Movie Theater Review - 3:10 to Yuma - 3.5 stars

solid flick, good acting from bale and crowe, neither probably stretched to their full talents. good action, excellent supporting turn from ben younger.

All Time Favorite Movies

no particular order...

The Big Lebowski
Ben Hur
Glengarry Glen Ross
Chariots of Fire
The Sting
A Clockwork Orange
The Godfather Movies
Rocky
First Blood
Predator
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
Caddyshack
What About Bob
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Dirty Harry
L.A. Confidential
The end of Field of Dreams
The Empire Strikes Back
Back to the Future
Jaws
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Color of Money
parts of Barry Lyndon
parts of Wyatt Earp
Dr. Strangelove
parts of Pulp Fiction
parts of The Fellowship of the Ring
2001
Manhattan
helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now
Network
Die Hard
The Matrix
Aliens
Patton
parts of A Few Good Men
end of Dead Poets Society
Amadeus
parts of Fargo
The Usual Suspects
The Shawshank Redemption
Braveheart
Das Boot
Hoosiers
The Remains of the Day
Wonder Boys
Wall Street

All Time Favorite Books

No particular order...

Shogun - James Clavell
Noblehouse - James Clavell
The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy
Bangkok 8 - John Burdett
Arthur and George - Julian Barnes
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Civil Action - Jonathan Harr
Lincoln - Gore Vidal
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Neuromancer - William Gibson
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
The Winds of War - Herman Wouk
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Big Nowhere - James Ellroy
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Confusion - Neal Stephenson
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
The Terror - Dan Simmons
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Dreadnought and Castles of Steel - Robert K. Massie
A Conderacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell - Susanna Clarke
The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemmingway
Moneyball - Michael Lewis

Book Review - Underworld - Don Delillo - 3.0 stars

not worthy of 2nd best novel of last 25 years by NY Times

extremely long

some interesting character studies, Manx Martin (father of boy who caught ball from Giants vs. Dodgers, Thomson off of Branca, great scene trying to sell ball outside yankee stadium), J. Edgar Hoover (fbi, good scene at masquerade party in ny), Lenny Bruce (comic)

two lead characters nothing special

strange end with Sister Edgar seeing visions on a billboard

no real plot, meandering about cold war, waste management (trash strikes, main character works for waste management company)




jumps all over in time

Movie Theater Review - Eastern Promises - 3.25 stars

good effort by Cronenberg, continues with his odd penchant for showing obscenely violent acts on screen like his last A History of Violence.

great role for Viggo Mortensen...

solid but slightly underwritten role for Naomi Watts.

stahl solid in what seems for him a typically understated villain...

Recent Books Within Last Year Or Two

After Dark - Haruki Murakami 3.5 stars
Kafka On The Shore - Haruki Murakami - 3.75 stars
Stalin's Folly - 3.25 stars
Palestinian Power - Jimmy Carter - 3.25 stars
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro - 3.0 stars
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace - 3.5 stars
On Chesil Beach - Ian Mcewan - 3.25 stars
The Ruins - Scott Smith - 3.25 stars
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon - 3.25 stars
You Don't Love Me Yet - Jonathan Lethem- 3.0 stars
The Terror - Dan Simmons - 3.75 stars
Olympos - Dan Simmons - 3.25 stars
The Blind Side - Michael Lewis - 3.5 stars
Number9dream - David Mitchell - 3.25 stars
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell - 3.75 stars
Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster - 3.5 stars
Spook Country - William Gibson - 3.0 stars
Heyday - Kurt Anderson - 3.75 stars
Bangkok Haunts - John Burdett - 3.5 stars
Arthur and George - Julian Barnes - 4.0 stars
Before She Met Me - Julian Barnes - 3.0 stars
The Light of Day - Graham Swift - 3.0 stars
The Echo Maker - Richard Powers - 3.0 stars
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - 3.25 stars
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell - 3.75 stars
The Courage Consort - Michel Faber - 3.0 stars
A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon - 3.25 stars
The Assassin's Gate - George Packer - 3.5 stars

The Painted Veil

3.25 stars, solid work from both leads. still not sure what the painted veil was???

a bit rushed first half with some major developments (marriage, infidelity) happening without quite enough development...

good chemistry between watts and norton...

Sports events

opening weekend, nfl, caught
no at indy - (indy), manning awesome, defense much better than expected
Philly at GB - (GB), solid GB defense, mcnabb o.k. on offense
bears at SD - (SD), excellent defense both teams, tomlinson didn't do anything, grossman/benson both underwhelming
NYG at Dal -(Dal), awful cowboy defense, great games from romo, witten, barber looked solid, jones unspectacular but decent yds/rush attempt average

federer over djokovic in us open final - federer straight sets win, nothing spectacular, djokovic blew mutiple set points