The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Charlie’s Angels & Full Throttle Come to 4K and Blu-ray in October

Charlie’s Angels & Full Throttle Come to 4K and Blu-ray in October

With the new feature film reboot of the classic television series coming in November, Sony Home Entertainment is releasing the McG-directed films from 2000 and 2003. Both will contain a preview of the new film,w hich we have to say, looks like a lot of fun.

CHARLIE’S ANGELS (2000)
Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu star as the captivating crime-fighting trio who are masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts. When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy individual privacy, the Angels, aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley (Bill Murray), set out to bring down the bad guys. But when a terrible secret is revealed, it makes the Angels targets for assassination.

Director: McG
Executive Producers: Betty Thomas, Jenno Topping, Joseph M. Caracciolo
Producers: Leonard Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, Nancy Juvonen
Written By: Ryan Rowe & Ed Solomon and John August
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Billy Murray, Sam Rockwell, Tim Curry, Kelly Lynch, John Forsythe

BONUS MATERIALS

• Special Features on 4K Ultra HD
o ALL-NEW: Sneak peek at the new 2019 Charlie’s Angels film with an extended clip from the film
o Theatrical Trailer
• Special Features on Blu-ray:
o Commentary with Director McG and Cinematographer Russell Carpenter
o Six Featurettes
o Bloopers
o Deleted Scenes
o Music Videos

CHARLIE’S ANGELS is presented on 4K UHD in full 4K resolution—via an all-new scan from its original camera negative—and includes both an exclusive Dolby Atmos audio track and the original theatrical 5.1 audio
Run Time: 98 minutes
Rating: Rated PG-13 for action violence, innuendo and some sensuality/nudity.

CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE
The “Angels”, three investigative agents (Barrymore, Diaz and Liu) who work for the Charles Townsend Detective Agency, return for another high-octane series of adventures as they investigate the theft of a database of witness protection profiles, after five of the people on the list are murdered. They’re aided by a new Bosley (Bernie Mac), in an adventure which pits them against a “fallen angel” (Moore), their old nemesis, the Thin Man (Glover), and others.

Director: McG
Executive Producers: Jenno Topping, Patrick Crowley
Producers: Leonard Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, Nancy Juvonen
Story by: John August
Screenplay By: John August and Cormac Wibberley & Marianne Wibberley
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bernie Mac, Crispin Glover, Justin Theroux, Robert Patrick and Demi Moore

BONUS MATERIALS
• Special Features on Blu-ray:
o ALL-NEW: Sneak peek at the new 2019 Charlie’s Angels film with an extended clip from the film
o Telestrator Commentary with Director McG
o Writer’s Commentary
o Angel-Vision Trivia Track
o Full Throttle: The Cars of Charlie’s Angels
o Dream Duds: Costuming an Angel
o Angels Makeover: Hansen Dam
o Designing Angels: The Look of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
o Learn Why: There’s No Such Thing As a “Short Shot”, Only an Overworked Producer
o Music Video: Pink Featuring William Orbit “Feel Good Time”
o Cameo-Graphy
o Turning Angels into Pussycats Dolls
o Rolling with the Punches
o XXX-Treme Angels
o Full Throttle Jukebox
o Angel Scouts: A Look Into the Gorgeous Locations
o Theatrical Trailer

CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE Blu-ray includes both the Theatrical and Unrated versions of the film
Run Time: 106 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for action violence, sensuality and language/innuendo.

REVIEW: Shazam!

REVIEW: Shazam!

When DC Comics revived Captain Marvel in the 1970s, it was out of step with the audience and struggled to find success. Ever since, the publisher has been trying to find a formula to make the character and his world relevant to the readership. With Carol Danvers’ popularity as Captain Marvel ascendant, DC finally capitulated and began calling Billy Batson’s alter ego Shazam to keep the two from being confused.

With Captain Marvel out in March and Shazam out in April, there’s a good reason to rename the latter. (No one back in the day would ever have imagined either getting a big screen treatment or coming out so closely together.) Warner Home Entertainment has released Shazam in all the usual formats this week and it remains a fun, but not perfect film.

After countless screenwriters tried to crack the light-hearted world created by Bill Parker and CC Beck, it appears that Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke found their clues less in the classic work and more in the contemporary incarnation from Geoff Johns. As a result, if you loved the older stuff there’s plenty to like and even more of you love the new take.

