Melissa McCarthy Makes Me Snort-Laugh

So I went to the movie theater with my husband around Christmas-time, when we had family in town who could stay at home and watch the knuckleheads (which is rare). He wanted to see The Hobbit and I was all, "Yeah, okay, it gets me out of the house and I've actually read the book," (albeit YEARS ago) so we went. Movie previews are my favorite part of any theater experience (but don't make me sit through them at home, when I'm trying to watch a movie on DVD or Blu-Ray, for goodness sake! And don't subject me to those dumb commercials even before the previews. Yes, I know they're commercials; you can't fool me. It's a delicate thing, trying to time your arrival perfectly so as to miss the annoying commercials trying to sell you stuff, but still getting there in time to see the trailers, you know.), so I was really paying attention. I was thrilled to see not one, BUT TWO trailers for upcoming movies starring my new favorite girl-crush, Melissa McCarthy. Seriously. I'm in love with her. Anyone who can make me snort-laugh out loud (multiple times) in a 90-second movie promo is golden. Needless to say, we've already seen Identity Thief, and I've marked my calendar for The Heat (June 28-why-are-you-making-me-wait-that-long?!). I'm not exaggerating when I say I've watched the trailer for that movie about 283...or 4 times. For real. And it doesn't get old. I think you should watch it now.

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy play misfit FBI agents who are difficult to work with. No one likes them. No one wants either of them as a partner. So, of course, they're forced to work together and hilarity ensues. Seriously, Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy together in one movie? Yes, please!

I can't wait.

Matched (Matched #1): Book Review

Matched is a pretty formulaic dystopian novel that smacks of The Hunger Games and older, Orwellian speculative fiction. But it's well-written and pretty quickly paced, so it sucked me in and held my attention the entire book. You have to suspend belief for a good portion of it, but if you just read it for entertainment and enjoyment's sake, you shouldn't be disappointed. It's easy to feel depressed reading about the world of Matched; I had a particularly difficult time reading about Cassia's grandfather and his Final Banquet. The whole world seems bleak and hopeless, the characters all just robots. But then there is a spark of hope, and that spark ignites something in a couple of characters that makes them yearn to be different, to make their own choices. And it's good enough to make you want to root for them, and ultimately read to the end.

I want to know how these people can read and type and use computers, but they don't know how to write. That makes absolutely NO sense to me. Also, everyone is matched and their future spouses chosen for them (and all at the age of 17? Is there no possibility that someone's perfect match might be older or younger than themselves? Ridiculous.), but it's apparently okay for them to have flings with others on the side. What? Okay, and what exactly IS a sorting job? Cassia spends all her time "working" and preparing for her final job placement and she sorts. Sorts what? Into what categories and for what purpose? What exactly does sorting DO again? None of that is explained. I guess you just have to gloss over it. Another thing that bothered me is the "war" in the Outer Provinces. Who is warring against whom? And why? And why doesn't anyone seem concerned about it? Why doesn't anyone in this "Society" try to break or even bend the rules a little? Has human nature been perfectly Match-bred out of them? That seems unlikely. So yeah, there is a lot in the book that you just have to not question or look at too closely. But even with that, it's a pretty well-written, interesting story appropriate for the audience for which it's written.

I'm definitely game for reading the next books in the series. I give it 3.5 stars. 

Purchase the book on Amazon.
Read more about the author, Ally Condie, on Goodreads.

Crossed (Matched #2): Book Review

I enjoyed this (3.5 stars); I am enjoying the series as a whole. I hated all the running in this one though. I wish we had spent more time in one place, like at the end - I wish we'd gotten to see more of the Rising. I liked Ky in the first book and like him even more now. I feel like what we learned of Xander doesn't really fit with the character that he was in the first book. Can he have changed so much? I find it interesting that I do not like Cassia as much as I feel I should, though I cannot exactly put my finger on why. One issue in this part of the story that I felt was unbelievable was how Cassia risked everything to chase after Ky, and then almost as soon as they were reunited, it was so easy for her to decide to be separated from him. Likewise, he, who apparently had nothing but her (and whose thoughts of her were all that kept him alive in the beginning), said mid-way through that he would NOT join the Rising for her. Not even for her. And then two seconds later, he's all, "Yeah, okay. I'll join too!" But then he's totally okay being away from her. Huh? This middle installment opens up many new questions that aren't answered, but I felt it wrapped up others from the first book sufficiently enough that it didn't leave me unsatisfied. I'm still trying to figure out though...how many different groups are there again? The Farmers, The Society (are they humans or robots or aliens?), The Rising, and The Enemy? Or are some of these one and the same?

Buy the book on Amazon.
Learn more about the author, Ally Condie, on Goodreads.

