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David McK (3600 KP) rated Angels and Demons in Books

Jul 4, 2021

Angels and Demons

Dan Brown | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry

7.7

(64 Ratings)

Book Rating

First published back at the turn of the century (in the year 2000), this - while the second of the two Tom Hanks starring Robert Langdon movies, after The Da Vinci Code - is actually the first book in that particular series, albeit less well known than its sequel (the aforementioned The Da Vinci Code).

And, like, I'm sure, many others, I actually read that sequel first, only later discovering it was such (although, admittedly, not a direct sequel) and going back to read the first on the series.

This is the one largely set in and around Rome, with a high-tech ticking time-bomb counting down in Vatican City as the Cardinals all meet to elect a new Pope following the death of the previous incumbent of that role. It also makes lots of the (supposed?) divide between religion and science, drawing on lots of conspiracy theories and bringing back into the realms of popular culture that old secret society, the illuminati.

I have no problem with any of that, and I do like a bit of derring-do, mystery and romance, but even I found it hard at times to swallow some of the outlandish scenarios and set pieces of this novel - I think, for me, the icing on the cake was the surviving-a-jump-out-of-a-helicopter-without-a-parachute bit towards the end!

Kudos

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Contagion (2011) in Movies

Sep 21, 2020 (Updated Nov 26, 2020)

Contagion (2011)

2011 | Drama

7.2

(19 Ratings)

Movie Rating

"𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥!"
Totally unrealistic, not even a *single* scene where someone buys out all the toilet paper. In all seriousness, it's interesting to kick this around in terms of the current pandemic really only until this starts to take form of a narrative movie (a fucking bingo drawing for who gets the first vaccines? lmfao) rather than a "what if?" scenario - but it's never any less measured or just plain fun. Soderbergh's sickly, medical-esque digital palette coats a befitting film over a story with absolutely no regard for the sanctity of human life. I wish it retained most of the pure penchant for schadenfreude it did in its first hour before turning toward a more traditional route - characters being viciously snuffed out one after another without warning, paranoia cranked up to 11 (bystanders are the enemy, air is the enemy) but even still it does have a giddy love for the cruelty of dragging this world and its inhabitants through the wringer. Sacrifices depth for pure pacing perfection (favorably, might I add) in what is essentially a seamless series of montages that boast the same kind of uninterrupted inertia of (lesser) films such as 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦. And what a bitchin' score, no? Could have ended with more vigor, but very much succeeds as the business-casual 𝘊𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘯 𝘍𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳.