THE CURRENTS OF SPACE

I finished reading THE CURRENTS OF SPACE (1952) by Isaac Asimov the other day. As the cover blurb from the New York Times says it's "a merry tangle of interplanetary politics." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Asimov's tale is part spy novel, part mystery. Rik, a Spatio-Analyst, discovers something dire that spells doom for the planet Florinia. But before he can reveal his findings, he's captured and psycho-probed, erasing his memory. Cut to one year later. Rik, now a worker in the kyrt mill begins to slowly recover his memory. The more he remembers, the more of a threat he is to the powers that be. Thus begins an extended chase as Rik, his woman friend Lona and Townman Terens go on the run to remain one step ahead of the authorities while Rik's memories keep returning.

About that kyrt mill. Kyrt is a substance grown only on Florinia. It is used, like cotton, for clothing, but it has a variety of other uses. Since it's only grown on one planet, it has enormous value to the galaxy at large (ala spice in Frank Herbert's DUNE) and especially to the planet Sark which rules Florinia. The Squires of Sark want to maintain control over the planet and the kyrt trade but the galactic Trantor empire is aware of what's going on between the planets and  becomes involved in diplomatic negotiations.

Everything comes to a somewhat rushed and abrupt end. We find out Rik's secret and the identity of the person who psycho-probed him but it's not an entirely satisfying ending as some characters are simply abandoned from the narrative and things are wrapped up rather too neatly.

CURRENTS OF SPACE is the third Asimov novel I've read in the last couple of years along with THE END OF ETERNITY and THE NAKED SUN. I found all three books readable and enjoyable but I must be honest here and risk blasphemy, I don't think Asimov was that great a writer. He was far from incompetent and he does spin a good yarn but I have yet to come away from one of his books thinking "Wow! That was great!". Of course, CURRENTS was written more than 60 years ago, fairly early in Asimov's writing career. I know he's widely considered one of the greatest science fiction authors of all time but in my opinion he's good but not great. Still, CURRENTS OF SPACE is well worth reading if you're a science fiction fan. Hell, if you're reading this and you're a science fiction fan, you've probably already read it.

AN AMERICAN HAUNTING

AN AMERICAN HAUNTING (2005) is an entirely forgettable low budget horror film that has the look and feel of an extended episode of one of the countless "true" paranormal encounter shows that are a staple on many cable television channels. Allegedly based on the "true" story of the Bell Witch case in 1800s Kentucky, HAUNTING finds Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek going through the motions, wondering what the hell they're doing in this turd and cursing their respective agents for not getting them better jobs.

They've both done infinitely better genre work in their careers. Spacek did a terrific star turn in Brian DePalma's CARRIE (1976) while Sutherland was solid in both DON'T LOOK NOW (1973) and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978). Neither will want to put this turkey on their resume.

The film features a totally unnecessary framing sequence that takes place in the present day. The action then moves to the past where the family of John Bell (Sutherland) is put under a curse by a woman whose land the Sutherland's have "legally" stolen. The curse seems to center upon young Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood) as she seems to be only person in the Bell household who is experiencing the increasingly violent series of unexplained phenomenon. Is there really a ghost or is Betsy merely manifesting some deep psychological issues into physical form?

The cinematography by Adrian Biddle is murky and director Courtney Solomon uses a variety of special effects (practical and CGI) to depict the paranormal. But the script (also by Solomon) is utterly routine and by the numbers. There are no scares to be found here, just a dark, gloomy "true" ghost story that is a total waste of time.

Thumbs down.

MEET THE PARENTS

Robert De Niro is one of my all time favorite actors. He's made some truly great American films: TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, GOODFELLAS (among others with director Martin Scorsese), THE DEER HUNTER, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA and THE GODFATHER PART II to name a few. At some point in his career, De Niro turned to comedy with some terrific results. I'm looking at you MIDNIGHT RUN and ANALYZE THIS. But De Niro's presence alone isn't enough to elevate MEET THE PARENTS (2000) to the level of greatness.

