You can now find me at www.tim-arnot.com
See you over there :)
Tuesday 23 July 2013
Friday 21 June 2013
Omnis Speculamur
Vos Omnis Speculamur is the motto of the Kingsmen, and Omnis Speculamur is the mailing list to be on if you want to be notified when new books in the series come out.
It's a no-spam list - the only emails you will receive are new release notifications at most, a few times each year. And of course you can unsubscribe at any time.
Sign up here.
It's a no-spam list - the only emails you will receive are new release notifications at most, a few times each year. And of course you can unsubscribe at any time.
Sign up here.
Monday 10 June 2013
Wanted on Audio
I'm almost halfway through recording an audio version of Wanted, which has been a very interesting experience. I've just finished reading Chapter 18, and the midpoint (based on page count) is about three quarters through Chapter 19. The big question is going to be whether I have any voice left by the time I've got to the end...
I don't do 'voices'. At least I'm not doing voices. I had a go at the first two chapters, and since more than half the characters are female... well, you can imagine the result. Put it this way, it wasn't pretty.
Anyhow, once it's all edited together, it'll come out somewhere in the region of sixteen hours, which is ballpark for this length of audiobook. However you won't be able to buy it as an audiobook. No, I'll be releasing it as a podcast, in roughly thirty-something weekly instalments. For free.
Yes, you heard right: It'll be free. Okay, you have to listen to my voice, and as I said, I'm not doing the voices, and it'll be the best part of 9 months before you get to the end. But still, free. (And there might be the odd ad in there too.)
Keep an eye out here or on http://www.tim-arnot.com or on the Facebook page for further details.
I don't do 'voices'. At least I'm not doing voices. I had a go at the first two chapters, and since more than half the characters are female... well, you can imagine the result. Put it this way, it wasn't pretty.
Anyhow, once it's all edited together, it'll come out somewhere in the region of sixteen hours, which is ballpark for this length of audiobook. However you won't be able to buy it as an audiobook. No, I'll be releasing it as a podcast, in roughly thirty-something weekly instalments. For free.
Yes, you heard right: It'll be free. Okay, you have to listen to my voice, and as I said, I'm not doing the voices, and it'll be the best part of 9 months before you get to the end. But still, free. (And there might be the odd ad in there too.)
Keep an eye out here or on http://www.tim-arnot.com or on the Facebook page for further details.
Saturday 8 June 2013
After Earth
Certificate 12A, 100 minutes, ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Sophie Okonedo and Zoe Kravitz star in this M Knight Shyamalan directed sci-fi movie.
For some reason, humanity has been forced to leave Earth and move to new digs on Nova Prime, where everything looks like it belongs to a cross between a sailboat and a Persil commercial (other detergents are available, and probably needed to keep all the white fabrics clean...). All well and good, apart from the alien bugs that go around killing people and spiking them with extreme prejudice.
Daddy Smith plays a general in the interstellar space force, who is the only person that's immune to these bugs, because he has no fear (it seems they hunt by detecting the pheromones produced by fear). Actually he has no real emotion of any sort. Diddy Smith plays his son, who idolises his father but has obedience issues after his older sister was killed by one of these bugs.
Anyhow, Daddy and Diddy wind up together on this spaceship which gets damaged in a meteor storm and crashes on a now-interdicted Earth. Daddy is badly injured and so is forced to sit in part of the wrecked spaceship, wearing a "who wrote this crap? Oh, it was me... what was I thinking?" pout, while Diddy wanders around the planet being chased by CG apes and giant eagles and being out acted by the trees. Of course this giant bug shows up, and the only way Diddy can survive to save the day is to show no fear. But since he hasn't shown any other emotions up to this point, that shouldn't be too difficult.
I'm still left wondering why Hollywood keeps letting Shyamalan back behind a camera, since he only demonstrates time and time again a talent for awfulness. And I have to say this film is just as bad as the rest.
Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Sophie Okonedo and Zoe Kravitz star in this M Knight Shyamalan directed sci-fi movie.
For some reason, humanity has been forced to leave Earth and move to new digs on Nova Prime, where everything looks like it belongs to a cross between a sailboat and a Persil commercial (other detergents are available, and probably needed to keep all the white fabrics clean...). All well and good, apart from the alien bugs that go around killing people and spiking them with extreme prejudice.
Daddy Smith plays a general in the interstellar space force, who is the only person that's immune to these bugs, because he has no fear (it seems they hunt by detecting the pheromones produced by fear). Actually he has no real emotion of any sort. Diddy Smith plays his son, who idolises his father but has obedience issues after his older sister was killed by one of these bugs.
Anyhow, Daddy and Diddy wind up together on this spaceship which gets damaged in a meteor storm and crashes on a now-interdicted Earth. Daddy is badly injured and so is forced to sit in part of the wrecked spaceship, wearing a "who wrote this crap? Oh, it was me... what was I thinking?" pout, while Diddy wanders around the planet being chased by CG apes and giant eagles and being out acted by the trees. Of course this giant bug shows up, and the only way Diddy can survive to save the day is to show no fear. But since he hasn't shown any other emotions up to this point, that shouldn't be too difficult.
I'm still left wondering why Hollywood keeps letting Shyamalan back behind a camera, since he only demonstrates time and time again a talent for awfulness. And I have to say this film is just as bad as the rest.
Wednesday 5 June 2013
Paperback Writer...
Okay, not quite, but the proof has now arrived for checking. Yay! Here's, er, proof...
No doubt everyone will be more interested in what's on the bookshelf behind me, such is life, ho hum etc. And yes that is Piglet.
While I have your attention, there is now an official Wanted Facebook page. Please 'like' it. :)
No doubt everyone will be more interested in what's on the bookshelf behind me, such is life, ho hum etc. And yes that is Piglet.
While I have your attention, there is now an official Wanted Facebook page. Please 'like' it. :)
Thursday 30 May 2013
Paperback news
In addition to the news of being Indie Book Bargains author of the day today, I had news that the proofs are now ready for the paperback edition (360 pages, 5" x 8"). That means, assuming everything is okay, it should start appearing on Amazon etc 2-3 weeks from giving the go ahead. Yay!!!
Let's see if we can't get my first month's sales into triple figures! Buy it for only $3.99 (£2.71) from one of these sellers:
Thursday 23 May 2013
Ignite's 5 Stars
Wanted just got its first five star review, from Ignite's Book Blog (Yay!!! :-)). You can read the review here:
Tim Arnot is a new author and has created a believable world. You most certainly don't need to be a young adult to enjoy it, though the main protagonists are.
This is a post-apocalyptic book with a difference. Most of them concentrate on a devastated world where chaos rules. Tim Arnot has taken a world which collapsed maybe a couple of hundred years ago and people have adapted. He creates a Britain in which electricity and technology are forbidden (except to the Kingsmen – an elite law enforcement agency). Sixteen year old Flick Carter makes flint arrowheads, hunts and helps her dad to run the local inn. Out hunting, she ‘finds’ a young man, Shea, injured after using forbidden technology. Her caring for him puts her in danger; he’s already in it up to his neck! There are those working against the king, to raise a private army. Flick falls foul of these and her life is forfeit.
Tim Arnot has created a believable world here and has fabricated the politics to go with it. I enjoyed the characters, feisty Flick and her younger sister Rosie; the Faringdon Watch and the Kingsmen, in particular, Jessica Dixon. There are evil characters to get your teeth into too; especially the corrupt and bullying mayor and his weak and venal thugs. We learn just enough about the mysterious Shea to want to follow his exploits and there are hints that Jessica is more than she initially seems to be. Flick is a darling! I really look forward to reading more.
Ignite Books (Follow Ignite on Twitter)
You can buy Wanted (Flick Carter Book 1) from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kobo or B&N Nook.
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Monday 20 May 2013
It's Out!!!!
Wanted for a murder she did not commit, Flick is forced to flee. In a town of just 150 people, there’s nowhere to hide. So you run. Or you die.
Note for parents: Contains scenes of death and violence, and very occasional swearing.
Buy it now from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Saturday 11 May 2013
Thursday 9 May 2013
M3
For some reason I appear to have acquired a full box of 2000 M3 hex nuts. I have no idea why, other than maybe it's some kind of subliminal message.
Suggestions for what to do with them...?
Suggestions for what to do with them...?
Tuesday 7 May 2013
Wanted: Sample available
The finished book should be available from Amazon later this month.
Saturday 30 March 2013
The Host
Certificate 12A, 125 minutes, ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Saoirse Ronan (Hanna, Atonement, The Lovely Bones) stars in this movie adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's 2008 novel, The Host.
At first you'd be forgiven for drawing parallels with Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and yes we have glowing alien centipedes that inhabit the brains of their hosts, but that's pretty much where the similarity ends. You see, these aliens are nice.
And that's the problem.
We have an exciting first reel (do they still have reels? maybe I should just say first 20 minutes...) in which Melanie (Ronan) is chased down, tries to kill herself but is saved, healed and implanted by a "Soul" called Wanderer. Then we find out that the Souls' take over of humans is not as complete as they'd have us believe, and Melanie is still in there, fighting to regain control. She manages to make Wanderer flee into the desert where she's found by Uncle Jeb (William Hurt).
After that it goes all new age eco weird.
There's the usual Meyer inter-species love triangle, but the twist this time is that it's a four-way triangle with only three bodies (you just know how that's going to end...), but the two boys are pretty bland and uninteresting, the obsessive baddie cop "Seeker" (Diane Kruger) sent out to catch Wanderer/Melanie (who has been nicknamed Wanda in an effort to get the movie over a bit quicker) is ineffectual, which means we're left with the internal two people in one body conflict to carry the tension. And it fails. It just comes over as one person with an occasional twitch and a reverbed voice over from time to time.
But the chrome Lotus Evoras were nice (as was the chrome R44), and the cavern complex with hand-cranked mirrors for lighting was truly stunning.
But scenery and shiny cars a good movie do not make. Shame. 5/10
Saoirse Ronan (Hanna, Atonement, The Lovely Bones) stars in this movie adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's 2008 novel, The Host.
At first you'd be forgiven for drawing parallels with Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and yes we have glowing alien centipedes that inhabit the brains of their hosts, but that's pretty much where the similarity ends. You see, these aliens are nice.
And that's the problem.
