Dear Pop Culture: The Clean Out

I will build that desk, one day

If the name of this blog doesn't give it away, I'm a pop culture lover! In particular films, TV shows and books - I guess it makes sense, I love storytelling in all forms. The problem being, across the years I've acquired a fair chunk of storytelling and I need to make room. If you can tell from this picture, I store my DVD's alphabetically (sub divided into TV series alphabetically) as well as my books. Thus begins the giant cull of '11. There a three key sections: Don't Touch, Staying for Sure; Hmm Do I Really Need It?; and I Can't Believe I Actually Still Have This. Across the next few weeks, we'll meet contenders for each section and you can let me know if I should toss or keep.

Let's meet our first entrants:

Book: Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason

Somehow I have the sequel and not the original Bridget Jones book, but let's not get sidetracked. I bought this in the US after falling in LOVE with the first film. From that moment on Mark Darcy was Colin Firth and the book was ignited with some extra spice purely because of that. However, the book does have problems, which I'm not addressing here because it's not a review. The biggest problem I have, is that Edge of Reason has been so horribly tainted by the second film. The one that includes the most awful Like a Virgin dance routine in the jail - yep, you blocked that out didn't you. It also overshadows some funny moments in the book, including Bridget getting a bullet sent in the mail and thinking it was a PR stunt and Mark Darcy come apart in front of her in a completely cute way. Do I go back and read key sections I like? Not so much anymore. As I said, all overshadowed by too much Hugh Grant and lesiban hijinks.

Verdict: Barely hanging onto Hmm Do I Need This Status?

DVD: Another Cinderella Story 2

Oh yes people, I have the good stuff. After the cinematic triumph of Cinderella Story with Chad Michael Murray and Hilary Duff (they were robbed at Academy's); how could I not buy the highly anticipated sequel. Starring Selena Gomez before she was pashfriends with Bieber and Andrew Seeley, the singing voice of Zac Efron from High School Musical (did I just break some bubbles there - Zac didn't sing so much in the first film.) It's horrifically bad, it involves a dance scene through a mirror, a cleaning sequence that of course turns into a dance scene and more non-sensical things turning into dance scenes. The chemistry between the leads in non-existent and it's basically pretty bad - in fact the front cover quote '...you'll be pleasantly surprised.' Chicago Tribune is my favourite thing, because even the reviewers admit how bad you're thinking it is.

Verdict: Firmly in the I Can't Believe I Have This (but secretly, it's so bad, it's good - could it stay?)