It's not a bad little film at all. In fact, I got a few good laughs out of it when Judy and I recently watched it as part of our Friday Night Thrift Store Theater. We had seen it years ago, back when were dating and I thought it would be fun to revisit the film. Ben Stiller stars as a hapless young man named Gaylord Focker (and boy, does that set-up generate a lot of jokes) engaged to Pam (Teri Polo). They go home to meet her parents, Jack (De Niro) and Dina (Blythe Danner) for a long weekend in which everything that can go wrong does. Jack is a retired CIA counterintelligence officer and he treats Focker like he's an enemy agent subjecting him to constant surveillance and a lie detector test.

This is the kind of movie where you not only see the gags coming, you see them visibly slow down and signal for a turn. It's not bad overall but there are only a couple of really funny scenes. The rest is just constant humiliation for poor Focker.

The film, made on a budget of $55 million, went on to earn over $160 million in North America. That kind of money insured that two sequels followed, MEET THE FOCKERS (2004) and LITTLE FOCKERS (2010). I haven't seen either one and really have no desire to do so.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia. MEET THE PARENTS was originally made in 1992. Greg Glienna (who?) directed and starred in this version. The property was acquired by Universal for a big budget remake and at one time, Oscar winner Steven Spielberg was set to direct with Jim Carrey in the lead. That would have been an interesting movie. Instead, we get director Jay Roach and a screenplay by Jim Herzfel and John Hamburg based on the original material.

MEET THE PARENTS is worth seeing at least once. I enjoy watching De Niro play comedy. It isn't his best but you could do worse.

THE ILLUSIONIST

I watched THE ILLUSIONIST (2006) for the second time yesterday. I remember seeing this film several years ago but I didn't remember the particulars of the story. Good thing too as that allowed me to be once again taken by surprise by the ending.

Set in Vienna, Austria in 1889, THE ILLUSIONIST is rich with period detail, costumes and old world locations. The cinematography by Dick Pope is impressive as is the score by Philip Glass. Writer/director Neil Burger does a very good job of making us look in one direction while what's really going on is happening over here.

Edward Norton stars as Eisenheim the Illusionist, the premier stage magician of the age. With his brooding, dark good looks and goatee, Norton would have made a better Stephen Strange than Bruce Banner. His act catches the attention of Chief Inspector Walter Uhl (Paul Giamatti gives a very mannered performance in which he seems to be channeling the spirit of a young Orson Welles, and that's not a bad thing). Uhl can't quite put his finger on it but he suspects that Eisenheim may be up to no good.

Also caught in the young magician's spell (sorry), is Duchess Sophie von Teschen (Jessica Biel). Sophie and Eisenheim were childhood friends and even though she's now betrothed to Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), her heart still belongs to Eisenheim.

To say much more would spoil the surprises in store here. Suffice it to say, THE ILLUSIONIST is a grand magic trick of a movie with a satisfying "a-ha!" moment at the end of the film.

The whole affair reminded me of this book:

I read  CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL, Glen David Gold's debut novel, when it originally came out way back in 2001. It ranks second behind Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY (2000) on my list of all time favorite novels. CARTER is another terrific tale of a young stage magician, this one performing in San Francisco in the 1920s. There's an awful lot of wonderful story in this incredible book but when you get to the end of the book (and you'll wish it would go on longer), you'll be amazed at how deftly Gold has managed to fool you.

THE ILLUSIONIST is a good film, one well worth seeing but if you really want to experience a first rate performance of literary legerdemain, read CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL. It's pure magic.

AMAZING FANTASTIC INCREDIBLE

I became a "Marvel Zombie" in September, 1966. I was in the fifth grade at Brykerwoods Elementary School. There was a new kid in our class that year by the name of John Leeds. One day I noticed that he had the names of all of the Marvel Comics superheroes written on the borders of his brown paper ButterKrust bread book covers. I had read enough Marvel comics over the prior couple of years to have a working knowledge of the characters even though I didn't buy any of the titles on a regular basis.

"I know who those guys are," I said to him one day."They're all Marvel Comics characters."

"Yeah," he replied. "I collect them all."

