Two Mini Movie Reviews: The Good Lie and Big Hero 6

Movie: The Good Lie
Genre: Drama
Starring: Reese Witherspoon
Rating: PG13
My Rating: Two thumbs up

We rented this one night at the strong urging of my kids who had already seen it. It's a very moving story about a bunch of refugee kids from Sudan who, after their parents were killed, trekked across Africa to reach a refugee camp in Kenya. The hardships were terrible and many of them didn't make it. Those that did,  stayed for many years and actually grew up in that camp. Then one day, their names came up to make the trip to America and start a new life. This story follows several of these kids as they adjust to their new life.

This is one of those bittersweet movies. Very funny in parts as the kids (well, now young adults actually) learn to adjust in a place where they have food, don't have to worry about wild animals, can sleep on a bed, and etc. But the story of how they ended up here, being separated from their brother, and their sister and leaving people behind, is so so hard. The end will have you very much weepy, but in a good way.

I loved that the boys who acted in this movie are real true life refugees.

Bottom Line: It's an awesome inspirational movie. See it!






Movie: Big Hero 6
Genre: Animation
Starring: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit
Rating: PG
My Rating: One thumb up

Lots of talk about this movie, lots of buzz, lots of expectation! Finally, I watched it with my daughter and found it to be as cute as expected, but not as funny and much more sad. (She started warning me that it was sad as we began, and so I was, wait, what? I thought it was funny!)

It's about a genius boy and his brother, who invent things for fun. His brother makes a healer/doctor robot called Baymax. The boy, Hiro, bonds with this robot especially after the sad circumstances. But there's a bad guy that needs to be stopped who steals Hiro's own invention, nano robots. So, he gathers his friends, creates super powers for them, and they are off to stop the bad guy!

Yes, Baymax is very cute! But the story itself is a sad one. The villains reminded me what I used to watch on Saturday morning cartoons and made me roll my eyes a bit. The friends are awesome and quirky. But in the end, I was just eh, it was okay about this one. I have other animated movies that still maintain my top spot. (Up and Toy Story for starters)

Bottom Line; See it if you're fan of animation, and super hero movies!

Top Ten Tuesday: Checking In!

The prompt today over at The Broke and the Bookish is if you could check in on a character from a beloved book you've read in the past, who would it be? Good one guys! I love this, and I think I'm going to have a very hard time narrowing down my list!


Top Ten Characters I'd Like to Check In On

1. Jane Eyre: Did she truly live happily ever after? Did Mr. Rochester snap out of it and be happy too? Did she ever regret her decision?

2. Holden: Did he get the help he needed? Did he grow up to have a happy life? Did he find love and friendship? Did his parents stick by him? Did he ever come to terms with the deal of his brother?

3. Ann and Captain Wentworth: How did their life together turn out? I hope is was awesome!

4. Ed Kennedy: I really hope he found someone he could love even more than he loved what's her face. And lived a nice long happy crazy life!

5. Kvothe: I'm dying to know what's happening with him! Third book please!

6. Pi: I wonder if he ever really figured out what happened once and for all. Well, I think we know, but did he overcome? I worry about him, I do.

7. Cameron and Ruben Wolfe: I would love to know if they grew up to be upright standing citizens! Well, Cameron did I'm sure. Not so sure about Ruben.

8. Did the people who were stuck Under the Dome ever fully recover?

9. Did the Joad family finally get work and money and live a good happy life?

10. Laurie and Jo and Amy: Well, I hope Laurie ended up happy. And I wonder, since he would actually still be in Jo's life, did she have regrets? I wonder if she and Amy got along? I wonder if Laurie kept up his fun loving manner his whole life? (Are these questions addressed in sequels? I never read them!)

Okay. Mostly I just hope characters don't regret whatever decisions they made in their stories and ended up living happy lives! It would be interesting to know, don't you think?

What characters do you wonder about?

Movie Review: The Imitation Game

Movie: The Imitation Game
Genre: Historical Drama
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley
Rating: PG13
My Rating: Two thumbs up

Well, it took me long enough to get to this movie! And we barely sneaked it in as it's now having its last days at the "dollar" theater.

As you all know, this is a fascinating look at the experience of Alan Turing during WWII when he and a bunch of others cracked the Enigma code that the Germans were using to wage war on the Allies. He built a machine (ie. computer) that calculated the code every day which in turn let them be prepared to fight certain battles and in the end, win the war years before they would have otherwise.

