I was never a big fan of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers when it was on FOX back in the 90s, but I did watch the show. I knew enough to know characters and some monsters. My favorite Ranger was Tommy, both as the Green Ranger and then later as the White Ranger. Sure, it was repetitive and fairly stupid, but it still had its charm and there can be no denying the cultural significance of the show.
That was why I was unexpectedly excited about the new one shot special on Netflix with the reunion of the original team of Rangers.
Of course, I knew that two of the original cast were no longer with us as Thuy Trang, who played the Yellow Ranger, died in a car crash when she was 27, and Jason David Frank, who played Tommy the Green Ranger took his own life last year.
However, it became clear that this was not going to be a reunion of the surviving Power Rangers as Amy Jo Johnson, who was the Pink Ranger, and Austin St. John, who was Jason the Red Ranger, were nowhere to be seen in this new show. All we get from these characters are in costume heroes with helmets on. I think they used their voices in some of the action scenes.
There was a return for Black Ranger Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones) and Blue Ranger Billy (David Yost). They also tossed in a couple of other Rangers from one of the countless rebooted series over the years to fill in with the missing colors- Rocky for Red (Steve Cardenas) and Kat as Pink (Catherine Sutherland).
This show added Minh (Charlie Kersh), the daughter of Thuy Trang’s character and the legacy replacement for the Yellow Ranger. Barbara Goodson voiced Robo Rita, a replacement for the arch villain Rita Repulsa, who was originally played by the late Machiko Soga.
I have to say… with the missing cast members, this did not strike the nostalgia button enough to overlook how horrendous this thing was. It was such a disappointment. I am not sure why I thought it was so disappointing as I was never a huge fan, but I found this nearly unbearable to watch and I could sit through episodes of the original series.
The acting was not very good. To be fair, I thought Walter Jones’s Zack was not too bad. He was the acting standout of this, but that is not saying much. The rest of the cast was robotic, and I don’t just mean Rita.
The action was weak, the dialogue was lacking and the story had holes throughout it. Yes, I know that the original show was never an Emmy winning quality, but, again, I could watch it if I was waiting to get to Spider-Man Animated series or The Tick.
I did like how they addressed the Yellow Ranger’s absence, making it a huge part of the plot, but it was never sufficiently dealt with in any emotional sense.
Easily the best part of the entire show was the archival footage they had of the original Rangers sitting around with Amy Jo Johnson playing the guitar as Walter Jones joined her singing. This one moment brought more nostalgia and feelings than anything else that this show had. They really needed more of this type of scenes.
Any feeling of anticipation I had for this special was gone ten minutes into it. What was here just could not measure up to what was missing.
This was a movie that I was not anxious to see. I was not that interested in the film from the trailers and it looked to be longer than I wanted, but it fit into the schedule and I always enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal so I decided to give it a chance.
I am so glad that I did, because I found this movie thrilling and suspenseful throughout.
Sgt. John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) led a battalion of U.S. Army soldiers in the search for explosives through Afghanistan in 2018. When their interpreter was killed in a bombing, John recruited Ahmed (Dar Salim), a local who needed money for his pregnant wife and the offer of a Visa to America.
Ahmed showed himself to be very capable, not only in his interpreting skills, but also his common sense and his knowledge of the Afghan world. However, after an ambush that led not nearly the entire unit being slaughtered, Ahmed had to get the injured John back to his base by dragging him through the mountains of Afghanistan while being pursued by the Talban.
When John awakens in the hospital struggling to remember how he got there, he learns that Ahmed and his family had gone into hiding because of the dangers of the Taliban. Feeling the bond with him, John was determined to return to find Ahmed and to get him out of the country.
There felt like there were two distinct movies here. The first half was the whole in Afghanistan film that saw John and Ahmed working together and carrying out the unit’s mission. This was not just a small bit of the story. It was a heavy section of the film. The second part of the story was John back home trying to obtain a Visa for Ahmed’s family, and hi subsequent return to Afghanistan.
Neither part of the movie was skimped upon and they both worked extremely well. The first half included some amazing action sections and showed what a heroic character Ahmed was. The second part was driven by John’s covenant with Ahmed and John’s guilt-riddled desire to save the man who had, quite literally, saved his life by hauling him back to safety.
I found this amazingly tense and suspenseful. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, especially the section where Ahmed was dragging a semi-conscious John across Afghanistan and the tense action of the ending. Even with a potential deus ex machina, the ending firefight was amazing.
Jake Gyllenhaal is exceptional as he always is. Even if he is in a bad movie, Gyllenhaal always brings his best effort. The bond between Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim was very pronounced and Salim looked to fit on the screen opposite Gyllenhaal. Salim was extremely likable and was so easy to root for.
Guy Ritchie does a fantastic job as the director of this movie, setting up action scenes beautifully and doing am admirable job with the characters.
I really enjoyed this movie. It was long, but I thought it moved fairly well. They did not rush through anything and the flow was good. Gyllenhaal and Salim are epic and the story created a ton of suspense for me. It was very gripping.
A brand new biopic came to theaters this weekend about Joseph Bologne, composer and Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner. Bologne’s work and skills were buried by Napoleon after the French Revolution. It has just been recently where his efforts have been rediscovered.
This was the part of Bologne’s life when he was friends with Queen Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) and trying to be appointed to the head of the French opera. For a competition with Christoph Gluck (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) created his own opera. He wrote the opera for singer Marie-Josephine (Samara Weaving) despite the objections of her husband. The opera led to an affair between them.
