Other new releases, and also DUNE. Damn.

 Hi darlins!

I brought up His Holiday Crush, so I might as well bring up the other things that are happening word-wise for me right now.

Sniper Vs. Spotter is out, with L.A. Witt. It's the Hitman sequel, and it's hilarious, and we're writing the 3rd book right now. We just can't quit these guys.

Sniper Vs Spotter on Amazon

Mortal-enemies-turned-furniture-breaking-lovers August Morrison and Ricardo Torralba have found a groove that suits them both. They’ve teamed up as hired guns, they live together, and by some miracle, they haven’t killed each other. It’s the closest to normal they’ll ever have, and they love it.

But their guns-and-roses future is thrown into chaos when Ricardo’s past comes crashing into their present. What begins as a favor for an old friend—well, “friend,” but don’t tell August—quickly spirals into something far bigger than they anticipated. Now they’re in way over their heads with powerful people on both sides of the law, and it’s going to take more than snark and explosions to see them through.

Nevertheless, there will be plenty of snark and explosions, because this is August and Ricardo, and no one would expect any less. In between the smoke and sarcasm, though, they are determined to bring an evil operation crashing down… no matter who they have to work with to get the job done.

And no matter who they have to kill.

Sniper vs Spotter is the sequel to the apparently-it-doesn’t-want-to-be-a-standalone Hitman vs Hitman, which absolutely was supposed to be a standalone, but August and Ricardo (predictably) refused to be contained. Our audiobook narrator also shares some of the blame, Michael. So here we are.  

Also--Mutable, which some of you are probably familiar with, has had the hell edited out of it and is available on the KISS app.

Cas Farling is three things: a refugee in a war that's nearly destroyed his people; an assassin desperate for revenge against the person his sold him out; and a phage carrier—his body shared with an organism that lets him change his appearance at will. He's also marked for death by the local planetary government, and if he can't convince the peace-keeping Imperians that he's actually his deceased brother Beren—young, innocent, and deserving a second chance at life—he'll be murdered as soon as he leaves their encampment. 

 

If Cas dies, he won’t be able to avenge his brother. Lucky for Cas, the Imperians' commander, Rone Basinti, believes he is who he says he is, and is willing to do more than Cas ever dreamed possible to save him—even if it means marrying him.

 

Too bad he doesn’t know who he’s really marrying…or how far Cas is willing to go to hunt down his prey.

***

Also, in completely other news, I watched DUNE, in a theater (first time in over two years) and it was a visual feast. I've never been a huge fan of the story or any of the previous adaptations, but this was a pretty beautiful film. Also, Rebecca Ferguson is my favorite. Emotional and badass, powerful and badass, loving and also quite badass...she rocks.

Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

So, last week I saw this:

Yes, that would be Mad Max! And oh look, it has two of the most beautiful people in the world, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, being badasses! Hell to the yes, please.

There's been a lot of talk about whether or not it's got a feminist message,or whether really it's not feminist at all and the women are just as sexualized as ever. I found it to be more empowering than not with regards to the main female characters, but that's not why I went to see this movie. I didn't go see it for the actors, as amazing as they are. I didn't go see it because I adore the franchise either. I went to see it because I was in the mood for action, without being pilloried on the tropes of So Much Action I Don't Even Care Anymore or Let Me Dialogue You To Death (both Avengers, methinks). I went to see this movie because I wanted to see amazing stunts, scenery, and explosions with a soupcon of plot to get me through.

I got a fucking amazing deal, with those points in mind. The stunts are phenomenal, the scenery and filming breathtaking, the story decent and the acting spot-on. I'm so sick of seeing massive cities destroyed in action movies, or everyone delving so deeply into their personal angst that it overwhelms their character. This movie is pure adrenaline, with very little speech--the script must be kind of hilarious to read. It's exactly what I wanted, and goddamn, did I ever want it. Favorite movie since Kingsmen, definitely.

