Z-View: “Jack Reacher”

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The Pitch: ”Hey, let’s do a movie adaptation of one of Lee Child’s best selling Jack Reacher novels and get Tom Cruise to star.”

“But Jack Reacher is described in the novels as being 6′ 5″ — a modern day giant.  Tom Cruise is pretty short and fans of the novels will hate the casting.”

“Tom Cruise is in so who cares about the miscasting.  What do you say?”

“Let’s do it!”

The Tagline:  “The law has limits. He does not.”

The Overview:  James Barr, a former military sniper, kills five random people.  He’s quickly caught in what appears to be an open-and-shut case.  The evidence is overwhelming.  Barr claims he didn’t do it and tells his defense attorney to get Jack Reacher.

Reacher shows up on his own.  Reacher is a former Army Criminal Investigator who is now living off the grid.  Reacher is there to prove that Barr committed the crime since Reacher knows Barr got away with a similar killing when deployed overseas.

Reacher looks at the evidence and fairly quickly determines that Barr was used as a patsy and didn’t kill those murdered.  As he digs into the case, Reacher becomes the target of those behind the killings and a bigger conspiracy.

*** Beware – minor spoilers are found below ***

The Good

  • Tom Cruise plays Jack Reacher as if he knows he is not only the smartest but also the baddest man in the room.  Reacher doesn’t flaunt either ability, but he won’t back down from showing either ability when pressed.
  • Because Cruise isn’t a 6’5″ hulk, it is even more impressive when Reacher refuses to back down.  You can see Reacher enjoys the chance to show how smart he is or whoop some butt if those who are pressing him refuse to stop.
  • The story is a good one.  It is fun seeing Cruise unravel the mystery and put together the killings so that they make better sense than the sequence of events that the prosecutors laid out.
  • The car chase is one of the best in years.
  • Cruise has a number of great lines.
  • Rosamund Pike, Werner Herzog, Jai Courtney and Alexia Fast are impressive in their roles.  It’s always nice to see Robert Duvall show up.

The Bad:

  • Lee Child fans who refused to see Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher.
  • The scene where two thugs attempt to beat up Reacher in a bathroom.  The first part of the scene almost plays like The Three Stooges, but then takes a turn and the second half of the fight scene works much better.
  • It would have been nice had Werner Herzog been given more to do.
  • Telling someone you didn’t see them so they won’t have to kill you and getting the response, “It doesn’t matter.”

The Ugly:

  • Being given the choice to break or chew off a finger or take a bullet to the head.

Rating:

White Suits by Frank Barbiere & Toby Cypress

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That’s a preview page for White Suits a new mini-series coming from Frank Barbiere [writer] and Toby Cypress [artist].  Barbiere summarizes the series saying…

The White Suits is an action/crime story about a mysterious group of killers known as, you guessed it, The White Suits. The group has history dating back to the Cold War… they have resurfaced in NYC and are systematically eliminating the city’s gangs. The crime lords of the city have banded together to deal with the problem, while a rogue FBI agent who has a history with the Suits is plotting her own battle. She’s been on the tail of a man she suspects was once a member and finally corners him, only to discover he has amnesia — so the two of them are on a quest for truth (and revenge) against the Suits. The story is fueled by the mystery of exactly who the White Suits are — which will come to light by the end of the mini-series.

You can learn more about White Suits here.  If it sounds like something you’d like, you can pre-order through your local comic shop.  I did.

Source: CBR.com.

“The Black Cat” Starring Karloff & Lugosi / Z-View

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The Pitch: ”Hey, let’s take two of Universal’s biggest stars, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and stick them in a horror movie that will end up being the #1 money-maker for Universal the year it is released.  We can even name it “The Black Cat” after the Edgar Allan Poe story — even though the movie will have no real ties to it.  What do you say?”

“Let’s do it!”

The Tagline:  “Things you never said before or even dreamed of!”

The Overview:  A young, newly married couple find themselves seeking refuge in a creepy mansion after the bus that they were traveling on crashes during a dark, stormy night.  Along with the couple is Bela Lugosi playing a psychologist who was just released from a prisoner of war camp after 15 years.  Lugosi led the couple to the mansion. He was going there to confront Karloff who Lugosi knows was a traitor who caused the death of thousands including Lugosi’s wife.

Karloff welcomes them in.  On the surface he seems a genial host, but is actually a Satanist who plans to murder the young bride in a ritual.  The movie has all the hallmarks of a 1930’s horror movie: big name stars, a mad scientist, an old dark house full of secret passages/rooms, the dead coming back to life, a strange manservant, revenge and more.

*** Beware – minor spoilers are found below ***

The Good

  • Karloff and Lugosi in the first [and perhaps best] of their many on-screen team-ups.
  • The overriding atmosphere of things being slightly off-kilter created through creative set design, costume choices and the physical appearance of Karloff and others.
  • Playing chess for the lives of the newly weds.
  • The banter between Karloff and Lugosi where what is said it subtext for the true meaning.
  • Lugosi’s manservant is creepy, but loyal to the end.

The Bad:

  • What Karloff has in his secret rooms below the house.
  • Lugosi is the hero, but has there ever been a creepier one?  [Like when he is caught touching the hair of the sleeping bride.]
  • Being trapped in the house of a mad, Satanic murderer.

The Ugly:

  • Lugosi’s fear of cats.
  • What happens to people who are Satanic, traitors who steal the wives of their friends.  [I’d hate to have to live in his skin.]
  • What happens when it appears you are harming a man’s bride despite the fact that you’re saving her from a fate equal to, if not worse than death.

Rating:

Z-View: Dead Body Road #1

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Dead Body Road is a six issue mini-series published by Image.

