Oh Jasper Fforde, how I love your books. You have had me since The Eyre Affair, and I continue to devour any of your new books as quickly as you can write them. (I mean, Richard III as a rocky horror type event? It's a lit geek's dream come true.) Your stories are always so fun and imaginative; they truly are like dream exploded in my head.
Shades of Grey does not disappoint. Eddie Russett lives in a world where what color you see designates your place in society. Eddie's a Red, and a middling Red at that. He's sent to the Outskirts to take a chair census as a sort of punishment, and while there becomes enamored with a Grey named Jane (Greys see no color.) Poor Eddie soon gets over his head when he starts questioning why things are the way they are. Why is it no one sees in the dark? What really happened Before?
It's a fun start to a new trilogy,and if you like the idea of a Wizard of Oz type world fused with our own, then you should check it out.
Rating: 4.5 Purrs. It's not quite The Eyre Affair, but it's a very fun read.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Friday, November 12, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Killers & Date Night
Ok, so I don't usually watch romantic comedies. I like them, they just never make it to the top of my list. This weekend though, somehow I ended up watching Killers and Date Night, both of which I would classify as rom coms. They were both pretty funny, but overall nothing to write home about.
Killers felt a lot like Mr. & Mrs. Smith crossed with Grosse Point Blank, with a little Sandra Bullock thrown in for color. Ashton Kutcher plays it with the right amount of seriousness and silliness, and well, Katherine Heigl is in her element playing the lovely wife who discovers her hubby is a contract killer. Date Night felt a lot like Adventures in Babysitting, only with married people. Of course, both movies had decent acting, and well, Steve Carrell & Tina Fey are the awkward comedy masters. They do know how to make you laugh (seriously watch the takes in the credits- hilarious!).
They were both fun, and worth a rental, but I would never watch them again. I don't think either would hold up to a second viewing.
Rating: 3 1/2 purrs for some laughs and general goofiness
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Killers felt a lot like Mr. & Mrs. Smith crossed with Grosse Point Blank, with a little Sandra Bullock thrown in for color. Ashton Kutcher plays it with the right amount of seriousness and silliness, and well, Katherine Heigl is in her element playing the lovely wife who discovers her hubby is a contract killer. Date Night felt a lot like Adventures in Babysitting, only with married people. Of course, both movies had decent acting, and well, Steve Carrell & Tina Fey are the awkward comedy masters. They do know how to make you laugh (seriously watch the takes in the credits- hilarious!).
They were both fun, and worth a rental, but I would never watch them again. I don't think either would hold up to a second viewing.
Rating: 3 1/2 purrs for some laughs and general goofiness
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Monday, October 18, 2010
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
When I started The Omnivore's Dilemma, I was warned that it might turn me vegetarian. I figured that nothing could do that. If Fast Food Nation couldn't do it, nothing could. I seriously considered it though for a few chapters here and there after reading even more about factory farming, the copious amounts of corn and soybeans grown to support the food habits of Americans, and the slaughter of animals. Then Mr. Pollan sums up the book with The Perfect Meal, a meal harvested, hunted, and grown by him and shared with others. He sums it up with such a lovely thought. It's not just what you eat, but being conscientious about where it came from. Thinking about what it is you are eating, and celebrating it, enjoying it, be responsible for it.
The bulk of the book walks through three types of meals: the corn-fed beef meal, the organic and sustainable farm meal, and the hunter/gatherer meal. What I like about Mr. Pollan is that he thoroughly pokes about at all of the theories. Corn and corn syrup and corn-fed beef, the farming industry and how it has changed over the years. Organic farming and the fallacy of big organic. The spiritual aspect of being a responsible eater.
Michael Pollan has several more books that related to the topic of food and responsibility. I am adding them to my reading list because frankly, he has made me think about what I eat, and done so in such a way where I never felt preached to or talked down to. I too want to eat responsibly, and enjoy every bite.
Rating: 5 purrs...thanks Matt for recommending this one.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
The bulk of the book walks through three types of meals: the corn-fed beef meal, the organic and sustainable farm meal, and the hunter/gatherer meal. What I like about Mr. Pollan is that he thoroughly pokes about at all of the theories. Corn and corn syrup and corn-fed beef, the farming industry and how it has changed over the years. Organic farming and the fallacy of big organic. The spiritual aspect of being a responsible eater.
Michael Pollan has several more books that related to the topic of food and responsibility. I am adding them to my reading list because frankly, he has made me think about what I eat, and done so in such a way where I never felt preached to or talked down to. I too want to eat responsibly, and enjoy every bite.
Rating: 5 purrs...thanks Matt for recommending this one.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Piranha (2010)
I finally got to the theater to see Aja's remake of one of my all time favorites- Piranha. (I watched the original on Bruce here on the way back to DFW Friday, so the it was fresh in my mind.) To sum it up- it was one of the funnest, goriest, boob-fests I have seen in a very long time. From the very opening scenes with a clap-worthy homage to one of my other favorites, Jaws, to the hilarious and somewhat gratuitous "wild wild girls" & the spring break partiers, to Jerry O'Connell eating up the screen as the soft-core porn producer, it seriously was just so much fun. Even the various comments from the Tweens in the row behind us could dispel the fun.
Elizabeth Shue plays the town sheriff with a teenager who shirks his babysitting responsibilities to give the wild wild girls a tour of the best spots to film. This filing includes a lovely amount of nakedness, including an underwater ballet scene that had me tears and wishing we had seen the movie in 3D after all. Dina Meyer has about 2 seconds in the film, along with Ving Rhames. I kept seeing people and saying- hey look at that, there's so and so (including Eli Roth, who seems to be cameoing in every movie rather than hurrying up and filming Thanksgiving. Dude, hurry up.) the plot is still pretty much the same as the original, you know, hungry fish attack people in an Arizona lake. Lots of chomp chomp. Lots of blood. Lots and lots of gore. Plucky heroine, wry humor from the main hero.
I have really liked Aja and what he has come up with, even Mirrors, so when I saw he was remaking Piranha, I knew it was in good hands. I was not wrong.
Rating: 5 Purrs: Really, seriously you should just go see it. It was awesome. I might even see it again in the theater.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Elizabeth Shue plays the town sheriff with a teenager who shirks his babysitting responsibilities to give the wild wild girls a tour of the best spots to film. This filing includes a lovely amount of nakedness, including an underwater ballet scene that had me tears and wishing we had seen the movie in 3D after all. Dina Meyer has about 2 seconds in the film, along with Ving Rhames. I kept seeing people and saying- hey look at that, there's so and so (including Eli Roth, who seems to be cameoing in every movie rather than hurrying up and filming Thanksgiving. Dude, hurry up.) the plot is still pretty much the same as the original, you know, hungry fish attack people in an Arizona lake. Lots of chomp chomp. Lots of blood. Lots and lots of gore. Plucky heroine, wry humor from the main hero.
I have really liked Aja and what he has come up with, even Mirrors, so when I saw he was remaking Piranha, I knew it was in good hands. I was not wrong.
Rating: 5 Purrs: Really, seriously you should just go see it. It was awesome. I might even see it again in the theater.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I pretty much grab up the newest Stephen King books right as they hit the shelves. I am a bit of an addict that way. Under the Dome was no exception, except in one small way. It took me forever to finish it.
