Just watched Nova (25 March 2015), The Bible's Buried Secrets.   It was a fascinating look at the archeological evidence for the writing of the Old Testiment and Torah, and the development of the idea of monotheism.  I haven't seen a documentary of this subject that was that interesting before.   It was a documentary of the best kind, one that ( Read more... )

Saw Jupiter Ascending last night. As expected, it is a sci-fi action adventure, and as such it delivers a smooth, fast-paced and gripping conflict.   I went to the movie expecting nothing else, and I wasn't dissappointed on that score.  The action and the special effects (CG) are seamless and impressive.  Moreover, the characters are interesting ( Read more... )

Yesterday evening, Susanna and I had dinner, ice-wine and a movie: Frozen.   It was our first time seeing that movie.  All in all we liked it.  For one thing we both like musicals. Charles (who arrived home just after we finished watching the movie) and I also think it is a much better movie than Tangled. The characters have more depth, actually ( Read more... )

Just saw Roman Holiday, the original version with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.  I've seen it before, more than once, but not since I started writing.   By modern movie standards it is considered cheesy and dated, and the story idea has been used so much since that it has become a cliche.  However, you can't blame the movie that started the idea ( Read more... )

Have just finished A Voice For Princess by John Morressy. It's a strange one: no complicating/inciting event and no climax. Certainly there's an initiating event, but it affects Kedrigern only incidentally, apart from him becoming "retired". Perhaps finding Princess is the inciting event, but even that part of the plot never really wraps up. It ( Read more... )

Just finished reading Her Majesty's Wizard by Christopher Stasheff. An enjoyable light read, with plenty of tongue in cheek humour. I also found it to be an interesting take on a fantasy world which works the way medieval humans thought it did, or more accurately the way modern North Americans think the medievals thought it did. Witness the ( Read more... )

Just finished reading "Smoke and Mirrors" and "Smoke and Shadows" by Tanya Huff. The books were recommended by friends. Interesting characters and multi-layered setting. Vampires and magic behind a TV show that portrays a vampire detective. The author is poking fun at the genre at the same time she's using it. That level of almost sarcastic wit ( Read more... )

Being Valentines Day on Friday, we watched Pride and Prejudice, the 2005 movie. Now that I have seen both that and the TV miniseries that came out in 1995, I can say that I preferred the latter. I have no complaints about the casting for either. They both used well known skilled actors ( Read more... )