My Thoughts On. . .

Moon Mourning

Undergoing drastic life changes – or should that be ‘dead’ changes – don’t fill Samantha Moon with dread anywhere near as much as the thought of being an unfit mother. Regardless of the changes happening to her, she’s determined to stay a real mom to her kids, even if it does feel like she’s being burnt at the stake every time she takes Tammy to pre-school.

At least she has the support of her husband, right? Someone who is the cheese to her chalk. The up to her down.

However, as her ‘symptoms’ develop, Samantha sees the doubt beginning to enter Danny’s eyes. Yes, despite her best efforts the bond they had is being eroded and the ‘normalcy’ she’s working so hard to maintain seems to be slipping away. For one thing, it’s a marathon effort just to stay awake in the day when the sun comes up; to take the kids to school; to get to the office; to operate as one of the most effective officers on the team. And when her partner is badly wounded because she’s too slow to react, Samantha knows she has to do something to prepare for the inevitable

Forbidden Planet

Shakespeare's The Tempest is transformed in this 1956 “Granddaddy of them all” landmark science-fiction film with – for its time – groundbreaking special effects.

A military starship crew is sent to investigate the silence of a once thriving colony on Altair-4, a faraway planet. When they arrive, they are stunned to discover two survivors: Dr. Morbius (played by Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis), who are protected by a futuristic robot – Robby.

Morbius has gained knowledge way beyond human ken, and wants his would-be rescuers gone from the planet. However, Altaira is rather taken with Commander Adama, the leader of the expedition, and after talking with the naïve girl, the commander becomes suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the rest of the colony. Thus, the monster of the ID is unleashed, and the crew discover to their cost the true power the human mind can wield if it’s boosted by arcane alien technology.

I’m sure many of you have seen this film over the years. It was released in 1956 after all, and contained a number of innovated aspects that were later adopted into the bread and butter bulwark of its genre: It was the first science fiction film to depict humans traveling in a faster-than-light starship of their own creation; it was also the first to be set entirely on another planet in interstellar space; and finally, Robby was one of the first film robots depicted as having his own distinct personality and sense of humor. What’s more, his character was integral to the plot’s development.

Watching Forbidden Planet yet again reminded me how positively epic it is, especially as it concentrates on the terribly frightening specter of how rebellious the human mind can be, even among the most principled of individuals.

After 60 years – it’s still a wonderfully weird adventure.

Ahh classics. You’ve gotta love them!

Hot off the Pressed Lips!

Lovers in Hell

Have you embraced the latest release from the Heroes in Hell Universe?
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Only fools fall in love, and hell is filled with fools. Our damned lovers include: Christopher Marlowe and Will Shakespeare, Napoleon and Wellington, Orpheus and Eurydice, Hatshepsut and Senenmut, Abelard and Heloise, Helen and Penelope, Saint Teresa and Satan's Reaper, Madge Kendall and the Elephant Man, and more . . . all of whom pay a hellish price for indulging their affections.

Shakespeare said "To be wise and love exceeds man's might," and in Lovers in Hell, the damned in hell exceed all bounds as they search for their true loves, punish the perfidious, and avoid getting caught up in Satan's snares. In ten stories of misery and madness, hell's most loveless seek to slake the thirst that can never be quenched, and find true love amid the lies of ages.

Featuring The Devil's Trull: Satan's Reaper discovers all's unfair in love & war. . .

AND an excerpt from Hell Gate, Grim's next full-length adventure

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Go on,  indulge yourself. You know you want to

Looking Back On. . .

Dying for a Vacation

In this latest adventure set in an alternate present, one in which the Roman Empire maintained its iron grip on world events, we find change is in the air for our dynamic investigating duo, Dai and Julia Llewellyn. While Dai and his team are run off their feet investigating an empire wide theft and smuggling ring, he receives a callous threat against his wife in an effort to deter his efforts. The thing is, Julia is now pregnant with their first child. Beside himself with worry, Dai orders her away from their home in an effort to keep her safe.

Not used to being cosseted, Julia rebels against Dai’s overprotective attitude and takes a break from all the pressure by journeying to faraway Aegyptus. Little does she realize, however, doing so places her in a direct line of fire.

If that wasn’t bad enough, someone makes accusations against Dai’s family tantamount to treason. Something that if proven, could lead to a one-way ticket to the games and death!

Needless to say, the atmosphere created places our favorite crime fighting team under a great deal of stress. How on earth are they going to cope?

You’ll enjoy this latest mystery from Dai and Julia. With a clever, involved storyline, a progressive pace and littered with plots and counterplots, you’ll be rooting for the bad guys to get their comeuppance long before the arrest warrants are issued.

A welcome addition to the series.

