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

8 Movies Everyone Turned Against…

…On A Second Viewing:

http://whatculture.com/film/8-movies-everyone-turned-second-viewing.php

Now this is an interesting list.  I’ve long been fascinated with the way people react to entertainment.

Like everyone else, I am susceptible to what appears new and interesting.  I’ve jumped onto things and felt they were really really good only to have second thoughts about them later.

For example, there was a time in the very late 1970’s and entering the early 1980’s that I enjoyed Billy Joel’s music.  When the 1980 release “Glass Houses” came out, I was impressed.  I listed to that album quite a bit but, a few months later, I suddenly found myself not liking his music at all.  To this day, hearing a couple of notes of any of his songs sends me racing to change the station.

And that’s music!

Going by this list, there are a few films listed that people “turned” on that I find fascinating.

Take for instance the very first film on this list, the 2012 mega-blockbuster The Avengers.  The culmination of several Marvel Comics related works, this film roared into theaters and appeared to take the country by storm yet, according to this article, there are those who now look back at the film in far less glowing fashion.

I don’t believe I wrote a formal review to the film, though I did see it in theaters way back when (and in 3D!).  Not to sound too forward thinking, but the film didn’t “blow my socks off.”  I enjoyed it well enough, but afterwards I felt the plot was a complete mess.  Mind you, at that very same time there were people making those very same complaints against The Dark Knight Rises, the third of director Christopher Nolan’s Batman films and a box office rival to The Avengers that summer.  I felt/feel that The Dark Knight Rises (by the way, it is another entry into this list) was far from a “perfect” work but at that at least there was an effort made to make something “big”, storywise, in it.  With The Avengers, however, the villains’ motivations and plan were always, at best, silly.  Why engage The Avengers at all?  The plan seemed to have been to confuse and bewilder them until the alien menace can make its way to Earth, but wouldn’t a more prudent plan be to stay in the shadows and bide your time until you have your alien forces already orbiting Earth (hidden, of course), and then attack without warning?

At the very least, their numbers would then be overwhelming enough to wipe out The Avengers, right?

Anyway, there’s the list.  Their #1 film is (SPOILERS!) the James Cameron mega-hit Avatar.  Funny thing about that film.  I was really eager to see it when I first heard about it.  Especially the idea of James Cameron returning to science fiction.

Then the film was released and everyone went crazy about it.  It made a zillion dollars and, I believe, remains the single highest grossing film of all time (perhaps not factoring in inflation…I keep hearing Gone With The Wind would be tops if that were the case).  As blown away as audiences were with it, the more I read about the movie’s story (this from before and after the release) the less interested I was in seeing it.

To this day I haven’t seen Avatar.  Perhaps one day I will.  Perhaps…

Still, a fun little list to consider.  Bear in mind, all the mentioned films are of fairly recent vintage.

General

Tiny nano-motors move inside cells!

If you’ve followed my Corrosive Knights books, you know that nano-technology is a big element within them (Note: I’m not claiming to be the only person to come up with the concept or use it in my stories!).

As they say, fiction is approaching reality as scientists have developed tiny nano-motors that can move inside cells, a first step toward targeting and destroying, possibly, cancer cells…among others:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/12/health/nanomotors-cells-science/index.html

TV

The Spoils of Babylon (2014) a (very mildly) belated review

So actor/comedian Will Ferrell through his Funny or Die collective and along with creator/writers Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele, presents The Spoils of Babylon, a mini-series parody of…1970/80’s era mini-series.

And it is quite funny…if (a BIG if) you’re familiar with the format they’re parodying and are therefore clued in on the jokes.

I suspect there are going to be many people who are not at all familiar with those mini-series of the past and therefore likely shut this show off after giving it a only a few minutes of their time.  But, again, having experienced those old, sometimes turgid romantic/quasi-historical/soap-opera-esq mini-series in the past, this parody proved to me quite entertaining.

Having said that, I’ll also grant you aren’t going to have laugh out loud sessions with this like you would, say, the movie Airplane!  The Spoils of Babylon at times comes perilously close, especially with its plot, to outright emulating those mini-series from the past.  In fact, if it were played “seriously” and released back in the late 1970’s, I suspect it might well have been a hit!

