Audio Book Review - I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

 I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT
by Terry Pratchett
read by Stephen Briggs

2010, 589 mins, Unabridged 

 

Re: Tiffany Aching, a witch, must battle an eyeless man, intent on killing all witches. In the meantime, she also must deal with an impending marriage, death, overbearing Duchess, murders, sniffles, broken brooms... oh yeah and the Nac Mac Feegles. Crivens!
 

Outstanding: Funny, poignant and beautiful. Just like most of Pratchett's books.The Wee Free Men are hilarious. Stephen Briggs does a stellar job reading the novel.
 

Unacceptable: There are a few dark undercurrents in this book about death that reminds me of our limited time with Mr. Pratchett's world and that makes me very sad.
 

Summary: This audio book was a joy to listen to. The story is great with a perfect mix of bawdy jokes, slapstick humor and touching moments. Nearly perfect.
 

5/5

Book Review - Second Son by Lee Child

 SECOND SON
(A Jack Reacher Story)

by Lee Child

2011, 40 pages, eBook

 

Re: A short story about Jack Reacher when he was a kid. He busts some heads, helps his family and acts stolid.
 

Outstanding: A great look at Reacher at a younger age. It was nice to see his interactions with his family.
 

Unacceptable: The brief chapters with Reacher's grandfather seemed out of place. The cover is horrible. It's just a bad cut and paste job.
 

Summary: I really enjoyed this little story. It's a satisfyingly rounded tale and shows where Reacher came from. Worth the read!
 

4/5

Film Review - The Living Death

THE LIVING DEATH

Directed by Erin Berry
Starring Kristy Swanson, Greg Bryk, Joshua Peace

2006, 85 mins, Unrated

 

Re: A supposedly sadistic but mostly whiny and douchey rich boy gets poisoned by his scheming BBW GF and her lover/his lawyer. But instead of dying, he goes into suspended animation for half of the movie before waking up and killing people.
 

Outstanding: It's good to see Kristy Swanson getting work.
 

Unacceptable: SO much. So, so very much. But really, it's greatest crime is that it is extremely boring. 
 

Summary: So boring that I chose to do dishes while it played rather than something that allowed me to watch the movie. There was absolutely nothing good about this movie. Even the gore was bad - Why would a tibia snap violently in two when being stretched on a rack? Why didn't he continue to bleed when cut open if he was still alive.. oh wait, the toxin made his heart stop pumping, it just kept him alive... wait.....  At any rate, my greatest disappointment is that Kristy Swanson is much better suited to being cute and cuddly, not cold and bitchy. She does not pull it off well.
 

1/5

Television Review - 2 Broke Girls S01E01

 2 BROKE GIRLS
Season One, Episode One
"Pilot"
Directed by James Burrows
Starring Kat Dennings, Beth Behrs

2011, 30 mins, CBS

 

Re: When an ousted New York socialite is hired at a diner, the spoiled blond forms an unlikely friendship with the streetwise waitress that works there.
 

Outstanding: Kat Dennings has some pretty great deadpan humor.
 

Unacceptable: The setup for this TV show is horrible. The cute old black guy that mans the register at the diner should be hilarious, instead he's just mildly amusing. There's more blatant sexual humor than I'd expected.
 

Summary: I was kind of surprised. I should have disliked this show, but I actually laughed out loud a couple of times and I'm looking forward to the next episode. There's nothing I can pin down as excellent, but it's an amusing little sitcom. Why do they always title the first episode "Pilot"? I know it's because it's a pilot, produced to get the other episodes, but it seems like you'd be optimistic and give your first episode a legit title.
 

3/5

Book Review - Speak No Evil by Mignon G. Eberhart

 SPEAK NO EVIL

by Mignon G. Eberhart

1960, 256 pages, paperback

 

Re: Elizabeth Dakin's husband has just been murdered. He was a drunken, horrible man, so no one seems too terribly upset, but one of the seven people in the house must have done it. But who? And who is next?
 