Silence of the Lambs

I think you’ll all know this film. I loved it when it first came out and I’ve watched it a good half-dozen times since then. In this multiple Oscar-winning thriller, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy whose shrewd analyses of serial killers lands her a special assignment: the FBI is investigating a vicious murderer nicknamed Buffalo Bill, who kills young women and then removes the skin from their bodies. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into this case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out. As we all know by now, it works, and Lecter starts to offer up information . . . at a price! Lecter has spent years in specialized solitary confinement and barters for a change of venue, some place with a view. More disturbingly, he wants Clarice to detail certain events from her life and skillfully digs into her psyche, forcing her to reveal her innermost traumas and putting her in a position of vulnerability when she can least afford to be weak.

One of the few films to remain true to the novel’s plot, Foster and Hopkins act their socks off, introducing a slow boil to the story that is part psychological thriller, part menacing horror. It’s mesmerizing witnessing how the pair acts. So much so, that even when you’re watching it for the sixth or seventh time and know what’s coming, it still sends a tingle up your spine. Diabolically delicious and immorally intelligent, it pits the innocence of a young and inexperienced woman against the predatory lusts of a pathological killer who eats every detail as if it were an appetizer for the main course. (Even the way he wears his prison uniform – as if it’s bespoke tailored – smacks of the dominance he is still able to command from his prison cell).

But not all is well, for another dares to profane his kingdom, the deranged transvestite Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), who places a moth's chrysalis in his victims' throats after first killing and skinning them.

Skillful direction; clinical but compassionate; expertly executed; and mouth-wateringly menacing. Without a doubt one of the most superbly crafted films you’ll ever see.

This week's thoughts on...

Convergence

Solstice Winters is an intrepid photojournalist for “The Spiritualist” a respectable up market tabloid devoted to news of a more ‘metaphysical’ nature that most people still dismiss as hocus-pocus.

The thing is, the stuff that Solstice reports on is usually true. She knows. She’s gifted that way. So gifted, in fact, that even the FBI call on her talents from time to time to assist in their investigations when the need arises. And that need becomes ever more compelling after an accident at the CERN laboratory which opens a rift, allowing a clutch of magical creatures from another dimension to run rampant in our world.

And the kicker? Though she doesn’t realize it, Solstice is one of them!

Yes, life takes a turn of the supernatural kind – and for better or worse – Solstice has to get to the bottom of a mystery that threatens the future of everything she holds dear.

With liberal doses of urban humor, great one-liners, Men in Black and evil doomsday occultists running rampant, lots of nudity . . . and a talking cat – Convergence is a thoroughly enjoyable little tale, detailing how quickly your world can turn upside down when you leats expect it.

I loved it, and look forward to more of this series.

Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West is a good old-fashioned Spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone. Screened in 1968, it stars Henry Fonda as Frank, a cruel killer – Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Harmonica – Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader – and Jason Robards as Cheyenne, a bandit. And really, it’s a story that was very nearly never told.

After directing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone decided to retire from Westerns altogether, and desired to produce his film based on The Hoods, which eventually became Once Upon a Time in America. However, Leone accepted an offer from Paramount Pictures to provide access to Henry Fonda and to use a budget to produce another Western film. Inspired, he recruited Bertolucci and Argento to devise the plot of the film in 1966, and, after researching other Western films, produced the classic we see.

Note: Did you know the part of “harmonica man” was originally offered to Clint Eastwood? He turned it down, and that’s how Charles Bronson ended up in the iconic role.

Plot:

To get his hands on prime railroad land in a deserted, out-of-the-way dot on the map – Sweetwater – a crippled railroad baron, (Morton) hires a bunch of killers, led by startlingly blue-eyed aforementioned sadist, (Frank) to scare a widowed property owner – Brett McBain – into giving up his land. Frank takes things further and wipes McBain and his family out in order to reclaim the land.

However, it transpires McBain remarried a month earlier, and when his new wife Jill (Claudia Cardinale), arrives, she inherits everything instead, not realizing the future fortune she is sitting on.

For reasons that aren’t clearly explained, both Cheyenne and the lethally mysterious Harmonica take it upon themselves to look after Jill and thwart Frank's plans to seize the land. As the plot slowly develops, not only do alliances and betrayals come and go, but we’re given the impression that Harmonica guy wants Frank all to himself.

That impression is confirmed in an epic stand-off at the end where it’s revealed in flashback exactly why Harmonica has worked so hard to get Frank alone. And the music?

At times, the harmonica music is a little annoying. But during the shootout, it’s perfect. Veiled hostility. Micro-drama. Tangible suspense. The tension builds until . . . Bam! The blink-of-an-eye climax that answers all your questions.

 Innovative camera angles and attention to detail puts you right in the middle of the action too, and helps you experience the mood of what it must have been like during those brutal frontier days when the wide open expanse of America was being tamed.

Operatic. Masterful. Genius. Once Upon a Time in the West is all this, and worthy of its legend-making title