Sunday Post #274

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Date 

  

Snow! And it's been kinda chilly too. Winter feels like it's definitely here. We've had snow all week and even a snow day!  

I'm watching the Gifted (say hi to the Frost sisters above) and I finished my Hobbit re- read with La La in the Library. That was fun to revisit! And to celebrate I have some Hobbit and LotR inspired artwork featured below.    

Movies That Suck was back this past week with The Meg! I've now done 25 of these things! Hard to believe. I have a few more on the way- they're fun to do. :) And this week I'll have a look at Vintage SF covers as well as a review for Kitty & the Midnight Hour.     
      

Song of the week 

PULP COVER OF THE WEEK: 

NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS:

BOOKISH LINKS

Comic of the Week #47

Comic of the Week has been on a long hiatus but I wanted to bring it back since I've been reading graphic novels and comics again. Every week I'm going to showcase a comic or GN cover- could be old, could be new- and share a few thoughts on why I think it's special. Do you like what I picked out? Let me know in the comments, and as always, if you have a favorite cover or piece of comic art, let me know! 

This week is Alex and Ada #9.

Movies That Suck - The Meg

Movies That Suck is a feature where I watch a bad movie and share my reactions to it in real time. Sort of like live tweeting without the tweeting. Spoilers ahead! 

This week is The Meg. I totally wanted to see this in the theater but I didn't make it- imagine this on the big screen!- but alas I've had to settle for streaming. Still... I'm pretty pumped for this one, so let's jump right in.   

Deep sea rescue! Jason Statham! I've never seen a Statham movie- honestly- so this is all new to me, but he has to rescue some dudes here and... something is bashing into the sub. Yeah, a big ass shark is what it is, but they're not going to show us that of course. Not yet. Five years later we're on a research facility called Mana One, off the coast of China. Time for introductions. We got Morris the investor, Dr. Zhang the scientist, his daughter Suyin, and Suyin's daughter Meiying. Oh, and we also meet the whales- Lucy and Gracie. Think they'll show up again? 

We've also got the station chief Mac (hey this guy was on Fear the Walking Dead til he fell out of a helicopter), Jaxx the engineer (hello Ruby Rose- she's in this too??), Dr. Heller (hey it's Longmire), and DJ. And... Lori in a sub with two other guys Toshi and The Wall. Why is his name The Wall? I have no idea. Okay I think the science here is real sketchy- they think the bottom of the Marianas Trench is not really the bottom, it's just a cloud of something and there are depths beneath it. And of course they're right, and down they go. I'm sure nothing will happen. 

Okay something will happen. Something rams the sub and they're fucked- cut off from Mana One. They decide to go get Statham's character Taylor as he's the only one experienced enough to operate at that depth yada yada. And of course he's in Thailand, drunk all the time, because no one believed him five years ago when he said something humongous bashed in the sub we saw at the beginning. It's always like that. The only guy who can help is of course a wash- up in some dump somewhere- seriously  don't they get tired of writing the same trope over and over? 

I'm gonna skip a bunch of stuff that's boring. Taylor goes down and we finally see the shark- why exactly is it attracted to light? - and Toshi doesn't make it, sacrificing himself so the others can escape. Oh and all that stuff about the bends you always hear about, having to ascend slowly- none of that's a factor. I mean they're at the bottom of the fucking Marianas Trench. Anyway Meiling is probably the best part of this so far- her and Crazy (I mean Taylor- she just calls him Crazy) have a fun dynamic. She sees the meg too when it rams into the station trying to get her. 

So boats are getting wrecked and they're off to help. Not much left to help, sadly enough. And this is really dumb when they try to tag it with a GPS tracker. I have a question- why did the meg demolish a boat but when they arrive it doesn't do anything? It just keeps swimming around. You know the longer this goes on, the more glad I am that I missed this in the theater. It's pretty bad. We now have Suyin in a shark cage and she's gonna shoot it with the poison they developed- and yeah that goes about as well as you'd expect. 

But hey it works. Sorta. And they've got the thing on board, all deceased- even though the last we saw it was sinking into the depths- but... nooo. There's another one, bigger than shit. And the boat is capsized. Heller sacrifices himself so Jaxx can live...awww. There's a lot of nobility happening here. And these open ocean scenes are kinda cool. I think Suyin's kinda got a liking for Taylor too. And DJ has some insights to share. 

"And you went down there, and you pissed it off, now it's gonna come back and kill every one of us! 

Swimming in this ocean. That one ate the other one. Is another one gonna eat this one?"

Love it. 

Okay so Morris is an asshole. He's worried about lawsuits so he sets out to kill sharkie with depth charges. Right. Meanwhile Meiling is sorta playing matchmaker with her mom and Crazy, er Taylor. And when Morris doesn't make it back (surprise) Taylor and the others gear up to kill the meg. The only problem is Meg is headed for the crowded beaches of Sanya Bay. There are so many people in the water it's like a buffet. Why isn't the shark eating any of them? I guess they're building dramatic tension? This is the best part of the movie though- too bad it took so long. 

