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The Ward (2010, John Carpenter)
The Ward takes place in an Oregon mental institution in the late 1960s and doesn’t have a single good Cuckoo’s Nest reference. I’m not sure one would have helped—writes Michael and Shawn Rasmussen are fairly tepid (they play toward director Carpenter’s eighties weaknesses in fact). Maybe if they’d modeled the film on Cuckoo’s Nest, things… 📖
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Chronicles of Wormwood (2007) #5
And here’s where Vertigo could have made more sensational news than in its entire history… Ennis’s God is a compulsive masturbator. I’d forgotten. Burrows really captures the full page reveal beautifully, as well as Jimmy’s reaction to it. There’s a bunch of great scenes this issue (as usual). Whether it’s Danny beating Judas to death… 📖
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Chronicles of Wormwood (2007) #4
Ennis is clearly gearing things up here for the finish, which is appropriate, I suppose, as he is in the second half of the series. The beginning is more of the boys in Hell on their road trip (Jay eventually gets sick) while Satan and Pope Jacko hang out and try to figure out how… 📖
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Chronicles of Wormwood (2007) #3
There’s a bunch of funny stuff this issue—the trip to Heaven has a great punchline—and Ennis gets in an unexpected Marvelman nod…. But for the first time, in his comic about the LAPD beating in half of Jesus’s head and the Anti-Christ being a pretty good guy all around, Ennis starts to get a little… 📖
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Chronicles of Wormwood (2007) #2
Ennis gets downright playful with the way he uses narrative in this issue. It’s a relatively simple move, but it focuses the reader on the page for a determined amount of time, regardless of how fast he or she usually reads. It’s a nice little trick. The issue opens with Danny bickering with his father—his… 📖
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Chronicles of Wormwood (2007) #1
Stop me if you’ve heard this one… Jesus and the Anti-Christ are sitting in a bar and…. And there’s the pitch for Chronicles of Wormwood. While Ennis does, on occasional, embrace his readers in terms of giving them something not just profound and good but also entertaining, Wormwood takes it to another level. It’s funny,… 📖
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Namora (2010) #1
Other Atlas members get limited series from Jeff Parker, but Namora just gets a one-shot. It’s not even Atlas branded, it’s “Women of Marvel” branded. It seems like a sexist move (I’m sure it’s just a business one—female characters don’t sell enough to have their own series at Marvel). It doesn’t help Parker doesn’t exactly… 📖
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The Package (1989, Andrew Davis)
If it weren’t for the cast and direction, I’m not sure how The Package would play. The combination of Gene Hackman and Andrew Davis makes the film, which has a bunch of problems, noteworthy. Davis gives the film enough grit and realism to make it seem wholly believable, just so long as one doesn’t think… 📖
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Red Herring (2009) #6
Well, Tischman proves me wrong and wraps everything up nicely. The issue ends with a beautiful page from Bond and Hahn—not extraordinary content, just extraordinary execution—and all is right. The characters each get their moment, though I suppose Tischman does have some major pacing issues. He inserts a year into the present action at the… 📖
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Red Herring (2009) #5
In an apparent attempt to spite my compliments, Tischman turns in his weakest script. It’s not bad, it’s just not as good as it should be. He finished the previous issue with an earth-shattering reveal… this issue he moves along as though it’s not important. So maybe it isn’t. But by making it unimportant, pretty… 📖
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Red Herring (2009) #4
Oh, look at Tischman go—he totally turns Red Herring on its head at the end of this issue. He might have turned it on its head a few pages earlier too, but it’s too soon to tell. This issue does make clear the situation with the aliens. He finally goes close third person with the… 📖
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Red Herring (2009) #3
Okay, Tischman’s starting to confuse me. The problem with Red Herring is the narration. It’s this close third person—with a bit of second mixed in—narration and it’s never clear who it’s talking about. The problem is clear this issue, as I have no idea if aliens are real or if they’re just a big business… 📖
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Factory Farmed (2008, Gareth Edwards)
Factory Farmed is a great example of how digital video has made it possible for anyone to put together something great looking without actually having the previously requisite levels of talent. It’s a harsh statement—and I actually would rather have made some comment about auteur Edwards assuming everyone cares about his silly sci-fi premise (it… 📖
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Red Herring (2009) #2
Okay, I forgot to mention the alien conspiracy thing. Tischman comes up with this great explanation for Area 51 and so on—well, it seems like he’s come up with one (he might have the little green men show up in the last issue anyway). The U.S. government is so stupid, they were duped by big… 📖
