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Steven Yeun recommended Mulholland Drive (2001) in Movies (curated)
Steven Yeun recommended Being John Malkovich (1999) in Movies (curated)
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2069 KP) rated The Stolen Chapters (Story Thieves, #2) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
When Owen and Kiel wake up, they are in the library with no memory of how they got there or even what happened in the last couple of weeks. Then someone in a mask shows up to announce that their friend Bethany is in danger, and if they don’t rescue her in the next couple of hours, they will never see her again. Then he sets the library on fire and calls the police on them. Can Owen and Kiel find Bethany, figure out who the villain is, and stop him?
This is the second in a series, and you don’t want to start here if you haven’t read the first. However, once you’ve read the first, you’ll absolutely love this book. There are lots of laughs and fun and surprises along the way, including a fantastic cameo by a character I grew up with. The book gets very meta, but just go with it because it is a ton of fun.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2016/08/book-review-stolen-chapters-by-james.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
This is the second in a series, and you don’t want to start here if you haven’t read the first. However, once you’ve read the first, you’ll absolutely love this book. There are lots of laughs and fun and surprises along the way, including a fantastic cameo by a character I grew up with. The book gets very meta, but just go with it because it is a ton of fun.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2016/08/book-review-stolen-chapters-by-james.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated The Dead Don't Die (2019) in Movies
Jun 20, 2020
I'm a little sad to say that I spent real money on this film. It wasn't showing at my Cineworld and the chance of a second stage release with the summer holidays approaching was unlikely. Luckily one of my Showcase Cinemas had it on and I ventured out into the real world to see it.
I won't bother with an extended synopsis because honestly I don't know what the point would be... it's zombies, everyone is trying to stay alive, literally nothing else is really happening in the story.
Up until this point I never really understood people using the word "meta" (unless it was DC related), I get it now. Officer Peterson, played by Adam Driver, is so meta that there actually may not be any more to go around.
The cast felt like it was just quirky enough to work together, especially as this wasn't going to be a traditional zombie movie. Looking back at the actors now I'm wondering if I might have enjoyed this movie more if it had unknown actors in it. I don't think it would have risen much higher in the rankings but I would have been less annoyed by some of the happenings.
Bill Murray plays Chief Robertson, a man who is seemingly always slightly confused by everything and also never becomes more than mildly alarmed by what's going on. The character and the performance were both rather boring. Murray came alive about as much as any of the zombies did.
The same can be said for Adam Driver, though I actually think that's par for the course with the way he acts rather than anything else. He always feels like mid-tier Keanu Reeves without the range. Once you realise that Peterson has the meta inside track it becomes a challenge to see anything he says in any other way. The script became rather frustrating because of this.
We're shown a very strange Tilda Swinton in the trailer and you have to wonder if the make-up direction was just "I want her to be the palest she's ever been and throw in a little "Ring" vibe for good measure." Zelda is probably the perfect zombie apocalypse companion, but she doesn't make for very dynamic viewing.
All of this negative feeling can be laid squarely at the script's door. It has little of interest to warrant a story at all, which is weird because there are elements that you think lead somewhere and then inexplicably don't. The ending is particularly bad and is what I've dubbed the "Stephen King ending". I won't expand on that here because it definitely constitutes spoilers if you haven't seen it.
There are some nice touches. The animal behaviour, the character of Mallory, and some of the effects on Selena Gomez. There's also some that left me questioning how they've portrayed zombies in this compared to other z-movies, but it's not in the trailer and while it's in my notes I'm wondering if I didn't just imagine the whole thing.
Those few little snippets can't save this movie. The poor script has several (that's me being generous) holes in it that just don't stand up when you look closely, and it's not good enough to give you anything else to look at apart from those holes. From its "maybe sciency things will cover the lack of reasoning" beginning to the "Stephen King ending" I was very disappointed.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-dead-dont-die-movie-review.html
I won't bother with an extended synopsis because honestly I don't know what the point would be... it's zombies, everyone is trying to stay alive, literally nothing else is really happening in the story.
