The Trip

I did not like The Trip. I was expecting to be swept off my feet from funnies, but it's essentially 2 actors reviewing B&B's, eating a lot of scallops, while also doing movie impressions. 2-Stars.

This is why you lost a star

The reason one should read Why We Broke Up is simply for the illustrations. I kept spotting the spine all over the place and I thought, "Sure! Why not?!" Maira Kalman's illustrations really completed this novel.

I didn't really like this book - I couldn't get past the protagonist's voice. She just wasn't authentic to me. She also seemed a little too perfect to me, since she's so different from all the other girls. Unfortunately, all teen girls think they're different from everyone else, even those who blend in with the "It" crowd. Bits of the novel were cute, but the voice was just too old/worldly for me. 2-Stars.

The corny history of the first vibrator

I'm torn with rating this film, so I'm going to write myself into a number. Cute, but silly-cute. Awkward is a good word for parts of Hysteria. Entertaining, but in a corny way. You think a story about the invention of the first electric vibrator, that's going to be graphic or hilarious, but it was neither.

So the movie is about giving old women orgasims, and Maggie Gyllenhall's character flaw of caring too much/being too charitable. It tried, and fails to push upon women's issues: "hysterical" women, (ie., women who are overworked/under appreciated/tired of feeling like slaves/under "loved") seek medical treatments for getting through their ruts. The movie sounds dirty and the R-rating certainly marks it as naughty, but it's reserved. 

Hysteria's entertaining, maybe even cute, but not great. It does lightly push women's suffrage in a quirky manner. So... cute. It gets a 2/5.

The AVENGERS! Only Funnier

I confess I haven't seen a single superhero film (aside from Batman,) and I don't read comics, so I feel a bit out of the loop. I've missed out on all the Hulk and Ironman films... not even seen Thor! So my approach to The Avengers was with virgin eyes. It burned my eyes :-( Being one who does not pass up the opportunity to watch films guided by Riff Trax, I saw The Avengers this past weekend with my friend. I don't think I quite understand what happened. I doubt I'll remember the whole film, but in guidance with the third-party commentary, it was amusing in the chuckle department. I will not be seeing this film again (at least I hope not): 2/5 Stars. Seriously, the Riff Trax made this movie tolerable for me.

Oh! I forgot Captain America! How could one forget Captain America?

I could pretend I never saw this....

But then it wouldn't count towards my 50/50 Leisure Challenge. So I'll confess, I was hoping for a cute, witty, dark romantic comedy. It was long winded somehow. I was bored throughout. Sadly, there's a LOT of silly/humorous directions this movie could have gone in, but they just died... or perhaps they committed suicide? Hah... Nah, Damsels in Distress is lacking. I would not bother again: 2/5 Stars. On paper this sounds like a movie I would get a kick out of, but it fell very short.

Life Before Man

*Chuckles* My original (accidental) post title was called "Life Before Mad". Doesn't make much sense even regarding this book... There was very little emotion held to me. There were a few things I just couldn't get over, which is why I ultimately gave this book a two:

1. I'm puzzled by the need for Parts... 5 of them? There wasn't really any change in theme or anything.
2. So this was the thought of a "Modern Marriage" from the mid-late 1970's? Blug! Just an open relationship in which we (the reader) grow to (kinda) sympathize with the Home-Wrecker.
3. Speaking of the Home-Wrecker, non of the character were very likable. (I even grew to dislike Lesje... the least bitter character.) Or I just learned to hate or become board with the lot of them.
4. Character Chris (he off'ed himself BEFORE the start of the book,) is mentioned a lot, but at the same time is underdeveloped and comes off as less than a ghost.
5. A whole-lot of nothing occurs.

But you know, Atwood's writing IS good. It just wasn't enough to pull me through this novel any quicker. The ending was "meh," and I just struggled throughout to commit to the story. So I was bored and cared very little for this (what I guess you'd consider) love triangle. 2/5 Stars.

I have SPOKEN!

Earlier this year I watched (blegh) and reviewed What's Your Number. I'd like to point out that I have down-graded this movie from it's 2-Star Status to a 1-Star. Over time, the memory of this movie has popped up a few times... all times annoying.

I REGRET watching this movie! I honestly thought it would be funny, but I was wrong. It bothered me so much, that when I did in fact see a movie I considered a 2/5, I realized I was mistaken. I think I was rating the film a little to easily. I probably felt sorry for it.... or something.

No more - it's a One!

...And a Bad Movie

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot floating about the new releases. I even settled on watching Bad Teacher just to kill time and get some of my challenge accomplished. What watching this film accomplished: It murdered my time and made me care very little for Cameron Diaz. It does, however, point out precisely what is wrong with some school districts.

