Books
Story (Robert McKee) ★★★★


Movies
The Way ★★
Submarine ★★½
The Monuments Men ★★★½

Managed to catch up on some reading and gaming due to a sprained ankle. Left me unable to walk for the better part of the week. Finally got through Metal Gear Solid 4.

• A Farewell to Arms (1929), Ernest Hemingway - ★★★★ - It's the first I've read of Hemingway, I think. It's a really good book about a man trapped in war and the duty that comes with it. I need to read more Hemingway.

• Machete Kills (2013, dir. Robert Rodriguez) - ★★ - I watched this while "enjoying" one of Metal Gear Solid 4's cutscenes. Seeing them side-by-side made me realise something. This is far better acting, directing and production than Metal Gear and I still consider Machete worse. Not much to say about it except that the promise of a pulp action movie wasn't really fulfilled upon.
• Magic Mike (2012, dir. Steven Soderbergh) - ★★★ - I like movies that define male sexuality. If there's something there's too little of it's guys enjoying their sexuality and presenting it. Also, this is literally a movie about waiting for Matthew McConaughey to take of his cloths. It's good fun and it's better than Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience.

• Kentucky Route Zero: Act III [PC] (2014, dev. Cardboard Computers) - ★★★★ - How does something out-Twin Peaks Twin Peaks and make it better? KRZ is amazing and I'm enjoying every single second of it. Act IV can't come soon enough!
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot [PS3] (2008, dev. Kojima Productions) - ★★★ - Metal Gear has always been American military bravada as seen and interpreted by the Japanese anime tradition. Here it comes off as more awkward than it has in the past. It's still a good game but the cutscenes and CODEC-moments makes me thank I have Threes to keep me company.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare [PC] (2007, dev. Infinity Ward) - ★★★½ - Clearing that backlog. For the first time I actually sat down and played through it. Got a feeling for the military bravada but Metal Gear wasn't cutting it. It's a good campaign with lots of variety. It keeps encounters interesting unlike most modern shooters and you can tell the developers love the genre.
• Bastion [PC] (2011, dev. Supergiant Games) - ★★★½ - A good sized adventure with some really good gameplay mechanics. From handling scaling difficulty to giving you a wide array of tools to get through the game in your way it delivers. The narrator is a really nice touch. (Why hello there Transisor!)

Dumb question: How do you input the "star" character?

Viridian6 said:

Dumb question: How do you input the "star" character?

Click to expand...

Just copy from my post.

killertofu 3/50 Books 38/50 Movies


Not actually the worst movie I've ever seen. I really needed to just watch something dumb and this provided it. Maybe I liked it more cause I was drinking


Kind of cute with some really fantastic performances but it reminded me way too much about my hometown. The mom was super annoying. The ending was fantastic though.


I honestly have no idea how to rank this movie. I can't tell if I love it or hate it. I will probably rewatch this in the future.


The more I thought about it, the less stars i wanted to give it. It was decent enough.


Didn't really do anything for me


Movie was a little overhyped to me. It was a decent enough action flick.


Movie delivered on so many levels. I liked the first half more than the second but it wrapped everything up pretty well. Man, I hate JLaw's Mystique though.

I love Spike Jonze's work but never had gotten around to seeing this. It's just so weird and amazing and unique... I'm convinced Charlie Kaufman is a fucking genius


I really need to catch up on books. I'm almost done with 3 consecutive ones.

Did we ever make up a rule about TV shows? I'm watching Twin Peaks now...

kinoki said:

Just copy from my post.

Click to expand...

Guess that works. Impressive progress btw

Breaking 50/50 movies with X-Men: Days of Future Past tonight. I went ahead and put it on the list now, since it's just a few hours away.

I need to pick up the pace on book reading, I've been very slow this year.

I don't finish half as many books as I start. June & July are going to be my finishing months.

I read 450 pages of Infinite Jest this weekend to finish it, the last 250 pages today. God damn, what a fantastic second half.

Finally got around to posting an update. 24/50 movies and 25/50 books.

After reading the first two Harry Bosch books earlier this year and not being that impressed with the second one, I picked them up again and liked them even more. I'm about to finish another Michael Connelly book. I'll probably end up reading all of his books this year. I've got about 19 left to go. Great detective fiction/mystery novels.

Just squeezed in my final book for May, The Two Towers. I got through this second volume far quicker than the first volume due to the Kindle. I was expecting lots of walking and a pure focus on that, but people who made that claim were hyperbolic, since everything went at a fairly solid pace. The movies allowed me to paint a vivid picture of Tolkien's world, which allowed me to read through the imagery quickly. I'll finish this trilogy sometime during the summer. I like Tolkien, but I need variety!

★★★★

Now I am on pace to complete the challenge.

