Last weekend, I went to Dublin. Because we were tired the day we got there, the group I was with decided to stay in for the evening, and I watched the New Zealand comedy horror film Black Sheep.
This movie was bloody brilliant! The film follows Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) who, as a child, was victim of a horror practical joke involving the carcus of his beloved sheep. Fifteen years later, Henry is returning to his childhood farm to face his childhood fears in hopes of overcoming them. You see, because of the horrible practical joke played on him (by his brother, no less), he has developed ovinophobia - fear of sheep. Henry returns to the farm to meet his brother, Angus Oldfield (Peter Sweeney), who, unbeknownst to Henry, is overseeing genetic experiments on sheep. Meanwhile, two radical hippies are attempting to break into the building in which these experiments take place in order to sabotage the experiments. They manage to steal a container from the lab, but while running away, the guy drops it and it is revealed to be the embryo of a genetically mutated sheep! This baby sheep attacks the guy and turns him into a were-sheep. Experience, his female companion, escapes and eventually runs into Henry. The rest of the film follows as more and more sheep are bitten; the sheep attack humans in a bloody rampage and ravage the countryside. Can Henry stop them?
The movie is ridiculously funny; Mike and I were histerical the entire time. The script benefits from wonderfully ridiculous characters and hilarious one-liners. For instance, visiting a friend, Henry and Experience discover that the room has been overturned and there is blood all over the walls. Gasping in shock, Experience says, "The feng shui in this room is terrible!"
The biggest drawback of the film is the mass amount of gore. The camera does not turn away as the sheep attack civilians, nor even when the sheep rip off their arms, legs, or even intestines! There is also a strange obsession of showing shots of what the nanny/maid/servant/cook is boiling in her pot, which are usually various sheep organs.
If you can get past the gore, this film is definitely worth seeing.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Wroxton Reading
So I've been in Wroxton for about a month now. As I am reading Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, I have had little time to read for pleasure (actually, none).
However, on the long plane rides to and from Lima, Peru, and on the plane ride to London, I was reading Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey. I made the unfortunate mistake of choosing the second book in the series... oops... so it took me awhile to really get into it. Many things were referenced from what I assume was the first book, and there were so many characters and places that it was a little bit overwhelming. I don't recommend jumping into the series mid-way as I seem to have accidentally done.
The worst summary I have ever written:
Kushiel's Avatar takes place in what seems like an alternate universe (I have no idea how much of it, if any, is actually based on any historical events whatsover, although there is an element of fantasy or myth that makes it seem like the only similarities are the shapes of the continents... ) It is about a woman who has some kind of spot on her eye which marks her as Kushiel's Chosen. Because I came in midway, I am confused about who Kushiel is - an angel? a saint? a god? It seems to me to be some combination of the first and the third; there are temples to him to which she goes to pray. But anyways, it's not important. Phédre, the main character, is on a quest to free an old childhood friend from a fate that keeps him bound as an eternal servant as Master of the Straits (between England and France, which have different names that I don't remember). Phédre is also contacted by an old mentor/enemy whose son has gone missing, and she is asked to investigate and rescue this son.
However, I do find the plot very captivating and the characters are interesting, once you get grips on who is who. I didn't like the narrator's style at first; it seemed a little over dramatic, seemed to slow down the pace of the novel a little bit because it has an elegant, reflective style, but now that I am one third of the way through, it no longer bothers me. Perhaps I was so addicted to the book because the character embarks on many journeys, which, as the novel progresses, become longer and longer. I just stopped reading as she was about to go to Africa... and the only reason I stopped was because I have to focus on schoolwork, and I have to read Tom Jones, if I am going to read anything at all.
Now, on to Tom Jones, to which I can do much more justice.
I am reading this book for my 18th Century Lit class. It is apparently the first English novel and was a response to the censorship of the theatre that came about in the 18th century because of John Gay's Beggar's Opera. The book is ridiculously long, and somewhat tedious to get through, but I must confess that I absolutely adore the mastery of words which Fielding - and many other authors of the time period - command. As usual when I read a book of such merit, I find myself inspired and have been longing to write (in particular to work on my novel, Linden).
Tom Jones follows the life of a bastard who was placed, under mysterious circumnstances, in the bed of Squire Allworthy, whose name suggests his character. Jones grows up to be somewhat wild and a little bit eager towards women, but his heart is always in the right place (which sometimes gets him into trouble, such as when he sells his Bible in order to lend money to a friend). He is indeed a lovable character, and so of course his neighbor, the good Sophia Western, has set her eyes upon him. He soon falls in love with her but circumstances prevent their love from uniting them. The book is about his journey towards deserving Sophia Western, for though he is a good person at heart, he needs to mature a bit.
The way that Fielding handles these scenes between Tom and Sophia is so beautiful, one can't help but let out an 'awww'. This is as romance should be.
Unfortunately, despite Fielding's wonderful turn of phrase, he sometimes digresses into some moral commentary which, though not like a sermon, bogs down the plot a little. The writing is old-fashioned and dense, and it is difficult to read more than twenty or so pages before feeling tired. Despite this, it is worth it to work through it because the story and the characters truly are noteworthy and admirable and should set a good example to any. (That said, I am a little bit behind on the reading because, while I do enjoy reading about the characters, the book is a bit difficult to get through).
However, on the long plane rides to and from Lima, Peru, and on the plane ride to London, I was reading Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey. I made the unfortunate mistake of choosing the second book in the series... oops... so it took me awhile to really get into it. Many things were referenced from what I assume was the first book, and there were so many characters and places that it was a little bit overwhelming. I don't recommend jumping into the series mid-way as I seem to have accidentally done.
