Oh, the political angle is really cool! I guess I thought mecha entertainment to be all robots and dating, but the financing and political and military stuff here is getting very interesting.

It reminds me more than a little of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

This may be the best book I have ever read. Kallio applies her considerable observational powers to her (and our) intimate relationships with movies. A lot of the stuff is idiosyncratic (like her habit of trying to keep her favourite films to herself) but the underlying insights are brilliant and universal.

Not that this combination of references will be of help to many people, but she reminds me of Cary Tennis, Sinikka Nopola and Umberto Eco.

The book is SO much better than the film – and the girl reading the audiobook is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I usually only liste to audiobooks when I’m walking somewhere or cleaning house or something, but this one I had to sit down and keep listening to even when there was nothing to be distracted from!

Basically, because it was WAY better than Finnish dramas usually are. For about an hour in the middle I didn’t get annoyed at all, and the treatment of epilepsy is ok. It’s sentimental, like Saarela’s films tend to be, but that’s hard to argue with when it’s this clearly a part of the guy’s vision.

This is an awesome audio book. Tuchman is an entertaining and knowledgeable writer, and this book gives a very good picture of the period. Although loosely centred on Anguerand de Coussy (no idea about the spelling, obviously), who was a Frenchman, the interlinked nature and surprising mobility of the European ruling class pretty much makes it a history of most of western Europe.

I originally picked it to get a cultural context for Middle English, but ended up listening to it for fun because it’s witty and captivating.

It’s amazing, but I don’t own a copy.

This has got to be one of my fave action movies ever (not quite up there with T2, but rated very highly). It’s eminently quotable, has great structure, and everyone involved gives a decent performance – including, nearly, Keanu. It also marks the pop cultural moment when the expletive “fuck!” gained the parallel variant “fuck me!” Obviously, one or two people in the audience quietly responded “with pleasure” to the wording of Keanu’s bomb-related alarm.

This was the second time I’ve seen it, and as with many comic book adaptations, the second viewing was superior to the first. First time around I’m too nervous to enjoy it fully, and too thrown by the changes to evaluate them properly.

Still not sure about the whole Victorian-suppressed-femininity-Phoenix, and a very disappointing range of ethnicities in the cast, but generally and OK viewing experience even for hard core fans.

The psychological stuff is funnier than I expected (although when did I become a person who commiserates about kids that never move out?), and SJP and MMC give the slightly bland but utterly charming performances romcom requires.

The main flaw of the direction lies in the handling of the slapstick and animal violence elements that are totally out of control. The main flaw of the script is the finale’s contrived voyerism of the main characters’ family and friends (with some new, cooky strangers thrown in for good measure). It’s as though the filmmakers suspected that audiences would like the side orders more than the main course. Which, to be fair, we do. Unfortunately, when side orders provide commentary on the desert it inspires me to hurl.

This is marketed as “Edison” in many markets – Edison Force may be a dvd title? Strong actors (and an OK Timberlake) don’t make up for the haphazard direction and strangely clichéd script. There is a cringe-free period of about ten-fifteen minutes towards the end, unfortunately leading into an eerily familiar shoot-out scene. No wait, I just figured out what it reminded me of: it is such a blatant French Connection rip-off that they may have intended it to be some kind of hommage. Ill-advised, but sweet, in its way.