We have the wizard (Djimon Hounsou) seeking someone with a pure heart to take his powers and defend the world from the Seven Deadly Sins. So far so good. After rejecting poor little rich boy Thaddeus Bodog Sivana (Ethan Pugiotto), he waits until he finds Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a homeless teen seeking his birth mother (Caroline Palmer). In trouble, Billy is taken to a group home run by Rosa and Victor Vasquez (Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews) and meets his foster siblings. As he struggles to adjust, he also is given the powers of the gods.

The whole foster family is a Johns addition and introduces a new sense of family, skewing far from the source material where Billy and Mary Bomfield (Grace Fulton) turn out to be twin siblings. Later, when they all gain rainbow-colored costumes it dilutes the Marvel Family feel.

Anyway, Billy turns into the World’s Mightiest Mortal (Zachary Levi) and has trouble acting like adult. While Billy tugs at your heart strings and Shazam is funny, they act as entirely separate beings rather than symbiotically connected. We see him trying to make money by putting on lighting shows (a power he doesn’t have in comics nor needs). To me, this is the biggest fault with an otherwise entertaining film. The sheer exuberance the adult displays is totally absent from Billy and the wisdom of Solomon seems entirely missing from the film.

Just as he’s getting acclimated to his power set and trying to find a name for himself, an amusing thread, the adult Sivana (Mark Strong) has been corrupted the Seven Deadly Sins and uses their power first for revenge against his father (John Glover) and then trying to gain the powers he feels are rightly his.

The problem here is that Sivana was a scientist and the conflict between them since 1940 was always science versus magic. Here, it’s magic versus magic and the David and Goliath riff is exchanged for muscle versus muscle. Strong does a fine job, but feh,

The siblings all have their moments to shine before Shazam shares his power with them, turning one family into another, just in time for the climax at the carnival. I’ll admit, the varying kids are all interesting, engaging varieties and their adult versions are good-looking heroes, but the adult heroes are just boring.

Overall, the movie works just fine when viewed as Big with Super-Powers but it could have been so much more. Director David F. Sandberg does a fine job making us care for the characters and keeps the action pieces moving, a growing challenge with every subsequent super-hero film. I’d be curious to see what he does with a sequel.

The high def transfer retains the 2.39:1 aspect ratio and is a strong image. The colors pop, the blacks are deep, and the lightning crackles. This definitely retains its comic book look and feel which goes a long way towards the enjoyment. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is possibly a touch better than the visuals so the music and special effects pop.

The Blu-ray comes complete with an above-average assortment of special features starting with Exclusive Motion Comic: “Superhero Hooky” (4:05) which reminds us why motion comics have never taken off as a medium although its nice the cast does the voices in this short. We than have The Magical World of Shazam (26:56) which briefly covers different aspects of the film’s production; Super Fun Zac (3:13); Deleted & Alternate Scenes (37:27 total), with Sandberg explaining why he reshot or edited out each scene giving you additional insight into the production; Gag Reel (3:16); Who is Shazam? (5:42), a too-brief history of the character in comics; Carnival Scene Study (10:22); and Shazamily Values (6:06) pairs the kid and their adult counterpart for some fun commentary.

Meet the New Writers of James Bond 007 – Vita Ayala and Danny Lore

Vita Ayala and Danny Lore are writing the new “James Bond 007” comic, and if some people were ticked at a black woman taking over 007 before…

There’s been a whole lot of noise about Lashana Lynch, most recently seen as Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel, being given the 007 number in the film currently known only as Bond 25. A black woman as 007?

We suspect there’s going to be even more noise over this. Bleeding Cool reports:

Vita Ayala and Danny Lore are the new writers for Dynamite Entertainment’s comic book series, James Bond 007, with art from Eric Gapstur . The new James Bond 007 #1 comic book will be published in October with covers from Jimmy Cheung.

Originally at www.bleedingcool.com

We here at ComicMix are big fans of Vita and Danny, and look forward to reading it in three months… unless, of course, they slip us an early look…

Bro, Do You Even Edit? Justice League: Release the Snyder Cut Ads Spotted at Comic-Con

Bro, Do You Even Edit? #ReleaseTheSnyderCut ads for “Justice League” spotted at Comic-Con

Bro, Do You Even Edit? Justice League: Release the Snyder Cut Ads Spotted at Comic-Con

Fans hoping to convince Warner Bros. to release an extended cut of Justice League as envisioned by director Zack Snyder have taken out a billboard in San Diego to greet fans during Comic Con International, marking the latest in a series of highly visible requests from the fans.

