Category: review

Music Monday/Movie Review – The Great Gatsby

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Happy Music Monday. Since I didn’t love the soundtrack, here’s my stab at a Jazz Age ditty to listen to while you read my non-review review.
 
 
Okay, here is my take on the Great Gatsby.
But wait. I must preamble first:

I was beyond excited about this movie, but after seeing the first trailer, my heart tanked, and for the next 9 months, I put on an excited act when really, I was already heart-brokenly disappointed. I loved the book so much…it is visual enough, so why would we need all the flashy extravagance this director is known for? Again, ugh. (Obviously, all of this is IMO, so no hate mail, loves.) So yeah, I made plans with my girls to see it opening night, but not thrilled in the least. I love looking at Leo, so worst case scenario, I get to stare at him for 2.5 hours. Not too tragic. 

 But I digress…

Long story short–because I’m already bored with this non-review–I loved it. Almost like the book, it had me hook from the first page. Tobey was fine, a bit too tiny and pale for my personal vision of Nick Carroway, but I grew used to him quickly. Obviously, I was waiting for Leo. Not since The Third Man, had I looked so forward to a character making an appearance. And when Gatsby finally hit the screen, I was stunned. 

This is the point in the film when I actually whooped. I couldn’t help it! Sorry, other patrons of the 8:30 show at Tinseltown. I was at a Backstreet Boys concert, evidently
The over-the-top-visual scenes were fewer than expected and didn’t bother me as much as they could have. I know, I know, the Jazz Age was rather over-the-top, but you know what I mean. I didn’t care for the soundtrack either, and hoped there would be some updated Gershwin in there. But again, what did I expect knowing the director?

Visually, it was stunning. The colors and costumes and hair dos were wonderful. The special effects were lost on me, so I won’t go into how cool the (cartoon) house looked. I’d heard a few reviews saying the two leads had no chemistry. I must disagree. I think I would sell my own sweet granny to be pressed against that oak tree with Leo. So yeah, the acting was stellar.

ENDING SPOILER (if you haven’t read the novel, shame on you):
When Gatsby was sinking to the bottom of the pool, lifeless, my girl friend and I turned to each other. She muttered, “Titanic,” and I muttered, “Jack, I’ll never let go.” Also at the end, we see another flash of Gatsby, all pressed suit and gorgeous, also a bit too Titanic-y, like when we see Jack at the top of the stairs, all non-dead.

Anyway, blah-blah-blah, I was wrong, Leo. Your movie was greatness, and I know it took me a decade to forgive you for Romeo+Juliet, I hope it doesn’t take you a decade to forgive me. ❤ 

Music Monday/Movie Review – The Great Gatsby

2 Comments
Happy Music Monday. Since I didn’t love the soundtrack, here’s my stab at a Jazz Age ditty to listen to while you read my non-review review.
 
 
Okay, here is my take on the Great Gatsby.
But wait. I must preamble first:

I was beyond excited about this movie, but after seeing the first trailer, my heart tanked, and for the next 9 months, I put on an excited act when really, I was already heart-brokenly disappointed. I loved the book so much…it is visual enough, so why would we need all the flashy extravagance this director is known for? Again, ugh. (Obviously, all of this is IMO, so no hate mail, loves.) So yeah, I made plans with my girls to see it opening night, but not thrilled in the least. I love looking at Leo, so worst case scenario, I get to stare at him for 2.5 hours. Not too tragic. 

 But I digress…

Long story short–because I’m already bored with this non-review–I loved it. Almost like the book, it had me hook from the first page. Tobey was fine, a bit too tiny and pale for my personal vision of Nick Carroway, but I grew used to him quickly. Obviously, I was waiting for Leo. Not since The Third Man, had I looked so forward to a character making an appearance. And when Gatsby finally hit the screen, I was stunned. 

This is the point in the film when I actually whooped. I couldn’t help it! Sorry, other patrons of the 8:30 show at Tinseltown. I was at a Backstreet Boys concert, evidently
The over-the-top-visual scenes were fewer than expected and didn’t bother me as much as they could have. I know, I know, the Jazz Age was rather over-the-top, but you know what I mean. I didn’t care for the soundtrack either, and hoped there would be some updated Gershwin in there. But again, what did I expect knowing the director?

Visually, it was stunning. The colors and costumes and hair dos were wonderful. The special effects were lost on me, so I won’t go into how cool the (cartoon) house looked. I’d heard a few reviews saying the two leads had no chemistry. I must disagree. I think I would sell my own sweet granny to be pressed against that oak tree with Leo. So yeah, the acting was stellar.

