A Zombie You Can Take Home to Your Parents

I learnt of a new genre this week and fell in love with a zombie for the second time. Zom-Rom-Com is a romantic comedy featuring a zombie as a leading romantic lead.

He’s cute, endearing and with a droll and funny sense of humour. He’s ‘R’ and he’s the zombie hero of Warm Bodies, a great Young Adult book by Isaac Marion that I really enjoyed last year, and is now a great new movie out in the theaters at present.

We have all got used to the lovable if troubled vampire, via the  True Blood television series, the books it was based on by Charlene Harris, and of course the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer that spurned a generation of movie vampire heart throbs.

But Zombies? They eat people, and they’re dead, so where’s the appeal? R doesn’t remember his past, just a shuffling existence around a deserted airport terminal in a post apocalyptic world. The remaining humans who have been spared the virus that has turned most of the world to zombies are holed up in a fortress and when R meets Julie, the daughter of leader of the human resistance, something sparks his humanity and he spares her, and becomes determined to save her and in the process saves himself.

The humour is great. In the movie there is a scene where ‘R’ tries to remember what life was like before, his voice over talks of a romanticised view of people connecting, loving, enjoying each other’s company, and we find ourselves looking at a busy airport terminal where everyone is connected alright, but to phones, computers, i-pods, all together but disconnected.

In both the book and the movie, the horror that is usually at the core of Zombie-hood is not at the core of the story, but love, acceptance and taking risks for others are.

Warm Bodies is a great story and has been made into a great movie, a faithful film recreation of a unique written story that is often hard to find.

 

A Brain of a different hue

My last blog lamented a book drought…it has ended with a small joy of a book. In The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, we meet Don Tillman. a geneticist living in Melbourne. Don tells us of his life, which is navigated using very strict, logical rules and boundaries which are obvious to all around him and the gentle reader, but strangely not by Don himself, as classic Autistic traits.

Schedules and routine make up his life, but he increasingly becomes aware that he should have a life partner, to enable him to fit in. He devises a 16 page questionnaire that he plans to use to narrow down his search and to enable him to find the perfect match.

Of course, as with life itself and all good romances, his course will not run smooth, and perhaps he will find his match where he least expects to.

Full of quirkiness and gentle humour, I found I really warmed to Don, and was hoping he’d find someone who ‘got him’ as he was, without him having to compromise too much of what made him interesting.

At a speed dating event, Don tries to apply his criteria to the women he meets:

Rather than ask about IQ, I decided to make an estimate based on Olivia’s responses to questions about historical impact of variations of susceptebility to syphilis across South American populations. We had a fascinating conversation, and I felt that the topic might even allow me to slip in the sexually transmitted diseases question.

I often sense the square pegs in our community feel pressured to fit in, when their unique take on life and their way of view of the world adds to society as a whole and to the lives of those around them.

If you are a fan of The Big Bang Theory, as I am, you’ll see a little of Sheldon in Don. It seems I’ve come across a few autistic spectrum heroes in my reading and viewing lately. The Bridge, a Scandinavian television crime drama, has a wonderful female lead, Saga Noren, whose detective brilliance is not bound by emotion or ties to others.

Of course there is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. A wonderful murder mystery, narrated by Christopher Boone who has Aspergers.

The Rosie Project was a fun read, it had a light touch, driven by a search for love and acceptance and with an ending that made me go awww.

Have you read great books or watched movies about people who think outside the square, or refuse to fit the dreaded square hole? Do share!

 

A big dry all right, and not just in the fields

I work in a library, I love to read. I’m surrounded all day by books. I see new ones come in and go out, and have a lot of conversations with colleagues and with customers about their favourites and their latest reads.

But I’m suffering a book drought as parched as a Hawkes Bay wheat field. Let me explain: I read the blog, check out the New Titles, take recommendations from many more learned than I, and every book  but one I’ve read or attempted to read this year I’ve given up on.

I’ll tell you about the book I have actually finished, recommended by our blogging guru, robertafsmith. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. It was just as she described, a lovely gentle read, which I don’t come across very often, being a fan of bleak in all its forms and I did fall in love with Harold, just a little bit.

But then I moved onto Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I kept hearing his name mentioned and had never read his books, so I gave this a go and at my usual decision point, on page 33 where the library has a label placed. If a story hasn’t grabbed me by page 33, life is too short, so I stop reading. And this fell into that category… maybe fans out there can persuade me to give it another go?

