Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Club Notice - 2/25/87 -- Vol. 5, No. 33 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in MT 4A-235. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 03/11 LZ: THE DREAMING JEWELS by Ted Sturgeon Children (and Child-raising) 03/18 MT: BABEL-17 by Samuel R. Delaney Linguistics and SF 04/01 LZ: THE DOG THAT WALKS THROUGH DOORS Animals in SF by Richard A. Frontline 04/22 LZ: MURMURS OF EARTH by Carl Sagan SF-related Non-Fiction 05/13 LZ: TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO by Reincarnation Phillip Jose Farmer HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 1C-117 576-2068 MT Librarian: Bruce Szablak MT 4C-418 957-5868 Jill-of-all-trades: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. The Middletown Branch of the SF Club Library has just acquired Samuel R. Delaney's BABEL-17 and Gene Wolfe's FREE LIVE FREE. We also recently got Carl Sagan's CONTACT, which I believe I forgot to mention. [-ecl] 2. As always, the Science Fiction Club Notice is looking for a few good sentient beings--to write articles, that is. Now that some of our old mainstays (Hi, Paul! Hi, Nigel!) have gone on to greener pastures--like writing code, no doubt--we are looking for people to write book reviews, film reviews, magazine reviews, theater reviews, articles, or whatever suits your fancy ("The Role of Giraffes in New Wave Science Fiction"). Of course, if Paul or Nigel want to return to the fold, we shall welcome our prodigal offspring with the fatted calf (or at least a fatted Notice). Electronic submissions preferred, but legible hard copy will be accepted. ("Legible" means I can read it well enough to type it in.) Send electronic submissions to mtgzy!ecl; paper copy should go to Evelyn Leeper, MT 1F-329. [-ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper (This page would be blank otherwise, so it seems like a good time to include this chart showing the genealogy of the "Living Dead" films. ZOMBIE II is not actually a sequel to ZOMBIE, merely inspired by it.) ---------------- | Night of the | | Living Dead | |______________| | Romero | Russo ----------------------------------------- | | | | v v ---------------- ---------------- ----------------- | Dawn of | | (European) | | Return of the | | the Dead |===| Zombie | | Living Dead | |______________| |______________| |_______________| | | | # v v (Fulci) ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- | Day of | | (European) | | (American) | | the Dead | | Zombie II |====| Zombie | |______________| |______________| |______________| (There now, wasn't that helpful?) FOUNDATION AND EARTH by Isaac Asimov Review by Jo Paltin _F_o_u_n_d_a_t_i_o_n _a_n_d _E_a_r_t_h (henceforth F&E) is Asimov's fifth novel in the Foundation series, and, like his recent _R_o_b_o_t_s _a_n_d _E_m_p_i_r_e, it attempts to tie together Asimov's Foundation and Robots universes. Why Asimov would want to tie these seemingly incompatible universes together, remains a mystery, but I digress.... F&E features two of the main characters from the previous Foundation novel -- Golan Trevize, the Foundation Councilman, and Janov Pelorat, the Foundation historian -- in search of the forgotten Earth, the legendary planet of human origin. The motivation for the journey -- and the book -- is thinly disguised as Trevize's self-doubt about his decision to choose Gaia for humanity, over the principles of the First Foundation or the Second. I had looked forward to this book for quite a while, since the Foundation series represents some of my favorite Science Fiction. But F&E left me somewhat disappointed. It's not that the answer to the mystery isn't heartwarming and sweet, it's just that the book felt like the plot of a TV episode. The characters lack any new or meaningful development, and they stumble through a series of mild adventures with major coincidences thrown in. In this book, Asimov examines the concept of Gaia (one integral organism of human minds) through fervent interchanges between Trevize and Bliss/Gaia, Pelorat's female companion. The discussions are interesting up to a point, after which they become repetitive and senseless. Worse, Bliss/Gaia remains somewhat of mysterious character; this might have been done on purpose, to keep the reader guessing about her motivation, but even so, it weakened the story. Overall, I enjoyed the novel, and I would recommend it to Foundation fans, as long as the motivation to unearth (sorry, I could not resist) the mystery of Earth keeps the reader going, and expectations are kept low. THE HITCHER A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: Boring actioner about a psychotic hitchhiker