5 Minute Reviews: The Magnificent Seven

 Let the record show that Vincent D’Onofrio as Jack Horne was almost my only reason for seeing this one, and he did not disappoint. Neither did anyone else--this movie was so much fun, guys. So. Much. Fun. I’m kind of surprised by how much I ended up loving it.

 First, though, let’s go over the mediocre stuff. The villain is named Bartholomew Bogue, so it’s a miracle anyone ever took him seriously, even if he is one step away from bathing in the blood of infants. The town he invades is called Rose Creek and looks a little...shinier than I’d expect an old West mining town to look. (Then again, I’m no expert on the old West.) And if the name Bartholomew Bogue didn’t tip you off, the story is not exactly morally complex.

 None of the mediocre stuff bothered me. The plot’s predictable, but watching it I never got the feeling that anyone thought they were reinventing the wheel. It’s the predictability that lets you relax and just enjoy the characters--like I said, my favorite is Jack Horne, but I also loved Faraday (who’s played by Chris Pratt), and they’re a couple side characters who I REALLY would have loved to see more of. In a nutshell: there’s not so good stuff mixed with very good stuff, and I think the very good stuff wins out in the end. I’ll be rewatching it once the DVD comes out.

Catching Up

 Hey! It’s been a while.

Thanks to my fall semester classes, anything approaching a regular blogging schedule is off the table, but since I posted exactly once in August, a roundup is in order. Here are some of the things I’ve watched/read/done since then.

by crqsf

Pacific Rim
Saw the trailers when it first came out, made a “watch this one day” mental note to myself, finally sat down and watched it three weeks ago. I loved it. LOVED it. The jaegers, the kaiju, the hand-wavy science, the fact that everyone’s essentially one big, dysfunctional family...objectively, I get that it’s not for everyone, but I also don’t think it’s possible to hate a movie where the guy with the least ridiculous name is called Raleigh.

via

Fringe
 My sister checked this out after hearing that John Noble (aka Denethor) played one of the main characters. We’re about a quarter of the way through season 1. As far as the plot goes, I’m not hooked, but I adore the relationship between Walter and Peter Bishop. They flip the traditional father-son dynamic--Peter’s forced to become the legal guardian of his not-all-there, mad scientist dad--in a way that’s both very sad and very funny.
Also watched: Pan’s Labyrinth, Horrible Bosses, The Witch, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (season 1).

The Wicked Boy

This book is nonfiction and true crime (one of my biggest guilty pleasures). It centers around the case of a 13-year-old boy living in Victorian (1890s-ish?) London, who admitted to stabbing his mother to death. It’s hard to describe why I enjoy books like this without feeling sleazy, but it basically boils down to wanting to know the motivation. It’s like reading a mystery--the main point, at least for me, isn’t figuring out who did it, but why they did it. Not that they’re many good reasons for killing your mother…

Writing
Writing has been sucking-pudding-through-a-straw slow, and I honestly don’t mind. Aside from learning how to fit it in without slacking on schoolwork, I’ve been thinking about which direction I want my next stories to take. I’ll never stop loving fantasy, but lately I haven’t been inspired to write many fantasy stories of my own. Most of my new ideas are in a more contemporary/realistic fiction vein, and I’m excited to start working on something again but also terrified that I won’t be able to pull it off. Hopefully I’ll be blogging more about this soon.

How was August, and how has September treated you so far?