Child 44

tags: drama, police procedural, Stalin era Russia, thriller

Set in Stalinist-era Russia, this gritty drama centers on Leo Demidov, a dutiful member of the secret police who becomes a government target when he begins investigating a string of brutal child murders.

Bad fake accents normally make me cringe but this movie made me disregard it completely because it tells a very effective cautionary tale of being under a communist government. The subject of serial child murders is just there to show how repressive a police state is. I also like that the child abductions/murders are not graphic. Anyone who opposes the government will be sent to the gulag, killed, or charged with being a spy and eventually punished. Every citizen is scared of the Ministry of State Security personnel including their spouses as revealed by Leo's wife Raisa at the last fourth of the film.

Anyone who romanticizes communism and the mass murderer Stalin should have his/her head examined, look up history, and watch this film. It is not perfect but I still recommend it.

Wiki for plot summary with spoilers

Follow You Home

 mystery, "thriller"

from Amazon.com

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, a final adventure before settling down. But after a perfect start, an encounter with a young couple on a night train forces Daniel and Laura to cut their dream trip short and flee home.

Back in London, Daniel and Laura vow never to talk about what happened that night. But as they try to fit into their old lives again, they realise they are in terrible danger—and that their nightmare is just beginning…

Most of the books I read the past 3 months are not good, except for Haruki Murakami's Wind/Pinball (4 stars). The very popular Girl On A Train by British author Paula Hawkins and Follow Me Home by another British writer both got a 1-star from me. I'm wondering what is happening with British authors. They have become more and more mediocre, I'm really missing my favorite authors.

Follow You Home promises to be a psychological thriller but to me is not a thriller at all. The mystery of what happened to Daniel and Laura in Romania was revealed way too late (somewhere at 53% of the book) that I lost interest because the writing is worse than mediocre, as if it's penned by a 5th grader. I'm not kidding. The full "secret" actually is too flimsy a reason for them not to talk about it with anybody and causing an unnecessary death of a friend of Daniel's. Daniel is a wimp and I couldn't understand why he is still pursuing the crazy Laura knowing what really happened to them.The author has watched way too many mystery/crime telly and it shows in his book.

Not recommended.

The Martian Movie Adaptation Trailer

The trailer for the movie adaptation of The Martian is on YouTube and after watching it, I am extremely disappointed. When I learned that Matt Damon is cast as Mark Watney, I thought he will not be a good Mark Watney. Mark Watney has a wicked sense of humor and Matt Damon being a joyless person in real life doesn't project Mark's boundless enthusiasm, energy, and sense of humor in the trailer. And why are the earth personnel and the freaking music overly dramatic? I'm not going to watch this adaptation. Nope, not worth my time. Another good novel ruined by Hollywood.

*I noticed that Matt lost some weight. He probably saw his pudgy self on Interstellar and decided to work out.*  

Rudderless

tags: drama



Synopsis from IMDB

A grieving father in a downward spiral stumbles across a box of his recently deceased son's demo tapes and lyrics. Shocked by the discovery of this unknown talent, he forms a band in the hope of finding some catharsis.

I borrowed the DVD just to see and hear Anton Yelchin sing and was not really expecting to give it more than 3 stars but I ended up giving it 5.

Billy Crudup [I've only seen him in one movie, Dedication, which I liked in all its quirkiness], IMHO, does a great job as the self-destructing lead character and if you find yourself in the same situation, you might have a worse reaction to the tragedy. It's a bit complicated to explain without revealing the reason for his behavior which comes into light only at the last fourth part of the movie. Anton Yelchin, Lawrence Fishburne, and the rest of the actors, except for Selena Gomez, are good. It's worth multiple viewing. The original soundtrack is also good.

Highly recommended.

Currently streaming on Amazon; DVD on Netflix

Princess Jellyfish

tags: anime live action, comedy, Japanese language, romance

Plot summary from Wikipedia 

Princess Jellyfish centers around Amamizukan, an apartment building in Tokyo, where the only tenants are otaku women, and where no men are allowed. While each character has her own particular fixation, the protagonist is Tsukimi Kurashita, whose love of jellyfish stems from memories of her deceased mother taking her to an aquarium and linking the lace-like tendrils of jellyfish to the dresses of princesses.

Tsukimi hopes to become an illustrator and is an awkward girl terrified of social interaction, attractive people and the prospect of formal work. The other tenants of Amamizukan are the same, being NEETs who refer to themselves as the "Amars" (nuns). Tsukimi meets the stylish Kuranosuke Koibuchi, the illegitimate son of a politician, who cross-dresses to avoid the obligations of politics and to feel closer to his mother. Tsukimi keeps the secret of his masculinity from her man-hating housemates, even as she is troubled by the intimacy of having a man in her room at times.

