Cloud Atlas - Movie Review

 



For a while, I had been put off by the length of the movie, 3 hours is a long time to just sit and focus on something, (I hadn't done that since the Lord of the Ring movies) and like many people, I have so much other stuff I should be doing. But last night I decided, sod it, and settled down for the movie. I knew very little about the film, I've never read the book so was coming to it from trailers and advertising.

For the first hour, I confess I was a little bored, well, not bored as such, but with 6 stories, 6 sets of characters, an hour only gives me a possible 10 minutes to connect with each story (each could easily have been expanded into a film in their own right) and this hour was designed to allow you to meet the various characters so it was quite slow as each story was set up and we moved back and forth between each one. After the first hour, however, the pace picked up, the dramatic music kicked in and it started to become clear how the stories entwined and impacted on one another.

I loved the idea of lives being connected across time and the possibility of rebirth and the soul, some people destined to repeat mistakes and behaviour, better themselves or fall in love again and again, how actions in the past mirrored those in the future, and how threads worked their way through time from one lifetime to the next. For example, the journal written in the 1800s is read by the main guy in the 1930s, whose music and love notes end up in the hands of the 1970s protagonist. Or Doona Bae who first plays the wife of Jim Sturgess' character in the 1800s. She is a minor character at her husband's side as he makes a decision to join the fight to abolish slavery. Yet in the future, the character she plays has an important role in the fight for freedom (yet again alongside Jim Sturgess). She is inspired by a movie of 2012 events and her words go on to inspire in a god-like way the tribes people in the future and final part of the timeline. *head explodes*

There was so much stuff that just wove the stories together and I could ramble on but I'll leave it for you to discover and make your own mind up and if you think you miss anything, with a quick Google you can find lists of other connections and also ideas about how the stories/characters/lives/souls are connected and comparison to the book - but be careful, seriously, I had a look and my head started hurting with all the thinking it brought on lol

Whatever you take away from the movie, it is a journey starting in the 1800s all the way to the 2300s and it's all very clever. I have no idea about the book, but the visual representation is incredibly intricate in its storytelling and I think I was happier seeing it (like with Game of Thrones) than perhaps reading it because it certainly helped me to keep track of characters and all the links across time and places.

Despite my initial reaction, by the end I was well and truly smitten with the movie. The paralleling emotions in each story and how they were edited together was very moving. The sadness, intensity, humour, romance and everything in between played out wonderfully and the dialogue overlapped between stories showing how similar the threads were. And yep, I cried as certain stories drew to their conclusions. I'm a sucker for a dramatic song and the build up it accompanies so got rather emotional, invested in characters and involved in it all :)

Anyway, I would say the film is either a love or hate kind of film, visually it was stunning and the storyteller in me was fascinated at how plot points, small and large, were carried throughout the film to its conclusion. I actually cared about the characters and their individual tales. It was pure escapism, just as a movie should be :)

Zombies #10

The tenth and final zombie post in the countdown to the release of Dead Things, available from N/A.

Thanks if you stuck with me for this long and if I ever think of trying to post 10 days in a row again, remind me how hard it actually is to keep it up :)
So, to start off, one more excerpt from the book and this time there be zombies :)

Dead Things
Excerpt from Chapter 3

Zombies #9

My second place favourite zombie movie is...

9. Planet Terror

Dr. Felix: Viral infections. They came pouring in. Some are rapidly developing coliform lesions... highly contagious. What do you think?
Dr. William Block: Self preservation comes to mind.

Ever watch a film and just thought...wow, that is so cool? I love Rodriguez's Planet Terror. Paired with Tarantino's Death Proof under the title Grindhouse (which also featured a then mock-trailer of Machete), Planet Terror oozes a certain style that people either love or hate. Personally, I love anything like this, a movie that is visually just awesome. I love the flickery effect of an old picture house and the movie reel jumping or even burning out. The mood of the movie is dark but a fun romp very much like some of Rodriguez's other films, From Dusk Til Dawn, Sin City and The Faculty. I just love the dialogue and action and overall B-movie feel to it.

