Week in Review: August 20 - 25

Notes - This past week we were marked by the deaths of director/producer Tony Scott, comedian Phyllis Diller, and astronaut Neil Armstrong.  The world is a different place without them.

Movies - This week's Bond movie was You Only Live Twice and the new movie was The Bourne Legacy.  I wasn't really a big fan of either.  To mark Tony Scott's passing I did two of his films, Top Gun and Domino.  One is a classic, the other not so much.

Books - Book of the week was E.L. James' Fifty Shades Freed, the final instalment in the Fifty Shades trilogy.  To Mark the completion of the series, I also looked at the many signs of domestic abuse that the series marks in a note.

TV - TV show of the week was the first season of Revenge.  While I enjoyed it, I'm not entirely sure if I'll be tuning in to the second season; I don't think it'll be one that will keep me watching week-by-week.

Recommendations - New movies this week are Premium Rush, Hit and Run, and Robot and Frank.  My guess is that the best of the bunch is going to be Robot and Frank, which will also be the hardest to see given its limited release.

Next Week - The plan for next week includes the much delayed Pete Smalls is Dead, and a tribute to Neil Armstrong with the space-related disaster movies Armageddon and Deep Impact - because if you're going to do one, you might as well do them both.  New movie of the week will be Whitney Houston's final film, Sparkle.  Bookwise we're going to wrap up (for now) both the Tales of Dunk and Egg series and the Lord John series, with the short stories "The Mystery Knight" and "Lord John and the Plague of Zombies."

Requests -What about you guys? Anything you'd like me to watch or read?  Let me know in the comments.

A Note: Phyllis Diller

It appears as though this is a really bad week for celebrities.  It started with Tony Scott, and now the latest celebrity death is legendary comic Phyllis Diller.

I stumbled onto Diller's comedy completely by accident; she was a frequent roaster in The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, which I've always enjoyed (seriously, watching people from the 70s sit around and call Dean Martin a drunk and Betty White a slut is hilarious). Diller was an amazing comic and really paved the way for other female comics.  While she hadn't really done stand up much lately, Diller was still an icon and we've lost a legend.

Because of the nature of Diller's work I don't intend to (as of this moment) do any special review for her this week.  She was a stand up comic, not an actress, so I don't think it'd really do her justice to review one of her movies.  I'm not all that familiar with them, so I don't know what role would be fitting to commemorate her.  If there's a Diller movie that you think I should review, let me know in the comments.