Movie Review: Super 8

7 / 7 / 11

In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth – something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined. -courtesy IMDB

I have never seen the Alien movies in the early 90s or late 80s. I probably just showed my age, but those are classic alien movies and for the most part the measuring stick for scary alien movies. While you don’t get to see the alien until the end of the movie the mystery of the alien and its origins is what makes the movie somewhat interesting. The real story of the movie is not about the alien, which looks like J.J. Abrams stole the costume from the Alien movies and try to add a more sensitive side to them instead of just scary, but in the story of the friends and family. The movie mainly revolves around Joe and his father the Deputy. At the beginning of the movie Joe’s mom died because of a tragic accident at the plant and at the funeral Joe’s dad blames Louis Dainard for his wife’s death. As the story enfolds Joe befriends Louis Dainard’s daughter Alice and uncovers the reasons for the accident at the plant. Super 8 is mainly a movie about friendship, family, and the ties that bind. Joe’s speech to the alien toward the end of the movie resonates true to life and it is eventually the reason that the alien decides to leave.

If you’re going to see this film make sure that you stay to the end because Charles’s film shows through the credits.

Book Review: Under a Maui Moon

7 / 6 / 11

I had to do a quick island hop the other weekend for work and family business and decided that instead of taking the usual book I was reading which I still fully intending on finishing, I would grab a new book out of my stack. I intended on packing more than one book, but I was rushing to pack and ended up only packing one. I read Robin Jones Gunn’s Under a Maui Moon in less than a day. I’ve mentioned Robin Jones Gunn on this blog before being that she is the author of the Sisterchicks series.

This book was not a Sisterchicks novel, but a complete new adventure to Hawaii. The main character Carissa at the beginning of the novel is going through a complete upheaval in her life with losing her job to restructuring in the company, to being an empty nester, to noticing that after particular scary incident at her own home that she no longer feels that her husband protects her. When Carissa is offered a chance to go to Hawaii, she immediately leaps at it not knowing what will happen next.

I will continue to love Robin Jones Gunn’s imagery style of writing which brings even the slightest details to life. While she isn’t overly eloquent in her words, her wording of the imagery takes you right into the story and lets you almost experience what the character is experiencing through their senses. (I really should work on the Star Trek technology). I recommend that you read any of Robin Jones Gunn’s book so that you will be able to have the same experience for yourself as least in a book for now.

What are you reading lately?

Book Review: Elixir

6 / 2 / 11

Elixir is the first novel written by pop singer and TV/movie star Hilary Duff. I’m sad to say that I feel as if the book was poorly written and was not worth the price I paid for it. I was initially drawn to the book because of the dramatic cover and that the fact that it was written by Hilary Duff. I wanted to know if Ms Duff could write a novel, since in Hollywood adding the word author to your resume is now the hot thing to do.

I’m sad to say that this story did not deliver. The novel at times seems slow moving with too much excessive description of the scenery and other details which did not help the twisting plot line often times jumping between the 2 main characters. The ending of the novel left me hanging and thinking that perhaps Ms Duff had intentionally left it open, so that she would have the possibility open to writing a continuation novel for the book. What her thoughts were I can’t be sure.

Elixir is the story of seventeen year old Clea Raymond, a girl from a society background who has been haunted by her father’s disappearance for several years. After a crazy event in Paris Clea begins to notice that many photographs of her also show shadow images of a man, Sage. Clea’s work as a photojournalist and a series of other events bring her and Sage face to face in Rio and Clea finds that his past has been intertwined with her through many lifetimes. In the quest to free himself of the impossible fate that would become them, Sage and Clea travel to meet the Dark Lady, Magda, and find out how to deal with the the fate that has be fallen them.

Book Review: Sisterchicks go Brit!

5 / 19 / 11

I just finished SisterChicks Go Brit! By Robin Jones Gunn. This is part of her SisterChicks series, but I had not read a book in the series in a long time. I forgot how much I loved the series and Robin Jones Gunn’s writing!

The SisterChicks series are stories about best friends who share the deepest wonders of your heart, love you like a sister and provide a reality check when you’re being a brat. I feel in love with the story of Kellie and Liz and their adventure in England. Kellie and Liz longtime friends find themselves on a trip to England after helping out Opal redecorate her apartment. Little do they know that their little trip across the ocean to see Big Ben, C.S. Lewis sites, and J.R.R. Tolkein sites that they would find out about themselves and just a glimpse into God’s plans for them.

I’m not really a religious person by any means. I did find that in reading the book that I want to visit England even more know. Robin Jones Gunn style of writing in this series makes each and every place come to life, so you can almost always find a destination that you will want to travel to, even if it is only in your imagination.

I recommend that you pick a destination and begin your travels!

Movie Review: Alice

5 / 12 / 11

I had heard about Syfy doing their take on Alice in Wonderland around the same time that Tim Burton did his take on Alice and Wonderland. I finally had an opportunity to buy and watch Syfy’s Alice. I apologize that this is a movie review instead of a book review, but I thought that you would like to know about this movie in case you had not heard about it.

The movie is Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass completely re-imagined in the present day/future world. Wonderland is now a city of twisted towers and casinos ruled by the Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates). The White Rabbit, much like the CIA is an organization that works for the Queen of Hearts that abducts people from the real world,oysters, and brings them to Wonderland to gamble at the Queen’s Casino. Once the people are kidnapped they are then sedated and forced to give off only positive emotions while gambling at the casino. These emotions are then harvested into drugs, so that the people of Wonderland can get high.

Alice Hamilton is a girl in her twenties, has been searching for her father who disappeared when she was 10. After her current boyfriend, Jack Chase, attempts to give her a ring and feeling that she it is too soon she tells him that she needs time to think. A little later, she discovers that Jack has slipped her the ring. In hopes, of returning it Alice rushes outside to find Jack only to find herself following a member of the White Rabbit Organization through the looking glass into Wonderland. While in Wonderland Alice meets Hatter, the owner of a Tea Shop and also befriends Charlie, a white knight both of whom intend to free her, her father, and the people of Wonderland from the grip of the Queen of Hearts. I won’t tell you how the movie ends, but as you may know from Disney or Tim Burton the Queen of Hearts is defeated and all is right with the world , or at least most of it.

I loved the movie. The movie is relatable to real life, but at the same time being fanciful enough that we can run away from the cares of the world if all for a brief moment. The acting is superb and done my mostly actors unknown to people in the United States. I recommend this film if you ever get a chance to watch it, do so.