In part 2 of the Doctor Who episode The End of Time, the Tenth Doctor makes a sort of sentimental farewell tour of his past companions--- to Donna's wedding, saving Martha Jones and Mickey Smith, who are spending their honeymoon (AWK! THEY are MARRIED? Unlikely Couple Alert!)--- and of course Captain Jack is one of The Doctor's stops.
Jack's in the Star Wars bar, sitting next to a cute guy. And it so happens that the Doctor knows the cute guy--- Midshipman Frame from the episode 'Voyage of the Damned'. And so the Doctor gives Jack a note to the effect that Frame's first name is Alonso--- information Jack puts to use to make contact.
Now, in my opinion helping a bisexual sex-addict like Jack score with someone is kind of like giving a drunk some booze laced with crack cocaine-- i. e., not exactly doing them a favor. What Jack really needs are some intensive lessons in Theology of the Body, Part One: How to Keep your Pants on. But The Doctor's an alien, and since the other Time Lords weren't exactly good moral role models.....
On Torchwood.tv, some commentors have criticized Captain Jack for getting over the trauma of Ianto's death too quickly. Well, Jack's immortal and the Doctor has a time machine! We don't know when the scene in the Star Wars bar took place. Captain Jack could have spent years in solitary morning--- or decades, or centuries. In fact, that seems very likely as he needed help from the Doctor to pick up a guy in a bar!
But there is one thing you all need to know about Captain Jack's new squeeze--- he's a werewolf! Specifically he's George the Werewolf from the BBC series 'Being Human'. You know, the one who shares a flat with a ghost and a vampire? I loved 'Being Human', especially lines such as 'Don't change into a werewolf in here, I've just hoovered!' ('to hoover' is Brit-speak for 'to vacuum')
Many Torchwood fans are hoping that Capt. Jack and Alonso/George will live happily ever after in the new season of Torchwood, but are worried about whether George's werewolf duties for 'Being Human' will interfere. I say combine the shows! Move George and his housemates and the whole darn house to Cardiff. Get George and Mitchell (the vampire) jobs at Torchwood. Annie (the ghost) can become friends with Gwen and Rhys, maybe she can watch their baby while Mommy's out catching aliens. Problem solved!
NOTE: BBC programs like Torchwood and Being Human are available on the BBC America channel, along with fresh episodes of Doctor Who.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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vote on our stories at 42blips' Lina Lamont Fan Club page!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
North! Or Be Eaten! blog tour day three
In the last blog tour post, I offered to share my thoughts about Christian fiction if enough of you clap your hands and say you do believe in fairies. Krysti does and responded as requested: so here it is.
ALL fiction publishers censor what they will and will not print. ALL fiction publishers insist that their authors show a basic respect for the publishers' faith. For a Christian publisher, the faith desired is centered in Jesus Christ. For a secular publisher the preferred faith may be secularism, or agnosticism, or global warming, or Gay marriage.
Some people, perhaps, read Christian fiction because they want a safe read. I like it because it's dangerous. In secular fiction the worst that can happen to you is that you die. And everybody dies eventually--- even Captain Jack of Torchwood/Doctor Who fame (in fact, he dies lots). But in Christian fiction your eternal soul can become the devil's lunchmeat. How's THAT for something to worry about?
When I read secular fiction, I'm always running across anti-Christian moments--- Christian 'fanatics' as the villains, as in the Fellowship of the Sun in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Series (have you noticed, though, that the Fellowship is kind of right about vampires, vamps do tend to rack up quite a body count there...) In Christian fiction, I don't have to cope with that (though many Evangelical/Protestant authors tend to think 'works-righteousness' when they see a Catholic coming they rarely feel the need to make a big deal out of it.)
Christian writer C. S. Lewis got his very Christian science fiction and fantasy published by secular publishers. Christian writer Orson Scott Card won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Ender's Game even though his LDS faith wasn't exactly a secret. But now things seem to be getting more polarized. A certain side of the debate over faith/nonfaith is getting deafer and deafer to any opinion but their own, which tends to make the other side turn inward to our own Christian books and films, at least some of the time. It's sad, but it's what is going on today.
What do you think? Why do you read Christian fiction (if you do)? What do YOU feel is the purpose of having Christian fiction as a genre?
