Movies and Books

THE MUPPETS (2011) reworks the formula for THE MUPPET MOVIE in having Kermit gather the gang together (“Let’s do the rest of the meetings in a montage.”) to Put on a Show to save the Muppet Studios from Evil Millionaire Chris Chooper (“Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh.”) while trying to figure out his relationship with Piggy in the midst of lots of celebrity cameos. Captures more of the old magic than any of the post-Henson films have done to date. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d just recited an important plot point.”
HOLIDAY SWITCH (2007) is a lame Christmas telefantasy in which an obnoxious housewife Nicole Eggert learns what would have happened if instead of her hardworking plumber boyfriend she’d married his now rich and successful rival, only to discover (after wallowing in her new wealth and fortune) that she’d be the same miserable person and just as unhappy. The protagonist’s selfishness makes her unwatchable in a way Scrooge never is for me (though I don’t think it’s a gender issue as I enjoyed both Ebbie and Ms. Scrooge); Molly Ringwald did this same concept much better in Twice Upon a Time.

CITY OF SIN: London and Its Vices by Catharine Arnold is a look at London’s sexual history from Roman times through the 20th century that didn’t quite work for me, mostly because Arnold spends so much time on the Victorians, an era whose love lives I’m quite familiar with (I’d much sooner have seen more on the 20th century). Also the fact that she confines so much of her focus to prostitution (both gay and straight) and court scandals makes me wish she’d thrown a wider net (adultery without prostitutes for instance). Despite that demurrer, in its own right a good book.
VAMPIRE DIARIES: The Awakening by LJ Smith comes off as a precursor for the more successful Twilight as a high-school student wonders why the hot new exchange student is so uninterested in her, unaware he’s so crazy for her he’s afraid he’ll kill her if they get close. To further complicate things, his more evil vampire brother is just as keen on seducing her, and has considerably greater power due to his willingness to feed on humans. This was actually a double book, combining both The Awakening and The Struggle from the original series; good, though evil Damon’s chemistry with Elena is much less convincing. Read in preparation for Netflixing the TV show, but fairly entertaining in its own right.
HELLBOY: House of the Living Dead follows up on Hellboy’s team-up with some monster-slaying luchadores in the previous book to show Hellboy dealing with his grief at the death of his friend by becoming a hard-drinking masked wrestler himself. Then a mad scientist forces Hellboy to battle his Frankensteinian creation in the hopes of proving his work is mightier even than the champion of Hell. A tribute to both masked wrestler movies and House of Frankenstein (the classic Universal film, not the TV pilot), this was great fun.
SOLOMON KANE: Castle of the Devil was a collection from Dark Horse’s series about Robert E. Howard’s brooding Puritan monster slayer. Taking off from an unfinished Howard story, this has Kane discover the lord of a sinister Germanic castle is being manipulated by sinister demonic entities in the belief they’re feeding him the voice of God——need I say they’re not? The best of the adaptations of this story that I’ve read.