New Release Tuesday!!! (4/23/13)

I'm still giddy over last week's Django Unchained release, and I'm not quite done with the multiple exclusives I ridiculously purchased.  And I haven't even cracked open my Criterion Repo Man!  So, it's just a-okay, that this week offers very little in the way of Must-Buys.  We can use a break until the Summer starts cranking out the essential purchases.  However, there are still a couple of gems to take a look at this week.  A look into the Black & White past is your best bet, the newer releases are just fine but not necessarily demanded by your DVD shelf.

BUY!

Champion:  I'm a sucker for a good boxing movie.  And I'm as equally a sucker for these Olive Film blu ray releases.  China Gate, Johnny Guitar, Ramrod.  Classics & not-so-classics have never looked better.  I cannot attest to the genius of this film but Kirk Douglas bashing it out with various dopes in the ring while fending off the whims of Marilyn Maxwell - sounds like a good enough time to me.  The problem will come in how does one consume this picture?  The On Demand options aren't there yet, nor the Netflix route.  If you wanna see it you might find it on some Internet backchannels, but since I don't do that kinda thing, looks like I'm stuck with the Buy route.  See my future Weeks in Dork for the inevitable opinion.

RENT!

Gangster Squad:  All the way up to its release I had high hopes for Gangster Squad.  I love the period.  I loved Josh Brolin, the law enforcer.  I loved Ryan Gosling's squeaky voice.  And I loved Sean Penn's big block Dick Tracy head.  But the film never gels.  It's....ok.  The film starts off as Sin City mean, but loses its way with Emma Stone's moll, and Josh Brolin is never as beastily as he should be.  Not to mention, the digital photography looks like genuine ass.  Sure, you could do worse (see The Black Dahlia), but you're better off with flicks like LA Confidential and even Mulholland Falls.

Jurassic Park 3D:  Just weeks after the theatrical release, Jurassic Park hits your 3D tvs and maybe you care and maybe you don't.  My television is of the lowly 2D variety, so there is no sense in me picking up this disc.  However, I really enjoyed seeing Steven Speilberg's dino romp on the big screen despite its awkward barrage of floating lens flares, and I can see the appeal of darting from T-Rex's on the couch.  One of these days I'll make the plunge and Jurassic Park 3D will probably be one of my first purchases.

The Impossible:  No film made me cry harder last year than The Impossible.  An absolutely punishing film that grabs at all the right heartstrings.  It's not the type of movie that you watch over and over again, so I see no point to adding it to the collection.  But if you haven't seen it and you're in the mood for a good, life-affirming cry than pop it on your queue.  Not to mention it contains some of the best gore makeup I've seen in recent years.  Lots of hanging flesh bits.  Sounds fun, right?

Richard III:  This is one of my favorite works of Shakespeare, but I have never seen the Laurence Olivier version.  Ian McKellen has always been my favorite psycho king.  Now we get a fancy new blu ray upgrade from Criterion and purply new cover.  No more excuses, gotta check it out.  However, I don't like the new purply cover.  I like the Kingdom for a Horse and the mustard yellow background of the original disc.

--Brad

Brad's Week in Dork! (9/9/12-9/15/12)

Ok.  This was a weird week coming off the Baltimore Comic Con.  I got home late on Sunday, popped in the latest season of Fringe, and didn't stop watching that show until it was done.  No comic book reading.  No movies.  Just Fringe.  22 episodes in four and a half days.  Utter madness.  That being said, I'm now convinced that Fringe is the best science-fiction show that has ever graced the boob tube.  So once I devoured the season I was free to consume other bits of Dorkery.  I read quite a few single issue comics, one graphic novel, and watched only one movie.  I haven't watched only one movie since the first week of the year when Justified, Next Gen, & Mildred Pierce took over my life.  That saddens me.  But with Resident Evil 5 & the Indiana Jones box set out this week, my next Week in Dork is going to be loaded.

TV OF THE WEEK!

