Joseph Baneth Allen's Blog, page 5
September 1, 2025
Amelia Peabody - Crocodile On The Sandbank
Just finished listening to "Amelia Peabody - Crocodile On The Sandbank" by Elizabeth Peters, released by Graphic Audio.
Mom enjoyed reading the Gothic novels of Barbara Michaels - who was actually the pen-name used by Egyptologist Barbara Mertz . Now on a curious side note, Mom never read anything Peters wrote under her own name - which was not unusual reading behavior for Mom, or myself for that matter. I don't read everything by every author whose books I read with David Webber being a prime example.
Peter's/Mertz's Amelia Peabody series blend mystery and romance with a wryly comic tone, and at times also parody Victorian-era adventure novels such as those written by H. Rider Haggard.
So when Graphic Audio announced that they were adapting "Crocodile On The Sandbank" - the first novel in the Amelia Peabody series - I decided to take a chance and go ahead and get it.
Amelia Peabody is a a confirmed spinster, suffragist, and scholar, living in England in 1884. She inherits a fortune from her father and leaves England to see the world, with the side benefit of escaping various suitors and family members who were neither aware that she would be the sole beneficiary of her father's estate nor that he had amassed a small fortune over the course of his lifetime.
In Rome, Amelia meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young Englishwoman of social standing who has run off with (and subsequently been abandoned by) her Italian lover, and the two make their way to Egypt. There they meet the Emerson brothers, Egyptologist Radcliffe and his philologist brother Walter and become involved in a mystery linked to a mummy that appears to have risen and Evelyn - a possible heir to her late grandfather's fortune.
Great romantic Gothic fun.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.graphicaudio.net/amelia-p...
Mom enjoyed reading the Gothic novels of Barbara Michaels - who was actually the pen-name used by Egyptologist Barbara Mertz . Now on a curious side note, Mom never read anything Peters wrote under her own name - which was not unusual reading behavior for Mom, or myself for that matter. I don't read everything by every author whose books I read with David Webber being a prime example.
Peter's/Mertz's Amelia Peabody series blend mystery and romance with a wryly comic tone, and at times also parody Victorian-era adventure novels such as those written by H. Rider Haggard.
So when Graphic Audio announced that they were adapting "Crocodile On The Sandbank" - the first novel in the Amelia Peabody series - I decided to take a chance and go ahead and get it.
Amelia Peabody is a a confirmed spinster, suffragist, and scholar, living in England in 1884. She inherits a fortune from her father and leaves England to see the world, with the side benefit of escaping various suitors and family members who were neither aware that she would be the sole beneficiary of her father's estate nor that he had amassed a small fortune over the course of his lifetime.
In Rome, Amelia meets Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young Englishwoman of social standing who has run off with (and subsequently been abandoned by) her Italian lover, and the two make their way to Egypt. There they meet the Emerson brothers, Egyptologist Radcliffe and his philologist brother Walter and become involved in a mystery linked to a mummy that appears to have risen and Evelyn - a possible heir to her late grandfather's fortune.
Great romantic Gothic fun.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.graphicaudio.net/amelia-p...
Lucy - Speak Out
Just finished reading "Lucy - Speak Out!" by Charles M. Schulz, published by Andrews McMeel Publishing back in 2019.
"Lucy - Speak Out!" collects various daily and Sunday comic strips in full color focusing naturally on Lucy van Pelt - Linus' older sister - as she goes about her daily life with the Peanuts gang. This collection also includes the run where Charlie Brown is hospitalized and she makes a promise that if he recovers that she will not pull the football away from him when he kicks it. Interestingly enough, this collection does not include any interactions with her psychiatric both.
Great and Classic Peanuts fun!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Speak-Pea...
"Lucy - Speak Out!" collects various daily and Sunday comic strips in full color focusing naturally on Lucy van Pelt - Linus' older sister - as she goes about her daily life with the Peanuts gang. This collection also includes the run where Charlie Brown is hospitalized and she makes a promise that if he recovers that she will not pull the football away from him when he kicks it. Interestingly enough, this collection does not include any interactions with her psychiatric both.
Great and Classic Peanuts fun!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Speak-Pea...
Call Me Madam
Just finished watching "Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam" released by 20th Century Fox.
