Join the Slay the Read 2012 Paranormal Reading Challenge, hosted here at Otherwhere.co. There will be prizes!
Sign up and join in the awesome.
New Spike mini-series announced!
Yesterday, the fine folks at Dark Horse let me know that Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike #1 was available for pre-order. I could barely contain my excitement at this news. As a long time reader of the Buffy comics (and purveyor of all things Whedon), having Spike star in his own mini-series makes me deliriously happy.
I do have a confession to make, however, a horribly embarrassing confession. While I do have the entire Angel: After the Fall series as well as Aftermath, and the following series, published by IDW, I haven’t read all of them. How Spike gets back to Buffy while having become the captain of a dirigible full of alien bugs, continues to elude me. Hopefully this new series elaborates!
Set to release in August, and run for five issues, Spike promises to be filled with bloody awesome Spike-ness in all his platinum glory.
Having fought to regain his soul after falling in love with the Slayer Buffy, the once-terrifying vampire villain Spike has been a bit less fearsome (to humans, at least). On his own adventure, Spike is forced to examine the man he once was, the man he is now, and the man he still hopes to become.
As master of a steampunk ship filled with loyal, oversized alien cockroaches, Spike embarks on a journey to the dark side of the moon, setting into motion an adventure filled with demons, witches, and others who brew new evil in the world without magic!
Check out the new series at TFAW.com! It’s true, I pre-ordered this series exactly two seconds after I received the email.
The Perfect Host
The Perfect Host (2010)
Nick Tomnay
A fugitive on the lam decides to crash a dinner party. But he seriously regrets it when the mysterious and unusual host soon has him convinced that he would have been better off hiding somewhere else. David Hyde Pierce plays the memorable Warwick Wilson.
Check out Sadie’s blog at www.where-is-he.com!
Did someone order a psychological thriller? This is a great example of a perfect psychological thriller!
David Hyde Pierce is pitch-perfect as Warwick Wilson, a man throwing a dinner party. Or is he? Get ready for a side of this actor that, sadly, we’ve never seen before. His performance is chilling and truly creepy. I do believe this man could do anything!
From start to finish, this movie is just a complete mind-f*ck. It is a fun-tastic thrill ride of madness. The story, cast and character development were all wonderful. It could actually be a teaching example of “How To Make The Perfect Psychological Thriller”.
I will probably watch this again, and for me, that’s saying something. As a side note, I would love to see this on stage. It would make an excellent play.
Friday Frack List #25
What’s opening in theaters, you ask? And should you even bother? Friday Frack List is a weekly deal hosted here.
Can you smell it? Summer? It’s so close… and that means weeks upon weeks of good movies. Usually. This fine May weekend is a total mashup of stuff all sitting in the range of mediocrity. Maybe The Avengers was just too much awesome and until The Dark Knight Rises comes out we are all doomed to be underwhelmed. Lord, I hope not.
The previews for What to Expect When You’re Expecting have been some of the funniest I’ve seen, and given the source material, if it’s half as funny as the trailers, it’ll be worth it. Doesn’t hurt that 50% of the people I know right now are indeed pregnant. Odd how that happens. I remember when I was getting married (and all my friends were too), there were a million wedding movies out. How do they know!?!
As for the other two movies coming out? Yeah, no.
What are your plans for this fabulous weekend?
Battleship (2012)
Peter Berg
CRITICS: 42% 
USERS WHO WANT TO SEE IT: 85%
A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals.
The Dictator (2012)
Larry Charles
CRITICS: 64% USERS WHO WANT TO SEE IT: 73%
The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012)
Kirk Jones
CRITICS: 28% USERS WHO WANT TO SEE IT: 87%
A look at love through the eyes of five interconnected couples experiencing the thrills and surprises of having a baby, and ultimately coming to understand the universal truth that no matter what you plan for, life doesn’t always deliver what’s expected.
Follow Friday & TGIF #25
Follow & Feature Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. It is a great opportunity to find and meet new bloggers. Grab the code over at their website to join in on the blog hop!
Welcome!!! For those of you who have not been here, welcome to the hell mouth...er I mean Otherwhere.co. While books are certainly a main focus here, you will also find movie reviews and entertainment news! Poke around, leave a comment, join this site, follow my Twitter/FB/Goodreads/Linky and tell me what you think! Happy blogging!
What would be the perfect vacation spot for you to catch up on your reading & relax?
I’m luck enough to live in Colorado, and I am a big fan of the views here. There is a cabin awaiting me in a few weeks with a lovely little patio, and I am sure many a camp fire (hopefully that pesky fire ban will be lifted) will be involved too. I love summer here!
A Book Blogger is Born: What made you decide to start your very own book blog?
I have actually been writing movie reviews since 2004, all of which live on Rottentomatoes.com. I started writing reviews on Goodreads back in 2009 and after meeting Jen @bookandlatte through mutual friends (and immediately bonding over books and movies), she inspired me to start my own blog. Having wanted to do so for quite some time, I finally got around to it last September and it’s been awesome!