Happy Valentine's Day! + movie reviews

Hi guys!

Yay, it's that day of love and sex and abject consumerism. Hey, I'm not objecting; this day is also my anniversary, because you know who forgets Valentine's Day? Nobody, that's who, including my man. Only this Valentine's Day he's stuck working on homework after a morning out and about, so I got him some flowers and chocolates and he promised to take me out later this week. Win-win!

And because it's Valentine's Day, and because the perfect new movie for the day just premiered, naturally we went and saw...Kingsman!

Of course we went and saw Kingsman--you couldn't pay me to sit through 50 Shades. Kingsman was exactly the sort of movie I love: irreverent, funny, clever, and full of badass men and women (I appreciated that the women were more than props, both the main ladies rocked completely as far as I was concerned). The fight scenes, especially Colin Firth's in the church--yes, fighting in the church, this isn't exactly a spoiler but it is probably the best part of the movie--were both ridiculously over the top and completely awesome. This is a cheesy, delightful, sexy, fantastic movie. And did I mention it has Colin Firth looking goddamn incredible?

My honey and I also went and saw Jupiter Ascending the other day...which...hmmkay, you know how some movies are so awful that they swing around and become good? This movie is not quite that. It's not good, there are plot holes you could pilot a spaceship through (literally, they do this several times, oh those plot holes, so convenient) and the acting is...well, just goddamn. They could have done better. It feels like they should have done better, except how could they when the script was so bewilderingly awkward? The best thing about Jupiter Ascending was, honest to god, the fact that Sean Bean's character survived. That and the visual effects, which were genuinely stunning.

LIVE, SEAN! LIIIIIVE!!!

At any rate...so! I've got a new release on Monday that I'll chat up later (but if you want to know more now, go here for some really excellent BDSM stories, and I'm not just saying that): http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/rules-to-live-by. I've got a vignette to write this weekend, a few other stories to look at (yes, Bath, I'm looking at you;) and friends from Tennessee in for a few days, so life is busy. 

Happy V-Day, darlins :)

Movie Review: Battle of the Five Armies

Sooo...

This weekend I went and saw The Battle of the Five Armies with my husband and some friends. Spoilers below, so stop reading now if you want to maintain blissful ignorance.

I'm what you'd call a casual lover of Tolkien. I've read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I've read the Silmarillion and I've got the Elvish dictionary, but I haven't delved too deeply into all of the extra work that he wrote. I loved the first three movies, was super excited by the development of The Hobbit and its cast, then saw the first one and...

Well. Yeah. Not...fantastic. I'm not a stickler for source material, god no, but...really? Okay, so some of the choices made were distracting, particularly the development of the love triangle. It's not that I don't like Tauriel, I think it's generally nice to add kickass women to movies that are 99% men beating on each other, but I think the love triangle was kind of ridiculous. And in this movie it comes to a head, and when it does, it diminishes one of the potentially most potent emotional moments in the entire film. This moment, of course, is the death of Fili.

Okay, and here I get a little snippy. Honest to God, I get that Kili is cute and Thorin is conflicted and has some real and serious trials to overcome, and Bilbo is saucy and adorable, but Fili is the definition of stalwart. He supports his uncle, he stays behind to care for his wounded brother, he stays calm and does his duty and then, when everyone else is getting excruciatingly long fight scenes before they go the way of the dodo, he gets stabbed from behind and flung down in front of his brother, who sets off with a vengeance and then gets distracted by saving his lady love. Which, fine! She should totally live. But can we just reflect for a moment on the fact that Thorin's heir has bit the dust, the one who loves without reservation, the one who stands up for the most important people in his life without any expectation of a thank you (which he doesn't get, I note)? Kili gets a long, drawn-out eye contact love affair with Tauriel, Thorin gets to talk it out with Bilbo before he goes (after being a fucking idiot--I mean, his death was a beautiful scene, but what a fucking way to go) and Fili just...dies. After telling his family to run, which naturally they don't do.  I just feel like his character could have been developed more fully, since we're disregarding the source text so much.

