Dork Art: More Mondo Comic Con

For some of their new prints, Mondo is working a new method this year at Comic Con; these posters will actually be going on sale tomorrow through their website, but can only be be picked up at the San Diego Convention Center next weekend.  I like this in theory.  Especially for a high ticket item like the above Dark Tower print from Drew Struzan ($275).  Curious to see how fast these go - the usual ten seconds?  Or will we lucky Comic Con few be given five or ten minutes to score our copies?  I won't hold my breath, but I will be in the queue tomorrow.  Martin Ansin's Conan The Barbarian is pretty killer too, and much more reasonable at $50.  I dig the Olly Moss Miyazaki prints, but I could not care less about those movies.  Sorry nerds.  Mondo will still have other surprises at their booth this weekend, but if you want these prints you better pay attention to Twitter tomorrow morning.

--Brad

Dork Art: Mondo Celebrates The Oscars Again!

Similar to last year, Mondo will be launching three posters in conjunction with The Academy Awards.  My favorite is the mesmerizing Laurent Durieux print for The Master.  Stare into the abyss of Phillip Seymore Hoffman and it stares back - he's a Lovecraftian nightmare come to life!  It measures 24 x 36 and will set you back $55.  I'm guessing it will go on sale at some point during the Best Supporting Actor or Best Actor category Sunday night.  Follow Twitter closely.

 
The Paranorman print is the work of the artist DKNG.  It's limited to 245 copies and will run you $45.  Glad to see Mondo endorsing what is clearly the best film in the Animated Feature category.  Really got my fingers crossed for this Should-Be-Classic.

I most certainly cannot claim to be a fan of the film, but Olly Moss' Les Miserables print seems like a revelatory departure for the artist.  Not your typical simplistic beauty, it has much more of an illustrative flair.  ITMOD approved.  24 x 36 and running $50.  I'm guessing it goes on sale during the Best Original Song category.

--Brad

The Oscars 2013 - Predictions & Desires

The Oscars are a joke.  We all know this.  But let's just set that aside - like we do every year.  What I love about the Academy Awards is that it gives us a moment where we can just ramble on about movies with the regular people.  You know, those nice folks out there that don't devote hours & hours upon a nerd blog, obsessing over every frame and hidden reference of the latest Quentin Tarantino flick.  It's the Super Bowl of Cinema - and as is, they usually get all the nominations wrong and it's mostly just a fashion parade for US Weekly then it is an exploration of art.  That being said, I think the nominations are much stronger than they have been in year's past which I find rather amusing since I felt that 2012 was one of cinema's weakest.

BEST PICTURE:

AMOUR
ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
DJANGO UNCHAINED
LES MISERABLES
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
ZERO DARK THIRTY

This is the second year in a row where my Favorite Film of the Year got a Best Picture nomination, but like last year, my pick doesn't have a chance in snowy hell of taking home the little gold guy.  Django Unchained is not Quentin Tarantino's best film (that's Jackie Brown), but it is most certainly my favorite.  The pacing is choppy; some claim the lack of editor Sally Menke is to blame, but I think Tarantino is just doing what he does best - elevation through mimicry.  The Spaghetti Western is a genre defined through false starts & endings, and it's an aspect I cherish when done properly.  Django pulls the rug from under you multiple times and what feels sloppy to some feels like perfection to me.  We will never know what this film would look like if cut by Menke, but I genuinely feel like it wouldn't appear to be much different.  But Django Unchained is the film with the least likely chance to win.  It's genre, B Movie territory.  Strike One.  It's an extremely angry film.  Not the revenge drama some make it out to be.  This is not Kill Bill.  It's a Campbellian Hero's Journey.  The revenge aspect is on us, Django Unchained transforms the audience into Khan.  Strike two.  Finally, it's a Tarantino movie.  He's the new Hitchcock and he'll never take home a statue.  Strike three.

