Into the West

I'm actually glad that the fourth episode of Into the West won't be airing this weekend. It'll give me the chance to completely catch up before the miniseries completely resumes the week after next. Into the West is a multi-generational miniseries following two families in the mid 1800's as America begins to grow and settle the West. The first family is the Wheeler family. The Wheelers are Virginia wheelmakers and the youngest son, Jacob, has dreams of seeing what "no white man has seen before" and sets off to join Jedidiah Smith and other mountain men. The other family is of the Lakota tribe as they have to deal with the white men coming onto their land and beginning to change their way of life.

Thus far I've only watched the first two episodes with the third on my DVR. These are each 2 hour episodes, so Into the West is a time commitment, but I think the level of quality is there so its worth it. While it seems at times that the Wheelers are getting a little bit more air time than the Lakota, there are serious storylines going on with the Lakota tribe with Dog Star and Loved by Buffaloes.

I think this show really shows some of the hardships that life contained back then and how difficult American expansion was for all. On episode two there was a wagon train to the West and lives were lost fording a river, during a bad storm when they were out on the plains, and by cholera...which on one hand seems like a lot for one wagon train to endure, but from what I remember from history class and the focus on the West it really isn't far from reality for many who tried to go West. Many lives were lost. The show also shows the struggle of the Natives to accept white ways or hold on to their own and the struggle includes how rifles changed everything.

Very interesting show. If you mix this with Ken Burn's documentary The West, you get a very large portrait of the era. Education through entertainment.

But the bottom line is that I do find Into the West to be an interesting program and that the stories are compelling. This is a well made show and I hope there are more like it.

Harry Potter and David McCullough

After reading the two most recent Harry Potter books this week to refresh myself for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince I was reminded just how good and captivating these books really are. I haven't read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix since the weekend which it came out. I remember thinking at the time that it started a little slow and ended a little quick, but this time around it felt just right. Harry is a pompous ass during Year 5, quick to anger and snap at friends and teachers and is always suspicious that the world is out to get him. In other words, a typical fifteen year old. I think that was part of my problem reading this the first time around because I was tired of reading about Harry whining and so much could be avoided if he would just shut up for a second and realize that Hermoine is always right and that people really are looking out for him for a reason. But Rowling's choice here makes sense and the book is probably better off because of it.

I also forgot just how dark the book goes. Bad things are happening at Hogwarts with Professor Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic making things very difficult for Harry and Dumbledore since they don't believe Voldemort is back. In previous books, Hogwarts was a haven for Harry even with Malfoy and Snape there. It was harmless. Now school is just as dangerous and nasty as any other location.

Another thing that I really liked is that some side characters are getting further development. Ginny Weasley is more than the youngest sister with a crush on Harry. Neville Longbottom becomes a stronger character in each book and here we get more of his family's background (talk about brutal, his parents were tortured into insanity by Voldemort's followers, that's why he was raised by his grandmother), and even Fred and George Weasley get a little more time to shine here.

Now I'm really looking forward to Book 6 coming out in a few weeks!

There is no good way to make this segue, so I'm not even going to try...

Powells.com has a nice interview with historian David McCullough. McCullough is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the biographies of John Adams and Truman. It is very interesting to read about McCullough's motivations and interests in researching the books that he writes and why his new book 1776 is more about the military campaign of that year than anything political. I've read reviews that found the political aspects of the book lacking, but it seems that was the point and not what McCullough wanted to focus on. Should be an interesting book, I have it on reserve at the library (which means I should expect it in November).

Elizabethtown pictures

I don't know what Elizabethtown is about, but is written and directed by Cameron Crowe and that front page picture looks beautiful. Really, it doesn't matter so much what the movie is about because it is Cameron Crowe and he's made some excellent movies: Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire, Say Anything; a very interesting miss: Vanilla Sky; and one movie I can't seem to place: Singles.

The bottom line is that if it was written and directed by Cameron Crowe it's a movie I want to see.

Recapping The Wheel of Time

With Book Eleven: The Knife of Dreams coming out this fall I have a couple choices how to go into the newest Wheel of Time novel. I could re-read the other ten volumes in the series and spend the rest of my summer and fall reading Robert Jordan and probably be tired of the whole thing when the book comes out. I could read nothing and not remember a lot of plot threads. Or, I can find some recaps of the action that has gone before. I remember the big things (cleansing saidin), but not the little ones (Egwene's plan for Tar Valon).

But when I was poking around on Dragonmount, I found this recap. It gives general information of the actions and whereabouts of each of the characters leading into the new book. It is useful because I remember very little about Crossroads of Twilight except that for 4/5 of the book everyone was wondering what that odd source of power was which was Rand at the end of Winter's Heart. Urg.

There is also another timeline which is more of a chronology. There is a lot of info here.

This all should help me get ready for the new book without having to read another ten books just to know what's going on.

Now if Jordan will only wrap this series up...

Kevin Smith

This weekend, in between running a marathon, I read Silent Bob Speaks: The Collected Writing of Kevin Smith. It is exactly what the title says it is, a collection of Smith's essays and articles that have been printed and posted on various websites, including his own. Whether or not you like this book is almost certainly going to depend on whether or not you like Kevin Smith and his movies. Between his films and the commentary tracks he records for the DVDs, I got a good sense the Smith is a wise cracking, funny, and very likeable guy. He is very regular, like your buddy from high school, you know the funny guy who smoked too much but made everyone laugh. That's the feeling I have of Smith and because of this, and the dialogue and humor in his movies, I am probably more inclined to like his work even if it is being bashed everywhere else.

With that said, I really liked this book. Much of what is included can be found somewhere else for free and those who are obsessive about Smith have likely already read it...so in that sense there is nothing new here except for maybe one article that wasn't published but was supposed to be. But I haven't read any of these (except for the Jersey Girl production diary), so it's all new to me.

It's funny, honest (brutally at times), and like his movies and commentary tracks (as well as how he comes off in An Evening With Kevin Smith), I think that Smith's personality comes off very well here. And yes, Smith is as full of praise for Ben Affleck as he always is, only this time you get just a little bit more of a reason and how Affleck is a very decent man (no matter what one thinks of his movies, and to be honest, I don't mind Affleck, though I prefer Damon).

It's almost a book that reviews itself because if you don't like Kevin Smith you won't like the book and if you do, you probably will and already plan on reading it.

Elantris

“Elantris” is the debut novel from Brandon Sanderson. Blurbs on the cover from Orson Scott Card and David Farland say this book is “the finest novel of fantasy to be written in many years” and “one of the finest debuts I’ve seen in years.” When I read a novel I generally do not pay attention to when it was written and I know that I haven’t read all of the debut fantasy novels which have come out in the past several years. I do know when I’ve read a very good book, however, and “Elantris” is certainly that.

The prologue to the novel was all of five paragraphs but it gave all of the information needed to understand the background of what the story would be. It tells of a beautiful city named Elantris which glowed like magic and where amazing magics were possible and commonplace. Elantris was populated by godlike beings who could wield these powers as I might use a pen. But these beings were once regular humans, soldiers and serfs, princes and beggers and merchants. When something called the Shaod came upon them they were transformed into Elantrians and into a newer, greater existence. But ten years ago something happened.

That something is that the blessing turned into a curse and Elantris and its population started to rot away. The city now abandoned except for the poor souls still called by the Shaod is covered in slime and muck and the Elantrians are the cursed, neither dead nor truly alive.

This was a beautiful set up and pulled me right in from the start. Sanderson introduces Raoden, a prince and heir to the throne of Arelon. The city of Kae lies in the shadow of Elantris and the glory of Arelon has fallen with Elantris. Raoden is a man who gives his people hope, but when he is called by the Shaod he is doomed. His father, the king, does not reveal what happened to Raoden, but rather holds a funeral for his not beloved son. Meanwhile, Sarene, a princess from another country has arrived to marry Raoden not knowing what has happened. Her marriage contract considers her married upon the betrothal and even continues after Raoden’s death, so she remains in Kae. But Raoden must find a way to survive, such as it is, in Elantris. Sarene is the only one who sees the coming doom from the religion of Darethi and an invasion from Fjordell.

Brandon Sanderson has done something remarkable here. He has created an incredibly original work and unlike so many other works of fantasy this novel is complete in itself. It is not, as I understand it, the first volume of a trilogy or larger series. It is an epic work of fantasy in one self contained novel. It’s one of the better fantasies that I have read. Sanderson does a good job in making all of the primary characters understandable, and sympathetic…even the “bad guys”. The motivations are explained well and the characters are well developed and revealed. Simply put, with one novel Sanderson has made a fan of me. I was surprised by just how good this book was. If Sanderson writes another, I will definitely read it.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

With the very mixed reviews I had seen for "Mr and Mrs Smith" I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, except for some sort of mindless summer action movie that may or may not be any good. That's not much to go on, but the director is good (Doug Liman, "The Bourne Identity") and the premise was interesting.

The premise of this movie has Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as John and Jane Smith in a marriage of five or six years and whatever passion there once was has long since disappeared. They are bored with each other and with their relationship. But each harbors a secret: Mr. and Mrs. Smith are assassins working for competing firms and neither knows this secret of the other. The trailers suggest that they will be given a contract to take out the other and it is only in the middle of the mission that they realize who they are hired to kill. That isn't exactly how things play out. Rather than the two Smiths being given missions to take out the other, the Smiths are each set to target someone I’ll call “The Hostage”. When attempting to eliminate “The Hostage” Jane Smith sees that there is somebody else around and with a weapon. She shoots, he shoots back. It was Mr. Smith, but at the time this isn’t known. Each only knows that there was a competing player on the scene and only later learns that it is the spouse that was the other player. This is the big set up for the Smiths to finally talk about their marriage and deal with all that was simmering under the surface…all the while trying to kill each other and stay alive themselves.

What results is a surprisingly entertaining movie. There is plenty of action, at which Doug Liman excels, and it is easy to see that the movie started out with a wide comedic tone. Pitt and Jolie are both believable (as far as it goes) in their roles and their chemistry is very real. I expected the action from Liman and from the film trailer, but this was a very funny movie as well. It isn’t played as a broad comedy in which we might find a younger Adam Sandler, but rather as very scene appropriate humor but it was enough that the audience was laughing. I certainly was, as was my wife.

“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” is not some grand examination of marriage as has been suggested from time to time, but it is far better than most “Summer Action Movies” in which category I would place movies like “The Fast and the Furious” and “XXX”. There is plenty of action and humor, but it is very well done and the fairly empty plot seems to be deeper than it is just because of the chemistry of Pitt and Jolie. That’s really what sells this movie is how well Pitt and Jolie play off each other. That, and the fact that we believe that Angelina Jolie really could kick some serious butt.

By no means is this a perfect movie, but Liman mixes the action, humor, and the marriage on the rocks portions of the movie with great skill. While the plot is fairly weak and excuse for the actors to play, it works just well enough to give the summer a fun action movie and one which is better than most.

Grade: B

The Movie Poll

Courtesy of Wendy.

Total Number of films I own on dvd:
127: Movies I own, including documentary and music dvds
17: DVD sets of television shows
38: Movies my wife owns, including TV on DVD
My DVD collection can be seen here

The last film I bought:
This is a tough one for me because I really haven't been buying many DVDs recently. Maybe when I win the lottery this will change. The last one I can remember buying is the Seventh Season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was on sale at Target for $17. I couldn't pass it up. I still haven't watched it.

The last film I watched:
On DVD: Dumbo: The Sixtieth Anniversary Edition
In the theatre: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Five films I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
The Sandlot
The Princess Bride
The Godfather
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Spitfire Grill

I don't think I'm going to "tag" or "ping" or whatever it is to suggest that other people should do the same, though anyone can feel free.

Being Julia

“Being Julia” is really only notable as a film because it is the movie which garnered Annette Bening an Oscar nominee to once again pit her against Hilary Swank in the category of Best Actress in something of a rematch of the 1999 Academy Awards when Swank won the Oscar for her performance in “Boys Don’t Cry”. Once again Bening was nominated against Swank and once again Swank won, this time for “Million Dollar Baby”. This time Bening was nominated, I think, as much for her performance as for the fact that Bening was playing her own age. As an actress this seems to be fairly rare in a lead performance. Julia Lambert (Bening) is an aging star of the theatre in 1930’s London. She is concerned that she is starting to look old because she is certainly feeling it. She is tired, ready for a vacation, but a star can’t just shut down a show and take a vacation. Her husband and theatre manager Michael (Jeremy Irons) says that he will try to shut down the show if possible, but also introduces her to a young American named Tom Fennel (Shaun Evans).

Julia and Tom have an affair and it is like Julia is coming to life again. She has more passion in her acting and feels no need of a vacation. For this movie to have any sort of conflict, of course, things do not go smoothly and Julia’s reactions are of course that of an actress. I think this is part of the joy of Bening’s performance and part of the reason she picked up the nomination. She delightfully and perfectly overacts as Julia Lambert. I’m not sure that I buy the climax scene near the end of the picture, but Bening is so perfect in just barely overplaying the role that the humor in the situation comes clear and out into the open.

As the movie progressed I was more and more impressed with Annette Bening. I’ve always liked her as an actress, but this was just delightful. Hilary Swank still deserved the Academy Award over Bening for this role, but Bening was just charming and devious as Julia. The funny thing, though, is that I find myself talking more about Bening and her performance than I am about the movie. There’s a reason for that. As a movie, as a film telling a story it is completely ordinary and if not for Bening this movie would be forgotten even quicker than I suspect it already will be.

The other bit of performance of note is Michael Gambon. Gambon, in a role which he also seems to overact just a little bit (but again, in a perfectly delightful way), is wonderful here. Exactly why his character is in the movie should come clear deeper into the movie, but I looked forward to Gambon as much as Bening.

The bottom line is that the movie itself is not very impressing, but Bening and Gambon are worth watching the movie for. After a while the plot, which is rather silly, faded to the background with the star, Annette Bening standing front and center. I think that was the point here and it worked.

Grade: B (B for Bening).

who writes what i like to read

After seeing this list on a blog of a friend of Jerry's, I was inspired (more or less) to put together my own list of my favorite books and authors: or, who I like to read. I think that I'm going to keep the format and talk about the authors first, and then move on to the books which were not written by one of my favorite authors. This post will just be the authors and later I'll update again with the books.

Authors:

Louise Erdrich: I couldn't possibly begin this list without mentioning Louise Erdrich. Her first novel Love Medicine was on a course syllabus for American Literature when I was in college and that was the year I was ambitious and read all of the novels in the summer before class started. Good thing because we never got to this book during class and it remainds one of my favorites. From the opening scene with a woman walking out into a snow storm it has remained with me. Other novels of note include Tracks and The Last Reports on the Miracle at Little No Horse.

Alison McGhee: McGhee, like Erdrich is another Minnesotan. That fact is completely coincidental to the reality that these two authors are my favorite two authors. Another thing both Erdrich and McGhee share is that their first novels use the multiple narrator format. McGhee's debut, Rainlight, is one of those rare novels that I not only like, but fall in love with. It introduced the small town of Sterns in the Adirondack Mountains where her other novels have been set, and I've been hooked ever since.

Ann Patchett: When Bel Canto was published it became something of a sensation. I believe it was on the best sellers list and won a few awards and a couple years later I actually read it. Patchett has this gentleness to her writing but it is so persuasive that she sucks the reader in and it is only hours later that you realize you've been totally immersed in the story. The other book of Patchett's was her debut The Patron Saint of Liars, which along with having a fantastic title is an excellent graceful book.

Don DeLillo: Another author I discovered in that American Lit class. In this instance the book we were reading was his second novel (of 13) End Zone. DeLillo is a different sort of writer than the three writers listed above. He is the post modern writer. While there comes a point after reading so many of his novels that his characters all start to talk and act the same, it is what the characters are saying that is so interesting. Novels of note include White Noise, The Names, Libra, and Underworld.

Kathleen Norris: Changing styles here, Kathleen Norris not a novelist like the previous four authors, but writes non-fiction. Her books are contemplative in nature and deal with faith, having faith, what it means to have faith, and how she has come to faith. Her best two books (to me) are The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith.

Barbara Kingsolver: Best known, perhaps, for The Poisonwood Bible which was a selection on Oprah's Book Club, Kingsolver is a favorite of mine...at least with her fiction. The fiction is excellent with novels that have something of an environmental theme/bend to them but generally not heavy handed.

Philip Roth: With a career spanning decades it is only the recent work which I have read and which has captures my attention. The Human Stain, American Pastoral, and The Plot Against America are all excellent and The Human Stain especially was fantastic.

There are numerous authors of fantasy and science fiction which I will read on a drop of the hat, but I think that is for another posting.

Karen Traviss, Star Wars

Good news for fans of Star Wars and of author Karen Traviss. Coming in Spring 2006, Traviss is writing a sequel to her Star Wars novel Republic Commando: Hard Contact. This one will be titled Republic Commando: Triple Zero. The novel is set in the timeline of the Clone Wars (so before Episode Three) and while I read Star Wars books there are few that I actually have any sort of anticipation for. Karen Traviss is one of the authors who I actually look forward to her contributions, out of the 30 or 40 Star Wars novels I have read so far, she is one of the best authors writing in the Extended Universe.

Apparently Ms Traviss has also blogged about this, so I'm a little behind in the news. It's cool how excited Traviss seems about this.

I've been meaning to read her first novel, City of Pearl, for some time now.

Robin Hobb's website

From time to time I make the rounds of the author websites I have bookmarked. Some of them I don't go to very often because I know they don't get updated with any sort of frequency and also that I know what they have coming out in the near future. But I decided to check out the website of Robin Hobb, author of the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders, and the Tawny Man Trilogy. I knew that her new book, Shaman's Crossing, was coming out this summer/fall, but it's been a while since she's had a website update.

She has, and has she ever!

Her previous website was a simple text page that she designed herself with one or two links to other information. But it was pretty simple and basic, much what you'd expect when an author designs her own website. No shame in that, since her business is writing.

Well, it's undergone a complete redesign, and I think she's had some help. Now rather than just simple text it is sort of a treasure hunt to find the info you are looking at. On the front page is a floor plan with various rooms labeled and you click onto each room to see a photograph and you can then click various images in the photograph. It's pretty interesting and was entertaining. I suppose after that you'd just remember which has the info you'd like to revisit in the future. It's not too complex, but just a little different.

Oprah's Book Club

So the new selection in Oprah's Book Club is a collection of three novels by William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, and Light in August. I like how recently she has been going to some of the classics and perhaps getting people to read these books. I've read As I Lay Dying and thought it was excellent.

I was flipping through some of the Amazon.com reviews of this three book set and some reviewers were complainging that Oprah should be supporting new writers and not dead authors that everyone has heard of. While I sort of understand this sentiment because the publishing business is awfully tough and some good writers could use the extra exposure, I don't think it is entirely fair.

Many readers may have heart of Faulkner and John Steinbeck, Garica Marquez, and Pearl Buck, but this doesn't mean that these readers have read the authors. Out of the six books chosen so far for Oprah's new book club, I have read just the one by Faulkner. I have a degree in English and focused my classes on Literature and American Lit when available (small college, it might have been different in a larger university). I've read other novels by Steinbeck, and Garcia Marquez. I don't believe I've read Pearl Buck. But despite the large amount of fantasy and science fiction that I read, I think I would still consider myself moderately well read.

So, I think Oprah's focus on the classics is a very good thing. It is a reminder that I should go back and read some of these books for the first time. If they can be rightfully considered classics, then it shouldn't matter that attention is being given to these books outside the high school or college classroom. That attention should be given.

Since these books aren't really "news" anymore compared to the next Dan Brown or Harry Potter book (both of which I am looking forward to), I think that they are being brought back into the public attention can only be a good thing. In theory, they are classics for a reason and while everyone has different taste in books sometimes books that should be read are books you want to read.

Now where did I put that copy of East of Eden?

Penguins

I really can't say that I have any desire to see Madagascar. The whole animated talking animals thing just doesn't do a whole lot for me, at least when the trailer doesn't seem to suggest there is any heart in the movie. Unlike, say, The Lion King. The only thing here that catches my interest is the penguins. There is something I find inherently funny about sociopathic penguins all scheming and plotting. I don't suppose there will be an edited version of the movie with just the penguin scenes. I'd go see that.

I think the only reasonable solution to this is to see (in the theatre if possible, more likely on DVD) The March of the Penguins. This is a documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman along the lines of a Winged Migration. It's a chance to see penguins do what penguins do. I'll just have to pretend that they are plotting to hijack the camera crew.

Ship of Magic

“Ship of Magic” is the first book of Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders trilogy. It is set in the same world as her previous trilogy: The Farseer, but deals with another aspect of the world and this first book, at least, is almost completely separate with only occasional mentions of a “war up north” which was a major plot point of the Farseer. “Ship of Magic”, unlike the Farseer, is told in the third person point of view rather than the first person of FizChivalry (The Farseer Trilogy). The focus here is on multiple characters and multiple storylines which are initially separate but start to slowly come together.

Althea Vestrit is the daughter of Captain Vestrit, owner of the Liveship Vivacia. A Liveship is not merely made of wood and sailed by the talent of the crew, but it is a ship that is actually alive, it has personality and can think and is so prized that Trader families would put their families generations into debt because of how valued and important these ships are to Bingtown and to the Traders. The Liveships are faster and sail better than any other ship on the water. When her father dies, and he is near death, Althea expects to inherit Vivacia and eventually learn to be her captain. But when he does die the ship is left to the husband of her sister, and Kyle Haven thinks Althea is no proper lady and has no place on a ship. After a very big argument and fight with her family, and with Kyle, Althea leaves Bingtown with the intent to eventually working her way back to be able to own Vivacia in her own right.

There is also a pirate captain, Kennit, who seeks to be ruler of the pirates and also to capture a liveship of his own. At least a third of “Ship of Magic” is about Kennit and his adventures and piracy and his dreams of a better, different life. The final third of the book is focuses on Kyle Haven’s son, Wintrow. Wintrow is Kyle’s only son, but was promised to be a priest of Sa. But when Kyle finally gains control of Vivacia, he also commands Wintrow to join him as a sailor with the intent the Wintrow become a man and eventually take over Vivacia. But Wintrow is not the son that Kyle wants him to be, nor is he the man that Kyle considers a man.

“Ship of Magic” is a slow moving novel with more focus on the characters and their development than about swiftly moving a plot along. By the end of this novel there is quite a bit of plot development, but with the pacing and the characterization it is almost a wonder that Hobb moved the story along at all. It is almost as if the reader were a ship floating along in the ocean of the novel. But while the pacing may be an issue for some readers, if the reader is familiar with her earlier work, this will not be a surprise and Robin Hobb does such a good job of slowly pulling the reader into her world that by the end we are looking for the next book in the series.

Since this book is not directly related to the Farseer Trilogy there is no problem with reading this book first, but I do recommend reading the books in publication order (starting with Assassin’s Apprentice). Either way, this is a different sort of a fantasy novel, but one which I find to be a treat. There is much magic here, but it is in the storytelling rather than in a wizard waving a wand.

Dear Lord, He Finally Finished It!

George R.R. Martin, author of one of my favorite series of fantasy: A Song of Ice and Fire has finally finished A Feast For Crows.

Apparently he cut the story in half and focused only on the characters and action in one particular location and will tell the story of the other characters in the next volume (which he is now more than halfway finished with). While I wouldn't mind a 1700 behemoth of a novel, Martin is one hell of a writer and I've been waiting for this book for several years now.

This news makes me happy. The book has been sent to the publisher to do whatever it is that they do to make the book ready to publish, so we're getting there. Now I just need to re-read books two and three in this series (I re-read A Game of Thrones last year). If it comes out this year, it could be a really good year for fantasy novels.

Episode Three

It was half of a really great movie. There is no real secret as to what "Revenge of the Sith" is about: the fall of Anakin Skywalker. The Rise of Darth Vader. How does the boy who yelled "yippee" in "The Phantom Menace" turn into the monster who crushes the windpipes of those who displease him? For Star Wars fans, this is what we've been waiting to see ever since we first saw "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back".

As someone who actually enjoyed the political talk in Episodes I and II, the first half of this movie sort of dragged for me. The opening space battle and rescue of Palpatine wasn't as fantastic as I had hoped, though the special effects were beautiful. Actually, the special effects and the visuals in this movie were stunning all the way through. This is the best looking Star Wars movie and the effects here will be put to good use in other films. But the opening felt forced to me. It didn't engage, but when Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) are together and Palpatine is starting to seduce Anakin with the Dark Side and how it can protect Padme (Natalie Portman) and even bring peace to the galaxy, the movie works. From this point on, when Anakin begins to distrust the Jedi and slips closer and closer to the Dark Side I am totally into what is happening on screen.

Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi is especially good here as he seems to be channeling Alec Guinness. His final confrontation with Anakin is probably the moment that fans have been waiting for and we feel the pain and betrayal that each character feels, and with the prequels it is amazing that we feel anything from any character.