Anyway! Apart from that, this is definitely the movie of the year with regards to enormous, elaborate, pretty thrilling fight scenes. Seriously, I was literally shaking while watching some of them, my adrenaline was pumping so hard. I love me some fight scenes, I truly do, and action/adventure is a perennial favorite of mine, so...overall, I found it enjoyable. I love the cast (Richard Armitage, Lee Pace, Benedict Dragonbatch, Martin Freehobbit, rawr) and the settings were gorgeous, and anything that brings fantasy to the forefront deserves some credit in my mind. Fun movie. I cried a little bit, in between wondering who the hell uses a sword in a reverse grip (Mirkwood elves, apparently, but honest to god, Thranduil, you're enormously tall, use that to your advantage!) and laughing over dwarves who ride battle hogs. Yes, battle hogs. Well played there, Mr. Jackson.

Movie Review: The Drop, + something fun

Hi there!

So, I think there's something wrong with my fun processor. I got home last night, and there was my man all bouncy and happy to see me, and he said, "Hey, I want to take you to get a massage, then dinner, and we can see a movie!" And my first impulse was to say, "Nooo, I want to stay home and have a bath and read." What kind of person does that?

Oh wait, the kind who was working all day while her husband went stir-crazy on his own. Right! Never mind, I know how to have fun, I just like to plan it around being tuckered out. Anyway, we did go out, everything was nice and then we saw The Drop, a crime movie with Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini and Noomie Rapace.

This movie is a lovely demonstration of subtle foreshadowing. It comes out not so much in the script, which dragged in places and threw in some plot devices that just seemed excessive (I mean, I get the umbrella thing, but...really? Kind of clumsy.) but in the excellent acting. Tom Hardy is a really excellent actor--I've seen him in Inception, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and now The Drop, so I don't have the most comprehensive view of his work, but he's been my favorite thing about all of those. He gives you just enough hints about the depths that at first don't really seem to be there that you're transfixed, waiting for confirmation of what you think he's capable of. When the movie's violence comes, which isn't frequently, it's very effective, and the setting is realistic and well-explained. Plus there's a cute dog, so...win!

And the fun thing--I commissioned some original artwork for Soothsayer a few months ago, and I got it yesterday! It's a picture of Cillian, and it's amazing. I'll show you guys on Tuesday, I just wanted to share the happy:)

300: Rise of an Empire

So, over the weekend my man and I went to see this movie:

Did I like it?  Why yes, yes I did, quite a bit actually.  Those of you who are discerning, elevated film watchers might now be asking yourself, "Why?"

The truth is, this movie is just the kind of camp I love.  It's incredibly violent without, for the most part, degenerating into porny, torturey rape and pillage (note I say for the most part--there's a glaring exception I'll get to in a moment), it has some very good actors who are capable of giving quite stirring versions of their frankly ridiculous speeches, it has a lot of gorgeous nearly naked men--always a win in my book--and most especially it has sea battles.

Yeah, you heard me.  I have a special nerdy love for sea battles.  My favorite time period is the Napoleonic era, but I'll take the Bronze Age in a heartbeat.

Oh, you sexy triremes you.  I don't care that some of the tactics seemed, well, ridiculous--major, major points for doing battle at sea and making it gripping and frightening and beautiful.

What, plot?  Well...there isn't much plot, honestly.  This occurs concurrently with the last 300 movie, and it's mostly "save a united Greece" for the Greeks and "kill all the Greeks" for the Persians.  We get a lot of speeches with a lot of yelling, especially about GLORY!  HONOR!  VENGEANCE!  FREEEEEDOOOOM!!! The most character development is actually given to our villain, the female commander of the Persian navy, Artemisia.  We get to see how she got to her position of power, why she hates the Greeks so much, we understand her motivation and admire her commitment even when we're supposed to be rooting for the other guys.  Her lackeys are, well, lackeys, but Artemisia more than makes up for the lack of depth in the rest of the bad guys.

