St Petersburg: Three Centuries of Murderous Desire
Book
'This extraordinary book brings to life an astonishing place. Beautiful prose renders brutality...
Prague Pictures: Portraits of a City
Book
The fourth book in Bloomsbury's Writer and the City series. Prague is the magic capital of Europe....
Sunwheels and Siegrunen: Wiking, Nordland, Nederland and the Germanic Waffen-SS in Photographs: Volume 1
Book
Western European collaboration with the Germans is still misunderstood, nearly 70 years after the...
The Great Disruption: How the Climate Crisis Will Transform the Global Economy
Book
It's time to stop just worrying about climate change, says Paul Gilding. Instead we need to brace...
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Scanners (1981) in Movies
Sep 7, 2020
The plot: Scanners are men and women born with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. There are many who exercise the benefits of their special gifts in a safe and judicious manner. However, there is a group of renegade scanners who plan to create a race that will rule the world.
In the film, "scanners" are people with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems, searches out scanners to use them for its own purposes. The film's plot concerns the attempt by Darryl Revok (Ironside), a renegade scanner, to wage a war against ConSec. Another scanner, Cameron Vale (Lack), is dispatched by ConSec to stop Revok.
Writer and director David Cronenberg has called Scanners one of his most difficult films to make, citing an incomplete script when the shooting schedule commenced, as well as a lack of constructed sets.
The iconic head explosion scene was the product of trial and error, eventually settling on a plaster skull and a gelatin exterior packed with "latex scraps, some wax, and just bits and bobs and a lot of stringy stuff that we figured would fly through the air a little better" as well as "leftover burgers." When other explosive techniques failed to give the desired effect, special effects supervisor Gary Zeller told the crew to roll cameras and get inside the trucks with doors and windows closed; he then lay down behind the dummy and shot it in the back of the head with a shotgun.
Michael Ironside is a excellent job as the villian.
Its a excellent sci-fi body horror film.
Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine
Book
The momentous new book from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag and Iron Curtain. In...
History Politics
Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife
Book
German cinema of the Third Reich, even a half-century after Hitler's demise, still provokes extreme...
The Jesus Man
8.0
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Book
It is 2037. Radicals in the Middle East have done the unthinkable. Low-yield nuclear weapons have...
The Boy in the Attic (Wartime Holland Book 3)
7.0
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Anna opened the letter with trembling hands. ‘My darling, if you’re reading this, I haven’t...
Merissa (12723 KP) rated Winterian Sky (Ninety Planets) in Books
Nov 6, 2023
Chesterfield is the lone scientist dedicated to finding a cure. Danacio is a Guard of Winterian, prepared to lay down his life for his planet. Together, these two go on a journey to figure out where the virus originated from and how to cure it. They meet a brilliant couple who have suffered their own losses, just as determined as Chesterfield to find the answers and the cure.
This is a fast-paced book that will keep you turning the pages. All of the characters are well-rounded and I loved how they all worked together, meshing with purpose. As the first book in a new series, there is world-building but also worlds-building. You get an idea of the Alliance and the things they stand for. I can't wait to read more in this series, and I'm seriously hoping for an update on Winterian and how their war is going on.
Love plays a big role in this story - whether it is familial love or romantic. There are moments of closeness between our two MCs but it is closed-door/fade-to-black which worked perfectly in this story.
A great read that I thoroughly enjoyed and I can't wait to return to the Ninety Planets!
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Nov 6, 2023