Brad's Week In Dork! (8/31/14-9/6/14)

I'm pretty much all recovered from my Wisdom Tooth surgery.  A little jaw tension, a slight ache.  Saw the doc on Friday, and he told me I didn't have to worry about the other one until next year...unless infection or pain flares up.  Fingers crossed.  Sooooo - good news!  I guess.  This week was a whole heap of random.  On Sunday & Monday, I was pretty much still feeling the aftershocks from the surgery so I  just hopped from one film to the next on VOD, enjoying life from the couch.  No rhyme or reason, just what looked interesting in the moment.  It did lead me down a rabbit whole of Errrol Morris documentaries that I was not expecting.  Enjoyed all three, and will definitely seek out others.  I dragged myself out of the apartment on Tuesday, for an Alamo 100 screening of Singin' in the Rain & I went back for more with JAWS on Thursday.  As Matt said in his Week in Dork, nothing like seeing a classic on the big screen to make you fully appreciate the craft of storytelling.  Still, the big event of the week was the Baltimore Comic Con.  It might not have the big deal celebrities like San Diego or the endless array of Wizard Worlds, but if you're actually into comics there is no better place to be.  Great way to finish off the week.

Fading Gigolo:  Who doesn't love John Turturro?  From Barton Fink to Transformers, whenever the man is on screen I'm entertained.  His directorial efforts have left me a little cold, but they're always interesting in their subject matter.  Fading Gigolo is no different.  After his psychiatrist says too much, Woody Allen encourages Turturro to whore himself out for a three way.  Business booms from there, and Turturro's florist quickly finds himself knee deep in.....money.  Of course, simple sex is never simple.  The subplot of a jewish widow suffering crippling grief takes over the film, distracting from the cartoonish antics of Sharon Stone & Sofia Vergara's sexual predators.  Solid performances from Turturro, Allen, and Liev Schreiber, but Fading Gigolo is ultimately the kind of film you watch once.

Cuban Fury:  When I see Nick Frost why do I always ask, "Where's Simon Pegg?" but the same is not true when it's just Pegg on screen?  Nick Frost is certainly talented.  The man makes me laugh, but he always seems like half a double act.  Maybe it's simply that Frost is not always part of the cleverest of projects.  Cuban Fury is decent.  The story of a onetime salsa prodigy returning to the sport in an effort to win true love is chuckle-worthy and cute.  It's not ground breaking.  Chris O'Dowd being regulated to office douche bag is certainly disappointing.  Ian McShane as the salsa coach gets some laughs, but the film could have done more with him (a complaint often associated with McShane movies - ALWAYS MORE MCSHANE!!).  You could do worse than Cuban Fury, but it's no Edgar Wright film....a very tough, and probably cruel comparison.  Still.

Rage:  "Who did it?  WHO DID IT!?!!  WHODIDITWHODIDITWHODIDIT WHODIDITGWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Oh Nicolas Cage, you so crazy.  Except you really aren't these days.  The above quote is a five second scream almost worthy of yesteryear.  Almost.  I'm not going to use this space to continue the narrative of Nic Cage's disappointing direct-to-dvd downfall, but I don't mind lamenting for a bit.  Season of a Witch, I miss you - never mind Con Air, The Rock, and Adaptation.  Rage could have been a kickass revenger in which Cage brutalizes the bastards responsible for his daughter's murder.  Unfortunately, the film is a boring collection of scenes pretending to be hardcore.  Embarrassingly dull.  Can the upcoming Left Behind prove a return to that mega-acting glory?  I'm always the optimist.

The Thin Blue Line:  In 1976, Randall Adams was convicted and sentenced to death for the shooting death of patrolman Robert Wood.  Errol Morris' documentary, through dramatic reenactments and various interviews with the people surrounding the trial, makes a strong, and ultimately convincing case for Adams' innocence.  How did Adams end up behind bars?  Bad timing?  Poor decisions?  The terrifying morality behind the Texas judicial system?  Yeah, that last one.  The Paradise Lost of its day, thanks to The Thin Blue Line Adams was eventually released from prison.  Should be required viewing for all Americans.

