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Red 3 (February 2004)
Seriously, someone read Red and wanted to option it for a movie? I just finished reading it and I want to burn the memory from my mind. Ellis gives the comic some big Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ending like anyone cares. I’d forgotten how much I loathe this hipster comic books. This issue… 📖
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Red 2 (October 2003)
Did Ellis really spend an entire issue on quickly killing four assassins and a couple conversations? Now I remember why I avoid most of Ellis’s work–his pacing is absolutely atrocious. He has an idea here with Red–what if the CIA reactivated their best assassin and he came after them. But Ellis doesn’t have any more… 📖
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Red 1 (September 2003)
I’m curious what Warren Ellis’s script for this issue looks like… it must be really short. Maybe he draws on the pages, thumbnails, sketches, something. Because he can’t be writing much on them. This issue has almost no dialogue after the first five or six pages. So it’s all up to Cully Hammer and he… 📖
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Detective Comics 505 (August 1981)
Dan Adkins’s inks are a mess here. Because of them, there’s barely one good panel of Don Newton drawing Batman versus a werewolf. The story’s something of a surprise–with Conway concentrating solely on Batman; I assumed the issue, since Conway did Werewolf by Night, would be Batman meets Jack Russell, but it’s anything but. Since… 📖
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Soldier Zero (2010) #1
You know, I liked it. I dislike gimmicks as a principle, but Boom! allowed advance reviews of Soldier Zero so I figured they must think it’ll get good ones. You don’t see a lot of advance comic reviews from any superhero publisher. It succeeds because of Paul Cornell, near as I can tell, and because… 📖
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Orc Stain (2010) #4
Stokoe’s colors might be my favorite thing about Orc Stain. I can’t decide. This issue is so incredibly luscious with the colors–One-Eye runs into a swamp witch who gets ends up getting into this poison battle with his pursuers. The colors in this battle are just amazing–Stokoe utilizes color in a popular comic in a… 📖
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Soldier Zero 1 (October 2010)
You know, I liked it. I dislike gimmicks as a principle, but Boom! allowed advance reviews of Soldier Zero so I figured they must think it’ll get good ones. You don’t see a lot of advance comic reviews from any superhero publisher. It succeeds because of Paul Cornell, near as I can tell, and because… 📖
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Orc Stain (2010) #3
Wow, seeing Stokoe do an all action issue is something else. I can’t really think of a more successful such issue (I usually use “all action” as a pejorative), but this one succeeds because of the art. There’s a lot of story inventiveness too–I love how Stokoe makes the orcs and their world really disgusting,… 📖
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Orc Stain 4 (July 2010)
Stokoe’s colors might be my favorite thing about Orc Stain. I can’t decide. This issue is so incredibly luscious with the colors–One-Eye runs into a swamp witch who gets ends up getting into this poison battle with his pursuers. The colors in this battle are just amazing–Stokoe utilizes color in a popular comic in a… 📖
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Orc Stain 3 (May 2010)
Wow, seeing Stokoe do an all action issue is something else. I can’t really think of a more successful such issue (I usually use “all action” as a pejorative), but this one succeeds because of the art. There’s a lot of story inventiveness too–I love how Stokoe makes the orcs and their world really disgusting,… 📖
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Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987, Sidney J. Furie)
Roughly a third of Superman IV is missing, so it’s a little difficult to really form an opinion of the filmmakers’ intentions. I mean, it was an anti-nuclear proliferation movie… which suggests they were well-intentioned, but it’s impossible to know what they were trying to do with it as a film. For instance, it doesn’t… 📖
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El Mariachi (1992, Robert Rodriguez)
I’m having a hard time reconciling the Robert Rodriguez who made El Mariachi with the Robert Rodriguez who made anything after it. Obviously, some of the filmmaking choices are due to the low budget, but the film’s frantic style–something owed far new to early Sam Raimi than John Woo–creates a hyper-reality. It, and some of… 📖
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Criminal (2006) #10
Now I remember this story arc and why I didn’t have any bad memories of it–because it’s great. What Brubaker does in this arc is take a character who’d be on the periphery of another story–a bigger story–and examine him. Tracy’s a tough guy who’d be in one scene of a more traditional noir story… 📖
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The Hole (2009, Joe Dante)
The Hole is, I believe, intended to be a family-friendly (I can’t believe PG-13 movies are now supposed to be family-friendly) horror film directed by Joe Dante. As opposed to Dante directing a family-friendly horror film. It’s Joe Dante doing work for hire, something I’m not really familiar with him doing often. Dante’s direction here… 📖
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Criminal 10 (October 2007)
Now I remember this story arc and why I didn’t have any bad memories of it–because it’s great. What Brubaker does in this arc is take a character who’d be on the periphery of another story–a bigger story–and examine him. Tracy’s a tough guy who’d be in one scene of a more traditional noir story… 📖
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Criminal (2006) #9
It’s in film noir’s nature to have a double-cross, to have a secret inopportunely revealed and have it affect the protagonist’s plans, whether he be a good guy or a bad guy. So I’m not surprised Brubaker has both of those elements in this issue (maybe twice for each). But Criminal isn’t a film. It’s… 📖
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Criminal (2006) #8
In some ways, this issue is the first regular one of the arc. Brubaker’s not introducing anything startling, he’s just telling a story–he’s got enough established already he has material to work through. The result is a very nice issue. The only negative thing I can think of to say about it is Phillips’s one… 📖
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Criminal (2006) #7
Brubaker has a reasonably painless reference to the first arc here, letting that arc’s protagonist have a little cameo. Then people talk about him a bit. It’s problematic because Brubaker’s writing the character differently here, so it attracts more attention than it should. Otherwise, it’s all very solid, once again. I think my favorite part… 📖
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Criminal (2006) #6
Okay, I’m entering this arc of Criminal enthusiastic. Brubaker either grew up on a Navy base or an Army base–amazing how little biographical information is available about him, even though I know he’s talked about it in at least two interviews–and this arc’s protagonist is an AWOL soldier out to avenge his brother. I don’t… 📖
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Criminal 9 (September 2007)
It’s in film noir’s nature to have a double-cross, to have a secret inopportunely revealed and have it affect the protagonist’s plans, whether he be a good guy or a bad guy. So I’m not surprised Brubaker has both of those elements in this issue (maybe twice for each). But Criminal isn’t a film. It’s… 📖
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Criminal 8 (July 2007)
In some ways, this issue is the first regular one of the arc. Brubaker’s not introducing anything startling, he’s just telling a story–he’s got enough established already he has material to work through. The result is a very nice issue. The only negative thing I can think of to say about it is Phillips’s one… 📖
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Detective Comics (1937) #504
So the Joker breaks out of Arkham for no reason other than to create an elaborate room of deadly toys to kill Batman. It’s definitely insane, but also completely idiotic. This issue makes me wonder if there were (and are) editorial mandates for how often a villain has to appear. Maybe it had been a… 📖
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Criminal 7 (June 2007)
Brubaker has a reasonably painless reference to the first arc here, letting that arc’s protagonist have a little cameo. Then people talk about him a bit. It’s problematic because Brubaker’s writing the character differently here, so it attracts more attention than it should. Otherwise, it’s all very solid, once again. I think my favorite part… 📖
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Criminal 6 (May 2007)
Okay, I’m entering this arc of Criminal enthusiastic. Brubaker either grew up on a Navy base or an Army base–amazing how little biographical information is available about him, even though I know he’s talked about it in at least two interviews–and this arc’s protagonist is an AWOL soldier out to avenge his brother. I don’t… 📖
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Detective Comics 504 (July 1981)
So the Joker breaks out of Arkham for no reason other than to create an elaborate room of deadly toys to kill Batman. It’s definitely insane, but also completely idiotic. This issue makes me wonder if there were (and are) editorial mandates for how often a villain has to appear. Maybe it had been a… 📖
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The Wild Kingdom (2010)
I’ve read Huizenga before, but apparently having read his Ganges series does not prepare one for The Wild Kingdom. While Ganges–Huizenga’s everyman–appears, he pretty much shows up, goes to the post office and then goes home. His last appearance as the protagonist is maybe halfway through the book. Then Huizenga spends the rest of the… 📖
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The Wild Kingdom (2010)
I’ve read Huizenga before, but apparently having read his Ganges series does not prepare one for The Wild Kingdom. While Ganges–Huizenga’s everyman–appears, he pretty much shows up, goes to the post office and then goes home. His last appearance as the protagonist is maybe halfway through the book. Then Huizenga spends the rest of the… 📖
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Time Bomb (2010) #2
Unfortunately for the reader, Palmiotti and Gray do something incredibly strange here–they make the issue nearly unapproachable to someone who hasn’t just read the previous issue. I guess there are a couple paragraphs recapping the first issue, but who reads those? I certainly can’t be expecting to hunt it down on the back of the… 📖
