One of stories where Bond's ability to be in the right place at the right time in the first act leads him to unravel an intricate SPECTRE plot.
The film also includes two of the more beautiful Bond girls in Claudine Augur's Domino and Luciana Paluzzi's villainous Fiona Volpe, with the latter involved in the most Bond of James Bond moments, or at least Connery Bond moments when she asks him to give her something to put on to hide her modesty as she gets out of the bath - 007 obliges by handing her her shoes
2. Taken
Is there a movie more easily summed up than this?
Liam Neeson's daughter is taken. He finds her. That said, it is still a perfectly acceptable way of spending 90 mins.
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
An intriguing look at one of the most forgotten of Britain's explorers of the Dark Continent. Indeed, as is noted by the author, perhaps the only thing that anyone knows about him is something he most certainly did not say - "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"
And why is it that his great traverses of Central Africa between Zanzibar and the Congo are largely forgotten? Largely for three reasons - he did not die 'heroically' during one of those crossings, his enemies did a good job of tarring him with the brush of oppression that he had no business in and more importantly, his unscrupulous employer, Leopold, King of Belgium, who used Stanley's explorations as a way to systematically rape, pillage and plunder the Congo - the effects of which are still felt to this day.
As to the book itself, in spite of its length and awards, I almost felt that there is still more to be written on Stanley's life. Perhaps there are considerable gaps in his diaries that cannot be filled but at times Jeal glosses over extended periods of time in a few words. Of course, Stanley did a good job in muddying the waters of his early life for various reasons making it difficult to extrapolate what really happened but I wanted more description of the columns marching across Africa rather than just stating that they reached a certain point on a certain date.
Still, this is well worth a read to explore a forgotten part of the history of Africa and the scramble for it by the Great Powers.
Currently Reading
1. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
I found this a bit of a strange one. I would really like to know if the title was chosen in something of a ironic way as there are no real laugh out loud moments and if I was to sum up the movie it would be along the lines of "Horrible People." Essentially, it is Seth Rogen, who is the only really sympathetic character in it, surrounded by rather horrible people. Even the seemingly nice ones turn out to be rather horrible too.
And yet, there was still enough of a story here to keep me interested. Unfortunately, on a couple of occasions the character development and story are rather jerky, lurching back and forth; characters flying off the handle at the slightest instigation or making massive decisions right out of the blue only to change their mind again. On top of that, the ending is rather non-descript and quite abrupt. Could Rogen and Sandler not have done a stand up together as a burying of the hatchet on top of the latter giving the former some notes on his jokes?
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
This was something of a strange read, as it was always going to be given the lack of depth of information about the title emperor. Really, it is more a biography of the times surrounding Romulus' life - the Hunnic empire of Attila, the brief successes of his father, the collapse of Roman central authority, his own elevation to emperor and then his 'exile' under the barbarian kings, Odoacer and Theoderic, plus some then a look at the modern artistic interpretations of the major players of the time.
While the latter part is interesting, I would perhaps have rather had it relegated to an appendix and have more time given over to talking about things that were affecting Italy during Romulus' life. There was room for more on the Vandals in Africa, the collapse of Attila's empire, why the east refused to help and perhaps even more on the religious revolution that was overtaking parts of the west in the aftermath of the decline of the Roman administration.
Really though, I just wanted the author to write more in his wonderful prose. Anyone who has watched his series of 2-3min podcasts on the Roman emperors will know that Murdoch has a great way with words that engages even someone like me who was read about much of what he is talking about before.
Well worth picking up for anyone.
Currently Reading
1. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
Embarrassing to admit as a seeming sci-fi fan and a watcher of movies, but as I watched this tonight, I realised that I had never viewed this epic all the way through. I knew the intro and the latter scenes extremely well but the middle section was essentially new to me
WOOO! Here comes the Nature Boy Ric Sorry
Such a great introduction, even before the appearance of the ape-men and the Monolith, as the soundtrack tells you something truly epic is about to unfold. Not exactly the type of terrain I would imagine apes to be living in though and is this not a similar scent to the origin story of Vandal Savage? I barely remember this opening act being so long either Was never all that keen on the match cut from bone to space-station mind you. Symbolism be damned!
I had definitely never seen large parts of the middle scenes from Heywood Floyd on the Moon through to right around where HAL starts killing everyone.
The soundtrack might grate on me at times and I think that there was room for more story-telling but even 40+ years later and all nicely cleaned up, this remains one of the most visually stunning pieces of cinema ever created.
Although someone was definitely on some kind of mind-altering substance for the "Jupiter and Beyond Infinity" sequence
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
This is a nostalgia kick made to commemorate the 50th anniversaries of the most famous shows produced by AP Films/Century 21 - Stingray (1964) and in particular, Thunderbirds (1965), in the wake of Gerry Anderson's recent passing.
