Book and Movie Reports by Ed

movie report: Jurassic World In the movie Jurassic World — you're never going to believe this! — scientists manage to re-create living dinosaurs, and exhibit them in a kind of park! Then, in a totally unforeseen turn of events, some of the dinosaurs actually escape from captivity and begin terrorizing innocent people!! Not only that, but in a fantastically out-of-nowhere development, among those terrorized are 2 kids whose lives have been shaken by their parents' divorce!!! Astonishingly, there are some bad people who are only interested in the dinosaurs for money or for military purposes, but — in a who-could-have-seen-this-coming shocker — they are killed by the very dinosaurs they sought to exploit!!!! Then, in an absolutely mind-blowing plot twist, the best-looking man and the best-looking woman on the island manage to get over their differences and work together to defeat the dinosaurs with pluck and courage!!!!! Plus — hold onto your hat! — they save the 2

::spoilers ahead:: Okay, so I finally got up the courage to watch "Fear the Walking Dead" last night. I really liked it. It's not The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later. It's like a meta of those. There's a suspense and a tension that I really liked. These people have no idea of the hell that their handbasket is headed for, but WE do, and everything that we see them do is seen with the knowledge that the shit is truly about to hit the fan. I think the show's creators/writers are actually really clever about how they're exploiting this situation, with us knowing what's coming the whole way. It reminds me of what Hitchcock said about the difference between thrills and suspense. Imagine a scene where 2 guys enter a room, talk about baseball for 5 minutes, and then boom! -- a bomb explodes, killing one or both of them. It's a shock. It's a surprise. It's a thrill. Now change that scene in one way: we see the bomber setting the bomb for 5 min

Movie report: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 “The Dark Knight Returns” is probably my favorite Batman story of all time. The four-issue 1986 graphic novel by Frank Miller and Klaus Jonson contains not only terrific lines (“This would be a good death. But not good enough.”), but some of the most striking images ever. Part 1 of this story was turned into an animated film in 2012, and why it’s taken me so long to see it, I have no idea. The animated film is terrific, totally faithful to the original, but making it all more real. The premise of the story is that Batman has been retired for ten years, partly due, we learn, to the death of the second Robin, Jason Todd. The now 55-year-old Bruce Wayne has been trying to channel his energies into  the rehabilitation of villains like Two-Face and Joker, as well as indulging in ultra-macho, near-suicidal hobbies such as racing Formula One cars out of which he has ripped the safety equipment. In those ten years, Gotham City has