The Beer Retard - August 23rd, 2001

you've got to admire ted conover. the man goes to amazing lengths to tell a story. in his most recent book, newjack, he went through the process of becoming a corrections officer and then spent a year at one of the country's toughest prisons...sing sing. i finished the book last night and it was pretty amazing. conover does a great job of presenting a balanced view of things and he shows how a lot of the stereotypes about inmates, guards and prison life are just that. the book is at times funny, sad & scary...and absorbing throughout.

well...we watched hannibal the other night. i'm glad i waited until video. it was worth seeing, but it wasn't worth the $9 i would've paid at a theater. the problem with the movie is that it fails to create the level of suspense that silence of the lambs did. the interaction between lecter and starling in hannibal is virtually nonexistent and that was what made the original so good. of course, anthony hopkins is great but he doesn't have as much to work with here. in the end, the film relies too much on gross-out bloodletting which might be shocking but doesn't get under your skin the way silence did.