Reviews

Another beautiful day..but cold. I may take a walk a bit later.

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1.) His Dark Materials - seen one episode so far. Beautifully rendered, the world is a perfect adaptation of what was in the novels, and done with care and detail. (Definitely an improvement on the failed movie.) Also, well cast, in particular Lyra, Mrs. Coulter, and Lord Asrail. Along with their daemons.

It's sort of a steampunk fantasy/sci-fi series, that has a lot of metaphysical philosophy intertwined. And the world is quite detailed and specific, which takes it a step above some fantasy novels, and it is innovative in that there are none of the traditional fantasy creations such as Wizards, trolls, fairies, elves, witches, etc.

I really haven't seen anyone else do this type of world.

It is however a little slow in places and hard to hear or make out what some of the characters are saying. Not helped by the fact that I can't figure out how to put close-captioning on HBO. I figured it out for Game of Thrones, so I'm sure I can figure it out again. This may be more of a hardware problem than well a show problem.

Definitely continuing with it -- it's reminding of what I loved about the books, they were just so different from other fantasy worlds and didn't fall neatly into cliche tropes. Also in this series, good and evil isn't quite that clear and foggy in places. Nor are children romanticized, nor is childhood -- which was great failing of the Chronicles of Narnia series.

2. The Crown -- seen half of the first episode of Season 3 -- it's a tad slow. Also it was late when I was watching it. And, I'm admittedly burned out on the British costume historical drama. But the casting is almost pitch perfect. I'm on the fence about Olivia Coleman who isn't quite as seamless a transistion from Clair Foy as the other actors are. My mother, whose seen two episodes, warned me about this already. That Coleman was a bit of a disappointment and almost too stiff. But that Helena Bonheme Carter had surprised her -- and was bouncy and perfect casting. She is. As are the men -- Tobias Menzies (Outlander) as Philip and Ben Daniels as Tony (Princess Margaret's husband). Menzies looks like the previous actor. And while Daniels doesn't, his mannerisms and embodiment of Margaret's husband is spot on.

Winston Churchill is in the first episode and dies. I thought he'd died in S2, so was surprised by this. For an ailing guy, he lived a long time.

3. Toy Story 4 -- also surprised a bit by it. It got mixed reviews, co-worker/cubical mate was less than enthused but your_librarian enjoyed it. I agree with your_librarian's assessment.

It's mainly continuing Woody's journey from Andy's favorite toy to figuring out his place in the world once Andy has grown up and forgotten him. ( Read more... )

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Not getting a lot of work done on my novel, but I figure it will come when it comes.
Lovely day, but cold. I don't mind the cold though. I actually enjoy the shifts in seasons, also I spent a good portion of my adolescence and childhood in extreme climates. New York City is rather mild in comparison. I need snow, and to see the leaves change color, and watch the differences in sky and light as the seasons change one into the next. The blurs in color attract my painter's eye. Also, I happen to like sweaters, jackets, long-sleeved shirts, and turtle necks. Plus warm blankets and comforters. I'm not a fan of the hot temperatures though. And I couldn't live in the far North, any more the deep South. I'm a fan of moderation in all things.

Also, I'm getting very good at making chicken and vegetable soups. My body, it turns out, is rather fond of soup at the moment. Tonight's soup, had chopped up chicken that was stir-fried with oil, ginger, garlic, rosemary, curry, lemon, citris and some honey. Added to the chicken bone broth -- then added carrots, parsnips, turnips, parsely, onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Was quite good. With vegan cheese, that had no dairy, lactose, gluten -- I don't know what it was made of, but it tasted like cheddar. Had almond flour crackers -- from Simple Mills that were quite tasty. Oh, and I made my own almond milk today -- my brother showed me how to do it. All you need is about ten almonds, maybe less, not many at all. Water. Any flavors you want. I put vanilla, salt, and coconut oil to make it creamy. Blend it (I have a liquify setting on my blender). Then strain through a filter sack (that I got at a local health food store), and voila, almond milk. The residue can be used as almond flour -- although I didn't have enough and just threw it out. It tastes better than the store bought stuff -- no additives.

Anyhow..reviews:

1. The Killing Joke - an animated film adaptation of the Alan Moore and Brian Bollard comic of the same name. Bollard's graphics in the original comic were outstanding by the way, the animated film comes close but still no where near as good as the original. It's not an easy book to read, and the book is in some respects as problematic as the movie -- although the movie does attempt to give Barbara Gordon a certain amount of agency that the book didn't, including a back story.
( Spoilers )

[Saw it courtesy of HBO. I recommend for fans of Batman, WB cartoons, and can handle graphic violence in cartoon format. It is slow to start, but picks up speed after a bit. And it was better than I expected. I went in with low expectations.]

2. Oh Where Did you Go, Bernadette -- a lackluster effort from all involved. I had read the book in the Spring, and couldn't figure out how they were going to being to adapt a film from it. The book is rather gimmicky and what works with the book is the gimmick, what doesn't work is well the story, characters, and plot.
It's fun for the gimmick. And there's no way they can use the gimmick in a linear style film. The gimmick is that Bernadette disappears at the beginning of the book, so her daughter figures out where her mother went and why by digging through various emails, text messages, news letters, etc. Some of which has been shipped to her in a huge envelope by a neighbor. It's also a mystery at first where she gets the information from. We see everything through the daughter's point of view, and the information she gets from various emails, letters, and other bits of correspondence.
The little girl is the narrator.

The movie drops this completely, and focus switches from the little girl to Bernadette's point of view.( book and film spoilers )

Don't recommend. Rather flimsy and cutesy. Not much to it.