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Time Bomb 2 (September 2010)
Unfortunately for the reader, Palmiotti and Gray do something incredibly strange here–they make the issue nearly unapproachable to someone who hasn’t just read the previous issue. I guess there are a couple paragraphs recapping the first issue, but who reads those? I certainly can’t be expecting to hunt it down on the back of the… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin (2009) #6
So after making everyone wait for months, DC put out this piece of crap? I mean, it’s not terrible, but it’s garbage. Frank’s artwork is visibly hurried, with Superman looking different in every other panel and the Christopher Reeve likeness looking traced when he uses it here. Lois looks funny, more of the hurrying. As… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin (2009) #5
Ok, so Johns finally did something completely unexpected. He made Superman the Hulk. General Sam Lane–I think that’s Lois’s father’s name anyway–is a psycho warmonger who tries to kill Superman. Funny how John Byrne is known for Superman and the Hulk and Johns is playing with both here. There’s some decent character scenes, not as… 📖
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Superman III (1983, Richard Lester)
Superman III–deservedly–gets a lot of flak, but it’s actually the most faithful to the comics in a lot of ways. It plays out like a late sixties, early seventies Superman comic–“The Man Who Killed Superman,” turning out to be a bumbling, generally well-meaning guy like Richard Pryor, or “Superman Versus the Ultimate Computer.” Superman III… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin 6 (October 2010)
So after making everyone wait for months, DC put out this piece of crap? I mean, it’s not terrible, but it’s garbage. Frank’s artwork is visibly hurried, with Superman looking different in every other panel and the Christopher Reeve likeness looking traced when he uses it here. Lois looks funny, more of the hurrying. As… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin 5 (May 2010)
Ok, so Johns finally did something completely unexpected. He made Superman the Hulk. General Sam Lane–I think that’s Lois’s father’s name anyway–is a psycho warmonger who tries to kill Superman. Funny how John Byrne is known for Superman and the Hulk and Johns is playing with both here. There’s some decent character scenes, not as… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin (2009) #4
Maybe I’ve surrendered. Johns doesn’t introduce anything new to the canon this issue, instead he just does a sequel to the previous issue. The Gary Frank Parasite is hideously wonderful too. But back to Johns. He does a decent job this issue. Sure, he’s set up a disastrously bad idea, but once he’s writing in… 📖
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Superman: Secret Origin 4 (March 2010)
Maybe I’ve surrendered. Johns doesn’t introduce anything new to the canon this issue, instead he just does a sequel to the previous issue. The Gary Frank Parasite is hideously wonderful too. But back to Johns. He does a decent job this issue. Sure, he’s set up a disastrously bad idea, but once he’s writing in… 📖
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The Brothers McMullen (1995, Edward Burns)
The Brothers McMullen is filled with moments of brilliant filmmaking. More than enough. It just doesn’t finish off on one of them. The film needs to go out as strongly as it starts and it comes up short. Burns’s filmmaking is organic (undoubtedly a result of a long filming and imaginative editing) and the ending… 📖
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Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, John Sturges)
My reaction to Bad Day at Black Rock is a guarded one. It runs eighty-one minutes and is frequently long when it should be short and short when it should be long. The conclusion, for instance, is something of a misfire. Ironically, after abandoning him for fifteen minutes near the beginning, the film sticks with… 📖
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In the Heat of the Night (1967, Norman Jewison)
Sidney Poitier is the big (Northern) city Black detective, Rod Steiger is the Mississippi redneck sheriff, can they work together to solve a murder? One hopes so. Excellent direction from Jewison, excellent performances from Poitier and Steiger (Steiger even gets too much to do considering it’s Poitier’s movie), meandering Stirling Silliphant script (from the John… 📖
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Manhattan Tower (1932, Frank R. Strayer)
Manhattan Tower opens with the Empire State Building and closes with it. I’m not entirely sure they ever call it by name in the film but it’s not supposed to be “real,” I don’t think. Tower‘s Empire State is a world onto itself, so much so, it’s a shock people leave it to go home… 📖
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Superman (1978, Richard Donner), the director's cut
If watching Richard Donner’s director’s cuts have taught me one thing, it’s Donner probably shouldn’t have final cut. His director’s cut of Lethal Weapon, for example, is atrocious. He adds about nine minutes to Superman and, much like Coppola’s revision of Apocalypse Now, it’s a testament to the original film it can weather the additions.… 📖