All posts by ERTorre

E. R. Torre is a writer/artist whose first major work, the mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe, was optioned for motion picture production by Platinum Studios (Men In Black, Cowboys vs. Aliens). At DC Comics, his work appeared in role-playing game books and the 9-11 Tribute book. This later piece was eventually displayed, along with others from the 9-11 tribute books, at The Library of Congress. More recently he released Shadows at Dawn (a collection of short stories), Haze (a murder mystery novel with supernatural elements), and Cold Hemispheres (a mystery novel set in the world of The Dark Fringe). He is currently hard at work on his latest science fiction/suspense series, Corrosive Knights, which features the novels Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon.
General

A topic sure to inflame passions…

From author Valerie Tarico for Salon.com, 5 Reasons to Suspect that Jesus Never Existed:

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/01/5-reasons-to-suspect-that-jesus-never-existed/

I’ve heard variations of most of the reasons before and, while I am willing to believe there might well have been someone (or a couple of someones!) that served as the inspiration for what would be the Jesus of the Bible, I tend to think the person in the Bible may well be more fabrication than reality.

Why?

Mainly for what is outlined in the very first of the five reasons: Secular and Pagan texts written concurrently to Jesus’ lifetime make no mention of him and this, to me, is not a small matter.

I could go into more detail but I suspect those who believe will continue to do so despite whatever clumsy material I offer and, frankly, I have no problem with those who do.

Still, it is a fascinating -though incendiary!- topic.

Movies

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), a (mildly) belated review

Back in 2009 actor Chris Pine seemed to come out of nowhere and managed to take over -quite well!- the extremely familiar role of Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek.  While in the end I didn’t like either new Star Trek features all that much and for varying reasons, the cast was certainly not one of them.  All the actors, and especially lead actor Mr. Pine, stepped into some mighty big shoes and did a good job with these familiar roles.

Unfortunately, following taking on and impressing audiences with his role as Captain Kirk, it seemed most of Mr. Pine’s other lead roles fizzled, both at the box office and in terms of critical reaction.  I haven’t seen all of the films he’s been in since the first Star Trek, but of the two I have seen Unstoppable was a decent enough -though not spectacular- actioner, and This Means War was a pleasant enough romantic comedy…provided you put your mind in neutral.  With regards to This Means War, I seem to be in a very small minority indeed!

Of all the non-Star Trek movies he’s been involved in, the one that audiences probably anticipated the most was 2014’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.  Based on the well known Tom Clancy character (but not on any of the Tom Clancy novels), the role had previously been played by such well known actors as Alec Baldwin (the first to take on the Jack Ryan role in The Hunt For Red October), Harrison Ford (perhaps the most famous Jack Ryan, he appeared in two films featuring the character), and Ben Affleck.

So once again Mr. Pine steps into some mighty big shoes.

How did his work compare to the others on this list?

Well enough, I suppose.  Ultimately Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit turned out to be a bust, for me, because of the silly story we’re being told.

To begin, this film clearly is trying to fall into the Bourne/James Bond niche rather than the previous Ryan-centric films.  Chris Pine’s Jack Ryan is young, relatively inexperienced, but willing to give it the college try.

We have a brief “origin” story about him, then see how he’s recruited by the CIA to work in Wall Street and watch for any signs of terrorist activity via money transfers.  Quickly enough, he finds just such evidence in the form of multiple hidden accounts of a Russian Oligarch (director Kenneth Branagh pulls double duties as the villain of this piece).

His recruiter (Kevin Costner, nicely playing the old vet), decides Ryan needs to immediately go to Moscow to get a closer look at the Oligarch and sniff around his bank accounts.  This leads to some trouble as Ryan’s girlfriend (Keira Knightley in a role that maybe should have been thought through by the writers a little bit more), who is unaware he works for the CIA, wonders if he may be *gasp* cheating on him.

Much hilarity follows.

Actually, no…it does not.

