http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z48rUVUXdy0
The Whole Truth
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
www.theentertainmentcritic.com
www.theentertainmentcritic.net
www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
THE WHOLE TRUTH
By David Baldacci
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: April, 2008
Price: $26.95
406 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780446195973
Four Star Rating ****
BALDACCI RECEIVED A B.A. FROM VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY AND A LAW DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. AS A STUDENT, BALDACCI WROTE SHORT STORIES IN HIS SPARE TIME, AND LATER PRACTICED LAW FOR NINE YEARS NEAR WASHINGTON, D.C.
WHILE LIVING IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, BALDACCI WROTE SHORT STORIES AND SCREENPLAYS WITHOUT MUCH SUCCESS. IN DESPAIR, HE TURNED TO NOVEL WRITING, TAKING THREE YEARS TO WRITE ABSOLUTE POWER. IT TOOK BALDACCI TWO YEARS TO GET THE BOOK PUBLISHED, BUT WHEN IT FINALLY DID HIT THE SHELVES IN 1996 IT WAS AN INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER.
IT WAS MADE INTO A FILM, ABSOLUTE POWER (1997), STARRING CLINT EASTWOOD AND GENE HACKMAN
BALDACCI HAS GONE ON TO PUBLISH FOURTEEN MORE NOVELS: TOTAL CONTROL, THE WINNER, THE SIMPLE TRUTH, SAVING FAITH, WISH YOU WELL, LAST MAN STANDING, THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN, SPLIT SECOND, HOUR GAME, CAMEL CLUB, THE COLLECTORS, SIMPLE GENIUS, STONE COLD, AND THE YOUNG ADULT NOVEL FREDDY AND THE FRENCH FRIES: FRIES ALIVE! HE HAS ALSO PUBLISHED A NOVELLA FOR THE DUTCH ENTITLED OFFICE HOURS, WRITTEN FOR THE NETHERLANDS' YEAR 2000 "MONTH OF THE THRILLER". BALDACCI ALSO AUTHORED A SHORT STORY, "THE MIGHTY JOHNS", AS PART OF A 2002 MYSTERY ANTHOLOGY.
BALDACCI HAS AUTHORED SEVEN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYS, AND HIS WORKS HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, AND JOURNALS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. ALL OF HIS BOOKS HAVE BECOME NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERS, TRANSLATED INTO OVER 37 LANGUAGES AND SOLD IN MORE THAN 85 COUNTRIES. OVER 40 MILLION COPIES OF BALDACCI'S BOOKS ARE IN PRINT WORLDWIDE.
DAVID BALDACCI SERVES AS A NATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR THE NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY AND PARTICIPATES IN NUMEROUS CHARITIES AS WELL AS FOUNDING HIS OWN FAMILY FOUNDATION FOR LITERACY, WISH YOU WELL FOUNDATION.
“AT PRECISELY ZERO HOURS UT, or midnight Universal Time, the image of the tortured man erupted onto the world’s most popular Web site.
The first six words he spoke would be remembered forever by everyone who heard them.
“I am dead. I was murdered.”
He was speaking Russian on the screen but at the bottom his tragic story was retold in virtually any language one desired with the press of a key. Secret Russian Federation police had beaten “confessions” of treason out of him and his family. He’d managed to escape and make this crude video.
Whoever held the camera had either been scared to death, drunk, or both, for the grainy film vibrated and shook every few seconds.
The man said if the video had been released that meant he’d been recaptured by government thugs and was already dead.
His crime? Simply wanting freedom.
“There are tens of thousands just like me,” he told the world. “Their bones lie heavy on the frozen tundra of Siberia and in the deep waters of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan. You will see evidence of this soon. There are others who will take up the fight now that I am gone.”
He warned that while the world had focused on the Osama bin Ladens of the world for so long, the old evil, with a destructive force a million times greater than the combined Islamic renegades, was clearly back, and deadlier than ever.
“It is time the world knew the whole truth,” he shouted at the camera, then broke down in tears.
“My name is Konstantin. My name was Konstantin,” he corrected. “It is too late for me and my family. We are all dead now. My wife, my three children, all gone. Do not forget me, and why I died. Do not let my family perish in vain.”
As the man’s image and voice faded from view, a mushroom cloud lit up the screen, and superimposed on the bottom of this horrifying visual was the ominous tagline: First the Russian people, then the rest of the world. Can we afford to wait? “
“Wars are the easiest things to start and the hardest things to end.”
---David Baldacci, The Whole Truth
The versatile David Baldacci is back with his new political thriller, The Whole Truth. This novel asks a unique question: What if the entire world, governments, leaders, and citizens around the globe were united on a crusade to stop an evil that doesn’t exist, was completely fabricated, and promulgated in a savvy public relations ploy through mass communications and the Internet. In his 15th legal thriller, Baldacci asks, how would we respond to an imaginary global crisis? Baldacci has elected to take us one step beyond 1984, by giving us a look behind the curtain at the wizard himself.
Nicholas Creed, owner and operator of the Ayres Corporation, is a billionaire military weapons manufacturer who has no boundaries for his ambitions. Creed wants to restructure the world in his own image, and he has the wealth, power and knowledge to do it. He can control world order by manipulating not only people, but entire countries. He wants to take the focus off the Mideast, and bring back The Cold War to put the world’s ire back where it belongs. He hires Dick Pender, former White House staffer and spinmaster, founder of Pender and Associates, a highly profitable perception magician who specializes in “perception management.” ("Dick, I need a war.") Perception management does not spin facts or stories; it prefers to manufacture the facts and sell them to the naïve public as true. ('Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it?') Creed needs a war to boost sagging arms sales; Pender produces a fabricated “You Tube” type video, consisting of doctored news footage, and an actor, Konstantin, who claims thousands are being killed by a “Secret Russian Federation.” The actor on the video speaks, 'It is time the world knew THE WHOLE TRUTH.' The result is that the world condemns Russia as mass murderers. A build up of arms between Russia and China begins in earnest. The smear campaign works, enabling Creed to push and escalate an arms race, making his company wildly profitable.
Shaw, a mystery man with no past, working for a super secret agency of the US government, has lived many lives outwitting terrorists, drug lords, skinhead and international wrong doers. He is a James Bond-like figure, and Baldacci’s most intriguing character. As a hired gun, it is his job to find out who and what is behind this great fabrication. He works for this agency under duress (they’ve planted an explosive tracking device in his arm). He’d like to retire and settle down with his fiancee, Anna Fischer, who works for the Phoenix Group think tank. Unfortunately, the think tank is one of the pawns in the Creed/Pender network. The book really begins to heat up, when Anna sends an e-mail critical of the invented Russian story to an Internet blogger. By accident she has put her man into the dead center of this controversy. A team of supposed Russian hit men invade the Phoenix Group and kill everyone in the building --- including Anna. When Shaw learns of this, he re-ups with his agency and vows to find and destroy the people behind this massacre.
A fourth figure in this novel is Katie James, a journalist, who has written a story that turns out to be completely false, and return from Afghanistan an alcoholic barely able to handle her new assignment, the obit column. A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, disgraced and demoted, she is determined to get back into the limelight by landing a major story. Inadvertently, she stumbles on to an operation involving Shaw, who saves her life, but condemns her to life on the run with him. She may have finally found the biggest story of her life; that is if Shaw can keep them both alive. She and Shaw are on the run throughout the U.S. and Europe, just a half step ahead of the killers while trying to work out just what is the whole truth.
Baldacci’s tale is striking on several levels. Well written, great prose, spy-like dialogue and breathtaking suspense make this a great political thriller. The Shaw is a character we hope to see a lot more of. I get the feeling that Baldacci could create a whole series of thrillers around this guy.
Baldacci is the master of engrossing political tomes that are centered on frightening modern realities. The ease that the communications made through the ‘Net can be misused to mislead is a disturbing thought-provoking concept. Video is so easily distributed to your MySpace and Facebook pages, that mass movements, commercial and political, can be created overnight. No one is better at warning about the modern day Big Lie like David Baldacci. Big Brother meets You Tube in this one of kind international thriller. Bond and Bourne have nothing on Baldacci. This is an international spy thriller that you just cannot put down.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
New Book Review From the Entertainment Critic: The Whole Truth by David Baldacci
The Whole Truth
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
www.theentertainmentcritic.com
www.theentertainmentcritic.net
www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
THE WHOLE TRUTH
By David Baldacci
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: April, 2008
Price: $26.95
406 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780446195973
Four Star Rating ****
BALDACCI RECEIVED A B.A. FROM VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY AND A LAW DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. AS A STUDENT, BALDACCI WROTE SHORT STORIES IN HIS SPARE TIME, AND LATER PRACTICED LAW FOR NINE YEARS NEAR WASHINGTON, D.C.
WHILE LIVING IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, BALDACCI WROTE SHORT STORIES AND SCREENPLAYS WITHOUT MUCH SUCCESS. IN DESPAIR, HE TURNED TO NOVEL WRITING, TAKING THREE YEARS TO WRITE ABSOLUTE POWER. IT TOOK BALDACCI TWO YEARS TO GET THE BOOK PUBLISHED, BUT WHEN IT FINALLY DID HIT THE SHELVES IN 1996 IT WAS AN INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER.
IT WAS MADE INTO A FILM, ABSOLUTE POWER (1997), STARRING CLINT EASTWOOD AND GENE HACKMAN
BALDACCI HAS GONE ON TO PUBLISH FOURTEEN MORE NOVELS: TOTAL CONTROL, THE WINNER, THE SIMPLE TRUTH, SAVING FAITH, WISH YOU WELL, LAST MAN STANDING, THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN, SPLIT SECOND, HOUR GAME, CAMEL CLUB, THE COLLECTORS, SIMPLE GENIUS, STONE COLD, AND THE YOUNG ADULT NOVEL FREDDY AND THE FRENCH FRIES: FRIES ALIVE! HE HAS ALSO PUBLISHED A NOVELLA FOR THE DUTCH ENTITLED OFFICE HOURS, WRITTEN FOR THE NETHERLANDS' YEAR 2000 "MONTH OF THE THRILLER". BALDACCI ALSO AUTHORED A SHORT STORY, "THE MIGHTY JOHNS", AS PART OF A 2002 MYSTERY ANTHOLOGY.