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Red Herring (2009) #1
It’s hard, from the first issue, to guess where David Tischmann is going with Red Herring. As it turns out—unexpectedly—it appears to be a comedic political thriller, something along the lines of a national Carl Hiaasen novel (instead of just Florida). Also of note is how little Tischmann seems to care about making the characters… 📖
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Nancy in Hell (2010) #4
For the last issue, Torres decides he needs a twist ending—no spoilers, but it’s the weakest of all possible twist endings. The ending I was hoping for, one setting up an awesome sequel, does not come to pass. Ryp returns for the final two page spread. It would have been nice to have him the… 📖
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The Fugitive (1993, Andrew Davis)
It’s been a while since I last saw The Fugitive. I remember it didn’t impress me much, particularly Andrew Davis’s direction. Needless to say, I was very wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated the film as much as I did this viewing. Davis’s direction is the finest action thriller direction I can recall. The… 📖
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Nancy in Hell (2010) #3
Nancy in Hell loses Juan Jose Ryp… and, really, it doesn’t make much difference. Oh, the art from Malaka Studio (no one is singled out) and Antonio Vasquez is fairly bad, but they follow Ryp’s initial ideas. Busty girl, big buff surfer dude, lots of gross stuff in Hell. In some ways, the art this… 📖
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N.Y., N.Y. (1957, Francis Thompson)
N.Y., N.Y. is, ostensibly, a day in the city. It opens in the early morning, features a man waking for work, movies through a series of daytime shots, finally finishing with shots of night in the city and nighttime activities. However, Thompson has no narrative. He uses special kaleidoscope lenses to shoot the city and… 📖
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Nancy in Hell (2010) #2
More than a third of this issue is a history of Lucifer in the Nancy in Hell universe. Torres raises some interesting points—Lucifer’s just a spoke in the wheel because he never had free will. It’s an interesting moment when he realizes no matter what he does, he can’t really make a decision for himself… 📖
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Presumed Innocent (1990, Alan J. Pakula)
I could, but will not, get into the idea Presumed Innocent is what studios were making as popular summer entertainment in the nineties. It’s simply to depressing to start that discussion. Instead, I’ll start with the film’s strengths. Even though the second half is very strong–how did Raul Julia not get nominated for this one… 📖
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Nancy in Hell (2010) #1
So is the title, Nancy in Hell, a reference to Nightmare on Elm Street? Torres opens with that the titular Nancy in the middle of a monologue comparing herself to an eighties horror movie star. Maybe I’m over thinking it. Because Nancy in Hell does not offer much in the way of story or inventiveness.… 📖
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Black Widow: Pale Little Spider (2002) #3
It’s a fast finish—maybe too fast—but Rucka’s pacing the series more and more like a TV show. The entire issue is the last few minutes of a longer episode, which probably frustrated when reading the series split over three months but not much in a shorter period. Unfortunately, from the first page, it’s clear Kordey… 📖
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Black Widow: Pale Little Spider (2002) #2
Rucka continues with less of a procedural, though that element is still present, and more of a… well, not character study but something close. Pale Little Spider is, for the majority of this issue, all about Yelena and her psychological problems. She’s not crazy or anything, but she’s disturbed and she discovers things about herself… 📖
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Black Widow: Pale Little Spider (2002) #1
Something tells me Marvel won’t be trading Pale Little Spider if Disney ever makes a Black Widow movie. Jaded as I am, I never thought it’d be an S&M-themed Black Widow comic, regardless of it released via MAX. What’s immediately striking about it is Greg Rucka’s writing. He’s doing a police procedural (in Russia). It… 📖
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Our Fighting Forces (2010) #1
You know, when I saw B. Clay Moore’s name on the cover, I was horrified at the thought of reading the issue. Then, as it turned out, Moore’s absolutely capable of writing a mediocre war comic. Chad Hardin and Wayne Faucher apparently aren’t capable of illustrating one, but Moore fills it with so much of… 📖
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Our Army at War (2010) #1
I would have expected Our Army at War a few years earlier. I had no idea the Obama administration was paying companies to create pro-war media. I thought only Bush did it. This issue proves me wrong. Well, that or DC’s just pro-war. It’s hard to say. Marts’s script juxtaposes a soldier in WWII with… 📖
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G.I. Combat (2010) #1