The music of this movie was a huge star. I loved the violin duel between Joseph and Mozart (Joseph Prowen) at the beginning of the film. The music throughout was just wonderful to listen to and set the scenes beautifully.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. had a great presence in this movie, carrying himself like a virtuoso and prodigy. I believed he was a master of music, fencing…anything else he was involved with. He and Samara Weaving had a strong chemistry, though you could tell that only bad things were going to be a result of their affair. Weaving had some powerfully emotional moments to perform here and did a stellar job of them.
Lucy Boynton as Marie Antionette gave me Margot Robbie vibes. She did not have a lot of scenes, but she was a prominent feature every time she made it on screen.
I’m not sure how I felt about the finale of the film. It felt a tad unlikely and disappointing. The whole revolution aspect of the plot did not work as well as the relationship between the leads. I felt as if I wanted more at the end. The film could have trimmed off some of the middle parts and extended the end a bit more for some extra heft.
I was not that interested in this movie because I had no idea anything about the person who was Joseph Bologne, but the film did its job well enough to make me curious to find out more about him. That is one of the best things you could say about a biopic.
Let me explain. Todd is my friend who works at Comic World. When I came to the shop this Wednesday for NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, Todd had placed something special in my pull box.
Now, that is not an uncommon event. He has placed certain things in my box multiple times. Sometimes it is a serious thing where he has put a new book that he thinks I would like in the box. He has been right about whether I will like the book a little more than not.
Sometimes he puts some books in my box as a joke. You can practically guarantee that any book featuring bondage will find its way there.
This week, there were actually three comic series in there. An old Storm series, The Unworthy Thor series and Daredevil: End of Days. He had said that the only one that he wanted me to read was the End of Days book, written by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack and art from Klaus Janson.
I already owned The Unworthy Thor and the Storm series (prior to her wedding with Black Panther) did not interest me. However, the Daredevil book was fascinating.
Todd was trying to give me a synopsis of the series because it seemed familiar to me, but I could not make out if I had read this before. He compared this book to Citizen Kane.
Yup, Citizen Kane.
That was all the idea that this book told the final Daredevil story, as he is killed in issue one by Bullseye. Daredevil’s final word: ‘Mapone.’
Much like Rosebud in Citizen Kane, the mysterious word became the key to Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich’s investigation into Matt Murdock’s final days.
Todd promised me that I would like this. He knows that I do not typically enjoy these future stories that are not in continuity. Most of these books annoy me. He told me I would like End of Days.
And despite this type of story is not usually in my wheelhouse, he was right. I loved this.
However, he also told me that he heard that Brian Michael Bendis had said that this would eventually wind up in continuity, that the real world Daredevil would reach this point. In this, I call Hooie. There is no way this series will EVER be anything but a ‘What If’ type story.
That does not take away from it though.
I really enjoyed the story of Ben Urich going around to all of the key individuals in Daredevil/Matt Murdock’s life and seeing how DD’s death affected them and the mystery of what the word Mapone means. The series does a great job including such important characters as Frank Castle, Bullseye, Kingpin, The Owl, Melvin Potter, J. Jonah Jameson and even a short cameo by Peter Parker.
And I do not know how many little red headed kids Matt Murdock has running around in this series. It is true that Matt has always been a player, but, come on, does he ever think about some protection?
It is not a perfect series though. There is a mystery on who a new Daredevil is and it is painfully obvious who it was. I will say the mystery of Mapone is better, but also felt tagged on.
I really enjoyed the art from Klaus Janson, whose dark and moody art fit with the tone of the series. I’ve never been a huge fan of Bendis, but this worked well. There were some covers that had scenes that were not important in the book. Again, that does not bother me much, but it does create some expectations.
Daredevil has been one of my favorite characters in Marvel for some time now and I did love seeing his legacy continuing. Todd, you were right. This was outstanding.
A very interesting week of books this week. I also threw in a couple of books from series that I am working my way through. I am looking forward to several full series reads that I have which will be like the last issue of Man-Eaters.
Jumping right into it.
Middlewest #10. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel meets his grandfather and this has been a really solid twist. All of these characters are intriguing and feel as if they are more than black and white. I found the grandfather very fascinating and I am excited to see where this is heading. Beautiful cover on this issue too.
Newburn #6. “Chapter Six: My Lucky Night” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn Jacob Phillips. This issue of Newburn focused on the Angie backstory, flashing back and forth from the past and present. This also was the first Newburn that felt like a continuing story.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #6. “Chapter Six: Home, Family, and Refuge.” Written by Tom King with art by Bilquis Evely. I had been hard on the last few issues of Supergirl. This was the totally opposite reaction. This issue, dealing with the origin of Supergirl, is my favorite issue of this series so far. I did enjoy the style of writing in this book and the bit about the city from Krypton turning into Kryptonite and poisoning the survivors was rough. Not knowing about Kara, I do not know if that was always part of her story, but I liked the idea. This made me hopeful for the last two issues.
Hallows’ Eve #2. Written by Erica Schultz with art by Michael Dowling. The cover art was by Michael Dowling and Morry Hollowell. Hallows’ Eve is one of the more original and engaging new characters out of Marvel recently and one of the best parts of the Dark Web run. This book has been entertaining so far, but their sudden ends are a little unsatisfying. Otherwise, this has been a lot of fun so far.
New Mutants: Lethal Legion #2. “Terrible Decisions.” With the second issue of this comic, I really enjoyed it too. I specifically had told Todd that I was not a big fan of the X-Men stuff, but this New Mutants book has been great, even if I am not really sure who some of these people are. The combat to attempt to become a new member of the Lethal Legion was clever and hilarious.
