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Movies & Books, November & December 2013
11/19 The Big Lebowski
11/21 Thor: The Dark World
11/22 Free Birds
11/25 Dr. Who: The Day Of The Doctor
11/26 The Book Thief
11/28 About Time
11/29 Rush
12/8 Hunger Games: Catching Fire
12/21 Hobbit 2: Desolation of Smaug
12/2 The Lives of Tao, Wesley Chu
12/19 Tor SciFi Sampler 2012 ebook
Movies:
The Big Lebowski. My wife and I were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving, and I was looking at what was showing in the theaters. I was gobsmacked to find that The Big Lebowski was showing, turns out that the local chain occasionally runs movies like this for one day only, and I got lucky. This is a fav of mine, definitely in my Desert Island 20.
Thor: The Dark World. Yet another in the endless series of Marvel superhero movies, excluding Spiderman and the X-Dudes, which are being released by another studio. Thor must sally forth and lay a smackdown upon lots of dark elves, led by The Doctor, well, the first actor in the Dr. Who revival, Christopher Eccleston. Lots of fun, lots of stuff gets broken. I loved how an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tied in to this movie. Loki helps, and then helps himself, setting up the next either Thor or Avengers movie.
Free Birds. Animated time travel turkey movie. Fun stuff, no real depth, but who needs Ingmar Bergman on a regular basis.
Dr. Who: The Day of the Doctor. We caught this in the theater, and it was definitely worth it! Though I despise 3-D, seeing it on a big screen more than made up for it. It was awesome seeing three established Doctors on the big screen, plus the dragon from Merlin, or at least his voice, as The War Doctor (John Hurt). Awesome performances by all, including a Billie Piper whom we haven't seen in a while but will see again soon in the upcoming Showtime series, Penny Dreadful. It also includes a cameo, highly-cropped, of the New Doctor, whom presumably we'll see later this year.
If you want to see something really cool, you really need to see The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, which has been nominated for a Hugo award. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m3kfy
The Book Thief. A period piece set in Nazi Germany telling the tale of a young girl sent to live with distant relatives, presumably the parents were communists or Jews and expected to be sent to a camp. The girl is illiterate but wants to learn, and she's also a bit of a klepto when it comes to stealing books, starting with one that she picks up at a Nazi book burning. It has been nominated for eleven awards, I think it deserved more than just a nod for the John Williams soundtrack at the Academy Awards. Very good movie.
About Time. The latest outing by filmmaker Richard Curtis, responsible for films such as Love Actually and Notting Hill. In this, a father (Bill Nighy) reveals to his son that the men of their family can travel through time. The film explores using time travel to try and get things right, and how easily things can go desperately wrong. I thought it was quite a touching film, very nicely done. I really like Curtis' work.
Rush. The Ron Howard Formula One racing movie exploring the competition between Niki Lauda and James Hunt. It examined the two drivers opinions of acceptable risk and what racing would end up costing them. Howard did a heck of a job on this film, though he's won awards I think he's an underrated filmmaker. A friend of mine just gave me copies of this and Grand Prix, saying that they're two of the top three racing movies. I haven't watched Grand Prix yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. The third of the three is Le Mans.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The adaptation of the second book of the trilogy which in the end is going to be spun in to four movies by splitting the third book in to two. Overall, considering the Hollywood process and their limitations on how much material they can cover in a film, I thought it was a pretty good adaptation of the book and look forward to the rest of the series.
The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug. Peter Jackson is doing a bang-up job on Tolkien's works but he's kind of forced in to taking a lot of liberties to (A) fit in to the previous Lord of the Rings series and (B) really flesh out the original material. You can't do a single Hobbit movie, but should it be three? Well, it is three, and it's pretty darn good so far. We're really looking forward to the third movie at the end of the year.
Books:
I have no idea how I fell off the wagon and didn't complete any books in November. I know I was busy with a photography class where I was shooting for the local newspaper, I also had a somewhat heavy reading load in my library class which interfered with my recreational reading.
The Lives of Tao. The author is new to writing, but he's an experienced hand in the filmmaking industry and a skilled martial artist. The book tells the story of an alien invasion of Earth that predates humanity that uses human agents as both hosts for the aliens and as agents in general. If your host is slain, you have little time to find another one and good luck in choosing a good one because it's a 'Till Death Do Us Part relationship. In this case, Tao is the alien and has been in numerous significant people through the ages. (I've never been clear if, for book purposes, it should be pronounced as a T or a D) The aliens, which have splintered in to two groups, want to go home, but Earthtech is not yet advanced enough to build a suitable spaceship. The two groups are in an almost constant state of clandestine warfare with their ideologies competing for how to use the humans best. Some interesting stuff with some moral questions raised by Jm Hines on his blog. Wesley Chu has followed it up with a sequel, The Deaths of Tao, I have no idea if it's intended to be a trilogy or on-going after the third book.
Tor SciFi Sampler 2012 ebook. I got myself a Nook HD+ tablet and found this book for free on the Barnes & Nobel web site. I like free books. Lots of interesting stories, some of which I want to follow up on the series.
