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.
Movies

A couple of fun movie lists…

…found in the always amusing Cracked.com.

First up, 26 Huge Editing Errors You Didn’t Notice In Famous Movies:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_917_26-huge-editing-errors-you-didnt-notice-in-famous-movies/

The #2 goof, taken from the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (Sean Connery’s last “official” James Bond outing, assuming one doesn’t consider Never Say Never Again a “real” Bond film), is one of my favorites.  Cracked presents images of the scene in question with the explanation of the goof:

But the best way to see and enjoy this goof is by looking at the entire sequence:

If you’re impatient for the good stuff, fast forward to the 2:29 mark.  James Bond, in the Moon Rover, goes down a hill and one of the cars pursuing him flips over.  However, as it flips and starting at the 2:34 point, you see a wheel rolling into the scene from the left…clearly it is one of the Moon Rover’s wheels that has come off!

Of course, when next we see the Moon Rover it has all its wheels.  So why is this goof still in the film?  I suspect the producers of Diamonds Are Forever didn’t want to waste the time and money (not to mention getting another vehicle to smash) duplicating this stunt and went with the scene as it stood.  They probably hoped the scene went by quickly enough that only if you were paying close attention you’d notice the extra wheel bouncing around amid the mayhem of the flipping car.

Once you do notice it, however, its hard not to un-notice it! 😉

Next up are 5 Famously Dumb Movies (in reality, 4 movies and one TV show) With Mind Blowing Hidden Meanings:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-famously-dumb-movies-with-mind-blowing-hidden-meanings/

I particularly liked what they said about the movie Dredd.  While many people liked the film, I found the movie decent but…uncomfortable.  When I reviewed it a while back, I noted the Judge Dredd comics I was familiar with were the originals (roughly up to the Apocalypse War) and they featured plenty of humor along with the violence.

For better or worse, one thing the Dredd film lacks is much humor!

However, the insight into the film offered in the above article is interesting.  It re-frames the film in my mind and, I have to admit, allows me to see it in a new light.

As I said, interesting!

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, 6/10/14 update

Continuing the saga of the soon to be released fifth book in the Corrosive Knights saga!

My last update was on May the 23rd.  Since then:

On May 29th I finished the eight draft of the book.  I realized that the concluding chapters still needed work so on May 30 I began what I’ll call the 8 and 1/2 draft.  Because the first approximately 2/3rds of the book required so little work, I decided to exclusively devote myself on the concluding chapters.  As of last week I read through them and by tomorrow should have that draft done.  Unfortunately, I have to leave the book for a bit (just a few days, really) to focus on other stuff but when I get back to it, I expect the next draft will indeed be the last.

Yesterday, I finally “updated” the book covers.  While I like the covers to the books, I wanted them to be more indicative that they were part of a series rather than four “individual” books.

These were the old covers:

Corrosive MACN Old

And here are the “new” covers:

Corrosive MACN Covers

Ok, ok, not a HUGE difference.  The images themselves remain roughly the same but, as mentioned, I wanted to have a more consistent “look” to the books.  What I mean by that is that I wanted readers to be clear the books were part of a series and, even more, to know which part of the series they are.

Now, some final notes:

Chameleon, the third book in the Corrosive Knights series, will be available for free to download from Amazon.com starting this Friday, June 13 (Friday the 13th!!!!) and going on through Tuesday.  Take advantage of this by going to this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Chameleon-Corrosive-Knights-Book-3-ebook/dp/B0063LNB8S/ref=la_B006061H50_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402404901&sr=1-1

As for the cover to the fifth book in the series…I’ve begun it.  I hope to have it done shortly before finishing the next (last?!) draft of the book.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Movies

Now this is clever!

If you’ve ever had the fortune/misfortune of creating your own poster or book or music “cover”, you know that it can be both exhilarating and frustrating.  You want to create something that catches the eye instantly and communicates as much as possible while hopefully giving audiences a healthy curiosity/interest in what you’re selling.

