Reviews by boliyou

boliyou says "a great second act" about Nora Roberts - The Hollow

boliyou — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:24:35 GMT

The second in Roberts' Sign of Seven trilogy, and a bit stronger than the first. The three emerging couples in the trilogy each embody an aspect of vision: past, present and future. The Hollow represents the second stage of preparation for the showdown between good and evil. — — The backstory: three boys, all born on the same date (7/7/77) become blood brothers on their 10th birthday, and unwittingly unleashed a long-buried demon. For seven days chaos and evil reins in Hawkins Hollow, their small Maryland town. And every seven years, it comes back even stronger. Now in 2008, they prepare for the third and most devastating attack. Only now they have their counterparts. Three women drawn to The Hollow for different reasons. — — The Hollow is definitely a second act. It depends on the knowledge of the previous work and although it does have a good climax, it's clear that nothing is resolved until the next installment. — — The story focuses on Fox...

boliyou says "A very good second act" about The Hollow

boliyou — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:23:15 GMT

boliyou says "Enjoyable, warm and humorous." about Alan Alda - Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself

boliyou — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:23:21 GMT

I picked this up because I was looking for something light to listen to on my commute. Alan Alda reads the book himself, which is really the way to go. I usually enjoy a book much more when the author reads it. They get the inflection and tone exactly as they intended.Alda has a charming delivery, sounding enthusiastic and instructive. The book mostly concerns talks he's given at various events, from graduations to grand rounds. It's not a recitation of what he said so much as an explanation of how he came to decide what to talk about. — His interests are varied, which has led him to speak at many different kinds of venues. He's known lots of different people, and speaks fondly and warmly about them. — The book was enjoyable. Alda conveys his enthusiasm for many subjects without being heavy-handed. He shares joys and sadness. His dedication to his family is obvious. — Recommended. —...

boliyou says "Takes too long to get where it's going. " about Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

boliyou — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:25:06 GMT

Very looong and drawn-out account of what made Jesse James a popular hero, despite his being a racist, secessionist, thief and murderer, and why Robert Ford was deemed a coward for shooting him. — Facts of the situation aside, I wasn't overly impressed by the characters. Nothing about the film makes James (played by Brad Pitt) a sympathetic character. Nor does it help Robert Ford's (Casey Affleck) case. It's just a long retelling of the events before, during and after the assassination. — The acting wasn't compelling enough to hold my attention. I kept having to drag myself back to it and kept asking "is it over yet? How long is this movie?" — Fans of Pitt, Affleck, James or Ford may enjoy the film, but I can't recommend it. —...

boliyou says "Shanghai Night of the Living Dead" about Undead or Alive

boliyou — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:03:50 GMT

A fun and funny mix of two oil-and-water genres: Westerns and Zombie movies. Elmer is a Union deserter on the run, and Luke is a cowboy with a broken heart. Elmer is a slick con-man type. Luke is...not so smart, but well-meaning. It would be a charming buddy comedy in the style of Shanghai Nights if it weren't for the zombies, brought about, as it happens, by Geronimo's curse. Luckily they meet up with Geronimo's sexy niece to help them fight off the plague. — In fact, this movie could have been named "Shanghai nights of the living dead." I'm sure someone else has already thought of that. — I liked this better than I thought I would. The chases across the desert, horseback, cowboys, Native American, settlers, zombies, union soldiers...suspend disbelief a little and it all just...works. — James Denton as Elmer and Chris Kattan as Luke seem to be enjoying their roles, and Navi Rawat as Sue, Geronimo's niece, looks like she's having a great time. The zombies have some...

boliyou says "asks some tough questions, and doesn't give easy answers." about The Brave One

boliyou — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:02:37 GMT

Jodie Foster stars as a Manhattan talk radio host, with everything to live for. She has a happy, loving relationship with her fiance, a job she loves and is successful with, and good friends. She loves the city, and her talk show revolves around it.Then she and her fiance are brutally attacked. He's killed and she's in a coma for three weeks. She awakes to find that her fiance has been buried, and nothing is the same. Where once she felt safe, she now lives in fear. — She's driven to revenge and vigilantism. The police who hunt her assailant and her fiance's murderer now unknowingly hunt her as well, and she can't seem to control what she's become. — I find Foster to be believable in most everything. She has a direct, "this is how it is" manner, and inhabits her characters. If I could use one word to describe Foster, it's strength, and that is a common quality of the women she plays, even at their most vulnerable. — The villains here are all of a type. They revel in...

