I'll Be Right There

I'll Be Right There this one I have started ages ago and for some reason stopped. I don't understand why I had stopped then since I really liked it a lot now. It is a very emotional novel and I like the style and the story. 

Warcraft

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Warcraft I surprisingly liked a lot. Surprisingly since the acting was not very good and it is usually one of the most important things for me. I love Travis Fimmel but he turned out to be a lot similar to Ragnar in this one (maybe because they are both warriors) and the rest of the cast were not really shining out. Paula Patton is a very pretty woman but she is not good. Despite all this I really liked the plot and the visuals and despite being long, it appealled to me. I understand why it got bad reviews but to me (a person who has never played the game) it ended up being pretty entertaining. 

Bad Lieutenant

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Bad Lieutenant waited in my to watch list for a while and for some reason, depite liking Harvey Keitel, I never got around watching it. Well it turned out to be a very good film and I liked it very very much. I felt for the lead character who is on a downward spiral, a kind of suicide (by drugs, by depravation etc.) as things get steadily worse for him. He is a contradiction in the sense that he is very religious. I liked the dichotomy and I loved it that the film was not cencored (only a slight blur at one scene of male genitalia). 

Split

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Split I enjoyed it a lot and not because I used to have a crush on James McAvoy (not anymore). Mr. Shayamalan is an uneven director for me. Some of his films I like a lot The Sixth Sense, The Visit and some of his films are simply horrible (Avatar: The Last Airbender). Split is a good one. It is properly scary and interesting. Yeah there is a twist but more importantly I liked the atmosphere and the acting on everyone in the cast led by McAvoy who is excellent. 

We Were Liars

We Were Liars turned out to be YA novel and it was OK  I suppose and got more interesting towards the end. 

Boy Missing (Secuestro)

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Boy Missing (Secuestro) I should stick to Spanish thrillers, which are not really brilliant but much much better than their romantic comedies. Boy Missing has an interesting story (I have fallen asleep towards the end but rewound) and has decent twists and turns. Very good actors and direction. However there is something wrong with the rythm. It didn't flow.
The best thing I liked in it is the lead actor, a middle aged female who is not very beautiful. The actress is very good. This one is full of twists (I didn't see some of them coming) so stay away from spoilers if you want to watch it. 

The Power

The Power is a novel I chose because the story sounded very interesting. It is a dystopian novel and in this AU, the women suddenly develop a power (a skein in the collar bone) that can cause pain (like electric current) on any one. Some can even subtly influence other people. And they can heal some of the illnesses by electrically unblocking or jolting stuff in the body. This of course turns out to be game changer in the global power play. And the best thing about the novel is that as a woman you'd think it would be great when women start to rule the world however you understand as you keep on reading that women can be violent, cruel and sadistic just as much as the men were. I really liked this one and highly recommend.  

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

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Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates this film should be titled, cast and crew wanted a vacation in Hawaii. I can't believe I have watched this stupid thing till the end, but probably it was the Hawaii effect.  

Lion

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Lion is usually the type of film that will pull me in like a magnet but for some reason I was reluctant to watch it. And it turned out to be very emotional, I have cried so much especially in the beginning and towards the end. It is not a bad film, but not the type of melodrama that appeals so much to me. The film is better than that but by being better than that type of melodrama does not make it a good film. There is something off about the whole thing. It is a good story and it is inspired by a true story (and we get to see the real people in the end) but there is something off and I don't know what. 

Hitch

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Hitch is one of those films I can watched over and over again without getting bored. It is not the love story or the romance, I just like the cinematography, setting and the characters. One of my go to films. 

Within -

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Within turned out to be different type of film than I thought it would be. It reminded me of a Hong Kong horror film I had watched years ago (and maybe one other S.Korean one, I'm not sure).

SPOILERS


It is a film at first I thought would be a haunted house film but it is not. It is one of the films where people live inside your house without you not knowing about it. In this family's case their squatter is a psycho and caused much harm. As will be understood by the dash, I have fallen asleep at some parts of the film but never felt the need to rewind. 

Sex And The City (The Film)

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Sex And The City is one of my all time favorite shows. I have watched it so many times I lost count. And the first film was kind of alright, despite not being nowhere as good as the show. I enjoyed this viewing. 

