So, yeah, I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series. I’m also taking three literature classes. Yay for being an English major!
Also, I’m going to try to blog more often. I think that’s my New Year’s resolution of sorts.
Well, these are supposed to be life-changing books, but, alas, I didn’t learn much from this one. I did learn that you’re supposed to love everything and everyone and treat them as your equal. But I think that I learned that lesson in kindergarten as well. We all see where that got us.
Next up: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. Oh boy.
Well, I have laid to rest my collection of Nicholas Sparks novels after my latest read — At First Sight. I am sick and tired of a book that should have a happy ending (it is a romance novel, right?) ending with everyone important to the main character dying/getting sick/ both/ dating someone else. I don’t know if this guy’s heard of happy endings, but I’ve only read one book by him with one, The Wedding, the lesser known sequel to The Notebook.
At First Sight isn’t a bad book, but it’s just not what I want anymore. It’s not that I want a happy ending or that I want everything to go how it should, I just want a good novel.
However, I finished a minor read that I’ve been working on for months. For my birthday, my awesome boyfriend got me Captain America: Reborn. It’s kind of a sequel to the Civil War series following Captain America’s death after another group of comics that followed CW. I thought that the writing was great and the artwork has even inspired what my kitchen will look like when I get an apartment next summer. The dark colors that are broken up by Cap’s red, white, and blue complement each other enough to work, but contrast enough to be noticed. The cover art for the hardback collection is awesome, just like the cover art for the comics inside. All of the covers in the back of the book are great. The artists for this collection were amazing and I’m really glad to have received it as one of my birthday presents.
Starting tomorrow, I’m beginning on a journey. A journey to read thirty-one books in a year. Not a hard task, you may say. Nay says I. One of the novels is War and Peace. The entire Lord of the Rings collection is in there, too. All of the books I’ll be reading are classics or modern classics, all lengthy in pages and words. I’m excited, my friends.
Well, this is weird. I’m yet again about to review a movie. I’m confused though. I’m bookgirl, but yet, I’m reviewing movies left and right. *Sigh* Anyway, on to the review.
Prince of Persia was decent, but still my least favorite of the three movies I’ve seen so far this week. It had great action sequences and a pretty decent story line, but the film at times was very predictable. Most of the time, I knew what was coming next. However, after those predictable things happened, something unpredictable followed. I don’t want to go too in depth about this movie, considering the vast majority of people I know haven’t seen it yet, if they even have a desire to.
Jake Gyllenhaal was great. This had to be one of the best films I’ve seen him in. And, no, I have not seen Donnie Darko, so don’t even give me that crap. The last good movie I saw him in was Day After Tomorrow, and that wasn’t even that great.
Alfred Molina was hilarious. Usually, this guy is a very serious, dramatic actor, but he really demonstrated his comedic side here.
Sir Ben Kingsly wasn’t at his best, but he wasn’t terrible either.
Anyway, I know my review was lacking, but there’s tons of spoilers that would’ve happened if I would’ve actually reviewed the whole movie. I give this one a rating of “Eh, wish I would’ve gone seen Toy Story 3 again instead, but I don’t regret it.”
Ah, Toy Story. Who doesn’t remember when the original film came out, the one that started it all? Who has forgotten about the ground-breaking animation and cinematic genius that Pixar put into this film? I know I still have fond memories of Toy Story. The first film was one of the first movies I saw in theaters. I had already been introduced to great movies, but those all came out before I was even born, or when I was too young to appreciate them.
I have always been a Disney kid. The first VHS I ever owned? Beauty and the Beast. My first family vacation? Disney World. Ninety-nine percent of my karaoke tapes and soundtracks? Something to do with a Disney Princess. I’m still a Disney kid. I mean, who isn’t? When it all comes down to it, Disney is still the number one provider of entertainment in the film industry, television industry, and even the toy industry. Yes, folks, Disney is a major part of our lives.
And Disney has successfully joined forces with Pixar again to make the best movie I’ve seen in 2010. Yes, I’ve seen Avatar. It was garbage. Don’t hate my opinion, respect it. I’m a movie lover by nature and I like to critique movies as well. Avatar was crap. It was Pocahontas and Fern Gully with pretty attached.
Now I can’t say I’ve seen every movie that has been released this year, but I have seen many. I will probably see many, many, many more. But I will probably stick with this decision: Toy Story 3 is the best movie to come out this year. I expect it to possibly be nominated for an Academy Award at next year’s Oscars. I don’t expect it to win, just because Pixar does sometimes get snubbed when it shouldn’t be. Plus, unlike WALL-E, Toy Story 3 is more fun than “life changing.” (Don’t get me wrong, WALL-E was fun as well, but it had a message attached. Toy Story 3 has one as well, but for the sake of those that haven’t seen it, I won’t reveal too much.)
