My All-Time Movies List

For some reason, I found myself thinking about the movies I watched over and over as a kid; the movies that, no matter how many times I'd seen them, I could always pop in when I was bored.  These are the movies that I watched when I was sick; when I was home all summer; on weekends.  These are the movies that I want my kids (when I have them) to watch as they grow up.

The movies aren't in any particular order - I just listed them as they came to mind.  Most of these movies were recorded from TV, and were watched complete with glorious '80s commercials.

Back to the Future
What can I say about this movie?  What can I say about any of them?  As kids, we watched this from a VHS tape, recorded from some TV channel I can't remember.  I should point out that I'm referring primarily to the first movie, not the entire trilogy.  We never had Part II or III on tape, but we watched the hell out of the first one.  It's an easy plot for a kid to wrap his head around.

The Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983)
The unfortunate thing about this trilogy is that I'm unlikely to ever find copies of the original, unedited versions (without going on eBay finding the DVD copies that were released a few years ago with the original theatrical versions) in high definition, because this is how I grew up watching them.  I think that I would definitely want to show my kids these versions, and I'll do my best to make sure that happens.  I think there's a lot to be said for using physical special effects instead of computer generated crap.

The Karate Kid Part I and II
This one's a funny one for me; I remember watching both of these movies quite a bit - mostly the first one - but I really prefer the second one.  The problem is, our copy of the second one got messed up in the recording.  Oh well!

Bigfoot
This is an obscure one, and I've never seen it available in any media ever, anywhere, except our one VHS tape that we recorded from TV.  There are probably a dozen movies by the same name, but in this case I'm talking about the 1987 made-for-TV film starring Candice Cameron Bure.  Yes, starring DJ from Full House.  I think the only other bigger stars in that movie were Colleen Dewhurst and Joseph Maher.  Have you even heard of them?  Yeah, exactly.  Okay, actually, the father, James Sloyan, appeared in a few Star Trek episodes (TNG, DS9, Voyager), so there's at least one "famous" character actor in it too.  Look, it's a great movie, and you should watch it.

The Great Muppet Caper + A Muppet Family Christmas
I think my favourite of these two is The Great Muppet Caper, but both are excellent films (the latter is made-for-TV I think) that showcase The Muppets at the height of their amazing-ness.  While last year's The Muppets was great, I don't think it can ever top The Great Muppet Caper - even though it may have matched  it in tone at least.

Ghostbusters
Another of the great '80s films, I probably watched this one just as much as the Star Wars movies.

I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting, and likely will come to mind after I hit "Publish".  But if I only remember these movies, that's still one pretty great list to show my kids.  There's only one modern movie I can think of that I would add to this list - and it's Moneyball.  It seems like a strange choice, but I just finished watching it for the umpteenth time, and I'll likely watch it again and again.  It's become one of those movies, like those listed above.

I didn't really have much of a point to this post, just stuff I wanted to share.  Got any movies that you watched over and over in your childhood?  I'd be interested to see what any '90s kids watched too.

Review: Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition

According to Goodreads, it took me 9 days to read Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire (20th Anniversary Edition); this is probably a considerably shorter time than when I first read the book, which was I believe 15 years ago or so when I was 12, and at the height of my Star Wars obsession.  Obviously, this was not a tough read.

This review is actually not concerning the book itself, but rather the presentation of the book and all of the elements associated with it being a 20th Anniversary Edition.  I figure that most people have read this already (or maybe not; I could be vastly overestimating the number of Star Wars fanatics that are reading this blog), so there's no point in going over the story.  Suffice it to say, it's about a new, smart villain and his attempts to bring the Empire back to glory five years after the huge loss suffered at Endor in Return of the Jedi.

To start with, the book looks absolutely beautiful.  Don't take my word for it - just look at the book jacket, and the hard cover concealed beneath.  A lot of care has gone into making this thing look really nice, something you don't often see (I mean really - do we ever see XX Anniversary Editions of classic works?  Not usually).  It's a hard cover book, obviously, and it displays rather nicely on a book shelf.  I almost don't want to display only the spine when I shelve it later, it's so nice.







On to what drew me to the book in the first place: the comments in the margin.  I mean, tons of books have different editions throughout the years with fancy covers; but what made this a must-have for me was that sprinkled throughout the text were little tidbits of information from Timothy Zahn.  Comments like how he decided to start the novel with a scene on a Star Destroyer, because that's what all three original movies had done.  And also various comments about how Thrawn (the villain) fits the qualities of a good leader, thought processes during original outlines, "Tuckerisms", and so forth.






