Can You Work with a See-Through Gadget?

Star Trek the original series and Star Trek the Next Generation had variations of a tablet.

image from dynamickarma.com

Tablets are a common occurrence now, so what does Hollywood do but improve on the props and special effects of the past. Now it's about transparent displays.

The Expanse has its Hand Terminals.

image from Forbes

image from Forbes

And big transparent displays

image from moviedeskback.com

Even Star Trek updated its displays

image from blueeyes-and-hockeysticks.tumblr.com

Tony Stark has also been transparent and not just with Bruce.

image from rebloggy.com

image from rebloggy.com

I know a lot of these props have a cinematic motive than practical use. My guess is those transparent screen's primary purpose is for the actor just to be seen even while they are working.

Keep in mind I consider the hologram a little different because they serve a purpose besides reading.

image from jacobcruzsblog.wordpress.com

image from giphy.com

image from rebloggy.com

But what if? Consider that some people have credited Star Trek with calling out the tablet years before it has been invented, will the latest incarnation of  cinematic computer displays be real one day. 

Can people really work at length on a gadget that their sight can pass through?

What I Fear about Reviewing Movies

I love vlogs like Lessons from the Screenplay, Every Frame a Painting, and Movies I love (And so can You). They have such great technical insight. They are able to see and express more aspects of the film when I can only say things like: boring; it works; I like his acting; I don’t like this or that and so on.

Sometimes I fear that watching these vloggers and others tackling the same field, I lose the simple joy of watching a movie; that I’ll lose my blissful ignorance. Add to that the practice of writing a review means I have a tendency than most people to break things down.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Agreed. Wonder Woman is the best DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movie to date. Although I am not really sure being compared to Captain America: The First Avenger is a good thing. There are indeed comparisons but Wonder Woman is better. What does that even say; the best of DCEU is equal to whatever The First Avenger is to Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Before moving on, spoiler warnings. I am at a loss why readers would still need warning because any review is a potential spoiler however vague they try to be. Anyways.

Don't Breathe (2016)

Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette), and Money (Daniel Zovatto) are small time crooks preying on homes. Money is slow considering their level of expertise, until one day, the mark of a lifetime comes into their attention with a potential windfall of $300,000 in cash.

Disney Copying Disney (Guardians and Pirates)

Here there be spoilers...

Max Steel (2016)

I don’t like Max McGrath or more accurately I don't like Ben Winchell. What works is the reluctant hero or the pompous one who’s been taken down a peg. To me Ben was neither. 

A Sequel of a Looping Story

News came out on the first week of May 2017 that an Edge of Tomorrow sequel is very likely. Emily Blunt has promised to return, Tom Cruise is on board. Doug Liman is quoted as saying:

“We have an amazing story! It’s incredible! Way better than the first film, and I obviously loved the first film. It will be called Live Die Repeat and Repeat. Tom [Cruise] is excited about it, and Emily Blunt is excited about it. The big question is just when we’ll do it. But it’s not an if, it’s a when.”

So, what do we have? 

The Girl on the Train (2016)

It was a modest start. The girl on the train even looked bored; so bored her mind picks on the houses she sees by the tracks. But from modest beginnings The Girl on the Train ended with a bang.  

There is drama and mystery; everything wrapped in a theme that challenges a woman’s validation of self. An original gem giving us a brief respite in this era of superhero movies.

Louder than Bombs (2015)

via GIPHY

Brave; skillful with the camera; able to empathize with the locals and tell their story; Isabelle Reed (Isabelle Huppert), a famed war photographer, died in a head on collision just a mile away from her home. 

At first glance, it looked like her luck just ran out after all the near misses.

UP Diliman - The Best Place to Jog in Quezon CIty

In jogging, what I love is a straight line where I would know my endurance based on how much between points A and B I am able to finish at a jogging pace. Was it 100 percent or 50 or 25 of A to B? Sure, a treadmill may have a distance reading but it doesn't beat the fact the you're actually moving.