ENDING SPOILER (if you haven’t read the novel, shame on you):
When Gatsby was sinking to the bottom of the pool, lifeless, my girl friend and I turned to each other. She muttered, “Titanic,” and I muttered, “Jack, I’ll never let go.” Also at the end, we see another flash of Gatsby, all pressed suit and gorgeous, also a bit too Titanic-y, like when we see Jack at the top of the stairs, all non-dead.

Anyway, blah-blah-blah, I was wrong, Leo. Your movie was greatness, and I know it took me a decade to forgive you for Romeo+Juliet, I hope it doesn’t take you a decade to forgive me. ❤ 

Greatness

2 Comments

Read the novel for the first time last year. Review(ish) here. Seeing the new movie tonight. Review to come.

I am seriously in love with this story and already know the film will be a disappointment, just because my expectations are sky-high. I’ve tried to shy away from hearing reviews, but walking around in pubic, some have seeped in. So far, the reviews haven’t been stellar, but I’m hopeful. At the very least, I get to stare at Leo for two and a half hours without feeling like an oogy stalker. So how bad is that, right?

Greatness

2 Comments

Read the novel for the first time last year. Review(ish) here. Seeing the new movie tonight. Review to come.

I am seriously in love with this story and already know the film will be a disappointment, just because my expectations are sky-high. I’ve tried to shy away from hearing reviews, but walking around in pubic, some have seeped in. So far, the reviews haven’t been stellar, but I’m hopeful. At the very least, I get to stare at Leo for two and a half hours without feeling like an oogy stalker. So how bad is that, right?

Review: "I Think I Love You" by Allison Pearson

4 Comments
DISCLAIMER: I do not do book reviews. (Clicky HERE to see why.)
But the book I just finished is so special, that instead of pulling everyone in the world aside to rave about it, I thought I would try my hand at a review. (Heaven help us all.)

“I Think I Love You” by Allison Pearson

Publisher: Knopf (February 8, 2011)

Pages: 336

Format: Audiobook
This is a story told from two points of view–which I sometimes find annoying. 
The story opens in 1974 with Petra, a thirteen-year-old girl from Wales. . .who is OBSESSED with David Cassidy. Her favorite thing to do–besides play her cello in secret–is lay around her best friend Sharon’s bedroom and read “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. The best part of this mag is the personal letter written directly to the fans from David himself.  Petra and Sharon feel like they actual know David….deep down. They know he loves horses and his favorite color is brown and his favorite food is. . . .

The parallel story is twenty-two-year-old Bill, who has just landed his first real journalist job in London, writing for (embarrassingly enough!) “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. Bill has never met David, never listened to his music, never seen The Partridge Family. Yet Bill is put in charge of writing those “personal” letters from David. After eighteen months of this, Bill sometimes feels like he IS David Cassidy. Bill’s favorite color is brown. Bill’s favorite food is. . . .
Fast forward twenty-five years. The inevitable colliding of these two (or is it three?) people is delightfully nail-biting. And the end result was satisfying beyond words.

That’s all I’m going to tell you about the plot. Because I’m not about to spoil the surprises.

Here is what I LOVED about this book:
David Cassidy was a generation before my time. In fact, I’d never heard of him until I was in college. (Thank you, VH1 and your “I Love the 70’s” series!) However, the brilliance of this story is how I was able to simply replace the name David Cassidy with say, Michael Jackson and later, Jordan Knights, and I was right there with Petra. The crying, the longing, the loving, the music, the believing-every-word-in-the-mags, the kissing-his-poster-to-bed-every-night. I did all of that, as I’m sure millions of other teenaged girls did. The emotions were so real and so fun and so heartbreaking. 
I knew this girl, because I WAS this girl.
He is dreamy, rather.
Beside all of this, the writing is beautiful and clean and descriptive. And I would highly recommend the audio version because the narrator (Sain Thomas) totally kills the lilting Welsh accent (as well as British, German and American). She doesn’t, however, do any of the singing, leading me to find so many David Cassidy treasures on youtube. . .which has been great fun, since the only song I knew before this book was its namesake. 
Four out of five stars. (It would’ve been five had it been about the Backstreet Boys.)

Who was your teenage crush? I told you mine. . . . .