"Call Me Madam" is one of the few instances of Ethel Merman actually staring in the film adaptation of the popular Broadway show in which she originally starred in. Merman did win a Tony Award for her portrayal of Washington hostess Sally Adams.
It's also one of the classic Hollywood musicals that I don't recall watching with Mom on the Turner Classics Network. I found my copy of the DVD for only $1.99 at Monster Music when I was visiting Selma up in Charleston a few weeks ago, so I decided to take a chance and get it. I'm glad I did.
Berlin actually created this musical based on the real life appointment of Washington hostess Perle Mesta was best known for her parties--and her 1949 appointment as Ambassador to Luxemberg.
Although Hollywood tweaked both script and score, the screen version is essentially the same show that delighted theatre-goers in the early 1950s. President Harry S. Truman rewards Washington hostess Sally Adams (Merman) for her support by appointing her Ambassador to a European duchy. Adams takes Kenneth (Donald O'Connor) along for the ride--and romantic complications with a European dignitary (George Sanders) and a love-lorn princess (Vera-Ellen) have farcial international complications.
Great old-fashioned Hollywood Musical fun.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Call-Me-Madam/...
"Call Me Madam" is one of the few instances of Ethel Merman actually staring in the film adaptation of the popular Broadway show in which she originally starred in. Merman did win a Tony Award for her portrayal of Washington hostess Sally Adams.
It's also one of the classic Hollywood musicals that I don't recall watching with Mom on the Turner Classics Network. I found my copy of the DVD for only $1.99 at Monster Music when I was visiting Selma up in Charleston a few weeks ago, so I decided to take a chance and get it. I'm glad I did.
Berlin actually created this musical based on the real life appointment of Washington hostess Perle Mesta was best known for her parties--and her 1949 appointment as Ambassador to Luxemberg.
Although Hollywood tweaked both script and score, the screen version is essentially the same show that delighted theatre-goers in the early 1950s. President Harry S. Truman rewards Washington hostess Sally Adams (Merman) for her support by appointing her Ambassador to a European duchy. Adams takes Kenneth (Donald O'Connor) along for the ride--and romantic complications with a European dignitary (George Sanders) and a love-lorn princess (Vera-Ellen) have farcial international complications.
Great old-fashioned Hollywood Musical fun.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Call-Me-Madam/...
The Winds of Fate
Just finished reading "The Winds Of Fate" by S.M. Stirling, published by Baen Books.
"The Winds Of Fate" is the second novel in Stirling's "Make the Darkness Light" series - which is his tribute to L. Sprague de Camp's classic science fiction/alternative history novel "Lest Darkness Falls."
Stirling is one of the literary masters of alternative, "What If," historical novels where history takes a completely different course due to an unanticipated time travel event - in this instance a team of five American Classics scholars are "kidnapped" into the past a second before China launches a first strike in a thermonuclear war that completely wipes out civilization and humanity.
The American time travelers are now well established in the Roman Empire under Emperor Marcus Aurelius five years after they were kidnapped into the past. They all have large, Roman-style estates in what is now Hungary. Because of the innovations in tech and modern finance, they also own parts of many companies that make all kinds of things from steel to telescopes. They are innovating on their estates too, with new crops and techniques. Some of them have found partners and are raising families. They, and the Empire, are thriving. And, thanks to the military innovations and weapons they introduced , the Empire is rapidly expanding.
But after five years from their arrival date into the past, they discover that they are not the only time travelers. The Communist Chinese government also sent a team back under the ruthless rule of a Colonel in State Security using technology they stole from the West.
So a new arms race begins as Rome now seeks to expand it's empire further East and top the Chinese time travelers from remaking the past into a Communist dystopian nightmare.
Very taunt military action and interesting alternative history speculations.
Now I've seen various sources on line that stated that Stirling's "Make The Darkness Light" series is a three-book trilogy. I don't know if this is true. I did check his website and he simply states that this is a series, so for now, at least until it's proclaimed that the next book is the "final" book in this particular series, I'm going to assume that Stirling is planning to write quite a few more volumes in this intriguing series.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Winds-Fate-Mak...
"The Winds Of Fate" is the second novel in Stirling's "Make the Darkness Light" series - which is his tribute to L. Sprague de Camp's classic science fiction/alternative history novel "Lest Darkness Falls."