Abby: I also want your balls for my collection! It would be easier if you do it yourself. Just drop your pants, chop them off, and give them to me. Then... I might consider letting you live.
Romy: Uh... Abby... I'm really attached to them.
Abby: Oh, sweetheart I was really attached to my specimens. And now, thanks to you and your incompetence, they're out there in the night doing God knows what.

A virus is released and some infected specimens escape, which both head for town. And then the bites, the lesions and the dead bodies start rolling into the hospital. The mixed group of survivors battling it out include Cherry, a go-go dancer, her ex, Wray who has history with the sheriff and guns (and it seems knives - handy though), the sheriff's cook brother, a pair of twin babysitters, and a bisexual doctor that is nifty with syringes :). Throw in some slightly unstable military guys and then it really gets fun. The female characters are sexy and capable. The zombies are pretty gross and some actual brain eating happens \o/ It's a great cast including Josh Brolin, Michael Biehn, Rose McGowan, Bruce Willis and Fergie. There are a few shocking moments in there along with the gore, as well as the dark humour and even a little romance :)


Sheriff Hague: Don't shoot yourself. Don't shoot each other. And especially... don't shoot me.

I just find the movie really cool and I'm a Tarantino and Rodriguez fan, so mixed with zombies, I was having a happy watching this ;D

Zombies #8

8. Doghouse

Neil: When we get to the country, we are gonna piss up all the trees to mark our teritory, then we are gonna find a pub and get so drunk we can't remember how to speak, and we'll communicate in grunts like neanderthals, before passing out in the woods!

This is one of my favourite films (don't judge me). A group of blokes leave their wives, girlfriends, boyfriends or casual hookups behind for a weekend and head to a small village to help their mate Vince get over his recent divorce only for them to run into a small snag. With a population where women outnumber men 4:1, a virus has turned the females into a bunch of man-hunting cannibals, or zombirds as they're affectionately known :)


Graham: What kind of virus only attacks women?
Neil: Bird flu.

Okay, so not everyone is going to like this British horror/comedy - it is very laddish, rude and plenty of bad behaviour. There's just something about geezer blokes that I find funny. They don't offend me, certainly not in the movies anyway, and unlike a friend of mine, I actually really like Danny Dyer as an actor. I enjoyed him in Severence, another British horror/comedy and also in Straightheads with Gillian Anderson. The movie also stars Noel Clarke and Stephen Graham who also play the role of typical blokey-blokes really well.

Graham: In case you've forgotten, the reason we brought him out here was to try and convince him not all women were out to get him.
Vince: Thanks for that lads. It's all going really fucking well innit.

It just makes me laugh this movie. I love the zombirds. Each one is made up as a different character and therefore has a particular 'weapon' that they had with them - there's the hairdresser and her scissors, the foxhunter and her riding crop, the lollypop lady and her sign. And though they start off lumbering around, they are soon subjected to 'Phase 2' and then they get really nasty :)

Mikey: Now you decide to shoot something, you fucking monkey's arse ring!
Sergeant Gavin Wright: I had one bullet left. I was saving it for when I really needed it.
Mikey: You're still a twat!

Overall, it's funny, rude, gory and my kind of movie.

Zombies! #7

Post 7 in my countdown to my release Dead Things, due out this Saturday. I'm going to start of with a further excerpt from the story.

Zombies! #6

6. Doom

Again, not technically zombies, but certain people die, come back, turn into violent, munching monsters so I'm taking it. Plus it is an awesome excuse to appreciate the awesomeness of one Mr Karl Urban.


The things I like about Doom:

1. Karl Urban. You never saw that one coming did ya?  I love the character in this, John 'Reaper' Grimm. Yes he's a soldier that shoots stuff, but he has history and background stuff that creates angst and misery and conflict, which is all very yummy.

