Like essays typed reluctantly, so are the days of our lives...

I am currently avoiding doing uni work. It's pretty easy to tell periods of high stress for me, because I take to blogging regularly as a means of control (or something like that).

Anyway, today's avoidance included a bit of retail therapy, during which I purchased 3 books:

Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star - it's a book for my final Modern World Literature essay, but it looks good, so I will count it.

Melina Marchetta's new book Finnikin of the Rock - she is a good writer, and this is a fantasy novel, so I live in hope

John Marsden's Hamlet - a novel, set in present day (I think, based on the first couple of chapters) which is a retelling of Shakespeare's classic play. I am excited about it for 3 rather simplistic reasons - 1, I love the play, and I think that it's one of the best Shakespeares (alongside Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth); 2, I love John Marsden; 3, it has an awesome cover.

So there are some more books to read, simply adding to the pile of things not-uni-work that I would rather be doing.

I also got a copy of Neil Gaiman's new book The Graveyard Book, put aside when it eventually gets released over here in Oz.

Blake.

Max Payne Film Review

Ah, Max Payne. I played the game a few years ago, when I had the time (and the computer) for that sort of thing (laptops aren't conducive to gaming, apparently...). At the time the game was released, there was talk of a film (there always is, though, isn't there?) and I waited with bated breath, for reasons unknown.

So, imagine the old excitement that awoke when I heard the film was actually coming out, and imagine then the disappointment upon hearing that the eponymous hero was to be played by Mark Wahlberg. Oh dear. I don't hate him, I rather enjoyed Shooter, for instance, but as a character as recognizable as Max? I didn't think so. (Incidentally, when I first saw a screenshot of Marv from Sin City, I thought it was a still from a Max Payne film.) I went into the film uncertain as to what I ought expect.

The first half of the movie was good, I liked the (perhaps too obvious) exposition, and despite the fact that he shot off a million bullets and reloaded once (maybe twice) I loved it. Then things got a bit strange(r) and the story fell off the rails a spot. I can pinpoint exactly where this happened in my opinion, but I won't say for fear of ruining it for those who wish to see it. It is a pretty obvious point though, and hard to miss.

The thing that really annoyed me though, was the ending. It was awful. The film ended on a hopeless note, leaving even a die-hard Payne fan like me queasy at the notion of a poorly-plotted
sequel.

There are two things that I felt were brilliant in the film. The first was the gorgeous rendering of the city. It was done with excellent crafting, and allowed the film to capture the essence of the game more singularly than any other feature. The action sequences were also nice, with sparse, but well-timed appearances of the classic "bullet-time".

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I had heard, but wasn't as good as I hoped. I really think there has to be a sequel in order to finish the stories that were left up in the air at the end, but I dread to think where it will go should it ever rear an ugly head. If you haven't played the game and enjoyed the experience, I wouldn't spend the money or time watching this film.

Blake.

The Long-Awaited 100th Post

This is the long-awaited (by me) hundredth post. True, I could have posted it a lot earlier, but I kept holding out to give something of the Little Red Riding Hood appropriation I wrote a while ago. Unfortunately, having actually handwritten it, I have not had massive amounts of incentive to actually type it out; there are a million other things (mainly to do with my degree) that are begging for more immediate attention than a completed story.

I have been churning ideas around in my head, and in the company of a few like-minded people, and I have some stories in the process of being written, and one or two that are basically written in my head, but require some help in making the leap to the page. I hope that after this next couple of months is done, I will have a bit more time for some interesting things to come out and get written.

SO! What is special about a hundred posts? Not a great deal, I'll grant you that, but I have had numerous blogs over the time, and never made it past about 8 posts before my interest waned. As it turns out, I have given the blog a facelift, doing away with the black in favour of a nicer look. I also intend to do a lot more reviewing of various books or films, which will be fun (for me), as I get to rant, recommend, and talk a bit about what I think makes good books/films/whatever.

Currently, I am reading a few books:

1. Ray Bradbury's Now and Forever (Harper Collins 'Voyager'), featuring the two novellas "Somewhere A Band Is Playing" and "Leviathan '99"

2. Caitlin R. Kiernan's Alabaster (Subterranean Press), which is a short story collection about the albino monster hunter, Dancy Flammarion, first introduced in her second novel, Threshold.

3. Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series (Orbit editions), on Book 2, Fool Moon.

I will review these as I finish them, along with the film Max Payne, based on the eponymous video game, which I am seeing this evening.

Have a good one. Blake.