Based on that qualification nothing beats, in Quezon City at least, UP Diliman as a jogging venue.

UP Diliman Osmeña Ave. Sunday, around 6:30 am. It may not be obvious but

as far as the eye can see there are joggers

Nerve (2016)

Nerve is a story about social media excess; how wrongly it has been used for self-actualization; for communication; and for interpersonal relationships. It could have been great had it not been distracted by what I assume are marketing priorities and gave the story’s two young lovebirds more focus than the game that brought them together: Nerve.

I pay to Globe and get a Bayantel Receipt

I am going to add on to what Mark Madron of the Filipino Scribe says in his original post Open Letter to Globe and Bayantel. 

Ghostbusters (2016)

Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) may have not laughed their way throughout the story but it feels like they did. 

That’s because the 2016 Ghostbusters had the comic pacing of a sitcom or more appropriately a Saturday Night Live.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

It’s a team of a-holes now instead of the individuals in Vol. 1.

Sureseats eMailed Seating Details

For the first time I received an email from Sureseats giving the details of my reservation including the copy of my e-ticket. It's a good upgrade considering before it I actually had to print screen into an image and upload it to my smart phone. 

Blue Jay (2016)

Blue Jay is an entirely different love story. The typical would just have a boy and a girl act out the romance; as it goes through its ups and downs until then by the end the audience would be all mushy and daydream on when and where can they find such a lover.

Battery Indicator Wanted - Electric Clippers

I use this on my head for some time now. Looking at the manual I am not even sure if it is even meant for the head just the mustache but hey it is still working for maybe 5 years now. There's not much difference between the stubble on my head and mustache anyway.

A Monster Calls (2016)

The story begins “with a boy too old to be a kid, too young to be a man, and a nightmare.”

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)

The few zombie movies that I like offered solutions to the problem rather than just be running away: I am Legend had a cure and in World War Z, Brad Pitt discovered a means of defense. Knowing that the heroes of a zombie genre can do nothing but run away feels restrictive. I am the one that feels tired for them.

Passengers - A Nerdwriter Rearrangement

One of the YouTube channels I follow, Nerdwriter actually made an edit at 2:56 which takes out the romance - an angle that didn't work - and give the movie a more mysterious tone.

Limiting Passengers to romance was the movie's undoing.

Sully (2016)

Only death exempts the mind from wandering into the what-if especially having been so close to death.

Even after successful water landing on the Hudson River Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s (Tom Hanks) sees himself still crashing into buildings, which could have happened had he strayed off the river.

The story of that fateful flight is very straight forward. Capt Chesley Sullenberger, his co-pilot and First Officer Jeff Skiles, and three stewardesses were manning the US Airways Flight 1549 in a routine flight between New York to Charlotte, North Carolina. The flight had 150 passengers on board.

via GIPHY

Barely minutes after take-off, Flight 1549 endured bird strikes that took out both engines. Capt. Sully, basically left with an oversized metal glider, had the choice of either Laguardia or Teterburo to make an emergency landing. After going through a series of parameters, quickly and mentally, he glided the airplane into the river.  The plane suffered a breach but was relatively intact albeit sinking. Only the quick response of New York’s emergency services and nearby boat ferries managed to end this incident at zero casualties.

Under creative liberties the filmmakers avoided the simple straight forward. The story of Sully starts days and months after the incident. Everything is framed with the investigation of Capt. Sully and his First Officer Jeff Skiles by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The NTSB is an American agency that determines the probable cause of the accidents and issues safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents. A plane dived into the Hudson; an investigation is just standard procedure.

So the start of the film wherein Capt. Sully is seeing himself crash into a building is not just a result of shocked nerves after having faced death so close; he really has to replay the incident over and over again because he’s under investigation.  The investigation also has an added benefit to the narrative as it provided a pretext to see different points of view which should culminate in a full factual picture of the incident.

