Monthly Archives: December 2012

Koryta’s ‘The Prophet’ a good crime tale

Leave a reply

michael koryta the prophet

Michael Koryta is considered something of a wunderkind. After a background in newspapering here in Indiana and a turn as a private investigator, Koryta began writing books and has turned out several best-selling crime dramas and thrillers. I’ve tried a couple of his previous books but never found his work captivating until “The Prophet.”

Set in an Ohio town that’s seen better days, the book is the story of two brothers, Adam and Kent Austin. Adam is a bail bondsman with a private investigator’s license he never uses. Adam is good at what he does, though. He’s turned the risky bail agent job into a winning one, bonding out and keeping his thumb on his customers. In his personal life, Adam is in a relationship with the woman he fell in love with in high school, although she’s married to a guy who is perpetually in jail.

Kent is the local high school football coach, a beloved, straight-arrow figure who is leading his team to a state championship. He’s married, has kids and the stable home life that Adam doesn’t have.

The brothers haven’t had a strong relationship most of their adult lives, however. When they were in high school, they let their sister walk home by herself from a late night at school. Adam in particular accepted the blame after their sister was killed because he had chosen his girlfriend over taking his sister home. She fell victim to a brutal killer and the Austin family was broken.

Now, as Adam goes about his somewhat sordid business and Kent’s team advances in post-season play, another high school girl turns up murdered. It can’t be the same killer, because their sister’s murderer died in prison. But the new killing is linked to both brothers.

Koryta’s story is smooth and streamlined, introducing some memorable characters but keeping things moving toward its undeniably tragic conclusion.

The author does a good job of mixing football and gritty crime drama. He paints a good portrait of a failing Midwestern town.

I finished “The Prophet” wishing there was more and wondering about what seems like the inevitable: A movie version. A story this concise and sharply drawn almost begs for one.

RIP Gerry Anderson, creator of ‘Thunderbirds’

Leave a reply

Thunderbirds

Although he was largely a cult figure in the United States, one of Britain’s top creators of imaginative children’s shows has died.

Gerry Anderson, creator of such fun and, frankly, offbeat shows in the 1960s and 1970s as “Thunderbirds,” “UFO” and “Space: 1999,” has died in his native England, He was 83.

Anderson might be an unfamiliar name to some in the U.S. but his work is instantly recognizable.

Look at the promotional photo above for his groundbreaking 1965 series “Thunderbirds.” Remember the odd but fascinating show about marionettes piloting rescue planes and space ships? The family of puppets who dropped down conveyor belts and into their ships just in time to jet off to handle some far-flung disaster.

gerry anderson

Gerry Anderson.

I can’t say too much about how much Gerry Anderson’s shows sparked my imagination as a child. I had toy versions of Thunderbird 2 and 3. I played with them over endless hours.

thunderbird 2

That’s Thunderbird 2.

Thunderbird 3

And that’s Thunderbird 3.

I’m not sure when I originally saw “Thunderbirds” – early in its U.S. syndication, I’m sure – but I remembered Anderson’s name and while I saw only random episodes of his other puppet series, like “Stingray,” I made sure to check out his later, live-action creations. More on those below.

So RIP Gerry Anderson. Your imaginative work was a big part of my childhood.

Random Gerry Anderson facts:

“Team America:” The goofy puppet movie from the “South Park” guys was inspired by Anderson’s work.

Derek Meddings. The designer of Anderson’s intricate miniature worlds went on to design the look of some of the grandest special effects from the James Bond movies.

gerry anderson ufo babe

“UFO.” In 1970, the first live-action Gerry Anderson series that I ever saw, “UFO,” aired around the world. About a government organization that battled an alien invasion, “UFO” was groovy in an “Austin Powers” kind of way, with British babes in wild purple wigs.

“Space: 1999” and the end of the world. “Space: 1999” was probably the best-known of Anderson’s live-action series, running for a couple of seasons beginning in 1975. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain starred in the series about what would happen if nuclear waste on the moon exploded and pushed the moon out of Earth’s orbit.

RIP Gerry Anderson.

RIP Klugman, Durning

Leave a reply

charles durning tootsie

TV fans and moviegoers lost a pair of greats in the past day with the passing of Jack Klugman and Charles Durning.

jack-klugman

Klugman, of course, was best known for his role as sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison, foil to Tony Randall’s fussy Felix Unger in “The Odd Couple” TV series.

Klugman had a lot of great movies roles, including “Twelve Angry Men.” But his time as Oscar and as the lead in “Quincy M.E.” made him a beloved figure. He was 90 and had battled cancer in recent years.

Durning has been called “king of the character actors” in obituaries. That’s an impossible title but if it went to anybody it could go to Durning, who died at 89.