Yes, I know! It's my own fault for settling! Can't blame the film I did get like a chuckle in there (I think). 2/5 Stars

I thought time travel would be exciting....

We'll I guess it was kind of exciting... a naked guy showing up all over time. Sure. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger seems to be either LOVED or HATED by the readers, but all agree the time traveling itself was a great starting point. It sold me anyway. That and it was highly recommended by my sister claiming "it's super fast! It's all dialog!" For me, it was neither.

I wasn't as impressed as she had been; I was bored. Even pretended to check a watch while reading through 3 rounds of pool (in which everyone played well of course). The novel is full of a lot of unnecessary detail about what's going on in and around a scene, but then there's little to no detail about the characters themselves, other than how they were clothed or wore their hair.

Backstory details such as family history and sexual encounters were brought up as they seemed to be very important to the plot in some way, but no solid picture was painted. Examples include Clare's history with her mother... uh, I guess her mother suffered from depression. We meet her at Clare's family Christmas party where she makes a "scene" while the family gossips behind her back, but yeah that's the last of ma'. And Henry was supposed to be a completely different person before Clare - he was a heavy drinker and man-whore, but neither of these traits are concretely developed for the reader. We just have to accept that he was a bad-bad boy before *sigh* Clare!

There were other little details that bugged me, but nothing more than the novel's (excessive) length. Now that I reflect back on the book, that's probably the point since the story is about transcending time. According to my borrowed copy's reading group guide, there was a heavy theme of "waiting". Yes... I was waiting for the book to just end. I was waiting for something to happen. Neither of the protagonists needed to wait for anything: Clare had a pre-determined list of the couple's future encounters and Henry was just off doing his own thing, acting as a human fortune cookie. I think the better word for this book's theme would be "slow." How does Henry keep the the story running around in a loop? How does Clare "patiently" wait for Henry, knowing all too well that she will one day commit herself to this person?

Not to frighten anyone with a spoiler-alert, (in case you could guess from the title,) there is no "Wife" until half way through the novel! The book is almost 600 pages... yeah that's a whole lot of not-much-going-on. The second half of the novel does read a bit faster because there is some more exciting activity Based on that fact, I felt that the book didn't need to be more than 300 pages. I think it took me a month to get through this. I know there are a bunch of readers out there that just PLOWED through, but like my sister they either: A. have a true love-story relative to the plot, or B. saw the movie before reading. I recommend the latter - skip the book for the film, then read the book if the plot really interests you.

I was bored, but the writing is okay, so Niffenegger gets some credit for that: 2/5 Stars.

Because Time's a Goon....

I had high expectations for A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I have several Goodreads recommendations for other books by Jennifer Egan, plus there were several other readers I follow with great reviews for the book, so I figured "Meh! Why NOT?" Plus I was standing in the recent publications section of the library and it was looking at me - begging me to take it home.

I think the red flag to start out with is that people are either criticizing or raving about the chapter that's made up of a "Power Point" presentation. It's a bunch of slides with diagrams and charts. Actually, the content of that chapter was the most interesting from the whole book. To me, it felt like a flow chart for Egan to diagram a new novel (like an outlining tool,) so it doesn't quite sit right with me. What was in that chapter I feel has the makings of a really great book. I'm just certain now she's started an odd trend which is a bit too gimmicky to put into any other books. So if you've writing a novel, please STOP and THINK before copying her method!

I think what really threw me out of balance was the clutter of point of views. It didn't bother me so much that there were multiple point of views, but that they just felt thrown together. I noticed at the start of the book their were remarks about bits and chapters here and there actually appeared as magazine articles and stories, which I think adds to the cut and paste feeling to the book. It probably would have flowed together cleaner if it had read in chronological order. I'm sure others would argue that that's the point... blah, blah, blah! Sorry, it was just harder to digest (for me), and it made the book feel really "clippy" to run back and forth in time AND change the voice of the story.

I can't say that I HATED the novel. Music means a lot to me, but books about music or musicians (failures or not,) just turn me off. I really thought this book would be different, since it was so highly regarded from 2010. The basic subject matter of the book is just plain not-my-thing, so it was a struggle for me to keep attention throughout. Now, I can't shake the image of Iggy Pop out of my head. Plus I really hated the klepto and she was kinda a prominent figure in the story. From the get-go we weren't off to a great start!

I'm not going to shy away from Jennifer Egan's other books. Her writing IS good and her there are still a couple of her other works which were listed as highly recommended. But for the Goon Squad, sorry Egan: 2/5 Stars.