Toy Story 2 is my least favorite of the original trilogy for this movie, which, considering that it is just short of the Top 25 all time, should tell you what I think of this franchise. It was a great reveal on the villain twist and introduced us to some amazing characters.
Voice cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Jim Varney, Wayne Knight, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, Jeff Pidgeon, R. Lee Ermey, Joe Ranft, Jodi Benson, Jonathan Harris, Andrew Stanton and Dave Foley.
Another big week of covers. The race for the Cover Artist of the Year is really heating up.
Also-Rans: Doomquest #4, Challenges of Doom: Spider-Man #1 (Peach Momoko version), Spawn ’77 #1 ( Cover A & B), The Punisher #8, The Omega Book #2, and Marvel Gold ’76 #1.
Bronze Medalist
Iron Man #9
Variant Cover B (Timeless)
Cover art by Alex Ross
For some reason, I love Hellcat. She is the definition of a C-level hero, but I just have always liked her. So this beautiful cover from Alex Ross was a major draw for me. Plus, the white background is another favorite of mine.
Alex Ross is a major competitor in this season’s Cover artist of the Year.
Silver Medalist
Wolverine #27
Cover art by Dan Panosian
Inspired by the iconic Todd McFarlane cover with the Hulk appearing in the reflection of the claws, this new version is beautiful with the reflections of the Savage Champions. Wolverine is looking really rough in the black background. This is very stylish and awesome.
Gold Medalist
Six of Us #1
Variant cover E
Cover art by Raul Allen
I was excited to hear about this new Tom King book from Dark Horse, but what truly drew my attention to this comic cover was how the bottom corner looked to be ripped and the inside page revealed. That is on the cover, but it is what page one would have looked like had it been torn. I found this so clever that I had to grab the variant.
I did not watch this Pixar movie for years. I do nto know why I shunned this film for so long, but when I did finally watch it, I absolutely loved it. Ratatouille is one of the hidden gems in the Pixar catalog.
Voice cast: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O’Toole, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Brad Garrett, Will Arnett, John Ratzenberger, James Remar, Teddy Newton, Brad Bird, Jake Steinfeld, Tony Fucile and Stéphane Roux .
Be careful when “Jump Around” comes on… especially when you have a bad knee.
Roy went down at a New Year’s Eve party as the House of Pain hit played. He and Jamie Tartt, who was back guest starring, joined in the dance and Roy’s knee let out. It led to Keeley to meet Roy’s new doctor girlfriend, which was crushing to her.
Then a supremely doped up Roy ends up telling the doctor that he loves….Keeley. Roy did not realize he was talking to the doctor… and Keeley heard him, but only up to the point where he said “I love you”. Of course she thought Roy was meaning the doctor. It was an old misunderstanding trope of sitcoms, but there is a reason why it has been used as often as it has. It worked here too.
It did feel weird that we got a New Year’s Eve episode in September, but I forgive that too because it was a solid character episode. We had important moments for not only Roy & Keeley, but also Ted & Ted’s ex-wife, Michelle, Beard, Jamie, and Rebecca and Matthijs. Then, Alice seemed to take some huge steps, but then took giant leaps backward.
Oh, and Tracy Ulman’s character is amazingly weird and downright psychotic.
Some of the episode’s arcs were heartbreaking while other arcs help move the characters forward. The scenes between Ted and Michelle were really sweet. I was afraid they were going to do some alcohol related sex between them, but they stuck with the friendship and Ted feels able to ask someone out on a date.
Rebecca and Matthijs made up in time for midnight as Matthijs arrived at the hospital where Rebecca was hanging out with Jamie after bringing Roy here for his knee. It was a nice resolution, but there was not really much of a story this way. Still, with the other flops of relationships, it was nice to have someone happy.
Animation Style: realistic lighting and advanced technology with expressive, stylized character designs
Studio: DreamWorks Animation
The third film in one of the most satisfying and engaging animated trilogies ever produced. This is a trilogy that allowed its protagonist to actually age and become an adult.
