January's List

The list through one month , only includes books and movies I haven't read or watched before:

Books:

1. The Hunger Games

2. Catching Fire

3. Mockingjay

4. The Janitor's Boy

5. The Road

Movies:

1. Inception

2. Knight and Day

3. Tuck Everlasting

4. The Mighty

5. The Adjustment Bureau

6.Transformers: Dark of the Moon

7. Sherlock Holmes

8. Mr. Popper's Penguins

9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid

10. X-Men: First Class

11. Dolphin Tale

12. Taken

I'm off to a better start than I thought I would be. I'm even close to finishing book #6.

Movie 12

A few weeks ago, while channel surfing, I came across a Liam Neeson movie on a cable channel. I missed the beginning, so I didn't watch more than a couple of minutes. But when I heard Neeson tell the guy on the other end of a cell phone to let his daughter go or he would find the guy and kill him, I was hooked. I thought it looked good and was one my wife would tolerate, so when I saw Taken, the movie in question, at the library, I picked it up.

Neeson seems to be getting some questions lately with his new movie The Grey in theaters. Is he really an action star? Is he making so many mediocre movies as a way to cope with his wife's death? Well, I'm a Liam Neeson fan and I liked Taken. And I wouldn't mind watching The Grey either, even if the experts don't like the way the wolves are portrayed. Neeson says the wolves are out to get him, who am I to argue?

Taken was a good action flick, heavy on the fighting, but refreshingly light on unexplainable, large explosions. Certainly not a feel good movie. Sure the hero is out to rescue his daughter from the human traffickers, but what about the approximately 100 other young women he ran across and couldn't help. I tried not to think about that part, too depressing. And apparently everyone in France needed to be beat up and/or killed along the way, but I expected that from this kind of movie. Maybe my expectations were set low, but if you like the lead actor, you could do worse than this movie.

Movie 11

For family movie night this weekend we watched Dolphin Tale. I often hesitate with movies that are "based on a true story." The true part is often something like, there was a dolphin once, and it got hurt. But this was a good family movie.

That doesn't mean I thought it was great. I was fascinated with the dolphin's story and the struggle to get a working prosthetic tail. I think the story should have focused even more on that. But apparently the writers didn't think that was enough, so they added hurricanes, family members going off to war, and did we mention the place is financially strapped? So let's throw in a big fundraiser to avoid getting bought out by a real estate tycoon.

I do wonder if I'm looking to hard for the faults here. My family loved the movie and a couple friends even admitted to liking it. As I said, I enjoyed the parts that were actually about the dolphin. It was a feel-good, family movie. I just think it could have been that without all the extra stuff.

Movie 10

We watched X-Men: First Class this week for my tenth movie. I had wanted to watch it for family movie night, but the kids picked Diary of a Wimpy Kid instead. I enjoyed X-Men much better.

While I can't say I've always read the comic books, I have always been a fan of the X-Men. I've enjoyed the previous movies, and I enjoyed this one. For me, the simple structure of mutants struggling to find their place, while also struggling against each other (Professor X vs. Magneto), provides sufficient conflict to fuel a multitude of stories in this setting.

That's not to say it was perfect. Some of the actors didn't quite fit the parts. I like Kevin Bacon, but he seemed out of place as an evil Nazi doctor. And January Jones, is being busty really a mutant super power? The Wolverine cameo seemed unnecessary, and I was disappointed by the lack of a Stan Lee cameo. And as much as I liked the various aspects of the "how do we treat those different from us" trope, which touched on everything from the Holocaust to Don't Ask Don't Tell, I was disappointed the movie gave into the "token black guy gets killed first" cliche. Granted, it was a "noble" death, defending a fellow recruit. But that seemed to make it all the more disappointing.

But these are relatively minor quibbles. I enjoyed the origin story line. I liked seeing mutants we haven't seen in film before, and those we had seen presented in a new light. With the multitude of characters Marvel has created in this universe, I am amazed there is any character development at all. But what there was I enjoyed.

So that puts me at 10% done for books and 20% done for movies. It has been a good month. My wife assures me the pace will slow down. And she's right, if for no other reason than she is expecting our next child in May. My media consumption time is sure to be curtailed by then.

Book 5

I finished my fifth book, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, this week. A very bleak book, to the point of being depressing. I will admit up front that there was some nice writing in the book, some passages were very poetic. But there were some things that bothered me, not the least of which was the punctuation. I mean, did all the quotation marks die with all the people in the unnamed catastrophe? And the formatting of breaks between almost every paragraph made it hard to get into the flow of the book at first. But after a while these things faded into the background and even contributed to the monotonous struggle for survival of man and boy.

What didn't fade was the author's use of uncommon words when up to that point in the paragraph common words had worked just fine. Throwing in words like "gryke" (which I had to look up) and "hove," among others, jolted me out of the narrative. I'm sure the author had reasons for these words, but when used in conjunction with the simpler text that preceded them, the words seemed out of place. Maybe it was to compensate for using "okay" about 500 times in the dialogue.

Anyway, the book does an excellent job of presenting a world without hope, and the struggle that continues in such a place. Good world building, but it is not a world I want to visit. But the author knows his craft. I am not surprised it won the Pulitzer, but I couldn't bring myself to rate it higher than 3 stars on Goodreads. Don't pick it up if you want something uplifting.

My next book I started reading when I needed a break from The Road. It is called The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr. I've read a little (very little, to tell the truth) about how these technological tools that are supposed to put knowledge at our fingertips are actually detrimental to our learning. So far, I have been unimpressed with what I have read. However, The Shallows was a finalist for the General Nonfiction Pulitzer Prize last year, so I'm expecting something better here.

Movies 8 and 9

Last weekend I watched a couple of Kid Movies. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy them as much as the kids.

The first was Mr. Popper's Penguins. The girls got it from Redbox for a slumber party they had together. My wife watched it with them and said it wasn't bad. So I watched it the next day. I like Jim Carrey (in small doses) and he was okay in this movie. I was pleasantly surprised that Angela Lansbury was in the film. The penguins, on the other hand, came off as a gimmick. I don't remember the book, but the penguins had to be better than this. Anyway, it was a cute, if somewhat generic, family movie, with penguins thrown in to make the kids watch.

For family movie night the kids wanted to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We'd already watched the sequel, Rodrick Rules, a couple of months ago, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Our family hasn't really gotten into the books, but I figured this would be a good family night pick. The kids really liked it, but I thought it was boring compared to the sequel. The kid actors did a fine job, but it didn't do anything for me. Seems like fans of the book would enjoy it, though.

Movies 6 and 7

On MLK weekend, I watched a couple of movies with the family, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Sherlock Holmes.

The boys wanted to watch Transformers for family movie night. I'd heard it was an improvement over the last installment so I figured, why not? After watching it, I guess "improvement" means those people like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley better than Megan Fox. Apparently, I am not a Michael Bay fan. Shiny robots and explosions just don't cut it. Every time there was a scene, scratch that, every time there was even a shot that might have added to the plot and/or character development, it was ended too quickly and there was a fast cut to something exploding. A nice big explosion, sure, but enough already.

Perhaps my biggest complaint was other than Optimus Prime, you can't tell the transformers apart when they are in robot form. So lots of fighting, but who are we rooting for? And what's with the drawn out shots of the convoy going to the launching pad, or the paratroopers flying through the air after jumping out of a plane? The scene I thought had potential, Epps reaching out to old comrades to join the mission, was cut into a quick montage. Okay, so now I'm over thinking what is essentially an explody action movie, but I still say it could have been so much more.

Onto Sherlock Holmes. Since the sequel is now in theaters, my wife has been reminding me she's been wanting to see the 2009 film since it came out. Turns out the kids wanted to see it, too. Fortunately, it was at the library. I don't think I was expecting much, but I actually enjoyd it.

The movie certainly played up Holmes' cynical, antisocial side. I'm no Holmes expert, but this almost seemed over the top to me. But Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law carried off the parts of Holmes and Watson quite well. They made the movie. The supporting cast wasn't bad either. I'm not surprised they made a sequel.

Book 4

My daughter is involved with a program called "Battle of the Books" at her elementary school. She has to read about 6 books the school assigns and then in March or so they have some kind of competition between teams that have read all the books. Anyway, she asked me to read all the assigned books with her. I try to keep on top of what my kids are reading, so I agreed. Last Sunday I read one of her books, The Janitor's Boy, by Andrew Clements.

I originally wasn't going to count this as on of my 50 books, as it was pretty short. But my mother, an elementary school teacher, said it should definitely count. And as my wife says, "It's a book, isn't it?" I figured I had put all of my kids' school books on my to-read list, so why not count it for fiftyfifty.me?

The book itself wasn't bad. All my kids have enjoyed Clements books. This may not be their favorite, but I thought it was a good look at the father/son relationship. I am often surprised at the depth these elementary school books can have. If you are looking for some interesting books for kids this age, Clements is a good place to start.

