Category: Two and a Half Stars

Book Review: The Only Woman in the Room – by Marie Benedict

On By Norbert HauptIn Audio Book, Books, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was a young Austrian Jewish woman, born in 1914. She grew up in a well-to-do family with a doting father who taught her critical thinking and scientific methodology. She was very smart but also beautiful. In her youth, she was attracted to acting, first in motion pictures and then in the theater.

The story starts in 1933, when Hedy was just 19 years old. While on stage playing an Austrian empress, a mystery suiter showered her with elaborate displays of roses night after night after the performances. It turns out the suiter was Austrian arms manufacturer Friedrich (Fritz) Mandl, who was at the time Austria’s richest man. Not only was he a businessman, but also well connected at the highest level of Austrian politics. At that time, Hitler had just come to power in Germany and his antisemitic policies were feared in Austria. When Fritz proposed marriage, Hedy’s parents advised her to accept, both to not upset a powerful man by refusing his wishes, but also to be a protector to Jews. They sensed that they might need it.

Very quickly, starting even during the wedding preparations, Hedy realized that her future husband was extremely possessive, jealous and both emotionally and physically abusive. She had sold her life to protect her family. While married to Fritz, however, she was exposed to high level discussions about arms developments, including shortcomings and problems with guidance systems for torpedoes. Posing as a demure wife, never speaking, she was always the only woman in the room, but the listened very carefully and learned.

Eventually her outwardly opulent life became an unbearable prison, and she escaped to America. There she restarted her acting career, taking on the name of Hedy Lamarr, in order not to seem Jewish. There was strong antisemitism in Hollywood during the 1930s. She quickly became a movie star.

But that also was not enough for her. In an effort to help the American military with its lacking guidance technology for torpedoes, she and composer George Antheil developed a frequency-hopping communication system intended to help prevent enemy interference with radio-guided torpedoes. Their patented work later became an important precursor to technologies used in modern wireless communications.

The book The Only Woman in the Room is based on Hedy Lamarr’s life, but the author fictionalizes dialogue, private thoughts, motivations, and many scenes, so you should not read it as a literal biography.

Her actual life was even more colorful than is depicted in the book. If you are interested, you can look up her Wikipedia entry here. She was married a whopping six times and divorced every time. She was even arrested several times for (believe it or not) shoplifting. Eventually she passed away at age 85 in Florida in 2000.

Hedy later wrote an autobiography titled Ecstasy and Me ghostwritten by Leo Guild and Cy Rice. Later she disavowed the book and condemned the book’s contents as “fictional, false, vulgar, scandalous, libelous and obscene,” and claimed it was “not her book.”

To supplement your reading, you might also be interested in the Wikipedia entry for Fritz Mandl, who also had a colorful life at the fringes of fascism.

Book Review: The Cuckoo’s Calling – by Robert Galbraith

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Cormoran Strike is a private detective in London. He is a former soldier who lost his lower leg in a landmine in Afghanistan. He is deeply in debt. His detective business is faltering. His long-time girlfriend has dumped him and he is sleeping on a cot in his office.

In walks John Bristow, a lawyer with a prestigious law firm in London. His younger sister was a London supermodel who presumably committed suicide a few months earlier by jumping from her apartment on the third floor of a luxury building. John believed it was murder and wanted Cormoran to follow some leads that he provided to that effect. But most importantly, he handed him an envelope with a bundle of cash as a down payment for the services. Cormoran couldn’t pay the rent, so he didn’t have much of a choice.

Even though the police ruled it a suicide, Cormoran quickly finds circumstances that make him think otherwise. In a world of supermodels, big-ego designers, hot-shot lawyers, movie producers and all their entourage, he gets a taste of a world that ordinary citizens like him can only watch in the tabloids. The intrigues mount.

The Cuckoo’s Calling is a whodunnit crime mystery and nothing else. It is meticulously crafted like a crime story has to be. The storytelling is excellent, it keeps the suspense. The protagonist is a likable character.

