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

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

BLISS (2019)

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In the intense horror film BLISS (2019), Dezzy, a hard-partying artist, goes on a drug binge ending in a strange encounter that leaves her with a savage craving for blood. The film spirals into mad blood lust sharply portrayed with loud music, plenty of howling, neon color, strobing lights, and crazy camera moves, as if Gasper Noe made MANDY.

Like MANDY, the film is compelling with its visuals and gore, though it never achieves that film’s atmospheric, almost mythic moodiness. And as with Gasper Noe films like CLIMAX, it involves hot young people partying to extremes until things get out of control, while the camera yanks you into the madness with crazy moves like rotating 360.

That’s all interesting, but Dezzy is not a sympathetic character, harsh and selfish and starting the film nearly out of control, so when she does go out of control, it’s hard to feel invested. The creators don’t seem to care either, using her for violent setpieces that seem to wrap up but largely made me laugh in a so-bad-it’s-good way, a strange thing for me, as I usually react to bad films by saying they’re so bad they’re bad. It’s over the top and comes back down in a bucket, but it’s kind of fun, and I can picture many horror fans getting a kick out of it.

UNDONE (2019)

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Amazon Prime’s first animated series, UNDONE (2019) explores the nature of time and the yearning to do life over if only to correct one’s mistakes in a series that is trippy but also very relatable and grounded in strong characters.

The story begins with twenty-eight-year-old Alma (Rosa Salazar, whom I’m now realizing I’ve only seen animated in this and ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL), who is a little broken by her father’s disappearance and death during her childhood, and lives with her boyfriend Sam and struggles with her bleak routines. She’s the wacky one in her family, which also includes matriarch mama and her big-hearted sister, who is getting married. After a car crash, Alma comes to understand she has a new relationship with time, which she uses to try to understand the circumstances of her father’s death, and possibly correct the past.

The story has a nice pace, the use of animation results in some great surreal imagery that feels organic, and Alma’s struggle to master time is engaging and feels grounded. Where UNDONE really shines, however, is in the utterly sympathetic and likeable characters, including some terrific dialogue that always feels real and is often funny. The result is sci-fi/fantasy at its best, grounding the fantastic in the truth of real life. I loved it, and I’m glad it will get a second season, though it didn’t need it.