There are other parts of this movie that does not work. As always, George Lucas's dialogue is rather poor and the "romantic" exchanges between Anakin and Padme and cringe inducing if you think about it for any length of time. Mercifully they are rather short scenes. Then again, most of the dialogue in the movie makes some awfully good actors sound, well, awful. Ewan McGregor comes off better than most as the movie progresses. It feels like he is having more fun playing the role than he has in two previous movies.

"Revenge of the Sith" answers many questions raised by Star Wars fans over the years, but leaves others unanswered. The one that still gets me is how exactly does someone so powerful in the Force (Anakin) not know that his wife is carrying twins? A follow up would question the wisdom of hiding Darth Vader's son on his home planet of Tatooine, but I suppose there would be no reason for Vader to return to Tatooine.

In the end "Revenge of the Sith" is satisfying for the Star Wars fan, though by no means is it perfect. Having only seen the movie once and not knowing how it will hold up after six months or a year, it feels like I like it third best after "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Star Wars".

Maybe after seeing the movie a second time (probably on DVD) the first half will grow on me and the whole movie will feel stronger, but that second half is worth the price of admission.

Haunted

After finishing Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted, I was a little disappointed. The first story in this collection, "Guts" was incredibly gross, but it had this potential for goriness and nastiness and creepiness that I had expected the rest of the stories to live up to and perhaps surpass. I expected something grand and fantastic (definition two) and while there was a sense of the fantastic, it didn't live up to the hype in my mind. Not after "Guts" and not after books like Survivor or Diary.

The basic structure of the book is that a group of writers sign up for a three month escape from reality so that they can write their "masterpieces" with no contact with the outside world. They are locked into a theatre and right away they start getting edgy and uncomfortable with the lack of possibility of leaving. They start telling each other stories, possibly fiction but the stories get tied into their personas. Each of these stories is the short stories of Palahniuk, but the Writer's Conference is the framing device of the collection, sort of like The Canturbury Tales, only probably without the lasting acclaim.

"Guts" was such an interesting lead off hit for "Haunted" that most of the rest of the stories felt lacking. The framing device of the conference was a little absurd in the lengths that the people went to build their masterpieces and insure their fame.

I really like Chuck Palahniuk's work, but "Haunted" was a let down.

Quit Cancelling My Shows!!

First I read that NBC wasn't going to pick up The Contender for a second season, but this didn't surprise me. As good of a show that it is (and it is), I don't know how well it would play a second time.

But today I just read that Joan of Arcadia is being cancelled! I know that ratings were down, but to replace it with a Jennifer Love Hewitt show where she talks to ghosts? C'mon, now. Joan was just getting into a storyline for the next season with a major conflict that looked to be very interesting. Guess I'm going to have to rent the first season from Netflix (since I only started watching this season).

What's next, Buffy the Vampire Slayer?!

Oh, nevermind.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

I like Milla Jovovich as a superhero. Her breakout role in "The Fifth Element" was all that was needed to sell me on her. She was fine in the first "Resident Evil", which was better than perhaps it was given credit for. But in "Resident Evil: Apocalypse", Jovovich's Alice is given something of a makeover. When we last saw Alice at the end of the first movie she had been captured by scientists from the evil Umbrella Corporation and was subject to some tests and experiments. At the end of the movie we saw Alice walking alone on a street that was desolate and ruined, as if there were some sort of war or battle. It is at this point that "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" begins.

Raccoon City is the victim of the T-Virus from the Umbrella Corporation. This virus turns ordinary people into flesh eating zombies (is there another kind?), and like any good zombie virus, it is highly contagious. Umbrella Corporation apparently has the power to lock down the city and prevent anyone from leaving, but there are still some citizens left alive, including "disgraced" police officer Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory). Jill, and another officer attempt to hide before leaving the city and while being confronted by some nasty zombie creatures they meet Alice. During that whole period where she was a captive and the victim of experiments, Alice has apparently picked up some sort of upgrade to her natural biology because she kicks serious butt here. She fights like a super soldier or super hero, more like "The Fifth Element's" Leeloo than anyone else.

Besides the hordes of zombies, there is also a new super zombie looking creature called Nemesis which is stalking the city. Exactly what Nemesis is and where it came from is a little bit of a mystery, though a little thinking about the clues given will solve the riddle fairly quickly.

This is a nothing special action/zombie movie. Fans of the first "Resident Evil" may be disappointed. I know that despite myself, I did enjoy the first movie. There was more character interaction and character development, but this movie just had hordes of zombies and a bit too much action. And while I like Jovivich as a superhero, this didn't seem to be a role that really needed to such an incredibly strong superhero. I guess I didn't belive it. The door was left open for a third movie, and perhaps there will be one, but until that point there is no real reason to watch "Resident Evil: Apocalypse". There are far better movies out there.

Grade: C

Perdido Street Station

This past week I finished China Mieville's epic Perdido Street Station. This book has received quite excellent reviews and had come highly recommended. Amazon lists it as one of the Best of 2001 and says this about it:

But Perdido Street Station deserves the acclaim. It's ambitious and brilliant and--rarity of rarities--sui generis. Its clearest influences are Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy and M. John Harrison's Viriconium books, but it isn't much like them. It's Dickensian in scope, but fast-paced and modern. It's a love song for cities, and it packs a world into its strange, sprawling, steam-punky city of New Crobuzon. It can be read with equal validity as fantasy, science fiction, horror, or slipstream. It's got love, loss, crime, sex, riots, mad scientists, drugs, art, corruption, demons, dreams, obsession, magic, aliens, subversion, torture, dirigibles, romantic outlaws, artificial intelligence, and dangerous cults.

Among other things. To further quote Cynthia Ward at Amazon,

Yes, but what is Perdido Street Station about? To oversimplify: the eccentric scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is hired to restore the power of flight to a cruelly de-winged birdman. Isaac's secret lover is Lin, an artist of the khepri, a humano-insectoid race; theirs is a forbidden relationship. Lin is hired (rather against her will) by a mysterious crime boss to capture his horrifying likeness in the unique khepri art form. Isaac's quest for flying things to study leads to verification of his controversial unified theory of the strange sciences of his world. It also brings him an odd, unknown grub stolen from a secret government experiment so perilous it is sold to a ruthless drug lord--the same crime boss who hired Lin. The grub emerges from its cocoon, becomes an extraordinarily dangerous monster, and escapes Isaac's lab to ravage New Crobuzon, even as his discovery becomes known to a hidden, powerful, and sinister intelligence. Lin disappears and Isaac finds himself pursued by the monster, the drug lord, the government and armies of New Crobuzon, and other, more bizarre factions, not all confined to his world.

It's quite a concept, but one that I found baffling. I was challenged to make sense of this world that Mieville created. Perhaps that was his point. I know that most of my science fiction and fantasy reading is of a more simplistic nature, especially the fantasy which tends to be more in the direction of the "high fantasy" of Raymond Feist, Robert Jordan, Tolkein, Robin Hobb, George Martin, etc. This is a completely different kind of fantasy and I saw it described as steampunk. Dictionary.com defines steampunk as "a genre of science fiction set in Victorian times when steam was the main source of machine power; also written steam-punk". That's close, but it doesn't seem to capture it either.

I've also seen the word "phantasmagoric" used, which is defined as

A fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever.
A constantly changing scene composed of numerous elements.
Fantastic imagery as represented in art.

That seems to be more accurate. The book is a rush of images and ideas that left me a little confused. Good? I guess so. It didn't blow me away, not like has happened with other books. I think I was more impressed with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

I'll probably give Mieville another shot and read The Scar, but I think I expected something more and different from Perdido Street Station.

Ultramarathon Man

Dean Karnazes is an amazing athlete. He is a winner of the 2004 Badwater 135 Ultramarathon (The World's Toughest Footrace, 135 miles through Death Valley), and has completed the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run as well as running the first South Pole Marathon. He has also run a 199 mile Relay event without having a relay team. On his thirtieth birthday, having not run for fifteen years and feeling a bit of a mid-life crisis and dissatisfaction with his life, Dean went out for a run. Most people, going out for their first run in more than a decade might go for a mile or two and get the old feeling back. Dean ran thirty miles. "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner" is Dean's autobiography.

My interest in this book stems from an article I read about Dean Karnazes in Runner's World Magazine regarding his quest to run 300 miles in one incredibly long run. At the time the article was written he had "only" run 262 consecutive miles. He has since surpassed 300. But that article peaked my interest in Karnazes. His capacity for pain and endurance is incredible and at the time I knew next to nothing about the world of ultramarathons (any distance longer than a marathon) or ultra running. I am interested in all things distance running and that interest served me well because this isn't an exceptionally well written book. The sentences have a choppy flow to them and the writing is a little simplistic. It is more like Karnazes is writing how he would talk, which works on one level but that doesn't always translate to good writing.