As a huge fan of the four main Anderson shows (the above two plus Captain Scarlet and Joe90), there was little in this that I had not seen or heard before beyond a few anecdotes from cast members. However, it was definitely nice to watch the progression of the techniques used by Anderson's team as they moved from Kelloggs Ricicles advert to Twizzle, Torchy the Battery Boy, Four Feathers Falls and eventually Supercar and Fireball XL5, which launched Supermarionation and the most famous of its incarnations.
I liked that my own opinion on the true geniuses behind much of the success of Anderson were given their dues - Barry Gray and his wonderful soundtracks and Derek Meddings and his innovative special effects, with many of his techniques heavily influencing the big screen to this day. A tip of the hat to the special effects team working on this docu-film, who managed to recreate much of Meddings' work. Top notch.
It was nice to be reminded that the opportunity was there for Thunderbirds to continue beyond its original 32 episodes and it was missed by Lew Grade and Anderson, something which the latter had come to regret.
And yet, without the moving on from Thunderbirds in 1966, we would not have gotten Captain Scarlet (1967), which is a real (somewhat) hidden gem. It might have been born out of necessity due to the limitations of the puppets but the 'less is more' War of Nerves between Spectrum and the Mysterons is magnificent. And here is where my one problem with this docu-film comes in. Much like with the public at large, who remember Thunderbirds and not much after it, Captain Scarlet and Joe90 are given unexpectedly short shift, with it essentially said that because they followed in the wake of Thunderbirds and were completely overshadowed by it. That may be true from a commercial and success point of view, but that should not have taken away from the appreciation of the story of Captain Scarlet, which was extremely different from anything else Anderson had produced.
The new CGI reboot of Thunderbirds (made with little or no input from the Anderson estate, given how the company was sold to ITV in the mid-60s) comes out in April this year and while I do not want to jinx things, my initial thoughts were positive. I actually enjoyed the reboot of Captain Scarlet but hope that the makers learn some of the lessons from it, in particular the retaining of the original soundtrack and feel, even if there are no puppets.
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
]2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
Currently Reading
1. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
2. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
1. Funny People
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
4. Hidalgo
AKA "The Little Mustang that could (in the face of evil Arabs...)"
Aside from perhaps the attempted addition of depth to the Cowboy's story, which I felt was unneeded, if there was a word to describe this for me, it would be 'inoffensive,' although some Arabs might think otherwise...
We will not mention how Hopkins should have been disqualified for helping one of the riders, even if it did save his life in the long run.
Perhaps the most emotion invoking part of the film is the pre-credits comments regarding the wild horses of the American plains considering in the last couple of years, the US government has been systematically rounding them up with helicopters and sending them to glue factories...
5. Ascension
This is not a film, rather a mini-series but I watched it in one solid mass so I am counting it.
There had the makings but was really too short to explore its premise in sufficient detail - we are really talking about an island nation of just 600 and it really does come across as the writers setting up a full TV series, hoping for the success they had with Battlestar Galactica. Speaking of BSG, Tricia Helfer (Caprica Six) is one of my favourites so it was nice to see 'a lot' of her...
A lot of sci-fi influences can be seen too, no least 2001, with even the Star Child referenced at one point. It has its down sides. One was that I could not stand the young actress playing the focal character in the whole show. I just wanted her off my scene.
Another was how the original premise is somewhat abandoned by the end of the first third (two episodes in US). I wanted more about the inner workings of Ascension and how they have managed to survive over the last 50 years. Either I missed it or there was no mention of how the crew feeds itself. There are intimations of close control of genetics to be used with livestock (and human procreation) but there is little idea of hydroponics or however else they grow food and produce water.
I would like to see more of this show but part of me feels that they have shot a lot of their bolt already in this mini series. There was definitely room to stretch out the exploration of the premise both aboard Ascension and in the Earth control centre to an entire season, ending with the big reveal of the first 90 mins connecting the two.
Time will tell.
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
3. Elisabeth Storrs Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale
I know that this is meant to be a short story but I wanted more. The author does a good job in setting the scene of the five major players in the story and their backgrounds in such a short amount of time but that good work seems wasted in such a restricted length of book.
I do think that there is plenty of scope of more offerings on Rome's earliest times both in terms of informed fiction such as this and in non-fiction historical works.
4. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
This was a series of academic articles stemming from the conference of the its title. Normally, I would not list such a work but considering I read the entire thing from cover to cover, it belongs.
Really some fascinating scholarship from some of my predecessors at Queen's University Belfast, much of it dissipating much of the myth that "The Romans came to Ireland." I have always thought that such an idea was naïve. The Roman may not have conquered Ireland but to think that such an imperialistic state could not make the jump from the British mainland across the Irish Sea, which is just 12 miles wide at its narrowest is to put your head in the sand.
With this colloquium, we can see the cataloguing of Roman finds all over the island - I was doing this research as I am writing a paper on the Coleraine Hoard found about 8 miles from my house. These finds raise various questions about their provenance - how and when did they get here (trade, raid, army pay, shipping accident, refugees, later transfer) where did they come from (Britain, Gaul, Germany, Spain, even Byzantium) and why are they in the ground (stolen, hidden, dropped)?
It really does raise a lot of further questions.
