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Jul. 4th, 2007 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
molly_oHappy Fourth of July!
I am going to shamelessly copy![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dsudis and offer this quote:
"I'm a patriot. I love my decadent, cosmopolitan, self-indulgent, racially-mixed, godless, intellectually dilettante, drug-abusing, promiscuous, queer-loving country. And its flag is the Stars and Stripes."
--Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Read it while you listen to Marvin Gaye's rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner (found viamoominmama).
After all that, if you're a slash fan, you might want to wander over to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
con_txt and take the utterly goofy "Independence Day" poll.
Non-Independence-Day content:
A couple weeks ago, my all-time-favorite romance writer, Jennifer Crusie, posted in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
jennycrusie that she'd mail a free copy of her brand-spanking-new, not-yet-in-stores novel (a collaboration with Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart) to the first 50 bloggers to fill out a request form.
I submitted that form so fast, I left off my mailing address and had to start over.
Given my screw-up, I thought my entry might not even have gone through -- plus I was probably the 53rd or 110th person to fill out the form. So the other day when RM went through the mail and said, "Hey sweetheart, did you order a book from Jennifer Crusie?" I waspretty much jumping up and down and squealing pleasantly surprised.
Of course, the book was sent with the expectation that I'd review it. So here goes:
The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes are three sisters with magical powers who, over the course of the novel, find True Love. I didn't like all the Miss Fortunes (or their True Loves, for that matter). Two of the three sisters (can I call them the MFs?) were great, and one of the TLs was great, but one couple was just plain irritating (to me; they're obviously somebody's cup of tea), plus one of the OK sisters wound up with a guy who had a couple dubious moments (most of which she called him on, which for me is a mitigating factor).
The one couple I wholeheartedly loved was Mare and Crash. I felt genuine affection for both characters, and even though they're clearly right for each other, I totally understood WHY they had a hard time getting together; the conflict didn't seem contrived at all. Their dialogue was wonderful and had me laughing out loud and reading passages to RM (always the sign of an excellent novel). There's one line in particular that just thinking about it makes me giggle. Mare had excellent reasons for her misgivings, but Crash was beyond doubt worthy of her affection. Yay!
The supporting characters were also great -- there were a lot of them, but each was distinctly drawn. I especially loved Maxine and Pauline, at the diner. Crusie novels often have a very strong sense of place and community, and this one was no exception.
And even though I didn't like all the couples as much as I liked Mare and Crash, I couldn't put the book down -- on my way home, I actually read as I walked from the subway to our house, and as soon as I finished dinner I was back on the couch reading.
Movie seen: Live Free and Die Hard
So very, very much fun. I HEART Justin Long!! Ok, let me stop the mindless squeeing and try to compose my thoughts:
This is a much smarter movie than you might think. First off, the filmmakers clearly thought a lot about what it would make sense for John McClane to do (and not do) at this stage of his career. He's a senior detective, yeah; but his body is weary (very fit, yes, but weary), and he hasn't spent the 20 years since the last movie becoming an expert in cyber crime. There's really only one skill he demonstrates in this film that it just doesn't make sense for him to have, and they put in dialogue to explain it, and it wasn't as clumsy as that kind of dialogue often is. Yeah, he has a couple of crazy stunts, but c'mon, you're going to a Die Hard movie, what do you expect?
Justin Long is so, so good. I've loved him forever, I've loved him in Galaxyquest and Ed and Accepted and those Mac ads. His character here, Matt Farrell, is a little darker than those previous roles, but his comic delivery remains flawless. He has these dry, muttered lines that aren't set up like jokes, but if you're paying attention they're just hilarious. LOVE HIM!
Timothy Olyphant is capable of a whole lot more than he does as the villain -- but then, so was Alan Rickman way back in the first movie, and I don't hold that against him, either. There are a few moments where I thought, "Why doesn't he just shoot McClane and get it over with?" but overall they managed to write around that. McClane's daughter rocks, too. Oh, and I almost forgot Kevin Smith -- acting really isn't his forte, but he's Kevin Smith, I'll forgive him a lot.
Miscellaneous observations:
--There was one plot twist that I didn't think made sense, but then I talked it through with RM, and it actually did.
--If you actually live in DC, the scenery is distracting as hell, because one minute you're like, 'yeah, that's DC,' and then half a block later it isn't.
--Watch for one of the henchmen, a French actor and stuntman named Cyril Raffaelli. McClane derisively calls him a hamster, but he really has amazing skills. He did stunts in "The Transporter" and starred in a French movie called "District B13."
-- I kept flashing back to Bruce Willis in "16 Blocks," which has a weirdly similar premise (sort of), but is a much, much different movie.
-- There's an extended fight scene between Bruce Willis and Maggie Q that kinda gave me pause. I mean, I sorta think it's cool when a female character is capable enough that the hero can't hold back when he's fighting her. On the other hand, I don't really enjoy watching a guy beat the crap out of a woman (even if they've already established that she can and will beat the crap out of him, given half a chance). I think this is more my issue than the movie's issue, but I might not be the only person who feel this way, so I mention it anyhow. (That reminds me, I read somewhere a critical comment about the ugly way McClane refers to Mai. That actually *didn't* bother me, because I thought it was pretty clear he was deliberately being really offensive in order to get a rise out of Gabriel (kinda the way Dennis Hopper's character used the n-word in "True Romance" to piss off Christopher Walken).
-- According to www.imdb.com, the UK title of the film is "Die Hard 4.0," which makes sense: a Revolutionary War slogan ain't gonna resonate with our erstwhile oppressors.
