The Geek Report

Song: "Spellbound" by Siouxsie and the Banshees

2006-08-31T22:38:00.000-04:00

Found myself singing this to myself on the subway the other day for no apparent reason:

Song: "Only You" by Yazoo

2006-08-31T22:12:00.000-04:00

I found this great song in 3 interesting flavors on YouTube.

The original (embedding disabled, sadly, but come back once you've checked it out for the other versions):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdhdkzU2xD4

An odd remix (probably the 1999 one) with a strange video:

A really great recent live version by Alison Moyet with a full band:

The acapella cover version by Flying Pickets:

And a really, really, really, really (no, really) horrible cover by Enrique Iglesias:

Movie: "Half Nelson"

2006-08-17T16:04:00.000-04:00

I'm reposting this because the movie is finally out and y'all should go see it.

This was one of those quietly amazing movies that come along very rarely. It's not out yet, but I got to see it at the Urbanworld VIBE Film Festival last night.

The festival was a mess, completely disorganized. The movie was supposed to start at 8:30pm, but didn't get going till 9:10pm. Then, at about the halfway mark, they got the reels mixed up and shut the movie down till they could fix it. We didn't get out until midnight, but I guess that just shows how much I was into the movie that I stuck it out till the end. I wish I could have stayed for the Q&A with the director, but I had to get up in the morning for work.

Ryan Gosling, hotter than than hot and an unbelievable actor to boot (check him out in"The Believer") plays Dan, a young history teacher at an inner city high school. He has the young idealist thing down, with an unfortunate drug habit that he thinks he can control on his own, having flunked rehab. He's hunkered down, high on crack, after a basketball game (he's the girl's coach) when he is discovered by one of his students, Drey, played by Shareeka Epps in her feature debut, and they begin a strange friendship. Shareeka Epps is also excellent in the movie. She has a quiet stoicism that occasionally lights up with the radiance of her true personality underneath. Drey is at a turning point in her life. Her brother is in jail, doing time for some unspecified job performed for the local drug dealer, and she could just as easily be headed for the same fate. Dan and Drey find themselves on two different ends of the same problem and their relationship gives each perspective on their own problem. I don't want to give any more of the plot away.

It's a very simple story told in a modern indie style, with tight, fluid camera work. The frame shifts focus to draw out interesting and revealing details, in urban-summery, washed-out colors. The story unfolds slowly in an understated style, but Gosling and Epps are powerful enough performers to keep you riveted. Epps keeps things under control more than Gosling, but Gosling is skilled enough to pull back from the really powerful moments to allow the viewer's emotions to carry the scene without spelling out every beat.

Secondary performances are excellent also: Anthony Mackie as Frank, the drug dealer, Tina Holmes (a favorite of mine from "Six Feet Under" and the ill-fated "Invasion") as Dan's ex, as well as Jay Sanders as Dan's jackass of a father in a single scene that explains so much about Dan.

Report Card:

5 out of 5

Demon Duck of Doom

2006-07-24T14:45:00.000-04:00

Paleontologists in Australia have come across a find of 10-million-year-old fossils that include a meat-eating kangaroo with scary teeth and a large carnivorous duck-like bird that the scientists dubbed the "Demon Duck of Doom."

Geek humor at its finest!

Lordy

2006-07-23T07:13:00.000-04:00

TV: "Battlestar Galactica"

2006-07-21T11:24:00.000-04:00

The season 3 promo that aired this week:

So cruel. I don't think I can wait till October.

Album: "Rattlesnakes" by Lloyd Cole and The Commotions

2006-07-20T14:58:00.000-04:00

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions were one of my favorite bands in the 80's and, unlike most of the stuff I was into at the time, remain so till this day. I remember when they came out they were positioned as an alternative to The Smiths. I was never into the Smiths at the time. I saw an interview with Morrissey and Johnny Marr on some Saturday morning TV show and they were such assholes (or, I guess, arseholes, as I was still living in England) that I decided I wasn't going to like them.

Unlike Morrissey and Marr, who created a unique electro-acoustic sound for themselves, The Commotions' sound was a pastiche of euro-folk-pop influences with Cole's arty name-dropping lyrics talk/sung over the top.

Rattlesnakes (1984)

Available still in its original CD format, this was re-released recently with an extra CD of bonus tracks.