Seriously, the whole “girlfriend who doesn’t know her man is secretly in the CIA” is such an odd bit that I wondered if somewhere down the line this script might have originally been a comedy.  Knightley’s character winds up -surprise!- showing up in Moscow and because of her awkward timing is forced to join Ryan at a tense dinner with our villain.  The dinner ends with Ryan stealing some vital information and this, in turn, leads to action action action and Knightley’s character in grave danger.

I think it was at about this point that the film really started to turn me off.  Don’t get me wrong, the acting is decent enough, the location work and cinematography well done, and the editing and direction is good.

But that story…

The script/story keeps putting Chris Pine’s Ryan squarely in the middle of each action sequence and it becomes too preposterous.  By the time we reach the film’s climax, we’re in the middle of New York on red alert.  There’s a literal army of police, military, and security officers, yet Ryan alone winds up figuring out where the threat is and takes it down single-handedly.

All while we know he’s an “analyst” and not a “trained” field operative!

In the end, I cannot recommend Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.  Though the mechanics (ie acting, directing, etc.) of the film are solid enough, the movie is done in by a ridiculous story.

Too bad.

While watching the above trailer, there are a couple of things that happen on it that I don’t recall seeing in the film itself.  First is the blowing up helicopter.  I recall a helicopter attack early in the film, but not a helicopter blowing up so completely.  Second, there is one shot of a city at night with a high floor in one building blowing up.  Again, don’t recall that scene in the film itself.

Looks like the film underwent some work after the fact!

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Jonah Hex, End of the Trail

It isn’t often I review individual comic books, but in the case of All Star Western #34, a comic which features one of my all time favorite DC Comics characters, Jonah Hex, I had to make an exception.

Created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga back in 1971, Jonah Hex made his first appearance in issue #10 of the original All Star Western series, which would become Weird Western Tales before Jonah Hex moved on to his own book.  Before that move, he was featured in one of my all time favorite comic book covers, that of Weird Western Tales #25.  See for yourself:

While John Albano wrote the early stories featuring Jonah Hex, it would be Michael Fleischer who would come in shortly afterwards and write the vast majority of them throughout the 1970’s and into the 1980’s.  His stories were very consistent and even today are a pleasure to read.  Perhaps one of the most intriguing stories he ever wrote featuring the western anti-hero appeared in DC Special Series #16.  In that story, a 66 year old Jonah Hex meets his fate…

This story proved alternately grim and sad, with the corpse of Jonah Hex being stuffed and put on display in a carnival show (I suspect this was the inspiration for the sequences featuring Tonto in a carnival in the Johnny Depp starring Lone Ranger film that was released last summer).

Despite this very final story, Jonah Hex would continued to appear in one form or another since that (in)famous story, including appearing in animated form in the Batman series as well as “real life” in the awful 2010 Jonah Hex film.  What a wasted opportunity that was!

In more recent times and since 2005, writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have been writing Jonah Hex stories, first in the “new” Jonah Hex series and then for 34 issues in the “new” All Star Western.

Given their nearly decade long association with the character, it is a tribute to their talents that the volume of stories they’ve presented have been so damn good.  Yes, there have been some lesser fare here and there, but their run, overall, is nothing to be ashamed of and I figured they would go on for a long, long time.

So it was something of a surprise to find that All Star Western #34 is pretty much what the title of the story says it is: “End of the Trail.”  It proved to be Mr. Gray and Palmiotti’s final Jonah Hex story and was illustrated by the terrific Darwyn Cook.  Was it good?  More than good.  I would say it is terrific…but with one rather big caveat.

What is the caveat?

To understand this particular finale story, one really should read/be familiar with the Michael Fleischer final Hex story I wrote about above.  Mr. Gray and Palmiotti’s finale plays with the Fleischer finale, offering a different take while never quite negating (entirely) what Mr. Fleischer wrote.

Now, like all things, the comic book industry operates on profits and losses and while clearly DC was finishing the Jonah Hex series with this issue of All Star Western and probably didn’t want to spend more money than they had to on it, I really wish they could have reprinted the Fleischer story with this finale.

