The Update for George R. R. Martin and A Feast for Crows

My #1 Anticipated Book is George Martin's A Feast For Crows, book 4 in his incredible fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. The first three books are some of the best fantasy novels ever written and the series as a whole is shaping up to be the absolute best (assuming quality holds up and Martin can finish it). The release date has been announced by Amazon (they made it up) and pushed back. The bottom line is that Martin is not finished with the book and until then, any release date is pure conjecture and probably wrong. I'd rather wait for Martin to be happy with the book and for it to be as good as it can be, but i'm impatient.

Periodically on his website, George Martin posts an update on his progress (as well as sample chapters, which is nice). There is a new update on his website, dated November 3, 2004. All of the following text is written by George Martin and is found on his website which is linked above. There is a banner in black which says "Mourning for America".

I write this the day after the presidential election.

A FEAST FOR CROWS is still not finished. Yes, I have written some more pages since the June update. No, the book is not yet done. My August and September schedule was full of conventions, travel, and speaking appearances, which cut deeply into my writing time during those months. Yes, I could have made more progress on the book if I had stayed at home chained to the desk, but I make these commitments years in advance and I take them very seriously.

Also, some of the writing that I have done since June has actually been rewriting. My goal, as I have said repeatedly in these updates, has always been to produce a book that is a good as it can be, so when I suddenly realize that one of my story threads can be made much more powerful and dramatic with some restructuring, I restructure... even if that means going back, tearing up finished chapters, and reworking them from start to finish.

That's done, anyway. A FEAST FOR CROWS will be much better for it, and now I am back at work on new chapters once again... although not today, and maybe not tomorrow, or next week. I am pretty good with words, usually, but no words can express how miserable, angry, and depressed I am feeling this morning over the results of yesterday's election. The exit polling makes it clear: this was a victory for bigotry and fear, a mandate bought with lies. I know from past experience that it is going to take me some time to shake off this depression.

Losing myself in the world of Westeros would probably be the best medicine for what ails me just now, I know full well. There is solace in work, and books -- my own books, and those of others -- have always been a refuge for me during dark times in my life. Today, however, the {fictional} travails of my {fictional} Seven Kingdoms seem pretty unimportant compared to the very real woes that the United States is facing, a future of war and isolation abroad, and division and repression at home.

Winter is coming to Westeros, but it has already come to America.


—George R.R. Martin, November 3, 2004

Source: George R. R. Martin at http://www.georgerrmartin.com/

Book Review: Wedge's Gamble (Star Wars)- Michael Stackpole

"Wedge's Gamble" is the second novel in the nine part X-Wing series set as part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. It is set just after the first book, "Rogue Squadron" which began approximately two years after the events of "Return of the Jedi". Michael Stackpole had a lot to live up to with "Rogue Squadron" and he does an admirable job here and continues the X-Wing story.

With the military successes of Rogue Squadron in the first book, the leadership of the Alliance feels that it is now time to make a strike on the heart of the Empire itself, Coruscant. To do so, the rebels need some intelligence on Coruscant so they will be able to strike and pass through the planet's defenses and still be able to defend the planet should they prove successful. Thus begins a different sort of mission for the Rogues. The Rogues are sent undercover on Coruscant to gather intelligence and also to set up for the invasion force. Meanwhile the ruler on Corsuscant, Ysanne Isard, is setting a nasty trap for the Alliance. She is having her scientists work on a very deadly, and very contagious virus that acts similar to what we know as Ebola. The trick here is that this virus will only be effective on non-humans, which is a major backbone of the Alliance. Isard knows she can't hold Coruscant, but she wants to leave a surprise that may very well destroy the Alliance's ability to function. Nasty, indeed.

As in "Rogue Squadron", we still get exciting space battles, and the comraderie of the Rogues. Corran Horn, still the lead character, is becoming torn between two women: one is a Rogue, the other is a pirate. The romance angle here is told extremely well and should not put off the core fanbase of the series (younger males). We are introduced to an additional angle of intrigue, both with Isard and the Empire as well as a potential traitor in the midst of the Rogues. Stackpole is continuing a Star Wars series that is shaping up to be one of the best things in the Star Wars Universe. A Star Wars fan should start with "Rogue Squadron", but there is no need to stop there. There is great action and an interesting storyline.

New Hannibal Lecter novel

Next year author Thomas Harris (Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs)will publish Behind the Mask, a new novel featuing Hannibal Lecter. While I've only read the previous two novels I have listed (and not "Hannibal"), this sounds like good news. Those two books were very, very good. I can't speak for the quality of "Hannibal", but Harris is an author who interests me. He also wrote "Black Sunday".

Source

Book Review: Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane

If you have never read any of his novels but have heard of Dennis Lehane, it is probably because he is the author of "Mystic River", which was made into an Oscar winning film by Clint Eastwood. Knowing that he wrote that novel, which was made into such a fine movie made me want to read something else that he has written. "Shutter Island" is his most recent novel, published in 2003. I must confess that "Shutter Island" blew me away. Lehane is immensely talented.

In the summer of 1954 U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule come to Ashecliffe Hospital on Shutter Island to investigate the escape of an inmate/patient. This hospital is for the criminally insane, and the two Marshals are searching for Rachel Solando, a convicted murderer guilty of killing her three children. When Aule and Daniels begin investigating the escape it is readily apparent that nothing is as it seems. Rachel Solando was barefoot when she escaped and yet made it out of a locked room, down a guarded hallway, and outside the compound on an island comprised of swampland and a rocky cliff. How could this have happened? Why is the hospital administration so secretive? Are there secret government experiments being performed on the patients?

"Shutter Island" is filled with questions and the story becomes more and more compelling as it moves along. The story is told with sharp, realistic dialogue and it is not long before the reader questions exactly what is happening, except that the confusion is so beautiful and engrossing that you have to keep reading to see how this will all play out. Lehane keeps throwing twists on the reader, but he does so in a realistic way that is very consistent with the story. It wasn't until I had reached the end and the reality of "Shutter Island" was revealed that I realized just how important the beginning of this novel is and just how well crafted a story "Shutter Island" is. Lehane connects all the pieces of the story together so that everything makes sense by the end. The ending, while a surprise, doesn't come out of left field. Lehane leads to it, builds up to it.

"Shutter Island" was one of the best novels that I have read this year, and was so good that I want to read everything else that he has written. Some novels are just that good, and this is one of them. Give it a try.

Book Review: The Lando Calrissian Adventures (Star Wars) - L. Neil Smith

"The Lando Calrissian Adventures" is a three-in-one novel. It contains three Star Wars novels featuring Lando Calrissian as a younger man, before the events of "Star Wars: A New Hope". These three novels are the only place (other than the early Han Solo novels) that we get a sense of who Lando Calrissian is, and how he came to be the man we see in "The Empire Strikes Back". We get his history here, and some very strange adventures. Lando's adventures in these novels are perhaps the strangest that I have read about in any Star Wars novel, so much so that if the book didn't have the Star Wars logo on the front cover, I wouldn't be sure that it is the same galaxy.

The first novel in this collection is "Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu". Lando has only recently acquired the Millenium Falcon, and wins in yet another game of sabacc a droid. The only catch is that Lando has to acquire this droid from a nearby planet. Shortly after arriving Lando is arrested on false charges and is given the option by the governor and an evil sorcerer to either suffer death/lengthy imprisonment, or to locate a mysterious treasure of the lost race of the Sharu. Lando and his new droid, Vuffi Raa, begin their quest to find the mindharp of the lost Sharu, whatever that may be.

This novel is followed by "Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon". Lando was very wealthy following the events of "Mindharp", but poor business dealings and paying bribes has left him with little more than his ship. Being the gambler that he is (it really is his occupation), Lando begins to win back his money on the sabacc table, but he also has to deal with the fact that someone is trying to assassinate him. Being forced to kill a man to defend himself, Lando finds himself back in jail and once again recruited for a crazy mission in exchange for freedom. This time he must navigate the Oseon system during the Flamewind season (think of really nasty solar flares that can seriously mess things up) to work with the police on a sting operation. Rokur Gepta, the Sorcerer from "Mindharp" makes another appearance, this time with a vendetta against Lando because of how things went during "Mindharp".

The final novel in this collection is "Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka". This time around Lando discovers a creature in distress called an Oswaft. The Oswaft is a creature that is able to live in the airless outer space, and physically able to make a hyperspace jump. When the Empire learns about these creatures, fearing what they don't know the Empire moves to destroy them. Rokur Geptra makes another appearance, still hunting Lando and working against the Oswaft with his sorcerer's magic. "Starcave" fully explains the origins of the strange robot Vuffi Raa, and of course features more of Lando playing sabacc.

To be honest, these novels are not very good. They might be somewhat better had they not been set in the Star Wars Universe because they don't seem to really fit in with what we know of Star Wars from the movies or from the other novels. They explain Lando fairly well, but L Neil Smith's stories are fairly weak. They are easy reading, and filled with humor, but the level of quality is fairly low. The one exception is Vuffi Raa. This is a fascinating droid and one which I hope appears in future Star Wars novels. Hopefully this isn't out of the question. I cannot recommend this collection, though i'm sure Star Wars completists will need to read this book. For a better look at a younger Lando, read A.C. Crispin's Han Solo books. Lando makes cameo appearances in Crispin's novels and she does a better job telling a good story.

