Mandy (feat. Nicolas Cage)

Do you like heavy metal, sci-fi, and 80s horror? If so, this is the film for you. And it feels more genuine than pandering to its demographic. It feels good. Almost every shot fades to black, and fades in from black. The psychedelic touches don't go too far, turning the film into an incomprehensible mess. Mysteries built in the first half of the movie are resolved in the second half, but getting there is dreadfully slow with an emphasis on Dread.

And then you figure out Mandy is yet another Cage revenge/Cage saves girl movie. Despite Cage's wonderful performance within the powerful flex of director Panos Cosmatos, this is just a fancied-up version of every other Cage film of the era. I really thought there was going to be a stronger sci-fi element, but there wasn't. Despite a wonderfully immersive presentation, Mandy hardly qualifies as a horror film. So with its merits, I will rank it higher than the other Cage's other revenge films. But gosh, I was really hoping for something more original.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess
11. Snake Eyes

12. Mandy

13. Dog Eat Dog
14. Color Out of Space
15. Mom and Dad
16. World Trade Center
17. Peggy Sue Got Married
18. Zandalee
19. Prisoners of the Ghostland
20. City of Angels
21. Willy's Wonderland
22. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
23. Bangkok Dangerous
24. Drive Angry
25. Army of One
26. Lord of War
27. Gone in 60 Seconds
28. Matchstick Men
29. Vampire's Kiss
30. Con Air
31. Face/Off
32. Trapped in Paradise
33. The Boy in Blue
34. Honeymoon in Vegas
35. Kill Chain
36. Deadfall
37. Amos and Andrew
38. Moonstruck
39. Tokarev
40. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
41. Knowing
42. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
43. Bringing Out the Dead
44. The Family Man
45. Stolen
46. It Could Happen to You
47. 8mm
48. The Frozen Ground
49. Left Behind
50. A Score to Settle
51. Pay the Ghost
52. Primal
53. Dying of the Light
54. Grand Isle
55. Looking Glass
56. Arsenal
57. Between Worlds
58. Ghost Rider
59. Trespass
60. The Humanity Bureau
61. Next
62. The Weather Man
63. 211
64. Fire Birds
65. The Croods

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

I may have read the rest of Bukowski's novels, this being his last which tells his life story as lived by Henry Chinaski. He's an old fashioned drunk ass hole. Everything is ugly from the view of this ugly man. And there's a definite poeticism to it. There's a reason Bukowski's so famous.

He doesn't waste his reader's time, regardless of what contempt he might feel for anyone who might pick up his books. Bukowski's writing was likely the only good thing he did. And there's something special about that. Every page is indulgent and juicy. And the scenes of the first and last time his dad beat him come out like songs. Dark songs before their time.

We could talk for ever about separating art from their artists, and I think every case is different. Often art is the good that comes from the most depressing of realities and delusions. To create is to channel the good and move forward, connecting the quiet within to the nastiness on outside.

The high points in Bukowski's story are mostly about getting in fights and peeping on his neighbors, masturbating in the bushes. And one who can make others feel happy for them in such moments must have a gift. That's my piece on Bukowski. You've heard of him and you already have an opinion.

Dying of the Light (feat. Nicolas Cage)

This 2014 film tells the story of an old CIA agent who can't give up the search for the terrorist Muhammid Banir, who broke off part of his ear. But it's not quite what you'd expect. The film starts off with an edgy speech by Evan Lake (Cage), on why you should choose to be in the CIA. The reason is American Values, whatever that means.

Lake was told 20 years ago to get off the case of Banir, who was dead as far as anyone knew. But of course, Lake couldn't give up and couldn't stop thinking about it. And eventually he comes down with a case of frontotemporal dementia, causing sensory distortions that will continue to get worse until they kill Agent Lake, a condition he tries to hide from the CIA.

With this condition you might expect to see some severe performances from Cage like in Matchstick Men and Bad Leutenant, but that's not the case here. Lake's young protege finds evidence that Banir is alive, but dying of some form of anemia. So said protege, for no logical reason, risks his career to help a dying agent go after his dying nemesis. Aside from being a criminal, the only thing Lake has against him is the missing piece of his stupid ear.

In Romania, they meet the only female character in the film, who also happens to be a past love interest of Cage's character. Like 80% of these Cage films. The stakes are pretty low here, and viewers are never given a reason to care about any character. I might dare to say the characters in this film are stupid. Lake is in the CIA, so he doesn't have a family or anything. He's just an anonymous agent who's going to die soon anyway. After a weak action scene and a vh1-esque hallucination scene, it all ends with someone getting poked in the eye really hard.

