Room

Room is a novel I only got because I remembered it got good reviews and it was cheap at a second hand on line book store. The premise didn't seem like it would work for me. The story is told by a 5 year old boy who is help captive together with his mother. And in the end I liked it very much. Everyone is right, this is a good book. 

American Ultra

American Ultra did not do well with the audiences and I can understand why.

Spoilers
It was off kilter and cartoonish but that one worked for me really well. I loved the leads and their relationship, I loved how everything worked out in the end and I do like Connie Britton.

Tell No One

Tell No One was not very good really. The story was kind of interesting but the storytelling had no depth, no time was spared for developing characters and I didn't like it that much.

Reservation Road

Reservation Road is a film that made me want to read the novel. Not that the film was bad but the story called for many internal contemplations by the characters and you just can't tell it that way in the traditional USA film making style. On the plus side I like Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connely. 

Into The Woods

Into The Woods I don't really like musicals and this one didn't do anything to change my mind. 

Ugly

Ugly maybe the film which will rekindle my Indian film fire. I liked it very much despite the length (and the end!). 

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown I love Tarantino. This is probably my least fave film of his but I still like is a lot more than many other non Tarantino films. 

The Blade Itself

The Blade Itself is the first novel I have purchased with my own audible account. And it is a great fantasy novel. Interesting characters doing unexpected things. And the narrator is a master. I could have hugged him after the novel has ended since his performance was top notch.

Now I'm reading the second novel of this First Law trilogy (yeah fantasy and its multiple novels) And I'm really into it.

Although I appreciate these series more, I was more affected by The Stormlight, simply due to my love for a hero with total goodness. In this novel, the prose is better and the characters are better too. They are similar to real people. Bad people sometimes do good things and good people sometimes do bad things (like our stoic and principled Major West hitting his sister). I have to say that currently despite my love of adventures of the Ninefingers and his merry band, my favorite character is Superior Glocter. 

Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık

Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık güzel bir şekilde ödünç olarak kucağıma düşünce hemen atladım ve okudum. Roman temel olarak iki farklı yazım tarzı içeriyor. Biri karakteri takip ettiğimiz diğeri karakterlerin ağzından öykünün diğer taraflarını dinlediğimiz. Yaşamdan kesit bir öykünün içerisine bizi nazik ve ince bir şekilde dahil ediyor yazar. Sevdim ve keyif aldım okurken ama çok etkilendim diyemiyorum. 

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

The Good The Bad and The Ugly is a classic I'm never tired of. Clint is someone I like at every stage of his career and he is fantastic in this one. Although the applause should go to Eli Wallach who is the more entertaining the more times one watches the film. This version is the extended English version and it lasts a while but I never felt bored, the opposite. I wish I was able to watch this on big screen.

V/H/S 2

V/H/S 2 is an anthology of a series of found footage videos. I'm not a fan of found footage but this time they worked it nicely into the story. Unfortunately the two of the stories are zombies and aliens (and I like neither) there is a supernatural cult type of story and one with ghosts but niether were scary. I actually fell asleep for a few minutes during. Anyway it was interesting but not that special. 

The Amityville Horror

The  Amityville Horror is a remake I wanted to watch for sometime (I have not seen the original yet btw) and it is a good thing it showed up on TV. It is a generic horror film with the one difference that the body objectified in this one is a man's. Ryan Reynolds is not a good actor but he has an easy, comforting on screen presence and a good body (the only time I liked him was in The Proposal) and we get to see him half naked more than we see the female lead. Other than this little detail it was just like the rest.

Starry Eyes

Starry Eyes is a film I liked more than I thought I would. It was not scary in the supernatural sense but the desperation and mood of a starlet in LA going to a job she doesn't like (just to pay bills) and travelling from audition to auditon to make it. Those are gruelling experiences and having been in LA I know that everyone there is an actor/actress. Waiters, receptionists, tour guides are all actors going to acting classes and auditions. It is a different subculture and a vicious one (even if all the competition is angelic - and it isn't- the selection process is nerve racking and bizarre) I have more respect for actors now. The supernatural part was probably a metaphor on how a person can detoriate as her/his soul corroses with each new humilition. Recommended 

The Face

The Face is one I have found at a second hand bookstore on line. To be honest I wouldn't have bought it if it was not very cheap (and I like reading hard covers) And it was OK but I just don't see the appeal of Mr. Koontz (except The Watchers)

Legally Blonde

Photo credit: www.hercampus.com

Legally Blonde is always fun. It has been years since I last watched it and liked is just as well this time. 

