Talyesin's Tales

Some great reviews of Truthseekers have come my way lately, and I thought I'd share some of them:

Jim C. Hines called it "...Buffy, without the angst." That's the kind of comparison I can appreciate.

Kenneth Tam emailed me a great promo quote, calling Truthseekers "Vivid and highly enjoyable -- St. Martin lures you into Blackriver, and you don't want to leave..."

And finally, Anna of Genre Reviews gave it 3.5 'pints of blood', calling it "literary crack."

Thanks for the great reviews, folks!

Three Word Review: More Exposition, Please.

It's like they cut a half-hour out of the movie, all of it the explanation parts. Or, probably more accurately, it needed one more rewrite to incorporate all the exposition notes, when suddenly BOOM WRITERS' STRIKE PUT THE PEN DOWN AND STEP BACK FROM THE SCRIPT.

Also? Vader Christensen CAN NOT ACT. Please. Stop putting him in movies. Won't someone think of the children!?

Slings & Arrows is a brilliant piece of Canadian television with fine performances from a stellar cast, notably Paul Gross as a decidedly un-Constable Frasier-like actor-turned-director. It chronicles the attempts of the New Burbage Festival to put on Shakespeare's works (in season one, it's Hamlet).

And it's reminded me why I loved theatre. Dammit.

It's also reminded me why theatre very nearly gave me a nervous breakdown of my own, but primarily it's reminded me of the passion and the drama and the tradition and the excitement and the nerves and the applause.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Pan's Labyrinth - A Review

In three words? Don't expect Disney.

( Spoilers! )

I saw Van Helsing.

IT ROCKED!! I truly loved this movie. I love this director. He knows what he wants from a movie, knows what his audience will want, and doesn't try to do more than provide a solid, entertaining film. To hell with historical accuracy! Let there be jungles in the desert! Let there be pygmy zombies! Let there be every classic movie monster rolled into one movie, with much, much ass-kickage!

Oh, and Dracula? The Duke from Moulin Rouge? You could tell he was LOVING EVERY SECOND he was on screen. LOVING IT.

If you can't play the villain, play the comic relief. The comic relief may be beloved, but the villain has WAY more fun.

Anyone interested in reading t!'s Intro to my NaNoWriMo novel, The Amazing Adventures of the Sensational Squirrelman, go here:

http://trapdoor.cosmic-muse.com/sqman.html

Thanks, t!

If you're keen to read my novel to get further insight into my new Serial (Squirrelman - Sins of the Past, updated Sundays), separated into chapters for your enjoyment, you can read it here:

http://www.coloden.com/talyesin/etc.html

Scroll down a bit and there you go, Tal's yer uncle.

Holy crap for crap, I almost forgot...

I SAW HELLBOY!!!

IT TOTALLY RULED!!!!

TOTALLY!!

...


TOTALLY!!!

So I can now add the following cinematic oeuvres to my cultural palate:

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - What a stupid, stupid movie. I knew they took Alan Moore's idea and Hollywoodized it and I knew they made idiotic changes but I didn't realize they made it not just stupid but also NOT MAKE SENSE. Oh well. At least I fell asleep during the movie so it wasn't a complete waste of my time.

Anger Management - I really liked this. I liked it a lot. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Nicholson was great, and Sandler didn't spend the whole movie as either an idiot or a bellowing asshole - he came to his bellowing assholishness gradually, healthily. A bit predictable but otherwise fun.

Dawn of the Dead - I finally watched this cult classic. The orginal, VERY seventies version. And I really liked it. It was mildly creepy and COMPLETELY SURREAL. I mean... Okay, so, they're trapped. But, it's in a shopping mall, so they have pretty much every want and/or desire taken care of and subsequently want for nothing. Pretty much my brother's and my childhood dream come true. Except one thing, which is, the mall is overrun by zombies who crave flesh warm human flesh. Kind of a downer. So they go on a hunting trip and, no problem, they have a nice cozy home filled with every luxury. Except they're trapped, see, because of the zombies outside. Oh, and one of them got his dumb ass bit and so he's slowly going to turn into one of the zombies. Very very weird.

Evil Dead - Another one I'd never seen and finally watched. Look! It's Ash! He's young, and not insane, and has both hands! Look! The Deathcoaster! It's all new and clean and junk! Wow! What a fun dumb movie! What thoroughly awful acting! It's really amazing what you can do when you have absolutely no budget!

So yeah. That.

Okay so... am I the last to know this?

They're developing an animated film based on Final Fantasy VII? A sequel to the actual game? And they've redesigned the characters more realistically instead of the chibi style they had in the game?

Ooooooooooo... Sephiroth... how I hated him.

Almost as much as I hated Seifer. But enough about my hate! Let's talk about the geekgasm I had when I found out about Final Fantasy: Advent Children (which is the name of the upcoming film, due out next year some time)...

Okay, truthfully? I don't like the chibi style for Final Fantasy games. It's... I dunno. Silly looking. Considering the generally speaking serious story lines of the FF games, seeing a chibi Cloud whisper his dying profession of love just doesn't have the same impact as if it were the more realistic Squall. So that they've redesigned the characters more realistically is A-Okay with me!

*sigh* Only a year until the release...

OH by the way...

Witch Hunter Robin ROCKS!!

I love it. I will own it one day. Oh yes... oh yessssss...

Second last disk... brain beginning to melt.

Last disk.

Brain melted. Eyes bleeding. What the fuck...?

Question: Did they run out of budget?

Initial notes on Evangelion:

Saska is HILARIOUS. She kills me.

The Angel designs are freakishly odd. But, as I currently understand it, they're ALIENS, so they should look... you know, alien.

The Eva units needing extension cords to get around is kind of smart and kind of really dumb. The line is so narrow really...

You know, some of this scientific technobabble is really tightly woven... and maintains inherent cohesion, which is nice.

Uh oh... Episode 16 and things are getting weird. Shingi is inside the Shadow Angel and he's talking to his multiple selves...

I saw Big Fish.

Yes, I cried.

That's how I want to go, and how I want to be remembered: As a teller of tales.

Just to say...

I sat through the entire series of Escaflowne.

I loved it. It rocks.

Ceri - I liked the Escaflowne design better than Scherazade. And thanks very much! I'm going to watch it all again, it was that good.

ANNOTATED MANTOOTH!! Read it! Live it! Love it!

Scott! MANY MANY THANKS!!

So I've made a minor reconfiguration to my Calendar colours, should make it a little easier for Sapph's Monthly Stats... ;D

Last night's bill of fare included the following:

Kung Pow! Enter the Fist - Very, very funny movie, in a very twisted way.

Eight Legged Freaks - Fairly standard big monster movie. Not for arachnophobes.

View from the Top - Wow what a waste of celluloid. Not recommended.

And *sigh* The Core.

Because it was free, okay? Rent three get one free. So I chose The Core.

It wasn't awful. It wasn't GOOD, but it wasn't awful.

*shrugs* At least I didn't pay for it. And Hilary Swank ain't bad on the eyes.

BUT! I saw Master and Commander. Which was VERY cool.

AND! I now am OFFICIALLY a geek... I own anime. Read or Die, to be precise. On DVD.

*much with the geekily nodding*

Watched Seabiscuit, Bruce Almighty, Holes, Sinbad, and Chicago.

Seabiscuit: Good. A bit... formulaic, but good.

Bruce Almighty: VERY funny. I laughed A LOT.

Holes: Surprisingly good! I liked it a lot.

Sinbad: Swashbuckling! Woo!

Chicago: Well, of COURSE I love this one. :D

All in all, a good movie watching weekend. Although I had to walk 2 miles in freezing cold to get 'em, and now I have to walk 2 miles in a snowstorm to bring 'em back.

*sigh* California's starin' to sound REALLY nice. It's a DRY heat, right? ;)