dorsetgirl | Entries tagged with film

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I’ve been holding off reading the book(s) because with the sole exception of Harry Potter, every film-from-a-book I’ve ever seen has been a major disappointment. So I decided to watch the film first and work up.

[As an aside, my fifteen-year-old has read the books, and he felt the film reflected them (or more particularly, plot-wise, the first one) reasonably well in terms of characterisation, plot and general tone.]

Well, I enjoyed the film, quite a lot. Reading the reviews this evening when we got home, there are various points from the book that critics say have been left out of the film; well, maybe for some people, but I got them. I’m looking forward to reading the books now, but I totally got the message that this is about us, and our society, and the extent to which some characters were just performing for the cameras.

“Most Interesting Male” Award: There was one character who, all the way through the film, I was thinking, “Who is that guy? Very charismatic, rather attractive and faintly familiar.” Watching the credits at the end, I was gobsmacked to find it was Woody Harrelson. (Well, OK, I haven’t seen him in anything except Cheers, and he was just a pretty boy and presumably thirty years younger then). Very nice piece of work there.

The only time the film dragged, for me, was when it suddenly turned into a teenage luuurve moment, but apparently the books were written for teenagers, so I suppose that was to be expected.

Conclusion: go and see it, it’s an interesting story and a clever look at the superficial nature of modern society.

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Went to see The Woman in Black this afternoon. It is utterly, brilliantly, fucking scary, and should not be a 12A. It should be at least a 15, and I'd almost say it should be an 18, except that probably 15-18s would be less freaked by some parts of it than adults would be. My almost-thirteen-year-old had his eyes closed most of the time, and he'll watch terror and gore that turns my stomach. My fifteen-year-old had his ears covered half the time (he's weird like that). As for me, I never swear in front of the youngest, but despite the fact that he was sitting right next to me, the various shocks and frights had me completely unable to stop myself coming out with things like "fucking hellfire" and "Jesus Christ".

There were several moments where practically the whole cinema jumped and about ten percent (including me) gasped or shrieked in shock. After about an hour, I was wrung out, and couldn't watch the scary bits any more. I was covering my eyes every time the music got worked up.

Having said all that, it is an excellent film, truly. As soon as I got out of the cinema I was regretting the bits I'd missed - I just couldn't take so much suspense and fear in such a short time. Daniel Radcliffe is very good indeed - at no point did I feel I was watching a child actor grown up, I was just watching an actor who had the part nailed, and was indeed very watchable. This film will do his transition to an adult film career no harm at all.

In case you haven't read any other reviews, this film is horror the ooold-fashioned way: lots and lots of tension and atmosphere till you're so strung out that you'll jump at almost anything. Even though I couldn't hack it for the whole film, I still thoroughly recommend it. It simply is a very good film.

Oh, and the Woman herself is apparently played by Liz White, but I have to admit that all the scenes with her were so scary that I never actually got a look at her face.

Can anyone give me a steer on how suitable/unsuitable this film would be for a twelve-year-old? It's classified 15 with "very strong language and strong violence", but he's seen The Matrix, also 15, and Torchwood - Miracle Day without apparent trauma. Being the youngest, he has been distinctly less sheltered from stuff than the oldest was!

I've been told by several people that this film is brilliant, and I know there's a fandom, but that doesn't really answer the current question. (Context - his big brother has got it out of the library and is talking it up, quoting the V speech etc, so he's gagging to see it right now).

Any non-spoilery comments about the film would be welcome, whether or not they directly answer the question!

Giant Book Meme
Reading meme ganked from

suzie_shooter

1. Favourite childhood book?
Oddly, I have no idea. No books that I love to go back to because they were so important to me as a child, although I did used to read all the time.

2. What are you reading right now?
WaterProof by Chris Crowther; one of a series set on the Norfolk Broads, which is where I bought them. Slightly over-complicated plots, rather formulaic, but wonderful settings, decent characters, plots that are reasonably well resolved at the end. And no messages, no clever pondering upon the human condition, just stories.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
Parish Registers of North Crawley in Buckinghamshire

4. Bad book habit?
The only bad book habit imo is not reading.
( Cut for length )

Giant Book Meme
Reading meme ganked from

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I don't often post pictures, but I was quite pleased with this one, taken this evening:

Saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, this afternoon. I loved it, totally loved it, so much so that I'm planning to go back next week. No spoilers, but despite having read the book several times and knowing exactly what happens, I cried at the revelation of Snape's back-story and basically all the way from that point through to the end. The very last scene was wonderfully well done and I adored it. Sort of full circle, hope for the future, all that. Beautiful.

Oh, and the Head Snatcher - Scabior? - was in it again. Nice bit of eye-candy there, thank you very much!

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I don't often post pictures, but I was quite pleased with this one, taken this evening:

Went to see this today with OH and two kids. The thing that really surprised me came very near the beginning.

Double. Decker. Train. WTF?

Talking about the film on the way home, it turned out that the two-layer train had been a significant factor in the kids' deciding that the film was set in the future. However, what with the mention of current conflicts, that doesn't seem so likely to me, and that much CGI would also be prohibitively expensive, so I'm left with the conclusion that they really do have double-decker trains in the States. Weird.

The other thing that surprised me was just how pretty Jake Gyllenhaal is. I had no idea. (The way my memory works is that I've always known exactly how to spell his name, but I've never been aware of what he looked like. Applies to lots of other well-known people too.)

( Here be Spoilers: Seriously, Do Not Read If You Don't Want To Be Spoiled )

Don’t know yet if I’ll be able to post this, so I’m typing it up in Word first. DownOrNot has been telling me all day that “LiveJournal is Up!”, but not for me it hasn’t been. Over recent days I’m becoming uncomfortably aware of just how much of my social life is on LiveJournal. Hell, half my sex life is on LiveJournal *g*.

Anyway, the film – under the cut for spoilers.

( The Eagle (spoilers) )