Beaty and The Beast (Disney Film)

Beauty and The Beast is a dvd I had blind bought ages ago (before once can sample everything on line and decide whether it is for you or not) Anyway I bought it because everyone gushed about it etc. In the end I liked it but was not enamored. This time they are making a live version so I decided to give it a go to cheer me up a bit. It worked and I liked it even better. Belle is a heroine who loves to read and won my heart right away. Beast is also kind of kind hearted, certainly better than Gaston who has to be one of the most awfull villains ever. It was so good of Belle to refuse him outright. Gives the nice message. Just because he is good looking, wealthy and loved by the majority doesn't make him a good guy or a suitable one for you.

All in all this also kind of served a plot kink of mine, two people having to share space and start to care for each other.

Recommended. 

Drop Shot

Drop Shot is like a bag of crips. You don't really need it, you are not going to get nutrition out of it and it will not satisfy your hunger but it is entertaining (yeah I saw the twist to the story earlier than I meant to) 

Tutku

Tutku filmine maalesef adam gibi bir görsel bulamadım. Neyse film fena değildi. Anne kız aynı adama aşık oluyorlar. Anne bir süre baya baya kendini kandırıyor but çocuk beni seviyor diye. Aslında adamın kızını sevdiğini anlayınca onları ayırmaya çalışıyor. Kız da aslında adamın biraz işe yaramaz ve çapkın olduğunu anlıyor ve annesinin onun için seçtiği adamla evlenmeye kadar veriyor ama bu tutkuların objesi adam kızı kaçırıyor. Birlikte oluyorlar ve aşkları tamamen geri geliyor. Kadın bunu görünce adamı vurup öldürüyor. Neyse sonuna kadar izledik ne olacak diye. 

Son of Saul

Photo credit: www.salon.com

Son of Saul I have heard great things about this film but holocaust is terrifying subject and for some reason I'm not really that into East European stuff (architecture, films, novels etc.) They end up being really grim and stay with me for a long time (Lilya 4 Ever for instance).

This film was horrifying. A true horror film that is even more terrifying since you know that the most terrible things you see in the film actually happened.

I think what differs this film from the rest of its ilk is that we watch everything from either over the back of the main character Saul or from his point of view. He works as a special worker at a holocaust camp. His job is to work at the killing rooms. Not turning the chemicals on or anything but do the menial jobs, such as separating the clothes, carrying the bodies out, digging pits for them to be thrown in when the cremation room is full etc. While he is about his tasks he comes across a survivor from the chemical showers, a young teen who is breathing and despite being distressed, seems like he is going to live. However when the doctor examines him, he suffocates the kid. Saul wants him to be buried in traditional Jewish way and tries to accomplish this during the film. Meanwhile he goes about (with his concentration camp inmates) his daily business and everything is at the back ground. It felt so hard to deal with the evil of human beings. This is the true horror people are capable of and I suppose the real danger is being used to it. The people in the camp are probably acting this way to survive but one gets the feeling that one or two somehow accepted these horrors as the facts of life around them as usual occurrences. But how much it takes for a person to stop feeling the horror? Or do they ever.

This is a very good film but one I'll not want to watch again. 

Agnes Grey

Agnes Grey turned out to be very entertaining, however this edition is a true failure. The sequence of the chapters were mixed and I had to actually go online to read it in the correct order. I like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall better but this one is nice too. 

Let's Eat

Photo credit: lilacreel.blogspot.com.tr

Let's Eat is a Korean drama I have only tried because it involved food. I have watched it on youtube and it was really good for people who like food, like looking at food and try to imagine what it would taste like. However I'm not that eager to check the Second show out yet for some reason. 

Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Aşk-ı Derun

Photo credit:  tims.tv  

Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Aşk-ı Derun is the Turkish TV show that I have watched years later after it was extremely popular. It is 139 episodes with each episode being about 2 hours (without commercials). Yes I have invested a lot of time to it and more often than not, it paid off big time.

This post should be written in Turkish but since all the Turks already know about it I decided to put it in English.

I didn't watch it at the time for a few reasons. The first is that I don't like the main lead. This man who is a very good actor actually, for some reason never had my sympathy and I have stayed away from everything the did (and all his shows were hits even when he is the bad guy). The next is that I didn't believe there would be a good production of a period drama in Turkey. And when I realised that they actually pulled it off, it was too late to jump the vagon. It took all night to watch it with commercials and I felt distant. The show also brought out the nationalist tendencies in everyone (and us Turks are very much susceptible to delusions of grandeur)

However this Ramadan the days were long and I love to sleep but I needed to be awake and eat and drink so I thought I'd give this a try to keep me awake. I love period dramas and I knew that it is at least a decent production.

Of course I was hooked by the second episode.

Firstly this is not a factual representation of that time (the most glorious in Ottoman history). The facts only inspire the story, the decor, the costumes and the characters. That was a great way to approach it and it was also a good idea to make the focus on the "deep love" (aşk-ı derun in the title) between the Sultan and his concubine.

This is the story of one of the strongest rulers in Ottoman history, Süleyman the Magnificient and one of the strongest female sultans in Ottoman history, Hürrem, his wife and their various children and their fight for the throne.

I loved the actors, the screen play and cried like a baby when a most beloved character (in real life history and in the show) is murdered. And keep in mind that this show has a body count similar to GoT. The last episodes were a bit dragged with a lot of scenes just Suleyman staring into nothing with music in the background but since I was already hooked, I didn't mind and never fast forwarded once.

