A nerd before the birth of TOS Red Shirts, I share my thoughts on genre media be it books, movies, TV shows, etc

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Family Fueds

Fast & Furious 6

What can one say about this franchise?  It maintains the kinetic car carnage and mixes a team of misfits that form a family to tackle the next set of baddies. Round it out with a likable cast with liberal sprinklings of humor and this has become a franchise built to last.



Too long by 20 minutes, there is a whole section where Paul Walker's character goes off his own to prison to find out some information, that could be excised from the movie with nary a beat mixed.  Vin Diesel growls his way through the movie, and performs one death defying feat that exceeds even the loose limits of physics established within the franchise framework.  The Rock is suitably pumped up but his cop character could be played by anyone.

The franchise is already revved up for a sequel with the ending sequence revealing who the big bad for the next installment is.  And the reveal is a biggie.  Fellow action star Jason Statham will lock horns with Diesel in FF7.

~~~



Ghost Brothers of Darkland County - Stephen King, John Cougar, & T. Bone Burnett

My hardcover edition has been in the house for awhile and after several listens of the 17 tracks there is a lot to like in this album.  I rate at least 10 of the tracks very listenable and actually they stand on their own with no knowledge of the play needed to enjoy them.

Overall I'm happy with this edition - gorgeous sleeve to hold the book, which is a soft, dark brown pebble that looks like a photo album.  Wish it was hard cover too though.




The major knock I have is there is no full version of the play on either the DVD or the CDs.  Disappointing.  The minor knock I have is the discs are stored in cut out pockets on the inside of the back cover.  Would have much preferred jewel cases. A matter of preference.  

The book is much larger than I expected, it's 11 x 11 inches - thought it would be more disc sized - which is great because it makes reading the Libretto so much easier with the larger text.  Reminds me of a LP album.

All in all a very nice package with 2 fumbles.

1 comment:

Bryant Burnette said...

I loved the music, but I found the packaging to be a bit of a bummer. For one thing, calling it a hardcover is a cheat; really, it's a softcover inside a slipcase, although I don't even really think of it as a book at all -- to me it's just gussied-up liner notes.

Plus, the shelf most of my King stuff is one is ever so slightly too short for it to sit there beside "Joyland"!

I also really disliked the fact that the whole thing was white words on black paper. That made it annoying to sit and read for an extended period of time.

Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter. It's really all about the music, which is terrific.