The Secret Place

The Secret Place is excellent. Just the type of murder mystery I love and so far Tana French doesn't have a miss. Every novel of hers I have read are great. And now I have finished all the Dublin Murder Squad novels she wrote.

However the readers' performance were not really to my taste. They both did the "gender voice change" which is truly annoying and shouldn't be that difficult to avoid since there are readers who never do that. I wish I got this on print or on Kindle.

The Bucket List

The Bucket List yeah it made me leak, yeah it was not bad but it was not that special for me either. 

Taipei

Taipei got me hopeful when I purchased it at the secondhand book fair. And it is a decent novel just not for me. At 46 I simply was not really interested in the drug addled musings of the main character. However I guess I was sort of fond of him since I was actually happy at the end (Spoiler: he survived a major drug overdose and furthermore he was happy to be alive).

Anyway this one ended up being not for me. And I don't think it is the age thing really since I loved The Hunger Games. The people in the novel seemed silly to me and I couldn't understand why they were the way they were.  

Neverlake

Neverlake appealed to me with its obviously minimal budget who the director chose to invest in quality. There were very few crowd scenes and the violence is implied rather than shown (I look like a ghost in the screen cap I took with my phone) The story was touching and the actors competent and it somehow got hold of us right to the end. Recommended if you like quiet, moody films.

From Within

From Within is a bargain bin horror film with a cinematography I liked. The story took interesting turns too. But for some reason it felt too pat and the cast was not really very good. 

The Riot Club

The Riot Club was a film I had been interested in ever since I saw some gifs of it at someone else's tumblr. It turned out to be a film to my own heart. Wonderful clean cinematography with that certain blueish hue, good acting from all parties and a chilling ending. Highly recommended. Oh also plenty of eye candy. 

The Purge: Anarchy

The Purge:Anarchy was a welcome surprise. I love the first film and the concept (a bit ridicilous if you sit and think about it for a minute) continues in this one with different players and involvement of the State. It was very entertaining and I definitely recommend. 

Serenad

Serenad Konstantinniye Oteli'ni çok sevince arkadaşların tavsiyesi üzerine bu romanı seçtim (aslında sebeplerden biri işyerinde bir arkadaşımda halihazırda mevcut olmasıydı) Neyse fena bir roman değildi ama öyle çok çok aşık ta olmadım kendisine. Başka romanları deneyeceğim bu yazarın zira şu an 3'te 1. 

The Mask

Photo credit:oddstuffmagazine.com

The Mask is a film I had to get out of during screening (the last bus to home was leaving) I'm not that big a fan of Jim Carrey (maybe except Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) but this was entertaining I suppose. And I love Cameron Diaz. 

Book of Blood

Book of Blood is a bargain bin film I purchased because it looked promising. It put me to sleep three different times during a single viewing. Yes it was kind of hard to finish it but I did. 

Words of Radiance

Words of Radiance is the second novel of the Stormlight series and despite the fact that I have finished one other novel and currently reading three but am still suffering from withdrawal symptoms. I love this series in which there is a conflicted but inherently good hearted hero a very complicated and intelligent heroine who is stronger than him everyway. There are villains who sometimes do good and good guys who sometimes do bad. I just love the AU and the world building is really fine. I can't wait for the third novel to arrive.

12 Years A Slave

12 Years A Slave is a film that caused strange feelings in me. The first time I kind of saw it was at an airport hotel in Los Angeles and it terrified me and I was not able to give it my full attention so I didn't finish it. But I remember being left with lots of images from it and this second viewing was not as visceral but still very effective. I love this director. In all the three films of his I have seen there were emotions and interest alive in me during viewing and furthermore the images in the films remain with me. Highly recommended. 

Hollywood Wives: The New Generation

Hollywood Wives: The New Generation was very entertaining as expected but the ending was abrupt. I'm happy with it since I paid very little for it and got my money's worth. 

The Skin I Live In

The Skin I Live In interested me much more this second time (I ony got the dvd because of Spanish). I think this film might have been a much better one with a different lead. Not that she was bad, on the contrary she was very good but for some reason she didn't work. 

Pitch Black

Pitch Black is a film I have watched on a pirated vcd ages ago. Believe it or not I didn't realise those were pirated. That level of naivete is .........

Spoilers:

This one is interesting not only because of its very good cinematography but also its thematic differences than the regular. The scary murderer ends up being the good guy in a way. The lead actually is the female and she is not the final girl. All in all it was very interesting the first time and since I have forgotten many things about it, entertaining the second time.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Birdman is a film I wanted to watch for a long time. Despite not really liking Michael Keaton (I love the Batman films though). Anyway it was a great viewing experience. Michael Keaton was good but I liked the rest of the cast a lot better. Especially Edward Norton. The pop culture references and imaginary references were all very good. It is one of those films where everything fits and works. Highly recommended. 

