The Ricochet Reviewer: Books, Movies, and Comics

Director: Gregory Nava Writers: Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas, original story by Gregory Nava Stars: Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gomez Cruz, Alicia del Lago, Lupe Ontiveros, Trinidad Silva, Enrique Castillo, Tony Plana A brother and sister (David Villalpando and Zaide Silvia Gutierrez) flee to the North from unrest in their native Guatemalan village to make a life for themselves in the United States.  This is a very moving film about undocumented immigrants, who have been caricatured in the political arena but exist in a world that is invisible to many Americans.  The three sections of this film dramatize the conditions at home that drive our protagonists to escape, the journey itself with its hardships, and their attempts to start new lives once they have arrived in the North.  Gutierrez and Villalpando give fine naturalistic performances.  The story may be faulted for stepping over the line into melodrama, but there is no denying its heart-bre...

by F. Paul Wilson Jack goes to the aid of his sister, whose partner has become involved with a cult that displays an unusual degree of cohesion and likemindedness among its members.  This tight thriller with a Body Snatchers vibe is among the better Repairman Jack novels I have read.   The main story is meaty enough to fill the pages without resorting to an extended digression in which Jack performs one of his fixes as is so common in these books.  "Death Frequency" (German) I have not particularly enjoyed those parts in earlier installments of the series because they always feel like filler to me.   F. Paul Wilson Getting to know a member of Jack's family adds to the interest.

by H.G. Winter (AKA Harry Bates) An adventurer discovers three long-frozen Egyptians, thaws them, and tracks them back to the ancient colony from which they came. This is lower tier pulp page filler, dull mechanical by-the-numbers lost world storytelling. If anyone ever tries to tell you that there is no craft or skill involved in penning pulp fiction that stands the test of time, hand them a copy of this. It does manage to build to a suspenseful standoff toward the end, but that is nowhere near enough to redeem this tale. The author of this short novel, which appeared in the July 1931 issue of Astounding Stories, also wrote "Farewell to the Master," the story that inspired the classic film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Harry Bates

by Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino examines some films of personal significance from the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s, a decade during which the author was forming his taste in cinema.  Quentin Tarantino It is a pretty intoxicating ride.  Sections of this book also provide a kind of origin story for one of American cinema’s most distinctive auteurs, telling the story of a boy whose single mother allowed him access to adult cinema (not in the porn sense of the term) and brought him into contact with Floyd, a black man who loved movies and brought Quentin along to grindhouse theaters showing blaxploitation flicks and others.  "Cinema Speculation" (German) That decade’s independent producers broke the stranglehold of the big studio establishment to exert unprecedented creative control and utilize stylistic innovation to treat subject matter that had often been considered verboten.  "Cinema Speculation" (Hungarian) Small-time producers could make money with e...

by Don Pendleton Mack Bolan, an elite sniper with more than 90 confirmed kills in the Vietnam War, decides to ply his trade at home when he learns that pressure from Mafia loan sharks has caused his father to kill his wife and daughter and injure his son before committing suicide.  This book did more than any other to launch the plethora of men’s adventure series that used to grace the spinner racks of grocery markets and drug stores back in the 70s, when people still read books.  Don Pendleton writes great action and gives a gripping account of how the appearance of this mysterious vigilante ripples through the ranks of both the mob and law enforcement.  Don Pendleton There are some awkward sex scenes, reportedly added at the publisher's insistence.  This is an electrifying debut for a legacy series that developed into an expanded universe that continued to release installments well into the 2010s. "War on the Mafia" (French) "War Against the Mafia" (Greek)