Movie of the Week - Night at the Museum

Night at the Museum
Staring: Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Jake Charry, Ricky Gervais, Robin Williams, Kim Raver, Patrick Gallagher, Rami Malek, Pierfrancesco Favino, Steve Coogan, Owen Wilson

Premise: A "loser" inventor tries out for a night security job at the Metropolitan Museum so he can create some stability in his life for his son. The opening is a result of cut backs at the museum, as they are replacing three older security men with one younger, and cheaper, alternative. But as Larry discovers his first night there, there is a whole lot more to the job description than anyone ever told him - for at night, all the exhibits in the museum come to life. Will he be able to take control of the chaos and his life, or will he let this opportunity for something bigger slip past him like all the others?

Review: This was a light and very fun film! Each room/area of the museum had its own set of surprises and challenges. And it was an utter treat to see Mikey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke, and Bill Cobbs! (Watch the ending credits and you'll see Dick can still cut a mean rug! lol) Lots of funny moments. Lots of cute moments too. Even a little history thrown in for flavor! This movie was fresh and a lot of fun! ***1/2!!!!!

Movie of the Week - Eragon

Eragon
Staring: Edward Speleers, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Djimon Hounsou, Sienna Guillory, Rachel Weisz


Premise: A young farm boy, Eragon, gets drawn into a ploy to free the world from the grip of the dictator Galbatorix, when he finds and bonds with the last dragon egg in the world. Will he and the dragon Saphira be able to bond properly and mature fast enough to be able to join the freedom fighters and help make a difference before they are hunted down and killed?

Review: Unfortunately there was little in this film that has not been seen before. For younger kids or teenagers never exposed to fantasy, it would be a great starter, but for those who have had interest in the genre for a time, there is unfortunately little to recommend it. Mr. Speleers does a commendable job, and Jeremy Irons was superb as always. John Malkovich seemed to be given little to nothing to work with and aside for posturing a lot, must be saving the action for the sequel. The dragon sequences were extremely nice, and Rachel Weisz voice worked well and was one of the highlights of the movie. Light fare, decently enjoyable, don't expect any surprises. **1/2!

Book Review - Arturo el Rey

Arturo el Rey
by Joan Upton Hall

Premise: King Author promised he would return when the world most needed him. But how bad does it have to get for him to fulfill his promise? Arturo has been suffering from strange dreams, dreams of King Author and Camelot. They've become especially strong after a virus ravages the states and has brought humanity and civilization to the brink of extinction. Chaos rules, people become little more than animals - is there something he can do to try to stop this slide into barbarism and restore some order to the world?

Review: This story is rich in detail, thought, and research. The characters come alive on the page and the plight of the survivors becomes your own. Set mostly in Texas, lots of the sites are easily recognizable. Arturo's and Shanna's love comes across as more hormonal than heartfelt, but otherwise the novel is a wonderful story of battle, survival, betrayal, and hopefully lessons learned. I'm looking forward to the sequel and New Camelot's continuing progress. ***1/4!!!

Movie Websites - Too carried away?

There's a trend I've been noticing over the last year or two that, to be honest, seems to be a bad one. This trend affects movie sites. By movie sites, I mean the site created by the film makers for a specific movie. All of them, anymore, are filled with so many bells and whistles, that they take forever to load. Worse, a lot of them get so carried away with java script, they end up leaving no room for actual info on the film, the actors, what have you! Or the navigation process is in no way intuitive, leaving you to hunt and pec and hope you can figure out where to go. Plus each time you click on anything, you go through the rigamarole of java script all over again making everything take forever! And that's on DSL!

Though I still go find the main site and link it, more and more I keep having to go to places like IMB and Yahoo Movies to get the info I need for a simple review! It's a sad trend. *sigh* Hope they get a clue soon! :P But who knows, maybe it's just me. heh.

Movie of the Week - Apocalypto

Apocalypto

Staring: Dalia Hernandez, Marya Serbulo, Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo, Rudy Youngblood

Premise: A young warrior named Panther Claw, from a South American jungle tribe, has his life thrown into chaos when Mayan warriors steal into his village and slaughter or enslave all those there. Dragged against his will from all he's ever known, he sees the great Mayan civilization going through the throes of drought and pestilence. He and his are to either be sold or become sacrifices. Sacrifices, which according to those in power, will appease the gods and make life good again.