John Grimm: If I turn into one of those demons, shoot me. One in the heart and one in the head, and don't you hesitate.





2. The Rock or Dwayne Johnson because he's a proper actor now, you know. I really, really like his movies. I'm not sure if I should, but I do. And oh lordy that body. Ahem. Anyway, I think he's great in this as Sarge, the guy in charge and I love the slightly psycho edge to his personality :) All very cool.

Sarge: Eliminate the threat.
The Kid: What threat?
Duke: It goes like this see, if it's trying kill ya. It's a threat










3. The brother and sister relationship. Much like I have in Dead Things, there is a great brother and sister relationship in this movie. Strained at times (particularly in the beginning as they reunite after some time apart) but also incredibly supportive and protective, and even though Reaper is the big bad bro soldier, Sam looks out for him just as much as he looks out for her.

Samantha Grimm: So, "Reaper"? As in "Grim"?
John Grimm: They're Marines, Sam, not poets.



4. Those action one liners. You know the ones. Those awesome lines that make you chuckle as the big tough action hero puts down the bad guys.


5. The fact even soldiers stuck on a scary planet with creepy-ass monsters still have needs.

Corporal Dean Portman: I gotta take a dump.
Destroyer: What? Now?
Corporal Dean Portman: Unless you want me shitting my pants right here.








6. It is the ultimate guilty pleasure. I particularly enjoyed the scene that was a shout out to the original game and the feel of that. Sure the plot is flimsy, but who cares. We have monsters, soldiers, action, humour, good and evil, and human emotions and mistakes. I really love this film and have watched it so many times I have lost count. Not quite zombies, but the feel of it, the tension, the scares, people dying and coming back as messed up monsters, it has a lot in common in that sense - plus after a google, it seems it has made it onto a couple of zombie movie lists *nods* And if nothing else...it has Karl Urban, The Rock and, for any British kids of the 80s/early 90s out there, Dexter Fletcher - Press Gang anyone? Or for zombie buffs, he stared in the not-so-great zombie movie, Autumn.

Zombies! #5

4 and 5. 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later

Okay, so there's the whole they aren't really zombies argument. I know they're not in the strictest sense, although I swear the amount of blood some characters lost in attacks, they shouldn't be up and that lively *ponders*. But zombiesque in style, they are super cool movies.

Jim: And then I wake up today in hospital. I wake up, and I'm... I'm hallucinating or I'm...
Mark: What's your name?
Jim: Jim.
Mark: I'm Mark. This is Selena. OK, Jim. I've got some bad news.

The first movie tells the story of Jim and other survivors he comes across, looking for some kind of hope of a cure or somewhere safe. A 'rage' virus has swept through the population of Britain and well, obliterated it. I love the opening scenes of an abandonned London, and Jim all alone as he wanders around the city, completely unaware of what has happened. Of course, it doesn't take long for Jim to come across the infected, rage-filled monsters created from the virus, and so begins a desperate battle of survival. There are some great action sequences and the music in this and the sequel are just superb. In the House/In a Heartbeat, has to be my favourite piece of music ever - to be fair John Murphy does some epic soundtracks.


Jim: No, no. No, see, this is a really shit idea. You know why? Because it's really obviously a shit idea.

Brendan Gleeson pops up in a role of a survivor, playing a father who has his daughter with him. Together with Jim and the main female character, the ass-kicking Selena, they head off in search of other survivors. Christopher Eccleston also stars as a soldier in charge of a group of surviving very laddish soldiers that our main group comes across, and you just know things aren't going to be as easy as these guys banding together and waiting it out.

Private Jones: Mitch, I fucking got one!
Corporal Mitchell: What you want a fucking sweetie? Keep shooting, you c**t!