North! Or Be Eaten! recap
Though I have not personally had a chance to read the book in question, reading the many reviews along the blog tour trail have convinced me that this is a thrilling book with compelling characters that many people--- of various ages--- might enjoy.
To get a complete picture of the blog tour, visit Rebecca LuElla Miller's post. She gives the complete blog tour list with checkmarks next to the name for each tour post--- click the checkmark, and you can read the North! Or Be Eaten! blog post. You can also see who has made three, two or one blog posts on the tour.
Hang out with the CSFF blog tour this month
Look at the left sidebar of this blog. You will see a blogroll that includes ALL of the participants in this month's blog tour, and their most recent blog post. You can come back to this blog from time to time, not to read MY bizarre musings, but to check out what CSFF members are blogging about this month, perhaps drop an encouraging word on one or two of them.
(This was pretty easy to set up, by the way. At least on Blogger. It's a way to help your fellow bloggers reach a wider audience--- which, of course, helps YOUR blog as well.)
North! Or Be Eaten! - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400073871
Series site - http://wingfeathersaga.com/?p=464Author site - http://www.andrew-peterson.com/
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Amy Browning
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve and Andrew
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Elizabeth Williams
KM Wilsher
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
please tweet, reddit or otherwise share this post!
~*thanks*~
ALL fiction publishers censor what they will and will not print. ALL fiction publishers insist that their authors show a basic respect for the publishers' faith. For a Christian publisher, the faith desired is centered in Jesus Christ. For a secular publisher the preferred faith may be secularism, or agnosticism, or global warming, or Gay marriage.
Some people, perhaps, read Christian fiction because they want a safe read. I like it because it's dangerous. In secular fiction the worst that can happen to you is that you die. And everybody dies eventually--- even Captain Jack of Torchwood/Doctor Who fame (in fact, he dies lots). But in Christian fiction your eternal soul can become the devil's lunchmeat. How's THAT for something to worry about?
When I read secular fiction, I'm always running across anti-Christian moments--- Christian 'fanatics' as the villains, as in the Fellowship of the Sun in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Series (have you noticed, though, that the Fellowship is kind of right about vampires, vamps do tend to rack up quite a body count there...) In Christian fiction, I don't have to cope with that (though many Evangelical/Protestant authors tend to think 'works-righteousness' when they see a Catholic coming they rarely feel the need to make a big deal out of it.)
Christian writer C. S. Lewis got his very Christian science fiction and fantasy published by secular publishers. Christian writer Orson Scott Card won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Ender's Game even though his LDS faith wasn't exactly a secret. But now things seem to be getting more polarized. A certain side of the debate over faith/nonfaith is getting deafer and deafer to any opinion but their own, which tends to make the other side turn inward to our own Christian books and films, at least some of the time. It's sad, but it's what is going on today.
What do you think? Why do you read Christian fiction (if you do)? What do YOU feel is the purpose of having Christian fiction as a genre?
North! Or Be Eaten! recap
Though I have not personally had a chance to read the book in question, reading the many reviews along the blog tour trail have convinced me that this is a thrilling book with compelling characters that many people--- of various ages--- might enjoy.
To get a complete picture of the blog tour, visit Rebecca LuElla Miller's post. She gives the complete blog tour list with checkmarks next to the name for each tour post--- click the checkmark, and you can read the North! Or Be Eaten! blog post. You can also see who has made three, two or one blog posts on the tour.
Hang out with the CSFF blog tour this month
Look at the left sidebar of this blog. You will see a blogroll that includes ALL of the participants in this month's blog tour, and their most recent blog post. You can come back to this blog from time to time, not to read MY bizarre musings, but to check out what CSFF members are blogging about this month, perhaps drop an encouraging word on one or two of them.
(This was pretty easy to set up, by the way. At least on Blogger. It's a way to help your fellow bloggers reach a wider audience--- which, of course, helps YOUR blog as well.)
North! Or Be Eaten! - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400073871
Series site - http://wingfeathersaga.com/?p=464Author site - http://www.andrew-peterson.com/
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Amy Browning
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve and Andrew
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Elizabeth Williams
KM Wilsher
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
please tweet, reddit or otherwise share this post!
~*thanks*~
2010 Schedule of Star Trek books
Fans of Star Trek novels are looking at a bleak year, it looks like. Read the List of 2010 Star Trek novels, and despair!
