This guy directed Star Wars Rogue One!
Continue readingAuthor: Elena Nola
Top 10 Science Fiction Movies of the Decade 2000-2009
All the end-of-year/decade lists going up right now inspired me to hit one up of my own. And all the hype about James Cameron’s Avatar, which is being trumpeted as some sort of monumental science fiction …
Continue readingPlayin’ With Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Jon Snow Chapter 19
She’s new, I’m the re-reader. She’s the newbie, I’m the spoilery vet. Together She’s g-mashin’ George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting here POV on. Today she moves on to Chapter 19, a …
Continue readingPlayin’ With Ice and Fire: A Game of Thoughts | Catelyn Stark Chapter 18
She’s new, I’m the re-reader. She’s the newbie, I’m the spoilery vet. Together She’s g-mashin’ George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and getting here POV on. Today she moves on to Chapter 18, a …
Continue readingBest Fantasy Movies of the Decade: 2000-2009
When I was asked to write a companion piece to my Best Science Fiction Movies of the Decade list, I thought it would be equally as easy. I was wrong. There were a lot of …
Continue readingThe Scott Pilgrim Girlfriend Test
So you’ve finally met a girl who seems cool. Outlook: positive…except that you can’t figure out how to suss out her level of nerdery without offending her or seeming even geekier than you are by …
Continue readingJessica Bendinger Interview – Bringing It On
A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Jessica Bendinger, screen writer, director, and now author. Her best-known work, at least in my age demographic, is writing Bring It On. Jessica also wrote …
Continue readingJohnny Depp’s THE RUM DIARY Is Like Two Movies in One – REVIEW
I walked away from watching The Rum Diary with feelings as dichotomous as the two halves of the film. The first half is what the film appears to be in the trailers, while the second is …
Continue readingTHE THREE MUSKETEERS Is a Hot, Delicious Mess | review
I did not go into this newest version of The Three Musketeers with high expectations. In point of fact, I expected the film to be kind of bad. I find myself forced to confess a …
Continue readingThe Mortician | New Orleans Film Fest movie review
The Mortician is almost impossible to classify. I saw it described as “post-apocalyptic,” but it’s not really SF; a fair number of people in line with me for the screening thought it was horror because …
Continue reading96 MINUTES | movie review via New Orleans Film Festival
96 Minutes is a festival gem. With the films screening in competition, you never really walk in sure of what you’ll get; like Forest Gump’s box of chocolate, sometimes the film’s a truffle and other …
Continue readingThe Thing Bears Only Passing Resemblance to John Carpenter’s THE THING
The Thing (2011) both exceeded my expectations and proved a massive disappointment, and while that statement may seem paradoxical it is nonetheless true.
Continue reading‘Bellflower’ is Long on Art, Short on Ultra-violence
South by Southwest favorite Bellflower finally made it to New Orleans this week. The movie’s description placed it well inside my sweet zone for films, so I made a point to go to one of …
Continue reading‘Get Low’ Should Have Been Better | review
Get Low is one of those movies that really should have been better than it is. The film has an interesting premise and the cast to pull that premise off, and yet somehow it simply …
Continue readingTo Hell and Back for LO(ve) | review
Lo was a movie I went into with no expectations. The description said it was about a man who summons a demon to find his girlfriend, who has been dragged to hell. That was enough …
Continue readingRyan Gosling Steers DRIVE Past Good to Awesome
Drive just might be my favorite movie of 2011. Certainly it is my favorite movie of the year so far. I loved it. Hands down. It is one of those rare movies that I wouldn’t …
Continue readingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | movie review
It’s…over? After 10 years, eight films, and 1179 minutes (not to mention the books!), the Harry Potter series has finally come to its end. To be honest, I feel a lingering disbelief, an unwillingness to recognize …
Continue readingEnuka Okuma – “Cookie” – Interview
Enuka Okuma is a young actress and now a director. She will be back on ABC June 16th for season 2 of the summer series Rookie Blue “as the tough talking rookie cop, Traci Nash, that has …
Continue readingHave a Drink on Ali Liebert on Harper’s Island – Interview
I recently had the pleasure of putting some questions to Canadian actress Ali Liebert, who I (and my long-time Boomtron followers) know best as “Nikki the bartender” from Harper’s Island. We talk about what her current …
Continue readingThe Black Death Tries Avoiding the Plague Like Cliches
The Black Death is about what you think it is. Set near the beginning of the era of the bubonic plague, it follows a young monk out of his abbey while he serves as guide …