House of Slaughter #14. “The Butcher’s Return Part Four.” Jace is in some horrendous trouble. A friend from Jace’s past does not turn out to be quite what he expected as he was in search of Sonny. Continues to be a brutal comic in all the best ways. Written by Tate Brombal and illustrated by Antonio Fuso.
Amazing Spider-Man #24. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by John Romita Jr. We start getting more info behind the things that have happened over the last year, including where these children that Mary Jane apparently have had. I’m not sure how much I buy Spidey doing what he has done with the FF or that the FF would not immediately help Spidey. Still, I believe that Peter was desperate to get back to MJ. It is supposedly building toward a shocking issue soon. We’ll see. I always love Amazing.
She-Hulk #12. Written by Rainbow Rowell with art from Andres Genolet & Joe Quinones. Jen Bartel did the cover art. This new She-Hulk series has been extremely entertaining so far and I loved the extended book for the legacy numbered 175 issue. The backup story with “The First Rule of Book Club” was a ton of fun and featured some awesome cameos from Marvel heroines.
Hellcat #2. “The Know-It-All.” Hellcat’s new series has quickly become one of my favorite reads of the month. The mystery behind the murder of Spalding Grantham, Patsy’s newest fling, deepens this issue and we get an appearance at the very end by Blackheart, who has been pretty busy lately. I am loving this book so far. I love the pairing of Hellcat with the stuffed bunny being possessed by Damien Hellstrom, her former husband the Son of Satan. So far this has been top notch.
Red Goblin #3. Written by Alex Paknadel and drawn by Jan Bazaldua. Inhyuk Lee did the art for the cover. Normie allows the symbiote full reign in order to save his grandfather and fight off the Goblin King and his new Goblin Nation. The end of the book had a couple of pages that were just emotionally powerful with Normie and a dog.
Avengers Assemble Omega #1. “One Last Ride.” Created by Jason Aaron, Aaron Kuder, Dexter Vines, Ivan Fiorelli, Javier Garrón, Jim Towe & Alex Sinclair. Aaron Kuder & Alex Sinclair did the art on the wrap around cover. The huge finale to the Avengers Assemble storyline that has brought Avengers from across the mulitverse and across time to do battle with the Multiversal Masters of Evil. This was fun and did have that epic feel. The final issue written by Jason Aaron, this book wraps up everything he had been setting up for these many years, giving Robbie Reyes a star-making moment. Good stuff.
Warlock: Rebirth #1. “Better Half.” This was unexpected. First of all, this story took place in the past. Back in a time when Gamora and Pip the Troll were involved in the Infinity Watch. However, we get a new character popping out of a cocoon…. Eve Warlock. Hm. I will admit my first thought was to roll my eyes. However, I did find her to be quite kick ass and set up a cool story. I loved the nostalgic feel to the book as the cover had some 80s style design. Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim (who I always enjoyed when was younger).
Harrower #3. Written by Justin Jordan and illustrated by Brahm Revel. High level action in this slasher book and the very end of the issue threw a huge curveball at me. I am not sure 100% what was going on, but it certainly caught my attention. Full of brutal, bloody action, Harrower feels like few other books currently on the market.
When I read the Man-Eaters Vol. 1 trade paperback, I found yet another exceptional series from her. There was Spy Island. Of course, Mockingbird, one of my all-time favorite series. I was excited to see how this amazing series continued.
As I was looking for the series in comic books (besides just in the trade paperbacks), I found that there was a second volume of the regular series, called Man-Eaters: The Cursed and I was excited.
There is so much creativity in this book. From the creative storytelling to the amazing advertisements that fall into the world she is building. It is amazing that Image does not have any ads for their other books in these issues. It is all-encompassing man-eaters.
Man-Eaters #1-12.
The first series was exceptional. We start finding out that some menstruating girls, at one point, started turning into vicious killing werepanthers. Maude is our 12-year old protagonist who is right at the age for the possible transformations. And her father, a detective, is investigating a series of brutal attacks that certainly could be werepanthers. Maude is not sure if she is turning into a killer cat or not.
I love the story and I really love the ending. It switched everything that the series had been working on over the entire run and the ending was a great surprise.
Another fantastic bit of this series is that issue #4, issue #8 and issue #12 have no part of the basic story and are more like magazines or training manuals. Issue eight included a card game that provided the cards on flaps on the inside front and back covers. It feels like a teacher’s manual with games that can be used to instruct students in the problems of menstruations. It is a really cool feature of this.
Man-Eaters: The Cursed #1-5.
The second series took a different path. With the werepanthers wrapped up, we find out that Maude had attended a “Craft Camp” and was the best camper ever. She was sent to the camp once more until she discovered that all the campers, except a boy named Burt, had disappeared.
More so, we discover that the camp was a “Witchcraft” camp and that Maude was a practicing witch.
The Cursed was a shorter run, but it was an even tighter story and was funny and well done.
I know that some people are not fans of how much of a feminist Chelsea Cain is and how much she uses those beliefs in her writing. That has never bothered me. I love a good strong woman. Sure there are plenty of misogynists on the internet or in the world of comic collectors, but that is not my beliefs. I love Chelsea Cain’s work and I find it engaging, entertaining and hilarious.
I hope we get some more in the Man-Eaters world someday.
