my reads: ‘The Passage’ by Justin Cronin
I admit I fell prey to the summer-blockbuster-read hype that got whipped up around *The Passage,* the first mainstream novel by literary writer Justin Cronin. Vampire novel! But sorta literary!
Stephen King
‘Haven’ debuts on Syfy tonight…
…and I’m sorry to say that it’s a bit of a snooze, judging by the premiere episode, which I had the chance to watch in rough cut. More than a bit of a snooze, actually. FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) travels to the small Maine seaside town of Haven to, she hopes, recapture a … more…
question of the day: Ron Howard’s Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’? No, seriously: What are these people thinking?
Have you read any of Stephen King’s series The Dark Tower? No? Imagine if Clint Eastwood and James Joyce collaborated on a trippy fantasy about the mystical quest of a gunslinger. It’s weird and fascinating and has inspired a cultish following (and I really need to read more of the series [Amazon U.S.] [Amazon Canada] … more…
February 26: DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but soldiers in gas masks have your town surrounded and will shoot on sight if you try to leave. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on … more…
question of the weekend: What books do you read over and over again (or wish you had the time to reread)?
This weekend’s question was prompted by a conversation with my pal bronxbee, in which we lamented the fact that it’s almost impossible to keep up with all the new books being published that we’d like to read, never mind rereading all the books we love. (This is a not infrequent converation of ours.) So: What … more…
The Mist movie review: we have met the monsters…
Frank Darabont’s adaptations of Stephen King’s writings are not just some of the best mountings of the writer’s work but some of the best films, period, of recent years. So I don’t think it’s too outrageous — or too surprising — to say that ‘The Mist’ is not only one of the best movies of 2007, it’s one of the best horror movies ever made. Period.
Misery (review)
Annie Wilkes is King’s best psycho and one of the most banally malevolent visions of evil ever depicted onscreen — as played by the extraordinary Kathy Bates, she is a terror of frighteningly everyday proportions. A lonely, abandoned woman living in the Colorado mountains, her greatest solace comes from the romance novels of author Paul Sheldon (James Caan), all of which feature an heroine with the unlikely name of Misery.