While I think readers who aren’t familiar with the Fleischer finale will enjoy it, they will enjoy it far, far more if they are familiar with that particular tale.

In the end, I highly recommend those who have even a passing interest in Jonah Hex give All Star Western #34 a look.  And while you do, try to dig up a copy of that Michael Fleischer Jonah Hex finale.  You’ll be glad you did.

TV

Longmire…cancelled

Count me among those who were shocked by the news yesterday that A&E was cancelling their “most-watched original drama series of all time”, this according to Deadline, after three seasons.

According to that same Deadline article, the producers of the show are shopping it elsewhere.  Normally, that wouldn’t fill me with too much optimism, but given the ratings the show had, getting picked up by another network may turn out to be more possible that for other vanquished series.

Still, what a shame!

If you haven’t seen Longmire, it is a show about the titular Sheriff, a recent widower (there’s much, much to that story!) who, along with his staff, patrols Absaroka County, Wyoming.  What I find so fascinating about the show is that almost all the main characters have interesting backstories that are slowly drawn out and sometimes intersect with the other characters in fascinating ways…all while featuring usually interesting “stand alone” mysteries per episode.

If you haven’t caught the three seasons of the show, I highly recommend you do so, though its painful to think that maybe, just maybe, that’s all we’ll get.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed it won’t be the case!

Movies

Sabotage (2014) a (mildly) belated review

When Arnold Schwarzenegger left movie making for politics and subsequently returned to the movies, I figured he’d have a relatively easy go.  He left the movies, after all, still a potent box office draw, though perhaps not quite as big a draw as he was in his prime years.

Since his movie making return, he’s appeared in a total of six films.  The first Expendables movie hardly counts as he had a single scene.  The other two Expendables movies have featured greater amounts of screen time, but it is an ensemble work with many actors sharing screen time.  In Mr. Schwarzenegger’s other three movies he’s had the starring role.  Unfortunately, The Last Stand and Escape Plan, the later of which he co-starred in with Sylvester Stallone, haven’t exactly lit the box office on fire.  With 2014’s Sabotage, he’s an unfortunately three for three.

The biggest crime of both The Last Stand and Escape Plan, to me, were that they were both rather mediocre features that didn’t really dazzle or excite you beyond the time you were watching them.  With Sabotage, written and directed by David Ayer, whose past credits include writing such features as The Fast and the Furious, Training Day, and End of Watch (which he also directed), you at least figured you’d have an interestingly written work.

But a busy plot, as is the case with Sabotage, doesn’t equal a good film.

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as John “Breacher” Wharton, a head of a deep undercover drug investigation unit who, at the start of the movie, is watching some gruesome footage which amounts to the last living moments of his wife.  As we soon find out, she and his son were kidnapped by some mean drug cartel types (the why’s are revealed a little later on).  She -and we assume his son- were tortured and eventually killed.

From this point we move to several months later.  Breacher and his crew are about to pull off a big bust of a drug cartel member’s mansion.  Their mission, however, has a dark side: Breacher’s crew knows there is a palette of 100 million dollars hidden in this mansion and they intend to steal a good chunk of it for themselves.

They manage to take approximately $10 million and hide it in the mansion’s sewage but when they return to pick up the money, its gone.

The DEA and the cartel the unit hit quickly figure out there is money missing (it is never really stated within the context of the film how both entities find out, but people on comment boards have noted it could involve weighing the money.  Though Breacher and company blew the remaining $90 million in bills apart, a thorough examination of the ashes and surviving bills would have revealed a weight, hence cash, discrepancy).

The DEA boys go hard after Breacher and his gang, separating and interrogating them while trying to get them to flip on each other.  No one, in the end, talks or admits to the theft.  After several months and no new evidence found, the “higher ups” give up and decide to allow Breacher and his gang to get back together again.  I found this part a little hard to swallow but, whatever.  I accepted the initial premise and figured that from there, things would get interesting.