Continue readingTangled and the Death of the Disney Fairy Tale
Like Nietzsche with God, last fall Disney declared that the fairy tale was dead. In this case, that is, Disney would no longer be making animated features out of the old stories. As a child …
Continue readingI Saw the Devil: Feel Good Movie of the Year – review
“The count’s frozen face was petrified and ashen and the blood still poured down the parallel cuts. His eyes bulged wide, full of horror and pain. It was glorious. If you like that kind of …
Continue readingI Sell the Dead | movie review
I Sell the Dead is proof that not every IFC production is golden. It’s from a couple years ago now—2008, I think—and showed up on my Netflix recommendations page and sounded interesting enough to try. …
Continue readingSource Code | movie review
Mozart originally ended his opera Don Giovanni with Don Giovanni descending into Hell, his soul claimed by the devil, and later added a final ensemble to bring the performance away from the bleakness of that …
Continue readingThe Lincoln Lawyer – review
Matthew McConaughey is one of those actors that you just love even though they don’t really do that many good movies. He’s done a handful over the years, maybe three or four, and he’s a …
Continue readingAdjusting the Adjustment Bureau
When a movie could have been good, but wasn’t, it becomes an even worse movie experience than if there had been no expectation, no potential, for anything better. So it was with The Adjustment Bureau. …
Continue readingAnimal Kingdom | movie review
Animal Kingdom is not a movie about the jungle but simply the law of the jungle: it’s kill or be killed, and only the strong survive. As the poster tagline claims, it is a crime …
Continue readingLynn Kurland Interview – Romancing the Nine Kingdoms
Lynn Kurland is the author of the Nine Kingdoms romantic fantasy series, as well as a best-selling romance author. For all my love of dark, bloodspurting, knights who say–er, frak–fantasy, I also love the lighter …
Continue readingBlue Valentine | movie review
Blue Valentine screened here at the NO Film Fest the same week Welcome to the Rileys, Black Swan, and 127 Hours did. I did not end up seeing it due to a prior engagement the …
Continue readingL.E. Modesitt Jr. Interview + Imager Review
L.E. Modesitt, Jr., is the best-selling author of several fantasy and science fiction series, and a name you can’t get through any bookstore’s SFF section without encountering. I am only familiar with his work on the Imager …
Continue readingThe King’s Speech | movie review
The King’s Speech is a problematic movie for me. On the one hand, it’s a really great underdog story, the acting jobs were fabulous, and it’s a movie about hope in a time of darkness…but …
Continue readingThe Dilemma | movie review
I almost didn’t go see this movie for three reasons: it was getting panned by Rotten Tomatoes (somewhere in the 20 percent’s when I checked, which is just shy of worst movie of the year …
Continue readingNocturne by Syrie James Review
Let me be honest: Nocturne by Syrie James is not the sort of novel that I naturally gravitate to. I read it because it was offered to me and sounded interesting enough to try–the sort …
Continue readingTrue Grit | movie review
True Grit is the latest movie from the Coen brothers, and their best since No Country for Old Men. It convinces me that they should stick to movies that are not comedic in structure but …
Continue readingTron Legacy – Review
Tron Legacy is the sort of movie that, in my opinion, requires a disclosure of a reviewer’s perspective up front. So to that end, I feel compelled to admit that I have only seen Tron …
Continue readingSharon Shinn Interview – Writing, Fantasy, and Troubled Waters
Sharon Shinn is the author of nearly two dozen fantasy novels, including the bestselling Twelve Houses and Samaria series. She has won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer and was twice …
Continue readingThe Black Swan review from the New Orleans Film Festival
I could review The Black Swan with one word: amazing. The film is dark and shifting, conflating dreams and obsessions into a terrifying reality where nothing is certain. Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a ballerina …
Continue reading127 Hours | movie review from the New Orleans Film Festival
Danny Boyle’s latest movie is based on a true story (chronicled in the memoir Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston), and it would be a disservice to the story and the …
Continue readingGareth Edwards’ Monsters Review
Monsters is, as the title suggests, a monster movie. Sort of. It’s also an impressive achievement for a first-time director, much less one who had a tiny budget and created all the effects himself on …
Continue readingNever Let Me Go | movie review
Never Let Me Go is adapted from a book that I have not read. So if you are looking for a book to film comparison, sorry, I can’t give you that—all I can judge is …
Continue readingThe Art of the Steal – Review