Lady Macbeth

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Lady Macbeth turned out to be an interesting film. Is evil inherent? Will it take some event to make it show itself? How far would anyone go to get what they want? I liked the clean cinematography and the style of story telling of the film. This may not be for everyone but I liked it a lot. 

Collateral Beauty

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Collateral Beauty is not really a good film, something in it felt insincere (through no fault of the excellent cast) but I cried a lot during it. It is pretty easy to make me cry I suppose.

7 Anos

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7 Anos (7 Years) is yet another attempt to watch a Spanish language film. At least I have got to finish this one and just rewound the last 5 minutes where I have fallen asleep. The other day I didn't even bother finishing another film. I guess I only like Almodovar and Saura and none of the other Spanish filmmakers' efforts I have seen so far. At least this one was all talk so it helped me language learning wise. I don't think I'll mix up 'vengo' with 'vale' now. 

A Column Of Fire

A Column Of Fire is another winner by Mr. Ken Follet. I have never been interested in this writer then I read The Fall of The Giants and The Pillars of The Earth both great novels and I continued on the series. However I only read Winter of the World and decided to skip the third one the Fall of Giants series. But continued on The Pillars of the Earth. And I'm very happy that I got this as an audiobook since it his theatrical performance fits perfectly with the tone of the book and I liked that he doesn't make his voice irritatingly thinner when voicing female characters. A very good novel, great performance. 

Bleeding Violet

Bleeding Violet my God this one was not a good one. Fans of Twilight, Divergence, City of Bones may enjoy it I suppose. Even so I have finished it since I plan on reading everything in my DNF by the end of the year (maybe not the Clint Eastwood biography) but I'll try to reduce that pile as hard as I can. 

The Grownup

The Grownup is a short story by Gillian Flynn and it was a long wait for me to read it since the price never seemed to justify the product (only because it is short). Luckily there was a bargain and I'm happy that I have read it. I like Ms. Flynn's style and am sorry that there is not another novel in the horizon yet.  

The Invisible Guardian (El Guardian Invisible)

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The Invisible Guardian (El Guardian Invisible) is the film I chose after giving up on Spanish rom coms. And this turned out to be a decent effort with nice, clean cinematography, good acting and art direction. It is just that the tempo of the film felt off. The two stories did not really weave through each other and I have fallen asleep at some point, although I rewound and watched the parts I have missed. 

7 YUZ

7 YÜZ Blutv'nin dizi projesi ve yedi bağımsız bölümden oluşuyor. Doğal olarak bazılarını çok beğendim, bazılarını hiç beğenmedim. Sıra ile başlıyorum.

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Büyük Günahlar bence projeye çok güzel bir giriş olmuş. Özellikle Cem Davran mükemmel oynamış. Dizi gizemi güzel korunmuş, anlatım sürükleyici, sanat yönetmenliği harika. Hemen içerisine çekti ve diğerlerini izlemeye heveslendim.

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Prosedür önceki bölümün heyecanını biraz söndürdü. Öncelikle iki başrol oyuncusuna hiç düşkünlüğüm yok, sonrasında konu daha önce işlendi, bilindik. Ancak öte yandan ayrılan ve dost kalan çiftin erkek kısmının iktidar mücadelesini izlemek hoşuma gitti. Ama bu bölüm sevmediklerim arasında. 

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Hayatın Müziği Çok güzel değildi ama ben romantik komedi sevdiğim için epey eğlendim. Prosedür'den çok daha iyiydi. Ayrıca Ajda'nın I'll Survive yorumunu her zaman sevmişimdir. Çok güzel kullanmışlar.

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Eşitlik  En çok beğendiğim öykü diyebilirim bu bölüm için. Çok severek izledim. Allah herkese bu bölümdeki adam gibi bir eş nasip etsin. 

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Refakatçiler İlginç bir bölümdü bu. Güzel oyunculuklar ve dokunaklı bir tema. Ben sevdim ama herkes için olmayabilir. Genco Erkal ve Tilbe Saran birer harika. 

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Karşılaşmalar en az beğendiğim bölüm bu oldu. Çekimlerde gerilim oluşturmak için yavaş çekim, gerilimli müzik vs. kullanılmış ama hikaye iyi değildi ve bu yüzden olsa gerek hiç numara işe yaramamış. 

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Biyolojik Saat bana göre en hoş romantik komediydi. Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne dizisinde kötü adamı oynayan oyuncu çok iyiymiş bunu izlerken anladım. Orada ciddi ciddi nefret etmiştim, burada çok sevdim. Konu güzeldi, ortam iyiydi. Seriye güzel bir final oldu. 

