Let The Right One In Part II Movie

4 out of 5 Stars

Pros                          

-          Excellent acting and directing

-          Written by the author

-          Visually pleasing

Cons

-          Some areas are rushed through or glossed over

Oskar a 12 year-old bullied boy finds comfort in the arms of Eli a child vampire.

Let The Right One In Part I Book

4 Out of 5 Stars

Pros

-          Great action

-          Suspenseful Read

-          Genuinely Creepy

-          Sticks to the classic rules of Vampirism while molding some new one

-          Characters you actually care about

Cons                                                              

-          Constant jumping point of views

-          Too Many side characters

Oskar is a boy who doesn’t fit in is obsessed by murder and confused; one day when he comes home he finds that someone new has moved into town.  A girl, her name is Eli she has seemingly moved in with her parents and is strange.  Oskar is fascinated by his new acquaintance; they become fast friends, but when he finds out Eli’s secret will it last?

Stop fucking with Classics

Incoming literary geek rant


Turn away now if not interested in listening


Ok, I get the zombie craze. I know how it started, (Shaun of the Dead, World War Z), have no problem with that or one or two of the books, although it does cause this innate reaction in me that just came out when was pointed to the fact that Mike White has been signed on to direct Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Forgiving for a second that the title should have been altered to Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies (I know the original title of the book was the reason that it’s titled that way).  Also forgiving the fact that no kid or teenager, and that’s what these are marketed at in an attempt to get them to read the classics, has ever read the originals (which is a crime even I am punishable for). Why the hell are there so many? I mean look at this list:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H Winters
Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin

And those are just four out of twenty or so books that are mash-ups of classic literature that are dealing with anything from zombies to sea monsters, I don’t get it I really don’t, it seems it started out as a freaking fan-fiction exercise and turned into a fully fledged genre, as a matter of fact here’s a quote from the New York Times about the phenomenon and its primary publisher: Quirk books:

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has spent eight months on the New York Times best-seller list, spawned several imitators and injected some fresh blood -- and male readers -- into an Austen industry dominated by gauzy romances. Goodbye, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy. Hello, Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Dawn of the Dreadfuls, a prequel to Zombies that lists Austen as an author despite the lack of what Hollywood types refer to as "participation."”

Now don’t get me wrong; I can kind of get it; you want to bring new blood to old classics and what better way than to take it and mash it up with well known trends in media?  But you’re forgetting one key thing: these people will never read the originals; sure you can say oh it’s a gateway to it.  But in general the people who are reading these haven’t read the classics.  Well, no, that isn’t exactly true. I know plenty of friends of mine who have read and enjoy the originals who picked up the books on a whim.

Now you might be thinking to yourself well it’s only a small list, it’s not going to hurt a lot; I thought the same thing when Hollywood started making remakes; look where that has got us: Lionsgate is already planning to remake Saw.

Now what can I do about this? I can rant for one and hope that someone hears me and listens, though I don’t have enough faith in humanity for that one dear reader.  I can sit back and let this take a hold of your life therefore insuring that it will gain even more popularity.  I can give up on reading(no…no that’s just dumb) or I can try and support little known authors like Lundqvist, Larrison, and a local author that I met while at a convention Michael D’Ambrosio(whom I plan on reviewing in a few weeks).  The small press is practically where it’s at as the bigger presses tend to try and garner attention with trends in media, the smaller presses garner more attention to their authors and take more risks.  Now am I saying give up on big press completely?  No, odds are you have a favorite author who is on a big press that you just love, stick with that author hope he doesn’t succumb to the wheel o’plot syndrome like Stephen King or any number of big authors out there.

Another thing I would like you to do is pick up an odd book, any odd book by an author you don’t know something you don’t ever expect to read and give it a chance.  Sure it may not be much but lord knows there are enough unknowns out there to make your head spin, take chances don’t just go looking for “New York Times Best Seller” do it for your own sake, for literary sake and for arts sake.

Now in closing, I’m going to say this and I know it might seem contradictory to what I’m trying to say but it is true; I know there aren’t or are barely any original ideas left in this world, we’re all working on variations of themes but isn’t it about time that we gave that new variation a try? For our sanity sake, give it a try!

