Jean Reno plays a cop with questionable ethics in Empire of the Wolves, based on a novel by Jean-Christophe Grangé.

I found Grangé’s Les Rivières pourpres and Les Rivières pourpres II: Les anges de l’apocalypse both to be mesmerizingly gruesome and impossible to believe, yet I got completely sucked into both of them. Empire of the Wolves is in the same vein, but slightly more believable.

But I’ve already said too much. It’s Jean Reno! What more do you need? Go forth and enjoy!

Prime is a solid movie, a good bittersweet romantic comedy. It’s enough of a fantasy to suck you in, but real enough to make you feel for the characters.

My only objection was to the unbelievable unethical behavior of Lisa (Meryl Streep), a therapist, who is being seen by the main character, Rafi (Uma Thurman). It was played for comedic effect, but what she was doing was so wrong-wrong-wrong that it was unfunny (although I admit, some moments really were quite hilarious, despite that). Aside from that though, it’s a good movie. Fine performances by Streep and Thurman, and Bryan Greenberg too.

This is a good suspense story; believable, and sad – even depressing. Worth watching, but do not expect to be uplifted. Extraordinary scenes filmed in Kibera.

I finally finished this book last Saturday, two weeks after I started reading it. I was made curious to read this book after watching the 1984 movie, starring Bill Murray.

There are some crucial differences between the book and the movie. Just as an example, in the movie, it is Larry who presents the dying Elliott Templeton with a fake party invitation to ease him in his final moments. In the book, it is the first person narrator who does so. The narrator in the book is not present in the movie at all. The book concludes differently (and better).

It was worth watching the movie, but only if you read the book after. The movie gives you a taste of what you’ll find in the book.

The book is well-written, but odd. There are two stories here. One is a sort of parlor-room social drama. Lots of the “action” takes place while people are sitting around drinking tea, having parties, dining out. And this action is, more or less, a sardonic examination of the hypocritical and shallow behavior of the upper-class characters encountered by the narrator. Then there’s Larry’s story itself; his search for an ultimate truth and meaning in life. His story seems weirdly out of place when juxtaposed with the rest. This is not a criticism. I find it interesting, and I wonder if such other-worldly elements appear in anything else by W. Somerset Maugham. I’ve got to try some more of his stuff.

Boring and obvious. If you’re looking for a more interesting, recent thriller, try The Forgotten with Julianne Moore.

There are some good action sequences in the movie, but I found the premise uncompelling: to stop war, would it be worth eliminating human emotions? I suppose it could be phrased more generally as “would it be worth persecuting/killing a minority in order to eliminate war?” In the movie, it hardly seems like anyone is suffering due to the elimination of emotion. Almost by definition, no one could be, except for the few who refuse to dose themselves with the emotionally deadening medication. (Pets are an exception, apparently; they get slaughtered for having emotional content or emotional temptation or some such thing.)

The movie is inconsistent in keeping to the rather bizarre premise. Characters who are supposed to be dosing themselves frequently display emotion of one sort or another – big grins on the face of Taye Diggs, and Christian Bales’ boss slamming his fist down in anger, are among demonstrations of emotions that should never be seen in such a society.

It’s not really a bad movie, just a bit long. Probably worth watching just to get the concept of “gun katas.”

Good for a couple of workouts; nice mindless action entertainment. Good effects, all-star cast. It’s a long movie but the plot was thick; I wasn’t bored.

I have to say, I’m impressed with Christian Bale in particular, whom I’ve seen in The Machinist and American Psycho. He exhibits remarkable range as an actor.

These are the people that I’m a little afraid I’ll wind up sitting next to when I take the bus.

I didn’t know anything about this movie before watching it, other than it was a Steven Soderbergh film (which is why I rented it). About 15 minutes in I was about ready to give up – bored stiff. For some reason I kept watching, and things finally picked up at about 45 minutes. From then on, I was reasonably entertained. This makes the American mid-West seem a bit weirder and creepier than it is. I hope.

I started reading “The Razor’s Edge” last night.

After watching the interesting but somewhat confusing movie, I had to read the book to get the full picture.

I picked up my copy of the book at the local library. It’s a 1944 edition. Inside the first few pages there’s a note: “THIS BOOK HAS NOT BEEN CONDENSED. ITS BULK IS LESS BECAUSE GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS PROHIBIT USE OF HEAVIER PAPER.” All in caps, yes. McCall and Co would have liked to make the book bulkier; damn that pesky war.

Anyway I’m about 10% into the book and so far so good. Clearly the movie liberally took plot elements from the book and mixed them around. And already something has been made clear: Elliott Templeton (the wealthy chap played by Denholm Elliott in the movie) is an arts dealer. Apparently back in the day this was a bit of a scandalous way to make a living. Anyway, that’s why all those precious items were laying about and getting knocked over in his Paris home; he was buying and selling them. If that was explained in the movie, I must have been napping at the time.

I’m enjoying Maugham’s style but it is a little peculiar. He has a way of describing people which is a little strange. Here’s how we meet Isabel: “She was comely though on the fat side, which I ascribed to her age, and I guessed that she would fine down as she grew older. She had strong, good hands, though they also were a trifle fat, and her legs, displayed by her short skirt, were fat too….” He goes on, but this short bit with “fat-fat-fat” made me laugh out loud.

Here’s the discussion of Gray Maturin: he was “striking rather than handsome. He had a rugged, unfinished look; a short blunt nose, a sensual mouth and the florid Irish complexion; a great quantity of raven black hair, very sleek, and under heavy eyebrows clear, very blue eyes. Though built on so large a scale he was finely proportioned, and stripped he must have been a fine figure of a man. He was obviously very powerful. His virility was impressive….” Doesn’t this passage make you want to giggle? Later we hear that he “strained his heart playing football” so he couldn’t get into the army to fight in WWI. Gee and I thought things like that only happened during the Vietnam war!

In making these descriptions, was Maugham planning out who would play the characters on the big screen (and yes there was a 1946 movie version of “The Razor’s Edge”, starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, which I now feel compelled to consume as well)? I’d swear this is done by many best-selling authors these days, but I guess I’m a little surprised if it was being done back in the forties already.

Yes, this is a silly movie. Unplug your brain and enjoy!