11/21 Thor: The Dark World
11/22 Free Birds
11/25 Dr. Who: The Day Of The Doctor
11/26 The Book Thief
11/28 About Time
11/29 Rush
12/8 Hunger Games: Catching Fire
12/21 Hobbit 2: Desolation of Smaug
12/2 The Lives of Tao, Wesley Chu
12/19 Tor SciFi Sampler 2012 ebook
Movies:
The Big Lebowski. My wife and I were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving, and I was looking at what was showing in the theaters. I was gobsmacked to find that The Big Lebowski was showing, turns out that the local chain occasionally runs movies like this for one day only, and I got lucky. This is a fav of mine, definitely in my Desert Island 20.
Thor: The Dark World. Yet another in the endless series of Marvel superhero movies, excluding Spiderman and the X-Dudes, which are being released by another studio. Thor must sally forth and lay a smackdown upon lots of dark elves, led by The Doctor, well, the first actor in the Dr. Who revival, Christopher Eccleston. Lots of fun, lots of stuff gets broken. I loved how an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tied in to this movie. Loki helps, and then helps himself, setting up the next either Thor or Avengers movie.
Free Birds. Animated time travel turkey movie. Fun stuff, no real depth, but who needs Ingmar Bergman on a regular basis.
Dr. Who: The Day of the Doctor. We caught this in the theater, and it was definitely worth it! Though I despise 3-D, seeing it on a big screen more than made up for it. It was awesome seeing three established Doctors on the big screen, plus the dragon from Merlin, or at least his voice, as The War Doctor (John Hurt). Awesome performances by all, including a Billie Piper whom we haven't seen in a while but will see again soon in the upcoming Showtime series, Penny Dreadful. It also includes a cameo, highly-cropped, of the New Doctor, whom presumably we'll see later this year.
If you want to see something really cool, you really need to see The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, which has been nominated for a Hugo award. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m3kfy
The Book Thief. A period piece set in Nazi Germany telling the tale of a young girl sent to live with distant relatives, presumably the parents were communists or Jews and expected to be sent to a camp. The girl is illiterate but wants to learn, and she's also a bit of a klepto when it comes to stealing books, starting with one that she picks up at a Nazi book burning. It has been nominated for eleven awards, I think it deserved more than just a nod for the John Williams soundtrack at the Academy Awards. Very good movie.
About Time. The latest outing by filmmaker Richard Curtis, responsible for films such as Love Actually and Notting Hill. In this, a father (Bill Nighy) reveals to his son that the men of their family can travel through time. The film explores using time travel to try and get things right, and how easily things can go desperately wrong. I thought it was quite a touching film, very nicely done. I really like Curtis' work.
Rush. The Ron Howard Formula One racing movie exploring the competition between Niki Lauda and James Hunt. It examined the two drivers opinions of acceptable risk and what racing would end up costing them. Howard did a heck of a job on this film, though he's won awards I think he's an underrated filmmaker. A friend of mine just gave me copies of this and Grand Prix, saying that they're two of the top three racing movies. I haven't watched Grand Prix yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. The third of the three is Le Mans.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The adaptation of the second book of the trilogy which in the end is going to be spun in to four movies by splitting the third book in to two. Overall, considering the Hollywood process and their limitations on how much material they can cover in a film, I thought it was a pretty good adaptation of the book and look forward to the rest of the series.
The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug. Peter Jackson is doing a bang-up job on Tolkien's works but he's kind of forced in to taking a lot of liberties to (A) fit in to the previous Lord of the Rings series and (B) really flesh out the original material. You can't do a single Hobbit movie, but should it be three? Well, it is three, and it's pretty darn good so far. We're really looking forward to the third movie at the end of the year.
Books:
I have no idea how I fell off the wagon and didn't complete any books in November. I know I was busy with a photography class where I was shooting for the local newspaper, I also had a somewhat heavy reading load in my library class which interfered with my recreational reading.
The Lives of Tao. The author is new to writing, but he's an experienced hand in the filmmaking industry and a skilled martial artist. The book tells the story of an alien invasion of Earth that predates humanity that uses human agents as both hosts for the aliens and as agents in general. If your host is slain, you have little time to find another one and good luck in choosing a good one because it's a 'Till Death Do Us Part relationship. In this case, Tao is the alien and has been in numerous significant people through the ages. (I've never been clear if, for book purposes, it should be pronounced as a T or a D) The aliens, which have splintered in to two groups, want to go home, but Earthtech is not yet advanced enough to build a suitable spaceship. The two groups are in an almost constant state of clandestine warfare with their ideologies competing for how to use the humans best. Some interesting stuff with some moral questions raised by Jm Hines on his blog. Wesley Chu has followed it up with a sequel, The Deaths of Tao, I have no idea if it's intended to be a trilogy or on-going after the third book.
Tor SciFi Sampler 2012 ebook. I got myself a Nook HD+ tablet and found this book for free on the Barnes & Nobel web site. I like free books. Lots of interesting stories, some of which I want to follow up on the series.