And aside from that, Kipling tells the story of other heroic animals like Rikki Tikki the mongoose and Kotick, the white seal. You might have seen a seal at a beach or at the zoo, but have you ever wondered where they can go and what amazing things they can do? Maybe you do now. If so, you should read The Jungle Book.
Being a cop has its perks, which Lieutenant Terence McDonah (played by Cage) takes precarious advantage of, progressively becoming a worse cop. Terence's love interest Frankie is played by Eva Mendes, who was also in Ghost Rider. I figured the two decided to party in New Orleans for a while after Ghost Rider, and with Saturn Pictures, went ahead and made a movie. The thing about playing characters who are on drugs is that it's more believable when the actors themselves are intoxicated.
But I don't know whether or not Cage does drugs. I'm not really interested in his personal life. Either way, this movie has some of his creepiest moments and freakiest freak-outs, as a strung out cop, doing everything he can to get his fix AND convict the criminals.
So, was this a good film? It's pretty over the top in a way that's not really funny. But it has Val Kilmer in it, if that means anything. More imporantly, you get to see Fairuza Balk in her pre-sex gear. On top of that, you get to watch people smoke crack. So the gratuity value of this film is pretty high. In some scenes he sounds like himself, and in others he sounds like a complete noire detective, and in others he seems like he's not even trying.
The pacing and direction is definitely more like an episode of ER than a cinematic feature film. I haven't seen the other works of Werner Herzog, but I can respect that he has his own style. There were also some really weird shots, like Terrance is trying to put the scene together in his drug-addled brain. I guess I don't mind when big time film makers have their artsy moments, treating their movie like some angsty music video.
Still, the story of the anti-hero with no redeemable characteristics is pretty hard to invest in. And it's not like Lord of War, in which it really matters whether or not our protagonist dies or retires. In Bad Lietenant, all the other characters are either cops or criminals. I don't know how, but I did end up feeling stressed and worried for Terrance. Maybe it's just because I like Nicolas Cage. Either way, Bad Lieutant was a pretty dark, unhappy experience.
I'll rate their crust a 4 out of 5. It's sweet, chewy, and easy to eat, almost as good as what they have at Greek's. Their sauce, going on what I've had before, also gets a 4 out of 5. It's not so thin that I could drink it, but I would if I could. It's savory, tangy, sweet, and floral, and when combined with their sweet crust, it makes Bucceto's pizza a real treat.
But I will delegate the penalty of their inconsistency to Style, which gets a 2 out of 5. There's nothing outstanding about Bucceto's standard, midwestern pizza. Their menu has other things, like pasta, all made with a combination of very few ingredients. I've had one of their salads before, and it was on par with Steak'N'Shake. Aside from the very cool 90s art on their walls, Pizza is the only thing Bucceto's has going for it. And at $14 for a 16" cheese, I don't get it too often, leaving this joint with an overall score of 70%.
The trouble is, Doug wants to do something more exciting, and to him, more important than taking care of an old lady. He doesn't see the honor of it, and he doesn't understand how important he really is.
But Tess really likes Doug, despite the ants in his pants, and the two share some of the high and low points of their lives. Guarding Tess is neither a tear jerk or a gag fest. It's in that perfect medium and definitely one to watch with your loved ones, and I do intend to watch it again.
I don't know what your schooling was like, but most of our required reading was done in-class, and followed by a screening of the required book's film adaptation. However, it wasn't until fifth grade that I realized what a waste of time it was to show interest in my school work.
So returning to Hatchet, I still thought it was pretty good, a good primer for the sequels I've heard about. Books on wilderness survival have always interested me, since it's always possible that I'll someday find myself in a situtation like Hatchet's Brian. I don't know how much the writer truly knew about surviving in the wild, but it seemed like enough.
Nevertheless, Number the Stars is short, and I decided to perservere. It's the story of a young girl in Denmark, a country that surrendered itself to the Nazis, because they knew that if they fought, they'd lose.
So the Nazis start on their plan to exterminate the Jews in Denmark, but there is a resistance. Aside from the fact that our young hero shows great courage and saves the day, I found more value in the information about the real-world aspects of this story than in its inspiring nature.
I don't think it's bad for a film to have an evangelical intent. However, the bar is pretty low for Christian Films, and I think the makers of Left Behind knew that. So they let a lot of things slide, making this movie with a pretty good premise turn out pretty bad.
