"Les Misérables" [A]

Before this, sad to say, I had not seen any of the films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. I think it must be a grand conspiracy by filmmakers to dump all of the contenders into the holiday time period and I wound up busy with family obligations, etc. I'm glad I can see one or two before the Oscar ceremony. Then again, I'm still working through the lists from previous years.

I'm not sure what the Oscar chances are for this one. Yes, it's magnificently shot and acted. The directing and production values are amazing. But I found myself a bit disappointed. I have not seen the show on stage, but I think the music must work better there. It didn't really work for me here. It seemed flat and repetative. The added realism that the film brings made the story seem that much more trite. Even so, I found myself genuinely weeping at (the appropriate) points. So the film was doing something right.

Les Misérables (IMDb)

"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" [B+]

I was pleased that this turned out to be even a little better film than I hoped. The on-location shots in India are fantastically alive with energy, color, and light. The camera shows both the beauty and the squalor without judgement. The story is simple and heartwarming and the star-studded cast bring the characters to life and show why they are stars. Highly recommended.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (IMDb)

read: Matterhorn (4 stars)

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gritty. Raw. Violent. Tender. Heroic. That's war. That's what this novel captures and conveys. For those of us fortunate enough to have never experienced it first-hand, this book takes the reader as close to the action as most of us would ever care to be. We've seen some of this on television and in film. Yet in many ways this novel makes it more intimate, more personal, more real.

The descriptions are spot on and tactile. Some situations make the reader squirm. The story is heartbreaking. Boys grow into men in no time at all. Strangers become brothers. And then some of them are dead. This is war. Victory is elusive. Glory is fleeting. Heroism is unsatisfying.

The narrative starts by following the story of a Marine lieutenant fresh out of boot camp. Mellas is out of his depth, and so is the reader. You're just starting to get acquainted with him and his viewpoint when the perspective shifts to that of another officer and his ruminations about Mellas and the situation. That should be well and good. A limited third-person narrative can use multiple viewpoints. But the author gets a little liberal in his 'head hopping', handing the baton to any convenient character and sometimes doing it in rapid fire within a scene. The narrative even slips into omniscient viewpoint, describing things from beyond any single person. The overall effect created a distance between this reader and the characters. A tighter focus might have created more intimacy.

This could have been a great book. As it is, it's still quite good and I would recommend it. Just be ready to put some effort into slogging through the jungle with these grunts.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

read: The Inexplicables (3.5 stars)

The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I really, really wanted to like this book. I've been waiting for Cherie Priest to set another story in the messed up version of Seattle she created in Boneshaker, but she's only teased with dribs and drabs in other books. Finally, she's back in the Emerald City (now a putrid shade of yellow in the Boneshaker universe). But I was a bit disappointed. I'm giving this one three and half stars (but Goodreads won't let me add fractions).

Four stars once again for setting and characters and imagination. Also four stars for readability. But I'm marking this down a bit for the story itself. It just never quite clicked for me. Ms. Priest warned her followers that we might not like Rector "Wreck-em" Sherman, but that isn't really the problem for me. My issue is with his story. I never quite felt like he really had anything on the line. Sure, he had no skills and nowhere to go when he gets kicked out of the orphanage. And he's a bit mentally unstable. But once he's inside the walls of the ruined city and nursed back to health, things seemed to bog down. I felt like the only point of the story was to give him/us a tour of the city and bide time until something interesting happens. The stakes aren't really raised until Act 3 and then everything is quickly resolved. I expected more story, maybe some deeper foreshadowing. And why was such a big deal made of Rector's nickname, when nobody calls him "Wreck-em"?

All-in-all, I did enjoy reading the book and look forward to the next one in the series.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

read: One Shot (4 stars)

One Shot by Lee Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very solid action thriller with some good mystery elements. I'm glad I read this before the film came out. I'm not sure why everyone is getting so hung up on Jack Reacher's size in contrast to Tom Cruise. Most of what makes Reacher unique is his attitude and skill set, not his size. He's a cop, almost a cop-machine. And he's nigh unstoppable, when he's motivated.

In this book, he's definitely motivated. And as usual, he's motivated by his sense of justice. What also stands out for me is the author's style. Direct. Precise. Efficient. Sort of like Reacher. I actually saw the ultimate destination of the story from the very beginning. It is a story afterall. I didn't have all the details, but I had the gist. But the unfolding of the story and the skill in telling it still made it a very enjoyable read. Recommended.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

read: Frozen Heat (3 stars)

Frozen Heat by Richard Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The latest tie-in novel for the Castle television show is pretty much exactly what you expect a tie-in to be. Therein lies my growing complaint.

While the stories and writing are pretty good, and this plot is (ultimately) one of the best so far, I am tiring of the Mary-Sue of it all. The 'real' Rick Castle would never write this book. In retrospect, he would have never written any of the Nikki Heat books. They are too on-the-nose reflections of his (fictional) life. These are books about Castle, rather than by (Richard) Castle.

The first two-thirds of the book moved pretty slow for me. Either it's chock full of too many introductions and traveling about, or I was just impatient. Either way, it seemed like it took forever to get through. But then things picked up and I liked how they wrapped things up.

Summary: Almost 4-stars for overall writing and plot. Marks off for some boring bits and for Mary-Sue (Ricky-Sue?).

View all my reviews on Goodreads

read: Stories: All-New Tales (3 stars)

Stories: All-New Tales by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was just getting into Neil Gaiman when this was announced and had to have it. It had to be good. Right? Eh.

Neil's contribution was pretty good, as were a couple others. A few stories were real clinkers. The rest pretty average. There are some big names here. I expected better.

View all my reviews on Goodreads