Stirling is one of the literary masters of alternative, "What If," historical novels where history takes a completely different course due to an unanticipated time travel event - in this instance a team of five American Classics scholars are "kidnapped" into the past a second before China launches a first strike in a thermonuclear war that completely wipes out civilization and humanity.
The American time travelers are now well established in the Roman Empire under Emperor Marcus Aurelius five years after they were kidnapped into the past. They all have large, Roman-style estates in what is now Hungary. Because of the innovations in tech and modern finance, they also own parts of many companies that make all kinds of things from steel to telescopes. They are innovating on their estates too, with new crops and techniques. Some of them have found partners and are raising families. They, and the Empire, are thriving. And, thanks to the military innovations and weapons they introduced , the Empire is rapidly expanding.
But after five years from their arrival date into the past, they discover that they are not the only time travelers. The Communist Chinese government also sent a team back under the ruthless rule of a Colonel in State Security using technology they stole from the West.
So a new arms race begins as Rome now seeks to expand it's empire further East and top the Chinese time travelers from remaking the past into a Communist dystopian nightmare.
Very taunt military action and interesting alternative history speculations.
Now I've seen various sources on line that stated that Stirling's "Make The Darkness Light" series is a three-book trilogy. I don't know if this is true. I did check his website and he simply states that this is a series, so for now, at least until it's proclaimed that the next book is the "final" book in this particular series, I'm going to assume that Stirling is planning to write quite a few more volumes in this intriguing series.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Winds-Fate-Mak...
August 31, 2025
Our Colors
Just finished reading "Our Colors" by Gengoroh Tagame, translated by Anne Ishii, published by Pantheon Books back in 2022.
Reviewing a work by acclaimed Japanese manga artist and writer Gengoroh Tagame is more than a bit problematic for me as a survivor of an attempted rape by a Scout Master in Boy Scouts back in 1976 because Tagame is known for his violent stories which primarily feature gay/male-on-male rape.
For much of his career Tagame exclusively created erotic and pornographic manga, works that are distinguished by their graphic depictions of sadomasochism, sexual violence, and hypermasculinity. Beginning in the 2010s, Tagame gained mainstream recognition after he began to produce non-pornographic manga; of which "Our Colors" falls under.
So, the question becomes, why, as a survivor of an attempted rape when I was 12-years-old, did I read a work by Tagame, when a majority of his work centers around violent gay/male-on-male rape?
During my undergraduate days as a physics major at the University of Tennessee, I studied Japanese language and culture because at that time in the early 1980s, a lot of exciting work in astronomy and astrophysics was being done in Japan and by the JAXA Space Agency. And it was during this time that I was aggressively pursued by a male Japanese student at UTK. When I mentioned this to Professor Lynne Miyake, my Japanese Professor, she thought I was misinterpreting his intentions until she caught him trying to to ask me out on a date. She was shocked and went off on him. He never came near me again after she told him off - she knew I had told him "NO" repeatedly. [Never doubt the Joseph.] My unwanted experience with this Japanese student didn't put me off Japanese culture, and being a survivor of an attempted rape, hasn't put me off living my life on my terms or reading controversial works from controversial authors/artists.
I believe that "Our Colors" is an alternative biography of how Gengoroh Tagame wishes his life had been when he was 15-years-old back in 1979 and struggling with who he was because there was no acceptance of homosexuality in Japanese culture back then and he had no friends and/or role models he could look to.
Tagame’s exploration of the friendship of between Mr. Amamiya and Sora is done much grace, maturity, and emotion in "Our Colors," and shows the struggle of people across a spectrum of genders and ages trying to find a place for themselves where they fit in, despite the unexpected curve balls life throws our way.
Strongly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Colors-Pan...
Reviewing a work by acclaimed Japanese manga artist and writer Gengoroh Tagame is more than a bit problematic for me as a survivor of an attempted rape by a Scout Master in Boy Scouts back in 1976 because Tagame is known for his violent stories which primarily feature gay/male-on-male rape.
For much of his career Tagame exclusively created erotic and pornographic manga, works that are distinguished by their graphic depictions of sadomasochism, sexual violence, and hypermasculinity. Beginning in the 2010s, Tagame gained mainstream recognition after he began to produce non-pornographic manga; of which "Our Colors" falls under.
