An intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. James behaves as if he’s indifferent to death. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James’ true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever. [Written by BWR Public Relations]
I really liked this movie. Quite a bit. Definitely deserved to win against Avatar, that’s for darn sure! The characters were interesting. The story was good and what surprised me most about the story is that it was a character-driven story, not a plot-driven one; it’s pretty unusual, I think. The action sequences were incredibly well filmed and the editing of the film was absolutely fantastic.
While the film was incredibly fantastic, I was a bit disappointed by the morale at the end. I mean, now that’s just my own personal opinion. This film is fantastic. I highly recommend it.
I was highly recommended this series by my dear not-genetically-related sister-in-law, and so when the whole trilogy went on sale on kobobooks.com I decided to pick it up, after all, my darling wife blessed me with a Kobo Touch for Xmas so, hey, why not; it was a great way to break in my Touch!
I was not as impressed as I thought I should be given all the hype. It’s garnered quite a bit of attention in the press and on the various book club message boards. Now, I am not a huge fan of the majority of YA fiction as, from what I have perceived, it doesn’t provide great role models for the youth who read them. And the Hunger Games, in my opinion, is no different. Katniss Everdeen, the main protagonist through all three novels, is a gifted and yet unbelievably dim and ignorant girl whom no one should try to be like. And really, only one character should ever be looked at favorably and that is Prim, Katniss’ sister. She is the true good one in this book, the shining beacon.
After reading all three, I decided I would do a little reading of some “professional” reviews of these books to see if I was missing something before I gave my own two cents worth. Here’s some snippets for you to read from some reviews:
While some young adult novels are content to read the way bad sci-fi movies look, both these books transcend their premises with terrifyingly well-imagined futures and superb characterization. {John Green, New York Times}
I couldn’t agree less with this statement. This is only just a bit better than bad sci-fi the way a made-for-TV movie is just a bit better than a bad TV episode: it’s not really. Sure, this takes place far in the future, but not a terribly well imagined future; think Running Man but with teenagers. And the future in HG resembles just about every other dystopian future since Blade Runner invaded our imagination. And the characterization is not really that good. It sure isn’t superb. It’s ok, but the only reason you care for the main character is because you’re told to. There are only two characters that you can even remotely develop feelings about and one is Prim, Katniss’ sister and the other is Peeta, her fellow tribute from district 12. He actually is a good person for boys to model themselves after. But I wouldn’t go anywhere near to say that the characterization is superb.
Collins has done that rare thing. She has written a sequel that improves upon the first book. As a reader, I felt excited and even hopeful: could it be that this series and its characters were actually going somewhere? {Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times}
It is not that rare for a sequel to improve upon the first, at least in literature. If you read the rest of the article, you will see by this she simply means that the author has made the book even more page-turning. For me, this was not a good turn of events. Suzanne Collins has written the equivalent of a made-for-TV mini-series. Each chapter ends on a cliff-hanger, in the same way that a TV episode ends on a climactic note before a commercial; and each book ends on a bigger cliff-hanger the way a “to be continued…” episode ends in TV land. Wow. So she wrote a made-for-TV mini-series as a trilogy of novels. Yipee…*sigh*. I was annoyed at the lack of imagination that Collins used in being able to keep her reader wanting to read. It’s not good storytelling, it’s simply trite device after trite device.
After all is said and done, this would make a great mini-series on TV, like BSG or Game of Thrones, it should not be made into a movie, and it definitely should not be a critically acclaimed series of novels. I don’t care how many people compare The Hunger Games to high school social life, it’s a load of bull. You don’t go around killing, even metaphorically speaking, everyone else just to survive. You might form alliances, but not ones that end in death, ones that hopefully end in continued friendship. This book is thoroughly dys-tressing and poorly written. If you want a well written dystopian future go to The Handmaid’s Tale…it’s much MUCH better.