Review: A totally gorgeous film - the vistas and photography were amazing. One beautiful thing done right off the bat, is how Mr. Gibson gets the audience to resonate with Panther Claw and his fellows through a joke played on one of their friends. This basically breaks the ice between the audience and the film and we become immediately involved and start caring for these people who seemed so removed from all we know. A lot of the information comes across very subtly, hints of the Mayan politics, of the manipulation of the popullace, and attempts to retain order at any cost. A bit of mysticism is thrown in and an amazing assortment of actors that get things across regardless of language barriers. There are definitely a number of graphic scenes, like beheadings and the good old pulling the beating heart from the sacrifice--so you will probably want to see it first before taking the kids. Lots of attention to detail, weaponry, customs, attitudes. Lovely! Wish he could have spent more time in the big city so we could have learned more! ***1/2!!!!

Movie of the Week - Stranger than Fiction

Stranger than Fiction

Staring: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah, Dustin Huffman

Premise: Harold, an IRS auditor, is far from your typical dude. Numbers and analysis are his life, and he leads a very ordered and lonely existance. All this changes one day when he starts hearing a voice - one that narrates his life and even things going on in his life he does not know about. Then one day, the voice pronounces his lack of knowledge about his impending death.

Review: Talk about real life intruding into fiction! lol. Quirky, sometimes deep, this was a fun, and for me as a writer, disturbing film. There are a lot of really neat things they do in this movie, all centered around Harold, like popping spreadsheets and numbers beside his head as he goes through his analytical thought processes. A more pathetic exitance than Harold's would be hard to find, other than possibly the writer, Karen Eiffel. She's been stuck on how to finish a book for years. And somehow it is this very book that ends up being a mirror of Harold's life. Yet the narrating commentary helps Harold break out of his old life and actually start living as he realizes things he's known all along but never noticed. I think one of my most favorite scenes was when Harold stood in the IRS filing room and the narrator talks about how he stood there listening to the sound the file folders made, like waves washing onto the shore. Then if you listened, they did indeed sound exactly like it. It was a beautiful moment. And watching Karen deal with the fact her ending would affect someone real and the decision she makes between possibly her best work ever and humanity, is quite poignant. I think the only thing that soured this little tale for me was the bad editing with regards to the sound boom. I swear it intruded into the film in 3 to 4 different places and totally threw me out of the fantasy, which was rather sad. Since I am a born sucker, I was crying my eyes out by the end. heh. ***1/4!!!

Book Review - Metered Space

Metered Space
by M.D.Benoit

Premise: Jack Meter has been on a spiral of self destruction for the last two years, ever since the death of his beloved Annie. He's come back to town and the first thing he finds out is that the same type of explosives that were used to destroy Annie's lab have recently been stolen again. Jack tries to tell himself this has nothing to do with him, until other otherworldly 3rd parties decide he needs to start working as a PI again. Things get even worse for him when he is forced to team up with the one person in the universe who hates him most .

Review: Watching a down and out PI, who's given up on life suddenly have to take on being healed by aliens and travel to other worlds in search of a thief, while trying to dig out the truth being hidden from him by his clients is a great mix of the PI Noir and Science Fiction. The plot moves quickly, and plenty of surprises and complications crop up to keep Jack and the readers hopping. Great prose and descriptions, plus a hard edged, softy of a PI you can't help but like. ***1/4!

Book Review - Devil's Due

Devil's Due
by Rachel Caine


Premise: Book two of the Devil series. Lucia Garza, Jazz's partner, has things she feels best left in her past. She's come to care for Jazz, and in helping try to free her partner from jail, has started to have feelings for Ben. But the machinations from the law firm, it's employer, and their enemies are escalating. Jazz seems to be a prime target, and Lucia is not about to let them get away with that.


Review: Though I loved Jazz and was slightly disappointed at the switch of POV, I ended up loving Lucia just as much! More romance, more intrigue, more stuff blowing up! Woot! Fast paced and gritty and more info on a very convoluted past. Loads of fun! ***1/2!!!

Book Review - Devil's Bargain

Devil's Bargain
by Rachel Caine

Premise: Jazz's life has been on the downside for several months. She is no longer a cop. Her partner has been convicted of murder. She's pretty much at the end of her rope. Then out of nowhere, a law firm shows up with an unusual proposition. They want her to partner up with a woman who is also in law enforcement and with a deposit of $100K, start a detective agency, and the only strings being that they would occasionally do some jobs for the law firm.


