Short Story: The Chosen by Trevor Schmidt

In the near future the world's population is drastically reduced by a mutated form of the AIDS virus. A billionaire claims to have found the cure but journalist Marty McDaniel doesn't quite believe it.

Trevor Schmidt, author of the fantastic Memory Leak, delivers a quick tale of a bleak future where all is not as it seems and Marty himself is immune to the virus, he is one of The Chosen.

At only 43 pages long this is all over pretty quickly but makes for fantastic lunchtime or commute reading.

Ric's Rating: Highly Recommended.  

Film: Pixels

Aliens are invading and this time they are in the form of classic 80s arcade games.

At this time of desperate need it's lucky that the US President (Kevin James) just happens to be best friends with 80s video game ace Brenner (Adam Sandler).

Brenner recruits his old friend "The Wonderkid" and even reaches out to old adversary Eddie "Fireblaster" (Peter Dinklage) when the soldiers provided fail to have the necessary gaming skill.

For anyone who grew up visiting arcades then this is an absolute treat. Seeing old favourites like Galaga, Centipede and Pac-Man marauding around the big screen is great fun.

Pixels has had lots of bad reviews but I suspect that those delivering them never experienced the sheer joy of achieving the high score on a proper arcade game in a real arcade. Too bad for them.

Ric's Rating: Highly Recommended

Film: Chappie

In the near future South Africa has robot police officers. The engineer behind them takes their development further when he manages to install full artificial intelligence into a damaged droid meant for destruction.

This has already been described as Robocop meets Short Circuit and I have to agree. We have the robot cops running around arresting and shooting the bad guys, complete with Peter Weller-esque voices and then we get Chappie, who enters the fray as a child in a robotic body.

Chappie is “born” surrounded by criminals determined to use him for their own ends but his maker Deon (Dev Patel) manages to give him a sense of right and wrong from the outset.

District 9 director Neil Blomkamp has again called upon the services of the star of that film Sharlto Copley, who does a fine Andy Serkis (Gollum, King Kong, Ceasar from the Apes movies) job as Chappie. Copley’s performance gives the robot a much needed human quality that the idea of artificial intelligence alone could not.

Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver also add their considerable presence as a rival engineer and head of the electronics corporation respectively. Jackman is excellent as the sneaky, sneering Vincent who has always been upset that his own design was not used for law enforcement.

Funny, exciting and sad, Chappie delivers everything you would expect but does stretch the imagination a little too far with its ideas about human consciousness towards the end.

Catch it in cinemas now.

Ric’s Rating: Highly Recommended.      

Film: Jupiter Ascending

An ordinary girl discovers she is the reincarnation of the Queen Of The Galaxy..or something.

Jupiter Jones is whisked into the middle of a war between siblings of an inter-galactic race vying for control of the Earth in this sci-fi adventure from Matrix directors the Wachowskis.

The nifty special effects and entertaining chase / fight scenes aren’t enough to save this from the incomprehensible story and even Channing Tatum’s flying boots grate after they save the day a few times.

Ric’s Rating: Dodgy. 

Film: Elysium

In the near future wealthy people no longer live on Earth. They life a blissful life on a space station known as Elysium. Thanks to the latest technology there is no illness on Elysium as all known diseases and conditions can be repaired.

Back on Earth factory worker Max (Matt Damon) receives a fatal dose of radiation and decides that he must get to Elysium to save himself. Along the way he meets up with old friend Frey (alice Braga) and her leukaemia suffering daughter who also needs the healing technology.

In their way is a ruthless politician (Jodie Foster) and a crazy enforcer (Sharlto Copley) who do not plan on allowing any poor person access to the potentially life saving equipment.

Damon turns in another competent action turn and Foster is fine as the nasty and ambitious politician but it’s District 9’s Sharlto Copley that steals the show as he revels in the brutality of Kruger, a man with his own ideas on how Elysium should be governed.

Ric’s Rating: Good.

Film: Riddick

Vin Diesel returns as Richard B Riddick, the anti-hero from Pitch Black, in the third instalment of this sci-fi action series.

This time around we join Riddick on an unknown planet populated by various types of lethal creatures that see him as their prey. As the daily struggle for survival continues two rival sets of mercenaries turn up looking to claim the bounty for the notorious criminal, and it’s doubled if he’d dead.

Pitch Black was a fantastic film, a low budget but effects laden sci-fi adventure that gave Diesel the opportunity to be at his snarling best. The sequel, The Chronicles Of Riddick, was largely forgettable.

Unfortunately that is also the case here as Riddick sets about dispatching the mercenaries one by one without any great action scenes or real moments of tension. I also have little doubt that the budget for this film was substantially larger than that of the original but it manages to look much worse. The scenes involving the motorcycle/hovercrafts are reminiscent of old time films with actors sitting in cars while the same background is repeated again and again.

