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John Ostrander: Lost Vision

I don’t always get around to seeing movies that I want to see while they’re in the theaters. I prefer seeing movies first in the theater and preferably in IMAX. I love the big screen and I think that’s how they were meant to be seen. I don’t mind seeing it later on the small screen, especially if I still have the memory of seeing the large-scale version.

Sometimes, for one reason or another, I just don’t get around to getting to the movie theater in time to catch the feature. Logan was one of those films.

As you already probably know, Logan is the last film that Hugh Jackman will make playing Wolverine. It’s a part that made him a star and that he basically owns. This time it’s set in the not too distant future of 2029 and things have not gone well for the mutant population. (Spoiler alert: if you haven’t seen the film and want to, best stop reading now or you may learn more than you want to.) By inference, we learn that there are almost no mutants left and none have been born in the past 25 years. There was some kind of unspecified disaster around the school in Westchester NY several years back.

Logan is now keeping it on the down low near the Mexican border as a driver/bodyguard. He drinks a lot and he’s sick; his mutant healing factor is fading and the adamantium that laces his bones (and claws) is poisoning him. He’s also taking care of Professor X, Charles Xavier (played once again by Patrick Stewart, who has said this is also his last go-round with the X-Men), who is also ailing. The man with the most powerful brain in the world is losing control of it; every once in a while, he has seizures that wreak havoc on everyone near him.

Into Logan’s and Professor X’s life comes an 11-year-old girl named Laura who is a mutant, who may have been created in a lab where she was dubbed X-23. She also has retractable claws, rage issues, and a violent nature. Sound like anyone we know? She is Logan’s “daughter” in that his DNA was used to create her.

The movie is a road picture, one in which Logan, Laura, and Professor X are chased as they try to find their way to a possible haven. The film is very violent (having earned an R rating) and bleak. Very bleak.

Professor X founded the X-Men in the belief, the hope, that mutants and normal humans could find a way to live together. His frenemy, Magneto, didn’t think they could and his path was more violent. He saw humans and mutants as being at war.

Evidently, Magneto was right. That appears to be the premise of Logan – very few mutants are left and the ones that exist are being hunted. Xavier was wrong.

That’s also been the premise of more than a few X-Men comics that touch on the future. I don’t recall seeing one such future where Professor X’s vision came true. I will admit, I find that a bit depressing. It seems to me to undercut some of the basic premise of the X-Men – that there is hope that all these different types of people can live together. The X-Men have been stand-ins for so many different persecuted minorities. Xavier’s dream, his vision, has always held out hope to me that our differences can be overcome, however tough the battle.

That’s not what Logan seems to say.

I don’t know if I have the right to gripe. My career seems to be about anti-heroes and bleak characters and bad times; it’s how I make my living. I can certainly see the allure in taking that attitude in Logan; it feels closer to life as we see it these days. More and more so all the time. But maybe that’s why we need a little more hope.

This is not to say that Logan is a badly made film; far from it. It’s not simply violent; it’s intelligent and well written and has wonderful performances. In the blu-ray pack that I bought, I had a chance to experience it in black and white. They call it Logan Noir and it has the feel of noir films of old. I was very impressed.

I was also a little saddened. It’s hard to watch a dream die, especially one that was meant to give us hope. These days, I think we need all the hope we can get.

Marc Alan Fishman: To Every Season, Turn, Turn, Turn

As we wind things down on the current season of TV, I’m of two different minds on two shows I’d long held in similar regard. Agents of SHIELD (no, I don’t want to add all those extraneous periods. You know what I mean, right?) and The Flash. Both turned in seasons that were rife in comic references. AOS gave us Ghost Rider, LMDs, Madame Hydra, and a dash of the non-Marvel-sanctioned Matrix. The adventures of Team Flash gave us… Flashpoint. I am nothing if not full of opinions on both.

Let’s start with the good, shall we? For the first time in the history of the show, Agents of Shield dug its heels in deep with reverence to the pulpy source material. Because of this, the normally cinema-by-way-of-a-limited-budget show felt larger than ever. With pronounced arcs carrying through a disjointed season, we finally got a TV show with the pacing and payoff akin, truly, to actual printed comics. We had a genuine drive from the beginning to end – allowing the final beats of the season to encompass literally everything that came before it. The means justified the ends, and by the time the stinger for the 2018 season drops, we’re exhausted in the best way.

