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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

2016 | Comedy, Horror, Romance

6.8

(17 Ratings)

Movie Rating

As a fan of the Pride and Prejudice book by Jane Austen, I thought it was all kinds of wrong when I came across the parody novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith, that essentially Austen’s classic novel with elements of modern zombie fiction. Mainly because I’m not a fan of horror movies. So as we approached the theater where we were screening Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I told my husband, “I really don’t want to watch this. I hate zombies.” He just laughed. “You hate zombies, but you watch Walking Dead. Just pretend it’s an episode of Walking dead. Just set near the Victorian era.” I admit, I do watch the Walking Dead but it’s the most stressful hour of television for me, and there are commercial breaks. This movie has a running time for this move was almost 2 hrs with no commercials.

But the movie got a giggle out of me in the first 5 minutes. And of course it made me gasp not long after. But Walking Dead has trained me well, and it wasn’t too long ago that I watched Hateful Eight, so I think I’m quite desensitized to blood and gore now, and in comparison, PPZ was relatively mild in that regard. It also had enough of the elements of the original story that fighting zombies actually became an entertaining digression. You know – beautiful young ladies, dashing young men, ballroom dancing, budding romance, zombie attack.

“To succeed in polite society, a young woman must be many things. Kind… well-read… and accomplished. But to survive in the world as WE know it, you’ll need… other qualities.” Those qualities include being skilled in the martial arts and weapons training, while wearing a corset –essentially making them Regency era bad-asses.

Because I don’t watch Downton Abbey, the last time I saw Lily James, who plays Elizabeth Bennett, she was brilliantly blond and sweetly keeping her promise to her mother to “have courage and be kind.” as Cinderella. In PPZ, she’s a fierce brunette who doesn’t take too kindly to Fitzwilliam Darcy, played by a sullen and haughty Sam Riley – another Disney alum, last seen as Diaval, Maleficent’s companion raven.

Where the Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy is won over by Elizbeth’s charm and wit, PPZ’s Darcy is slowly won over by Elizabeth’s aggressive and bold battle skills. Adding the alternate history of how zombies came to be a part of Regency era England hurried the story along, so the romantic developments felt a bit rushed, but Riley’s Darcy was quite believable in his reluctant but growing admiration of Elizabeth.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie, zombies and all. When you can get guys to cheer for some undead’s head getting blown off, and still make the ladies sigh for the romance, you have a pretty perfect date movie. It may very well be my favorite period costume romantic zombie action film.

Kudos

ClareR (6256 KP) rated The Pumilio Child in Books

Apr 6, 2018

The Pumilio Child

Judy McInerney | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Ya Ling is kidnapped from her well-off Chinese family and sold in to slavery in 15th century Italy. Mantegna, a Renaissance artist, buys her with money that he can't really afford to spend, and takes her home to a very disapproving wife and household.
Ya Ling is admirable calm and stoic through all of her trials and tribulations, and eventually work as a respected healer, as her family taught her back in China.
The author really makes you feel for the characters in her novel - pity and later pride for Ya Ling, and hatred for some of the less virtuous male characters. It's a book that reflects the times very well: men, and men in the church especially, hold all the cards. Women are held in very low esteem. And women who are in any way different from the accepted norms are in danger of the ecclesiastical courts.
I read this on 'The Pigeonhole', a social reading platform, and really enjoyed the whole experience.

Kudos

Jennifer Daniell (108 KP) rated The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek in Books

Jun 9, 2019

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

Kim Michele Richardson | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

10.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

I LOVED this book.

Nicknamed Bluet due to her blue skin, Cussy Mary has been an outcast her whole life. Deep in Kentucky, Blue skinned people are looked down upon as tainted, unholy, second class citizens. Now 19, her coal mining father wants nothing more for her than to settle down with a husband and have a family like a decent woman should but she has found her place - as a Book Woman, riding the trails delivering books to the Hill folk, who can't or won't get an education otherwise. Through the books and magazines she delivers she is making a difference in the lives of her patrons, and they are making a difference in hers, giving her a sense of pride an income, and a community. But not everyone is accepting of her as a Blue, and she is increasingly more threatened by the local Preacher, who is determined to "save" her.