DC Nations Shorts - Is Green Arrow Cool?

As much as I've detested the latest batch of DC Animated's feature films, I've really enjoyed the DC Nation shorts that have aired on Cartoon Network (or more accurately, YouTube).  The 75th Anniversary Batman 'toons are flat out incredible, while the Animal Man & Shazam bits have been just big buckets of win.  Their latest subject appears to be Green Arrow.  Sigh.  DC Comics has been trying real damn hard to make Oliver Queen a top tier character of late.  They brought on Jeff Lemire to script the issues (he just left, but I can honestly say that for the first time ever, Lemire made Green Arrow a regular monthly for me), and the WB's constant assault of magazine man-ads for Arrow are lifelessly off-putting.  Folks tell me that show's decent these days, but I just have a hard time buying into the trick arrow guy.  Yet, on the Marvel side, I regularly enjoy Hawkeye's appearances in Secret Avengers, Deadpool, and his own monthly.  What's the deal?  I think it has something to do with sense of humor.  The coolest & most serious version of Green Arrow for me happened when he popped up in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns; when he helped Old Man Wayne kick Superman's ass.  Old.  Cranky.  One-armed tough dude.  But I've been meaning to finally crack into Neal Adams & Denny O'Neal's Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic.  So maybe now's the time.  Guess all the publicity is working.









--Brad

New Release Tuesday!!! (10/8/13)

This is an exciting week of electric releases.  You have potentially the greatest incarnation of Batman outside of a comic book, plus Criterion's Spooky October series begins, a mustachioed Lee Marvin, and the Seed of Chucky has spawned a reboot.  You won't go broke this week, but you'll spend some serious time streaming some rentals.

MUST BUY DVD OF THE WEEK!

Batman - The Dark Knight Returns Deluxe Edition:  Best Buy has had this on their shelves for a couple of weeks now, and I've already watched it twice.  Just a damn good movie.  For decades comic book nerds have said that Frank Miller's Batman opus could not be replicated on the big screen...and they were half right, as Hollywood couldn't make it happen, but DC Entertainment's animated devision sure as hell could.  They've put out some iffy stuff in the past (Batman/Superman Apocalypse yeash) and some brilliant stuff as well (Justice League - The New Frontier), but I'm ready to claim the complete cut of The Dark Knight Returns as their masterpiece.  Peter Weller is Batman.  He's been out of the scene for over a decade, and Gotham City seems to have become an even crappier crap hole than before.  A roving gang of Mutants rules the night while the billionaire playboy tries to recapture the thrill of death on the race track.  Come on Bats, what were you thinking?  There is no end to Batman.  And that's what this film explores exceptionally.  Those looking for a straightforward narrative might find the four chapter screenplay a bit sluggish, but that's a small quibble when you're given so much Bat gold...or grit.  And if you're frothing at the mouth at the very idea of Zach Snyder's Batman vs Superman than you'll want to check out the climactic Kryptonian beatdown seen here at its brutal best.

BUY!

I Married A Witch:  Having just spent a month obsessing over The Criterion Collection, I'm pretty much committed to purchasing every single release.  The first of their October Halloween releases, I Married A Witch is apparently a comic tale in which Veronica Lake's Salem Sorceress sets her sultry sights on Fredric March's Richie Rich - hijinks ensue.  I'm a little more excited for the Eyes Without A Face & The Uninvited releases later this month, but my collection could certainly use more Veronica Lake.

Shout At The Devil:  This is not a great movie.  It's barely a good one.  But Lee Marvin vs Roger Moore set against the backdrop of World War I Africa?  You gotta see it just for the Lee Marvin handlebar mustache alone.  And there is a pretty rocking fist fight between Moore & Marvin planted at the center of the movie.  I can't really recommend this for the average movie goer, but if yer a Marvin maniac like myself than you have to have this Shout Factory blu ray.  Still, why they hell are Point Blank and Prime Cut not available in high definition!?!?!?  It's insane to me that Shout At The Devil gets there before those obvious classics.

RENT!

Much Ado About Nothing:  Sure, Joss Whedon's Shakespeare adaptation is fun enough.  What I really like is the notion that Whedon gathered up his friends and filmed this during a Christmas break from The Avengers.  Watching it through that lens will allow you to forgive some of its saccharine twee.  Much Ado About Nothing has never been one of my favorite plays (I'm a tragedy/history man myself), but if you're feeling particularly gormless or romantic than it will certainly hit the spot.

