Book Review: "The Host"

I read "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer about two months ago. I checked it out of the library after reading an article about it. I loved it so much I finished it in two days, then I went straight to Amazon.com and bought it.

If you've ever read "The Puppet Masters" by Robert Heinlein or "The Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney, then you have some idea what "The Host" is about. In "The Body Snatchers," the situation is hopeless because the human is completely replaced by the pod person. In "The Host," a person has a chance of sorts. You don't have to vacate your body when a "Soul," as they're called, takes over. And therein lies the plot. The main character, Wanderer, takes over the body of a feisty young woman named Melanie who isn't giving up ownership of her body and mind without a fight.

"The Host" has more in common with Heinlein's book than it does with Finney's. Where it differs is that the Souls aren't connected. In "The Puppet Masters," the entities that took over the humans' bodies were telepathically connected to each other. The Souls are not. This subtle difference serves the uninhabited human characters of the book well in later chapters.

Rumor has it a film version is already in the works. I hope Hollywood does it right. They ruined Dean Koontz's books "The Watchers" and "Hideaway." They also did a poor job of adapting Robert Heinlein's book "Starship Troopers" for the big screen. I loved the book. I liked the movie, but when I read the book later, I thought the movie could have been much better if Hollywood had stuck closer to Heinlein's original story.

I give "The Host" ***** (5 stars) for drama, excitement and a pretty accurate picture of human nature.

You Can Have Love Without Marriage

Not everyone can be as lucky as Catherine Middleton and find herself walking down the aisle toward an actual prince. But if she chooses wisely, any woman can find herself walking down the aisle toward one prince of a guy … or not.

The first thing women need to do, if they want to increase their chances of finding their soul mates, is stop listening to friends and family members who tell them that they have to get married by a certain age or after they’ve been with their significant others for a certain amount of time. The word spinster can be stricken from the English language. The condition no longer exists. A woman doesn’t have to get married to sustain a loving, committed, monogamous, lasting relationship. Just ask Oprah Winfrey. It helps if a man and woman are in agreement. That doesn’t mean that you have to show your old fashioned, pro marriage man to the door with a polite, “Thanks, but no thanks.” If you love him, weigh the pros and cons of getting married along with the pros and cons of life without him.

The pros of marriage are no different from the pros of cohabiting, except at tax time. The government offers tax breaks to married couples that make the idea of meeting each other at the altar a little more appealing. But tax breaks should be an added incentive to do what you’re already inclined to do, not a catalyst to do what you might otherwise avoid like the plague.

When you get married, you’re not just pledging your troth; you’re also signing a contract. You sign your name to a legally binding agreement that most people don’t get out of unscathed. If you know that marriage is not for you, try to find out early on if your significant other feels the same way. Early on doesn’t mean the first or second date. If the relationship lasts at least six months and you feel like you're falling in love, then – if you just have to know – you could try broaching the subject. Now, unless you want to see your significant other disappear in a puff of smoke right before your eyes, do not take the direct approach. Subtlety rules here.

Try taking him to see a romantic comedy. These types of movies often end with a wedding or marriage proposal. Some have weddings as their central themes. Avoid these. Once the movie is over, don't baldly ask him if he wants to get married someday. You could find yourself staring at skid marks and nothing else. Try talking about the movie in general. What were your favorite parts? Did you like the ending or do you think those kinds of endings are cliché?

Tread carefully. Six months isn’t a very long time to be with someone. Despite what movies would lead you to believe, most whirlwind romances that lead to marriage also often lead to divorce. Wait another six months. If you’re still together and you’re still hopefully in love, maybe you could consider bringing the subject up then. But you don’t have to.

Sometimes, it’s better to leave well enough alone. As long as you and your man are happy, let that be enough. Who knows? You could end up like Oprah and Stedman, living, loving and growing old together … no rings attached.