It's time again for my monthly update DieUnbekannte - 24/50 books | 23/50 movies

new books

• Neil Gaiman - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane -> a fantastic story, I enjoyed every single page! ★★★★★
• Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea -> I liked it a lot, but
  Spoiler

  the descriptions - e.g. of fish - were just too much. At the beginning the story was a little bit slow and only got good after the first half.
  ★★★ 1/2
• Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham - The Thousand Dollar Tan Line -> after the TV series and movie I was really happy to find out that there's going to be a book too. And I just loved it - it's like an episode of Veronica Mars in book form ★★★★★
• Gene Wolfe - The Shadow Of The Torturer -> great world, but I hoped I would enjoy this book more than I actually did. And I just didn't really care for the characters. There were a few times I had no idea what's going on - maybe I should have picked up the German translation ★★★ 1/2
• Jim Butcher - Proven Guilty -> once again a great story, but I did like the previous one better. ★★★★

new movies

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
• Frozen (2013)
• Cowboy Bebop The Movie (2001)
• The Worlds End (2013)
• Godzilla (2014)

Gotta watch one more movie to make the cut! Think I'll watch Ace Attorney tonight

Jintor said:

Gotta watch one more movie to make the cut! Think I'll watch Ace Attorney tonight

Click to expand...

I'm one movie short too. I will have to watch something tomorrow night

Update.



Books:



Movies:

Had a slow month book-wise, only four, but I've now watched 50 movies woo

Books:

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski ★★★★
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ★★★★★
White Noise by Don DeLillo ★★★
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami ★★★

First Murakami books. Very enjoyable. I've got a copy of IQ84 lying around here that I'll probably read soon too.

Movies:

Philomena ★★★★
The King of Comedy ★★★★
Snowpiercer ★★★★½
The Good, The Bad, The Weird ★★★½
The Newton Boys ★★★½
Memories of Murder ★★★★★
Hoop Dreams ★★★★
Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan's Hope ★★

Watched some very different types of films this month.

lastflowers said:

I read 450 pages of Infinite Jest this weekend to finish it, the last 250 pages today. God damn, what a fantastic second half.

Click to expand...

Damn, nice work on that pace!

My ankle is still sprained so I have had a lot of time just lying around. A major sprain, that's for sure. Been watching Battlestar: Galactica and been working my way through season 4 so I haven't been watching a lot of movies.

• Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Joseph Campbell - ★★★★½ - While it may be a bit wonky at times it never once stops oozing of creativity. Anyone looking for inspiration of any kind needs to read this. Great way to deconstruct a mythos.
• Nordic Religion in the Viking Age (1999), Thomas A. DuBois - ★★★★ - Some really odd aestetics in the book aside this is essential reading if anyone is interested in nordic religions.

• Red Dawn (2012, dir. Dan Bradley) - ★★ - Was playing through Modern Warfare 2 and had to stop due to stupidity and needed to see if this movie was just as stupid. My conclusion: it's just as stupid but it's entertaining. The American bravada is so stupid in this movie.

• Child of Light [PS4] (2014, dev. Ubisoft Montreal) - ★★★½ - A quiet and somber melody. It's so nice and relaxing that its charm just washes over you. However as a game it's quite repetitive and the skill-tree is annoyingly bloated. The Oculi seems to be an after-thought and never really go anywhere. Could have done some cutting in those aspect. And the many characters you get in your rag-tag team is quite the ensamble if it wasn't for the fact you end up not using half of them.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [PC] (2009, dev. Infinity Ward) - ★★★ - Aside from all the stupid, and there's lots of that to go around, it's pretty entertaining. When you let your mind drift and the incoherent scenes that string the "plot" along just act as a backdrop it's entertaining. From what I've seen of MW3 (which I won't play since I don't own it) it goes full retarded so it's a downward spiral from the first which actually pulled off the genre quite well.

kinoki said:

kinoki - 33/50 Books | 51/50 Movies | 31/50 Games​

movies.

Books​

[*]Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Joseph Campbell - ★★★★½ - While it may be a bit wonky at times it never once stops oozing of creativity. Anyone looking for inspiration of any kind needs to read this. Great way to deconstruct a mythos.

Click to expand...

Oh hey I'm reading that right now.

As for me...



Surreal as hell, very creative but could have used some trimming


Very well done for Christopher Nolan's first film but didn't really do anything for me


Everything is awesome.

I can't believe it took me this long to watch this. Simply fantastic. I really want to just dive into whatever articles has been written about this film


EDIT: What happend to TragicComedy?

I got to see X-Men DOFP, which puts me at this month's goal. It was good for a blockbuster flick. I give it 3.5/5

EDIT: What happend to TragicComedy?

Click to expand...

Banned, but coming back soonish according to Cyan.

End of May check in:

SolKane - 12/50 books | 5/50 movies

Books
1. Hiroshima - John Hersey
2. The Good War - Studs Terkel
3. The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
4. The Winds of War - Herman Wouk
5. Night - Elie Wiesel
6. Dawn - Elie Wiesel
7. Day - Elie Wiesel
8. A Bell for Adano - John Hersey
9. Human Smoke - Nicholson Baker
10. Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo
11. War and Remembrance - Herman Wouk
12. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Tadeusz Borowski

Movies
1. Reality Bites
2. Prisoners
3. The Wolf of Wall Street
4. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
5. Blue Jasmine

End of may checkin!

lastflowers - 37/50 books | 34/50 movies

Books:

• Ernest Hemingway - In Our Time (145) [9735]
• Jonathan Lethem - Motherless Brooklyn (310) [10,045]
• James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (240) [10,285]
• Jonathan Lethem - You Don't Love Me Yet (245) [10,530]
• Herman Melville - Redburn (340) [10,870]
• Don Delillo - Ratner's Star (430) [11,300]
• Sigmund Freud - The Interpretation of Dreams (585) [11,885]
• David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest (1025) [12,910]
• David Winner - Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer (275) [13,185]
• Don Delillo - Great Jones Street (265) [13,450]
• Richard Powers - The Echo Maker (450) [13,900]

Movies:

• Draft Day - 2013
• Videodrome - 1983
• Side Effects - 2012
• The Amazing Spiderman 2 - 2014
• Godzilla - 2014
• Badlands
• Tree of Life
• Godzilla - 2014
• Manhunter - 1986
• Serenity
• XMen Days of Future Past - 2014

Tremas - 21/50 Books | 27/50 Movies​

End of May update. Here's what I've seen/read since last update.