We have an exciting first reel (do they still have reels? maybe I should just say first 20 minutes...) in which Melanie (Ronan) is chased down, tries to kill herself but is saved, healed and implanted by a "Soul" called Wanderer. Then we find out that the Souls' take over of humans is not as complete as they'd have us believe, and Melanie is still in there, fighting to regain control. She manages to make Wanderer flee into the desert where she's found by Uncle Jeb (William Hurt).
After that it goes all new age eco weird.
There's the usual Meyer inter-species love triangle, but the twist this time is that it's a four-way triangle with only three bodies (you just know how that's going to end...), but the two boys are pretty bland and uninteresting, the obsessive baddie cop "Seeker" (Diane Kruger) sent out to catch Wanderer/Melanie (who has been nicknamed Wanda in an effort to get the movie over a bit quicker) is ineffectual, which means we're left with the internal two people in one body conflict to carry the tension. And it fails. It just comes over as one person with an occasional twitch and a reverbed voice over from time to time.
But the chrome Lotus Evoras were nice (as was the chrome R44), and the cavern complex with hand-cranked mirrors for lighting was truly stunning.
But scenery and shiny cars a good movie do not make. Shame. 5/10
G. I. Joe: Retaliation
Certificate 12A, 110 minutes ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Zartan the shape shifter (Pryce) has taken over the White House and is holding the real president (Pryce) hostage. Johnson and the Joes are off on a ridiculously stupid mission stealing nukes from the North Koreans, when most of them are wiped out by an air strike courtesy of Zartan. The remaining Joes, along with a bunch of mystery ninjas now have to save the world, defeat Zartan and a bunch of mystery ninjas and restore the good pres.
The action sequences, fights etc were all well done; there's even a fight across a sheer cliff face on the end of climbing ropes. That pretty much is it for good points. The rest of the film is a confusing nonsensical illogical mess. I never did figure out the ninjas: at the outset I couldn't work out who were the good guys and the bad guys, and at the end I still couldn't work it out.
Channing Tatum had the right idea: Get killed off early on, then you can't be blamed for the rest of it.
Back in the day, GI Joe was the American version of what we called Action Man, a 12" action figure that many of us played with as kids (actually, Palitoy produced Action Man under licence from Hasbro, but let us not worry about such things). Then in the 1980s, Hasbro started producing the 3 3/4" line, which is what you see in the shops today.
G. I. Joe: Retaliation is a sequel to 2009s GI Joe; Return of the Cobra. It stars Dwayne Johnson, with Channing Tatum, Adrianne Palicki, DJ Cotrona, Jonathan Pryce and an extended cameo from Bruce Willis.
Zartan the shape shifter (Pryce) has taken over the White House and is holding the real president (Pryce) hostage. Johnson and the Joes are off on a ridiculously stupid mission stealing nukes from the North Koreans, when most of them are wiped out by an air strike courtesy of Zartan. The remaining Joes, along with a bunch of mystery ninjas now have to save the world, defeat Zartan and a bunch of mystery ninjas and restore the good pres.
The action sequences, fights etc were all well done; there's even a fight across a sheer cliff face on the end of climbing ropes. That pretty much is it for good points. The rest of the film is a confusing nonsensical illogical mess. I never did figure out the ninjas: at the outset I couldn't work out who were the good guys and the bad guys, and at the end I still couldn't work it out.
Channing Tatum had the right idea: Get killed off early on, then you can't be blamed for the rest of it.
On the plus side, My Cineworld card has paid for itself this month, with another DVD I can avoid buying. Chuck toys at each other and shout blam blam blam. 3/10
Friday 29 March 2013
Writing Update
Book 1 (Wanted) is still waiting for the results of the final round of beta reading (due after the Easter hols). Then it just needs formatting and prettifying ready to push the button later in the month.
Book 2 (Hunted) is now underway and plotted out. I've signed up to Camp NanoWrimo for April, http://www.campnanowrimo.org with a target of 50k words (less what's already written) I've decided I need to be pushed more, and this seems like a good way to do it. That would have me on track for finishing the first draft sometime in May – assuming I keep up the pace – which would be good. Again I'm aiming for a total around 90,000 words (Wanted is 92,000)
April is actually quite a busy month, with a trip to Liverpool for location scouting, and a production of The Admirable Crichton, so I think it's going to be tougher than the regular Nano in November. We shall see...
Book 2 (Hunted) is now underway and plotted out. I've signed up to Camp NanoWrimo for April, http://www.campnanowrimo.org with a target of 50k words (less what's already written) I've decided I need to be pushed more, and this seems like a good way to do it. That would have me on track for finishing the first draft sometime in May – assuming I keep up the pace – which would be good. Again I'm aiming for a total around 90,000 words (Wanted is 92,000)April is actually quite a busy month, with a trip to Liverpool for location scouting, and a production of The Admirable Crichton, so I think it's going to be tougher than the regular Nano in November. We shall see...
Friday 22 March 2013
Didcot A... RIP
Today is the end of an era, for at 2pm (14:00z) Didcot A power station is to be switched off. No more the iconic cooling towers belching steam and the giant chimney belching... well, less pleasant things and 20 countries worth of CO2 if you believe the Greenpeace propaganda. Maybe that was true at one time (I certainly remember soot-blackened net curtains when I first moved here in the early 90s (what idiot town planner puts a power station on the West side of a town when the prevailing wind comes from the West? That's a decision worthy of a smack round the back of the head if ever I saw one), but that hasn't happened for some time now.
According to good old Wikipedia, it was voted the country's third worst eyesore by Country Life readers in 2003. Well, a pox on them, I say. The towers have become a part of the landscape; a beacon (although admittedly not a shining one) and symbol of home. Visible from miles around, they are great for navigation - cresting a hill in the car as I drive home and seeing the towers in the distance always brings a smile to my face. Even from the air; I've seen them in a little rented Piper from as far away as Bromsgrove or Southampton at around 3000ft, and even in the back of a 777 coming back from the U.S. (and thought ironically that if only I had a parachute, I could be home in minutes instead of hours...)
So, in an age of escalating energy prices, when we as a nation have barely enough generating capacity for our current needs yet alone the future (Ofgem issued yet another warning of an approaching power crisis earlier this week), gas supplies at a critically low level, a government with its fingers in its ears over the necessity of building new power stations, we shut down another one. Hope you've got a good stock of candles...
More: http://www.abingdonblog.co.uk/?p=8508
 |
| Picture: Dave Price, 2006. CC-BY-SA-2.0 |
So, in an age of escalating energy prices, when we as a nation have barely enough generating capacity for our current needs yet alone the future (Ofgem issued yet another warning of an approaching power crisis earlier this week), gas supplies at a critically low level, a government with its fingers in its ears over the necessity of building new power stations, we shut down another one. Hope you've got a good stock of candles...
More: http://www.abingdonblog.co.uk/?p=8508
Thursday 21 March 2013
Welcome to the Punch
Certificate 15, 100 minutes, ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
James McAvoy and Mark Strong star in this indie British cop/crime thriller set among the glass and steel skyscrapers of London's Canary Wharf.
Three years ago, tough cop Max Lewinsky (McAvoy) was wounded while chasing big-time crook Jacob Sternwood (Strong) after a heist. Now, Sternwood's son has been found shot on the apron at London's City airport. When Sternwood returns for his boy, Max sees his chance finally to bring the crook to justice, but finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that goes right to the top.
Fast paced and shot mainly at night (it's rare that we see London in a movie looking so gorgeously glittery), this is a glossy thriller that, if I'm honest, doesn't go anywhere new. But it retreads old ground with a degree of style that, for example, last year's The Sweeney lacked. Yes, the twists are visible a mile off, but the set pieces are confident and well executed, the cast is like a roll call of British talent and there are some real stand out moments.
What the Sweeney should have been Guv. 7/10
James McAvoy and Mark Strong star in this indie British cop/crime thriller set among the glass and steel skyscrapers of London's Canary Wharf.
Three years ago, tough cop Max Lewinsky (McAvoy) was wounded while chasing big-time crook Jacob Sternwood (Strong) after a heist. Now, Sternwood's son has been found shot on the apron at London's City airport. When Sternwood returns for his boy, Max sees his chance finally to bring the crook to justice, but finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that goes right to the top.
Fast paced and shot mainly at night (it's rare that we see London in a movie looking so gorgeously glittery), this is a glossy thriller that, if I'm honest, doesn't go anywhere new. But it retreads old ground with a degree of style that, for example, last year's The Sweeney lacked. Yes, the twists are visible a mile off, but the set pieces are confident and well executed, the cast is like a roll call of British talent and there are some real stand out moments.
What the Sweeney should have been Guv. 7/10
Sunday 17 March 2013
The Croods
Certificate U, 98 minutes ★★★★★★★★★☆
Back in the days of way back when, Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit, The Pirates, Chicken Run etc) announced a five film deal with DreamWorks Annimation. One of those stop motion films was to be the Pythonesquely titled Crood Awakening. Indeed the first few drafts were penned by John Cleese, along with Kirk DeMicco (who eventually directed). That deal went south, and the title reverted to DreamWorks, who have finally brought it out under the title The Croods as a regular 3D CG animation.
The Croods are a family of thick-set Neanderthal-browed cavemen, led by Grug (Nicholas Cage), his wife Ugga (Catherine keener), mother-in-law (Cloris Leachman), daughters Eep (Emma Stone) and Sandy, son Thunk (Clark Duke), and 'the baby'. We learn that they are the last surviving family, which Grug attributes to regarding anything "new"as a threat to their survival. Teenage daughter Eep naturally rebels, and one night sneaks out of their cave.
She meets the human boy Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who shows her this fascinating new thing called fire and tells of the end of the world, and is subsequently grounded by her father. When the cave is subsequently destroyed by an earthquake, the Croods flee, and meet up once again with Guy, who leads them reluctantly (or eagerly in Eep's case) towards a new land populated with strange creatures, from sabretoothed kittens to miniature mouse-elephants to piranha-jawed parrots...
Visually, the film is stunning, both in terms of design and animation. Not totally surprising, since Roger Deakins (Skyfall) acted as visual consultant, as he did also with Rango, How to train your Dragon and Wall-E (and The Guardians, but frankly, the less said about that the better). It's truly amazing how far animation has come, even since the later Toy Story films, when you look at the details in the hair and fur (you really find yourself wanting to run your hands through it, it's so good), and water, and the simply amazing flocking parrots (I was watching a flock of starlings in the dusk the other evening, and seriously, it's as good as real life).
