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Tue Feb 9, 2010 — by Marc Alan Fishman

Now I'm an Avenger Too... Part 3

Sector 2814 can suck it!

"You know what? I'm sick of the DCU. Since being told I was "the Last Green Lantern"... I've had my first girlfriend chopped up and left in my fridge. I absorbed a gigantic amount of energy and toyed with godhood. I re-lit the central power battery and brought back the Guardians. I became the "Torch Bearer" after my second girlfriend exploded in space. I even let the cry baby Hal-fans take Earth back as his home sector; Now, I play second fiddle as an 'Honor Guard Green Lantern' with Guy. Guy friggen' Gardner people."

"I'm going back to New York, and joining a team and universe where I might stand a chance of being noticed. Soon, I'll join the ranks of such memorable team members like Black Knight, Two-Gun Kid, Darkhawk and Slapstick!"

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Tue Feb 9, 2010 — by Robert Greenberger

Review: 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Sixth Season'

There were many groundbreaking television series as the 1970s arrived and most have been extensively written about because of their casting or long-term cultural impact. Norman Lear made the sitcoms more relevant by making his characters more like us and Larry Gelbart helped make sitcoms comment on issues of the day by adding an edge to the humor. But James L. Brooks, Allan Burns and company helped bring about a revolution in character-based comedy with The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Running from the 1970-71 season through the 1976-77 season, the series was built around Mary, a single, independent working girl. Initially, she was to be divorced but CBS wasn’t ready for that but she still broke ground. She had friends at home and at work, she dated, she gave terrible parties, but was exceptionally competent at her job, producing the evening news at WJM.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment finally released the penultimate season this month and as with the best of comedy, it’s all in the timing. One of the show’s best writers, David Lloyd, died recently and just about every obituary singled out his episode “Chuckles Bites the Dust”, which is included in The Complete Sixth Season three-disc set so now we can see it once more.

By the sixth season, neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) had been spun off into her show as was her landlady Phyllis (Cloris Leachman) so the series focused more on the newsroom. By now, the relationships and inter-personal dynamics between Mary, her boss Lou (Ed Asner), the news writer Murray (Gavin McLeod), and anchor Ted (Ted Knight) had been sharpened. The ensemble worked well together and their comic timing is strongly evident here, especially when they’re all together such as at Chuckles’ funeral. The supporting cast had been broadened allowing Betty White’s salacious Su Ann Nivens and Georgia Engels’ innocent Georgette to gain more screen time and each get showcased during the 24 episode season. It may have been MTM’s name in the title, but she graciously allowed everyone to take their turn.

The season opens and closes interestingly on characters not Mary. “Edie gets Married” is a terrific spotlight for Asner as he watches his ex remarry while “Ted and the Kid” shows how Ted and Georgette struggle to conceive only to wind up adopting (spoiling the episode was the pat pregnancy at the end). In between, we see Mary date and fall in love, only to have her heart snapped in two. She meets new neighbors, recurring characters played by Mary Kay Place and Penny Marshall (just as she gained fame as Laverne). Place, by the way, also wrote for the series so her contributions were strongly felt.

Continue reading Review: 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Sixth Season' ›

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Tue Feb 9, 2010 — by Marc Alan Fishman

Now I'm an Avenger Too... Part 2

Every team needs a Wonder Man!

"I fight for truth, justice, and the American way. But I only fight for the Democratic Party. The Republicans? Well, there's Superman Red for that!"

"No, no worries. I'm perfect for the team! Powers? Take your pick! I mean, it's been a few years since I've been useful relevant popular a good decision around, but hey! I'm still 'the Big Blue Boy Scout'! I can't wait to zzzap us a few meta-human baddies!"

"Who the hell is Kang?"

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Tue Feb 9, 2010 — by Marc Alan Fishman

Now I'm an Avenger Too...

Oh, so THAT'S where the 'Omega Sanction' takes you...

"So there I was, about to embark on an amazing journey through time, when my bat-phone rang."

"Bruce? It's Steve. Rogers. Captain America? Oh come on! Kurt and George made us fight a ton back in JLA/Avengers! Say, listen... I heard you got your Bucky to fill in for a while? Good. Let me tell you about this opportunity we have over here at the House of Ideas..."

