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Child 44 (The Child 44 Trilogy) by Tom Rob Smith

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Child 44 (The Child 44 Trilogy) by Tom Rob Smith

First sentence…

Since Maria had decided to die her cat would have to fend for itself.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

1953.  Soviet Russia. Leo Demidov, a young decorated war hero, now an idealistic security officer, is beginning to see the hypocrisy of the Soviet government.  Because all are equal there will be no crime.  Murder, especially is a symptom of Western corruption.  Soviet murderers like all criminals must be mentally ill.

When Leo looks into the case of a boy supposedly killed when struck by a train, he discovers the boy may have been murdered by a serial killer of children.  Told to back off, Leo refuses and finds himself at odds with not only his fellow officers but higher ranking Soviet officials.  Soon enough Leo and his wife are under investigation and from there the book really takes off.

To say more would deprive the reader of a great ride.  Child 44 has more twists and turns than any book in recent memory.  Tom Rob Smith has created a page turner that shocks, surprises and thrills.  I loved every page of it and look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

 

Rating:

Rob Smith’s Barney Ross

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I’ve known Rob Smith Jr. for decades. In addition to being a talented artist, Rob is one of the most passionate, committed and dedicated people I’ve ever met. Rob absolutely loves the state of Florida, nature, art, politics, reading and more. Rob’s enthusiasm is contagious and he is always on the go. Another thing I admire about Rob is he doesn’t just talk about his passions, he gets actively involved.

Rob gifted me with  his take on Sly as Barney Ross a few years ago and sadly it didn’t get posted until just now.

You can check out Rob’s site and learn about more of his passions!

Jim Ivey and Rob Smith

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A little over a month ago my wife and I planned a “breakfast get-together” with Jim Ivey and Rob Smith.  Both Jim and Rob are old friends that I don’t get to see as much as I’d like.

Our meetings start as get-togethers for breakfast, but without fail turn into “gift” exchanges, sketching, reminiscing and a whole lot of laughing.

Jim and Rob just before they break out the sketch pads and throw-down.

Rob breaks out the smart phone to video Jim as he works his magic.

Jim may not have a smart-phone but he was mentally recording his former student’s every move.  Here’s a look at Rob’s creation.

You know, looking at these pictures makes me think it’s about time for another get-together.

Rob Smith’s Santa Stallone

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I’ve known Rob Smith Jr. for over 30 years. In addition to being a talented artist, Rob is one of the most passionate, committed and dedicated people I’ve ever met. Rob absolutely loves the state of Florida, nature, art, politics, reading and more. Rob’s enthusiasm is contagious and he is always on the go. Another thing I admire about Rob is he doesn’t just talk about his passions, he gets actively involved.

Rob and I met up for breakfast with another old friend [Jim Ivey] earlier this week. As we were eating, talking and doing a lot of laughing, Rob whipped up his take on Sly as Santa. After our breakfast, Rob headed out to another meeting about preserving an old Florida school and then to an evening meeting with the Florida Trail Association. Whew!

You can check out Rob’s site and learn about more of his passions!

“Chrome and Hot Leather” (1971) starring William Smith / Z-View

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Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)

Director: Lee Frost

Screenplay by: Michael Haynes & David Neibel and Don Tait from a story by Michael Haynes & David Neibel

Starring: William Smith, Tony Young, Michael Haynes, Peter Brown, Michael Stearns, Larry Bishop, Kathrine Baumann, Wes Bishop, Herb Jeffries, Bobby Pickett, Cheryl Ladd (aka Cherie Moor), Robert Ridgely, Erik Estrada, Dan Haggerty  and Marvin Gaye.

Tagline: A terrifying look at Motor Cycle Savagery – from the same studio that made “Born Losers”

The Story:

When a US Special Forces sergeant learns that his fiancé was killed by the member of a motorcycle gang, he recruits three of his service buddies to track down the murderer.  Four Viet Nam vets against an entire motorcycle gang?  Yeah, that sounds about right.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)

William Smith and Peter Brown co-starred in the television series Laredo before working on this film.

Chrome and Hot Leather features some interesting cast member trivia…

  • Cheryl Ladd made her feature film debut billed as Cherie Moor.
  • Marvin Gaye, best known as a multi-Grammy award-winning singer, made his feature film debut as well.
  • Bobby Pickett, best known as the writer/singer of the classic The Monster Mash appears.
  • Herb Jeffries, a popular jazz singer and actor in films made for African-American audiences in the 1930s/1940s, shows up.
  • Erik Estrada can be seen in an uncredited role in only his second feature film.
  • Dan Haggerty also has an uncredited role.  He plays a bearded member of the biker gang.

Chrome and Hot Leather (1971) was made to cash in on the biker craze of the era.  It’s a low-budget drive-in film.  William Smith was built for biker films.  If he was a bit younger, he’d have been an action movie star of the 80s.  Still playing Conan’s dad is quite a notch on your resume.

