Me: Can we at least give Donald Trump credit for moving quickly to prepare for his presidency? He’s really Russian around to make these cabinet picks.
Pal: I did Nazi that coming.
Me: Let’s just not get upset over who he selects. If he makes a bad choice, So vi et.
Pal 2: I have a hard time Putin my faith in this schmuck.
I’ve mentioned this before, but the mountains around Roanoke are so high that their peaks ascend the clouds. You can see them from our back porch.
I will never tire of seeing that.
This is my face after trying the chicken for the first time …
Southerners, I salute you!!!
Me: “This barbecue sauce is good. Strong, though.”
GF: “That’s not barbecue sauce. That’s ketchup.”
So Dr. Strange was pretty good — I’d give it a B+ for being a competent superhero origin movie that mostly handles its fantasy story devices quite well. The script smartly translates the story’s magical elements for the average viewer by having them articulated in language that sounds rational, and the rules seem consistent throughout.
It still strays occasionally into cartoonishness. (The astral projection sequences seem silly enough for 1995’s “Caspar the Friendly Ghost.”)
The film has three terrific leads in Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and Mads Mikkelsen. (The first two are allowed to shine; the third seems underused.)
The special effects are dazzling — I remember thinking inwardly throughout the film that an alternate title could be “Better Inception,” at least as far as its visuals are concerned.
All in all, it’s a by-the-numbers superhero origin story that’s still fun — and the special effects alone make it worth seeing.
November 30, 2016.
I saw this as I was loading the car on my last day in Northern Virginia.
A high, narrow rainbow pierces a sepia autumn twilight.
First grade memories … every kid in America made one of these at least once.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Northern Virginia bids the day adieu, with a fiery salute.
I realize that “Fear the Walking Dead” is the show that so many people love to hate. But I myself am just thrilled with it. I’d give the second season a 9 out of 10 for being the show to which I looked forward to the most all week, and for arguably being more enjoyable than … that other zombie show. (Its name escapes me at the moment.)
I suppose it feels smarter than it really is. The pace is slower, there is far more background and context for the story, and I personally feel that there is far better characterization than in its predecessor. (My fellow horror zombie fans strongly disagree, but I always thought that consistent characterization was a problem with “The Walking Dead.”)
As friends and reviewers have pointed out to me, though, it isn’t as smart as it feels. People do dumb things; I’m not sure if it is laziness on the part of the screenwriters or just a lack of good judgement. A typically egregious example is when our seafaring heroes deploy an unwieldy landing party to the beach while literally waiting to be attacked by pirates. Another is the characters’ general apathy about the possibility of infection from blood splatters, from surfaces or from skin-to-dead-skin contact. (We actually see a hero destroy a zombie by inserting his thumbs through its eye sockets into its brains.)
But the show is still damned enjoyable. It has an epic feel. Season 2 opens with a sweeping panorama of a ravaged Los Angeles, seen by a departing boat. We have action by sea and by land, and show visits Mexico. Radio transmissions and the accounts of minor characters further paint the apocalypse broadly.
I actually found the characters identifiable, if not always likable. They just seemed more like real people than their counterparts on “The Walking Dead,” who lean closer to recognizable tropes (the good cop, the kid, the biker-with-a-heart-of-gold, the ninja). The grounded, real-world drama among average, mundane people just made the show’s horror story context more real, and therefore more frightening. (Let’s face it — you and I would probably be far more similar to “Fear’s” Travis, Madison or Alicia than to “The Walking Dead’s” Rick, Daryl or Michonne.)
And I think the subplots and story devices are often just genuinely creepy. The hazards at sea, the boat-to-boat conflict, the outcome of the lighthouse storyline on the dock … a few of the show’s story arcs seemed like they were inspired by the kind of short stories you’d find in the best zombie anthologies. Maybe I enjoyed “Fear” more than other viewers because I like the kind of varying, “situational” horror tales it served up every week. This appealed to me more than the standard colony-vs.-colony stories seen that have grown routine on the show’s progenitor.
All in all, “Fear the Walking Dead” isn’t perfect, but its still a a great horror show.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 