@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 10/14/88 -- Vol. 7, No. 16 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 10/19 LZ: TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET by Robert Heinlein (A Heinlein retrospective) 12/07 MT: Book Swap (MT 4A-217) 1989: 01/18 MT: "Space Colonies in Fact and Fiction" (video) (room to be announced) _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. 10/15 New Jersey Science Fiction Society: CONCOCTION. GoH: Mark Rogers (artist). 12 noon to 10 PM at Masonic Temple in Belleville. (phone 201-432-5965 for details) 11/12 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Vincent Di Fate (phone 201-933-2724 for details) 05/05/89 CONTRAPTION. MI. GoH: Mike Resnick; FGoHs: Mark & Evelyn Leeper. -05/07/89 Info: Jamie McQuinn, 27321 Dequindre #18, Madison Hts MI 48071. 08/31/89 NOREASCON III (47th World SF Con). MA. GoHs: Andre Norton, Ian & Betty -09/04/89 Ballantine; FGoH: The Stranger Club. Info: Noreascon Three, Box 46, MIT Branch P.O., Cambridge, MA 02139. 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. This week's Lincroft meeting is a retrospective of Robert Anson Heinlein. Heinlein, who died earlier this year, was one of the "Big Three" of science fiction (the other two being Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke), recognized as such even by those who did not like his particular style of writing. Heinlein's first published THE MT VOID Page 2 story was in _A_s_t_o_u_n_d_i_n_g in 1939--a landmark year which gave us the debuts of Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, A. E. Van Vogt as well (all in _A_s_t_o_u_n_d_i_n_g). (Of course, Hollywood produced _G_o_n_e _w_i_t_h _t_h_e _W_i_n_d and _T_h_e _W_i_z_a_r_d _o_f _O_z and Europe produced World War II, so perhaps _t_h_i_s was the "Year of the Jackpot.") Heinlein has been hailed as a master story-teller and denounced as a sexist pig. A generation of science fictions fans grew up on his "juvenile novels," to the extent that the phrase "Heinlein juvenile" has become almost a generic term. His early works often seemed to stress a particular political philosophy; his later works emphasized sex as well. Any discussion of his writing invariably becomes a discussion of how much of an author's personal philosophy should be inferred from his/her writing. Though the specific book chosen for the discussion was his last, _T_o _S_a_i_l _B_e_y_o_n_d _t_h_e _S_u_n_s_e_t, the entire Heinlein ouvre will be under consideration, so feel free to attend even if you haven't read a Heinlein novel since _T_h_e _R_o_l_l_i_n_g _S_t_o_n_e_s. [-ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper ALIEN NATION A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: The biggest science fiction film of the year! (What a feeble year!) There is not a whole lot of science fiction in this retread of the mismatched-partners police film. There is not even much in the way of new twists from the science fiction premise. Lots of overly familiar mindless action to fill out the length to that of a feature film. Rating: -1. These days Hollywood science fiction films really need a high budget. And they need imagination. Science fiction films need a budget because the cost of automobile parts has soared. Car chases are not exciting unless lots of cars get smashed up, lots of shattered windshields get sprinkled over the street, and lots of great makeup effects of people smashed up in the cars. That costs money. Then filmmakers need imagination to design new kinds of guns that the audience has not seen before. Gunfights with the same old sorts of guns get boring. Hollywood has come to see that science fiction fans want to see new guns in science fiction film gunfights. _A_l_i_e_n _N_a_t_i_o_n is a science fiction film that has the car crashes and the new guns that fans demand. And I hope they are happy with what they got. I suspect that they will be because _A_l_i_e_n _N_a_t_i_o_n's basic story usually does very well whenever it shows up in a film, four or five times a year. As the film starts, the "Newcomers" have been on Earth for three years. Newcomers are aliens who arrived on Earth and were accepted much like, and to the same degree as, many other ethnic groups. In fact, the film glosses almost totally over how much more different an alien species would be from us than a new and even unfamiliar human ethnic group would be. There are references to a very different physiology but they sure look a lot like humans over 95% of their bodies. In fact, the camera lingers longingly over the very human-like breasts of the women. Now, nobody really knows why human women have globular breasts that even our closest primate relatives do not. And compared to these Newcomers, even daffodils are close relatives, yet the Newcomers' female breasts are similar enough that our main character gets a thrill fondling them. Well, it is just that kind of film. But I am digressing. The aliens live in very human-like ghettos and have very human-like sorts of problems. Towards the end of the film we learn a few more differences, but for most of the film you could easily substitute "Chinese" for "alien" and could tell the same story. And undoubtedly someone has since it is a story that has been done so frequently in the past. The story is the "mismatched police partners." You have seen it before. It may not have been called _4_8 _H_o_u_r_s, _R_e_d _H_e_a_t, or _L_e_t_h_a_l _W_e_a_p_o_n. There are enough of them to turn listing Alien Nation October 9, 1988 Page 2 examples into a party game. Yes, there is initial friction between the partners; yes, they come to like each other. It is all there, complete with bugs gunfights and car chases. James Caan does a reasonable job as Matthew Sykes, whose old partner is killed by insidious aliens. Mandy Patinkin is enjoyable to watch as Sam Francisco--named that by an insensitive immigration official. But then it cannot be really hard for them to play parts that have been done so many times before. The film also features in cameo roles lots of products you can buy in your local grocery store. The alien makeup is all right if scientifically unlikely, and all other visual effects of the film have tires and fenders or bullets. What was purported to be the year's biggest science fiction film is a huge disappointment. Rate it a -1 in the -4 to +4 scale.