Fans supporting the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut hashtag will descend on San Diego wearing t-shirts, paying for billboards and, if past behavior is any indicator, probably asking questions about the cut at DC and Warner Bros. events. The campaign has become long enough and visible enough to compare to the efforts by fans to pressure Warner Bros. into releasing Richard Donner’s cut of Superman II — which they eventually did, but it took about 20 years.

Originally at comicbook.com

Bill Sienkiewicz receives 3-volume Career Retrospective

Bill Sienkiewicz receives 3-volume Career Retrospective

For forty years, the name Bill Sienkiewicz has been synonymous with groundbreaking, genre-pushing artwork. Since exploding on the scene in the pages of Moon Knight, and continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible in comic book art in titles like The New Mutants, Daredevil, and Elektra: Assassin, Sienkiewicz has built a reputation as one of the most respected, original, and, unpredictable artists to ever work in comic books. To honor the career of a true artistic original, Six Foot Press will publish Bill Sienkiewicz: Revolution, Vol. I in October 2019, in both standard Trade Edition and Limited Edition formats, with two more volumes planned to follow. 

Revolution features a ton of artwork,” said Sienkiewicz. “A lot that people have seen, and plenty from my private notebooks that they have never seen. And that’s just Volume 1!” 

Bill Sienkiewicz: Revolution Vol. I, (Trade Edition) features a fabric-wrapped, foil- stamped cover and contains over 200 pages of art, as well as an introduction by best-selling writer Neil Gaiman, an interview with Sienkiewicz, and an essay by Ben Davis, award-winning Senior Writer for Artnet News, who examines Sienkiewicz’s process and places him within the context of art and popular culture. 

“Bill Sienkiewicz is a great comic book artist and a great artist, period,” Davis said. “He’s both mastered the visual storytelling of costumed heroics and hatched works of the most singularly weird, personal, and tough-to-categorize kind. Sometimes 

Sienkiewicz has actually done both at once—which in my opinion is what makes him really great. Just exactly how he’s pulled off this trick is what we try to show in this book, so I hope the result has something new to offer art snobs and superfans alike.” 

The Limited Edition is a fabric-covered clamshell box containing a collection of 40 individual deluxe reproductions of previously unpublished paintings, drawings, sketches, and mixed media works from four decades of Sienkiewicz’s notebooks and personal collection as well as other private collections. A booklet signed by the artist will include an introduction by Neil Gaiman and an interview in which Sienkiewicz explains his influences and techniques and offers his view on the future of comic book art. 

“Bill’s work has served to revolutionize the comic book industry. But he is a fine artist whose experimental techniques and unusual mixing of mediums deserve serious consideration by the larger art world,” explains Charles Kim, Publisher of Six Foot Press and former Associate Publisher of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. “This three-volume series will give us the chance to explore his output from a new perspective.” 

Bill Sienkiewicz: Revolution, Vol. I will be released in October 2019. The Trade and Limited Editions are available now for pre-order

Jason Mewes goes behind the camera for Madness in the Method

Jason Mewes goes behind the camera for Madness in the Method

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK // July 12, 2019 – Cinedigm has announced it will release Jason Mewes’ meta comedy MADNESS IN THE METHOD in select theaters and on demand beginning August 2, 2019, with a DVD and Blu-ray™ release planned for fall. Fans attending San Diego Comic Con can get a sneak peek at the film on July 18 at the TCL Chinese Theatre at Theatre Box, with Jason Mewes in attendance for a Q&A.

Produced by Autumnwood Media and written by Chris Anastasi and Dominic Burns, the film stars Mewes (Mallrats), Vinnie Jones (Snatch), Gina Carano (Haywire), Jaime Camil (Jane the Virgin), Kevin Smith (Clerks), Danny Trejo (Machete), Stan Lee (in his last onscreen role), Teri Hatcher (Tomorrow Never Dies), Brian O’Halloran (Mallrats), and Dean Cain (God’s Not Dead).
 
