Star Wars The Force Awakens review

STAR WARS 4

The Force Awakens

 So I finally got around to watching Star Wars 4 the force awakens. Just so you know there is going to be spoilers here, if you haven’t seen the movie, go watch it already.

SPOILERS!

 And I have got to say it’s pretty good. After the abysmal prequel nonsense, it’s great to finally see the story from the first three movies actually continued.

 We are introduced to the first order, which seem to have replaced the empire as the big bad of the series. Its sightly odd that they have their own branding and uniforms, but some time has passed since the last movie.

 The Jedi are gone again, and no one believes they existed, which is strange. There is a major light-sabre wielding villain so I’m not sure how such disbelief can exist so soon. Maybe the big bad mind wiped the universe or something.

 That’s the general back drop; we are then introduced to some scavenger woman and a Stormtrooper. This seems like it’s going to be a ham-fisted romance. A romance hammered into a sci-fi because there has to be a straight male lead and a female object of his affection. 

 This seems like it’s going to be a little better as the hero is the woman and her love interest is played by an African American.

 But then Poe enters, and I almost think I see flirting from the two male leads, Finn the Storm trooper and Poe the rebel pilot. I think maybe the actors just had amazing chemistry. But no that’s actual flirting, there actually romancing each other. 

 I am amazed, a romance between two male characters in star wars. They have taken a tired and overused movie-trope and just altered it slightly, but it’s beautiful and it’s refreshing. 

 Some highlights for me were; Finn recognises Poe’s flying skills and is overjoyed to see he survived. Poe lets Finn keep wearing his team jacket, just like a high school romance, which is adorable. 

 I also have to say I like the practical effects, there was some CGI of course, but the movie didn’t seem too saturated with it.

 I am very happy that Finn is a great role model, a former Stormtrooper who becomes a Jedi. On top of that he’s played by an African American and is in love with a male rebel pilot. It’s great to see such inclusion. I remember watching the originals when I was a kid, I can’t imagine how more well-adjusted I would have been if Luke had had a male love interest, instead of his sister.

 My only concern is that this romance was only just developing; I worry that bigots will harass the team to destroy the romance. I hope they don’t retcon Poe and Finns love. It’s really the one thing that made this movie stand out. Otherwise it’s just kind of redoing the first movie.

 I hope the fans of Star Wars don’t allow the dark side of bigotry and hate to influence their appreciation of this movie.

 As it stands now with the burgeoning relationship between Finn and Poe i give this movie; 4 out of 5.

Book Review: HvH presents Gone to the Movies

 Gone To The Movies

Artist:                                   HvH

Publisher:                            Bruno Gmunder        

Type:                                    Hard Cover

Pages:                                   61

Genre:                                  Art

Published:                           2008

ISBN:                                  9783861878865

Source:                                Independently purchased 

This is going to be a slightly different book review, mostly because this is an art book. This book is Adult and NSFW it does portray nudity and adult situations. It also states boldly that all models and characters are 18 years and older.

So before we start meet Winky, he’s a funny little fellow who likes to photobomb, more specifically he likes to block the view of the private parts. He usually spends his time hanging out near my bathroom or bedroom mirror but decided to join in on this blog. Mr Winky does not come with the book and the book contains full frontal male, erect nudity.

The book itself is a beautifully HARD bound; it seems well made and durable enough. The paper is THICK, not quite cardboard but damn close. The colours are vibrant and the art is spectacular.

We start things off with an introduction by Eric Arvin author.  The book is basically a parody of movie posters, re-imagined with a gay theme. 

The book is divided into sections; Classics, Science Fiction, Action, Horror, Thriller, Drama, Comedy, and Musical. I won’t spoil all the pages for you, i will list just a few of the movies these pictures parodied instead.

Cleopatra, Nosferatu, King Kong. Star Wars, Aliens Vs Predator, Planet of the Apes, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Nightmare on Elm street, Friday the 13^th, and Night of the Living Dead, there are over 50 so this is a small selection.

This book is excellent; it is fun to flick through and see the fantastic art, and to imagine if movies were a little gayer. 

I highly recommend this book, it would be great for any gay man (there is no lesbianism in this book), movie lover or art lover.

The only issue I have is that I want to get some of these in full movie poster size format and i would have loved for the book to be LONGER.

 The Artist HVH has his own NSFW Blogspot website.

The publisher has a website where you can buy direct, it would also contain adult materials.

Book Review; How to survive a sharknado

How to survive a sharknado 

and other unnatural disasters

Fight back when monsters and mother nature attack

Authors:                                Andrew Shaffer with contributions  
                                               by Fin Shepard & April Wexler 
Illustrations:                         Michael Lee

Design:                                  Book- Chad Tomlinson
                                               Cover- Richard Yoo

Publisher:                             Three Rivers Press          

Type:                                     TPB

Pages:                                    225

Genre:                                   ???

Published:                            2014

ISBN:                                    9978-0-553-41813-2

Source:                                 Independently purchased 

*

 The book is much smaller than the one shown in Sharknado 2. The book is lavishly illustrated with each entry having at least one large picture and a few small pictures scattered about. It is a visual delight and I am sure all the art is original.

 It is made in the style of a survival guide. Each entry has ratings on threat, frequency and wow factor. The entry opens with a full page illustration and a short description, there the guide is divided into study, avoid, and survive entry.  A short description of an encounter with the subject is often given, and it makes for an interesting read. There are often extra boxes with various bits of information in them.The humor is very tongue in cheek, and brought a smile thought.

For the creepy crawly ‘fans’ out there we have entry’s on; Antdemic (zombie virus spreading giant flying fire ants), Arachnoquake (Giant fire spitting, venomous spiders), Beeclipse (Gigantic honey bees warm that is equally aggressive and deadly) and the Mongolian Death Worm (subterranean, electricity breathing, venomous giant grubs).

For the shark ‘lovers’ we have; Sharknado, Dinoshark, Ghost shark, Sharktopus, and the Swamp shark.

Those interested in cryptozoology may find the entries on Saber tooth tiger, Bigfoot, Mega Python, Mongolian Death Worm, Mothman and the Cave Bear interesting to see a fictionalised take on real life monsters.

My favorite entrys are the Electrokraken and the Sharktopus, but there are many more to choose from, thirty five to be exact.

The appendices include; a survival test, how to make an unnatural disaster survival kit, emergency supply list for your car, two very short storys a filmography. 

The filmography is very useful as most of the subjects in the book just happen to coincide with titles of movies. A fan of modern B-Grade monster movies will find this a delightful reference.

 About the Author:

Andrew Shaffer has written Literary rogues, Fifty Shames of Earl Grey and Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love. 

Fin Shepard and April Wexler are both Sharknado survivors. 

*This book was difficult to give a score to, but i think it sets out to do what it aims to do quite well. A larger format with some colour pictures would be excellent, perhaps a delux expanded edition. 
The book does incorrectly label the Chupacabra as a mythological monster, when it is a cryptid, but to its credit the book does point out that the Chupacabra looks nothing like a coyote.

If you are the artist of the middle Chupacabra please let me know.