So what's it about? One day the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine is going about its business like any other day when all of a sudden something unusual appears (if you guessed a gigantic dome, you get a cookie). The town is completely cut off from the outside world. People die. What happens to a small town where everyone knows each other but now they are cut off? Do they trust each other? Do they help each other out? Not if you are in Stephen King's world.
It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I really did, once I got about half-way through. It was getting half-way that was the hard part. Well, that and the fact that the book is impossibly huge, and when you like to take the book you are reading everywhere, well, War and Peace sized books just don't get put in the computer bag. It took awhile to get the story rolling, and honestly i kept getting flashbacks to The Stand. (Cell did as well but it seemed to not bother me as much.) I actually put it aside for awhile and came back to it after a month or two. When I came back to it, I sped through it. Maybe it was just timing. It also felt a lot like this old movie I saw when I was younger, but to say any more would give away the twist, and I just can't do that.
I would recommend this if you are a King fan, but if you are looking for an end of the world type tale, I would say check out The Stand first. It's still my favorite.
Rating: 4 Purrs
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
So what's it about? One day the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine is going about its business like any other day when all of a sudden something unusual appears (if you guessed a gigantic dome, you get a cookie). The town is completely cut off from the outside world. People die. What happens to a small town where everyone knows each other but now they are cut off? Do they trust each other? Do they help each other out? Not if you are in Stephen King's world.
It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I really did, once I got about half-way through. It was getting half-way that was the hard part. Well, that and the fact that the book is impossibly huge, and when you like to take the book you are reading everywhere, well, War and Peace sized books just don't get put in the computer bag. It took awhile to get the story rolling, and honestly i kept getting flashbacks to The Stand. (Cell did as well but it seemed to not bother me as much.) I actually put it aside for awhile and came back to it after a month or two. When I came back to it, I sped through it. Maybe it was just timing. It also felt a lot like this old movie I saw when I was younger, but to say any more would give away the twist, and I just can't do that.
I would recommend this if you are a King fan, but if you are looking for an end of the world type tale, I would say check out The Stand first. It's still my favorite.
Rating: 4 Purrs
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Taroko Gorge by Daniel Ritari
Taroko Gorge is another one of those books I was lucky enough to get via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers group. There are good things and bad things about this group, and Taroko Gorge is definitely one of those good things. When I read the write up, I thought this sounds like Picnic at Hanging Rock. I love that movie. While Taroko Gorge didn't end up being a retread of Picnic after all, it still ended up being a very worthwhile read. I was surprised that this was a first novel. In fact, when I saw that it was, I lowered my expectations a bit. I shouldn't have. It was quite good.
Taroko Gorge has many narrators, all telling their version of events leading up to and after the disappearance of three Japanese schoolgirls at the Taiwanese state park Taroko Gorge. Did they fall into the gorge, down a hole, were they murdered? You have the two Americans, one a reporter and his photographer who seem to be the last to have seen the girls, the Japanese class rep who had a crush on one of the girls, a girl who lived in their shadow, and the Taiwanese detective who leads the search for the missing girls all telling the story from their perspectives. Where did the girls go? Are they alive or is all hope lost?
I really liked the different voices, the multiple nationalities all dealing with various prejudices and traditions in hopes of doing what is right. It felt very true, well researched, and the mystery kept me interested until the very end. In the end, found or not, everyone will be changed just from being there,waiting to see. It was a nice mix of traditions, how they can lead to prejudice and misunderstanding, and a mystery. The setting was interesting but not quite enough of a character to be the mysterious Hanging Rock. The characters were developed but not overly so. I knew enough in minimal discussion enough to care about them and their actions.
Overall, I liked this book quite a bit. I read it quickly, not because it was overly simple, but because I wanted to find out what was happening next. I wanted to find out about those girls, because in those short few chapters, I cared.
Rating: 4 Purrs for drawing me in and keeping me guessing. For showing the turmoil of teenage life and the human existence. For giving a very good first novel when expected far less.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Taroko Gorge has many narrators, all telling their version of events leading up to and after the disappearance of three Japanese schoolgirls at the Taiwanese state park Taroko Gorge. Did they fall into the gorge, down a hole, were they murdered? You have the two Americans, one a reporter and his photographer who seem to be the last to have seen the girls, the Japanese class rep who had a crush on one of the girls, a girl who lived in their shadow, and the Taiwanese detective who leads the search for the missing girls all telling the story from their perspectives. Where did the girls go? Are they alive or is all hope lost?
I really liked the different voices, the multiple nationalities all dealing with various prejudices and traditions in hopes of doing what is right. It felt very true, well researched, and the mystery kept me interested until the very end. In the end, found or not, everyone will be changed just from being there,waiting to see. It was a nice mix of traditions, how they can lead to prejudice and misunderstanding, and a mystery. The setting was interesting but not quite enough of a character to be the mysterious Hanging Rock. The characters were developed but not overly so. I knew enough in minimal discussion enough to care about them and their actions.
Overall, I liked this book quite a bit. I read it quickly, not because it was overly simple, but because I wanted to find out what was happening next. I wanted to find out about those girls, because in those short few chapters, I cared.
Rating: 4 Purrs for drawing me in and keeping me guessing. For showing the turmoil of teenage life and the human existence. For giving a very good first novel when expected far less.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Friday, July 02, 2010
Avatar
"I'm probably just talking to a tree right now..."
Really, that sums it up. Avatar is Ferngully with really nifty computer animation. Everyone is cardboard. The hero is heroic, the anthropologist is a tree hugger, and the big company and big army evil doers are well, evil.
Yeah, the plot, is all about your stereotypical big bad company finding an untouched, misunderstood wilderness and looking for ways to exploit it. If that means running out and massacring all of the locals by making them out to be savages, well even better. My favorite part was when the bad guy runs out into the unbreathable atmosphere without his oxygen mask to shoot the tree huggers and HOLDS HIS BREATH. Oh, and the slow motion action scenes. Let's not forget when the whole end of the movie was telegraphed, um, from the minute she talked about the legend of the Braveheart guy who brought all of the clans together.
Don't get me wrong. The CGI is amazing, if you can get past the fact that it glows like a velvet Elvis painting under a blacklight. But really, even bells and whistles do not a Oscar winner make. Thank god. Because let's face it, The Hurt Locker- that had action, character development, visuals that made your blood chill, and enough tension that I couldn't keep my hands unclenched. Oh yeah, AND it had a point to make too, Mr. Cameron, without beating me over the head with it.
Rating: Bah. It's no wonder there's a RiffTrax. It's the only way I will watch this again.
- Posted using BlogPress from Bruce
Really, that sums it up. Avatar is Ferngully with really nifty computer animation. Everyone is cardboard. The hero is heroic, the anthropologist is a tree hugger, and the big company and big army evil doers are well, evil.
Yeah, the plot, is all about your stereotypical big bad company finding an untouched, misunderstood wilderness and looking for ways to exploit it. If that means running out and massacring all of the locals by making them out to be savages, well even better. My favorite part was when the bad guy runs out into the unbreathable atmosphere without his oxygen mask to shoot the tree huggers and HOLDS HIS BREATH. Oh, and the slow motion action scenes. Let's not forget when the whole end of the movie was telegraphed, um, from the minute she talked about the legend of the Braveheart guy who brought all of the clans together.