Currently Reading
1. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
1. Funny People
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
4. Hidalgo
5. Ascension
6. Stand By For Action
This is another documentary about the career of Gerry Anderson and I would guess that it was at least partly the inspiration for Filmed in Supermarionation as it is very similar - of course it would be similar as they are dealing with the same career and use the same extended interview with Anderson and numerous other reused material.
I would also say that this shares a similar problem in the lack of exploration of Captain Scarlet and Joe90, although it is dealing with more of Anderson's career in a similar length of time than Filmed in Supermarionation.
Still though, it is a great viewing of Anderson fans.
7. Rio Bravo
Reportedly this was a reply to Gary Cooper's High Noon, which was a far less flattering and heroic portrayal of a law man in the wild west, something that John Wayne and Howard Hawks did not like - I mean imagine Americans not being portrayed as not the greatest?
This combines all the best types of character in westerns as a drunk, a 'cripple,' a young rookie, a minority and a girl - all brave in their own right, all combining with Wayne to foil the evil landowner and to ensure justice is done. While commendable, this archetypal approach leaves Rio Bravo lacking behind other westerns of the age such as Fort Apache or Searchers, with no real depth of story or character, aside from Dean Martin's Dude.
Angie Dickinson looking as pretty as it gets in 1950s, even if her character is a little too much like the terrible stereotype of the western age - a slave to "love at first sight" and largely unsuited to the circumstances she has chosen to live.
I could have done without the musical number too.
8. Déjà vu
I found the opening half of this to be intriguing. The look back in time to solve the mystery of what had happened on the ferry made for interesting viewing.
But once Denzel goes back in time I quickly lost interest as it becomes a little too formulaic as well as raising all the usual questions of causation, effect, alternate universes and the like.
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
3. Elisabeth Storrs Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale
4. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
5. Stephen R. Brown Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Eccentric and Wild Explorers in the Americas (2012)
Rather than of the Americas, this was more on Canada with the occasional diversion to Alaska, although that is not much of a problem.
The real problem here is that this seems more a gather up of somewhat interesting stories that the author has come across in the writing of other works with most of them having very little to connect them to each other aside from a broad general geography. Several of the stories do not really link in to the title as they are not stories of exploration
The author also does not go to any real lengths to link these stories or explain their circumstances, which is a real pity as the title showed a lot of promise.
Currently Reading
1. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
2. Kendrick A. Clements Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman. (1987)
1. Funny People
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
4. Hidalgo
5. Ascension
6. Stand By For Action
7. Rio Bravo
8. Déjà vu
9. Good Vibrations
This is the story of Terry Hooley and his Good Vibrations record shop and label and how he managed to make something of the prog rock/punk/new wave scene in Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole on the backdrop of the ever-increasing Troubles in early 1970s
The most famous production of this start-up company would be the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" - the song that the great John Peel stated was his favourite ever - and yet due to his principles, Hooley seems to have barely made a cent out; perhaps best evidenced by the number of times that Good Vibrations has shutdown in the last 30 years.
But of course, that "never say die" attitude has also made sure that it never stayed closed for very long.
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
3. Elisabeth Storrs Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale
4. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
5. Stephen R. Brown Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Eccentric and Wild Explorers in the Americas (2012)
6. Kendrick A. Clements Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman. (1987)
This was at times well-written biography that captures a lot of the political dealings that one of the more important US presidents faced throughout his career. The points where is not quite so well written is at points when even the greatest writer would have had trouble making things interesting - not everyone's life - even a US president - is always interesting.
The author sort of skims over the American involvement in the First World War - the war is suddenly over and I also felt that the book itself ended rather abruptly. I understand that Wilson's last illness did not make for interesting or even pleasant writing but there should have been room for a more extended final chapter and epilogue on the man who helped drag the USA into the 20th century, whether it liked it or not (the fact that it would return to isolationism in the 20s and 30s suggests that it did not really like it).
Well worth a read do to the importance of Wilson's presidency and as a good look back at how quickly someone could go from an academic to governor to two term president in the early 20th century.
Currently Reading
1. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
2. Tom Holland In the Shadow of the Sword. (2012)
1. Funny People
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
4. Hidalgo
5. Ascension
6. Stand By For Action
7. Rio Bravo
8. Déjà vu
9. Good Vibrations
10. Looper
This was one of those time-travelling movies that I think suffered from having just that one extra strand to the story. Did we really need the subplot of Jeff Daniels' character? Could the film not have just rested on Bruce Willis as the vengeful bad guy trying to get past JGL's reluctant good guy without killing him, with the Rainmaker hovering (perhaps literally) over their struggle? I am not entirely convinced that that would have worked though.
I did like the more linear form of time travel - JGL and Willis are the same person who share memories and wounds rather than using some bastard form of the multiverse theory so that they really are not the same person once Willis went back in time.
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
3. Elisabeth Storrs Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale
4. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
5. Stephen R. Brown Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Eccentric and Wild Explorers in the Americas (2012)
6. Kendrick A. Clements Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman. (1987)
7. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
I thoroughly enjoyed large parts of this as it illuminates a section of time - early Anglo-Saxon England - that I knew very little about.