Ok. So I am super excited about the upcoming Ridley Scott movie Prometheus for 2 reasons, A) I love Ridley Scott and B) I love the Alien franchise. So, I will see this movie and you will know that I have seen it. However, even now I will tell you why I am severely disappointed with Ridley Scott: the technology in Prometheus is better than that in the rest of the Alien franchise. It’s got holographs and better spacesuits and better spaceships. I mean really people! If you’re going to revisit a franchise at least do some due diligence and make the technology similar to the original, otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not the same universe or reality as the rest of the franchise.
So, I usually do some kind of favorite movie and book thing for the previous year (my friend is much better at it than I am, that’s for sure). Here are my 5 favorite tv shows or movies from this past year (I had a heckuva hard time remembering much of what I saw this year…too much sleeplessness *blargh*)
Movies & TV shows
{click image to go to movie/tv show}
Ip Man
This has to be my favorite action/kung-fu movie of the year and possibly of the last few years. Donnie Yen is brilliant as Ip Man. He not only is a wicked martial artist, but he is a darn good actor too. Ip Man is a more complex character than many that I’ve seen in recent kung-fu movies and Donnie gives him a great life on the screen. Of course one can’t do that without the help of some fantastic supporting actors and a good director. The script was ok, but hey, you don’t really watch these for the dialogue…right?!
Exit Through the Gift Shop
I’ve loved Banksy’s work ever since a teacher friend of mine from Rosebud introduced me to his very political, brave and very artistic work. Then when I heard there was going to be a documentary on Banksy, I was elated! So, I watched it when it finally came available on Netflix and man, was I not disappointed in the slightest! If you like Banksy, watch it! If you like documentaries, watch it!
Banksy: I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don’t do that so much anymore.
… Thierry Guetta: I don’t know how to play chess, but to me, life is like a game of chess.
{quotes courtesy of IMDB.com}
Hanna
This was my favorite North American action movie of the year. So much so that I went out and bought it right away! I rarely do that, especially these days with having so little time to re-watch movies (and with my lovely supportive wife not understanding my desire to own movies). Joe Wright, the director, took some huge chances with this and, for me, they paid off in spades! Not only was the story very simple and the dialogue succinct and, well, I wouldn’t say uninspired or dull, but it wasn’t very original. What Wright did right was cast some phenomenal actors and design some wicked cool sequences (some inspired by other movies) as well as take a crazy chance by asking The Chemical Brothers to do the score (probably one of the single best things about this movie is the original score by The Chemical Brothers — simply out of this world!). Mix these things together and with Joe Wright at the helm you have a movie that you will either love or hate. I…LOVED IT!
Avatar: The Last Airbender
So, I wanted to watch the movie inspired by this series. I mentioned that to a few people who almost forcefully demanded that I watch the cartoon series first. Then they forbade me from watching the movie. Well, I watched the cartoon series and was BLOWN AWAY! Everything about this series is what makes good TV: complex characters (and not just the main ones either), a rich world, a good balance between action, exposition and setting, good acting…ya know, I could just go on and on about it. One of the best parts of this series is that it has an end, and end that they are working towards and you get excited about it as it goes on. You know it’s going to end. And you are compelled to watch it. I’m glad I didn’t discover it while it was still being released, that would have driven me INSANE.
Well, let’s just say right here and now, that it was AMAZING, I think everyone should watch it, I think kids should watch it (when their parents are ok with it), BUT no one, absolutely NO ONE should ever watch the movie version. I gave the movie a ZERO; that’s right. There is nothing, not one good thing I can say about the movie…NOT ONE GOOD THING! The series = brilliance! It’s on Netflix, you can go watch it now, it’s totally worth it!
Battlestar Galactica
I wish I could say that we are done this series, but we aren’t. So, it makes it in for one of my favorite TV shows of 2011 and will definitely turn up again at the end of 2012.
What makes Avatar: The Last Airbender so good are the same things that make BSG so good: complex characters…well, just look above and you’ll see the list again. And, like Airbender, BSG only lasts for 4 seasons. Then it’s done. Finito! They have accomplished what they wanted to. And I honestly think more series should go this route. It’s much more compelling and interesting to watch.