So, who gets it.  There are only two films of the nine nominations that I absolutely destested: Life of Pi & Les Miserables.  Their nominations are not surprising, especially when considering last year's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, but Life of Pi is confusing mumbo jumbo & Les Miserables is a musical embarrassment.  Lincoln is my second favorite flick in the pack, sharp tight narrative highlighted by an outstanding lead performance.  Silver Linings Playbook is fun, sweet, romantic and a complete fantasy.  Amour is a beast of emotion.  No other film tortured me quite like that movie.  Beasts of the Southern Wild is beautifully odd world building with a firm backbone supplied by a six year old actress.  Zero Dark Thirty is CSI: Bin Laden.  An intense procedural deepened by our own 9/11 memories.  Argo seems to be the frontrunner at this point.  Fascinating, given Ben Affleck's lack of nomination in the Best Director category.  The last time a film took home Best Picture without even a director nomination was 1990's Driving Miss Daisy.  Argo is a solid flick.  I just don't love it.  The first half is intense as hell, and I love all the Hollywood craziness but I just can't get behind the final ten minutes.  The airport chase nonsense.  Yes, both Lincoln & Zero Dark Thirty have they're way with history, but this feels the most Hollywoody.  Still, far worse films have taken home the gold.

Prediction: Argo

Desire:  Django Unchained

BEST DIRECTOR

ANG LEE (Life of Pi)
BENH ZEITLIN (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
MICHAEL HANEKE (Amour)
STEVEN SPIELBERG (Lincoln)
DAVID O. RUSSELL (Silver Linings Playbook)

This is a tough category.  I'm gonna immediately dismiss Ang Lee cuz as stated above, I hated his movie.  But if I'm going to be fair it was fun to watch him play with technology - taking on James Cameron's 3D, David Fincher's digital zooms, and playfully experimenting in a similar fashion to his Hulk adaptation...and we all saw how well that went down (Screw it - I Love HULK!).  Silver Linings Playbook is a lot of quirky fun, but I found David O Russell continues push-in closeups to be rather annoying.  Steven Spielberg has an obvious mastery over his craft, but Lincoln's success mostly comes from Tony Kushner's screenplay and Daniel Day-Lewis' deep diving performance.  Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of a Southern Wild has the feel of a young man's camera - eagerness mixed with blunt whimsy.  He could be great someday, but he ain't there yet.  Michael Haneke is a mad man.  Sitting down to one of his films, you know your psyche is in danger.  Whether he's documenting a home invasion (Funny Games), the hidden violence of a pre-WWI village (The White Ribbon), or the slow death of a loved one (Amour), Haneke has been accused of relishing in human horror.  Maybe.  But what impresses me so much about Amour is its claustrophobia.  We're stuck in this tiny Parisian apartment.  One character is slowly deteriorating in front of us.  The other character is struggling to maintain his wife's last moments.  Haneke never lets the room become tiresome.  He finds new ways to shoot it, and concentrates the lens on the humanity of the structure.  It's a daunting screenplay for a director to tackle, but Heneke as both writer & director was obviously up to the task.

The question becomes though, with Ben Affleck out of the running, where do the Academy voters cast their ballot?  Zeitlen is too new to the game.  Haneke's an outsider and in their eyes its enough that the film will most likely take home Best Foreign Film.  Ang Lee certainly offers the visual feast and Life of Pi apes a lot of its praise from the novel's pre-owned enthusiasm.  So could Spielberg take Oscar home?  His last nomination was in 2007 for Munich, and he won in '99 for Saving Private Ryan & '94 for Schindler's List.  No.  I think Lincoln is not a significant enough departure from the Spielberg norm to land him back at the podium.  David O Russell lost to Tom Hooper in 2011; I think we make up for that now.  Silver Linings Playbook is not a showy picture, but neither was Hooper's The King's Speech, and performance can carry this category.  Plus, Hollywood mogul Harvey Wienstein knows how capture Oscars via politics.

Prediction:  David O. Russell

Desire:  Michael Haneke

BEST ACTOR

BRADLEY COOPER (Silver Linings Playbook)
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (Lincoln)
HUGH JACKMAN (Les Miserables)
JOAQUIN PHOENIX (The Master)
DENZEL WASHINGTON (Flight)