The story opens with the toys trying to trick Andy into playing with them. At this point in time, Andy is seventeen years old and getting ready to go off to college. (I guess the kid’s a genius. Almost everyone I know went to college at eighteen.) The toys end up at a daycare, where they discover a lot about themselves and the true nature of some of the “friendly” toys they encountered.
I refuse to continue with the storyline due to the fact I hate to spoil movies, but it’s pretty great. The 3-D is done nicely as well, I might add. There isn’t something popping out at you every time you look at the screen. The 3-D was done tastefully and flowed very well with the film. Pixar didn’t try to hard with it. Disney looks like it’s going to be good with the 3-D film business. The last 3-D movie I saw was A Christmas Carol and its special effects weren’t forced, either.
I give Toy Story 3 my full recommendation to anyone who enjoys a movie. I was glad to be one of the firsts to see it. It was a great pleasure to sit in a theater with my boyfriend and have some popcorn while one of my childhood memories pranced across the screen. Toy Story 3 was beautifully done and well written for a film directed at children. I don’t think that Disney’s main demographic with this movie is kids though. I think that it’s people my age who loved and practically worshiped the first two. I saw almost as many people around their late-teens and twenties as I saw little kids with their Buzz Lightyear shirts and Woody dolls in the theater I was in. It’s not just a nostalgia factor, either. Toy Story 3 is supposed to appeal to that age group. Andy grew up with us. He’s our age now and we’re going through much of the same thing. I know I’m too old for my Barbies and baby dolls. I had to get rid of some things when I went to college that I had fallen in love with as a child. I’m just glad that not everything that I fell in love with is gone.
That’s why Toy Story 3 gets two thumbs up and a big goofy grin out of me.
Well, at long last, I am back home in Tennessee. I traveled through four states to get to Atlanta, but it was worth it to mend some bridges with pops. I barely got my reading done, so it looks like a little bit longer for the book review. I still can’t get into it. Maybe if I knew some back-story to the characters’ relationship, it would be more interesting.
Anyhoo, I went and saw a movie in good ol’ Atlanta– The A-Team. I fully expected to like it, but as a fan of the television series, and as a very critical person, I also expected to pick it to pieces. Usually, for me at least, that happens with every movie based on a novel (or even a children’s book) that I’ve read.
However, this time, I was very, very pleasantly surprised. I didn’t pick the movie to pieces. From the very first scene, it seemed like the movie picked up before the television show even occurred. It seemed like the missing limb. Some of the scenes were too extravagant for the original show, but they fit in with a modern adaptation. The characters were spot-on. I was very surprised with “Rampage” Jackson’s performance. Usually when a professional athlete of any kind is in a movie, their performance seems wooden to me, with a few exceptions (most notably Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). He did the character of B.A. very well. I was also surprised at Bradley Cooper’s performance. In every film I’ve seen Cooper in, he always comes across as a womanizing, heartless jerk. True, Face is a womanizing jerk, but as seen with his romantic involvement with Jessica Beal’s character, he was never heartless.
Liam Neeson gave the best performance of the film, but the actor that portrayed Murdock was awesome. He played that character so well. I greatly enjoyed the imitation of Mel Gibson’s William Wallace. But, again, Liam Neeson’s character (Hannibal) was great. I’m a big fan of Neeson anyway, especially the Chronicles of Narnia series (he plays Aslan) and one of his latest films, Taken.
I would definitely recommend seeing this movie. It has a bit of a love story and a hell of a lot of action. I enjoyed it, even when seeing it by myself. It may not be appropriate for smaller children, but pre-teens, teens, and everyone else will definitely enjoy it. Fans of the series won’t be disappointed either. It’s true to the original series, but with a modern take. I loved the film and if they’re making a sequel, count me in.
Well, I’m now in Atlanta with my Papa. The Hampton Inn is wonderful. I slept in a huge bed with a down comforter last night. It was great. The hotel is a bit on the quirky side, too, which is nice. Now, I’m just sitting in a hotel room in one of the greatest cities in the Eastern United States, listening to some Indie- rock and trying to talk to my boyfriend. I promise that my book review will be up soon. I’m just finding this one hard to get into. I’m really loving this trip, however. I’ve already realized some things about myself and I got a job interview. This “unemployed” thing is driving me crazy. It wouldn’t be so bad if I was in school, but, alas, I’m not. I’ve always disliked Summer break for some strange reason. It’s probably because I’ve always wanted to take massive vacations on my Summer break and haven’t. I love having something to do all the time. Being out of school and not having a job might just be the death of me.
Well, this is a blog about books. Soon, I’ll have my review for At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks on here. I’ll probably also chronicle my ideas and such on here as well. Yay, blogs!
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