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David McK (3791 KP) rated Cúchulainn & The Crow Queen in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Honestly?

I'm not really sure how this fits into the categories I have set up on my Goodreads account.

This is a re-telling of the stories of 'The Hound of Ulster', of Cuchulainn, from his birth through to the cattle raid of Ulster and his final death at the hands of the Morrigu, the Crow Queen.

It's also a straight re-telling, which is both its strong point (there's no trying to fit modern sensibilities / political statements into it) and it's weak point (these stories were originally intended to be told orally).

I have to say, I did find that most of the chapters didn't really 'flow' into each other; that there was no connection to the stories other than (occasionally) having Setanta (Cuchulainn's real name) himself appear in them every so often: for my money, Neil Gaiman's Norse Myths is a better retelling of stories that have helped shape modern society.

(Oh, and in the end, I opted for shelving this as Educational)

Kudos

Emmy (14 KP) rated The Witcher in TV

Dec 31, 2019

The Witcher

2019 | Action, Fantasy

8.4

(66 Ratings)

TV Show Rating Watch

The score, the aesthetic, most of the acting, the stories, the format (0 more)

Few of the acting, the rhythm, some moments (0 more)

Very entertaining!

I was very entertained watching the serie version of The Witcher. [Context: I have played the games and I haven't read the books.] I enjoyed discovering the "real" story, the first stories, that created the games later on. I really enjoyed the format because it was, to my opinion, an echo to the short stories format, while having a bigger plot line, and without falling into filler episodes. The choice they made in mixing the time lines was interesting and I personally liked it. However I can't imagine how someone who didn't have any knowledge of the universe understood anything as lots of the details and mechanics of the society and kind of people was barely explained; as someone who "knows how it works" I enjoyed not having too much exposition. I recommend!

Kudos

Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010) in Movies

Mar 3, 2020 (Updated Mar 3, 2020)

A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010)

2010 | International, Drama

7.0

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Last, but not least, we travel to France and journey into a seedy and disturbingly real world of crime and society in modern Europe. We follow the life of Malik, a confused young Arab man forced into a life of crime by circumstance, as he grows from petty criminal to a man of real power and influence. The whole thing feels dirty, deprived and cold; there isn’t a lot of glamour here. The pinstripe is a leather jacket and a tracksuit; the weapon is as likely to be bare hands or a rusty knife as a gun. The power of this film is in wondering how this young man can ever attain peace and redemption, as he descends deeper into the mire; how he becomes both truly lost and at the same time somehow enlightened. A grim tale, told with a European eye that shuns fancy camera work in favour of forcing you to watch, and think. Not a pleasant film, but an important one.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Videodrome (1983) in Movies

Apr 9, 2020

Videodrome (1983)

1983 | Horror, Sci-Fi

7.9

(14 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Seminal Cronenberg movie, which, being a Cronenberg movie, doesn't easily fit into any other category. Jaded small-time TV executive becomes obsessed with what looks like a hard-core snuff channel, transmissions of which he stumbles across. But the Videodrome signal has a profound effect on his sense of reality and the world around him begins to warp into new shapes...

Starts off relatively conventionally (I say relatively: for instance, Debbie Harry plays a sado-masochistic radio talk-show host) but soon becomes a dense and challenging rumination on the place of the media in modern society and how we perceive the world - with the grotesque mutated imagery for which Cronenberg was then known, of course. A fascinating and powerful movie, still very timely, although it's clear that they couldn't think of an ending. Cronenberg chose to make this instead of directing Return of the Jedi: there's a parallel universe somewhere where the Ewoks were a lot more messed up.