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January 08, 2010
2009 review - Films
I saw 86 films in 2009. Here is the list, with approximate marks out of 10. The ordering is a fairly good chronological one. I have a feeling I've missed a few though.
The Princess Bride 10
Stardust 7
Hellboy 8
Alien vs Predator 7
The Karate Kid 9
The Katate Kid 2 6
The Karate Kid 3 6
The Karate Kid 4 6
The Librarian 2 6
JCVD 8
The Spiderwick Chronicles 8
The Hitch-Hikers Guide to The Galaxy 7
Next 7
Night at the Museum 8
Hot Fuzz 7
AvP 7
Watchmen 10
AvP 2 - Requiem 5
Cube 2 6
Cube 0 6
The Pirates Of The Caribbean 6
Coraline 3D 8
Night of the Living Dead 8
Dawn of the Dead (new) 7
Dawn of the Dead (original) 8
Day of the Dead 6
Ghost Town 7
The Butterfly Effect 8
Quantum Of Solace 6
I-Robot 6
WALL-E 6
Star Trek 8
The Little Vampire 7
Silent Running 7
Predator 8
Predator 2 8
Bedtime Stories 7
A Fistful Of Dollars 10
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 7
The Ring 8
Arsenic & Old Lace 7
My Neighbour Totoro 8
Land of the Dead 8
Zoom 4
The Grudge 8
For a Few Dollars More 10
GI Joe 7
Stargate 8
First Blood 8
Guess Who 5
Tarzan 9
The Goonies 6
Race To Witch Mountain 7
12 Monkeys 8
Enigma 6
Bride Wars 4
Maverick 7
District 13 8
Adaptation 8
Rocky 7
When Worlds Collide 6
A History Of Violence 9
Twilight 8
The Accidental Hero 8
Transporter 3 8
The Witches of Waverley Place Movie 6
PS, I Love You 5
The Vampires Assistant 8
Mr Magorium's Wonder Emportium 7
Ruthless People 7
Wolverine 7
The Haunting Hour 4
The Haunted Mansion 5
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 5
Moon 7
City of Ember 7
Pocahontas 5
This Island Earth 7
Elf 8
Home Alone 10
The Santa Claus 6
Christmas with the Kranks 5
Avatar 9
Underworld - Rise of the Lycans 7
I'm willing to defend most of those ratings, but could be swayed slightly on a few of them.
I love watching films more than other TV, and if I had the chance, would watch one every day. However, a lot of my TV time was taken up with some pretty good US TV series. I watched the whole of "The Wire", Lost, Heroes, Flashforward, SGU, 24 Season 7, amongst others. These have the advantage of being about 1 hour long per episode - ideal just before going to bed.
You can see I've tried to revisit some classic movies, as well as watching the latest 3D efforts in the cinema. I've also mixed up family friendly stuff with scary gorefests.
Pretty good year, but I want to watch more this year.
Posted by se71 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2010
2009 Review - Books
Books
I read 21 books in 2009. Here is the list
The Ghost - Robert Harris
Martians, Go Home - Fredric Brown
Esio Trot - Roald Dahl
Just After Sunset - Stephen King
We Think, Therefore We Are - ed. Peter Crowther
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
Brother Odd - Dean Koontz
The Ghost Brigade - John Scalzi
Shock - Richard Matheson
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larson
Shock III - Richard Matheson
The Last Colony - John Scalzi
Random Acts of Heroic Love - Danny Scheinmann
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
Zoe's Tale - John Scalzi
Double Act - Jacqueline Wilson
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larson
House of Suns - Alistair Reynolds
Flash Forward - Robert W Sawyer
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
Outstanding find of the year is the Swedish author Stieg Larson, who sadly died not long after completing his 'Millennium' trilogy of crime novels. I'm currently working my way slowly through the final volume - slowly, because I know there will be no more.
John Scalzi wrote a great book called "Old Man's War" - then followed it with sequels of ever decreasing enjoyment, culminating in the final insult - "Zoe's Tale" - a book which tells the exact same story as the previous entry in the series, from a slightly different point of view. that idea can work, but needs a lot of skill. It didn't work here.
"The Hunger Games" is a real standout. It is teen fiction, but very well done, very gripping right from the beginning.
My last pick of the year is "Bad Science". Ben Goldacre's book is a must read for anyone wanting a little perspective on how we are being sold so much science crap by the media. Full of interesting facts about MMR, MRSA, homeopathy and why the Daily Mail seems to be categorizing every substance known to man into either the cancer curing or cancer causing camp.
Posted by se71 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)