“The Locksmith” (2023) starring Kate Bosworth & Ryan Phillippe / Z-View

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The Locksmith (2023)

Director: Nicolas Harvard

Screenplay: John Glosser, Joe Russo, Chris LaMont

Stars: Kate Bosworth, Ryan Phillippe, Ving Rhames and Noel Gugliemi.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Miller Graham (Phillippe) was just released from prison.  Graham is determined to go straight and get back with his wife, Beth (Bosworth) and daughter.  The crooked cops who set Graham up have other ideas and when a friend needs help, Graham finds himself on the wrong side of the law.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

I hoped The Locksmith would be better.  I like Bosworth, Phillippe and Rhames.  Unfortunately, the decisions that Phillippe’s character makes are so stupid that I couldn’t muster much sympathy for him.  Just a few of his bad decisions: He agrees to rob a mansion that has armed security. He never cases the joint or makes a plan.  He parks his truck right outside the fence of the property.

The best character in the movie is played by Ving Rhames.  He doesn’t get much to do except tell Phillippe to get his act together, play with Phillipppe’s daughter and then be murdered.  Don’t worry though, there’ s a little scene to wrap up the film to show he’s gone but not forgotten.  (Unlike the movie which will soon be.)

The Locksmith (2023) rates 2 of 5 stars.

“The Untouchables” (1987) Starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery & Robert De Niro / Z-View

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The Untouchables (1987)

Director: Brian De Palma

Screenplay by:  David Mamet based on The Untouchables by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley

Starring:  Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Billy Drago and Patricia Clarkson

Tagline:  What are you prepared to do?

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers

Elliott Ness (Costner) is a Federal Treasury agent sent to Chicago to take down Al Capone (De Niro) and his criminal enterprises.  Due to widespread corruption in the Chicago Police Department, Ness creates a team of “Untouchables” consisting of a Jim Malone (Connery) a street cop; George Stone (Garcia) a young police cadet and Oscar Wallace (Smith) a Treasury bookkeeper.  With their lives and families in danger, Ness and his Untouchables find themselves in Capone’s crosshairs as they move forward with their mission.

The Untouchables is arguably director Brian DePalma’s finest film.  It is the movie that made Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia stars.  Sean Connery won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jim Malone.  The film was also nominated for 3 additional Oscars: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score.

I absolutely love The Untouchables.  Everything comes together beautifully – the screenplay, the director, the cast and the music mesh to create a magical movie experience.  David Mamet wrote the screenplay based on the book by (the real Elliott Ness) and Oscar Fraley.  While the film is a fictionalized account, it’s not a documentary, so let’s not pick that nit.  The film’s direction features DePalma at his peak.  There are so many memorable scenes – Ness and Malone meeting for the first time, Malone’s way of getting a Capone bookkeeper to talk, Ness’ confrontation with Capone on the staircase, Nitti and another thug at Malone’s apartment, Ness and the baby carriage, Stone saving the day and Ness and Nitti on the rooftop – to name several.

Connery is at his best and deserving of his Oscar.  Kevin Costner is perfect as the straight arrow cop who tests his limits when he discovers what he is willing to do to bring down Capone.  Andy Garcia is spot on as the cocky because he’s that good cop.  Charles Martin Smith plays what looks like a stereotypical bookkeeper until the action starts.  Billy Drago has a smaller but vitally important role as Frank Nitti, Capone’s number one hitman.

If you’ve never seen The Untouchables, you should rectify that as soon as possible.  If you have seen it, then you know I’m not exaggerating when I say The Untouchables is worthy of a 5 of 5 star rating.

THE BUTCHER’S PRAYER by Anthony Neil Smith!

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Anthony Neil Smith has a new book out!  The Butcher’s Prayer sounds like something that fans of crime noir (Me! Me!) are going to love…

Called to a crime scene when a terrified woman raises the alarm on a horrifying murder, Detective Hosea Elgin finds the victim’s body has been dismembered with professional precision.

Very quickly, two small-time drug dealers are identified as the probable assailants and a manhunt is launched to bring them into custody.

With the two suspects on the run, the consequences of their actions continue to spiral out of control and it becomes clear that while one of them is focused on survival, the other wants only revenge.

As the net begins to tighten on the fugitives, Detective Elgin finds that the case begins to move very close to home and what began as just another murder investigation is developing into something much more personal.

The decisions he makes and the actions he takes may well solve the case and bring the criminals to justice, but in the process he might just tear his family and his church to pieces.

With The Butcher’s Prayer, Anthony Neil Smith shows once again he’s a writer at the very top of his game. This immersive piece of Southern Gothic Noir certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted but with the skill and nuance we’ve come to expect from Smith he dazzles with writing that is precise, measured and never gratuitous.

The Butcher’s Prayer is getting great advance praise and to ANS’ regular readers, that shouldn’t be a surprise…

“The Butcher’s Prayer is wine-dark noir, with a hammering and bloody heart. This is Smith at his bleak and soulful best.” — Laura Benedict, Edgar-nominated author of The Stranger Inside

“Anthony Neil Smith is a massive talent. One of the very best crime writers I’ve ever read.” — Allan Guthrie, author of Kiss Her Goodbye and Hard Man.

