What a missed opportunity
936223
It's all photos and not very good ones at that. There's not a single story about a single dog. Dumas does go the extra mile to tap out the dog's age and how long it served at Ground Zero, but the actual story of the dogs goes completely untold. I expected at least a modicum of background on these fascinating, valuable animals who put their lives on the line to once again help man. Had I known she would have put together such a completely boring book, I never would have purchased it. Thank god I didn't give it as a gift. That would have been seriously embarrassing.
2824528
Assasins Creed 3 turned out to be a dud in what could have been an epic game. There was so much potential to be had with the setting and storyplot but it all falls short. The game is plagued by contant loading screens along with useless cinematic clips. The gameplay chooses to be cubersome instead of fun and leaves the user feeling likes he is doing chores instead of being an actual assasin. There is so much more I could berate the game for but I will choose to hold back for lack of time...Summary: Assasins Creed 3 is underwhelming.
3466992
Could have been so much more/better....Great premise on the whole Angel vs. Fallen Angel thing, but it "fell" far short of its potential.  Looks like the director tried to do something like Ridley Scott did with "Blade Runner" the way it was filmed, but again...just not quite there.
493701
First off, it's great that somebody attempted a book on such an arcane subject as the Famous Studio Popeye cartoons. But its reek of missed opportunities is stronger than spinach gone bad.

The author, Mr. Bierly, begins promisingly with a reasoned analysis of the Popeye-Olive-Bluto dynamic. And he certainly knows his Popeye cartoons. That's the trouble: two thirds of the book is devoted to describing several of them in painful detail (gee, now we don't have to see them!), followed by more-elaborate-than-necessary overviews of the rest of them. Aside from offering evidence to support his thesis that Olive and Bluto are probably better matched than Popeye and Olive, there is virtually no actual insight, and even less backstory about the production of these cartoons.

For all the detail about the cartoons themselves, myriad questions remain unanswered. Why is Olive so oddly silent in "Moving Aweigh"? Why the abrupt cut in "Popeye and the Pirates" when Popeye is stepping out of drag? Why did Popeye's so-called nephews (some of the hipper animation historians have decided that they were Popeye and Olive's actual children, presented as nephews in deference to the Production Code) go from four to three to two? What happened? Why is there no mention of the other actors--including Mae Questel--who did Popeye's voice at the end of World War II when Jack Mercer was in the service? Why is Wimpy, so underused in the Fleischer cartoons, barely in the Famous cartoons at all? And why does the author think the whiskerless Bluto in "Shaving Muggs" looks like Rock Hudson? A more probable model is Disney's Brom Bones (although ironically, Brom's rival, Ichabod Crane, more than passably resembles the original Olive Oyl). The Famous artists, as in the Fleischer days, were strongly urged to emulate Disney as much as possible, which accounts for a lot of the humorless slapstick and straightforward if uninspired storylines--also the nephews, obvious knockoffs of Hewey, Dewey, and Louie.

Bierly also seems to miss--or dismiss--why these cartoons are considered lacking by so many. (It doesn't help, of course, that so many of them are pallid remakes of earlier Popeyes.) Popeye, Olive, and Bluto were never meant to be pretty. Olive is at her funniest when she acts sexy, as in "Shape Ahoy" and "Klondike Casanova," as if she has no idea what she really looks like. Bierly also disapproves of Popeye's moral ambiguity. If Popeye is occasionally selfish, dishonest, and even cruel, at least in that regard the nerdish Famous character dovetails with the Segar-cum-Fleischer original: Popeye plays by his own rules with no apologies--"I yam what I yam." And one obvious but not mentioned influence Popeye had on pop culture is the outsized sailor suit (when Popeye changed from his original British bosun garb to American sailor whites, it was originally a very poor fit, the neckerchief hanging nearly to his knees; as Popeye became more refined, the suit became trimmer) worn by Nellie Forbush as she performs "Honey Bun" in the musical "South Pacific."

Last thought: "Jitterbug Jive" must have seemed pretty dated by 1950, when the cartoon was released. A much funnier variation on the theme happened a decade later in the made-for-TV "Coffee House," where Olive and Brutus are beatniks and Popeye the square--until he eats the spinach, which seems to raise cultural awareness as well as physical prowess. Maybe Steve Bierly should have downed a can of the stuff before attempting this book.
4797445
This a missed opportunity to create a spectacular book. Lousy layout, very few and substandard photos, lacklustre text.
4251566
WOW, what a wasted opportunity.

The book starts with a decent premise and has some tight action and good characters. The writing is fine, and the pacing seems very natural.

The middle of the book plods along a bit, but still a good read,

Then the ending...... Seriously?

It is like the author ran out of ideas so he took a hackneyed set of sub-plots and jammed them into the ending. Do we have all of the common stupid elements?

Let's see:
Evil government doing hideous experiments on innocent people?
-Check!
Evil Pharmaceutical company covering up experiments through murder?
-Check!
Loss of all of the author's imaginative brain-cells?
-Check!

The worst part of all of this, is that the resolution was thrown at the reader. 4-pages to wrap it up!
Another sore spot: Why have the character of "Josh". He has no function, and is just thrown in on the last scene. Why?

Verdict: Garbage
1199771
This definitely would have been a cool book to me at some point in my life, but I think I missed it by many years.
3726342
missed opportunity to make a nice product. LCD is hard to read possibly due to the angle. too light weight and slides all over. USB cable is too short for anything but a laptop and the USB connector is reaaly long.  sometimes it doesnt respond to command to switch to calculator. i wish logitech would dive back into this market.
2361409
The premise of this book was so promising - the aftermath of a tragedy - what happened? How do people go on?
But this one really missed the mark.  A few questions:

How in the world did an unknown housemaid become culturally elevated so quickly at the turn of the century?
How is it that not one, but two men seemed instantly to fall in love with such an unlikely poor girl in less than a week?
How is it that a common sailor wandered around freely with first class passengers?
How did a good seamstress become a fashion designer in a week?
What did the sufferage march at the end have to do with the story?  What was the big deal about a woman riding a white horse in the parade - so much so that it was mentioned at least three times throughout the book?

Was this novel about the aftermath, shipboard romance, dressmaking, woman's sufferage, regrets, or taking a new chance in America?  This book took a passing swing at all of these but failed to develop the characters, setting or point of view to justify the time spent reading it. The original idea was great, but the storytelling very weak.
1065827
Obviously there is a second book coming and I hate that the authors do that all the time.  I really liked the story but it went pretty fast and I think the author missed alot of opportunity for some good storytelling in this book.  For instance...they get to L.A.and the first day is explained and then all of a sudden it's 2 weeks later...Obviously the characters bonded tons in those weeks and I wish it would have been written so I could have gotten more involved with the characters. Don't get me wrong I did fall in love w the characters w how it's written now but I still think it was a major missed opportunity.
2379736
The plot was fairly good,but they should've featured ALL the bears(Liverlips McGrowl,Teddi Barra,etc) to make this move REALLY good. They also should've stuck with the original country bear songs instead of having the Bears sing ordinary songs. They could've at least stuck memorable songs like "Bear Band Serenade" and "Blood on the Saddle" in the film. Another majhor disappointment was that they did not have the 3 talking animal heads on the wall or the raccoon on Henry's hat-they could at least had those to make the film more enjoyable.

My advice is to rent this movie.
948150
Of course, I must begin with saying that reading Hamlet is a must to recognize the brillancy of Stoppard choosing and developing these two minor players on Hamlet.  It was a great idea.  The themes of death, illusion and reality and the "masks that we all wear" were insightful, as well as the unique sense of time in the book.