Artemisia is the character I loved the best, but I took umbrage with a description of her given by one of the film's producers: "Talk about female empowerment!"  Yes, talk about murdering a young girl's family, turning her into a sex slave, raping her unto near death before abandoning her where she's picked up off the street for no apparent reason and turned into a merciless warrior, watch her learn to transform her pain at her own life into merciless hatred and blind ambition, watch her do the same thing to others that was done to her, watch her die at the hands of the only person in the whole damn movie she respected, and then equate that to the way women get empowered?  Yikes.  You broke and remade her for evil, you didn't empower her.

Anyway...yeah.  300: Rise of an Empire, lots of good, gory fun.

Lego Movie Review

In a fit of nostalgia, my man and I went to go see the LEGO Movie on Friday night.  I was expecting it to be cute.

Aww, LEGOS, so cute!  And it was cute, but it was also completely awesome. 

I say this as someone who only played with LEGOS in a cursory way; I got most of my enjoyment of this movie out of its very effective self-ridicule and the general hilarity of the situation.  My man enjoyed it on the deeper level of someone who's played with a lot of those LEGO sets ("Oh my god, 80's Space Man! And that's exactly how his helmet broke, and that's how the insignia on his uniform always wore off! It's so realistic!").

There is exactly one catchy song for the whole movie, which is very deliberate, and great voice actors and fun special effects with LEGO water, LEGO fire, LEGO explosions...it should be cloying or ridiculous, but it really isn't.  I enjoyed it, at any rate.

47 Ronin. Wtf...

So, my man and I went and saw 47 Ronin on Friday evening.  It was that or American Hustle, and he let me have my way and we went and saw Keanu Reeves.  And um...my bad.

At first glance it seems like the kind of movie I would love.  Action, fantasy, magic, good versus evil--all tropes but I like a good trope done right.  These were not done right.

Let's start with the incredibly obvious visual cliches.  I mean, yes you can use the environment you put your characters in to make a statement, but that doesn't mean you have to beat the metaphor into the ground.  They set the smirking bad guy's lair in a Japanese-ish version of Moria, for fuck's sake.

Impossible romance supported with actions and statements so ludicrous it bordered on just plain stupid?  Check.

Improbable, poorly-explained alliance between bad guys that used magic as a convenient explanation for everything while making us care absolutely nothing about the possible threat these people posed, because they were so obvious and two-dimensional that you just couldn't be bothered?  Check.

Hero figure set up for acceptance and redemption after harsh and unloving treatment his whole life--that is to say, in the life he lived after he fled from the Tengu Forest, the only part of the movie that actually could have been really interesting?  And oh, allow him to inexplicably hang on to a valuable golden ornament given to him by his forbidden flame despite a year spent enslaved?  Done and done.

And also, any sailors who put their ships that close together, with that many torches and lanterns in close proximity, deserve to have their fucking ships burnt down.  I mean really.

Was the movie completely intolerable?  No, although spoiler alert: almost every main character commits seppuku at the end, keeping with the historical legend of the 47 ronin, but still.  Damn.  I'm not necessarily sad that I saw it, but I am bummed that we spent the money to go out for that.  Better watched at home, where you can groan and roll your eyes in peace.

In other news, we went to a UFC party last night and watched Anderson Silva break his leg on Chris Weidman's knee.  Oh my god.  You could hear the bone break.  It was absolutely gnarly.  The party was fun, in a hipster, awkward-glasses-homemade-venison-chili-craft-beer-and-martinis-for-everyone kind of way.  I talked to almost no one.  Not exactly a social butterfly, me.

 Anyway, happy Sunday, darlins.

Two Very Different Movies, Both Fun

Okay, so let's start with my guilty pleasure, which is anything with Jason Statham in it.