Book Review: Rogue Squadron (Star Wars) - Michael Stackpole

"Rogue Squadron" is the first book (of 9) in the X-Wing series set in the Star Wars universe. The Rogue Squadron is legendary. Responsible for the destruction of both Death Stars, as well as being one of the primary defense forces on Hoth, the Rogue Squadron is given the toughest missions and has the highest death rate in the entire Rebel Alliance. Commander Wedge Antilles has been given a new mission for his Rogue Squadron, straight from Admiral Ackbar and the leadership of the Alliance: assemble the best of the best pilots and reform Rogue Squadron to tackle the highest profile, most difficult missions and try and end this war against the Empire.

Emperor Palpatine might be two years dead by the start of "Rogue Squadron", but the Empire is vast and top Empire officials have taken hold of the Empire (even as it splinters apart). Some planets may not even know of his death, yet. It was a major victory, but the war still rages on. Ysanne Isard, the head of Imperial Intelligence runs the Empire in everything but name. Nicknamed "Iceheart", she is exactly that. Isard is cold, ruthless, and subtle in her actions: a true intelligence officer. She continues to hunt the Alliance, and in particular, the symbol that is Rogue Squadron.

The primary protagonist of "Rogue Squadron" is the Correllian Corran Horn, a former member of the Correllian Security (CorSec). He is one of the best in Rogue Squadron, which makes him one of the elite pilots in the galaxy. Corran Horn, while a great pilot and an asset to the Alliance, is also a hunted man. Kirtan Loor, an underling of Isard and a man with a grudge against Horn, is put in charge of the mission to destroy Rogue Squadron and protect the Empire.

Being a novel about an X-Wing fighter squadron, "Rogue Squadron" is filled with space battles and dog fights and is action packed. This is a fast paced Star Wars novel and is one of the better ones that I have read. Being set after "Return of the Jedi" means that we don't know how the story is going to play out or what the future is for the Alliance (every prequel novel has to fit itself into the known events of the movies). This frees the story up a bit, and with a novel built around characters who were not even in the films (except for minor characters like Wedge), there is a sense of freedom here. It helps that Michael Stackpole is able to tell an entertaining story that also serves to build the overreaching plotline of the X-Wing series. For a reader looking to discover what happens after "Return of the Jedi", "Rogue Squadron" is the perfect place to begin.

Movie Review: Winged Migration (2001)

A film by Jacques Perrin

What we have here is a documentary about birds in flight. This is a simplistic description, but an accurate one. This documentary film follows the life of migratory birds from the beginning of their flight all the way through to the end, which is really just the return to where they started. What makes "Winged Migration" different, interesting, and beautiful is the level of video photography in the film. I have no idea how it was done (I didn't watch any of the bonus features on the DVD), but the camera was right next to the birds in flight, so the viewer has the closest approximation of being in flight as is possible while watching a movie. The close ups of the birds in flight are absolutely amazing.

Visually, "Winged Migration" is a stunning film. The narration, however, is very brief so we are left with mostly just the images of the birds. An example of the narration is these sentences, "For many birds in Europe the journey's end is Africa. But many will fall by the wayside." These two sentences comprised the entire narration for at least a ten to fifteen minute sequence. Narration is hardly needed for this film to be captivating. We see the hazards of migration: the weather, natural predators, hunters, farmers, and the environmental impact of man. We see incredibly beautiful landscapes from a bird's eye view (in this case, literally).

"Winged Migration" is a visual film. This is the appeal of it. It is really the best National Geographic film that has ever been made, except that it wasn't made by the good people at National Geographic. But, that is the style of "Winged Migration". Knowing what style of documentary this is should help you decide if this is a movie you want to see. It is visually stunning, but there is very little narration. You are watching birds in flight. I thought it was beautiful.

Book Review: Shadows of the Empire (Star Wars) - Steve Perry

"Shadows of the Empire" is a novel that bridges the gap between the events of "The Empire Strikes Back" and the opening of "Return of the Jedi". Han Solo has been frozen in carbonite and is being transported by the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Luke, Leia, and Lando Calrissian are following Fett in the Millenium Falcon with the hopes of rescuing their friend before he ends up in the hands of the gangster Jabba the Hutt. There is quite a bit more going on in "Shadows of the Empire" than just rescuing Han Solo (besides, we know from Jedi that Han will be delivered to Jabba's palace).

Prince Xizor is the head of the Black Sun criminal organization. Think of an extremely powerful and global mafia, expand it to a galactic scale, and that is Black Sun. Xizor is positioning himself as the top leader under Emperor Palpatine and directly in opposition to Darth Vader. This is something that cannot be done directly, because to openly oppose the favorite of Palpatine is a death sentence. Xizor discovers that Vader is instructed to bring Luke Skywalker to Palpatine, and after finding out that Skywalker is Vader's son, Xizor puts a death mark on Luke. If Vader fails to bring in Luke, and Xizor is not implicated, Xizor will rise in the favor of Emperor Palpatine. It is a fine line Xizor walks, but what else can be expected from the leader of Black Sun?

Leia becomes aware of the threat to Luke's life, and she works to save him (even without him knowing). She begins to contact Black Sun, always a risky venture, to learn what is happening and why. This brings Leia and the other Star Wars regulars (Chewie, Lando, the droids) to Coruscant and the heart of Black Sun.

Steve Perry has written a very good Star Wars novel. It ties in to the films, gives explanations for events in "Return of the Jedi" (ever wonder exactly why Leia is dressed as a bounty hunter?), and tells a compelling story in its own right. Xizor's plotting against Darth Vader is fascinating. This is old school Star Wars in the model (and era) of the Original Trilogy, and if that interests you this is the book to read.

Book Review: Mesmerized - Gayle Lynds

Beth Convey is a hard nosed, high powered Washington D.C. lawyer working on a divorce case for a multi-million dollar client. She is tough, and she is good. In the middle of the very stressful trial, just as she made a play that will win the divorce settlement she is aiming for, Beth Convey suffers a heart attack and collapses in the court room. To save her life, Beth Convey needs a heart transplant. She is fortunate enough to receive one, but this is the beginning of her troubles.

Upon receiving the heart transplant Beth begins to dream. She dreams she is a Russian and she dreams that she has been involved in some criminal activity. More than this, she is starting to crave Russian foods and Russian drinks, but is also starting to remember things that she never knew. She is suddenly familiar with weaponry and discovers a new affinity for martial arts. It is as if Beth Convey is remembering another life. Perhaps she is remembering the life of the original owner of her new heart. She is determined to find out.

Jeffrey Hammond is a former FBI Agent, but is now a reporter for the Washington Post. He is tracking and investigating former KGB spies in America. This may not be on the up and up, however. His former partner, Eli Kirkhart, believes that Hammond may be the mole (or have contact with the mole) in the FBI giving out state secrets. The lives of Convey, Hammond, and Kirkhart will all intertwine in "Mesmerized", the espionage thriller from Gayle Lynds.

Gayle Lynds writes a different kind of spy novel. In a traditionally male dominated field filled with authors and James Bond like male characters, Lynds gives a non-traditional look at the spy novel. To start with, Lynds gives us a strong female protagonist who is just as capable as any of her male counterparts. Having a female lead in a spy novel gives any story a completely different perspective. To top it off, Lynds tells a good story. There may be a cliche or two, but most genre novels have more than a couple. Gayle Lynds is a good story teller and works a fast paced thriller like a master. "Mesmerized" is just as good as her two Liz Sansborough novels, and is a welcome addition to the genre. This is one of her earlier works, so it is a little bit rougher around the edges than "The Coil", but if you are a fan of Robert Ludlum and spy novels, Gayle Lynds is a name to watch,

Book Review: The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

In "The Plot Against America" Philip Roth asks the question "What if Charles Lindbergh, instead of FDR, was elected to the Presidency in 1940?" After Lindbergh made his famous transatlantic flight, and after his child was kidnapped and later found dead, Charles Lindbergh began speaking out about the social problem that Jews are for America and for other nations. He was lauded by Nazi Germany, and was known as an anti-Semite by the Jewish population of America. When the Republican Party could not come to a consensus on whom to nominate to run against Roosevelt, and after four failed votes, Charles Lindbergh came into the Convention like a conquering hero and was nearly unanimously nominated. A week before this action, however, Lindbergh had made an anti-Semitic speech, and with the nomination, many Jews are fearful for the future. Lindbergh's main campaign platform is peace. He intends on keeping the United States out of World War II, and on this platform he wins in a landslide. Shortly after taking office he signs peace treaties with Hitler and with Japan and the United States can do nothing but watch as Nazi Germany begins to take over Europe.

All of the political details that shape the world are just to get the reader in the door and to open the book. It is one of the best ideas for a book, especially one written by Roth, which I have heard of. There could be an excellent political novel with this material, but this is all scenery. The story of "The Plot Against America" is told by 7 year old Philip Roth. This novel is told as if it were a real historical event and we its impact on the Roth family (the author uses the real names of his family). We see the paranoia of Roth's father regarding Lindbergh, whom he considers a Hitler in the making, and how that paranoia and fear only grows and starts to divide the family as Lindbergh's presidency continues. There is a program put into place in which a child (of a certain age) is taken out of the city and spends a summer in a rural community. Philip's older brother is one such child, and when he comes back home Sandy is heavily pro-Lindbergh and is highly critical of the fears of the Jews (including his father). This further divides the family. It is through the lens of the Roth family that the effect of the Lindbergh presidency and the changes it begins to bring to the country and to the Jewish population.

While this is not the novel I had expected, this is an excellent novel. Philip Roth is one of America's masters and he has proved it time and time again. "The Plot Against America" is no exception. Like "American Pastoral", the larger social issues of the novel are told through the experiences of a family. We get a sense of the growing fear of the Jewish population of America, even as riots begin to break out and America experiences its own Kristallnacht. We get a sense of what it may have been like in the early days as the Nazis were first beginning to rise to power and first starting to stretch out and persecute the Jews. This sense is tempered by American Democracy and how much more difficult it would be to have a full fledged fascist regime in this country; and yet, we also see how easy it is to begin. The one real flaw of this novel is the ending. There is no true resolution and (without giving away the ending), the reader does not quite get the sense of the lasting impact of Lindbergh's policies. The ending feels rushed, and unsatisfying. The journey Roth takes us on to get to that ending, however, is highly satisfying.