Ghost In The Shell (Live Action Remake) -

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Ghost In The Shell turned out to be visually impressive but thematically shallow. Nowhere near the anime version. Why can't Americans understand that they don't do well with adaptations of Philosophical Japanese Anime. God this made me remember their Death Note version (shiver). Anyway apart from the white washing of the cast (although Pilou Asbaek did great) and I like Scarlett Johanson now, the most disturbing thing about the film is that it spoonfeeds some ideas to the viewer and it is really disturbing. I actually fell asleep for about 3-5 minutes during the viewing and didn't even bother to rewind. 

Masum

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Masum bir internet dizisi. Belli bir internet izleme platformu sahibi tarafından çekilen, orjinal senaryosu olan bir dizi (genel TV kanallarında yayınlananların çoğundan farklı). Ben pek ümitli değildim açıkçası ve uzak durdum bu diziden uzun süre. Ama geçen gün "verdiğim para boşa gitmesin diye bakınırken" www.bikotbitisort.com  ya ben niye bunu izlemiyorum ki diye düşünerek başladım ve çok hoşuma gitti. Öncelikle bütün oyuncular döktürmüştü, bu yüzden acayip keyif aldım izlerken, hele Nur Sürer (o değişik sesini çok severim, özlemişim izlemeyi kendisini) ve Haluk Bilginer çok çok iyiydi. Orjinal senaryo olması, çekimler, müzikler her şey harikaydı. En çok hoşuma giden şeylerden biri Tülin Özen'i sevmeye başlamam oldu. O kadar güzel rol yapıyordu ki kadına kanım ısındı resmen. Aynı şekilde Ali Atay, daha önce hiç izlememiştim ama fotoğraflarda bana itici geliyordu. Çok iyi oynamış, Haluk Bilginer ve Okan Yalabık'ın karşısında döktürmüş onlarla beraber. Zaten hem Haluk Bey, hem Okan Bey bencil olmayan iki oyuncu, onlar sahneye hükmederken mütevazi davranıp karşısındaki oyuncuya yer açarlar. Ali Atay bu pasları her defasında gol etti.

Eveeeeet tabii kusurlar vardı. Bana en birinci gelen ilham kaynaklarının bu kadar belli olması (jenerik TruBlood, bölüm bitişleri Forbrydelssen). İkincisi öykünün bir kısmının eğreti durması, yani büyük açıklama ortaya çıktığında o kadar da büyük gelmedi açıkçası. Asıl hikaye çok daha fazla ilgimi çekti.

(Burada bir not, gerçeği sadece dizi bana belli etmek istediği zaman anladım, bu çok hoşuma gitti.)

Brimstone -

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Brimstone I only wanted to watch because it stars Dakota Fanning (an actress I love and think enormously talented). Plot description made it sound like a story of religious obssession but it turned out the story of a horrible psychopath and his unfortunate daughter. I really liked it but I put a (-) next to the title to show that I have fallen asleep in some parts of the film (parts where Kit Harrington is which there was not Dakota Fanning) and I didn't care enough to rewind and watch them. The things I liked about it is the clean cinematography (this film is a great example of that type of certain cinematography I really like), art direction and sets. And Dakota Fanning and Guy Pearce (who is an excellent villain). The main thing I didn't like is nothing to do with the film but dvdigi. They actually blurred the violence. Seriously, the film is very violent and it is a part of the story but they blurred it - one of the reasons I have fallen asleep probably-.

Anyway I only recommend if you are into this type of film, otherwise skip. 

Anna Karenina (film,2012)

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Anna Karenina has suffered through a lot of adaptation (many of which I have not watched). It is a novel very dear to my heart and surprisingly I loved this adaptation. The main reason probably is that I felt it is made for people who read the novel. It is made by set piece to set piece and includes Levin and Kitty's story as well. My favorite part of the novel is Levin's story and he is one of my most beloved fictional crushes. Here is he is acted by Mr. Domhnall Gleeson who is an actor I really like but looks very very British. I always imagined Levin having a dark beard. Anyhow his performance is perfect. Same goes for Alicia Vikander - I'm still on the verge whether to like her or not but she is a very good actress. Anna is acted by Keire Knightly. She is very good but I don't like her teeth. Seriously I know this is awful but at some scenes her teeth were a distraction. They overcrowd her mouth. Anyway the performance is very good same goes for Jude Law, he is excellent as the bad Alexei. My only problem with the casting is Aaron Taylor Johnson as Vronsky. He is a hansome man but the styling didn't work in his favour (Jude Law looked much better despite the balding head) and his performance was not as good as the rest of the cast.