Pixar's Monsters University Coming to Theaters June 21

Monsters, Inc. (2001) is my favorite Pixar movie. So I'm thrilled that the sequel, Monsters University is coming to theaters this summer, on June 21!

The movie is a prequel to the original Monsters, Inc., and explores the friendship between Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) and James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman), who first met in college. Mike and Sulley were apparently in the same fraternity together, and both had life-long dreams of becoming scarers at Monsters, Inc. What originally began as a rivalry soon worked out to be a best friendship.  

Monsters University will feature the vocal talents of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Kelsey Grammer, Frank Oz, Helen Mirren, and of course, John Ratzenberger (who has at least a small part in every Pixar film to date), just to name a few. 

Just as in all Pixar films, Monsters University will also feature an animated short as the feature film begins, titled The Blue Umbrella. It's a story of a lonely, blue umbrella trying to get the attention of a beautiful red umbrella. It doesn't sound like much, but these shorts are always something I look forward to with each new Pixar release.

Take a look at the official Monsters University website. They've got it set up as if it's an actual college university! You should try to apply!
Watch a teaser trailer on Disney's Site. 
For the latest updates on Monsters University, follow Disney*Pixar on Twitter.
Like the movie on Facebook too! You can never have too much of a good thing, right?

You can bet your bottom dollar I'll be writing a review for this one once I've seen it!

How to be More Scottish: Book Review

This is a good "first look" at Scotland, for anyone who is unfamiliar with the land and its people and wants to know more. It's accessible, light, and a practical introduction to all things Scots--including a brief history, the culture, dialects, the people, the food, the land, weather, common words and phrases (as well as how to properly pronounce them), and various points of interest. It was also full of useful tips on what to do and say and what NOT to do and say (for instance, NEVER call a Scot "English," and always carry a brolly, er...umbrella). I found the travel/tourism part of the book less useful than the rest of it; there is so much history, too much to see and do there. It's just not possible to cover it all in a book like this, and that was not the authors' intent. But it was somewhat frustrating to me that so many place names were thrown out with not even a two-to-three-word description of what they are or why they were mentioned. I had no idea what most of these places or points of interest were, so I found myself skimming this section with plans to refer to my Lonely Planet Guide to Scotland or the Rough Guide to Scotland instead. The book could have used some better editing. Some sentences were awkward and difficult to understand. I was reading the book on my Kindle, and it felt as though it didn't translate well to the Kindle format. For instance, the paragraph indentations were odd, margins weren't consistent, and end punctuation was often left out (which made it trickier to read). All in all a good, fun read that feeds my excitement about our upcoming visit to the country. And it's only $1 on Kindle! Ye canna beat that!

Buy it on Amazon. 

A Discovery of Witches: Book Review

It's going to be difficult for me to rein myself in and not be too terribly critical of this book. I don't want to hurt any feelings; I know several friends who loved this one. I wanted to love it too, and I really think it could have been a fantastic story. But it just wasn't. Before I go any further, I will say that I am not interested in witches at all, so that may have colored my thinking on it from the beginning. But I was willing to give it a try, based on the glowing reviews. I was surprised at the very beginning to find that witches aren't human! I had no idea they were an entirely different creature; I always thought they were just humans with special powers. So that threw me off from the beginning, and made it much harder for me to suspend my disbelief.

Speaking of disbelief, here is a list of some of my biggest disbeliefs (I'm told this isn't a word.) from this story:
1) Diana has this amazing job as a reputable professor and researcher, and her work is so important--SHE is so important. But from about 45% until the end, SHE DOESN'T GO TO WORK OR DO ANY RESEARCH AT ALL?!! How does that work? I want a job like that.
2) Diana obviously has super-human (super-witch?) intelligence, but is she really an expert in alchemy, history, chemistry, biology, poetry, literature, religion, and every other possible subject as well? Every single line of poetry or literature that was "murmured" by the ancient vampire, or anyone near her, she instantly recognized and could recall perfectly? Yeah right.
3) Diana has resisted her witchy (yet another non-word) skills her entire life, and all of a sudden she finds she possesses every single skill ever known to witches...and then some? Really? Unbelievable. It would have been much more believable if she'd had just one or two more than what is typical for "average witches."
4) Matthew is a vampire who has lived for 1500+ years. What? That's insane. I don't buy it. Even if vampires were real. Not only that but he was also right in the thick of every single human conflict in recorded history. Right. Oh, and he was also close and personal friends to just about every famous historical figure EVER. Honestly? Yes, and not only was he personal friends with everyone famous you've ever heard about, he also has autographed copies of their original manuscripts, drawings, paintings, and anything else these famous people could have ever created. Right.
5) No one seems to have a job, but they keep going places, spending money, doing things, taking private jets and private helicopters, renting cars, buying wine and tea, etc., and spending money! Where does all this money come from? How can you just not work for 40 days and sit around the house sipping tea and taking daily walks in the apple orchard? Once again, sign me up for one of those jobs!