Books
The Trial (Franz Kafka)
America (Franz Kafka)
The Castle (Franz Kafka)
Good Omens (Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett)
World War Z (Max Brooks)
Our Man in Havana (Graham Greene)
White Noise (Don DeLillo)
The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner)
The Orphan Master's Son (Adam Johnson)


Movies
Captain america - The Winter Soldier
Dredd
The Raid 2: Berandal
The Double
Calvary
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Sex and the City 2
Godzilla (2014)
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Frank


Frank is comfortably my movie of the year so far.

killertofu said:

Oh hey I'm reading that right now.

Click to expand...

How are you liking it? For me it inspired me to write some short stories again so I wrote a couple of outlines. I like the works of him and Eliade (The Sacred and the Profane, if you haven't read it). There's so much creative energy when you break down the mythos of religion.

This month:

Narc ★★★★
Smashed ★★
Demonlover ★★ (When the hentai kicked in I was baffled)
Down terrace ★★★
Before the devil knows you're dead ★★★★
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance ★★★
America, America ★★★★★
The raid 2 ★★★★
The peddler - Richard s Prather ★★★
Stranger by the lake ★★★ (made no real sense in the end)
The informant (2012 documentary) ★★
Apocalypse now ★★★★★
The disenchanted - budd schulberg ★★★★1/2
Barney's version ★★★★ (The end broke my heart)
Another earth ★★
At close range ★★★
East of Eden ★★★★
Vulgaria ★★★
Gimme the loot ★ (one of the worst acted / most boring films i've ever seen)
I'm a cyborg, but that's ok ★★★
Ordet ★★★★ (Understand why it's so revered)
Someone to watch over me ★★★
Murder is my business - Brett halliday ★★★
Godzilla (2014) ★★ (So disappointing, very weak CGI)
Azooma ★★★
Carancho ★★★★
Paparazzi - Zero stars, absolutely woeful
You're next ★ (just dreadful, nothing clever about it at all)
Saga of the swamp thing: volume 3 - Alan Moore (★★★&#9733
Midnight in Paris ★★★★ (much more fun than the opening half an hour lead me to believe)
The sportswriter - Richard Ford ★★★★★ (best book so far this year)
God's pocket - ★★★★
Inside Llewellyn Davis ★★ (very very poor, much worse than I expected)

kinoki said:

How are you liking it? For me it inspired me to write some short stories again so I wrote a couple of outlines. I like the works of him and Eliade (The Sacred and the Profane, if you haven't read it). There's so much creative energy when you break down the mythos of religion.

Click to expand...

I'm loving it so far. I love reading up on various mythology/old folk stories and I love how it's breaking it down. There are definitely some stories I want to revisit after finishing this.

And I'll check out those books too

Let's see... this month...

Jintor - 32/50 books | 21/50 movies

• Homicide Special - Miles Corwin ★★★
• The Choirboys - Joseph Wambaugh ★★★
• The Victorian Internet - Tom Standage ★★★★
• Stiff - Mary Roach ★★★
• Terry Pratchett - The Spirit of Fantasy - Craig Cabell ★
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman ★★★★

• Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie (1999) ★★★
• The Raid: Redemption (2011) ★★★★
• Godzilla (2014) ★★★★
• Ace Attorney (2012) ★★★★

Oh yeah, I should update since halfway through the year.

Update: Narag - 9/50 Books | 163/50 Movies​

Books

1. Brain Wave (B+)
2. The Emperor's Soul (A+)
3. Steelheart (B+)
4. The Mote In God's Eye (A-)
5. The Universe in Zero Words (A)
6. Rendezvous With Rama (A+)
7. Divergent (B+)
8. Frankenstein (A)
9. You (A-)
10. The Forever War (A+)
11. Wizard's Bane (B+)
12. Joy of X (A)
13. The Golem and the Jinni (A+)
14. Dune (A)
15. Raising Steam (A-)
16. Anansi Boys (A+)
17. The Absolute Sandman: Volume 1 (A+)
18. The Other Eight (A)
19. Wearing the Cape (B)
20. I, Robot (A)
21. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (B+)
22. 14 (A-)
23. Absolute Sandman: Volume One (A+)
24. Absolute Sandman: Volume Two (A+)
25. Absolute Sandman: Volume Three (A+)

Movies

1. Gattaca (A+)
2. Sunshine (A-)
3. Catching Fire (A-)
4. Frozen (A+)
5. Battle Royale (A+)
6. The LEGO Movie (A-)
7. The Breakfast Club (A+)
8. Galaxy Quest (A+)
9. 5 Centimeters Per Second (B)
10. Europa Report (B+)
11. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (A+)
12. Looper (A-)
13. X2 (B)
14. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (B-)
15. Lost in Translation (A)
16. Wolf of Wall Street (A-)
17. X-Men Days of Future Past (A)
18. Young Frankenstein (A)
19. Last Holiday (B+)
20. Last Vegas (A-)
21. Speed Racer (B+)
22. Labyrinth (B)
23. My Neighbor Totoro (A)
24. Spirited Away (A)

New update!

