Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Although our focus is usually on entertainment, from time to time I like to include something that might be more useful than the latest preview or review. So, for the roughnecks among us who run with tough crowds, I give you…
Source: Eric Beetner. (If you enjoy great crime fiction, then you probably already know Eric Beetner… but if you don’t know, well, now you know.)
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Director: John McTiernan, Michael Crichton (reshoots)
Screenplay: William Wisher, Jr., Warren Lewis based on Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
Stars: Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, Dennis Storhøi, Vladimir Kulich, Omar Sharif, Tony Curran, Clive Russell and Erick Avari
Tagline: Fear reigns.
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan is a poet accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle until his affair with a rich man’s wife brings him unfavorable attention from the sultan. Sent as ambassador to the Northland, Fahdlan encounters a band of Vikings. During the evening celebration, a message arrives requesting the Vikings’ aide at a Northern Kingdom. Inhuman beings are attacking and killing even their best warriors. The things come at night with the mist and appear to be bear-men.
The Vikings ask their shawman to read the bones. She says the Vikings will be successful if they send 13 warriors… but one must not be a Norseman! Fahdlan is reluctantly recruited.
When the 13 warriors arrive, they discover that there are truly bear-men creatures coming with the mist. They kill and eat the men and women of the Kingdom. As the village prepares for an attack, Fahdlan says to one of the Vikings, “But I am not a warrior.” The Viking’s response: “Very soon you will be.”
Thoughts…
Michael Crichton, the author of the source novel, was the uncredited director of film reshoots.
John McTiernan was the director when the movie was originally titled Eaters of the Dead. Graeme Revell composed a complete original score for the film. Test screenings reviews were terrible. Michael Crichton was brought in to reshape and shoot additional scenes. Revell’s score was discarded. Jerry Goldsmith was brought in to create a new score for the film now titled The 13th Warrior.
I absolutely love The 13th Warrior. It has a great blend of action/horror with just the right amount of comedic moments.
Banderas is perfect as the lover/poet who finds himself among Viking barbarians. His disgust for them matches their disdain for him. Yet, as they get to know each other a mutual respect forms.
The bear-men are terrifying. There are so many great scenes in this film. The tension mounts as Vikings die and the bear-men seem unbeatable. And don’t get me started on how creepy their Queen is.
I’ve watched The 13th Warrior many times and look forward to more viewings.
One of the Viking ships used in The 13th Warrior is now part of a playground in the Norwegian pavilion at the EPCOT in Orlando, Florida.,
The 13th Warrior earns 5 of 5 stars.
I don’t think I’ve read an issue of the Fantastic Four since John Byrne left the title in 1986. Alex Ross has written and illustrated Fantastic Four: Full Circle, a graphic novel that has me interested in the team again. Here’s the 411…
It’s a rainy night in Manhattan and not a creature is stirring except for . . . Ben Grimm. When an intruder suddenly appears inside the Baxter Building, the Fantastic Four—Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), the Invisible Woman (Susan Storm Richards), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grimm)—find themselves surrounded by a swarm of invading parasites. These carrion creatures composed of Negative Energy come to Earth using a human host as a delivery system. But for what purpose? And who is behind this untimely invasion?
The Fantastic Four have no choice but to journey into the Negative Zone, an alien universe composed entirely of anti-matter, risking not just their own lives but the fate of the cosmos!
Fantastic Four: Full Circleis the first longform work written and illustrated by acclaimed artist Alex Ross, who revisits a classic Stan Lee–Jack Kirby story from the 1960s and introduces the storyline for a new generation of readers. With bold, vivid colors and his trademark visual storytelling, Ross takes Marvel’s first team of super heroes to places only he can illustrate. The book also features a special poster jacket, with the front flap unfolding to reveal an all-new fully painted origin story of the Fantastic Four.
Welcome to the Negative Zone and MarvelArts—a new collaborative line of books between Marvel Comics and Abrams ComicArts—where nothing is impossible and anything can happen!
Fantastic Four: Full Circle by Alex Ross is available now.
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Lawrence Block’s new novel, The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown is a Bernie Rhodenbarr tale. Bernie is a burglar and his adventures are humorous (for the reader, not as funny for Bernie) and a nice change of pace if, like me, you lean into more hardboiled yarns. Here’s the lowdown on The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown…
Suppose you’re Bernie Rhodenbarr.