After Earth:  Not nearly as bad as some would have you believe, and nowhere near the worst monstrosity ever perpetrated by one time wunderkind M Night Shyamalan (uh, let's try not to remember The Last Airbender, The Happening, Lady in the Water).  This is a fun little adventure film in which Will Smith & son are stranded on an apocalyptic earth, counting down the seconds until their tic tac air filters run out, or the Cloverfield limb monster swallows them whole.  Sure, little Will Smith is not a particularly strong actor, and he's not given any help thanks to the awful hillbilly accent they saddled these future humans with or the countless CGI threats that are tossed his way.  He could have used a puppet or two to act against.  

Curse of Chucky:  I'm pretty darn excited for this Direct-to-DVD sequel or reboot or whatever.  Brad Dourif is still the voice of Chucky, so that's a win, and he's brought his daughter into the franchise as the distraught mother battling the demonic good guy doll from Toys R Us hell.  Don Mancini, the writer of the original film and the director Seed of Chucky, returns to helm what is hopefully a twisted tale of goofy horror.  What I don't want is a dour retread of the original.  Let's see some of those gross out gags made not-so-famous in the later films.

Corruption:  I've never seen this one, but I'm always down for some Peter Cushing.  Here, the man who held Darth Vader's leash, plays a mad doctor experimenting in diabolical skin grafts.  Sounds a lot like Eyes Without A Face to me, but again, who cares when it's Cushing on the prowl.  And in HD?  Sign me up.

AVOID!

The Hangover Part III:  I thought the first film had a few gutbusters.  I appreciated it's dark, mean-spirited humor as well as its willingness to jump into the absurd - Mike Tyson.  The second film was painfully horrendous in its shot-for-shot remake style approach.  Thankfully this third film is not nearly that bad, but it's really just not funny.  It tries to reach for an epic status, but nothing that occurs in the film matches the intensity of its poster marketing.  A couple chuckles but this frat party is over.

The Purge:  I really love the core concept of an America that has become so morally corrupt that one day a year citizens are given a Get Out Of Jail Card.  Burglary, Rape, Murder.  It's all good.  Unfortunately, this bitter pill of an idea is tossed away for a routine home invasion film in which Ethan Hawke & Lena Headey scream, cry, and panic as their children go down dark hallways they shouldn't.  Simply long, dull, and annoying.

--Brad

Brad's Week in Dork! (9/8/13-9/14/13)

Second week of September and my Criterion month is still going strong.  Granted, I didn't really delve deep into the foreign classics like my initial plan, but what do you expect when you start your dorkery with Michael Bay's The Rock.  I'm still flummoxed that such a seemingly mindless Blockbuster resides in The Criterion Collection, but I guess I see it as a lure to drag mainstream bros into the eclectic artistry of the auteur theory.  Heck, I know that's how I first found myself craving spine numbers.  The first Criterion I ever purchased was The Silence of the Lambs (Spine # 13), and from there I found John Woo's Hard Boiled (Spine # 9), Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (Spine # 37), and Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor (Spine # 19).  And Shock Corridor is the film responsible for my Criterion obsession.  Looking at this Top 250 Films list from Sight & Sound, I discovered that I still have a long journey ahead of me, but I am more determined than ever to fill those classic cinematic gaps.  If you have that same desire then Criterion is the place to be - just watch your addictive personality.

But let's not forget my fanboy origins.  My absolute favorite film of the week (not including Sweet Smell of Success, a Top 10er for me) was the recent Dark Knight Returns animated film.  After so much crying and whining from the comic book community, we finally have the film we've all wanted to see on the big screen and I'm not hearing enough love from the internet.  This is a masterpiece, and the most fun I've had watching an animated film in years.  Adult entertainment.  No kiddie stuff here.  This is the potential of the medium fully realized.  If you don't trust the blind buy than give it a Netflix.  You won't be sorry.  Parts 1 & 2 are widely available everywhere, but The Complete Cut can now be purchased exclusively in store at Best Buy.

