangement.

Fortunately, Kanye West happens to walk in on his way to London. He’s got a huge private plane where space definitely won’t be an issue. Everyone hops on board and now they’re on their way to Cannes.

Eric/Anna Faris: When Billy finds out that E now represents Anna Faris, he gets Eric to set up a meeting between them. Billy wants Anna to be in Lost in the Clouds, even though Eric doesn’t think that’s such a good idea. They all have lunch, and Anna doesn’t know what to make of Billy. She can’t tell whether he’s joking or being serious, which makes things a bit awkward.

Later on, she decides to pass on the script because she doesn’t understand it. Vinnie gets mad at E for not convincing Anna to get on board, so E goes back to Anna’s place to persuade her to take the role. She agrees, but E feels bad for lying to her and eventually tells her the truth. Anna turns down the role and is no longer working with Eric.

My Reaction: Boring, boring, boring!! The only thing I found remotely interesting about this episode was the way Sydney Pollack told Ari that he wasn’t “completely sold” on Vinnie Chase yet. I took that to be a bit of foreshadowing regarding Medellín; I say the film bombs at Cannes, putting Vinnie’s career in jeopardy and dooming the next Chase-Walsh project before it even gets off the ground. From every Vincent Chase film clip ever shown on Entourage, it’s clear that the guy can’t act. I think Medellín will be the film that finally exposes him for the hack that he really is.

At least, I hope this is the direction the writers take. They could always go the other way and make Medellín be an Oscar-worthy success, but I think having the film fail would be much better for the show in the long run.

I just hope next week’s episode actually tells us something and doesn’t leave us hanging for six months!

I read an article a while ago about what the real-life salaries of some top TV characters would be. It was pretty interesting, and I wish I would have bookmarked it at the time because I’ve wanted to double-check some things.

Anyway, from what I remember of the article, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) on Grey’s Anatomy was the top earner, as a neurosurgeon’s median salary is nearly $400,000. Pretty good for a guy who chooses to live in a tiny trailer!

Dr. Gregory House was second on the list, with a median salary of nearly $200,000 as an infectious disease specialist. Here’s another doctor that doesn’t bother to flaunt his money. Why is it that TV doctors always seem to live well below their means?

There are only two other occupations and median salaries that I can recall from the list. One was for Allison Dubois, a work at home mom on Medium. She would supposedly get more than $130,000 for her duties in the real world. The other was for Betty Suarez on Ugly Betty. As an executive assistant, Betty could expect to pull in about $50,000 per year — which seems like it would go a long way towards improving conditions at her Queens household. Yet, the Suarez family is always complaining about money, even with three incomes. Go figure.

Well, I’m going to keep looking for that article. I’m bound to come across it again, and when I do, I’ll post the link here for you.

When I was growing up, two of my favorite books were Where the Red Fern Grows and Old Yeller. I still revisit those books from time to time, and they still make me cry, even though I know exactly what’s going to happen to the dogs at the end. My love for dog stories extends to the silver screen, so I’m usually willing to watch any film that tells of the relationship between a child and a canine companion — which is why I rented 2005’s Because of Winn-Dixie earlier in the week.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): AnnaSophia Robb plays a young girl named Opal who has recently moved to the small town of Naomi, FL with her father (played by Jeff Daniels), who is simply called Preacher, after his profession. Opal doesn’t have any friends in Naomi and the few other kids she encounters seem to want nothing to do with her. Even the Preacher is distracted 98 percent of the time and rarely pays any attention to her. The result, of course, is that Opal is profoundly lonely.

Then one day her whole life changes when Preacher sends her to the local Winn-Dixie to pick up a few items for breakfast. While there, Opal sees a stray dog run into the store and go wild, knocking over display cases, bowling over employees, and pinning down the manager. When the employees are finally able to get the dog under control, the manager wants to call the pound to take care of the stray. However, Opal can’t bear the thought of the dog ending up in a kennel, so she speaks up and says it’s her dog. She calls the dog Winn-Dixie (that’s the first name she sees), gets the dog to obey a few simple commands, and convinces the manager to let them go.

