Tag (2018)

Tag is a true story of friends from Spokane, Washington. They have been playing an ongoing game of tag for 30 years.

Upsides
Comedy based on reality = believable characters
The beginning has a great hook

Downsides
Certainly earned the 14A rating - swearing and sexual comments and constant marijuana use
The end is a strange mix of heartfelt emotion and over the top comedy action

Ocean's 8 (2018)

This movie follows Debbie Ocean, Danny Ocean's sister. Debbie gets out of jail and reconnects with her partner. She makes a female crew to pull a heist she thought up over the last 5 years in jail. They will steal a necklace that has not been out of the vault for 50 years. Like the other Ocean movies this includes a revenge plot and detailed plans going wrong.

Downsides
Like the previous movies the character set up was really long
It felt less suspenseful and tense than the previous movies - there was space to breathe even when things seemed to go wrong

Upsides
I liked the way Anne Hathaway played her character
The end was clever

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Dr. Sheppard begins the story establishing the village of King's Abbot. He then lays out the characters invovled in the murder of Roger Ackroyd. As the police work on solving the murder Dr. Sheppard realizes that his new neighbour is Hercule Poirot. Soon Poirot is soon asked to solve the case by the girlfriend of the main suspect. As usual Poirot says yes and promises to find the whole truth. As more and more information is revealed different people become the subject of investigation until the very end. Poriot asks all involved or suspected to meet together, he promises that he knows the truth, and if the guilty does not confess all will be told to the police. The truth is finally revealed and Dr. Sheppard finishes writing his account of the mystery.

Upsides

The ending! (The end is amazing, I have read another book with a similar ending but this one was much superiorly executed) I thought I had it figured out about halfway through but I was very wrong

The character development - I really like the butler


Downsides
Poirot has information the reader does not which allows him to solve the murder (with this information I may have suspected the truth, but no reader could be certain)
The regional setting is very confusing for someone not familiar with it



This is the best book I have read since "The Silmarillian"

Doctor Who: Engines of War - George Mann

Engines of War follows the Doctor through a period of the Time War. The War Doctor crashes on Moldox and meets Cinder. Cinder becomes his companion as she learns to hope and the Doctor looks for an end to the Daleks' plan without casualties. The story takes place on both Moldox and Gallifrey.

Upsides
The War Doctor on Gallifrey and his interactions with other Timelords
Cinder (a pity she is a single story companion)
The consistency in the WHO universe

Downsides
Since the War Doctor's TARDIS interior was not established on the show I had a hard time picturing it
He claims the name Doctor doesn't suit him now but offers no alternative
(how cool would it be if he said "I was called the Doctor but now I go by Greg" and Cinder tries to call him Greg while the Timelords call him Doctor)

Ready Player One (2018) !Spoilers!

This post will be more of a comparison between the book and the movie with spoilers for both.

 

 

In the book you always enter The Oasis through a screen that says READY PLAYER ONE. This was the first item of nostalgia in the virtual world. The movie doesn't include the title in this way at all.

 

The Oasis is like an online world based on avatars and real world money (think Second Life). In the book the first clue was on the school planet because everyone had access to it and it was free. The movie doesn't include that fact that online schools were virtual and all student avatars looked like their real life controllers. The movie has no rules about avatars looking like controllers so it is not a big deal when 'Aech' is revealed to be a girl in real life and that 'Art3mis' has a birthmark on her face.

 

The virtual school was really important to the book because it was how Wade and others got the equipment to enter The Oasis in the first place. In the book Wade had to power up his generator by riding an exercise bike. In the movie he has a couple car batteries he hooks up. The fact that he only has the basic equipment from  going to school in the book and that he isn't plugged into regular power really shows how bad the stacks are.

 

A lot of the nostalgia and interactions with 80s pop culture is missing from the movie. They did include a walkthrough of a movie - which I thought was the coolest part of the book.

 

The movie takes place in a very short period of time compared to the book. It makes the challenges seem less daunting than in the book. Of course harder challenges would require a longer runtime and the movie is already more than 2 hours long.

 

The big reveal at the end of the book with Parzival not being wiped out with the rest of the Oasis at the last challenge was due to a quarter. In the movie he made a bet with what he believed was a just a part of the archives and won the quarter. In the book he spent considerable time to beat PacMan and won the quarter which then stayed dormant in his inventory.

 

I really enjoyed the movie but if you are expecting it to be like the book you could be disappointed. The movie is much more about relationships and even the hints are based on Hallidays personal life rather than his favorite games. The nostalgia is still there. People in the theatre got very excited whenever their favorite thing showed up. I recommend watching with a large group of people at least once.

The Gun Seller - Hugh Laurie

"The Gun Seller" is a spoof on the spy genre. It follows Thomas Lang and his complicated life. CIA, weapons dealers, terrorists, Ministry of Defence and love tangle up his life. He gets involved in a conspiracy with attempted murder in Britain and ends blowing up a helicopter in Africa.

Upsides
The little asides to the reader - it is first person and his thoughts are humorous
The settings are well established

Downsides
Slow start with character introductions
Not enough information is given about Solomon to understand his character

The Mystery of the Blue Train - Agatha Christie

"The Mystery of the Blue Train" was published in 1928 and features Hercule Poirot. The retired detective rides a train to the Riviera upon which a murder takes place. Poirot works along with the police to find the killer. The French police are sure it is a conman but Poirot suspects the husband. A famed diamond is found to be missing from the murdered woman's belongings which ads more motive to all suspects. It takes time but Poirot catches the murderer and the thief.

The detective stories I read most recently were Sherlock Holmes mysteries, so I found myself comparing the two. Holmes stories generally follow the detective and Dr. Watson as they are introduced to the mystery and work through until it is solved. This story introduced all the characters in detail before any mystery appeared. Poirot does not appear until a third of the way through the book. The protagonist of "The Mystery of the Blue Train" is Katherine Grey, a woman on her first trip to the Riviera and the last person to talk with the murder victim, not the detective.

Upsides
The character development - establishing the characters before the mystery allows the reader to concentrate on understanding the mystery and not be concerned about how the characters fit into the narrative. Most of the suspense comes from character revelation rather than new evidence.
Multiple points of view - the reader has access to many characters' reactions

Downsides
Hidden knowledge - Poirot has facts the reader doesn't have access to (Holmes stories do this too)