E.R. Torre's Blog, page 121

Green Room (2015) a (mildly) belated review

I like “siege” films.  In fact, one of my all time favorite films is John Carpenter’s very low budget 1976 film Assault on Precinct 13 (avoid the 2005 remake)…

So when I heard about the plot of the 2015 film Green Room, I was intrigued.  Especially considering the director and writer of the film, , was also responsible for the intriguing 2013 movie Blue Ruin.

Like Blue Ruin, Green Room is a tense, though low budget thriller which involves a down on their luck punk rock band that barely scrapes by between low-attendance gigs.  They travel some 90 miles out of their way under the promise of a concert only to find the venue is now closed to the man who offered them the job.  To make up for it, the man offers them another gig at a relative’s place but warns them the venue is made up of neo-Nazis.  As long as they do the gig and not get political, he tells them, they’ll be fine.

Hard up for the cash, the band heads to the venue and performs.  But, after the performance, a cell phone left behind in the venue’s green room (the place where the band prepared for the concert) winds up causing them to witness a murder.  From there, the band and an unlikely ally are forced to fight for their lives to get out of this closed-in place.

Green Room, as mentioned before, is a “siege” film.  What that means is that you have the main character(s) locked in a small area while bad-guys mercilessly assault them from without.  In the very best siege films, the characters are inevitably outnumbered and outgunned and have to rely on their wits, rather than strength, to survive.

In the case of Green Room, the characters presented aren’t the sharpest and are likely more than a little buzzed after the concert but do realize quickly, though not quickly enough, the extent of their predicament.  Like the best of the siege films, not everyone survives and likeable -as well as unlikeable- characters meet their fate in brutal ways.

The movie’s cast is solid, with the late playing Pat, the band’s leader.  , often a more familiar face in comedic roles, is also very good as Sam, another band member and confidant of Pat.

But clearly the biggest, splashiest -and surprising- role is that of neo-Nazi leader Darcy, played by .  Unfortunately, this bit of “big” casting, to me, didn’t work quite as well as I hoped it would.

Taking a very well known -and for the most part beloved- actor and sticking him/her into a nasty role has been done before and sometimes to very good effect.  , for instance, had a decades long reputation for playing salt of the earth types…people who were genuinely good inside and looked out for others.  This made his role of Frank, the cold-blooded killer in Once Upon A Time In The West, all the more shocking.

In Green Room, unfortunately, Darcy’s role is presented as one of cold expediency.  He is evil, yes, but in a cold, methodological way.  In other words: When presented with problem “a”, he logically figures out the steps needed to clean it up.  The evil presented here is -purposely, I suspect- like the Nazi collaborators of World War II.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for a particularly gripping bad guy.  Worse, unlike seeing the evil Henry Fonda’s character was capable in Once Upon A Time In The West, Darcy’s evil is done by surrogates and therefore he’s always above the fray and doesn’t become the hissable villain we really needed to have.

Coming away from the film, I was left with other questions as well.  One of the big ones involved the injury sustained to one of the band members very early in the film and when they realized, without a shadow of doubt, that their lives were in mortal danger.  The injury presented (I won’t go into spoilers here) is gruesome and chilling and kudos to the special effects department for the way it was presented.

However, such an injury would clearly be life threatening to the character that received it.  This injury must have severed many, many blood vessels and arteries and yet the character continues on doesn’t bleed out.

Further, after a while I couldn’t help but wonder why Darcy and his crew didn’t just rush the damn green room and blast everyone away.  Granted, the script tried to explain this but…I dunno.  Again, I don’t want to go into spoilers but it just seemed the bad guys were holding back more than they needed to…and ultimately that was to the benefit of the “good guys” and the resolution of the film.

Despite all that, I still think Green Room is a decent, tense siege thriller.  If you don’t think to hard about certain elements of the film (as I did), you will find this an enjoyable nail-bitter.  It is also a film not for the squeamish!

Still here!

Sometimes it feels like the universe is conspiring against you.

In a big way.

A little over two years ago I started my latest CORROSIVE KNIGHTS novel, FOUNDRY OF THE GODS, and all was well.  By well I mean: It took a great deal of patience and a hell of a lot of work to get the book done.

And when I was done, I was happy, as I always am when such a large amount of work is finished.

So who would believe that:

I release the damn book the day before the elections and then find myself absolutely crushed by what happened within.
That I would innocently begin the process of updating my webpage and spend the next week in computing hell trying to get everything to work as it should?