Review: "I Think I Love You" by Allison Pearson

4 Comments
DISCLAIMER: I do not do book reviews. (Clicky HERE to see why.)
But the book I just finished is so special, that instead of pulling everyone in the world aside to rave about it, I thought I would try my hand at a review. (Heaven help us all.)

“I Think I Love You” by Allison Pearson

Publisher: Knopf (February 8, 2011)

Pages: 336

Format: Audiobook
This is a story told from two points of view–which I sometimes find annoying. 
The story opens in 1974 with Petra, a thirteen-year-old girl from Wales. . .who is OBSESSED with David Cassidy. Her favorite thing to do–besides play her cello in secret–is lay around her best friend Sharon’s bedroom and read “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. The best part of this mag is the personal letter written directly to the fans from David himself.  Petra and Sharon feel like they actual know David….deep down. They know he loves horses and his favorite color is brown and his favorite food is. . . .

The parallel story is twenty-two-year-old Bill, who has just landed his first real journalist job in London, writing for (embarrassingly enough!) “The Ultimate David Cassidy” magazine. Bill has never met David, never listened to his music, never seen The Partridge Family. Yet Bill is put in charge of writing those “personal” letters from David. After eighteen months of this, Bill sometimes feels like he IS David Cassidy. Bill’s favorite color is brown. Bill’s favorite food is. . . .
Fast forward twenty-five years. The inevitable colliding of these two (or is it three?) people is delightfully nail-biting. And the end result was satisfying beyond words.

That’s all I’m going to tell you about the plot. Because I’m not about to spoil the surprises.

Here is what I LOVED about this book:
David Cassidy was a generation before my time. In fact, I’d never heard of him until I was in college. (Thank you, VH1 and your “I Love the 70’s” series!) However, the brilliance of this story is how I was able to simply replace the name David Cassidy with say, Michael Jackson and later, Jordan Knights, and I was right there with Petra. The crying, the longing, the loving, the music, the believing-every-word-in-the-mags, the kissing-his-poster-to-bed-every-night. I did all of that, as I’m sure millions of other teenaged girls did. The emotions were so real and so fun and so heartbreaking. 
I knew this girl, because I WAS this girl.
He is dreamy, rather.
Beside all of this, the writing is beautiful and clean and descriptive. And I would highly recommend the audio version because the narrator (Sain Thomas) totally kills the lilting Welsh accent (as well as British, German and American). She doesn’t, however, do any of the singing, leading me to find so many David Cassidy treasures on youtube. . .which has been great fun, since the only song I knew before this book was its namesake. 
Four out of five stars. (It would’ve been five had it been about the Backstreet Boys.)

Who was your teenage crush? I told you mine. . . . .

Why I can never be a book reviewer

8 Comments
I love reading. I LOOOOVE writing. So then…why do I suck at writing about reading?

Case in point: The other day, I was organizing my GoodReads virtual bookshelves, while also, curiously, reading a few of my “reviews” from books I read a while back.

After laughing/cringing at my obvious incompetence, I thought I’d share some of my more random, half-hearted reviews.
Enjoy. At my expense.
(Book titles have been removed. For your protection and mine.)
(via: blueleah)
This was cute, but the guy needed to be hotter sooner. I was too confused and scared. But in the end it was cute.
The only reason I didn’t give this one star is because I don’t want to go to hell. Seriously though, I was bored to tears.
Predictable and not enough love. Her other books are better. I did manage to learn a thing or two about greyhounds and building a staircase in the Cotswolds, however.
Clever writing, lots of kissing, no sex.  Safe for your mom!  
Meh.

Pretty cute. I liked the beginning and end the best. The middle was a bit annoying. The chick was just so stupid.

I liked thinking about this afterwards more than actually reading it. Still worth the 4 stars. Easy read.

SPOILER: 
Is this a story about a fat girl who hates herself? 
or about a girl getting dumbed? 
or a girl with Daddy issues? 
or a girl who gets knocked up? 
MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!
Disc 2 got stuck in my cd player. I took that as a sign to stop. Bored anyway.
Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME??? One star was generous! Why put me through all that? And for what? I’m still so annoyed!!!!

Yes!–5 Stars. A perfect book. Exceptional, stunning writing, emotional. I laughed, I sobbed, I wanted to be friends with these boys.

Couldn’t finish this one. Too much weird circus freak naked. And not enough story. Buh-bye.