I could go on, but you get the picture. The author was just so over-the-top in everything she pulled into this book that it was simply too far "out there" for me to take seriously.

Harkness writes well though. It's solid writing, and for that I am thankful. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to finish it. But the book could have benefited from some heavy editing. I got so tired of reading detailed descriptions of Diana's rowing, running, horseback riding, and yoga workouts; what kind of wine they drank and all Diana's cups of tea; not to mention all the times Diana slept and how long she slept (usually while big stuff was happening). The first half of the book was so tedious with all this tripe, and NOTHING HAPPENED! Seriously, nothing happened until the 56% mark (thank you, Kindle), and then it was like reading a completely different book. Almost as if there were two different authors. Then the action came too fast and furious for the most part, and so much happened but nothing was really significant. Sometimes the action was so briefly described, or described so cryptically that I had to read and reread the sections several times before really figuring out what had happened. New, interesting characters were introduced but you really learn nothing about them. Nothing from the first half of the book is really even mentioned, leaving you scratching your head. In the end, no questions are answered, nothing is wrapped up, and you really have no idea where the next book is going to take you.

The most interesting character in the entire book to me was the Bishop house. What a brilliant idea! And it was so well done - just the right level of reference and inclusion in the story, and it wasn't goofy or ridiculous. I wish we could have learned a little more about the Bishop family history and how it was intertwined with the history of the house. I kind of wanted someone evil or scary to show up, so we could witness the house acting up and maybe even spitting the person/creature out. That would have been great.

2.5 stars from me, and I'm not convinced I care enough to read the second book. Sorry, friends who loved it!

Buy the book on Amazon.

Read more about the author, Deborah Harkness on Goodreads.

BRAVE Wasn't What I'd Hoped

In light of last Sunday's Academy Awards, and the fact that Pixar's Brave won Best Animated Film, I thought I'd share my original review of the movie, which I first posted on my Facebook page last June.

"It pains me to say I was disappointed. Maybe my expectations were just too high; maybe the fact that I love all things Scotland and have been anxiously awaiting this movie for two years just set me up to be let down. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't a BAD movie at all. It just wasn't up to Pixar standards. 

Brave had no heart. Every Pixar movie has heart. Well, I don't really count Cars 2; that movie was awful. But aside from that one, all Pixar movies have heart; they move you and make you feel. Second, Brave has very little character development. I didn't even like Merida, and I so wanted to! By the time the big conflict occurred, I found myself not really rooting for the "good guys." I didn't really care about the characters because they didn't really have any depth to them, and in the end, I found I wouldn't really mind it so much if things didn't get resolved and there was no happy ending for Merida. The plot was formulaic and there were no big surprises, no twists. And there were very few funny moments. Truly, the best laughs are the ones you've already seen in the trailers. There was nothing particularly Scottish about it either, other than the fact that all the men wear kilts. Eh. So what? It could have taken place anywhere; they didn't do anything to make it truly Scottish and that disappointed me. Even the music was a let-down. 

The biggest negative for me was the family dynamics. I take issue with movies and TV shows that make the father out to be a bumbling idiot who can't do anything properly and needs his overly dominating wife to do everything for him. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for strong women! But you can have a strong woman without sacrificing the masculinity of the male counterpart. In so many Disney movies there is only one parent to begin with. Why do they have to emasculate the man when there's finally a two-parent family unit in place? I loved that the father could be funny and playful at times, but they took it too far and made him out to be nothing without his queen wife.

But...the animation is fantastic. I was mesmerized by Merida's hair. I have no idea how they animated it so perfectly life-like. I didn't like Merida too much, and wasn't convinced her story mattered, but I was in love with her hair!

I was glad we had not taken our kids with us to see it. At ages seven and nearly-two, I think it would have scared the living daylights out of them both.

Unfortunately I think the competition may have finally figured out the master formula to a great movie, the secret only Pixar held for the longest time. How To Train Your Dragon and Despicable Me moved me more than Brave did. I didn't even cry. And I ALWAYS cry at Pixar movies! Well, not during Cars 2. But like I said, that one doesn't count.

So there you have it. My opinion. I hope it doesn't keep you from seeing the movie yourself because, like I said, it wasn't BAD. It just wasn't great."

I still stand by my review, and probably won't change my mind. But I haven't given the movie a second chance yet. I plan to rent it from Redbox soon and watch it a second time to see if anything has changed for me.

Hello, World!

I'm trying my hand at blogging. It's been something I've been mulling over for nearly a year now, and have finally gotten up the guts to try. Be nice. I'm new here.