Weekend Reviews

All week long it has been nice and warm outside. Perfect laying out weather. But I've been working. Today is finally Saturday. And it is cold and yucky and overcast. Not laying out. Woe is me.

Since I have not been able to be lay out today I actually attempted productiveness. I went to Target and got my eyes checked (my vision has gotten worse of course) and bought a year's supply of contacts. Then since I've been home I attempted to hang up pictures on the staircase. Luckily there's no glass on the picture frame which is good, because I'm not sure I did the best job hanging them. So cross your fingers they last. (And that the boy approves of them when he gets home lol)

The plan for the rest of the day is still undecided. Maybe it will miraculously warm up! (Not likely) Maybe we will go see The Reader tonight. Who knows...

But last night we did actually make it to the theaters and saw Coraline in 3-D. I love this new 3-D obsession movies have. And there are some good 3-D movies coming out. Most significantly Pixar's Up. But that's another story. The 3-D in here was nicely done. Not to over the top. For instance the scenes in the "real" world the 3-D was somewhat subdued. But in the "other" world it kind of "popped" you might say. It worked well to differentiate the two. And while it is fun to feel like things are coming right at you, it distracts you from the movie. Thankfully, there wasn't any of that during the actual movie. Just during the opening and closing credits.

The story itself I did like as well. It didn't feel obvious what was going to happen, which is nice. It did totally remind me of an Are You Afraid of the Dark episode from back in the day. The one where a girl's friend disappears through a door in the attic. And she wind up going through to rescue her friend. And her friend is half turned into a porcelain doll. Anyone else remember that?

I though Dakota Fanning did really well voicing Coraline. It's kind of funny how this and Push cam out the same weekend, and she is such to different characters in both. Also I liked Teri Hatcher as the mom. But I think that's more of me just liking Teri Hatcher.

Overall I would recommend this movie. It's a good kids movie, but a thoughtful story line.

While I'm reviewing things I might as well continue. I finally jumped on the bandwagon and read J. K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Overall it was a fun read. There's five stories, each of which is followed by comments done by Dumbledore. The only complaint I really have is that she does the introduction as herself, but says this was found once Dumbledore died. I think it would have felt more "real" if the introduction was written by "Hermoine" instead, she she is the one who "translated" it from the rhunes. Since Hermoine is muggle born as footnotes done by J.K. could have easily been written by Hermoine. I guess overall I'm saying it would have been better if the book was treated more like it truly was from Harry Potter's world.

I think that's probably enough Geek-dom for me. (But hasn't Harry Potter transcended geekiness by now?) Well I guess I'm off to hope that it warms up and there's some sun for me today. We can hope, right?

~Shoshanah