Posted to the Blog this week:
- [Movie Review]: Dark Shadows
- [Meme]: I Want it Wednesday #25
- [Book Review]: Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades #2)
- [Feature]: Bout of Books Read-a-thon
- [ComicCo Sundays]: New gets – Buffy Season Nine & Angel and Faith
- [Sadie Saturdays]: The Nines
Since GFC is now gone, follow @OtherwhereCo via Twitter or Email to the right – Thank you!
Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows (2012)
Tim Burton
Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet-or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy...until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets.
They could have just put up Tim Burton’s name on the screen for the trailer and I would have shown up for this one. I’m a bit of a fan girl when it comes to Tim and his work with Johnny. Taking a stab at the silly soap Dark Shadows is so right up his alley and really who better to play Barnabas Collins?
Johnny makes good use of the original material to play the, misplaced in time vamp, come to save the family reputation. Every expression, movement and reaction was so spot on, Johnny was a blast to watch in this role. Bet the make up was fun to put on everyday too.
The rest of the cast clearly was having a good time playing their ridiculous, yet colorful roles. I particularly loved Eva Green as the scorned lover and evil witch. I won’t give anything away but the final fight scenes with her at the end were sick, loved the special “doll” effects they did on her. Very original.
Unfortunately, Dark Shadows, suffered from too much story crammed into to too little time. It was as if they were trying to take the entire story line of the show and stuff it into two measly hours. The plot was jumpy, and often unconnected leaving you wondering, “How the hell did we get here?” Several characters didn’t receive their due development and without a solid plot line the story meandered aimlessly.
The Point: Tim Burton knows how to entertain through his unique characters, vision and humor, however the lack of focus and jumpy pace makes Dark Shadows, one of his weaker movies. A good renter.
I Want it Wednesday #25
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted over at Breaking the Spine, where we highlight dying-to-read upcoming releases. Parajunkee also hostsDesperately Wanting Wednesday. I Want it Wednesday is kind of a mix of both. Now with movies!
When Rachel Adam’s father fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, she is assigned a new Protector, her father’s apprentice, Logan—the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same boy who handed her heart right back to her. With a fierce belief in her father’s survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.
Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.
What can I say, I have been staring at this book summary for weeks now willing it to come out sooner than September. Sounds amazing!
Gangster Squad
Ruben Fleischer
A chronicle of the LAPD's fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s.
Have you ever seen a trailer and known ten seconds into it that you will absolutely, with out a doubt, be seeing that movie? Pretty much happened here. And that says something since it’s longer than ten seconds before Ryan Gosling shows up.
What stuff are you eagerly awaiting?
Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades #2)
Daunted by the singular sexual tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house.
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.
How 95% of this book went:
Step 1: Big ass over the top fight, brought on by A) Christian’s over the top passiveness or B) Ana’s big mouth.
Step 2: Angry, kinky sex.
Step 3: Make-up sex.
Step 4: Morning sex.
Step 5: Repeat.
I got really close to DNFing this one. The amount of which these two spend between the proverbial sheets is total overkill and frankly, completely ludicrous. Good thing Christian has a lifetime supply of “foil packages”. Nothing was happening for the first far too many pages of this book. I started skimming over the “steamy” bits because they became filler for the two pages out of twenty that actually moved the story forward.
Yes, Ana still doesn’t let Christian get away with anything, and always makes a point to press his sillier buttons. But she refuses to let go of a few issues that after the tenth fight over Mrs. Robinson, I almost threw the book. Except it’s my iPhone and that would suck.
The last 20% of the book got good, however, and they stopped doing it long enough for things to happen. There were some really sweet scenes and hell, a little action (not that kind). The ending was quite satisfying and really made up for quite a lot. Without it this would have been a one star book.
A part of me was hoping I would finally be able to put down this series and move on! But alas there was just enough at the end to keep me hooked to Christian and Ana for one more frackin book. I need to hit something.
Bout of Books Read-a-thon
I stumbled across this darling little read-a-thon on a friends blog and decided to join in! I’ve hit a bit of a slump and what better way to get out of it than by shoving books down my throat! I kid, I kid. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a good long while.
I am not going to list the books I plan to read, simply because I have no idea what I’ll be reading yet. First things first though, I need to finish up the Fifty Shades series. After that we shall see! My main goal will be to get ahead on some reading.
I will be updating my stats here on OtherwhereCo as well as through Twitter. Be sure to check back here daily to see my progress!
You can find me on twitter at @OtherwhereCo
Day 1 Update
I had quite a bit of unexpected work, so my reading suffered. I did make good head way through The Host on audiobook and got through 200 pages of Fifty Shades Freed (I need my life back from this series, seriously.)
I need to come up with some shorter reads for this read-a-thon, besides my usual lengthy tomes.
Books Read Today: 0
Pages Read Today: 116 pages of Fifty Shades Freed and 20% of The Host on Audiobook
Total Books Read: 0
Total Pages Read: 116
Day 2 Update
The rare occasion happened that I was able to sit down to read. Usually I am cramming it in during commercial breaks or rendering a project. It was a lovely change, especially since I was able to FINALLY finish the Fifty Shades series! Yay! Progress.
