I recently read The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton. This books is a witty and somewhat accurate account of The Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in which £12,000 worth of gold bars were stolen from a moving train. The book details the motivation, planning, and difficulties of the robbery as well as the eventual arrest and escape of Edward Pierce, the mastermind behind it all. A quick and entertaining read, it was filled with clever schemes plus a healthy does of Victorian era factoids and slang. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to read something light, yet clever.

Following the book, I bought the movie which stars Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, and Lesley-Anne Down. The movie was written and directed by Michael Crichton which must be why it is almost exactly like the book. Once you can get past the grainy picture quality (the DVD obviously wasn’t remastered) and the old-school acting style, the movie is pretty good at bringing out a little extra of the story’s dry wit that you can only get from actors. Personally, I think it’s a good candidate for a remake.

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Two weeks ago I saw I Am Legend, the movie. Last week I read I Am Legend, the novella.

After reading the book, I was surprised my the dissimilarities between the stories. The movie is so different from the book that it may as well have had a different name. There are some common elements, but not many. In both stories, the main character is named Robert Neville, and in both stories Neville must hide from humans infected with a disease at night so that they don’t kill him. And that’s pretty much it.

The movie was good, though I found it disappointing. In essence, the story was a good one that could have been told better. There were too many too-obvious special effects. People in makeup would have been far scarier (and realistic) than the slightly over-the-top and over-stylized CG creatures with super-human powers. A more gritty approach would have brought out more intensity and emotion, which seemed dulled. At several points in the movie I felt “almost but not quite” happy or sad or otherwise empathetic for the main character. Additionally, I felt like something was left out of the film – like some subplot had been eliminated in editing that would have given the film a boost. The movie is rated PG-13, which makes me think that an R rated Director’s Cut would make an excellent DVD purchase, if there ever is one. We’ll see.

The book was also good, but also disappointing in that it gave away the ending way too soon. I’ll go ahead and summarize (err, spoil) it: Neville, out of necessity, kills the infected during the day and sleeps at night only to discover in the end that he himself has become the “vampire” of a new nocturnal society; thus he becomes “legend.” This is a good theme that emphasizes perspective and necessity, but half way through the reader is all but told the “moral of the story” straight-out and given little room to think about it for himself. The second half therefore had me thinking “yeah, yeah, get on with it…” since I pretty much knew the ending and was reading out of self-imposed obligation.

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Oh, how I love The Simpsons. I’m going to see the movie tonight, despite that I feel destined for disappointment. Will it be all a Simpsons movie could be? Probably not.

But any way…

What I really like about The Simpsons is it’s irreverence towards… everything. One of my favorite moments is this song, sung my Mr. Burns:

I especially like their religious humor as well:

<[>My favorite character is, by far, Homer. His idiocy, naivety, and bravery are endearing and make for the best commentary. In this video, my favorite Homer quote begins at six seconds in:

Perhaps my favorite Simpsons quote ever, however, comes from Lisa: “I refuse to believe, that everybody refuses to believe, the truth!”

Sorry, I couldn’t find a video of Lisa’s quote. Instead, I leave you with Ralph:

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