Pandora vs Grooveshark

Sometimes, I enjoy listening to music while I work. I like all kinds of music, but soul, R&B and soft rock are my favorites. The Internet has a lot of free radio stations, but Pandora and Grooveshark are the two that I use. I learned about both through blog posts. I like Pandora a little bit better.

Pandora allows you to choose the type of music they play for you. What I mean by that is if you select an R&B song, Pandora will start playing more R&B songs. Every now and then they'll throw in something from a different genre, just to see what you think. If you "like" it, they make a note of it in their system, then go back to playing R&B music. If you "dislike" the music, they make a note of that, too, and let you know, via popup message, that they won't play any more songs of that type. Another thing that I like about Pandora is that you can buy the songs you're listening to with little hassle.

With Grooveshark, you have to create music play lists. If you leave the music selection up to them, regardless of what you mark as a "favorite," they're going to play whatever they want. If you can buy songs through Grooveshark, I haven't discovered how to do it, yet. What I do like about Grooveshark is that you can replay your favorite songs over and over again. You can't do that with Pandora. Also, Pandora, like a regular radio station, has commercials. Grooveshark has ads that run down the side of the page; however, if you have a paid membership, you can remove the ads.

Another plus to Grooveshark is that you can mix music types. Since I like a lot of different kinds of music, my play list has everything from R&B to hip hop to rap to 80's pop to contemporary pop to gospel. It doesn't have to be that way, though. I could easily create a separate play list for each different type of music. I can do the same with Pandora by simply choosing a particular song or an artist who sings a particular type of music, then saving that music type as one of my "stations."

I find Pandora to be the most convenient to use. All I have to do is open the page and my music starts playing. Of course, I only have one station. Things might be different if I had two or more. Also, Pandora never interrupts the music to ask me if I'm still there. Grooveshark does that.

DVD Review - Live Free or Die Hard

For those who are “die hard” Bruce Willis fans, this latest offering in the franchise will not disappoint. “Live Free or Die Hard” delivers enough pyrotechnics, shootouts and tightly choreographed fight scenes, to satisfy any action-movie lover’s heart.

Based on the article A Farewell to Arms, by John Carlin, “Live Free or Die Hard” opens with hackers from various locations sharing their trade secrets with Mai (Maggie Q) over the telephone. Shortly thereafter, the unwitting hackers, all except Matt Farrell, played by Keanu Reeves look-alike, Justin Long, are compensated for their help. Because McClane is “in the neighborhood” and a senior officer, he receives the dubious honor of escorting Farrell to FBI the director, Bowman (Cliff Curtis), in Washington, D.C. It is at  this point that one might say, “Let the games begin!” Mai (Q), her boyfriend and terrorist ringleader, Thomas Gabriel (HOT Timothy Olyphant), and a team of dedicated assassins and technicians go for broke trying to tie up one last loose end.

Gabriel, et al intend to pull off an even bigger heist than either Hans in “Die Hard” or his brother, Simon, in “Die Hard With a Vengeance.” The film brings back memories of the day the Northeast stood still during a massive power outage spread across eight northern U.S. states and parts of Ontario, Canada. Picture that on a larger scale like, say, the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

Faced with the reality of what his algorithm program has helped create, Farrell is determined to help McClane set things right again. Au contraire, you’ll be saying by the end of the film as both McClane and Farrell survive explosions, gunshot wounds and falls that should have, if not killed them, then at least left them totally incapacitate. The same goes for what some of the villains got up and walked away from, too. Nobody takes a punch more prettily than Maggie Q. Patricia Arquette, who admittedly took her punches like a man, didn’t look even half as good after James Gandolfini was done with her in “True Romance.”

The stunts and action sequences in this movie are nothing short of exciting. The tunnel and fire hydrant sequences are amazing. Later, there is a scene where one assassin incorporates "free running" or "parkour" to navigate. He also navigates a la Jackie Chan at one point and a la Mitch Gaylord at another. The whole scene is fun to watch.