Besides Capt. Sully there is his crew, the passengers of US Airways Flight 1549, the ferry boats of the Hudson River, and the City New York. Sully is a story about community as much as it is about the man. Despite being a plane crash it was a feel good moment for New York especially with its bad history with airplanes.

Unfortunately under creative liberties the movie might have made a casualty of the reputations of the NTSB panel making the investigations. Based on a Bloomberg article, the NTSB has said they were not consulted in the making of the film. Filmmakers on the other hand replied that the story was in Capt. Sully’s point of view.

Story wise, without knowing what went on in those hearings; I thought it outrageous that the investigations can boil down to simulations vs. an experienced pilot. I didn’t think it possible because I doubt NTSB would dare politically with the incident practically deified as the Miracle of the Hudson. Besides even if they dared can it really be possible to favour simulations over an experienced pilot?  Or is it a case to case basis?

I also thought than in a post September 11 world there is fear against a piloted projectile such as an airplane. Those fears are what I was thinking of every time the story cuts into Sully’s nightmares. September 11 comes to mind also in cuts of the citizens watching the Flight 1549 going down; like you can almost hear them say, ‘not again’.  And yet with all this history the investigation hinges only on the Flight 1549’s ability to make the airport or not?

via GIPHY

Acting wise, what negative can I say about Tom Hanks? He exudes hero even without the physicality of someone like Tom Cruise who is more an action hero.  Tom has a face you’d just believe whether it be stranded on an island or piloting a plane to the river. Tom has a brilliant support cast led by his first officer played Aaron Eckhart and his wife played Laura Linney.

Creative liberties run amuck or an expression of the pilot’s point of view? As always back reading is advised before swallowing hook line and sinker any information coming out from true-to-life flicks. Bottom line is whatever comes out of Hollywood are just movies.

Remember (2015)

Remember has the basic elements for a comedy if only Christopher Plummer didn’t look so feeble. A man hunting another man, problem is the hunter is afflicted with dementia. It’s like 50 First Dates in a retirement home only that the hunter does not recall love everyday but revenge.

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Kong: Skull Island started with the obsession of Bill Randa (John Goodman) but unfortunately got dominated by the obsession of Col. Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) to kill Kong all throughout. 

I haven’t been to a mission even remotely similar to the one in the movie but unless it’s a war I don’t see how Col. Packard, a Vietnam veteran, can hijack the mission and thereby the story.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My review comes from one who has seen the David Fincher adaptation first hence the lacking of any mentions of excitement that comes with knowing something new. Instead I will just mention what I find different and often richer.

The Last Jedi - teaser

What can be deduced from the trailer and much publicized by articles, bloggers, and snippets months before is that not much time has passed since The Force Awakens.

Passengers (2016)

The beginning was deceitful albeit out of desperation; the chemistry between stars is suspect; and the ending just cuts off suddenly which was meant to be heart-warmingly positive but ended only to make story that's too good to be true even for a sci-fi. 

Swiss Army Man (2016)

Although not obvious at first, Swiss Army Man can be described in one quote given by its leading character.

“You know, I’d always hoped that right before I died my life would flash before my eyes and I would see wonderful things, but as I was hanging up there I didn’t really see much of anything, but I did see you.”

Iron Fist (2017)

Yes there are spoilers.

Miss You Already (2015)

Miss You Already is a long intimate goodbye between the best of friends Jess (Drew Barrymore) and Milly (Toni Collette).

The Princess Diarist

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The last book of Carrie Fisher takes us into a trip what went through her mind in and around the shooting of the first Star Wars now affectionately called A New Hope a.k.a Episode IV. There is the pre-casted portion where she is merely Debbie Reynold’s daughter. There is a portion while filming which is a huge chunk of the book because Harrison is right smack in it. And there is life after Star Wars or also known as being under the shadow of Princess Leia.

Citizenfour (2014)

It was a trollish start for the now famous NSA whistle-blower. He was in fact more than the average troll communicating with encrypted emails which likewise required pass keys to read. To Laura Poitras, documentary filmmaker, and Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian both of whom he was trying to feel out for months he was Citizenfour.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)

xXx, Return of Xander Cage, is trying to do a Fast and the Furious.

