Harry Potter

Rest In Peace Alan Rickman

Peter Germany Movies , , , , ,

I consider myself a movie fan, but its only been over the last few years that I’ve really become passionate about movies. Something I have always known though is that Alan Rickman was a fantastic actor, and today it was announced that he’s passed away.

The first thing I saw him in was Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Rickman really stole the show with his performance. It’s been a long time since I saw it and the first time I saw it I was only young, but I remember not being able to take my eyes off of him when he was on screen.

Then I saw Die Hard. Now at the time I didn’t realise that it was the same actor but I really remember the cool way he played the role of Hans Gruber and especially how he slipped from being this nasty piece of work to faking being an american when John McClane stumbles across him while Gruber is unarmed.

The next role I’ll remember him for is as Serverus Snape in the Harry Potter films. Throughout these eight movies I think we saw Rickman pull off what has become an iconic performance. From the really heart wrenching parts of his performance to his grumpy school master performance I think its such an amazing performance especially when you get to that final film.

The movie I will remember him mainly, and most fondly, for though will be Kevin Smith’s Dogma. Rickman played the Metatron. If I remember rightly he was basically an angle who was the voice of God (because if God spoke to anyone mortal their heads would explode). Rickman in Dogma is at his snarky best. He throws off ones liners like there’s not tomorrow. He does tender and caring as good as he did the snark. I think Dogma is a film where he could see how much fun it was going to be and just threw himself into it and you can see that in his performance.

Alan Rickman was a great actor, and from f what I’ve heard, he was a great person as well. My thoughts go out to his family and loved ones. I, like countless others, only knew him from what we saw when he was doing what he clearly loved; and for that I just want to say thank you Mr. Rickman, you gave us some iconic characters and you will live on through them.

Rest In Peace Alan Rickman

What I Want To Read In 2015

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I didn’t read any where near enough last year. I can think of a half a dozen books that I really wanted to read but just didn’t get around to (Wool, Pandemic, Feed, The Man in the High Castle, Soul Asylum and The Earthsea Quartet). Those are just the ones off the top of my head. Lets add in some shorter pieces by Dan Abnett (set in his Gaunt’s Ghosts series) and J.C. Hutchins novella series, The 33.
Then I’ve got novels by Justin R. Macumber, Terry Mixon, Paul E. Cooley, Armand Rosamillia, Mimi Black and Christopher Stocking. (Dan Abnett also has a full length Gaunt’s Ghosts novel out this year too, yes I’m excited!).
I’d also like to read the second Lincoln Rhyme book, The Coffin Dancer by Jeffery Deaver and the first Harry Potter book read early on this year as well.
I’d really like to get start on the fourth Dark Tower book as I finished the third recently, but as it’s taking me a while to get through this series by Stephen King I’m a little reluctant to make a start on Wizard and Glass while I’ve got so many other books that I’m itching to read. That said, if I get through enough by the mid-point of the year then I may dive into it. I was thinking about giving it a go as an audiobook but these Dark Tower books seem so complex I’m not sure I’ll absorb them as much as I would do if I read them. I am a big fan of audiobooks, but I do miss the odd thing while listening (interruptions while at work) and also, I’ve read the previous three books and I think it’ll feel weird not reading the other four.

These are all books I’ve already got, either on my bookshelf or on my Kindle app or my iBooks app.

I will be listening to a lot of audiobooks this year as well. I’ve got eight or nine in my Audible library already.

I’ve set a Goodreads target of 60 books this year. With the audiobooks, comic books and the shorter pieces I’m planning on reading I think I’ll manage that. If I’m well ahead of target early on I may increase it but I’ll see how I’m doing.

Am I The Only One Not Reading 50 Shades?

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Last weekend my girlfriend brought 50 Shades Of Grey. Now aside from me rolling my eyes a few times when I see the women on my Facebook proclaim what a great book it is I have paid little attention to this series of books. I’m not one of these haters of the series because of its genre or it’s success, although from what I’ve heard it is just porn for ladies. It doesn’t bother me though, nor do the Twilight (although vampires DO NOT SPARKLE!) books or any of these other massively successful books that sweep across the globe from time to time. The first one that I really noticed was the Harry Potter books but like 50 shades and Twilight I’ve never read any of the Potter books and I doubt that I ever will. For no other reason then they are not my cup of tea. In no way do they appeal to me but that does not mean i don’t think they are a good thing. The Potter books have got a whole generation reading and I remember Lou Anders, the editor at Pyr books, stating that surveys indicate that a lot of the Potter generation are moving from the Potter books once they wrapped up and started reading outside the Potter universe. Now surely the Twilight fans will seek out other books to read once the books wrap up. This is why I think these books are a good thing, because they are getting people reading. Even if only a handful of people go looking for further books then surely that must be considered a success?

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Peter Germany Horror, Insperation, Movies, Writing , , , , ,

I love this little time on a sunday morning, Just an hour or so where I literally sit and chill out.  I may write a blog post or write a little fiction  but nothing to strenuous until at least 9:30.  Although I have to put my room back in order this morning before going off out to see my girlfriend (I’m hoping to persuade her to go and see the new Batman film 😀 )  I’d like to do a little writing before I get stuck in too because I want to get in the habit again.  When I was in Oxford talking to Cinta Garcia (http://cintascorner.weebly.com/ ) she said to me that it takes just three weeks to get into a habit so I’m going to make sure that I write every day for the next three weeks.  Normally I don’t write on a saturday and sunday due to work and my social life but I’ll make sure that I get a little written each day so it gets ingrained into my day.  I have been slacking on my writing recently, I just have not had the urge to really dive into my writing of late.  A few endeavours get going and then fizzle out or I have something that knocks me off my pace like when I got ill two weeks ago and it totally knocked me off my train of thought with the story.  I had a severe dental issue which was pretty painful and the painkillers that I was on knocked me out of it for a few days.  I was getting through my work days and that was about it but I was halfway through an action sequence so I’m pretty confident that this little sequence did not end how I had seen it but I’m quite happy with how it’s turned out now.

I watched Woman In Black last night when I was around some friends and I’ve got to say that I really enjoyed it.  I’ve only seen the first Harry Potter film so I have not got this mental perception of Daniel Radcliffe as only ever being Harry Potter.  He was very  good in this movie and the film itself is very chilling.  Dont get me wrong, I love a good gore fest but this sort of horror film is right up my street.  It’s got that jump factor to it, those moments where your heart jumps out of your chest and you need to be sharp-eyed to see the little bits here and there.  That’s what a horror movie is to me, its meant to make the watcher tense and feel for the character.  Near the end of the movie Radcliffe’s character is trying to make something right and  I got goose bumps.  That’s the first time a film has got that sort of reaction out of me in a long time so I will definitely be buying it soon.