An Incomplete Account

Since summer began I have watched a large number of movies and read a large number of books. So many that I can't remember them all. But here are some I remember (because they were either recently seen/read or because my netflix queue told me so. This is in no chronological order, simply the order in which I uploaded the image files which was itself arbitrary.

Nanny Diaries: I listened to Julia Roberts read this on tape back when I worked at the sheep farm. It was better listening to than reading. The movie seems to already have deviated greatly from the book. All in all I found it depressing.

I've already stated that I like Harry Potter more than His Dark Materials. I will also say that I liked the final book in the trilogy the best.
Smart, and sometimes cute, British boys talking all smarty like. You can definitely feel that this movie was at one point a play. Relatively interesting and funny even with all the philosophical debate on the best way to educate. Though I did wonder what exactly we were to think about molestation.
Good premise for a documentary but boring in reality. There is hardly any, no wait, there was absolutely no drama in this film that followed a bunch of kids as they went to drama camp. That's all they did, go to drama camp and get into shows. Ugh.
I very much liked The Last Mimzy. I didn't find either of the child actors annoying and I felt like the adult actors got to play relatively interesting and not completely non-existent people (ie the perfect parents, the brilliant teacher etc). I was a bit disappointed at the pacing of the movie and a bit of the ending. But, all in all, a good children's movie that is far less sappy than others around.
Funny it was not. It was almost funny a lot of times but every time they got close to it...well, they made it unfunny. Except, perhaps, for the Zooey Deschanel scenes.
The Motel was decent. Artsy and indie and lacking in true dramatic resolution but pretty and quiet to watch.
Widow Of The South is a book. It's a historical novel. I learned about a big battle I didn't know about and one woman's fight to respect the more than 8,000 soldiers who fought and died in Franklin, TN....actually she fought for about 1,500 of them.
Rent A Rasta was billed as a documentary about rich white women who come to Jamaica and pay for sex with native islanders. Rent A Rasta is really a documentary about Rastafarianism (?) and has very little substantive things to say about the sex trade (other than women go there because they're fat, old or ugly and that going to another first world country doesn't change those things while in Jamaica it does). I'm not saying Rastafarianism (?) isn't interesting. I'm saying this movie isn't.
Case Histories is a book by Kate Atkinson. It takes the whole intersecting lives thing in an interesting-ish direction. It's a mystery but it does, somehow, transcend being a genre novel.
Driving Lessons is another movie that could have been funny but wasn't...not even with the same Sufjan Stevens song popping up every fifteen minutes. I think Rupert Grint is a cutie but I don't think he or the director could decide if his character was smart or not. Similarly, the old lady that plays his employer etc waffles between being a crazy alcoholic and a put-together eccentric, which makes the entire thing rather stupid.
The Eyre Affair is another book that is definitely in the mystery category and yet has a charm all of its own. Set in a futuristic world, you know what I have no idea how to explain this book. I suggest you read it. It's funny.
I watched the Jonestown documentary. It was very good and extremely disturbing.
Why I bothered getting Underworld Evolution when I thought the original Underworld was entirely without redeeming qualities is beyond me...I think it had to do with Scott Speedman....he seems so cute when he's standing around but every time he tries to act I can't help but think that he must be very, very unsmart.

The end of this installment of random things I have watched or read!