Most boring movie ever

What is the most boring popular movie you've ever seen? This is an easy question for me to answer: Star Wars. I have never been so bored in a movie theater. If I wasn't with someone who was enjoying it, I would have walked out after 20 minutes. This movie also marked the beginning of the awful tradition of ruining horror and sci-fi with humor and cuteness.

What's your vote for The Most Boring Movie Ever Made?

The Christmas of "Xmas Carol"

Jeez, it's already December. Christmas is rushing toward us at 300 mph. If you haven't read "Xmas Carol", you may miss out this season. Because this isn't just any Christmas. It's the Christmas of Xmas Carol. It's a worldwide event.

You know how you've always wanted to read a novel that presents atheists as normal people? Well, your long wait is over. Get your copy of Xmas Carol today. It's available as an ebook at every major bookstore, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. (If you'd like to pump up a more independent vendor, you can pick up a copy at Smashwords.)

But whatever you do, get your hands on this book and start reading. It's a great horror story with an Xmas theme and tons of great atheist characters. It will make you cry; it will make you laugh. (Okay, mostly the latter.) And did I mention it's only $2.99? Seriously, what are you waiting for? Get your copy today!

A sci-fi question

What if you were duplicated right this instant? Suppose another you appeared at your side. The duplicate is a perfect copy of you -- so perfect that each of you believes he or she is the original.

Here's the question:

If your duplicate moved in with you, would you get along?

Where are the dreams of our future?

We used to dream of a fantastic future for the human race. From the Jules Verne era forward, it seemed people couldn't stop fantasizing about humanity's enormous potential and what the future had in store for us. It was widely believed that through science, we would develop into a super-civilization that extended its reach throughout the universe. World peace was a given, as was an end to disease and famine. Everyone in the future would be happy and fulfilled. We dreamed of a human race that would exist for hundreds of thousands of years, a race that would come to learn all the secrets of the universe. It was a lovely dream shared by a huge segment of the population in the 1950s and 60s. We looked forward to this future, and worked toward it.

Kids used to fantasize about "outer space" and every kid wanted to be a spaceman. But it wasn't only the kids. Adults looked forward to every new book or movie that promised a glimpse of these possible futures. And though an apocalyptic vision or two was included in the mix, by and large these visions confirmed something for us: the future was endlessly bright.

Where did all that go? Does anyone dream about the future anymore? Or has everyone decided that there is no future? This is why I write my books. We need to re-learn the skill of dreaming about our future. It's such a simple thing, but we've forgotten how to do it. I want us to dream.

Sunshine

I watched Sunshine last night. It's a classy movie from 2007 that could have rated a 9, but they mucked it up so bad that I have to give it a 6. It's sad because they had a great idea and a ton of money to pull it off. 

On some levels, the creators of Sunshine did a good job -- but they didn't pay attention to their script. The main concept, that a spaceship is taking astronauts on a mission to restart the fusion reaction in our dying sun, is a good one. Sunshine takes the viewer on a magical, ultra-floodlit two-hour trip to the sun. No one ever promised that before and the movie delivers, in a visual sense. The look is unmatched, so fiery and bright that you may be tempted to close your eyes now and then.

And Cillian Murphy is perfect for the lead. He's such a strange, ethereal-looking guy and a good actor, to boot. You easily believe that he is a genius/physicist capable of saving the world. And the movie's certainly got drama -- if the mission fails, all life on Earth will be destroyed. You don't get much more dramatic than that. With all that going for it, you'd think the movie would be great. It's not.

The problem is that, while Cillian is perfect and the ship's captain, Cliff Curtis, is good, the dialogue and the absurd sub-plots are terrible. I wish the director had spent more time fine-tuning the secondary story to make it believable. Because it isn't. They brought in a ridiculous idea to fill up the middle of the movie, and completely ruined it.