Voice cast: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harington, F. Murray Abraham, Julia Emelin, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, James Sie, David Tennant, Robin Atkin Downes, Kieron Elliot, Ashley Jensen, Gideon Emery and Randy Thom.
Amazon Prime has had some big “winners” from their original films. Anyone who saw War of the World a couple of years ago knows to what I refer.
I did know that the latest Gal Gadot movie, The Runner, was being dropped on Amazon Prime. I saw that it was available to see free and I could not believe it.
I can see now why it was available free.
No one would pay for this movie. What in the heck was this?
First, Gal Gadot played Maia, a high-powered lawyer, whose son was kidnapped and the kidnapper blackmails Maia. The kidnapper (played by Damian Lewis) put her son into a diabetic coma and threatened to give him another dose that would kill him. He gives the boy an IV with a drip so there is a counting clock on Maia.
He wanted her to go and shoot her key witness who is going to testify against some mob boss. Then he had her run across London in order to get to kill the guy. It is like Die Hard With a Vengeance meets Speed, but way stupider than either one.
Gal Gadot is just not a good actress. She absolutely peaked with the first Wonder Woman. There were some unbelievably horrendous scenes with her performances. There is one moment where a train was going past her that was some of the worst acting I have ever seen. It was Tommy Wiseau level acting.
The situation is as stupid as it could be. How did this guy get his hands on the kid? Maia dropped him off at school. He wanted his mom to walk him into the school, but she ignored him. It was just a few scenes later when Lewis had the kid in a room and had him in the coma. There is just no way this set up worked in any fashion. Suspension of disbelieve is one thing, but this is just not possible.
The entire film makes zero sense. There is a moment where Maia runs down a subway train. I wish I was kidding.
The one positive of the film is that I did not see any Amazon Prime product placement, which is something they must have learned from War of the Worlds. Now… Nike shoes is a different thing.
The editing of the movie is just terrible. It is so noticeable that it is so obnoxious that I can’t even explain it.
It is only a 85 minute film, but it really felt like it was double that.
It is truly one of the worst movies of the year. Way to go, Amazon. You’ve got another winner.
Animation Style: advanced computer-generated (CG) 3D animation combined with artistic inspiration from traditional Chinese ink painting and wuxia martial arts films.
Studio: DreamWorks Animation
Kung Fu Panda has been one of the most successful animated franchises of the past 25 years. Po is a beloved character who everybody can relate to in some way or another.
Voice cast: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Jackie Chan
Two Boston Legal episodes, one that I thought was a typically strong one, and one that I found ridiculous.
“Witches of Mass Destruction” had two main story arcs. One was about the death of a young man in the military whose sister brought a case against the government that during recruitment, the recruiters committed fraud by what the told him. Alan stepped up to take the case despite Denny’s objections and direct orders to drop it. The other arc on this episode was a Christian couple and a Wiccan couple joining forces to sue to stop a Halloween pageant at a public school. This tale, though bizarre, at the heart is about religious freedom and schools keeping religion out. Both of these stories were solid and the military one in particular was extremely emotional.
“Truly, Madly, Deeply,” on the other hand, had two silly arcs and one of Denny Crane. Alan and Brad defended a station manager who fired their clown who was talking about global warming on air. The thing is, the man was attending the court in his clown makeup and Alan was afraid of clowns. It made Alan look bad as he could not do cross or even look in the clown’s direction. The second arc featured Michael McKeon, who I love as an actor, trying to prevent his wife from getting an annulment on grounds that he had sex with a cow. If one of these to stories had been opposed by something more solid, I don’t think that I would have felt as… icky. Then, Denny Crane decided to shoot his client that he had been assigned to defend by the judge in the knees. The client was a child rapist and murderer and Denny did not want to defend him. He tried many other tricks to get off the case and then he ended up shooting him, claiming to be defending himself.
To be fair, all three of these storylines had positive resolutions, but by that time, I had checked out on them.