Top Secret!

Photo credit: misfortune-cookie.blogspot.com.tr

Top Secret is a film I have watched years ago and laughed a lot and now I have rewatched it I have found that I was laughing again. And I was able to remember a lot of scenes of it too. 

Black Coal Thin Ice

Black Coal Thin Ice turned out to be pleasant surprise. I only got it because it was on the discount bin and I missed watching a Chinese film. I was not expecting this. First off the story is told in that certain segmented way that I like sometimes, since when it works it ends up being brilliant (The Taste of Tea is a good example of this type of storytelling, or maybe To The Wonder, although not as good), anyway this one first and foremost had that clean cinematography that appeals to me even when the film is not so good. This one was good. It is a murder mystery with a rather good twist that I didn't see coming for a long time. There is an abundance of different shots and I liked the close up ones but the mise en scene in the middle shots were very very good (especially shooting in the hair dresser scene, or the motorcycle theft scene)
The protagonist is not a likable man. In fact he is a brute who actually assaults his ex girlfriend(wife?) after they have sex in a hotel room. The assault is at the train station, he actually literally jumps at her and gropes her right there and then. Luckily the train arrives and she is able to get away, cursing him. This guy ends up getting out of the police force (though not due to his personality failings) 6 years later we see him working as a security guard at a factory. He is still an unpleasant person.

After meeting with his ex colleague and getting sucked into the case that caused a lot of pain to him, he tries to get the vicious killer but also as with many of the humanity, there is good and there is bad in everyone.

I really liked this one and highly recommend - although it is artsy and the pace is not speedy so be warned. 

Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke happens to be my all time fave Miyazaki film (after Totoro of course) and this rewatch was extremely rewarding. I love a good, pure hearted hero and this one is amazing. Tears flowed and once again I thank God for good films. 

Stepmom

Stepmom is one of my all time fave tear jerkers. Never fails. It is not that good a film and the script is a bit silly but still.... Every single time. 

The Surgeon

The Surgeon this one always pops up in best of lists and despite the fact that I rejected Rizzoli and Isles based on less than one minute of viewing on TV, I decided to give it a go and see what all the readers liked. And I'm happy that I did, despite the fact that the novel doesn't have the depth of, say and Ian Rankin novel, nor has the first impact of Patricia Cornwell, it was a good read with lots of tense moments and a satisfactory finale. I also liked the feminist approach of course and loved the fact that the heroine was not a supermodel like person. Recommended

Suite Française

Suite Français was on TV and its plot seemed interesting. A romance between a married French woman and a married German officer during the occupation of France. How, I wondered how can a woman fall for a man like that? Regardless of his personality, the position he is in wouldn't allow any feelings to develop unless the woman in question has an unhealthy mind.

I was wrong. It is a beautiful story that worked for me on every level. They immediately recognise each other as kindred souls (he is actually a composer and she studied music in school) but the circumstances are never undermined or swept away. They lose their minds for a minute but never have sex (they were going to but both were rudely awakened before they even got together). I would have liked this story anway but the lead actors were both very good. Michelle Williams is not someone I care for but she always comes through and Matthias Schoenaerts is the same. This guy is interesting in the fact that he is a good actor but I think his career is held back by his physiqué. He is very tall and the camera doesn't really love him. But he is great in the part and I liked him everytime I watched him (fave performance Rust and Bones).

The story of the novel is even more chilling. The writer Iréne Némirovsky was an Ukranina Jewish woman who actually died in a consentration camp (Auschwitz) in WWII. I was already feeling too much after the film and finding out (neatly explained right before the credits) how it was written and how the author died before completing it (apparently she wrote only two novels of a planned 5 novels of the story) affected me. 

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby got a new dress in this TV mini series adaptation. I love the novel, I like the original film (and love Mia Farrow's hair in it) and this one didn't do a bad job updating the story. It was entertaining. 

The Land Girls

The Land Girls on TV only attracted me because it was in English film and I, fondly, remember a novel I have read years ago about the land girls. Women who go to farms to replace the men who went to war in WWII. Anyway this one appealed more to my mother than myself I suppose. 

Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 turned out to be really entertaining and emotional. I have shed unexpected tears over it. Highly recommended.  

Petals in the Wind

Petals in the Wind is this what people call serendipity? I had finished the novel and didn't think of seeking out the sequels but I saw this Lifetime film adaptation of the sequels.