Interesting concept. But ended up kind of lame.
Whatever. I liked it.
Very cute. However, reminds me SO MUCH of MY book that I’m trying to get published (theme-wise, that is). Weird….
I’ve had better.
Big, stupid cow! Couldn’t relate to her. She was a big, stupid cow!  (My earlier review of same book at the halfway point:  You big, stupid COW! Men aren’t mind-readers, you big, stupid COW!!)
Cute. Some bits were a tad slow because of all the fabric and alpaca talk, but the guy was bossy and hot. I like that in a man. 🙂
Not great but didn’t hate.
This was a 2.5 rating. Could have been higher if the girl wasn’t so annoying and there wasn’t so much “dry rot” talk.
I really loved this. I wasn’t sure where the story was going at first, and I didn’t trust any of the weirdo characters. But then….I fell in love with these weirdos. Great message, nothing disturbing or shocking. To me, it’s kind of a cross between “Fight Club” and “Pay It Forward.” I know….
Bored. Weird.
Creepy good time. Wonder if the movie is any good
Er. I can’t believe she wasted her time on THIS instead of giving us Midnight Sun! This added nothing to Eclipse, but only managed to further tick me off as Stuffy again chose to break her own rules. Blah!
Cool, creepy story. Kind of a combo of “Rebecca,” “Jane Eyre,” and “Wuthering Heights.”
I feel like a failure since I can’t finish this. But…I JUST DON’T CARE! Maybe I’ll rent the movie…

Why I can never be a book reviewer

8 Comments
I love reading. I LOOOOVE writing. So then…why do I suck at writing about reading?

Case in point: The other day, I was organizing my GoodReads virtual bookshelves, while also, curiously, reading a few of my “reviews” from books I read a while back.

After laughing/cringing at my obvious incompetence, I thought I’d share some of my more random, half-hearted reviews.
Enjoy. At my expense.
(Book titles have been removed. For your protection and mine.)
(via: blueleah)
This was cute, but the guy needed to be hotter sooner. I was too confused and scared. But in the end it was cute.
The only reason I didn’t give this one star is because I don’t want to go to hell. Seriously though, I was bored to tears.
Predictable and not enough love. Her other books are better. I did manage to learn a thing or two about greyhounds and building a staircase in the Cotswolds, however.
Clever writing, lots of kissing, no sex.  Safe for your mom!  
Meh.

Pretty cute. I liked the beginning and end the best. The middle was a bit annoying. The chick was just so stupid.

I liked thinking about this afterwards more than actually reading it. Still worth the 4 stars. Easy read.

SPOILER: 
Is this a story about a fat girl who hates herself? 
or about a girl getting dumbed? 
or a girl with Daddy issues? 
or a girl who gets knocked up? 
MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!
Disc 2 got stuck in my cd player. I took that as a sign to stop. Bored anyway.
Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME??? One star was generous! Why put me through all that? And for what? I’m still so annoyed!!!!

Yes!–5 Stars. A perfect book. Exceptional, stunning writing, emotional. I laughed, I sobbed, I wanted to be friends with these boys.

Couldn’t finish this one. Too much weird circus freak naked. And not enough story. Buh-bye.

Interesting concept. But ended up kind of lame.
Whatever. I liked it.
Very cute. However, reminds me SO MUCH of MY book that I’m trying to get published (theme-wise, that is). Weird….
I’ve had better.
Big, stupid cow! Couldn’t relate to her. She was a big, stupid cow!  (My earlier review of same book at the halfway point:  You big, stupid COW! Men aren’t mind-readers, you big, stupid COW!!)
Cute. Some bits were a tad slow because of all the fabric and alpaca talk, but the guy was bossy and hot. I like that in a man. 🙂
Not great but didn’t hate.
This was a 2.5 rating. Could have been higher if the girl wasn’t so annoying and there wasn’t so much “dry rot” talk.
I really loved this. I wasn’t sure where the story was going at first, and I didn’t trust any of the weirdo characters. But then….I fell in love with these weirdos. Great message, nothing disturbing or shocking. To me, it’s kind of a cross between “Fight Club” and “Pay It Forward.” I know….
Bored. Weird.
Creepy good time. Wonder if the movie is any good
Er. I can’t believe she wasted her time on THIS instead of giving us Midnight Sun! This added nothing to Eclipse, but only managed to further tick me off as Stuffy again chose to break her own rules. Blah!
Cool, creepy story. Kind of a combo of “Rebecca,” “Jane Eyre,” and “Wuthering Heights.”
I feel like a failure since I can’t finish this. But…I JUST DON’T CARE! Maybe I’ll rent the movie…