Before I start this review, I'm just going to give a brief little update on Me.
Today, I finished my last High School exam, so hopefully I will have a lot more time to blog from now on!
From here on I should be posting quite often, and after I get my HSC results back I will also post my creative writing piece from Paper One.
I hope my reviews are useful and good reading for all!
This shall be my first novel review.
Novel Title: "Moscow Rules" (2008)
Author: Daniel Silva
Publisher: Penguin Group
"Moscow Rules" is, as I have said about every other Daniel Silva novel I have read, brilliant. Again Silva uses his famous lead character, Gabriel Allon, and again Silva creates a masterpiece of a novel, filled with intrigue, well-placed twists and stunning imagery. Silva's detailed characterization, historically accurate descriptions of places and events and realistic dialogue work together perfectly in creating a novel which is easy to read, and captures your attention from beginning to end.
Silva begins his story with the murder of Aleksandr Lubin, Russian journalist, in Courchevel, France. Allon, who is restoring a painting for the Vatican while on his honeymoon in Umbria, Italy, is summoned to conduct an interview with a Russian insider, who claims to have information regarding the murder. When his contact is killed before the interview can begin, Allon is dragged further into the case, which leads him on a global chase to catch arms dealer Ivan Kharkov before a batch of deadly weapons ends up in Al Qaeda's hands.
Silva offers everything a spy-novel should have and more, setting this novel apart from those in the mainstream which don't tend to vary in terms of plot or interesting dialogue.
"Moscow Rules" is not the first in the Gabriel Allon series, but Silva writes in a way that allows for the reader to read the books in any order, as I have done (not having access to all of the books, I have only read "A Death In Vienna", "Moscow Rules" and "The Defector").
Other titles by Silva include: "The Unlikely Spy", "The Mark of the Assassin", "The Marching Season", "The Kill Artist", "The English Assassin", "The Confessor", "A Death In Vienna", "Prince of Fire", "The Messenger", "The Secret Servant" and the sequel to "Moscow Rules"; "The Defector".
Although I myself have not had the chance to read the entire series (yet), I am confident in recommending them to you, because from what I have read so far and what I know of those novels I haven't yet read, I would rate Silva as the best spy-novelist of today.
If you like to read, and like me haven't given up your six-year-old dreams of being a super-spy, then I definitely recommend any Daniel Silva novel to you.
I give "Moscow Rules" a 10/10.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
All Good Things Become Average, But It's Better Than Trash
Movie Title: "Resident Evil: Afterlife" (2010)
Writer & Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Commercialised, cliché, over-done and typically American, but still built from the bones of the original, this movie proved to be better than I heard it was on the grapevine. Milla Jovovich ("The 5th Element", "Ultraviolet") and Ali Larter ("Heroes", "Legally Blonde") return as Alice and Claire in the fourth installment of the "Resident Evil" series, which lives up to it's predecessors despite the obvious amount of Hollywood which has seeped into it. With many scenes looking like something out of "The Matrix", and the use of 3D (although thankfully this wasn't overdone like it seems to be in everything else these days - "Alice In Wonderland" and "Avatar" left me feeling sick), much of this movie was just acrobatic stunts and explosions, but Anderson kept the storyline strong. Beginning with a destructive battle at Japan's Umbrella Headquarters, Alice then starts her search for the elusive Arcadia, a safe-haven supposedly free from infection, and the place where her companions from Extinction should be located. Instead of Arcadia, Alice finds a near-savage Claire, who has lost all but snippets of her memory, and they head to Los Angeles in search of survivors and information. They join up with another band of survivors, including "Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller, in an abandoned prison, and continue to fight the (evolving?) mutants. From here on they make for the elusive Arcadia, but what they find isn't what they expected. There aren't a lot of twists and turns in this movie, with Alice and her nemesis, Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), having many a cliché, acrobatic face-off, and the mutants being, as always, annoying and everywhere, but it was still a lot of good fun, and it was nowhere near as disappointing as I had been told by my more judgemental friends.
Even if you aren't a huge fan of the "Resident Evil" series, this is a good film to see, especially for those who thrive on special effects and slow-mo fights.
I'll give this one a 7/10.