You’ve got a dream job, running your own cozy secondhand bookstore, complete with Raffles, your caudally challenged cat. It’s in Greenwich Village, and your best friend’s dog grooming salon is two doors away, and the two of you lunch together and meet for drinks after work.
And you’ve got another way to make a buck. Every once in a while you put your conscience on the shelf and let yourself into someone else’s residence, and you leave with more than you came with. You’re a burglar, and you know it’s wrong, but you love it.
And you’re good at it. You’ve got two ways to make a living, one larcenous, the other literary and legitimate, and you’re good at both of them.
Nice, huh?
Until the 21st Century pulls the rug out from under you. All of a sudden the streets of your city are so overpopulated with security cameras and closed-circuit TV that you have to lock yourself in the bathroom to have an undocumented moment. And locks, which used to provide the recreational pleasure of a moderately challenging crossword puzzle, have become genuinely pickproof.
Meanwhile, internet booksellers have muscled your legit enterprise into obsolescence. The new breed of customers browse your bookshop, find what they’re looking for, then whip out their phones and order their books online.
Wonderful. You had two ways to make a living, and neither of them works anymore.
But suppose you keep on supposing, okay?
Suppose you wake up one morning in a world just like the one in which you fell asleep-but with a couple of differences.
The first one you notice doesn’t amount to much. The Metrocard in your wallet has somehow changed color and morphed into what seems to be called a SubwayCard. That’s puzzling, but you swipe it at the turnstile same as always, and it gets you on the subway, so what difference does it make?
But that’s not the only thing that’s changed. The Internet’s up and running, as robust as ever, but nobody seems to be using it to sell books. Doors are secured not with pickproof electronic gizmos but with good old reliable Rabson locks, the kind you can open with your eyes closed. And what happened to all those security cameras? Where’d they go?
All of a sudden you’ve got your life back, and your bookshop’s packed with eager customers, and how are you gonna find time to steal something?
Well, just suppose one of the world’s worst human beings has recently acquired one of the world’s most glamorous gems. When the legendary Kloppmann Diamond is up for grabs, what can you possibly do but grab it?
And what could possibly go wrong?
THAT is one strange set-up. I trust Lawrence Block to make it work. Pre-orders for the October 18th release are available now.
The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown Paperback
Things to Come (1936)
Directors: William Cameron Menzies
Screenplay: H. G. Wells based on The Shape of Things to Come by H. G. Wells
Stars: Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson and Cedric Hardwicke
Tagline: A hundred years ahead of its time.
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
Things to Come is based on H.G. Wells’ novel The Shape of Things to Come. Wells reportedly considered the book less a novel than his thoughts on what the next 100 years could hold for mankind. That’s a big story for any movie, and maybe it’s too big.
The film starts in 1940. We’re on the brink of another World War. There are mixed opinions on if the war will happen, but of course it does and rages for over 20 years. Most cities around the world are destroyed. Technology ceases to advance. In the 1970s, a city known as Everytown is governed by “the Boss”. His people live in bombed out buildings and wear tatters for clothes. One day a modern airplane lands. John Cabal (Massey), the pilot emerges. He wears futuristic garb and says that he’s from a community known as Wings Over the World. He offers “the Boss” a chance to join this community.
Instead “the Boss” takes Cabel prisoner. When Wings Over the World realizes this, they send an air armada for rescue. The advanced airplanes drop sleeping bombs. Once the population is unconscious Paratroopers drop for the rescue. “The Boss” dies from a reaction to the sleeping gas. John Cabal announces that “The Boss” and the old world ways are dead.
The movie then has a montage showing the advancements made by the new world order. Technology makes life better for all. As plans are made to go to the moon and later the stars, there is a group who see more advancement as bad. As the astronauts prepare for liftoff, rioters charge to destroy the rocket. They’re too late to stop the launch. The movie ends with two characters discussing mankind and progress…
Things to Come bites off perhaps more than it can chew. Having a story that spans over 100 years with the focus on all of mankind is a tall order. If this story were to be done today, it would be best served as a tv series. It was interesting to see how H.G. Wells and the filmmakers perceived the future. The one thing that they got right, was that even when things are going well, there is always a group that finds fault.