The worst summary I have ever written:
Kushiel's Avatar takes place in what seems like an alternate universe (I have no idea how much of it, if any, is actually based on any historical events whatsover, although there is an element of fantasy or myth that makes it seem like the only similarities are the shapes of the continents... ) It is about a woman who has some kind of spot on her eye which marks her as Kushiel's Chosen. Because I came in midway, I am confused about who Kushiel is - an angel? a saint? a god? It seems to me to be some combination of the first and the third; there are temples to him to which she goes to pray. But anyways, it's not important. Phédre, the main character, is on a quest to free an old childhood friend from a fate that keeps him bound as an eternal servant as Master of the Straits (between England and France, which have different names that I don't remember). Phédre is also contacted by an old mentor/enemy whose son has gone missing, and she is asked to investigate and rescue this son.
However, I do find the plot very captivating and the characters are interesting, once you get grips on who is who. I didn't like the narrator's style at first; it seemed a little over dramatic, seemed to slow down the pace of the novel a little bit because it has an elegant, reflective style, but now that I am one third of the way through, it no longer bothers me. Perhaps I was so addicted to the book because the character embarks on many journeys, which, as the novel progresses, become longer and longer. I just stopped reading as she was about to go to Africa... and the only reason I stopped was because I have to focus on schoolwork, and I have to read Tom Jones, if I am going to read anything at all.
Now, on to Tom Jones, to which I can do much more justice.
I am reading this book for my 18th Century Lit class. It is apparently the first English novel and was a response to the censorship of the theatre that came about in the 18th century because of John Gay's Beggar's Opera. The book is ridiculously long, and somewhat tedious to get through, but I must confess that I absolutely adore the mastery of words which Fielding - and many other authors of the time period - command. As usual when I read a book of such merit, I find myself inspired and have been longing to write (in particular to work on my novel, Linden).
Tom Jones follows the life of a bastard who was placed, under mysterious circumnstances, in the bed of Squire Allworthy, whose name suggests his character. Jones grows up to be somewhat wild and a little bit eager towards women, but his heart is always in the right place (which sometimes gets him into trouble, such as when he sells his Bible in order to lend money to a friend). He is indeed a lovable character, and so of course his neighbor, the good Sophia Western, has set her eyes upon him. He soon falls in love with her but circumstances prevent their love from uniting them. The book is about his journey towards deserving Sophia Western, for though he is a good person at heart, he needs to mature a bit.
The way that Fielding handles these scenes between Tom and Sophia is so beautiful, one can't help but let out an 'awww'. This is as romance should be.
Unfortunately, despite Fielding's wonderful turn of phrase, he sometimes digresses into some moral commentary which, though not like a sermon, bogs down the plot a little. The writing is old-fashioned and dense, and it is difficult to read more than twenty or so pages before feeling tired. Despite this, it is worth it to work through it because the story and the characters truly are noteworthy and admirable and should set a good example to any. (That said, I am a little bit behind on the reading because, while I do enjoy reading about the characters, the book is a bit difficult to get through).
Friday, August 15, 2008
So, I decided that I will use this journal to review various books and movies. Yay! Not feeling particularly articulate at the moment, but I intend on trying out the popular new series Twilight. I actually got the idea to use this as a review blog from the xkcd forum and from another blog by Twilight Guy. I tried reading it, but wasn't really happy with the review after reading so many other negative ones. I decided the best thing to do was to read the book for myself and make my own judgment. After all, I dared to read Eragon, and this can't be much worse than that, can it?
I am, however, going off to England in just under two weeks and will be studying there for the next semester. Therefore I'm not sure how much time I'll have; hopefully I can get in an entry per month. That's the goal for now, but ideally it'd be much more frequently.
Most recently, I read Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone. It was a good young adult read, I remember enjoying it the first time I read it six years ago. However, it was frustrating to watch the characters bumble about - talk about dramatic irony. I just started The Dark Is Rising, but I don't know when I'll finish it as I want to take on this Twilight review project. I will say that TDIR seems to have a slightly older target audience (not by that much, though). I also read this six years ago, but have no idea what happens, and am thoroughly intrigued. Not enough to distract me from the Olympics, though!
I also recently saw Definitely, Maybe. SPOILERS It was cute, a little too cutesy at times, but what bothered me the most was that both Rachel Weisz's character and Isla Fischer's seemed sooo pretentious; they seemed like the writers tried to hard to make them a strong, independent, opinionated and quirky woman. Where were the flaws? Also, Elizabeth Banks' character was the only one I could at all imagine as a mother, so that wasn't surprising. I missed why he married her in the first place? And then why they were getting the divorce?
I am, however, going off to England in just under two weeks and will be studying there for the next semester. Therefore I'm not sure how much time I'll have; hopefully I can get in an entry per month. That's the goal for now, but ideally it'd be much more frequently.
Most recently, I read Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone. It was a good young adult read, I remember enjoying it the first time I read it six years ago. However, it was frustrating to watch the characters bumble about - talk about dramatic irony. I just started The Dark Is Rising, but I don't know when I'll finish it as I want to take on this Twilight review project. I will say that TDIR seems to have a slightly older target audience (not by that much, though). I also read this six years ago, but have no idea what happens, and am thoroughly intrigued. Not enough to distract me from the Olympics, though!
I also recently saw Definitely, Maybe. SPOILERS It was cute, a little too cutesy at times, but what bothered me the most was that both Rachel Weisz's character and Isla Fischer's seemed sooo pretentious; they seemed like the writers tried to hard to make them a strong, independent, opinionated and quirky woman. Where were the flaws? Also, Elizabeth Banks' character was the only one I could at all imagine as a mother, so that wasn't surprising. I missed why he married her in the first place? And then why they were getting the divorce?
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