When Opal returns home, the Preacher is surprised to see that she has a dog in tow. He doesn’t want Opal to keep Winn-Dixie and insists that she make an effort to find the dog’s real owners. So Opal prints up fliers and posts them around town. No one responds. Then, the Preacher’s landlord tells them to get rid of the dog. Winn-Dixie barks too much, makes messes in the yard, and is just generally a nuisance. Preacher asks for a little extra time to find Winn-Dixie a home, which the landlord reluctantly agrees to. Eventually, it’s understood that Winn-Dixie will stay forever.

The rest of the film then shows us all the positive changes that come about after Winn-Dixie enters Opal’s life. Most notably, she befriends several adults in the town that other people have misconceptions about, including the lonely librarian (Eva Marie Saint), the old woman that the other kids think is a witch (Cicely Tyson), and the slow man that people regard as the town idiot (Dave Matthews). Opal even becomes friends with kids her age and grows to like the prospect of her new life in Naomi.

My Reaction: I thought this was a decent movie. I mean, it was predictable nearly every step of the way, but the young actress who played Opal was immensely likable, so I didn’t mind knowing what was coming up next. As someone who has had dogs my whole life, I could totally empathize with Opal’s plight and I knew just what she felt when Winn-Dixie came into the picture. Dogs really can change a kid’s life for the better.

I liked the relationships that Opal forged with the three adults I mentioned above, and especially enjoyed her scenes with Cicely Tyson’s Gloria. The bond between those two characters really shone through, making me believe that Opal and Gloria could be the greatest of friends despite their vast age difference. Again, this was something that I could personally relate to because when I was a kid, I had several adult friends that I spent a great deal of time with.

Overall, Because of Winn-Dixie is a sweet movie that is suitable for viewers of all ages. I give it 6.0 stars out of 10 and recommend it for your next family movie night!

I’ve been debating about whether or not I should attend the upcoming BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas. It’s a two-day event that will be held in November, and it sounds like there will be lots of useful seminars and panel discussions featuring some of the top bloggers in the country. There’s no doubt in my mind that the conference would be a prime opportunity to network and pick up some great blogging tips, so I definitely think it would be worthwhile to go.

But the problem I’m having is trying to come up with the necessary funds to swing a trip to Vegas. Driving there is out of the question as there’s no way I can take that much time away from my family and other responsibilities, so I’ll definitely have to fly. The lowest airfare I was able to find was for just around $200. Once taxes and other surcharges are added to that, I’m sure I’ll be in the $250 range.

Then there’s accommodation to think about. I found some pretty good deals at the Tropicana Las Vegas, and can definitely afford their quoted prices for the one or two nights that I’ll have to stay. But when this is added together with the airfare and incidentals like cabs, meals, and of course a bit of gambling, then the trip is simply out of my budget.

I haven’t given up all hope though. I’ll keep an eye on airfare from now until November to see if I can find anything better. I would love to go to this event, but I don’t want to break the bank in order to do so!

The Upside of Anger is a 2005 film starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. Having just seen — and enjoyed — more recent works from these actors (The Bourne Ultimatum and Mr. Brooks, respectively), I thought it would be fun to check out their earlier collaborative project. I wasn’t disappointed, as The Upside of Anger ended up being a good film that I ordinarily wouldn’t have bothered with.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Allen plays a woman named Terry Wolfmeyer who, we’re told in a voice-over narration from youngest daughter “Popeye” (Evan Rachel Wood), has been angry for some time now, and that anger has completely changed her. Terry hasn’t always been this way; in fact, she used to be very happy and mellow. But things started going downhill for her three years ago when her husband Grey left her.

The film then flashes back three years to show Terry starting her decline into alcoholism and anger. She sits around the house all day watching the news with a glass of vodka in her hand. Luckily, her four daughters, Hadley (Alicia Witt), Emily (Keri Russell), Andy (Erika Christensen), and the aforementioned Popeye, are old enough to take care of themselves at this point.

