Ilona
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Posts posted by Ilona
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I keep forgetting what Snuff is about...
@Arewenearlythere: That is a good one - Palahnuik is so quotable. For some reason "This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time" always stuck with me.
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^You might have been better off not seeing them - neither were that good.
McGee's games haven't been too good, but he might be getting back into the grove with a sequel to Alice. I'm not quite sure how much to hope for it, but I guess there's still some possibility.
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Well, everyone has different opinions on his films so that makes debate all the more interesting! I didnt mind IT as the movie had a stellar performance by Tim Curry and made a generation of people terrified of clowns! I love Shawshank buy find it very grim so i haven't watched it too many times.
There is another point which is thye should make movies out of some of his less famous works. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon would make a fantastic movie if they got the right director, similarly Geralds Game would play on the isolation and terror King is so fond of exposing. Under the Dome, his most recent novel, is being adapted for a mini-series in the same vein as The Stand was.
I have to agree, some of his lesser known books might do well as films. And I did enjoy Curry in IT, as well as most of the child actors' performances. The movie in whole wasn't that good in my opinion (especially a lot of the adult actors - the kids really outdid them), but there were bits of it I enjoyed.
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^Well, maybe there is hope! It's possible for it to turn out good, but video games just don't often seem to translate to film well. However, there is a lot of substance to this game, so it could be an exception.
And yes, there's a sequel coming out! EA went to American and offered to let him and his team make another one, since he had ideas for a sequel. It's coming out sometime next year, I think.
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^I did enjoy Shawshank, though I haven't been able to sit through it since the first time I saw it.
The adaptations range from fantastic (Misery, Carrie, Shawshank, Stand By Me, Apt Pupil and Dolores Claiborne) to the merely good ( IT, The Stand, Christine, Dead Zone ) to the downright, oh God what were they thinking (Tommyknockers, Christine, Children of Corn, Cujo and Thinner) and lots in between which do not fit into any category.I completely forgot about Misery! That one was well done - beautiful choice of actor for Annie. I saw some of Carrie and couldn't get into it, and didn't quite like IT. A lot of the time I just don't think the films live up to King's books - even if they aren't bad - and can't enjoy them. I saw The Shining before I read any of the book, so I was able to sit through that one, but I don't think I'll be able to again.
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I thought it was a decent read (excluding the
Susie-falls-down-from-heaven-and-possesses-her-friend-to-have-sex-with-some-dude
part), but then again, it's been about four years since I've read it. The premise of a little girl watching her family grieve from heaven was intriguing. While the book was sometimes slow, I enjoyed the writing style and perspective.
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I actually found this among my family's large supply of random books a long time ago. I hadn't heard of it before, so I just put it on my shelf to maybe read later if I found the drive to. Reading this now reminds me of it and inspires me to actually read it, which I doubt I would have done otherwise. So thank you, Sirinrob!
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I actually wouldn't care who did American McGee's Alice, if it got made. I'd just love to see it done out in movie form.
I want to play it again now. Might have to get it off my bro and install it.
I'm somewhat glad it isn't being made into a film, seeing as I don't think it would have switched over as well (and they had Sarah Michelle Gellar for the role of Alice - oi). Still, it would have been cool.
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Just viewing it as a film, I enjoy Kubrick's The Shining. The acting was superb and most of it was quite well done. In comparison to King's novel it isn't quite as spectacular, but it's the only King adaptation that I really think was good. But then again I haven't seen that many of the adaptations, so I could be wrong about that.
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I mostly felt sorry for him - it's hard to imagine what it'd be like to realize the terror you've caused your own loved ones like that.
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I can normally read in any environment, as long as the book is interesting. If it requires a lot of concentration, I need it quiet. However, I've come to find I can't read standing up. I prefer to be sitting somewhere comfortable with maybe some soft music playing while I read.
Not sure if this counts, bit I've recently gotten into a habit of picking up a new book before I've finished the one I'm on. It goes on and on and I start loads of new books but never finish them... I am determined now to break the habit.
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^Loved that book, but it took me a while to get through it as well.
I'm still working on House of Leaves - I'm continually distracted by the internet and never get to my reading anymore. I think I'll pick it up while I wait for something to install.
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I assume it's this:
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
(gotten from Goodreads)Once upon a time I was a little girl who disappeared.Once upon a time my name was not Alice.
Once upon a time I didn't know how lucky I was.
When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends -- her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over.
Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.
This is Alice's story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.
I haven't read it, but I think I'll look into it.
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I love the little pieces of random information he has in his books, like the bomb recipes in Fight Club and the cleaning tips in Survivor. It isn't needed in the least, but it never ceases to fascinate.
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^I agree - Gilliam's visuals are just as (if not more) wonderful as Burton's, and he seems to pay a lot more attention to story in his films.
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^Oh, well yes, that I wouldn't approve of!
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^I need to re-read it as well - I was rushing through it the first time I read it, and now I need to spend some time to absorb it all.
@Steve: lol, Fortuna... I'd forgotten about that! And I have yet to read The Neon Bible. I'll have to see if I can find that.
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Fight Club, for me, made a great movie, but a strange, forgettable book.
Maybe it simply depends on which format you experience first though.
I think that if you watch a film, the temptation will always be there, to transpose the scenes and characters directly from the movie to the book.
I actually saw the film before reading the book, but ended up liking the book much more. I guess something about Palahniuk's writing style struck a chord within me.
For films I thought were better than the books: Twilight. I say this mostly because it was only two hours compared to the many hours required to read the entire book (hours and hours I will never get back...
