Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

1917 (2019)

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Technically ambitious and completely immersive, 1917 (2019), co-written and directed by Sam Mendes, is a uniquely powerful war film that says, yeah, war sucks, but during war, people go above and beyond simply because they must.

It’s the last year of WWI, and the film opens with two young British soldiers assigned a dangerous mission by their commanding general. As communication wires have been cut, they must hand-deliver a message to a front-line unit that tomorrow morning will make a doomed attack, and stop it from going forward. Multiplying the stakes for these soldiers is the fact one of them has a brother serving as a lieutenant in the doomed unit.

What follows is a story told with the appearance of a single take, following the soldiers from their trenches across no-man’s land to abandoned enemy positions to bombed-out ruins, each of them a horrific set-piece of half-buried corpses and snipers and murderous Germans and burning towns. It ends up feeling like DUNKIRK with similar stakes as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, but without all the yanking on the viewer’s emotions.

The single-take visual effect is amazing, making theater viewing worthwhile, and providing an immersive experience while lending an additional atmosphere of realism to the film. The world-building is incredible. Morally, the story hits the right notes–that heroism isn’t in killing and conquering but accomplishing the mission regardless of personal cost, and that in war, men owe debts to the dead and the living. You don’t cheer when one of the soldiers kills a German, you do when they survive and get the job done. I also really enjoyed another moral of the story, which is each act of heroism makes its small contribution but overall may not make a major impact on the war itself, which remains brutal and unforgiving and tomorrow, may undo all the good that was done today.

The film had a few negatives for me. A minor complaint was using stars for cameos, when minor actors would have been great throughout to better respect the immersive technique. Another minor complaint was a character running through explosions that are almost right behind him. My biggest complaint was the one-take approach had a tradeoff, which was long stretches of walking around until I grew restless watching it, and the realism of the dialogue meant I never really got to know the characters very well, which made me far less invested in them emotionally. I get it the movie didn’t want to be emotionally manipulative but instead invest the viewer honestly, but it could have traded just a *little* of that so we could get to know the characters and empathize more.

Overall, this is a powerful movie, true to its vision, realistic to a fault, and technically brilliant. I enjoyed it enormously, though I’m not sure yet if I loved it. In the end, 1917 completely satisfied my brain even if it didn’t capture my heart. I hope there are more war films like it and DUNKIRK, films that put you in war and let you think and feel for yourself.

JOJO RABBIT (2019)

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Based on the novel CAGING SKIES by Christine Leunen, JOJO RABBIT (2019) is an amazing film about the clash of ideals versus grim reality, how hate becomes truth through propaganda, and the absurdity of programmed and institutional hate. I absolutely loved this one and highly recommend it.

It’s the latter half of 1944, and Nazi Germany is on the defensive. In a German city, 10-year-old JoJo Betzler has joined the Hitler Youth and wants to be an ideal Nazi, supported by his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler. When he discovers his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic, he gradually questions his beliefs until rejecting the war, hate, and Hitler.

The film is best described as a comedy-drama, with both aspects presented to excellent effect thanks to director Taika Waititi, who also plays the hilarious and buffoonish Hitler. The comedy and drama work well together, highlighting the absurdity of Nazism while exposing the menace and horror of living under the Nazi regime, reinforcing rather than undermining each other. The overall effect is honest, without being overtly preachy, giving JoJo empathy when he’s at his most idealistic about Hitler, and giving him time to question his beliefs and realize Nazism is evil. The great sets, characters, directing, and cast bring it all together in one of the year’s strongest films.

LOCKE AND KEY (2020)

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I liked Joe Hill’s LOCKE AND KEY comic series quite a bit and was excited to hear it would be coming to Netflix. Unfortunately, despite some nice threads and plenty of promise, the adaptation, which deviates quite a bit from the comics’ darker material, feels like standard TV fare, and by the end had me banging my head against the wall at characters making constant terrible decisions without any consequences.

The story follows the Locke family, which is moving into the father’s ancestral home, Key House, after he is murdered by a student at the high school where he worked. Everyone is grieving or dealing with guilt. The three kids in the family try to make their way at their new school. Then the youngest begins to find mysterious keys around the house, each of which grants a magical power. Unfortunately, an evil entity also needs the keys, which it intends to use to unleash hell. This begins a cat and mouse game where the kids use the keys to gain powers while fending off the evil entity, which often has the upper hand.