boliyou says "earnest and entertaining" about The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

boliyou — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:05:25 GMT

Writer A. J. Jacobs' account of his year spent living according to the laws in the Bible.Fresh from his book wherein he told of his experience reading the encyclopedia from A to Z, Abrams decides to embark on another "stunt:" he's going to follow the Bible, literally, for a year. As he readily admits, one reason for his experiment is to use as fodder for his book. Jacobs was raised in a secular household and was an Agnostic. Another was curiosity, and a third was a concern over his two-year-old son's moral upbringing. — Abrams assembled a team of Biblical experts, rabbis, ministers, priests, nuns and laypeople, even his eccentric ex-Uncle Gil. He reads and re-reads the Bible, and consults with his experts, friends and wife. He compiles a list of Biblical commandments; not just the Big Ten, but all the lesser-knowns that cover things from financial transactions to facial hair, too. — His year-long sojourn is told with earnestness and humor. He's a newcomer to religion, and...

boliyou says "a high-intensity first-person monster movie" about Cloverfield

boliyou — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:29:33 GMT

Cloverfield is a high-intensity first-person monster movie, from Lost producer J. J. Abrams. Think Godzilla meets The Blair Witch Project: brief glimpses of the monster lurking amid the devastation in midtown Manhattan, shot with a jumpy handcam during desperate flight and insane heroics.The premise is that the film was discovered in Central Park, after the event, and is now being viewed in the government archives. Friends throw a going away party for Rob, who's leaving for Japan to take a big new job. During the party, something goes boom. Their high-rise shakes. The lights flicker. It takes awhile to realize that what's happening is that a monster is loose in the city. The rest of the movie is dedicated to their flight from the city. — The characters are believable, the acting is strong and reactions natural. This being an Abrams story, the storyline is full of blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments, it folds back on itself on occasion, and the pace is unrelenting. Abrams knows how...

boliyou says "beautiful retelling of the classic Andersen story" about The Little Match Girl

boliyou — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:11:47 GMT

Part of a dropped Fantasia project, Disney's Oscar-nominated 2006 interpretation of H.C. Andersen's tragic fairy tale is available as an extra on the The Little Mermaid (Two-Disc Platinum Edition), a fitting place for it, since Mermaid was also written by Andersen.The background music is Alexander Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D Major: Third Movement: Notturno (Andante) and blends in well with the animation. The animation is old-style Disney (in a good way), with rich, painted backgrounds and 2-D animation on top of it. It suits the dark, sad story well, with muted colors, mostly in shades of gray, except when a match is lit. Then, there's a spark of color, gold and warm. — My only quarrels with the short are the setting: pre-revolutionary Russia? Why? Why not mid-19th century Denmark? That's where and when Andersen wrote the story. — And with changing some of the story details: Andersen clearly says that the child is blonde, bareheaded and barefoot. She lights three...

boliyou says "A wonderful lesson for children and reminder for adults" about Great Joy

boliyou — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:47:37 GMT

Great Joy is a wonderful child's book about caring.Frances lives in a comfortable home in the city with her mother. Each day she hears the music of an organ grinder and watches his pet monkey dance for coins. Her mother is too involved in her routine and chores to give the organ grinder much thought, but Frances is shocked to learn that the man sleeps on the street. She invites the man to church on Christmas Eve to see her perform in the pageant. Frances is so disappointed when she doesn't see him that she can't speak her lines until... the sanctuary door opens and in comes the organ grinder and his monkey. Frances delivers her lines with great joy, and the organ grinder is welcomed to the church at the reception afterward. — It's a simple story, with a simple ending. The artwork (by Bagram Ibatoulline) is wonderful, evoking the mid-40s with golden tones and a dreamy blur around the edges. Mother looks remarkably like Maureen O'Hara from Miracle on 34th Street. — I highly...

