Le Petit Prince

Every school child all over the world is still forced to read this surreal, poorly-written French slop. Therefore we still get one or two film versions every few years.  In 2015, we got two, including this big Hollywood version.  It's still a bizarre, terribly stupid story.  This film is well-made, with fantastic cinematography, great English voice acting, and a big heart in the hacked-up meta-story.  But the core Prince story remains dumb, shallow trite.  2/5 stars, meh.

Spectre

I should re-name this blog "runing in heels."  (photo above)

I enjoy most of the Jane Blond reboots and re-makes. This one is not puke awful bad, despite the usual bond film stupid stuff.  There are better films out.  Catch this one on netflix next year, 3/5 stars.

Everest

The 20th century cinematic version of Krakauer's book, "Into Thin Air," is much better.  This one is watchable but factually incorrect.  3/5 stars

Bridge of Spies

Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, 5/5 stars.  Don't miss it.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Not as terrible as I expected.  The science still comes out. 3/5 stars

BBC Life

The high-definition film is awesome.  4/5 stars

Burnt

All the recent food movies showcase the director's love of great food; and despite the melodramatic, bad plots, good actors carry these films to watchability.  See this star-studded foodie film while you are hungry 3/5 stars.

Assassin

Really boring film, 1/5 stars.  Miss it.

Renegade

Fantastic space opera story.  Great characters, non-stop action, intrigue, mystery.  I could not put it down.  5/5 stars.

Planetary Assault

Three fun novellas with wild combat action and space opera settings in B. V. Larson's universe.  Fast-paced, one-dimensional heroes being heroic under heroic circumstances.  Go, space marines! 4/5 stars.

Ancillary Justice

I read this one on the planes to/from San Francisco.  It is surprisingly boring for space opera, not recommended, 1/5 stars.

The Year's Top Short SF 2015

Not as good as previous years.  Some of the selections were not good.  2/5 stars. 

Killing Patton

Fantastic book, thrilling and interesting.  Great conspiracy theories.  Eye-opening facts and events behind the surface history we all know.  5/5 stars.

Hateful 8

Not as good as other Tarantino movies, very boring, slow beginning.  Meh, 2/5 stars.  See a better film instead. 

ZDF Weltmacht Google

Very interesting cautionary expose of the evil search giant (ESG) raising some weak arguments about Google's real economic, political, and social power over the Western world.  4/5 stars.

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek#/beitrag/video/2630854/WISO-Doku:-Weltmacht-Google

Irrational Man

Fun.  Great sound track.  Woody Allen formulaic dialog, rhythm, and delivery.  3/5 stars.

Bone Tomahawk

Extremely gruesome, 2/5 stars.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

A little disappointing but worthwhile for the gems and writing styles.  Many of the introductions read like a creative writing course text, which I enjoyed.  Most of the stories are bland and unengaging.  3/5 stars.