Beyond the prowess of the prose, where AOS shined brightest came collectively in character development. Over the course of this season, nearly each member of the team was given an arc to follow. And while perennial favorite Phil Coulson was left with the least to improve upon, even he was given a few badass moments to chew the scenery on. With Phil mostly on the dramatic sidelines this time around, the MVP of the season falls solely on Iain De Caestecker’s Leo Fitz.

Where he and co-science-bro (by-way-of-Sam-and-Diane) Jemma Simmons were once the bright-eyed innocents of the team, Fitz was saddled with the most growing up to do over the lengthy season. Shouldering the moral arguments of science-over-dogma, followed by a What If conceit Stan Lee himself would have been proud to take credit for, left our Scotsman bereft of any remaining innocence by season’s end. That the writers of AOS make the gravitas of Fitz’s arc feel deserved stands out as the season highlight for me.

You’ll note we’re three paragraphs in, and I’ve not had a single good thing to say about The Flash. Sadly, much like my thoughts around the literary basis of the arc, Flashpoint does for the TV show the same as it did for the comic and animated feature: drag the whole series down into the muck and mire that plagues DC all too often these days.

Simply put, The Flash’s best moments all contained themselves in the singular episode that largely snuck away from the timeline-altering plot that drove the entirety of the season. The Supergirl crossover episode that showcased Grant Gustin’s singing chops, Duet, stood alone as the single point of light in a dreary season.

As with the source material, The Flash saw Barry Allen time-travel to the past to save his mother from her timely demise. By doing so, we entered an Elseworld tale that spins out like so many would-be DCU alternate timelines. Things are darker, grittier, sadder, and devoid of the humor and spritely spirit that has long been the calling card for the show’s continued success. And by doing so, and pitting Barry Allen against yet another Speed-Based-Villain for the series… we are treated to yet-another-plot wherein Barry must. Run. Faster. Except this time, he merely gets by with a little help from his friends.

Speaking of… Not to continuously drop elbows on a dead Beta Rey Bill here (sorry, I know I’m crossing the streams, but I don’t know any more famous comic book horsies), but Team Flash is as much to blame over the dead-in-the-water season as any linger ties to Flashpoint itself. Whereas AOS took time to build, and rebuild their continuously expanding team – taking time to really allow the audience to get into the heads of Mack, Yo-Yo, and even The Patriot – The Flash seemed content to heap team member after team member into Star Labs without ever expanding each character beyond one or two notes they began with. Be it Wally West, that one scientist who HR Wells loved, or Malfoy CSI (I think his name is Julian, but he’s not worth the Googling), basically every Flash-bro walked into Star Labs, delivered or received a litany of pep-talks about their value to the team, and then sat back to let Barry run and mope. By the season’s end, I felt a connection to every Agent of Shield. I left The Flash wishing I had any feelings whatsoever.

At the end of the day, we know both shows will return for another season. My hope is that Barry and his team will return to the real roots of the character – the fun, and hope – and largely forget as much of the Savitar saga as metahumanly possible. As for Agents… Heh. Well, let’s just say Coulson did his job; I can’t wait to see where they go from here.

LEGO® DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain Provides Summer Fun

BURBANK, CA (June 1, 2017) – Missing memories provide an intriguing mystery for everyone’s favorite young female protagonists in the all-new animated film, LEGO® DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment and The LEGO® Group, the film – the first LEGO® entry in the worldwide DC Super Hero Girls franchise phenomenon – will be distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) July 25, 2017 on Digital HD ($19.99 SRP) and August 8 on DVD (SRP $19.98).

When Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Bumblebee and Katana suddenly realize they cannot remember a single moment from their Monday at Super Hero High, the young DC Super Heroes spring into sleuthing action! Suspecting foul-play, they band together to retrace their steps and uncover the mystery of who exactly stole their memories – and what nefarious plan might be afoot?