At times though, it does get a little dense for the ordinary reader. If anything, the warning is on the cover as a book that looks at the "life and times" of an otherwise obscure individual is likely to have to go into significant detail about certain aspects that might not be as appealing as the story of their life in order to fill out a book. I would almost have said that Oswald could have been forgotten about as a main character, with the book re-titled to something around the circumstances surrounding the reintroduction of Christianity into Britain in the seventh century.
The author does try to tackle the multiple chronological problems that arise when using the meagre sources for this post-Roman period and with his chronologies at the end of various chapters, he makes a decent fist of it. However, at the same time, I think he has made a couple of rods for his own back. Most obviously is the fact that in the end a lot of his dates are unverifiable even if they do fit in nicely with what they know. Another problem comes across in the lay out of his work. He jumps back and forward from the main chronology to various other subjects and at times becomes detached from the main story for so long that by the time he returns to it, you have forgotten what has happened to Oswald and his successors the last time you interacted with them.
Perhaps one large section of chapters on chronology and then a separate section of chapters on various religious and political developments might have made many of his points and progression of the story more clear. I think the maps could have been better deployed throughout as the author talks a lot about various sites, cities and towns but there is no adjacent map to see where they are.
Still though, anyone interested in the origins of the English kingdom, the re-Christianisation of Britain through Irish proselytising and the wars of the British, Saxon, Irish and Pictish chiefs in the 600s, this is an informative read.
8. Veronica Roth Divergent (2012)
Given how I was pleasantly surprised by The Hunger Games, I decided to pick this trilogy up.
While not knowing much about the genre, I would not be at all surprised to find that Roth had read the work of Collins or they shared the same source material as the similarities in style and layout are striking - 16 year old female protagonist on the cusp of a life-changing choice in a post-apocalyptic world and who finds out that she is quite the warrior all the while dealing with a new bunch of friends, enemies and an angsty teenage love story.
As well as sharing many aspects with THG, this first instalment of the Divergent series also shares some of THG's problems, most obviously in the final act, which is a titanic clusterfuck of rushed through story. After spending over 400 pages introducing us to this post-apocalyptic world, its factions, Tris, her friends, family, enemies and problems, whether she will be chosen to join Dauntless or not, and then the idea that the Erudite and Dauntless leadership are planning some sort of power grab, the book then launches into war.
That would have been a fine way to end the first book - Tris and Four finding that the Erudite/Dauntless sleepwalking soldiers are attacking Abnegation - but instead the first major act of that war and what should have been a vast undertaking in itself - the neutralising of the Dauntless soldiers - is sped through in about 50 pages, together with the almost pointless deaths of Tris' parents.
It just came across as a massive waste of good storyline.
Currently Reading
1. Tom Holland In the Shadow of the Sword. (2012)
2. Veronica Roth Insurgent (2013)
1. Funny People
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
4. Hidalgo
5. Ascension
6. Stand By For Action
7. Rio Bravo
8. Déjà vu
9. Good Vibrations
10. Looper
11. 21 Jump Street
I liked this as it did not do something that a large number of comedies have attempted in recent years - it did not try to be clever. Instead it relies on silliness and cursing, putting it firmly in the American Pie bracket of movies and given the reception of large parts of that series, that is hardly a bad thing.
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
3. Elisabeth Storrs Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale
4. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
5. Stephen R. Brown Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Eccentric and Wild Explorers in the Americas (2012)
6. Kendrick A. Clements Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman. (1987)
7. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
8. Veronica Roth Divergent (2012)
9. Veronica Roth Insurgent (2013)
I felt that this was somewhat mis-titled - Tris and the Dauntless loyalists were hardly insurgents at all during this book; "migrants" might be a more accurate description given how they moved from base to base in search of protection from the Erudite-Dauntless.
On top of that, I am not really feeling the peril of the information known to the Abnegation leadership. What was truly so bad about the truth that made the Erudite leader, the faction who prides itself in information, turn into a murdering dictator? And if the Erudite were so brutal, why did they not just us the simulation to kill more people?
And once again, we get repeat storyline developments that occur in the Hunger Games - destruction of factions/districts, replacing one dictatorship with another and going off in search of a mysterious, long-forgotten, suppressed other people.
10. Veronica Roth Allegiant (2013)
Once again this falls into the same problems as the Hunger Games - there is no great climax on a personal or grand faction-wide scale, unless you count Tris chatting to a man in a wheelchair. Rather than just negotiating a peaceful resolution, why could Tobias not have been faced with a last desperate grab for influence and power by his father? You know, the only consistent 'baddie' throughout the entire trilogy. Instead, Marcus just vanishes having been sidelined by the treaty between Allegiant and faction-less.
