Noooooo, not YOU people!! “sick B*STARDS” is the title of a new book by Matt Shaw, for which 4-LAN has written a great review over at his blog, “What I am Reading.”
It actually sounds like a really interesting, no-holds-barred, intense postapocalyptic horror novel — read the robot’s review right here:
http://thebookmarketingnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/what-i-am-reading-28
Politics: A Haiku
red rats, blue weasels —
opportunistic little
mammals dart at votes.
© Eric Robert Nolan 2013
First published by Dead Snakes, July 2013:
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/07/eric-robert-nolan-three-poems.html
Image from “Die Gartenlaube,” 1870.
If you liked Elizabeth Olsen in “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” then check out “Silent House.” She hit it out of the park, and the movie is a cool horror-thriller that I think was unfairly panned.
This was my review.
BLADE RUNNER.
It’s only fun until someone loses their eyes.
I have already queried the uber-nerd community on Facebook with this. (I got connections, Baby.) No response yet, so I figured I’d try to crowdsource it.
THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MATTER, PEOPLE. Stop whatever you’re doing right now and attend to it. Shoot me an e-mail instead of commenting; thanks. 🙂
[“Oooooookay, Mr. Pete Harrison. Since you are the Internet’s resident vintage horror comic expert, maybe you or your friends can help me track down a comic from my childhood.
It was published in the late 70’s or early 80’s, and was a damn cool horror anthology. My parents bought it for me when I was around 7, on a family trip to Tennessee.
One story focused on a creepy kid who lived with his family by the ocean — he might have been a lighthouse keeper’s son. He finds a huge, mysterious egg that washes up with the tide, takes it home, and secretly cares for it. It hatches into a monster.
Another story was about a woman whose sprawling garden got possessed by demons or ghosts — these long viny plants sprouted screaming skulls at their tips. It had a happy ending — she vanquished the baddies. The last line of the story explained that she paved over the garden with concrete, and assiduously repaved it again every year.
Anyone know what I’m talking about?”]
[WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR “THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.”] Fun, fun, fun! Earth’s Mightiest Heroes roar back onto the screen with nearly all of the action, humor and spectacle of the wonderful original — I would give “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015) a 9 out of 10.
It’s got everything that you could ask for in a superhero movie, including another great villain in the form of James Spader’s “Ultron,” beautifully animated by CGI. A surprise standout was Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch. She’s a great young actress whose work I really liked in 2011’s terribly under-appreciated horror-thriller, “Silent House.” She’s got perfect line delivery. I’d love to see future Avengers films include her in the lineup, so that she can trade quips with Tony Stark.
There’s some great writing — the backstory for the twins was suitably dark, and was a perfect motive for a hatred of Stark. The banter might not be as funny as the first film, but was still quite good. And there’s some nice thematic continuity with Marvel’s planned “Civil War” storyline.
The movie falls short of perfection with the occasional misstep. For example, the flashbacks/hallucinations that various characters suffer were clumsy, overdone, and sometimes befuddling. Compare them with similar scenes in movies like “12 Monkeys” (1995) or “Donnie Darko” (2001), or well made television shows like “LOST.” Captain America’s worst fear is some lame “The war is over” existential bullshit? No. Cap is supposed to be the personification of freedom and democracy — his worst nightmare would be a totalitarian state. Or an undead Bucky. Or better yet, being a man out of time, it would be the loss of his friends, his family and his true love.
A key conversation between two key characters at the end about mankind’s future is just a little too depressing for an Avengers movie. Also a little sad? The suggestion that the team’s lineup would change. Our existing roster is terrific — the fan’s love ’em and I believe all the actors are under contract. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Postscript: this movie is interesting because it shows the same superhero starring in competing film franchises. Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s “Quicksilver” is the very same Marvel Comics’ speedster we saw played (and scripted with much more fun) last year by Evan Peters in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” (There, he’s simply referred to as “a guy” or “Maximoff,” for copyright considerations, I guess.)
My friend Stephen Paolini is posting a serialized novel over at Wattpad!! It’s got a hell of a creative premise (see the synopsis below) and sounds like a great read.
http://www.wattpad.com/story/37961978-blood-and-fire
Stephen is posting two chapters a day. Online serialized novels can be loads of fun — it’s how I fell in love with the novels of Dave Wellington. And it’s 100 percent free!
Stephen is a leader in the independent lit community, and he consistently works hard to support the efforts of new and emerging writers. Please take a look at this cool sounding tale. And if your friends are fans of vampire stories or action-fantasy, pass it along! 🙂
[“In a world where vampires seek to enslave humans and use them as cattle for the slaughter, one force stands in the way of their conquest.
Planet Draconos used to be ruled by dragons eons before human or vampire existed. Now commanded by the sun deity, Pyronius, the mighty winged serpents have become linked to the humans they have vowed to protect. When a dragon is hatched at the same moment a human is born, the two become life partners-dragon and rider.
Now in planet Draconos’s most desperate hour, a boy is born both vampire and Dragon rider. Considered freaks, the unlikely boy and dragon are forced to live a life of exile until recent events throw the duo into the world at war.
Will Nick and Drake side with the Dragon riders and help them turn the tide of war in their favor? Or will the ancient vampire, Vlad, corrupt our heroes with the evil powers of the Ooze?”]
When one twin mouths off
Do angry dyslexic Dads
Slap the wrong sibling?
© Eric Robert Nolan 2013
I wrote this short poem 23 years ago, as a junior at Mary Washington College. It was first published by The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archives in July 2013:
http://iwvpa.net/nolaner/zz-november.php
November, Blue Ridge Mountains, 1992
November compelled us to visit the hills,
Where ignorant rock and lofty pine
Were witness to our disregard
For strangeness, temptation and time.
But memories are sticky things.
Will any mountain ever let
Me dream again? Can I now
Feel rain without regret?
(c) Eric Robert Nolan 1992
Photo credit: Dave in the Triad, via Wikimedia Commons, “Rough Ride Tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” October 2008
I’m again blogging old movie reviews from Facebook. In retrospect, I maybe should have given this clever, unexpected gem a 9 out of 10. I am also a little confused about whether there was a sequel to this movie, entitled “The Regret.” (Or was that an overseas title for this film?)
*****
I really liked “The Tall Man” (2012) though I can tell right away that many other viewers will not. And it’s hard to explain why, because this is a “twist movie” that’s difficult to discuss without spoilers. The film that you sit down to watch absolutely is not the same film that you wind up seeing.
The movie opens with Jessica Biel as an idealistic doctor in a gorgeous but very poor Washington State small town. The town’s children sporadically disappear, according to a creepy and wonderfully effective montage, and townsfolk blame the supernatural “Tall Man.” For a while, it’s a first-rate thriller. I jumped a few times.
Then there’s a twist.
Then, in the movie’s final 10 minutes, there’s another twist that affects the first. And there’s a hell of a lot of moral ambiguity. (Or maybe not – I, for one, disagreed with and would have hated the prevailing character.)
I thought the whole thing was smart, creative and frightening. Jessica Biel did a great job. The sweeping pans of the forest are fantastic – was it partly CGI? Did they use a helicopter?
It actually isn’t a perfect mystery. There are a few implausibilities. One character is far too well adjusted for his or her circumstances, one character conceals something for no reason, and the young mute girl’s decision makes no sense, if you consider what she does and does not know.
Still – good movie. I’d give it an 8 out of 10.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 