Around the same time, Grey’s friend Denny Davies (Costner) starts coming by to discuss a development project that’s slated to take place nearby. Once Denny learns that Grey is gone, he comes over more frequently. At first, he and Terry start out as drinking buddies, but then their relationship slowly progresses to much more. Terry starts coming around for dinner, they start sleeping together, and Denny starts getting increasingly involved in family matters.

Speaking of family matters, Terry has a lot to deal with from her three eldest daughters. First, Andy decides that she doesn’t want to go to college, but would rather get a job right after high school. Terry is opposed to the whole idea, but Denny sets her up with an interview at the radio station where he hosts a talk show. Andy gets hired as an assistant producer, and then starts sleeping with her boss, a man twice her age.

Terry also has trouble with Emily, who wants to go to an arts school to study Dance Theory for four years. Terry would rather have Emily go to the University of Michigan and get a more traditional degree. And Hadley announces at her graduation ceremony that she will be marrying David (Tom Harper), her boyfriend of three years. Terry had never even met David before the announcement, and Popeye surmises correctly that Hadley must already be pregnant.

Through these various events, we see how Terry deals with her alcoholism and her anger at the way she thinks Grey treated her. Then a shocking discovery at the end of the film makes Terry rethink everything she has gone through during the past three years.

My Reaction: I liked this film more than I thought I would. It was refreshing to see alcoholics portrayed as something other than all-out stumbling drunks who spend all day rationalizing their drinking choices. Terry and Denny were functional, unapologetic drunks who didn’t try to justify their lifestyle at all. Don’t get me wrong, director Mike Binder didn’t glorify these two characters; he just let them be.

One major problem I had with the movie was how Terry automatically assumed her husband left her when he didn’t come home for a few days. I mean, what kind of marriage must she have had if that’s the first thing you think when your spouse disappears? It didn’t occur to her that there might have been an accident? She didn’t file a missing persons report or check local hospitals? She didn’t think it was strange that Grey left without taking any personal belongings or any money?

And then, if her marriage was so bad that suspecting Grey ran away was a logical conclusion for Terry to draw, why would she waste her time wallowing in self-pity and anger for all those years? This part of the film seemed off for me.

Overall, however, I thought The Upside of Anger was pretty good. Allen and Costner turned in solid performances and I thought they had a fair amount of chemistry together. I give this movie 7.0 stars out of 10; be sure to check it out!

I debated almost all summer long about whether I should go see Ocean’s Thirteen at the theater or just wait for it to come out on DVD. I liked Ocean’s Eleven, but thought Ocean’s Twelve was pretty bad, so that’s the reason I was torn about Thirteen. In the end, I decided that waiting until Ocean’s Thirteen hit the bargain theater seemed like a good compromise. Tickets over there are just slightly more expensive than renting a new release DVD, so I’d still be able to see the film on the big screen, but I wouldn’t feel as ripped off if it turned out to be bad. It turns out that I was satisfied with what I saw, but didn’t think I missed out by waiting this long.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Large-scale con man Danny Ocean (played by George Clooney) once again needs to assemble his team in order to pull off a job. This time, it’s personal, as one of their own, Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), was double-crossed by greedy casino owner Willie Bank (Al Pacino). Bank and Reuben were supposed to be equal partners in a brand-new hotel, but at the last minute, Bank muscles Reuben out, paying him only a fraction of what his shares were worth. The shock of the ordeal gave Reuben a heart attack, and leaves him bed-ridden for months. Danny swears to get revenge on Bank.

Once the entire crew is rounded up, Danny and Rusty (Brad Pitt) reveal the plan: they want to ruin Bank’s Grand Opening by causing him to lose $500 million and to lose out on the prestigious 5-Diamond Award for Best Hotel.

Taking care of the 5-Diamond Award is the easy part. They simply have Saul (Carl Reiner) pose as the hotel reviewer, and then find out the name of the real reviewer so they can go to work on sabotaging his stay. Once Danny and Rusty find out which room the “V.U.P.” (very unimportant person, played by David Paymer) will be staying in, they infest the bed with bugs and do other things that will drive the guy crazy. The V.U.P. ends up getting a terrible rash over his entire face and gets kicked out of the hotel (even though he begs to stay). No 5-Diamond Award for Bank.