There were also a small handful of comments from Zahn's editor for Heir, Betsy M?.  Let me just say that I drew no insight at all from her comments.  They make her sound like your standard middle-aged woman who doesn't know a thing about Star Wars, the way that an ignorant mom might say "Stop playing Nintendo!" when their kid is clearly playing an Xbox; she is the Ralph Wiggum to Zahn's Lisa Simpson, gleefully announcing "When I grow up, I want to be a principal or a caterpillar."  I think the most condescending comment comes at the end of Chapter 12, where Zahn presents somewhat of a cliffhanger ending:

"Bestselling writers often use the literary device of the cliffhanger to grip readers.  How many times have you stayed up far too late at night because something enthralling happens at the end of a chapter and you simply have to find out what happens next?  Tim brings the use of the cliffhanger to a high art in Heir.  I defy anyone to put this book down after a closing line like Leia's."

So I think you can guess from my comments that this book would have been better off without her margin notes.  It's too bad, because it's a huge missed opportunity to give us some extra insight into the editing process for this book.  In the end, she's also redundant, as the one insightful comment she does make is repeated by Zahn a little later.  Oh well - nothing's perfect, I suppose.

There's also the matter of an extra novella after the novel, written by Zahn exclusively for this book.  It's nothing special, and details one of Thrawn's exploits shortly before the events of Heir.  It was a neat enough read though, but I think also the book could have done without it.  The margin comments were draw enough - I don't think people were likely waiting for the promise of a new novella to buy the book.

Lastly though, the story still IS a fun read, and is quite possibly still the best piece of Extended Universe fiction for Star Wars out there.  It's not high class literature by any means, but it's paced extremely well and you can definitely get a "movie" feel while you read it. 

For Star Wars: Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition, I give 4 out of 5 stars.

Star Wars: Death Star Review

So I finished Star Wars: Death Star last weekend.  The book was okay - it had its moments, but ultimately feels like a novelty item, so to speak.  The characters were fun enough, but not exactly what I'd hoped.  And the writing wasn't the greatest - there was a lot of repetition going on, mostly to reinforce themes and ideas, but it came across to me more as, "Okay, I know what you're saying - you've said it five times now, maybe you could move the story along?"

It was things like the Death Star gunner questioning his morals before/after pulling the trigger on Alderaan.  It seemed like I was reading the same passage several different times across five different chapters.  I don't want to give it away, but if you read it, you'll know what I mean.

Anyway, I was entertained, but slightly disappointed; my expectations going in was that this was a book comprised of short stories.  That's not what I got, but I only feel half-cheated.

It's a fun enough read, so I'm not going to say "don't read it"; instead, I'll just say that if you don't read it, you're not missing out on anything important.

You know what I miss?

I miss:
being a part of things like Mulder & Scully's Bogus Journey (thank-you very much Wayback Machine)
the long-defunct star wars rpg the Bounty Hunters' Guild

in short: being a part of a like-minded community.  Sure, I'm a member of a few forums here and there but they are largely non-specific beyond one common thing (i.e. Notebook in Hand's common theme is Creativity - but that is a very broad connecting theme.  Not complaining a lot, mind you, it's a fun community!).  However I don't think there's anything out there right now that I can jump into.  No fandom that I'd like to join.

Perhaps though, that might change if I can be on the ground floor of that Blood & Chrome series comes out, I can get into that.  Although to be honest, I'd rather it be something like a new Star Trek or Star Wars series, or something.  As much as I like the Battlestar Galactica franchise, it feels like something with a concrete end, rather than something open* like those other two franchises (or even Stargate - and I tried and horribly failed to get into THAT community when Universe was launching).

I really didn't have a grand point to make in this post, except that I think my lack of a community to participate in amongst peers is leading me to try and fill that void by becoming Internet-Famous; I'm constantly trying to think of cool ideas to pull off after seeing something particularly neat that someone else has done.  And then I remember I need actual artistic skills to become "Internet-Famous".  I'd much prefer being the second kind of "Internet-Famous":

Obscure around the globe, but at least well-liked by members of a like-minded community.  Is that so much to ask?


* Pardon my stealing of your trademark asterisks, Sarah, but you touched on this very topic a while ago so I thought it was fitting.  I can't find it, but I assure any outside readers that it exists in some form on http://srkriger.com/.

My Irrational Hatred of Kevin J. Anderson

The first time I was introduced to the work of Kevin J. Anderson was also the first time I read a lengthy novel, which was ALSO the first time I ventured into the extended Star Wars universe.  The book was Dark Apprentice, the second book of the Jedi Academy trilogy (I think I picked the second book because of the cover).  At the time I think I enjoyed the book, but mostly because it was a book about the Star Wars universe that I so loved growing up.  I should point out that I was fairly young when I read this book.

Since reading that book, I eventually acquired a taste for what I liked in books, movies, anything with a plot, etc.  I later read Anderson's next Star Wars book, Darksabre.  It was that book that really gave me the whole "I hate Kevin J. Anderson" point of view; I really didn't like the story in that book, nor what he did with the characters.  Going back to Dark Apprentice, I realized I didn't like what happened there, either, especially when compared to a fantastic trilogy like Thrawn trilogy Timothy Zahn put out earlier (which I must re-read).