In the past there were quite a few very good Star Trek novels by authors such as L. A. Graf, but now most of the ST novels I've seen just don't catch my attention enough to want to read them.
Quality Star Trek books of the past
What were your favorite Star Trek novels--- drop a comment and let me know. After the CSFF blog tour is done, I may start doing a few book reviews of my favorite ST novels.
In the past there were quite a few very good Star Trek novels by authors such as L. A. Graf, but now most of the ST novels I've seen just don't catch my attention enough to want to read them.
Quality Star Trek books of the past
What were your favorite Star Trek novels--- drop a comment and let me know. After the CSFF blog tour is done, I may start doing a few book reviews of my favorite ST novels.
Anti-theist Hate Wins in Australian SF Award
From Locus: the winner of the 2009 Aurealis Best Science Fiction book goes to: Wonders of a Godless World by Andrew McGahan (Allen & Unwin).
For those who don't understand how hateful that title is, just imagine a book called "Wonders of a Jew-Free World" or "Wonders of a Muslim-Free World" or "Wonders of a Negro-Free World".... Yeah, pretty bad. They don't even feel the need to pretend to be fair these days....
Anti-theism--- even if you misname it atheism--- doesn't smell any sweeter than antisemitism or any other name for bigotry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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~*thanks*~
For those who don't understand how hateful that title is, just imagine a book called "Wonders of a Jew-Free World" or "Wonders of a Muslim-Free World" or "Wonders of a Negro-Free World".... Yeah, pretty bad. They don't even feel the need to pretend to be fair these days....
Anti-theism--- even if you misname it atheism--- doesn't smell any sweeter than antisemitism or any other name for bigotry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
please tweet, reddit or otherwise share this post!
~*thanks*~
Thursday, January 28, 2010
What's the purpose of Christian Fiction, Anyway? CSSFBT Day 2
Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour for 'North! Or Be Eaten!' by Andrew Peterson, day two.
North! Or Be Eaten! website
Andrew Peterson author/musician website,
Day two of the blog tour and this is the question for those who have read and enjoyed 'North! Or Be Eaten!', or hope to read it someday. Why?
Why read Christian fiction at all? Wouldn't it be better if there were just regular secular neutral publishers and all writers wrote for them? Isn't it kind of discriminatory--- a publisher that accepts work from Christians but not from Jews or atheists?
And what about our book of the month, 'North! Or Be Eaten!'. Wouldn't it be better if any too explicit Christian references would be removed so that people of all faiths or no faith could enjoy it equally? How much would that change the book and your liking of it?
What I am asking of you the reader is why you, personally, read Christian fiction (assuming you do), what it gives you, what you like (or don't like) to see in your Christian fiction? Please post a comment!
(I have some ideas of my own on this topic which I will reveal on day three--- but only if enough of you clap your hands and say 'I DO believe in fairies! I DO believe in fairies!')
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please reddit, tweet or share!
North! Or Be Eaten! website
Andrew Peterson author/musician website,
Day two of the blog tour and this is the question for those who have read and enjoyed 'North! Or Be Eaten!', or hope to read it someday. Why?
Why read Christian fiction at all? Wouldn't it be better if there were just regular secular neutral publishers and all writers wrote for them? Isn't it kind of discriminatory--- a publisher that accepts work from Christians but not from Jews or atheists?
And what about our book of the month, 'North! Or Be Eaten!'. Wouldn't it be better if any too explicit Christian references would be removed so that people of all faiths or no faith could enjoy it equally? How much would that change the book and your liking of it?
What I am asking of you the reader is why you, personally, read Christian fiction (assuming you do), what it gives you, what you like (or don't like) to see in your Christian fiction? Please post a comment!
(I have some ideas of my own on this topic which I will reveal on day three--- but only if enough of you clap your hands and say 'I DO believe in fairies! I DO believe in fairies!')
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please reddit, tweet or share!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Is Being Eaten an OK topic in Christian Children's Fiction?
Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour for 'North! Or Be Eaten!' by Andrew Peterson, day one.
North! Or Be Eaten! website
Andrew Peterson author/musician website, where you can click a button and listen to his music
The first thing I thought when I learned about the 'North! Or Be Eaten!' blog tour was 'What a cool title!'.
Well, actually the FIRST thing I thought was '%&$&@!, another #&%$& kid's book in the blog tour', shortly followed by '$&%&! now I gotta go to confession', but you get the idea.