And with that, a friendship was born along with a comic book collecting hobby that has stood me well for these now fifty years. I decided that I wanted to emulate John and start buying and collecting every Marvel title that was currently being published. That wasn't that hard to do at the time. Marvel's output was limited to a handful of books in 1966: FANTASTIC FOUR, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, AVENGERS, THOR, DAREDEVIL, X-MEN, TALES OF SUSPENSE (Iron Man and Captain America), TALES TO ASTONISH (Sub-Mariner and Hulk), STRANGE TALES (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Dr. Strange), SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS, plus westerns RAWHIDE KID, TWO-GUN KID and KID COLT OUTLAW along with reprint giant-size mags MARVEL TALES, FANTASY MASTERPIECES and MARVEL COLLECTOR'S ITEM CLASSICS. On the horizon were such late '60s touchstones as NOT BRAND ECHH, CAPTAIN MARVEL, THE SILVER SURFER and the awarding of individual books to Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Subby, S.H.I.E.L.D and Dr. Strange. While I can't claim to have been there at the very beginning of the "Marvel Age", I got on board the bandwagon at a great time in the company's history.

Of course, almost every one of these comics were written at the time by the one and only Stan Lee. Roy Thomas was just beginning his run on AVENGERS and a couple of other books but Stan was still the Man. While I now consider Roy Thomas my all-time favorite comic book writer, there's no denying that Stan Lee will always hold a special place in my heart. He was Marvel Comics for those of us lucky to be caught up in Marvelmania in the 1960s and the characters he co-created and the stories he wrote stand among the greatest in the history of the medium. When I was ten years old, I loved Stan Lee. I'll be sixty in a couple of months and I still love the guy. In fact, I loved Stan so much that one of my earliest career ambitions was to move to New York City and become a writer for Marvel Comics. Never happened of course but I know I wasn't the only True Believer to harbor that fantasy, a dream that several fans actually acted upon, making the leap from readers to creators and bringing fresh and new ideas, concepts and wonderment to the four color pages.

For some reason, my brother didn't care much for Stan Lee. He wasn't a comic book reader at all but he knew that I was crazy about the guy, always talking about how great he was and how cool Marvel Comics were. He used to pester me mercilessly by telling me that there was no such guy as "Stan Lee", that it was just a name they (Marvel), made up. I knew better. One day there was a letter of comment in CAPTAIN AMERICA from a reader in Brenham, Texas, where my brother attended junior college. I cut the page out (d'oh!) and mailed it to him with a note admonishing him to look the letter writer up, that here was someone else who enjoyed Marvel Comics and fully believed in the gospel of Stan Lee. He finally had to admit that I was right.

One of the gifts Judy gave me this past Christmas was a copy of the new hardcover graphic novel, AMAZING FANTASTIC INCREDIBLE: A MARVELOUS MEMOIR by Stan Lee, Peter David and Colleen Doran. I read it this morning and while there's nothing new in it, I have to admit that I got a kick out of it. Stan recounts his life story (written by David with very nice art by Doran). In the course of the book Stan tells us repeatedly of his love for his wife Joan, gives credit where credit is due to co-creators Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, admits that his memory isn't 100%, drops the names of several heavy hitters he's met over the years, gives a brief synopsis of the "Marvel" method of writing comics, explains how he created most of the initial Marvel superheroes, talks about the work he's done post-Marvel and his many cameo appearances in the Marvel movies.

AMAZING covers a lot of ground but it still just hits the high points of this incredible man and his career. He truly is one of the giants of not only comic books but pop culture with a career that now encompasses both the 20th and 21st centuries. I've never had a chance to meet him but I'd love to do so if only to shake his hand and tell him how much his work means to me. Oh, and get his signature on my copy of AMAZING FANTASY #15. Will it happen? Who knows.

If you love comics, especially Marvel Comics, this is a must read. It's a fun stroll down memory lane by the one and only Stan "The Man" Lee.

Excelsior!

BULLETS OVER BROADWAY

"Don't speak!"

Once upon a time, I used to see almost every new Woody Allen film as they were released in the theaters. I've stopped doing that. Not because I no longer like Allen's work. On the contrary, he's one of my favorite filmmakers. I simply go to fewer and fewer first run theatrically released films each year. In 2015, I went to the movies a grand total of four times. Oh, I saw a bunch of movies but I only went to the theaters four times.

The last Allen film I saw in the theater was HOLLYWOOD ENDING in 2002. I've seen three of  the films he's made since then: ANYTHING ELSE (2003), MELINDA AND MELINDA (2004) and WHATEVER WORKS (2009), all of them on DVD. I have a lot of catching up to do.

