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The Overview: A collection of shorter reviews of books and movies.
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| © WB Pictures. |
Malignant (2021) *** out of *****: It can’t be stressed enough how weird a movie Malignant is, and not in a good way. Directed and co-written by James Wan, the man who basically re-invigorated the horror genre in 2010 with his stylish and brilliantly inventive Insidious, Malignant is a movie that could only have been made by someone like Wan. Wan, thanks to his numerous billions-grossing blockbusters like Furious 7, The Conjuring series, and Aquaman, has the cache to arm-twist studios into giving him a few million dollars to make whatever he wants. Malignant is the result. It’s a fun movie, but it’s also self-indulgent to the point of silliness, and the climax is nothing short of ludicrous. The fault lies with the messy script - there’s almost zero characterization - and Wan’s operatic approach, an homage to the Giallo genre, which is gratingly flamboyant. A spectacular misfire.
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| © Little, Brown. |
The Noise. By James Patterson and J.D. Barker ** out of *****: The Noise is - with the help of J.D. Barker - James Patterson’s first attempt at a techno-thriller, the genre Michael Crichton created in 1969 with The Andromeda Strain. Here, Patterson goes for a Crichton-esque plot about a noise that burrows into people’s heads, turning them insane, and forcing them to run like animals in a stampede. The premise is beyond ridiculous, and the po-faced treatment makes matters much worse. Which is too bad, since the book begins well, and the quality of the prose is better than much of what Patterson has put out in the past ten years or so. But the story goes nowhere, and the self-important ending is disappointing, to say the least. Avoid.
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| © Harper. |
L.A. Times by Stuart Woods *** and a 1\2 out of *****: In recent years Stuart Woods - with the exception of some terrifically entertaining titles co-authored with the late Parnell Hall - has released what can safely be called fluff: forgettable, unrewarding books, with little literary value. But back in the 1980s and 90s, Woods was one of the most consistently entertaining authors to haunt the bestseller lists, with highly readable, fast-paced, and often wild thrillers. L.A. Times, which originally came out in 1993, is one of these books. It’s a cynical, darkly funny tale about a young, sociopathic mob enforcer who slowly but surely makes his way up the Hollywood ladder. Woods has a blast skewering the inside politics of Hollywood movie making, and his ending is a pitch-black zinger. Recommended.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.
Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer
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