Well, lets just yank Hugh Jackman out of this category immediately.  I thought he was atrocious.  The man can sing, he's proven that before, but the man is no Jean Valjean.  Especially when you have Colm Wilkinson, the real deal, putting him to shame in the Bishop cameo.  I guess Denzel Washington does a decent job as the alcoholic cokehead pilot in Flight, but the movie is so run-of-the-mill that to grant him any acknowledgement would give Zemeckis' live action pap too much credit.  Bradley Cooper has never been better than he is in Silver Linings Playbook, and I could see him winning if Harvey Weinstein manufactures a clean sweep for that movie.  Definitely possible.  I'd love to see Joaquin Phoenix take it; his turn as the sex starved madman in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master is a masterpiece of anxiety, and makes Bradley Cooper's kooky nutjob look absolutely adorable.  But there is no question who's taking home Oscar this Sunday.  Daniel Day-Lewis puts in another one of his method absorption pieces as Abraham Lincoln.  I appreciated his choice of accent, going for realism and dropping the iconic stature we're used to seeing on the five dollar bill.  There is more humanity in his portrayal of Lincoln than we've yet experienced, he showcases the badass bravado we want from the great emancipator but I love the little moments with his bickering wife, and his war-thirsty son.  And if we weren't allowed to give it to him for Bill The Butcher than we most certainly give it to him for the 16th president.

Prediction:  Daniel Day-Lewis

Desire:  Daniel Day-Lewis

BEST ACTRESS

JESSICA CHASTAIN (Zero Dark Thirty)
JENNIFER LAWRENCE (Silver Linings Playbook)
EMMANUELLE RIVA (Amour)
QUVENZHANE WALLIS (Beasts of the Southern Wild)
NAOMI WATTS (The Impossible)

This category is even tougher than Best Director.  I don't know if you remember or care, but as 2012 was winding down and I had to put together my Dorkies, I could not list five female roles to save my life.  Since then I've managed to watch all the above flicks and I think that each of these nominees turned in killer performances.  As Hushpuppy, the adventurous orphan wandering the bayou wastelands of The Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhane Wallis delivers the most naturalistic realization.  Jessica Chastain is all macho bravado, a little too on the nose, but solid.  Naomi Watts is a tattered mess - flesh ripped, torn, and bleeding for nearly 90 minutes.  Jennifer Lawrence is the It Girl of the moment, and as much as I was unimpressed with her previous nomination for Winter's Bone, her dullfaced turn in The Hunger Games, and her sourdough smirk in X-Men First Class, I have to admit that I was captivated by her mentally unbalanced love interest.  And I think she might have this locked - and part of me wants to bet on all the Silver Linings Playbook nominations.  But Sunday is also Emmanuelle Riva's 86th Birthday.  Wouldn't it be a wonderful gift to win the big prize?  And her slow decay on screen is pure Oscar bait gold.  Utterly heartbreaking even if I think her partner, Jean-Louis Trintignant has the real winning role.

Prediction:  Jennifer Lawrence

Desire:  Emmanuelle Riva


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

ALAN ARKIN (Argo)
ROBERT DE NIRO (Silver Linings Playbook)
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (The Master)
TOMMY LEE JONES (Lincoln)
CHRISTOPH WALTZ (Django Unchained)

Why is Alan Arkin on this list?  I mean, he did a fine job in Argo but there was absolutely nothing special about his character.  A Best Actor nomination for Ben Affleck would make more sense.  Robert De Niro is a lot of fun as the gambling addict father struggling to understand his son's crazy.  He manages to be sympathetic one moment, and infuriatingly obtuse the next.  It's been a long time since he's won the hearts of the Academy but I'm just not sure this role is showy enough to make them care again.  Phillip Seymore Hoffman is the internet critic's pick.  And he's darn good, but not a standout like his partner Joaquin.  Christoph Waltz gets my vote.  As the Obi Wan to Django's Luke Skywalker, King Schultz has all the happy mannerisms of the villainous Hans Landa (the role Waltz won for just a few years back) but pacts the film with warmth and understanding.  The Landa/Schultz coin is a showcase for Waltz's incredible talent.  Put him in every movie, I say.  Tommy Lee Jones, though?  He's grumpy, adorable, and powerful.  He's a miserable old bastard of righteousness in Lincoln, and the emotional wallop of the climax is delivered through his character.  I'd be perfectly happy to see him win.

