New on the DVD rack, 12/16/04
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Extended Edition. And you thought the theatrical version of the final act in the LOTR trilogy went on forever. Welcome to four hours and ten minutes of Hobbit-chasing, Gollum-scheming, Uruk-Hai-battling, heroic derring-doing goodness. And that doesn't even include the kajillion hours of supplementary material packed into this four-disc set. Anyone who does get his or her fill of Tolkieniana, Peter Jackson style, by the time the last platter stops spinning simply didn't try.
I never had a review assignment for this last installment in the series, but if you want to peruse my thoughts on the Extended Edition of the first film, LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, use this link to my review at DVD Verdict. For my critical analysis of the theatrical version of the second film, LOTR: The Two Towers, use this link to check out the review I wrote originally for the online magazine California Fine Arts.
I, Robot. Back in my science fiction reading days, I was a huge Isaac Asimov fan. The Good Doctor couldn't create human characters or write realistic dialogue to save his life, but the man could tell a story like nobody's business. (My favorite Asimov works actually aren't sci-fi at all — they're the short mysteries he wrote about an exclusive gentlemen's club called the Black Widowers. Great fun if you like mysteries and logic puzzles in story form.)
Cinema has not, in the main, been kind to Asimov's work. Both of the previous theatrical films based on his writings, Nightfall and Bicentennial Man, reeked like something your dog dug up in the backyard after a hard rain. I understand that Nightfall was remade a few years ago in a cheapjack direct-to-the-cutout-bin production that's even worse than the original — mind-boggling, but apparently true. I heard some nice things about I, Robot, though, so I'll go into watching it with at least a modicum of hope.
The Asimov novel I'd really like to see filmed — and Alex Proyas, who directed I, Robot, would be an excellent choice for the task — is The Caves of Steel. It's my favorite Asimov novel, and has the potential to make a spectacular motion picture. Its hero, Elijah "Lije" Baley, is the closest Asimov ever came to creating a genuine human character with real emotions and thoughts.
Isaac Asimov was a fascinating man. I've read most of his autobiographical works, and found them both moving and compelling. He was not, apparently, an easy guy to get to know. He liked working alone, and at a frenetic pace — he authored more than 1,000 books, if you include all the compilations of his short stories and other non-book-length writings. Although he wrote about rocketship journeys to far-flung planets, Asimov was afraid of flying and rarely traveled far from his New York City home. Asimov contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during cardiac surgery and kept his HIV-positive status a well-guarded secret for more than 15 years; only after his death did his condition become public knowledge.
In an ironic twist, Asimov's son David, who lived in the same Santa Rosa neighborhood as my parents-in-law, was busted a few years ago for trafficking in child pornography. I say "ironic" because the senior Asimov was well-known for his ribaldry and eye for the ladies, and his stories frequently appeared in magazines "for mature audiences." His Union Club mysteries, for example, were originally published in the T&A rag Gallery, best known for its pioneering "Send Us Nekkid Pictures of Your Wife / Girlfriend / Neighbor" feature. Or so I've heard.
I never had a review assignment for this last installment in the series, but if you want to peruse my thoughts on the Extended Edition of the first film, LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, use this link to my review at DVD Verdict. For my critical analysis of the theatrical version of the second film, LOTR: The Two Towers, use this link to check out the review I wrote originally for the online magazine California Fine Arts.
I, Robot. Back in my science fiction reading days, I was a huge Isaac Asimov fan. The Good Doctor couldn't create human characters or write realistic dialogue to save his life, but the man could tell a story like nobody's business. (My favorite Asimov works actually aren't sci-fi at all — they're the short mysteries he wrote about an exclusive gentlemen's club called the Black Widowers. Great fun if you like mysteries and logic puzzles in story form.)
Cinema has not, in the main, been kind to Asimov's work. Both of the previous theatrical films based on his writings, Nightfall and Bicentennial Man, reeked like something your dog dug up in the backyard after a hard rain. I understand that Nightfall was remade a few years ago in a cheapjack direct-to-the-cutout-bin production that's even worse than the original — mind-boggling, but apparently true. I heard some nice things about I, Robot, though, so I'll go into watching it with at least a modicum of hope.
The Asimov novel I'd really like to see filmed — and Alex Proyas, who directed I, Robot, would be an excellent choice for the task — is The Caves of Steel. It's my favorite Asimov novel, and has the potential to make a spectacular motion picture. Its hero, Elijah "Lije" Baley, is the closest Asimov ever came to creating a genuine human character with real emotions and thoughts.
Isaac Asimov was a fascinating man. I've read most of his autobiographical works, and found them both moving and compelling. He was not, apparently, an easy guy to get to know. He liked working alone, and at a frenetic pace — he authored more than 1,000 books, if you include all the compilations of his short stories and other non-book-length writings. Although he wrote about rocketship journeys to far-flung planets, Asimov was afraid of flying and rarely traveled far from his New York City home. Asimov contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during cardiac surgery and kept his HIV-positive status a well-guarded secret for more than 15 years; only after his death did his condition become public knowledge.
In an ironic twist, Asimov's son David, who lived in the same Santa Rosa neighborhood as my parents-in-law, was busted a few years ago for trafficking in child pornography. I say "ironic" because the senior Asimov was well-known for his ribaldry and eye for the ladies, and his stories frequently appeared in magazines "for mature audiences." His Union Club mysteries, for example, were originally published in the T&A rag Gallery, best known for its pioneering "Send Us Nekkid Pictures of Your Wife / Girlfriend / Neighbor" feature. Or so I've heard.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 5:19 PM
1 insisted on sticking two cents in:
RE: Caves.
Hasn't there been talk about making those books into movies as well? Or is I,Robot, the only one?
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