During the past few days I went down to the local megaplex to see a couple of first-run films: M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening and The Incredible Hulk. Regrettably, Shyamalan's latest film was a disappointment. Given what I had read of its plot, I was hoping that Shyamalan might be able to capture some of the magic that made John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids such a classic novel. Human civilization laid low by a revolt of plants, a couple of outstanding actors in Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, what could go wrong? Just about everything. The story just plodded along and I never sensed that the characters were in any real peril. The ridiculous question of "why are all the bees dying?" was asked once too often. And to top it all off, the movie concluded with a lame environmentalist message. It's not worth your time or money to see this film, believe me.
Shyamalan has directed some outstanding movies like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, but some slippage was evident with The Village and Lady in the Water just fell flat. Despite his recent slide, I think Shyamalan is still capable of making great films. Perhaps the negative reviews of The Happening will put him back on track.
The Incredible Hulk, however, succeeded where where Ang Lee's The Hulk did not. The story moved along, the audience got to see the Hulk much earlier in the film, and the movie was nicely situated in the Marvel universe with Robert Downey's Tony Stark making a cameo appearance. Plus, there was a lot of action and even some references to the classic television series which I remember fondly from my childhood.
Contrary to what some may assume, The Incredible Hulk is not so much a remake of Ang Lee's movie as it is a continuation. The story picks up five years later with Dr. Bruce Banner (played this time by Edward Norton) living anonymously in Brazil, trying to gain some control over his affliction. William Hurt and Liv Tyler also gave fine performances. I'm looking forward to the continuing Avengers storyline next year.
The best films I've seen this year, though, have been Iron Man and Ben Stein's Expelled, the latter of which I reviewed on this blog last month.
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Over the weekend, I purchased a copy of Phil Vassar's latest album, Prayer of a Common Man. Vassar has been one of my favorite artists since his very first single, "Carlene," was released in 1999. The song starts out with the line "I was lousy at math, a failed historian.." Here's a video of Vassar performing the song at a live concert a few years ago:
My favorite songs off of his new album are "Around Here Somewhere" and "My Chevrolet." Check it out.
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Finally, I finished reading John Ringo and Tom Kratman's Yellow Eyes on Monday evening. I will post a review tomorrow. Considering the Supreme Court's asinine ruling vis-à-vis the Gitmo detainees a few days ago, it was a very timely read.
Next up on my reading list is Walter Laqueur's The Last Days of Europe, to be followed by Tom Kratman's A Desert Called Peace and Carnifex.
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