A couple of weeks ago two movies came out at the theaters. One was a so-called remake of an old Arnold Schwarzenegger film, called Total Recall and the other was the fourth in the series of CIA thrillers called The Bourne Legacy. Opening weekend of Total Recall was down, because it seemed as some reviewers put it, that movie-goers would rather see a new movie than a remake of an old one. I waited a bit before seeing either one, just because I was busy and I wanted to wait until the crowds died down a bit before seeing these movies. Here's what I came away with once I finally went to see both movies, just yesterday:

Total Recall
While certainly there was a movie in 1990 with the same name, it really has no similarity to the new version, other than the name and some of the basic plot. The original was a slack-jawed attempt at helping to make Arnie a bigger star than he already was and in my honest opinion, failed miserably. I have watched that movie exactly once in my life and hope to never see it again. The new version, starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel is a great sci-fi action thriller that builds a world of the future with such magnificent full-scale cities that any serious sci-fi aficionado will thrill to sit in the seats of the theater and watch the breath-taking scenes that unfold rapidly minute-by-minute and never stop for a second until the movie ends. This is a great action-packed fun film that everyone should treat themselves to, ignoring what has gone before and just center on the fact that this is Colin Farrell's first movie in quite awhile to bring us back to the reason we love this actor in the first place.

The Bourne Legacy
Not many people exist who have seen the first three installments of this franchise and would say they weren't all great action thrillers deserving to be watched over and over again. While this latest, the fourth in the franchise, is also deserving of acclaim, I state that it wasn't nearly as provocative or exciting as the trio with Matt Damon. Sure, this is a decent thriller that once more trashes the CIA and makes them (deservedly) the bad guys, and certainly Jeremy Renner is excellent in the lead role this time, but honestly, it had pretty much nothing to do with Bourne and should have simply been made as another CIA thriller. Yes, Bourne was loosely tied into this movie, but consider that Jason Bourne had no drugs he was taking or was dependent upon as Renner's character was, so obviously this had nothing to do with the same program to create hyper-sensed operatives, the way the film tries to make us believe. It would have been better served as a stand-alone movie, but of course, those in the franchise wanted to capitalize upon the success of the first three, and so it was decided to make this a continuation.

My Opinion
Total Recall starts off at a fast pace and keeps the roller coaster ride moving continuously until the end where we are left wanting to ride it again. The Bourne Legacy begins at a snail's pace and crawls along far too long before anything exciting happens to catch our attention and truly hold it. Then it spins progressively along following the same obvious line as the first three films and leaves us thinking, "That's it? That's all we get? What?" If you can only see one movie this week and have yet to see either of these films, my bet is on Total Recall. You won't regret it.

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The Amazing Spider-Man

If you enjoy any portion of the superhero trend in movies of the last fifteen years or so (Has it been that long? I don't know...) then you know that recently the Spider-Man franchise has been rebooted from the trilogy made with Toby McGuire and recast with Andrew Garfield as everyone's favorite wall crawler. I have to say that when I first heard (Read?) the news a couple of years back or so that an actor who was considered as a teen "heart-throb" was going to be playing the precocious Peter Parker as well as my favorite Marvelite Hero, I wanted to bang my head against the wall and scream, "Parker is NOT a heart-throb! He's the geekiest damn science nerd who ever crawled out of the high school of obscurity and made people believe that superheroes were actually real human beings!" Okay, maybe I did scream that, but it was in the privacy of my own living room, which doubles as my office, since I am a full-time fiction writer, but there was no one around other than my two cats and all they ever do during one of my rants is yawn, stretch and roll over into a new position on the couch, carpet, dining room table, kitchen counter, my keyboard or wherever else they happen to be laying at the moment.

Still, I puffed out my cheeks, exhaled a whole damn bunch of times and shook my head vigorously before deciding to just wait it out and see how it went with this new actor.

Today I ventured alone, since my son was busy at home with his two kids and his girlfriend's daughter and a bunch of stuff he needed to do and couldn't go with me, although I know he wanted to. I decided that if the movie was any good and worthwhile I would take my son and grandkids to see Spidey later on and shell out the extra bucks for me to see it again, just because that's the way I am with these superhero flicks if I like them.

