Little Talks

The Death of Ivan Ilych  by Leo Tolstoy This is a  (long) short story that begins with a number of middle-aged men who work in the Russian court learning about the death is their co-worker Ivan Ilych. None of them seem too put off by his death. Both he and his "friends" are very shallow, focussed on work, status, wealth, and possessions. The story then goes back to the beginning of Ivan's life and recounts how he met his wife and had a family, and how he caused his illness. The pages are mostly taken up with Ivan's slow degeneration, and his change in mental state. It is a very psychological piece, focussing on Ivan's fear, pity, anger, pain, and finally acceptance as he moves toward death. There is also a focus on Ivan's relationship with others. He gets farther from his wife and daughter, who are mad at him for his suffering and who only care about the temporary. Meanwhile, he learns to care for his son and his servant, who understand him and try to he

A Midsummer Night's Dream  by William Shakespeare Theseus, Duke of Athens, is preparing to marry his Amazonian love, Hyppolita. Hernia wants to marry Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius and Lysander are both in love with Hermia, but Theseus says that the laws state that Hermia must obey he father's wishes. Helena loves Demetrius, even though he scorned her some time ago. No one love Helena, except her best friend Hermia. Lysander and Hermia plan to marry in secret, Demetrius goes to stop them after Helena reveals their planned, and Helena follows hoping that Demetrius will fall in love with her, or at least be thankful that she helped him to he his love back. An acting company is practicing their play for the wedding ceremony, but they do it out in the woods so people can't spy. Oberon, the fairy king, and Tirania, the fairy queen, are fighting over Totania's new changeling boy, so the forest, weather and the fairy world are messed up (

Where does one even begin when discussing this movie? First of all, I'm guessing a lot of people are unfamiliar with this movie. Anyone I've ever tried to speak to about this movie had no idea what it was, so perhaps I should begin by explaining what it's about. Walker  is a semi-fictionalised account of the life of William Walker, the Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny, and his Immortals. Spurred on by the loss of his fiancé, Walker and his motley band of mercenaries are sent to Nicaragua to end a civil war and create what will essentially be a puppet government of the United States. Cornelius Vanderbuilt, a wealthy American businessman, funds the expedition in hopes of being able to gain control of trade routes through the country. Walker and his small military group enter the country shooting, and don't ever really stop firing until half of their people and the Nicaraguans are dead, and the rest of them leave and abandon the country. Honestly, that's really all it is. I

And now for something completely different. A lot of my recent posts have been about superhero movies, but I'm not just a one-trick pony (not sure if that was the best use of that saying, but I stand by my choice).  War Room  is a faith-centred movie brought to you by the people who made C ourageous and Fireproof. It focuses on the power of prayer, especially in the most difficult circumstances. Most importantly, it highlights the power of putting God first in everything you do. Tony and Elizabeth are married with a young daughter, but Tony is cheating on his wife, ignoring his family, putting all his focus on work and turning away from his faith. Elizabeth, meanwhile, realizes how both her husband's and her own behaviour are destroying their family. She is a real estate agent and through her job she meets Ms. Clara, a widow looking to move in with her son and his family. Ms. Clara helps her realize how important prayer is by showing Elizabeth her war room in which she strategi

[WARNING: Spoilers] If you haven't noticed, I'm a big Marvel fan and apparently I got on a Marvel roll. Happily, I was able to watch this one in theatres on opening weekend. There is just something about the energy of all of those fans together in one room that makes these movies even more epic. Deadpool  is the story of Wade Wilson, a sort of vigilante, mercenary-for-hire, ex-military badass. Basically, he's kind of a screwed-up fellow with a mouth on him. His humor, commentary and sass have no end. Wade finally meets his match in the beautiful, crazy Vanessa. They're both lost souls looking for a sense of belonging, which they find in each other. He eventually asks her to marry him, but their joy is short lived when he learns that he has severe cancer throughout his body. With no options left, Wade leaves Vanessa and takes up an offer from a mysterious man to partake in an experiment in order to cure himself of the cancer, and also to become superhuman. Ajax (aka Fra

[WARNING: Spoilers]  Two years since Thor first came to earth, Jane continues her research on the connections between worlds and stumbles upon a powerful and dangerous entity known as the Aether. Thor learns about her (mis)adventure with the wormhole and brings her back to Asgard with him to figure out what happened to her and to protect her. Malekith, an ancient Dark Elf, seeks the Aether out to destroy Asgard. Once Thor's mother dies protecting Jane, Thor and his friends flee to keep her safe. Unfortunately, Thor requires Loki's help. Loki seems to be on his side, but his allegiances are always shifty and his motives remain unclear. On earth, Darcy and her new assistant seek out Dr. Selvig to assist them in locating and assisting Jane. Jane's research led her to discover a "convergence" happening between all of the realms, and when the fight between Thor and Malekith comes to earth, Selvig and Jane use a device to maipulate the wormholes all around them. A multi

