Stop Frame

Seven novels, dozens of actors, hundreds of production personnel, 400 million book printings, millions of dollars spent, billions of dollars earned, we have reached the end of the Harry Potter line. The Hogwart’s Express is retired, the cast may finally move on with their careers. And at the end of the day, the strongest emotion I feel is: Meh . Reviewing a Potter film was always problematical, and became even more so as the series ground on. The first two films don’t even feel a part of the same galaxy as the next six, and the third is such a stand-out excellent production it feels as though it came from another universe. The fourth is almost as good, but starting with the fifth the series fully committed to the goal of telling one enormous story. At the same time, it became increasingly clear that if you weren’t a Harry Potter reader than these are not the films you are looking for. If you had not read any of the Potter books, you could watch The Sorcerer’s Stone (the first fil...

By now, if you recognize that title, you’re probably going, “Gee, that’s timely.” Considering that the miniseries aired in 1998 and has been available on DVD for the better part of a decade, you’d be right. I beg forgiveness, however, because it only recently became available at a price I could afford. Also, its subject matter seems timely given changes at NASA and the US space program, i.e., bye-bye shuttle, hello...er, what replacement? From the Earth to the Moon is a 12-part miniseries that aired on HBO. It received widespread critical acclaim at the time and holds up remarkably well. It does so because it tells a direct and accurate history, while at the same time restraining its use of visual effects. The result is a compelling, historically-accurate, and very human drama. The miniseries essentially bridges the gap between the films The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 , while also adding an addendum to bring the Moon program to its conclusion with the flight of Apollo 17. Each episo...

I don’t believe this film ever played in my area, and the first time I heard of it was when it popped up with several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence). So into my Netflix queue it went, and in Blu-Ray format it arrived, and... Wow. Winter’s Bone is a tense story about a teenage girl pushed into danger by the acts of her father. Living in the backwoods of Missouri can be challenging enough, but for Ree (Lawrence) things go from hard to bad to worse. The eldest of three children, it’s fallen to her to be both mother and father. Mother because her actual mother has lost her mind, and father because he has simply disappeared. This last is the drive behind the film’s plot. Ree’s dad was one of the best crystal meth cooks in the area. He was out of bail. To secure his bail, he put his property up as collateral. Now he’s vanished and if he doesn’t show for court he’ll forfeit bail. Which means Ree will lose the house, the property, and have now...

Part of the reason I blog at all is to maintain some practice with writing. This hasn’t worked well since by the time I’m done with the work day, I never want to type again. But there’s this old manuscript that wants to finish its digital conversion (from analog Smith-Corona original to digital Word) so that I can revive the 1988 published novel ( Derelict , ah I remember it fondly). And then I can polish the new one, and get on with the next one. Kindle, I have stuff coming to Kindle! In the meanwhile, I’m not sure what to make of Super 8 . I know, it’s been out a few weeks already, but I don’t want to write about Transformers: Dark of the Moon because it was just loud and silly, the motion picture equivalent of a decent Fourth of July fireworks display (i.e., all flash, less than zero substance). So I took a moment to catch Super 8 and I’m left with this overall feeling of meh . It is by no means a bad film, it’s just...lacking. Super 8 is J.J. Abrams’ homage to Steven Spielberg, ...