To me, the second of these episodes only served to make some of the lawyers at Crane, Poole & Schmidt look foolish, in particular Alan and Shirley (who couldn’t defend the cow lover). Denny always looked that way so it was no big deal for his character.
Oh, and the first episode was the one where Denny and Alan famously dressed as flamingos for their firm’s Halloween party (which is an image on the banner above the post).
Boston Legal has shown the ability to go from deadly serious to over-the-top absurdity in a blink of an eye. Episode seven just did not work for me.
With Practical Magic 2 coming out this weekend, I figured I would watch a movie that I had not seen before in preparation for it. It is, of course, the first film, Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.
According to IMDB, “Two witch sisters, raised by their eccentric aunts in a small town, face closed-minded prejudice and a curse which threatens to prevent them ever finding lasting love.”
This film is a mixed bag. The tones are all over the place. It went from a weird witch tale to a romantic fantasy to a Ghostbusters jaunt. It is messy at a lot of times.
I wish the film would have taken one of these tones and run with it, because they seemed to try to do all of them.
There are decent parts to the film as well. Sandra Bullock is charming and she works well. However, her relationship with Nicole Kidman is shaky and inconsistent throughout the movie.
There are things about the stories being told in this movie, but it really does not cover them all well. The curse arc, the Jimmy Angelov stuff, the sudden relationship with Sally-Gary, are all parts of the storyline and they all feel so conflicting.
Having said all of this, I thought this was watchable at the least. I wasn’t bored and the actors all did a decent job. I just wish it was a little less disjointed.
I have to say that the Muppet Show truly got some of the biggest stars of the time to guest star on their show. Bob Hope, Cloris Leachman, Peter Sellers, John Cleese and Julie Andrews were iconic names that, even today, would be recognized by the public as superstars. Sure there was Cleo Lane, who I swear I have never heard of before, but most of this list was remarkable.
That was the power of Jim Henson and the Muppets. Everyone wanted to appear on the show and the entire second season was littered with amazing superstars as guests.
Even with the ton of superstar celebrities, it seemed that Rowlf had plenty of time to play the piano. Rowlf was given time to play a variety of musical pieces, even if they had to speed a few of them up because of time. My favorite one during this block of episodes was when he and Fozzie played the piano. I laughed out loud when Rowlf said to Fozzie that he didn’t know Fozzie played the piano, and Fozzie replied that he did not know it either.
The final episode of season two with Cloris Leachman featured the Muppet Show being taken over by pigs. They locked Kermit, Gonzo and Fozzie in the boiler room and they replaced all the main acts with pigs. Kermit the Pig took over the emceeing, there was a Swedish Chef-pig, Vegetarian’s Hospital among others. Miss Piggy was angry about Kermit being taken away until she found out that she was being featured in the opening number. The call of the stage was just too great for Miss Piggy.
It was nice to see Jaye P. Morgan on the show. I used to love her on the Gong Show, hosted by Chuck Barris, and she was funny. Jay P. Morgan passed away this year, so it was a nice way to honor her. RIP.
The Bob Hope episode was funny as Bob Hope was shown as so busy that he had to go between other gigs and kept returning to the Muppet Show. His “Don’t Fence Me In” song with a sarcastic horse was a highlight of the season.
Happy Labor Day to all of Geek Nation. Another fun week of comics from Marvel, DC, Image and a whole bunch of the independent comics.
Comic of the Week
World’s Weirdest #1
While this may not have been the best story of the week, I am a huge fan of “Weird Al” Yankovic and seeing him interact with Superman and Batman was a treat. Plus, I was always a fan of Mr. Mxyzptlk and having the imp as a co-star was awesome. And we get the official pronunciation… (MIX-YEZ-PITTLE-ICK)
I purchased all five covers for this one shot and two of them wound up medaling (a Gold and Bronze).
Go Weird Al!
Books this week:
Daredevil #6. “Of Moles & Owls” Part 1. Written by Stephanie Phillips with art by Flaviano. Cover art was done by Lee Garbett. Foil cover was done by Superlog (Silver Medalist). The Owl goes a long way to get the attention of Daredevil. Of course, Matt Murdock is having his typical problems in all the areas of his life.