Ok, I shed tears remembering the novel. However I don't think this will appeal to anyone who has not read Anna Karenina since the story telling is not really detailed and mainly visually aids to the novel.
The only part that kind of got to me was that in the film Anna's husband Karenin seems to be as a good guy but in the novel I really disliked him every time I read it.

This is only recommended if you have read and liked the novel and if so then this film is a must see in my opinion. 

A Prayer For Owen Meany

A Prayer For Owen Meany is a novel I DNFed years ago. After some not so fortunate kindle purchases I decided to give it another try, and I'm glad I did. The strangest thing is that this novel made me laugh more than it made me cry (apparently this is a tear jerker for a lot of readers, one of the reasons why I chose it) I just loved the humour and I was reluctant to put it down some of the time. However this is not a novel that I connected with. I like it and admire the wonderful prose and political and religious insights but didn't really love it. I will not hesitate in recommending it though. 

The Red String (El Hilo Rojo)

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The Red String (El Hilo Rojo) I have taken a break from the underwhelming Spanish rom coms and decided to give a romance film (sans com) a try. This one turned to be OK but not really that good. The accents are different and it was kind of hard to understand. The actors were very pretty and easy on the eyes. Colombia looked like a nice country to visit. 

Silence

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Silence is a film I have been wanting to watch. Not only because it is a story that is in Japan but also I like stories about faith. However this turned out not to be as good a film in Scorsese (one of the directors whose films I almost always like) filmography. First the good things: Amazing cinematography, great sets and locations (Taiwan), wonderful costumes and art  direction, in addition to those a great cast who really did a good job. Asano Tadonobu, an actor I really like and think very very good looking was a nice surprise as far as I'm concerned. Never knew he was in this. Now the negatives: I have not read the novel but probably it is not that adaptable. Probably there are a lot of internal conflicts suffered by the characters that do not translate on screen. This brings me to the other negative; Andrew Garfield. This actor stuck out like a sore thumb. He was posing, rather than acting. Adam Driver would have been a better lead. I have nothing against Mr. Garfield, he was decent in Never Let Me Go but he just didn't work here. And the make up department failed in his regard. His hair looked too clean at all times (in comparison to Adam Driver's which really looked unwashed and miserable). The film at 2,5 hours may seem to long but I didn't even yawn once (I love Scorsese) but it felt uneven and I didn't FEEL the struggles the main character suffer through.

All in all only recommended if you are interested in the subject matter. 

Embarazados

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Embarazados is a film I only watched because it's in Spanish. Unfortunately despite liking to hear a language I'm trying to learn, the Spanish rom coms do not seem to be my taste. I'll have to seek other genres. 

Ray Donovan

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Ray Donovan did not particularly interest me since I'm not that fond of Liev Schrieber. However I have watched him at a talk show and he was very funny promoting the show and it was on Netflix so I checked it out. And I loved it. I have vacumed all three seasons and as usual Netflix doesn't have any more. The show completed 5 seasons. What is wrong with Netflix? Why are the shows not updated? Anyway. I highly recommend this. 

Rise of The Legend

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Rise of The Legend I decided to watch this solely because it is a Chinese martial arts film. I didn't really know anything about it. Well it turned out to be one of the (many) beginning stories of Wong Fei Hung, a righteous hero who was a superb fighter. In this story he becomes friendly with a street orphan who his father cured back to life. And there are two girls they play with then one of them gets kidnapped and then his father dies in a fire trying to save the orphans and then Fei and his orphan friend Fiery decide to take revenge. Fei is acted by Eddie Peng who is really cute. I like him and his long chin :) The thing with this film is that it is great martial arts wise but not so good as story wise. If this was a Korean film I'd cry my eyes out but in this one I felt admiration (especially towards the martial art artists and coreographers) and since I like Asian men, eye candy materials but not melodrama.

I liked Once Upon A Time in China better since Jet Li is one of the rare species; a martial arts actor who can actually act and the melodrama there was more effective. I enjoyed watching this one too- just not as much. 

