Singled Out

Just came home from the movies. Went to watch Ice Age 2, but since there were no seats left when we (a friend and me) arrived, we decided to attend Final Destination 3. The first movie in the Final Destination trilogy was good, a refreshing breeze through the horror/thriller genre. The sequel looked good in the trailer, but the movie itself kinda got very predictable and mellow towards the end. The ending felt as if it got slapped in at the very last minute. So my hopes for a good third piece weren't exactly very high.

But I was mistaken. FD3 wasn't that bad that I thought it would be. Good suspense, nice special effects, and a plotline that actually didn't look like a piece of Swish cheese (full of holes...). Although the movie's ending is highly predictable for anyone who has seen any one of the first 2 movies, you won't easily forsee how the movie will proceed towards that final destination. Not a bad accomplishment if you ask me.

Oh, if any producer or director should read this: Don't make a 4th one! Stop while you're ahead!


PS: I was also planning on writing some lines about how I felt seeing lots of happy couples at the theatre, but what use would it have? I felt sad, alone, even a bit angry...

I acknowledge my problem of not being able to let go of the past. There's nothing in the world I want more than that things would go back to be how they were about 10 months ago. But one day, I'll need to get over this one way or another. So I had a bad experience, but I'm not the only person in the world who isn't very lucky in love. And after all, for every bee there's a flower, right? I just haven't found mine yet...

... shopping addiction I have!

Last Thursday (Thursday's my day off at work) I had planned to go out and find some good books. I like to read, and I've almost devoured my personal little book collection, so I needed some new food for my eager mind. But alas, having cought a bad case of the flu, I had to postpone my trip. Since today is Thursday again, I decided to continue with the plans I made last week, and pay a visit to the magnificent bookshop De Slegte.

And it has been a fertile trip, to say the least. I came home with not less than 11 books, some written in Dutch, others in English. Amongst the huge collection De Slegte has to offer, I managed to find a paperback from Robert Ludlum, one of my favourite authors. And it's the original English version! (There is a God!!! )

Anyway, enough mindless rambling about my mediocre day, I'm off again to spend some more time on Vassa Island, brrrrr... (Read Death Show to know what I'm talking about )

If there is one movie that should stop your kids from ever wanting to backpack across Europe, than this movie must be Hostel, Quentin Tarantino's latest co-production. I've always loved Tarantino's work (who can forget Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill), so I had to see this movie.

Hostel claims to be "the scariest American movie in a decade, inspired by true events", and in one sense, that's true. Although there are some pretty gruesome scenes that will make your stomach turn, the movie shows that making a mere suggestion about what's happening offscreen can be more terrifying than actually showing it. Too bad that about halfway through the director seems to forget there's an actual storyline he wanted to follow, and the movie becomes a showcase of semi-realistic looking gore scenes. Byebye suggestion, welcome in-your-face horror. A missed opportunity, if you ask me.

This doesn't mean that Hostel is a bad movie, far from it. I'm pretty sure anyone who loves a scary movie will enjoy watching Hostel. Just don't expect too much of it as I did after seeing Tarantino's name on the movieposters, or you might be disappointed...

Yesterday I finished Cross of Honour, a rather fleshy (574 pages!) paperback thriller by David Hackworth which offers a unique look into the US army. Everyone who knows me, surely knows that I love to read good books. Preferably English books, not translations to my mothertongue (Dutch). For one simple reason: I believe a writer is much more able to express feelings and describe locations/situations in English language than any other language (at least from the ones I'm able to understand). And also, most translations to Dutch seem to be done by translators from the Netherlands and not from Belgium, resulting in the use of expressions and words that may seem alien to Belgian people.

Anyway, let's cut to the chase. Cross of Honour is a story about Alexander 'Sandy' Caine, a US soldier enlisted in a Special Forces team. A great carreer lies in front of him, but only one thing stands in his way: his cowardly father, who supposedly got his entire squad killed during the Vietnam war. During a secret mission in Somalia however, an old friend who served with Sandy's father, tells him that his father wasn't the coward everyone thinks he was, but a genuine hero. Baffled by this revelation, Sandy decides to dig a bit deeper into it. And with the help of a befriended journalist, Abby Mancini, he slowly unravels the real thruth about his father. But the road to enlightenment isn't easy, and a lot of important people will try to stop him from finding what he seeks...

The book has a great start, picturing our main character during missions throughout Somalia. The author was able to portray everything in such a way that you don't need a lot of imagination to be able to mentally enter the world he describes. At moments, the book is not for the faint of hearted: Whenever someone gets killed, you can expect a gruesome and detailed description of the character's death. There are also some steamy sex scenes which may seem a bit out of place sometimes, but they add that extra bit of tension to the overal mood of the story.

Although the story starts out rather slow, bit by bit the story unravels itself to the reader, adding new characters and plot twists at a regular pace. Not everything may seem clear from the beginning, but by the end, everything falls into place, revealing the bigger picture. For example, it took me a couple of chapters until I realised that "Sandy" had to be a short version of the name "Alexander". Both the main character and his father are called Alexander, hence my confusion at times.

All taken into consideration, Cross of Honour is a descent book with a good storyline. If you like thrillers and love the army and guns, be sure to pick up a copy of it. I'm pretty sure you'll have a good time reading it, as I did...