Movies and Books - Reviews

Howl's Moving Castle  (2004) A young girl is placed under a curse that makes her look like an old woman.  She ends up in the walking castle of a self centered young wizard and his very funny fire demon who make a deal with her - get him set free from his deal with the wizard and he will lift her curse.  This is another of those movies that my daughter really wanted me to see because she enjoyed it so much.  My track record has been pretty bad but not this time.  This is a wonderful movie (Japanese original based on an English novel with an English overdub) that is visually enthralling and with an interesting story too.  Impressive list of voice actors (Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, and Billy Crystal as, what else, the fire demon).  The movie is a lot of fun and certainly worthy of its Oscar nomination in 2005.  Looking for something a little different that is still fun I'd happily recommend this one!

The Holiday (2006) - Kate Winslett, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns and Rufus Sewell.  This is supposedly a movie about TWO women who swap living quarters following love life crash and burns.  In reality it's a star turn attempt for Cameron Diaz.  You spend way more time watching her end of the story than you do Kate Winslett's.  Sadly the story doesn't really hold up to that much attention.  This is a cute concept and a perfect cast to pull it off.  Sadly the script is so badly balanced that it just comes up short.  Not a bad movie for rainy weekend watching but not something I say go out of your way to see.  Too bad really.

Because I Said So (2007) - Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore.  Utterly predictable, one cheap gag after another and I was done after about 15 minutes.  Honestly once the dog started getting frisky with a footstool I had no further desire to watch even another second of the movie.  Hit eject and sent it back to Netflix.

To say NOTHING of the DOG by Connie Willis  Yeah, I'm on a bit of a Willis jag right now.  Having never heard of her a few months ago, then discovering she has racked up an impressive batch of science fiction awards (this one for example won a Hugo and a Locus and was nominated for a Nebula) I'm fascinated by what I might be missing.  This one takes place in the same universe as Fire Watch, Blackout and the Doomsday Book which focus on a group of time traveling historians from Oxford.  This time they are trying to track down missing bits of a cathedral that had been destroyed in World War II plus solve some very tricky problems with paradox in time and space.  I'm enjoying the books by and large (though I still think the historians show an astounding ability to overlook the obvious at times).  The end has a nice hook to it as well.

Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis This one at least isn't about the time traveling historians.  An attractive young woman has strange dreams, Robert E. Lee's dreams.  She meets a researcher for a novelist whose favorite subject is the Civil War and who is hung up (the novelist) on the dreams that Abraham Lincoln had all during his presidency.  This story is a little odd (although it racked up more awards and nominations for the author, winning a Joseph Campbell and nominated for a Locus) and Willis never really comes close to explaining HOW the dreams of a man who has been dead for a century suddenly invade the life of a totally unrelated young woman.  The only apparent link is she has the same first name as his beloved daughter.  But given that the name is Annie you wonder how she got chosen.  The novel is relatively short (256 pages in paperback) so I wonder if it might not have been a lot more satisfying if it were a little longer.  An interesting read and as always with Willis fascinating concepts but not quite as satisfying as some of the others.

Stalling For Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator by Gary Noesner  This is a fascinating look into the creation of the Crisis Negotiation Unit of the FBI.  Noesner was there from virtually the beginning and leads you through the process of trying to find a negotiated end to touch situations.  He also touches on two of the three biggest failures of the FBI in modern times - Ruby Ridge (which he was not involved in), and the Branch Davidians in Waco (which he was although his advice was often ignored).  (The third greatest failure was the collapse of professional standards at the legendary FBI labs).  Noesner tells the story well, is pretty even handed with everyone even the folks with whom he had professional disagreement and lays out the concepts of trying for a peaceful end to any situation rather than going in with guns blazing.

The Twelfth Imam by Joel C. Rosenberg.  I'm seriously conflicted on this one.  Rosenberg is a fine writer with a good track record behind him.  He does a fine job here with the plot and characters.  But the book left me cold.   The Twelfth Imam is a messiah figure from Shia Islam.  Rosenberg does a very nice job explaining about the "Hidden Imam" and the place it has taken in some Shia circles.  In the book he posits that the Twelfth Imam does return (with Jesus too) and looks at the events that might take place.  Up to that point he had me hooked.  Rosenberg is an Evangelical Christian and once he starts to exert that aspect of his personality in his writing the book goes down hill.  Basically the Mahdi (another term for the Imam) is put in the role of the Anti-Christ.  He never comes right out and says it but I'm not sure how you avoid it.  At that point all Islam becomes evil and violent and all Christianity is peaceful and puppy loving.  The theology is so simplistic and slanted that it just left an awful taste in my mouth.  Based on the descriptions given in the book I'm afraid Rosenbergs Jesus is going to get his butt whipped by the Mahdi.  I'm assuming that there's a second book coming (although there is no mention anywhere of it) because the book just ends without resolving any issues or at a particularly logical place.  First half to maybe two thirds of the book are quite good.  After that, I'm honestly sorry I wasted my time.


Merchant Kings - When Companies Ruled the World by Stephen Bown  This is a really nice bit of popular history.  Which means it tells the historical story without the pedantic drudgery of "real history".  Bown looks back to the days 1600 - 1900 and the first great corporations - The East India Company, Hudson Bay Company, Dutch East Indies Company, all the great players of the Age of Heroic Commerce.  Heroic in the sense that it was great and sweeping not that they were admirable in almost any sense.  What's really compelling are the parallels with modern corporate situations.  Corporations that operate largely outside the realm of any nation's laws whose interest is no longer linked to any group except their investors.  The results are horrific in the past and show every sign of repeating themselves today.  A well written, enjoyable read.