Recently I read the book "Hooked" by Les Edgerton, in which a large bit was about the importance of having a really compelling first sentence for you novel. Having a good title is also good. I mean, would 'Ender's Game' have won a Hugo AND a Nebula if it had been entitled 'Military Academies of the Future' or something similarly dreadful?
Of course the writer must be aware that publishers can change those cool names on you--- maybe they don't like it, maybe they fear the audience won't like it, maybe they think the Christian market isn't ready for a book with a cuss word in the title, or maybe they find out someone's ALREADY written a book called 'Mein Kampf' (and it sucked.)
Did you know that the name 'Shrek' is the same as the German word Schreck which means 'teruro'? Whoops, grabbed the German/Esperanto dictionary instead of the German/English one--- the English word is 'scare' or something scary, anyway. (If you are under the impression that this last paragraph was irrelevant, you don't have autism. Or else you're not good at it yet....)
OK, back to the question: Is being eaten an OK topic in Christian Children's Fiction?
Well, heck, why not? If the scary monsters are going to kill people anyway why should they let all that good meat go to waste? It's like in that recent Doctor Who episode when The Master got magicked back to life only the spell went wrong and he was voraciously eating hamburgers and then evidently ate the folks from the hamburger stand and it's scary and weird and kind of counterproductive and hey doesn't he realize something's gone wrong he is a Time Lord after all and GEEZ he's going to EAT us!!!
But then again isn't Christian fiction supposed to be all sweetness and lite and grandmother-approved and not offend anyone except literary critics? You know, like the Bible?
Tour Blogs! Win Fabulous Prizes!
Join the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour and win fabulous prizes--- like additional readers for your blog. (Offer does not apply to porn blogs, Stalinist blogs, and anyone whose name is Operation Counterstrike.) People who participated in this month's blog tour have already one this: I've become a fan (subscriber) of all of their blogs on Google; plus their blogs--- with latest entries--- will be up on a blog list on my blog. This actually works--- I was visiting the politi-blog Yid With Lid yesterday, and he's got a cool widget which tells about his latest blog visitors and where they came from. The most recent of Yid with Lid's visitors came by way of the Lina Lamont Fan Club!
Notable Tour Posts
How important is a platform for writers seeking publication? -- Yes, this was a blog tour post, and it goes on to tell how author Andrew Peterson had a platform and you can have one too.
North! Or Be Eaten! Mid Grade or YA --- personally I don't care, both terms are Latin for 'Children's book'.
North! Or Be Eaten! CSSF blog tour post 1 --- needs more bacon. Not the post, the book.
North! Or Be Eaten! Review, Day One -- OK, now I want to read the book after this review which is largely a list of the characters in the book and who they are and stuff.
Scriptorious Rex: North! Or Be Eaten! --- has noticed that most people have a distinct aversion to being eaten. Ya think?
CSSF Blog Tour List for the month
There is a hidden golden ticket on one of the blogs below entitling the bearer to one trip on the TARDIS to any point in time or space you like. I'm searching them ALL cause I want to go to wherever Hitler was on Oct. 5th, 1937, and I'm bringin' my bear rifle.....
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Amy Browning
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve and Andrew
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Elizabeth Williams
KM Wilsher
DISCLOSURE TO PLACATE THE EVIL PROGRESSIVE-FASCIST GOVERNMENT: 1. I did NOT receive a free review copy of the book. 2. If I HAD received a free review copy of the book it wouldn't have been a bribe, it would have been a CHORE--- because then I'd have to review the book whether I wanted to or not and maybe it would have sucked and either way I'd have had to work harder and do a SERIOUS review which would leave out stuff like Shrek and The Master and Hitler and autism and stuff. and 3. Ever hear of free speech, you fascists? (Free speech ain't cheap.)
North! Or Be Eaten! website
Andrew Peterson author/musician website, where you can click a button and listen to his music
The first thing I thought when I learned about the 'North! Or Be Eaten!' blog tour was 'What a cool title!'.
Well, actually the FIRST thing I thought was '%&$&@!, another #&%$& kid's book in the blog tour', shortly followed by '$&%&! now I gotta go to confession', but you get the idea.
Recently I read the book "Hooked" by Les Edgerton, in which a large bit was about the importance of having a really compelling first sentence for you novel. Having a good title is also good. I mean, would 'Ender's Game' have won a Hugo AND a Nebula if it had been entitled 'Military Academies of the Future' or something similarly dreadful?