I really enjoyed this movie. It kind of reignited my lust of horror movies and in particular zombies. There had been nothing significant in quite a while before this movie that dealt with populations becoming infected and turned into wild, crazed monsters (there probably was something that I've forgotten *thinks*). It was a really cool movie that was followed up with an equally cool sequel.

28 Weeks Later is as it says set months after the intitial breakout of the virus. It opens showing us what happened with the character played by Robert Carlyle (I love this guy so much) set to a slightly altered version of In a Heartbeat (Oh yeah!!) It then cuts to 6 months later, the virus has pretty much died out and there's an awesome plan to start repopulating a section of London with the help of the US army. A good plan...you'd think. But alas things go tits up and off we go again.

I do just want to say... hello, Jeremy Renner. He caught my eye in an episode of Angel and then he just kept popping up in all sorts. Anyway, he plays one of the army guys and looks very good doing it. He has a big gun *nods*. I'm getting distracted. This movie is every bit as good as the first, but the tone is a lot different. The first was more creepy, fewer people with surprise bursts of violence. This is just a whole bigger thing, a lot more action once it gets going and more people around to get caught up in the ensuing chaos. Zombies or not, these are bloody great films :)

Zombies! #3

Post 3 in my countdown to the release of Dead Things on 11th August.
So, I'm going to start by posting an excerpt from the start of the book. Meet Devin Reid...

Zombies! #2

2. Night of the Living Dead.

Ah, a classic.

Johnny: They're coming to get you, Barbara, there's one of them now!

This must be the oldest zombie movie I've ever seen (or that I at least remember seeing), but it definately wasn't the first. Even today, forty odd years on, it's still a decent movie. Okay, for the Hostel generation it might not be quite enough gore and guts, but there are still some pretty decent scares/tension and death/being eaten scenes.

Field Reporter: Chief, if I were surrounded by eight or ten of these things, would I stand a chance with them?
Sheriff McClelland: Well, there's no problem. If you have a gun, shoot 'em in the head. That's a sure way to kill 'em. If you don't, get yourself a club or a torch. Beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy

The zombies are slow - but strong and gradually more and more of them. They are menacing just because they won't go away and linger around looking hungry, and as is the unfortunate case with human beings, the people trying to survive make mistakes. Just happens that make a mistake in this movie and you turn yourself into a snack before you can say 'zombie apoalypse'! I really like how 'real' it's made to feel with the documentary style addition of reports from newscasters and interviews with scientists and the groups going out to try and kill the zombies as our survivors watch the TV and listen on the radio. The group themselves is a crazy mix of men and women, each is a little sterotypical, the hero, the coward, the sick one, the hysterical one, the silly bloody woman that should have stayed inside *shakes fist* but I suppose being stuck in a farmhouse with a bunch of people you don't know and surrounded by a zombie horde might make you a little gaga.

Ben: They know we're in here now.

Ben, the hero, is certainly the standout character for me - he is the one most in control of himself and obviously back in the day, having a black guy playing the lead was an exceptional thing indeed. 
Anyone who cals themselves a zombie or horror fan will have seen or needs to see this movie. It's great stroy telling and first in a fantastic series by Romero. A must for all fans. It's harrowing and has an ending that seriously, in it's own messed up way, is bloody brilliant.

Zombies! #1

My first full length novel is out on the 11th August. Dead Things is a contemporary romance story set in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. I am a fan of the horror genre and I hope to write in either the universe of Dead Things again, or delve into other strands of horror - werewolves and vampires (of the NOT sparkly kind) are two of my faves, along with monster movies like Lake Placid, Piranha, Crocodile etc. And you have to love mutant mountain men. Two of my watch over and over movies are Wrong Turn and The Hills Have Eyes (remake). Coming back to zombies, in the lead up to Dead Things release I wanted to share with you some of my particular favourites from the world of movies. Some are classic zombie flicks, some modern takes on the genre, and some that aren't zombies in the strictest sense, but are certainly stylized on them. So, ten days and ten favourites:-


1. Resident Evil.

Red Queen: You're all going to die down here.