Riddick is available on DVD now but only die hard fans of the character will enjoy.

Ric’s Rating: Dodgy. 

Book: Instinct by Ben Kay

When eminent entomologist Dr Laura Trent is approached by a secretive group known as MEROS she is intrigued by their proposal but unable to take the offer of employment.

Things change when her Son goes missing and MEROS reveal themselves as being responsible.

Dr Trent finds herself blackmailed into helping the shady organisation control their most fearsome project, genetically altered wasps.

The giant wasps are held in a remote laboratory in Venezuela but a new, and more aggressive, batch have killed a scientist and are threatening to escape.

Trent and the team, made up of soldiers and scientists, must keep the situation contained but the vicious insects are hungry and they want out.

I was looking forward to the wasps marauding through cities and towns but after the opening scene the flying killers are contained to the MEROS lab, where the entire novel takes place.

While attempting to escape the facility the team must pass through a long forgotten section known as the abdomen which was sealed off when the mutated insects got out of control.

This brings some much needed variety to proceedings as along with the wasps there is a plethora of other giant nasties for the humans to deal with.

The characters all have a full background story which helps the reader become engaged in their plight.

Instinct is an entertaining read and would work well on film but I so wanted the insects to get loose. Maybe we’ll get that in a sequel.

Ric’s Rating: Good.       

Film: Pacific Rim

Take the best (and some of the worst) elements of Transformers, Godzilla, Armageddon, Real Steel, Top Gun and Starship Troopers and you end up with Guillermo Del Toro’s Robots Vs. Monsters mash-up starring Charlie Hunnam (Sons Of Anarchy) and Idris Elba (Luther).

The Earth is under attack from huge monsters knows as Kaijus so the World unites to combat the common enemy. Their solution is to build robots of similar size to the beasts, these robots are piloted by two humans and fully loaded with all kinds of weapons, they are known as Jaegers. Initially the Jaegers repel the threat but soon the Kaijus develop new ways to attack and the Jaegers (and their pilots) are deemed redundant.

Led by Commander Pentecost (Elba) a small group continue to pilot the remaining Jaegers and come up with a plan to eliminate the threat for good.

Dominated by CGI fights this is very silly at times but in a cheesy sort of way it remains enjoyable, if you can get past the first 30mins or so. Hunnam is fine as the jaded Jaeger pilot brought out of retirement for the final mission and Idris Elba exudes authority as the officer in charge. There is also a cool turn from Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy) but the two scientists are very irritating indeed.

If you can see past the dodgy dialogue and often unintentionally funny monsters this is an easy viewing adventure that requires no thinking on the part of the audience.

Pacific Rim is in cinemas now.

Ric’s Rating: Dodgy.    

Film: Dark Skies

Something strange is happening in the Barrett family home. There are noises during the night and wife & Mother Lacy even wakens up to find an elaborate structure made out of household items. Are the children suffering from a sleep disorder or is there something more sinister going on?

Soon young Sam mentions “The Sandman” who comes to his room at night and events spiral out of control when both parents begin to have seizures. All of this does teenager Jesse’s blossoming love life no good at all.

The title probably gives away the cause of these events but I’m not going to do it here as the less you know the better.

The tension mounts gradually and there are some very creepy moments leading to a nerve-shredding climax with a nifty twist.

Dark Skies is available on DVD in the UK from 5^th August 2013.

Ric’s Rating: Highly Recommended.

Film: Oblivion

Earth has been devastated. An alien invasion provoked a nuclear response and what’s left of the human race has left to inhabit a far off Moon.

Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his wife (Andrea Riseborough) are stationed on Earth to maintain the drones which constantly patrol and eliminate any remnants of the alien army.

As their mission is due for completion Harper begins to realise that there may be more going on than meets the eye.

Oblivion looks fantastic, the scenes of once great cities and structures now ruined and covered in grass and new flowing rivers create an atmosphere which quickly draws the viewer in.

Unfortunately the story is all too predictable and the promised action scenes fail to materialize.

Cruise looks like he’d rather be anywhere else and the feeling soon rubs off onto the audience with the belated introduction of Morgan Freeman adding little to proceedings.

With the imminent release of the new Star Trek film the studio have wisely decided not to compete as this most definitely isn’t the action-fest it’s marketed as. It’s a mish-mash of films like Armageddon, The Matrix and They Live that doesn’t capture the best parts of any of those movies.

Oblivion is in UK cinemas now.

Ric’s Rating: Dodgy.       

Film: Battleship

A signal is sent to deep space from a research centre in Hawaii which provokes a very hostile reply from an Alien race.

The aliens arrive (with devastating effect) during a worldwide naval exercise which happens to be taking place in Hawaii, the focal point of the invasion. Soon a motley crew of sailors, led by a former delinquent, find themselves cut-off and alone against an overwhelming enemy force.