Don't get me wrong. The CGI is amazing, if you can get past the fact that it glows like a velvet Elvis painting under a blacklight. But really, even bells and whistles do not a Oscar winner make. Thank god. Because let's face it, The Hurt Locker- that had action, character development, visuals that made your blood chill, and enough tension that I couldn't keep my hands unclenched. Oh yeah, AND it had a point to make too, Mr. Cameron, without beating me over the head with it.
Rating: Bah. It's no wonder there's a RiffTrax. It's the only way I will watch this again.
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Location:On my couch in the she-cave
Friday, June 25, 2010
Splice
I have been pretty excited about Splice for awhile, from way back when I first read about it in EW ages ago. When I saw it was coming to a theater near me, I was thrilled. I ended up pleased but not overwhelmingly so. It was good, and had potential, but it wasn't the movie I had in my head.
Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody are two rock star geneticists. They create some weird creatures that create proteins for a pharmaceutical company, and they want to go on to splice with the human genome. When told no, they do what normal movie scientists would do. They go there. As these things go, of course it was a bad decision. Regret and bloodshed ho!
All in all, I loved the ultra trendy scientists, the idea, etc., but it felt slow towards the middle. I expected more action and bloodshed a la James Cameron's Aliens and instead got slow burning drama a la Ridley Scott's Alien. It's not a bad thing, I just expected something different. Sarah Polley was a wonderful cross between Lady MacBeth and Dr. Frankenstein. I loved the mixed parallels. It telegraphed too much though, so when it went full throttle to the end I knew fairly well how this would play out.
Rating: 4 Purrs for a horror movie that didn't tread a whole lot of new ground but did make it fun while it lasted.
Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody are two rock star geneticists. They create some weird creatures that create proteins for a pharmaceutical company, and they want to go on to splice with the human genome. When told no, they do what normal movie scientists would do. They go there. As these things go, of course it was a bad decision. Regret and bloodshed ho!
All in all, I loved the ultra trendy scientists, the idea, etc., but it felt slow towards the middle. I expected more action and bloodshed a la James Cameron's Aliens and instead got slow burning drama a la Ridley Scott's Alien. It's not a bad thing, I just expected something different. Sarah Polley was a wonderful cross between Lady MacBeth and Dr. Frankenstein. I loved the mixed parallels. It telegraphed too much though, so when it went full throttle to the end I knew fairly well how this would play out.
Rating: 4 Purrs for a horror movie that didn't tread a whole lot of new ground but did make it fun while it lasted.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Horrorfest 4
This year's entries into Horrorfest have been much better than past years.
- Dread: This one based on a Clive Barker story and stars a Cullen, but man it sure was icky. These college kids decide to run an experiment investigating people's biggest fears. Problem is, the ringleader just happens to be nuts, and he decides to make people face their biggest fears in hopes of learning how to cure his own. The paintings in this one were beautiful.
- The Final: The opening says this was based on a true story and it was filmed in McKinney and area up here in North Texas, so I can't help but like the story of a group of tormented high-schoolers who turn the tables on their bullies in most gruesome and psychological ways. One even wears an Audition costume, so of course I like it.
- Kill Theory: A group of long-time college friends head out to the lake to celebrate graduation, only to find themselves trapped by a psycho who says they must kill each other one by one and have one left standing at 6 AM or he will kill them all. This one was quite good. I can see why maybe it didn't make it to the theater but it is definitely worth a watch.
- The Graves: Sisters Megan and Abby Graves are taking a cross country trip before Megan starts a new job in New York. On the way, they decide to check out the road-side attraction called Skull City Mine. As these things go, they find something not so pleasant. Slicing and dicing and spooky stuff happens, and things get a bit disjointed towards the end, but I can't help but love a movie that has two goth girls who love comics and can kick ass.
- The Reeds: A group of Londonites take a weekend trip through the reeds of Norfolk on a hired boat. From the start, things get creepy, with the crochety old boat guy and the pesky teens that keep popping up here and there. It ends up in disaster and blood, and a mystery to be solved. It was quite good.
- Lake Mungo: A somewhat slow, creepy supernatural movie that deals with an Australian family's grief at losing their teenage daughter to drowning. It's shot documentary style. I was watching it by myself and I got a bit creeped out, so stick with it.
- Hidden: The foreign film entry into this year's horrorfest. A guy goes back home after his mother's death and faces the fears from his childhood. Someone is murdering people- is it a ghost, is it the boy from his childhood? It was spooky in places but also very slow.
- Zombies of Mass Destruction: Zombies! Need I say more? Yes, well then - zombies started by terrorists in a small town, gore and hilarity happens, boy comes out to mom, girl comes to term with her roots, brains get munched on.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Sumner Island by Michael Cormier
I got a copy of Sumner Island by Michael Cormier as an early reviewer's copy. It's a first novel, and honestly, it wasn't too bad. I thought I was getting a spooky ghost story, but what I got was more like a cross between Somewhere in Time and The Sixth Sense. In fact, I spent the majority of the first part of the novel trying to convince myself it wasn't a retread. Luckily, it picked up towards the end and I got absorbed into the story along the way.
Mitch Lambert is a history professor who, while writing the biography of Maria Boudreau, falls in love with the long-dead heiress. His book increases interest in Maria, and soon people are seeing her ghost walking the island where she was murdered. Mitch believes the man who was accused of her murder was innocent, and is determined to discover the real killer when a psychic comes to the island to have a seance. Along the way, Mitch begins to see things he shouldn't, a sort of time-travel thing, and plays detective. Will he solve the mystery? What do you do when you love someone who has been dead for years?
It wasn't bad, it wasn't mind-blowing. I felt like the ending was a bit of a let down, too neatly tied up I guess. I can't say for sure, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had gotten what I was expecting - a haunted house story. Instead I got a supernatural romance thriller, which was a good read, just not what I was looking for. Go into with the right frame of mind and I think you would enjoy it.
Rating: 3 1/2 Purrs
Mitch Lambert is a history professor who, while writing the biography of Maria Boudreau, falls in love with the long-dead heiress. His book increases interest in Maria, and soon people are seeing her ghost walking the island where she was murdered. Mitch believes the man who was accused of her murder was innocent, and is determined to discover the real killer when a psychic comes to the island to have a seance. Along the way, Mitch begins to see things he shouldn't, a sort of time-travel thing, and plays detective. Will he solve the mystery? What do you do when you love someone who has been dead for years?
It wasn't bad, it wasn't mind-blowing. I felt like the ending was a bit of a let down, too neatly tied up I guess. I can't say for sure, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had gotten what I was expecting - a haunted house story. Instead I got a supernatural romance thriller, which was a good read, just not what I was looking for. Go into with the right frame of mind and I think you would enjoy it.
Rating: 3 1/2 Purrs
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
Stewart O'Nan is one of those authors that captures a moment in time so well and creates such a feeling of place and character. I read The Speed Queen first, because my other half bought it way back when we were in college and he said I really needed to read it. I read Last Night at the Lobster, and it too was perfection. The Night Country wasn't a disappointment at all, although I am not really sure why people classify it as horror.
