Rogue Rapp as Anticipation Peaks

Look East Young Lady

Okay we’re a little more than 24 hours out from the First Blog Reader’s triumphant return to Worcester in preparation for her first East Coast Christmas ever. Of course that only makes her 1 for 2 but we hope to embellish that scoring percentage in the coming years. She must be feeling the rising levels of expectation as well as she summarily ordered her mother to place a FaceTime call to us last night. To say this is an eagerly awaited visit would be an abject understatement on an almost cosmic level. It will be the first time in three years that I have the entire clan together at Christmas now that pesky breakaway element from California is returning to the fold. I think they missed us at Christmas almost as much as we did them.

I did take a break from counting down the minutes until the Thursday flight to take in the latest Star Wars movie – Rogue One. They finally got the prequel thing right for A New Hope (the original Star Wars movie). This movie tells the back story to the acquisition of the death star plans which were the focal point of that first movie. This movie was all about adding texture which is provided in relentless fashion. The female lead absolutely rocks and there’s a gentle graying of the strict white and black of rebel versus empire. The desperate state of the rebellion and the signature battle which this film culminates in will truly resonate with any Star Wars geek (guilty as charged). They even resurrect two actors from that first movie, one of whom has been dead for nearly 40 years. Old Hammer Films favorite Peter Cushing is back as Grand Moff Tarkin and not for just a glimpse either; truly remarkable what they achieved in his case.  Even without the galaxy far, far away back drop this was a kickass action flick with just the right amount of sly humor injected along with those heaping piles of nostalgia. I loved it.

Speaking of hanging out with old friends (how I feel about movies) I also finished off the latest resurrection of Mitch Rapp in Kyle Mills excellent Order to Kill. Mills took over for Rapp inventor Vince Flynn and this was his second book in the rejuvenated series. Rapp is back to his old hijinks of finding Islamic terrorists and the odd Russian so as to arrange for them to depart the mortal coil. Mills has Rapp tracking down some missing Pakistani nukes and has to contend with a Russian agent who just might be his match (yeah right). It’s rare that a subsequent author can capture the same amount of flair for a character created by an earlier author but Mills has done that and I can’t wait for future books in this series.