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The Fisher King (1991)
8.2
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Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Outlaw King (2018) in Movies
Jul 2, 2019
After more than eight years of war with King Edward I of England (Stephen Dillane) the Scottish Nobles swear allegiance to the crown, ending the brutal. This includes Robert Bruce (Chris Pine) who is one of two men in line to be King of Scots. But by pledging his loyalty to they agree to be under the supervision of the Earl of Pembroke, Aymer de Valence (Sam Spruell). Robert’s father, Robert Bruce Senior (James Cosmo), had pushed for the peace with England but when he dies and the younger Robert is in charge a new fight for independence seems eminent. When the last remaining outlaw, William Wallace, is killed by the English Robert knows the time to fight is now. He decides to meet with his rival for the crown, John Comyn (Callan Mulvey), to have a united Scotland fighting for freedom. When Comyn denies Robert’s request and tells him he will use the information to be named King by Edward I, Robert kills him. This proves costly as it divides the Scottish Lords. Robert is determined and will take a small group loyal to him and fight one of the largest and most feared armies in the world.
This film is based on historical events and follows Robert the Bruce in his guerilla warfare battle for independence against the English. The film definitely seemed to take some poetic license with the story, but overall it feels realistic. Set in the medieval Scotland this is both a gritty and beautifully shot film. The wide shots show the beautiful country and coasts of Scotland. Then the day to day life and the battle scenes are dirty and grimy. The film is a brutal as advertised not only in the battle scenes but also throughout the film. Director David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water, Starred Up) crafts a well thought out story that moves briskly along. I had a couple of issues with the CGI not being super realistic. One brutal scene where someone drawn and quartered, I’ll let you research that, and the body looks like a blob rather than a torso. There were also some awkward cut scenes that didn’t make sense to me. Really not making sense. The opening sequence of the film is done in one shot and might be one of the most impressively shot sequences I have seen in a movie in a long time. The performances are also really good. Billy Howie, Prince of Wales, is a good antagonist and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, James Douglas, is a marvelous madman protector of the Robert the Bruce.
I enjoyed this movie in the theater and think a Netflix view is going to be perfect. It is brutal so the faint of heart should be prepared to look away multiple times. It may get compared to another famous Scottish film from not too long ago and I think this is a nice update. But this is not that film, both in good and bad ways. I enjoyed my watching experience and will definitely catch it streaming on its release date.
This film is based on historical events and follows Robert the Bruce in his guerilla warfare battle for independence against the English. The film definitely seemed to take some poetic license with the story, but overall it feels realistic. Set in the medieval Scotland this is both a gritty and beautifully shot film. The wide shots show the beautiful country and coasts of Scotland. Then the day to day life and the battle scenes are dirty and grimy. The film is a brutal as advertised not only in the battle scenes but also throughout the film. Director David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water, Starred Up) crafts a well thought out story that moves briskly along. I had a couple of issues with the CGI not being super realistic. One brutal scene where someone drawn and quartered, I’ll let you research that, and the body looks like a blob rather than a torso. There were also some awkward cut scenes that didn’t make sense to me. Really not making sense. The opening sequence of the film is done in one shot and might be one of the most impressively shot sequences I have seen in a movie in a long time. The performances are also really good. Billy Howie, Prince of Wales, is a good antagonist and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, James Douglas, is a marvelous madman protector of the Robert the Bruce.
I enjoyed this movie in the theater and think a Netflix view is going to be perfect. It is brutal so the faint of heart should be prepared to look away multiple times. It may get compared to another famous Scottish film from not too long ago and I think this is a nice update. But this is not that film, both in good and bad ways. I enjoyed my watching experience and will definitely catch it streaming on its release date.
Ross (3282 KP) rated Empire of Grass: Book Two of the Last King of Osten Ard in Books
May 27, 2019
Better than the previous book, still *too* epic
*** I received an advance copy of this book from the publishers and NetGalley ***
The second book in The Last King of Osten Ard series is a continuation from The Witchwood Crown. There was no grand finale of that book, so this coming straight off the back of it seems natural.
Where the first book was all about bridging from the previous series to the new one, and setting up some of the plot to come, this one was allowed to get on with the job at hand. And boy does it - there is so much plot. We chop and change from one character's PoV to another. At times this is a little jarring as they don't tend to be closely linked. And at certain points, we are reunited with a character we haven't seen for 100 pages or so and frankly have forgotten what they were up to.
This massive cast of characters, and epic strands of plot which barely converge throughout the book, is something I don't take well to. I found this with John Gwynne's books and the same is true here - I find it quite hard to remember who is who. And it doesn't help that some of the characters are fairly interchangeable, having very similar backstories and positions in their respective houses.
Some of the plot is revealed as we go through the book, which keeps the reader guessing (why are they doing that, why are they going there etc). However the narrative style is a little towards the "describe everything"/Stephen King end of the spectrum, which can get tedious at times.