Now this is what a documentary should be! After my disappointment with Restrepo a couple weeks ago, I was thrilled to realize, after popping in this DVD, that The Art of the Steal was reminding me …
Continue readingA Glimpse of Winter Falling – Game of Thrones
Since I missed the in-production teaser when it aired during the Countdown to True Blood on Sunday, I had to watch it on HBO’s website. Which meant that I also read the introduction by the …
Continue readingJuliet by Anne Fortier Review
I haven’t been as excited about a book as I was when I got to the end of Juliet in a long time. A year, maybe. Anne Fortier has managed what might well be the …
Continue readingWinter’s Bone | movie review
Winter’s Bone is about a rural Missouri teenager whose drug-manufacturing father left her between a rock and a hard place when he put their property up to post his bond and then failed to make …
Continue readingJodelle Ferland Interview | Mum on Cabin in the Woods
Joss Whedon is a man of many secrets, and one of them is the precise nature of the threats or coercions he clearly uses to keep the cast of his latest project, The Cabin in …
Continue readingShana Abé Interview + The Treasure Keeper + The Time Weaver Review
Shana Abé is a bestselling author normally found in the Romance section, but whose latest books are fantasy (or at least fairy tale) crossovers. She’s also a personal favorite of mine–verify on our favorites page, if you …
Continue readingInception | movie review
Inception is probably the first movie of 2010 that movie lovers have been legitimately anticipating—that is, looking forward to since that very first preview back in February. Certainly I was. Sometimes that anticipation is a …
Continue readingTwilight: Eclipse | movie review
I thought Eclipse was the best of the three movies so far, though not by as large a margin over New Moon as New Moon was over Twilight. New director David Slade retained the same look …
Continue readingTwilight with Jodelle Ferland | Interview
Jodelle Ferland is the young actress playing Bree Tanner in Twilight: Eclipse. She’s got a resume a mile long already, even though she’s not even sixteen, and it includes working with heavyweights like Terry Gilliam …
Continue readingAdam Rex Fat Vampire Interview
Adam Rex is an amazingly talented children’s illustrator, as well as being an author of both children’s and YA novels. I had the pleasure of meeting him in person last month at BEA, and I …
Continue readingThe Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer Review
I’m assuming if you’re reading this you like Twilight and have already read the other books, yes? And you want one of two things from me here–a recommendation about whether this new novella is worth …
Continue readingKick-Ass | movie review
Kick-Ass lives up to its name. Best movie I’ve seen at the theater in months. I had pretty high hopes going in–all the bad reviews I saw were focused on how violent it was, which just …
Continue readingThe Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin Review
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the first book in a new series (The Inheritance Trilogy, which lends itself to some potentially hilarious confusion with The Inheritance Cycle) by a new author, and I think that …
Continue readingCassandra Sawtell on Harper’s Island and Gilliam| Interview
Actress Cassandra Sawtell, whom we hear at the empire know from Harper’s Island, has been nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) at the 2010 Young Artist Awards for her work on the show. …
Continue readingRepo Men | Movie Review
Repo Men is a movie I wish someone could repo from my memory banks. It was the biggest waste of two hours of my life since Avatar (and possibly longer, since it’s not a film …
Continue readingRobert Pattinson’s Remember Me | movie review
Um. Wow. I am really not sure how to approach this one. First of all, this movie was not what I expected. It looked from the previews like a love story, possibly happy and possibly …
Continue readingAdam Bertocci Interview
Sunday morning I brought the internet gem that is Two Gentlemen of Lebowski to your attention. Now I’ve got the man of the hour himself here to explain what possibly prompted him to combine Shakespeare and the Dude, …
Continue readingDaybreakers | movie review
Daybreakers, AKA 2010’s first vampire movie, is a pretty solid movie-going experience. It delivers on its trailers, presenting an eerie future where almost all the humans on earth have been changed into vampires–and in having done so not just …
Continue readingThe Princess and the Frog – movie review
Brad Pitt called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button “a love letter to New Orleans.” Well. If Button was a love letter, then Disney’s The Princess and the Frog was a Homeric poem in the …
Continue readingHeat Wave + Naked Heat by Richard Castle Review
New York City is in the grip of a heat wave, and Detective Nicki Heat is in the grip of a stubborn case. Real estate mogul Matthew Starr was pitched from his balcony, and the …
