Sunday 29 January 2012

Unconsumed Media Project #2 - Taken

Technically this isn't my DVD, but it was sat on the shelf all unwatched so I'm including it. My friend bought it for my girlfriend as a birthday present. I'm not really sure why.

The film itself is basically Liam Neeson Kills A Load Of People, and for some reason it's massively popular. I have nothing against action films really but I just found this a bit boring. It's a bit like watching someone else playing a video game. There's no tension to it, and it's all a bit too 'serious' to just give yourself over to the ridiculousness of it all in the way that you can with a film like Crank, for instance.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Unconsumed Media Project #1: 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

So in a vague nod towards 'New Year's Resolutions' I set myself the challenge of reading all my unread books and watching all my unwatched DVDs. I'm starting with trying to clear my way through some of the stuff I got for Christmas before I get bogged down with whatever I end up receiving for my birthday.

First up was the latest Discworld book, Snuff. Getting the new Terry Pratchett book is a Christmas tradition that's been going on for years now. I'm not even that 'in' to them any more, but they're nice and readable and still raise a few laughs. I'm sure I'll be a bit sad when Pratchett's illness progresses to a stage where he can no longer write, so I'm glad that the tradition can continue for now.

Generally I'll start reading the new Discworld on Christmas day itself, and my Mam will tell me I'm being anti-social (whilst making me sit through 2 hours of Downton Abbey isn't) but this year I didn't crack on with it until the New Year had fluttered her eyelashes.

So, the book then. I'd say it was fairly typical of the later Discworlds. Amusing and enjoyable, but not much more than that really. The more established characters seem to have run out of a bit of steam unfortunately, and the plot felt like a bit of a re-tread of others in the series. Still, let's hope that the Discworld continues for as long as possible