Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Terminator Genesys

Extremely disappointing!  Bad acting, terrible story.  2/5 stars.

Zwischen Chaos und Krieg Wer zerstört die Ukraine


This documentary is extremely insightful.  The fragility of the status quo in Europe is exposed in detail.  4/5 stars.


Use of weapons

P

This one is better, examining the boundaries of ethics in the "culture" utopia. 4/5 stars. 






Sunday, September 27, 2015

The Silver Ships

This book is great!  4 / 5 stars

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Tomorrow Land

I really liked this one; but the rest of the family was on the fence.  3/5 stars.  Worth watching.  Great social commentary.  Up-beat, positive, optimistic.  George Cloony still has the juice.

Air

Awful!  0 out of 5 stars.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Schiller: Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre

Beautifully written, gritty story with well-crafted characters, tight dialog, and emotional appeal.  I loved the surprise ending.  4/5 stars.

State of the Art

The third "Culture" book by Iain Banks is another witty examination of the utopia and even more praise by faint damnation of Banks' ethics.  The "Culture" stories are getting boring.  However the humor is fantastic and the characters really come alive.  3/5 stars.

Aurora

Kim Stanley Robinson's latest book is a long story of a generation star ship's voyage.  I found a bunch of the crew reactions to be completely at odds with human nature and I intensely dislike the odd, unmotivated behaviors.  Worst for me was their reaction to the pathogens.  The pedantic evolution of the ship's AI, as well as the depressing view of the future round out my major problems with the book.  Still it was fun to read as the story unfolded through interesting plot twists.  2/5 star -- there are better space opera books out there.

Spy

Terrible!  0 out of 5 stars.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

מיטה טובה

Fantastic film!  Old actors articulate their lines slowly and clearly.  Ethical issues of assisted suicide examined by many angles poignantly.  4/5 stars.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Avengers, Age of Ultron

The dialog and post-production are fantastic.  Joss is a great director.

"If they hurt you,
you hurt them back.
If they kill you,
you walk it off."

Z for Zacharaya

Bad.  2/5 stars.  Very boring.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Good Kill

Not very good, sigh.  2/5 stars.  Yes, we know about Obama's "drone war" and all of the war crimes Obama's executive branch is now committing.  Ho hum.  2/5 stars.  Miss this one.

The player of games

The second "Culture" novel is better than the first.  Recommended, 4/5 stars.

Southpaw

Another rags to riches boxing movie celebrating the sport where you try to concuss your opponent. Should we ban the sport of football because of concussions?   Fun drama, good editing and post production.  3/5 stars, entertaining.

I'll see you in my dreams

Not bad.  A little slow.  Good twists.  3/5 stars, worth watching.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Aloha

Better than expected, worth watching, 3/5 stars.

Friday, September 4, 2015

A Brilliant Young Mind

Excellent movie!  Don't miss this gem.  4/5 stars.

San Andreas

Terrible!  1/5 stars.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Phoenix


Ein Kabarettsängerin in Berlin überlebt die Konzentrationslager und versucht, zu ihrem früheren Leben zurück zukommen. Sehr gutes Schauspielen; knackigen Dialog, schmerzhafte Tragödie, sehr berührend. Sehenswert, 3/5 Sternen.