I watched BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994) for the second time yesterday. I saw this one when it was first released but that was more than twenty years ago and I didn't recall much about the film. It's an absolute delight.

The year is 1928. John Cusack stars as playwright David Shayne who finds that he has to rely on a mobster, Nick Valenti (Joe Viterelli) to finance his new play, God of Our Fathers. He considers himself a sell out but at least his work will be staged. But the money comes with a condition. Shayne must use the mobster's girlfriend, Olive (Jennifer Tilly) in the production. She can't act worth a damn but Shayne's stuck with her.

He's also stuck with Olive's bodyguard, Cheech (Chazz Palminteri), who becomes David's dramaturge and works with him to sharpen the dialogue and structure of the play, vastly improving the material in the process. The cast of the play includes the over-the-top diva Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest), in a show-stealing (and Oscar winning) performance.The show, as they say, must go on and so it does but there's some third act reversals that complicate things.

BULLETS OVER BROADWAY is a hilarious mix of  theater types and gangsters with both groups peopled with offbeat, eccentric characters. Allen directs everything in long, single takes, all shot from either medium or long distance. He moves his camera around when necessary but uses no closeups in the film. The screenplay, by Allen and McGrath, is a scream with several terrific one-liners. The cinematography by Carlo DiPalma has a rich, burnished hue that lends everything a slightly amber glow and the production design by Santo Loquasto and Susan Bode, bring the '20s to rich and vivid life.

BULLETS received seven Academy Award nominations: Best Director (Allen), Best Original Screenplay (Allen and McGrath), Best Supporting Actress (Wiest, winner), Best Supporting Actress (Tilly), Best Supporting Actor (Palminteri), Best Production Design (Loquasto and Bode) and Best Costume Design (Jeffrey Kurland). Only Wiest won, the second time she scored a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in an Allen film (the previous was for HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)). BULLETS OVER BROADWAY was turned into a Broadway musical in 2014.

BULLETS is a gem of a film. Highly recommended.

INVADERS: EVE OF DESTRUCTION

MARVEL UNIVERSE was a short lived (7 issues) series published by Marvel Comics in 1998. It was similar in concept to DC's LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE series which ran for 41 issues (along with some specials) from 1998 to 2001. Both series had the same idea, that was, to explore the rich and varied histories of their respective comic book universes.

MARVEL UNIVERSE started with a bang. A three part INVADERS story written by Roger Stern with artwork by Steve Epting and Al Williamson. Have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for super-hero stories set in WWII? The original 1970s INVADERS series is one of my all time favorite comic books (written by my all  time favorite comic book writer, Roy Thomas). CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER is still my favorite of all of the Marvel Comics movies produced to date. So naturally, I was drawn to this series when it was originally published.

I had forgotten about MARVEL UNIVERSE until the other day when I stumbled across a trade paperback collecting the entire series at Half Price Books. Sold. I re-read it this morning and loved every page of it.

THE INVADERS story stars the original Big Three of Timely Comics: The Human Torch, The Sub-Mariner and Captain America. They're joined by The Whizzer in corker of a story that involves Baron Strucker's attempts to gain a nuclear weapon for his war time Hydra organization. This story is full of Marvel history. We get cameos by the Red Skull, Captain Simon Savage, Thor, Dr. Doom and a way-cool dragon shaped super submarine from a Golden Age issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA.

But wait! There's more! The second (and alas, final) story arc in MARVEL UNIVERSE was the delightful MONSTER HUNTERS, a team comprised of Dr. Druid, Ulysses Bloodstone,  Wakandan warrior woman Zawadi and the mysterious government agent Jake Curtiss. Before this four issue romp is over, we discover the link between all of those late '50s, early '60s giant monster stories produced by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers and Steve Ditko and Kirby's 1970s series THE ETERNALS. Oh, and the secret origin of the Mole Man too! The story is again by Roger Stern with artwork by Mike Manley who makes everything look like a Saturday morning cartoon drawn by Jack Kirby. And yes, that's a very good thing.

It's too bad that MARVEL UNIVERSE didn't find enough of an audience in the late 1990s as writer Stern and editor Tom Brevoort had many other story ideas on the drawing board. Sadly, it was not to be but the two story arcs that were published were winners in my book. Thumbs up.