I recently watched a great documentary called Man on Wire. It is the story of a tightrope walker named Philippe Petit, whose dream, nay, obsession was to tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center.
Read more "Man on Wire"Not my favorite movie, but it’s a sci-fi cult classic in large part for its dark, gritty portrayal of the future city. Is it better to burn twice as bright but only live half as long? Such was the fate of the replicants in Blade Runner, synthetic humanoid beings designed to do jobs that humans […]
Read more "Blade Runner"For me, Gattaca is both a favorite and a great movie. In a world where your genes are everything, there is one man who will defy the system and strive for his dream. Will he succeed? There is no gene for the human spirit.
Read more "Gattaca"I just finished the book Siddharta by Nobel Laureate, Hermann Hesse. For a book that’s only 150 pages or so, this book sure packs a punch. If you are at all interested in Eastern thought or Buddhism, I highly recommend this book. It brings up so many great ideas, some of which I’ll discuss below.
Read more "Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse"This is one of my favorite movies, though I wouldn’t call it great (see Favorite vs. Great article). Yeah, I’m a sucker for romantic comedies but what really gets me about 50 First Dates is the concept of being stuck in time. Summarizing the plot won’t ruin the movie, but if you are worried, stop […]
Read more "50 First Dates"I recently watched a great movie called Slumdog Millionaire. It is about a boy, Jamal Malik, who grows up in the slums and ends up on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. But this is not your typical rags-to-riches movie. He is not there for the money, and he isn’t a […]
Read more "Slumdog Millionaire"When I first watched Memento, I was blow away by its storytelling.
Read more "Memento"The Hyperion series consists of 4 books: Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion.
Read more "Hyperion series"Hundreds of years after the events of Ender’s Game in which humanity annihilated a sentient race, we find another planet with a sentient race that we call the “piggies.” A scientist studying them has been killed, and tensions are running high. Ender was the one who unwittingly ordered the previous xenocide, and he wants to […]
Read more "Speaker for the Dead"Here is a brief spoiler-free synopsis. In the near future, humanity encounters a bug-like alien race, and they promptly go to war. Humanity is grossly outnumbered and is losing badly. A savior is needed, and one is found: a boy named Ender Wiggin. He is brilliant but too kind-hearted. If humanity is to survive, he […]
Read more "Ender’s Game"
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