The Mechanic - Film (2011)

Jason Statham's very good at the roles he picks. It's unfortunate that they're all pretty much the same. Another action film, another 'assassin betrayed by his employer' scenario and more guns, bullets, bombs and explosions. The likable dry-witted working-man's (and woman's) James Bond character surfaces for another smack-fest.

If you're in the mood to be transported to the land of the single dimension hop aboard. Otherwise save your cash and an hour and a half of your life. Better yet watch the original with Charles Bronson the hard-faced epitome of cool. Yes, The Mechanic is a remake of sorts, although myself and many other Bronson fans would have preferred it to have started and ended in 1972. In the original also known as Killer of Killers, Bronson's character was just that; not just a double-crossed hired gun out for revenge.

Best Line - The wharfie trying to sell his boat:
You know you want it. Ain't no other lifetime but this. Want some advice? Follow what this tells you. It's trying' to tell you something. It's telling' you...you're homesick for a place you never been.

The Warriors Way - Film (2010)

The story of a warrior from a clan of swordsmen called the Sad Flutes who sets out to become the greatest swordsman of all time only to discover no satisfaction in it. He kills almost the entire enemy clan but in sparing a young baby girl, he puts himself at the top of his own clan's list of targets. He travels to America, the Wild West, in order to seek out an old friend and keep the girl safe, but discovers trouble there also.
Visually it is mesmerizing, the acting and the characters larger than life, and whilst the dialogue is a little predictable, if you like Martial Arts and Western films you'll probably dig it. I did. Kate Bosworth is Lynne (the fiery knife thrower), Geoffrey Rush is the enigmatic alcoholic Ron and Dong-gun Jang is Yang the swordsman. Tony Cox is good (as always) as the diminutive Circus ringleader 8-ball.

Best line -Danny Huston as The Colonel:
"See you in Hell little girl...wear something nasty"

The Famished Road

Title: The Famished Road
Author: Ben Okri
Context: African: Nigerian: Published 1991
Genre: Fiction / Fantastic Fiction
About:

"In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry." Life and death intermingled. There was no fear, only an understanding with the spirit world. Rebirth was common and many people looked forward to "birth" (death) with pleasure."

This is my favourite book and Ben Okri is my favourite author. Okri writes in such a way as to make few words paint vivid scenes. The dialogue is minimal but the characters are both complex and larger than life.

Okri finds beauty in poverty and struggle. The protagonist is Azaro who is an abiku (spirit child) whose companions want him to return to their realm of playful existence, but resists because of his love for his family.

The landscape and the language are surreal. Many characters balance on the brink of the known world and the unknown. Okri brings wonder to the most mundane of objects.

You do not so much read this book, as travel through it in a trance, transfixed by the incredible life of a small African child.

Summary: Incredible. Read it...Love it.

Extras:

• Won the Man Booker prize for fiction in 1991.
• This book was the inspiration for the track The Road Is Always Hungry on the Found Objects Self-Titled LP - the CD version also had a multimedia mixing sound toy based on the track.
• Thom Yorke of Radiohead says that this book was an influence on the track Street Spirit from the LP The Bends along with R.E.M. whom, he admits, has "ripped off left, right and centre for years and years and years (Third Way Magazine, October 11th 2004).