So, finding myself with a freed-up late-afternoon yesterday, I decided to go see a movie. Though Speed Racer was singing to me with the siren call of the explodo, I was determined to see a "good movie" and looked at David Mamet’s* kung-fu flick Redbeltas a good opportunity. Well, after reading Kevin Church’s lukewarm review of Redbeltand two trusted reviewers' raves about Herr Racer, I decided that I could take a chance on the Wachowski Brothers (er…whatever they are now).
WARNING: Speed Racer contains the following: Jumping cars, exploding cars, racecar vikings, ninjas, John Goodman, John Goodman fighting ninjas, Shaft, a character named Inspector Detector, kung-fu, British gangsters, a distinct lack of physical laws, a car-mounted catapult that fires beehives, piranhas, a chimpanzee wearing a tuxedo, and candy…Dear God the candy. If any of the above sound too absurd for you to suspend your disbelief, well, stay home and watch some Bergman. For the rest of you, buckle up.
I’ll say it first off, this is not a great movie, or really a movie at all. It’s a spectacle, the colors, the quick cuts, the sheer insanity of many of the visuals that borders on the incoherent. At times I had to remind myself to blink because I could feel my contacts drying up on my eyes because I was staring so intently. 12 hours after walking out of the theater, I’m hard pressed to remember exactly all of what I saw, but I know it was cool. I realize that this sounds as if I’m damning it with faint praise, but this movie feels as if it was made for and by 12-year-olds. From the early, imaginary scenes featuring crayon-animated dream sequences, to the candy-coated visuals, to the use of the word “ass” as if it’s the most damning swear of them all, I can totally see kids across the nation watching this movie on HBO hundreds of times on the living room floor as their Mothers beg them to, for God’s sake, go outside and play. It’s a next generation Karate Kid.
As for the visuals, the CGIdoesn’t look quite real, but it’s not supposed to so it’s not jarring. Complaining that the racing scenes don’t look photo-real is like comparing Bugs Bunny to a real rabbit, sure they’re not the same, but Bugs is a hell of a lot more fun.
Yes, the “plot” scenes between races tend to drag a bit, but they’re still not bad, the actors do the best with what they’re given and the fact that they hired several very good actors attest to the fact that they were at least trying.
Overall, if you can put your brain into the right frame of mind for this flick, I have a feeling you’ll enjoy yourself immensely. If not, go see Made of Honor and suffer for your so-called maturity.
*Update: If you're still wondering whether this movie is for you, here are the first seven minutes:
Between this movie and the sheer enjoyability of Iron Man, I have a feeling this could be a very fun summer at the multiplex.
*Quick Mamet link, I was amused to see that the character Sparky was played by the same actor (the awesomely named Kick Gurry) that played the mercenary Jones in Mamet’s totally fantastic Spartan. A movie you should watch right now, if you haven’t seen it before.
Just a quick link to a post on Stuart Immonen's blog. This is a really frightening story of how quickly info posted to the web by artists can be used for nefarious means.
So, should you find this book: “Colorful Illustrations 93°C”, published by this company: “Great Creativity organization” [sic]. Be sure to alert whoever is selling it that the work is stolen and include the link on Stuart's site to the original artist.
Over the weekend, I'm going to run a quick re-cap of what I've been reading, watching, and, perhaps, listening to.
Southland Tales - What a mess. No, let me start again. What a fucking mess. I mean seriously, who looked at this script and thought, "This is a fantastic idea, mountains of incomprehensible plot, with absolutely no story behind it! You're a genius Kelly!" Unless your last name Lynch or Kubrick, you don't get to make a movie that's completely incomprehensible and think that I'll take more than one viewing of your film to figure out what the hell is going on.
Let's back up, Southland Tales is the second film from Richard Kelly, maker of Donnie Darko. While I thought that movie was interesting, ultimately, I felt it was pretentious clap-trap. This movie is ostensibly a vision of an alternate America where nuclear warheads were detonated in 2004 and since then, the Bush administration has gone crazy doing all the things we won't let them do right now. Anyway, from there we get: Neo-Marxists, half the cast of the 90's SNL, wormholes, zero-point energy, evil twins, porn-stars-turned-talk-show-hosts, time travel, mega-zeppelins, and enough D-list stars that you keep thinking your self, "Hey looks, it's Kevin Smith in a ton of old man makeup," or, "Hey look, it's Christopher Lambert, 'There can be only one!'"
There's just so much plot in this movie, that really, they could ave made, like three other, possibly-decent movies. A new source of emission free power generating technology that could possible rip a hole in the space-time continuum? Good idea. An alternate history piece of how the Country would deal with the current Administration being able to enact all of the laws they'd like to? Pretty good idea. A vision on how fascist governments and the insurgent groups that fight them often end up being very similar in their methods, despite differences in their ideologies? Cool! But all at the same damn time? Fuck that noise.
And the acting (or "acting"), ug. The only one who actually engages in anything close to a real character is The Rock, who actually gets away with playing an action-movie star who's in way over his head. Everybody else is just terrible.
I could go on, but really, I already wasted 2 hours watching this move and another 30 minutes writing this. Consider this a warning.
I Am Legend - OK, this was much better than I thought it would be. Pretty much everyone know the drill. Will Smith is the "last" man on earth after a plague wipes out the global population, except for the few that it turned into vampire-zombies. Not as good as the book, and it kind of falls apart in the last five minutes, but still pretty darn good for big-budget entertainment. A quick bullet-point rundown:
Will Smith was very, very good, this almost seems like an acting reel that someone would submit to show their range. I think I liked him so much, simply because he wasn't playing "Will Smith", it was an actual character, and in a big-budget action pic, that's a shock.
The vampire-zombies were probably the worst part. I don't know why the animated them in CGI. They just looked too cartoony, and would have been much better if they were real. Part of me thinks they made them look slightly cartoony (a technical term) in order to get the PG-13.
