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Tag Archives: Dominic Cooper
The Escape (2017)
Art, Depression, Dominic Cooper, Dominic Savage, Drama, Gemma Arterton, Marital problems, Paris, Review, The Lady and the Unicorn
D: Dominic Savage / 101m
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Jalil Lespert, Frances Barber, Marthe Keller
Tara (Arterton) is a young, stay-at-home wife and mother. Her husband, Mark (Cooper), works long hours, while their two young children, Teddy and Florrie, are of school age but still young enough that they prove a constant source of struggle for Tara as she tries to deal with their beahviours. She is unhappy in the marriage, particularly with Mark's constant need for sex, which she finds distressing (though he doesn't know this). When she finally begins to express her unhappiness, Mark is confused, and tries his best to be more supportive, but when Tara puts forward the idea of taking art classes, his support wavers at the first mention. Things come to a head one day when Mark castigates her for being clumsy; Tara packs a bag and leaves right then. She travels to Paris to see a series of tapestries titled The Lady and the Unicorn (the source of her desire to start art classes), and to begin a new life free from the stifling constraints of marriage and motherhood. At the museum she meets a Frenchman, Phillipe (Lespert), and they strike up a friendship, but what seems to be a much needed turning point in Tara's life, instead brings more problems…
The story of an unhappy woman looking for both meaning and satisfaction in her life, The Escape is a sombre, emotionally redolent drama that isn't afraid to explore the dark side of being a wife and mother. At one point, Tara confesses that she doesn't care about her children – at all – and she knows they hate her. It's a startling admission, relayed in a low-key, subdued manner by Arterton, but exactly the kind of transgressive admission that mothers aren't supposed to make. This reflection of the depth of Tara's misery is the movie's key revelation, the heart of what ails her (if you prefer), and once that particular genie is out of the bottle, it's obvious that it can't be put back. Tara will flee the nest she's built but now detests, and she'll seek to give her life a renewed purpose. Is she genuinely unhappy with her life? Has she genuinely fallen out of love with Mark? Is she depressed, or suffering from some other form of mental illness? The screenplay (by the director) doesn't clarify matters – and deliberately so. Tara can't fully articulate her distress herself, and Savage uses this as a way of holding things back from the viewer. But it's this that proves the movie's undoing.
We never get to know what has brought Tara to this point in her life, and why she feels so unhappy. And when she reaches Paris, her initial pleasure at being there soon dissipates once her liaison with Phillipe takes a more serious turn than expected. This section of the movie is the least effective, with Tara's motivations lacking full credibility, and a brief scene featuring Keller appearing to have been thrown in just to provide a resolution to Tara's time in Paris. Through it all, Tara remains an emotional enigma, and despite a tremendous performance from Arterton, it's hard to fathom entirely what's going on in her head, and why. More successful is Cooper's distraught husband, unable to fathom why his marriage is falling apart, and without the skills to deal with Tara's unhappiness. As his efforts to save their relationship fail at every turn, Mark becomes a source of profound pity, and more so than Tara. Cooper and Arterton are great together, and the movie is all the better for the scenes they share, while Lespert's amiable Frenchman is given short shrift by Savage's decision to handicap the character in a way that he doesn't with Tara. The end is deliberately elliptical, and seems to hint at Tara being stuck in the same depressive mind-set as at the beginning – which if true, hints at a broader meaning to events, but one that hasn't been made clear.
Rating: 6/10 – sterling performances from Arterton and Cooper add lustre to a movie that is much more successful as an exploration of a marriage in freefall, than as an examination of a woman's need to feel fulfilled; with its writer/director taking a broader approach to the latter theme, The Escape ultimately feels disingenuous once it reaches Paris, and the movie never recovers from its change of scenery and narrative opacity.
Monthly Roundup – June 2018
Action, Adam West, Animation, Austin Stowell, Ayla Kell, Batman vs. Two-Face, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Biography, Borg McEnroe, Bruce Greenwood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Burt Ward, Charles Barton, Chris Pratt, Crime, Dave Davis, Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A., Dominic Cooper, Don E. FauntLeRoy, Drama, Elliott Maguire, Francine Everett, Francis Lawrence, Gail Patrick, Guy Pearce, Horror, J.A. Bayona, Jack the Ripper, Janus Metz, Jennifer Carpenter, Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Literary adaptation, Murder, Mystery, Nicola Holt, Pierce Brosnan, Randolph Scott, Red Sparrow, Rick Morales, Sam Liu, Shia LaBeouf, Simon Kaijser, Simon West, Snakehead Swamp, Spencer Williams, Spinning Man, Stratton, Sverrir Gudnason, SyFy, The Ferryman, Thriller, True story, Wagon Wheels, Western, William Shatner
Borg McEnroe (2017) / D: Janus Metz / 107m
Cast: Sverrir Gudnason, Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård, Tuva Novotny, Leo Borg, Marcus Mossberg, Jackson Gann, Scott Arthur
Rating: 7/10 – the rivalry between tennis players Björn Borg (Gudnason) and John McEnroe (LaBeouf) is explored during the run up to the 1980 Wimbledon Tennis Championships, and the tournament itself; with a script that delves into both players' formative years (and if you think Borg is a terrific choice for the young Swede then it's no surprise: Bjōrn is his dad), Borg McEnroe is an absorbing yet diffident look at what drove both men to be as good as they were, and features fine work from Gudnason and LaBeouf, though at times it's all a little too dry and respectful.
The Ferryman (2018) / D: Elliott Maguire / 76m
Cast: Nicola Holt, Garth Maunders, Shobi Rae Mclean, Pamela Ashton, Philip Scott-Shurety
Rating: 4/10 – following a suicide attempt, a young woman, Mara (Holt), finds herself experiencing strange phenomena and being pursued by a mysterious hooded figure; an ultra-low budget British horror, The Ferryman is let down by terrible performances, cringeworthy dialogue, and a patently obvious storyline, and yet it's saved from complete disaster by a strong visual style that's supported by a disconcerting soundtrack, an approach that first-timer Maguire exploits as often as possible.
Red Sparrow (2018) / D: Francis Lawrence / 140m
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Ciarán Hinds, Joely Richardson, Bill Camp, Jeremy Irons, Thekla Reuten, Douglas Hodge
Rating: 6/10 – Ex-ballerina Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) is recruited to a secret Russian organisation that trains her to use her body as a weapon, and which then uses her to expose a double agent working in the heart of the Soviet system; a movie made up of so many twists and turns it becomes tiring to keep track of them all, Red Sparrow is an unlikely project to be released in the current gender/political climate, seeking as it does to objectify and fetishise its star as often as possible, but it tells a decent enough story while not exactly providing viewers with anything new or memorable.
Spinning Man (2018) / D: Simon Kaijser / 100m
Cast: Guy Pearce, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver, Alexandra Shipp, Odeya Rush, Jamie Kennedy, Clark Gregg
Rating: 4/10 – when a teenage student (Rush) goes missing, suspicion falls on the professor (Pearce) who may or may not have been having a relationship with her; with arguably the most annoying character of 2018 propping up the narrative (Pearce's commitment to the role doesn't help), Spinning Man is a dreary mystery thriller that has its chief suspect behave as guiltily as possible and as often as he can, while putting him in as many unlikely situations as the script can come up with, all of which makes for a dismally executed movie that can't even rustle up a decent denouement.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) / D: J.A. Bayona / 128m
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, Jeff Goldblum, BD Wong, Geraldine Chaplin, Isabella Sermon
Rating: 7/10 – with the volcano on Isla Nublar about to erupt, a rescue mission is launched to save as many of the dinosaurs as possible, but it's a rescue mission with an ulterior motive; clearly the movie designed to move the series forward – just how many times can Jurassic Park be reworked before everyone gets fed up with it all? – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom concentrates on the horror elements that have always been a part of the franchise's raison d'être, and does so in a way that broadens the scope of the series, and allows Bayona to provide an inventive twist on the old dark house scenario.
Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946) / D: Spencer Williams / 61m
Cast: Francine Everett, Don Wilson, Katherine Moore, Alfred Hawkins, David Boykin, L.E. Lewis, Inez Newell, Piano Frank, John King
Rating: 7/10 – making an appearance at a club on a Caribbean island resort, dancer Gertie La Rue's free-spirited behaviour causes all sorts of problems, for her and for the men she meets; an all-black production that takes W. Somerset Maugham's tale Miss Thompson and puts its own passionate spin on it, Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. overcomes its limited production values thanks to its faux-theatrical mise-en-scene, Williams' confidence as a director, a vivid performance from Everett that emphasises Gertie's irresponsible nature, and by virtue of the relaxed attitude it takes to the themes of race and sexuality.
Wagon Wheels (1934) / D: Charles Barton / 59m
Cast: Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick, Billy Lee, Monte Blue, Raymond Hatton, Jan Duggan, Leila Bennett, Olin Howland
Rating: 5/10 – a wagon train heading for Oregon encounters trials and hardships along the way, including Indian attacks that are being organised by someone who's a part of the group; a middling Western that finds too much room for songs round the campfire, Wagon Wheels takes a while to get going, but once it does, it has pace and a certain amount of B-movie charm thanks to Scott's square-jawed performance, and Barton's experienced direction, benefits that help offset the clunky storyline and one-note characters.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018) / D: Sam Liu / 77m
Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Jennifer Carpenter, Scott Patterson, Kari Wuhrer, Anthony Head, Yuri Lowenthal, William Salyers, Grey Griffin
Rating: 6/10 – in an alternate, Victorian-era Gotham City, the Batman (Greenwood) has only recently begun his efforts at stopping crime, efforts that see him cross paths with the notorious Jack the Ripper; though kudos is due to Warner Bros. for trying something different, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight doesn't always feel as if it's been thoroughly thought out, with too much time given over to the mystery of Jack's real identity, and a sub-plot involving Selena Kyle (Carpenter) that seems designed to pad out a storyline that doesn't have enough substance for a full-length feature.
Batman vs. Two-Face (2017) / D: Rick Morales / 72m
Cast: Adam West, Burt Ward, William Shatner, Julie Newmar, Steven Weber, Jim Ward, Lee Meriwether
Rating: 6/10 – when a laboratory accident turns Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent (Shatner) into arch-villain Two-Face, Batman (West) and Robin (Ward) soon end his criminal activities, only to find themselves battling all their old adversaries – but who is manipulating them?; what probably seemed like a good idea at the time – have West and Ward (and Newmar) reprise their television roles – Batman vs. Two-Face is let down by a tired script that does its best to revisit past TV glories but without replicating the sheer ebullience the 60's series enjoyed, making this very much a missed opportunity.
Stratton (2017) / D: Simon West / 94m
Cast: Dominic Cooper, Austin Stowell, Gemma Chan, Connie Nielsen, Thomas Kretschmann, Tom Felton, Derek Jacobi, Igal Naor
Rating: 4/10 – a Special Boat Service commando, John Stratton (Cooper), teams up with an American military operative (Stowell) to track down an international terrorist cell that is targeting a major Western target – but which one?; the kind of action movie that wants to be packed with impressive action sequences, and thrilling moments, Stratton is let down by a tepid script, restrictive production values, poor performances, and despite West's best efforts, action scenes that only inspire yawns, not appreciation.
SnakeHead Swamp (2014) / D: Don E. FauntLeRoy / 86m
Cast: Ayla Kell, Dave Davis, Terri Garber, Antonio Fargas
Rating: 3/10 – a truck full of genetically mutated snakehead fish crashes, releasing its cargo into the Louisiana swamp land, where they soon start making their way to the top of the food chain; another lousy SyFy movie that mixes mutant creatures, endangered teens, a muddled voodoo subplot, and sub-par special effects to less than astounding results, SnakeHead Swamp might best be described as a "no-brainer", in that it doesn't try very hard, FauntLeRoy's direction is rarely noticeable, and the cast – even Fargas – don't come anywhere near making their characters credible or realistic, all of which is down to a script that should have been rejected at the title stage.
Trailer – The Lady in the Van (2015)
Alan Bennett, Comedy, Dominic Cooper, Drama, James Corden, Maggie Smith, Preview, Trailer, True story
Promising yet another spirited, and occasionally vulgar performance from the ever-reliable Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van looks and feels like another British movie that will tug on the heartstrings while also having its audience laughing at the more absurd elements of this true story. With a script by Alan Bennett taken from his own experiences, and featuring a supporting cast that includes James Corden, Dominic Cooper and Jim Broadbent, this may not set the box office alight, but it should find a place in several moviegoers' hearts when it hits our screens.
Charles Dance, Dominic Cooper, Gary Shore, History, Horror, Luke Evans, Reboot, Review, Sarah Gadon, Thriller, Transylvania, Vampire, Vlad Tepes
D: Gary Shore / 92m
Cast: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Art Parkinson, Charles Dance, Diarmaid Murtagh, Paul Kaye
Set in the Middle Ages in Eastern Europe, fealty to the Sultan of Turkey is observed by the giving of a thousand boys to be trained in his army. Such is the early fate of Vlad Tepes (Evans), who grows up to be a fierce warrior and friend of the subsequent Turkish ruler, Mehmet (Cooper). Turning his back on war, Vlad returns home to rule his people. He marries Mirena (Gadon) and has a son, Ingeras (Parkinson). After years of peace, Vlad is alerted to the presence of Turkish scouts in his homeland. He tracks them to Broken Tooth Mountain, where in a cave that reveals itself as a slaughterhouse, Vlad comes face to face with a monster (Dance). He escapes, but not before two of his men have been claimed by the creature. Returning home, Father Lucien (Kaye) advises Vlad of the creature's origins, and its vampiric nature. They decide to keep their knowledge a secret between them.
A Turkish envoy, come to collect his master's tribute, tells Vlad the Sultan wants a thousand boys for his army. Vlad wavers over doing his duty to the Sultan and doing what's best for his people. When the Sultan's envoy adds that Mehmet wants a thousand and one boys, and the extra boy should be Ingeras, Vlad is even further torn. But at the point of giving his son to the envoy, Vlad makes a fateful decision: no boys will go to the Sultan. War is inevitable, but Vlad seeks a way to avoid his people being decimated by the Turkish hordes. He returns to Broken Tooth Mountain where he confronts the vampire and asks to share in his power. The creature agrees but stipulates that if Vlad is to drink any human blood in the next three days then he will be cursed as a vampire forever, and unable to be fully human again.
When the Turks march on Castle Dracula, Vlad goes out to meet them alone… and he decimates their forces. With a greater army on the way, headed by Mehmet himself, Vlad orders his people to move to a monastery high up in the mountains, somewhere it will be difficult for the Turks to attack directly. A surprise attack leaves Mirena and Ingeras in peril, but Vlad saves them using his newfound powers. The next day, at the monastery, suspicions over Vlad's new powers leads to him being attacked by his own people. He survives to rebuke them, telling them that what he has done is because of them, and that they should be concentrating on Mehmet's approaching army.
Arriving just before dawn, the Turkish forces are met by Vlad but they prove to be a decoy for a smaller force that gains entry to the monastery and targets Mirena and Ingeras. With their fates intertwined with his, Vlad is forced to make a decision that will affect all their lives, and bring him face to face with his boyhood friend.
Dracula Untold is yet another reboot of an established and well-defined character that seeks to make them look less like a monster and more like someone who has to be bad in order to do good (this year's Maleficent is another example). It's a strange phenomenon in the movies these days, almost as if moviemakers feel they have to apologise for these characters' behaviour. It also ends up rendering them relatively anaemic (excuse the pun) in comparison to their original incarnation. And so it proves with this reimagining of the Dracula story.
While the initial idea is sound – show how Vlad Tepes, Transylvanian prince and hero to his people became Dracula, bloodthirsty monster feared by all – the movie fumbles its way through its attempts to create an origin story partly based on historical fact and partly on romantic fiction. Vlad is shown as a peaceful man reigning in a vicious, cruel capacity for violence but even though we see the the results of his warlike nature – the infamous impalings on the battlefield – it's hard to associate the two differing temperaments. As played by a suitably brooding Evans, Vlad is a bit of a wimp in the opening scenes, browbeaten by the Turkish envoy and then dismissed by Mehmet in a scene where Vlad pleads for clemency in relation to the thousand boys. Vlad doesn't appear the proud leader of men he's meant to be, but more an easily cowed man with no stomach for a fight. It's only when he saves his son and kills some of Mehmet's men that he shows some mettle.
It's here that Dracula Untold finally becomes a vampire movie, reintroducing Dance's withered creature, and setting up a future storyline if the movie is as successful at the box office as Universal hope it will be (they have a modern Monsters Cinematic Universe in mind). The bargain is made, allowing the inevitable tragedy of such a bargain to begin playing out. Vlad tries to deny his thirst for blood while Mirena marvels at the disappearance of his battle scars. And in a scene of limited ferocity and actual bloodshed, Vlad takes on a thousand Turks and kills them all. But it's all done at a remove, with the intensity of the situation dialled down a notch or two, and Vlad's predicament reduced to the level of suffering occasional stomach cramps. From here, the movie picks up the pace but it's at the expense of time-related logic and dramatic credibility.
With Vlad needing to defeat Mehmet and his army within three days, the Turks' ability to travel huge distances in such a short space of time goes unquestioned, while Vlad creates a vampire horde of his own to take them on (would a ruler who truly cares for his people do such a thing even if they were on the verge of dying?). And the script tries for an ironic twist – Vlad's fate is sealed by the one person he loves most – that feels hackneyed and short on originality.
Muddled though the movie is for the most part, it's stronger in its performances. Evans brings a brutish physicality to the role that suits the warrior Vlad, and he dominates scenes just by being present. He's a more thoughtful actor than you might expect from his resumé, and he does his best to offset some of the more florid dialogue in the script, as well as making Vlad a more rounded character. Gadon also gives a good performance, matching Evans for intensity in their scenes together and making Mirena slightly more than the wife who waits anxiously at home while her man goes off to battle. Dance radiates a cold disdain as the trapped "master vampire" though his voice retains too much of its recognisable charm to make that disdain truly chilling. Parkinson proves an adequate match for the demands of a role that could so easily have been more stereotypically presented, while Kaye as Father Lucien has a small but pivotal role that he acquits himself well in (even if some audience members will be saying to themselves, "but that's Dennis Pennis"). The only disappointment is Cooper, once again confirming his limited range as an actor, and making Mehmet look and sound like an arrogant jerk.
In the director's chair, Shore (making his feature debut) uses his experience working in high-end commercials to provide some impressive visuals – one shot shows Vlad taking on the Turks as reflected in the blade of a sword – and shows a confidence that bodes well for the future if it's combined with a better script. He's clearly comfortable directing actors as well, and the performances are as much to his credit as to theirs. The photography by John Schwartzman is predictably gloomy, though it avoids the steely gray-blue aesthetic of the Underworld series, and there's a dramatic if occasionally intrusive score courtesy of Ramin Djawadi that is used to good effect throughout.
Ultimately, Dracula Untold is a bit of a mixed bag, its historical pretensions never fully reconciled with its need to reinvent its title character. The script – by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless – remains jumbled throughout and it's this lack of focus that hampers things the most. As an entreé into the revamped (excuse the pun) world of Universal's collection of classic monsters it's maybe not quite the start the company were looking for, but it's also not as bad as it could have been.
Rating: 5/10 – despite some occasionally severe deficiencies in the script, Dracula Untold is a solid, unpretentious reintroduction to the world's most (in)famous vampire; a good mix of the epic and the intimate also helps but the characters remain at too much of a remove to make us truly care what happens to them.
