A friend lent me the DVD of "Unbroken" to watch. That's the movie Angelina Jolie directed. I was full of high expectations as Friend had loved it and movies directed by women are far too rare on the ground.
I was disappointed. Flat as a pancake is about the kindest thing I can say about it. Three men spending 48 days at sea on a raft (looking quite Chippendaleish - unfortunately for truism)and multiple instances of savagery inflicted at a Japanese POW camp do not make for riveting watching.
The cinematography, however was fabulous. A true story rendered with no character development and cut short when the most interesting part of Zamporini's life was just beginning.
Along with this, I was reading JK Rowling's "The Cuckoo's Calling" (written under a pseudonym) - this was no Harry Potter, 456 page of absolutely cardboard characters, sprinkled with BIG adjectives and a plot that had more holes than the biggest colander I've seen. I should have dropped it but you know that train wreck thing? I kept staring in disbelief that a billionaire author could write something so appalling.
I prefer my life when I can weigh a good book against a rotten movie and vice versa.
Not two fails in each genre in the same swathe of time.
But oh, the knitting is going well. And so is the mystery dinner theatre I'm writing. And the writers' workshop series.
Into each life a few duds fall along with the roses.
Is that your bedroom is the last image? ;)
ReplyDeleteGlad the knitting is going well and the writing in all aspects is working out. You go , Girl!!
U for Unsatisfied? Agree on Unbroken. It was dutiful, but too long and boring. But I liked Cuckoo Calling (which is odd b/c I was not a big Harry Potter fan ... read the first book and that was enuf for me.)
ReplyDeleteAbout books
ReplyDeleteI understand.
Just finished reading
The Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Different from a lot I read
but kept my interest.
I love a book that I cannot put down.
Now need another one
but have many on my shelves
and maybe just read them over again..
There's a bit of me that doesn't think its fair to recommend a book because you're giving someone a job to do - read the book - BUT, you know a book I can't get out of my head? The Worst Journey In The World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. I won't say why I loved it because you should be free to have your own opinion but it has one thing in its favour; it was written without a film producer breathing down his neck. No, I will say why I loved it - for the detail, the location, the class system...I came out of it better informed. xx
ReplyDeleteWow! Is that your house with all those books! I'd be in 7th heaven!
ReplyDeleteA film worth missing then? Thanks for the tip off.
Maggie x
I trust your judgement. I shan't see this.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to watch a guy at sea I can recommend *All is Lost.* For some reason it just slayed me!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you might like The Disappeared, written and directed by a woman - the fabulous Shandi Mitchell ( who wrote the novel The Unbroken Sky )? It is also about a bunch of guys on a boat. I thought it was brilliant. She filmed it all on the water in boats off Lunenburg and the actors are mainly eastcoasters.
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