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With the release today of the first three made-for-TV movies starring Tom Selleck as Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone (Night Passage, Stone Cold, Death in Paradise) here’s a look back at our original television review for Night Passage…

Tom Selleck has made some nice, if quiet, choices over the last few years starring and producing some very good made for TV movies.  The latest is his return as Jesse Stone in Robert B. Parker’s Night Passage the first of Parker’s Jesse Stone series (Selleck starred 2005’s Stone Cold).

Night Passage
3 & 1/2 Stars

Robert B. Parker is best known for his Spenser novels about a wiseass Boston P.I. which became a network show and then a series of television movies with Robert Urich and later Joe Mantegna.  A few years ago Parker started deviating from his Spenser and broadened into characters and new worlds.  One such world involves police officer Jesse Stone in the small New England vacation town called Paradise.

As the movie opens Los Angeles homicide detective Jesse Stone (Tom Selleck) is drunk and on his way out of town.  He’s wife has been sleeping with another man, and he’s been kicked off the force for drinking on duty.  He heads cross-country with his dog for a new job as police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts.  Despite being drunk and hung-over at the interview he gets the job and slowly realizes why the town leader Hasty (Saul Rubinek) wants a slush for a police chief.  Stone sobers up and goes to work on solving the murder of the last police chief (Mike Starr) and stopping the money laundering scheme involving Hasty and Joe Genest (Stephen Baldwin).

More of a character study than a mystery the movie takes a look at Stone as a shattered but not completely broken man still in love with the woman he has left behind and unwilling or unable to truly move on.  Selleck is well cast in the role that allows him the full range of emotion over the course of the film.

The supporting cast includes Polly Shannon as a potential love interest, and Viola Davis and Kohl Sudduth as small town police officers.  Starr is perfect as the aging police chief forced out after twenty years that meets a bitter end and any movie where Stephen Baldwin gets kicked in the crotch gets thumbs up in my book.

The movie is a fair representation of Parker’s novel with a few changes but his style works well in this type of format.  Stone is more serious and straight-laced and although he doesn’t have Spenser’s charm he has a depth and vulnerability that works well on screen.  This is the second movie Selleck has starred in and produced as Jesse Stone with at least one more to come.  Hopefully Parker will keep writing and we’ll get many more adventures of Jesse Stone in Paradise.

A few years ago Selleck stepped away from the big budget Hollywood parts he was getting in some really bad movies (anyone remember Her Alibi?) and moved into producing and starring in smaller but much better made films, mostly for television.  Jesse Stone is a good character for Selleck and opens new doors and stories for him to tell and hopefully we’ll get quite a few more.

The new Dark Lord of the Sith has arrived.  Sacrifice by Karen Traviss, the middle chapter of the Legacy of the Force series, hit bookshelves last week.  Who will Jacen Solo have to kill to finalize his transcedence as a Sith Master?  Will the Galactic Alliance survive the civil war that rages on all sides?  Is this pricey hardcover worth picking up?  Let’s find out, shall we… 

Don’t worry, no spoilers!  Unless, of course, you can use the Force!

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force – Sacrifice
Custom Rating

The turning point has arrived.  The fifth book by Karen Traviss, and middle chapter, of the Legacy of the Force series (check out the story so far) brings everything to a head as Jacen Solo fulfills his final task to become the next Lord of the Sity by sacrificing someone he loves.

 

The book picks up right where Exile left off.  Jacen sends Ben off on a dangerous mission, Mara searches for Lumiya, and Luke struggles with making sense out of what is happening to his family and the galaxy.

One of this series strengths has been to show the Sith philosophy as different than the Jedi belief system but not exactly evil (though this has fluctuations somewhat in the different novels as each of the writers has taken their own path to revealing the Sith and exploring the rational behind Jacen’s actions).  Whether or not his actions are right or wrong, you can hardly state that they are self-centered or purely evil.  It’s a nice change of pace, still with eerie similarities, to Palpatine and Vader’s rise to power.

In Sacrifice the new Sith pupil is given the final task of sacrificing someone or something dear to him to achieve his rightful place as a Sith Lord.  How exactly such a sacrifice works, and how it will increase his power is rather unclear.

Another slight problem with this entry into the series is there are too many clues as to who the sacrifice will be.  The red herrings provided are never really presented strongly enough, and with the necessity of certain characters to live to carry on the characters’ bloodlines, there isn’t enough to give the reader doubt as to who will die.

The final scenes for some characters (sorry no spoilers here) also becomes anti-climatic given the slow build up to these moments, though the emotion in the aftermath of the loss of a major character from the Skywalker/Solo family is filled with emotion.

For you Force users out there wanting to know who dies in the novel but without the cash to plunk down for this hardcover, use the Force and click and move your mouse below to uncover the hidden text:

What?  You can’t figure it out from the cover?  Some Force user you turned out to be!  That’s right, Mara Jade Skywalker is the one who dies!

In terms of moving the story forward the novel works well, but the series has begun to drag its feet a little with the last two books.  Hopefully with the death of a major character and the rise of the new Dark Caedus the series will shift back into gear for the final four novels.  So is it worth the $25.95 price tag?  For true fans of the novels yes, but casual observers may want to wait for the paperback version.  Since the next couple of novels will be released straight to paperback before that happens it will mean you will be two or three books behind on the series by that time.  What should you do?  Trust the Force young Padawan!

Taking place five years after the Dark Nest Crisis the latest series of books, Legacy of the Force, revolves around Jacen Solo’s vision of a dark future, his acceptance of the Sith philosophy, and his slow descent into the Dark Side of the Force.

 

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Superman Returns was a big hit at the theaters this summer, though not as big as the studio had hoped (despite making just over $200 million it came up short of making back its $270 million price tag).  Still Superman proved he could be a powerful force at the box office.  The film comes out on DVD today and we’ve got a quick look.

Superman Returns
Custom Rating

I enjoyed Superman Returns in the theater, but had some problems with the script, continuity errors, and the lack of originality (all of which you can read more about in my original review).  December liked the film a little more than me (as you can read here).  So it’s been a couple months, and now it’s out on DVD, so let’s get to it.

After a five-year absence Kal-El (Brandon Routh) returns from the wreckage of Krypton to his adopted home of Earth.  On arriving he discovers life has moved on without him.  Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) is engaged and has a young son, and Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has been busy making some withdrawals from the Fortress of Solitude.

The film works as well, if not slightly better on DVD than in the theater, given it’s length and breadth, though you also have more opportunity to wonder at the lunacy of Lex Luthor’s plan.  The effects work just as well on DVD and with a proper stereo system you can sit back and crank John Williams score.

I stick by my qualms with the film.  However, I will say that with each viewing I like Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth more and more in their respected roles.  Though Routh is no Christopher Reeve, he does have a little of his openness and charm that grows on you.  And Bosworth shines in what is one of the oddest casting decisions of the year.

But I still hate that new suit!

Is it a must have for your collection?  Probably not.  But the DVD does give you the remastered John Williams score and some nice performances and fun moments.  Aside from the look at the Marlon Brando scenes, I’m not sure the Special Edition warrants the added cost, except for huge fans of the film, and I think the single disc will serve most viewers just fine.