Matt’s Week in Dork! (2/16/14-2/22/14)

    This ended up being something of a week of rest for me.  Following last week’s crap-ton of awesome crazy, I started this week with a very busy Sunday, preparing and then running my first major tabletop roleplaying session in a long, long time.  I’m always a ball of nerves when it comes to running games, and this was no exception.  In fact, that morning, I was sporting a raging headache and cloudy thinking that made me worry I was going to have to cancel.  Thankfully, it cleared up by around 2PM and the rest of the day and that evening went pretty well.  The next few days, I didn’t do much but zone out and try to sleep.  Reading, sure.  Though I’ve been having a hard time for a while (a few months, I think) with concentrating, thus I haven’t been reading as much as I should.   However, I did knock out a couple Lovecraft-ish tales.  His ‘revisions’ of Elizabeth Berkeley’s The Crawling Chaos and The Green Meadow.  Both stories remind me of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands stories, as well as some of the more flowery and weird writing of C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, and others.  And I read Hazel Heald’s Winged Death (also with revision from Lovecraft), which was OK.  It had some cool ideas, but it felt a little too much like a wannabe Poe story.  It also features some blatant racism, though from a character we know from the start is an evil bastard.  That was about all I could muster until Thursday morning (the start of a 4 day weekend), when I watched my first movie of the week.

     I was also surprised to find out this week that the HBO show True Detective is apparently dropping a lot of references to one of Lovecraft's inspirations, Robert W. Chambers and his King in Yellow.  This is pretty crazy to me, but pretty awesome.  It's especially weird, because one of the plots in the RPG I'm running (which the party hasn't stumbled upon yet), deals with the King.  Don't know if it will play out, and I don't think anyone in the group is watching the show yet, so it shouldn't be an issue.  It makes me want to watch the show even more, though.

Heroes Two:  Though a pretty good story, this film never reaches ‘classic’ level.  Much of the problem is in the fighting, which though copious, isn’t especially well choreographed.  It looks like they needed to do a few more run-throughs before filming.  That said, I do like the ending, and the weird MURDER VISION that kicks in whenever rebels get whacked in that last fight.  A fine, middle of the road, Shaw Bros. kung fu flick.

The Jazz Singer:  Elephant in the room, first.  Yeah, Al Jolson does blackface in this movie, and yeah, that’s really f’ed up.  I knew it would happen, but it was still horrifying when it finally did, and really sours the whole movie.  Now, it’s not done with the contemptuous maliciousness of Birth of a Nation, but that doesn’t make it OK.  It also  comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere.  Why is it even in the movie?  The only explanation I’ve got for that is it’s what Jolson was known for, so they worked it into the film.  There’s no plot reason it needs to be there.  And I can imagine someone who isn’t familiar with blackface being very confused by why he suddenly slathers on make-up to sing two songs, nobody seems to notice or comment on it, and there are no contextual clues for why it happens.  OK.  All that aside, I was mostly interested in the film because I knew it was a pioneering effort in the addition of sound to motion picture.  It isn’t a full fledged ‘talkie,’ though.  The musical numbers are synched, and occasionally also have synched dialog accompanying them.  However, the rest of the film is a standard silent film, with title cards.  The story, about a Jewish kid growing up in New York City, who dreams of being a jazz performer, is sweet and somewhat emotional.  Honestly, I was shocked at how openly Jewish the story was, too, as I’m a little more used to heavy Christian dominance in pre-60s films.  And in spite of the skin-crawling that accompanied the blackface scenes, the finale where he has to deal with his career or his parents had a lot of heart.  It is sad that, like Birth of a Nation, this momentous occasion in the history of film has to be tainted with some rather egregious racism, but unlike that Ku Klux Klan love letter, the Jazz Singer may be flawed, but does not feel like it comes from an evil place, only a misguided one.

