Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A Little Late
Yep, I'm finally posting my January books & movies, much to all your delight, I'm sure. We'll start with the books:
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1. Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich This was a fun book; 99% of her books are. There were parts where I laughed out loud as per usual and had to explain my mirth to Collin.
2. Dead Time - Stephen White I really liked this book - I liked how he introduced Meredeth as a real character this time instead of a peripheral one. It was fun to see how they misperceived each other and both knew they were in the right when neither one really was. And the mystery was really good, too.
3. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer I finally broke down and decided to see what all the hub-bub was about. With Jordyn spending 3 days in the hospital, there was no better time to sit and read a book while watching her sleep. About a quarter of the way through the book, I realized I was hooked, no matter that the writing sometimes reminded me of my own attempts to write stories. But I'm a sucker for romance, especially between two people who shouldn't be together! Book of the Month.
4. New Moon - Stephanie Meyer Yes, I liked the first book well enough to get the 2nd book. I finished this one in the hospital as well, waiting for Dad's surgery to be over. It left me jonesin' for the 3rd one.
And now the movies....
1. High School Musical 3 My mom started watching the HSM movies first and kept telling Jordyn & I we needed to watch them - so we borrowed her 2 HSM dvd's and we liked them well enough to want to see #3. I loved #3. Yes, I know I'm too old for them but I really really liked it - I liked the music and the dancing...I'm a sap at heart.
2. Smothered Collin picked up this documentary on the Smothers Brothers and their fight with the censors. It was very interesting; they were ahead of their time on war protesting.
3. Lars & The Real Girl This was a sweet sad movie that moved too slow for me.
4. Fred Claus The kids' mom bought this movie and let us watch it - we were iffy about it.
5. The Apartment I picked this dvd up at my mom's store for $3. I love Jack Lemmon. LOVE HIM!!! He was adorable in this movie and I really liked Shirley MacLaine as well. It dragged on a bit but overall it was enjoyable.
6. Strange Wilderness I so wanted to see this after the preview with the shark and his overbite. But that was the best part about the whole movie. Basically I didn't like it much.
7. Burn After Reading The commercials for this movie made it look way funnier than it actually was. Didn't care for this one even though I loved the cast.
8. Who the @!#* is Jackson Pollack Collin picked this documentary out of the Insta-Watch on Netflix and it was very interesting. About a trucker who picks up a painting for some ridiculously low price in a thrift store and now people are thinking it's an unknown Pollack piece.
9. Helvetica Another Insta-Watch documentary from Netflix all about the font Helvetica. More interesting than it sounds, trust me.
10. Harold & Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay I liked this one, even despite the crudeness that pops up. Neil Patrick Harris makes everything better!!
11. Fool's Gold I was disappointed in this one - it was cute but I lost interest after a while. Am I getting harder to please?
12. High School Musical 3 Yet I'll go see this one twice at the $1 theatre! This was for my birthday with my Mom. Jordyn was supposed to join us but this was the night she started to feel sick. The sick that landed her in the hospital for three days.
13. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day I wanted to see this at first just because Lee Pace was in it. Then I decided the story looked good. I ended up loving it. I want to buy it. It was so fun and sweet and amusing....Movie of the Month.
14. In Bruges Colin Farrell - - I hadn't seen him in a movie for so long and he was fabulous. This was a good movie but it depressed me.
15. Hamlet 2 So we watched this afterwards. Silly piled upon silly but it made me laugh.
16. Zach & Miri Make A Porno Seth Rogen is too cute. And this was a fuun flick.
17. Little Shop Of Horrors I hadn't seen this one in years and this is now Jordyn's fave movie ever so we watched it with her.
TV 1 & TV 2. How I Met Your Mother Seasons 2 & 3 I love Neil Patrick Harris. He's legen-wait for it-dary.
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// posted by Heather @ 7:14 AM 
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Year end books & movies
Yeah, I skipped like July-Nov on here. If you're interested, the lists can be found here.
BOOKS:
50. Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell I used to read everything this woman put out with great glee. Then I read one a few years ago that didn't impress me and I stopped reading her. When I saw this book at the library, the title caught my interest and I realized I couldn't remember why I didn't like the last one I had read. Well, now I remember. THIS BOOK SUCKED. All this build up and depressing stuff happening at every turn and then suddenly this serial killer who had been brilliant about not being caught suddenly turned idiotic and within 2 pages he was caught, imprisoned and the book was over, leaving some very important plot lines untouched. Hated it! Hated it. Yes, I hated it. And I don't say that much about a book.
51. The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman Ahh, this book was better. Alice Hoffman is a great writer and comes up with the most intriguing plots. This book was chock full of sympathetic characters and stories that made me laugh and cry.
And that was it. I actually started The Plantaganet Prelude by Jean Plaidy and Body Movers by Stephanie Bond but had to take them back to the library. See, most of my reading (99%) was done at work while I was on my breaks and lunch. Now I don't have work so the books just sat on the counter. I feel great shame.
MOVIES
119. Bolt - This movie was freaking adorable! It made me want a new hamster. It also worried me that kids watching Rhino throwing himself around fearlessly in his ball would think it's cool to toss hamsters about willy-nilly and the bunny-wunny death rate would rise sharply. But I haven't heard any bad news so I'm hoping it didn't happen. And this movie is great - GO SEE IT!
120. The Frighteners - An older movie that I had never seen but when Collin saw that Chi McBride, my fave character in Pushing Daisies, was in it he said I had to see it. So I did. And I really really liked it.
121. License To Wed - I did not enjoy this movie. The humor seemed forced. The only thing I liked was John Krasinski. He's a cutie.
122. Ghost Town - From a movie starring a guy from The Office, I move to one with the guy who started and starred in the original British Office; Ricky Gervais. He's hilarious - I love him! This movie was a departure from the kind of roles I'm used to seeing his play but he did it well and the movie was fun and moved along well. Plus Greg Kinnear is in it. :D
123. Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog - We got it on DVD and had to watch it. I gave up halfway through trying to NOT say every line with the movie.
124. Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog - We made my family watch it on Christmas Eve. They were lukewarm in their reception of it although my Mom enjoyed NPH's singing and Derek snorted with the line "The hammer is my penis." That was expected.
125. A Christmas Story - Of course.
126. Wanted - I bought Collin the special edition 2 disc copy of this movie for Christmas so we checked it out again. Great movie.
127. The Dark Knight - I got this for Christmas as it was just as good the 4th time.
128. The Man Who Sued God - A Billy Connoly movie that was unexpected and fun and good.
129. High School Musical 2 - Jordyn & I watched this one cuz we knew we were going to see HSM3 at the $1 theatre soon. My least fave of the 3 but I really like the song "I Don't Dance."
130. Iron Man - How Collin & I spent our New Year's Eve after Game Night. This was a good movie and Robert Downey Jr looked gooooood. Yep.
TV SHOWS:
TV18. Dexter Season 2 - I saw a Flair on (sssh) Facebook once with a pic of Dexter that said SKILF. That's about it. When Michael C Hall puts on his "killing clothes" - oh, my!! But yumminess aside, this is a great series. Well written and acted and you never know what's gonna happen!
TV19. How I Met Your Mother Season 1 - After seeing Dr. Horrible and deciding NPH was the shit, I begged Collin to get me this for Christmas. And he did. And we loved it. Barney Stinson is my new hero. He's, dare I say it....Legen - wait for it - DARY! We watched the whole season within 2 or 3 days. And then he bought me Season 2 for my birthday which isn 't for 17 days and forced me to open it so we could start that one. Great series!
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BOOKS:
50. Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell I used to read everything this woman put out with great glee. Then I read one a few years ago that didn't impress me and I stopped reading her. When I saw this book at the library, the title caught my interest and I realized I couldn't remember why I didn't like the last one I had read. Well, now I remember. THIS BOOK SUCKED. All this build up and depressing stuff happening at every turn and then suddenly this serial killer who had been brilliant about not being caught suddenly turned idiotic and within 2 pages he was caught, imprisoned and the book was over, leaving some very important plot lines untouched. Hated it! Hated it. Yes, I hated it. And I don't say that much about a book.
51. The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman Ahh, this book was better. Alice Hoffman is a great writer and comes up with the most intriguing plots. This book was chock full of sympathetic characters and stories that made me laugh and cry.
And that was it. I actually started The Plantaganet Prelude by Jean Plaidy and Body Movers by Stephanie Bond but had to take them back to the library. See, most of my reading (99%) was done at work while I was on my breaks and lunch. Now I don't have work so the books just sat on the counter. I feel great shame.
MOVIES
119. Bolt - This movie was freaking adorable! It made me want a new hamster. It also worried me that kids watching Rhino throwing himself around fearlessly in his ball would think it's cool to toss hamsters about willy-nilly and the bunny-wunny death rate would rise sharply. But I haven't heard any bad news so I'm hoping it didn't happen. And this movie is great - GO SEE IT!
120. The Frighteners - An older movie that I had never seen but when Collin saw that Chi McBride, my fave character in Pushing Daisies, was in it he said I had to see it. So I did. And I really really liked it.
121. License To Wed - I did not enjoy this movie. The humor seemed forced. The only thing I liked was John Krasinski. He's a cutie.
122. Ghost Town - From a movie starring a guy from The Office, I move to one with the guy who started and starred in the original British Office; Ricky Gervais. He's hilarious - I love him! This movie was a departure from the kind of roles I'm used to seeing his play but he did it well and the movie was fun and moved along well. Plus Greg Kinnear is in it. :D
123. Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog - We got it on DVD and had to watch it. I gave up halfway through trying to NOT say every line with the movie.
124. Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog - We made my family watch it on Christmas Eve. They were lukewarm in their reception of it although my Mom enjoyed NPH's singing and Derek snorted with the line "The hammer is my penis." That was expected.
125. A Christmas Story - Of course.
126. Wanted - I bought Collin the special edition 2 disc copy of this movie for Christmas so we checked it out again. Great movie.
127. The Dark Knight - I got this for Christmas as it was just as good the 4th time.
128. The Man Who Sued God - A Billy Connoly movie that was unexpected and fun and good.
129. High School Musical 2 - Jordyn & I watched this one cuz we knew we were going to see HSM3 at the $1 theatre soon. My least fave of the 3 but I really like the song "I Don't Dance."
130. Iron Man - How Collin & I spent our New Year's Eve after Game Night. This was a good movie and Robert Downey Jr looked gooooood. Yep.
TV SHOWS:
TV18. Dexter Season 2 - I saw a Flair on (sssh) Facebook once with a pic of Dexter that said SKILF. That's about it. When Michael C Hall puts on his "killing clothes" - oh, my!! But yumminess aside, this is a great series. Well written and acted and you never know what's gonna happen!
TV19. How I Met Your Mother Season 1 - After seeing Dr. Horrible and deciding NPH was the shit, I begged Collin to get me this for Christmas. And he did. And we loved it. Barney Stinson is my new hero. He's, dare I say it....Legen - wait for it - DARY! We watched the whole season within 2 or 3 days. And then he bought me Season 2 for my birthday which isn 't for 17 days and forced me to open it so we could start that one. Great series!