Prosaic

prosaic, adj

1. Consisting or characteristic of prose.
Matter-of-fact; straightforward.
2. Lacking in imagination and spirit; dull.

Source

Book Review: The Charnel Prince - Greg Keyes

The publication of "The Briar King" announced the start of an excellent new fantasy series. Greg Keyes had already published 6 previous fantasy novels, but "The Briar King" was absolutely stunning. "The Charnel Prince" continues the story set forth in the first volume. King William of Crotheny and his daughters have been murdered by his brother, Prince Robert. William's daughter, Anne Dare is on the run. There are strange goings on in the Church and some of the clergy have been involved in some dark magic. By the end of "The Briar King" the mythical Briar King has returned to Crotheny, nobody is quite sure why, or how, but only that it happened. From this point we begin "The Charnel Prince".

Anne Dare is in hiding. She was rescued from a massacre by the swordsman Cazio and she is now under his protection with nobody else to turn to. She sees assassins around every corner and to be honest, her fears are justified. She is the heir to the throne of Crotheny and somebody wants her dead. Cazio and Anne are accompanied by a mysterious drunkard named Z'Acatto. Queen Muriele only has a tenuous grasp on the throne of Crotheny. She is the regent for her half-wit son and with war threatening Crotheny, there is pressure for a new power to ascend to the throne. Muriele sends the knight Neil MeqVren to find her daughter Anne, to return her to Crotheny, but all Anne knows is that her family was betrayed and murdered, so she (and her protectors) suspect everyone.

Meanwhile, Aspar and Stephen (the King's holter and a former monk) are sent on a quest by the Church to find and to kill the Briar King. The King's Forest is being overrun by brambles and mythical monsters roam the land. The presumption is that the Briar King is the cause of this, and so must be stopped.

The new addition to this novel is in the character of Leoff. Leoff is a composer. What exactly is a composer doing in the midst of a high fantasy novel rife with swords and intrigue and a little sorcery? Good question, and one which I do not have a very good answer except to wait and see. The good news is that Leoff is instantly one of the most interesting characters in the novel and it will be fascinating to see how he develops. Leoff was commissioned by King Robert to join the court as the official composer of Crotheny. Leoff has earned the disapproval of the Church because his music is not traditional enough and may "stir the emotions". Unchurchly stuff, that. With King Robert dead, Leoff does not know if he will have a place at court or what his role might be if he does. But he intends to find out.

Novels in the high fantasy genre tend to all have a certain similarity to them. They are often set in a time that feels like the Middle Ages, have magic, swords, kings, perhaps a powerful religious organization, and have epic quests. The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone have all this, but Greg Keyes also succeeds in helping to set a new standard for the genre. Greg Keyes, along with a George R R Martin, is setting the bar very high in terms of excellence. One of the best things about this book (and "The Briar King") is that Keyes will start with familiar character types (Neil, Aspar, Anne, Cazio...these are all familiar characters), but how Keyes builds his world and his story is uncommonly well done. He takes cliches like the corrupt church and the headstrong princess and weaves such a masterful story that by the time you finish the book, you would have never have predicted this is where the story was going, that this is what Keyes was telling us. It is the sense of surprise and wonder that Greg Keyes has brought to his novels, plus a bit of brutality, that sets him apart and above many of his contemporaries in the field.

banal, parse

Banal, adj, drearily commonplace and often predictable; trite.

parse, v, 1. to break (a sentence)down into its component parts of speech with an explanation of the form, function, and syntatctical relationship of each part. 3a. to examine closely or subject to detailed analysis, esp by breaking into components.

Source: American Heritage College Dictionary.

Its been a while since i've looked up anything in the dictionary and I bought a decent one a couple of years ago. It was high time to get some learning.

Movie Review: Mean Girls (2004)

A film by Mark S Waters

Being a teenaged movie starring Lindsay Lohan, "Mean Girls" was going to be a moderately successful movie no matter how funny or well made the movie actually was. It was aimed at a target demographic of teenaged girls (and perhaps teenage males who just want to look at Lindsay Lohan) and this demographic was going to see this movie. As I am not part of the target demographic and do not understand the whole Lindsay Lohan phenomenon, "Mean Girls" was something that initially held no interest to me. That was, until, I found out that the screenplay was written by Tina Fey. Fey is the best thing about Saturday Night Live (she is one of the head writers as well as co-host of "Weekend Update") and her writing hopefully would raise "Mean Girls" above being just another not very good teen movie. Mostly, it did.

Cady (Lindsay Lohan) was home schooled for her entire life up until this, her junior year of high school. To make her even more of a potential outcast she has been living in Africa because her parents were researchers there. When she arrives she immediately befriends social misfits Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and her very gay friend Damian (Daniel Franzese). Janis and Damian show Cady the ropes and explain the school's social structure to her. Janis points out the various groups and how the cafeteria seating arrangements are organized. There are the math geeks, the stoners, the hot asian girls, other groups, and The Plastics. The Plastics rule the school. The Plastics are the glamorous social elites who by their actions decide what and who is cool. The leader of the Plastics and the Queen Bee of the school is Regina (Rachel McAdams). Regina, along with the other Plastics Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried) also befriend Cady. They see Cady as something of an exotic and probably enjoy her ignorance as much as anything else and they see that Cady has not yet become a part of any other group. But Janis and Damian have another plan, that Cady infiltrate the Plastics and report back all the gossip on them so the gossip and information can be used against the Plastics. When Regina steals away the guy that Cady is interested in (who was Regina's ex anyway), Cady decides to get even.

One of the best things about "Mean Girls" is the comparison it makes between high school and the animal kingdom. The comparison is apt because it reflects Cady's perspective coming from being home schooled in Africa. Fights and slights and intimidation take on a more animalistic aura, which is made obvious through Cady's daydream imaginations of what is going on underneath the surface of a given situation. Tina Fey's writing has the viciously sarcastic bite that we also see on Weekend Update (some lines and jokes feel like they have been lifted directly from SNL), but she has also done an excellent job in taking a non-fiction book about girls in high school ("Queen Bees and Wannabees") and turn it into a fairly intelligent, funny, entertaining movie. Fey is also one of the movie's highlights as math teacher Ms Norbury.

"Mean Girls" does lose focus, however, and is maybe only have of a really good movie. The other half is simply any other teenaged high school movie. It is far superior to "She's All That" but does fall short of being as viciously interesting as something like "Heathers". The trap that it falls into is that instead of being clever and unique the entire way through the movie, "Mean Girls" becomes the same petty high school revenge movie (though with the Fey twist). The extra coda of an ending narrated by Cady doesn't help "Mean Girls" be any less ordinary.

"Mean Girls" is far better than I had expected it to be (not being part of the film's demographic) but it is not quite as good as it could have been. Still, I was very entertained by this movie and I did enjoy it. It was funny, sharp, and it is good enough that a general audience can enjoy "Mean Girls".

What I'm reading, What I'm watching

Having just finished watching Tupac: Resurrection and Super Size Me, I have the following DVDs on the horizon from Netflix Fahrenhype 9/11, Girl With a Pearl Earring, Star Wars, Flight of the Navigator, Singin' in the Rain, and In America. Not to mention i'm currently watching the miniseries Children of Dune.

Plus some good tv in Lost and Joan of Arcadia. Both of these shows are absolutely excellent, but in very different ways.

I just finished reading Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane. Excellent book. Lehane wrote the novel Mystic River, which was made into the movie. There is a brief intro to Shutter Island on Lehane's website, and it is really worth reading. There is a bit of a mystery in Teddy's investigation of the missing mental patient/prisoner, and it only gets more compelling as the story progresses.

Here's what i'm looking forward to reading whenever these books are released and they come through at the library:
The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth
Broker, by John Grisham
State of Fear, by Michael Crichton
plus a whole slew of fantasy novels coming out in the next year including new offerings from Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Greg Keyes, Christopher Paolini, and hopefully George R R Martin (though let's not hold our breath on this one).

Movie Review: Saved! (2004)

A film by Brian Dannelly

The movie "Saved!" is a potentially controversial movie that just sort of slipped under the radar when it was released in theatres. At first glance, and without putting any thought into what the movie is actually saying, it would seem that "Saved!" is absolutely savaging the Christian community. The Christians in the film come off as hypocritical fools (at best) and the sympathetic characters are those with anti-Christian behaviors. But that is only the candy coating on "Saved!" The heart of the picture has to do with a portion of the Christian sub-culture which shows a public veneer of popular Christianity but has none of the heart or the message of what Christ taught. That is what "Saved!" is truly lampooning.

Mary (Jena Malone) is a senior at a very Christian high school in a very Christian town. Everything in her world is protected by the "Christian" label, from the music she listens to the Christian home decorators, and so on. The only thing that does not fit into her Christian world is her boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust), who has recently come out to her that he is gay. Since this is an affront to everything she knows and believes in, and she knows that God does not want him to be gay, Mary believes that Jesus wants her to sleep with him to de-gayify Chad. She does, and it doesn't. He is sent away to Mercy House, which is intended to get him the "help he needs". What comes out of this first encounter is that Mary becomes pregnant.

