Skyscraper

When I saw trailers for this, I never thought I would be seeing it in the theatre. Well, it was playing as the second movie in a double feature at the Drive-In!! So I stayed and watched it. It was silly, and fairly predictable - in that we knew that The Rock always survives and wins. Definitely a PG movie. Very little blood, all things considered. One weird bit was the the Rock had to have an artificial leg for the movie. Not sure that the was about. Anyway, The Rock is an ex-everything and gets blown up at the start of the movie. Jump ahead 10 years and he is doing security analysis work for a super huge skyscraper built on Hong Kong Island. His family also lives in the building, and no one else except for the owner who lives in the penthouse safe space. Bad guys want something the owner has, family is there by mistake, Dwayne is off doing other stuff and has to rescue his family and save the day. At least one bit of unlikeliness in the movie. Still, it wasn't terrible as PG rated Action films can sometimes be.

Mission Impossible: Fallout

A good entry in the series. I am not a Tom Cruise fan. Luckily he didn't say a lot in this movie. Though he chew the scenery a bit during a helicopter chase. Basically, this was the follow up to the previous movie - they needed to get some plutonium back to stop a crazy man (from a previous movie) from detonating them and causing great havoc. Rah. Fun chases, some good use of IM techniques and blessedly little dialogue from Mr. Cruise. Yay!

Ant-Man and the Wasp

The second installment of Ant-Man. And they are making a third already. I liked the humor in this one - Paul Rudd is just humorous, I find. So, Ant-man is under house arrest, but The Wasp and Hank Pym need help trying to rescue Michelle Pfieffer (who still looks amazing - I wonder if she has had a lot of work done...) but a Ghost Like charcater, the FBOI and some random bad guys all try to gum up the works. Fun stuff!

Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies

The last of the Hornblower books in the chronology of his life. More a series of short stories featuring Hornblower than an actual through line, single major plot sort of book. Lots of good adventures. Well worth a read if you are a Hornblower fan which I am! I don't want to give synopsizes of all the stories, just suffice to say that they are pretty typical Hornblower!

Lord Hornblower (book)

Second of the second trilogy of Hornblower books. Hornblower has been named a peer of the realm. He is tasked with dealing with some mutineers. And in typical Hornblower fashion, he not only deals with the mutineers in an effective manner, but ends up helping Le Havre to be a thorn in Bonaparte's side. I don't like Hornblower on land as much as I like Hornblower on the sea, but this was still good!

Commodore Hornblower (Book)

Hornblower goes to the Baltic and introduces Bomb Ketches. More great adventures - except for a loss of a major character - it was a good read. Hornblower basically helps end the Napolean's was against Russia. Go Hornblower! This was the first book of the further adventures of HH. Great stuff.

Incredibles 2

Yay Pixar. I haven't noticed any decline in quality of Pixar since they were acquired by Disney. Yay. Anyway, 14 years later, Pixar has released the sequel to The Incredibles. It picks up almost immediately after the end of the first movie. All the characters are back. The story was good, the animation was great. All in all a fun movie!! I would definitely watch it again! Oh, Super powered people are outlawed, but one rich person is trying to get the world to re-legalize them - by having Elastic-girl do some super hero stuff. A bad guy show up who has the power to mid control people. Watch out!

Equity

What the hell? Why the heck did I rent this? No one in the cast was someone that I was interested in seeing. The story was about IPOs and banking and such, not of interest to me. And the whole thing was just boring. Oh well. I watched it. If you like nay of the actors in the movie or if you are interested in banking and IPOs then you might enjoy this. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time.

Beat to Quarters (Book)

This is the first book that was written and published about Horatio Hornblower. It follows him as the Capitan of the Lydia as he tries to follow orders in Central America. His mission is to help a rebel overthrow the Spanish who are in charge in that part of the world. Unfortunately, the leader is a bit cra-cra. Good battles, interesting problems for HH to solve. It is easy to see why this character was revisited so frequently. Some things that were later changed about his history stayed in the book and were never revised. Like his having met Bush earlier in his career. The title originally was The Happy Return.

Hornblower and the Hotspur (Book)

This is a book that was written later about an earlier part of Hornblower's life and career. He has been promoted to commander (not quite a captain) and has a small sloop at his command. It is a time of peace turning into a time of war. Hornblower ends up fighting a well written naval battle with a ship much larger than his. Good stuff - fills in some of the gaps in Hornblower's early history.

