My Amazon Book Reviews: Neil Gaiman & Alice Cooper: "The Last Temptation"

Temptation Kicks In
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Steven always seems to be a part of Alice Cooper's batch of alter-egos, and when the album "The Last Temptation" came out, Steven made it into the comic books. I actually had the first volume of the three books to come out when I bought the CD back in 1994. It was part of Marvel Comics' short lived Rock Star Comics, started when KISS hit it big with their series of books. On the other hand, Steven already had stories via Alice's albums "Welcome To My Nightmare," Goes To Hell" and a cameo on "Hey Stoopid." Given that the CD "The Last Temptation" may well be the best of his Epic label trilogy, the graphic novel seemed like an obvious move.

Neil Gaiman participated in shaping the concept of the album and book with Alice, and if you've heard the album, the resemblance to "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and "Faust" are obvious. The book, though, pushes Alice's bubblegum Grand Guignol into serious territory, with Cooper doppelganger "The Showman" luring Steven into a haunted theater where nightmares will keep you safe, if you're willing to trade The Showman fort something he wants. It's more creepy than scary, as the temptations include hot women, revenge on the bullies, and your parents becoming ghostly apparitions with Alice Eyes.

The art is nicely reproduced (nice job by Dark Horse Books) and I like the hardcover design. It's a lot of the parts it borrows from (they even drop a copy of "Something Wicked" on a book table without irony) and the odd drop of album lyrics. For Alice fans, it's definitely worth having, maybe 50/50 for graphic novel buffs.

     

My Amazon DVD Reviews: Apollo 18

This Moon is Made Of Cheese
2 Out of 5 Stars

"Apollo 18" takes the 'found footage' horror methodology (think "Blair Witch" or "Paranormal Activity") and takes it off world. You thought Apollo 17 was our last lunar mission? You think the Russians never landed on the moon? Got news for you conspiracy minded types out there; neither of these is true. Sent up under the guise of a National Security/Department of Defense kind of Top Secret mission, our three astronauts board the Liberty and Freedom vehicles for one more investigation of what's really up there. It ain't the Sea of Tranquility, that's for sure.

Before you know it, something is making creepy noises outside the Lunar Module. Samples are suddenly not where the explorers originally left them. And them dastardly things ripped up the USA flag! Not only are these critters scary, they're downright UnAmerican! Then again, they weren't too nice to the Ruskie that landed there before Apollo 18, and the unlucky astronauts realize that their government may not have told them everything about their journey or its intended mission. The handheld cameras soon begin jerking and spinning, the automatic cameras are going static, and the humans just might be losing their minds.

"Apollo 18" mixes just enough "now-you-see-it" spookiness to add some real scare jolts, but mostly, it's dopey space B-Movie fun. The Metal Munching Moon Mice from the old Bullwinkle cartoons were about as believable as the space bug monsters wreaking havoc on our helpless heroes, and some of the effects are laughably bad. There's plenty of stock footage in use to help make the original bits work chronologically, however, as a horror movie is concerned, the green cheese that is "Apollo 18"? It certainly isn't rocket science.

   

My Amazon Book Reviews: Max Brooks "World War Z"

"What if the enemy can't be shocked and awed?"
4 Out Of 5 Stars

This review is from: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Mass Market Paperback) Author Max Brooks almost pulls off a pretty neat trick in "World War Z." Borrowing liberally from George Romero and Studs Terkel, he casts himslef as the intrepid journalist traveling the globe in an effort to get first person histories from survivors of the great Zombie War that almost wipes out the human race. He sits down with the Chinese Doctor who was there when "patient zero" was discovered to the CIA agent that came to the realization to late that what the US thought was just crackdowns on Chinese dissidents was really cover-ups of the spreading plague. There's more than a little political allegory involved, with everyone from the president of the USA's Middle Eastern Policy to the state of relations in Iran, India and Pakistan.

Since most of the "interviews" are brief, the book keeps a good pace. Brooks wisely separates the book into segments; the beginning, the battles, the aftermath. The only, minor, flaw is that some of the interviews bleed together, as if Brooks forgot that all the characters might have different voices. This doesn't happen very often, but it is noticeable as the book goes on. However, "World War Z" is an inventive, novel take on the whole Zombie Horror genre as well as a darn good read.

 

My Amazon Reviews: Alice Cooper "Welcome 2 My Nightmare "

Alice and Vince Gill are buddies?
4 Out Of 5 Stars


Maybe the strangest aspect of "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" is Alice Cooper's guest list. Kei$sha makes a convincing auto-tuned devil on "What Baby Wants," and his old buddies from the classic days, Micheal Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith rejoin Alice for the first time since "Muscle of Love." Bob Ezrin gets back into the producer's chair. Steve Hunter (guitars on the first "Nightmare") is back in the fold, along with Dick Wagner. Rob Zombie drops in. But weirder than anything else is that Vince Gill plays lead guitar. Not just once as a novelty, but twice. And fer cryin' out loud, on "Runaway Train," he freaking shreds.