The result was not bad for me so much as simply lackluster and overly familiar. The keys were fantastic, a really fun element in the story that kept me interested. The characters, unfortunately, weren’t exactly likeable, and the villain was dastardly and conniving to the point of being eye-rolling. Some of this was in the acting, while much of it was simply an adaptation of very dark and powerful material to render it safely packaged for a wide TV audience. By the end, the characters were making one terrible decision after another, generally without consequences.

So overall, LOCKE AND KEY was okay for me, a fairly decent watch but lacking the strength of its source material and paling in comparison with other amazing shows.

KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004)

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I had the chance to catch KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004) on Netflix, and rediscovered how crazy fun this movie is.

Crowded with poor people oppressed by a playboy landlord and violent landlady, Pig Sty Alley is one of the few places in a Chinese city the gangs haven’t dominated, it not being worth their time. When Sing and his pal Bone try to scam the residents into believing they’re members of the Axe Gang, the real gangsters show up. What they don’t know is among Pig Sty’s residents are legendary retired kung fu masters, who decided to defend their turf. The result is an escalating war in which Sing must choose a side.

Sing is an intriguing character. As a child, he believed he would become a force of good, only to see it blow up in his face. Disillusioned, not realizing that he actually had done good, he embarks on a life of petty crime and aspires to be one of the bad guys, seeing this as the only way to get ahead in life. What he doesn’t realize is that this self-image is the only thing holding him back from greatness, as he may just be the One.

The action scenes are fantastic, with fights and chases that play out half as a high-speed kung fu combat and half as cartoonish, laugh-out-loud comedy. The landlady is hilarious. The result is a good story that has you rooting for the underdog and for Sing to find his way, while enjoying every minute of the comical, over-the-top kung fu battles and overturned stereotypes.

RIM OF THE WORLD (2019)

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Panned by critics but liked by a majority of viewers, RIM OF THE WORLD (2019) is a fairly standard coming of age story, this one set during the apocalypse, an alien invasion of Earth.

At a summer camp called Rim of The World, four misfit kids show up, either forced by their parents to come or fleeing something else to find something new. One kid is rich and stuck up but has the potential to put others first, another is a misunderstood criminal with the potential to be good, another is a recluse with the potential to find a family, and finally we have our main character, a boy who blames himself for his father’s death and is afraid of everything, but with the potential to be heroic. When aliens invade Earth and the kids discover the key to their defeat, they must take a road trip that involves self discovery, sharing, dodging death, conquering their fears, and finally becoming what they were meant to be.

The result is sort of like BREAKFAST CLUB meets INDEPENDENCE DAY, and it rolls out pretty much exactly as you expect it to, but it’s well done and charming, with great pacing and good acting among the kids, and I enjoyed the ride. It’s a classic story about youth, and a positive one. If you know what to expect and expect no more than that, it’s surprisingly fun.

ARMOR #1 Released Today!

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The first episode of ARMOR, my new WW2 tank warfare series, is now available to read in Kindle and paperback! ARMOR #1: THE BATTLE OF NORTH AFRICA takes you into the fight against Rommel in North Africa in 1942, which ended in the disastrous Battle of Kasserine Pass.

In this episode, we meet the flawed, contentious, and tough American men who crew Boomer, a Sherman tank, as they land in Algeria believing they are liberating the French only to find themselves fighting against them. Once the gunfire stops and the French are again an ally, Boomer joins a vast army slogging across the muddy Atlas Mountains to go head to head with Field Marshal Rommel, the Desert Fox himself, who teaches them a harsh lesson in the realities of armored warfare.

Fast-paced, action-packed, and authentically portraying armored combat, ARMOR puts you in the loud, smelly, dangerous, and very powerful war machine that was the Sherman tank.

Get it now here! And be sure to check out the rest of the series, which is available for pre-order. ARMOR #2: THE FIGHT FOR SICILY releases February 28.

“An instant classic of World War II historical fiction … brilliantly written, populated with realistic and entirely human characters who stay with you long after finishing the last page, and searingly, unflinchingly open about the realities of combat during World War II as experienced by the crew of an M4 Sherman medium tank.” – The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer