Cowboy Bebop (1998)

Thinking I would watch the live action reboot of the series, I decided to watch the original Anime.  Before I finished watching all the episodes, word came that the reboot was canceled.  Hmm.  Maybe I won't be watching the reboot.  Anyway, the original was some really good stuff.

Spike and Jett are a pair of bounty hunters in the year 2071.  Bounty hunters are colloquially called 'cowboys' in the future.  The pair travel the solar system on the Bebop - Jett's ship - to capture various criminals.  Along the way, they recruit Ein the Corgi, Faye Valentine the femme fatale, Radical Edward the computer hacker.  In their adventures, they visit Venus, Earth, Mars, the moons of Jupiter, various space stations, and asteroid colonies.  Most of the time, the bounty gets away and the crew often goes hungry.  Food, or more often the lack of food, is a regular facet of the show.  Though they all call the Bebop home, they often work against one another, most especially Faye.

Spike Spiegel is the central character, a man with a dark past.  He had been part of a crime syndicate on Mars and that history regularly rears its head.  He has a talent for sleight of hand, is a skilled martial artist, and a daring pilot.  He has a single-seat craft - the Swordfish - that he frequently uses in dogfights.

Jett Black is a former cop who lost an arm when he got sloppy.  Though flesh and blood arm replacement was available with the future tech, he has a mechanical arm to remind him not to be careless.  In contrast to Spike's lithe build and lightning speed, Jett is muscular and blunt.  He is called the Black Dog for his tendency not to let go of something once he sinks his teeth into it.  He is the father-figure of the crew despite only being 36.

Faye Valentine loves to gamble and usually burns through any money she has in short order.  Of particular note, she was born in 1994.  She was frozen in 2014 in the wake of the gate accident and not unfrozen until 2068.  Therefore, she is 77 years old in one sense and 23 in another.  To make matters worse, she has amnesia about anything prior to waking from cryogenesis.  She wears hardly anything and lives for today.

Edward is one of the great computer hackers of the solar system and she is a thirteen year-old girl.  She joined the Bebop by hacking the computer and having it come to her, much to the others dismay.  She is a ray of sunshine among this gloomy group, a happy though often incomprehensible member of the crew.

Ein is a Corgi.  Though outwardly a normal dog, he shows insights beyond that of a normal dog.  In one episode, he managed to hack a system that had frustrated Edward.  Most of the time, he's just a dog.  He bonds to Edward when she joins the crew.

The show is noted for the music and style.  It is very unlike the usual fare in the anime genre.  It is not surprising that this anime had been selected for a live action reboot.  It is also not surprising that Netflix failed to capture the magic of the original.

Highly recommended.

Blow-Up (1966)

Thomas (David Hemmings) is a successful photographer.  He is working on a collection of his photos with a publisher, works with top models such as Veruschka (as herself), and has young would-be models offering sexual favors for a chance to pose for him.  One morning, he drives to an antique shop that he is interested in purchasing.  He notices a nearby park and decides to wander with his camera, taking pictures of random things that catch his eye.  Then he spots the couple.  The pair are flirting and walking up an incline.  Thomas is entranced and moves to intercept.  Hiding among the bushes and behind trees, he snaps a series of photos.  Spotted, he decides to leave but the woman (Vanessa Redgrave) purses him, demanding the film.  She even tries to steal his camera.  She runs away and he snaps a few more photos as she goes.  Later, she shows up at his studio, again demanding the photos.  He gives her a bogus roll of film and commences to develop the shots.  As he looks at the shots, he sees one where the woman is gazing off to stand of trees.  Blowing up that section, he sees a figure hiding.  Further blow ups show a gun.  In one of his later shots of the woman running away, he notices a figure on the ground.  Is that the man who had been with her?  It is hard to tell, the picture has been blown up beyond recognition.  When he goes back to the park that evening, he finds the man lying dead.

The movie does not go where one expects it to go.  It is not a murder mystery but an exploration of Thomas' grasp of reality.  In person, he saw lovers in the park.  In first developing the film, he saw the woman constantly urging the man to a particular spot in the park.  In blow up, he saw a figure in the woods.  In further blow up, he sees the outline of a body?  Maybe.  When discussing it with others, he repeatedly says he saw nothing.

The film is scattershot.  There does not appear to be a central narrative.  Best described as a character study of Thomas himself who has an eventful day.  He is not a likable man.  Though clearly wealthy (he drives a Rolls Royce) and successful, his life is empty.  He lies pointlessly (e.g. he claims he has no time then sits idle, he claims to have a wife, and then modifies that it is the mother of his children, then says they have no kids).  What is the point of it?  His first reaction to realizing he has photographed a murder is that he'd like to get clearer photos of the corpse.  Though advised to call the police, he doesn't.  In the end, he goes back to take pictures of the corpse, but the body is gone.  Dejected, he wanders the park and finds mimes playing tennis.  He joins the game and fades from reality.

An artsy film that probably gained its fame more from the full female nudity (a first at the time) than the story.  Mediocre.