whom the scriptwriter makes unkillable. Contrived, unbelievable, and ultimately dull thriller is one more film to waste Rutger Hauer. You want a thriller with lots of mindless action, no logic, and a bunch of fractional-dimensional characters. Cable this month is running what passes for entertainment in some quarters. The film is _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_e_r and as a friend of mine would say, it sucks pond water. Actually I think this one could turn back a raging river. Our main character--I don't think we ever get his name so I will call him Poor Schnook--is a teenager driving a car from Chicago to San Diego by way of nearly empty Texas roads. Schnook picks up a psychotic killer played by Rutger Hauer, who adds one more implacable killer to his list of roles. Hauer had better start being more selective in his roles or he will lose the aura he had from _S_o_l_d_i_e_r _o_f _O_r_a_n_g_e and _B_l_a_d_e_r_u_n_n_e_r. From the point he gets picked up, Hauer does everything right. He is always in just the right place at the right instant. It is not long before the police think Poor Schnook is the killer and these are not your ordinary police. They have intelligence roughly equivalent to protozoa. In a scene we see only the aftermath of, Hauer has wiped out an entire police station with apparently no more than a knife. In one carefully choreographed scene, with one bullet Hauer knocks out one police helicopter and two police cars whose occupants somehow missed seeing the slowly dropping helicopter fall. The more destruction there is, the more the police want to kill Poor Schnook and the less interested they are in hearing his claims that someone else is responsible. The plot of the innocent bystander who gets in over his head is standard thriller stuff and can be well done. The innocent bystander against the villain who does everything right is an old one. In a sense _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_e_r has the same basic (very basic) plot as _N_o_r_t_h _b_y _N_o_r_t_h_w_e_s_t but instead of the characters and the wit, _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_e_r gives us just more mindless action scenes. Perhaps part of the reason audiences are getting more unruly is that in a film like _N_o_r_t_h _b_y _N_o_r_t_h_w_e_s_t you want to hear what the characters are saying, while in a film like _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_e_r it is much less important. And one car engine sounds a lot like another. Rate this one a -2 on the -4 to +4 scale. Boskone XXIV by Evelyn C. Leeper 1. TTTThhhhuuuurrrrssssddddaaaayyyy 1.1 HHHHoooolllliiiiddddaaaayyyy oooonnnn IIIIcccceeee Boskone XXIV got off to an inauspicious start for us--we drove up to Massachusetts in a blizzard. It took an hour and a half to go the first 50 miles, but then the roads got better and we made it to South Hadley in about five hours, not much more than it usually takes. The car, of course, was covered with road dirt (the parking lights were totally blacked out), but since we weren't driving into Boston, we just wiped off the lights and left it at that. 2. FFFFrrrriiiiddddaaaayyyy After our traditional pizza and a night's sleep we set off, but not without further difficulties. Dave's car was low on oil, and when he went to fill it, a plastic hose broke off in the cold (about 0 degrees Fahrenheit). Luckily it turned out to be a hose that only kept the oil cap from getting misplaced but we had a couple of bad moments. So we picked up Kate and off we went. This trip was much smoother--only about an hour and a half into Boston, but then it took us about 20 minutes to find a spot in the parking garage (after moving the sign that said "Full--Hotel Guests Only" which had thoughtfully been placed right in the center of the entrance). The hotel area was full (it was about 2PM) but we finally found a space in the general-purpose area. 2.1 RRRReeeeggggiiiissssttttrrrraaaattttiiiioooonnnn Check-in was relatively quick--the hotel had learned from previous years and gave out the registration forms to be filled in when you got into line, so by the time your turn at the window came, you were done with it. In our case it took a little longer because we wanted two rooms with two double beds each, next to each other, and on a low floor. Well, you can't have everything--we ended up on the 15th floor. Also, Kate was trying to get Cynthia's name into the computer so that when she showed up she could get another key. And finally, both Mark and Kate had to go to another desk to get second keys for the rooms (you'd think that the hotel would know that a double room should have two keys). After checking in we popped down to registration, which didn't officially open until 3:30 but opened at 3:15 for pre-registerees. They didn't really have their act together for the hand-outs though (they - 2 - didn't have packets this years, just stacks of sheets) and we had to go back three times to get everything. We then ate and came back to hit the huckster room. There were more book dealers this year--a good sign--but not all the tables were open yet. I saw Saul Jaffe and we talked about the future of Usenet et al for a while. 