Prediction:  Tommy Lee Jones

Desire:  Christoph Waltz


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS (The Master)
SALLY FIELD (Lincoln)
ANNE HATHAWAY (Les Miserables)
HELEN HUNT (The Sessions)
JACKI WEAVER (Silver Linings Playbook)

This is a less exciting race.  Jacki Weaver is perfectly fine as the delicate wife to Robert De Niro's bull in a china shop.  And it's lightyears away from the psychotic matriarch of Animal Kingdom, her previous nomination in 2011.  Another loser from that year was Amy Adams (The Fighter), and she's going down this year as well.  She's perfectly troubled as the wife of Hoffman's cult leader, but her best scene involves an epic handjob which of course makes it hard to showcase during the sizzle reel.  Sally Field is good in Lincoln.  But the character is a touch annoying.  The tight focus of Lincoln's screenplay doesn't allow for Mary Todd showboating, but there are one or two moments in the film that might land her on top.  I think Anne Hathaway is the winner though.  She's the only good thing in Les Miserables, and her snotty/teary rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" will get her the win.  My pick, though, is Helen Hunt.  The Sessions is the type of indie darling that stormed Hollywood during the early 90s, but despite its twee narrative centered around John Hawkes' quadriplegic virgin, I found myself suckered by its sweetness.  And a lot of that has to do with her welcoming, forgiving, and accepting smile.  Not to mention her sexual sincerity.

Prediction:  Anne Hathaway

Desire:  Helen Hunt


ANIMATED FEATURE

BRAVE
FRANKENWEENIE
PARANORMAN
THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS
WRECK-IT-RALPH

There is no denying that Brave is a lesser Pixar.  It's perfectly suitable, but the mother/daughter story is less interesting than the female empowerment quest that the trailer promised.  The Pirates! Band of Misfits is a ton of fun.  It's winky, jokey, and very British.  Wreck-It-Ralph is gleeful, but I was kinda hoping for a Who Framed Roger Rabit reference-a-palooza and I found the Candyland setting a bit claustrophobic.  Still, this seems to be the film that gets the most attention.  Frankenweenie has no business here.  It doesn't celebrate the oddity of youth, it mocks it.  And Tim Burton just needs to take a break from filmmaking for a while.  His ideas are played out.  Old.  Tired.  Boring.  Paranorman is everything that Burton was trying to do, but done successfully.  It celebrates the strange of youth, it tells kids that it's your weird, unique talents that make you special.  To ride ahead of the pack and not with the herd.  And it's properly spooky the way Halloween stories should be.

Prediction:  Wreck-It-Ralph

Desire:  Paranorman

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

5 BROKEN CAMERAS
THE GATEKEEPERS
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
THE INVISIBLE WAR
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

As usual, the Best Documentary category is loaded with a lot of downers.   In 5 Broken Cameras, a Palestinian farmer records the Israeli occupation of his backyard.  Protests inevitably turn to violence.  Friends & family loose their lives.  The Invisible War is almost unfathomable with its nearly endless interviews of women raped while serving in the military.  I never managed to catch The Gatekeepers.  Can't comment on it.  How To Survive A Plague left me a weeping mess.  Following two bands of protest groups in late 80s New York while the Aids epidemic spread and politicians sat quiet.  Searching For Sugar Man is the frothiest story depicting the mysterious rise of a Detroit castoff in the music scene of South Africa.  While incredibly engaging it doesn't quite hold the terrifying punch of the other nominations.  For it to win over How To Survive A Plague seems as insulting as Driving Miss Daisy taken the big prize from the nominationless Do The Right Thing.

Prediction:  Searching For Sugar Man

Desire:  How To Survive A Plague

CINEMATOGRAPHY

SEAMUS MCGARVEY (Anna Karenina)
RALPH RICHARDSON (Django Unchained)
CLAUDIO MIRANDA (Life of Pi)
JANUS KAMINSKI (Lincoln)
ROGER DEAKINS (Skyfall)

Based on the trailers, Anna Karenina sure does look artificially pretty.  Spielberg's longtime collaborator Janus Kaminski knows how to fill a room full of light.  I think Life of Pi has the most attention for its animated beauty, but how much of that is Miranda's skill and how much is it the FX company?  Ralph Richardson would normally take home the glory for me and if this was Kill Bill in the hot seat than he most surly would.  However, Roger Deakins delivers the most beautiful Bond film in the franchise, and with it he proves that digital photography is the future.  Seriously, can you tell me that this does not look like film?  No.  The fiery Scottish moors.  Shanghai's neon assassination.  The gray windy skies of London.  An absolutely stunning action film.