"Long story short? Sorry Grant... I don't want to see how many creepy perverts you've got stored throughout time. I got a posh gig at a new mansion in New York. Bats-out!"

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Tue Feb 9, 2010 — by Glenn Hauman

'Terminator' rights sold at auction

From Nikki Finke (of course): The auction for the Terminator movie rights just ended after a marathon bidding session today. Halcyon Holding Corp accepted the $29.5 million bid from, of all parties, the debtholder which pushed it into bankruptcy, Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor. Halcyon will receive $5 million for every Terminator movie made from now on, as well as keeps the revenue streams from the movies Terminator 3 and 4. An arrangement also was made that the sale now wipes out the debt Halcyon owed Pacificor. The deal is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.

It was not made clear how this affects the comic rights.

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Mon Feb 8, 2010 — by Mike Raub

The Point Radio: Walter Koenig Delivers 'Inalienable', Taylor Lautner stretches for new role

STAR TREK's beloved Chekov has a new film project with a ton of familiar faces and a compelling story to boot. Walter Koenig tells us the facts behind INALIENABLE plus Taylor Lautner is playing Stretch Armstrong, Olivia Munn has bad ass lawyers and Namor on the big screen - really!

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Mon Feb 8, 2010 — by Robert Greenberger

Review: 'Amelia' on Blu-ray

America loved Amelia Earhart, as much for her pioneering work in the sky, but for being a woman of accomplishment at a time women were still getting used to having the right to vote. She was celebrated in book, story, and song up to her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. Since then, her story has been told and retold numerous times and the woman herself has been portrayed by the likes of Rosalind Russell, Diane Keaton, and Jane Lynch. On Star Trek: Voyager she was portrayed by Sharon Lawrence and most recently, Amy Adams displayed her as a plucky, ready-for-action woman in Night at the Museum 2.

But, until Hilary Swank was cast as Amelia in the recent Mira Nair film, it had been some time before her story had been explored on screen. It’s a shame that the movie wasn’t a better, more engaging product. Swank is picture perfect as Earhart and Richard Gere was well cast as her husband G.P. Putnam.

The movie, out now on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, is solemn and sucks the joy out of flying and doesn’t really let us into Earhart’s mind. Instead, the movie goes through the motions but the motivations and emotions are all kept at a distance. Structurally, her fateful final flight is intercut throughout which is a nice concept but really interrupts the flow of the film itself.

While she goes from passenger on her maiden trip over the Atlantic to full-fledged pilot on her next outing, we never see her train or work at aeronautics. Meantime, the plans she takes up grow more sophisticated and no doubt more challenging. The movie does a better job showing how Putnam, already a successful publisher, reaps a tidy sum from endorsement deals. He says it’s to invest in her career but it’s told, not shown, violating one of the storytelling rues Also, her affair with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) is present but we never understand how she recoils her feelings for both men and why she ultimately chooses to stay with Putnam. The movie also addresses the rumor of her affair with navigator Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston with a horrible American accent).

What makes the DVD worth checking out, though, are the archival Movietone film clips showing us the real media frenzy around Lady Lindy. The Blu-ray disc has plenty of these and they’re worth checking out. Also, the nearly 14 minutes of deleted scenes actually answers some of the questions above, making one wonder about how this was edited. There is also the by-the-numbers Making Amelia; The Power of Amelia Earhart which has everyone discuss the pilot’s significance; The Plane Behind the Legend, a nice piece on the final plane in her life; and Re-constructing the Planes of Amelia, which is for the model makers in the audience. The two-disc set comes with the requisite digital copy.

The video transfer is particularly crisp and a joy to watch, make one want to soar along with Amelia, something the film itself fails to do.

Continue reading Review: 'Amelia' on Blu-ray ›

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Sun Feb 7, 2010 — by Glenn Hauman

In honor of the event of the day...

Photo by Lisa Padilla.

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Sat Feb 6, 2010 — by Marc Alan Fishman

Saturday Morning Cartoons: Autobots don't ask... don't tell.