Robert Galbraith is actually a pseudonym of J. K. Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter books. This is her debut mystery story that introduces Detective Cormoran Strike. She wanted this new line of books to stand on its own and not be affected by her fame from Harry Potter. There are currently 8 books in the series, with a planned total of 10. The Cuckoo’s Calling is book 1. 

It’s a very well written story with an intricate plot, obviously by a very experienced author. It is great entertainment. But that’s all. I didn’t learn anything, I just had fun reading. While I am giving this book 2.5 stars, making it a good read, I will not read any more of the Strike series in the interest of time. Too many books, too little time!

If you like crime novels, you’ll like this one and, I can only assume, the rest of the series.

Movie Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

I read the book Remarkably Bright Creatures a couple of years ago and here was my review. As it often is with movies based on successful books, the story becomes more shallow and big sections of plot are bypassed. However, the visuals sometimes enhance the experience. So it is with this movie.

The story is told from the viewpoint of an octopus named Marcellus, who was rescued after an injury some 4 years earlier and has lived most of his life in a tank in an aquarium in the Pacific Northwest. Marcellus observes the humans who visit him, and he befriends the cleaning lady Tuva (Sally Field).  While he philosophizes about his own life, he also observes the humans in his orbit, recognizes their misery, and plots to help them. That’s a pretty challenging task for an octopus that is about as close to humans as a space alien would be.

In the end, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a feel-good movie that draws out a few tears at the end and makes us feel good about the simple things in life, like a picnic in the yard, surrounded by good friends, neighbors and family.

And as I am wont to do, I will put in my English language lesson: The English plural of octopus is octopodes, often also octopuses, not “octopi” which we often read. The word comes from Greek, and the original plural form is actually “octopodes.” The Latin word for “octopus” is actually “polypus.” There is no “i” in any form of octopus.

I have written a lot about octopodes in this blog. Put the word “octopus” into the Seach box and see for yourself.

2.5

Movie Review: The Christophers (2025)

On By Norbert HauptIn Art, Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Julian Sklar (Ian Kellen) is a once famous and somewhat notorious (and obnoxious) artist whom his children expect to die soon. They do not have a loving or even respectful relationship with their father, and as one would expect in that situation, he thinks of them as losers and grifters.

Julian has a number of famous works in his portfolio. “The Christophers” are a series of paintings he did more than thirty years ago when he had a love-affair with a Christopher. There was a series of nine more drafts of Christophers in the works when they had a bad falling out. It appears that Julian never got over that, and he never finished the 9 remaining paintings. They were sitting somewhere in his attic.

His children thought of hiring a forger to finish the paintings in Julian’s style without his knowledge, hoping they would be worth millions once he died and there would be something valuable they could cash in as an inheritance. They find Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who is an artist, an art restoration specialist and also an expert forger. Lori reluctantly accepts the gig and goes to meet the artist. She expected to meet a senile and ill old man, but that’s not quite what she encounters.

The Christophers is a quiet movie that I, as an artist myself, enjoyed tremendously. There really are only two actors, Lori and Julian, with the two children being supporting actors. This whole movie felt like a play. It could be performed on a single set stage.

Michaela Coel has very striking features. From the beginning of the movie on I saw her as one of the female aliens in Avatar, and I could not shake that sentiment. She was born in 1987 as Michaela Boakye-Collinson to Ghanaian parents and brought up in England. Both she and Ian Kellen did an excellent job acting in this movie, and I would not be surprised to see either of them nominated for awards.

The Christophers is a movie about the inner and outer world of an artist, the artistic community and their lifestyle, and the lasting effects our youth and its loves and passions have on the rest of our lives. There are some things in life we just don’t get over, and sometimes it may take until the very last days for us to realize what really mattered.

Movie Review: Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Time Travel, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Aliens have attacked the earth. Their military superiority is unmatched by anything humanity can come up with.

Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a public relations officer who is, against his own will, thrown into front-line combat in a suicide mission. Once in battle, he dies within minutes. But without explanation, he wakes up a day before the battle, and has to relive that day. He dies again, the wakes up again. He is basically a time traveler, reliving the same day, sort of like Groundhog Day, the famous 1993 movie with Bill Murray. Each time he learns from the previous death experience and lives a little longer, adjusting his strategy as he goes. He teams up with another fellow time traveler and warrior, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) and the two team up, looping in time, for their and mankind’s survival.

As the plot develops, we learn that it’s the aliens who actually are able to control time, causing the time loops Cage and Vrataski have to grapple with.

The application of time travel concepts in this movie is definitely unique, except for the fact that it’s basically the same concept as applied in Groundhog Day, where the protagonist, without explanation, has to relive the same day over and over again.

Edge of Tomorrow is definitely a time travel movie worth watching.

Movie Review – The Rip (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

A drug enforcement unit of the Miami police conducts a raid on what they expect to be a routine drug stash house. The two leaders are Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) and Detective Sergeant J.D. Bryne (Ben Affleck). The two are good friends and have relied on each other for many years in the force. During the raid, they discover not just a stash of drugs and some cash, they uncover a hidden cache of millions of dollars of cartel money.

With so much money in play, greed, paranoia and conflicting loyalties quickly permeate the team, and spill over to other units. Everyone start mistrusting everyone else and the group quickly fractures. Even the two friends start losing trust in each other.

The Rip is a movie about cops, all kinds of cops. Local Miami police, drug enforcement cops, FBI, the federal DEA, you name it, they are in this movie. The cops are the good guys, and the bad guys, all at the same time. This is a gritty crime thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The story has holes in it, the script is somewhat confusing at times, but the action is riveting and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck definitely carry the movie – from the first minute to the last.

Movie Review: Sarah’s Oil

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Sarah Rector is an 11-year-old black girl born in the Oklahoma Indian Territory in the early 1900, when the oil barons ruled. Due to her heritage, she gets a land grant. While most such land grants are useless to the recipients, Sarah has a hunch that there is oil on her land.

She is smart, educated and courageous. First she has to convince her parents that she wants to find oil. Then she has to find partners who help her drill for it. It’s not an easy undertaking for a young girl, and many wolves and sharks try to swindle her out of her property. Eventually, when they are not successful, they start to threaten crimes. But she prevails, and at age 11 she becomes a millionaire and gets fame as “the richest colored girl in the world.”

Supposedly this movie is based on a true story. Much of the way her life is portrayed in the movie is dramatization, but the core elements are true. The real Sarah did move to Kansas City and lived a wealthy life. But this is not told in the movie: she lost much of her wealth again in the Great Depression.

This is a feel-good movie where we see the underdog prevail, and deservedly so.

 

Book Review: The Last Stop Video Shop – by Keith A. Pearson

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Kevin Kershaw is a divorced man around 50 years old with a son from whom he drifted away and an ex-wife who needed to get away from him. He works joylessly in an insurance company office, accepting,  rejecting and challenging insurance claims by their policy holders. He does not have any real friends and he has lost his spunk to the point where he is considering ending it all.

One day, by pure coincidence, he finds a video shop in an out of  the way alley. Yes, in 2025, when we all stream Netflix, there is a shop full of VHS tapes. Kevin walks inside and gets to know the shopkeeper, an old and mysterious gentleman named Marty. He pulls out a VHS tape with Kevin’s name on it and gives it to him. There is a viewing room in the back of the shop with a small TV and an aging VHS player.

To his surprise, the short video is about Kevin himself when he was a child, showing him in scenes with his late mother. The shots were taken about his life where nobody was there to tape them at the time. It’s impossible, magical, but there it was. He soon finds out that there may be more tapes in future days, if he bothers to come back. And of course, he does.

The Last Stop Video Shop is a very slow moving story about a very boring life. For a while I found it hard to read, but it picked up the pace as it went along. There were eventually some uplifting experiences, as Kevin took the lessons from the videos seriously and made incremental improvements, which not only shaped his life, but those around him that the cared for.

