The Killer Next Door

The Killer Next Door was a bargain bin buy but I ended up liking it very much. It is one of those novels where you start with the aftermath and get to read how the characters ended up there. The reader is amazing. Great performance and I suspect caused me to like this better than I would have if I have just read it. I'll try and read more of her novels. 

The Week Of

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The Week Of is now easily one of my favorite Adam Sandler films. I love the man despite his many bad films but this one plays at his strengths and I actually laughed out loud more than once, and they were prolonged laughs too. Sandler this time does not have a hot lady female lead (very different from many of his other films) he has a regular looking wife and family and his daughter is getting married to Chris Rock's son. Adam is a manager at a mid level repair company and Chris is a very famous and important heart surgeon. The film focuses on Adam's character and he is a great guy. And it is a great performance so natural and emotional and I love the melodrama in Sandler films (although I seem to be in minority) and it is so well done here. Anyway I have laughed, I have cried and totally enjoyed myself. 

Berlin Syndrome

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Berlin Syndrome is the story of a backpacker meeting a native in Berlin and then being abducted and imprisoned by him and her escape. And despite the good performances of all the actors, it is a boring film. How can they make this plot boring? Watch only if you want to know. 

Pokot

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Pokot appealed to me for a few reasons, the lead being an elderly person, the naturalist point of view, however I had a problem with the actions of the protagonist. Muchos spoilers from now on.

She has two dogs that she loves and one day they dissappear. She looks for them to no avail. She is living at a village in which most of the male citiziens hunt for pleasure without complying with the hunting calender. She not only must suffer the loss of her dogs and the pain of not knowing what happened to them, she also does not understand how people around her do not care for nature and animals. Then one of her neighbours pass away and weird murders occurr. The Police chief is killed first, then the local rich land lord who keeps foxes in cages for pleasure and forces women into prostitution, then the mayor. I suspected the old lady killing them but could not reconcile her message of peace with these actions. In the end the event that made her flip was finding a post hunt photo in her dead neighbours house while waiting for the authorities. In it she saw that among the other kill, her two dogs were lying shot. Looks like her anti violence messages only carry so far even in her psyche. And the film gives her a happy ending. I'm fully on board with her message and pro naturalists thoughts and actions but murder? NO. 

Beauty and The Beast

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Beauty and The Beast is almost scene by scene same as the cartoon film. But I liked it much better. Probably because I love Ewan McGregor and Emma Watson and Emma Thompson. 

Görümce

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Görümce Gupse Özay'ı sevdiğimden olsa gerek Netflix'e gelir gelmez listeye aldım ve sonrasında fazla düşünmeden tıkladım. Pek güzel bir film değildi, ayrıca bana komik gelmedi ama mesajı çok iyiydi, oyunculuklar yeterliydi, eğlendim. 

Psychokinesis

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Psychokinesis I was really looking forward to watch but despite shedding some tears over it, the film is lukewarm at best. For some reason it ended up being artificial to no fault of the cast who were really all very good. 

On Dublin Street

On Dublin Street was not to my taste at all. I was actually bored by it and the intimate scenes were not told to my taste. This is not a bad romance novel, it just is not to my taste. 

The Warded Man

The Warded Man was purchased way back and for some reason I never felt like starting it. And when I did I was not really impressed at first, gradually the novel won me over. I'm even thinking of continuing the series (5 books I see now) but I don't feel the immediate urgency I felt when reading The Name of The Wind or The First Law. One thing that was interesting for me was that the reader has an American accent. Most fantasy novels I have come across are read with British accents so that was a bit different but not in a negative way. 

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

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The Autopsy of Jane Doe turned out to bore me. 

mother!

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mother! was a film I was eager to watch since I like watching  Darren Aronofsky films even if I don't like the films themselves (some of them I like a lot, just not all). mother! turned out to be an intense viewing experience and I really liked Jennifer Lawrence yet again. What a great actress, giving all the nuances and feelings of her character excellently. Mr. Javier Bardem is a good actor, no question about that but I can't like him. I just can't, for no reason. Even my mother actually watched this till the end which proves that it is at least interesting. This is a different film. The story it tells is maybe familiar but the way it is told is original and the feelings, both good and bad, mainly bad come through successfully. I can't understand why everyone hates it. I wouldn't watch is again soon but I respect the approach and awed by the acting of the female lead. 

