This one took me for-ev-er to get through.

Surprisingly, it picked up speed toward the middle and had a relatively satisfying and fun ending.

As a die hard X-Phile I HAD to see the movie no matter how bad it was, that’s what I told everyone, and I reasoned that no matter how terrible, at least I’d see Mulder and Scully again, that had to be worth a few points, right? So I showed up at my local theater for the very first showing on the very first day… and left in a sulky rage. It was like a very long boring episode that I wouldn’t have paid much attention to on tv (okay, can we all admit that there have been some REALLY boring episodes of our favorite show? This would have been the single worst episode and it was extra long). There were few redeeming qualities to the movie, all of which were too short, too little, and for most of them, far too late in the movie. I’ve actually recommended everyone wait til the DVD to come out—even to my crazy X-Phile friends who were of the same mindset I was, the “I HAVE to see it in the theater, I just HAVE to… it’s THE X-FILES, I HAVE TO!” mindset. To them I said, “Wait for the DVD… and even then maybe don’t even bother.”

I WANTED to like this movie. I wanted it to be great, and my expectations weren’t even very high to start with. But it was lazily written with none of the scariness, none of the wit, none of the dark mood, none of the unexpected and weird the X-Files used to pony up. I wish they hadn’t made this movie at all, it’s like a belated, undeserved black mark on the record of one of the greatest tv shows of all time.

This was a very strange book. It calls itself “A Really violent, sometimes funny novel” ... but I’d say it was a sorta violent, less-than-sometimes funny novel. It also was more of a mystery than I expected, particularly because I did not find it in the mystery section of my library which is where I think I’d have put it after reading it. For the most part I could have done without this novel.

This was SURPRISINGLY good for so-called “chick lit.” Much smarter than a number of books I’ve read and very reminiscent of Bridget Jones. The end was a little weak is pretty much my only complaint.

I love Jackie Chan movies (guilty pleasure). I greatly enjoyed the first two Rush Hour movies. So it’s not surprising that I really liked this one. It was hilarious and had lots of fun action sequences. The downside is that it seemed EXTREMELY short, though it was supposedly 90 minutes, it felt even shorter - I felt like they needed another 10 minutes or so just to complete the story arc and build to a real climax - almost every battle had the same amount of tension so when the end fight scene came I didn’t know it was the end! I thought it was the “one just before the boss fight” you know? Where it’s pretty bad but then the MC has to face his personal demons and succeed where he’d previously failed. I felt like that was missing and so the movie seemed rushed, especially compared to either Shanghai Knight/Noon movie. But as a fun, funny action comedy, as a Jackie Chan movie, I’ll let it go.

Very funny and as always, the bloopers are half the fun. If it’s not your scene, this won’t convert you, but it’s a 90 minute escape for the Jackie Chan believers out there. ;)

What’s really odd is that people say they liked the last half of the movie, but the last half of the movie was the part that was almost nothing like the book. They added and changed SO much to make it more Hollywood formulaic fun and effects and characters (the lightning ship captain’s “traits”, the giant battle scene at the end). I’m not necessarily complaining, but the movie should perhaps have chosen to be either quirky and surprising and charmingly funny like the book or just fun, humor, and effects like (most of) the movie, not half of one and half of the other. Part of the fun of the book was figuring it all out (and the charming curse which was not even in the movie at all!) but the movie just laid it all out there without question—or if there was a question it was only for the stupidest of viewers (without giving anything away).

I was just disappointed. I did greatly enjoy it, and I think if maybe there was more of the second half type humor and scenes and in-your-face blockbuster fantasy I’d probably enjoy it more, as well as if they’d stayed closer to the book and mellowed it out. Either way. It just didn’t meld together very well for me.

Got sucked in by the cute graphics and the fact that I was going to be a bridesmaid at the time I picked it up.

I admired the way the author let you design the male main character’s looks (pretty much) based on the hint of a couple of hot celebrities to use as templates. I bet most women just picked one or the other and imagined the actor the whole time. Very crafty. We may do that unconsciously or even by decision, but in this case we were encouraged by the author. After all, the real movie stars are hotter than our imaginations (cause our imaginations make them TOO perfect maybe? Or I just have a crappy imagination, fine, whatever lol)

Pretty boring though and false… What I assume to be a typical romance (don’t read romance in general). I thought that the representation of the guy’s mentality and thoughts to be laughable! If guys want to know what women think men think like (they fantasize), read this book.

Finished this in just one sitting - not that I couldn’t put it down, but the pace was very fast and the prose was light and easy to read. It was a pleasant way to pass a lazy Sunday evening. It was just very easy to read until it was done. Though the constructions of the omniscient narrative are sometimes very bizarre, using “we” as in “I wish we could tell you that Ben Williams is standing but ten feet away” and in addition to slipping between first person and 3rd omniscient (with the reader included as the mysterious “we”) it also slips between present and past tenses which was the most jarring for me - the present was used for setting the scene which just seemed lazy more than anything. The back of the book said that it has a ”...surprise ending no reader will see coming.” But unless the only readers that are supposed to read this book have never ever seen a romance movie… or better yet have no frontal lobe, you pretty much get the first conclusion that springs to mind.

As with most chick lit I’ve read I have a problem with the moralization that the ending gives us—what lesson did the protagonist really learn anyway? As in most of the books I’ve read she didn’t really learn her lesson (she learned A lesson maybe, one the author clearly thinks is the right one, but as a reader I’m left thinking that the protagonist is still confused and just as flawed as at the beginning) but she received her happy ending anyway. Puts me greatly in mind of the Shopaholic book I read.

People with eating disorders lots of times may wrongly believe that their entire life will suddenly and miraculously be alright and perfect if they could only lose the right amount of weight and be the right size. The truly strange thing is that in this protagonist’s case, she was absolutely RIGHT!!!

Nothing more than mindless fluff… at least it was kinda fun to read though.

This is a sequel and because I read the first book SO long ago, I found myself a little bit more confused about some things than I think I normally am in a sequel. I appreciate that the author didn’t spend forever rehashing the first book because when authors do that it is very annoying, but a few more clues about who this or that person was would have been nice. This author is big into not explaining things to you, but rather giving you little clues about everything (from the structure of the world to who a character is to what the hell is going on) and letting you put it all together. Which was overall very nice because I didn’t feel insulted or bored by a lengthy exposition.

I’m not sure if I liked the first one more or not. I think in some ways this one was better and in others the first one was better.

The story was pretty much a failure. The heroine reminded me of Bridget Jones, but only in the way that a wax statue reminds you of a real celebrity.

What I did like about the book is that there is some reality to the psychology of the character’s thoughts. Anyone who has ever experienced an addiction to something will identify with the spiraling behavior of the heroine. However, her turning point is lame and late, coming AFTER a major success rather than at her lowest point; her revelation is weak and uninspired and false. Instead of punishment for her ever increasing lies and the way she abuses everyone around her, she is unjustly rewarded without repentance or even once realizing all of the harm that she’s done to other people because of her obsession with shopping, money, and appearance. Her realization is a purely pragmatic one regarding her own habits regarding bills. Call me nitpicky, but I’d like a little bit more character growth than that!

I tried to feel good about myself in comparison to Rebecca’s vices and flaws (which isn’t a hard thing with this character! too many characters are too GOOD, you know?), but even that is a hollow victory: someone who is SO out of it, SO self-absorbed, SO superficial, SO bumbling, SO incompetent, and SO cruel to other people still gets the predictable fame, fortune, and rich-good-looking-guy in the end, while the rest of us are cheated out of a fraction of her happy ending.