2024年2月15日 星期四

"Redshirts" by John Scalzi (2012)


"'Yes, and I have training dealing with deep, existential questions,' Dahl said, 'The way I'm dealing with it right now is this: I don't care whether I really exist or don't, whether I'm real or fictional.  What I want right now is to be the person who decides my own fate.  That's something I can work on.  It's what I'm working on now.'"

John Scalzi is a science fiction writer living in California.  He's known for both his novels and his blog Whatever, which delves into a variety of topics.

This is the first of his novels that I've read, though I've heard his name mentioned for many years now.  He seems to have a very loyal following, and after reading Redshirts I can understand why.

In Redshirts several "extras" living out a television show come to grips with the fact that the situations in which they find themselves aren't as authentic as they once assumed, and as they delve deeper into their predicament they become aware of a much larger reality beyond the confines of their starship.

Highlighting this narrative is the author's sense of humor.  Imagine Philip K. Dick, for example, getting "recursive and meta" (to use Scalze's words), but instead of retreating into his usual hopelessness and paranoia PKD stops to crack a joke.  This ability to poke fun at his characters while telling challenging stories is what sets Scalze apart from many other writers.

My only complaint is the three "extra chapters" tacked on to the end of this book.  In my opinion these "codas" were completely unnecessary, and their more serious tone brought down what was otherwise a fun little jaunt through a universe not too far removed from Star Trek.  These extra chapters seem more like unsuccessful attempts at the original novel, and while two of the three would work well as short stories, they're really too different in tone to bear inclusion alongside Redshirts, the main narrative.

I look forward to reading more of Scalzi's books in the future.  I haven't seen any in the bookstores I frequent, but perhaps I'll stumble across something by him in the summer.

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2024年2月8日 星期四

"The Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020)


"If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future."

--Ezra Klein, Vox

But why?  What are these policymakers and citizens supposed to get out of this book?  Does it offer any realistic solutions to the problem of climate change?  None that I could see...

"Masterly."

--New Yorker

Agree to disagree?  I think that in terms of story and characterization this book is an abysmal failure.

"Robinson is the SF writer of my lifetime, and this stands as some of his best work.  It's my book of the year."

--Locus

Nope.  There are much better SF writers out there.  This also isn't even close to Robinson's best work.  2312 was much better, and even Green Mars, which I also read a while back, was more interesting.

"A breathtaking look at the challenges that face our planet in all their sprawling magnitude and also in their intimate, individual moments of humanity."

--Booklist

If you ask me, "humanity" is exactly what's missing from large swathes of this book.  The chapters near the beginning and end have some dramatic impact, but everything between them consists of a long, tiresome lecture on climate change which adjoins a series of impractical solutions to this problem, none of which are explained to anyone's satisfaction.  Given the time scale involved, this novel is even more fantastical than books dealing with the terraforming of Mars, human reactions to a "first contact," or any number of other science fiction tropes.

"The Ministry for the Future serves as a blueprint for how we can throw climate change into reverse and actually reverse the amount of carbon in the atmosphere over the next three decades."

--Mashable

Really?  I'm not seeing much of a "blueprint" here.  What I'm seeing instead is a series of increasingly impractical ideas that are never explained in full.  If you'll excuse the pun, the author is on firmer ground when it comes to "geoengineering," but some of the chapters offering economic solutions to the climate change problem are downright laughable.  

Most galling of all is the author's dismissal of the online architecture in which many of us function.  It's like he's never heard of Google and the other corporations who hold so much sway over modern life, not to mention the ease with which this "Ministry for the Future" renders something like Facebook obsolete.  Does he really think that the rest of us haven't heard of blockchain?  Or end-to-end encryption?

... anyway, by now you're well aware that I didn't like this book.  It's long-winded, it's extremely pretentious (in particular the "riddle" chapters), and in narrative terms it's a mess.  Perhaps most infuriating of all is the fact that the workings of the Ministry of the Future itself are never described in any detail, to the point that we're left with only the understanding that they somehow "do things," without ever knowing how.

Some of the other blurbs on or inside this book go on to color The Ministry for the Future as "utopian."  This description is, to some extent, accurate, but I think that doing so does a disservice to other utopian novels, many of which were much better executed.

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2024年1月23日 星期二

Still More 80s Movies 2

I'll be adding to this as I go along.  After I watch 20 I'll start a new entry.


1. North Star (1986)

I'm gratified that movies this dumb exist.  Sure, it's a TV pilot, but just the same people bothered to make it -- Lord only knows why.