The script still shows signs of the original Cleese wit, and there are plenty of gags, both verbal and visual, in there for adults as well as kids, and it is genuinely funny. This is one film I would definitely go and see again. And then buy the Blu Ray.
Never not be afraid: 8/10
Back in the days of way back when, Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit, The Pirates, Chicken Run etc) announced a five film deal with DreamWorks Annimation. One of those stop motion films was to be the Pythonesquely titled Crood Awakening. Indeed the first few drafts were penned by John Cleese, along with Kirk DeMicco (who eventually directed). That deal went south, and the title reverted to DreamWorks, who have finally brought it out under the title The Croods as a regular 3D CG animation.
The Croods are a family of thick-set Neanderthal-browed cavemen, led by Grug (Nicholas Cage), his wife Ugga (Catherine keener), mother-in-law (Cloris Leachman), daughters Eep (Emma Stone) and Sandy, son Thunk (Clark Duke), and 'the baby'. We learn that they are the last surviving family, which Grug attributes to regarding anything "new"as a threat to their survival. Teenage daughter Eep naturally rebels, and one night sneaks out of their cave.
She meets the human boy Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who shows her this fascinating new thing called fire and tells of the end of the world, and is subsequently grounded by her father. When the cave is subsequently destroyed by an earthquake, the Croods flee, and meet up once again with Guy, who leads them reluctantly (or eagerly in Eep's case) towards a new land populated with strange creatures, from sabretoothed kittens to miniature mouse-elephants to piranha-jawed parrots...
Visually, the film is stunning, both in terms of design and animation. Not totally surprising, since Roger Deakins (Skyfall) acted as visual consultant, as he did also with Rango, How to train your Dragon and Wall-E (and The Guardians, but frankly, the less said about that the better). It's truly amazing how far animation has come, even since the later Toy Story films, when you look at the details in the hair and fur (you really find yourself wanting to run your hands through it, it's so good), and water, and the simply amazing flocking parrots (I was watching a flock of starlings in the dusk the other evening, and seriously, it's as good as real life).
The script still shows signs of the original Cleese wit, and there are plenty of gags, both verbal and visual, in there for adults as well as kids, and it is genuinely funny. This is one film I would definitely go and see again. And then buy the Blu Ray.
Never not be afraid: 8/10
Side Effects
Certificate 15, 106 minutes, ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Jude Law (The Talented Mr Ripley) plays Dr Jonathan Banks, an overworked New York psychiatrist in Steven Soderberg's (allegedly) final movie, Side Effects. One day he treats Emily (Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [US remake]), admitted to hospital after driving head first into a parking garage wall. After consulting with her previous doctor (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Banks puts her on an experimental new drug called Ablixa. Things go well until the side effects start manifesting...
Side Effects is an excellent psychological thriller in the Hitchcockian tradition. Compelling, disturbing, sinister, and gripping in equal measure (Oxford Comma there, guys ;)) but also visually sumptuous, with just a hint of nightmare about it.
To tell you anything more about the plot would be a spoiler, and it really is worth watching this film unspoiled. It has an original screenplay by Scott Z. Burns, inspired cinematography by "Peter Andrews" (Soderbergh himself, under a pseudonym), and expertly edited by "Mary Ann Bernard" (Soderbergh again. Hmm, is there a trend... ;))
The casting couldn't be better. Law and Mara give arguably their best ever performances. Law as the bland psychiatrist who is at the same time greedy and vain; Mara as the troubled young victim, both scared and scary. If this really is Indie director Soderbergh's final opus (please say it isn't so!) he's going out with a bang.
One pill, TDS. 8/10
Jude Law (The Talented Mr Ripley) plays Dr Jonathan Banks, an overworked New York psychiatrist in Steven Soderberg's (allegedly) final movie, Side Effects. One day he treats Emily (Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [US remake]), admitted to hospital after driving head first into a parking garage wall. After consulting with her previous doctor (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Banks puts her on an experimental new drug called Ablixa. Things go well until the side effects start manifesting...
Side Effects is an excellent psychological thriller in the Hitchcockian tradition. Compelling, disturbing, sinister, and gripping in equal measure (Oxford Comma there, guys ;)) but also visually sumptuous, with just a hint of nightmare about it.
To tell you anything more about the plot would be a spoiler, and it really is worth watching this film unspoiled. It has an original screenplay by Scott Z. Burns, inspired cinematography by "Peter Andrews" (Soderbergh himself, under a pseudonym), and expertly edited by "Mary Ann Bernard" (Soderbergh again. Hmm, is there a trend... ;))
The casting couldn't be better. Law and Mara give arguably their best ever performances. Law as the bland psychiatrist who is at the same time greedy and vain; Mara as the troubled young victim, both scared and scary. If this really is Indie director Soderbergh's final opus (please say it isn't so!) he's going out with a bang.
One pill, TDS. 8/10
Friday 15 March 2013
Great North Road
Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton★★★★★
UK hardback edition, signed by the author on the day before publication. :)
At just shy of 1100 pages, this is an epic tale. Part police-procedural, part monster-attrition thriller, part space opera set in a future where travel to distant worlds is just a step through the gateway away.
The story opens in January 2143, with the discovery of a body in the Tyne. It was one of the rich North family clones, and he was savagely murdered. Not none of the clones has been reported missing. Even stranger, there was a similar murder twenty years ago, on the distant world of St Libra. Another North billionaire and his whole household. But the murderer, one Angela Tremelo has been in prison for the last twenty years. Perhaps her claims - not believed at the time - that they were the victims of an attack by an alien monster were true? But there was no animal life on St Libra...
So Tremelo is released from prison under guard and taken to St Libra to act as consultant to an expedition to uncover the truth once and for all (shades of Ripley in Aliens there). And before long, people start dying. Has the monster struck again, or is Angela Tremelo just a brutal psychopath? What really happened 20 years ago?
I have to say this book had me completely absorbed from beginning to end. Hamilton weaves a story that is both vast and intricate in its complexity, yet it doesn't get bogged down. The world-building has a richness and a vibrancy to it; the characters are well-rounded and believable. There are plenty of twists and turns, some predictable, others not, as the story in Newcastle and the story on St Libra cross back and forth and gradually merge together.
Five claw-blade-handed stars from me, sweets.
The paperless future...
Just a little something for people like me who are devoted to their iPads, kindles etc...
Wednesday 13 March 2013
Oz the Great and Powerful
Certificate PG, 130 mins. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful is essentially a prequel to both L. Frank Baum's fourteen Oz books and the 1939 Victor Fleming movie, The Wizard of Oz.
Oscar Diggs (James Franco - 127 hours, Your Highness) is a conman and illusionist in a 1905 Kansas travelling circus. When the strong man finds out he's been flirting with his wife, Diggs escapes in a hot air balloon, straight into the path of a massive storm. magically he's transported to the land of Oz, where he's found by Theodora (Mila Kunis - Family Guy's Meg), a good witch, who believes him to be a powerful wizard come to defeat the wicked witch.
Like the 1939 film, Great & Powerful starts off in black and white, Academy ratio, only transitioning to 2.35:1 and colour when Diggs reaches Oz. Also like the '39 film, there is a certain amount of doubling up, and the Oz characters have dopplegangers back in Kansas. Michelle Williams plays both Glinda the Good Witch, and Annie, an old flame back in Kansas. Zach Braff is Frank, Diggs' assistant in Kansas, and also voices Finley the flying monkey. Joey King plays a wheelchair-bound girl in the audience at the circus, and also voices the living doll from China Town.
There's more nods to the old film, including scarecrows, cackling green-skinned witch and a lusciously colourful digital recreation of the emerald city and yellow brick road.
Whether you like the film or not, I think depends on how you react to Franco. Oscar Diggs is very much the antihero, and in the opening scenes it's hard to find anything to like about him. Even in Oz, he's slavering over piles of gold, trading in one witch for the next and being an all round cad. It takes a long time - possibly too long - for him to transform into the likeable character at the end, who battles smoke and mirrors illusions against the real magic of the evil witches.
Mila Kunis as Theodora the witch is... both unsettling and sizzling (literally). Brilliant piece of casting. Rachel Weisz plays her evil sister, Evanora, a cold hearted vamp, and Michelle Williams rounds out the trio (there's always three witches..) as the good witch Glinda.
A little bit too long, but very enjoyable. We're off to see the wizard. 7/10
Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful is essentially a prequel to both L. Frank Baum's fourteen Oz books and the 1939 Victor Fleming movie, The Wizard of Oz.
Oscar Diggs (James Franco - 127 hours, Your Highness) is a conman and illusionist in a 1905 Kansas travelling circus. When the strong man finds out he's been flirting with his wife, Diggs escapes in a hot air balloon, straight into the path of a massive storm. magically he's transported to the land of Oz, where he's found by Theodora (Mila Kunis - Family Guy's Meg), a good witch, who believes him to be a powerful wizard come to defeat the wicked witch.
Like the 1939 film, Great & Powerful starts off in black and white, Academy ratio, only transitioning to 2.35:1 and colour when Diggs reaches Oz. Also like the '39 film, there is a certain amount of doubling up, and the Oz characters have dopplegangers back in Kansas. Michelle Williams plays both Glinda the Good Witch, and Annie, an old flame back in Kansas. Zach Braff is Frank, Diggs' assistant in Kansas, and also voices Finley the flying monkey. Joey King plays a wheelchair-bound girl in the audience at the circus, and also voices the living doll from China Town.
There's more nods to the old film, including scarecrows, cackling green-skinned witch and a lusciously colourful digital recreation of the emerald city and yellow brick road.
Whether you like the film or not, I think depends on how you react to Franco. Oscar Diggs is very much the antihero, and in the opening scenes it's hard to find anything to like about him. Even in Oz, he's slavering over piles of gold, trading in one witch for the next and being an all round cad. It takes a long time - possibly too long - for him to transform into the likeable character at the end, who battles smoke and mirrors illusions against the real magic of the evil witches.
Mila Kunis as Theodora the witch is... both unsettling and sizzling (literally). Brilliant piece of casting. Rachel Weisz plays her evil sister, Evanora, a cold hearted vamp, and Michelle Williams rounds out the trio (there's always three witches..) as the good witch Glinda.
