Al's Reviews

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2008-05-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

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The Appeal - By John Grisham

2008-05-18T02:47:00.001-07:00

Title

Grisham's legal thriller offers a warning, but little depth.

Review

The story behind The Appeal involves a multimillion dollar lawsuit against a blue-chip chemical firm who has been accused of knowingly dumping hazardous waste, thus causing numerous cancer-related deaths. The story begins at the end of this lawsuit, where the trial has just been lost. With the trial lost they attempt to subvert the upcoming appeal in their favour.

What is initially apparent is that Grisham chooses to focus on the plot rather than the characters - with great detriment. They have no depth whatsoever, and any characterisation is based on every cliché in the book - the evil corporation magnate, his vapid, spoilt wife, shadowy governmental fixers and corrupt senators - with little sign of any attempt to flesh out these stereotypes.

Now, thinking about this I wondered if is purely because of the format of this story. After all, Grisham wants to talk about the US legal system, not bog himself down with weighty characters who will dilute his message. If you choose to put this aside, and accept the novel on its merits and for what it is, what you ultimately end up with is a very downbeat piece of work, and as much as you feel Grisham would want this to be an allegory of sorts, where those who are evil have righteous justice served and the good are rewarded, instead he reflects a legal world which is as easily infiltrated and corrupted by those with power as every other medium.

Despite this, and with the novel's interesting ending (to go into any more detail would be a disservice to those who have not read it), and a rushed sense of incompleteness, I can't help but think Grisham has finished with this story. And yet I can't think of this as a story, more as a stark warning - you feel Grisham is speaking from a heightened perspective. This work may be fiction, but you sense there is more than an element of truth within its pages.

Darko Director attempts Kubrickian madness and comes up short

2008-05-11T02:20:00.001-07:00

Donnie Darko is a great film, with one caveat. It has no resolution. There is no deeper meaning, no hidden context within its narrative. It makes little sense for no other reason that writer and director Richard Kelly chose obscurity over truth, narrative over reality.

Kelly himself has admitted there are 'no answers' to the questions viewers inevitable prompt once the final credits in Donnie Darko rolls. Therefore it is hard to watch Darko again without the nagging voice in your head complaining that those logical gaps you see are nothing but frustrating logical gaps. Where Richard Kelly succeeded with Darko is that the story is compelling and weird enough to forgive his sleight of hand.

Southland Tales is exactly like this but Kelly fails to reproduce the little world charm and mysterious and subtle direction of his directorial debut. Instead we have a retrospective Apocalypse re-played out over a veritable smorgasbord of misfits, porn stars, people who are clones of themself, a musical interlude, perpetual motion and a nuclear holocaust, all crammed into a frustrating first half hour where all elements are thrown onto the screen in a vague hope that something will stick. It's maddeningly incoherent - as though Kelly saw a three year throwing paint onto a sheet of paper and thought he could replicate the sentiment on-screen.

Kelly's template appears to be Dr. Strangelove - forgetting that in its element Kubrick's masterpiece was chaotic within its simplicity. Southland Tales opts for complexity and hopes somewhere along the line the message will reveal itself to the audience. The problem is that the audience will have switched off long before this happens.

David Wellington - Monster Island

2008-04-09T13:14:00.001-07:00

The Zombie genre is a well trod, yet stubbornly narrow path. Despite these limitations people still find ways to create new variations of worlds where the undead have rule the earth.

Monster Island is one particular variation I haven't seen before. The story begins with Delkab, an ex-UN Inspector who travels to New York from Somalia via a sea-trawler on a mission to retrieve life saving drugs for a African overlord, months after a zombie outbreak has destroyed any semblance of modern society. An interesting twist - involving a zombie who's just a bit smarter than the average bear - occurs a third of the way in and Delkab finds himself and the Somalian girl-warriors diverted from their mission to save themselves and the living who remain in the city.

New York is a perfect location for the undead, being both beautiful and poetic in its transition from tourist hub to a lifeless tomb to the death of modern society. Wellington makes an effort to show us all the sites, shorn of their light and bustle and life. It's not quite a bleak post-apocalyptic world (if you can call a zombie infestation such) as, say, Cormac McCarthy's weightily-grim The Road, but the story takes us to a deadly silent Times Square and invites the reader to imagine such a dead, empty world with great effect. Sadly, Wellington's novel never reaches the gravitas that McCarthy attains with heartbreaking ease.

