Movie of the Week: Inside Out

An animated psychology text book. Sweet in places and quite insightful. I would expect some of this is a bit scary for children. I'm not sure who this movie is aimed at. Parents will probably appreciate it most, I guess. There are some very funny moments (especially Dad putting his foot down) and a useful message: it's OK to be sad.

Movie of the Week: Ant Man

I'm not a comics reader, though I generally like marvel movies and this is no exception. I had no prior knowledge of Ant Man, so the movie came as a very pleasant surprise. Paul Rudd is a very engaging Scott Lang/Ant Man, an ex-con, drived to become a small-time burglar, who dons the Ant Man suit in which he shrinks in size while growing in strength. Michael Douglas is Hank Pym, his mentor and Evangeline Lilly, Pym's spirited daughter and (predictably) the love interest.

There are some nice human touches, some finely judges humour combined with full-on action adventure. Pym sends Scott to steal back Pym's technology that he fears will be used to the detrement of mankind.

Movie of the Week: Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation

Tom Cruise is always watchable and this Mission Impossible installment delivers what it says on the tin, Lots of excitement, edge-of-the-seat set pieces, twists and disguises. A nice turn by Simon Pegg as Benji and Jeremy Renner as Brandt. Ethan and crew have to take on the Syndicate, a team just as clever and well equipped as they are, and at the same time are disowned and disbanded by their own side. Hounded by both the good guys and the bad guys, Ethan has to go rogue to achieve the impossible.

And yes, I'm sure Tom Cruise has a picture in the attic.

Movie of the Week: Fantastic Four

Is it me or are reboots coming so thick and fast that we all wonder why they bother any more? Or maybe why we bother. Spiderman, Superman and now Fantastic Four.

This is the origin story again with Reed Richards transitioning from child-geek to adult geek, making incredible scientific discoveries and learning how to transport organic matter to another universe by playing with bits of junk from his friend's scrapyard. Yeah, right. I can believe in kryptonite, but interdimensional travel via junkyard parts? Not so sure.

FF may be one of my least favourite comic book stories.Is it because the superpowers that our heroes get are a bit lame. Mr stretchy-man? Really? It's not very sexy, is it? As a movie this version was more than a little bland with no stand-out performances. I wasn't all that fond of the 2005 Fantastic 4 but at least Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis had a bit of charisma. I've already forgotten the names of the actors in this.

Book Log 23/2015 - Georgette Heyer: Cotillion.

SPOILERS AHEAD.
I MEAN IT. I GIVE AWAY THE ENDING...



I wanted something fluffy to read while editing my magic pirate book and Cotillion seemed like just the job. Kitty Charing has been raised by her irascible adopted uncle. Determined that he is dying of gout he summons Kitty's unwed male cousins-by-adoption and promises to leave his considerable fortune to whichever one of them will marry her, leaving nothing to Kitty in her own right. None of the cousins actually needs the money, being reasonably well-heeled. There's Hugh, a stiff and slightly pompous clergyman; Freddy, an empty-headed dandy more concerned about the knot in his neckcloth than acquiring a wife; Dolphinton, an Earl, but slow-witted, and Jack, a regular Corinthian, gamester and rake-about-town. It's Kitty's choice, but the one she really wants, bad-boy Jack is the only one who doesn't respond to his uncle's summons. So Kitty comes up with a scheme to get herself away from Uncle's restrictive country home, up to London, made fashionable, and introduced into society, to put herself in Jack's way. To this end she coerces the amiable Freddy to a sham engagement, is installed with his respectable married sister (whose diplomat husband is abroad) and is launched upon society. She enters into several matchmaking schemes for other people, but neglects to make progress with her own. The dashing Jack proves to be not all Kitty believed him to be and in the end it's dear, dependable, thoughtful Freddy who comes through, not quite as empty-headed as he thinks himself.

Book Log 24/2015 - Diana Gabaldon: Voyager - Outlander #3

SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 1 & 2 AHEAD.


Nearly twenty years have passed since Jamie sent Claire back to her own time to save the life of his unborn child while he returned to the battlefield of Culloden, expecting to die, and there isn't a day when she hasn't missed him despite getting on with her life, training to be a doctor and having a rocky relationship with Frank (recently deceased) while raising Jamie's red-headed daughter Brianna.

Through a series of flashbacks we see what Jamie and Claire's lives have been in the years they've been apart. Yes, that's right, Jamie didn't die at Culloden, though he had a pretty grim time of it afterwards.

Through some judicious searching in Claire's present (1960s) she, Brianna and Roger Wakefield trace Jamie's family history, discover he's still 'alive' (in his own timeline) and Claire decides to go back. Jamie and Claire are reunited, leading to further adventures and an epic voyage.

This book is back to the top form of the first one. It's interesting in that there are viewpoint shifts, some of it being in third person and Claire's narrative in first, but this isn't jarring. It's a long book, but I galloped through it, unable to put it down.

Movie of the Week: Absolutely Anything

We had planned to see Man from UNCLE this week, but a particularly damning report from a friend sent us (almost at random) to see Simon Pegg in Absolutely Anything. A good choice as it turns out.

The premise: a bunch of poweful aliens are trying to decide whether the Earth is worth saving or whether it should be obliterated. As a test they select one person to be the recipient of a power which enables him to do absolutely anything. The power lands on the shoulders of mild-mannered British school teacher, Neil (Pegg) and we follow his discovery of the power, his inept usage for immediate personal benefit and his attempt to use it for the good of mankind. Imagine what a really twisted genie could do if it was granting you three wishes and you might imagine what happens to neil when the wishes he makes are granted literally.

Kudos to the voice actors, all of the surviving Monty Python team as the aliens and the much-missed Robin Williams in his last ever movie as the voice of Dennis the dog - a critical role as Dennis is a bit of a scene stealer.#

A very sweet movie, entertaining and funny - maybe not laugh-out-loud funny, but it certainly offered lots of smiles. Well worth seeing.

The Other Blog

I have a new post up on my Wordpress Blog about editing Winterwood, my upcoming third book. Please swing by and take a look. There's a partial of one of the potential cover images.