 

 

2.5 stars

Book Review: Delta-V by Daniel Suarez

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Science, Science Fiction, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

About 10 years in our current future, in the mid 2030ies, a number of private companies as well as the usual government agencies, like NASA and ESA, are trying to get into the business of mining asteroids. The goal is to kick off an entire new economy, including manufacturing in space. One of the biggest problems with space development is that every liter of water, every chicken wing to eat, every computer, literally everything we need in space has to be lifted from the surface of Earth into orbit at an exorbitant cost. How exorbitant?

During the Space Shuttle era, it cost about $54,000 per kilogram of mass. That’s the cost of lifting one liter of water into space. That’s because the Space Shuttle used expendable rockets. Now, with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, a reusable vehicle, the cost has come down dramatically, to about $1,400 per kilogram. Still a huge cost, considering how much material it takes to build a space station to live in.

If asteroids can be mined for metals, water, oxygen, the ingredients to make rocket fuel, and everything else we need, those raw materials are already in space and the cost to deliver them where they are needed, like in factories in lunar orbit or earth orbit, is much lower. Clearly, whoever can deliver materials in space to space is going to get very, very rich.

In Delta-V, this is the basic story. A renegade billionaire secretly builds a space ship outfitted to mine a near-earth asteroid. He recruits and trains an elite group of astronauts and sends them into deep space for the first mining mission.

Things do not go as planned, the billionaire turns out to be a fraud, and the minors are stranded in deep space with no obvious way to get home.

Delta-V is a well-written story of our near future in the current environment, where we are transitioning from government-controlled missions to private enterprises. I learned a lot about the technicalities of asteroid mining. For instance, I was always naively assuming that astronauts could just land an an asteroid and start digging. I didn’t realize that the surface of many asteroids is highly toxic to humans and damaging to electronics, so it’s not that simple. While the premise of the novel is fairly far-fetched, it taught me many things I didn’t know about the technicalities of asteroid mining, including how to get there, how to get back, and what’s involved in being there, let alone that the minimum trip duration is at least four years.

Overall, Delta-V is an entertaining story – and – you might have guessed it, there is a sequel.

 

Movie Review: East of Wall

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Sometimes my wife takes me on a “blind movie date.” I went to see East of Wall last weekend without knowing anything about the movie or even its title. She walked me into the theater with my eyes closed.

Wall is a town in South Dakota off of I-90. In 1978, I drove west on I-90 across the country and I remember seeing billboards for “Wall Drug” for hundreds of miles, like “Have You Dug Wall Drug” and the like. After such a billboard every 20 or 30 miles, literally for hundreds of miles, once you get to Wall, you HAVE TO stop and see what it’s all about.

I just googled it, and here is a street view picture today:

Even 50 years ago, it looked like this, and after all the hype of the anticipation, built over two days of driving, at the end it was just a drug store with a cafe, gift shop and other touristy stuff.  But hey, it worked. I went to Wall, South Dakota, I stopped at Wall Drug, I don’t know what I bought, if anything, but I am writing about it almost 50 years later in a movie review. The campaign obviously worked.

East of Wall plays on a ranch in the South Dakota Badlands, well, east of Wall. Tabatha Zimiga is a young, tattooed woman with a bunch of teenagers, some of her own, and some wayward ones whom she has taken in to live with her, mostly girls. Her fiancé, John, tragically died by suicide a few years before, just after their youngest son was born. Tabatha had her first son when she was 16, followed by a daughter, Porshia, when she was 18. She herself was a child of a teenage mom. Her mom still lives with her on her broken down ranch. She struggles to make ends meet.

Tabatha is somewhat of a horse whisperer. She knows horses, and the runs a horse rescue ranch, training the horses, having her teenage girls exhibition-ride them at auctions, and selling them via TikTok. Her oldest daughter, Porshia, is her star rider. She has won many riding competitions, and all her siblings and step siblings look up to her as their star.

In comes a rich cowboy from Texas who wants to buy her ranch and spruce it up to make it successful. Will his ways work and will Tabatha fall for him?

