Anchorwick is written in a deliberately old-fashioned style (that of the early 20th century, perhaps) and it feels very English, as in England. The best compliment I can pay the author is that, despite the book having been published in 2007, the writing feels authentically old throughout. Unfortunately, he also imitates the wordiness of his inspirations: the narrator goes on a few too many paragraph-long digressions about the contents of a room, or the way someone dresses or behaves.
The plot is interesting but not intriguing, and it's too thin for the length of the book and for the slowness with which new information drips out between the cracks of overwritten sentences.
I adore the kooky monsters and Egg the alchemist who flings exploding gems. While the movie gains depth from Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) being a fallible hero, I think that gets stretched a little too far for the fight in Lo Pan's wedding chamber. Everyone drank Egg's potion before the fight. It enabled Wang Chi to fly around doing wuxia, going head-to-head with one of the thunder sorcerers. Yet Jack could knock himself out with a falling rock and couldn't push the armored guardian off himself? I'm quibbling, though. This is a good movie.
A stirring action-romance in a pseudo-historical French setting, with sewer escapes, a headstrong young thief, cursed lovers, Rutger Hauer's preposterous double crossbow and solid shots of landscapes, medieval interiors and the villain's opulent digs. The one negative is the idiotic 80s synthesizer soundtrack, which feels equally out of place for a hermit's redoubt, crossing treacherous ice or a duel in a church.