A little bit too long, but very enjoyable. We're off to see the wizard. 7/10
Monday 11 March 2013
New STID trailer
I don't normally post trailers for movies I haven't seen, but a new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer came out at the weekend. I am *so* looking forward to this movie...
Saturday 9 March 2013
Mockingjay
Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins
★★★★★
17 year old Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. Twice. And Snow has exacted his revenge by destroying District 12. The few survivors have relocated to 13, the home of the rebellion, and Katniss is called upon to become the Mockingjay, figurehead of the resistance. But at what cost to her? Her friends? Her family? Or is she just a pawn in a bigger Hunger Games that engulfs the whole capitol?
I read this originally about a year ago, when the Hunger Games movie came out, and decided to read the books again with a somewhat more critical eye (from the technical, writing perspective).
I may have said it before, but Collins is a master (mistress?) of the art of writing a hard and brutal third act. I know I'm a big softie, but even the second time through, I couldn't read the last couple of chapters more than a page at a time. Characters and plot are artfully crafted, but there is a sense, particularly in Part 3 that it's Collins who is the real enemy, not the Capitol or the rebels. Obstacles (and deaths) seem to be put there because she can, not because they serve the story, and that, I think, lets it down slightly.
Other than that though, she doesn't pull her punches, and we go through the wringer along with Katniss, and feel her sense of loss and devastation at the end.
Awesome writing, and upgraded my original rating to ★★★★★.
I really don't know how they're going to turn it into a 12A rated movie though.
Broken City
Certificate 15 109 minutes, ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Mark Wahlberg plays Billy Taggart, a Private Eye hired by Russell Crowe's corrupt mayor to spy on his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in this noir-esque political crime drama. While he's at it, he uncovers the usual den of corruption, gets shot at, chased, finds a stash of incriminating documents dumped in a dumpster (what's wrong with email?), people get killed, cars get smashed, the usual suspects get rounded up.
This thriller is pretty much by the numbers, and while it does have noir overtones that make one hanker for Chinatown or The Maltese Falcon, Wahlberg is not in the same league as Bogart, or Nicholson. Add to that the slack pacing and tired plot, and the result is pretty lacklustre.
On the plus side, Crowe does not sing. 6/10
Mark Wahlberg plays Billy Taggart, a Private Eye hired by Russell Crowe's corrupt mayor to spy on his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in this noir-esque political crime drama. While he's at it, he uncovers the usual den of corruption, gets shot at, chased, finds a stash of incriminating documents dumped in a dumpster (what's wrong with email?), people get killed, cars get smashed, the usual suspects get rounded up.
This thriller is pretty much by the numbers, and while it does have noir overtones that make one hanker for Chinatown or The Maltese Falcon, Wahlberg is not in the same league as Bogart, or Nicholson. Add to that the slack pacing and tired plot, and the result is pretty lacklustre.
On the plus side, Crowe does not sing. 6/10
Safe Haven
Certificate 12A, 88 minutes, ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
I have never been a fan of romance novels, so maybe it's a bit strange that I don't mind sitting through the occasional RomDram. Or possibly it's just cold and wet out and I need somewhere warm for an hour or two (that's what I tell myself...)
Nicholas Sparks (The Lucky One, Dear John, etc) has often been accused of being formulaic, and certainly within a few minutes of the opening you can pretty much guess the entirety of the plot and the inevitable twist at the end. And so it is with this film. But if you go into it knowing what to expect, it that such a bad thing? It's like comfort food.
And so we have Katie (Julianne Hough - Rock of Ages, Footloose, Burlesque), an attractive young blonde (possibly) woman, obviously running away from "something", who ends up at a small North Carolina seaside town, where she meets Alex (Josh Duhamel - Transformers Dark of the Moon, New Year's Eve), a hunky widower, who runs the small general store.
For a long time nothing much happens. But it's pretty. Then the "something" catches up, and there is the obvious plot twist, followed by another plot twist that is either daft, or also obvious (if you ever watched an episode of The Twilight Zone). The end.
Julianne Hough is nice to look at. The North Carolina scenery is nice to look at. That's me happy. It's a Nicholas Sparks movie, what do you expect? 7/10
I have never been a fan of romance novels, so maybe it's a bit strange that I don't mind sitting through the occasional RomDram. Or possibly it's just cold and wet out and I need somewhere warm for an hour or two (that's what I tell myself...)
Nicholas Sparks (The Lucky One, Dear John, etc) has often been accused of being formulaic, and certainly within a few minutes of the opening you can pretty much guess the entirety of the plot and the inevitable twist at the end. And so it is with this film. But if you go into it knowing what to expect, it that such a bad thing? It's like comfort food.
And so we have Katie (Julianne Hough - Rock of Ages, Footloose, Burlesque), an attractive young blonde (possibly) woman, obviously running away from "something", who ends up at a small North Carolina seaside town, where she meets Alex (Josh Duhamel - Transformers Dark of the Moon, New Year's Eve), a hunky widower, who runs the small general store.
For a long time nothing much happens. But it's pretty. Then the "something" catches up, and there is the obvious plot twist, followed by another plot twist that is either daft, or also obvious (if you ever watched an episode of The Twilight Zone). The end.
Julianne Hough is nice to look at. The North Carolina scenery is nice to look at. That's me happy. It's a Nicholas Sparks movie, what do you expect? 7/10
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
Certificate 15, 88 minutes, ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Jeremy Renner plays a grown up, diabetic Hansel against Gemma Arterton's Gretel in this post-fairy tale take of what happened to Hansel and Gretel after they grew up.
In essence, they become steampunk witch hunters, and, er, hunt witches. That's pretty much it.
Ummm... I'm going to start off by saying this movie isn't actually bad. But it isn't good either. I think the problem with it is that it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. It kind of wants to be a kooky fun movie for the kids, but they put so much gore and violence (and ladybits) in that this audience won't see it. Yet there's not enough "meat" to the film that an older audience would be satisfied.
Remember how the other week I said they had ruined A Good Day to Die Hard by making it a 12A? Well they ruined this one by not making it a 12A.
Stay out of the Candy Cottage next time! 5/10
Jeremy Renner plays a grown up, diabetic Hansel against Gemma Arterton's Gretel in this post-fairy tale take of what happened to Hansel and Gretel after they grew up.
In essence, they become steampunk witch hunters, and, er, hunt witches. That's pretty much it.
Ummm... I'm going to start off by saying this movie isn't actually bad. But it isn't good either. I think the problem with it is that it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. It kind of wants to be a kooky fun movie for the kids, but they put so much gore and violence (and ladybits) in that this audience won't see it. Yet there's not enough "meat" to the film that an older audience would be satisfied.
Remember how the other week I said they had ruined A Good Day to Die Hard by making it a 12A? Well they ruined this one by not making it a 12A.
Stay out of the Candy Cottage next time! 5/10
Thursday 28 February 2013
Song for Marion
Certificate PG, 93 minutes, ★★★★★★★★☆☆
I can't help thinking I must be turning into a Saga Lout... Hot on the heels of Dusting Hoffman's Quartet, Paul Andrew Williams' gran-com stars Terence Stamp as grumpy pensioner Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave as his ever cheerful wife, Marion. Marion's joy in life is singing with a local choir, the "OAPz", led by Elizabeth (Gemma Aterton)
When Marion succumbs to a long-standing illness, Arthur tries to hide away, but through perseverance, Elizabeth eventually brings him out of his shell, into the choir, and helps rebuild the relationship with his estranged son (Christopher Eccleston).
This film is bound to be compared against Quartet, since both are about old people singing, but I have to say I think this is the better film. Sure it's less glitzy and is obviously made on a shoestring, but it wears its heart on its sleeve, and it doesn't pull its punches: unlike Quartet, we do get the magic song finale, and very fine it is too.
Worth seeing just for the 80-somethings belting out "Let's talk about sex, baby..." 8/10
I can't help thinking I must be turning into a Saga Lout... Hot on the heels of Dusting Hoffman's Quartet, Paul Andrew Williams' gran-com stars Terence Stamp as grumpy pensioner Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave as his ever cheerful wife, Marion. Marion's joy in life is singing with a local choir, the "OAPz", led by Elizabeth (Gemma Aterton)
When Marion succumbs to a long-standing illness, Arthur tries to hide away, but through perseverance, Elizabeth eventually brings him out of his shell, into the choir, and helps rebuild the relationship with his estranged son (Christopher Eccleston).
This film is bound to be compared against Quartet, since both are about old people singing, but I have to say I think this is the better film. Sure it's less glitzy and is obviously made on a shoestring, but it wears its heart on its sleeve, and it doesn't pull its punches: unlike Quartet, we do get the magic song finale, and very fine it is too.
Worth seeing just for the 80-somethings belting out "Let's talk about sex, baby..." 8/10
Wednesday 27 February 2013
Indie Scene
Just out today is the first issue of Indie Scene, the electronic magazine for readers and writers of independently published books. Edited by Rosen Trevithick, a successful Indie author in her own right, and published through the Indie Book Bargains web site, the first issue clocks in at 54 pages.It's packed with feature articles, interviews with award winning authors, book reviews, short stories and even a quiz. You can download it as a PDF from http://www.indie-book-bargains.co.uk/indie-scene-magazine/ for totally free. Now if that's not a bargain, I don't know what is!
Saturday 23 February 2013
The new Blurb
This is my new blurb for Hunted:
23rd Century Britain is tough. There's few people, no oil and no electricity (by order). Kingsmen rule the country with a rod of iron, and exact the severest of penalties for the smallest of crimes.
When a mysterious boy falls from the sky, sixteen year old Flick Carter must save him. That is her first crime. Falling in love is her second. But someone even worse than the Kingsmen wants him - and now her - dead. In a town of just 150 people, you can't hide. So you run. Or you die.
23rd Century Britain is tough. There's few people, no oil and no electricity (by order). Kingsmen rule the country with a rod of iron, and exact the severest of penalties for the smallest of crimes.
When a mysterious boy falls from the sky, sixteen year old Flick Carter must save him. That is her first crime. Falling in love is her second. But someone even worse than the Kingsmen wants him - and now her - dead. In a town of just 150 people, you can't hide. So you run. Or you die.
Friday 22 February 2013
Hunted Update
Progress is going well on the third draft - I'm probably about halfway through that, although there is still feedback to come from some of the beta readers. I've spent some time working on the design for the cover, which I'm now pretty happy with. I've also done a cover for Socko's First Day, which was previously published in A Splendid Salmagundi, and will be made available as a standalone short. Both covers are shown below.
