The Cobbler

     The Cobbler, starring Adam Sandler.

     What can I say about The Cobbler?  It's an Adam Sandler movie.  If you don't immediately know what that means, you probably shouldn't watch it because you won't like it.  It isn't his usual, immature, Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore type movie, but it's closer to his old stuff than his new stuff.  Yes, there's crude humor; that's just his shtick.

     Max Simkin (Sandler) works as a cobbler in a run-down shop which has been in his family for generations.  Life has gotten Max down as the day-to-day of being a simple cobbler is taking its toll on him.  He's broke, has no social life, and no romantic possibilities on the horizon.  To make matters worse, his shop is in the lower east side of Manhattan and in danger of being shut down.  Simkin is struggling, along with the other shop owners in the area, just to stay in business.

     A thug comes into Simkin's shop demanding some shoes be done by 5 pm that night.  He reluctantly agrees, but his sewing machine breaks, and he has to pull the family heirloom out of the basement to finish the job.  The machine is magic, and when he puts on shoes repaired by this magical machine, he becomes the person who owns them.

     Simkin goes out to live the life he'd always wanted, in the usual Sandler comical way.  He does some funny stuff, inappropriate stuff, and even some kind-hearted stuff with the shoes.  Eventually, he comes back to his problem, and begins to put his life in order.

     Of course, there's a sappy moral hidden beneath the comedy, and the movie ends on a high note.  

     I'm actually a big Sandler fan (don't throw stones).  I have a brother who looks and acts just like him, so when I watch his movies it reminds me of my childhood.  This one was okay; not his best, but not his worst.

     I'd give it

Camp Arcanum

     Camp Arcanum by Josef Matulich is a Horror/Comedy???  I don't know.  I guess it had its moments.  I'm a bit biased though because I've always had a hard time with horror/comedy genre mixes.  It reminds me of watching bad b-rated movies from the 80's and 90's.

     Marc Sindri, our plucky hero, is a tenacious contractor who builds fairgrounds across the nation.  He's commissioned to build renaissance fairground in Arcanum, Ohio, with his partner Eleazor.  Arcanum seems like a sleepy little town (don't they all at first), but of course it has a deep hidden secret.  It's as if the very forces of the underworld have converged in this one area, and every monstrous thing you can think of, lives under the calm facade.  

     Marc is a tool guy.  He seems almost to have a romantic fetish for his tools, but all this comes in handy when the evil is unleashed.  Arcanum is home to witches, demons, monsters, and ghouls, some of which only Marc can see which makes him think his family history of schizophrenia has caught up to him.  And a tentacle monster that would scare the devil.

     As Marc prepares to clear the land, the head of the local witches coven, Brenwyn (great name for a witch), tries to intervene.  It seems, the land where the fair is meant to be built is where the coven practices their Sabbats, and Brenwyn, and her coven, would like to keep it that way.  When interacting with Marc, she finds an irresistible power within him that she'd like to get her hands on.  Marc, in turn, would like to get a hold of her.

     Another witch (or warlock, I guess), Jeremiah, is also keen on Marc's hidden power, and the two covens fight for the rights to the poor contractor.  Marc ends up battling the fall-out with his handy tools.

     The best part about this novel was the zany characters from town.  Mr. Matulich has quite the imagination, I'll give him that.

     If you like the old comedy/horror mix, you'll probably love this.  I'm not a fan, but I was still fairly entertained with the story.  The plot is actually really good.  The characters are unique and consistent.  The writing was good, but some of the phrasing was weird to me, especially Eleazor's dialog.  The action was fast enough to keep you interested, but not so overwhelming that you didn't know what was going on.

     I'll probably give the book 5 stars on amazon because it's actually really well-written, but here I give it