Author Archives: Descartes

John Carter

I can’t remember the last time I watched a Disney movie-oh yeah, it was Tron 2.  Shudder. John Carter of Mars is the story of a US Civil War vet who ends up transported to Mars, where he has amazing adventures and wins the heart of a Princess.  The CGI is good enough, it looks

Fiction Ruined My Family

Jeanne Darst recounts a life filled with wrong choices, poor decisions, and a general lack of interest from her alcoholic parents and her apathetic sisters.  As might be expected, this is not a happy story, but it has it’s occasional funny bits.  I can’t think of any at the moment, but I did smile once or

The Rum Diary

The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson is the story of a wanna be writer who fakes his resume to get a job at a Puerto Rico newspaper.  Johnny Depp plays Paul Kemp, whose job at the newspaper includes such hot topics as the daily horoscope and league bowling scores.  In his spare time he

Homeland on Showtime

There are some shows that should only be one season.  Heroes and Prison Break would have made pretty good one season shows, as they quickly lost their way after the first season.  Damian Lewis had his own short lives series, Life, which should have been left off at one season. The first season of Homeland

Absinthe & Flamethrowers

How cool is a book that gives you detailed instructions on how to make gunpowder?  Pretty damned cool. Turns out there is more to making black powder-as author William Gurstelle prefers to call his gun powder-than Captain Kirk made it look when was kicking Gorn ass with a bamboo cannon. For one thing, you need

Distrust That Particular Flavor

William Gibson has written some great novels and one of my all time favorite short stories-Burning Chrome.  Most of his stuff has not held up well over time, he talks a little too much about Virtual Reality-even after it’s pretty much turned out to be a bit of a bust. Or maybe it just hasn’t

Alcatraz

Alcatraz is the story of time traveling murders and the people who want to catch them before they kill again.  It’s a good show on many levels, the actors are great, the production values are high, and who doesn’t long for a glimpse of the good old days of prison life in the early 1960s? The

The Annual Dallas Cowboys Rant

What’s wrong with the Dallas Cowboys?  Owner Jerry Jones. It’s been the tradition on local talk radio to call for the head of Jerry Jones after the final loss of the season.  But yesterday the usual rabble rousers were replaced by some college football game, so I had to listen to another sports talk station.

The Book of Unwritten Tales

The Book of Unwritten Tales is the best adventure game to come out since last year’s Gray Matter from Jane Jensen.  It’s another throw back to the glory days of Sierra Online and LucasArts point and click games. The Book of Unwritten Tales features great voice acting, beautiful graphics, and a story that is chock

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

I liked Mission:Impossible-Ghost Protocol.  The story of four agents duking it out with a Supervillian and a Russian Cop.  Along the way things blow up, people get chased, cars crash, and there are a lot of pretty cool fights.  Ghost Protocol is the kind of movie you walk out of the theater looking for someone