So with that in mind, here are 9 minimalist movie posters, just about all of which I think are clever as hell:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/06/09/minimalist-movie-posters-for-jaws-bonnie-clyde-psycho-rear-window-and-more.html

Choosing a favorite among the ones presented is really, really hard.  But if pressed, my choice would be the two Hitchcock films, with this one, a minimalist poster for Psycho, taking the ultimate prize:

140606_EYE_Psycho

If you like this, then check out the others, they’re well worth it.

General

Back to Cracked…

…and a pair of interesting articles regarding old and, in some cases, famous photographs.

First up, 21 Mind-Blowing True Back Stories of Famous Photographs:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_535_21-mind-blowing-true-backstories-famous-images/

They’re all pretty damn interesting, but be sure to check out the “winner” of the group, the very famous V-J Day “Kiss”, and see the progression of photos leading up to the very famous one of the sailor kissing the nurse at the end of WWII.

What seemed like such a tender, celebratory moment suddenly doesn’t look quite so innocent.  Sexual assault, anyone?

And next up, 8 Ordinary Photos Hiding Mind Blowing Details:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19894_8-ordinary-photos-hiding-mind-blowing-details.html

Was particularly fascinated by image #3, the very first person ever photographed.  Who was this long lost individual?  We’ll never know, but its fascinating to see.

Movies

The World’s End (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Movie “coincidences” are a curious thing.  I’m referring here to the times when very similarly themed movies are released at roughly the same time.

Sometimes such coincidences are anything but.  A long while back, after the tremendous success of both The Terminator and Aliens, it was announced that director James Cameron’s next project was to be set in an underwater facility.  Rival movie studios, hoping to steal Mr. Cameron’s lightning (and box office gold), set about making their own films set in underwater facilities.  Thus it was that in the year 1989 Mr. Cameron’s The Abyss was released at roughly the same time as both Leviathan and DeepStar Six.  The Abyss would turn out to be completely unlike Mr. Cameron’s previous white knuckle thrillers but Leviathan and DeepStar Six were essentially what the studios thought Mr. Cameron was up to: A variation of Alien/Aliens set in an underwater facility.

While this was a case where the studios were emulating (or, to not be quite so polite: ripping off) each other, there have been other occasions where “coincidental creativity” has appeared.  One has to look no further than the 2013 release of the comedies The World’s End and the somewhat similarly themed (and very similarly titled) This is the End.

This is the End (you can read my full review here) was a film featuring comedy actors playing exaggerated/cartoon versions of themselves while the Biblical Apocalypse rains down on Earth.  For better or worse, much of the humor felt improvised and the plot was rather simple.  On the other hand, The World’s End feels like a more thoroughly thought out story which is just as likely to be bittersweet as it is humorous.

The World’s End, for those who don’t know, is the third of the so-called “Cornetto Trilogy”.  The other two films in the trilogy, all of which feature director/co-writer Edgar Wright and stars/co-writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, were the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead and the “Dirty Harry” meets Agatha Christie comedy Hot Fuzz.

Thus, the two previous Cornetto films take on popular movie genres and create their own humorous riff on them.  So, for The World’s End, what movie/genre did the trio decide to focus on?

Try Invasion of the Body Snatchers married with Peter Pan and a hint of The Big Chill.

The story goes like this: Back in the 1990’s a group of High School friends got together for one big -and they thought last- night of debauchery before graduating and heading off to “real” life.  They intended to visit (and drink at!) the twelve bars in the small town they all lived in, progressively getting wasted in “epic” fashion.

However, they didn’t quite make it to the last of the twelve bars, the titular The World’s End, so their epic journey ended in failure.

In the present, this group of friends have grown and have careers and family.  But their one-time leader, Gary King (Simon Pegg), appears to have never grown up.  When first seen, we find he’s in some kind of group therapy and talks about that magical night twenty some odd years before and laments that the group never quite finished their adventure.  One of his fellow therapy partners asks if he thinks about doing this again, to finish what he started, and so begins the adventure…

In the course of the next few minutes of screen time, we’re introduced to the now-aging gang via Gary.  He meets up with each of them individually and does what he can (usually involving sweet talk and/or white lies and flim-flammery) to convince them to go back to their home town and finish their bar hopping adventure.  In the end, Gary succeeds in getting everyone together and they start their day of bar hopping…

…until things get decidedly strange.