I’m not sure why this is the case, but it seems as if I like DC Comics’ future/Elseworlds type stories more than I like Marvel ones. The stories in Marvel that are non-continuity (outside of the What If? title) always bug me, but the DC ones does not bother me at all.
For example, for the Comic Cavalcade #11, I have read the Swamp Thing: Green Hell Black Label series. It is clearly a story of a possible future and I found it interesting. I do not feel as if a Marvel book in the same vein would pique my curiosity as this did.
I wonder if the Marvel continuity means more to me since DC has rebooted its continuity multiple times over the years. For better or worse, everything that happens in Marvel, stays.
It is an intriguing thought. Still all of the X-Men futures just do not matter to me. Maybe there have been too may of them. I remember loving Future Imperfect with Maestro/Hulk.
Either way, I’m kicking off #11 with Swamp Thing.
Swamp Thing: Green Hell #1-3. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Doug Mahnke and Shawn Moll. I have never been a huge fan of Swamp Thing, but I have not read much of anything featuring him either. This was very good. I have been loving much of Jeff Lemire’s work lately and this fits in perfectly. I missed out on #1 and then I had seen #2 & #3 in the back issue section at Comic World so I picked them up and searched for #1, which I got at Amazon. These Black Label books have been pretty interesting at DC and the future world tale does not bother me. This had some great storytelling and the art was excellent.
Middlewest #9. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel has a name for the thing on his chest. It was the Heart of the Storm and he is trying to find a way to get it taken off him. Looking for answers, Abel and Fox arrive at the Nowak village with the few remaining Nowaks. The Nowak sent them to see Nokoyuna (and how cool this thing looked).
Nocterra #2. Written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel. Issue #2 is every bit as great as issue #1 was. Maybe even better because there was less world building required and we could just start building suspense and stakes. Blacktop Bill is the name of the all black creature from the end of #1 and he is a bad ass. I continue to love this book so far.
X-Men #21. “Lord of the Brood Part Three“. Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Stefano Caselli. The X-Men continue their battle against the Brood, and it seems as if Scott and Jean are coming down on opposite sides of the fence. Jean is helping Broo set up a colony for the Brood that he can still control via the hive mind and Scott is heading off to join up with the fight Captain Marvel is carrying out in her series.
Sleeping Beauties #4-5. Based on the novel by Stephen King and Owen King. Adapted by Rio Youers with art from Alison Sampson. The Aurora sleeping disease is sweeping the nation and some have decided that trying to burn the cocoon off is a good idea. Things are getting crazier by the minute. There is also a woman in the prison who seems to be immune and able to sleep. That info is causing a ton of strife.
The Silver Coin #9. “The Dancer.” Written by Vita Ayala and drawn by Michael Walsh. This issue finds a crooked cop in possession of the coin and he has to chase after a little girl who witnessed him setting a fire in a building. This is another tragic story with some of humanities worst people. The end of this one was pretty satisfying.
The Ambassadors #2. Written by Mark Millar with art by Karl Lerschl. We meet one of the newest selections for the superhero team, Codename India. He has been given powers over gravity. We get to meet him before he is selected, after he wound up being shot by some terrorists. So far there is not much story, but there are some interesting character development going on.
Newburn #5. “Chapter Five: Luck Ran Out” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Jacob Phillips. Newburn is in jail? How did that happen? I am not sure how I feel about this issue. Newburn is in prison undercover but what he does is kind of questionable. Is Newburn the guy to root for in this book?
Black Cloak #4. Written by Kelly Thompson and with art by Meredith McClaren. Phae and Pax go to see the mermaids and discover who is behind the murder. The problem is, they have no evidence and that makes it practically impossible. We discover the background of why Phae was exiled as well. The first half of the book was a bit slow, but I found it pick up in the second half. It continues to be a fascinating book.
Found this documentary on Peacock today as I was looking around for other things to watch and I thought it would be a fun doc. I enjoyed the weird and mostly fictionalized film Cocaine bear from February this year. I did kn0w that it was based on a true story, and, after viewing this documentary, it was even more apparent that there was very little true within that “based on.”
While it was true that the bear had consumed some cocaine from a duffle bag that had been tossed from an airplane, that is where the similarities ended. In real life, the bear had eaten some of the cocaine and overdosed right beside the bag.
What was most interesting about this documentary was the details and story of the man who had thrown this cocaine from the airplane, and he had died after crashing to the ground when he parachuted out of the plane. He was Kentucky blueblood Drew Thornton, a former paratrooper, police officer and drug runner. When he fell to his death, Thornton was armed with a bunch of weapons, including a watch that could have come right off of James Bond, and a bag strapped to himself containing 70 pounds of cocaine, all while wearing a pair of Gucci loafers.
The doc told Thornton’s story about how he went from the high life in Kentucky to running drugs into the United States. There was still a ton of information that was not known about this tale and it only helped create more of an uncertainty of the situation.
This documentary was short and went quickly. The talking heads of the doc were all interesting and seemed knowledgeable. The doc did its best to tie everything to the cocaine bear, even showing the stuffed remains of what is claimed to be the actual cocaine bear.
Who would guess that a film about a rampaging bear high on cocaine would have a background as wild and crazy as the fiction?
Last night, I attended our high school’s presentation of Matilda, the musical play from 2010 with songs written by Tim Minchin. The kids did exceptionally well. Of course, the movie Matilda the Musical was one of my favorite movies of 2022. All this led me to Netflix today to re-watch the original film from 1996 that had been based upon the book by Roald Dahl.