Books:

• Arthur Rimbaud - Årstid i Helvete (Une Saison en Enfer) (1873)
• Camilla Groth - Nature boy (2008)
• James S.A. Corey - Leviathan Wakes (2011)
• Jan Ove Ekeberg - I sverdets tid (In the Age of the Sword) (2011)
• Johan Theorin - Rörgast (2013)
• Knut Haugland and Svein Sæter - Operatøren: Knut Hauglands egen beretning (The Operator: Knut Haugland's Own Story) (2008)
• Larry Correia - Monster Hunter International (2007)
• Lois McMaster Bujold - The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
• Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013)
• Ronald Grambo - Norske trollformler og magiske ritualer (Norwegian Spells and Magical Rituals) (1979)
• Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen - The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day (2013)
• Thomas Marco Blatt - 1920 Sørumsand (2012)
• William Shakespeare - The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623)

• Robert Jordan - The Eye of the World (1990)

Films:

• Cidade de Deus (City of God) - Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund (2002)
• El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) - Guillermo del Toro (2006)
• Intouchables (The Intouchables) - Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (2011)
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - Kenneth Branagh (2014)
• Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) - Hayao Miyazaki (1984)
• Lone Survivor - Peter Berg (2013)
• Mad Max - George Miller (1979)
• Non-Stop - Jaume Collet-Serra (2014)
• RoboCop - José Padilha (2014)
• The Lego Movie - Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (2014)
• The Monuments Men - George Clooney (2014)
• The Pirate Fairy - Peggy Holmes (2014)

Forsaken82 – 4/50 Books | 37/50 Movies

Added a few new movies since last update. Only about half way through my next book, but still well on pace to outdo my books from last year.

killertofu said:

I'm loving it so far. I love reading up on various mythology/old folk stories and I love how it's breaking it down. There are definitely some stories I want to revisit after finishing this.

And I'll check out those books too

Click to expand...

Some reading tips if you want to know more.

Mircea Eliade wrote The Sacred and the Profane (1957) and that's pretty much up the same alley as Hero with a Thosand Faces. He also complied a lot of various sacred writings and listed them in order of theme in Essential Sacred Writings From Around the World. It's a big book and I think it's available online. It's a nice companion-piece to have.

There's also Peter Berger's The Sacred Canopy (1967) and Victor Turner's The Ritual Process (1969).

Three books that all deal with the deconstruction of mythos. Really good books.

Welp..

16/50 Books | 34/50 Movies

Books aren't looking too good. Ones I'm on now are pretty big too.

May update!:

20 movies this month! My most ever! I doubt I'll watch that many movies in a month again, I just had way too much free time this month and it doesn't look like that will be repeated until maybe next year. Also read 5 books, which is another record for me. Oddly enough, even though this has been my most productive month as far as reading and watching movies is concerned, there were no clear cut books or movies of-the-month. It took me quite a while to decide, but not because of an abundance of good stuff. Rather, most of the items I consumed this month weren't that inspiring (still very good of course). Anyway, these 20 movies bring my total of movies watched to 68, which means............

MOVIE CHALLENGE CLEARED!




==============

I follow my own personal 4 star scale:

★★★★ = Timeless Masterpiece
★★★ = Buy
★★ = Rent/Borrow
★ = Avoid

=============

ridley182 - 16/50 Books | 68/50 Movies

Books:

The Maltese Falcon ★★★
Animal Farm ★★★
VALIS &#9733;&#9733;&#9733; < Favorite Book of the Month
James and the Giant Peach &#9733;&#9733;
Beowulf (Tolkien's translation) &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;


Movies:

The Amazing Spiderman &#9733;&#9733;
Drive &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Galapagos Affair &#9733;&#9733;
Silver Linings Playbook &#9733;&#9733;
Naked Lunch &#9733;&#9733;
The Stuff &#9733;
The Fox and the Hound &#9733;&#9733;
Sunshine &#9733;&#9733;
Stagecoach &#9733;&#9733;&#9733; < Favorite Movie of the Month
Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Jesus Camp &#9733;&#9733;
Godzilla &#9733;&#9733;
X-Men: Days of Future Past &#9733;&#9733;
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files &#9733;&#9733;
Ida &#9733;&#9733;
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me &#9733;&#9733;
Locke &#9733;&#9733;
James and the Giant Peach &#9733;&#9733;
Cold in July &#9733;&#9733;
Natural Born Killer &#9733;&#9733;

=============

Favorite Book - May: VALIS

My first PKD book ever, and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. I guess the reason this was the one book that stuck in my mind the most (out of the ones I read this month) was because he wrote it while living in my town, so reading about places I can literally walk to in 5 minutes, or popular places/businesses that no longer exist, and that I used to frequent myself, affected me in a strange way. Another reason is that the book is apparently partially auto-biographical in a sense. PKD was truly an extremely smart and knowledgeable individual, although a little eccentric and maybe even somewhat disturbed. Great read.