Tootsie_Durning Hoffman

Durning played in numerous movies and TV shows, but to see the angry and uncomfortable scene near the end of “Tootsie,” in which Durning’s character is confronted by Dustin Hoffman – whom Durning thought had believed was a woman – is to see character acting at its best.

 

‘Christmas with Friends’ Johnny, Doc, Ed and Tommy

Leave a reply

christmas with friends

When I was a teen and young adult, I always liked to be the last person in the house awake on Christmas Eve. I enjoyed putting presents for family members under the tree and I liked the quiet moments that time of night – that particular night – brought.

Being a child of TV and a fan of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” I also enjoyed “Christmas with Friends.” The show was a half-hour NBC special that aired on Christmas Eve in the Carson show time slot.

johnny carson santa

Videos of the show I’ve seen online indicate the special aired in the early to mid-1980s, but I swear that I remember it from before that time. I also remember the show differently, without the Christmas “video” segments and with more bits from Johnny Carson – usually glimpsed just at the beginning in a Santa outfit – and his dependable “Tonight Show” crew.

ed mcmahon

The show really revolved around “Tonight Show” bandleader and trumpet player without peer Doc Severinsen, who led the show’s orchestra in a few classic Christmas tunes.

doc, ed, tommy

Tommy Newsom, saxophone player and comic foil, was also on hand, as was Ed McMahon, Carson’s sidekick for many years.

“Christmas with Friends” seems unlikely today, and I can’t personally imagine any late night TV traditions less tongue-in-cheek than the current David Letterman tradition of Jay Thomas throwing a football at a meatball on top of Dave’s tree.

 

 

Tom Cruise makes a good ‘Jack Reacher’

Leave a reply

jack-reacher-tom-cruise

I noted yesterday I hoped to see “Jack Reacher,” the movie adaptation of Lee Child’s wandering troubleshooter character. I did see it and wanted to share a few thoughts.

I was as skeptical as anyone when Paramount announced that Tom Cruise would be playing Reacher. He’s nearly a foot shorter than Child’s ex-MP, maybe 80 pounds lighter and not nearly as ape-ishly ugly as Reacher in the books.

But Cruise does a good job of essaying the terse confidence and quiet physicality of Reacher in the movie. Although I thought a few times about the difference in appearance, I was pleased overall with Cruise’s presence and performance.

As fans of the book “One Shot,” from which the plot of “Jack Reacher” was taken, know, director Christopher McQuarrie is fairly faithful to the book. After former Army sniper James Barr is arrested for killing several people with a high-powered rifle, he asks for Jack Reacher. The police are stumped, however: Reacher has no home, no ID, no good way of being tracked.

At about that time, Reacher shows up, unannounced, having seen news accounts of the killing spree. The cops think he’s there to defend his former military cohort. But Reacher, convinced that Barr killed several civilians in the Middle East, believes the man is guilty.

Reacher is persuaded to work as an investigator for Barr’s defense attorney (Rosamund Pike) and slowly begins to unravel a plot that ensnared Barr.

Fans of the book will notice a few characters are missing. Happily, one of the best characters from the book, a shooting range owner and Reacher ally named Cash, is in the movie and is played by a wry Robert Duvall. He’s good and adds a bit of humanity to Reacher, who as a character can be so superhuman he can be, well, unreachable.

That’s part of the fun of Child’s books, however. Reacher is such a capable, lethal, smart soldier that it’s fun to watch him tear his way through opponents.

Random observations:

Lee Child has a cameo in the movie. He’s the desk sergeant giving Reacher back his passport, toothbrush and cash – familiar to fans of the books as pretty much all Reacher carries with him – when Reacher is released from jail.

Although the book is set in Indiana – in a made-up city – the movie’s setting is Pittsburgh. Wonder why the change?

The movie is true to the tradition of Reacher taking a bit of punishment. And of people being horrified by his wounds. What Reacher doesn’t say, however: “You should have seen the other guy.”

Reacher returns in ‘A Wanted Man’

Leave a reply

lee child a wanted man

This is something of a Lee Child weekend. The Tom Cruise movie “Jack Reacher,” the big-screen adaptation of Child’s book “One Shot,” opened in theaters. I hope to see it and will let you know what I thought.

But first, I’m finally getting around to sharing my thoughts on “A Wanted Man,” the 17th (!) Jack Reacher novel written by Child, a British author who has met with curious success by writing about an ex military cop who wanders the interstate highways and back roads of the U.S.

A quick introduction, if you don’t know the Reacher character: Reacher is a former military police officer who has decided to give up house and home and regular employment and travel, by foot and bus and hitchhiking, the United States. From book to book, carrying only an old passport, an ATM card and a toothbrush, Reacher goes where the flow of traffic takes him.