). Additionally, while it wasn't a good film (it was too awful a story to ever be saved), it improved the plot greatly by interspersing it through the entire story rather than rushing it at the end. -
Harold and Maude - Though it generally is a feel-good film for me, It occasionally makes me a little teary just before the end (and Cat Steven's 'Trouble' playing does not help!).
The Shawshank Redemption - The whole bit with Brookes - especially when he let Jake go - is probably the only thing in a movie that has made me genuinely cry.
Bent - While this film didn't make me cry, it devestated me and put me in a mild depression for a lengthy time - I say it counts.
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Harold and Maude (one of the most charming and beautiful films I have ever seen - it never fails to make me feel better about life)
Casablanca (a brilliantly structured story, full of wonderful characters, good humor, and some scenes with such emotion - I've never seen anything like that anthem scene)
Amedeus (such a passionate film, with beautiful acting and a superb story-line; and can't argue with Hulce's incredible laugh
)Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (pure, brilliant deadpan - I never knew Kubrick of all people could ever make me laugh so hard)
American Beauty (the more I see Spacey, the more I grow to respect him - his was an amazing performance in a truly beautiful movie)
Citizen Kane (fascinating in its story, character study, and images - truly a piece cinematic genius)
Bent (no film has ever made me feel as devastated as this one has - I feel this fact deserves a lot of credit; an odd film, but a very human one, for lack of a better word - one that doesn't sugar coat the story but instead allows it to flow naturally)
Brazil (Gilliam's imagery is one to be reckoned with - even the buildings of this film seemed to be living, breathing creatures; I love how, while the story is set in a dystopia, it doesn't follow a character hopelessly going against the system and failing [like so many others], but instead a man on his own private adventure that happens to be set in a dystopian world)
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I'm actually not looking forward to this film. While Tim Burton has had some decent films in the past, his adaptation-frenzy hasn't been anything beyond abysmal. After the awful renditions of Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Sweeney Todd (at least in my eyes), I don't trust him with this story.
From what I can see from the trailers, the visuals are lovely (as usual), but the characters seem flawed - especially when compared to Carroll's creation. All the characters seem too sensible - the Hatter is talking ethics, the Queen of Hearts seems rather even-tempered (when she's supposed to be a manifest of rage), and everyone cares far too much that Alice is suddenly back in Wonderland, oh yay! No one gave her a second glance lest she requested it in the book, and she never really did anything in their world of any importance. Why is she suddenly Miss Popularity?
The characters were all supposed to be illogical and insane, which this all contradicts. I'm not entirely against changing charecters in an adaptation, but when done the end product should be just as if not more interesting than the original. This seems bound to end in much more boring characters than anything.
Anyway, besides all that, this is actually a story that has been done before. A video game called American McGee's Alice came out about ten years ago and had almost exactly the same plot: ten years after her first visit, Alice returns to Wonderland. The Queen of Hearts has taken over, and Wonderland's citizens call upon Alice's assistance to become their "champion" and conquer the tyrant. (It's actually a great game; artistic, well-written and beautifully designed - if a bit dark and violent - and I highly recommend it to anyone that's interested.
)The creators of Alice were actually trying to make a film out of it, so Burton had some opportunity to hear about its premise. To be honest, I wouldn't doubt that he'd steal it, and I have a strong suspicion he did.
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I have read Silence of the Lambs (which I actually prefer over the movie) and still need to read the rest of the series. Agh - so many books to read!
I think I found this book in my family's huge assortment of books (that or Hannibal). Well, at least it's there when I have the time to get to it.
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Wow - I'm surprised no one responded to this. Well, sorry to bring back an old thread, but I'd like to see if anyone would better recognize this book four years later.
This book was suggested to me on only the basis that "it was hilarious". That standing, I had no idea the world of weirdness I would plunge myself into. The best word to define the book by would definitely be "strange". It gets so strange, in fact, that it at times stops being funny and is instead just odd, even discomforting. However, it is certainly a humorous book. The wonderfully original characters and their antics alone are worth laughing at, and some of the situations Ignatious gets himself into are ridiculous (I will let you all discover yourselves how he comes to the conclusion that world peace can be brought along by homosexuals).
I certainly had a lot of fun reading this book, even while the characters could at times be distasteful. Personally, I rather enjoy stories with less-than-likeable characters, but that may be a bit of a turn-off to some readers. Even with that, though, it is still a fascinating story.
It's quite sad that Mr. Toole had to come to the end he did before he saw his work succeed. RIP John Kennedy Toole.
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Well, this is the first tale of Vonnegut that I have read. While I definitely enjoyed it, I have to agree that it wasn't my favorite. His theme towards the insignificance of dwelling on the harsh times of life and the ever-impending death (or, at least, that was what I got out of it) were strong, but not quite as incredible as the themes and structures of some of his other books. Mother Night, for example, was fascinating to me in it's unique disregard towards nationalism, and wasn't really something I'd seen before (which isn't to say it hasn't been done at some point of history, but it isn't something I often see). The themes he discussed in SH5 of life and death were insightful, but commonly used.
That being said, though, this book was all in all a fun read. In true Vonnegut style, there were many lines that were brilliant and eye-opening - not really granting you new information, but instead bringing new significance to something you already knew. The inclusion of aliens in an almost memoir-like tale of WW2 and enabling it to actually make sense also shows his true talent.
Your Monthly Book Spend
in General Book Discussions
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My spend has gotten a lot lower since I refuse to buy books for B&N's ridiculous prices. I try to find them used as often as possible.