It was certainly brave to kill off the protagonist near the end, showing that Tris' reckless eventually caught up with her in something approaching a lesson for the young reader. It also brought a sense of much needed realism to the amount of fighting that took place in the short space of time which the trilogy spanned but in the end, that shock death came too late and even then the death of Tris kills the book dead in its tracks, leaving the last chapters turgid to get through and ending the trilogy on a downer after it had descended further into the recycled mess that began with Insurgent.
One trap that both Divergent and The Hunger Games fell into was the consistent lack of real peril as the protagonists and their plans, many of which were too simple, too stupid or too rushed to work, always succeed. While there is no little amount of death in either series, the killing off of characters is down largely for shock value rather than logical progression - sure, war is rarely logical but this is meant to be a work of fiction.
I also found Allegiant (which again falls into the same trap as Insurgent by having the title have little to do with the actual story) a strange progression of the story - virtually nothing happens for the first two-thirds of the book, right up to Nita's failed attack. And then we have the lack of a real climax. Strange indeed.
The pacing was so off at times that I thought that there was room for a complete rewrite and vast expansion of the story as a whole. Everything just seems so rushed. The story of Divergent/Insurgent could have been a trilogy onto themselves, following Tris' journey from Abnegation to Dauntless in the first third, with it ending with the activation of the Dauntless zombies; the second third could have been the destruction of Abnegation (played out in more detail) and then the fleeing of the Dauntless Divergents and Abnegation survivors to the other factions looking for safe haven and then allies against Erudite-Dauntless and only forcing Candor and Amity into siding with them and the factionless after the last-ditch strike at stopping the simulation. The third instalment would then be a colossal battle between the Divergent-led allies and the Erudite-Dauntless and ending with Tris and co. discovering the outside world, as the Bureau attempt to shutdown the 'experiment' before it destroys all of the Divergent. That could then lead to a voyage of discovery beyond the fence into the fringes, revealing origins of the experiment and uniting the factions and factionless in a protracted fight for survival against the Bureau.
Such a fleshing out of battles and wars would have given the Divergent story time to breath. Indeed, everything in the entire trilogy happens far too quickly. Because of that there is no real character development throughout aside from Dauntless training in the first instalment. The duo of Tris and Tobias have the same conversation over and over again. And it does not stop there. Tris' thoughts rarely change about anything and when Tobias is included as a POV character in Allegiant, he is much the same.
Even more so than The Hunger Games, I feel that Divergent is a story that has been somewhat wasted on being written for 'young adults' - stunted rather than allowed to expand into something far more meaningful.
Currently Reading
1. Tom Holland In the Shadow of the Sword. (2012)
2. 2. Alan Palmer The Banner of Battle: The Story of the Crimean War. (1987)
3. Jacqueline Cahil Wilson Late Iron Age and 'Roman' Ireland. (2014)
1. Funny People
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
4. Hidalgo
5. Ascension
6. Stand By For Action
7. Rio Bravo
8. Déjà vu
9. Good Vibrations
10. Looper
11. 21 Jump Street
12. Ice Age: Continental Drift
Another episode in the "prehistoric animals go on journey chased by a monster." And am I the only one that remembers that there were humans in the first movie? And now we are back to the break up of Pangea? A messed up timeline if ever there was one.
But I do love me some Sid the Sloth and Scrat. Granny, along with her denchers, was a welcome addition to that silliness.
13. Up in the Air
What a soul-destroying job the professional firer must be
No real happy ending other than the new girl getting a good reference from Clooney and him gifting air-miles to his sister and new brother-in-law. Clooney himself, while he has done some good for those around him and had taken a chance on someone that he liked only to be brutally shot down, is relegated once again to having to jet-set all over the country without having to put down any roots.
I kind of liked that.
14. The Princess Bride
This is another of those films that I have seen bits of at various times but never the whole thing.
This is so delightfully silly, rubbish and intentionally bad that it is good. Great even. It pokes fun at the strained credulity of many of the tropes in the fairytales, at times making little sense - the ridiculousness of how Inigo and Fezzik find Westley and just why has Humperdink chosen Buttercup? Add to that some clever dialogue and good comic acting - Westley spending the climax in various states of paralysis was fantastic - and you have gold.
I was also surprised that Andre's acting was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. And to be fair, it suited the movie down to the ground. Could maybe have done without the framing mechanism of Columbo and Kevin from the Wonder Years but that is only a very minor complaint. If it even is a complaint.
In summation, there is really only one thing to say about this movie
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die"
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
3. Elisabeth Storrs Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale
4. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
5. Stephen R. Brown Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Eccentric and Wild Explorers in the Americas (2012)
6. Kendrick A. Clements Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman. (1987)
7. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
8. Veronica Roth Divergent (2012)
9. Veronica Roth Insurgent (2013)
10. Veronica Roth Allegiant (2013)
11. Jacqueline Cahil Wilson Late Iron Age and 'Roman' Ireland. (2014)
I only really got this for the initial article on the nature of Roman material in Ireland and what it can tell us about Roman interaction with the island as a whole.