Naturally I was over an hour early and bought my ticket, then wandered about the mall a bit until I was still nearly an hour early and the previous showing had yet to finish so those within could vacate the theater. When the janitors completed their sweep-through of the aisles I took my place (Some say it's more like I am assuming my throne, since I always take the same seats at the position I consider to be the very best seats in the house and the reason why I get there so early) in my seat and waited through the preliminary features the movie theaters make us slog through these days. I mean, seriously, I DVR all the TV shows I like just so I don't have to watch commercials and have the ability to fast-forward through them and then I pay big bucks at the theater to see those same commercials all the way through. Sheesh. Gimme a break.

The movie finally began and the similarity between Peter Parker and this new, younger actor was immediately obvious. This kid might be a heart-throb to certain teenage girls (Those that are perhaps twelve years old?), but to me he personified the geeky science nerd that is Peter Parker. Okay, one hurdle out of the way, but what about...

As the movie played on the changes were obvious. Gone was the iconic scene where Parker, dressed in his make-shift "Human Spider" costume ventures to the arena so he can make the money to buy himself a car as a wrestler. In its place was...Well, you'll have to watch the movie to know how they went about this area of Spidey's history in order to get Uncle Ben to that place where he is killed by the guy Peter refused to stop for committing a crime. Obviously they wanted this movie to be completely different while still retaining the flavor of the origin story for Spidey and in my opinion, it worked very well and was more up-to-date than using a wrestling sequence.

Once Peter put himself through the paces and Spider-Man was born I nodded my head and decided that yes, this kid was every bit as good in the role of Spider-Man as he was in the role of his secret identity. Two hurdles out of the way.

The actress chosen to portray Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) would not have been my choice, since her eyes were slightly too far apart for my taste and her mouth a bit wide as well, and then she spoke and her voice, which was a bit too raspy, grated slightly on my nerves and eardrums. But throughout the movie she proved she has the ability to act well enough to make herself believable as Peter's first girlfriend, according to the comics, not the old movie franchise, where I always wondered why they had Petey with MJ instead of Gwen, who was his girlfriend in the comics until she was killed by the Green Goblin. There was even a scene toward the very end where everything is getting all dramatic that her portrayal actually made my eyes tears up. I think it was more something getting in my eye at that moment than the story-line, yeah, that must be it.

The one seriously jarring note for me was the way the Lizard looked. Perhaps they were basing his appearance on the most recent Marvel characterization of this scientist-turned-villain, I don't know, since I haven't read the comics since about 1979, but I was used to how Dr. Curtis Connors' reptilian "giant gecko" villain looked in the comics and this grinning gargoyle with the hideous, deep, stupid-sounding voice was not it. There were redeeming qualities to this villain, but his face was not one of them and I am someone who has been waiting for the appearance of the Lizard ever since the very first time I saw Dr. Connors presented as Peter's science professor in college in the earlier franchise.

Okay, I lied; one last thing I did not like about the movie was the ease with which Parker was able to come up with a rubberized Spidey costume. I mean, seriously...in the comics he sews his own costume out of regular cloth and his sewing is shown in the movie as well, but really? Where did this kid even get this rubberized material in webbing pattern, let alone the ability to sew it seamlessly and make it actually work for him without splitting at the seams? And his rubberized booties instead of the socks used in the comics, because, naturally, as every comics geek knows, Spidey has to have a thin material on his feet so his wall-crawling powers will work, right? How does this work when he's wearing two-inch thick soles? Aaarrrgghh! Okay, settle down and just go with the flow, bub, go with the flow...

All-in-all I came out of the theater (The first person in and the last person out, as usual) with the feeling that as much as I had enjoyed Toby McGuire's Spider-Man acting ability, in my mind Andrew Garfield is the new Amazing Spider-Man. I look forward to seeing what he can do in future movies of Ole Webhead.