Teen Titans #1. “Meet the Teen Titans” Written by Kyle Higgins and art by Danielle Di Nicuolo. Cover art was done by Danielle Di Nicuolo & Marcelo Costa. The new team of Teen Titans are here, led by Red Hood. This group of characters has a couple of all-new characters and several that are lesser or downright minor characters from the pages of DC Comics. I like how they have dug deep into their history for some of these characters.
Doom Patrol #1. “The Cat’s in the Bag.” Written by Darcy Van Poelgeest with art and cover art by Niko Henrichon. I have not had much, if any, history with the Doom Patrol before this comic so I did not have any real connection to the characters. After reading this new book from DC, I am hooked on these characters. I would even go as far as to say that had it not been for “Weird Al” this week, Doom Patrol #1 is probably the Comic of the Week. DC is doing some great work.
Marvel Magnaverse: Web of Blood #1. Written by Joe Kelly & Jack Kelly with art by Kenny Ruiz. Cover art was done by Yuji Kaku. Technology has failed and this alternate universe is forced to use magic. Miles Morales, Laura Kinney, and Illyana Rasputin are out leads and they are out to attempt to stop Armageddon. This was a dense read, but I did like what was presented.
Crowbound #1. Written by Jeff Lemire with art and cover art by Dustin Nguyen. Variant cover B art was done by Jeffrey Alan Love. Rose does not want to give her daughter over to the Factory. Children are to join the workforce at age 13. I have always enjoyed the work done by Jeff Lemire, especially these kind of creepy, horror-based storylines and this post-apocalyptic tale fits right into his wheel house.
Wade Wilson: Deadpool #8. “Big Guns” Part 1. Written by Benjamin Percy and art was done by Geoff Shaw. Cover art was done by Geoff Shaw & Alex Sinclair. The Big Gun crossover started with this issue where we get a crossover with Deadpool and Punisher.
Captain America #15. “Hell’s Angel” Part 4. Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Valerio Schiti. Cover art was done by Valerio Schiti & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Cap and Doom are in Hell, hoping to take on Mephisto for the thrown of the dimension. As you could probably guess, taking on the Devil in his own home is not the best idea. However, Mephisto has his own little tricks that might swing the tide for Cap and Doom. Who’s going to make the deal with the devil?
Tales of Wonder #1. Written and drawn by Steve Skroce. Cover art was done by Steve Skroce & Ian Herring. There are two classic comic creators, Stu and Jake, who have come back after decades apart because of a conflict relating to credit and creative differences. Remind you of anyone? However, what happens when these two legends’ creations come to life?
Legion of Superheroes #1. “Who Killed the Future?” Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Hayden Sherman. Cover art was done by Hayden Sherman & Tamra Bonvillain. I also picked up variant covers by Mark Spears and by Jim Lee & Alex Sinclair. When I was a young comic reader, I did enjoy the Legion of Superheroes, but I had never been a collector of the book. With the new version of the Legion, I really liked the first issue. I am looking forward to the All In Legion book moving forward.
Superman: The Stranger#1. Written and drawn by Wes Craig. Cover art was done by Wes Craig & Jason Wordie. This is a story of Superman set in 1938. Superman has not gotten all of his powers, as he can not even fly yet. This series is from the DC Black Label, which is designed for the more mature readers. I am not sure yet how this will fit into that, but I did like the aesthetic of the book.
Archie #1. Written by Ben H. Winters and illustrated by Fabio Moon. Cover art was done by Stuart Immonen. When I heard that Oni Press was going to do an new Archie comic, I was kind of excited. I thought that Oni would take the Archie characters and put them in a new story, maybe similar to Riverdale the TV show. Take the opportunity to re-invent the characters. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. We got some of the typical Archie comics, much like a series of comic strips. I was disappointed with the creative choice.