A year ago, a group of teenagers died in a car wreck on Halloween. Their spirits live on, haunting those they left behind: the cop who has a secret, the survivor, the mother of the survivor marred forever by the wreck. As the anniversary of the wreck draws near, you learn how their lives have changed and know that each is trying to commemorate it in his or her own way. In some ways, they are trying to move on, in others, they can't.
O'Nan creates this world where it makes sense that ghosts are along side us, whispering in our ears. He's able to include those voices without seeming silly or hammy. His characters are sympathetic, and all of the story leads to this reveal at the end that I literally couldn't stop reading. It's touching, life-affirming, and terribly tragic all at once, all without ever being cheesy or resorting to the stereotypical. It's lovely.
Rating: 5 Purrs
A year ago, a group of teenagers died in a car wreck on Halloween. Their spirits live on, haunting those they left behind: the cop who has a secret, the survivor, the mother of the survivor marred forever by the wreck. As the anniversary of the wreck draws near, you learn how their lives have changed and know that each is trying to commemorate it in his or her own way. In some ways, they are trying to move on, in others, they can't.
O'Nan creates this world where it makes sense that ghosts are along side us, whispering in our ears. He's able to include those voices without seeming silly or hammy. His characters are sympathetic, and all of the story leads to this reveal at the end that I literally couldn't stop reading. It's touching, life-affirming, and terribly tragic all at once, all without ever being cheesy or resorting to the stereotypical. It's lovely.
Rating: 5 Purrs
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Nightmare on Elm Street (remake)
The original Nightmare on Elm Street scared the hell out of me the first time I saw it. Freddy Krueger was terrifying. The idea of being attacked in your dreams, unable to wake up, unable to fall asleep because you might die. Yikes. The remake doesn't change much of that formula, which was nice, but it changed enough that it wasn't a complete retread.
Things I liked:
Things I didn't like:
Rating: 4 Purrs
Things I liked:
- I jumped several times in my seat. Sure it might have been because of the loud Boo! music, but I jumped.
- Kellen Lutz! The opening scenes with him are tense.
- They didn't puss out with Kreuger. I thought they were going to, but they didn't. If they had, I would have not liked this movie at all.
- Jackie Earle Haley. Wow. While he was pretty much replaying Rorschach, he does it well. Creepy.
- There were plenty of homages to the original, but not complete re-dos.
Things I didn't like:
- Why oh why don't they use real special effects any more? Why do movie makers these days feel so compelled to CGI the shit out of everything? I want real fake blood people. Not CGI blood. It never looks real.
- Why oh why does Nancy have to be emo chick? Why can't she be the sweet, scrubbed up teen like the first one?
- I hated her little booties she wore. Ugh. I know, I know. A shoe complaint in a horror movie. I'm a girl. Sue me.
- No Johnny Depp death scene. Not even close. Dang it.
Rating: 4 Purrs
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Losers
"Did you know that cats can make one thousand different sounds and dogs can only make ten? Cats, man. Not to be trusted. " - Jenson
I loved The Losers. I loved every second of the cheesy 80's action movie-ness of it. The one-liners, the explosions, the gun fire, the hot chick...Jeffery Dean Morgan (yum), Chris Evans (yum), Zoe Saldana (yum). Really, what's not to like?
It's a movie that never takes itself too seriously. I laughed out loud. I loved the explosions. I don't know why more people didn't see it, but you should have.
I loved The Losers. I loved every second of the cheesy 80's action movie-ness of it. The one-liners, the explosions, the gun fire, the hot chick...Jeffery Dean Morgan (yum), Chris Evans (yum), Zoe Saldana (yum). Really, what's not to like?
It's a movie that never takes itself too seriously. I laughed out loud. I loved the explosions. I don't know why more people didn't see it, but you should have.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Chinatown Deathcloud Peril by Paul Malmont
A good friend handed this book over to me because he thought with my love of old 40's noir, old time radio programs, and James Ellroy that I would love a book that stars the authors of two of the most popular pulp stories - The Shadow and Doc Savage. He was right.
In The Chinatown Deathcloud Peril, William Gibson writes The Shadow. He's buddies with H.P. Lovecraft, whose strange death spurs the writer to meet the real-life Shadow and it scares him. Gibson and Lester Dent (author of Doc Savage) are in a race to uncover the answer to one of the greatest mysteries and best pulp stories ever told. All sorts of writers appear in the tale, including L. Ron Hubbard and Louis L'Amour. The two authors are rivals and partners as they dig deep into the secrets surrounding Lovecraft's death and the secrets hidden in Chinatown, all culminating in the biggest pulp of all.
It's fun, it's pulpy, it's a fast read with plenty of all that a good pulp fun with quips, crazy characters, and impossible adventures. It was funny without being too campy, when it could have gone over the edge.
Rating: 5 Purrs for something I probably never would have found myself but loved every page of it.
In The Chinatown Deathcloud Peril, William Gibson writes The Shadow. He's buddies with H.P. Lovecraft, whose strange death spurs the writer to meet the real-life Shadow and it scares him. Gibson and Lester Dent (author of Doc Savage) are in a race to uncover the answer to one of the greatest mysteries and best pulp stories ever told. All sorts of writers appear in the tale, including L. Ron Hubbard and Louis L'Amour. The two authors are rivals and partners as they dig deep into the secrets surrounding Lovecraft's death and the secrets hidden in Chinatown, all culminating in the biggest pulp of all.
It's fun, it's pulpy, it's a fast read with plenty of all that a good pulp fun with quips, crazy characters, and impossible adventures. It was funny without being too campy, when it could have gone over the edge.
Rating: 5 Purrs for something I probably never would have found myself but loved every page of it.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Clash of the Titans (remake)
What can I say about Clash of the Titans? Hmm...What to say...What to say...
What this movie needed: more Bubo! More clashing and less "no we are men, not Gods! I will fight as one" and "but I was going into Tatchi for power converters" blah blah. Of course if you remove those feelings from the equation and just see it for what it is, a big CGI action fest, well, it's not so bad.
Rating: 3 1/2 Purrs because there was a Kraken, after all
- They took out pretty much every shred of mythology from the original. All that stuff about Kalabos, Thetis, Poseidon, Zeus ruling the gods and goddesses with an iron fist, the gifts from the goddesses, the origins of Perseus, all of that - out. You see Zeus and Hades, but that's it. All of the others there on Mt. Olympus are pretty much window dressing to Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes munching on the screen.
- Perseus wants to be a *man* not a *god.* He whines like Luke Skywalker throughout the entire movie about how he wants to do the whole journey to Medusa as a *man* despite the many good men dying around him because he is stubborn.
- Io - WTF? I guess Andromeda wasn't warrior-chick enough to be in this movie but for more than a second.
- Man, I miss Ray Harryhausen's special effects. CGI just doesn't give the right feel to what this movie could have been.
- Oh no, you did not just throw Bubo back into the trunk. He's a gift from Athena dude. You don't just cast off a gift from Athena.
What this movie needed: more Bubo! More clashing and less "no we are men, not Gods! I will fight as one" and "but I was going into Tatchi for power converters" blah blah. Of course if you remove those feelings from the equation and just see it for what it is, a big CGI action fest, well, it's not so bad.