Favorite Movie - May: Stagecoach

One of the greatest westerns ever filmed, or so I kept hearing, thus I finally decided to give it a try. I can't say it's my favorite western of all time, but it's definitely still watchable and very, very, VERY fun. Some of the stunts near the end were just amazing to see, considering the movie was filmed at the end of the 30s. The drama was great, the action was superb, the occasional suspense was also satisfying. Not sure I completely dig the ending, but overall a very pleasing film.

ridley182 said:

Favorite Book - May: VALIS

My first PKD book ever, and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. I guess the reason this was the one book that stuck in my mind the most (out of the ones I read this month) was because he wrote it while living in my town, so reading about places I can literally walk to in 5 minutes, or popular places/businesses that no longer exist, and that I used to frequent myself, affected me in a strange way. Another reason is that the book is apparently partially auto-biographical in a sense. PKD was truly an extremely smart and knowledgeable individual, although a little eccentric and maybe even somewhat disturbed. Great read.

Click to expand...

My favorite PKD-book. Now you have Man in the High Castle, Ubik or if you'd like to read the sequel to VALIS: The Divine Invasion to look forward to!

Always try to get people to read PKD.

why has our tragicomic foresaken us in this our hour of changeover

When Harry Left Hogwarts - Morgan Matthews &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;

This is the doco that's on the Harry Pottery blu-ray Deathly Hallows double-combo about the filming and last days of the last two films. It's directed by BAFTA-winning Morgan Matthews.

It's pretty bloody awesome for something that could've been a pretty cheap and thoughtless creation. The real strength of it is that Morgan lets, for the most part, the actors and cast members and crew do the talking. There's no pushy voiceovers, the only direct authorial input limited largely to spoken questions to whoever they're interviewing. The actors to a tee are all extremely interesting, even the ones that are only there for a few minutes (Michael Gaborn, Gary Oldman). It even picks up some stuff you don't really think about, from Daniel Radcliffe's first stunt double (who got horribly injured in an accident and ended up a quadriplegic) to the plasterers, the special effects artists, the dwarf (little people?) actors, and so on. There were a few actors missing altogether - Alan Rickman, Evanna Lynch, Bonnie Wright? - and Rupert Grint kind of got short shrift - but overall it's a really fascinating view of the community of the movie.

Obviously it's about Harry Potter, but I kind of feel it's not really about the franchise as such as it was about the end of an era of film, of this specific one. Of the end not of the filming of Harry Potter, but the community around the filming of Harry Potter. Ruminations by the child actors on an uncertain future. The 'just a job' attitude of the workmen who built the sets, the sense of worry on the part of set designers and plasterers and stunt doubles who have to move on and find something else - or not. Actually, whenever the doco turned to look at the fans most of what you got was a kind of screaming vocal presence like you'd see at a Beatles concert, except in the instances when the fans were crew members and so you got to see them as individuals instead of some kind of force of nature.

A great watch.

Books and Movies update -Zippedpinhead - 11/50 Books | 16/50 Movies

Books:

Word of Radiance was awesome. I am really liking Sanderson's world building, and that things seem to pay off even in the short term (no prophecy of things that are supposed to be stopped *now* but can take books and books to stop). Highly Recommend but start with the way of kings...

Movies:

The heat - Funny, wife liked it. I liked to imagine that this is what Sandra Bullock's FBI character from miss Congeniality did when she got older

Godzilla - So much better than the Emmerich Godzilla. Very worthwhile. I liked the human element, though I wish Sirkis had done a Godzilla sumo rush like they used to when filming in Toho-vision.

One for the money - Why did I let my wife convince me to watch this? (oh yeah, because I got her to go to Godzilla). not for me.

Books
23. Caliban's War, by James S.A. Corey and 24. The Butcher of Anderson Station, by James S.A. Corey

I mentioned on Twitter recently that Jim Holden is the least interesting character in the Expanse series, which is unfortunate since he seems like a common point-of-view character across the full-length books. To my surprise, whoever is managing the James S.A. Corey Twitter account messaged me back to say that they're aware of this complaint and that it's "the danger in having a character whose arc takes place across a dozen books instead of one book."

Nonetheless, it doesn't change the fact that Holden, for all his faults, is still the least interesting character in the series so far. It's not as if Holden doesn't experience change; he became due to fear and depression a more violent person after the events of Leviathan Wakes, and he reverts to a more reasonable person after he is called out on his behavior by Naomi in Caliban's War. Amos, Naomi, and Alex aren't expected to change much, since they're secondary characters, and we had some character development for Amos in Caliban's War.

This caused me to wonder why Holden seemed so uninteresting. It could be that's almost painfully naive about the idea of information transparency; he's called out on it respectively in Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War by separate characters, but his convictions lie in everybody knowing everyone so no one can hold dark and terrible secrets. If he changed this aspect of his personality, however, he would be a fundamentally different character. It could be that he's an Earther amongst a crew of Belters and Martians, yet there's no conflict among the crew based on their different backgrounds. It could be that the crew of the Rocinante is almost too well-functioning. You could justify their tight connections by citing their shared trauma, but when Holden empowers Naomi, Alex, and Amos to question his right to be their captain, there's very little tension in the scene even though it's structured to be a pivotal moment in the crew's relationship. Perhaps that's why Holden seems so uninteresting; he only faces external conflicts that can be solved at the point of a gun. He never has to convince anyone, particularly the people closest to him, to see his point of view. The crew of the Rocinante might be too well functioning to be interesting or dramatic.