I know.  I know!  They're formulaic, they're all action and shooting and gratuitous explosions, accented with fast cars, beautiful women, cliche parent-child relationships and bro-to-bro macho lovefests.  Regardless, I love Jason Statham, I think he's ridiculously sexy and a very good martial artist, and so last week when I went to see Homefront I wasn't disappointed because I knew exactly what to expect, spiced up with some James Franco.  Yay James!  Plus Winona Ryder not even being recognizable at first, whoa.

Then there was The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  Which, okay, I haven't read the books because I am a YA philistine at the moment, but it was amazing.  The actors were fantastic, the story was entertaining and watching it helped me resolve some issues in one of my own upcoming books by taking a page from the "less explosions, more emotions" style of storytelling.  Which isn't to say this movie doesn't have excellent action scenes, because it does.  They're just vastly overshadowed by the wonderful character development and emotional nuance.

All of you are FABULOUS!!!

Don Jon

Last night (after a romantic tire-changing interlude on the side of the road) my man and I went to see Don Jon.

It was hilarious, and raunchy--I don't use the term loosely, and this was raunchy--and had some interesting insights into popular culture, sex, porn and relationships.  Plus it starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who apart from being a visual feast also wrote and directed the movie.  Then it had my girl-crush Scarlett, who was cast in a not-exactly-sympathetic but certainly understandable role, and the cherry on top was Julianne Moore.  See it for her if you're not going to see it for anyone else, her role is less central but provides a very satisfying amount of catharsis.

Apart from the strength and chemistry between the characters, I also liked this movie because it didn't take the easy road out.  The thing you expect to happen, given the rom-com background of the movie, doesn't happen.  In the end a few things have changed and a lot haven't, but you're certainly invested in the character of Jon, which is an impressive feat considering what a complete asshole he is much of the time.  I didn't expect to like the plot as much as I did.

And the series of Sunday confessions are awesome.  It makes me want to go and I'm not even Catholic, just to see what my sins would net me.

Football, Movies and Novels-To-Be

Hi guys!

Time for a post on something other than serials.  I know, why bother, and yet I must.  Hmm, what have I been up to?

Well, on the advice of a dear friend I found a way to watch the Broncos/Ravens game earlier this week, which, for those of you who don't care about American football and/or have no interest in either team, probably doesn't mean much.  If that's the case, just skip this paragraph.  I'm not a huge football fan (a sin here in Colorado) so all of this wouldn't normally mean all that much for me either, but the game was actually really exciting, what with the rapidly-developing rivalry between the teams, high scores that kept things interesting, and some moments of cocky, jackass stupidity that you had to see to believe.  Oh, Danny Trevathan.  Here's how not to be yelled at by your coach, quarterback and the entire freaking stadium's worth of fans--don't drop the ball at the one-yard line, then prance into the end zone like you've just scored a touchdown. Because you haven't.

Whoops!

Moving on, My man and I went to go see Elysium last week.  It's the new sci-fi movie starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, directed by the guy who's first movie was District 9.  District 9 was an awesome movie, with a great story, well-developed characters and wonderful effects, and I had high hopes for Elysium.

Elysium is no District 9.  Even the cast couldn't save it, and frankly it didn't really seem like they tried that hard.  The setting was great, the special effects were cool and some of the supporting characters were very nearly intriguing.  Far more interesting, actually, than the main characters, who were underdeveloped, with ham-handed backstories replete with overdone symbolism and reasons for doing what they did that either left me rolling my eyes or just not caring.  Nothing gets solved in Elysium.  Not if you stop to think about the way things happen once the credits roll.  Also, the exo-skeleton that seems so important to the story, judging from the promo posters, is really just an excuse for a battle of the semi-superhumans at the end, which I also didn't care about.  I wanted to care.  I just couldn't bring myself to do so.