So, the question becomes, why, as a survivor of an attempted rape when I was 12-years-old, did I read a work by Tagame, when a majority of his work centers around violent gay/male-on-male rape?
During my undergraduate days as a physics major at the University of Tennessee, I studied Japanese language and culture because at that time in the early 1980s, a lot of exciting work in astronomy and astrophysics was being done in Japan and by the JAXA Space Agency. And it was during this time that I was aggressively pursued by a male Japanese student at UTK. When I mentioned this to Professor Lynne Miyake, my Japanese Professor, she thought I was misinterpreting his intentions until she caught him trying to to ask me out on a date. She was shocked and went off on him. He never came near me again after she told him off - she knew I had told him "NO" repeatedly. [Never doubt the Joseph.] My unwanted experience with this Japanese student didn't put me off Japanese culture, and being a survivor of an attempted rape, hasn't put me off living my life on my terms or reading controversial works from controversial authors/artists.
I believe that "Our Colors" is an alternative biography of how Gengoroh Tagame wishes his life had been when he was 15-years-old back in 1979 and struggling with who he was because there was no acceptance of homosexuality in Japanese culture back then and he had no friends and/or role models he could look to.
Tagame’s exploration of the friendship of between Mr. Amamiya and Sora is done much grace, maturity, and emotion in "Our Colors," and shows the struggle of people across a spectrum of genders and ages trying to find a place for themselves where they fit in, despite the unexpected curve balls life throws our way.
Strongly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Colors-Pan...
August 25, 2025
Doctor Who - The Lost Stories - 8.1 - Deathworld
Just finished listening to "Doctor Who - The Lost Stories - 8.1 - Deathworld" released by Big Finish Productions.
When Big Finish Productions began producing the unproduced Doctor Who scripts as audio adaptations it marked an interesting look at what might have been if these audio dramas had actually been filmed as television episodes.
"Deathworld" is the original idea for the reunion of the first three Doctors and his companions and it's been updated a bit to fit it into the original continuity of the classic series.
What makes "Deathworld" unique, is that it shows that mythologies are real and that that there are more powerful entities in other universes/realities than Time Lords - a theme that the Seventh Doctor would take up. It's also unique in showing that the Doctor can die and not regenerate.
I can see why the BBC did not film this script because it touches on a very disturbing concept for children - death and showing the Death as an real individual with incredible powers - something that the BBC could not get away with back in the 1970s on a science fiction show due to network censors.
A fully realized and well thought out story.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/...
When Big Finish Productions began producing the unproduced Doctor Who scripts as audio adaptations it marked an interesting look at what might have been if these audio dramas had actually been filmed as television episodes.
"Deathworld" is the original idea for the reunion of the first three Doctors and his companions and it's been updated a bit to fit it into the original continuity of the classic series.
What makes "Deathworld" unique, is that it shows that mythologies are real and that that there are more powerful entities in other universes/realities than Time Lords - a theme that the Seventh Doctor would take up. It's also unique in showing that the Doctor can die and not regenerate.
I can see why the BBC did not film this script because it touches on a very disturbing concept for children - death and showing the Death as an real individual with incredible powers - something that the BBC could not get away with back in the 1970s on a science fiction show due to network censors.
A fully realized and well thought out story.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/...
he Master Builder - How The New Science Of The Cell Is Rewriting The Story Of Life
Just finished reading "The Master Builder - How The New Science Of The Cell Is Rewriting The Story Of Life" by Alfonso Martinez Arias, published by Basic Books.
Arias is the ICREA Research Professor in the department of Medicine and Life of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and one of the leading experts in cell biology. He shows that shows that, on its own, DNA is powerless, inert. It needs a cell to work its wonders, and that cell is always interacting with the environment.
Arias also explores how new insights into cell biology evolved from new discoveries and how those new discoveries were made.
HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Master-Builder...
Arias is the ICREA Research Professor in the department of Medicine and Life of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and one of the leading experts in cell biology. He shows that shows that, on its own, DNA is powerless, inert. It needs a cell to work its wonders, and that cell is always interacting with the environment.
Arias also explores how new insights into cell biology evolved from new discoveries and how those new discoveries were made.
HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Master-Builder...
To Turn The Tide
Just finished reading "To Turn The Tide" by S.M. Stirling, published by Baen Books.
"To Turn The Tide" is an open love letter by Stirling to L. Sprague de Camp's 1941 novel, "Lest Darkness Fall" where Martin Padway, an American archeologist, is visiting Italy in 1938, When he is caught in a thunderstorm, and struck by lightning. He finds himself transported to Rome in the year AD 535. At this time, the Italian Peninsula is under the rule of the Ostrogoths. Padway had studied the works of Procopius, memorizing them completely, and he realizes he has arrived on the eve of the Gothic War. Concluding that he has no hope of returning home, Padway establishes an identity as Martinus Paduei (i.e., Martin of Padua) and sets about stabilizing the Italian kingdom with 19th and 20th century technology, while neutralizing the Emperor Justinian I's efforts to take back the Italian Peninsula.
Stirling's reluctant one-way time travelers are "kidnapped" back in time by a desperate researcher who is trying to save humanity from being destroyed in 2032 by a Sino-American Nuclear War. The plan is to send five university classic scholars back in time with a ton of equipment that they will need to prevent the fall of Rome, with the idea of preventing the war that destroyed humanity and left the Earth a radioactive ash-heap.
Stirling doesn't dwell overly on the technology of time travel that sends his five Classics scholars back to Rome. He just snatches his viewpoint characters up and throws them into the cold, deep waters of Roman Pannonia for them to sink or swim. Neither does he give them much time to catch their breath before he plunges them into a credible series of events that allow them to bootstrap themselves into Pannonian society. No instant Lincoln here, trying to reform every societal institution abruptly; just the cunning application of a modern world-view to ancient culture which generates subtle, local changes.
Stirling, who is one of the masters of Alternative History, has written a tight, compelling novel with realistic people who suddenly have the entire weight of the world and the fate of humanity in their hands, full knowing the consequences if they fail.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Tide-Make...
"To Turn The Tide" is an open love letter by Stirling to L. Sprague de Camp's 1941 novel, "Lest Darkness Fall" where Martin Padway, an American archeologist, is visiting Italy in 1938, When he is caught in a thunderstorm, and struck by lightning. He finds himself transported to Rome in the year AD 535. At this time, the Italian Peninsula is under the rule of the Ostrogoths. Padway had studied the works of Procopius, memorizing them completely, and he realizes he has arrived on the eve of the Gothic War. Concluding that he has no hope of returning home, Padway establishes an identity as Martinus Paduei (i.e., Martin of Padua) and sets about stabilizing the Italian kingdom with 19th and 20th century technology, while neutralizing the Emperor Justinian I's efforts to take back the Italian Peninsula.
Stirling's reluctant one-way time travelers are "kidnapped" back in time by a desperate researcher who is trying to save humanity from being destroyed in 2032 by a Sino-American Nuclear War. The plan is to send five university classic scholars back in time with a ton of equipment that they will need to prevent the fall of Rome, with the idea of preventing the war that destroyed humanity and left the Earth a radioactive ash-heap.
Stirling doesn't dwell overly on the technology of time travel that sends his five Classics scholars back to Rome. He just snatches his viewpoint characters up and throws them into the cold, deep waters of Roman Pannonia for them to sink or swim. Neither does he give them much time to catch their breath before he plunges them into a credible series of events that allow them to bootstrap themselves into Pannonian society. No instant Lincoln here, trying to reform every societal institution abruptly; just the cunning application of a modern world-view to ancient culture which generates subtle, local changes.
Stirling, who is one of the masters of Alternative History, has written a tight, compelling novel with realistic people who suddenly have the entire weight of the world and the fate of humanity in their hands, full knowing the consequences if they fail.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Tide-Make...
Kiss Me Deadly
Just finished watching "Kiss Me Deadly" released by Here! Films.
Following on the success of the Donald Strachey Mysteries on Here! TV commissioned "Kiss Me Deadly" - a spy thriller where a former spy, Jacob Keane, who has left the seedy underbelly of the spy world behind, when he suddenly receives a call from a former partner who has not seen in nearly twenty years, who asks to meet him at a train station. Only when Keane arrives, his former partner Marta has no clue as to who he is, or who she is and together they must piece together the riddle of what happed to cause her to loose her memory and why assassins are after her.
