"Scott Pilgrim" Vs. All The Other Summer Bunk? "Pilgrim" wins.

Finally.  A not-so-huge but incredibly entertaining summer surprise.  "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" is a rorschach test - less generational than inspirational.  It would be enough to say that it's fun and inventive.  But there's much more going on there in Pilgrim.  Aside from "Toy Story 3" (which must still be considered the best across the board movie of the summer) there is nothing close to this level of fun out there.  Add in the fact that we caught a late afternoon matinee on the hottest day of the summer and you've got the most deserving A-rating in ages.  If you can't fathom liking a story that takes much of it's inspiration and style from video games, don't bother.  But if are willing to give it a chance, I think you will be seriously enthused.  The entire cast crackles with energy.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead takes the adorable hotness I'd seen as patented by Kate Winslet and somehow manages to up the ante.  I'd already appreciated director Edgar Wright because of "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz".  Now I think we're going steady.  And if you're a complete-ist geek, the graphic novels need to be read just so you can appreciate how much of the visual style comes directly from Bryan Lee O'Malley - dood's got serious vision.  Seriously.  Just go see it. 

On a very different plane, I was totally disappointed by the follow-up novel to "The Tourist" by Olen Steinhauer.  "The Nearest Exit" is so entirely a middle segment in what has to be at least a trilogy.  Steinhauer is plump full of writerly skill and he gets you where you're going with rare efficiency.  But when I put this book down, I wished I'd not read it.  So don't read it until we see if he follows it up with a stronger narrative arc using these same characters.  My rating is a piss and vinegar C-minus.  I still respect this writer big time.  This book was a waste of my time, though.

Hope your own summertime highs get saved in the memory bank for those chilly mornings in less than four months.  Rock on.

Swapping spies for better stories

I haven't gotten much of a charge from the whole prisoner swap with Russia story.  Sure, it's a throwback to an era that still has plenty of tasty juice to squeeze.  Especially when the current and ongoing big story (runaway underwater oil volcano) is being increasingly ignored.  And it adds to the foreign policy narrative about the Obama administration that I think is being lost amidst the fusillade of exploding turd bombs - namely, that we're seriously updating some old accounts starting with Israel and Russia, providing a platform for the decade ahead.  Still, something about this story feels so small as to not merit any heat and light at all.

Instead, I'd recommend digging back into the genre of international spy novels that are trying to update the Cold War mindset that provided such rich material for decades.  I won't claim a deep knowledge of what's out there.  But I did just finish "The Tourist" by Olen Steinhauer - my rating is a slow-building, strong B.  It employs a very smart Cold War throwback mentality to flesh out post-9/11 internal and external spy agency conflicts.  I'm going to read Steinhauer's sequel this week ("The Nearest Exit").  So rather than following the spy swap on the tarmac in Vienna, read some old-fashioned, well-written fiction that brings history right up into the present.  Who knows.  We just may learn something far deeper than who the Rooskie hottie really is along the way.

We're off to Santa Barbara for a week, as of tomorrow morning.  That will allow plenty of time for movies, family, reading and maybe even a trip to Disneyland.  We may even bring Maya.  Hope your own plans have plenty of cool wind in the sails today.  Rock on.