Read this 100% because it was so heavily recommended by my wife. Granted, she recommends a lot of books to me, but this time she had me at “it’s a quick read and I still have it out of the library for a few days”. Does she ever know me…
It’s a grabber. I was snagged within a page and a half. I can see why so many people fall so hard for this book and this author. What an amazing way with words he has.
I absolutely fell in love with the main character, Hazel. So well written, so interesting. I can certainly understand why some may feel that the dialogue is not realistic for teenagers, but I disagree. Certainly not all teens are so introspective and literate, but based on my experience, I’d suggest probably a lot more are than you may expect.
The novel in unflinching in its depiction of the harsh realities of living with terminal illness, and the refreshing honesty of the writing makes this a wonderful read.
The heady first third of the novel is filled with the kind of exhilarating relationship creation that you just love to read – and is sadly unsustainable. One of these days we’ll come up with a novel that is made up of the exciting first acts of other books.
While the luster may wear off a bit, the novel continues to be interesting and moving throughout. It really is a wonderful book. It is definitely a heartbreaker, but I never felt as though it was a manipulative tearjerker. It’s a sad tale, but the author’s great writing delivers it without mawkish sentimentality.
If less is more then its corollary that more is less is certainly the case here. There’s nothing really wrong with Thor 2; just kinda there.
What’s more:
The first Thor was a pleasant surprise. I’ve never had even a mild interest in the character and I just assumed they’d pass on making a film version of the God of Thunder since he was just so silly.
So I was unexpectedly engaged by Thor (2011). They crafted a great story of an arrogant royal brought low by hubris and his resultant quest for worth by accepting responsibility. It deliberately traded weighty importance for a more funny and irreverent tone that was far more accessible, while still taking the story and characters seriously. Just not too seriously, thankfully. The political intrigue and scheming of the gods was actually interesting and provided flavor. It had a classic fish out of water tale, buoyed by good acting, a lovable villain, and it was a hell of a lot of fun.
Chris Hemsworth & company are back for Thor: The Dark World, minus director Kenneth Branagh. Who would ever have thought that the movie that was overly dramatic and full of epic grandeur was NOT the one directed by the Shakespearean scholar?
I don’t think I’ve ever given up on a plot so quickly. Hopkins hadn’t even finished the pre-title exposition before I was completely lost (and indifferent). That’s got to be a record.
I’ll be the first to own up to a more than passing bout of superhero fatigue, and I’m sure that colored my opinion somewhat. But my daughter is right in the sweet spot for heroes right now – she can’t get enough of these. And she was underwhelmed.
Note: when we hit pause a little more than halfway through the movie to grab a snack from the kitchen, she looks at me and says “What do you think?” I said I was really enjoying it, but I could instantly tell we weren’t on the same page. “It just seems like they’re trying too hard to make it HUGE and EPIC” she commented. Hmm. Well spotted, I think.
It’s definitely the Motorhead approach to movies (“everything louder than everything else”). Nothing really wrong with that – it is a comic book movie about a huge dude with an enormous hammer, after all. Subtlety is not required.
But it definitely suffers from the modern CG action movie problem of lack of weight. The more destruction the less it seems to matter. There are these massive things happening but none of it feels particularly important.
I think it really comes back at some point to the story. It just isn’t fresh or strong enough to lift this thing above the pile of big action movies with lots of things smashing and exploding. The Macguffin is as uninspired as the villain, played by the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, who presumably brought the costumes for himself and his elf henchman with him from the set of Doctor Who. They look ridiculous.
What I’m supposed to love most about the movie, I suppose, is the interaction with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. And I do; he was the best thing about the 1st movie and The Avengers. But I think they’ve gone to the well one time too many here. Overexposure has weakened the character somewhat, and while he’s still the best thing in the picture, that’s faint praise this time around.
I actually enjoyed Thor 2 at the time, it just didn’t stay with me. Only days after seeing it I could barely remember anything about it. It was perfectly fine as a popcorn movie, I guess; I suppose I’d hoped for more.
EXACTLY what it appears to be. That’s not a bad thing, really. Tidy little story for kids, funny & well executed. We should all be so lucky.
What’s more:
Going to be hard to stretch this review out, because there really isn’t a ton to say when a movie is so completely transparent about what it plans to accomplish. Hotel For Dogs knows exactly what it wants to be and what it wants to do, then proceeds to do exactly that.
Based on a 1971 novel, orphan siblings Andi (Emma Roberts) & Bruce (Jake T. Austin) are struggling to get by and running out of time and chances with foster parents, as they want to stick together but keep getting themselves into trouble. Their current foster parents, played by Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon, are self-absorbed wannabe rockers who have little interest in the kids and no interest in letting them keep a dog.
While caring for their stray dog, Friday, they chance upon an abandoned hotel where they plan to keep Friday. The hotel is already inhabited by two strays, Georgia and Lenny, and if you can’t see where this is going I suggest you re-read the title.
Did you spot the metaphor? Unwanted dogs = orphans? Well done. Don’t be afraid to ask for help on the hard ones.
It’s a fun little movie. Undeterred by the adage “never work with children or animals”, director Thor Freudenthal manages to competently handle both in what couldn’t have been an easy shoot. Working on these type of family pictures is sort of a thankless job; you really only get recognized if you screw it up. But the production is very good, and the machines that young Bruce designs to care for the dogs are a blast.
But the young actors are cute and precocious and when you find out that Nickelodeon was behind it you may fall over from non-surprise. Everything is very safe.