[WARNING: Contains Spoilers] As you may have noticed, I didn't watch these films in the right order. (For previous post see The Wolverine .) In the finale of the original X-Men movie trilogy, the government discovers a "cure" for mutants using (ironically) a boy's mutation which causes all other mutants to lose their power when they get close to him. Simultaneously, Jean Grey comes back stronger than ever after everyone presumed her to be dead. However, secret details of her past are revealed as she struggles to fight off the dangerous, long-hidden Phoenix part of her powers and personality. The Phoenix is more powerful and more dangerous than Jean, and she becomes a threat to the mutants. Here are the sides: Magneto and his Brotherhood are absolutely against the government and the "cure" and, as always, they are against non-mutants, so they want to take over the world and destroy normals and all that jazz. Obviously, Professor X and the X-Men do not agre

[Warning: Spoilers for this movie and X-Men movies] The Wolverine  follows Logan after the loss of Jean Grey, the woman he loved. His struggle to cope continues to push him to the edge, but he fights on (sometimes quite literally by fighting people). The Wolverine is summoned to Japan by another mutant, Yukio, and meets with her adoptive grandfather/boss, anold acquaintance of his who is dying and wishes to help Logan before his time is up. The now elderly man, whom he saved in the Second World War, offers to take away Logan's immortality so that he does not have to suffer and remember his losses for eternity. However, Logan's gift of mortality suddenly becomes a curse when he gets caught in the middle of the man's family drama. His son wants to take over the business, but he has already designated it for his granddaughter, Mariko. Mariko's father is willing to kill to get her out of the way, and while protecting her, Logan begins to fall for her. Yukio aids Logan in ge

[Warning: Potential Spoilers] Before I discuss this movie I have to say that the commercials had me a little wary, and I hadn't watched this movie because I wasn't sure how good or cheesy it might be. It turns out that the star-studded cast was reflective of the quality. I wouldn't say it was one of my favourite animated movies, but it was pretty good. Rise of the Guardians tells the story of Jack Frost, a young boy who becomes a guardian. The guardians are magical beings who keep hope, joy, and imagination in the world. They are Santa Claus (aka North), the Easter Bunny (aka Bunnymund), the Tooth Fairy (aka Tooth), and Sandman (aka Sandy). As the movie opens, Jack Frost is trying to remember who he was while trying to find his place amongst the Guardians. At the same time the Guardians must deal with the rising power of their enemy, the Bogeyman (aka Pitch, as in pitch black). Children are losing hope and forgetting about the Guardians, which is only allowing the Bogeym

[WARNING: Spoilers] I debated writing about this one since it is technically a show and not a movie, and also because I have only ever written about Sherlock as re-watches. However, this one was a stand-alone that played in theatres, and the series could technically be seen as a small number of short TV movies. Also, I may need someone to clarify what happened. Let me try to sum it up. Set in the 1890s, this Christmas special features the bizarre case of a woman who commits suicide on balcony after her marriage, then appears in the night to murder her husband in front of more witnesses. It appears to both witnesses and the detective duo that the woman came back to life, then returned to the morgue. In the following months, the ghost of the dead bride begins to murder other men. Sherlock being Sherlock believes, one might even say "knows," that the supernatural and resurrection are not possible. After a terrifying stakeout, Mary helps John and Sherlock to find the truth of t

X-Men Origins: Wolverine explores Logan's (James') life prior to the X-Men movies that already existed. It begins in the late 1800s Northwest Territories when he discovers that his parentage was a lie and lashes out, killing his real father. His brother, who has a similar mutation, ran off with him and protected him. The opening credits are particularly interesting to me, as it is a collection of clips of the brothers fighting together, generally for their own interests, in a number of wars throughout history. Essentially, by the time the movie picks up they have become special soldiers in a small mutant force under the control of Stryker (whom you may know from the previous X-Men movies). This film explains how Wolverine came to be the person he was in the later films. He finds a woman in Canada who he falls in love with, and together they lead a quiet life in the country, until Stryker shows up wanting Wolverine to join him again. When Logan's girlfriend is harmed, he b