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Tue Apr 28, 2009 — by Amy Goldschlager
Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Quirk Books; April 2009; $12.95
What is there left to be said about the Undead Sensation That’s Sweeping the Nation? The buzz for this book was so loud that they rushed it into publication a few months early (which no doubt accounts for the inconsistently applied British spellings in the text). Everyone and their newly risen mother has reviewed it, or at least written about it, and it’s now spending a second week on the New York Times bestseller list.
As broad farce, the book succeeds. It does a fine job of interleaving the original text with brutal confrontations with the undead, katana swordplay and ninja ambushes. There’s even a note of pathos in the fresh explanation for why Charlotte chooses to marry the dreadful Mr. Collins: she’s been stricken with the zombie plague, and wants to eke out her final days as a married woman before someone must behead and burn her. I also particularly enjoyed the revised faceoff between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth. In the original, Lady Catherine sneers at Elizabeth for not being personally educated by a governess; here, Lady Catherine mocks Elizabeth’s inferior martial arts tutelage in China—apparently true gentlewomen go to Japan to learn how to kick butt.
Continue reading Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith ›
Mon Apr 27, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'The Wrestler' DVD
In our world, there are costumed champions fighting the good fight against costumed evil doers, done in public and for our entertainment. We call them professional wrestlers but given their names, attire, and storylines, they truly are comic books brought to life. Unlike comic heroes, though, these players age and fade away, to be replaced by a new generation with new names, not retreads.
Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight was the first real look at what happens to an over-the-hill hero. The body is slower to heal, the acrobatic daring-do that came so effortlessly leaves the body drenched in sweat.
Wrestlers, especially those doped up on steroids, watch their bodies break down and get reduced to the independent circuit for a few hundred bucks a night or signing autographs at lightly attended local events. It’s a sad life, ripe for exploration as a film and Darren Aronofsky wonderfully covers this in The Wrestler
Mon Apr 27, 2009 — by Marc Alan Fishman
Review: 'Mr. Stuffins' #1
Bear, James Bear...
Greetings, ComicMixers and Mixettes... I come to you today from the future. I've just returned home from a trip to the cinematorium (back in 2009, you would have referred to it as a “movie theatre”). I caught a wonderful little film based on a comic book series I have time tracked to debut this week. The book? BOOM! Studios' Mr. Stuffins. While the film followed the source material closely, for this reviewer there was just a bit too much sex and violence. Who knew even in the future movies would still differ from their literary counter-parts such as to enhance the boom-booms and the titillation. Feh, feh I say!
Ok, I jest. I'm not from the future. And there's no film (yet) for Mr. Stuffins. That being said though, I did read the first issue of this series, and it was a delight. If the quality of the rest of this book stays close to that of it's first issue, we all may be plunking down the bucks for a blockbuster in a few years. So, do yourself a favor, put down the cash now for this series so you can join me in line later, where we can scoff at all the “normies” as they postulate where the series came from. We'll point, and laugh, and clutch our signed issue #1 with either of the available covers (One cover by Mouse Guard's David Peterson, the other by Joe Abraham and Fellipe Martins).
Mr. Stuffins is brought to you by Johanna Stokes and Andrew Cosby, the creative team behind the television series Eureka that appears on the SyFy network. The plot itself starts out like so many series we've read before... A scientist finds out (gasp... yawn) that his project wasn't being funded for the good of mankind, but for (gasp...) profit! Cut to some running, some desperation, and the haphazard placement of said “research”--in this case an A.I. Secret Spy program-- into the closest object in reach. It's here we meet our titular hero to be... as the program is placed in a child's teddy bear. Akin to Teddy Ruxpin of my own youth, the bear toy is your garden variety singing, talking, pal-oh-mine all kids would adore. Of course, if our Teddy Ruxpin's could secure the perimeter, whilst using Krav Maga on my enemies... maybe I wouldn't have lost so many fights in gradeschool.