Yep. Alice Cooper and Vince Gill are pals, golfing buddies, even. It's just one of the pieces that makes "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" work better than you'd ever expect. Alice has never really retired the "Nightmare" concept, as little Steven has popped up on plenty of albums since 1975. "Goes To Hell," "The Last Temptation" and 2008's "Along Came a Spider" were all extensions of Steven's sleepy-time. However, Alice has never explicitly labeled them as sequels to the original "Nightmare," so when the familiar piano tinkle leads off "I Am Made of You" (despite the Linkin Park styled Auto-Tune) he makes the connection as obvious as he can.

Before you know it, Steven is running out of ways to stay awake ("Caffeine, Caffeine") and is on-board the nightmare express. The aforementioned Vince Gill exits Nashville pickin' for a ripping solo on Alice's Hellbound "Runaway Train" (his other solo is the more subdued "I Gotta Get Out of Here," the obligatory 'Steven wakes up' number). Alice's playful nature stays up on tracks like "Ghouls Gone Wild" and the first single "I'll Bite Your Face Off." Nor does the sinister Alice stay away, as "When Hell Comes Home" goes serious on a very dark topic. More obvious than anything is that Alice is clearly enjoying himself and resurgent popularity ("Along Came a Spider" was his first Top 100 entry in over a decade), and despite the obvious attempt to attach this album to a past highlight via title, "Welcome 2" is a darn fine rock album.

My Amazon DVD Reviews: "Rubber"

Self Inflation
3 Out of 5 Stars

"Rubber" is a very funny 30 minute short horror satire expanded into an 80 minute mediocre movie. However, the brilliant premise of a tire wreaking revenge across the desert and falling in love is gutbustingly funny in short bits at a time. The Tire (listed as "Robert" in the credits) humanizes itself by wobbling, rolling, shimmying and doing unexpected things throughout, but when Robert gets mad, heads are gonna blow. They also discover a penchant for NASCAR and swimming pools.

The failure of the movie comes when a "Greek Chorus" of spectators gets added to watch "the film" via binoculars somewhere in the California desert. They get used to break the fourth wall by doing things like chastising one of the viewers for trying to videotape the movie. "That's piracy," one of them scolds"You could co to jail!" They seem to have been included mainly as padding, even if Wings Hauser does some scene stealing as one of those spectators. Meanwhile, Robert is rolling through the desert, blowing up things he can't mow down, and having a tire epiphany when he comes across a junkyard where the leftover tires are being thrown atop a blazing pile.

Soon, Robert has decided his steel belted brethren are ready to take over the world. A few times during "Rubber," I kept thinking about Stephen King's "Christine," and that perhaps Robert was that particular vehicle's last surviving member...and boy, was he mad. The final shot alone is a hoot and a half. Ignore the fact that this tire is over-stuffed and you'll enjoy the fun.

My Amazon DVD Reviews: Storm

Peeling back memories

3 Out of 5 Stars

DeeDee is having a lousy day. It's storming in Sweden and some mysterious flaming red haired beauty just plunged into his cab after a bunch of goons tried to kill her over some unknown cube. Now those goons are after him. Prior to getting chased into DeeDee's cab, Lova the Red looked like she was being chased through some tunnels by monsters. But I don't think they were really monsters. Maybe gamers. Or something. Before you can say "not another alternative reality lurching computer matrix 'survive the game' thriller horror movie," you're in "Storm."

"Storm" is a puzzling film to follow, as DeeDee must somehow dislodge buried memories if he is to survive his night with Lova. The bends in the timeline to make the film somewhat interesting, and the look of "Storm" is dark, misty and moody. The more DeeDee discovers the reasons behind his receiving 'The Box,' the darker the movie becomes. I can't say that the final reveal was anything I cared about, or frankly, made any sense in conjunction with the film's conclusion. It shows DeeDee's messy life without apologies, or without a sudden change into virtue. I give "Storm" a bonus star for not taking that sort of easy route to a cleaned up ending. Swedish with dubbed English track available.

My Amazon DVD Reviews: Dead Snow

Let it snow, let it snow...
3 Out of 5 Stars

Oh the zombies outside are frightful in this well done slasher horror film from Sweden. Standard slasher rules apply: group of 20 something students go to remote cabin, creepy local tells them about a horrible moment in the history of the place, and before you know it, it's undead bingo hour! There's Nazis! Zombies! Nazi Zombies! Spewing intestines! A brain on the floor! And MORE zombie Nazis!

How the Nazis became zombies is never related to you, but who cares? You've got terrified screaming students racing through the snow as jackbooted corpses chase them! You have a menacing Commandant who looks like he still gets to the Undead-Gym three nights a week! You get an outrageous two-on-thousands men vs zombie battle, complete with chainsaw! And a killer snowmobile! All in 90 minutes.

Really, what is not to love here? Dead Snow is bloody, trashy, George Romero inspired B-movie fun, even if you can predict what's coming from a mile away.