Audio Corner: World War Z Audio Book

World War Z – Audio Book

A review by Darth Thought

4 out of 5 Stars

I normally don’t pick up audio books.  I can’t stand someone reading to me; but Max Brook’s World War Z is not just an audio book, it’s as close to an audio drama as you can get without having to buy a Big Finish CD Set.  It boasts a full cast of character’s all connected to Max Brook’s voice acting career and I would be lying if I said I didn’t know a lot of them specifically Jürgen Prochnow, 

Mark Hamill, Alan Alda, Carl Reiner, and Bob Reiner.  They all do spectacular jobs at giving voices to the characters in my head, and for the most part this is a better version than the book itself.

Now this isn’t going to be a big article like all my other’s because, it’s an audio book and I’d be lying if I said I knew a lot about it.  But as a casual listener, and an honest to god fan of the other book, I can tell you this:

It does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the interviews, having a full voice cast helps this along a great deal.  My problems with the book are done away with in so much as that it is an actual abridgment and for the most part does away with some of the tedious stuff I talked about the book having.  It flows better, they’ve cut out a lot of the meaningless interviews, and the actors do a good job encapsulating the feel of the book while making the characters even more alive.

So you’re saying ok you’ve given it praise why isn’t it a 5 out of 5?

Well that can be summed up in the simple words, while it cut out some meaningless interviews it also cut out some of the greatest interviews, gone is the interview with a survivor of one of the church mercy killings, gone is the otaku who survived most of the war in his house and didn’t even realize what was going on.  That and while it is good the interviews are sterile; sure you have the interviews but the problem is that most of the interviews took place in public places where there would have been noise.  It’s not there, and while the voice cast can draw you in, it’s still distracting not hearing the actions. Instead you’ll have Max Brooks reading out the directions as the interviewer put them down.  Maybe it’s just me and I’m being overly picky about the fact that this is an audio book and I expect something like an actual radio drama, but still for something like World War Z to be so sterile sounding and only have sound breaks between the interviews for the introductions, seems well a little lacking.

All in all if you are a fan of the book you should give this a listen.  If you are someone who doesn’t really read books(shame on you but I digress), pick this up you’ll have a great time and hey it’s a great way to gear up for The Walking dead!

World War Z

World War Z by Max Brooks

Published in 2006

Published by Three Rivers Publishing a subsidiary of Random House

Score 3 out of 5 stars



Boy, this one is kind of hard for me to talk about. See World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a very popular book; one that has ushered in the zombie craze of the past few years. Zombies themselves have always had a cult following. I mean what is scarier than trying to defeat the one thing that you can’t escape? Death. Most of us think of zombies and they automatically think of the films of the legendary George A Remero, such as Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead but in the past decade we’ve be inundated with both remakes of the first two films, as well as films like 28 Days Later, and 28 Weeks Later, both of which I love.



The book itself acknowledges these films, as well as many other as the authors other work, The Zombie Survival Guide, it is done in the way of a periodical interview; where Brooks showcases his talent to write in many voices, truth be told I would love to see more from this author; flaws of the book aside. The fictitious account ranges from the funny to the disturbing leaving the breath laughing at the stupidity of some of these people and appalled at some of the actions the characters take to just survive, I truly can tell you, that if you read this you will have to look at yourself in the mirror and go: “would it be worth it, could I do that to my fellow man?” I did this many times during the book especially during the scenes of cannibalism and filicide. Then again I cringe at the harm of a child so, yeah it’s a rather touchy thing for me.

The book is also a satire of sorts, pointing out just how isolated we in America actually are. The book shows a stark contrast of the fact that many other countries help each other out and yet we seem to be the only ones doing anything by ourselves. One of the most stinging scenes takes place in the interview of a Cuban who describes the mass exodus of not only former Cubans, but a lot of American citizens during the great panic, which were the first few months of the ordeal. The curious thing about this book is the fact that the first cases that are reported are actually in Asia (China and Japan to be exact). As a matter of fact I was rather surprised at how the book handled the Japanese solution, though in truth I shouldn’t of been.



So you may be asking me; if you’re giving this book such praise why the score of a three? Simple really, while the plot is good, the writing is above par, and it is over all enjoyable, it seems to reach a dead stop in the last third of the book. During the section called Around
the World and Above; it seems to crawl for pages and pages when in actuality it’s only about one or two pages. Then, it seems to rush towards its conclusion. It feels like Brooks was reaching the end of his contracted time and decided to just scrawl an ending to the book where as he really wanted to carry it on or something. Also it has some major plot holes, like never really explaining how a blind man can become a person who cuts trees, now you may say I’m being nit picky but in truth it seems like he wants us to believe it’s all done because of the heightened senses one can have with being blind. Maybe if he had been born blind that would work, but he discusses that he wasn’t and so I just can’t see it. There is also no explanation of what the disease actually is, or why and how it operates in the human body. Granted the book is only set a decade after the ordeal but you would figure they would have a few scientists to discuss what they’ve found. All we get in that vein is a man who creates a placebo drug and the government going ‘we don’t know’, I was a little dissatisfied with that aspect.



