Reviews Written by Gidget
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January 10, 2007
It's Not Blink-182
Pros: Tom DeLonge's voice!
Cons: Music is too simple and a times a little slow.
This is one of the most distinctive albums to ever be issued. Listen to We Don't Need to Whisper as an incredible new band enters the scene....
This is hard to compare to either blink-182 or Boxcar Racer, which automatically come to mind, but by all means get this if you like Tom DeLonge's voice. Other than that, AVA is so unusual you'd have to listen to this album to get any kind of an idea what I mean.
The songs on this album sound similar but different, like they all link to make one story. The songs even have some of the same parts, such as in "The War" and "The Gift", both of which have successions of Oh's. Another example is in "The War" and "It Hurts", which have similar parts in "Believe....do you want this?" and "Sherrie....do you want it?" BUT, by no means am I saying that this is a repetitive record. Each song is its own. My favorites are "The Adventure" (the first single) and "Do It For Me Now".
The only complaint I can possibly think of is that the first couple of songs start off a bit slow, with a full minute of introduction beat before there are any vocals. Regardless, it is definitely worth buying this CD. It's going to be one of the albums you'll look back on in fifty years and think,"Gosh am I ever glad I got this." ... -
August 13, 2006
Can I Be Cameron Diaz For A Night!?
Pros: Classic Slice of Electronica.
Cons: Remarkable Departure from his Past.
I'm not a typical JT fan, however, I can't get enough of this song "Sexyback". I've fallen in love with the song, the video, and now with Justin Timberlake. My only question is I'm 33, can I be Cameron Diaz? ...
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June 25, 2006
The Man In Black
Pros: It reads as if Johnny Cash is talking directly to the reader.
Cons: I concluded that so much was left out.
After watching the movie "Walk the Line". I decided to read the autobiography of Johnny Cash. This book has worked its way into my top ten favorite books of all time. On the first page Johnny Cash writes from the heart and soul to give us a peek into his turbulent life. A true legend, he hides nothing in his tell-it-like-it-is autobiography. Cash was a born writer, and he cuts right to emotions as he recounts the trials of growing up a farmer, the adventure of traveling on the road, and the true love of his family and friends.
I would recommend this book to anyone - even people who don't care for Cash, as this gives a true look at the man from his own perspective.
And it's much better than the movie. ... -
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
by Ken Kwapis | VideoPrice: $5.40 to $12.99 Compare PricesJune 15, 2006
Rule No.10 ! Pants= Love
Pros: An excellent story about friendship.
Cons: It's a chick flick!
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was based on the teen chick novel by Ann Brashares, the story follows four lifelong friends during the summer between their sophomore and junior years in high school.
Stunned that one pair of pants can magically fit them all, they form a Sisterhood, complete with ten rules for wearing the pants, on their last night together. Pledging to share the pants as a means of sharing their summer adventures.
Traveling Pants Rule No. 7: You must write your Sisters throughout the summer, no matter how much fun you are having without them. The pants, accompanied by sometimes humorous, sometimes angst-filled letters, follow the girls around the globe, giving them courage when they need it and comfort when life seems to fall apart.
Although, I joke about this movie being a chick flick. I believe it will appeal to girls, guys, teens, tweens, and adults alike.
Yes, it's a feel-good story, but it's also a smart coming-of-age story that happens to feature four young women confronting the universal challenges of growing uplife, death, blossoming sexuality, and changing family relationships.
Each in her own way, and with the help of her friends and the pants, discovers that you can't run from your feelings, that families can and/or will change, and that growing up is good.
The story is ultimately about unconditional loveloving your friends through the good times, challenging them to grow, and supporting them through the tough times, without question.
That's Traveling Pants Rule No 10. Pants = love. Love your pals. Love yourself. ... -
May 20, 2006
Don't Go Broke!
0 of 1 Yahoo! Users found this review helpfulPros: The movie is beautifully shot.
