Thursday, May 05, 2005

I've decided to take a break from A People's History because I really need to let each part of that book sink in a bit before I can continue on to the next...but I've picked up Slaughterhouse-Five in the interim. I am reading a copy from 1969 (my father's), so the cover pictured here is inaccurate: while I knew that the ISBN had only been adopted relatively recently, I didn't realize that it was adhered to by the U.S. only since 1970! Unfortunately, this version of Slaughterhouse-Five didn't make the cut...hehe.

Tuesday night, Dan and I went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a movie I've been anticipating for a long time...I have to say, while in the theater, I was terribly disappointed. I have read the book, and loved it of course, but I had no idea what was going on, and I felt like so much of the stuff in the movie wasn't even familiar! So I was rather upset. However, I went home and took a look around the IMDb message boards and remembered that Douglas Adams had helped work on the changed screenplay, and that it was partly how he wanted it (of course it was changed somewhat after he died, too) and I was definitely reassured that I wasn't going crazy when I realized that the John Malkovitch part HAD just been added in with no relation to the book whatsoever! So, I'm kind of reconsidering what I thought of the flick. I think I'll have to see it again before I make any solid judgments. It was a fun ride, but I just don't know how I feel about it...the jury is still out, for me.

Then last night we went to see xXx: State of the Union and I have to say I enjoyed it! I know it got terrible ratings & did so poorly in the box office (they say because people were disappointed not to see Vin in the lead role again...I don't know what that says about moviegoers these days...), but I thought it was just a fun, thoughtless action movie. And I think Ice Cube is great. :) I hadn't seen the first Triple-X, so I've no idea how to compare it as a sequel, but like I said it was a pretty hot movie, for what it was. And for having been dragged there by Dan. It's interesting that I never usually WANT to go see action movies in the theaters, but when I am there I always have a good time. I liked the hot cars and the guns and the fight scenes and all of that fun stuff. What can I say, maybe I have bad taste, but I think I really am something of a sucker for those big-screen nonstop action kinds of movies...they're all in good fun. I am not saying they deserve Oscars, but of course they can be taken at face value, for what they are worth: I'd say a fun diversion.

Currently Reading:

TITLE: Slaughterhouse-Five
AUTHOR: Kurt Vonnegut


TITLE: Game Coding Complete
AUTHOR: Mike McShaffry

1 comment:

JVC said...

It seems that you didn't enjoy H2G2 while watching it, but changed your mind after learning that Adams co-wrote the script. Why should it matter that the story's been changed slightly? Personally, I really enjoyed the film.

Slaughterhouse-Five is one of my all-time favourite books. If you haven't read Vonnegut's other stuff, you should! :)