Not the best effort...
924976
My daughters, ages 6 and 3, absolutely love the Barbie movies.  We own most of them, and the girls watch them regularly.  The fun part of the Barbie movies is they have nice messages, teaching the girls that friends and being nice are very important.  Also, the movies do not focus on boy-friends, or princes riding in to save the day.  The main characters in these movies are Barbie and her friends (in this case, her sisters) all working together to solve the problems they encounter. There is usually pretty good music with good singers and dancing to accompany the message, making the stories nice and fun. AND, I do not mind watching with them.  I even have my favorites.
"Barbie A Perfect Christmas" follows that basic concept, in that my daughters love it, there is a nice message about working together to solve the problem, and there is singing.  Where this movie differs is that it is boring and the music is mediocore at best.  This movie is an example of the creative team just churning out a movie to make money.  It is Christmas themed, so of course, there is an accompaning doll set ($50! at Target, on sale! Really??!?) and I'm sure there is a CD.  However, as I have purchased the CDs in the past (and yes, even some of the dolls), I will not this time. The music is not good.  The singing is not good.  I can't believe this is a BARBIE movie.  I'm pretty disappointetd in this one.  We have not yet seen "Princess Charm School", although it has been purchased and is waiting to be given at Christmas. I really hope it is better.
With all of that said, we bought this movie yesterday and my daughters have already seen it two times.  I'm sure we'll watch it again today and then again.  So, they did their job.  I sure hope the next Barbie Movie (A Mermaid's Tail 2) is going to be better.  I may do like the other reviewer, however, and rent it first...
2705604
Not a bad effort but really basic characters, pacing problems, and leaps of logic (but hey...how much logic is one really looking for when one picks up a book about buckin' werewolves?) mar a great idea.  The author obviously knows his pro wrestling and a deeper examination of that aspect would have been more believable and a better yarn than the Gladiator rip-off in the beginning.
1798240
Not a good effort. Most seems to be recycled  from the department of redundancy department. Technical details are lacking, except for the occasional nose-but to an opponent's face.
1264767
Thr3e is billed as a psychological thriller with Christian leanings.  I'd hoped to find a new favorite author in Dekker, and so I picked the book up with more than a little willingness to get over the minor weaknesses that so many authors in the genre display.  He started with more than the benefit of the doubt.

The device of the book leaves much to be desired.  It is weakly done, and I found the "shocking ending" more mind-numbing than mind-blowing.  Maybe if a slew of authors hadn't done the same thing before (and better), I would have found it as 'cool' as it was intended to be.  No worries...I won't spoil it for you...but it smacked of, "..And it was all just a dream," to me.

I intend to give Dekker a second shot with his Color Trilogy.  I don't believe he's a bad writer, just that he fleshed out a bad idea.  The strength of the writing is decent (there are a few gaps and inconsistencies with the main device that are not explained), but only that.  I can see how he would have potential, but this effort escapes 1-star by the skin of its teeth.
1700822
i really liked his last effort, mostly cause of its naive charm. it sounded like he was trying to make a serious album, only he had the worst materials to put it together with, whereas on this one its the other way round. he ups the production on it considerably, but now its the songwriting thats cheap and tacky.
i don't mean to be harsh, but hes trying really hard to sound all quaint and charming, and theres only maybe three places on the album where it comes off. MBGATE, as mentioned in the other reviews, is one of them cause it sounds like hes trying to make a semi-straight dance track. the rest of the album sounds just way too wink-wink nudge-nudge ironic in its amateurness.
compare Cake off the first one to anything off this, and you'll get an idea. instead of a complex collection of songs made with bad source sounds (which works on the first one), this one turns out like an IDM version of mr scruff. thats not a good thing.
im sorry, but it gets old quickly.
1755031
This reads like a first attempt at writing a book.  A fa goofs,  several amateurish things, for example an "epilogue" that was really a prologue.  I thought about not finishing the book, but the story, while lacking originality, was engaging, and the characters were interesting.  So I slogged through.  I'm giving it three stars, mainly to encourage the writer to keep trying (and engage a critical editor before releasing the next work).
2033052
I didn't like it ... Not  really felt muddled and long  with out really giving us much in return,I skipped about all over the place hoping
I'd eventually find a place where I connected with or at least found it more interesting... Sadly that time NEVER came I finished  the book unsatisfied hoping the 2nd part would be better only to skip a head a bit to see how it ended and realized at least for me the ending didn't seem good enough for the effort I'd have to put in ... This book wasn't ... I can't say buy it or not all I can say was this book did not do that t for me  ( At All) , a bit long winded with characters I could connect with but if this your type of genre .99 and s a price that's lets you try ;)
2388084
Ok, just not his best effort.  Felt like a discarded manuscript that was revised.  Did not have a believable beginning.
1985734
Alright, Daughtry is definitely not as good as I thought he was. In fact, he might be the most unoriginal guy in modern rock to come around in quite awhile, and that's saying something. However, this time he doesn't sound like another artist, he sounds like his bad self, or more specifically, "Over You" which was his previous single. Anybody else see something wrong with this picture? And yet, he rules rock radio.

