Reviews - Lion in Winter and The Sign

Just banging through things these days.

Can't remember if I've reviewed "The Lion in Winter" before.  The 1968 multi Oscar winning film is one of my favorite stage plays.  Great cast (Katherine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins {his first role}, Nigel Terry and Timothy Dalton), a fabulously quotable script, and some compelling if not particularly likable characters.  Everything you'd think you'd need for a great movie.  Yet as I watched it with the kid (her first time after years of listening to her parents rave about the show) I realized that the movie version lumbers a bit.  This is a play with very little "action".  It is dialogue driven and character driven.  Which on stage is fabulous.  But the movie drags.  And it's too bad because most of the performances are amazing.  Hepburn shared an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role with Barbara Streisand in "Funny Girl" and O'Toole was nominated but lost to Cliff Robertson in "Charly" for Best Actor.  Weird to see the wispy and weasly John played by Terry who I usually connect with King Arthur in "Excalibur", and Hopkins who plays more cerebral characters as the burly and not particularly bright Richard.

Bear with the slow pacing and savor the dialogue.

Raymond Khoury's "The Sign" is the second book by this author (I read "The Last Templar") and for what it is it's not bad.  It's conspiracy theory with religious overtones.  Characters are OK, plot was pretty good.  It's the second book in a row for me that has used genocide against the Islamic/Arab population of the world as a story device.  Distasteful is the nicest word I can think of  for the concept.  This book also spends a lot of time bashing not just religion (I have a certain sympathy for that) but faith in general.  Its basic assumption is that most people are stupid and would be better off if we just let our betters lead us in the right direction.  Which would include the previously mentioned plot device.  I'll give Khoury this he makes the folks pushing this agenda the bad guys at least.  But it seems pretty clear to me that he doesn't have much use for faith or religion given that he has no character who spends so much as an instant defending either.  His main religious characters are a stereotypical TV preacher (come on people, I'm not the televangelist's biggest fan either but to keep trotting out these cardboard charlatans is really getting old) and a do gooder RC monk who is rather ineffectual on his best days.

Looking for an interesting read that won't tax your intellect too much?  Great book for a long dreary weekend.