Belated California reviews
Jan. 30th, 2008 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearA week on holiday has resulted in two things - nine reviews to write, and a huge backlog at work that leaves me little time to write them! Still, in order to keep them in January, here goes:
And that's your lot for now! I also have two Bear updates to do from last week, but they will have to wait for another time, I'm afraid.
Hairspray - I watched this on the flight out - mildly enjoyable, though it spent far too long on the mediocre musical numbers and not enough on plot and character development. Still, Christopher Walken and John Travolta were pretty good as the girl's parents, and it had some cute moments.
Divine Evil - on receiving this book fromsiroswold for Christmas, I said, "I'm not sure why you've bought me a shlocky psychological thriller avec trashy romance, but I heartily approve!" He said he'd been reading my recent reviews and decided I needed a change. The book turned out to be about *EVIL CULTISTS* and was absolutely hilarious from start to finish, not least because it took itself so seriously. The plot was ridiculous, and the narrative was so laden with cliches, they even overlapped at times. The evil mastermind behind it all turned out to be the frumpy mayor's wife, who would most definitely be played by Imelda Staunton in the movie version. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a good laugh.
The Long Way Home - Buffy in comic form turns out to be almost as good as Buffy in TV form. It goes without saying that the writing is excellent, since Joss is writing it, and the majority of the art is excellent too, though I think Xander is drawn rather more dashing than he should be. My only quibble is that it wasn't always completely clear what was going on, so I was a bit confused in places, but that could just be me.
Horseriding in California - Lindsay and I went up into the mountains for a two hour hack - and it snowed! Still, we both thoroughtly enjoyed ourselves and I was extremely impressed by the organisation. We had both spoken to Kathy, the stable manager, at length beforehand, describing our different levels of riding experience and the types of horses we'd like. She provided us with Snickers, a very steady but still responsive chestnut, who looked after Lindsay very well, and Dakota, a gorgeous bay of a slightly skittish nature, who was absolutely perfect for me. Kathy told me on no account to kick him or pull his mouth, so I spent the whole ride keeping my feet away from his sides and keeping the lightest of possible contacts. The slightest tough of my heels or squeeze of my fingers had him speeding up or slowing down exactly as I wished, and his canter was dreamy. Kathy took the lead, and gave Lindsay excellent tips on staying in the saddle during trot and canter. Having never cantered before, Lindsay did brilliantly on several long canter stretches - the Western style saddle helped, I expect, but Kathy orchestrated the whole thing amazingly well so that we both had a fantastic time.
The Foreigner - there was a CalTech theatre trip while I was in California, so I went along to see this very silly play. It was about a guy staying in a guest house in Georgia, pretending to speak no English so that nobody would talk to him. As was to be expected, he consequently learned a lot of things people didn't want him to know, thwarted a plan by comedy Ku Klux Klan members to invade the guest house, and ended up deciding to stay forever with his new-found family. Bizarre, incredibly silly, but largely well acted and amusing.
The Well of Lost Plots - next in the Jasper Fforde series, just as good as the last one.
Juno - I've spoken to several people about Juno, most of whom have responded, "Ew! Why would you want to go and see that?" My reply has invariably been, "Because it's really good!" It's the story of a 16 year old who gets pregnant and decides to give the baby up for adoption. So far, so dreary? Far from it. It's extremely well written, with fantastic characters, very sharp dialogue, a lot of humour, and a very sweet plot. If you can get past the fact that two such intelligent kids would never have had unprotected sex in the first place, it's really, really good. Go see it.
Linkin Park - this isn't a California review, because Dave and I went last night, but hey. The gig was good - not great, but good. They did rather too much of their new stuff for my tastes, as I'm not keen on the latest album, but there were still enough of the good, old, shouty tunes to entertain. However, I only listen to Linkin Park in very specific circumstances - either when I'm driving alone after dark, or when I'm angry - neither of which applied last night, so I didn't really get into the music like I would normally. It was still a good night out, though.
Divine Evil - on receiving this book from
siroswold for Christmas, I said, "I'm not sure why you've bought me a shlocky psychological thriller avec trashy romance, but I heartily approve!" He said he'd been reading my recent reviews and decided I needed a change. The book turned out to be about *EVIL CULTISTS* and was absolutely hilarious from start to finish, not least because it took itself so seriously. The plot was ridiculous, and the narrative was so laden with cliches, they even overlapped at times. The evil mastermind behind it all turned out to be the frumpy mayor's wife, who would most definitely be played by Imelda Staunton in the movie version. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a good laugh.The Long Way Home - Buffy in comic form turns out to be almost as good as Buffy in TV form. It goes without saying that the writing is excellent, since Joss is writing it, and the majority of the art is excellent too, though I think Xander is drawn rather more dashing than he should be. My only quibble is that it wasn't always completely clear what was going on, so I was a bit confused in places, but that could just be me.
Horseriding in California - Lindsay and I went up into the mountains for a two hour hack - and it snowed! Still, we both thoroughtly enjoyed ourselves and I was extremely impressed by the organisation. We had both spoken to Kathy, the stable manager, at length beforehand, describing our different levels of riding experience and the types of horses we'd like. She provided us with Snickers, a very steady but still responsive chestnut, who looked after Lindsay very well, and Dakota, a gorgeous bay of a slightly skittish nature, who was absolutely perfect for me. Kathy told me on no account to kick him or pull his mouth, so I spent the whole ride keeping my feet away from his sides and keeping the lightest of possible contacts. The slightest tough of my heels or squeeze of my fingers had him speeding up or slowing down exactly as I wished, and his canter was dreamy. Kathy took the lead, and gave Lindsay excellent tips on staying in the saddle during trot and canter. Having never cantered before, Lindsay did brilliantly on several long canter stretches - the Western style saddle helped, I expect, but Kathy orchestrated the whole thing amazingly well so that we both had a fantastic time.
The Foreigner - there was a CalTech theatre trip while I was in California, so I went along to see this very silly play. It was about a guy staying in a guest house in Georgia, pretending to speak no English so that nobody would talk to him. As was to be expected, he consequently learned a lot of things people didn't want him to know, thwarted a plan by comedy Ku Klux Klan members to invade the guest house, and ended up deciding to stay forever with his new-found family. Bizarre, incredibly silly, but largely well acted and amusing.
The Well of Lost Plots - next in the Jasper Fforde series, just as good as the last one.
Juno - I've spoken to several people about Juno, most of whom have responded, "Ew! Why would you want to go and see that?" My reply has invariably been, "Because it's really good!" It's the story of a 16 year old who gets pregnant and decides to give the baby up for adoption. So far, so dreary? Far from it. It's extremely well written, with fantastic characters, very sharp dialogue, a lot of humour, and a very sweet plot. If you can get past the fact that two such intelligent kids would never have had unprotected sex in the first place, it's really, really good. Go see it.
Linkin Park - this isn't a California review, because Dave and I went last night, but hey. The gig was good - not great, but good. They did rather too much of their new stuff for my tastes, as I'm not keen on the latest album, but there were still enough of the good, old, shouty tunes to entertain. However, I only listen to Linkin Park in very specific circumstances - either when I'm driving alone after dark, or when I'm angry - neither of which applied last night, so I didn't really get into the music like I would normally. It was still a good night out, though.
And that's your lot for now! I also have two Bear updates to do from last week, but they will have to wait for another time, I'm afraid.