boliyou says "A lot of improvements, but it's still K-Mart" about K-Mart - Rockford, IL

boliyou — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:28:10 GMT

A few months ago I joined BzzAgent, a sort of reverse secret shopping/product testing program. Every so often they'll send a product to try or, as in this case, send you off to check out a new or updated store. The purpose isn't to keep the information private, it's to spread the word or "Buzz." — — My first assignment was to check out the newly redesigned K-Mart in Rockford, Ill. I've never been to this particular KMart before, but I've been to enough of them to have a good sense of what they're like, on average. In Rockford, there was some change in the store design that was especially obvious when you first enter. — — The store now has wooden umbrellas to create an outdoor market feel in the main aisle. These were set up to hold Valentines Day gift items, so I presume they'll probably be used for seasonal or gift items in the future. It was a nice effect, kind of charming. I've seen this done at other stores, though, so I can't call it unique to KMart....

boliyou says "awesome, intelligent "what-if"" about The World Without Us

boliyou — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:11:03 GMT

I read The World Without Us based on an online recommendation. Time.com lists it in their top 10 nonfiction books of the year. — — Several years ago, Weisman had written an article about how the wildlife is returning to the area surrounding Chernobyl. The Simpsons three-eyed fish jokes aside, the dangerous ground was becoming an unintentional wildlife refuge. Humans abandoned it, and nature took it back. — — One reader asked Weisman, "What would happen to the rest of the world, if humans just up and left?" Thus began a journey of speculation, where one question leads to a thousand more. — — Sometimes saddening, sometimes hopeful, always direct and occasionally witty, The World Without Us is a piece-by-piece construction of what would happen if we all picked up and left. It's also a picture of what things were like before we got here, and a comparison between the two. After we're gone, in some ways...

boliyou says "Excellent design and artwork; well worth the price!" about Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy

boliyou — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:36:33 GMT

I giggled like a kid when I first pulled the shrink-wrap off Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy. It combines two of my great loves, Star Wars and pop-up books, neither of which can I get enough.It's a trove of factoids about ships, characters, weapons and creatures, with a bit of canon history thrown in to keep it going. But the very best part is the paper engineering. Each page features a large pop-up (be still my heart, an extended Millennium Falcon!), with additional fold-out wings that hold even more pop-ups, sometimes layered three deep. — All your favorites are there, including a Luke and Darth face-off on the final page that had my jaw dropping with glee. Make sure to look closely at the oversized Vader helmet as it unfolds and forms. Great detail work. — I have a small but satisfying collection of pop-up books, but I count this among the most impressive, particularly given its price: $19.97 at Amazon. Definitely worth it for geeks of the Star Wars or pop-up...

boliyou says "Well staged and excellently cast" about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

boliyou — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:12:15 GMT

Tim Burton's excellent retelling of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is dark and macabre - as it should be. — — The tale of Sweeney Todd is an old one, and exists in many cultures. A barber, driven mad by the loss of his family, exacts revenge against those who wronged him by cutting their throats as he shaves them. — — Sweeney had been transported to Australia on a trumped-up charge after his wife caught the eye of a corrupt judge. He returns to find his wife dead, and his now-teenage daughter living with the judge as his ward. Already unstable due to his unfair banishment, the news of his family's fate drives him over the edge. — — Johnny Depp is perfectly cast as Todd, and Helena Bonham-Carter is always a good leading lady for him. Her acting was spot-on, although they should have dubbed her singing voice. It just isn't strong enough to play Mrs. Lovett. Depp will surprise you. His is not the kind of voice...

boliyou says "Moore makes a damning indictment of for-profit medicine." about Sicko

boliyou — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:30:15 GMT

Michael Moore's controversial documentary about the American healthcare system takes a hard look at the worst of the worst medical hardship stories. From claims denial to patient dumping, from retroactive rejection of coverage to Congressional hearings, Moore makes a damning indictment of for-profit medicine. — For contrast, he takes us on a tour of socialized medicine in Canada, England, France and Cuba. Judging from the documentary content alone, medical care is quick, efficient and caring. Everything we should expect medical care to be, as a human right. — Of course, Canada, England and France all have drawbacks in their healthcare systems, including notoriously long waits for emergency care and major surgery. And the U.S. has volunteer physicians, quality medical care and medical miracles. — It's important to remember that while Moore rails against the U.S. government's propaganda against socialized healthcare, Cuba and the French, Moore is engaging in his own...