Smart folks will anticipate most of the plot points, but you'll do it with a smile. We're introduced to our P.O.V. family mid-crisis. Faced with his parents recent separation, our “everykid”, Zach, comes into ownership of the aforementioned uber-toy. Hilarity ensues. Kudos to artist Axel Medellin Machain, whose crisp style lends to a very easy read. Anti-Kudos to Crosby and Stoke's laughably one-dimensional big sister. It's hoped in future issues we'll see more sides to her. But I digress. When Zach's “Mr. Stuffins” activates, I dare anyone not to laugh, snicker, and giggle just a little bit. In his debut panel, I was completely sold. The juxtaposition of Stuffins personifying something similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger's John Matrix in Commando is just too perfect. While nothing will surprise you during the read, you'll be hard pressed not to love this book anyways-- thanks in large part to a script that knows when to keep danger at an arms length, backed by solid art that knows when to give readers a beat to absorb the characters' feelings.
Parents reading this review may ask how suitable it is for the youngsters. Know that there's no violence “on screen”, nor dirty words to read. We feel for Zach, and he's certainly the heart of this story. While I assume Mr. Stuffins may see more violence to come, this issue is certainly friendly. While the concepts inside are typical Hollywood “Blow'd Em Up Gud!”, Stokes and Cosby have set up a book that (hopefully) will stay towards the lighter side of the genres it's incorporating.
In Short:
Mr. Stuffins #1 hits shelves Wednesday, April 29th. Due to a fast moving script, and crisp artwork, this book comes highly recommended. While it's uncertain how graphic things may get, the heart is in the right place here. Add to your pull list, get ready... to get stuffed. Stuffed with awesomeness.
Mon Apr 27, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'X-Men' Animated DVDs Volumes 1-2
In the 1970s, Chris Claremont was arguably the first comic book writer to advance Stan Lee’s style of writing for the Marvel super-heroes, delving deeper into his characters and exploring what it meant to be born a mutant in a world that feared the different. As a result, much as everyone glommed onto Spider-Man in the 1960s, Chris’ X-Men in the 1970s became the new standard for popularity.
Television was slow to recognize the resurgent popularity in super-heroes, not really adding a comic book to screen adaptation for years until Batman: The Animated Series debuted in the wake of the wildly successful Tim Burton film. With its critical acclaim and ratings success, the networks began looking for other series and they finally learned how popular Professor Xavier’s students had become in the intervening years.
Marvel Animation produced a very faithful comic book adaptation which debuted October 31, 1992 and ran for five seasons, totaling 76 episodes. It was the tipping point in making the franchise a big deal for merchandise and eventually, the long-awaited live-action film version.
The first 33 episodes have been collected into two volumes, released Tuesday by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, cannily in time for the Wolverine hysteria. The first volume of X-Men
Continue reading Review: 'X-Men' Animated DVDs Volumes 1-2 ›
Sun Apr 26, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'Mission: Impossible' Season 6
The concept behind Mission: Impossible
Season six, airing 1971-1972, was the season that should not have been. Paramount Pictures wanted the show canceled and placed into profitable reruns but CBS saw ratings upticks at the end of season five and wanted the series back. Nimoy wanted out, saying he was bored. It was time to change everything up.
The penultimate season, coming out on DVD Tuesday, saw numerous alterations from the departure of Nimoy, Warren, and Elliot to a domestic focus. Lynda Day George, an attractive red-head doubled as femme fatale and makeup expert, tightening the focus to just a quartet of regular agents. Other IMF agents turned up largely as supernumerary fillers (with Elliot making one final appearance). The producers gave up on deposing fictional presidents around the world and sent the Impossible Missions Force against “the syndicate” (code for organized crime).
Watching these 22 episodes, collected in production order not airdate order, shows how far television writing has come. The characters are all ciphers despite their loyalty and apparent friendship for one another. We know nothing more about them in season six than we did in the previous five. The targets for each mission were also ciphers, all surface characterization and little else. Each episode has a case, a complication, and a resolution with variety seen in the way of additional complications or locales.
Given the tighter team, Jim stopped flipping through pictures to select his team and we went right to the briefing scene. As the season progressed, each of the four got a chance to shine, notably Greg Morris, moved up to co-starring status. In between roles as a laconic thug, he also shone in “Blues” where he displayed his own golden throat. Even Lupis got to do more than the heavy lifting this season, as he displayed technical know-how. However, he was also the agent to fumble the most often, although this gave us a chance to see his iron will power when he was caught and drugged with truth serum in “Double Dead”. Based on airdate, the season effectively opened and closed with a spotlight on Graves’ Jim Phelps, who had to be blind in one episode then suffered from amnesia in another. As for the newcomer, Casey was well highlighted, especially in “The Bride” where she had to play innocent as well as strung-out and finally, dead.