Yet the movie still shines. It's the look: it's brilliant, gorgeous, startling. Since the story takes place on a spaceship, the audience is watching actors and CGI sets for most of the two hours, but the look never gets old. There is great computer animation in Sunshine. Nothing looks fake. The music is also delightful, providing an appropriately magical tone for the story. It reminds me of the soundtrack to Solaris (which is a far better movie). 

They tried with this movie but failed. If you're a sci-fi addict, you'll want to watch it just for the visuals. You can always fast-forward through the idiotic sub-plots. As usual, I reveal no spoilers in my reviews.

Anyone out there have a different opinion of the movie? Remember, this could be your unlurking day, the grandest moment of your entire life!

Classic sci-fi movies

Until baseball comes back, I won't be watching much TV in the evenings. There's nothing on, as you know. It's too bad because after a day of writing or editing, I want to collapse in a chair and stare at something. It helps to bring me back to Earth (literally, given the things I write about).

So last night I broke out the old sci-fi movies. I've got a stack of DVDs to watch. Here's what's in the batch:

First Spaceship on Venus

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

Things to Come

Rocket Ship (Buster Crabbe!)

Crash of the Moons

They Came from Beyond Space

Teenagers from Outer Space (oddly good in a bad way)

Rocketship X-M (wonderfully depressing)

Not to say these are my favorites. They're really sub-par, in fact. But I love them anyway and they'll fill up my evenings until the damn calendar changes to Spring and everyone comes back to the baseball field.

I'm talkin' horror and sci-fi movies heah

Were there any recent, stand-out horror or sci-fi movies? I think there were, but let's extend "recent" a ways back. More like "in recent memory", okay? Widens the field a bit. I'm only going to speak in general terms; you won't find spoilers here.

30 Days of Night is a terrific addition to the classic vampire genre (as opposed to the insipid kids-flying-in-the-sky genre of "vampire" movies). I love the setting of an isolated Alaskan town that, as the movie opens, is about to fall into a long night that will last 30 days -- and a tribe of vampires is waiting for darkess to fall so they can storm the town and eat everyone. Claustrophobic "pure" settings like this thrill me. It's so black and white, good and evil, snow and darkness. And the premise is marvelously oppressive. The characters will be trapped for a month in the dark with these monsters.  The movie is stylish, unlike anything I've ever seen. And if you haven't seen the way these vampires move, you're in for a treat. They're so disgusting. 

I loved this movie. It takes a great turn at the end, doing something fresh and new with the traditional vampire idea. The savagery, speed, look and sound of the vampires is startling. It is a whole new thing. Yes, the movie nods to tradition but in many ways it moves the genre forward. Fair warning: if you can't watch brutality, skip this one.

I see this one got a 5.1 out of 10 rating at rottentomatoes. You know how it works: if the public doesn't like it, it's probably great. And in this case, it is.

Next up: Solaris. I know it's been a while; the movie came out in 2002. But this was the best sci-fi movie since Alien, though in a very different way. There are no monsters in Solaris -- at least, no obvious monsters. I've watched my DVD of this movie about seven or eight times, and each time I see something new. It's so nuanced, so . . . magical. What a marvelous idea.

Not only is this remake of the movie incredibly gorgeous to look at and accompanied by a cosmic soundtrack, it also stars two of the nicest-looking humans who ever lived: George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. You can't take your eyes off them and they do a hell of an acting job. The movie is very much a sci-fi but it's also, and essentially, a love story. And the ending is so hopeful. It literally presents a new form of existence. 

The public only gave this excellent movie a 6.5 out of 10 -- so you know it's good. It's like the NY Times Book Review: if they say it's good, toss your copy out the window. But if they hate it, you may have a great book in your hands.

Lastly, Donny Darko, which is neither a horror nor a sci-fi movie, is one of my favorite movies of all time. And waddaya know -- the folks at the Big Tomater finally like one of my picks! Sort of. They didn't actually recognize the movie's greatness (phew!) -- they gave it a 7.5 out of 10 -- but at least they didn't love it, which would have been the kiss of death.