The Premise: An astronaut exposed to UV light (yes, that's right, sunlight) develops superhuman powers.

Where Are They Now?: The most recognizable member of the cast will be Sonny Landham, who appeared in Predator.  He played the villain in North Star the previous year.  He died of congestive heart failure in 2017.

Overall: It'll take an hour from your life, but it will be an hour well spent.


2. The Chilling (1989)

The Premise: Those associated with an unscrupulous cryogenics facility find themselves in trouble after a thunderstorm.

Where Are They Now?: I highly recommend Linda Blair's entry on Wikipedia.  Very few actresses have experienced as many ups and downs as she has.  From The Exorcist, to cocaine, to the pages of Oui, to Rick James, to scream queen, to animal rights activist... whatever's been done in Hollywood she's probably done it and come out the other side smiling.  Most recently she appeared in 2023's The Exorcist: Believer.

The end credits of The Chilling poke fun at Dan Haggerty, who played Grizzly Adams on the famous TV show.  He appeared in movies up until the mid 2010s, though you're not likely to have seen any of these films.

Overall: The first half resembles a low budget Coma knockoff, and the second half takes an inexplicable left turn into zombie territory.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but in this instance that only means it wasn't bad enough to be worth watching.


3. Arena (1989)

Thor: Ragnarok my ass!  Arena's where it's at!  

Naw, just kidding.  Arena is... not amazing.

The Premise: I want to say "MMA in space," but MMA wasn't as much of a thing in 1989.  Instead I'll say "Kickboxing in space."

Where Are They Now?: The star of this movie, Paul Satterfield, did a lot of soap operas.  He's a teacher now.

I remembered Satterfield's costar, Claudia Christian.  Like Satterfield she did a lot of TV, and these days she's the CEO of the C Three Foundation, an organization battling alcoholism.

Overall: If you can overlook the low production values it's actually a well-written movie.  It would work equally well as a science fiction movie or as a sports movie set on Earth.  Is Arena going to blow your mind?  Nope, it's a typical late 80s direct-to-video cheesefest, but this particular cheesefest never gets boring.


4. Get Crazy (1983)

The Premise: It's New Year's Eve, 1982, and the Saturn Theater is going to ring in the new year with the most epic concert ever.

Where Are They Now?: Daniel Stern hasn't done much film work since the City Slickers and Home Alone movies.  These days he's more of a sculptor.

Actress Gail Edwards went on to a career in TV.  She's set to appear in Fuller House, the sequel to the Full House television series.

Ed Begley Jr. divides his time between TV and the theater.

Malcom McDowell -- remember him?  He seems to be more of a voice actor now, though he does pop up in the occasional movie.  Few other actors did the late 70s like he did.  It must have been quite a ride.

Overall: Get Crazy's zany sense of humor and its tiresome drug references haven't aged well, even if some of the cameos are fun.  It'll remind you a bit of the far superior Blues Brothers, which came out three years before, or even older "crazy night out" movies like Thank God It's Friday, but taken on its own merits it's not very good.



The Premise: A passing comet triggers a zombie apocalypse.

Where Are They Now?: Catherine Mary Stewart, who also appeared in The Last Starfighter and Weekend at Bernie's, is doing television now.

Overall: It's not a bad movie.  I've seen people on Reddit describe it as "classic," but I wouldn't go that far.  On the whole it's basically The Omega Man set in the 80s with a couple interesting twists near the end.


6. Clash of the Warlords (a.k.a. "Mad Warrior") (1984)

The Premise: Uh... Mad Max... or maybe Fist of the North Star... via the Philippines?

Where Are They Now?: No idea.  I could research it, but how deep into the Philippine movie industry are we willing to go?

Overall: Couldn't make heads or tails of the plot, and they must've made this movie for peanuts.



A Roger Corman joint.

The Premise: About 4/5 of this movie is a blatant Alien knockoff.  The remaining 1/5 takes a detour into late 70s-style tripiness.

Where Are They Now?: The most recognizable member of the cast is Robert Englund, who'd go on to play Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.  He recently hosted a travel show.

But wait!  Check that Production Designer credit!  Is that... James CameronThe James Cameron?  Yes, it is!

Overall: It's almost worth watching for the last 20 minutes.  It made me wonder -- what if they'd taken that route with the Alien movies?  What if the entirety of the xenomorphs' planet was some kind of fear-induced simulation?  Intended as part of some rite of initiation?  It's an interesting concept to think about.


8. Deep Space (1988)

The most inexplicable thing in this movie is the two cops taking the "rocks" from the crime scene.  It's like... why?

