29. Top Gun
30. Lost Boys
31. B.A. Pass
32. The Graduate
I've been watching a few films in February. Ahem. I suppose it was to be expected after getting a new toy. But I think for March I will dedicate to the great out doors and books. Spring is here. Woot¬!
Reminder: it's the end of the month, so please update your master lists in the next five hours (or so) if you want them included in my next update.
During the last update, I noticed a few things that can help make tonight easier on me:
- Please update the numbers AND list in your "master post"
- Please verify that the link in the OPs goes to your list
- Please stick to the standard format as closely as possible
- If you're counting 500+ page books twice, make sure to indicate that
- PM me if there are any discrepancies
There are a few new entrants that I'll need to add to the list tonight, so don't worry if your name isn't on the list yet.
I have fallen so far behind in this. It's out of control how little I have read or watched this month. I mostly blame the Titanfall Beta. And pure laziness
Updated my original post, been busy so not as much reading as I would have liked.
Books
1. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard ★★★★★
A re-read for me, one of the most witty and surreal and post-modern pieces of work I've experienced. Witty and razor-sharp dialogue kept me through it in one sitting. I absolutely need to see a performance of this.
2. The Fall - Albert Camus ★★★★
A really cynical and devilishly written excoriation of society. There isn't much to the book - it is a protracted monologue to an unspeaking second party - but it is rich with brilliant and genuinely insightful quotes.
Now working on something a bit more optimistic - the Phantom Toolbooth.
Movies
1. Se7en ★★★★
As a huge Fincher fan, I cannot believe I waited so long. Grim and tense, it had me hooked throughout. I am a huge proponent of atmosphere over plotting and this nails that
2. Hunger Games 2 ★★
Just dull. I didn't expect much, but it felt like so much of the movie was spent outside of the Hunger Games and when we did get there, it was over very quickly.
3. About Time ★★★
Richard Curtis (Blackadder aside) is not usually my cup of tea, but this was pretty solid. Its time travel was stupid and contrived and it was very manipulative, but I did cry.
4. Synecdoche New York ★★★★
A stunningly clever film, beautifully shot and performed. It is almost a classic, but feels like it lacks the emotional range to really make it perfect. RIP PSH.
5. Superhero Movie ★
Worse even than you expect it to be. A sad, sad way to remember Leslie Nielsen.
9. Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon - ★★★ - A zombie book where I wasn't expecting one. Solid, but otherwise forgettable.
10. Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon - ★★★ - Alien book that's somewhere around the same quality as Alien 3.
Movies:
18. A Guy Thing - ★★½ - Mediocre romcom.
19. Охота на Пиранью/Hunting for Piranha - ★★★ - Surprisingly good action movie. Makes very few pretenses to having a story and doesn't take itself that seriously. Has Syfy level CGI that is thankfully used only fleetingly until the very end, when it overstays its welcome.
Like the musical in a theater or a recording of it you're watching at home? Counting the lattet would make more sense than the former, but just use your judgment.
Also, do you mean to say you've never seen The Lion King?
/reggiefilsaimewhatswrongwithyou.gif
Like the musical in a theater or a recording of it you're watching at home? Counting the lattet would make more sense than the former, but just use your judgment.
Also, do you mean to say you've never seen The Lion King?
/reggiefilsaimewhatswrongwithyou.gif
I don't count things I don't have a clear memory of seeing. I probably saw it when I was... 7. (I know "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" and "Be Prepared" off by heart though for some reason)
February was a rough month with switching jobs, school, and general adventures in life etc. Hoping to be a lot more productive in March. I've put myself on a book buying ban for some incentive to finish up these books.
Current debate to read next -- Dark Is Rising or Abhorsen Trilogy?
Celephaïs (1920), H.P. Lovecraft - ★★ - It's okay, I guess. I doesn't feature anything Cyclopean or a brooding darkness but a fairy fantasy land where our protagonists slips off to in order to escape the drab life of contemporary London. Nothing of note, really. Could have been fun if it had expanded more on some of the core ideas.
The Statement of Rudolph Carter (1919), H.P. Lovecraft - ★★★ - Classic horror stuff. Seems to be very in line with the rest of his work. But it seems to pre-date the Necromicon stuff despite kind of referencing it. A new format of writing too: a statement made to the police. Kind of interesting.
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (1921), H.P. Lovecraft - ★★★ - Very Lovecraftian in the sense that it features a scientist discovering darkness in the past. Nothing Cthulhu-related but small time horror stuff. Could have been a great Basil Rathbone-movie.
Movies
The Raid: Redemption (2011, dir. Gareth Huw Evans) - ★★★★ - I haven't been this entertained since I was Dredd and Attack the Block back-to-back last year. Confinement really does wonder when you know how to give the audience a sense of where everything is. Some of the hand to hand combat is really well done. I'll probably get slack for this but the corridor beat'em'up here is far better staged than that in Old Boy.
Valhalla Rising (2009, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn) - ★★★½ - A nordic dream. I should re-watch this. Some typical nordic stuff in there to keep things interesting. It's kind of like Only God Forgives in Norway a thousand years ago.
Babyon A.D. (2008, dir. Mathieu Kassovitz) - ★★★ - This movie has a lot of good ideas and some really well designed sets. Too bad most of it comes together as oil and water. Despite the flaws there is something that keeps it working. It's still entertaining.
Harry Brown (2009, dir. Daniel Barber) - ★★★★ - It's been a while since I dropped what I was doing when watching a movie. Some of the early scenes literally shocks you. Its portrayal is brutal. Michael Caine is awesome (in everything he does but he is better here) and the setup is great. The been-there-done-that routine actually feels fresh with a lot of heart.
Just finished reading The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon. Beautiful stories about his early life in Sarajevo, his later move to Chicago, stories about war in Bosnia and stories about his family. He goes with such ease from beautiful and quiet moments to chilling and horrifying ones, and easily makes you laugh and cry. And he does such a great job describing Sarajevo that once was, even though I don't know it from that time that well. Heartily recommended!
Celephaïs (1920), H.P. Lovecraft - ★★ - It's okay, I guess. I doesn't feature anything Cyclopean or a brooding darkness but a fairy fantasy land where our protagonists slips off to in order to escape the drab life of contemporary London. Nothing of note, really. Could have been fun if it had expanded more on some of the core ideas.
The Statement of Rudolph Carter (1919), H.P. Lovecraft - ★★★ - Classic horror stuff. Seems to be very in line with the rest of his work. But it seems to pre-date the Necromicon stuff despite kind of referencing it. A new format of writing too: a statement made to the police. Kind of interesting.
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (1921), H.P. Lovecraft - ★★★ - Very Lovecraftian in the sense that it features a scientist discovering darkness in the past. Nothing Cthulhu-related but small time horror stuff. Could have been a great Basil Rathbone-movie.
Most of those are collected in larger books (~200 pages) that contain several of them. He seems to be listing the individual stories, which range between 5-50 pages a pop (with most being on the shorter end of that scale).
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, to put that into perspective. He's got eight entries for Wilde, none of which are his book.
Looks like he's going for a major in both Wilde and Lovecraft. Probably the best way to do that in the framework of this challenge would be to grab collections of their short stories and count those as singular entries. Otherwise, the "book" count becomes inflated rather quickly.
Most of those are collected in larger books (~200 pages) that contain several of them. He seems to be listing the individual stories, which range between 5-50 pages a pop (with most being on the shorter end of that scale).
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, to put that into perspective. He's got eight entries for Wilde, none of which are his book.
Looks like he's going for a major in both Wilde and Lovecraft. Probably the best way to do that in the framework of this challenge would be to grab collections of their short stories and count those as singular entries. Otherwise, the "book" count becomes inflated rather quickly.