X + Y ( A Brilliant Young Mind ) (2014)

Perhaps for the first time ever I want to comment on the title first because this film has two. 

X + Y for its home country release in the United Kingdom and ironically it has a dumbed down version, A Brilliant Young Mind, for the American market. While I understand the marketing reasons, the title X + Y speaks more of the story and its theme, not just referring to the mind of one character.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

A slasher movie was big in the 80s and one of its most important elements is a killer often unstoppable and lacking in motivation. Every kill has to have a sense of uniqueness regardless if slasher has a preferred weapon.  And finally, another of the genre’s highlights is an obsession with pain -like the victim must be visibly feeling every entrance of the blade – and sex.

The Accountant (2016)

Like the famous artwork about dogs playing poker which lead protagonist Christian Wolff loves, the beauty of The Accountant is that it is also incongruous.

Accountants are perceived to be boring and special people that can make sense of a sheet of numbers.  The movie even exaggerated that point making Christian autistic – as if only a person born with narrow focus and social difficulties can understand a financial sheet.

Hirohito: Emperor of Japan

Hirohito: Emperor of Japan by Leonard Mosley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was watching the Netflix series The Crown around the time I was reading this, and all I can think of the book was cliché. Not because there are similar themes running through the stories of the British throne and this Japanese one, and there is. But mainly because it feels untrue, copied; that it’s not fact when Hirohito: Emperor of Japan, especially, as biography it should be.

The common thread in those two which is more apparent in Hirohito: Emperor of Japan is that the throne is a prison as much as it is a position with which to rule. As one who has never occupied a position that can barely command the loyalty of 5, and also one whose country was ravaged by Japan during the Second World War it feels untrue. The head of an empire makes things possible; he’s no one’s prisoner.

Logan (2017)

The caption on my Instagram says, “Red everywhere…” 

When I took that shot it was still an empty brand new Gateway Cinema 5; I was amusing myself looking at the neat reddish design of the entire theater, waiting for Logan to be screened. After watching, red though this time refers to blood which by now is foremost on my mind.

Pinatubo Crater on Feb 25

This trip was two years in waiting. My 2015 plans did not push through because the pick-up point was farther than I was comfortable with especially in the early morning. This year when I saw Mt. Pinatubo Adventure Phils. on Facebook and that McDonald’s Edsa cor Panay Street was pick up point. Perfect!

Total cost is PHP 2,700, down payment is PHP 500.  I deposited the down payment and attached a picture of the deposit receipt to secure my slot. Mt. Pinatubo Adventure Phils confirmed.

La La Land (2016)

La La Land, to the best of my recollection, is the first musical I have ever seen only because I swore to finish this personal project of seeing every 2017 Oscar Best Picture Nominee.

As expected I find it hard taking the acting seriously and subsequently the story when people break out to sing and dance. So instead of a character I focused on a song and City of Stars stood out. The song was my emotional goal post. I appreciated the ending because through it I understood why.

Lion (2016)

I've seen eight best picture nominees now in the 2017 Oscars. La la Land, the 9th, will be the last. Even with one movie still out this one has risen to the top of my list.

Implicit in the title is the bravery and there was; but what makes this movie endearing is the tenderness hidden underneath. Lion actually is a story of love, the best kind that anyone will ever have in this life. 

Arrival (2016)

Arrival is the latest in a line of movies that can be described as watered down science fiction where flashy high tech is removed just to keep close to reality. Previous movies are Interstellar and The Martian.

Hidden Figures (2016)

It was funny at first, a woman in midsized heels running to another building just to pee. Then it became depressing as she still had to relieve herself in another building even under heavy rain. Eventually it was just idiotic because even in a great emergency Katherine Goble (Katherine Johnson when she married) would still be in the other building because she is black. 

via GIPHY

This is 1960s segregated America and even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) is no exemption, space race notwithstanding. 

