Oh it has been a long time since I saw a good action flick that didn't try to be bigger and better than itself. Clive Owen came to America too late, he could have been a movie superstar by now if he had just crossed the ocean a little sooner. I don't really feel the need to tell you the gimmick of Shoot'em Up although I'm sure many sites have already done so, I will tell you the plot though which is something I'm sure others have not done. Basically Owen's character (Mr. Smith) can't help but stop a fleeing pregnant woman's would be attacker. Stopping this attack lands him with a dead mother and a newly delivered baby. Now the same people that were trying to kill the mother are trying to kill the baby. That's it! That simple, no big surprises, yes theres a bit more to the plot but they practically give it to you before they spell it out. None of that matters because this movie is just a vessel for great gun fights and witty dialog. Clive basically is Buggs Bunny with a gun and frankly it's hilarious. Giamatti plays Fudd to our Clive's Buggs, and does a brilliant job (as always) playing a character that he's really has no business playing.
Really there's nothing more to say about this movie. I'm sure there will be nah sayers on how there's too much action or that the story wasn't believable and I would say that they are wrong because this movie knows what it is... a simple action flick that delivers the action. I can't stress enough the great dialog between Clive and Paul. They basically finish each other's sentences, which yes I know isn't possible but damn isn't it funny! While I was watching the movie I couldn't help but think of Crank and how
disappointing it turned out to be and wondered just how someone could screw up such a simple formula... but thankfully Shoot'em Up came out and I think it was a breath of fresh air and a good step towards revitalizing the action genre. Yeah there's a lot of good movies out right now (thankfully) but if you've got the chance and you're feeling like a laugh and some action then check it out, you won't be disappointed.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Shoot'em Up - Bang, Bang! We've got a hit!
Halloween 2007 - Halloween will never be the same!
Halloween 2007 - So perhaps I'm not the one that should review this having never watched the original, although some would say that's why I should because I have a fresh take on it and can just watch it for what it is a Horror Movie. I'm a fan of Zombie's last two movies and since this isn't IMDB I'm not going to list them just to prove I know them, anyways I was interested in what he would do with this film and was happy when he kept it during the same time line as the original. I think that's why the movie worked so well and why all his movies work is because he doesn't modernize them, he keeps them in the era that invented horror as we know it today. At Comic Con Zombie said his film would be different because it was about Michael Myers and not about the people he was killing, and he was not lying, this movie is 100% about Myers.
Tyler Mane was the perfect choice and frankly I would like to see him in more roles like this, I mean he's already pretty scary looking in real life but give him a knife and a mask and he's scary as hell! Even though he didn't talk, his body language spoke loud and clear and that takes a talented actor but also a talented director to be able to show it the way he did. Young Myers was actually quite impressive for a child actor, he was able to flip the switch between psycho killer and playful child very easily. I wonder if he'll grow up demented because of this movie? He did some pretty intense things during the course of the film. Since I'm on actors,
I want to say that whoever casted this film did a great job. I actually believed that the girls were friends and could picture them hanging out in real life, I doubt that's the case but hey I believed it could happen while watching the movie. Most impressive was Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie, even though I knew bad stuff was going to happen all around her I felt bad for her as they did. She really was just a likable character and it sucked to see her going through all that shit. The two baby-sat kids did a heck of a job and it was hard to tell if they were acting or if they just threw them in a room and said be yourself and turned on a camera, they were both very natural and could turn out to have quite the careers ahead of them.
Something that I don't think a lot of people will catch, or if they do they'll view it in a negative light, was all the cussing. I'm not talking about the, "Oh shit there's a killer outside my door" cussing, I'm talking about when the Dad was like, "Oh shit, my car keys." Totally un-needed right? I stood out to me, and then a couple more character did it, then a couple more, and I realized something... this isn't any different then how I talk all the time, at work or with my family. It's just not something that is brought to light in movies, that real aspect of how we talk in everyday conversations and I just thought that was brilliant. Especially at the begin when the Meyer's family is way dysfunctional they cuss a lot and instead of it feeling force or getting tired of it, you accept it because you just turned to your friend and said, "Damn they cuss a lot." If anyone watches it again or for the first time, pay attention, and then pay attention to how much you swear every day. I liked this movie, I liked Myers and what Zombie and Mane did with it.
Heck I really liked Mrs. Zombie and loved it when she really switched gears and actually looked like a Mom! I'm not a fan of remakes but like I said before the movie came out, "If you're going to remake a horror movie... wouldn't you rather have Zombie, a total horror fan, do it rather than someone else?" The answer to that question is, "Yes!"
The Film Crew - Hollywood After Dark
The Film Crew as I've previously stated, is the latest creation from three of the guys that worked on and brought you MST3000. You could go as far as to say that The Film Crew is MST3000 Lite, since it tries to copy several of the formulas from MST but with little success. One of the things that could make or break a good episode of MST were the bits in-between, the invention exchanges and the Mad Scientist and the later inventions of the same character in female form. They could make you laugh, but for the most part then weren't really needed. But after watching MST on DVD I discovered that they were needed, because it made you relate and care about these guys that sit and watch these awful movies, they gave them a more human face and you realized that they had the best job in the world... and they were just some guys from Minnesota.
The Film Crew tries this same formula of giving the guys a boss and giving them the job of creating a commentary track for every movie without out a commentary track (public domain movies) but depending on how long TFC lasts will really determine if these bits that aren't really working right off the bat, are really going to matter. As the saying goes, time will tell. The actual movie itself is horrible, and didn't have enough footage shot to make any sense. Also the Old chick from Golden Girls, the one that slept with everyone, she plays a stripper who wants to be an actress... and she sleeps with everyone... go figure huh? The Crew does a good job of over looking the a lot of the easy jokes and ops for the road less traveled, and let me tell you they have some killer jokes. I was watching this with my Girlfriend (Who doesn't get this style of humor) and she didn't laugh at all, so I was pretty much laughing by myself which anyone who's ever watch a comedy by themselves knows that you don't laugh as much when you're the only one laughing. Long story short, I laughed quite a bit. I'm getting the next installment in this project and will update fans on whether the "bits" pan out or if they're just a waste of time in trying to reconnect to the magic that is MST3000.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Worth Every Penny and Comic Book Day Double Header
Since it's Comic Book Day we've got a review, but I also thought it would be cool if I did a double article and make it a Worth Every Penny as well. Today we've got two Marvel books, since Marvel released the most books this week let's see which one is worth your 3 bucks plus tax shall we.
Ghost Rider #15 - Daniel Way has managed to make the Ghost Rider the new Peter Parker, where life just dumps on him constantly. If you haven't been reading Ghost Rider I'll recap briefly for you. The Devil has escaped Hell, but has been shattered into... you guessed it 666 pieces, and these pieces have taken over recently dead's bodies. Ghost Rider is tracking down and killing each body which makes the remaining bodies that much stronger. In this issue two angel's are born over night from a teenage girl, her Mom who was ripping the shit out of her in the last issue all the sudden wants to take care of her and when the girl has to leave on a mission with the angel babies the mom gives her, her muscle car that's probably worth more than the house they're living in. Devil set's GR up with two problems: Stop a stadium of people from blowing up (which he doesn't actually know about yet) or save a little league group of kids that are being held some where. It's a quick read but frankly that's due to the fact that it's not very interesting and Way's strong point isn't dialog and never will be. I've decided to stop reading Ghost Rider with this issue since it's become the same thing over and over each issue. Whereas the initial idea was cleaver, tracking down a new piece of Satan each issue gets rather boring when they all end the same way. Also I get the fact that GR doesn't care if the innocent get hurt because he'll just have more avenging to do, and the Johnny Blaze aspect of it just isn't interesting enough to keep me caring. All it takes to stop Johnny's control of GR is a bonk on the head and GR pops back in. We'll see how long this latest series lasts, but for me the road to vengeance stops here!
Punisher War Journal #11 - For starters don't let the cover fool you Olivetti is not doing the interiors of the book which is a shame because he really makes up for a lot of story telling aspects that Fraction isn't able to write and or director the artist to do. This is one of those issue where the main character isn't even in half the book. I don't know who started this trend, I remember when I first read an issue and the character wasn't in it I was like wow that's a good writer to be able to do it. Let's just say Fraction isn't there yet. The book spends most of it's time with G.W. Bridge and Ian the fake cop from some issues back. Iron Man is trying to talk Bridge out of retirement and Ian is being brainwashed into possibly being the next Punisher. Both stories where pretty boring and I've really have found myself not caring about Bridge, I don't like his character and whatever Fraction is trying to do with him just isn't interesting. Every time he shows up I let out a big sigh and wait for it to be over. As far as Ian the fake cop is concerned, I don't even know his character to care about what he's going through. The Punisher and Winter Soldier do not square off in this book, they barely have a tussle if you can call it that so don't expect the few pages they spend together to be action packed or the battle you've waiting for because it's not. Overall this was a disappointing issue for me since I've just read the last six issue of the series all in a row, when I got to this one it was kind of a road block and I'm left wondering if I should pass it.
The Winner: And not by much is Punisher War Journal #11, at least the few pages of dialog between the Punisher and WS were more interesting then the whole of Ghost Rider, and Punisher's "shock ending" might lead to a better storyline in the next issue so spend your 3 bucks on Pun rather than the Rider.
Preview Pages after the break.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Countdown to the Final Crisis... of a new crossover!
Another 6 issues of Countdown have come out so it's time to talk about another 6 issues of Countdown. I'll be short this time, I'm not going through each issue and for the most part I'm going to pretend you know what I'm talking about rather than boring you with the details of each book. Pretty much all I have are issues with this book, no they're not typical Fanboy issues of this character shouldn't do that or whatever typical Fanboy's grip about. My first issue with this book is that it's horribly rushed at times, which I could easily fix for them... stop recapping each character in every issue. Seriously I'm beginning to wonder if Dini and company or even the rest of DC even read 52? If they did, they would have noticed how issues would feature certain characters and sometimes the whole gang, but not ever issue. It gets really boring reading two pages about Jimmy Olsen and not knowing the what's, why's and how's of the situation that he's in simply because there isn't enough time. And they're parts that I've frankly just stopped caring about, for instance the group searching for Ray Palmer, don't care, they don't do anything interesting or say anything that isn't forced or frankly just dumb. Another storyline I don't care about is the Rouges. I started off iffy about them, then I really stopped giving a damn, and now I'm just tired of them being the only story we're following 100%.
Piper and Trickster are the only two that we follow every where, if they take a shit, we're there, and I don't care anymore. They killed the Flash, yet in Countdown they say they didn't. They have no redeeming character qualities to care about and yet the book asks you to root for them, but I can't they are murderers plain and simple. I'm also very much so done reading about Catwoman's buddy and Harley Quinn who just can't seem to find a home outside the animated cartoon. They just hang around and now they're becoming Amazon warriors big deal, they haven't done anything for almost two months now. My last grip for this book that's really sinking fast, is that fact that for the last six issues at least (possibly more but I can't remember) is that someone will be saying something like, "We wouldn't want to walk into a..." and it'll cut off, then on the next page a different character will finish the sentence, "Trap!" This has been happening with EVERY, SINGLE, TRANSITION! I find it very far fetched that every character is A) always talking about the same thing and B) Using the same dialog to do so. So Dini and company are you saying that none of these character's have an original voice, that they all talk the same? Because that's how this book reads. None of the characters read any differently from the others, and since the art's not that good we have to be thankful that they're wearing costumes otherwise I wouldn't know who's talking. I'll probably continue reading this book for another couple issues, I'd like to at least buy it till the name changes to Countdown to Final Crisis, but I'm not sure I can last that long. I knew the gimmick of having a weekly book would fade, but I didn't think it would fade in the middle of that book. PS the covers are starting to bore me too!
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Quick Hits - Third Strike
Another week, another installment of Quick Hits. Up this week is Eva - Daughter of the Dragon from Dynamite Entertainment, Iron and the Maiden #2 from Aspen Comics, Doktor Sleepless - Tesla Boy Gangster #2 from Avatar Press, 30 Days of Night - Red Snow from IDW, Madame Mirage #2 from Top Cow Entertainment, and Infinity Inc. #1 for DC Comics.
