Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Overlooked Movies: High Road to China
Tom Selleck is a crochety WWI flying ace who's hired to help Armstrong locate her father in China before he's declared legally dead. If that happens, she'll lose her inheritance. Armstrong's a flapper with a mind of her own. She's also a flyer, so she and Selleck take off in twin biplanes and get into all sorts of scrapes. Want to bet they'll fall for each other?
It all ought to work better than it does. All the ingredients are there, but it never quite takes off. The aerial sequences are great. In fact all the action is. Armstrong and Selleck look great and their repartee is dandy. The story's fine. The pacing is a little off, though. It wants to be Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it's more Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Worth a look, but not essential.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Bullets and Lies -- Robert J. Randisi
Things don't seem quite right from the very first. Roper's certain his client (Westover's wife) isn't telling everything. Besides that, Roper's drawn the interest of the Secret Service. And somebody's taken a shot at him. When he locates the first man on his list, he finds that he's been dead for years. The second man is killed shortly before Roper arrives, and it's clear that somebody's after the others, as well.
So what you have is a solid mystery plot in a western setting. Roper travels over a good bit of the country in visiting his client and in locating three of the men he's looking for. He gets into a number of scrapes along the way, but he's a persistent guy. He's not afraid to use his gun, though he'd prefer to use his brain. Eventually he works things out, but not before Randisi has provided some good surprises.
Short chapters, good pacing, and a fine start to a new series. Fans of the traditional western should get it immediately.
Bonus: Gotta love it that the cover blurb is from Jake Foster!
Uh-Oh
Hamlet-inspired TV Thriller On Way - TV - ShortList Magazine: US network Fox has picked up the rights to a new project, America's Son, which is loosely based on one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, Hamlet.
The show will be to be a political thriller-meets-soap, set in Washington DC, and is written by Paul Redford (The West Wing/Dirty Sexy Money). Steven Spielberg's Amblin TV is set to produce.
The show will be to be a political thriller-meets-soap, set in Washington DC, and is written by Paul Redford (The West Wing/Dirty Sexy Money). Steven Spielberg's Amblin TV is set to produce.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Fox News: Because of the lack of water, the town of Brownwood may tap into their wastewater by installing a system that cycles toilet water through a series of treatment plants and right back into the municipal water supply, MyFoxAustin reports.
I taught in Brownwood for 12 years. While I was there, I met a hydrologist who told me this: "There's good news and bad news about water. The good news is that in the future we're all going to be drinking recycled waste water. The bad new is that there's not going to be enough of it." Looks as if he might have been right.
I taught in Brownwood for 12 years. While I was there, I met a hydrologist who told me this: "There's good news and bad news about water. The good news is that in the future we're all going to be drinking recycled waste water. The bad new is that there's not going to be enough of it." Looks as if he might have been right.
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