Enterprise (TV Series)

I have been a Star Trek fan since the show first aired. I never did get into the cartoon versions, though I did see a few episodes. One of my friends (who I have now lost touch with - oh well, life is like that sometimes) loved Voyager, so I bought her the DVD set. Now, stuff is on Netflix. So, I watched all of Enterprise. I really liked it for the most part. It has the same science flaws that every Star Trek has, but fewer, since the tech is closer to us in time. 2150 is not that far away! I also like Scott Bakula (generally) which made it easier to like the show. The character of Shran was not on frequently enough. Gotta love those Andorians! Anyway, if you like things star trek, you might just like this show. In some ways closer to the original series than any of the others.

Lieutenant Hornblower (Book)

Wow, seems like a long time ago that I read this book. But it was only a couple of days. I might have been better off reading the books in the order written. Still, chronologically by character age works too. This is the book where Hornblower is a lieutenant, obviously. On the Renown. Interestingly, it is told from the point of view of Bush, Hornblower's first mate (eventually)(oops, spoiler perhaps). It was interesting to see Horblower from the eyes of another character. The Renown's Captain is incapacitated (how did he come to fall down the ladder? Hmm?) and the first lieutenant takes command. Hornbower does his best to help the new Captain succeed.  Fun stuff. Probably my most favorite of the books written after the initial three.

Hornblower and the Atropos

Much of this novel is dedicated to Hornblower organizing the Navy's part of the funeral honors for the fallen Nelson who from injuries sustained at the battle of Trafalgar. His ingenuity and ability to undertake any task is once again highlighted!

Hornblower During the Crisis (Book)

This short book was comprised of the unfinished story of the title and two short stories. Apparently Forrester died while writing it, though there were notes that made it clear how the story was to end. I was just getting to the good point when the completed part ended. Boo. More Hornblower! Now! One of the two stories included in the book was about Hornblower's time as a Midshipman. And the last was about Hornblower as an Admiral. All good stuff. What is it about some characters? One just can't get enough of them! If you like Hornblower, then this is a must read!

Extract

This movie was totally forgettable. I watched it because of Jason Bateman - I like him most of the time. There are problems in the lead's life - his business is maybe going to sell and he can retire, his wife might not love him anymore and he is just not having a good few days. And, scene. I don't know, I just didn't like any of the characters too much. No one seemed likable. It wasn't a total waste of time, I guess...

Atomic Blonde

I liked it. I have always had a soft spot for Charlize Theron. She plays a spy in this movie. And there are twists. And action. And fun. If you like her, and action/spy movies, this is a good watch! The plot is basically just to get the action going - something about double agents and defectors and things before the wall came down in Berlin. I might even watch it again one day...

Point Break

Some people think this film is great. I thought it was Keanu Reeves really trying very hard to act. There are some bad guys robbing banks. Keanu Reeves is a new cop in town and assigned to the old cop in town who is trying to capture these baddies. Keanu has to infiltrate the gang by becoming a die hard surfer dude. Trouble and love ensue. I thought it was ok. Patrick Swayze has never been one of my favorites. Nor is Keanu. But I watched it and now I can say that I did. If you like either of the leads, or cop dramas, you might enjoy this movie more than I did.

Dirty Girl

A netflix movie about a young girl who thinks she can get whatever she wants and do whatever she wants because she is sexually attractive. She decides to run away It's a coming of age movie, and a teen angst movie, and a finding my family movie and a buddy movie. So in other words, it might just have tried to be too many things. I enjoyed it, but am glad I won't have to watch it again. I liked the soundtrack. Great supporting cast - including Mila Jovavich as a mom! I am getting old!!

Deadpool 2

I went to see this in the movie theatre because I thought it was going to be a large movie - full of big action sequences. And it wasn't. I didn't like it as much as I liked the first one. I still love Ryan Reynolds, though. It didn't ruin him for me. I am not sure what it was about the movie that didn't appeal. It just seemed to be missing on a few cylinders. Oh, and Morena Baccarin was - well, that would be a spoiler alert. Anyway, I have had a crush on her since I first saw her on Firefly. Anyway, it was a decent Superhero movie. And a there were a few laugh out loud moments. But other than that, it left me kind of cold. I will, of course, go see another one if one is made. In hopes of glimpsing Morena again at least. And Ryan Reynolds.

