Two movies and a book
Apr. 2nd, 2006 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreCaught a second showing of V for Vendetta yesterday with some friends. Still excellent.
Last night, I was bored and ABC was showing The Ring. Horror, especially modern "guts & gore" horror, is not my favorite type of film. But I figured I'd give it a go.
Not bad. Nicely tense, appropriately spooky in the right places, and the plot was decent. Well filmed, I thought. Probably my favorite part was they kept the supernatural elements to a minimum. Video tapes, photographs, and telephones; all parts of our normal life, and all things used to good horrific effect. I had been spoiled on the twist ending, but it was still effective. I'll probably add it to my Netflix list so I can watch it with subtitles on.
The book was Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer. We picked this up at the BASFA meeting last week as part of the weekly auction. Got a pile of books for a few bucks. Very interesting. I described it to Kirsten as "Contact meets Ordinary People." Aliens have been sending us a message, which we can't figure out. The book follows two University of Toronto professors, one of whom is working on the messages. Their marriage is on the rocks, one daughter a suicide, one making horrendous accusations, and then a breakthrough happens... I really enjoyed the novel, and sawyer is becoming one of my "A list" authors.
Last night, I was bored and ABC was showing The Ring. Horror, especially modern "guts & gore" horror, is not my favorite type of film. But I figured I'd give it a go.
Not bad. Nicely tense, appropriately spooky in the right places, and the plot was decent. Well filmed, I thought. Probably my favorite part was they kept the supernatural elements to a minimum. Video tapes, photographs, and telephones; all parts of our normal life, and all things used to good horrific effect. I had been spoiled on the twist ending, but it was still effective. I'll probably add it to my Netflix list so I can watch it with subtitles on.
The book was Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer. We picked this up at the BASFA meeting last week as part of the weekly auction. Got a pile of books for a few bucks. Very interesting. I described it to Kirsten as "Contact meets Ordinary People." Aliens have been sending us a message, which we can't figure out. The book follows two University of Toronto professors, one of whom is working on the messages. Their marriage is on the rocks, one daughter a suicide, one making horrendous accusations, and then a breakthrough happens... I really enjoyed the novel, and sawyer is becoming one of my "A list" authors.
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Date: 3 Apr 2006 05:43 (UTC)Oh, and The Ring and The Grudge (Sarah Michelle Gellar) are all just about perfect scene for scene recreations of the Japanese originals. Not sure about Dark Water (Jennifer Connely) though. And if I remember correctly, the Grudge was even filmed in the same house.
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Date: 3 Apr 2006 06:06 (UTC)