Epinions Recent Reviews for jstlawrence

Intellectually dishonest diatribe couched in a very bad novel

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 18:02:27 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - I just read Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear, because I've enjoyed some of his other work, most recently "Prey." Well, okay, "Prey" wasn't that good, but it passed the time.Little did I suspect, however, that this< i> book was not a...

The RCA VC125HF: Stare into the Glaring Blue Eye of Death

Mon, 12 Apr 2004 17:50:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - It's a bittersweet time when an electronic appliance dies. Of course, you feel bad for the poor thing; it's given you years (or at least months) of loyal service, only to inevitably pass into senility and malfunction, before you must sadly, tenderly, lob...

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, Disney Pirates a Good Story From … Itself?

Wed, 16 Jul 2003 05:39:59 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - For decades, Disney has a been perfecting its system for generating multi-million dollar franchises based on popular children’s stories or folklore. It goes something like this: Step 1: Find and obtain (buy or steal) a children’s story or bit...

Gilbert Grape Gets Chewed, But Not Swallowed (Let's See You Review This! W/O)

Tue, 10 Sep 2002 07:52:27 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - There is an entire school of analysis dedicated to the proposition that all stories are driven by a central question which, once answered, renders the story useless. If this were true, 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape would be pointless after...

Ice from the Sun: Defecation of a Stupid God

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 14:31:35 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - I was going to say that Ice from the Sun was a grindingly boring, obnoxious, silly, uninteresting juvenile mess of a film that looks like the work of a pack of slightly precocious 8th-graders let loose in the A-V lab after spending all night...

Requiem for a Dream Car

Fri, 26 Jul 2002 07:36:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - The Beginning

She's been gone for more than a month now, but I can still picture Her the way She looked the day we met. She was a 1995 Acura Integra GSR. She had it all: flaming, Ferrari-red paint, glossy black leather interior, five-speed...

The Rock Cooks Up a Stinker

Sat, 20 Apr 2002 19:02:56 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Poor Rock. I really wanted him to do well in his first feature movie. The huge, handsome, eyebrow-hoisting, elbow throwing star of the World Wrestling Federation seems like a natural for action films. At a tanned and sculpted 6' 5" and 275 pounds,...

The Best Junk

Tue, 26 Mar 2002 07:22:45 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - I have two autographs in my collection. I don’t think much of autograph collecting in general -- smacks of pointless celebrity worship and seems a waste of time. Nevertheless, I have the two. One is from former world PKA karate lightweight champion Mike...

BIC's Big Black Box

Mon, 18 Mar 2002 06:55:25 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Stretching more than two feet wide, over half a foot tall, and nearly a foot deep, the BIC America DV62CLR center channel speaker is bigger than two toaster ovens sitting side by side. It squats on my television like a grumpy prehistoric beast,...

Mix-a-Lot vs. the Mud Ducks

Thu, 14 Mar 2002 05:38:35 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - In 1987, three years before his CD “Mack Daddy” and the notorious single, “Baby Got Back,” Seattle rapper Anthony Ray, a.k.a. “Sir Mix-a-Lot,” made his opening statement to the world when he released his first album, “Swass,” on Nastymix Records, a label...

No Frills Modern Rock

Thu, 7 Mar 2002 09:46:29 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Like so many of my favorite bands, I discovered the The Smithereens in college. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s they made regular stops at “The Bandshell,” the well-named, no-seats, no-frills, no-waiting outdoor venue at the University of...

Lots of Smoke, No Fire

Thu, 21 Feb 2002 06:49:57 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Having recently enjoyed Thora Birch’s great performance in Ghost World, I rented The Smokers with high hopes. I hardly noticed her in American Beauty,(1999) but she’s apparently grown up fine since playing the adorable...

Punkabilly? Somewhere Between a Groove and a Rut

Mon, 4 Feb 2002 02:30:46 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - For a second, I thought I had coined a cool phrase to describe this record, when “Punkabilly!” flashed through my mind. But a quick search on the ‘net revealed that I probably read the term in some music review or album cover. That’ll teach me. With all...

Happy Trails, Bloody Ballads

Sun, 27 Jan 2002 08:15:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Have you ever woken up in the morning with a tune in your head that you could not get rid of? Happens to me all the time. Usually, it’s Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita,” which drives me buggy, because I don’t know the words. But sometimes it’s a really...

Merely Excellent

Mon, 21 Jan 2002 05:41:59 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Girl’s names. As I sit down to ponder the sophomore CD of my favorite band that includes one of my former college English professors, The Vulgar Boatmen's 1992 release Please Panic, I suddenly realize that these guys just love girl’s names...

Gainesville's Other Favorite Sons

Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:42:11 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - I bought the Silos’ eponymous 1990 album “The Silos” at my favorite second-hand record shop in Gainesville solely because I’d read that the group’s leader, Walter Salas-Humara, had also founded a band I'd recently discovered and flipped over – The...

Powermouse

Sun, 20 Jan 2002 17:23:12 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - I murdered my mouse. After about a year of websurfing, e-mailing, and video games, my two-button Microsoft wheel mouse was ticking me off. Even after careful, repeated cleanings with an alcohol swab, the little switches inside had gummed up to the point...

Walk on the Weird Side

Sun, 20 Jan 2002 07:12:40 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Ok, yes, I bought this CD on a goof. Sort of. For those who don’t know, “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” was (is?) a popular kid’s t.v. show and a series of video games based on the exploits of a shady pseudo-spy character named (you guessed it)...

Kenwood's Little "wOOx" -- Subwoofer for the (Somewhat ) Sane

Mon, 7 Jan 2002 06:56:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Having recently added an excellent powered subwoofer to my home system, when I upgraded my ancient cassette car stereo with a decent MP3/CD headunit, and replaced the disintegrating factory speakers, I began to think a little low-frequency punch might...

Don't Deconstruct It -- Just Buy It

Fri, 26 Oct 2001 03:57:41 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - I met Robert Ray in 1988, when I took "Thinking About Narratives," a freshman honors English course he taught at the University of Florida. He scared the crap out of me, along with the rest of the small class. Instead of the usual high school "read the...

Temperamental Beauty

Thu, 25 Oct 2001 12:18:54 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - I consider myself a pretty good bargain-hunter when it comes to filling my little apartment with decent home electronics on the cheap. Up until a month a ago, one proud moment was snagging a factory refurbished Siemens 2.4 Ghz Model 2410 telephone for...

Bass Extreme: Serious Sonic Hardware from Infinity

Wed, 24 Oct 2001 15:42:54 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - Serious hardware. That's what I was after when I replaced my old, old, *old*-school Fisher 3-way speakers with some hipper, smaller, "high-techier" towers, and found that my stereo/home-theater setup had gained fantastic mid-to-high response, but lost...

D-Link DMP-100: Meat and Potatoes MP3

Wed, 25 Jul 2001 12:26:52 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jstlawrence - This older style of D-Link MP3 player, with a transparent shell and vertical design, is not widely available anymore, having been replaced by a slightly fancier design. But if you can find one, you may be able to get it for as little as $40 or $50 (I...