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Worth Dying For by Lee Child Worth Dying For is Child’s 15^th Jack Reacher novel, and picks up right after the conclusion of the 14^th one, 61 Hours.  The plot follows Reacher’s unplanned-for battle against a crime family in a small Nebraska town.  The novel is sheer pulp pleasure, but there are also some clever character bits that reference Reacher’s long and complicated history.  You can enjoy this book apart from the other novels in the series, DIRECTV, but be warned that you’ll be letting yourself in on some clues to the cliffhanger endings of previous novels. Djibouti: A Novel by Elmore Leonard Elmore Leonard continues to amaze with his 48^th novel, Djibouti, in which he also shows off some new tricks.  Most of the story is told in hindsight by documentary filmmaker Dara Barr and her assistant Xavier, who analyze footage of their experiences with a band of Somalian pirates.  Throw in a tanker filled with liquefied natural gas and you have one of Leonard’s most explosive novels yet.  Pretty impressive for someone who just celebrated his 85^th birthday. Dreadnought by Cherie Priest “Steampunk” is a genre that combines alternate history with extravagant technology and other sci-fi/fantasy elements.  Cherie Priest’s latest novel is one of the best examples in recent history, concerning a nurse who is crossing the country in a dirigible to reach her family.  Besides the dirigible and the Dreadnought itself (a renowned steam engine owned by the Union), a conspiracy involving Mexican zombies adds to the surreal universe. Sneak (P)review: Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (Coming in November) Dennis Lehane’s newest (and presumably final) entry in his popular Kenzie & Gennaro detective series is a direct sequel to 1998′s Gone, Baby, Gone (recently made into a critically-acclaimed film directed by Ben Affleck).  The young girl they rescued in that novel is once again missing, and the private eyes must confront the painful memories of their actions during that last case.  Lehane’s writing has always been crisp and his characters have always been complex, and it makes sense that he would return to one of his finest novels for this sendoff to the series.  Don’t even think about reading this without reading at least Gone, Baby, Gone first.  Afterwards, you’ll likely be compelled to track down the other entries in the series.

Remakes have long since been a part of movie history. There have been remakes that were tremendous and those that are utterly forgettable. A look back at cinema history sheds a little light on the good and the bad.

One of the best remakes was the 1950s version of The Ten Commandments. Not much is remembered about the original silent version while the remake is considered a masterpiece. The 1980s version of The Fly is definitely better than the plodding original. War of the Worlds, Three Men and a Baby, and The Birdcage are all considered Read the rest of this entry »

“Comedy is subjective,” so the saying goes, but horror may be even more subjective. Not everybody is scared by the same things, so finding a horror movie guaranteed to scare everyone is not an easy task. They are out there, though. Here are a few horror titles that will scare anybody.

1. Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974). This movie has been called the beginning of modern slasher movies. It’s creepy, disturbing, and has plenty of scenes to make you jump out of your seat.

2. The Shining (1980). This movie has a couple of scares early on, but mostly it perfects the Read the rest of this entry »

Families all over the world have “Movie Night”. It is a night where all members of the family gather around the television and watch a movie together with their favorite snacks and drinks. It is a way to come together all at one time and provides clean family fun. So what are some of the best family movie night titles of all times and why?
Well there are now some oldies but goods and lots of new movies. Oldies are always good to introduce to children do most family movies from back in the day were Read the rest of this entry »

The film business is like any other, there are winners and there are losers. It’s the competition that drives studio directors and actors to put on their best performances to both progress their career, but also in hopes of selling to a ticket to get into the theatre. But as time has taught us, that isn’t always the case. With every block busting thriller, there is more than a handful of movies each week that just don’t seem to make Read the rest of this entry »

2010 was a fantastic year for films, and Oscar winner The Kings Speech was not even the best film. That honor would go to Winter’s Bone.

Winter’s Bone, starring Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, is an unforgettable noir style thriller set in the Ozarks. Lawrence was not the only Oscar nominee, as John Hawkes also picked up a nod for his unforgettable performance as the sadistic Teardrop.

A close runner up for best picture would be Toy Story 3. Nobody Read the rest of this entry »

2011 just may end up going down as the year of the super-hero at the Cineplex. With no less than five major releases built around characters that star in “comic books, www.mycomicshop.com, super heroes will be everywhere. Seth Rogen already starred in Green Hornet, and Thor, starring Natalie Portman will open May 6th. Two of the most anticipated movies of the summer debut in June, with X-Men: First Class, focusing on the early adventures of the X-men Read the rest of this entry »

With the release of the Apples in Stereo’s seventh studio album, Travellers in Space and Time, the band is not in any danger of losing its existing fans. Most of those fans have been devouring the Apples’ neo-psych pop nuggets for years, along with those of the other members of the Elephant Six Collective, and so they know to expect some changes from each new album. For instance, debut Fun Trick Noisemaker was raw and lo-fi, while on The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone the band began incorporating R&B influences and a less-orchestrated sound. The new album is a continuation of some of the band’s former trends, and is a treat for fans in many regards. For new listeners, though, there should be just one question: why haven’t you heard of these guys before?The sound of the record can be classified as “progressive pop R&B for the wireless internet age.” The music certainly sounds modern, but the lyrics are filtered through a ’70s sci-fi lens. For example, stand-out track “Dignified Dignitary” offers the reminder: “Even in the middle of the city/When you are flying in the taxi/Above the people and machinery/Tell it to the dignitary,” while kicking into one of most aggressive guitar riffs on the album. Read the rest of this entry »

Movie-going audiences have a fickle relationship with the remake. Most of the time, they offer one of two criticisms:1. The original film was already great, and a remake is simply an excuse to try to draw more money from itOR2.The original film wasn’t that great, and a remake is simply an excuse to try to draw more money from it.Either way, most remakes don’t get associated with artistic merit. That means that, despite the fact that directors Joel & Ethan Coen call their upcoming film “True Grit” a “second adaptation” of the 1968 novel, most people are simply going to see it as a remake of the 1969 John Wayne film. The original definitely falls in the “already great” category, with a rating of 88 on the movie consensus site Rotten Tomatoes. It seems an odd choice for the Coens, who have made their career on individualistic and original films like “Miller’s Crossing” (1990), “Barton Fink” (1991), and “Fargo” (1996). Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, September 19, ABC’s supernatural series The Gates concluded its first season with a 2-part finale. The series has been plagued with spotty viewership and critics who instantly wrote it off as a cheap Twilight/True Blood knockoff. Those who did tune in found a flawed but compelling amalgam of genres, similar to the crime and horror elements found in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels. Instead of private eyes, though, The Gates focused on the workings of a small police force in a seriously unique gated community. Read the rest of this entry »