Prey (audio) and God Emperor of Dune

By Michael Crichton and Frank Herbert, respectively.  There’s really no justice in comparing these authors at all – one writes beer and pretzel, DaVinci Code level stuff at best, the other writes literature that’s accepted in academic canon.  So I’m rather comparing what they each did with theories of predator-prey dynamics and evolution.  In Prey, there is some interesting stuff, however wincingly cliched in the vein of don’t-play-God morals, involving humans creating an organism which in existing by the quintessential essences of the two aforementioned theories, is almost impossibly dangerous.  Except by the everyman house-husband hero, natch.  In God Emperor, besides the many interesting discussions of ideas about different modes of government, religion in that, the nature of police forces and moreover good and evil and conservative versus liberal and…etc, the dynamics of predator/prey and evolution are instead turned towards the betterment of the human species.  But alas, I can’t really say more than that without giving away the profound, unexpected revelation of exactly how that occurs near the end of the novel.

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Fanboys

With Sam Huntington, Kristen Bell, Jay Baruchel, and Dan Fogler, and a slew of fun cameos.  In one sense, this movie is really only worth watching if you’re going to probably get the slew of constant Star Wars references, and moreover, sci-fi fan culture – almost every joke in the movie is based on them.  And that, unfortunately, can only go so far in being funny.  That said, while the movie may not be utterly hilarious, it rather has a helluva lot of heart.  You end up really caring for the characters and their foibles and affections and even affectations, and the ending is consequently really satisfying.

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Ai no corrida

It’s interesting that it’s based on a true story about the excesses of a Japanese man and his servant.  And I’m vaguely disappointed I didn’t get to see the fully explicit original cut, it’s easy to tell where bits are snipped out.  But really, a slow crescendo of excesses with basically no narrative or deeper character development can only go so far.  Which includes me not sticking around for the purportedly gruesome ending.  Didn’t really live up to its infamy, in my opinion.

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Flight of the Conchords

These guys kick just as much ass as one would imagine they would in concert.  They came out in cardboard and aluminum foil robot suits to bang out a techno “Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor,” then shifted into their more usual folksy fare, a variety of instruments and musical quirks and hilarity.  They also had the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra along with them (aka one guy on a cello), so that was a nice addition.  The only downside wasn’t the band at all, but just obnoxious Phoenix people practically heckling them to the point of their frustration.  Oh, and Phoenix people?  More money put into style doesn’t mean it looks any better if you still can’t figure out how to wear something that flatters your body.

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Monsoon Wedding

With…I’m not even sure who to list, they all play significant roles in the movie, and all do great jobs.  Hm.  Oh there’s one that looks like uncannily my cousin Nicole, so that’s cool.  Anyway, the one issue I have with this movie is that the first time I watched it, I had trouble following the dialogue, as it switches languages often in midsentence, with the subtitles perfectly set to the language, so you have to be pretty agile to keep up with that.  That said, the many familial relationships and foibles and romantic gaffes and saves and hopeless-romanticisms that occur through the varied substories that all occur within the same family in the same narrative more than make up for that tiny note, which is actually more of a good thing in being more accurate, of course, in truth.

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Terminator Salvation

With Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Helena Bonham Carter.  I had to list all of them because I like all those actors, heh. One, I loved all the little nuance-references to previous Terminator flicks, from the obvious trademark lines to the subtle scene-inversions.  The action is tension-inducing, fast, and clever throughout, and the setting is a very satisfying realizition of the much referenced post-apocalypse.  The only downbit is that Bale is kind of disappointing as John Connor, and is kind of a secondary character in the narrative, the main Terminator of the movie having a much more depthful personality than in previous films.  Howard is a great improvement on Claire Danes for his wife, though it would have been fun to call the movie “My So-Called Post Apocalyptic Life” and mashup the scenes so it would seem like she was being all teen angsty about John Connor.

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Angels and Demons

With Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor.

I liked it better than The DaVinci Code, I suppose.  It was interesting in it being more quickly paced, and having more action and a more direct plot.  To me, I guess it would be something like conspiracy-fluff.  McGregor did a great job, though the main female lead was kind of forgettable – I’m not sure if that’s entirely her fault, though, or if she was kind of wrtten out of being able to do anything.  The sci-fi element and ending are kind of ludicrous, but hey, they’re fun.  An okay fluffy movie, not really attention-holding, but ok.

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kimmie66

By Aaron Alexovitch.

In its own little niche genre of spookycute, this little one-shot graphic novel really is just that – it’s spooky enough to draw goosebumps at a few points, and unremittingly adorable in its drawing style.  It’s also a rare combination of science-fiction and ghost story, which a frosting of Whedon-esque dialogue.  I admittedly picked it up out of oblique attachment to the name, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

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Choke

With Anjelica Houston, Sam Rockwell, and Kelly Macdonald.

Every movie I see Macdonald in, I sit there the entire film wondering where I’ve seen her.  Then I finally look her up later, and there it is, Trainspotting.  Anyway, while there’s a definite parallel feeling between this movie and Fight Club, I think the latter was the better of the too, both in narrative and in appealing to a wider audience base.  That said, it is really interesting to see that unique attitude brought to bear on things sexual and familial – trick is, the sex is a bit too freaky I think for most people to not cringe from.  Also, it was a little more scattershot than Fight Club, though that’s a hard distinction to make, and the main character didn’t really ever get anything less than a jerk till near the end, so it was hard to get into in the vein of feeling for the main character.   Watch it for the style mixed with topic, if you do.

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The Lemon Tree

By Sandy Tolan.

If you ever wanted to learn in a relatively quick way about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is the book.  It’s only downfall is that it can be pretty dry, in basically listing events that happen, but it does a wonderful job of switching between perspectives to give a balanced reading of a very complex issue.  Moreover, most of the information comes from interviews and primary sources, so you don’t have to worry about trying to interpret whether something has been politicized, and also in having those direct experiences, there are some tearjerker moments.  I was particularly surprised to realize that as much as people think of it as a thousand-year-old conflict, as I understand it now it’s really more of a not-quite-fifty-year conflict…anyway, if that bit is intriguing to you already, the book is worth reading.

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