The story involves the mighty Morehouse family and their rise from the 1930’s to their fall in the 1970’s.  Patriarch Jonas Morehouse (Tim Robbins) is a low down and very poor dirt farmer hoping to find oil on his property.  One day while driving along with his daughter, Cynthia (played as an adult by Kristen Wiig), they pick up the young Devon (played as an adult by Tobey Maguire).  The young Devon is walking about in the sun with no memory of who he is or if he has any family, so Jonas adopts him.  Because they are of roughly the same age, Cynthia and Devon develop feelings for each other.  When Father Jonas finds out, he forbids the “brother” and “sister” (though they have no genetic link) from being together.  It is Devon and Cynthia’s lustful temptation and forbidden love which fuels the “tragic” plot to follow.

In short order Jonas and Devon find oil on their property and the family becomes a powerhouse in the business world and hugely influential within the U.S. government.  But the coming War, generational changes, and Devon’s attempts to follow his adoptive father’s orders to not get involved with his sister lead to murders, drug abuse, a bastard child, and, ultimately, a Greek-like tragedy.

You know, your typical late 70’s early 80’s mini-series story!

Those who are in on the joke will find plenty of stuff to enjoy, from Kristen Wiig’s wonderful, expressive acting (she really looks to relish her role as the femme fatale/spurned lover/feminist/murderer/temptress Cynthia).  Tobey Maguire, while quite humorous in many sequences, has a more sedate/straight-man role.  Will Ferrell gets to show up as the Orson Welles-esq Eric Jonrush, “author” of the best-selling potboiler novel that was the basis of this mini-series and director of the same.  His introductory and concluding comments for each episode are alternately loopy, bizarre, and at times quite hilarious, as is his cameo within the feature itself.  Val Kilmer also shows up for a couple of scenes as part of the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex, and his dry readings are also very funny.  Haley Joel Osment delivers a loopy turn as the unhinged Winston Morehouse, the bastard child of Devon and Cynthia.

Again, I freely admit The Spoils of Babylon might not be for everyone, especially the young ‘uns who don’t have any idea of what this mini-series is parodying.  Those who do, however, should find plenty to enjoy.  The Spoils of Babylon may not always be a “laugh out loud” type experience, but there is plenty of dry humor and cheese to enjoy.

Recommended.

General

First recorded instance of the “F” word in English…?

Perhaps…

http://io9.com/heres-the-first-recorded-instance-of-the-f-word-in-eng-1519247071

If you click on the link, you’ll discover the word (in this case “fuckin”) was written by a monk in this particular book in 1548, though the context of the statement is in question.

For whatever reason, I find the above simply amazing.  It’s fascinating to look at how far back certain phrases/words go, and how the permutations in their meaning changed or, in the case above, apparently didn’t.

Movies

Riddick (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Back in the year 2000, many critics and fans expressed enthusiasm over the just released sci-fi action suspense film Pitch Black.  Starring the then pretty much unknown Vin Diesel (his two biggest roles up to that point were Private Carpazo in Saving Private Ryan and the voice of the Iron Giant in that animated movie), the movie was relatively low budget and, admittedly, felt like it owed a great debt, story-wise, to both Alien and Aliens.  Nonetheless, the film delivered an entertaining tale with characters who weren’t easy to pin down.

The movie was so successful it spawned video games, an animated feature, and an ambitious 2004 sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick.  Unfortunately, that movie may well have been a little too ambitious for its own good.  While Pitch Black was a more small scale and “intimate” monster movie, The Chronicles of Riddick attempted to create a HUGE space opera on the level of Dune, complete with a large cast of characters, political intrigue, back-stabbing, etc. etc.

After that film’s release and the subsequent critical drubbing and disappointing box office it received, it appeared the character of Riddick would grace the screen no more.

But Vin Diesel’s star was on the rise and I suspect the incredible success of the last few Fast and Furious movies gave investors enough confidence to allow Mr. Diesel and director/writer David Twohy another go around with Riddick.

Released in 2013, Riddick, the third film in the series, wisely chooses to draw the space opera stuff so prevalent in The Chronicles of Riddick waaay down, though there is no attempt to ignore the events of that film.  In fact, after Riddick’s start, we find via flashbacks that our favorite anti-hero’s current predicament (he’s heavily injured and stranded on a desert planet with considerable hostile wildlife) were a direct result of things that happened to him after/because of The Chronicles of Riddick.  By the end of that film, Riddick was the king of a group of dark mages.  At the start of Riddick, he was unceremoniously dumped and abandoned by the same group on this planet and must now survive.