LEGO® DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain voice cast returns its core cast in Grey Griffin (Wonder Woman), Tara Strong (Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy), Anais Fairweather (Supergirl), Teala Dunn (Bumblebee) and Stephanie Sheh (Katana), with Ashlyn Selich joining the group (as Batgirl). The cast also includes Yvette Nicole Brown (Amanda Waller), Greg Cipes (Beast Boy), Romi Dames (Lena Luthor), John DiMaggio (Gorilla Grodd, Wildcat), Jennifer Hale (Mad Harriet), Josh Keaton (Flash), Tom Kenny (Gordon), Rachael MacFarlane (Artemiz), Mona Marshall (Eclipso), Khary Payton (Cyborg) and Meredith Salenger (Lashina).

Todd Grimes (Back at the Barnyard, Star Wars: Detours) directs LEGO® DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain from a script by Jeremy Adams (Justice League Action, LEGO® Scooby-Doo) . Rick Morales (LEGO® Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood) serves as producer, with Sam Register (Teen Titans Go!), Jill Wilfert (The LEGO® Movie, The LEGO® Batman Movie) and Robert Fewkes (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic) as executive producers.

Following the success of two home entertainment releases for the DC Super Hero Girls franchise – DC Super Hero Girls: Super Hero High and DC Super Hero Girls: Intergalactic Games, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has brought together two of the world’s most recognizable brands in DC and LEGO for their first combined DC Super Hero Girls franchise production. The DC Super Hero Girls franchise aims to empower and connect with young girls through the brand’s vast digital content networks across LEGO.com, DCSuperHeroGirls.com, YouTube and social media.

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is excited to unite two extremely popular brands – LEGO® and DC Entertainment – to present the first ever LEGO® DC Super Hero Girls film,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Vice President, Family & Animation Marketing. “Animated feature-length movies featuring DC Super Hero Girls and LEGO are extremely popular amongst our fans, so we look forward to bringing this first collaboration to life.”

BASICS
Street Date: August 8, 2017
Run Time: 72 minutes
DVD Price: $19.98 SRP
DVD Audio – English
HD EST Price: $19.99 SRP
SD EST Price: $14.99 SRP

The Law Is A Ass

Bob Ingersoll: The Law Is A Ass #411

JEFF SPENCER GIFTS US WITH THIS GEM

This week I have something old. Next time I’ll have something new. I’m aged enough that I might be living on borrowed time. But I’m not blue. Because I’m not writing about that which shall remain nameless but which rhymes with drivel bore pooh.

I was watching an old episode of 77 Sunset Strip– there’s no other kind – called “Mr. Goldilocks.” It was a typical episode; private eye’s on a case that he manages to solve in 60 minutes – of 40, if you zap through the commercials on your DVR. This week PI Jeff Spencer was trying to recover some jewels which had been stolen while they were being transported from a Palm Springs show back to Los Angeles. Spencer tracked the thief, Abern Wills, into the desert and got shot in the arm for his troubles. Which was just the beginning of his troubles.

The wounded Jeff stumbled through the desert until he chanced upon the cabin of Luther and Willie Lee Hanks, a grizzled father and dim-witted son who were looking for a lost gold mine and were just a burro shy of hitting the prospector cliché trifecta. Luther’s daughter, Polly, used a first aid kit to treat Jeff’s wound. Then she promised that when she got home, she’d call Jeff’s partners at 77 Sunset Strip to come and get him, because, unlike the cabin, her house had a phone.

Yes, I said “her house.” See, Polly didn’t live with her father. She was married and lived with her husband; you guessed it Abern Wills. She had no intention of calling Jeff’s partners there on the Sunset Strip. Instead, she and Abern planned on going to the Hanks’ cabin the next day, after the Hanks resumed their search for the lost mine, and kill Jeff, so they could enjoy the proceeds of Abern’s jewel theft.

What they didn’t reckon on was that Luther, like most proud papas, had a picture of Polly’s wedding in his cabin; a picture Jeff saw. Jeff recognized Polly’s husband as the jewel thief and realized he had been set up. So, when Polly and Abern returned, Jeff was hiding under the cabin. Polly stayed at the cabin, while Abern walked into the desert to look for Jeff.