As I watched East of Wall for the first 30 minutes, I didn’t know what to make of it. There were a lot of clips from smartphones ready for TikTok, of teenagers riding horses. There were teenagers hanging out doing not much of anything on the junk-strewn ranch. There were shots of rodeos and horse auctions. There were a bunch of women smoking and cussing and hanging around.

It turns out, East of Wall is played mostly by non-actors playing themselves. Tabatha Zimiga is playing herself in her own life on her own ranch. Porshia Zimiga is Tabatha’s real-life daughter. The teenagers hanging out at the ranch are the real teenagers the real Tabatha has taken in to raise along with her own.

East of Wall is a living testament to healing through grit. It shows how Tabatha and her ranch became a sanctuary amid grief, hopelessness and despair, both for young people and for horses. It portrays an unconventional family, a home built on mentorship and trust, freedom and life itself. The horses become symbols of strength and loyalty. East of Wall is a Western, but focused on women, on community and on emotion.

Book Review: Never Flinch – by Stephen King

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

When you pick up a Stephen King novel you know you will be entertained. King is an excellent story-teller, and his characters always come out clear and real. The amount of detail is almost overwhelming, like watching an IMAX film in a high-resolution theater. You are right in the middle of it.

In Never Flinch, King tells the intertwining story of one serial killer with daddy issues, and one vigilante religious nut who is out to silence a woman’s rights activist by trying to kill her. The plot lines are intricate and carefully crafted. The story takes place in Iowa (mostly) in today’s world.

King has always been good about weaving in current events. Trump is in the story, so is JD Vance, the characters use the latest technologies, iPhones, social media and web sites. You can tell on every page that this plays right now. It becomes real.

The story itself is a crime thriller. He narrates it in the present tense, switching between the different characters and going deep into their psyches. King highlights the issues of religious zealous activism, people damaged by their  incompetent and outright abusive parents and the matter of abortion rights in the age of post-Dobbs.

I gave it only 2.5 stars for several reasons: The story itself, while it gave me some insight, didn’t really teach me anything. It’s just a thriller. I found no redeeming literary value. But this is Stephen King. He wrote many books that were much better overall, and this one was okay, but definitely not even in his top five, in my opinion.

In summary, Never Flinch is superb, vivid and masterfully told entertainment, and entertainment only.

Book Review: The Elephant Whisperer – by Lawrence Anthony

On By Norbert HauptIn Animal Intelligence, Books, Nature, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

With a group of friends we are in the process of planning a wilderness tour to Africa. One of the ladies mentioned that she had read The Elephant Whisperer and that had made her really interested. So I picked up the book.

Promptly, it put the bug in me too.

The author, Lawrence Anthony, is an animal conservationist. He bought a game reserve in Zululand in South Africa, named Thula Thula. There are no wild elephants left in that part of Africa. When he received a call about a small herd of elephants that had turned rogue and needed a home, he could not refuse. If he hadn’t accepted, the elephants would have been put down.

He took them in, not knowing how difficult it would be to host a herd of wild elephants and all the challenges that come with it. In the years that followed, he created a unique personal bond with the herd, and particularly with Nana, the matriarch.

Reading the book, I realized I had no idea what wild elephants were like, how dangerous they were, and how challenging it was to coexist with them. It definitely helped me prepare myself mentally for a trip into the bush, and I will have a completely different appreciation of the giant animals than I would have had before. I am now looking forward to the trip, which won’t be until about May 2026.

The Elephant Whisperer is a must-read book for anyone interested in animal preservation and protection, game reserves, animal intelligence, nature, and Africa.

Movie Review: The Six Triple Eight (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half Stars, War1 Comment

During World War II in Europe, mail delivery from and to the troops in the war became spotty at first and eventually was completely halted. Entire aircraft hangers filled up with undelivered bags of mail with no hope in sight. This demoralized the soldiers, who did not get any mail from home, and also created horrific anxiety when parents and relatives at home didn’t hear from their sons and daughters overseas in the war.