China Miéville’s amazing murder mystery, sci-fi, weird, thriller is a study in awesomeness! Miéville was an author I discovered late 2010 and so made it my mission in 2011 to read what I could get my hands on by him. Well, of those novels, which were all fantastic, The City & The City is the one that hit me the hardest. The social implications of the world he created is one that, once you get it, will (hopefully) smack you right in the face! If you enjoy a good weird, sci-fi/murder-mystery thriller then read this one…you will not be disappointed!
Understanding Comics
I LOVE comic books. I have, well, it seems like forever. But it’s never been much more than a hobby at best. Well, when several comic books (and graphic novels) got made into movies, I started to get the itch back to reading them…and man, have they changed in the last 20-25 years. Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics was a fantastic re-introduction into the art form and really solidified it as a true art form. He makes a case for comics as an art form by writing his treatise …. as a COMIC! It’s brilliant! And not only is it brilliant in concept, but in execution he has truly done it. It can seem intimidating to start with, but soon I could not put it down. If you like comics or graphic novels at all, then go out there and find this book! It’s hard to find, so you can order it online or get it out from your local library…you will not be disappointed.
Slaughterhouse Five
I had always wanted to read a Kurt Vonnegut novel, but never got around to it…until this past year. I decided to start with the one that he is probably best known for and I was not disappointed. I didn’t get all of it my first time through, and not even on my second. I hope to read it again soon, because it is a clever, disturbing, witty and thought provoking read.
I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.
…
I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.
{quotes from Slaughterhouse Five courtesy of wikiquote}
Still I Rise
So, I got back into comic books/graphic novels this past year and a bit. It was tough to pick one to put on this list and this one secured the spot even though, technically, it isn’t as good as some of the others I read. I found the paneling too cluttered and the art work, which was all-around great, was not always consistent. That having been said, this secured the spot for me because of the material and the way the authors and illustrators present the material and educate their audience. It’s a book about the history of African Americans in the USA. Now, obviously it is insanely difficult to communicate so much history in a readable way that doesn’t put the reader off by the size of the tome. Well, Roland Owen Laird, Jr. & Taneshia Nash Laird do a bang-up job of making the history concise, thoughtful, informative and engaging (even though at times there is too much information per panel). I highly recommend this. I would love to find more like this, you know, histories of people groups by those people groups.
Crazy Love
I was introduced to Francis Chan through his book Erasing Hell. I enjoyed it. Then someone at my work recommended this one by him. Well, this is the book to recommend! From my point of view, he has done a great job of calling those of us who profess a faith in Jesus Christ to really live it.
Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering. In stark contrast, the book offers real-life accounts of believers who have given all—time, money, health, even their lives—in obedience to Christ’s call. [from publishers weekly]
There is a part of me, pretty big part when things like this happen, that wants to scream in God’s face. I want to yell, and scream and beat him.
Sure, death comes to us all and people behave like jerks. I get it. But I don’t like it. I DON’T LIKE IT ONE BIT! And I really wish that some people could just stop for one damn second and see what they are doing (or have done) to themselves and others. I want to rant and rave and scream and curse.
You’d think, in the midst of feeling like this that I would be a step closer to denying God. I’m not. And that doesn’t make any sense…I know. But I can’t put my hope in mankind. I can’t. No matter what atheists and humanists say, human beings can not be depended upon. We will fail each other: ALWAYS.
Ok, we might not fail every time, and sure, when we do, we pick ourselves up and try again. But in the end, I can’t put my hope in the hands of mankind; a mankind who loves to hoard and exploit and brutalize and belittle and humiliate.
However, it is in these dark, hellish moments that I am grateful, so very grateful for Yeshua (Jesus). It is his words that encourage me. It is his example that fills me with light. It is his promise that gives me hope. I sound terribly cheesy. The words here may seem like the words of a simpleton, of someone who doesn’t exercise one cell in his brain. But I do look at the promises of Men and of other gods and it’s all about death/revenge or legality or peace at the end of a sword or a never ending cycle of lives or the vain hope that we will “evolve” into something better. None of these things look hopeful to me. The other thing that stands out to me about all of the other options is that I have to do everything, and the reality is that I can’t!