It's hard to pick between Dr. Horrible and The Dark Knight for movie of the year so I'm declaring it a tie!! Whee!
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// posted by Heather @ 8:35 AM
Friday, July 25, 2008
June Books and Movies
20. Feather In The Wind - Madeline Baker I hadn't read one of her books in maybe a decade and then one day I happened to see the title and read the back and hey!! Whaddya know, I'd never read this one and it had a time travel theme which will ALWAYS suck me into a book so....no matter how cheesy it was, it was still good.
21. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Online book...still haven't completed it due to the fact that the internet was yet another victim of the new supervisor's regime. But what I read I really liked - well written and creepy. I plan on buying an actualy copy to finish it.
22. The Street of Five Moons - Elizabeth Peters Ahh, Elizabeth Peters. One of my absolute favorite authors. Vicki Peters mysteries are always fun and this was no exception.
23. Death Walked In - Carolyn Hart I love the Death On Demand series and this one was just as good as the rest. A quick-paced fun mystery that I pretty much had figured out from the beginning. Those are the best kind! :D
24. Other People's Love Letters - Bill Shapiro This was a cool book that Collin picked up for me in Vegas - it's a collection of 150 love letters ranging from the sweet to the sad and everything in between. The best part was at the end it gave me some closure on some of the letters - did these people get together, get married, divorced...it was awesome! BOTM.
25. A Lifetime of Secrets - Frank Warren So this was a cool book....this is like the 3rd one of these where people send in anonymous postcards and tell secrets that they can't tell anyone else. It's like being a voyeur into other people's lives and it's totally interesting! Here's some examples....
26. Odd Hours - Dean Koontz The latest in Koontz's Odd Thomas series. I love Odd but this book left a bit to be desired. For the first half of the book I had no clue what was happening then all of a sudden it became clear and just like that it was solved and over. It was weird. Not my favorite book by him.
27. Goodnight Nobody - Jennifer Weiner From the woman who brought us In Her Shoes comes this quirky little mystery novel. I enjoyed it - the heroine was different....she was normal. Kind of. But Weiner's great with dialogue and that's always a plus for me!!
...and now we move on to flicks...
74. Fever Pitch I borrowed this from Christina and it was cute. Not cute enough that I would watch it again but I liked the ending. Jimmy Fallon is an odd choice for a romantic lead in my book...but Drew Barrymore is always a good addition to any cast.
75. Young Frankenstein The kids had never seen this classic so we set them down to watch it. They loved it. And why wouldn't they?
76. The Fricso Kid While watching YF I ascertained that Collin had never seen this movie so he stopped by Entertainmart the next day and picked it up. You know what? Turns out that it didn't really stand the test of time. I didn't even finish watching it. Everything that made me laugh as a kid I merely chuckled at. But Jordyn enjoyed it.
77. The Bank Job Saw this at the $1 theatre. This was good but I wish Jason Statham had had more of a chance to kick some ass. That's why I go see him in a movie. :D But seriously, this was interesting and based on a true story. Definitely worth checking out!
78. Dan In Real Life I love Steve Carrel and I love Dane Cook and I love Dianne Weist but this movie rated a mere "Not bad. Kinda cute" in my book. It moved a little slow and all the funny parts were shown in the preview.
79. Jim Gaffigan - Beyond The Pale Collin sat me down one day and had me watch this comedy routine. I promptly fell asleep but only because I was dead tired. I heard most of his act in my dreams! But when I woke up, he replayed it for me and this guy was really funny!! It's a "Watch it now" option on Netflix if you're set up for that.
80. Imaginationland Ahh, South Park. I love that show. I bought this little gem and laughed my head off. If it wasn't for Cartman (who killed me by dressing as the pope!), Butters would so be my fave character!!
81. Kung Fu Panda Ska-doosh. MOTM I don't think there was a time where I wasn't smiling, chuckling or laughing while watching this movie. It was awesome. I loved all the characters, especially the bad guy. It was just a big ball of fun!
TV9. Supernatural Season 1 Oh my. If you like spooky, hot guys and hotter cars, then WATCH THIS SHOW!!!!
TV10. South Park Season 6 Don't ask me how or why we started with 6. We just did.
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// posted by Heather @ 6:29 AM
Monday, June 02, 2008
May Books & Flicks
14. I Heard That Song Before - Mary Higgins Clark I've always enjoyed her books - she's not called the Queen of Suspense for nothing - and this one was no exception although she kinda fell into the trap of the likes of Agatha Christie by not revealing any clues to the motive til the very end. That annoyed me - I always like having a chance to figure it out myself.
15. Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay The second book in the Dexter chronicles...I think I've gotten too used to the formula where all the main characters get out unscathed at the end of the book. This one had a disturbing ending although it was still good and brought up the question: Can you get a prosthetic tongue?? I love the way Jeff Lindsay writes; the sarcasm and rapier wit amuse me to no end. I've heard incredibly bad things about the third and latest book in the Dexter series so I don't know if I'll give it a chance. Maybe I'll go to the library.
16. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie Another online read at work...this one centered around Tuppence and Tommy and was an incredibly fun read. I loved all the characters and kinda sorta had it figured out but not completely. What amused me was one character, Julius, was American and talked like a Texan but he was from New York. I figured dear old Agatha must have only come in contact with Texans! And another thing - the name Jane Finn was constantly brought up as being "odd" and "a crazy name" yet one character is named Tuppence and another James Peel Edgerton. Go figure!
17. Curtain - Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot & Arthur Hastings team up yet again in this mystery...***SPOILER ALERT!!!*** If you've never read this book and plan on it, skip the blank part. If you'd like to see the spoiler, highlight the blank part. Okay, I know that everyone has to die. But seriously, Hercule Poirot??? Why not let him solve his last murder and walk off into the sunset still alive! He's timeless, he shouldn't have died. :P The book, however, was very good. The mystery was well plotted and after the evidence came to light it was like, "DUH!! Of course!!"
18. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum I can't count how many times I've seen the movie and yet I've never read the book. This was another at-work, online read and an easy one at that. I never realized how much liberty the movie took over the book - everything I thought I knew was wrong! It was still entertaining and at some point I'll read the other Oz books as well.
19. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte The cool thing about this online book deal is reading the classics that I always told myself I'd get to. So far it's awesome and I'm loving it but sadly I got moved to the other floor at work, aka The Dungeon, and they don't have internet access down there so I haven't gotten the chance to finish it. :'( I'll let you know in the June book list how it was - - if I get to it!! **UPDATE** I just finished it - - it definitely wasn't what I was expecting but you really get to know these characters...Heathcliff was nasty because he couldn't be with his true love and in turn ruined everyone's life around him. Not that Catherine was a prize but...just a lesson that pride can ruin everything. It was an excellent book though although I had a tough time following Joseph'd manner of speaking.
20. The MacGregors: Alan & Grant - Nora Roberts These books are always fun & easy reads. Two stories about the legendary MacGregor family smushed into one book - - the stories are usually alwasy the same: boy meets girl, one of them (or both) doesn't have time for a relationship but how long can you deny true love??? For our heroes and heroines, about 150 pages!
MOVIES:
57. Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium This was a cute movie that I'll probably buy when it gets cheap enough. The plot was a tinch weak but it was cute and cute overrides weak most of the time.
58. Frank & Cindy Ever heard of the 80's band OXO? Or their one-hit wonder "Whirly Girl?" Well, this film was made by the stepson of one of OXO's members, Frank. Frank married Cindy, the filmmaker's mother, who is 20 years older then him...she thought she was marrying a rock star and his music career stalled. This movie shows their life together - sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's sad but it's always entertaining.
59. Hostage Bruce Willis doing what he does best - - playing a cop in turmoil. Ben Foster plays the bad guy and he does a first-rate job of oozing creepiness. He was the best part of this movie.
60. Indiscreet ahh, Cary Grant. This was another cute vs weak plot flick where cute wins out!
61. Shortbus I posted about this movie earlier...odd, lots of nudity and sex but a great film and a great message!!
62. The Orphange I was very excited to be scared by this movie. Guillermo Del Toro usually does a great job of that but this one wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. It had it's moments and the end disturbed me greatly but it wasn't his best effort.
63. The McCartney Years 3 discs of nothing but Paul McCartney. Can it get any better?
64. 27 Dresses Yeah, it's a chick flick but I loved it!!!
65. The Darjeeling Limited If Adrian Brody hadn't been in this to keep me occupied, I'd have been bored stiff. Enh.
66. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull heeheeheehee!! I've been waiting YEARS for this movie. YEARS!!!! And guess what? I FREAKING LOVED IT! Yeah, the plot is a bit iffy but it's Indy. Indy trumps all.
67. Raiders Of The Lost Ark I HAD to watch this after seeing IJ & KCS.
68. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Yep. Again. The same day in fact - Collin and the kids needed to see it. Just as fun the 2nd time.
69. Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom My favoritest movie EVER. Just as good the 120th time as the 1st. :D
70. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade Sadly, I don't know every line of this one so I need to watch it like 19 more times.
71. Sex And The City I loved the show and the movie didn't disappoint. It was 2 1/2 hours long so it was like a marathon of SATC! Yay!!
72. Paris, Je T'Aime This was a clever little flick with a ton of 5 minute shorts all about love set in Paris. It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be but it was okay.
73. Return To House On Haunted Hill This movie could have been waaaay scarier but nothing seems scary anymore.
TV7. Heroes Season 1 I love this show - - it's on a night I work so I'd never been able to catch it and we got TIVO too late to start recording it. Finally, Netflix Instant Watching let us do so and it rocked. "FLYING MAN!" My fave line from my fave character.
TV8. Heroes Season 2 This ended with my 2nd fave charcter being shot and seeing as how Season 3 just ended....ARGH!! I need to know if he dies or does he get saved by Claire's blood???
BOTM goes to The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie.
MOTM of course goes to Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
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15. Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay The second book in the Dexter chronicles...I think I've gotten too used to the formula where all the main characters get out unscathed at the end of the book. This one had a disturbing ending although it was still good and brought up the question: Can you get a prosthetic tongue?? I love the way Jeff Lindsay writes; the sarcasm and rapier wit amuse me to no end. I've heard incredibly bad things about the third and latest book in the Dexter series so I don't know if I'll give it a chance. Maybe I'll go to the library.
16. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie Another online read at work...this one centered around Tuppence and Tommy and was an incredibly fun read. I loved all the characters and kinda sorta had it figured out but not completely. What amused me was one character, Julius, was American and talked like a Texan but he was from New York. I figured dear old Agatha must have only come in contact with Texans! And another thing - the name Jane Finn was constantly brought up as being "odd" and "a crazy name" yet one character is named Tuppence and another James Peel Edgerton. Go figure!
17. Curtain - Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot & Arthur Hastings team up yet again in this mystery...***SPOILER ALERT!!!*** If you've never read this book and plan on it, skip the blank part. If you'd like to see the spoiler, highlight the blank part. Okay, I know that everyone has to die. But seriously, Hercule Poirot??? Why not let him solve his last murder and walk off into the sunset still alive! He's timeless, he shouldn't have died. :P The book, however, was very good. The mystery was well plotted and after the evidence came to light it was like, "DUH!! Of course!!"
18. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum I can't count how many times I've seen the movie and yet I've never read the book. This was another at-work, online read and an easy one at that. I never realized how much liberty the movie took over the book - everything I thought I knew was wrong! It was still entertaining and at some point I'll read the other Oz books as well.
19. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte The cool thing about this online book deal is reading the classics that I always told myself I'd get to. So far it's awesome and I'm loving it but sadly I got moved to the other floor at work, aka The Dungeon, and they don't have internet access down there so I haven't gotten the chance to finish it. :'( I'll let you know in the June book list how it was - - if I get to it!! **UPDATE** I just finished it - - it definitely wasn't what I was expecting but you really get to know these characters...Heathcliff was nasty because he couldn't be with his true love and in turn ruined everyone's life around him. Not that Catherine was a prize but...just a lesson that pride can ruin everything. It was an excellent book though although I had a tough time following Joseph'd manner of speaking.
20. The MacGregors: Alan & Grant - Nora Roberts These books are always fun & easy reads. Two stories about the legendary MacGregor family smushed into one book - - the stories are usually alwasy the same: boy meets girl, one of them (or both) doesn't have time for a relationship but how long can you deny true love??? For our heroes and heroines, about 150 pages!
MOVIES:
57. Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium This was a cute movie that I'll probably buy when it gets cheap enough. The plot was a tinch weak but it was cute and cute overrides weak most of the time.
58. Frank & Cindy Ever heard of the 80's band OXO? Or their one-hit wonder "Whirly Girl?" Well, this film was made by the stepson of one of OXO's members, Frank. Frank married Cindy, the filmmaker's mother, who is 20 years older then him...she thought she was marrying a rock star and his music career stalled. This movie shows their life together - sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's sad but it's always entertaining.
59. Hostage Bruce Willis doing what he does best - - playing a cop in turmoil. Ben Foster plays the bad guy and he does a first-rate job of oozing creepiness. He was the best part of this movie.
60. Indiscreet ahh, Cary Grant. This was another cute vs weak plot flick where cute wins out!
61. Shortbus I posted about this movie earlier...odd, lots of nudity and sex but a great film and a great message!!
62. The Orphange I was very excited to be scared by this movie. Guillermo Del Toro usually does a great job of that but this one wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. It had it's moments and the end disturbed me greatly but it wasn't his best effort.
63. The McCartney Years 3 discs of nothing but Paul McCartney. Can it get any better?
64. 27 Dresses Yeah, it's a chick flick but I loved it!!!
65. The Darjeeling Limited If Adrian Brody hadn't been in this to keep me occupied, I'd have been bored stiff. Enh.
66. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull heeheeheehee!! I've been waiting YEARS for this movie. YEARS!!!! And guess what? I FREAKING LOVED IT! Yeah, the plot is a bit iffy but it's Indy. Indy trumps all.
67. Raiders Of The Lost Ark I HAD to watch this after seeing IJ & KCS.
68. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Yep. Again. The same day in fact - Collin and the kids needed to see it. Just as fun the 2nd time.
69. Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom My favoritest movie EVER. Just as good the 120th time as the 1st. :D
70. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade Sadly, I don't know every line of this one so I need to watch it like 19 more times.
71. Sex And The City I loved the show and the movie didn't disappoint. It was 2 1/2 hours long so it was like a marathon of SATC! Yay!!
72. Paris, Je T'Aime This was a clever little flick with a ton of 5 minute shorts all about love set in Paris. It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be but it was okay.
73. Return To House On Haunted Hill This movie could have been waaaay scarier but nothing seems scary anymore.
TV7. Heroes Season 1 I love this show - - it's on a night I work so I'd never been able to catch it and we got TIVO too late to start recording it. Finally, Netflix Instant Watching let us do so and it rocked. "FLYING MAN!" My fave line from my fave character.
TV8. Heroes Season 2 This ended with my 2nd fave charcter being shot and seeing as how Season 3 just ended....ARGH!! I need to know if he dies or does he get saved by Claire's blood???
BOTM goes to The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie.
MOTM of course goes to Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
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// posted by Heather @ 4:33 PM
Saturday, May 03, 2008
March & April combined
Once again I read no books in the month of March. None. Nada. Zip! I blame work - we weren't sure if the new supervisor was going to take away books and since I was the one caught with the headphones that 2nd day of his regime, I sure as hell wasn't going to be the one caught with the book. So....on to March's movies....
Hallelujah, I started reading again! Saints be praised.
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35. Run Fat Boy Run - I loved this movie!! So incredibly funny! Simon Pegg is too good to be missed and I adore Hank Azaria!
36. Run Fat Boy Run - Yeah yeah, loved it so much I saw it twice.
37. The Other Boleyn Girl - I honestly don't know why they even bothered to link this with the book - they changed everything. They said it was for dramatic purposes but what about the actual events wasn't dramatic?? Natalie Portman was awesome as Anne Boleyn though and I bawled like a baby when she was beheaded. And any movie is worth it with Jim Sturgess in it!
38. No Country For Old Men - So - - after all the hype, it wasn't what I expected. It was good, Javier Bardem definitely deserved the Oscar - he was scary - but the ending annoyed me.
39. Evan Almighty - I had heard bad things about this movie but Shanon said she liked it so we gave it a shot and it was cute. The monkey cracked me up and I'm not usually amused by monkeys.
40. Chuck Jones - Extremes & In Betweens - This was a documentary on the man who created Bugs and Friends....it was very interesting and lots of fun!!
41. Shoot 'Em Up - This is a fun fun fun movie with a weak plot and lots of action. But Clive Owen is freaking COOL!!! And Paul Giamatti as the bad guy? Aw, hell yeah!
42. Boy Eats Girl - I don't usually enjoy zombie movies because I don't like seeing people get eaten. But this one was cute and low on the flesh eatin's so...worth watching.
43. Enchanted - Finally!! And worth the wait - this was really cute and fun!
44. 30 Days Of Night - Enh. Ending sucked. No pun intended.
45. War - Jason Statham and Jet Li in a movie together? Fighting each other? How much yummier can you get? The plot - who cares? It was Jason Statham and Jet Li fighting each other....
MOTM goes to Run Fat Boy Run
TV4. Six Feet Under Season 4
TV5. Six Feet Under Season 5
And now we move on to April....
47. Jungle Book - The original Disney cartoon....Jordyn had never seen it and she loved it. I hadn't seen this in years and loved it just as much, especially when I saw George Sanders was the voice of Sher Khan. :D
48. Stardust - There seemed to be a lot of competition between this movie and Enchanted...I loved this movie and liked it more than Enchanted. This was an almost perfect movie for the romantic in me.
49. Drillbit Taylor - Cute movie...there's a cameo in this movie that made me scream out loud in the theatre!
50. Cloverfield - I didn't expect to like this movie but I did. Might not watch it again but I enjoyed it.
51. National Treasure: Book of Secrets - I loved the first movie and this one was just as fun. The little sidekick kills me!! And I love that Helen Mirren was Nicholas Cage's mother!!!
52. Juno - Saw this at the $1 movie with Christina - Just as much fun the 2nd time around.
53. Star Wars - The first one...it was on Spike before work and I had nothing better to do.
54. Juno - Collin bought this the day after it came out so we made Justin watch it. Still great after 3 viewings.
55. Wild Hogs - This was a cute little movie. Nothing deep or serious, just cute.
56. The Mist - I read the Stephen King short story a long long time ago so I don't remember much about it - but this was a decent movie with a disturbing ending.
The MOTM goes to Stardust. Hands down.
TV6. Dexter Season 1
Hallelujah, I started reading again! Saints be praised.
7. Strangers in Death - JD Robb It's always a good day when you read an Eve Dallas book. And this one was cool cuz I fugured it out and I usually don't.
8. Please Don't Eat The Daisies - Jean Kerr Did you ever see this movie with Doris Day and David Niven? Well, the book is just as good...cute, funny and fuzzy.
9. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay Ooo, I love me some Dexter Morgan! It helps that Michael C Hall plays him on Showtime but he's still so cool in the book! This book was scary, funny and cool all wrapped into one!
10. Dry Ice - Stephen White His books are always good for thrills and this one was no exception. He brought back some old characters that caused some serious chills!!
11. Dead of Night
- Eternity In Death - JD Robb
- Amy And The Earl's Amazing Adventure - Mary Blayney
- Timeless - Ruth Ryan Langdon
- On The Fringe - Mary Kay McCormas
This was one of those 4 story books where the big author gathers 3 smaller authors and gets you to read their stuff. The JD Robb story was good (not one of her best though) and the other 3 were as well. The problem with short stories is that everything has to happen so fast!
12. The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie I started reading this online at work and it was soooo good - I love Poirot. I didn't figure the mystery out - I usually don't with hers - but it was clever and delicious as always.
13. The Man Who Was Thursday - GK Chesterton Another online book but I haven't finished it yet. So far it's excellent....
BOTM goes to Darkly Dreaming Dexter.
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// posted by Heather @ 2:23 PM
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Starting off slow
Before I get to January's books & movies to bore Dad, I'd like to say Hell Yeah!!!! to Eli Manning and the New York Giants for showing the Patriots up and proving to the world what losers Brady & his crybaby coach are.
Okay, on to business. Books:
1. Anthology - The Beatles This is a huge book - not just long but the size of my torso! I think I gained some muscle from lugging it around for a week! But size matters aside, this was a fascinating read...the story of the Beatles told in their own words. And the pictures are amazing!
2. Man In Black - Johnny Cash I looked for this book for a year and finally found it at the library and was so disappointed in it. He skimmed stories and seemed to gloss things over with religion. Not what I was expecting.
3. The Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz This was a good story and it made me CRY!! The story itself is heartwarming enough to make me tear up but the fact that Koontz's golden retriever Trixie passed away and at the end of the book was a picture of her, well...I was a bawling baby after that! But seriously, this is an excellent read, just like 95% of his stuff!
4. The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory This movie comes out soon so I figured I better read the book. I'd only had it for 3 years! It was good and laced with enough historical fact to make it interesting. Afterwards, though, I needed the true story...
5. The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Alison Weir I started this book about 2 years ago and never got past Anne Boleyn. So this time I read the whole thing and loved it! This is my BOTM...Alison Weir writes history with such flair that it's never boring. You really feel like you know these people that lived 500 years ago. I cried when Anne Boleyn was beheaded and I felt the horror when 17 year old Katherine Howard faced the same fate. I felt betrayed right along with Katherine of Aragon and marveled at her pride.
6. The Children of Henry VIII - Alison Weir Basically the sequel to the Wives book...it's not near as big as the previous book but you get to know Mary, Elizabeth, Edward and even Jane Grey in this one.
And on to the movies....it really was a slow movie month....
2. Safety Last!
3. An Eastern Westerner > 2,3 & 4 were all silent movies staring Harold Lloyd. They were all incredibly funny.
4. Ask Father
5. Grease I got this for my birthday and immediately popped it into the DVD player. LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!
6. Juno Hands down the MOTM! This was absolutely wonderful - very well made and funny as hell. Then it turns around and makes you cry. Do not miss this movie!!