She does not know this at first, of course, so Mary slides into her life in high school where she is friends with the uber-Christian Hillary Faye (Mandy Moore). Hillary Faye is over the top Christian, but filled with bitterness which she takes out on her brother, Roland (Macaulay Culkin). Roland has been crippled since childhood and is wheelchair bound. When the Jewish Cassandra (Eva Amurri) begins school as the only Jew in the Christian high school, Hillary Faye makes it her personal mission to aggressively "save" Cassandra's soul.

Initially, Cassandra is the outcast in Mary's eyes but as her pregnancy becomes more pronounced she becomes closer to Cassandra because Cassandra is the only person who would not judge Mary. Funny how that works. As the movie continues we see the conflict between Hillary Faye, who has turned her back on Mary when Mary questions her attitude, and the outcasts (Mary, Roland, Cassandra). The movie builds, showing Hillary Faye's behavior to be increasingly anti-Christian with perhaps the film's signature scene having Hillary Faye angrily yell "I am filled with Christ's love" as she throws a Bible at Mary's back. Mary had questioned whether Hillary Faye knew what love was.

The ending of "Saved!" is somewhat over the top, but the portrayal of the Christian sub-culture is only somewhat exaggerated. Having gone to a Christian college I know that the characters in "Saved!" are distorted portrayals of actual people. The movie exaggerates the behavior, but these are very familiar situations and images and lines of dialogue to me. But, that is what this film is discussing, and perhaps exposing. The fakeness that some people can have when the cling so hard to the image of what a "good Christian" looks like that they lose sight of what it truly means to be a Christian and about the love that is central to the message of Christ.

"Saved!" is a movie that has a lot of heart and hopefully will find a home and a following on DVD. This is a smartly written and well acted movie (especially Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin), and one that is worth seeing.

Book Review: The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy

Originally titled "The Globalization of Dissent", "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile" is a series of four interviews with author Arundhati Roy. The interviews, guided conversations, really, are conducted by radio producer David Barsaman. Roy is perhaps best known as the author of the Booker Prize winning novel "The God of Small Things", but she has also written three collections of essays dealing with such various subjects as the corruption of the Indian government, American Imperialism, and nuclear arms proliferation. This book touches on many of these same themes, but also deals with Roy's personal life in a level her essays have not.

The first interview "Knowledge and Power" was conducted in February 2001. As the title suggests, the focus of this interview is on knowledge and power and what both mean to Arundhati Roy. Roy discusses, as she does in her essays, the abuse of power by the Indian government and the arrogance of controlling knowledge. Roy mentions how knowledge can (and has) caused arrogance and corruption in the intellectual elites. Specific instances mentioned include the government letting Enron control and own so much of India's power structure, and the irresponsible destruction caused by the Big Dam projects. This interview paints, in broad strokes, a picture of the overall worldview of Arundhati Roy. This is fantastic stuff. In Roy we discover an intelligent, accomplished, passionate woman who has taken the very human responsibility of trying to make a difference in the world.

The second interview, taken in September 2002, is a much shorter essay. Titled "Terror and the Maddened King", the essay begins with David Barsaman questioning Roy about the charges brought against her because of the novel "The God of Small Things". This interview deals more with Roy's reaction to, and experience with, government bullying. This interview feels as if it is setting up a future discussion, that there is a reason why Roy and others must speak up to the injustices caused by governments and Empires of the world.

In the longest interview, "Privitization and Polarization", Arundhati Roy makes some bold, inflammatory statements. She writes "terrorism is the privitization of war. Terrorists are the free marketers of war - people who believe that it isn't only the state that can wage war, but private parties as well." (92) She then goes on to say that "Osama Bin Laden and George Bush are both terrorists". To the American reader this is a shocking and even inconceivable. Taken from a different perspective and reading how Roy explains her viewpoint, it is not as unbelievable as it seems. From the viewpoint of one who is against globalization and the bullying of the government of the American Empire, the connections in Roy's logic are understandable. She does make a point, however, to distinguish the American people with the political power machine. This interview was conducted in November 2002.

The final interview was conducted on May 26, 2003. The title here, "Globalizing Dissent", is particularly apt. While it is never stated directly, the primary theme running through this interview is the idea that the globalization of a "world economy", which Roy feels is the globalization of the American economy, is necessarily also globalizing a dissent against that same globalization. This, Roy contends, is why the world is seeing a higher amount of and more intense form of terrorism against the forms of globalization. It is seen against America in Iraq and Roy sees it firsthand in India. In this interview Roy talks about how the terrorism of George Bush in Iraq is doing nothing more than causing more and more of this dissent.

There is very much a strong tone of anti-globalization running through "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile". Arundhati Roy is against the broad application of power which is wielded by the world's most powerful nation. She feels strongly about looking after all of humanity, not just those with power. Ultimately, that is what Roy is trying to accomplish.

The voice of Arundhati Roy is vitally important, no matter what one's opinion of her message. At the very least it is a point of view which should be seriously considered as an alternative. She makes very good points and argues them passionately and with intelligence. She suffers no fools and has no patience with an argument made from simple nationalism. This is an important voice, but perhaps one that many in the world will find uncomfortable as she argues against many of the foundations of Western Society.

The bottom line is that this book expands and explains Roy's essays and gives a deeper personal look inside the life and mind of an important writer.

Star Wars, Fascism, Tinkering with the classics

Box Office Mojo has a very interesting article about fans and reporters criticising George Lucas for continuing to tinker with Star Wars. It relates areas of the criticism to fascism, specifically the idea that the artist (Lucas) does not own or have the right to change his own creation.

Now, i accept that Lucas has the right to do so and that he has the right to release whatever version on DVD that he so chooses, but in doing so he is messing with film history by saying that what he released in 1977 was incomplete and only 25% of what he originally wanted. By not allowing the original version to be seen ever again (unless you have the VHS or a bootleg), future generations of film lovers will never know what it was that we saw in the original Star Wars. They'll see tinkered with versions that have been changed. They will never see some of the charm and cheese that made Star Wars so good. Oh, they'll see some of it, and even most of it (until Mark Hamill is cut out of the movie for the double delux triple dog dare special extended director's edition), but it won't be the same. It won't be the Best Picture nominee that it was in 1977.

To me, this is the same as if Coppola would go back and change the Godfather so that instead of a horse's head in the bed, it would be just a picture of a horse. Or removing the kiss that Michael gives Fredo before saying "i know it was you, Fredo". Does the director have the right? Absolutely. Does it change the movie in a potentially significant way? Absolutely. Does it change the characters? Absolutely. Both Don Vito, Tom Hagan, and Michael would be different if these actions were changed. Han Solo is different because he no longer shoots first (even if Lucas said he was never supposed to, it changes what we know of Han Solo).

What i'd like, if it was up to me would be BOTH versions of the film to be released. The original 1977 Star Wars and the updated version! That's what Spielberg did on ET recently (I own the set, just haven't watched it yet).

Book Review: The Bloody Sun - Marion Zimmer Bradley

"The Bloody Sun" is the first of the Darkover novels set in "The Second Age" of the Terran/Darkovan contact. The Terran Empire has rediscovered its lost colony and has set up a spaceport on Darkover. But contact between Terra and Darkover is still tenuous at best. The "Comyn" rulers of Darkover are keeping Darkover out of the Empire and are keeping the Terrans restricted to "Terran Zones". In the decades since making contact, nothing has changed. With individuals, there has been communication and interaction between natives of Darkover and Terrans, but this has always been on a person by person basis and not any sort of policy. Some on Darkover, however, are pressing their lords to allow more interaction from the Terrans and to join the Empire so Darkover can move out of the "Dark Ages".

Jeff Kerwin was raised on Darkover in the Spaceport Orphanage. All that he knew was that his father was Jeff Kerwin, Sr, a Terran citizen. Working in the Terran service he finally gets an opportunity to transfer to a world of his choosing and Jeff chooses Darkover. He had been dreaming of Darkover his entire like and he felt as if something was missing from his life. On Darkover, Jeff tries to learn of his heritage and finds that, officially, he has none. The Orphanage which he so deeply remembers has no record of him ever being there. His bright red hair marks him as a member of the Comyn (telepathic ruling class of Darkover), though he believes himself to be Terran, and this sets him apart from any Darkovan citizen he meets. Because of his actions outside of the Terran Zone, the Terran authorities intend on deporting Jeff offworld. Instead Jeff follows a voice inside his head and joins up with the Tower of Arilinn. A Tower is where the major telepathic work on Darkover is done. He finds a sense of home at Arilinn and also learns that he will play a major role in shaping the future of Darkover.

This is the first time that the reader has had the opportunity to see the inner workings of a Tower on Darkover. Finally we get to see what it is that the Tower Technicians do and what matrix work is. The inner workings of a Tower have been hinted and spoken of by characters, but never before has it been seen in action ("The Forbidden Tower" was outside of a Tower structure).

While Bradley deals with the same main theme that she does in every other Darkover novel (a Terran finds himself having to adapt to Darkovan culture and the conflicts of two different cultures meeting and trying to understand each other), she tells a rather good story in "The Bloody Sun" and shows aspects of Darkover which have been previously left hidden. Bradley uses her main theme to explore how the Terran Empire is starting to change the lives of the Darkovans and how it is going to change the culture of the planet, which affects the Comyn ruling class. Bradley uses her main theme to show the changes in the Tower culture and how the telepathy can survive on Darkover. There are betrayals, heartbreak, and the amazingly fast romance that somehow morphs into a long lasting love which will last for years.

"The Bloody Sun" is one of the better Darkover novels and one which is as good a starting place as any for the series. It is a standalone novel, but ties into the novels earlier in the chronology and is the starting point for the "Second Age" of the Darkover/Terran era.

Sigh

CNN.com: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?
George Lucas: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ...

I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be.

I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. I'm the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they're going to throw rocks at me, they're going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.

Sigh.

The problem is that the VHS copy i have is the "Special Edition". Well, it's the 1997 Special Edition, not the 2004 Special Edition. I don't have the Original Trilogy. But, i'm going to have to get the DVD because I have to have Star Wars on DVD.

It would be nice if we could get the original unaltered movies on DVD. It is a part of movie history. The original Star Wars was the film that was nominated for Oscars, not the "special edition".

Source

Book Review: The Hutt Gambit (Star Wars) - A.C. Crispin

"The Hutt Gambit" is the second volume of A.C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy. At the end of "The Paradise Snare" a younger Han Solo was proud that he was accepted into the Imperial Navy and he looked forward to his career as an Imperial Soldier (potentially an officer) and a pilot. When we begin "The Hutt Gambit" we learn that Han had been dishonorably discharged from the service and he can be found in a bar with a Wookiee who has sworn a life debt to Han. The Wookiee, of course, is Chewbacca. Han acted against a superior office when he rescued Chewie from slavery, and from being killed. This brings Han full circle to become the smuggler we know in "A New Hope".

To start, Han does not want Chewbacca around. Han feels that there is no other way that he could have acted, and he was also paying off a debt that he felt he owed to a wookiee in "The Paradise Snare". But, Chewbacca insists and Han quickly gets used to having someone around to talk to. Han hires himself (and thus Chewie) out to the Hutts on the Smuggler's Moon. Specifically, Han takes employment with Jiliac and Jabba. Yes, that Jabba. This gets Han involved, on the periphery, of the interclan conflicts of the Hutts and also into battle with the Empire which is seeking to take control of some of the Hutt wealth.

"The Hutt Gambit" foreshadows Han's role in the Star Wars Trilogy, and does a good job in developing his character into the man we meet in "A New Hope". It sets up the relationships between Han and Lando, Boba Fett (this was interesting), Jabba, and Han's response to the Empire. This was a fast paced story and should be interesting to the Star Wars fan. I don't know how accessible this would be to those who are not familiar with Star Wars and it goes without saying that reading "The Paradise Snare" first is a must. This is worth reading for the Star Wars fan, but everyone else has to decide where they would like to enter the Star Wars universe.

The Sandlot 2

What what what?!?!?.

Raymond Feist Riftwar News

On Crydee.com there are two postings on Raymond Feist news. Both responses are from Feist himself about the future of his Riftwar Series.

I'll start with the second post:

September 7, 2004

In response to the question on the feistfans-l

I was wondering whether there are any plans to release the Legends of the Riftwar series in the US?

Ray posted the following

Yes there are plans. I can't give full details yet, but there will be US editions of those three titles in the not-too-distant future.

Best, R.E.F.

This is fantastic news. I've had his Legends of the Riftwar trilogy on my list for a couple of years now, but these books have only had foreign releases. It is set earlier in the Riftwar and doesn't really advance the overall storyline, but it kills me that there are books of his that we're not getting. His Krondor series wasn't that good but he's hit a gold mine again with The Conclave of Shadows.

The second quote i have has to do with the future of the series and what will be coming after Conclave is finished. This is exciting news for the series since A Darkness at Sethanon is my favorite of the bunch (well, that and Magician

August 1, 2004
Ray posted the following to the feistfans-l

Currently I'm working on Agent of Madness (working title, almost certain to change), book one in the Darkwar Saga. To be followed by Into A Dark Realm, and Wrath of a Mad God.

These are going to be larger, more sprawling books, akin to Sethanon and Rage, as opposed to the more recent, more personal stories.

For a longtime fan of Raymond Feist and his Riftwar series, this is great news!

Shall We Dance?: Ballroom and Chain

I can't believe it. I had no interest in seeing that Richard Gere/Jennifer Lopez dancing movie, but after reading an article by the director on Hollywood Elsewhere, i'll be damned if it doesn't sound interesting. But maybe that what you get when the director is given a forum to talk about his own work.

Because Peter Chelsom comes off interesting, so does his movie. I still don't think i'm going to pay $9 to see it, but it may end up in my Netflix queue.

Book Review: The Winds of Darkover - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Dan Barron is a Terran who has spent 5 years working on Darkover. Like nearly all Terrans on Darkover, he has spent all of his time in the Terran Zone and not actually among native Darkovans (which is the way the ruling class of Darkover wants it). He is demoted after causing a nearly horrific accident at the Thendara Spaceport. It seems that Dan has been having "visions" where he suddenly finds himself in some castle somewhere, but he doesn't actually go anywhere. When this happens on the job, accidents can and do happen. While Dan is skilled at what he does, the accident was so severe that he can no longer be trusted to do his job. When the Darkovan Lord Valdir Alton requests a Terran to help teach and train Darkovans to grind glass for telescope and binocular lenses, the Terran Vice-Coordinator selects Dan to do the job. It is the only job that could keep Dan from being transferred off-planet.

One of the visions that Dan keeps having has to do with a young woman, red-haired, in chains, and covered with fire.

Since Darkover novels tend to be told from multiple perspectives (Terran and Darkovan), we are also told the story of the Storn family. Storn castle has been taken over by a bandit army and the Storns have been imprisoned. Lord Loran Storn, blind and nearly helpless, has protected himself with his laran (esp) power and has also sent his sister Melitta out to find help. Loran has also been trying to find a way to help his family himself, so he uses his laran to try to control someone and get the help the Storns need. That someone just happens to be Dan Barron.

Once again, as in the majority of the Darkover novels, "The Winds of Darkover" deals with the cultural differences between Terrans and the natives of Darkover and there is a Terran trying to assimilate to the new Darkovan culture. This is such a common theme that Bradley works with, but due to the nature of her world it is one that is necessary.

"The Winds of Darkover" feels more like a set-up novel than one that is telling a new story. It is world building. This story introduces Dan Barron to Darkover, but it also introduces something called the "Sharra Matrix" which will be important later in the series. The Sharra Matrix is powerful laran magic. It was outlawed years ago because it was viewed as "dangerous" and also "pagan" (of sorts). It can create powerful fire magic in the hands of a leronis (one who can command laran). "The Winds of Darkover" introduces this concept and a couple of others to our understanding of Darkover, but as a standalone novel it is not anything truly special. It builds on what we know of Darkover, but in the basics of the story it is one that Bradley has told several times set in Darkover.

By no means is this one of the best Darkover novels, though it is decent enough. "The Winds of Darkover" is one for fans of the series because it fills in some details and introduces a couple of characters and concepts that will be used later in the series, but unless you are trying to work your way through the entire series (as i am), this is one that you can easily skip. It is an average story (even for Darkover) with nothing to recommend it over some of the far superior Darkover novels (The Bloody Sun, The Forbidden Tower, Stormqueen).

a first review of the Star Wars Trilogy DVD!

The Digital Bits have posted a review of the Star Wars Trilogy! Whee!

Hollywood Elsewhere

One of my favorite columns about movies is written by Jeffrey Wells: Hollywood Elsewhere. For movie news, previews, some reviews and entertaining journalism about film, check out Wells. I've followed him from Reel.com (which used to be a good place to buy movies and read articles on movies, to Movie Poop Shoot (the name came from Dogma) to his own site and it's probably my favorite column that i read.

Wells included a page which features Hollywood folk praising his work, which is no different than the blurbs you see on novels, but the list of supporters includes directors Philip Noyce, Cameron Crowe, Kevin Smith, Sydney Pollack and the Big Man at Miramax: Harvey Weinstein.

Now that Wells has his own site he is expanding and adding more content (and writers) to his site, so there should be more to read in the coming weeks. He gave a column to his 16 year old son, and Jett Wells has an interesting perspective.

Give the column a shot.

The Passion of the Christ (2004): A Review

A film by Mel Gibson

"The Passion of the Christ" focuses on the last hours of the life of Jesus of Nazareth (Jim Caviezel). The film begins in the Garden of Getheseme where Jesus is betrayed by Judas for thirty pieces of silver. It ends with the crucifixion at Calvary. The bulk of the film is what happens in between Getheseme and Calvary and it focuses on Jesus' suffering. This is what sets "The Passion of the Christ" apart from every other film made about the life of Jesus. Many deal with the life of Christ, and others with his teaching. "The Passion of the Christ" deals with one very short, and particular, period in his life: those last hours, the Passion. The American Heritage Dictionary includes as one of the definitions of "passion" as "The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament", and that is exactly what this film is about. This is Mel Gibson showing us what Jesus went through and at times I could almost hear Gibson saying "This. He went through this for us."

While "The Passion of the Christ" is a very brutal movie, and perhaps half of the film features in some way the beating that Jesus took on the way to Calvary, it isn't the violence that has stuck with me after the movie ended. What I found particularly memorable were some of the smaller moments: the flashbacks that showed Jesus with his mother (Maia Morgenstern), Jesus teaching, Jesus with the apostles. Just as memorable, though, were the moments of betrayal: the look between Peter (Francesco De Vito) and Jesus after Peter denied Jesus for the third time, Mary (the mother) and Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci) together weeping at the torture Jesus is suffering, and any time we saw Satan (Rosalinda Celentano) moving through the crowd, or tempting Jesus. Lastly, Mel Gibson's handling of the Resurrection was particularly moving. It is a mix between beautiful and simply powerful moments that allow this movie to rise far above what could otherwise be called (and has been) nothing more than two hours of Jesus being beaten.

