Reviews

I've either read or seen several things lately that deserve a mention, but aren't things I will take the time to review fully. So, here's a brief review of many things:

Movies:
Evan Almighty - We went to see this as a group from my church for part of our summer movie study. It was cute. Not as good as Bruce Almighty. As I've read in reviews, this movie did indeed seem to dumb things down. The theological/faith questions that were raised in Bruce Almighty just weren't there in this one. But still, a few good points of discussion and of course Steve Carrell is always great.

Evening - Disappointing. I thought it would have to be good with such a cast. But it was just bad.
Knocked Up - So vulgar, of course, but also very sweet, and hilarious. I can't remember laughing so hard at a movie in a long, long time.

Hairspray - So much fun! A movie where you just have a big grin plastered on your face from watching it. The music will get stuck in your head.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - The struggle with the HP movies is getting all of the richness of the book onto the screen. I thought the movie left too much out, as always, but visually the movie was excellent, and Imelda Staunton as Delores Umbridge is so perfectly infuriating.


Books:
Fluke, Practical Demonkeeping and You Suck, by Christopher Moore - Moore's Lamb, which I read last year, was one of the best books I've ever read. I wanted to see if his other works were as good. Of course, the subject matter of Lamb is more interesting to me than his other books, so it isn't a totally fair comparison. Fluke was OK, but not great. Practical Demonkeeping was better, and Love Sucks was my favorite of these three. Moore has a funny sense of humor and an easy-to-read style of writing. Even though I haven't enjoyed these as much as Lamb, I've enjoyed them enough to keep reading more of his work.

I'm not ready to write my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows review yet, but here is a good review along the lines of what I'm thinking.