Books, Movies, and Aaack ...TV

Not sure I like that last post I did. May or may not delete it. [Deleted, didn't like it. It's gone.] Cable is out and to entertain myself I've re-watched my DVD of Bride and Prejudice and a rented DVD of the Russian Fantasy film Night Watch which amused me greatly with its reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer - in the middle of the film, a little boy who is being stalked by a hungry female vampire is watching the episode Buffy vs. Dracula on the tv, specifically Buffy confronting Dracula in the graveyard. The film is a tad cluttered and confusing in places but overall interesting. The story is about a paralle universe similar to our own - except in this world there are "Others" people with supernatural abilities. They either choose to be part of the forces of light or forces of darkness. Years ago, they had a war, and were on the verge of mutual destruction until the commander of the forces of light screamed halt and suggested a truce. During the night - the forces of light ensure the forces of darkness don't break the truce. During the day - the forces of darkness ensure the forces of light don't break the truce. There is a prophecy that a child or other will emerge who is more powerful than all the others combined and the side he chooses will disrupt the balance. It's not bad. Worth a rental.

Sigh, what a lame movie review. Falling down on the job. Sorry.

Night Watch is a Russian film and was originally intended as a television mini-series based on a series of popular fantasy novels by a Russian novelist. There are three films in the triology. The first two are Night Watch and Day Watch. Critics in the US were less than thrilled by it.

The film focuses on a man named Anton and his struggles being a member of the NightWatch. He discovers he's an other, when he has inadvertently been set up as bait to catch a witch dabbling in black magic. The story deals heavily with his relationship with a small boy who is being tracked by a vampire. The boy who may or may not be his son by his-ex wife Irina, who may or may not be the same boy that he tried to kill to get back at his ex-wife for leaving him for another man via black magic, and may or may not be the other who could change the course of history. He's drunk, down on his luck, depressed and struggling. And has an owl or former owl as a partner. The mythology is more innovative than it sounds and the special effects intriguing for a low budget independent film. It does feel jarring at times, and the lead character is not very charismatic, he's not pretty, but you do feel for him. Dubbed in English - they have used Russian actors to do the dubbing, so the accents aren't jarring. It's a fantasy film that also feels a bit like an art film.

The other thing I've amused myself with today was finishing Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking - which may be the best supernatural detective book I've read in a while.
It's certainly as innovative as Butcher's Dresden Files. Harrison much like Butcher has created her own universe based on our own. In Harrison's world or the world of her heroine -Rachel Mariana Morgan - an earth witch - and former IS Runner - the world changed when a bunch of scientists figured out the DNA strand way back in 1950's and as a result created all sorts of biological weaponery. Instead of going to the moon, they focused their energies on genetics and biological manipulation - creating a virus that mutated and attached itself to a tomato and via the tomato became airborn and killed over half the human population. When this happened, the Inderlanders or non-humans, who had been hiding up until this point emerged and made themselves public - there was a bit of conflict at first but after a while the humans made a truce with them - when they realized the witches, pixies, fairies, trolls, vampires, and werewolves were the ones keeping the peace after the disease struck. Two orgainizations emerge - FIB - to destroy all biodrugs and biological weaponary and IS - to police Inderlander (witch, vampire, etc) activities. The book deals with such complex issues as racism, classism ( a MAJOR issue in the US right now - even more so than race in my opinion since the gap between the rich and poor is getting even wider), alienation, prejudice, and the ethics of biological tampering. Is it for example better to let someone die of cancer or risk the possibility of coming up with a biological weapon? The ethics of black magic. Etc. In some aspects Harrison's novels delve a bit deeper than Butchers do and the writing is denser.

The heroine has serious Daddy issues. And is one tough chick. She has roomed/teamed up with a hot female living vampire - living vampires are living children of vampires. They aren't undead. And when they die - automatically became undead. Innovative idea. This vamp seems to be attracted to our heroine (who is not inclined in that direction) although this vamp could be attracted to anyone. And a funny pixy named Jenks.

I recommend to anyone who likes dark urban fantasy, stories about witches/vampires, father issues, and strong female characters.

Still thinking about the TV season that just ended. And my god did I watch far too much of it. Won't bore you by listing all the shows. But I will note the ones that had memorable season finales for later reference, reviewing:

(This is not in any particular ranking or order.)
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I'm actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow...what's with that? Probably a good thing. Be a bad thing to be dreading it, right? Oh, does anyone have any good *Beginning* Yoga DVD rec's - I just bought myself a Yoga mat to do exercises on.