Chaos

As a longtime reader of Bernard Cornwell, I have seen Patricia Cornwell novels on the shelves of book shops since the 1990s but had not read one of her novels until now.  I was given Chaos, which is the 24th novel in the series.  The story opens on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge.  Kay is walking across the campus and noting the extreme heat when she is contacted by longtime colleague, Pete Marino.  Pete is upset and demands to know where she is.  She is on her way to meet her husband for dinner.  Marino intercepts her and discusses a complaint call about her.  Both seem to make a lot of this call, giving the impression they are paranoid.  Kay has hardly sat down for dinner with her husband, FBI Profiler Benton Wesley, when she gets a call about a dead woman in a park by the Charles River.  Kay is a medical examiner and leaves to investigate, again joined by Pete Marino.  Eventually, Kay examines the body and determines the woman died from electrocution.  She heads back to her facility and performs an autopsy in the wee hours of the morning, confirming electrocution but now finding traces of an unusual alloy that lead her to decide it was murder.  She arrives home to find her archnemesis, Carrie Grethen, in the backyard of her house, holding family members hostage by means of an electrified drone that is hovering nearby.  Kay uses a nearby fishing pole to bring down the drone and save the day.

It took almost 350 pages before Kay was examining the corpse by the river.  During all this time, she, Marino, Lucy (her niece), various dunderheaded policemen speculated one what could have happened.  Kay was constantly curious if the dead woman was the same one she had met twice that very day.  When she finally arrived on scene, the reader is happy for this to be resolved so Kay could stop obsessing over it.  Conversations were hard to follow as Kay would think about her history with the person in the conversation.

"Good to see you, Doc," random character says.

Kay thinks about how she met random character, how well she knows random character, and various events in their shared history.  She ponders how random character is unusually talented in their field and Kay knows that and has always known that.  She would not want anyone else working in this position.

"Good to see you," she replied.

By the time she gets around to the next part of the conversation, one has to go back and see what was being said.  Worse, there are times when characters provide information that both know, but it gets provided nonetheless for benefit of the reader.  For example, when talking to Lucy, she mentions that Carrie supposedly died in a helicopter crash off the coast of North Carolina.  In addition to the constant rehashing of previous novels in the series and the excessive character sketches and location descriptions, the narrative is further muddied by the impending arrival of Kay's sister.  As with everything, Kay obsesses about her younger sister who is shallow, vain, and dimwitted.  To listen to her thoughts, Kay finds her sister to have no redeeming qualities and yet she is going out of her way to welcome her.  Ugh.

The characters are all unlikeable.  Kay is arrogant, paranoid, obsessive, unfocused, and self-conscious.  She frequently thinks about how she is going to upbraid someone for their temerity and then doesn't.  There is what she thinks she should do and then what she actually does.  That both are revealed give her a wishy-washy personality.  Despite constantly demanding that no one jump to conclusions or speculate on what might have happened, she spends much of the lead up to her initial examination speculating what might have happened based on the secondhand reports she has received.  Heck, she has already decided that Carrie Grethen is involved before examining the corpse.  Pete Marino is always either angry or frustrated.  He liberally seasons his conversation 'damn' to show how angry he is.  He was a blowhard who, like Kay, couldn't keep his speculation and conjecture to himself.  By contrast, Benton was unflappable and cold.  Of course, the endless character backgrounds tell us that Kay had an affair with him while he was married to his first wife.  Oh, great.  She later mentions how she had a fling with a colleague.  The more I learned of Dr. Scarpetta, the less I liked her.

Most of the novel is repetitive filler.  The novel could have been cut in half and still dragged.  Too much inner monologue from Kay and not enough events.  The villains are taken down with ease but promise to return in a future novel.  Not that I'll be reading it.

Hard pass.  Do not read this book.

The Late Show

Renee Ballard is an LAPD detective who works the night shift, colloquially called the late show.  She had been on a good career track in RHD on the Special Homicide Unit until she lodged a harassment complaint against her superior.  He kept his position, while she was transferred.  She and Kurt Jenkins, her partner, are the only 2 detectives on the night shift and mostly just take notes before handing investigations to the day crew.  On this particular night, a mass shooting occurred at a local club, resulting in several deaths.  The day shift was summoned, but she and her partner arrive to assist.  Leading the investigation is none other than her former supervisor and unpunished harasser.

Though she had come to like working the late show, Ballard longs to work cases from start to finish.  As such, she offers to pursue an assault case on a transwoman.  Kurt is against the idea; he is on the late show because it allows him to spend days with his cancer-stricken wife.  She is also keen on running her own investigation of the mass shooting, a potentially career-ending move.

Ballard is single and in her mid-thirties.  Her father was a surfer from Southern California who moved to Hawaii and married a native Hawaiian.  She has some casual relationships and a dog name Lola.  Her job is her life.  She is similar to Harry Bosch, but more reckless.