Eva - Daughter of the Dragon #1 - I was not impressed by this book, sure I didn't know anything about it before I read it, but it turned out to be Van Hellsing with a chick basically. Eva's Dracula's daughter born from the un-dead. Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein are after some lame ass stone, Frank's monster turns on him and begins protecting the stone. Eva and Frank become a team, then get transported into the future... did I mention the actual villain of the story is narrating the story to a TV production crew that want to turn it into the next Buffy? Must have slipped my mind, much like this book will slip my mind when Dynamite surely makes it an ongoing series. The art was good, there was little to no dialog, and you didn't get the chance to know Eva enough to care about her at all. In fact she kinda comes off like a total asshole that's willing to do anything as long as it results in the death of Dracula. Jo Chen's cover was the best part of the book, I love Jo Chen's art she's great, maybe if she had done the book I would have liked it more but the story was still really bad, so probably not.
Doktor Sleepless #2 - Another book I've covered before, feel free to check it out first. There's more of the mystery revealed in this issue, and more mystery added to the mystery. You'll notice that this issue isn't called Future Science Jesus, but Tesla Boy Gangster. I'm sure this is a theme that will continue as the book goes on. It's hard to say what this confusing piece of work is about. Apparently Doktor Sleepless can't look in mirrors for long without the mirror talking back and his real persona John Reinhardt is locked up for some reason. The introduction of the Shrieking Girls was intresting. They are all linked together so whatever one experiences they all experience. There was more societal commentary, and make believe tech talk that would be interesting if people were actually trying this sort of thing. Again I'm not 100 percent sure what the book is truly about but that's the point in reading it, to figure out the story.
30 Days of Night - Red Snow #1 - Let me just say that I hate, hate, hate it when people take their characters and put them in a World War II setting. It's lazy and annoying and even though I love Templesmith's art, he struggles as a story teller. The dialog was rough, the pacing was annoying and I swear he was jumping around telling the same story from different perspectives and was telling the reader. Anyways if you couldn't tell I didn't really care for this book, I was hoping that since it was Templesmith that it wouldn't just be a cash in on the soon to be released movie based off the first series... but that's what it felt like, a cash in. The great thing about the first series was that no one had ever thought of it before, so when this book comes along and says well the Vampires did the same thing in World War II, it's pretty hard to swallow. Unfortunately IDW will never let the series rest and will always be trying to pump something out under the name, and most of them will continue to be junk not worth reading.
Madame Mirage #2 - Paul Dini and Kenneth Rocafort are a dream team together! This book is so simple yet so effective that I can't wait till the third issue. It was a happy coincidence that it came out this week because on Tuesday I thought to myself, "Hey where the hell is Madame Mirage #2?" that's right I think in numbers, and then there it was! Mirage does seem a little like Hunter Killer, but that's okay because unlike Hunter Killer the art hopefully won't change by the seventh issue and won't be plagued by delays. Rocafort really is the break out talent of this book and if TopCow is smart they'll start pumping out posters and T-Shirts because I've already got money waiting for both. Mirage is targeting another Mobster to take out, the word is that he's trying to kill a celebrity so Mirage is there to stop him. The Dude (Big Lebowski rip off) is there to lighten the humor some more and is really becoming a likable character. The story is action packed and fast paced so I'm not going to tell you much more because it's a quick read and should only take about ten minutes. Mirage gives fanboys a tease changing into different outfits and Rocafort is probably already deciding between Marvel and DC, because I'm sure one of them is offering him an exclusive contract although he may have an exclusive with TopCow for now too. This book is definitely my Quick Hits: Pick of the week.
Lastly we have Infinity Inc. #1 - Let's just call this book what it is, another cash in on the success of 52. I like Peter Milligan but sometimes he's just not the right fit for a book... mostly DC books. Not only is the story pretty uninteresting, it's not very revealing to what the book is going to continue to be about. It relies on the first couple of pages and then the last two pages to hook you and bring you back for issue two. Sadly this book has six issue written all over it before it either gets canceled or re-vamped which means it'll get canceled any ways. If you pick this book up expecting anything that resembled the old Infinity Inc., then don't bother. It only deals with the new Infinity there biological and mental problems after the fallout of Luthor's Everyman Project. The Everyman Project was a genetic experiment that gave everyone super powers that laid dormant within themselves, but Luthor put an on off switch in everyone and then killed a bunch of them because he was mad. I'll be unable to tell you what happens in issue two because I won't be buying it, in fact the art alone was enough to make me not want to buy it ever again. This definitely gets the Quick Pick: Save Your Money choice of the week.Well it wasn't really a good week for Quick Hits, but then they can't all be winners right? As always their will be more next week and hopefully the new books won't let me and everyone else reading them down like they did this week. Thanks for reading! Read More......