The Premise: Yet another "hard boiled cop(s) vs. predatory alien(s)" movie.  There were a lot of them in the 80s.

Where Are They Now?: Charles Napier may be familiar as the bad guy in Rambo: First Blood Part II.  He began his acting career working for Russ Meyer and moved on to higher profile films in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.  His last big movie was the Denzel Washington version of The Manchurian Candidate.  He passed away in 2011.

Julie Newmar is in Deep Space for a few minutes.  She famously played Catwoman in the Batman TV show.  She's still doing movies and television.  At the time of writing she's 91 years old.

Bo Svenson, who plays the police captain (or lieutenant, or whatever) in Deep Space has had an interesting life.  He was born in Sweden, served as a personal bodyguard to the king of Sweden, served as a U.S. marine, raced cars professionally in Florida, and won a championship in judo -- all before starting an acting career.  He's been in a ton of movies.  It's worth noting that he both starred in 1978's The Inglorious Bastards and Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.

Overall: 80s sci fi/horror schlock.  The gory bits at the end are oddly satisfying though.


9. Below the Belt (1980)*

The Premise: A woman between relationships pursues a career in professional wrestling.

Where Are They Now?: No one in this movie seems to have gone on to fame and fortune.

Overall: "Rosa's theme" really wears out its welcome, but otherwise this is a good movie.  One of the best I've seen in a while.


10. Blastfighter (1984)

The Premise: An ex-cop with a supergun takes on evil hunters.

Where Are They Now?: Michael Sopkiw now imports and distributes glass bottles into the state of California.

Overall: The first half is like every other 80s cop movie you've ever seen, and the second is a First Blood ripoff.  All of this by way of Italy, where many of the cast and crew members were from.


11. The Heavenly Kid (1985)

Definitely one of the whitest movies ever made.  Not to get all woke or anything, but I believe there are only two people of color in this entire thing, and they're only onscreen for a few seconds.

The Premise: A greaser from the early 60s travels to the 80s to help a zero become a hero.

Where Are They Now?: Lewis Smith went on to found the Actors Academy in Los Angeles.  He also appeared (super) briefly in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

Jason Gedrick went on to star in Iron Eagle.  He's mostly doing TV now.

Richard Mulligan is probably the best-remembered member of the cast.  He'd go on to star in the TV show Empty Nest.  He passed away in 2000.

Overall: I later remembered seeing this on cable when I was a kid.  I'm not surprised I forgot it.  Harmless fun, but too whitebread for its own good.



The Premise: British horror parody set in an old mansion.

Where Are They Now?: Comedian Kenny Everett, who died of AIDS in 1995, was a complicated figure.  He found fame as a radio personality, but his status as a closeted gay man and his support for a homophobic Conservative Party led to public criticism.

Pamela Stephenson has had a long and varied career.  From stage and screen she transitioned into pop psychology.  Her highest profile movie was probably Superman III, in which she played "Lorelei," and around the same time she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live.

Overall: There are a couple funny scenes but this movie hasn't aged well.


13. Bloodfight (1989)

The Premise: Fighters from around the world (?) convene in Hong Kong for the Free Fighting Championship.

Where Are They Now?: Bolo Yeung will be recognizable from Bloodsport, that most 80s of 80s martial arts action movies, and Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.  He's still lurking around the world of low budget fight movies.  His last film was 2017's Diamond Cartel.

Overall: Very boring.



The Premise: Sam Elliot evades strangely resilient bad guys while pursuing an opal across the Australian Outback.

Where Are They Now?: Most recently Elliot appeared in the miniseries 1883, which is a prequel to Yellowstone.

Robert Culp, like Elliot, appeared in a lot of Westerns before his death in 2010.  His last big movie was 1993's The Pelican Brief.

Overall: It has its corny moments (especially Elliot explaining how he's descended from Crazy Horse), but it's not a bad movie.



"Ham-burgers!  For Americaaa!!!"

...and what industry would employ "industrial strength laxatives," exactly?  Am I overthinking things yet again?

I'd mostly forgotten this movie, but for whatever reason I remembered "Mrs. Vunk."  Yeah, I was about that age when this appeared on cable.

The Premise: A ladies' man enrolls in Busterburger University in order to receive his inheritance.  An alternate synopsis might be Stripes and/or Police Academy set in "Hamburger University."

Where Are They Now?: Star Leigh McCloskey took a sharp left turn into art, philosophy and the occult.  He's mostly known for his paintings now.