    Thursday night, Ben and I went over to Cinema Arts to check out a special screening of Knights of Badassdom, a low budget comedy about live action role players.  I’d seen the trailer quite a while back, and according to the woman hosting the screening, it had been held up for a couple years due to some legal issues.  The showing was weird, because the audience was full of LARP people, which I did not expect.  I guess it was like seeing the premier of a comic movie at a comic convention.  I don’t think anyone was in costume, though some of the people look like their normal wardrobe is costume.  Still, other than a few people unable to keep their boisterous nerdiness in check, it was a pretty good crowd.  They laughed a lot more than I did, and I guess there must have been a lot of in-jokes I didn’t get.  As a long time tabletop gamer, I’ve been aware of live action gaming from pretty early on.  It’s a weird combination of D&D (ugh!) and Historic Reenacting.  What I was exposed to most was the Vampire LARP people, who tended to be representative of a lot of things I hated about the 90s, and so soured me on the hobby.  Is that unfair?  Perhaps.  But it’s what happened.

I wish I was born in the 17th Century!

Knights of Badassdom:  LARPing (live action role playing) has always been the fringe of the already fringe hobby of tabletop roleplaying games.  Though on more than one occasion, I’ve been sorely tempted to give it a try, I think my short lived career in Lazer Tag was as close as I’ll get.  This movie embraces the hobby, and manages to laugh with it at least as much as laugh at it.  There are some pretty funny bits, but I found the whole to be uneven, too scattered.  It felt a bit like the scrapped remains of several different scripts that somehow came together, but never quite meshed.  Seemingly destined for cult status, it’s not the kind of thing that’s going to sweep the nation.  I’d recommend it to gamers, particularly LARPers, but otherwise…Well, if it hits NetFlix instant, check it out.  There are some funny gags.  And surprising levels of gore.

Death on the Nile:  There’s something grandly cinematic about this movie.  I think the location shooting and the music have a lot to do with it.  Like the classic Bond film in the overall vibe.  The story?  She's not so good.  Agatha Christie’s work has always had more of a made-for-TV vibe, in my mind.  It works in the small doses of episodic television.  The cast, too, feels made for TV.  Older actors who weren’t getting parts in big films (Bette Davis), up and comers (Olivia Hussey), and those actors who achieved fame for one reason or another but were never especially good (Mia Farrow).  All led by an the usually awesome Peter Ustinov, who seems unusually disengaged in the role of Hercule Poirot.  I liked the film, but didn’t love it.  It certainly played on my nostalgia for films of that era (1978), though it didn’t do an especially good job of transporting me to the era it was set in (1920s?).  The film is very uneven.  There are aspects and scenes I like a lot, however the movie as a whole is just OK.  It’s also one of those 70s PG movies that would shock and appall today.  There are some rather gruesome killings in it, including a nasty shot to the face.  Actually, everybody seems to get shot in the head, except for one, who gets his/her throat cut.

    On Saturday morning, I finally got back into Boardwalk Empire after a prolonged break as I was distracted by shiny things.  I’m now about half way through the second season, and it’s so good.  I don’t even feel the irritation toward Michael Pitt I normally do.  What’s that about?  I’ve got the next disk up close to the top of my queue, so I should be able to get through the season fairly soon.  Thanks to running some Call of Cthulhu, I’m really into the 20s stuff right now, and this is a fine show for that.

Evil Under the Sun:  Ustinov is back and the obnoxious Belgian, Hercule Poirot, in this noticeably lower rent sequel to Death on the Nile.  Oddly, a few members of that film’s cast have returned, but playing different roles.  And this time around, it really feels like a TV episode.  Location shooting or not, it doesn’t look or sound in any way ‘cinematic.’  James Mason only is awake in one of his scenes, though for that scene he’s quite good.  Otherwise he looks bored, sleepy, and confused.  Diana Rigg looks like she thought it was going to be a different film and is now killing time 'til her boat leaves.  Maggie Smith and Peter Ustinov are better used in this movie than the first, but still not given much to work with.  And the whole Agatha Christie, “let’s all go have drinks in the lounge, while I reveal all the clues the viewer wasn’t given, and tell you who did it” thing is especially insufferable.  It’s less uneven than Death on the Nile.  Unfortunately, that’s because it never hits any particular high notes, preferring to languish in mediocrity.

