Book Review-Follow the Money: A Month in the Life of A Ten-Dollar Bill (Steve Roggan, 2012)

Follow the Money by Steve Roggan was an interesting book to read but not for the reasons that I thought it was going to be. This book follows a brief period in the life of Steve Roggan, an English reporter who decides to follow a US ten-dollar bill for a month. He had done something similar in the UK with a ten-pound note before he decided to go on this adventure across the United State of America.

In the introduction to this book, Steve Roggan briefly recounts his adventures following the ten-pound note in the UK, including all the weird and wacky things that were done in his presence. This set my expectations up for a bit of a thrill ride for this book. Instead, the author decides to use the book to highlight the hopes and struggles for the people that he becomes close with during his travels.

This change in focus kept my attention. For the most part, Steve highlights the ordinary people he meets during his travels across America. Some of my favourites included the talented pub musician who was too scared to take a chance with his music while trying to keep his family together and a farming couple that lived in a dying country town. Rather than a swashbuckling adventure through America that I expected following the introduction these stories instead highlighted a much mellower journey through the lives of the ordinary people.

Steve Roggan was also a good judge of how long to keep each of these segments before they start to drag. With the exception of one or two of the people he meets, he keeps the pace of the book up and moves onto writing about the next leg of his journey before my interest in his story waned. However, he kept writing about his fears of losing the ten-dollar bill so often that I got pretty bored during those parts as I felt it was a given that it is a risky journey. It started to come across as either a space-filler or him whining like a child.

Overall, this book was highly enjoyable. Although not quite the book I was expecting, it still kept me entertained (with the exception of his whining) with a very mellow journey through the lives of fairly ordinary Americans.

4 out of 5 cross-country waffles.

 
20 years after Alan Partridge first appeared in BBC Radio's On the Hour. Now Coogan revisits his enduring TV character for a big-screen action-comedy Alan Partridge Alpha Papa. Movie that knowingly skewers British media and culture, also relentlessly hilarious and deeply embarrassing in that british kind of way.

 
Alan works his mouth at that Norfolk radio station with his ‘Mid-Morning Matters’ slot. But its an uneasy time at Norfolk radio station as corporate takeover has happened. This of course means a new rebrand for the radio station to make it seem cool and edgy. Alan becomes aware that either he or longtime colleague Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney) are set for sacking. In typical Alan Partridge style he betrays his would-be pal to the new owners to protect his own job.
Unhappy with his firing Pat (who looks a bit like that bloke off Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) goes slight postal and breaks in with rifle at his side during the rebranding party. He takes the current staff and the new management hostage, and demands a return to the old-fashioned public service outfit. Pat is a decent man driven to the edge. Still believing Alan as a trusted pal he asks for Alan to be his link to the authorities and the general public.
As the siege becomes national interests Alan increasing ego grows along with his celebrity status. Alan only sees the possibility of promotion and new fame by acting as Pat's spokesman.While he and Pat broadcast the siege with coffee and chit chat. Alan mounting fear of Pat finding out the truth leads to an amusing sequence of Alan losing his trousers and chance of defusing the siege.
Alan Partridge is what die hard 6 should have been. A low-fi situation where the main protagonist can't quite rise to the challenge. But we love watching him try. Intriguingly for a comedy, there's a real sense of danger and tension with some great physical comedy.

It's the dialog that really shine with paralysing oddness and laughter. Every phrase is funny, as are the pauses and facial expressions inserted by the adept cast. Much of it springs from each person's specific neurosis. Coogan gives a seamless performance that creates a believable buffoon: a loser who isn't actually stupid. Just gets his metaphors mixed when flustered. Seems to get easily distracted by all kinds of tiny business. Once you just take in the hilarity of his view of the world, Alapa Papa becoming an hilarious movie about what was better in the old days. 

Give the hollywood action blockbuster a rest. Forget Wolverine with his knives and forks for hands. Watch a real man in action movie slash comedy. And give Alan Partridge Alpha Papa a chance. 
4 out of 5 I am siege face ! waffles

Movie Review: The Lone Ranger (2013)

The Lone Ranger movie that was released earlier this year is a re-imagining of the old Lone Ranger mythos. It garnered quite allot of attention for casting Johnny Depp as a Native American and received quite a critical backlash on release. Although I can see why this movie was critically panned, I still found it to be entertaining while it lasted.

The storyline of the Lone Ranger is a bit of a schizophrenic mess. The story is effectively Tonto telling of his adventures to a young boy in a museum, so some of this can come off as an unreliable or biased narrator. The story begins with The Lone Ranger arriving into town as an attorney and an inept action hero who doesn't believe in guns. No real reason is established for his extreme dislike of guns. He is also in the shadows of his heroic ranger brother which is built up to be a big thing, but is then forgotten about except as a running gag with Tonto. When he is killed but brought back, it might have been because of a mystical, intelligent horse, or just because of luck. When he comes back, he is a “spirit walker” and therefore can’t die in battle, except it might just be random luck saving his life. Without any sort of consistent theme, the story struggled to get out of first gear as it kept jumping between what was central to the plot.

The movie also struggled to find a consistent tone. It often alternated between trying to be a serious action movie and then have elements of slapstick comedy. This is no more apparent than in a sequence where you witness a massacre, and the next scene appears to be a somber reflection by Tonto until he makes a joke about the horse. This was also a problem with the characters, as the big events that you would think would lead to character development (such as the aforementioned massacre) don’t really affect the characters too much. Even finding out more about their history and the mistakes in their lives doesn't the characters anymore interesting. Instead, it feels like it was only put in there because the writers needed to actually give the characters some development, although it never seems to affect any of their actions.