I watched the Transformers growing up... and frankly, it never occurred to me what was going on. I mean, the signs were all there. The whole “fake war” over “energon”? C'mon people. How stupid was I? To believe that they were always at war with one another... Seriously! Look at the dang opening to the show. I counted no less than 7,423,209 shots of laser fire, and not one Autobot or Decepticon even gets so much as a scratch. They all just role play whilst the sexual tension builds on the battlefield.

Yeah. I said it. Sexual tension. Think about it. As long as there has been a Transformers television show, there has been the on-again off-again banter between them. The “hatred”. The “battles”. All this time, it was all just foreplay. It turns out Optimus Prime was in love with Megatron. No wonder no one gave two spark plugs about Arcee!

Need proof? Check out these deleted scenes filmed on location during the taping of the hit 1980's television show.

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Fri Feb 5, 2010 — by Robert Greenberger

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths gets big-screen Premieres on Two Coasts

Paley Centers in New York & Beverly Hills to Host Premieres on Feb. 16 & 18

Warner Home Video, Newsarama.com and The Paley Center for Media proudly present the bi-coastal World Premieres of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the highly anticipated next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe animated original PG-13 movies, in New York on February 16 and in Beverly Hills on February 18. Filmmakers and members of the voice cast are expected to attend both events.

On February 16, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths will screen at The Paley Center in New York City (25 West 52nd Street) with a media interviews starting at 5:30 p.m. and screening commencing at 6:30 p.m. A panel discussion with filmmakers and voice cast will follow the screening.

On February 18, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths will screen at The Paley Center in Beverly Hills (465 North Beverly Drive) with media interviews starting at 6:00 p.m. and screening commencing at 7:00 p.m. A panel discussion with filmmakers and voice cast will follow the screening.

Media wishing to attend the premieres must RSVP via email to WHVRSVP@gmail.com.

A limited number of free tickets are available for the general public. Fans in New York City wishing to receive free tickets to the NY event on Feb. 16 must RSVP via email to justiceleagueNY@newsarama.com. Fans in the Los Angeles area wishing to receive free tickets to the Beverly Hills event on Feb. 18 must RSVP via email to justiceleagueLA@newsarama.com. Tickets to both events will be distributed on a “first come, first served” basis.

In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, a “good” Lex Luthor arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.

A star-studded cast provides the voices behind the super heroes and villains, led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as Superman, James Woods (Mississippi Burning) as Owlman, Chris Noth (Law & Order, Sex and the City) as Lex Luthor, William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) as Batman, Gina Torres (Firefly/Serenity) as Superwoman and Bruce Davison (X-Men) as President Wilson. Other cast members include Josh Keaton (The Spectacular Spider-Man) as The Flash, Vanessa Marshall (Grim & Evil) as Wonder Woman and Jonathan Adams (Bones) as Martian Manhunter.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is an original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League). Animation legend Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday) is executive producer, and Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors.

Continue reading Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths gets big-screen Premieres on Two Coasts ›

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Fri Feb 5, 2010 — by Robert Greenberger

Review: 'Civil War Adventure'

Civil War Adventure
By Chuck Dixon & Gary Kwapisz
History Graphics Press, 144 pages. $14.95

The graphic novel as memoir and teaching tool has become accepted in schools and libraries and there is a growing need for well-researched material. Thankfully, Chuck Dixon knows his history and how to do research. He’s displayed this in a rich career, covering all the eras. Here, he’s partnered with veteran artist Gary Kwapisz to produce the first in a line of Civil War graphic novels.

The first volume was recently released and makes for good, solid reading. There are seven stories in this inaugural collection, spanning the length of the war, along with single page features on terminology, weaponry and personalities. The book smartly opens with a timeline of the Battle Between the States, placing each story contained in context. On the other hand, the stories appear in a jumbled order that makes little sense.

If anything, there appears to be a preference for stories told from the point of view of the seseches, that is, the Confederacy. Their passion certainly outweighed their level of preparedness and organization. If anything. Both North and South were comprised of militias and armies that were loosely organized and commanded so sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the squads.

Dixon keeps things personal, largely following a father and son both leaving their farm to go to war, to protect a way of life that was largely unsustainable. They crop up in several stories and we’re promised more about them in subsequent volumes. Wisely, many of his stories are taken from journals and letters written during the war and lend a voice of authenticity to the book.

