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RIVER OF GODS
Author:
Ian McDonald
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743256697 / 0743256700
Page Count: 485pp Price: £17.99 / £10.99
Sometimes,
reading an SF novel can be like being dumped in
the middle of a foreign country;- you’re
disorientated, you don’t speak the lingo,
and you don’t know who anybody is or how
anything works. With his novels like CHAGA and
DESOLATION ROAD, Ian McDonald specialises in these
kinds of experiences, packing his work full of
lush, lurid details that mix the familiar with
the bewilderingly foreign. In his latest slice
of brain-expanding sci-fi he’s cranked the
weirdness up to eleven;- and the end result is
a pungent cyberpunk-flavoured epic that’s
both hugely inventive and headache-inducing at
the same time.
Kicking off in the year 2047, RIVER OF GODS follows
a motley collection of characters as they weave
their way through the technologically enhanced
society of India. Among them, there’s the
Krishna cop Mr Nandha, on the lookout for rogue
artificial intelligences or “aeais”;
stand-up comedian Vishram Ray who suddenly finds
himself head of a corporation that’s made
a dangerous discovery; Thomas Lull, a renegade
professor apparently targeted by an unearthly
intelligence;- and Lisa Durnau, college researcher
and ex-girlfriend of Lull, who’s helping
NASA investigate the mysterious alien object known
as the Tabernacle that’s orbiting the planet…
With concepts exploding from every page, McDonald
has crammed in reams of social detail, conjuring
up a convincing picture of the future that melds
myth and politics alongside speculation about
the development of artificial intelligence. What
he hasn’t managed to do, however, is transform
the result into an easily intelligible read, with
the story bouncing between multiple viewpoints
and characters while being obscured in fractured
prose and jargon. The sheer level of detail eventually
becomes exhausting, despite the witty dialogue
and some incredibly graphic sex scenes. For those
willing to make the effort and fight past the
prose, it’s a remarkable work- but newcomers
to McDonald’s brain-warping style might
be better off starting with something less likely
to cause a migraine....
Rating:
* * *
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SHREK 2
Starring:
(Voice Cast)
Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio
Banderas, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Jennifer
Saunders
Directed by: Andrew Adamson, Kelly Ashbury, Conrad
Vernon
Running Time: 93 minutes Released: 2nd July 2004
The
original SHREK may have wrapped up its storyline
beyond a shadow of a doubt- but nobody at Dreamworks
was ever going to argue with $300 million or a
Best Animated Feature Oscar. Three years on, and
the lime-green ogre is back in cinemas thanks
to SHREK 2, a lively sequel that packs in plenty
of rambunctious fun- even if it’s never
in danger of being a TOY STORY-style masterpiece.
Once again, we’re in a world of fairy tale
characters and surreal pop culture references,
and the story begins with the happy couple of
Shrek (Myers) and the newly ogre-transformed Fiona
(Diaz) returning from their honeymoon, only to
receive an invitation from the King and Queen
of Far, Far Away- otherwise known as Fiona’s
parents.
Naturally, the in-laws are quietly horrified at
what their daughter has married (as well as what
she’s turned into)- but the King is doubly
concerned, as this wasn’t the way things
were supposed to turn out. Fiona was scheduled
to be rescued by and fall in love with the self-obsessed
Prince Charming, and Charming’s mother,
the scheming Fairy Godmother Dama Fortuna, is
going to get her happy ending by any means necessary…
As sequels go, behind all the colourful action
and filmic in-jokes, SHREK 2 is thoroughly conventional
stuff. There’s improved animation and fresh
gags, but essentially it’s more of the same,
even down to an almost note-for-note replay of
the first movie’s climax. The jokes are
more subversive (including a bizarre Prince Charles
reference and Pinocchio wearing a thong), and
yet any hint of genuine emotion is always being
undercut by the flip humour aimed mainly at the
adult end of the audience.
Thankfully, there’s enough colour and action
to ensure plenty of energetic entertainment, and
three leads rattle through their lines with gusto-
although their thunder is completely stolen by
the fabulous Antonio Banderas as Puss-in-Boots.
With his fearsome hisses and huge “kitty
eyes”, Puss is an absolute scream and Banderas’
flamboyant, feline Zorro is the one thing that’ll
give SHREK 2 the box office “Happily Ever
After” it’s so obviously aiming for.
Rating:
* * *
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TEAM AMERICA:
WORLD POLICE
Starring:
(Voice cast) Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen
Miller, Masasa
Directed by: Trey Parker
Running Time: 98 minutes Released: 14th January
2005
PIt’s
crude, it’s rude, it’s in spectacularly
bad taste- and it’s also the most accurate
cinematic homage to Gerry Anderson that we’re
ever likely to see. The kind of demented pitch
that could only be thought up by South Park creators
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Team America: World
Police brings the world of Supermarionation kicking
and screaming into the twenty-first century, and
features puppets indulging in the kind of ultraviolence,
swearing, and full-on sex that would have made
Lady Penelope’s head spin.
The end result is like watching an episode of
Captain Scarlet from a particularly warped parallel
dimension, as the world-saving band of heroes
known as Team America jet around the world fighting
evil, defeating terrorists, and accidentally blowing
up every famous landmark in range. Subtlety is
out of the window within the first five minutes
thanks to a brilliantly executed sequence in Paris
that milks every Jerry Bruckheimer action movie
clich_ imaginable, and soon the plot is also taking
pot-shots at politically outspoken Hollywood actors,
America’s “police the world”
policy, Ben Affleck and anyone else they can think
of.
Unfortunately, despite the admirable energy with
which Team America tries to offend everyone within
range, it’s actually nowhere near as funny
as it thinks it is. Between the moments of sheer,
twisted genius (The already legendary sex scene,
the spoof “Rent” song called “Everyone
Has Aids”, and an attack on the characters
by some suspiciously cuddly ‘panthers’),
there’s too much hit-and-miss filler, and
the sputtering script manages to prove by default
that Jerry Bruckheimer movies aren’t as
easy to spoof as they look.
It doesn’t help that some of the cruder
gags are pushed way too far, particularly when
a down-on-his-luck Gary pukes up an Exorcist-style
ocean of vomit, while the idea of the Team massacring
a squad of “liberal peacenik” Hollywood
actors like Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Alec Baldwin
sounds great in theory, but ends up overstretched
and- dare we say it- a little mean-spirited in
practice.
In the end, it’s a hit-and-miss comedy that
will have you crying with laughter one moment,
and checking your watch the next. It can’t
get anywhere near the brilliant South Park movie,
but the one area where Team America triumphs is
the visuals. In today’s world of digitally
enhanced blockbusters, there’s something
bizarrely pleasurable about seeing hand-crafted
versions of landmarks like Times Square, the Pyramids
and Mount Rushmore, and even the model work on
the vehicles has that genuine Derek Meddings-style
sheen.
Stone and Parker deserve a salute for delivering
such a loving homage to Supermarionation and blowing
the misconceived live-action Thunderbirds movie
out of the water. It’s just a pity they
didn’t bring a few more jokes with them….
Rating:
* * *
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