Movie Review: TiMER

I think one of my favourite things about genre fiction is how it can surprise you. How it can exceed your expectations in a way that a lot of other fiction can’t. Basically you sit down to read, play, or watch something involving a robot, a unicorn or a monster and find yourself getting what you wanted and then suddenly realizing that the story gave you a lot more.

Case in point: The 2009 film TiMER.

The premise of this Science Fiction film is pretty simple. What if there were a device you could have attached to your wrist at a mall that told you, with complete assurance exactly when you would meet your soul mate? The machine only works with people who are actively in the program, so it is possible, like the main character, to have a wrist band displaying flashing dashes rather than a specific number of days, hours, and minutes until your soul mate pays the $79.99 fee to receive their own TiMER device.

Here’s what I liked about the movie – first of all, the lead actress Emma Caulfield was really really good – having only seen her in the tooth-fairy themed horror film Darkness Falls before this, I was pleasantly surprised by her comedic acting chops. Secondly, like all of my favourite fiction, the story was very character driven, leading the audience to care about (or at least understand) all of its characters. Finally the score was a lot of fun.

The movie moved deftly between romance and drama, and although it was a quieter film (some will find it slow), I really enjoyed how well the film handled its subject matter.

This movie was one of the nicest surprises I’ve had in Science Fiction films all year.

Things I’ve Noticed: Selecting an October theme is tricky

I know it’s still three months away, but as I’m one of those plan ahead types, I keep looking at my calendar and thinking about how I’m going to break down the premise of “The Re-imagining of Horror” into thirteen posts.

Last year I got a really good response for my October posts “Twilight of Bookmonkey” wherein I focused on all five of the Twilight novels, as well as the first two films and soundtracks. So I definitely wanted to follow it up this year with a great month of horror themed posts.

Before I chose to examine the recent re-imagining craze of the genre, I spent a little time thinking about the other Horror series I’ve never gotten around to viewing: Saw. The problem was, even with all those sequels, video games and comics; I didn’t think I would have enough to say to cover thirteen individual posts.

My next choice, and the one I’m going to be doing this October is an examination of the recent re-imagining craze. My hope is I’ll get to spend some time looking a where the craze came from, some examples of both good and bad re-imaginings and my own thoughts about where the genre may go in the future.

Anyway, what I guess I’m trying to get at today is that I need to start figuring out exactly which re-imaginings I should check out and then I realized – why don’t I ask my readers? I’ll definitely be looking at the big three (Friday the 13^th (2009), Halloween (2007), and A Nightmare on Elm Street(2010)), but past that I’m pretty open.

Any suggestions?

Genre Character of the Week: William Mandella

Here’s the thing I’ve noticed about all fiction involving immortality – although there may be some pretty cool benefits, being an immortal would actually be a pretty terrible thing to live though. As a father myself, I can say that yes, I would like to see my grandkids grow old, but I certainly don’t want to be around to see them die.

In my mind the best vampire fiction definitely focuses on this aspect of immortality – the simple fact that every time you make a connection with anyone, you are bound to end up seeing them grow old, die and leave you behind.

William Mandella, the protagonist of Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel The Forever War ends up being, for all intents and purposes an immortal man. Born in 1975 and possessing a degree in physics, William is drafted into an experimental force for a war against a recently discovered alien species in 1996. As the war is fought light years away from Earth, every time William jumps from one battle to another he jumps months, years, and eventually centuries into the future.

William is one of those characters I really dig in war fiction, the guy who didn’t sign up to be where he is, but is trying to make the best of an increasingly bad situation. Like my favourite SF war characters; Louis Sacchetti, Ender Wiggins and Miles Vorkosigan, William does a remarkable job of telling his own story and showing the human aspect of war.

The book is actually the first of two sequels, and I am definitely interested in checking them out.

Book Review: Variable Star

When it comes to fiction, one of the stranger events for me is when one author dies and another finishes his or her final book. Sometimes this can work out well, but I'm always hesitant with how the book will turn out in the end. Will it be a fine send off for a favourite author or will it be jarring and leave a bad taste in the mouth of the dedicated fan?

In terms of the book Variable Star, written by Robert A. Heinlein and, after his death, finished by Spider Robinson, I can honestly say this book was pretty great. It reminded me of all my favourite Heinlein novels and gave me a pretty satisfying story to boot.

