Letters

11th Hour is more intelligent and wittier than most of the stuff in print. I've canceled my subscription to Entertainment Weekly. Don't need 'em! -- Lon S. Cohen

Another month, another 11th Hour, another bunch of fans informing us why they should be Anakin (alas, Hayden Christensen was not among our correspondents), why Doyle should have lived (believe us, we know and agree!) and why not liking Roswell is the eighth deadly sin (lay off, people -- we're promoting your damn Tabasco campaign!). Yet sometimes a few other themes slip through the cracks, and we print them here for your perusal. Below, your always intriguing thoughts on the 11th issue of 11th Hour:

Feel the Love

Dear 11th Hour Staff: Thanks for putting out what is one of the best sci fi 'zines I've ever read. You manage to put out good solid reviews, interviews, etc... without getting that creaky, pontificating and horribly nerdy "I live only for Star Trek trivia" feel to it. After all, who really gives a shit what Capt. Picard's 2nd cousin's brother's dog was named. Anyway, thanks again for assuming that sci fi fan doesn't necessarily mean hopeless geek stereotype, and realizing that most of us just want to try and keep up (barely) with the genre that we love.
-- Antony Klugman

Lisa responds: For the record, Picard's second cousin's brother's dog was named "Fido". This is a little-known fact. As it just so happens, Fido was a super-intelligent gay robotic evil canine mastermind. One day when you're at a Star Trek convention, you'll be able to win a trivia contest with this information, so make sure you remember who gave you the inside scoop.

You know, if I could read movie reviews this funny and descriptive in my local paper, I might actually buy it every day. But the chances of that happening are zero since they have one of those vat-grown film critics who can't give a plot summary without beating on the "racist, homophobic American bourgeoisie." Maybe I've just been living in Minnesota too long. Anyway, great job and thanks for the warnings... guess the kids and I will be getting more mileage out of GIVE ME THE BRAIN this year than I thought.
-- Kevin Trainor

Where have you grrls been all my life? I can't believe my friends knew about this site and never told me until just recently. Okay, so I'm not the biggest web surfer around, but I usually pay attention when my friends say "Go here!" Only they didn't tell me to go here until just recently. And you're wonderful! Genre lovers... girls who get genre. Not just get it, but appreciate it, understand it for what it is, and look deeper under the surface than most people writing about it.
And the writing. Well, that and the editing. You do a wonderful job, and that makes it such a pleasure for me. I'm an editor by profession, as well as a writer, and have worked as a film critic, and I find reading all the awful web content out there is part of what makes me shy away from surfing much. I just can't handle it. But you're actually writing carefully and editing and... and... everything! Wow! Layout, design, simple, clean graphics that load easily, and even with reversed text, it's all easy to read...
So, all this is by way of saying keep up the good work. I'm slowly working my way through your past issues, and enjoying every minute of it. (Every hour?) Thanks for making a site like this available.
-- Gwyneth Rhys

Battlefield Mirth

I am writing in response to the article entitled "Y2KRAP" by Sarah Kendzior. I just want to say "Right on!" Reading through point after point I was in total agreement: Travolta's Scientology Epic, the stupid repetitiveness of genre by modern Hollywood, the sad disintegration of really good horror, but most of all... the festering pile of garbage that is The Saint Francisville Experiment. I was unfortunate enough to catch this flick at the Los Angeles Independent Film Fest. What a disappointment. To sum it up -- the movie bothered me for two reasons: First, it was a blatant rip-off of Blair Witch, only with poorer acting (the girl "psychic" has to be one of the most annoying characters in a film I've seen in a long time). Second, and most importantly, is the fact that this nonsense is being passed off as "real". Even Blair had the sense to call the film "their footage" instead of blatantly passing it off as a true documentary. Francisville, with the press releases discussing Blair's fictional aspects and its own opening disclaimer touting it's "reality", is just plain lying to the audience. It's obvious to me this thing was staged, as it might be to other members of the audience who no doubt will compare it to Blair, yet it sets a precedent that could be dangerous, as any "filmmaker" (i.e., anyone with a digital camera) can depict any form of "truth" and have it shown to mass audiences. At least Travolta is censured by a studio.
-- Eric Eck

"Y2Krap" by Sarah Kendzior was a very entertaining article. As a webmaster myself I really enjoy seeing talented people putting together such comprehensive work. It gives me ideas for my own site and it makes surfing the internet fun.
-- Tom
http://www.9590.hotave.com

Hey there, greatly enjoyed the article on your appraisal of merit for the coming year. Didn't agree, but enjoyed. For one thing, you left off several extremely promising (or at least interesting-looking) projects entirely, including >Gladiator, Chicken Run, U-571, Frequency, What Lies Beneath, Monkey Bone, and Unbreakable (the new M. Night Shyamalan/Bruce Willis film). Secondly, for someone who professes to enjoy over-enthusiastically crappy movies, you sure are hard on them. Battlefield Earth alone looks like it could be the most hilariously entertaining misfire since... hell, since Plan 9 From Outer Space. Well, paint me blue and call me a cockeyed optimist, but I do think the burst of greatness we enjoyed last year did have a few lasting repercussions for the film world.
-- AP

Sarah responds: I agree, those movies look great -- and Gladiator really was terrific -- but very few of those are scifi/horror, even by 11th Hour's increasing loose definition. As for Battlefield Earth... well, you got the misfire part right, anyway. You can learn more of my two hours of torment in this issue's review.