Cons: The film was emotionally underwhelming.
This much-ballyhooed gay cowboy melodrama was an inert disappointment. And not to mention boring!
The film opens in Wyoming of 1963. Ledger is the quiet, taciturn Ennis Del Mar and Gyllenhaal is the extroverted, bouncy Jack Twist. They sign up as sheepherders on a summer assignment at the eponymous location, but one night a combination of whiskey and cold mountain air puts them together in a tent where they inexplicably launch into a session of Ride Em, Cowboy! After getting over their initial confusion of what transpired, they spend a jolly summer on the mountain together. But when that assignment is over, they go their separate ways and drift into the hetero routine of marriage and fatherhood.
After four years, Jack (now living in Texas) inexplicably strikes up the friendship again and they head off on a fishing trip to their initial romping grounds (pun completely intended). But the pressures of their respective new lives and the homophobia of their era prevents them from pursuing Jacks vague dream of getting a ranch together. Instead, they agree to meet a couple of times each year they tell their wives they're off to go fishing, when instead theyre really playing Bareback Mountain.
I've never read the Annie Proulx short story that inspired the film, but I assume it has much more depth and emotion than this production. On screen, the relation between the men is more carnal than caring. There is no contact between them in the periods between their get-togethers, and their time together is never punctuated with anything resembling a genuine love. More likely the problem not from the source material but from the inadequacy of the performances Ledger walks about mumbling in a weird voice while his eyes rarely rise from the floor and Gyllenhaal does a horrible cowboy twang which is stretched to high volumes in an attempt to convince the audience he is acting. Michelle Williams --whom I did think played a great roll as Ennis' long suffering wife, Anne Hathaway as Jacks vaguely disinterested wife, and Randy Quaid as the gruff rancher who brings the men together via work hover on the periphery of the action, but none have much to do besides making stern faces and drop ironic pronouncements about the unlikely friendship at the center of the film. Gyllenhaal has a few rodeo riding sequences, but the sloppy editing makes it clear that he is not in the saddle; his stunt doubles bear no resemblance to him.
Brokeback Mountain takes great pains to avoid gay stereotypes, but it has no problems plugging in regional stereotypes that are equally offensive. In this film, all Texans are vulgar and wear tacky clothing, all Wyoming natives stand around like zombies and wear cheap clothing, and Mexicans are sleazy and oversexed (Jack crosses over to Juarez and strolls down a street overpopulated with male prostitutes). Yee-hah, indeed.
So, if you ask me save your money kids and rent Disney's "Chicken Little". Now, that was a cute movie. And no chicken's were shot and killed to make it! ... -
May 15, 2006
A Sexy Workout!
Pros: The routines are easily broken down to teach you.
Cons: Each routine is only a few minutes long.
The routines are easily broken down to teach you what you need to learn, it has a great warm up and then slowly shows you the steps. You can repeat the instruction part as many times as you like until you learn it! If you are wanting more of a cardio workout then all you need to do is repeat the routines more than once not only to get your heartbeat up but just to get it down better.
I love this series, its fun, completely unique and different and just something great to throw into a usual routine. And believe me the men in your life won't complain that your working out to much when they see the new moves & body you achieve! ... -
May 3, 2006
Tool Is An Experience...
Pros: A notch above their admirable previous releases.
Cons: A little more on the mellower, more technical side.
Everything about Tool's fourth album is an experience, starting with the packaging, which consists of a booklet that layers anatomical representations atop one another--the first page pictures musculature and blood vessels; the next, bones; the third, internal organs; and so on. It's worth describing the packaging of Lateralus because it says much about the astonishing music within. Maynard James Keenan understood the expectations riding on this and delivered the goods! While it remains in the Tool tradition of trance-inducing progressive metal, Lateralus is tighter, clearer, crisper, and all around a notch above their admirable previous releases. Aenima was marred by muddy production and a certain predictability. Undertow had a cleaner sound but wasn't as confident or adventurous. With Lateralus, Tool have raised an already lofty bar still higher by coming up with a collection that kicks major ass. Can't wait to hear the new album 10,000 Days! ...
