Today I went to see a movie that I have been debating, partly because I already knew how it ended, and partly because I didn't want it to end. Growing up my first cartoon crush was Optimus Prime, yes, he is a car but hubba hubba. My second cartoon crush, and my first comic book crush, was Wolverine. It has always been Wolverine for me, even before Hugh Jackman played him in the movies. There has always been something about him, his strength, his personality, the way he trims his facial hair, he was it for me. The reason I read comics, the reason I was willing to watch superhero movies, the reason I cared about a fictitious world. His love for Jean, his caring for Rogue, his actions as a unwilling but necessary superhero have always made Wolverine the best superhero, and anti-superhero.

LOGAN follows Wolverine after the mutants have come and gone, in a world where mutants are the enemy and any mutant still living is hunted and killed. In this movie he is no longer Wolverine, he is just Logan, a man on a mission to save those he has left, the only people in the world who understand him. With him are two companions, Professor X and Caliban. Professor X is a skeletal hush of his former self, being given meds so he doesn't explode and kill all of humanity. Caliban is a soft spoken albino who takes care of Xavier and has special powers that will eventually be used against Logan and Xavier, but at the end Caliban is a hero.

There will be spoilers, so if you have yet to see this movie, I suggest you stop reading this review now. Logan is greeted by a woman named Gabrielle, who wants him to help her and a young girl named Laura. It turns out that Laura is Logan's daughter, created through stolen DNA. She has the same implants as Logan does, with a few exceptions. Logan is dubious about helping, as he just wants to live a quiet life on a boat with Xavier. Plus, Logan is sick, the metal in his body is slowly poisoning him, he no longer heals as fast and coughs up blood.

This movie was hard for me to watch since I never really thought the X-Men universe would come to an end. With everyone dead but these new laboratory mutants there isn't really a chance for a continuation of the series, although I could see a reboot with new mutants. I do wonder if their mutations are genetically transferred, and I do wonder what the plans might be for the series. I haven't read the graphic novels in a long while, and wonder if they are going to follow something that was written in them. It is hard because I can't imagine the movie series continuing without Professor X or Wolverine. Anyway, I digress. The plot of the movie is to protect Laura and get her, and several other mutant children, to a safe haven where they will be free from the crazy doctor who is chasing after them.

This movie is incredibly touching, and true to the story of Wolverine. He continues to be a reluctant hero in this movie, and in the end his guilt over the deaths of others follows him to his own death. He tells Laura that she doesn't have to become what he is, she can be better. The loss of Xavier to a Wolverine clone is devastating, and hard to watch. He is a broken old man who must depend on Logan for everything. When he dies he is spilling his heart out about things that happened in the past. We see Xavier as the broken husk he has become, but we also see the strong X-Man he used to be.

In the end, Logan loses his life to save Laura, and his death is one of the saddest deaths I have seen in a while. I never really expected to see Logan die, and I was devastated when it finally came. It was wonderful, however, to see him remain true to his character. He hesitantly comes to the rescue of the children as they are chased and captured. He hesitantly kills and you can see he doesn't like killing, but he does it because he feels like he must to protect the kids.

This is a stand-alone movie. You don't have to watch the previous X-Men movies to feel for the characters or understand what is going on. It does help with some of the references to know some of the background of the characters, and the mutants, but if you have followed the mutant history you would already know how hard life has been for them. From the death of Jean to the dismantling of the school to the horrible way the government has treated them, mutants are basically extinct.

I recommend this movie, it has a lot of action, heart, and story. It says a lot without saying everything or being repetitive. It was a really good movie.

You'd think a woman with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks would be pretty good, especially since they are both very good actors, and you would be wrong. I learned this the hard way by watching the atrocity that is THE CIRCLE today. It was just, dull. If you look at the description on IMDb you'd think this was an interesting and possibly thrilling movie. Here is the IMDb plot summary - A woman lands a dream job at a powerful tech company called the Circle, only to uncover an agenda that will affect the lives of all of humanity. Secrets and lies sound like a very interesting movie. However it fell short.

Mae lands a dream job at the circle, which means she can help her father, a man struggling with MS, and give her mother a break. After joining she seems to question some of the things that the circle is doing with their technology, but if you think that, again you would be wrong. This movie has almost no real plot, it has zero climax, and there is not a satisfactory ending to it either.

