3 posts tagged “speed racer”

Yesterday afternoon I finally finished Stardust the book. I loved the ending. I got over my annoyance with Yvaine and I loved the subtle way things played out. I thought the book was really good. Then last night I watched the movie, which is a lovely thing unto itself... maybe brilliant if you hadn't read the book. I didn't like the adaptation of the end of the book. I could have done without the big showdown that is in the movie. Give me the book's bittersweet ending over the movie's rather diabetically induced sugarfest. But I did like the movie, so long as I thought of it as something entirely separate from the book. I only pray, I won't be saying that same line when Twilight comes out.

I did like Ben Barnes as the hapless young Dunstan Thorn. I think the boy is very pretty and I am just a sucker for the pretty. I also liked Claire Danes as Yvaine. I loved Charlie Cox in Casanova and I thought he was perfect for Tristran/Tristan. I did not like Kate Magowan as the Slave Girl/Una. I thought she was a bit odd for the part. I pictured someone tinier, more agile and pixie-like. I also imagined the fair Victoria as a lot better looking than Sienna Miller. I did love Mark Strong as Septimus. He's still my second favorite character of the book. And De Niro as Captain Shakespeare was entertaining, even if they built that character entirely for the movie and he is not the man he was in the book. Oh and I didn't like Michelle Pfieffer at all. I thought she was just cheap compared to the rest.

Back to Ben Barnes, I also finished Prince Caspian. It was a quick and sometimes pedantic read. The voice that the entire book is written in is so obviously masculine that sometimes it feels rather cardboard. I don't know how to actually describe it. It's just a shallowness. Like if a male is telling a story where you aren't really described the situation, but you are getting a summation. I am looking forward to the movie at the end of the week. I am hoping that I find this more memorable than The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe movie. I just can't say that I recall a whole lot of what actually happens in the first. This is the bane of being un-fan-like about something.

I am hemming and hawing now, whether to read The Host or  A Sweet Far Thing. I have missed Kartik this last week without him. I even found Gemma Doyle fanfic and I couldn't read it without spoiling myself. Of course, because it is my way, I did manage to spoil myself some anyway. It's not as bad as last time where my nosiness spoiled me for the end of Rebel Angel's. This is more of a 'and after everything that happens, this happens' thing. I will stop talking about before I write it out and spoil Belle. So I guess I just made my decision. I will be reading, A Sweet Far Thing next. I wouldn't be sad if that got made into a movie. I don't have a clue as to who would play Gemma or Kartik. I would love for Kate Winslet to play Miss Moore. I don't know who I would have play Gemma's mother or father. Could I pick Charlie Cox to play Thomas though? And Pippa, Felicity and Ann... *sigh*. Too hard. I have one person cast in my version of A Great and Terrible Beauty. I will have to keep it a work in progress.

Tonight, Belle is coming over for us to watch the Ring of the Nibelung or otherwise known as... Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King. It has Benno Furmann and Robert Pattinson in it. Benno Furmann played Inspector Detector in Speed Racer. We rented it to see Rob. We aren't hoping for a lot from it. It is a made for TV movie. But hey, it could happen, it could be the best made for TV movie ever.

Today it is only 18 days until the 31st. I am hoping to be awake and coherent at 10AM that day to go to the bookstore and read the Special Edition Version of Eclipse for the Breaking Dawn chapter 1. I have tried to talk D into buying me the new version but as I want the paperback versions too, he's not as convinced to buy every version that comes out. So I might be living at the bookstore reading and rereading the chapter until 2 August. How pathetic. But it can't be helped. I feel like I've been waiting for this forever and it hasn't been a month. I can't imagine how those who read Eclipse when it came out feel. They are probably heavily medicated.

