Movie review: Boy Meets Girl

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Boy Meets Girl (2014)
Boy Meets Girl poster Rating: 6.5/10 (149 votes)
Director: Eric Schaeffer
Writer: Eric Schaeffer
Stars: Michael Galante, Michelle Hendley, Jean Devereux Koester, Ethan Major
Runtime: 95 min
Rated: N/A
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 6 Feb 2015
Plot: Boy Meets Girl is a funny, tender, sex positive romantic comedy that explores what it means to be a real man or woman, and how important it is to live a courageous life not letting fear stand in the way of going after your dreams.

Objectively speaking, this movie has its weaknesses – some of the acting feels forced (especially when the movie tries hard to make a point), and the storytelling sometimes seems rushed, making it hard to believe in some of the emotional beats. (For example, I never really believed in the obvious main couple until the very end, no matter how many characters pointed out that Robbie was smitten with his best friend, spunky trans girl Ricky.) However, overall I was so thoroughly charmed, I find those flaws easy to forgive.

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Movie review: Pitch Black

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Pitch Black (2000)
Pitch Black poster Rating: 7.1/10 (177,171 votes)
Director: David Twohy
Writer: Jim Wheat (story), Ken Wheat (story), Jim Wheat (screenplay), Ken Wheat (screenplay), David Twohy (screenplay)
Stars: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David
Runtime: 109 min
Rated: R
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Released: 18 Feb 2000
Plot: A commercial transport ship and its crew are marooned on a planet full of bloodthirsty creatures that only come out to feast at night. But then, they learn that a month-long eclipse is about to occur.

The first ‘Riddick’ adventure is my favourite of the trilogy and one of those movies I can re-watch over and over again. It’s was shot with a relatively small budget, and the plot is simple: a space transport crashes on a desert planet, leaving only a handful of survivors who quickly discover that an eternal night is about to set in – and that there’s evil lurking in the dark. What follows is a tense race to reach a shuttle to get them to safety, complicated by the tensions in the disparate group.

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Book review: Prudence, by Gail Carriger (The Custard Protocol #1)

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Prudence, by Gail Carriger
Prudence (The Custard Protocol #1)
Gail Carriger, Orbit 2015

I love the Parasol Protectorate books – they were the first steampunk romances I really got into, and they had me laughing out loud while still caring very much for Gail Carriger’s characters.

I didn’t really get into the YA Finishing School prequels and got stuck in the middle of the second one, so I wasn’t sure whether the magic was gone for good – but luckily, finishing wasn’t a problem with this one. I listened to the audiobook, which is excellently read by Moira Quirk, and really enjoyed going on a big adventure along with Prudence Akeldama Maccon.

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Housekeeping

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Being something of a pop culture geek and avid media consumer (seriously, I spend waaay too much time on my couch *g*), I read and watch in a wide variety of genres. I love fantasy, cosy mysteries, science fiction, romance (straight as well as gay) and crime procedurals as well as non-fiction about history, science & culture. I have recently started to use this blog to post reviews for these things and try to keep to an (at least) one-post-per-week schedule.

You can find additional information as well as links to the places where I keep track of the things I read and watch on my About page.

Movie review: A Mormon Double Feature

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The Falls (2012)
The Falls poster Rating: 6.4/10 (609 votes)
Director: Jon Garcia
Writer: Jon Garcia
Stars: Quinn Allan, Brian Allard, Zach Carter, Natasha Duvall
Runtime: 91 min
Rated: Not Rated
Genre: Drama
Released: N/A
Plot: The Falls is a feature film about two missionaries that fall in love while on their mission. RJ travels to a small town in Oregon with Elder Merrill to serve their mission and teach the ...

Anyone who enjoys gay-themed movies knows Latter Days (2003), the story of a Mormon missionary who falls in love with an out-and-proud party boy. “The Falls” takes a different approach – here it’s two young Mormon missionaries who discover a love that puts them in direct conflict with the faith they still deeply believe in.

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Tinkering…

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I’ve been kind of wanting to do something, anything with this blog for a while now, and in the past couple of days I’ve been considering writing more review-type posts, like the one about Pacific Rim or what I occasionally post on BookLikes/GoodReads.

I have opinions, why not share them? 🙂 After all, I’ve been rating (almost) every movie I’ve watched for over a decade on imdb. As for books, I only recently migrated all my reading lists – which I’ve been keeping since 2004 – to BL because of my dissatisfaction with GR policies. (They allow automatic crossposting, so I’m not losing my GR connection. Reminds me a bit of the Livejournal/Dreamwidth situation.) Only today they launched Blogger crossposting, so I’m hopeful WordPress isn’t far behind.

So I installed a couple of useful-looking plugins and tweaked some minor things in the sidebar – now I guess only time will tell if I’ll actually stick to it. I was thinking of doing about 1-2 posts per week, that seems doable. If you want me to ramble about a specific book/movie/tv show, just give me a shout. 😉

Yes, this is a Pacific Rim post

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Pacific Rim (2013)
Pacific Rim poster Rating: 7.0/10 (309,826 votes)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Travis Beacham (screenplay), Guillermo del Toro (screenplay), Travis Beacham (story)
Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi
Runtime: 132 min
Rated: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Released: 2013-07-12
Plot: As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.

Why do I feel the need to write about a popcorn action movie from 2013? Because, in internet parlance, this movie gives me the feels!

After seeing the trailer, I only went to see it because friends of mine wanted to, expecting some trashy robot-on-monster fights and no depth whatsoever. I ended up enjoying it so much I went to see it again, and have since then easily watched it 20 times or more. I love it as much as Avengers, and that’s saying something (not quite as much as Winter Soldier, but that’s because I’m obsessed – my Bucky Barnes feels know no bounds *g*).

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Happy 2015!

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I passed into the new year on the train back home after a great evening with friends Milo & Mindy and their lovely family. I’m feeling rather optimistic about 2015 – even not taking into account the truly low lows I had in 2014, I’m in better shape mentally than I’ve been in forever…

Here’s hoping all of YOU will have an amazing year ahead, filled with joy and friends and geeky goodness! *massive cuddles*

And here’s an annual tradition: Music for you – my 2014 mix, consisting of 25 songs I acquired over the course of the year.

Welcome Home - a 2014 mix . Tracklist
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Welcome Home – a 2014 mix

All files hosted on my personal webspace – please right-click-save!
.m3u playlist | .zip file, 121mb (25 mp3, .m3u, cover & tracklist)

1. Harry James feat. Kitty Kallen – It’s Been a Long, Long Time
2. Radical Face – Welcome Home
3. It’s Cliché – California Calling
4. Santigold – Disparate Youth
5. Tori Amos – Oysters
6. Cro – Traum
7. Ed Sheeran – I’m a Mess
8. Florence & the Machine – Hardest of Hearts
9. Mat Kearney – Breathe In Breathe Out
10. The Dø – Slippery Slope
11. Bastian Baker – Follow the Wind
12. Vienna Teng – Stray Italian Greyhound
13. Estelle feat. Janelle Monáe – Do My Thing
14. VV Brown – Samson
15. The Hundreds – Song for a Sailor
16. Regina Spektor – Après Moi
17. Fall Out Boy – Immortals
18. John Spillane – There Was a Man
19. Natalia Kills – Problem
20. Bastille – Pompeii
21. Peter Fox – Haus am See
22. Matt Nathanson – Faster
23. Daniel Gannaway – Achilles
24. Club de Belugas feat. Fred Astaire – Puttin’ On the Ritz
25. Billy Boyd – The Last Goodbye