Category: 2005
-
Every once and a while I wonder if I’m too liberal in my use of the term “bridging issue” to quickly describe how a writer uses an issue to set up the second half or next part of an arc. Then I’ll read a comic like Punisher MAX #21 and it’s exactly what I’m talking…
-
It’s the Nicky Cavella origin story, complete with his original crew (from the first Punisher MAX arc) appearing again in fun little cameos. Well, as fun as a Punisher MAX cameo is going to get. Because Nicky Cavella has a very rough origin story. He’s the psychopath born to the family of sociopaths who don’t…
-
Terribly acted–a combination of the script, the direction, and (mostly) the actors–post-apocalyptic zombie picture from Romero. Lacks any personality (probably because Romero had to shoot it in Toronto instead of DEAD central (Romero’s native Pittsburgh). Simon Baker’s a really, really, really bad lead. Eugene Clark’s awesome as the lead zombie (they get smarter in this…
-
The issue opens with Nicky Cavella, returning from the first story arc—it’s hard to believe Up is Down and Black is White is only the fourth arc in Punisher MAX—at the Castle family headstone. He’s digging up the bodies, talking to a henchman with a camcorder. Whatever he’s got planned, it’s not 1) going to…
-
It’s a perfect comic. There’s no big Punisher action, no rampant gun porn, just high levels of espionage action as Frank figures out how they’re going to escape the missile silo as he delivers on his threat to fire nukes on Moscow. Meanwhile the Russian general’s reaction scene is another beauty of an Ennis moment—the…
-
And here’s the issue where Ennis goes for the heartstrings. Frank’s got to save the little girl, which ends up being a fantastic sequence. The issue opens with the hijacked airliner getting shot down; the response to it, both from the Russian general and Fury, are the B plot for the issue. Frank’s got other…
-
Just over halfway through the arc and Ennis does a bridging issue. It’s an all-action bridging issue, but a bridging issue. We find out exactly what the U.S.-funded terrorists on the plane are going to do, we find out what the Russian general’s little henchman is capable of doing, we get some groundwork on Vanheim’s…
-
The first page of the issue introduces the latest cast addition—six-year old Galina Stenkov. She’s in a nuclear missile silo with mean doctors trying to get her blood out so they can have the super-weapon. And then in walks Frank. Ennis interrupts their introduction with a one page check-in to the U.S. generals. They’ve had…
-
There’s so much Frank narration this issue. So much. It’s wonderful. Ennis is able to use the narration for some exposition, some texture, some humor. Not a lot of humor. He’s got Nick Fury around for humor. Frank’s narration humor is dryer; though maybe not more cynical than Fury’s. It’s hard to be more cynical…
-
Right away there’s something different about this issue; from page one. Penciller Dougie Braithwaite. Braithwaite is thrilled to be doing Punisher, you can tell from the detail—I still want to know what’s on the counter next to Frank in the opening scene, presumably a menu but who knows—and he works his ass off on it.…
-
Like most media with a Frank Miller credit on it, Frank Miller’s Robocop does not aged well. More accurately, as far as Robocop goes anyway, it doesn’t improve with age or maturity. It was always as bad as it is now, every reading another bloody stab at nostalgia. Frank Miller’s Robocop is an adaptation of…
-
I want to say nice things about The Descent. Or, more… I wish I could say nice things about The Descent. There are some nice things to say about it–the production values are strong, Marshall’s composition is decent, Sam McCurdy’s photography is good. It’s rarely boring–though it does drag a little. Tedious without being boring.…
-
In Rupert Wainwright’s shockingly inept remake, The Fog doesn’t blow, it sucks. Sorry, couldn’t resist. But The Fog is awful. It’s almost interestingly awful, as Cooper Layne’s screenplay mimics just about every popular mainstream horror movie made in the previous two decades. Since director Wainwright is terrible and not paying attention to the constant ripping…
-
Doom may very well be the worst inoffensive film I’ve ever seen. Director Bartkowiak and his crew redefine ineptness in production values. No one does a good job, everyone does something benignly terrible, whether it’s photographer Tony Pierce-Roberts’s blue hue for everything or composer Clint Mansell’s inability to create tension. It’s all bad. Bartkowiak has…
-
Breakfast on Pluto starts with talking robins. They’re subtitled, but talking. Robins can talk–or these two robins can talk (they show up from time to time), in which case they just live a long time. Before the talking robins, who director Jordan uses to keep the viewer off balance, the film opens with Cillian Murphy’s…
-
Maybe “Global Frequency” would work if it weren't so obvious in its attempts to be endearing. John Rogers's script tries to establish character chemistry in the pilot without giving it a chance to actually grow on its own. For example, good-looking alpha male lead Josh Hopkins teases good-looking demure scientist female lead Jenni Baird and…
-
And The Maze Agency is back again, with Mike W. Barr still writing, of course, but with a fresh new look. Ariel Padilla and Ernest Jocson update the protagonists for the oughts and, wow, are they bland. Padilla tries straight good girl with Jennifer and it doesn’t work. As for Gabe… he looks more like…
-
If there’s anything more horrific than Will Ferrell trying to be a straightedge romantic leading man, Bewitched makes one forget about it. Director Ephron is either completely blind to the complete misfire she’s directing or she just didn’t care. Seeing as she and sister Delia Ephron wrote the script, one has to suspect she actually…
-
Karyn Kusama can’t direct action, which hurts Aeon Flux a little bit, but she also can’t keep up the pace of her film. It should be a literal roller coaster–there’s some establishing material, which is nonsense, then the film drops Charlize Theron (as the titular character) in a mission. The mission runs the length of…
-
Usually when I say Korean films effortlessly mix genre, I mean it in a good way. It’s still impressive in Murder, Take One; director Jang definitely makes the final ingredient a surprise, but it’s a questionable choice…. The majority of the film—albeit on a reduced budget—is successful. It’s a police procedural with one caveat, the…
-
Historical fact, or even the attempt at paying lip service to it, is so inconvenient. If there’s a better example than The New World, I’m not familiar with it. Malick struggles to make it all fit together and he can’t quite make it sync. He has to move from Colin Farrell being the protagonist to…
-
Does the BBC have to dedicate a certain amount of time to socially conscious programming because it’s partially government funded? I’m not asking that question as a swipe at Beaten, which is an hour-long special about spousal abuse… but it sort of feels like it was made to fulfill a requirement. The plot’s creative, but…
-
The art problems continue. It appears even when he’s just doing finishes, Sienkiewicz didn’t really want to take the time on the series. This issue improves the series overall, even if Morgan is sort of racing around. There doesn’t seem to be a story so much as clean-up from the last series. Natasha is trying…
-
It’s Sienkiewicz over Phillips so you’d think the art would be good… You’d think. Instead, it’s a bad combination. Sienkiewicz is too contained in the layouts, Phillips is too broad because he knows there are going to be finishes. There’s no magic here. Morgan starts this issue a week after the last series ends. It’s…
-
Danny the Dog is better than it should be–it’s not as good as it could have been, but it’s definitely better than it should be. The film finally gives Jet Li an appropriate English language role. Here, he can turn in a decent performance while doing his physical stuff. Li’s very likable (maybe because he’s…
-
Well, there’s the finish. Morgan leaves it unsatisfactory—some of it—on purpose, but I wonder if he also needed a little more space. The issue ends with a tag announcing the sequel series, almost as though they knew they needed to promise more story…. There’s a somewhat lengthy fight scene this issue. It’s got some good…
-
Wow, what a downer. Morgan gives the issue, for its soft cliffhanger, an extremely depressing turn of events. Not the one I was worried about, but one I dislike maybe even worse. It comes after the big revelation issue. I mean, there’s some bridging stuff at the beginning, but most of the issue is spent…
-
So, for the first issue of the second half, Morgan’s changing it up again. He’s got Natasha in Russia, where she uncovers her past. It’s not the past she thought—I’m not even sure if it’s in continuity anymore—and the way Morgan does it makes the entire series feel like the first Black Widow comic ever.…
-
Morgan quickly makes up for any deficiencies in the last issue. It’s almost like he realized it, because this issue establishes Black Widow as being about gender issues. It turns out the bad guys are this freaky pharmaceutical company (probably using mutant gene in their face cream) and Natasha finding out about it. Along the…
-
All the Warner Bros. Batman films have, for the most part anyway, avoided the Adam West TV series. So thank goodness for Robin’s Big Date, which doesn’t just embrace the show, but forces it into “reality.” The big draw of Big Date is Sam Rockwell playing Batman. Sorry, The Bat-Man. He and Justin Long–as Robin–are…
The Stop Button 