What makes reviewing this movie a challenge is that it is very difficult to separate the story from the filmmaking. As a Christian, the story is one that is very familiar to me and is also one that I personally believe in. As a reviewer, I have questions about Mel Gibson's storytelling. If I knew nothing about Jesus of Nazareth and was not familiar with the story of Easter Week, would I understand what is happening in "The Passion of the Christ"? The film lets us know that this is a man named Jesus who is being persecuted, that it is the Jewish Pharisees of Jerusalem which have brought charges against Jesus to the Romans, and they feel that he is blaspheming God. For this they wish Jesus to be put to death. What the film does not go into is why. Are these Jewish leaders just blood thirsty? Are they threatened by Jesus' teaching? Is there a serious law that he has, in fact, broken? Why are they pushing so hard for his death? "The Passion of the Christ" does not answer these questions. Someone who does not know the story of Jesus may not know why he is being brutalized to this extent and what promises Jesus' life and death, and resurrection bring.

Viewing the film from my perspective, the lack of that detail being in the film did not affect what I think of it. "The Passion of the Christ" is a bold, moving, powerful film and the fact that the subject of the film is so central to what I believe only makes it more so. I cannot speak to what a non-Christian would feel about "The Passion of the Christ" because an emotional response is so personal and subjective, and that emotional response is exactly what "The Passion of the Christ" taps in to. The combination of how skillfully Mel Gibson has crafted his film (excepting that little issue with exposition) and the emotional response that it encourages, this is arguably one of the best films of the year so far and may very well be a contender for Best Picture come Oscar Season.

The one criticism that I would like to address here is the charge, of some, of anti-Semitism. It is one that I do not understand. At the beginning of the film, when Satan is tempting Jesus, Satan mentions that carrying the full burden of sin is too much for one man. The suggestion is that Jesus (and therefore God) is choosing to do this, and that Jesus knows what is coming. In fact, Jesus says as much in the flashbacks throughout the movie. Moreover, while it is true that it is the Jews who turn Jesus over to the Romans, there were some Jews who spoke up against their leadership saying this was wrong. It was also only in the power of the Romans to condemn Jesus to be crucified and the film shows Pilate symbolically "wash his hands" of the whole affair, which was a cop-out. Pilate made the decision. It is also the Romans who are brutally whipping Jesus as punishment before he is to take up his cross. The implication here is not that the Jews nor the Romans who are specifically guilty, but rather: All are guilty. All. With Gibson's hand being the one that drives the nail into Jesus, he includes himself in the "all."

Fahrenheit 9/11 will NOT win the Oscar for Best Documentary

The reason being the Moore
won't submit it. The short of it is if the film airs on television within 9 months of its theatrical release, it is ineligible for the Documentary category. Let us stop for a moment and think how cracked that rule is...and now let's move on.

The article does go on to say that the film will still be eligible for Best Picture...and it would be very interesting if it got a nomination, but right now i'm more interested in seeing The Passion of the Christ pick up a nomination instead...but i don't know how likely that is.

Review forthcoming on The Passion.

The Misplaced Legion - Harry Turtledove: A Review

Stop me if you've heard this one before: A Roman Legion is fighting a band of Celts when somehow some magic spell is activated that transports the Legion (plus one Celt) to some strange new world. The Legion and Celt are forced to cooperate to stay alive and not knowing how to get back or even if it is possible, the Legion takes service in with the local empire as a mercenary band. They are, of course, some of the finest fighters that this Empire has seen and they know battle tactics that the world has never seen.

This is the premise of "The Misplaced Legion." There are, I understand, ties to the Byzantine Empire in how this novel is constructed. If one has knowledge of that era then perhaps this novel will resonate more, but coming into "The Misplaced Legion" without that knowledge of history I was able to appreciate Turtledove's craft just as well.

This new Empire of Videssos is one where magic works and is fairly common. Marcus Scaurus, the Legion Commander finds himself mixed up in the politics of Videssos simply by being a talented mercenary commander and being for a foreign world. He finds himself in opposition to an evil sorcerer and helps lead Videssos against this sorcerer.

Much of this novel deals with the Romans in a new world and their adjustments, but with the battles against the sorcerer and the Yezda (the people the sorcerer belongs to, and leads) the storyline is one that looks to stretch across multiple volumes. This was a very interesting beginning to the Videssos Cycle and while I had never read any of Turtledove's work before, this is a series i plan on investing time into.

The Coma - Alex Garland: A Review

A man sits by himself on a subway and watches a group of teenagers harass a woman and try to steal her purse. She gets away from them and moves closer, sitting down next to the men. The teenagers follow and try again to grab the woman's purse. This time the man stands up, raises his arm, and says "Hey". What follows is the man being struck, knocked down, and kicked until he is unconscious. This is the starting point of Alex Garland's third novel "The Coma".

The man (he remains unnamed throughout the novel) is released fairly quickly from the hospital and returns home. He tries, cautiously, to enter back into his life, but he begins noticing strange jumps in time and a selective amnesia. Acquaintances tell them man that they don't know something because the man doesn't know it either. Things do not add up or make sense to the man and he knows he has to return to the hospital. He is still in the coma, and these episodes are his coma dreams.

"The Coma" is a short novel, with less than 200 pages. This brevity gives rise to added tension in the story as Garland is able to build the narrative in little chunks that feel like movie scenes. We feel the jumps in the narrative, these confusing dreams as the man tries to figure out what happened to him, where he is, and how to get back to life. We feel the man's confusion in not knowing what is a coma dream and what is reality. Garland's technique is very effective.

Reading "The Coma" is trying to decipher the man's memories and take the man's journey through his unconscious. In the coma dream something is real only if the man can remember it. There is no rhyme or reason to what he remembers and why he remembers what he does, but isn't that how memory? Alex Garland takes the reader on a eerie trip through a man's unconscious and coma ridden dreams, and in the process tells a very interesting (and slightly creepy) story.

Garland is the author of the novels "The Beach" and "The Tesseract" and also wrote the screenplay for the zombie horror film "28 Days Later." His fiction is something to be anticipated and thus far it has not disappointed, though it is never what is expected.

Dead on Target - Franklin W Dixon: A Review

"Dead on Target" was the beginning of a new era for the Hardy Boys. This is the first volume of the new (in 1991) series "The Hardy Boys Casefiles", and it is a more adult and action packed series than the original series. This is never more evident than the first two pages of the book. Whereas the original series (started in 1927 and it is still running today) would have various plots by criminals, nobody ever seemed to get killed or nothing too serious would ever happen, but "Dead on Target" opens with the killing of Joe Hardy's girlfriend (and sister of good friend Chet) Iola Morton. For a series that has been known for its lack of actual murders of any on screen character, this was a shocking and explosive (no pun intended as it was by a bomb that killed Iola) moment. It marked the different direction that the Casefiles would take the reader, as well as the Hardys, on.

A car bomb was the cause of death for Iola Morton. Frank and Joe, as well as Iola and Frank's girlfriend Callie Shaw, were at the mall preparing for a political rally. Iola ends up returning to the Hardys' car to pick up more campaign materials when it explodes, killing her. Joe blames himself because his flirting with another girl made Iola mad and this is what led her to be at the car by herself. At the funeral, "Dead on Target" takes another twist by introducing the character of The Grey Man. The Grey Man is a member of a secret government organization called "The Network". "The Network" believes that an international group of terrorists, "The Assassins", were responsible for Iola's death and are planning something big for the political rally the following week.

The rest of the novel finds Frank and Joe traveling to London, fighting several members of the Assassins, being in the midst of gun battles and defusing a bomb. "Dead on Target" is fast paced with a tighter story than what is found through most of the original series. For fans of the Hardy Boys, "Dead on Target" is likely to be a favorite. It is not for the purists of the series, though. This book takes the brothers down a different timeline than we find in the main series. Since the main series continued to be published at the same time as the Casefiles, these books (Casefiles) are either set at a later date than the continuing series or is part of some alternative timeline since Iola is still alive in the main series.

"Dead on Target" has more violence than the "classic" Hardy Boys, but this is a very interesting story, even if it is a bit far fetched. For the first time, terrorism and murder have been introduced to Bayport and the Casefiles bring the reader a new style of story with the Hardys. As an introduction to the Casefiles as well as a new episode in the lives of the Hardys, this is a good place to start. Fifteen years after first reading this book it remains a fun read.

The Passion of the Clerks?

Seriously? It's not even listed in the IMDB, but writer/director is starting work on a sequel to Clerks. On one hand i think this is awesome as i loved that movie and loved the characters, but on the other...really? Is it necessary? Smith had long said that other than a planned animated Clerks movie (an idea which i love), he is done with the Jay and Silent Bob characters and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was to be their swan song, the last time we got to see a 40 year old fat man in a trench coat (as Smith once said). Great characters, but it had seemed that their time had passed.

I love Kevin Smith's work, even the underrated Jersey Girl, but i don't know about this.

But i'll still see The Passion of the Clerks. It is written and directed by Kevin Smith, after all.

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985): A Review

A film by Jerry Paris

"Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment" is the first of six sequels to 1984's "Police Academy". The screwball recruits have graduated from the Academy and are now ready for their first assignment as full fledged police officers. With the city in the midst of a crime wave, the rookie officers are assigned to the city's worst police precinct. The Captain in charge of the precinct just happens to be Pete Lassard (Howard Hesseman), the brother of the Commandant of the Police Academy, Eric Lassard (George Gaynes). Pete asks his brother for a dozen good men. Eric gives him six, all of which are the screwball recruits from the first movie. Pete Lassard is given thirty days to turn his precinct around or he'll be out of a job.

