Nicholas Bruner's Blog, page 12

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

I have also added a new, fifth tier to the ranking system, titled “Watchable.” This creates a tier in the middle, between “Pretty Good” an...

What I’m Reading: Ender’s Game

My book this time is about a bright young boy who is oppressed at home and school, but one day receives an invitation to attend a very special school, a place where life is far different than the normal, boring existence of everyday humans. Upon arriving at the school, he is immediately hailed as a potential savior against an ancient evil force, but first he has to make friends, do well in his classes, and most importantly, excel in the school’s special sport that all the students are obsessed w...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. We watched two episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

The episodes this time were from Volumes 15 of the DVD collection.

A Kind of Stopwatch (Season Five, 1963)
Patrick McNulty loves to hear h...

What I’m Reading: The Left Hand of Darkness

I’ve been wanting to read Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness for years, but somehow had never gotten around to it until now, as the latest selection in the book club at my work. Thanks be to the book club! Anyway, I quite enjoyed this book, although it’s not without its flaws, so let’s get to it.

Genly Ai is an ambassador of sorts from the Ekumen, a federation of eighty-two planets. He’s just arrived on the chilly world of Gethen, known colloquially as Winter, with an offer for them to jo...

Ranking: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I just checked and apparently I haven’t ranked a comic book movie since Dark Phoenix in July 2019. That doesn’t seem right, but I can’t think of what movie I would have seen. Lots of comics book TV shows, but I guess no movies. Well, time to break that streak.

Shang-Chi lives in San Francisco where he works with his best friend, Katy, parking cars at a downtown hotel and getting drunk every weekend at karaoke bars. After work one day, a gang of super-powered criminals attacks them on a bus, t...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. We watched two episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

The episodes this time were from Volumes 15 and 28 of the DVDs.

Mute (Season Four, 1963)
One of the little-seen, hour-long fourth season...

What I’m Reading: Bel Canto

Another book for my book club at work, this one a beautifully written work from 2001 titled Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. Bel Canto is a style of opera from the late 18th to early 19th century characterized by flowery, virtuosic vocal performances. I think the title is the key to understanding what Patchett is doing here, for I believe what she’s done is write an opera in novel form. But I’ll discuss that in a moment. First let me summarize the plot.

Mr. Hosokawa is the head of a Japanese indus...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

The episodes this time were from Volumes 7 and 28 of the DVDs.

King Nine Will Not Return (Season Two, 1960)
The opening episode of Sea...

Scary Movies: Tomb of Ligeia

Finally finishing up the horror movies from my family’s annual Halloween film festival, and we come to the Tomb of Ligeia. This is the third from director Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe cycle that we’ve watched, the previous ones being The Raven and Tales of Terror, and all starring Vincent Price. The Tomb of Ligeia is loosely based on Poe’s short story the Black Cat, and I thought Corman’s adaption turned out quite well.

Rowena is a young woman out with her father’s fox hunting party when sh...

Scary Movies: Pet Semetary

I read Stephen King’s Pet Semetary in middle school and thought at the time it was the scariest book I’d ever read. I’m not sure how the book would hold up for me as an adult, but this movie surely did not. Quite a disappointment, and a trial to get through.

Louis Creed is a doctor who is relocating with his family from Chicago to a hospital in a small Maine town. He and his wife, Rachel, have a five-year-old daughter, Ellie, a toddler son, Gage, and a cat named Church. Their new house is in ...