Then there was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This I could see was a wonderfully written book, but it was spoiled for me by the movie curse. The movie, I thought, was wondrous. And when I started to read the book, they were so close in language and the pictures I saw in my mind, I felt a weird mix of deja vu and sadness and I gave up on that too.

The latest, was given up on for pure laziness reasons. I can read big books, I’ve done it before, but I found Capital by John Lanchester at over 600 pages, was just too heavy to read in bed at night. I feel deep shame at being so shallow and pathetic, both in mind and body, but what’s a girl to do?

So, here’s the challenge. Tell me what to read, please! It can’t be too heavy, just had a movie released based on it or have characters I just don’t care about…

Or, tell me to snap out of it and tell me why I should give the above books a go.

 

It’s the end of the world. Again. Armageddon Expo is coming.

Dust off your Daleks and polish up your Pokemon – Armageddon is early this year (9 and 10 March 2013). Our household is full of very earnest discussions about what shade of grey is acceptable for which character, and whether international shipping can be relied upon to deliver the necessary in time for the big weekend. The girl-child is attempting two different cosplay costumes, one from the insanely popular Homestuck online comic series, and the other from something that I am not even beginning to understand. There’s body-paint involved, and horns made out of papier-mache, and that’s all I care to know, frankly.

If you or your dear ones want to join the madness this year, fear not – the library has a range of resources to help sort out those pesky costume issues, study up on pop culture and comics, or just embrace your inner fanboy/girl.

• Search the catalogue for books about making your own costume.
• Check out our huge range of graphic novels and comics, if you’re looking for inspiration.
• Read about other people’s interesting obsessions – collecting, gaming, cosplay …
• See how other people did it – there’s heaps of photos on our Flickr pages.
• Explore the Armageddon website, and see who this year’s guest stars are, plan your pillow-fighting and pizza-eating schedule, and start saving your pennies for those collectible figurines.

And if all else fails, and inspiration is still lacking, travel back in time and read our reports from previous years’ Armageddon visits.

 

All I want for Christmas

I already have two front teeth, so next on my list of Christmas requests has got to be a whole bunch of book and movie treats.  Admittedly a lot of these are wishful thinking, but hey, you never know …

• The Twelve – the sequel to Justin Cronin’s giant 2011 bestseller The Passage. I’ve made it all the way to Number 1 on the holds list, but it’s such a huge book, I still think that maybe it won’t arrive in time for the post-Christmas lie-down reading session I have planned.
• Homeland season 1 – managed to miss this on TV somehow, and I just KNOW I’m going to love it.
• John Dies at the End – the movie. The book was one of my top picks last year, (and the sequel is very close to the top of this year’s Best Of list). Seems like I’ve been watching movie trailers for this one for aaages, but apparently a DVD release isn’t too far off, even if we miss out on a theatre release.
• The final of Dean Koontz’s Christopher Snow series. This one is but a distant dream, I think, but I live in hope. Fear Nothing and Seize the Night are my two favourite Koontz books, but it seems I am alone over here – everyone else loves Odd Thomas, and it’s Odd who keeps getting the sequels. Sigh.
• Tickets to see The Hobbit.  Hmm. Should I be afraid?
• The latest books by Jim Butcher, Simon Green (either the Nightside or the Drood series, I’m not fussy), and Preston & Child.
• Anything new by Neil, China, Nick, Lee or Tom …

And finally,

• A surprise!  You know, one of those books that you somehow stumble across and pick up with no expectations at all, and then end up absolutely besotted with.  These are, of course, the hardest ones to find, because you have to have a) no expectations, b) no plan, and c) no helpful pre-loaded recommendations from friends.  I reckon this would be the best Christmas present ever.  (Just so you know …)

 

Bond. James Bond.

5 October 2012  marks 50 years since the first James Bond movie was released. Dr No was the first of what will be 23 official James Bond movies (Skyfall is released next month) or 25 if you include two unofficial Bond movies produced in the 1967 (Casino Royale) and 1983 (Never Say Never Again). With over $12 billion in revenues (when adjusted for inflation) the Bond films have been a financial and cultural phenomenon. Who can say they have not heard of the expression “Bond, James Bond” or would fail to recognise the iconic theme tune? James Bond is associated with fast cars, beautiful women, gadgets, guns and adventure, not to mention the vodka martini, “shaken not stirred.”