The verses are mediocre at best, and the chorus on its short run on radio is already annoying the heck out of me. It just doesn't seem real, like it's a half-hearted effort or something; something to please the record labels. Chris's vocals are stellar as always, but contrary to popular belief, the song itself makes for most of its success, and this one is made, but it's in pieces taped together in a quick effort to please a record executive.

So overall, on if, if not Daughtry's worse in a rather short career so far. Hopefully he'll come out his sophomore album rather soon, so the rest of the musical skeletons in his compact disc closet will stay where they belong: hidden.
3284688
Douglas Clegg is not my favorite horror author, but I have enjoyed some of his novels.  This one is not on that list.  It seems it is more an exercise in how creative he can be with language and characterization, and less concerned with telling a story.  Many times, I was lost in the narrative...did not know who was doing what or where they were.  The final denouement was a disappointment as well - it took too long to get there, and when I arrived, it was a letdown.  Not Clegg's best.  Pass on it.
939326
To put it simply, I just wasn't in love with the story line, the attachment to the characters begun to fade... and nothing "major" happened in this book. Hope the next picks the pace back up!
1894565
I've listened to a number of Mark Billingham's Thomas Thorne novels.  I was disappointed with this particular effort.

Ten years after Tom Thorne had helped investigate the murder of a minor sort of mobster in a murder for hire scheme, proof surfaces that the supposedly dead mobster is alive and living the good life on a sunny coast. As a result, the person who did time for hiring the killer goes to a private detective to try to locate the supposedly dead man.  The private detective then goes to Tom Thorne, who much to his dismay had just had a jury go against him in another case where no body was found.

This starts out promising but by the end I was gritting my teeth.  Two things annoyed me:

1) A promising new character is introduced then toward the end is unceremoniously rushed off the stage to no real purpose.

2) There were several twists in the conclusion of the story but I think I was supposed to admire their twistiness rather than feel they grew out of clues planted in the story. I think that some of the more recent best selling thrillers with "ooooh, shocker" endings have started to bleed over into subgenres where they do not particularly fit. I'd rather have a good ending than a clever one.

There was also a bit of a neat legal question at the end, that I cannot really discuss because it would be a terrible spoiler, but no one even mentions it.

The narrator is Paul Thornley who does a competent job of voicing the characters.
3737580
This appears to be a first effort from a very young author - and it shows. The premise is good, if overdone (good girl matched up with bad boy in science class); however, the execution is wanting. There are way too many spelling errors for those of us who care. (When are all these e-book authors going to realise that spell-check does not an editor make?) As for the style of writing, it's probably better targeted to people under 13 years or those who wish they still were.

The heroine, Katy, flounces (yes, literally) her way through the novel - she slams down pens, yells out loud in class (sometimes even without any repercussion) and stomps her feet when things don't go her way. Frankly, she's having a bit of a bad time and she's not handling it particularly well.

The hero is not very well represented. He is sort of there, but mostly not. Consequently, it's hard to feel anything too much for him, though he does seem to get the best of the dialogue when he does manage some interaction; having said this, it's nowhere near as clever as some others have suggested. Speaking of which (pardon the pun), the dialogue is, as another reviewer noted, very stilted and quite unrealistic. Again, I believe this is the consequence of a very young writer.

Overall, it's not a shocking effort, but it really could be improved. Hopefully, the author will take time to perfect her craft (by starting with being way more careful with spelling and working on producing realistic dialogue), so that we will see better efforts from her in the future.
3436197
I'll preface this by saying I own all Enchant's work, I love them, and they have been one of my three or four most favorite bands to listen to. I felt their last album, "Tug of War", was their weakest effort. But much like Spock's "guessing" on Star Trek is better than most people's facts, Enchant's worst effort is still pretty darn good in the progressive rock landscape. There are some good tunes on "Tug of War", it's just not as cohesive or as completely good of an album as its predecessors.

So what about "The Great Divide"?