As I noted above, this film owes its central plot to Invasion of the Body Snatchers just as previous Cornetto films owed their plots to other films/genres.  It is this element which becomes the movie’s main focus, though there are other additions to the mix.

The comic elements are fun, though the film is just as often rather sad.  The fact of the matter is that Gary is, for the most part, a pathetic figure.  He is a warning to everyone of the dangers of living in the past and refusing to accept one’s present.  Indeed, as the movie progresses, his friends are more and more turned off by him and are about to leave him to his windmills and return to their adult lives when the strange stuff begins.

Given how “normal” the first third or so of the film was, the arrival of the strange stuff creates a rather jarring turn, and I suspect the film would have been a little better if they made the transition more subtly than they did here.

Still, this was their choice and the final parts of the film involve the characters still navigating their way through the bars while dealing with, potentially, the end of the world.

The World’s End is an amusing enough film that entertained me through its runtime without necessarily knocking my socks off.  While it didn’t wear out its welcome like This Is The End, the mix and mash use of different genres didn’t work quite as well here as they did in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, at least for me.

Regardless, the film was far more enjoyable -again, to me- than the somewhat similar Seth Rogan vehicle.  If you’re already a fan of the Cornetto films, this is a no-brainer.  Others not quite as familiar with the Wright/Pegg/Frost collaborations may take a little more time to warm up to their particular brand of humor.

Movies

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) a (very) belated review

I’m a sucker for “deleted” scenes from films as well as movies that were trimmed down from the director’s vision and subsequently “restored”.

Perhaps the most famous of this later bunch -and easily one of my all time favorite films- is the 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis.  Because of the high costs associated with the production and its too long run time which lead to fears the film would not recoup its expenses, Metropolis was cut down in length shortly after its premiere and the cut scenes were thought lost forever for many, many years.  That is, until a relatively complete print was miraculously found in South America.  The “restored” version, which still doesn’t include a couple of too far damaged scenes, is an incredible experience despite the blurriness of the reinserted lost scenes, especially if all you’ve ever experienced of the film is the “cut” version.

But restoration doesn’t always mean a superior product from the one released theatrically.  As much as I loved Apocalypse Now and as much as I was intrigued with seeing Apocalypse Now Redux, director Francis Ford Coppola’s extended version of the film, that version of the film wound up being an incredible disappointment.  The extra sequences proved, at least to me, forgettable and wisely trimmed from the film.  A good example is checking out the Redux version of the full Robert Duvall sequence and comparing it to the theatrical one.  In the theatrical version, those scenes are among the best of the film, concluding on a bizarre, wistful Duvall speech (“One day, this war is going to end.”).  In the Redux version, the scene goes on and on, bringing us an unnecessary -and silly- bit involving the boys stealing Duvall’s surfboard.  Similarly, The Warriors was, again IMHO, a great film in its theatrical form and a mess -again IMHO- in its expanded director’s cut.

Regardless, my interest in seeing “restored” versions of films remains very high and the latest example of just such a creature is the Criterion company’s release of the 1963 comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (I’ll refer to it as IAMW from now on).

The theatrical cut of the film runs 154 minutes but most fans of the feature know there was a 202 minute pre-release version that was subsequently trimmed and no longer exists.  Criterion nonetheless searched long and hard and found as many of the lost elements as they could and the restored version presented on their BluRay runs a lengthy 197 minutes.

Does this version add to the film like Metropolis or subtract like Apocalypse Now Redux and The Warriors?

The answer is a little tricky, but ultimately my feeling is the “restored” version of the film is the superior product…with a mild asterisk.

Why the asterisk?  To begin, IAMW was already a very time consuming film experience and those who didn’t “get” the joke were bound to think negatively about the film in its shorter version and would no doubt feel even less for the longer version.  I suspect younger viewers, too, might find less in the film because it features a cast that, frankly, the younger set may not recognize at all.  At the time of its creation in 1963, IAMW featured just about every popular comedic actor there was out there.  The all star cast was crammed into a race to the finish type film, where the various groups of people hunt for a buried treasure while greed gets the best of them.