The Rock (Criterion Spine # 108):  So much has changed since 1996.  Remember when the world was Nicholas Cage's oyster, after he jumped from his Oscar darling Leaving Las Vegas to this successful summer smash?  That one-two punch launched the man down a blockbuster gauntlet that would eventually implode with the equally powerful rope-a-dope combo of The Wicker Man & Ghost Rider.  Welcome to the land of Direct-To-DVD, Nic.  Sigh.  Michael Bay, the heir apparent of Tony Scott, reaches deep into his bag of tricks - we get gratuitous car chases, plenty of unnecessary patriotism, random wheelchairs, and heaps of oddball character quirks.  Cage's G-Man chemist not only obsesses over The Beatles, but kills lumbering thugs with the musical might of Elton John!  What the hell?  But it's kind of amazing.  The Rock is a bombastic weird mess of an actioner, but its wandering behemoth narrative doesn't feel as tired or as rote as it would become in the Transformers trilogy...or soon to be quadrilogy.

On The Waterfront (Criterion Spine # 647):  "Ain't nobody tough anymore."  I recognize that for many, On The Waterfront was the birth of a new era in performance, but Brando feels completely apart from the other actors in the film.  His punch drunk stoolie bumbles through the scene, fidgeting props, mumbling dialog, and generally steals the show from the others that dare occupy the frame.  Revolutionary?  Yeah, okay, maybe.  It's hard for me in 2013 to appreciate what was obviously a shock to the audience in 1954, but hindsight being what it is, On The Waterfront has an awkward show-off quality.  It's a film populated with classically earnest performances by Lee J Cobb, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, and Rod Steiger but there's a xonomorph hiding amongst them - Brando, God's Gift to Acting.

Secret Honor (Criterion Spine # 257):  But without Brando do we have this tyrannical terror of performance?  For 90 minutes, Phillip Baker Hall as Richard Milhous Nixon rants and raves to the walls of his study as he records his confessional memoir armed with a bottle of scotch and an automatic pistol.  It's a horror show.  Filmed over the course of seven days, and comprised mostly of Robert Altman's University of Michigan students, Secret Honor is an angry declaration against the 37th President that might attempt to highlight some humanity, but really just revels in Nixon's futile attempts to justify his actions.  And I'm 100% cool with that.  Seriously, who doesn't want to see this man put a gun to his head?  At the very least Phillip Baker Hall is easily the most entertaining on-screen Nixon; even confined to four walls, Hall races circles around other impersonators like Anthony Hopkins or Frank Langella.

Star Trek Into Darkness:  "I thought we were explorers?"  Sigh.  Man oh man, I really wish JJ Abrams listened to that painful bit of truth uttered by Scotty halfway through the film.  Of course, the Star Trek films haven't been about exploring since 1979, and look how popular that was?  As you may or may not have figured out by now, we ITMODers are none too happy with this latest Trek.  That being said, I bought the damn movie.  Yep, I'm one of those hypocritical blogger jerkwads that bitches & moans about a film, but still succumbs to the temptation of high definition.  Doesn't that mean that I like Into Darkness on some level?  Maybe.  But it's more indicative of my completist fanboy problem.  I own (and will own) every Star Trek film that has ever hit disc.  Heck, I have far worse Treks than Into Darkness - those being Generations & Nemesis.  So, my goal this week was to pick out all the little bits I actually enjoyed about Star Trek The Reboot Part II.  Uhurah's helmet kiss for Spock, The Nibiru sand drawing disolve, Kirk bedding two cat chicks, Pike chastising Kirk leading to another motivational barroom chat, those spherical ice cubes, Klingon helmets, Scotty's disco nightlife collar, Cumberbatch's crying, and the tumbling gravitational malfunction.  But those superficial "LIKES" are nothing when paired with the stupidity on display within the narrative.  Why does Admiral Marcus unfreeze Khan?  We're told for his savagery...uh okay, let me go get Napoleon to build me a Nuclear Warhead.  Nonsense.

Traffic (Criterion Spine # 151):  The one-two punch of Erin Brockovich & Traffic marks the end of Steven Soderbergh's first wave of filmmaking - goodbye Sex, Lies & Videotape, hello Ocean's 11.  The director graduates from slick indie crime dramas to this Oscar Bait cavalcade of Hollywood Smiles, with show-me filter fun and a serious after school message.  Drugs are bad, ok.  And the War on Drugs is a joke.  When I saw this in 2000, I was in love.  Cynicism + big top performances = college class catnip.  Benicio Del Toro & Don Cheadle are excellent as two cops on two sides of the border pointlessly battling with the cartels.  But Michael Douglas's junkie kids story is dull and annoying, and Catherine Zeta-Jones' mama kingpin routine a bore.  I love early Soderbergh (Sex, Limey, Out of Sight) and modern Soderbergh (Informant, Haywire, Side Effects), but the middle era (Traffic, Oceans, & The Good German) holds little interest these days.

Breaking Bad - Season 2:  As the fifth and final season bears down upon us, I find myself inundated at work with Breaking Bad enthusiasm.  I'm sick and tired of not being a part of the water cooler.  I meandered my way through the first season a while back, but didn't experience the MUST SEE TV effect that others seem to have fallen into.  Watching the second season, I can't say that I'm in love in the same fashion as The Wire or even Justified, but by the last episode I was certainly hooked.  BOOM!  John De Lancie.  Yikes.  Walter White started this series as a family man struggling to provide before he shuffles off, and by the end of Season 2 we see a man doomed by his choices.  It's been impossible to avoid all the spoilers running free on Twitter & Facebook, so I have some idea what villainy the man will eventually achieve...it's kinda depressing.  Not a lot of people to root for in this show, maybe Hank, or the kid...maybe.

Sweet Smell of Success (Criterion Spine # 555):  "You're a liar, Sidney."  This is a mean movie.  And I love mean movies.  Tony Curtis is a weasel of a man, a press agent scamming his way through a slew of clients, desperate to land a juicy line in Burt Lancaster's prized gossip column.  Lancaster, the lord of the New York nightlife, reigns over politicians and cigarette girls alike and has no qualms bartering wordcount for sibling affection.  This demigod charges Tony Curtis with the task of manipulating a jazz musician out of the arms of his younger sister, a trail of bile and hate nearly topples the city...or at least it feels like it should.  Honestly, I cannot think of another movie in which people inject such heated venom into each other simply with words.  I'd take a crack on the head any day over one biting word from Lancaster.  And I'm no cookie filled with arsenic.

The Red Shoes (Criterion Spine # 44):  One year after they concocted their religious psychomelodrama Black Narcissus, Michael Powell & Emric Pressburger return with an even more punishing saga.  The Red Shoes follows the budding relationship between Moira Shearer's dancer and Marius Goring's composer; their romance could be grande if it didn't attract the jealousy of Anton Walbrook's despotic impresario.  I'm not sure how they do it, but as masters of manipulation Powell & Pressburger have crafted a nightmare around ballet that's as captivating and heart pounding as Lawrence of Arabia's war torn deserts or Ridley Scott's space trucking Alien.  Of course, you cannot dismiss Jack Cardiff's technicolor majesty or Robert Helpmann's choreography as their technical brilliance during The Red Shoes fantasy sequence alone makes this essential viewing for all film nuts.

The Small Press Expo 2013:  This was a great year for mini-comics.  Three of my friendly neighborhood comic shopketeers had tables with books as varied as Zodiac Starforce, Gang War, and The Secret Origin of John Elway.  Weird, wild stuff.  Alex Fine's Il Brutto chapbook was certainly a highlight with its Charles Bronson What Ifs, and Trevor Henderson's House print (see below) inspired the course of this Week in Dork.  But my absolute favorite was Thomas Scioli's trilogy of Satan's Soldier comics.  Imagine Superman as an agent of evil with a chubby brood of Super Babies to drown. Really horrible and demented irreverence that you will never see from the big two publishers.  That's the charm of basement pressed comics.

SPX certainly has its share of big names as well.  Jeff Smith brought in a large crowd of Boneville fanboys & girls of every age; it's so nice to see actual kids at a small press convention (Scholastic is doing its job).  Smith was also doing sketches inside of everyone's books, I was stoked to get that Rasl doodle.  He must have seen my giddy appreciation or I was just the lucky early bird in the line, because the cartoonist asked me if I could take his phone and snap some photos of the massive line wrapping the ballroom.  Of course I obliged!  I am happy to report that the man behind some of my all time favorite books (Bone, Rasl, Shazam) is a real sweetheart.  The other big line I braved was for Congressman John Lewis & Nate Powell.  Not a lot of chitchat there, but the Congressman granted a quick photo op, and it was a treat to meet a genuine historical figure.  Haven't cracked into March yet, but that's first up for next week.  Overall, this year's SPX was a smashing success and happily drained my wallet.