2.2 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: SSSSoooovvvviiiieeeetttt YYYYeeeeaaaarrrr iiiinnnn SSSSppppaaaacccceeee When everyone finally showed up we went out for dinner at our usual Chinese restaurant and then hit the Star Market for munchies on the way back. At 9PM I went to the "Soviet Year in Space" panel, which was sponsored by the Boston L5 Chapter. It was very slow-moving--most of the hour was spent in detailing the Soviet program from its inception, complete with boring slides. Not much was said about their current ventures. There wasn't much in the way of parties Friday night--we dropped into the Hobokon in '92 Party briefly but went to bed fairly early. 3. SSSSaaaattttuuuurrrrddddaaaayyyy Saturday morning we were going to go to a coffee shop across the street for breakfast, but the wind chill factor was about 10 below so we settled for Brighams in the Prudential Center itself--still a chilly walk. Kate and I stopped in the liquor store on the way back to pick up a bottle of wine--we decided to move up in the world and get one with a cork, so we had to buy a corkscrew also. 3.1 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: GGGGoooolllleeeemmmm LLLLeeeeggggeeeennnndddd At 11:30 we went to the "Cliches in Fantasy Film" panel, but it wasn't going to start until after _L_a_b_y_r_i_n_t_h finished, which obviously wasn't going to be until about noon, so we proceeded directly to the "Golem Legend" panel. Unfortunately the panel leader didn't (we discovered later that he was on the "Cliches" panel, an example of poor scheduling if ever there was one), so about a dozen of us sat around for ten minutes waiting. I kept telling Mark he should lead the discussion but he didn't want to. Finally someone said he had come to find out just what a golem was. I convinced Mark to explain it to him and pretty soon, everyone had pulled their chairs into a circle and was discussing the golem and Jewish legends in general. At the end I asked if anyone could recommend any good golem novels and one person said that I really should read the recent article in _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n about golems--the one that Mark wrote! When I pointed out that Mark had written it, a couple of people told him how good they thought it was. It turned out that one person (Mark Blackman) there was a regular _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n contributor and another (Mark Keller) had written a really great article on alternate histories in _T_h_e _P_r_o_p_e_r _B_o_s_k_o_n_i_a_n. (Gee, 'Mark' sure is a popular name!) We started talking about alternate histories in the hallway and Keller mentioned that the all-time worst was John Jakes's _B_l_a_c_k _i_n _T_i_m_e. - 3 - He started describing it and a woman who came along just then recognized the description and commented that it was the worst science fiction she had ever read. Keller plans on publishing his alternate history bibliography in a year or two--I can't wait! 3.2 PPPPaaaannnneeeellll:::: GGGGaaaayyyy CCCChhhhaaaarrrraaaacccctttteeeerrrrssss aaaannnndddd TTTThhhheeeemmmmeeeessss Because this discussion ran over, I got to "Gay Characters and Themes" late. The room for this was packed, but the discussion wasn't particularly good. There seemed to be two schools of thought: one group thought that gay characters should be just another kind of character; the other thought that it was important to show how gay characters dealt with societal problems. It boils down to whether the society being described is tolerant or not, and both sides seemed to think that not enought was being done to show their point of view. There was some question as to when the first AIDS-related science fiction would be published, but no real answer (obviously). 3.3 AAAArrrrtttt SSSShhhhoooowwww I then took a quick run through the art show, running into Saul again. He was wearing his SF-Lovers' Digest t-shirt, which reminded me that I should have brought mine. Oh well.... The art show itself was about average--a lot of media-related works, a fair amount of cutesy fantasy, and some really good pieces either not for sale or priced out of most people's range. The art shows are becoming more art displays and less art sales than they used to be, I think. 