The Color Of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Ah, the first installment to the classic Discworld series. I first read Terry Pratchett in Good Omens, his awesome collaboration with Neil Gaiman. After that, I knew I wanted to read more of his stuff. Prachett is very funny and his humor is very British. 

The Discworld is way too complicated to explain, unless perhaps if you have a degree in astrophysics or something....so I'll just sum up the story here. This one introduces us to Rincewind, a cowardly and inept wizard that never finished wizard school and only knows one spell (but he can't even remember that.) Actually, a summery is right here. 

This book was a lot of fun. Once you get the basic idea of Discworld, which you can basically just expect the most absurd everything, you can enjoy Rincewind on his many mis-adventures with the foreigner Twoflower and The Luggage.

There's nearly 30 of these damn books and I'll get around to reading them all someday. The good thing is that they are really set up in different storylines with different characters...there's the Rincewind ones, Watchmen ones, Witches, and the ones about Death. I'm going to read the second Rincewind book and then probably jump to the first books in the Watchmen and Death series. Anyways, as much as I liked this book, it is said that the books get a lot better as they go on as Pratchett really finds his groove in his monstrous creation that is Discworld.

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some recent movies...

The Kingdom - Better than I expected, I'd actually sad this is really really good...moving and exciting. I liked it a lot.

Michael Clayton - This was pretty good, although I went in with high expectations. George Clooney is a damn fine actor in a drama. It's a white-collar thriller about high power attorneys, a kind of movie that's rare...playing to the intellectual. The timeline goes back and forth which is great in some movies, but seemed to complicate this story a little too much. The ending was a little weak too...you're left wondering what Michael is going to do next. 

Breach - Watched this a second time with my wife. I really enjoyed it the first time and it was equally exciting the second. Chris Cooper is definitely an fantastic actor and he really gives a superb performance in this. I liked this movie so much I didn't even mind Ryan Phillipe in this...even though I think he's a shitty actor. He still got on my nerves in this, but everything else outshines him and makes me see past it. Laura Linney is pretty great in this too. 

Shattered Glass (2003)

This is the story of Stephen Glass, the journalist from The New Republic that got caught fabricating stories in 1998. It was a major headline back then and I was looking forward to seeing this movie, which I've heard Hayden Christensen is actually good in. Well I'm happy to report he is actually good in this, I was refreshingly surprised too. 

The cast is great as well including Chloe Sevingy, Peter Sarsgaard, Steven Zahn, Rosario Dawson, and that chick that plays Rose on Two and a Half Men. Really good movie...definitely worth checking out.

I give it an 8/10.

IMDB

Thank You For Smoking (2005)

I just remembered I did watch a movie last week...see this is why I write this blog, so this stuff doesn't just leave my memory shortly after I've seen/read something.

This movie was pretty great. I thought Aaron Eckhart was awesome. I don't really remember seeing him in anything else...except No Reservations which was pretty shitty. (Looking at his IMDB page, I see he's been in a ton of movies I've seen...guess he's just up to leading man status.)

Anyways, I knew this was going to be good and it was. It was a hilarious and entertaining satirical look at the way big business handle PR. 

I give it a 8/10.

IMDB

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I just realized I haven't posted in over a week. I don't think I've watched a movie in that time either...

I did finish a book though.

Man, I really enjoyed most of this book. It's a thick one, running almost 600 pages. It follows a guy, Shadow, who is released from prison a few days early because his wife has died in a car wreck. On his way back home, he meets Mr. Wednesday, who is eventually unveiled as a god, and hires Shadow to be his bodygaurd/errand boy. Shadow then enters a strange world were ancient gods exist everywhere, coming to America in the hearts and minds of settlers for thousands of years. Wednesday represents the old gods, and is trying to wage a war against the new American gods, which represent modern things like technology. This is where is gets pretty weird and hard to follow. There's just way too many characters, I had a hard time keeping up with who was what god and why they were even in the story at all. Then it climaxes in a battle that never happens, all the while going on and on for 100 pages of long, descriptive dream passages and shit that was hard to get through. When it does finally get back on track, many loose ends are tied up, but at that point, after all the god business and Shadow dying and walking "Backstage" to end the battle, and then coming back to life...the little details of what was happening back in the little town of Lakeside, Wisconsin, while nice to end the story of those characters, seemed like an afterthought.

Like I said, I really enjoyed most of it.  I just think it got really slow and really dense towards the climax. At least this is the thickest of Gaiman's novels, so I think I'll still enjoy the next one I'm going to read, The Anansi Boys. It's similar to American Gods, sharing some characters and the universe itself, but is said to be much a much lighter read.

AMAZON

Hot Rod (2007)

So I decided to waste 90 mins, and I wasn't too bummed I choice this movie. I am a faithful SNL viewer, and I like Andy Samberg, which is saying that I knew what I was getting into with this movie. Plus a friend of mine told me the other day that he loved this movie.

It turns out it's exactly what you would expect...a stupid little comedy that some people will like and others not. It's definitely not a good movie in the literal sense, but it did make me laugh more than a few times. Isla Fisher plays the love interest and standard "straight man" to Samberg's child-like character. It's like a lesser Billy Madison basically, although that movie is way funnier and a better movie in comparison.

Overall I give it a 6/10 just because there are some good jokes and I like Samberg's style. He has a pretty good comedic career ahead of him...but movies like this aren't going to win him any awards...not that it was meant to. It was the usual Lorne Michael's production showcasing a rising SNL star. I'm sure it's already made plenty of profit and will continue to entertain teenage boys and adult stoners for a long time to come.

IMDB

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

I finally saw this movie and man, it was as beautiful and twisted as I knew it would be. 

You know exactly what to expect from a Tim Burton movie...fantastic, over the top characters...gorgeous cinematography....hey, I'll even give him credit for his Planet of the Apes remake. I can't really say anything bad about this movie...I don't know what could have been done any better. It really is a flawless piece of filmmaking art.

The only thing I didn't love was the musical aspect of it...the whole thing is a musical if you didn't know. Not that it was bad at all by any means, but it's not exactly a movie I could watch over and over again like nearly all of my Burton faves. But it's definitely a movie everyone should experience at least once (if you can handle a little blood splattering gore!)

I give it a 9/10. 

IMDB