woodge blog

This flick has a concept that could be a fun TV series. Various people have these various abilities: telekinesis, mind-control, healing, sound-wave shattering, etc... there's a shadowy organization called Division that is trying to either control these people (bring them into the fold and/or experiment on them) or kill them. This flick doesn't do much with a cool set-up like that. Too many dead spots in the movie. But the Hong Kong location is pretty cool. It could've been much better, as it is, this is recommended only for those who have absolutely nothing left to watch on their DVD queue.  Oh, one more disparaging remark: Dakota Fanning was miscast. Her character should have been older. Having her be 13 or whatever doesn't really have a point. Oh also: note to self: Don't trust recommendations from the guys at work.

This is a little indie dramedy about the various characters taking an adult swim class.  It ambles along at a casual pace and is fairly interesting. Nothing I'd put on my must-see list, though.

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
~ Amy Stewart
Hardcover: 223 pages ISBN-10: 1565126831 ISBN-13: 978-1565126831

I enjoyed this handsome little compendium of plant facts and lore. But it's also scary too. There's more than a few plants in this book that I never want to come in contact with. One that is native to Australia called the stinging tree can leave you in pain for up to a year.  I also learned about several very invasive species of plants that are taking over both land and sea.  There was also poisonous plants that need only hours to kill you after ingesting; and plants good for getting high (mostly mildly) although some of them look very much like other plants that will kill you.  Lesson learned? Just say no.  This book includes handsome etchings.

Recently I was playing with Kajsa (age 4) and her stuffed animals.  It was Kajsa's idea to have them get married.  So for instance, Leopardy was getting married to Mitzi...

Kajsa: "Do you, Leopardy, take Mitzi to be your awfully wedded wife?"
Me (as Leopardy): "I do."

9 is a visually cool stitch-punk adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world where the machines have emerged victorious. (Sounds a little familiar, huh?) And while the setting and the characters are all infused with lots of imagination, the plot is left wanting. The story itself is pretty simplistic and the ending doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But the ride was fun and it just looks so cool. I do hope to see more of these animated flicks aimed at a more adult audience. It'll be interesting to see if this sort of thing catches on beyond the fringe. Be forewarned, some of the scenes are too intense for little kids, hence the PG-13 rating. When all is said and done, I give 9 a 7. 

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one with a library that's possibly a trifle out of hand. Check out this gallery of photos of author Neil Gaiman's library in his Minnesota home.

Mine's not that big. I think Neil should think about waiting for paperback more often.

The Court of the Air ~ Hunt, Stephen
Paperback 599 pages ISBN-10: 0007232187 ISBN-13: 978-0007232185

I got to page 172 before deciding against finishing this story. The author crams many different ideas into this steampunk-fantasy-mashup of a tale. The two main characters are orphans.  Molly Templar gets placed by the orphanage into prostitution, but her very first john turns out to be an assassin. She escapes but we don't know much about who the assassin is, who he works for, or why Molly would be targeted.  By page 172 I still don't know. 

Then there's Oliver. When he was very young he and his parents crashed an aerostat (an airship) and he lived for 4 years within the "feymist."  The feymist has been known to alter people only after casual contact yet Oliver seems unaffected.  Then his guardian uncle and household are murdered and Oliver is framed. Again we don't know why his uncle was targeted or what the motivations are of the killers.  Ugh.

There's various fun things thrown into the mix: other races like the craynarbians (crab-like people), autonomous "steammen" (think robots) with their own culture, floating pieces of land (often the result of floatquakes), underground cities, etc. The problem is that all these new things keep on coming and keeping everything straight is a complicated chore.  Place names are thrown about but no maps are provided. Various terms are sprinkled in, but their definitions are lacking (no glossary either).  And so far Molly and Oliver are fairly one-dimensional. I don't feel like I know them.  I should after 172 pages, no?

So, dang. I was looking forward to getting into this one but the hypercomplicated, incomprehensible plot along with the cardboard characters and indeterminate world has me scratching my head.  There's too much other stuff to read before I continue plodding through this one hoping it'll get better.  (Plus, this could be first in a series that may number seven books... and I've already committed to too many other series.)  On to other venues.

Zack And Miri Make A Porno
This was a juvenile male fantasy that is as unromantic as it sounds and only intermittently funny. Justin Long was funny, the rest was much less so. And c'mon, Seth Rogen hooks up with Elizabeth Banks? Only in the movies. This one is better left ignored. Kevin Smith (the writer) is better left ignored. I think he's stuck in eighth grade. He is stupid.

Went to the movies on a rainy Saturday. Luke (age 7) was all jazzed to see G-Force with me although I was more interested in seeing Ponyo. So T & Kajsa (age 4) saw Ponyo and Luke and I saw this. He enjoyed it. He didn't rave about it, he just enjoyed it (gizmos, fart jokes, y'know... boy stuff). I however was pretty bored... pretty much throughout the whole long 90 minutes. But I was nice, I let my wife see Ponyo while I endured this. (Ponyo is the latest Hayao Miyazaki animated flick and I'm a big fan of his.)

How I Became a Famous Novelist ~ Steve Hely

trade paperback 224 pages ISBN-10: 0802170609 ISBN-13: 978-0802170606

This is very light reading about a guy who figures out that many of the authors on the current bestseller lists are just really good con-artists and he wants in.  He comes up with some hilarious rules for writing a bestseller and sets off to write a schlocky romance-and-redemption story filled with heinous clichés and such.  He also wants to be famous just so he can upstage his ex-girlfriend at her upcoming wedding. But the character's trashing of the bestselling ilk that passes for entertainment these days is the good stuff.  It's often quite funny and possibly hits pretty close to home on occasion. This book can be read very quickly and should appeal to the cynic in you.  Oh, also: all the blurbs are fake.