I am going to shamelessly copy
dsudis and offer this quote:"I'm a patriot. I love my decadent, cosmopolitan, self-indulgent, racially-mixed, godless, intellectually dilettante, drug-abusing, promiscuous, queer-loving country. And its flag is the Stars and Stripes."
--Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Read it while you listen to Marvin Gaye's rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner (found via
moominmama).After all that, if you're a slash fan, you might want to wander over to
con_txt and take the utterly goofy "Independence Day" poll.Non-Independence-Day content:
A couple weeks ago, my all-time-favorite romance writer, Jennifer Crusie, posted in
jennycrusie that she'd mail a free copy of her brand-spanking-new, not-yet-in-stores novel (a collaboration with Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart) to the first 50 bloggers to fill out a request form.I submitted that form so fast, I left off my mailing address and had to start over.
Given my screw-up, I thought my entry might not even have gone through -- plus I was probably the 53rd or 110th person to fill out the form. So the other day when RM went through the mail and said, "Hey sweetheart, did you order a book from Jennifer Crusie?" I was
Of course, the book was sent with the expectation that I'd review it. So here goes:
The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes are three sisters with magical powers who, over the course of the novel, find True Love. I didn't like all the Miss Fortunes (or their True Loves, for that matter). Two of the three sisters (can I call them the MFs?) were great, and one of the TLs was great, but one couple was just plain irritating (to me; they're obviously somebody's cup of tea), plus one of the OK sisters wound up with a guy who had a couple dubious moments (most of which she called him on, which for me is a mitigating factor).
The one couple I wholeheartedly loved was Mare and Crash. I felt genuine affection for both characters, and even though they're clearly right for each other, I totally understood WHY they had a hard time getting together; the conflict didn't seem contrived at all. Their dialogue was wonderful and had me laughing out loud and reading passages to RM (always the sign of an excellent novel). There's one line in particular that just thinking about it makes me giggle. Mare had excellent reasons for her misgivings, but Crash was beyond doubt worthy of her affection. Yay!
The supporting characters were also great -- there were a lot of them, but each was distinctly drawn. I especially loved Maxine and Pauline, at the diner. Crusie novels often have a very strong sense of place and community, and this one was no exception.
And even though I didn't like all the couples as much as I liked Mare and Crash, I couldn't put the book down -- on my way home, I actually read as I walked from the subway to our house, and as soon as I finished dinner I was back on the couch reading.
Movie seen: Live Free and Die Hard
So very, very much fun. I HEART Justin Long!! Ok, let me stop the mindless squeeing and try to compose my thoughts:
This is a much smarter movie than you might think. First off, the filmmakers clearly thought a lot about what it would make sense for John McClane to do (and not do) at this stage of his career. He's a senior detective, yeah; but his body is weary (very fit, yes, but weary), and he hasn't spent the 20 years since the last movie becoming an expert in cyber crime. There's really only one skill he demonstrates in this film that it just doesn't make sense for him to have, and they put in dialogue to explain it, and it wasn't as clumsy as that kind of dialogue often is. Yeah, he has a couple of crazy stunts, but c'mon, you're going to a Die Hard movie, what do you expect?
Justin Long is so, so good. I've loved him forever, I've loved him in Galaxyquest and Ed and Accepted and those Mac ads. His character here, Matt Farrell, is a little darker than those previous roles, but his comic delivery remains flawless. He has these dry, muttered lines that aren't set up like jokes, but if you're paying attention they're just hilarious. LOVE HIM!
Timothy Olyphant is capable of a whole lot more than he does as the villain -- but then, so was Alan Rickman way back in the first movie, and I don't hold that against him, either. There are a few moments where I thought, "Why doesn't he just shoot McClane and get it over with?" but overall they managed to write around that. McClane's daughter rocks, too. Oh, and I almost forgot Kevin Smith -- acting really isn't his forte, but he's Kevin Smith, I'll forgive him a lot.
Miscellaneous observations:
--There was one plot twist that I didn't think made sense, but then I talked it through with RM, and it actually did.
--If you actually live in DC, the scenery is distracting as hell, because one minute you're like, 'yeah, that's DC,' and then half a block later it isn't.
--Watch for one of the henchmen, a French actor and stuntman named Cyril Raffaelli. McClane derisively calls him a hamster, but he really has amazing skills. He did stunts in "The Transporter" and starred in a French movie called "District B13."
-- I kept flashing back to Bruce Willis in "16 Blocks," which has a weirdly similar premise (sort of), but is a much, much different movie.
-- There's an extended fight scene between Bruce Willis and Maggie Q that kinda gave me pause. I mean, I sorta think it's cool when a female character is capable enough that the hero can't hold back when he's fighting her. On the other hand, I don't really enjoy watching a guy beat the crap out of a woman (even if they've already established that she can and will beat the crap out of him, given half a chance). I think this is more my issue than the movie's issue, but I might not be the only person who feel this way, so I mention it anyhow. (That reminds me, I read somewhere a critical comment about the ugly way McClane refers to Mai. That actually *didn't* bother me, because I thought it was pretty clear he was deliberately being really offensive in order to get a rise out of Gabriel (kinda the way Dennis Hopper's character used the n-word in "True Romance" to piss off Christopher Walken).
-- According to www.imdb.com, the UK title of the film is "Die Hard 4.0," which makes sense: a Revolutionary War slogan ain't gonna resonate with our erstwhile oppressors.