I got into the book version of the Dresden Files after getting sucked into the short lived television show based on the books on Sci-Fi channel. Unfortunately, Sci-Fi didn't see fit to continue giving us weekly glimpses of Chicago's....ahem, underworld but on the upside, author Jim Butcher does.
Harry Dresden (the book version; we've left the poor unfortunate television version behind now) is Chicago's only professional wizard. Unfortunately, for Harry, he is not Chicago's only wizard. So far in the series (there are currently 10 books available and one more on the way in October) he has done battle with other wizards, sorcerers, demons, plant monsters, trolls, power hungry fairies, vampires and an assortment of other otherworldly creatures and characters.
The Dresden Files could easily be a what-if look at what could happen if Harry Potter were to move to Chicago and enter the witness protection program (although that wasn't what Butcher had in mind when he set out to create Dresden). Both Harrys are orphans with natural abilities and mothers with questionable associations. Both Harrys have seen first hand the power dark magic can give them and fought to resist it...Which, I supposed is a good place to start when creating conflict in a book about a wizard...
I am just starting the seventh book out of ten, Dead Beat, and have to say, if you are a fan of quick, easy reads, these are fantastic books to check out. I picked up Storm Front, the first book in the series, last summer and have about an hour worth of time each week to devote to reading. That means in a cumulative total of about 25-30 hours I have read five books (that's not counting the one that I read in four days between Christmas and New Years because I had nothing to do but read). The stories are page turners. Butcher has gifted Dresden with a quick wit and quicker tongue - and the stickier the situation gets, the quicker his wit becomes. And the secondary characters (CPD Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, Knight of the Cross Michael Carpenter, half-blood succubus Thomas Raith and mob boss Johnny Marcone, for example) are as 3-dimensional as Harry. Butcher doesn't let a single character go flat.
I am recommending the Dresden Files to anyone looking for a quick read story about a witty wizard. I haven't found one yet that I didn't like.
Completely unrelated side note: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Art Direction. We here at bending spoons aren't exactly sure the prereqs for winning, or even qualifying to win in this category, but we really don't care. It's still a shiny, sparkley trophy for Mr. Burton and Co.! Yippee!!!
March 1, 2008
February 3, 2008
The Eye
Well, it wasn't bad. Save for a few assembled-from-a-kit shocker moments, it was a decent horror flick. Good plot, good acting...well, from Jessica Alba anyway. Parker Posey's performance could have been better but the film was really just about Alba's character Sydney and Sydney's struggles; the other characters were little more than scenery.
The film opens with children throwing rocks at a house graffittied with "bruja." A prefunctory understanding of Latin languages helps with the interpretation, and if not, it is revealed later in the film (right about the time you've forgotten the opening scene). A woman inside the house is struggling desperately to escape something blurry off to the edge of the screen. Clumsily and frantically, she ties a slipknot in a cord and throws it over a pipe near the ceiling. As the blurry figure to the side lunges at the camera (in one of those aforementioned kit moments), she kicks the chair she is standing on out from beneath her feet.
Cut scene to a symphony rehearsal, Alba front center as the solo violinist. She leaves rehearsal for the hospital where she is scheduled to received corneal transplants. From there we watch weeks of painful recovery aided (or possibly hindered) by visions of shadowy creatures escorting blurry people away from Sydney; the first being her comatose roommate, Mrs. Hillman.
The Eye is an effective ghost story with little to no hokey animation and no contortionists on the payroll ála The Grudge, The Ring, Pulse and the like. The key element is a creature Sydney comes to call Shadowman and Shadowman is fashioned to look (albeit unintentionally, I am sure) a little like the cinematic interpretation of Dementors, but that doesn't detract too much from the story.
As with any ghost story, Sydney finds herself redeeming someone who was wronged in their own life; in this case the woman who donated the corneal transplant Sydney received (subsequently the "bruja" from the opening scene).
Overall, while I have not yet recommended a remake of an Asian horror film (or the originals thereof, for that matter) because of the shoddy animation tricks and contortionists that are meant to be scary but really just make me seasick, I will wholeheartedly recommend The Eye for anyone looking for a good time. If I enjoyed it, cinematic horror elitest that I am, I am sure those less selective will be in for a romp.
