THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
10/07/11 -- Vol. 30, No. 15, Whole Number 1670
Heckle: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Jekyll: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups (NJ)
NPR's Top Hundred Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Tales of Tomorrow--Downloadable (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Superthunderstingcar (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
PONTYPOOL (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Pepper Mill (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Trailer Breaks for October and November (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
TROLLHUNTER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
SPACE PRECINCT (television review by Nick Sauer)
DRIVE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos (letter of comment
by Rob Mitchell)
Patty Duke (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
This Week's Reading (THE HACKER AND THE ANTS and FROM HERE TO
ECONOMY: A SHORTCUT TO ECONOMIC LITERACY)
book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups (NJ)
October 13 (Thu): "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Middletown (NJ) Public Library, film at
**5PM**, discussion after film
October 20 (Thu): THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2009
edited by Elizabeth Kolbert (last third), Old Bridge (NJ)
Public Library, 7PM
November 10 (Thu): QUATERMASS AND THE PIT by Nigel Kneale,
Middletown (NJ) Public Library, film at 5:30PM,
discussion after film
November 17 (Thu): HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL
UNIVERSE by Charles Yu, Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
December 8: HOGFATHER by Terry Pratchett, Middletown (NJ) Public
Library, film at 5:30PM, discussion after film
==================================================================
TOPIC: NPR's Top Hundred Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Here's a pointer to NPR's top one hundred science fiction and
fantasy books (as chosen in an on-line poll):
http://tinyurl.com/void-npr100
And here's a flowchart for navigating them (be sure to click on the
link to give you a larger image):
http://tinyurl.com/void-npr-flow-100
==================================================================
TOPIC: Tales of Tomorrow--Downloadable (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
One of the first science fiction television programs, one that
contributed to the 1950s science fiction boom, was the ABC
anthology series "Tales of Tomorrow." This was broadcast live and
you can see occasional mistakes and misreadings of lines. A lot of
these feature actors who were to become top stars including Paul
Newman, Rod Steiger, and James Dean. Not surprisingly the IMDB has
a complete list of the episodes, but for about forty of the
episodes you can even click on them right there and play them from
Hulu: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043238/episodes
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Superthunderstingcar (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
People brought up on the Supercar and Thunderbirds TV shows from
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson might enjoy this satire from the British
comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riMHp28_cqw
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: PONTYPOOL (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
There is an interesting sort of a zombie film with a really
different sort of premise. The film comes from Canada and is called
PONTYPOOL.
A shorter version of the same story was adapted as a radio play and
was played on the BBC. Now the BBC is not known for broadcasting a
lot of plays about zombies, but they apparently found the idea
interesting enough that they included it their series of Worldplays
about science. You cannot download the play, but you can hear it on
your computer at: http://tinyurl.com/leeper-pontypool
I have seen (and reviewed) the film and it has the same cast as the
radio play. I don't know when or if the film will get a general
release. But it is probably best if you do not know where the story
is going until you get into it. My review is at
http://leepers.us/ponty.htm. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Pepper Mill (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The World Science Fiction Convention this year was in Reno, Nevada.
One of the convention hotels was the Pepper Mill. It is a
combination casino and hotel. Of course most public buildings in
Reno can be described as "a combination casino and X" for some X.
But Pepper Mill is an odd name for a hotel in a gambling town. To
me the name seems to say "You come in thinking you are hot stuff
and we grind you down to powder." [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Trailer Breaks for October and November (comments by Mark R.
Leeper)
A few weeks ago I commented on trailers for upcoming films. I
continue that looking at tralers for films opening in October and
November. These are the impressions I have gleaned. Opening dates
are in parentheses.
THE SKIN I LIVE IN (October 14, 2011)
This Spanish-language film directed by Pedro Almodovar is listed as
a drama, but it seems to have trappings of old horror films.
Antonio Banderas plays a surgeon working on inventing a synthetic
flesh. He seems to keep in his home a woman who wears nothing but
a skintight flesh-tone suit. Martial arts and gunplay fit in
someplace. Almodovar has a very good reputation in what appears to
be a bunch of very different films. But the trailer is intriguing.