Review: Another fun series starter by Rachel Caine! Jazz is a hoot. The story is fast paced, the characters likable, and the mystery fun. Guns, lawyers, and attitude! Who could ask for more? :P ***1/2!!

Grey Thursday - WOW

I am on a CompUSA mailing list where they send you occasional deals they don't advertise on the regular mailer and in store sheet. This past week, they had a super sale on the 60inch Sony HDTV's. My husband and I were drooling instantly. The sale was going to be on Thanksgiving Day from 9pm to Midnight. Almost like a precursor to the dreaded Black Friday Shopping Day.

It was Thanksgiving morning when I saw this add and since we had several hours before we needed to pack up and head to hubby's side of the family's Thanksgiving (My side celebrated the weekend before) we did all sorts of research on HDTV's and the more we found out the more we drooled about the special.

Now mind you, hubby and I never never ever shop on Black Friday, and frankly had never paid any attention to the yearly increase in specials and special holiday hours. So in utter ignorance, we decided we would take the plunge.

So blissfully unaware of what was to come we went to the in-laws, conversed, watched the turkey fry, harassed the nieces and nephews for what they wanted for Christmas, and ate way too much.

We left the shindig about 5pm and decided to drive by the CompUSA and see if we could take a look at the TV to make absolutely sure we really knew what we were getting into. The store was closed, which was no real surprise - it was a holiday after all - but what did throw us for a loop was the fact that about five cars were in the parking lot and six plus people were standing around the entrance, a few with foldout chairs! (One or two even gave us leering looks as if we were entering their territory or something.) We laughed our way on over to the movies to while away a couple of hours before coming back. I mean, we thought, how silly of those people to be there so early for a little sale.

Watched the movie, had a good time, piled back in the car and went on over to the CompUSA. The closer we got, the bigger our eyes and disbelief became. The parking lot was packed. A huge line was formed from the door all the way around the large building, past the one behind it and around the corner. It was unbelievable! Where did all these people come from?

We parked and sat in the car till 9pm hit, then watched the line surge forward. As soon as the end of the line came parallel to us, we joined in. The flow pretty much stopped and we would inch forward every few minutes. Five policemen stood by the entrance outside and directed people or traffic around. We were still in shock.

Finally made it inside. Luckily the big sign overhead and the bank of TVs on the back wall pretty much signalled us where to go. We passed one counter where a fellow was inquiring about one of the sales items - all gone. Wall to wall people everywhere. Grabbed a sales person in the back when they came up for air and asked about the TV. Glimpsed the demo, didn't want to be there more than necessary, we said we'll take it!

Two more sales people later as they got info, wrote up tickets, etc and one of them kept apologizing over and over about the crowd. I kept wondering why she was being so apologetic till it hit me - the big snaking line going all the way from the front of the store to the back was the bloody check out line! Aiiiieeee!!!!!

Through the strangeness of life, we got lucky. I was looking for the Ice Age 2 DVD which was part of the sale and bugged one of the employees going through a DVD bin. He had no idea where they were - he was looking for them too. Well, after I grabbed the CD-R's on sale and rejoined hubby in line, and we'd crawled forward through a couple of turns, I saw the same guy again. I asked him if he'd ever found them. He said no. (Turned out he was a manager.) He then asked us what we bought. When he found out it was one of the TVs he went into the warranty spiel. Hubby took him up on it, so he had to change paperwork, so in a stroke of luck, he moved us up the line! We would have still been there 45 minutes to an hour later if not for him. (THANK YOU!!!!)

We will never take another Thanksgiving Sale lightly again. Be warned! lol!

Movie of the Week - Flushed Away

Flushed Away
Starring the voices of: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis, Shane Richie, and more....

Premise: Uptown pet rat gets "flushed away" by an invading rat and finds himself down in London's sewers where he meets Rita and is accidentally immersed in a play for power.


Review: (Must make mention - the previews showed 2 hamsters in the house with Roddy, but in the actual film they are nowhere to be seen! Guess they changed their minds on that aspect.) The movie was a lot of fun and had TONS of in-jokes dealing with other movies or pop culture in the last 40 years or so. I am sure I missed a ton of them. Roddy ends up being like a clumsy Indiana Jones/James Bond, which was fun. The snails are a total hoot. No surprises in the plot, but still somewhat sophisticated for the age group. Lots of little things for the adults to keep their eyes out for though. I am sure someone somewhere has a list of all the in-jokes. There were things from movies/shows like The Fly, Batman, James Bond, and myriad others. Nothing overtly violent, so a nice piece for all the family. ***1/4!!

