grocery trek, Anita Blake books, movies

[sarea]

As part of my 'get more fit' regime, I decided to walk to Safeway today. It's a little more than half a mile, but I haven't had much exercise lately so I figured I would give myself a generous amount of time to get there and back. Of course, while I was there, I decided that I had to purchase salmon, salad, and pears for dinner (only, the salmon was 3 lbs, the pears were canned (2), and I had two get two bags of salad because it was buy 1, get 1 free), so it was not much fun getting it all back. Of course, in my DC days it was far, far worse, so I'm not actually complaining. The whole excursion only took 36 min, though, so I'll need to walk farther as I'd like to actually be walking for about 45 min. The hope is that I'll start doing this in the mornings. Last night I did 100 crunches. I had to take little breathers in between, when I used to be able to do them straight through. :((

I have purchased the Anita Blake books off eBay. Other than BtVS, AtS, Dracula, a couple of Anne Rice things, and a teen series called 'The Vampire Diaries,' I haven't really gotten into vampire stuff. I think it's that I get used to a certain universe/lore, and it's hard for me to get out of it and into something else. But I've heard really good things about these books, and I feel like I'm in a good place to try them out, so we'll see...

Saw a couple of movies --

High Fidelity

Before going further, I must first say that I am not a huge John Cusack fan. That's not to say that I don't like him; that's just to say that I am not one of the droves of people who seem to think he's a genius. He's an actor like any other, for me.

Okay. I read the book first, and it was great. Witty, compelling, showed a kind of insight into the male mind that was really refreshing. The movie was none of those things. I suppose, if you hadn't read the book, it would be fine. I mean, considering the book was very British (I avoided the movie for a long time because of that; I didn't want to see some bastardized American version of it), they did a fine job in making it not British. And as far as I could tell, they kept many of the same elements.

But here's the difference: It's like watching the Harry Potter movies (at least, the ones Chris Columbus directed). Wherein the movie follows the book, but because it's a movie, that's actually a drawback. It follows it too closely, but is unable to replicate the things about the book that made it great. The character Cusack plays is just as neurotic and unfathomable as he represents, but I liked the dude much more in the book (if you're a Cusack fan, of course, this probably wouldn't be a problem). I mean, he's not really a likable guy, but it's kind of like reading Georgia Nicolson; she amuses you so much that you don't care that she's kind of a bitch; you like her anyway.

My favorite part from the movie was taken directly from the book; it was just a small bit of insight into the male psyche, about how males viewed female breasts as being territory that was rightfully theirs, and by God they were going to get it back. LOL. I remember the book being littered with jewels like that, and yet I think that was one of the few that made it into the movie. So why would I want to watch stripped-down genius???

So when you compare the two, the book is so unique and wonderful that the movie dulls in comparison. You can put it to screen, but it doesn't have the same personality. It's like a shell. That's pretty much how I feel both about HP and about HF.

I only wanted to watch it finally because I've grown fond of Jack Black (he totally reminded me of his character in 'School of Rock' and made me want to see that again), and that part was great. Also, the actor who played Dick reminded me a lot of Tom Lenk. :)) His voice and mannerisms, specifically.

The Princess and the Warrior

This movie was written and directed by Tom Tykwer, who also wrote and directed 'Run, Lola, Run,' which I thought was fabulous. And I really, really like Franka Potente. I'm not hugely into foreign film, but I'd recommend both of these.

'Run, Lola, Run' was probably a better movie, but 'The Princess and the Warrior' has a much better (read: HOT) male lead. His name is Benno Fürmann, and he makes me want to run out and rent every movie he's ever done, only I'd probably never be able to find any of them because they're all German. Anyway, he's hot the way Eric Bana (mmmmEricBana) is hot -- not a blinding pretty boy, but just. so. yummy. Okay, so his character is a little crazy in the movie, but it's hot like Edward Norton in 'Fight Club' not like Brad Pitt in '12 Monkeys.'

Comments

[nokomis305.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the brother and hero was Stefan, and he was Angel-like in his "woe is me, I'm an evil being" hoopla. I remember Damian was the bad one, hence me liking him more. And Elena toyed around with both brothers, then there was this chick who looked like her... It's been a couple years since I've read them too. It's sad how much I remember though.