Friday, September 7, 2007
Indie Friday - Weakerthans, Bat For Lashes and The Consumer Goods
Welcome back for another Indie Friday, this week I'm taking not one, but three CD's head on. There's no time to waste since your attention span only last 3 minutes max. Let's go!
Up first is The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour. The title of this CD is ironic since the band had broken up at one time, at least that's what I had heard. So I was very excited about a new CD from the group, and boy was I happy after listening all the way through the CD. They had managed to keep their same style that made me like them initially, but grow just enough to where it didn't feel like I just getting a Weakerthans CD for the sake of getting it. They've made some good steps towards become a great band once again. If you haven't heard of or listened to a Weakerthans than allow me to lift the rock you've been living under and cast it aside. This is one of the premiere Indie bands ever and with tracks like Virtue the Cat explains her Departure and Sun in an empty room, they show that they really are well put together band that knows it's stuff. I enjoyed Virtue the Cat the most because once again the song writer took the perspective of a cat, and frankly that's just damn creative. They did this once before on Reconstruction Site but the two songs only similarity is the Cat factor. All in all this CD is a good listen from start to finish, and times in at about a half an hour. I was able to listen to it almost twice on my way to work. If you've never listened to the Weakerthans before, then this is a good CD to start with.
Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold. I first heard this band on Indie 103's Big Sonic Heaven with Darren Revell. Initially I was blown away with the CD, but then I let it sit for a few weeks and listened to it again and found it to be a very different beast. There we're still several songs that I enjoyed but now I found that I was skipping just about every third song to find a better one. Also her voice and style is very familiar, like I had heard someone else singing the same way but doing it better but for the life of me I couldn't remember again! I did enjoy the CD but I don't think it'll become a staple in my collection but I would give Bat for Lashes another listen to if they put out another CD.
Lastly we have The Consumer Goods - Happy Bidet. I had never heard of this band before and basically got it out of sheer curiosity. I wish I could say that I was pleasantly surprised in a good way from this CD, but it was more surprising to listen to such a weirdly put together CD. Perhaps another listening is needed, but I felt that half the songs were just nice pleasant, good songs, and the others were Political songs that felt forced and offered no new incite to American politics. One song ask if Donald Rumsfeld needed a hug and if Dick Cheney's dad had called talked down to him and they wondered if they could ever give them enough love, and how sorry they were. This isn't a joke, no ones laughing, the chorus doesn't become humorous and funny, they are actually singing about this subject. They mean it in an almost mean way. Still I laughed because I really just couldn't take a song like that serious. Then the next song is all melodic and has a nice tempo and is pretty up beat, I found myself kinda lost in the music... then another political song. I won't say that the CD is bad, because it's not. The music is quite good, the singing is good, I'm just not sold on the content of the lyrics. It also amused me to learn that they were Canadian from the bands Myspace page (since they were a pain to track down through Google). I know this Administration sucks and that more than likely the next won't be much better, hell I've written about it myself! But Canadians singing about how our government sucks is just kinda ridiculous to me, it's like Celebrities getting involved in stopping the war. The bands Myspace page also offers four songs to download or listen to... I kinda wish I knew that before hand. I will say this... the name is very catchy!
The BOYS - Ten
I've caught up with the BOYS since my review of the trade paper back, and now the latest issue has come out. It concludes the latest storyline mocking Batman and Nightwing and dealing with the gay community and the perspectives that people have towards gay characters in comics. Since it's the conclusion I'm not really going to give you to many details about the actual book but I will tell you about the storyline. Basically The Legend (mock up of Stan Lee) asks Butcher to find out who killed a young gay man who had been seen last with Swingwing a costumed superhero. Swingwing = Nightwing just in case you couldn't figure that one out yourself. Well after going down several wrong paths Hughie ends up steering the team in the right direction and solves the case. I can't say that the storyline was fantastic, but it was still rather good. It seemed as if Ennis was just using it to as kind of a breather from the beginning and to get himself use to the characters again. But I have to say this issue felt really rushed and with both the writing and art.