In charge of the rookies is Lt Mauser (Art Metrano), an obvious replacement for the Harris (G.W. Bailey) character. Mauser sets himself up in opposition to both the rookies as well as Pete Lassard. Mauser is gunning for Lassard's job. Each of the rookies are given a partner to train with and learn the ropes. Strangely enough, each training partner seems to bungle their job as much as the rookies. Returning for this movie are Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), Hightower (Bubba Smith), Tackleberry (David Graf), Hooks (Marion Ramsey), Fackler (Bruce Mahler), and Jones (Michael Winslow). This movie (and the series, really) is built around Mahoney and his confrontations with authority figures. He is the most likeable character, but a prankster. Of course Mauser takes a personal dislike to Mahoney from the start.

At this point there is nothing truly wrong with the "Police Academy" series. The movies are funny, though they are less funny with each subsequent movie. They are the typical screwball comedy, but the comedy gets more and more family friendly with each movie (the first movie had an "R" rating, this one has "PG-13", the rest have "PG") and it loses whatever edge it once had.

Nearly 20 years later (has it been so long?), is the movie still funny? Not as much as it was when I was twelve. "Police Academy 2" makes me smile at times, mostly because the situations are familiar and watching the movie is nostalgia now. The only thing about the movie that is really wrong is the character of Zed (Bobcat Goldthwait), a character that is simply annoying and not funny or interesting. Naturally he'll be back for two sequels.

The series is all downhill from here. The highpoint was the first movie, though this one isn't so bad. Still, if you are feeling nostalgic for the series, start from the beginning and quit when you are tired of it all. Most viewers should be able to make it past this one, but the series becomes very bad in a hurry. "Police Academy 2" is one of the better movies in the series, though that may not be saying very much.

The Village (2004): A Review

A film by M Night Shyamalan

The villagers were warned to stay out of the forest. So long as the villagers stayed out of the forest, "Those We Must Not Speak Of" will leave the village alone. It is an uneasy truce within the village. Anything colored red is immediately destroyed or buried because it might attract "them". The villagers live with a kind of Puritan morality, strict, but heartfelt. A date on a tombstone sets the year as 1897. They seem to be completely isolated from the rest of the world hint at how bad life was in "the towns". The elders have taught their children that the rest of the world is a nasty place, and that they are striving to live a moral life. And stay out of the woods.

A young man, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) seeks the permission of the elders to pass through the woods to "the towns" so he can get medicines for the townspeople, but the elders say that the danger of "Those We Must Not Speak Of" is too great, and it should not be risked. Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a blind woman, but is very bold and speaks her mind, and appears to be interested in Lucius.

There would not be much of a movie if nothing actually happened (though there is a feeling of stasis through much of the movie), so in some way the "truce" will break. It has to. The question has been raised as to who or what these creatures are in the woods, and what danger they may pose to the village. Shyamalan is a master at raising the level of tension through what we don't see. The boogie man is only truly scary when we don't see him but can "feel" him coming. So it is with "The Village".

This being a Shyamalan movie, we know that there is going to be a twist. From the first frame of the movie, most viewers are going to analyze everything on screen to figure out what is going on and what is wrong with what we are seeing. After "The Sixth Sense" we are conditioned to know that color is very important and with this movie stressing color (the "safe" and "bad" colors", we are looking for any sort of clue. This is initially the strength of the picture, but is also its greatest failing. If Shyamalan is going to give such a promising setup, and builds the tension so that expectations are raised, he ought to deliver with the reveal. The reveal does not even need to be perfect or amazingly shocking, but it does have to be good. It's not.

Throughout the movie the characters are all speaking in a very stilted, formal tone and style and it grates. Worse, it is boring. Shyamalan is able to build tension about the woods and "Those We Must Not Speak Of", but by the ending the film is nothing but a disappointment. "The Village" does not Deliver. Certainly not on the first viewing, and there is nothing to warrant a second or third viewing. Watching "The Village" and piecing it together, i was left with the thought: "That's it? That's what the movie is about?"

There is a bright spot. Bryce Dallas Howard in her first starring role. She was fantastic and i would love to see her in something else, anything else. Everything else was drab and dreary: the acting, the dialogue, the ending, Oscar winning actor Adrien Brody in an inexplicable role. Still, Bryce Dallas Howard was a shining star in a movie best left unseen.

The Cestus Deception (Star Wars): A Review

During the Clone Wars a new threat to the Jedi emerged. The Jedi Council learned that on the planet Ord Cestus, a new type of droid was being manufactured. This new droid was nicknamed the "Jedi Killer" and when given the opportunity to test their powers against a non-lethal version of the JK, the Jedi discover that this droid may actually be force sensitive and is able to "sense" what its opponent is going to do before the action is done. This is similar (if not the same) as what the Jedi are able to do. An example of this is the ability of Anakin Skywalker to be able to pod race in Episode One. A whole line of these droids in the hands of the Separatists could potentially mean the extinction of the Jedi and the destruction of the Republic.

Ord Cestus is still a Republic planet, but with the Jedi Killer droids, the question is: for how long? Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto are sent to Ord Cestus to take care of this problem, diplomatically if possible, by other means if not. Obi-Wan works with the leaders of Ord Cestus to try to resolve the JK problem peacefully, but Kit Fisto starts sowing the seeds for a rebellion in case diplomacy fails. With Fisto are a squadron of Clone Troopers to help set up the rebellion.

One of these Clone Troopers, A-98 (or, Nate) was engineered to be one of the elite. Nate is in a leadership position and we see the training of the Clone Troopers through his eyes and "The Cestus Deception" gives us our first chance to really get to see the life of a Clone Trooper. Steven Barnes could have easily given us a story that barely touched upon the Troopers, but he didn't, and the Clones have now been humanized in the Star Wars Universe.

"The Cestus Deception" was a rather good prequel era Star Wars novel. It expanded upon the Clone Wars, giving the reader bits more detail about what is happening and how many smaller events are making up the whole of the Clone Wars. Something else that "The Cestus Deception" did was also touched on in "Shatterpoint". There is a change in the nature and role of the Jedi. The Jedi are not soldiers and they do not fight wars. It is against their nature. When thrust into the Clone Wars, which the Jedi have no choice but to fight as they can, they are forced to do things that would not be considered very Jedi-like. In doing so, the Jedi individually have to struggle to maintain their balance in their actions. Obi-Wan and Kit Fisto are put into such a situation in "The Cestus Deception" and while their actions seem to be out of character, they struggle with what they are required to do. For me, this helps put this novel into a greater context of the Clone Wars and the affect of the wars on the Jedi.

The political intrigue and the sections on the Clone Troopers made "The Cestus Deception" a fascinating entry into the Star Wars universe. Like the other Star Wars novels, this was a fast paced story and was easy to read. For fans of the Star Wars novels, this is worth the time to read. For newcomers to the series, i would recommend being at least familiar with the two prequel films (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones) to give sufficient background.

Do NOT go to nbcolympics.com

Seriously. I went to the site the other day to find about about the previous night's results. What i got instead were spoiled results for today's (or whichever day it was i went to the site) broadcasat. I found out that Phelps lost to Thorpe, that Natalie Coughlin won, and that the men's gymnastics team lost to Japan.

Now, i realize that there is a significant time difference between Athens and Minneapolis, but if NBC is pushing their prime time Olympic programming, shouldn't they not reveal the winners in bold headlines on their website? Maybe have a spoilers section, or something?

Had i gone to the website yesterday, i would have lostall the drama and interest in seeing the US beat the Australians in the 4X200 meter freestyle by a tenth of a second when Kellar is able to hold off Thorpe. That was an exciting race and was more so because i didn't know who would win...but i'm quite sure that nbcolympics.com had the result as their big headline.

Not going to the site, i was able to see the women's saber finals (and two semi-final matches) not knowing in Sada Jacobson would win (she got bronze) or if the other US woman would take the silver (she got Gold).

And this isn't even Track, when i'll get really obsessive.

Collateral (2004): A Review

A film by Michael Mann

Max (Jamie Foxx) is a Las Angeles cab driver with dreams of something grander for his life. His dream, as he tells various fares, is to own his own luxury limo company: Island Limos. This job of driving a taxi is only temporary, but it is a temporary job that has lasted ten years. Max is a man who does not step out and take risks in his life. Into this mundane existence comes yet another fare, Vincent (Tom Cruise). Vincent offers Max $600 if Max would drive him to five different locations so Vincent can do some business and catch a flight out of town at the end of the day. While this is against his company's regulations, Max accepts. $600 is a lot of money for one night's worth of work.

When Max brings Vincent to his first stop and a few minutes later a dead body lands on top of Max's taxi, followed by Vincent looking not at all upset or surprised, we know that this evening is taking a turn that Max never anticipated. Max accuses Vincent of killing the dead guy, but Vincent coldly replies that "the bullets and the fall killed him." Vincent is a hit man, a paid assassin, and despite Max's protests that this isn't his job, Max will drive Vincent around the city as Vincent kills person after person. He doesn't have a choice, really. Vincent has a gun.

What is fascinating about this movie is how the relationship between Vincent and Max works. Despite his chosen profession, Vincent is civil and cultured. As a character, Vincent comes off as somewhat likeable even though we know he is a bad guy and we have seen him coldly murder. Yet, there is a certain charm to Vincent, and he treats Max well so long as Max goes along with what Vincent wants. Vincent suggests that Max will never improve his lot in life until Max himself takes responsibility and does something about it. There is not a friendship here, but throughout the movie a grudging respect between the two characters build.