And something new: I'll list the TV shows we watch when we finish a whole season:
TV1. Six Feet Under (Season 1) I had always wanted to see this show and the first season was on sale at Best Buy for $20 so Collin picked it up and we were hooked right away. I love everyone in this show, even Brenda and her psycho brother!
TV2. Six Feet Under (Season 2) This season was just as good but left us with one hell of a cliffhanger. Thank God Season 3 was right there and ready to pop in!!
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// posted by Heather @ 2:55 AM
Friday, January 04, 2008
At the Year's End
Before I get to the books & movies from December, I have a little story to tell.
Yesterday I went out shopping for Jordyn's birthday. When I got back the mail had come - there was a package with my name on it sitting on the chair by the front door. Since my birthday is 3 weeks away, I couldn't imagine why I had a package. Then I looked at the return address: it was from Kathleen! What could she be sending me??? I excitedly ripped into the box to find the coolest pair of Bronco-orange sunglasses and suddenly I remembered.
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Yesterday I went out shopping for Jordyn's birthday. When I got back the mail had come - there was a package with my name on it sitting on the chair by the front door. Since my birthday is 3 weeks away, I couldn't imagine why I had a package. Then I looked at the return address: it was from Kathleen! What could she be sending me??? I excitedly ripped into the box to find the coolest pair of Bronco-orange sunglasses and suddenly I remembered.
A while back I posted about how I ran over my shades with my car and Kathleen said if she found another pair of these awesome glasses she had, she would send them to me. I had completely forgotten about the offer but she didn't! It was a great surprise and Kathleen proved again just how sweet she is! Thanks!!!!
And now onto the books and movies! I did pretty well with reading considering I was off of work for 11 days! It was hard to read at home with the kids home on vacation, Collin off of work for a week and baby showers and Christmas festivities going on.
48. The Adversary - Julian May The last book in the Pliocene Exile series. It was good but it didn't really answer some of my questions like who was it that Mercy thought Aiken looked like? I know that doesn't sound important but to me it really was!!
49. Dead Days of Summer - Carolyn Hart Another fun Death on Demand mystery.
50. The Beatles Come To America - Martin Goldsmith This was a tiny book about The Beatles and their effect on the American people after the assassination of JFK. It took maybe a couple hours to read and while there were cute pictures, I didn't learn anything new.
51. Ticket To Ride - Larry Kane This was a cool book. Larry Kane was the only reporter to tag along with The Beatles for each one of their American tour dates. He had some great stories to tell and it came with a CD of some of the interveiws he conducted. This is the book that is responsible for my falling for John Lennon.
52. Magical Mystery Tours - Tony Bramwell w/Rosemary Kingsland I started off a little iffy about this book...Tony Bramwell struck me as a bit of a braggart: "I knew The Beatles before they were The Beatles and I worked with them on everything, blah blah blah." The one thing that got me was when he said he never had to pay for a single Beatles album, they were all given to him. Well bully for you! But after a while, I got used to his way of telling a story and was able to enjoy the book told by the promotions director-type fella for The Beatles.
53. Louie Louie - Dave Marsh This was a fun book. It was all about the history of the song Louie Louie, made famous by The Kingsmen. It went through all the versions ever recorded, which is a phenomenally high number, the life of Richard Berry (who wrote the song and recorded it first) and how Louie Louie influenced a ton of songs! I wish this one had come with a CD!
54. The Twylight Tower - Karen Harper I picked this up on a whim at the library and ended up loving it and wanting to read more. Karen Harper writes mysteries and the main detective is Queen Elizabeth I. She's very accurate in her historical background and characters which makes her stories all the more enjoyable!
55. Maria Callas: A Musical Biography - Robert Levine One of two opera singers I know. I figured what the heck, why not read about someone I know absolutely nothing about and ended up fascinated. Maria Callas led an interesting and sometimes sad life and thank God there were 2 cds included so I could hear the songs that were being talked about. That woman could sing!! And she was so pretty...I want to be an opera singer now. Haha! I think this is my BOTM.
56. John Lennon - Bruce W. Conord I went on a John Lennon freak-out the last time I went to the library and I grabbed whatever book about him I saw. The girl who checked me out asked if I was doing a paper on him! What I didn't bother to look at was what I was grabbing. This book turned out to be a young adult book and written very thinly. I enjoyed the pictures, though.
I did better with the movies this month than last month due to the fact that all my TV shows were on reruns or just not on because of Christmas specials.
161. Copying Beethoven I was excited to see this when I saw the preview and then later when I saw that Joe Anderson was in it I was REALLY excited to see it. I loved the music but it was so blatently un-historical I more than likely will never watch it again.
162. Mr. & Mrs. Smith Collin bought the unrated version of this movie so we watched to see what was unrated about it. Turns out it was only the special features. But it's still an awesome movie.
163. Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! Christina & I had plans to go shopping but then her niece got sick so I went to her house and we watched movies. I picked this one because I had only seen it when it first came out and remembered it being really cute. Turns out Ginnifer Goodwin is in it and now I can't see her as anyone but Vivian Libretto Cash in Walk The Line. But the movie is cute and has a sweet message. And I love Topher Grace!
164. A Hard Days Night The second movie I watched with Christina. You can't go wrong with this Beatles fun-fest! "Hey mister! Can we have our ball back?"
165. The Simpsons Movie Collin bought this so of course we had to watch it again.
166. A Bugs Life I picked this movie to watch one night when nothing was on. I adore this movie - it's so funny no matter how many times I see it.
167. Shrek This was on TV and I hadn't watched it in years!
168. Miss Congeniality Once again, on TV. Love this movie!
169. Futurama: Bender's Big Score This one had it's moments where I laughed my fool head off ("Your tail was wagging") and other moments where I was totally annoyed. Overall I liked it though.
170. A Christmas Story What's Christmas without this movie?
171. Sweeny Todd The MOTM. Oh my God, I loved this movie!!! It was so dark and Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter were amazing! Yeah, there was a lot of blood but it's The Demon Barber - - you gotta have blood!!
172. Hairspray Christina brought over the original movie for me to watch and I loved it just as much as the remake.
173. Snakes On A Plane Yep. We watched it. Just to get it out of the way and you know what? Yeah, it's cheesy and goofy in spots but it wasn't near as bad as I was expecting.
174. Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen I owe Collin a zombie movie for this one. It was okay.
175. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Funny funny funny!! If I hadn't seen Sweeny Todd, this would have been my MOTM. Judd Apatow & his crew make some funny-ass movies!!!
So that's it. My final tally is 56 books (which I feel shame about - it should have been much higher) and 175 movies which doesn't surprise me. This year I'll have to try for 200!! :D The Book of the Year goes to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Movie of the Year honors belong to Across The Universe.
I hope you all have a fantastic 2008!!
Labels: Books, kathleen, movies
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// posted by Heather @ 10:11 AM
Monday, December 03, 2007
November Ends...
Man did I pick up the pace on reading!!!! I'm so proud of myself!
BOOKS
37. The Cold Moon - Jeffrey Deaver I started this in the hospital when Dad was getting his surgery. I love Jeffrey Deaver and I really love the Lincoln/Amelia books! This ended open, though - it could have another book with the same characters he introduced in this one!
38. The Nonborn King - Julian May 3rd in the Pilocene Exile series. So far this was the best of the bunch even though Julian May still described stuff I couldn't care less about! I wanna know what's happening with Aiken & Felice & Mercy....get to the good stuff woman!!
39. Creation In Death - JD Robb I bought this the day after it came out and read it in one day. I love this series!!! And this had a great ending!
40. You Suck - Christopher Moore This guy is soooooo hilarious - I laugh out loud when I read his stuff. Unfortunately this was a sequel to Blood Sucking Fiends which I have not read so I know how the other one ends. It's okay, though...I'll read it just for the humor!
42. Dead Wrong - JA Jance The continuing saga a girl sheriff Joanna Brady - I always enjoy these books. And this one, she catches a killer while she's 9 months pregnant!
43. Girl Singer - Rosemary Clooney w/ Joan Barthel Autobiography time!! This was an interesting read...I knew nothing about Rosemary Clooney except her songs and that George is her nephew. I didn't know she was married to big time actor Jose Ferrer and that her son is Miguel Ferrer, the guy on Crossing Jordan who I've always thought was attractive. I didn't know anything so this was fun, not knowing what was coming up!
44. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now - Barry Miles I liked this one but I had a few problems with it. My main one was that Barry Miles, the author, talked about himself and his Indica Bookstore & Art Gallery waaaaay too much! I picked this book up to learn about Paul McCartney, not Barry Miles. And he insisted on giving everyone a biographical background. I now know more about Marianne Faithful and Mary Hopkin than I ever planned to. The book was 600-some pages and could easily have been half that! And then came the one page about Badfinger and how Paul wrote Come & Get It for them and they wanted to change it and he said no, do it my way. Miles wrote that it went to number one in the U.S. because of Paul's insistence and guess what? That's a lie! Badfinger NEVER had a #1 hit in America. So if he lied about that, what else wasn't true in this book???
46. Post Cards Fron The Boys - Ringo Starr A short book with a collection of 51 postcards sent to Ringo through the years from Paul, John & George. Very enjoyable and fun to look at!
47. April Fool Dead - Carolyn Hart Part of the Death on Demand series that I like so very very much. Max & Annie Darling are 2 of my favorite literary sleuths!
Movie-wise I was a total slacker because of TIVO. I'm hooked on Chuck, Samantha Who?, Pushing Daisies and Women's Murder Club. That cuts in on a lot of movie time.
MOVIES
153. Across The Universe Had to see it again - Collin & Justin hadn't seen it!
154. All The King's Men I wanted to see this really bad and I ended up liking it but I probably wouldn't watch it again. It was based on the novel which was loosely based on Huey Long and his death so many years ago. Sean Penn is an amazing actor and his campaign speeches will get you fired up! :D
155. Ratatouille This was SO stinking cute! I love that little rat! The short at the beginning, though, called Taken, is absolutely hysterical. My fave Pixar short so far!
156. Fun With Dick & Jane This was the original with Jane Fonda and George Segal. I had never seen it and Collin said I would like it...and I did. It was funny and you found yourself rooting for these upper-class criminals!
157. Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story Had to be seen. If just for the Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom references!
159. The Odd Couple Another original...Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau are two of my favorites and they were so adorable in this movie. I would watch this one again.
160. Keeping Mum Just edging out the competition for MOTM is this little British gem. I saw the preview months before...maybe even last year and wanted to see it then forgot about it until I was mucking about with our Netflix queue. Rowan Atkinson plays a straight non-Bean role and is great. Maggie Smith (another of my faves) plays a murderer just released from a mental ward and she becomes Atikinson's family's housekeeper. It's so funny!! Dark funny but FUNNY!
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BOOKS
37. The Cold Moon - Jeffrey Deaver I started this in the hospital when Dad was getting his surgery. I love Jeffrey Deaver and I really love the Lincoln/Amelia books! This ended open, though - it could have another book with the same characters he introduced in this one!
38. The Nonborn King - Julian May 3rd in the Pilocene Exile series. So far this was the best of the bunch even though Julian May still described stuff I couldn't care less about! I wanna know what's happening with Aiken & Felice & Mercy....get to the good stuff woman!!
39. Creation In Death - JD Robb I bought this the day after it came out and read it in one day. I love this series!!! And this had a great ending!
40. You Suck - Christopher Moore This guy is soooooo hilarious - I laugh out loud when I read his stuff. Unfortunately this was a sequel to Blood Sucking Fiends which I have not read so I know how the other one ends. It's okay, though...I'll read it just for the humor!
41. Shadow And Silk - Ann Maxwell Ann Maxwell is really Elizabeth Lowell in disguise. But her books are just as good. I love how she mixes a real plot with steamy romance! Always fun!
42. Dead Wrong - JA Jance The continuing saga a girl sheriff Joanna Brady - I always enjoy these books. And this one, she catches a killer while she's 9 months pregnant!
43. Girl Singer - Rosemary Clooney w/ Joan Barthel Autobiography time!! This was an interesting read...I knew nothing about Rosemary Clooney except her songs and that George is her nephew. I didn't know she was married to big time actor Jose Ferrer and that her son is Miguel Ferrer, the guy on Crossing Jordan who I've always thought was attractive. I didn't know anything so this was fun, not knowing what was coming up!
44. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now - Barry Miles I liked this one but I had a few problems with it. My main one was that Barry Miles, the author, talked about himself and his Indica Bookstore & Art Gallery waaaaay too much! I picked this book up to learn about Paul McCartney, not Barry Miles. And he insisted on giving everyone a biographical background. I now know more about Marianne Faithful and Mary Hopkin than I ever planned to. The book was 600-some pages and could easily have been half that! And then came the one page about Badfinger and how Paul wrote Come & Get It for them and they wanted to change it and he said no, do it my way. Miles wrote that it went to number one in the U.S. because of Paul's insistence and guess what? That's a lie! Badfinger NEVER had a #1 hit in America. So if he lied about that, what else wasn't true in this book???
45. The Tianic Disaster - Dave Bryceson My BOTM. This is a book I grabbed on a whim at the library. It focused on the Titanic disaster by reprinting the original newspaper articles from the British newpaper The Daily Sketch. It was so cool seeing the coverage and the pictures. I cried my eyes out through all the witness reports, though. I loved it so much I refused to take it back to the library and Collin had to agree to buy it for me for Christmas!!
46. Post Cards Fron The Boys - Ringo Starr A short book with a collection of 51 postcards sent to Ringo through the years from Paul, John & George. Very enjoyable and fun to look at!
47. April Fool Dead - Carolyn Hart Part of the Death on Demand series that I like so very very much. Max & Annie Darling are 2 of my favorite literary sleuths!
Movie-wise I was a total slacker because of TIVO. I'm hooked on Chuck, Samantha Who?, Pushing Daisies and Women's Murder Club. That cuts in on a lot of movie time.
MOVIES
153. Across The Universe Had to see it again - Collin & Justin hadn't seen it!
154. All The King's Men I wanted to see this really bad and I ended up liking it but I probably wouldn't watch it again. It was based on the novel which was loosely based on Huey Long and his death so many years ago. Sean Penn is an amazing actor and his campaign speeches will get you fired up! :D
155. Ratatouille This was SO stinking cute! I love that little rat! The short at the beginning, though, called Taken, is absolutely hysterical. My fave Pixar short so far!
156. Fun With Dick & Jane This was the original with Jane Fonda and George Segal. I had never seen it and Collin said I would like it...and I did. It was funny and you found yourself rooting for these upper-class criminals!
157. Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story Had to be seen. If just for the Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom references!
158. Help! I LOVE THIS MOVIE! Yeah it's cheesey and yeah it's all over the place but it focuses on Ringo and the other Beatles are stupid cute so what's not to love?
159. The Odd Couple Another original...Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau are two of my favorites and they were so adorable in this movie. I would watch this one again.
160. Keeping Mum Just edging out the competition for MOTM is this little British gem. I saw the preview months before...maybe even last year and wanted to see it then forgot about it until I was mucking about with our Netflix queue. Rowan Atkinson plays a straight non-Bean role and is great. Maggie Smith (another of my faves) plays a murderer just released from a mental ward and she becomes Atikinson's family's housekeeper. It's so funny!! Dark funny but FUNNY!
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// posted by Heather @ 7:05 AM
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Helter Skelter
Finally! Time for the end-of-month round up on my books and movies! :-)
BOOKS:
BOOKS:
29. I Walked The Line - Vivian Cash w/ Ann Sharpsteen This was an interesting book, finally hearing Johnny Cash's first wife's side of the story. The middle of the book was all letters that she received from him while he was overseas in the Air Force and that got a tad tedious reading the same thing over & over again (how much he loved her, missed her, blah blah blah) but despite that it was a good read.
30. Wonderful Tonight - Pattie Boyd w/ Penny Junior This was SO interesting - you'd think that life being a wife of George Harrison & Eric Clapton would be romantic but it sure wasn't! Some of the stories she tells, especially about Clapton were unreal! I felt a lot of sympathy for Pattie Boyd when I was finished with the book.
31. Velvet Angel - Jude Deveraux I was biding my time until I could go buy Eric Clapton's book so I grabbed the fourth book in the Velvet Series to read...as always it was fun and romantic.
32. Serenity - Keith R.A. DeCandido The book of the movie - this was a fun read...I knew all the dialogue so I said a lot of it out loud but it was cool to get insight into the characters.
33. Clapton - The Autobiography - Eric Clapton At the end of this book I realized that I could never be friends with Eric Clapton...he's too into Eric but I guess that's why he is who he is. After reading Pattie Boyd's bio, I wanted to hear his side of things and to give him credit, he owned up to the crappy things he did. This was a good book, a cool insight into the music biz, especially in the 60's.
34. Wallis & Edward: Letters 1931-1937 - Michael Bloch The story of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII always fascinated me. Their letters to each other show that they truly loved one another and what was done to them by the royal family was so sad...
35. The Heroin Diaries - Nikki Sixx w/ Ian Gittins The BOTM. Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue telling it like it is in the world of sex, drugs & rock and roll. This is an emotional book and Nikki tells it well...it's his diary for a year when he was at the height of his heroin addiction. It's pretty graphic and scary at times.
36. The Quickie - James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge When I started this I wondered "Where can they go with this story?" but man what a ride! There's some big twists that you don't see coming and it kept me completely entertained while waiting to hear about Dad's surgery.
MOVIES
We got Tivo last month and that really made the movie-watching suffer.
142. Music & Lyrics I had wanted to see this pretty bad since it came out and I finally just broke down and bought it. This was such a cute movie!! It's one I'll probably know all the lines to at some point! "Pop face!"
143. Zodiac This was a long movie. But it was good. I love Mark Ruffalo and he wasn't disappointing. It's one of those movies that's when it's done makes me run upstairs and check out the real story on Wikipedia.
144. Ghosts of the Abyss We watched this at the IMAX before going to see the Titanic exhibit. The other 3 felt they didn't need to have watched it; I, on the other hand, loved it and would watch it again.
145. Fracture I saw this movie when it was in the theatre and wanted Collin to see it. It was just as good the 2nd time around and it was fun seeing Collin try and piece the puzzle together.
146. Blade Runner I had never seen this "classic" before so Collin popped it in for me. I didn't like it so much.
147. Across the Universe As stated in an earlier post, this is my new favorite movie. And the MOTM.
148. Michael Clayton Collin & I went to see this with Mom & Dad and while it was good, it moved very slowly. Tilda Swinton is excellent, however, at conveying some serious fear!
149. Sands of Oblivion The crap you watch when you like an actor. This was a made-for-TV movie from the Sci-Fi Channel and it was BAD! Adam Baldwin was the reason I made Collin Tivo it and even he couldn't help it be any better.
150. Hollywoodland This was good and sad. Ben Affleck did a really good job of playing George Reeves and Adrien Brody....always a good reason to watch a movie. :)
151. Balls of Fury Saw this at the $1 theatre...it wasn't as funny as I had hoped although Christopher Walken never fails to make me laugh. "I bid you toodles."
152. Fido I'll bet this was Collin's MOTM. :D This was an excellent movie even if it was about zombies. It was set in the 50's and it was bright and colorful and not chock full of people being eaten. I will definitely watch this one again.
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// posted by Heather @ 8:51 PM
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Holy Holliday!
Can you believe that Rockies game? Holy cow! Now that was exciting! I'm not usually a big baseball fan but I always root for the home team and that was a great way to end that game! Now I haven't seen the highlights - I'm at work and had to follow the game on ESPN.com but I'm told there's a little controversy over whether or not Holliday actually touched the plate. I'll watch SportsCenter in the morning.
Anyway, on to the end of month festivities: Books & Movies! Once again, my reading was sparse.
27. The Golden Torc - Julian May This is the 2nd book in the Pliocene Exile series and it's very good. I've got two more to read after this one.
28. Mysteries of the Unexplained - Time/Life I love books like this and that's why this is the BOTM. Despite being published in 1982, it still had some great stories about ghosts, UFO's, disappearances, zombies, etc. Very entertaining reading.
However I stayed on par with my movie watching:
125. To Catch A Thief Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in a stylish thriller. This was a fun one.
126. Titanic I was working through the shutdown at work which meant I was the only one on my floor so I brought Jordyn's portable DVD player and some movies to keep me occupied. This was the first one - Collin had just bought the special edition for me with the alternate ending and all the special features. I can never get enough of this movie.
127. Because I Said So 2nd movie of the shutdown. Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore...I had heard bad things about this one but ended up really enjoying it.
128. The Patriot Movie #1 of Day 2 of the shutdown. I hadn't seen this movie since it came out and had forgotten how good it was. Jason Isaacs as the bad guy is too wonderful...he's got great bad guy eyes! And Adam Baldwin as the traitor...I was so disappointed in him! :)
129. Driving Lessons Movie #2 of Day 2. Third time I'd watched this one and I enjoyed it just as much.
130. Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire I was still in my HP obsession phase and decided that this one might be my favorite. At least until HP & OOP comes out on DVD.
131. Hot Fuzz Dad was bored and asked to watch this. Who am I to say no?
132. After The Thin Man I loved this movie. William Powell and Myrna Loy were too stinking cute! I love their expressions and the dialogue...and all the drinking! And Jimmy Stewart was so young and SO good looking!
133. Cellular We had had this one from Netflix for a while and finally got around to watching it. It ended up being very good - we were tense throughout and rooting for Chris Evans. Jason Statham as the bad guy helps too!
134. Transporter 2 After seeing Jason Statham in Cellular, Collin decided I needed to see this one with him as the good guy. It's a "suspension of belief" movie but a lot of fun and a lot of action. The crazy chick with the guns and great shoes was awesome.
135. 3:10 To Yuma My MOTM. Mom and I went to the theatre to see this remake with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale and loved it. Can you get any cooler than Christian Bale?
136. An American Haunting This one was disappointing. It didn't scare me at all and I figured out the secret at the very beginning.
137. Next of Kin Lord, the movies you watch because you like an actor. Adam Baldwin was the bad guy in the cheese-packed Patrick Swayze vehicle. It was so incredibly cheesy I would have turned it off if AB hadn't been in it. Liam Neeson as a hillbilly is some weird casting....