Not only were Hughie and Butcher the only characters seen, outside of two panels with Mother's Milk, but they just seemed out of character the whole time. It was like Ennis had a good idea and probably could have done more with it at Wildstorm, but now he has to worry about DC suing him so he's pulling back and not giving us the good stuff. As for the art Robertson was very loose on his details and Dynamite doesn't seem to have the inkers to clean up the book and keep the feel the first six issues had. There were also a couple of bad proportions on Butcher, but in general the two men really changed a lot from page to page which distracted from the story and really was just a let down. I understand the Dynamite wants to pump a lot of books out and on time but never surrender quality over quantity you'll lose out every time. Dynamite needs to understand that they're dealing with super stars now, this book has the potential to be huge but it needs to be treated right. Get a better inker and a more consistent colorist for starters that's just good business for you're biggest book out right now. Second let them go at their own pace,
Ennis is a machine and there's never going to be any worries of him running out of ideas to play with and map out, but artist need time to make the book look right and Robertson's relatively new to star-dome so he needs to be put in the right environment to continue producing at the level he was when the book first came out. I'm really hoping Dynamite doesn't screw this book up or I'll be forced only to read the Trades, well my friends Trades at the very most.
I have to say Ennis did a good job of bring to light, how most Comic Companies deal with the Gay community and makes a lot of valid points using Hughie as his voice but next time I hope Ennis won't forget that he still has an accent when he's mad. Next month starts a new storyline and hopefully a turn for the better, the teams going to Russia and I swear Ennis just loves Russia, he seems to take everyone there on their four or fifth story arc, but whatever the man's untouchable right now. Here's some pages but be warned I think they spoil the ending!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Comic Book Day - Incredible Hulk 110
We're coming at you with a second helping of Comic Book Day reviews and yes it's another Marvel book because I haven't reviewed anything Marvel for a while and I just got caught up on my Incredible Hulk/World War Hulk reading. For starters I don't think this issue should have come out before WWH #4, but it did so oh well. Also WWH really hasn't been that cool as of late because so many books aren't dealing with it (Like Spider-Man, the X-Men in their own titles, etc.) so it doesn't feel like it's really happening.
This issue takes the oppurtunity to remind us yet again that Tony, Reed, Strange and Bolt rocket the Hulk into space and inadvertently killed the Hulk's planet, wife and unborn child. Frankly speaking if they remind me of this one more time it's really going to make me not care about the event which would suck because it was a good storyline and a touching Hulk moment. After all what was the prologue for it not to tell us what they keep reminding us of. At any rate Amadeus Cho has infiltrated Madison Square Garden which has been turned into a Gladiator Arena. After a feel misunderstandings Cho presents an idea to the Hulk, he's apparently stolen 1.2 Billion dollars from Archangel (Who I don't think is that rich and if he is that would still hurt him bad!) and bought the original testing site that made the Hulk and a bunch of land around it. With his device anything that's not Gamma made, like the Hulk, would go numb upon entering the field and anything electronic would shut down upon entering the field. So no one could bother the Hulk or bomb the Hulk.
Except that's not what the Hulk wants. Cho then goes on to tell the Hulk he's not a killer and goes through his past and debunks everyones beliefs on who he's actually killed and what not. The body count is surprisingly low in Cho's favor (who's arguing the Hulk isn't a killer to the Hulk who's arguing that he is a killer). Cho drops a bombshell on us though... the Hulk sees in numbers like he does. Meaning he can see all the risks of his every move, and where civilians are and how to destroy tanks and helicopters without killing anyone. It really rings true, even throughout WWH he still hasn't killed anyone. Hulk still tells him to eat shit and Scorpion blasts him with a new concoction that messes with him bad, and while he's down for the count Amadeus tells the Hulk that every thing, is his own fault and that he is a monster. It's pretty a great line, and Cho uses it to push the Hulk in to a fury of rage. The Hulk's response of course is to smash, and he buries Cho alive but uninjured as we find out when he's freed by Herc.
There's a lot of good stuff happening in this book, even if Amadeus Cho has taken over the title for the most part. I just wish the Hulk wasn't a broken record in each issue and it always kinda seems like something has to attack him in each issue of WWH and IH. I'm still looking forward to the ending of WWH and seeing the new ramifications it has on the Marvel U, but I don't think this is a storyline is one for the history books.
