There are all kinds of bad movies. There’s the bad ones that are so bad as to be simply unwatchable - pretty much anything by Andy Warhol, for instance - and then there’s the bad ones of no particular distinction that are simply forgotten - “Starship Invasions” staring Robert Vaughn comes to mind. There are movies that get the rep of being terrible, but actually aren’t that bad - “The Giant Gila Monster” is all kinds of dumb, for instance, but there’s an earnest sweetness to it people overlook.

Seeing as I’m poor, I only buy new books in paperback, which involves some waiting. This book came out in 2010, I couldn’t afford it until 2011, and you’re finally getting my review in late 2012. I’m backlogged. Sorry.

Does anyone remember the movie Judge Dredd with Sylvester Stallone from the mid-90's? If you do, those memories are probably full of disgust and disappointment. Or, if you're like me and actually enjoy horrifically bad movies, maybe you liked it. The truth is, the 90's was not a kind decade to superhero and comic book-inspired movies. This was, after all, the decade which produced Steel with basketball great Shaquille O'Neil and the ever-so-hated Batman and Robin starring George Clooney. The good news is, comic book movies have gotten much better and Dredd, the new adaptation of the character from the British comic magazine 2000 A.D. is no exception.

Ah, Philip K. Dick, is there any dead SF author I loveth more than thee? I think not. Let’s just get the gonzo stuff out of the way up front: I first *heard* of the guy when reading “Space Worlds, Wars, and Weapons,” an odd little cover art coffee table book from the late 1970s, which had a paragraph about Phil’s story “Imposter.” I knew Blade Runner, of course, and I knew nebulously of Phil thereby, but couldn’t remember his name. I do not remember the first story I read by him - odd how true love comes from sometimes murky beginnings, huh?