12.31.2005

 

King Kong



~180 minutes, PG-13
Overall Grade: A

You'll laugh, you'll cry... you should definitely see this movie on the big screen. In case you've been living in a hole for the past year. Peter Jackson (aka director of the kick-a** LotR movies) has just released his pet project - a remake of King Kong. Don't come expecting camp, because this is there is none. This is a thrilling, doesn't feel like 3 hrs joyride from New York to Skull Island back to New York. Whee! Since I have never seen the original, and its possible you haven't either, the plot for this film goes like this. Its the Depression, Jack Denham is a movie maker in trouble with his studio, he makes a last-ditch dash to cast off, finishing capturing his film on a supposedly undiscovered island inhabited by some nasty, unfriendly people, King Kong, and other beasties. The leading lady for his film, Ann Darrow, is soon snatched away by Kong and the story snowballs from there. The PG-13 I think comes from quite a bit of fighting with beasties, though with very little blood. There are some major gross out sequences involving bugs, very large bugs, so if you have a mortal fear of the creepy-crawlies, avoid avoid avoid this film! Otherwise get your butt out of your computer chair and over to the theater.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 6:42 AM
 

Eldest


by Christopher Paolini, 668 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: D+

Paolini gets the plus for his sheer ordacity to follow up his crummy first novel with another equally large, if not larger, piece of drivel. Some publisher must honestly be way too easily impressed by the author's age when he cranked out his first work to notice how terrible it was. And this is some from a reading of the finer children's fantasy of today. Anyway, this book continues the plot of the first with Eragon & his dragon Saphira off to get trained by the Elves and then are called back for the first large-scale confrontation. It annoys me to no end to see Paolini steal devices and story parts from just about everywhere right and left. If you could shake everything out of the book except its original bits, the book would be like 1/6, maybe 1/10 the size. I have to give him props for not giving away his oh-too-obvious surprise at the end though. Seriously, not worth it. Go read 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy or 'The Hobbit' for dragons and elves or Harry Potter for that matter, geeez.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 6:34 AM
 

Longitude


by Dava Sobel, 175pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: C

Sobel writes very well for the lay-person. Her writing is very easy to read and she was a good way of explaining things that are inherently scientific and mathematical in simpler terms. However, she also loves to wax philosophically on the important of some things which don't need it or to give gradiose descriptions that soar off into lofty, self-important language. In any case, this book was about how determining longitude at sea is a lot different from determining latitude, and follows the attempts over centuries to find a remedy to this problem until it finally is surmounted by a creative, self-taught fellow with a genius for clockmaking. Recommended only to those interested in the topic, but not well-versed in any form of physical science or engineering, or nautical navigation for that matter.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 6:27 AM
 

Lyra's Oxford


by Philip Pullman, 55 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B

Although I adore the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, this was just too short to whet my desire for more material in that "universe." This book contains several maps and miscellaneous items that he hints at somehow being important in the future (whatever) or maybe not, as well as a short story about Lyra set in Oxford two years have the aforementioned trilogy. I definately recommend it to dear fans of the trilogy, but otherwise, it will make no sense...at all.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:44 AM

12.28.2005

 

Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

by Gregory Maguire, 406 pages, paperback
Overall Grade: B-

While it was very interesting to read a story set in Oz (since I have been an Oz nut as long as I can remember), Gregory's story is not for the child at heart. Instead it follows the convoluted life of the Wicked Witch of the West, or Elphaba as he names her. Her messed-up family, her torturous years at college, her life that follows after. It's interesting to see how he works in all the parts of Oz into a believable world with real politics and revolutions and racial tensions. He does make a big gaffe in staying that Glinda is from the north, when she is most certainly NOT. And real Oz fan will tell you she's the "Witch of the South." *thumbs nose at those who've only seen the movie* After her time at college, everything else seems to be a slow denoument to her death. I guess it was worth reading though.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 10:03 PM
 

American Prometheus

by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin, 591 pages, hardcover
Overall Grade: B+

A new biographer of Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the Los Alamos scientific establishment during the WWII race to build the atomic bomb. The prose was quite good, and it was very interesting to read a biography about a famous physicist that I knew little about before. However, it did seem to drag on for a long while, especially the section about his security clearance hearing. But a good read overall

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 10:00 PM
 

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

by Susanna Clarke, 846 pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: A+

This novel relates tale of two English magicians, Mr. Norell and Jonathan Strange (who starts out as his apprentice) during the time period around the Napoleonic Wars. I simply fell in love with Clarke's prose. At first it seemed as little slow, and rarely do you actually see magic being done. Instead there is a whole cast of characters that are deeply intertwined into the revival of English magic. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone willing to attempt the 800+ pages.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 9:55 PM

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