Three reviews - and none of them...
Dec. 8th, 2013 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobear...are Reacher!!
Though one of them will be getting its own post, due to major spoilers.
Last weekend, I had a great night in with Simon, during which we viewed an interesting movie triple bill. We started off with The Hurt Locker, cemented our emotional trauma with Finding Neverland, then cleansed our palates with FAQ About Time Travel. Very enjoyable all round. This review focuses on The Hurt Locker, though, as I had never seen it before. Now, we all know how much I love Jeremy Renner (mmmm, Jeremy Renner...), and this is arguably his best film, but I had previously feared horrible doom and much dismemberment, so I avoided it at the time (also I didn't know how much I loved Jeremy Renner at the time!) and never had the courage to watch it afterwards. Simon assured me that there were no body parts flying about, and that it was worth risking me not being able to cope with the tension - and he was right! What surprised me about the film was that it had powerful impact, but it was really understated. There was nothing flashy or over-stated about it, and it delivered its most emotive moment with a caption displayed across the screen. Very impressive film-making. (Plus, Simon loved Finding Neverland, which was my pick for the evening, so success all round!)
And, to continue with the non-Reacher shock tactics - the last audiobook I listened to was Bastion by Mercedes Lackey! It's the fifth in the Collegium Chronicles series, and it was a lot of fun. I really like all the characters, the narration is excellent, and it's always good to revisit Valdemar, a world that has been very important to me at different times in my life. The only disappointing thing about it was that it kept doing flashbacks to the first book in the series, which felt like a very lazy way to fill a few pages. I don't know if those sections were actually cut and pasted from the first book, but they were definitely scenes that happened in it, not new material and, of course, since I was listening to the book, I couldn't skip them, which was a bit tedious. Still, the main plot did progress quite a lot, and in unexpected ways, so it was mostly a good addition to the series.
Though one of them will be getting its own post, due to major spoilers.
Last weekend, I had a great night in with Simon, during which we viewed an interesting movie triple bill. We started off with The Hurt Locker, cemented our emotional trauma with Finding Neverland, then cleansed our palates with FAQ About Time Travel. Very enjoyable all round. This review focuses on The Hurt Locker, though, as I had never seen it before. Now, we all know how much I love Jeremy Renner (mmmm, Jeremy Renner...), and this is arguably his best film, but I had previously feared horrible doom and much dismemberment, so I avoided it at the time (also I didn't know how much I loved Jeremy Renner at the time!) and never had the courage to watch it afterwards. Simon assured me that there were no body parts flying about, and that it was worth risking me not being able to cope with the tension - and he was right! What surprised me about the film was that it had powerful impact, but it was really understated. There was nothing flashy or over-stated about it, and it delivered its most emotive moment with a caption displayed across the screen. Very impressive film-making. (Plus, Simon loved Finding Neverland, which was my pick for the evening, so success all round!)
And, to continue with the non-Reacher shock tactics - the last audiobook I listened to was Bastion by Mercedes Lackey! It's the fifth in the Collegium Chronicles series, and it was a lot of fun. I really like all the characters, the narration is excellent, and it's always good to revisit Valdemar, a world that has been very important to me at different times in my life. The only disappointing thing about it was that it kept doing flashbacks to the first book in the series, which felt like a very lazy way to fill a few pages. I don't know if those sections were actually cut and pasted from the first book, but they were definitely scenes that happened in it, not new material and, of course, since I was listening to the book, I couldn't skip them, which was a bit tedious. Still, the main plot did progress quite a lot, and in unexpected ways, so it was mostly a good addition to the series.