Dipping my toe into this academic minefield, I have quickly found to be dangerous as we know so little and there are plenty of people out there ready to stick the knife in because of that well-known 'fact' that "the Romans never came to Ireland." But even without really scratching the surface of the subjects that this collection, I have long thought that to deny Roman influence and presence in Ireland, even the possibility of a trading post or fort, is so drastically short-sighted and ignorant of Roman megalomania, thirst for conquest, cultural interaction and trade that it beggars belief.
I mean, if Roman traders made it to Tanzania, India, Sri Lanka, the Baltic Sea and even Indo-China and China itself, surely they could have jumped the dozen or so miles over the narrows of the Irish Sea?
It was also nice to see my hometown mentioned even if only in passing.
12. Tom Holland In the Shadow of the Sword. (2012)
Not only does Holland not really present any new suggestions about the lack of historical standing for much of early Islamic history, including the veracity of the Quran and the hadiths, he does not focus solely on the Arabs. That is only the first section of this telling of the "end of the Ancient World."
I would suspect that in some way Holland knew exactly what he was doing in placing such a powder-keg at the beginning of the book, even though it does not really belong there - surely establishing the religions that Islam developed from and the geo-political circumstances of its appearance between the superpowers would have been far more logical.
But that should not detract from what is another triumph in presenting ancient history for more mass consumption than academics. Much like with Rubicon and Persian Fire, there is a lot of information contained within these pages but it is put forward in a far more entertaining way that most academic works but without ever losing sight of its need to inform, criticise and analyse that information.
One criticism I would have is that in the main this book falls into one of my pet peeves - it spends a great deal of time setting up and then explaining the fall out of wars but does not go into any detail about the wars themselves, particularly the Muslim conquests. I understand that this is not the aim of the book, which is focused more on the religious and social aspects of the late antique Middle East, and the sources for the Muslim conquests are pretty shabby, but there is still room to look at certain aspects of the military campaigns and how the Arabs were so successful in battle. Certain campaigns, particularly the Roman calamity in Egypt and the surrender of Alexandria, were ripe for a treatment given that they show the downside of the religious dimension that Heraclius had tapped into.
This is also seen in the last section of the book. Holland provides a thoroughly intriguing look at the inner workings of the Caliphate, the Fitnas and the 'real' founding of Islam but when he turns back to the Roman Empire, with the preparations for the second Arab siege of Constantinople, there is no real explanation of the military anarchy that has overtaken the dynasty founded by Heraclius in the late seventh/early eighth centuries. Again, I think that a brief look at the chaos of Justinian II and the usurpers would have helped further explain the Roman claims of the survival of Constantinople in 717-718 as being miraculous.
Knowing when to stop with such a subject is a difficult judgement to make (believe me I know ) as the Arab campaigns/conquests continue for a century after the death of Muhammad across vast swathes of territory in the east and west. The Abbasid overthrow of the Umayyads is a logical finishing point but I think this book could have done with more of a conclusion section.
13. Alan Palmer The Banner of Battle: The Story of the Crimean War. (1987)
A good look at the politics of the Crimean War and the campaign in the Crimea itself, both of which were an almost complete mess from all major parties involved - the British and French fighting a war on the extremities of Europe far from decent supply lines and the Russians accepting war that their economy had no real ability to sustain.
And that is before you get to the fighting which just seems to have been one blunder or missed opportunity after another - the Charge of the Light Brigade was hardly a solitary mess, coupled with brutal living conditions and casualty rates at the hospitals set up by Florence Nightingale at Scutari. With the added trouble of public opinion spurred on by newspapers like The Times, which were finding their newly found influence, expecting far too much from their navies and not believing that the lack of progress against Sebastopol or the poor conditions faced by the soldiers.
I understand that there might be source material reasons behind it but I would like to have heard a bit more about the other theatres, particularly the Caucasus or indeed the make up of the Turkish and Sardinia-Piedmont forces. Indeed, the author himself mentions the ignoring of the Turks on several occasions by the British and French in the Crimea, the European Powers at the negotiating tables and the newspapers but then seemingly commits the same crime in this writing. Even in his conclusion (which I thought could have been expanded more), there was virtually no mention of the future of the Ottoman Empire, beyond the brief war with Russia in 1877-1878, or of what was about to happen in Italy by the end of the 1850s.
Haven't updated this in a while, although as you can see, I am not going to get anywhere near the 52 for either movies or books unless I drop all other work...
2015
Films
First Viewing
1. Funny People
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Filmed in Supermarionation
4. Hidalgo
5. Ascension
6. Stand By For Action
7. Rio Bravo
8. Déjà vu
9. Good Vibrations
10. Looper
11. 21 Jump Street
12. Ice Age: Continental Drift
13. Up in the Air
14. The Princess Bride
15. Kick-Ass 2
For want of a better word, I felt that this was a little half-assed. There is a perfectly good story involved here but too many of its facets are not addressed in any significant detail or given time to play out - perhaps that is a by-product of conflating three comic books into one - Kick-Ass 2, Kick-Ass 3 and Hit Girl.
16. Birdman
I am not really sure what to make of Birdman. It seems like one of those movies that requires high quality acting to have it mean anything.
