Tuesday, October 18, 2016

DVD Review - Who Gets The Dog?



PG; 95 minutes;$19.98; Amazon
Now available to on DVD + Digital HD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is the romantic-comedy Who Gets The Dog?. Directed by Huck Botko, the film stars Alicia Siverstone (Clueless) and Ryan Kwanten (HBO's True Blood). There are no special features or bonus extras on the disc.

Who Gets The Dog? centers on a couple Clay and Olive separating after six-years of marriage. While they don't have any children, they do have a beloved dog named Wesley, who they both want custody of. The judge gives Olive (played by Alicia Silverstone) temporary custody of Wesley for a 60-day review, so Clay has to settle for weekend visitation rights.

Clay tries his best to get his act together, though living in camper trailer doesn't help much. He also tries his best to get Wesley to love him more than Olive.

After sending years in the minor hockey league as a goalie, out of nowhere Clay gets a call to play in a major league hockey game. Unfortunately, Wesley runs away right before the big game.

Now, Clay and Olive must work through their differences, so they can find Wesley.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Review - Battlefield Earth: A Saga Of The Year 3000


*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Galaxy Audio; 47.5 hours; $59.95; Amazon
For the past two months, I have been listening to the new Battlefield Earth: A Saga Of The Year 3000 audiobook. The 44-disc set is produced by Galaxy Audio (Press), the same company that produces the "Stories From The Golden Age" audiobooks.

Battlefield Earth was originally published in 1982, written by the late L.Ron Hubbard. While the novel was a New York Times Bestseller, there was plenty of controversy at time it was released. I'm not going to go into too much details, but it did involved the fact that the author was the founder of Scientology.

Since I'm a Christian, I don't follow Scientology, but I have listened to several of L. Ron Hubbard's "Stories From the Golden Age" over the years. I'm a book lover, so I will pretty much read any book or listen to any audiobook I can get my hands on. Despite my love for reading, I'm not the biggest fan of the science-fiction genre (minus a few Start Trek titles). I became aware of Battlefield Earth about the time the movie adaptation was released in 2000, which is considered one of the worst movies ever made. I rented the movie once on VHS, and I thought it was one of the silliest things I had ever seen.

Due to my distaste for the movie, I had never attempted to read the original 1000+ pages novel. Well, that is until I heard Galaxy Audio was bringing out a new massive audiobook this year, and I thought I would give the novel a try.

When I say massive... I really mean it!

Q&A with A.B. Funkhauser, author of Scooter Nation




Now available from Solstice Publishing is the thriller Scooter Nation, book two in the Unapologetic Lives series, by author A.B. Funkhauser.



The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her novel.


When did you become interested in storytelling?

When I was seven years old, I found an unused ledger book in the crawl space. Green, hardcover, with clean ruled pages on one side, and blank white pages for illustrations on the other, it made good sense to me to write my own children’s book and draw the pictures too! I filled it with short stories printed neatly in pencil. The only story title I remember is “Fish Head the Cat.”

What was your first book/story published?

I published HEUER LOST AND FOUND through Solstice Publishing in 2015. It took a long time to write, but it was worth it. Heuer taught me how to write.

What inspired you to write Scooter Nation?

I’m a licensed funeral director, and so after I explored the concept of “what happens after we die” in Heuer, I took it back to earth and asked, “what happens when your life and everything you know about it is turned upside down?” in Scooter.

What characters in Scooter Nation are the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Review - Stalking Jack The Ripper




Jimmy Patterson; 330 pages; $18.99; Amazon
The identity of Jack the Ripper is still one of the biggest murder mysteries of all time. While there are plenty of theories, the 1888-1891 Whitechapel murders have still gone unsolved.

Today, Jack the Ripper is more of a legend. There have been countless non-fiction titles written about the murders, as well as several fictionalized stories based on the killer. There has also been movies, mini-series, and television series made about Jack the Ripper.

My fascination with Jack the Ripper started when I read a non-fiction middle-grade book about the Whitechapel killings when I was in elementary school during the early 1990s. So, naturally, I was interested in reading the young adult horror-thriller Stalking Jack The Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco, which is the first non-written James Patterson title to be released under Mr. Patterson's new children book imprint Jimmy Patterson Books.

Set in the Fall of 1888 in England, Stalking Jack The Ripper centers on Audrey Rose Wadsworth, a teenager with a sort-of-fetish for the dead. Yep, instead of learning how to be ladylike, Audrey would rather be in a morgue cutting up cadavers with Uncle Jonathan, a professor at Harrow School for Boys. Just like her uncle, she is fascinated with the Whitechapel killings.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Popcorn & Coffee: Skiptrace Blu-ray Review



PG-13; 108 minutes; $24.99; Amazon

Arriving on Blu-ray +Digital HD on October 25th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the action-comedy Skiptrace. Directed by Renny Harlin, the film stars Jackie, Chan, Johnny Knoxville, and Fan Bingbing.

For over a decade, Hong Kong detective Bennie Chan (played by Jackie Chan) has been tracking down the crime boss Matador who had killed his partner Yung (played by Eric Tsang). Yung's daughter Samantha (played by Fan Bingbing), who is also Bennie's Goddaughter, gets herself into trouble with a crime syndicate boss Victor Wong (played by Winston Chao).

To help save Samantha, Bennie has to track down Connor Watts (played by Johnny Knoxville), an American gambler and conman who has been making his way through the Chinese casinos. Connor had witnessed a murder of a young woman at Wong's casino. The only problem is Connor doesn't want to help Bennie at all and he tries his best to escape.

To make matters worse, there is a Russian kingpin on Connor's trail as the gambler supposedly got his daughter pregnant. Now, Conor has no choice, but to let Bennie taking him back to Hong Kong, that is if they can outrun the Matador's henchmen.

Special Features includes:

Revisiting The Blair Witch Project!



I'm starting to feel a little bit old after I realized that The Blair Witch Project is seventeen-years-old! The film was released to theaters in July 1999, about a month before I started my senior year of high school. I recall seeing tons of advertisements on television for it, as well as watching a fake documentary about the Blair Witch on the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy). I think I might have owned a couple of tie-in books that were released around that time.

Anyhow, I only watched the actual movie two or three times on VHS, and I had completely forgot about the movie until I had saw the advertisements for the belated sequel Blair Witch a few months ago.

Later, I stumbled upon the DVD for the original film for $5 at Walmart, and of course I purchased it to replace my old VHS copy. I didn't get around to actually watching the film until last night, which I viewed on my laptop.

While the 1980 horror flick Cannibal Holocaust was technically the first found footage horror film, The Blair Witch Project was the one that really kicked off a slew of copycats, including the popular Paranormal Activity franchise.


Friday, October 14, 2016

Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition: Oct. 14th - 20th




Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

Welcome Ghouls and Goblins
to the
Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition!
  
If you want schedule next week's thrilling question, click here to find the next prompt fright-fest. 
To submit a question, fill out this form.

How to participate in this week's creepy meme:


1. Post on your blog answering this haunt:

  You come across an old library that has the one book you've been searching for for years, but the library happens to be haunted by ghosts. Would you go into the library to find the book?

2. Enter the link to your terrifying tale in the haunting list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in a curse).

 

3. Visit other haunters in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new creeper.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
 

Billy's Answer!


Yes, I would go into the library to get the book, but once I find it, I will be running out the building as fast I can.



Linky List:

The Friday 56: Stalking Jack The Riper



Rules:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it)
Post it.
 Add your (url) post below in the Linky at www.fredasvoice.com
Add the post url, not your blog url.