But that didn't really matter to me because I was so interested in his running career and his accomplishments and the events that he has participated in. To say that this book is short sighted and only focuses on Karnazes and not touching upon the history of the sport or other athletes kind of misses the point. This is a book about, and written by, Dean Karnazes and his experience as an ultra runner. Karnazes reveals how he has something of an obsessive compulsive personality and his outlet is running. He just takes it to an extreme that most people wouldn't understand. I certainly don't, though I'm impressed by it.

This is a good book for those interested what Karnazes has done and in long distance running in general. It is not well written enough that it would draw in somebody who didn't already have the interest.

Guts

More than a year ago I heard about this short story called "Guts" written by Chuck Palahniuk. Palahniuk is the author of Fight Club, as well as several other novels. I like his work, though it is starting to feel a little repetitive. But the thing about "Guts", the thing that made me really want to read this story is that there are documented reports that when Palahniuk gives readings of this story people actually pass out. Seriously. People have fainted just listening to it. What is this story? I have to read it!

The story was included Palahniuk's new novel/story collection Haunted. This book is really a short story collection but is given a novel's format to give a reason why all the stories are being told. "Guts" is the first story in the collection.

I didn't faint. I didn't pass out. I was disgusted.

I can only imagine the impact of having a man who looks like your uncle calmly reading this story. But reading it alone sitting comfortably on the couch, it is an interesting, but brutally disgusting story. I understand the gag reflex a little bit more. On its own, it's nothing extraordinary or special, but imagine reading the story in a dark room or around a campfire. It's one of those nasty stories that would work better in a different setting.

Is it worth reading? If you like Palahniuk, yes. If you want to know what kind of story would make people faint, yes. So far I've only read that story in Haunted, so I can't speak for the rest of the novel.

I just had to know.

Three Nights in August

Do you like baseball? Do you like the details of the game and the history of it? Have you ever wondered about what exactly a manager does? If, so "Three Nights in August" by Buzz Bissinger is probably the book for you. Bissinger, with complete access granted by Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa, breaks down a late season three game series against the Cubs in 2003. Like Daniel Okrent's excellent "Nine Innings", Bissinger's book features digressions about players and history as well as delving into the manager's second guessing and overanalyzing his own decisions as well as the decisions the players make that are not what they just discussed two hours prior.

This is a fascinating book. Bissinger tells the story of this three game series which is both more important than just three baseball games because how it affects the pennant race and less important because the real battles occur on a play by play, batter by batter basis. Bissinger breaks down both and the result is a highly readable, interesting book about baseball and great manager.

For the baseball fan, this is a must read.
And then check out Okrent's "Nine Innings". You'd be surprised at how interesting a 1983 game between the Orioles and the Brewers can be.

Quickies: Crash and Kingdom of Heaven

I haven't really had the time/patience to write a full review of either of the movies I saw this weekend. It was a good weekend, though. I had the chance to see both Crash and Kingdom of Heaven.

Crash is a movie about race and racism and the perceptions of race distinctions. There is a large, talented cast and multiple storylines that weave together to make the movie. If you are familiar at all with the films of Robert Altman (Short Cuts, Gosford Park, Cookie's Fortune) then you'll have an idea about the structure of the movie. It is co-written and directed by the Academy Award winning screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby, Paul Haggis.

Taking place over the course of a long day, Haggis brings together a variety of characters in Los Angeles. There is a white racist cop and his disapproving rookie partner (Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillipe). There are two young, thoughtful black men (Ludacris and Larenz Tate). There is a latino locksmith who is trying to raise a family (Michael Pena, I think). Sandra Bullock plays the wife of Brendan Fraser (the district attorney), and she is angry and fearful of those of other races. The fear makes partial sense as those two thoughtful young black men also carjacked her and her husband, but this leads her to believe that the locksmith is a gang banger because he has a shaved head and tattoos. There are other characters of other races and backgrounds and the movie deals with the misunderstandings and racial prejudices that arise. There is no simple answer and there is no true villain. Even characters like Matt Dillon's racist cop gets a touch of humanity as he cares for his ailing father and also in an act of heroism. The initially sympathetic characters reveal their own prejudices. Everybody is worse than they appear, but everybody is also better than they appear. It's a very intersting, well made film and is simply excellent.

Kingdom of Heaven is completely different. This is a historical epic from the director of Gladiator, Ridley Scott. Nobody does a historical epic like Scott. He should have directed Troy, Alexander, and King Arthur. Here we have Balion (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith who meets his Crusader father (Liam Neeson) for the first time and goes to Jerusalem with him. His father dies, but Balion finds himself a Lord, a Knight, romancing a princess, and defending the city. Balion is a Christian Knight and Jerusalem will soon find itself under seige from the Muslim army of Saladin (Ghassan Massoud).

The interesting thing here, and it is to Ridley Scott's credit, is that the Muslims are not the bad guys. Neither are the Christians. Holding the city and trying to take the city is more about politics than about religion. Those who come off the worst in this movie are the fanatics on both sides. Some of the Christian soldiers cry out "God wills it!" while arguing that they should wipe out the Muslims. The same is argued on the Muslim side about the Christians. It is interesting how both sides are clearly fighting for God and that this Holy War is approved by God. I doubt it, and so do the moderates on either side.

Scott takes his time, but the battle sequences are quite good and a little frantic with the camera movement. If you are a fan of the genre, this film should satisfy, but it is a little slow and dry at times. Orlando Bloom, while pretty good here, isn't the compelling charismatic lead that we saw in Russell Crowe's Maximus. He is serviceable with excellent supporting characters, but I'm not sure if men would follow Balion. But Bloom surpasses my expectations after seeing him in Troy.

preview

Would you believe that the first time I saw a full preview for Star Wars: Episode Three was before Kingdom of Heaven on sunday? I've read the book, and loved it. The trailer is strong and interesting and makes it look quite good, but then so did the trailer for The Phantom Menace. I have hopes, but I have fears.

The Sandlot 2

Ten years after the events of “The Sandlot” comes another story set in the same neighborhood on the same sandlot. All of the kids from the first movie are now ten years older and have all moved away. The only person remaining is Johnny Smalls (James Willson), the younger brother of Scott Smalls, the main character and narrator of the first movie. Johnny grew up hearing about the legends of the sandlot and how Benny pickled the Beast and recovered the Babe Ruth autographed ball and how Hercules, the Beast, was tamed. But this is now 1972 and those events are barely legend around the sandlot. A new group of kids play there now. But there are only 5 boys on this team. The boys are led by David Durango (Max-Lloyd Jones). The rest of the boys are fairly nameless. Sure, they are all given names, but their personalities are lacking. The catcher, Mac (Brett Kelley) seems to be taking the place of Hamilton Porter from the first movie as the loud mouth, large bodied catcher. But he lacks the personality of Ham. It is as if he is a poor copy of the original character. There is the token black kid on the team, taking the place of Kenny DeNunez. There is one character who stands out, the entertaining Fingers Samuelson (Sean Berdy). Fingers is deaf, hence the nickname, but is somehow the most striking character in the movie.

But there is a twist. This time there are girls. Hayley Good fairer (Samantha Burton) and two of her friends end up rounding out the team and are just as good, if not better, than the boys. Right from the start some of the old conflicts start up: the sandlot kids have a rivalry with the uniformed little leaguers and someone hit’s a ball over the fence at Mr, Mertle’s yard (James Earl Jones) where there lives a descendant of the Beast called the Great Fear. It is at this point that Johnny Smalls relates the legend of the Beast and the rise of the Great Fear. Naturally mischief ensues.

If anyone has seen the first “Sandlot”, that person has a very good idea about how the rest of “The Sandlot 2” is going to play out. The stakes are raised in this movie, though that is also a matter of perception considering the first movie featured a retrieval of a ball autographed by Babe Ruth. Even so, “The Sandlot 2” is not a very original movie. Perhaps this isn’t a surprise considering this movie was direct to video rather than getting a theatrical release. But so much of it plays out exactly like the first movie even with the same dialogue. What is most disappointing about this is the fact that both this movie and the original were written and directed by David Mickey Evans. If anyone could recapture some of the magic of “The Sandlot”, it would be him. At least this wasn’t a low budget sequel written and directed with somebody who has no ties to the original. That’s also why this is so disappointed. Evans essentially remade the first movie with small cosmetic changes.