THE THING (October 14, 2011)
This is a prequel to John Carpenter's THE THING. When we joined
that story the alien had already destroyed the Norwegian scientific
base and had escaped in the form of a dog. This film tells that
story. Somehow it seems that the story cannot be so different from
the original film and from the 1951 film version. There is not
enough to make this film a must see. When John Carpenter made his
film, CGI was not advanced sufficiently to do justice to the
mercurial shape changes that the John Campbell story implied the
alien could do. Now the film could be done right, but at the same
time that sort of image is now passe. It has shown up in
television commercials and in action films. It cannot be easy to
make this an interesting story, particularly with everyone knowing
how it ends. My guess is that this will be a totally redundant
film.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (October 14, 2011)
Just what we needed: yet another telling of Alexander Dumas's THE
THREE MUSKETEERS--this time with martial arts (beyond swordplay)
and steam punk dirigibles. If you have not seen the Richard Lester
version (two films called THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE FOUR
MUSKETEERS) then there is no point in seeing this version. And it
you have seen the two films there is still no point.
IMMORTALS (November 11, 2011)
Many of the upcoming action films seem like more of the same. This
year "more of the same" is a particularly dreary prospect. I am
not really big on the film 300 and I am not keen on films with a
lot of CGI and this is a CGI film from the producers of 300.
However, the director is Tarsem Singh of THE CELL and THE FALL. He
has a good eye for impressive and unusual imagery and is one of the
better people to helm a film like THE IMMORTALS. This seems to be
the story of Theseus and the Minotaur writ large. By writ large I
mean you have gods and titans warring. This just might be another
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. It might if we are lucky. Some of the
scenes in the trailer do look impressive.
A DANGEROUS METHOD (November 23, 2011)
I enjoy films done as period pieces. David Cronenberg plans to
release at Thanksgiving time a thriller featuring psychologists
Sigmund Freud (played by Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael
Fassbinder). Kiera Knightly is a disturbed masochist whom the
psychologists are trying to cure. The trailer makes it sound like
there are a lot of repressed sexual urges that should attract a
curious audience. Cronenberg has made good use of Mortensen,
especially in EASTERN PROMISES.
HUGO (November 23, 2011)
Martin Scorsese will have for Thanksgiving a family film that looks
good. It is an adaptation of THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian
Selznick, a young adult book that reviewer Dan Kimmel strongly
recommends. The story, set in Paris early this century involves a
boy who comes into possession of a stage magician's wondrous
mechanical doll controlled by a heart-shaped key. Asa Butterfield
plays the boy, Hugo, but also appearing in the film are the better-
known Jude Law and Ben Kingsley. How big their parts are remains
to be seen. There are some nice scenes of Hugo in giant clockwork.
The film will be in 3D.
THE ARTIST (November 23, 2011)
This looks like a very beautiful stylized comedy, shot in
monochrome and as a silent film, set in Hollywood of 1927. The
story seems to be a reprise of A STAR IS BORN. Silent screen idol
George Vanentin is taken with a young female extra, Peppy Miller.
In the upset in the film industry that came with the move to sound
he will soon be a has-been and Miller will be the audience
attraction. Michel Hazanavicius writes and directs with beautiful
photography by Guillaume Schiffman. Jean Dujardin stars. Ludovic
Bource wrote the music. If those names are unfamiliar run to your
nearest site to get Netflix streaming and see what this team did to
the spy film in OSS 117: CAIRO NEST OF SPIES and OSS 117: LOST IN
RIO. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: TROLLHUNTER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: TROLLHUNTER is a serious Norwegian horror film that is
also a satire of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. University students
making a documentary about a supposed bear poacher find the man is
instead a government agent controlling and helping to keep secret
the population of deadly trolls. Andre Ovredal writes and directs
his account straight-faced with a wicked sense of humor.
TROLLHUNTER is an unexpected pleasure for viewers who can shudder
at the horrific aspects while still appreciating the humor.
Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
Success breeds imitators. The film THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
demonstrated an ironic principle. A skillful director can make a
very low budget for a horror film work better more effectively than
a higher budget and more polished effort might. The trick is to
make the film seem like it was made by amateurs filming what they
were actually seeing. Low-budget efforts like CARNIVAL OF SOULS,
NIGHT TIDE, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and
more recently PARANORMAL ACTIVITY are examples. Particularly films
shot with hand-held cameras allow the low budget to give them an
air of authenticity and immediacy. A Wes Craven film shot in
Technicolor with background music to tell the viewer when to be
frightened does not have nearly the same genuineness.