The Dark Knight Returns - The Complete Cut:  "I'm not finished yet."  Similar to my Watchmen experience, this cinematic adaption brought a new found appreciation for the source material.  Everyone in the comic book kingdom recognizes Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns as a masterpiece of sequential art, but since I entered the medium years after the initial release, I never quite saw the shine of its revered crown.  Is The Dark Knight Returns as good as Jeph Loeb's The Long Halloween or Grant Morrison's Batman Inc? Well, actually, after watching this DC Entertainment I'm pretty sure The Dark Knight Returns is the greatest Batman Story period.  I'll certainly need to revisit the graphic novel soon, but I am deeply in love with this interpretation.  Peter Weller's dogged and beaten dark knight detective is a savage warrior refusing to back into retirement even when good sense and big brother demand otherwise.  Forget fantasies of a cowled Clint Eastwood, Weller is The Dark Knight we've always wanted to see on screen.  The man carries so much regret and anger in his voice; it's impossible to think of anyone else uttering "This isn't a mudhole...it's an operating table.  And I'm the surgeon."  A ridiculous line of of 80s machismo that totally plays thanks to Weller's commitment.  The film contains the book's four act structure: Two-Face, Mutant Leader, Joker, Superman.  This sputtering screenplay might feel awkward to the uninitiated, but as the foils ratchet towards the Reagan Stooge showdown the narrative tightens around the viewer.  When Batman finally gets his hands around Superman's throat I felt a tremendous sense of triumph.  Screw that boy scout.  If Zach Snyder's Man of Steel sequel can only capture a tenth of that feeling then Batman vs Superman will be a rip roaring success.  And in the dark year that is 2013, The Dark Knight Returns is one of this year's very best films.

House (Criterion Spine # 539):  The punchy quote provided on the back of the box says "An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava."  Close but not quite right.  House certainly has a zany cartoon vibe and features whacky geysers of red reminiscent of various Italian splatter artists, but the hijinks are injected with that Japanese French New Wave obsession.  House rubs shoulders with Tokyo Drifter.  You know, plus school girl munching pianos, dancing chopped up corpses, and spectral blood vomiting kitty cats.  Brooding giallo?  No.  But it's certainly a genre mixing bowl that spawned Sam Raimi's Evil Dead and at least a thirty or forty of Takashi Miike's mondo movies.

--Brad

Matt’s Week in Dork! (9/8/13-9/14/13)

    Sunday took Chris, Dan, and myself back to Baltimore for the second, more mellow day of the Baltimore Comic-Con.  I got more chances to see things, and there was a lot more variety of cosplay.  A good day, all round.   Otherwise, the week was mostly filled with work and not fun/not Dork behavior.

Doctor Who: Ghost Light:  One of the better Sylvester McCoy stories, this is OK.  It’s a play on a lot of those old BBC costume dramas and adventure yarns, with dashes of ghost stories and Holmesian mystery.  Again, I can’t really sing its praises, but for McCoy’s run, it’s not bad.  Worth watching.  The end is pretty crazy.

The Violent Men:  Glenn Ford is a tough hombre.  He plays it cool until he can’t play anymore.  Then he devastates everyone who gets in his way.  This isn’t any kind of groundbreaking or special Western, but it’s quite good, and worth watching.

The Dark Knight Returns:  This animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s industry changing Batman comic is pretty good, but weighted down by source problems.  First off, Miller seems to have a real problem with women, and all the women in this movie are kind of awful (with the possible exception of the new Robin).  But it feels more consistent than the original.  It’s a pretty good story with some cool plays on classic DC universe ideas.  I’m just not in love with the whole thing.  This one is very, very much not for kids.

House:  Oh, Japan.  Less boring than a lot of Japanese horror films (especially of the 60s and 70s), House is about as jumbled and random as they come.  I found it hard to pay attention or care about what was happening, because little logic or reason can be applied to the plot or characters.  There are some good moments, and enough crazy that fans of weird cinema should enjoy seeing it once.  But this isn’t my cup of tea, that’s for sure.