Though a good yarn, I found Ballard off-putting.  She was only too happy to repay a parole officer's favor with sex.  He's got a good body, after all.  Um, okay.  She also reveals that she has a sexual relationship with a lifeguard at the beach she frequents.  In fact, she usually sleeps in a tent on the beach.  She drives a van with a surfboard on top and changes of clothes inside.  The closest thing she has to a home is her grandmother's house up the coast from LA where she does her laundry on the weekends.  She sometimes treats herself to a hotel with room service.  Maybe this should have been called The Homeless Detective.  This lifestyle seems more like a man than a woman.

With simultaneous cases running and a constant chip on her shoulder about the sexual harassment incident, the story is scattered.  With a new character, maybe limit the number of threads to follow.  While her private investigation of the mass shooting is well-handled, her clashes with the rapist are inexplicable.  So much of the mystery here is left unsolved.  A lot is made of her confronting men who are much bigger and yet she wasn't able to handle a drunken supervisor.

Not a bad read, but certainly not on the level of Harry Bosch or the Lincoln Lawyer.  Maybe about like Jack McAvoy's first outing.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye

The story opens in Vietnam as several men race to a helicopter for evac.  The chopper has hardly risen into the air when snipers shoot it down.  As the helicopter plummets, the medic whispers, "Vibianna."  It crashes in a rice patty. leaving a flaming wreck.

Harry Bosch works as a private investigator, but only to keep himself busy.  He has been summoned to a security firm office by a former colleague and offered $10,000 just to meet with a noted local billionaire.  He accepts.  The billionaire is in his eighties and in poor health.  He never married and his vast fortune has no heir.  Or does it?  He asks Harry to find out what happened to a girl with whom he had an affair when he was in college.  She was pregnant when they parted ways.  Perhaps he has an heir?  The girl's name was Vibianna.  In addition to PI work, he also has a part-time job working cases for San Fernando PD, a tiny jurisdiction within Los Angeles.  He mostly works cold cases.  His search for Vibianna distracts him from the rape case he was working with Detective Bella Lordes at SFPD and she has suddenly gone missing!

An excellent Bosch story with two engaging mysteries to solve.  Recommended.

The Crossing

No longer with LAPD, Bosch has time on his hands.  His half-brother, Mickey Haller, needs an investigator as his has been put out of commission thanks to a car accident.  Bosch is less than keen on working for the defense; he has spent his career on the prosecution side of cases.  However, a brief look at the case and he is intrigued.  Though DNA evidence appears to make it a slam dunk case, Bosch is troubled by the lack of opportunity to meet.  Typically, such crimes have a crossing point, an incident where the killer encountered the victim and began stalking them.  He can find no instance.  Soon, it is clear that the car accident that took down the last investigator was not accidental.  Someone doesn't want Harry poking his nose into the case.

Here is another page-turning thriller by Connelly, an excellent crossover case with the Lincoln Lawyer.  Recommended.

Dune (2021)

It is the year 10191.  The story opens on Dune.  Chani (Zendaya) explains how the Harkonnens have ruled the planet since before she was born.  The Harkonnens have become richer than the emperor thanks to the spice, a substance found only on Dune.  Now, inexplicably, the Harkonnens are gone by imperial decree.  She wonders who the next oppressor will be.

On Caladan, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) awakens with a dream of Chani still lingering in his mind.  He has visions, not all of which come true.  He is a skilled swordsman; he fights sword master Gurney Hallek (Josh Brolin) to a draw.  He has some training in controlling others with 'The Voice.'  His mother, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), is a Bene Gesserit, an order of women with seemingly magical powers; the powers have been achieved through selective breeding and consumption of spice.  Paul idolizes Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), a skilled warrior and big brother figure.  Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), Paul's father, has been called upon by the emperor to assume command of Dune and make the spice flow.  He accepts the assignment but knows there is more to this than it seems; it's a trap.

Arriving on Dune, Leto seeks to ally himself with the native Fremen; he doesn't want to be an oppressor like the Harkonnens.  However, the Harkonnens have left Dune in ruins, making it nigh impossible for Leto to meet the spice demands.  Worse still, there is treason afoot and saboteurs hidden.

Despite a two and a half hour runtime, the movie ends in the middle.  The sequel will have to complete the epic.  What is here is vastly superior to the 1984 version, and not on account of the better special effects.  The characters are given an opportunity to develop.  Duncan has lots of interaction with Paul and shows the bond between the pair.  Whereas anyone who hadn't read the book would wonder at the inclusion of Duncan in the previous attempt, here he comes to life and plays an important part in Paul's journey.  Lady Jessica likewise has more opportunity to develop.  Rather than an occasional support figure for Paul, she is a main player in the events.  Gurney has dispensed with the funny guitar, dramatic quotes, and laptop dog to become a hard-as-nails military man.  He's less quirky than Patrick Stewart's portrayal.  Likewise, the Harkonnens are much better.  Stellan Skarsgard's Baron Harkonnen offers measured and thoughtful villainy, rather than the obnoxious rants of a madman.  Indeed, where the last incarnation was wild and out of control, this baron is a chessmaster who has planned many moves ahead.  Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista) is full of anger and brutality, but he isn't a grinning, mindless thug with food spilling out of his mouth.

This is an excellent sci-fi epic and should definitely be seen on the big screen.  Thumbs way up!