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April 28, 2006
Aeon Flux Sux!
Pros: Pretty cool images and ideas.
Cons: The ham-fisted dialogue, pedantic direction and a story that doesn’t make much sense .
Sure, I watched “Aeon Flux” when it aired on MTV back in the ‘90s. It was a trippy series of surreal animations, but it only really succeeded because of one great image where the title character is able to trap a fly with her eyelashes. Visually, it was pretty cool stuff, but story-wise, “Aeon Flux” was such a futuristic mish-mash of ideas and bad dialogue that it was impossible to tell what was really going on.
The same holds true for the movie version of. Visually, there are some pretty cool images and ideas—although there are also some real scary hairdos and costumes. It’s not the bad hair that dooms “Aeon Flux,” but rather a story so convoluted that the rest of the film collapses under the strain of disbelief (or is it disinterest?)
“Aeon Flux” is a flop because of some very ham-fisted dialogue, pedantic direction and a story that doesn’t make much sense (something about freedom fighters and the morality of cloning). It quickly digresses into a series of standard-fare gun fights and explosions, reminiscent of every other action movie except that this time the hero is a hot woman with a freaky haircut.
Worst of all is the fact that there’s no reason to care about Aeon Flux the character, and she doesn’t seem to care about anyone other than her dead sister. At one point she abandons a subway car full of bullet-ridden passengers, concerned only with her own superficial wounds. A single-minded killing machine may work well as a villain, but not as the hero that we’re supposed to identify with.
The bottom line is that “Aeon Flux” isn’t as bad as I feared it might be, but it’s certainly nothing more than a run-of-the-mill action flick that just happens to have some cool set designs; and even the sets loose their appeal after the first fifteen minutes. ...
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A Solid Young Cast!
Pros: A good lesson on the demise of suburbanite parental pampering.
Cons: The sexual behaviour and foul language.
This film starts with clips of children growing up together in the suburbs relishing the splenour of suburban living.
As the film develops, however, one gets a glimpse on the point that suburban materialism is no substitute for true parental love and discipline. These kids obviously lacked them. The parents do learn where they've failed, but much too late!
"Alpha Dog" provides a grim, depressing look at the dark underbelly of American society where amoral, disenfranchised and disaffected youth play life-and-death games with drugs and guns, often with tragic consequences. In the case of this story, what begins almost as a spontaneous lark suddenly turns into deadly serious business as events begin to spiral further and further out of control and the story races ever more rapidly to its pre-ordained and inexorably tragic conclusion. Cassavetes has written a tight script that captures the fast-paced, drug-soaked milieu in which these young people do their "business." Yet, even though a number of the boys display a callous disregard for life, there are others who see the wrongness of what they are doing but who, through fear or misplaced loyalty or simply a belief that things "would never really go that far," fail to put the brakes on the whole sordid affair before it is too late. It is in that context that Truelove relinquishes his role as the main focal point of the film in favor of Frankie Ballenbacher, a cheerfully sardonic wise guy whose job it is to watch over the boy while Johnny figures out what next to do with him. As Frankie becomes more and more attached to the kid, it becomes harder and harder for him to comply with Johnny's ultimate order of liquidating him. Frankie, thus, becomes the emotional buy-in point for the audience, even more so than the kidnapped boy himself.
There are fine performances by Emile Hirsch, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Foster ("Six Feet Under"), Bruce Willis, Harry Dean Stanton and Sharon Stone, among others, but it is Justin Timberlake, as the high-strung but basically goodhearted Frankie, who walks off with the film. In his every moment on screen, the charismatic Timberlake brings an intensity, shrewdness and liveliness to his performance that bodes well for his future career in movies. ...