Rating: 3 1/2 Purrs because there was a Kraken, after all
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
I have had this book on my shelf for a long while, kept looking at it, picking it up, and then putting it back. I wish I had read it earlier because it was a very fun, witty, surprising read. You really don't know who is telling the truth or who is lying right up until the end, when it throws you for a complete loop.
In Bad Monkeys, Jane Charlotte has been arrested for murder. During her interview, she tells the police she is a member of a secret organization that fights evil. Not crime, but evil. Her job is to get rid of "bad monkeys" AKA irredeemable persons.
The whole book is Jane Charlotte being interviewed by the psych ward doctor, and she walks through her childhood, her first contact with the group, and way the group works. The whole time you don't know if she is lying or telling the truth or if she is just down-right crazy.
The book is one that really didn't give anything away. It kept me guessing the entire time. It made me laugh at the wit (the Catering department sets up ops for Jane). If you like the style of Jasper Fforde but with a little darker twist, you would like this one.
Rating: 5 Purrs for a book I am going to recommend over & over
In Bad Monkeys, Jane Charlotte has been arrested for murder. During her interview, she tells the police she is a member of a secret organization that fights evil. Not crime, but evil. Her job is to get rid of "bad monkeys" AKA irredeemable persons.
The whole book is Jane Charlotte being interviewed by the psych ward doctor, and she walks through her childhood, her first contact with the group, and way the group works. The whole time you don't know if she is lying or telling the truth or if she is just down-right crazy.
The book is one that really didn't give anything away. It kept me guessing the entire time. It made me laugh at the wit (the Catering department sets up ops for Jane). If you like the style of Jasper Fforde but with a little darker twist, you would like this one.
Rating: 5 Purrs for a book I am going to recommend over & over
Friday, May 07, 2010
Sweetheart & Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
Mmmm, mmm. I love me some serial killer fiction. I read Chelsea Cain's debut novel, Heartsick, pretty much right after it came out but then left Sweetheart on the shelf for forever until the 3rd in the series, Evil at Heart, showed up. Then I tore through the 2nd and 3rd books pretty quickly (but honestly, that's partly because of enjoying the story so much and partially because they were pretty easy reads).
In Sweetheart, Archie is back to investigate the murder or accidental death of a state senator and a newspaper man, all the while trying but not really trying to keep Gretchen Lowell out of his head and at bay. At the end, Gretchen escapes, and no one is safe.
In Evil at Heart, Gretchen is free and Archie is in a mental institution. Someone starts killing in Gretchen Lowell's style, and the police are on Archie to investigate. (He's sort of a hero, and Gretchen is a media darling at this point.) Is it Gretchen or is it a copycat? How does Archie's past play into it? Will they catch Gretchen Lowell and will it kill Archie to do so?
If you can't tell, I really liked the third book better than the second, although I liked them both quite a bit. The second felt like it went a little fast and felt a little thin on plot, while the third was better because Gretchen was there, but there was this interesting connection between Archie and the new murders that kept my interest. The speech the writer gives in the newspaper room is just perfect. I wanted to fist pump. The end was one I couldn't put down.
If you like serial killer fiction, then you should check out The Beauty Killer series. It's like the Clarice and Lecter relationship but with a female serial killer and male cop.
Rating: 4 Purrs - I can't wait for the next one.
In Sweetheart, Archie is back to investigate the murder or accidental death of a state senator and a newspaper man, all the while trying but not really trying to keep Gretchen Lowell out of his head and at bay. At the end, Gretchen escapes, and no one is safe.
In Evil at Heart, Gretchen is free and Archie is in a mental institution. Someone starts killing in Gretchen Lowell's style, and the police are on Archie to investigate. (He's sort of a hero, and Gretchen is a media darling at this point.) Is it Gretchen or is it a copycat? How does Archie's past play into it? Will they catch Gretchen Lowell and will it kill Archie to do so?
If you can't tell, I really liked the third book better than the second, although I liked them both quite a bit. The second felt like it went a little fast and felt a little thin on plot, while the third was better because Gretchen was there, but there was this interesting connection between Archie and the new murders that kept my interest. The speech the writer gives in the newspaper room is just perfect. I wanted to fist pump. The end was one I couldn't put down.
If you like serial killer fiction, then you should check out The Beauty Killer series. It's like the Clarice and Lecter relationship but with a female serial killer and male cop.
Rating: 4 Purrs - I can't wait for the next one.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Horrorfest 2009
I was pleasantly surprised with the entries in this group of Horrorfest movies. (Well, outside of the exact same, endless trailers on each DVD.) I had little hope after last year's entries.
- Autopsy: Some college kids go to New Orleans to party and end up in the strange Mercy Hospital. The hospital is creepy, and I am a sucker for weird, deserted building movies. Plus you gotta love Terminator 2 alums Jenette Goldstein and Robert Patrick. The reviews said this was supposed to be an homage to Italian horror, but it really ended up just being a gore-fest.
- The Broken: Lena Headly rules in whatever she is in, and so of course I think this one might be my favorite on that alone. Thsi starts off like your classic doppelganger tale and turns into something, well, different.
- The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations: Okay, so I skipped this one. I just couldn't stomach another Butterfly Effect movie. Sorry.
- Dying Breed: This one had Leigh Wannell and the guy from Snakes on a Plane and Wolf Creek. It's set in Tasmania with a group of students searching for the elusive Tasmanian Devil. Unfortunately they find the descendants of the serial killer called The Pieman, rather than the animal they were looking for.
- From Within: This one was good. It's about a small town that has a rash of suicides. Is it a curse? Will their faith in God protect them?
- Perkins' 14: A cop is obsessed with his son's disappearance. Soon he realizes the guy in his jail just might be the guy who took him and 13 others. And they just might still be alive.
- Slaughter: A young woman is running from an abusive boyfriend and stumbles upon a new friend in a bar who is much more than she seems. She agrees to stay with her new friend, only to find out she may have traded an apartment in a new city to a place much more dangerous than the one she ran from.
- Voices: The Asian horror entry in the series, this one has a young girl whose friends and family turn on her, one after the other trying to kill her for no reason, following a history of "accidental" deaths that have plagued her family for generations. This one was based on a Korean comic book.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Audition by Ryu Murakami
I have to say right off that I am a huge fan of the movie Audition by Miike, and when I saw that I won a free early reviewers copy of the novel I literally clapped my hands.
Audition is about a widower named Aoyama, who after many years has decided to take the advice of his son and try to find a new wife. To do so he teams up with a buddy to hold auditions for a movie in hopes that one of the girls who auditions for the lead role might be his new wife. He meets Yamasaki Asami, a shy girl who captures his attention and of course he falls head over heels in love. Despite his friend's concern he pursues her, only to find out there are worse things than being alone at 40.
The movie followed the book pretty closely, only the book really gives you much more why behind it all. Let me tell you some of the imagery is downright gruesome and beautifully written. Miike certainly made it his own when he made the movie, but the book was well worth the read, even knowing how it all turns out.
Rating: 5 Purrs because once it starts rolling it just doesn't give up.
Audition is about a widower named Aoyama, who after many years has decided to take the advice of his son and try to find a new wife. To do so he teams up with a buddy to hold auditions for a movie in hopes that one of the girls who auditions for the lead role might be his new wife. He meets Yamasaki Asami, a shy girl who captures his attention and of course he falls head over heels in love. Despite his friend's concern he pursues her, only to find out there are worse things than being alone at 40.