Moonlight (2016)

This is definitely not the stereotypical black movie.

In trying to recall the few movies with generally African American characters that I have seen these are what I came up with: Cage (ok ok, not a movie); The Nutty Professor; 42; He Got Game. Given that, the stereotypical black then would be a sportsman or gangbanger. 

Moonlight doesn’t fit in any of those because the protagonist does not know who he is which, for some reason, skewed into gender identity. 

Hell or High Water (2016)

I watched the movie without having seen the trailer so what I wrote I learned organically scene by scene.  Apparently the trailer contained what took half the movie to know which either speaks bad of the movie or of the trailer. You would have googled it anyway so I embedded the trailer in the end.

The opening was prototypical. 

A bank robbed by two men.  Cowboy hat and a large belt buckle worn by the manager meant it was Texas. Once the robberies became a spree it was cue in the Texas Rangers time. Bank robbery, cowboys, and Rangers in hot pursuit; if the movie had horses it might still have worked.  But even without horses, with the elements already available I can see an ending that would fit a Bon Jovi song.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

You just know a movie is so well put together when you see it.  It’s almost like a song, like the rhythm is right; you’re feeling no bumps.

Hacksaw Ridge is a movie that is beautifully put together, the best so far among the movies I have seen in this year’s list of Oscar nominees for best picture. So far I’ve seen Fences and Manchester by the Sea previously.  If the great Robert Downey Jr. who is the poster child of falling from grace and coming back again could not remove Mel Gibson from the blacklist - Robert was or is hoping Mel direct an Iron Man movie - then maybe Mel’s work can. From what I see in this movie, Mel has not lost a step since directing Apocalypto of 2006.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

John Chandler’s (Kyle Chandler) last act, posthumously, was to call for a handyman, his own brother Lee (Casey Affleck).  He wrote in his last will and testament that Lee is to be his son Patrick’s (Lucas Hedges) legal guardian when he dies.  It was a wish meticulously thought of and prepared for. John even set money aside to make sure his brother comes back to Manchester from that handyman job out of town and perform his charge.

Fences

13 minutes… 21 minutes…

I’ve barely begun and already I’m counting out the scene – or is it three scenes? – waiting for the switch or at least when Denzel Washington concedes charge of it. The opening minutes of Fences felt as if Troy Maxson (Denzel) was going to carry the story by brute force; talking all the time and appearing in nearly every scene as the focal point and with almost the same energy. 

The People vs George Lucas (2010)

The spirit of The People vs George Lucas boils down to the ownership of the art in all its meanings. 

Burr

Burr by Gore Vidal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Death is a refuge especially for people of history boxing them too either category: as a god or the devil. What I like most about this book is that it humanizes them, the American founders.

Aaron Burr has served under Benedict Arnold and George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He also had a successful law practice thereafter, sometimes taking cases together with Alexander Hamilton. He was vice president under Thomas Jefferson only at the 36th ballot in the House of Representatives; the 35 other times were tied.

His political career took a big slide after fatally shooting Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Wandering about in the new western territories Burr ended up in the middle of a conspiracy that would divide the United States. Along with guilt or innocence, Burr’s trial for treason, also pitted the rights and powers of the executive and that of the courts against each other. Although he was never pronounced guilty Aaron Burr was effectively thereafter a political corpse.

High Rise (2015)

Social classes are a vertical divide of the world; High Rise quite literally made the world into a building.    And like life itself the building experiences operational stresses; the residents instead of getting their acts together act only according to the meaning attached to the height of their floors to the ground. 

The Kryptonite Spear

The two reasons I hated Batman vs Superman are called Justice League: Doom and Dark Knight Returns.

Justice League: Doom is about Batman’s contingency plans landing in the wrong hands and used by the enemy against the Justice League. Against Superman, all that was required was a distraction and then a kryptonite bullet. 

Sherlock (S4) (2017)

All the scenes above are from season 4 which has become more graphic in its filming of thought than in previous seasons. Visuals coupled with humor are what set BBCs Sherlock over most procedural dramas.