Fringe Season 4:  As much as I've obsessed over shows like Battlestar Galactica or LOST, it's Fringe that rises above all other modern science-fiction shows.  What started off as an X-Filesish procedural soon transformed into epic storyarc television involving monstrosities and alternate universes.  Fringe has proven again and again that it can take sci-fi cliches like Star Trek's Mirror Universe and the X-Men's Days of Future Past and do them with the emotional wallop of Oscar Bait drama.  John Noble as Walter Bishop is one of TV's great characters. He's a goof, a nut, a madman, a monster and I've never cared for a fictional character quite the same way.  That might sound like hyperbole (and you're probably right), but as the fourth season progresses and Josh Jackson's Peter reintegrates more and more into his life I found myself choked with emotion.  I love Walter.  I pity him, but I love him.  He's the great villain of this show, the horror these characters go through week in and week out is all his damn fault and in the real world we would hate him.  But Fringe shows us why we should care.  So as much as this program is about porcupine beasties and temporal outbreaks, the reason Fringe ranks above all others is that it makes you love it's super villain turned super hero, Walter Bishop.  And Josh Jackson?!?  If you had told me ten years ago that I'd be a fan, I would have called you certifiably insane.  But dammit, his Peter is a serious badass.  And, just like Noble, he sells the sadness of his character--the man out of his timeline having to deal with the people he loves who do not love him back.  If you're not watching Fringe you better get hot.

MOVIE OF THE WEEK!

Down With Love:  A too cute parody of 60s coupling comedies; maybe if I was familiar with the genre than I would A) Love It or B) Hate It but as is I really just like Ewan McGregor's smile and Renee Zellweger tries real hard to match his ease with the charm. Fun, slight, disposable. Matt eats up this nostalgia porn, but this era works best for me when its unmasked and raw rather than layered with wink-wink window dressing.

COMICS OF THE WEEK!

Ultimate Spider-Man #14:  Yep.  This is what I've been waiting for.  Miles Morales interacting with the family of Peter Parker.  Bendis is telling us that this is not a reboot.  The adventures of Peter Parker mattered and they will continue to matter.  The world is going to hell in the Ultimate Universe, but Captain America still has time to lecture Miles on why he cannot be Spider-Man.  I might love the 616 version of Cap, but the Ultimate Steve Rogers is a real asshole.  And I love how Gwen Stacy & Aunty May refuse to take this pretentious know-it-all and encourage Mile to go out there and prove it to this Red, White, & Blue G-Man.  Frankly, my only problem with this series is that it comes out only once a month.  Writer Faster Bendis!

Hawkeye #2:  Huh.  I'm still shocked that I'm enjoying a Hawkeye comic.  Who'd a thunk it.  But Matt Fraction proves that he can take any lameass character and make you care about him.  The second issue is less of a one-and-done like the first, laying the groundwork for a possible confrontation with the big bad bald Kingpin.  And Kate Bishop makes an appearance.  That's cool.  Glad to see that the Young Avengers is not being treated as it's own self-contained universe.

JLA by Grant Morrison Volume 1:  The only trade I've completed from my Baltimore Comic Con haul.  This is fairly early Grant Morrison stuff.  Not quite the mad genius we know today.  JLA is still very much a 90s DC Comic with goofy plots involving a White Martian secret invasion, the war in Heaven, and an epic battle with The Key!  You may ask, who is The Key?  I still don't really understand that weirdo.  But I dug how he entered the dreams of the JLA and posited a version of the DCU where Kal-El of Krypton received the ring of Green Lantern Tomar-Re and the son of Bruce Wayne puts on Robin's tights for Dick Grayson's Batman.  None of this excites in the same fashion that later Morrison Super Hero comics do, but there are glimpses of originality and its enough to keep me going with his Justice League run.

The Rocketeer - Cargo of Doom #2:  The Madman's plan is finally revealed and it is crazy epic.  Mark Waid has concocted was of the most absurd master plans I've ever seen or read and even if I have a strong feeling this diabolically deed will never come to fruition in the book I really, really, really hope that it does.  I want to see The Rocketeer go up against this 9th Wonder of the World.

Stumptown #1:  Not much to say about this series yet.  I like Greg Rucka as a writer.  Queen & Country was always enjoyable, and I've dug his work on Marvel's The Punisher.  So the idea of him tackling the PI genre is certainly appealing.  The story starts off with a missing guitar, but I'm sure we'll be knee deep in noir murder soon enough.

Winter Soldier #10:  Said it last month and I'll say it again--I just want Brubaker outta Marvel.  His run on Winter Soldier just feels like he's riding out his contract.  The Black Widow is still on the loose and Wolverine & Hawkeye join Buck on his hunt.  Sure, why not.  But this is a weak, mediocre end to what I once thought was a phenomenal Captain America run.

The Creep #1:  This is not a first issue.  This really is issue #2 and if you did not pick up #0 than you will not understand what the heck is happening here.  That being said, I'm really enjoying John Arcudi & Jonathan Case's PI book.  The Rondo Hatton-like lead continues his investigation on the two teenage suicides and drinks a lot and sleeps with his hooker friend.  You can tell this is not going to be a "fun" book but I'm excited to see where it goes, what this first mystery will unveil, and how it will develop further into the series.  Plus, that Mike Mignola cover is much prettier than the previous Frank Miller grotesque.

X-O Manowar #4:  This series is coming into its own.  I'm less sad that we've left the Ancient History for modern warfare and alien government conspiracies.  Aric struggles with his new time zone but not too much thanks to the scientific wonders of his Manowar suit.  Good luck to modern man as he vaporizes their innards.

X-O Manowar #5:  Enter Ninjak!!!!  Oh no, what will Aric do!?!?  I've never understood the appeal of the purple ninja--seriously, what's the deal with his name?  So lame.  And I'm supposed to believe that this hooded loser can take down the mighty morphin badassery of the Manowar armor?  I don't think so.  But the real confrontation doesn't look to be happening till next issue and I hope Aric feeds this guy his own spine.

Batman #0:  Another Zero issue, another flashback.  This one goes back six years when Bruce Wayne is first trying out his hand at vigilantism.  Wayne infiltrates the Red Hood gang and there are strong implications that the New 52 is following the same Joker origin as the old DCU, but issue zero ends on a cliffhanger and a promise of continuation in 2013.  I'm looking forward to this month being over and leaving these flashbacks behind.  This was solid but I like my books to have forward momentum and I don't really care about DC padding out its continuity.

DORK FIELD TRIP OF THE WEEK!

The U.S.S. Corry 36th Annual Reunion:  On Saturday, The Wife & I sped on down to Virginia Beach for my grandfather's WWII reunion.  The USS Corry was the lead Destroyer during the Normandy invasion; it took a fatal blast to its engineering spaces and keel and eventually sank to the shallow ocean floor.  24 Sailors were lost and 60 wounded.  My grandfather was the Chief Machinist Mate on the Corry.  For the last 36 years the surviving sailors and their families have gathered to honor the friends they lost on June 6th, 1944.  As time passes there are fewer and fewer sailors in attendance, and this year there were only four including my grandfather.  It's a solemn event, but one I find essential to attend.

This year, besides the candle lighting ceremony and dinner, we all attended the Oceana Air Show as well.  We sat in the bleachers for eight hours watching F4s, F18s, Helldivers, and the Blue Angels streak across the air.  Didn't bring my camera with me, but I managed to snap a few cool shots with my iPhone.

--Brad

Brad's Week in Dork! (12/11-12/17)

Well, last week I didn't spend a moment in the movie theater and this week you couldn't keep me away. Went down to my local art house theater on Sunday for Lars Von Trier's Melancholia and had a most miserable experience.  A bird got loose during the screening, they kicked us all out, eventually brought us back in, but outside the theater they were having an RC radio control car race and it was impossible not to hear the announcements while the film played.  That might have contributed to why I detested the film as much as I did.

On Tuesday, Matt & I trudged out to the Udvar Hazy Air & Space Museum for the IMAX screening of The Dark Knight Rises prologue.  That was a ridiculous experience that I would not have missed.  We got their an hour early and there were already 100 people in line waiting to get inside.  And then we waited, waited, waited for our 8 minutes...a wonderfully dorky outing.

And then Matt and I concluded our week on two nights of Double Features.  Friday = Sherlock 2 & Mission Impossible 4.  Saturday = A Dangerous Method & A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.

2011 is winding down.  Gotta get in as many of this year's movies we can so we can put together an appropriate Best Of list.  I just love this time of the year, marathoning Holiday films.


MOVIES OF THE WEEK!

Melancholia:  As the In Living Color Men on Film duo might have said..."Hated It!" Lars von Trier shows off his visual flair once again, but this story of impending apocalyptic destruction set against the irritatingly mentally ill Kirsten Dunst's wedding managed to aggravate rather than thrill, evoke, or whatever the creator's intention. I hated Kirsten Dunst in this film. She gives a strong performance, but its a character that is unbearably mopey or whiney simply because she's nuts--how in the world did she get to this Wedding Day in the first place? What does or did Alexander Skarsgard see in this woman? She appears to have been genetically doomed from the beginning with two whackjob parents in John Hurt and Charlotte Rampling, two actors I adore but seem wasted here.  As time trudged on I wished for a quicker Earthly devastation to free us from this pointless "life is evil" nonsense.

Zodiac:  Excellent police procedural surrounding the decades long investigation into the Zodiac murders that plagued San Fransisco. David Fincher's clinical direction reaches its apex with this gem, and the three leads (Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal) are in top form as the obsessed citizens haunted by the slayings. The film is a wondrous technical exercise with some of the best CGI blending I've seen, but the real star of the picture is the mystery...or the investigative process. It's impossible to not get wrapped up in the question and I dare you to not start Googleing the case after the credits roll.

Sherlock Holmes:  Fantastic! Guy Ritchie manages to coat Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective with his unmistakable chop-shop style and still contain the essence of Holmes' devious debunker. It's not the revisionist blasphemy some feared (for that check out Basil Rathbone's Nazi Fighting Holmes). And I love how this seems to complete Robert Downey Jr's rapscallion trilogy that started with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man; films I'd love to watch back to back to back. Jude Law finally kicks butt in film again as Dr. John Watson, the put-upon but loyal sidekick who's very much the military asskicker he should be rather than the bumbling buffoon the black & whites plastered on him. Mark Strong is a bit obvious as the villainous Lord Blackwood, but at least we have the true villainy of puppet master Professor Moriarty waiting in the shadows.

Batman Begins:  Finally, a Batman movie about The Batman. It's not about kooky 60s cool or Tim Burton's gothiness or Jack Nicholson's stratospheric acting abilities or...gulp..."Batnipples. It's about The Man in the Cowl.  And I love how the theme of fear is carried throughout the film. The Boy Who Falls, Ras Al Ghul, the Scarecrow. Bruce Wayne's psyche is fully probed. And all the actors are at the top of their game. I never would have thought Michael Cain would be my ultimate Alfred, but he is. And Gary Oldman is my Gordon. And Morgan Freeman is my Fox. This is my Batman movie. Hell, this is my comic book movie.

The Dark Knight:  I loved Batman Begins so much I could have been perfectly happy without a sequel, but for the most part this film delivers the goods. Heath Ledger's Joker is fantastic. I'd go with him anyday over whacko Jacko. I dig the exploration of the Gotham Mob and Eric Roberts is bloody devilishly pompous here. But my favorite character in the whole film is Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent. I love how he becomes the white knight in Bruce's mind, Gotham's hope for survival. And the fall, tragic. But this is where the film loses me for a bit. The Dent story wraps up too damn quickly, it should have carried over into the third film. And Bats is really secondary to Joker and Dent. Kinda like what happened to Brucey Boy in the last batch of Batfilms. And that's a bummer cuz the Bat focus is what made the first Nolan picture so amazing. Still, I like the dark place where the film concludes and I think there are some great possibilities for a third film.