The movie followed the book pretty closely, only the book really gives you much more why behind it all. Let me tell you some of the imagery is downright gruesome and beautifully written. Miike certainly made it his own when he made the movie, but the book was well worth the read, even knowing how it all turns out.
Rating: 5 Purrs because once it starts rolling it just doesn't give up.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Beyond
"Woe be unto him who opens one of the seven gateways to Hell, because through that gateway, evil will invade the world."
I love Italian horror. Dario Argento was my first foray into the genre and man, Suspiria knocked my socks off. Anytime anyone asks me my favorite horror movie, it inevitably comes up. Fulci is a master, truly, but nothing it seems will ever be Suspiria to me. Well, except maybe Argento's Opera, but I do have a thing for opera, MacBeth, and those awesome costumes.
The Beyond takes place in New Orleans, in an old hotel with a past. Bad stuff, the entrance to hell, all sorts of goodies pop up here. The question is will the young, pretty new owner of the possessed hotel survive, or will they all die and turn into ewie gooey monsters?
The movie is beautifully shot, has all the right spooky music scares, and plenty of oozie gore. I think this movie might have had more slime than You Can't Do That on Television. It even looks like they shot some of this in New Orleans.
I don't know if anyone outside of true Italian horror fanatics would care for this one, especially anyone icked out by ooze and gore. It's old-school gore though, not your new The Hostel type gore, if it matters.
Other thoughts:
I love Italian horror. Dario Argento was my first foray into the genre and man, Suspiria knocked my socks off. Anytime anyone asks me my favorite horror movie, it inevitably comes up. Fulci is a master, truly, but nothing it seems will ever be Suspiria to me. Well, except maybe Argento's Opera, but I do have a thing for opera, MacBeth, and those awesome costumes.
The Beyond takes place in New Orleans, in an old hotel with a past. Bad stuff, the entrance to hell, all sorts of goodies pop up here. The question is will the young, pretty new owner of the possessed hotel survive, or will they all die and turn into ewie gooey monsters?
The movie is beautifully shot, has all the right spooky music scares, and plenty of oozie gore. I think this movie might have had more slime than You Can't Do That on Television. It even looks like they shot some of this in New Orleans.
I don't know if anyone outside of true Italian horror fanatics would care for this one, especially anyone icked out by ooze and gore. It's old-school gore though, not your new The Hostel type gore, if it matters.
Other thoughts:
- Man, a lot of people fall off of things in this movie.
- Eeeewwww, that was an eyeball.
- Dog puppet FTW
- Cue the jerky boyfriend who doesn't believe the heroine is imperiled.
- Oh yes, the best place to go in a deserted hospital is the laboratory. Perfect.
- Zombies! Zombie killing!
- Uh oh, looks like the gates to hell opened up in her basement. That sucks. I hate it when that happens.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
It All Changed In an Instant & Not Quite What I was Planning by SMITH Magazine
I was very intrigued by the idea of the six word memoir. How do you tell the story of your life in six words or less? It seems impossible, even though Hemingway seems to have done pretty well at it. ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn." ) Apparently, you can in fact tell a whole heck of a lot in 6 words.
SMITH Magazine gathered various 6 word memoirs written by famous and not-so-famous people in these two books (and I think there are a few more published) - Not Quite What I Was Planning and It All Changed in An Instant. I found them simple, devastating, hopeful, everything you expect in the story of a human being. I must admit my favorite is the title of the first book - "Not quite what I was planning." Sums up a life perfectly, and it's really left up to the reader to determine if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
"I still make coffee for two."
"So would you believe me anyway?" —James Frey
Joan Rivers, Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Sedaris, and more contribute. It's really a quite lovely read, but I found it such that I couldn't read more than a few at once before it felt too trite. I am intrigued on what my 6 word memoir would be. I should think on that.
Rating: 4 Purrrs
SMITH Magazine gathered various 6 word memoirs written by famous and not-so-famous people in these two books (and I think there are a few more published) - Not Quite What I Was Planning and It All Changed in An Instant. I found them simple, devastating, hopeful, everything you expect in the story of a human being. I must admit my favorite is the title of the first book - "Not quite what I was planning." Sums up a life perfectly, and it's really left up to the reader to determine if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
"I still make coffee for two."
"So would you believe me anyway?" —James Frey
Joan Rivers, Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Sedaris, and more contribute. It's really a quite lovely read, but I found it such that I couldn't read more than a few at once before it felt too trite. I am intrigued on what my 6 word memoir would be. I should think on that.
Rating: 4 Purrrs
Sunday, March 21, 2010
The Stepfather (1986) vs. The Stepfather (2009)
"Wait a minute, who am I here?"
I had only seen the original The Stepfather in bits and pieces, so naturally I couldn't watch the remake without seeing Terry O'Quinn in all of his glory (and surprisingly enough, all of his glory actually is onscreen at one point - Hello John Locke).
Both movies are pretty much the same: lonely mother of troubled child finds the man of her dreams, or so she thinks. Little does she know that Mr. Too Good To Be True is in fact, way too good to be true. Actually, when he realizes you and your family are not Leave It to Beaver, he will decide to murder you and the kids and move on to some other chick. In a nutshell, that's it.
Why is the first movie better than the remake? Well besides the fact that the original usually is, the Final Girl is named Stephanie, so of course I liked it best. How can I not? She's the troubled daughter who has this idea that new daddy dearest just isn't right somehow. Second, the tension between Jill Schoelen and Terry O'Quinn is very well played. She's not some eye candy with no acting ability (eyes you Stepfather remake), she acts like a teenager with a new stepfather a year after he dad died. It's believable. The opening scene where Terry O'Quinn is stripping his former self and getting ready to move on is chilling, especially when you get to the part where you realize the entire family is dead as he walks out the door, refreshed and peppy.
The sequel - well it had the mom with 3 kids, two of which are non-existent and the other is fresh out of military school (and Gossip Girl). None of which are interesting enough to hold your attention. The most interesting characters are the "aunts," the lesbian couple that actually show some true affection for each other (kudos to the writers for making their relationship subtle and kind, rather than some way to add salaciousness to the movie). Otherwise, you might as well sleep throughout the movie because there is no tension, little blood, and really no character worth caring about.
So, rent and watch the original Stepfather and skip the remake. Even the bikini scenes can't save that one.
I had only seen the original The Stepfather in bits and pieces, so naturally I couldn't watch the remake without seeing Terry O'Quinn in all of his glory (and surprisingly enough, all of his glory actually is onscreen at one point - Hello John Locke).
Both movies are pretty much the same: lonely mother of troubled child finds the man of her dreams, or so she thinks. Little does she know that Mr. Too Good To Be True is in fact, way too good to be true. Actually, when he realizes you and your family are not Leave It to Beaver, he will decide to murder you and the kids and move on to some other chick. In a nutshell, that's it.