It also struck me that the authors haven't exploited the ironies that shifting perspectives can so easily create. Chrisjen Avasarala, in particular, should have access to information that Holden and his crew lack. This is not explored. Irony can create tension; as they stand, the Expanse books have plot momentum, but very little tension.

Beside irony, shifting tensions should create characters that have different voices. I thought that the authors achieved this in Leviathan Wakes because Miller and Holden felt like different characters. And the pacing of transition between characters felt better realized in Leviathan Wakes; when Miller commits a shocking act in Leviathan Wakes at the end of a Holden chapter, we skip back a few moments in time in the following Miller chapter to go through Miller's thought process to understand why he did what he did. We don't get this type of insight into characters in Caliban's War; it's almost as if the scope is too large for the authors to execute this. Bobbie Draper's chapters felt very much like Prax's which felt like Avasarala's which felt like Holden's; we aren't invited to see the events from a different character's perspective. Instead, the shifting perspectives in Caliban's War felt like they were designed to keep the plot moving across a larger stage.

Someone compared Avasarala to The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker, but the authors don't have Armando Iannucci's creative use of profanity. I had hoped that the inclusion of a more political character like Avasarala would give greater insight into Earth culture and politics in the Expanse series, but we get very little beyond paint-by-numbers politics. Avasarala's nemeses, Errinwright and Admiral Nguyen, are practically one-note.

"The Butcher of Anderson Station" is a short story about the induction of Fred Johnson, the titular Butcher of Anderson Station, into the Outer Planets Alliance. It's a taste of the world that gives us some background on how Fred became the OPA's face, but it doesn't work unless you have read about Fred's boarding action on Anderson Station in Leviathan Wakes. Still, I'm not sure I gained any insight into Fred Johnson after reading "The Butcher of Anderson Station."

I mentioned elsewhere that the Expanse books make perfectly fine beach space opera. The plot moves, and the authors know how to craft a hook for the conclusion to guide you to the next book in the series. After nearly 1300 pages by these authors, I've come to the conclusion that what I want - deeper exploration of the politics and culture of Earth, Mars, and the Belt - aren't going to be the authors' focus. The series seems to be building to a point where it can either become something similar to Iain M. Banks's Culture series, or it could be a pulpier, more action-oriented series of books. Either progression is fine, though I'm banking on the latter.

Movies
36. X-Men: Days of Future Past

I needed an objective opinion on the film, which is why I was glad that my wife watched it with me. She's seen the two previous X-Men movies by director Bryan Singer, but she hasn't seen X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, or The Wolverine. She hasn't read the books that were the source material for the film. And she'll put up with some nerd films (we saw The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises together), but she has a limit (she won't see Godzilla, and she didn't see Captain America: The Winter Soldier).

I needed the second opinion because the future, dystopian sections of X-Men: Days of Future Past looked terrible, as if the film couldn't hide the fact that it was all computer-generated or on a soundstage. There might have been an intent to juxtapose the dystopian future with a troubled but more realistic looking past in order to create the contrast and to emphasize that the dystopian future should not have happened.

I needed the second opinion because the balance between the film's future and the past sections felt wrong. Some of the imbalance could be attributed to the actors' weight: on one hand, you have Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman and the weight of X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: The Last Stand, while you have James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence and the weight of X-Men: First Class. Between Stewart and Jackman and Stewart and McKellen, you have relationships that have carried multiple films. McAvoy, Fassbender, and Lawrence have only had one film's worth of history in the viewers' minds.

I needed the second opinion because the character arcs were truncated to the film's detriment. (For simplicity, let's call McAvoy's Charles Xavier "Charles," Stewart's "Professor X," Fassbender's character "Erik," and McKellen's character "Magneto.") Charles's character arc, from disillusioned drug addict to hopeful educator, felt shortchanged; recovering from as deep a hole as Charles was in should have been a greater struggle. It felt far too easy for Charles to become Professor X. Erik's arc didn't feel as shortchanged, but then Erik of First Class was always closer to Magneto of X-Men and X-Men United. His arc didn't feel shortchanged because there wasn't far for him to go. The real waste was Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Mystique. Her emotional journey deserved more than the film could afford to give it, since it already ran 2 hours and 11 minutes, and it had to serve a lot of masters in the process. There's no room for any of these actors (and that's not even counting McKellen, who gets practically nothing to do, Ellen Page and Halle Berry) to play, and I can't help but feel that they're all overqualified and wasted.

I needed the second opinion because the film delivers exposition in some of the most abrasive and heavy-handed ways I've seen in a film this year. Between Professor X telling Jackman's Wolverine how the process to send Wolverine's sub-conscious self back in time will work to Nicholas Hoult's Hank McCoy telling Wolverine why Charles was depressed, the film loves to tell.