Movies 3, 4, and 5

This is was a good week for watching movies. I knocked three off my list this week. I think hitting 50 new movies this year won't be a problem, I've got quite the list in my library queue. And I haven't even touched my Netflix queue yet. Of course, that is full of TV series, so that won't help in this challenge, but I should still look to see what I've been putting off watching.

Last weekend, I watched two movies based on books my kids had read for school. The first was Tuck Everlastng. My daughter is reading the book for a book club her teacher started for kids who like to read. When she saw there was a movie, she wanted me to check it out of the library right away. I agreed, even though I haven't read the book, and I generally like to read the book before watching the movie. Not sure why I never read the book in grade school, but there you have it.

The movie was good. I'm not that familiar with the actors playing the kids, although I know I've seen them in other things, mostly TV, I think. The adults (William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley) were more identifiable, but the kids had to carry the show. They did a good job, and my daughter enjoyed it, even when it strayed from the book. Interesting premise that makes me want to read the book: if you could live forever, would you?

The other movie was The Mighty, based on the book Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. My middle school boys read this in class, but brought a copy home for me and my wife to read. They also watched the movie in class (and didn't really like it) but I decided to watch it anyway.

The book surprised me at the depth it had for a middle school book in exploring the friends' relationship. That depth wasn't as present in the movie. The kids (Kieran Caulkin and Elden Henson) were very good, but the characters didn't live up to my image from the books. Especially Henson's character, Max. And I'm not sure why Sharon Stone got top billing, her character (Freak's mother) wasn't that great. A good story about an unlikely childhood friendship, but you'll get more out of the book.

The third movie I watched with my wife. It was The Adjustment Bureau. I'll admit to being a fan of Matt Damon, and we have been wanting to watch another sci fi type thriller since we saw Inception last week. While not as good as Inception, this turned out to be a pretty good choice. I was a little suprised that it focused more on the romance, rather than the thriller/action, aspect of the story, but Damon and Emily Blunt worked well together. Fun story about fate and free will, too. Recommended.

Books 2 and 3

I finished the Hunger Games trilogy last night with Mockingjay. I found the third book slower than the others, but as it went on, I think it was deeper, too. More thought provoking for me. Catching Fire was good, but did feel like the 2nd book in a trilogy, especially with the cliffhanger ending. I initially didn't like the "Quarterly Quell" idea in the book, but it did introduce some nice action. All in all, it was a great series, but the first was my favorite, with the third really growing on me. There's a lot more in the series than a fight to the death.

Next up is The Road by Cormac McCarthy, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer for fiction. Another book I've been meaning to read since it was the hot thing a few years ago. And another dreary post-apocalyptic future. Maybe I'll need to find something a little more sunny after this.

First Book and Movies down

It was good to have yesterday off. I finished The Hunger Games and watched Inception and Knight and Day. One down for the books, two down for the movies. Not a bad start for being just a couple days into it.

I really enjoyed The Hunger Games, just as my wife said I would. I rated it 5 stars on Goodreads since the whole family liked it so much. The action really moves along and I was impressed with Suzanne Collins's world building. Some of the plot points may not have been original, but the author did a great job with the details, letting the reader feel the Capitol's oppression beyond just the games. I found it very compelling.

Inception is a movie I can't believe I haven't watched yet. We've even checked it out of the library before. So it was perfect for the fiftyfifty challenge. Beautiful movie, fun action, and it makes you think. May have been a mistake to watch it with the little kids, as they had trouble following along, but a good family movie night anyway. A friend of mine said it would have been even better if they made two movies out of it: Extraction and then Inception. I figure they did a good job if they left me wanting more.

My wife and I watched Knight and Day before turning in last night. I am not a Tom Cruise fan, and while I don't mind Cameron Diaz, I've never said, "Wow, Cameron Diaz is in that, let's go see it." But Knight and Day turned out to be an enjoyable, if mindless, thriller. Good movie to shut my brain off to before I fell asleep.

All in all, a good start to the challenge.

Start

So, I'm starting the fiftyfifty challenge with The Hunger Games trilogy. That way my wife will stop saying things like, "Why are you reading that when The Hunger Games is sitting right there?" It's been on my to read list on Goodreads since at least 2009 so it is about time I jumped in.

I finished my last book of 2011 early this morning. It was Julian Comstock, by Robert Charles Wilson. An interesting future history, with a surprising amount of humor in it. It might have slowed near the end, but it was deserving of the Hugo and Campbell nominations it received.

I had tried to finish the book on New Year's Eve while watching the college bowl games, but didn't quite make it. Good way to spend a Saturday afternoon, though: reading a good novel while watching football, all while the kids played happily together. Those days don't happen nearly enough.