After Abern left, Jeff tried to get to Polly’s car to escape, but she shot at Jeff and he stopped. Then Polly held Jeff at gunpoint. She intended to keep Jeff prisoner until Abern returned and killed him, but she only kept him until he escaped and really did flee into the desert. Abern went after him.

Jeff wandered around the desert; well not for forty days and forty nights. Not even for forty minutes, even if you didn’t speed through the commercials on your DVR. But he did wander around long enough to start talking to himself. Then start talking to the vultures, because, if he was talking to them and not himself, he wasn’t crazy; which is kind of a self-defeating distinction. He also wandered around long enough for one night to pass and for Polly to bring Abern a dinner of cold chicken and some more water.

The next day, Abern caught up with Jeff. They fought. Due to his weakened state, Jeff lost. Then, as Abern was talking toward Jeff to kill him, Abern troped and fell down the shaft of the lost gold mine to his death. (And who didn’t see that coming. This episode had more Chekhov’s guns than that Star Trek episode where Kirk, Chekov, and crew relived the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.)

Jeff went back to Luther’s cabin and told the prospectors he had to take Polly in for attempted murder, but not where the lost mine was. (Seems a trite and true dust storm blew up, disorienting Jeff and preventing him from marking where the mine was.) Luther wanted to help his daughter so he gave Polly a gun and had her shoot the arms off a cactus to prove she was a crack shot. If she had wanted to kill Jeff, she would have. She was shooting to scare not to kill, so it wasn’t attempted murder. Jeff promised he would mention this to the judge, which, Jeff being an honorable 50s private investigator hero, I’m sure he did. After which, the judge…

…sentenced Polly to several years in prison for attempted murder. Not to mention conspiracy to commit murder and kidnap. See, it doesn’t matter that Polly might not have been trying to kill Jeff when she shot at him, she was still guilty of attempted murder.

What Polly intended doesn’t matter, because what Abern intended was more than enough to convict her. Abern followed Jeff into the desert and shot at him a few times – and Abern was shooting to kill, he was just a member of that hoary villain cliché, the gang who couldn’t shoot straight. Then Abern was about to beat Jeff to death but forgot to mind his step then mined his step. So Abern did commit the crime of attempted murder.

Polly helped him do this by, if nothing else, bringing him that cold chicken dinner and extra water so he could keep looking for Jeff to kill him. Which means Polly was an aider and abettor to Abern’s attempted murder. She was just as guilty of the attempted murder as Abern was.

It didn’t even matter that Abern wasn’t convicted of attempted murder; what with him being dead and all, that would have been overkill. Under the aider and abettor law, an accomplice can be convicted of aiding and abetting the principal offender’s crime, even if the principal offender is never convicted. You might say Polly’s conviction and sentence was a fate accomplice.

At the story’s end, Luther and Willie Lee went back to looking for the lost gold mine. Jeff went back to his offices at 77 Sunset Strip and his next adventure. And Polly went to prison. Where, I understand, she asked that her cellmate be a woman who became a prostitute to raise money to buy drugs. Because – and all together now – Polly wants a crack whore.

Martha Thomases: Shooting at the Comic-Con?

This past week saw an uncomfortable convergence of political issues and Geek Culture. A man tried to enter the Phoenix Comic-Con in order to shoot someone, using cosplay as a disguise. Instead of artfully crafted fake weapons, this man had real weapons that would have caused real injury to real people.

The man appeared to be insane. He thought he was The Punisher and it was his mission to kill the Green Power Ranger.

In response, the convention banned prop weapons http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/phoenix-comicon-2017-props-ban-weapons-what-you-can-bring-convention-center-9363701, at least for the duration of this show.

Needless to say, this completely wrecked the plans of any cosplayers whose outfits included prop weapons. A lot of them were disappointed that they couldn’t share the fruits of their hard work and financial investment with their friends.

I don’t think any of the cosplayers would say that their costumes were more important than the lives and safety of the other convention attendees. Still, I imagine they were disappointed at best, and perhaps felt it was unfair that they were under suspicion just because a crazy person represented himself as one of them.

It was unfair.

Cosplayers were not the only ones to suffer over the weekend. Dealers who sell to cosplayers lost money, not only because they couldn’t sell at the show, but could not quickly arrange to sell at another show. To their credit, the Phoenix Comic-Con seems to have tried to make things right, as best they could.