Preview pages enjoy!
Comic Book Day - Amazing Spider-Man - One More Day
The One More Day storyline starts here, and boy is it pretty disappointing. I've been a fan of J. Micheal Straczynski's Spider-Man since his first issue with the great J. Scott Campbell covers. There has not been a single issue that I have not enjoyed and I really think that people will one day see how important his writing was to the character and over looked story lines like Sins Past will be acknowledged as the great stories they are. One More Day is suppose to reinvent the wheel for Spider-Man... which doesn't make any sense. After all he's broke because Marvel made him that way, with the decisions they've made with his character over the last year.
With issue 543, Peter Parker became a criminal. Not just an un-registered hero, but an actual law breaking hero all in the name of Aunt May. I wasn't too impressed with the last issue, but this issue definitely let me down. I'm really having a hard time with Peter's motivation for not letting Aunt May die, or why he hasn't turned himself in so that the government can start footing the bill. In this issue the new doctor at the new hospital apparently owes Spider-Man a favor because he saved his uncle's life, he also just so happens to be holding a copy of the newspaper that shows Peter revealing his identity. Thank God for convenient story telling right? Also he finally squares off with Tony Stark and says pretty much everything that's already been said between both books and the Avengers and whatever else had either of them thrown into it. So after Peter is unable to convince Tony to foot the bill, Tony sends Jarvis to pay for everything. I'm also having a hard time with Mary Jane's character as of late. She's gone all 50's Housewife all the sudden. In the last two issues its been, "Yes Dear", "No Dear", "Be careful Peter", and "You know I love you right?" Seriously she's tolerating a lot of shit from Pete and isn't saying anything when he's being completly dumb and make rash decisions.
Quesada's art wasn't what I was expecting. Peter looked like he had to take a shit the whole time and he was constantly running and look like a total baby. It was like Quesada had read an issue of Spawn and decided he really liked the style and was going to imitate it. There's a point when you start adding to much detail to things, that it makes them look ugly, and in Peter's case he stopped looking like Peter. Also I don't really think Quesada knew what to do for Peter's eyes since he almost never shows them, which starts to throw his perspectives out of whack and you kinda start to wonder why you're looking up the Doctor's nose and at Peter's head the whole time. I will say that one the last page Peter finally gets into costume and it looks pretty bad ass, and it was about time since he didn't wear the costume at all in the last issue and he's be sporting the black outfit which no one could draw for shit. I can't say that I'm really looking forward to the next issue, and hope that One More Day doesn't ruin one of the best characters in comics. If he and Mary Jane break up, or they start the book over I'll stop reading this book because nothing will be able to justify that happening. I believe the next issue comes out in another two weeks, so we'll have to see if it starts to live up to all the hype. Right now it's looking to be my least favorite Straczynski story line yet. Check out some preview pages and see for yourself.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Balls of Fury - The 90's called...
I had high hopes for this movie, after watching the trailer several months ago it really became a movie I was looking forward to, that I actually would go and sit down at a theater and be giddy at the start of the movie... unfortunately that excitement was quickly let down. Balls of Fury could easily have been made in the late 90's, with it's comedic pacing and cookie cutter action comedy formula. Dan Fogler gives a great performance and really could have been funnier if the script had allowed it. Maggie Q is just eye candy, not that she isn't appreciated eye candy, but I know she can do better then a B grade comedy that only asked her to play towards racial stereotypes and kiss a fat dude. Christopher Walken is Christopher Walken and does a great job of making you laugh at the ridiculous things he says. George Lopez... well, he was in the movie that's for sure.
The gist of the movie is the Randy Daytona (Fogler) was a child prodigy when it came to Table Tennis. He goes all the way to the 88 Olympics and loses, also he spouts some ridiculous line about Disneyland and is mocked too many time through out the movie about it. His dad is killed having put a beat on Randy, to win. Now Randy does Ping Pong tricks at a dinner theater. Lopez recruits Randy in order to infiltrate Feng's underground Ping Pong tournament. Lopez is apparently a long shot at capturing Feng, and is bored with his job not being more like James Bond... or Scarface. Randy must train to get back what he lost and so he begins training with Maggie Wong... played by Maggie Q... damn they didn't even try! Maggie's blind grandfather Master Wong (James Hong) is the head master giving guidance on Randy's road to being great again.
Probably the funniest part for me was when Randy is offered a sex slave, and he feels he can't turn it down, only it turns out all the sex slaves are muscular men. Randy's ends up with Oswald from the Drew Carrey show (Diedrich Bader) and he really steals whatever scene he's in. Really there were only a couple times that I really remember laughing out loud and I can't even think of what they were now. The problem with the movie is that theres not enough Ping Pong, and not enough Comedy. Not to many jokes weren't on the trailer, and the Ping Pong was boring and short. Also the movie got really rushed at the end, it's possible that they ran out of money and had to make due with what they had left to work with OR the script wasn't that good. Either way there was a lot of explosions and bad fight scenes that really weren't needed. It was a good first outing for everyone involved and maybe if the same team came together to make something else I would check it out, but I'd say the rush and excitement wouldn't be there again. Like I said this style of humor was most commonly found in the mid to late nineties and so that at least makes it a little fun to watch.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Worth Every Penny?
Something I've wanted to do for a while now is an article that asks which book of the week did I want my money back after reading. Unfortunately I'm still so behind on my reading that it makes it hard to do that. Instead I've decided to pit two relatively new books together and see which one was actually Worth Every Penny. Today it just so happens to be DC Comics Countdown to Adventure, and Aspen's Iron and the Maiden.
First of all there was no adventure in this book so I don't know why it's called that. In fact this is a cheap cash in on the space characters from 52, and they thought, "Oh hell just throw our new character Forerunner in the mix as well." Not only did the writer not have any sense for who these characters are, but he seemed to not know what to do with them either. I didn't get the point of anyones story. Buddy's wife thinks he's in love with Starfire, his son snapped at him when he yelled at him for taking a picture of Starfire sleeping seductively. Adam Strange is retired by an Ultimate Fighting Champion. Really everyones just hanging out in this book, while the writer tries to figure out what made them interesting in 52. Forerunner's story was okay but not great. Monarch starts off saying, "We've got a few minutes and just so happen to be looking at our Army while hanging out all cutiesy on this cliff, why don't you hurry up and tell me about yourself." No he doesn't say that, but yes that's basically what he saying. How forced of an opening do you need? Really the story could have just been told to us the reader, buy Monarch had to drop the bomb shell on Forerunner and tell her she's the last of her kind and that the Monitors killed the rest of her people. I don't know what DC's obsession with everyone being the last of their kind is. First Superman, then Martian Manhunter, then Lobo, now Forerunner. With the exception of the latter two, they always have someone else show up so it's pretty worthless to say they're the last of their kind. I'm sure some other Forerunner will show up some day and blah blah blah will happen.
Don't be fooled by the cover art, Joe Mad didn't draw this issue. I have to wonder though, if he's been giving classes because the inside art screams of his style. Really this book belongs in the 90's and hell maybe that's why it'll work. Micheal Iron works for the mob, he's an enforcer and all that mob stuff. He busts up a church in the beginning and it's pretty boring, then he gets sent with 2 other guys to get some money from a family. One of the guys (Who likes purple) begins shooting up the family. Iron's tries to stop him, some how he gets his arm blown off and is left for dead. The wife has a doctor magically show up and requests that the doctor save him as well. I have three problems with this book. One, the story was boring and typical. Two, they use the over-used Syndicate BS for the mobsters and the over-used Order for the Church, please think of something that I haven't heard in every mob inspired comic and movie in the last 10 years. I thought I was watching Payback with Mel Gibson all the sudden. Three, it felt like there was panels missing. I was reading and then I'd turn the page and something completly different was happening, I kept turning back and forth wondering what the hell happened. The art's there but the story has a long way to go before it's A interesting or B original.
Since the point of this is to decide which is actually worth every penny, I'm going to base it mostly off the art. Adventure's art was actually really good, so it was disappointing that the story was so bad. Same thing with Iron's art, really good but the story wasn't there. I'm going to have to go with Iron and the Maiden, because the art was 90's good and I'd like to give it another issue before casting it aside. As for Adventure, I will not be counting down any further with it.
Winner: Aspen's Iron and the Maiden