Review – Page 56 – Mosher'sUnimaginativelyEntitledBlog

The Butterfly Effect 2

I think I’m about the only person in the world who liked The Butterfly Effect, at least according to every review I’ve ever seen. This sequel, imaginatively called The Butterfly Effect 2, was a straight-to-DVD effort and it deserved to be as such.

As with many of these lower-budget outings, none of the original cast are involved. The basic premise of the original has been taken, applied to new characters and allowed to run for ninety minutes. However, unlike such sequels as the Final Destination trilogy (soon to be a fourth, I believe) or the Saw films (hell, even the first of the non-cinema American Pie duo), this one’s just not that good.

While the original actually had some drama and the whole novel idea, this sideways sequel is just bland. Rather than being an extension to the original in some way, it’s basically the same idea with different characters, but nowhere near the drama the original film had.

The acting is capable enough, but there are no real twists and the ending is about as flat and predictable as it gets.

Don’t listen to the critics. Give the first one a try. But stop there and leave this one sat on the shelf.

Pay the Devil by Jack Higgins

Cover of "Pay the Devil" — Jack Higgins - Pay The Devil

After the last Jack Higgins book, I wasn’t holding out much hope but Pay The Devil was much better. Originally written under a pseudonym, it was re-released some time ago and bundled in a 2-novel volume that I picked up in Ko Tao.

The archaic writing style which partially spoiled the last novel works well in this one. It’s set in the US and Ireland around the end of the American Civil War so the language used actually adds to the story rather than making it feel clunky. It’s a fairly simple sale, too, with a handful of characters a good pace and some decent technical and historical points being raised.

As ever at the moment, I don’t have time to delve deeper, but I do recommend this if you have a lazy afternoon or two to spare.

Book catchup

Cover of "The Danger" — Pick of the bunch

No time to scrawl reviews (OK, I can’t be arsed), but I like to keep a note of what I’ve read. So recently I’ve made my way through:

The Travelling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon – not too bad, though not one of his best. 7/8 of the novel is very A Painted House with nothing really happening. Then the horror happens in the last couple of chapters. Basically, it feels like an overgrown novella but it reads well enough for it.

Outbreak by Robin Cook – it’s been a while since I read a Cook novel so I’ve got past the “they all seem the same” phase. Enjopyable, good characters, although a very predictable “twist” at the end.

The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver – not one of his best, and he’s managed to shoehorn Lincoln Rhyme into it, as he always seems to. It’s fairly sizable for a Deaver and it does feel a little padded. You can pretty much see the chapters that would be cleaved out were it to be made into a film. Otherwise, a good read, although – maybe I’m developing psychic abilities – yet another predictable “twist”.

The Danger by Dick Francis – the first Francis I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. Short, compact, whatever. Compared to the first and third books above, this was far better. No additional padding, some great detail (although dated, given it’s 1980s publishing period), a bare minimum of characters and a good plot. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for more of his stuff.

Edge of Danger by Jack Higgins – again, the first book I’ve read by a pretty popular author and I wasn’t too impressed. A little like my first exposure to Wilbur Smith – the story’s not too bad (though Smith’s was better) but the language and diction is very out of date. I thought It had been written in the 1970s until I came across a reference to the Millennium Dome. Still, it’s onle novel in a 2-novel volume so I’ll plough through the second as well and see how it goes.

Goal 3

I have some spare time so I’m rattling off a quick review of Goal! 3, the third and final in the Goal! series.

After enjoying the second one while I was back home I had high hopes for this installment, but sadly felt a little let down for most of it. The plot that had been built up with Santi was all but thrown away and he becomes a background character. Instead the story focuses on two of the England squad as they go through the run up and matches of World Cup 2006.

Don’t expect history to change much over the course of the movie. Also, don’t expect great chroma-key effects. It’s surprising that, given this was always intended to be a trilogy, the budget for this third outing seems so visibly smaller than the first.

On the plus side, once the initial “what’s going on?” effect has passed, the story isn’t that bad. Following the path taken by Goal 2, the writers have focussed even more on the characters than the football which is now more a background setting. In fact, by the end of the film you are sat thinking that there are more important things in life than kicking an inflated pigskin around.

And the thing is, it’s true.

In a way, that does make it a good ending to the trilogy. I was just amazed to see the whole Santi thing vanish. It was the hugest of hooks at the end of the second movie to drag you (or at least me) in for the final installment and, frankly, you don’t actually have to have seen the first two to make sense of the third.

Yes, it’s predictable. Yes, it’s just a soap on the big screen (well, straight-to-DVD screen). But it’s a soap based around football so it’s OK for blokes to watch it.

One tiny highlight is an appearance by Mike “I destroyed Newcastle, I am a fat bastard” Ashley. He’s only there for a minute and his only dialogue is a short, miserable line of profanity. Which is pretty apt, really.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

On a scale of “meh” to “wow”,Â Revenge of the Fallen makes the mercury explode from the top of the thermometer in glorious CG red splashes.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: there’s a plot? Oh, yeah. Some metal thing puts some mumbo-jumbo into the kid from the first film’s head and the bad guys want it. Which means lots of robots beating the crap out of each other.

I was listening to Radio 5 Live on the way back and someone connected with the upcoming feature Moon spent a good few minutes absolutely slating Transformers 2. The basis for his argument was that science fiction is – or at least used to be – about things other than big robots hitting each other. He’s right, you know. The likes of Soylent Green, The Omega Man and 2001 were definitely more high brow than this… but Transformers has big sodding robots from another planet! If that’s not science fiction, I don’t know what is.

Sure, there’s only a basic story – enough to hang a few gazillion computer calculations off – but there are also a fair few laughs and some quite outstanding action sequences. Oh, and there’s Megan Fox for the eye candy. At least I’m assuming she’s stunning – it’s hard to tell when it’s so patently obvious she’s wearing enough makeup for Optimus Prime to cover up his wrinkles.

If I had to pick a stand-out performance, I’d go for John Turturro as the voice of Jetfire. Whoever decided to make him an aging Brit was a genius. Watching a hulking rustbucket on two legs stagger around and say “bollocks” helps take the Transformers out of “object” territory and into “character”.

If I have a complaint about the film it’s that there’s just too much going on at times. The screen is only so big and the effects so complex that I just felt like I couldn’t take it all in. A shame that there isn’t a local IMAX screen as this is most definitely a movie that would benefit from the additional screen real estate. I believe the IMAX version is also a noticable amount longer.

Science fiction comes in many flavours. As do summer blockbusters. Revenge of the Fallen fits well into both categories and they don’t bust blocks much bigger than this.

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