Unfortunately, this is the best we can hope for in our current political climate. As long as we refuse to invest the time and money on treating mental illness, we will continue to live with the untreated mentally ill. And as long as we refuse to implement even the slightest limits on access to firearms, the mentally ill will be able to buy all the guns (and bullets, and knives and swords) as they might wish to own. Or use.

But we won’t pass any laws that limit guns to people who can pass simple competency tests, much as we limit cars to people who can drive. We won’t say that, maybe, someone who thinks he has a relationship with the Green Power Ranger shouldn’t walk around armed in public, especially after he makes threats against police officers, too. As a country, we have decided that we’re more comfortable telling women what to do with their bodies than we are with protecting those same bodies from random bullets.

The cosplay community is not going to be able to solve this problem. I’m willing to bet the solution is beyond the greater geek community. People who want to dress up like their favorite fantasy characters, whether they be Ghostbusters or Jon Snow or Lobo are going to have to find ways to do so that don’t look realistic enough to be perceived as threats.

There might be a possible solution, and it might offer an opportunity for profit that is attractive enough for it to happen. If Nerf could up their game enough so that their toys look realistic, but can still be easily squished, they might be able to pass inspection. At least, as long as no 11-year old black kids in Cleveland don’t play with them.

Dennis O’Neil: Alfred Bester’s Squinkas

Read any good squinkas lately?

If you’re a comic book editor, you’d better hope you have, though, if you did, you probably called them, these squinkas, something else. Scripts, maybe.

I was introduced to the word, squinka, by a gentleman who certainly was an editor, one of the two or three best I ever worked for in a career of something like 50 years (which just goes to show you what can be achieved if you manage to breathe regularly and often. Ooops! I just let it slip – the secret of success in the writing dodge. If the writer refuses to breathe, the rest of it is irrelevant.)

Before beginning his long and illustrious stint behind a desk at DC Comics, young Mr. Schwartz was a literary agent whose specialty was peddling science fiction stories to the pulps – fiction magazines that were garish and cheap and widely available. Even after Mr. Schwartz migrated to DC, he maintained an interest in science fiction, which was occasionally manifest in the kind of comics he produced, the kinds of stories he liked to tell, and the questions he asked, often about the folk he knew from his agenting days, when imaginative tales were tainted with disreputability. They were, you know, trash.

That calumny didn’t seem to bother SF partisans much. Writers continued writing, editors continued editing, artists continued picture-making and gradually, the taint faded and then, somehow, the aficianados began to number in the millions and the production costs of the film versions of this trash climbed into the eight-figure neighborhood.

Rewind back to comics’ youth, when the medium was week-by-week and month-by-month inventing itself and creators might not have their tool kits in order. To be specific: they might not have had industry-wide formats or even names for everything they produced.

Motion pictures had been telling stories for some 35 years and had developed a vocabulary – necessary to facilitate communication, if for no other reason. But these here funny books? They were the new kids on the block. Their ancestors were arguably the aforementioned movies, newspaper comic strips and those naughty pulps, all of which shared certain similarities with the comic books. But they weren’t the same, not by a stretch.

So, I’m guessing, somebody saw a hole and decided to fill it. Neologisms anyone?

But the new word wasn’t very healthy. It didn’t last long. I never heard anyone, in or out of comics, use it. By the time Roy Thomas brought me into the comics herd, it had come and gone. I wouldn’t know that “squinka” had ever existed if I hadn’t stumbled across it in a collection of stories, articles and essays by Alfred Bester titled redemolished. Bester was, among other things, the recipient of the first Hugo, an award given to the creator of outstanding works of sf and, believe it or not, one of Mr. Schwartz’s clients. And a comic book writer; Green Lantern comes to mind.

I don’t know if Mr. Bester ever said “squinka” in his dealings with comics editors. Now days, nodding to his television colleagues, he might just say “script” and run for the subway.