The pleasure in rewatching these shows is to see how far we’ve come in terms of storytelling or in seeing familiar faces in guest roles. One of the most preposterous but oddly satisfying stories, “Encore”, features William Shatner as a 65-year-old criminal duped into thinking 35 years have vanished all so the IMF team can find where he hid a body. It’s the most elaborate plot of the season and Shatner manages to sell it.
Other actors it’s neat to see at various points of their career include Elizabeth Ashley, Harold J. Stone, James Gregory, Richard Jaekel, Herb Edelman, Joie Don Baker, Billy Dee Williams, Leon Russom, Donald Moffat, Victor French, Gerald S. O’Laughlin, Fritz Weaver, Demond Wilson, Steve Forrest, Anthony Zerbe, Kevin McCarthy, Warren Stevens, William Windom, and of course, Christopher George.
The ratings were strong, especially with the show in the Saturday at 10 p.m. slot, finishing the season 32nd which made CBS happy. You can relive those adventures if you’re a diehard M:I fan but this was not the sharpest season by far. The six-disc set comes with zero in the way of extras.
Fri Apr 17, 2009 — by Andrew Wheeler
Manga Friday: Schoolgirls in Trouble
Four books about teenagers in really short skirts
Well, I’m back, he said.
(A shiny dime to the first person to identify that line.)
“Manga Friday” has been on hiatus for a while, but it roars back into the arena, all mixed-metaphorical engines racing, with four new books set in that most hallowed of all Japanese story settings: the all-girls high school. Oh, sure – one of these books is set in a school that just recently let a small number of boys in, and another features a school that probably has some boys – but all of these books know that it’s the girls, with their little sailor outfits and ridiculously short skirts, that draws in the readers. (Apparently both boys and girls, as far as I can tell.) So, without further ado…
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking, Vol. 1
By Koji Kumeta
Del Rey Manga, February 2009, $10.99
We begin with a parody, to ease ourselves into the goofy insanity of the real thing. Nozomu Itoshiki is an influential teacher at an all-girls school (told you!) – unfortunately, he’s not exactly influential in a good way, since he’s deeply suicidal. The requisite super-positive girl, Kafuka Fura, finds him hanging (the by-a-noose kind of hanging) in a cherry-blossom grove, and breaks his rope by grabbing onto his legs. That leads to the first iteration of Itoshiki’s catchprase – “What if I had died?!” – which is an incredibly awesome thing to say to someone who just saved your life, and which Itoshiki gets to say several times in the course of this book.
But, since he isn’t dead, Itoshiki has to go to school, where he spreads depression and sadness to his students – or he would, if they weren’t all each completely nuts in their own ways. Besides the super-positive girl, there’s one who never wants to leave her room (a Hikikomori – it’s common enough in Japan to have its own name), a stalker, one girl who always comes to school with new bruises and injuries, the requisite super-sexy girl who’s just returned from living overseas, a compulsive trash-texter, and so on.
Tue Apr 14, 2009 — by Andrew Wheeler
Review: The Arcade of Cruelty
Joseph Patrick Larkin's pseudo-posthumous parade of preposterosities
Arcade of Cruelty
By Joseph Patrick Larkin
Also-Ran, 2008, $18
Joseph Patrick Larkin is a self-obsessed, creepy, sexist shut-in with voyeuristic tendencies. And those are his good points.
I only know this because I’ve just read his self-published book The Arcade of Cruelty – but, let me back up immediately, because “self-published” will give you a certain image, and this book doesn’t fit that at all. It’s immaculately well-designed, looking for all the world like the catalog of some very, very unlikely traveling museum exhibit. It has a real ISBN, the unlikely and wildly inaccurate category of “Queer Studies/Occult” on the back, and a little log on the front proclaiming it the new selection of “Joseph’s Book Club” (with a circular logo that looks not at all unlike that of a different book club, one run by a TV host hose name begins with O). In the middle of all that, on the otherwise classy cover, is that serviceable drawing by Larkin of a zombie tearing out someone’s (his?) throat.
Larkin’s art is all at about that level: he’s not a great artist by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s reasonably good at crude depictions of appalling things – and, besides, the writing is carrying most of the weight here, anyway.
Mon Apr 13, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'Max Fleischer's Superman 1941-1942'
From 1941 through 1942, Max and Dave Fleischer rewrote the rules for animation and people have been trying to match those results ever since. When no one had previously tried adventure in animated form, the Fleischers took their lessons from Popeye and applied them to Superman with astounding results.
The seventeen shorts, released by Paramount Pictures, were the closet anyone would come to bringing Superman to a live action feature film until Richard Donner achieved that goal in 1977 (and people have been trying to match that goal ever since).
Warner Home Video has previously included the cartoons as part of their mammoth tin can set of Superman features but now there’s a two-disc set, Max Fleischer's Superman: 1941-1942
The fluid action and rousing Sammy Timberg music remain indelibly etched in my mind from first experiencing these in the 1970s. The plots are very simple, given the standards of the day, so there’s a threat, Lois gets in trouble, and Clark becomes Superman to save the day. Repeat seventeen times. Given their short running time, there was no attempt at anything more than the most surface of characterization and the comics offered little in the way of recurring villains at the time (yes, including Lex Luthor). What they could have borrowed from the radio series, along with voice actor Bud Collyer, was kryptonite but chose not to do so.
Interestingly, there’s a warning on the box reading that the DVD set “is intended for the Adult Collector and Is Not Suitable for Children”. Hogwash. This is over-reacting to the mindset that children are fragile and the sight of Superman battling a dinosaur or a gang of robots would ruin their psyche. If anything, this is a perfect vehicle for introducing smart heroic adventures to children as they seek outlets for such fare.
The extras are culled from elsewhere but are worth watching if they’re new to you. First, there’s The Man, The Myth, Superman which does a nice job surveying heroes prior to the Man of Steel’s arrival in Action Comics #1. Second is First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series which clearly establishes how the brothers went from Koko the Clown to Superman and easily surpassed other animation studios. Trailers for other animated offerings and the Green Lantern featurette round out the set.
Bottom line: if you do not own these in any other manner, buy this set. If you already have all seventeen episodes, there’s little reason to buy them again.
Tue Apr 7, 2009 — by Chuck Rozakis
I-Con 28: 'Under the Radar: Comics You're Missing'
Among the exciting adventures at I-Con was a panel titled "Under the Radar: Comics You're Missing." The panelists (Carl Fink, Bob Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Andy Weir, Bernie Hou, and me) and attendees came up with the following list, which we promised we'd post for reference. You should check them out if you aren't reading them already:
Webcomics:
- Alien Loves Predator
- Casey & Andy
- Cheshire Crossing
- Alice! Comics
- Medium Large
- XKCD
- Order of the Stick
- Goats
- Gunnerkrigg Court
- Dealing With the Devil
- Lady in Shadow (we're looking for where it went)
- Minus
- Garfield Minus Garfield
Print Comics:
- DC's new ongoing version of The Spirit
- PS238 by Aaron Williams
- Tokyopop's DramaCon
- BOOM Studio's The Muppet Show
- BOOM Studio's The Incredibles
- BOOM Studio's Potter's Field
- First Comics's Warp
- Oni Press's Damned
- Free Lunch Comics's Bigger
Of course, the real takeaway from the panel was that you should be getting your comics news and reviews from ComicMix.com!
Tue Apr 7, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' DVD
The Day The Earth Stood Still
While a little preachy, at least Klaatu had the chance to address the greatest scientific minds and issue his warning that mankind had to deal with their nuclear arsenals and avoid self-annihilation or it would be done for them.
In the remake, out today on DVD, Klaatu never gets to make the address. This is one of the most glaring failings in the film which starts off well and then falls apart in the final third. The nuclear issue was turned to an ecological one, which is perfectly valid, but after that, characterization is avoided in favor of a plodding story.
Keanu Reeves is fine as the unearthly visitor and his lack of chemistry with Jennifer Connelly is appropriate. Jaden Smith, as her step-son, swings between cute and petulant, perfectly appropriate for his age but, whereas the first film focused on the world through the boy’s eyes and gave Klaatu a reason for hope; the relationship depicted here is thin. At no point, does Klaatu get to see the world for himself, relying entirely on a brief conversation with one of his kind who has been on Earth the past seven decades.
The internal logic for the way Klaatu’s alien powers works seems entirely lacking while the nanites that comprise Gort make far more sense. The stylishly updated Gort works far better than Klaatu or his energy globe of a vessel.
The supporting cast is filled with fine actor who are given little or nothing to do and their wasted talent is a shame. John Cleese and Jon Hamm have more to do than Kathy Bates and all three deserved more screen time.
The scant special features include three brief deleted scenes that add nothing to the experience. There’s a featurette on how the “reimaging” happened along with a focus on the special effects going into Gort. The final two, Watching The Skies: In Search Of Extraterrestrial Life, and The Day The Earth Was “Green” are pleasant viewing experiences but are nothing extraordinary. There’s also a still gallery and production photos.
The DVD is available in a variety of formats starting with the two-disc special edition that includes the original film. The three disc version has a digital copy (which is almost de rigueur for big budget releases these days). The Blu-ray edition, not reviewed, also has the original film and two extra features.
Mon Apr 6, 2009 — by Andrew Wheeler
Review: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Prodigal Son
Murderous bio-engineered monsters in New Orleans
Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, Volume One
Adaptation by Chuck Dixon; Illustrated by Brett Booth
Dell Rey, February 2009, $22.95
There comes a time in every best-selling writer’s life when he realizes that he’d like to make money even faster than he can write books. OK, maybe that realization comes to all of us – but the best-selling writer can actually do something about it. At that point, assuming that scruples aren’t a problem – and how on earth did he become a best-selling writer and keep his scruples, anyway? – the options are two: let someone else write a book under your name, or license something you’ve already written to another medium, and let Joe Hired-Hand do the heavy lifting in that format.
Or, if you’re Dean Koontz, you could do both.
Some years ago, he got Kevin J. Anderson to co-write a novel called Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, and then a couple of sequels. (There was also a TV deal at the time, though, sadly, it eventually fell through.) And now long-time comics writer Chuck Dixon has adapted that novel, which was at least half-written by Anderson in the first place, into a comics series…which, of course, still has “Dean Koontz” as the largest thing on the cover.
(I’m beginning to think that popular writers’ names have a nearly homeopathic power – no matter how much they’re diluted, the audience will keep clamoring for more.)
Continue reading Review: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Prodigal Son ›
Fri Apr 3, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'The Tudors' Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD
Henry VIII was a rock star in his day. Anne Boleyn was the fashion plate. Their doings were covered as the pop culture of their day (after all, there wasn’t much else to do). The doings of the Royal Family captivated the English people as much then as it fascinates today. It’s little surprise then that given the politics, power plays, sex, and war that The Tudors
With the third season poised to begin on April 5, it’s high time we looked at the first seasons, both now available on DVD from Paramount Home Video.
Today, most people know two things about Henry VIII: he was fat and he had six wives as he sought an heir. A few more would know he formed the Church of England in a major schism with the Pope so he could divorce his first wife and marry the more attractive Anne.
The series pens with Henry when he was young, virile and active. He was a sportsman, a musician, and well-read. He was also rather randy since, after all, rank hath its privileges. He married Catherine out of obligation not love, although she loved him and remained faithful despite the horrible things done to her in his quest for marital freedom. Season one showed his displeasure with the situation and his growing infatuation with Anne, who wisely didn’t put out until they were married.
Season two followed Anne’s inability to produce a male heir, losing Henry’s attention as his eyes found Jane Seymour. His break from the Church finally occurred and he was left to build his own series of churches.
It’s all fascinating stuff, unless, of course, you know anything about the era then discover the 20 episodes aired to date are rife with anachronisms and inaccuracies. Writer/Creator Michael Hirst defends his choices as saying he was hired to produce entertainment not a documentary and that buys him a fair amount of latitude.