“Live Free or Die Hard” is rated PG-13, in spite of all the violence. Directed by Len Wiseman (“Underworld” and “Underworld: Evolution”), the film provides two hours and nine minutes of virtually non-stop action. It’s well worth seeing if you’re into exciting, fast-paced, totally impossible movies. I can’t wait to see it again when it comes out on DVD so I can – I hope – check out how those incredible stunts were done in the special features segment.

I give this movie *** for fun and excitement.

DVD Review - Snakes on a Plane

"Snakes on a Plane" is kind of a combination disaster/horror movie. The disaster movie part is people in peril on a plane; the horror movie part is people being killed by something or someone with no help in sight. "Snakes on a Plane" is like "Anaconda" without the escape route. I must warn you will need to suspend a lot of disbelief to watch this movie.

The movie opens with the main character, Sean (Nathan Phillips), witnessing a murder. He draws attention to himself but gets away before the bad guys can get a good look at him. That's okay. The little litter bug left behind a piece of evidence that led the bad guys right to his front door. In fact, the bad guys are breaking into his apartment just in time for the evening news, which is reporting on their earlier handiwork.

Enter FBI agent, Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson). He knows where the witness lives, too. Don't ask how. You're suspending disbelief, remember? Anyway, Agent Flynn saves Sean from the bad guys and clues him in to just how bad Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson), a ruthless organized crime lord, and his minions really are.

Now, we come to the plane ride that will take Sean from Hawaii - of which we sadly see precious little - to Los Angeles, Kim's base of operations, to testify. Naturally, Kim has other plans. As the passengers wait to board the plane, we're introduced to a prima donna rapper (Flex Alexander) with issues, a newlywed couple (Tygh Runyan and Emily Holmes), a pampered princess (Rachel Blanchard) and her dog (it looks like a Chihuahua), and two boys (Casey Dubois and Daniel Hogarth), traveling as unaccompanied minors. These two are left in the capable hands of Claire (Julianna Margulies), a stewardess and recent law school graduate who's on her last flight before becoming a "legal eagle."

We're introduced to more passengers and crew members as the passengers board the plane. Claire (Margulies) and Tiffany (Sunny Mabrey) inform the boarding passengers that the seats in first class have been commandeered by the FBI and, of course, one of the passengers - an obnoxious English businessman (Gerard Plunkett) - complains loudly. Let's just say he's the resident anal orifice. Every movie like this has at least one character that everybody loves to hate.
The tension builds slowly as the snakes that were smuggled in by the bad guys begin to make their way through the plane. The first unlucky victims are a young couple (Taylor Kitsch and Samantha McLeod) who decide to join the "Mile High Club" in one of the restrooms. This scene, for me, is reminiscent of all those "Friday the 13th."

This movie is bad. It's chock full of stereotypes but only one really offended me: rapper Three Gs' best friend/bodyguard, Troy (Keenan Thompson). His behavior in the cockpit made me want to cover my head, even though I was watching this movie alone in my own home. Up until that point, I liked Troy because he served as a much needed reality check and voice of reason for his neurotic rapper friend.

"Snakes on a Plane," which is rated R, because of brief nudity, language, and violence, would go on my list of guilty pleasure movies. I really did find it entertaining; however, Samuel L. Jackson and Julianna Margulies had such an obvious lack of chemistry that it made me wonder why the final scene between them wasn't rewritten or deleted altogether.

Despite poor story line, poor acting -- by some, not all -- the shameless stereotypes and the total lack of chemistry between two of the main characters, "Snakes on a Plane" is worth watching if you want some humor. I give it a rating of ** because it was a little funny ... and a little nostalgic for someone who grew up watching those '70s Airplane disaster movies.

DVD Review - Blood and Chocolate

"Blood and Chocolate" is a movie about werewolves that didn't do very well at the box office. It's clearly a low budget film with minimal special effects and no real big name stars. Although three of the main characters, Vivian, Aiden, and Gabriel, are played by actors with loads of big screen experience between them, none of them is really well known enough to draw in the kind of crowds that would have made it more of a success.