138. A Chorus Line I love Terrance Mann, I can't say it enough. I loved him as Rum Tum Tugger in Cats and as Javare in Les Miserables but as Larry, the stage manager in this movie, he's adorable!! I loved this one so much I plan on watching it again this weekend!
139. Unaccompanied Minors Jordyn talked us into watching this and we went in hesitant. She's steered us wrong before (Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties) but this one was great. Very cute, good dialogue, three of the Kids In The Hall (including Kevin McDonald of Tallest fame) playing the "guards in the hall," and a good message. We're actually going to buy this one.
140. Crank If not for the Christian Bale western, this movie would have been tops last month. This was a fun ride, watching Jason Statham try to stay alive. Dwight Yoakum was a surpise cast member but he was awesome and Amy Smart, never one of my faves, was entertaining.
141. Clue Madeline Kahn was a genius in anything she did and as Mrs White, she didn't fail. Her line "I hated her so much that flames...flames...from the side of my face...." has always been a staple of mine. Maybe the movie isn't great but I love the cast - Tim Curry and Michael McKean especially. And the end line "I'm going home and sleep with my wife" always make me smile.
Go Rockies!!!
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Anyway, on to the end of month festivities: Books & Movies! Once again, my reading was sparse.
27. The Golden Torc - Julian May This is the 2nd book in the Pliocene Exile series and it's very good. I've got two more to read after this one.
28. Mysteries of the Unexplained - Time/Life I love books like this and that's why this is the BOTM. Despite being published in 1982, it still had some great stories about ghosts, UFO's, disappearances, zombies, etc. Very entertaining reading.
However I stayed on par with my movie watching:
125. To Catch A Thief Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in a stylish thriller. This was a fun one.
126. Titanic I was working through the shutdown at work which meant I was the only one on my floor so I brought Jordyn's portable DVD player and some movies to keep me occupied. This was the first one - Collin had just bought the special edition for me with the alternate ending and all the special features. I can never get enough of this movie.
127. Because I Said So 2nd movie of the shutdown. Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore...I had heard bad things about this one but ended up really enjoying it.
128. The Patriot Movie #1 of Day 2 of the shutdown. I hadn't seen this movie since it came out and had forgotten how good it was. Jason Isaacs as the bad guy is too wonderful...he's got great bad guy eyes! And Adam Baldwin as the traitor...I was so disappointed in him! :)
129. Driving Lessons Movie #2 of Day 2. Third time I'd watched this one and I enjoyed it just as much.
130. Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire I was still in my HP obsession phase and decided that this one might be my favorite. At least until HP & OOP comes out on DVD.
131. Hot Fuzz Dad was bored and asked to watch this. Who am I to say no?
132. After The Thin Man I loved this movie. William Powell and Myrna Loy were too stinking cute! I love their expressions and the dialogue...and all the drinking! And Jimmy Stewart was so young and SO good looking!
133. Cellular We had had this one from Netflix for a while and finally got around to watching it. It ended up being very good - we were tense throughout and rooting for Chris Evans. Jason Statham as the bad guy helps too!
134. Transporter 2 After seeing Jason Statham in Cellular, Collin decided I needed to see this one with him as the good guy. It's a "suspension of belief" movie but a lot of fun and a lot of action. The crazy chick with the guns and great shoes was awesome.
135. 3:10 To Yuma My MOTM. Mom and I went to the theatre to see this remake with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale and loved it. Can you get any cooler than Christian Bale?
136. An American Haunting This one was disappointing. It didn't scare me at all and I figured out the secret at the very beginning.
137. Next of Kin Lord, the movies you watch because you like an actor. Adam Baldwin was the bad guy in the cheese-packed Patrick Swayze vehicle. It was so incredibly cheesy I would have turned it off if AB hadn't been in it. Liam Neeson as a hillbilly is some weird casting....
138. A Chorus Line I love Terrance Mann, I can't say it enough. I loved him as Rum Tum Tugger in Cats and as Javare in Les Miserables but as Larry, the stage manager in this movie, he's adorable!! I loved this one so much I plan on watching it again this weekend!
139. Unaccompanied Minors Jordyn talked us into watching this and we went in hesitant. She's steered us wrong before (Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties) but this one was great. Very cute, good dialogue, three of the Kids In The Hall (including Kevin McDonald of Tallest fame) playing the "guards in the hall," and a good message. We're actually going to buy this one.
140. Crank If not for the Christian Bale western, this movie would have been tops last month. This was a fun ride, watching Jason Statham try to stay alive. Dwight Yoakum was a surpise cast member but he was awesome and Amy Smart, never one of my faves, was entertaining.
141. Clue Madeline Kahn was a genius in anything she did and as Mrs White, she didn't fail. Her line "I hated her so much that flames...flames...from the side of my face...." has always been a staple of mine. Maybe the movie isn't great but I love the cast - Tim Curry and Michael McKean especially. And the end line "I'm going home and sleep with my wife" always make me smile.
Go Rockies!!!
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// posted by Heather @ 12:22 AM
Saturday, September 01, 2007
August Ends...
And a new list begins. Here's my books for August - again very slim:
25. Anchored In Love - John Carter Cash: This was a good book chronicling the life of June Carter Cash written by her son with Johnny Cash. It was interesting but too short.
26. The Many-Colored Land - Julian May: Collin's so excited that I started this series and I am, too, now that I started it. It's a sci-fi series and it's wonderful!! It's my Book Of The Month, as well.
And the movies....
105. Almost Famous - I had only seen this once and Christina picked it to watch one day. I had forgotten just how much I loved this one! Jason Lee as a rockstar is too cute!
106. Pan's Labyrinth - A great film by Guillermo Del Toro - very dark, very beautiful.
107. Hot Fuzz - Made Justin watch this one...Just as good the 2nd time as it was the first!
108. Driving Lessons - This is a cute little coming-of-age movie starring Rupert Grint who plays Ron in the Harry Potter movies. It was nice to see him not being Ron for once and he did a good job. It co-starred Laura Linney as his religious-nut mom and Julie Walters who plays his mom in the HP films.
109. 40-Year Old Virgin - Had to watch this one again...too funny!
110. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone - I started watching all the movies over once I saw the lastest one. Funny how young the kids were...
111. The Simpson's Movie - The Movie of the Month hands down. This film was hilarious!!! I couldn't stop laughing - they can get away with so much more in a movie than they can on TV and what they did was awesome! Not enough Mr. Burns for my taste but Homer made up for it.
112. Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets - I love the flying car sequence.
113. Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban - Mmm...Gary Oldman....
114. Walk The Line - Dad was laid up after his ankle surgery so I took this movie over for him to watch...he loved it. Of course.
115. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire - Yeah, this is a good one...I love the ball sequence with Jarvis Cocker playing and then there's Ron's "tuxedo."
116. Mean Girls - I almost didn't want to ever see this but Christina said I should and I agree with her taste in movies 99% of the time so I watched it and I loved it. I'm not the biggest Lindsay Lohan fan but she was good and I love Rachel McAdams as the lead bitch. "I know, right?"
117. Driving Lessons - Christina needed to see it. That's a good enough reason to watch it again, right?
118. Hot Fuzz - Now we had to make Christina watch it. 3rd time was just as good!!!
119. Employee Of The Month - Hey Derek - I LOVE DANE COOK! This is a funny movie despite the fact that Andy Dick is in it. Jessica Simpson isn't even annoying!!
120. Snatch - It had been years since I watched this - I had forgotten how hilarious this is! Brad Pitt - genius!
121. Live Free Or Die Hard - This was a fun movie. I really like Bruce Willis and taking out a helicoptor with a car? AWESOME!
122. Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 - At World's End - Mom hadn't seen this yet and was dying to see it and who am I to say no to Captain Jack??
123. The Simpson's Movie - Christina wanted to see it so we went. There were so many lines I wanted to remember and can't so I'll have to see it at least 10 more times!! Ha!
123 1/2. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix - It's numbered as a 1/2 because after The Simpson's I dragged Christina into the theatre next door to see about 30 minutes of it - yeah, we snuck in. But I wanted to see Ron and Bellatrix and the fight in the Dept Of Mysteries. :D
124. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie - Funny little movie - weird in spots like the show...I like Frylock's voice...
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25. Anchored In Love - John Carter Cash: This was a good book chronicling the life of June Carter Cash written by her son with Johnny Cash. It was interesting but too short.
26. The Many-Colored Land - Julian May: Collin's so excited that I started this series and I am, too, now that I started it. It's a sci-fi series and it's wonderful!! It's my Book Of The Month, as well.
And the movies....
105. Almost Famous - I had only seen this once and Christina picked it to watch one day. I had forgotten just how much I loved this one! Jason Lee as a rockstar is too cute!
106. Pan's Labyrinth - A great film by Guillermo Del Toro - very dark, very beautiful.
107. Hot Fuzz - Made Justin watch this one...Just as good the 2nd time as it was the first!
108. Driving Lessons - This is a cute little coming-of-age movie starring Rupert Grint who plays Ron in the Harry Potter movies. It was nice to see him not being Ron for once and he did a good job. It co-starred Laura Linney as his religious-nut mom and Julie Walters who plays his mom in the HP films.
109. 40-Year Old Virgin - Had to watch this one again...too funny!
110. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone - I started watching all the movies over once I saw the lastest one. Funny how young the kids were...
111. The Simpson's Movie - The Movie of the Month hands down. This film was hilarious!!! I couldn't stop laughing - they can get away with so much more in a movie than they can on TV and what they did was awesome! Not enough Mr. Burns for my taste but Homer made up for it.
112. Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets - I love the flying car sequence.
113. Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban - Mmm...Gary Oldman....
114. Walk The Line - Dad was laid up after his ankle surgery so I took this movie over for him to watch...he loved it. Of course.
115. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire - Yeah, this is a good one...I love the ball sequence with Jarvis Cocker playing and then there's Ron's "tuxedo."
116. Mean Girls - I almost didn't want to ever see this but Christina said I should and I agree with her taste in movies 99% of the time so I watched it and I loved it. I'm not the biggest Lindsay Lohan fan but she was good and I love Rachel McAdams as the lead bitch. "I know, right?"
117. Driving Lessons - Christina needed to see it. That's a good enough reason to watch it again, right?
118. Hot Fuzz - Now we had to make Christina watch it. 3rd time was just as good!!!
119. Employee Of The Month - Hey Derek - I LOVE DANE COOK! This is a funny movie despite the fact that Andy Dick is in it. Jessica Simpson isn't even annoying!!
120. Snatch - It had been years since I watched this - I had forgotten how hilarious this is! Brad Pitt - genius!
121. Live Free Or Die Hard - This was a fun movie. I really like Bruce Willis and taking out a helicoptor with a car? AWESOME!
122. Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 - At World's End - Mom hadn't seen this yet and was dying to see it and who am I to say no to Captain Jack??
123. The Simpson's Movie - Christina wanted to see it so we went. There were so many lines I wanted to remember and can't so I'll have to see it at least 10 more times!! Ha!