A dog dies, I cry. It's like basic math.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes - Blame Dr. K (and Netflix). Anyway, this is probably the first time I've watched this flick all the way through in 20 years. I think all children of the 70's/80's are familiar with the entire apes cycle from lazy Sunday afternoons spent trolling the upper-reaches of the UHF dial (look it up under 25-ers). Anyway not much to be said, other than the fact that I'm amazed that this G-Rated movie, which features crucified, burning apes and the destruction of the entire Earth did not manage to scar me in any way.
I guess that's all I got on the movie front rightnow. Hope all is well, and I should be back soon with books or comics, depending on what I'm feeling up to tonight.
TV Guide (via Blog@Newsarama) is reporting that yet another Animated Batman series is coming soon from Cartoon Network. Personally, I think that this is pretty cool, since the 90's animated series was freaking fantastic and loved its gradual progression through Justice League Unlimited. The most recent series, The Batman, wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but it was made mostly for "the kids". My only real problem is that a lot of these series seem to have been made for "kids" ranging in ages from 13 - 33. I have a five-year-old who loves Superheroes, but I can't in good conscience have him watch most of these shows since they're so freaking violent. I mean seriously, let's take this fight between Superman and Darkseid from the last episode of JLU:
Now, we can all agree, that is awesome. But seriously, I don't want Jack attempting to hit his brother so hard that he will disrupt the laws of gravity and knock him through five buildings, mostly because Sean would totally kick Jack's ass afterwards. So let's hope that this new series is a tad gentler than what has come before. I gotta admit, I'm really happy that the latest version of the Blue Beetle is showing up, that book really rocks.
Next, can I hope for a Superhero movie I can take my kids to? Shazam, I'm looking at you.
So, finding myself with my first completely clear Saturday night in months, I decided to kill off the two DVD's from Netflix that had been haunting my shelf for a week or so, this proved to be a good plan, since I liked both movies quite a bit.
The Darjeeling Limited
Wes Anderson's most recent film may end up being my favorite of his so far. It boils down a lot of the things he does so well, odd tracking shots, neurotic families, sudden left-turns into melodrama into a short one and a half hour movie that is just beautiful to look at. The story is of three brothers, all going through current life-crises, who embark on a cross-India train trip to find themselves. The first hour of the movie is deftly comic, showing the adventures of three men who consider themselves to be quite intelligent, but are ultimately, like most Americans abroad, morons. The thing that I liked the most about this part is that the three leads (Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman & Adrian Brody) all look and act like real brothers. You feel that under the surface of every argument and snide comment that passes between them, there's a life-time of history there. There's also something there that I can't quite put into words, but if you have siblings you'll understand. I have an older brother, and though we live far apart and are five years apart in age, whenever we're together we fall into an easy rhythm, as if no matter what differences there are between us, our genetic code still allows us to operate on the same wave-length. That may seem bizarre, but this movie gets that. You feel that when these guys are looking at each other their communicating on another level that comes from a life-time of being brothers. Or maybe it was just the three beers I had while watching the movie.
Anyway, as I said, a about the one-hour mark, the movie makes a sudden left-turn towards melodrama, but it works, it helps to show that these guys aren't just self-involved jerks, and it led to some beautiful moments for the actors. The great thing about it is that you can see the changes in each of the characters after this, but Anderson doesn't hit you over the head with it. Nobody suddenly announces, "I'm going to be a better person now that this has happened.", but it comes out clear in the narrative.
One more thing, after watching the featurette on the DVD, you learn that they filmed the movie by buying their own train and outfitting it as a moving set. The train itself, and the country that it moves through are beautiful.
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
OK, onto my second movie of the evening, this one was a little more difficult. The story, per se, as this is a documentary, is of Steve Wiebe, a laid-off engineer from Boeing, who, in order to pass the time, went to work on the Donkey Kong video game in his garage with his sights set on beating the world-record. It's obvious that when he sets out on doing this, he just want to pass the time, but it becomes something more. Steve is one of those guys who always seems to come up short, when the documentary makers interview your friends and family and everyone of them (including your wife & parents) pretty much describe you as a loser, I think it's time that you should take a hard look at your life. Anyway, he eventually beats the record and earns the wrath of Billy Mitchell, the current record-holder and world-class asshole. Seriously, you couldn't fictionalize this big of a jackass because no one would believe you.
Now here's where I have to step out of explaining the narrative to interject how difficult it was to watch this movie during its first hour or so. Now, I say this as a 33-year-old man who just this week was discussing at my local comic shop how disappointed I am that Green Lantern's ring is no longer powerless against the color yellow, these guys are fucking nerds. I could feel my inner-frat-guy growling in Ogre-ish tones, "NNNNNERRRRDDDDSSS" while watching this. It's obvious that a lot of these guys never made the football team, and when they discovered that they were really good at playing circa-1982 video-games, they ran with it as a life choice, becoming so obsessed that one of these guys, who helps authenticate world-record scores, will watch 48 straight hours of video in order to confirm that some kid in Japan is the record-holder for an Atari 2600 game. That's fucking nuts. I really had a hard time watching these guys, since I just can't imagine the level of obsessiveness involved here. Really, if I was the documentary maker I would have had to punch one of these guys in the gut, just once. That's not to say that this level of geekiness is limited to video games, I'm sure that right now, somewhere out there, a guy is making an almost shot-for-shot remake of this documentary about fantasy football. If you are a masochist and want to revel in more of this type of jack-assery, check out Kevin Chuch's new project at GetOffTheInternet.org, it's painful, but it makes you feel a great-deal better about yourself.
ANYWAY, getting back to the movie, after the first 45 minutes or so, if you can handle it, the move gets very good, as Steve Wiebe goes on his quest to prove that he is the "real" world-record holder in Donkey Kong and Billy Mitchell, along with his underlings, goes on to prove that he is the biggest dick in the world (at least the biggest dick that is currently not the leader of a country). It really is fascinatingly tense and I do recommend it, even if it is going to piss you off.
So that's what I have for today, I do have another review of a movie I watched earlier this week that I will get finished today or tomorrow simply because I want to do a little boosterism.
Hey there, got a big pile o' comics at the shop last night, mostly due to me forgetting to pick up a couple of books for the last month or so, but what the heck. Anyway, just some quick reviews of two books that started (or re-started) this week and a look at the (apparent) end of the first arc of ASBAR.
Criminal #1
After delivering two excellent arcs of this series, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips closed up shop for a few months to re-tool the book into a slightly different form. Packing in a few more story pages and some extra back-matter, their crime series revolving around the dirty dealing in an unnamed city in the US returns with a done-in-one tale about Clevon, the bartender at the Undertow, the bar where most of the characters in these books tend to hang out. Truth be told, it's a fairly standard noir tale, but then again, all of them are, but it is done very well. I don't want to talk to much about the plot, since the joy of this book is in the reading. Suffice to say, if you like crime stories, you'll like this book.
A note on the format, in the back, Brubaker notes that they will be featuring articles in the back that will not be reprinted in the trade collections and highlights that this is a reward for the people who buy the monthly format. In this he refers to the comic as a "crime magazine" and that's what Criminal feels like. Not a comic, but an old-school pulp magazine that just happens to feature illustrated tales instead of prose ones.
RASL #1
Jeff Smith, writer-artist of Bone and Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil returns with his first creator-owned work since Bone ended years ago and it starts off with a bit of a fizzle, for me at least. The plot of the book is that our "hero" is an thief that steals artworks by transporting himself to alternate Earths and takes their stuff. Thusly, he's not hunted by the authorities on his own Earth. The only problem is that A. the process for passing between worlds is painful and imperfect and he ends up on the wrong Earth and B. while the police aren't looking for him, someone (thing?) else certainly is. The problem of the book, is that most of the details of the plot I just explained to you are not in the book itself, but from an interview that I had read with Jeff Smith when the book was announced. Coming into this book cold, it would be easy to get confused about both what was going on and why you would want to bother finding out. This is not to say I'm against using a mystery as a hook, but you've got to give a little at the outset to get your reader involved. You know how in every episode of Lost, there's some kind of reveal at the end to keep you hooked? Imagine an episode of Lost without that, just a building mystery with no, however minor, payoff? Mind you, this is only the first issue, but it frustrated me a great deal simply because I'm a huge fan of Smith's previous work and I know he's an excellent story-teller. I'll give this series one more issue before I decide to wait for the first trade for my final verdict.
All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #9
So the first arc comes to a close...and this issue pretty much sums up the series, it's funny, cringe-inducingly violent and oddly-poignant. While I'm still convinced that Frank Miller is writing this series as a giant "fuck you" to DC Comics, I think he may actually, you know, have a point here instead of just writing over-the-top situations for Batman to growl his way through. Oops, I'm sorry, that's The Goddamn Batman. In this issue TGD Batman had a conversation with Green Lantern and comes up with a clever (and hilarious) way to bring them down to the same level. The first ten pages of this book are laugh-out-loud, until things go south for everyone involved. I won't ruin the details, but suffice to say, this is not a "nice" book. Anyway, everyone pretty much knows what they're getting into with this book and I haven't decided yet whether I like this book as a satire of Batman or as a straight-forward Batman book. I may try to go more in depth on this one once the collection hits.
Anyway, that's the big stuff I got this week, a few quick bullets on other things I got:
Dan Dare continues to be a very good little sci-fi series from Garth Ennis.
Marvel's revivial of Damage Conttrol is a lot of fun, but I'm really disappointed that there's only 3 issues to the series. Hopefully the sales will shake the tree for at least a collection fo the old stuff.
Captain America continues to be excellent, but I'm really hoping that the build-up they've been doing for the last two years get s a realease soon, because it's been a while. I'm also hoping that Skrulls do not appear in the plot-line of this book, but I know my hopes will probably be dashed.
Well, since I haven't posted in a week, I figured I'd jot down some quick thoughts on the Oscars, and the ONE nominated movie I actually saw - Juno.
Juno was good, but not much more than that, certainly not a life changing experience as many have seemed to want to elevate it to. It's joined Lost in Translation and Little Miss Sunshine as being the indie-movie-that's-good-but-ultimately-is-hated-due-to-the-hype for this year. It doesn't help that almost all of the other nominees are indies as well. You can almost feel the coming animosity for Diablo Cody's next movie. If it doesn't literally give critics orgasms in their seats, she'll be forever labelled as a one-trick-former-stripper.
The biggest complaint about the movie is that, "no real teenager talks the way Juno does." Well shit, as a friend (who is a high school teacher) and I agreed last night. If you really made a movie featuring "real high schooler" dialogue, you'd want to shoot yourself in the head, cause they talk like morons. Movies aren't real, all they do is give you the illusion of realism, now if they can't get you to suspend your disbelief, that may either be the movie's fault or yours. There was a similar argument made by some returning Iraq War Vets about how a lot of the movies being made about the current war feature Soldiers either doing horrible things in Iraq, or having trouble adjusting to returning home. They argue that this is simply not the case the majority of the people who saw action over there. That's all well and good, but no one's going to go see a movie about a guy (or gal) who goes over there, does their duty and comes home and goes back to normal. Much in the same way I don't want to see a cop movie that focuses on the mundanity that is normal cop-life. Real life is dramatic, but not movie-dramatic. I don't understand why a lot of people can't get past that.
Anyway, on to my Oscar picks:
Best Picture: No Country For Old Men - with no clear favorite this year, I think this could be the Coen Brother's year to take a victory lap and get a "career" Oscar. Not that A) from all accounts this pic doesn't deserve it on its own merits and B) they don't deserve a "career" Oscar anyway.