Flash, Kid Flash, Jesse Quick, & Savitar Race Home in September

BURBANK, CA (May 31, 2017) – Just in time for the fourth season premiere of the #1 show on The CW, catch the fastest man alive as he zigzags through the action-packed release of The Flash: The Complete Third Season from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Blu-rayTM and DVD on September 5, 2017. Delivering 5 million Total Viewers per episode, The Flash is a Top 10 series on all broadcast with Men 18-34 (#7) and Men 18-49 (#10)⃰. Fans will be able to revisit all 23 electrifying episodes from the third season, including the DC-crossover episode, plus over two hours of extra content, including behind-the-scenes featurettes on the “Invasion!” cross over episode and the “Duets” musical episode, a conversation with Andrew Kreisberg and Kevin Smith,  deleted scenes, and more. The Flash: The Complete Third Season is priced to own at $49.99 SRP for the DVD and $54.97 SRP for the Blu-rayTM which includes a Digital Copy. The Flash: The Complete Third Season is also available to own on Digital HD via purchase from digital retailers.

*Source: Nielsen National TV View Live + 7 Day Ratings, excluding repeats, specials, and <5 telecasts; 16-17 Season To-Date = 9/19/16-1/22/17; *major demos = Total Viewers, Adults 18-34, Adults 18-49, Adults 25-54

Struck by the supercharged fallout of a particle accelerator explosion, forensic scientist Barry Allen becomes the fastest man alive:  The Flash!  With his newfound time-warping speed and help from the S.T.A.R. Labs team – Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon and Harrison Wells – and his adoptive family, Detective Joe West and Joe’s daughter Iris, the Scarlet Speedster runs circles around other metahumans set on wreaking havoc in Central City, while traveling between alternate universes and protecting our world from otherworldly threats.  Last season, new dangers arrived from a parallel earth known as Earth-2, under the direction of an evil speedster named Zoom.  In Season Three, Barry faces the unknown – as he irrevocably alters the timeline by saving his mother from the clutches of the Reverse-Flash.   The only question now is – as he wrestles with the consequences of his own Flashpoint Paradox, including the wrathful Speed God Savitar – will he be able to find a way out?

“After three seasons, The Flash continues to score in ratings and ranks as the top series for The CW,” said Rosemary Markson, WBHE Senior Vice President, TV Marketing. “Loaded with both in-depth and exclusive new bonus content, both fans of the show and DC fanboys will be eager to add the Blu-ray or DVD release to their collections.”

With Blu-ray’s unsurpassed picture and sound, The Flash: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray release will include 1080p Full HD Video with DTS-HD Master Audio for English 5.1. The 4-disc Blu-ray will feature a high-definition Blu-ray and a Digital Copy of all 23 episodes from season three.

The Flash stars Grant Gustin (Arrow, Glee), Candice Patton (The Game), Danielle Panabaker (Justified, Necessary Roughness), Carlos Valdes (Once), Keiynan Lonsdale (Insurgent), Tom Felton (Harry Potter films), with Tom Cavanagh (Ed, The Following), and Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order). Based on the characters from DC, The Flash is produced by Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti (Arrow, Supergirl, Blindspot, Riverdale), Andrew Kreisberg (Arrow, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Aaron Helbing (Spartacus, Black Sails), Todd Helbing (Spartacus, Black Sails) and Sarah Schechter (Arrow, Riverdale, Supergirl).

BLU-RAY & DVD FEATURES

·        The Flash: 2016 Comic-Con Panel

·        A Flash in Time: Time Travel in the Flash Universe

·        Villain School: The Flash Rogues

·        Allied: The Invasion Complex (The Flash)

·        Rise of Gorilla City

·        The Flash: I’m Your Super Friend

·        The Flash: Hitting the Fast Note

  • Harmony in a Flash
  • Synchronicity in a Flash
  • A Conversation with Andrew Kreisberg and Kevin Smith

·        Deleted Scenes

  • Gag Reel

23 ONE-HOUR EPISODES

  1. Flashpoint
  2. Paradox
  3. Magenta
  4. The New Rogues
  5. Monster
  6. Shade
  7. Killer Frost
  8. Invasion!
  9. The Present
  10. Borrowing Problems from the Future
  11. Dead or Alive
  12. Untouchable
  13. Attack on Gorilla City
  14. Attack on Central City
  15. The Wrath of Savitar
  16. Into the Speed Force
  17. Duet
  18. Abra Kadabra
  19. The Once and Future Flash
  20. I Know Who You Are
  21. Cause and Effect
  22. Infantino Street
  23. Finish Line

DIGITAL HD

The third season of The Flash is also currently available to own on Digital HD. Digital HD allows consumers to instantly stream and download all episodes to watch anywhere and anytime on their favorite devices.  Digital HD is available from various digital retailers including Amazon Video, CinemaNow, iTunes, PlayStation, Vudu, Xbox and others. A Digital Copy is also included with the purchase of specially marked Blu-ray discs for redemption and cloud storage through participating UltraViolet retail services including CinemaNow, Vudu and Flixster Video.