Singin' In The Rain:  I've watched the film twice now, and I still agree with my Cinematic Resolution assessment, it's absolutely a "joyous outpouring" of cinema.  Gene Kelly is a tap dancing man's man - something I didn't even know was possible until I saw Singin' In The Rain.  Jean Hagen's blonde dimwit is a tad too obvious at times, and I never quite understood her romantic roadblock.  But, thankfully, the love triangle is not the showpiece, as Singin in the Rain is rather a rollicking tour through Hollywood's early history.  Like The Artist, Gene Kelly is not willing to let modernity roll him over, and thanks to a little nudging from partners Debbie Reynolds & Donald O'Connor, he invents a new style of storytelling.  I'd probably rank Singin' in the Rain as my third favorite musical, right behind The Blues Brothers & West Side Story.  Hard to beat a Mission from God & Shakespeare.

Tabloid:  Another Eroll Morris doc, but maybe not such the essential viewing for the American populace.  Let's see if I can give the content it's proper justice - In 1977, beauty queen Joyce McKinney was arrested in England for kidnapping Mormon Missionary Kirk Anderson & holding him prisoner in a Devon cottage where she chained him to a bed & forced intercourse.  They had been a one-time couple, and McKinney claimed that the Mormon Church had brainwashed her beloved.  Once the tabloid papers got their claws into the story, they uncovered that McKinney was a former S&M model, sometimes prostitute, who often used her sexual wiles to conquer the minds of men.  Or is McKinney a simple victim of love gone sour?  Also, what does this have to do with dog cloning???  It's a damn strange story, and who knows what really went down in '77, but Morris details a fascinating story.  These days McKinney regrets taking part in the documentary, saying that Morris misrepresented her side of the story, but it's hard to argue with the words coming out of her mouth.  Tabloid is bonkers all around.

The Unknown Known:  Who knows why, but for some reason Donald Rumsfeld agreed to be interrogated by Errol Morris.  I certainly see what Morris had to gain, but what did Rumsfeld?  That question is never really answered.  Well, the former Secretary of Defense certainly doesn't take a beating?  He can dish it better than he can take it.  And Morris does not come across as the Liberal Shining Knight.  I'm not a terribly political person.  The game has never interested me - disturbed me, scared me more like it.  The Unknown Known picks over some of the most disturbing history in modern America, filtered through Rumsfeld's participation.  He defends in some cases.  He questions in others.  He sometimes shrugs when the words are simply not there.  How will the Bush Jr administration go down in history's annals?  Time will tell - The Unknown Known is not the revelation some will want.

JAWS:  I love this film.  Sometimes it's hard to keep talking about the films you love.  How many ways can I say that Steven Speilberg's Jaws is one of The Great Films?  This is the second time I've seen the film on the big screen.  It's a whole different experience when Bruce stretches his 25 feet across the entire width of your vision.  It's genuinely AWEsome.  I've seen the film a hundred times, and you'd think there would be nothing new to see.  This go-around, instead of focusing on the genius of Robert Shaw's shark killer, I attached myself to Roy Scheider in a way that's never happened before.  The scene where his son mimics his movements around the dinner table - "Give me a kiss." "Why?" "Cuz I need it."  Just crushing.  I'm an emotional guy, I cry all the time at the movies, but this was the first time I teared up during Jaws.  I cherish the way Chief Brody can never finish a meal, that fear bubbling in his stomach.  And the way Brody pushes through that fear, eventually delivering him to that ship's mast, a rifle in his hand, and a final quip on his lips - "Smile you son of a bitch."  This film spawned forth an infinite spew of knockoffs, but what the wannabes never understood was that Jaws is not about the big beastie.  Jaws is all about character.  How these three very disparate men come together to tackle their own demons.  Brody, the failed New York cop fighting through fear to protect family & home.  Hooper, the rich kid oceanographer making a name for himself through a passion for fish.Quint, the emotionally wrecked sailor, killing sharks as revenge for all those sailors lost at sea.  I love Orca as much as the next guy, but it's just not Jaws.

Wayne's World:  Man, I used to love this movie so much.  I might not have watched it as much as Jaws, but I've seen it a few dozen times or so.  But I have not bothered with Wayne & Garth in several years.  Just one of those movies that floated out to sea.  Friday afternoon, I played a little game of Netflix Roulette & suddenly I was "Party On."  It's a cute film, but it's also completely rooted in my teen years.  I can't disassociate it from my teenager brain, nostalgia lost.  Rob Lowe, there's no better sleaze.

