The Ghost Brigades

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

My review

rating: 4 of 5 references to other scifi authors I dig!
As fun as the first Old Man's War, and in many ways better.

I don't season food when I cook it. I prepare the food, put it on the table and allow the partakers to "season to [their own:] taste". I've adopted this habit after having many people tell me that I am too heavy handed with the salt. Occasionally when eating out someone in the group will mention that a dish is "too salty", I like to think of these dishes as being made "just for me".

Occasionally I use this metaphor to describe non-food offerings, i.e.:
Unbreakable [comic (check), divorce (check), father (check), ... (someone made this "just for me"!) ]
Lego (check) Star Wars (check) video game (check) [this one is all in the title]
Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness [comics, zombies, and ASH! I still SHOW this to people just to convince them it exists!]

The list goes on and on, but you get the point.

Back to The Ghost Brigades... Scalzi throws together science fiction, action, war, fatherhood, and the rest in just the right combination for a truly entertaining read. One warning, if you read it and find it "too salty", just remember that it was written for grownups... or maybe it was written "just for me".





View all my reviews.

Breaking Bad (season 1)

Awesome tv show, about a high school chemistry teacher who turns to cooking crystal meth when he finds out he has terminal lung cancer. This show is even more fun than it sounds (and contains one of the greatest mormon missionary references I've ever seen in pop culture!)

4 of 5 paranoid meth heads.

p.s. Bryan Cranston won the Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series Emmy for this show... so check it out!

Revolver

So myManMacomber and I were talking about movies that employ some version of an unreliable narrator, and he asks me if I've seen Revolver. I wasn't sure, so I asked him to "hum a few bars"*... after a short description I said "Yeah I totally saw that, that was the one where they smeared it in your face that they hadn't ever said the name of the main character right?" he says "I can't remember, but yeah maybe, that sounds about right"... we traded bits like this back and forth for a while, and while each one seemed familiar neither he nor I was able to actually lock down any one piece or part that we both remembered. In the end he was talking about Revolver but I was thinking of Layer Cake, a film that really doesn't have THAT much in common with Revolver... that said I thought Revolver the better film.

I'd give it 3 out of 5 times I felt like an idiot for confusing it with Layer Cake.

* I love the original joke:
there's a noisy party with a guy playing the piano overly loud. Another guy walks up to him and says "Hey, do you know there's a little old lady upstairs trying to sleep?" And the piano player says "No, but hum a few bars and I'll fake it!"

Baby Mama (or: 1 down, 3 to go)

Despite Deb's assurances that she wouldn't actually hold me to 4 chick flix just for season one of Dexter I thought we'd better focus on the "Romantic Comedy" genre when searching for something at Blockbuster over the weekend. Unfortunately Deb had already seen 3 out of 5 of the romantic comedies we considered on this particular Blockbuster trip.

I haven't watched 30 Rock, but the recent slew of Tina Fey skits on SNL made this seem like a good choice. It's a good solid rental. I did have problems with the ending so if you haven't seen this, but plan to then STOP READING NOW... The movie established a "happy" ending by delivering what we had been informed had a "billion to one" chance of happening. I felt a little betrayed. At that point they might as well have had aliens show up and HAND Tina Fey's character a baby (it would have been more plausible and more entertaining!).

[update]I'm going to assume that this one was better than 3 out of the 5 romantic comedies that Deb watched without me.

NetFlix Baby Mama (2008) add to your queue

Spider in the street

Deb, Zack, and I were headed away from my parent's house on Sunday when we saw this guy walking down the street. There is a teacher at Zack's school who has a few tarantulas so we decided to catch this one to add to that collection. The only thing I can add in defense of my less-than-manly behavior during the process of capturing the spider is that while you probably can't see it during the video, the spider is pretty aggressive and at one point jumps at my hand (but is stopped by the plastic container).
video

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Emmalee, Zack, Deb, and I all went to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Friday night. Though I've heard nothing but bad reviews I tried to go in with an open mind. I don't care what anyone else tells you, this is a great kids movie.
It's a KID'S MOVIE. It was designed to entertain CHILDREN. Great storytelling occurs when the audience identifies with an idea, emotion, archetype (,...) that the story crafter(s) intended. Until we figure out how to communicate ideas in a fully realized form, we are limited by the medium used for communication (in this case a movie). That said, if you recognize that this movie was made for KIDS, and try to watch it through a child's eyes I think you will see some genuine gems within it. Here's my short list:
-Jabba the Hutt creating a new front in the Clone Wars by sending bounty hunters, Separatists, and Jedi to rescue his kidnapped son. Even bad guys love their kids!
-Anakin getting a padawan, learning some of the lessons that BEING a mentor can provide (as opposed to HAVING a mentor)
-Beautiful style. The look and feel of the film is beautiful. At times it looks almost as though it were animated via stop frame as opposed to CGI.
-I've had to read the "opening crawl" to my daughter whenever we have seen a Star Wars movie in the past (not that I mind particularly, but sometime I feel like I'm disturbing the other theater goers). This time the crawl is replaced by a newsreel type opening that I thoroughly enjoyed (as did Em). Also during the movie there are no subtitles that need read to younger kids.
-...
-I have heard that this movie serves as the pilot for a television series. I love the idea that there could be dozens of episodes, dozens of hours of new Star Wars content available for me to enjoy with my daughter. And this show is easily up to par with any of the Saturday morning cartoons that Em has been interested in lately.