Can you imagine Sherlock Holmes just talking?  And Sherlock talks about all his observations including day to day ones not included in story’s main case. CSI would have its tools to add to the flash the facts they have collected.  Molly Hooper, friend and occasional lab help, was never that flashy.  All talk would then the modern version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation would blend along with the rest.  

The Lobster (2015)

When hotel staff acted for guests the reasons to find a mate – since I can’t remember ever hearing the word marriage – it made me understand what the story is about. 

Lando's and Lorie's Banay Banay Eatery

I never had it so good at a local eatery: Kaldereta, Calamares, Bulalo, Barbecue.  There was what looks like grilled tilapia which I didn’t get because it was on the other side of the table. I had line of sight too for some kind of shrimp dish which I refused because the shrimp was small and I had to work a bit to get into the meat.  There are times when the best meal is one which I can just throw in my mouth and chew.

Midnight Special (2016)

Unearthly existence should have been able to change lives or points of view but I never felt that here.  Actually a change feels like a requirement since the protagonists came from a cult.

Midnight Special though sounding like a 24 hour deliver service is in fact a cat and mouse story that ironically ends in broad daylight with millions of witnesses.  The story’s sci-fi component was built up slow and steady. Drawback is that no one among the millions – on screen anyway – explicitly asked what it is they saw and that left me feeling empty.

Southbound (2015)

Southbound is B movie. You feel it when you see it; something about the visuals that says no budget which is not all together a sign of a bad movie.

Elstree 1976 (2015)

Immortalized and forgotten – that was my take away from the opening with its juxtaposition of toy and actor.   Toys went first with actor’s voices in the background talking about the action figures that represented them.  It was an odd mix so in my mind was always the question, who?  Who’s talking? Another set of visuals and images follow, this time actor follows the toy Star Wars character that they played.  They don’t ring a bell so I wondered who are they again?

Everyone remembers Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford in 1977 when the original Star Wars was first released but in Elstree 1976 the focus now turns on extras and bit players. 

Lazer Team (2015)

Is it unfair to walk out on a movie before seeing the end; say that the fact I have not finished it, it therefore sucks.  Or, as in real life I should finish it all before I pass judgement. Almost always I try the latter; at least it gives me the reasons why I think that of a movie.

Sometimes I feel it in the beginning the urge to walk out or in the front of the PC, it’s the urge to press stop.  There’s being fair and there’s the right to keep your sanity. 

Almost always that first urge is triggered by the visual. Lazer Team is classified as a science fiction movie.  Sci-fi nowadays carries with it visual expectations and suffice to say the movie screams cheap and under budget – lights, composition, sets, costume.

The Daughter should say Goodbye

image from Vanity Fair

Disney has reportedly held meetings recently with its creative minds to discuss how to proceed with the story of General Leia now that Carrie Fisher has passed on. 

Some key issues it looks like are story choke points: the reunion of the twins, Leia and Luke; the reunion of Leia and Kylo Ren. Regardless if such scenes were already shot for Episode VIII or reserved for IX, the story cannot be played out to fruition now without deep consideration.

Postcards from the Edge (1990)

“Who could resist my stunning layered and moving not unlike Mary Poppins performance...?”  Carrie Fisher said that referring to Princess Leia during her one woman show Wishful Drinking. The audience laughed especially when Carrie paired it with Mary Poppins.  They understood what she meant. 

Now I don’t know what the technical definition of layered is – besides that analogy on onions – but I have seen Star Wars many times and all I remember is the gung-ho princess. Not even Han Solo managed to peel off a mushy side of her.  Not even the destruction of Alderaan revealed an orphan of an entire planet now that I think about it.

For much of Carrie’s life millions of fans – more so if they lived outside the States like me – Princess Leia was never peeled off the late actress’s life.  And when Carrie died this Christmas break I decided to change that and peel off Princess Leia from my eyes, see what I have missed.