The premise of TROLLHUNTER, much like that of THE BLAIR WITCH
PROJECT, suggests that the film is made up of footage found after
actual events and that after investigation this film has been
judged to be authentic. We are seeing the film that was shot in
chronological order. Some college student filmmakers go into the
forests of western Norway trying to find and make a film about a
notorious bear poacher, Hans (played by Norwegian comic Otto
Jespersen). He wants no part of their film. They continue to
shadow him and come face-to-face with his secret. He is not
hunting bears but twenty-foot tall trolls. One of these trolls
attacks him and the students. Hans flashes a special light at the
troll and the troll turns to stone. Only once the students have
discovered what he is really doing does he begrudgingly allow them
to travel with him. Together they try to track down the monstrous
trolls.
Writer/director Andre Ovredal makes few concessions to make the
trolls more believable. These are not troll-like aliens or
something primeval that inspires folktales of trolls. These are
trolls just like in the storybooks and not at all like Shrek. They
have distorted human faces that look perhaps like Brian Froud
illustrations. It is very important that there are no Christians
in the hunting party, because trolls can smell Christian blood. In
addition they all have to douse themselves in troll's nauseating
scent so no human smell comes through. Trolls turn to stone in
sunlight and Hans's most effective weapon is a light that flashes
simulated sunlight and turns trolls to stone even at night.
Ovredal departs briefly from the "Blair Witch" style to have a
doctor give us a scientific rationale for some of the limitations
of trolls. But most of the film is just tracing the troll hunters
and seeing them get into deeper danger than they are prepared for.
The visual style filmed by Hallvard Braein copies the style of THE
BLAIR WITCH PROJECT with night vision filters that recreate the
look. The film has small homages to other popular fantasy films
including a chase at the end that reminds one of JURASSIC PARK.
But he manages to do this without changing the serious demeanor of
the proceedings.
TROLLHUNTER is a film that one can appreciate as a chilling horror
film and at the same time enjoy the absurdity of the premise. I
rate TROLLHUNTER a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10. TROLLHUNTER is
currently available from Netflix streaming. The IMDB lists a film
planned for 2014 that will be a remake, though the character of the
film seems very Norwegian and an American remake set in Norway or a
remake with Bigfoot set in the United States just does not seem
like a viable idea. I recommend seeing the original.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740707/
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trollhunter/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: SPACE PRECINCT (television review by Nick Sauer)
SPACE PRECINCT is probably Gerry Anderson's least known genre
television series. It was an independent British production
released in 1994 that aired in the UK on Sky One and in syndication
in the US on the SyFy channel. The series follows the adventures
of officers of the 88th precinct of Demeter City which is located
on the planet Altor. The planet is a colony world that is
inhabited by humanity and two other alien species, the Creons and
the mildly psychic Tarns. SPACE PRECINCT stars Ted Shackelford as
Lt. Patrick Brogan and Rob Youngblood as his partner Jack Haldane.
This series is a largely unknown one-season wonder that would have
completely faded into obscurity had it not been created by one of
the UK's most famous genre television series producers. SPACE
PRECINCT definitely bears the mark of its creator (explosions
abound) and while it has a number of interesting features, it is
ultimately weighed down by some wildly uneven production values.
There are two major problems with the series. The first I wanted
to say was the acting, but I how the characters are written may be
an equally fair criticism. Many of the characters carry the
standard sort of clichés we see fairly regularly in police dramas
with Haldane pulling double duty in this department. Chief Podly
is the tough "by the book" police chief with a heart of gold, Took
is the young rookie cop operating with her heart more than her
brain, etc. The two characters who seem to be most immune to this
are Brogan and Castle both to the actors' credit. Unfortunately,
Shackelford as the series lead is pretty seriously out of his depth
in the beginning. To some extent, the show is good to watch as a
lesson in the skills a lead actor needs to carry a television
series as Shackelford develops these over the course of the one and
only season.
The second issue is the writing which is mostly hampered by
conflict over what the series is exactly trying to be. From what I
have read, Anderson wanted the show to be accessible to both adults
as well as a younger audience. For some types of dramas this is a
fairly easy path to follow, but for a police show it's a tall order
that ultimately failed to work. As a result you will find serious
stories interspersed with borderline Saturday morning kids fair
and, in one rather jarring case (the episode titled The Snake) both
in the same show. This struck me as a little unusual. Having
watched UFO a few months back and SPACE: 1999 when I was younger, I
know Anderson is perfectly capable of purely adult targeted drama.