BALDACCI HAS AUTHORED SEVEN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYS, AND HIS WORKS HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, AND JOURNALS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. ALL OF HIS BOOKS HAVE BECOME NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERS, TRANSLATED INTO OVER 37 LANGUAGES AND SOLD IN MORE THAN 85 COUNTRIES. OVER 40 MILLION COPIES OF BALDACCI'S BOOKS ARE IN PRINT WORLDWIDE.
DAVID BALDACCI SERVES AS A NATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR THE NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY AND PARTICIPATES IN NUMEROUS CHARITIES AS WELL AS FOUNDING HIS OWN FAMILY FOUNDATION FOR LITERACY, WISH YOU WELL FOUNDATION.
“AT PRECISELY ZERO HOURS UT, or midnight Universal Time, the image of the tortured man erupted onto the world’s most popular Web site.
The first six words he spoke would be remembered forever by everyone who heard them.
“I am dead. I was murdered.”
He was speaking Russian on the screen but at the bottom his tragic story was retold in virtually any language one desired with the press of a key. Secret Russian Federation police had beaten “confessions” of treason out of him and his family. He’d managed to escape and make this crude video.
Whoever held the camera had either been scared to death, drunk, or both, for the grainy film vibrated and shook every few seconds.
The man said if the video had been released that meant he’d been recaptured by government thugs and was already dead.
His crime? Simply wanting freedom.
“There are tens of thousands just like me,” he told the world. “Their bones lie heavy on the frozen tundra of Siberia and in the deep waters of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan. You will see evidence of this soon. There are others who will take up the fight now that I am gone.”
He warned that while the world had focused on the Osama bin Ladens of the world for so long, the old evil, with a destructive force a million times greater than the combined Islamic renegades, was clearly back, and deadlier than ever.
“It is time the world knew the whole truth,” he shouted at the camera, then broke down in tears.
“My name is Konstantin. My name was Konstantin,” he corrected. “It is too late for me and my family. We are all dead now. My wife, my three children, all gone. Do not forget me, and why I died. Do not let my family perish in vain.”
As the man’s image and voice faded from view, a mushroom cloud lit up the screen, and superimposed on the bottom of this horrifying visual was the ominous tagline: First the Russian people, then the rest of the world. Can we afford to wait? “
“Wars are the easiest things to start and the hardest things to end.”
---David Baldacci, The Whole Truth
The versatile David Baldacci is back with his new political thriller, The Whole Truth. This novel asks a unique question: What if the entire world, governments, leaders, and citizens around the globe were united on a crusade to stop an evil that doesn’t exist, was completely fabricated, and promulgated in a savvy public relations ploy through mass communications and the Internet. In his 15th legal thriller, Baldacci asks, how would we respond to an imaginary global crisis? Baldacci has elected to take us one step beyond 1984, by giving us a look behind the curtain at the wizard himself.
Nicholas Creed, owner and operator of the Ayres Corporation, is a billionaire military weapons manufacturer who has no boundaries for his ambitions. Creed wants to restructure the world in his own image, and he has the wealth, power and knowledge to do it. He can control world order by manipulating not only people, but entire countries. He wants to take the focus off the Mideast, and bring back The Cold War to put the world’s ire back where it belongs. He hires Dick Pender, former White House staffer and spinmaster, founder of Pender and Associates, a highly profitable perception magician who specializes in “perception management.” ("Dick, I need a war.") Perception management does not spin facts or stories; it prefers to manufacture the facts and sell them to the naïve public as true. ('Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it?') Creed needs a war to boost sagging arms sales; Pender produces a fabricated “You Tube” type video, consisting of doctored news footage, and an actor, Konstantin, who claims thousands are being killed by a “Secret Russian Federation.” The actor on the video speaks, 'It is time the world knew THE WHOLE TRUTH.' The result is that the world condemns Russia as mass murderers. A build up of arms between Russia and China begins in earnest. The smear campaign works, enabling Creed to push and escalate an arms race, making his company wildly profitable.
Shaw, a mystery man with no past, working for a super secret agency of the US government, has lived many lives outwitting terrorists, drug lords, skinhead and international wrong doers. He is a James Bond-like figure, and Baldacci’s most intriguing character. As a hired gun, it is his job to find out who and what is behind this great fabrication. He works for this agency under duress (they’ve planted an explosive tracking device in his arm). He’d like to retire and settle down with his fiancee, Anna Fischer, who works for the Phoenix Group think tank. Unfortunately, the think tank is one of the pawns in the Creed/Pender network. The book really begins to heat up, when Anna sends an e-mail critical of the invented Russian story to an Internet blogger. By accident she has put her man into the dead center of this controversy. A team of supposed Russian hit men invade the Phoenix Group and kill everyone in the building --- including Anna. When Shaw learns of this, he re-ups with his agency and vows to find and destroy the people behind this massacre.
A fourth figure in this novel is Katie James, a journalist, who has written a story that turns out to be completely false, and return from Afghanistan an alcoholic barely able to handle her new assignment, the obit column. A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, disgraced and demoted, she is determined to get back into the limelight by landing a major story. Inadvertently, she stumbles on to an operation involving Shaw, who saves her life, but condemns her to life on the run with him. She may have finally found the biggest story of her life; that is if Shaw can keep them both alive. She and Shaw are on the run throughout the U.S. and Europe, just a half step ahead of the killers while trying to work out just what is the whole truth.
Baldacci’s tale is striking on several levels. Well written, great prose, spy-like dialogue and breathtaking suspense make this a great political thriller. The Shaw is a character we hope to see a lot more of. I get the feeling that Baldacci could create a whole series of thrillers around this guy.
Baldacci is the master of engrossing political tomes that are centered on frightening modern realities. The ease that the communications made through the ‘Net can be misused to mislead is a disturbing thought-provoking concept. Video is so easily distributed to your MySpace and Facebook pages, that mass movements, commercial and political, can be created overnight. No one is better at warning about the modern day Big Lie like David Baldacci. Big Brother meets You Tube in this one of kind international thriller. Bond and Bourne have nothing on Baldacci. This is an international spy thriller that you just cannot put down.
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
www.theentertainmentcritic.com
www.theentertainmentcritic.net
www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
THE WHOLE TRUTH
By David Baldacci
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: April, 2008
Price: $26.95
406 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780446195973
Four Star Rating ****
BALDACCI RECEIVED A B.A. FROM VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY AND A LAW DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. AS A STUDENT, BALDACCI WROTE SHORT STORIES IN HIS SPARE TIME, AND LATER PRACTICED LAW FOR NINE YEARS NEAR WASHINGTON, D.C.
WHILE LIVING IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, BALDACCI WROTE SHORT STORIES AND SCREENPLAYS WITHOUT MUCH SUCCESS. IN DESPAIR, HE TURNED TO NOVEL WRITING, TAKING THREE YEARS TO WRITE ABSOLUTE POWER. IT TOOK BALDACCI TWO YEARS TO GET THE BOOK PUBLISHED, BUT WHEN IT FINALLY DID HIT THE SHELVES IN 1996 IT WAS AN INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER.
IT WAS MADE INTO A FILM, ABSOLUTE POWER (1997), STARRING CLINT EASTWOOD AND GENE HACKMAN
BALDACCI HAS GONE ON TO PUBLISH FOURTEEN MORE NOVELS: TOTAL CONTROL, THE WINNER, THE SIMPLE TRUTH, SAVING FAITH, WISH YOU WELL, LAST MAN STANDING, THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN, SPLIT SECOND, HOUR GAME, CAMEL CLUB, THE COLLECTORS, SIMPLE GENIUS, STONE COLD, AND THE YOUNG ADULT NOVEL FREDDY AND THE FRENCH FRIES: FRIES ALIVE! HE HAS ALSO PUBLISHED A NOVELLA FOR THE DUTCH ENTITLED OFFICE HOURS, WRITTEN FOR THE NETHERLANDS' YEAR 2000 "MONTH OF THE THRILLER". BALDACCI ALSO AUTHORED A SHORT STORY, "THE MIGHTY JOHNS", AS PART OF A 2002 MYSTERY ANTHOLOGY.
BALDACCI HAS AUTHORED SEVEN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYS, AND HIS WORKS HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, AND JOURNALS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. ALL OF HIS BOOKS HAVE BECOME NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERS, TRANSLATED INTO OVER 37 LANGUAGES AND SOLD IN MORE THAN 85 COUNTRIES. OVER 40 MILLION COPIES OF BALDACCI'S BOOKS ARE IN PRINT WORLDWIDE.
DAVID BALDACCI SERVES AS A NATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR THE NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY AND PARTICIPATES IN NUMEROUS CHARITIES AS WELL AS FOUNDING HIS OWN FAMILY FOUNDATION FOR LITERACY, WISH YOU WELL FOUNDATION.
“AT PRECISELY ZERO HOURS UT, or midnight Universal Time, the image of the tortured man erupted onto the world’s most popular Web site.
The first six words he spoke would be remembered forever by everyone who heard them.
“I am dead. I was murdered.”
He was speaking Russian on the screen but at the bottom his tragic story was retold in virtually any language one desired with the press of a key. Secret Russian Federation police had beaten “confessions” of treason out of him and his family. He’d managed to escape and make this crude video.
Whoever held the camera had either been scared to death, drunk, or both, for the grainy film vibrated and shook every few seconds.
The man said if the video had been released that meant he’d been recaptured by government thugs and was already dead.
His crime? Simply wanting freedom.
“There are tens of thousands just like me,” he told the world. “Their bones lie heavy on the frozen tundra of Siberia and in the deep waters of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan. You will see evidence of this soon. There are others who will take up the fight now that I am gone.”
He warned that while the world had focused on the Osama bin Ladens of the world for so long, the old evil, with a destructive force a million times greater than the combined Islamic renegades, was clearly back, and deadlier than ever.
“It is time the world knew the whole truth,” he shouted at the camera, then broke down in tears.
“My name is Konstantin. My name was Konstantin,” he corrected. “It is too late for me and my family. We are all dead now. My wife, my three children, all gone. Do not forget me, and why I died. Do not let my family perish in vain.”
As the man’s image and voice faded from view, a mushroom cloud lit up the screen, and superimposed on the bottom of this horrifying visual was the ominous tagline: First the Russian people, then the rest of the world. Can we afford to wait? “
“Wars are the easiest things to start and the hardest things to end.”
---David Baldacci, The Whole Truth
The versatile David Baldacci is back with his new political thriller, The Whole Truth. This novel asks a unique question: What if the entire world, governments, leaders, and citizens around the globe were united on a crusade to stop an evil that doesn’t exist, was completely fabricated, and promulgated in a savvy public relations ploy through mass communications and the Internet. In his 15th legal thriller, Baldacci asks, how would we respond to an imaginary global crisis? Baldacci has elected to take us one step beyond 1984, by giving us a look behind the curtain at the wizard himself.
Nicholas Creed, owner and operator of the Ayres Corporation, is a billionaire military weapons manufacturer who has no boundaries for his ambitions. Creed wants to restructure the world in his own image, and he has the wealth, power and knowledge to do it. He can control world order by manipulating not only people, but entire countries. He wants to take the focus off the Mideast, and bring back The Cold War to put the world’s ire back where it belongs. He hires Dick Pender, former White House staffer and spinmaster, founder of Pender and Associates, a highly profitable perception magician who specializes in “perception management.” ("Dick, I need a war.") Perception management does not spin facts or stories; it prefers to manufacture the facts and sell them to the naïve public as true. ('Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it?') Creed needs a war to boost sagging arms sales; Pender produces a fabricated “You Tube” type video, consisting of doctored news footage, and an actor, Konstantin, who claims thousands are being killed by a “Secret Russian Federation.” The actor on the video speaks, 'It is time the world knew THE WHOLE TRUTH.' The result is that the world condemns Russia as mass murderers. A build up of arms between Russia and China begins in earnest. The smear campaign works, enabling Creed to push and escalate an arms race, making his company wildly profitable.
Shaw, a mystery man with no past, working for a super secret agency of the US government, has lived many lives outwitting terrorists, drug lords, skinhead and international wrong doers. He is a James Bond-like figure, and Baldacci’s most intriguing character. As a hired gun, it is his job to find out who and what is behind this great fabrication. He works for this agency under duress (they’ve planted an explosive tracking device in his arm). He’d like to retire and settle down with his fiancee, Anna Fischer, who works for the Phoenix Group think tank. Unfortunately, the think tank is one of the pawns in the Creed/Pender network. The book really begins to heat up, when Anna sends an e-mail critical of the invented Russian story to an Internet blogger. By accident she has put her man into the dead center of this controversy. A team of supposed Russian hit men invade the Phoenix Group and kill everyone in the building --- including Anna. When Shaw learns of this, he re-ups with his agency and vows to find and destroy the people behind this massacre.
A fourth figure in this novel is Katie James, a journalist, who has written a story that turns out to be completely false, and return from Afghanistan an alcoholic barely able to handle her new assignment, the obit column. A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, disgraced and demoted, she is determined to get back into the limelight by landing a major story. Inadvertently, she stumbles on to an operation involving Shaw, who saves her life, but condemns her to life on the run with him. She may have finally found the biggest story of her life; that is if Shaw can keep them both alive. She and Shaw are on the run throughout the U.S. and Europe, just a half step ahead of the killers while trying to work out just what is the whole truth.
Baldacci’s tale is striking on several levels. Well written, great prose, spy-like dialogue and breathtaking suspense make this a great political thriller. The Shaw is a character we hope to see a lot more of. I get the feeling that Baldacci could create a whole series of thrillers around this guy.
Baldacci is the master of engrossing political tomes that are centered on frightening modern realities. The ease that the communications made through the ‘Net can be misused to mislead is a disturbing thought-provoking concept. Video is so easily distributed to your MySpace and Facebook pages, that mass movements, commercial and political, can be created overnight. No one is better at warning about the modern day Big Lie like David Baldacci. Big Brother meets You Tube in this one of kind international thriller. Bond and Bourne have nothing on Baldacci. This is an international spy thriller that you just cannot put down.
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
Saturday, May 10, 2008
New Book Review From the Entertainment Critic: Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh
Hollywood Crows
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
www.theentertainmentcritic.com
www.theentertainmentcritic.net
www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
HOLLYWOOD CROWS
By Joseph Wambaugh
Published by: Little, Brown & Company
Publication Date: March, 2008
Price: $26.99
343 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780316025287
Four Star Rating ****
JOSEPH ALOYSIUS WAMBAUGH, JR. (BORN JANUARY 22, 1937, IN EAST PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA) IS AN AMERICAN WRITER KNOWN FOR HIS FICTIONAL AND NON-FICTIONAL ACCOUNTS OF POLICE WORK IN THE UNITED STATES.
SERVED 14 YEARS IN THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
WAMBAUGH'S UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ON THE REALITIES OF POLICE WORK LED TO HIS FIRST NOVEL, THE NEW CENTURIONS, WHICH WAS PUBLISHED EARLY IN 1971 TO CRITICAL ACCLAIM AND POPULAR SUCCESS. THE SUCCESS OF THE EARLY BOOKS HAPPENED WHILE WAMBAUGH WAS STILL WORKING IN THE DETECTIVE DIVISION. HE REPORTEDLY REMARKED "I WOULD HAVE GUYS IN HANDCUFFS ASKING ME FOR AUTOGRAPHS." SOON TURNING TO WRITING FULL-TIME, WAMBAUGH WAS PROLIFIC AND POPULAR STARTING IN THE 1970S, MIXING NOVELS (THE BLUE KNIGHT, THE CHOIRBOYS, THE BLACK MARBLE) WITH NONFICTION ACCOUNTS OF CRIME AND DETECTION A.K.A. "TRUE CRIME" (THE ONION FIELD). LATER BOOKS INCLUDED THE GLITTER DOME (A TV-MOVIE ADAPTATION STARRED JAMES GARNER AND JOHN LITHGOW), THE DELTA STAR, AND LINES AND SHADOWS.
HIS TRADEMARK IS GRITTY POLICE CHARACTERS THAT HAVE HEROIC FLAWS
MANY OF HIS BOOKS WERE MADE INTO FEATURE FILMS OR TV-MOVIES DURING THE 70S AND 80S. THE BLUE KNIGHT, A NOVEL FOLLOWING THE APPROACHING RETIREMENT AND LAST WORKING DAYS OF AGING VETERAN BEAT COP "BUMPER" MORGAN, WAS MADE INTO AN EMMY-WINNING 1973 TV MINISERIES STARRING WILLIAM HOLDEN AND LATER A SHORT-LIVED TV SERIES STARRING GEORGE KENNEDY. HIS REALISTIC APPROACH TO POLICE DRAMA WAS HIGHLY INFLUENTIAL IN BOTH FILM AND TELEVISION DEPICTIONS (SUCH AS HILL STREET BLUES) FROM THE MID-70S ONWARD.
WAMBAUGH WAS ALSO INVOLVED WITH CREATING/DEVELOPING THE NBC SERIES POLICE STORY, WHICH RAN FROM 1973 TO 1977. THE ANTHOLOGY SHOW COVERED THE DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF POLICE WORK (PATROL, DETECTIVE, UNDERCOVER, ETC.) IN THE LAPD WITH STORY IDEAS AND CHARACTERS SUPPOSEDLY INSPIRED BY OFF-THE-RECORD TALKS WITH ACTUAL POLICE OFFICERS. AT TIMES THE SHOW'S CHARACTERS ALSO DEALT WITH PROBLEMS NOT USUALLY SEEN OR ASSOCIATED WITH TYPICAL TV COP SHOWS, SUCH AS ALCOHOL ABUSE, ADULTERY, AND BRUTALITY. THE SHOW HAD A BRIEF REVIVAL ON ABC DURING THE 1988-1989 SEASON.
WAMBAUGH WAS ALSO INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE ACCLAIMED FILM VERSIONS OF THE ONION FIELD (1979) AND THE BLACK MARBLE (1980), BOTH DIRECTED BY HAROLD BECKER. IN 1981, HE WON AN EDGAR AWARD FROM THE MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA FOR HIS SCREENPLAY FOR THE LATTER FILM. THIS WAS AFTER THE CHOIRBOYS FILM ADAPTATION HAD MET WITH VERY POOR CRITICAL AND AUDIENCE RECEPTION A FEW YEARS EARLIER. INTERESTINGLY, ALL THREE FILMS FEATURED PERFORMANCES BY THEN YOUNG UP-AND-COMING ACTOR JAMES WOODS.
ONE OF WAMBAUGH'S MOST FAMOUS NONFICTION BOOKS IS THE BLOODING, WHICH TELLS THE STORY BEHIND HOW AN EARLY LANDMARK CASE INVOLVING DNA FINGERPRINTING HELPED SOLVE TWO MURDERS IN LEICESTER, ENGLAND, RESULTING IN THE ARREST AND CONVICTION OF COLIN PITCHFORK.
IN 2003, FIRE LOVER: A TRUE STORY BROUGHT WAMBAUGH HIS SECOND EDGAR AWARD, FOR BEST CRIME FACT BOOK, AND IN 2004 HE WAS THE RECIPIENT OF AN MWA GRAND MASTER AWARD. HE RETURNED TO FICTION WITH HOLLYWOOD STATION (2006), HIS FIRST BOOK DEPICTING LIFE IN THE LAPD SINCE THE DELTA STAR (1983). HOLLYWOOD STATION WAS HIGHLY CRITICAL OF CONDITIONS CAUSED BY THE FEDERAL CONSENT DECREE UNDER WHICH THE LAPD HAD TO OPERATE AFTER THE RAMPART SCANDAL.
IN THE 2000S, WAMBAUGH ALSO BEGAN TEACHING SCREENWRITING COURSES AS A GUEST LECTURER FOR THE THEATER DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO.
“Dude, you better drop that long knife,” the tall, suntanned cop said. At Hollywood Station they called him “Flotsam” by virtue of his being a surfing enthusiast.His shorter partner, also with a major tan, hair even more suspiciously blond and sun streaked, dubbed “Jetsam” for the same reason, said, sotto voce, “Bro, that ain’t a knife. That’s a bayonet, in case you can’t see too good. And why didn’t you check out a Taser and a bean-bag gun from the kit room, is what I’d like to know. That’s what the DA’s office and FID are gonna ask if we have to light him up. Like, ‘Why didn’t you officers use nonlethal force?’ Like, ‘Why’d that Injun have to bite the dust when you coulda captured him alive?’ That’s what they’ll say.”“I thought you checked them out and put them in the trunk. You walked toward the kit room.”“No, I went to the john. And you were too busy ogling Ronnie to know where I was at,” Jetsam said. “Your head was somewheres else. You gotta keep your mind in the game, bro.”Everyone on the midwatch at Hollywood Station knew that Jetsam had a megacrush on Officer Veronica “Ronnie” Sinclair and got torqued when Flotsam or anybody else flirted with her. In any case, both surfer cops considered it sissified to carry a Taser on their belts.Referring to section 5150 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, which all cops used to describe a mental case, Flotsam whispered, “Maybe this fifty-one-fifty’s trashed on PCP, so we couldn’t taze him anyways. He’d swat those darts outta him like King Kong swatted the airplanes. So just chill. He ain’t even giving us the stink eye. He just maybe thinks he’s a wooden Indian or something.”“Or maybe we’re competing with a bunch of other voices he’s hearing and they’re scarier,” Jetsam observed. “Maybe we’re just echoes.”They’d gotten nowhere by yelling the normal commands to the motionless Indian, a stooped man in his early forties, only a decade older than they were but with a haggard face, beaten down by life. And while the cops waited for the backup they’d requested, they’d begun speaking to him in quiet voices, barely audible in the unlit alley over the traffic noise on Melrose Avenue. It was there that 6-X-46 had chased and cornered him, a few blocks from Paramount Studios, from where the code 2 call had come.The Indian had smashed a window of a boutique to steal a plus-size gold dress with a handkerchief hemline and a red one with an empire waist. He’d squeezed into the red dress and walked to the Paramount main gate, where he’d started chanting gibberish and, perhaps prophetically, singing “Jailhouse Rock” before demanding admittance from a startled security officer who had dialed 9-1-1.“These new mini-lights ain’t worth a shit,” Jetsam said, referring to the small flashlights that the LAPD bought and issued to all officers ever since a widely viewed videotaped arrest showed an officer striking a combative black suspect with his thirteen-inch aluminum flashlight, which caused panic in the media and in the police commission and resulted in the firing of the Latino officer.After this event, new mini-flashlights that couldn’t cause harm to combative suspects unless they ate them were ordered and issued to new recruits. Everything was fine with the police commission and the cop critics except that the high-intensity lights set the rubber sleeves on fire and almost incinerated a few rookies before the Department recalled all of those lights and ordered these new ten-ouncers.Jetsam said, “Good thing that cop used flashlight therapy instead of smacking the vermin with a gun. We’d all be carrying two-shot derringers by now.”Flotsam’s flashlight seemed to better illuminate the Indian, who stood staring up white-eyed at the starless smog-shrouded sky, his back to the graffiti-painted wall of a two-story commercial building owned by Iranians, leased by Vietnamese. The Indian may have chosen the red dress because it matched his flip-flops. The gold dress lay crumpled on the asphalt by his dirt-encrusted feet, along with the cut-offs he’d been wearing when he’d done the smash-and-grab.So far, the Indian hadn’t threatened them in any way. He just stood like a statue, his breathing shallow, the bayonet held down against his bare left thigh, which was fully exposed. He’d sliced the slit in the red dress clear up to his flank, either for more freedom of movement or to look more provocative.“Dude,” Flotsam said to the Indian, holding his Glock nine in the flashlight beam so the Indian could observe that it was pointed right at him, “I can see that you’re spun out on something. My guess is you been doing crystal meth, right? And maybe you just wanted an audition at Paramount and didn’t have any nice dresses to wear to it. I can sympathize with that too. I’m willing to blame it on Oscar de la Renta or whoever made the fucking things so alluring. But you’re gonna have to drop that long knife now or pretty soon they’re gonna be drawing you in chalk on this alley.”Jetsam, whose nine was also pointed at the ponytailed Indian, whispered to his partner, “Why do you keep saying long knife to this zombie instead of bayonet?”“He’s an Indian,” Flotsam whispered back. “They always say long knife in the movies.”“That refers to us white men!” Jetsam said. “We’re the fucking long knives!”“Whatever,” said Flotsam. “Where’s our backup, anyhow? They coulda got here on skateboards by now.”When Flotsam reached tentatively for the pepper-spray canister on his belt, Jetsam said, “Uncool, bro. Liquid Jesus ain’t gonna work on a meth-monster. It only works on cops. Which you proved the time you hit me with act-right spray instead of the ’roided-up primate I was doing a death dance with.”“You still aggro over that?” Flotsam said, remembering how Jetsam had writhed in pain after getting the blast of OC spray full in the face while they and four other cops swarmed the hallucinating body-builder who was paranoid from mixing recreational drugs with steroids. “Shit happens, dude. You can hold a grudge longer than my ex-wife.”In utter frustration, Jetsam finally said quietly to the Indian, “Bro, I’m starting to think you’re running a game on us. So you either drop that bayonet right now or the medicine man’s gonna be waving chicken claws over your fucking ashes.”
The greatest writer of cop stories is back. Joseph Wambaugh has written his 18th novel, Hollywood Crows, completed with greedy business owners, lusty wives and conflicted cops. The femme fatale in this one is Margot Aziz, the beautiful stripper, soon to be ex-wife, of Ali Aziz, owner of a strip club on Sunset Boulevard. Margot firm desire is to be rid of her husband and all of his shady business deals. She wants his money and that’s all. Aziz wants her dead. Margot has his fortune in hand and custody of his son. The issue in the book is how far will the lady go to get what she wants, since it is very apparent that she knows how to use what she has to get anything she wants. Because she suspects the husband wants to take their 9-year-old son out of the country to live, the stripper is planning to kill her husband. She connives to try to get a CROW to kill her husband by seducing the cop and setting him up to be the fall guy.
Nate Weiss, nicknamed ‘Hollywood’ is a cop “hungry for stardom and looking for love.” He and his partner Bix Rumstead, think Margot is just a socialite going through a divorce that is a little messy. They don’t know she is setting them up. They don’t know that outside forces are at work to eliminate them. Nate wants Margot, but then again who doesn’t? He works with a squad of surfer cops, tough women, and a few veterans known as the ‘Hollywood Crows.’ The title refers to a special division, the community relations officers, whose members are called the CROWS by the police in other divisions. They deal with calls like noisy neighbors, domestic disturbances, parking problems and other minor crimes. Spouses that want to kill each other are just a little bit out of their league. Typical of a Wambaugh book, Crows delves into love, passion, and deception with the men in blue, trying to protect and serve while trying to stay alive. Bad guys are indeed evil, but incurably careless, practically arresting themselves. Are the new cops up to the task? Is the old guard a better group? The writer leaves it to the readers to figure that one out.
Wambaugh’s style reads like a screenplay. Lots of gritty realistic dialogue and twists and turns fill up this realistic modern police novel. Lots of nasty police dialogue. Lots of nasty police situations. Lots of gruesome, gross scenes and descriptions. Revisiting the cops he introduced in his warmly received 2006 Hollywood Station, this sequel lives up to its advanced billing. Plenty of old Wambaugh characters parade through this one, full of plot twists and turns that cannot help but to hold your attention. The master and the inventor of the modern police novel, Hollywood Crows is gritty truth, bawdy humor, brilliant characters, cool plotting, and irreverent humor that mark all of his books. The rhythm of this book about cops has the realistic feel that mark of all of Wambaugh’s efforts. Nobody knows or writes cops better than Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh. A vivid cop tale, this is the best police story of 2008; it is impossible to put down.
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THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
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HOLLYWOOD CROWS
By Joseph Wambaugh
Published by: Little, Brown & Company
Publication Date: March, 2008
Price: $26.99
343 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780316025287
Four Star Rating ****
JOSEPH ALOYSIUS WAMBAUGH, JR. (BORN JANUARY 22, 1937, IN EAST PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA) IS AN AMERICAN WRITER KNOWN FOR HIS FICTIONAL AND NON-FICTIONAL ACCOUNTS OF POLICE WORK IN THE UNITED STATES.
SERVED 14 YEARS IN THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
WAMBAUGH'S UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ON THE REALITIES OF POLICE WORK LED TO HIS FIRST NOVEL, THE NEW CENTURIONS, WHICH WAS PUBLISHED EARLY IN 1971 TO CRITICAL ACCLAIM AND POPULAR SUCCESS. THE SUCCESS OF THE EARLY BOOKS HAPPENED WHILE WAMBAUGH WAS STILL WORKING IN THE DETECTIVE DIVISION. HE REPORTEDLY REMARKED "I WOULD HAVE GUYS IN HANDCUFFS ASKING ME FOR AUTOGRAPHS." SOON TURNING TO WRITING FULL-TIME, WAMBAUGH WAS PROLIFIC AND POPULAR STARTING IN THE 1970S, MIXING NOVELS (THE BLUE KNIGHT, THE CHOIRBOYS, THE BLACK MARBLE) WITH NONFICTION ACCOUNTS OF CRIME AND DETECTION A.K.A. "TRUE CRIME" (THE ONION FIELD). LATER BOOKS INCLUDED THE GLITTER DOME (A TV-MOVIE ADAPTATION STARRED JAMES GARNER AND JOHN LITHGOW), THE DELTA STAR, AND LINES AND SHADOWS.
HIS TRADEMARK IS GRITTY POLICE CHARACTERS THAT HAVE HEROIC FLAWS
MANY OF HIS BOOKS WERE MADE INTO FEATURE FILMS OR TV-MOVIES DURING THE 70S AND 80S. THE BLUE KNIGHT, A NOVEL FOLLOWING THE APPROACHING RETIREMENT AND LAST WORKING DAYS OF AGING VETERAN BEAT COP "BUMPER" MORGAN, WAS MADE INTO AN EMMY-WINNING 1973 TV MINISERIES STARRING WILLIAM HOLDEN AND LATER A SHORT-LIVED TV SERIES STARRING GEORGE KENNEDY. HIS REALISTIC APPROACH TO POLICE DRAMA WAS HIGHLY INFLUENTIAL IN BOTH FILM AND TELEVISION DEPICTIONS (SUCH AS HILL STREET BLUES) FROM THE MID-70S ONWARD.
WAMBAUGH WAS ALSO INVOLVED WITH CREATING/DEVELOPING THE NBC SERIES POLICE STORY, WHICH RAN FROM 1973 TO 1977. THE ANTHOLOGY SHOW COVERED THE DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF POLICE WORK (PATROL, DETECTIVE, UNDERCOVER, ETC.) IN THE LAPD WITH STORY IDEAS AND CHARACTERS SUPPOSEDLY INSPIRED BY OFF-THE-RECORD TALKS WITH ACTUAL POLICE OFFICERS. AT TIMES THE SHOW'S CHARACTERS ALSO DEALT WITH PROBLEMS NOT USUALLY SEEN OR ASSOCIATED WITH TYPICAL TV COP SHOWS, SUCH AS ALCOHOL ABUSE, ADULTERY, AND BRUTALITY. THE SHOW HAD A BRIEF REVIVAL ON ABC DURING THE 1988-1989 SEASON.
WAMBAUGH WAS ALSO INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE ACCLAIMED FILM VERSIONS OF THE ONION FIELD (1979) AND THE BLACK MARBLE (1980), BOTH DIRECTED BY HAROLD BECKER. IN 1981, HE WON AN EDGAR AWARD FROM THE MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA FOR HIS SCREENPLAY FOR THE LATTER FILM. THIS WAS AFTER THE CHOIRBOYS FILM ADAPTATION HAD MET WITH VERY POOR CRITICAL AND AUDIENCE RECEPTION A FEW YEARS EARLIER. INTERESTINGLY, ALL THREE FILMS FEATURED PERFORMANCES BY THEN YOUNG UP-AND-COMING ACTOR JAMES WOODS.
ONE OF WAMBAUGH'S MOST FAMOUS NONFICTION BOOKS IS THE BLOODING, WHICH TELLS THE STORY BEHIND HOW AN EARLY LANDMARK CASE INVOLVING DNA FINGERPRINTING HELPED SOLVE TWO MURDERS IN LEICESTER, ENGLAND, RESULTING IN THE ARREST AND CONVICTION OF COLIN PITCHFORK.
IN 2003, FIRE LOVER: A TRUE STORY BROUGHT WAMBAUGH HIS SECOND EDGAR AWARD, FOR BEST CRIME FACT BOOK, AND IN 2004 HE WAS THE RECIPIENT OF AN MWA GRAND MASTER AWARD. HE RETURNED TO FICTION WITH HOLLYWOOD STATION (2006), HIS FIRST BOOK DEPICTING LIFE IN THE LAPD SINCE THE DELTA STAR (1983). HOLLYWOOD STATION WAS HIGHLY CRITICAL OF CONDITIONS CAUSED BY THE FEDERAL CONSENT DECREE UNDER WHICH THE LAPD HAD TO OPERATE AFTER THE RAMPART SCANDAL.
IN THE 2000S, WAMBAUGH ALSO BEGAN TEACHING SCREENWRITING COURSES AS A GUEST LECTURER FOR THE THEATER DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO.
“Dude, you better drop that long knife,” the tall, suntanned cop said. At Hollywood Station they called him “Flotsam” by virtue of his being a surfing enthusiast.His shorter partner, also with a major tan, hair even more suspiciously blond and sun streaked, dubbed “Jetsam” for the same reason, said, sotto voce, “Bro, that ain’t a knife. That’s a bayonet, in case you can’t see too good. And why didn’t you check out a Taser and a bean-bag gun from the kit room, is what I’d like to know. That’s what the DA’s office and FID are gonna ask if we have to light him up. Like, ‘Why didn’t you officers use nonlethal force?’ Like, ‘Why’d that Injun have to bite the dust when you coulda captured him alive?’ That’s what they’ll say.”“I thought you checked them out and put them in the trunk. You walked toward the kit room.”“No, I went to the john. And you were too busy ogling Ronnie to know where I was at,” Jetsam said. “Your head was somewheres else. You gotta keep your mind in the game, bro.”Everyone on the midwatch at Hollywood Station knew that Jetsam had a megacrush on Officer Veronica “Ronnie” Sinclair and got torqued when Flotsam or anybody else flirted with her. In any case, both surfer cops considered it sissified to carry a Taser on their belts.Referring to section 5150 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, which all cops used to describe a mental case, Flotsam whispered, “Maybe this fifty-one-fifty’s trashed on PCP, so we couldn’t taze him anyways. He’d swat those darts outta him like King Kong swatted the airplanes. So just chill. He ain’t even giving us the stink eye. He just maybe thinks he’s a wooden Indian or something.”“Or maybe we’re competing with a bunch of other voices he’s hearing and they’re scarier,” Jetsam observed. “Maybe we’re just echoes.”They’d gotten nowhere by yelling the normal commands to the motionless Indian, a stooped man in his early forties, only a decade older than they were but with a haggard face, beaten down by life. And while the cops waited for the backup they’d requested, they’d begun speaking to him in quiet voices, barely audible in the unlit alley over the traffic noise on Melrose Avenue. It was there that 6-X-46 had chased and cornered him, a few blocks from Paramount Studios, from where the code 2 call had come.The Indian had smashed a window of a boutique to steal a plus-size gold dress with a handkerchief hemline and a red one with an empire waist. He’d squeezed into the red dress and walked to the Paramount main gate, where he’d started chanting gibberish and, perhaps prophetically, singing “Jailhouse Rock” before demanding admittance from a startled security officer who had dialed 9-1-1.“These new mini-lights ain’t worth a shit,” Jetsam said, referring to the small flashlights that the LAPD bought and issued to all officers ever since a widely viewed videotaped arrest showed an officer striking a combative black suspect with his thirteen-inch aluminum flashlight, which caused panic in the media and in the police commission and resulted in the firing of the Latino officer.After this event, new mini-flashlights that couldn’t cause harm to combative suspects unless they ate them were ordered and issued to new recruits. Everything was fine with the police commission and the cop critics except that the high-intensity lights set the rubber sleeves on fire and almost incinerated a few rookies before the Department recalled all of those lights and ordered these new ten-ouncers.Jetsam said, “Good thing that cop used flashlight therapy instead of smacking the vermin with a gun. We’d all be carrying two-shot derringers by now.”Flotsam’s flashlight seemed to better illuminate the Indian, who stood staring up white-eyed at the starless smog-shrouded sky, his back to the graffiti-painted wall of a two-story commercial building owned by Iranians, leased by Vietnamese. The Indian may have chosen the red dress because it matched his flip-flops. The gold dress lay crumpled on the asphalt by his dirt-encrusted feet, along with the cut-offs he’d been wearing when he’d done the smash-and-grab.So far, the Indian hadn’t threatened them in any way. He just stood like a statue, his breathing shallow, the bayonet held down against his bare left thigh, which was fully exposed. He’d sliced the slit in the red dress clear up to his flank, either for more freedom of movement or to look more provocative.“Dude,” Flotsam said to the Indian, holding his Glock nine in the flashlight beam so the Indian could observe that it was pointed right at him, “I can see that you’re spun out on something. My guess is you been doing crystal meth, right? And maybe you just wanted an audition at Paramount and didn’t have any nice dresses to wear to it. I can sympathize with that too. I’m willing to blame it on Oscar de la Renta or whoever made the fucking things so alluring. But you’re gonna have to drop that long knife now or pretty soon they’re gonna be drawing you in chalk on this alley.”Jetsam, whose nine was also pointed at the ponytailed Indian, whispered to his partner, “Why do you keep saying long knife to this zombie instead of bayonet?”“He’s an Indian,” Flotsam whispered back. “They always say long knife in the movies.”“That refers to us white men!” Jetsam said. “We’re the fucking long knives!”“Whatever,” said Flotsam. “Where’s our backup, anyhow? They coulda got here on skateboards by now.”When Flotsam reached tentatively for the pepper-spray canister on his belt, Jetsam said, “Uncool, bro. Liquid Jesus ain’t gonna work on a meth-monster. It only works on cops. Which you proved the time you hit me with act-right spray instead of the ’roided-up primate I was doing a death dance with.”“You still aggro over that?” Flotsam said, remembering how Jetsam had writhed in pain after getting the blast of OC spray full in the face while they and four other cops swarmed the hallucinating body-builder who was paranoid from mixing recreational drugs with steroids. “Shit happens, dude. You can hold a grudge longer than my ex-wife.”In utter frustration, Jetsam finally said quietly to the Indian, “Bro, I’m starting to think you’re running a game on us. So you either drop that bayonet right now or the medicine man’s gonna be waving chicken claws over your fucking ashes.”
The greatest writer of cop stories is back. Joseph Wambaugh has written his 18th novel, Hollywood Crows, completed with greedy business owners, lusty wives and conflicted cops. The femme fatale in this one is Margot Aziz, the beautiful stripper, soon to be ex-wife, of Ali Aziz, owner of a strip club on Sunset Boulevard. Margot firm desire is to be rid of her husband and all of his shady business deals. She wants his money and that’s all. Aziz wants her dead. Margot has his fortune in hand and custody of his son. The issue in the book is how far will the lady go to get what she wants, since it is very apparent that she knows how to use what she has to get anything she wants. Because she suspects the husband wants to take their 9-year-old son out of the country to live, the stripper is planning to kill her husband. She connives to try to get a CROW to kill her husband by seducing the cop and setting him up to be the fall guy.
Nate Weiss, nicknamed ‘Hollywood’ is a cop “hungry for stardom and looking for love.” He and his partner Bix Rumstead, think Margot is just a socialite going through a divorce that is a little messy. They don’t know she is setting them up. They don’t know that outside forces are at work to eliminate them. Nate wants Margot, but then again who doesn’t? He works with a squad of surfer cops, tough women, and a few veterans known as the ‘Hollywood Crows.’ The title refers to a special division, the community relations officers, whose members are called the CROWS by the police in other divisions. They deal with calls like noisy neighbors, domestic disturbances, parking problems and other minor crimes. Spouses that want to kill each other are just a little bit out of their league. Typical of a Wambaugh book, Crows delves into love, passion, and deception with the men in blue, trying to protect and serve while trying to stay alive. Bad guys are indeed evil, but incurably careless, practically arresting themselves. Are the new cops up to the task? Is the old guard a better group? The writer leaves it to the readers to figure that one out.
Wambaugh’s style reads like a screenplay. Lots of gritty realistic dialogue and twists and turns fill up this realistic modern police novel. Lots of nasty police dialogue. Lots of nasty police situations. Lots of gruesome, gross scenes and descriptions. Revisiting the cops he introduced in his warmly received 2006 Hollywood Station, this sequel lives up to its advanced billing. Plenty of old Wambaugh characters parade through this one, full of plot twists and turns that cannot help but to hold your attention. The master and the inventor of the modern police novel, Hollywood Crows is gritty truth, bawdy humor, brilliant characters, cool plotting, and irreverent humor that mark all of his books. The rhythm of this book about cops has the realistic feel that mark of all of Wambaugh’s efforts. Nobody knows or writes cops better than Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh. A vivid cop tale, this is the best police story of 2008; it is impossible to put down.
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
Friday, May 9, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
New Book Review From the Entertainment Critic: The Host By Stephenie Meyer
BEST NEW RELEASEThe Host
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
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THE BEST NEW RELEASE
THE HOST
By Stephenie Meyer
Published by: Little, Brown & Company
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Price: $25.99
624 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780316068048
Five Star Rating *****
ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR AUTHORS IN THE WORLD
HER TWILIGHT SAGA HAS SOLD OVER 5 MILLION COPIES IN THE UNITED STATE ALONE
WON NUMEROUS HONORS, INCLUDING:
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN AMAZON.COM "BEST BOOK OF THE DECADE...SO FAR"
A TEEN PEOPLE "HOT LIST" PICK
AN AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION "TOP TEN BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS" AND "TOP TEN BOOKS FOR RELUCTANT READERS”
HER BOOK, TWILIGHT HAS BEEN MADE INTO A MOVIE THAT WILL BE RELEASED IN DECEMBER OF 2008
TRANSLATED INTO 20 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
THIS IS HER FIRST BOOK WRITTEN SPECIFICALLY FOR ADULTS
LITTLE BROWN HAS PRINTED A FIRST RUN PRINT OF 750,000 COPIES JUST TO MEET THE ANTICIPATED DEMAND
STEPHENIE IS ON A 10 DAY TOUR STARTING IN MAY OF 2008
IT IS THE FIRST OF A TRILOGY
ANOTHER NEW BOOK, BREAKING DAWN, WILL BE RELEASED IN AUGUST OF 2008
“Melanie squirmed, figuratively, in the recesses of my head as I tried to consider it rationally. Maybe I should give up…
The words them selves made me flinch. I, Wanderer, give up? Quit? Admit failure and try again in a weak, spineless host who wouldn’t give me any trouble?
I shook my head. I could barely stand to think of it.
And…this was my body. I was used to the feel of it. I like the way the muscles moved over the bones, the bend of the joints and the pull of the tendons. I knew the refection in the mirror. The sun-browned skin, the high, sharp bones of my face, the short silk cap of mahogany hair, the muddy green brown hazel of my eyes-this was me.
I wanted myself. I wouldn’t let what was mine be destroyed.”
Stephenie Meyer is the most popular writer of fiction for young adults in the world. In just 3 short years, her books are the most anticipated events of the publishing season. The Host is her first book written specifically for adults. Her eagerly anticipated adult debut will be one of the best selling books of 2008, and may very well be the best new science fiction thriller written this year. It is more than deserving of my highest rating.
Sometime in the future, our world has been invaded by an unseen parasitic enemy. Humans become hosts for the invaders; their mind is taken over while their bodies remain intact, and they continue their lives unchanged. Most of mankind has been taken over. Only a few humans remain, untouched by the hosts. One of those untouched humans is a young woman, Melanie Stryder, who fell down an elevator shaft trying to avoid the Seekers, a group of invaders who relentlessly pursue their prey. Melanie’s body may be broken but her spirit is not. Her memories refuse to fade away. When Wanderer, an invading soul is installed in Melanie’s body, she finds her memories, emotions, and senses are intact and powerful. So powerful, that many of Melanie’s feelings and life experiences become the Wanderer’s own. Wanderer encounters one other insurmountable problem, Melanie refuses to give up her mind.
In probing Melanie’s thoughts to locate other possible uninfected humans, the Wanderer finds her mind is filled with thought of the man Melanie loves, Jared, a human who with her brother Jamie is still in hiding. Wanderer is unable to separate herself from Melanie’s feelings for him, and she (Wanderer is also female) also longs for Jared. The powers to be tell Wanderer that because she is unable to subdue Melanie, that the want to remove her from Melanie’s body and send her somewhere else in space. Both Melanie and Wanderer, want desperately to see Jared, that they trick the Seeker assigned to the Wanderer, and set off to find Jared, who happens to be somewhere in the Arizona desert living with Melanie’s Uncle Jeb.
After a life threatening trek across the desert, they find Uncle Jeb has established an underground colony, and they locate a hostile and unforgiving Jared and Jamie. At first little Wanderer does not fit into the group, but Uncle Jeb takes her under his wing and she (they call her ‘Wanda’) and Melanie become an accepted part of the community. A pattern in all of Stephanie Meyer’s books then becomes complete; there is some underground society in all of her books that threatens human beings (like vampires) and an impossible love triangle arises. As Wanderer/Melanie become more accepted and needed by the group, Melanie is jealous of Wanderer’s attraction to Jared, and Wanderer attracts a man of her own Ian. The love triangle adds just the right touch of tension and hopelessness that mark all of Stephenie’s’ books. To complicate matters, the Seeker assigned to Wanderer finds her, threatening the safety of the entire underground community. Meyer resolves all issues in a surprising, but satisfactory manner. As with her first 3 books, this is the first of a trilogy for this group of characters. The book is well written, with great prose and interesting detail. The storyline in this book as with all of her books is among the most intriguing you will ever read. Quirky plots and fascinating characters are Meyer trademarks and The Host get high marks for both. This book personifies the phrase “edgy and unpredictable.” The reoccurring theme in this book about the potential for destruction stemming from violence and the infinite capacity of love as the salvation of man, gives the book just the right tension for interest. Deep and beautiful, the story is told with a certain haunting grace that makes this book one in a million. A riveting charmer, The Host is miraculous.
This marks Stephenie’s first foray into the adult market, and it is a soaring, memorable event that is not to be missed. I picked this book for the Best New Release of this quarter. Don’t be surprised if at the end of the year, this book is one of the year’s best sellers. This one is Science Fiction for everybody! There is a rare understanding of complex human emotions that make this book totally unique. Meyer’s talent and appeal have not hit their peek yet, but this is one of 2008’s very best books. You read it here first: when the ball drops in New York to mark the start of 2009, Stephenie Meyer will be the most popular writer on the globe. I gave this one my highest rating, and I think you will too.
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
New Book Review From The Entertainment Critic: Home by Julie Andrews
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
www.theentertainmentcritic.com
www.theentertainmentcritic.net
www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
HOME: A MEMOIR OF MY EARLY YEARS
By Julie Andrews
Published by: Hyperion
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Price: $26.95
352 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780786865659
Four Star Rating ****
JULIE ELIZABETH ANDREWS, DBE (BORN JULIA ELIZABETH WELLS ON OCTOBER 1, 1935 IS AN AWARD-WINNING ENGLISH ACTRESS, SINGER, AUTHOR AND ICON. SHE IS THE RECIPIENT OF GOLDEN GLOBE, EMMY, GRAMMY, BAFTA, PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD, THEATRE WORLD AWARD, SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AND ACADEMY AWARD HONOURS. ANDREWS ROSE TO PROMINENCE AFTER STARRING IN BROADWAY MUSICALS SUCH AS MY FAIR LADY AND CAMELOT, AS WELL AS MUSICAL FILMS LIKE MARY POPPINS (1964) AND THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965).
ANDREWS HAD A MAJOR REVIVAL OF HER FILM CAREER IN THE 2000S, IN CHILDREN'S FILMS SUCH AS THE PRINCESS DIARIES (2001), ITS SEQUEL THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT (2004), AND THE SHREK ANIMATED FILMS (2004-2007). IN 2005, ANDREWS MADE HER DEBUT AS A STAGE DIRECTOR WITH A REVIVAL OF THE BOY FRIEND, IN WHICH SHE ALSO MADE HER BROADWAY ACTING DEBUT IN 1954.
ANDREWS IS ALSO AN ACCOMPLISHED WRITER OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS, AND IN 2008 SHE PUBLISHED AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, HOME: A MEMOIR OF MY EARLY YEARS.
“I am told that the first comprehensible word that I uttered as a child was ‘home.’
My father was driving his secondhand Austin 7; my mother was in the passenger seat beside him holding me on her lap. As we approached our modest house, Dad backed the car to turn onto the pocket-handkerchief square of concrete by the gate and apparently I quietly, tentatively, said the word.
‘Home.’
My mother told me there was a slight upward inflection to my voice, and not a question so much as a trying of the word on the tongue, with perhaps the delicious discovery of connection…the word to the place. My parents wanted to be sure they heard me correctly, so Dad drove around the lanes once again, and as we returned, it seems I repeated the word.
My mother must have said it more than once upon our arrival at our house-perhaps with satisfaction? Or relief? Or maybe to instill in her young daughter a sense of comfort and safety. The word has carried enormous resonance for me ever sense.
Home.”
The voice, once lost, that brought us some of the landmark musicals of the 20th Century, The Sound of Music, Camelot, My Fair Lady, and Mary Poppins, has returned in this wonderful memoir. Julie Andrews’s new book, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, is a richly detailed, wonderful book that takes us inside all of the ins and outs of her early life, both personal and professional. Born into a marriage of two horribly mismatched parents, her father the teacher, her mother a performer, the mother eventually left the father to marry a successful vaudeville singer, and Julie went with her mother. Julie gives us a vivid description of the war years in England, in a household full of strife and full of music.
Julie’s professional life began when she was only 12. The family became dependent on her income for their survival. In 1948 she became the youngest solo performer to ever participate in a Royal Command Performance before the Queen. Julie sang all over the country, and she performed weekly on the BBC, living in rented rooms with older female chaperones, and an abiding longing for family and home. At on the age of 18, she left the UK for the USA to make her Broadway debut in the musical The Boy Friend. This was the beginning of her meteoric rise to Hollywood and Broadway stardom.
Home is filled with stories and anecdotes about working on some of the biggest musicals in history like, My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison, in Camelot with Richard Burton, and Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. It cover a career that soared over seven decades including The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hawaii, 10, and The Princess Diaries. This book also features over 50 personal photos, many of which have never been seen before. She includes long, detailed discussions about her award winning television appearances, multiple album releases, concert tours, her international humanitarian work, best-selling children’s books and her work to improve literacy.
As we all know, towards the end of the Broadway run of Victor/Victoria, she lost her singing voice, and despite operations, she never recovered it. She has undergone a revival of sorts recently in the 2000’s with The Princess Diaries I and II, a made-for-television movies based on the Eloise books, a series of children's books by Kay Thompson about a child who lives in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The same year, Andrews made her debut as a theatre director, directing a revival of The Boyfriend, the musical in which she made her Broadway debut, at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York. Her production, which featured costume and scenic design by her former husband Tony Walton, was remounted at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2005 and went on a national tour in 2006. From 2005 to 2006, Andrews served as the Official Ambassador for Disneyland's 18 month-long, 50th anniversary celebration, the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth", travelling to promote the celebration and recording narration or appearing at several events at the park.
In 2004, Andrews performed the voice of Queen Lillian in the animated blockbuster Shrek 2 (2004), reprising the role for its sequel, Shrek the Third (2007). Later in 2007, she narrated Enchanted, a live-action Disney musical comedy that paid homage to classic Disney films such as Mary Poppins.
In January 2007, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild's awards, and stated that her goals including continuing to direct for the stage, and possibly to produce her own Broadway musical.
Home, has been published as part one of the memoirs/celebration of her life. Well written and detailed with glaring honesty, I cannot wait to read part two. This is a great book about a remarkable life, whose influence has spanned many generations. The voice of a great performer is back. One you should not miss this summer.
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
www.theentertainmentcritic.com
www.theentertainmentcritic.net
www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
HOME: A MEMOIR OF MY EARLY YEARS
By Julie Andrews
Published by: Hyperion
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Price: $26.95
352 Pages
ISBN-13: 9780786865659
Four Star Rating ****
JULIE ELIZABETH ANDREWS, DBE (BORN JULIA ELIZABETH WELLS ON OCTOBER 1, 1935 IS AN AWARD-WINNING ENGLISH ACTRESS, SINGER, AUTHOR AND ICON. SHE IS THE RECIPIENT OF GOLDEN GLOBE, EMMY, GRAMMY, BAFTA, PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD, THEATRE WORLD AWARD, SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AND ACADEMY AWARD HONOURS. ANDREWS ROSE TO PROMINENCE AFTER STARRING IN BROADWAY MUSICALS SUCH AS MY FAIR LADY AND CAMELOT, AS WELL AS MUSICAL FILMS LIKE MARY POPPINS (1964) AND THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965).
ANDREWS HAD A MAJOR REVIVAL OF HER FILM CAREER IN THE 2000S, IN CHILDREN'S FILMS SUCH AS THE PRINCESS DIARIES (2001), ITS SEQUEL THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT (2004), AND THE SHREK ANIMATED FILMS (2004-2007). IN 2005, ANDREWS MADE HER DEBUT AS A STAGE DIRECTOR WITH A REVIVAL OF THE BOY FRIEND, IN WHICH SHE ALSO MADE HER BROADWAY ACTING DEBUT IN 1954.
ANDREWS IS ALSO AN ACCOMPLISHED WRITER OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS, AND IN 2008 SHE PUBLISHED AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, HOME: A MEMOIR OF MY EARLY YEARS.
“I am told that the first comprehensible word that I uttered as a child was ‘home.’
My father was driving his secondhand Austin 7; my mother was in the passenger seat beside him holding me on her lap. As we approached our modest house, Dad backed the car to turn onto the pocket-handkerchief square of concrete by the gate and apparently I quietly, tentatively, said the word.
‘Home.’
My mother told me there was a slight upward inflection to my voice, and not a question so much as a trying of the word on the tongue, with perhaps the delicious discovery of connection…the word to the place. My parents wanted to be sure they heard me correctly, so Dad drove around the lanes once again, and as we returned, it seems I repeated the word.
My mother must have said it more than once upon our arrival at our house-perhaps with satisfaction? Or relief? Or maybe to instill in her young daughter a sense of comfort and safety. The word has carried enormous resonance for me ever sense.
Home.”
The voice, once lost, that brought us some of the landmark musicals of the 20th Century, The Sound of Music, Camelot, My Fair Lady, and Mary Poppins, has returned in this wonderful memoir. Julie Andrews’s new book, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, is a richly detailed, wonderful book that takes us inside all of the ins and outs of her early life, both personal and professional. Born into a marriage of two horribly mismatched parents, her father the teacher, her mother a performer, the mother eventually left the father to marry a successful vaudeville singer, and Julie went with her mother. Julie gives us a vivid description of the war years in England, in a household full of strife and full of music.
Julie’s professional life began when she was only 12. The family became dependent on her income for their survival. In 1948 she became the youngest solo performer to ever participate in a Royal Command Performance before the Queen. Julie sang all over the country, and she performed weekly on the BBC, living in rented rooms with older female chaperones, and an abiding longing for family and home. At on the age of 18, she left the UK for the USA to make her Broadway debut in the musical The Boy Friend. This was the beginning of her meteoric rise to Hollywood and Broadway stardom.
Home is filled with stories and anecdotes about working on some of the biggest musicals in history like, My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison, in Camelot with Richard Burton, and Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. It cover a career that soared over seven decades including The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hawaii, 10, and The Princess Diaries. This book also features over 50 personal photos, many of which have never been seen before. She includes long, detailed discussions about her award winning television appearances, multiple album releases, concert tours, her international humanitarian work, best-selling children’s books and her work to improve literacy.
As we all know, towards the end of the Broadway run of Victor/Victoria, she lost her singing voice, and despite operations, she never recovered it. She has undergone a revival of sorts recently in the 2000’s with The Princess Diaries I and II, a made-for-television movies based on the Eloise books, a series of children's books by Kay Thompson about a child who lives in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The same year, Andrews made her debut as a theatre director, directing a revival of The Boyfriend, the musical in which she made her Broadway debut, at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York. Her production, which featured costume and scenic design by her former husband Tony Walton, was remounted at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2005 and went on a national tour in 2006. From 2005 to 2006, Andrews served as the Official Ambassador for Disneyland's 18 month-long, 50th anniversary celebration, the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth", travelling to promote the celebration and recording narration or appearing at several events at the park.
In 2004, Andrews performed the voice of Queen Lillian in the animated blockbuster Shrek 2 (2004), reprising the role for its sequel, Shrek the Third (2007). Later in 2007, she narrated Enchanted, a live-action Disney musical comedy that paid homage to classic Disney films such as Mary Poppins.
In January 2007, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild's awards, and stated that her goals including continuing to direct for the stage, and possibly to produce her own Broadway musical.
Home, has been published as part one of the memoirs/celebration of her life. Well written and detailed with glaring honesty, I cannot wait to read part two. This is a great book about a remarkable life, whose influence has spanned many generations. The voice of a great performer is back. One you should not miss this summer.
Monday, May 5, 2008
New Movie Review From The Entertainment Critic: Ironmam
Movie Review: Ironman
The Entertainment Critic
http://www.theentertainmentcritic.com/
http://www.theentertainmentcritic.net/
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
In Theatres Now Review
Opened May 2, 2008
By James Myers
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
Rating: 9 of 10
Director: Jon Favreau
Writers (WGA): Mark Fergus (screenplay) &
Hawk Ostby (screenplay)
Genre: Action Adventure Drama Sci-Fi Thriller more
Cast:
Robert Downey Jr ... Tony Stark / Iron Man
Terrence Howard ... Jim Rhodes
Jeff Bridges ... Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger
Gwyneth Paltrow ... Pepper Potts
Leslie Bibb ... Christine Everhart
Shaun Toub ... Yinsen
Faran Tahir ... Raza
Sayed Badreya ... Abu Bakaar
Bill Smitrovich ... General Gabriel
Clark Gregg ... Agent Phil Coulson
Tim Guinee ... Major Allen
Will Lyman ... Award Ceremony Narrator
Marco Khan ... Insurgent #4
Kevin Foster ... Jimmy
Garret Noel ... Pratt
Rated: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.
Runtime: 126 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio: 2.35: 1 more
Sound Mix: DTS SDDS Dolby Digital
Certification: Canada: PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) Australia:M Norway:11 Hong Kong: IIA South Korea:12 UK:12A Canada: G (Québec) USA:PG-13 Germany:12 New Zealand: M Singapore: PG Sweden:11 Iceland:12 Finland:K-13 Netherlands:12 Malaysia: U Canada:14A (Manitoba) Ireland:12A Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) Brazil:14 Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) USA:126
Filming Locations: Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA
Company: Dark Blades Films
This summer’s movie season is upon us, as May 2, 2008 marked the premier of the first summer blockbuster, Ironman. The movie in its very first weekend is a runaway smash, with a box office gate of $100.7 million, the second highest ever premier gross in motion picture history. Robert Downey, Jr., is perfectly cast as the arrogant, rich, superficial, playboy arms genius, Tony Stark, the moving force behind Stark Industries, an arms manufacturer that makes the very best in rocket warfare. Tony is the second generation Stark in this business as his father started the business with his original partner, Obadiah Stane, (you won’t know who the actor is until he begins to talk; it’s Jeff Bridges, with his head shaved!). Tony is an arms genius, who as the movie opens is in a Hummer with scotch in hand, the ice clinking in the glass, making wisecracks with army personnel. The film then flashes back to a test sequence that Tony conducts of his new weapon, "Jericho Missile", an extremely destructive, multi-warhead weapon system that Tony is showing to the Air Force and his old friend, Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard), a serious jet pilot. This sequence shows the genius of Stark and the destructive power of the Jericho Missile. Downey is near perfect as the missile separates in to multiple warheads in the mountains of Afghanistan in the far off distance, arms outstretched as the precise time the bombs detonate with such force that the blast knocks the hats off of the pilots. Tony grabs his drink back from the stunned serviceman says, “...here’s to peace,” and walks to his vehicle. It is a brilliant, central scene in the picture, and from then on the audience realizes that this guy might be flaky, but he’s very good at what he does.
We flash back to Hummer, which is attacked and overtaken by a terrorist group, who calls themselves, The Ten Rings. Ironically, Tony is injured by shrapnel from one of his own weapons. Led by the evil and sadistic, Raza (Faran Tahir) they capture Tony, and force him to make a Jericho Missile for them. With the help of fellow captive Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub), Tony takes the next 3 months to build crude but strong power armor, powered from a miniature arc reactor. The arc reactor supplies energy to an electromagnet which protects Stark's heart from the embedded shrapnel in his chest. Unfortunately, in the escape attempt, Yinsen is killed. This is the second pivotal scene in the picture, as he lies dying, he tells Stark, …”to do something to help others” and not to waste his life. Stark escapes and is rescued, eventually returning home safely to Stark Industries, where he announces that Stark will not longer build arms, but will take steps to help it’s fellow man. The stock plunges and Stane is not pleased. He then leads a coup with the Board of Directors to bar Tony from their meetings.