Monster Island is a zombie story through and through. It even has 'A Zombie Novel' printed on the front of the paperback. It nails its colours to its mast. Be in no doubt here; the characters are all a backdrop to the actual meat of the story itself - the undead. Because of this the story both fails and succeeds. Wellington has some good ideas, taking the genre in an interesting direction, but singularly fails by very lightweight characterisation, cringe-worthy dialogue and not knowing when to reign the invention in. Most notable is the ending which requires various energetic leaps of faith by the reader. This particular reader wishes Wellington's editor had been paying closer attention with the naughty stick.

He also lacks the writing chops to convey the story beyond a very flat narrative. Wellington tells us what goes on: he can't evoke. The horror isn't any deeper than the 'click here to add more gore' approach and there's little dimension to any of the characters beyond a bit-part character in a Buffy The Vampire Hunter episode. Simply put: it lacks ambition.

But give Wellington some chops. In spite of the above I enjoyed the action scenes and he weaves a good story. But for those who are after more than a shock-horror-gore-zombie novel - be prepared for disappointment. If you are - great. If not - it is a shame because the ideas are worth much more than box-ticking genre-pulp fiction. If this was in the hands of a writer who had more enterprise, or one who was less blinkered to the genre, then Zombie Island could have been something quite special.

King would have aced it.

John Courtney Grimwood - End Of The World Blues

2008-04-05T03:41:00.001-07:00

This is my first experience of John Courtney Grimwood, and it is a positive one. His characters are well rounded, with a particularly good ear for dialogue. He's also keen on cross-genre writing - a concept as a writer I'm in favour of. When mixing genres it's important to maintain the integrity of the story underneath: the mix is nothing without a compelling narrative. End Of The World Blues succeeds, but in spite of this.

In End of The World Blues (henceforth known as EOTWB) we have two parallel stories - one set in modern day Japan and the other in a future version of what appears to be a dying Earth. While the story following Kit, an English bar owner in Tokyo, soon to have a number of live changing events is a conventional thriller, the parallel narrative following Neku, a princess living within a 'sentient' castle in the future, jarrs in its execution.

Yet apart from Neko and her appearance in Kit's life in modern day Japan, these parallel narratives keep a firm distance apart. Barring the odd tweak you could remove the science fiction mix from EOTWB without being any the worse off. The question is: why is it there? My problem with the sci-fi element is not that it's unwelcome, but that less attention has been furnished to the future world than with more conventional real world. Grimwood doesn't give the reader the time to relate to characters in the future earth - each one is weak, unmemorable and for the most part unlikeable, whereupon in the real world each character has depth and and human, modern day interest - that Grimwood has been unable - or unwilling - to translate to the future portion of the novel.

Grimwood is an engaging writer, sharp and witty, yet is subtle enough with his characterisations that cliches are avoided and surprises are unexpected. He puts me in mind of a less romantic Michael Marshall Smith, thin on hyperbole but generous with allowing his characters space. I will look forward to reading more of his work.

Blood Diamond

2008-04-05T03:35:00.001-07:00

Blood Diamond Review

The last two films I have seen based in Southern Africa are The Constant Gardener and, most recently, Blood Diamond. Both movies paint a thoroughly depressing picture of oppression that will no doubt have the local Tourist Board pulling their hair out.

The truth is that as brilliant a film Blood Diamond is it is equally depressing. When inundated with shot after shot of abuse, murder, rape, kids taking heroin, more abuse, whole villages being razed to the ground and children with guns shooting indiscriminately it is hard to put the plot on the back burner and spend the entire movie feeling incredibly sorry for those who live there.

While Blood Diamond is not a true story the elements that comprise the political and social aspects are based on the diamond trade in various countries in South Africa. You can visit the Blood Diamond website (http://blooddiamondmovie.warnerbros.com/) and browse locations and events following the conflict diamond impact. Necessary reading.

It is easy for the subject matter to overwhelm the film, a shame as it is both beautifully shot and acted with conviction by all present. While DiCaprio surprises and conveys the word 'harrassed' with every fraught frown, Benin born Djimon Hounsou takes the honours as the more than convincing father searching for his family in war torn Sierra Leone.

The ending provides some resolution, but based against the reality of the situation it could be accused of being something more than just hopeful. While a more realistic resolution would be the more brave option, perhaps it would be more than a westernised audience could bear. While Blood Diamond attempts to show us the diamond trade unfiltered, it is at the end where the film loses its nerve.