Creating a $500 million loss on opening night will take considerably more effort and cunning. The team realizes that there’s no way the 11 of them can hit Bank that hard on their own, so they decide that the best plan is to fix all the games in such a way that anyone playing them would win. In other words, all the other gamblers at the casino will have huge winnings, making it impossible for Bank to track the losses and pin the scheme on one group.

In order to accomplish this, Danny plants his people as employees at the companies that manufacture gaming items for Bank’s casino. So Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck) goes to work at a dice factory in Mexico so he can make loaded dice for craps and Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) goes to work at a company that makes the automatic blackjack shoes so he can toy with the machines. In addition, they get Frank Catton (Bernie Mac) in the door as a dominoes dealer and they find some dirt on a Bank pit boss who then agrees to switch out loaded roulette balls for them when the time comes.

But even if they can control all the games, Danny and Rusty know their plan isn’t complete without an exit strategy. This being Vegas, all the people in the casino will keep gambling until they lose all the money that they initially win on the fixed games. So the final part of the plan is to create a natural disaster, an earthquake, that will cause the hotel to be evacuated once everyone has won a decent amount. The Ocean team will accomplish this by digging under the hotel to mess with the infrastructure.

This being a caper movie, there are various twists and turns along the way, a bunch of disguises, and several misdirections to fool the audience. There are also a couple of subplots involving Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) and Bank’s right-hand woman Abigail Sponder (Ellen Barkin).

My Reaction: I’ll start off by saying that Ocean’s Thirteen wasn’t a dull film. There seemed to be something important happening in every single scene, and with so many characters to fit into the story, things moved along fairly quickly. There was no time to get bored or dwell on the sheer implausibility of every single part of the team’s plan — until after leaving the movie theater.

That’s when all the questions started kicking in. Like, how did they get that huge drill from Paris to Vegas in time to continue work on the tunnel before opening night? Better yet, how did they get something like that to the work site (in downtown Vegas, mind you) without being seen, stopped, and questioned? I know that viewers aren’t supposed to hold movies like Ocean’s Thirteen up to strict scrutiny, but instead are expected to just sit back and enjoy the story. But that particular plot point was so ridiculous that it’s really hard to let it go.

I also can’t get over the way Danny Ocean and team engage in such high-stakes scams. They talk about bilking Willie Bank out of $500 million as if it were just another day on the job. Stealing diamond necklaces worth $250 million is treated like an afterthought. And of course we won’t even ask how the crew came up with the untold millions to get the ball rolling on this scam in the first place. Remember, they didn’t go to Benedict until the first drill broke down….

Despite the utter ridiculousness of the script, I found myself unable to actively dislike this movie, and I know it was because of the cast. It’s hard (for me, at least) to hate a movie that features George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, and all the rest.

Overall, Ocean’s Thirteen is one of those films where you’re better off leaving your brain at home. If you can just convince yourself to enjoy your favorite movie stars without expecting anything to make sense, then you’ll be okay. I give this movie 6.5 stars out of 10.

From my outsider’s perspective, I think that the hardest part of being an actor is changing your physical appearance for the sake of a role. I’m not just talking about wearing fake tattoos or shaving your head; I’m talking about gaining (or sometimes losing) significant amounts of weight to play a particular character.

One example of this that immediately jumps to mind is Edward Norton in 1998. He released two films that year: in Rounders, he played a scrawny little guy called Worm; then in American History X, he played a cut, built skinhead named Derek. I read that Norton had to gain 30 pounds of muscle to play Derek.

A more recent example would be Thomas Haden Church, who went from having an average build in real life to being the muscle-bound villain Sandman in Spider-Man 3. Like Norton, Church is also said to have gained about 30 pounds of muscle for the role.

How do these guys do it? If I had to guess I’d say it would take months of intense work with a personal trainer, a very strict diet, and maybe even a supplement like muscle milk to achieve those types of results. Well, however they did it, they definitely earned their salaries for those films!

Now that I’ve finished Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, I’m one step closer to my goal of reading every Agatha Christie mystery novel in order. Published in the U.S. in 1939, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas was Christie’s 24th novel. This was the 17th novel that featured Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, which strikes me as a bit odd. I know Poirot is the character most associated with Christie’s books, but I had always been under the impression that she basically had a whole stable of detectives that she relied on (Tommy and Tuppence, Miss Marple, Harley Quin, Parker Pyne, etc.). Maybe these other characters star in her short stories; I don’t know. At any rate, here’s my review of Hercule Poirot’s Christmas.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): It’s Christmastime, and wealthy, old Simeon Lee has decided that he wants his family around him. While one of his sons, Alfred, still lives in the large mansion with Simeon, he has three other sons who are more or less estranged, including George, a member of British Parliament; David, who hasn’t returned home since the boys’ mother died; and Harry, the black sheep of the family who left home at a young age to travel the world. Alfred, George, and Harry are all married, and their wives Lydia, Magdalene, and Hilda (respectively) are also present at the house for Christmas.

In addition, two strangers turn up at the last minute to join the party. One is a young Spanish woman named Pilar, and the other is a young South African man named Stephen Farr. Pilar is actually Simeon Lee’s granddaughter (her mother was Simeon’s now deceased daughter), but she has never been to England to meet the family. Farr is the son of Simeon’s old business partner in South Africa.

As the story unfolds, we get an idea of what kind of tyrannical, sadistic person Simeon Lee really is. We learn that he didn’t want to invite his family over for sentimental reasons, even though his declining health means that he probably won’t live much longer. Instead, he just wanted to have a bit of fun by bringing together a group of people who don’t get along very well with each other. His plan is to set them on edge even further by dropping hints about reworking his will, and then sitting back to watch the ensuing fireworks.

However, this Christmas fun is interrupted when Simeon discovers that a handful of uncut diamonds left over from his South Africa days has been stolen from a safe in his room. The diamonds are worth several thousand pounds, and only a few people could possibly have had access to the safe and the combination. Simeon calls in a local police officer, Superintendent Sugden, to come and investigate the matter.

Sugden, who had been to the house earlier to collect a charitable donation, arrives just in time to hear a loud commotion and screams of agony upstairs in Simeon’s room. Everyone in the house runs to the door, which is still locked from the inside, to discover that Simeon Lee has been murdered in a brutal fashion, with blood splattered everywhere around the room.

With no sign of the killer, no trace of the murder weapon, and no apparent means of escape, everyone is stumped as to how the crime could have been committed. Fortunately, Hercule Poirot is spending Christmas nearby, so he comes in to help Sugden with the investigation. The rest of the novel then deals with typical witness interviews and gathering of clues.

My Reaction: I thought this was a decent story, but it’s definitely not one of my favorite Christie books so far. Things started out well, as I was quite intrigued by the murder scene. It was one of those typical “closed room” situations where it was practically impossible for anyone to get in or out without being noticed, and I was very anxious to see how the killer managed to do the deed.

But then I thought Christie relied on too many coincidences to unravel the mystery. I mean, we had not one, but two illegitimate sons in the cast of characters? Plus another imposter who was totally unrelated to the family? That was stretching things a bit thin, in my opinion.

I felt the same way about the actual execution of the murder. It seemed that a lot of things had to go just right in order for the killer’s plan to come to fruition. Moreover, the whole “dying pig” toy that Poirot identified simply from a tiny piece of rubber and wood? That was a bit over the top as well. I know Poirot is brilliant, but that really stretched the bounds of believability right there.

Nevertheless, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas was an easy read, and the book was more often interesting than not. I admit that I was completely baffled by all the clues and red herrings that Christie dropped along the way. The ending was not very satisfying, but as I said before, I still thought this book was pretty decent. I give it 6.0 stars out of 10.