"Kiss Me Deadly" is a realistic spy thriller that sadly didn't spawn any sequels, yet it lacks the great fun of the Donald Strachey movie adaptations.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Me-Deadly...
Following on the success of the Donald Strachey Mysteries on Here! TV commissioned "Kiss Me Deadly" - a spy thriller where a former spy, Jacob Keane, who has left the seedy underbelly of the spy world behind, when he suddenly receives a call from a former partner who has not seen in nearly twenty years, who asks to meet him at a train station. Only when Keane arrives, his former partner Marta has no clue as to who he is, or who she is and together they must piece together the riddle of what happed to cause her to loose her memory and why assassins are after her.
"Kiss Me Deadly" is a realistic spy thriller that sadly didn't spawn any sequels, yet it lacks the great fun of the Donald Strachey movie adaptations.
Strongly Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Me-Deadly...
The Colony
Just finished watching "The Colony" released by RLJ Entertainment back in 2013.
I blame "The Colony" on the Mayan Calendar. Back in 2012 the world was supposed to come to an end because the Mayan Calendar was coming to the end of it's cycle. Now as somebody how has a wall calendar in his office, I can safely say that when December 31 of each year rolls around, that the world doesn't come to an end just because I put up a new calendar on January 1. Anyways, that's my theory on how this "cautionary" tale of why a massive attempt to geo-engineer Earth to combat global warming isn't such a good idea, because in the universe this movie is set in, humanity built massive machines world wide to cool the planet down and ended up freezing the entire world and causing an planetary Snowball Earth Ice Age.
But hey, at least humanity saved the planet be nearly wiping out all life on Earth - go team Humanity!
I also couldn't help wondering if Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton needed the paycheck for this movie.
Climate disaster movies were popular during the 2012 and 2014 time frame due to the hoopla over the Mayan Calendar ending.
"The Colony" doesn't offer anything new in the way of a cinematic experience. It reminds me of the cornucopia/glut of cheaply made science fiction and fantasy movies that came out when "Star Wars" was the bright shiny new and immensely popular movie up on the silver screen back in 1976 and not the woke garbage that it is today.
"The Colony" focuses on how the daily routine of Colony 7, made up of one of the few last remaining survivors of humanity, is interrupted when Colony 5 goes mysteriously silent. A team of three men go out in search of what caused Colony 5 to go silent and find out that cannibals are responsible for murdering just about everyone at Colony 5, and it becomes a race for survival.
"The Colony" is not a great movie.
Half star.
https://www.amazon.com/Colony-Laurenc...
I blame "The Colony" on the Mayan Calendar. Back in 2012 the world was supposed to come to an end because the Mayan Calendar was coming to the end of it's cycle. Now as somebody how has a wall calendar in his office, I can safely say that when December 31 of each year rolls around, that the world doesn't come to an end just because I put up a new calendar on January 1. Anyways, that's my theory on how this "cautionary" tale of why a massive attempt to geo-engineer Earth to combat global warming isn't such a good idea, because in the universe this movie is set in, humanity built massive machines world wide to cool the planet down and ended up freezing the entire world and causing an planetary Snowball Earth Ice Age.
But hey, at least humanity saved the planet be nearly wiping out all life on Earth - go team Humanity!
I also couldn't help wondering if Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton needed the paycheck for this movie.
Climate disaster movies were popular during the 2012 and 2014 time frame due to the hoopla over the Mayan Calendar ending.
"The Colony" doesn't offer anything new in the way of a cinematic experience. It reminds me of the cornucopia/glut of cheaply made science fiction and fantasy movies that came out when "Star Wars" was the bright shiny new and immensely popular movie up on the silver screen back in 1976 and not the woke garbage that it is today.
"The Colony" focuses on how the daily routine of Colony 7, made up of one of the few last remaining survivors of humanity, is interrupted when Colony 5 goes mysteriously silent. A team of three men go out in search of what caused Colony 5 to go silent and find out that cannibals are responsible for murdering just about everyone at Colony 5, and it becomes a race for survival.
"The Colony" is not a great movie.
Half star.
https://www.amazon.com/Colony-Laurenc...