    And that’s it.  Like I said, a week of rest.  I was hoping to force myself to get more reading done, but this fidgety lack of concentration thing is hampering things.  I’m doing some more prep-work for the next game session, which sadly looks like it’s going to be a month away.  Blasted people and their busy schedules.  Stupid retail makes social lives difficult.

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (12/23-12/29)

    Gah.  I’m not really a fan of the holidays.  It seems to be an excuse for people to be awful, for stress, and for loosing sleep.  This week kind of sucked.  Still, solace in art, right?  Couple of good movies, a good book, makes it worth the time I guess.

Inglourious Basterds:  “Well, if this is it old boy, I hope you don’t mind if I go out speaking the King’s”  What’s history?  Typical of the director, this movie is steeped in 70s exploitation and general movie fandom.  A group of Jewish American soldiers, a British spy, a young French cinema owner, and a Nazi with a head for hunting are on a collision course.  If you’re looking for a heart wrenching story of love and self discovery, set against the backdrop of world history…well, see The English Patient or something.  If you want Nazis getting scalped, Hitler loosing his shit, The Bear Jew playing a creative game of baseball, and the worst Italian accent you’ve ever heard (gore-lamby), this is your lucky day.

Provocation:  Awful people paw each other and are generally awful to each other, and a creepy kid watches.  This movie feels like the director had a couple women who were willing to take their clothes off on camera, so he tried to cobble together a script that would give them reason.  There’s little rhyme or reason for events, and the plotline is more of a vague squiggle.  They’ve got this beautiful villa to film at, and they shoot it like a soap opera, not only taking no advantage of the scenery, but actually obscuring it with bad angles and editing.  And as frequently happens in Euro films (French and Italian mostly), the ladies are very pretty and the guys look like ogres, making their awkward pawing even more disgusting.

I don't know how mirrors work.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:  Peter Jackson and crew neither reinvent the wheel, nor break it, in this perfectly entertaining first part of what promises to be a sprawling adaptation of The Hobbit.  It takes its time, sure.  But, even in the long sections that, like the book, feature little in the way of action or excitement, they’ve peppered the script with flashbacks to more exciting times.  The cast all does a fine job, with several returning characters making welcome appearances.  I imagine that when it’s done, the resulting six film series will be quite the epic masterpiece.  I’m hoping there will be a bit more of the expanded story, dashes of the Bible-like Silmarillion and the like (though, I gather Jackson and crew do not have the rights to that…sad).  I’d love to see some kind of visualization of the Ages of Trees, or Ages of Lamps.  Whatever the case, if you enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, you should enjoy this return to the setting, 60 years earlier.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: “Now, do you need me to elaborate?  Or can we just crack on.”  Holmes drags his about to be married best (and only) friend Watson into a dangerous conflict with the super villainous genius Moriarty.  The caper will take them across Europe in an attempt to thwart a world spanning war.  I love the actors’ portrayals of the characters and the bond of friendship they share.  Not only that, but the portrayal of Watson’s wife defies modern film convention at every turn, as she not only doesn’t spend all her time nagging, she actually supports him (even when he sometimes screws things up).  Though the story isn’t quite as interesting as the one in the first film, it’s still quite entertaining.  It reminds me of old time adventure movies, where the heroes are actually having fun, not simply being put upon by overpowering circumstances.  These guys do what they do, at least in part, because they love it.

Django Unchained:  Tarantino is back, once again crafting a cinematic love letter to film.  He’s done crime (a couple times), Blaxploitation, Kung Fu, 70s car chase, and to a degree, Western (Kill Bill Vol. 2 is like half Shaw Brothers, half 70s Western).  Well, now he’s gone full Western, digging up classic 60s and 70s actors to play grizzled and terrible people, populating a Texas filled with baddies.  Christophe Waltz is back, but this time as a good German, working for the Law, taking out the bad guys with a smile and a sunny outlook.  He doesn’t think much of slavery, and when he seeks help from a slave, he finds a friend, a friend with a story right out of myth.  Though occasional blood geyser filled gun battles pepper the film, and the N-bomb gets dropped more than an NWA concert, I was surprised how non-exploitation the film felt.  Though it’s certainly heavily inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, there was a lot more of the classic, pre-cynicism American Western than I anticipated.  Not that this movie shies away from things.  In fact, probably the one thing that will get the movie in the most trouble is its treatment of slavery; about which it is anything but shy.  But guess what, folks, slavery was very real, and it was real f&%$ed up.  And it wasn’t all Denzel Washington in Glory, either.  There were many faces.  Not that the movie is a history lesson, but sometimes exaggeration (or what seems like it…but terrifyingly isn’t extreme enough) is illustrative.  What has been filmed here is a somewhat episodic epic of the mythological American West.  It’s not simply the revenge movie the trailer made it seem.