But what I don’t understand is why the kids didn’t just go and ask Mr. Mertle for help in retrieving what went over the fence. Scott Smalls had been friends with Mr. Mertle for years, so Johnny has to know that he is a decent and friendly man. The brief explanation given doesn’t really make sense except that it allows the last third of the movie to have a conflict. Without it, this movie would have ended after an hour. It was just a weak explanation, though, and it just let the kids go through some of the same things that occurred in the original movie.

I’m sure than a younger audience will enjoy “The Sandlot 2”, but those who have fond memories of “The Sandlot” should probably stay away. This does nothing to tarnish the original movie, but there just wasn’t a need for a sequel and even with the original writer/director on board, there is no comparison between the two movies. “The Sandlot 2” is an inferior product and is missing the charm and humor and fun of “The Sandlot”.


Grade: C-

Mona Lisa Smile

Here is the setting: An idealistic young teacher arrives at a well respected private school with the intention of making a difference in the lives and education of the students. This teacher soon runs up against a tradition bound administration as well as some tradition bound students. Soon enough the teacher begins to win over the students who are inspired by the teacher, but the administration is not so pleased by the radical new ideas and teaching methods used by this idealistic young teacher. What movie is this?

While I was talking about "Dead Poets Society", the above description can be used without any changes about 2003's "Mona Lisa Smile". Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) is a young art history teacher from California newly arrived at the prestigious Wellesley College. She has definite ideas about the role of women in the 1950's, but Wellesley seems to be nothing more than an excellent school to prepare the young women to be a good wife and mother. While the academic standards are rigorous, the goal isn't for the woman to aspire to be somebody herself, but to help her husband be somebody. Watson is appalled by this and by the resistance she meets from the administration and even by some of the brightest students.

We are also introduced to some of the students, though we never get too much into their minds or lives. There is Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst). Betty is something of a snitch and seems to consider herself the purity police and is too full of herself. Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles) is the student whom Katherine holds the most hope for. In Joan, Katherine sees a little bit of herself. Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is introduced only as the girl who, gasp, may have loose morals regarding men. Finally Connie Baker (Ginnifer Goodwin) is the slightly dumpy girl who just hopes to find a man.

This is really the Katherine Watson story and her influence on the girls, such as it is, and her frustration with Wellesley. If we changed the all girls college to an all boys high school and traded Julia Roberts for Robin Williams, we'd have "Dead Poets Society". But "Dead Poets Society" is a far better movie. It may not be fair to compare the two movies, but when "Mona Lisa Smile" is so clearly modeled on "Dead Poets Society" how can the comparison not be made? The main problem with "Mona Lisa Smile" is that it portrays 1950's Wellesley where the women are not expected to have minds after graduation nor are the expected to use them. It is difficult to see how the issues raised in "Mona Lisa Smile" are relevant today. "Dead Poets Society" dealt with academic pressure and the ability to think for oneself. "Mona Lisa Smile" touches upon the same issues, but does so in such a way that the problems just don't feel as important. This is all the more so because fifty years later the expectations on women in education are far different. "Dead Poets Society" is much more universal.

A minor issue, to place the movie in a historical context, is that I have read reviews questioning the accuracy of the portrayal of Wellesley in the 50's, and that the college was not the backwards wasteland which only expected women to marry and have children. I can't say whether or not that is the case, but it is worth noting that the filmmakers may have twisted what facts were available to make a lesser movie.

Grade: C+

Scrabble

Last night before I went out to the Mall of America with Sandy I was watching a little bit of the 2004 Scrabble National Championships. I'm not positive, but I think that makes me a geek. The strange thing is that it was rather interesting and also that ESPN 2 had commentators talking about strategy and different possible moves the players could use. One commentator, don't know his name, had said at one point that he could see several really good moves a player could make and how obvious the moves were.

To me, they weren't obvious. It was some seven letter triple word score play for the word "lakiest". Yeah, that's the first thing that would come to mind on my board.

Then again, when I play I can never think of words and use the simplest and lowest scoring words imaginable. At least when these guys played the world "Fa" they scored some 30 points off of it because of combos and double letters and stuff like that. I play the word "blue" and score 5 points.

I don't think I'll be entering any tournaments anytime soon.

Disappointment: Eggers, Vowell, and Lethem

Sometimes you can read a book and just be completely blown away. When you turn the final page you just have to find more of this author's work, it's that good. This happened when I read Dave Eggers' memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It was creative, fresh, funny, heartbreaking, beautiful, entirely original, and Eggers used the entire book (and I really mean that, he even re-wrote that page that has the publisher's information). It was so good that I bought the limited edition hardcover of his first novel that was originally only available in smaller, independent bookstores: You Shall Know Our Velocity. I couldn't have been more disappointed. Eggers is doing some great things in writing, but he seems to be best as an editor or a guiding force as he is with McSweeney's and as an editor of the Best American Non-Required Reading series. I just recently read his collection of short stories How We Are Hungry, and once again I feel let down. His fiction just seems to be missing that spark that he put into his memoir. Once again, though, take a look at Eggers as an editor of Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans. It's often funny and creative and fresh.

Next up is Sarah Vowell. Vowell may be best known to most people as the voice of Violet in The Incredibles. She's also an editor on This American Life on NPR, and she has written several books. The first book of hers that I read was The Partly Cloudy Patriot, a collection of humorous but pointed essays about America and patriotism and what it all means to her. Good stuff. She's also one of my favorite guests on Conan (and even Letterman, but she has a better connection with Conan), so much so that I'll record the episode on the DVR if she's on just in case it is a new one. But I read her previous book Take the Cannoli and didn't feel the same connection or interest. I recently finished her latest book Assassination Vacation, which deals with her vacations/trips to visit historical sites relating to presidential assassinations (and she goes to any site no matter how remote a connection). It's an interesting concept and most of the time she pulls it off, but overall the book just didn't pull me in like The Partly Cloudy Patriot.

The final author I want to mention is Jonathan Lethem. His fiction hasn't disappointed. While I wasn't blown away by Motherless Brooklyn his ventures into a different sort of science fiction (one which has found its way to be catalogued on the "Literature" shelf at the book store, I've loved his other stuff like Gun, With Occasional Music, and As She Climbed Across the Table. My disappointment here is when I booked up a book of his essays. This week I read The Disappointment Artist and was underwhelmed. But I think it takes something different in an essay to reach me. Still, his collection of short fiction Men and Cartoons was great as was his most recent novel The Fortress of Solitude.

I guess the moral is to be careful of what you read when you get excited by a fresh voice you're finding in an author. It may not all be golden. Here, though, Lethem is by far the best if you stick with his fiction.

The Interpreter

“The Interpreter”, directed by Sydney Pollack, is a very smart political thriller. Critics have called it an “old fashioned” movie and that it is an “old school” political thriller in the vein of a “Manchurian Candidate”. This is meant as a compliment and high praise. Being called old fashioned may not seem like a positive thing these days, but when talking about “The Interpreter” the critics are saying that this is a well crafted, well written, well acted film which pays attention to building a believable story where the tension builds and builds. It all means something and has a point, rather than the flashy style without substance that many of today’s films seem to be using.

Sylvia Broone (Nicole Kidman) is an interpreter for the United Nations. She is a white African from the fictional nation of Motobo. Having to return to the UN late one night to retrieve a bag she left in her booth, she overhears a conversation in the language of Motobo. Before she believes she is spotted, she hears a whispered discussion talking about an assassination. She doesn’t at first know who the plot is against, but later realizes that the plotters are talking about assassinating the leader of her native Motobo. When she reports the threat to her superiors, the United States Secret Service is brought in to protect the leader of Motobo when he arrives at the UN. The agent in charge of this investigation is Tobin Keller (Sean Penn), a man dealing with his own pain even as Sylvia seeks to hide her past for reasons she won’t reveal.

It builds. Little by little Sydney Pollack gives the viewer a deeper glimpse into the world of Sylvia Broone and who she is. Keller is suspicious of anything he doesn’t understand and Broone does appear to be hiding something. Little by little we find out more of what is going on in this movie and the tension grows and grows. Younger filmmakers can learn something from Sydney Pollack. He doesn’t play all of his cards right away but gives enough that the audience remains engaged. Nothing in this movie is clear cut, and nothing is the way we initially perceive it to be. Pollack keeps us guessing long enough through the movie, but without insulting our intelligence by throwing swerve after swerve. Sure, there is a twist or two, but that much has to be expected.

