Category Archives: reviews
Heroes and Villains – Reviewing Recent Comics 6-28-2017
This time on Heroes and Villains, we’ll be looking at a variety of comics out this week and last, from a variety of genres. Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on Bankshot #1, Batman #25, Aquaman #25, Conan the Slayer #10, Robyn Hood: Tarot One-Shot, and WWE #6… be warned, there may be spoilers…
Heroes and Villains – Reviewing Recent Comics 6-21-2017
This time on Heroes and Villains, we’ll be looking at a variety of comics out this week and last, from a variety of genres. Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on Legion of Super-Heroes/Bugs Bunny #1, Dark Days: The Forge #1, Bill & Ted Save the Universe #1, Black Hammer #10, Victor LaValle’s Destroyer #2, Red Agent: The Human Order #8, Plastic #3, Kong of Skull Island #12, Empowered #10, Spencer & Locke #1-3, and Bug! The Adventures of Forager #1-2 from the Allreds… This is another loaded week, so who needs Secret Empires when we have so many other cool things to check out, be warned, there may be spoilers…
Heroes and Villains – Reviewing Recent Comics 6-14-2017
This time on Heroes and Villains, we’ll be looking at a variety of comics out this week and last, from a variety of genres. Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern #5, Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens #4, Bitch Planet Triple Feature #1, Kill the Minotaur #1, Space Riders: Galaxy of Brutality #2, American Gods #4, Harrow County #24, Geek-Girl #4, Sons of Anarchy: Redwood Original #11, Normandy Gold #1, the Savage Dragon: Warfare trade, and the new book on Reed Crandall from TwoMorrows… This is a loaded week, so who cares about Secret Empire when we have so many other cool things to check out, be warned, there may be spoilers…
Now Streaming On Shudder: Takashi Miike’s ‘Audition’
One of the best things about the horror streaming service Shudder is the depth and breadth of its catalogue. It features not only low-budget films that have been overlooked, but also classics of the international horror canon.
Takashi Miike is an incredibly prolific director, having helmed more than 90 films since he began his career in 1991. One of his most well-known movies is 1999’s Audition. As a newcomer to Miike’s filmography, I felt it was time for me to finally tackle a film that often appears on lists of the greatest horror films ever made.
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Here’s What’s Fantastic About “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
Throw on some jazz, pour a glass of Giggle Water, and curl up with your favorite bowtruckle, we’re talking Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, on this spoiler-free review.
31 Days of Horror 2016: Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek
It’s the horror film that will actually make you want to turn off the lights. On today’s installment of “31 Days of Horror,” it’s the short, Japanese animated film, Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek.
Review: “Suicide Squad” Is All Guts, No Glory, And That’s OK
You don’t have to go very far to get an opinion on the new Suicide Squad film. Chances are, you hit the Internet and the first thing that comes up are the negative reviews. And there are a lot of them.
It’s a shame, really. All of us comic book and pop culture fans wanted the film to be great, didn’t we? We wanted to be thrilled at the idea of a group of hardened criminals, forced to work together for a greater good. We wanted to see the new twists and turns of the DC Expanded Universe (DCEU) as its film empire gets firmly rooted, takes shape, ushers us all forward. Hell, we wanted to see Jared Leto’s crazy-looking Joker!
The truth is the film is certainly flawed in its story. You just can’t hide that fact. But the film is not as bad as the many reviews have been saying, thank goodness.
Suicide Squad is not pretty, but it’s definitely got some guts – and a lot of heart – in it.
“Stranger Things” Spooks Us Back into the Supernatural 1980s
While it’s the job of a publicist to sell audiences on entertainment media, sometimes there is false advertising. Not so with Stranger Things, the latest offering from The Duffer Brothers (Wayward Pines). The show is described as “a love letter to the ‘80s supernatural classics that captivated a generation,” a synopsis that might sound cliché but is delightfully accurate.
Stranger Things is set in the small town of Hawkins, Minnesota in 1983. For those of us who grew up during that decade and think of it with fondness, our first instinct is to look for mistakes. The folks behind Stranger Things, however, have done their homework. The production design and costumes make us truly feel like we’re in 1983. This is not the glossy Miami Vice ’80s or even the 1998 version as seen in American Psycho; this is the station wagon, button-down shirts, wood paneling, macramé and latch-hook, crappy TV sets, last gasp of the 1970s-version of the ‘80s, which is exactly what it was like for most of us in middle-class America.
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Winter at TIFF: Wim Wenders’ Early Shorts
As part of their expansive retrospective on the exceptional German director Wim Wenders, The TIFF Bell Lightbox delivers a rare opportunity to see the man’s early short films as one screening. Most of these films date back to the late 1960s when Wenders was a film student in Munich. The films are the collected diaries of a young filmmaker experimenting with the medium, searching for his voice. While many of the films feel like fragmented snapshots of little consequence, it is evident that a vision is starting to form. Viewing the compilation in the context of Wenders’ later work, it is miraculous to see the jump in craftsmanship in such a short amount of time.
Less Lee Moore Reviews New Horror Film Jeruzalem
Jeruzalem, the first feature from brothers Doran and Yoav Paz, has a tantalizing premise. For one thing, it’s not a found footage movie, at least according to the pair of Israeli filmmakers. They have called Jeruzalem a “POV” film, which is quite accurate and could probably be applied to a few more recent horror films like Open Windows, iLived, and Unfriended. It’s an interesting idea, but does it work? Yes and no, but more on that later.