The Eye is an effective ghost story with little to no hokey animation and no contortionists on the payroll ála The Grudge, The Ring, Pulse and the like. The key element is a creature Sydney comes to call Shadowman and Shadowman is fashioned to look (albeit unintentionally, I am sure) a little like the cinematic interpretation of Dementors, but that doesn't detract too much from the story.
As with any ghost story, Sydney finds herself redeeming someone who was wronged in their own life; in this case the woman who donated the corneal transplant Sydney received (subsequently the "bruja" from the opening scene).
Overall, while I have not yet recommended a remake of an Asian horror film (or the originals thereof, for that matter) because of the shoddy animation tricks and contortionists that are meant to be scary but really just make me seasick, I will wholeheartedly recommend The Eye for anyone looking for a good time. If I enjoyed it, cinematic horror elitest that I am, I am sure those less selective will be in for a romp.
January 28, 2008
Congratulations, Kudos, Felicitations...However you chose to say it, YIPPEE!!
With all the hub-bub of the Writers' Strike putting the kibosh on the Golden Globes celebration, we here at bending spoons forgot to check on the results until the airing of the Screen Actors Guild Awards last night (January 27, 2008). So please excuse the belated-ness of this gushing display of hooray...
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street received the sparkle-y for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and dear Johnny won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Unfortunately HBC and Burton missed out of their fair share of the votes but winning at the Globes is often a good omen for the Academies. Perhaps poor Benjamin Barker's tragic life will be redeemed by Oscar.
We can only hope.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street received the sparkle-y for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and dear Johnny won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. Unfortunately HBC and Burton missed out of their fair share of the votes but winning at the Globes is often a good omen for the Academies. Perhaps poor Benjamin Barker's tragic life will be redeemed by Oscar.
We can only hope.
January 20, 2008
Call for Submissions
We are looking for submissions for the March 10th issue. As always, all subjects will be reviewed but special consideration will be given to stories of Easter, Ireland, leprechauns, spring, flowers, etc. - anything particular to March, April, and May. Increased appreciation will be given to elegantly crafted horror (please try to avoid campy - the psycho killer leprechaun angle has been done...and done and done) or darkly fantastic (like how I turned dark fantasy from a noun into an adverb?) stories about typically cheery springtime subjects. Shed a little darkness on the subject, as it were.
Our submission guidelines have changed slightly so please visit the site for updated instructions - specifically the new submission address. The word count is still 7,000 words, we still want stories embedded in the email but there are a few minor differences, if you are a return contributor.
Also, we would like, nay, greatly appreciate a 50-100 word bio from all contributors. Even if it's a total load of crap about your birth parents being Russian spies who left you to be raised by a tribe of Pygmie elephants when you were a baby, some kind of bio would be fantastic.
We'll be looking for your submissions and don't forget to tell your friends.
Our submission guidelines have changed slightly so please visit the site for updated instructions - specifically the new submission address. The word count is still 7,000 words, we still want stories embedded in the email but there are a few minor differences, if you are a return contributor.
Also, we would like, nay, greatly appreciate a 50-100 word bio from all contributors. Even if it's a total load of crap about your birth parents being Russian spies who left you to be raised by a tribe of Pygmie elephants when you were a baby, some kind of bio would be fantastic.
We'll be looking for your submissions and don't forget to tell your friends.
January 14, 2008
Del Toro's El Orfanato
The Orphanage (El Orfanato) opened nationwide this past weekend and horror fan that I am, I dutifully attended. Reviews that I had seen compared it to The Others (2001) and I guess I see that.
The story begins with young Laura playing in the orphanage with her friends as the house mother facilitates her adoption. The story shifts to approximately 30 years later and Laura has bought the old orphanage with the goal of turning it into a home for special needs children. She has moved her husband, Carlos, and their son, Simon, who was also adopted, into the house with her.
Simon, like any other only child who has been secluded from other children his own age, has "imaginary" friends - friends who tell him that he is just like them. When Laura asks what that means, Simon angrily tells her she's not his mother and he's going to die (Simon, we learn earlier in the story in a moment of situational irony, was born HIV positive but doesn't know).
To avoid spoilers, I will say this. See The Orphanage. If you enjoy a good ghost story, see it. If you like tear jerker endings, see it. I really don't want to spoil any secrets for my readers so I will leave it at that.