Outstanding: I love Eberhart's turns of phrase. The characters here are very distinct and act like real people would. The tropical location adds a different element.
 

Unacceptable: The map on the back of the book, while totally awesome, doesn't seem to jive with the descriptions in the novel.

 

Summary: I've only read a few of Eberhart's books and while this wasn't my favorite, the story was pleasantly twisty and you genuinely feel sorry for the main character. A great little murder mystery with a satisfactory conclusion.
 

4/5

Television Review - Free Agents S01E02

 FREE AGENTS
Season One, EpisodeTwo
"What I Did For Work"
Directed by
Starring Hank Azaria, Anthony Stewart Head, Kathryn Hahn

2011, 30 mins, NBC

 

Re: A big client threatens to leave the agency Hank Azaria works for. So he takes the guy out on the town and tries to find him some ladylike company.
 

Outstanding: Hank Azaria somehow manages to be hilarious, just standing around. So does Anthony Stewart Head, as Azaria's shameless boss.
 

Unacceptable: Predictable, boring, obvious and silly.
 

Summary: I inadvertently watched this episode, thinking it was the premiere, but it didn't make a difference. It was still boring and pretty bad TV. I'll watch the (correct) pilot and maybe another episode, but only because I like Azaria a lot and because it takes place in Portland, Oregon.
 

2/5

Television Review - The New Girl S01E01

 THE NEW GIRL
Season One, Episode One
"Pilot"
Directed by Jake Kasdan
Starring Zooey Deschanel, Max Greenfield

2011, 30 mins, FOX

 

Re: A newly single girl in the city moves in with three young men. There, she sings her own theme song, watches Dirty Dancing and other quirky things people do on TV shows.
 

Outstanding: Zooey is so darn cute!
 

Unacceptable: The rules for the house's Douchebag Jar are completely arbitrary - that jar should be overflowing by now.
 

Summary: I watched this show, and I'll probably watch the next episode, but not because I laughed once or found any of the supporting characters appealing, it's just that, even when she's doing stupid, silly, unrealistic things, I can't resist Zooey's charm.
 

1/5

Film Review - The Wild Hunt

 THE WILD HUNT
Directed by Alexandre Franchi
Starring Ricky Mabe, Mark Antony Krupa, Kaniehtiio Horn

2009, 96 mins, [R]

 

Re: An intense session of LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) gets out of control when a man breaks the veil of fantasy in an attempt to win back his girlfriend.
 

Outstanding: Some very strong performances here. Great sets and physical effects. Despite the dark tone of the film, there are some moments of humor. I love the poster.
 

Unacceptable: Some actors were a little questionable, but thanks to the blurring of reality and LARP life, that never impacted the emotion of the movie. Some reviewers claim that the world of LARPing is inaccurately portrayed. The music could be overbearing at times. I have no idea how Erik managed to speak in his angry viking voice the entire movie without losing his voice.
 

Summary: This was a very bleak film. I figured it would go down the path it took, but I was surprised at how cohesive the entire movie felt as a whole. There are some excellent performances, especially from the two brothers and the referee, who deserves more praise for her part. This is not a pleasant movie - it's almost Coen Brothers-esque and you wont leave it with a good feeling, but it is worth watching. An interesting take on the potential violence within us.
 

4/5

Notes: Available to watch on Netflix here. 

Film Review - Clawed: The Legend Of Sasquatch

CLAWED: THE LEGEND OF SASQUATCH
Directed by Karl Kozak
Starring Dylan Purcell, Brandon Henshel, Jack Conley

2005, 85 mins, [R]

 

Re: Sasquatch is killing people in the woods, so a few drunk hunters and stereotyped high school kids decide to dink around in the woods for an hour of my life.
 

Outstanding: The Bigfoot costume was pretty decent for a B-Movie.
 

Unacceptable: The music was overbearing, the acting wooden, the story non-existent and even worse, the whole shambling mess was as boring as watching plaster dry in a footprint casting.
 

