Author: Timothy Findley
ISBN: 0140050116 DDC: 813.54
See also: Library Thing ; The Stay at Home Bookworm ; Wikipedia

Prologue
She was standing in the middle of the railroad tracks. Her head was bowed and her right front hoof was raised as if she rested.

The Wars tells the story of Robert Ross, an officer in the Canadian army during WWI, a young man full of guilt over the death of his sister. This sister, Rowena, suffered from hydrocephalus, and Robert had promised to never leave her. But, when she is being watched by their younger brother Stuart, she falls, hits her head and dies. In the aftermath, Robert enlists.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 10 Stars, 1915, 813.54, Canada, Canada - wwi, foreboding, Governor-General’s Award Winner, historical fiction, The Wars, Timothy Findley, War, WWI

Related posts

• The Sunne in Splendour (2)
• Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel) (0)
• Birds Without Wings (0)
• Alias Grace (2)
• 300 (6)

Writ & Dir: Andrew Dominik ; based on the book by Ron Hansen

• Brad Pitt … Jesse James
• Mary-Louise Parker … Zee James
• Casey Affleck … Robert Ford
• Sam Rockwell … Charley Ford
• Jeremy Renner … Wood Hite
• Sam Shepard … Frank James
• Garret Dillahunt … Ed Miller
• Paul Schneider … Dick Liddil

I loved this film.

I loved everything about it. The acting was brilliant. The way the story unfolded. The narration. The casting. The scenery. The cinematography. The soundtrack. Everything was just great. Best film I’ve seen this year. Which’d be a higher compliment if this wasn’t the first film I’ve been to see so far this year. But I’m guessing it’ll be up on the top ten list by the end of 2008.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 10 Stars, 1860-1890, Andrew Dominik, based on book, betrayal, biopic, Brad Pitt, C19th, Casey Affleck, character driven, Garret Dilahunt, Jeremy Renner, Jesse James, Mary-Louise Parker, murder, Paul Schneider, R15A, Ron Hansen, Sam Rockwell, Sam Shepard, The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert F, USA - western

Related posts

• The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford (0)
• The Illusionist (6)
• Gone Baby Gone (9)
• Blood Meridian (0)
• There Will Be Blood (4)

Creator: David Simon
Dir.s: Edward Bianchi, Elodie Keene, Steve Shill, Thomas J. Wright, Daniel Attias, Timothy Van Patten, Rob Bailey, Ernest R. Dickerson, Robert F. Colesberry
Writ.s: David Simon, Ed Burns, Joy Kecken, Rafael Ã?lvarez, George P. Pelecanos

• Dominic West … Det. Jimmy McNulty
• Sonja Sohn … Det. Kima Greggs
• Domenick Lombardozzi … Det. Herc Hauk
• Lance Reddick … Lt. Cedric Daniels
• Seth Gilliam … Sgt. Ellis Carver
• John Doman … Deputy Commissioner Rawls
• Idris Elba … Stringer Bell
• Michael K. Williams … Omar Little
• Andre Royo … Bubbles
• Chris Bauer … Frank Sobotka
• Paul Ben-Victor … Vondas Vondopoulos
• James Ransone … Ziggy Sobotka
• Pablo Schreiber … Nick Sobotka

The first season of The Wire dealt with drug dealers run by the Barksdale family. At the end the detail got reassigned with McNulty working for the marine unit. While out he comes across a floater. And later the bodies of 13 more women are found in a container in the city port. At first there is considerable debate over who has to take these cases; there is even doubt over whether it is murder. But eventually McNulty works out exactly where the deaths must have happened, and the it is his old homicide colleagues who must take the case. Spite and revenge really do get results.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 10 Stars, Andre Royo, Baltimore, Chris Bauer, Daniel Attias, David Simon, Domenick Lombardozzi, Dominic West, drugs, Ed Burns, Edward Bianchi, Elodie Keene, Ernest R. Dickerson, George P. Pelecanos, human trafficing, Idris Elba, James Ransone, John Doman, Joy Kecken, Lance Reddick, Michael K. Williams, Pablo Schreiber, Paul Ben-Victor, police, Rafael Ã?lvarez, Rob Bailey, Robert F. Colesberry, Seth Gilliam, Sonja Sohn, Steve Shill, The Wire, Thomas J. Wright, Timothy Van Patten, war on drugs

Related posts

• Rome - Season 1 (4)
• We Own the Night (7)
• The Inside (2)
• Seeking Whom He May Devour (2)
• Miami Vice (4)

Dir: Zack Snyder
Writ: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnston, Michael Gordon and based on the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller & Lynn Varley

• Gerard Butler - King Leonidas
• Lena Headey - Queen Gorgo
• Dominic West - Theron
• David Wenham - Dilios
• Vincent Regan - Captain
• Michael Fassbender - Stelios
• Tom Wisdom - Astinos
• Rodrigo Santoro - Xerxes

I have a feeling that how you feel at the end of seeing this film will be hugely coloured by your mindset before the film began. Personally I loved it. Wonderful visuals and a great story. Wasn’t overly impressed with the characterisation, but you can’t have everything.

The film begins with a voice-over, and this narrator pipes up throughout the film, sometimes describing the action that we are watching on screen. I have no doubt that some will find this redundant, but, given the ending and who the narrator is I think this device actually works really well. Plus he does add to the melodramatic, over the top atmosphere that make this such a good film.

Overblown and over the top, almost pompous in its grand vision. And yet it just works. Somehow they’ve managed to draw the viewer in, using dialogue and visuals that could so easily have done nothing but remind you that this is a highly stylised film. The visuals are often lacking in realism. The characters are larger than life, the action is brutal, the culture hugely strange. And it is great.