    On Saturday, Brad and I headed up to Bethesda for SPX (the Small Press Expo).  This show has grown dramatically since I first attended five years ago.  Even with increasing the size of the actual venue, it was still quite crowded by so many comic fans.  And the diversity has increased, as well.  I noticed it wasn’t all just 20 to 40 year old, bearded white guys in flannel, with their tattooed girlfriends in boots.  There were more young people, more (a bit more) ethnic diversity, and more variety in the artists attending.  I felt a lot better about what I saw on the tables.  It just makes being poor that much rougher, as I couldn’t buy from half the people I wanted to.  Still, managed to get a few cool prints and mini-comics.  SPX is evolving, but feels like it’s keeping true to its more do-it-yourself vibe.  (Brad has a cool story, which I'll let him tell in his Week in Dork).

    Otherwise, I’ve started reading The Great and Secret Show from Clive Barker, which I’m really enjoying.  And I’ve been trying really, really hard to get some meaty writing done.  Sadly, most nights when I return home, I find myself staring at the wall, or zoning out with some music.  Writing has been tough.

-Matt

Brad's Week in Dork! (2/3/13-2/9/13)

I started this week out strong.  Finishing off the Shaft trilogy with its greatest entry, basking in the 80s nostalgia of Walter Hill's Bullet To The Head, and having my brain melted by the two part Dark Knight Returns animated movies.  Then the flu hit.  And I was done.  From the midweek point I was a sleepy wreck of a human.  My Blaxploitation marathon was put on hold, and all I could do was drift through a few episodes of Rome and pick at Richard Stark's The Black Ice Score.  But the beast didn't stay with me long, and I was back to my usual dorky activities before the week was over.  Thank goodness.  I'm done with that nonsense for 2013.

Shaft in Africa:  "Cat named Shaft ain't gonna be bad with a stick."  For some indiscernible reason, the tribes of Africa travel to New York to recruit P.I. John Shaft in their war against the white slave trade.  After being drugged, tortured, and sexually teased by an African princess, Shaft agrees to travel to the dark continent and go deep cover as a champion stick fighter.  This film is beautifully bonkers, and it's everything this franchise never should have become, but somehow the once-upon-a-time NYC Street Soldier turned International Man of Mystery completely works.

Bullet to the Head:  Don't fool yourself.  The 80s are dead.  Walter Hill might be the director on this picture, but this is not the same man who helmed 48 Hours or Red Heat.  He's doing what he can, there is a taste of former glory - And that's enough.  Stallone is a brick.  And he can act where Arnie most certainly struggles.  I love watching him wield axes and punch knives through skulls.  The problem is Sung Kang's goodie two-shoes detective.  He never gets down in the muck with Stallone.  He whines and shirks at the violence.  For this film to truly take hold of its 80s Action Pride, Kang needed to match badass with badass and, unfortunately, he shrugs more often than pulling the trigger.  He's more sidekick than partner and the result is an unnecessary presence.  Still, there is that Walter Hill flavor.  Stallone is a killer.  No shine.  I certainly appreciate that.

Batman - The Dark Knight Returns Parts 1 & 2:  "Gotham City Belongs To The Mutants!!!"  These two animated films represent a geek miracle as equally significant to last year's blockbustering Avengers.  Frank Miller's revolutionary classic always seemed like an impossible adaptation - from it's abrasive politics to its downright cheerful brutality.  What producer in his right mind would touch it with a ten foot pole?  And what studio would allow it the light of day without some serious fine tuning?  Well, in a post Christopher Nolan world, Warner Brothers knows they have nothing to loose and Bruce Timm finally gets his chance to preach the graphic novel gospel.  The first film is fun enough.  Peter Weller's old man Wayne is a beast of character, having stewed in rage for ten years, his Batman returns to the deathwish streets of Gotham with a new thirst for bone breaking justice.  He finds a new Robin, takes on a mentally crippled Two-Face, and goes twelve rounds with The Mutant Leader.  But it's the second film where geeks around the world will loose their collective shit.  In part 2, we get Michael Emmerson's kill crazy Joker & the Tunnel of Love slaughterhouse.  As the Clown Prince of Crime blasts one innocent bystander after the next and thrusts his blade over & over into The Dark Knight's stomach, your mouth will be dropped.  You have never seen a Joker like this.  And you've never seen Batman's anger so perfectly detailed in a wad of spit.  Then you have Ronald Reagan's Superman.  What a tool.  His final (and I mean FINAL) confrontation with Batman is the most epic brawl we've seen in superhero cinema.  I love Nolan's Dark Knight films, but these two animated outings are perfect.  Sure, I miss the noirish machismo of Frank Miller's narration but after a few minutes you'll get over the loss.  The Dark Knight Returns is essential Bat-Viewing and I can't understand why the internet has not exploded with the proper praise.