Prediction:  Claudio Miranda

Desire:  Roger Deakins


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

AMOUR (Michael Haneke)
DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)
FLIGHT (John Gatins)
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola)
ZERO DARK THIRTY (Mark Boal)

I won't drone on and on here.  You already read my Django Unchained rant.  I still feel it.  And I'm fighting myself from diving back into the theater for a fourth go around, the blu ray will be here soon.  I thought Flight was barely above an After School Special.  Amour is more about the performances than the screenplay, but the life brought into that tiny apartment started here on the page.  I'm happy to see Moonrise Kingdom get some love, but no one really seems to care.  I loved it.  But compared to previous efforts I think it's lesser Anderson.  Zero Dark Thirty is not going to be taking home any of the top awards, so if the Academy wants to throw it a bone it'll happen here.

Prediction:  Zero Dark Thirty

Desire:  Django Unchained

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

ARGO (Chris Terrio)
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin)
LIFE OF PI (David Magee)
LINCOLN (Tony Kushner)
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)

Another tough selection.  Argo will take home the Best Picture, but as stated above, I felt that the screenplay took one too many liberties with the event.  Life of Pi might nab this with its confounding, muddy morals.   No one has read the source material for Beasts of the Southern Wild, so that's out.  Silver Linings Playbook might have a shot, but I think it suffers the same problems as Beasts.  Lincoln is the obvious winner here.  Adapting Doris Kerns Goodwins' Team of Rivals was a beastly challenge, but Tony Kushner's choice to focus solely on the passing of 13th amendment was inspired.  Taking what could have been another blathering, sweeping biopic and transforming it into a taught, political thriller.  In that one month of January you get all the greatness & humanity of Lincoln boiled down to its essence.

Prediction:  Lincoln

Desire:  Lincoln

Olly Moss' 85 Years of Oscars

--Brad

Dork Art: Olly Moss' The Dark Knight Rises

I'M BACK!

And I cannot wait to share all my Comic Con experiences here on the blog.  Never again will I leave my laptop behind!  You guys crave up to the minute reportage, and I really hope you were following the @MouthDork twitter feed for all the crazy Comic Con shenanigans.

But before I post my last couple of Weeks in Dork I thought I'd dip my toes back into the ITMOD shallow end with this rather exciting announcement from Mondo.

For today, and today only, you have the opportunity to own the above Olly Moss Dark Knight print.  That's right, rather than the usual seconds to purchase a Mondo print you have A WHOLE DAY!  The print run is limited to the amount of folks who get to clicking.  I've already ordered mine, you should too.  More details can be found on their blog.

Is this the wave of Mondo's future?  I'm guessing if this Dark Knight poster is a success (and undoubtably it will be) than we can expect a whole slew of similar releases.  And I'm totally happy with that.  Mondo has reached an all time high as far as public awareness is concerned.  With licensing deals with Warner Brothers and Disney, the public is screaming for their Game of Thrones and Adventure Time prints.  Just last year I could walk up to the Mondo booth at Comic Con with no problem.  This year, the line to purchase a print was wrapping around the walls of the exhibit hall.  It's a brave new world for Mondo and it's time to make hay.

--Brad

Brad's Week In Dork! (7/1/12-7/7/12)

This week finished up the Bat-Mania that I started with last week.  Man, Joel Schumacher.  Yer one strange fella.  And Burton, yer not much better.  But my favorite bit of Bat Dorkery I accomplished this week was Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated.  I can't believe it, but I'm all caught up on his books and I'm ready to dive back into the monthlies.  Again, this is The Brave & The Bold told deadpan.  It's not gonna be for everybody but for those ready & willing Morrison's mad run is pure bliss.

Other stuff this week was just random.  Yeah.  Saw The Amazing Spider-Man.  Yet another Summer Movie I found to be tremendously disappointing.  The friends I saw it with seemed to dig it, but I gave it a big meh.  And I concluded the week with Brave.  It was really good, but it also was no UP.

But really everything I did this week was just a distraction from the approaching San Diego Comic Con trip.  It's so close I can almost taste it.