The liberties, though, compress events and change things around. For whatever reason, having seen one Pope in the first season, they bring his successor on stage for the second season, much as Henry seems to go through wives. To make the show work at all, a lot of time compression happens so Henry marries Anne when he’s in his thirties soon after the meet, not nearly a decade later. Perhaps the biggest change, but one that works dramatically was the death of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey.
The historic inaccuracies are lengthy but the show is slick and polished with a large cast that requires paying attention. From sets to performances, you rarely want to take your eyes off the screen.
The performances make the show riveting, starting with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the volatile, restless Henry. Maria Doyle Kennedy suffers wonderful as poor Catherine while Natalie Dormer is captivating as Anne. Where Catherine was older and less attractive, Anne was colorful, younger and went after what she wanted, which was not only the King’s bed but the power that came with the crown.
Every story needs villains and in his own sly way, Sam Neill steals the first season as Cardinal Wolsey. Additionally, there are the scheming nobles, notably Anne’s father Thomas Boleyn, The Earl of Wiltshire, played by Nick Dunning with cunning. Interestingly, fathers back then thought nothing of encouraging their daughters to sleep with men if it furthered their family’s fortunes (which was entirely the plot to The Other Boleyn Girl, which failed to ignite the screen).
Palace intrigue plays out in each episode as everyone vies to better their situation with the exception of Thomas More (Jeremy Northam) who puts his faith and his word above politics and then suffers for it. And even though Pope Paul III had nothing to do with the events depicted, he’s a welcome anachronism since it gives us the wit of Peter O’Toole, seen all too briefly in the second season.
The two box sets come with their brief extras. Several episodes have perfunctory commentary and the extras feel rushed. The first season offers you a look at the production and costume design, the latter of which is well worth watching. You also get a brief glimpse of the contemporary locations where the story was set. On the second season set you have a stronger Tower of London featurette and a weak look at the modern day folk who can trace their lineage to Henry and his legitimate and illegitimate offspring. Both discs are stuffed with sample episodes for Showtime’s other series, an almost desperate cry of “Please watch me” and frankly, several are worth watching but the discs would have benefitted from the very documentary material the show never tried to be.
Before the third season kicks off, you can check out which Tudor you are with a quiz at the show’s website. Me, I qualified as an actor, presuming I was still alive at the advanced age of 50.
Thu Apr 2, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'To Catch a Thief' DVD
Paramount Pictures ends its tour of the 1950s, for now anyway, with the Centennial Collection edition of Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief
Hitchcock’s 1955 film, based on David Dodge’s 1952 novel, stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly and was filmed in location in Europe. This was the first of his films shot in Paramount’s VistaVision, a process similar to Cinemascope and used to compete against television for audiences. Despite the arduous process to shoot, he went on to use it five times but the first proved challenging, not that you can tell in the finished product.
John Robie (Grant) is a retired thief known as The Cat but he leaves his French vineyard when a copycat begins a series of crimes that convinces the police he’s back in action. Posing an American businessman, he begins seeking the most valuable jewels in France to outguess his imitator and along the way romances Francie Stevens (Kelly), daughter of a society woman who owns one of the gems on his list.
The glimpse into French society in fun and the movie moves along with solid pacing and some nice action sequences, notably the first car chase. Grant and Kelly, in her last film for the director, sparkle on screen together and Hitch does his adept visual innuendo, this time fireworks going off during some serious kissing.
Shot on location makes the film look far different than typical studio fare, aided by Edith Head’s keen eye for costuming the stars, especially Kelly who soon went on to become a princess. The cinematography by Robert Burks deservedly won the Academy Award that year.
Technically, the cleaned print transfer makes this the best edition yet released for home video, with 2.0 Dolby sound lending an assist.
The film comes with brand new commentary from Dr. Drew Casper, Hitchcock Prof. of American Film at USC who provides insights into the production. The second disc comes with the usual assortment of special features. The 2007 edition’s extras are included so you’d be buying this mostly for the restored film itself. There’s also the 23-minute A Night with the Hitchcock's, the USC popular class devoted to the director and his works. The surviving family usually comes to chat at least once per semester and the November 2008 visit was recorded for inclusion. Then there’s Unacceptable Under the Code: Film Censorship in America, the 12-minute featurette looking at the state of film censorship during the 1950s, considered one of the most repressive decades in America (see the Comics Code). This focuses on how Hitch worked around the restrictions with glee.