Highly recommended if you have time to invest in it.

The Long Weekend

The Long Weekend is a decent read. I didn't warm up to it however.

The Association of Small Bombs

The Association of Small Bombs ended being a tough read since there are a lot of bombs going off in my country right now. I hate terror and war. And I don't see the point.

This novel has a light prose but it is not a light novel by any means. It makes us observe various people who are associated with a small bombing in a bazaar in Delhi. Every single one of them ends up being unhappy/die horribly. 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Photo credit: www.denofgeek.com

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was kind of interesting but I'm not into Star Trek really. I do like some of the episodes but my sister benefited a lot more from the Star Trek week on TV than I did. 

Vacation

Photo credit: www.glidemagazine.com

Vacation it just was not very good. 

Goth

Goth turned out to be a collection of tidy mystery stories with twists combined in a novel like manner. I have enjoyed it. 

Dust to Dust

Dust to Dust was an impulse buy and I ended up being happy with it. Not enough to seek out the other novels from the same writer but it was entertaining while it lasted. 

Saving Grace

Saving Grace I chose because it was part of a buy one get one free deal. I didn't read it properly and thought it was a Judith McNaught novel. Well it was not but I like Highland romances and this was a decent one with feminist undertones. The weird thing was to listen the intimate scenes. I don't think I enjoyed that. Reading them is great but listening to them felt a bit uncomfortable at times. All in all I'm glad I got it for free and it was the perfect antidote to Perdido Street Station disaster (not the novel, my reaction to it) 

Death Note (Anime)

Photo credit:onehellofarin.wordpress.com

Death Note anime turned out to be really good and better than the film. I like this concept and its originality. The moral conflicts (L all the way here) make one think and question the society. And I like the way the villain is great looking, intelligent and unexpected. So I highly recommend.

I watched it on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g3pX7dnyOU

We Are Your Friends

Photo credit: www.rottentomatoes.com

We Are Your Friends was not that good. At least I have watched it to the end, that is something no?

Gods of Egypt

Photo credit: variety.com

Gods of Egypt is a silly little film that kind of entertained me. Nothing special though.

Read Seas Under Red Skies

Red Seas Under Red Skies Actually I liked this one better than the first book. The first has decided me to stop getting into these series but I have found the third one really cheat at a second hand book store and decided to get the second one (which was also on sale -new) so I gave this one a try and enjoyed it a lot. I still don't care for Locke and Jean, because they are thieves and con men but their adversaries are a lot worse than them and this time there are many out there. And I'm happy that I already have the third novel at hand because I'm officially hooked now.

Hope Lost

Photo credit: www.ramascreen.com

Hope Lost is a regular horror film that builds its storyline around forced prostitution. It was not bad but if you want to watch a film on this subject that is more horrifying and certainly would make more of an impact than I recommend Lilya4ever. 

Plush

Photo credit: www.filmofilia.com

Plush is a mediocre film but I like Emily Browning so I watched it and despite falling asleep at places I have rewound and managed to finish it. 

Matters of The Heart (2015)

Photo credit: www.sinemalar.com

Matters of The Heart turned to be a washed out lame effort. But I like Patrick Wilson (which is very strange to me, that I do) and watched it for his sake. 

Dünyanın En Güzel Kokusu

Photo credit: www.zensinema.com

Dünyanın En Güzel Kokusu çok ilgimi çeken bir film değildi ama Tuba Ünsal'ı severim. Hem Dvdigi'de hazır karşımda durunca bir deneyeyim dedim. Fena değildi ama çok çok güzel de değildi. Bence en büyük problem ses konusunda yaşanıyordu. Oyuncuların artikülasyonu yeterli olmadığı gibi konuşmalar duyulmuyor ve anlaşılmıyordu. Konusunda da pek aman aman bir şey yoktu. Tabi ben bir ağla bir ağla SPOILER   kızacağızın öleceğini aklıma bile getirmemiştim doğrusu. Çok üzüldüm ama ne bileyim Aşk Tesadüleri Sever'de olduğu gibi komalık olmadım sadece normal boyuttla bir ağlama oldu. Neyse karşınıza çıkarsa bir göz atın ama izlememekle çok bir şey kaybetmiş sayılmazsınız bence. 

Pulp Fiction

Photo credit: www.miramax.com

Pulp Fiction is a classic as far as I'm concerned and I never get tired of it no matter how many times I have watched it. 

Perdido Street Station

Perdido Street Station This novel made me to face the dilemna readers face from time to time. I didn't like it but I felt like I couldn't stop listening to it.

First off this is not a bad novel. It has a nicely done AU, interesting and different characters and many action. However I was unable to have that special bond one makes with the book. On paper this sounds like something I'd love but that connection was not there.

Apt comparisons were made likening it to novels of Charles Dickens but I love Dickens however Perdido Street Station did not work for me at all.

I do respect the writer and the novel so I kept on and on and on and finally last night I was able to finish it. It felt a weight has lifted off my shoulders.

I suggest first read some of it and see whether this is for you before purchasing it.

The reader's performance was very good btw. This just was not my thing. It is not you Mr. Miéville, it's me.

Furious 7

Photo credit: variety.com

Furious 7 is a lot of fun with impossible stunts and action. The thing is I kind of fell asleep during and had to rewind but got really emotional in the end and I think that was a great tribute to Paul Walker. I was in tears, getting emotional. Rest in peace Mr. Walker.