Aaron Paul, Car chases, Car crashes, Cross-country, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots, Michael Keaton, Prison, Racing cars, Review, San Francisco, Scott Waugh, Video game
D: Scott Waugh / 132m
Cast: Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots, Michael Keaton, Scott Mescudi, Rami Malek, Ramon Rodriguez, Harrison Gilbertson, Dakota Johnson, Nick Chinlund
At one point in DreamWorks' Need for Speed, Julia (Poots) comes out of a gas station restroom and sees Officer Lejeune (Chinlund) in the next aisle. Immediately she ducks down and tries to sneak her way out. It's possibly the stupidest moment in the whole movie – and there's plenty of others – and makes you wonder if anyone actually read George Gatins' half-baked, semi-developed script before they committed to filming it. (The answer is clearly: no.) Another question that springs to mind is: are the car chases going to be enough to help the movie make its money back? (Ahh… we'll get to that.)
Tobey Marshall (Paul) has inherited his father's auto shop but there are mounting debts he can't pay, so when old rival Dino Brewster (Cooper) offers him a chance to make $2.7 million on a private race involving Tobey, Dino and Tobey's friend Little Pete (Gilbertson), he can't turn it down. But Little Pete is killed in the race, forced to crash by Dino. With Dino denying any involvement, and hiding the car he was driving, Tobey ends up spending two years in prison. Two years later, Tobey is released on parole, and promptly arranges for a car so that he can travel from New York to California and a) take part in a race arranged by mysterious philanthropist Monarch (Keaton), and b) have his revenge on Dino. Dino is taking part in the race, but Tobey needs a way in as its by invitation only. With car dealer Julia along for the ride as the car owner's representative, Tobey gets the car and himself noticed enough times that Monarch gives him a spot in the race. All he has to do is reach San Francisco within forty-eight hours, avoiding the police and anyone who takes up Dino's offer of a bounty if Tobey is stopped from getting there.
Naturally, Tobey has help along the way from fellow mechanics and friends Benny (Mescudi), Finn (Malek), and Joe (Rodriguez). Benny is also a pilot and keeps stealing planes and helicopters in order to provide Tobey with eyes in the sky along the route. Finn and Joe help refuel the car while it's in motion, and generally follow along the route Tobey takes in case of back up (which is eventually needed when Tobey reaches San Francisco). Monarch provides a running commentary on Tobey's progress, and acts as commentator when the race starts. Julia provides the inevitable romantic interest, and Dino is the sneering villain we all want to see crash and burn like Little Pete does. Which leaves Tobey, the mostly silent but determined underdog who should win the race but only if he watches out for dastardly Dino and his habit of running people off the road.
If it seems a little predicable so far, then that's because it is. Need for Speed is a movie without an original thought under its bonnet, a handful of barely convincing performances, and lines of dialogue that prove impossible to give credibility to. It's movie-making by cliché, a string of ill-thought out scenes and low-key characters whose combined motivations couldn't power a light bulb. Once again, it's the fault of the script, a horrible concoction that almost screams, "Rush job!" This is Gatins' first produced screenplay, and it's ironic that he was an associate producer on a movie called You Stupid Man (2002); he gets hardly anything right. This leaves the cast to deal with mountains of trite and terrible dialogue, third-rate plot contrivances, scenes so laughable they should be included in a training scheme for aspiring writers – at random: Benny in a military jail asking for an iPad and being allowed to follow the race on it… and all the while the guard holds it up for him to watch – and some of the most perfunctory dialogue this side of a script by George Lucas (have I mentioned the dialogue enough yet?).
With director Scott Waugh unable to breathe any life into the movie when there's no chase going on, Need for Speed has to depend on its action scenes to gain any brownie points or gold stars. Much has been made already of the fact that CGI hasn't been used in the car chase sequences, and that all the smash-ups were done for real. And so they should be. But while Paul and Cooper may have spent time learning how to race so they could seen behind the wheel as much as possible, what the filmmakers have failed to realise is that, racing, in and of itself, is only really interesting or attention-grabbing when something goes wrong. So yes, the car chases are exciting, but only if you find the idea of a car going really fast in competition with another car, and (inevitably) on a deserted stretch of road, to be truly exciting. On this evidence, it's almost exciting, but what's missing is a real sense of danger. When Tobey is in Detroit and he's being chased by the police, there's never the slightest doubt that he'll get away (and yes, I know that's obvious, he's the hero, after all) so the movie drops down a gear or two and makes his escape both a high point and, from a technical viewpoint, a bit of a let-down.
This is the highly regarded "two-lane grasshopper" manoeuvre, where Tobey accelerates up an embankment and powers his car over two lanes of traffic to land safely in a third and drive away without being followed any further – at all. It sounds like a great stunt, and on paper it is, but in the movie it's a short sequence made up of five or six different shots (one of which is a long shot of the car in mid-flight), that doesn't let the viewer see it happen in one fluid take (unlike, say, the bridge jump in The Man With the Golden Gun (1974). It's like the scene in Speed (1995) where the bus has to jump the gap in the freeway; it was done for real, but the way it's cut together leaves you thinking it wasn't. Sadly, it's the same here.
There are some positives, though. Keaton – on a bit of a roll at the moment – reminds us just how exciting a performer he can be, and lifts the movie out of the doldrums whenever he's on screen. The crashes, when they happen, are spectacular and thrilling, and a testament to the creative abilities of the stunt team; they all look suitably life-threatening. Paul and Poots, reunited after appearing together in A Long Way Down (2014), have a chemistry that helps their scenes immeasurably, and the location photography ensures the movie is nothing less than beautiful to look at in places.
Rating: 4/10 – fans will disagree but Need for Speed doesn't have that kinetic charge that would have elevated it above other chase movies; the script's deficiencies hurt it tremendously, too, and no matter how fast Messrs Paul and Cooper may try, that's one (very major) problem they can't outrun.
Reasonable Doubt (2014)
Court case, Crime, District attorney, Dominic Cooper, Gloria Reuben, Hit and run, Murder, Parolees, Peter Howitt, Revenge, Review, Samuel L. Jackson, Wife and child
D: Peter P. Croudins / 91m
Cast: Dominic Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson, Gloria Reuben, Ryan Robbins, Erin Karpluk, Dylan Taylor
Pop quiz: You're a mega-successful district attorney who's never lost a case. After a night out celebrating another win in court, and having had a few drinks, you still drive home because you're worried your car might be stolen while you take a taxi. On the way, you hit and injure a man. Do you: a) call for an ambulance using your mobile phone and stay with the man until it arrives? b) call for an ambulance by using a pay phone and then drive off? or c) carry on driving and don't look back? If you answered b, then give yourself a gold star.
This is what hot shot DA Mitch Brockden (Cooper) does, and inevitably it sets in motion a series of events that ends with his wife, Rachel (Karpluk) and newborn child Ella being put in mortal danger. In between those two events, Mitch gets an uncomfortable case of the guilts. When Clinton Davis (Jackson) is arrested with the injured man – who is now dead – in his car later that evening, Davis's assertion that he had found the man and was trying to get him to a hospital rings true with Mitch, even though Davis has tools in his car that match the weapons that caused the man's other injuries. When Davis is charged with the man's murder, it's Mitch who gets to prosecute him.
For reasons too tiresome and unlikely to reveal here, Mitch's estranged step-brother Jimmy (Robbins) testifies at the trial that he saw the hit and run. Davis is freed. Soon after, another man is found dead with similar injuries. Mitch now believes Davis did kill the man he knocked down, and when investigating Detective Kanon (Reuben) mentions other incidents that Davis is connected to, Mitch is convinced of Davis's guilt. He decides to investigate further, but soon finds that Davis is more dangerous than he expected.
It's not that the whole scenario of Reasonable Doubt is far-fetched, or that the motivations of both Mitch and Davis are about as convincing as a politician's probity, nor even that the level of credibility is undermined continually by Cooper's lacklustre performance – he demonstrates guilt by looking as if his haemorrhoids are playing up – it's more that no one stopped to take stock of the movie while it was being made and said, "Hold on, isn't this just the biggest load of rubbish?" If someone had, then perhaps we'd all have been spared this poor excuse for a thriller. As it is, the audience has to endure scene after scene of disjointed dialogue, uncomfortable plot contrivances, woeful acting (Cooper and Reuben are the worst offenders), and such dreadful direction that Peter Howitt's name is changed in the credits (see above).
It's always frustrating when movies like this are made. Reasonable Doubt could have been so much better, but the script by Peter A. Dowling comes across as a hastily assembled first draft. There is very little internal logic on display, and what there is is so ridiculous that even if you suspended all credulity you'd still be asking yourself if what you were seeing was really happening. The character of Mitch bears no resemblance to anyone in real life, he makes risky decisions based more on the script's need for him to do so than any actual self-motivation, and for someone who is so good at his job – so much so that he knows a judge's decision before he even makes it – he makes one stupid mistake after another, until he ends up arrested for the attempted murder of his step-brother.
And then the movie presents us with it's most ridiculous and stupid moment: after receiving a call from Davis who tells him he's going to kill Rachel and Ella, and after he overpowers a police officer, Mitch walks out of the police station without being stopped and while carrying the police officer's gun! He doesn't even try to hide it, just walks out with it in his hand! It's when a script offers this as a development, and no one stops to say "Hold on, isn't this just the biggest load of complete rubbish?" that you know no one really cares. So why should the audience?
There are – amazingly – worse thrillers out there, but these are mostly low-budget affairs with semi-professional casts and inexperienced directors. Here, there's a level of conspicuous ability but it's all for nought. Even Jackson phones in his performance, giving us a less intense, less convincing version of his character from Meeting Evil (2012). You could say that Reasonable Doubt is so bad it's mesmerising… but that would be a whole other load of rubbish.
Rating: 3/10 – dreadful thriller that insults its own cast as well as the audience; proof if any were needed that some movies should have their productions shut down after day one.
Marvel One-Shots (2011-2014)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer, Agent Carter, Agent Coulson, Agent Sitwell, All Hail the King, Ben Kingsley, Chitauri weaponry, Clark Gregg, Dominic Cooper, Drew Pearce, Eric Pearson, Hayley Atwell, Item 47, Jesse Bradford, Justin Hammer, Lizzy Caplan, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Maximiliano Hernández, Reviews, Roxxon, Sam Rockwell, Short films, The Consultant, The Mandarin, Tony Stark, Trevor Slattery, Zodiac
Created as a way of expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these short films feature minor and/or new characters from said universe, and have been made with the aim of showing what can, and does, go on outside of Marvel's feature films. It's a clever, fun idea that allows fans of the movies a further glimpse of (mostly) established characters but in set ups that wouldn't have fit in with the movies but provide a riff on them at the same time. To date there are five such short films, with Marvel planning more in the future.
The Consultant (2011)
D: Leythum / 4m
Cast: Clark Gregg, Maximiliano Hernández, Robert Downey Jr, William Hurt
Set mostly in a diner, Agents Coulson (Gregg) and Sitwell (Hernández) discuss the World Security Council's plan to have Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination released to join the Avengers initiative. With both agents aware that Nick Fury has no wish for this to happen, they try to come up with a plan to sabotage Blonsky's release. To do this Sitwell decides the best course of action would be to send the one man that General Ross (Hurt) would be so annoyed by that the whole idea would be stalled before it got started, namely Tony Stark (Downey Jr). Agent Coulson is reluctant but agrees. We then see the footage from the end of The Incredible Hulk where Stark meets Ross. Sitwell and Coulson meet again at the diner and we discover their plan has worked and Blonsky will remain in prison.
The Consultant is a neat, concise addendum to both Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk and shows how S.H.I.E.L.D. orchestrates things from behind the scenes. With pleasing performances from Gregg and Hernández allied to witty, informative dialogue, the movie establishes a lot in a short space of time, and thanks to Eric Pearson's tightly constructed script, makes a virtue of its brevity. Strangely, the inclusion of footage from the end of The Incredible Hulk actually undermines the cleverness of the movie's structure (and besides which, we've seen it before).
Rating: 8/10 – a well-crafted, concise addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that works on various levels and all to good effect; a great introduction to a series of movies that complement Marvel's main features.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer (2011)
Cast: Clark Gregg, Jessica Manuel, Jeff Prewett, Zach Hudson
Set before the events seen in Thor, this sees Agent Coulson travelling to Albuquerque, New Mexico. When he stops at a gas station, he finds himself caught up in a robbery attempt. Disabling the robbers with ease – and a couple of Matrix-inspired moves – he leaves and carries on with his journey, leaving the sales clerk (Manuel) still astonished at what's just happened.
With Agent Coulson appearing a little nerdy in the previous movies, it's fun to see him kick some butt, and with more than a little style. Gregg is obviously having fun too, and his dialogue is delivered in a dry, deadpan style that adds to the enjoyment. Of the five short films so far released, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer has the least relevance to any of the movies, and does come across as a bit of a throwaway piece. But it is entertaining, and again, Eric Pearson's script is a model of economic storytelling.
Rating: 7/10 – enjoyable on a superficial level and providing Agent Coulson with the chance to show off his moves, A Funny Thing… hits the spot with the accuracy of a bag of flour; and true fans will have spotted that the gas station is owned by Roxxon, a name that may have some relevance in the future.
Item 47 (2012)
D: Louis D'Esposito / 12m
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Bradford, Maximiliano Hernández, Titus Welliver
Occurring in the wake of the battle of New York, Item 47 introduces us to Bennie and Claire, who have not only found one of the forty-seven Chitauri weapons that fell out of the sky during the battle, but have also got it to work. Looking to make their life more comfortable, they use the weapon to rob banks. Naturally, the use of alien technology in these circumstances comes to the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Sitwell and Blake (Welliver) are assigned to the case. Leaving Blake to his computer programmes, Sitwell reveals he has a lead on the couple and is about to apprehend them. When he tries to do so, the motel room they're staying in is destroyed along with all the stolen money. Realising that Bennie having worked out to use the Chitauri weapon could be an asset to S.H.I.E.L.D. Sitwell recruits him, and Claire, who becomes Blake's assistant. (There's an advance nod here to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series, with Bennie and Claire close matches for the show's Leo and Skye.)
With its longer running time, and introduction of three new characters, Item 47 shows Marvel gaining confidence in its One-Shot "division", and feeling comfortable about broadening the scope of its remit. With multiple locations and more acknowledgments to Avengers Assemble crammed in than seems feasible, the movie still manages to keep it simple throughout and again, thanks to a cleverly constructed script by Eric Pearson (give this man a feature-length movie!), is entertaining and grabs the attention from the start. Caplan and Bradford make a great team, Hernández stakes his claim to a larger role in a feature, and the humour is as well-played as in the previous shorts. The only stumble is a clumsy reference to Agent Coulson's demise, but it's a momentary lapse and more awkward than out of place.
Rating: 8/10 – a winning mix of sci-fi and S.H.I.E.L.D.-related humour, Item 47 proves a quantum leap from its predecessors; bright, funny, with great special effects, this shows Marvel increasing in confidence and showing everyone else in the superhero field how it should be done.
Agent Carter (2013)
Cast: Hayley Atwell, Bradley Whitford, Dominic Cooper, Tim Trobec, Neal McDonough, Shane Black (voice only), Chris Evans
A year after the events shown in Captain America: The First Avenger, we find Peggy Carter (Atwell) working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve, a task force dedicated to dealing with similar threats to those encountered during World War II which led to Steve Rogers' (apparent) demise. Stuck compiling data while her male colleagues are routinely given field duties – but not always succeeding in them – Peggy finds herself alone in the office one night when the case line rings. The mysterious Zodiac has been located but time is of the essence. Ignoring the recommendation that five or six operatives are required, Peggy heads off to retrieve Zodiac and show her misogynist boss, Flynn (Whitford), that she's just as good, if not better, than the rest of the agents. She completes the mission, and when Flynn challenges her the next day, he's forced to eat his words: the case line rings and Flynn has to relay a message from Howard Stark (Cooper) that Peggy is to come to Washington and help him run S.H.I.E.L.D.
Easily the best of the One-Shots, Agent Carter bristles with invention, wit, style, a great performance from Atwell, and yet another razor-sharp script courtesy of Eric Pearson (seriously, the man can do no wrong). With an attention to period detail that grounds the action without drawing attention to it, and a fluid camera style courtesy of DP Gabriel Beristain, Agent Carter looks and feels like it could be part of a feature-length outing. There's been lots of talk about an Agent Carter TV series, but on this evidence a movie would be a much better idea (and allow a look at the origins of S.H.I.E.L.D.). With cameos from Howard Stark and Dum Dum Dugan to keep the fans even happier, Agent Carter is a joy to watch from start to finish.
Rating: 9/10 – a perfect example of Marvel's ability to pick the right cast, and put them in a storyline that rewards its audience no matter how many times it's viewed; superb on every level and perhaps the best Marvel movie so far… of any length.
All Hail the King (2014)
D: Drew Pearce / 14m
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Scoot McNairy, Lester Speight, Sam Rockwell, Matt Gerald, Allen Maldonado
Doing time in Seagate Prison, and happily affected by the perils of being a national celebrity, actor and one-time Mandarin impersonator Trevor Slattery (Kingsley) is being interviewed by documentary filmmaker Jackson Norris (McNairy). With help from his "butler" Herman (Speight), Slattery has managed to maintain his notoriety while in prison and many of the inmates regard him as a star; they even ask him to quote lines from the videos he made as the Mandarin ("You'll never see me coming"). With the interview proving a hit and miss affair – Slattery is evasive and rambling and self-serving in almost equal measure – things begin to take a worrying turn when Norris starts talking about the Ten Rings terrorist group, and its links to the real Mandarin. Oblivious to the implication of what Norris is telling him, Slattery remains unaware of the danger he's in even when Norris kills the guards with them and tells Slattery he's going to meet the Mandarin in person.
And that's where All Hail the King ends. It's a little unsatisfactory, and while Kingsley returns to the role of Slattery with the same mischievous glint in his eye that he had in Iron Man 3, the structure of this particular One-Shot is not as effective as Item 47 or Agent Carter. The problem lies mainly with the content of the interview, which like its interviewee, rambles all over the place for around five minutes before abandoning its own agenda in favour of the unexpected twist that Norris is there to abduct Slattery so he can face the music elsewhere. With a script by director Pearce (who also co-wrote Iron Man 3) that isn't as cohesive or sharp as those by Eric Pearson, All Hail the King isn't as successful as its predecessors, and struggles to keep its focus. The expected humour is there, and there is a terrific cameo from Rockwell as Justin Hammer, bemoaning Slattery's celebrity status (and in the movie's best moment, likening him to the offspring of… well, I won't spoil it, but it's the best joke in the whole movie – hell, in all the One-Shots), but these two positives shine out while the rest of the short is more mundane. (And for the eagle-eyed out there, yes that is Captain America's shield tattooed on the back of Slattery's neck, and yes Seagate Prison is where Marvel's Luke Cage was created.)
Rating: 7/10 – a misstep rescued by Kingsley's performance and Rockwell in pouting mode; not as clever or as well thought out as the other One-Shots but, thankfully, not entirely a dud either.