There are several characters in this movie and only one stood out, but the one character who did stand out only did so briefly. Actor Ellar Coltrane plays Mercer, a childhood friend of Mae. His character doesn't receive much development, and I don't know if Mr. Coltrane is a good actor, but in this he was just awful. In one scene he is supposedly very upset, but he doesn't come across as upset, he comes across as bored and uncaring. It was as if there was no effort put into this scene at all.

Glenne Headly and the late Bill Paxton play Mae's parents. I will honestly say that Mr. Paxton was probably the the best acted character in this movie. He excellently portrays a man struggling with the ravages of MS. There does seem to be a progression of the disease in his character and it would have been a good idea for the producer or director to give him more screen time.

Karen Gillan is Mae's longtime and probably best friend, Annie. There are moments in the movie where we worry about the health and future of Annie, but it doesn't really go anywhere, and the drama that is built around her character falls flat.

Then there is Emma Watson as Mae. I think Ms. Watson is a fabulous actress, so I am not sure why she chose to be in this terrible movie. Even she couldn't save it and honestly her acting felt flat and forced.

This is a movie you should skip. It felt like a very long BLACK MIRROR episode without the thrills and the twist that BLACK MIRROR has. The ending is uninteresting and doesn't really bring the movie together, especially since there is one character who seems to be against it all, and after three scenes in the movie everything he has said seems unnecessary. This is one of the most boring movies that I have ever watched, and I am happy that I only wasted a couple of dollars to see it. I wish I had scene a different movie, maybe THE GREAT WALL or LOGAN. I think I will probably just go and see LOGAN tomorrow, and try to forget this dull movie....which shouldn't be too hard.

There are many different genres of horror, but people often wonder how does one define horror? Honestly it can be anything from a fear of spiders to body mutilation. Horror has such a wide scope that there is no one definition of it, like there is no one definition of Romance (there are varying categories) or Mystery (again, varying categories). Genres in horror vary so far and wide that even main categories have several sub-categories. I'd like to talk about a few different categories that interest me.

Apocalyptic horror - this is basically what I write. I write in a sub-genre of apocalyptic horror, the zombie apocalypse. There is also nuclear apocalypse, virus apocalypse, apocalypse brought on by war, animal apocalypse (there's a great book titled MORT by Robert Repino about a cat run apocalypse, it does have some hard to read scenes, but it is so good). Zombie horror in itself varies. There is horror from the zombie point of view (the Monster Island series and my series both have zombies as main characters), zombie horror that is dark comedy (WARM BODIES), and zombie horror that is very close to the movie NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. When people ask what I write, I often say zombie novels, because that is a simple answer, but in reality I write apocalyptic horror with a strong zombie story. My novels aren't about the zombies, they are about the way we segregate those who are different. Honestly, if an apocalyptic novel is well written, it usually isn't about the apocalypse, but the way humans react to the apocalypse. Do they tear each other down? Kill because they can? Rape because they can? Build societies they believe to be prefect utopias? Nothing is ever as they seem really.

Ghost Horror - this isn't always your typical haunted house book, although those are ghost horror. This genre can range from a haunted house to Simon R. Greens "Ghost Hunter" Series, even Emily Bronte's WUTHERING HEIGHTS can be considered ghost horror. There are some issues with ghost horror these days as ghost (much like vampires and werewolves) are being used in other genres as romantic devices, which I don't necessarily approve of, but I still read the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I try to keep up with pop culture and new trends so that I know what is out there and where horror is going. Ghost horror can be anything from a haunted house to a woman who works in a boys home, but who is really dead herself. It can be written from a scared woman's point of view, or it can be written from the ghosts point of view. It can be all about finding the murderer, or it can be about making sure the people left behind after your death stay alive and find happiness. Why are so many attracted to ghost horror? Because no one is sure what, or if, the afterlife may be like.

Extreme horror - this is a horror that involves a lot of gore, language, violence, and often revenge. This horror is found in movies like SAW and several books by Ray Garton and Edward Lee. Extreme horror is not for everyone as it often is very graphic and can be disturbing. For example, in THE CELLAR by Ray Garton he graphically writes about the rape of a child, and again this is not for everyone, in fact there may be a small underground love of these books as some readers do this behind closed doors and often do not share that they read this type of horror. I have read several of Edward Lee's novels and while I love his "Infernal Angel" series his novel FLESH GOTHIC was a little much for me as it involved lots of sex, body mutilation, and debauchery. This horror is for those who like the adrenaline rush of finding out if the girl who was raped and left for dead gets her revenge, in the most violent way possible.

