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Otway93 (580 KP) rated Night of the Living Dead (1968) in Movies

Oct 1, 2022  
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
1968 | Horror
9
8.5 (54 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Acting (4 more)
Soundtrack
Characters
Ending
Genuinely Frightening
Fight Scenes (0 more)
Almost the perfect horror movie!
This film is basically a horror masterpiece, with it's only downside being some of the worst movie punches I've ever seen near the ending. These are barely worth mentioning but this is the only downside I could find apart from all the clichés, which this movie invented anyway, so you can hardly count that against it!

The story is of course typical, but with a little bit of a science-fiction element I wasn't aware of, so that was a nice surprise! But it is worth mentioning the small, enclosed setting which makes the film all that much scarier and makes it a genuinely frightening movie.

All of the actors played their parts to perfection, and the perfect blend of different character traits among the 6 main characters provides the film with another layer of horror.




The soundtrack is beautiful. An unusual score consisting of strings, horns and synthesisers, all at different times. It is reminiscent of 1950s and early 1960s Kaiju films.

Finally, the ending. The ending is a masterpiece, and certainly not the typical zombie ending. I'll leave it there to leave the "surprise" intact.

Overall, apart from the aforementioned punches, a total masterpiece, and I can't wait to watch Dawn of the Dead when it arrives!

P.S. The original quality of the film is quite poor, but the 4K remaster is stunning, so I definitely recommend the Criterion Collection 4K remaster as the film quality is dramatically improved.
  
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Becs (244 KP) rated Ready Player One in Books

Oct 2, 2019  
Ready Player One
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry
7
8.9 (161 Ratings)
Book Rating
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy

Audience: Young Adult

Reading level: High School +

Interests: science fiction, fantasy, video games, 80’s

Style: Sci-Fi

Point of view: First person.

Difficulty reading: It started off great and I flew through the first half of the book. It’s towards the 55%-75% mark that was a bore for me. But the ending was great!

Promise: Dystopian Sci-Fi video game world

Quality: Minus the 20% that was pretty darn boring and long, the book as a whole was a great read.

Insights: I’m not a huge gaming geek, so without Cline explaining half the time what these gaming terms are, I’d be as lost as a pig in a supermarket. For that, I thank him. It was nice seeing a Dystopian world set in the future that was still in our lifetime. I have never read anything like that – cool to see how Cline wrote it.

Ah-Ha Moment: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Okay, I knew Aech was hiding something. But I could not figure out what it was for the life of me. But when Aech and Parzival first met, in real life, face to face, I WAS NOT EXPECTING him to actually be a ‘her’.

This was me:

Favorite Quotes: “Going outside is highly overrated.” – Yea, I feel ya too. I just want to stay in and read all day every day. Who needs a job, who needs to eat, all we need are books. Am I right?

“You’d be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever.” – I mean, you’re not wrong.

“One person can keep a secret, but not two.” – Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets hurt someone.

Aesthetics: The whole book is an 80’s aesthetic that I love. Plus, it gives a brief inside scoop on the whole “if we don’t care for the planet now, there will be nothing in the future” debate. Which is true, we should care for the planet more than what we do now. I mean we only live on Earth just as much as everybody else. The copy of Ready Player One that I have, is a 2015 Special Edition copy – I love the cover on it.

“People are more than just the way they look.”
  
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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Slow Bullets in Books

Nov 25, 2019  
Slow Bullets
Slow Bullets
Alastair Reynolds | 2015 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I have been a fan of Alastair Reynolds since I picked up a copy of Revelation Space when it was first published. He is the master of telling stories that span solar systems while still maintaining a human perspective via his characters.

The set up is interesting and simple, at least in summary. A ship carrying soldiers, mostly war criminals of one sort or another, following a ceasefire malfunctions and they are awoken from hibernation much later than they expected. Almost immediately the the rivalries from the war become apparent again and it is up to Scur to put herself in the position of ensuring that they can at least survive without killing each other for a war long since finished.

The story is told from Scur's point of view as she effectively writes her memoir - and confessional - as she comes to the end of her life. Reynolds entwines several threads effortlessly producing some good dramatic moments and plot twists. The changes of direction are not so much surprising as they occur but the direction they go in.

Apart from the expected divisions between the different sides of the army and the civilians on the ship Scur needs to worry about where the advanced civilization that existed before the war has gone, the slow deterioration of the ship, the potential for a religious war and a war criminal which she would very much like to exact revenge upon, all played out in the pressure cooker environment of the ship.

The result is a tight story with plenty of action interspersed with serious considerations about society, justice and religion and how they interplay. Like any of Reynold's work the particular universe this story inhabits - as far as can be discerned this is not related to any other novel or short story - arrives fully formed and with perceptible depth and history, hinting at other stories that might be told elsewhere.

For one of Reynolds' stories there isn't much science and it doesn't stick to physical limits - faster than light travel and communications are both possible but not really explored in detail. But the focus is entirely on the individuals involved with the setting just a backdrop for them to play out the story in front of.

Overall a thoroughly good read and one I would recommend to anyone who likes their science fiction up close and personal.

Rating: Some violent scenes and bad language