Because of the dark nature of their work, Breacher’s crew are far from angels.  In fact, they’re only a small step away from the nasty characters they’re tasked to bust.  They’re loud, perverse, and cruel.  They’re hard drinking and hard charging, and with $10 million taken and the DEA no longer breathing down their back, it seemed to me obvious where the movie would go from here: The boys -and woman- of the group would start looking at each other, seeing which one of them took the money.  Which one of them is a bigger rat than the others.

Soon, members of this elite unit wind up dead and I figure we’re moving into Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None territory, a murder mystery as well as a crime drama.

Unfortunately, it was precisely at this point, the point where everything was well laid out and you’re eager to see how this murder mystery plays out, that things start to fizzle.

Badly.

To begin, the unit getting back together was totally mishandled.  I figured they’d all be on guard, watching their backs and not exactly “chummy” with each other.  It seemed logical that they would suspect one of their own of taking the money, yet none of them shows any outright suspicion in those early going scenes.

Yes, there is a lack of “trust” among the group, but the way its presented it seems to be more related to the fact that they’re rusty.

Anyway, when the first of their members is killed, another police officer joins the mix.  She is investigating the death and while all indications are that it was a drunken accident, the death of a second member of the squad changes things.

From there, we have Breacher and the investigator checking leads and using each other.  Frankly, credibility gets stretched waaaaay too far by this point.  Breacher should be a suspect by this point and its very hard to believe the investigator would welcome him at her side.

On the movie runs and on come the bodies.  Graphic, bloody.  The film looks to straddle the line between horror and crime drama, but as the minutes tick by you care less and less.  When the final revelation comes, the guilty party appears only too obvious.  When you find out why the money was stolen, an already heavily strained plot snaps completely.

Did the thief really need all $10 million to accomplish his/her goals?  Seems really far fetched.

In the end, I can’t recommend Sabotage despite the fact that it features a fascinating cast of characters and a, at least at the beginning, fascinating plot concept.

Too bad.

General

The Truth about Extraterrestrials…

…Will We Ever Discover Intelligent Life in the Universe?

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/27/the-truth-about-extraterrestrials-will-we-ever-discover-intelligent-life-in-the-universe-partner/

Fascinating article (the first of a promised two) by Caleb A. Scharf and presented on Salon.com.

I found the two answers to the above (and below) question are incredibly insightful even as they are brief and cut to the core:

Do you think we’re alone in the universe?

Answer A) :  No, absolutely not. It’s a huge universe, we’re not at the center or central in any way and it would be the height of vanity to think humans or Earth are in any way special or significant.

Answer B): We might be. There’s never been any firm evidence of extraterrestrial life, and our galaxy is old enough that intelligent civilizations should have spread everywhere by now.

If you find that interesting, read the rest of the article.  Fascinating stuff!

Books/Literature

7 Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Edgar Allan Poe…

…at least according to Paul S. Collins for Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-s-collins/edgar-allan-poe-facts_b_5698360.html

Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite all time authors.  He had an ability to create works of horror that crept under your skin like no other.  Though I’m not the biggest fan of poetry, his poems really get to me.

So naturally, any list regarding Mr. Poe is something I’ll gravitate to.  What I found most intriguing about the list is the fact that many of the items in some way or another relate to the fact that this was a person who was in financial difficulties and had to find creative (!!!) ways to lose his creditors.

As good an author as Mr. Poe is/was, he fell into that unfortunate group of authors whose works weren’t really appreciated until after they passed on.  Sadly, he like H. P. Lovecraft or Joseph Conrad or Robert E. Howard never really enjoyed the fruits of their labors.  Certainly not in the way they should have.

General

10 Most Gruesome Torture Techniques…

…From Medieval Europe:

http://io9.com/the-10-most-gruesome-torture-techniques-from-medieval-e-1626942115

I’ve seen bits and pieces of information regarding the “creative” torture techniques from the Middle Ages and before.  While we live in far more enlightened times today, it is truly scary to see how incredibly sadistic humans can be.