The story begins with young Laura playing in the orphanage with her friends as the house mother facilitates her adoption. The story shifts to approximately 30 years later and Laura has bought the old orphanage with the goal of turning it into a home for special needs children. She has moved her husband, Carlos, and their son, Simon, who was also adopted, into the house with her.
Simon, like any other only child who has been secluded from other children his own age, has "imaginary" friends - friends who tell him that he is just like them. When Laura asks what that means, Simon angrily tells her she's not his mother and he's going to die (Simon, we learn earlier in the story in a moment of situational irony, was born HIV positive but doesn't know).
To avoid spoilers, I will say this. See The Orphanage. If you enjoy a good ghost story, see it. If you like tear jerker endings, see it. I really don't want to spoil any secrets for my readers so I will leave it at that.
January 3, 2008
3 months of SF/F/H in the cinema
In an attempt to keep this blog going from week to week...or something to that effect....I offer you a glimpse at the SF/F/H cinema adventures of the upcoming months.
The Orphanage (Horror) - The Orphanage centers on a Laura (Belén Rueda) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her sons imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place. (Synopsis courtesy of IMDb.com) Produced by Guillermo del Toro, The Orphanage opens nationwide January 11.
The Eye (SciFi/Horror) - SciFi veteran Jessica Alba (Dark Angel) stars as a violin virtuoso who has been blind since childhood. After receiving a corneal transplant to repair her vision, she discovers her new eyes were not the only things transplanted. She begins seeing horrific visions as if seeing through the eyes of a violent killer. Opens everywhere February 9. (Tidbit: The theatrical trailer for this film on the beginning of Saw IV, features the music of Blaqk Audio, the synthesized vision of AFI's Davey Havok and Jade Puget.)
One Missed Call (Supernatural Horror) - In the same vein as FearDotCom, Pulse and The Ring, One Missed Call is about a supernatural force that kills through the victim's cellular phone. The missed call results in a creepy voice mail - a recording of a gruesome death. A gruesome death which, in just a matter of days, turns out to be your own. The potential of this film lies in the inclusion of Azura Skye, an oft-creepy cult (and personal) favorite. Opens everywhere January 4. (Tidbit: Both One Missed Call and The Eye are remakes of Asian horror flicks - One Missed Call from Japan and The Eye from China.)
Cloverfield (SciFi, Monster movie) - Producer J.J. Abrams brings us a near-future look at New York City as it is destroyed by an as-yet-unseen monstrosity. While some of the film is shot as a film, using industrial studio-type cameras, the majority is shot using hand-helds. But never fear, faithful readers, it promises to be far more impressive than the Blair Witch Project. Opens everywhere January 18. (Tidbit: There is wide speculation that a commaradary between Abrams and actor Greg Gruenberg has led to a crossover between Cloverfield and NBC's Heroes; including theories that the monster destroying the city in the film is the same monster featured in the Heroes online comic 9th Wonder)
Over Her Dead Body (Supernatural Comedy) - Taken from Rotten Tomatoes.com: "Devastated when his fiancée Kate (Eva Longoria Parker) is killed on their wedding day, Henry (Paul Rudd) reluctantly agrees to consult a psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell) at the urging of his sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane). Despite his skepticism over her psychic abilities, Henry finds himself falling hard for Ashley, and vice versa." At first, Ashley's psychic visions are all fabrications meant to urge Henry into a happy life after Kate. But as their relationship grows, Ashley's visions become real - Kate comes back to haunt her almost-widower's new flame. Opens everywhere February 1. (Tidbit...sorry, kids. I couldn't find any trivia about this film, other than the producers picked the lesser of three evils when applying a title...Other choices: How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiance and Ghost Bitch.)
Pathology (Psychological Horror) - Friends of the blog are probably shocked that I held off on this one until now. Pathology stars Milo Ventimiglia as Ted Gray, a bored med student. He and a group of his peers devise a game - commit the perfect murder. Each of them must commit their idea of the perfect murder while the rest of the group uses forensics and pathology to figure out how it was done. Sounds to this writer like the recipe for a good old fashioned thriller. Opens everywhere February 8.