And it became pretty clear to me what the writers, pretending to know what it is that turns people off of Christianity, think it must be like for a sinning non-christian. It's not the preaching and the glorifying of God that turns people off. It's the polarization and the hypocrisy. Speaking of polarization, I don't see why any film needs to be explicitly Christian unless it's meant to be viewed only at church. It's not like anyone sets out to make "secular" art.
After all, religious themes exist in every other form of media. We've seen how Christian Rock turned out. While just as good as other music, pretty much any band could call their music Christian so they could exploit a decidedly separate industry. Do you think Michelangelo would have painted so many religious things if it wasn't for the money? So what's the point in dividing Christian Films from Secular Films when almost every story contains some form of allegory.
So what was wrong with Left Behind? None of the characters were believable. In fact, all the sinning non-christians were caricatures. There seemed to be little effort put into making this movie believable or good. But obviously main agenda here wasn't to make a good movie.
Most books I've read so far on writing have focused mainly on producing a sellable novel, which is a pretty normal goal, completely ignored by Francine Prose. So there is the goal of getting published and the aspiration of creating great literature, but what about retaining a love for the work? There must also be a book on that, somewhere.
So how was the book? It was good. I prefer gerbils over mice and rats, but I do like stories about small animals who talk and are civilized. I liked the characters maybe more than I generally like wild animals. And I don't know why, since I can only assume the Wild need a lot more courage than human-types, sitting in their houses and typing on their computers. There might have been a philosophical element to this story, but I might have missed it, being not of the story's target demographic. Well, maybe I am. It's a good time to feel young.
As a preteen, I remember reading one from this series but now I've looked at the covers so much, I've forgotten which it was. Regardless, Heirs of the Force was a pretty good Star Wars story. It was fun, featuring a translator droid who talks just like See Threepio, named Em Teedee, made for Chewbacca's nephew. This adventure on the planet/moon Yavin 4 was told by Kevin J. Anderson, a known master of popular space opera and science fiction, along with his wife Rebecca Moesta, who has written a lot of Star Wars books. Needless to say, it was a treat to take in this most special of collaborations.
In fact, I had such a good time that I think I'll go ahead and (in due time) read every Star Wars novel from the Legend timeline, disregarding the new Star Wars canon with the Disney take-over. It's not that I'm against Disney and new Star Wards, really. I just can't expect myself to read every future Star Wars novel for the rest of my life. Anyway, we'll see if I stick to this dream. Next month I'm going to read Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, by Tim Lebbon. Yes reader, I am going to try to go in chronological order with these.
Much of the story in this book is told through letters between Jonathan (the american hero) and Alex, who lives in the Ukraine and speaks some english. Alex has a very unique verbiage, choosing English words that relate to what he intends to translate from Ukranian. But the story told is mostly about Jonathan's ancestors and their village (shtetl) of Trochenbrod, which was annihilated in World War 2.
Like most highly-acclaimed literary novels, Foer is very liberal with his syntax. You know what they say about Picasso. He was a master of traditional painting, so when he broke the rules, his art was made better. I don't think that's the case here. Some of this book's "scenes" made no sense.
You might have already guessed it, this book sheds a little extra light on just how bad the holocaust was. I know it was bad, but my understanding is very small. So you might credit much of this story's acclaim to the fact that these kinds of stories need to be told. The world should never forget how bad Nazis really were/are.
But the story isn't all about the holocaust, or else it would be a joyless horror story. Within the tale of Foer's family and shtetl, there are some very romantic romances. Others tales were likely weathered and imbelished the way legends are. And that's okay. I'm not going to forget Trochenbrod.
But for any other kind of film, these aspects matter. So I've had mixed feelings about Looking Glass. It's the story of a couple who buy a motel in a little desert town. The motel has a dark past, leaving viewers wondering exactly what happened while our heroes try to keep it together in the suspicious town. So there's an element of mystery.
However, the mystery wasn't clever or creative, or any of the things you might have kept hoping for while waiting for the movie to get good. But still, it was an immersive experience, requiring you to pay attention in order to know what was going on. But it didn't really matter in the end. Just like life, there's no way of knowing what's going to happen until it does, and sometimes it's bad. And in the case of Looking Glass, I never felt a sense of fear on behalf of any of it's flawed, and unsympathetic characters. Still, I'm sure some people really like this kind of movie. Not me.