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I heard that Tim Burton was doing his rendition on the classic fairytale of "Alice in Wonderland" and my immediate reaction was, "Well that was inevitable." Of course that was followed by pure elation that one of my favorite directors was doing his version on one of my favorite fairytales.

Then reality sort of sinked in, as I continued to read reports and updates on the production of this movie, I realized this might turn out really weird and overshoot the mark like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" did.

Case and Point: The cast. According to IMDB this is who has been confirmed so far for the roles:
Johnny Depp........................Mad Hatter
Anne Hathaway...................White Queen
Helena Bonham Carter.......Red Queen
Alan Rickman.......................Caterpillar
Michael Sheen......................Cheshire Cat
Crispin Glover......................Knave of Hearts
Matt Lucas............................Tweedledee/Tweedledum

Others were mentioned but so far they're rumored.

On the cast list alone we can see Burton is going to venture beyond the first half of the classic novel and go through the looking glass. Nevertheless it's still a very very very odd bunch to put together as a cast list. I'm not getting a good feeling about this, but let's not judge too far in advance.

Yipes... Just yipes.

These days with a good book being harder and harder to find, naturally, I've turned to the web to scour through the billions of blogs out there. I've come across a few really good reads. One of which is Confessions of a College Callgirl and was obsessed with her story. Self evident by the title it's about her experience as a callgirl trying to earn extra cash while going to school. She didn't go through an agency and instead resourcefully found her john's through Craigslist (go figure).

Fantastic writer. She doesn't really make any of experiences sound porn-ish. Everything is written out really well and the details just feel more of a documentary sort as opposed to some horny college girl writing about her hook-up's.

She recently is coming to an end of her blog, and her last entry kind of explains it all. As she recalled her experiences as a self-made callgirl for all of us to enjoy, she had to relive through all of them. At the time she was able to separate herself and get her through... let's face it, another day on the job, but now things are different. You did what you had to do back then, but now it may not be something you want to relive now. Maybe you have a serious beau in your life. It doesn't necessarily mean she's embarassed or ashamed of what she did back then, but your goes out to this girl.

Now she had mentioned once of this show that came out, Secret Diary of a Callgirl. This one is about a London Callgirl employed through an agency. I watched like 2 episodes and couldn't get into it really. There was really nothing wrong with it, but it wasn't, as they would say in London, my cup of tea.

However, I did find the blog that the show is based on. Belle du Jour. Again, beautiful writer. (I'm wondering if there is a connection between being a great writer and being openly promiscuous.) As I read her entries I can almost hear them in my thoughts with an English accent. Hot.

Her entries in the beginning are much like the previous one I mentioned, really well written out and doesn't feel dirty reading them. Parts I love is the "how-to". She discusses the waxing, the tools and supplies needed when going out for a job.

But then she gets picked up by a publishing company and her entries get more vague and hard to follow. I'm gonna say she might've gone back and deleted some entries in between so that we would go out and buy her book or watch the show. After a falling out with her manager entries on some of the jobs that she had done are few and far in between. The blog focuses more on her life, and sometimes that gets well... a little exhausting to read.

Nevertheless I will still probably pick up her book just to see what I may have missed.

I'm a sucker for Steve Carrell. And recently joining the rest of the planet and finally watching the Office, I'm an even bigger fan. Plus the commercials for this one seemed damn funny.

:P

The first thing that made me uncomfortable was the Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway team up. I never watched the t.v. show but I knew that she was a love interest. It's kinda gross that he's old enough to be her father. Now, I know there have been plenty of pairs in Hollywood where the guy was old enough to be the father... But when you actually LOOK like a father it just doesn't sit well. Does that make sense?

The storyline was predictable. There is some international bomb threat going on, and there's a rat in the agency. Along the way enjoy in the follies and "slapstick" comedy as this spy tries to prove himself worthy of the agency. Blah blah blah.

Overall the movie was alright. It wasn't great. It wasn't horrible. Just mediocre. A few chuckle moments but nothing to have me roaring in laughter. But if there's nothing else on t.v. on a Sunday afternoon, and this happens to be on... It'll kill 2 hours for you.

I usually don't go for the "chick flicks" but the girl in me will crave a good romantic story once in awhile. For instance I saw Pride & Prejudice for the first time a few months ago and loved it. What girl doesn't love a good story of classic old school romance where there is actual wooing involved.

There was a lot of buzz around this movie when it came out. So it was only natural that I added it on my Netflix list and last weekend it made it's way into my mailbox (along with Goodfella's and Get Smart).