I needed the second opinion because there's no way that Quicksilver should have been the best part of the film. Evan Peters's performance is charming, fearless, and funny. Yes, we should have gotten a nod that he's changed his portable music listening device (couldn't have been a Walkman, since they weren't available at retail until 1979, and there weren't many portable audio players commercially available around in 1973) so he could actually hear it while he operates at superspeed. But he's the coolest character in the film, and he has the best realized sequence in the film (violations of Newtonian physics notwithstanding).

Plausibility is the enemy, so we are invited to ignore Quicksilver's violations of Newtonian physics, the idea that the US military or Washington DC police wouldn't send aircraft to the White House after it had been enclosed by RFK Stadium, the collateral damage that falling chunks of steel and concrete would inflict on Washington DC as it levitated to the White House, and the idea that there would be an military-industrial demonstration on the White House lawn.

I needed the second opinion because the only emotional resolution of the film comes from seeing Wolverine interact with Professor X in a brighter, less robot-filled future. The film isn't interested in Charles's, Raven's, or Erik's journey's; it's focused on Wolverine, specifically the Wolverine who gets to interact with the stars of the older X-Men films. I suppose this makes sense; Singer would be interested in his versions of the toys in his movie rather than the ones that Matthew Vaughn developed in First Class.

I needed the second opinion because Singer surprisingly didn't try to weave allegory into Days of Future Past. There are some light references to the unintended consequences of a nation's expansion of its security apparatus, but nothing like X-Men United's coming-out scenes with Bobby Drake and his parents. There's no moral conflict; Terminator 2: Judgment Day showed us that is possible to make the unwitting architect of humanity's destruction into a sympathetic character, but there wasn't even an attempt to give Peter Dinklage's Bolivar Trask a second dimension, much less a third. The film wears out the Mystique-in-disguise gimmick fairly quickly because it's used the same way again and again.

I needed the second opinion because I thought this was a worse film than X-Men United and First Class, and I'm having a hard time understanding why all the film critics seemed to rave about Days of Future Past. X-Men United is defined by its action setpieces and the humor sprinkled throughout; there are shots I still remember from X-Men United. First Class is defined by the first half of the film, but especially Charles and Erik in the context of the 1960s, and especially the scene where Wolverine delivers a great F-bomb to Charles and Erik that gets paid off in Days of Future Past. Days of Future Past might be notable for the Quicksilver scenes and for the controversy around Bryan Singer that broke right before the film was released.

So at the end of this month we should have at least 25 books/movies to be on track...

I think I won't make it.

(¬_¬ Stupid responsabilities)

ScribbleD - 14/50 books | 30/50 movies

New

Movies
Jackass 1 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Jackass 2 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Robocop (2014) - &#9733;&#9733;
300: Rise of an Empire - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Godzilla (2014) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
The Amazing Spiderman 2 - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Captain America: Winter Soldier - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Tommy Boy - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Legend of Chun-li - &#9733;&#9733;
The Dark Knight - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;

Books
Readings in Cognitive Psychology - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Art of Access - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
A History of News - &#9733;&#9733;½
The Race Beat - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
The Sun and The Moon - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
The Victorian Internet - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Just the Facts - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;


Last Update

Books
Dragon Age: The Calling - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Dracula - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Fight Club - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Metamorphosis - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Mogworld - &#9733;&#9733;
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;

Movies
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Goodfellas - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Gladiator - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Kung Pow - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Oldboy - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
American Psycho - &#9733;&#9733;½
Long Road to the Hall of Fame - &#9733;
Thor: Dark World - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Robocop (2014) - &#9733;&#9733;
300: Rise of an Empire - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Gravity - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Dreams With Sharp Teeth - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Anchorman - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Frozen - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Silent Hill: Revelations - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Resident Evil - ½
Berserk: Egg of the King - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½
Berserk: The Battle for Doldrey - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Berserk: The Descent - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;

avengers23 said:

I needed the second opinion...

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So what was the second opinion?

Jeepers.

kinoki said:

My favorite PKD-book. Now you have Man in the High Castle, Ubik or if you'd like to read the sequel to VALIS: The Divine Invasion to look forward to!

Always try to get people to read PKD.

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Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are definitely in my "PKD books to read next" list. Also just purchased this PKD short story collection called "The PKD Reader". Good times ahead.

ridley182 said:

Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are definitely in my "PKD books to read next" list. Also just purchased this PKD short story collection called "The PKD Reader". Good times ahead.

Click to expand...

Totally forgot the Electric Sheep. First PKD book I read. A birthday present, actually. I think there's less than 5 novels of him that I haven't read. I had a phase in high school where I basicly read all I could get my hands on (including short stories). Ubik is a real trip, so don't forget that one.

a scanner darkly!

A ton of PKD's stuff: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1598530496/?tag=neogaf0e-20

it's a steal.

So I read through the majority of Earthsea, and I cannot go any further. I see the potential in the first novel, but the writing style is putting me to sleep. I am disappointed by it even more, since there are times where I legitimately enjoyed the novel. I am considering this book done, so I can go onto something more enjoyable. It might be time to jump back into non-fiction literature.

&#9733;&#9733;

Wait, Tragic is unbanned. He needs to do our monthly update!!!!!

Welcome back Tragicomedy!

Looking forward to the belated update.