L'avenir (Things To Come)

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L'avenir (Things To Come) I came across by chance. I was in the mood for watching a horror film and there were two option on Dvdigi. One didn't work and the other was very boring and I didn't want to get up from the couch. So I started this one and it turned out to be a very good film. It is one of those slice of life films and it didn't have any close up shots on the actors (the two things I don't really care for) But I liked it very much. We witness the life of an intellectual philosophy teacher who is married for 25 years and has two children. Her mother is very needy for attention and she takes care of them all while reading and generally intellectually going through different phases in the philosophies she supports. We find out that he husband cheats on her and given a ultimatom by his children he chooses his mistress asking for a divorce. The publishing house she has a contract with first redesign her book covers in a garish way she doesn't like and then later decides not to renew her contract. Her mother aggravates the fire department by calling them with a false alarm as often as three times a week and she has to move her to an old people's home. She has a student who she is very attached to and they intellectually respect and admire each other. This student moves to a country farm. Then her mother passes away. And right after her funeral when she was silent crying in the bus she sees her ex-husband with his new girlfriend. Life goes on and despite feeling sad, hurt and vulnarable she carries on and the film ends on a high note. I loved the whole thing. Isabelle Huppert is a fantastic actress, one of the very best. She is not one that I love but one is always guaranteed a good performance if she is in a film (any kind of film). And she is fantastic here. I also admired her old woman's body. As an aging woman I loved how slim and fit she looked (without any emphasis on the whole thing, and she covers below the belt with pareos but she looks perfect). 

Kubo And The Two Strings

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Kubo And The Two Strings was not a film I particularly wanted to watch. I saw some of it in a hotel room abroad (Taipei) and I liked what I have seen but never felt the need to watch it whole. Anyway it was right there in front of me and I gave it a try. And I cried, cried and cried. Stories about orphans touch me a bit more than the others. This one is really good. a quest a villain who is a family member and a one eyed boy who must carry a lot more weight than children usually do. The angular cinematography is not to my liking but I ended up loving it to bits. 

Nocturnal Animals

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Nocturnal Animals I have been waiting to watch this film for a long time (nowadays I don't hunt the dvds and am a member of two viewing platforms so it is a gamble whether one of them will have the film I'm eager to watch or not). This time it is digiturk on tv had it and I was very happy to see that it was only censored by blurring the genitals and cigarettes (yeah I'm even grateful for the amount of censore - pathetic I know). Anyway I love, LOVE Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams and furthermore I loved the first film of the director Tom Ford (a fashion designer orginally). A Single Man was very aesthetic and inspired by Wong Kar Wai (my all time favorite director) and Colin Firth gave a stellar performance.This film is very different from the other one. And that is not so bad. I love the clean cut cinematography and this understood where the director is going aesthetically. I also got the feeling. The conflicts of the character acted (perfectly) by Amy Adams and the two characters (one the real guy and the other, his alter ego - I think- in the novel acted within the film) performed by Jake Gyllenhaal were very good. A different sort of acting which is probably what the director asked from him. The real life - flashback- scenes were the usual wonderful Jake Gyllenhall but the fiction scenes were over acted in a deliberate manner. I loved it. And the thematic beauty of the film is that I may be completely off base.

Highly recommended.



SPOILER

I also loved the ending. Amy Adams exceeded herself in those seconds. Waiting and waiting and slowly realising that he is not going to come and finally resigning to the fact that he is not coming. Tom Ford probably likes red headed ladies (Julianne Moore was in the first film) and he is lucky that these particular red heads are amazing actresses.

Silent Scream

Silent Scream is a virtual bargain bin buy and it is great to find a novel you like in the bargain bin. I liked the novel itself but also loved the audio version. I hope to read more of these series. 

Tenemos Que Hablar (We Need to Talk)

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Tenemos Que Hablar is a film I chose solely because it is in Spanish. It is hard for me to understand except for a word here and there but I have learned and understood what the title meant. Anyway the film is a rom-com that is not very good but people talked and I suppose that it good for me to listen. 

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

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The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is normally the type of film I'll jump on. I love Noah Baumbach and furthermore it stars Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller (yeah I think I have a thing for Jewish men)  I have waited for a while before watching it though for no particular reason. Anyway it ended up being a good film and I'll recommend if you like Noah Baumbach - who has a certain style that may not appeal to you-.