TV OF THE WEEK!

Batman - The Animated Series Season 2:  The show only gets better in the second season.  With episodes like "Night of the Ninja" and "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne" the character of Batman is expanded in a way not seen in the original five Bat films.  But my favorite ep is "Almost Got 'Im," in which Batman's Rogues share tales of near Bat-Murder.  It's goofy and silly and kinda sad.  But Season 2 is still not the genius that Season 3 will eventually reveal.  I love this show, but it's not till 3 where I can honestly claim that Bruce Timm's Batman is the best Batman.

MOVIES OF THE WEEK!

Batman Forever:  So much neon. And you know you're in trouble when The Fab Knight's first words in the film are, "I'll get drive thru." After the lukewarm public response to the perceived "darkness" of Tim Burton's second film (what crack were they smokin?), Warner Brothers dumped Bats into the nipple-suited brain of Joel Schumacher. Now, if you're in a particularly goofy Adam West kinda mood than you can have some silly fun here with Tommy Lee Jones & Jim Carrey's loud and screechy interpretations of a couple of Bats' most notorious rogues, but if yer craving Nolan or even Burton than you shouldn't bother. I do think Val Kilmer could have been a solid Batman in a more serious vein and Nicole Kidman is lovely...but soooooo much Neon!

The Amazing Spider-Man:  In just ten years we Spidey geeks have been blessed (or cursed) with three goofy Sam Raimi-helmed Web Heads and now one Marc Webb reboot. That's a lot of wall crawling and a lot of disappointment for this filmgoer. The latest cinematic entry rushes through the origin despite adding some mysterious Parker parent hullabaloo that never builds into anything serious as the film is just another CGI punch-em up with a big green bad guy. Andrew Garfield is kinda great in the suit, finally adding some much needed Spidey fight monologuing, but his Peter Parker is mostly an asshole to his family and friends when he's not being over-emo awkward with Emma Stone and her constant knee high socks. And James Horner's score? It definitely matches the banality of the script.

Inception:  Our Man Leo and his Dreamscape Rat Pack infiltrate the fantasies of Corporate Muckety Muck Cillian Murphy on the behest of the other Corporate Muckety Muck Ken Watanabe; much subconscious gunplay to duck & dodge. "The Mind is the Scene of the Crime." It's a cool concept. And it's well executed and performed. I absolutely love fellow thieves Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt--they should have a half hour buddy cop romcom. And it's amazing how Marion Cotillard can be absolutely lovely one moment and then completely, disgustingly terrifying the next. However, I never really did connect to the emotions or even the narrative goals of Leonardo DiCaprio's character.  For me, Inception is more about the execution than the character arcs.

Batman Returns:  Depending on my mood, I often feel that this is the superior Tim Burton Batflick.  Here Michael Keaton feels a little more Batmanesque with his stance, pauses, and terse language. There's a lot of duality at play in the flick; Danny DeVito's Oswald Cobblepot is a mirror for Bruce Wayne, and Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman does the same thing for Batman. And I love, love, love Christopher Walken's Citizen Kane-like Max Shreck--definitely the uber-villain of the piece. But the film is very Burton, Burton! Gothy exaggerated sets and characters, and if yer not into that than stay away.

The Adventures of Tintin:  A light, whimsical adventure story from a Steven Spielberg I once thought lost somewhere in the late 1980s. Imagine a slightly more childish incarnation of Indiana Jones wrapped in the fetishistic craft of mo-cap animation. Jaime Bell is a stunning Tintin and Daniel Craig has the perfect voice for the evil, bearded pirate descendant. Not sure this film has enough weight to go down as a classic, but it's certainly a popcorn fueled joyous night at the movies.

Matinee:  Joe Dante does what he does best, celebrates B-Movies and the art of William Castle in this Cuban Missile Crisis set coming of age tale. John Goodman is the Castle-esque Lawrence Woolsey who's traveled down to Key West to premiere his nuclear horror film MANT! Part Man! Part Ant! He's MANT! But he's really just a supporting player in the background as kid actors Simon Fenton and Omri Katz attempt to navigate their budding sexuality and the chaotic spazzing of fear loving grown ups. The A Story is fun enough, but this dork found the most pleasure in the B Movie references and cameos. And as always, more Dick Miller please.