Fuzz:  The 70s were weird.  Be it Tom Skerritt or the fact that Burt Reynolds was cool, it was a strange time.  Like some other movies of the time (Mash, Mother Jugs and Speed,…Black Samson, etc.) it’s all over the place with tone.  Attempts to be funny are just awkward when put along side moments of horror.  It’s one of those ‘slice of life’ type movies, where we enter a police precinct, then follow various cops dealing with various cases.  Kids setting homeless men on fire, an assassin, a new paint job in the office, Raquel Welch, and other trouble.  Something about the style of this movie makes it feel excruciatingly long, even though it’s only an hour and a half.  I keep wanting to be a Raquel Welch fan (yes, in part because she’s so danged hot), but she’s in so many awful films.  I think I’ve only found like three or four really good ones so far.  This isn’t among them.

The Warrior and the Sorceress:  “I travel alone.”  A Fistful of Tereks?  In a horrible world of sand and thirst, the greatest warrior is a scrawny, middle aged guy in a cape.  A Marine and his rockstar first officer are pitted against a fat guy and his stuffed dragon, with a topless princess and a well in the balance.  Into this stupid setting ambles the lifeless David Carradine to play over-actor against over-actor in an attempt to win the day.  One of the worst film versions of Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest (Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars being the two best and rightly most well known), I still kind of love it.  And not just because Maria Socas refuses to wear a top (admittedly, that is a big reason…well, two).  Watching Carradine fight reminds me of Steven Segal; the way he’s so clearly not good at it and the staging is so forced.  If you’re in the mood for some Deathstalker or Barbarian Queen type fantasy garbage, this is a good choice.  Seriously, though.  Stuff like this makes me wish I made movies.  I’d like to think my scripts would be better, but this is totally the kind of low budget stuff I’d like to make.

Barbarian Queen:  “I’ll be no man’s slave, and no man’s whore.”  Some women loose their menfolk and their village, but not their hairspray, in this not quite as good as Deathstalker bit of low budget fantasy cheese.  Some truly awful dubbing lends the film that certain something special.  And why does every one of these movies have an orgy room?  For that matter, why does every orgy room have the worst flute music you’ve ever heard?  What about flute music says, ‘orgy?’  The villain, who may or may not be John Gotti in hiding, is kind of silly.  It feels like they were trying to go for a Rip Torn from Beastmaster kind of thing.  But it doesn’t work.  There’s a lot of nudity, a little blood, a lot of bad acting, and not much story.

Martial Club:  “Our lion dance is really good.”  Another Shaw Brothers kung fu classic, this one features the great Gordon Liu and some wild Lion dancing.  Lion dancing, like break dancing, BMX riding, or to a lesser degree, ice skating, is the height of cool and physical prowess, with strict rules, its own lingo, heaping piles of glory, deep rivalries, and an essential hero’s journey into ultimate wisdom.  Rival lion dancing clubs  (one honorable, one dishonorable) want to win some kind of contest.  This movie sure taught me that I don’t want to work at an herbal medicine shop.  At least, not one staffed by an abusive kung fu expert lady (cute or not).  This is one of the rare semi-comic kung fu movies I’ve seen that is actually fairly entertaining, largely because of the two leads’ almost silent movie level of expressive acting and physicality.  Plus, the movie features some epic sideburns.  And the final ally fight is awesome.  Tiger Style!!!

Lust, Caution:  “The diamond itself is of no interest to me.  I just want to see it on your finger.”  After the New Age pap of Life of Pi (not to mention the super-dullsville Brokeback Mountain), I kind of needed a reminder of why I liked Ang Lee, so I decided to finally check out the movie I missed a couple years ago, Lust, Caution.  I generally avoid NC-17 movies, because the rating typically indicates excruciatingly boring films, but I like Tony Leung, and once upon a time, Ang Lee.  I  find it interesting how certain events, certain times leave their mark on a culture’s personality.  Japan is still haunted by the Bomb.  To a lesser degree, we still feel the sting of Pearl Harbor.  England remembers the Blitz.  And China is haunted by the specter of the Japanese occupation.  The movie is a slow burn.  A handful of idealistic student actors decide that inspiring art is not enough, so they hatch a plan to kill some traitors who are working with the Japanese.  They seem like very likable folk, if it wasn’t for the whole murder plot thing.  Things get complicated when the beautiful young woman among their ranks seduces a collaborator.  As one expects from Lee, the movie is beautiful and the performances strong.  It’s one of those very intimate dramas set against massive movements in world history.  The characters are interesting, and one can’t help but wish them well, but dread hangs over it all.  Dang, though.  I would love to have a woman sing for me the way Tang Wei does for Tony Leung.  I suppose the depiction of sex is a touch stronger than typical, but I don’t see any reason for this movie to have a stronger rating than R.

Black Book:  The Dutch resistance gets its due in this surprisingly good Paul Verhoeven movie.  Who would have thought the guy behind Showgirls and Starship Troopers could make this beautifully crafted and interesting tale of a young woman who must infiltrate those danged Nazis to save herself and her country.  The cast does a fine job and the story is pretty good.  It is loosely based on various real people and events, though mixed and matched and altered for the sake of drama.

Atom Age Vampire:  “No let’s both stay home… together… with our records.”  Life is tough for a sexy dancer when her military boyfriend gets fed up with her career choice.  Time to drive like an idiot and get in a weird car accident!  I guess facial scars drive women mad.  I don’t know, they don’t look that bad to me.  But evil science must run its course.  I guess, by movie standards, trying to do almost anything constitutes playing god.  But a Will Farrell as George Bush looking scientist is all about sloppy science and unsafe human experimentation.  A kind of surprisingly good special effect for the time, location, and budget restores her to her former beauty.  Of course, that can’t last.  Eventually, a leprous Tony Curtis look-alike goes on a murder rampage.  You know, that old story.

    I started the week with the first disk of Boardwalk Empire.  I love the music they find for this show.  Everyone is trying to get back into the swing of things after the life shake-ups of the first season.  It’s not going well.  The KKK is up to mischief, Chicago wants to cut out Atlantic City, and all the womenfolk are less than thrilled with their men.  I like that the Commodore is becoming more of a power player in this season, and that Chalky seems to have more to do than get angry all the time.

    I also started season 4 of The Clone Wars.  Even when it’s not at its best, it’s still the best Star Wars out there.  It captures that certain something that made me love Star Wars as a kid, and generally avoids the shoddy writing and poor pacing of the more recent films.  And, as they expand the universe, we’re treated to some pretty cool, grand visuals.  This is the kind of thing I want to start seeing in science fiction films again.  I wonder if, when this show reaches the idiotic turn of events that is Revenge of the Sith, they might continue the story with the rise of the Rebellion.  That might be a more satisfying show, because at least it wouldn’t be saddled with such a lame eventuality.

    Oh, man.  I finished reading Y: The Last Man.  Such a good series, such a painful finale.  I think this could make for a really excellent trilogy of films (maybe one really long one?).  In the right hands, with the right cast.  But great stuff, whatever the case.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Brad's Week In Dork! (8/26/12-9/1/12)

My Coen Brothers Marathon started off strong, but once I got my hands on Boardwalk Empire everything ground to a halt.  I took two days to devour that show and it felt like the perfect lead into Miller's Crossing which will start off my next Week In Dork.  Part of me is disappointed that I didn't complete the marathon, but the other part is also excited to have stretched it out over three weeks.  I have no doubt in my mind now that my favorite director in cinema is The Coen Brothers.  Their films are strange cocktails of humor and horror.  I watch something like Fargo and I'm struck by its sad, pathetic characters as well as Marge, the eternal optimist confused by the horrors committed by her misguided neighbors.  And I'm in awe of the laughs it steals from shower curtains and woodchippers.  Wonderful, demented stuff.