Movie of the Week - Casino Royal

Casino Royal
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, and more...

Premise: A young James Bond passes the qualifications to be upgraded to a Double O class of agent. His first case after his upgrade is to find out the mastermind of a set of seemingly unrelated terrorist acts.

Review: The James Bond franchise takes a step back and goes to its roots in this new telling of Casino Royal. Weirdly enough they kept the new M of the last few films almost like a bridge gap to give familiarity to those who've been following the previous films. Daniel Craig may not seem at first to fit the mold of Bond, but like Yun Chow Fat, it's not the looks, but the oozing charisma that get you in the end. There are many in-jokes in the film, fun making, and kudos to past films. The first chase sequence is utterly awesome and very reminiscent of Jackie Chan. Very fast paced, only slowing a bit toward the end when they try to get the audience into a feeling of complacency before slamming the hammer down. Overall a very nice piece. And by the end, when he does that famous line, you believe it. ***3/4!!

SF and Fantasy - Playgrounds for Sexual Harassment?

Yes, it looks like it's Soap Box day! :P

A rather disturbing topic came up on one of my lists this week. One of the members posted a letter she sent to an institution she belongs to regarding cases of sexual harassment at functions held or in part sponsored by the institution. The sexual harassment itself was surprising, but more so was the institution with its members responsible for doing the harassment. (Sorry to be vague, but as some of this has not been posted to the general public, I can't disclose the name of said institution.)

Since I started reading Fantasy and Science Fiction way in my younger days, I had always thought of the genre as a progressive, humanitarian, think out of the box, type of genre. I always assumed those involved in it would also be progressive and far thinking individuals. So to find out after all this time that some in fact practice and at times even thrive on sexual harassment against their own peers--it was a big shock. I've been accused of being somewhat naive in the ways of the world before, but this truly threw me for a loop.

To make matters worse I have heard stories told of the repression of female writers by the good old boy network in the Sci-fi/Fantasy field and how it's been going on for years. I've even heard tell of others who did not approve of these actions, yet they either ignored what was going on, or did nothing about them as these practices were just part of how things were. And no one, seemingly, in such a future thinking field, has taken steps or brought up the subject as something which needs fixing.

I would have thought that Sci-fi/Fantasy writers and others involved in the field would be the spearhead in social reform and change, of open minds and attitudes, of community, and peace. And I am happy to say that in my own experience, I've not been subject to the contrary. Yet others have. And at times these individuals have been left with no recourse but to suffer through it--turning what should have been at times very festive and proud moments into experiences of dread and embarrassment. I would hope that something could be done. That those in the field can get together and support one another and not tolerate behavior which hurts others.

Can we have the bright future so many of us write about and hope for if we can't even manage to get along or protect our peers? How can we make others believe in our visions if we can't live by the very precepts we hope to establish? It is tragic that the very people who are at the forefront of imagination and the future, who inspire others on to what might be, would stoop to something so against everything they stand for. :(

End of Soap Box...

Podiobooks.com - The latest thing for the MP3 Generation

I first heard about Podiobooks.com from a fellow writer.
Basically it is a free site of serialized audio books in MP3 format. For authors it is a means to have their books placed in a medium that can be used for promotional purposes. Which is why I took the plunge. The hope would be that if people listened to the book and liked it enough, they might go ahead and buy it.

Since I come from a small press, anything I could do for exposure was good by me! And it served a dual purpose as well, it would get me acquainted with the whole MP3 experience. (I don't even own an IPOD, let alone used an MP3 player before this. And I think I'm pretty geeky!)

This did turn out at first as the Cursed Project from Hey! Aside from having to set up certain parameters and criteria to the software, and starting out on my end without a clue on any of this stuff, some of it would not even work as it was supposed to. I was pretty sure for a while I would get dropped from the project just on my making them pull their hair out in frustration at my inability to get things right! lol.

Eventually though I got Audacity set up correctly and what it's limitations were, knew what to do and change in ITunes to get the MP3 to turn out correctly and have the correct standardized info, actually figured out how to record my readings and then edit them, and now finally have a modicum of confidence in what I am doing. (Despite more horrid problems like when I changed one digit in the title so they would not upload, when Audacity ate half of the final file and I didn't notice, plus a myriad of other little problems geared to drive one insane.)

