The Journey(s) of Ian

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360556   This movie review will not hold you to final word suspense. It will not dilly dally on its way to its ultimate opinion. Rather, the truth will be revealed expeditiously. Immediately. Now, in fact. Ta Dar—the movie is great—a true and correct cinematic interpretation of Ray Bradbury’s 1953, short novel, the dystopian masterpiece “Fahrenheit 451”. I first read the novel in high school, where I am sure many others also first read of the terrifying and wilfully illiterate world of the protagonist, Fireman Guy Montag. I also recall seeing at about that same time the 1966 film version by François Truffaut. This was a movie adaptation approved of by the author. Sadly, Bradbury is no longer with us, but what is there about this new version of his novel that renders it successful? The reason for my approval is that the novel’s mood and theme of anti-intellectualism and alienation are successfully transmitted into a near future, all too possib...

'Blindsight' (2006) -- a science fiction novel by Peter Watts. I am a long standing fan of science fiction, it is the genre of choice for intelligent and educated people, and it is the new literature for the 20th century and beyond, however, finding good SF (never used the 'term' Sci-Fi, it is an abomination) can be challenging. In recent decades, in my opinion, too many SF authors have done no more than rehash old ideas and rework existing themes. With this in mind it is a pleasure to find a new author with new works which push the boundaries. Such an author is Peter Watts. Watts, by profession, is a marine biologist. According to his website bio (rifters.com) he has had a varied career, which was part of the reason he decided to turn his hand to writing. His first novels centred around human exploration and exploitation of the mid-21st century oceans. His latest novel, the subject of this review, is set later in the 21st century with its action taking pl...

For the past month, prompted by my reading of William Paterson’s highly readable biography of Heinlein “Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue with his Century” (2010), I have been re-reading my Heinlein. By way of background, for the 70s and 80s H was one of my “go to” authors. When in search of a book to reread he was always a starting point. By the 90s my tastes had changed and I looked to new fields of reading enlightenment, however, after a quarter of a century it is now time for renewed interest!  Let me say upfront, though I cannot agree with his libertarian justifications for violence, his casual acceptance of poverty, nor libertarianism itself, I do regard H as truly being one of the greats of science fiction, and a man who respected liberty and freedom, but only in a narrow sense. This short novel “Double Star” was written in 1956, and tells of the transformation of an apparently talented actor, but one with an empty even bigoted life into a larger, farsighted...

"I AM LEGEND" It is impossible for SF fans of my generation to see this movie without automatically comparing it to its predecessor, the classic 1971 film "The Omega Man", starring the late, great Charlton Heston. To cut to the chase, while "I am Legend" it is a good movie it is inferior to the original. This may surprise some. Clearly, in some respects the modern is superior—the CGI, the creepy vampires, the sweeping photography, the stunts, are all impressive, however, where the modern lags is in the story itself. IaL has a relatively simple plot. Neville lives in an unpeopled NY. We see him hunt, fish, and talk to his dog (the presence of which is an obvious survival necessity, missing in the original), and search for a cure to the plague that eliminated 95% of humanity. Well produced as it is this backstory is mostly filler, with good actions scenes, and the evocation of pathos for the lonely isolation of Neville. I...

The movie (1942) In 1942 another new Warner Brothers movie was released into the world from the maw of the industrious Hollywood movie machine, along with over a hundred others of that year. Most of these movies are long forgotten, yet one, "Casablanca", the story of disparate refugees in the eponymous Moroccan city at the outbreak of World War Two, is still popular, still screened, and still appreciated a lifetime after its first screening. There are many and varied reasons for this success, and a great deal of ink, both digital and otherwise, has been expended analysing this popularity. Personally, it is a movie that I have increasingly come to appreciate as my taste in movies has developed over the years. Thus, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a few moments and attempt to uncover just why "Casablanca" is as popular as it is. To begin, what is the movie about? The answer normally given is that the movie is about a war time romance, ...

I have been a lifelong fan of Ridley Scott, and I have just seen his latest movie 'Prometheus', so thusly it falls upon me to review this movie. What do I think? The answer—good, I enjoyed it, entertaining, but if any reader is sensing any hesitation in my answer, you are correct. While it was a good SF movie, with all of the expected twists and turns, and a few not so expected, it lacked originality. Admittedly, it is hard to be original in a prequel, and certainly a prequel to a franchise with so many different episodes as this, but, even so, it was just a little bit of a let down—so much hype to live up to... The movie was billed as something that would discuss the origins of humanity. Well, it did not. There were some unexplained scenes in the movie that hinted at this, certainly the opening scene where one of the aliens drinks/eats something, his body/DNA dissolves, and he falls into a waterfall (presumably on Earth—but are there not less deadly ways to spread DNA?), ...

I am not the most prolific of bloggers, as anyone (if there is anyone), who reads this blog regularly, can see. I write when I am motivated to do so, when I feel I have something to say, however, to be frank, I sometimes do not write, even when I feel I have something to say. This being the case, let me bring you up to date. I spent a month (mid-Oct to mid-Nov 2010 ) in Phnom Penh, and I had a great time. PP is a great city, pleasant, friendly, small(ish), interesting. I look back on that month happily. I then, slowly, made my way back to Perth, Australia. First from PP to the Thai town of Trat, then to Pattaya, then Bangkok (Khao San Rd), then to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. From Sing I took a freighter (the Palermo) to Fremantle. At Freo my friend Jeff took me to my house. (Long story here, my house was in poor condition, after 18 months of rent. Even things were stolen.) My review of their service is DO NOT use them. Here are the details of the company I am not recommending: Ki...

'Blindsight' -- a science fiction novel by Peter Watts, reviewed by Ian Reide I am a long standing fan of science fiction, it is the genre of choice for intelligent and educated people, and it is the new literature for the 20th century and beyond, however, finding good SF (never used the 'term' Sci-Fi, it is an abomination) can be challenging. In recent decades, in my opinion, too many SF authors have done no more than rehash old ideas and rework existing themes. There are exceptions to this of course, Greg Egan comes to mind. With this in mind it is a pleasure to find a new author with new works, which push the boundaries. Such an author is Peter Watts. Watts, by profession, is a marine biologist. According to his website bio (rifters.com) he has had a varied career, which was part of the reason he decided to turn his hand to writing. His first novels centred around human exploration and exploitation of the mid-21st century oceans. His latest novel, the subject of ...

(disclaimer: I did post a similar version of this onto the apple applesauce forum) Ok, my review of the iphone 3g (after one week I am now an expert). Let me start by saying that I like it. The iphone is a good phone. I have not had any problems. It is easy to use. I did not need to read the manuals. I like it. I am happy. I am content (relatively, for the moment). By way of background I have lusted after an iphone since S. Jobs announced the original 2 years ago. However, living in Australia, and with the original iphone not allowing apps (ok, it did allow web apps, but I mean real apps, (ok, it had jailbroken apps, but I wanted real apps)), I decided that the purchase was just not worth the trouble. When the new model came out I decided that this was the way to go. The new model had a GPS, could handle the 3g network, and it had real apps. Cool. Since I travel a fair bit I decided that tying myself into an expensive Australian network was not the way to go. Via ebay, via a fr...