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I should have managed my expectations a little more. I loved the book, so the film (as most adaptations do) fell very short of the mark.

[Make Room! Make Room!]

Make Room!  Make Room! which is uhhh... the best Harry Harrison novel I've read, I guess?  It says something about the tone that the movie's inclusion of a cannibalism subplot actually lightened the adaptation's mood, but it's an interesting spin on the noir detective thriller, clearly influenced by postwar austerity and cultural memories of the Depression-era shanty towns.  There's still a level of relevance despite - or perhaps because of - the relatively primitive technology, but the idea that migrants would flock to the US from China rather than the other way around in the wake of global resource and housing shortages probably dates it more than anything else.
Harrison's writing and the world it describes are more interesting than any of the central plot arcs, particularly the hunt for a murderer that goes nowhere by design, and I enjoyed this to the point I wonder why it doesn't appear in my list of the 100 best sci-fi novels (created by stripmining arbitrary "100 best" lists off the web), as I'd certainly rate it above the rather dull Starship Troopers.

Do yourself a favour and get stuck into Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series. It is by far my favourite Harry Harrison works.

I'll overlook the Starship Troopers comment. This time.

Yes it did - Cardboard, Glue, Imagination...

Satan is pleased by this response.

Aretha Franklin, 76. Respect was a song that crossed all barriers. RIP.

Sorry, is that the government's Brexit strategy slogan?

A crash landing is still a landing.

I can email you the pdf if you like, VB.

Sure, why not?

[The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey.]

The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey.
An eye-opening book indeed, written by the founder of the modern Church of Satan. In this church, Satan is not worshipped as a personification of evil, nor even as an entity or being but as a simple dark force of Nature. There are no human or animal sacrifices, no obligatory orgies, no drinking of blood. There are "magical" rituals, though, and not used exclusively to wreak evil either but to bring to people that which they deserve; help for good people and harm for bad people. It is basically a religion based on indulgence rather than abstinence with its own version of The Golden Rule: do unto others as others do unto you. Based on selfishness rather than altruism, one can see why materialistic people would find the Church of Satan attractive.
In the end, though, it is still a religion like any other; promising its members privileges in return for allegiance.
Still a fascinating read, though, and well worth the time of anyone interested in occult (or hidden) knowledge.

This made the rounds at my school in the 80s. You had to keep it out of view from the teachers, but it was required reading for anyone playing D&D at the time. I don't remember much of it, but I remember feeling I was having the piss taken out of me.

I want Wesley to be dead. From AIDS.

Harsh. But not harsh enough.

Maybe Picard has decided to live The Good Life. 

I am so excited by this news. I couldn't be bothered to finish Discovery and now disbelieve it took place. Much the same with the Abrams films. Now I have something to look forward to!

Double post.

That's not to say that Dredd couldn't be paired up with a robotic companion, doesn't necessarily have to be a comedy foil, could be a Mechanismo droid.

[How it Ends]

How it Ends, a Netflix Original Thing.  Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.  More like how did this thing get made, and why did I watch it. Anyway, this is the almost certainly the dullest end-of-the-world movie ever put to film; it doesn't even attempt to do anything original, or really do anything at all. The characters act like morons and remain steadfastly unlikeable (Our Heroes fuck over every person they meet, even the nice ones), the perils encountered are no greater or more mysterious than the average US road movie, and the ambient threat level lurches from fighting to the death over a jerrycan of petrol to everyone having a good night's sleep in unguarded houses full of food and water.   

It adds insult to boredom-inflicted-injury by sacrificing its last 15 minutes to the thinnest imaginable rip of Z for Zachariah (and not the book or TV adaptation, but the recent film version), being so blatant as to call the bloke 'Jeremiah'.  And then just when it might redeem some credit[spoiler] by killing its vacant protagonists off, the still-unspecified disaster turns into one of those 2012 volcanic clouds that goes just slightly faster than a 4-wheel drive on a mountain road, before sort of giving up and letting our Adam & Eve drive into an unblemished Washington State sunrise[/spoiler].

There's obviously some talent involved somewhere, because the opening shots of Chicago are glorious (if irrelevant), and the road-trip background landscapes are frequently gorgeous; there's even a wondefully creepy abandoned waterpark location that looks like it could have been fun, if anything happened there. There is one single element of surprise, if only by omission, in which the Native American Stereotype [spoiler]leaves the party, and doesn't reappear at an opportune moment[/spoiler].

Finally, would somebody please pay Forest Whitaker enough money for something that he doesn't have to say 'yes' to every single script he's handed - that guy must have an incredibly expensive lifestyle to support.  There are other actors that can play whispery curmudgeon, you know.


Johns Christopher and Wyndham are spinning in their respective graves.  AVOID!

I wish I'd seen this review a few hours earlier. Heed Tips' words for they are wise.

I was at an ATM yesterday when a little old lady asked if I could check her balance, so I pushed her over.