Despite this, it was refreshing that the movie didn't make the mistake of taking itself too seriously for the most part. It did realise that its main appeal is as slapstick comedy with some out-there action scenes. In fact, it is only when the movie does try to become dark and broody that it really starts to drag out. I can see why the critics would savage the movie due to the mess of a storyline, inconsistent tone and complete lack of character development, but it did keep me entertained for its running length.

2 out of 5 Wendingo-killing waffles.

Battling Boy is a bombastic coming of age adventure that fuses Eastern and Western graphic novel storytelling. Imagine if someone mixed "Scott Pilgrim" with "Adventure Time" then added a dash of "Cowboy BeBop". This is a genre-blend that's easily identifiable. The story is a simple coming of age adventure story that mixes up the superhero formula. It achieves this by throwing in some Greek and Norse mythology, giant monsters and jet pack pulp heroes. These are all things that can only improve any story they are added to.




Battle Boy is set in Arcopolis, a sprawling city which is under siege by hideous monster and terrorized by gangs of ghouls. The only person keeping it safe is Haggard West, a flying science hero with a blaster, similar to The Rocketeer. That is until his unfortunate death in the first few pages. Haggard leaves behind a city without a protector and a daughter devastated by loss. Meanwhile in another dimension, above the clouds and among the stars themselves live the gods. This is where we meet our main protagonist Battling Boy (yes that is his real name), the son of the bravest god. On this his thirteenth year he must now prove himself on a "ramble" - a solo adventure through which he will come of age. He’s sent down to Arcopolis with a suitcase full of magical knic-knacks including a totem-infused t-shirt to a limitless credit card. But will Battling Boy be the rescuer of Arcopolis, or he will be slain by its monsters.Even though Battling boy is a son of a god, this doesn't mean he can't be ground. Like all young adults he’s still figuring out who he is and what he’s capable off. He also has to battle the influence of adult that show signs of using him for something more than a protector.

 
Pope’s artwork is amazingly stylish and kinetic. His distinctive style is deceptively simple and messy on the surface. At times you see the influence of Jack Kirby in his character designs, Hergé in his bizarre backgrounds and cityscapes, Katsuhiro Otomo in his energy. Paul infused all of this into his own pure sexiness, all while pumping up the raw power.

Pope’s story is wonderfully realized at the end of volume one and I wish I had volume two already. Battling Boy feels like a mix-tape of all things cool created by a master of his craft.


4.5 totem-infused waffles out of 5

Retro Review: Monsters, Inc.

With the advent of sequels, reboots and prequels seeming to be everywhere these days, I thought I would share my thoughts on Pixars original Monsters Inc., which recently had a prequel released in Monsters University.

The story of Monsters Inc. is that there is an alternate dimension of monsters. The energy that these monsters need to run their city is based on the screams of children when they are scared. In order to scare them, the monsters emerge from doorway portals into the childrens world to scare them. This is a dwindling resource, however, as kids are becoming harder to scare.

The monsters are also scared of the kids. This is because they fear contamination from the kids which propaganda leads them to believe will kill them. The story follows two monsters, Mike and Sully, who inadvertently leave a kid come into the monsters world. Along the monsters grow attached to the kids, discover the propaganda was wrong and foil a conspiracy from the big corporations.

I liked the banter between the Mike and Sully. It really felt light-hearted and goofy and exactly what you would’ve expected. I also liked the chameleon/snake villain and the way he spoke, as well as the scream factories boss and the way he looked. Both of them felt really villainy, even if a bit generic. Also I liked that all the characters motivations were clear. You always understood where they were coming from in terms of the competition to get more scares, trying to save the company or to help the renegade child. I feel that characters whose motivations you can understand, especially villains, make for much more interesting characters.

I felt like the conspiracy from the villains could’ve been done better. I don’t get why kidnapping the children to use a scream extractor had to be kept a secret especially seeing as dwindling resources was a major problem in the film. Why the boss is immediately arrested for stating he would kidnap children is something I didn't understand.

It was also never explained why they had the propaganda to keep the monsters scared of the children as this feels like it just hamstrung the monsters effectiveness. I may have also just missed this, however. Also, the overall solution of laughter being much more powerful then screams didn’t figure as prominently into the climax as I would have expected. It just seemed to be tacked onto the end to make it feel good seeing as the company was about to go bankrupt. I understand the ending where the energy shortage gets worse and unemployment rises may have been a bit too dark for this movie, but it still felt very tacked on.

Overall, I have to say that I didn't find this movie particularly engaging compared to movies such as Up or Wall-E. Although the characters motivations were clear, the actual characters felt a bit too generic and the plot a tad too predictable. Movies like the Avengers got away with this for me due to the awesomeness of them pulling it off. In Monsters, Inc, I didn’t have the same level of investment in the characters.

I also don’t feel this movie needed a prequel. Although the story felt generic, I still felt it was adequate and pretty much self-contained. I didn’t feel a pressing desire to see how they all got together to be work buddies, and they already showed part of them being trained. In my mind, a prequel serving to show how Mike and Sully became generic characters kind-of misses the point.

3 out of 5 not-so-scary Waffles.