Ataúd Blanco: El Juego Diabólico

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Ataúd Blanco: El Juego Diabólico (Trans. White Coffin: The Diabolical Game) started decently but quickly turned into a boring mess. Yet another Spanish learning casualty. The acting was surprisingly strong though. 

Maide'nin Altın Günü

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Maide'nin Altın Günü'nü Ezgi Mola'yı sevdiğim için izledim ama olmamıştı. Hedefi tamamen kaçırmıştı yazık zira performanslar çok güzeldi. 

Hwayugi (aka A Korean Odyssey)

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Hwayugi (A Korean Odyssey) I was somehow reluctant to watch for no good reason. I love the two male leads and A Journey to The West seems like a wealth of inspiration for a multitude of stories. I can't explain my reluctance. Howeever as soon as I started  I was caught up with it and was shedding predictable tears by the last two episodes.

The story is inspired by A Journey to The West but in a romantic manner. The Monkey King (played so cutely by Lee Sung Gi - who looks odd in the photos but I love him ever since Brilliant Legacy) and Monk Triptaka fall in love. The Monk is the female lead. In the original story the Bull does not have that much to do but here he (played by the  wonderful Cha Seung Won) is an integral part of the story. The premise is that the demons and deities live in the human world and the Monkey King and Monk will save it from disaster by fulfilling their destinies. Instead of the head band The Monkey King is enslaved by a bracelet that causes him to fall in love with the Monk. Well they made it work. There is the pig, here a very popular K-Pop star falling in love with a zombie, winter general and summer general and the sad deity wife of The Bull who is condemned into 99 lifetimes of misery because she stole human souls to save her and The Bull's child's life.

Anyway this totally worked for me and Cha Seung Won has an amazing comedic talent. He has aged but aged well and I love post Army duty Lee Seung Gi. I think it is the first time I watched the female lead Oh Yeon Seo and I liked her very much. But my favorite female actor was Lee Se Young who played the zombie and the evil priestess who took over her body.

This is highly recommended if you are into whimsy and silliness with a dash of melodrama.

The Dry

The Dry came into my radar because Tana French (one of my favorite novelists) recommended it on goodreads so I gave it a try and liked it a lot. It is not as good as any of the Tana French novels but still very good. I want to read the second novel in the series. 

Les Choristes

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Les Choristes is a film I was never really interested in at the time of its release. But it turnes out that it is a film to my own heart and I loved the protagonist (acted by Gérard Jugnot) and his kind heart that got broken a few times but never beaten. Cried rivers during. 

Mustang

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Mustang is the story of 5 teenage sisters who are confined in their house and forced to (and gotten) married because of society pressure. I like how the story is told and the actors have an amateur naturalness to their peformances. I like the soft cinematography too. The film was painful to watch as woman and living in a similar (but thankfully much less oppressive) society. 

Message From The King

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Message From The King turned out to be a film I liked, mainly because Chadwick Boseman is a very talented actor but I also liked the action scenes and the art direction. I wish it was not cut by the Bein Channel though. 

Headshot

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Headshot was in my to watch list on Netflix since I love The Raid and liked The Raid 2 a lot. It is a different director and action team but the same star who is also the action director. I still like The Raid better but enjoyed this film a lot. The directors of this one are normally horror directors I have read in a (positive) review and it makes sense since this has a lot of horror in it. It is long and very violent and probably would only work for people who like that sort of film (like yours truly). So I liked it a lot. 

Britt-Marie Was Here

Britt-Marie Was Here is not a good novel, certainly nowhere near as good as A Man Called Ove. But I loved it and shed constant tears during reading. But good tears.

Liar

Liar was not really bad but for some reason I was not able to enjoy it as much as I would have. The reader is very good but I didn't like the villain (I very rarely do) and the unpleasant feeling I have had (this was probably what the author intended). 

Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV Series)

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Avatar: The Last Airbender , yes I watched it again. Once again. I can't get enough of this show. I memorised it a little and still eagerly watch every episode. This show has a great message and a huge heart and it is the best show one can make their children watch. 

Contraband

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Contraband is one of those ridiculous action films that you feel guilty liking. I actually enjoyed this one a lot. It is directed with a lot flair and it was very entertaining, however not really a good film.