These are a few of the genres that I wanted to explain a little bit about. Often zombie novels are compared to extreme horror because they involve body horror (decomposing bodies described in graphic detail as they wander across the earth). Zombie novels can be extreme horror, and they can be body horror, just because a book fits in once genre or sub-genre of horror doesn't mean that it won't also fit in another. Genres are fluid and they are ever evolving. What is a straight-forward genre today, might actually be a a sub-genre of something else in the future.

In ten days, just one day before the day of my birth, on the 27th day of this month I will be participating in a literary event.

ALCPL- Catfish Literary Festival
Date: Saturday, May 27, 2017
Description: The Athens-Limestone Public Library presents its 3rd Annual Catfish Literary Festival. You can catch a good story through author talks, book signings and panel discussions on Saturday, May 27 from 10 AM to 3 PM. This celebration of books and authors is open to the public. Information at http://www.alcpl.org/

Come visit me! Come visit other awesome authors! Get lots and lots and lots of books! And maybe discover a brand new author!

I went into this movie thinking it was going to be incredibly terrible, but I was happy to be proven wrong.

If you know nothing about this movie, the plot if pretty basic. A couple hire a young woman, Greta, to look after their son while they take a vacation. However, when Greta gets there she is surprised to find that the child isn't a child at all, but is instead a porcelain doll. At first she thinks this is all a joke, but realizes that the couple are serious, and eventually, after strange things start happening she starts to wonder if Brahms is actually still around, and if his spirit is trapped in the body of the porcelain doll.

The movie does start slow, as Greta spends a little bit of the movie looking at the doll and acting like the couple who left her to care for a doll were crazy. She spends days drinking wine, reading magazines, and calling a friend back in America who is keeping tabs on the ex-boyfriend, Cole, she is escaping from. After she finds that some of her personal items start disappearing she starts to believe that Brahms may actually be alive. She asks Malcolm, the local grocery owner who delivers to the family, a little about the child and his death. After learning about his life and that he may have been responsible for the death of a playmate, Greta starts wondering about the boy and his spirit. She starts wondering if he actually is in there, and she begins taking care of the doll as if it were alive. Once her ex, Cole, shows up to drag her back to the states she asks Brahms to help, and this is when the big twist of the movie comes.

I can't say too much more about this movie, as there are at least three twists that happen and that are unexpected. For me to say that is actually a big deal, only because I can almost see the twist coming in a lot of movie I have watched, especially horror movies. One of the twists was so surprising that I had to go watch it again just to see what I hadn't noticed. I also found that a lot of the movie gives hints to what is going to happen, as Brahms is said to be shy.

The acting was a little dull, the actor playing Malcolm was a little too willing to appease. Also, some of the actions of Greta seemed unrealistic. For example, she starts having a relationship with Malcolm even though she is at the house to get away from her abusive ex. She also seems, especially after so long, to believe too easily that Brahms is in the doll. The emotional reactions of all of the characters was a little more bland than I felt they should have been. Honestly, the best actors in the movie were the elderly parents of Brahms. They were caring and slightly off in the beginning of the movie. They acted loving towards each other and they seemed concerned, for Greta or Brahms the audience isn't sure. Then there is a scene in the movie that is so touching, sad, and horrifying at the same time that solidify them as the best actors in this movie.

I recommend this movie. It does have several twists which I enjoyed. As so many horror movies these days are so predictable, I feel like this was an underrated movie that got passed up because it does look hokey in the previews. Plus, who hasn't seen a movie involving a possessed doll? This is different, trust me! I think you might enjoy it, even though the acting isn't the best ever, it also isn't the worst.

I have to be honest, this is one of several movies I've seen recently which has offered a twist I enjoyed, and not one that I felt didn't belong or made the movie suck.

For 301 days a family has been living in a bomb shelter, trying to remain safe after an apocalyptic outbreak of some virus that is not named or mentioned. A father, mother and young daughter named Zoe, are all that we are left to believe remain of the living world. The hide, afraid of the "breathers" hoping to survive and life long enough to figure out what is going on, and what might be the next thing to do.

This movie is slow to start. It begins with a family going through the motions, trying to keep things under control and pleasant for their young daughter. The family finds a rat has been getting into their supply of food, and this is when the trouble seems to begin. They stalk the areas to see if they can find the rat before it eats too many of their rations. When they do find the rat, something goes wrong and a fire begins, causing a cascade of issues. The family must not go outside to move things and make sure no one saw the smoke or ashes from the fire, otherwise their lives may not be in danger, and their very existence may falter.