While I do love me some Phil Winslade, he doesn’t draw distinct enough faces for a war comic where the tank crews all wear around headgear. I mean, he’s got this scene where its two tank crews standing around and it’s absolutely impossible to tell who’s who. Even from the dialogue, it’s confusing…. Otherwise, it’s… 📖
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Weird War Tales (2010) #1
Weird War Tales features something I never wanted to see… weak Darwyn Cooke. His story is idiotic—famous war figures have a party—and his artwork is barely there. It’s a bunch of skeletons and stuff, so maybe it’s the subject, but it’s all so incredibly lame I couldn’t believe it was really Cooke. It’s not even… 📖
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The Phantom Stranger (1969) #14
I don’t think I’ve ever seen pre-eighties Jim Aparo before. It’s absolutely stunning. The tight faces are present, but there’s also a bunch of energy. I never would have thought he’d be a great Phantom Stranger—or any supernatural story—artist, but he excels. Len Wein comes up with two good stories for the issue, though the… 📖
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Doctor Strange: From the Marvel Vault (2011) #1
There’s nothing really wrong with this issue, it’s just off. The combination of Roger Stern’s pleasant, deferential style and Neil Vokes’s animated-style artwork makes it all…. It’s like they’re trying to sell Doctor Strange for kids. But for kids who can’t even handle mildly scary stuff. This issue is maybe the least scary haunted house… 📖
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Doctor Strange: The Oath (2006) #5
For the finale, Vaughan tries to bring back the charm of the early issues and sort of does. Not enough to really matter, but he’s referencing it. The last issue is more about Dr. Strange than anything else, with Vaughan looking at the relationship between medicine and magic. Given the villain, it makes for a… 📖
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Doctor Strange: The Oath (2006) #4
Vaughan gets back on track this issue (it probably should have been combined with the previous one, of course). There’s not as much palpable charm, but Vaughan makes up for it with the return of Strange’s overconfidence. It turns out—spoiler alert—the overconfidence is somewhat warranted (though Vaughan does play pretty loose with what Strange can… 📖
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Doctor Strange: The Oath (2006) #3
Vaughan is starting to lose a little of his steam. The majority of the action takes place resolving last issue’s cliffhanger. We learn the secret villain, after some red herrings—very short red herrings, almost like Vaughan only half-heartedly included them—and it’s not particularly exciting. It’ll probably be more exciting next issue but this one… is… 📖
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Doctor Strange: The Oath (2006) #2
Dr. Strange and friends head out to discover what’s going on—there’s really not much action, just going to the Bronx, then to a secret base. What Vaughan concentrates on (besides the humor) is the flashbacks to Strange’s past. Vaughan’s read on the character is a lovable jerk. Wong’s got to know he’s a prick, but… 📖
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The Pelican Brief (1993, Alan J. Pakula)
If you’re ever stuck watching The Pelican Brief, you can amuse yourself wondering if the film would be better had Pakula shot it 1.85 as opposed to Panavision. Pakula shoots it empty Panavision, the right and left sides of the frame empty for easier pan-and-scanning. It’s an inexplicable choice from Pakula, but not as inexplicable… 📖
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Doctor Strange: The Oath (2006) #1
One has to wonder… if everyone wrote Dr. Strange and Wong as well as Vaughan does here, wouldn’t Doctor Strange be the most popular book on the market? Instead of one without an ongoing, I mean. Vaughan comes up with a compelling story, sure, but the selling point is his dialogue and the character relationships.… 📖
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Buzzard (2010) #3
This issue reverses the usual trend. Oh, Billy the Kid is still pretty strong—Hotz’s artwork is magnificent—and Buzzard still has some rough, unfinished art from Powell, but the writing’s actually stronger on Buzzard here. Powell moves fast through the Buzzard story, only really pausing when it gets to the big showdown. But he turns around… 📖
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Buzzard (2010) #2
Oh, good grief, does the imagery have to be so gross? Powell gets through the Buzzard story with cannibalism (sort of dead), lots of dead and decapitated, but Hotz is able to out-gross him in just one panel in the Billy the Kid backup. Powell’s actually really lazy in the feature. I think only a… 📖
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Buzzard (2010) #1
I’d like to say Buzzard is bad, because so much of the issue is a waste of time, but I can’t make that statement. Oh, sure, most of the Buzzard story is a waste of time. It’s like Powell had a bunch of sketches he finished and tied them together with a loose narration—he skips… 📖
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Brink (2010, Shawn Christensen)
Brink is a mix of high and low concepts and almost unbearable pretension. It’s probably the most pretentious eight minutes I’ve seen on film, but since it only runs eight minutes… it’s tolerable. The short starts out with Justin Chatwin writing a love letter to Allison Huntington Chase. It’s absurd and written in big, unbelievably… 📖