The 6888th Battalion was an all-black Woman’s Army Corps, with 855 female soldiers, commanded by Major Adams. The military brass didn’t believe women, let alone black woman, could meaningfully serve in the war. The soldiers faced open racial discrimination and abuse not only from common soldiers, but all the way from the general corps. When the 6888th was mobilized to Europe to sort and deliver the mail, nobody believed it was possible and they were set up to fail.

They were given six months to do the job, and Major Adams agreed to get it done. Little did she know that there were 17 million pieces of mail involved,  entire mountains of letters.

The Six Triple Eight is a historical drama with appearances of a few major actors in minor roles, including Dean Norris, who we know as Hank in Breaking Bad, as General Halt, Susan Sarandon as Eleonor Roosevelt and Sam Waterston as President Roosevelt. Also notable is Oprah Winfrey as Mary McLeod Bethune, the famous civil rights activist and member of the inner circle of Roosevelt. Kerry Washington does a remarkable job playing Major Adams.

This movie is about racial discrimination and the challenges black woman faced in the mid 20th century. There are a lot of heroes in the story, and eventually the underdogs succeed against all odds. It’s a bit of a tear jerker and overall a quite satisfying movie.

Movie Review: Carry On (2024)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

When we searched for a Christmas Movie on Christmas Eve, we found only the old and cheesy ones that we view every year, or the ones with bad or drunk Santas, and of course a lot of Christmas chick flicks. Then we stumbled upon Carry On.

The first five minutes were boring, and I thought I might not make it very far into this movie. Then it picked up, sort of like Die Hard did, when very bad guys started showing up.

It’s Christmas Eve at the LAX airport, one of the busiest travel days of the year. The TSA team is getting a pep talk from their boss Phil Sarkowski (Dean Norris, who we know as Agent Schrader in Breaking Bad). Everyone is assigned to their stations. The rookies, the ones with one bar on their epaulettes, get to do the grunt work and interact with the public, while the leads, the ones with two bars, man the scanners. Young agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) has not received any promotion in three years. His girlfriend, who also works at the airport, is pregnant. He knows he needs to get a promotion, and the lobbies Phil to let him work the scanner for the day. Phil gives in.

It just happens to be a day when a group of terrorists try to smuggle a bomb onto a plane. They were expecting another agent at the machine whom they were going to blackmail. When Ethan shows up, things get complicated quickly, both for the terrorists as well as the TSA. The action escalates quickly, and soon I found myself riveted. The entire plot line is reminiscent of Die Hard, when a single hapless hero is forced to take on a band of ruthless terrorists.

Carry On is full of action and suspense, but there are also some very serious plot holes. When they come around they are obvious and you just have to look the other way. At the end, I was surprised how much I enjoyed watching this movie. I am not sure how realistic the TSA action was represented, but I am sure I will never see the TSA guys at the airport quite the same way.

Book Review: A Little Less Broken – by Marian Schembari

On By Norbert HauptIn Books, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Marian Schembari was 34 years old when she finally learned she was autistic. Until then, through her childhood, youth, adolescence, college years, first loves, marriage and arrival of her first child, she just thought she didn’t fit in. She was made believe “there was something wrong with her.” Therapists and psychiatrists diagnosed her with Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, and recurrent depression. But whatever they prescribed, it never helped, and sometimes the side effects were worse than the problem in the first place.

A Little Less Broken is a passionate autobiography. Marian tells her story from her point of view, and we get to understand what autism is, and what it feels like. To that end, the book helps greatly in understanding autism and dealing with autistic people, understanding them, and recognizing them.

I have read several books by another famous autistic person, Daniel Tammet.

Born on a Blue Day was very insightful and shows how vastly different an autistic savant thinks about concepts that are ordinary to the rest of us.

In Embracing the Wide Sky, Tammet illustrates how the mind works.

A Little Less Broken, unlike Tammet’s books, is less of a technical or illustrative story, but rather the emotional and passionate recollection of growing up in a body and mind that did not seem to fit in with the rest of the world.