Xu, J.; Wang, B. Intellectual Capital, Financial Performance and Companies' Sustainable Growth: Evidence from the Korean Manufacturing Industry. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4651.
Xu J, Wang B. Intellectual Capital, Financial Performance and Companies' Sustainable Growth: Evidence from the Korean Manufacturing Industry. Sustainability. 2018; 10(12):4651.
Xu, Jian; Wang, Binghan. 2018. "Intellectual Capital, Financial Performance and Companies' Sustainable Growth: Evidence from the Korean Manufacturing Industry." Sustainability 10, no. 12: 4651.


text:
Patent Type
Provisional Patents
First to File Rule (FITF)
Many countries, including the United States, have adopted the first to file rule, which basically grants the first inventor who files a patent application a patent regardless of whether someone else made the invention first.
For example, if you invent a new pair of scissors and someone else invents the same pair of scissors two years later but files his patent application with the patent office before you do, he will be granted a patent even though you invented the scissors before.
In the past, the United States had a first to invent system that awarded inventors who first invented an invention but recently switched over to a first to file system. When the U.S had a first to invent system, the person who could first describe how the invention worked and how the invention achieved its desired purpose was awarded a patent regardless of when the inventor filed a patent application.
Of course, this caused a lot of problems in situations where two inventors claimed that they were each the first to make an invention, the patent office would have to spend a lot of time and money determining who actually made an invention first. So, the patent system was changed to a first to file system, which things more clear for inventors who wanted to patent their invention.
So what's the takeaway for inventors in the United States? If you have an invention and you can describe how that invention works and how it achieves its desired purpose, file either a provisional patent application or (regular) nonprovisional patent application to reserve an early filing date with the patent office.
Reserving an early filing date protects inventors from any other inventors who subsequently claim to have made the invention first because it won't matter. As long as you filed first, you have priority over all other subsequent applicants.
So, if you were wondering: Is the US a first to file or first to invent system? You know that the US is now a first to file system that requires inventors to file a patent application as soon as possible to reserve an early filing date for their invention.
How Has the First to File Rule Changed the Legal Landscape For Inventors?
Adopting the first to file rule changed the way inventors approach patenting their inventions. No longer can an inventor invent something and keep it secret for years. If an inventor invents something, he is incentivized to quickly file a patent application with the patent office to reserve an early prior date.
Reserving an early priority date guarantees an invention's priority date, which is very important because if a party subsequently files a patent application for the same invention, the inventor who filed first gets the patent.
Inventors who are not ready to invest the time and money to prepare a regular, nonprovisional patent application often opt to file a provisional patent application. Provisional patent applications do not turn into granted patents, but they do reserve an early priority date for the inventor.
Inventors choose to file provisional patent applications instead of filing regular, nonprovisional patent applications because they require much less time prepare since they don't require as much information as regular patent applications and they are therefore much cheaper to prepare and file. Also, the filing fees for a provisional patent application are less than those for a regular patent application.
That said, inventors often make the mistake of not preparing a provisional patent application as thoroughly as they should have. The problem arises when an applicant wants to convert a provisional application into a regular patent application or file a nonprovisional application that claims the benefit of an earlier-filed provisional application.
The problem that arises is that the invention described in the regular, nonprovisional application has to be the same invention that the applicant described in the provisional application to benefit from the earlier filing date of the provisional application.
If the descriptions of the inventions don't match, the applicant cannot benefit from an earlier filed provisional application. This is a problem for applicants if someone else filed a patent application for the same invention after the applicant filed his provisional application.
Disclosing the Invention
In the United States, inventors must file either a provisional patent application or a nonprovisional application within 12 months of publicly disclosing their invention, selling it, or offering it for sale.
If an inventor does not file an application with the patent office within the 12 month grace period, the inventor will be prohibited from patenting his invention as it will be considered as prior art, banning the inventor from patenting his invention.
Note: If you want to patent your invention in countries other than the United States, you should keep your invention secret and not disclose it all. This is so because even though the United States offers a 12 month grace period, other countries don't have a grace period.
Instead, the invention must have never been publicly disclosed for it to qualify for a patent. So, as a word of caution, keep your invention secret if you want to protect it in countries other than the U.S.
Also, if you're an inventor and you need the help of a third party, have them sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Although an NDA does not guarantee that a third party won't disclose your invention, it reduces the chances of them doing so.
If a party violates the NDA, you will be able to bring a lawsuit against them for breaking the contract. In the event that a party discloses your invention, ask your attorney whether you should immediately file a provisional patent application to reserve a priority date with the patent office.
What Does it Mean to File a Patent?
When we say that an inventor must file a patent, we mean that an inventor must file either a provisional patent application with the patent office or file a regular, nonprovisional patent application with the patent office to reserve a priority date (early filing date) with the USPTO.
By reserving an early filing date with the patent office, the inventor's invention will qualify for a patent (assuming it meets the patentability requirements) even if someone else subsequently files a patent application for the same invention.
The same remains true even if another party invented the invention first. This is so because of the first to file rule in the US that gives priority to an inventor who first files a patent application with the patent office.
Three Types of Patents an Inventor Can File?
The first to file rule applies to all three types of patents offered by the USPTO. The patent office currently offers three types of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.
Utility patents protect how an invention works, as well as the functional aspects of an invention. Design patents protect how an invention looks or the aesthetic or appearance of an object. Plant patents protect new, asexually reproduces new species of plants.
Whichever type of patent you decide to patent, the first to file rules applies. So, if you have an invention, ask your attorney about filing a patent application to reserve an early filing date.
What is the Process of Filing a Patent?
To file a patent application, an applicant first needs to perform a patent search to determine whether anyone else has patented the invention he wants to patent. Then, the inventor needs to prepare either a provisional application or a nonprovisional patent application that thoroughly describes the invention to be patented.
Applicants usually hire experienced patent attorneys to assist them with the preparation of their patent application because they are quite complex and need someone with experience to correctly prepare them. Once an applicant has prepared a patent application, the applicant needs to file the patent application with the patent office and pay the required fees.
Once an application is filed, the applicant should periodically check the status of an application to determine if the patent office requires any changes or amendments to the patent application.
Patent First to File Rule
By now, it should be quite apparent that the U.S Patent System awards inventors who are first to file a patent application for their invention. So, if you have an invention, it's smart to file a patent application to obtain an early filing date. An early filing date guarantees that your patent will have priority over subsequent patent applications that are filed for the same invention. If you're not ready to file a regular patent application, ask your attorney about filing a provisional application to obtain an early filing date. That said, if you have any general questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
Noah Adam
My name is Noah and I love everything about patents and patent law. During my law school years, I studied intellectual property law and took courses in patent law, trademark law, and copyright law. I graduated from Loyola Marymount Law School and obtained my Juris Doctorate in 2014.
My name is Noah and I love everything about patents and patent law. During my law school years, I studied intellectual property law and took courses in patent law, trademark law, and copyright law. I graduated from Loyola Marymount Law School and obtained my JD Degree in 2014.
Plant Patent
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By using PatentRebel.com, you recognize there is NO attorney/client relationship between you and Patent Rebel or any of its representatives. The information that Patent Rebel provides on this website does and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Instead, all of the information and content provided on this site should be used for general informational purposes only. Also, the information we provide on Patent Rebel does not constitute the most up to date legal information. If you have a legal or patent-related issue that needs to be addressed, you should contact an experienced and licensed patent attorney from your own jurisdiction. You should not act or refrain from acting based on information that you obtained from this site without first contacting and obtaining legal advice from your own attorney.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Clinical Update
Veterans Group Seeks Apology From President Trump
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, a nonprofit organization comprised of veteran and military members, is demanding President Donald Trump apologize after he said he does not consider potential TBI to be…
U.S. Says 34 Troops Diagnosed With Traumatic Brain Injury After Iran Strike
The Pentagon recently said that 34 service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury following missile strikes by Iran on a base in Iraq…
Nearly Half of Veterans With Mental Health Troubles Report Adversity While Younger
"Clinicians working with veterans would benefit from assessment for childhood adversity in formulating mental health difficulties in this population…
TBI Boosts Risk of Mental Health Disorders After Combat Injury
"In our cohort of military personnel who were severely injured in combat, we found that most patients (70.6%) were diagnosed with at least one mental…
Increased Risk of Uncontrolled Hypertension Among Vets Experiencing Temporary Gaps in Access to Care
A recent study found that decreased access to care services for a temporary period of time increased the rate of uncontrolled hypertension among a…
Treatment Quickly Lowers Potassium in Patients With Hyperkalemia
Researchers found that 10 grams of sodium zirconium cyclosilicate three times a day for up to 48 hours reduced serum potassium to normal levels in…
FAST Useful for Gauging Functional Recovery of Patients With Bipolar I
"There is growing agreement," researchers wrote, "that definitions of 'recovery' in bipolar I disorder should include functional outcomes beyond…
Ian Sabir, PhD, Discusses Treatment Advancements in Hyperkalemia
Ian Sabir, MA, PhD, MRCP, MFPM, head of Global Medical Affairs (cardio-renal), AstraZeneca, discusses the impact of hyperkalemia and recent treatment…
Plant-Based Diets May Help Prevent Kidney Disease
"Concerns of hyperkalemia and protein inadequacy related to plant-based diets may be outdated and unsupported by the current body of literature,"…
James J. Matera, DO, on Managing Hyperkalemia in Cardiometabolic Disease
Improving Prescribing Among Veterans
Suicide Risk Among Patients With TBIs, Concussions
Steven Lieberman, MD, Discusses Positive Trends in VA Wait Times
Twitter @FirstReportMC
Tweets by @FirstReportMC