So, I didn't really understand the need to make SPACE PRECINCT kid-
friendly.
While I am covering the writing, I wanted to include a note on the
pilot episode itself ("Protect and Survive"). As I watched it,
knowing this was a mid-90s show, I couldn't shake the feeling that
the writing was dated. Sure enough, I learned that my intuition
was correct. This pilot was shot back in 1986 with a different
suite of actors but, never picked up. When the series was green
lit in 1994, the pilot was shot with the current cast using the
original unaltered script. As a result the pilot is easily the
weakest episode of SPACE PRECINCT and should, in my opinion, be
skipped by anyone viewing the series.
There are also some positive aspects to the series, as well. The
alien costuming is pretty incredible. The Creons and Tarns are
masks that show the actors mouth but feature animatronics, in this
case remote controlled, eyes and forehead musculature. So, you
effectively have two people playing the part of the alien
characters. While this sounds like a recipe for disaster it works
amazingly well. One episode (The Protector) focused on an elderly
Tarn gentleman as the main guest character and the degree of
emotion that the actor(s) were able to project with this
arrangement was truly awe inspiring.
The show also has a number of really interesting ideas. The cop
show on a world colonized by three different species is pretty
brilliant as it combines the police drama with a space based SF
series. Although it's not explicitly stated the show definitely
gives the vibe that the Creons colonized Altor first and that the
Tarns and Humans were relative late-comers so, you have a scenario
where Humans are in the minority for a change. There are also some
standard SF concepts that you don't see done on television like
asteroid mining, for example.
While SPACE PRECINCT's problems tend to overwhelm it at times, the
episodes where the show does fire on all cylinders are certainly
entertaining enough to watch. For anyone interested in the series,
I would recommend skipping the following episodes: "Protect and
Survive", "Body and Soul", "Double Duty", "The Snake", "Time to
Kill", "Seek and Destroy", "The Power", "Hate Street", "Flash", and
"Deathwatch". While I doubt I'll ever revisit this series, I did
enjoy my viewing of it. [-ns]
==================================================================
TOPIC: DRIVE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn uses a European style
to tell his story of a mechanic/stunt-driver/getaway driver, played
by Ryan Gosling, who finds a woman he wants and agrees to be
getaway driver for the wrong heist. Refn's style is to draw out
scenes to make a slow film punctuated with strong violence. This
is a very dark action thriller, but ironically Albert Brooks and
Ron Perlman steal the film. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
"If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a
five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm
yours no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down;
I don't carry a gun ...; I drive. " The speaker is the unnamed
driver (Ryan Gosling) who has three jobs. He is a car mechanic, he
is a film stunt driver, and he is a criminal getaway driver for
hire. The film opens with a getaway and extended high-speed chase
with police. The driver evades the police. Then the film goes to
opening titles in pink pseudo-handwritten font as the camera
lovingly lolls over Los Angeles high-rise buildings at dusk. It
must be an image that director Nicolas Winding Refn liked because
for some reason he returns to it again and again for reasons
unclear. There are no scenes in the film set in one of these
buildings. It is like Refn is repeating over and over, "I'm in Los
Angeles. I'm in Los Angeles. Hey, look. I'm in Los Angeles."
The Driver lives in a dingy apartment building down the hall from
the attractive Irene (Carey Mulligan of NEVER LET ME GO), who
appears at first to be a single parent. As the Driver soon finds
out she is married to a soon to be ex-convict. The husband owes a
great deal of money to organized crime figures and is being told to
pay it back by robbing a specific pawnshop at a specific time.
Eventually the Driver agrees to help the husband gratis by driving
in the robbery.
DRIVE, like Refn's previous film VALHALLA RISING, is built from
long, slow, and frequently dialog-free scenes. The look is
everything. We are left to guess what is in the Driver's mind.
Sometimes we can guess, but Gosling has an impassive face and we
are just guessing. His overall plan is not clear. Being willing
to drive a getaway car without reward seems to go beyond the bounds
of just being neighborly. Not only are his motivations unclear,
his background is equally mysterious. He seems supernaturally
lucky in chases and fights and always comes out on top in spite of
the odds. Apparently without benefit of CIA or British Secret
Service training he always seems to best his opponents. This is a
film with some long slow stretches mixed in with spectacular car
chases and some really graphic violence.
