Update PHP and more...

Hey all, thought it might be time for an update. Sorry its so long between blog posts, with these online classes I write so much for class that I don't really feel like writing other things most of the time (though I did find time this summer for two short stories and a few chapters in my latest novel). I am going to do this bullet point style so I can cover more topics without wasting time on transitions.

• Pill Hill Press: If you want Pill Hill Press books you better buy them soon, they will be out of print shortly. The process has begun. Sorry to have dragged our feet for so long. We tried to take them out of print one at a time and had a few distractions. So we just decided to send an email asking that all our books be taken out print. Thanks for being so patient novelists.

• Superman movie: A good action film about a boy from Krypton but it is not Superman, at least not my Superman. Superman doesn't kill. He also tries to save people instead of just talking about saving people. I mean the whole town was burning and...I better stop there, don't want to include spoilers.

• Krypton from the above movie: Awesome! THEY HAVE DRAGONS!

• Having Children: The best.

• 1^st Father's Day: Really cool.

• Midterms for the first time in ten years: Not nearly as cool.

• Babies Learning to walk: AHHHHHHH!

• Babies still not sleeping: Whimper

• Game of Thrones: Whoa

• $30,000 firework shows: Not bad. I still like lighting them myself though.

• Summer Heat: Humph

• Six page papers on firewalls: More interesting than you would think

• Ipod Touch: More useful than I thought

• The Great and Powerful OZ: Pretty cool, and the only movie our babies have actually stopped playing to watch.

Okay that should do it for a little bit. I just noticed I have neglected to post "lots a pictures" of the kids. What a neglectful father. Here is one a couple of months old.

 Sorry for any typos etc. Its my turn on night time baby watch and I don't think I have enough time to go back through this post.

 

John Carter Movie Review

So yesterday was my birthday. Birthdays when you are 33 aren’t the same spectacle as when you’re twenty-0ne or twenty-two. There were no shots and no keg stands, and my clothes stayed on until about 10:00pm at which time I changed into my Star Wars “jammie pants”.

I did pick dinner. A New York Strip, baked potato and some veggies to keep the wife happy. Then we played “Last Night On Earth” a zombie board game that has been sitting in the closest just waiting to played. I really enjoyed the game, but then I got to control the zombies, and who doesn’t want to send a dozen slobbering zombies on a mission to kill the heroes.

And finally we watched John Carter. Now it dawns on me that I haven’t done a movie review in quite a while so here we go.

John Carter

As I said above, it was my birthday, so the movie choice was all mine. I almost went with the new Sherlock Holmes movie but I know I will be seeing that one at work pretty soon, and I thought Taylor Kitsch did a good job in Friday Night Lights. Plus it was my birthday, a time to revel in my inner geektatude, so sci-fi was the obvious choice. I would like to mention that I have never read the original material so I really have no opinion on how close this is to the original.

PLOT

Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior ~ IMDB

IMBD doesn’t mention the fact that the civil war vet gains super powers while on Mars (the one thing I wished they explained better). At least I would call them super powers, he is super strong, agile and can jump over tall buildings in a single bound. Hmmm… that reminds me of something but what?

Anyway traveling to a strange land, and somehow becoming super powerful is a mainstay of classic sci-fi/fantasy, so the plot was a little hokey, but it was old school sci-fi hokey and I was totally entertained by the movie. I did know how the movie ended waaaay before the end. Grade: B+

DIRECTING/SPECIAL EFFECTS

I thought the directing of this movie was good. It can’t be easy filming all the live action stuff so that the computer stuff works with it. There were a few times when the effects looked a little fake but all in all good job filming and some really nice special effects. Also Woola, the weird super fast alien dog was one of my favorite characters. Though I do have to say Mars looks a lot like the planet Jabba-the-Hut was from. Grade: B+

ACTING

Taylor Kitsch was a very believable displaced civil war vet. I thought he did a descent job all around. Mark strong was a good villain, and Lynn Collins also put in a solid performance. I can’t say that anybody had a stand out performance, but every did their job. Grade: B+

Overall Grade: B+

Summary: John Carter was one of my favorite movies I have seen this year, and is my favorite action movie of the year. I really enjoyed the whole thing, however I do think they could have cut about twenty minutes and made it a much stronger movie, but otherwise I would definitely recommend seeing this one. Below is a picture of Woola, the crazy alien dog thing, and my favorite character in the movie. Below the pic I am going to briefly talk about my favorite scene from the movie, this will contain spoilers. If this bothers you STOP reading now.