The Spiderwick Chronicles (Fantasy) - Based on the young adult series, The Spiderwick Chronicles is about a young boy whose family moves into a cottage in the country where he finds an old journal, "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide." The field guide explains and outlines all of the things that live in our world, just beyond our front doors but tucked away out of sight - goblins, faeries, gremlins and the like. Opens everywhere February 15.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (Horror/Suspense) - With a cast of relative newcomers, The Poughkeepsie Tapes tells the tale of an astonishing discovery in Poughkeepsie, NY - ten bodies buried in the yard of a home. Inside, their discovery turns more grisly as they find over 800 video tapes portraying the development of a serial killer. The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a mockumentary including interviews with law enforcement agents, criminalists and neighbors in the community where the bodies and tapes were found.
Inkheart (Fantasy) - Based on the young adult book of the same name, Inkheart promises a roller coaster ride as we follow young Meggie and her eccentric aunt Elinor as they try to rescue her father who has been kidnapped. Why has he been kidnapped, you ask? Because he can read things and characters out of their book worlds and into our own. Cast includes Dame Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany, Brendan Fraser and Andy Serkis. Opens everywhere March 19.
As this list promises to grow and grow I will end it here and wish you joy at the cinema. Check back with me in March for a look at the second quarter.
The Orphanage (Horror) - The Orphanage centers on a Laura (Belén Rueda) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her sons imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place. (Synopsis courtesy of IMDb.com) Produced by Guillermo del Toro, The Orphanage opens nationwide January 11.
The Eye (SciFi/Horror) - SciFi veteran Jessica Alba (Dark Angel) stars as a violin virtuoso who has been blind since childhood. After receiving a corneal transplant to repair her vision, she discovers her new eyes were not the only things transplanted. She begins seeing horrific visions as if seeing through the eyes of a violent killer. Opens everywhere February 9. (Tidbit: The theatrical trailer for this film on the beginning of Saw IV, features the music of Blaqk Audio, the synthesized vision of AFI's Davey Havok and Jade Puget.)
One Missed Call (Supernatural Horror) - In the same vein as FearDotCom, Pulse and The Ring, One Missed Call is about a supernatural force that kills through the victim's cellular phone. The missed call results in a creepy voice mail - a recording of a gruesome death. A gruesome death which, in just a matter of days, turns out to be your own. The potential of this film lies in the inclusion of Azura Skye, an oft-creepy cult (and personal) favorite. Opens everywhere January 4. (Tidbit: Both One Missed Call and The Eye are remakes of Asian horror flicks - One Missed Call from Japan and The Eye from China.)
Cloverfield (SciFi, Monster movie) - Producer J.J. Abrams brings us a near-future look at New York City as it is destroyed by an as-yet-unseen monstrosity. While some of the film is shot as a film, using industrial studio-type cameras, the majority is shot using hand-helds. But never fear, faithful readers, it promises to be far more impressive than the Blair Witch Project. Opens everywhere January 18. (Tidbit: There is wide speculation that a commaradary between Abrams and actor Greg Gruenberg has led to a crossover between Cloverfield and NBC's Heroes; including theories that the monster destroying the city in the film is the same monster featured in the Heroes online comic 9th Wonder)
Over Her Dead Body (Supernatural Comedy) - Taken from Rotten Tomatoes.com: "Devastated when his fiancée Kate (Eva Longoria Parker) is killed on their wedding day, Henry (Paul Rudd) reluctantly agrees to consult a psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell) at the urging of his sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane). Despite his skepticism over her psychic abilities, Henry finds himself falling hard for Ashley, and vice versa." At first, Ashley's psychic visions are all fabrications meant to urge Henry into a happy life after Kate. But as their relationship grows, Ashley's visions become real - Kate comes back to haunt her almost-widower's new flame. Opens everywhere February 1. (Tidbit...sorry, kids. I couldn't find any trivia about this film, other than the producers picked the lesser of three evils when applying a title...Other choices: How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiance and Ghost Bitch.)
Pathology (Psychological Horror) - Friends of the blog are probably shocked that I held off on this one until now. Pathology stars Milo Ventimiglia as Ted Gray, a bored med student. He and a group of his peers devise a game - commit the perfect murder. Each of them must commit their idea of the perfect murder while the rest of the group uses forensics and pathology to figure out how it was done. Sounds to this writer like the recipe for a good old fashioned thriller. Opens everywhere February 8.