Directed by Danny DeVito, Matilda (Mara Wilson) was an unwanted young girl by her mean-spirited father Harry Wormwood (Danny DeVito), her selfish mother Zinnia Wormwood (Rhea Perlman) and her brother Michael (Brian Levinson). Matilda spent the first part of her childhood taking care of herself and learning anything she could. When she was finally sent to school, Matilda wound up in the classroom of the sweet Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz). Unfortunately, the school’s principal, Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris), a former Olympic athlete in hammer throw and shotput, was cruel and vicious toward the children. Trunchbull ruled with fear and violence, sending the children she wanted punished to a closet called “the Chokey.”
It had been a long time since I have see this version of Matilda, and I would not be honest if I did not say that the memory of the outstanding musical film, also currently on Netflix, did not affect my viewing of this movie. I remember a couple of times waiting for the song to start, even though I knew that there would be no singing or dancing.
Mara Wilson does a very good job as the titular character. This version spent more time with Matilda prior to her attending school and had more scenes with her mom and dad. Danny DeVito, who also was the narrator of the film, shows the rotten side of Mr. Wormwood throughout the story. Rhea Perlman stood out of the cast as the dingbat wife too. DeVito and Perlman who are married had a strong connection here.
The secondary children characters did not receive much attention here. There was the cake scene with Bruce (Jimmy Karz), but after that seminal scene, we get very little about Bruce. Matilda’s best friend Lavender (Kiami Davael) had a few cute moments, but she is there for just a touch. The children in Matilda the Musical receive much more scene time and are developed into deeper characters.
Pam Ferris was outstanding as Agatha Trunchbull, setting the bar high for the cruel bully type character. Sure, much of the film requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief, Trunchbull remains as one of the top antagonist characters in fiction.
This film does a better job at developing the telekinesis shown by Matilda. We see Matilda practicing it in several scenes before she uses it in a confrontation with Trunchbull.
Matilda (1996) is funny and develops its main characters very well, but the school scenes were not as important feeling since so much of the early film dealt with Matilda’s home life. Still, the outstanding performance by Pam Ferris put a fearful face on the challenge in the story. While I absolutely prefer the recent musical version, Matilda (1996) is a ton of fun and provides an odd tale from the mind of Roald Dahl.
The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, I was unaware Nic Cage was in the movie and it was a shocking moment. It made my anticipation level go up.
Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is Dracula’s familiar, who was responsible for all of the little details that keep Drac alive, including bringing him people to eat. However, after winding up in a support group for people in toxic relationships, Renfield started beginning to wish for a way out of his role. When he helps out police officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), he finds an inspiration to try an do it.
The standouts of this film is certainly Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult. The pair of Dracula and Renfield was excellent. Cage brought his typical Cage-ness to the role, but there is also a depth of character. Sure, there is the expected campiness, but that does not overwhelm the character or the movie. Hoult is outstanding too as he is so relatable and likeable that he is easy to cheer for.
One of my favorite aspects of Renfield was the way it used Cage and Hoult in recreating scenes from the 1931 Dracula from Universal Pictures, starring Bela Lugosi. Nicolas Cage looked just like Lugosi in several of the black-and-white scenes, and they made this film feel like a continuation of that story.
This was written by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ridley. Kirkman, of course, gave us The Walking Dead, and they gave us a film that was full of violence and gore, with blood everywhere. Though I did not notice it, I saw several reviews that stated that the CGI-blood was so prevalent but it never got on Renfield or Officer Quincy. That did not bother me, but if I were to watch it again, it might be something to notice.
The action in this movie was really fun and well choreographed. There was plenty of action that also led into the dark comedy of this movie.
I did like Awkwafina in the film, though a lot of her character’s story was not really developed. There were a bunch of things that she had to face, but none of it really seemed to make an impact. The storyline with the mob and Awkwafina’s character and the crooked police felt tossed in several points of the movie. However, Ben Schwartz as Tedward Lobo and his mother, the mob head Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo) do a great job with what they are given to do.
Redfield is fun. Don’t go into it thinking that this is a serious monster movie. It is not. It has its share of silliness, but also some real thoughts about toxic relationships. Great performances from the two Nics are the key to what is happening. I had a fun time. If you like Nic Cage, this should be right up your lane.
Busy week. I am still working on getting caught up on the NEW COMICS DAY books. I get a whole bunch of those on Wednesday and I have a few to finish off. I could have done a Cavalcade last night, but instead I read the series of back issues that I purchased as well this Wednesday.
I am starting to pile up with some of these independent books that I have been buying. I expect to do some special editions soon to read through these series.
Captain America: The Chosen #1-6. Written by David Morrell and drawn by Mitch Breitweiser. This series was from 2007 and I had never heard of it. Todd told me that it was good, so I decided to pick it up. I have always enjoyed Cap. This series was excellent and an easy read. However, I am not sure I enjoyed the ending. It felt like a in continuity series the entire time until the end when Cap dies. I do not remember Cap dying again and so this must have been some kind of alternate universe and I am always uncertain about those. It is a great read however.
Captain America: Cold War Alpha. “Part 1” Written by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly & Tochi Onyebuchi and art by Carlos Magno. Patrick Gleason & Alejandro Sanchez did the cover art. A new crossover event featuring Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson’s Captain Americas get together. The storylines of the double Cap series are also coming together so we get White Wolf, Ian, Dimension Z, The Outer Circle among others. I enjoyed the re-team up of Steve and Sam so I am onboard.