Without getting too SPOILERY, the first part of the film involves Riddick doing just that: Recovering from his injuries while figuring out how to move from the more dangerous zone he’s in to another within the planet.  However, he soon realizes a massive danger is about to be unleashed and uses a distress beacon he finds in an abandoned trapper’s shelter to summon two groups of Mercs to the planet.  Both are hunting for Riddick yet each group has their own unique reasons why.  Meanwhile, the danger Riddick knows is coming arrives, and soon everyone is fighting for their survival.

In reading the reviews of the film, I found there are those who were very positive about the first third or so of Riddick -the lone survivor section- and critical of the later part of the film.  Many felt this part of the film was little more than a re-tread of Pitch Black.  I can’t argue the point.  However, to me Riddick worked in spite of the less than original second half and that was because Mr. Twohy knows how to carefully build suspense.  Unlike others recent action films, Riddick is almost old fashioned in its presentation.  Other than one ludicrous scene involving a balanced machete, it doesn’t feature the more ridiculous ADHD “action” effects that I found so hard to swallow in movies like, yes, Fast and Furious 6.  Further, Riddick keeps the characters interesting throughout.

For example, I found the character of Lockspur (Raoul Trujillo), the leader of the second group of Mercs to be very intriguing.  Until the movie’s end, we weren’t quite sure which way he would go.  Similarly, the character of Dahl (fan favorite Katee Sackhoff) was a two-fisted delight.  I especially enjoyed the way she treated the leader of the first Merc squad.  Finally, Diaz (WWE star Dave Bautista) was yet another intriguing character who showed several shades of gray…as well as a black deviousness.

Please note, though, that I saw the “unrated director’s cut” and not the theatrical version of the film.  I’m not sure what the differences are or even if they make much of a difference at all.

Regardless, I enjoyed Riddick and I’m pleased to hear that because of the success of the home video release there may be a fourth film in the works.  Hopefully, Mr. Diesel and Twohy has some interesting ideas for this upcoming film and, even more hopefully, they’ll be allowed a bigger budget to show it.  Only, please don’t go the route of Chronicles of Riddick, ok?

Recommended.

Music

10 Best Drummers of All Time…

…at least according to Green-Label.com:

http://green-label.com/sound/10-best-drummers-time/s/10-best-drummers-time/

As with most lists, I suspect readers/fans will find some they agree with (Kieth Moon of the Who, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin) with others they don’t agree with.

I was intrigued and delighted that Stewart Copeland of the Police was included in the list as I’ve always felt he was a large reason for that band’s success.  Yes, front man/lead singer Sting was a hell of a charismatic presence and was responsible for much of their output, but Copland’s drum work really keep the songs moving, something that later Sting solo efforts lacked, at least IMHO.

Which, of course, brings us to the “missing” drummers, people you personally feel should have been on the list but weren’t included.

To this list, I would add heavy metal band Anthrax’s drummer Charlie Benante.  This man could well be one of the loudest and fastest drummers out there…After hearing this album way back when, I couldn’t help but wonder how Mr. Benante didn’t lose his arms while making this album!

Another one: Ringo Starr from the Beatles.  He did some great work in songs like these:

and…

Movies

You’re Next (2011) a (mildly) belated review

While not necessarily a big fan of all her many literary works, I’m very much impressed with Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None.  Originally published in 1939 under the far more politically incorrect title Ten Little Niggers and subsequently re-titled Ten Little Indians before finally being called And Then There Were None, this is the late Ms. Christie’s all time best selling novel.  It involves a group of people brought together on a remote island under various guises, all of which were tailored for them.

Once on this remote island, they realize that the stories they were offered to get them to the place were in fact lies, and that they must now stay on that island and await the return in a couple of days of a boat to pick them up.  In time they find a nursery rhyme and ten Indian figurines.  When the first of them die, they realize the person’s death matched the first death described in the rhyme…and they also find the figurine that matched this death broken.

So a countdown begins…who is the murderer among them and who is the next to die?  And, in the end, who, if anyone, will survive?

As good as the book is, I felt the first theatrical version of it, made in 1945, made some great improvements to what was a pretty grim novel.  In the movie, we had a genuine heroine and hero, something that was absent from Ms. Christie’s book.  I also thought the resolution played out a little better in the film.

Having said that, both the novel and film are terrific and, I believe, have been the source of inspiration to many, many works that followed.  Certainly the concept of a group of people gathering together at an isolated place and then getting picked off one after the other has been used in many works.  It certainly was somewhere in the back of my mind when I wrote Chameleon.