If you think that this year genre filmmaking has suddenly "lost its soul" than I'm guessing that you're too young to fully recall the late '80s when that was really true for more than a couple of years (or so it felt). Granted, it's a crappy year so far but it's been a crappy year for movies period, not just genre films. Of course The St. Francisville Experiment is going to suck out loud. But horrible rip-offs are always part of the genre and at least there's still a couple of films this year that look promising. Paul Verhoven's Hollow Man, George Romero's Bruiser, John Dahl's Squelch, Chuck Russell's Bless the Child (which may well suck as it's been pushed back a lot but Russell's done some good genre films so I'm hoping...), Shadow of the Vampire, and in the guilty pleasure box Bones and Jason X (why the animosity towards such a harmless flick from so many fans, I don't know). And I'm psyched that Godzilla 2000 will get a theatrical release. Not a banner year for horror, maybe, but there's been far worse ones. And at least 2001 is shaping up to be much more interesting (From Hell alone would make it a great year).
-- Amutante@cs.com

Sarah responds: Yes, I'm obviously too young to remember the late eighties, seeing as I'm only ten years old. Before I go set my VCR for Pokemon and practice my cursive, I'll offer this brief rebuttal: As for Squelch, it's been moved to 2001 (which, as I also pointed out in the article, looks to be a great year for genre); as for Bruiser, it's immensely disappointing; as for Hollow Man, that was already mentioned by me in the article as well. I also couldn't agree less that this is a bad year for movies overall -- Erin Brockovich and Gladiator were both outstanding, and I believe another reader above gave a long list of non-genre movies that show promise. And as for my hostility towards Jason X... geez, man, did you read the synopsis?

And the hardest part was looking up all those Ben Browder pictures...

Good precis of Farscape. I will send friends who are only now getting interested in the show to your site for back up info... Thought you might be interested to find out that, according to rumour, the idiot Powers That Be over at the SciFi channel didn't show us Farscape's first episode of the second season, they bypassed it and went right to episode two. They will show the real episode one in a few weeks during rerun season. They thought it was too talky, with too much exposition. That's why Zaahn seemed to whack out all of a sudden for no good reason, and we never saw Aeryn save D'argo and Crichton from hard vacuum. I'm looking forward to the real episode one, and am getting more and more annoyed with the pig-dogs of the Sci-Fi channel.
-- Celeste

I was linked to the April, 2000, issue from The Guide to the Uncharted Territories while trying to clear up an inconsistency I've discovered in recent Farscape episode airdate and title information encountered when labeling my tapes of the second season. I must say that I was very impressed by the article "Farscape Up Close" by Linda M. Najera and pisher. It is the best single source of character and episode information for the first season of Farscape that I have yet encountered. And I've tried many sites in trying to catch up with the series. I plan to inform friends who are also new to Farscape about the article (and The 11th Hour Web Magazine in general).
-- MyronWin@aol.com

Oh, and we invaded Poland in 1939, too...

I am wondering why the last two issues have not contained reviews of Roswell any longer. I know the reviewer seemed to intensely dislike the show, but that to me signaled the need to put a different person on the job. I know several people (myself included) who would be interested in reviewing the show. I also find it ironic that the quality of Roswell's episodes has improved a great deal now that you are NOT covering the show.
-- Stephanie Tuszynski

Sarah responds: Our second Roswell reviewer, Linda, stopped doing reviews when she lost her WB; our initial reviewer, me, stopped doing reviews when she feared she'd lose her mind if she watched another episode. However, master thespian/Backstreet Boy Howie D. has drawn us in for the season finale, which we will analyze studiously for the June issue. On the topic of Roswell fans doing our Roswell reviews -- well, a cursory glance at their spelling, grammar and coherency should answer that question. And as for the show improving immediately after we stopping reviewing it -- yes, we admit it, you've discovered our dark, sadistic plot to cheapen the quality of the masterwork that is Roswell. (We also stole Brendan Fehr's comb.) For shame!

Thanks to everyone who wrote in; although we can't publish every letter we do read all of them and greatly appreciate your input. Responses to this issue can be sent to letters@the11thhour.com