February Movie Review

Vanishing On 7th Street

I came across this movie while flipping through our Netflix instant streaming via our Roku. The movie was fairly new (2010), I had never seen it and shockingly enough I had actually heard of the actors, a very rare event when it comes to the horror genre. With Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo leading the cast I was really surprised that I had never heard of it. After watching it I now know how it slipped under the radar.

PLOT

The idea behind this story is an excellent one. Mysterious shadows overtake the world, the world’s population slowly disappears leaving only a few shell shocked survivors. But the darkness isn’t an unthinking entity and it doesn’t seem too happy with the survivors that are drawn together at one of the few places that has electricity remaining.

Like I said, great concept. But the as the movie plays out you can tell the writer only had a concept, I would bet $5 that he had no idea how the thing was going to end when he sat down to write it. The ending is odd and unsatisfying. The movie mentions the Roanoke Colony mystery and “Croatoan” as some kind of strange half thought out explanation for what is happening but the viewer never finds out was is going on. Also there is a lot of religious imagery that didn’t really fit the rest of the movie and kind of came out of nowhere. The end of this one ranks right up there on my list of worst endings to decent movies. Grade: F

DIRECTING

This movie is about shadows flooding the world, so it is dark. But no movie should be so dark you can’t tell what is going on. There is a huge disconnect in a number of places when the screen just gets so dark you can’t tell what is going on. The parts where you can see are great, but not being able to see a large portion of the movie really hurt its grade in this category. Grade: D+

ACTING

The best part of the movie was the acting. Every actor in this film puts in a solid believable performance. I just wish they had more to work with. Anyway kudos to Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo and the relatively unknown supporting actors and actresses. Grade: A

Overall Grade: D

Summary: This movie had a lot of promise, great acting, and a wonderful concept. The first two thirds of it are pretty good, but scenes that were too dark and an unsatisfying and confusing third act put this movie firmly on my do not watch list.

Movie Review: Quarantine 2: Terminal

Dark Things Quarterly, the magazine I was going to do movie reviews for has been closed down. So I thought I would just post the reviews I had done on here over the next few weeks. Here we go...

Quarantine 2: Terminal

The 2008 film Quarantine was remarkable in its…well, unremarkableness. I can tell you that I watched the movie, that I didn’t hate it, and that I didn’t like it. I think the movie was about a plague. That is about all I remember. The movie was neither good enough nor bad enough to for me to remember a single thing about it.

When I heard there was a sequel Quarantine 2: Terminal, I almost didn’t pick it up, mediocre horror just isn't my thing, but part of the product description pulled me in. This is what got me:

“…Now, aboard Flight 318, the first symptoms begin to show. As the infection begins to take root, innocent passengers suddenly transform into terrifying, bloodthirsty killers…”

It is pretty hard to resist terrifying, bloodthirsty killers. So I gave it a shot. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised. Here is the how the movie graded out.

PLOT

The plot was entertaining but was nothing extraordinary and can be completely summarized in those two lines of product description. A disease gets loose on a plane, the infected become crazy zombie-like killers. There were a couple of good scares and just enough action and gore to keep me entertained and watching. Grade: C+

DIRECTING

Another thing that kept me watching was the filming of the movie. Director, John Pogue, did a nice job filming this one. So many directors these days are trying to be "unique" or "edgy" that it is nearly impossible to watch their movies. Quarantine 2 did not suffer from this problem. Grade: B

ACTING

Finally no movie review is complete with mentioning the acting, the biggest pitfall of horror movies. I didn't recognize a single name but I did recognize a few faces, and my Google-fu tells me that many of the actors have also been in an episode or two of TV shows that I watch. No on in this movie is going to win the Oscar for best actor, but they all did a good job. I thought most of the characters were believable and Mercedes Masohn has an awesome performance playing the freaked out, but determined, flight attendant, Jenny. Grade: B-

Overall Grade: B-

Summary: Quarantine 2: Terminal is no masterpiece but it is a fun and entertaining movie. See this one if you have nothing else to watch.

NaNoWriMo and Dark Things

Thought I would give an update since I won't be posting much in November. I have decided to once more give NaNoWriMo a shot. I finished two years ago and last year I lost my flash drive at 30,000 words and wrote 20,000 words in short stories.

I wasn't going to participate this year. To be honest the novels I write when I am taking my time are much, much cleaner and easier to edit. Plus my lupus is advancing and while it is still a mild case (the disease is not attacking my organs), I am beginning to feel the joy of arthritis at the ripe old age of 32. A cold front moving in, not uncommon in Nebraska in November, or a lupus flare up could start my knuckles throbbing and take away days of writing time and the last two NaNoWriMos I came right down to the wire.

But I am hosting a few Write Ins at the library, which got me real interested this year and so far I have made it a point to not let my lupus stop me from doing anything. I just do it a little slower or with gobs and gobs of sunscreen.