The stories are light on ideology so there’s little about why the Union split in two, nothing about states’ rights or even much about the slavery issue. These are the men, largely uneducated, who are fighting for freedom on the front lines, far from the news and politicians.

Kwapisz provides the majority of the artwork and is a strong storyteller. Some of his characters border on the exaggerated and backgrounds could be more detailed here and there but overall, he does a commendable job with differentiating his players and battlefields. Silvestre and Enrique Villagran each contribute art for a story, providing a little visual variety.

The volume is a nice, if jumbled, package and promises more to come. While not to be considered a sole source for readers, it certainly helps bring some of the history to life. These two have formed their own company and I wish them well so other historic times can be explored in compelling ways.

Continue reading Review: 'Civil War Adventure' ›

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Fri Feb 5, 2010 — by Mike Raub

The Point Radio: Billy Zane Dives Into 'The Deep End'

The Man Who Was The Phantom now handles the law in a different arena. Billy Zane is one of the stars of the new ABC series THE DEEP END. Billy, and co-star Tina Majorino, fill us in on why they chose to return to TV on this midseason show. And no matter what you read, AVATAR is not the #1 movie of all tine. We've got the numbers to prove it!

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Fri Feb 5, 2010 — by Robert Greenberger

Review: 'Planet Hulk' on DVD

When Greg Pak received his dream assignment, writing the Hulk, he was handed a few notions that Marvel’s editorial team conjured up, starting with exiling him from Earth. From there, Pak spun the Planet Hulk epic which was the first the jade-jawed giant was allowed to cut loose in years.

Exiled to space by the Illuminati, the Hulk crashed on an alien world and suddenly was surrounded with assorted aliens who could give as well as he could. Enslaved, he suddenly was an underdog, just another mongrel to fight for the rulers’ pleasure in the gladiator games. Seeing no Banner and all-Hulk helped make this a standout adventure.

Yeah, its Spartacus to a degree, but seeing the Hulk in chains then in armor was cool. It made sense to ship him off Earth to spare humanity and we all knew he’d be back and there’d be some serious payback involved. But first, he had to survive.

The story was engaging and ripe for adaptation as part of Marvel Animation’s series of animated features for Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The highly promoted event arrived in stores this week. In 81 brisk minutes, the story is boiled down by Greg Johnson and streamlined, bringing this to a satisfying closing point (and leaving room to finish the adaptation in a sequel).

On the other hand, Johnson spoils Pak’s work by writing flat characters and providing everyone with stilted and trite dialogue. For legal reasons, the Silver Surfer couldn’t be used and rather than drop the moment, he’s replaced with Beta Ray Bill but also means there’s a flashback setting up Bill that doesn’t add anything to the tale and tells us nothing about Bill. It’s pretty but pointless, taking away from the main story.

The animation from Sam Liu and his team is superior to last year’s Hulk Vs. effort but could have added a little more texture and detail to the various aliens and architecture. The Hulk looks pretty ferocious and proportional for a gladiator. There are some nice subtle touches, especially in the final scene.

Overall, this feature may well be the best of the Marvel films but all fairly pale in comparison with the superior Warner Premiere efforts culled from the DC Universe.

The two-disc DVD comes with a digital copy and a ton of bonuses. There’s an informative A Whole World of Hulk, making of featurette; Let the Smashing Commence! which gives Pak his due along with penciller Aaron Lopresti; commentary from Liu, character designer Philip Bourassa and key painter Steve Nicodemus. We’re also shown the opening to 2011’s Tales of Asgard, which actually looks even better. The Wolverine segment from Hulk Vs. is repurposed along with the motion comics for Spider-Woman and Astonishing X-Men along with music videos and too many trailers.

Continue reading Review: 'Planet Hulk' on DVD ›

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Fri Feb 5, 2010 — by Glenn Hauman

'Merlin' appears on SyFy in April

Syfy picked up the basic cable rights for all 26 episodes of the series Merlin, including the US TV premiere of season two which has never before been seen in America. Syfy will premiere the series this April.

The series featured the adventures of young Merlin and Arthur, who is being groomed by his father Uther Pendragon to one day become king of England. Season one aired on NBC last summer and seasons one and two aired on BBC One in the UK during 2008-09. BBC is moving forward with a third season, slated to air in September.

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