I've always said - "I hate Kevin J. Anderson.  I don't like his stories."  I now realize that I'm being completely unfair to the man.  I've only read two of his major novels, and a small handful of his Young Adult Star Wars books (which are actually pretty good for kids books).  I've never read anything else by him.  Who's to say that he's not actually a good writer outside of the Star Wars universe?

I recently both read and heard him state how hard he works as an author.  He did the math, and figured that the average writer might take 1 full year to complete a novel.  He is able to do that in 5 weeks (and I believe him - do you know how many novels he's written??).  It's given me a new respect for Kevin J. Anderson.

Mind you, that doesn't mean I'm going to rush out and buy his stuff.  But I am more likely to consider reading his books now that I don't irrationally hate him.

Bloggable Topics

Last night, I finished a complete draft of my nefarious "Pocket Watch" story!  And in actuality, it's not about a pocket watch anymore.  It's quite different.  It's also quite weak - but the point is that the story is on paper (well, computer) and just needs some editing.

Some other stuff:

• I finally got a hold of the last three episodes of Battlestar Galactica - look for some reviews, probably around March
• I finished watching Dexter!  I didn't know the last season was only 12 episodes.
• I have a review to type up of that Star Wars book that I finished less than a month ago
• I have some things to say about Kevin J. Anderson
• Currently I am reading John Scalzi's Agent to the Stars and am enjoying it.

So look for all that and more coming this month on my blog.

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex

I got this book for Christmas, and it's probably the first new Star Wars book I've read since I stopped reading the New Jedi Order series.  I was kind of getting tired of the whole "the universe is doomed we're killing everybody" tone that the books were taking.  I don't know when they moved on, but we're now 43 years after A New Hope.  I'll get to that timeline bit in a minute.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a short review series of the book.  In part one (this post), I take a quick look at the production quality put into the book and my first impressions.  Part two will be after I hit the mid-point of the novel, and part three will be my final impressions upon finishing it.  On we go...

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Vortex: Episode I: First Impressions


Come on, I had to go with the "Episode" route for this.  Surely you saw it coming?

Vortex is written by Troy Denning, who is no stranger to the Star Wars novel universe.  Including this novel, he's written 18 Star Wars titles, which includes 10 novels, 2 eBooks, 2 short stories, and a few gaming-related stories.  Like many other SW authors, he's also got a lot of Fantasy & Science Fiction novels under his belt.  So I think it's safe to say that Denning knows what he's doing with a typewriter.  Specifically to Star Wars though, most of the stuff he's written has been set in the new universe (and I mean like 20+ years after Return of the Jedi), with a few set around the time of the novels written in the mid-90s.  This sounds confusing but what I'm trying to get at is that Denning is part of the "new blood" SW authors.

Onto the book itself; it starts off with a very detailed timeline of Star Wars novels.  This also doubles as a shopping list of books I want to buy now.  As I mentioned before, Vortex is set 43 years after A New Hope.  Assuming Luke is 18 in ANH, that makes him 61 now.  Or roughly what I assume Obi Wan Kenobi is in ANH.  Why is this important?  You'll see...

The book also follows the X-Wing series' example and includes a dramatis personae at the beginning.  It is very useful, especially to somebody who hasn't read a Star Wars book in quite some time.  Even though it just gives you the most basic information available, it helps paint a little picture of who is doing what in a universe that is still somewhat familiar, but very different.

The book itself has high production value: cool little graphics at the start of each chapter.  It's very easy to read.  The type is apparently called "Galliard" - see the write-up from the book here.  Actually, I thought that was also a neat inclusion, something that you don't often see.

OKAY now we can get to the story.  We start off with an excellent hook: Lando Calrissian (yessss) and Jaina Solo (daughter of Leia and Han) are floating in an old rustbucket of a ship - in the wrong system.  Aiming to arrive at Coruscant, they instead show up near Kessel.  Somebody has impersonated Lando's voice to redirect their flight path and generally disable their ship.  Who would do that?  Why would they do that?  I don't know, but it's a great scene to start off and Denning has painted a pretty neat picture of the old ship.

AND, in just 14 pages, I've been given the makings of a cool story as well as given some back story.  Holy carp - Jaina had to kill her own brother???  Because he turned to the dark side???  That is just nuts, and I'm sort of glad that I didn't have to read - God, I think it's at least 20 books - to get that information.

Oh yeah, and Lando must be what - in his 70s?  80s?  Let's remember, Han and Lando were at least 5-10 years older than Luke.  Let's be generous and say he's in his 70s.  I do want to point out a nice scene where Jaina remarks that Lando hasn't taken the time to dye his hair.  Hard to explain but I thought it was funny anyway.

That's as far as I've got so far - 14 pages.  But I am enjoying it; high-paced action to start the story mixed with some "here's-what-happened-for-those-of-you-who-don't-read-star-wars" fluff in the background.