This is three hours of very little! Lush visuals seduce in the opening scenes, but gradually - and oh, so slowly! - it becomes clear that the off-pink of a romantic sunset over meticulously recreated Colonial skylines and expansive cotton fields is little more than a pretty backdrop for a story that takes it's langurious time stretching one theme to the breaking point, and then caulking the ruptures with well choreographed but cartoonishly gruseome battle scenes, and undisguised attempts to grab and pull at the audience's jugular. (If anyone has ever wanted to see a vivid recreation of what a cannon ball can do to a human body, then this is the film for you!)

Given the movie's length there is ample time to draw character. Obviously, the film makers didn't see the point. We are given a host of rag-tag militia men whose conflicting personalities are not that different from say, your favorite band of muscle men, freaks and geeks who are usually asked to land on an alien planet and waste the extra-terrestrials. (A weakly addressed subplot regarding slavery is almost too laughable to even be offensive.) Those characters we can summon compassion for are killed, just to make sure we're still paying attention. And of course, what would a contrived and cliche-driven film be without a host of foppish British bad guys?

The amazing thing is that there is almost no story to speak of here. The narrative shuffles back and forth between Mel Gibson's earnestly over-acted quest to avenge the murder of his son, and the widespread effort to defeat the British on American soil. The end result is a prolonged dissapointment.

At last, a critical darling of a novel I found myself unable to put down. I usually steer clear of any title with the Oprah's Book Club sticker on the cover, for fear of having to suffer through another ode to angst-ridden, small minded domesticity. But 'I Know This Much Is True' packed a genuine punch and had me flipping it's pages of highly readable prose as I found myself trapped in one of the most delicious places a reader can find themselves taken by a novel...the delimma of whether or not to love or despise the major characters.

There is a certain fearlessness to this novel's scope which is lacking in most of contemporary fiction. The narrative takes numerous twists and turns, none of them dead ends, but remains anchored by the solid, yet conflicted first person voice of Dominick Birdsey. This perspective allows for articulate insight into the nature of mental illness and family, and allows for surprising moments of haunting, unpretentious imagery amidst an otherwise conversation ridden narrative.

No fifth star for this one for several reasons. As the novel winds to it's conclusion, Wally Lamb engages in some monotonous repetition of theme. In the 700 page range of a 912 page novel, this repetition becomes dangerously boring. Also, "the-rush-to-wrap-things-up" nature of the final chapters struck me as a surprising dissapointment at the conclusion of a novel which had taken great pains to etch and articulate the emotional ambiguity of it's major characters.

Fans of Patricia Cornwell we're forced to stand back and shake their heads in sorrow as their beloved Kay Scarpetta became irrettrievably lost in a mire of plot killing self absorbtion and paranoia. With 'Dr. Death', Jonathan Kellerman makes it clear that his fans won't have to suffer a similar fate.

This is a series that refuses to lose it's edge and momentum. Each entry is a stand-alone, tautly executed exercise in probing the darkest realms of the human psyche, capable of absorbing readers unfamiliar with the previous adventures of Dr. Delaware and Det. Milo Sturgis. Kellerman's talents previal; razor-sharp dialouge, vivid and precise characterization, and the ability to paint setting with only a scant number of finely honed sentences.

'Dr. Death' has thrills, but they come in equal proportion with motivation and insight, so the reader doesn't end up feeling guilty for enjoying them when they fly out from the page in all their gory splendor. Kellerman continues to be the master of the genre, as each of his new novels tackles a different set of psycho-pathologies with riveting narrative and page-turning suspense.

Conspiracy theorists beware! Pat Milton has given us an exhaustively researched and unputdownable exploration of "the Titanic of our generation." Milton proves herself to be a fine journalist with a flawless eye for detail and a novelist's sense of narrative; the perfect candidate to answer just about every lingering question one could have about one of the most misunderstood tragedies in American aviation's history. At the center of this narrative is FBI director, Jim Kallstorm - a complex and vividly rendered hero, who dedicated years of his life to discovering what went wrong in the sky over the Long Island Sound that night. Kallstrom's quest for the truth will hook readers just as quickly and comprehensively as the toils of any well drawn hero in popular fiction. As the pages turn, the reader finds page after page of highly readable technical details, spun together in a taut and well structured narrative, that never loses sight of the human faces behind this horrific tragedy.

Perhaps Milton's greatest accomplishment is exposing and deconstructing the baseless and ultimately repugnant conspiracy theorists whose shameless self promotions resulted in little more than a harmful distraction from the real investigation and added grief for the bereaved family members. For those of you conspiracy theorists out there - especially those who deigned to post customer reviews of this title - Milton has put you to shame and exposed your schizophrenic fantasies as the groundless speculations they are.

For readers interested in further information about the crash of TWA Flight 800, The New York Review of Books published several articles in late summer of 2000 which detailed recent information regarding the possibility that electrogmanetic interference was a factor in the crash of TWA Flight 800, Swissair Flight 111 and Egyptair 900. While Milton addresses electromagnetic interfence as a factor, she makes it clear that the investigation of it as a possible cause was beyond the FBI's scope at the time, and make no mistake, this is ultimately the story of the FBI investigation. And it's a story that should inspire pride in one of the most well organized and dedicated agencies of our federal government.

Coming on the heels of 'Tomorrow Never Dies', this tepid entry in a new generation of Bond adventures can be viewed as a tremendous dissapointment. On it's own, 'The World Is Not Enough' is just that -- not enough. It's story is convoluted, lacking 'Tomorrow's' taut, suspenseful narrative,and showing the evidence of it's multiple screenwriters. Sophie Marceau's seductive performance as the ice queen Electra ends up being a drop in this bucket of sloppy storytelling, contrived (and un-exciting) action sequences. Denise Richards' atroscious performance as a 'nuclear physicist' is so laughable it barely warrants a mention. A huge let down for those of us who savored 'Tomorrow Never Dies', with its colorful villians, exotic locales and inspired action sequences.

Hunt's prose is quick and sharp as a razor blade, taking the reader through an entire landscape of depravation without once stopping for the kind of self concious psychological babble that might make such a journey boring and routine. While TRICK OF LIGHT lacks the comprehensive aurau of the sexual playground depicted in THE MAGICIAN'S TALE, its setting is a different kind of San Francisco and the challenges for its unflappable and irresistible color blind heroine, Kay Farrow, are of a different nature. TOL's payoff is more immeadite and gratiying than the loosely structured climax of the MAGICIAN'S TALE and if there's one flaw present in both books, its the revelation of too much pertinent information in large blocks that manage to deflate the overall suspense. But ultimately the reader will feel the same satisifaction as with the first, and will feel that Hunt has taken them on a rare and suprisingly exotic journey of a world that exists just around the streetcorner, but often goes unseen by the naked and unprobing eye.

This is a fascinating read for those interested in the history of the gay movement. Reading it now; post-AIDS, provides a stunning and invigorating vision of a personally divided man whose sexuality became the springboard for one of the most important movements in the history of the Gay Movement. But not only a fascinating account of a man and a movement; but an objectively written history of one of the most vibrant gay communities; a startling vision of the clarity and optisim that defined the gay movement before the apocalyptic onset of the AIDS virus upon the gay community.

Every now and then a well thought out and complex story actually makes it through the Hollywood studio maze. CONTACT is one of those infrequent victories for Hollywood. Like the brillantly comprehensive performance of Jodie Foster, the story fully explores its intended moral. If you're looking for alien chase sequence, shoots out, and adrenaline pumped, quick satisfying action, try ID4. If you're looking for a true spiritual vision relfective of a perfect marriage between director, writers and actors, get CONTACT. END