Recent Acquisitions to the Library

Love that spur of the moment trip to Barnes & Nobel, Titan Comics, and Best Buy:

• Day of the Animals
• HellBoy Director's Cut on BluRay
• Unbreakable on BluRay
• FABLES: The Good Prince Volume 10
• Y: The Last Man - Whys and Wherefores Volume 10
• Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
• The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (I gave in - color me embarrassed.)
• New England White by Stephen L. Carter
• In the Woods by Tana French
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (I loved In the Lake of the Woods but haven't read this one yet.)
• Tricked by Alex Robinson

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

New books n' stuff for my library:

• Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
• John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide by John Shaw
  
• The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 by Scott Kelby
  
• Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Ten Bad Dates with De Niro: A Book of Alternative Movie Lists by Richard T. Kelly
• Prom Night DVD- the original most awesome Jamie Lee Curtis version

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Triffids! Everyone’s favorite monster plant! I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid – and when I saw that John Wyndham’s book had been re-published, I snatched it right up in my grubby hands. I knew it was on several short lists of the best apocalyptic science fiction novels of all time, so naturally it had been on my short list for a long time.

In The Day of the Triffids, Bill Masen wakes up in the hospital after being stung by a Triffid. Bill made his living working with these strange plants that can uproot themselves and walk on three legs, kills or maim you with their poisonous sting, and possibly communicate with each other. Bill wakes up, his eyes bandaged from the attack, only to discover that the unusual meteor shower the night before has rendered most people on earth blind. He wanders through the city, watching things fall apart, people wandering aimlessly, only to find Josella, a sighted woman being held captive by a blind man. They join forces with a group of fellow survivors who plan to leave London before it becomes disease infested and ruined. Unfortunately things do not go as planned, and Josella and her new love are separated by a cog in the works – Coker. He’s kidnapped a few of the sighted survivors to help those in London left blind. More decay of civilization ensues, and Bill follows a quest to find Josella and escape to the countryside. The countryside is barely safer, as the Triffids have spread and have killed many of the humans left blind, as they are easy prey. The question is – will Bill ever find Josella again, and even if he does, will they be able to survive? Will the Triffids take over the planet?

While Wyndam’s novel suffers from the stereotypical male/female relationships of the time it was written, it is by no means as bad in that respect as Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart. It is courageously dark, in fact, not hiding the fact that humanity would fall apart and into all sorts of chaos were something catastrophic to happen such as this. The ending of the novel seems bleak, not without hope, but there is a very tarnished silver lining to this tale.

I really liked this book – not only was it way more complex than the film I remember (naturally) but it had all of that spooky Cold War paranoia built-in. The characters were a little easy to mix up, especially the secondary characters, but it’s not terrible. Overall, I can see why some folks rank this as one of the best science fiction novels. It has all the elements of a good one – a nice plot, devastation of humanity and it’s will to survive, possible alien invasion or biological warfare, all that good stuff.

If you like science fiction, and don’t mind an oldie, check this one out.

Rating: 4 purrs for one of my new favorite science fiction novels, right up there with Ender’s Game

Horror Fest 2007: 8 Films to Die For

I really love the idea of a horror movie fest, after all what’s better than watching horror movies than watching hours and hours all in one day. (I love Friday the 13th, don’t you?) So last year and this year I have eagerly awaited the Films to Die For, and while last year I was a little disappointed with the films, this year I was really disappointed. I liked several last year – they weren’t very good but they were likable. This year it just felt like there wasn’t much to enjoy. Here are some thoughts on each, written in the order that I watched them.

Mulberry Street

I thought Mulberry Street was a decent beginner to the Films to Die for collection. It had a nice, small neighborhood feel that felt much what I think New York City would be like. In fact it reminded me a bit of CHUD, which another of those guilty pleasures of mine, and the filming in the real New York subway tunnels. There was plenty of gore, and while the rat people didn’t seem any different from say, the 28 Days Later infected, the slight twists of the story and some genuine scares made it worth watching. But honestly, bare bones, it really is a retread of 28 Days Later (which, yes, was a retread of a bunch of other movies).

Unearthed

Unearthed mostly felt like a big old waste of time. I really thought this one would be okay. After all Emmanuelle Vaugier is in it (CSI:NY, various straight to DVD films), and I like her style. But really, this movie about an archeological dig that unearths an alien like creature with a thirst for blood is missing a whole lot of something. Even Alien vs. Predator was better than this (Yes, I know it had a bigger budget, blah blah. Either way, it was a similar premise.) Unearthed’s new territory had more to do with casting a woman as sheriff and then having her be a raging alcoholic in need of redemption. Other than that it was a pretty plot-lacking rip off of Aliens or even the far superior Feast.