Though we did learn that in order to keep the Germans from knowing that they had in fact actually cracked the code, they had to let some attacks go un-fought. Which must have been heart wrenching for them.

Alan Turing is a British mathematician, who, as the movie portrayed him, was extremely socially awkward and my guess, a bit autistic. Not to mention the fact that he was also gay, which was illegal in England at the time. When he was found out, they made him take drugs which appeared to be his downfall and he ended up committing suicide. Sad sad stuff.

With his machine.

After the movie first came out, I read comments that people thought the movie took some liberties which makes me wonder what the real  true story is. I had to come right home and look stuff up on that all truth place, Wikipedia! :) The stuff mentioned there seems to be fairly close to what the movie says, although they do suggest that it could be that he didn't actually commit suicide and that it might in fact have been an accidental poisoning. Still, sad sad stuff.

The whole group.

Anyway, we pretty much have him to thank for saving a ton of lives in the war and for thinking up the computer. I'd say that's some pretty big things. Too bad we don't know his name a little better.

I totally enjoyed the movie. Benedict, as always, is amazing. Keira didn't irritate me too much, and the music was beautiful. If you haven't seen it, put it on your list. It'll be at the Redbox soon I'm sure.

This is the big lesson learned from the movie.
Well, one of them.

Here's the trailer if you've missed it somehow:

Getting to Know You: Five Quirks

For this week's Getting to Know You topic, Jenni Elyse has asked us to share five quirks. But, here's the thing. Every time I think I've come up with what I think is a quirk, then I think that it's not quite quirky enough. Like most of you probably have the very same quirk! Know what I mean? So I've been stressing! Anyway, we'll give it a go.

1. I really love my clothes to be 100% cotton. Everything else is a little bit itchy to me and also tends to have worse static which drives me bonkers. But of course, I deal with it because how realistic is it that I go around in things only made from cotton. Anyway, this is why I pretty much live in jeans, t shirts and/or sweatshirts as much as I can.

2. I haven't been to a doctor in years. I just really really hate it. Like, really.

3. I like loud things. Mostly. Loud music, loud movies, loud concerts, loud thunderstorms, loud airplanes. But I can't stand loud video games.

4. I really hate vegetables, which makes it awfully hard to eat healthy. In fact, whenever a food topic comes up I usually end up mad. It's the most frustrating thing ever, dumb food!

5. Most people seem to enjoy the whole selfie phenomenon. And I don't get it. I don't think I've ever taken one... maybe one. With my sister. Once. I think. Yeah, if you follow my Instagram, I doubt you'll ever see a selfie.


Hmmm... did that do it? Was all that quirky enough? Or totally boring? I have no idea. Well, for what it's worth, there you go!

What quirks do you have? I'd love you to share in comments!! Or make a post and link up at Jenni's!

The Walking Dead Discussion: S5E16 (finale): Conquer (Spoilers!)

This 90 minute finale was crazy awesome! We, all the viewers, went into it figuring one of the main characters would be killed off. And they let us think that so many times! Every single one of them were in peril throughout the show.

First, Daryl and Aaron ended up at a food warehouse and suddenly a ton of walkers come pouring out of the truck trailers. (Have you ever wondered how the walkers can be so quiet before we realize they are there and then suddenly, they are all raging noisy groaning things?) Anyway, Aaron and Daryl get trapped in a car with hundreds of walkers pounding the car all around them.

The scariest moment of the episode!

Then there was Glenn, who went into the woods followed by Nicholas who had some sort of revenge thing going on. (Although what Glenn ever did to him, I don't know.)  And Nicholas shot him, but only in the shoulder, and then proceeded to beat him up. Of course, then the walkers came, Nicholas ran away and Glenn was over powered by them.

And finally, we had Rick who after last week's episode was on trial of sorts and everyone was going to decide if he could stay or if he had to go. So, as he was coming to the "trial" meeting, he noticed that the gate was wide open. That's because stupid Gabriel had neglected to close it properly. And of course, walkers got in. Rick finds them, fights them but in the process, he is also overpowered by them... for a moment.

Rick, after squeezing a zombie to death.

In the end, Rick kills it with his bare hands, and drags the thing to the meeting where everyone had been discussing the fact that he's not a team player. They are pretty surprised to see a walker inside the walls! Yes?  We'll come back to this moment shortly.