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis - DDL is like the late-90's/early-00's Atlanta Braves of Best Actor Nominees, I always pick him because odds are that he's gonna win the NL East.
Actress: Julie Christie - Just a hunch.
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem - Always go for the guy who was a really cool villain, unless one of the Noms is a comedy.
Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton - Apparently she sweat a lot in this role. I guess I'll find out if it ever comes off "very long wait" on my Netflix queue.
Director: Joel & Ethan Cohen - Continuing the victory lap.
Adapted Screenplay: P.T. Anderson - To make up for not giving him Director, he gets this.
Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody - Cause everyone will want her to say something outrageous on stage. Please note, post this evening there will be an incredible back-lash against her.
Animated Film: Ratatouille - Simply cause this was the best movie I saw in 2007. I wouldn't mind if Persepolis won, since the book was so good. Too bad it didn't play in the burb's.
That's all I got time for. Oh yeah, I figure Transformers will sweep the effects categories since it looks to be the only bog explosion movie out there this year, and Michael Bay likes the explosions:
Well, if you're not aware, being sick sucks. That said, at least I didn't have it as bad as Kevin. Luckily, my new Doctor diagnosed me with strep pretty fast and was able to give me some antibiotics to knock that shit out (along with Robitussin with Codeine, which was disappointing. I expected to see some cool swirly colors at least). Fortuatnately, I did get to expereience some truly epic fever-dreams on Tuesday night and get to watch the entirity of the Clemens Hearings directly from my sick bed. I was also able to stagger to the shop on Wednesday, cause let's face it, if you're stuck in bed, there's nothing better than a pile of fresh comics at your side. It lets you harken back to the grade-school-days when being sick was something to strive for.
Anway, here are some dis-jointed thoughts on the weeks events, I'll try not to refer to things that may have happened only in my aforementioned epic dreams. The Clemens Hearings - OK, first things first, this was a tremendous waste of time. But come on, that's what Congress does, waste time. At least this week it was on something interesting. I don't like Roger Clemens, and I've never doubted that he used PED's, but still, so did most likely 50% of the rest of the major leagues and we all need to get over that fact. We're never going to know everyone who did, so either give up on that era or accept it as it is. I don't think Roger Clemens got any more of a boost from HGH than Babe Ruth did from not having to bat against an African American pitcher. That said, man, was that an entertaining hearing. I love that Jose Canseco's pool party has now been parsed out (in Congress) about as much as whether there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll. High Comedy.
Final word: to paraprhase Bill Simmons on the subject, if your defense in front of Congress require you to throw:
Your Wife
Your Best Friend
Your Best Friend's Wife
Your Former Employee
Your Former Employer (Bud Selig)
Your Union
And (as a matter of course) The Media
....under the bus, you may want to reexamine whether or not you're an asshole.
The Indiana Jones Trailer - This was surprisingly not bad. Granted, the thing that most worries me is the need to add some "new hotness" in the form of Shia LeBeouf, smacks of Cousin Oliver. Regardless, they seem to be ackowleding that, yes, Harrison Ford is old, but shit, if Sean Connery can kick ass in his 80's, Indy can certainly do so into his 60's. Granted, my hopes have remained high for this flick simply because of Spielberg. In the last few years he's made some fantastic movies (Minority Report, Munich, Catch Me If You Can) and even his mis-steps (War of the Worlds, A.I.) were interesting and by no means bad. He's definitely nowhere near as out of touch as Lucas is.
Also, while I was sick, I re-watched Last Crusade for the first time in quite a while and I was struck that there's a lot of bad in that movie. The effects are pretty crap, the story is kinda stupid and it's a little too goofy, but, the thing about it (and the other Indy flicks) is that it moves. You just don't get a chance to stop and say "Hey....that was dumb," cause next thing you know, Indy is stealing horses and bitching to Sallah about camels. So that's the thing, Indy 4 doesn't need to "good", it just needs to be fun.
If I hadn't already talked about it too much on this blog, I'd tell you that I watched most of the first season of 30 Rock on Thursday, and damn if it's not getting close to beating Arrested Development in terms of re-watch-ability.
Read while sick:
Nova Annual #1 - A good issue, but I'm kinda leery of these mid-storyline issues getting re-branded as Annuals (see also: Iron Fist). It used to be that Annuals were held separate from the on-going storylines, though sometimes they would be used to wrap them up. But this annual is, essentially, part 4 in a 6 part arc, so it's kind of odd that it's an Annual. Sure, it's longer than an average issue, and it's very new-reader friendly, but still. Call a spade a spade and don't charge me an extra dollar for a regular issue. Still, on its merits, it still a good issue in a very good series.
Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure - Kudos to Marvel for publishing this, a "lost" issue that Jack Kirby drew, but due to deteriorating relationships at Marvel, never saw print, except for panels cut up to be used as flashbacks in a later issue. It's a good, fun late-period Stan N' Jack tale, though it's odd, since Stan Lee only recently scripted this issue, he plants some 21st Century references to cell phones and DSL lines, that just seem so out of place. Also included are Kirby's original pencils, with his notes, which is fascinating for anyone interested in his craft. Also, there's the story from FF #108, which some of the panels were recycled into. Overall, a very interesting package and while something of a curiosity, and interesting glimpse into how a book was put together 40 years ago.
Iron Man: Hypervelocity - Have owned this for a while, but I re-read it while I was cycling through sweating and shivering (I swear to God, I thought I was going thorough The Change). A pretty-much out of continuity tale that feels like it was commissioned so Marvel would have enough done-in-one I.M. trades on the shelves in time for the movie, this book features a self-aware set of Iron Man armor that's been st-up by terrorists to be chased down by S.H.I.E.L.D. This is a fun series that is so over the top, it makes Shoot Em Up look like a think-piece. Adam Warren continues his exploration of Mecha-Life in the Marvel Universe that he had begun in Livewires (a really fun little series) and you can almost hear him cackling with glee at the weapons he invents for S.H.I.E.L.D. to throw at our hero. The art, by Brian Denham, is very good, but in the extras they give you Warren's sketches of issues number one, and it just makes you wish he'd been able to draw the whole thing.