With a fair wind, and no major rewrites, I'm hoping both books will be available around the end of April for the eBook versions, with a possible paperback to follow.
With a fair wind, and no major rewrites, I'm hoping both books will be available around the end of April for the eBook versions, with a possible paperback to follow.
Monday 18 February 2013
(not) A Good Day to Die Hard
Certificate 12A (seriously?) 97 minutes ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Oh dear. Oh very dear.
The film opens in a Moscow nightclub where we see a man kill someone in cold blood. We then switch to the good old U S of A, where cop John McClane is preparing to travel to Moscow to find out why his estranged son, Jack, is on trial for murder. When he gets there, yelling "I'm on vacation!" at anyone who'll listen, he quickly finds himself in the middle of a terrorist plot.
What then follows is three set-piece action sequences (car chase, hotel shoot-out, helicopter shoot-out) that defy logic, believability and survivability. - Willis and Courtnay leap 20 stories through a plate glass window while under intense fire from a helicopter gunship, and Willis quips "that was fun, want to go again?"
These action pieces are then strung together by the most inane, badly scripted drivel. Mostly Bruce Willis shouts "I'm on vacation." At least it was easy to learn. Then we rush off to Chernobyl (a distance of 430 miles, according to google - I'd love a car that can drive that in one night!) for more destruction, plus tonnes of weapons grade uranium that just happens to be stashed there..
What made the original Die Hard great was the fish out of water believability: One cop, one building, one night, 13 terrorists. Simples.
Now, we have a geriatric indestructible super hero father son bonding CIA movie. The action sequences by themselves work on a generic action-hero level, which is about the best I can say. The dancing, carrot-chomping "villain" is not a patch on Alan Rickman's shadow, yet alone the man himself. The linking scenes are risible. In short, this is *NOT* any kind of Die Hard movie.
And to add insult to injury, the UK version was cut for a 12A rating.
Yippie ky.... Nah. I'm on vacation. 5/10
Oh dear. Oh very dear.
The film opens in a Moscow nightclub where we see a man kill someone in cold blood. We then switch to the good old U S of A, where cop John McClane is preparing to travel to Moscow to find out why his estranged son, Jack, is on trial for murder. When he gets there, yelling "I'm on vacation!" at anyone who'll listen, he quickly finds himself in the middle of a terrorist plot.
What then follows is three set-piece action sequences (car chase, hotel shoot-out, helicopter shoot-out) that defy logic, believability and survivability. - Willis and Courtnay leap 20 stories through a plate glass window while under intense fire from a helicopter gunship, and Willis quips "that was fun, want to go again?"
These action pieces are then strung together by the most inane, badly scripted drivel. Mostly Bruce Willis shouts "I'm on vacation." At least it was easy to learn. Then we rush off to Chernobyl (a distance of 430 miles, according to google - I'd love a car that can drive that in one night!) for more destruction, plus tonnes of weapons grade uranium that just happens to be stashed there..
What made the original Die Hard great was the fish out of water believability: One cop, one building, one night, 13 terrorists. Simples.
Now, we have a geriatric indestructible super hero father son bonding CIA movie. The action sequences by themselves work on a generic action-hero level, which is about the best I can say. The dancing, carrot-chomping "villain" is not a patch on Alan Rickman's shadow, yet alone the man himself. The linking scenes are risible. In short, this is *NOT* any kind of Die Hard movie.
And to add insult to injury, the UK version was cut for a 12A rating.
Yippie ky.... Nah. I'm on vacation. 5/10
Saturday 16 February 2013
Wreck-It Ralph
Certificate PG. 108 minutes ★★★★★★★★★☆
John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Alan Tudyk are the voice talent in this John Lasseter produced Disney animation about a video game character that goes AWOL.
Back in the 80s the video arcade had a game called Fix-It Felix Jr. Players controlled Felix (voiced by Jack McBrayer), a repairman whose job it was to fix windows broken by the bad guy Ralph (John C. Reilly). Now in the 21st century, somehow this video game still lurks in a corner of the arcade.
But Ralph is fed up with being the bad guy. Once the arcade is closed for the night, he slips away from the
game to Bad Anon in Game Central - somewhere out beyond the power sockets. But the villains support group doesn't provide Ralph with the answers he wants to hear, and eventually he goes "turbo", abandoning his game in search of a medal, which he feels will bring him the respect he deserves.
Kids'll love it like it's half term. Adults will love it for the video game pastiche (I'm sure I wasn't the only one with a hankering to hit the video arcades after seeing it). Player 1 Press Start. 9/10
John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Alan Tudyk are the voice talent in this John Lasseter produced Disney animation about a video game character that goes AWOL.
Back in the 80s the video arcade had a game called Fix-It Felix Jr. Players controlled Felix (voiced by Jack McBrayer), a repairman whose job it was to fix windows broken by the bad guy Ralph (John C. Reilly). Now in the 21st century, somehow this video game still lurks in a corner of the arcade.
But Ralph is fed up with being the bad guy. Once the arcade is closed for the night, he slips away from the
game to Bad Anon in Game Central - somewhere out beyond the power sockets. But the villains support group doesn't provide Ralph with the answers he wants to hear, and eventually he goes "turbo", abandoning his game in search of a medal, which he feels will bring him the respect he deserves.
The first game he visits is the Halo-styled 'Hero's Duty', where he infiltrates a squad of soldiers led by Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch), and from there he goes to a racing game, 'Sugar Rush', where he encounters the glitch, Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman).
Directed by Rich Moore (The Simpsons, Futurama) and executive produced by John Lasseter (Toy Story 1, 2, 3...), this has all the verve of Pixar's classics, and easily rivals the best of them. Yes the Disney schmaltz does hit in the second half, which is tooth-decayingly, diabetes-inducingly sweet, but by then you're hooked.
Kids'll love it like it's half term. Adults will love it for the video game pastiche (I'm sure I wasn't the only one with a hankering to hit the video arcades after seeing it). Player 1 Press Start. 9/10
Friday 15 February 2013
Beautiful Creatures
Certificate 12A, 124 minutes ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Now that Sparkle the Vampire is finally excised from our consciousness, the studios inevitably have something lined up to take its place, and so enter Beautiful Creatures, cynically timed some (i.e. me) might say to coincide with "V" day (no, not Vampires. The other thing. With kissing and overpriced roses. Yes, *that* one). This is a paranormal romance based on the Young Adult series of novels by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.
If, like me, you associate paranormal romance with the moping and dreary Twiglet, by now your fingers will be somewhere down your throat. Well, pull them out, because this film is not half bad. This film has wit, (Southern) style and panache. And the always brilliant Dame Eileen Atkins.
And so the inevitable happens and Ethan falls for Lena. But there's a complication: If a caster (what the Ravenwoods call themselves) falls for a mortal... well there's a curse. And on her sixteenth birthday (there's a neat little tattoo on her hand that counts down the days) Lena will find out whether the curse has struck and she is claimed for the dark side...
The two leads are convincing and put in a good performance, but the Brit supporting cast drive it home with both barrels, leaving the back row in no doubt who's boss.
Not sure I'll go out and read the book (even if it is only £2.99 on Amazon), but I probably won't say no to the inevitable sequels.
7/10
Wednesday 13 February 2013
The Graceful Slicks
A friend of mine (well, the stepson of a friend, if you want to be really accurate) is the drummer in an Oxford-based band, the Graceful Slicks. They've just released a new 3 song demo. Check them out:
Monday 11 February 2013
2ND Draft
Good news: The second draft of Hunted is now finished, and a Word file is being prepared to go out to test readers. I'm working on designs for the cover, and after a short break to do other things, and once I've got feedback from the testers, I'll get to work on the third (and hopefully final) draft. Woohoo!
Thursday 7 February 2013
Lincoln
Certificate 12A, 2h 29m, ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Daniel Day Lewis stars as Abe in Steven Spielberg's powerful political drama, set near the end of the American civil war.
The film opens with a brief scene of bloody hand to hand fighting - the only actual battle in the movie. for the most part, the action takes place in Washington D.C. during January of 1865, between Lincoln's second election and inauguration. In this brief window, Lincoln has an opportunity and a dilemma: End the civil war, one of the bloodiest in history, with a compromise deal with the Confederate army, or push through the 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution, thereby abolishing slavery and forcing the South to surrender.
This issue is at the heart of the drama. The 13th amendment, which states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."is both incendiary and divisive, and Lincoln has to find another 20 votes to get the bill through congress. At the same time he must hold together his own cabinet, keep his generals happy and manage his family. This all plays out like a historical version of The West Wing.
DDL is outstanding as the 16th President, charismatic and witty (helped by an outstanding script), and supporting performances are excellent, notably by Sally Field as Mrs Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones as Vice President Thaddeus Stevens, David Strathairn as William Seward, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln's son Robert, and James Spader, John Hawkes and Tim Blake Nelson as the three political "fixers", coercing bribing and blackmailing people into voting the right way.
This film earns a solid 8, but no doubt it'll be hitting above its weight in the Oscars stakes, simply because it's Lincoln.
Daniel Day Lewis stars as Abe in Steven Spielberg's powerful political drama, set near the end of the American civil war.
The film opens with a brief scene of bloody hand to hand fighting - the only actual battle in the movie. for the most part, the action takes place in Washington D.C. during January of 1865, between Lincoln's second election and inauguration. In this brief window, Lincoln has an opportunity and a dilemma: End the civil war, one of the bloodiest in history, with a compromise deal with the Confederate army, or push through the 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution, thereby abolishing slavery and forcing the South to surrender.
This issue is at the heart of the drama. The 13th amendment, which states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."is both incendiary and divisive, and Lincoln has to find another 20 votes to get the bill through congress. At the same time he must hold together his own cabinet, keep his generals happy and manage his family. This all plays out like a historical version of The West Wing.
DDL is outstanding as the 16th President, charismatic and witty (helped by an outstanding script), and supporting performances are excellent, notably by Sally Field as Mrs Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones as Vice President Thaddeus Stevens, David Strathairn as William Seward, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln's son Robert, and James Spader, John Hawkes and Tim Blake Nelson as the three political "fixers", coercing bribing and blackmailing people into voting the right way.
This film earns a solid 8, but no doubt it'll be hitting above its weight in the Oscars stakes, simply because it's Lincoln.
