Month: December 2023

A Christmas Story Christmas

My mother, Chris, and I watched A Christmas Story Christmas. We watched it on youtube. Chris had been wanting to see it for two years now. It has Peter Billingsley, Erinn Hayes, River Drosche, Julianna Layne, Julie Hagerty, Scott Schwartz, Zack Ward, Ian Petrella, and Henry Miller in it.

Big Warning: there is a sad part. Spoiler Below.

In this movie, Ralphie is grown up with kids of his own. His parents were supposed to come to visit, but he gets a call from his mother saying his father had died. So they go back to his hometown. His mother asks him to write an obit of his father, but he ends up writing a story which becomes a success. He was trying to make that Christmas a very special, but things went bad. But things turned good and he learned to not to force goodness that it naturally will come.

I loved this movie. Chris and my mother loved it too.

Treasure

My mother and I watched the movie Treasure. It was made in 2017 and we watched it on Tubi. It has Matt Mercurio, Ansley Gordon, Meghan Colleen Moroney,
John Hardy, Rebecca Blair, Wayne DeBary, and Liz M. Day in it.

Big Warning: happy and sad tears. Spoiler below.

In this movie, a girl named Erica steals a bottle of vodka with her friend. They go to a party where a guy she knows gives her a pill that makes her high. High and drunk she goes searching for her friend, but doesn’t find her. She decides to leave and runs off the road. A police officer tries to help her. Her father tells her that she won’t have to do any jail time, but she has to do community service. But she did violate her community service once. Her job is to serve a soup kitchen. She meets a geocacher. He introduces her to the world of geocaching and she ends up loving it. Her so-called friend doesn’t like it. (By the way, my mother says it looks like fun. I agree.) Later on she becomes the chef of the soup kitchen.

One thing that I didn’t like this movie is that they keep hinting about a big geocach at the beach, but Erica had made a box of stuff and named in honor of the homeless man who dies. I want to know what was in the original box. They never said. But I did like the movie. My mother liked the movie too. Next week I’m watching Soylent Green.

Wool/Silo

I finished listening Wool by Hugh Howey. This is the first book of a book series called Silo. There is a tv show based on the book series called Silo. It’s on Apple TV. I did watch the show and I will talk about it below. Hugh Howey also wrote Beacon 23 which is also a tv show on MGM+. I am currently watching it and it’s not like the book, but it’s still good.

Big Warning: there is lots of violence and sad parts.  Spoiler Below.

In this book, people are living in a silo. The silo is hundreds of feet underground. There is staircases leading down. No elevators. People have different jobs on different levels. A murder happens and a woman alerts the sheriff who lives and works at the top. The woman is named Juliet and she works on the bottom level. She works the machines which helps power the silo. The man who was murdered was her boyfriend. Her boyfriend had ideas to expand the silo and he was killed because those ideas were not allowed. People who say they want to go outside, they are sent to their deaths outside and they clean the sensors which shows the outside in windows around the silo. They say they won’t clean the sensors, but they do because there is a video screen showing a fake landscape. They clean because they think the fake landscape is real and they think people need to see it. The sheriff’s wife saw this fake landscape on a computer file which was forbidden. She believed it and she said she wanted to clean. The sheriff’s grief got to him and he decided to clean. They both died for nothing. Before he went to clean, he requested Juliet to be sheriff. The mayor agrees for her to be sheriff, but something terrible happens. The mayor is poisoned. The deputy thinks the poison was meant for him. (I think it was meant for the both of them because the man who killed the mayor didn’t want Juliet to be sheriff.)  Then the deputy died. He was in love with the mayor and the grief overtook him. (In the show, he was beaten to death.) A man who was supposed to have been sheriff became deputy and the man who killed the mayor became the new mayor. Juliet was looking into files that she wasn’t supposed to and she was sent to clean.  But she figured out about the fake landscape and she didn’t clean!! Gasp!! She also had good heat tape (duct tape) on her suit. She walked over the hill!! Gasp!!  She found another silo!! Gasp!!  She found a lot of bodies outside and inside of that silo. The door of that silo was open a little bit and that is how she got in. She later meets a man she called Solo. But his name is Jimmy. They both find out kids were hiding in that silo also. It is later revealed that there are 50 silos. Meanwhile in her silo which is number 18, people started an uprising because there was no cleaning and many people were killed. A man who loves Juliet becomes a shadow for the man who killed the mayor. He runs the IT department of the silo and knows all the secrets to the beginnings of the silos. He finds out his shadow has forbidden ideas and he sends his shadow to clean. Juliet learns of this and goes back to Silo 18 and finds out the table has turned and the IT man is killed. The people of Silo 18 wants her to be mayor. She ends up accepting the job if the people of Silo 18 knows the truth of everything.