Ok, I brought #2 on myself but, seriously, who would have thought this country would be dumb enough to elect someone like Donald Trump to the presidency?  Didn’t anyone learn their lesson with George W. Bush?

Ah well, the choice is made and, as I said before, let’s hope the office is better than the man.  I strongly suspect those who voted for Mr. Trump will take a good deal of broken promises and general presidential insanity to prove to them they made the wrong choice.

Regardless, things around here look like they’ve finally settled.  I’ve got the blog up and running and the website looks nice.  I’ll still do some work on it but the new system is so much easier to use.

For those who bought FOUNDRY OF THE GODS, hope you enjoyed it.

Almost back…

Sorry for being absent from this spot for a while.

I decided to re-do my website (ertorre.com) and hilarity ensued.

If you work with computers, you know what I mean, right?

Anyway, I think I’m close to having everything up and running.  Hopefully tomorrow all will be clear(er).

We’ll see.

Election hangover…

There are no words…just a couple of David Bowie songs…

As someone much more eloquent than I said, let’s hope the office survives the man.

Corrosive Knights – Foundry of the Gods

As of today, 11/8/16, I have the paperback version of Foundry of the Gods “in review” and should become available for purchase by later today or early tomorrow.

The Foundry of the Gods ebook is now listed with the other five books of the series under the Corrosive Knights Amazon link:

Corrosive Knights (6 Book Series)

Even more exciting, as of today I’ve experienced something I haven’t experienced before:  I have book sales simultaneously listed for the United States, UK, France, Canada, and Australia!

I’ve had sales for my books throughout the world but this is the first time I’ve seen sales appear simultaneously in five different countries and, for that, I want to thank those out there in these countries for giving my works a try.  I sincerely hope you enjoy what I’ve made!

Next step: Update my main webpage.  Should do that at least every time I write a new book, no?

Corrosive Knights, a 11/7/06 Update – Foundry of the Gods

Yesterday, 11/6/16, I uploaded my latest Corrosive Knights novel, Foundry of the Gods, to Amazon and their ebook/Kindle services.  At sometime around midnight, the book went “live” and available for everyone to purchase.  You can do so at this link:

Foundry of the Gods

What was so wonderful to discover at a little after midnight and what must have been minutes after the book was made available was that some people already purchased the book!

To them I must say: My deepest, most heartfelt thanks to you.  This is the first time a book of mine has gone live and already found an audience willing to buy it.  This certainly encourages me to continue my work.

For those others who have given my books a try or will experience them for the first time, I also offer my deepest thanks.

Spending one’s hard earned money on what amounts to an author’s flight of fancy is something I take incredibly seriously.  This is the reason it takes me as much time as it does to release my works.  I want to make sure they’re worth spending your money on.

As for today, I’ll finish up the work for the paperback version of this novel and that too will be available very soon for purchase.

In the meantime, I hope those who have the book -or will soon get it- like what I’ve written.  If you do, please take a moment to offer a review.  There’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing you were happy with what I wrote.

In the meantime, have a very pleasant day.  For those living in the United States, hang on.  The election is tomorrow and by Wednesday the insanity levels should finally ease…

…one hopes!

Corrosive Knights, a 11/4/16 update

The day has finally come.

As of yesterday, I completed the latest draft (#12) of book #6 of the Corrosive Knights series.  I took five days to re-read the book and add notes/corrections in pen.  It took only four days to take those corrections/notes and put them into the computer.  When I was done with that, I felt there were still three chapters that required one more read-through, “just in case”.  One of the chapters was part of the original three I worked on in draft #11, the other two just featured more corrections this time around and I felt I should go over it one more time to make sure all was well.

I did all that on Thursday, finishing the entire novel by shortly before noon.

Since then, I’ve been preparing the novel for formal release.  I’m working on both the “print” version as well as the e-book/Kindle version along with such necessities as creating ISBN numbers and submitting the work to the Copyright Office.

As those who have read my entries here know, I’ve kept the title of the book secret.  I did this mostly because of the later point listed above.  I don’t feel comfortable releasing specifics such as book titles until I’ve done the copyrights and, now that they’re done, here you have it:

As you can see, the title of Book #6 of the Corrosive Knights series is Foundry of the Gods.

I might still tweak the cover a little bit but regardless, by sometime next week the e-book will be available for purchase and, once I review the print/hard copies, they too will be available.  Give that another week.

