The Last Word
Book
If there is such a thing as reason, it has to be universal - it must work the same way for everyone....
Men and Apparitions
Book
The time is now, and Ezekiel Hooper Stark is thirty-eight. He’s a cultural anthropologist, an...
KyleQ (267 KP) rated Halloween Ends (2022) in Movies
Apr 2, 2023
Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is trying to move on, along with Allyson (Andi Matichak), but Michael Myers still lurks in the shadows.
Halloween Ends is overall a mixed bag, but I was surprised that I mostly enjoyed it.
Rohan Campbell is great in his role, and Matichak gives her best performance.
The film has a darker more serious tone, I loved it.
Now for the downsides.
Laurie was annoying, her dumb, philosophical narrations are cringe-inducing, and she does little throughout the film.
Michael is practically pointless. He's shown as weak, and helpless.
The final moments with Michael are a letdown, the last 20 minutes or so are dull and disappointing.
Honestly, Halloween Ends would've worked way better as an original horror film centered around Corey,
All the throwbacks to the franchise and the final fight between Michael and Laurie felt tired and spiritless.
Worth a watch, but definitely not perfect.
David McK (3369 KP) rated The Matrix Resurrections (2021) in Movies
Feb 9, 2022 (Updated Oct 1, 2023)
Pre Millennium.
Just at the start of our current high-tech always-on society.
And The Matrix was released, becoming hugely influential in the process and popularising the concept of 'bullet time'.
Both the sequels (Reloaded and Revolutions) were released during 'the year of the Matrix' in 2003, doubling down on the philosophical ponderings of the first movie (in particular, during Reloaded, with the whole still-to-this-day confusing Architect scenes), with Revolutions also seemingly leaving the trilogy with nowhere to go.
Until nearly 20 years later, when one of the two Wachowski siblings decided to resurrect both Neo and Trinity in this.
I's very much a film of two halves, with the first half in particular hugely self-referential (lots of nods and winks to the audience, and even clips from the earlier films shown on TV screens within the movie), while the second half settles down more into your standard action fare.
Whilst enjoyable enough, it lacks anything to match the sheer pizzaz of the first movie, or even the Freeway chase/burly brawl/chateau fight from the second or the Neo Vs Smith showdown in the third.
Rise of The Unicorn
Book
Augustus 'Gus' Martin is an embattled LAPD negotiator. Months after suffering a significant blow to...
Mystery Suspense Thriller Psychological Fiction African-American Mystery
Kelsey (2 KP) rated On a Pale Horse (Incarnations of Immortality Book 1) in Books
Oct 25, 2017
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Regarding the Pain of Others in Books
Nov 8, 2017 (Updated Nov 8, 2017)
Sontag's earlier "On Photography" is justifiably regarded as a classic. This book is promoted as revising some of its more important arguments. Like the earlier book this is mainly a summary of points with which most teachers, and students, in this area are likely to be familiar. It is useful to have the arguments drawn together. Without doubt, Sontag's words exude intelligence, exploring how we look at painful images from photojournalists, our reaction to mass media, and how we interpret terrible news about war, even how we look at religious paintings.
She takes us on an argumental debate that covers all aspects of visual imagery through descriptive text. Shes talks of the shock and horror seen by some in photography, to how others see it as political leverage. What this book does, is to make us understand that one photographic image can have a double purpose, and that not all in a war image is truth. A good essay for the Sontag collection.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dark Star (1974) in Movies
May 31, 2018
But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.
Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
Benedick Lewis (3001 KP) rated 24 - Season 8 in TV
Jul 15, 2018
The show opened the debate about use of torture, especially in extreme circumstances and took on philosophical view points like utilitarianism and Shakespearean tone. Season 8 wraps everything up - until Live Another Day - in terms of the character arc of Jack Bauer. Will he get a happy ending? Will the ending he gets serve the whole of the show? What happens to Chloe? All of these are answered in some way or another. I didn’t want the show to end but understood it had to. The first half of the day does go over some very well trodden ground but the second part picks up and goes very much on a ‘only one way out of this’ route.
Regardless of what people thought of the ending, 24 was an inspirational show to a new wave of television and it will be sorely missed but very much loved.
The Works of Henry George: Our Land and Land Policy and Other Works: Volume I
Francis K. Peddle, William S. Peirce and Kenneth C. Wenzer
Book
Volume 1 of The Annotated Works of Henry George includes an introduction to the six-volume series...