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The Best American Noir of the Century by James Ellroy My rating: 4 of 5 stars Not The Noir I’m Looking For I've lost count of the number of times I've read recently that Film Noir is a product of its era (1930's-40's) and that anything after that time period is simply "in the style of Film Noir". I'm not sure why this is the case... it's never been explained in any of these countless articles. But why would films like Body Heat and The Grifters, for example, NOT be Film Noir? I assume it can't simply be because they were not shot in black & white... hell, I'm not even sure all Film Noir was shot in black and white. But there you have it. Whatever the case, this book makes a good case for that definition. Billed as Best American Noir of the Century, about a third of the way in it ditches the mean streets of the city to head out into the backwoods, becoming some kind of Appalachian noir (I'm painting in...

 Problems, realistically speaking.  Dune is one of my favorite books ever. Full stop. And I’m quite happy with Villeneuve’s Dune films (and cannot wait for his Dune 3 closing act). I liked Dune Messiah and Children of Dune nearly as much. But things kinda fall off a cliff after that.  I hated God Emperor so much that, when I decided to finish the series a few years ago, I skipped over it completely and simply started with book 5. 5 & 6 (Heretics & Chaperthouse) were fine, though I had problems… the books are very talky with a lot of the action seemingly happening “off-screen”. And the sexual politics of the latter Dune books are best left undiscussed (the Bene Gesserit are constantly referred to as witches, while theHonored Matres are usually called whores. Let’s leave it at that.) And then we get to the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson Dune books. They’ve done far more with Dune than dad ever did, turning it into their own extended universe. I’ve lost count o...

So I've been watching the remastered Star Trek TOS lately (needed something to have playing on in the background while doing chores, working, etc.). That whole background thing maybe not so effective, since I keep sitting down and watching, but hey, it's Star Trek, so not bad, right? Some of the things I've noticed... With these remastered, color corrected episodes, it's amazing just how green Spock really is. As I recall from the old reruns I used to watch, he never seemed all that green... But damn, he's green.  We all know the Motorola flip phone was inspired by Star Trek communicators. But there are other moments of "prescience" or inspiration. Watching Requiem for Methuselah, for instance, there's a scene where the immortal Flint is watching Kirk on a flat screen monitor that wouldn't look out of place on my desk today.  And then there's the infamous third season. Long reviled as the weakest of the original series seasons, I can't argu...

Legacy prequels and sequels appear to be the order of the day, as studios attempt to milk every possible dollar out of their back catalog IP. So it's not terribly surprising that 2 classic demonic horror films got this legacy treatment recently.  I was interested in seeing Exorcist Believer ... Until the near universal bad reviews convinced me I had better things to do with my time. The First Omen , on the other hand, had some decent reviews so, when it popped up on Hulu recently, I decided to give it a shot.  I'm just wondering what those reviewers saw that I missed... Cause frankly, I really disliked this one. For two reasons...  First is the rank cynicism of the film. Without going into spoilerish detail, the ending of the film spins out from the source material in ways that clearly open it up to new franchise possibilities, allowing them to dodge the existence of the original series of Omen films. I should not be surprised by this... The whole legacy prequels notion I...

Redshirts by John Scalzi My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Something More Than Night by Kim Newman My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

 Coming, as it does, from Happy Madison productions, one should not be surprised to find the Out-Laws playing hard to the comedy lowest common denominator. But seriously, this one really scrapes bottom.  I started watching the other day due to a dearth of other appealing options (everything else on my multiple watch lists seemed too heavy, deep, dark or just unappealing at the time), so I opted for the dumb movie. And after a relatively short time, I found myself stuck watching it from shear "are you kidding" me incredulity.   The moment that really broke me was the armored car chase scene after their bungled second-act bank robbery. As they start fleeing the scene of the crime, Brosnan and Barkin's characters jump into the back of the car as Devine, complete with Shrek mask/makeup running down his face, drives. AND, of course, as he pulls away, they leave the back doors of the car open, so that the money can fly out over the course of the chase that follows. I'm pr...