Visit the Press page for GASEIA Press Statements.
More than 700 people in the Athens area signed up for an evaluation of their homes or businesses as potential sites for solar energy installations under the Solarize Athens bulk-purchasing program, according to the program's sponsors.
A groundbreaking ceremony Thursday kicked off construction of a 150-acre solar farm on the Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany that will generate up to 44 megawatts of power. Once completed, the $75 million facility is expected to be one of the state's largest solar installations. Some 138,000 southwest-facing fixed panels planned for the site could power up to 5,000 homes.
Albany in southwest Georgia is in a state of transition these days — from old power to new power. Thursday, Georgia Power broke ground on a solar power farm near Albany that will deliver 31 megawatts of power — enough to supply roughly 5,000 homes .Meanwhile, the Atlanta utility shut down part of a 52-year-old coal- and oil-fired plant near Albany last year, and plans to shut down the rest of it if state regulators approve its decommissioning.
3/29/16—Farmland has become fertile territory for clean energy, as solar and wind developers in North America, Europe and Asia seek more flat, treeless expanses to build. That's also been a boon for struggling U.S. family farms that must contend with floundering commodity prices.
3/18/16—The sun may be starting to shine on solar as a viable alternative energy, but cost and scale continue to be issues, according to a panel brought together Thursday night in Winterville to discuss the solar energy industry.
1/26/16—The south could become the hotbed of the solar industry over the next six to twelve months if all goes as planned in Georgia.
1/1/2016—As homeowners embrace solar, utilities are making less money, and that's shaking up their business model. Companies in California and Georgia are handling the growth in dramatically different ways.
12/7/15—Georgia only pulls a fraction of a percent of its electric energy from solar power. Despite a boom in the industry that installs panels on rooftops of offices and homes — and even in fields in rural Georgia — and a slow trickle of legislation that has made it easier to tap the renewable resource, solar power is not where it could — or should — be in the state. Strong utility interests (some of whom are slowly coming around) and complex qualms over dollars and cents in the past have hindered real progress. But the push for clean energy has finally started to gain traction.
11/23/15—The city of Atlanta plans to install solar panels on the roofs of 28 municipal buildings. Once the panels are installed, the buildings, which belong to the fire, police and parks departments, will be able to generate up to 40 percent of their own electricity, Mayor Kasim Reed said.
10/23/15—Georgia solar installers won a major victory this year when the General Assembly unanimously passed legislation letting them offer third-party financing to make solar panels more affordable.
But with the new law now more than three months old, installers and other solar energy advocates say Georgia Power Co. is under-compensating property owners for the electricity their panels are producing, discouraging the small-scale solar projects at the heart of the installers' businesses.