Amamizukan's surrounding neighborhood is under threat of redevelopment, as opportunists aim to turn the quaint area into a more cosmopolitan region, with many of the buildings being demolished to make room for hotels and shopping centers. Although Amamizukan's tenants fear and loathe attractive people, they are helped by Kuranosuke who does not want to see Amamizukan destroyed.

the 5 otaku women, each has her own obsession

Japanese live action anime movies never fail to entertain me. This one is LOL funny and has a bit of a love triangle too: the cross-dressing boy and his older brother both fall for the lead character, Tsukimi. I really like the movie and hope there will be a sequel. I'll also start watching the anime series.

Highly recommended for fans of anime and silly but fun stories. Streaming with English subtitles on several streaming services. DVD is not available yet in the US. The cross-dressing boy Kuranosuke wearing one of Tsukimi's "jellyfish" designs. The actor Suda Masaki does a fantastic job of wearing dresses without losing his masculinity.

Kuranosuke helping Tsukimi prepare for a dinner date with his older brother

The last scene from the movie - Tsukimi wearing one of her "jellyfish" dresses
and Kuranosuke wearing regular boy clothes.

Survivor

Goose eggs and then some

Lame Survivor

Description from Amazon.com

A Foreign Service Officer (Milla Jovovich) newly posted to the American embassy in London is charged with stopping terrorists from getting into the US. After surviving a vicious attack on the embassy, she finds herself framed for crimes she didn't commit and racing to elude assassins while trying to clear her name and stop a large-scale terrorist attack set for New Year's Eve. SURVIVOR is directed by James McTeigue and also stars Pierce Brosnan, Dylan McDermott, Angela Bassett and Robert Forster.

Drat! I interrupted my binge-watching Aguila Roja (streaming on Netflix) only to waste 1 and ½ hours of my time on this lamest of lame movie. Why Milla? You are not a has-been yet like most of the cast. Why? And what is Benno Fürmann doing in this movie? His acting talent is wasted just standing all the time doing nothing nor saying much. I guess he and the cast needed the money.

The dialogue is lame, the acting by EVERYONE specially Angela Bassett is phoned-in, the story is tired, trite, and oh so 90s. A few explosions do not make a thriller. Run, Kate, Run is moronic and the supposed to be the best assassin makes mistake after mistake the entire movie. Gaah! Writing about it makes my head hurt. The director and writers should be charged with a crime against humanity for creating this piece of garbage.

Please please, avoid this ugly horrid movie. You'll thank me.

American Gods

tags: fantasy, mythology, science fiction, supernatural

From GoodReads

American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days.

Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.

Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.

More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton

I read the novel just once when it first came out in 2001 back when the names Odin and Loki were not yet as widely popular as they are today, thanks to Marvel movies. I liked the book but somehow I never read it again. Recently, it was announced that a TV series will be produced based on the book and fans started listing down the actors whom they think will play the main characters the best.

I immediately looked for the book in my shelves to get reacquainted with the main characters Shadow, Wednesday, Mr. Nancy, and Shadow's undead wife Laura. I couldn't find it and remembered I never bought the book. I borrowed it from my daughter who was in High School at the time, and she of course brought it with her when she moved out of the house. Her copy along with a few Sandman graphic novels were signed by Neil Gaiman in 2004 when he came to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. I remember the line was really loooong.

Anyway, our library has plenty of Kindle copies of the 10th Anniversary edition which has 119 pages more than the original first hardcover edition (465 pages). I can't really tell what the additions are.

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Shadow: He is a big guy, very tall, 32 years old, has gray eyes, and straight dark hair. His ethnicity is never specified but someone in the novel asked if he's maybe part Hispanic, Indian, or black. Neil Gaiman in an interview said his mother is supposed to be black but I never sensed that in the book. Dwayne Johnson would have been okay if he were younger, at least in his late 30s but he's too old to play Shadow and has too much "presence", whereas Shadow is almost lifeless, bland, uninteresting person, a patsy, and as his name suggests, always in the shadow. Any actor who is shorter than 6 feet 2 inches is not qualified to play him IMHO. Fans' favorite is Jason Momoa and I somewhat agree.

 Jason Momoa

Wednesday (Odin): He is also very tall, has blue eyes. Stellan Skarsgard, 64 years old, 6 feet 3 inches  tall. Perfect.

 Stellan Skarsgard

Mr. Nancy/Anansi: He is old but still sprightly and a jolly trickster, smallish in stature. 78 year old Garrett Morris is a comedian and the role will fit him to a tee. Neil Gaiman would love Morgan Freeman to play Mr. Nancy but I don't see Morgan Freeman full of energy and having fun playing tricks on Shadow. Morgan Freeman, IMHO is all wrong for the role.

 Garrett Morris

Laura: Shadow's dead/undead wife. Shadow accidentally brought her back from the dead and her character provides a lot of hilarious moments. Laura is a favorite of mine. She was able to get a job in a convenience store (graveyard shift, LOL) regardless of her grayish pallor, sunken eyes, and unusual odor. She was eventually fired when customers complained of her smell. The enemy's agent, Mr. Town, also didn't notice and fell in love with her. Olivia Wilde will be the perfect Laura.

