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David McK (3204 KP) rated The Phantom of the Opera (2005) in Movies

Jul 11, 2022  
The Phantom of the Opera (2005)
The Phantom of the Opera (2005)
2005 | Drama, Horror, Musical
5
7.3 (20 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
The Phantom of the Opera is here ...
2005 film version of the Broadway show, starring Emmy Rossum (Christine Daae) and Gerard Butler (as the Phantom).

And therein lies it's greatest problem: Butler (and, to an extent, all the modern Phantom's) is just too conventionally good-looking for the hideous disfigured gargoyle who haunts the Parisian Opera catacombs but dreams of higher things!

That aside, this is definitely sumptuously filmed, with some great sets. Some catchy tunes, with the latter to be expected

I.t's just that, well, it does tend to drag a bit.

I suppose, in effect, it's like going to the Opera without actually going to the Opera ...
  
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David McK (3204 KP) rated Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) in Movies

May 31, 2024 - 5:50 PM  
KO
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
2024 |
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Entry #4 in the 'modern' (2010s) Planet of the Apes movies, set an undefined time other than "generations later" after the previous entry, and no longer following Caesar (for obvious reasons, as anyone who has seen that previous movie will know!) but instead a new protagonist in Noa, an ape who goes hunting for the remainder of his clan after they are attacked before encountering other survivors of what I'm going to call the new normal.

This does connect to those previous entries in both the prologue, and with plot threads running throughout (and deliberately left open), including how Caesar himself is viewed in this new world.
  
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ClareR (5577 KP) rated Frankissstein in Books

Aug 6, 2019  
Frankissstein
Frankissstein
Jeanette Winterson | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A novel with a lot to think about!
I feel a sense of satisfaction having finished this book. I loved it, and I can really see why it has made the Booker Prize longlist (2019).
It is set in two different timelines. The first begins in 1816 with Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley (actually, before they were married), Lord Byron, Mary’s stepsister and Byron’s lover, Claire Clairmont and Polidori, Byron’s doctor. During a particularly wet two weeks on Lake Geneva, Byron sets them all the task of writing a horror story. And so Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is born.

In the modern day, we follow Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor, Victor Stein (a ‘mad’ scientist), Ron Lord (a very successful sexbot producer), Clare (a staunch Christian, who seems to be working undercover in the most unlikely places!) and Polly Dory (a journalist for Vanity Fair. Do you see what she did here? It took me a couple of ‘chapters’, sadly! This is the Frankenstein of the modern age. Where Mary Shelley was terrified at the idea of creating a living man from parts of the dead, Victor Stein in the present day wants to preserve the brains and thoughts of the dead - and it’s equally terrifying.

Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley are very similar (the same, but in different times?) characters, even though they are in two very different times. Mary is at the mercy of her female body - she falls pregnant and loses two babies before she has the third who survives. Ry is trying to change his body from female to male so that he has control over it. But society has very fixed ideas about these characters in both timelines.

It’s a very current book with mention of Brexit and Trump, but I think it will hold up well in the future because it is so well written, and it has a lot to say about society and gender.
I thoroughly enjoyed it - and now I’m going to go and find more books in Jeanette Wintersons back catalogue!

Many thanks to Penguin Random House/ Jonathan Cape and NetGalley for a copy of this book (which I actually went and bought as well - it needs to be sat on my bookshelf!)
  
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Kaz (232 KP) rated The Keeper Of Lost Things in Books

Jun 9, 2019  
The Keeper Of Lost Things
The Keeper Of Lost Things
Ruth Hogan | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.8 (18 Ratings)
Book Rating
Nice Writing, some believable characters (0 more)
Muddled plot, convenient ending (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
I thought that this book was generally good. The writing of this was, at times, beautiful and I think that the majority of the characters were likable and well formed. I think that Portia, Bomber's sister was rather cartoony and over exaggerated and I didn't really like her involvement in the story, it was a little bit too silly for me.

 I think the story line with Bomber was much more interesting and heart wrenching than the modern one. The idea of lost things, kind of fizzled out into something that was conventional, rather than having a more mysterious edge to it.

 I thought that the way the story lines in the present and the past were tied together, was rather flimsy and too convenient. I liked all of the characters in the present, but this story line was a little cheesy and a bit cliche ( it seems like every single woman that has a break up or a bad marriage gets a dog!)

Personally, I think it would have been better to get rid of the modern plot line all together and just have a book about Bomber and a separate book of the different short stories about the lost things, as I enjoyed reading them and felt they were the stronger points of the book.

Despite its problems, I enjoyed reading this book. It was a easy and quick read.