I’ve never seen the show, but the soundtrack doesn’t really make me want to see it. The characters seem kind of flat and the storyline trite, without really capturing the decadence of the 20s. That said, I enjoyed the music for what it is – great singers and fun songs. I loved Queenie’s voice (forget the actress’s name), and Idina and Taye are wonderful as always. “Poor Child” is a particularly memorable song.

I liked this for the same reasons I liked the “Evil Dead” series – it’s completely ridiculous and cheesy and it knows that perfectly well. Let’s be honest – what more do you need than Elvis and JFK in a nursing home fighting off an evil mummy? I would have liked it better if Elvis waxed philosophic a bit less though. Entertaining nonetheless. The old black man who thought he was JFK completely made the movie for me.

“Of course mine WOULD be chocolate now that I’ve been dyed…”

I wouldn’t say it was terrible, but it sort of bored me. Maybe I’m not a big “spy movie” person, but I really didn’t feel the suspense, and the relationship between the guy and the girl was very strange to say the least.

Junior year of high school, I wrote a massive term paper on Sarah Orne Jewett – without reading a single thing she had written. I did really well on it, and at the end of the year I felt a bit guilty when my English teacher gave us all little gifts, and mine was a copy of this book. So three years later I finally got around to reading it! It’s a sweet book, not so much plot-driven as a series of character sketches. She’s considered an important American author, and her descriptions of the landscape and the people of a Maine coastal town are really lovely. It’s not a book I’d read again because its lack of plot didn’t really hold my interest. But she really does a masterful job painting a picture of the New England character, in a simpler time.

I guess I’m not a huge fan of the HP movies, just because they seem so superficial after reading the books (which start to get really complex and layered after book three). But they generally do a good job for a book that was inevitably going to be translated to screen. Daniel Radcliffe gets better and better, even though Harry is sort of annoyingly emo in this one. Special effects, as always, were great – I think the most fun part of the movies is seeing all the little magical gadgets and things being brought to life. Maybe it’s just me, but the pace of this one seemed way too slow, even though there was a lot of action crammed into a short amount of time. For some reason, pace is one thing I always notice during movies and plays – I think my high school drama teacher was effective at drilling its importance into my head!

I fell in love with Hairspray when I saw it on Broadway a couple years ago, and I think this movie really lived up to its fun and exuberant spirit. Nikki Blonski makes a wonderful Tracy with a bubbly, boundless enthusiasm and powerful voice. The all-star cast does a fantastic job, with my one complaint being that Amanda Bynes doesn’t do Penny’s voice and “transformation” justice (she’s awfully cute though). I’ll bet everyone who saw this came out of the theater in a great mood, wanting to dance to all the fun and catchy songs. Knowing that they had to cut some songs out, I do think that they gave the adults (Tracy’s parents, Mrs. Von Tussle, etc.) too much screen time when the movie is really all about Tracy and her friends.

I love Spinal Tap, but I have to say that Best in Show now rivals that for my favorite Christopher Guest movie. I was laughing constantly. The mockumentary style works so perfectly to make us laugh at the intensity of the dog show world, which has a kind of inherent silliness. Such great characters too.

This book isn’t a page turner. Its plot is extremely simple, but it is nevertheless an interesting and relevent philosophical discussion. It definitely took me a while to get into it, but by the end I couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t one of my favorite books, but worth reading because it made me think about how I go about daily tasks in a new and interesting way. I just realized that all of the sentences have “but” in the middle, but I guess that helps explain how I feel about this book.

This was even more uninteresting than the first one. I enjoyed Frou Frou’s unusual take on “Holding Out for a Hero,” as well as the version that the Fairy Godmother sings (one of the few songs that actually reminds you of the movie), and even though “Accidentally in Love” by Counting Crows was way overplayed I still enjoy it. Most of the songs were pretty dull – too many mopey songs alluding to Shrek and Fiona’s romantic problems.

This CD has something for everyone, which is fine, but also means that I only liked some of the songs. Somewhat disappointingly, “Hallelujah” and “Bad Reputation” are sung by different artists than those featured in the film. I love Rufus Wainwright’s version of “Hallelujah,” but I also wish I could find the one by John Cale, which nearly brought me to tears during the movie.