It leaves a lot to be desired. I'd say it is even weaker than "Tug of War." There's just not a lot here to love.

The biggest problem with this album is the lyrical content. One of the reasons I've been a huge fan of Enchant is because of their lyrics. Albums like "Juggling 9 and Dropping 10", "Wounded", or "Break", just slay me. I love those albums. I can't get enough. They wrote some great, smart, often insightful lyrics on those albums. I mean, this has been a progressive rock band that has figured out how to meld challenging rock art music with great lyrical content. But both seem to be lacking on this album.

The lyrics on "Great Divide" are just weak. Really weak. Embarrassingly weak. Someone in another review mentioned the spoken word on "Within An Inch". That doesn't even touch the surface of how bad most of the lyrics are.  Doesn't matter if they're spoken or not. They just didn't write good lyrics.

And musically, this album falls short of the creativity that is evident on other Enchant albums. I say that as a guitar player who spends a lot of time figuring out Ott's work; I love Doug Ott and what he's written on the prior Enchant albums amazes me (the arpeggios on "My Everafter", for instance, are amazing to hear, and so difficult to play). I've always admired his work, how he managed to blend the technical expertise of a guy like Petrucci with the soaring leads of a guy like Neal Schon. Ott is a rare guitarist. He has a history of knowing just what notes to play, and how to phrase leads and melodies. But all his awesome playing is largely missing on this album.

Others have said the album and riffs sound recycled, but I'd disagree. I'd take recycled; at least I'd get to hear some of the awesome work from the previous albums. I think the reason this album sounds recycled to people is because the production, when compared to the past albums, is so spot-on. It doesn't sound like these guys took 10 years off. It sounds like they recorded this album alongside "Wounded," which is amazing.

What does sound recycled is the riffs *on this album*. Nothing on this album sounds interesting. Most of the guitar work is simple and boring. The lyrics are stale and uninteresting (and often quite cheesy). Where is the Enchant I fell in love with? It's not here on this album.

All that said: "All Mixed Up" is a good song, and sounds like it should have landed on the "Wounded" album.
3719729
Sadly,I feel this attempt should have stayed undercover. I found the storyline flopping from one disaster to  another and  never completing
what was going on. Far more effort should've been with Lisbeth and M.Blomvist,read the book to the end and with every turn of the page,
I kept hoping for more suspense, but the tale followed a dreary trail not capturing  my hope of something exciting.
Simply....It was not in the league of Larssens first three novels.
1210832
It is most fortunate for Chan Marshall that this is not her first album because, if it were, "Jukebox" might very well be her last.  For an artist of Marshall's sheer ability and unblinking intimacy with the dark side of everything, this is a notably weak effort.  It feels like something Matador cynically rushed into production to take advantage of the success and acclaim of Chan's prior album "The Greatest" which was very good.

I am generally a big fan of Cat Power but this is a sloppy collection and quite inferior to her prior "Covers" album.  Pressing 2 CDs and calling it a "deluxe edition" was totally unnecessary -- there's not enough here for one good disk, with the covers of Cat Power's previous songs being especially unneeded.  My vote for best song would be track 10 on disk 1 and worst is track 2 on disk 2 (cover of her own "Naked if I Want to" which, in its orignal version, is a superb song).
4036293
I'm a McGee fan of long standing, but was underwhelmed by this one. It starts slowly and meanderingly, which in the world of Travis McGee is not a bad thing. Over the first quarter of the book or so, I started thinking of it as perhaps "the" prototypical McGee story. But once the action picked up, I could almost feel MacDonald losing interest. The idea of McGee being enlisted to prevent a potential suicide is a bit of a head scratcher, and not all that exciting, and other long standing McGee fans will quickly figure out where this one is going.

Also, we are quickly introduced to an exhausting number of characters, none of whom we get to know very well, other than a cop who for some reason immediately decides to use McGee as a sort of unofficial deputy. Then there's the successful effort by McGee to recruit sources in the African American community, which I think was well-intentioned by MacDonald, but induces some cringes today. And not to forget the DA who doesn't mind manufacturing a crime scene - with McGee's assistance - to close a case.

The one way this book... advances?... McGee's character is in the introduction of a note of immorality. In watching a bad guy die a slow death without taking action to help, and later bedding another man's (admittedly, disaffected) wife, with no apparent feeling of remorse, I feel this is a McGee we haven't seen before. One I don't like quite as much.

All that criticism aside, it's not a bad book. It is subpar for the series, but still probably ahead of most books in the crime genre.