My Reading Habits This Week have gotten complicated...

Due to a series of library due dates, an inability to renew popular titles, and my own hubris, I'm currently working my way through three novels and a comic book series at the same time.

Like most people (I assume), I normally pick up one book and read it until I finish and then pick up another, but I'm currently reading Charles de Lint's urban fantasy novel Memory and Dream,  Caleb Carr's The Alienist, and Justin Cronin's The Passage, as well as the recent Marvel comics title Ghost Rider.

Kind of like the film Inception, I'm reading my comics at an accelerated pace (5-6 issues a day), while reading The Alienist at about 100-pages-a-day, The Passage at about 50-pages a day, and Memory & Dream at about 25-pages-a-week.

My books are about, in turn, a ghost, fairies, a serial killer (probably) in late 1800s New York City, and the end of the world via Vampire Apocalypse.  

And they're all really good!

Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be down to three books and if I'm lucky I'll be down to two books by the end of the Easter long weekend, but we'll see how much free time I end up with.

Reading can be tricky!

The Best Picture category at the Oscars 2011

Although I’m still not a big fan of the Academy doubling the number of Best Picture nominees (I think it’s mostly so people like me will go out and see more movies), I am happy to see that genre films are definitely being represented again this year.

Black Swan: I actually went and saw this movie last Sunday, and believe me, it is definitely a psychological horror film. It’s kind of funny, because on the surface, it’s just a story about a ballet dancer who may be in over her head with her next role. The thing is, this movie moves pretty quickly into some pretty messed-up visuals. Considering I’ve only seen a few ballet films (The Red Shoes was my favourite until this one), I’ve got to say I was impressed that it both kept and transcended the style of the traditional ballet film.

Inception: Having already reviewed this SF mind-bender of a film, all I can say now is that the nomination gives me a good reason to rewatch the movie. Although I’m pretty sure this year will either go to Black Swan or The King’s Speech, I am really happy to see that this amazing film was nominated.

Toy Story 3: Honestly – I haven’t seen this one yet, and the fact that it is also nominated for best animated feature effectively kills any chance it has in the major category. I will say that considering the second of these films was originally going to be a direct-to-DVD release, this series has done exceptionally well for itself. I do have a copy on hold at the library, but as I’m number 57 in the hold queue, I’m not entirely sure I’ll see it before the big night.

So there you go, my final impression, Black Swan has the best chance of the genre pics nominated to win, but we'll see in March.

Move Review: Inception

This weekend I went out with my BFF Mike and saw the new Christopher Nolan film Inception.

First impression: Wow.

Luckily as I've had a day to digest it, my post will go on a little longer than that.

The premise of the film is pretty neat - imagine you could find a way to travel into a person's dreams, then imagine that while you're there you could find all of their secrets and bring the info back into the waking world. Our main characters in the film are extractors - shady figures who do exactly this, stealing secrets from businessmen and the like.

The title comes from the possible job of putting a thought in someone's head rather than taking one out, and more importantly, making them think the ideas was theirs in the first place.

I've loved movies based in the world of dreams for a long time, from Dreamscape to The Cell, there is just something so intriguing to me about journeys through the subconscious.

Also I love when my university book learning actually pays off in some way (I recognized that Canadian Ellen Page's character is named Ariadne, who in Greek mythology helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth of the Minotaur), so that I can feel my cash is actually leading towards me knowing more stuff.

The movie definitely falls within the category of films I would own, as I would recommend it to others and watch it again myself. The acting was great, the chase sequences were very cool and overall I simply felt invested in all these characters.

Years ago when I watched Memento, I thought that this writer/director had come up with an intriguing brain puzzle of a story. Inception is like that but on an entirely different level.

Bookmonkey's top 5 Genre Films to see this summer

We are now just a few weeks away from the beginning of May and the start of the years really big genre flicks. Like lots of people, I want to see more movies than I can afford, and therefore I've got to be picky about what I'm going to see.

Here are the five genre films I am definitely hoping to make time to see this summer - I may end up seeing others with my kids (please not Eclipse), and there are a few non-genre movies I'll be checking out, but in the category of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction, these are my current must sees.

Inception

Put simply enough, I'm a huge Christopher Nolan fan, I loved Memento, and the new Batman movies have been a lot of fun. The movie looks not a little bit like a mix between The Cell and Dark City - but as I liked both of those films a lot, this one is a must see for me.

Iron Man 2

I was really suprised by how much I liked the first one, the acting was great, the action sequences fantastic and the story was really fun. Plus I loved Micky Rourke in The Wrestler, and am really looking foward to him as a villain here.

Ondine

Actually I just saw the trailer for this one a couple days back and totally loved it. Originally I was going to put The Sorcerer's Apprentice as my pick for a summer fantasy film, but this sweet looking film about a fisherman who fishes a girl out of the sea has totally got me intrigued. Plus Colin Farrel plays the fisherman, and as my wife is a huge fan I may have no say in the matter.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

To anyone familiar with my blog, it's pretty obvious I'm a big fan of Scott Pilgrim; I talk about the series a lot. Add to my love of the series the fact that the movie stars one of my favourite Canadian actors and is directed by the guy who did Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Spaced, and I can say this one is the movie I'm most looking forward to this summer.

Splice

I'm always on the lookout for new horror, and as re-imaninings and torture-porn continue to fill up the theatres, it can be more than a little tricky to find clever new horror. Last year my favourite horror movie was Drag Me to Hell, this year, I'm excited about the Frankenstein-influenced film, Splice, starring another of my favourite Canadian actors.