There were one or two instances when I did find myself thinking that the constant references to freedom and the evil tyrant were overdone and not a little incorrect given the fact that if you were a slave in Spartan society then life back then was pretty far from easy. But this isn’t really historical fiction, it is an action film, and as such it is almost perfect. I also loved the soundtrack. So much so that I did just try and buy it online, but the official website wants you to use iTunes, I don’t, so I was forced into borrowing it.

Top marks all around for a violent, visceral, blood-splattered film, and I can’t finish my review without saying, my god, did you see those abs?

IMDb | Wikipedia on the Battle of Thermopylae | Dark Horse | I am the Lizard Queen | Villagers with Torches | Stainless Steel Droppings

Tags: 10 Stars, 300, action, Ancient Greece - Sparta, based on comic, bloody, brilliant, David Wenham, death, Dominic West, Frank Miller, Gerard Butler, great story, historical fiction, historical inaccuracies, Kurt Johnston, Lena Headey, loved it, Lynn Varley, melodramatic, Michael Fassbender, Michael Gordon, poor characterisation, Rodrigo Santoro, soldier, Tom Wisdom, Vincent Regan, visually stunning, War, Zack Snyder

Related posts

• Pan’s Labyrinth (3)
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley (9)
• The Wars (4)
• The Proposition (4)
• Suite Francaise (2)

Or the evening redness
Author: Cormac McCarthy
ISBN: 0679728759
DDC: 813.5420
See also: CormacMcCarthy.com ; Library Thing

See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves.

This may sound contradictory; I would heartily recommend this book, I have no idea what it is all about. I can tell you a basic outline of the plot, our main protagonist, who is known only as the kid, leaves home at fourteen and travels the American West, encountering violent deed after violent deed, ending up riding with the Glanton gang as they set out to “protect” people from the savage Indians.

That is the storyline, but that isn’t what this book is about, as I said, I have no idea what it is about. Violence is obviously a central theme, but whether McCarthy means that such violence is a part of all humanity and impossible to ignore, or whether he means it as a warning, or indeed something completely different I couldn’t say. So why would I recommend it?

Quite simply the prose is just beautiful. It may be describing horrible acts of death and destruction, but it reads wonderfully.

The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only be taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate. [...] The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I’d have them all in zoos.

I think I’ll probably have to read it again at some point, maybe with some thought thrown in, but for now I’m happy to have read it.

Tags: 10 Stars, 813.5420, beautiful prose, Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy, death, humanity, murder, USA - western, violence, War, well-written

Related posts

• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (11)
• Suite Francaise (2)
• Contrast (5)
• 300 (6)
• We3 (0)

Writ & Dir: Sylvester Stallone

• Sylvester Stallone - Rocky Balboa
• Burt Young - Paulie
• Milo Ventimiglia - Rocky Jr.
• Geraldine Hughes - Marie
• James Francis Kelly III - Steps
• Antonio Tarver - Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon

It isn’t often that you describe a boxing film as sweet. It isn’t often I describe a film as sweet and mean that in a positive light, but if I was asked for a one word review of Rocky Balboa, then sweet would be it. And that is sweet in an “awwww” sense of the word, not the Col. O’Neil from SG type sweet.

Honestly, I think this is my favourite film of the year so far.

I know, it is only January, and the films I’ve seen so far haven’t been great, but I really, really enjoyed this film. I’m not saying it a great piece of art or anything, it is what it is, a Rocky film.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who greeted the news that Stallone was making a new Rocky film with a snort of laughter. I enjoyed the first film, and have seen a few of the others, RTE had a Rocky season at some stage, but I never loved any of them. And I fully expected this to be a piece of drivel. But then I saw some of the trailers, and began to want to see it. And, lo, it was great.

You know the basic plot, Rocky, in his fifties starts to think about making a comeback in a small way. Fighting in local, small bouts, because a fighter is all he has ever been. But the current undisputed world heavyweight champ isn’t too popular. He wins all the time, and his opponents don’t offer much, so the public begins to turn away. His promoters are worried about the lack of revenue, so when a tv show uses a computer simulation to find out who would win, Mason “The Line” Dixon or Rocky “The Italian Stallion” Balboa in his prime, and Rocky wins, they get very interested.

Can I say again I really enjoyed this film. From the little flashbacks and echoes to the earlier films, that music, everything was just right.
Is it clichéd and full of cheese? Yes, but in a good way. In a way Rocky has pretty much the same message as The Pursuit of Happyness, but it lacks the selfishness that I think was at the heart of my problem with that film. Instead of trying to succeed at anything in particular Rocky is about being true to yourself. Taking all the knocks life has to offer and still moving on.

This’ll be one I add to the dvd collection, I may even buy the earlier films, even the ones I know are trash. No pain no gain afterall.

IMDb | First Showing | Cinematical | Flimsy.com | Word of Mouth (scroll down for Rocky)

_{Image source}

Tags: 10 Stars, Antonio Tarver, awwww, boxing, Burt Young, clichéd, fictional characters I love, fictional heroes, flashbacks, Geraldine Hughes, James Francis Kelly III, Milo Ventimglia, Rocky, Rocky Balboa, sports film, sweet, Sylvester Stallone

Related posts

• You ain’t so bad, you ain’t so bad, you ain’t nothin’. C’mon, champ, hit me in the face! My mom hits harder than you! (5)
• Celebrate! (5)
• Yo! (5)
• We3 (0)
• TT #10 (16)