Books, Movies, Music, and More!

I finished "Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban" late Monday night. I really enjoyed it. It's probably the best of the three I've read so far. Although I'm late in reading the books, at least this time I finished one before the movie version came out. Now I can join the millions of fans scrutinizing the movie's every nook and cranny.

Watched two radically different movies on Tuesday. First up, "S.W.A.T." It was actually a pretty good movie. The one thing I especially enjoyed was that the action scenes didn't overstay their welcome. If there's one thing the awful "Bad Boys II" did wrong was to have action scenes that dragged on for so long, they became boring. That wasn't the case here. The second movie I watched was "Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood." Now, this movie is pretty bad. But fortunately, it's so bad it's funny. Frankly, you don't go looking for great performances, a lack of cliches, and great special effects in a movie like this. Surprisingly, the attempts the film made at being funny were funny. My dad and I laughed at the leprechaun smoking a bong and getting the munchies then getting locked inside the fridge. Even after having small roles in both of the Harry Potter movies, Warwick Davis is back as the Leprechaun himself. One appearance that kind of surprised me was that of Beau Billingslea as a cop. If you don't know, he is also the English voice of Jet Black in Cowboy Bebop. Everyone has to pay the bills, I guess.

I have been listening to Missy Elliott's "This is Not A Test" over the past couple of days and overall, I think it's very good. Better than the current Album of The Week, "Miss E...So Addictive"? No. But it's good nonetheless. One thing that Missy has done so far is to not repeat herself. Every album has kind of a theme going. "Supa Dupa Fly" is the introduction. "Da Real World" has a dark sound to it. "Miss E...So Addictive" is the club banger. "Under Construction" is an homage to old-school hip-hop and what it stood for. Now, "This is Not A Test" sounds like a fusion of old-school underground dance and hip-hop. Many of Timbaland's beats for this album are borderline techno. I think this album, like "Da Real World" will be slept on. Still, it's another creative effort from Missy and I can't wait to hear where she goes next.

Now that I am more than 90% through the music videos on "The Work of Michel Gondry," I have to say that I wish I was as creative as he is. Stuff like the backwards/forwards circle of Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water," the play within a play within a play within a play in Bjork's "Bachelorette" and the "animation" of The White Stripes "The Hardest Button to Button" are evidence as to why he deserved a DVD of his videos. If there is one theme throughout all the videos I've watched, it is visual trickery. A good portion of videos are done in seemingly one take. There is a lot of layering of images, use of CG, and unusual sets. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who enjoys good music videos, avant-garde short films, or just really interesting creative stuff.

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