300 – The Review

How do I tell you of 300?

Despite the apparent simplicity of the movie (come on, it’s a gorefest), it is actually quite complicated. There are so many different ways this movie can be viewed, with all of them being valid. One can find in equal measure reasons to hate it or [...]

Spartans!!

More detailed review coming.  Short take – I never knew such carnage could be so beautiful.

V For Vendetta

I saw this over the weekend, and I’m still not sure what I think of it.  I recall back when it was released, the movie generated a lot of press over blatant criticism of the Bush Administration.
In seeing the movie, I’m not quite sure how one arrives at the conclusion that this film is all [...]

The Common Virtue

I’ve been plowing through Pacific War material over the past month, mostly because actions there get lost in comparison to the European Theater. My own knowledge is spottier than it should be, so soaking up some of these details has been a good exercise for me.
Iwo Jima should be known to about everyone. [...]

The Battle of Midway

Midway: The Incredible Victory

Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan
Time has a way of plastering over history with what comes to be known as conventional wisdom. Today, the American victory in the Pacific has an aura of inevitability to most people – how could a nation the size of California hope to beat the United [...]

See Saw Profits

Might the Saw franchise be the most profitable movies in the modern era?

Production Cost
Box Office Receipts (worldwide)

Saw
$1.2 mil
$102.9 mil

Saw II
$4 mil
$144 mil

Saw III (as of 31-OCT-06)
$10 mil
$39.6 mil

Saw IV (Halloween 2007)
TBD
TBD

Source – Box Office Mojo
They could run this out to Saw 100 before the franchise loses money.

A Matter Of Life And Death – A Review

The Beast is back.
A Matter of Life and Death (henceforth AMOLAD) is the 14th studio album from Iron Maiden, and marks the third studio album since Bruce Dickinson’s return as the lead singer.
Long time Maiden fans have to pause and marvel at the concept: thirty-one years after the formation of the band, they are still [...]

How To Tell When You Have Watched Too Much Jet Li

Last night, I watched Hitman.  Tonight, I popped in Contract Killer.
It’s the same movie…
I mean, the same movie – as in the same film released under a different name and with English dubbing.
Maybe it’s time to lay off the Chinese cinema?

Crusade

On occasion, television executives make a heartless decision to screw with a new series, mix up the airing order, put it in poor time slots, and then cancel it before it really forms an audience.
In cases like Firefly or Boomtown, you’re forced to question their thinking.
In a case like Crusade, you realize that some cancellations [...]

Judas Unchained

Peter Hamilton writes bricks.
I first encountered Hamilton from the Science Fiction Book Club. They were selling the first four books of the Night’s Dawn series as two volumes: The Neutronium Alchemist and The Reality Dysfunction. Later, The Naked God (two books again in one volume) came along to finish off the series, which [...]

The Punisher – A Review

Short review – two hours of my life that could have been better spent cleaning my house gutters with my tongue.

Dan Brown Is Not An Idiot

Wannabe writers are jealous souls.  I imagine that actually publishing a book doesn’t remove that jealous gene, but I’ll write about that on the day I cross that threshold, if ever.  For now, I’ll confine myself to raging impotently against the injustice represented by Sue Grafton, the prolific estate of V.C. Andrews, or Dan Brown.
I [...]

Aeon Flux

I grew up in the eighties and nineties. MTV was a staple, back when they actually showed interesting content. Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux was a bizarre little anime short that popped up from time to time on Liquid Television, and I was immediately intrigued.
Here we had a story without background, depicting [...]

Boomtown

I seem to be a sucker for cancelled television shows.
I don’t watch a lot of television in real time. Before the DVR, I rarely committed myself to a show. Seriously, who can ever make the time to be at the assigned channel, at the assigned time, and be sure to avoid [...]

Rainbows End

I am a huge fan of Vernor Vinge. A Fire Upon The Deep was a spectacular experience, and A Deepness In The Sky literally moved me to tears at more than one point. I scrounged eBay to pick up some of his older out-of-print books. I am an unabashed fan.
Therefore it pains [...]

Domino

Guy Ritchie, call your office.
I mean, come on. This has to be a Guy Ritchie movie, right? You’ve seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, or Snatch? If so, you’ll ‘get’ Domino in the first three minutes.
I loved LSTSB and Snatch. I didn’t love Domino.
Domino is the ‘true’ story [...]

The Da Vinci Code

Yeah, I read it. Shame on me.
You have to be living under a rock to not know about this book. For good or ill, it has driven even the reading-averse to a bookstore to plunk down some cash. Anything that sells like this warrants a closer examination from someone who wants to [...]

The Skinner

This is the fourth Neal Asher book I’ve read in quick succession.  My reviews so far have ranged from indifferent to boring, and I’m sorry to say that this one is no different.
Sometime back I mentioned that the best science-fiction right now was coming out of Britain.  I still think that is true, but Asher [...]

Geeking Out

I don’t travel much anymore. Occasionally, we drive home to Toledo to see our families. We might go 50-70 miles in any particular direction on the weekend. I’ve been fortunate in not having to fly for nearly three years now.
So why do I need a GPS unit?
If you have to answer that [...]

Gridlinked

This is the third Neal Asher book I’ve read in the past couple of months. My last review for The Line of Polity was mostly indifferent, and I had complained about Asher just dropping things into the story with no reference or background, leaving me to flounder.
Well, I have to retract [...]