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glindaNot sure when I started reveiwing practically everything I read/watch but still, tis handy to look back on and say..."oh so that's what it was that annoyed/endeared me about that book...
It got completely slated by the critics when it came out so I didn’t have great hopes for it. But I picked it up for 20p in the library’s summer book sale so I figured even if it was rubbish (which given that it was a Terry Pratchett book and had been borrowed little enough for them to sell when books by him are generally booked for months ahead seemed to suggest it was) it was worth it. It’s not his best book by a long way, but it’s certainly not his worst either. Not even his worst Discworld book (for me Pyramids still holds that title). There is a slight feeling of someone writing for a deadline, trying to use similar themes without re-covering old ground. There is, I suspect not enough subplot. Much as I wouldn’t have wanted less time with the regiment, a little more time with the Watch wouldn’t have gone amiss. We should have been a bit more in the know about just what they were up too, rather than having to be told at the end along with Polly. And a little bit from Paul’s point of view would’ve been nice. I know the point was to leave us as much in the dark as Polly is but still. Oh and since when was Angua able to do THAT kind of shape shifting? The shimmery thing? Huh? But otherwise I really liked it. It was a very compulsive read, I did have real difficulties putting it down for long enough to get anything else done. The part of me that still gets over-excited about gender studies was in seventh heaven. Jackrum is a fabulous character, and I’m sorry but in my head Lieutenant Blouse looks very like Hugh Laurie’s character in Black Adder goes forth, talks like Percy though.
I’ll probably never look at a rolled up ball of socks in quite the same way either.
Haunted continues…very good…
Yesterday...
Is the latest film from my favourite director Luc Besson. And don’t let anyone tell you it’s like the Fifth Element, which is what the review I read said and how I sold it to Alis. Alis in her delusion, decided that as we were going to the cinema for my birthday I got to choose. It was that or ‘The Notorious Betty Page’ which was raved about all the reviews I’ve read, but I reckoned might turn out to be a bit intense. I still want to see it but at the crunch I reckoned the chance to see the new film by my favourite director was too good to turn down. The guy at the counter warned us it was in French which should have been the signal for Alis to back out but we persevered. If you say the film title with a french accent it makes far more sense as a slight pun. It’s a lovely, though rather odd little film. In black and white, French with some slightly comical subtitles at points (whenever someone speaks in Spanish or German the subtitles just come up in German or Spanish…so Alis was translating little bits of Spanish for me, and I was translating wee bits of German for her…) It’s slightly confusing and you’re never sure who’s lying and who’s telling the truth, but then that’s the whole point. The flashbacks are a wee bit random too. But it did leave us feeling rather cultural and with an odd and unspecified desire to become better people. We went to see something odd, foreign and arty…by accident…
What is it with people calling Angels, Angela though? She’s freakishly tall too. And kind of a kick ass angel too, even if her acting was a bit wooden at times. Afterwards I had a U2 song stuck in my head, it’s not in the film but really should be. The song in general works for the character but the last verse in particular:
3 o’clock in the morning, its quiet and there’s no one around,
Just the bang and the clatter as an angel runs to ground
Just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground…
Maybe it does say something disturbing about the director’s attitude to women, but I think it also says something beautiful about life. About needing to love yourself before you can love others, and about needing to be shown love in order to feel love. And that your past (or lack of it) shouldn’t be allowed to dictate your future. I’m not sure I believe or agree with all of what this film is saying, but it’s still a nice sentiment.
It got completely slated by the critics when it came out so I didn’t have great hopes for it. But I picked it up for 20p in the library’s summer book sale so I figured even if it was rubbish (which given that it was a Terry Pratchett book and had been borrowed little enough for them to sell when books by him are generally booked for months ahead seemed to suggest it was) it was worth it. It’s not his best book by a long way, but it’s certainly not his worst either. Not even his worst Discworld book (for me Pyramids still holds that title). There is a slight feeling of someone writing for a deadline, trying to use similar themes without re-covering old ground. There is, I suspect not enough subplot. Much as I wouldn’t have wanted less time with the regiment, a little more time with the Watch wouldn’t have gone amiss. We should have been a bit more in the know about just what they were up too, rather than having to be told at the end along with Polly. And a little bit from Paul’s point of view would’ve been nice. I know the point was to leave us as much in the dark as Polly is but still. Oh and since when was Angua able to do THAT kind of shape shifting? The shimmery thing? Huh? But otherwise I really liked it. It was a very compulsive read, I did have real difficulties putting it down for long enough to get anything else done. The part of me that still gets over-excited about gender studies was in seventh heaven. Jackrum is a fabulous character, and I’m sorry but in my head Lieutenant Blouse looks very like Hugh Laurie’s character in Black Adder goes forth, talks like Percy though.
I’ll probably never look at a rolled up ball of socks in quite the same way either.
Haunted continues…very good…
Yesterday...
Is the latest film from my favourite director Luc Besson. And don’t let anyone tell you it’s like the Fifth Element, which is what the review I read said and how I sold it to Alis. Alis in her delusion, decided that as we were going to the cinema for my birthday I got to choose. It was that or ‘The Notorious Betty Page’ which was raved about all the reviews I’ve read, but I reckoned might turn out to be a bit intense. I still want to see it but at the crunch I reckoned the chance to see the new film by my favourite director was too good to turn down. The guy at the counter warned us it was in French which should have been the signal for Alis to back out but we persevered. If you say the film title with a french accent it makes far more sense as a slight pun. It’s a lovely, though rather odd little film. In black and white, French with some slightly comical subtitles at points (whenever someone speaks in Spanish or German the subtitles just come up in German or Spanish…so Alis was translating little bits of Spanish for me, and I was translating wee bits of German for her…) It’s slightly confusing and you’re never sure who’s lying and who’s telling the truth, but then that’s the whole point. The flashbacks are a wee bit random too. But it did leave us feeling rather cultural and with an odd and unspecified desire to become better people. We went to see something odd, foreign and arty…by accident…
What is it with people calling Angels, Angela though? She’s freakishly tall too. And kind of a kick ass angel too, even if her acting was a bit wooden at times. Afterwards I had a U2 song stuck in my head, it’s not in the film but really should be. The song in general works for the character but the last verse in particular:
3 o’clock in the morning, its quiet and there’s no one around,
Just the bang and the clatter as an angel runs to ground
Just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground…
Maybe it does say something disturbing about the director’s attitude to women, but I think it also says something beautiful about life. About needing to love yourself before you can love others, and about needing to be shown love in order to feel love. And that your past (or lack of it) shouldn’t be allowed to dictate your future. I’m not sure I believe or agree with all of what this film is saying, but it’s still a nice sentiment.