It must be noted that this is the first film which was given permission to actually film within the United Nations Headquarters, and the UN itself feels like a character. Even Alfred Hitchcock was denied permission to film there. Pollack is respectful of the mission and the work of the UN while still expressing reservations about the shortcomings and shortsightedness of the organization.

“The Interpreter” is a very good movie, and a very smart movie. In a week where the other big movie is the remake of “The Amityville Horror”, “The Interpreter” is a welcome breath of fresh air in what has otherwise been a fairly dull season for movies.

Grade: A-

Ilium

Dan Simmons' "Ilium" is an impressive, complicated epic of a science fiction novel. I didn't know what to think when I first heard about "Ilium". The way it was described to me was that "Ilium" is a science fiction telling of Homer's "The Iliad" and it had something to do with Mars. That was really all I knew and to be honest, that description still doesn't do much for me. That description is true, but it doesn't quite convey what "Ilium" is. More than just giving the read "The Iliad" in space, Dan Simmons has created the first part of an epic masterpiece which is nothing like what I expected. I don't use the word "masterpiece" lightly.

"Ilium" tells three different stories that are at first completely unrelated. The first is that of the Iliad. The ancient Greeks are waging their epic war against the Trojans and this war was all started when Helen of Sparta left her husband Menelaus to join with Paris of Troy. That was the face which launched a thousand ships. Since we are talking about a Greek epic here, there are gods a plenty showing up and getting involved the war. But "Ilium" isn't a simple retelling of Homer. "Ilium" is something completely different. Thomas Hockenberry is a late 20th Century/Early 21st Century scholar (here called a scholic) who has been revived thousands of years after his death to observe this Trojan War and see how closely the events match with Homer's "Iliad".

I have to admit, that is quite an idea for a book. But that is only a third of the story here. Next we have a setting which is definitely on the planet Earth, our Earth, but is thousands and thousands and perhaps even thousands of years in the future. Taking a cue from H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" the remaining humans have such advanced technology and society that there is no work, no manual or physical labor. Instead humans live only for their own personal pleasure. Think of these humans as the Eloi from the mind of Wells. But if there are eloi, there must also be morlocks. Here the analogy breaks down a bit as the servants of these humans are robots. Into the lives of Daeman, a human male, and Ada, a human woman comes Harman. Harman is a man who is in the final year of his Final Twenty. What this means is that he only has one year left to live before he is allowed to spent an eternity with the "Post Humans", a race of superhumans who created all of this technology and luxury but who have since left the planet. Harman is eager to learn about the past and what the truth might be since nobody living has any idea of the past or can even read.

The third part of the story of "Ilium" is completely different. Still in some distant future and seemingly unconnected to the other two storylines (which are also seemingly unconnected), this storyline concerns a quartet (initially) of mechanical creatures called moravecs which are set on a mission to explore Mars and see why exactly the planet has been Terraformed to have an atmosphere and possibly some sort of life and dare I say civilization. I call the moravecs a mechanical creature rather than robot because even though they are robotic, they seem to also require some sort of oxygen to function. I can't explain it. Have I mentioned that two of these moravecs also have a running conversation about the sonnets and Shakespeare and end up discussion Proust?

Somehow, and I couldn't quite imagine how at first, Dan Simmons manages to tie all three storylines together in a way that feels far more natural than it possibly should. Even more amazing, Simmons manages to make all of this interesting and intelligent. In the hands of a lesser writer, this book would have been a big mess. Then again, a lesser author might not have attempted this. As Simmons reveals more and more of each storyline, it becomes more and more gripping. This epic story is only the first part of a two book series. The second book, "Olympos", will be published in the summer of 2005.

Describing "Ilium" is difficult because to go too far in depth with the various plot threads would likely take thousands of words. Suffice it to say that after Simmons gives the reader an adequate introduction to each storyline, he takes it in a direction the reader will likely not expect. That this sprawling, nearly 600 pages novel is very readable and accessible to even somebody who doesn't know a thing about the Iliad (me), "The Time Machine", or science fiction, is remarkable. But "Ilium" succeeds at all of this and by the end of the book I was disappointed that "Olympos" wasn't already in stores or in my local library.

Revenge of the Sith: The Book

Matthew Stover is the latest author (after Terry Brooks and R.A. Salvatore) to be given a chance to adapt one of the Star Wars films to a novel. Stover is no novice to the Star Wars universe, having written the excellent prequel novel "Shatterpoint" and the New Jedi Order volume "Traitor". Considering how dark and gritty "Shatterpoint" was, Stover appeared to be the perfect author to give the novelization for Episode Three to. Episode Three was said to be the darkest of all 6 films, and Stover is good at going dark. This was one of the few Star Wars novels which I was actually looking forward to reading.

The basic outline of "Revenge of the Sith" has been known for years, even before "The Phantom Menace" was a glimmer in the eye of George Lucas. This is the one fans have been waiting for. This is the fall of Anakin Skywalker. This is the film, the book where Anakin Skywalker is seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, turns his back on the Jedi, helps destroy the Jedi and becomes Darth Vader. We know the history. We know what the end result is, that Luke and Leia will end up being separated with no knowledge of each other or their father. What we don't know is exactly how this all goes down. When the first two prequel movies were not what the audience had expected, "Revenge of the Sith" had to contain all the fans had wanted for the prequel trilogy. Since the release date for the movie is still a month away, I can't say if the movie will deliver the goods. I can say that the book does.

The Anakin Skywalker that we know from "Attack of the Clones" is more than a little brash and angry at times, but he is dedicated to the Jedi. The other prequel novels give little foreshadowing hints to the fall, as does the scene in Episode Two where he slaughters the Tusken Raiders who kidnapped his mother. But how does he fall from the Jedi to the Sith? Matthew Stover does an excellent job at showing the reader the inner workings of Anakin's mind regarding the Jedi and how much of a friend Palpatine is to him, how important Palpatine is and how little Palpatine judges Anakin. He is exceptionally close to Obi-Wan, but Anakin still feels judgment from the Jedi. Through tightly described scenes of conversation and battle, we see Anakin slipping closer and closer to being able to accept the Dark Side. We see Palpatine continue to manipulate Anakin so that when he finally does reveal himself Anakin doesn't see the monster, but his friend who also happens to be a Sith Lord and might the Sith really not be as evil as the Jedi have taught?

I can only hope that George Lucas proves to be half as good of a director for this final Star Wars film that Matthew Stover is a writer. If so, we can be looking at one very, very good movie. I'm skeptical, of course. Stover set the bar pretty high with this book. Including this book I have read forty of the Star Wars novels and this is easily one of the best. The story is gripping and one which I wanted to keep reading to find out exactly what happened next. Stover is very good at describing the lightsaber battles as well as making the dialogue feel natural (something that we don't often get in Star Wars). The only thing that felt off was the use of the trademark "I have a bad feeling about this" that must be contractually required of every Star Wars author. If Stover is this good playing in somebody else's world, I can imagine how good his original work must be. Not all Star Wars authors seem capable of writing this good of a Star Wars book. One could even skip all of the other prequel novels that fill in the story and having seen the first two films just jump right into this book and read arguably the best Star Wars novel out there (Stover's "Shatterpoint" and Karen Traviss's "Republic Commando" must also be considered). If you are looking to read a Star Wars novel, this might be the place to begin.

One of the best things that I can say about this is that this book is one of the most satisfying stories that I have read in the Star Wars universe.

The Patron Saint of Liars

“The Patron Saint of Liars” is the debut novel of author Ann Patchett. Patchett has also written the extraordinary “Bel Canto.” This novel, originally published in 1992 was the announcement of a major new talent in literature. The story she tells is a simple one, but filled with grace and written with skill. In the 1960’s, pregnant, Rose Clinton leaves her husband in California with nothing but a note saying that she is unhappy and that he should not try to find her. She has no intention of coming home. Her destination is in Kentucky: St. Elizabeth’s home for unwed mothers. It is where women from all over go to give birth and give up their children. It is a Catholic home in a Baptist town. Rose does not believe that she can be a good mother to her child and that she shouldn’t be a mother. Not now. Perhaps not ever.

The novel is told in three sections. The first section is told from the perspective of Rose. Through her eyes and with her words we learn about why she left California, how she ended up at St. Elizabeth’s and what that experience was like. Patchett writes Rose so well that when her section ended I couldn’t imagine that the next section of the novel could possibly be as good as what it was that I just read. Section two is told by Rose’s husband. The final section of the novel is given to Rose’s daughter. “The Patron Saint of Liars” is a remarkable novel. It is filled with insight into the characters and it seems at times also into our own lives. This isn’t a story of faith, but it is also filled with a sense of grace and healing at all turns, even when the characters are facing personal difficulties.