Currently, In The Service of Samurai is up to chapter 28 and seems to be doing well. While I've sold probably a 100 or so copies of the book using regular marketing, at the moment I have about 737 who have now heard about it and have listened to at least some of the work. So though it does take a nice chunk of time to get the files done, it seems to be working. I hope people are also enjoying listening to the story in this different medium.

I would say MP3 readings are a nice up and comer as a marketing tool. Podiobooks.com reached over 1 million downloads a couple of weeks ago. It's mind boggling!

Movie of the Week - Santa Clause 3 - The Escape Clause

Santa Clause 3 - the Escape Clause
Staring: Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Eric Lloyd, Martin Short, Spencer Breslin, Ann-Margret, Alan Arkin, and Liliana Mumy

Premise: As Christmas once more approaches, Jack Frost is feeling left out of the lime light. So once he hears that there is an Escape Clause in Santa's contract, he aims to find out all he can take Santa's place as his own. Add problems with manufacturing, the fact Mrs. Clause is getting ready to give birth, and that the in-laws are coming and Jack pretty much has his work cut out for him.

Review: The plot has a lot of elements reminiscent of the old Christmas time favorite "It's a Wonderful Life" and hopes to teach the same lessons. Loved Tim Allen, but then I've always been partial to his work. :P The effects are decent and a lot of the subtle jokes are pretty good. Still something felt flat overall, though it is hard to pin down what it was exactly. The previous two films were definitely better. But it was still fun to watch. Good family film. ***

Book Drafts - The Conundrum

I guess this subject has been on my mind a lot lately - drafts of a novel. Not all things work for all writers, but this is one of those that I believe to be universal.

To me, it's always been obvious that as a writer you must have at least 2 drafts of a document. Yet from some conversations I've held and some opinions I've heard, there really are those who think one draft is all it takes before something is ready to be submitted to a publisher. And I am amazed they could think that!

Don't get me wrong, there probably is someone out there somewhere who can prove me wrong and write the perfect book in one draft...but the chances of that happening are millions, if not billions, to one. So that means everyone else needs more than one. Yet, over and over, from new writers, and some not so new, there comes this opinion that one will do. Well, below are the main reasons I think such a thing is not possible...

1) While some people have every phase of their book ready in an outline, or small paragraphs, or what have you, books and characters for most people have a tendency to go places not in the original plans. This is not a bad thing, in fact it is a great thing most of the time, as it imbues the book with new ideas you came up with along the way. But, when it happens, you normally make notes and then go back on a 2nd draft and incorporate these earlier into the text so there is a solid thread leading up this idea you had about 1/2 or 3/4's through the book. So, unless you are going back and fixing all this the moment you have the idea (not a good idea in itself - you can get caught in that eternal fix the first few chapters loop), you won't have a choice but to go back and incorporate or smooth these out. So another draft/reading is necessary.

2) Consistency. Because you wrote the manuscript, you have to, have to, have to go back over it to make sure all your facts and themes are consistent. You can't tell if this consistency is there on a first draft because things are changing in your head as you put them down all the time. (And it is always better to let the work sit for weeks or months before you do this, to distance yourself from the work, otherwise your brain will add things when they are not there!) Plus, some of our memories are not the best (mine is NOT) and while on Tuesday the main chara's eyes were blue, the following week on Wednesday your noggin might decide to inform you they are green.

3) Typos, spelling errors, bad sentences. Prose for me is labor. It doesn't flow easily or always smoothly. Distractions, moods, life, gets into your writing also, and a phrase that sounded like the bomb when you wrote it, might actually be stilted or flat or unnecessary. So one needs to go through the work and look for these things and fix them. (And let me tell you, no matter how many drafts and pairs of eyes go through a work, all of them will never be found! It's amazing how you can look back on something and find all manner of mistakes you thought couldn't possibly be there you've combed the work so many times.)

4) Beta Readers - these guys are incredibly important, but even more so if they have a clue! Just because someone beta read something, does not mean they have the mind set or knowledge to catch mistakes in the work. So if you find a good one, latch on to them like leeches! lol. Anyway, because as a writer, one is so close to the work, you need eyes and minds not already filled with that universe to help look for errors. Not just grammatical ones, but consistency, lack of explanation errors (just because it all makes sense to you, does not mean there is enough there for it to make sense to someone else. :P), and general plot and satisfaction levels. This bit can be invaluable! Because no matter how good one might be at editing others works, what you see in theirs you may not be able to see when it is wrong in yours! (I know I can't!)

