Hail, Caesar! (2016)

The Coen brothers take on the 1950s Hollywood and it’s a delightful experience.   I wouldn’t say this is their best work but it’s certainly a good film that holds true to their film making style.   George Clooney plays one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, Baird Whitlock,who is kidnapped by a secret society of Reds.   Who’s job is it to “fix” this situation but Eddie Mannix (played by Josh Brolin) who sets out to find Whitlock as well as address other problems.  The character that steals the show though is Hobie Doyle (played wonderfully by Alden Ehrenreich).  Hobie is a country bumpkin cowyboy actor that the studio decides to try and make the next big star.   Watching Hobie take direction from Ralph Finnes’ distinguished director is comedy gold.   It’s always a pleasure to see another Coen Brothers film and this is no expectation.   Grade: A-

Imajica by Clive Barker

This ambitious project must be considered Barker’s grand magnum opus.   It’s insanely good and as wild as a story can get.   The main character is John Furie Zacharias also known as “Gentle”.   He’s basically a wizard (or Maestro) that doesn’t realize it because his mind has been wiped.   During the course of the story he learns who he is and it’s his destiny to bring about the Reconciliation of Earth.   Earth is the Fifth dominion of five Dominions or parallel worlds making up the Imajica.   Earth long ago was separated from the others.   Gentle hopes to reconnect Earth and in essence return magic and wonder to its people.  The book is jammed with explorations on Gender, Sex, God, Resurrection and so much more.  It’s fantasy of the highest order.   It’s world building brilliance.  And like most of Barker’s work, it contains fantastic characters with many of the same issues.  The love story is complex and at times you’re not quite sure if even the characters know what they want.   If you like Clive Barker and his brand of storytelling then this is a must read.   If you want your epics to contain lots of battles and you want the worlds to be populated with typical monsters than this might not be for you.   It’s a constantly evolving work of imagination and a rewarding read.   I loved it and would love to see HBO or Netflix bring it to life as a series for adults.   Probably won’t happen but it would be cool.   Grade: A-

Deep Space Nine (Season 2)

It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a returning season of a well-produced Star Trek show.  The producers improve upon what they set up in the first season, expand the character arcs and build on the universe they’ve created.  The best episodes are: Cardassians (with a Cardassian boy who was raised by Bajorans), Second Sight (a Sisko love story), Armageddon Game (an excellent mystery with O’Brien and Bashir being killed for helping rid a dangerous weapon), Paradise (Sisko and O’Brien are prisoners on a planet without technology), Blood Oath (Dax and a trio of Klingons seek out to kill an evil Klingon out of revenge), Crossover (an alternate universe story where the Klingons and Cardassians rule the Universe), and Tribunal (where O’Brien is taken prisoner and must face charges of crimes against Cardassians).  In fact there really aren’t any bad episodes.  My least favorite was probably Melora but that’s only because Bashir the lover boy gets on my nerves.  Overall a good second season for a show I think is on par with Next Generation.  Grade: A-