New Page Added

I added a new page to the website today about science fiction genres. Four major genres and themes were discussed in this article those being:

Dystopia
Aliens
Time Travel
Space Opera

Each genre is represented by several movies. I don't bother rating any of them since my main concern was discussing the genres themselves and giving the reader an idea of what they were.

Another page was added a few days ago discussing science fiction cliches. This article is a little humorous, but my intention was to help writers avoid common scifi pitfalls. It's a very short article and happily free of affiliate links.

If you're considering purchasing a book or movie online, please visit my Amazon affiliated store.

Trying to Maintain my Focus

If you've been following my site, you may have noticed that I kinda lost my focus the last week or so. It seems I started adding a lot of products and affiliate links to the website. Along with that, I've recently discovered Youtube ads from Google.

The sum result of all this confusion was a website that was beginning to look like a big, jumbled wannabe online retailer. To fix this problem, I started removing most of the Amazon affiliate links. I kept a few affiliate links that I thought were aesthetically appealing or relevant to the material being discussed.

So now, www.horror-fiction.info is more streamlined, less confusing, and more like the site I always wanted it to be. Simply a place for me to discuss my love affair with books and movies.

Have I decided to give up my affiliation with Amazon? Of course not, I still need to eat. Amazon has an affiliate store setup that is actually very ingenious. It allows me to sell the books and movies I talk about in the site through a separate online store that is connected to, but not a part of, my own site.

So...help a brother out. Buy a DVD for goodness sakes.

Hancock Review

Hancock was a very interesting movie. I thought Will Smith's acting was a little stunted in this picture, like he was just going through the motions. I've definitely seen better from him though it wasn't necessarily bad.

I don't want to give up the plot so I'll try to be careful with what I say. I thought I was going to see a sci-fi flick but it was actually more like fantasy. The special effects, like most movies these days were very good and believable. It's kinda hard to have bad effects these days with the guys at Industrial Lights and Magic and other CGI experts.

Charlize Theron's character was very good. Her acting was superb, even in a role that was probably a cakewalk for her.

Overall, I liked the movie. I did enjoy myself, I laughed out loud several times and it was a good movie if you just want to relax and have a moderately good time. Just don't take Hancock too seriously. It's not the Lord of the Rings. But it's worth seeing. Will Hancock make my list of top ten movies for 2008? It has a good chance, but definitely not a lock.

What I liked:
Charlize Theron's acting
The special effects
This quote: "Did you put a man's head up another man's ass?"

What I didn't like:
Will Smith's acting
The big fight scene
References to the X-Men movie

I give this movie 3 Quarters. If you don't understand my rating system, see my earlier posts for an explanation.

See this movie if you have the money and the time and you just want to watch an enjoyable movie and have a few laughs. If not, you can wait for the DVD.

Top Ten Science Fiction Movies

I've been looking at a lot of movies of late, especially with the summer blockbusters coming out. I'm starting to think science fiction movies are making a comeback. There was a time when scifi movies were all about philosophy and warning man of the doom to come.

Not anymore. 2007 introduced 4 good scifi movies. So far, we have another 3 this year with Hancock, Incredible Hulk, and Wall-E. I'll be posting reviews for all of them pretty soon.

So, using the rating system I mentioned in the previous post, here are my top 10 science fiction movies from the past decade.

1. The Matrix – 4
2. King Kong - 4
3. Star Wars Episode III - 4
4. K-Pax - 4
5. I, Robot - 4
6. Planet of the Apes - 4
7. Star Wars: Episode II - 3
8. Spider-Man 2 - 3
9. Transformers - 3
10. Matrix Reloaded - 3

Visit the website to see my ratings for the other science fiction movies from the past that didn't make the cut.

My New Movie Rating System

After rating Wall-E, I realized I need to make up a rating system and do it quick. I don't want to use thumbs up because I'll probably get sued. And I'm sure someone else already uses stars.

I'm going to use a monetary system, based on the American quarter dollar coin. So a good movie gets 4 quarters, or a buck. And a bad movie gets only 1 quarter...or maybe not even that.

Be sure to visit the website for my newest posts on science fiction movies from the past decade and a little quip on some of my favorite scifi directors.

Wall-E Review

I took the kids to see Disney-Pixar's newest release Wall-E. They liked it, even though we saw the last movie of the night. Still, they managed to stay awake until almost 12am which means the film must have been good.

I don't want to give away any endings or spoil the movie for those of you who haven't seen it yet. Suffice it to say, the movie is very good. It'll make adults think and make kids question. I think you'll enjoy this movie even if you're not a science fiction fan.

The animation was of course stupendous. I was a little worried my kids wouldn't think of it as a cartoon it was so realistic. The story was great too. There's very little dialog in the first 30 minutes of the film, yet they managed to create a good story just by watching Wall-E go through his daily routine.

I found references to other classic scifi movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, A.I., and The Matrix. I also thought the movie reminded me in some ways of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. But, I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

What I liked
The animation
The first 30-40 minutes
The story

What I didn't like
Some themes might be beyond little kids understanding

I don't have a rating system of my own, but if I did I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Go see this movie.

Starting The Science Fiction Portal

Now that I've finished the Fantasy Fiction portal on www.horror-fiction.com, it's time to start the science fiction portal. The first page is already posted on the website.

Science fiction poses greater challenges than either the horror or fantasy portals did. This is primarily because scifi is so vast and ever-changing. I can only hope I can capture a good grasp of what this exciting fiction genre really means. For now, I think I'm going to take this portal in a different direction than either of the previous portals. I plan to write several articles about science fiction genres and works of fiction, rather than focusing on the scifi creatures like I did with horror and fantasy.

Another update to the website that I've added was to post one of my short stories. I've added my story Bunt which is probably one of the best short stories I've ever written. This story highlights the trials Alzheimer's brings upon families. I decided to include some of my artwork for the story as well that I originally intended for the audiobook advertisement. The artwork was created using Gimp free software.

I'm happy to say the website has been getting increased hits of late. Even though these hits haven't translated to higher Google page rank, it is exciting to know so many people are visiting my website. This motivates me to keep adding more things and to continue expanding the available options.