NFL player and commentator Dick Butkus died last year of a stroke.  Besides football he appeared in many films.

Overall: It's goofy fun.  Sure, it'll remind you of other teen sex comedies, but don't they all?


16. Burial Ground (1981)

The Premise: Several people vacationing in an Italian villa attempt to escape zombies in the most random manner possible.

Where Are They Now?: The director, Andrea Bianchi, was making movies up until 1993.  His last movie was 3 Ninjas: Knuckle Up.

Overall: Some of the women are hot and some of the zombies are unintentionally hilarious.  The VHS tape was a fixture at many mom and pop video rental stores back in the day.  The artwork is far more arresting than the actual movie.


17. Joysticks (1983)

The Premise: A wealthy citizen tries to shut down a local arcade.  In theory this is the plot, but it's really more like: setup for gag/gag/setup for boobies/boobies.  Rinse and repeat.

Where Are They Now?: Joe Don Baker's last movie was 2012's Mud.

Overall: It's the same kind of silliness, but I didn't find Joysticks as enjoyable as Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  I enjoyed the shots of arcade games, but the scenes between the games range from awkward to downright confusing.



The Premise: Suicide touches the lives of two suburban families.

Where Are They Now?: Ellen Burstyn, Zach Galligan, Molly Ringwald, Heather O'Rourke and River Phoenix.  By 80s standards the cast was stacked.  Galligan had just come off of Gremlins, Ringwald appeared in The Breakfast Club the same year, O'Rourke had already done Poltergeist and Phoenix would do Explorers the same year.

O'Rourke, sadly, passed away from Crohn's Disease in 1988.  Phoenix, brother of Joaquin, died of a drug overdose in 1993.

Galligan and Ringwald are still around, though neither of them are appearing in Hollywood blockbusters.  Ringwald's doing a lot of TV, and Galligan is doing voice work in relation to the Gremlins franchise.

Overall: Even given the subject matter, this TV movie is extremely melodramatic in parts.  Pacing is also a serious issue.  Much of it seems rushed and slightly off the mark.

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*This movie was actually filmed in 1974.  It wasn't released until 1980.

2024年1月22日 星期一

"The Snowman" by Jo Nesbo (2007)


"Filip Becker gazed down at Jonas sitting on the living room floor with his eyes riveted to the TV screen.  Since Birte had been reported missing the boy had sat for hours like this every single afternoon.  As though it were a window into a better world.  A world in which he could find her if only he looked hard enough."

Jo Nesbo is a Norwegian writer of crime novels.  He's the most successful Norwegian writer of all time.  The Snowman is one of his better known books, and it was adapted into a movie in 2017.

The titular Snowman is a serial killer resident in or around Oslo.  On his trail is detective Harry Hole, a recovering alcoholic with a history of sensational cases.  As the police uncover more of the Snowman's victims, detective Hole finds himself more personally involved in the case, to the point where both his career and the lives of those he cares about hang in the balance.

It's a meticulously plotted story, with the various clues that form the plot dovetailing together in surprising ways.  Often a character will discover something in the most offhand manner, and this something will rematerialize much later in the story, assuming an essential importance in the narrative.  The characters in The Snowman are also very well written, and the author brings them to the reader's attention without overusing them.

If I have a complaint about this book it's only that it grows extremely depressing at times.  To some extent this is a given when one takes into account Oslo, where the novel is set.  It's cold, it's dark, and overall a great place for brooding.  Just look at their death metal scene.  Yeah, that's Oslo all over.

I'd recommend The Snowman without reservation, it's just that you might want to pause here and there in the story.  Maybe go for a walk in the sunshine, and come back to it when you're ready?

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2023年12月27日 星期三

The Alien Franchise


I've been rewatching the Alien movies out of order.  I started with Prometheus, moved on to Alien: Covenant, and from there went back to 1979's Alien and its attendant sequels.  I skipped the Alien vs. Predator movies because I never liked them.  Also because they don't exist.

I swear, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant have to be two of the most frustrating movies ever made.  On the one hand both movies are full of great visuals, great scenes and moments of  stomach-churning violence, while on the other their respective stories just don't add up to satisfying films.  Both movies were a fantastic waste of Michael Fassbender, but at the same time I'm glad he elected to do them.


1979's Alien is classic.  I've seen this movie more times than I can remember.  It was the movie that launched Sigourney Weaver's career, H.R. Giger's contribution was groundbreaking, and I think those that haven't seen it will find that it's aged extremely well.  Yes, the monitors on the spaceship look extremely dated, but the performances in this movie are rock solid and the script is airtight.  Modern viewers might grow restless at its slow pace, but it builds an impressive amount of tension over its two hour runtime.

