Dobro's gets a 3 out of 5 for overall quality. I felt like they were skimping on ingredients and using pre-baked doughs to compensate for a short prep staff. Maybe they were too busy to my pizza with an appropriate quantity of love. Not only was the cheese lacking, it wasn't fully melted. That's an issue, however delicious the pie was. With an overall score of 80%, there's no doubt I'll be coming back for more.
In this Season of the Witch, Cage and Ron Perlman play buddy Crusader heroes, the best of their brutal breed. With each battle, whoever killed less than the other had to buy drinks for the night. What fun. Eventually they saw the hypocrisy in killing for God, and became deserters. However, Cage's character still wanted to be a hero, and as chance would have it, the two warriors get a chance to save a witch, or at least have her exorcised.
After some really weak battle scenes, the adventure ensues. There are some fun sword fights with a young cleric with surprising prowess. Then there's a scene with a rickety bridge. Standard fare for this genre. I see how this film seemed like a good idea at the time, but its end product failed on most levels.
I understand that medieval settings are tricky and expensive, but there were a lot of bad shots in this film. In most scenes, there's no sense of space and pacing, as there are rarely more than one or two people in each shot, constantly cutting from one to the next.
The hero boys talk to each other more like badasses in a western and less like the Teutonic knights they should be. With Perlman, there isn't much dialogue. He mostly responds with tough one liners before moving on to smash things. With Season of the Witch, there are no surprises and no immersion.
Through the tollbooth, he finds himself in a magical world in which every abstraction is a reality. He has to put logic back into this world by restoring the rule of Rhyme and Reason, or somethinglike that. Honestly, I thought this book was super boring, with a lot of words that don't mean much aside from an allegory for Don't Be Bored.
Maybe if I was a little kid, the imaginings of this piece would have had more of an impact for me, but I already had an imagination. I was already interested in learning about things, and doing things. So it may have put into words some of the things that were already in my childish heart. As an adult, it felt like the ramblings of a punisher.
So I very much appreciate his elaboration on the tricks he uses to hook readers, though you should be able to figure it out by reading his other books. Now I know, if I had the talent, how to write like Chuck. While every writer intends to have their own style, I do see the value in what he shares.
If you're a writer, I definitely recommend this book. And like most books by authors on writing, he included a long reading list, mostly of stuff that inspires his own work. Stuff heavy on hooks and voice. All good stuff.
It tells the story of a sheltered young girl, stupidly innocent, and hungry for a real experience. As it turns out, these real experiences in life can be pretty awful. And she finds herself a dangerous attachment to a racecar driving man whose talent leans heavily on detachment and dysfunction.
While this isn't my favorite of Oates's novels, it's overflowing with the darkness, juice, and drama her fans have come to expect. If you haven't read anything by her before, I think this is a fine place to start, seeing how it's easier to stomach than some of her other books.