Justice League - The New Frontier:  Based on Darwyn Cooke's utterly brilliant maxi-series of the same name, Justice League - The New Frontier is easily the best film from the modern wave of DC Animated direct-to-dvds. Not just an origin of the most famous super team, The New Frontier explores the birth of DC Comics set in the appropriate Silver Age of 1953. The Korean War has come to a close: Hal Jordan attempts to recover from that horror by diving into his speed demon test pilot persona, the Martian Manhunter arrives on Earth, Batman contemplates a more kid-friendly costume, and Superman struggles with his role in government. But all that is small potatoes when the mysterious being known as The Center plots global destruction. Besides being one of the most epic narratives, The New Frontier also succeeds in capturing the retro vibe of artist Darwyn Cooke.  And that in itself is worth consumption.  If you love comics and super hero films than you really must experience The New Frontier.

The Villain:  "Piss on the white man." Kirk Douglas is a goofball bank robber in pursuit of Ann Margaret's Charming Jones and her asexual guardian Arnold Schwarzenegger. Horribly awkward with its old man humor and loony tunes pratfalls, The Villain is a film you enjoy as an oddity more than a quality Western. Seriously, if you're a fan of the slide whistle sound effect and sped up frame rate hijinks than this is the film for you--uh, does such a Comedy Western fanboy exist? I really can't understand what the state of the world must have been like in 1979 where a film such as this could be considered as passable entertainment--a fascinating history lesson.  Check out more confused rambling over at cineAWESOME!

Batman - The Movie:  Cheese! Pure, glorious cheese! For part of me, Batman will always be the late Nick At Night reruns of this classic camp Caped Crusader. The film is a little rambling and a tad overlong, but they had to cram in ALL your favorite rogues to propel against rich boys Adam West and the young Burt Ward. And in some glorious future the lawyers will get all the rights issues for the TV show squared away and we can bask in the glory of Vincent Price's Egghead.  But until then we've got this theatrical gem. Classic bits of "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb" and Shark Repellant Bat Spray and "Yo Ho!" Hydrating goons really make this silly flick watchable. Biff! Plop! Krack! And, yeah, this is still my favorite Batmobile design.

Brave:  Pixar's first Princess is a fiery haired warrior not interested in giving out her hand to the strongest brute in the kingdom, and when her feminist ideals clash with her mother's unwavering traditions it's going to take some serious celtic magic to keep the kingdoms from erupting into war. Possibly one of the most beautiful films produced by Pixar and saddled with some of my favorite voice talents, Brave doesn't quite reach the levels of Up, The Incredibles, or Finding Nemo but it is an exciting adventure story not often seen in contemporary animation. It's got the laughs. It's got the song. But it's also got a giant ass scary one-eyed bear that feels like he's charged right outta a Don Bluth nightmare. And that's awesome.

COMICS OF THE WEEK!

Batman Incorporated:  Grant Morrison's insane Silver Age love affair has all been building to this James Bondesque bit of insanity exploding from Bruce Wayne's Days of Future Past vision...or, rather, his ever inflating ego. Batman has gone global. Gotham City is too damn small and Wayne needs a Bat in every major city on the planet. Japan, you get Mr. Unknown. Argentina - El Gaucho. The Lakota tribe has Man-Of-Bats & Raven. The International Batmen is too dang bonkers not to be based in classic comics and Grant Morrison is My Hero for re-introducing this weirdo idea back into the mythos; where fanboys might be screaming for The Dark Knight Returns over and over again, Morrison is gonna show you the fun of Mighty Lord Death Man (well, he's actually kinda terrifying) or even the Adam West era. You wanna get nuts, let's get nuts.

Fatima - The Blood Spinners #1:  Yeah. So. There is something extremely compelling about the art of Gilbert Hernandez. I cannot quite put my finger on what it is about his style that immediately draws me into the story, but that’s just what happens. Fatima centers around a future society in which a drug called Spin turns good citizens into crazed, raccoon eyed zombies. And Fatima is the government agent sent in to brutally execute the junkies. Not really sure about the story yet, but I certainly love Hernandez’s depictions of blood and brains exiting the zombie noggins. Weird book, but I’ll keep going.

