Epinions Recent Reviews for kevincmurphy

Semi-Charmed Kind of Life: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 21:09:04 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - "And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Were I forced to rank the novelists of the Lost Generation, Francis Scott Fitzgerald would come out on top,...

Asimov, Isaac: 21st-Century Man: Isaac Asimov

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 21:00:53 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Like Arthur C. Clarke, Mr. Asimov devoted his life to popularizing the science fiction genre. For that, I am forever in his debt.

On a more personal note, Asimov's first Foundation trilogy rank among the best reads of my early life. Hari...

Thompson, Hunter S: The Doctor will see you now: Hunter S. Thompson

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 20:40:04 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." -- HST

A consummate Fitzgerald fan, Hunter S. Thompson, a.k.a the Great Gonzo, stands as the journalist of the drug decades...

THE Great American Novel: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 20:27:16 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Although many of his works deserve note, including Of Mice and Men and Travels with Charley, I consider The Grapes of Wrath to be the Great American Novel. Steinbeck's tale of the Joad family's travails through the Dust Bowl not only manages to evoke the...

Orwell, George: Doubleplusgood: George Orwell

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 20:19:03 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - "Underneath the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."

If for some strange, hypothetical reason I was forced to choose one favorite writer or else suffer some violent, permanently disfiguring consequence, my choice...

Full Circle: The Paranoid Style in American Politics, by Richard Hofstadter

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 20:08:54 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Richard Hofstadter is arguably the best liberal historian of the Roosevelt-Eisenhower years. He was a prolific writer and commentator on the Gilded Age and Progressive Eras, and a scathing critic of the conservatism of his day.

Hofstadter...

Goodwin, Doris Kearns: No Ordinary Historian: Doris Kearns Goodwin

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 19:59:32 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Doris Kearns Goodwin, author, historian, and frequent commentator on The Jim Lehrer News Hour, is an important fixture in today's historical community. An excellent writer and keen observer, Goodwin was personally chosen by Lyndon Baines Johnson to care...

Gaiman, Neil: Bring me a Dream: The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 19:42:59 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Neil Gaiman is the creator (chronicler?) of Detective Comic's Morpheus, a.k.a the Sandman, the being that interrupts your sleep with visions of other worlds and gives the Andrews Sisters fits. After spending eighty-some-odd years trapped in a bottle in...

All too Human: Lincoln, by David Donald

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 19:29:57 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - David Herbert Donald is the foremost Abraham Lincoln scholar alive today. His recent biography, Lincoln, reflects both his years of comprehensive study and his mastery of his subject. Donald's Lincoln is not a bold, fiery visionary but a low-key,...

His truth is marching on: The Army of the Potomac trilogy, by Bruce Catton

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 19:17:19 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Thanks to Ken Burns, Shelby Foote gets a lot of good press, and James MacPherson and Kenneth Stampp are no slouches either, but to my mind Bruce Catton is the forgotten historian of the Civil War. His powerful trilogy, The Army of the Potomac, is...

Liberals and Progressives: Democracy's Discontent, by Michael Sandel

Thu, 2 Dec 1999 18:55:38 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - In every student's life, there is that one college professor whose ideas capture the imagination. For me, Michael Sandel is that professor. An articulate communitarian, Sandel has penned Liberalism and the limits of Justice, an answer to John Rawl's...

Richard I: Nixon

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 23:24:59 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - In a review of Richard Loncraine's wonderful film version of Richard III, Newsweek was unashamed to label William Shakespeare "the Oliver Stone of his day." Entertainment Weekly, in their rave review of Nixon, unabashedly dubbed the film...

I am Stretched On Your Grave - The Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 22:35:53 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Say this for Boston's brahmins -- although they spent much of their lives bound up in a self-imposed status war against the Old World, they sure knew how to go out in style. Indeed, the Bostonian upper classes' love-hate competition with their mother...

Bela Lugosi Stirring - Cascade, by Peter Murphy

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 22:16:48 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Like Sting, Elvis Costello, and countless other British musicians of the '70s and '80s, Peter Murphy has mellowed out considerably since his early days, when he was frontman and lead vampire for Goth greats Bauhaus. Unlike many of his middle-aged...

You will believe a peach can fly. - James and the Giant Peach

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 22:06:09 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Done badly, Roald Dahl's children's classic James and the Giant Peach could have been the pits. Yet, with Tim Burton's innate weirdness and stop-motion puppetry capturing Dahl's eclectic mood and Disney's do-no-wrong production at the helm, the film is...

The Other Braveheart: Rob Roy

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 21:38:34 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Supported by a highly talented cast and breathtakingly beautiful cinematography, Rob Roy combines the Scottish flavor of Highlander, the heroic grandeur of Last of the Mohicans, and the loner parable of The Outlaw Josey Wales into splendid historical...

TNG's Wrath of Khan: Star Trek First Contact

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 21:22:05 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Don't fret, anti-Trekkies. Star Trek: First Contact, the eighth film in the Star Trek series and the second featuring the "Next Generation" crew, is designed ever for those who've never seen the show before. Indeed, this film -- sleek,...

Comeback A la Mode - Ultra, by Depeche Mode

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 21:07:44 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Grandfathers of the techno revolution, Depeche Mode has never gotten the respect they deserve. Despite the band's megastardom in Europe and Asia, American critics have dismissed the Mode's savvy blend of synth-pop melancholy ever since they launched out...

Thud. - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 19:51:30 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Even with Jabba the Hutt, the loathsome Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), and a sneak peek at Coruscant, seat of the Galactic Empire and setting for Episode 1 and the rest of the following prequels, Return of the Jedi: The Special Edition is still...

Pulp Diction - Romeo + Juliet

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 19:35:31 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - First, let it be said that of all the recent Shakespeare updates, my favorite by far is Ian McKellen's Richard III - a truly amazing rendition of one of the Bard's darkest plays. However, Baz Luhrmann's high-octane remake of Romeo and Juliet deserves an...

Small Shadow: Tower of Song, a Leonard Cohen tribute

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 19:10:04 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Like the Beatles, Dylan, and the Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen stands like a Colossus over the straits through which modern music has passed. His gravel-voiced penitence and insightful lyrical ambiguities have indelibly influenced the course of...

Ichiba!: Pizzicato Five's The Sound of Music

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 18:57:19 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Hi. I'm not an arts critic, but I play one for Epinions. I'm here to tell you about a fabulous new offer from that Japanese dance sensation, Pizzicato Five. Now, for only $11.99, you too can receive the Carte Pizzicato, your personal worldwide fan club...

The Blite-Whack divide: White Man's Burden

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 18:44:20 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Films often reflect the social tensions of their age. The enervated post-Watergate '70s saw thrillers like Network and The China Syndrome, while the most decadent "me years" of the '80s brought several parables of greed -- from Less than Zero...

The Bleeding Hearts Harden: The Last Supper

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 17:45:01 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Here's a hypothetical: Having traveled back in time to 1909, you make the acquaintance of an erratic art student named Adolf Hitler. Would you kill a then innocent man to prevent the slaughter he would later instigate? Ok, here's a harder one for you...

Hope you like Karaoke: Georgia

Wed, 1 Dec 1999 07:48:53 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author kevincmurphy - Powerfully potent, perturbingly personal, yet primarily puzzling, Ulu Grosbard's Georgia is an unsettling case study of sibling rivalry among songstresses Georgia and Sadie Flood. Georgia (Mare Winningham) is Seattle's premier adult contemporary artist,...