Marvel Adventures: Iron Man Vol. 1 - Apparently, I had Iron Man on the brain while ill, but hey, I don't know why. Anyway, I've had this digest laying around for a month or so and finally got around to reading it and it's pretty great. So far, I've only read the Avengers in Marvel's all-ages Adventures line and that book's been a hoot. Iron Man, though not at the same super-high level, is still very good. Four done-in-one tales that are perfect for kids who are, you know, too young to be going to see the movie when it comes out. I understand the need to make these movies cool for us 20 & 30 -somethings, but hey Hollywood! Can you make a superhero flick I can let my 5-year-old watch? That's right Shazam...I'm looking at you.
Other books read, that were good, but were mid-storyline, thus not much worth reviewing: X-Factor #28 & '76 #2.
Anyway, so that was my week, hope everyone had better health at least, I'm going to try to get a longer post about the one book I picked up this week, but didn't mention later on. Plus, I ordered a bunch of cheap-o CD's on amazon, so hopefully I'll have some music thoughts to shout at you later too.
Years ago, just after graduating college, I did an internship in London for six months. My favorite day of the week was always Sunday because I would ineveitably begin the day with a tube ride up to Camden market for used clothes, bootleg tapes and cheap vinyl, capped off with a stop at the Hawley Arms for a pint and maybe a "hot dog" on the street.
Well, a good portion of the market (along with the pub) burned yesterday, and it makes me a little down. But, it also brought back memories that I haven't been reminded of in years. So tonight, I'll have to pick up some ale and have a toast to a place that I hope can regain its glory as a really cool place to hang out and shop in.
While I'm getting my celebrity snark on, I remembered this cover photo from the Parade Magazine circular that came with the Sunday Trib a few weeks ago. I had originally assumed that Xenu's programming erased the section of her brain that allowed her to smile like a sane person, but, perhaps she's silently sizing up her co-stars for dinner?
Man, there was some weird shit going on in comics the year of my birth:
UNUS
NO
Also:
Damn, that Magneto is creee-azzzy.
Anyhoo, somewhat normal posting will resume once work stops, literally, kicking my ass, and I get back from vacation. Panels taken from The Defenders #15 via Essential Defenders Vol. 2. Joke stolen from Mike Sterling.
Yeah I know, I have three posts that are so old they smell right now, but I just can't get them done. Anyway, I promise that I'll be back on Thursday with this week's "Two Reviews". I've decided that each week, I'm only going to offer two reviews of whatever struck me the most a given week, good or bad. Hopefully this will make what I write a little more concise.
Anyway, in the mean-time, here's the best 2 minutes of 30 Rock from last year:
Alright, a few odds n' ends I left off my last two lists:
Best Mini-Series: Annihilation Conquest: Starlord
Kicking off this year's Cosmic Event, Marvel once again rolled out a couple of mini-series (and a story arc in Nova) to set the stage. This is easily the best of the lot, mostly for one reason:
Anyway, for those of you who are not enthusiasts of the best anthropomophic raccoon ever created by Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola, the story is a very funny, very tense take on the Dirty Dozen in outer space. Thanks to Calvin Pitt for reminding me about it.
Best Movie I Saw This Year: Casino Royale
I was doubtful when I saw that they were re-booting this franchise, I had genuinely enjoyed Pierce Brosnan's work as Bond and thought he was very good at it. But I was just blown away by this movie. The commitment to making it down and dirty, but with still most of the hallmarks of Bond (hot women, hot cars, cool locales and giant set-pieces). Daniel Craig was just a revelation as Bond, making this the "realest" Bond we've ever seen. I'm really pissed I skipped the theater on this one, and I've probably watched it at least once a month since I got the DVD. Just great stuff.
Best Movie I Saw in a Theater All Year: Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Just beautiful, if you've never seen it before, shame on you, go buy the DVD. If you haven't seen it in a while, shame on you, go buy the DVD. If you don't have the DVD, shame on you, go buy the DVD. I just can't believe they took a 27 year old film and made it look like it was made yesterday, without any of the problems that crop up when you update such an old film. George Lucas should watch this and cry at the fact that it makes his tinkering with Star Wars look like he was hacking at his films with a machete. A rusty machete.
Allright, irregardless of anything else I might think of, that's it. 2007 is over and anything I forgot about will be mentioned in '08's YiR post. Now, let's get to some resolutions for 2008:
See more movies in the theater. I tell you, having kids really kills your ability to go to movies, but I'm going to make a commitment to get to at least on a month for all of 2008. There's alot of flicks coming out this summer I'm guaranteed to see (Iron Man, Dark Knight, Indiana Jones, etc.), but I want to try to get to more films that I'm not likely to see anyway.
Along with that, I need to stop Netflixing bad movies and start watching the good ones. I must have watched 4 bad action flicks in the month that Letters From IwoJimasat on my kitchen counter waiting for me to watch it. It turned out to be unquestionably one of the best movies that I had seen all year, but it's hard to work yourself up to something you know is going to be a tough movie, especially when you can tune out to Jet Li punching guys through walls. I will stop this, from now on, at least one of every two discs I get from Netflix must be a "good" film and I will watch it within a reasonable time-frame. Yes Rescue Dawn, I see you there on the counter and I will get to you within the next two days.
Annnnd, along with that, I need to start reading more "real" books. I've been doing pretty good over the last few weeks, I've read 3 books already since Christmas, so I have a feeling this shouldn't be to tough. Just to keep myself honest, I'm going to try to post monthly on what I've been reading.
