Books & Movies of the Month - July 2007

Transformers was pretty darn cool. I'd like to see it in HD.

I got advance tickets to see the new Harry Potter on Wednesday as well.

Out of curiosity... is there some kind of joke behind the whole recurring "chewing gum" thing that gets brought up several times that I just didn't understand?

 

Tarantinos "Jackie Brown" it was yesterday in the evening.
And I just started a new book: "Flesh and Machines. How Robots Will Change Us" by Rodney A. Brooks.

 

We saw "Evan Almighty". The critics weren't hat kind to it but I thought it was pretty funny. I thought it was better than "Bruce Almighty."

 

Ratta-too-ey was most excellent.
fun for all ages

 

I just saw Pan's Labryinth and I thought it was pretty dumb.

4/10

 

Just started reading "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince".. Thought I read all of them again before the last one gets here.. Good Reading !

 

If I had time, that's wat I'd do too

 

I have that and started to watch it the other night for the first time. I'll finish it up and let you know. It wine bottle scene woke me up quick.

 

I did that about 3 months ago. Glad I did. My daughter is now going to try and do the same thing. Tough reading for her though.

 

We saw Stephen King's 1408 on Sunday afternoon, it offers up one of the creepiest hours in recent memory.

I just started reading Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne in the Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader.

 

Alan Dean Foster's "Transformers: The Movie"

I'm trying to read this before I see the movie. I might not get to it though since Harry Potter has arrived in theaters and that has highest priority.

 

Just a curious question... why do people like reading the book before seeing the movie? It seems the book ruins the movie for those who have read it.

Everyone always says stuff like "Oh man, they left so much out that was in the book" or "the book was so much better than the movie" even when the movie is really good.

For instance, I haven't read the Harry Potter books, but I thoroughly enjoy the movies. My friends who also like Harry Potter have read the books, and don't care for movies because "of how much they left out!" where as my mind is clean when I see movies, so nothing is ruined for me.

If anything, it seems like a better idea to see the movie and THEN read the book. Where as the book can improve on the movie, but rarely vice versa.

 

I try and treat the two separately. The reason I read the book first if I can is a movie does not tell you what a character may be thinking or what their motivation was for a particular action. I use it to enhance the movie experience rather than a basis for critique. Sometimes the pace of a movie can be so fast that I will miss something but if I've read the book, it doesn't matter.

 

Saw the new Harry Potter tonight and it freakin ROCKED!

Best one yet.

 

It will be this weekend for me. My daughter is on pins and needles.

 

It really is an awesome movie. I'm considering going to see it again.

Heck, it's so good it's almost made me want to go read Half Blood Prince and then Deathly Hallows when it comes out just so I can know what happened. I'm not much of a casual reader though so I don't see myself doing this, but I almost did.

 

Harry Potter

Saw Harry Potter last weekend. Love the Gilroy Theaters. Can always seem to get a seat on first run movies. They were running two screens.

OK, I liked the movie for the most part for entertainment purposes. Not outstanding though. It was a little long but should have been longer. This is a case where there was way too much written material for the movie to handle properly. They skimmed over lots of important scenes and spent too much time on trivial matters. An example of trivial would be the rules posting scenes. We got the message the first 5 times. What really was missing was how tormented Harry was in the beginning. Ya, they showed how upset he was an all but not the shear agony and feelings of loss and abandonment he was going through. I think his could have been a two movie deal easily if done right.

 

Transformers

Finished up "Transformers: The Movie" by Alan Dean Foster. Nothing special but was a good read. I bet the movie would actually enhance the book on this one.

 

Flight of the Nighthawks: Book One of the Darkwar Saga

Starting "Flight of the Nighthawks: Book One of the Darkwar Saga" by Raymond E. Feist. Loved his other books related to the world and prior series.

Also, August issue of Country Cooks Illustrated came in last night. My wife already has like 8 recipes for me to make. This one was packed with good stuff.