Don't get me wrong, the movie is far from perfect, but as a kid's movie it is much better than most reviews would have you believe.

3 out of 5 Star Wars factions turned on each other.

Things Change

another Mamet movie... mafia related this time. I dug the whole thing right up until the end, the VERY end. Unfortunately that ending kinda popped me out of an otherwise excellent movie.

3 of 5 favors owed.

State and Main

Rented it because it was another Mamet movie... Again, probably not the "type" of Mamet movie that I dig... But if you wanted to see a satire of Hollywood movie making, I can't think of a better DVD to rent.

3 of 5 ensemble cast members (low end)

The Unit (seasons 1-3)

I'll admit that the first time I caught an episode of The Unit while flipping through channels I couldn't take that Allstate guy seriously as a Covert Ops / Special Forces operator. It wasn't until after seeing Redbelt recently that I was reminded that it was "created for television" by David Mamet. The show IS everything I dig about Mamet stuff. These characters live and breath one liners.

4 out of 5 members of the 303rd Logistical Studies Group Alpha Team:
Snake Doctor, Dirt Diver, Betty Blue, and Cool Breeze...

The Winslow Boy

2/5... another Mamet misfire?
Based on someone else's play, which is based on actual events, occurring in 1912 London, ... yawn... probably another case of inappropriate expectations. I typically watch Mamet stuff for his awesome ability to turn a phrase. Those lines that are so rich you find yourself saying them out loud to yourself after they play (actually, maybe that is just a sign that I watch too many movies home alone...). That said there is ONE line like that in the movie, and if you watch the movie you can't miss it (it's literally the last line of dialog spoken). Because of that, for me at least, it felt like a 100 minute setup for ONE Mamet line.

oleander

2/5 stars...
This was the best workplace training video on sexual harassment that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I rented this because of David Mamet, so I was hoping for something more like Redbelt, Spartan, The Unit, ...

Southland Tales

OK, I'm clearly not as smart as I thought I was, because I am in the dark on this one. I understand that it is a satire, I even laughed out loud more than once while viewing. But when the movie was over I was left with an overwhelming feeling that I had missed something very important? I hear that there is a graphic novel prequel, that is really ought to be the first 1/2 of the film? I'm considering picking that up and re-viewing to see if this one makes any more sense???

Heist

"Well, I tried to imagine a fellow smarter than myself. Then I tried to think, what would he do?"
This movie has more "quotables" than you can shake a stick at...

4 of 5 overly paranoid backup plans.

The Incredible Hulk

As good a hulk movie as I can imagine being made!

4 of 5 awesome transformations...

The Dark Knight

Best joker ever.
Get ready for a ride (if a little long)...
Some of the best lines in a comic book movie ever.

A strong 4 of 5 disposable henchmen...

Definitely, Maybe

Romantic comedy about a divorced, father coming of age in his mid-thirties... with a Broadway musical song sung on screen! Does a great job portraying a great Father/Daughter dynamic that I wish surfaced in more movies.

Sometimes I find a movie where I am the target audience.

A strong 4 out of 5 awesome DVD special features.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Caught this one over the weekend with Runk. I dug it. My only real complaint was that I didn't take Em. She is a big Hellboy fan, but she and I agreed that I should probably see it first to make sure it would be OK for her to view. So now I'm really looking forward to taking her to see it (probably catch the early show next weekend).

4 of 5 visually stunning characters.

Mongol

After Wanted, Runk and I headed over to see Mongol. It was really good in a totally different way than Wanted. It's a little slow at points, but it's an art movie and you get a history lesson at the same time... so quit complaining! Click the image to check out the trailer.

4 of 5 wagon wheels that saved Temüjin's life

Wanted

Runk and I hit this and Mongol last night. This one is an adaptation of a comic book that I would previously have thought could NOT be adapted into a movie. In the end I think the film makers did an amazing job capturing the spirit of the comic while creating a film that has a much broader appeal.


4 of 5 physics defying bullets

The Tombs of Atuan

I love a good story about faith (even misplaced?).
This one was ONLY a Newbery Honor book (but too good to pass up).

4 out of 5 thoughts provoked.