Speaking of blogging, I'm going to make a commitment to posting at least once a week on both of my blogs, I'm going to try and get some recurring series going, mostly focusing on stuff that I've recently unearthed in my collection, stuff that, I feel, never got its due, or somethings that should not have in the first place. As ever, I try to keep my stuff positive, as the blog-o-dome tends to be such a soul-suckingly-negative place that I can't believe blogger doesn't have it's own anger-management hotline.
So thanks to you, my real and internet friends, for reading this, and all of my other blather. Let's look forward to a bright 2008.
Hey there, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to give up reviewing everything I get every week, I'm just going to point out the things that really stood out, both good and bad. Fortunately, the comics web-o-sphere is alarmist enough to warn me not to buy things that are most-likely-to-be-awful (*cough* One More Day *cough*), however, we all make mistakes (*cough* Countdown: Arena *cough*).
Anyway, here are two items that struck my fancy this week (or rather, yesterday), first a movie:
Sunshine
I was watching Space Cowboys on TNT last Saturday and was lamenting to my 5-year-old that they just don't make hard-science-fiction movies anymore, meaning that most of the SF hitting the screens tends to be more fantasy (think Star Wars) than actual, scientifically possible, fiction. Like just about any geek in his thirties, I'm fascinated by the idea of space travel and the possibilities and problems associated with it. Very few movies actually deal with this and just act as if it's just normal to travel in space and you need something like an alien invasion or a ghost to make it dramatic. Dude, you're riding in a tin can literally millions of miles from breathable atmosphere, just the plain mechanics of the situation make it dramatic.
Now onto the actual movie, Sunshine's story is that the sun is dieing and the Icarus 2 has been dispatched to attempt to reignite it. While most of us assume that our sun isn't set to burn out for billions of years, there is science behind the story, Roger Ebert's review explains it a lot better than I can (I assume it's also explained by Science Advisor Dr. Brian Cox in his commentary on the DVD, which I plan on hitting up soon). Unfortunately for our crew, theirs is not the first attempt, the Icarus 1 disappeared right about where they are now, and, since this is a movie, they've just received a signal from their predecessor. As the kids say, this is where the shit gets real.
They decide to rendezvous with the other ship, thinking that, if their bomb is still intact, two shots at reigniting the sun is better than one. This is probably a bad idea. From there on, the situation continues to get more and more grim, giving you cause to wonder if these problems are supernatural, psychological, or just plain bad luck.
It's an absolutely beautiful film to look at. The CGI blends in seamlessly with the practical effects and truly, you never even see "effects", you simply see a space-ship approaching the sun. I really recommend this movie, I've watched it twice in the last two days, tonight with director Danny Boyle's commentary and he really makes you rise to a new appreciation of the movie with his enthusiasm. It's not a great movie, but it is a darn good one.
Teen Titans: The Lost Annual
Now here's an odd little thing. This issue, the final written work by Bob Haney (I believe) featuring art from Jay Stephens and MikeAllred hits the stands after sitting on shelf at DC since 2003. Obviously Haney is channeling the crazy with this issue that features Mod-Aliens kidnapping and brain-washing JFK in 1962 in order to help them battle Space Hippies on their own planet.
Let's let that sink in: Mods vs. Hippies....in OuuuutttteerrrSpaaaaaace!
Of course, Robin is there to witness all of it, so who's going to believe him, he's just a kid? A kid who was staying in the Lincoln bedroom while JFK got kidnapped mind you. Robin, dude, for the contribution Bruce Wayne had to give to get you that night in Camelot, trust me, I think someone will believe you.
Anyhoo, he gets his buddies, the original Teen Titans to go on a trip to OuuuttteerrrSpaaaaace to get our Prez back. The do leave Aqualad behind though, because that dude's totally a buzzkill. Once there, they realize the stakes, so of course they go to war. Well, except for the (Wonder)girl, who of course totally falls in love with the Hippy-alien leader and wants to have his babies. And Robin eventually saves the day through a convoluted plan to snap JFK out of his programming involving the PT 109, a demolished spaceship and a hat. Then, in the last four pages, shit gets really weird.
OK, stepping away from it, it sounds like the most crazy-tastic issue ever written in the 60's, doesn't it? The problem is that it was written in the 2000's, so it just doesn't seem as authentically crazy. Obviously, having Haney on board mitigates that, but I don't know, maybe I'm just over thinking the whole thing, but after reading the Saga of the Super Sons, you get the feeling they were really trying to be hip. Now it's like they're making fun of themselves trying to be hip. Maybe it's just the overuse of irony in comedy these days that kind of blunts this for me. Stephens and Allred's art is very good, almost too good, since it's aping 1960's comic art which tended to be serviceable at best. That said, Nick Cardy's cover (above) and sketchbook is amazing. I would kill for just one of those sketches, the detail and composition are so good.
Along with that, the ending just kind of struck me wrong. ***SPOILERS ON*** In the end, they return to Earth with the real JFK (a duplicate had taken his place) only to find out the duplicate-JFK had a very bad day in Dallas while they were gone. So JFK decides, for the good of the country, to go back to the alien world since him reappearing after being "killed" would be too much of a shock to the nation. Linking such a crazy, lighthearted book with such a tragedy just kind of ended the whole thing on a sour note. The artist even draws in the famous photo of JFK Jr. saluting his father's casket, which is, in my mind, one of the most heart-breaking images ever.
Anyway......HIPPIES VS. MODS IN OUTER SPACE!!!!!
OK, that makes me feel a little better. Overall, it's a fun little artifact, and I'm glad that I have it, but I kind of think it is a missed opportunity.
Mr. Rabin has been taking one (hundred and four) for the entire internet team by writing this year's worth of articles rating a litany of bad, horrible or simply misguided movies that have been inflicted upon the viewing public. Whether it's making a serious attempt at finding the good in Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart, or mercilessly mocking the bizarre disco-nightmare musical of The Apple, he brings the funny, along with just the right amount of insight. Kudos to you, Mr. Rabin, your nightmare is over, at least until the make you review Alvin & The Chipmunks 2.