Ryan Gosling seems to have a face impassive enough that it could
convey just about any emotion going on behind that face. It works
in lieu of much screen chemistry between Gosling and Mulligan. Any
chemistry there is mostly on Mulligan's part. Gosling seems to be
very much the flavor of the month as an actor. Last year and this
he has also been in BLUE VALENTINE; ALL GOOD THINGS; CRAZY, STUPID,
LOVE; and THE IDES OF MARCH. The IMDB also lists him for two
future projects from Refn, including a remake of LOGAN'S RUN.
Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman play a hood and his beefy henchman.
I was used to seeing Brooks in comedic roles. Here he is almost
ruthless but oddly principled. He is able to play off of his image
to surprise the audience, not unlike Alan Arkin did in WAIT UNTIL
DARK. His and Perlman's performances really are the most magnetic
in the film.
The plotting of DRIVER is nothing new, but it does have some
convolutions that perhaps will surprise audiences. I rate DRIVER a
+1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/drive_2011/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos (letter of comment by Rob
Mitchell)
In response to Mark's comments on faster-than-light travel in the
09/30/11 issue of the MT VOID, Rob Mitchell writes:
With respect to FTL neutrinos, thanks to my friend Jonathan I found
this explanation, which I appreciated:
http://tinyurl.com/void-ftl-loc
[-rm]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Patty Duke (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
In response to Kip Williams's comments about Patty Duke in the
09/30/11 issue of the MT VOID, Mark had written:
You mention Patty Duke. She was in a class sort of by herself.
Her childhood must have been quite an experience. Were you aware
she was a fraudulent "quiz kid" on "The $64,000 Question" and
testified before Congress about how she had been coached to cheat?
[-mrl]
Kip replied:
Dang, if I knew that, I'd certainly forgotten it, and given that
two or three of my interests are in that factoid, I'll wager that I
never knew. This might be a good time for me to research some
more. Thanks! [-kw]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE HACKER AND THE ANTS by Rudy Rucker (ISBN 978-0-380-71844-3) was
the September selection of our science fiction discussion group.
This is an example of why I am not keen on more current hard
science fiction. Science fiction from the Golden Age may do a lot
of hand-waving with the science, but it is not a problem. For
example, when in Isaac Asimov's robot stories, he says that the
robot has a "positronic brain." He doesn't try to explain what a
positronic brain is, or how one builds it, or why it makes the
robots so powerful. It is just a given and the story goes on from
there. But in THE HACKER AND THE ANTS Rucker feels obliged to
provide more detail, presumably for verismilitude. Unfortunately,
to me it just sounds like infodump and is something that trips me
up rather than enhances the story. It is not just Rucker, of
course--a lot of newer science fiction is like this.
I'm reading FROM HERE TO ECONOMY: A SHORTCUT TO ECONOMIC LITERACY
by Todd G. Buchholz (ISBN 978-0-452-27482-6) in short pieces and as
a historical artifact. (I apologize for the non-parallel
construction in that last sentence.) Why in short pieces? Well,
it is divided into sections, each preceded by a question and each
only a page or two long. This makes it perfect bathroom reading.
(Sorry, Todd.) But it is also because Buchholz feels obliged to
pepper his writing with "clever" lines, such as "[If] one cosmetic
surgeon in a medical partnership messes up a nose job, every other
partner's nose will be out of joint, for their personal assets are
in jeopardy if the rhinoplastered patient files a lawsuit."
And why as a historical artifact? Because it was written in 1995,
before the Internet bubble, the housing bubble, the current
recession/depression, and a whole lot of other things not hinted at
in the book. And one finds a lot of statements such as, "'Blue
chip' refers to firms with long track records for turning profits
and paying dividends. Of course, the track could turn bumpy, but
firms with household names like GM and K mart receive so much
attention, investors can usually expect that there'll be plenty of
notice before they skid into a crash." Right. Or, "Further, by
spending so much on defense in the early 1980s, the U.S. spurred
the collapse of the Soviet Union, which should reduce future
outlays on defense."
Buchholz has a definite conservative tilt. But occasionally he
will surprise the reader by saying things like, "A better approach
would be to require *individuals* to get health insurance." [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
--Franτois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld