Movies:
In July, I saw some movies I truly enjoyed. Starting with Edge of Tomorrow. I've stated my views on Tom Cruise before and they still stand. But man, watching him get conscripted and then killed off over and over and over and over and over and over again was very good entertainment. I really liked the storyline to this one. Just when you think they've made it, it reboots. A very good sci-fi film,
Next up was Snowpiercer. This was also very good. I think some may find it strange, but the storyline was tight and given the theories and philosophies behind it, I really liked it and continued to think about it long after I left the theater. Captain America plays the anti-hero quite well...and with a lot less spangley outfits as in other movies. (Points if you see what I did there.) The plot all lies within the confines of a continually moving train that goes around the planet in a year's time. The politics and philosophies are flawed but very interesting and well thought out for this story.
Then I saw Lucy. And I love Jean Reno all over again. Lucy is another sci-fi piece, this time with a very flawed and originally reluctant heroine. ScarJo was quite believable as the clueless student turned smartest person in the world. There was more philosophy underlying this one that also kept me thinking (and occasionally comes back to me now, weeks later). I loved how this story worked. And I loved that it made me watch The Fifth Element and The Professional (Leon) again...I never get tired of those two...and once Lucy is out on DVD, I won't get tired of it either.
The last movie in July (yes, August 1 was another movie, but you have to wait a whole month to hear about it) was Hercules. The one with The Rock. The Rock is someone who I support whole heartedly in his movie endeavors. I've watched him through utterly horrible cgi, bad dialog, and really bad haircuts...and that's just in The Mummy Returns. If you've seen Be Cool (sequel to Get Shorty), then you know why I continue to watch. He is completely hilarious. Pain and Gain and GI Joe Retaliation were more examples of awful, but the Fast and Furious series with him is not half bad (and yes, I also see Vin Diesel movies...and yes, again, wait til the August movie review). Most of us know the tales of Hercules and this movie didn't really deviate. He was ginormous to play this part...which he kind of needed to be...I mean, come on...HE PICKED UP A HORSE AND THREW IT. I laughed a lot at this movie...and while I don't think I was meant to do so, I'm super glad that I did. Every time I got a little bored, it got funny. Plus, with seasoned actors like John Hurt and Rufus Sewell (and Joseph Finnes with some weird blond Joe Dirt mullet going on), it had some quite good moments. So, overall, not a great film, but still, fine fun with a lot of unintentional laughs.
Books:
In July I read: The Paradise by Émile Zola, Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 6) by J. R. Ward, The Staff of Serapis by Rick Riordan, The Book of Life (Book 3 of the All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness, and City of Lost Dreams by Magnus Flyte.
So, actually, maybe that's what I did with July. I watched season one of the BBC's The Paradise more than once. It is maybe the most charming show I've ever seen and I never want it to be over. There's another season out there and once it shows up on Netflix, I may go MIA for a few weeks, watching the entire thing straight through over and over. I was super happy when I saw it was a book, so I got it. The people who envisioned this show from that book? Brilliant. The book itself was a complete and utter downer. The characters, except for the main girl, Denise, were all horrible to themselves and to each other for the entire book. Not one redeeming characteristic between the lot of them. In the book Denise had brothers who were her dependents and the family in town was more than just her uncle. Everyone was just mean and it made me quite grumpy to read. I stuck with it because at the midway point, I wanted to see if even the ending was different. It was and it wasn't. I don't know. This time, the TV show was a BILLION times better than the book.
Lover Enshrined was another formulaic vampire book. This one was about Phury and how he gets his life back on track. Gets female vampire - check. Overcomes problems - check. Brings about change to an old regime in a new way - check. Happy ending - check. Again, I'm not reading these for their insights on humanity...it is what it is...and I'm still going to read all of them.
The Staff of Serapis was another in between stories from Rick Riordan, combining Sadie from the Egyptian series and Annabeth from the Greek series. The two girl battle an Egyptian lesser deity and become fast friends. I'm guessing that between this and the one with Carter and Percy, the Egyptians might come into play in the last of the Greek/Roman gods and demigods book that's due out in October? That would be really cool. I don't know what I'll do when this Roman series is over. I really like all of the mythology series Riordan has put out there.
The Book of Life was decent. I think I let myself get too excited about it since I had over a year to build it up in my head. It seemed to go on a bit...and do some unnecessary torture. Kind of like the Outlander series...eventually you just want those two time-traveling, crazy kids to catch a break. The story line from this one picks back up in modern times. The witch and the vampire have come back from the past to find her aunt murdered by her enemy. And then it's traveling all over the world to solve the riddle of the book and put it back together and save the vampire's life before his deranged son kills him. Oh...and do it all while she's pregnant and gives birth to twins. It was a reach, but the trilogy is done and I'm glad I read it. Maybe if I'd just randomly picked up all three of them and plowed through at once, I'd feel differently because I loved the first one so much (A Discovery of Witches). I wasn't bored...and I didn't put it down and pick up something else...I just didn't always feel like diving back into it when I got home from work.
Lastly, I gave Magnus Flyte another shot. A while back, I read City of Dark Magic. My main complaint with it was that after all the books where writers research and visit places they write about it, that book felt very much like it was written while holding a travel guide of Prague in one hand. Otherwise, I enjoyed it...it had a supernatural vibe, but not a vampire one. City of Lost Dreams is the sequel I didn't know was coming. The main character returns to Prague to help her dying pianist friend with the help of her ex-boyfriend and the centuries old dwarf. This time there's travel to Vienna and it felt less tour guide driven, which was nice. The story was well planned this time with the return of old characters and a sprinkling of new...a whole new cast of geniuses past to meet...and a whole new world of shady bad guys to conquer. It was a fun one for ending my reading for the month.
I'm already excited about August. The movies! The books! Hopefully no duds this time. Later...