Best On-Going Series: The Brave & The Bold
I really can't say much about this series than I already have. Pure fun super-hero writing by Mark Waid with pitch-perfect art by George Perez. Featuring team-ups ranging from the popular (Green Lantern and Batman) to the downright bizarre (The Boy Commandos & The Blackhawks?) the creators have managed to tell a galaxy and century spanning story that is timeless in it's enjoyability. Best New Series: The Immortal Iron Fist
Holy Smokes, both Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction came at us like they were shot out of a cannon this year, didn't they? Kung-fu action with just enough comedy to acknowledge the silliness of the premise and enough drama to make you feel the tension. All that and stuff like this:
Best Movie: Ratatouille
I love this movie. I don't know why, it's just perfect, funny, moving, and it so amazingly articulates it's points about the love of art and food that it just sings. The fact that both me and my four-year-old son can watch it and both of us get the same amount of enjoyment out of it is just gravy.
So that's all I got, I may have another, clean-up post, but that may be more of a quick-hit type list featuring me bitching about stuff that bugged me. Overall, 2007 kinda kicked my ass, but it ended well and 2008 is starting to shape up rather nicely.
That it was, that it was. I suppose I should do a quick recap of what I enjoyed during the year. Keep in mind, while I do frame what I've listed down below as the "Best", it's more that these are my favorites. I wholly acknowledge that there may be better things produced last year in each of these catagores, but this is what I enjoyed the most. And more importantly, remembered 1 to 12 months later. Thusly, here is part 1 of what maybe a single, or several part look at what I liked about 2007.
Best Single Issue - Superman #666
This issues was just a blast. Crazy in every way possible and a lot of fun. Superman goes bat-shit insane and kills EVERYTHING. OR does he?
Best Summer Movie - The Bourne Ultimatum
As I said in my twitter comment the other day. Pound-for-pound, the Bourne series is really the best action series ever. No dead-weight, not a wasted scene or moment. Just pure action moving an excellent story forward for six straight hours.
Best Guilty Pleasure Summer Movie - Transformers
What the hell, it's a crappy movie, but who doesn't like watching transforming robots beat the crap outta each other?
Best Impulse Buy - Bones Season 1 DVD
Saw like two episodes of this series and really got into it this season. Saw the first season on sale for 20 and figured I'd give it a shot. Great decision. Fun, interesting and scary in all the ways that made me love the X-Files, but not derivative of that series.
Best Repackaging of Something I Already Had - Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson
I had all of this in the three "Visionaries" trades that Marvel had put out years ago, but since vol. 2 got killed in a basement flood, I was itching to repurchase it. Then, my shop had its big X-Mas blowout sale and I managed to get this beautiful, brick of comicy goodness for quite a discount. What a great package, 15 pounds of over-sized, hardcover kicks to the face and ninja action. Highly recommended to any that can afford it.
Best Movie I Can't Believe They Made - Shoot Em Up
Pure gonzo violence and wise-cracking. I'd be amazed to learn that the writer-director wasn't 15 and drunk during the conception of this film. Both of the leads (Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti) bring just enough dedication to the film's tone to push it right over the top.
Best Essential/Showcase Book - Showcase Presents: The War That Time Forgot
Back when I got my Absolute New Frontier book last Christmas, I read Darwyn Cooke's annotations talking about his love of the "War that Time Forgot" books with longing, knowing that I had to track down these books somehow. I mean, WW2 soldiers vs. dinosaurs, how can that not be great? And DC was kind enough to help a brother out and publish this phone-book sized collection. Great stuff all around.
You know, there was a time that I thought that I had dreamed this whole thing and that it never actually happened. In College, I found other, like-minded souls who had memories of it too. Perhaps I was better off remembering it as a bizarre dream.
Though it is awful, I'm amazed that Lucasfilm has yet to try and extract a buck by re-releasing this.
Update! Hey Sugar-Mama readers! Remember that Christmas gift I wanted? Well Check that, get this instead. Holy smokes is that awesome.
Images courtesy of Countdown: Arena #3, in which, some young, upstart, Elseworlds Superman literally grabs two other Supermen's heat vision and uses it to bonk their heads together. Yeah, I still don't know what I think of it either.
Hey all, I had planned to get some type of "Year's Best" list up this week, as no one else on the internet seems to be doing, but unfortunately, work and other, more festive, concerns have really gummed up the works here at Phoning It In Industries, so I'll have to kick that to the side for a few days. Instead, I just wanted to leave a quick note wishing you all the best over this Holiday Season and thank everyone who has come by in the past few months. As a quick "gift" to you all, here are two of my all-time favorite Christmas songs from my current two favorite Christmas albums:
Have a good one, and hopefully I'll get something up on Christmas Eve, since I have the day to myself. That's probably a lie, since I'll probably spend the day watching an entire season of the X-Files and listening for the sounds of hooves on my roof.
Edit: Incidentally, should I have any rich, sugar-mama-ish readers out there who want to get me (or rather my inner-12-year-old) that perfect Christmas gift, here you go (thanks to Kevin for the find).
Is it bad that while I'm watching a movie these days, I'm actually writing a blog post in my head? I've become "that guy". I f@%&ing hate "that guy".
Anyway, went to see The Golden Compass" this evening and was entertained, but ultimately, underwhelmed. It had the same problems that the first Harry Potter film had, it rushes from plot point to plot point without giving the story any breathing room to draw us in. The best thing about the book was the world that Pullman built in it. He didn't explain that this was an alternate Earth, or what daemons were or any of the things that the movie explains in the opening narration. The reader was allowed to discover these things for themselves and the world of the book was very well realized. A few other thoughts, since I can't be arsed to write a full, well reasoned review:
Daniel Craig is dreamy. I mean, I'm straight as the day is long, but I can gaze into those baby blues of his for days. They better get on the stick with that next Bond flick.