MOVIES OF THE WEEK!

Masters of the Universe:  Okay, I know what you're thinking--this is a crap film that totally gets the He-Man mythos wrong...but who cares about the He-Man mythos? Not me. Just sit back and enjoy the absolute sillyness. Oscar nominee Frank Langella as Skeletor! The Dolph as He-Man! Has there ever been a better match up?!?!?! And Courteney Cox at her horrible best! Sure, the kid in me is still disappointed that Billy Barty's Gwildor is just a lameass version of Orko (shut up haters!) and Eternia gets the shaft for cheapie 1980s backlots, but once you embrace the ridiculousness, Masters of the Universe is a craptastic wannabe franchise gem.

O Brothers, Where Art Thou?:  "It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of his own heart." In this Homeric odyssey, George Clooney's Dapper Dan motormouth leads a couple of chain gang dolts across the South, defending his honor as a husband against seductress sirens, a frog crushing Cyclops, the Ku Klux Klan, and a mirror eyed Devil. Steeped in the very best of the Coen Brothers' visual style (& DP partner Roger Deakins), O Brother Where Art Thou is a musical epic that firmly established Clooney as a bonafide star.

Terror Is A Man:  I don't know if terror is a man or a cat man, but I do know that this movie is boooooooring. A sorry adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau, the only thing really noteworthy about this flick is its attempt at William Castle-like showmanship with its turnaway bell & raw surgical meat splicing...and according to the excellent documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed, Terror is a Man was the birth of the Philippines exploitation movement. Cool. Sure. But such notes not a good movie make, and when all is said and done this is just a snoozefest with a couple of bright Cat Mummy moments.

The Big Lebowski:  "Yer not dealing with morons here." Yep. I'm sure of it. The Big Lebowski is the perfect companion film to The Coen's A Serious Man. Bot films feature a frustrated lead battling the stupidity of outside forces but where Michael Stuhlbarg's physics professor succumbs to their horrors, The Dude abides cuz he simply understands that sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. Strikes and gutters, man. Jeff Bridges's The Dude is the Great American Protagonist who finds himself stuck in the mirk of noir all on account of a rug. Millionaires, Bunnies, Porno Kingpins - none were prepared for his impenetrable zen cool.

Fargo:  At once hilarious and depressing, Fargo is the movie that introduced me to the demented genius of the Coen Brothers as well as a lot of other film geeks out there. William H Macy, at his most utterly pathetic, hires crooks Steve Buscemi (he's funny lookin' in a general sorta way) and Peter Stormare ("Pancakes House") to kidnap his wife so he can pay off some serious debts with his father-in-law's ransom money. Blood spills rather quickly and Frances McDormand's pregnant midwestern police chief connects the rather obvious dots. Absolutely brilliant performances from all the players, and I would argue that all four have yet to top the work done in Fargo (well, Buscemi might have peaked on Boardwalk Empire but that could also be my HBO high talking). And, again, you can't celebrate the Coens without acknowledge the magnificence of cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Carter Burwell - they paint this film in sadness.

The Hudsucker Proxy:  "But I got big ideas." Whether we knew it or not, The Coen's had been building towards this It's A Wonderful Life screwball comedy in each of their previous four films. It just took their partnership with Crimewave's Sam Raimi to push them over the edge of nudge-nudge and into the WINK-WINK. And for the most part it works, but for me their outside meta eye keeps the emotion distant and I never quite connect with either the success or the worries of Tim Robbins' bumbling Hudsucker president. The film never crests beyond its homage, it never transforms into A Coen Brothers Film. The Hudsucker Proxy is a lot like the mimicry of Intolerable Cruelty: I recognize the cleverness and the craft on display and acknowledge it with a smile, but the film never excites me the way a Big Lebowski or even Burn After Reading does. Still, damn sharp writing.

