Dukes of Hazzard

A friend of mine advised me to write a movie review instead of the those boring book reviews so here it is.
This movie really reminds me of old Hindi films when the local village boys fight the evil and filthy rich land owner (and the corrupt cops). The plot revolves around the Dukes (2 brothers, their sister and an uncle), the brothers actually deliver moonshine which is brewed by their uncle. Their lovely cousin sister Daisy (Jessica Simpson) usually gets them out of trouble.
The movie has lots of car stunts and a few comic situations as well. Overall I'd say its good fun and definitely worth a watch.

P.S. - I also saw Fantastic 4 (too old now) and Bewitched (yeah I know, don't say anything, I was deperately bored).

Sword of Truth

I ordered this series in spite of the customer reviews for some of the books at Amazon.
The story is nothing original insofar as the basic plot is concerned, it about a simple woods guide living in a town ignorant of magic who later turns out to be the most powerful wizard in three thousand years.
Some of the characters and stories are really interesting, although I sometimes wished that the editor had done more work on flashbacks and most of the monologues/discussions.
But the series seems to be losing its way and getting repetitive so you might want to give this one a pass.

Empire Trilogy

I ordered this series after seeing the recommendations from users at Amazon but after I started reading I thought I'd made a mistake. This book essentially tells the same story as the Magician series but from the perspective of the Tsurani, but as the story progressed I found it very engrossing and it really does not dwell much on the same story (Milamber's rebellion and the closing of the rift are there but from a totally new angle).
I'd recommend this book with a warning though, its mostly about the Tsurani society and probably only fans of the Magician series would like it.

Drenai Tales

This series was a change back to Fantasy after reading the Hyperion series.
The stories are refreshingly short and simple. Although they were published in a non chronological order I would recommend that they are read in the order that they were published.
The stories are about the heroes of Drenai at various points of time though some of the popular heroes seem to be getting more novels based on them. After going through the ten books of the Wheel of Time and then Hyperion it was really fun to read this series and I highly recommend it to fantasy fans.

Sorry for the late update

I sort of stopped updating after the initial euphoria rubbed off.
To recap since my last update - I visited Taiwan (for 1 week in December 2004, it was great), changed my employer (in March 2005), bought a new car (Santro Xing XG, June 2005) and read a lot of fantasy novels while doing all this ;-)
So as you can see I've been busy, but now that I have a broadband connection at home I can't think of any excuses not to update my blog frequently.

Alien v/s Predator

This is the most enjoyable movie released after the summer releases this year.
It pitts the two most popular alien species against each other with an almost mythological story. The beginning shows us a team being assembled by an eccentric billionaire to explore an ancient pyramid buried under 2,000 feet of ice in Antarctica. When they finally reach the site where they intend to start digging they find that there's a huge tunnel leading to the pyramid dug with an unbelievable precision.
Suffice to say that their troubles are really compounded when they reach the pyramid, with the humans caught between the Aliens and the Predators. Its great fun, don't miss it.

Stepford Wives, The

This is a lighthearted comedy starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick. Its about a community called stepford where all the guys are nerds and they have beautiful wives who keep working at home following their husbands' orders.
Things look suspicious to Nicole Kidman(a highly placed TV network executive who's been fired) from the start but her husband keeps assuring her that everything's normal.
Fun to watch for anyone but really a must see for those in a relationship.
Any girls reading this please note that I am not the macho insensitive jerk I seem to be ;-)

Star Wars Battlefront

Another great FPS released. Check out the review at Gamespot.
My review -
This seemed like a refreshing change from killing martian ghosts at the beginning but the game gets very repetitive as the single player campaign progresses. The same cut scenes in between missions that seemed great at first look get boring as you realize that they are all taken from the Star Wars movies.
The missions are very short and seem like practice for the multiplayer capture the flag games with frag limits. It is fun to play as a stormtrooper and ride AT-ATs but the missions themselves let you down.
Overall a good multiplayer game but those stuck with single player option only might want to stay away from it.

Wheel of Time (Part 2)

Now that I'm finishing the third book in this series I decided it was time to write another piece on this series.
It seems that the author had two choices when the first few books became bestsellers, he could either prolong the series thinking that the people who had already bought the book will purchase the entire series guaranteeing him more royalties OR he could have kept the story fast paced and exciting thus enticing new readers.
Unfortunately he chose the former approach, throwing in characters to try to keep the story alive like a soap opera writer at the twilight of his career.
And as if this was not enough he decided to write a prequel to the original series BEFORE finishing the already crawling series. This at a time when prequel has undoubtedly become the most hated word in the entertainment industry since George Lucas released the Phantom Menace.
We can only hope that the author dedcides to write an exciting conclusion to series in the next two books.

Rezident Evil: Apocalypse

I liked the first Resident Evil movie so I thought I'd see this one too but unfortunately it could not escape the sequel curse (but then very few have) of not living up its predecessor.
The movie seems weird from the start, there are unncessary stunt scenes stuffed in that detract from the movie rather than enhance it.
The game's principal character Jill Valentine is in this one, though it seems she was added as an afterthought. There's a side story written to increase her role in the movie but the story revolves around Alice from the first movie.
Overall the direction and screenplay seems to fall flat in places and the movie pales in comparison to the first one.