1408

2008-03-21T04:08:00.001-07:00

1408 is based on a short story by Stephen King. Initially published in the audiobook collection Blood and Smoke it eventually made its way onto print form with the short story collection 'Everything's Eventual'. At heart a haunted hotel story, Swedish Director Mikael Hafstrom keeps things simple with only one character on screen for most of its running time. Two if you count room 1408.

Cusack is excellent as Mike Enslin, a character himself haunted with the death of his daughter and the subsequent end of his marriage. This is a catharsis for a grinding ennui as he travels to self-publicised haunted hotspots, where self-serving establishment owners embellish tales of haunted rooms so Enslin can record them in his latest book. A mysterious postcard points him towards the Dolphin Hotel and Room 1408 where his interest is piqued by the apparent reluctance of the hotel manager - a nicely restrained Samuel L Jackson - to allow him to spend the night in 1408. Enslin talks his way in - and from there the fun begins.

In effect 1408 is an extended Twilight Zone episode, but completed with King's deft touch for personal horror, Cusack's energetic turn and an excellent cast (Fans of HBO's The Wire will chuckle at Isiah Whitlock Jr's brief cameo) along with a willingness to remain true to the format of the genre. Cusack's performance alone is worth the price of admission.

1408 tends to tailspin towards the end, the twists thrown up are clunky and obvious, although as a long term reader of Mr King's work I can attest to the fact that whilst King is one of the greatest fiction writers of our generation his endings are a hit and miss affair. Jackson is underused, and disappears for the majority of the movie, a surprise given the dual billing. One wonders - should one be a cynic - if Jackson's bankability is the sole reason for this. The horror, when it comes, is curiously archaic, steeped in the 1950s, its decor similar to room 1408 itself, yet oddly welcome in the day and age where excess gore and shock-torture has become a byword for modern horror.

For that I'm glad 1408 is around.

Welcome to MacJournal!

2008-02-19T12:13:00.000-08:00

Welcome

To get started, create a new entry by clicking on “New Entry” in the toolbar or choosing “New Entry” from the File menu. You can also drag files from the Finder in to the Sidebar or the Entries list to import them as an entry. Show the Inspector from the View menu to see settings for the current entry, journal, and document.

What's new in version 5?

All new interface, built for Mac OS X Leopard.

Add any kind of content, not just text. Drag PDFs, QuickTime movies, images, and more into the Sidebar to create an entry with anything on your computer.

Open more than one MacJournal document at a time and save them wherever you want, or just use the default document and never worry about saving.

Create Smart Journals from searches you perform.

Create aliases to entries that you can store in other journals.

Assign each entry a rating, status, and priority, and sort any journal by those values.

Record video from your iSight and attach it to any entry.

Performance enhancements for working with large numbers of entries.

Mind’s Eye, by Paul McCauley

2008-02-03T04:20:00.001-08:00

Mind's Eye Review

I noticed this book in the library. I had been a big fan of the excellent White Devils, but - criminally - I lost the book, the title and the name of the author amidst a pile of 300 or so paperbacks stored at my parents house during a move into my apartment a few years back. Eventually I came across White Devils during a hunt for Stephen King's Dark Tower, and thus emboldened I endeavoured to pick up some more of McCauley's work.

Having no other experience of the author I expected the same taut, action-packed, neo-political novel White Devils had been. In fact Mind's Eye is quite a departure in a number of ways. Gone is the broad scope of a future Africa, replaced with a meandering 30-something wandering through London, attempting to track down a graffiti artist whose artwork has parallels to a childhood accident that renders him susceptible to epileptic fits. Gone is the tight dialogue of White Devils, replaced with light, chatty conversation, even amidst violent action scenes. This works: to a point. While McCauley nods a head at humour you never really feel convinced these characters are real.

The difference is style is also remarkable. If I read both books without knowing the author I would not have thought they were the same person.

On the front of the book is a quote from Michael Marshall Smith, and I'm not surprised this author is here. McCauley's style is similar to Marshall-Smith's, most notably with the characters and his invocation of London, but here he lacks Smith's humour and ability to write from the heart.

The story is engaging at first, but shows its cards too early and the last third drags on. McCauley writes London well, but fails to match this once we leave England and head abroad. Another surprising turn, seeing as White Devils crossed many countries without once failing to convince.

I think I'll pick up more McCauley work in the future, but I admit Mind's Eye is a disappointment.

The Contract review

2007-11-12T14:44:00.001-08:00

‘The Contract’ gets lost in the woods.