What the CEO Wants You to Know

What the CEO Wants You to Know: Using Business Acumen to Understand How Your Company Really Works by Ram Charan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My favourite is Chapter 2 which has the title Every Business is the same Inside: Cutting through to Cash, Margin, Velocity, Growth, and Customers. I attended a seminar once on financial statements, the lecturer was very good but the allotted schedule was too short because the topic felt like basic accounting. It was a struggle to keep awake because there was all these terms and the table looks complicated for me to keep track of.

Having read that chapter I now feel that I finally get it even when I can’t remember anything after a year of non-use. Finance is not my area. In the seminar it is tables and terms I had to memorize on the other hand Chapter 2 gave me why a business makes money: cash, margin, velocity, growth, and customers. The book has formulas but it has no tables which may have helped ease my mind into it.

Silly 2016

You don’t know how silly you have looked at 2016 until you’ve seen this trailer produced by Friend Dog Studios.

The trailer is modeled like a slasher/horror movies.  Cuts or timing was right for the genre; the music elicited dread; composition had a dark feel to it; and the general feel of the story was ‘what the hell is happening?’ and ‘who’s next?’

But what’s missing? 

King Rat

King Rat by James Clavell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If I compare to Tai-pan and Shogun, this book, King Rat, would be my least favorite. There is a restrictive feeling about it since it is a World War II POW camp in Singapore: Changi. The first two books had an epic nature about them, one was control on Imperial Japan and the other was control of East Asia by means of trade by the English.

Shogun

Shōgun by James Clavell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Chinese philosophy the Yin and Yang are the two opposing forces beneficial to the well being if there is harmony. In the book Shogun harmony is Wa. While I sound philosophical let me be clear that Shogun is not a philosophy book. The best modern pop culture analogy I can give would be Game of Thrones only here you have the real world of samurais.

The harmony or the Wa I speak of is to the quality of the book. James Clavell has mixed east and west elements often opposing into a seamless story worth 1,000 pages long.

Tai-pan

Tai-Pan by James Clavell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tai-pan is another East and West tale in the quality of Shogun, Clavell’s other popular book. Though in the later there is more versus between East and West, in Tai-pan there is more “diplomacy”.

For one reason the story of Tai-pan is more economic and business in nature. There is more subtlety in business than there is with the story of the samurai.

Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To think of Hollywood westerns is to set oneself up for wrong expectations in this book. Hollywood or the movies for one is a visual medium and books are never made into movies as they are written.

I fell into that expectation at the beginning of the book almost always expecting gunfights every few pages. After finishing a few chapters I thought writing gunfights every so often will ultimately be boring. The scene was best if it was watched with its quick draw and the gunfighters just flipping their guns into their holster.

Then we go into the genius of the book of moving to and from the concept of boring to epic. My only complaint of the author is that he uses euphemisms for anything sexual even rape. I had to read that paragraph twice at that rape section to understand and feel pity for the character. It was a weird choice to use indirect words when overall the author has been so vivid in describing the life in the old west.

Brooklyn (2015)

Reading letters is a plot device. 

However in the 2016 Best Picture nominee Brooklyn directed by John Crowley reading letters – this is snail mail mind you – was more than a plot device but was also the visualization of a heartbreak and thus highlight of my watching experience. They act as my goal posts wherein I could judge what condition Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) was in and where she was going.  The letters or rather the reading of it was what hooked me.

Rogue One (2016)

It seems reviews today need to come with a disclaimer in the beginning as to whether there are spoilers or not so in compliance with the requirement I'd say yes there are spoilers. There are spoilers even though I tried to be as vague as possible but its impossible to describe what I like or don't like without giving even just a little.  My advice as someone who tries to avoid spoilers every so often it is best not to read anything at all.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is better than the prequels (The Phantom Menace, Attack of theClones, and the Revenge of the Sith) especially if you see it side by side with A New Hope.  It is even better than the newest sequel the Force Awakens which felt like a rip off of A New Hope.