My SIL and I saw it yesterday. 2 people with no previous experience-neither of us had seen a theatrical performance, or a previous movie. I vaguely knew what the plot was, she vaguely knew it had been released as a film sometime awhile ago. So. Neither of us liked it much. Sorrysorrysorry, but this is a very honest reaction from a non-Les Mis fan. We didn't quite realize it was literally a filming of a musical theatrical production. So the fact that there was almost no spoken dialogue, that the sets were clearly CGI generated, and that there was an utter lack of any film-style narrative, character development, or explanation of backstory meant that for us, it was mostly a very long couple of hours listening to a lot of singing of songs we didn't know interspersed with trying to figure out what the heck was going on with the plot. We both thought Anne Hathaway was fantastic, but again had no idea that her role was, in film terms, little more than an extended cameo. She was brought in, sacked, humiliated, mutilated (although how come she had her front teeth back in when she sang the Dream song?!?!?), belted out a showstopper, and died. It was nice to see her later as a ghost, especially with her hair combed. The other performers: Hugh Jackman is adorable and sang well. Russell Crowe was in the opinion of my SIL pretty sexy. Amanda Seyfrid's singing voice is SOOOO high pitched; I kept waiting for her to veer off into Minnie Riperton territory. Neither of us really understood what the heck was wrong with Javert; at one point my SIL whispered to me 'that dude needs to get a hobby or some therapy'. Why did he suddenly appear out of uniform toward the end? What was that group of young guys fighting about? How did Jean Valjean become a mayor, and then where the heck did he hide out all that time? How could Cosette and Marius fall in love just by looking at each other? Why was Eponine suddenly in drag? When will it be over? Oops, last question was rhetorical. However, unfortunately the report from this Les Miz virgin is a pretty frank thumbs down. I truly don't mean to offend the fans, but neither of us were impressed. Oh wait, we did enjoy the Helena Bonham Carter/Sacha Baron Cohen characters; now that was some funny stuff. It did accomplish one of my goals, which is to see as many of the presumptive award nominee films as possible. So there is that to report :). Ann

Thanks for the suggestions, Yang. I haven't given up on Connelly by a long shot. I want to like Harry Bosch. I try to like him. There's still hope. But even if I don't succeed, I'll find other of his titles to enjoy. I've never been to California, so I don't "get" the locale like you do. But I understand the attraction; I'm always drawn to shows/books set in NYC. Maybe I related better to MC's reporter protagonist because I was once a newspaper reporter myself--though not in the big leagues. But I normally love cop novels, so I don't know what the explanation is. I'll add the other two names to my list....

Ha, Jim! Looks like you captured a photo of the elusive Grouchodeer! Beneficial to the garden because they drop cigar ash around the beds but dangerous because they don't look where they're stepping while they wiggle their eyebrows milking the audience for laughs. Just wait till his brothers start showing up - hoo boy, that's A Day at the Races. Diane, I was thinking your badgers did sound might useful at chasing away the mice (I'm fine if the coyotes finish the mice off), but the "super at digging" part sounds suspiciously fraught with danger. I can imagine a badger uprooting an established rose because some fool gopher snuck in there for protection. I imagine you don't let small dogs or cats out into the garden at night either, for fear the same fate awaits them. You have quite the Wild Life out there. Cynthia

It's fine to resurrect an old thread. It's just a common way of spammers. And they'll post a vague comment then return under the 7 day window and edit the thread and add spam. (after 7 days, no edit allowed.) I check to see the poster's other activity, and if there is none, then I watch that post. Sometimes I'll see other posts, and can tell if the person is real or a spam bot. Just help out and flag the spam when you see it!