This respect does not change the fact that Max is being held hostage while Vincent is committing murder. The viewer can guess in what direction the film is going by the way director Michael Mann ties things together early on in the movie. He makes a couple of connections (which would give away part of the ending if mentioned directly) which are obviously not coincidence. We even learn Vincent's unspoken intent by dialogue said by a detective (Mark Ruffalo) investigating that first murder. Nothing is truly random in this movie, and this goes double for the ending. "Collateral" is building to this ending, which I felt was fully appropriate, the entire movie and with the exception of a single scene where Vincent becomes the second coming of the T-1000 from "Terminator 2", everything in "Collateral" works for me. The city itself is a character, giving setting and tone and depth and a sense of place to the film. While the story could have taken place anywhere, the movie would have had a different feel to it.

"Collateral" can be dark and violent, but it is also intelligent and stylish. This sense of style is not to be confused with the typical Hollywood "slickness", but rather it is Michael Mann giving the film its own feel and look that simply "works". The whole film does (excluding that one scene I mentioned), and when put together it is better than its parts, and this includes the fantastic performances by Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.

Silenced (Jerry Jenkins): A Review

"Silenced" continues the story of Paul Stepola and offers a continuing vision of the future after World War III. Religion is outlawed. Christians are persecuted for simply claiming to believe. Paul Stepola was one of the top guys in the National Peace Organization and was very good at his job at finding, and rooting out underground Christian groups. This was until he was blinded during a raid. Stepola had continued to research the New Testament to better understand what he was up against, but with the held of a new friend, he was moved by the Bible and became a believer, and had his sight restored. If this sounds familiar, it mirrors the story of Saul/Paul of Tarsus from the Biblical book "Acts of the Apostles".

"Silenced" begins with Paul continuing to work in the NPO as a double agent, giving intelligence to the underground believers while trying to maintain his cover. He is unable to tell his wife that he is a Christian for fear that she will turn him in or tell her father (an even higher ranking member of the NPO). This would lead to death, for professing faith in Christ is treason to the world government.

Paul's task is to find a "Christian terrorist" named Styr Magnor. Magnor has claimed responsibility for the incident which somehow instantly removed all water from Las Angeles. This is a blessing in disguise for Paul because while Paul knows that the L.A. incident was the result of prayer and the action of God, he does not believe that Magnor is a part of the Christian Underground. Rather, Magnor has been committing murderous acts throughout the world, bombing major landmarks and killing hundreds, and this is the antithesis of what the Christian Underground is about. Stopping Magnor will do two major things. First, the NPO is suspicious about Paul's true loyalty, and stopping Magnor will be a major proof of loyalty. Second, Styr Magnor's actions are making all Christians look bad, and they are already treasonous for believing in God.

Stepola is headed to Europe to discover who Styr Magnor really is, and to stop him. He is also there to make contact with the Christian Underground over there and do what he can to help the European believers.

Jerry Jenkins started this "Underground Zealot" trilogy with a surprisingly good volume in "Soon". With the strong start to the series, and no idea where exactly Jenkins is going with it (except, perhaps, the ultimate end of the story), I was looking forward to "Silenced". It is written in the typical Jenkins way. It is very easy to read, and fast paced, but it is also clunky and simplistic in the presentation of the narrative. Readers of the "Left Behind" books will know exactly what to expect in the style of writing. It is so easy to read, and fast paced, that many readers will not be put off by Jenkin's overly simplistic style. Judging by the sales numbers of "Left Behind", it may be a fair assessment.

My one true complaint is that "Silenced" took a while to get going with the story. Sure, the book was as much about Paul's wife Jae's spiritual journey as it was about Paul, but after reading "Soon", and with the starting premise of this book, I expected more…especially with the subtitle "The Wrath of God Descends". There was a lack of God's wrath in this book, which was disappointing.

Still, Jerry Jenkins knows how to end a book. The last third of "Silenced" was worth the price of admission, at least for someone who enjoys his work. Not to sound cliche, but the ending actually earns the term "explosive". Jenkins builds and builds and just when the reader is tired of the building, he lets it all out and the action truly begins. It's exciting, and it gets the reader interested in the next volume of the series. That's a good thing, but it also feels like Jenkins could have done a better job at making the first half to two thirds of the book more interesting and exciting.

After "Soon", it is a bit of a let down, but what an ending.

Tarantino on Bond?

Weeks ago, maybe even months ago i heard rumors that Quentin Tarantino is interested in directing the next Bond film. Immediately i loved the idea. All of the Bond movies in recent memory have been kind of boring and stale, especially the last two or three. Imagine what Tarantino could do with the Bond franchise! Since Bond has a built in audience, he can do no worse than the previous films and could potentially reinvent the franchise. I love it already.

Which is why it will probably never happen. The franchise will be "protected" and the movies will be the "safe" Bond films that we've been getting.

And the franchise will be the worse off for it.

But that got me thinking. How great would it be if we could turn the franchise over to some of the top and most creative directors today?

Quentin Tarantino's Bond
Martin Scorcese's Bond
James Camerson's Bond
Spielberg's Bond
Christopher Nolan's Bond (he did Memento)
Shoot, even Karyn Kusama's Bond (she did the excellent Girlfight)

Even if the movie isn't that good, it can't be worse than Die Another Day.

I love it!

And it'll never happen.

But it would be great if it did. I might get excited for John Woo's Bond and certainly would for Michael Mann's Bond. But probably not for Michael Bay's Bond.

The 4400

The 4400 is a television program on the USA network, and i think it is one that deserves a look. It began several weeks ago with a pilot episode with a fantastic premise: Over the past decades people all over the world disappeared in what can only be called "abductions". The way the pilot episode showed some of the abduction scenes, it is one of those classic scenes where a beam of light from the sky covers a person on the ground and then the person is gone. A classic alien abduction. So, we see a series of abductions. One abductee is a 9 year old girl who was born in the 1930's, another is a black man who was serving in the army during the Korean war (we see him getting beat up by his fellow soldiers for daring to date a white woman), another was a teenager in 2001.

What makes this interesting to me is that the premise of the show is that one day all of these abductees are returned in a flash of light. The total: an even 4400 returnees. The media dubs them: The 4400. Who are these people and why have they been returned? Is there some sort of an agenda in returning the 4400? Why now?

As a fan of science fiction and stuff like the X-Files (am i identifying myself as too much of a geek?), this is a fantastic concept. But, the show does not go in the direction that i might have expected. The alien stuff is pushed to the back (though never truly ignored). What is pushed to the front is the stories of several of the 4400. We follow their lives as they try to recover whatever life they might have had...but one woman who was gone for 11 years has found that her husband has remarried and the daughter who was only an infant was never told about her. The Korean vet i mentioned has found that the grandchildren of his relatives are his age and they only know of him from pictures. The little girl has nobody. But, others are able to find a semblance of their lives.

Each episode of the show follows several different threads. One thread advances the storyline of the main returnees and how they are adapting to their new found lives. This is actually much more interesting than i expected. Another thread follows two agents in Homeland Security who are investigating the 4400 to try to find out why they may have been returned and also to look after them. These two agents also get to follow the next thread of the series, which is the "ability of the week", which is similar to the X-Files or even Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Monster of the week". See, the 4400 did not return unchanged. They have been given various "gifts" that augment their ability. One man has a form of telekenesis, another has something of a superpower...but the point of the show never seems to be the power, but rather the relationships. Another thread (it all ties together rather well, by the way) is the American public's growing reaction against the 4400 in fear and hate. Not too surprising.

USA is airing a marathon of episodes on sunday, and it looks like they are airing a finale (must be a season finale to see if they are going to do another season...and there are plenty of stories left), so give it a shot.

Police Academy (1984): A Review

A film by Hugh Wilson

Those who are disgusted with the entire "Police Academy" series have to look no further than this first movie to find the root cause of their misery. Grossing 81 million dollars in 1984, "Police Academy" set the template for the future movies. The style of the series was set with this first one, though the next six movies never quite hit the level of quality (such as it is) that this first film did.

The new Mayor has relaxed the standards for new recruits to enter the Police Academy. Now, anyone can sign up, and people who would have never considered joining the police force are now attempting to do just that. Included in this group is Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg). Mahoney cannot seem to stay out of trouble with the law (petty stuff, really, nothing malicious), and he is given the choice to either join the Police Academy or go to jail. He is told that he cannot quit, but can be thrown out (little does he know that part of the deal is that the Academy cannot throw him out, either). Mahoney, the prankster that he is, does his best to get thrown out of the Academy.

Along with Mahoney, the Police Academy has several other zany new recruits, among them is the gun loving Tackleberry (David Graf), the soft voiced Hooks (Marion Ramsey), a man with a talent for imitating nearly any sound effect in Jones (Michael Winslow), and also Karen Thompson (Kim Cattrall) who appears as Mahoney's love interest. Calling the cadets "screwball recruits" would be perfectly appropriate, and Lt Harris (G.W. Bailey), an instructor at the Academy, wants them all out and sets them up to fail.

"Police Academy" has something of a slapstick comedy. It is very lighthearted, and the characters (the good guys, anyway) are very likeable. I don't think I would want these recruits in an Academy near me, but it was always fun watching this movie. And that is what "Police Academy" is all about: fun. It seems like everyone in the movie is having fun making it, and it works. Granted, the movie is not nearly as funny as I originally found it ten years ago when I was 15, but I can still manage smiles of nostalgia while watching "Police Academy". The characters which the movie focuses on are those, with a couple of exceptions, who will return for sequel after sequel and they are fun characters to get to spend an hour and a half with.

"Police Academy" is the only one in the series to get an "R" rating, which is for female nudity and language. After this one, the series starts to get sanitized, which also seemed to tame the comedy as well. This first film sets up many of the running jokes that continue throughout the series, and perhaps for this reason it is the best of the bunch because it is the most original of the bunch. Still, it is an enjoyable movie.