In the meantime, I’ll get all the other busywork done and give you a head’s up when the latest novel is indeed available for purchase.

It’s been a long, long road to get here but I couldn’t be happier.  Foundry of the Gods, for those who have read this series to this point, should knock your socks off!

If you’re anything at all like me…

…reading the following story is a complete no-brainer.

Written by Kristen Lee and presented on jalopnik.com, I present:

Russian’s Discover Secret Abandoned Arctic Nazi Base

Man, I can’t tell you how many pulp fiction books I’ve read that had a variation of that headline as the draw for the book itself!

Secret Nazi bases discovered after all this time!?  And in the distant Arctic?  Fascinating, fascinating stuff…all we need is a dashing hero, a damsel in distress, and the deadly secret hidden in that base that the villains and heroes are so desperate to get their hands on and you’ve got yourself a best-seller!

Either that or a video game!

For those who speak Russian…

Happy Hallowee–

–what?  It’s November the 1st?!

That’s what I get for having my head stuck in novel revisions.

Nevermind.

 

Corrosive Knights, a 10/27/16 update

Incredibly good news: I’ve just finished my latest complete re-reading/review of book #6 of the Corrosive Knights series aaaaaaannnnnddddd…

This will be the very last full book review of it I’ll do.

The novel reads extremely well and the “problems” I found in the latest re-reading amounted to grammatical issues which shouldn’t take much time to clean up on the computer.  Now, there were two chapters (out of 80) that I feel will require a little more than just grammatical clean up and I might give them one more read through before officially finishing, but even these two chapters were well on their way to being finished.

Which means I can say with stone cold certainty that this novel will be released by later November or, at the very worst, very early December.  After doing the corrections on the computer, all that’ll be left to do is format everything on PDF for print and Kindle e-book and we’re off.

So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your incredible patience.  My next update will be the last regarding this book and will not only give you this book’s title, but it will tell you the novel is ready to be purchased.

Before I go, I wanted to reprint the following Corrosive Knights FAQ.  It offers insight into the series and the timelines of each novel.  If you haven’t yet read it, do so.  It’ll give you an idea of how this series progresses (I originally posted this here).

*******

Writing these (Corrosive Knights) books has been a blast even as they’ve also been a mighty struggle.  I’m working with a series I feel is unique in many ways.  To begin, the scope of the story is incredibly large, taking place over the course of some 20,000 plus years.  Readers are offered events in different epochs which, when put together, form a much larger story.

While there have been plenty of stories featuring flashbacks and flash-forwards, I think its safe to say no series -at least none that I’m aware of!- features entire novels that take place in sometimes vastly different times, past and the future, while (hopefully!) logically building up the larger tale.

The five Corrosive Knights books plus the one I’m currently working on have been/will be released -and ideally should be read- in this order:

I say “ideally” but I’m not being entirely honest: The first three books of the series, Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon could be read in any order.  They feature unique characters and take place in vastly different times and therefore if one wanted to one could read them in any order they choose.

However, by the time you reach Nox, Ghost of the Argus, and the so-far unnamed Book #6, the continuity established in these first three novels kicks in and, while I think the later books could be enjoyed on their own, I HIGHLY recommend you read books 1, 2, and 3 before venturing into the ones that follow.

Now, if I were to tell the Corrosive Knights story in chronological order, i.e. each book’s main story occurring “one after the other” and ignore whatever smaller flashback elements are presented within said novels, the story order would go like this:

That’s right: The book I’m currently working on, #6 of the Corrosive Knights series, actually takes place before the events of The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.  In fact, they take place a couple hundred years before those books!  Yet I would absolutely NOT recommend anyone read that book when it is released before already reading the rest of the series and, in particular, The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.

Why?

Because the events of those two books in particular fill in story concepts which have a big payoff in Book #6 and propels the reader into the Corrosive Knights series finale, which will be Book #7.

Fear not, thought.  There will be an epilogue to the series, a Book #8, which will wrap certain things up that weren’t/aren’t wrapped up in Book #7.  Book #8 will also offer what I hope is a great long view of the heroes we’ve followed for so long while focusing on one in particular.  To further screw with your head, I’m already finished with the first draft of Book #8 but only have a chapter or so written (along with a general idea of the story) of Book #7.

Not only is my series presented in a quirky temporal way, so too it would appear is my creative output!