The beauty of Yeshua and his promise is that there is nothing I can do to save myself. Nothing. He has done it all for me. I simply have to believe in him and obey. The only way I will ever be able to fully know the heart of God, the God of Yeshua, the Holy Spirit, is to obey him: love my enemies, love my neighbour, love God; comfort those who mourn; help those in need; share the good news that we are sinners and that Yeshua, Jesus, understands our pain and suffering and has died and risen, conquering death, so that we no longer have to live in our sin. He wants us to rely on him, to share our burden with him, to die to ourselves so that we may live more fully in him. If I am in charge, shit happens…A LOT! However, if I step aside, allow my ego, the ego that hates, that wants revenge instead of justice, that desires for ME to prosper at the expense of others, if I allow that ego to die, then there is no limit to the good that God can do in spite of or through me (it’s usually “in spite of” as I always get in the way).
This post came about because a friend of mine passed away on Sunday night. I found out this morning and have been wrestling with it all day. She was a lively soul. She loved the Rolling Stones and pretty much 90% of the time had a Rolling Stones hat on! When she was grooving, you could always catch her humming or flat out singing a Stones tune! My happiest memory of Ev is when she crashed my wedding reception. She came in like it was any other drop-in…but she knew it wasn’t That’s right, she walked right up to us and gave my wife and I a congratulations card, then proceeded to dance with reckless abandon. Ev YOU ROCK!
My hope is that she knew Yeshua, that she believed in him. I don’t know. Only our Father in Heaven knows. Lord have mercy on her. Rest in peace Ev Roberts…Rest in peace.
I’m not that much of a history buff. I like history. I love to hear people tell stories about history, but I just don’t have the time to study it myself. That said, “The Conspirator” was a very well made movie.
Mary Surratt is the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. As the whole nation turns against her, she is forced to rely on her reluctant lawyer to uncover the truth and save her life. (courtesy of imdb.com)
This, as always is a very simple summation of the movie. On the technical end of things, the acting, direction, script, and just about everything else on the technical side of things was fantastic! Robin Wright does a superb job as Mary Surratt, James McAvoy as her lawyer does a great job of portraying the conflict his character experiences. All the others in this movie really help serve the story and man, does it ever work! I was incensed by the desire of the higher-ups to obviously put the blame on someone when the evidence does not directly support the claim. Their blindness was extraordinary and the lengths they went to…just shocking. Robert Redford is the director and I really felt he handled the material and the actors well.
If you enjoy history, then this a very good movie to watch. It’s more of a courtroom drama, but I enjoyed that element of it too.
It’s been a while since I’ve read the word “thaumaturgy” and here I find it a relatively normal part of China’s world…happy doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt when I first read the word in this novel!
It’s not always easy setting foot into a China Miéville universe. The first couple steps, maybe even the first walk around the block, can be quite disorienting. And this even if you’ve read him before. This was definitely the case for me. Perdido Street Station is, like Embassytown, very disorienting when you first start reading as Miéville simply writes as though you’ve lived in the particular universe all along (now, let it be known that he does a better job of introducing you to the universe gradually in Perdido than in Embassytown). It does take a bit to get into it; once you’ve read the first 50-100 pages you get a feel for the place, the terms, the people, the lifestyles. And he takes a surprising amount of time getting to the heart of the story. But that is one of the things that makes this novel so enticing is that you actually live in New Crobuzon for a good portion of the novel before the major action begins.
Here, as usual is a good outline of the novel,
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.
Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda’s request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger.
While Isaac’s experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger—and more consuming—by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon—and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes . . . (from amazon.com)
The best way to get an idea as to whether or not you may like this, or any other Miéville novel, is simply to take the plunge.
“Art is something you choose to make… it’s a bringing together of… of everything around you into something that makes you more human, more khepri, whatever. More of a person.”
― China Miéville, Perdido Street Station
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