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David McK (3562 KP) rated Terminator Omnibus Volume 1 in Books

Jan 30, 2019

I was going to start this by typing out the heavy-bass Terminator intro music, then realised I couldn't quite get it to sound right!

This is a collection of stories released early 90's, after Terminator 2 but before any of the newer entries in the franchise (T3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation or Terminator: Genisys), so do show their age a bit.

They all also pretty much follow the same template - a group from the future sent back in time, with Terminator's following or already having been sent back, and then a protracted chase followed by a shoot-out - with the artwork varying between the differing authors/artists.

As a compilation, some of the stories are better than others: my pick for the best, probably, would be the story entitled 'One Shot', which seems to mirror the first film.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The King in Yellow in Books

Aug 12, 2019 (Updated Aug 12, 2019)

The King in Yellow

Robert W. Chambers | 1895 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Romance

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Much-mentioned but seemingly little-read collection of short stories by Robert Chambers. The anthology owes most of its fame to the fact that HP Lovecraft was sufficiently impressed by some of the stories to retroactively incorporate them into his own mythology, something Lovecraft's disciples built upon with more energy than finesse.

The best of these stories do have a sense of subliminal encroaching madness and unease, as symbolised by the mysterious play mentioned in the title and its associated motifs, which is very impressively created. However, much of the remainder is a set of essentially interchangeable tales of rich young Americans studying art in Paris and swooning over beautiful young mademoiselles; they are quite heavy going and possibly not worth the effort of reading. The opening few fantasy stories are very good, on the whole; the rest not so much.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Tell It to the Bees (2019) in Movies

Jul 24, 2019 (Updated Jul 25, 2019)

Tell It to the Bees (2019)

2019 | Drama, Romance

6.5

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Well-staged hats-and-ciggies period drama struggles to find anything new to say, or indeed to surprise or engage in any way. Much-put-upon single mum (Grainger) meets newly-arrived town doctor (Paquin) in a laborious cute-meet; what follows you can probably write for yourself, with the exception of a really weird climax involving bees (the bees are a sort of motif throughout, but it's still weird).

Reasonably good acting, although Paquin's attempt at a Scottish accent is not particularly easy on the ear. The problem is that the film is deeply predictable and not especially subtle (the girl-on-girl stuff is classily handled, though). I found it quite heavy going; the bit with the magic bees is a genuine 'You WHAT?' moment bafflingly at odds with the dour realism of much of the rest of the film.