Back at his home in Malibu, equipped with all the state of the art computer equipment, including his virtual assistant, Jarvis, Stark goes about the task, with the help of his assistant, Pepper Potts (played perfectly by the beautiful and capable, Gwyneth Paltrow), of perfecting his Ironman exoskeleton. The second best line in the picture comes from the hilarious sequences tracing Stark’s failure to make the contraption fly, when he tells her, “…you caught me doing stranger things than this.” The test sequences of flying in the suit are the funniest in the picture.
Once the body armor is complete, and Stark leans of insurgent activity in Afghanistan by his old nemesis, The Ten Rings, the first mission of Ironman begins. He saves the people of the village and stops the insurgents, but he strengthens the resolve of Raza to build and possess one of the Ironman suits from the prototype Tony left behind. The flying sequence on his way back to the US is hilarious, too. Chased by the Air Force, Tony gives them a run for their money, while talking to his buddy Rhodes the whole time.
Realizing that Obadiah Stane has been dealing with the insurgents under the table, Tony is determined to stop him. He has Pepper retrieve files relating to the sale of those weapons and his agreed to kidnapping from the computer in his office. While hacking into the system she discovers that it was Stane who hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark, but they had reneged on the deal when they realized who the target was. She also discovers that Stane has recovered the power suit prototype (Iron Man Mk I), and has engineered his own version, Iron Monger, an oversized, beefed up version of Iron Man.
Stane, upon realizing Pepper's discovery, steals Stark's arc reactor from his chest to power his new suit, leaving Stark for dead. Using his first reactor, which was not designed to power the suit, Stark does battle with Stane in Los Angeles, defeating him when the larger arc reactor that powers Stark Industries is deliberately overloaded. Stark barely makes it out alive when his reactor almost fails completely, but reactivates, causing a terrific explosion, killing Stane as Iron Monger.
The movies ends with Tony at a press conference, initially denying he is a superhero, then in a sudden reversal, and contrary to what the government has told him to do, announces to the world, that he is Ironman. Ozzie Osborne plays the Ironman theme and the credits roll, but don’t leave your seat quite yet. As with all the Marvel Comics movies, there’s more! Throughout the film, Clark Gregg appears as Agent Phil Coulson of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) trying to arrange a meeting with Stark. Following the credits, Samuel L. Jackson appears as their head, Nick Fury, telling Stark about the "Avenger Initiative". So there is a guaranteed sequel, and the buzz is that there will be 2 more Ironman pictures, with this cast.
This movie is surprising well-casted and directed. Directed by Jon Favreau (you may remember him from the movie, Swingers), he does an amazingly good job of having the right people in the right places, with the right dialogue at the right times. Downey and the rest of the cast had a tremendous amount of input into the script and the dialogue, ala Robert Altman; the film has a realistic feel in its dialogue and the relationships between the actors. The special effects and the amazing interaction between characters, (the sexual tension between Stark and Pepper is reminiscent of Bonds and Moneypenny), and Robert Downey Jr bringing his incredibly cohesive talents to this summer blockbuster, make this picture an absolute “you can’t miss this one” film. In a summer that will bring us Batman, Indiana Jones, The Hulk, Hellboy, and a new Star Wars picture, Ironman is a great kickoff to a summer season of blockbuster films. An explosion of summer fun, Ironman is a must see this summer.
The Entertainment Critic
http://www.theentertainmentcritic.com/
http://www.theentertainmentcritic.net/
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
In Theatres Now Review
Opened May 2, 2008
By James Myers
http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com
Rating: 9 of 10
Director: Jon Favreau
Writers (WGA): Mark Fergus (screenplay) &
Hawk Ostby (screenplay)
Genre: Action Adventure Drama Sci-Fi Thriller more
Cast:
Robert Downey Jr ... Tony Stark / Iron Man
Terrence Howard ... Jim Rhodes
Jeff Bridges ... Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger
Gwyneth Paltrow ... Pepper Potts
Leslie Bibb ... Christine Everhart
Shaun Toub ... Yinsen
Faran Tahir ... Raza
Sayed Badreya ... Abu Bakaar
Bill Smitrovich ... General Gabriel
Clark Gregg ... Agent Phil Coulson
Tim Guinee ... Major Allen
Will Lyman ... Award Ceremony Narrator
Marco Khan ... Insurgent #4
Kevin Foster ... Jimmy
Garret Noel ... Pratt
Rated: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.
Runtime: 126 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio: 2.35: 1 more
Sound Mix: DTS SDDS Dolby Digital
Certification: Canada: PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) Australia:M Norway:11 Hong Kong: IIA South Korea:12 UK:12A Canada: G (Québec) USA:PG-13 Germany:12 New Zealand: M Singapore: PG Sweden:11 Iceland:12 Finland:K-13 Netherlands:12 Malaysia: U Canada:14A (Manitoba) Ireland:12A Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) Brazil:14 Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) USA:126
Filming Locations: Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA
Company: Dark Blades Films
This summer’s movie season is upon us, as May 2, 2008 marked the premier of the first summer blockbuster, Ironman. The movie in its very first weekend is a runaway smash, with a box office gate of $100.7 million, the second highest ever premier gross in motion picture history. Robert Downey, Jr., is perfectly cast as the arrogant, rich, superficial, playboy arms genius, Tony Stark, the moving force behind Stark Industries, an arms manufacturer that makes the very best in rocket warfare. Tony is the second generation Stark in this business as his father started the business with his original partner, Obadiah Stane, (you won’t know who the actor is until he begins to talk; it’s Jeff Bridges, with his head shaved!). Tony is an arms genius, who as the movie opens is in a Hummer with scotch in hand, the ice clinking in the glass, making wisecracks with army personnel. The film then flashes back to a test sequence that Tony conducts of his new weapon, "Jericho Missile", an extremely destructive, multi-warhead weapon system that Tony is showing to the Air Force and his old friend, Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard), a serious jet pilot. This sequence shows the genius of Stark and the destructive power of the Jericho Missile. Downey is near perfect as the missile separates in to multiple warheads in the mountains of Afghanistan in the far off distance, arms outstretched as the precise time the bombs detonate with such force that the blast knocks the hats off of the pilots. Tony grabs his drink back from the stunned serviceman says, “...here’s to peace,” and walks to his vehicle. It is a brilliant, central scene in the picture, and from then on the audience realizes that this guy might be flaky, but he’s very good at what he does.
We flash back to Hummer, which is attacked and overtaken by a terrorist group, who calls themselves, The Ten Rings. Ironically, Tony is injured by shrapnel from one of his own weapons. Led by the evil and sadistic, Raza (Faran Tahir) they capture Tony, and force him to make a Jericho Missile for them. With the help of fellow captive Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub), Tony takes the next 3 months to build crude but strong power armor, powered from a miniature arc reactor. The arc reactor supplies energy to an electromagnet which protects Stark's heart from the embedded shrapnel in his chest. Unfortunately, in the escape attempt, Yinsen is killed. This is the second pivotal scene in the picture, as he lies dying, he tells Stark, …”to do something to help others” and not to waste his life. Stark escapes and is rescued, eventually returning home safely to Stark Industries, where he announces that Stark will not longer build arms, but will take steps to help it’s fellow man. The stock plunges and Stane is not pleased. He then leads a coup with the Board of Directors to bar Tony from their meetings.
Back at his home in Malibu, equipped with all the state of the art computer equipment, including his virtual assistant, Jarvis, Stark goes about the task, with the help of his assistant, Pepper Potts (played perfectly by the beautiful and capable, Gwyneth Paltrow), of perfecting his Ironman exoskeleton. The second best line in the picture comes from the hilarious sequences tracing Stark’s failure to make the contraption fly, when he tells her, “…you caught me doing stranger things than this.” The test sequences of flying in the suit are the funniest in the picture.
Once the body armor is complete, and Stark leans of insurgent activity in Afghanistan by his old nemesis, The Ten Rings, the first mission of Ironman begins. He saves the people of the village and stops the insurgents, but he strengthens the resolve of Raza to build and possess one of the Ironman suits from the prototype Tony left behind. The flying sequence on his way back to the US is hilarious, too. Chased by the Air Force, Tony gives them a run for their money, while talking to his buddy Rhodes the whole time.
Realizing that Obadiah Stane has been dealing with the insurgents under the table, Tony is determined to stop him. He has Pepper retrieve files relating to the sale of those weapons and his agreed to kidnapping from the computer in his office. While hacking into the system she discovers that it was Stane who hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark, but they had reneged on the deal when they realized who the target was. She also discovers that Stane has recovered the power suit prototype (Iron Man Mk I), and has engineered his own version, Iron Monger, an oversized, beefed up version of Iron Man.
Stane, upon realizing Pepper's discovery, steals Stark's arc reactor from his chest to power his new suit, leaving Stark for dead. Using his first reactor, which was not designed to power the suit, Stark does battle with Stane in Los Angeles, defeating him when the larger arc reactor that powers Stark Industries is deliberately overloaded. Stark barely makes it out alive when his reactor almost fails completely, but reactivates, causing a terrific explosion, killing Stane as Iron Monger.
The movies ends with Tony at a press conference, initially denying he is a superhero, then in a sudden reversal, and contrary to what the government has told him to do, announces to the world, that he is Ironman. Ozzie Osborne plays the Ironman theme and the credits roll, but don’t leave your seat quite yet. As with all the Marvel Comics movies, there’s more! Throughout the film, Clark Gregg appears as Agent Phil Coulson of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) trying to arrange a meeting with Stark. Following the credits, Samuel L. Jackson appears as their head, Nick Fury, telling Stark about the "Avenger Initiative". So there is a guaranteed sequel, and the buzz is that there will be 2 more Ironman pictures, with this cast.
This movie is surprising well-casted and directed. Directed by Jon Favreau (you may remember him from the movie, Swingers), he does an amazingly good job of having the right people in the right places, with the right dialogue at the right times. Downey and the rest of the cast had a tremendous amount of input into the script and the dialogue, ala Robert Altman; the film has a realistic feel in its dialogue and the relationships between the actors. The special effects and the amazing interaction between characters, (the sexual tension between Stark and Pepper is reminiscent of Bonds and Moneypenny), and Robert Downey Jr bringing his incredibly cohesive talents to this summer blockbuster, make this picture an absolute “you can’t miss this one” film. In a summer that will bring us Batman, Indiana Jones, The Hulk, Hellboy, and a new Star Wars picture, Ironman is a great kickoff to a summer season of blockbuster films. An explosion of summer fun, Ironman is a must see this summer.
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