Weapons of Mass Seduction

By Lucius Shepard

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0975590316
• ISBN13: 9780975590317
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Wheatland Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Savage Voice on a Wayward Bus

Lucius Shepard (1943-2014) was a talented, creative, opinionated, and often controversial writer. His fiction tended to be some science fiction, some supernatural/horror, and some straight fantasy. Shepard's _Weapons of Mass Seduction: Film Reviews and Other Ravings_ (2005) is, as the title suggests, a collection of movie reviews, mostly from _Electric Story_ and _Fantasy and Science Fiction_. Shepard's reviews are divided into four broad categories: Science Fiction, Comic Books and Super Heroes, Fantasy, and True Life Adventures. A fifth short category, Ravings, deals mainly with the Columbine Massacre and Mike Tyson. The final "True Life Adventures" review deals with Janet Jackson's "malfunction" and the Puritanical reaction to it. Shepard is not a fan of Hollywood movies (especially Big Budget Hollywood films), the rock music scene, Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, and M. Night Shyamalan. Specific movies that Shepard pillories include _Space Cowboys_ (2000), _X-Men_ (2000), _Daredevil_ (2003), _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ (2000), remakes of _The Time Machine_ (2002) and _Solaris_ (2002), vampire movies, and the first two Left Behind television movies. Shepard gives qualified praise to _Donnie Darko_ (2001), _The Fellowship of the Ring_ (2001), _Bubba Ho-Tep_ (2003), and _The Quiet American_ (2002). But even these movies are considered shallow and mediocre entertainments. When you review only bad or mediocre films, and when you constantly attack people whom you declare are idiots and scoundrels, you run the risk of becoming overly narrow and shrill. In the end, I am afraid that I must give Shepard's reviews the same judgement he imposes on most movies: "Almost... But No Cigar" (193).