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Infernal Devices (Mortal Engines #3)
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The third thrilling book in the stunning Predator Cities series! The mighty engines of Anchorage...
Movie Metropolis (309 KP) rated The Abyss (1989) in Movies
Jun 10, 2019
James Cameron makes his second appearance on this list with 1989’s The Abyss. This terrifying film that gave countless children nightmares for months follows a civilian diving team as they are enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine. Unbeknownst to them, danger lurks in the deep when they encounter an alien aquatic species.
The special effects may look dated by today’s standards, but The Abyss is over 25 years old and still looks pretty darn good, even in 2019 when CGI has come on so far. Ed Harris puts in a fantastic performance and the eerie depths of the ocean are only matched by the blankness of space in modern-day sci-fi movies. Truly horrifying.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2019/06/08/films-set-at-sea-top-5/
The special effects may look dated by today’s standards, but The Abyss is over 25 years old and still looks pretty darn good, even in 2019 when CGI has come on so far. Ed Harris puts in a fantastic performance and the eerie depths of the ocean are only matched by the blankness of space in modern-day sci-fi movies. Truly horrifying.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2019/06/08/films-set-at-sea-top-5/
Awix (3310 KP) rated Fantastic Voyage (1966) in Movies
Dec 17, 2019 (Updated Dec 18, 2019)
Well-known sci-fi movie is too camp to take seriously, but scores points for inventiveness. Most of the plot is pure maguffinery, there to facilitate a) the central notion of miniaturised people floating around inside someone's body and b) Raquel Welch in a wetsuit (clearly they haven't quite cracked a method of miniaturising Welch's hair).
Vivid but not remotely convincing special effects, stolid performances from the cast, and a plot which really does have issues going on: the casting alone makes it very obvious who the traitor is going to be, while the climax conveniently forgets that the patient's convalescence is likely to be impacted by the presence of a full-size submarine inside his brain. It's watchable, not least for the groovy 60s stylings, but not as a serious drama.
Vivid but not remotely convincing special effects, stolid performances from the cast, and a plot which really does have issues going on: the casting alone makes it very obvious who the traitor is going to be, while the climax conveniently forgets that the patient's convalescence is likely to be impacted by the presence of a full-size submarine inside his brain. It's watchable, not least for the groovy 60s stylings, but not as a serious drama.
Silent U-Boat: Atlantic Hunter
Games and Entertainment
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In Silent U-Boat: Altantic Hunter, the player takes command of the U-42, a type VII class U-Boat,...
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Republic (The Emperor's Edge, Book 8) in Books
Mar 11, 2020
I've had this book on my Kindle for a long time now. It was a gift from the author after signing up to her newsletter when she'd first released it, for fans of the Emperor's Edge series. And I was a big fan, steaming through all seven (really long) books, following the adventures of Amaranthe and Sicarius - and begging them to get together!
This one starts a few months after the events of Forged in Blood I & II, following just Amaranthe and Sicarius as they travel to a tropical island in a submarine, only things aren't as drama free as they were hoping and they get chased by the islanders after being recognised from a wanted poster of Sicarius. They quickly come up with one of their famous spur-of-the-moment plans and manage to evade them all and escape back to their submarine. Once back on board they get a summons from the newly appointed leader so they head home.
Back home, a giant carnivorous plant has started to grow in the cities harbour and is causing mayhem, growing rapidly and seeming to have a mind of its own. It doesn't like being cut, releasing a black mist with horrible consequences. Also back home, we meet up with old friends like Sespian and Maldynado and it feels like old times with the gang back together.
It was quite easy falling back into this series, though admittedly I couldn't remember half the cast apart from Amaranthe and her gang.
One thing I had forgotten about this was the use of unusual words to replace more boring ones such as 'verisimilitude' instead of...inspection, I guess is its easiest translation? It's a good job my Kindle has a built in dictionary or I'd have been stumped reading half of this book.
This one starts a few months after the events of Forged in Blood I & II, following just Amaranthe and Sicarius as they travel to a tropical island in a submarine, only things aren't as drama free as they were hoping and they get chased by the islanders after being recognised from a wanted poster of Sicarius. They quickly come up with one of their famous spur-of-the-moment plans and manage to evade them all and escape back to their submarine. Once back on board they get a summons from the newly appointed leader so they head home.