text:
Home › Events › The Best of the Eagles
The Best of the Eagles
April 8, 2017 - 8:00 pm
Maryland Symphony Orchestra
27 S Potomac St
Featuring Guest Artists:
Jeans 'n Classics
Program Highlights:
All selections are subject to change
The Boys Of Summer
End Of The Innocence
(Medley): One Of These Nights / Tequila Sunrise / Best Of My Love
Victim Of Love
Pretty Maids All In A Row
Try And Love Again
Links above open in Spotify®
This concert takes us back to the fast-lane life of the '70s and '80s with the legendary music of The Eagles. Considered one of the best-selling bands of all time, The Eagles have won six Grammy® Awards and had five number one singles. Canadian rockers and song interpreters Jeans 'n Classics join the Maryland Symphony Orchestra to capture The Eagles' impeccable riffs and timeless vocal harmonies in all the classics, including "Hotel California," "Desperado," "New Kid in Town" and "The Boys of Summer." Rich vocal and orchestral harmonies allow for wonderful orchestration of those Classic Rock megahits from this amazing group.
Get ready to "Take It Easy," and relive some of the greatest songs of the '70s.
Jeans 'n Classics has worked with over 100 orchestras in venues throughout North America, and has created almost 1,000 original rock and pop orchestrations which are presented across 45 unique and exciting productions. Jeans 'n Classics faithfully interprets the music of legendary rock and pop albums and artists, with their own special and signature flair.
Concert Sponsor:
This performance is made possible through a generous contribution from Antietam Cable Television