Double Indemnity:  "I'm rotten to the heart."  When most hear Film Noir most think Double Indemnity. With good reason.  It's a hateful bastard of a film.  Fred MacMurray is an insurance investigator who falls for Barbara Stanwyck's Femme Fatale, and agrees to bump off her husband in exchange for sex & money.  The guy's a dope.  The dame's a demon.  They deserve each other.  Billy Wilder is much beloved in Hollywood; he made every kind of movie, but his best were the ugly ones.  Double Indemnity & Ace in the Hole sizzle with mean, cold, rage fueled dialog.  Immoral men and women damning themselves with every word.  I love it.  If I took any issue with Double Indemnity it's that Barbara Stanwyck has never worked for me as a Fatale.  I've never understood her allure, how she pulled MacMurray's dope into her web?  Switch her out with Gloria Graham or Veronica Lake, and I get it, but Stanwyck is an off-putting creature.  The film though, is delightfully nasty.

Baltimore Comic Con:  There were not a lot of new faces in the crowd of Comic Book creators this year.  Sure, they're were some big guns (Greg Capullo, Francesco Francavilla, Eric Powell, Jim Starlin, etc), but they're regulars at this point and there was no need to wait in any lines.  I spent the majority of Saturday snapping photos of cosplayers and diving deep into the dealer's room.  I brought less money this year than I've ever had before, but thanks to $5 Trades, 50% off tables, and dealers willing to haggle, I walked away with more comics than any previous Balticon.  My favorite get was the X-Statix Omnibus which retailed for $125, but I scooped it up for $49.  I also grabbed volume 1 of Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man, Superman - Secret Origin, Walt Simonson's Thor, a few Shazam classics, and a treasure edition of Jack Kirby's 2001 A Space Odyssey.  Comics, man.  That's what it's all about.  Time & money deemed only one day for Baltimore this year, but I had as much fun as I've ever had.  Still, it would have been nice to sit in on some panels.  Next year, next year.

--Brad

Matt’s Week in Dork! (8/31/14-9/6/14)

    I feel like I didn’t get a lot done this week, but I also know I was out and about, and very busy for most of it.  My downtime on Sunday and Wednesday night was just so unproductive…Anyway.

    Seeing two classics on the big screen this week did remind me of a few things.  Movies are simply better on the big screen.  Not only the size of the screen and (hopefully) the immersive sound.  But also the group viewing experience.  You can feel the crowd, sense their reactions.  At Singin’ in the Rain, you could feel the joy, hear the feet tapping with the music, and catch the giggles at various jokes.  At Jaws, you could feel the tension, hear the intakes of breath, and yeah, I heard that little kid nearby announce that she’d spotted the shark.  And having seen both films on the small screen, in the privacy and comfort of my own home, I can say that seeing it in a theater with a bunch of people was better.  Yes, you run the chance of having a bad experience.  Yes, I had that awful child with the jittery legs and the constant sniffing (seriously, two hours of sniff…sniff….sniff…sniff) when I went to see King Kong.  But those are relatively rare.  If you’re just watching movies at home, you’re missing out on the wonderful and strange experience of group viewing.  And living here, in the greater Washington D.C. area, I’m so lucky.  We have theaters all around, and many of them run various older films for special showings.  The Alamo, The AFI Silver, The Angelica, even the Rave at Fairfax Corner all do special showings of classics, 80s nostalgia, and more.  However, I’ve been very frustrated to see how little reaction local film buffs have to this.  I talk to movie fans all the time, and they always have excuses as to why they don’t go out and support this awesome activity.  The excuse usually comes down to ‘it’s too expensive’ or ‘I’m too lazy to be bothered.’  Now, the price, I get.  It’s not cheap to go to the movies.  I’d argue that most people I talk to would go spend that money on something equally frivolous (or more) like drinking at a bar or over-paying for sushi.  But whatever.  The laziness thing actually pisses me off.  ‘It’s too far to drive?’  We live in an area where there are almost as many movie theaters as Starbucks.  The Alamo recently tried to do a Spaghetti Western series, but each showing had less and less people, until they just canceled it.  That pretty much says to me that my hoped for Martial Arts film series won’t happen.  When we go to the AFI to watch some amazing screenings of movies like Sweet Smell of Success or Razorback, the place is mostly empty.  A beautiful, huge, comfortable theater with good popcorn and clean bathrooms, and nobody goes!?  I know not everyone is into movies like I am, or like Brad is.  But we have some amazing opportunities to see great films in the way they were intended (on the big screen, with crowds of other people), and on the whole, we’re squandering it.  We’re voting with our dollars to be stuck in our homes, being schlubs, not socializing or supporting interesting things.  It makes me sad.