The Dark Knight Rises Prologue:  The blink and you'll miss it 8 minute prologue is a fun enough introduction of new Bat villain badass Bane, played hulkingly by one-time Picard clone Tom Hardy. It's true, Warner Brothers will probably have to play around with the sound mix regarding his gaseous voice, but overall I liked the effect. As others on the Interwebs have described, the high flying action sequence felt very Roger Moore James Bond but not in a bad way. Christopher Nolan sure knows how to show off that IMAX camera of his.  And the sizzle reel snippits at the end give promise of some serious backbreaking trouble for Bats and July 2012 can't get here soon enough.

Beginners:  Ewan McGregor evolves into a mature relationship with Melanie Laurent after bearing witness to his father's coming out as a gay man. The basic idea of "It's Never To Late To Become Yourself" is punctuated with a surprisingly effective jumpy narrative, bouncing back and forth in time. Christopher Plummer is completely engaging and definitely deserves all the praise being bombarded his way, but it's Ewan McGregor who draws and eventually traps the viewer into the heart of the film. Melanie Laurent is sweet and complicated and of course, it was nice to see her play a character not so steeped in rage as she was in Inglourious Basterds.

Crazy Stupid Love:  Here's a shock: a straight up romantic comedy that's actually worth a damn! When was the last time you saw one of those? Hmmmmm....can't think. Julianne Moore asks Steve Carrell for a divorce sending him out the car door and into a mad, self-loathing decent of booze and bar drivel until Ryan Gosling's Cyrano routine transforms his style and substance. Carell and Gosling are a wonderful comic duo and even though I should hate Gosling for his ridiculously chiseled abs after this year of top performances I'm seriously considering buying The Notebook. God help me.

Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows:  As Jude Law's Dr. Watson gets closer to wedded bliss, Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes slips further off the deep end (the coca leaves help) while also finally battling wits with his arch-nemesis, Jared Harris' Professor Moriarty. A Game of Shadows is a rollicking follow up to the Guy Ritchie original ratcheting up the action set-pieces and introducing Stephen Fry's not-at-all shy Mycroft Holmes as well as Noomi Rapace's knife wielding gypsy. but if you were not a fan of that film than you most certainly won't enjoy the new one. I, however, enjoy the madness thoroughly and could easily see myself coming back every couple of years for further Holmes/Watson adventures. The rumor of a trip to America definitely gets me to smile.

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol:  Tom Cruise and his IMF team are once again disavowed (have they ever been vowed? MI:II? yeash, keep it dis') when they're accused of magnificently blowing up the Kremlin. As with all MI films, Ghost Protocol's director Brad Bird gives the film a look and feel completely separate from the rest in the franchise and some of his explosive setups (the prison riot, the Dubai sandstorm) are the best of the series. Jeremy Renner manages not to infuriate me for a change, but his character is far too meek/weak to be a replacement for Tom's constant runner. So glad to see Simon Pegg take a larger role, more of him please.

A Dangerous Method:  David Cronenberg's latest might fail to incite that visceral, primordial excitement the way his last two efforts (A History of Violence & Eastern Promises) achieved, but the performances from the three leads will carry you even when the plot does not. Michael Fassbender continues to reign over 2011 as the repressed and morrally disturbed Carl Jung, Keira Knightley delivers an aggressively twisted and chin jutting assault, and Viggo Mortensen is impossible not to love as the grumpy, cigar-is-never-just-a-cigar Freud. For all the crazy madhouse sexual mania occurring in the film you would have expected a film a little less dry from Cronenberg, but I'll take what I can get.

--Brad

Trailer & Poster: Jack The Giant Killer

The trailer and poster for Bryan Singer's remake of Jack The Giant Killer has been revealed and I am...not impressed.  Looks meh at best and bloody god awful at worst.  And that kid from X-Men First Class annoys the hell outta me for some reason.

--Brad