Mountain Views News          Saturday, December 28, 2013

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

7

Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 28, 2013 

SEAN’S SHAMELESS REVIEWS: 

JASMINE’S CORNER

Book Reviews by Jasmine Kelsey Williams 


By Sean Kayden

AMERICAN HUSTLE 

“American Hustle” has one of the best ensembles of the year. It has great acting, 
terrific wardrobe changes, and a spectacular soundtrack. It was all there, but just 
like any great con, in the end you’re left without all that much. That’s how I felt 
after viewing “American Hustle.” For a movie with such high caliber in front and 
behind the camera, I was left catastrophically disappointed with the end results. 
I wouldn’t however consider the film egregious by any stretch, but the film always seemed to be stuck 
in neutral. The first act is rather slow as we get to meet Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and his own 
back-story in becoming the two-bit con artist he is in the present. Soon after navigating through his 
life, we find out how he meets his lover/con partner, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams). She poses as a 
British aristocrat named “Lady Edith Greensly” as a way to attract investors, whose money Irving 
embezzles. Their little enterprise works flawlessly 
up until Irving meets Edith’s latest potential client 
Richard “Richie” DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) posing 
undercover as a prospective investor. In order 
for Edith to get out of jail Irving must work with 
DiMaso to take down a few more con artists. 
However, DiMaso starts to like Edith and therefore 
a love triangle between the three begins. To add 
to it, Irving’s first wife (still legally married to), 
Rosalyn Rosenfeld (Jennifer Lawrence) is crazy and 
manipulative in her own twisted ways. 

All of the actors are terrific. Amy Adams pulls off what might be her best performance yet despite 
being from a movie that won’t be considered her best. “American Hustle” catches some heat in the 
second act once we get more into the relationships between the four characters. When the mayor 
Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), comes into play there is some build up in the film, but it’s short 
lived. It feels as if there was so much emphasis on the characters and the way they looked than a much 
of a way of a coherent plot. The movie is widely sprawled out and some questionable filmmaking 
decisions were made that has “American Hustle” trying to con the viewer into thinking it’s smarter 
than what it actually appears to be. While I’m a fan of all the actors in the film, I never felt excited 
or enthralled by the film. It seemed rather consistent throughout and when I say consistent, I really 
mean utterly flat. 

I don’t want to divulge into specific plot details, but the film closes out almost too neatly (and 
arguably unconvincingly). As it treads along at a moderate but sometimes brisk pace, I never found 
myself captivated by what was going on. It plugged along neither being surprisingly fascinating or 
down right engrossing. David O. Russell is however one of the best directors behind the camera. 
He keeps the camera alive with swift movements, close-ups, and panning shots. His last two films, 
“The Fighter” and “Silver Linings Playbook” were my favorites in each year they came out. However, 
with “American Hustle,” Russell paid too much attention to detail with characters and music choices 
rather than a rational, logical plot. In “American Hustle,” you get a little “Boogie Nights,” mixed with 
“Goodfellas” light. However, it can never match up to the mastery of those two classics and instead 
falling victim of being just a decent film rather one that should have been something much more. 

Grade: 3 out of 5

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: THINK POSITIVE

By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Amy Newmark 

 With Christmas come and gone, we now look to the new year and this next selection should 
definitely help you to get into the positive mindset that comes 
along with the start of a new year. 'Chicken Soup for the Soul: 
Think Positive' will do just this, by bringing forth over 101 
stories that convey the importance of counting your blessings, 
keeping a positive attitude, and always trying to find a way to 
make the best out of a negative situation. Each story contains 
a different category that addresses how different individuals 
experience the trials and triumphs that life throws at them: 
overcoming adversity, health challenges, silver linings, and 
moving forward, just to name a few. 

 With a foreward from Deborah Norville and copyrighted in 
2010, 'Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive' is not just 
a new read, but one that should bring out the optimism in 
readers of all ages and to make them appreciate all that they 
have in thier lives. These stories will prove even more beneficial 
to one's well-being and attitude if any of the stories help to 
strike a chord in their perspectives and as a result, will be able 
to sympathize with the individuals from these stories. Each 
individual from this edition of 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' recounts 
their experience with clear and vivid detail, with their 
exact words and thoughts being expressed for the reader (and 
all the world) to know. It is not just their details on a negative situation or circumstance, but 
also if said situation or circumstance occurred to them directly; one example is from Saralee 
Perel who recounts her experiences of living with paralysis in her legs in "Walking Through 
My Paralysis", which speaks volumes to the reader of how one can overcome the obstacles of 
a medical condition. 

 'Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive' is the perfect book for anyone , who is a fan of 
the Chicken Soup series or for those who need a positive pick-me-up and for those who enjoy 
a daily reminder of learning to count your blessings and appreciating the gift of your life, 
whatever that may come your way.


Directed By: David O. Russell

Written By: Eric Singer and 

 David O. Russell

Rated R for pervasive language, some 
sexual content and brief violence

Release Date: December 20th, 2013


The World Around Us


CASSINI SEES SATURN & ITS MOONS IN HOLIDAY DRESS

This holiday season, feast your eyes on images of Saturn and two of its most 
fascinating moons, Titan and Enceladus, in a care package from NASA’s 
Cassini spacecraft. All three bodies are dressed and dazzling in this special 
package assembled by Cassini’s imaging team.

The new images are available online:

* http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

* http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

* http://ciclops.org

“During this, our tenth holiday season at Saturn, we hope that these images from 
Cassini remind everyone the world over of the significance of our discoveries in 
exploring such a remote and beautiful planetary system,” said Carolyn Porco, 
Cassini imaging team leader, based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, 
Colo. “Happy holidays from all of us on Cassini.”

Two views of Enceladus are included in the package and highlight the many 
fissures, fractures and ridges that decorate the icy moon’s surface. Enceladus is 
a white, glittering snowball of a moon, now famous for the nearly 100 geysers 
that are spread across its south polar region and spout tiny icy particles into 
space. Most of these particles fall back to the surface as snow. Some small 
fraction escapes the gravity of Enceladus and makes its way into orbit around 
Saturn, forming the planet’s extensive and diffuse E ring. Because scientists 
believe these geysers are directly connected to a subsurface, salty, organic-
rich, liquid-water reservoir, Enceladus is home to one of the most accessible 
extraterrestrial habitable zones in the solar system.

Packaged along with Saturn and Enceladus is a group of natural-color images 
of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, highlighting two of Titan’s most outstanding 
features. Peering through the moon’s hazy, orange atmosphere, the Cassini 
narrow-angle camera spots dark, splotchy features in the polar regions of the 
moon. These features are the lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane for 
which the moon is renowned. Titan is the only other place in the solar system 
that we know has stable liquids on its surface, though in Titan’s case, the liquids 
are ethane and methane rather than water. At Titan’s south pole, a swirling 
high-altitude vortex stands out distinctly against the darkness of the moon’s 
un-illuminated atmosphere. Titan’s hazy atmosphere and surface environment 
are believed to be similar in certain respects to the early atmosphere of Earth.

But the planet that towers over these moons is a celestial wonder itself. The north 
and south poles of Saturn are highlighted and appear drastically different from 
each other, as seen in new natural-color views. The globe of Saturn resembles 
a holiday ornament in a wide-angle image overlooking its north pole, bringing 
into view the hexagonal jet stream and rapidly spinning polar vortex that reside 
there. And the planet’s south pole, now in winter, looking very different than 
the springtime north, displays brilliant blue hues, reminiscent of a frosty winter 
wonderland.

“Until Cassini arrived at Saturn, we didn’t know about the hydrocarbon 
lakes of Titan, the active drama of Enceladus’ jets, and the intricate patterns 
at Saturn’s poles,” said Linda Spilker, the Cassini project scientist at NASA’s 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “Spectacular images like these 
highlight that Cassini has given us the gift of knowledge, which we have been 
so excited to share with everyone.”

Launched in 1997, Cassini has explored the Saturn system for more than nine years. NASA plans to continue the mission through 2017, with the anticipation of much more groundbreaking science and 
imagery to come.

Other images: 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-375

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2013/55/full/

http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1322/

You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com

 
A dynamical interplay between Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and its rings is captured in this view from NASA's 
Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI