Not bad. But as I read I could sense Ms. Marshall’s trying, you know? I liked the story, even if I could see where it was going from fairly early on and even if it wasn’t particularly original — elements of it felt very similar to other things I’ve read or watched. It felt a bit like Toni Morrison-lite. Still, not a bad book, and I got a kick out of it being set in Grenada and Carriacou.

I didn’t like this movie. Maybe it was a good film, maybe it wasn’t but it, and the audience reaction to it when I saw it in the cinema, really disturbed and upset and depressed me. I wish I hadn’t seen it.

On a different note, William Hurt’s performance, which has had the words “bravura” and “showboat” applied to it? Was just ridiculous. Every minute he was on screen I was thinking Is this some sort of joke that I’m not getting? It was terrible.

I expected to like this movie (yeah, I’m a Johnny Depp fan) but not as much as I did. Depp made this movie for me, so many quotable lines, so fabulously delivered. The boy who played Charlie was sweet as well, and Charlie’s grandparent were also great. I really want to watch this again.

I’m undecided about this movie. It didn’t live up to all the hype that surrounded it, and I felt sort of disappointed in it, but I began to warm to it halfway through and by the end I was surprised to find that I’d sort of enjoyed it and might even want to watch it again. I didn’t find it particularly interesting or funny overall, and the characters were unlikeable and it was slow, and I’m still not sure if I liked it or not. My boyfriend called it “a boring movie about a has-been actor and a would-be writer driving around drinking wine and trying to screw women”. And I sort of agree with him, and wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone, but yet I sort of think that I liked it. Weird.

I like Sandra Bullock and I like Hugh Grant, but I didn’t like this movie. It reminds me of the short trashy romance novels I used to read as a teenager, with lots of spirited, cute exchanges between a spirited heroine and a slightly smarmy sleazy hero, who are in love with each other but don’t realise it yet. The set-up is far from the subtle and the conclusion is obvious before the film even starts, and I got a bit impatient sitting through the whole movie when I already knew just what was going to happen. I could have given this one a miss.

This movie was a pain to watch. The kids were disgustingly, insufferably annoying, not charming, not cute, not adorable, not forgivable, and their mother was not a sympathetic character at all. I kept hoping that Ice Cube would get rid of the whole lot of them and get back to his “fine sports collectibles” business in Oregon, and found the happy ending entirely unbelievable.

Watching this movie was a waste of time. It was bad, bad, bad. I spent 90 minutes waiting for something interesting or scary to happen and then the movie was over. Bleh.

Not a great movie, but better than I’d expected. The overall premise was interesting, if somewhat silly; I had the feeling that, implausible as it was, a bit more could have been done with it. Some parts were too easy and pat. Still it was pretty decent light entertainment with a little mystery and intrigue, some pretty good action, and a feel-good ending.

I’ve heard that Ms. Keyes is a few notches above most of the recent slew of “chicklit” authors, and being in need of some substantial (as in long), but light (as in fluffy) reading, I decided to give this book a try. Having finished, it wasn’t bad for what it was. It’s no “Bridget Jones’ Diary”, and there were some things about it that made me roll my eyes a bit, but it was good light entertainment.

The story of a beautiful young man haunted by visions of the lover he thought he left for dead in the Alaskan wilderness years before. This book started off a bit slowly, but by the time I was about one-third of the way through, I could not put it down. The lead-up to the twist at the ending was perfectly built up—I saw a lot of it coming, but it was still somehow an abrupt, and sad, surprise.