Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland

I saw Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, in old fashioned 2D, this weekend. Tim Burton is undeniably creative in his approach to visuals. The deep colors, Suessical shapes, and general grandness of scale are all great fun to watch. However, and it pains me to say so, the story was abused and left a disappointingly silly remnant. Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter was a recycled Willy Wonka with tones of Edward Sissorhands. Ok Johnny, we get it, you are “wacky in an intellectually superior way”….can we move on? Can we hear another song or is that all you have in your repertoire these days? It would have been so great if the Mad Hatter had been morose and sarcastic. In fact, I think Gary Oldman would have been a better Mad Hatter and leave Depp to be the caterpillar. Before you think I am a total AiW hater, I enjoyed Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen. She can be crazy and quiet at the same time and that’s just downright creepy. This isn’t the outlandish crazy of Mrs. Lovett and not the depression of Marla, this was a whole new crazy and that was fun to watch. Ann Hattaway was just annoyingly flakey, period.

End result, the movie is pretty but shallow.

Book Review: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Coming Soon

Book Review: Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

I love the way Vonnegut talks/writes…it seems so natural…so organic…yet so descriptive. When I pick up one of his books it practically reads itself.

Although I found this book inferior to Slaughter House Five, I was happy to reenter the concepts of the useless of view time and how profound a sense of perspective can become. I recommend this as a followup to Five…but give yourself a nice sorbet.

Book Review: Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer

I was disturbed at Bella’s lack of self-interest. There is a fine line between self-less and stupid. She behaves as though she were raised in the 50′s. Is this “Its all about his needs” how we really want young girls to view relationships? Beyond that, apparently Edwards only has roughly three looks that he jumps between like a ADD rabbit who missed his meds….”smoldering”, “scowling”, and “playful”.

Book Review: Uglies (Uglies Trilogy, Book 1) by Scott Westerfeld

I found this entire series to be shallow enough to entertain children but innovative enough to keep an adult interested. The concept of a future where “things are not as perfect as they seem” is not new but I enjoyed the fact that Tally did not play the typical victim roll that most female heroines are relegated to. I found her character development was handled with humor and a fair amount of humanism that it managed to cover some of the obvious gaps in the story line. She far outshined the other characters who were set pieces by comparison. I would recommend this for parents looking to share a reading experience with their children. It certainly gave us all a lot to talk about around the dinner table.

Book Review: Waiting: A Novel by Ha Jin

Let me first say, this is an excellent book. However, I can not overstate how hollow and drained I felt after reading this book. It was as though someone had drained all the sun from the world. Although beautifully written and pointedly clear in its indictment of the folly of “the grass is always greener”, the tone is so overpoweringly oppressive that, once completed, I flung the book across the room with a cry of “are you kidding me?!?!” I could only recommend this book to someone who actually ENJOYED Shindler’s List. Otherwise, read it with no expectations of happiness.

Book Review: The Rum Diary : A Novel by Hunter S. Thompson

I took this book with me on my first trip to Puerto Rico. I was great to be in the places he wrote about in the book..ok, not ALL the places because that would be a bit scary. Loved the book, not too difficult for beach reading, and the main char was….an interesting fellow.

Book Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Highly amusing voice of a pre-teen boy. Read the whole thing in a little over an hour. Author has some very interesting and imaginative inner monologue.

Book Review: Don’t Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis

Enlightening view of biblical events and mindsets of that time from a non-religious perspective without being disrespectful to people of that faith. This really brought a lot of concrete clarity to what could be seen as almost mystical stories from the Bible.

Book Review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

Not as fresh as the first book….felt as though it were written to cash in on the success on the first book rather than having a purpose of its own.