My favorite track off the album, by far is "Are You Ready to be Heartbroken", as I've written about already. This one was covered, funnily enough by Sandie Shaw and released as a B-Side to her cover of The Smiths' "Hand in Glove." Sadly, I haven't been able to track the cover down, as it would have been a fun comparison.

Here are videos from the singles, posted to YouTube.com by some obliging contributors.

The first single, "Perfect Skin":

"Forest Fire"

"Rattlesnakes"

This was covered beautifully by Tori Amos on her Strange Little Girls album.

Song: "Trains to Brazil" by Guillemots

2006-07-18T23:45:00.000-04:00

Sort of a (I think) Scottish version of The Polyphonic Spree (But not really):

Song: "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken" by Camera Obscura

2006-07-18T23:20:00.000-04:00

I fell in love with this song when it came out a few months ago. It has that sweet naivete that reminds me of Everything But The Girl from "Baby The Stars Shine Bright"-era.

And it references one of my all-time favorite songs:

"Are You Ready to be Heartbroken" by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

This is a fun article about Camera Obscura's album and the two songs.

And here's a great song - "Don't Leave Me Behind" - from the above-mentioned Everything But the Girl album.

Song: "Sheila" by Jamie T

2006-07-18T23:10:00.000-04:00

More disposable pop music from the UK. English white boy trying to be black. Silly, but a great fun summer song.

Dropped to #36 from #22 after only 2 weeks in the UK singles chart. That's a shame.

Song: "In the Morning" by Razorlight

2006-07-18T23:02:00.000-04:00

I'm really into this song. It sounds like someone else, probably from the late eighties, but I can't think who. I'll also probably be over the song by next week.

Dropped to #7 this week from #2 after 3 weeks in the UK singles chart.

Comedy: "Eddie Izzard"

2006-07-18T22:57:00.000-04:00

Here's a funny clip of my favorite comedian, Eddie Izzard:

Movie: "Pirates of the Caribbean"

2006-07-13T21:28:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to think of something to say about "Pirates," but I found all creativity completely sapped by the mess that it was, much like what the filmmakers clearly experienced. And then I saw the "Ask a Ninja" review, and he pretty much says it all:

Scorecard:

Movie: 2 out of 5

Review: 5 out of 5

TV: "Doctor Who"

2006-07-10T15:43:00.000-04:00

So Season 2 of the revamped Doctor Who ended on Saturday in the UK in an orgy of geektasticness. The 10th doctor, played by brilliantly by David Tennant (shown here) lost his companion Rose, played by Billie Piper. It all came at the climax of all-out war between the Daleks and the Cybermen. The Sci-Fi Channel just finished airing the first season, with Christopher Ecclestone as the Doctor.

Here's a clip from the finale:

Ecclestone was great, playing a surpsingly upbeat role, quite a stretch from his normally dark and intense work. David Tennant is a generally goofy Doctor, but with a serious serious dark streak whenever he gets threatened. He actually manages to be quite sexy in places. Doctor Who has always been a pre-watershed show, meaning expressly for family viewing, so it tends to be more lightweight, but it's a good show nonetheless. It's interesting to compare "pre-watershed" from the 70's and 80's, in the show's first heyday, and the present. Recently they've dealt with death and grief, with environmental pollution, and shockingly from a US standpoint, homosexuality. The character of Captain Jack (played by John Barrowman, shown above) was from some future century where everyone was omnisexual. Rrrowr!

Scorecard:

5 out of 5

TV: "Life on Mars"

2006-07-10T15:04:00.000-04:00

I downloaded and watched this show last year when it aired first in the UK. It's a truly excellent crime drama with a "Peggy Sue got Married" time-travel angle to it. John Simm plays a detective Chief Inspector for the Manchester police department in the middle of the case when he gets knocked down by a car and falls into a coma. He gets transported back to the early 70's where he joins his old police department as a D.I. to boss Philip Glenister. Police work in the 70's comes as a shock to Simm's character, who is used to forensics, procedures and political correctness. The characters are excellent, the humor is crass and subtle at the same time, and the time-travel stuff is handled wonderfully. Simm ends up meeting his mother and father, and even, briefly, himself. And every so often reality intrudes as he becomes aware of what's happening around him in his hospital room in the present. It's a very enjoyable 8-parter that was a huge success in the UK, so expect more episodes to come.

Excellent for cop-show aficionados, anglophiles and genre geeks. Episode 1 airs monday, July 24th at 10pm on BBCAmerica.