The differences of the book and show: 1. the shadow of the IT man is different man in the show. 2. In the show, Juliet’s boyfriend finds a hard drive that has files of a hidden tunnel. He commits suicide and he leaves a video which he says he found a door and he can’t open it. 3. Juliet shows the hard drive to the sheriff and she is later caught with it and that is why she is sent to clean in the show. 4. The IT man is nice to Juliet at first in the show. In the book, he is not nice.

I loved this book. It is scary to think this could happen. I’m listening to next Shift by Hugh Howey. It is the second book in the book series. 

Treasure Island 1973

I watched another animated Treasure Island movie. This one was made in 1973.I watched it on youtube. It has Richard Dawson, Davy Jones, Dal McKennon, Larry D. Mann, Jane Webb, and Larry Storch in it.

Big Warning: there is a little bit of violence. Spoiler Below.

In this version, there is a mouse who takes the treasure map from Billy Bones’ chest. They chase the mouse around until Jim tricks the mouse with rum to give up the map. There is no storm again. So Long John Silver doesn’t throw anyone overboard. Ben Gunn doesn’t ask for cheese, just passage home. The songs they sing are okay at first, but they get annoying later on in the movie.

I sorta liked this movie. Next week I’m watching Treasure.

Treasure Island 1971

I watched an animated Treasure Island movie. It was made in 1971. I watched it on youtube. It has Ron Haddrick, John Kingley, John Llewellyn, Bruce Montague, Brenda Senders, and Colin Tilley in it.

Big Warning: there is hints of violence. Spoiler Below.

This movie pretty much follows the book, but there is no storm and Long John Silver doesn’t throw someone overboard. There is no bullets drawn so it looks funny when some of pirates are killed.

I liked this movie. Next week I’m watching the last Treasure Island movie. It was made in 1973.

The Centre

I finished reading The Centre by  Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi.  I had read an article about the book in the magazine The Atlantic and it sounded so good I decided to put it on hold on Overdrive.

Big Warning: there is some disturbing parts.  Spoiler Below.

In this book, a woman named Anisa who is a translator. She meets a guy named Adam who can speak in many languages. They end up becoming a couple. He wouldn’t tell her how he knows all these languages, but on upon meeting her parents, he tells her that he went to a secret language school named The Centre. So she decides to go. She decides to learn German. She meets the manager there named Shiba. Shiba and Anisa becomes fast friends. She is told that she has listen to a man named Peter tell his life and she has to meditate. She does learn German, but she also has nightmares. She goes back home and translates a German book. She decides she wants to learn Russian next. She goes back to The Centre and listens to a woman named Anna tell her story. She translates a Russian book. But she really wants to know how the language learning works. In the end, she does find out the disturbing way The Centre works.

I loved this book. It did have leave you hanging at the end. Next I’m listening to Wool by Hugh Howey.

Treasure Planet 1982

I watched Treasure Planet (1982). It’s an animated Russian movie and most of the movie was dubbed. I watched it on youtube. It has Robert Axelrod, Robert V. Barron, Mike Reynolds, Joe Perry, and Tom Wyner.

Big Warning: there is some violence. Spoiler Below.

In this movie, a boy named Filipe meets Billy Bones. Billy Bones gives him the map and he takes it Commander Smollet. Commander Smollet tells Filipe that they need a crew and they get a crew through Long John Silver. The crew later are revealed to be robots. In the book and movies, there is a storm that takes place while they are going to Treasure Island. In this movie, the storm is a electrical storm and they go into a time travel portal which Filipe is Jim Hawkins. They do travel back to their present and they make it to Treasure Planet. The treasure though is a gem with the world’s past in it. Filipe ends up releasing it on earth.

I liked this movie. Next week I’m watching another animated Treasure Island movie. This one made in 1971.