I always thought Veronica Cartwright deserved more credit for this movie's success.  All of the big fear reactions in Alien are hers, and it's her terror-stricken face that really sells the movie.  Alien minus her frantic screaming and flailing would have only been half as good.


In my opinion James Cameron's Aliens is almost, but not quite as good as Alien.  It's an inventive movie full of great action, wonderful set design, and spectacular camera work, but I don't know if it sets a mood as successfully as Ridley Scott's 1979 original.  Like any sequel it builds off of what came before, and I think saying that Aliens is as good as Alien overlooks the fact that creating the original was no mean feat.  There are also scenes in Aliens that seem to interrupt the flow of the movie, such as the scene in which Ripley confronts Burke over his underhanded dealings.  This scene was certainly necessary, but in the context of an action movie it's unnecessarily long.


Alien 3 (a.k.a. "Alien Cubed") was a disappointment.  We often speak of director David Fincher in reverent tones, often forgetting that yes, he also directed this exercise in depression.  The script for this movie underwent MANY revisions, by several teams of writers, and Fincher promptly disowned the final product.  I agree with James Cameron that killing several of the characters from Aliens off was like "a slap in the face," but my issues with this film run much deeper.

I haven't seen the Assembly Cut of Alien 3.  Many people say it's much better.  Science fiction legend William Gibson also wrote another version of the screenplay early on in the development process, and his screenplay was later turned into an audiobook.


Alien: Resurrection?  Definitely better than Alien 3, but not the slam dunk many of us were hoping for.  Alien: Resurrection is set 200 years after the events of Alien 3, and was directed -- confusingly enough -- by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  He did this one after The City of Lost Children and before Amelie.  I'm sure Sigourney Weaver was enthusiastic about his inclusion, but he was out of his depth in this franchise.

Weirdly enough, the script for Alien: Resurrection was penned by Joss Whedon, and involves a "reincarnated" Ripley confronting a new, mutant strain of xenomorph.  I love the scene in which Ripley discovers the failed experiments, but the rest of this movie is extremely forgettable.

Alien: Resurrection is the furthest into the future the series ever went.  Joss Whedon wrote a sequel set on Earth, but Sigourney Weaver's ambivalence killed that project.  By that point an "Alien vs. Predator" movie was already under discussion, but both Weaver and Cameron hated the idea.


It's a good thing they never made those Alien vs. Predator movies, right?

Instead of the Alien vs. Predator movies, which we must agree never, ever happened, we have Alien: Romulus, which should be arriving in theaters next summer.  This movie is set between Alien and Aliens, with very few details available at the time of writing.  Fede Alvarez, who directed the Evil Dead reboot, is behind this one.  I'll have more of an opinion about it when I see the trailer.


Is there still life in this franchise?  I'd have to say that yes, there is.  Disregarding the rich (if confounding) world Ridley Scott's Prometheus and Alien: Covenant introduced us to, I think the concepts from Alien, Aliens and their two sequels could still serve as inspiration for a good seventh installment.

Not counting Alien vs. Predator or Alien vs. Predator: Requiem of course.  It's a good thing those two movies were never made, right?


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2023年12月19日 星期二

"Land of Milk and Honey" by C. Pam Zhang (2023)


"We cackled with the hysteria of escapees.  She seized my hand.  So you get it.  The same systems and rationales that led us to this point, that have reduced global biodiversity by ninety-six percent in the last century -- we can't cave to shortsighted demands.  That's why we hide most of our animals and crops belowground.  We bribe the officials to stay away, and we lie.  They'd destroy our work if they found it.  Give this land over to humans and it would be gutted, stripped, in a week."

C. Pam Zhang is a Chinese American writer.  Aside from Land of Milk and Honey she's written one other book, How Much of These Hills is Gold.

In Land of Milk and Honey a mass of "smog" resulting from an unexplained agricultural experiment in the American Midwest covers the Earth, resulting in a widespread loss of biodiversity.  The protagonist, an American refugee living in Europe, gains employment at a high altitude scientific research facility, both refining her craft as a chef and learning firsthand to what lengths the rich will go in their simultaneous denial and acceptance of an end to the world order they rely upon.

More than that I will not say, mostly because this is a short book.  In Land of Milk and Honey we observe a writer at the height of her prowess, telling a story that is, as far as I could ascertain, airtight in every respect.  Has this book been optioned as a movie?  If not, someone at a studio really needs to get on that.

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