Heating it Up

Hey there! I know, I've been fairly quiet, but that's 'cause I've been very busy. Doing what, you ask? Finalizing edits on Alien Research, starting Alien Collective, and hitting some movie premieres, because it's good to be a reviewer for Slice of SciFi. But, things have been going on, so let's get to them, shall we? We shall!

 First up, if you've been waiting for the physical copy of The Happy Acres Haunted Hotel for Active Seniors wait no more. It's now available at Amazon, and will be at some independent bookstores soon.

Next, and speaking of movie reviews, check out my latest review, of Star Trek: Into Darkness, over at Slice of SciFi.

Then, see what Bring on the Books thought of Alien in the House.

I also saw The Heat, and because I'm a giver, here's the review, hot off the presses, no waiting!

The Heat stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in a buddy cop movie. I really enjoyed this movie, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being I love Sandra Bullock and I think Melissa McCarthy's hilarious. But I also enjoyed it for the very reasons it was made -- because there aren't enough buddy comedies for and about women out there.

Sandra's the straitlaced, really good FBI agent who isn't liked by her male coworkers because she's smarter and better at the job than they are. Melissa's the sloppy, break the rules detective who doesn't want the FBI on her turf. They have to team up, of course, in part because Sandra's bucking for a big promotion and her boss is telling her that if she teams up with the local detective and if she solves the case, she may get the promotion. But since she's not well liked, it's an iffy subject.

Melissa, on the other hand, has her precinct under her very effective control. They're afraid of her, but she's the best cop there, and they all know it. It's following the standard buddy cop formula you've seen, and loved, in countless other movies, and it works here because a) the formula DOES work, b) the script is good, and c) the leads have good chemistry on the screen and with each other.

One of the most interesting things for me about this movie is that if you put two men into the leading roles, the movie would work exactly the same way as it does now -- it'd be really funny with a lot of action, a tiny bit of romance, and your typical Odd Couple pairing. Right up until the ending.

I'm not going to spoil the ending, because it's a right on ending. But I think it's an ending you wouldn't get if the two leads were male. You'd get half of the ending, Melissa's ending, for certain. But Sandra's? That ending would be different. Sadly, Sandra's ending is the real world ending. I realize this is vague, but I don't want to ruin a fun movie by giving away its ending. But when you get there, think about how Sandra's ending would have been if, say, her character had been played by Mark Wahlberg or The Rock.

The one thing I hated, and I do mean HATED, about this movie? It's opening and closing credits. They're literally like something out of the 1970's, and there's no real reason for it (other than the production team feels this is a kind of throwback film to that era of moviemaking). However, it sets up the moving badly, and ends it badly. I can't think of another movie where the opening and closing credits have turned me off so much that they caused me to lower my grade on the film, but there's a first time for everything, and this is that time.

There's some gross humor, and this movie earns its R rating, mostly for language and violence. I enjoyed it, I laughed pretty much all the way through it, and give it a very solid B+. It missed an A- due to those awful credits. I'm a tough grader, what can I say?

That's it for today, but as always, more's on the way. So, enjoy the downward slide to the weekend, and let's be readers out there! Peace out, my li'l gangstas, and I'll catch you on the flip side!

Love,
Gini