Fantastic Four #16. Written by Ryan North with art by Ramon Rosanas. Cover art was done by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. The Fantastic Four crash their ship on a distant planet and, despite their best intentions, cause a major upheaval among the planet’s religious world.
She-Spawn #5. Written by Gail Simone with additional script by Todd McFarlane and art by Ig Guara. Cover art was done by Thaddeus Robeck. This surprisingly fun series wrapped up this week with Jessica getting little Al where he needed to go. I have enjoyed this series despite not being a fan of Spawn.
Royals #6. Written by Derek Kirk Kim and art and cover art by Jacob Perez. Another series that came to a conclusion this week, Royals was another book that surprised me with how enjoyable I thought it was. The brothers and their telepathy helped wrap up the series.
Spider-Woman 50th Anniversary Special #1. “High Tag Wins” and “The Mysterious Spider-Woman.” Written by Ann Nocenti and Dan Watters and art by Stefano Raffaele and Andrea Broccardo. Cover art was done by Olivier Coipel. We get two Jessica Drew time periods in this anniversary special. One that was back in the past and one that is there to set up the upcoming new Spider-Woman series later this year.
The Deadman #4. “Fixing a Hole.” Written by W. Maxell Prince with art by Martin Morazzo. Cover art was done by Martin Morazzo & Chris O’Halloran. Deadman heads to Heaven and waits in the waiting room for a meeting with God. That is.. if he really exists. Deadman is full of self-reverence and humor.
Ben 10 #5. “Man of Action.” Wr3itten by Steven T. Seagle and art and cover art by Robert Carey. Ben is struggling trying to get his new “watch” to work correctly and to rescue Grandpa from the evil circus that they found themselves stuck in. The book added some level of mystery with Grandpa and his exact connection to Ben and Gwen.
Batman #13. “Siege Tactics” Written by Matt Fraction with art by Matteo Scalera. Cover art was done by Matteo Scalera & Tomeu Morey. With plants covering Gotham, Batman decided it was time to make his presence known at GCPD. He was ready to face ff with Vandal Savage. He just had to get to the roof of the building. It wasn’t going to be easy.
Venom #261. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art was done by Carlos Gomez and Frank D’Armata. This issue tells us the story of how Reed Richards originally removed the Venom symbiote from Peter Parker… only it told the story from the POV of the symbiote. It goes to show you how an all-time story can be changed by who was looking at it.
Other Books this Week: Strength and Ash #3, Project Perseus #1, Conan & Dragonero #5, Black Panther & Namor: Doomed #1, Marvel Zombies: War Zone #1, Bludwire #3, The Perfectly Monstrous Life of Adam Frankenstein #1, 100 Bullets #3, Prima Apparata #1, and Absolute Green Lantern #18.
Quick Hits: This week saw a couple of X-Men books that are outside the normality of the mutants’ run. X-Men ’97 #4 with X-Men in the future, and X-Men: Omega Red Dawn #1 which take us back to an early confrontation with Omega Red. Neither were favorites of mine. The Energon Universe runs on as MASK #4 comes on. After months and months, Marvel released The World to Come #6 which wrapped up the short series. I am not sure why this took so long to come out, but I am glad it finally wrapped up. I grabbed a number one from Boom! Studios with No Gods No Monsters #1. This was another book that just did not grab my attention and I do not expect to be continuing on with it. Rook Exodus #11 was back after a slight break with the continuation of the arachnid storyline. Escape #9 was a brutal story that really highlighted the tragic circumstances that occur during war. Ignition Press brought us Sicko #2 this week as things get nastier for Val, and she showed that she was not necessarily a hero. Absolute Superman #23 brought us the Absolute Toyman, messing with Superman’s mind. The final issue of Megalith: The Olympus Saga #4 came out this week as it felt like a giant Kaiju fight. It felt a little underwhelming for this series that I had really enjoyed leading up to this issue. More devil horse action in The Dirt Beneath the Devil #2 although the fate of the horse seemed to be ended at the end of the issue. I’m guessing that that dead horse is not yet finished. Babylon Cove #4 keeps bringing more and more monsters in pursuit of Heather. Save Now #4 finally brought this story to an end with a creative time travel solution to the problem. Bad Idea’s new book Warbird #1 arrived this week after an issue zero a few months ago. It looked like some super spy action. Jeff Lemire’s Minor Arcana #18 unpacks some of the background of why Theresa she left Limberlost.