Up until this point I never really understood people using the word "meta" (unless it was DC related), I get it now. Officer Peterson, played by Adam Driver, is so meta that there actually may not be any more to go around.
The cast felt like it was just quirky enough to work together, especially as this wasn't going to be a traditional zombie movie. Looking back at the actors now I'm wondering if I might have enjoyed this movie more if it had unknown actors in it. I don't think it would have risen much higher in the rankings but I would have been less annoyed by some of the happenings.
Bill Murray plays Chief Robertson, a man who is seemingly always slightly confused by everything and also never becomes more than mildly alarmed by what's going on. The character and the performance were both rather boring. Murray came alive about as much as any of the zombies did.
The same can be said for Adam Driver, though I actually think that's par for the course with the way he acts rather than anything else. He always feels like mid-tier Keanu Reeves without the range. Once you realise that Peterson has the meta inside track it becomes a challenge to see anything he says in any other way. The script became rather frustrating because of this.
We're shown a very strange Tilda Swinton in the trailer and you have to wonder if the make-up direction was just "I want her to be the palest she's ever been and throw in a little "Ring" vibe for good measure." Zelda is probably the perfect zombie apocalypse companion, but she doesn't make for very dynamic viewing.
All of this negative feeling can be laid squarely at the script's door. It has little of interest to warrant a story at all, which is weird because there are elements that you think lead somewhere and then inexplicably don't. The ending is particularly bad and is what I've dubbed the "Stephen King ending". I won't expand on that here because it definitely constitutes spoilers if you haven't seen it.
There are some nice touches. The animal behaviour, the character of Mallory, and some of the effects on Selena Gomez. There's also some that left me questioning how they've portrayed zombies in this compared to other z-movies, but it's not in the trailer and while it's in my notes I'm wondering if I didn't just imagine the whole thing.
Those few little snippets can't save this movie. The poor script has several (that's me being generous) holes in it that just don't stand up when you look closely, and it's not good enough to give you anything else to look at apart from those holes. From its "maybe sciency things will cover the lack of reasoning" beginning to the "Stephen King ending" I was very disappointed.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-dead-dont-die-movie-review.html
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2069 KP) rated Worlds Apart in Books
Apr 9, 2018
I Can’t Imagine the Possibility of Fans Being Disappointed by this Book
With the fictional and non-fictional worlds now separate, Owen finds he has lost his imagination, not that he can imagine how that would be a problem. However, when Kara shows up and takes him 5 years into the future, he sees how things have devolved. Meanwhile, Bethany’s fictional half is enjoying her new life until her father is shot by a mysterious ray gun. What is Nobody’s plan doing? Can Owen and Bethany stop him?
If this isn’t making sense to you, don’t jump in here. This is the final book in the series, and it builds on everything that came before it. However, fans who have read the previous four books in the series will be delighted. We get another wild, fast paced ride. Almost all the characters we’ve met along the way are back for this book as well, and I loved seeing them all again. The climax is wonderful and wraps up the series well. Along with the fun and some meta laughs, we get some interesting thoughts on the importance of both imagination and reality.
If this isn’t making sense to you, don’t jump in here. This is the final book in the series, and it builds on everything that came before it. However, fans who have read the previous four books in the series will be delighted. We get another wild, fast paced ride. Almost all the characters we’ve met along the way are back for this book as well, and I loved seeing them all again. The climax is wonderful and wraps up the series well. Along with the fun and some meta laughs, we get some interesting thoughts on the importance of both imagination and reality.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) in Movies
Apr 23, 2019 (Updated Apr 23, 2019)
Marvel #11 admirably resists the temptation to simply provide more of the same crash-bang-wallop and has a go at a story with more of a focus on character and ideas (it still includes a lot of very familiar crash-bang-wallop, naturally). This being a Marvel Comics story, two of the world's most brilliant minds decide it is a very good idea to use an alien weapon of unknown provenance to create an immensely powerful global defence system; everyone is still highly surprised when this goes wrong and spawns genocidal robot Ultron. Just another day at the office if you're in the Avengers, I suppose.
