The Hunger Games
It was enjoyable, but I thought it lost a lot compared to the book. I mean, I was expecting that, since a feature-length film can hold about a well-written short story's worth of material, but I was a little surprised that a lot of what was lost was the actual bloodshed of the hunger games. I kind of expected that the interactions between Katniss and Peeta would lose something, but why they toned down the story of how they "met" and that she feels she owes him, I have no idea. And why did they slap dark hair dye on Aryan kids to make Katniss and Gale, and bleach a darker guy's hair to make a Peeta? Are we running out of actors in Hollywood that we can't just find someone who looks the part?
I still liked it, though, and would watch it again, even though Wes Bentley scares me on a primal Busey level.
Almost Famous
I always wanted to watch this, and for some reason never did until this past weekend. While I'm torn between whether Penny Lane is an independent and quirky character of her own or just your typical Manic Pixie Dreamgirl object for the two male leads, and a little weary of always seeing guys coming of age in cinema, I really enjoyed this movie. To me, it felt like an artsy, serious, kinda pretentious Empire Records. I mean, the subjects aren't at all the same, and the style isn't the same, but the feeling I get from the two movies is similar. I still haven't deleted it from my DVR because I want to rewatch it, it was that pleasant an experience.
And now for the e-book review:
Inspired by the talented Catherine Winters to give vampire fiction another shot, I tried a new e-book called Bill the Vampire this weekend. It was... okay. Actually, it kind of reminded me of Black in that the "hero" and "heroine" (and all the rest of the characters, now that I think about it) were anything but, and were less like that fantasy version of ourselves that one usually sees and relates to in fiction, and more like people you actually encounter in life. On one hand, that makes them harder to relate to sometimes, since their flaws mean that they are just as likely to have flaws that you don't share, but on the other hand, it is kind of a nice change of pace.
Unfortunately for our vampire Bill, his flaws are a lot less charming and interesting than Josephine's. He's my nightmare. He's basically your standard pudgy gamer stuck in a perpetual adolescence, who sees women as stuff he should be entitled to by virtue of being such a "nice guy" (he isn't). Plus he thinks he's funny, and isn't.
Luckily the book laughs at him almost as often as it laughs with him, so there is that. And despite my feminist irritation, it was still more enjoyable than Twilight.