There are key points in this book where characters converge together and they are truly wonderful pieces to read and really engage the reader. However there are so many tiresome trudges through the forest, and a few too many times where people suddenly meet up at the right time to be rescued.
An epic fantasy tale in every sense of the word, and definitely something different to the current crop of writers in the genre. But a massive commitment is needed from the reader (I think of myself as a medium speed reader but this took me nearly 4 weeks to finish).
The second book in The Last King of Osten Ard series is a continuation from The Witchwood Crown. There was no grand finale of that book, so this coming straight off the back of it seems natural.
Where the first book was all about bridging from the previous series to the new one, and setting up some of the plot to come, this one was allowed to get on with the job at hand. And boy does it - there is so much plot. We chop and change from one character's PoV to another. At times this is a little jarring as they don't tend to be closely linked. And at certain points, we are reunited with a character we haven't seen for 100 pages or so and frankly have forgotten what they were up to.
This massive cast of characters, and epic strands of plot which barely converge throughout the book, is something I don't take well to. I found this with John Gwynne's books and the same is true here - I find it quite hard to remember who is who. And it doesn't help that some of the characters are fairly interchangeable, having very similar backstories and positions in their respective houses.
Some of the plot is revealed as we go through the book, which keeps the reader guessing (why are they doing that, why are they going there etc). However the narrative style is a little towards the "describe everything"/Stephen King end of the spectrum, which can get tedious at times.
There are key points in this book where characters converge together and they are truly wonderful pieces to read and really engage the reader. However there are so many tiresome trudges through the forest, and a few too many times where people suddenly meet up at the right time to be rescued.
An epic fantasy tale in every sense of the word, and definitely something different to the current crop of writers in the genre. But a massive commitment is needed from the reader (I think of myself as a medium speed reader but this took me nearly 4 weeks to finish).
I would rate this 3.5/5 stars.
I’ve never been able to find myself wanting to read Stephen King, and after a few attempts when I was younger to start one of his novels, I still couldn’t and so until this book I have never finished a Stephen King. I persevered through this one because it had been lent to me by a friend with a good review and I had watched the tv series based on it a few years ago.
The start of this novel was very slow and confused me in a few points (but I think that was intentional as our main character – Jake Epping – was also pretty confused at the same time). But because not much was happening, I kept putting the book down, distracted to do something else and really having to force myself to pick it back up. Once I managed to get to part 2, I found that I was much more interested in the story and the plot line and it wasn’t such a chore to make the time to read it. I then had a difficult time to put the book down, and most nights I was only putting it down because I was falling asleep in the middle of a sentence! I read the last quarter of the book in a day, because I just wanted to know what was going to happen and whether he was going to be able to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Overall, I found the concept very interesting and not just the time travel. I found the concept of the past not wanting to be changed and actively trying to stop someone from changing it interesting, and sometimes it was quite comical the amount of things that went wrong when Jake was trying to change the past. I did, however, find the ending very disappointing. It felt like it was starting to be set up for a different ending and then at the last minute the author decided to change it completely. It just didn’t seem to fit with the set up of the last chapter or so, but I can see why it was done and that the ending that was being set up wouldn’t work in terms of not changing the past.
A very interesting read, but with a disappointing ending, but I would still recommend it!
I’ve never been able to find myself wanting to read Stephen King, and after a few attempts when I was younger to start one of his novels, I still couldn’t and so until this book I have never finished a Stephen King. I persevered through this one because it had been lent to me by a friend with a good review and I had watched the tv series based on it a few years ago.
The start of this novel was very slow and confused me in a few points (but I think that was intentional as our main character – Jake Epping – was also pretty confused at the same time). But because not much was happening, I kept putting the book down, distracted to do something else and really having to force myself to pick it back up. Once I managed to get to part 2, I found that I was much more interested in the story and the plot line and it wasn’t such a chore to make the time to read it. I then had a difficult time to put the book down, and most nights I was only putting it down because I was falling asleep in the middle of a sentence! I read the last quarter of the book in a day, because I just wanted to know what was going to happen and whether he was going to be able to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Overall, I found the concept very interesting and not just the time travel. I found the concept of the past not wanting to be changed and actively trying to stop someone from changing it interesting, and sometimes it was quite comical the amount of things that went wrong when Jake was trying to change the past. I did, however, find the ending very disappointing. It felt like it was starting to be set up for a different ending and then at the last minute the author decided to change it completely. It just didn’t seem to fit with the set up of the last chapter or so, but I can see why it was done and that the ending that was being set up wouldn’t work in terms of not changing the past.
A very interesting read, but with a disappointing ending, but I would still recommend it!
Hairpin Bridge
8.0
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Looking for a thriller that you can’t put down? Then try this book that everyone’s talking...
Paul Hollywood: The Biography
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