Guardians of the Galaxy #1. “The Massacre at Galilee IV“. Written by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (who were just writing the Cap: Cold War book previously) and drawn by Kev Walker. Michael Checchetto did the art for the cover. This book intrigued me. I saw the cover and thinking about the Guardians in a Western type motif was a cool idea. I was a little unsure though because of the specter of the alternate future stories. I think this is a book in continuity (at least, I am pretending it is, until I see evidence to prove it is not). The whole Groot thing was bizarre and I am curious to see where this goes.
Year Zero #5. Written by Benjamin Percy and illustrated by Ramon Rosanas. Kaare Andrews did the cover art. Finishing up this series, I really enjoyed the format of this book. The multiple stories that was taking place across the planet worked really well. So much that I went out of my way to find the Vol. 0 series and the Vol. 2 series. They arrived today and may be one of those special editions that I mentioned earlier.
X-23: Deadly Regenesis #2. “The Past Haunts Us All Part 2″. Written by Erica Schultz and drawn by Edgar Salazar. Kalman Andrasofszky is the cover artist. They continue the flashback story with Laura. Interesting enough, much of this issue was dedicated to the villain, Haymaker, and giving us a background on why Haymaker is after X-23. I like the depth of the charatcers.
Superman: Lost #2. “Kansas” Written by Priest and drawn by Carla Pagulayan. The book begins to give us background on what had happened to Superman during the time frame that he believes he was gone for 20 years. Honestly, this gave me some Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow vibes as I read it. It was fine, but it did not stand out that much. I hope it continues to improve.
Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #3. Written by Danny Lore and illustrated by Karen S. Darboe. Brielle gets to spend some time with her father, Blade. We also get more of the story behind how Blade became a daddy. This seems to be a vampire-coming-of-age tale and it has been decent so far.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #5. “Trial By Spider Part Five.” Written by Cody Ziglar and drawn b Federico Vicentini. Dike Ruan & Alejandro Sanchez did the cover art. Miles puts his life on the line to attempt to rescue his family from the dangers of the villainous Rabble. It’s a rough issue for Miles.
Moon Knight #22. “Instinct.” This issue sees the return of the Midnight Man and Tigra goes after him. This was a heavily leaning Tigra solo issue among the Moon Knight series and it was awesome. I have always been a fan of Tigra and this felt like a great time to focus on her character. There is also big time development in the ending. Good stuff continues from Moon Knight. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art by Stephen Segovia & Rachelle Rosenberg.
Fantastic Four #6. “A Shot in the Dark.” The issue before the big LGY #700 of the FF was fun. The FF try to fix their error from last issue where they unintentionally unleashed an other-dimensional bacteria that could bring about the death of the planet. Just another day for the FF. Written by Ryan North (who I have really liked on the FF. He seems to have a great grasp on these characters) and illustrated by Ivan Fiorelli. As much as I like the FF right now, I think Johnny’s mustache has got to go.
Worldtr33 #1. Written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Fernando Blanco. The new Image series written by James Tynion IV came out this week and it was something else. Like much of Tynion’s work, there is a lot going on and you need to pay close attention to the story. There were some truly shocking scenes in this issue too. I am excited to see where this heads next.
The Seasons Have Teeth #1. “Spring.” Written by Dan Watters and illustrated by Sebastian Cabrol. The cover art was done by Qistina Khalidah. The new book from Boom! Studios arrived this week and it was a beautifully looking book with some intriguing storytelling. The flashback scenes were very compelling and the world building was solid.
Captain Marvel #48. “Revenge of the Brood Part Six.” Written by Kelly Thompson and drawn by Sergio Davila. Cover art was done by Juan Frigeri & David Curiel. The battle with the Brood raged on, but there was a loss. Binary, who Carol was coming to save, wound up killed saving Carol from the Brood. I did not have a big connection to Binary so it did not make it horrible for me. Still, it was a surprising twist. There are only two more Captain Marvel issues with Kelly Thompson’s epic run.
Silver Surfer: Ghost Light #3. “Part 3: Too Much Information.” Written by John Jennings with art by Valentine DeLandro. So far, this limited series has been not been my favorite so far. There are some decent moments, but these characters have not grabbed my interest as of yet. The use of the Stranger is curious though.
I do enjoy making these banners for the site. I had just done the blue one when I switched from Comic Catch-Up to the EYG Comic Cavalcade, but it felt like it was time for a change. So I did the new white and red version you see here now.
I am very happy with the way the new one turned out. I do plan on making new ones as the time moves on. I could also see myself doing special ones when the whole issue is a theme like I did for the Comic Catch-Up when I had the special editions featuring Something is Killing the Children, Gideon Falls or Ant Man.
With the new banner, I took pics from recent comics that I am enjoying (such as Strange Academy: Finals, Local Man), books I just discovered (Man-Eaters) or ones that I will read soon (Swamp Thing, White Savior). Spider-Boy made it on the banner too as a hot new character.
We’ll see how long this one lasts. I really do love the new banner.
Let’s get started…
Nocterra #1. Written by Scott Snyder and with art by Tony S. Daniel. I have been waiting to start into Nocterra. I had all of the issues ready to go, but truly I just was not that into starting it. I have no idea where or why I started buying this one, but I had never read any of them leading into this. However, I absolutely loved this first issue. I loved the character. I loved how they set it up. I loved the world building. The art is beautiful. The villain at the end was awesome. I found this story completely compelling and thrilling. I can’t wait to dive back into the next issues of this series.