Monday 4 February 2013
Excession
Excession by Iain M. BanksMy rating: ★★★★☆ (3½)
This is the first of Banksie's Culture books that I've read. Lots of people suggest that Player of Games is a better starting point, but this was a group read, and so start here I did. Consequently i got dumped in at the deep end, and for the first few chapters it's very much a case of sink or swim.
Once you've got over the shock, it settles down into an interesting, although never really "exciting" read. There were too many diverse characters (almost everything is a "character" from people to aliens to drones, bots, ships, even the space suits) for me really to keep track of or care much about what happened to them. So, at the end I wasn't fired up to go to go and immediately seek out another Culture novel, although I'm sure I shall read more in the fulness of time.
View all my reviews
Saturday 2 February 2013
Zero Dark Thirty
15 Certificate, 157 minutes. ★★★★★★★★★★
Katheryn Bigelo's controversial film about the ten year hunt for Osama Bin Laden stars Jessica Chastain as the Maya, unrelenting CIA agent who doggedly follows cold trail after cold trail to find the terrorist leader.
We're all familiar with Seal Team Six and the raid/invasion in Pakistan that finally got Bin Laden - or at least we think we are - and this movie takes us behind the scenes in a part-fictionalised account of the hunt and the tragedies that led to it.
The film opens with a harrowing audio-only representation of 9/11, using phone calls made from the burning World Trade Centre. It then takes us to the Black Ops site at GITMO (Guantanamo Bay) where we see prisoners being tortured for information. It's here we meet CIA operative Maya, on her first assignment, and we follow her to Pakistan where she starts tracking down Bin Laden's elusive courier. The film culminates in an exacting and gripping recreation of the Seal raid on Bin Laden's compound, with Bigelo's characteristic hard-hitting style, which works all the better for the long procedural build-up. I won't - I can't spoil the ending, because, let's face it, we all know.
Jessica Chastain absolutely carries the film, and we are utterly convinced by her fervent - revolutionary, almost - unsentimental determination. She's backed up by an excellent supporting cast, including cameos by James Galdolfini and John Barrowman.
At the end of almost three hours (and ten years), Maya finds herself alone in the back of a C130, it's all been done. The pilot asks her, "Where do you wanna go?" The camera lingers on her face... she has no answer, fade to black.
Katheryn Bigelo's controversial film about the ten year hunt for Osama Bin Laden stars Jessica Chastain as the Maya, unrelenting CIA agent who doggedly follows cold trail after cold trail to find the terrorist leader.
We're all familiar with Seal Team Six and the raid/invasion in Pakistan that finally got Bin Laden - or at least we think we are - and this movie takes us behind the scenes in a part-fictionalised account of the hunt and the tragedies that led to it.
The film opens with a harrowing audio-only representation of 9/11, using phone calls made from the burning World Trade Centre. It then takes us to the Black Ops site at GITMO (Guantanamo Bay) where we see prisoners being tortured for information. It's here we meet CIA operative Maya, on her first assignment, and we follow her to Pakistan where she starts tracking down Bin Laden's elusive courier. The film culminates in an exacting and gripping recreation of the Seal raid on Bin Laden's compound, with Bigelo's characteristic hard-hitting style, which works all the better for the long procedural build-up. I won't - I can't spoil the ending, because, let's face it, we all know.
Jessica Chastain absolutely carries the film, and we are utterly convinced by her fervent - revolutionary, almost - unsentimental determination. She's backed up by an excellent supporting cast, including cameos by James Galdolfini and John Barrowman.
At the end of almost three hours (and ten years), Maya finds herself alone in the back of a C130, it's all been done. The pilot asks her, "Where do you wanna go?" The camera lingers on her face... she has no answer, fade to black.
Another Compo Winning Entry of Awesomeness
UKAKF's writing contest #10:
A huge floating duck has been released in Sydney harbour this week, and a comet is due to enter the solar system later this year, one that will, hopefully, be brighter than the moon in the night sky when it passes near. (sources from BBC and Guardian websites). Is the duck a homing beacon for the comet?
Write a 200 word sci-fi story linking the duck's appearance and the comet approaching!
Which I won with the following entry (yay!!!)
FindMyDuck
The barman at the Duck and Comet was worried: One of his ducks was missing. As a keen astronomer, he’d been looking forward to seeing the approaching comet for months. And the five giant yellow iDucks had seemed like a brilliant marketing idea: Watch the comet from your own floating duck and minibar. Each duck was fitted with a small pump-jet engine and an onboard computer that linked to a GPS for guidance. Four ducks were tied up at the quayside, but where was number five?
A phone call to Geoff at iDuck Support produced instructions: Run FindMyDuckHD. The barman installed the app onto his iPad and launched it. The familiar maps interface appeared to show a location that was either Tyneside or… Sydney?
Just then the phone rang. ‘I think I have a lead on your missing duck,’ Geoff said, ‘turn on the TV news!’
He did, and could clearly see his duck. It really was in the middle of Sydney Harbour. Only now it was hovering above the water, and a brilliant green ray of light shot up from it into the sky. He was about to open his mouth when every screen in the world went blank.
You'll find all the entries here.
A huge floating duck has been released in Sydney harbour this week, and a comet is due to enter the solar system later this year, one that will, hopefully, be brighter than the moon in the night sky when it passes near. (sources from BBC and Guardian websites). Is the duck a homing beacon for the comet?
Write a 200 word sci-fi story linking the duck's appearance and the comet approaching!
Which I won with the following entry (yay!!!)
FindMyDuck
The barman at the Duck and Comet was worried: One of his ducks was missing. As a keen astronomer, he’d been looking forward to seeing the approaching comet for months. And the five giant yellow iDucks had seemed like a brilliant marketing idea: Watch the comet from your own floating duck and minibar. Each duck was fitted with a small pump-jet engine and an onboard computer that linked to a GPS for guidance. Four ducks were tied up at the quayside, but where was number five?
A phone call to Geoff at iDuck Support produced instructions: Run FindMyDuckHD. The barman installed the app onto his iPad and launched it. The familiar maps interface appeared to show a location that was either Tyneside or… Sydney?
Just then the phone rang. ‘I think I have a lead on your missing duck,’ Geoff said, ‘turn on the TV news!’
He did, and could clearly see his duck. It really was in the middle of Sydney Harbour. Only now it was hovering above the water, and a brilliant green ray of light shot up from it into the sky. He was about to open his mouth when every screen in the world went blank.
You'll find all the entries here.
Tuesday 29 January 2013
The Well of Lost Plots
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper FfordeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is book three in the Thursday next series. Swindon has become too hot, and so Thursday decides to hide out in book world, where she gets a job within the Well of Lost Plots (where unpublished novels languish) as part of the Character Exchange Programme, as a character in the unpublished novel, Caversham Heights. (funnily enough, I was in Caversham earlier today...)
We get all the witty dialogue and characters out of classic literature that we've seen in the previous books (not that this, or anything else will ever persuade me to *like* Dickens or Bronte - the horror of them is too deeply embedded), but the discussion on the "had had and that that problem" was simply priceless.
But I knew I was going to like this as soon as Thursday set foot aboard the one-engined Sunderland she called home. Why? Because my mum worked on Sunderlands for Short Bros during the war, and consequently it has long been one of my favourite aircraft, and any book with a flying boat in it (even a non-functional one!) will automatically get my vote!
Fforde's sense of humour tickles me in just the right places, and although I haven't read (and don't necessarily intend to read) all the classics he references, that doesn't in any way diminish the experience. Can't wait for the next one.
BTW the version I "read" was the unabridged audiobook from Audible.co.uk, narrated by Gabrielle Kruger, and I'd definitely recommend this format and narrator if you're interested in listening rather than reading.
View all my reviews
Monday 28 January 2013
Django Unchained
Certificate 18, 2 hours 45, ★★★★★★★★★☆
Quentin Tarantino likes his red sauce, and Django Unchained has plenty of it. The film starts when bounty hunter and former dentist, Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds, The Green Hornet, Water for Elephants) buys the slave Django (Jamie Foxx - Collateral, Miami Vice, Horrible Bosses) to help him track down the Brittle Brothers in exchange for his freedom. Along the way, Schultz is persuaded to help Django find and free his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington - Boston Legal), who had been sold to ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio - Inception, Titanic, J Edgar).
It's been a while since we had a decent Western, and Django Unchained kickstarts the genre with a brilliantly fresh, witty - and violent - way. Schultz is a silver-tongued, suave cynic, who believes that bounty hunting - bringing in criminals dead or alive - is a flesh for cash business just like slavery. When Schultz discovers that Django's wife speaks German, he decides to help reunite them.
The performances from the cast are astounding. Foxx, Waltz and DiCaprio as the three leads surely delivered oscar-worthy performances, and Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen the house-slave delivers a masterful performance that is both funny and someone that you'll come to really detest. There are many other big name actors taking on minor roles, such is the pull of a Tarantino movie. The music was brilliant, and the violence was extreme but artistic in a way that reminds you of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill and most definitely reminds you that this is a Tarantino movie.
Is this the best film Tarantino has ever made? No, that crown is still held by pulp Fiction. But this is close. Damn close. Awesome.
Quentin Tarantino likes his red sauce, and Django Unchained has plenty of it. The film starts when bounty hunter and former dentist, Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds, The Green Hornet, Water for Elephants) buys the slave Django (Jamie Foxx - Collateral, Miami Vice, Horrible Bosses) to help him track down the Brittle Brothers in exchange for his freedom. Along the way, Schultz is persuaded to help Django find and free his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington - Boston Legal), who had been sold to ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio - Inception, Titanic, J Edgar).
It's been a while since we had a decent Western, and Django Unchained kickstarts the genre with a brilliantly fresh, witty - and violent - way. Schultz is a silver-tongued, suave cynic, who believes that bounty hunting - bringing in criminals dead or alive - is a flesh for cash business just like slavery. When Schultz discovers that Django's wife speaks German, he decides to help reunite them.
The performances from the cast are astounding. Foxx, Waltz and DiCaprio as the three leads surely delivered oscar-worthy performances, and Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen the house-slave delivers a masterful performance that is both funny and someone that you'll come to really detest. There are many other big name actors taking on minor roles, such is the pull of a Tarantino movie. The music was brilliant, and the violence was extreme but artistic in a way that reminds you of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill and most definitely reminds you that this is a Tarantino movie.
