Ender’s Game
{4.5/5} “There’s too much at stake to let your unfiltered thoughts leave this station.” It’s the future. A race known as the Formics attacked Earth but Earth eventually defeated them. Another war is inevitable, so children with great tactical minds are taken to the orbiting Battle School to have their skills honed. A brilliant tactician […]
KW Symphony’s “John Williams & Spielberg”
I went to the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s performance of “John Williams and Spielberg.” What this means, of course, is that they played the music of John Williams that he composed for movies that Steven Spielberg directed. As I’ve noted recently, Williams is one of my favourite movie composers. Not all of his great scores are for Spielberg […]
Jack Reacher
{4.5/5} “There are four types of people who join the military. For some, it’s family trade. Others are patriots, eager to serve. Next you have those who just need a job. Than there’s the kind who want the legal means of killing other people.” A sniper kills five people, seemingly at random. They track him […]
Byzantium
{4/5} “If you lived with a secret, and the secret meant that you must always lie and be alone and you’d always lived that way, and yet you longed for change — what would you do?” Clara and Eleanor, mother and daughter, have been vampires for 200 years. They have to drink the blood of humans, so […]
Conviction
{4.5/5} “People don’t like to admit that they made a mistake.” Betty Anne works as a waitress but she’s also back at school studying law. Her brother Kenny was convicted of murder but she believes he’s innocent and she’s the only one who can help him. Betty Anne and Kenny have had a difficult life […]
Ancient Shores
{4.5/5} “Look… it wouldn’t really matter whether you were building it out at Alpha Centauri. There are only a few designs for a practical sailboat. Somebody somewhere built this, and I can guarantee you it wasn’t anyone we’ve ever heard of.” Tom, a farmer, discovers a boat buried in his field. The boat, once it’s […]
Much Ado About Nothing
{4.5/5} “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.” A group has gathered at Leonato’s estate — Leonato is Hero’s father and Beatrice’s uncle. Beatrice and Benedick engage in a battle of wits whenever they meet — each of them say they’ll never get married. Hero […]
Bridge to Terabithia
{4.5/5} “If you download any essay off of the Internet, you will be downloaded into detention.” Jess’s family doesn’t have a lot of money and he’s getting hand-me-downs from his sisters. Leslie is new to the area — she joins his school class, and then he discovers that she lives next door. Jess likes to […]
Mammoth
{4.5/5} “‘I also heard you’re trying to clone a mammoth. Anyway, knowing just those things about you, I asked myself what a man like you would want from a man like me. You offer me a fine meal’ — Matt gestured with his hamburger — ‘and then you casually ask if I believe time travel is possible. The conclusion I […]
The Greatest
{4.5/5} “Our senior year I took piano, and he had soccer, so we would pass each other every day after school in the exact same spot. And it became something I looked forward to. So much so that I could tell you all the days that he was absent because those were the days I […]