    On Sunday, I did manage to finish up reading the newest Philip Reeve (with Sarah McIntyre) book, Oliver and the Seawigs.  It’s a cute, if slight kids book.  Probably best for kids graduating from stuff like the Magic Tree House or Boxcar Children to slightly more advanced books like Geronimo Stilton.  The illustrations are copious and enjoyable.  Reeve always weaves a good yarn, but I can’t help but want something a bit more meaty from him.  His last book, Goblins, was also a lot of fun in that Lloyd Alexander sort of way.  But I’m hoping for something a bit more Mortal Engines.  I just don’t know if he’s all that interested in writing the bigger, more epic, big-idea science fiction.  But I can hope.  He remains one of only two writers (Christa Faust being the other) I’ll buy anything written by, sight unseen.

 Masters of Sex: Season 1:  A good companion show to Mad Men, Masters of Sex actually gets some things right more often.  Like Masters’s family life is actually interesting, and his wife feels like a human character.  The show is cute, awkward, touching, sad, and occasionally uplifting and wonderfully pro-science.  I tip my hat to everyone involved.  The cast is excellent, with not only a good core group, but lots of very good supporting character performances.  There's a lot of good TV being made these days if you take the time to seek it out.  This is on that list, for sure.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhass:  Visually rich, this historic drama about a man pushed too far by injustice never quite becomes the movie you keep wanting it to become.  Throughout, it sets the stage for some grim, revenge fueled violence, but time and again fails to deliver.  Medieval Death Wish turns into Medieval Sleep Wish.

Singin’ in the Rain:  Seeing the film for my second time, and my first on the big screen, I feel comfortable calling this one of the best movie musicals of all time, and a wonderful movie all around.  And, like The Artist, which covers the same general subject, this is a movie for lovers of movies.  The silent era fades and the passing fad of sound takes over.  The musical numbers are great, but the story itself is also engaging.

Jaws:  My first viewing of Jaws on the big screen, and I’ve never enjoyed it more.  Jaws is a weird one for me.  On the one hand, I know it’s an excellent movie.  And while I’m watching it, I love it.  But when I’m not watching it, I’m not thinking about it.  It holds little sway over me.  Yet, while I was watching it, I loved it more than ever before.  The camaraderie that develops is beautifully played, with Robert Shaw as the salty old seaman, Richard Dreyfuss as the rich nerd who turns out to be as tough as the old man, and Roy Scheider as the cowardly cop, trying to overcome crushing fear.  An awesome movie all around, and a good reminder of what can be done with practical effects, and how they would not translate to CGI.  Look at this movie, and then imagine what it would look like if made on a substantial budget today.  It wouldn’t look so good, I can tell you that.

Magic in the Moonlight:  I don’t like Woody Allen movies since way back.  And I generally try to avoid them (especially if he appears in ‘em).  But I also find Colin Firth to be infinitely charming, and I do like old timey Europe.  Set in the Jazz age, the movie is about a stage magician/fraud debunker who finds himself believing in the possibilities of the supernatural when he meets a profoundly gifted young spiritualist.  There’s a lot of cute and some funny.  I found the presentation of Firth’s skeptic a bit annoying, as it felt like the condescending way they tend to be portrayed in many mainstream movies and more expectedly in Christian themed film.  Yet that portrayal belied the message of the film.  Which was lacking in what the kids call subtlety.  My other complaint is that it felt too long.  The last 30 or so minutes could probably have been trimmed to 10 minutes and been much, much better.

    On Saturday, Lisa, Brad and I headed up to Baltimore for the Comic Con.  We also met Robert and Emily there.  I believe a good time was had by all, though the first half was a bit rough for me, as I developed a debilitating headache (something I’m generally not prone to) and had a hard time thinking about anything else.  After taking some drugs, eating lunch, drinking a bunch of water, and seeing Thor stride forth from the men’s room in a manner befitting the God of Thunder, I felt better and was more into it.  With nobody I was especially interested in seeing, I looked around Artists Ally and the vendor booths a bit more than usual.  Actually, I feel like I was around the vendor booths WAY more than usual this year, and there were some very good deals.  A lot of trades for deep discounts.  But oddly, there seemed to be a lot of repetition in what was available.  I don’t know if all these folks got their bulk purchases from the same place or what.  But you’d see volume 2 of a slightly obscure series at every booth.  Anyway.  It was weird.  Overall, the show seemed pretty good, there was a lot of good cosplay (can’t believe I just wrote that), and everyone seemed to be having a good time.  One thing though, parents, don’t be dumb.  Keep better track of your children.  I think in all the years previous that I’ve visited this convention, I’ve heard perhaps one or two announcements about lost children/parents.  This year, it seemed to happen every five minutes.  What’s up people?

