Critic's Corner

The Twilight series: thumbs down. I recently finished the final installment. The first book did make me swoon, so I’ll give you that, but once their relationship settled into complete boredom slash moping around slash hundreds and hundreds of pages of velvet voice and smoldering eyes, it was hard to keep turning pages. Plus, I liked Jacob. I was rooting for Jacob.

Harry Potter movie: thumbs sideways. Good, because HP is a phenomenal series and because Ron Weasley is hilarious. Good, but not great. I kept thinking surely there was more going on in the book. It felt really slow, to the point that when the movie was nearing the end, I whispered to my friend sitting next to me, “It’s the end already?” I felt like it still needed to take off.

Big Fish (the book): thumbs up. Really enjoyed this one. It’s written in a series of uber-short scenes, stories, and tales from his father’s life, all of which revolve around said father’s impending death. His father is a jokester, and one punchline in particular made me laugh out loud. Literally. And it’s harder for books to make us laugh out loud, as we don’t see the looks on faces or hear the tones of voices. So I was delighted.

The Proposal: thumbs way up. Sure, it’s just a chick flick variant, but I much prefer those where they initially hate each other. Sandra is always the funny one in her movies, which is why her surprising show-stealer co-star was refreshing. Not slapstickish or mean, he was just genuinely good at being a no-nonsense sass bucket slash nice guy slash with a hot body.