Why is the first movie better than the remake? Well besides the fact that the original usually is, the Final Girl is named Stephanie, so of course I liked it best. How can I not? She's the troubled daughter who has this idea that new daddy dearest just isn't right somehow. Second, the tension between Jill Schoelen and Terry O'Quinn is very well played. She's not some eye candy with no acting ability (eyes you Stepfather remake), she acts like a teenager with a new stepfather a year after he dad died. It's believable. The opening scene where Terry O'Quinn is stripping his former self and getting ready to move on is chilling, especially when you get to the part where you realize the entire family is dead as he walks out the door, refreshed and peppy.
The sequel - well it had the mom with 3 kids, two of which are non-existent and the other is fresh out of military school (and Gossip Girl). None of which are interesting enough to hold your attention. The most interesting characters are the "aunts," the lesbian couple that actually show some true affection for each other (kudos to the writers for making their relationship subtle and kind, rather than some way to add salaciousness to the movie). Otherwise, you might as well sleep throughout the movie because there is no tension, little blood, and really no character worth caring about.
So, rent and watch the original Stepfather and skip the remake. Even the bikini scenes can't save that one.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The House of the Devil
So a college girl needs to make some rent so she can pay for a new place. Her roommate isn't a very nice one you see, so she needs a place of her own. Unfortunately her bank account is pretty low, so she might have a bit of trouble trying to pay the rent. Good thing she found a babysitting job way out in the boonies that's going to pay her some nice change.
What else about The House of the Devil?
Rating: 5 Purrs
What else about The House of the Devil?
- This movies has a nice 80's feel without being parody or campy.
- Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov & Dee Wallace - holy crap! It's like b-move horror roll call.
- Oh wow - he just totally blew her head off and stuff went everywhere.
- Man, I know just how she feels. Bored, waiting for pizza. Wandering around the house poking around. Every teenage babysitter knows these minutes.
- Why don't they do what they say, say what they mean...One thing leads to another...
- God, I just can't seem to get away from pool, can I?
- And yep, that whole dancing around the house thing - did that as a babysitter too.
- Uh oh, that locked room bodes no good for anybody.
- Who is that creepy dude with the beard lurking around?
- Ahh! Lights out!
- Uh oh. You know it's bad news when you wake up strapped to a pentagram in only your underwear.
- Yay for blood slippage!
- This movie went from bored babysitter to blood fest in 30 seconds.
- Well, wow. That was unexpected.
Rating: 5 Purrs
Thirst (Bakjwi)
Thirst was in a word, Wow. I had heard very good things about it, but I wasn't really sure. I mean I have seen a lot of Asian horror, so they all sort of run together at this point. However, Thirst really stood out for its combination of sexy and eerie without resorting to the sexy vampire stereotype.
Sang-hyun is a priest who volunteers for a medical experiment in hopes of helping find a cure for a deadly disease. Instead, he gets more than he bargained for. In fact, he gets some tainted blood that turns him into a vampire, and then gets pulled into helping an old friend try to escape her unhappy marriage and family ties. He struggles with his new inhumanity and his infatuation with the woman from his childhood.
This movie was so much not what I expected. It's a lot less horror in the traditional gore, slash & dice sort of way and much more in the line of beautiful thriller. That white painted apartment is simply beautiful.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who liked Let The Right One In. This is much more like that than say, Near Dark.
Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs
Sang-hyun is a priest who volunteers for a medical experiment in hopes of helping find a cure for a deadly disease. Instead, he gets more than he bargained for. In fact, he gets some tainted blood that turns him into a vampire, and then gets pulled into helping an old friend try to escape her unhappy marriage and family ties. He struggles with his new inhumanity and his infatuation with the woman from his childhood.
This movie was so much not what I expected. It's a lot less horror in the traditional gore, slash & dice sort of way and much more in the line of beautiful thriller. That white painted apartment is simply beautiful.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who liked Let The Right One In. This is much more like that than say, Near Dark.
Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Perfume: The Story of a Murder by Patrick Suskind
I bought this book because I heard about the movie and it sounded very interesting. I ended up reading it very quickly, as it was very, very engrossing. Of course, it is a story about a serial killer, which if you know me makes complete sense as to why I would really enjoy it .
Perfume is about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a child born in the filth of 18th-century Paris. He has no scent of his own, but he has an amazing nose and files every scent away in his head. He decides to apprentice to a perfumer so he can learn to capture scent. Specifically, the scents of certain young girls. Funny how those young girls mostly have red hair, are beautiful, and are virgins.
It's a creepy subject, but the character is just as good as Hannibal Lecter, except instead of cannibalism, this guy just wants to keep your smell around, which you know actually seems a wee bit creepier.
The book was beautifully written, with some very vivid imagery. The movie totally did the book justice, and honestly I wasn't sure if it would be able to do so. I liked them both, quite a bit.
Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs
Perfume is about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a child born in the filth of 18th-century Paris. He has no scent of his own, but he has an amazing nose and files every scent away in his head. He decides to apprentice to a perfumer so he can learn to capture scent. Specifically, the scents of certain young girls. Funny how those young girls mostly have red hair, are beautiful, and are virgins.
It's a creepy subject, but the character is just as good as Hannibal Lecter, except instead of cannibalism, this guy just wants to keep your smell around, which you know actually seems a wee bit creepier.
The book was beautifully written, with some very vivid imagery. The movie totally did the book justice, and honestly I wasn't sure if it would be able to do so. I liked them both, quite a bit.
Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs
Sunday, March 07, 2010
2012
"When they tell you not to panic, that's when you run!"
I love disaster movies. I have the remake of The Poseidon Adventure on DVD. I've seen the TV version and Beyond The Poseidon Adventure. The Day After Tomorrow? Check. The Towering Inferno? Check. Earthquake? Check. The Airport movies? Yep. Now these movies are usually bad, but they are also so bad they are good. 2012, well, it cries for a RiffTrax.
My biggest problem with 2012 is the fact that it plays the standard Roland Emmerich does disaster movies playbook the whole way. (You know, secret science stuff, no one believes the truth, montages of random characters that no one cares about really because they are cardboard stereotypes, epic sweeps of far away countries also affected by the disaster accompanied by sweeping music, lots and lots of explosions and CGI.) It opens with some scientists finding out some really, really bad news. They rush to tell the politicians, and then secret stuff starts to happen. Fast forward a bit. The bad stuff starts to happen for real. John Cusack stumbles upon it, the everyman with the troubled family life, and then proceeds to run like crazy, everyone yelling a whole lot because everything is.so.very.important. Will they survive? The fact is it's very hard to care because they just don't create any sympathy with the viewer. They are so cardboard you just don't care. You even get the "Today is our Independence Day!" speech. Wait, twice!
Okay, well so what's good? The initial John Cusack grabs the family and races California crashing into the ocean in a limo was pretty damn hilarious and yet awesome at the same time. I imagine seeing it on the gigantic screen would have been fun, even if it was super heavy on the CGI. I actually laughed out loud. The number of times they escape disaster by the skin of their teeth is so many I lost count. It gets to be ridiculous way too fast. A character actually says, "Oh God, not again." I agree.
Maybe 2012 isn't so bad. Or maybe it's so bad it's good, if you can get past the awful, awful heavy-handed hammy acting. I don't really know yet. I might have to watch it again to tell for sure. But I will definitely skip the credits. One can only take that song once.
Rating: I'm not even sure. 3ish Purrs, maybe?
