Muse's Whim

Since it was a holiday weekend, I was able to catch up on two of my bucket list movies. I've already posted my review of the new Star Trek movie. I tried going to see Gatsby on Monday afternoon at my local movie theatre. Unfortunately, the strangest thing happened. The theatre lost power for several hours just minutes into the movie, and the staff told us we could take passes and come back to see our movies on another day. So I had to go back and see the movie today. At least this time around I was the first in the theatre and got the best seat. :) Some might find it shocking, but it's been years since I've read the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I've never seen the older movie with Robert Redford. I did love the book, though, and remember the main points of the plot. However, because it's been so long, I'm not in a position to say how accurate to the book the new film is, and because I haven't seen the older movie as I said, I'm not able to compare i...

Luckily I was able to see this bucket list movie only one week after it's release, and I'm glad I didn't wait much longer because it was well worth my time. :) I've pretty much told everyone I know that I have never been much of a trekkie. I know the general story behind the series and have seen several episodes in the original and Next Generation iterations; I think I've even seen the first movie with the original cast. That being said, I went into the first movie of this franchise with an open mind and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. I thought the first movie had tons of great action, great effects, and stellar acting. I thought the main characters were extremely well-cast. Considering how highly I regarded the first movie, you can imagine I had high hopes for its sequel. When I found out that Benedict Cumberbatch was coming on to play the villain in this movie, I was really excited. I'm a big fan of his work on Sherlock and knew he would ...

I was given this book by the author for review. It is a collection of stories the author compiled while traveling on airplanes. The stories are true to the author's knowledge, though names and some situations have been changed to protect people's identity. When I was preparing to read this book, I read the back of the jacket cover and the note from the author/preface to the text. I was impressed with Kelly's writing ability. She writes with a flow and style that is easy to read and understand but that also conveys her intelligence. The jacket cover back got me excited to read the stories too by promising a "tumultuous, distinctive memoir" where "every chapter will capture the mind and sometimes the heart of anyone who jumps into this collection of humanity at its best." That's quite a lead in. After reading the book, I have to say that I feel that it was a bit of a let down. Don't get me wrong, I think that the stories were well told, and I e...

I've recently started reading this book. The title makes it sound a little cheesy, but I think that any truth you can get from any source that will help you accomplish something is valid. I saw the book The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel at the library one day when I was browsing for a free movie to pick up. I actually decided to check it out because the subtitle read "From completing the first draft to landing a book contract - all you need to fulfill your dreams" and it was written by authors Joyce and Jim Lavene who have published over forty books - I thought, "Maybe this book can teach me a few things that I don't know." I've read lots of other books about writing through the course of my education and also as just reading for pleasure - from Bird by Bird , The Artist's Way , The Graceful Lie , and Self-editing for Fiction Writers to How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card and On Writing by Stephen King. The great ...

*This is a review of the movie which was on a separate page, but I decided to get rid of my pages and add the content to my posts list.* I went to see The Hunger Games movie a couple weekends ago, and my overall impression was a good one. I think the filmmakers did an excellent job casting, especially for Katniss. I think that some of the choices of Woody Harrelson were different, but that as a whole, his performance as Haymitch was great. Lenny Kravitz's performance as Cinna was at times a little incongruous, but if I give him a little slack for not being an actual actor, I find that I'm okay with it; he certainly looked the part perfectly. Elizabeth Banks also looked the part of Effie Trinket perfectly, and I think that her choices for the attitude and affectations of a Capitol citizen were spot on. Some of the scenes they added that weren't in the book were a point of contention for some viewers. I understand, however, that they were necessary. Because the filmmakers...

I recently finished Inheritance , the last book in the Inheritance cycle which began with Eragon . I was truly excited to read the final chapters of Eragon and Saphira's journey and to find out how they would defeat Galbatorix (because I had no doubt from the previous stories' lead up that they would  destroy him). I believe that the book was very well-written and showed much growth on Christopher Paolini's part. Many critics have not reviewed his previous works well, especially Eragon , because they believe his writing is too immature. I think that if the reader takes into consideration that Paolini was only 17 when he wrote Eragon , they will cut him some slack about the maturity of the writing and see the story for what it is, an inspired work of great talent by a very young writer. The works are very long, Inheritance  is no exception, because I believe Paolini doesn't edit enough content. There are some parts of all the books that I feel could have been cut to ...

Anyone who is following my Bucket List will notice that I still have not reviewed GI Joe: Retaliation. When I added this title to my list, I was actually really excited to see it because I did enjoy the first movie (especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance). I thought that this installment of the franchise would be even bigger and more action-packed with the addition of actors Bruce Willis and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Unfortunately due to lack of funds, my movie going has been coming later and later from the release dates, and when May 3 rolled around, I only had enough money to watch one movie. I decided to go see Iron Man 3. This does not mean that I will never see GI Joe 2; it just may take me a while. Luckily one of my favorite theatres - The Rave in Columbus - keeps movies in rotation for quite a while, so I may have an opportunity to see it in the next few weeks (although if you look at the Bucket List, there is a movie on it for every weekend in May and almo...