Today, the death penalty is a controversial subject, no more so than most recently when the so called “execution” drugs have been harder and harder to find and some prison officials seem to be perfectly fine with the idea of experimenting with unknown medications to kill someone.

Yet looking over the above website, the word “gruesome” comes again and again and I certainly couldn’t help but feel for the many people who fell into these torture devices, some of which kept their victims alive but in extreme agony for days.

Hopefully, we’ll never return to anything resembling this…

Let’s hope, anyway.

Books/Literature, Movies

Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guides ending…

The 2015 edition of the book will be the final one:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-leonard-maltin-is-ending-his-movie-guides/

I used to really love Leonard Maltin’s movie guide.  So much so that there were several years in a row that I would buy each new edition and hungrily look through it to see what was new and what were the opinions of recent movie releases.

I used to also love seeing the lists presented in the back of the book of directors and actors (an incomplete list, granted, with a focus on bigger names in the industry) and seeing the works they were involved in, particularly earlier in their career.

Of course, this was all before the internet came and, like so many other things, rendered the Movie Guide pointless.

For lists of actors, writers, directors, etc. etc., one has to go to IMDB.com, click on the “search” function, and type in the person you’re looking for.  In a second you’ll have a pretty complete list of all the works said actor/writer/producer/etc/etc. was involved in with links to said movies/tv shows/etc.

The reviews in the Leonard Maltin Guide were sharp, to the point (they tended to be a few sentences long each), and in the case of really bad films, often quite hilarious.  However, what you had was only one review, a review by one “individual”.  Not to sound too snarky, but I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the reviews were actually penned entirely by Mr. Maltin versus those that came from his staff of writers.  Still, I could ignore this and had fun reading these concise opinions.

Now, you have rotttentomatoes.com with its list of critics (and links to their reviews) along with a statistical analysis of the overall critical opinion and the overall audience opinion.

The bottom line is that, for me, two websites rendered the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide obsolete.

The last Leonard Maltin Movie Guide I bought was the 2009 edition.

Until I saw the above article, and much to my surprise considering how much I liked the Guide, I hadn’t given it much thought.

The moral?  If there is such a thing for this, I suppose its the validity of the old adage regarding the “better mousetrap”.  The internet, in this case, left poor Leonard Maltin and his Movie Guide in the dust.  Perhaps he should have invested in this technology and made a website that would have combined the IMDB.com and rottentomatoes.com concepts.

Too late now.

And time marches on.

Movies

Under the Skin (2013) a (mildly) belated review

2 Comments

I first heard about Under the Skin shortly before its release.  I became really interested in seeing it when the theatrical trailer/teaser was shown.

Heady looking stuff, right?

The movie came and went, scoring a super strong 86% positive among critics but a far less impressive 56% positive rating among audiences from Rotten Tomatoes.  Essentially, almost all critics liked it but only half the audiences cared for what they saw.  Looking at some commentary from audiences, it is clear the film has strongly divided viewers and, as the saying goes, they either loved or hated it.  Now, having finally seen the film, which side of the fence am I on?

It’s a harder question to answer than you might think.

On the plus side, Under the Skin is an intriguing, visually striking film that drew my attention while playing out slowly, almost naturally.  The dialogue, what there is of it, is conversational and often (ahem) skin deep.  We are taken through a series of scenarios which in turn form a story about an otherworldly alien predator (Scarlet Johansson) who, like the black widow spider, draws in and then kills men.

Almost from the beginning its clear director Jonathan Glazer is emulating the works of some very well known filmmakers.  In Under the Skin, viewers familiar with the style of directors Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky will see stuff that looks an awful lot like their work.  Likewise, the film’s plot bears some resemblance to the classic Nicholas Roeg/David Bowie The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Unfortunately, when one sees so many familiar echoes to the brilliant works of other artists, one can’t help but compare them to Under the Skin.  Doing so, even more unfortunately, reveals that this film doesn’t quite live up to what came before.  To begin, Under the Skin’s plot is far, far simpler than the works listed above.  In fact, one might well argue this movie’s plot is almost too simple:  An alien predator picks up a series of male victims and eventually (though never clearly stated why) feels empathy for them, then tries to “join” them but cannot.  Tragedy ensues.  The end.