Most of the enjoyment of the film comes, obviously from the animal talent. It really is quite impressive how well the animals are trained. They hand of man is completely absent here; the animals behave so believably for the camera that you completely forget that there are probably 50 trainers standing six inches out of frame. This movie could have been make with CG animals and they wouldn’t have had to change a thing – that’s how perfectly the dogs “act”.
I appreciate movies that punch their weight, and Hotel For Dogs certainly does. Unlikely to remain long in anyone’s memory, it is nevertheless certain to captivate kids for years – until they watch the next family-friendly movie…
Dreadful straight to video release way too happy with itself. How bad? Features a Baldwin – family should come with an early warning system.
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What a pretentious piece of crap. I like to pick random things to stream from Amazon Prime or Netflix, and generally I’ve had good luck, but I’m having trouble even reaching the Mendoza line lately.
This was another one of those things that I saw listed and said, “Hey, it’s got Seth Green. I like Seth Green. How bad could it be?” I did also notice that it had another former Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast member in Michelle Trachtenberg, but I have absolutely no opinion of her so this didn’t matter. Katee Sackhoff co-produced and starred – again, irrelevant to me as I never got around to Battlestar Galactica, but I know she has a good rep. As the “movie” rolled, I also spotted the guy who piloted the Nebuchadnezzar in the crappy Matrix movies. But I never would have watched this if it was made clear to me that I’d be subjected to a Baldwin.
If I seem to be spending a lot of time talking about the acting, perhaps it’s because I can’t bear to deal with the plot. I don’t want to overstate things, but this may be the worst movie I’ve seen so far this year. The only reason this won’t stain anyone’s resume is because practically no one will watch the damn thing.
Alright, here goes: smug, self-absorbed Nikki has a flair for the melodramatic and fancies herself dark and mysterious. All of her exes feel the same way for reasons that are impossible to fathom. Nikki orchestrates a diabolical plan to get them together (that is to say, she invites them) and everyone spends the next 90 minutes under the mistaken belief that this is some incredible, Agatha Christie like locked door mystery, when really it’s just an hour and a half of spending time with the sort of person you couldn’t stand to be around in college. These characters are absolutely paper-thin, but that doesn’t matter because you are already learning more about them than you really care to. The whole thing is like a late night Skin-emax movie – but without the sex. Directed by a tv guy, this thing was destined for the video bin from the second it was conceived; wonder if these actors knew that. Just avoid it…
Ever hear Eddie Murphy’s bit on Elvis being allowed to do movies even though he couldn’t act, “We’ll let him sing all his dialogue”? Yep…
What’s more:
Ah, to be a young Elvis Presley; so completely on top of the world that they let you star in movie after movie, no matter how ridiculous. The thing about Elvis movies is that even you know exactly what you’re going to get, they’re still funny.
The story behind this one, if you care, places the King as a race car driver with the completely realistic name of Lucky Jackson who goes to Sin City for their first Grand Prix. He has a friendly rivalry in racing and in love with Count Elmo Mancini (seriously), played by Cesare Danova as they both pursue Ann-Margret’s hot pants. There’s also something about needing to raise money for an engine and, ahh, who cares…
I don’t think there’s 20 minutes of dialogue in the entire movie. And I’m probably over-estimating at that…The film does feature some hysterically fun footage of the stars participating in a number of fun outdoor sports and activities in front of projection screens.
Ann-Margret, 23 at the time was in only her 4th film, right after Bye Bye Birdie, and not only does her character have a name, Rusty Martin, she’s actually a good character for the first 20 minutes of the movie. After that she’s completely de-clawed and stands around waiting for Elvis.
The single most important feature of any Elvis movie, of course, is the music. Despite the world class title track, one of his best ever, the music is merely passable. Interestingly, the song Viva Las Vegas was released as a b-side – the a-side was the Ray Charles cover “What’d I Say”.
There’s an awful lot of dancing, taking advantage of the abilities of Ann-Margret. She’s more than a match for the King, being thought of as the “female Elvis”, and this was the last time that a co-star was allowed to upstage him. Colonel Tom Parker was furious how much time was spent filming her and the dance numbers, driving the costs over budget. Too bad, Colonel; she’s the only interesting thing happening here, even if she has an unfortunate tendency to yell out “ha” an unusual amount of times while dancing. Elvis’ dancing to the title track is downright frightening. Seriously, it’s disturbing to watch.
As far as the “story”, the less said the better. It’s your standard 60’s teeny-bopper fare. It’s distressing how quickly Rusty (remember, she’s the girl – told you she had a name) goes from a semi-strong character to a complete dimbo, being dismissed by her own father as getting in the way of the manly racing work.
Equally unbelievable is how quickly the picture wraps up. The race seems to be over merely minutes after it has started. There is so little racing footage. You look down at your popcorn for a minute, look back up and realize that his rival is out of the picture with a flat tire, Lucky has won the race and is now married to Rusty. It takes seemingly two minutes for all of the above to happen. The tour bus must have been leaving…
Viva Las Vegas is regarded as one of Elvis’ better pictures, which says a lot more about Elvis movies than it does about this film. It’s perfectly fine, I suppose, but reflect for a moment that this film came out the same year as A Hard Day’s Night, which it beat at the box office, and you can understand why I give it less leash.
Race car driver Lucky Jackson goes to Las Vegas to earn money to pay for a new engine for his motor car. Working as a waiter, he still finds the time to court young Rusty Martin.
Poster
Runtime
85
Tagline
Elvis is at the wheel but Ann-Margret drives him wild!