Barton Fink:  "LOOK UPON ME! I'LL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND!!!!!" Probably the most perfect Coen Brothers film. No, not my favorite. But if you want to experience the purest notion of their beautifully odd imagination than look no further. John Turturro is a Broadway darling playwright who ventures into the Hell that is Hollywood in search of meaning and money. There he finds John Mahoney's drunk demon writer, John Goodman's fiery insurance salesman, and a nightmare motel room dripping wet potent wallpaper. And it all has something to do with the beach and a hefty brown box. Madness. By the climax you'll be scratching your head, trolling the internet for answers, and ultimately confused for life. Not only will you not forget Barton Fink, you'll think of it often. A great film to revisit.  But maybe not if you're a wannabe writer.  Not VF.

TV OF THE WEEK!

Boardwalk Empire Season 2:  Man.  The first season was rough.  It was good.  But brutal.  And that was nothing.  The second season of HBO's prohibition gangster drama strips away as much of the good and cheery qualities of its characters as possible.  Sure, some of these guys are charismatic.  Steve Buscemi can make anyone lovable, but his puppet master Nucky Thompson is a duplicitous asshole and by the final episode you'll see him for the true scum that he is.  And love it.  These are James Ellroy-like monster protagonists.  Michael Shannon's G-Men descends deeper into his own personal hell and I'm not sure where they can take the character in the third season.  Frankly, I have no idea where any of these plot lines are going to end up.  Season 2's climax felt like a series climax.  It's over. But, nope, we got more horror coming.

COMICS OF THE WEEK!

Rasl - Books 1 & 2:  I've been avoiding this book for a couple of years now.  Jeff Smith's Bone is one of the greatest comic book series ever written.  It's an epic that mixes Lord of the Rings style fantasy with Walt Disney sensibilities.  And it's absolutely beautiful.  So when I heard that Smith's next saga was going to be an adult sci-fi adventure involving dimension hopping, art theft, lizard men, and Native American folklore I was more than a bit skeptical.  Not to mention the fact that it has taken Smith two years to produce 15 issues and this book probably won't be completed until 2025.  And this is still just a taste of the series and Smith's really the only person who knows where this story is going, but I'm definitely along for the ride.  I love the folklore/science mix, and the callbacks to Tesla, Einstein, WWI, & WWII is just historical gravy that I love to sop.  And Smith is an amazing cartoonist and no one does black & white like him.

The Sixth Gun #24:  All right, I'm all caught up on singles!  Becky & Drake make their way to Fort Treadwell but run across a nasty blizzard and giant Winter Wolves.  Just when you think The Sixth Gun can't get any weirder-gulp-Game of Thrones ain't got nothing on these beasties.  Plus, General Hume's zombie corpse screams maggots and threats of his family line.  Just a fun really weird western.

BPRD Hell on Earth -The Return of the Master #1:  A mysterious dark figure arrives in Scotland.  Fennix joins with the BPRD in Colorodo.  The Zinco Corporation prepares for the next wave of Hell on Earth terror.  And the Russian Director Nichayko continues to taunt the bottled vampire girl in his office.  It's all set up as Mike Mignola & John Arcudi build to the 100th issue in the series; there appears to be no hope for the world and I seriously appreciate how unrelenting this book has become.

Winter Soldier #9:  Ed Brubaker has announced his exit from this book and the Marvel Universe in general, and he can't leave fast enough as far as I'm concerned.  I love the man.  His Fatale is still the best damn book on the stands.  But he's lost his feeling for the super hero books and reading Winter Soldier is sad and painful.  Brubaker's Cap was once a glorious thing but reading it now is depressing.  It's not awful.  But it's also just not very good.  I've been reading his arc for years and I'm going to see it through but once he's off so am I.

DORK FIELD TRIP OF THE WEEK!

Patton Oswalt at the Arlington Cinema 'n' Drafthouse:  On Saturday night The Wife, our friend Lindsey, and myself drove out to Arlington to see Oswalt on stage at the Cinema 'n' Drafhouse.  This was my first time at this venue and it did not disappoint.  Definitely dug the rolling cushion chairs, the John Wayne BBQ burgers, and the general do-it-yourself atmosphere.  We weren't in the front row, but we had some pretty good seats off to the side with a great line on Patton.  He started his bit off with some ok "I Don't Want To Be Morbidly Obese" jokes but quickly segued into that geek humor we've all come to crave.  But my favorite moment of the show was when he did the crowd work.  It's so cool to see him pull conversation from the audience and incorporate it into his bit.  And the fans eat it up, especially all the local boy flavor Oswalt peppered into his comedy.  Every time he mentioned Sterling or Fuck Loudon County Snow Days the crowd hollered with glee.  Me included.