The simplicity of the plot leads me, in turn, to another problem I had: There are story irregularities that are bothersome.

To get into these problems however, I’m going to have to get into SPOILERS, so before I move on let me give you the bottom line:  Under the Skin is a decent, slow moving film that at times will really creep you out (there are, to my count, three absolutely knock out scenes).  Unfortunately, character inconsistencies and a very simple plot may take away from one’s enjoyment.

Now then, what were the problems I had?  I’ll get into them after this warning…

SPOILERS WARNING!!!!!

Still here?  Ok, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.

When we meet her, Ms. Johansson’s alien is presented as an emotionless, cold and calculating predator whose eyes are always looking, looking, looking for their next victim.  Once spotted and when confronting said potential victim, she turns on the charm, speaking perfectly well while luring said victim.  Eventually, she gets them into her car and, eventually, her lair.  We also find she has an assistant, a mysterious man (perhaps even more than one!) who rides around on a motorcycle and cleans up after her.

Given the fact that these aliens know how to use vehicles and are smart enough to know how to blend in with society and, even more importantly, clean up any potential messes after themselves, one can reasonably assume they have a decent, if not great, understanding of how people “tick”.

And yet the seductive predator appears at times confused and/or oblivious to what happens around her.  In one of the film’s most effectively terrifying moments, she meets up with a swimmer in a very remote location and witnesses a double drowning.  She gets her victim in the end but leaves behind the drowning victims’ crying infant, oblivious to the fact that by doing so the child will likely die.

As effectively creepy as this scene was (this would be my favorite scene of the film, by the way), I was left with questions.  If our aliens “feed” of men/people, why leave behind a potential source of nourishment in this infant?  Secondly, after she’s gone her motorcycle assistant goes to the beach to “clean up” the scene and take away any evidence they were there.  It is now dark and the poor child is still there, crying.  The assistant ignores the infant yet takes away towels and any other evidence of our victim’s presence.  Once again: Why leave the infant behind?  Isn’t that something that one would want to clean up as well?

Later still, the seductive predator meets a deformed man and attempts to seduce him.  This scene, another of my favorites though I will freely admit the coincidence of finding a deformed man is somewhat hard to swallow, nonetheless plays out well because our alien seductress is unaware the man’s severe facial deformities make him a pariah to society.  Despite my problems with the scenario, it was a fascinating scene but unfortunately it leads to the movie’s concluding act: By being near this deformed man our alien seductress comes to some mysterious resolution.  She ultimately, allows him to get away while deciding she no longer wants to be this black widow.  She wants to join humanity.

Does she feel sorry for this man?  If so, why exactly?  When she meets him she doesn’t see him as anything more than another victim yet in their very brief time together she decides to renounce her entire being and decides she wants to be human.  Again, why?

I truly don’t know and the film frustratingly doesn’t offer viewers a clear answer as to why.

What follows is the film’s climax, wherein the motorcycle assistant tries to find his now missing mistress while she walks the lonely countryside alone, first trying to eat human food (she cannot), then trying to find actual love (she cannot love because, she finds, she has no vagina.  Not to sound like a smart-ass or anything, but didn’t she notice this before?), then becoming the victim of a human predator.  This resolution, unfortunately, proved as difficult for me to swallow as the coincidence of her finding an incredibly deformed man.  An alien predator becomes victim to a human predator?  Oh the irony!

It was following the movie’s conclusion that I really began wondered what Under the Skin would have been like had Stanley Kubrick made it rather than Mr. Glazer.  Mr. Glazer has made good films in the past and while Under the Skin is not a bust by any means, I can’t help but think that in other hands -or perhaps with a little bit more time to develop the story- this pretty good film might have been absolutely great.

Take of that what you will.