Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
A classic film, especially one as great as Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest deserves only the best alt posters… like this one by Nicolas Joret.
“That’s funny, that plane’s dustin’ crops where there ain’t no crops.” – Man at the crossroads
I can’t get enough of Sinners or cool alt posters for it, like this one by Nicolas Joret.
“I am your way out. ” – Remmick
A Flirt’s Mistake (1914)
Director: George Nichols
Stars: Fatty Arbuckle
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
Fatty, a married man who flirts with any woman mistakes a Rajah for his next target. It turns out the Sultan has a beard… and a sword!
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
A Flirt’s Mistake is an eight minute short.
A Flirt’s Mistake (1914) rates 3 of 5 stars.
Chandler (1971)
Director: John Sacret Young
Screenplay: Don Mankiewicz, Russell Rouse; story by Paul Magwood
Stars: Warren Oates, Leslie Caron, Alex Dreier, Mitchell Ryan, Charles McGraw, and Gloria Grahame.
Tagline: Chandler is a private eye. It’s a hard way to make a living… and an easy way to die.
The Plot…
Chandler is hired to protect a government witness from gangsters. She’s beautiful and the cops are crooked.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
I wanted to like Chandler. I’ve tried to watch it twice and never get past the 35 minute mark. Perhaps your mileage will be better. As for me…
Chandler (1971) rates 1 of 5 stars.
Marv from Frank Miller’s Sin City is one of my all-time favorite characters. I love seeing artists do their “take” on the big lug. Today we have a detail of an ink study of Marv by Viktor Farro.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026)
Director: BenDavid Grabinski
Screenplay: BenDavid Grabinski
Stars: Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, Eiza González, Keith David, Jimmy Tatro, Dolph Lundgren and Stephen Root.
Tagline: A time-traveling, double-crossing, ass-kicking comedy.
The Plot…
Quick Draw Mike is ready for a night of fun. His boss, Sosa is throwing several parties for his son Jimmy Boy who just got out of prison. Alice will be there. She and Nick are having an affair. Alice is married to a loan shark named Nick.
So when Nick asks Mike to leave the party to help him with something, Mike’s suspicious. Does Nick know Mike’s having an affair with his wife? He does. In fact, Nick told Sosa that Mike was the rat who got Jimmy Boy sent to prison. Worse still, Sosa has contracted The Baron, a contract killer who eats his victims to whack Mike.
Tonight Mike will be killed.
Nick knows this because he had a change of heart and has come back from the future to save Mike.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is a fun ride.
Dolph Lundgren makes a quick appearance.
I’m always surprised how well Vince Vaughn can be menacing in one film and funny in another.
David Marsden is perfect as Quick Draw Mike. Keith David and Stephen Root are always good.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026) rates 4 of 5 stars.
Thomas Walker’s alt poster for Glengarry Glen Ross is fire. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. It presents a master class in acting.
” Put that coffee down! Coffee’s for closers only. “ – Blake
Air (2015)
Director: Christian Cantamessa
Screenplay: Christian Cantamessa, Chris Pasetto
Stars: Norman Reedus, Djimon Hounsou, Sandrine Holt.
Tagline: Two men. One task. Save humankind.
The Plot…
In the future a major disaster left earth’s surface air unbreathable. Underground bunkers were created with cryogenic pods for the chosen few. Every six months a pair of maintenance workers in each bunker are awakened. They have two hours to check air filters and make sure everything is functioning. At the end of the two hours, they must return to their pods.
The survival of the human race depends on them. What could go wrong?
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Air has an interesting premise that it fails to live up to. I kept hoping the movie would get better. It didn’t. Normally if I make it through a film it gets at least a “2” rating. Air doesn’t.
Air (2015) rates 1 of 5 stars.
At HeroesCon 2026, I commissioned Mark Stegbauer for two sketch cards: Sly Stallone as Marion Cobretti from Cobra and Stallone as Stanley Kowalski from Lords of Flatbush. This, in case you didn’t guess, is the Stanley Kowalski card.
Each August Mark does an Action Against Alzheimer’s art campaign. It’s a great way to pick up cool art and at the same time help a wonderful cause. Please consider watching for it (and participating if you can).
“That’s the whole thing. That’s the whole thing. You see, I don’t need a bike to go any place, Chico. To go places, I mean to really go places, you gotta have imagination.” – Stanley Rosiello
Frank Miller: American Genius (2021)
Director: Silenn Thomas
Screenplay: Silenn Thomas
Stars: Frank Miller
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
Frank Miller revolutionized comics with his groundbreaking art and writing. Hollywood called and Miller answered. Along the way there were personal struggles which Miller overcame.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Frank Miller is considered a living legend. This is his story.
Frank Miller created Sin City, my all-time favorite comic series. He also revolutionized comics with Daredevil, The Dark Knight Returns, Ronin, Batman: Year One and so many other stories. I’m glad he overcame his personal issues to see the love fans have for him.
Frank Miller: American Genius (2021) rates 4 of 5 stars.
Mike Ditka died today from natural causes. Mr. Ditka was 86.