Back home, a giant carnivorous plant has started to grow in the cities harbour and is causing mayhem, growing rapidly and seeming to have a mind of its own. It doesn't like being cut, releasing a black mist with horrible consequences. Also back home, we meet up with old friends like Sespian and Maldynado and it feels like old times with the gang back together.
It was quite easy falling back into this series, though admittedly I couldn't remember half the cast apart from Amaranthe and her gang.
One thing I had forgotten about this was the use of unusual words to replace more boring ones such as 'verisimilitude' instead of...inspection, I guess is its easiest translation? It's a good job my Kindle has a built in dictionary or I'd have been stumped reading half of this book.
AV
A Victorian Scientist and Engineer: Fleeming Jenkin and the Birth of Electrical Engineering
Gillian Cookson and Colin Hempstead
Book
This title was first published in 2000: In a life of only 52 years, Fleeming Jenkin established his...
Lockheed Sr-71 Operations in the Far East
Paul F. Crickmore and Chris Davey
Book
Even before the first operational flight of the U-2 spy plane, aircraft designers began work on the...
Bostonian916 (449 KP) rated Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) in Movies
Jun 30, 2020
Just when you think the Fast and Furious franchise couldn't get any more over the top, they go and prove you wrong again.
Story is pretty average fair for the franchise. Taking two of the most popular actors and giving them their own offshoot ended up working just fine.
A lot of the action scenes (island scenes in particular) are SO absolutely unreal that you are required to completely suspend reality for much of the duration. There's nothing wrong with that (I mean, racing a submarine as it breaks through the ice coming toward you had to be topped?) as long as that's what you're looking for.
As with the entire franchise, it's a mood movie. Not earth shattering, but still a good time if you allow it to be. If you're the type to nitpick plot holes and storyboard gaps, avoid.
Story is pretty average fair for the franchise. Taking two of the most popular actors and giving them their own offshoot ended up working just fine.
A lot of the action scenes (island scenes in particular) are SO absolutely unreal that you are required to completely suspend reality for much of the duration. There's nothing wrong with that (I mean, racing a submarine as it breaks through the ice coming toward you had to be topped?) as long as that's what you're looking for.
As with the entire franchise, it's a mood movie. Not earth shattering, but still a good time if you allow it to be. If you're the type to nitpick plot holes and storyboard gaps, avoid.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Bell-Bottom George (1943) in Movies
May 17, 2020
George Formby vehicle in need of a tune-up. George, who as ever is playing a good-hearted Lancastrian simpleton ukulele master, joins the navy by accident, stumbles across a nest of Nazi spies, and saves a new submarine from being sunk, while getting the girl and doing a few comic songs along the way.
These days I suspect most people only watch George Formby films for the one-liners and the musical numbers - but the script here is thin, and Formby doesn't play the uke in half the songs (which mostly aren't that good either). All the usual elements turn up - chases, slapstick, unlikely romance, etc - but the movie feels padded even at only 97 minutes long and it's just not consistently funny enough. Still, the second world war saw some terrible disasters, and this is far from the worst of them.
These days I suspect most people only watch George Formby films for the one-liners and the musical numbers - but the script here is thin, and Formby doesn't play the uke in half the songs (which mostly aren't that good either). All the usual elements turn up - chases, slapstick, unlikely romance, etc - but the movie feels padded even at only 97 minutes long and it's just not consistently funny enough. Still, the second world war saw some terrible disasters, and this is far from the worst of them.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Black Sea (2015) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
Jude Law stars as Robinson, a former submarine captain made redundant after a long career with an underwater salvage company. Left without a pension, and blaming the company for his failed marriage, he learns from a former co-worker that a vast sum of Nazi gold is lying in wait aboard a sunken German U-boat at the bottom of the Black Sea. Upon securing financing and a submarine that has most definitely seen better days, he pulls together a crew of both British and Russian sailors, assuring every man that an equal share of the loot is to be had. Tensions among the crew soon arise and as one character chillingly questions, “What happens when one of them starts to figure out that their share gets bigger, when there is less people to share it with?”