This film was much maligned on its release but isn’t half as bad as I was expecting, in fact it’s bloody good fun. The aliens obvious technological superiority threaten mankind with extinction and in true Independence Day style a group of unlikely heroes attempt to save the day.

Based on the family game this even manages to include a grid reference and the words “miss” and “hit”.

Battleship is cheesy, predictable and way over-acted but it’s an entertaining special-effects laden war film which is far superior to the likes of Battle: Los Angeles and Cloverfield.

Ric’s Rating: Highly Recommended.

Short Story: Replica by Trevor Schmidt

Trevor Schmidt, author of the cool sci-fi thriller Memory Leak, returns to the genre with this short story which follows a team of futuristic soldiers in their pursuit of a notorious terrorist.

The year is 2054 and Sgt Logan Martel and his team are closing in on their man. The team must use all of the advanced technology available to them, including robotic birds, to survive the onslaught of machine-gun fire coming from insurgents.

This quick easy read is a cautionary tale regarding the development of future technology and is ideal lunch-break or commute reading that will appeal to fans of the Terminator movies.

Click on the Trevor Schmidt tab below for my review of Memory Leak.

Ric’s Rating: Good.      

Book: Origin by J.T. Brannan

A scientific research team finds a body buried deep in the Antarctic ice and it dates back an incredible 40,000 years.

When Dr Lynn Edwards reports the find to the authorities she is stunned by the rapid reaction and then narrowly escapes death as secretive figures attempt to silence her. In her hour of need she turns to her ex-husband Matt “Free Bear” Adams, himself a former soldier, and soon the duo are off on an adventure that spans the globe and leads to an amazing discovery.

Dispatched by the power-hungry Stephen Jacobs, the feared Alpha Brigade soon pursue Edwards and Adams through fascinating locations such as Area 51 and the Nazca lines leading to the final confrontation at CERN in Geneva.

As a straight forward tale of pursuit this works very well and the information and theories regarding the Nazca lines and Area 51 seem entirely plausible. The main characters are likeable and you almost want to boo and hiss when the villains appear.

Unfortunately the theories regarding Atlantis are a stretch of the imagination too far and the whole thing begins to feel like a game of “spot the legend” as we move towards a groan inducing ending.

Origin is JT Brannan’s debut and although it has faults it remains a fast-paced fun read that will appeal to fans of Dan Brown, Matthew Reilly and Andy McDermott.

Origin is published by Headline and will be available in the UK from 25^th October 2012.

Ric’s Rating: Good. 

TV DVD: Earth 2

This cult sci-fi tv series was made by Stephen Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment in 1994 and arrives on DVD in the UK on 28^th May 2012.

In the year 2192 Earth has been rendered inhospitable by pollution and war. Surviving humans now live in various space stations but an infection known as “The Syndrome” leaves many stricken.

A rogue group of survivors head to a seemingly habitable planet and attempt to begin a new life…….but not all is as it seems.

The cast includes Clancy Brown and Debrah Farentino with appearances by Terry O’Quinn and Virginia Madsen but with little background the viewer is thrust into what feels like an already ongoing story. The special effects are very poor, looking more like something from a sixties sci-fi show instead of a nineties one.

This 22 episode box-set will only appeal to those who are already fans of the show and fondly remember it although this could be a case of childhood memories being sullied.

Ric’s Rating: Dodgy. 

Film: Lockout

A convicted special agent gets the chance to earn his freedom in this futuristic action adventure from producer Luc Besson.

Guy Pearce (Memento, LA Confidential) is Snow and his mission is to rescue the president’s daughter from an orbiting maximum security prison where the inmates have just woken from a drug induced state of limbo.

This is Escape From New York in space but where Kurt Russell excelled as anti-hero Snake Plissken, Pearce’s constant wise cracks and uncooperative manner quickly irritate making for a character that’s hard to root for.

Also irritating are the main villains, two brothers convicted for various reasons who speak in a weird Scottish / Irish accent. Whatever it’s meant to be it doesn’t work, they just sound silly, not scary.

Lockout lacks the tension expected from a prison action film and suffers from the obvious comparison to Escape From New York but it’s easy viewing and will appeal to anyone not familiar with the John Carpenter classic.

For a recent prison thriller check out the brilliant Cell 211 which is reviewed elsewhere here.

Lockout is in UK cinemas now.

Ric’s Rating: Dodgy  

Top Books Read in 2011

2011 will go down as the year I embraced reading e-books. The format has helped open my eyes to new authors, short stories and has made me willing to take risks with my reading, some of which paid off big time.

Traditional printed books did not go away, on the contrary I actually welcomed the feel of them after reading e-books so overall I had a brilliant reading experience in 2011.

Here are some of the highlights in no particular order. Each book is reviewed in full elsewhere here and I've included a quote from it to give you a brief taster.

