I didn't know there was a max to how many movies I could have in my netflix queue. I hit 500 and tried to add one more and it told me I have to delete some first. I just know I'm going to forget some of these movies I have to delete...

If administration could add a spoiler alert on my Harbingers post, it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry about the oversight.

AC

SPOILERS...



















Harbingers is the Empire Strikes Back of the Star Wars Series. It connects the previous episode to the next episode. It is not a stand-alone. But ESB, IMHO, is the best episode of the series.

The previous RJ books have been stand-alones with elements in the books foreshadowing Nightworld. In Harbingers' case, the elements have taken over the rest of the book. The foreshadowing has become the story now.

No characters are developed here. Here we find answers to all the mysterious elements found in the rest of the RJ series to date. The Nightworld storyline looms, and we see in Harbingers the light at the end of the tunnel leading to Nightworld.

We won't know if Bloodline will continue this trend or work as a stand-alone with new elements foreshadowing RJ's role in Nightworld.

For me, this marks the beginning of the end for the RJ series that we have grown to love. It's Nightworld's RJ that will take over now for what remains of the series. There are still some questions that remain unanswered (where did Jack's brother go? how was Kate a "branch" that was cut by the Ally?).

I'm awaiting my copy of Borderlands revised Nightworld that may explain answers to these questions and others left hanging (Diana & the yeniceri, i.e.,).

However, Harbingers is a great Q & A chapter in the RJ series, but could someone explain how the title Harbingers fits the story. I chose the title Blindsided (which turns out to be a title being used by another author) for this RJ book. After reading it, the Blindsided title seems more appropriate, given Jack being blindsided by the Ally.

But perhaps I am not looking at the big picture, but this is not something I had to do with the other RJ books, which had beginnings, middles, and endings, yet kept the Adversary Cycle rolling along.

I guess I'll have to wait for Bloodline and the revised Nightworld books to tie up the loose ends that Harbingers left me with. Remember when Luke found out that Darth was his father and then bam, the movie ended. That's how I felt at the end of Harbingers: Great book, but will the rest of the series live up to it. In Star Wars, after ESB, the series wasn't quite the same nor did it live up to the build-up of ESB.

Let's hope I am wrong in this observation.

AC

Has anyone seen this?

I'd give it a marginal thumbs up. I have to give credit to the director, Bill Condon, for expanding the musical format to an almost operatic scale, where ordinary dialogue is not spoken but sung. It's ambitious.

The movie runs a little over 2 hours but somehow feels very long. It needs editing. Any side story involving Beyonce should have been cut. It's a sleepy movie unless Jennifer Hudson or Eddie Murphy are on screen. Hudson is wonderful. What a voice! And she embodies her character to a T. Eddie Murphy was better than I've seen him in a long time. Both of them were quite moving.

The music is great, but there's just too much of it. I think they could have cut several songs.

At any rate, I recommend the film, if you like musicals, and do try to see it in the theater. It's a larger than life movie.

As you perhaps remember a collegue at my work presented me "Deep As the Marrow" for X-Mas!

Today I finished. It took so long, because I only read in the breaks at work ^^ lol

Well, It was pretty good! But so... full of emotions!

*SPOILER*


I always thought: "Yes, he gets Katie back now!"
And two lines further... someone did something stupid or stuff like that

That was really hard for me. I always hoped, he'll get her back! Good, that he did ^^

*SPOILER END*


So, great book, really exciting especially in the end!

Ah, something I didn't liked so much is the story with Dan Keane. I thought he would play his role better, more mysterious perhaps. And that they didn't find out so easy that it is Keane who is the backstabber.

But all in all great book!

Now I can start the Repairman Jack series today! I am So excited for the books I don't know yet!!!

Greetz, Jamo

I'm rereading the series now and I have to say Hosts has to be my favorite. This time around I knew what was going to happen yet it didn't change the emotion of the book at all. I still gasped, cried, got angry and scared. Jack's view of the future paints such a horrifying image that you can't not shudder! The thought of how desperate everyone is to go through the actions they do, Gia and Abe especially. I thought I'd be fine reading this at work since I have read it before, but alas, I was not. I was sitting at the front counter bawling. Not many books effect me this strongly, in fact I can really only think of one other, but it really is tops!

So I'm curious, do you all have a favorite in the series?

The acting in "Notes on a Scandal" is superb. There is not one false note throughout the film. I fear that Cate Blanchett is in the process of becoming overexposed; it seems she appears in every other film these days. But she is spectacular, as is Dame Judi Dench and Bill Nighy.

I found myself frowning and making sour-puss faces as I watched the action unfold. I don't think it's any secret that Blanchett's character becomes involved with one of her young students. But I was surprised at the depth of my reaction to what was happening on screen. It's not right and I didn't like it and I wanted it to stop. I guess that's a testament to how compelling the movie is as well as to my moral code.

Blanchett's and Dench's relationship is also all wrong. Dench is terrific. I had an image of a big black widow spider spinning her webs, all the while becoming more and more delusional about her relationships with everyone in her life, except her cat.

The score was wonderful, too, full of dread.

Ultimately, though, I was not satisfied. Something was missing, perhaps having the great karmic scales balanced at film's end. I am not a fan of happy endings for the sake of happy endings, and I'm not saying there are happy endings here, more like loose ends that left me dangling.

I recommend the film, but I'm not sure you need to run to the theater.


P.S. For me this was a case where the trailer gave too much away and was pretty much a shortened version of the film. I think trailers should just give hints, provide snippets and no more.

Apparently they've struck again. Just like Jessica Rabbit's lack of panties animators have put something in a sequence apparently to see if anyone would notice. Check this out:

Anyone watching this season? Although still funny, it seems really harsh and (somewhat) depressing this season even.

From a MySpace blog:
Novel Acquired for Adaptation
RPM Films has acquired the adaptation rights to the novel SIBS by New York Times Bestselling Author F. Paul Wilson. The script will be co-written by Wilson and writer/director Marc Buhmann.

RPM Films has previously produced Dead in the Water, also directed by Buhmann, a horror comedy recently acquired by Indican Pictures for North American distribution.

SIBS tells the story of Kara Wade and her investigation into why her twin sister Kelly died. There's no secret as to the cause of Kelly's death – a nearly-nude twelve-story plunge from a room at a hotel – but Kelly is determined to learn what led to that plunge. Enlisting the help of her ex-boyfriend, now a Chicago detective, Kara will be plunged into a world of sex and madness as she moves closer to the truth.

The supernatural thriller is currently in development with production slated to begin later this year.



...Marc, you rule!!