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Delicious Food and Great Service

Over this past Fourth of July holiday my wife and I went out to the Pacific Ocean (Ocean Shores off the southwest coast of Washington State) for two days. We booked our room at the Quality Inn and although the rates were good (senior citizen/AARP discount applied) and the service was good, the bed was atrocious. We both spent two nights of tossing and turning and being grumpy in the morning and my wife is the type who can sleep anywhere easily. Not here she wasn't. I'm a light sleeper, but once I get to sleep I sleep well and soundly. I never found much in the way of slumber these two nights at this place.

In contrast to our sleeping arrangements, we ate at several restaurants and I have to say that the Home Port restaurant was excellent in every detail. Both times we ate there, for lunch the first time and a late breakfast the second time, we had the same server, Beverly, who was a fun, fireball of a lady with a louder than loud voice, but fun to quip back and forth with and did an excellent job in providing our meals for us.

For lunch the first day my wife ordered the crab sandwich (Of course, as she is a huge crab fan and will eat crab anywhere, anytime if it is available). She had a crab sandwich at another restaurant the previous day and wasn't nearly as pleased with that which she was served at Home Port. She ate every bite and enjoyed it all.

I ordered the Reuben sandwich, which is something I thoroughly enjoy, but often am disappointed with. It seems not everyone knows how to make a Reuben the way it should be made. The Home Port not only makes a great Reuben, but excels in this particular sandwich. I ate every bite as well and licked my fingers clean.

The next morning, once we had everything packed up and in our car and had checked out of the "Restless Sleep Inn" we headed back to the Home Port, hoping to get breakfast. We made it barely in time, as it seems they quit serving breakfast at 11:30 am and it was 11:26 when we walked in. Surprisingly, we had Beverly as our server once more and she remembered us (A plus in a server) and treated us appropriately, which means she insulted me and let me know she tried to have us seated elsewhere, but what she could she really do about it, eh? My kind of server.

This time my wife had the crab omelet (told you, didn't I?) and I had the biscuits and gravy with two eggs (over easy) and sausage links. Once again my wife was working hard to finish off her omelet, not wanting to leave any of that delicious concoction on her plate, though she was overly full when she finished and couldn't even stop for a latte afterward. I hummed and practically sang as I chomped on every bite of my breakfast and really should have remembered to ask to have my eggs placed on top of the biscuits and gravy, as this is how I like them best. The flavor was delicious, the thickness of the gravy was perfect (not soup-thin and not so thick it was brick mortar) and flavorful and the sausages were two short, but thick little fatties that were packed with deliciousness.

Everything was great at the Home Port restaurant, so if you are ever in the Ocean Shore's area of Washington State, stop in and say hi to Beverly while you discover how truly great their food is.

Mmm - mmmm, good!

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DC Goes PC - FAIL!

IN the politically-charged environment within which we live today it seems everyone is concerned with being viewed as being as politically correct (sic) as the next guy. There is certainly no shortage of people who really don't give a rat's ass about the topics society as a whole seems to be concerned with, not the least of which today is same sex gender equality. The religious right wants us to believe that homosexuality is demonic while pro-gay groups seem bent upon telling us if we aren't in favor of gays we are just as doomed as the religious right says gays are.

In just such a malicious environment Marvel Comics Group recently stated they were making a superhero gay (X-Men Northstar will soon be marrying his boyfriend) and DC Comics naturally reacted (not responded, which is a key point here) by stating that one of their heroes would soon be anounced as being gay. Thus, a retired Justice Society member, the original Green Lantern from the "alternate Earth" wherein reside all the superheroes from the 1940s who subsequently were shelved once the Golden Age of comics met its demise at the end of the same decade, was ordained to be the one to "bite the bullet" and become gay. Alan Scott, even though he has been shown to be much older than the Silver Age heroes (those from the 1960s), including his Green lantern counterpart, Hal Jordan (most recently of movie-flop fame), and has a daughter in the comics universe (Jennifer Lynn Hayden, aka, Jade), who has served, among other things, as the first female Green Lantern of Earth.