Things to Come earns 3 of 5 stars.
S.A. Cosby is interviewed by Phillip Fracassi on his The Dark Word podcast. It’s worth a listen for all Cosby and writing fans.
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson
First sentence…
It was dusk, but as he turned onto the rutted driveway he could make out the perimeter of yellow tape that still circled the property.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
George Foss is having a drink in his favorite tavern with his on-again off-again girlfriend when he sees a beautiful woman seated at the bar. The woman looks like an older version of George’s first love from his freshman year in college twenty years ago. The first love who suddenly disappeared without a trace. The first love who may have been a murderer.
It turns out that the woman is truly George’s first love, Liana Dector. Liana says she’s back because she needs a favor. Liana stole money, a lot of money, from a rich man. The man hired some terrible people to get it back and to teach her a lesson. Liana wants George to return the cash she has left and ask the man to call off the dogs. Despite everything, including that Liana could be a cold blooded murderer, George feels compelled to help her. Maybe he’ll learn why she left all those years ago, if she truly loved him… and if she still does.
George’s decision to help Liana, puts him in way over his head. Some very bad people now have their sights on George and the police want him for questioning in a murder. Did Liana set him up or are they both victims?
Peter Swanson has created a roller-coaster ride in the tradition of Double Indemnity or Body Heat. Swanson has created a page-turner that should satisfy both the mystery lover and noir fan. The Girl with a Clock for a Heart easily earns 4 of 5 stars.
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart Hardcover
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart Paperback
The Girl with a Clock for a Heart Kindle
The Lodger (1927)
Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Eliot Stannard based on The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes
Stars: Ivor Novello and Alfred Hitchcock
Tagline: None
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
A serial killer who calls himself The Avenger has killed seven blonde haired women. He strikes late at night and police have few clues.
When a tall handsome stranger rents a room from Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, they think nothing of it… until he begins to display some strange habits. He asks that the pictures of blonde women in his room be removed. He quietly leaves his room at night and returns before morning. And what is in the satchel that he keeps locked in a cabinet? Could their lodger be The Avenger?
Alfred Hitchcock wanted The Lodger to be his first full sound film, but it ended up being his last silent feature. The Lodger is also the first film to contain one of Hitchcock’s famous cameos! The Lodger features some animated title cards and inventive shots (the Lodger pacing the floor seen from below as if the floor became invisible; the Lodger descending a spiral staircase and the only thing we see of him is his hand on the banister as he goes down, etc.). Hitchcock considers The Lodger his first suspense film.
The Lodger earns 4 of 5 stars.
Stand by Me (1986)
Directors: Rob Reiner
Screenplay: Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon based on The Body by Stephen King
Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Casey Siemaszko, Gary Riley, Bradley Gregg, Marshall Bell, Frances Lee McCain, Bruce Kirby, Richard Dreyfuss and John Cusack
Tagline: For some, it’s the last real taste of innocence, and the first real taste of life. But for everyone, it’s the time that memories are made of.
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
It’s Labor Day Weekend 1959 and four young friends learn the location of the dead body of a missing boy. Telling their parents that they’re going to a sleepover, the boys plan to secretly walk the 20 or 30 miles to “find” the body and then notify the police. They believe they’ll be seen as heroes. What they don’t know is that a group of older thugish boys have the same plan…
Stand by Me is lighting in a bottle — a great adapted screenplay with the right director and a perfect cast. There’s an old saying, “It’s not the destination, but the journey.” Stand by Me is proof of that pearl of wisdom. As the boys travel to see the body, we learn about their lives through emotional incidents of drama, comedy, fear and tension. Stand by Me should resonate with the 12 year old in all of us. It’s a classic.
Stand by Me earns 5 of 5 stars.
Eric Beetner’s new book, There and Back, has been announced for a November 1, 2022 release. Here’s the lowdown…
A WILDERNESS RETREAT GONE WRONG.
When a junior executive retreat at a tech company ends in horror, only five of the eight who went out come back. As the survivors try to adjust to life back home, they also grapple with a powerful secret. What really happened out there can never see the light of day.