Yes. He might also just be reading them online or individually (as opposed to reading them as a part of a larger anthology), which is why he's counting them individually. I would count them collectively, myself. Neither Wilde nor Lovecraft are so prolific that their short story output couldn't be condensed to a single entry, for instance.
A fun anime that made me want to become a fabulous cross dresser.
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Charming as hell, though only sporadically engaging. I loved the Wyverary, and I really liked what they did with the Marquess, but I feel like it should have engaged me more than it did. I literally fell asleep several times while reading this book.
Ghostbusters.
Yeah yeah, I'd never seen Ghostbusters before. Sue me. I think I missed the boat on this one though (if I had seen it when I was a kid I probably would have liked it a lot - though it probably would have been too scary in some parts) because it's become this insanely iconic piece of pop culture and at this point I've already heard all the jokes before or seen them parodied elsewhere, so I couldn't help but feel totally underwhelmed by the time the credits started to roll. I mean, it was okay - it's definitely more likable and charming than funny, and I can absolutely see why it's considered to be a classic - but I just wasn't super into it.
Frances Ha.
A charming little film, reminiscent of the works of Lena Dunham (though more Tiny Furniture than Girls). Greta Gerwig would have actually been great on Girls (she should have played Marnie, tbh) now that I think about it.
Escape from L.A..
I had no idea this was a sequel, otherwise I wouldn't have watched it without having first seen Escape from N.Y. (despite the fact that you don't really need to have seen the first one to understand the sequel)
I thought it was pretty cool, while at the same time ridiculously cheesy and over the top.
Blackfish
It's absolutely awful how SeaWorld treats these animals. Just shameful.
That scene where the Orca grabs his trainer's foot and drags him down to the bottom of the tank, holds him there, brings him to the surface for a few seconds, drags him back down to the bottom, etc. over and over again was terrifying to watch.
#FreeTheOrcas
Battle Royale
Nowhere near as crazy as I thought it'd be. This was the film that got banned in so many countries? Wha? I guess it's just because it involved young teens, because it's really not even that gory and the violent action scenes are filmed in such an amateurish way that most of the time you can't tell what's happening until it's over.
Overall though I thought it was pretty decent. I really liked the vibe of it and the over the top acting lent itself well to the crazy feel the director was going for.
They do kill off too many characters too soon though, and almost none of the deaths leave any sort of impact, which I think is a problem for a movie where that's the main focus.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Great blend of animation and live action. One of the more convincing modern portrayals of the 1940s that I've seen (even something like The Aviator couldn't manage to make the setting or people feel authentic). The comedy is hit or miss, but the whole thing is just so charming that it works anyway.
Thor: The Dark World
T'was okay I guess, though I think I liked the first Thor better.
Loki was, of course, the best part. Thor was cool, but I don't feel like he had very many cool scenes. I thought for sure that
Natalie Portman (who was basically just a prop for the entire movie) was going to die because I remembered reading that she didn't want to do the movie and that she wanted out of her contract (or something to that effect) so the fact that she's still alive at the end and that she's still dating Thor sort of baffles me. I wonder if they'll just write her out of Thor 3 or maybe she'll reprise her role after all?
The rest of the cast were cardboard cutouts and I'm not even sure if I was supposed to care about them. I guess it was sort of sad when
Thor's mom died.
I though the plot was extremely clunky.
Jane randomly stumbles upon a portal that randomly teleports her to the super secret location where the super evil super weapon is being held and then she gets infected or something and then Thor comes down and she slaps him (lolsofunny) and then he takes her to his realm where the monsters try to kidnap her and...yeah.
And the villain was as generic and sterotypical as they come. "I want the super weapon so I can destroy/rule the universe!!!" Blah blah blah boring
I also didn't like the action very much. A lot of it is just random CGI people/monsters crashing into each other and none of it is exciting or interesting because none of it means anything.