I'm just about done the first book of Neil Stephensen's Baroque series, Quicksilver. It's good, but not exactly a plot heavy book. At least not yet.

kswiston said:

Welcome back Tragicomedy!

Click to expand...

Thanks. I was living out an Ice-T fantasy in Payday 2 last night with my brother and didn't realize I was freed from purgatory. Yes, I played a video game.

Stupid thing for me to go and get banned over. Damn the NBA GAF threads. Lots of intentional trolling, including from me. I'll tread lightly in the future.
I'll work on updating the thread later tonight. Until then, allow me to introduce the newest member of my family, Loki. Dude has kept me busy this week.

Click to expand...

Tragicomedy - 29/50 Books | 26/50 Movies

Lots to update for me. On the book front:

Glen Cook - She Is the Darkness (1998) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½ - Okay, so now I like Murgen as a narrator. The previous book seemed to meander tremendously, revisit material we already covered in the previous book (albeit from a different perspective), and generally come across as a bunch of filler. This book paints an increasingly complex portrait of all the players involved, adds a lot of depth to some of the minor characters, and builds up to a cliffhanger that has made me jump straight into the next book in the series. Two novels to go in what will likely go down as my favorite fantasy series ever.

James S.A. Corey - The Churn (2014) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733; - I've read everything published in the Expanse series, including the three novellas. This was by far the best of that bunch. It's a great story, but more importantly it reveals the past of one of the fan-favorite characters in the series. I have a much stronger understanding of Amos Burton and what makes him tick. If you're a fan of the series, this is a must-read. Cibola Burn hits just around the corner on 17 June. I'll have to wait and see if Amazon and Hachette can work out a deal or this will be my first physical book copy in a long time.

Hugh Howey - Sand Omnibus (2014) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733; - There is always something overwhelmingly intimidating and oppressive about the worlds Howey builds, and this is no different. This isn't set in the Wool universe, but he explores many similar themes about survival, human ingenuity, and the horrors of human nature. Some of the technological discussions in the book were quite interesting, and I enjoyed that it is set exactly where I live (though in a far less recognizable form). I fully expected the book would lead straight into a sequel, and I'm still convinced that will be the case. There are a lot of doors left to open and places to explore. Howey has shown a tendency to serialize his writing and build up his worlds via sequels, so I'm all for it. This could easily become the next Wool/Shift/Dust cycle if he wants.

Movies...

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson (2010) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733; - I'm a documentary whore, but this one missed too many golden opportunities. It focused too much on the director's own experiences in the Tidewater area, and not enough on the underlying currents of racism and fear that scar the area. I lived in Hampton for four years when I was assigned to Langley AFB, and felt racial undertones stronger there than in any of the dozen plus other places I've lived. There are obvious as many different perspectives and opinions as there are people in the region, but it felt particularly segregated and heated in my particular neighborhood. As this movie illustrates, the legal system reinforces racial tension by disproportionately singling out black people and ignoring or downplaying violence and provocation caused by whites. And yet even then, Iverson earned preferential treatment over friends and teammates charged with the same crime because he was a huge basketball star by that point of his high school career. It leaves a nasty coat of gunk on the tip of my tongue to see a system that dislikes men of a certain skin color unless they happen to be good at sports, in which case we'll be lenient with them and toss the book at their associates.

Ghost Rider (2007) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733; - This is the greatest movie I've ever seen. Nicolas Cage is on some Laurence Olivier type shit here. This makes the Avengers movie seem like a Fisher Price My First Superhero Story. Every snot-nosed college kid with a camera and a vision should be required to watch this before they hit the record button. Every script writer should keep a copy of this script next to their toilet, and quit hopelessly when they realize that nothing they could possibly write will ever be this good. Every special effects wannabe should bow before the flaming skull of death as it comes alive on screen. I can now die a happy man having seen this film.

Welcome back tragicomedy!

Welcome back! Oh man that dog looks awesome--congrats!


Books
One More Thing (B.J. Novak) &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;½

Movies
The Purge &#9733;&#9733;½

The Purge was pretty silly. Interesting concept though. "One More Thing" was surprisingly quite good. Didn't expect much from B.J. Novak (The Office, Saving Mr. Banks) but the stories were really funny and sweet. Towards the end, there was a bit of a dip in quality for me, but overall it was a good read. He's a pretty decent writer.

Update: Nezumi - 25/50 books | 39/50 movies

Slowly picking up my reading pace again. Even if it isn't as fast as I want it to be only three new books.



Read "The Girl who circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own making". I loved everything about this. It's a truly wonderful book that despite being mainly written for a younger audience touches many themes that "grown ups" can relate to as well. It actually made me cry at one point and I don't know when was the last time a book managed that.


I also started reading The Black Company books, which I also fairly enjoy. The first one jumped around a bit too much for my taste but still managed to engage me enough to keep reading and made me jump right into the next one which, while more polished, keeps all the things that made the first book so much fun to read.
It's just refreshing reading something that is just pure and good fun. No complex world-building or "magic systems" or overly gritty stuff. The characters are all sarcastic badasses and magic gets flung around in a wonderful flashy and over the top fashion (not to mention flying carpets!). I like it.

Watched a lot of Japanese movies lately and the third season of Sherlock which was excellent.