Black Samson:  "There goes a righteous dude.  He keeps all the honky mother fuckers off the street."  Yep, there is not a more earnest hero in all of blaxploitation.  Rockne Tarkington is a man of many dashikis - he's a lion tamer, a street fighter, and a responsible owner of a respectable topless bar.  When the mob saturates his neighborhood in smack, Black Samson unites the community against the white faced devils and the resulting block war is a fist pumping crowd pleaser.  William Smith as the vein popping racist henchman is utterly fantastic in his depravity, and he makes the perfect foil for Tarkington's impassioned crusader.  It's savage villainy versus calm & cool kendo artistry.  Black Samson is simply a good night out at the movies.

Alex Cross:  I find the popularity of Tyler Perry to be absolutely perplexing.  I don't get the Madea films, and I certainly don't understand his appeal as a leading actor.  As Alex Cross, the all knowing and irritatingly pompous Detroit detective, Tyler Perry is a stern faced block of wood.  If Rockne Tarkington is the ultimate example of impassioned earnestness than Perry is on the opposite end of the righteousness spectrum.  Frowny faces and dead eyes do not make a badass.  Not to mention that the narrative is all over the place.  In one frame a character can be completely out of his mind with rage and in the very next frame he can be totally serene.  It feels like three separate scripts edited together.  Sure, Matthew Fox seems to be having fun as the serial killing cage fighter cum wannabe artist, but the rest of the film doesn't know when to just accept its b movie status.  I can't remember if this film was successful or not, but we gotta put a stop to this franchise immediately.  Morgan Freeman couldn't make it work so please don't bother.

The Black Ice Score by Richard Stark:  After suffering the banality of the Jason Statham film I found myself drawn back into the violent world of Parker.  Written six years after the original novel, this is the eleventh book in the series and yes, Parker has softened a little.  He's got a woman.  He's got something to loose.  When political thugs from the African nation of Dhaba contact Parker for a job, he takes the heist not for the money but cuz his lady might find it noble.  That sounds more damaging to the Parker character than it actually is, Donald Westlake makes the scenario work within Parker's ideology, but The Black Ice Score does feel lightyears away from books like The Hunter or even The Jugger.  Not a highlight in the series, but it got my juices flowing again and I'm already on to the next book.

The Invisible War:  Still working my way through the Oscar nominated docs and this film gave me a powerful wallop.  Filmmakers Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering interview dozens of men & women who were raped while serving in the military.  Their accounts are so prevalent and horrifying that it is hard for my brain to even wrap itself around the tragedy, of both the violent acts as well as the military's seemingly blind eye towards them.  I'm still processing the stories - the resulting anger, pain, frustration, and the expanse of the crimes.   It seems so unbelievable.  But I don't necessarily doubt it...it's just so messed up.  I don't know...the film hurt to watch.  Just damn sad.

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine Season 7:  We finally did it!  The Wife & I worked our way through DS9 and when we past through the other side of the wormhole, the little lady was a true believer in The Emissary.  And with good reason.  This is the single greatest season of Star Trek.  With an endate in place, the Next Generation off the air, and Voyager stumbling around the Delta quadrant, Deep Space Nine had full rein of The Federation toybox and the producers of the show took full advantage.  While Captain Benjamin Sisko recovers from the murder of Jadzia Dax, the villain Gul Dukat finds his own religion in the flames of the pah wraiths.  The Dominion War consumes the season but their seemingly unstoppable evil shows signs of weakness as The Founders fall victim to the cold war tactics of Section 9, the Federation's black ops devision fronted by the delightfully arrogant William Sadler.   The last several seasons have been plagued with seriousness, but like all Star Trek, the writers still find time to be playful - but it actually succeeds in DS9 with its Romulan Baseball and James Darran's swinging Vic Fontaine.  Season 7 of Deep Space Nine really does feel like the beginning of Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica, and it teases the mind for the possibilities of a modern day Star Trek show.  Where No Man Has Gone Before?  How 'bout long arcing narrative storytelling.  Make it so.

--Brad