The Resident Evil movies are a mixed bag for me. As a fan of the games, especially the second one, I was really excited about the release of the first movie. And though I know not everyone will think the same, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've loved Milla Jovovich ever since seeing her in The Fifth Element (multipass!) and Alice has been a great character for her. I love a lady that can kick ass and look good doing it. Michelle Rodriguez has also become a favourite of mine, and Rain was also a kick ass character. James Purefoy (be still my heart) and Eric Mabius (not bad) added a little eye candy for me, the soundtrack was heavy and rocking and yet damn creepy at times, and get the zombies up and roaming and moaning and I was squeeing like a little girl with the latest Barbie :P

Rain: All the people that were working here are dead.
Spence: Well, that isn't stopping them from walking around.

There's just something about reanimated corpses that is nicely creepy. Okay so one zombie grunting his way toward you might not be all that scary (depending on the zombie universe he's from - some amble, some are pretty spry for dead guys), but the damn things lurk in dark corners, and get them in a pack and you're kinda screwed. I love gore - intestines being pulled from stomachs. I love jumps and scares and atmospheric scenes. Resident Evil was a nice update on the genre and something a bit different to the many B-movies that continue to come out. It was a great start to the series of movies - action, a zombie virus and an explanation of its origin, strong and capable lead characters, zombie dogs, mutated zombie beasties, and the movie pulled in some of the elements of the games that made them so awesome.

J.D.: I shot her five times. How was she still standing?
Rain: Bitch isn't standing now.

I really love this film. The character of Alice in her original form was perhaps my favourite version of her throughout the movies. I have enjoyed the sequels to the film, mostly - 2 fell a little short, 3 got better, and 4 built on that (maybe it was Wentworth Miller that helped, oh and the 3D lol, or more likely the return of Alice as I wished she'd been all the way through *whispers* normal) I think in the end, when it comes down to it, I just bloody love zombies. I think they are perhaps a guilty pleasure as I have seen some downright terrible movies over the years (I have the Horror Channel on Sky lol) but I just can't help but watch LOL.

Magic Mike - Review

Oh, Magic Mike, I love you this much *wafts arms around really, really far apart*



Okay, I admit it, the only reason I was interested in this film was for the stripping. There, I feel so much better making that confession. But then I saw it...

Movie Review: Stake Land

So, one thing you should know about me is that I am slightly obsessed with horror movies. I adore the genre, though I have to say I prefer movies where at least one of the main characters manages to survive to the end. That in mind and as my first solo book is a m/m, zombie, action, romance story I thought I'd share some brief reviews with you now and again of movies (not necessarily all horror) I've seen.

My first review is of Stake Land (2010)- a vampire, post-apocalyptic road trip. The first thing I'll say is, these vampires do not sparkle. More zombiesque in the grotesque, rotted manner they're presented in, they are pretty horrid. The atmosphere of the film is really well done, the environment and characters draw you in and the acting is pretty spot on. We have the grizzly and gruff hunter, the kid/protege he's taken under his wing, a nun, a marine, a pregnant chick and then the bad guy who is even more revolting than the bloodsucking freaks roaming the country. It's all pretty cool. The plot and the direction of the story drew me in, along with the characters who I did care whether they would manage to survive the harsh world they inhabited.

The actors were generally unknown to me though there were a couple I recognised. Kelly McGillis - I had to check I had the right woman in mind as she's certainly aged since Top Gun and not in a sexy Tom Cruise kind of way - and Danielle Harris - already a significant face as a scream queen from both the original Halloween series and the remakes.

Overall, if you're looking for a solid post-apocalypse style movie with bonus vampires then I would totally recommend this. It's a good looking film and it satisfies those of us that like a bit of blood and guts along with our drama and the ending was, I won't say happy, but it was one I was satisfied with.

I would happily watch this again so if I were to give it a score, I'd go with 3.5 / 5