I wanted to see this movie for two reasons -- one, because it's about werewolves and two, because Olivier Martinez is in it. I've always been fascinated by movies about werewolves and vampires. They lead such dichotomous lives, and I find that interesting. My fascination with Olivier Martinez is obvious.

In "Blood and Chocolate," the werewolves or -- loup-garous as they call themselves -- are legendary creatures who "only hunt [men] to survive." In one scene -- designed to make the idea of having werewolves in the neighborhood more appealing -- Gabriel (Olivier Martinez), the leader of the pack and the only one who seems to be rich, has a conversation with a drug dealer who is later brought before the pack. You can guess what happens next. But this movie is about a young girl named Vivian (Agnes Bruckner) whom Gabriel has chosen to take for his own. According to "Gabriel's Law," it is customary for him to take a new wife every seven years. The trouble is, Vivian has her heart set on Aiden (Hugh Dancy), a young graphic novelist with a troubled past.

As in all movies of this type, there's a rebel in the pack. His name is Rafe (Bryan Dick). Rafe has a mini-pack that he travels with, terrorizing young female tourists or following Vivian around and, generally, making her life unpleasant. Rafe, Gabriel's son and heir apparent, scorns the laws of the pack, especially the one regarding the hunting of humans.

The tension between Rafe and Vivian, stems from Vivian's reluctance to embrace being a loup-garous. Furthermore, she has absolutely no interest in being Gabriel's latest seven-year-itch remedy. Perhaps that's why he chose seven years instead of ten or twenty. This very question is put to him by one of his former wives, Astrid (Katja Riemann), who he still visits for the occasional booty-call. Gabriel has the audacity to tell her, "we all grow old, and we need to learn how to do it gracefully." This from a forty-year-old man-wolf, who looks like a forty-year-old man-wolf, who is pursuing a nineteen-year-old girl who detests the idea of being his next "bride."

To make matters worse, Aiden manages to end up in the same predicament as the drug dealer. It's up to Vivian to save him ... if she can.

There are no surprises in this movie. The title "Blood and Chocolate" comes from something Astrid says to Vivian before a hunt. The only special effects are when the werewolves' eyes change color and when they transform from human to wolf. Don't expect to see the kind of transformations offered by such films as "American Werewolf in London" or "Underworld." The humans instantly become wolves as they leap into the air. All they have to do is think about becoming a wolf and it happens.

I've seen worse movies -- "Fair Game," "Most Wanted" -- that did better at the box office because of who starred in them. That's a shame because it wasn't a bad movie. It was pat and formulaic, but entertaining nonetheless. The Romanian location where the film was shot has some of the most beautiful architecture known to man. Another thing I liked was the use of free running -- a derivative of parkour -- as Rafe et al's method of getting around town. Vivian uses it, too. In one scene, she uses it quite effectively to elude Aiden.
"Blood and Chocolate" is not a must-see movie. It's rated PG-13 for violence/terror, some sexuality and substance abuse. There was refreshingly little swearing and no real gore. I give it a rating of *** because it's a nice, undemanding story with some good cinematography and halfway decent acting.

Double Mastectomy

I went to my doctor's office at the end of February fully expecting to hear nothing but good news. Silly me. I received terrible news. I have to have a double mastectomy.

Although removing my breasts doesn't guarantee that I won't ever get a new strain of breast cancer, it does provide the cancer with less real estate to devour. The other bad news is that the original strain of cancer that I had could come back ... anywhere else in my body that it chooses. My ovarian cancer could also recur, though only in the area where it originated. Lovely!

I haven't lost my spirits, though. According to my last CAT scan, I have no discernible cancer cells running rampant in my body right now. I consider that a plus.

I haven't scheduled the operation, yet. My doctor says that there's a possibility that I could get my breasts reconstructed, despite being on Medicaid. If I could, that would take a huge weight off my shoulders. I know there are some women who proudly go around breastless. I just don't think I could be one of them. If don't have to, then I don't want to be one of them.