Thursday Morning Movie Review

Saw a good movie last weekend - The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner & Jason Bateman.

It had a decent plot and a good portrayal of what is going on in the middle east and the difficulties for Americans to get things done. In this case there was a terrorist attack on an American base and a lot of people were killed. An elite group of FBI agents go in to try and gain information to find the terrorist, which is not exactly an easy thing to do when you're not allowed to touch anything or leave the compound.

Foxx finally forms a bond with a local policeman and the two of them press issues until the Americans are allowed a full-scale investigation.

This movie had plenty of action even if the plot was somewhat predictable. There were a couple of times I think they attempted that huge poignant moment and came up a bit short, but not so short that it was sad. Unfortunately, there were no huge "Wow" moments in the film - you know, those scenes so powerful that it makes you want to cheer.

Take A TIME TO KILL for example (and if you haven't seen it, run out RIGHT NOW and rent it) - you cannot help but feel overwhelmed with strength and emotion when Samuel L. Jackson yells in court "Yes, they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!" Wow! Really!

So no wow moments, but what this movie did very well and I enjoyed a lot was the humor set into a tense situation. It's only very clever writing that can pull it off. Jason Bateman had a lot of humor lines and Jamie Foxx did his share also.

Altogether the movie was entertaining and worth the price of admission.

My final review: Worth seeing and I'll probably buy it.

Suspicions Confirmed

Well, it's officially - I am now certain that American Airlines is trying to give me a nervous breakdown before I change jobs. Yesterday I embarked on my second to the last trip. Arrived at the airport a bit early so I could check email, get a water, etc. There were two gate changes before I could even drag out my computer but at least these were in the same terminal - granted opposite ends, BOTH TIMES, but still the same terminal. The third gate change was not. So the exhausted group headed for the train, changed terminals, walked some more and finally arrived at what we hoped would be our final gate.

We just didn't realize exactly how long we were going to be there.

The plane was a little late, but only 10 minutes or so - no big deal. So they load us all up and we are ready to leave, but we don't leave. Finally, they decide to tell us that the front wheel is broken and they're fixing it. Well, GOOD! I'm thinking we need the front wheel, but was it really necessary to load us up and fix it while we were there?

2 hours later, they let us off the plane to go get food since this was SUPPOSED to be a short flight and there was no food on board. I headed to McDonalds and grabbed a burger. It was officially the time we should have landed in St. Louis. A sum total of 3.5 hours after boarding, the wheel was finally working (at least we hoped), the paperwork was finally completed (and according to the pilot, this took longer than fixing the wheel) and we were airborne.

Once again, I say and mean it whole-heartedly - THANK GOD FOR FIRST CLASS UPGRADES!

The good news is, I had Cheesecake Factory last night with a trainer friend, Todd, who just happened to be training at the same center I am this week. So I guess the day wasn't a total loss. After all, there's no discounting the Cheesecake Factory for fixing what ails you.

I swear, guys, once I come off the road, I'm going to have a whole new life. I might have to come up with other things to blog about. But in the meantime, I figure I've scared you all off of flying on a regular basis. :)

Monday Morning Blues

Lord, I didn't want to get up this morning! And I'm usually a morning person but ugh, I think I could have sleep at least another hour or so. Of course, I have to get ready, pack up and head to the airport again today. This is the second to last trip, though, so pretty soon, you won't have to hear my travel bitching. Never fear, I'm sure I'll come up with something else to bitch about. :)

This morning is my regular post over at Killer Fiction, so check it out.

I'm giving away an ARC of UNLUCKY there today!

Friday and a GCC Blog Tour

It's Friday and I'm as soon as I get home tonight I will be one trip down on my remaining three trips until I am officially off the road - whoohoo!!!!! I have to say that this trip has been one of the most entertaining as far as location goes. Why, you ask. Well, let's start with directions that tell you to exit the airport and turn on CR-W (for those of you urbanites, that CR stands for County Road). This particular CR took me through farmland - miles of it - along with the accompanying corn fields. For a moment, I thought I had been asked to star in Children of the Corn 3 - Grab the Trainer.

I am in Madison, WI, for those of you wondering and I swear there was a whole big downtown when we flew over but apparently it was easier to get where I was going to drive through the cornfields. I had to laugh because after miles of corn, I was relieved to finally see a blue sign advertising a gas station and an Arby's. Civiliazation! Even more interesting is the town I'm in - Middleton (I think). There is new construction everywhere and the most interesting thing is you'll have ten acres of office building and ten acres of shopping with corn fields in between. No lie. It's like you're driving and there's an office building, then a cornfield, right in the middle of this growing metropolitan area. I wish I had my camera. It looks totally bizarre.

Oh well, enough about corn and travels. Here's a GCC tour for you and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Today's GCC tour is brought to us by Judy Merrill Lawson with her release ALL THE NUMBERS. Check out the book!

“How much do you love me?” Daniel asked his mother. “I love you all the numbers.”

Recently divorced and navigating the uncharted territory of single parenthood, Ellen Banks is a tough but loving teacher and a devoted mother to her two sons, Daniel and James. When they take their summer trip from their home in Madison, Wisconsin to their best friends’ lake house for weekend, she has no idea that her life is about to irrevocably change. While Ellen sits on a nearby dock, a teen on a jet ski shatters their perfect day when he hits James. Suddenly Ellen is faced with decisions that are every parent’s worst nightmare. Life support, organ donation. And then, a funeral. A grieving sibling who blames himself for the death of his brother. A distant ex-husband, friends and family who don’t know what to say or how to help, lawyers, judges and policemen—none who can make the hurt go away. Healing the empty space in Ellen’s heart and soul is almost too much to bear. But she is determined to see justice done for her son, and to heal the deep wounds in her family. All the Numbers culminates in a highly charged trial which, in an unexpected turn, leads Ellen and Daniel to a new beginning.

About the Author:

Judy Merrill Larsen teaches high school English in St. Louis, Missouri, where she lives with her husband and their five children. She says that the novel came about because of her fascination with how ordinary people recover from extraordinary events and how love makes us vulnerable, and how very isolating yet very human, the desire for revenge can be. Whether she has seen something in the news or in fiction, she has always wondered about the lives of people in the aftermath. The choices they make. The holes they fall into and then how—or if—they claw themselves out. From the medical details to the intricacies of Wisconsin law, and courtroom procedures, Larson says the research was as challenging as the writing. As she says of her main character, “none of us is a super hero, but we can all choose to be heroes in our own lives. Ellen Banks, in All the Numbers, ultimately makes just that choice, by choosing to live on.” Larsen holds a Master’s Degree from Washington University. She is currently working on her second novel.

Praise for the Book:

“Judy Merrill Larsen’s All the Numbers is sure to join Judy Guest’s novel Ordinary People, and Jacqueline Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean as one of the most talked-about books of its time. This powerful story of tragedy, grief, and redemptive love haunted me long after I read the final uplifting yet heartbreaking words.”—Cassandra King, author of The Sunday Wife

“[A] compelling debut….Larsen depicts a mother’s year of grief and recovery with a
sure and honest voice.”—Booklist

Judy Merrill Larsen will be reading from and discussing All the Numbers at:

Left Bank Books in St. Louis, MO on August 9
Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Brookfield, WI on September 25

In addition, you can hear portions of All the Numbers the week of September 18 on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Chapter-A-Day program

Here's a link to buy the book!