Scorecard:

5 out of 5

Song: "Life on Mars"

2006-07-10T15:02:00.000-04:00

And speaking of Life on Mars, this is one of my favorite songs ever...

Scorecard:

5 out of 5

TV: "ALIAS"

2006-07-07T06:54:00.000-04:00

"Alias" Bloopers

I loved "ALIAS." Not every season was great, and they royally flubbed the finale, but it had great, great actors - Victor Garber, Lena Olin, Ron Rifkin, Carl Lumbly, Angela Bassett, Isabella Rosselini, Sonia Braga, Joel Gray - great eye candy - Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan, David Anders, Bradley Cooper - great sets and excellent costumes. What could be better than Jennifer Garner in a latex minidress and a wig beating the crap out of bad guys? If that's not a metaphor for our times, what is? I mean, I ask you?

(Thanks to my friend Lee for finding this on YouTube.com.)

A Message From The Geek Homeland

2006-07-05T11:59:00.000-04:00

A recent message on my voicemail from my friend Kevin:

"Hey. The roaming rate applies right now, but I had to call you and tell you that I am currently on the set of Battlestar Galactica, and as we speak, as I leave this message, I am sitting on the cot of Sharon's cell. Mm-hhmm... Yeah! Yesterday we got a tour through the spaceship base of the Battlestar Galactica and all of the little fighters were in there and eveything. Very cool. Anyway, I just decided to call and make you jealous."

And then the next day he got to work on a photo shoot with Starbuck.

Lucky bastard!

Movie: "The Devil Wears Prada"

2006-07-02T18:51:00.000-04:00

Meryl Streep is the new Faye Dunaway and the character she plays in "The Devil Wears Prada," Miranda Priestly, is without a doubt the new Joan Crawford, à la Mommie Dearest. I think we're going to be seeing a lot of men in grey bob wigs next halloween.

The book and the movie are two very different beasts. Lauren Weisberger's novel pretty much amounts to character assassination, but I don't have a problem with that. Having worked for several demanding, neurotic and vindictive women in my time, the portrait she paints of the fictional Miranda Priestly character rings true on many levels. The self-important demands and punitive behavior depicted in the book reminded me of many unreal incidents I suffered through in my early days working in the film industry. If any of my bosses had been as press-worthy as Vogue editor Anna Wintour, I would probably have written a book about it, too. The toadying, negative response to the book by many of those who felt the need to show support for Anna Wintour, is a transparent attempt at backlash at what is, essentially, a competent variant on the chick-lit genre.

My first big job in college, first as an intern and then as general factotum, was for a Formerly Relevant Movie Director who built a career on politically-conscious thrillers in the 1970's. One of my jobs was to write the annual letter to the Sally-Struthers-style sponsored child in Africa. The one letter I had from the child I had to go on had clearly been dictated to or concocted by some relief worker. The child apologised for taking so long to write as there had been a drought in her village and she had to walk all day, every day, to a neighboring area to get water for her family. I had no idea what to write, but I remember I was instructed to say something about how it had been snowing in New York and that the family was in mourning because the dog had died. I'm sure the little girl would have received great comfort from the letter.

FRMD was fairly benign. We didn't see much of him. His Psychotic High-Strung Producer (think Kathy Bates in "Misery") was another matter, however. She decided, without telling me, that I was to be her personal assisstant and spent most of her days screaming at me and berating me over the phone for not being able to read her mind. "People come up to and tell me things, and they assume I'm listening," she said once, in all seriousness. Happy times.

The novel had me sweating with post-traumatic stress disorder. Miranda's hazing of the lead builds to fever-pitch until she finally walks out on the job at the end of the book. The film is much softer, Miranda begrudgingly giving the main character a glowing reference as a reward for her plucky, headstrong integrity, so that's clearly unrealistic. Much of the movie is pitch-perfect. Streep's performance is rich and nuanced as the uber-fashionista from hell. She is so extreme as to be hysterically funny, but there are some wonderfully raw moments were you get to see behind the devil horns. The movie plays up the idea of being seduced into reinforcing the narcissistic self-importance of such people to the point where you forget yourself completely, and does it quite well. I had a friend who called it "sucking on someone else's flame." You get addicted to the adrenaline and the bustle and the notion that the world will end if you don't fulfill your job to the impossible standards of your superiors.

