No See TV: Monday Week in Review

Wow. I realized Sunday night I didn't have a blog for Monday! Here I am, sitting in church trying to listen to the sermon about the walk to Emmaus, and I'm thinking about blogging. I didn't even realize I was doing it. Bad me.

Normally, I try my best to blog ahead of time, on the weekends JimmyEW works, his late nights and during my lunch hour. That way we can spend our time together gazing into each other's eyes instead of me blogging and him watching me blog. Lol! So when I was sitting in church I suddenly felt like a girl who forgot she had a book report on Monday. Therefore, I am giving you a book report (oddly) and a few movie reviews. Enjoy.



Stardust, is a wonderfully fun movie based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman. This movie is about a young man of interesting origin, going on a quest to find a fallen star for the snooty English village girl he "loves". The star ends up being Claire Danes and there are numerous bad guys after her. There is magic, adventure, love, unicorns and, my favorite, a cross dressing pirate. JimmyEW LOVED this movie and I quite enjoyed it. It doesn't have any bad language, that I can remember, no nudity but has some scary witch stuff.

The Author, Neil, is good friends with Tori Amos and wrote this novel while staying at a house she lent him. In the book she appears as a tree, she didn't make the movie (they filmed it but it got cut, and I didn't see it in the deleted scenes-sad face). I am definitely going to read this book now. Because as much as I enjoyed the Movie, I am certain the book will be better.




Across the Universe was a JimmyEW pick and was absolutely entertaining to watch. The movie takes place during the turmoil of the 60's, race riots and Vietnam. This movie is essentially a musical with cast members dancing and singing to the Beatles and other artists of the day. Bono, who everyone knows I love, makes an appearance wearing a fake nose. He plays a psychedelic guru and he sings! Any U2 fan will find this movie worth the watch just for that part.

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that I didn't find the main characters terribly compelling and didn't find myself very invested in their future. I was, however, very invested in Max, the brother of the main character. You should watch it just to see him.

Below, is probably my favorite part of the movie, its all about Max trying to get out of the draft. Just watch and try not to go rent this movie afterwards. Regardless of the flaws in charecter development, Across the Universe is so fun to watch that you really don't care. You are just caught up in the action, song and dance.




Plus, the end, for me, rivaled the end of Say Anything with the whole boombox scene. It has some nudity, sex, drug use and Strong language. I don't think they use the F-word though.



I watched Enchanted Saturday night with my mother (then again on Sunday with JimmyEw...who had just watched it while I was at church. He had a tummy ache). This movie was excellent. It was fun, clean and has a great love story. Susan Sarandon is wonderful as the Queen and Amy Adams does an excellent job as playing an illustrated maiden in the real world. Just watch how she holds her hands. I think this was probably my favorite of the three, JimmyEW's was Stardust.

Finally...the book I finished this week. If you can call what I did "reading" since I didn't really absorb it...

This book has a very compelling storyline. Its based on an African cultural belief about death and the dead. Some cultures believe that you die but don't depart in the great otherworld but instead first go into a sort of waiting world. You remain there for as long as you are remembered by the living. And not like all of us remember Abe Lincoln, but how we remember people in our life. Our parents, our neighbor, the lady that drives the bus. All those people stay around in "the city" until the very last person who knew them in life dies. This book is about those people and about a living woman who is trying to survive alone in the Arctic. It is about connections you make, the people you remember and the life you live while alive and dead.

I wanted to like this book. I wanted to love it. I was so excited about reading it. But I had a very hard time with it. I found myself skipping entire chapters, which I NEVER do. To me, it almost read like a series of short stories and memories and I wanted to know what was going to happen. It went by painfully slow for me. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood to read this book. Maybe I wanted something that was more fast paced, I don't know. But it is worth a look, I wouldn't nix this book just because I didn't love it. As I said, it has an interesting story and the whole end of world theme gives you something to chew on.

So there you have it. That's what I did all week. Let me know if you've enjoyed any of the things I've talked about here, especially if you have a different opinion.
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