BASICS

Street Date: September 5, 2017
BD and DVD Presented in 16×9 widescreen format
Running Time: Feature: Approx 1012 min
Enhanced Content: Approx 135 min

DVD
Price: $49.99 SRP
6 DVD-9s
Audio – English (5.1)
Subtitles – ESDH, Spanish, French

BLU-RAY
Price: $54.97 SRP
4-Disc Elite 4 BD-50s
BD Audio –DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 – English
BD Subtitles – ESDH, Spanish, French

Mike Gold: Yep. It’s A Bird! Deal With It!

Yesterday, Frank Coniff, a.k.a. TV’s Frank, revealed a little-known event: the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema folks who are having those women-only screenings of Wonder Woman that’s upsetting the snowflake boys so much, also held another such event. They did a screening of Baywatch – but just for those people who wanted to actually see Baywatch. I don’t think it did very well.

Nor did the snowflake boys. They are really pissed about these women-only screenings of Wonder Woman. They say it’s discrimination. They say it’s sexist. They say that if there were men-only screenings of, say, the next James Bond movie those very same women would be picketing the theater. Yeah, that high-heeled shoe sure is uncomfortable on the other foot, isn’t it?

Well, they’re right. It is discrimination. How does it feel, snowflakes? As a man who these gerbils respect and some worship said before many of them were born… Get a life!

To give lip service to sympathy, these guys have had a rough couple of years. They had to deal with the fact that the new heroic lead in the Star Wars series is a woman. In Doctor Strange, the Ancient One was morphed into a woman, and a white woman at that. The new Star Trek teevee series, if it actually ever gets on the air, stars two women in the leading roles. One is black, the other is Asian, for those of you who are still pissed that Idris Elba played the part of Heimdall in the Thor movies.

You know why this act of discrimination doesn’t bother me? Well, men have been routinely excluding women for several millennia. Private clubs, public bars, juries, the polls, combat… you know, we guys can live with a couple of women-only screenings of Wonder Woman. It ain’t gonna hurt nobody, and, quite frankly, if it brings more women into the world of superhero movies, that inures to the benefit of Geek Culture overall. More, better movies for everybody.

Hollywood has been saying women do not go to heroic fantasy movies, and they point to the box office failures of such films as Catwoman, Elektra and Supergirl. Personally, I think the fact that all of those movies really sucked had something to do with the revenue deficit. I’m looking to Wonder Woman to change that. Talk about your superhero feats.

I think these screenings sound like a lot of fun. If not for the snowflakes pissing in the fountain and my own political sensibilities, I’d be jealous. I wish the snowflakes were jealous as well. That’s far more adult than their current behavior.

Damn near the entire ComicMix staff already has their tickets for Wonder Woman, with the arguable exception of Glenn Hauman, who is in Ireland right now teaching falcons how to write code. Did I mention our staff is more than 50% women? Seriously. How many of the snowflakes wanted to read Emily’s piece about Wonder Woman fashions yesterday? Only those with girlfriends. Both of them. Buh-dump-bump.

Some snowflakes say they are going to boycott Wonder Woman. They’re too late. If they wanted to do some good, they should have boycotted Batman v. Superman. But for those few who do give Wonder Woman a pass, hey, there’s always seating available for Baywatch.