There's a lot that's stylistically inaccurate about the movie, the clothes and designers bandied about are behind the times, but it's great fun, even if it wimps out at the end. The secondary performances are excellent. Stanley Tucci is superb as the veteran art director and Emily Blunt does a wonderful and funny job as Miranda's number one assistant.

Report Card:

4 out of 5

(gay interest: 9 out of 5)

TV: "Blade: The Series"

2006-07-01T10:47:00.000-04:00

Oh dear.

I love the first and second Blade movies. The first is dark and stylish (and currently only $5.99 on Amazon), with a 70's exploitation flick feel about it. The second is Guillermo del Toro at his baroque best, with vampires snorting dried blood and eating human blood aspic. Wesley Snipes manages to be dour and campy at the same time, and the whole vampire underworld thing works very well. Unfortunately the third movie (and you will notice I am NOT providing a link to the Amazon listing), Blade: Trinity is a mess. The only thing worthwhile about it is Parker Posey allowing her more vampiric tendencies to come to the fore. (There's not much difference between her onscreen persona and her day-to-day drag, I understand. A friend of mine had a brief encounter with her at the green market a few weeks ago. The attitude is fun on screen, but not so much face-to-face.) Mr. Alanis Morissette, Ryan Reynolds, is very, very easy on the eyes in the movie, but he keeps ruining the effect by opening his mouth and saying things.

Anyway, the TV show on SpikeTV (Joss Whedon and James Marsters should be royally pissed at the appropriation of the name) is like EVERY OTHER genre show shot in Canada that usually shows up in syndication either on a Saturday afternoon or at one in the morning. Miserable production values, zero lighting, terrible acting. Sometimes these things pull it off on the strength of sheer storytelling, such as the Highlander TV series. Mostly they do not. The pilot is free on iTunes right now if you want to check it out at your convenience. Otherwise, forget it.

Report Card:

Blade: 4 out of 5

Blade II: 4 out of 5

Blade: Trinity: 1 out of 5 (gay interest: 4 out of 5)

Blade: the Series: 1 out of 5

Music: Mash-Ups/Party Ben

2006-06-29T21:24:00.000-04:00

Party Ben, a.k.a. San Francisco radio DJ Ben Gill is a mixer of awesome mash-ups. Mash-ups are certainly nothing new, but I find I've been listening to them a lot lately, and to this guy's more than most. He spins at San Francisco's all-mashup party, Bootie.

Party Ben's mixes are particularly inspired. Check these out:

Death Cab For Cutie vs. Madonna: "Hung Up On Soul"

Green Day vs. Oasis vs. Travis vs. Aerosmith vs. Eminem: "Boulevard of Broken Songs"

U2 vs. Janet: "Control, Bloody Control"

Coldplay vs. Kraftwerk: "Computer Talk"

Comic Book: "DMZ"

2006-06-29T15:04:00.000-04:00

DMZ: On the Ground is a compilation of the first five issues of the very excellent comic book written by Brian Wood and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. Wood has created an extremely vivid future in which the US is divided by a civil war between the "Free States of America" in the middle of the country and what remains of the USA in the Northeast, with Manhattan as the titual DMZ between the two. Not completely dissimilar to the classic John Carpenter movie Escape From New York, the city has become a lawless no man's land that only the rich were able to evacuate in time when the battle lines were drawn. Society has degenerated into the Darwinian free-for-all that I think is every New Yorker's secret nightmare, with loose tribal associations fighting desperately for limited resources amongst gunfire from the two sides. Matty Roth is an intern for the US Liberty News organization who gets attached to a news team sent into the DMZ for an unprecedented new series highlighting the truth of what is going on there. About five seconds after they land, however, they are attacked and Matty is the only survivor. He has to grow up quick in order to survive and ends up becoming something of an icon to the locals as he tries to report on what hes sees going on around him. Of course, his increasing media profile makes it hard for him to stay impartial as both sides begin trying to manipulate him to further their agendas.

I'm sure this will get turned into a movie at some point that will suck horribly, but it's worth checking out, even if you're not into comic books as a rule. A great story, with great characters.

Report Card:

5 out of 5

Movie: "Superman Returns"

2006-06-29T08:59:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I embraced my geekness and went to an 11am screening yesterday of the movie. I laughed, I cried I marveled (or should that be, I DC'ed) and I believed. There is, of course, a lot of father/son stuff in the movie, what with Marlon Brando and all of that, which always gets me weepy no matter how cheesily its done. And Brandon Routh is relentlessly cute (one reviewer referred to him as a buff Jason Schwartzman, which is no bad thing) and he gives excellent super-power and demigod stance. And yet I walked away feeling a little empty. Here's why...