Though I’ll admit to not being a huge fan of some of the principle actors (Milton Berle and Sid Ceasar, just to name two, were a little before my time), I nonetheless got a kick out of seeing all the various faces parade before me.  And some of the set pieces, in particular the wayward airplane sequences, were outright hilarious and an obvious inspiration to things that were to come (I’m looking at you, Airplane!).

The restored sequences reinserted into IAMW are at times pretty ragged.  Some of them have the dialogue cut off at the last second.  But worse are other scenes, most notably one featuring silent comedy legend Buster Keaton, which only feature the dialogue recording and were presented, in lieu of the actual film, with stills.  Unlike Apocalypse Now Redux, I felt most of the “restored” scenes were, if not always vital, at the very least added to the story and, in certain cases, filled in a few of the story’s gaps.  Returning to the lost Buster Keaton scene, now I understand where Capt. Culpepper (Spencer Tracy) was going toward the end of the film.  As it was in the theatrical cut, he heads to Buster Keaton’s place but I was never exactly sure why.

That’s not to say all the restored bits are all long and involved.  Many of them amount to a nothing more than a few seconds of extended dialogue or film that are interesting enough but could have been lost without hurting the feature all that much.

Still, my daughter, who usually doesn’t care all that much for older films, nonetheless wound up watching the restored version with me from a little after the beginning to its end and enjoyed the feature.  Given that the only actors she recognized were The Three Stooges in their couple of seconds long cameo, it didn’t detract from her enjoyment of the madness before her.

In the end, I recommend the restored version of IAMW.  While the film is long and therefore requires a considerable investment on the part of viewers, it is an at times hilarious bit of madness, a comedy on a grand scale the likes of which hasn’t been made any time recently.

Check it out.  If you’re into this kind of comedy, you’ll have a good time.

General

Not (quite) what you think…

The 25 Best Types of Porn, at least according to Alexis Kleinman at Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/best-porn_n_5337066.html

How many of these apply to you?

I count twelve among my personal “porn” list…though I think they’re missing a couple of other porn possibilities.

Movies

John Carter sequel…?

No, its not going to happen (Disney simply lost waaay too much money on the first film to even think about doing a second), but Taylor Kitsch, the star of the mega-bomb offered a couple of brief and interesting comments about the film, and how the script to the sequel was, in his opinion, very good:

http://io9.com/the-john-carter-sequel-were-never-getting-wouldve-been-1582787443

I have to admit to being curious about the continued interest people (myself included!) have in John Carter, now two years removed from its infamous release and flop.

I’m fascinated by the creative personalities involved, the money spent, and the sense of doom that permeated the entire project seemingly at every stage of its creation.  Having seen it after its release, I stand by the closing lines of my (mildly belated) review of the film:

(John Carter) is a pleasant enough time killer with some good humor and some impressive set pieces but, and its a very BIG “but”, given the film’s costs, it could and should have been so much more.

While John Carter may well have been a film that didn’t deserve the incredible negativity it received prior to -and during- its release, in the end the movie was little more than slightly above average.  Yes, it was a very handsome looking action film and yes, the effects were quite impressive.  But on the negative side, the two leads shared very little onscreen chemistry (sexual or otherwise) and the villains and their motivations were never all that well defined.

Yes, author Edgar Rice Burroughs essentially created many of what are now sci-fi adventure tropes with his Mars series and it is sad when people look at some of the goings on in John Carter and complain the movie “ripped off” elements from other, more popular, movies (when the reality is quite the opposite!), but the reality remains what I said above.

And yet…if the film hadn’t been such a bust, I have to admit being curious to see a potential sequel.  For all its faults, John Carter was probably as close to Burrough’s vision as you’re likely to find.

Ah well, what could have been.