Sleeping Beauties #3. Adapted by Rio Youers and drawn by Alison Sampson. Based on a Stephen King book, Sleeping Beauties started to pick up with this issue. I’m not sure what is going on with the animals that showed up this issue, but I am here for it. Only two more issues to go for this book.
Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology #2. Another anthology book with a bunch of short stories featuring some of the greats from Image. For the second issue in a row, my favorite of the stories was The Blizzard Part Two, by Geoff Johns. We get a bit of a monster in the story, which deals with transferring Michael to prison after he killed his son’s murderer. Some of the stories are not as compelling, but I have enjoyed much of the book.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5. “Chapter Five: The Lake, the Trees, and the Monsters.” Written by Tom King and drawn by Bilquis Evely. I liked this issue more than I did last issue. However, it does fall into a problem I have for this character and her famous cousin. In order to create any stakes or tension, the writers have to remove (or limit or downgrade) Kara’s powers. It just feels like it is lazy writing. How many universes out there have a non-yellow sun? Why does she have to find every one?
Silver Coin #8. “Rising & Falling in America” Written by Matthew Rosenberg and drawn by Michael Walsh. I found this Silver Coin issue to be very shocking and I liked what I saw. It continued its trend of tragic circumstances falling those in possession of the cursed coin. The final few pages of this issue was just one shock after another.
Newburn #4. “Chapter Four: Bring Some Heat.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and with art by Jacob Phillips. Newburn has a new problem. The cops want to hire him to sole a murder of a cop by one of the families. This placed Newburn in a difficult position forcing him to use all of his guile to wiggle his way out.
Middlewest #6-8. Written by Skottie Young and illustrated by Jorge Corona. Abel is still in trouble. His father is in pursuit of his runaway son and Abel’s own power is out of control. This led to him being sent out of the Fair and off on his own. Well, his trusty friend fox is there too. Middlewest still has that fairy tale feel to it and I am interested in the eventual confrontation between Abel and his father because it may not be as cut and dry as it seems.
I was on YouTube watching a video from CinemaWins called Everything Great About Everything Everywhere All At Once. I have liked that series of videos and I thought this would be a fun one to watch. Near the beginning of the video, it called attention to the actor Sunita Mani, who was on the Netflix show GLOW, and who was also in Everything Everywhere All At Once in a small role. The narrator then made a reference to another film that had been produced by the Daniels (the directors of EEAAO) called Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone. He recommended it and said that everyone should go an watch it immediately after they finished this video. I was interested so I looked to see where it could be watched. I was able to find it on one of the Amazon Prime channels, MUPI. One free 7-day trial later, I was watching the 40-minute short.
The film starred a comedy dance group called Cocoon Central Dance Team. This included Sunita Mani along with Eleanore Pienta and Tallie Medel.
It is a challenging film to try to explain. The plot synopsis from IMDB gives the idea, “Beach balls. Doctor boners. Farts. Snow. This film, starring Cocoon Central Dance Team, just might have invented its own genre: comedy-dance-sketch-fantasy.”
There is not any real plot to this film. It is a series of vignettes strung together. There were dance numbers in snow, comedy bits and even some musical performances. It was a wild trip. Filled with a ton of creativity, totally unafraid to be weird and original.
The dance routines were very funny. The Cocoon Central Dance Team had amazing facial expressions that made their routines all the funnier.
Written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Rachel Wolther, this movie was forty minutes of bizarre scenes and a good time. If you are looking for a tightly woven story, this is not for you. However, if you are willing to let your mind wander and laugh at the insanity of the whole thing, you may just enjoy Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone.
I was looking over my graphic novels this morning, I spotted one that I had not read. It was Man-Eaters, the first volume which reprinted the series issues #1-4. Then I saw the writer on the spine. It was Chelsea Cain.
I loved Chelsea Cain. There have been two major feeling of betrayal I have felt from Marvel Comics over the years I have bought comics from them. The first was when it was revealed that Ben Reilly was actually not a clone of Peter Parker, but he was the actual Peter Parker. The Peter Parker that I had ALWAYS watched since I was reading Spider-Man comics, my absolutely favorite super hero, was the real clone. A fake. That is, to this day, the worst moment I have ever had while reading comics.
The other moment of betrayal was when I found out that Mockingbird, which included issues 1-8, was being canceled. Mockingbird is one of my favorite series of all-time and I felt crushed when Mockingbird was gone. And then to hear a lot of the negative aspect behind the end of the series was very disappointing.
Chelsea Cain had become one of my favorite writers. Then she did a mini-series called Spy Island that I picked up simply because she was the writer. She had elevated things for me where I will purchase a book solely because her name is on it. I know there are people who do not like her work because she is such a strong voice for feminism, but I find her funny, extremely creative and willing to take the comic genre in different ways.
Back to this morning. So I took the graphic novel Man-Eaters Vol. 1 and read it through. It was wild story of teen girls changing into killer cats because of a virus that almost everyone on earth had contracted. It was so awesome with a ton of metaphors and the format including amazing advertisements for the different products that kept the transformations at bay. They even had a long section (probably issue #4) that gave us background info and reports and medical details. It was more of an informational pamphlet than a comic book. It was glorious.
I am excited to see the rest of the series that I went to eBay to find immediately. I have stated that independent comics are more about the story/writer than the characters. This is a perfect example. If I see Chelsea Cain’s name on a comic, I am buying it.