With “Bel Canto” I knew that Ann Patchett was a talented author and I wanted to experience her other novels. After “The Patron Saint of Liars” it is clear that Patchett ranks among my favorite authors. She doesn’t slam the reader with hard hitting slamming dialogue, but rather allows that sense of grace and healing which is so much a theme of the novel come out in nearly every sentence. As a first novel this is even more remarkable as accomplished authors would be fortunate to write a novel as beautiful as this. I would give “The Patron Saint of Liars” my highest recommendation.

The Upside of Anger

"The Upside of Anger" is a very good movie that is unfortunately going to be missed in the theatres by the larger audiences. Directed by Mike Binder on a budget of a mere twelve million dollars (which is meager by the standard of today), "The Upside of Anger" is a film focusing on the character of Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) and her four daughters played by Alicia Witt, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, and Erika Christenson. At the start of the movie Terry is left by her husband (we never see him on screen) and is left quite bitter towards him. She is also clearly something of an alcoholic. Into her life walks Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), a former ballplayer who also hosts a local radio show but refuses to talk about baseball. Denny and Terry have known each other for years, probably through her husband, but it seems like something changes when he finds out that Terry's husband left. Denny starts coming around more often, but it isn't romantic. Denny drinks too much, too, and they start out as drinking buddies washing their lives away.

Terry's anger (and drinking) is driving her daughters away from her. She says in the movie that she has one daughter that hates her and two or three who are on their way. If Terry is driving the family apart, it is Denny that is holding them together. At first he sort of imposed his way into staying for dinners, but midway through the movie it seems completely natural and the daughters are starting to really like Denny. There is no easy path through the lives of this family, with the illness of one daughter and the anger of the mother, but Denny's good humor somehow keeps this movie from being too dark and gloomy.

The role of Denny has to be one of Kevin Costner's best roles and best performances in years, possibly since 1996's "Tin Cup". He has done some good work since then with "Thirteen Days" and "Open Range", but Denny feels like a signature Costner character with his easy charm and his easy laugh. This is one of his more natural feeling performances and it is one of the reasons why, for a time, people really enjoyed going to a Kevin Costner movie. But this isn't a Kevin Costner movie. It's a great ensemble piece and if anything, it is a Joan Allen movie. If this movie came out in October or November rather than April, there would likely be serious talk about Allen picking up a Best Actress nomination. It would be warranted. She plays the role here very well and doesn't take Terry too far past the line we would lose any sympathy for her. Besides the two leads, all four women who play the daughters also do as good of a job as possible in their limited roles.

In fact, the only negative that I can find is Mike Binder himself. Not as a director, but as an actor. Binder plays the role of Denny's radio producer Shep and Shep is an overly irritating, disgusting, piggish character. Perhaps it is just about right because it gives more conflict to the family, but it just felt a little out of place and a little over the top. But even that doesn't detract too much from the movie and I really loved this movie. If I hadn't heard about this movie for several weeks I would call it one of those nice little discoveries a person finds at the movie theatre (or on DVD) from time to time. It's quite good and I wouldn't be surprised if it holds up to be one of the better movies of the year.

Grade: A-

Sin City (2005)

The short form is that I loved, LOVED the look of this movie, the feel of this movie. Some shots look like they are just ripped from Frank Miller's comic, which makes sense as he was a co-director.

The Mickey Rourke section was fantastic, he was great. Surprisingly so, but I don't know much about Rourke. But, overall, I didn't really care about the characters or what was going on. It looked good, and was fun to watch, but I didn't care.

At times the language felt clunky, but that's the neo noir style Miller worked with. It's going to throw a lot of people who might be expecting the Tarantino style slick dialogue.

For a movie I expected to be completely polarizing (some would love, others would hate), I was in the middle.

Grade: a very generous B

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968)

"Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" is a sequel, of sorts, to 1966's charming "The Trouble With Angels". This sequel stays with the nuns of St. Francis and their school for girls. This time there is a spirited young nun named Sister George (Stella Stevens) who manages to talk the bishop into allowing a trip across the country to California to join into a big protest rally. This is the 1960's, you see, and the church is taking a more activist role and trying to get involved in society. Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) disapproves, of course, but when the bishop speaks she has to obey. "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" is a movie dealing with this trip across the country.

There are several returning characters from "The Trouble With Angels" in this movie, but "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" is less a sequel than an entirely different movie with a couple of common characters. Mother Superior and several of the nuns have returned, as have Mary Clancy's incredibly annoying cousin Marvel Ann (Barbara Hunter). This time Marvel Ann is a much more sympathetic character and something of a trouble maker with her friend Rosabelle (Susan St. James). This is a huge change for the character.

The point of this movie seems to be less about the students, or even the nuns, but the assorted misadventures they get into travelling by bus across the country. The rally is even beside the point. Unfortunately "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" is missing so much of the charm that made "The Trouble With Angels" such a wonderful movie. This one isn't really bad, but it suffers greatly in comparison to a vastly superior movie about a spoiled kid and the lessons of faith that can be found even when one isn't looking for it. In this movie faith is almost besides the point and the characters didn't have to be nuns or students in a religious school. They could have been anyone on a cross country trip. That's a shame.

"Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" did not drag at all, but it just didn't live up to "The Trouble With Angels". It does stand well enough on its own, and Rosalind Russell is always a treat, but this isn't something that I can recommend, especially to fans of "The Trouble With Angels." This movie really feels the lack of Hayley Mills.

Books about running

I have recently read a couple of books about runners. The first is Sub 4:00: Alab Webb and the Quest for the Fastest Mile, by Chris Lear. Lear is also the author of the excellent Running With the Buffaloes. Sub 4:00 focuses on Alan Webb's freshman year at Michigan. It turned out to be Webb's only collegiate year as he turned pro after the frustrations of that first year. Alan Webb is one of America's top milers and is an exciting runner to watch (if you like to watch running).

The other book I just finished is Staying the Course: A Runner's Toughest Race, by Dick Beardsley. Beardsley is one of America's greatest marathon runners (who, I believe, still has the fourth fastest time by an American in the marathon). He also is a Minnesotan. This autobiography starts with an incredible rise of Beardsley as a runner and all of his successes and his passion and includes a gripping description of his famous Boston Marathon finish (2nd place by 2 seconds after 26.2 miles). But then it also deals with his addiction to painkillers after multiple accidents.

I didn't realize how many ties he had to Rush City (where I graduated high school), which was interesting reading about. That first mention of his college roommate was surprising. His high school roommate was my high school assistant cross country coach.

Both are very good books and were very interesting.

I'm still waiting for Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner to come from the library.

Moneyball

I'm halfway through reading Michael Lewis's Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. This book is about how the Oakland Atheltics have been able to consistently field a quality baseball team despite having one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball as well as losing some of their top talent each year because they can't afford to pay the big salaries these guys are demanding as they develop. It's a fascinating look at General Manager Billy Beane's mindset and how he has worked a method of following the truly important stats for hitters (On Base Percentage, Walks, Slugging Percentage) rather than just looking at the Batting Average or Home Run totals or simply following the gut feeling of the scouts. It's breaking all the traditions of how to draft ballplayers, but it seems to be working out rather well for Beane and the A's. This should be a fascinating book for baseball fans.

The Pulitzer Prize

The 2005 Pulitzer Prizes were announced today. The winner of the prize for Fiction is Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. The book is Robinson's second, and her first in a couple of decades. I haven't read it, nor had I heard of Robinson until Gilead was published earlier last year. Supposedly she is quite a writer and that this book had been anticipated for quite a long time. I suppose I shall have to read it (along with the other Pulitzer Prize winning novels I still have to read).

David Duchovny's blog

David Duchovny has a blog. Somehow I just find that to be crazy and cool. Sure, the blog is there pretty much to promote his directoral debut, House of D, but it's nice to see the filmmakers using this medium.

Which brings me to another Duchovny related item: The X-Files Mythology: Volume 1. This DVD set collects, in order, all of the mythology episodes from the first three seasons of the series. No more monster of the week episode, here we have the first collection of the episodes focusing on the aliens, the conspiracy, and all that craziness. Even better: it comes at about half the price as a single season set.

Of course, I own the first three seasons and I sometimes like the monster of the week episodes and the character interactions, but this is a great idea for a DVD set.