Gaze into the dreaminess of my stare!
I think the Nicole Kidman-bot only has two emotion switches: "Wounded" and "Sinister". She was in full "Sinister" mode in the movie and her performance was very good for an android.
When reading the book I was expecting the world to look much more sooty and "steam-punky", but it was very clean and sci-fi. Kinda threw me off.
I don't think that Christopher Lee actually filmed his scene for this movie. I think the just re-purposed some of his footage from one of the Star Wars prequels. I mean, the only reason his scene was there was so people would say, "Hey look, Christopher Lee!"
People were bitching about the ending as soon as it was over. Firstly, to the jackass who said, "Well that ending sucked!" No, you suck jackass, because you were kicking my seat throughout the entire movie. One more time and I would've broken your foot. Anyway, the ending was kind of anticlimactic IF you've read the book. If not, it seems perfectly sensible, especially if you expect them to make the next one (which, after the first weekend's gross, doesn't seem very likely).
My take on the whole Catholic League brou-ha-ha: If you think your kid can be turned into an atheist by watching one movie and reading a few books, well, then perhaps you as a parent and your local priest aren't exactly doing your jobs. I mean, it's not like there's anything else, in fiction or reality painting the Catholic Church as some type of sinister organization.
It certainly looked very nice and the production values were very high. Just figured I'd mention it since someone obviously worked very hard on it.
Anyhoo, it's certainly not bad, and it goes by very quick, but I'd recommend you to just skip it and read the book.
KWIK KOMIKS REVIEWS
Nova #9
Space Hero and a Talking Russian Dog take on the cosmic undead at the edge of the universe. Pretty much as cool as is sounds.
X-Factor #26
My inner 12-year-old is really excited about this new X-Force (as seen here in this part of the current mega-X-crossover). I want to punch that kid.
So I just spent the last hour putting lights on my first real Christmas tree in years (my ex was allergic) before realizing that I only bought half as many lights as I'd need. Crap. I really don't want to have to go to Target (with both kids) on a Saturday mere weeks before Christmas. Oh well. Anyhoo, got the tree at Home Despot last night and it was pretty darn cheap, but the former-Boy Scout in me was screaming as the dude tied it to the top of my car. The knots! Ye gods the knots! I wanted to knock him to the ground and take over. Obviously our public school are not doing their jobs. I still tipped him heavy since, hey, it's 20 degrees and dudes' gotta deal with people a lot more asshole-ish than me.
Anyway, last year I passed on DC's Infinite Holiday Special due to some so-so reviews. But now that I realize that I missed this, I've gotta track it down. I love holiday specials. Update! Many thanks to Chris @ the ISB for pointing out that he covered my personal favorite Christmas comic a few years back. Go here to read about it (this post also includes the most articulate description of why I love Starman so much.)
Speaking of fun holiday-themed comics, this really cracked me up:
Hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well! Gotta go vacuum up more pine needles!
You know, I had a long, bitter post I was writing about how much I hate parents who let their kids ride in shopping carts (not in the kiddie seat, but in the basket itself), how much I can't fucking stand our President and about how Mit "freedom requires religion" Romney has upgraded himself to scaring the shit out of me. But instead let's talk about something that allows me to forget about those things. No, not alcohol, let me rephrase, let me talk about the thing that lets me forget about those things AND operate heavy machinery: comics. I only had one book pulled for this week, so I took a flyer on a few others just to see what was going on (and get myself over the $10 minimum to use my credit card, since I had no cash).
Annihilation Conquest #2
This series is definitely living up to its predecessor and it's going to places that I didn't anticipate. That's good, very good. Plus, we get more Starlord action. Not too much else to say.
Countdown: Arena #1
What a mess. Anyway, the plot of this book is that the Monarch (formerly Captain Atom) is preparing to fight some type of battle to save the universe, but he needs the best that the multiverse has to offer, so he plucks various iterations of our favorite heroes off of various Earths and decides to weed through them, death-match style. In the first issue we get the fights between the Batmen and Nightshades and neither really delivers.
Scott McDaniel's art is a little too cartoony for the high action that he is supposed to be delivering, but he does subtly ape both Mike Mignola's and Frank Miller's art while drawing their versions of Batman & Superman. I am tempted to pick up the next issue, but it'll have to pass the flip test in order to sucker me in next month.
Uncanny X-Men #493
Onto Marvel's little event they got going on in the X-Titles. While I was intrigued by the last issue of X-Factor, not enough to buy into the whole crossover, but they may have drawn me in with this. Pretty much, this is a full issue fight scene featuring the various X-Teams, all in pretty crap shape, going up against some new-school sentinels. It really reminds me of the X-Men I fell in love with back in the late 80's/early 90's and I really like what I see. I guess they've sucked me in.
Justice League Unlimited #39
Math time! Batman + Elongated Man + Detective Chimp / Gorilla Grodd = Fan-freaking-tastic
Ahhhh, there I'm in a better mood. Let's turn on the Bears game and relax...aw shit, it's on NFL Network, I gotta deal with fucking Bryant Gumble? Wait, is Griese the QB, what the fuck? Dammit, can nothing go right?
So, finding myself with a freed-up late-afternoon yesterday, I decided to go see a movie. Though Speed Racer was singing to me with the siren call of the explodo, I was determined to see a "good movie" and looked at David Mamet’s* kung-fu flick Redbelt as a good opportunity. Well, after reading Kevin Church’s lukewarm review of Redbelt and two trusted reviewers' raves about Herr Racer, I decided that I could take a chance on the Wachowski Brothers (er…whatever they are now).
But, then again, I'm the target audience. I wonder wha tthe general public will think of this?