Mike Ditka was born Michael Dyczko. His family changed their surname to Ditka because it was so hard to pronounce. Mike played three sports in high school where he excelled at football. After his graduation, Mr. Ditka was recruited by Notre Dame, Penn State, and Pitt. He planned to become a dentist.
Mike Ditka selected Pitt where he was again he was a three sport athlete: football, baseball and basketball. He started all three years in a variety of positions. Mike Ditka was selected as the team captain his senior year. He was also a unanimous first-team selection on the College Football All-America Team.
Mike Ditka was selected by the Chicago Bears fifth overall in the 1961 NFL draft. Mr. Ditka was selected as Rookie of the Year due to his success on the field. He would go on to make the Pro Bowl in each of the next five years.
Unable to reach a contract agreement, Mike Ditka was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles where he played for two years. Injuries plagued Mr. Ditka and after two years he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys. He played five seasons for the Cowboys before announcing his retirement as a player. At the time of his retirement, Mike Ditka’s 427 receptions were the most by a tight end in NFL history.
When Mr. Ditka announced his retirement, Dallas’ Head Coach, Tom Landry, immediately hired him as an assistant coach. Mike Ditka’s successful run with the Cowboys inspired him to express his interest in a head coach position with the Chicago Bears if it became available. It did and in 1982 Mike Ditka was hired to fill it.
In 1984, their third season under Coach Ditka, the Bears went to the National Championship. In 1985, the Bears compiled a 15-1 record and were Super Bowl Champions. Mike Ditka went on to coach the Chicago Bears through the 1992 season. After a four year break, Mike Ditka accepted the head coach position for the New Orleans Saints where he coached for three years. Mike Ditka then moved into broadcasting working for NBC, CBS and ESPN.
Mike Ditka was the first tight end inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As a lifelong Chicago Bears fan, Mike Ditka is easily my all-time favorite football coach.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mike Ditka’s family, friends and fans.
NIGHT SQUAD by David Goodis
First sentence…
At 11:20 a fairly well-dressed boozehound came staggering out of a bootleg-whiskey joint on Fourth Street.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Corey Bradford is a thirty-four-year-old ex-cop on a downnward spiral. His wife left him. Still no steady job. He drinks too much. All because he took a small handout from a gambler. It wasn’t a big bribe to cover up evidence. It wasn’t to let a hardened criminal walk. It was just a sweetener because Bradford was a decent cop. And it cost him everything.
Then one night Bradford, with just a couple of bucks to his name, headed to Grogan’s bar. Walter Grogan ran a nightly poker game in the back room and Bradford hoped to get in and get lucky. That all changed when two masked-wearing and pistol-carrying men busted in. They weren’t there to rob the game. No, they came to kidnap Grogan. Before they could Bradford stopped ’em cold.
Grogan was impressed. He knew Bradford’s reputation and now had seen him in action. So he offers Bradford a job. $15,000 if Bradford can find out who sent the kidnappers. Bradford accepts the job.
That evening Bradford is picked up by Detective-Sergeant Henry McDermott. McDermott runs the Night Squad, a team of cops working the night shift who target and take down the city’s worst. The Night Squad’s tactics are brutal and extreme. They get the job done. McDermott wants Grogan behind bars. Walter Grogan runs the part of town known as The Swamp. Grogan has his fingers in everyt illegal racket there. But he’s too smart to get caught.
So McDermott offers Bradford a chance at redemption. If Bradford works undercover and gathers evidence to bring Grogan to justice, he can get his badge back. Refuse and the Night Squad will target him. Bradford accepts.
Bradford is playing a dangerous game. Working both sides against each other can get him dead.
And someone besides Bradford knows the score…
+++
David Goodis takes us on another journey to the seedy side of town. I’m surprised NIGHT SQUAD was never adapted into a movie. It would have made a good one.
Rating:
Richard Pace says he loves drawing Hellboy. I hope he likes drawing him as much as I enjoy the end results. This piece is so subtle. The demons are smug in their belief that they’ve got the drop on Hellboy, but we can see HB smiling as he slowly draws his pistol.
You can see more of Pace’s art here.
Lioness: Season 3 (2026)
Created by: Taylor Sheridan
Director: Michael Friedman (Eps. 1-3; 7-8); D.J. Caruso (Eps. 4; 6); Robert McLachlan (Ep. 5);
Teleplay: Taylor Sheridan (Eps. 1-8)
Stars: Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Kelly, Laysla De Oliveira, Genesis Rodriguez, Jill Wagner, Dave Annable, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Thad Luckinbill, Hannah Love, Ian Bohen and Elizaveta Neretin.
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
When Joe McNamara is kidnapped, her team must figure out who took her and locate them before Joe is taken out of the country to a certain tortuous death.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Season 3 ups the stakes. Each episode amps up the tension and the mystery behind Joe’s kidnapping.
Kyle played by Thad Luckinbill has become a favorite character. He could lead a spin-0ff series.
Lioness remains must-see tv. Bring on Season 4.
Lioness: Season 3 rates 5 of 5 stars.
Matthew Seaborne combines his love of classic monsters with his art talents… and his fans win every time!
“There are far worse things awaiting man than death.” – Count Dracula