The usual supremely accomplished blend of lavish set-pieces, character bits and jokes; with nine Avengers on the roster for the climax of the story, plus various supporting turns, you can almost feel Joss Whedon's script and direction buckling under the pressure of fitting everything in, to say nothing of the various bits of meta-plot carpentry required to set up the next batch of films. Nevertheless, a film which meets all reasonable expectations - even if it isn't one of Marvel's absolute first rank, it's still within touching distance.
The usual supremely accomplished blend of lavish set-pieces, character bits and jokes; with nine Avengers on the roster for the climax of the story, plus various supporting turns, you can almost feel Joss Whedon's script and direction buckling under the pressure of fitting everything in, to say nothing of the various bits of meta-plot carpentry required to set up the next batch of films. Nevertheless, a film which meets all reasonable expectations - even if it isn't one of Marvel's absolute first rank, it's still within touching distance.
Red Otter (340 KP) rated Terraforming Mars in Tabletop Games
Jun 1, 2019
Terraforming Mars is one of the current hallmarks of today's tabletop gaming. It's based around building an engine to turn Mars into a livable land using cards. As a sci-fi lover, its theme is fantastic. Its art.... Is mostly stock pictures, which doesn't bother me too much, but could be a nitpick for other folks. It's component quality is okay, but the player boards, thanks to the squares that are your primary tokens/markers, can easily be bumped and ruin your board. I highly recommend getting 3rd party player boards that have recesses to solve this problem.
Every turn, every player draws cards and decides which ones they want to keep. Then use resources to either terraform mars or improve their engine using cards. The game length can be highly dependent on group. I've talked to people who have games last up to four hours as people focus solely on engines versus terraforming Mars actually. My personal meta has it around 1.5 hours (with expansions). The early game can be very slow and sometimes you just never draw the cards you need for your planned engines.
Still though, I love this game for its heavy emphasis on theme and on how good a powerful engine can be.
Every turn, every player draws cards and decides which ones they want to keep. Then use resources to either terraform mars or improve their engine using cards. The game length can be highly dependent on group. I've talked to people who have games last up to four hours as people focus solely on engines versus terraforming Mars actually. My personal meta has it around 1.5 hours (with expansions). The early game can be very slow and sometimes you just never draw the cards you need for your planned engines.
Still though, I love this game for its heavy emphasis on theme and on how good a powerful engine can be.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) in Movies
Jan 2, 2019
It seems only appropriate to close out the year which saw the passing of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko with a film celebrating their most successful creation; the result is a movie which appears to be under-performing at the box office simply because it's animated (a regrettable prejudice which I sometimes suffer from myself). On one level this is yet another Spider-Man origin story, the novelty value comes from the fact that the Spider-Man in question is the Ultimate version (Miles Morales) and the plot involves a hole being blown in the universe and numerous other Spider-People from parallel worlds being sucked through. Some of these are very weird.
Rock-solid storytelling, huge visual imagination and some very good jokes come together to make a film which works really well on virtually every level; there's perhaps not enough of the Nicolas Cage Spider-Man but you can't have everything. Not sure where they're going to go with the sequel (the novelty value of this film makes it a tough act to follow) but it does at least suggest possibilities for a meta-franchise based just on Spider-Man. A worthy and touching tribute to Stan and Steve.
Rock-solid storytelling, huge visual imagination and some very good jokes come together to make a film which works really well on virtually every level; there's perhaps not enough of the Nicolas Cage Spider-Man but you can't have everything. Not sure where they're going to go with the sequel (the novelty value of this film makes it a tough act to follow) but it does at least suggest possibilities for a meta-franchise based just on Spider-Man. A worthy and touching tribute to Stan and Steve.