MAJOR SPOILERS

Bad, Bad Plot Devices.

This whole thing of him being away for five years and everyone having moved on is a HUGE mistake. Not from the point the point of him coming back and the general public (and us, the viewers) rediscovering his superness. That was great, but the whole bit about Lois Lane being in a relationship now and torn between the two men is so, so hackneyed. It's the kind of artificial nonsense you get in soap operas or sitcoms to create a will-they-won't-they expectation. Whenever that shows up it gets me really, really irritated. It's right up there with the evil-twin gambit, the time-travel solution (which I guess they used in the first Christopher Reeve movie) and the it-was-all-a-dream fake-out. I get the feeling the way they pitched the movie to the studio was that they were going to go back to basics, but still they wanted to see how much they could get away with.

And, of course, the major consequence of him being away is his relationship with the kid. I like the idea of Superman and Lois Lane having a kid together. That's a great way to move their relationship forward. Plus you get the fun of figuring out the ground rules for a half-terran/half-kryptonian kid's super powers. It's like the first half of Spiderman where Peter Parker begins to realize he's different. And the idea of the added connection Superman will now have to Earth is great. One thing they did well was the demi-god aspect of the character, watching over us, sacrificing his personal life for the greater good. It played in well with him scooting off to find Krypton and perhaps, some sense of normalcy for him. But for him not to be able to assume the role of father at the end of the movie is just another unconvincing contrivance just for the sake of it. Another think to make me cranky. So we're now going to have to wait for the third movie, most likely, for the relationship to resolve itself fully. (If you follow the Star Wars model, the kid will learn of his origins at the end of the second movie, and will take the third movie to come to terms with it.) That's just weak.

The Passion Of The Superman

I know the Bible Belt has proved itself to be a major source of revenue, and I know that the creators, Shuster and Siegel, built a lot of Christ parallels into their character, but enough already. Superman falling back to earth, dying and then being reborn was a bit much. Spielberg pretty much killed that story arc in E.T. And then, when Superman is resurrected it's such a let-down, especially after all the heroic posturing of the rest of the movie. You never actually see him come back to life. He's just gone from the hospital room. (The beat where Lois busts herself for thinking she could bring him back to life with a kiss was an excellent touch, however.) We were deprived of the money shot. Even in Highlander, when the whole point is that they come back to life, they had it down pat, with the sudden, sharp intake of breath and the brief shock of remembering the death agony. It was a convention that they re-used over and over again, but it worked every time.

Lois Lane Is Kind Of A Bitch.

The way she acts towards Clark is pretty c***-y. What kind of a self-hating closet-case is Superman to be all googly-eyed over her when she treats him this way?

A Little Too Convenient, If You Ask Me.

Lex Luthor (Spacey was brilliant!) walks into the Fortress of Solitude acting like he owns the place with answers for everything and Parker Posey (what's the point of using her character's name here. Let's face it, she's always Parker Posey.) comment "Lex, is as if you've been here before..." Now maybe he has and I'm displaying geek ignorance, but things need to be a little more internally consistent, if you ask me. There was a moment in (ugh!) T3 where they are running from the baddy and they find an aircraft hanger and Claire Danes yells something along the lines of.. "my father taught me how to fly a plane when I was a kid," and off they go. Again, weak.

Fourteen Endings.

Oh, my god! This movie won't die! He chucks the evil kryptonite-continent into space (I won't call them out over this one as we all want the hero to overcome his weakness by sheer force of will) - ending #1. Then he falls back to earth - ending #2. Then he's rushed to hospital and seemingly dies - ending #3. Then Lois goes to the hospital to see him and hopefully revive him with the power of her bitchy kiss - ending #4. Then, somewhere in there, we see Lex and parker comically stuck on a desert island - ending #5. Then the nurse comes in and Superman isn't in the bed - ending #6. Then Superman delivers the whole Jor-el speech to the kid - ending #7. Then he and Lois have an inconsequential "We're pretending to be WASPS so we won't talk about it" moment - ending #8. Then he flies off into space and they re-do the ending of the first movie - ending #9. Okay, so only nine endings. There may have been more after the credits, but I had to pee.