I really really liked the design of the dark elves though. Very striking and sinister looking. Much better than the designs of the Chitauri, which looked generic and horrible.
Fahrenheit 451 ★★★★ < Favorite Book of the Month... lol
Movies:
The Cooler ★★
Midnight Cowboy ★★★
Psycho ★★★
Chicken Run ★★★
The Blob ★★
Stripped ★★
Thor: The Dark World ★★
Rubber ★
Kiki's Delivery Service ★★★
The Brave Little Toaster ★★
Jacob's Ladder ★★
Lego Movie ★★
Persona ★★★★ < Favorite Movie of the Month
=============
Favorite Book - February: Fahrenheit 451
One of the great dystopian novels ever; I'd rank it above Brave New World, but below 1984. I have to say I wasn't feeling it early on, but it finally clicked after a couple of chapters. Even though the novel is supposed to depict a dystopian future, everything in it felt eerily familiar. The Hound is utterly terrifying and I would not want to be chased down by one of these monstrosities.
Favorite Movie - February: Persona
The more I think about it, the more I love this movie. The direction and acting were superb. It's haunting, sometimes sad, and slightly horrifying. The dialog was oddly hypnotic at times. I loved the minimalistic sets and those close ups... everything about this movie felt unique and unsettling. By the way, this is the first Ingmar Bergman film I've ever and definitely not the last.
The more I think about it, the more I love this movie. The direction and acting were superb. It's haunting, sometimes sad, and slightly horrifying. The dialog was oddly hypnotic at times. I loved the minimalistic sets and those close ups... everything about this movie felt unique and unsettling. By the way, this is the first Ingmar Bergman film I've ever and definitely not the last.
i had a similar experience with this film. i wasn't sure what to make of it when watching but it stuck in my head afterwards and i grew to really appreciate it. this post reminds me that i need to rewatch it.
also the most hypnotic dialogue for me was when alma descibes having sex with these guys on the beach which is somehow way more erotic than even the most explicit sex scenes i've seen, as well as being intense and interesting.
i'm not an expert on the guy but if you want to watch another unsettling bergman film try cries and whispers. there's some really horrifying imagery and the cinematography, especially the use of red, is unforgettable.
I've read three books since my last updated post on here:
Straight: The Surprisingly Short History Of Heterosexuality, by Hanne Blank
American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass, by Douglass S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton
Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, by Lila Abu-Lughod (278) [10884]
Straight was pretty good, but it was mostly recapping what I already knew. I found the chapter about the lack of scientific evidence sort of ... bizarre. She discusses the way that homosexuality has traditionally been portrayed as a form of gender inversion, and how even now many explanations of homosexuality tend to use these same explanations in updated forms. For instance, she mentions the idea that homosexuality is the result of the pre-natal environment, particularly in the sorts of hormones the baby is exposed to. And she rightly points out the weakness of research purporting to find physical differences in the bodies of gay men and straight men, whether in physical size, the genitals, hormones, or in the structures of the brain.
But I can't buy the notion that there's no "there" there. People whose erotic and romantic attractions are primarily or exclusively directed to members of one or the other sex have always existed; that they are socially relevant only as invented categories doesn't mean that they aren't actually "real." I would only be attracted to men even if I didn't have a word for it, or an identity to ascribe to it. I felt it was stronger when she was talking about how the categories came to be developed, and the notion of doxa.
American Apartheid is a must-read for anyone interested in issues about segregation in the United States. It only covers data through the end of the 1980s, but it does rebut nearly every facile defense you might have read for why segregation exists that does not involve oppression and deep, persistent racism.
And Do Muslim Women Need Saving was a very interesting and challenging read. This is a good article for the book; I read it before reading the book and it's what interested me in it in the first place.
Persona was nuts. I still don't know how to feel about it. But it's something you won't soon forget. Like Daisies. Movies like that kind of defy ratings to me. I ask myself did Persona like me more than did I like Persona, honestly.
