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Book/Movie Recs, as of 8/14/10 & a Caveat
Saturday, August 14th, 2010 01:04 pmBefore I begin, a short note to Entertainment Weekly:
Dear EW, Just because I have not seen Season 4 of Dexter yet does not mean I am a "slowpoke". I do not subscribe to premium cable channels, and the DVDs will not be released until Tuesday. By definition, I cannot be a slowpoke if there is nothing to race to. So, spoiling the end of the season in your magazine and calling me a slowpoke for not knowing? Not cool. It's just good that I can save![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yebisu9 from the same spoilers by virtue of having read the magazine first.
Given your history with spoilers (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was not improved by knowing that a certain character had an expiration date stamped on his forehead) and the general decline of the writing in your magazine, this will be the last time I buy. Have a happy life of corporate shilling!
No love,
K.
~~~
On to cheerier things! In books, recently:
Dear Irene, by Jan Burke: This was a very readable mystery with a mostly likable heroine and a compelling plot. Irene Kelly is a crime writer at a Southern California newspaper who is in the midst of recovering from her last adventure, dealing with difficult family members who are shocked (shocked!) that she and her detective fiance have yet to set a date for their wedding, and getting letters and calls from a new serial killer. The killer, whose plots and death traps all center around Greek mythology and references thereto, is actually quite a frightening presence, to the point where I wonder if the writer started to scare herself a bit. (The death traps, which start off in the Saw torture pattern, quickly get scaled back to less scary things: Victim #3 didn't actually starve to death; she was poisoned beforehand and the body posed ironically, etc. etc.) My only point of confusion was why the killer felt it necessary to include Irene as part of his twisted scheme, other than general plot device and typical serial killer Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (As I read this, I was reminded of the comic strip Doctor Blink, Superhero Shrink, in particular an episode in which Dr. Blink complains to his secretary that the hardest part of his job is helping villains avoid their compulsion to tell others about their nefarious plans in riddle format.) Still, a fast-paced read, and with the strong lead character, I may just have to pick the other books in this series up.
In movies:
The Other Guys: This was so stupid and so completely entertaining. And I finally understood why people think Will Ferrell is funny! (It also helped that I didn't want to kill his character 5 minutes after he appeared on screen.) Mark Wahlberg isn't bad, either, although he's playing the straight guy to the funny guy, and barely cracks a smile the whole time. The funniest thing in the entire movie is the musical parody segments, which are not nearly long enough. Will Ferrell leading a bar full of drunken patrons in crazy parodies of drinking songs, with a perfectly straight face, has great timing and plays it so seriously that I thought he was going into a trance of some kind. All I could do was dissolve into helpless giggling. :D
Dear EW, Just because I have not seen Season 4 of Dexter yet does not mean I am a "slowpoke". I do not subscribe to premium cable channels, and the DVDs will not be released until Tuesday. By definition, I cannot be a slowpoke if there is nothing to race to. So, spoiling the end of the season in your magazine and calling me a slowpoke for not knowing? Not cool. It's just good that I can save
yebisu9 from the same spoilers by virtue of having read the magazine first.Given your history with spoilers (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was not improved by knowing that a certain character had an expiration date stamped on his forehead) and the general decline of the writing in your magazine, this will be the last time I buy. Have a happy life of corporate shilling!
No love,
K.
~~~
On to cheerier things! In books, recently:
Dear Irene, by Jan Burke: This was a very readable mystery with a mostly likable heroine and a compelling plot. Irene Kelly is a crime writer at a Southern California newspaper who is in the midst of recovering from her last adventure, dealing with difficult family members who are shocked (shocked!) that she and her detective fiance have yet to set a date for their wedding, and getting letters and calls from a new serial killer. The killer, whose plots and death traps all center around Greek mythology and references thereto, is actually quite a frightening presence, to the point where I wonder if the writer started to scare herself a bit. (The death traps, which start off in the Saw torture pattern, quickly get scaled back to less scary things: Victim #3 didn't actually starve to death; she was poisoned beforehand and the body posed ironically, etc. etc.) My only point of confusion was why the killer felt it necessary to include Irene as part of his twisted scheme, other than general plot device and typical serial killer Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (As I read this, I was reminded of the comic strip Doctor Blink, Superhero Shrink, in particular an episode in which Dr. Blink complains to his secretary that the hardest part of his job is helping villains avoid their compulsion to tell others about their nefarious plans in riddle format.) Still, a fast-paced read, and with the strong lead character, I may just have to pick the other books in this series up.
In movies:
The Other Guys: This was so stupid and so completely entertaining. And I finally understood why people think Will Ferrell is funny! (It also helped that I didn't want to kill his character 5 minutes after he appeared on screen.) Mark Wahlberg isn't bad, either, although he's playing the straight guy to the funny guy, and barely cracks a smile the whole time. The funniest thing in the entire movie is the musical parody segments, which are not nearly long enough. Will Ferrell leading a bar full of drunken patrons in crazy parodies of drinking songs, with a perfectly straight face, has great timing and plays it so seriously that I thought he was going into a trance of some kind. All I could do was dissolve into helpless giggling. :D