Photo credit: Brad.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Dork Art: The Mighty Quint

The internet is filled with all kinds of confused genre mashups, but this nutter from artist PJ McQuade has to be one of my all time favorites.  Not satisfied with the bloody climax of Jaws?  That's okay cuz now we know that The Might Quint crawled his wartorn ass out of the shark like Boba from the Sarlacc.  But the real question is, what lurks within the pages of this comic?  What other adventures will The Mighty Quint have?  I want more McQuade.  I smell webcomic.

--Brad

Dork Art: Mondo Spielberg

Mondo's got a couple of nifty Spielberg prints going on sale tomorrow at a random time.  Not sure that either of them are essential purchases, but I'm seriously tempted by the above work of Laurent Durieux.  The calm before the storm, poor little Pippet in the back there.  Both measure 24 x 36, Mike Mitchell's ET will set you back $45 and the Jaws print is running $60.  If you're interested you better be watching Mondo's Twitter feed like a hawk.  I haven't scored one of their prints legitimately in nearly a year.

--Brad

Dork Art: This Popeye Scares Me

GAH!!!!!  Phew.  Ok.  This bit of Popeye Dork Art from deviant artist axlsalles floored me.  And after I changed my drawers I had the sudden thought that this is the Popeye I want to see on the big screen.  A badass, no-nonsense, spinach loving sailor who once worked the boiler room with Robert Shaw's Quint from Jaws.

--Brad

A Fistful of Sailors! (Brad's Picks)

So...it's been three weeks since The Avengers...and the follow up Summer Blockbusters have been Dark Shadows and Battleship...anyone excited about those?  Not me.  I'm somewhat curious about Battleship...it's got Liam Neeson in it afterall, but we know he's gonna bite it fifteen minutes into the flick and John Carter is gonna have to take control....snooze.  Sure, Peter Berg is supposedly the son of a Naval historian and he's gone out of his way to accurately depict these alien war game shenanigans but that's not gonna mean a damn thing once Rihanna sucks up the screen with her tough girl act.  Besides, I still say the best movie Peter Berg has ever been attached to is Shocker--yeah, you heard me!

Sooooooo anyway, below is my list of the five Navy Men who could wipe the floor with Taylor Kitsch.

5.  Casey Ryback (Under Siege):  Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey never had a chance against this former Navy Seal turned Cook and his amazing slap fighting.  And if you're a Playboy playmate trapped inside a cake for four or five hours, you will not be able to resist his bacon greased voice.  Yes, Under Siege is a not-so-subtle rehash of Die Hard, but as far as ripoffs go, it's a whole lotta goofy fun.  And it's one of Steven Segal's best efforts.

4.  Shipwreck (GI Joe: A Real American Hero):  Ok.  So Shipwreck was always one of my least favorite Joes as a kid.  And there rarely seems a need for him to pop up with his parrot and his salty sea metaphors.  But dammit, when Cobra took to the water there was no better man to man the 14"/50 caliber gun.

3.  Lieutenant Coffey (The Abyss):  Man, I was really tempted to pick Michael Biehn's Lt. Curran from Navy Seals but even I have a hard time justifying that wonderful bit of madness.  So I'm gonna go with his psychotic Seal from James Cameron's adventure under the sea.  Whew.  That mustache.  So damn scary.

2.  Buddusky (The Last Detail):  My dad did 20 years in the Navy.  I remember being a kid and asking him what movie portrayed the Navy in a true manner and his response was Hal Ashby's The Last Detail.  I was 14 or 15 when I rented it.  And it blew my mind.  Could my Dad have behaved like this? Could he have been a part of the demented B.S. witnessed in this horror show?  To this day, I find The Last Detail to be an incredibly disturbing film for that reason alone.  But it's been 15 years since I've seen it.  Maybe it's not as troubling as I remember.  And maybe I could understand Jack Nicholson's character a little better.  I don't know...

