I am definitely doing much better with the movie aspect of this goal than the books, but it's all right. I am still trying :)
I watched Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. I really liked it. It's about a lady (Julia Roberts) who is unhappy in her marriage and gets a divorce. She has a hard time with the divorce and decides to travel around the world to find out who she is and find balance in her life. (She travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia) It's based on a true story and there is a book with the same title written by the lady that the movie is based on. I liked this movie because there are some really good characters in it and I think we all go through times in our life of needing to find out who we are, but we all have different ways of doing it.
I also saw Contagion. I did not like this movie. The beginning was scary to me. And it didn't get much better after that. It's about a deadly disease that starts to show up all over the world. It moves quickly and kills fast. The Center for Disease Control strives to find a vaccination for it as it continues to spread. After much research they find out where the disease started.
I saw The Vow. I really liked it. It was a sad movie, but overall it was good. I liked that the husband fought for the wife even though he had to deal with his wife's family trying to keep her away from him and her memory loss.
I read the second book of the How to Train Your Dragon series, How to Be a Pirate. It was good. I really like these books. They are an easy read, but they are entertaining.
Showing posts with label the vow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the vow. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The Lucky One, The Braid, The Vow, This Means War, The Woodlanders
I'm still way ahead on movies over books! Yeah, lazy.
The Vow was the Valentine's Day date movie. I expected it to be more like a Nicholas Sparks movie, but somehow it lacked heart, somehow. And there were not a lot of men in the theater. That ought to have told me something. The plot is a guy falls in love with a girl who has left her wealthy upbringing behind and they're massively in love. They are in a car accident and she can't remember him, or anything about the new life she forged before meeting him. It's purportedly based on true events and even shows a picture of the couple at the end of the film. There are some good surprises, but the overall effect left me glad mostly about the jumbo popcorn we shared. (Note: I didn't pick the movie.)
The Woodlanders was a Netflix streaming movie I watched while folding an enormous mountain of kids' clothes. It starred Rufus Sewell, who has been a favorite actor of mine since I saw him in Uncorked about 12 years ago. The story, based on a Thomas Hardy novel, surrounds a girl who returns to her native woodlands after leaving to receive an education. Her father believes her education (and his wealth) now make her too good for the life she'd previously expected to have: to marry Rufus Sewell. Instead she is introduced to the local doctor. Things complicate, and regrets are incurred. It was a little sadder than Return of the Native and The Mayor of Casterbridge, two of my preferred Hardy stories. Meh. (But the cinematography was great!)
This Means War. Two spies who are work partners both accidentally fall for the same darling Reese Witherspoon girl. Who will ultimately win her heart? The dashing Brit separated from his wife (who saw her first), or the dashing American playboy? Ugh. It had a fun premise, yeah, but there were a LOT of jokes in it that crossed the line for me. Plus, you'd think there would be chemistry! Not so much. I wish I could rewind my life and give this one a miss.
The Lucky One. I read this Nicholas Sparks romance for Valentine's week. News flash! No one in the story dies of cancer! (I've only read a couple of Sparks' novels, but I kind of thought someone dies of cancer in every book. Not so!) It was a straightforward love story between a soldier come home from Iraq and a single mom in North Carolina whom he seeks out because he found a photo of her in a sand dune while he was serving. She has a son, and he has a faithful dog. There's a villainous, conniving ex-husband to contend with. The end scene is quite exciting. Overall, a good, fluffy read.
The Braid. Okay, I'm mad at everyone I know for not telling me about this excellent book before now. It's so wonderful! The author had an ancestor who immigrated from the islands of Scotland to the Canadian coast, and that is the topic of this YA story written all in verse. Yes, verse! It's poetry, but the story is so accessible! I love it! Two sisters learn they must leave their impoverished island. One will go with her family to Canada, the other sneaks off to stay behind. They braid their hair together into one braid, snip it and each takes half. They expect (with good reason) to never see one another again. The sisters' journeys are treacherous. Hunger and danger and death ensue. The topic of teen pregnancy is handled gently but with realism. It's a touching, ingenious book. I wish my mom were still teaching high school English. I know she could use this as a marvelous text. It's only about 90 pages, but the depth of the characters the author achieves is wondrous. I love this book.
The Vow was the Valentine's Day date movie. I expected it to be more like a Nicholas Sparks movie, but somehow it lacked heart, somehow. And there were not a lot of men in the theater. That ought to have told me something. The plot is a guy falls in love with a girl who has left her wealthy upbringing behind and they're massively in love. They are in a car accident and she can't remember him, or anything about the new life she forged before meeting him. It's purportedly based on true events and even shows a picture of the couple at the end of the film. There are some good surprises, but the overall effect left me glad mostly about the jumbo popcorn we shared. (Note: I didn't pick the movie.)
The Woodlanders was a Netflix streaming movie I watched while folding an enormous mountain of kids' clothes. It starred Rufus Sewell, who has been a favorite actor of mine since I saw him in Uncorked about 12 years ago. The story, based on a Thomas Hardy novel, surrounds a girl who returns to her native woodlands after leaving to receive an education. Her father believes her education (and his wealth) now make her too good for the life she'd previously expected to have: to marry Rufus Sewell. Instead she is introduced to the local doctor. Things complicate, and regrets are incurred. It was a little sadder than Return of the Native and The Mayor of Casterbridge, two of my preferred Hardy stories. Meh. (But the cinematography was great!)
This Means War. Two spies who are work partners both accidentally fall for the same darling Reese Witherspoon girl. Who will ultimately win her heart? The dashing Brit separated from his wife (who saw her first), or the dashing American playboy? Ugh. It had a fun premise, yeah, but there were a LOT of jokes in it that crossed the line for me. Plus, you'd think there would be chemistry! Not so much. I wish I could rewind my life and give this one a miss.
The Lucky One. I read this Nicholas Sparks romance for Valentine's week. News flash! No one in the story dies of cancer! (I've only read a couple of Sparks' novels, but I kind of thought someone dies of cancer in every book. Not so!) It was a straightforward love story between a soldier come home from Iraq and a single mom in North Carolina whom he seeks out because he found a photo of her in a sand dune while he was serving. She has a son, and he has a faithful dog. There's a villainous, conniving ex-husband to contend with. The end scene is quite exciting. Overall, a good, fluffy read.
The Braid. Okay, I'm mad at everyone I know for not telling me about this excellent book before now. It's so wonderful! The author had an ancestor who immigrated from the islands of Scotland to the Canadian coast, and that is the topic of this YA story written all in verse. Yes, verse! It's poetry, but the story is so accessible! I love it! Two sisters learn they must leave their impoverished island. One will go with her family to Canada, the other sneaks off to stay behind. They braid their hair together into one braid, snip it and each takes half. They expect (with good reason) to never see one another again. The sisters' journeys are treacherous. Hunger and danger and death ensue. The topic of teen pregnancy is handled gently but with realism. It's a touching, ingenious book. I wish my mom were still teaching high school English. I know she could use this as a marvelous text. It's only about 90 pages, but the depth of the characters the author achieves is wondrous. I love this book.
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