The rest of this issue’s books:
Dead Day #1-5. Written by Ryan Parrott and art by Evgeniy Bornyakov. There comes a day when the dead rise from their graves and head out to try and go back to spend time with their loved ones. When Brandon meets a beautiful teen girl who was a member of the Revivalists, he and his friend Zack sneak out to meet up with her on Dead Day. I liked this self-contained story about Dead Day and how it affected Brandon’s family. At the core of this book is the family aspect and that was why it worked.
Middlewest #5. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Mike Huddleston did the cover. Abel keeps trying to find someone at the carnival that would help him become normal again. Meanwhile, his father, who we keep seeing how abusive he could be, is searching for Abel. Middlewest continues to be a beautiful book to look at.
Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5. Written by Greg Pak and drawn by Manuel Garcia. The cover art was done by Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz & Chris Sotomayor. I am so grateful that this one is done. Did not enjoy the finale of the series that I did not like. Just another throwaway alt-future tale.
Silver Coin #7. “Tzompanco” Written by Ram V. and drawn by Michael Walsh. This issue of the anthology horror series that follows a mysterious silver coin found its way back to Vegas and into the hands of a gambler who did not have a lot of success, until now. This was another interesting story in this series, but not one that I will remember a month from now.
X-Men: Unforgiven #1. “Cure for Pain.” Written by Tom Seeley and drawn by Sid Kotian. Kyle Holz & Dan Brown did the cover art. The team called the Forgiven, a group of vampires, team up with the X-Men to take on a vampire by the name of the Curator. This Unforgiven series of books (previously with Spider-Man) are okay, but I have not been able to really get invested in the characters of the Forgiven yet. Next issue is Captain America so we’ll see how that goes.
Newburn #3. “Chapter Three: We’ve All Lost Men” Newburn is on the case of an apparent serial killer that is targeting men from the different crime families. This was probably my favorite issue of Newburn as of yet. I really enjoyed this self-contained story that was wrapped up within the issue.
Year Zero #1-4. Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Ramon Rosanas. I have been meaning to read this limited series for awhile now (and then I realized that I am missing the final issue #5). I hope it is somewhere in the piles, because I thought this was great. I especially enjoyed how the story bounced around the planet as the zombie apocalypse was breaking out. We spent time with a long list of different characters and saw how they reacted to what was happening. Got to find number five.
Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology #1. Cover design by Michael Busuttil. I had bought issue #8 of this series recently to see a short story featuring World Tr33, a short intro to the upcoming James Tynion IV book. There were a bunch of shorts in that book that were like part 8 and such. SO I went after the earlier of this anthology series. Issue one had several fun shorts in it, my favorite probably being Geoff John’s The Blizzard.
Ghost Rider #13. “My Brother’s Keeper” Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Cory Smith. Björn Barends did the cover art. We get some info on what is going on with Danny Ketch. Johnny Blaze and Talia is on his trail to try and understand why Danny is doing the horrendous things that he is doing.
Rogue & Gambit #2. “Throw it Girl.” Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Carlos Gomez. Steve Morris did the art on the cover. Rogue and Gambit are in search of the missing teleporter Manifold while Black Panther is trying to bring in Gambit and Rogue to question them about the same thing. Plus, the mutants’ powers are going all wonky. So far, this has been an entertaining couple of issues. I have always liked the pairing of Gambit and Rogue so this worked well for me.
Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #2. Written by Emily Kim and drawn by Kei Zama. Cover art was by David Nakayama. Spider-Gwen and Gwen Ock battle SandGwen in an attempt to get the whole clone thing under control. I am having terrible flashbacks back to the Clone Saga. I’m not sure why all Spider-titles need their own clone, but Gwen is an enjoyable character and she had some nice interaction with Gwen Ock. The Ghost-Spider outfit is just one of the best costumes designs in comics.
I love those urban legends/mysterious creature stories. I can’t get enough about Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster. One of the creatures that I do not know as much about is the Chupacabra. Known as a “Mexican goat sucker” the Chupacabra has several iterations over the years. Now, a new Netflix film puts a young Chupacabra front and center.
Young Alex (Evan Whitten) was sent by his mother to spend some time with his grandfather (Demián Bichir) and his cousins in Mexico. Alex was depressed, dealing with the loss of his father. While on his grandfather’s farm, he discovered a baby Chupacabra hiding in the barn.
The youngling Chupacabra was being hunted by a scientist Richard Quinn (Christian Slater), who had led to the little animal being separated from its mother. Alex and the family have to put their lives in danger to try and help reunite Chupa with his family.
Okay, here is the thing with this movie. It’s dumb. The story is silly. Demián Bichir’s character is a former lucha libre wrestler and spends a bunch of the film dressed as such. This movie has a definite 1980s style feel to it. It is not terrible. It just is not that good.
There is a sweetness to the story. Alex and Chupa are fine together. Demián Bichir’s character is losing his memory, but the film does not treat that in a serious manner.
The film is a weird combination of a “boy and his dog” type of film and lucha libre wrestling. The tone was all over the place.
I shouldn’t say this because I do think they did the best they could and I do not want to be negative to them, but the kid actors in this film did not feel as if they were incredibly skilled. I would say that they were competent, and they were fine for this movie. They just were not going to be able to extend the plot much more than it was.
The movie was shallow in plot and character, but heartwarming at times. They did introduce some interesting ideas in the story, but they rarely paid off any of them. Chupa was a cute creature design, but the CSI effects were, at best, okay.
For a Netflix family film, Chupa was fine. I definitely have seen worse on the streaming platform. Unfortunately, most everything was surface level and lacking any true depth. It is a decent family film to watch together some Saturday night, but I would not necessarily seek it out.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 