 Olivia Wilde

Poldark

tags: BBC series, entrepreneurship, family melodrama, historical

Synopsis from Wikipedia

In the late 18th century, Ross Poldark returns to his Cornish copper mines after spending three years in the army to avoid charges of smuggling, leaving behind his sweetheart Elizabeth. On his return, having fought in the American War of Independence, he finds his father dead, his estate in ruins and Elizabeth engaged to his cousin Francis. He rescues a young woman, Demelza, from a beating, and takes her on as a kitchen maid.

Demelza, the former scullery maid and her husband Ross Poldark

Eleanor Tomlinson as Demelza

I binge-watched eight 58-minute episodes of Poldark, a British drama series that first aired March 8, 2015 on BBC One, scheduled to air here in the US June 21, 2015 on PBS. This series is based on the first two Poldark novels by Winston Graham. A second series has already been commissioned which is good news and bad because I have to wait a year for the continuation of the cliffhanger ending.

I haven't heard of the books nor the previous TV series that aired in the 70s on PBS. I'd love to read if the books, 12 in all, were available to borrow from my library but unfortunately for me, they're not. 

What I love:
- cast specially Aidan Turner as Ross and Eleanor Tomlinson as Demelza
- Ross's perseverance, entrepreneurship, kindness, loyalty
- cinematography 
- script
- costumes
- no full frontal female nudity nor gratuitous sex scenes, a welcome departure from a typical BBC production; The only bare torso you'll see (a few times) is Aidan Turner's and it's a good thing. =^_^=

Highly recommended for fans of period dramas.

Laggies

 tags: comedy?!

Synopsis

Unable to decide what she wants to do for a career, Megan (Keira Knightley), 28, is stuck in a permanent state of adolescence. She still hangs out with her friends from high school and lives with her high school boyfriend, Anthony.

When her high school has a 10-year-reunion and her boyfriend surprises her with a marriage proposal, Megan panics.

She meets 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) when she buys beer for the girl and her friends and feels a kinship. Megan tells Anthony she's leaving town to attend a self-help seminar, but instead, moves in with Annika and her dad (Sam Rockwell), as she decides what to do with her life.

I never learn. I should avoid chick movies specially if Keira Knightley is the main lead character. Obviously, I'm not a fan and watching her worst movies, Domino and Pride & Prejudice, was self-torture to the max. 

Chloe Moretz is in it and she's the only reason I watched it. I loved Chloe as Hit Girl on Kick-Ass and Let Me In but after disappointing performances in Hugo and The Equalizer I wanted to give her a chance. Although she is okay in this horribly written shallow movie, she alone cannot save it.

It's described as comedy; I chuckled maybe once or twice but that's it. The whole movie is pointless, unfunny, immoral [IMHO because a 28-year old liar setting a bad example to high school kids is never acceptable], frustratingly predictable, and the script is so vapid.

I do not recommend it. I watched so you don't have to but if you like self-inflicted suffering, go ahead and see for yourself.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

tags: fairies, fantastical, historical fiction, magicians

from Goodreads

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England--until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight.

Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear. 

I first read this novel in 2004. I loved it and became my favorite book of the fantastical. I love it more than any fantasy novels I have read including The Lord Of The Rings and all of Neil Gaiman's books. I read it a second time about 5 years ago. My first edition hardcover [illustrations by Portia Rosenberg] has 782 pages of tiny tiny print with even tinier footnotes which I also read and enjoyed as much as the novel itself. I'm re-reading it for the third time after watching the first 3 episodes of the BBC 7-episode adaptation.

The prose is beautiful and appropriate for the period. Although the characters, specially Mr Norrell, are not the "lovable" types, they are definitely likable and very well defined. The story is dark, compelling, well-researched, and historically accurate. Regardless of the length, I was mesmerized and couldn't put it down.

Highly recommended for lovers of the fantastical; not recommended for Harry Potter readers though.

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The BBC TV adaptation is premiering on BBC America on June 13, 2015.

first 3 Episodes

Wow! I love the adaptation. Casting, costumes, and sets are simply superb. Eddie Marsan as Mr  Norrell is spot on with his short-ish stature, blue beady eyes, and excellent portrayal. Eddie Marsan is Mr Norrell. 

illustration of Mr Norrell by Portia Rosenberg

Bertie Carvel as Jonathan Strange who is supposed to be dashing and handsome is not what I imagined him but the actor grows on me. All other actors/characters specially the Gentleman With Thistle-down Hair and Lord Wellington are exceptional too. The adaptation is very true to the book with very few alterations which aren't noticeable nor important. The rich visuals, acting, and script make the 3 episodes spell-binding [so far]. I can't wait to see the rest of the series.

Highly recommended for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell fans.