Last thing: I'm over 40k on the novel that I'm trying to have done by the end of September.  That's 40k in about 13 days.  Why the hell don't I write this fast all the time?  I have no idea, this story is just working out that way.  Hopefully it's not complete dross.  Beta readers, I'm probably going to have to give you this puppy in sections if we want a chance in hell of it all coming together before the due date; expect me to message you soon.

Well, that's that, I think.  I've got writing to do, my man has homework, we had a lovely morning full of controlled violence...blissful!

Happy weekend, darlins.

The World's End...is epic:)

My man and I saw this movie on Friday:

If you've seen Shaun of the Dead and/or Hot Fuzz, you know the type of movie this is.  It's a freaky weird, adrenaline-building buddy flick masquerading for a little while at the beginning as something completely banal.  I loved it.  Seriously, I loved this movie.  I love the actors, I love the few serious issues that cropped up in the midst of the bizarre, and I loved the way it pulled absolutely no punches with blending genres that just shouldn't work so well together, yet do.  I mean, pub crawls + robots?  The freakiest, funniest robots ever?  Seriously, loved it.  Plus, Martin Freeman, so.  Insta-winner with me.

Two Lovely Things:)

First thing: I saw The Wolverine last night.  And it didn't suck.  It was actually pretty good, which is more than I've been expecting lately from the mutant half of the Marvel movie franchises (sorry, but the last Wolverine movie was just. Not. Good.  But this one?

This one has Wolverine, who is as ripped and snarly as ever, as well as sword fighting, ninjas, samurai, gigantic Japanese mechs and a female sidekick who is quite possibly the most interesting person in the entire movie, with a power that makes me wish I had thought of it first.

Yes, I have a total girl crush on this character, and no shame about admitting it.  She's badass.  See the movie for her if not for Hugh Jackman, folks.


The other lovely thing is...I finished Cambion today!  The final episode of the serial story is finally in the hands of my editor and will be released next month, along with another bonus story and a speedpaint drawing done by the ever-lovely Nathie, who did the art for the cover.  You can read more here: Cambion Season One.

I have to admit, I will be glad to have this one behind me.  It's been a great story to write and I have plans for a second season, but I've also got Love Letters, a collaborative novella and a m/f sci fi romance novel to finish by October.  Yeah.  So.  Anyway, good times!

Happy Sunday, darlins:)

Movies and more...

Hi!

So, a couple movie reviews to get out of the way.  It's weird, I read so many more books than I do movies and yet movies are the things I review on my erotica blog?  Um, what?  Maybe it's because they feel like more of a rare event to me.

A while back I saw The Heat:

Honestly, it shouldn't have been as funny as it was, this is a movie I've watched numerous times in other incarnations.  But it's excellent in part because the physical comedy is hilarious and also because it stars women, who are somewhat novel in these roles.  The roles themselves are rehashed (bawdy, brash, incredibly irreverent one meets uptight, prissy, by-the-books one) and so is the plot (we have to work together to solve this crime? Oh noes!  Wait, this is kinda fun...hey, it's working out...OMG, physical danger, physical danger, brief emotional moment, physical danger, awkward yet inevitable resolution!!!!!).  Nevertheless, it was freaking hilarious.  My man just about fell out of his chair.  Truly epic, and the cat...oh, the cat.

Then yesterday I saw R.I.P.D.:

So, this was...not as awesome as I had hoped.  Really.  By a lot.  Did it completely suck?  No!  The concept is really fun, all sorts of puns were used and used well (Eternal Affairs as opposed to Internal Affairs, so cute, but then I'm easy when it comes to puns) and it could have been great.  But it wasn't.  The story fell somewhere between info dump and sight gags destined to account for failing description, the youngish cop main character (played by Ryan Reynolds, who I love and have seen in very funny roles before) was uninspiring to say the least, which meant the scratchy older partner (Jeff Bridges, who had to work way too hard to carry this movie along) had a fine line to walk between overwhelming and merely conducting the light.  The special effects were decent and I always enjoy evil Kevin Bacon, but overall...I just feel like it should have been better.  