--Brad

New Release Tuesday! (8/28/12)

There's very little to get excited about this week, really just a bunch of TV and a few rentals.  And Battleship...so...yeah-whoopdeedoo!  But Boardwalk Empire, that's a seriously entertaining show.  Sure, sure, sure - it's not Deadwood genius, but let that go already.  It should also be noted that Universal is reissuing Vertigo & The Birds on DVD but for some reason, no blu ray.  What the hell?  Especially with Vertigo toppling Citizen Kane off the Sight & Sound list; it sure would be nice to see Jimmy Stewart go off the deep end in 1080p.  Oh well.

BUY!

Boardwalk Empire Season 2:  I missed this show upon its initial run on HBO, but similar to Game of Thrones, when I got the blu rays I whipped through the first season in just two days.  All this talk of "It's Not As Good As Sopranos" is just nonsense.  This is a damn fine show with a damn fine cast and an amazing production crew.  In a career marked with amazing, strange, and memorable performances Steve Buscemi gives his best as the ambitious mini-kingpin of Atlantic City.  And Michael Shannon is sooooooo utterly terrifying as the G-Man determined to take him down.  I know, Shannon is always terrifying but in Boardwalk Empire he's righteously terrifying and his stare is as scary, if not scarier than anything you can find in the horror genre.

Walking Dead Season 2:  I go back and forth on this show.  Some bits of it are absolutely amazing.  But some character choices are also incredibly frustrating.  I can appreciate the departures it takes from the far superior comic book series, but Lori needs to make up her damn mind, shut up, and just die already.  But the Shane/Rick relationship is far more interesting than it ever was in the comic.  And there's a heckuva cool season finale that gets me pumped for the next season.  Plus, the gore.  Nothing nastier on TV.  So yeah, I've got the first season in blu and I will have the second--and if I'm gonna buy it I might as well get the Zombie Head.

RENT!

The Pirates! - Band of Misfits:  Nobody in America saw this flick.  Well, that's not true.  The Wife and I did.  And we enjoyed it quite a bit.  But after the disappointing box office of this, Paranorman, and the recent shutdown of Henry Selick's latest I guess America just doesn't give a crap about stop motion animation anymore.  And that's a damn shame.  I love the Pixar stuff as much as the next guy, but I've always been fascinated with the artistry and the time that gets put into stop motion and Aardman Studios are true masters of the craft.  But technique is not the be-all and end-all of a good movie.  You've got to have a script.  And The Pirates is a damn funny send-up of booty flicks like those Johnny Depp blockbusters as well as lesser known gems like Nate & Hays.  Plus, Darwin...what a prick.

Headhunters:  Norwegian/German production of Jo Nesbo's acclaimed serial killer novel.  This got a lot of love from critics and I'm curious to check it out.  Since Girl With The Dragon Tattoo everyone's gone gaga for Scandinavian terror flicks, but I have yet to be won over by any of them.  Will Headhunters be the one?  Don't know.  But it's at the top of my Netflix queue.

Screaming in High Heels:  Documentary detailing the rise and fall of B Movie actresses Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer, and Linnea Quigley.  The trailer for the doc don't amaze me, but neither did the trailers for Machete Maidens Unleashed & American Grindhouse and I enjoyed the hell outta those.  And these actresses and their crappy little direct-to-video flicks were very important to 13 year old Brad.  I'm ready to relive that glorious time of Fred Olen Ray cheapies.



AVOID!

Battleship:  Some sick part of me wants to see this again.  Was it really as boring as I remember it being?  Did Taylor Kitsch actually utter the line "Chicken Burrito Her!"  Liam Neeson was cool, right?  He's awesome in everything, right?  But I can wait another six months before I torture myself with this dull ass summer flick.

--Brad