David McK (3188 KP) rated The Last Camel Died at Noon (Amelia Peabody, #6) in Books
Jan 30, 2019
Book number 6 in Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody (think female Victorian Indiana Jones) series, which sees Amelia, her husband Radcliffe and son Ramses back in the dusty climes of Egypt following their adventures in the previous ([b: The Deeds of the Disturber|32139|The Deeds of the Disturber (Amelia Peabody, #5)|Elizabeth Peters|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388887764s/32139.jpg|2176252]).
I have to say, though, that the plot of this one is more-than-slightly reminiscent of [a: H Rider Haggard|4633123|H. Rider Haggard|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1298296700p2/4633123.jpg]'s [b: King Solomon's Mines|108914|In Search of King Solomon's Mines|Tahir Shah|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348655880s/108914.jpg|4188], pretty much just swapping the African setting and characters of that novel for the dusty climes of Egypt - a similarity that Emerson, in a bit of meta-fiction, himself complains about.
Throw in a dash of [b: She|5203|She's Come Undone|Wally Lamb|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408313457s/5203.jpg|1003370] (also by H Rider Haggard) with a soupcon of intrigue and more entertaining byplay between the Emerson's (with Ramses his usual precocious self), and the result is another entertaining read in the series.
I have to say, though, that the plot of this one is more-than-slightly reminiscent of [a: H Rider Haggard|4633123|H. Rider Haggard|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1298296700p2/4633123.jpg]'s [b: King Solomon's Mines|108914|In Search of King Solomon's Mines|Tahir Shah|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348655880s/108914.jpg|4188], pretty much just swapping the African setting and characters of that novel for the dusty climes of Egypt - a similarity that Emerson, in a bit of meta-fiction, himself complains about.
Throw in a dash of [b: She|5203|She's Come Undone|Wally Lamb|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408313457s/5203.jpg|1003370] (also by H Rider Haggard) with a soupcon of intrigue and more entertaining byplay between the Emerson's (with Ramses his usual precocious self), and the result is another entertaining read in the series.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Mummy (2017) in Movies
Feb 11, 2018 (Updated Feb 11, 2018)
Oh, Mummy.
Laborious attempt by Universal to grab a slice of Marvel's meta-franchise pie by launching a series of fantasy blockbusters based on their stable of famous monster characters. Tom Cruise plays an annoying mercenary who catches the eye of an ancient and evil supernatural creature unearthed in Iraq.
There's a good reason why sensible studios don't try to make horror blockbusters, and especially horror blockbusters starring Tom Cruise - every time the film starts to be effectively creepy or atmospheric, along comes a CGI-enhanced chase sequence, or Tom Cruise doing that smirk, or some other manifestation of corporate blandness. Isn't Tom Cruise too old for this sort of thing? Watching him flirting with a considerably younger actress is by far the creepiest thing in the movie, and he seems quite incapable of the moral ambiguity the part probably requires - Russell Crowe, in the Samuel L Jackson plot-device-character role, acts him off the screen.
You scratch your head wondering how this thing is supposed to work - are all the monsters going to team up together? And do what, exactly? No-one seems to have thought this through. It's much more of a zombie movie than one about an actual mummy, anyway. The depiction of the one-way system in Oxford City Centre is also very misleading; I nearly knocked off a point because of it.
There's a good reason why sensible studios don't try to make horror blockbusters, and especially horror blockbusters starring Tom Cruise - every time the film starts to be effectively creepy or atmospheric, along comes a CGI-enhanced chase sequence, or Tom Cruise doing that smirk, or some other manifestation of corporate blandness. Isn't Tom Cruise too old for this sort of thing? Watching him flirting with a considerably younger actress is by far the creepiest thing in the movie, and he seems quite incapable of the moral ambiguity the part probably requires - Russell Crowe, in the Samuel L Jackson plot-device-character role, acts him off the screen.
You scratch your head wondering how this thing is supposed to work - are all the monsters going to team up together? And do what, exactly? No-one seems to have thought this through. It's much more of a zombie movie than one about an actual mummy, anyway. The depiction of the one-way system in Oxford City Centre is also very misleading; I nearly knocked off a point because of it.