> If yes: Please tell me how.
;;  be added to latex by modifying `ispell-tex-skip-alists'.
;;  `ispell-message' contains some custom skipping code for e-mail messages.
Does this advice help you?
Place the above line in your ~/.emacs.
Next by thread: Selectively Turning Off "show-ws-highlight-trailing-whitespace"


text:
import webbrowser
import os
import re

# The filpping animation is refering to Udacity Nanodegree Page (https://www.udacity.com/nanodegree)

# Styles and scripting for the page
main_page_head = '''
<!DOCTYPE html>

    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Fresh Tomatoes!</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.1.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.1.0/css/bootstrap-theme.min.css">
    <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:300,100italic' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

'''

# The main page layout and title bar
main_page_content = '''

            Fresh Tomatoes Movie Trailers

      {movie_tiles}

'''

# A single movie entry html template
# movie_tile_content = '''
#

#
#
{movie_title}

#

# '''
movie_tile_content = '''

{movie_title}

Director

{director_name}

Main Actor

{actor_name}

{movie_storyline}

            Show Trailer

'''

def create_movie_tiles_content(movies):
    # The HTML content for this section of the page
    content = ''
    for movie in movies:
        # Extract the youtube ID from the url
        youtube_id_match = re.search(
            r'(?<=v=)[^&#]+', movie.trailer_youtube_url)
        youtube_id_match = youtube_id_match or re.search(
            r'(?<=be/)[^&#]+', movie.trailer_youtube_url)
        trailer_youtube_id = (youtube_id_match.group(0) if youtube_id_match
                              else None)

        # Append the tile for the movie with its content filled in
        content += movie_tile_content.format(
            movie_title=movie.title,
            poster_image_url=movie.poster_image_url,
            trailer_youtube_id=trailer_youtube_id,
            movie_storyline=movie.storyline,
            director_image_url=movie.director.avatar_url,
            director_name=movie.director.name,
            actor_image_url=movie.main_actor.avatar_url,
            actor_name=movie.main_actor.name
        )
    return content

def open_movies_page(movies):
    # Create or overwrite the output file
    output_file = open('fresh_tomatoes.html', 'w')

    # Replace the movie tiles placeholder generated content
    rendered_content = main_page_content.format(
        movie_tiles=create_movie_tiles_content(movies))

    # Output the file
    output_file.write(main_page_head + rendered_content)
    output_file.close()

    # open the output file in the browser (in a new tab, if possible)
    url = os.path.abspath(output_file.name)
    webbrowser.open('file://' + url, new=2)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
How can I participate and make a difference?
There are several channels available to students through which you can make yourself heard.
Participation in administrative bodies and student organisations as part of studies
Participate in making decisions that guide the university's operations.
Apply to become a tutor!
Do you want to support new students get started with their studies?
University of Helsinki Student Ambassadors
Students at the University of Helsinki can serve as student ambassadors, introducing prospective applicants to university life
Everyone who has got their degree from the University of Helsinki, and all of the university's exchange students and staff members are considered its alumni.
The University's strategy and decision-making
Get to know the organisational structure, the values that guide the operations, the strategy, management, decision-making and quality management at the University.
Updated: 5.10.2020