Set it up

Netflix Movie about two assistants setting up their bosses together romantically, mainly so that they can have a bit of a life of their own. I think I watched this in a moment of weakness. I like romantic comedies and this one seemed like a decent premise. I wasn't overwhelmed by anyone's performance in this piece. Or the script. It wasn't a total waste of time, but close to. Lucy Liu made it at least a bit more palatable.

Table 19

This was not quite as terrible as the reviews made it out to be. Anna Kendrick was my reason for watching it and she was on screen a decent amount of time. Yay.

Apparently, Anna and the best man broke up badly. But Anna was still invited to the wedding. And was sat at table 19. As any wedding planner knows, the higher the number of the table, the more tenuous the connection is between bride and groom and the invitee. In this movie, Table 19 is where the people were put who ought to have not actually shown up to the wedding. It was supposed to be a a funny movie and had a few funny bits. Overall, though, I don't think the movie knew what genre it was supposed to be - comedy, drama, rom com, etc. Not great, but if you love Anna Kendrick, it might be worth a watch.

Brain on Fire

I will admit that I watched this movie only because Chloe Moretz was in it. Sue me. She did a pretty credible job. Go Chloe!!

This is a based on real events movie about a young woman who said she wasn't feeling well and was finally listened to after many misdiagnoses and bad treatment ideas. The lead works for a Newspaper and has friends there - both her mentor and the editor of her area of the newspaper. her erratic behavior is a clue to what is going on - but no one seems to be paying attention or able to figure out what exactly is happening.

All in all, not a bad film. Not one that will win any oscars I wouldn't think - but a decent entry into the disease of the month club sort of movie.

Attack the Block

Why did I rent this movie? I have no good answer for that. Am I glad I did? Not really. Am I miffed? Not really.

Here's the story - a group of teenagers help defeat an alien invasion that is centered on their block. Right. The special effects were ok. The story was ok. The acting was ok. The movie was - you guessed it - ok. Nothing all that special. A few moments of humor and that was about it.

If you have to see every Sci-Fi movie that comes out - don't miss this one. Otherwise, only watch it if you have nothing better to do. Which I didn't. I guess. Though I could have scrubbed the kitchen floor...I just saw that it was from the producers of Shaun of the Dead. No comparison. Shaun is brilliant. This one just felt a bit flat and contrived.

Step

I kept seeing the trailer for this movie and finally broke down and added it to my netflix cue. Yes, I have both the DVD package and the streaming package. What with blockbuster gone and Red Box not having much in the way of older movies, Netflix and the library are the only way to find some movies. And not all movies can be found even then. Anyway, I get them delivered to my door. Can't beat that!

This is a movie about a group of graduating seniors from and all girls school in Baltimore. There are three women that we follow. As they participate in their step team, as the lead their lives with their out of school hardships and as they apply to college.

There are some good moments in the movie. But overall it just lacked a certain something. Not sure what. Still, as a dance centered documentary, I thought it was good. If you come across it, watch it. But not to everyone's taste.

Flying Colors - Book

This was the third Hornblower book written, and the first that I read. Had I known that there were books about his earlier life readily available at the library, I might have put of reading this one. Oh well. We all know he can't die this early in the series anyway.

HH is already captain of some repute when this story starts. A surprising amount of it happens on land. First with him as a prisoner in France and then as he tries to escape France. Ooops, spoiler. Anyway, the book was full of HH's typical dark contemplations, juxtaposed with his daring exploits. And a few lucky coincidences, so important in books of this sort. So much fun. I might just have to look for the Captain and Commander books after this. Ahoy and avast!

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower - Book

The first book in Hornblower's saga in terms of his age, is this one. But it was the sixth book written. Apparently CS Forrester started in the middle of HH's life, went back and wrote about Hornblower's younger days and then went forward with the story. I decided to read that books in Hornblower's chronological order.

We meet Hornblower at the age of 17 - he has somehow landed as a Midshipman in the Navy, which I would suspect took a teeny bit of patronage of some kind - but that is not made clear in the book. It is divided into chapters, each of which is an adventure that Hornblower lives through. Fun stuff. Easy reading. I am looking forward to the next books!