The Blogboard Jungle

     The trailers for this film had me thinking it was going to be a city wide chaotic story of the night when the "haves"(versus the have nots) try to survive the annual purge of crime and rage that supposedly takes place every year in 2022 according to the films brief summary.  That is what I was expecting, that is not what I got when I sat through The Purge (2013) . I don't like it when a movie is made, with the idea that the audience and the characters in it are all stupid.  Who thinks up stuff like that?  (The answer is in the opening credits under the list of producers)  First, the characters in the film are the most unaware, disconnected people in any horror or thriller I have seen in a while.  Ethan Hawke is a good actor, so it bothers me when he puts himself in a film like this although he does have a nice little action sequence during the films climax.  But, his character is so unaware of his family and their situation in the fil...

     Episode 3 puts us back on track with the shows original pace after getting some mushy character building stuff out of the way last week .  This episode had plenty of horror, action, and dare I say comedy to grab anyone thinking about dropping the show stay aboard. With the final decision being made on Eph's custody nonsense, (because this isn't Kramer v. Kramer ) out of the way we can get back to the story at hand.  The vampiric disease taking over New York City and all those directly involved.  We get to see why Jim Kent can get the thumb pushed on him by The Stone Heart Group, and we get to see who seems like the rough detective of all the characters Vasily Fet.  The Russian exterminator who, in the book seems to be the equivalent of Woody Harrelson's character in Zombieland .  His attitude alone is pretty funny in the book and it seems they may bring that to the show. Gabriel Bolivar, the shock rocker is undergoing his transfo...

     Just when I thought the pace was moving along quite nicely in comparison to the book the second episode of FX's The Strain went and slowed things down a bit.  I suppose that's okay so long as they don't harp too much on Eph and his person life because if we wanted to know about that, it would be on lifetime. Some spoilers ahead, after a premiere that let audiences know this show was not going to go light on the gore and horror.  They kind of hit the breaks on the second episode and started to go the pace of the the book, which is probably my only gripe with the book , the slow start and character introduction.  I do understand it helps build the relationships and gives meaning to things that will happen later but maybe it's because I took such a long break from fun reading because of school I wanted to get right to the horror.  Either way, after seeing The Master, and meeting our hero Eph we kind of got back to the ho hum everyday life proble...

    The Strain premiered this past Sunday night on FX and the premiere let fans know the FX series is not going to skimp on the gore that is present in the book.  Also, if you thought the book one was a little slow to start, you won't have to worry about that in the TV series. Fans of original content in one medium can be very happy or disappointed when their stories switch gears to a new medium to reach a larger audience.  So far, The Strain seems to fix the slow to start from the book with keeping new fans attention on the small screen.  While there are some differences from the book, it should be understood that things need to be changed to squeeze in enough story to a 55 minute weekly TV series.  The book is pretty descriptive in it's gore for certain things that happen to hosts during transformation to a vampiric parasitic zombie and coming to TV a horror fab could be concerned about losing this.  No need to worry, a scene where Th...

    The series begins on FX July 13th but a lot of people have already gotten through the first book of the upcoming series The Strain .  After reading it myself, I can tell you we can expect a lot of gore in the vampire transformation department.  If you're someone that thinks the vampire genre is a little tired, or it's not your favorite genre this is still worth a look. From paper to the small screen. The book may seems a little slow going at first, but remember it's part of a three book series so it's nice to get all the character introduction out of the way early.  The way it is written with its series of flashbacks and the situations that befall each character in the book, you'll have no trouble visualizing the details, especially if you have been to New York City.  It flows like a good TV series so it is no wonder that it has become one.  I know it can be hard to swallow a story that moves from one medium to another , especially if you a...