So this movie isn't very good. There are some mildly oppulant bad parts, but nothing really worth seeing.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess
11. Snake Eyes
12. Dog Eat Dog
13. Color Out of Space
14. Mom and Dad
15. World Trade Center
16. Peggy Sue Got Married
17. Zandalee
18. Prisoners of the Ghostland
19. City of Angels
20. Willy's Wonderland
21. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
22. Bangkok Dangerous
23. Drive Angry
24. Army of One
25. Lord of War
26. Gone in 60 Seconds
27. Matchstick Men
28. Vampire's Kiss
29. Con Air
30. Face/Off
31. Trapped in Paradise
32. The Boy in Blue
33. Honeymoon in Vegas
34. Kill Chain
35. Deadfall
36. Amos and Andrew
37. Moonstruck
38. Tokarev
39. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
40. Knowing
41. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
42. Bringing Out the Dead
43. The Family Man
44. Stolen
45. It Could Happen to You
46. 8mm
47. The Frozen Ground
48. Left Behind
49. A Score to Settle
50. Pay the Ghost
51. Primal

52. Dying of the Light

53. Grand Isle
54. Looking Glass
55. Arsenal
56. Between Worlds
57. Ghost Rider
58. Trespass
59. The Humanity Bureau
60. Next
61. The Weather Man
62. 211
63. Fire Birds
64. The Croods

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

This is the novelization of a BBC miniseries written by the famous Neil Gaiman. It has a lot of the comic book style characters in the fantastical other side of London. Richard Mayhew, a young and somewhat passive businessman gets to Neverwhere on accident, after saving the life of a young heiress named Door, with the special ability to open any Door, or make a Door appear anywhere.

It's a good power, but there are evil forces who intend to threaten and trick her into opening a Door that should not be opened. There's lots of danger and excitement. Written years before Gaiman's famous American Gods, there's some bloat in this book as a means to show how clever the writing is. And it's really clever, entertaining stuff. I think anyone can get into this book, no matter what their usual taste is. There's mystery, monsters, danger, slow burning romance, and violence among sexiest and the ugliest of warriors. Check it out.

Pizza Inn of Frankfort Kentucky

Until today I'd never been to a Pizza Inn, and I'd only ever seen them in Kentucky, so I do consider it a regional chain. Though I could be wrong. I ordered for pick-up since Justine and I were traveling with our dog, but the buffet looked really good. The lady on the phone gave me three options for crust: Thin, New York, or Italian. So I chose Italian, whatever that means. The ratio for our large cheese was 2.5cr/2ce/2ch.

Their Italian crust gets a 2 out of 5 for me. With a slight cardboard vibe, the flavor just wasn't there, aside from the garlic butter on the handles. While it all held together, the crust was dry and could've used more chew or more grease, and definitely more yeast.

Their sauce gets a 3 out of 5. While somewhat thin, the tomato base was sweet and the herbs were more savory than floral. For overall quality, Pizza Inn gets a 4. It was very satisfying to devour. =

For style, Pizza Inn also gets a 4. They had a game room, and my pizza plus side of red sauce was only $11. What a deal! All the stuff on their buffet looked really good. I wonder why the lady on the phone didn't mention their pan pizza? I don't know. She made me spell my last name and somehow remembered PJ as JP. What can you do? With a final score of 65%, I'd like to give Pizza Inn another shot, especially with their buffet. I can't believe it took me 35 years to try it.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Here's another one that seems like everyone has read except for me. From the kid-loving empath, Lois Lowry, this is the story of a utopian society and the dark side of it. I guess the lesson is that not everything is as it seems. Life without pain and rain often goes without joy and rainbows.

Every kid and every person is generally the same, with their occupations chosen for them at age twelve. Jonas is chosen for a special job, though. He is to be the Receiver, the receiver of all memories of life before their safe community where everyone's granted a bike and nobody steals anything. Jonas is given the right to lie, which nobody ever does, but he has to because he's given all of this secret knowledge from the former receiver. The Giver.

That's probably enough spoilers for you. It's a pretty good, short little book. It's for kids after all. And I got through it pretty easily, without the shock and awe I might have felt in the early to mid 90s. Still I'm happy to have joined the Giver party I'd been missing all these years.

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle by Michael Moorcock

Since Zelazny was getting stale I decided to return to one of my favorite writers of exciting fantasy and swords and sorcery, Michael Moorcock, famous for his Elric of Melnibone. Picking up this book, I didn't know exactly what it was about. I know Moorcock was in the band Hawkwind, and probably had something to say about the synergy of high fantasy and rock music. And maybe he did.

But this book is about the Sex Pistols, somehow related to their rockmuentary titled The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, which I've never seen. Not a lot in this book made sense to me. I didn't know who most of the characters are. But there's a definite fantasy element. All the great anarchistic thinkers of the past hang out in the afterlife, at the Hendrix cafe. There's some commentary on the new Anarchy rock, which by accident, almost makes anarchy really happen.

Moorcock gives us a little speculation on how the Sex Pistols came to be, and the motivations behind their advent. Managers needed a band of non-musicians who had no control over their act and their art. The business needed a new group. They didn't have to be good, just new. And the would-be rockers needed beer money. And it's the need of beer money that drives this wacky story in a world of 70's punk rock where anything can happen. But should you read it? Sure. It'd be nice to get a second take, because half the time I couldn't tell what was going on.