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Google Updates Chrome for Android
By 412 CrewMay 16, 2017 No Comments
Until recently, there was no particular browser that had stood out as a standard browser for Android devices. This is despite the fact that all the while, Google has been the creator of the mobile operating system that runs the Android platform and the brains behind the Chrome browser for PC. However, they have finally made a milestone in the mobile web browsing by the release of Chrome for Android. Just like the other mobile browsers, the Chrome for Android comes with synchronization across platforms, tabbed browsing and interface with clarity worth noticing among other features.
If you are not new to Chrome for PC or Mac, you will probably have noticed that you can not only synchronize your information such as the browser settings and bookmarked sites, but it is also possible to open your tabs from another computer through synchronization. This setting has also been included in the Chrome for Android and it has improved the mobile browsing experience by enabling you to easily maneuver from one device to another.
Chrome for Android offers a much higher browsing speed that cannot go unnoticed. The tabs have been given a stacked view that makes it easy to switch from one tab to the other. Mobile web browsers have always had a tendency of slow loading which leaves the users frustrated. This, however, seems to be the past now for Android users as this browser is quick to use and navigating between tabs can simply be done by swiping from left to right.
Chrome 58: New Features
The new update of Chrome for Android that has just been released by Google comes with some noticeable improvements and it could not have at a better time. The version 58.0.3029.83 was mainly focused on improving the user's experience with upgraded media interaction, web apps and enabling the full-screen mode. Below are some of the improvements and changes that came with the update for the sole purpose of making the user experience even better;
View of the Downloads page
The improvements that were included in this update seem to be making the Chrome for Android even more similar to the one for PC. This includes the way the Downloads page has been made in a way that you can easily view and manage complete and in-progress downloads. Previously, downloads were only manageable through the notifications bar of the Android system which didn't offer many options or through secondary software that is specifically developed for managing downloads. But thanks to the update, you can now view and manage Downloads from Chrome itself.
Improved History page
The browser History page has been remodeled making it even easier to access and clear your history data. It is also possible to delete only selected items on the history list and you will not be required to delete all history data just to get rid of a few items. There are also a few performance optimizations and bug removing changes that are included in the update.
Long-pressing a link to open
You can open a link just by long-pressing it in the new Chrome for Android. You can open a link on a new tab by long-pressing the link such that it will not interfere with the progress in your current tab. This change was adopted from Chrome Custom Tabs.
Full-screen Web Apps
With the new update, if you open a web app through the Chrome for Android browser, it will open in full screen mode. Google is remodeling the interface a bit in an effort to minimize the difference between the web and other related apps. Chrome 58 has been made such that both the top status bar and the bottom navigation bar disappear when a different web app is running on the browser.


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Boys gone mild: A local duo tones down the 'Kama Sutra'
'The Married Kama Sutra' by Simon Rich and Farley Katz
By Colin Mixson	- Source: http://www.brooklynpaper.com
Loveless life: Simon Rich and Farely Katz's "The Married Kama Sutra" offers positions they say any couple can achieve.
This new book is "adults only" — but its content is decidedly PG-13.
An author-illustrator duo are celebrating the release of their new book, "The Married Kama Sutra," at BookCourt on Nov. 4, where they'll discuss their toned-down spoof of the ancient Hindu sex manual and the positions described within, which they say anyone can accomplish without much trouble — mostly because none of them involve actual coitus.
"I think a lot of the positions of the 'Kama Sutra' set the bar a little too high," said the author of "The Married Kama Sutra" and Cobble Hill resident, Simon Rich. "We're attempting to write a more realistic update."
To that end, Rich, along with his long-time friend and illustrator Farley Katz, have adapted the spirit of the original tome — an illustrated guide for couples with evocatively-titled positions such as "the rest of the warrior" and "the union of the elephant" — and applied it to a tongue-in-cheek look at the less-sexy realities of modern marriage.
The man, the mustache: Farley Katz, illustrator of "the Married Kama Sutra," poses alongside his very fine facial hair. He'll appear alongside Simon Rich at BookCourt to promote their new love manual.
So where the original "Kama Sutra" might advocate an anatomically improbable bedroom technique, "The Married Kama Sutra" settles for a more hands-off activity, such as: "When a man passes gas in front of the woman, without so much as an apology, it is called 'the shifting of the standards.'"
"The positions in 'The Married Kama Sutra' are very attainable," said Katz.
In fact, the closest the book ever comes to actual love-making is when its long-suffering illustrated couple enters into the intimate realm of the bathroom shower with romantic intentions, but their plan backfires when they actually look at one another.
"They go in to take an erotic shower, but after looking at each other, it quickly degenerates into just a regular shower," Rich explained.
Moderately Rich: Simon Rich, love expert and author of "Married Kama Sutra," will make a dramatic appearance at BookCourt alongside his trusty illustrator, Farley Katz.
After dozens of collaborations, the pair said "The Married Kama Sutra" is their tamest work to date. Although both Rich and Katz are independently successful in their respective professions, this new book is the only joint effort in a decade-long partnership that the New Yorker — the only publication they've submitted to — has deemed appropriate for publication.
"Most of our early efforts were too obscene," said Rich, describing the previous work he and Katz submitted to the magazine. "But 'The Married Kama Sutra' is sort of the opposite of obscene.:
"Once we started putting clothes on people," Katz added, "we started getting accepted more."
Meet the creators of "The Married Kama Sutra" at BookCourt [163 Court St. between Pacific and Dean streets in Cobble Hill, (718) 875-3677, www.bookcourt.com] Nov. 4, 7 pm.
One Response to "Boys gone mild: A local duo tones down the 'Kama Sutra'"
Thank you so much Eric for the beautiful ieairprnttteon of the planets (and the lead-in to the topic of tantra). Vesta, Chiron in Pisces & Jupiter description all speak to what it is I have been in process with and have made a huge breakthrough with devotion to healing the relationship to Existance. Having grown up Catholic, it's been a challenge to find a new way of relating, free of the burden of expectations and obligations, to ideas of God(des), Universe, Existance. This has been a time of breaking through all that and now able to regard myself as part of that Beauty of Existance. So perfectly phrased.Enjoyed the interview and look forward to seeing where it goes. There was a very important part of the tantra I found missing that may be covered in the next one. Have to wait and see.
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Quick Answer: Who Was Our Youngest President?
Who was the youngest First Lady?
Who was last 1 term president?
Why is Ronald Reagan so popular?
Can a president run again after a 4 year break?
Who is the poorest person in the world?
Which president died from milk?
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What president married his own daughter?
Which president was killed by his wife?
Which president died in the bathtub?
What is the maximum age limit for US President?
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Frances Clara Cleveland Preston (née Folsom; July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was First Lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897 as the wife of President Grover Cleveland.
Becoming first lady at age 21, she remains the youngest wife of a sitting president..
George Bush served one term as president of the United States.
Reagan still remains one of the most popular presidents in American history because of his optimism for the country. Reagan was the first president of the United States to have been divorced. … As president, Reagan helped create a new political and economic idea. He created the supply-side economic policies.
Text of the 22nd Amendment No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once.
Who is the poorest man alive? Jerome has gone down in history as a man behind the world's most massive trading fraud. Behind his costly suits, Jerome is now the world's poorest man considering he owes SocGen more than $6.3 billion.
Zachary Taylor'sZachary Taylor's sudden death shocked the nation. After attending Fourth of July orations for most of the day, Taylor walked along the Potomac River before returning to the White House. Hot and tired, he drank iced water and consumed large quantities of cherries and other fruits.
A trillionaire is someone whose wealth is greater than one trillion dollars (or other currency). In numerals, it's 1,000,000,000,000 and is also known as 10 to the 12th power.
At 69 years, 349 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 2017, when Donald Trump was inaugurated at age 70 years, 220 days.
The richest president in history is believed to be Donald Trump, who is often considered the first billionaire president. His net worth, however, is not precisely known because the Trump Organization is privately held. Truman was the poorest U.S. president, with a net worth considerably less than $1 million.
Frances Clara Folsom Cleveland became the youngest First Lady at age 21 as the first woman to marry a president in the White House. She served as the 23rd and 25th First Lady of the United States while married to President Grover Cleveland.
Florence HardingBornFlorence Mabel KlingAugust 15, 1860 Marion, Ohio, U.S.DiedNovember 21, 1924 (aged 64) Marion, Ohio, U.S.Resting placeHarding TombSpouse(s)Henry DeWolfe   ( m. 1880; div. 1886) Warren Harding   ( m. 1891; died 1923)18 more rows
William Howard Taft'sIt took six of the strongest men on White House grounds, the story goes, to wrest William Howard Taft's substantial body out of the bathtub.
As directed by the Constitution, a presidential candidate must be a natural born citizen of the United States, a resident for 14 years, and 35 years of age or older.
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What is considered filthy rich? : extremely rich —used
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TESCO is returning to Hounslow today as its new 'Express' store opens in Staines Road, under the Etap hotel.
TESCO is returning to Hounslow today as its new 'Express' store opens in Staines Road, under the Etap hotel.
Meanwhile, haulage firm Norbert Dentressangle opened a distribution centre at the Fairway Trading Estate in Hounslow on Monday, which it claims will create up to 70 jobs.


On this page will find the solution to "Once Upon a Mattress" prop crossword clue. Simply click on the clue posted on USA Today Crossword on February 16 2017 and we …... Our ancestors, who once had to hand-tighten their bed frames and pluck goose feathers for their own mattress stuffing, might think today's sleepers are a tad spoiled. Fun facts Louis XIV of France owned more than 400 beds and often held court in the royal bedroom.
Once Upon A Mattress is one of the many shows that Disguises rents out for theatrical productions. In general, a full costume including headpiece/hat rents for 45 dollars.... Mattress Bed & Ladder – A study in Carpentry, Metal Work, Soft Goods & Paint Steven Capone designed a magical looking bed for Chautauqua Opera's Once Upon a Mattress . Our execution of the project began with a metal and wood framework.
There was a few minutes of inspecting the new bed and mattress for defects before he signed the delivery papers. Fifteen minutes later the guys with the truck drove off with the old bedding leaving Jack and Daniel to admire the new set. Hands tucked into front pockets, Jack stood at the end of the bed, shoulder to shoulder with Daniel. Together they stared at the bare white mattress, the how to change ip back to original TheatreWorld has a complete collection of backdrops to support ONCE UPON A MATTRESS, the musical adaptation of the fairytale comedy, The Princess and the Pea.
Once Upon A Mattress is based on the famous fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea. Because of her noble birth, the Princess is unable to sleep on a bed of many mattresses when a tiny pea is placed underneath the bottom mattress. how to build a profitable niche website The final scene in Once Upon a Mattress calls for the Princess to climb up on a table and then for the table to magically turn into the bed. The kids who operated the bed are planning on writing up a bunch of info for these pages.
Later on he formed the first mattress by sewing skins or fabrics together and filling it with cushioning materials. Without having any clue he brought a paramount change to the world. Without having any clue he brought a paramount change to the world.