So NaNo here I come. Don't expect any more blog posts in November except one saying I am done. In Pill Hill Press news my wife is starting a new horror magazine Dark Things Quarterly. I have taken it upon myself to become the Dark Things Quarterly movie reviewer. I am thinking about taking on a persona, maybe calling myself The Dark Professor and then grading the movies or something like that. Dark Things Quarterly is still in the planning stages but it should be a lot of fun. I am thinking about starting a separate website for my movie review persona. I should know more by the next time I post, towards the end of the month.

Sorry for any typos in this blog, don't have time to reread, must nano.

Captain America: The FIrst Avenger

When I was a kid every Christmas my dad would buy me a box of comics from the Sears catalog. These reprints were bargain priced and you got something like 100 comic books in a box. They were worth nothing to a collect but to an 8 year old who loved to read and loved superheroes they were about the greatest thing he could get me.

Those comics were always a grab bag, they were all Marvel so there was Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, and so many more. Amongst all the flashy capes and bright spandex there was one hero in red, white, and blue that always caught my attention. I’ll just surmise everything and say that while he was never my favorite superhero, I do have some fond memories of Captain America.

So this weekend when the wife wanted to go to the Sunday Matinee I was totally psyched to see Captain America on the big screen. Though I do have to admit that after the crapfest of X-men: First Class I was a little worried.

I was worried for nothing. I am glad to report that this movie is good, really good. The wife liked Thor better but this one had a campy retro vibe that I absolutely loved. Think of Indiana Jones with super powers you’ll have a good idea of the awesomeness that this movie is.

The plot was a perfect fit for Captain America. It takes place back in WWII and the whole movie has a retro feel to it. There were plenty of nods to the comics from Cap punching (a fake) Hitler ala the original Captain America cover to Caps super James Bondesque motorcycle. I actually found myself chuckling out loud a few times as if I was in on some kind of inside joke between me and the film maker.

The acting in this was top notch. Chris Evans would not have been my choice for Captain America, but I would have been wrong. He does a great job, I can’t think of anyone who would do a better job. Hugo Weaving was a good Red Skull, though the make up to make him Red Skull could have used a little work. But then again making an actor into a talking skull isn’t easy, just look at Ghost Rider. The creepy way they CGI’ed Chris Evans into Steve Rogers at the beginning more than makes up for the Red Skull's make up. My wife actually thought it was a different actor.

The best part about this movie was how human Captain America seemed. He was a normal guy with exceptional powers trying to do the right thing. He didn’t fight like a super ninja, and he wasn’t all dark and gritty. He was just a nerdy guy fighting for his country who got real buff. I don’t want to ruin anything but Cap ends the movie by showing what a real hero he is. (I am talking about the first ending not the 10 minutes slapped on the end to lead up to the Avengers movie coming out next summer.)

For me this is the best movie of the year, hands down.

PS: Though this is a super hero movie I don’t know that it is a kid’s movie. The children in front of me, maybe 5 years old, didn’t know enough about WWII to know what was going on. Plus there are some fairly violent scenes. There was one scene where a man gets thrown into a planes propeller and is liquefied. Again think of Indiana Jones for violence, ie most of it is understated then a nazi’s face melts off.

X-Men: First Class Review

I went to see X-Men: First Class last night. I really enjoyed the first trilogy. Checking other reviews online this morning I seem to be in the minority, but this one is not nearly as good as the rest of the franchise, even X-men Origins: Wolverine was kind of fun. If any character or plot arc in the movie even started to become fun or interesting they would quickly switch scenes to something less fun or interesting. When the best part of the movie is a thirty second cameo of Hugh Jackman telling the main characters to F*ck Off(something I wanted to do for nearly an hour) there is something wrong with the movie.

Untangling the mess and telling you why it was bad is a little beyond me. So it is hard to pin down exactly what was wrong. But here are a few things I didn’t like.

The plot mixing the Cuban Missile Crisis with mutant rights was over the top and convoluted.

James McAvoy is a good actor but a horrible Professor X

The special effects with Emma Frost are ridiculous and cheap.

The movie was about 45 minutes too long for what happened in it

The “first class” had no personality or depth. The only character that I cared about at all was Magneto and I knew he was going to turn evil. Fewer characters and more characterization would have helped a lot.

The Beast/Mystique attempts at finding a cure, this lame attempt at characterization felt forced and hollow and took up way to much time.

I thought Kevin Bacon did a great job and so did Michael Fassbender. Overall it kind of felt like the first draft of a novel that hasn’t been revised yet. Parts of it didn’t really make sense, parts were slow paced, characters needed to be developed more, but there were some really great scenes and ideas behind everything.