Animation Style: stylized 3D computer animation style combined with traditional 2D hand-drawn elements
Studio: Pixar/Disney
One of the most successful animated films of all time making $1.699 billion at the box office.
Voice cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ron Funches, James Austin Johnson, Yong Yea, Steve Purcell, Paula Pell, Pete Docter, Dave Goeltz, Frank Oz, Flea, Bobby Moynihan, John Ratzenberger, Paula Poundstone and June Squibb.
This is an interesting show that has set up some compelling interactions between its main characters. I am not really sure about the true thoughts of Hal Jordan or John Stewart, because they have both had others try to manipulate them into certain actions, and it feels as if they only tell the other pieces and parts of the truth.
Sinestro was trying to manipulate Hal into believing that John was the most dangerous foe he would face, moreso than the potential Manhunter in the little town. Lianna tried to manipulate John into just taking the ring from Hal. She told him to recite the Lantern oath the next time Hal let John use the ring in a practice session. There was something suspicious about Lianna this week, and I am not sure she is the Guardian that she claimed.
So who is the Manhunter? It sure seemed like the show was pointing to Zoe, who was apparently killed by a laser beam from a satellite in space. It was after she had slept with John again, and told him that it would be the last time. She wanted him to leave town. He refused. She then blew up in her car. However, perhaps she sent that laser herself, and she was able to escape the blast because of that. John, we find out later, did not believe that she had been killed.
Hal and John’s trip into the compound of William Macon was not very successful as they got captured with some darkness tech that prevented the use of the ring. Macon kept mentioning his “Benefactor” and Hal and John speculated that the Benefactor was the Manhunter. I am not convinced that is the case. I still think we have something coming in the series to shock us.
We had the mention of Hector Hammond, who was a classic Green Lantern villain, but I am not sure if this Hector Hammond was the real one .
The banter between Hal and John was strong this week and I have been missing the chemistry between these two the last few weeks. This episode was much more of the “buddy cop” type episode that we expected from the show. There are plenty of mysteries going on in the show, including some that we have not touched upon since the first episode.
This is the first animated film of a planned trilogy adapting the classic Batman comic story Knightfall, which sees the debut of Bane, a dramatic and violent addition to the Batman Rogue’s Gallery.
The Knightfall storyline has been adapted several times, including the Dark Knight Rises film by Christopher Nolan.
According to IMDB, “When the mysterious behemoth known only as Bane frees Batman’s entire rogue’s gallery from Arkham Asylum, the Caped Crusader is pushed to his mental and physical breaking point.”
The mindset of Batman was extremely challenged during this time as he had just experienced the death of Jason Todd’s Robin and he was still shaken at the idea of a Robin. So when Tim Drake took the mantel of the sidekick, Batman was very overprotective, leading to his own struggles both physically and emotionally.
The look of the film was great. The animation does an amazing job of helping the tone of the film and of the state of Batman as a character.
Batman was voiced by Anson Mount and Bane was voiced by Michael Mando. Other voice actors in the cast included Pablo Schreiber, Jack Griffo, Bruce Boxleitner, David Dastmalchian, Simon Templeman, Toks Olagundoye, Jason Flemyng, and Jessica Camacho.
This is the first film of a trilogy adapting this comic story arc into animation. The first film does a great job of setting up Bane as an unstoppable monster and showing us how Batman pushing himself to the brink aided in his ultimate fall from grace. The iconic moment of the film (which I will keep under spoilers) was absolutely brutal.
The second part of the trilogy is supposed to come out in the later part of 2026 and the final one in 2027.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 