I love disaster movies. I have the remake of The Poseidon Adventure on DVD. I've seen the TV version and Beyond The Poseidon Adventure. The Day After Tomorrow? Check. The Towering Inferno? Check. Earthquake? Check. The Airport movies? Yep. Now these movies are usually bad, but they are also so bad they are good. 2012, well, it cries for a RiffTrax.
My biggest problem with 2012 is the fact that it plays the standard Roland Emmerich does disaster movies playbook the whole way. (You know, secret science stuff, no one believes the truth, montages of random characters that no one cares about really because they are cardboard stereotypes, epic sweeps of far away countries also affected by the disaster accompanied by sweeping music, lots and lots of explosions and CGI.) It opens with some scientists finding out some really, really bad news. They rush to tell the politicians, and then secret stuff starts to happen. Fast forward a bit. The bad stuff starts to happen for real. John Cusack stumbles upon it, the everyman with the troubled family life, and then proceeds to run like crazy, everyone yelling a whole lot because everything is.so.very.important. Will they survive? The fact is it's very hard to care because they just don't create any sympathy with the viewer. They are so cardboard you just don't care. You even get the "Today is our Independence Day!" speech. Wait, twice!
Okay, well so what's good? The initial John Cusack grabs the family and races California crashing into the ocean in a limo was pretty damn hilarious and yet awesome at the same time. I imagine seeing it on the gigantic screen would have been fun, even if it was super heavy on the CGI. I actually laughed out loud. The number of times they escape disaster by the skin of their teeth is so many I lost count. It gets to be ridiculous way too fast. A character actually says, "Oh God, not again." I agree.
Maybe 2012 isn't so bad. Or maybe it's so bad it's good, if you can get past the awful, awful heavy-handed hammy acting. I don't really know yet. I might have to watch it again to tell for sure. But I will definitely skip the credits. One can only take that song once.
Rating: I'm not even sure. 3ish Purrs, maybe?
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Carriers
I don't remember precisely how I stumbled across this gem of a film, but boy am I glad I did. Of course, I do tend to like those end of the world, everybody is dead from a global pandemic sort of media. I'm not sure exactly why. I mean, I'm a people person, right? I am good with people.
Anyway, Carriers opens up with four friends driving to the beach. Brian, Bobby, Danny, and Kate aren't really going for a good time though. They are trying to avoid infection, at any cost, which means when a stranger asks for gas, you have to really wonder if it's worth it to stop and help. There are rules to survive, gas is scarce, and anyone infected is a liability. The question really is, what is it to survive? Is it worth losing your humanity? Can you have compassion and survive a world where the touch of a stranger could kill you?
The Pastor brothers do a very nice job directing. Chris Pine plays pretty much the same character he always does, but I can't complain. It fits here. Piper Perabo is yummy. They filmed this mostly in New Mexico I believe, and I'm always for seeing more of that on film.
I expected a horror film, and what I got was more along the lines of a drama. I'm not complaining, mind you. I always like those stories that examine just how far people might go to survive. This could have gone deeper, could have gone darker, but for a 80-ish minute long movie, it did nicely.
Rating: 4.5 Purrs
Anyway, Carriers opens up with four friends driving to the beach. Brian, Bobby, Danny, and Kate aren't really going for a good time though. They are trying to avoid infection, at any cost, which means when a stranger asks for gas, you have to really wonder if it's worth it to stop and help. There are rules to survive, gas is scarce, and anyone infected is a liability. The question really is, what is it to survive? Is it worth losing your humanity? Can you have compassion and survive a world where the touch of a stranger could kill you?
The Pastor brothers do a very nice job directing. Chris Pine plays pretty much the same character he always does, but I can't complain. It fits here. Piper Perabo is yummy. They filmed this mostly in New Mexico I believe, and I'm always for seeing more of that on film.
I expected a horror film, and what I got was more along the lines of a drama. I'm not complaining, mind you. I always like those stories that examine just how far people might go to survive. This could have gone deeper, could have gone darker, but for a 80-ish minute long movie, it did nicely.
Rating: 4.5 Purrs
Friday, March 05, 2010
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
“Draw a picture of my soul, and it’d be a scribble with fangs.”
This review should probably start with if you haven’t read Gillian Flynn, then shame on you. Now after saying that, I must put in a caveat. If dark, moody, borderline icky plots disturb you, maybe you should avoid reading her. Because Dark Places is pretty much what this book is. It’s a dark place, alright.
Libby Day was 7 when her brother murdered her entire family with an axe and a shot gun. She ran from the killer and survived. Now, after 25 years, a group called The Kill Club wants to pay her for her memories, her family heirlooms, and her help in proving that the testimony she gave when she was 7 years old was wrong. They believe her brother did not kill her family, and they want her help proving it. Libby agrees, especially since they will pay her, and her trust fund is running out. She can’t get a job and she doesn’t want one, so why not? Did her brother kill her family? Was it her alcoholic father? Was it someone else?
Libby is a broken, hurting woman, even if she doesn’t want to truly admit it to herself. Gillian Flynn seems to specialize in these types of characters, and she does a good job creating them. Libby grows, and I enjoyed watching her grow without losing who she was in the beginning.
The story flows from present day, following Libby as she uncovers the truth about her family, piece by piece, and into various chapters narrated by Libby’s mother and brother in the days leading up to the murders. You learn the truth as Libby does, and see it from both sides: Libby as she uncovers it and from the involved actors as well. It’s a very effective way to narrate the story. It’s not new, but I liked it.
Like I said before, Gillian Flynn is one of my new favorite authors. Sharp Objects blew me away. Dark Places definitely did not disappoint. This woman cannot write fast enough for me.
Rating: 5 Purrs for writing the best novel I have read in a while. It kept me engrossed and turning the pages for hours.
This review should probably start with if you haven’t read Gillian Flynn, then shame on you. Now after saying that, I must put in a caveat. If dark, moody, borderline icky plots disturb you, maybe you should avoid reading her. Because Dark Places is pretty much what this book is. It’s a dark place, alright.
Libby Day was 7 when her brother murdered her entire family with an axe and a shot gun. She ran from the killer and survived. Now, after 25 years, a group called The Kill Club wants to pay her for her memories, her family heirlooms, and her help in proving that the testimony she gave when she was 7 years old was wrong. They believe her brother did not kill her family, and they want her help proving it. Libby agrees, especially since they will pay her, and her trust fund is running out. She can’t get a job and she doesn’t want one, so why not? Did her brother kill her family? Was it her alcoholic father? Was it someone else?
Libby is a broken, hurting woman, even if she doesn’t want to truly admit it to herself. Gillian Flynn seems to specialize in these types of characters, and she does a good job creating them. Libby grows, and I enjoyed watching her grow without losing who she was in the beginning.
The story flows from present day, following Libby as she uncovers the truth about her family, piece by piece, and into various chapters narrated by Libby’s mother and brother in the days leading up to the murders. You learn the truth as Libby does, and see it from both sides: Libby as she uncovers it and from the involved actors as well. It’s a very effective way to narrate the story. It’s not new, but I liked it.
Like I said before, Gillian Flynn is one of my new favorite authors. Sharp Objects blew me away. Dark Places definitely did not disappoint. This woman cannot write fast enough for me.
Rating: 5 Purrs for writing the best novel I have read in a while. It kept me engrossed and turning the pages for hours.
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