“Visceral, propulsive writing that cuts like a razor. Think Elmore Leonard with an injection of Southern Gothic. Heady stuff.” — Dan Fesperman, author of Safe Houses.

“Crime-fiction veteran Anthony Neil Smith wields a smooth yet serrated style that’s carved him two decades worth of fierce material, now being re-discovered by a younger upstart audience of modern noir enthusiasts. He possesses such an acute, vivid feel of time and place in his subjects, his stories immediately burrow into my memory and remain long, withstanding the static storms of our contemporary attention-deficits. It’s challenging stuff, yet wholly accessible; with spiking dark humor that confirms sure you still have a pulse.” — Gabriel Hart, author of Fallout From Our Asphalt Hell

I put my order in today. If  The Butcher’s Prayer sounds like something you’d like, you should too!

22 Fresh Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”

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Hollywood.com presents 22 Fresh Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.   Here are three of my favorites…

1.  The show was nearly canceled after the fourth season.  During the season finale, Will returns to Philly with the Banks to visit his mom and he decides to stay. Fresh Prince fans were so outraged by the show’s cancellation that NBC brought it back for two additional seasons.

7. Will Smith would memorize and mouth the other actors’ lines so that he could remember his own. If you look closely you can see him doing this in various episodes.

12. Alfonso Ribero who plays Carlton Banks in the series credits Eddie Murphy’s “white man dance” in Delirious and Courteney Cox in Bruce Spingsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” video for his iconic Carlton Dance.

Halt Citizen! 15 Facts About “Robocop”

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Jake Rossen and Mental_Floss present Halt Citizen! 15 Facts About Robocop. Here are three of my favorites…

7. Weller Refused to Answer to His Real Name.
According to co-star Miguel Ferrer, Weller instructed the producers to issue a memo to the cast and crew advising that no one should refer to him by his real name: he preferred to be called by his character’s name, Murphy, or “Robo.” Ferrer went on to say that, having known Weller for years prior to the film, he enjoyed greeting him with “Hey, Pete.” Weller ignored him.

3. Stan Lee Turned It Down.
In 1984, Neumeier decided to see if he could spin the RoboCop script into a comic book to use as a launching pad for a feature. He ran the idea by Stan Lee; before Lee could commit one way or the other, he and Neumeier attended an early screening of The Terminator, which also had a humanoid as the main character. An impressed Lee told the writer, “Boy, you’re never going to top that!” and passed.

11. Some of the Actors Got Unsolicited Stunt Pay.
Kurtwood Smith and Ray Wise had been standing in such close proximity to a building explosion that the production—without any sense of humor—paid both men for “stunt work,” which amounted to roughly $400 apiece for the scene. But the actors didn’t feel their pay justified the risk to their life: neither was aware the explosion would be that big, and Smith’s coat ended up catching on fire.

15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About “American History X”

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Sean Hutchinson and Mental_Floss present 15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About American History X.   Here are three are my favorites…

2. TONY KAYE [Director] TRIED TO DISOWN THE FILM.

Kaye was unsatisfied with the final cut of the movie, so he tried to use Alan Smithee—the official pseudonym (coined in 1969 and discontinued in 2000) for directors looking to disown their projects—in the credits. The Directors Guild of America blocked the effort, however, because DGA guidelines stipulated that directors could only use the Smithee pseudonym if they agreed not to publicly disparage the film, something the overly vocal Kaye had already done.

5. EDWARD NORTON WAS ALLEGEDLY CAST WITHOUT KAYE’S APPROVAL.

Norton stepped in when Phoenix passed on the project—reportedly against Tony Kaye’s wishes. Kaye wanted to find another actor, but let Norton keep the part because Kaye simply couldn’t find anyone better prior to the start of shooting.

9. NORTON TURNED DOWN A ROLE IN SAVING PRIVATE RYAN FOR AMERICAN HISTORY X.

He would have played Private Ryan (Matt Damon got the part instead).

 

15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About “The Matrix”

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Sean Hutchinson and Mental Floss present 15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Matrix.

Here are my three favorite facts…

1. THE FILM STARTED AS A COMIC BOOK.

Filmmakers Lana (then known as Larry) and Andy Wachowski originally conceived the storyline for The Matrix as a comic. They had both previously written comic books for Marvel.

5. BOTH WILL SMITH AND NICOLAS CAGE FORMALLY TURNED DOWN THE ROLE OF NEO.

Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Leonardo DiCaprio were all also considered before the filmmakers settled on Keanu Reeves for the part.

6. RUSSELL CROWE, SEAN CONNERY, AND SAMUEL L. JACKSON COULD’VE BEEN MORPHEUS.

When they declined, Laurence Fishburne took the role.

I, Robot’s New Trailer

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The new trailer for I, Robot  is now online and it kicks major butt.

I had an interest in the movie since Will Smith [Bad Boys II] seems to pick good projects [not counting Wild, Wild West of course], it’s based on the classic short story collection by Isaac Asimov, and being helmed by director Alex Proyas [Dark City, The Crow].

I really like the feel of this trailer. If the movie can match it we’re in for a great couple of hours.