In the film, Mewes, tired of Hollywood’s perception of him, embarks on a quest to reinvent himself as a serious actor. Upon advice from best friend Kevin Smith, Mewes tracks down a highly secretive method-acting book – with disastrous consequences. Joining the star-studded ensemble are David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man), Mickey Gooch, Jr. (How to Be Single), Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners), Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers), and Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club).

Best known as the vocal half of the on-screen comedic duo, Jay and Silent Bob, Mewes has reprised his role as the celebrated character, “Jay,” in a number of films. With cult-fans following his controversial antics, Mewes has captured audiences with rebellious banter against his unspoken other half and longtime friend, Kevin Smith (Silent Bob). Since the beginning of the duo’s offbeat work together, Mewes and Smith have continued to build on their beloved character driven roles from the Jay and Silent Bob series. Most recently, the duo wrapped Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, which is scheduled for release later this year.

New Clips from Fast Color

New Clips from Fast Color

SANTA MONICA, CA (June 4, 2019) — Reveal the power within when Fast Colorarrives on Digital June 18 and on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital), DVD, and On Demand July 16 from Lionsgate. Featuring an immensely talented cast including Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beauty and the BeastA Wrinkle in TimeMiss Sloane), Lorraine Toussaint (Selma, Into the Badlands, Orange Is the New Black), Saniyya Sidney (FencesHidden Figures, The Passage), Christopher Denham (BillionsArgoShutter Island), and Academy Award® nominee David Strathairn (2005, Best Actor, Good Night, and Good Luck) , this Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh™ film follows a young woman whose superhuman abilities keep her on the run until she finally decides to go home and search for help. Directed by co-writer Julia Hart (Miss Stevens) and produced by co-writer Jordan Horowitz (La La Land), Mickey Liddell (I Can Only Imagine), and Pete Shilamion (Jackie), Fast Color, according to Deadline’s Pete Hammond, is “a female-empowered superhero movie unlike any other you have ever seen – and that’s a very good thing.”
 
Hunted by mysterious forces, a young woman (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) with supernatural abilities must go on the run when her powers are discovered. With nowhere else to go, she flees back to her family and the farmhouse she abandoned long ago. There, while being pursued by the local sheriff (David Strathairn), she begins to mend the broken relationships with her mother (Lorraine Toussaint) and daughter (Saniyya Sidney), and unearths the depths of the power within her.
 
Bring home Fast Color and get an in-depth look at what it took to make this inspiring sci-fi drama with a never-before-seen making-of featurette and audio commentary with writer-director Julia Hart and writer-producer Jordan Horowitz. The Fast ColorBlu-ray and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.
 
BLU-RAY / DVD / DIGITAL SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Julia Hart and Writer-Producer Jordan Horowitz
  • “A Mother’s Power: Making Fast Color” Featurette

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Year of Production: 2017
Title Copyright: Fast Color © 2018 Make it Rain LLC. All Rights Reserved. Artwork & Supplementary Materials © 2019 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Type: Theatrical Release
Rating: PG-13 for a scene of violence and brief strong language.
Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama
Closed-Captioned: N/A
Subtitles: Spanish, English SDH
Feature Run Time: 100 Minutes
BD Format: 1080p High Definition 16×9 1.85:1 Presentation
DVD Format: 16×9 1.85:1 Presentation
BD Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio™ 
DVD Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio

Dee Wallace Talks Returning to Critters

Dee Wallace Talks Returning to Critters

We have loved actress Dee Wallace, who starred in the original Critters as Helen Brown and returns to the franchise for a second time in the mysterious role of Aunt Dee in Critters Attack!

Wallace’s career spans 45 years with highlights including featured roles in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial10The HowlingCujo and The Frighteners, in addition to consistent roles across popular primetime television series, including recent turns on SupernaturalNCIS and Grimm. Wallace was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as Patricia Spencer in the legendary soap opera, General Hospital.

Produced by Blue Ribbon Content in association with SYFY, with production services provided by Blue Ice Pictures. Critters Attack! lands on earth on July 23, 2019, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Blu-rayTMCombo Pack, DVD and Digital.

Critters Attack! and The Banana Splits Movie will be jointly featured on a panel at Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 18 from 4:30-5:30pm in Room 6DE. Wallace will be joined by co-stars and filmmakers on the panel.

