Films, books & other rambles
Nov. 1st, 2009 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasse- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time romantic semi-main plot aside wasn’t a bad film. The emergence of a romantic plotline worried me at first but it actually wasn’t handled too badly and certainly the end redeemed it.
- The Beach was also surprisingly good. It’s a very good example of why bad things happen to the privileged white indy kids who go ‘travelling’ and had two rather good smackdowns delivered by female characters to the male lead which was amusing for the genre. I do suspect that the book is a lot better.
- Half way through Michael Connelly’s The Scarecrow. It’s generic crime thriller stuff with middle aged divorced guy who still has a sense of honour and justice that’s guttering out in the modern age as the hero. The tech framework for the story is nicely incorporated into the entire narrative for the post part, apart from the one silly moment where the main character clarifies that he’s saving something as a doc file as if this is somehow of great import because he presumably saves other files in Word Pro.
- Part way through The Castle of Otranto. Have reached a point at which I’m reminded why the female characters in Gothic novels tend to irritate me. Granted, this is set in a time period while there are still Crusades going on so the female characters really are completely beholden to their fathers/husbands/brothers and in this sort of novel they’re there to highlight the depths that the main character has sunk to in counterpoint to their piety.
- Still haven’t finished my list of memorable quotations from American Psycho.
- Can’t bring myself to watch the rest of Red Eye. It’s too stupid a plot.
- Realised that while divine justice strikes down the villains in The Five Orange Pips the pair in A Case of Identity get clean away which disproves my belief that the villains always get got even if Holmes himself can’t touch them.
- Still can’t manage the second half of A Study in Scarlet even in audio book format. It still bores me to tears.
- Have spent the last few days on and off trying to figure out the colour scheme for an Imperial uniform. What I wouldn’t give for a decent reference for the different ranking uniforms that make up Seth’s parade of bad taste. Was highly disappointed that the basic art guide for the anime only covered up to episode fourteen for exactly this reason.
- Finally figured out that Holmes’ ‘science of deduction’ really is just breaking down and consciously acknowledging all those factors that are usually acknowledged and processed subconsciously resulting in a ‘gut feeling’ about something.
- Realised that the reason why the first appearance of Ralph Fiennes’ character in In Bruges amused me so much is because he sounded like Michael Caine in The Italian Job.
- Likewise realised that reason the staking scene in Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary was highly disturbing was because it looks far too much like the scene with the robot Maria at the club in Metropolis.
- Lastly, ordered my hardcopy of issue 12 of Crossed Genres featuring this story by an absolutely brilliant author whose cyberpunk novels I am eagerly awaiting.
- The Beach was also surprisingly good. It’s a very good example of why bad things happen to the privileged white indy kids who go ‘travelling’ and had two rather good smackdowns delivered by female characters to the male lead which was amusing for the genre. I do suspect that the book is a lot better.
- Half way through Michael Connelly’s The Scarecrow. It’s generic crime thriller stuff with middle aged divorced guy who still has a sense of honour and justice that’s guttering out in the modern age as the hero. The tech framework for the story is nicely incorporated into the entire narrative for the post part, apart from the one silly moment where the main character clarifies that he’s saving something as a doc file as if this is somehow of great import because he presumably saves other files in Word Pro.
- Part way through The Castle of Otranto. Have reached a point at which I’m reminded why the female characters in Gothic novels tend to irritate me. Granted, this is set in a time period while there are still Crusades going on so the female characters really are completely beholden to their fathers/husbands/brothers and in this sort of novel they’re there to highlight the depths that the main character has sunk to in counterpoint to their piety.
- Still haven’t finished my list of memorable quotations from American Psycho.
- Can’t bring myself to watch the rest of Red Eye. It’s too stupid a plot.
- Realised that while divine justice strikes down the villains in The Five Orange Pips the pair in A Case of Identity get clean away which disproves my belief that the villains always get got even if Holmes himself can’t touch them.
- Still can’t manage the second half of A Study in Scarlet even in audio book format. It still bores me to tears.
- Have spent the last few days on and off trying to figure out the colour scheme for an Imperial uniform. What I wouldn’t give for a decent reference for the different ranking uniforms that make up Seth’s parade of bad taste. Was highly disappointed that the basic art guide for the anime only covered up to episode fourteen for exactly this reason.
- Finally figured out that Holmes’ ‘science of deduction’ really is just breaking down and consciously acknowledging all those factors that are usually acknowledged and processed subconsciously resulting in a ‘gut feeling’ about something.
- Realised that the reason why the first appearance of Ralph Fiennes’ character in In Bruges amused me so much is because he sounded like Michael Caine in The Italian Job.
- Likewise realised that reason the staking scene in Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary was highly disturbing was because it looks far too much like the scene with the robot Maria at the club in Metropolis.
- Lastly, ordered my hardcopy of issue 12 of Crossed Genres featuring this story by an absolutely brilliant author whose cyberpunk novels I am eagerly awaiting.