It seems that in its eagerness to be viewed as "equally PC" as Marvel, DC has injected homosexuality into a character that has such a well-known and definitive heterosexual persona. Those in charge at DC obviously felt they were under the gun, so to speak, in getting a gay hero out front so all could see they were not lagging behind anyone when it came to "being sensitive" to the gay issue, but the best they could do was to reboot one of the most decidedly non-gay heroes they have ever had (Okay, I could see where Superman would be out of the question), but wouldn't it have been better had they introduced a new character or at the very least taken one of their newer heroes who was already enjoying popularity among the younger readers of today, rather than "outing" an old geezer like Alan Scott, even if they did magically rejuvenate him in their newly rebooted DCverse? Certainly there are many heroes out there who could easily fit the bill better than one created over seven decades ago.

My views on this was that DC wasn't and still isn't actually interested in having a gay hero (anymore than Marvel is, but that's another issue - no pun intended), they simply didn't want to be viewed as not being interested. Their grade on this reboot?

"F" for FAIL!

BEST Vampire Story Since Bram Stoker

It's been awhile since this site has seen a new eBook review and the reason is I've not only been busy, but got tired of so much of the crap I was finding to read. Seriously, if you are going to write a book, make it interesting, okay?

Having recently read "Being Mrs. Dracula", by new author Faith Marlow, I decided it was time to dust off my keyboard and write a new review.

Anyone who has ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula novel or even only seen one of the movies made off this classic vampire tale that set the bar for all the others to come, knows that his tale was based upon the true life of one Vlad III Dracula or Vlad Tepes (translated from Romanian as Vlad the Impaler), who was the third son (having two older half-brothers) of Vlad II Dracul (translated as Dragon). Vlad III was also a Prince of Wallachia, the area in Romania which he lived. In the Bram Stoker novel Count Dracula had three wives, all vampires at the time of the telling of this tale, but little is actually known about these women. This is where Faith Marlow's new novel comes into play.

In "Being Mrs. Dracula", Faith Marlow gives us serious insight into the lives of the three wives of Count Dracula (at least from her own point of view). Little is actually known about the real Vlad III's wives (except that he only had one at a time), so this new novel delivers completely new information on a literature level that no one (to my knowledge) has ever covered before. This is a very refreshing approach to an old theme and the most unique vampire novel I have read in years.

Each of these three wives writes in her own voice as she keeps a journal of her life after meeting Vlad III Dracula (Son of the Dragon), which means that initially we hear the tale only from the view of Dracula's first wife, Valeria Karajan-Dracula, a natural-born Romanian herself. Later, after much time has passed and we have a well-rounded view of this union between wife and blood-sucker, the second wife is introduced and then the third. Each has a unique story to tell and does so in her own inimitable fashion.

In most cases I prefer a book that is dialogue driven, but this one, the first novel penned by Faith Marlow, is more along the lines of narrator-driven, which caused me to approach reading it with a careful eye. Soon after beginning my reading I found I was enjoying the words penned by this neophyte author and hated having to put it down in order to get to bed. The next day I was back at it as soon as I could and within a few days I had the entire book finished, but wished there had still been more to read.

"Being Mrs. Dracula" is not only told from a unique perspective (the wives), but is, in my humble opinion, the best vampire novel since "Interview with the Vampire", by Ann Rice, which set the modern day standard for writing such novels. It also is the only novel I have ever read that captured the flavor of Bram Stoker's original and carried it forward with a truly interesting story line. Not only will you learn who these three women were that the most famed vampire of history chose to become his wives, but you will find yourself falling in love with them and the trials and conflicts each one faced as she found herself married to a man most considered at the time to be the cruelest man on the face of the Earth, only to discover there was a reason for his viciousness that most never knew.

Pick up a copy of "Being Mrs. Dracula" from Smashwords. You will be very glad you did.

If we're lucky someone in Hollywood will notice this book and decide to make a movie of it. Let's hope they remain true to the author's creativity.

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Rousing Family Situation

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Family Reunions Can Be FUN!!

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