Movies to See

This is taken from my facebook Notes. I wrote it on Dec 19 but decided to post it here now (March 6).

So, I've seen four movies in the past 8 days (yeah, crazy I know). And that's five, if you consider since Thanksgiving. So here are my thoughts on them.

It's late and I'm really excited about Avatar so this note probably is not that well written, but the point is just to get you people to go see some awesome movies while you're home from college! ..and maybe I will come back tomorrow, cringe, and edit it. But for now I just want to get it posted!

Pirate Radio (saw over Thanksgiving break)

HILARIOUS!!! Really fun movie. Great if you like rock. Great soundtrack. Great screenplay. Great acting.

The Blind Side

Starring Sandra Bullock. Really, really great movie. I am not all that interested in football, but I still really enjoyed this movie. Sandra Bullock is fantastic as Leigh Anne Touhy - funny yet tough love. By the way, this is based on a real story about Michael Oher, and is a true tale of the American Dream, and rising out of your class and with hard work and some loving help, making it big. GO SEE IT!

The Princess and the Frog

I was kinda disappointed from this. It looked really awesome from the previews. I really *wanted* it to be good. I wanted Disney's latest creation to be a great addition to place on the shelf next to Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King... And in the end it was... alright. Certainly not near the level of Beauty and the Beast or the Lion King (which happen to be my faves). It was interesting. See it for yourself to make your own judgment...

New Moon

Better than the first one. I can't stop thinking about Jacob's drool-worthy abs... the addition of the werewolves and an insight into ... I suppose... the vampire government system? ...the Volturi... made this movie actually somewhat interesting. Oh, I really liked the way they did the werewolves - like super big wolves. They were pretty kick ass. And I'm sorry, but I'm totally team Jacob. Actually, Bella, you stick with Edward - I'll take Jacob for myself! ;) Just kidding, Fuz.

Also, sorry, but New Moon vampires would totally get their asses whooped by Lestat. I'm sorry, but I read the Vampire Chronicles first. Even Underworld vampires would kick the Volturi's butt, I think. Sorry, but I may have a slight bias there.

Avatar

I literally just got back from seeing this movie. Just as I was about to go to bed, I got a phone call and was invited - at 11pm - to go see Avatar. I hesitated for a bit. I had only just learned what the movie was actually about a few hours ago. (Funny thing, all the commercials I've seen do is show a bunch of cool alien scenes and then say "from the director of the Terminator and Alien", which is NOT doing the movie justice at all because there is just so much awesomeness in this movie). Even though I need to wake up in 6 hours, I am so freaking happy I went to see it.

So, the basic premise is that humans have landed on this other planet. There's this really awesome ore they want to get, only its situated underneath the giant tree structure that the planet's natives live in. A military settlement has built a small colony type of thing; meanwhile scientists have figured out a way to make a creature that looks like the natives. Certain trained humans can connect to these bodies and control them. One man, after his twin brothers death, ends up going in. He's actually from the marines though, not the normal scientist. AAAAAND it just gets awesome from there. I don't want to spoil anything. Just go see this fantastic movie and judge for yourself.

PS the special effects are freaking fantastic!!!!



My ranking of best to worst: (the rankings hold. The points are just for fun. Kinda like Whose Line Is It Anyway points)

1 - Avatar - 9.8 out of 10 (.2 subtracted for the name of the ore "unobtainium". I mean, really, guys? You spend all that time making pure awesomeness, and you can't come up with something better than "unobtainium"? It's like someone couldn't think of a name, decided to change it later, and just forgot)

2 - Pirate Radio - 9 out of 10 (1 subtracted for not being as awesome as Avatar but still pretty damn good. Yeah, same comment as the Blind Side, I know).

2 - The Blind Side - 9 out of 10 (1 subtracted for not being as awesome as Avatar, but still being pretty damn good)

3 - New Moon - 6 out of 10. (-2 for Bella just being Bella. -4 for not understanding what vampires are all about, but +2 extra credit given for Jacob's abs.)

4 - The Princess and the Frog - 5 out of 10. (Umm I don't know what to subtract points for really. It was just "alright". So something that's "alright" should be on the middle of the scale).

The Perfect Mile: halfway point

It's embarrassing to admit, but I haven't been putting in one percent as much effort in finishing this book as these amazing runners put into running a 4 minute mile. I've been trying to do about a chapter a night, but I don't read it every night, so the going is slow. And for a book about running, The Perfect Mile sometimes seems to trudge.

