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A list of my favorite films. It occurs to me that I should examine them for commonalities. “Blade Runner” (1982) — This film is a visual masterpiece. The story, and the novel it is based on, really miss a great opportunity to explore a deep philosophical question, but in both cases it seems that merely […]
Frank Herbert’s Dune is a story about many things, but perhaps the most central is the formation of a superhuman mind. Much of the story and its plot points takes place within the inner thoughts of Paul Atreides. In its written form, these thoughts are easily expressed, and the resulting story is deep and powerful. […]
The thing that the Daniel Craig series of James Bond movies did, apart from casting an actor who is not naturally suave, was to make James Bond a tragic figure. It was long overdue, really. Prior to the 2006 “Casino Royale“, 007 movies have defied the standard storytelling ingredients of character flaws and character growth […]
I almost abandoned Pride and Prejudice early in the book. There was a scene where the “adults” were arguing about meaningless things like a bunch of middle-schoolers, but in formal early 19th century English. I reminded me of the banter my school friends had in fake English accents and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” […]
I love “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” for many reasons, but it occurs to me to consider the story structure. There’s a lot going on, actually. The premise, of course, is that Scott must fight Ramona’s seven evil exes (in a live action portrayal of video game combat). The inciting incident doesn’t reveal that immediately, […]
I read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy last year. It was published in 1974, and there have been at least two films based on it. I watched the 2011 film “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy“, the one with Gary Oldman, a few years ago. Both versions tell essentially the same story, but the two are very different. […]
I haven’t updated in a while regarding television I’ve watched (apart from Miami Vice). That’s partly because I’m still in a relative lull for television. I did watch some stuff, and most of it was ho-hum. Let’s start with what was not ho-hum: the twelve episode series “Andor“. This is by far the best Star […]
I am currently reading Forever Peace, by Joe Haldeman. It is science-fiction, centered on an interface technology, surgically installed in the brain, that enables users to communicate mentally with machines and with each other. An effect of this technology is that users who “jack in” together are able to know each other fully. There are […]
An almost completely serious episode. Just one moment during a stake-out montage where Zito and Switek have a girly poster up, for Gina and Trudy to roll their eyes over. More good (if sparse) acting from Edward James Olmos, who is fitting well into his role. Poor writing, and fairly poor acting from the guest […]
The Goodreads Choice Awards 2022 for Fantasy have been overwhelmingly declared for House of Sky and Breath, by Sarah J. Maas. It is the second in a series, so I thought I should start with the first novel, House of Earth and Blood. I guess it more or less counts as urban fantasy. There is […]