Summary: It's a bad sign when the most charismatic actor in a movie is the "blond bimbo" whose only purpose is to take her clothes off and act as a plot exposition device. Which would have been fine, if the Sasquatch had been cooler or acted less randomly. And really? The native american deputy was named John Eagleheart? Was the name Indian Plentywampum already taken?
 

1/5

Film Review - Water For Elephants

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

Directed by - Francis Lawrence
Starring - Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, Christoph Waltz

2011, 120 mins, [PG-13]

 

Re: An old man tells the story of his life in the circus. How he got there, the woman he loved and an elephant named Rosie.
 

Outstanding: A pretty, well-shot, old fashioned drama. It has some great actors, especially many of the supporting roles in the circus and the star of the show, despite the billing is the elephant, Tai, who is both beautiful and elegant.
 

Unacceptable: Though they did a decent job of portraying a PG-13 version of depression era life in a circus, the film loses a lot of the impact that the book has. There are a few scenes at the end that suffer from the CG insertion of random animals, Jumanji-style.
 

Summary: I really enjoyed this movie. I was hesitant to watch it because both of the leads are very underwhelming for me, but my love of circuses, that era and Christoph Waltz won out and I'm glad it did. It's not a classic, but definitely worth watching.
 

4/5

Book Review - The Judas Goat by Robert B Parker

 THE JUDAS GOAT

by Robert B. Parker

1992, 208 pages, paperback

 

Re: Spenser and Hawk head to London to track down a team of merry extremists that are blowing up pieces of the town and Spenser's clients.
 

Outstanding: It's pretty groovy to see Spenser out of his comfort zone... a little bit. Hawk, as always is fabulous.
 

Unacceptable: This novel never really grabbed me like so many of the other Spenser novels. I think a lot of it comes from the bomber aspect, but I could never really put my finger on it.
 

Summary: All of Parker's novels are solid reads and I liked parts of this quite well, but the best part was diving into the next book in the series.
 

3/5

Audio Book Review - The Dark Tourist by Dom Joly

 THE DARK TOURIST
Sightseeing In The World's Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations

by Dom Joly
read by Dom Joly

2011, 7hrs, 55mins, Unabridged

 

Re: Dom Joly, a comedian in the UK travels to a few offbeat places to experience the thrill and dark humor of places like Lebanon (where Joly was born) and Iran (where he goes to ski)
 

Outstanding: Joly has a unique take on the world, some of the destinations both touching and disturbing to visit. His travels are even more interesting when he joins up with other "Dark Tourists" and tries to discover why they do what they do.
 

Unacceptable: Joly is a bit full of himself and his celebrity and while his destinations are certainly dark, they never really drummed up much interest while he was discussing them.
 

Summary: Read with dry humor by Joly himself, The Dark Tourist was a bit boring at times but overall a good way to spend a week driving to and from work. 
 

4/5

Book Review - Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson and Marshall Karp

KILL ME IF YOU CAN

by James Patterson & Marshall Karp

2011, 384 pages, Hardback

 

Re: Matt Bannon just found a far better way to make money than his fledgling art career - a black bag full of diamonds. That is, if he can find some way to unload them, avoid the international conglomerate and hired killers after him and manage to keep his beautiful girlfriend happy.
 

Outstanding: Frantic, globe trotting fun. Like most Patterson novels, full of action and a quick read and like Karp's novels, stuffed with humor and unique characters. Jett the dog has a cameo!
 

Unacceptable: Though this was a normally sized novel, it felt incredibly short. I read it in a few hours. I'm not sure why every woman in Patterson's novels are six feet tall and beautiful... or nuns...
 

Summary: I was really looking forward to this book, being a fan of both authors, the first time with one of Patterson's co-authored books, it was interesting to try and guess what parts came from which twisted mind. The story was enjoyable with a speedy pace, some great action scenes and more humor than the typical Patterson. (Thanks for that, Marshall!) Recommended! 
 

5/5