A few too many easy coincidences drive this plot along, but if you’re willing to suspend just a bit of disbelief, there’s a great tale of paranoia, claustrophobia, betrayal and greed beneath the surface. Even through Jude Law’s dodgy Scottish accent, every performance (particularly newcomer Bobby Schofield as the inexperienced Tobin) is top-notch as both he and the supporting cast provide true believability to the disregard and distrust the two groups of men come to have for each other. Between Black Sea and his unexpectedly good turn in Dom Hemingway last year, Jude Law is firmly back on my radar, as he seems to be following in Matthew McConaughey’s footsteps by taking darker, more complex and challenging roles at this point in his career. From playing a father-figure for a boy frightened of what the future holds, to a man possessed of the determination, no matter what the cost, to return home rich, Law hits every note right and is more than capable of leading a cast this talented.
My only substantial complaint is the ending. On leaving the theater, it seemed one of the better solutions to the potential corner the filmmakers were painting themselves into, though the longer its sits, the more I think a film of this unrelenting intensity deserves an ending with some poignancy. Admittedly, I would have found something bleaker to be more satisfying. The easy route out taken in the last five minutes by director Kevin Macdonald and writer Dennis Kelly are a bit of a let-down when compared with the pulse pounding hour and forty-five minutes that precedes it, and for me it will only detract from Black Sea’s memorability.
With the mention of a submarine drama, it is almost inevitable that comparisons to Das Boot will be drawn. For the purposes of reviewing Black Sea however, I have been unable to do so as my only viewing of it was about a decade ago, when I very foolishly had the ambition to see not only the uncut 6-hour mini-series version that was put together for German television, but to do so in a single sitting. I was successful, but only in terms of completing the task. I know it was great and that it is above equal in the genre of submarine films, but at this point I’d be hard pressed to recall even a few minutes of it. It would seem, in this case, that Black Sea got a fair shake to be judged on its own merits (and that I now have a German epic to revisit, albeit in the slightly more truncated director’s cut form this time).
A few nitpicky complaints aside, and in direct contradiction with my take on the abysmally poor Blackhat from the other week, this is a fine example of a well-made, wall-to-wall suspense-filled thriller, and the film I wish I had started the year off with. Released in early December in the UK, where it has received generally positive reviews, it’s unfortunate that it has landed stateside in the January/February season of no-hopes.
A few too many easy coincidences drive this plot along, but if you’re willing to suspend just a bit of disbelief, there’s a great tale of paranoia, claustrophobia, betrayal and greed beneath the surface. Even through Jude Law’s dodgy Scottish accent, every performance (particularly newcomer Bobby Schofield as the inexperienced Tobin) is top-notch as both he and the supporting cast provide true believability to the disregard and distrust the two groups of men come to have for each other. Between Black Sea and his unexpectedly good turn in Dom Hemingway last year, Jude Law is firmly back on my radar, as he seems to be following in Matthew McConaughey’s footsteps by taking darker, more complex and challenging roles at this point in his career. From playing a father-figure for a boy frightened of what the future holds, to a man possessed of the determination, no matter what the cost, to return home rich, Law hits every note right and is more than capable of leading a cast this talented.
My only substantial complaint is the ending. On leaving the theater, it seemed one of the better solutions to the potential corner the filmmakers were painting themselves into, though the longer its sits, the more I think a film of this unrelenting intensity deserves an ending with some poignancy. Admittedly, I would have found something bleaker to be more satisfying. The easy route out taken in the last five minutes by director Kevin Macdonald and writer Dennis Kelly are a bit of a let-down when compared with the pulse pounding hour and forty-five minutes that precedes it, and for me it will only detract from Black Sea’s memorability.
With the mention of a submarine drama, it is almost inevitable that comparisons to Das Boot will be drawn. For the purposes of reviewing Black Sea however, I have been unable to do so as my only viewing of it was about a decade ago, when I very foolishly had the ambition to see not only the uncut 6-hour mini-series version that was put together for German television, but to do so in a single sitting. I was successful, but only in terms of completing the task. I know it was great and that it is above equal in the genre of submarine films, but at this point I’d be hard pressed to recall even a few minutes of it. It would seem, in this case, that Black Sea got a fair shake to be judged on its own merits (and that I now have a German epic to revisit, albeit in the slightly more truncated director’s cut form this time).
A few nitpicky complaints aside, and in direct contradiction with my take on the abysmally poor Blackhat from the other week, this is a fine example of a well-made, wall-to-wall suspense-filled thriller, and the film I wish I had started the year off with. Released in early December in the UK, where it has received generally positive reviews, it’s unfortunate that it has landed stateside in the January/February season of no-hopes.