Oh now it's killing people. The scene where it's cruising under the swimmers is pretty awesome. That paddle boarder has no idea lolol. Thank goodness they lure it away with whale sounds or it would have feasted. So Suyin and Taylor are in gliders (these awesome mini-subs) and I'm starting to get bored again, but then these film crew helicopters collide and one of them hits the ship. Everyone goes overboard again! That was kinda cool. So Suyin and Taylor play chase with Meg and we have the usual near misses and stuff, until finally Taylor kills it with a harpoon or something to the eye. Ewww. Actually, it's still alive but then a swarm of sharks come and blood frenzy all over it- but why don't they eat Taylor too? Questions, questions.

So... did this movie suck? In a word- yes. It has its moments, but by and large- this would not be a good use of $10 at the show (even more w/ popcorn). I think I actually liked The Shallows with Blake Lively better. Still, it would be fun as a lark, a party movie- have lots of beer. It needs more beach scenes and more DJ though.  

Oh and Pippin the dog is okay! 

And hearing Hey Micky in Thai was pretty cool. 

Jonny Quest 1X05 Riddle of the Gold

Jonny Quest is one of my favorite cartoons but I've never seen all the episodes. It only ran one season although there was another series in the 80's. Here I'll just be looking at the original.   

Riddle of the Gold takes Jonny to India, where a maharajah is conspiring with evil Dr. Zin to produce fake gold ingots. Dr. Quest is recruited by Intelligence One to investigate since his old associate Dr. Gunderson is the only other person who knows the transmutation process. Unfortunately the maharajah is dead before the Quests get there, as Kaseem (a lackey of Dr. Zin) kills him on Zin's orders. Kaseem then impersonates the maharajah and makes several attempts on Dr. Quest's life once they reach India, but he is unsuccessful. Quest and his party pretend they are filming a tiger hunt to get close to the maharajah's operation and of course while all that is going on Jonny and Hadji do the real investigating. 

They explore the old stripped gold mine that has supposedly started producing again, and discover Dr. Gunderson working underground to produce the ingots. He's under duress, of course, and when the fake maharajah discovers the boys snooping around, he captures them (and later Dr. Quest) and is going to blow them up- but luckily Bandit saves the day. I wondered why on earth they would bring Bandit along on a trip to India, given that he's such a pain in the ass at times, but I guess it's good they did!  

This is also the first appearance of Dr. Zin, who is apparently an old nemesis of Dr. Quest. I'm assuming he's going to show up in future episodes. I thought this one was pretty pedestrian- not a lot happens that's very exciting, and frankly I'm not even sure why this nonsense about fake gold would be something that Intelligence One would send Quest to investigate, but whatever. The most noteworthy event might be when their train car is released going up a mountain, causing a dangerous crash that almost results in them going over a cliff. 

The bad guys are fairly bumbling as well, or maybe they're just not good with tigers. Two of Kaseem's bumbling lackeys release a tiger during the hunt, intending for it to kill Dr. Quest, only to have it turn on them! And Kaseem himself becomes cat food when the tiger breaks free later during the climax. So all in all, not a good outing for Dr. Zin's people.

I give this one 2 of 5 stars.  

Can't Wait Wednesday/ Midweek Stuff #48

 So here's a midweek round up of what I'm reading watching, etc. Plus Can't Wait Wednesday, hosted by Wishful endings. So sit back, raise a cuppa, and see what's new! And share what you're up to. 

This week my Can't Wait pick is Limited Wish.  



What I'm Reading

What I'm Watching 

Listening

Top Ten Platonic Relationships

  

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a new Top Ten list will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back to The Broke and the Bookish so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.

This week is Top Ten Platonic Relationships- defined as those relationships that are close but lack a romantic or sexual nature. I thought this was interesting because depending on how you define it, a platonic relationship could be one where there are feelings, on the part of one or both parties, but they just don't act on them? Since the topic seems pretty flexible I'm going to go with platonic relationships as well as some just awesome friendships.           

 

Katniss and Finnick!

How about Levi and Reagan? I'm trying to remember- did they date before he met Cath? I think they did? But afterwards they were still good friends, I think- I'm gonna go there.  



Sansa Stark and Myranda Royce. 



Bellarke- because it hasn't happened yet, riiiiight?

 

I've heard people say Frodo and Sam may go past the line of just friendship, but I don't buy that. Yes Sam is extraordinarily devoted, and maybe the writing style contributes to it a little, but... no. It's just friendship AFAIK.



Frances and Aled do not fall in love! 



Delilah and Gallagher are a pretty amazing friendship, especially how it develops. 




Madison and Strand. Yeah I know this is a show but we're all friends here, right? 



The Complete Morgaine - over the course of the series I do feel like feelings develop between Morgaine and Vanye, but the mission comes first.  

Tuesday Tagline #119

Two dead Homecoming Queens. Five years later. Is the killer back? 

Cover Love - Covers With Numbers #3

This edition of Cover Love is a request- kinda- since some of the comments in the last post wondered how high I could go. So this will be counting up from 11 to 24. Why 24? It just seemed like a nice number . I, um, also may have cheated a bit, using comics for a few of these- namely #'s 15, 22 and 23. But we're all friends here and comics count, right???