I'm sure there are more reasons I can't think of at the moment. Do you know of any? Please share. Or heck, if you think I don't know what I am talking about, give us your opinion. Let's see what we can learn together...

Book Review -- A Storm of Swords

A Storm of Swords - Book 3 of the Ice and Fire Series


by George RR Martin






Premise: Book 3 of the Ice and Fire series. The big war for the capital is over. Dark betrayal and darker magic become the rule of the day as the true war of gods is getting underway.

Review: And I thought the previous volumes were dark! Aiiiieeee. Just when I thought not much worse could happen to a number of these people, I am proved wrong in spades! If there is one message this book carries is no good deed goes unpunished! LOL. Many characters sacrificed a lot for their people and others and in this volume their sacrifice is basically spit back in their faces. Dark gets darker! More hints at the war that is coming, more blossoming powers, and a chilling last chapter. Martin is a marvellous writer with awesome characters, but dang it these books are depressing! lol. Of course, like most train wrecks, you just can't make yourself look away. Book 4 here I come! ***3/4!!!!

The New Senior Moment Poster Child!

This week I had to suffer through one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. (Though there have been plenty of others, let me tell you!) I think this one hit me hard because it didn't affect just me, but others. This doozy, I believe puts me up there as the New Senior Moment Poster Child!

On 10/23 I was slated to be the guest in an online chat for Writes to Publish online critique group. I'd known about it for months. Just that weekend (since the 23rd was a Monday), I'd sent out info (without the time - doh) to several lists I belong to so anyone interested could stop on by. Pop up reminders at work told me yet again I had a commitment that night. I'd reminded myself at least 6 times on my own. Yet when I left work, it was gone. no recollection of anything other than getting home, cooking dinner, watching some TV with El Hubbo. It wasn't until I am dragging myself off to bed that my gaze rolled past my computer desk, synapses fired, and recall returned. I am sure the screams could be heard two blocks over. :P

Paul was terribly gracious about my mistake, and I made sure to extend electronic copies of one of the two books for any members who were actually there...but still. THE SHAME OF IT! ARRRRRGGGHHHH. (Have I mentioned I tend to be anal about getting to places before the scheduled event? lol.)

I will get over this...eventually. And Paul is willing to risk me scheduling again! But this time we're hedging our bets. He can call me and remind me. Not that it will come to that! lol!

Movie of the Week - The Prestige

The Prestige
Staring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Samantha Mahurin, David Bowie

Premise: A magician is taken to trial for the murder of another magician. As he awaits the courts judgement, the events leading to the fateful moment are reviewed.


Review: This is a story of obsession, sacrifice, and subterfuge. One sad incident puts these two men on a path of utter self destruction. Lots of magic and the life of magicians are revealed. The one very neat treat was that they involved Tesla in the film. Tesla is best known for the cool lightning effect mad scientist machines used in the old horror films. But in truth, Tesla had come up with a way to transmit electricity through the air, so no wiring would be needed. What's funny is that he and Edison also had obsessions of their own and were rivals of a nature as well. Tesla's brilliance and Edison's involvement in certain aspects of Tesla's life may be taken a little to the extreme, but was a lot of fun. The acting on everyone's part was marvellous, especially Mr. Jackman. All the way to the end, we are left with puzzles to solve. The very last one, just proves yet again the depth of the obsession of these men and how it bled into the lives of others, who didn't themselves understand what the draw of this magician business was, yet still were pushed to sacrifice to see it through. Fascinating film, great effects. ***1/2

Doctor Who - School Reunion

Doctor Who - School Reunion

I was quite thrilled when I heard Doctor Who was coming back with a new BBC series a couple of years ago. And I have immensely enjoyed watching them on the Sci-Fi Channel. Last night I watched the episode called School Reunion. What a blast from the past!

Not only did this episode guest star Anthony Head, from Buffy fame, but also brought back two characters from the original series - Sarah Jane Smith, and K-9! What fun! We even had the original K-9 voice.

As I watched the episode, I got hit with a super wave of nostalgia, especially when K-9 entered the scene. By the end I was almost blubbering. lol.

If you have not checked out the new series - DO IT! Both doctors so far have been utter blasts! Loads of Sci-Fi fun for all!