The Spiderwick Chronicles (Fantasy) - Based on the young adult series, The Spiderwick Chronicles is about a young boy whose family moves into a cottage in the country where he finds an old journal, "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide." The field guide explains and outlines all of the things that live in our world, just beyond our front doors but tucked away out of sight - goblins, faeries, gremlins and the like. Opens everywhere February 15.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (Horror/Suspense) - With a cast of relative newcomers, The Poughkeepsie Tapes tells the tale of an astonishing discovery in Poughkeepsie, NY - ten bodies buried in the yard of a home. Inside, their discovery turns more grisly as they find over 800 video tapes portraying the development of a serial killer. The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a mockumentary including interviews with law enforcement agents, criminalists and neighbors in the community where the bodies and tapes were found.
Inkheart (Fantasy) - Based on the young adult book of the same name, Inkheart promises a roller coaster ride as we follow young Meggie and her eccentric aunt Elinor as they try to rescue her father who has been kidnapped. Why has he been kidnapped, you ask? Because he can read things and characters out of their book worlds and into our own. Cast includes Dame Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany, Brendan Fraser and Andy Serkis. Opens everywhere March 19.
As this list promises to grow and grow I will end it here and wish you joy at the cinema. Check back with me in March for a look at the second quarter.
December 22, 2007
Holiday Excitement Thy Name is Burton
Opening night of Tim Burton's adaptation of Steven Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has come and gone and this sci-fi/horror blogger wishes to take this opportunity to say - IN-FREAKING-CREDIBLE!! Burton has once again succeeded in elevating my cinema experience to include awe and amazement. Considering my one biggest complaint was that Anthony Stewart Head (better known as Rupert Giles to all you Buffyphiles out there) said one sentence fragment and didn't sing (Behind Blue Eyes, anyone?), I'd say all in all it was a good night at the picture show.
I was a little concerned, going into it, because there were rumors that it had been dumbed down to cater to Captain Jack's drooling teenaged groupies but that worry was sufficiently quelled with the effective, albeit rather unconventional application of a teapot to Sascha Baron Cohen's cranium. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were superbly terrifying in their completely aloof decision that Sweeney would slaughter and Mrs. Lovett, creator of meat pies, would ....ahem....dispose of the bodies. Alan Rickman's performance, however, was a trifle understated, when compared to those of Professor Snape and the Sheriff of Nottingham to Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, but still impressive.
In short, run, don't walk, to your local movie house and indulge in the blood shed that is Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd.
But that was not the end of my wonder and bemusement. Upon returning to the warmth of my home, I was greeted with the news that he has confirmed work on two new projects - a stop motion remake of Frankenwenie (gleeeeeeeeee) which will follow, hold on to your seats, Burton fans, a live-action/motion capture adaptation of Alice in Wonderland! Unfortunately, as of press time, neither the IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes has much to say about it. The IMDb has it slated for release in 2010 and Rotten Tomatoes hasn't even caught wind of it's existence. But he has publicly confirmed that he is working on both projects with Disney's assistance.
I was a little concerned, going into it, because there were rumors that it had been dumbed down to cater to Captain Jack's drooling teenaged groupies but that worry was sufficiently quelled with the effective, albeit rather unconventional application of a teapot to Sascha Baron Cohen's cranium. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were superbly terrifying in their completely aloof decision that Sweeney would slaughter and Mrs. Lovett, creator of meat pies, would ....ahem....dispose of the bodies. Alan Rickman's performance, however, was a trifle understated, when compared to those of Professor Snape and the Sheriff of Nottingham to Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, but still impressive.
In short, run, don't walk, to your local movie house and indulge in the blood shed that is Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd.
But that was not the end of my wonder and bemusement. Upon returning to the warmth of my home, I was greeted with the news that he has confirmed work on two new projects - a stop motion remake of Frankenwenie (gleeeeeeeeee) which will follow, hold on to your seats, Burton fans, a live-action/motion capture adaptation of Alice in Wonderland! Unfortunately, as of press time, neither the IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes has much to say about it. The IMDb has it slated for release in 2010 and Rotten Tomatoes hasn't even caught wind of it's existence. But he has publicly confirmed that he is working on both projects with Disney's assistance.
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About Me
- bending spoons
- a literary collection devoted to showcasing works of new and established fiction in the SF/F/DF/H genres. Our blogspot is an extension of the magazine focused on reviews and rants regarding that which is new and exciting in the world of SF/F/H