Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds

Good story, a little contrived.  Inconsistent tech. Not up to his standard. 3 out of 5 stars.

Seveneves

Fantastic book!  5 out of  5 stars.  It is thrilling that Neal Stephenson is finally writing about space and space travel.

The Gunman

Tonight we saw "The Gunman" with Sean Penn and the Hollywood formula machine.  Yuck.  2/5 stars.  Find a better film.

Danny Collins

Good. A bit slow but big hearted. 3 out of 5 stars.

While We're Young

Disappointing; it has a bad plot arc, wastes some great ideas.  1/5 stars.  Miss it.

Magician: The Astonishing life and works of Orson Welles

Last night we enjoyed this interesting, slightly-different take on one of the great film makers.  As a big fan of Mr. Welles I was thrilled to see Workman's documentary.  4/5 stars.

Testament of Youth

We watched this film last night:

. . and it was quite good.   It is a thin shell of the book.  However it does provide an approachable analysis of the societal insanity that gripped all of Europe at the time -- to die for King and Country.  4/5 stars. 

The Age of Adaline

We enjoyed the story and the chic flick.  Worth watching 3/5 stars.

Dark Intelligence

I listened to the audio version of this book recently; it's ok but not great.  There are too many odd, gratuitous horror elements and too many plot contrivances.  I had somehow speculated about the eventual "big reveal" mystery in the story early on; so the story flow was a little boring for me.  And, the author kept changing the magic system to suit the story line so it got a little too deus est machina at times.  The space opera elements are not bad but, again, the super-AIs are not mysterious enough and their motivations are much too simple.

I prefer the zen koans of Dan Simmons' Hyperion or the mysterious, evil dark matter entities of Alastair Reynolds' known space books.

2  out of 5 Stars; there are too many better books to read.

Time Lapse

Complete crap.  1/5 stars.  Total idiots discover a camera that takes pictures of the future.  Great premise.  Puke awful film.