Since his debut novel (Heart-Shaped Box), Joe Hill has been hailed as a talented writer with some entertaining novels. The fact that he was Stephen King’s son just added to his aura. Since I’ve not been a fan of King’s later work, I was a little hesitant to jump on the Joe Hill bandwagon. But I decided to grab his latest book (Horns) and see what I thought. And I was pleasantly surprised. While the book did have some faults and was obviously influenced by Stephen King, it was a solid novel that had some really good parts. Let’s see who has the Horns.
Ted movie review
I loved the first two seasons of Family Guy. I told people about it when it was canceled and purchased the DVD. I thought it was brilliant, subversive and funny as hell. When it was resurrected, I was excited, but ended up lukewarm about the newer episodes. There are some funny bits, but overall it’s not quite as funny/exciting as the show was in its initial run. So, it was with some trepidation, that I approached the movie Ted. I saw some funny scenes in the trailer, but worried that the concept wouldn’t carry for a full movie. Well, yes and no. The movie is fairly consistently funny for the entire movie, but there are some places where it limps along on a weak kidnapping storyline that looks like it was shoehorned in to make the picture long enough. Let’s check out what happened to Ted.
Running Scared movie review
This review is for the 1986 Billy Crystal/Gregory Hines movie Running Scared, not the 2006 Chazz Palminteri/Paul Walker Running Scared.When this movie came out in 1986, Billy Crystal was coming off a successful year on Saturday Night Live and Gregory Hines was coming off a dance movie with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Neither had done an action movie before and the basic idea of the two of them as badass cops is lubricious on the surface. But Crystal and Hines make it work by throwing in enough laughs and fun to make it worthwhile. So, let’s take a look and see what’s it happened.
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The Seven Wonders by Steven Saylor
After spending a couple books on the history of Rome, Steven Saylor is back to Gordianus the Finder. But the newest book, The Seven Wonders, is not a novel. It’s a linked collection of short stories with the common theme being, The Seven Wonders of the World. This is actually Saylor’s second collection of Gordianus short stories (A Gladiator Dies Only Once is the other one) and it’s nice to get some more Gordianus. So let’s see what Gordianus is up to.
Batman Earth One
After the disastrous book that was Superman Earth One (my review), I was reluctant to read Batman Earth One, but then I read some very positive reviews. And Geoff Johns does a much better job with Batman, than Straczynski did with Superman. It’s not a perfect but, but a decent one. So, let’s check out what’s going on with Batman.
Salvage 1
To honor the memory of Andy Griffith (RIP Andy Griffith), I wanted to point out his science fiction show that he did in the late 1970s, Salvage 1. The two hour pilot centered around Andy Griffith as Harry Broderick, a junkyard owner who gets a wild idea to go to the moon and salvage the junk left up there by the Apollo missions. He hires an ex-astronaut (Joel Higgins who later played the dad on Silver Spoons) to fly the ship and an female explosives expert (Trish Stewart) to figure out the propulsion. The two hour pilot was a lot of fun with the hair-brained idea become reality with this rag-tag bunch of amateurs. When they converted it to a series, they really didn’t have enough ideas (where do you go after you’ve been to the moon) and it died early in a second season.
The show has never been released on DVD (probably because there isn’t a lot of demand) and the series itself was pretty bad. But for a single two hour pilot, I loved the show. And, as a fun side note, as I researched the show, I discovered that Isaac Asimov was the Science Advisor for the show. So, I’m assuming that a lot of the science (at least in the pilot) was fairly accurate. See after the jump for some clips. Someone put the full pilot on YouTube. Watch quickly before it disappears
Blue Remembered Earth By Alastair Reynolds
As long time readers of the blog might remember, even though Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite writers, I was less than enamored with his last book (Terminal World). So I approached Reynolds new book (Blue Remembered Earth) with some trepidation as to whether I would like it. And, to cut off all suspense, I did enjoy it quite a bit. Which is good, since it’s the first book in a trilogy. And this is probably the closest to current time that Reynolds has set a book (the alternate world in Century Rain notwithstanding). So, let’s check out the first volume of the Poseidon’s Children trilogy.
Brave movie review
The Pixar brand has lost some of it’s luster recently. Mostly due to it’s last movie, the mediocre at best Cars 2. That movie wasn’t the worst kids movie ever, that distinction probably belongs to The Stupids, but it seemed like a movie made for toy reasons rather than the story-driven approach that Pixar has become famous for. Their latest release, Brave, isn’t going to restore Pixar to the artistic pedestal they were once on, but it does stop the bleeding. Pixar’s first movie featuring female protagonists does pass the Bechdel Test, while still being a movie about Princesses and getting married to a Prince. So, let’s see who’s being brave.
Prepare to Die by Paul Tobin
Paul Tobin has spent many years writing comic books. When looking over his bibliography, I was surprised to find that he had been writing comics since the early 1990s. But he’s best known for his Marvel work in the late 2000s. His first novel, Prepare to Die, is a superhero novel, however, it’s not like any superhero story I’ve read before. Tobin has taken the basic superhero concept and used those characters for a returning home novel. It’s an interesting story that Tobin has done a great job with. So, let’s check out what happens when you return home to settle your affairs.
Redshirts by John Scalzi
The Internet has been going crazy the last few weeks for the latest John Scalzi book Redshirts. Set in a fictional Star Trek universe, the book explores the the flipside of the TV show and shows what life is like when you’re wearing the deadly red shirt. While many other reviewers have found it side-splittingly hilarious, I found it decent with a few chuckles and the best part was the last of the three codas. Let’s see what happens when you’re given a red shirt.