Christchurch is part of the celebrations. The CBS Canterbury Arena is hosting a musical celebration on 4 October 2012:  The music is Bond. James Bond.

What is the best James Bond movie of all time? It is hard to compare movies from 50 years ago to movies of today. It is tempting to choose a favourite Bond based on who has portrayed him (there have been six people play Bond). Or maybe you might pick a more recent release because it is relevant and production qualities appear better. I find myself having to consider them all to make a decision.

I would quite happily ignore all the Roger Moore movies as, although he brought in some humour and suaveness to the role, the movies were essentially rubbish and it still surprises me that the franchise didn’t stop there. Timothy Dalton’s tenure is vastly underrated – the films are better than Moore’s and in most cases, Pierce Brosnan’s. Casino Royale with Daniel Craig in the role was an excellent film, ditching the by now cliché gadgets and going for a more raw portrayal of the character, whilst amping up the action in an attempt to ward off the onslaught of franchises like Mission: Impossible and Bourne.

For me ‘Dr No’ is still one of the best, even with the ‘monster’ scene (it was moving so slowly, why didn’t he just move out of the way instead of being burnt to a crisp!?) but Goldfinger is my favourite Bond movie. It still had the rawness of the original Bond film and initiated the use of gadgets and one-liners we associate with the character including one of my favourites, “Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?” “No, Mr Bond… I expect you to die.” Here’s hoping that won’t happen and Bond will continue to entertain for another 50 years.

• Read our books about James Bond
• James Bond novels
• Bond movies on DVD

What is your favourite Bond movie and why?

 

The Regent Cafe: Picturing Canterbury

Interior view of the Regent Cafe, in the Regent Theatre Building, Cathedral Square [ca. 1958]

• See our picture theatre images
• More local images on the blog
• Browse our image collection

The Canterbury Film Society has excellent information on the history of  Christchurch cinemas. It includes a chronological list of cinemas.

 

St James Theatre: Picturing Canterbury

View of Tuam Street, Christchurch, to the east [ca. 1884]

At the right is the St James Theatre, designed by T.S. Lambert, built 1881-3, previously a public hall and opera house.

• See our picture theatre images
• More local images on the blog
• Browse our image collection

The Canterbury Film Society has excellent information on the history of  Christchurch cinemas. It includes a chronological list of cinemas.

 

Well, that sucked

We watch a lot of movies at home. We’re not fussy – between the four of us, we’ll happily watch all sorts of films, from adventure to horror to documentary, foreign language, travelogues, arthouse festival, zombies and rom-coms and combinations of any and all of the above. And so it always takes us by surprise when we start to watch something that turns out to be unwatchable. Often we persevere because we can’t quite believe anything that costs so many millions could be quite as bad as it is. And somehow it feels worse to stop watching a movie after half an hour than it does to put down a book that’s turned out to be rubbish.  Weird, isn’t it?

It also feels wrong to be criticising library items, when we are supposed to be all about encouraging people to take home and enjoy DVDs from our collection of (really truly MOSTLY) great titles.  However, following on from Donna’s Top 5 list, I thought I’d balance the universe out a bit by listing some of our recent movie fails:

• The Three Musketeers (most recent version, obviously) – lasted 20 minutes, possibly filmed with pre-teen boys as main target audience.
• Transformers 3 – Dark of the Moon – less than 15 minutes, I think. Even the cool transforming bits couldn’t save this one.
• The Green Lantern – nearly half an hour, but only because we couldn’t find the DVD remote. Seriously, Peter Sarsgaard, what were you thinking?
• Pineapple Express (okay, this one was only a ‘fail’ for the middle-aged ones – the two teenagers had already watched it and pronounced it aMAZingly funny).
• Sector 7 – longest monster death scene EVER.  This one we actually lasted the whole movie through, but mainly because none of us could figure out how a movie with so much promise (transparent underwater monster! isolated oil rig! scientists! motorcycles!) could be so utterly mesmerisingly awful.

Seen any of these yourself?  Agree or disagree? Tell me below, or just use this as a chance to unload YOUR Worst 5 …

 

Best. Film. Ever.

1. Excalibur.
2. My Brilliant Career.
3. Persuasion.
4. Romeo and Juliet (the Zeffirelli version).
5. The Tin Drum.

Hit me with your top five all-time favourite movies!