1.  Quint (Jaws):  Sometimes around here, it seems like it always goes back to JAWS.  But when you're talking badass seamen how can Quint not be at the top of the list?  Having survived the horrors of the war aboard the doomed USS Indianapolis, Quint meets his fate aboard his own vessel hacking at Death with a machete and screaming his hate into the belly of the beast.  Are you going to tell me that the crew of this weekend's Battleship could muster up such a feat?  Doubtful.

--Brad

JAWS Blu Ray Restoration!

JAWS is finally hitting blu ray on August 15th, and below is a cool little video depicting the restoration process.

--Brad

Brad's Week in Dork! (1/15/12-1/21/12)

I might not have consumed as many films as I did last week, but I sure had a productive Week in Dork.

After much thought and discussion, I finally kicked off my Westerns Review series over at Cineawesome with the Henry King directed, The Gunfighter.  The purpose of these reviews is not to chat on about all those Great Films like The Searchers or The Wild Bunch, but to tackle lesser known classics or forgotten oddities.  So you can expect to see reviews of The Ox-Bow Incident, The Shooting, Tom Horn, Silent Tongue, Seraphim Falls, and The Proposition in the near future.

And I'm still obsessing over Roger Comran flicks.  After several years of yearning, I finally got my hands on a copy of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre and I was kinda shocked at it's superior quality.  The next goal is to track down X The Man with the X-Ray Eyes and Apache Woman.  The goal is to see all the films referenced in Corman's World that I have not yet devoured.

And the boob tube was another big time killer this week.

TV OF THE WEEK!

Boardwalk Empire Season One:  Most of my week was taken up with my new found obsession, Boardwalk Empire.  A lot of folks I trust told me not to expect much from this show, but I was hooked from the very first pilot and I honestly can't remember the last time an obsession took hold so quickly.  Of course, I love the era.  Prohibition.  Background players made up of a young Capone, Lansky, and Lucky Luciano.  But this is Steve Buscemi's show, and he is utterly brilliant as the puppet master Nucky and Michael Shannon's psychotic G-Man scares the crap outta me.  The season wrapped up a little too neatly and I was left wanting more from some of the supporters like Dabney Coleman's Commodore and Shea Whigham's weak little brother, but I cannot wait to see what violence erupts in the second season.

Supernatural Season 7 Episode "Adventures in Babysitting" & "Time After Time After Time":  Last week's Babysitting Adventure was absolutely terrible thanks to some horrifically annoying teenager casting, but the time traveling Chronos hunt was heaps of fun.  The giddy joys of watching Jensen Ackles run 20s slang against his new partner, Elliot Ness (The X-Files' bastard turncoat, Nicholas Lea!) was nearly uncontrollable.  I swear this show makes me feel like a twelve year old girl, but I love it.  Sure, this season feels a little bit like it's jumped the shark but I could see it regaining steam once the Leviathan Hunt gets proper.

Justified Season 3 Episode "The Gunfighter":  The third season starts off proper with Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins coming to blows in the US Marshals office sending the bad boy Boyd back upstate, Raylan licking his wounds.  But that's just the first of several confrontations in this ep:  Ava & Devil & The Frying Pan, the new big bad Neal McDonough & the in-over-his-head Emitt Arnett, and Raylan's showdown with ice-picker Fletcher.  The overall season arc is not as obvious as last year's, but I can't wait to see where these cowboys go.


MOVIES OF THE WEEK!

The Gunfighter:  ‎"Get Killed Somewhere Else!" Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances (and quite possibly his finest performance) as the aging (35 years old!) shootist Jimmy Ringo, a man who can't seem to sip a drink without some whelp interrupting him with gunfire. Set mostly in one saloon, tended by a young Karl Malden, The Gunfighter is a near brilliant Western of claustrophobic beauty that set the standards for morally ambivalent Eastwood flicks like The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven. The script offers lots to chew on with White Hats, Black Hats, and No Hats attempting conflict with Peck's sure aim. And there is an absolutely killer climax.  To read further of my uncontrollable Western love, read my full review over at Cineawesome!

Jackson County Jail:  ‎"They're Going To Kill You." "That Don't Matter. I Was Born Dead." Dang depressing exploitation flick. I really love the first fifteen/twenty minutes and the last fifteen/twenty minutes, but the middle is bogged down in a lot of mundane scripting. A young, Rolling Thunder era Tommy Lee Jones partners up with the savage housewife, Yvette Mimieux after her brutal rape inside a hick jailhouse. Jones is a disgusting brute, but has wonderful chemistry with Mimieux and their final getaway had me cheering the way only B Movie exploitation can. Not a great film, but a must-see for fans of the Roger Corman sensibility.