Ghost in the Shell Heads for Home in July

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.  – “Totally riveting” (Bill Zwecker, FOX-TV) and filled with “heart pounding excitement” (Pete Hammond, Deadline), the thrilling and eye-popping GHOST IN THE SHELL arrives on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand July 25, 2017 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.  The future comes early on Digital HD July 7.Set in a world where people are enhanced with technology, GHOST IN THE SHELL follows Major (Scarlett Johansson), who believes she was rescued from near death.  The first of her kind, Major is a human mind inside an artificial body designed to fight the war against cyber-crime. While investigating a dangerous criminal, Major makes a shocking discovery – the corporation that created her lied about her past life in order to control her. Unsure what to believe, Major will stop at nothing to unravel the mystery of her true identity and exact revenge against the corporation she was built to serve.  A “visually stunning”
(Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly) “classic in the making” (Dan Casey, Nerdist), GHOST IN THE SHELL also stars Takeshi Kitano, Michael Carmen Pitt, Pilou Asbæk, Chin Han, and Juliette Binoche.

The GHOST IN THE SHELL 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray Combo Packs are loaded with over 50 minutes of fascinating special features. Scarlett Johansson, director Rupert Sanders and other cast and crew take you behind-the-scenes to talk stunts, special effects and intricate fight sequences. Plus, take an in-depth look at the real-life science behind robotics; discover how cyber-enhancements give each character specialized super–soldier abilities; and learn about the original anime as well as the inspirations behind the visually stunning view of the future. The film also boasts a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack* remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead.

Ghost in the Shell Blu-ray Combo Pack

The GHOST IN THE SHELL Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The DVD in the combo pack is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The combo pack includes access to a Digital HD copy of the film as well as the following:

Blu-ray

  • Feature film in high definition
  • Bonus Content:
    • Hard-Wired Humanity: Making Ghost in the Shell
    • Section 9: Cyber Defenders
    • Man & Machine: The Ghost Philosophy

DVD

  • Feature film in standard definition

Ghost in the Shell 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack

Fans can enjoy the ultimate viewing experience with the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, which includes the Blu-ray detailed above, as well as an Ultra HD Disc presented in 4K Ultra HD with English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The Combo Pack also includes access to a Digital HD copy of the film.

Ghost in the Shell Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack

The Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack includes a Blu-ray 3D presented in 1080p high definition with English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), Parisian French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Castilian Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description, along with English (UK), English (UK SDH) Bahasa Malaysian, Brazilian Portuguese, Cantonese, Castilian Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, European Portuguese, Finnish, Parisian French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Mandarin Simplified, Mandarin Traditional, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovakian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian subtitles.  The Blu-ray Disc™ in the combo pack is presented in 1080p high definition with English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), Canadian French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Latin American Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, and English Audio Description and English, Canadian French, Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. The Blu-ray includes the same content listed above and the Combo Pack also includes access to a Digital HD copy of the film.

Ghost in the Shell Single-Disc DVD

The single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The disc includes the feature film in standard definition.

https://www.GhostInTheShellMovie.com

Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and Reliance Entertainment present an Arad Productions/a Steven Paul production, a Rupert Sanders film: Scarlett Johansson “Ghost in the Shell.”  “Beat” Takeshi Kitano, Michael Carmen Pitt, Pilou Asbæk, Chin Han, and Juliette Binoche.  Music by Clint Mansell and Lorne Balfe.  Costume designers Kurt and Bart.  Editors Neil Smith and Billy Rich.  Production designer Jan Roelfs.  Director of photography Jess Hall, BSC.  Executive producers Jeffrey Silver, Tetsu Fujimura, Yoshinobu Noma and Mitsuhisa Ishikawa.  Produced by Avi Arad, p.g.a., Ari Arad, p.g.a., Steven Paul and Michael Costigan.  Based on the comic “The Ghost in the Shell” by Shirow Masamune, published in Japan by Kodansha Ltd.  Screenplay by Jamie Moss and William Wheeler and Ehren Kruger.  Directed by Rupert Sanders.

GHOST IN THE SHELL

Street Date:                 July 7, 2017 (Digital HD)

July 25, 2017 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD)       

U.S. Rating:                 PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content and some disturbing images

Canadian Rating:        PG, not recommended for young children, violence

* To experience Dolby Atmos at home, a Dolby Atmos enabled AV receiver and additional speakers are required, or a Dolby Atmos enabled sound bar; however, Dolby Atmos soundtracks are also fully backward compatible with traditional audio configurations and legacy home entertainment equipment.

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