Is this the best film Tarantino has ever made? No, that crown is still held by pulp Fiction. But this is close. Damn close. Awesome.
Old man's War - Update
Here's a quick update to my OldMan's War review post earlier this month. Sword and Laser have published their wrap-up episode video for the book, where they talk about it in some depth, and you can watch it here:
Sunday 27 January 2013
The Serpent in the Glass
The Serpent in the Glass by D.M. AndrewsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
On his eleventh birthday, Thomas Farrell finds out that his dead parents have left him a glass orb containing a mysterious serpent, and a scholarship to the Darkledun Manor school for gifted children. But the school turns out to contain a portal into a mystical and mythical land...
My first impression of this book was "Harry Potter meets Narnia", but the more I read, the more i was reminded of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, although for a younger audience. This is aimed squarely at older children, or the younger end of the YA scale. We don't get wizards and magicians, but instead worlds based on myth and legends, with a cast of mystical creatures and things that are not always what they seem.
If I have to be picky, I'd say that the book takes its time to get started, and then when it eventually does get going, it ends. At the end of the book we're left feeling that things have only got started. On the plus side that leaves us longing for more, but on the minus side I feel we could have had more.
View all my reviews
Saturday 26 January 2013
Word Cloud
I recently discovered word clouds - graphical representations of the words in a piece of text, scaled by the number of times they occur, and arranged in aesthetically interesting ways. They occur frequently in the sidebars of blogs and forums, but we can also generate word clouds for anything, thanks to www.wordle.net. All you need to do is copy and paste your text into the text box on the Create page, and hit the Go button. That's what I did with the first draft of Hunted, and this is what I got:
Now, there's a whole bunch of things you can change, both aesthetically (font, colours, word orientations etc) and informationally (number of words shown, suppressing common words etc). You can also get complete word counts (the word 'the' occurs 5499 times, for example).
Looking at the cloud for Hunted, my four main characters (Flick, Shea, Adam, Rosie) are obviously large, but there are some other, smaller words that appear to be rather prominent, and maybe deserve to be looked at in the second draft to see if they are being over-used (back, just, looked, around, like, well...)
Monday 21 January 2013
Life of Pi
Life of Pi by Yann MartelMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Tedious.
Like many, I enjoyed the film and was conned into reading the book. It had "Booker Prize Winner" emblazoned on the cover, and that really should have been warning enough: nothing worth reading ever won the Booker, and this is no exception.
In it's favour, it helped me get to sleep several times. Currently it's available in the Kindle store for 20p, which is cheaper than a packet of Nytol.
View all my reviews
Thursday 17 January 2013
Gangster Squad
Rated 15, 113 minutes ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Reuben Fleischer directs Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña, Robert Patrick and Nick Nolte in this 1940s era gangster noir set in the streets of Los Angeles.
In 1940s LA, gangster Mickey Cohen (Penn) has got most of the town sewn up. The cops are in his pocket, and anyone who tries to cross him is fed to the dogs - literally. Until one grizzled, hard drinking police chief (Nolte) decides enough is enough. He instructs Sgt John O'mara (Brolin) to put together a covert team ("no badges, no names...") and drive Cohen out of town.
Brolin has a touch of the Dick Tracy square jaw about him, and his team is a suitably oddball assortment of characters: Kennard (Patrick) and Ramirez (Peña) form a double act with Peña's character being the sidekick 'Hopalong' to Patrick's moustachioed gunslinger. Ribisi is a slightly nerdish surveillance expert and Ryan Gosling's "Jerry Wooters" (yeah, right!) plays Face Man out of the A Team in a scorching romantic subplot with Emma Stone's good time girl.
The script is often witty, with some cracking one liners (many of them rude), and there's plenty of action and blazing tommy guns. Sean Penn's psychopathic villain steals the film, and is absolutely worth the price of admission. This is no Untouchables, even though the plot has many similarities, and it doesn't pretend to be, but it's a solid 113 minutes of fun-toting action.
Reuben Fleischer directs Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña, Robert Patrick and Nick Nolte in this 1940s era gangster noir set in the streets of Los Angeles.
In 1940s LA, gangster Mickey Cohen (Penn) has got most of the town sewn up. The cops are in his pocket, and anyone who tries to cross him is fed to the dogs - literally. Until one grizzled, hard drinking police chief (Nolte) decides enough is enough. He instructs Sgt John O'mara (Brolin) to put together a covert team ("no badges, no names...") and drive Cohen out of town.
The script is often witty, with some cracking one liners (many of them rude), and there's plenty of action and blazing tommy guns. Sean Penn's psychopathic villain steals the film, and is absolutely worth the price of admission. This is no Untouchables, even though the plot has many similarities, and it doesn't pretend to be, but it's a solid 113 minutes of fun-toting action.
Wednesday 16 January 2013
World War Z
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max BrooksMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
You know that scene in Silver Linings Playbook where Bradley Cooper's character gets so infuriated with Hemingway's A farewell to Arms that he throws it through the window? Well that's what i wanted to do to this. Only i didn't because it was on my iPad, and that would be really expensive, yet alone the cost of fixing the window...
Global Zombie Apocalypse as told by the survivors, what's not to like? On first sight, the oral history premise seemed really interesting (I've avidly listened to many of the WWII remembrances that the BBC has played over the years as part of their WW2 People's War project - I'm a big fan), but frankly - and sadly - this came over like a political report, dull and lifeless (no pun intended). You only need to read the first couple of accounts, and you basically have the whole story. yes the others add little dribs and drabs of info here and there, but there's no excitement or tension, or indeed anything driving or encouraging you to keep going.
The one good thing? The zombies didn't sparkle.
There's a movie coming out later in the year, but judging by the trailer, it has an actual story and isn't a direct adaptation of the book. So it might actually be worth seeing.
View all my reviews
Tuesday 15 January 2013
Les Misérables
Rated 12A for moderate violence and language, 158 minutes ★★★★★★★★★☆
Tom Hooper directs Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sascha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Redmayne in this adaptation of the musical by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer, from the novel by Victor Hugo.
There probably isn't anyone in the country who hasn't at least heard of Les Mis or the song I dreamed a dream (even if it's only the Susan Boyle cover), regardless of whether they've seen the West End show. Now, it's probably fair to say that if you hated the musical (or the song...), you'll hate the film. but if you loved the stage show, boy are you going to lap this up!
The film is based on the show, which is based on the book by Victor Hugo. Jean Valjean (Jackman) has been imprisoned for nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread. When he breaks the terms of his parole, he is mercilessly hunted by Inspector Javert (Crowe). Determined to turn his life around, Valjean becomes mayor and a factory owner. Here he crosses paths with the tragic Fantine (Hathaway), and vows to take in and raise her daughter Cosette. Some years later, the grown-up Cosette meets and falls in love with the revolutionary Marius (Redmayne), just as Paris is about to explode into violence...
The movie opens with a sweeping shot over wrecked ships of the line, blasted by waves on the beach and being dragged into a dry dock by hundreds of prisoners pulling on waterlogged ropes and singing the first number, Look Down. This sets the tone and scale of the film: Vast and sweeping; epic. It's grim and gritty, brutal and relentless. The songs rip your heart out and then come back for more.
The film is very much in your face -- literally -- with the camera pushing in to extreme close ups. Not only do we get to see what the actors had for tea yesterday, but we also see the passion and commitment they bring to their part, often with throbbing veins to boot. Jackman and Crowe are the only real constants in the 17 years that the film spans; the other characters appear only for a much shorter time. Jackman carries the film, and although his singing is not to the standard of, say, a professional singer, it is competent if a little wobbly at times. Anne Hathaway makes but a brief appearance as Fantine, but her rendering of I dreamed a Dream, live and all in one take, is worthy of an Oscar (she already got the Golden Globe) and will be the standard for years to come.
Mention must also be made of Sascha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the comic relief villains Mr & Mme Thénardier, the evil innkeepers. Comic villains are somewhat of a speciality, and the pair are well suited to the parts.
If I have to find a criticism, it would be the sets. Particularly in Paris, and especially the barricade, look out of place compared to the rest of the film. They seem very small and static, giving the feeling that the action is taking place on a stage rather than in the streets of a big city.
Raw and slightly rough around the edges, nevertheless this movie has "Oscar" written all over it.
Man the barricades!
Tom Hooper directs Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sascha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Redmayne in this adaptation of the musical by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer, from the novel by Victor Hugo.
There probably isn't anyone in the country who hasn't at least heard of Les Mis or the song I dreamed a dream (even if it's only the Susan Boyle cover), regardless of whether they've seen the West End show. Now, it's probably fair to say that if you hated the musical (or the song...), you'll hate the film. but if you loved the stage show, boy are you going to lap this up!
The film is based on the show, which is based on the book by Victor Hugo. Jean Valjean (Jackman) has been imprisoned for nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread. When he breaks the terms of his parole, he is mercilessly hunted by Inspector Javert (Crowe). Determined to turn his life around, Valjean becomes mayor and a factory owner. Here he crosses paths with the tragic Fantine (Hathaway), and vows to take in and raise her daughter Cosette. Some years later, the grown-up Cosette meets and falls in love with the revolutionary Marius (Redmayne), just as Paris is about to explode into violence...
The movie opens with a sweeping shot over wrecked ships of the line, blasted by waves on the beach and being dragged into a dry dock by hundreds of prisoners pulling on waterlogged ropes and singing the first number, Look Down. This sets the tone and scale of the film: Vast and sweeping; epic. It's grim and gritty, brutal and relentless. The songs rip your heart out and then come back for more.
The film is very much in your face -- literally -- with the camera pushing in to extreme close ups. Not only do we get to see what the actors had for tea yesterday, but we also see the passion and commitment they bring to their part, often with throbbing veins to boot. Jackman and Crowe are the only real constants in the 17 years that the film spans; the other characters appear only for a much shorter time. Jackman carries the film, and although his singing is not to the standard of, say, a professional singer, it is competent if a little wobbly at times. Anne Hathaway makes but a brief appearance as Fantine, but her rendering of I dreamed a Dream, live and all in one take, is worthy of an Oscar (she already got the Golden Globe) and will be the standard for years to come.
Mention must also be made of Sascha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the comic relief villains Mr & Mme Thénardier, the evil innkeepers. Comic villains are somewhat of a speciality, and the pair are well suited to the parts.
