Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Friday B-Movie Pick: The Legend of Tarzan

Friday, January 6th, 2017

The Legend of Tarzan
I was expecting yet another Tarzan origin story, so I was pleasantly surprised by this film. Chronologically, it takes place after the first two books. Tarzan is living in London, he has his title, lands, and is married to the love of his life, Jane Porter. Meanwhile, bad things are happening in the Belgian Congo (which is historically accurate), and Tarzan goes to investigate. Jane is not being left behind, so adventure follows. Really good cast on this. Margo Robbie as Jane, Samuel L. Jackson as an actual historical figure (who kicked ass, and took names), and Christoph Waltz being excellent as the bad guy.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick: Tarzan of the Apes

Monday, June 11th, 2012

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I saw this book in the “New Science Fiction” section at a local bookseller. So “new” means published in the last 100 years, since this book was originally released in 1912! It is a classic, well worth the reprinting. One of the favorite early childhood books of both my brother and myself. I still have that hardcover edition with the Ape-English dictionary in the back.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Sunday SciFi: John Carter

Sunday, March 11th, 2012

Saw John Carter last night, in 3D on an IMax screen.

Excellent adventure flick by one of the early masters of the genre, Edgar Rice Burroughs.  It was based on the first of the John Carter of Mars books, A Princess of Mars.  It was written 95 years ago (1917), so it’s in the public domain.  You can download it from the Gutenberg site or get the Kindle version for free.

The show was completely sold out and the audience was a mix of young and old, including a lot of families.  Glad I saw on the big screen.

Update: Ed Morrissey reviewed John Carter and gave it a thumbs up as well.

John Carter has plenty of surprises and edge-of-the-seat action all the way to the very end.  It won’t win a nomination for Best Picture, but as a fun adventure and popcorn movie, it’s terrific and smarter than most, especially this time of year.  Don’t be surprised at the end if you’d like another trip to Mars very soon.

John Carter is rated PG-13, with a lot of violence, some of it quite bloody (even if the blood might be another color at times) and very intense.  It has no foul language or nudity — a few skimpy outfits for Collins, but nothing one wouldn’t have seen on a Xena: Warrior Princess episode.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Princess of Mars

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Princess of Mars

A deliciously low budget adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic. Updated a bit, John Carter is no longer a Civil War veteran (from the losing side), but a Marine in Afghanistan. Traci Lords was the “name” actor in this flick, but poorly cast as Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium. The movie was shot on an obvious shoestring budget and was shot in an amazing short time. Just 12 days to shoot a SciFi adventure story by one of the classic writers of the genre. Ya, the acting was bad, the script so-so, and the Tharks only have two arms. Still, not too shabby for the budget they had. I’m betting most Hollywood “indies” couldn’t pull off a feature film with the time and budget constrants this crew had to work with.

Friday B-Move Archive

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John Carter of Mars film still in the works

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

A film version of “A Princess of Mars”, the first in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series has been listed  on IMDB since 2005.

It’s still listed as  in pre-production, with the latest in release dates as 2012. There are also some cast listings.  The most interesting is Willem Dafoe as the Green Martian King Tars Tarkas.

As I said before, this film could be amazingly cool or a fiasco of epic proportions. With William Dafoe on board, I’m leaning more toward amazingly cool.

If the four armed Green Martians look sufficently cool, this could be a plus toward getting David Weber & John Ringo‘s March Upcountry made into a film.  That would be a good thing.

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