Which brings us to the 2011 film You’re Next.  The story involves the wealthy husband/wife patriarchs of a large family arranging a get together of themselves, their sons and daughters and their lovers for the weekend in a remote mansion…and the hell that breaks loose when a group of mask wearing individuals attack and start killing them off.

When this movie was originally released to the film festival circuit, it received positive word of mouth and I was curious to see it.  Eventually it was picked up and released to theaters, though to a limited run.  It wasn’t until yesterday that I finally got a chance to see it.

Was it worth the wait?

Unfortunately, the answer to me was a resounding “no.”

You’re Next is an at times clever, at times very gory (in fact, a little too gory for my taste) experience.  It also attempts to be a mystery before turning into a black comedy.  Unfortunately, all those shifts in tone hurt rather than helped.  The opening bit with the family meal and first attack on them are probably the film’s highlight, though one can also find a bit of pleasure in the butt-kicking and very resourceful heroine (played by Sharni Vinson) who isn’t about to let these masked killers get her.

Unfortunately, the film is too often gory and sadistic.  Considering the ultimate revelation of what it was all about, very much unnecessarily so.  I don’t want to get into spoilers, but given the plot behind the whole thing, there had to be a far easier way of accomplishing what was needed to accomplish, right?  Stealthy attacks would have accomplished what was needed instead of a big frontal attack that insured everyone was scurrying around from the word go.

Really, really silly if you think about it.

The bottom line is this: if you’re in the mood for a mystery featuring characters getting picked off one after the other, read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None or watch the 1945 film version.  It’s far better than spending the same amount of time with You’re Next.

General

Superbowl LXVIII

Did you hear about yesterday’s exciting Superbowl?  How the Seahawks pulled it off on the last few seconds to beat the Broncos?

Yeah, right.

It was one of those games where the very first play by the Broncos effectively told viewers what we were in for…

There was talk/analysis that the more veteran Broncos with multiple players who had already experienced at least one Superbowl would have the edge over the far younger Seahawks, a team of which not one single players had so much as come close to a Superbowl before this year.

Yet it turned out to be completely the opposite.  It appeared Denver and their players were jittery from the get go, perhaps only too aware of the magnitude of the event while the far younger Seahawks just played hard.  And the Bronco’s jitters quickly turned into a nightmare and, for them, a blowout.

As a fan of neither team, after it became all too apparent this game was over before the end of the first quarter, I was hoping at least the commercials would offer entertainment.

Sadly, that proved not to be the case either.

The only commercial I thought was genuinely clever and funny was the Stephen Colbert two part pistachio one…and that was more for the second, unexpected commercial that followed the more blah (as it turned out, on purpose) first one…

The surprise is what made it so appealing, and I’m not sure watching the two side by side this way reflects the cleverness.

As for other commercials, there were a couple of somewhat humorous ones (the Doritos one, the Audi commercial with the mutant doberhauhau and a very funny cameo by Sarah McLachlan) along with a whole bunch of very weird ones (the Bob Dylan one really sticks out, as does the Danica Patrick one where she was wearing a muscle suit(!) yet barely showed her in it, the Arnold ping-pong one).

I’m threatening to slip into complaining/whining mode but in the cold light of morning, I regret wasting all that time yesterday.

But that’s what makes sports what it is.  Unscripted entertainment means you never know if you’re going to see something amazing (the Heat’s Ray Allen corner 3 to tie what looked like a championship win for the Spurs and turned out to be the impetus for the Heat to eventually win the series) or something absolutely boring like yesterday.

TV

Last look at The Love Boat

For those who don’t know a thing about it, the original Love Boat was a very successful comedy/romantic TV series that lasted an astonishing 10 years from 1977 to 1987.

The ship you see in the credits above, the actual “Love Boat” of the title, was at the time called The Pacific Princess and later was known as the MS Pacific.

The passage of time has not been kind for the ship.  As beautiful as she may look in those opening credits (this is assuming you enjoy looking at cruise ships), the fact is that the more modern cruise ships with their voluminous amenities and much, much bigger size (which equals more passengers which in turn equals more profits) have rendered the poor Pacific Princess an unprofitable relic.

The Pacific Princess is now docked at a Turkish scrapyard and taking on water.  It is listing to its side and waiting to be torn apart.