Books Read Today: 1
Pages Read Today: 251 of Fifty Shades Freed, 13 pages of Deadlocked and another 20% of The Host on Audiobook
Total Pages Read: 380
Total Books Read: 1
Day 3 Update
I totally went overboard on the Retitle challenge today brought to us by Books Devoured. It was a little too much fun. I posted them all originally to Twitter and decided to include them here as well! Click on the title to see the original book!
Let’s Cast a Circle and Create Some High School Drama
Carting Water is a Fantastic Workout
Winter is Coming and It Is Going to Suck
Starving Sucks on So Many Levels
PTSD and Government Takeover are Un-mixy Things
Your Previous Life was Far More Interesting, and That’s Saying something as a Bone Collector.
Books Read Today: 0
Pages Read Today: 183 pages of Deadlocked 10% of The Host on audiobook
Total Pages Read: 563
Total Books Read: 1
Day 4 Update
I ended up babysitting yesterday and was able to plow through the rest of Deadlocked and start Sloppy Firsts. Sadly I am so not in the mood for a high school read, but I am going to plow through it anyway. I have also reached the point in The Host, where I don’t want to stop listening!
This mini-challenge had be cracking up! As a fellow shoe obsessed reader, I spent far too much time looking for the perfect pair of shoes. I then got totally side tracked looking at shoes. Anyway here ya go!
Books Read Today: 1
Pages Read Today: 131 pages of Deadlocked, 50 pages of Sloppy Firsts 20% of The Host on audiobook
Total Pages Read: 744
Total Books Read: 2
Day 5 Updates
I have been warring with myself over my current read. Twice now I have put it down (since I can’t throw my iPhone), due to my complete lack of interest. However I’ve already invested time into and I’d hate to see that go to waste. It’s also seriously stunting my progress!!! Arg!
I’m thisclose to finished with The Host, and I don’t want to stop! It’s so good! I’m going to try another book and hopefully pick up the pace a bit but with the weekend and loads of plans, it all may come to naught.
Books Read Today: 0
Pages Read Today: 30 pages of Sloppy Firsts and 15% of The Host on audiobook
Total Pages Read: 774
Total Books Read: 2
Day 6 Updates
I was determined to get through Sloppy Firsts, and almost made it. I’ll be able to finish it today. I did however finish The Host. What an AMAZING read! In a lot of ways I am glad I waited until now to read it. It gave me the opportunity to completely separate myself from the Twilight craze and eliminate the possibility of comparing the books. As they are totally different!
Books Read Today: 1
Pages Read Today: 164 pages of Sloppy Firsts and 5% of The Host on audiobook
Total Pages Read: 939
Total Books Read: 3
New gets – Buffy Season Nine & Angel and Faith
In My Mailbox was turning into comics only so I figured I would just pick a day and feature the comics I’ve picked up along with anything else comic related. It is my goal to get back into the graphic novel/comic world. There are quite a few series I’ve been dying to get into.
To get ComicCo Sundays going, I of course, have to begin with Buffy. I’ve been picking up every issue (and every cover) since the Season 8 came out several years ago. Now well into Season 9 the magic (well kinda) continues and my insatiable appetite for all things Buffy is, at least slightly, curtailed. This current arc is making me stalk my mailbox, its been so crazy!
Angel and Faith is proving to be a great spin off from the main series. Faith is dealing with some daddy issues and Angel is really coming along with his brooding skills. They are a great team and I love that they are based out of London.
What comic series do you enjoy? Any recommendations?
All covers link to their respective TFAW pages.
The Nines
The Nines (2007)
John August
A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.
Check out Sadie’s blog at www.where-is-he.com!
To start off, I just have to take a breath. {Lets out a huge sigh} Ok, that’s better. Where to begin? Let’s start with Ryan.I went into this movie not knowing hardly anything about it. Ryan Reynolds is in it? Ok, I’m there. There are plenty of swoon-worthy moments in this movie (I.E. Ryan, shirtless.) but that’s not what it’s about. There are 3 parts. This movie is very scattered and by the 3rd part I found myself thinking, “This had better have a damn good ending!” Kind of like, “get to the point already.” But, alas, it was worth the wait. Everything was tied together at the end in a satisfying yet very pieced-together bow.
I feel like this movie went in a few different directions in the beginning. Almost like it wasn’t quite sure what direction it wanted to go in but once you understand, at the end, it makes sense. I had no idea, for most of the movie, what the outcome would be. Which, for me, is always welcome. It’s rare that I find a movie I can’t figure out before the end.
Now, let’s get back to Ryan for a second. I am ALWAYS impressed by his range and skills as an actor. He is one hell of an understated actor. Every single time I watch him in anything, he just blows me away. The guy’s got major chops. Add in Melissa McCarthy, a very young Elle Fanning and Octavia Spencer (in a ‘blink and you’ll miss her’ role) and you’ve got a great cast. The story was also really well done, for what it is. If the point was to make you think, then mission accomplished. Well done, John. Well done.