But first, Glenn. I have no idea what happened with him, because they didn't show us, but suddenly, he's back up and running after Nicholas. He catches him and puts a gun to his head. After much threatening, he doesn't kill him.... of course, and in the end, we see them limping together back inside the wall.

And then Daryl. He and Aaron are counting down to make a run for it just when Morgan, who we had seen at the very beginning of the episode fighting off the creepy W (Wolves?) guys with a stick Darth Maul style, appears on the scene and helps them to escape. Afterward, Aaron says, "you must come with us" but Morgan says "no, I'm going here" and he gives them the paper that Rick had from Abraham from way back in episode 2 or so. Daryl sees it and knows what's up. We can only assume he explains all, because in the end, they walk into Alexandria together.

Morgan to the rescue!

Meanwhile, Sasha and Gabriel are going crazy together, and Sasha ends up with a gun to his end. I think we all hoped she'd pull the trigger. But Maggie comes and saves the day and they end up praying together.

Oh, and Tara wakes up and looks like she's okay and Abraham and Eugene finally have a talk and decide they're okay again too.

Meanwhile, back at the meeting, Rick is going off on another lecture when Pete appears all mad  and raging. Rick jumps in to stop him, but before he can do anything Pete has slashed the throat of Reg, Deanna's husband. While he's dying, she looks at Rick and says, "do it" and Rick shoots Pete in the head.

Bam.

End of season five!

Rick, Daryl and Glenn made it through. But poor Reg did not.

Now we wait for season six, which appears to be the group dealing with the Wolves and learning to maybe get along. I don't know. I guess we'll see!

March 2015 Reading Recap

My spring picture!

Well, sort of a slim reading month. I have no idea why. These were all quick reads. And the month wasn't really much busier than usual. But still, this is all I have to show for it. 

March Readings

The One by Kiera Cass: America finally decides who she's in love with, almost too late! 

Wonder by R. J. Palacio: Auggie is going to school for the first time. He's not sure how it's going to go, but he hopes for the best.

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkowski: Kestrel is keeping all her secrets from Arin all too well and it's going to be a very bad ending for her if she doesn't rethink her approach!

Love, Lucy by April Lindner: After a summer romance in Italy, Lucy isn't too sure how to approach the rest of her life.

Death Wish by Megan Tayte: Scarlett is determined to figure out what happened to her sister. What she learns is not at all what she expected!

Favorites of the month: The Winner's Crime and Wonder, with Death Wish close behind. Loved all these books!!

Plans for April:

• start Dune for the Dune Read Along! (and May's book club)
• read The Eternity Key for it's release date
• read The Golem and the Jinni for April's book club
• read a couple library books before they are due
• read Remake by Ilima Todd
• participate in the readathon on April 25 and read Saga
• maybe read Not in the Script by Amy Finnegan, even though that's not until August's book club!

How did your month go?

Dune Read Along Sign Up

Hey favorite readers! We had so much fun last January doing a North and South Read Along that we decided we had to do it again! This time we'll be reading Dune by Frank Herbert, claimed to be the best science fiction novel ever! (Someone said that I'm sure!)

Anyway, just so you know, the we I'm talking about here includes Jenni Elyse and Kami at Kami's Library Thoughts, and myself. We could not deny the enthusiasm of Jenni any longer and so, our book club will be reading it for our May meeting and we decided to do a read along here at the same time. We do hope you'll join us!

Schedule and Discussions

Section 1: April 19 - 27 (Discussion post by Jenni Elyse on April 27)
Section 2: April 28 - May 6 (Discussion post here at It's All About Books on May 6)
Section 3: May 7 - 16 (Discussion post by Kami's Library Thoughts on May 16)

Other Info

We'll have three Twitter chats in conjunction with our discussions. They'll be announced with their dates and times during the kickoff posts. Of course, we'll post our thoughts on Twitter all throughout the read along using the hashtag #DuneRAL. (We've also started a Pinterest board if you want to follow along there!)

The book club meets on Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 7:30 pm MDT. Jenni plans to tweet real-time during the meeting so you can read what everyone there has to say about the book too. Sounds fun, yes?

As with our last read along, we plan to have a movie party here at my house to watch the Dune mini-series (not the pretty bad 1984 movie, even though it did have Sting!)  We'll announce the date in our kickoff posts. There will be refreshments and pizza of course!  We'll let you know more about that when it gets closer.

You want to read it with us, right? You know you do! If  so, sign up in the linky below. Write a post and help us spread the word! We'll be back to kick off the event on April 19.