If I have to find a criticism, it would be the sets. Particularly in Paris, and especially the barricade, look out of place compared to the rest of the film. They seem very small and static, giving the feeling that the action is taking place on a stage rather than in the streets of a big city.
Raw and slightly rough around the edges, nevertheless this movie has "Oscar" written all over it.
Man the barricades!
Friday 11 January 2013
Old Man's War review
Old Man's War by John ScalziMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
It's John Perry's 75th birthday and he has just two things to do: Visit his wife's grave, and join the army. The Colonial Defence Force is recruiting. They only recruit from the elderly, and in exchange for ten years of your life (assuming you survive - there is a war on, after all) they will make you young again. But there is a catch: You will be declared legally dead, and must leave the Earth, never to return.
John signs up and is shipped out up the space elevator (or "beanpole") and into a new life as a soldier. In the process he meets a bunch of new friends ("the Old Farts"), gets his rejuvenation, goes through training and off to fight the aliens.
In one sense, this reads like Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers but with old people. And indeed Scalzi acknowledges Heinlein's influence in the introduction. The characterisations are good, although in the early stages of the book, the Old Farts don't seem to be as old as they should be - there's less "oldness"; creaking limbs, bad eyesight/hearing, complaints and general crotchetyness than I was expecting. The aliens are mean, vicious, nasty, and not something you want to meet on a brightly lit battlefield yet alone in a dark alley.
It's not a funny book, yet there is much to laugh about and Scalzi has a humourous twist to his writing. There are moving and poignant moments too, because ultimately this is a war story, and there are battles and not everyone survives.
There are several more books in the series, and I shall definitely be reading them.
I picked up this book as an ebook in a Humble Bundle deal late last year, and it's the January pick over at Sword & Laser (which gave me a good excuse to read it - and I'm glad I did!)
View all my reviews
See the wrap-up video: http://timarnot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/old-mans-war-update.html
Monday 7 January 2013
Billy Christmas review
Billy Christmas by Mark A. PritchardMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Billy Christmas is a story about a boy called, strangely enough, Billy Christmas. Nearly a year ago, Billy's father mysteriously disappeared and nobody has seen him since. His mother withdrew into herself, and twelve year old Billy is forced to cope on his own. Then, shortly before Christmas he gets what turns out to be a magical christmas tree along with twelve mysterious ornaments. Each ornament leads to a task which Billy must perform in order to complete a quest which will hopefully find and return his father.
This story, which is Pritchard's debut novel, mixes elements of fairy tales, magic and fantasy as Billy embarks on his quest. Along the way we meet his best friend Katherine, Agnes the mysterious old duck lady, Robert the school bully, and many others. The characters are all well drawn and thoroughly believable. It's set in the Buckinghamshire town of Marlow (halfway between Maidenhead and High Wycombe, just off the A404). and thanks to having aged relatives near there when I was a boy, I was well able to visualise the locations just as they were described, from Higginson Park, the church, the suspension bridge, weir...
I can't help thinking that the title is going to let this book down and consign it to the realm of seasonal offerings, which would be a shame. Even though it's about a boy called Christmas, and set around Christmas, it's suitable for reading at any time of the year. And not just by kids; although it's "aimed" at ages 12 and up, really anyone from about 10 to, well, the oldest person you know, will get a kick out of reading it. The one downside is the price. It's a paperback, albeit a deluxe luxury paperback with flaps and everything that makes it feel really quite special, but it's at a hardback price, i.e. the ouch end of expensive, which means you'll need either to grit your teeth or buy the Kindle edition.
View all my reviews
Thursday 3 January 2013
Quartet movie review
Rated 12A for language, 98 minutes. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Dustin Hoffman directs Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon and the delectable Sheridan Smith in this wrinkly romcom set in a home for retired musicians. Wilf (Connolly), Reggie (Courtenay) and Cissy (Collins) are three members of an operatic quartet who are set to sing at the annual fundraising concert. But when Jean Horton (Smith), the fourth member of the quartet, and Reggie's ex-wife moves into the home, things start to get complicated.
At first glance you'd be forgiven for thinking this is rather similar to last year's Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Well, you'd be not far wrong, and indeed Maggie Smith stars in both films. Both films appeal more to the parents and grandparents, rather than the kids, and that was borne out by the audience at the showing I attended. (It's unusual for me to be at the younger end of the audience!)
There was plenty of banter, repartee and live music. The saucy exchanges between Billy Connolly and Sheridan Smith got plenty of laughs from the audience.
This was Dustin Hoffman's directing debut, and Maggie Smith has been nominated for the Best Actress - Comedy or Musical award at this year's Golden Globes.
Dustin Hoffman directs Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon and the delectable Sheridan Smith in this wrinkly romcom set in a home for retired musicians. Wilf (Connolly), Reggie (Courtenay) and Cissy (Collins) are three members of an operatic quartet who are set to sing at the annual fundraising concert. But when Jean Horton (Smith), the fourth member of the quartet, and Reggie's ex-wife moves into the home, things start to get complicated.
At first glance you'd be forgiven for thinking this is rather similar to last year's Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Well, you'd be not far wrong, and indeed Maggie Smith stars in both films. Both films appeal more to the parents and grandparents, rather than the kids, and that was borne out by the audience at the showing I attended. (It's unusual for me to be at the younger end of the audience!)
There was plenty of banter, repartee and live music. The saucy exchanges between Billy Connolly and Sheridan Smith got plenty of laughs from the audience.
This was Dustin Hoffman's directing debut, and Maggie Smith has been nominated for the Best Actress - Comedy or Musical award at this year's Golden Globes.
Wednesday 2 January 2013
The 3 Ws
First off, can I say a slightly belated Happy New Year to both my readers! Yay, we've survived the Mayan end of the world, although rumour has it that the previously undeciphered inscription at the bottom of the calendar tablet actually says "Continued on next rock..."
Now, administrative matters. I'm sad to say that my old faithful 17" Macbook Pro is up for sale. It was never really the right machine for me, and has spent most of the last few months being used as an iTunes server. Which is not really the best use for a power laptop. Anyhow that'll soone be off to a good home, and I've cleared the rubbish off my desk for the 27" iMac that will replace it. This is the machine I should have got in the first place. It'll serve me for writing, programming, flight simming too, and it'll run Windows through BootCamp, which means I can give the creaky old centrino laptop the boot too (or use it for playing with Linux or sommat) Yay! Space is being cleared, long-forgotten walls are starting to appear and so on!
But I'm happy to say I'll still be see in cafés across Oxon and Berks with my beloved Macbook Air, which I have to say really is the ultimate blend between power and portability (if it only had a 27" screen...!)
So, finally to the point of this post. The 3Ws. I'm changing the emphasis of this blog a bit. This is in line with the 2013 challenge I set myself on Goodreads (see the full thread here). It's a three part challenge:
Reading: In 2012 I managed to read 70 books, so for 2013, I've challenged myself to read a round 100. That's effectively two a week on average. Now, I didn't join Goodreads until April, so that's when the counter started, which means if I keep going as I am now, I have a good chance of winning that challenge.
The first few books coming through the system are:
Writing: Obviously the most important thing is to get Hunted out of the door. But I'm also planning Hunting at the moment, and it would be good to get that an the (currently unnamed) third part of the trilogy finished before the end of the year. If I'm exceptionally good, I'd like to get the first draft of Starstruck written too.
Watching: The Cineworld Unlimited Card had a lot to answer for in 2012. 70-odd movies in fact (I listed them all in the Goodreads thread above). So this year's challenge is to watch at least 50, and to review them too. Aren't you lucky! [sarcasm mode off]
So what films do we have to look forward to in 2013? Well I've already seen the first movie, Quartet, which will be the subject of my next post, but we have coming up:
And that barely takes us to June!
And I'll keep you up to date with all the thesping, writing and other stuff too. Promise (or is that a threat...)!
Toodle pip!
Now, administrative matters. I'm sad to say that my old faithful 17" Macbook Pro is up for sale. It was never really the right machine for me, and has spent most of the last few months being used as an iTunes server. Which is not really the best use for a power laptop. Anyhow that'll soone be off to a good home, and I've cleared the rubbish off my desk for the 27" iMac that will replace it. This is the machine I should have got in the first place. It'll serve me for writing, programming, flight simming too, and it'll run Windows through BootCamp, which means I can give the creaky old centrino laptop the boot too (or use it for playing with Linux or sommat) Yay! Space is being cleared, long-forgotten walls are starting to appear and so on!
But I'm happy to say I'll still be see in cafés across Oxon and Berks with my beloved Macbook Air, which I have to say really is the ultimate blend between power and portability (if it only had a 27" screen...!)
So, finally to the point of this post. The 3Ws. I'm changing the emphasis of this blog a bit. This is in line with the 2013 challenge I set myself on Goodreads (see the full thread here). It's a three part challenge:
- (W)Reading (it worked for the "3 Rs", so I'm claiming this!)
- Writing
- Watching
Reading: In 2012 I managed to read 70 books, so for 2013, I've challenged myself to read a round 100. That's effectively two a week on average. Now, I didn't join Goodreads until April, so that's when the counter started, which means if I keep going as I am now, I have a good chance of winning that challenge.
The first few books coming through the system are:
- Billy Christmas (Mark Pritchard - a thesping mate of mine)
- Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
- Excession (Iain M. banks)
- Old Man's War (John Scalzi)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (JK Rowling)
Writing: Obviously the most important thing is to get Hunted out of the door. But I'm also planning Hunting at the moment, and it would be good to get that an the (currently unnamed) third part of the trilogy finished before the end of the year. If I'm exceptionally good, I'd like to get the first draft of Starstruck written too.
Watching: The Cineworld Unlimited Card had a lot to answer for in 2012. 70-odd movies in fact (I listed them all in the Goodreads thread above). So this year's challenge is to watch at least 50, and to review them too. Aren't you lucky! [sarcasm mode off]
So what films do we have to look forward to in 2013? Well I've already seen the first movie, Quartet, which will be the subject of my next post, but we have coming up:
- Les Misérables
- Wreck-It Ralph
- Hitchcock
- A Good Day to Die Hard
- Broken City (DeeDee, did they make your book into a film already???!)
- Identity Thief
- The Croods
- Fast & Furious 6
- Despicable Me 2
And that barely takes us to June!
And I'll keep you up to date with all the thesping, writing and other stuff too. Promise (or is that a threat...)!
Toodle pip!
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