One Book and Three Movies
So Charles Stross has redeemed himself (at least temporarily) because Book One of The Merchant Princes is a great read. It's really entertaining and has some interesting ideas. It owes a lot to the fantasy of Roger Zelazny and the Chronicles of Amber (another series that I loved), so we'll see if he can maintain the quality. I like it mainly because I can't deal with fantasy that has castles and talking animals and it just very twee. I like hard-edged science fiction, and if I'm going to read fantasy then the fairies better be armed with some good weapons. This series may be set (occasionally) in an alternate world-but the barely post-feudal society is not pretty and twee (and I think Stross makes an effort for it NOT to be twee). A quick synopsis-Miriam Beckstein, former biotech reporter in Boston loses her job and an hour later gets a locket from her adoptive mother-and discovers that said locket can be used to transport her to another world where her family has lots of money, an enormous house and is basically that world's version of the Mafia. Far from being the honored countess she is, Miriam gets gets pulled into all the intrigue that can ensue when a long-lost heir to a fortune appears...
As for movies...I saw three and heard about one.
My friend told me he saw Dreamgirls and he liked it-the funny thing is that all we talked about was Jennifer Hudson-he thought Beyonce was pretty but not memorable while Jennifer stole the show. She does get the big number, but apparently does really well in the whole movie.
I went to see Bobby on Saturday and I liked it. It was clearly very heartfelt and had some really good performances (Freddy Rodriguez in particular) but it could have used some judicious editing. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a comedy, a drama or a portent for the future, and somehow the mix doesn't quite come off-it's a valiant first effort though (all the critics have said it's uneven and I can see why) but I still liked it-and the counteract is great.
My Netflix movie was The Man Who Would Be King. I remember when this movie came out and it was pretty much savaged by the critics, despite the fact that it starred Michael Caine and Sean Connery and was directed by the legendary John Huston. The basic plot is that Caine and Connery are soldiers who have served under the British Crown in India-they have now left the Army and have heard of a country where there are riches beyond belief. They mean to travel over the mountains and claim it for themselves-and things don't work out quite as they planned. This is the kind of movie that irritates me because it's just on the verge of being marvelous. There is a really good movie in here that's trying to get out and it's not happening. I blame John Huston, because some of the performances are great. Caine and Connery are believable as great pals and Caine is absolutely believable as a Cockney trickster. But Connery....He can be a good actor (aside from the whole Bond thing) but I had a hard time buying him as a disenchanted Scottish soldier looking for riches. His performance was off and the directing didn't help. Huston was a great director, but here the characters become caricatures and everything is a little over the top and not in a good way. There were times when it was entertaining though-and it's worth it just to see Michael Caine-he was great.
The last movie I saw was the original version of In Cold Blood, with Robert Blake and Scott Wilson and it was great. Filmed in black and white, it is a chilling telling of Truman Capote's famous story. Robert Blake plays Perry Smith, one of the killers of the Clutter family, with alternating sympathy and horror. Smith seems like a nice guy, with dreams of the future and nothing but bad luck on his side. You feel sorry for him, until he comes up with the line "Mr. Clutter seemed like a very nice man. I thought so right up until the time I cut his throat". I felt sorry for him (which was controversial at the time-you weren't supposed to have sympathy for killers in 1967) but when that line came out...It was chilling. I highly recommend it.
And one more thing-this article about how the writers of Battlestar Galactica work was fascinating. Did anyone see Friday's episode? It was amazing-and as close as a love story as this show will ever get. However, Adama's speech about how they got separated and how HE let them get separated was the main point of the episode and it was an amazing performance by Edward James Olmos (if he had actually been in Miami Vice, I might have liked it better. Maybe), but everyone was good.
Here's the link to the article-you would think a story about writing for a TV wouldn't be that interesting, but in this case, you'd be wrong.
http://www.slate.com/id/2154625/?nav=tap3
As for movies...I saw three and heard about one.
My friend told me he saw Dreamgirls and he liked it-the funny thing is that all we talked about was Jennifer Hudson-he thought Beyonce was pretty but not memorable while Jennifer stole the show. She does get the big number, but apparently does really well in the whole movie.
I went to see Bobby on Saturday and I liked it. It was clearly very heartfelt and had some really good performances (Freddy Rodriguez in particular) but it could have used some judicious editing. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a comedy, a drama or a portent for the future, and somehow the mix doesn't quite come off-it's a valiant first effort though (all the critics have said it's uneven and I can see why) but I still liked it-and the counteract is great.
My Netflix movie was The Man Who Would Be King. I remember when this movie came out and it was pretty much savaged by the critics, despite the fact that it starred Michael Caine and Sean Connery and was directed by the legendary John Huston. The basic plot is that Caine and Connery are soldiers who have served under the British Crown in India-they have now left the Army and have heard of a country where there are riches beyond belief. They mean to travel over the mountains and claim it for themselves-and things don't work out quite as they planned. This is the kind of movie that irritates me because it's just on the verge of being marvelous. There is a really good movie in here that's trying to get out and it's not happening. I blame John Huston, because some of the performances are great. Caine and Connery are believable as great pals and Caine is absolutely believable as a Cockney trickster. But Connery....He can be a good actor (aside from the whole Bond thing) but I had a hard time buying him as a disenchanted Scottish soldier looking for riches. His performance was off and the directing didn't help. Huston was a great director, but here the characters become caricatures and everything is a little over the top and not in a good way. There were times when it was entertaining though-and it's worth it just to see Michael Caine-he was great.
The last movie I saw was the original version of In Cold Blood, with Robert Blake and Scott Wilson and it was great. Filmed in black and white, it is a chilling telling of Truman Capote's famous story. Robert Blake plays Perry Smith, one of the killers of the Clutter family, with alternating sympathy and horror. Smith seems like a nice guy, with dreams of the future and nothing but bad luck on his side. You feel sorry for him, until he comes up with the line "Mr. Clutter seemed like a very nice man. I thought so right up until the time I cut his throat". I felt sorry for him (which was controversial at the time-you weren't supposed to have sympathy for killers in 1967) but when that line came out...It was chilling. I highly recommend it.
And one more thing-this article about how the writers of Battlestar Galactica work was fascinating. Did anyone see Friday's episode? It was amazing-and as close as a love story as this show will ever get. However, Adama's speech about how they got separated and how HE let them get separated was the main point of the episode and it was an amazing performance by Edward James Olmos (if he had actually been in Miami Vice, I might have liked it better. Maybe), but everyone was good.
Here's the link to the article-you would think a story about writing for a TV wouldn't be that interesting, but in this case, you'd be wrong.
http://www.slate.com/id/2154625/?nav=tap3
posted by SHbookworm at 8:08 AM
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