All in all, would I suggest it? Yeah, it is entertaining and brings to light some things about zombies we might not know, it’s just you have to bear through a crunching halt in the midst of the book. Which can very well kill it for you; it almost did for me and a friend who read it. Flaws aside, I would recommend it especially for those curious about how zombies got so damned popular. Many say it was the film Shaun of the Dead, which I think was the spark, but this was the book that just set it ablaze.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Review

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (2010)

Written by Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall

Adapted from Scott Pilgrim Graphic Novels by Brian Lee O’Malley

Released by Universal

5 Out of 5 Stars

Oh boy did this movie surprise me. It really did; I’ll make no joke about it, I don’t like Michael Cera. When that’s the only credit I actually recognize besides Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the mock trailer for Don’t in front of Grindhouse), I honestly didn’t go into this expecting much, let alone because reviewers that I trust were split down the middle (Brad Jones AKA The Cinema Snob,and Noah Antwiler AKA The Spoony One) I was cautious. Let's just say, out of all of the movies to come out this year: this movie surprised me the most.





First off a little background: Scott Pilgrim was a series of digest style comic books to come out over the span of the last six years. It was written and drawn by Brian Lee O’Malley (To date the only book I have read is Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life). The style of the books is simple and cartoonish, borrowing heavily from Japanese Manga artists such as Kiyohiko Azuma, and Osamu Tezuka. Having read only the first volume I’m not about to review that part until I finish them. But for a basis I did enjoy the first volume and found it cute. Its humor is very hit and miss, and often times can only be understood in the subcultures the books are aimed at really. But over all I liked it and I am looking forward to when I can get my hands on the last four volumes. After the first volume was published, the publisher Oni Press (a Oregon based company) contacted Marc Platt to talk about a film adaptation, which the writer of the novels was a little put off about stating:




"Expected them to turn it into a full-on action comedy with some actor that I hated...I didn’t even care. I was a starving artist, and I was like, 'Please, just give me some money.'"

He was actually pleasantly surprised at the end result, though he did say no material from Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour the last volume of the book made it into the movie. This seems to be a growing trend with Comic book and Book movies, though where a studio will snatch up the rights to a book as soon as it’s done being published. I can’t comment on that because well looking at the two movies that are like that Kick Ass and this film, it’s pretty damn good thing to do, though it does leave me scratching my head and saying “Are we giving up on thinking about original ideas?”




So, I’ve given you a lot of details about the production, the comics, almost everything. But what about the movie? Well, the movie stars Michael Cera in the titular role of Scott Pilgrim (which again made me pause and think maybe I shouldn’t go to see this, but in the end they made a pretty good choice in the casting), a twenty two year old high school graduate who is a drift in that stage before really being grown up and still being a teenager (fun fact, in the book Pilgrim is actually twenty three). He plays bass for an indie rock band Sex Bob-Omb (seriously picture Dennis Hopper’s King Koopa from Super Mario Bros the movie saying that and tell me you don’t laugh). He is very much the archetypical slacker, who is going out with a Chinese high school student Knives Chau played by Ellen Wong (her first major film role might I add), who is very much an innocent naïve character who deserves better than Pilgrim gives her. The relationship is seen as what it is, a ‘safe’ relationship that he is comfortable in but nothing too serious. Things get complicated when Scott starts having dreams about a pink haired delivery girl named Romona V. Flowers portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winestead. Scott gets way in over his head as he finds out that the girl of his dreams is real, he pursues her only to find out that she has seven evil exes that he has to defeat.

That is the basic premise to this movie, and the books. While it seems simple, the shear amount of things that I can compliment just astounds me. So here goes:

The fights are well paced and choreographed, you can clearly see who is fighting in each and every fight, plus they stick a whole lot of video game references into these small fights which seems to extend it but keep you interested at the same time. In a time where films are too concerned with getting you in the action Scott Pilgrim lets you be the spectator, which is as it should be for a movie of this type.