I won't deny that this movie was gorgeous to watch. I loved the colors (like Keira's gorgeous green gown) and the general tone of this movie. The camera movements were fantastic and if you can say that camera movements can be romantic, in this case it absolutely was. Everything was really soft and the dialogue and movements were just soft spoken. So in all you have the perfect formula for a romantic movie.

In the first half it kinda was. Cecelia (played by Keira Knightley) goes to school with her housemaid's son Robbie (played by James McAvoy) who I think Cecelia's father took under his wing and became the caretaker of. I think I heard that he was going to pay for his tuition to medical school, but I'm not a 100% on that.

Through a series of very unfortunate and grave misunderstandings, Cecelia's little sister, Briony, ends up accusing Robbie of assaulting her cousin. This is the first part of the movie, and the only part that has actual movement.

SPOILER ALERT!
After the incident absolutely nothing happens, until the end. Rest of the movie is filled with fluff just so they could have a feature length film. They killed time. None of the characters talk of what happened. We see them all separately going through life. Robbie as a soldier trying to get home. Briony training to be a nurse because she's hoping to see Robbie and maybe save him so he can forgive her. BUT THAT'S IT!

They do mention the characters again, when Briony becomes an author and writes a book on the accounts of her accusing her sister's lover. She writes of an ending in the book where her sister and Robbie end up together but that never took place, because they both died during the war.

I was left feeling incredibly shorthanded. The movie was better as a trailer.

I figure this is a great way to build a foundation on what conversations with my sister are like:

We happen to live in a very upper white class town. You didn't think it'd be possible in this day and age but it is. I'm forever getting leered at when I go to the local wine store.

Months ago we went to the local movie theater and as we were waiting for the movie to start I made an observation and decide to share in on this new useless fact.

Me: Leans over and whispers I just realized we're the only minorities in here.

Sis: That's because everyone else is older.

Me: WHAT?!?

Sis: *blank stare* What? You said minority and we are catching a matinee... That's not what it means does it?

Me: AHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, honey it does not.

Could not stop laughing for twenty minutes. I had to walk out for a little bit to compose myself as to not disturb the theater.

But it gets better! I was watching tv in my room couple weeks ago, when she comes storms in:

Sis: I was just talking to *Jason online and you won't believe this. He doesn't know what curry is!

Me: So? You didn't know what a minority was.

Sis: How is that worse?

Me: Um.. because YOU ARE ONE!

Sis: Yeah, I suppose that is worse. Walks away.

Oh man I love this girl.

It's really hard to find books I enjoy reading. The last time I read a book and laughed out loud so much my sister ended up staring at me strangely from the doorway, and that was for "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". The next string of books I became obsessed with was the handful written by Dan Brown (Deception Point being my favorite.).

So in a forum I was surprised to find a thread on the fellow members discussing their favorite books. "Lamb" by Christopher Moore was brought to my attention and the original poster's brief description really got me aching to find this book. It's about Jesus's childhood friend writing a Gospel. Telling his version of what happened in Jesus's life as 10 year old.

I'm only on Chapter 7 or so, and I absolutely love it. I love the direction it's going and the dialogue that goes on. It belongs on the shelf of a smartass like myself.

For example, Jesus and his friend Levi, a.k.a. "Biff" are praying for guidance and an angel appears before them. He announces that the Messiah will be born tonight in a manger amidst farm animals. He suddenly realizes this event already happened.. 10 years ago! He ran late because he swung by another fellow angel's house to play cards.

There's plenty more incidents like this. But there are moments where it cross references events from the Bible as well as historical facts. I'm just hoping it doesn't get all "preachy" like the Left Behind series.... YES, I read them! The first couple were actually good.

UPDATE: (Spoiler Warning)
I just finished the book, and I'm really pleased with it. I love that the book followed through to the point of his crucifixion because I really wasn't expecting that. His trial and death being told from a beloved friend's point of view was much more compelling and moving. I hardly get choked up from reading, so this was a rare moment, especially since I'm not religious.

My only complaint is that at times the story delved too much into the "fantasy" category. But I guess that's the norm if at that time you are dealing with hearing God's voice boom from the sky and woman turning into pillars of salt.

Towards the end it puts a human touch on the fact that Jesus was in fact human... with special powers. But it makes it a realistic story as to why he comes up with the do's and dont's of what will get you into heaven, and the foundation of the religion. For example, how he comes up with the concept of the "Holy Ghost".

A lot of the guidelines were based on something personal, not just something he whipped up out of thin air, and I think people forget that. You come up with a lot of the decisions of what you do based on personal experience and beliefs.

Huh... Jesus human? Why didn't we think of that?