Trails of Bone, 2nd Relicant Chronicles book, now out

Trails of Bone, 2nd Relicant Chronicles book, now out

This past week the second volume of The Relicant Chronicles, Trails of Bone, was released. Written by best-selling author Aaron Rosenberg, it continues the disparate adventures of a warrior, a monk, a thief, a killer, a soldier, and a ruler, each trying to make their way through a world once rich with magic but now severely diminished.

The first volume, Bones of Empire, was released in December by Falstaff Books in print and digital and Tantor Media in audio. It received sterling reviews. Rosenberg describes the series as “Anime-esque epic fantasy,” or a cross between Game of Thrones and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In this world, characters absorb knowledge and memories from the bones of the dead, which is a brilliantly twisted way to gain power.

Bones introduced readers to two young brothers who set out on a journey with little money and only a few of the relic bones called aishone, seeking to make their way in a world. Things become tumultuous and the brothers’ fates are changed forever when they are forced to make a dangerous deal that could lead to their success—or their deaths. Meanwhile the emperor has struggles of his own, as do a young graverobber and a remorseless killer, all of them striving to make sense of their world. Their journeys are not only exciting but loosely connected, and readers will find themselves on the edge of their seats waiting to read the outcome.

One reviewer said of it, “The rich, fun, (slightly dark) world that Aaron Rosenberg writes is a delight to travel to and visit.” Another called it [a] fascinating story of a decaying empire, a looming war, and the people caught up in the middle.

The second volume is also available in print and digital from Falstaff and audio from Tantor. The back cover copy reads: “Amid all this chaos an emperor learns about his subjects firsthand, a warrior battles both foes and ancient tradition, a young man tests recently acquired prowess while another learns to rely on himself, a young graverobber struggles to overcome new scruples even as a different young woman with no scruples begins to amass power, a strange pair wreak havoc, and a mysterious new threat approaches the capital.” The book delivers all this and more, giving readers a window into a world thrown into chaos and war, and into the lives of its people and into the magic at the heart of everything.

“In Bones I got to present all the main characters and set them on their respective paths,” Rosenberg explained. “In Trails we get to see each of them starting to come into their own, but also we’re seeing some of them start to intersect. Those connections are only going to increase as the series continues.” The Relicant Chronicles is a five-book series, with the next book releasing at the end of 2019.

Rosenberg is a prolific author across multiple genres and audiences. A founding member of Crazy 8 Press, he is perhaps best known for his game-design work, his tie-in novels, and his snarky character DuckBob, star of the four-book SF comedy series The Adventures of DuckBob Spinowitz.

James Gunn’s Brightburn set for Digital Release in August

SYNOPSIS

What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? With Brightburn, the visionary filmmaker of Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither presents a startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror.

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL BONUS MATERIALS

  • 3 “Quick Burns” Vignettes hosted by Actor Elizabeth Banks, Producer James Gunn & Director David Yarovesky
  • “Hero-Horror!” featurette: It’s not often filmmakers successfully and seamlessly combine both Horror and Superhero into a genre-bending “Hero-Horror” category. Hear from Producer James Gunn and Screenwriters Brian and Mark Gunn as we will learn the methods of their filmmaking style and their dotting of the “i”’s and slashing of the “t”’s storytelling process.
  • “Nature vs. Nurture” featurette: Hear from Actor Jackson A. Dunn, Producer James Gunn, Screenwriters Brian and Mark Gunn and understand the creative process involved in flipping the script of the traditional “Superhero” and diving into what motivates and moves our new Anti-hero, Brandon Breyer.
  • Filmmaker Commentary with Director David Yarovesky, DP Michael Dallatorre, and Costume Designer Autumn Steed


CAST AND CREW

Director: David Yarovesky
Executive Producers: Brian Gunn, Mark Gunn, Simon Hatt, Dan Clifton, Nic Crawley, Kent Huang
Producers: James Gunn, Kenneth Huang
Screenplay By: Brian Gunn & Mark Gunn
Cast: Elizabeth Banks (Hunger Games franchise), David Denman (The Office), Jackson A. Dunn (Avengers: Endgame), Matt Jones (Mom) and Meredith Hagner (Younger)

SPECS

Run Time: 90 minutes
Rating: Rated R for Horror Violence/Bloody Images, and Language