Told in alternating timelines, the harrowing events of those weeks in the woods come to life. And while it’s clear that returning to life as they knew it will be impossible, these survivors of tragedy begin to suspect that they might not make it much longer.
Is it true what they say… Does the truth really set you free?
Eric Beetner is required reading. Pre-orders are available now.
There and Back Paperback
There and Back Kindle
Stars at Noon is another nice looking trailer based on a book. I want to see this one!
From acclaimed filmmaker Claire Denis and starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alyn. Based on the novel ’The Stars at Noon’ by Denis Johnson. STARS AT NOON – In Theaters October 14. #StarsAtNoon
RELEASE DATE: In Theaters October 14 & on Hulu October 28
DIRECTOR: Claire Denis
CAST: Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, Danny Ramirez, Benny Safdie, and John C. Reilly
I like the poster and trailer for Bones and All. Based on the novel by Camille Deangelis, Bones and All is a strange story. I have a feeling that it will either be very good or very bad, Hoping for the best…
You can’t run from who you are. From acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino and starring Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, and Mark Rylance – watch the #BonesAndAll trailer now and see the movie only in theaters this November.
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet and Mark Rylance
Based on the novel by: Camille DeAngelis
Screenplay By: David Kajganich
Jaeger is a 48 page graphic novel written and illustrated by Ibrahim Moustafa, with letters by Nate Peikos of BLAMBOT, Jaeger was first published as a web comic where it was nominated for an Eisner Award.
Idris Morel was a freedom fighter captured and tortured in a Nazi prisoner of war camp during World War II. Now Morel is a French-Algerian spy who tracks down and eliminates Nazi war criminals who have escaped justice. Nazis speak in hushed whispers of the silent avenger they call “Der Jaeger” (the Hunter). They live in fear that Der Jaeger will come for them. As his body count grows, Morel’s obsession with revenge pushes him to the brink… will he become what he fights?
Ibrahim Moustafa has created what could have been a traditional World War II revenge tale and added twists to make it his own. Nazis are easy targets, but the ones in Moustafa’s tale aren’t one dimensional bad guys. I also like that Moustafa’s hero of the tale isn’t American or British. He’s put the World part of the War back into the mix.
I really enjoyed Moustafa’s art. It isn’t over rendered and the colors that Moustafa uses enhance each page. The storytelling is straightforward with excellent use of inset panels to draw the reader’s eye to what’s most important. The graphic novel comes with a choice of three different cover artists: Dennis Calero, Phil Hester or Ibrahim Moustafa. The graphic novel also contains a five page bonus section with character studies, page and cover roughs and a Jaeger commission. I enjoyed Jaeger and could see additional tales of The Hunter.
Jaeger earns 4 of 5 stars.
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes (2022)
Director: Emma Cooper
Appearances: Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmy Hoffa, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Peter Lawford
Tagline: The brighter the star, the darker the truth.
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
Anthony Summers, who wrote the Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, shares snippets of some of the 650 interviews he did while researching the book. The documentary uses actors/actresses to lip sync to the recordings. I found this distracting. It gave the movie a tabloid feel. I was hoping for some new information, but if you know Marilyn’s story as well as the most popular theories of her death, there’s nothing new here.
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes earns 2 of 5 stars.
Chris Hemsworth returns as Tyler Rake in EXTRACTION 2, the sequel to Netflix’s blockbuster action film EXTRACTION. After barely surviving the events of the first movie, Rake is back as the Australian black ops mercenary, tasked with another deadly mission: rescuing the battered family of a ruthless Georgian gangster from the prison where they are being held.
Hemsworth reunites with director Sam Hargrave, with Joe and Anthony Russo‘s AGBO producing and Joe Russo writing. Golshifteh Farahani reprises her role from the first film, with Daniel Bernhardt and Tinatin Dalakishvili also co-starring.
This is a sequel to the first film that was based on the graphic novel ‘Ciudad’ by Ande Parks, from a story by Ande Parks, Joe Russo & Anthony Russo, with illustrations by Fernando León González. EXTRACTION 2 is produced by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Mike Larocca, Chris Hemsworth, Patrick Newall and Sam Hargrave, with Angela Russo-Otstot, Jake Aust, Benjamin Grayson, Steven Scavelli, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely as executive producers.
I cannot wait!