If you've seen the movie, and I'll bet you have, you know it's almost indescribable. It is a strange brew of schizophrenia, visions, time distortions, fear, hope, shock and death. Drew Barrymore did a stellar job directing the movie, melding those disparate qualities with a simple story about youth and its dealings with the wall of stupidity that we call adults. It's a thinkers' movie with thrills, and it's also endearing.

That's my three movies for today. What horror or sci-fi movies did you love?

Where do they go?

A very long time ago, I read a short story that haunted me. I think I was 16 at the time so it must have been about 1964. I think it was in a book of short stories . . . but it could also have been an issue of Amazing Stories. If it's the latter, it may truly be lost to time, though Feedbooks is doing a bang-up job of republishing those old Amazing Stories for today's electronic reading devices.

I remember the name of the author as being Howard Fast but I've never been able to find the story and there doesn't seem to have been a Howard Fast who wrote sci-fi or horror. At least, I haven't been able to find him. As for the story's title, I have no idea what it was. I would love to reread that story -- but it's lost. On the off-chance that someone stops by here and can tell me where to find it, here is a summary:

A family is moving into a new home. I have the impression that they are poor and the home is a bit of a wreck, but I can't be sure. The family includes several young children, as I recall, perhaps five ranging in age from 6 to 12.

The story concerns a mirror. I think they find it in the new house but they may have bought it used. The family thinks it's very nice but it seems some fool painted the mirror's surface black. There are layers and layers of paint so the family sets to scraping it off.

They complete this task and as they move away from the mirror, we the readers see the red-eyed, hellish, clawed, long-toothed creatures as they skitter over the edge of the mirror and slip into the room. As the story ends, the ravenous creatures are heading toward the family room to eat the children. The story ends before they get the chance.

I know, I know: it doesn't seem like much. But I remember being terrified by it, perhaps because of the writer's skill or perhaps because I had a fever and was delirious. I can't be sure of anything because it's a lost story. I still think of it at times, and always with longing. I want to read it again!

Have you lost stories, books or treasured writers over the years? Maybe we can help each other find them. Tell us about yours in the comments.

The Goldilocks Zone

As readers know, I've written two sci-fi books (and haven't yet submitted them to a publisher; more on that in a future post).  One of the concepts you have to consider when writing sci-fi is how far in the future you want to set your story.

I have always adored sci-fi.  I can't even imagine how many sci-fi books I've read.  Tons is as close as I can come to a figure.  Some of the stories took place in our century, or even the last century.  Others took the reader on a journey that stretched thousands of years into the future.

The thing is, although it's great fun to imagine the distant future, it's sometimes hard to connect our lives to those of the characters.  It may be a great tale, but as a reader I note that this will not be my future.  I think it's more exciting to read something that seems like it could happen to us -- the people alive today.  When a story holds out a carrot like that, I grab it.

So I set "The Worlds" in the year 2030, not so far off that we can't relate to it, yet not so close that we have trouble believing there could be such an amazing new technology discovered within that timeframe.  It's the sci-fi Goldilocks zone.

The thing I hope people will say when they read The Worlds is,
"I want that!"  I think the book delivers on this score.  It does indeed seem like something that could come along one day.  Maybe 2030 is a bit optimistic but at some point in time we will be able to experience a scientific wonder like the one I made up -- a technology that revolutionizes the very concept of life itself.

I want my worlds to seem reachable. I want us to long for them. I want us to dream.

Politics of the day

For me, this is the iconic image for our era.  It says it all. (Removed photo of the "morans" guy.)

For the most part, this blog won't be a place for politics, at least not from my end.  Enough good people are covering it all, in intensely nauseating detail.  I commend them but I don't have the stomach for it.  When things change and there are some good guys too root for again, I may change my tune.

But for now, there's nothing to say.  I see no light at the end of the tunnel.  It's disheartening but it's also the very thing that drives me to the computer to write.  If the world is going to be a huge disappointment, I'll just have to make some other reality so I can spend my time there.  Makes sense to me.

Writing fiction is the way I keep myself sane.