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Cleveland STEM High School PTSA
December 28Raffle tickets are on sale at all home basketball games for $10.
December 28The next PTSA meeting will be held Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at Cleveland in Room 1162.
Supporting every child with one voice
Black Family Brunch slated for Feb. 9
Family engagement event puts focus on Black parent involvement
From staff reports, Cleveland Journal reporters
Cleveland will hold its second annual event catered to Black families on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. The Black Family Bruch will be hosted by Cleveland's Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) and the Black Student Union (BSU) ahead of the National African American Parent Involvement Day on Feb. 12.
The event is an opportunity for black families, families of African descent and parents of black students to learn more about how to support their students and each other. It is also a time for parents to share what they want from the school and how CHS can do better in supporting black students and families.
Although Cleveland is roughly 93 percent students of color and the PTSA board members are mostly women of color, the participation among black families has been low.
Last year's event was made possible after Connie So, formerly the PTSA's vice president, won a $400 grant that was designated for Black family engagement. Cleveland's Family Engagement Action Team (FEAT) was brought on board to help with the planning. This year, So, along with PTSA vice president Cristi Devers, won a grant from the National PTSA to sponsor an event focused on health and wellness. The plan is to tie the two events together and aim them at families of color. The health and wellness fair will take place on Feb. 13, 2019.
Teresa Scribner, the PTSA faculty liaison, helped produce a video featuring former members of BSU. She said she hopes the event will be a wake-up call for black parents and students.
"There are only four Black classroom teachers at Cleveland," Scribner said. "We can't do all the heavy lifting on our own. We need Black parents to be present for their students, and not just at home but also in the classroom, on the PTSA … We need them to be a visible force."
Nearly 70 people showed up for last year's event. The PTSA is hoping for more families to turn out this year. For more information on how to help or to be a part of the event, contact the PTSA at [email protected].
Where would you like to volunteer your time?
School auction committee
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FACTOID # 5: Minnesota and Connecticut are both in the top 5 in saving money and total tax burden per capita.
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Encyclopedia > Nistru
The river Dniestr (in Polish and Russian; Nistru in Romanian; Дністер, Dnister in Ukrainian; Tyras in Latin; also known as Dniester) is a river in Eastern Europe. It rises in Ukraine, near the border with Poland, and flows toward the Black Sea. For a short while it marks the border of Ukraine and Moldova, after this on the east bank is the breakaway region of Transnistria. It leaves this region and becomes the international border again, then flows through Ukraine to the Black Sea.
Dnister expedition of Lion Society (http://geocities.com/valentyn_ua/ZweteSeite)
Categories: Ukraine-related stubs | Rivers of Ukraine
The National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History of the Republic of Moldova (2037 words)
To the north from the Codru Hills the landscape is characterized by the level plain of the Balti Plain with altitudes of 150-200 m.
The Nistru rises in Ukraine and forms the border between Ukraine and Moldova in parts of the north, northeast and southeast before flowing back into Ukraine, where it continues for some 20 km before reaching the Black Sea near Bilhorod-Dnistrovs'kyy (Odessa Oblast).
Lush meadows and reed growths occur in the floodlands of the Nistru and the Prut rivers, while salt-marsh grasslands prosper in the saline valleys of the Cogâlnic, Ialpug, Botna, and lower Prut.


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pat	in Books	 July 7, 2010 October 22, 2016 558 Words
Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho
If you're a first time Bret Easton Ellis reader, this book will make you never want to read him again, probably, and that will be a shame. A little over 20 pages and the author knocks himself out with Bateman's morning hygiene rituals. In painstaking detail, Ellis repeatedly stabs you with his hero's self-aggrandizing habits of beautification. The self is of course essential to the book's narrative which explains the oh so many I am sipping cocktail now and I pay for it using my Platinum Amex, etc. Everything happens within Bateman's mind that it's become impossible to recognize any other characters in the novel without going several pages back, puzzling over who that guy was who just spoke/snorted coke who was dating that girl wearing the Oscar dela Renta. The trivialities of the characters' activities sometimes bog down the action of this otherwise consistently horrific thriller but some of the time, I don't mind. The extensive cataloguing of all things posh and Amex-bought find their way in almost every other chapter, only briefly intercepted by Patrick Bateman's wild imagination (?). Much as I adore the nasty people that populate much of Ellis' books, they are true patience testers.
Should you read/reread American Psycho? Is it worth your time to go through it not just once but many times? Is there any justice to the self to read more than once this novel that one could swear in certain parts read unapologetically like a department store catalogue?
Patrick Bateman, who is most certainly at least 60% gay, goes on and on, sometimes at cloying lengths about grooming, neckties, calling cards, credit cards, Huey Lewis, Phil Collins and Whitney Houston albums, not to mention a variety of vaginal tortures, that one can be forgiven for thinking the author an actual sick human being.
No one comes running after Patrick after he's committed his crimes, at least not in the serious, climactic, Dan Brown kind of way. What I initially got from it was that it is a great massacre story that's so weird, it has to have a Whitney Houston album and discography review. It's so brutal, so graphic and I imagine, so provocative to women and anyone who has ever thought highly of their genitals.
But to think of American Psycho as torture lit masquerading as torture porn is to be dismissive of its greatness. There's not to many novels like it. What gives Patrick Bateman substance, or what deprives him of one depending on how you look at it, is that maybe none of what he described as murders actually happened. That Bateman is really just a guy in suit with fantasies of murder far colorful than most. But I'm not sure and I don't care to know. But the idea that everything's imagined is right there at the beginning when Ellis gives it away, quoting a Miss Manners,
One of the places we went wrong was the naturalistic Rousseauean movement in the sixties in which people said, "Why can't you just say what's on your mind?" In civilization there have to be some restraints. If we followed every impulse, we'd be killing one another.
Maybe I just like Bret Easton Ellis, there's something about three-named authors, and though I might not finish this round, I'll take what he comes up with next whoever may be in it.
Not an illusion of bliss
4 thoughts on "Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho"
aris says:
"Everything happens within Bateman's mind that it's become impossible to recognize any other characters in the novel without going several pages back, puzzling over who that guy was who just spoke/snorted coke who was dating that girl wearing the Oscar dela Renta."
Maybe the point is that you're not supposed to distinguish the characters from one another, eh? From what I can remember, most of the time, Bateman even mixes them up, either not remembering or not caring about it at all or most probably, even both. (Or maybe, I'm just lazy! Trying to get away with it by being crazy/deep. Heh.)
Just as the entire book (specifically the murders) may just be Bateman's imagination gone wild, the catalog-like rendering of all their accoutrements are also just that, illusions meant to convey the emptiness of everything; instead of character descriptions and personalities their outer garb and trappings stand in for what they really are, showing the power of imagination and suggestion only physical. The mundanity of these catalogs can lull one into thinking that the killings (may they be imaginary or not) are just about the 'normal' reactions to such vacuity but then that jolts you wide awake and then you realize that what's crazy in the first place is all the surface glossing over of every single thing.
"I'll take what he comes up with next, even if everything's just plucked out from imagination, which if you think about it, is more colorful, brutal and movie-like and therefore greater."
–> I like this but one question, isn't imagination still grounded, one way or another, in reality so in the end you're still entranced by reality only more 'creatively' depicted/curated? Just a thought.
Reading through this again, I realize how wrong I am indeed on so many things such as in thinking that this is supposed to be straightforward. I think I AM trying to be clever about it which I noticed has become a defense for coming up with these wrong perceptions on books and things. Because of course the guys aren't supposed to be identified and there's a reason for that, that they're all so similar and unremarkable and Bateman/Ellis seems to want to point that out by mixing them up. But I could be right hehe.
The mundanity of these catalogs can lull one into thinking that the killings (may they be imaginary or not) are just about the 'normal' reactions to such vacuity…
-I wish I could appreciate this interpretation because I really couldn't figure out how that relates to the graphicness of the murders because sometimes I can't see past them and I can't see how his wild imagination can also be the mind that talks about all those clothes, but I'm thinking he's really psychotic like that and that he could both talk clothes and killing at the same time.
– I just thought that maybe it was a little trite to have things turn out to be things that only happen in his mind though as I recall this Miss Manners quote kind of gave it away although towards the end, Bateman monologues about how he's not too different from other people, our experiences are probably the same, etc, and that based from that, he may be saying that all these are just imaginary and he's saying that we're also capable of thinking of lurid things we'd do had we been the type of people who always speak their mind. But you have a point. 🙂
Jayclops says:
There's really nothing like it. It is the first Ellis book I've read, and I think, just rightly so. When all the financial crisis brouhaha was at the pinnacle of discussions, I just can't help but be reminded of AmPsycho. It's like an indictment of what the 80s was about, a kind of prophesy of the chaos to come. At best, it can be read as an allegory of these troubled times, and even our troubled fate as humanity, though in a weirder, deeper sense.
Yes, i think there's nothing like it but i don't think it was BEE's intent to be socially relevant, etc. I think he just really lived that period and found a voice to poke fun or mock that period.
At best, it can be read as an allegory of these troubled times, and even our troubled fate as humanity, though in a weirder, deeper sense.
-nice. and he did this through the voice of a murderer/social commentarist, Bateman, maybe even unintentionally. 🙂


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