  However, it was too short to develop it's own depth (it is worthless if you have not read Hamlet) and the true motives of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  Their two word sentences in wannabe-Hemmingway-style started to bore me after a bit, the novelty of the game wore off.  There was definately an element of confusion on how the Player could see the future, and why.  That concept was also touched upon but not examined.  Perhaps I am just "missing things," but in my opinion Stoppard could have done a much better job.  It has no merit on it's own, except for the concept listed above.

  I suggest that if you are so compelled to view their story, watch the film.
4378786
I liked the concept, but 2 major plot points were too messed up to overcome.  First of all, Niki does not make sense as a bank robber/criminal/investigator.  He owns his own investigation firm but commits federal crimes for kicks?  Uh, no,  The romance was cute but I can think of several ways the story could have been told without making he and his friends criminals. Then the psychotic daddy/killer. That made no sense.  He's managed to hide the fact that he's just flat out crazy all these years?  And nobody ever noticed? The author has a lot of potential but really missed the mark with this book.
1717282
What a missed opportunity from one of our most creative children's writers! All that is so wrong about school life - teasing (without any attempt to look at the reasons a child would resort to such behavior and without any apparent concern or intervention by the teacher), intimidating lessons (without any recognition that children learn best by asking, not answering questions), commercial exploitation of innocent children for money (with no comment, satirical or other, about this ubiquitous, crass and unfair business), learning a subject only to placate a frightening teacher, not because the child is interested or needs the information at the present time in his life (with no recognition that children learn best what they actually need to know at the time for their own use - information that has intrinsic, not extrinsic value).

Daniel, if you're reading this, I invite you to visit the Natural Child Project and read our articles on learning - and then write a book that can truly benefit children, not uphold the status quo of a failing system.

For a delightful read, see the wonderful&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/TOOTH-GNASHER-SUPERFLASH-Reading-Rainbow/dp/0689714076/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">TOOTH - GNASHER SUPERFLASH (Reading Rainbow)</a>,  a triumph of whimsical nonsense that shows Pinkwater at his creative best.

Jan Hunt, Author of The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart
4774758
The "president" character's background was very lacking in information. Sorry James, it's just not enough to the story. I know it takes a lot to write a book, it just feels a little too rushed.
3006709
There was an opportunity for something better, with this book that was missed by an author that I admire. The main character is a rich and bored housewife, who feels a sense of restlessness and wants to find meaning. However, the slightly dispassionate way the story was told without the insights into the character left me a little cold. In the end, I came away from this book not having learned, or felt, much.

In my mind, a great book must make you feel something, the better the book, the stronger the emotion. Unfortunately, Adultery was rather drab and uninteresting for me as I could not identify with the main character at all.
584471
Ever since Age of Empires II came out, those of us who fell in love with the game wished for a worthy sequel. Instead of producing one, Ensemble Studios wasted years trying to shove bizarre mythological monsters and fantasy down our throat. None of these attempts have sold well, and Ensemble finally decided to give us what we want, but the long awaited AEIII doesn't quite measure up to expectations.

Yes, the graphic engine has been upgraded and is now second to none and yes, the game play has been vastly improved. You will need a new $300 video card to play at the fanciest settings, and selection, repairs and technology upgrades are now a snap. No longer do you have fishing ships charging into a land battle because you tried to select a group of soldiers on the coast line. The game also returned to the historical plot that made AEII so educational and entertaining. Still, there are problems.

Good things were taken away from the old model. You can no longer garrison archers in towers to increase their power. The Captain Morgan story is historically inaccurate and insignificant. The American war of independence, the Civil War and Latin American wars are not even touched and the French and Russian conflicts are barely even mentioned. Instead the game wastes time on the Ottoman involvement in the New World (???). The game is also very short and will be exhausted in a few weeks even if played only occasionally.

An expansion pack is badly needed. I want the play the Civil War, the French-English conflict and other important upheavals in the New World. I want total historical accuracy so I can learn instead of wasting time on legends such as that of the Lake of the Moon. This could become a great game with the right expansion pack, but I fear Ensemble will give us more monsters and mythology.