The Guardian lists the 40 best directors and is fairly good. David Lynch should be swapped with David Cronenberg, however. Also, Ridley Scott is missing from the list (he ought to be somewhere between 30 and 40), and Peter Jackson’s absence is wholly inexplicable.
Category: Culture
Neil Gaiman, co-creator of Medieval Spawn, made some provocative comments recently. (Scroll down through the rest of the mail till you get to the bit where some fanboy yells at Neil for holding up new Medieval Spawn merchandise.)
Todd’s currently appealing the jury verdict to the 7th Circuit court of appeal. I thought it would be simpler for everyone if I waited until the appeal was done and the jury decision was confirmed before licensing out Medieval Spawn toys, statues, games, comics, novelty condoms, or whatever.
I’m not sure how I’m “hurting the fans” by not doing anything until then. But I can assure you that when the jury decision is confirmed I will happily license out Medieval Spawn to anyone who wants to use him for anything at all, astonishingly cheaply. And of course Todd will get his 50%.
Woo hoo! Free/cheap licenses for Medieval Spawn! I wonder if Angela’s gonna get the same treatment?
Now, this feels good. It is my great pleasure to — well, let’s be honest, to brag — that I will be in Austin, Texas on the weekend of December 5th to attend Butt-Numb-A-Thon 5.
It’s a 24 hour movie marathon, programmed by Harry Knowles. I made it to the second one after reading the report on the first one, and I had a hell of a time. I was sad to miss number 3 and I was mournful about missing number 4.
But I made the cut for BNAT 5. Can’t even begin to express how pleased I am. 24 hours of new movies, old movies, weird movies, freaky movies, and bad movies. A chance we’ll see Return of the King.
It’ll be the second geekiest thing I do all year (hey, I went to GenCon), but it’s gonna be a great time.
So, about Matrix: Revolutions…
It was worth ten bucks for me to watch the Wachowskis do cool visual sequences, and I don’t just mean the SFX. They do astounding visual stuff better than just about anyone. Check out Bound sometime, which is an utterly beautifully filmed movie with no special effects at all. Revolutions does not disappoint there.
Plot? Yeah, there’s plot. It’s less unwieldly than Reloaded, and not as complex as one might suspect or expect. But don’t see it for the screenplay.
There wasn’t ever going to be more than one Matrix experience. How could there be? Revolutions is good, even if it isn’t shockingly new.
I dropped by Tom Kratman’s web board the other day to find out what my favorite Baen author had been up to lately, and found this excerpt from an upcoming novel:
Thomas felt unwelcome tears. He forced them back only with difficulty. So gallant, so brave they were, those boys over there fighting and dying against such odds, and with so little hope.
Gribeauvil, seeing the boy’s emotions written upon his twisted face, said, “Yes, son; give them their due. They are a great people, a magnificent people. And we are damned lucky to have them, now.”
Thomas agreed. And more; he thought of himself, alone, trying to save his mother and little brother from the alien menace. He wished to be a man, was becoming one, he knew. But alone he could never have made the slightest difference for his family’s survival. That took an army, an army of brave men and boys, willing to give their all for the cause of their people.
Perhaps for the first time, Thomas began to feel a deep pride, not so much in himself, but in the men he served with, in the army they served, and even in the black-clad, lightning bolt-signified, corps that was a part of that army.
Thomas was learning.
“Those boys” would be SS soldiers. The black-clad lightning bolt-signified corps is the SS. And don’t forget the depersonalization — Thomas is nothing by himself. He can only matter as part of an army. In this case, he only matters because he’s part of the SS.
Someone asked Kratman why he chose the SS. He gave three reasons:
a) Good troops taking, in many cases, a bum rap. b) a way to further annoy the left, literarily. c) Moreover, though you doubtless have not been following the snippets, in the context of John Ringo’s Posverse ALL mankind are going to become something very like them…the few who survive anyway.
Yeah. The SS weren’t so bad, it’s fun using shock tactics to piss people off, and everyone’s going to wind up like the SS in that universe anyhow.
Hal Clement has passed away. Another of the greats… may he rest in peace. Tributes here.
Bubba Ho-tep ought to have been great. I mean, hey: Elvis, JFK, Texas, and a mummy. What’s not to like?
I think the problem was that the setup creates a certain gonzo expectation, and the movie doesn’t want to be gonzo. The movie wants to be a tragi-comic exploration of old age in a nursing home, with a dark sarcastic twist in the form of the mummy. It works pretty well on that level, but it sabotages itself because, hey — it’s Elvis! Funny!
If Elvis and JFK had been more clearly delusional, that might have helped. However, Bruce Campbell does an absolutely spot-on Elvis. Now, it’s possible to believe that Ossie Davis’ character isn’t really JFK. In fact, it’s pretty easy, because he doesn’t do a very good JFK impression and he’s sort of the wrong ethnicity. Bruce is perfect, though. I couldn’t bring myself to doubt that this old man actually was Elvis, even though the backstory was pretty implausible.
Of course, the mummy was pretty implausible too. There’re those gonzo expectations again.
Anyhow, I still enjoyed it. There are moments of brilliance, both lunatic and otherwise. I really felt for Elvis/Sebastian. It’s just that the setup doesn’t work for the story.
While Sean Stewart’s web site has been redesigned, there’s not really much new information. Still just the brief note about The Glass Coffin. Alas.
He has added a section on “The Beast,” also known as “That big Web game designed to promote A.I.” There’s a very good introduction to the game. Reading it, I keep wondering what he’s been up to, and I wonder a little if he’ll ever write a novel again.
Best eBay auction description ever. Read it quick before it ages out. In my heart of hearts I figure this is a clever scam, since the seller does a big trade in vintage items, but it’s still very funny.
This post is pretty much for Patrick. Others may be amused as well.
Chapter 11 of Dan Simmons’ new book, Hard Freeze, starts like this:
“How’s the book?” asked Kurtz. He squinted at the title. “Isn’t that the same guy you were reading twelve years ago, before I got sent away?”
“Yeah. His detective fought in the Korean War, which makes the old fart in his late sixties at least, but he still kicks ass. A new book comes out every year, if not sooner.”
“Good, huh?”
“Not anymore,” said Arlene. “The P.I.’s got a girlfriend who’s a real bitch. An arrogant piece of work. And she’s got a dog.”
“So?”
“A dog who eats on the table and sleeps in their bed. And the P.I. loves them both to bits.”
“Then why do you keep reading them?”
“I keep hoping the P.I. will wake up and cap both the girlfriend and that ratty dog,” said Arlene.