Continue readingTwilight New Moon | movie review
Going to a midnight movie is an experience that has to be included in the review of the film. First, who was there? Mostly female–about 1 in 10 people were male–and not as many shrieking …
Continue readingQuatrain + Fortune and Fate + Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn Review
Quatrain is a collection of, as the name suggests, four all-new novellas from Sharon Shinn. Each is set in a distinct world established from previous books, and each story stands firmly against the others. Shinn …
Continue readingElena’s World – Zombieland review
The best romantic comedy of the year! I make that claim with only about 5% facetiousness. Zombieland, despite its name and premise (a pair of unlikely allies making their way through an America overrun with …
Continue readingThe January Dancer by Michael Flynn Review
Michael Flynn is one of the more unusual figures in modern SF and especially in technically rigorous science fiction, one who delves into areas seldom touched by other writers: taking a “hard” science approach to social science in …
Continue readingElena’s World – My Thoughts on Shane Acker’s 9
Shane Acker’s 9 is a movie that has been much anticipated around BSCReview. We pretty thoroughly covered the media blitz for this movie, all of which I found intriguing and enticing: the date tie-in, “9/9/9: …
Continue readingEvermore by Alyson Noël Review
Evermore is the first book in Alyson Noël’s new YA series, The Immortals. Fittingly, considering the title, a lot of E words popped into my mind when I was thinking of how to describe it: Enchanting. …
Continue readingNever Slow Dance with a Zombie by E. Van Lowe Review
Never Slow Dance with a Zombie is a novel for young adults. I read a fair amount of YA books, and I’m never quite sure how to judge them. I mean, I can tell you …
Continue readingDarkborn by Alison Sinclair Review
Darkborn is a fantasy novel that I’m not quite sure how to further classify or qualify. It’s not quite romantic fantasy, because even though it has strong themes of love, it is not a love …
Continue readingBest Served Cold + The Heroes + The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie Review
Since the books in the First Law trilogy cannot stand alone, I consider them to be one work. One super-massive-red-giant, thousands-of-pages-long, split-into-three-volumes work. That makes Best Served Cold Joe Abercrombie’s sophomore effort–which is not to …
Continue readingEVirtuality | TV (FOX) review
Virtuality is a new original program that Fox premiered last night. It was unclear to me whether it was a TV movie or the pilot for a new series that may or may not actually advance …
Continue readingPride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith Review
Letter from Jane Austen to Seth Grahame-Smith Dear Sir, I have recently become acquainted with your work as a novelist, while I believe your acquaintance with mine is of a much longer standing. Nevertheless, I …
Continue readingStar of the Morning + The Mage’s Daughter + Princess of the Sword + Tapestry of Spells + Spellweaver by Lynn Kurland Review
The Nine Kingdoms series is another offering from a writer who normally writes romance. Despite the fact that these books are placed in the romance section at bookstores (along with the rest of Kurland’s work, which …
Continue readingEve of Darkness, Chaos, and Destruction by S.J. Day – Review
This book reminded me why expectations are so important to the reading experience. I expected it to be “fun beach reading,” and that’s exactly what it is. Had I expected something else, I might have …
Continue readingChris Dane Owens | Interview
I am delighted to bring you a BSC exclusive interview with Chris Dane Owens! Chris has recently created one of the most magical and fabulous fantasy videos of all time to accompany his new single, “Shine …
Continue readingLiving With Ghosts by Kari Sperring Review
Those words are the summary the publishers chose to put on the back of Living with Ghosts, and I think they are as compelling and accurate a summation of this story and this world as …
Continue readingThe Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop Review
The Shadow Queen is the latest installment of the Black Jewels series, either Book 6 or Book 7 depending on whether you count only the novels or include the novella/short story collection. It is a …
Continue readingSwords and Dark Magic edited by Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan Review
I grew up reading fantasy. More than that, even, I had fantasy read to me before I could read for myself (clearly, I never had a chance). There was a point, though, in adolescence, where …
Continue readingLou Anders Interview – Pyr Editing
This one’s for those of you who like to know what goes on before the book falls off the bookstore shelf into your hands. Lou Anders is the editorial director of Pyr books, as well …
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