3.4 WWWWhhhhaaaatttt''''ssss BBBBoooossssttttoooonnnn WWWWiiiitttthhhhoooouuuutttt aaaa LLLLoooobbbbsssstttteeeerrrr DDDDiiiinnnnnnnneeeerrrr???? Kate and I wanted to go to the "USSR/US Manned Space Mission" presentation at 5PM, but I definitely wanted to make the "Electronic Fanac" panel at 7PM and Kate wanted to go to the "Warpods" presentation at 7 also, so we all decided to go to dinner at 5. We went to the Atlantic Seafood Company, where I had an excellent lobster dinner. We weren't quite finished by 7, but I probably didn't miss too much at the panel. SF-Lovers' Digest will be mentioned in an article in the April issue of _O_m_n_i. Jerry Boyajian was there with an article on Sherlock Holmes for me (yet more books on the subject to look for!). 3.5 MMMMoooodddd....mmmmoooovvvviiiieeeessss iiiissss RRRReeeebbbboooorrrrnnnn After the panel started to dissolve, several people convinced me to volunteer to moderate "mod.movies" on Usenet. (Actually, it's going to be rec.arts.movies.reviews.) Shows what a glass of wine and an after- dinner drink will do! - 4 - 3.6 RRRReeeeaaaaddddeeeerrrrccccoooonnnn There were more parties Saturday night, but the elevator situation was a real mess. We took the elevator up to the 22nd floor where we dropped in on the Readercon party. Readercon is a new convention emphasizing (you guessed it!) reading. The first one will be this June in Brookline and Gene Wolfe will be the Guest of Honor. The hotel situation is a little strange (the hotel won't take credit cards, only checks, and normally won't take cancellations withing three weeks of the date, though the Con committee thinks they can get them to make an exception for us--given the non-subsidized nature of this convention as compared to a business convention.) Kate may lead a discussion group on the modern horror novel--I keep telling Dave he should lead one on the "Gor" novels. 3.7 UUUUMMMMaaaassssssssSSSSFFFFSSSS 22225555----YYYYeeeeaaaarrrr RRRReeeeuuuunnnniiiioooonnnn PPPPllllaaaannnnnnnneeeedddd Then we walked down to the 19th floor where we dropped in on the BoF (Bunch of Fans) Party. (BoF is a Western Massachusetts fan group.) Mark, Dave, Joe Ross, and I got to talking about the last UMassSFS reunion that was held at Dave's place about ten years ago. We started saying there should be another soon, one thing led to another, and before we knew what had happened, we realized that 1989 was the 25th anniversary of the founding of UMassSFS and also the year of Noreascon III. So we decided to organize a 25-year re-union to be held at Noreascon III. One of the people still in the Amherst area will get the list of all the past officers, Joe Ross will get their addresses from the Alumni Association, and he and/or I will try to contact all of them. We also plan to advertise in the alumni newsletter and fannish publications. This should be a lot of fun--after all, we have two years to plan it! 3.8 HHHHAAAASSSSAAAA PPPPaaaarrrrttttyyyy Then we walked back down to our rooms on the 15th floor. I called down to the 6th floor to make sure the HASA party was still going on before I walked all the way down. It was so I did. Sure enough, there were Mikki Barry, Charlie Wingate, Jonathan Trudel, and six copies of Rich Rosen, along with an open copy of the Gideon Bible. After hanging out there for a while, I walked back up to the 15th floor and went to sleep. 4. SSSSuuuunnnnddddaaaayyyy 4.1 GGGGooooddddzzzziiiillllllllaaaa MMMMaaaakkkkeeeessss aaaannnn AAAAppppppppeeeeaaaarrrraaaannnncccceeee Sunday morning was Brigham's again, then back for the "Godzilla" panel. Billed as "Everything you always wanted to know about Godzilla," this turned out to be a Boxboro gag, with someone showing up in a Godzilla suit and answering silly questions from the audience. A real waste of time if you were hoping for a real film panel--which we were. - 5 - 4.2 WWWWhhhhiiiitttthhhheeeerrrr BBBBoooosssskkkkoooonnnneeee???? We skipped the "L5 Presents the Mars Underground" to pack and check out, because we all wanted to go to the "Look Ahead to Boskone '88." Some back-tracking is necessary at this point. NESFA has been saying for several years now that Boskone is getting too large--this year's attendance was estimated at 4000. As a perspective, Boskone VI in 1969 (our first) was about 260 people and Noreascon I in 1971 was only 2100. Next year when the Hynes Auditorium re-opens, the Sheraton will close the temporary exhibit space that it "borrowed" from the parking garage area. The bottom line is that the current size is too large for the new Sheraton without the Hynes and too small to make