William Mandella a young student, is drafted by the United Nations Exploratory Force to save mankind from the Taurans. The Taurans are an alien species that are apparently attacking human colonists’ ships. Each draftee is the brightest and best of their generation.  While traveling the soldiers don’t experience time like those on planets, so the farther they travel the more into the future they move.

It’s a book about young people getting drafted and sent off to fight. Then those that survive coming home to place they no longer understand.  Unable to cope they end up returning to the fighting, knowing it’s suicide. In the book Haldman explores several ways that mankind might change. In one he has man embracing  homosexuality and punishing heterosexuals to control the  population.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it kept me entertained and it never seemed to bog down. There were no surprises and the ending was easy to predict. I’m shocked they haven’t made this book into a movie — evil aliens, war, space travel and a love story.

This book was the basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner, but the movie left out some of the main plot elements of the book.

The earth has  been badly damaged  by  World War Terminus a Nuclear War. The radiation poisoning from the war has wiped out practically all animal life and most humans have migrated into space. Androids are built to assist man in space, but are not allowed on earth. These robots mimic human in every way but one, they lack empathy.   The main character is Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids that return to earth.

The book probes the nature of what separates humans from these life like androids. When technology becomes self aware, does it then have a soul or is it the empathy, that makes us alive?  This book asked these questions long before Data began his quest to become human on Star Trek.

Really enjoyed this book, even if it left me a little demoralize.

Robinette Stetley Broadhead a future prospector examines his  past for his computer generated shrink.  For Broadhead prospecting means boarding alien ships nobody understands and riding then to preset locations looking for alien technologies. Most prospectors don’t return from these dangerous missions but Broadhead does successful, rich and scared.

Guess I found the book engaging because I finished it so quickly. Pohl did a great job of making me want to know just what happened to Broadhead. Pohl slowly uncovers the Gateway and it’s impact on the world, then it’s impact on Broadhead himself.  Thought the climax fizzled, guess his foreplay made me expect more from the ending.

I read the book because it was on a list of the best science fiction ever written. While I enjoyed the book, it’s not one of the best books I’ve ever read, or one I’d tell someone else to read.

This is the story of an American (Robert Jordan) fighting against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War.  Jordan has been ordered to blow up a bridge behind enemy line, just prior to an attack. He recruits  a republican guerrilla unit to aid him in completing his mission.  With the guerrillas is a girl named Maria and romance soon follows.

I’ve read several books on the Spanish Civil War, including one made up of letters sent home by Americans fighting in this civil war for the Republic. They were idealist young people fighting for the common people of Spain and they hoped, by example the world. The occupy wall street movement got me thinking about these young people of a different time and moved me to read this book.

I Found For Whom the Bell Tolls to be more a love story with hundreds of pages before you get to any action. The book does give you a window into Jordan’s thinking about his father and grandfather,  never his principles or opinions. Jordan is willing to lay down his life without question, but why and for what?

I wanted to be drawn into Jordan’s emotions, but it never happened and I was left with a couple chapters of action at the end of the book.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is the third movie in the Underworld series.  It serves as a prequel to the first two of the series.  It tells how the vampire werewolf war began.

Another mindless action movie with nothing to offer.  This movie was stupid the whole way through and was often very boring.  The movie had tons of horrible dialogue and was riddled with ridiculous plot holes.  It was pretty much unwatchable.  The action sequences are stale and the plot is clichéd.  You would have to be a very hardcore follower of the Underworld series to get anything out of this.  This trash is just fanboy fodder.

“We can be Lycans!”  I think I’ll pass but thanks.

2/10

Dinner for Schmucks is a comedy starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell.  It is about a man climbing the corporate ladder and his chance encounter with a man who dresses and arranges stuffed dead mice portraying famous scenes.

This movie was cliché-filled waste of time.  A schmuck is the left over skin after a circumcision, and that is exactly what this movie is.  It is the left over skin cut from a much funnier penis of a film.  I may have laughed once the entire film.  It was so boring and overdone.  I did not enjoy Carell as the torturer nor did I enjoy Rudd as the victim.  Old jokes that weren’t funny the first time usually aren’t going to be funny the next go around.  Tired.

“You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not.”

3/10

Marvel Comic movie directed by Kenneth Branagh about the Norse god of thunder, Thor, being banished from Asgard to earth and having to adjust to a human sort of life.

What a terrible movie.  I can’t believe Thor was this bad.  The entire dialogue was comprised of nonsense and one-liners.  Portman’s performance, at its best, was awkward and full of cringes.  I have seen better stories watching Saturday morning cartoons.  This guy that fights his way through a government camp is just a drunk undocumented scientist.  We can let him out with a warning.  So stupid.  This was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  The special effects were the only well done piece of the film.  If you think this movie was cool because of the awesome rainbow road then there is just no saving you.  Absolute rubbish.

“Is there a renaissance fair in town?”

1/10

Bridget Jones’s Diary is an English romantic comedy starring Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant.  Bridget’s life is an unhappy mess and she is resolved to turn things around fo herself.  Unfortunately, for every step she takes forward, circumstances knock her back one or two.

This was an entertaining movie.  I have no idea how Renee Zellweger was cast in this role, but she pulls it off.  I can’t stand her serious stuff, but she does pretty well in comedies.  As far as romantic comedies goes, this is not bad.  I really dread watching things from this genre because it is so full of trash and this one certainly had annoying and cheesy pieces, but it also had some witty and clever comedy.  It wasn’t much, and it doesn‘t stray far from the formulas, but it was much more than I expected it to be.

“It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.”

5/10

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a Woody Allen movie about relationships.  Vicky and Cristina are visiting Barcelona for the summer where their opposite views on love and dating come to the forefront.

This movie really did not do anything for me.  The American characters are ridiculously flat and uninteresting.  The Spanish duo at least has passion, but is also flat.  The dialogue was unentertaining and bored.  I agreed with the viewpoint of love projected through Juan Antonio but that was all I had out of this one.  The characters were all so stereotypical and it was very aggravating.  Their were some interesting points of dialogue, but the film was too cliché-ridden.  Riding classic bikes in Europe, what a novel idea!  Type A’s are stiff as a board and uncomfortable with their own sexuality.  Type B’s are well, sluts.  Luckily, there were tiny bits of good acting and writing to save this thing from completely bottoming out.

“She put a knife into me.”

4/10

The second film adaptation of the 1968 novel of the same name written by Charles Portis.  A 14 year old girl hires a mean and drunk bounty hunter to track down her father’s murderer.

I really feel pretty much the same about this film and the 1969 version.  Neither are anything special.  Hailee Steinfeld’s performance was quite incredible given that she is just fourteen.  To be honest though, and this is not the opinion of the majority, but I liked Kim Darby’s version of the character better.  This film is much darker in tone and lighting than its predecessor and I liked it just a shade more.  I also thought it was a little more realistic and gritty, both of which I am a big fan of.  The Ned Pepper scenes seem to parallel the original so much they were almost identical.  This could be the result of the original novel, but none of the other scenes were so closely mimicked.  I did not care for the ending at all as it completely removed me from the movie and what the heck was it trying to say?  True Grit has a solid storyline and this is a slight improvement from 1969, but it still isn’t very interesting.

“One would be just as unpleasant as the other.”

6/10

Average Rating: 7/10 (2 ratings)