I finally saw Pi this evening. Feelings are mixed.

( slightly jumbled review, includes possible spoilers )

Great book. Josh gave me a copy for Hanukkah, and I'm about halfway through so far. The characters are wonderful, and the plot is interesting. The alternate-history premise felt a little strained to me to begin with, but as background for the story, it works, and it lets Chabon ring new changes on the standard pulp detective cliches.

Highly

(but I did not shoe the deputy)

I saw Batman: The Dark Knight, and liked it.

Definitely better than all of the recent sequels, and maybe as good as the 1989 version with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.

( includes some plot details )

I saw the recent Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I liked it. I remember reading the book as a kid, and later watching the Gene Wilder movie, and this one is better.

( Cut for movie spoilers )

I just finished reading Variable Star, a semi-posthumous collaboration between Heinlein and Robinson. On a (personally biased) two-axis scale where Orphans in the Sky is a 10,0 and Lady Slings the Booze is a 0,10 I'd rate it a 4,5. Passable by either classification, but nowhere close to my favorite solo works by either author.

( Warning: Possible Spoilers )

I watched Rashomon with Naomi tonight. I'd heard lots of cultural references to it before, but somehow never got around to seeing it before now. It's good. Like a shorter, better version of Clue, with half the humor replaced by speculations on ethics and human nature ( Read more... )