For those curious to see what this once majestic ship looks like today and before she’s gone forever, click here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/cruiselog/2014/01/29/cruise-ship-tour-love-boat/5011661/

To whet your appetite, here’s the first of the many photographs from both outside and inside the ship presented on the above website:

In August of 2013, one of the world’s most cherished cruise ships barely limped into a Turkish scrapyard after developing a leak and taking on a severe list while under tow from Genoa, Italy.

I don’t quite know why, but seeing this ship lying in such a state of disrepair makes me sad.  While I was never a terribly big fan of The Love Boat (and haven’t seen so much as a minute of the Robert Urich starring The Love Boat The Next Wave), I can’t deny having seen some of the original show and finding it, at the time, entertaining.

Ah well, time moves on and as for Pacific Princess, may she rest in peace.

Movies

Movie lists!!!

First up, 10 Great Movies That Flopped:

http://www.moviestalk.com/10-great-movies-that-flopped/

This list involves movies that when they were originally released were box office flops yet over time became known as great films.  Some might surprise you (Citizen Kane, It’s A Wonderful Life) while you may recall others which had not such great box office results.

The inclusion of Joe Versus The Volcano, however, is a real head-scratcher for me.  I know the film didn’t do all that well at the box office, but is it considered a great film today?  Is it even remembered today?

Of the films listed, the one I find most curious is Blade Runner.  I was around when the film was initially released and recall the less than sterling box office results…along with (if memory serves) muted and unenthusiastic reviews.  The big, BIG box-office champ that summer of 1982 season was Steven Spielberg’s E. T. the Extra Terrestrial.  That movie essentially was the king of that summer season, yet I can’t help but think that today the film doesn’t hold up quiet as well as some other classic Spielberg films (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc).  As one critic said in looking back, perhaps that year people wanted to see something bright and cheerful rather than dark and dour.

The second list involves Good (or Great) Movies with Terrible Endings:

http://www.chacha.com/gallery/2943/which-movies-have-the-most-terrible-endings

I agree with some of their choices while a few others were films that couldn’t be saved, IMHO, almost from the get-go.

Their choice of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, however, was a curious one.  I’ve stated before that The Birds was one of those films I didn’t like all that much until I finally realized what exactly Mr. Hitchcock was doing: Making his version of those then very popular “mutated monsters on the loose” films.  In his case, he took all the cliches in those films, which often involved the scariest looking creatures -usually insects- that grow to superhuman size and terrorize the populace only to be stopped by either the intrepid scientist, the rock hard military/adventure type, and the romantic interest (or a combination of all three), and invert the cliches completely.

Instead of a mutated extra large scary looking creature/insect, he took a creature NO ONE thinks is terrifying and is present almost everywhere: The common bird.  No mutations, no extra size, just your common bird.  In swarms.  There is no scientist to explain the bizarre behavior.  The rock hard military/adventure type cannot stop their rampage.  And the romantic interest ultimately is shocked into a near coma-state.

And then, most sinister of all, (SPOILERS!!!) the birds simply let the leads go at the end.  Why?  Because they won.  The birds had conquered all (certainly the small city and, implied in this, the world itself), and they viewed the few survivors as no longer a threat to them.

The ending was incredibly appropriate and made total sense.

Switching gears a little here: Mission: Impossible, the first of the Tom Cruise MI films, had a golden opportunity to create an ending that didn’t crap on the original TV series.  As those who saw the film may recall, Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt, an MI agent who survives a catastrophic mission wherein all his teammates were betrayed and killed.  The betrayer, it turns out, is none other than (SPOILERS!!!!) Jim Phelps, the character who was the lead in the TV show that spawned the movie.  This is not unlike doing a Star Trek film where it is revealed after a while that Jim Kirk or Spock were, in reality, “bad guys”.

But at the very end of the film, when Phelps is dispatched and Ethan is on a flight and receives his first briefing as the leader of the MI task force, I thought the tape recording he was listening to would refer to him as “Mister Phelps”, revealing that name is in actuality a code name for any leader of the IMF group.  Thus, the TV show’s Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) and the movie’s evil Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) could be revealed as separate people…and the Ethan Hunt character is, in the end, renamed “Jim Phelps” and continues from there.

I’m not the first person to think this, and there have been others who noted that maybe the whole “James Bond” ID should/could also be viewed as a “code name”, thus allowing for so many difference actors to play the character.

Not a bad idea, either.  At least in my humble opinion!