The book is split into several sections:

• Part I: A Reason To Run - 1
  
• Part II: The Barrier - 69
  
• Part III: The Perfect Mile -195

As you can see, Part II is over one hundred pages long! And for me, it's dragging out. I stand by my comment that the writer, Neal Bascomb, is good at weaving his prose, but there are sections where it's like a list of stats and history, explaining so-and-sos work out, and that could probably be present a little bit more excitingly. It's not something that a general reader would be interested in; rather something a runner would be more interested in. Who is the audience for this book? Sometimes I find myself getting distracted (because apparently my eyes go over the words and read them, but I am thinking about something else so I have to go back and reread).

But part of the reason that it feels like it is going so slowly is because I want to know who it is that runs the 4 minute mile first. Every time I finish a chapter I hope that I am turning to Part III, but it is pages and pages away. How can there be so much to talk about? But I think that the length of this second section helps to portray just how agonizing it must have been for fans and those who wanted to see the four minute mile finally be done.

I think what amazes me most is the shear amount of researching that must have been done. Bascomb uses so much detail to really put the reader in the scene - how did he find all this information out? I mean each page is crowded with stats, facts, details... and the book is 269 pages long! I wonder how long it took him to write it. Here is an example:

By six o'clock the ticket sellers had run out of the specially made programs. The police transmitted an SOS to headquarters, requesting reinforcements to handle the unexpected snarl of traffic. Over one thousand cars sat bumper to bumper on Batman Avenue, some not having moved in over an hour. More and more people poured into the stadium. Tickets could not be sold fast enough. Lines formed hundreds of yards long behind the booths. (154)

With a five day weekend (!), hopefully I will be able to finish this book soon!

Next read: The Golden Compass (a reread)

Return

Hi, I'm back. I haven't known what to write about lately, even though I have plenty, I just couldn't decide what. So for now I'm just going to review the latest two books I've been reading, since that's how I started.

I finally finished Kushiel's Avatar, which I hadn't had a chance to read since I returned to the United States from my study abroad last semester (August - December). The ending stretched out; it seemed like it took forever because the author goes to great pains to describe every detail, what they are wearing, etc. I think I know why she did it - to really put you in the scene, for those who want to imagine everything as completely as possible - so I don't begrudge that, it's a reasonable enough choice, but it bored me a little. Perhaps the specific details to make you feel "really there" could have been incorporated in a more exciting manner. It was like that through most of the 700-page book. I think also by now, having spent so much time on it, I was just eager to finish so it felt like it dragged more than it did. I think it is a good book, interesting. Not only does it take you back in time, to a medieval world, and also a magical world, but it takes you to far away places. The entire book covers areas that correspond to France, Spain, Italy, Egypt, the Middle East, east Africa and central Africa. Furthermore, the characters are interesting. Phedre, the main character, is elegant and yet sensitive, stoic, stubborn, and fierce, yet ultimately warm hearted. The end left me longing for more medieval-genre fantasy books or movies.

However, I promised my boyfriend that I would read The Perfect Mile, which he leant me, so I started that a few days ago. The nonfiction book focuses on middle distance runners Roger Bannister, Wes Santee, and John Landy and their attempts to run the mile in four minutes or less in the 50's. It begins with the back story of each runner, and then launches into the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.

Chapter One focuses on Roger Bannister, a runner from England, carrying his country's hopes to finally re-enter the world spotlight after having lost so much after the World Wars. Chapter Two moves to Wes Santee, a runner from Kansas longing for something more and trying to "run" away from his abusive father and hometown. Chapter Three then travels halfway around the world to Australia, to focus on John Landy and his crazy, but passionate, coach who has rather strange coaching methods. After setting the stage, the book moves on in chapter four to the 1952 Olympics. What happens there? I won't reveal that here.

I'm currently reading chapter five, which now details the back history of the quest for the perfect mile and the people who slowly chiseled down the world records for the mile run and got ever closer to that four minute record.

I don't know who breaks it first or what's going to happen! But I'm eager to find out. To be honest I had no interest whatsoever in the subject, but promised to read it. While I still am not excited about it, writer Neal Bascomb (Seabiscuit) at least makes the journey exciting to read about. His use of dialog and character actions make many scenes in the book feel more like a story of fiction than a history. He brings all three runners to life, makes it personal, instead of just giving off the stats. The writing does drag a little bit when summing up, but when he does focus on the actual story, it pulls you in and makes you care about each of the runners, even though they are all technically rivals.