123 1/2. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix - It's numbered as a 1/2 because after The Simpson's I dragged Christina into the theatre next door to see about 30 minutes of it - yeah, we snuck in. But I wanted to see Ron and Bellatrix and the fight in the Dept Of Mysteries. :D
124. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie - Funny little movie - weird in spots like the show...I like Frylock's voice...
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// posted by Heather @ 10:24 PM
Monday, August 06, 2007
A Month Of Harry
It's that time again: Harry Potter Mania Month! With the new movie and book out, I was immersed in HP Land and happy as a clam to be there. Sadly, once again, my reading suffered but the movies more than made up for it:
BOOKS:
21. The Firefly Companion Volume 2: I got so heavy into the Firefly series again and decided I needed a companion book. I found one but it was Vol. 2 - I bought it anyway and enjoyed the hell out of it! It contains the complete scripts for the later episodes which was fun to read!
22. The Firefly Companion Volume 1: Yes, I read them out of order...but it was still shiny fun!
23. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Of COURSE this is the BOTM! I loved this book even though I spent the last part of it in tears! I'm planning on re-reading the whole series soon!
24. The Serenity Visual Guide - The script to the movie. Yay!!
21. The Firefly Companion Volume 2: I got so heavy into the Firefly series again and decided I needed a companion book. I found one but it was Vol. 2 - I bought it anyway and enjoyed the hell out of it! It contains the complete scripts for the later episodes which was fun to read!
22. The Firefly Companion Volume 1: Yes, I read them out of order...but it was still shiny fun!
23. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Of COURSE this is the BOTM! I loved this book even though I spent the last part of it in tears! I'm planning on re-reading the whole series soon!
24. The Serenity Visual Guide - The script to the movie. Yay!!
MOVIES:
87. Serenity - I had to watch this again after reading the script!
88. Serenity - I am not obsessed!
89. The One - I love Jet Li and what could be better than cool cars, cool music and multiple Jet Li's???
90. Monty Python & The Holy Grail - Hadn't seen this one in a while - always funny!
91. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde - This was a horrible rendition of the book...there was really no reason to call this movie Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde...bad bad bad. The only reason I watched it (and forced Collin to) was Adam Baldwin.
92. Full Metal Jacket - Great movie - I loved Animal Mother!!
93. Slither - This is a fun, if gross, movie with Nathan Fillion.
94. The Illusionist - Ooo! I loved this movie! LOVED IT!!!
95. Arsenic & Old Lace - Collin had never seen this one and I had...about 5 times. I was pleased to see how well he enjoyed it.
96. Ghost Rider - Not a bad movie. Great effects.
97. Evil Eyes - Yet another Adam Baldwin flick where he was the only good thing about it.
98. Hairspray - LOVED IT!! So fun and colorful and the music was great!
99. Premonition - So disappointed in this movie. I was really looking forward to it and ended up miffed at the end.
100. Hot Fuzz - Damn funny movie from the guys that did Shaun Of The Dead. Seriously funny.
101. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix - My MOTM. I had already heard from Kathleen that they hadn't followed the book so I went only to enjoy it as a movie and ended up loving it. The effects are great and I love all the actors - Imelda Staunton and Helena Bonham-Carter especially!!
102. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix (IMAX) - Two days in a row. Enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time around except we were in the 2nd row and the fight scene in the Dept of Mysteries was in 3-D which made me sick.
103. The Prince & Me - An okay movie that I popped in to while away the time.
104. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire - It took Collin and I 2 hours of driving around town to track this DVD down. But it was worth it!
87. Serenity - I had to watch this again after reading the script!
88. Serenity - I am not obsessed!
89. The One - I love Jet Li and what could be better than cool cars, cool music and multiple Jet Li's???
90. Monty Python & The Holy Grail - Hadn't seen this one in a while - always funny!
91. Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde - This was a horrible rendition of the book...there was really no reason to call this movie Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde...bad bad bad. The only reason I watched it (and forced Collin to) was Adam Baldwin.
92. Full Metal Jacket - Great movie - I loved Animal Mother!!
93. Slither - This is a fun, if gross, movie with Nathan Fillion.
94. The Illusionist - Ooo! I loved this movie! LOVED IT!!!
95. Arsenic & Old Lace - Collin had never seen this one and I had...about 5 times. I was pleased to see how well he enjoyed it.
96. Ghost Rider - Not a bad movie. Great effects.
97. Evil Eyes - Yet another Adam Baldwin flick where he was the only good thing about it.
98. Hairspray - LOVED IT!! So fun and colorful and the music was great!
99. Premonition - So disappointed in this movie. I was really looking forward to it and ended up miffed at the end.
100. Hot Fuzz - Damn funny movie from the guys that did Shaun Of The Dead. Seriously funny.
101. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix - My MOTM. I had already heard from Kathleen that they hadn't followed the book so I went only to enjoy it as a movie and ended up loving it. The effects are great and I love all the actors - Imelda Staunton and Helena Bonham-Carter especially!!
102. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix (IMAX) - Two days in a row. Enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time around except we were in the 2nd row and the fight scene in the Dept of Mysteries was in 3-D which made me sick.
103. The Prince & Me - An okay movie that I popped in to while away the time.
104. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire - It took Collin and I 2 hours of driving around town to track this DVD down. But it was worth it!
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// posted by Heather @ 6:11 AM
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
The Month of Movies
I suck lately at reading...3 books in the month of June...
18. Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett This is, by default, the BOTM. It was really good and funny but without all the regular Discworld characters I like to read about, although I did enjoy the ones he introduced in this book.
19. The 6th Target - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro I was so excited to read this book and was sadly disappointed. They threw too many plotlines at me at once and some of the ways they were resolved didn't seem to have a rhyme or reason to it. The ending was good, though.
20. Jingo - Terry Pratchett I'm not even finished with this one yet but I'm loving it!
So on to the movies. Get comfy cuz this list is loooongggg.....
63. All About Eve Classic! I love this movie, everything about it.
64. Waiting For Guffman This was funny in spots but not that group's funniest effort.
65. The Producers One of the MOTM - Zero Mostel & Gene Wilder are brilliantly hilarious! I never stopped laughing...
66. Shaun of the Dead 5th time I've seen that movie. One of the few zombie movies I actually enjoy.
67. While You Were Sleeping I can't count how many times I've seen this one. A great one to watch when you're in a mushy mood.
68. Rocketman One of Collin's picks. Cheesy but cute. I'd watch it again.
69. 12 Monkeys I fricking LOVE this movie. Brad Pitt is a total genius in this film. I want to learn his hand movements and use them on people while I'm talking! :)
70. Blazing Saddles Another classic. Justin had never seen this movie so we cultured him. he liked it.
71. Stir Crazy I had never seen this one, surprisingly. Yes, we had a Gene Wilder weekend. :)
72. The Producers (remake) Don't bother, unless you've never seen the original. I really like Matthew Broderick but Collin & I both agree he was way over the top in his performance.
73. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 My 2nd MOTM. I really liked this. I had heard bad things about it but really...how can you go wrong with multiple Jack Sparrows? :) And I loved the ending after the credits...
74. The Rundown My choice. Collin had never seen it and I liked this one. So did he.
75. The Haunting This movie had so much potential; great cast, scary house...but it really sucked. I write better dialogue in my cheesy stories I write for fun.
76. Knocked Up MOTM #3. Funny, funny, funny! Seth Rogen - he's a funny motherfucker. Leslie Mann - incredibly hilarious. Martin Starr is a plus in ANYTHING! Go see this movie!!! **Disclaimer** But only if you like crude humor.
77. Mr. Brooks The 4th MOTM. Ooo....I loved this movie. Kevin Costner has never been one of my faves but he was sooooo good...and William Hurt was totally my favorite character in the movie, followed closely by Dane Cook...he did an awesome job in a dramatic role. Go see this one, too!!!
78. Shrek The Third Weak. I was disappointed.
79. Strangers With Candy It had it's moments (Sarah Jessica Parker, the locker scene...) but the TV show is better.
80. Knocked Up See? Fricking funny! I saw it twice within a week!!!!
81. Waking Up Dead If you watch this movie, get ready to hear "fuck" A LOT!! It's a documentary on Phil Varone, the ex-Saigon Kick and Skid Row drummer. Interesting...
82. 1408 And here we have the 5th MOTM. Scary as hell, this movie. John Cusack is great and the scares are genuine. Makes you think, too.
83. Serenity My latest obsession. Collin & I got Christina hooked on Firefly so we rewatched the series then watched the movie. In fact, I'm watching it right now! :)
84. The Madness Of King George This was a good movie - sad, funny, heartwarming...
85. Breakdown An oldie but a goody with Kurt Russell.
86. Orange County This was a cute movie - Jack Black isn't featured enough, though.
So there you go. I told you I watched a buttload of movies! Hope you all have a great 4th of July!
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// posted by Heather @ 7:31 AM
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Slowly Getting Back
I'm getting a little better at reading at work - I don't know why I'm so easily distracted these days...
13. The Stupidest Angel - Christopher Moore. This would have been the BOTM but something better came along. This is a funny, funny book that had me laughing out loud more times than I can count. "Screaming like a bunny in a blender" was my favorite line.
14. Innocent In Death - J.D. Robb. You can never go wrong with any book by J.D. Robb!
15. Brother Odd - Dean Koontz. I love the character of Odd Thomas. And very rarely can you not enjoy a Koontz book.
16. All About "All About Eve" - Sam Staggs. Book of the Month. Maybe Book of the Year. This book is the definitive bible about the classic movie All About Eve. It was wonderfully written and chock-full of andecdotes about the cast and people involved in making it.
17. Sole Survivor - Dean Koontz. I lent this book to a girl I work with and she gave it back the night I finished the previous book and I hadn't read it in years so I thought, why not cry my eyes out again?
Once again, I did much better with the movies:
54. Fracture - Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling were so good in this! I really enjoyed this one!
55. Spiderman 3 - Ooo, I liked this. I loved Topher Grace as Venom!!
56. Home Fries - Damn cute movie. I like Luke Wilson better than Owen!
57. Muriel's Wedding - I was disappointed in this one. I expect better from Toni Collette.
58. Lilo & Stitch 2 - This made me CRY!!!!
59. Hercules - "I'm a damsel, I'm in distress, I can handle it. Have a nice day." Some of my favorite lines are from this Disney movie.
60. Stranger Than Fiction - I adore Emma Thompson. This was a cute cute movie!
61. American Dreamz - I really liked this one. A lot! I'm glad I bought it.
62. Monkey Business - All right, so I'm cheating. I had said a couple months ago that the MOTM had to be one I'd never seen before but none of them were as good as this classic. You can't go wrong with Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe!!
Hope you all had a great weekend and a spectacular Monday!
54. Fracture - Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling were so good in this! I really enjoyed this one!
55. Spiderman 3 - Ooo, I liked this. I loved Topher Grace as Venom!!
56. Home Fries - Damn cute movie. I like Luke Wilson better than Owen!
57. Muriel's Wedding - I was disappointed in this one. I expect better from Toni Collette.
58. Lilo & Stitch 2 - This made me CRY!!!!
59. Hercules - "I'm a damsel, I'm in distress, I can handle it. Have a nice day." Some of my favorite lines are from this Disney movie.