Oh, and a little teaser too, the ending leaves it open for a fifth!
Writer & Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Commercialised, cliché, over-done and typically American, but still built from the bones of the original, this movie proved to be better than I heard it was on the grapevine. Milla Jovovich ("The 5th Element", "Ultraviolet") and Ali Larter ("Heroes", "Legally Blonde") return as Alice and Claire in the fourth installment of the "Resident Evil" series, which lives up to it's predecessors despite the obvious amount of Hollywood which has seeped into it. With many scenes looking like something out of "The Matrix", and the use of 3D (although thankfully this wasn't overdone like it seems to be in everything else these days - "Alice In Wonderland" and "Avatar" left me feeling sick), much of this movie was just acrobatic stunts and explosions, but Anderson kept the storyline strong. Beginning with a destructive battle at Japan's Umbrella Headquarters, Alice then starts her search for the elusive Arcadia, a safe-haven supposedly free from infection, and the place where her companions from Extinction should be located. Instead of Arcadia, Alice finds a near-savage Claire, who has lost all but snippets of her memory, and they head to Los Angeles in search of survivors and information. They join up with another band of survivors, including "Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller, in an abandoned prison, and continue to fight the (evolving?) mutants. From here on they make for the elusive Arcadia, but what they find isn't what they expected. There aren't a lot of twists and turns in this movie, with Alice and her nemesis, Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), having many a cliché, acrobatic face-off, and the mutants being, as always, annoying and everywhere, but it was still a lot of good fun, and it was nowhere near as disappointing as I had been told by my more judgemental friends.
Even if you aren't a huge fan of the "Resident Evil" series, this is a good film to see, especially for those who thrive on special effects and slow-mo fights.
I'll give this one a 7/10.
Oh, and a little teaser too, the ending leaves it open for a fifth!
Monday, October 11, 2010
The Worst Movie I Have Ever Seen!
Movie Title: "Autopsy" (2008)
Writers: Adam Gierasch, Jace Anderson & E.L. Katz
Director: Adam Gierasch
This is the first movie I have ever seen which made me feel physically sick, and it wasn't just the gore, but the obscenely bad acting as well. The "movie" opens up with a photo and video montage of the main cast drinking alcohol and partying which never seems to end, and has no relevance to the movie itself. On their way home from this party, they suddenly crash. They appear to be in the middle of nowhere, and spend several minutes whining, crying and arguing before suddenly a hand appears from underneath the car; that of a man they apparently ran over without noticing. An ambulance appears out of the ether, and they all hop in without a suspicious thought for this "coincidence". As the movie goes on, the hospital's deranged Dr Benway leads them on a horribly acted, gory adventure involving the loss of brains, feet, and even a liver which is plucked cleanly out of someone's abdomen. The plot is very hard to find in this movie between all the pointless blood and guts, but apparently all the "surgery" is in the name of saving Dr Benway's cancerous wife, who looks well on her way to becoming a zombie, although she still has a full head of luscious blond hair, of course. There are no twists and turns in this film; from the moment you see the tattooed ambulance staff, creepy nurse and empty hospital you can guess the ending quite accurately. There isn't much of a script to help balance it out, either. Aside from the whiny repetition of "I have to find my boyfriend" which seem to make up the majority of the lead actress' (Jessica Lowndes) script, nothing much is said by anybody except the nurse, who simply repeats herself in her urges for them all to follow to doctor's orders, and the ambulance workers, who complain about everything and anything they can.
There is nothing to save this movie; the script is uneventful, the filming is nothing special (with one explosion looking more animated than "Shrek"), the acting is barely even worthy of comparison with "The Bold And The Beautiful", and the ending isn't an ending at all; the movie just stops for no apparent reason, although it certainly made me glad to know there wasn't any of it left.
If you can avoid it, save yourself, and DO NOT see "Autopsy".
This movie scores a huge 0/10 from me.