renting the Hynes a fiscal possibility. Also, NESFA does not _w_a_n_t a larger convention--they want a smaller one. So starting with this year's to some extent, and continuing for the next few years, NESFA will be down-scaling Boskone by emphasizing literature, art, and fannish activities (like filking) and de-emphasizing media. Unfortunately, all this got tangled up in the other problem--rowdies causing problems with the hotel. Friday night there were three false fire alarms (I slept through all of them) and the Con committee was ready to cancel next year's Boskone on the spot. By Saturday night things had gotten better--the people thought to be responsible for the Friday nights alarms were not members, but friends of a con member, and the hotel could see that most con members were being as helpful as possible in preventing this sort of problem in the future. Anyway, the meeting had two major "bones of contention": should NESFA de-emphasize media and what could NESFA do to keep the rowdies out? One of the people from NESFA made the mistake of saying that in order to get "more of the sort of people we want" at Boskones, they would be de- emphasizing media. After a lot of heated discussion, I think the conclusion we all came to was that the de-emphasizing of media was being done to focus the convention and had nothing to do with the type of people who liked media. A smaller, less advertised convention would, by its very nature, attract fewer hangers-on than a large one. In spite of the (in my opinion) reasonableness of all this, there were those who felt that NESFA had some sort of obligation to offer big media presentations because, after all, there were people who liked this sort of thing and they wanted to come to Boskone and so Boskone should offer it. (I suspect you can guess my opinion of this from the previous sentence.) The bottom line is that NESFA won't--there will be no video room (though they may go back to closed-circuit video as a means of keeping people in their rooms rather than wandering the halls looking for entertainment), there will be no cinematic blockbusters or major media presentations, and in general people who attend only for media will have to find another convention to go to for that. The other, somewhat surprising, suggestion to be put forth was the drastic scaling down of parties. It used to be that parties were occasions for people to get together and talk; now they are, in many cases, a giant drinking bash. Many of the hangers-on show up because of - 6 - all the free booze available. The suggestions in this area ranged from no seeding of parties (to keep the size down), to spot-checking parties to make sure no under-age people were being served alcohol, to banning alcohol altogether from open parties (those advertised by the Con committee). It was agreed that there was no way to ban liquor altogether but that it would certainly make a difference if only private parties were serving it. Stay tuned till next year for the results of all this. _N_O_T_E_S _F_R_O_M _T_H_E _N_E_T --------------------------------------- Subject: Final Nebula Ballot Path: mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!cae780!amdcad!sun!plaid!chuq Date: 19 Feb 87 04:49:40 GMT Here is the final ballot for the 1986 Nebula Awards: ------------------------------------------------- NOVEL: : : COUNT ZERO, by William Gibson : FREE LIVE FREE, by Gene Wolfe : SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, by Orson Scott Card : THE HANDMAID'S TALE, by Margaret Atwood : THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS, by James Morrow : THE JOURNAL OF NICHOLAS THE AMERICAN, by : Leigh Kennedy : ------------------------------------------------- NOVELLA: : : DYDEETOWN GIRL, by F. Paul Wilson : GILMAGESH IN THE OUTBACK, by Robert Silverberg : NEWTON SLEEP, by Gregory Benford : R&R, by Lucias Shepard : ESCAPE FROM KATHMANDU, by Kim Stanley Robinson : ------------------------------------------------- NOVELETTE: : : AYMARA, by Lucius Shepard : HATRACK RIVER, by Orson Scott Card : LISTENING TO BRAHMS, by Suzy McKee Charnas : PERMAFROST, by Roger Zelazny : SURVIVING, by Judith Moffett : THE WINTER MARKET, by William Gibson : ------------------------------------------------- SHORT STORY: : : THE LIONS ARE ASLEEP THIS NIGHT, Howard Waldrop : PRETTY BOY CROSSOVER, by Pat Cadigan : RAT, by James Patrick Kelly : ROBOT DREAMS, by Isaac Asimov : TANGENT, by Greg Bear : THE BOY WHO PLATED MANES, by Nancy Springer : ------------------------------------------------- Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM --------------------------------------- - 2 - Subject: Upcoming or planned movies... (LONG!!!) Path: mtuxo!houxm!ihnp4!ptsfa!dual!ucbvax!miro.Berkeley.EDU!spr Date: 12 Feb 87 10:42:40 GMT Once again, The Film Journal has printed its anual Blue Sheets issue, devoted to listing planned movies... Here are a few titles that caught my eye... Pertinant iformation given includes... Distributor, credits (sometimes)... Titles with release dates will be followed by "RD: (release date)" Titles that are in development will be followed by "ID". New Films The Adventures of Baron Munchausen [Ind.] ID Produced, Directed and Written by Terry Gilliam $25 mil. fantasy based on 18th century tall tales that are well suited to Gilliam's imagination. Amerika [Cannon] ID Directed by Federico Fellini Adapted from Kafka's novel by Fellini And you thought Fellini was bizzare enough on his own. Bats [Ind.] ID Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva, Betty Blue) $20 Mil. English language comedy about a pair of vampires living in New York and trying to steal enough money to buy a cozy haunted castle in the country. Biloxi Blues [Universal] RD: Christmas '87 Written by Neil Simon The Tony Award winning sequel to Brighton Beach Memoirs deals with Simon's army days. Blind Date [Tri-Star] RD: Spring '87 Directed by Blake Edwards, Starring Bruce Willis, Kim Bassinger Another "dangerous date" movie as Basinger proves to be quite a handful for Willis (making his motion picture debut) Blind Fury [Tri-Star] ID No Credits Based on the Japanese babycart series--ultra-violent martial arts pictures (based in turn on a poular comic book series) about the adventures of a blind samurai and his little son in 14th century Japan. The Chocolate Factory [Sam Goldwyn] RD: 10/87 Directed by Giles Foster Based on an original story by former Monty Python members Terry Jones and Michael Palin. - 3 - Creepshow II [Laurel Entertainment] Directed by Michael Gornick. Screenplay by George Romero. Similar style to the original "EC Comics" style sleeper. Based on three Stephen King stories: "The Raft", "The Hitchhiker" and "Old Chief Woodenhead". Doing Time on Planet Earth [Cannon] Directed by Charles Matthau. Billed as a coming of age sci-fi comedy. A Fish Called Wanda [Ind.] ID Written by John Cleese Billed as a mainstream American comedy. The Flintstones [Taft/Barish] ID Fred and Wilma go live action. Full Metal Jacket [Warner Bros.] RD: Spring '87 Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick's long-awaited Vietnam drama, which follows an 18-year-old Marine from basic training to the Tet offensive. Gor [Cannon] Directed by Frietz Kiersch. Based on J.F. Lange's "Transman of Gor". Fantasy adventure about a college professor who is mysteriously transported to a primitive world. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy [Columbia] ID Directed by Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) Supposedly still being worked on, but don't hold your breath in anticipation. The Jetsons [Paramount] ID Live action version of the adventures of George, Jane, Judy, Elroy, & Astro. The Little Mermaid [Buena Vista] ID Animated version of the Hans Christian Anderson tale. The Lurking Fear [Empire] Directed by Stuart Gordon. Screenplay by Dennis Paoli. Produced by Brian Yuzna. If Re-animator and From Beyond weren't enough, here comes yet another H.P. Lovecraft story. This one features incest, murder, and cannibalism galore. Mission: Impossible [Paramount] ID Starring Peter Graves A big screen remake of the 60's hit espionage t.v. series. Nostromo [Amblin] ID Directed by David Lean. Produced by Steven Spielberg. An adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel of the same name. Oliver [Buena Vista] ID Voices of Billy Joel, Bette Midler, and Dom DeLuise. - 4 - An animated version of Oliver Twist, in which Oliver is an orphaned New York City cat who is taken in by Fagin and his gang of dogs. This will be Disney's 27th animated feature. Pet Semetary [Laurel Entertainment] Directed by George Romero. Screenplay by Stephen King. King and Romero combine their talents as writer and director into what looks like a perfect combination of elements. Robinson Crusoe [Island] RD: Christmas '87 Directed by Caleb Deschenal (The Black Stallion [Cinematographer]) A new version of the classic adventure tale, currently filming on location in Yugoslavia and the Seychelles Islands. Straight to Hell [Island] RD: 3/87 Directed by Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid and Nancy) The ads call this "a story of blood, money, guns, insanity, and sexual tension" while Cox calls it "a paella western". Tales From the Crypt [New World] ID Revival of the format used in a 1972 horror anthology. The Talisman [Universal] ID Produced by Steven Spielberg Who knows what Spielberg will do with the novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub which deals with a young boy's perilous journey to save his mother from an evil curse. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? [Walt Disney/Amblin] Direceted by Robert Zemeckis. Spielberg and Disney are teaming for this comedy-fantasy that will combine live action and animation. The Wizard of Speed and Time [Shapiro Entertainment] Directed by Mike Jittlov. Starring Mike Jittlov, Paige Moor. $3 mil. sci-fi fantasy about a guy who REALLY lives in the fast lane. Based on the short subject of the same name. As if you thought this list wasn't long enough, here are a few more titles that surprised me... Fairy tales galore department Cannon (yes you read that right) will be turning out LOTS of Fairy tales. Here's a list (with some of the cast...) Beauty and the Beast (Rebbeca DeMornay, John Savage) The Emperor's New Clothes (Sid Ceaser, Robert Morsem, Clive Rivill) The Frog Prince (Aileen Quin, Clive Revill, Helen Hunt) Hansel and Gretel (Cloris Leachman, Hugh Pollard, Nicola Stapleton) Little Red Riding Hood (Isabella Rossellini, Craig T. Nelson) - 5 - Rumplestiltskin (Amy Irving, Billy Barty, Clive Rivill) Sleeping Beauty (Morgan Fairchild, Tahnee Welch, Nicholas Clay) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Diana Rigg, Sarah Patterson) Lets cash in and milk this thing dry department As usual, a fair number of seuels are being worked on, here are a few... Back to the Future II [Universal] (same cast as the original) ID E.T. II [Universal] ID Fletch II [Universal] (Chevy Chase) ID Freebie and the Bean II [Cannon] ID Ghostbusters Sequel [Columbia] ID Godfather Part III [Paramount] ID Gremlins II [Warner Bros] ID Greystoke II [Warner Bros] ID Indiana Jones III [Paramount] ID Iron Eagle II [Tri-Star] ID Jagged Edge Sequel [Columbia] ID The Karate Kid Part III [Columbia] ID Last Picture Show Sequel [Ind.] ID Poltergeist III [MGM] ID The Return of Billy Jack [Ind.] Running Scared II [MGM] ID Short Circuit Sequel [Tri-Star] ID Son of the Nutty Professor [Warner Bros] (Jerry Lewis, Joe Piscopo) ID Splash II [Buena Vista] (Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy) Teen Wolf II [Atlantic] RD: 7/17/87 Some people think they can do it better department Can you imagine remakes of any of the following?... The Day the Earth Stood Still [Fox] ID D.O.A. [Disney] His Girl Friday [Columbia] ID Journey to the Center of the Earth [Cannon] 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [DEG] ID Catchy titles department There are always a few films with GREAT titles, even though most turn out to be drek. Decapitation [Empire] Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters [Troma] I Eat Canibals [Empire] I Was a Teenage T.V. Terrorist [Troma] It Ate Cleveland [Cannon] Lust For Freedom [Troma] Martians Go Home [Ind.] Mule Person: All Purpose Hero [Bluebird Films] Mystic Pizza [Sam Goldwyn] Nice Girls Don't Explode [New World] - 6 - Rawhead Rex [Empire] Vicious Lips [Empire] Zombiethon [Empire] There you have it, all courtesy of the Film Journal. (Hey Mudie, I finished it!!!!) Sean "Yoda" Rouse ARPA: spr@miro.berkeley.edu UUCP: ucbvax!miro!spr --------------------------------------- Subject: Salvador Path: mtuxo!houxm!ihnp4!cbatt!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pixar!upstill Date: 17 Feb 87 20:19:17 GMT In Brief: an effective and honest piece of agit-prop, Salvador is more than Oliver Stone's warmup for Platoon. James Woods fully deserves his Oscar nomination in the story of a gonzo photojournalist careening around the chaos of El Salvador in 1980-81. Salvador is both a terrifically entertaining piece of filmcraft, and an "important" film which rudely rejects the nobility normally enshrouding important films. It concerns the war in El Salvador as seen through the eyes of an American photojournalist, played by James Woods. It is only thinly ficticious, dramatizing actual events and dumping them in the lap of the audience in all their terror. The main character, Richard Boyle, cowrote it. Salvador has been criticized as an awkward combination of gonzo comedy and serious social/political criticism. Well, be warned: there isn't much of Hunter S. Thompson in here, except in the irresponsibility and hyperactivity of Woods' character. Much of that, though, is necessary to motivate his presence in such an insane situation in the first place, and to make his coping with it reasonable. Little effort is expended making Boyle a sympathetic character. This has the effect of seeing the events in the picture with our own eyes rather than having it explained for us. A more serious criticism is that the film is