Oh god A Feast of Crows is so boring. And even when something actually starts to happen is switches to the B-side one-note dull as salt water viking sods. All of those chapters feel like they were going to be a sequel series of sorts. I tried to make a drinking game too, where everytime Cersei mentions fucking somebody for an advantage, I take a shot. I almost died 19 times.
I swore I'd finally make it through this shit in 2014, but god almighty. There has never been a series of anything, anywhere that makes me question A) my own sanity B) why this was the fantasy series to break into pop culture. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.
Oh god A Feast of Crows is so boring. And even when something actually starts to happen is switches to the B-side one-note dull as salt water viking sods. All of those chapters feel like they were going to be a sequel series of sorts. I tried to make a drinking game too, where everytime Cersei mentions fucking somebody for an advantage, I take a shot. I almost died 19 times.
I swore I'd finally make it through this shit in 2014, but god almighty. There has never been a series of anything, anywhere that makes me question A) my own sanity B) why this was the fantasy series to break into pop culture. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.
There is so far zero character development. But there is a ton of mid-90s comic book style exposition. "And Ser
Jaime, I see that you still have no hand.
Let me, and every character that has even passingly mention you, also mention this. Then we will switch to another topic of conversation. Say, did you hear about the various D-list characters that have no personality and exit off page before we know anything about them? Let us talk about their beards!"
Oh god A Feast of Crows is so boring. And even when something actually starts to happen is switches to the B-side one-note dull as salt water viking sods. All of those chapters feel like they were going to be a sequel series of sorts. I tried to make a drinking game too, where everytime Cersei mentions fucking somebody for an advantage, I take a shot. I almost died 19 times.
I swore I'd finally make it through this shit in 2014, but god almighty. There has never been a series of anything, anywhere that makes me question A) my own sanity B) why this was the fantasy series to break into pop culture. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.
Most of the Viking stuff was deadly boring, I agree. It might not have been so if the area had been worked into the first couple of novels. Instead, it feels like GRRM went 'oh shit, I need more people to write about'. Quite boring. Good thing his novels are so easy to power-read, it's over quickly.
Most of the Viking stuff was deadly boring, I agree. It might not have been so if the area had been worked into the first couple of novels. Instead, it feels like GRRM went 'oh shit, I need more people to write about'. Quite boring. Good thing his novels are so easy to power-read, it's over quickly.
Yes, exactly. And every single one of them are so very one-note. They have no complexity to them, nothing that makes them even feel real. I may not like a single remaining character in the rest of Westeros, but at least they have more to them them a single set of attributes. And Asha is straight Spice Girls status.
also the most hypnotic dialogue for me was when alma descibes having sex with these guys on the beach which is somehow way more erotic than even the most explicit sex scenes i've seen, as well as being intense and interesting.
YES. This is the exact bit of dialog I was referring to when I said hypnotic. The scene is rather long, but still held me in rapt attention. Just a masterful piece of writing.
American Apartheid is a must-read for anyone interested in issues about segregation in the United States. It only covers data through the end of the 1980s, but it does rebut nearly every facile defense you might have read for why segregation exists that does not involve oppression and deep, persistent racism.
I studied the Apartheid that existed in South Africa for a semester a few years back, so I am very interested in seeing the comparison and contrast between America's Apartheid and South Africa's Apartheid.
I studied the Apartheid that existed in South Africa for a semester a few years back, so I am very interested in seeing the comparison and contrast between America's Apartheid and South Africa's Apartheid.
Well, it does very little (if any) explicit comparing or contrasting between the two. Of course, if you have studied the two you can do your own comparing and contrasting, but it just doesn't do that particular work for you.
Well, it does very little (if any) explicit comparing or contrasting between the two. Of course, if you have studied the two you can do your own comparing and contrasting, but it just doesn't do that particular work for you.