While I cannot say that I hated it, I know that there will have been a significant portion of those who went to see it who will have found it useless as there is little real story other than an actor trying to rediscover some of his past glory whilst going mad in the process but at the same time not wanting to repeat the reasons for that past glory.
17. The Avengers: Age of Ultron
This all seemed rushed/too much happening. We could have done with more of a build to Ultron in previous movies as he appears far too much out of the blue for my liking. The same could be said for Vision, who appears to be more powerful than his rather stunted appearance at the end suggests. I thought the Maximoffs too suffered from the rush. Much like with the Flash in the TV show, I somewhat expected Quicksilver to be able to survive being shot given his increased metabolism.
One thing I did like was the use of Hawkeye and Black Widow, the two weakest members of the Avengers, as the glue holding the team together - Hawkeye the more grounded family man and Black Widow the damaged spy able to have some control over the Hulk.
18. Kingsman
This was harking back to the days of Roger Moore's OO7 with just a little bit more gore and comicbook colour thrown in, which makes it more than watchable.
It also does have a couple of tremendous scenes as well such as the head-explosion/fireworks display at the end and in particular the church massacre.
19. Taken 3
The usual fair, although I thought Mills' need to run from the crime scene was never really proven to be necessary, especially when Whittaker's cop proves himself to be clever.
20. Run All Night
This could easily have been called Taken 4: Road to Perdition with Neeson being just a little more Irish than usual.
That said, for a straight to DVD release, it was certainly not horrible. Formulaic but not horrible. Would have liked to have seen a bit more from the cop and Ed Harris though.
Reviewed
1. Thunderball
2. Taken
Books
1. Tim Jeal Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer (2007)
2. Adrian Murdoch The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West. (2006)
3. Elisabeth Storrs Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale
4. Colloquium of Hiberno-Roman Relations and Material Evidence (1976)
5. Stephen R. Brown Wanderers & Nomads: True Stories of Eccentric and Wild Explorers in the Americas (2012)
6. Kendrick A. Clements Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman. (1987)
7. Max Adams The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria (2013)
8. Veronica Roth Divergent (2012)
9. Veronica Roth Insurgent (2013)
10. Veronica Roth Allegiant (2013)
11. Jacqueline Cahil Wilson Late Iron Age and 'Roman' Ireland. (2014)
12. Tom Holland In the Shadow of the Sword. (2012)
13. Alan Palmer The Banner of Battle: The Story of the Crimean War. (1987)
14. Angela White, Life After War: The Survivors
15. Angela White Life After War: On The Road
16. Angela White Life After War: Safe Haven
17. Angela White Life After War: Adrian's Eagles
18. Angela White Life After War: From The Ashes
19. Angela White Life After War: Where We Stand
20. Angela White Life After War: The Price We Pay
I read this series one after the other so have no real memory of where the separate books begin and end so this will be one entry.
This was a strange mixture of a vast array of genres - post-apocalyptic, survivalist, sci-fi, fantasy, military, monsters, doomed love, road trip, zombie horror, Da Vinci Code. Perhaps the author is trying to appeal to everyone?
I have a few issues with the style of story-telling, particularly how the perspective changes quickly between various people in any one scene, rather than have an overall perspective. Also, again with many such stories, things develop far too quickly; whether it be the coalescing of Safe Haven, the raids of the Mexican bandito-slavers or the development of mutants.
The story on Pitcairn seemed and ended up completely superfluous to the rest of the story - plus I heavily question the ability of such a small plane making it to the southern states of the US from Pitcairn although I did like the story that played out in Pitcairn, even if it swayed a bit to close to zombie-vampires, which I am not a big fan of. It addressed survivors' guilt and the effects that loneliness, trauma and personal tragedy can have on the individual.
The herd mentality espoused by Safe Haven is at times pretty stupid - I suppose there had to be something of an obvious reason for them being called sheep by the higher ups. There is also an undercurrent of people having no self control, making it seem like it was out of the norm for people not to act on their lusts/love at first sight.
It also comes off a bit like the plot of a computer game.
With all that, I could not stop reading through the hundreds and hundreds of pages of this vast and as yet unfinished story.
Oh, and it was more than a little "Mary Sue" to see the author give her lead character the same name...
21. Jones, A.H.M., Martindale, J.R. and Morris, J. Prosopography of Later Roman Empire Volume II: 395-527. (1980)
While this is far more a dictionary than a book, the fact that I read through it all as research for my latest literary outing means that I am including it here.
It really is an astonishing piece of scholarship, attempting to list every individual known from the time period and providing the primary sources for much of their respective careers.
Extremely useful for ancient historians.
22. Kitto, H.D.F. The Greeks (1966)
I picked this up in a local charity shop and I am glad I did for while it is a little out of date in some of its language and references, it remains a fantastic introduction to the world of Ancient Greece. It touches on so much in such a small amount of pages and encouraged me to go find something more on several events within the period, which is exactly its job.
