Sentinels of Silence

Chichen Itza

A short, breathtaking look at Mexico's Indian ruins

Filmed almost entirely from a helicopter, Sentinels of Silence is a double Academy Award winning documentary is narrated by Orson Welles. This movie is shown in by the Mexican government in embassies around the world and serves as a fantastic 18 minute introduction to the Ancient Indian Civilizations of Mexico. Orson Welles, dramatic photography and an equally dramatic soundtrack combine to make this a memorable movie. A must-see and must-have movie for all fans of Mayan and Aztec history.

5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on September 21, 2008.

Passion Play DVD

Starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Bill Murray.
Movie originally released in 2010.

Passion Play tries very hard to be a BIG movie - one with lots of big themes (such as love conquering all, redemption and love causing a person to grow and become more than they were before) but it just falls short. It goes through all of the motions but not enough things click to make the movie work.

Mitch Glazer wrote and directed this movie and he enlisted his high school friend Mickey Rourke and his wife (Kelly Lynch) to be in the movie. Bill Murray stars as a mafia boss named Happy. Murray puts a spark into nearly every scene and might have the most interesting character in the entire movie - the mob boss with a love for art and beauty. Rourke's character (Nick Pool) is a down and out jazz player that has been sleeping with Happy's wife. Happy orders Rourke to be taken out to the desert and executed. As Pool awaits a shot to the forehead the mobsters are killed by Indians who run away into the desert.

Pool runs as well and stumbles onto a creepy carnival in the middle of the desert. He goes into the freak show tent and discovers that the woman with wings display is not fake - she really has wings. The carnival owner has raised her from childhood and both uses and protects her - but he is clear that he will kill to keep her.

Nate and the winged girl Lily (Megan Fox) escape and Nate makes plans to sell her to Happy in order to get back in Happy's good graces. Along the way Pool and Lily fall in love and they work to figure out a way to be together and escape from the carnival owner and Happy.


As I noted, Bill Murray did a great job of playing the ironically named Happy. Mickey Rourke was absolutely believable as the down and out musician - let's face it, he lived it as a down and out actor. But, Megan Fox as Lily was merely a pretty face and attractive body to attach the wings to and there was no spark between the two. I kept wondering what she would see in Rourke's shuffling, sometimes slow-witted character. Since the pivot point of the movie was the love between Lily and Nate and there was just no spark there the movie just flows along on auto-pilot until we get to a conclusion that explains some of the surreal scenes and the heaven and hell references that abound.

I rate this movie 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Passion Play. 

Reviewed July 10, 2011.

Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862 (audiobook) by James McPherson

Does a brilliant job of looking at the meaning of the battle of Antietam

Published in 2002 by Recorded Books.
Read by Nelson Runger.
Duration: 5 hours, 48 minutes.
Unabridged

I have nearly 90 books that cover the Civil War on my bookshelf. Most books that cover the Civil War compartmentalize the battles into little chapters with titles like "Chancellorsville", "Antietam" and "Shiloh". The battles are thoroughly covered but the feel for the larger flow of the war is sacrificed.

In Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862, McPherson dramatically sweeps the reader along and I was left with a renewed sense of amazement and respect for the fact that Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was able to fight, let alone go on the offensive against two separate armies and fight multiple, large battles from June through September of 1862.

McPherson does an extraordinary job of tying in many of the political and military threads of this war to demonstrate that Antietam was the day that determined the outcome of the war, and not the more popular belief that it was July 4, 1863 with the dual losses for the Confederacy at Vicksburg and Gettysburg.

George B. McClellan, the victor
of the Battle of Antietam despite
his many mistakes

McPherson provides multiple quotations from those involved in the political and military events of the time. In fact, at times the story is told mostly through choice quotes from generals, ambassadors and prominent private citizens such as Frederick Douglass and Horace Greeley.

The audiobook was well read by Nelson Runger. The audiobook lasts about 5 hours and 45 minutes and was a joy to listen to.
 
I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (Pivotal Moments in American History)  

Reviewed on September 26, 2008.