Oh yeah, I assumed that would be the case. I was referring to my own work of comparing and contrasting! I need to reacquaint myself with South Africa Apartheid considering I will probably live in that country for a few years. Any good book recommendations for that topic?
Oh yeah, I assumed that would be the case. I was referring to my own work of comparing and contrasting! I need to reacquaint myself with South Africa Apartheid considering I will probably live in that country for a few years. Any good book recommendations for that topic?
Yes. He might also just be reading them online or individually (as opposed to reading them as a part of a larger anthology), which is why he's counting them individually. I would count them collectively, myself. Neither Wilde nor Lovecraft are so prolific that their short story output couldn't be condensed to a single entry, for instance.
It is true that I don't have them as a collection so it's pretty hard to say "I've read 500 pages of Lovecraft". I pondered if I should list them at all but I am reading them and some of them are far more rewarding than longer books since I spend more time thinking about them, like The Devoted Friend or Dagon. I used the logic that I'd count Logorama as a movie too since it's very rewarding to watch so why not count some essential reading?
I list them here mostly for myself to keep track of what I'm reading. The Lovecraft I'm doing it with a friend too and I've read some of them several times for discussion. The ones that are so short I can finish them in a sitting is hardly worth listing. And there's been a few of those that's gone unlisted. The Lovecraft shortstories that barely fill a page are so undercooked as stories that they don't feel like real works to begin with.
EDIT: The Wilde stories are in the collections The Happy Prince and Other Stories, Lord Arthus Savile's Crimes and Other Stories and A House of Pomegranates. If it would please my judges I could list those three. The Lovecraft stuff I haven't managed to find any logic to except Necromicon but I'm not sure every story is listed in it.
If it helps, I've listed lots of short novels last year. I know some people only counted books with page counts of 100+ but I counted books that were counted as books in the first place.
I'm not one to spout about spirit of the competition, I'm an outlaw my self, but some stories are very difinitely short stories - not novellas, nor novels.
A couple of summers ago, I did the fifty short stories challenge as part of the summer master class challenge. You could try listing it for that?
Having said that, if a short story was published by it self, I think you could count it - in the long run, you are bound to read something that goes over 250 pages and thus equals it out.
Edit: there are no real judges, but I think if you have read an entire anthology, count that as one.
If it helps, I've listed lots of short novels last year. I know some people only counted books with page counts of 100+ but I counted books that were counted as books in the first place.
I'm not one to spout about spirit of the competition, I'm an outlaw my self, but some stories are very difinitely short stories - not novellas, nor novels.
A couple of summers ago, I did the fifty short stories challenge as part of the summer master class challenge. You could try listing it for that?
Having said that, if a short story was published by it self, I think you could count it - in the long run, you are bound to read something that goes over 250 pages and thus equals it out.
Edit: there are no real judges, but I think if you have read an entire anthology, count that as one.
The Lovecraftian stuff that's actually short novels (Mountain of Madness, Dexter Ward, Dunwich Horror, etc) I'll count. The Wilder stuff I'll count as the three collections he actually published. That's one of the possible ways to go about it.
I read Making the American Body: The Remarkable Saga of the Men and Women Whose Feats, Feuds, and Passions Shaped Fitness History by Jonathan Black today. For me, it was just okay. I had sort of been hoping for something a bit more in-depth and analytical, but this was more of a surface overview.
I've watched another 7 since the monthly update, lol. I have too much free time on my hands. It won't last, though. I did the same thing last year and by the end of March I'd watched a little over 90 films, but I only reached 100 by the end of the year.
I think I missed the boat on this one though (if I had seen it when I was a kid I probably would have liked it a lot - though it probably would have been too scary in some parts) because it's become this insanely iconic piece of pop culture and at this point I've already heard all the jokes before or seen them parodied elsewhere, so I couldn't help but feel totally underwhelmed by the time the credits started to roll. I mean, it was okay - it's definitely more likable and charming than funny, and I can absolutely see why it's considered to be a classic - but I just wasn't super into it.