Two out of three isn’t bad. Powerful, legendary actor Morgan Freeman? Check. Dynamic, every-man John Cusack? Check. Sharply plotted script, tailored in mind to the talents two well-respected and versatile actors in their prime? Er, pass.

The Contract is a tired, lazy effort, anaemic in its plot, acting, ambition and direction. About a half way through the movie a sinking feeling develops when you realise that the movie is as bad as the first 30 minutes suggests. The movie plods on, ticking all the story arcs like a marathon runner on his last mile, any sense of threat dispelled by a paint-by-numbers story-line so predictable it will evoke groans from its audience. While Morgan can phone this type of performance in during breakfast, it is Cusack who disappoints the most, all sharpness and wit drained out of him by a script clearly not written with him in mind.

Avoid. There are better Freeman and Cusack movies out there.

Current Reads

2007-10-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

In between bouts of other equally distracting entertainment I am currently reading: -

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

About a third of the way through the audiobook version. Great story so far, quite different to what I usually read.

Hilldiggers - Neal Asher

I've generally gotten bored of sci-fi in general, so am finding myself skipping through a lot. I'm near the end - I like Asher's sense of humour that runs through his writing. His take on AI and his vision of The Polity is quite intruiging.

Transformers review

2007-10-16T00:57:00.000-07:00

Transformers – The Movie

*** out of Five

Let’s be under no misunderstanding here. This movie is designed for one thing and one thing only: to sell you, the moviegoer, the concept that everything up there on the screen is for sale at your nearest available toy store.

The movie is nothing more than 244 minutes of product placement on behalf of Hasbro in the form of a passable, frenetic action movie that struggles from the constraints placed upon it by a distinct lack of depth in the plot. What saves the movie is the remarkable special effects, a capable turn by teen protagonist Shia LeBeouf (of the equally plot malnourished Disturbia) and a general willingness by Director Michael Bay to not get overly serious about the whole shebang.

Bay is the perfect Director for this; full on action, one-liners, helicopters framed in bright Californian sun and super-dooper slow motion during the big fights as if to say ‘check this out – impressive CG, non?’.

And the CG is impressive, overwhelmingly so. Once you’ve watched perfectly rendered robots fight for an hour you begin to forget to be wowed, and then the critical faculty begins to kick in. For one thing the robots are both too complicated (watch when Optimus Prime transforms for the first time into his robotic form – so much is moving and transforming that your brain begins to lurk at the back of your head like a frightened puppy) and yet they are stubbornly close to their toy counterparts, daubed in bright primary colours that is at complete contracts to the 25 foot high metallic killing machines. So whilst cars, people and scenery are thrown around and generally demolished with exhilarating frequency, you still can’t get over the fact that these are still toys, not robots from space. It’s like the UN sending in Tanks painted in lime green and orange.

The story itself is a sponsored by back of fags production, but all the same it’s very hard to be critical on a movie that never was going to be anything else other than an orgy of non-stop CG destruction involving massive missile firing robots. It helps that Bay attempts to interject humour into almost every human scene, ably supported by the cast, mainly LeBeouf, followed by a quirky, nonsensical (yet underused) John Turturro and an always game John Voight.

It could be said that the most satisfying thing about Transformers is that it is a capable movie, is able to raise the requisite laughs, looks pretty and delivers the audience pretty much what it expects. Hasbro will sleep easy, knowing their franchise will continue into Transformers 2 and beyond, but it will be interesting to see if Bay – should he pick up the mantle – can pull off the same parlour trick twice.

Current Stuff: -

2007-08-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading:

(deep breath)

The System Of The World - Neal Stephenson
Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson
Accelerando - Charles Stross
GUD Magazine - issue 2
The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke (audiobook)

'48 - James Herbert

2007-08-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

Just finished the audiobook version of this novel.

Despite the narrator occasionally slipping into a faux William Shatner this was an enjoyable piece of candy floss. It comes across more like an action movie than a book.

What I did notice was the references to I Am Legend. There's the dog, the single-survivor-syndrome, the narrator's wife dying of the disease. Didn't bother me that much but it did come across a bit blatant.

Overall 7/10. Nothing major but it did pass the time.

Accelerando - Charles Stross

2007-07-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

Must admit I'm 100 odd pages in and I'm struggling. It's all techno-
info overload, but without any wit or verve, kind of like a third
rate Neal Stephenson-Snow-Crash era.

Hope it picks up