Life in the Big City (Astro City, Vol. 1) by Kurt Busiek

It was okay

Originally published in 1999 by Wildstorm.

Let me start with this: I am not a big comics fanatic. I read some of these bigger collections from time to time for entertainment, but I've never been to a comic book shop, I don't own a Green Lantern shirt and there's no Superman sticker on my car.

But, I do know what I like and, for me, Astro City was an "okay" collection of new superheroes. This collections includes 5 stories, 2 of which I found tedious. In the intro, Busiek claims to want to get back to basics and stop the "deconstruction" of the superhero. Get out of the superhero's head and back to the action. But, the first and last stories are all about getting into the superhero's head. They were interesting stories, but they went against the spirit Busiek claimed to have been wanting to avoid.

In short, kudos to Busiek for creating a whole new world of superheroes, but this still didn't grab me enough to make me look for further adventures of these new superheroes.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Life in the Big City (Astro City, Volume 1).

Reviewed on September 26, 2008.

Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies DVD

Limited range, no real secrets, despite the title.

DVD released in 2006.

Although it purports to tell "secrets" of the first armies, most of the world is left out of Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies and there really are no secrets told in this documentary DVD. The wars featured are:

A) The Trojan War
B) The Punic Wars
C) The Persian Wars

Yeah - that's right, they're out of timeline order and only Greece, Rome, Carthage and Persia are represented. There are no secrets revealed in this DVD (don't tell anyone but the Greeks are using a fake horse to sneak into Troy!) and there is no real study into how these large armies evolved, the economic mobilization involved or anything of the sort, despite the claims of the text on the back of the DVD that it "tells the powerful story of the origins of organized warfare" and "how sophisticated tactics were introduced."

I'm also bothered by the fact that most of the world is not included. No Egyptian, Chinese or Indian armies even though all of these would have preceded the Greeks and the Romans.

I give this DVD a two star rating because it promises all sorts of new insights when in reality, it is only slightly more informative than the average high school world history textbook. This movie should have been given a more appropriate title such as "Wars of the Greeks and Romans." There are better DVDs out there about the Greeks and the Romans.

I rate this DVD 2 stars out of 5.

This DVD can be found on Amazon.com here: Secrets of Ancient Empires: The First Armies.

Reviewed on September 27, 2008.

Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff

A rather depressing tale

Published in 2008 by First Second.

Slow Storm is a rather depressing tale of a sexually-harrassed female firefighter with family issues in Kentucky that encounters an illegal alien named Rafi during a thunderstorm that has spawned tornadoes. Rafi's home gets burned due to a lightning strike.

That's about it for the plot with the exception of some clever writing comparing sneaking across the border to climbing over the "pearly gates" to get into heaven, this is an entirely forgettable graphic novel.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5.

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Slow Storm.

Reviewed on October 5, 2008.

Bleachers (audiobook) by John Grisham

Change of pace for Grisham

Published by Random House Audio in 2003.

Read by the author, John Grisham
4 hours, 22 minutes

Unabridged.

I, for one, am not especially enamored of Grisham's legal thrillers but I do enjoy Grisham's foray into non-legal fiction.

Bleachers was read by the author. Grisham's southern accent and good ol' boy style are sometimes helpful but his occasional odd emphasis and flat read can be distracting.

The book features a Bobby Knight/Woody Hayes type of small-town high school football coach. He is cruel, petty and completely breaks his players as he builds them into his mold and makes them successful teams year after year after year. His teams have won 13 Texas state championships.

The coach is dying of cancer now and his players are returning home to honor him and await his funeral. They meet several times on the bleachers of the field they played on and discuss their memories of school, football and of course the coach. Thus, the title.

We see the reunion of players through the eyes of Neeley, a former All-American quarterback who suffered a career-ending injury in college and never reached his full potential as a player. Although Neeley is our window to this world, he is not the true focus of the book - it is the coach and the love/hate relationship his players and the town have with him.

An interesting book. This Indiana University graduate couldn't help but wonder if the alumni of Bobby Knight's basketball program have had similar discussions about him.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Bleachers by John Grisham.

Reviewed on October 7, 2008.