Haywire:  ‎20 days into the new year and I've finally seen my first new release of 2012. Haywire is a decent enough action flick with director Steven Soderbergh seeming to practice a style exercise similar to Joe Wright's Hanna, but nowhere near as engaging thanks to a fairly lifeless performance from MMA fighter Gina Carano. Hmmmm...that's a bit harsh, she gets the job done. But there are several cringe-inducing line readings ("You Better Run") and even though her beastly man-beatings are seriously badass (the Fassbender hotel 'bout being the film's highlight), Carano would probably have been better served as choreographer than actress. The film is lined with several fine actors (Ewan McGregor, Anotonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas) but they all seem to be phoning it in for their director friend. Still, you could do worse than Hanna-lite.

Avalanche Express:  A fascinating, if somewhat disturbing film to watch as a film fan. During production of the film both its director Mark Robson and co-star Robert Shaw died of heart attacks just weeks apart. Robert Rietti was brought on to redo Shaw's audio so for the entire runtime you never once hear's Shaw's actual voice. Honestly, how can you get past that? The actual story of Lee Marvin's secret agent escorting Shaw's Soviet defect across foreign borders is fairly dullsville anyway, but it becomes downright surreal with the dubbing. And apparently Monte Hellman and Gene Corman (brother to Roger) were brought on to finish the picture. A bizarre viewing experience.

99 and 44/100% Dead:  Well, this one is just bonkers. The back of the box says "In a future where the laws of reality have been suspended, Harry Crown (Richard Harris) is a hit man..." Well, this ain't sci-fi. And I don't know about this future business. I think it just takes place in a zany comedy world where gunshots are the norm and Chuck Conners can be taken semi-seriously with his interchangeable mechanical arm as he battles it out with Richard Harris in his amazing pair of goofy-cool, thick rimmed glasses. Seriously, what the hell is going on in this film. I need to watch it again. With people. Special People, who can handle the title let alone its whacky antics.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre:  Directed with the sure hand of a mature Roger Corman, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is a low-budget, but definitely Hollywood attempt at historical accuracy centering around the infamous 1929 gangland killings of 7 of Bugs Moran's (Ralph Meeker) bootlegger goons. Stuffed with Paul Frees' Dragnet narration, the movie delivers a fairly emotionless account of the events leading up to the killings but thankfully fills the roles of dozens of key characters with fine performances. Jason Robards is piles of fun as the baseball bat swinging Al Capone, and George Segal is genuinely scary as the sandwich chomping lady-beater Peter Gusenberg. And don't blink or you'll miss uncredited assassins Jack Nicholson and Dick Miller.

COMIC BOOKS OF THE WEEK!

BPRD Hell on Earth Volume 2--Gods and Monsters:  Having spent decades in the Marvel and DC Universes where catastrophic events (Magneto flipping the world's axis once or twice, for example) it is utterly refreshing to experience the catastrophes on display in The Mignolaverse. B.P.R.D started out as a minor, sister-title to Hellboy but has nearly become the the go-to book for the Hellboy & Co saga. Hell on Earth Volume 1 began with the end of the Frog War and the volcanic devastation of Texas. Volume 2 picks up with horrendous, Hyperborean beasts roving and ravaging good 'ole U.S.of A. Firestarter Liz has gone trailerpark awol and Abe may be the new beast of the Frog Apocalypse. The book literally coaxed a gasp of shock from me at one point, and I'm dying to see where Volume 3's Russia takes the horrors of this story. Whatever the case, the world's axis will not be reset to A-okay.

Witchfinder Volume 2--Lost and Gone Forever:  Mike Mignola's 19th Century Occult Investigator leaves the gothic confines of London for the zombified Wild West of the Americas. And that's kinda my problem with the whole venture. Even though it's rather fun to see Grey parlay with Will Bill Hickock types and rassle demon dogs and you do get a quick peak at his lycanthropic origin--it's just too early in this series to have Grey doing global field trips. Maybe if this was Volume 5 or 6, but I'm just dying to see Grey battling Satan for The Queen.  Still, John Severin's art is bloody brilliant and reminiscent of the best of Richard Corben, especially when handling those demon dogs.

--Brad