The CGI Don't Cut It.

Superhero filmmakers these days think that CGI can do anything, but the truth is, it just looks bad. They have the same problem in the Spiderman movies. You can tell when it's the actor and when its animated and it throws you out of the movie, if only for a second.

Not A Lot Actually Happened.

For all the posturing and superhero antics, it seems like the story was a little thin. There were lots of slowed-down shots of tiny Superman and vast airplane/continent/whatever, which was all great. And the one shot of the bullet bouncing off his eyeball was great, but he didn't DO much else.

In The End I Didn't Really Care

It was great fun and all, but I walked away with the feeling that this was a movie made for someone else who was already obsessed with Superman. I kinda felt a little left out.

But you know what, don't take my word for it. See it yourself and make up your own mind...

Report Card:

3 out of 5

Movie: "Superman - The Movie"

2006-06-24T13:20:00.000-04:00

I got together with a bunch of friends to watch the first Superman movie starring the late, great Christopher Reeve.

I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved, this movie when it first came out. I had always been into superheroes, but when I was seven or eight years old, my family moved to Brazil and the only English-Language culture I had access to there was comics. I probably would have been comic-book mad if we had stayed in the UK anyway, but they became a lifeline for me in São Paolo, where we settled. I will confess that I was more into Marvel comics than DC, but that didn't stop me from buying everything I could.

In 1978, I guess, Star Wars was finally released in Brazil. The Brazilian distributors had no idea what they had on their hands and the movie only opened in a couple of theatres. I remember showing up with my mum and dad to find a line that stretched around the block. I think the movie was starting at 2pm or something. The theatre didn't bother about showings selling out and turning people away. They just kept selling tickets and filling seats. If the show filled up, you had to wait for the next screening. I think we waited through three screenings, getting closer and closer to the door. We were, literally, 15 feet from the door - I could see through the entrance to the opening scenes of C3PO and R2D2 on the desert sands of Tattooine - and my parents gave up and we had to leave. I was shattered! I had to wait four or five days before we could go back.

Luckily the powers that be had got their shit together for Superman, so we got in no problems first time. I remember holding my mother's hand and squeezing it so hard as Krypton exploded and Kal-El's pod flew through space that she had to fight to get it back. After the movie I remember feeling a little embarrassed by Christopher Reeve's performance. He was such a goody-goody! But as I watched the recent, and excellent, documentary about Superman - Look, Up in the Sky - The Amazing Story of Superman - when it aired on A&E I realized that he was what Superman was supposed to look like, and all of the other incarnations were pale imitations. Brandon Routh definitely has big, big shoes to fill.

The movie is very fun. Great sets and costumes, great performances, very satisfying all round. The thing is, do we really care about Superman? My friend Lee and I have discussed this a few times. He's kinda the generic superhero. The genre has moved on so much since his creation that Superman seems a bit irrelevant. I woke up this morning feeling like I've had my Superman fix and don't really need to see the new one at 10am on the day it opens as is my habit with big movies. Of course, I'm sure I'll be there anyway...

Report Card:

3 out of 5

Comic Book: "Eternals" by Neil Gaiman

2006-06-23T14:49:00.000-04:00

The great writer Neil Gaiman, creator of the fabulous Sandmanseries from DC's Vertigo Comics returns to the comic world with an update of Jack Kirby's Eternals series.

I have to agree with Blair Butler, the comics reviewer for G4 TV's Attack of the Show. Gaiman does amazing and philosophically very subtle work when it comes to mythologies, but sometimes he can be a little slow to get moving. This is definitely the case here. Beautifully drawn and colored, there's some very interesting stuff here, but it comes off as the first ten minutes of a genre movie like Bladeor Highlander. Normal person gets confronted with strange, supernatural events and either dives right in to a strange new world just below the surface of mundane reality or refuses the call at first only to be drawn inexorably back to the hidden truth. It's a classic device from post-Joseph Campbell three-act storytelling. Simple, effective, does the trick in a minumum of time. Seen it over and over again. Am, frankly, kinda bored of it.

I'm a sucker, though, and bought it based on the Gaiman reputation. I'm hoping for the best, as he doesn't always pull it off. His second big novel, American Gods, was kinda all over the place and covered ground tackled much better by Tim Powers in such books as Last Call and Declare. But when he gets it right, he gets it really right, as in the Sandman series, and it's always worth the ride.

Report Card:

3 out of 5