Of course the writer must be aware that publishers can change those cool names on you--- maybe they don't like it, maybe they fear the audience won't like it, maybe they think the Christian market isn't ready for a book with a cuss word in the title, or maybe they find out someone's ALREADY written a book called 'Mein Kampf' (and it sucked.)
Did you know that the name 'Shrek' is the same as the German word Schreck which means 'teruro'? Whoops, grabbed the German/Esperanto dictionary instead of the German/English one--- the English word is 'scare' or something scary, anyway. (If you are under the impression that this last paragraph was irrelevant, you don't have autism. Or else you're not good at it yet....)
OK, back to the question: Is being eaten an OK topic in Christian Children's Fiction?
Well, heck, why not? If the scary monsters are going to kill people anyway why should they let all that good meat go to waste? It's like in that recent Doctor Who episode when The Master got magicked back to life only the spell went wrong and he was voraciously eating hamburgers and then evidently ate the folks from the hamburger stand and it's scary and weird and kind of counterproductive and hey doesn't he realize something's gone wrong he is a Time Lord after all and GEEZ he's going to EAT us!!!
But then again isn't Christian fiction supposed to be all sweetness and lite and grandmother-approved and not offend anyone except literary critics? You know, like the Bible?
Tour Blogs! Win Fabulous Prizes!
Join the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour and win fabulous prizes--- like additional readers for your blog. (Offer does not apply to porn blogs, Stalinist blogs, and anyone whose name is Operation Counterstrike.) People who participated in this month's blog tour have already one this: I've become a fan (subscriber) of all of their blogs on Google; plus their blogs--- with latest entries--- will be up on a blog list on my blog. This actually works--- I was visiting the politi-blog Yid With Lid yesterday, and he's got a cool widget which tells about his latest blog visitors and where they came from. The most recent of Yid with Lid's visitors came by way of the Lina Lamont Fan Club!
Notable Tour Posts
How important is a platform for writers seeking publication? -- Yes, this was a blog tour post, and it goes on to tell how author Andrew Peterson had a platform and you can have one too.
North! Or Be Eaten! Mid Grade or YA --- personally I don't care, both terms are Latin for 'Children's book'.
North! Or Be Eaten! CSSF blog tour post 1 --- needs more bacon. Not the post, the book.
North! Or Be Eaten! Review, Day One -- OK, now I want to read the book after this review which is largely a list of the characters in the book and who they are and stuff.
Scriptorious Rex: North! Or Be Eaten! --- has noticed that most people have a distinct aversion to being eaten. Ya think?
CSSF Blog Tour List for the month
There is a hidden golden ticket on one of the blogs below entitling the bearer to one trip on the TARDIS to any point in time or space you like. I'm searching them ALL cause I want to go to wherever Hitler was on Oct. 5th, 1937, and I'm bringin' my bear rifle.....
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Amy Browning
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve and Andrew
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Elizabeth Williams
KM Wilsher
DISCLOSURE TO PLACATE THE EVIL PROGRESSIVE-FASCIST GOVERNMENT: 1. I did NOT receive a free review copy of the book. 2. If I HAD received a free review copy of the book it wouldn't have been a bribe, it would have been a CHORE--- because then I'd have to review the book whether I wanted to or not and maybe it would have sucked and either way I'd have had to work harder and do a SERIOUS review which would leave out stuff like Shrek and The Master and Hitler and autism and stuff. and 3. Ever hear of free speech, you fascists? (Free speech ain't cheap.)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Inglourious Basterds: a Great Sci-Fi Movie???
Inglourious Basterds is not the film you think it is.... The movie trailer led me to conclude that is was just a remake of 'The Dirty Dozen' with a few buckets of gore thrown in for the heck of it. After watching the movie yesterday, I found it was quite different than that.
Inglourious Basterds is actually two movies in one. The Dirty-Dozen-esque sections feature the Basterds, a group of mostly Jewish volunteers who parachuted behind enemy lines to make life hell for the Nazis. They are a violent crew--- they take scalps, for example, and find one of their number beating Krauts to death with a ball bat very entertaining. But they are soldiers, and their targets are enemy soldiers. The only complaint I have of this section of the film is that is brief enough that there is little time to get to know any of the Basterds as individuals as one does with the characters in other war movies, such as The Great Escape (I love the bit where the escaped POW (played by Steve McQueen) is being chased on a motorcycle by a Nazi (also Steve McQueen--- they didn't have enough motorcycle riders to go around.)