On the plus side, one of the coming attractions was for The World's End, which is a Simon Pegg movie which means I know it's going to be funny and interesting.  

And it's got Martin Freeman looking dapper in a suit!  Fucking sign me up!

That tears it.  I need to watch some Sherlock, stat.

Hmm, other stuff...let's see, one of my friends leaves for Saga, Japan next week.  Tonight's her going away party and next Tuesday she's bringing her cat to my house, where said cat will become ours for the next year as we look after her for our friend.  The cat's name?  Rage.  Not as in angry, exactly; this is a Togo cat (yeah, this is out friend who did Peace Corps with us and brought back a cat) and in French, rage is the term for rabies.  So, not really an improvement, blame my friend.  Pics will soon follow.

Have a wonderful weekend, darlins!

Man Of Steel

I know, this came out last week, why aren't I watching World War Z?  But I didn't write anything about it, and I usually do when I go to the movies.  It just took me a while to remember in this case, and that just about sums up my feelings regarding the new Superman movie.

Here's the thing: I've never followed the Superman comics, watched any of the TV series, or seen any of the other movies.  I know very little about Superman beyond the iconic figure of Christopher Reeve and the word kryptonite.  So, here's my question for those who love him: when do things ever really get rough for Superman?

For this movie, I think they actually did a great job of providing him with villains of comparable strength and skill--not surprising, since they used other Kryptonians.  They provided great back story, the actors were all very good for their roles, Henry Cavill is both talented and beautiful, and the special effects were fantastic.  Whole cities were destroyed in the midst of flying fisticuffs, and the Indian Ocean may never be the same.

But what happens now?  I suppose the Evil League of Evil (I know, not associated with Superman, just run with it) will threaten the people he loves in order to get their way...but seriously, this guy?  Resistant to the vacuum of space, stands up to crushing gravity machines, you can throw him through one or two or three or fifteen skyscrapers and he comes out still standing, and that's all before the laserbeam eyes...frankly, he is ridiculously powerful.  He is the Voldemort of the superhero world, and I just don't see a Harry Potter in his future.

Bow before the Man of Steel, puny heroes!

Star Trek Into Darkness

Soooo...I saw this last night.

Before I get started, let me say I was never a big Star Trek fan.  And in this movie are references that, for those of us who are oblivious to the original series, we will miss entirely.  Apparently they're meaningful for people who know what to look for, but for me not so much.  That being said, I appreciate the fact that I didn't have to know what the moments of tribute were to enjoy pretty much every part of this movie.

First of all, Mr. Cumberbatch?  Khan?  Whatever you want to be called, if I could please have your voice and use it to lull me into deep, dreamy sleeps at night, I'd really appreciate it.  Seriously, one of the best speaking voices I've ever heard.  You barely sound real, you sound so good.  And accompanied by an incredible ability at ass-kicking just makes me like you more.

Secondly, Enterprise crew?  Aww, you all stayed together!  You're all so lovely!  And there are plenty of moments of hilarity interspersed with the angst and thrills, so if you want a little bit of everything out of a movie this is a good stop for you.

Thirdly, I don't know what the coming attractions are everywhere, but Joss Whedon has remade and modernized Much Ado About Nothing, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays.  He's cast Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion and Clark Gregg, among others.  This is something I've just got to see.

And lastly, goddammit, you guys killed one of my favorite people!  He doesn't have the biggest role in either of the Star Trek movies but I loved him, and you killed him.  I know you needed a device for future "moments", but come on!!!

Okay, done now.  Go see it.  Huge fun.

Iron Man 3

So, I went and saw Iron Man 3 with my man yesterday.  

