Kyle Warner's Blog, page 15
December 31, 2015
Favorite Films of 2015
I think it’s been a great year for movies. We got some excellent personal films from the world’s greatest directors and the blockbusters have mostly delivered, too. While 2015 movies brought some great new characters to the screen, I think the year will be remembered for the return of old favorites like Mad Max, Han Solo, Rocky Balboa, and velociraptors.
I tried to watch as many of 2015’s great movies as I could, but as usual I didn’t make it to some of the limited releases. So, I like to thi...
I tried to watch as many of 2015’s great movies as I could, but as usual I didn’t make it to some of the limited releases. So, I like to thi...
December 30, 2015
My Favorite Reads of 2015
This is not a “Best Books of 2015” list because, frankly, I didn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to the best books released this year. In fact, I didn’t even reach my personal goal of books to read in 2015, WHICH MAKES ME MAD. But I’m letting it go because, well, there’s nothing I can do about it now!
So, instead of a best of list, I’m going to mention five 2015 titles I really enjoyed as well as a few other titles I read this year that I would also recommend.
If you're interested in b...
So, instead of a best of list, I’m going to mention five 2015 titles I really enjoyed as well as a few other titles I read this year that I would also recommend.
If you're interested in b...
December 1, 2015
Book Review: Slade House by David Mitchell
David Mitchell’s 2014 novel The Bone Clocks was considered one of the year’s very best. I read it, I liked it, and I moved on. It’s one of those books that is easy to admire but difficult to love. The novel tells the epic story, set across many decades, about soul vampires and a secret war of immortals played out in the shadows of our world. Slade House is set in the same world of The Bone Clocks but it’s not necessary to read the earlier book first. This isn’t a sequel so much as a spin-off...
November 30, 2015
Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Unlike most others, I read Ernest Cline’s Armada before reading Ready Player One. The 2011 novel Ready Player One is one of the most popular sci-fi novels of the last decade or more. Armada… isn’t. Now, I liked Armada, though I knew it was considered a disappointment to many fans of Ready Player One. They’re two very similar books and I like them both. But yes, Ready Player One is the superior book in almost every way.Ready Player One is a cyberpunk sci-fi epic full of 80s nostalgia and geek...
November 27, 2015
Book review: Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig
When Star Wars: The Force Awakens was announced, I remember a friend of mine who was big into the Star Wars Expanded Universe was quite upset. I didn’t understand why, but he told me it was because the new movies would completely erase the importance of the EU books published over the decades. And while it’s true that the EU books now operate on a different, alternate path for our favorite Star Wars characters (sort of like that alternate universe in Fringe where Walter’s evil and scowl...
November 1, 2015
31 Days of Horror: Film #31 Army of Darkness
31 Days of Horror: Film #31
ARMY OF DARKNESS
It sucks that after doing a month-long horror countdown, the final entry ends up being posted more than a day late. I was stuck elsewhere and it just couldn’t be helped. Sorry about that.
Movie #31 was always going to be Army of Darkness. I spaced out the Evil Dead trilogy in October with the intention of watching Army of Darkness directly before the premiere of Ash vs. Evil Dead.
Army of Darkness is the lightest entry in the Evil Dead trilogy....
October 30, 2015
31 Days of Horror: Film #30 Matango
31 Days of Horror: Film #30 MATANGO (AKA ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE)
As you may or may not know, I’m a big Godzilla fan and a fan of Japanese cinema in general. Matango is a cult-classic horror film from Japan, directed by Ishiro Honda, the man behind the original (and best) Godzilla film.
The film is a bit like Gilligan’s Island meets The Thing. It’s always been a personal favorite of mine. I wrote a full review for Matango over at City on Fire, a website specializing in Asian cinema. Read...
October 29, 2015
31 Days of Horror: Film #29 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
31 Days of Horror: Film #29 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers gets adapted to film every 10-20 years and has also served as the direct inspiration for many other books and films. The two most recent Body Snatcher films – 2007’s The Invasion and 93’s Body Snatchers – aren’t very good. The 2007 film is a studio screw-up (they took the film away from the director and had other people do major rewrites and reshoots. The director’s cut remains...
October 27, 2015
31 Days of Horror: Film #28 Poltergeist (2015)
31 Days of Horror: Film #28 POLTERGEIST (2015)The original Poltergeist is a great film. Scary, funny, and just plain cool. Though credited to director Tobe Hooper, most consider it a Steven Spielberg film, and it’s no secret that Spielberg directed at least some portion of the film (some say he directed the whole thing). Poltergeist is not one of my personal favorite horror movies of all time – though I totally understand if it makes your list – but if we were to limit that list to horr...
31 Days of Horror: Film #27 Organ
31 Days of Horror: Film #27
ORGAN
Well, that was gross. I mean, when a film is called Organ, gross kind of figures into your expectations, but still…
Organ has the reputation of being a sick-ass movie and it more than lives up to that rep. Is it a good movie, though? Um, no, I don’t think so.
Organ is about illegal organ harvesting in one of Tokyo’s darker, nastier parts of town. A pair of undercover cops are investigating the organ harvesting ring and end up getting too close… Lots of dea...