Spoilers

At the end of the novel the children managed to escapte the attic with one casualty and they decided not to go to the police with the evidence of their mother's attempts to murder them using poison. (yeah)

Apparently they had a stroke of good luck when a housemaid finds them and takes them to her employer who likes them so much that not only he takes them in but adopts them and send them to good schools (the kids are all smart). We learn all this in the eulogy for the guy before even the credits end. Anyway the kids now have a chance to a normal life but they have been messed up badly and the elder brother and sister continue incest, the younger sister is unable to resist bullying and turns out to be have sexual issues (she is ok with boyfriend of her elder sister to fondle her and actually encourages the guy) and they still want to talk to their mother who refuses to speak to them. Anyway more horrors await due to the messed up nature of the kids who don't seem to respond well to the now changes life full of good opportunities and a nice use of their talents. It doesn't end well for either. 

Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic is a novel I have read years and years ago. Since I was a child that far back then, the novel obviously flew by my head. It is not a particularly good novel (not good enough to make me want to read the sequels) but the subject matter is horrifying. A mother for whom wealth and prestige mean more than her children (born out of incest) and those children who are locked up in the attic with only an overly religious, mean grandmother to supervise them. Anyway looking at the photo I realise that the cover art is horrible. Anyway these kids were normal kids with various talents but this experience had awful consequences both for their physce and physique.

I recommend as a timepass to be horrified at places. 

Killing Words

Killing Words is a film I only purchased because it was in Spanish and cheap. It is a suspense heavy horror film with a did he or didn't he twist that we are allowed to see earlier that he

SPOILER


indeed did.  Well it was talky and I enjoyed what little I could understand (maybe a word in a sentence) Other than that it was just mediocre. 

Women Who Flirt

Women Who Flirt was at the festival channel and I wanted to do some nostalgia, I rarely watch any films from Hong Kong or China now. But I do love Zhao Xun and romantic comedies so this one seemed right up to my alley. And it was. Despite not being very good, it was cute and entertaining and tears were shed during the end. Huang Xiaoming was handsome. 

Jersey Girl

Jersey Girl Ok this has got to be the worst screen cap of any film ever. Anyway this is one of my all time faves and not only because Ben Affleck, I find the story touching and everyone is acting great. Many many tears are shed during this viewing (as with all the other viewings of this film) 

Feast of Love

Feast of Love yeah these buch of screencaps are not very good. As for the film, the story is revolving around a few characters and focus changes as time passes. However this film felt a bit like that Adam  Sandler film "Click" a lot of things got fast forwarded in time and the editing was awkward. 

Ali Baba ve Yedi Cüceler

Ali Baba ve Yedi Cüceler beni epey bir güldürdü. Ama çok boş salonda bir tek ben güldüğüm için biraz bastırmak durumunda kaldım ve bir sahnede kendimi kasıp sessiz kahkahalar atayım derken gözümden yaş geldi. Neyse Cem Yılmaz bence süper bir oyuncu. Ancak yönetmenlik konusunda o kadar iyi değil. Ne bileyim zaaflarına yeniliyor galiba bazı yerlerde, öykü ritmi bozuluyor vs. Cem Yılmaz'ı kendi yönetmediği filmlerde daha çok seviyorum. 

Konstantiniyye Oteli

Konstantiniyye Oteli bir market rafında görüp öylesine aldığım bir kitaptı. Zira o sıra yazarın okuduğum tek kitabı Kardeşimin Hikayesi idi ve onu da pek beğenmemiştim doğrusu. Ama bu kitap yazar hakkındaki "eh işte" görüşümü tamamen değiştirdi. Roman derken biraz tereddüt içerisindeyim zira hikayenin çoğu kısmı Konstantiniyye Oteli'nin açılışına davetli misafirler hakkında kısa öykülerden oluşuyor ama bunlar gayet güzel bir şekilde öyküye ve diğer karakterler gerektiği zaman bağlanıyor. Ben çok etkilendim ve beğendim. Hemen diğer romanlarını okumak istiyorum. 

Volver

Volver is yet another film I have rewatched due to starting to learn Spanish and I loved it once more (this is my third viewing) again cried and cried. Pedro Almodovar is one of my all time fave directors who all filmography I like. This one I highly recommend everyone, especially to women. 

Hunger

Hunger is a film I purchased because I liked Shame and whatever parts of 12 Years A Slave. And the film is very good. With limited dialogue it shows the painful story in history and in both sides too. Recommended (unless you are not into painful dramas that is)