The Frighteners

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The Frighteners has very good actors and great special effects however the story and how it is told did not work for me.

Anne of Green Gables (2016)

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Anne of Green Gables was a book for some reason I never got aroung reading until Rachel MacAdams read it and it was on sale or something in audible and I loved it. This film did not do it justice however depicted some moments in the book very well. I didn't like the actress playing Anne either. She acted very nicely but for some reason did not work for me. I have cried a lot during this viewing as I did with the book, more due to the story than the rest.  

Ravenheart

Ravenheart I got for 3 USD at San Fransisco airport and I LOVED it to bits. Cried rivers towards the end. I can't wait to read Stormrider the next novel in the series. David Gemmel is a great story teller. 

Christadora

Christadora after a series of mystery novels which I all liked (it is a genre I love after all) I started this one and I almost dnfed it for a few times. However I stuck with it and liked it overall despite it being an uneven reading experience for me. Some parts of it got really emotional and some parts of it got me bored. However it tells the story of an important period in history and how various people have coped with it. And the cause and effect of addiction also played heavily. 

The Girl On The Train (2016 film)

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The Girl On The Train well, the book was better of course however this film is just not good. There is no energy to it despite having the type of cinematography I really like. I can't seem to warm up to Emily Blunt though despite the fact that she looks like a very nice person in real life (that's what I gathered from the interviews) and she is a good actor but for some reason I can't enjoy any of her performances. I hope that this will change eventually (I now love Scarlett Johansonn so anything is possible I suppose). 

About Last Night

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About Last Night turned out to be a remake of the 80s film with the same title. I only watched it because I like Kevin Hart. And I enjoyed the bits with him.

The Nice Guys

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The Nice Guys I really liked this more than I thought I would. Ryan Gosling was especially hillarious. The whole feel of the film worked for me and I can recommend it in good conscience to the lovers of the genre. 

Verónica

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Verónica turned out to be very good horror film. I was not really scared (I rarely am these days, jaded I suppose) but I was into it the whole time and I liked the way how teenage hormones and problems projected into the horror aspect. The actors all gave good performances and the period details were nicely done. 

Hostel: Part II

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Hostel: Part II I liked the first time I watched it and I liked it better the second time. In this one girls are being told about a spa (the naked women worked for boys but not for the girls) and as with the first one the two end up horribly dead (we get to peek to the torture chambers of others and one of the worst for me is that one guy was being eaten while he is conscious, it was chilling) and the final girl gets off using her finances (but before that she actually tied her torturer up and was standing with garden shears against his exposed penis - so she is pretty bad ass apart from being super rich). The thing that surprised me in the rewatch was that she kills the woman who lied to them about the spa at the end (by beheading her) and I was like "whaaaaatt??? I totally forgot about her!!!!". 

Tango and Cash

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Tango and Cash this blast from the past never gets old. The action, the funny one liners, the 80s and it still makes good viewing. 

Woman of Dignity

Woman of Dignity interested me enough to check out and I really loved it. It worked for me on almost all levels (only lacking in the romance a bit and I didn't mind that much) and now I know why everyone loves Kim Hee Soo so much. I need to watch Faith now I guess. Hopefully it will be on one of the legal platforms. Anyway this one steered from the course a bit at the extention (it is 20 episodes a sign that the ratings were good since modern S.Korean weekday night shows are usually 16 episodes) it still worked so well. The two leads are amazing and the characters were both very interesting. The side plots are also engaging and the comic relief made me laugh (this doesn't happen very often). 

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

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Elizabeth: The Golden Age didn't leave an impression when I first watched it (unlike Elizabeth, which did) but then I have read A Column of Fire and wanted to watch it again. At the time it was unavailable but then I caught it at Bein Channel liked it a bit better, now knowing the history a bit more. However it is still uneven and too short for the events depicted. The performances are all solid gold though and the visuals are amazing. 

The Third Murder (Sandome No Satsijin)

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The Third Murder (Sandome No Satsujin) is a film I was looking forward to since I love this director's film (my favorite being Our Little Sister) but this didn't work for me. Visuals were good but the story did not work. There was an imbalance and lack of rythm. The actors were all fine, I especially liked Masaharu Fukuyama.