The other part of Inglourious Basterds was a foreign film about Shoshanna, a young woman whose family were killed by the Nazis because they were Jewish. These sections of the movie are nearly all in French and German with subtitles. Very tiny yellow subtitles. And the filmmaker, who KNEW there were going to be subtitles, still had scenes in which the subtitles could not be read because their background was too light colored to provide the needed contrast.
I actually had less problem with the subtitled bits. I don't need subtitles for German as I am fluent enough in that language. And I do know French--- I actually watch the French version of my various films on DVD, though I do usually set it up to have English subtitles.
Like most European films, the subtitled sections of the film did have long draggy bits, but they were not actively boring as they would be in a real French film.
But why did I call it a Sci-Fi movie? Well, the story, like so many WW2 movies, centers around a plot to kill key Nazi leaders including Hitler. But unlike all those other movies, this time the good guys win. Hitler dies!
I particularly appreciated the degree of deadness to which they killed Hitler. A bomb is put under his seat, two men with other bombs strapped to their ankles burst into Hitler's theater box with machine guns and fill Hitler and Goebbels full of lead, then the bombs go off--- and it's all happening in a burning theater with the doors locked. Bye-bye, Adolf! I'm going to buy the DVD just so I can watch Hitler die again and again. And his little pal Joe as well....
Two things trouble me, however. In the movie the Brad Pitt character has scars around his neck but this is never explained. And--- why are they the Basterds and not the Bastards? I mean, bastard is a bad word and even most semi-literates spell all the bad words correctly? Could it be there are enough lingering shreds of decency in this country that they could not run advertisements for a movie with 'Bastards' in the title and so had to settle for 'Basterds'?
Movie trailer for Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds is actually two movies in one. The Dirty-Dozen-esque sections feature the Basterds, a group of mostly Jewish volunteers who parachuted behind enemy lines to make life hell for the Nazis. They are a violent crew--- they take scalps, for example, and find one of their number beating Krauts to death with a ball bat very entertaining. But they are soldiers, and their targets are enemy soldiers. The only complaint I have of this section of the film is that is brief enough that there is little time to get to know any of the Basterds as individuals as one does with the characters in other war movies, such as The Great Escape (I love the bit where the escaped POW (played by Steve McQueen) is being chased on a motorcycle by a Nazi (also Steve McQueen--- they didn't have enough motorcycle riders to go around.)
The other part of Inglourious Basterds was a foreign film about Shoshanna, a young woman whose family were killed by the Nazis because they were Jewish. These sections of the movie are nearly all in French and German with subtitles. Very tiny yellow subtitles. And the filmmaker, who KNEW there were going to be subtitles, still had scenes in which the subtitles could not be read because their background was too light colored to provide the needed contrast.
I actually had less problem with the subtitled bits. I don't need subtitles for German as I am fluent enough in that language. And I do know French--- I actually watch the French version of my various films on DVD, though I do usually set it up to have English subtitles.
Like most European films, the subtitled sections of the film did have long draggy bits, but they were not actively boring as they would be in a real French film.
But why did I call it a Sci-Fi movie? Well, the story, like so many WW2 movies, centers around a plot to kill key Nazi leaders including Hitler. But unlike all those other movies, this time the good guys win. Hitler dies!
I particularly appreciated the degree of deadness to which they killed Hitler. A bomb is put under his seat, two men with other bombs strapped to their ankles burst into Hitler's theater box with machine guns and fill Hitler and Goebbels full of lead, then the bombs go off--- and it's all happening in a burning theater with the doors locked. Bye-bye, Adolf! I'm going to buy the DVD just so I can watch Hitler die again and again. And his little pal Joe as well....
Two things trouble me, however. In the movie the Brad Pitt character has scars around his neck but this is never explained. And--- why are they the Basterds and not the Bastards? I mean, bastard is a bad word and even most semi-literates spell all the bad words correctly? Could it be there are enough lingering shreds of decency in this country that they could not run advertisements for a movie with 'Bastards' in the title and so had to settle for 'Basterds'?
Movie trailer for Inglourious Basterds
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