The sheer amount of referential humor is a plus and a negative in my book and is probably why some people decide to pan it instead of enjoying it. The movie spends a lot of time relishing in the fact that it’s made for such a small part of the audience that it can be lost on some people who have not been fans of these types of media. It’s a plus in the fact that I am part of the crowd it’s aimed at, I enjoyed and often times laughed at a lot of the genuinely funny parts.

Scott’s best friend Wallace Wells played Kieran Culkin (younger brother of Macaulay Culkin), is one of the first and only non flamboyant gay characters I have seen; this is refreshing and you honestly believe that he embodies the character he’s playing. A lot of people are saying “yeah but that’s the only character trait he has” to which I say no, he’s portrayed as a very caring friend, a flirtatious man chaser, and a deep and thoughtful character. One of my favorite scenes in the books and movies is where Scott is talking about Romona for the first time; I won’t spoil it but it seemed like a very cute scene to me.

Now on to the negatives. While the stylizing choice of it is inventive and all out fun, it can be frustrating and it often times reminded me of Speed Racer, which is not a bad thing but is sometimes grating. If you are prone to seizures I’m not sure if this is a film for you. The ending seemed not to want to make up its mind really and seems a little rushed for the film but considering there are two endings to the film (one that is in the theatrical cut and one I’m sure will make it into the DVD), I guess it’s to be expected.

All in all, with those minor flaws I really recommend this film, on the caution that if you go to see this and don’t enjoy it, please don’t blame me. I really believe this to be the first cult classic of the ‘10’s. It’s not for everyone but it is an experience. I could honestly wax and wane on this film for longer but that is pretty much all I have to say about it. Uf you want to talk about it, I’m willing to. But I won’t let this drag on forever

Ciao

DarthThought

Heart Shaped Box Review

4 out of 5 Stars

- Minor usage of the word hang instead of hung

- Short chapters                                                                                                                                  

- Really talking about heavy metal, not death metal

Judas Coyne used to be the biggest thing in metal.  He had legions of fans and groupies That was before two of the band members died.  Now, he lives in his house and has collected one of the world’s largest collections of macabre and occult things ever seen.  He has a hangman’s noose that was used on a witch, a trepanned skull of another, and his most prized, an actual snuff tape. He has it pretty much easy. That is, until he finds a suit online that is supposedly haunted.  Once he buys the suit he learns that the ghosts of your past, they catch up with you.

In his debut novel, Joe Hill astonishes me.  He creates a backdrop of the ‘aged metal god’ so well that I have a hard time not thinking that it’s Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, or one of the many dark men that have populated the popular culture of metal for decades.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. You are probably wondering, just who is Joe Hill, and why should you care?

Well to put it simple Joe Hill is a pseudonym for Joe Hillstrom King. That’s right, the son, and heir to the throne, of Stephen King.  It seems that Mr. Hill wanted to get his own success before revealing who his parents were, and this was smart because while he is Mr. King’s son, this man knows what he’s doing and comparing him to his father is very uncouth.  Yes, of course, he has a lot of King’s writing style. But what he does, he does well.  It kept me turning the page and reading it ‘til the wee hours of the morning. So, my hat goes off to this man.  He has a strong start and I can’t wait to read his next one.

The story proper starts out introducing us to Jude, and his humble abode.  It seems he wants to live out the rest of his days in a rather quaint silence, with his two dogs Bon and Angus, his manager Danny (for the life of me I can’t remember the manager’s last name, and as far as I can recollect he only calls him Danny), and his girlfriend Marybeth whom he has nicknamed “Georgia” because that’s where she’s from. It seems he does this a lot with his girlfriends as he recollects the girl before her being “Florida”. Anyway the opening scene of the book revolves around Danny and Jude finding the suit of the dead man on an online auctioning site. It’s not ebay but for all intents and purposes it resembles it.  They automatically buy the suit and, trust me when I say, things get rather out of hand once the suit arrives. Really much of the story revolves around the suit and just who owns it.  I can’t help but think that Joe Hill did a lot of research into Heavy Metal’s past of groupies because this is a rather ingenious way to get back at a man.

Joe Hill does a masterful job of making us care for this group of misfits, even if it doesn’t seem like you would care for a guy who has a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves painting done by John Wayne Gacy. The one underlining thing I can say about Judas is the fact that you don’t really get to know that Judas isn’t his real name until later in the novel but you know his parents didn’t name him Judas that it was a persona that the man created.  Trust me when I say, the name comes into play in a lot of the main characters past. I can’t really go into it without giving away at least one of the most poignant scenes in the book to me.

