Hollywood, CA - Twentieth Century Fox announced today that Mel Brooks has signed a deal to make the long-awaited sequel to his 1981 classic History of the World: Part I. Titled simply, History of the World: Part II, press releases indicate that the sequel will cover roughly 800 years, starting with a Viking Funeral, which somehow leads to the accidental discovery of America by Columbus, and spanning to a future world run by invisible robot overlords.
The state of science fiction, as I
complained about in my review of Knowing,
is abysmal. Hollywood keeps
churning out crap they hope seems smart or cool, while failing miserably
because they keep forgetting that the best science fiction happens when it
actually is smart and cool.
The subtext is usually built in, and the more overt you get, either
through hyperbole or through techno-babble, the less effective science fiction
really is. Monsters vs. Aliens is a science fiction film first, and a children’s film second.
2008 was a big year for vampires. The Twilight series of books have sold millions, while the first film of the novels debuted at #1 at the box-office. While the film and books were wildly popular, a small Swedish film, Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in), wowed the critics of the world, earning numerous accolades. Sadly, the film was snubbed by it's own country's film board, and not submitted for Oscar consideration. But only one of these films can be crowned “Vampire Flick of the Year”. So which should it be? No, Underworld (i.e. World of Darkness Rip-off ) isn't up for the title. If I want bad costuming and snobby posing, I can go to a Ren-Faire or a LARP, thank you.
Spike Jonze knows what he is doing!
Jim
Butcher has been at this a while.
His star character, Harry Dresden, has been running around Chicago
solving mysteries on television, in comics, and in the flagship book series for
almost a decade now. Over the
course of the first ten books, Butcher has developed his entire cast, not just
Dresden, and given readers a solid whodunit every time. In the background of each novel in the
series is a grand metaplot, however, just as full of intrigue and mystery as
each novel, but each installment so far has offered only a snippet of what was
going on. Until now.
I
am something of a snob when it comes to Harry Dresden. That isn’t to
say that I hated the television series, I just wish they would have called
something else. Anything
else, in fact, other than The Dresden
Files. It was with some
trepidation, then, that I approached the latest adaptation of the first novel,
Storm Front, into a graphic novel from Dabel Brothers. I was prepared for large chunks of
story to be missing, but I was also excited to see one of my favorite novels
rendered visually. Where I ended
up was somewhere squarely between misery and satisfaction.
The long awaited PART 3! Thank you all for the patience. I hope you enjoy!
