I caught an interesting couple of movies on DVD this weekend.
Odd Thomas
Based on the first book in the popular series by Dean Koontz, this movie features Anton Yelchin (Star Trek's Sulu and the voice of Clumsy Smurf) as everybody's favorite fry cook. Odd has the power to see (but not hear) the dead. He can also see bodaches -- eerie, dark, smoke-like creatures from another reality who appear whenever something violent is about to happen; the more bodaches, the greater the body count. Bodaches are infesting the California town of Pico Mundo. Something terrible is about to happen and Odd must figure out how to prevent the slaughter.
Also featuring Addison Timlin (Californication and Zero Hour) as Odd's girlfriend Stormy Llewellyn. (When they were children, a gypsy fortune-telling machine had told them that they belong together forever.) Willem Dafoe is Wyatt Porter, Pico Mundo's chief of police and a close friend of Odd. Patton Oswalt plays writer Ozzie Boone and Schuler Hensley is Fungus Bob, the man who draws Bodaches to him like flies. Look closely and you might also spy 50 Cent and Arnold Vosloo in the film.
Written and directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing, G. I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra),the film follows Koontz's novel fairly closely, although Odd is a bit flashier with a spatula over the grill than I remember from the book. All in all, a pretty interesting flick.
Machete Kills
A completely different type of thriller. The follow-up to Machete, finds the title character tasked by the American president to stop a threat to the country. This is another grindhouse film by Robert Rodriguez, so there's plenty of violence, sex, and absurdity. Machete, of course, is the great Danny Trejo, who was born for this role. The villain is Mel Gibson, who has rigged a failsafe device to his heart; if his heart stops beating, the missiles will launch. Sofia Vegara is Desdemona, a killer brothel owner who has guns implanted in strategic places in her underwear. Someone called "Carlos Estevez" (who looks a lot like Charlie Sheen) plays a slightly whacked-out president of the United States. The movie is a lot of fun and is loaded with well-known names: Amber Heard, Michelle Rodigues, Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderos, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Vanessa Hudgens, Alexa Vega (who now goes by Alexa Penavega since marrying New Dimension idol Carlos Pena), Tom Savini, William Sadler, Elon Musk (as himself), Jessica Alba, Cheech Marin.
The body count is impressive, the seriousness is nonexistent, and the film ends with a preview of the (probably never-to-be filmed) Machete in Space.
The movies made for a fun weekend.
Small House of Everything
Monday, March 24, 2014
INCOMING
Richard Awlinson, Tantras. Caming (Forgotten Realms) tie-in novel; Book Two of the Avatar Trilogy.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
CURIOSITY: THE CASE OF THE MISSING CLUE WITH PERRY MASON
The Case of the Missing Clue with Perry Mason by Tommy Flach (1959)
Mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner was used to getting a lot of letters, but one he received in 1958 tickled his fancy. It was from Tommy Flach, a 9-year-old fourth grader at the Nathan C. Schaeffer School in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Tommy was evidently a big fan of the Perry Mason television show and, since his grandmother had given him a new pen, he decided to try it out and write his own Perry Mason story. The result -- a fifteen page playlet -- he sent along to the creator of his favorite detective.
Gardner love the story, complete with misspellings and odd jumps here and there. The result was that he sent the "manuscript" to his publisher William Morrow which, in turn, published it as a book priced at one dollar. The book included a facsimile of young Tommy's fifteen-page handwritten manuscript along with a three page introduction by Gardner. The introduction was actually longer than the little play.
To quote Gardner:
"The script is good for a laugh anywhere, and then it is worthy of a sober second reading. Beneath the evidence of immaturity in execution there is a real appreciation of dramatic values, an appraisal of life which is indicative of the rapidly changing times in which we live...There is no limit to what imagination can accomplish once imagination is given free rein and permitted to develop...[R]ead it a second time. I say again -- to my mind this is a very significant document."
Gardner's introduction -- titled The Case of the Boy Who Wrote "The Case of the Missing Clue with Perry Mason" -- was mistakenly credited as the title of the book and the book (further mistakenly) credited to Gardner himself in the St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers. So this is not a missing Perry Mason book, but it is an interesting curiosity.
I won't go into the plot (such as it is), but I will say it involves a brutal death, a missing will, and a surprise ending.
As far as what happened to Tommy Flach your guess is as good as mine. A brief search of the internet (really brief, actually) shows a Thomas C. Flach who lived in Pennsylvania who would be the right age. Wherever and whoever he is, I hope Tommy is enjoying a long and happy life and is secure in the knowledge that he contributed to one of the many interesting side roads of mystery fiction.
Mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner was used to getting a lot of letters, but one he received in 1958 tickled his fancy. It was from Tommy Flach, a 9-year-old fourth grader at the Nathan C. Schaeffer School in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Tommy was evidently a big fan of the Perry Mason television show and, since his grandmother had given him a new pen, he decided to try it out and write his own Perry Mason story. The result -- a fifteen page playlet -- he sent along to the creator of his favorite detective.
Gardner love the story, complete with misspellings and odd jumps here and there. The result was that he sent the "manuscript" to his publisher William Morrow which, in turn, published it as a book priced at one dollar. The book included a facsimile of young Tommy's fifteen-page handwritten manuscript along with a three page introduction by Gardner. The introduction was actually longer than the little play.
To quote Gardner:
"The script is good for a laugh anywhere, and then it is worthy of a sober second reading. Beneath the evidence of immaturity in execution there is a real appreciation of dramatic values, an appraisal of life which is indicative of the rapidly changing times in which we live...There is no limit to what imagination can accomplish once imagination is given free rein and permitted to develop...[R]ead it a second time. I say again -- to my mind this is a very significant document."
Gardner's introduction -- titled The Case of the Boy Who Wrote "The Case of the Missing Clue with Perry Mason" -- was mistakenly credited as the title of the book and the book (further mistakenly) credited to Gardner himself in the St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers. So this is not a missing Perry Mason book, but it is an interesting curiosity.
I won't go into the plot (such as it is), but I will say it involves a brutal death, a missing will, and a surprise ending.
As far as what happened to Tommy Flach your guess is as good as mine. A brief search of the internet (really brief, actually) shows a Thomas C. Flach who lived in Pennsylvania who would be the right age. Wherever and whoever he is, I hope Tommy is enjoying a long and happy life and is secure in the knowledge that he contributed to one of the many interesting side roads of mystery fiction.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
THE AMAZING MAN #6 (OCTOBER 1939)
John Aman is The Amazing Man. Trained since a child by The Council of Seven in the remote reaches of Tibet in strength, knowledge and courage, he also has the ability to turn himself invisible. Known as the "Green Mist" to his enemies, Aman has vowed to always be good and kind and generous -- sometimes, however, the evil psychic baddie the "Great Question" is able to take over Aman's mind. On the plus side, The Amazing Man was drawn and written by the great Bill Everett.
Also included in this issue are The Shark, Iron Skull (who's got to be the creepiest looking superhero around), The Miniature Man, Chuck Hardy, and Mighty Man.
Enjoy.
http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=36326
Also included in this issue are The Shark, Iron Skull (who's got to be the creepiest looking superhero around), The Miniature Man, Chuck Hardy, and Mighty Man.
Enjoy.
http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=36326
Friday, March 21, 2014
FATS WALLER
Here's a couple of tunes from an old radio broadcast.
https://archive.org/details/FatsWaller---old-timeRadioRemoteBroadcasts
https://archive.org/details/FatsWaller---old-timeRadioRemoteBroadcasts
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