Okay so here is a SPOILER so if you haven't seen this movie I suggest you don't keep reading this part.

This movie is a zombie movie of sorts. The family has been affected by a virus which has gone airborne. The virus causes them to become homicidal if they get angry. They turn into zombiesque monsters, their eyes become black and black veins develop under their pale skin. They can't go outside as the breathers are military members of some sort who are to keep the infected in the quarantined zone and kill whoever tries to escape. The family has been noticed and their safe haven has been infiltrated. They now must run, or die. 

This movie was a delight, as it not only put a new spin on the zombie apocalypse, but it focused on the zombie side of things. For example the family had a set of rules, and rule number one was to stay calm. Any time they lose control they lose who they were and turned, but if they calmed down they could return to who they were before, meaning that they managed how they lived and if they became a zombie or not. The living were essentially the bad guys, as they only killed the infected. This is especially obvious when the mother and daughter are caught in a net and the head of the military squad notices the jacket the little girl is wearing. He says, "Zoe, I have a little girl your age. What a shame." So, the living obviously feel nothing.

This movie also portrays a dismal future, as several post-apocalyptic movies show the worst of humanity. There always seems to be a group who wants to kill another group, whether it is the living killing the dead or the suffering killing the survivors, there is always a group full of hate, and they do it because that is what they have been told to do. I am sure there could have been a way for the uninfected to place the infected in a safe area, where they could live their lives, instead of being culled like cattle.

I honestly recommend this flick. It was interesting, it portrayed the infected as interesting characters, and it set a suspenseful tone that kept me wondering what was going to happen. Although it is a little slow to start, it builds, as the "breathers" are mentioned several times, enough that the audience becomes anxious to see who these "breathers" are.

Setting - an office building in Columbia. Plot - set people against each other by using the fear of death. Characters - unoriginal because we've seen them all before. Ending - OMG really? Like that hasn't been done before. I mean did anyone besides me see CUBE? CUBE 2 - HYPERCUBE?

So, this movie was predictable, of course, like a lot of movies these days. After I watched it I had to take a minute, or 24 hours to think about it, because in my mind I kept comparing it to movies like CUBE and THE PURGE, but it wasn't as original as either. Okay, I take that back. SPOILER - this movie is about a group of scientists who are conducting human experiments to see how humans will behave in certain situations. It is reminiscent of the experiment where a group of students are separated into two groups, one group is set to be guards, and the other group are the prisoners. The guards don't take long to start abusing their power and the prisoners. The experiment had to be cut short because of the abuse the prisoners were suffering.

The ending of this movie wasn't all bad, but everything from the beginning was incredibly predictable. The lock down of the building, the characters not questioning the new line of soldiers or guards set up, the fact that a group of workers was sent home, nothing seemed to affect them, nothing made them think about what was going on. Personally, I may have refused to go to work if there were new guards carrying automatic weapons when before there had only been one security guard.

This movie tries to be something new by using an office building and office workers, but it takes a misstep when it creates characters who were once in the special forces. It would have been a lot more interesting if this had just been straight up office workers who came to Columbia from America to make more money. Another thing annoying about this movie was the attempts at humor. There was a scene where a woman is beaten to death in a bathroom and when the killer leaves the bathroom the audience sees a closeup of a sign saying "keep bathroom clean for next user." Another issue I had with this movie was the characters. You've got the helpful guy who doesn't want to see anyone get hurt, you've got the joiner who does whatever he can to not get killed (even if that means killing his friends), you've got the love interest someone takes notice of and wants to sex up, you've got the lucky girl who may or may not get killed at the end, and you've got the background people who make an impression but don't stick with you. Oh, and I forgot, the stoner, you've got the stoner and the bad ass who you KNOW is going to be the bad guy!

I had high hopes for this movie. As a horror movie is was a gore fest with exploding heads and people slipping in blood. There was in fact blood everywhere. Which, bonus, makes it an actually horror movie! I have watched a bunch of movies lately that have been labeled horror and have been more of a thriller or suspense, so while this wasn't a good movie, I was pleased that it was a horror movie. As I started, I had high hopes for this movie, but it was just another movie about people being forced to survive by, well, killing other people. It isn't an original idea, and the end of the movie leads the audience to believe that there will be a second movie.

I am sure there are people who disagree with me, but hey, it's one opinion. I didn't care for it. I wish I could find a horror movie to scare me, or make me think, or at least make me check under the bed before I go to sleep.