The premise; Joel Johnston, a budding musician finds out his long-term girlfriend is actually one of the richest people on the planet and would like to be married. The only hiccup? Her father will basically own the young man and will groom him to rule the family business in the future. Joel's solution? Leave the planet on a long-term colonizing spaceship, aimed for a distant planet and due to arrive in about 30 years.

The novel is really good SF, but for the the best part of the story is the coming-of-age aspect for Joel himself. He grows up a lot through the story and I have to say that he comes across as both a nice guy and a really developed character.

The book is definitely worth the read, there are still many plot points I've left out and in the end, the human drama is really what drives the story

Things I’ve Noticed: Vincent Price is the Man

As a pretty dedicated fan of horror films, I have definitely come across Vincent Price in the past. I grew up watching him on the Hilarious House of Frightenstein, enjoyed him at a young age on late night TV in The Fly and loved his cameo as The Inventor in Edward Scissorhands.

As I’m currently working my way through the classics of horror (I’m spent a large part of the last year watching Hammer Horror films), I’ve started digging in to the Roger Corman Classics of the 1960s. Over the last week I’ve watched Mr. Price in The House of Usher (1960) and The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), and after finishing the latter, I’ve really got to admit I’m really impressed with his acting!

Considering I grew up watching him effectively lampoon his own horror movie persona in Frightenstein (it aired early Saturday mornings, and as an early riser, that meant I watched it every week), it really surprised me to see just how good he was in these films. I have seen him in other works and really enjoyed his work, but honestly, as the grieving widower Nicholas Medina in The Pit and the Pendulum, I really felt his sorrow and deep sadness over the loss of his wife Elizabeth (played by Barbara Steele).

The movie works as a straight out horror film, and considering it’s fifty years old, I’ve got to say it really scared me. If you can lay your hands on a copy it is definitely worth the watch.

Genre Character of the Week: Steve Rogers

On Monday I went with my mother, brother, oldest niece, nephew, and youngest daughter to see Captain America: The First Avenger.

I really liked this movie.

It’s kind of funny, as the Superhero genre has had a pretty big summer this year, that the two films I was least interested in to start, this one and Thor, actually came out well ahead of the others.

The movie is great and honestly this comes down to just a few things:

1) Chris Evans, seriously, he really had me invested in the character quite early, and after finding out that he didn’t use a body double for the “before” part of his character (instead it was some pretty amazing CG), I was even more impressed. As cocky as he was as Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies, he is earnest, kind, and decent in this role.

2) The story focuses on character development – yes there is a lot of connections to the modern Marvel universe (Thor-related items, Howard Stark, etc.), but the focus in the film is very strongly placed on the characters.

3) I loved the relationships Steve had in the film, from his best friend Bucky, to the love interest and especially to the doctor who decides to take a risk on this kid.

Seriously, the film felt like a wonderful throwback to the great pulp classics, but as it had a nice storyline on its own it didn’t look like a series of set pieces waiting for action sequences (and yes, I’m looking at you Green Lantern).

Honestly, this movie was great, and as I said before, a huge part of that goes to the character of Captain America himself, Steve Rogers.

Book Review: The Queen of Bedlam

Happy Heritage Day everyone! (For those of you who don't live in Alberta, Canada, this is our second long weekend of the year that basically comes down to "we really need a holiday in this month" the other long weekend we get happening in February - called Family Day)

Today I both finished the Robert R McCammon novel The Queen of Bedlam, finished the PS3 game Assassin's Creed and saw the new Captain America movie. For today's post, I'll be focusing on the book.

This is the second of Robert R McCammons, Mathew Corbett series, (which I wrote about here) and like the first novel, Speaks the Nightbird, this is a mystery novel set in the American colonies circa 1700 - although the second book takes place in New York rather than in the Carolinas.

This novel focuses on a mystery surrounding a mysterious killer known as The Masker, a man who has quickly dispatched a doctor in a rather horrible fashion. Our main character, Matthew, having returned from the Carolinas three years ago, is now a legal clerk for a contract lawyer, and through the course of the book becomes involved in the case of The Masker, as well as a case of mistaken identity in a nearby asylum.

Overall the book was a lot of fun for me, although it comes to about 650 pages, it is a quick read and quite enjoyable, having a lot of action and building suspense throughout. There is a bit of a jump in tone when Matthew first meets his love interest, as she is almost slapstick-level clumsy, but I will definitely be adding this to my collection when I find it as a paperback in a used-book store.