I love Jackie Chan movies (guilty pleasure). I greatly enjoyed the first two Rush Hour movies. So it’s not surprising that I really liked this one. It was hilarious and had lots of fun action sequences. The downside is that it seemed EXTREMELY short, though it was supposedly 90 minutes, it felt even shorter—I felt like they needed another 10 minutes or so just to complete the story arc and build to a real climax—almost every battle had the same amount of tension so when the end fight scene came I didn’t know it was the end! I thought it was the “one just before the boss fight” you know? Where it’s pretty bad but then the MC has to face his personal demons and succeed where he’d previously failed. I felt like that was missing and so the movie seemed rushed, especially compared to either Shanghai Knight/Noon movie. But as a fun, funny action comedy, as a Jackie Chan movie, I’ll let it go.

Very funny and as always, the bloopers are half the fun. If it’s not your scene, this won’t convert you, but it’s a 90 minute escape for the Jackie Chan believers out there. ;)

What’s really odd is that people say they liked the last half of the movie, but the last half of the movie was the part that was almost nothing like the book. They added and changed SO much to make it more Hollywood formulaic fun and effects and characters (the lightning ship captain’s “traits”, the giant battle scene at the end). I’m not necessarily complaining, but the movie should perhaps have chosen to be either quirky and surprising and charmingly funny like the book or just fun, humor, and effects like (most of) the movie, not half of one and half of the other. Part of the fun of the book was figuring it all out (and the charming curse which was not even in the movie at all!) but the movie just laid it all out there without question—or if there was a question it was only for the stupidest of viewers (without giving anything away).

I was just disappointed. I did greatly enjoy it, and I think if maybe there was more of the second half type humor and scenes and in-your-face blockbuster fantasy I’d probably enjoy it more, as well as if they’d stayed closer to the book and mellowed it out. Either way. It just didn’t meld together very well for me.

Got sucked in by the cute graphics and the fact that I was going to be a bridesmaid at the time I picked it up.

I admired the way the author let you design the male main character’s looks (pretty much) based on the hint of a couple of hot celebrities to use as templates. I bet most women just picked one or the other and imagined the actor the whole time. Very crafty. We may do that unconsciously or even by decision, but in this case we were encouraged by the author. After all, the real movie stars are hotter than our imaginations (cause our imaginations make them TOO perfect maybe? Or I just have a crappy imagination, fine, whatever lol)

Pretty boring though and false… What I assume to be a typical romance (don’t read romance in general). I thought that the representation of the guy’s mentality and thoughts to be laughable! If guys want to know what women think men think like (they fantasize), read this book.

Finished this in just one sitting—not that I couldn’t put it down, but the pace was very fast and the prose was light and easy to read. It was a pleasant way to pass a lazy Sunday evening. It was just very easy to read until it was done. Though the constructions of the omniscient narrative are sometimes very bizarre, using “we” as in “I wish we could tell you that Ben Williams is standing but ten feet away” and in addition to slipping between first person and 3rd omniscient (with the reader included as the mysterious “we”) it also slips between present and past tenses which was the most jarring for me—the present was used for setting the scene which just seemed lazy more than anything. The back of the book said that it has a ”...surprise ending no reader will see coming.” But unless the only readers that are supposed to read this book have never ever seen a romance movie… or better yet have no frontal lobe, you pretty much get the first conclusion that springs to mind.

As with most chick lit I’ve read I have a problem with the moralization that the ending gives us—what lesson did the protagonist really learn anyway? As in most of the books I’ve read she didn’t really learn her lesson (she learned A lesson maybe, one the author clearly thinks is the right one, but as a reader I’m left thinking that the protagonist is still confused and just as flawed as at the beginning) but she received her happy ending anyway. Puts me greatly in mind of the Shopaholic book I read.

People with eating disorders lots of times may wrongly believe that their entire life will suddenly and miraculously be alright and perfect if they could only lose the right amount of weight and be the right size. The truly strange thing is that in this protagonist’s case, she was absolutely RIGHT!!!

Nothing more than mindless fluff… at least it was kinda fun to read though.

This is a sequel and because I read the first book SO long ago, I found myself a little bit more confused about some things than I think I normally am in a sequel. I appreciate that the author didn’t spend forever rehashing the first book because when authors do that it is very annoying, but a few more clues about who this or that person was would have been nice. This author is big into not explaining things to you, but rather giving you little clues about everything (from the structure of the world to who a character is to what the hell is going on) and letting you put it all together. Which was overall very nice because I didn’t feel insulted or bored by a lengthy exposition.

I’m not sure if I liked the first one more or not. I think in some ways this one was better and in others the first one was better.

The story was pretty much a failure. The heroine reminded me of Bridget Jones, but only in the way that a wax statue reminds you of a real celebrity.

What I did like about the book is that there is some reality to the psychology of the character’s thoughts. Anyone who has ever experienced an addiction to something will identify with the spiraling behavior of the heroine. However, her turning point is lame and late, coming AFTER a major success rather than at her lowest point; her revelation is weak and uninspired and false. Instead of punishment for her ever increasing lies and the way she abuses everyone around her, she is unjustly rewarded without repentance or even once realizing all of the harm that she’s done to other people because of her obsession with shopping, money, and appearance. Her realization is a purely pragmatic one regarding her own habits regarding bills. Call me nitpicky, but I’d like a little bit more character growth than that!

I tried to feel good about myself in comparison to Rebecca’s vices and flaws (which isn’t a hard thing with this character! too many characters are too GOOD, you know?), but even that is a hollow victory: someone who is SO out of it, SO self-absorbed, SO superficial, SO bumbling, SO incompetent, and SO cruel to other people still gets the predictable fame, fortune, and rich-good-looking-guy in the end, while the rest of us are cheated out of a fraction of her happy ending.

A literally chilling tale.

I’m at a loss as to what else I can write without giving the details of this thriller away and also what words would explain the horror and the grief this book stirred in me.

Have you ever done something you never in the past thought you could have done?

This one was just about as good as the first one! Huzzah!

The first half of the book had me writhing around with laughter. Then it went a little south… but still an overall great read with a lot of oomph behind it. A sweet story that might challenge your perceptions and what you take for granted.

This book confused me a little bit. From what I’ve heard from others who’ve read it, they too had mistaken impressions about what the book would be like. Most people assume it will be a fluffy fun book about romances, dating, sex, etc, with some fabulous single women living it up and having hijinks… or whatever.

It’s actually quite a depressing and at times incredibly insightful collection of mini essays (articles, I guess is the story behind them) that paint a dark, disturbing picture about what it’s really like UNDERNEATH the parties, the drugs, the booze, the sex, the shoes, and the money. The weird thing is that I can’t tell if the startlingly jumpy “narrative” and the piecyness of it all is intentional or if it was an idiot savant like miracle. While a lot of it does nothing for me, there are parts where the effect is surprising and PROFOUND. It might be because who this books is about is SO far removed from me (younger and do not live in New York or even a big city) so I don’t really connect with it, but it might be because there isn’t much to connect with on a deeper level, I don’t know.

In short, not at all what I thought I was going to be reading, but probably better for it. I don’t know. Most people will probably be disappointed by the overall gritty, seedy, “real?” portrayal, and the fact that it’s not one cohesive story. Really it seems like the only thing the series has in common with this book is that some of the characters and settings are the same or similar.

Oh and there are NO BAD PUNS IN THIS BOOK. THANK HEAVEN.