Curse of the Golden Flower dir. by Yimou Zhang
or Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia Set in the Tang dynasty in the 10th Century, this film tells the tale of the Emperor Ping and his cold war with...
23 April 2007
City of the Beasts by Isabelle Allende
Alexander Cold awakened at dawn, startled by a nightmare. He had been dreaming that an enormous black bird had crashed against the window with a clatter of shattered glass, flown into the house, and carried off his mother.
The main reason I picked this one up was that I’d heard quite a few good things about Allende’s version of Zorro and so I figured that I’d give her a go. This is a one of her YA books though, so maybe not a perfect choice to gain an impression of her adult writing.
1 October 2006
Right at Your Door dir. by Chris Gorak
I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from this film, but I didn’t get it. The plot should have been able to create tension and drama easily enough. After all...
20 September 2006
Lady in the Water dir. by M. Night Shyamalan
This is an odd film. A very odd film.
Ever since The Sixth Sense Shyamalan has been known as the “twist guy” for his film endings; I don’t think that is a fair description. And while you can say that Unbreakable, Signs and The Village all had twists to their endings, the twists weren’t all that important. The films were stories about people, truth, and finding out who you are. The Lady in the water continues in this vein, but at the same time it is a very different type of film. As Shyamalan has said, it is a bedtime story. A fairy tale, for children. So it is, of course, going to be more simplistic and yet at the same time it is more complicated than that.
17 August 2006
The Break-Up dir. by Peyton Reed
You all know I’m a fan of Vince Vaughn’s, so I was quite looking forward to this. Plus the trailers looked entertaining, though we do know that you can never trust...
12 August 2006
Angel-A dir. by Luc Besson
Don’t you just hate when a film you’ve been enjoying falls to pieces in the final third? Angel-A starts off well. We meet André as he tries to talk his way...
2 August 2006
X-Men: the Last Stand dir. by Brett Ratner
In this, the third X-Men film, there are two main plot lines. One concerns Jean Grey and her return from death in the form of the ultra powerful Dark Phoenix. The...
11 June 2006
Poseidon dir. by Wolfgang Petersen
You know this was a surprisingly entertaining film. Okay, so the plot was wafer-thin, and the characters not so defined, and the opening shot of the boat incredibly boring, but ignore...
9 June 2006
Nylon Angel by Marriane De Pierres
If Jamon Mondo touched me one more time I’d kill him.
I almost wish I hadn’t finish this book. I was on the verge of tossing it around two thirds in, but figured I’d read this far might as well see how it ends. But the final third is actually quite good. Not sure if it is enough to make up for the first part, But now I am a little curious about the next books in the series.
31 March 2006
Aeon Flux dir. by Karyn Kusama
Yes I did know that this wasn’t supposed to be very good. I decided to go see it anyway. I figured that maybe it’d have a crap storyline but be cool...
1 March 2006
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
ISBN: 0060987529 Hobbling home under a mackeral sky, I came upon a group of children. A retelling, a reimagining of Cinderella, Maguire here attempt to create a more realistic picture, through...
9 February 2006
Underworld: Evolution dir. by Len Wiseman
I’ll admit to being a fan of the first Underworld film. Not that it was a great film or anything, but it had style and an interesting premise. Although the execution...
24 January 2006
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