Now that I’ve given you enough praise for the man there are some minor flaws, and to be honest I don’t know if it lies in the hands of Joe or his editor. The use of the word hanged instead of hung for instance. He might be right in using it and I might be wrong in thinking it would be hung instead of hanged but it still clanged in my head every time I ran across the word which was only every so often, so it’s minor really.  Another flaw that I found was his thing with death metal seemed to be more heavy metal. He doesn’t really go into the lyrics of the songs but it seems more like he’s talking about heavy metal than it’s darker brother, but that’s just me. Also when you get to the last act he seems to shorten the chapters down to half pages and I don’t get that but hey when you’re used to Tolkien lengths of chapters and when I’m really reaching far to say that the flaws are these three things? I honestly think that says a lot for an author when his only mistakes are one word, some chapter length issues  and maybe but not for sure the categorization of the music.

But putting those three things aside, the story is very moving, very haunting and actually pretty damn scary at times.  I can’t give enough praise to the man for adding something that will go down in my book as second only to his dad’s The Stand

Lost Finale Thoughts

I know this is supposed to be my thing on books; but seeing as how this has just as many literary sources as writers and I happened to of loved the show, I would post this here as well as my many other haunts.

So last night was the big grand finale of Lost, and you know what? I enjoyed it.  Yes I seem to be one of the few that did truthfully walk away fulfilled and happy with the way it ended.  Alot of people are angry at JJ Abrams because he supposedly said it wouldn't be that ending, well many forget that he didn't have day to day dealings with the show any more.  Yes he was executive producer, but David S Goyer was executive producer of Flash Forward and look how that panned.  That and I can't seem to find anything where he said they wouldn't be dead.  Yes they said not a dream, but let's face it season five ended with the main cast that we loved caught in a nuclear explosion, yes it seemed to create a new timeline(and i actually believe it did), but in the end the original timeline was what we cared about and they wrapped it up logically. Call me a fanboy that's your right; I'm not going to back down from this verdict.

The show was entertaining and some of the best suspenseful moments ever in TV.  A lot of people didn't like it because it wasn't a one shot show where everything was wrapped up in a nice little package for that episode.  It was a continuing epic, that made you think provoked you into thinking deeper as a matter of fact one of my favorite internet reviewers The Cinema Snob(http://thecinemasnob.com/ ) said that while he wasn't a spiritually minded man this shows ending really did make you think about what you actually thought about the afterlife.  To me yes it could've been better, but that doesn't mean it should be.  It is what it is and to me that is good because the show ended the way it did it leaves enough speculation that the island is still there.  People can still find it by accident, and whatever happens to them well it's going to make them think.

I've seen people say, "but it didn't answer what the island was", am i the only one that watched it and came away with the island is purgatory, what happens to them there tests them and truly helps them come to an end with they're doubts about dying.  They weren't dead they didn't die until the end when everything started crumbling as a matter of fact the last thing we see is Jack die.  So, in a way they kept their promise these people lived while on the island they were judged and if they didn't accept it they were taken by evil. One of the most poignant scenes that I saw was Sayid and Shannon coming together and coming to grips with their mortality.

I don't know what anybody else expected but in the end this show is loved and now hated because it was thought provoking, I believe and this is my opinion that the people who have a problem with the end are unsure and in truth they'll end up in their own island sooner or later.  When that day comes come to peace with what you are and what you've done.

edit:

While i still stand by what i said i should clear something up after watching it again the island is not purgatory it was something they created in they're mind so they could be together makes sense to me but of course i believe heaven is what you make of it it isn't jesus to some it isn't allah to some it isn't anything.  Truth be told i'm a Abrams fanboy there is little to nothing that JJ has done that i find wrong Felicity is well his stepping point and i didn't watch it so i'm not going to comment on that.

All in all the show entertained made you think and left you wanting more that is what a show should do in my mind

Thats all

Darth Thought

Text Intro

for this blog i'm using the pseudonym The Angry LIterate, the show's character will not be called this, or it might just because well i can't think of anything i know that it'll slightly be redundant because you have Angry Video Game Nerd, and what not out there, but in truth this is what i am when i see a bad book, and right now i'm going to build up steam i might actually touch upon Twilight, it'll fucking suck cause i'm going to have to actually READ them but in truth i'd rather you know about it than i not suffer

If you have any suggestions as to what i read, shoot me a comment or message ok?

Angry Literate