As it were…

Toy Story

I introduced it to Molly and Sophi the other day, and it’s still good.

Harry Potter

Believe it or not, I actually considered going to the bookstore at midnight to get my copy. Not because I needed it that early or anything, but because I wanted to see what kind of parent keeps their kids up until 2 at a bookstore.

But I didn’t, I was rafting. So I got it sunday afternoon. I was at Schulers a few days before and met Kim, a quintessential gamer dude who was interested in Linux. He works there, and hooked my up with a reserved copy, which I didn’t really need since they bought 5,000 copies.

I finished it yesterday. It’s very good. I won’t tell you anything important about it, because you should read it yourself if you’re interested. I had heard it wasn’t as dark as the 4th, which made me sad, since the 4th was the first one to feel like a serious book for adult appreciation. I heard wrong. This one is just as serious. If you haven’t read any of them, please do. The farther we get into the series, the more I realize that these books aren’t just fad, they’re seriously good literature that people will be reading 50 years from now.

And before I close, please read what Terry has to say about Harry.

Four Feathers

I’ve always enjoyed movies about the British in the 1800’s someplace other than England. India, Africa, the South Pacific, etc. I’m not sure why. They were insufferable. So Four Feathers appealed to me immediately. I’m not sure why I waited so long to watch it. Maybe because it looked kind of depressing. Good movies about that time period often are.

But here I am, having just seen it, and I think it was excellent. It was indeed kind of dark and depressing, but the events portrayed should not have been portrayed any differently. I’ve seen Heath Ledger in several movies now, and they’ve mostly been kind of froofy. He did all right, but he was mostly just playing to the teen female audience, which isn’t necessarily discriminating.

In this movie I think he did well, real acting. Thought and emotion conveyed well without words. I would recommend the movie. And Djimon Hounsou is just plain cool.

Undercover Brother

My wife picked this one thinking I would really like it. She was pretty close. I don’t know that I would have picked it myself, but I had a good time with it.

Its entire point is to play up racial stereotypes, both black and white. And they do a pretty good job. They play up the 70’s jive culture quite a bit, with character names like Smart Brother, Conspiracy Brother (who was hilarious), and Sistah Girl. The B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. wages daily war upon The Man, who is not actually a euphamism for The Establishment, but actually a real guy who hates modern african american culture. He owns a company names Multinational Inc. It’s a conglomerate.

I was amused by all of it, and had several laugh out loud spots.