Okay, while I've got to say that I'm a fan of superhero movies in general, this one was especially good!  Way better than the second one, where I felt like people were talking over each other too much and hard to follow.  Tony Stark is expectedly amusing and irreverent, the special effects are stellar, the story is pretty good and some of the supporting cast is truly excellent.  Of course, some of them are one-dimensional and kind of suck too, but it happens.  I never paid much attention to the Marvel Universe before the movies started coming out, but there is so much content for screenwriters and directors to draw from that they're really spoiled for choice, and they made some really good decisions with this film, particularly with regards to The Mandarin.

If you're looking for a fun, exciting movie to go and see that will leave you satisfied but not overwhelmed, this is a good choice.  I don't want those hours of my life back, as I have with several other special-effects heavy movies I've seen lately (I'm looking at you, GI Joe.  Yes, in the words of the immortal Henry Rollins, you are a time-murderer).  There you go, darlins.  

More Love Letters on Tuesday, and another snippet of my LHNB story soon (I'm almost done with the thing, we're going to clock in between 35 and 40k I think).

Happy Sunday:)

Oz the Great and Powerful...sort of.

So, tonight my man and I went and saw Oz the Great and Powerful!!!! (the exclamation points are mine).  Warning: spoilers for the movie below.

Definitely a fun family movie.  It's got everything a kid could love: fairies (that bite), flying monkeys (the monkey is the cute one, it's the flying baboons you've gotta look out for), sentient china dolls (warning, she's so sweet your teeth might just rot) and the kind of obvious, dramatic, tongue-in-cheek acting that almost succeeds at making fun of itself enough that you don't notice it.  I mean, yeah, Oz is a con man, I get that the schtick has to stick, but I was a little underwhelmed by James Franco, and by the quality of the women who fall for him.  Although I've got to give props to the wickedest witch of them all: girl, when you go dark side you don't just go, you freakin' run.

The atmosphere was rich, the story was good, the visual effects were mostly incredible (although Sam Raimi, damn it, get animators who can actually animate people in motion realistically!  You did this crap in Spiderman too, it's jarring, stop it!) and I loved all the witches for different reasons.  Glinda pulls off goodness without being cloying, Theodora has an endearingly severe personality disorder, and Evanora makes pulling strings look like she's conducting a symphony.

That's right, ladies, I love you.  Loooove you.  Especially you, Rachel. ;)

 

 



Is this something you should go and see without the leverage small children can apply to you?  Yes...if you love fantasy, have read the books, or are really curious about the prequel to the fabled The Wizard of Oz.  I suggest a matinee.  Or in my case, a gift certificate that paid the way in.  :)

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

So, this is the movie I went to see tonight:

Thin plot vaguely based on the fairy tale?  Check.

Gratuitous violence that is practically hilarious it's so out there?  Check.

Regrets about seeing Jeremy Renner handling a weapon of any kind?  Zero.

 

 

And in sexy black leather.  Ooh yes, more leather, Mr. Renner.  Wait, what?  Ludicrous weapons and costumes given the time period?  Shut up, inner history spoilsport!  I don't need you raining on my pretty person parade!

 

 

Was this movie absolutely ridiculous?  Yes.  That's kind of a major selling point.  Did I enjoy seeing it?  For sure.  I actually liked it a lot more than some of the other recent fantasy/fairy tale/bizarro movies I've seen, like that terrible new rendition of Snow White...I can't even remember it's name...the one with a suicidal cavalry charge that, no matter how I tried, I couldn't get my inner history spoilsport to tune out.  I couldn't stop thinking about Twilight all the way through it, which was the one book I had access to in Africa that I couldn't bring myself to read twice.  Hardly anything written in English for hundreds of kilometers, and I thought watching dust devils was more entertaining.  But I digress.

 

 

Yeah, silly movie, fun costumes, much violence, pretty people (and some not-so-pretty people, way to work it, makeup and special effects folks!).  If you don't want to ponder deeper meanings for a while, this is a good choice for you.

 

Hansel and Gretel say, Grr!  Don't take life so seriously!

 

 

More Love Letters on Tuesday, darlins.  Have an awesome weekend!