The Behind the Gates featurette is a six minute look at Grant and Kelly as opposed to the physical production of a film. And Edith Head: The Paramount Years makes a return appearance from an earlier part of the collection.
From the 2007 edition are Writing and Casting To Catch a Thief is a nine minute featurette; The Making of To Catch a Thief (17-minutes); Alfred Hitchcock and To Catch a Thief: An Appreciation (seven minutes).
Mon Mar 30, 2009 — by Jenifer Rosenberg
Review: The Incredibles #1
My daughter and I recently sat down together to read BOOM! Kids’ new Incredibles comic. The concept behind these books, as we reported here back in July, was to present new stories set in the world of the film. My daughter was immediately excited to see characters she recognized on the cover (the first four collectible covers were done by Michael Avon Oeming with colors by Nick Filardi, and the fifth, limited edition cover was done by Mike Mignola). I figured that she would love the story no matter what happened since she already loves the film. It’s interesting what children notice that adults may not pick up on.
Since my daughter is a beginning reader, I read her everything, including the credits. The credits page has a little introduction to each of the characters. My daughter and I both picked up on the fact that the ten-year-old boy, Dash, is listed in the credits above his older sister Violet. I considered this and figured that ten-year-old boys must be the target demographic for this comic. My little girl was highly displeased that a little brother would receive a higher billing than his big sister, and we had to delay reading the story for a few minutes while she vented about how little brothers are always stealing the limelight.
Then we began to read the story. We begin with an evil robot villain from the 24th century named Futurion. I found it clever and artistic that all of Futurion’s speech bubbles looked like little computer readouts, with ones and zeroes replacing “i” and “o”. My daughter, however, found this to be highly confusing. Granted, she has only recently learned to read, but she was quite frustrated by the fact that letters had been replaced with numbers and felt that someone had made a mistake. I told her that it was kind of like a joke since zeroes and ones look similar to the letters. She said “This isn’t a very funny joke”.
Once I convinced my daughter that we didn’t need to send the writers to see her teacher about the difference between a zero and an “o”, we continued with the story. A large portion of this story, which was written by BOOM! EIC Mark Waid, takes place at the home of the Parr family (the secret identities of the Incredibles). Most specifically, there is a serious discussion between the parents while the children are in another room, and then some neighbors come over for a visit.
Sun Mar 29, 2009 — by Robert Greenberger
Review: 'Slumdog Millionaire' on DVD
Pop culture is influenced by so many different factors and timing determines what will catch on and endure while other things, quality be damned, wither and die. A perfect example is the Award-Winning darling of 2008, Slumdog Millionaire
Based on the 2005 novel by Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup, it was optioned for film by British production companies Celador Films and Film4 Productions who hired Simon Beaufoy to adapt it. By the time director Danny Boyle read the script and accepted the assignment, it was 2006. The budget was set at $15 million, meaning the producers needed a partner – enter Warner Independent which gambled $5 million for the right. Shooting began in November 2007 and it spent much of 2008 being screened at festivals starting with Telluride and the Toronto International. But, a Warner Bros. exec saw the finished product and felt that once you added in prints and marketing, it was not likely to recoup its costs.
A different exec at 20th Century-Fox saw it but saw something different and bought the film from Warners and scheduled it for late in the year. By the time it opened on November 12, the economy tanked and people were in a mixed state of financial panic and political euphoria. People wanted something to latch on to, something to make them forget the scary real world, at least for two hours.
Slumdog Millionaire was the perfect antidote for what was ailing our psyche. As a result, it has earned, through this past weekend, worldwide revenues of $268,103,477 making it hugely profitable and turning the stars Dev Patel and Freida Pinto into celebrities. Pretty heady stuff.
The movie, coming out on DVD Tuesday, is incredibly moving, exciting, funny, poignant and very predictable. While it was the Feel Good Movie of the Year and therefore swayed voters into giving it many prizes, it is not the greatest film of the year. In addition to the enjoyable story, it also shined a documentary-style eye on India’s slum life and we watched in gaping fascination. This was not Bollywood or some idealized view of life, but the actual way the majority of the people lived in the heavily populated country. This, more than the story, may be one reason it was so well-received around the world.
