Simply Everything

By Peter K. Lam

The Spirit

Hopefully everyone had a great Christmas holiday! I went to watch The Spirit yesterday which was a lot of fun. I went into the theater without any big expectations. I never read the original The Spirit comic book by Will Eisner but have heard so many great things about the story. When I was working at Top Cow, my old boss, Jim McLauchlin (Top Cow’s former Editor-in-Chief), tried to get publishing rights to the series. If Jim was in pursuit of this, then there’s definitely merit to everyone’s claims.

So I watched the movie and was thoroughly entertained. It’s not your typical comic book movie. The Spirit is more of a dark police crime story than an ordinary comic book movie. For that reason the movie itself wouldn’t appeal to the general audience. The movie’s visual effects and directing style are interesting. It really captures this old time crime feel of the late 1920s and draws you into this strange but familiar world.

There was also plenty of satire as well. The movie makes many polictical, social, and literary statements. I found myself trying to analyze the meaning of everything in the middle of the movie instead of just sitting back and enjoying it. I stopped myself before going too far but just know there are a lot of material that will get your mind rolling. I’ll have to go back and watch it a second or third time to fully analyze The Spirit in greater detail.

By Peter K. Lam

The Day the Earth Stood Still

So I went to watch The Day The Earth Stood Still in IMAX yesterday. I was eagerly anticipating this movie since it looked pretty good from the trailers and the story seemed pretty interesting. I refrain from ever reading any advanced reviews so that I can watch a movie without being influenced by someone’s opinions. I did the same for The Day The Earth Stood Still. After watching the movie I feel that it’s an average movie. It wasn’t spectacular but it wasn’t horrible either.

The movie started with an interesting premise and it was missing the suspense factor. A lot of times viewers are left just waiting and wondering about what will happen next. The story moved a long with little explanation about why things are happening the way it is. All the audience gets is that the aliens have come to save Earth from humans.

The Day The Earth Stood Still did have some pretty cool special effects. Unfornately the cool visuals were very limited and so was the action. There was a lot of talking that didn’t help move the story along. Another issue I found was the religious themes throughout the movie. Mentions about arcs, THE flood, imagery of crucifixes, etc. did not really help the movie at all. If the theme was woven into the story more solidly, it would’ve been an interesting overtone to the entire film.

It was a good movie just to watch in leisure. I wouldn’t go watch this again in the theater and maybe won’t get the DVD of it either. Watch it when it premieres on network television.

By Peter K. Lam

God Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

I just finished reading Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips today and I have to say that it’s one of the most entertaining, hilarious and insightful books I’ve read in a long time.

For those of you who are not aware, Gods Behaving Badly is about the Greek gods trying to survive in the modern day world where nobody believes in them anymore. Apollo and Aphrodite continuously quarrel with one another and their godly conflict draws in an unsuspecting pair of mortal lovers.

My friend was reading it before I was and he was just raving about how great the book is. He gripped my interest when he told me how Eros is a born again Christian and that Aphrodite is a phone sex operator! WTF??

Marie Phillips’ style of writing is witty and sharp. You are glued to every word of every page of this book. The way in which she writes the Greek gods makes the story stay so true to the ancient mythology. The gods are as selfish and petty as ever and Phillips captures that essence brilliantly in the novel.

There are so many laugh out loud moments. I had to hold in my laughter several times while reading it. I read a few chapters while I was waiting for jury duty and did my very best to hold in my laughter and I began to tear! Gods Behaving Badly is really fun and a light read that actually leaves you feeling good about life. It’s uplifting and just a great read.