@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 7/29/88 -- Vol. 7, No. 5 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158; MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 08/17 LZ: THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN by Gene Wolfe (Hugo nominee) 09/07 LZ: THE FORGE OF GOD by Greg Bear (Hugo nominee) 09/28 LZ: WHEN GRAVITY FAILS by George Alec Effinger (Hugo nominee) 10/19 LZ: TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET by Robert Heinlein (A Heinlein retrospective) _D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C. 08/13 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Christopher Rowley (phone 201-933-2724 for details) 08/20 New Jersey Science Fiction Society: Darrell Schweitzer (phone 201-432-5965 for details) 09/01 NOLACON II (46th World Science Fiction Convention), New Orleans. -09/05 GoH: Donald A. Wollheim; FGoH: Roger Sims; TM: Mike Resnick. Info: Nolacon II, 921 Canal St., Suite 831, New Orleans LA 70112 (504) 525-6008. HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 mtuxo!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 mtgzz!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 homxb!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-6142 lzfme!lfl MT Librarian: Will Harmon MT 3C-406 957-5128 mtgzz!wch Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. I was watching _G_a_r_d_e_n_s _o_f _S_t_o_n_e this weekend. James Caan plays a sort of salty military type who commands the Honor Guard at Arlington National Cemetery during the Vietnam War. At one point he is confronted by someone anti-military and says, "You know, opinions are like left ears. Everybody seems to have one." (Okay, I am lying. He picked another bodily orifice, one that salty military types mention more often than left ears.) Anyway, that quote seems fitting from the response I got to my _L_a_s_t _a_n_d _F_i_r_s_t _M_e_n review. People commented on my statement that you can recreate THE MT VOID Page 2 the texture of a mountain in a computer. Mountain experts apparently claim that the texture you get is not really mountain- like. Computer experts claim that it is. I have been getting mail from computer people who support the mountaineers. I just want all of you to know you have a right to your opinions, but only so far. Some opinions verge on treason. You can knock our country all you want. It's not me to tell you not to. But when you start siding with Grizzly Adams over Benoit Mandelbrot, this field isn't big enough for the both of us. Why don't you go climb a rock? (I guess I told 'em.) Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper MIDNIGHT RUN A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: An Odd Couple--on the run from just about everybody in the film that has wheels or wings to chase them--learn to like each other. _M_i_d_n_i_g_h_t _R_u_n is a diverting and enjoyable but an unoriginal action film. Rating: +1. High Concept. Picture this: The Odd Couple in a cops-and-robbers chase movie. Well, maybe not the original Odd Couple, but you have the slob and the high-strung neurotic. The slob is a bounty hunter who smokes, eats greasy food, cusses...that sort of thing. He's got to bring the accountant of a Las Vegas gangster and heroin dealer from New York to Los Angeles. Any of these "odd couple" movies work on the principle that if you get to know somebody, even of a very different type, whom you start out hating, you of course get to like the other guy as you get to know him. The odd couple plot has already been done at least once on the road with last year's _P_l_a_n_e_s, _T_r_a_i_n_s, _a_n_d _A_u_t_o_m_o_b_i_l_e_s. _M_i_d_n_i_g_h_t _R_u_n has its own odd couple (as well as its own planes, trains, and automobiles). Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (played by Robert DeNiro having the time of his life) has got to get Jonathan Mardukas (played by Charles Grodin) from New York to Los Angeles. On the up side, he will get $100,000 just for bringing one guy in. On the down side, 1) he cannot stand Mardukas, 2) Mardukas is too neurotic to fly the distance so they have to go by ground transport, 3) the FBI wants to stop them because they want to bring Mardukas in, 4) another bounty hunter wants to stop them because _h_e wants to bring Mardukas in, and 5) the Mob would like to stop them, not just because they do not want Mardukas to tell what he knows but also because he embezzled $15,000,000 from them. All this is just a quaint way of saying that Walsh's chances of getting Mardukas to L.A. are less than ideal and that this particular trip is across country will not be uneventful. The two leads of _M_i_d_n_i_g_h_t _R_u_n are clever and funny men. Charles Grodin has a reputation for being, in real life, one of the funniest and wittiest men in filmmaking, but he just cannot project it from the wide screen. Or perhaps he is just being himself on screen while other actors turn up the clowning switch to "high" while the cameras roll. He comes off not so much funny as witty and likable in _M_i_d_n_i_g_h_t _R_u_n. DeNiro can be funny but somehow the chemistry between the two men never really works. _M_i_d_n_i_g_h_t _R_u_n is often funny, has a lot of action and some semi- obligatory car chases, and is in general an okay piece of entertainment. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK