Set the wayback machine ... err ... Sherman

[threemonkeys]

Since doing much reading when I get home seems a bit beyond me at the moment, I have been watching a few movies. Although going to sleep during them is always a possibility. The other day I picked up a copy of Millennium for the price of a cup of coffee. It certainly isn't for the quality of the movie, but more a nostalgia moment for the quality of the original. John Varley was, to my mind, the greatest SF author of the late 70s and 80s. The work he did then, particularly the short stories, was just mind blowing. One of those short stories was Air Raid. It was the story which was the basis for Millennium. I loved Air Raid and I loved the book of Millennium which was more or less (mostly more) the book of the movie. Millennium the movie sucks big time. Varley wrote the screenplay. In fact he wrote it 6 times for four different directors. In the end it had been so badly mangled that all the heart was taken out of it. But it is the execution that really lets the film down. I don't know who thought Cheryl Ladd could act, but all she is really good for is keeping her hair off the floor - the hair being the better actor. The rest of the cast are pretty much of the same quality. Varley didn't write much else for about 5 years and his output has been pretty thin since.

All the above is just a way of saying that those of you who hold bad movie evenings should really give this one a shot. Then go read the book for a completely different quality of experience. Here endeth today's lesson on the perils of writers in Hollywood.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this :).

Also thank you for the chocolate fish (I know I already thanked you, but they no longer exist and their demise must be properly noted) which were a major feature at the bad taste movie night. We dipped them in melted chocolate, which was probably very, very wrong.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I figure that melted chocolate is the native environment of such fish.

Do you want more for Conflux? I have been eyeing up what I could bring and the choices are rather limited - damn that shared cultural heritage.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was asked very nicely if I could ask you very nicely if more chocolate fish were possible, but I thought it might be a bit tacky to do so. A whole group of us entirely enjoyed them and would be very happy to repeat the experience next bad taste move night. (Two of our key members are actually New Zealander or born there so their faces had expressions of perfect happeness that night.)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Done deal then. I'll see if I can get some of the giant sized ones too.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I guarantee you they will be enjoyed. Thank you :).

[littenz.livejournal.com]

I take it you didn't enjoy the movie?

After watching that film (I think I paid good money to hire it - or perhaps I recorded it from a 2am TV screening) I wondered what the hoopla was all about for John Varley as a writer.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Read a story like The Persistence of Vision, Picnic on Nearside, Press Enter, In the Halls of the Martian Kings, Air Raid, In the Bowl etc etc etc and you wouldn't wonder.