Saturday, November 27, 2004

Saturday Doings

I watched VAN HELSING this morning, which had previously been out of stock at our local Hollywood Video. The acting was all right, the effects more or less believable, but the movie's particular spin on the mythos seemed far-fetched: Count Dracula financed Dr. Frankenstein's experiments into creating artificial life only to exploit Frankenstein's monster to give life to thousands of vampire larva? Dracula can't be killed by a stake, but a werewolf can kill him?

Most annoying, though, the suspense felt artificial, created only by fadeouts better suited to episodic TV than a big-budget movie. Glad I didn't pay full price for this.

Having finished THE ULTIMATE HAVANA, I'm now reading THE GUARDS by Ken Bruen. It's a quick, dialogue-driven read that delivers character at the same time. Hey, I'm getting this. How is Bruen pulling this off?

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