He’s unencumbered by a house, family or even suitcase. He simply buys new clothes every couple of days as he ambles.

Inevitably, like Lassie and the Hulk, the ambler finds himself drawn into other people’s problems. And because he’s six-feet-five and a trained killing machine, he’s usually able to solve said problems.

In recent books Reacher’s been in the West, traveling slowly back to the greater D.C. area to meet a woman he’s had some dealings with. In “A Wanted Man,” Reacher gets a ride from two men and a woman traveling East.

Which is no small accomplishment since the ape-like Reacher looks supremely scruffy, with duct tape over his latest broken nose and sporting worn and bloody clothing.

But the threesome that picks him up isn’t worried about that. Reacher quickly finds that the two men are looking for more people to join them so they can escape the scrutiny of the law. And the woman is feeling especially desperate because she’s a kidnap victim.

The book is divided between the low-key but menacing car ride and its aftermath, as Reacher works with a reluctant federal agent to try to save the woman.

There’s government plots and double identities scattered through the book and an opportunity for the dryly funny Reacher to show off his combat skills.

“A Wanted Man” is good Lee Child Reacher fiction but maybe not the best. I’ve enjoyed some of his more recent stories of Reacher against a corrupt town or family a bit more. But good Lee Child is always a fun and entertaining read.

Let’s hoping it makes for good moviegoing too.

 

iPhoneography: The Muhammad Ali Center

Leave a reply

ali center painting

There are so, so many reasons to honor Muhammad Ali.

Here’s a man who, as a child, pulled himself up out of the rough streets of Louisville, became an athlete, then became an Olympic athlete, became a professional athlete at a time of desegregation and prejudice against African-Americans, became a living symbol of how the government can try to crush people whose beliefs are considered unacceptable by some officials, fought his way back to the top of his profession and, even while facing a crippling illness, continued to live his life as an example to others.

Ali is a true hero.

The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, is a really very good repository and collection of the many highlights of his life. Medals and personal mementoes abound and – most compelling to me, in a way – film of some of his fights plays non-stop on monitors in the building.

The Ali center has a lot of weight but isn’t boring. The color and drama of Ali’s life is recreated.

Above is my iPhone snapshot of one of artist LeRoy Neiman’s paintings of Ali, of course. The original is on display in the center.

ali center tiles

Inside the center, besides the display of Ali artifacts, are demonstrations of Ali’s reach on young people, including these tiles painted by children.

ali center outside

And outside the beautiful building is a sunny plaza overseen by images of The Greatest himself.

The Ali Center is worth a visit.

iPhone Christmas stuff: Cap and Darth

Leave a reply

cap christmas stocking

Here’s another coupla pop culture Christmas thingies, courtesy of my iPhone.

Above is a bonafide Captain America Christmas stocking, one of several focusing on popular Marvel heroes and Avengers.

I would have loved one of these as a little geek.

darth vader nutcracker

And speaking of little geek love: A Darth Vader nutcracker.

If it was a talking nutcracker, oh the things it would say:

“Join me, Luke, and together we can crack nuts throughout the galaxy as father and son!”

Well, you don’t think he used the Force just to choke out Imperial lackeys, do you?

 

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ trailer: Five things we noticed

Leave a reply

Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-

In the latest in a series of previews of a movie that doesn’t come out until May – and really, by that time I think we’ll have seen all of it, although probably out of sequence – the latest teaser trailer from “Star Trek Into Darkness” debuted online today.

Some random thoughts:

Two narrators this time, both scary. In the earlier teaser we heard Benedict Cumberbatch assuring Kirk and company that they were overmatched. There’s more of that this time, plus words from Bruce Greenwood’s Christopher Pike telling Kirk that his lack of humility will get him and his crew killed. Then we see what might be Starfleet caskets. FOREshadowing!

Solemn is the word. Surely there’s some lighthearted humor in the movie. But we’re not seeing it so far. Maybe there’ll be something funny in the scene that sees Kirk and McCoy running for their lives through a crazy red landscape.

Gary Mitchell? Garth? John Harrison? Who is Benedict Cumberbatch playing? We still don’t know. We’ve been led to believe that Khan, the ultimate “Star Trek” movie Big Bad, is not the character Cumberbatch is playing in the movie. Is that a ruse? Is he really Khan? Is he paving the way for Khan in a third movie? Personally, I’m still betting on Gary Mitchell, Kirk’s old comrade who gets godlike powers.

Cumberbatch hangs out in the Hulk/Loki chamber from “The Avengers.” Not really. But it sure looks like something Samuel L. Jackson would drop from a great height with the right provocation.

Alice Eve is reportedly playing Carol Marcus. Will we see the inception of Kirk’s son, David Marcus?

The movie opens May 17.