The Deaths of Ian Stone

I watched The Deaths of Ian Stone on my flight back to Dallas from San Francisco. It made the flight pass pretty quickly. I like Mike Vogel and Christina Cole (go Hex! – the British Sort of Buffy). Mike Vogel plays an all-American guy who has this problem- he keeps getting stalked and killed by weird looking creatures, and then waking up the next day in a new life to have it happen all over again. I liked this one a lot – the concept was cool – until the end. It got kind of goofy when you learn the “twist.”

Lake Dead

Lake Dead was just bad. Bad, bad, bad. Bad. I mean B.A.D.

Nightmare Man

Nightmare Man was also bad. Ellen has nightmares about a guy who looks like the new fertility mask she bought to help her conceive. On the way to the loony bin, Ellen is attacked and away she runs and ends up with a group hanging out at a house in the woods. From there the movie can’t decide if it’s funny or serious and it does neither well. It wasn’t as bad as Lake Dead, but when Pandabob came in from the GeekCave and said what the hell are you watching, well, I was embarrassed. It takes a lot for me to be embarrassed about watching a bad movie.

Borderland

Borderland was actually pretty good. Roughly based on a true story, Borderland finds 3 guys visiting a border town in Mexico for Spring Break. They are there to do what these guys usually do – drink-get high-have fun with the local girls. Everything was fine and dandy until they ran into the local human sacrifice cult. Man. This one had atmosphere, creepiness, and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) puts in a really icky and unexpected performance. Well worth the rental. The DVD includes an interesting documentary about the true story that inspired the film. That made the rental really worth it.

Tooth and Nail

This movie was also bad. Bad. Whoa buddy. The acting was awful, and the main heroine has no facial expressions whatsoever. Tooth and Nail is about our future – we run out of gas so the world goes to shit. Folks start being cannibals or hiding out from the cannibals. At the end, the heroine is supposed to go all Ripley on the bad guys but in fact just ends up looking like cardboard with tribal makeup. Note to self- when it’s time for me to beat up the bad guys, I’m going to make sure and don my “strong chick” leather vest. How she foils the bad guys makes no sense and I think it’s biologically impossible, but hey I’m a user interface designer – what do I know?

Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights should have been better with all of the bigger name stars in it – Dina Meyer, Traci Lords, Gabrielle Anwar, Frank Whaley, and George Newbern. The idea is good and the movie’s not bad either – it just felt like a whole heck of a lot was cut out. Six childhood friends reunite at a funeral and end up uncovering a secret that wants revenge and in the process end up at the weird psychiatric hospital where they all grew up. There are some serious plot holes here, but I love Dina Meyer so I’ll watch pretty much anything she’s been in, including that Wild Things sequel.

Maybe I just remember the previous years movies fondly, but this year’s horrorfest seemed lacking. Maybe next year it will be better.

Rating: Purrs and hisses all around

The Tripper

I had a friend recommend this movie to me – he’s even more of a movie geek than I am I believe, which is hard for me to admit, but since he actually watches a lot more “literary” films than I do, I’ll let him have the title for now. (Just kidding Matt.) The Tripper was just plain old fun – a goofball slash fest that had what I would think to be an Academy Award winning scene from Courtney Cox. What more could you ask for?

In The Tripper, a group of nouveau hippies hit the road to attend a music festival deep in the redwood forest. There’s Sam, the sweet girl who just got out of a bad relationship, Ivan, the druggie that might be her new boyfriend, and the rest of the drug addled crew as slasher fodder. They are ready to party, but the problem is there’s a guy out there with an affinity for Ronald Regan masks and sharp implements. He’s not happy that there are hippies in his woods. Not happy at all. Something to do with his childhood and a group of hippies chained to a tree. So he makes with the slash-slash and the chop-chop and the string the naked hippie guy up in a tree while the sheriff tries to shut down the love-in, the music producer tries to take off with the cash, and the locals stand by and laugh.

This movie, to me, sounded funnier than it actually was, but hey, I had pretty high expectations. I can’t help but hold up every “horror-comedy” up to Shaun of the Dead and compare them. There were real moments that were funny, but others felt forced. I love James King, what a beautiful woman, and hey I’m happy to see Lukas Haas and Balthazar Getty again, but really the true scene-stealer was Courtney Cox Arquette’s cameo. That was worth the rental right there. Overall, it’s a bit choppy (ha-ha) and almost too into the agenda, but hey, that cameo, man…

I’d say rent this is you like movies that poke fun at Republicans, or the idea of hippies at a music fest being sliced and diced by a guy in a Ronald Regan mask sounds funny to you. It is a laugh, if not heavy handed on the poking fun at times (hey what can I say, my parents are Republicans…I felt a little guilty laughing.)

Rating: 3 ½ Purrs for the aptly named dogs and James King (love her), plus the “but I’m a Republican” joke – ha ha