Way back when I was in high school I played Dr. Montague, an anthropologist and paranormal investigator, in a school play adapted by the prolific F. Andrew Leslie from Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House. (Even then, I … Continue reading
Dracula It’s been years since I saw this and I was surprised how much I’d forgotten. It’s quite good, even if not so terrifying now as it must have seemed for its original audiences, back when vampires had not yet … Continue reading
Death at a Funeral: the 2007 British original I rather enjoyed this British ensemble comedy of strange characters and worse situations written by Dean Craig and directed by Frank Oz (also known for Bowfinger, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop or … Continue reading
My old friend and fellow Westlake fan Dave Locke recommended this amusing made-for-cable adaptation of Donald E Westlake’s novella A Travesty (published together with another story in a book titled Enough, in case you happen to want to look for … Continue reading
If you’re not familiar with the Discworld series of novels by Terry Pratchett, it concerns, naturally, a flat but otherwise vaguely Earthlike planet riding on the backs for four elephants who in turn stand on the shell of an immense … Continue reading
Ricky Gervais is a British-born New York dentist who’s content to be friendless because he finds other people pretty consistently annoying. When a near-death experience leaves him able to see and hear ghosts, the apparitions don’t strike him as the … Continue reading
I enjoyed the Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs when I first read them in my early teens and retain a great deal of affection for them still. Flawed they certainly are, with preposterously flowery dialog, implausible, formulaic, and coincidence-driven … Continue reading
Like The Polar Express (2004) and Beowulf (2007), this film uses computer-generated animation based in large part on motion capture of live actors (which explains why the credits this animated film include stunt performers). This is of course an adaptation … Continue reading
Here’s yet another film based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this one set mainly in present-day India and done Bollywood style, complete with elaborate production numbers. It was directed by Gurinder Chadha (of Indian ancestry but born in Kenya … Continue reading
Joss Whedon’s treatment of The Avengers is pretty faithful to the source material and a lot of fun. I wouldn’t rate it quite as highly as some reviewers — frankly, some of the early action sequences bored me, and I … Continue reading