@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 8/5/88 -- 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 saw a rather sad story at my local fishery this evening. Now most people don't expect to find a sad story at a fishery and, to tell you the truth, most fisheries don't have a lot of sad stories lying around. Seafood restaurants do. They often have a tank with a bunch of introspective lobsters, heavy rubber bands around their claws, thinking to themselves, "What the heck have I gotten myself into this time? And how am I going to get back home?" Some try to make the best of the situation. Last time I went to a Red Lobster I saw one amorously inclined lobster climbing on the back of THE MT VOID Page 2 another. Kind of a last fling, whether he realized it or not. It kind of cast a pall on the whole evening. As I remember, I ended up ordering a salad. Anyway, the local fisheries operate on a lower budget so do not have fancy tanks for their lobsters. When you see the fish, most of their struggles are already over. I generally can look the ice case without seeing anything particularly bothersome. Well, this time it wasn't actually the fish itself that was so sad. It was a sign announcing that today's catch of the day was "Brazilian lobster tail." Now for it to be the catch of the day it must have come from around here. I don't know how far you can get a fish in one day, but if a fishery has it and it was caught today it must be from pretty nearby. If they really are Brazilian lobsters, they must have been caught a long way from home. And if they caught enough to make it the catch of the day, it was a lot more than one stray. It must have been a whole family on a vacation cut short by disaster. Maybe even more than a family. Maybe a whole clan who are not going to see the waters of home again. They died far from home where nobody knew their names. Be warned, little lobsters, get your tails out of this area. Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper A FISH CALLED WANDA A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: Very funny, well-written crime story/comedy combines the story-telling of the old Ealing comedies with the pace and outrageousness of _F_a_w_l_t_y _T_o_w_e_r_s. This film makes one long for the days of better films by better writers. We don't see many like this any more. Rating: high +2. I got complaints recently on my review of _M_i_d_n_i_g_h_t _R_u_n. I only mildly liked a comedy-adventure in which you got to know somewhat two conflicting character types, set on the background of a sort of race across country that included cars chasing cars, helicopters cars, and double crosses. Now, eight days later, I see an English comedy- adventure, _A _F_i_s_h _C_a_l_l_e_d _W_a_n_d_a. It too has chases, conflicting personalities, and double crosses, but the poor British cannot afford to blow up helicopters and crash cars, so they economize by getting good writers who can really write dialogue and create characters, and at the same time be funny and tell a good story that keeps an audience guessing how things are all going to turn out. In short, _A _F_i_s_h _C_a_l_l_e_d _W_a_n_d_a is not only a film that does things right, it is a film that does some things astoundingly right. The film begins with a mismatched set of crooks pulling off a jewel heist. There are two English brothers (played by Michael Palin and Tom Georgeson) and an American brother and sister, Otto and Wanda (played by Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis). The jewels are just barely stowed away when the first double cross happens. The second double cross is only a short time after. One double cross might have caused problems; with two, all hell breaks loose in an amazing set of misunderstandings, dirty tricks, counter-plots, and revenges. Soon into the fray comes barrister Archie Leach (does that name sound familiar?), played by John Cleese. Wanda wants to use Leach against the English brothers, but Otto's basic anti-British prejudice starts fouling things up. _A _F_i_s_h _C_a_l_l_e_d _W_a_n_d_a was written by John Cleese and directed by Charles Crichton (who directed great British comedies like _T_h_e _L_a_v_e_n_d_e_r _H_i_l_l _M_o_b). It was based on a story by Cleese Crichton. With that background, it is not surprising that it has a feel of _F_a_w_l_t_y _T_o_w_e_r_s combined with _M_o_n_t_y _P_y_t_h_o_n crossed with old Ealing Studios comedy. _A _F_i_s_h _C_a_l_l_e_d _W_a_n_d_a has good three-dimensional characters, has a good story, and is very funny at the same time. Rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. THE DEAD POOL A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: There is a slightly lighter touch to the new "Dirty Harry" film, but otherwise it is the strict "Dirty Harry" formula, including lots of action and impossible escapes. Eastwood takes potshots at the bad guys, TV news, and horror movies. Rating: +1. Dirty Harry is back in _T_h_e _D_e_a_d _P_o_o_l. I don't have to tell you what kind of film it is. There just isn't a whole lot of variation from one "Dirty Harry" film to the next. There are car chases, there are explosions, there is a violent murderer, there are machine gunnings. (Hey, an aside here. At one point thugs go after Harry with machine guns. When the machine guns hit a car door they make a nice regular perforation; when they hit a windshield they make holes in a random pattern as if from single-shot guns, and even with a machine gun, the thugs can't seem to hit Harry. They swiss-cheese his car and Harry steps out without a scratch. I guess that too is a hallmark of a "Dirty Harry" film.) In fact, the only thing really new is the jokes. And one of the best of these is borrowed from from _G_a_r_d_e_n_s _o_f _S_t_o_n_e. This time around the plot involves a convicted Mafioso who has it in for Harry, an attractive TV news reporter, and the murder of a rock star on the set of the new ripoff film of a cult horror film director (uh, he calls it an "homage"), Before it is over the film will take pot shots at the invulnerability of Mafiosi and the standards of TV news reporting, but it will save its biggest salvo for how nasty and violent horror films are. (I am sure that Mr. Eastwood, sensitive soul that he is, would never allow violence to creep into one of his films.) We also see three people blown up in explosions, two people carved with knives, and one extremely hypocritical actor playing the lead. It is good to see Evan C. Kim getting a major role as Harry's new partner. Kim did a hilarious imitation of Bruce Lee in _K_e_n_t_u_c_k_y _F_r_i_e_d _M_o_v_i_e and in the interim I remember him only in _H_o_l_l_y_w_o_o_d _V_i_c_e _S_q_u_a_d. Beyond that there is some creativity in _T_h_e _D_e_a_d _P_o_o_l, including the only car chase I have really enjoyed since _F_o_u_l _P_l_a_y (in spite of the fact that it makes little sense), some wildly improbable escapes for Harry and a new "mean line" to replace "Make my day." All in all, it is a "new 'Dirty Harry' film," even if that is an oxymoron. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.