Murder In Silence by Gary Kassay
“stunning debut thriller........harrowing.....the best self-published book I’ve read”

Sinema by Rod Glenn
“This is a hardcore serial killer thriller that won’t appeal to those used to cosy whodunits”

Jimmy by William Malmborg
“ captivating journey through the mind of a young man who crosses the line and brings his darkest fantasies to life”

Black Flowers by Steve Mosby
“Neil Dawson investigates the apparent suicide of his Father in the latest disturbing tale from Steve Mosby”

Creep by Jennifer Hillier
“Fatal Attraction meets Misery.......in a sexually charged story”

11.59 by David Williams
“Full of seedy goings-on and laced with dark humour it had me looking forward to resuming the story every time”

Ask The Dice by Ed Lynskey
“very engaging and the explosive finale provides a final round knockout”

Winds Of Change by Jason Brannon
“simultaneously terrifying and intriguing”

The Sacrificial Man by Ruth Dugdall
“Dugdall proves to be a smart new voice in the crime fiction genre”

The Infection by Craig Dilouie
“everything The Walking Dead aspires to be....all the best elements of a zombie story in one place”

Blitz by Ken Bruen
“Highly recommended for fans of violent, fast paced crime stories”

Memory Leak by Trevor Schmidt
“an action thriller told at a blistering pace that reminded me of one of my favourite films, Total Recall”

Film: In Time

Singer turned actor Justin Timberlake takes the lead in this futuristic thriller in which humans have been genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. Unfortunately they only get to live for another year and the implanted countdown clock on their arms is a permanent reminder of how much time they have left.

In this society the currency is time with everyone having to bargain their days, minutes and hours on everything from phone calls to food. Timberlake’s character suddenly finds himself in possession of an abundance of time and sets about investigating the people who ration it.

This promised much but delivered little. When we reach the fourth or fifth time JT manages to save himself with seconds to spare it all becomes a bit boring. Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) does finally manage to play a menacing character after his previous failed attempts in films like Red Eye and The Dark Knight but that isn’t enough to recommend this one.

Ric’s Rating: 47%

Film: Source Code

Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) plays a soldier who is placed inside the body of a terror attack victim for the last 8 minutes of his life using experimental "Source Code" technology.

This is a mash up of Groundhog Day, The Butterfly Effect, Memento and Avatar as poor old Jake must endure a man's final moments over and over again.

The first 30mins or so are pretty tiresome as I quickly bored of the same scene repeating, albeit with slight differences, each time.

The film starts properly when the true nature of Gyllenhaal's horrible predicament is revealed.

Can he stop the attack despite realising his own dreadful circumstances?

This is ok without ever being anything more but if you want a time bending thriller I'd recommend The Butterfly Effect instead.

Ric's Rating: 59%

Book: Memory Leak by Trevor Schmidt

Trevor Schmidt’s debut novel takes us to a not too distant future where society is governed on the principle of symmetry. Anything that isn’t symmetrical is considered unworthy, especially people.

Trevor himself sent me a copy for review and not being much of a sci-fi book fan I approached it with some trepidation. My concerns were blown away within the first few pages because what we have here is an action thriller told at a blistering pace that reminded me of one of my favourite films, Total Recall.

Jonathan Hart leads a perfect life in this society. He has symmetry (enhanced by the government Reshape clinic), a lovely (government matched) fiancée and a decent job at the government tv station where he gets to witness the supreme leader, Liam Mail, address the nation every day. He (mostly) chooses to ignore the little voice in his head that suspects things aren’t what they seem.

When Jonathan saves the victim of a mugging he has no idea that it will lead him into the world of asymmetrical (ordinary) people, force him to listen to that little voice and question everything around him, including who he is.

This has a fine cast of characters. Jonathan must battle people who were very close to him to help Alice and her rag-tag band of rebels uncover the truth.

With this relatively short action packed book Trevor Schmidt has potentially opened my eyes to a whole new genre because through all the scientific details what prevails is the feeling is that you are totally behind Jonathan and Alice as they attempt to topple the oppressive regime.

Recommended for sci-fi and thriller fans.

Ric's Rating: 79%

Film: Skyline

A group of twenty-something friends awake from a night of partying to a blinding light from outside. When you look at the light you fall under it's spell and are soon on your way to a gruesome demise.

Yes, it's Alien invasion time again as the source of the light is revealed as either the creatures themselves or their Mother Ship.

This film plays kinda like a slasher movie as the cast are bumped off one by one with the Aliens taking the place of Jason/Freddie/Michael.

It starts off good fun and kicks up a gear when David Zayas (Dexter, The Expendables) appears but it's all downhill from there as it becomes rather silly with it's attempts to take a leaf out of District 9's book.

The cool effects and nifty Aliens can't make up for a shoddy story but if you switch off your brain it's just about passable.

Ric's Rating: 52%