24. Miller, J.J. Star Trek: Takedown (2015)
The story presented on back of this book drew me in in an airport shop in Cleveland, particularly the potential for Picard vs Riker.
Unfortunately, the promised showdown did not quite materialise in the way I wanted. By the time that the Enterprise caught up to the Aventine, Riker was so much not himself and so beyond Picard that there was no real point of a confrontation between the two.
I must be honest and say that I do not remember the episode and people that the book derives its premise from and for such evolved and advanced beings the Cytherians seemed a little stupid, but I did like the idea of eight meta-beings dashing around the quadrants causing consternation and mayhem, while themselves trying to break their programming for different reasons. I would have liked to have seen the perspective of the other enhanced beings beyond the human and Romulan.
25. Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Star Trek: Voyager: Section 31 - Shadow (1999)
Building on the idea of Section 31, the clandestine organisation doing immoral things for the 'good' of the Federation, which I think was introduced in DS9, we see an operative placed aboard Voyager before the ship is lost in the Delta Quadrant.
Voyager vs its own crew was an interesting development on the backdrop of a mission of mercy for the Rhawn, even if it meant killing the Section 31 spy even before the book began
I felt that this was a lot shorter than it should have been, falling vey much into the trap that many Star Trek episodes did regarding having everything fixed and summed up in the last five minutes after 55 mins of peril and failed attempts. Also on this occasion, the final solution to the shockwave seemed far more straight forward than the ones that had already failed.
Once the crew had to evacuate Voyager, there was more than enough room to explore an adverse reaction from the people of Traveler to what could have been perceived as an elaborate takeover by the Starfleet 'aliens.' In a way emperor Aetayn was far too reasonable a character
And on top of that, other than showing the conditions inside the damaged section of Traveler, what really was the point of the side story of Lyspa and Andra? They did not interact with any of the main cast from Voyager or Traveler. I am not sure why it was not made so that B'Elanna, Seven, Harry and Vorik entered Traveler behind the door that Lyspa opened, leading to a story where Lyspa trusts the Voyager crew more than Aetyan, perhaps because they were able to help Andra.
I would also have liked to have had revealed at the end of the book that Roberta Luke was a patsy for someone else, giving us a staging point for more Section 31/Voyager stories.
Missed opportunities.
Currently Reading
1. P. Heather The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders
2. Dave Galanter and Greg Brodeur, Star Trek: Voyager - Battle Lines (1999)
Think I will give this kind of thing a go again for 2017, just with the 52 'new' movies though as my reading time will be used up writing and researching.
Still got 30+ DVDs to watch so that is a good place to start
Think I will give this kind of thing a go again for 2017, just with the 52 'new' movies though as my reading time will be used up writing and researching.
Still got 30+ DVDs to watch so that is a good place to start
This falls firmly into the seen some of it, but not all of it category. Having now seen all of it, I am torn. Ackroyd did a fine job as the by the book, socially inept Joe Friday but I am really not sure what kind of film this was meant to be buddy cop, parody, or homage? While I have not seen much (or even any) of the original show, my scant knowledge suggests that it was a straight-laced police procedural perhaps even the first such show so making it into a buddy cop parody homage is brave/foolish.
It would be like doing a movie of CSI: Las Vegas with Grissoms nephew being played by someone like Andy Samberg in a serious/non-serious role.
It definitely belongs in the Trainspotting World given not just its author and the and indeed it was seeing the T2 Trainspotting trailer that reminded me that I had Filth in my 2 Watch pile.
McAvoy does a fine job in describing the problems of Bruce Robertson. Clearly, there was something wrong with the relationship between Bruce and Carole from the very off, although I must say that it did not occur to me that he had been impersonating his wife, merely that she and the daughter were either dead or had left him.
I was thinking after I watched this that there was another level to Bruces misanthropy and problems there was really little reason for him to be so scheming and conniving over the DI promotion as the other candidates were hampered in various ways already. Plus he does seem to be (and even says so himself) or have been a good detective, so there was no real need for him to undermine the others an old idiot, an inexperienced cokehead, an angry suicidal Nazi, a perceived homosexual... and a woman It shows the depths to which the levels of his self-worth have declined.
First and foremost, this is no 2001. But then, while this is a direct sequel, it is sort of unfair to demand a similar outing when following in the wake of one of the finest movies ever made. When that comparison is removed/downplayed, what is left is a fine movie that should perhaps be far better received and remembered.
The special effects are still there, the story fits in nicely and there are some nice uses of camera work to add some mystery, like with Bowman's appearance on the Discovery. It is perhaps without the subtlety of 2001, which has helped that masterpiece endure and it is perhaps wrapped a little too unrealistically neatly - are we really to believe that man's curiosity will not lead him to return to Europa even with the Monolith's warning?
There are a few things I would like to have seen added in - Bowman should have saved Max in some way as he hurtled off into space. It would have made it even more reasonable that the Russians started to believe Floyd that they needed to leave. I would also have really liked to have seen more of the therapy sessions between Chandra and HAL. The paranoid psychotic computer was the standout character in 2001 but I feel he was underused here.
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