General

More self-driving cars…

Found this article today about Google’s new driverless prototype car, a tiny little thing capable of seating two and intended to be used as a constant motion “taxi”:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/28/google-self-driving-car-prototype-driverless-car-could-change-transportation.html

For those too lazy to click the link, here’s a little video (a perhaps too sugary one) of the new prototype:

I’ve been increasingly curious about Google’s work in the field of driverless cars, and have come to the conclusion that they’re about to create something that will indeed revolutionize the world…at least the moment this technology is given the OK and is put into (ahem) motion.

Imagine: Thanks to this particular technology, there may come a time people no longer will you have to actually own a car.

If you live in the city, you initiate an app on your smartphone/tablet/whathaveyou and it will signal your driverless vehicle to come pick you up wherever you are.  You get into said vehicle (there could be hundreds of them buzzing around a city at any time), indicate where you want to go, then charge the ride on another app and sit back and read/watch/listen to whatever you have while the vehicle takes you to your destination.

True, you can do this with a taxi today, but this can be quite expensive.  With these light, probably very fuel efficient mini-vehicles which have no driver to pay, I’m guessing the ride will wind up being quite cheap.  If it costs in the neighborhood of the price of riding a bus, only you will get right to your destination and you don’t have to share your ride with anyone you don’t want to, then what’s not to love?

Once you reach your destination and get out of the vehicle, it will find the next closest “client” and continue its unending trip, person to person and place to place.

Amazing.

And scary.

Think about this, too: This technology will clearly impact the taxi and public transportation business.  Taxis as we know them may go the way of the blacksmith.  And, as this technology is more refined, what happens to other professional drivers?  Could this technology not be used on transport trucks?  Will there be a time the big rigs we see out there are driven by…no one?  What of the auto insurance industry?  If there comes a time when driverless cars are the norm and fewer and fewer people actually own their own car and instead use these mini-cars, what becomes of all the people in that particular business?  Should we care?

Computer technology has had a staggering effect on society and the economy.  We no longer have record stores and it looks like book stores may be a thing of the past as well.  In fact, we buy more and more merchandise online each day.  Now, with the very real possibility that driverless car technology is in our very near future, other changes are inevitable.

Stay tuned.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, the 5/23/14 update

Seventeen days ago, on 5/6/14, I had my latest Corrosive Knights update (you can read the whole thing here) and figured it was time to offer another update.

To begin, in the last update I noted a couple of things which, sadly, will not come to be.  I was hopeful I could finally give out the book’s title in this update, but given some of which follows, I’m going to hold back on that.  There are, however, at least two of you out there who already know the novel’s title.

Secondly, I was hopeful that I could wrap the novel up in roughly a month or so and release it in early June.  That looks increasingly like it won’t happen, at least not then.

Why?  Because shortly after writing my 5/6 update I caught what I thought was a cold but which turned out to be more serious.  Soon, I was seeing a Doctor and was on anti-biotics and damn near bed ridden.  The time I would have had to fix the novel obviously took a hit and, after I was feeling better, I lost a little more time dealing with my daughter’s graduation.  That I wouldn’t have that any other way! 😉 .

In spite of the time crunching obstacles, there is some good news:  As of only minutes ago I finished the eighth draft read through and am happy to say the novel is really close to being done.

In my last update, I hoped the eight draft would be the final one.  In part, it is.  I couldn’t be happier with the first three quarters of the book and don’t feel they need to be reviewed after this.  The final roughly 1/4ths of the novel, including its climax, still needs a little work and I plan to give that part -and not the entire piece- one more go around before releasing it.  This, obviously, reviewing only a quarter of the book will take far less time than going over the entire work.

Unfortunately, looming in the very near future are some pressing things I need to do which will once again delay the time I have to work on this book.  There is no way around this.

It would therefore appear this novel, the fifth in the Corrosive Knights series and the one that finally brings the series all together, will be ready no earlier than late June or early July.  If I can satisfy myself and get it ready earlier, I will do so.  But until then, this is my best guesstimate.

Thanks for your patience and thanks to everyone taking advantage of the free Kindle download (expires on 5/25!) of the second book in the series, The Last Flight of the Argus.  To all those new readers, I hope you like what you see and give the rest of the books in the series a shot.

The next one will be out soon!

Corrosive MACN & Coming Soon