David and I went to see Speed Racer tonight. Well, truth be told, I went to see the Twilight Teaser Trailer on the big screen. Which might I add, was really really so much better than the video. You really get a full experience. And the girl next to D gasped when she saw that it was Twilight and she talked with her friend about the books. But back to Speed Racer. I am a huge Emile Hirsch fan and I wanted to be surprised and like this movie. I did find it to be the most colorful film I've ever seen. The graphics were amazing... but I just didn't care. I was bored. And it surprised me because it had a really good cast; Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Christina Ricci--who's too old for Emile, Scott Porter and Matthew Fox. I thought it would tickle me at least. But really in the end I just felt disenchanted. So much for Joel Silver wowing me. Wachowski Brothers or no, it was may just too aimed at the PG-13 crowd.

Last night I watched a terrible show with Robert Pattinson and Julian Sands in it called The Haunted Airman. It was confusing and really quite boring. It was about a chain smoking, paranoid, war veteran and in the end... well I won't give it away. Someone might be sad enough to want to watch it.

I have been reading Stardust the last few days. It's a little book and it shouldn't be taking me so long but I'm hypomanic and I am having trouble with concentration. I figure this has been my problem the last week and because it's very different experience while medicated then it is normally, I didn't really notice what was going on. I'm enjoying it but I can't stand the witch. I want to skip her parts. I love Septimus though. I find the Star annoying. I sort of hope that Victoria marries a chud farmer while Tristran is gone. I guess I am just sort of evil like that. I just think he's very silly about a girl that doesn't deserve him.

Tomorrow D and I are going to Torrance to pick up my tickets to the Stephenie Meyer book signing on 22 May. I am hoping to get my Twilight book signed while we are there. I paid the money they should let me get whatever book I want signed. I plan to ask tomorrow while we are there. I also want to ask if they plan to do a book release party for Breaking Dawn in August. It's kind of far to go at midnight. I would rather go to one up here but I haven't been able to find anyone with thoughts for a book release party then.

I was musing last night before bed about wanting to do something different today. I wanted to go somewhere where I could take pictures. We came up with the zoo and then I just had to invite Belle. All plans were made at about midnight and solidified around 2:30. I love when a plan comes together.

We picked up Belle at noon and went for our inaugural visit to the Los Angeles Zoo. The line to get in was a bit insane but moved relatively quickly. The zoo isn't as big as the SD Zoo so we had plenty of time to see things, the zoo doesn't close until 5PM.

The first couple pens we looked in we didn't see anything. Then we came across the sea lions and we watched their feeding time. I like sea lions. We walked around and looked at things and came to the flamingos. I'm not a big flamingo fan, but there were just so many of them.

I know I'm a bit of a bah humbug but I really think that what is wrong with places like the zoo is the children. Well the parents too. I think places like that would be much better if it was more selective in who it let in. I can't stand the parents fighting with children, the children screaming and the general problem that strollers cause. Couldn't they make days when grown-ups could go and enjoy places without children being there?

We spent the day there and didn't get to see everything. I missed the snow leopard. I did get to see the lions and tiger though. From the amount of pictures that I took of them you could say that they were my favorite. I know Belle was excited about the koalas. She's pretty cute when she is excited about something and she really really wants to hold a koala.

As the day wore on and we tried our hand at eating the food there, which I recommend to no one, ever, we noticed that the pens were more and more packed. I think everyone rushes to see things before they have to leave. We just know for next time that we need to arrive earlier and leave more time for the entire circuit. It was still plenty of fun.

When we left we went to the 101 Coffee Shop for coffee and I got the best veggie chili that I have had in a long time. We sat around talking movies and how Speed Racer is going to tank but have a cult backing because it is made by the creators of the Matrix. And we discussed the movie budget numbers for Twilight which went from 38 million originally to 60 million because of the fan reaction it was getting. I really hope that it can live up to that hype.

My day still wasn't over. My Pens made it through their series today and tonight was the Sharks and Dallas came. It started at 6PM and it's in it's 4th overtime. It's nerve wracking. I hope for D's sake that this ends well, but I know better to pray for it after last Thursday. Now the Pens are going to play the Flyers in the next round. It's like the rumble in Pennsylvania.

So that has been my Sunday. It was long and I am actually tired.