boliyou says "could have been so much better" about I Know Who Killed Me

boliyou — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:07:41 GMT

This film got terrible reviews, much of it deservedly. It's really not very good. However, it's really no worse than any of the other slice-and-dice films out there. In fact, the violence is marginally toned down in comparison to some slasher flicks. — Talented young writer Aubrey is abducted by a sadistic man who systematically tortures her, cutting off digits and extremities. When she's discovered by the roadside, it's considered a miraculous escape, however Aubrey insists that she's not who they think she is: instead she's Dakota, the stripper/prostitute daughter of a crack-addicted mother. — It turns out that Dakota is the main character in one of Aubrey's stories, and the police and her parents work feverishly to help Aubrey regain her memory before the kidnapper strikes again. — But "Dakota" insists that she's not Aubrey, and that the real Aubrey is out there, still in the clutches of the kidnapper. — The reveal is actually an interesting twist, if...

boliyou says "a fascinating history of the Executive Mansion" about The President's House

boliyou — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:44:16 GMT

Ms. Truman, daughter of Harry S, takes us on an historical tour of the Executive Mansion, from a variety of perspectives. It's a fascinating history, full of anecdotes, trivia, personal memories and histories of the people who lived and worked there, how they lived, and sometimes even why.Rather than go historically, president by president, or family by family, she divides her stories topically. From the physical history of the building and grounds to White House pets, each segment adds a little more color and detail. Ms. Truman's enthusiasm and affection for the house, from its history to its staff, is evident in each retelling. — My only reservation is her obvious personal dislike for some of the House's former occupants, particularly those of the "Yankee" persuasion. Her repeated references to her beloved home state of Missouri make it clear she thinks regionally. She also uses her editorial license to return fire at some of the less flattering newspaper comments that were...

boliyou says "not for the faint of stomach" about The Ghost Map

boliyou — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:38:01 GMT

The story of the cholera outbreak in Victorian London that led to the complete revolution - or even creation - of the modern city infrastructure. At the time of the outbreak, the city sewage system was little more than open ditches and piles, sometimes to the height of the surrounding buildings, of refuse and excrement. Contemporary medical wisdom was that disease was spread through the foul stench in the air - miasma.Through the efforts of Dr. John Snow and the local parish curate, they were able to track the source of the outbreak to a pump in the city's fouled water system. This mapping technique for disease led to modern understanding of the importance of a clean water system, infrastructure design, sanitation, disease mapping and was even an early precursor of Google Earth and its like. — Johnson manages to keep a truly disgusting subject interesting. Although he does tend to be repetitive and descriptive (even my stomach turned a couple of times), he keeps the interest...

boliyou says "Uneven but educational read" about Thunderstruck

boliyou — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:35:09 GMT

Larson (Devil in the White City) is well-known for taking two concurrent historical events and finding their intersection.In Thunderstruck, he marries the creation and refinement of wireless telegraphy by Marconi to the murder of Cora Crippen by her husband, Dr. Hawley Crippen. — Larson is meticulous in his detail, sometimes too much so, particularly in the development of Marconi's wireless. Those sections seem to drag a bit, as compared to the descriptions of the Crippens' married life. — Marconi comes off as an uncharming absent-minded professor, oblivious to the feelings of those around him, including his own family. The difference between himself and Crippen, who made great sacrifices to please his demanding wife, is sharp, although never directly addressed. — The stories converge when the captain of a ship at sea uses the wireless to contact the authorities after he discovers Crippen on board. Wireless is also used in creating a media frenzy that complicates the...

boliyou says "Very witty" about I Am America...and So Can You!

boliyou — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:24:32 GMT

Stephen Colbert's riotously "conservative" view on the world and how it revolves: around him. Colbert fearlessly takes on society, religion, the military, sexuality, gender roles, marriage, childhood, adulthood, old age and more social and political topics, battering them with his own opinions.His slyly right-wing doggerel takes sharp digs at conservative values, while simultaneously skewering the left. He's the anti-politicians' politician. I laughed out loud over some of his non-sequiturs and corkscrew logic. — A must-read for anyone who enjoys political and social humor. Not to be taken even slightly seriously. —...