Hawken #4:  I’m still really enjoying Ben & Tim Truman’s weird Western. It’s the closest thing we’ve had to a Joe Lansdale scripted Jonah Hex in quite some time.  Miss that totally Mojo mini series.  Sigh...anyway.  Hawken is still plagued by the ghosts of his kills, but he’s now bedded the evil celestial from the previous issue thanks to the ground up bones of mermaids. Gross. Similar in effect even if it’s wildly different than Gilbert Hernandez’s style, Tim Truman’s art is beautifully ugly and every now and again a panel will punch me smack dab in the eyeballs. Wonderfully strange adventure reading.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #12:  I was kinda hoping we were gonna finally get that meeting between Aunt May and Miles Morales but it looks like we’re going to have to wait for a while. Cuz right now Miles is too busy beating the hell outta his evil uncle Prowler. A good action book with a pretty fantastic ending--did not see that coming. And man, I’m really happy to be back on monthlies with this story.

ROAD TRIP PREPARATION OF THE WEEK!

The San Diego Comic Con:  Ok.  I'm just days away.  The Wife & I fly out on Tuesday, should be arriving around 10AM.  And I'm stoked.  Granted, it kinda sucks that I couldn't score a Four Day Pass for The Wife (she can only attend Thursday & Saturday) but we're both craving the fanboy madness tingles we experienced last year.  Once you drink from the Kool Aid there's no going back to a non Comic Con lifestyle.

Right now, as I type this, The Wife is scrambling to clean and pack our clothes.  I'm going over our checklist with a fine tooth comb.  Cannot forget a thing, but we always do.  And we're debating what panels are essential and what panels we can afford to miss.  And we also have to accept that we're not gonna see everything.  It's impossible.  But what is the dream?  What are the sights we're dying to see this year?

I think the panel I'm most excited to see is Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim.  I still hate that title, but the idea of Del Toro pitting Giant Robots against Giant Monsters...oh yeah, that gets me giddy.  And I really need something from GDT.  It's been too long and this fanboy has been surviving on scraps.

But Comic Con also promises Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, The Expendables 2, Iron Man 3, The Hobbit, Resident Evil 5, William Shatner's Get A Life, and Roger Corman's Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader.  And a Dredd screening Wednesday night to kick it all off.  Fingers crossed on that one, doubt I can make it happen but we'll try.

And The Exclusives!  I snagged a few last year (Gentle Giant's Movie Cap Bust, Entertainment Earth's Twilight Zone Bob Wilson, Dark Horse's Spider-Man/Peter Parker), but I might go a little crazy this year.  Or at least I'm going to give it a try.  I love the MAD Magazine Bats & Robin, but I think my favorite SDCC 2012 exclusive is the Blade 2 Blu Ray & Reaper bust.  And Gentle Giant also has a gorgeous Pale Man statue!  I don't know how I'll get it back to DC but that sure would look pretty in the office.

Then you've got Mondo up to their usual panic inducing tricks.  Looks like artists Olly Moss & Daniel Danger have been partnering up for some really weird Batman prints set to debut on the show floor.  Each print depicts The Batman perched atop a retail chain.  Beautifully weird with a little bit of fanboy commentary.  Don't know if I'll shell out the cash for these but I can't wait to see them at the booth.  And maybe score some other Mondo surprises and rarities.

Right now I'm just counting down the seconds until the plane touches San Diego soil.  Only doing 7 days in the city this year, but we've got a few other non-comic con adventures we want to attend.  And frankly, as much as I'm looking forward to the Con, I'm really just looking forward to a little break from this Virginia weather.  It's freaking sweltering here, and I could totally use some mid range California heat right about now.

I'm going to bring my laptop with me, but I still wouldn't expect a lot of posts from me this week.  If you want all the dirt on Comic Con 2012 though, I will be tweeting like a madman (as usual) from @MouthDork.

--Brad

Dork Art: Mondo's Avengers

Here are the first two (of seven) posters that Mondo is releasing for Marvel's The Avengers.  The Hawkeye is from Tom Whalen and goes on sale 4/20.  The Black Widow is from Olly Moss and hits 4/19.  Not really crazy about either of these two but I eagerly await the Captain America and I'm guessing...Tyler Stout Avengers.