60. Stranger Than Fiction - I adore Emma Thompson. This was a cute cute movie!
61. American Dreamz - I really liked this one. A lot! I'm glad I bought it.
62. Monkey Business - All right, so I'm cheating. I had said a couple months ago that the MOTM had to be one I'd never seen before but none of them were as good as this classic. You can't go wrong with Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe!!
Hope you all had a great weekend and a spectacular Monday!
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// posted by Heather @ 9:15 PM
Thursday, May 10, 2007
April Showers...blah blah blah
I am so sucking at reading this year. Too many other things going on to catch my interest. Here's the list of books for April:
9. Highland Velvet - Jude Deveraux
10. Cash - The Autobiography - Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr
11. Velvet Song - Jude Deveraux
12. Born In Death - J.D. Robb
Book Of The Month - Cash - The Autobiography. After watching Walk The Line 3 times in one month, I wanted to hear his words telling the story. Sadly, this was his 2nd autobiography and more than once he said, "I covered this in Man In Black so I'll only hit the high points." Argh! So now I have to go find Man In Black.
And for the flicks:
42. Walk The Line
43. The Talented Mr. Ripley
44. The Seven Year Itch
45. Walk The Line
46. Quiz Show
47. Happy Feet
48. Walk The Line
49. My Bodyguard
50. Great Balls Of Fire
51. The Wedding Date
52. Blades Of Glory
53. Dracula (Keanu Reeves version)
Movie of the Month - Blades of Glory. Funniest freakin' movie I've seen in a while. I love Will Ferrell and Jon Heder...they never fail to make me laugh.
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9. Highland Velvet - Jude Deveraux
10. Cash - The Autobiography - Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr
11. Velvet Song - Jude Deveraux
12. Born In Death - J.D. Robb
Book Of The Month - Cash - The Autobiography. After watching Walk The Line 3 times in one month, I wanted to hear his words telling the story. Sadly, this was his 2nd autobiography and more than once he said, "I covered this in Man In Black so I'll only hit the high points." Argh! So now I have to go find Man In Black.
And for the flicks:
42. Walk The Line
43. The Talented Mr. Ripley
44. The Seven Year Itch
45. Walk The Line
46. Quiz Show
47. Happy Feet
48. Walk The Line
49. My Bodyguard
50. Great Balls Of Fire
51. The Wedding Date
52. Blades Of Glory
53. Dracula (Keanu Reeves version)
Movie of the Month - Blades of Glory. Funniest freakin' movie I've seen in a while. I love Will Ferrell and Jon Heder...they never fail to make me laugh.
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// posted by Heather @ 2:26 AM
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Been Caught Stealing
I found this at Kathleen's site; it looked like fun so I took it.
Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Honestly, I don't care. As long as I have the book! If it's Victoria Holt or Phyllis Whitney, though, it's all of them! I have to have every copy - hardback, paperback, different covers...it's tough being a collector! :-)
Amazon or brick and mortar? I don't care as long as I get the book I'm looking for.
Barnes & Noble or Borders? See above.
Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark, bookmark, bookmark!!! Dogears are so rude!
Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Right now everything is a random jumble because of the move but when I get the books all sorted it will be this way: all hardbacks together, alphabetized by author then by release date. Then the paperbacks done the same way. Collin calls me Monica (from "Friends")...I have no idea why!
Keep, throw away, or sell? If you saw my house you wouldn't ask me this question. I keep everything!!!!
Keep dustjacket or toss it? What? People toss the dustjackets?
Read with dustjacket or remove it? Remove it usually. I tend to tear them if I leave them on.
Short story or novel? Either.
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? I like them both but Harry Potter is my choice.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I stop when I have to so that would be wherever I am.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Both.
Buy or Borrow? Usually buy but I'll borrow if someone has something I really want to read. If I like it I'll buy it at some point.
New or used? Both, I'm not picky, but have a tendency to buy used more often, just because it's cheaper.
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Recommendation or browsing.
Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy ending, please. I hate having to sit around thinking about what could possibly happen.
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? ANY time I can get a minute.
Stand-alone or series? Both.
Favorite series? There are so many!!! Harry Potter, J.D Robb's Eve Dallas series, Elizabeth Peters Amelia Peabody series, Jackie Collins' Lucky series...
Favorite children's book? The Secret Garden
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? The Wit'ch War series by the man who's name I can never remember...James Clemens, I think. Excellent set of books!
Favorite books read last year? Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and all the J.D. Robb Eve Dallas books.
Favorite books of all time? The Road To Paradise Island by Victoria Holt, The Golden Unicorn by Phyllis A. Whitney, Tick Tock by Dean Koontz, Remembrance by Jude Deveraux.
Least favorite book you finished last year? Murder At The Washington Post by Margaret Truman
What are you reading right now? Highland Velvet by Jude Deveraux
What are you reading next? The next 2 books in the Velvet series.
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Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Honestly, I don't care. As long as I have the book! If it's Victoria Holt or Phyllis Whitney, though, it's all of them! I have to have every copy - hardback, paperback, different covers...it's tough being a collector! :-)
Amazon or brick and mortar? I don't care as long as I get the book I'm looking for.
Barnes & Noble or Borders? See above.
Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark, bookmark, bookmark!!! Dogears are so rude!
Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? Right now everything is a random jumble because of the move but when I get the books all sorted it will be this way: all hardbacks together, alphabetized by author then by release date. Then the paperbacks done the same way. Collin calls me Monica (from "Friends")...I have no idea why!
Keep, throw away, or sell? If you saw my house you wouldn't ask me this question. I keep everything!!!!
Keep dustjacket or toss it? What? People toss the dustjackets?
Read with dustjacket or remove it? Remove it usually. I tend to tear them if I leave them on.
Short story or novel? Either.
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? I like them both but Harry Potter is my choice.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I stop when I have to so that would be wherever I am.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Both.
Buy or Borrow? Usually buy but I'll borrow if someone has something I really want to read. If I like it I'll buy it at some point.
New or used? Both, I'm not picky, but have a tendency to buy used more often, just because it's cheaper.
Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Recommendation or browsing.
Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy ending, please. I hate having to sit around thinking about what could possibly happen.
Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? ANY time I can get a minute.
Stand-alone or series? Both.
Favorite series? There are so many!!! Harry Potter, J.D Robb's Eve Dallas series, Elizabeth Peters Amelia Peabody series, Jackie Collins' Lucky series...
Favorite children's book? The Secret Garden
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? The Wit'ch War series by the man who's name I can never remember...James Clemens, I think. Excellent set of books!
Favorite books read last year? Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and all the J.D. Robb Eve Dallas books.
Favorite books of all time? The Road To Paradise Island by Victoria Holt, The Golden Unicorn by Phyllis A. Whitney, Tick Tock by Dean Koontz, Remembrance by Jude Deveraux.
Least favorite book you finished last year? Murder At The Washington Post by Margaret Truman
What are you reading right now? Highland Velvet by Jude Deveraux
What are you reading next? The next 2 books in the Velvet series.
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// posted by Heather @ 2:18 AM
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Such A Slacker
At least in the reading department. Apparently 2007 is not the Year of the Book! Here's the whopping 3 titles I read in March:
6. Night Shield/Night Smoke - Nora Roberts
7. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson-Burnett
8. Night Shield/Night Moves - Nora Roberts
The Book of the Month is The Secret Garden. I remember Mrs. Kynor reading it to the class in 3rd grade but she never finished it. So I checked it out from the library. And I never finished it. So I bought it about 10 years ago. And I finally read it. I loved it! Yes, it's a young adult book but it's such a great story! It completely stands the test of time.
And now on to something I did much better with: Movies!
27. The Private Eyes - an old comedy with Don Knotts & Tim Conway. It didn't quite hold up over time.
28. My Super Ex-Girlfriend - Loved it!!!
29. Beerfest - Finally got this one finished. Very funny.
30. School For Scoundrels - enh. It had potential but didn't follow through.
31. Back To The Future - This one never gets old.
32. Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead - Depressing but good.
33. Robin Hood - The Disney version - I know every word of this movie!
34. Bullit - Finally! God, Steve McQueen was pretty!!
35. The Lavender Hill Mob - an oldie but goodie with Sir Alec Guiness.
36. Marathon Man - Ooo! This was SO good! My parents have been telling me for years to watch this one!
37. The Departed - I totally see why this was named Best Picture. It was excellent. I'm a total Leonardo believer now!
38. Miami Blues - This movie threw me cuz Alec Baldwin was so young & skinny he looked like David Arquette and I spent the whole movie reminding myself who I was watching!
39. Back To The Future II - I love this trilogy!
40. Walk The Line - My new favorite movie! Seriosuly. Joaquin Phoenix was robbed when he didn't win for Best Actor.
41. Life Or Something Like It - Angelina Jolie looking like Marilyn Monroe - pretty cool.
42. The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants - very cute!
So, once again we have a tie for Movie of the Month - The Departed and Walk The Line. I loved Walk The Line so much I watched it two nights in a row and then watched the ending again because I could.
And....
Hey Hey Hey! There's a new post (just for Kathleen!) at The Sweet Escape.
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6. Night Shield/Night Smoke - Nora Roberts
7. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson-Burnett
8. Night Shield/Night Moves - Nora Roberts
The Book of the Month is The Secret Garden. I remember Mrs. Kynor reading it to the class in 3rd grade but she never finished it. So I checked it out from the library. And I never finished it. So I bought it about 10 years ago. And I finally read it. I loved it! Yes, it's a young adult book but it's such a great story! It completely stands the test of time.
And now on to something I did much better with: Movies!
27. The Private Eyes - an old comedy with Don Knotts & Tim Conway. It didn't quite hold up over time.
28. My Super Ex-Girlfriend - Loved it!!!
29. Beerfest - Finally got this one finished. Very funny.
30. School For Scoundrels - enh. It had potential but didn't follow through.
31. Back To The Future - This one never gets old.
32. Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead - Depressing but good.
33. Robin Hood - The Disney version - I know every word of this movie!
34. Bullit - Finally! God, Steve McQueen was pretty!!
35. The Lavender Hill Mob - an oldie but goodie with Sir Alec Guiness.
36. Marathon Man - Ooo! This was SO good! My parents have been telling me for years to watch this one!
37. The Departed - I totally see why this was named Best Picture. It was excellent. I'm a total Leonardo believer now!
38. Miami Blues - This movie threw me cuz Alec Baldwin was so young & skinny he looked like David Arquette and I spent the whole movie reminding myself who I was watching!
39. Back To The Future II - I love this trilogy!
40. Walk The Line - My new favorite movie! Seriosuly. Joaquin Phoenix was robbed when he didn't win for Best Actor.
41. Life Or Something Like It - Angelina Jolie looking like Marilyn Monroe - pretty cool.
42. The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants - very cute!
So, once again we have a tie for Movie of the Month - The Departed and Walk The Line. I loved Walk The Line so much I watched it two nights in a row and then watched the ending again because I could.
And....
Hey Hey Hey! There's a new post (just for Kathleen!) at The Sweet Escape.
Labels: Books, movies, shameless plugs
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// posted by Heather @ 5:02 AM
