Appleseed – 2 stars
High 2. I’d heard good things about this movie, but they were all wrong. Based on Masamune Shirou’s breakout manga, written 6 years before his ferociously popular Ghost in the Shell series, this movie was a big disappointment. Though you could see shades of his future opus here, in the form of a complex plot, it was raw, and lacked the sophistication, intelligence and subtlety of GitS. The plot was a bunch of strung-together clichés, the score and dialogue cheesy, and the characters poorly developed.
This is true of authors as well, but once you become familiar with an artist’s recent, accomplished work, it’s really hard to go back to their earlier work and be able to enjoy it in its rawer form. That said, the production value was high (though I don’t personally like that 3D-with-cel-animation-overlay look they went for here) and it was interesting enough to watch the whole way through. Not terrible, but not great; I’d give this a miss if you’re a fan of the brilliant Ghost in the Shell movies and series.
Check it, yo: GMail is finally supporing IMAP! Unfortunately, they’re only rolling it out to select users, and I am not one of them. 
(Via Daring Fireball)
Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series:
I first learned about these books from one of those if-you-liked-this-you-might-also-like-these promotions from Amazon, with regard to Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, which as you know I love. I picked up the first one, read a few pages, thought it would be amusing, and bought it. One near-sleepless week later, I closed the back cover on the 6th of I don’t know how many books. I got sucked in in a way I haven’t been in a while. Fast paced, ferociously entertaining, though at times a bit fluffy, the Weather Warden series is skillfully-written, innovative, and simply unputdownable. The series gets better as it goes on (with Windfall being the best of the series so far, I think), though I confess I am becoming a bit tired of the dun-dun-DUN! surprises—to be fair, this may also be a function of me reading all of these too close to one another.
I like Caine’s way of getting her characters out of one bad situation only to dump them into a worse one, but as I said, it does become a bit wearying after a while. That said, these books are supremely enjoyable, and a worthy addition to one of my (surprisingly) new favorite subgenres: the urban fantasy.
It’s strange; though these books aren’t as well written as Briggs’ Mercy Thompson books, nor (and this is the important thing) as well plotted, I gave them an average rating higher than the Briggs books. The 4 and 5-star ratings for me are largely emotional, and though technical excellence will usually net a book a 4, I’ve really got to have an emotional connection with the book to push it up to that 5. Now that I think about it, though, the Briggs books really are better than these, as well as emotionally engaging, so I think I’ll have to revise their ratings up to 5.
Cast in Secret by Michelle Sagara – 4 stars
The third book in The Elantra Chronicles, while displaying Sagara’s usual mastery, just wasn’t as engaging for me as the first two books in this series. Beautifully written and fast-paced, as usual, but somehow not as epic, or as awe-inspiring as Cast in Courtlight, which I just loved. Sagara reports on her LiveJournal site that she’s just finished the first draft of Cast in Fury, the 4th Elantra book, and I can’t help but be excited by that.
Hunter’s Oath by Michelle West – 4 stars
The first in a fantasy duology set in the same world as the Sun Sword series, but a few years previous to the events thereof, it’s as good as I expected, though not, in the end, quite as good as its follow-up. Surprisingly, it’s a bit more accessible than the Sun Sword books, a bit more informal, more in the vein of the recent Elantra books. A promising beginning to a good series (whose second book I’m reading now). Recommended.
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child – 2 stars
I know: this is shocking. A 2 star book from Lee Child? Never say. Sadly, it’s true. Child was just going through the motions here, churning out another book on a tight schedule, and it showed. It felt forced; for one thing, if Reacher is so smart, why would he bullheadedly go down a wrong path without thinking twice about it? Completely disregarding, mind, a very reasonable possibility any reasonably intelligent person would have come up with in 5 minutes? So that Child could drag out the story for another 100 pages, that’s why.
This book was a huge disappointment, and simply does not compare with the rest of his work. 2 stars for being well-written enough—for all the flaws this book has, that wasn’t one of them—for me to make it the whole way through without too much complaint.
What a heartbreaker for Pittsburgh! Roethlisberger, despite 2 interceptions and a fumble, had a phenomenal day with 4 TD passes and 290 pass yards.
And one of the reasons I come out on top, even with Dallas Clark left to play tomorrow night, is that I have Jason Elam as my kicker. Current standings: 94-73. Current record: 5-2-0. Not bad for only playing with one running back today. Boo-yah.
First, BEARS!!! It was ugly, but it was a win. And how about that last drive? 97 yards with no timeouts. The Bears? Yeah, you heard right. The Bears. Awesome.
In fantasy news, I’m tied up with my opponent, and I’ve still got 4 players to play: Ben Roethlisberger, Najeh Davenport, Jason Elam, and Dallas Clark. My opponent has the Steelers’ Heath Miller yet to play. After expecting to lose horribly this week, now I am cautiously hopeful that I’ll win. Woo!
5 TD passes in the first half. And how about that Wes Welker? Awesome.
And the rest of the Patriots’ season, with the possible exception of the Indianapolis game in a few weeks1, is going to be easy as pie. My god.
1 Well, and the Steelers later on. I’m interested to see how the league’s #1 defense will match up with them.
This is the week I am expecting to tank; both LT and Deshaun Foster have a bye this week, so I’ve only got Najeh Davenport at running back. And with Willie Parker back and healthy for the Steelers, I’m not expecting too many points off him. According to the preview, my opponent was favored by 4 points, but hopefully I’ll get some serious points off the Patriots’ defense, who are up against the ineffectual Dolphins offense this week.
OTOH, my opponent has Eli Manning at QB, and the Giants are up against the equally ineffectual 49ers this week, so this could get ugly.
Running Scared – 3 stars
Low 3. Wayne Kramer, the writer/director, says about 2 minutes into the making-of documentary (which I turned off about a minute later for being too irritating—Kramer is too self-important, for one) that no one really makes movies with grit any more. Well, this one has plenty of grit. So much grit that it’s buried under a six-foot deep pile of its own dirt. And should stay there.
Drowning in gimmicky camera work, flat characters and ridiculously over-the-top dialogue (of which, I swear to god, the word “fuck” comprises at least 50%), what ultimately save this movie from a 2-star rating are the performances of some of its stars: Paul Walker (whom I’ve never seen in another movie, so I had no preconceived notions about him), the consistently talented Vera Farmiga, a cool Chazz Palmintieri, and Cameron Bright, whom I first noticed for his great performance in Thank You for Smoking. Sad to say that Johnny Messner, on the other hand, as hot as he is, is a terrible actor. Just awful.
This movie didn’t have half the smarts—or style—of Smokin’ Aces, and what’s worse, wasn’t nearly as entertaining. In Hollywood, there is the real thing, and there is the pale imitation. The Usual Suspects, and Suicide Kings. Snatch, and Layer Cake. Narc, and this movie. Big disappointment.