Writers: Adam Gierasch, Jace Anderson & E.L. Katz
Director: Adam Gierasch
This is the first movie I have ever seen which made me feel physically sick, and it wasn't just the gore, but the obscenely bad acting as well. The "movie" opens up with a photo and video montage of the main cast drinking alcohol and partying which never seems to end, and has no relevance to the movie itself. On their way home from this party, they suddenly crash. They appear to be in the middle of nowhere, and spend several minutes whining, crying and arguing before suddenly a hand appears from underneath the car; that of a man they apparently ran over without noticing. An ambulance appears out of the ether, and they all hop in without a suspicious thought for this "coincidence". As the movie goes on, the hospital's deranged Dr Benway leads them on a horribly acted, gory adventure involving the loss of brains, feet, and even a liver which is plucked cleanly out of someone's abdomen. The plot is very hard to find in this movie between all the pointless blood and guts, but apparently all the "surgery" is in the name of saving Dr Benway's cancerous wife, who looks well on her way to becoming a zombie, although she still has a full head of luscious blond hair, of course. There are no twists and turns in this film; from the moment you see the tattooed ambulance staff, creepy nurse and empty hospital you can guess the ending quite accurately. There isn't much of a script to help balance it out, either. Aside from the whiny repetition of "I have to find my boyfriend" which seem to make up the majority of the lead actress' (Jessica Lowndes) script, nothing much is said by anybody except the nurse, who simply repeats herself in her urges for them all to follow to doctor's orders, and the ambulance workers, who complain about everything and anything they can.
There is nothing to save this movie; the script is uneventful, the filming is nothing special (with one explosion looking more animated than "Shrek"), the acting is barely even worthy of comparison with "The Bold And The Beautiful", and the ending isn't an ending at all; the movie just stops for no apparent reason, although it certainly made me glad to know there wasn't any of it left.
If you can avoid it, save yourself, and DO NOT see "Autopsy".
This movie scores a huge 0/10 from me.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Le début ~ The Beginning
To begin with, a review of a movie I saw little less than two hours ago...
Movie Title: "Buried" (2010)
Writer: Chris Sparling
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
"Buried" is a delightfully disturbing film which will get those of you who suffer from claustrophobia gnashing your teeth and clinging to your seat the whole way through. Beginning in total darkness, with naught but the sound of heavy breathing, the opening scene sets a fearful tone which pervades the film and is hard to shake off even when you walk out of the cinema. Ryan Reynolds, I thought, was a strange choice, but after seeing this movie I take back any doubts I had about his acting ability. This film might just be the one to break him out of the mildly entertaining, but not fantastic, comedies he has featured in previously. Reynolds does a spectacular job of playing our lead character, Paul Conroy, who has been buried alive in a box with nothing but a zippo, mobile phone, pencil, and a few other, seemingly useless, oddments. Conroy and one surprise visitor are the only living things we see in this movie, as the coffin is the only set, but Cortés and Sparling pull off such an amazing combination of brilliantly realistic filming and dialogue that this doesn't detract from the film at all. If anything, the simplicity of "Buried" is a major factor in it's brilliance, adding to the tight suspense that makes it such a gripping film, from start to finish.
This is definitely worth seeing, and straight up I'll give it a 9/10.
Movie Title: "Buried" (2010)
Writer: Chris Sparling
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
"Buried" is a delightfully disturbing film which will get those of you who suffer from claustrophobia gnashing your teeth and clinging to your seat the whole way through. Beginning in total darkness, with naught but the sound of heavy breathing, the opening scene sets a fearful tone which pervades the film and is hard to shake off even when you walk out of the cinema. Ryan Reynolds, I thought, was a strange choice, but after seeing this movie I take back any doubts I had about his acting ability. This film might just be the one to break him out of the mildly entertaining, but not fantastic, comedies he has featured in previously. Reynolds does a spectacular job of playing our lead character, Paul Conroy, who has been buried alive in a box with nothing but a zippo, mobile phone, pencil, and a few other, seemingly useless, oddments. Conroy and one surprise visitor are the only living things we see in this movie, as the coffin is the only set, but Cortés and Sparling pull off such an amazing combination of brilliantly realistic filming and dialogue that this doesn't detract from the film at all. If anything, the simplicity of "Buried" is a major factor in it's brilliance, adding to the tight suspense that makes it such a gripping film, from start to finish.
This is definitely worth seeing, and straight up I'll give it a 9/10.
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