one-sided in its presentation of the war, playing fast and loose with the facts. It does have a distinct left-wing bias, freely admitted. There are a few left- wing polemics that are almost embarrassing. And the main villain, based on death-squad head D'Aubuisson, does everything but breathe fire and drip blood. On the other hand, there ARE genuine-though-incredible facts here: the shooting of a Catholic Archbishop during Mass, the rape and murder of four nuns, and there is a sobering scene in a pit where death-squad victims are dumped, the "disappearance" of people unsympathetic to the government. Likewise, the texture of life in El Salvador as presented - 7 - in this film matches perfectly the image I have garnered from people who have visited there, to whom it is easily the most paranoid environment they've ever visited. After the movie was over, my sister wondered aloud why it wasn't a more important picture when it played theaters, given its implications for the United States' foreign policy. I believe the answer is that it's about a part of the world that Americans couldn't care less about and, more importantly, it's a "political" film. Now, people will go see an "important" political film if either 1) it reinforces their viewpoint or 2) argues another viewpoint in an inoffensive, easily-defended-against manner. The trouble with Salvador is that it says unpopular things and it is in every way impolite in the way it says them. There are two great and legitimate uses of film for political purposes. One is to draw our attention to matters we should be attending to. Whatever your view of United States policy in Central America, we are bearing a great load of responsibility regarding the governments we support and the governments we fight, and to ignore that is analogous to the Good Germans who tacitly supported the Holocaust by not ignoring it. The other political use of film is to make the abstract concrete. We have all read about the shooting of Archbishop Romero, the death squads, the murder of the American nuns. But news blurbs are easily dismissed; images are not. One can claim that it is irrational to base one's views on the kind of emotional presentation given these events by Salvador. I would counter that it is immoral to regard them as abstracted blips on the chart of national affairs, and it is essential for those who make the decisions leading to these events (and that includes the American public, this being a democracy) to encounter them in the reality of human suffering that the numbers represent. Salvador is very effective in both these ways, and for all its weaknesses I recommend it highly. If it stimulates discussion, makes people look further at the situation in Central America, it will be an admirable piece of work indeed. Steve Upstill --------------------------------------- Subject: "Light of Day" Path: rutgers!sri-unix!hplabs!hpcea!hpfcdc!hpfcph!donq Date: 12 Feb 87 18:35:08 GMT Yes, Virginia, Rock and Roll singers really do have heart. After seeing Light of Day this is the only definite statement I can make. The story opens on a lower middle class family with all sorts of problems. Brother Joe, played by Micheal J. Fox, projects a very conventional, ordinary guy despite his far-out hair and earring. He spends almost the entire movie trying to patch up arguments between his mother and sister. What little time is left goes to the care and feeding of his little - 8 - newphew, Benjie (constantly deserted by his mother). Sister Patty, protrayed by first- timer Joan Jett, suffers from a bad case of overacting. She spends a lot of time singing, emoting troubled youth, and deserting her young son (see above). Gena Rowland, still looking beautiful after all these years, is the most successful in her role. Her interpretation of a fanatical mother obsessed with religious demons has its roots in reality, but is still very difficult for many of us to understand. The main problem with this particular movie I think is the storyline. This type of plot, used so often and so successfully in the past, has become boring and tedious to present-day, sophisticated movie viewers. I realize Micheal is trying desperately to bury his "Alex Image". I think he succeeds. He has a certain screen magic no matter what he does, and I think much of the movie is saved merely by his supporting efforts. If you like flicks where a family is constantly at odds with each other, but in the end collects around the hospital bed holding hands (bring lots of kleenex), then mark this one on your calendar. However, if none of the above appeals to you, save your money. Something more promising, I'm sure, is just around the corner. Don & Karen Quick