Writer: Justin Jordan

Penciler / Inker: Matteo Scalera

Colorist: Moreno Dinisio

The men involved in his wife’s death must die.   All of them.

Dead Body Road #1 sets the bar high.  Great writing, great art and a crime/revenge story that hits all the right marks without being cliché.

Gage is an ex-cop.  His wife Anna (also a cop) was killed in what looks like a robbery gone bad.  Everybody in the building was murdered and the bad guys got away… just not together.  When the robbery turned into the OK Corral, one of the thieves (the one with the item being stolen) high-tailed it.

Now he has Gage, and the other crooks hot on his trail.  It won’t be good for him no matter who catches him first.  And how bad would it be if the crooks and Gage get to him at the same time?

Justin Jordan has created a crime story that starts with a bang and doesn’t let up.  There’s a lot going on and each scene propels us deeper into something that is much more than your typical ex-cop seeks revenge against those who killed his family tale.  This could have been a simple story of revenge, but Jordan has layered in much more.

Matteo Scalera creates visuals that have the maximum impact for each scene.  Car chases are usually boring — especially in comics.  Scalera pulls off a four page sequence that not only advances the story, but makes you feel the speed and danger of the chase.  His characters have character.

Dead Body Road #1  is a comic for mature audiences due to violence and language.  If you’re a fan of crime/revenge stories then this is for you.  Dead Body Road #1 gets my highest recommendation.

Rating:

Hi-Yo Silver! – The History of The Lone Ranger

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If you’re like most folks, when you hear the finale to the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini you think of The Lone Ranger.  Did you know that they selected the William Tell Overture as the Lone Ranger’s theme song because Rossini was long dead and there would be no royalties to pay?

You’ll learn that and a lot more about The Lone Ranger and Tonto if you check out Hi-Yo Silver, Away! 

Source: Uncle John’s Fully Loaded Bathroom Reader and Neatorama.

The Saviors #1 / Z-View

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The Saviors is an on-going series created by James Robinson & J. Bone published by Image.

Writer: James Robinson

Artist: J. Bone

When Tomas Ramirez stumbles upon an extraterrestrial conspiracy to take over the world, his life is changed forever.  He must now seek out those few souls who share this terrible knowledge.  But even united, how can they hope to defeat a shadowy alien cabal that is both indestructible and eager to kill anyone who threatens it?

Tomas Ramirez is a slacker content living in a small town where he works at the local gas station. When Tomas isn’t working [and sometimes when he is] he spends his free time getting high, hanging with a few friends and enjoying life.

All is good.

All is good that is until Tomas accidentally discovers that there are lizard-looking, shape-shifting aliens living among them!

Who will believe a pot smoking loser like Tomas?  More importantly, how will a slacker like Tomas find a way to stay alive long enough to get the word out, now that the aliens know that he knows?

James Robinson lulls us into the story at a small town pace — we meet Tomas and learn about the town and the people living there through Tomas’ eyes.  While most of his friends wanted to break out of the small town and get into the big world outside the town’s borders, Tomas wants nothing more than a few friends, a cold beer, cable tv and a his weed.  It’s a leisurely life and the pace of the story reflects that.

Everything changes once Tomas sees the aliens and they see him.  The action moves at a breakneck pace and death can come in an instant.  Is there anyone that Tomas can trust?  And who is the mysterious stranger that happens to show up at just the right/wrong time?

J. Bone’s art is amazing.  He was the perfect choice for this series.  I love Bone’s use of double page spreads not as pinups, but to expand the horizon to tell the story.

The Saviors  is a comic for mature audiences due to drug references and language.  If you’re a fan of 50’s alien invasion movies [“I Married a Monster from Outer Space,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” etc.], ,or well written, well drawn comics, then The Saviors is for you.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Big News for Frank Miller’s Sin City

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We have some news, some big news, for fans of Frank Miller’s Sin City.

On July 8, 2014, Dark Horse will release Frank Miller’s Big Damn Sin City.  This baby will come as a hardcover edition and clock in with over 1300 pages — and contain every one of Miller’s seven Sin City yarns!

On July 8, 2014, fans will also be able to pick up Frank Miller: The Art of Sin City  which will appear for the first time in a trade paperback edition.  I have a copy of the hardback edition, and give Frank Miller: The Art of Sin City  my highest recommendation.

To round out the trifecta, on July 8, 2014, Dark Horse will re-release in hardcover, Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

These books will be a great lead-in for the movie adaptation of A Dame to Kill For which will be released on August 22, 2014.

Happy New Year!

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We’re about six hours out from the new year.  I hope that 2013 was good for you and yours and that 2014 will be even better.

I’ve been chilling out with The Twilight Zone marathon on Syfy, but tradition will hold and we will flip over long enough to see the countdown from Times Square at midnight.  If seeing the new year in by watching the ball drop is one of your traditions you’ll probably get a kick out  of 12 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

See ya next year!

Source: Buzzfeed.

Live Tweeting ‘The Twilight Zone’ Marathon

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A New Year’s Eve tradition for a lot of folks [myself included] is to tune in to the annual Twilight Zone Marathon on the Syfy channel.  This year should be even more fun as Twilight Zone fans  plan to live tweet the episodes.

The Twilight Zone Marathon starts tomorrow morning at 8am.  Here’s the schedule for the 31st and the 1st.

So as we move into a new year why not do as Rod Serling said,  let’s travel into…

“… another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!”

“The Big Heat” directed by Fritz Lang, starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Graham & Lee Marvin / Z-View

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The Pitch: ”Hey, We could make a new kind of movie.  It’ll be about an honest cop who refuses to back off his investigation of a homicide.  He’ll go up against crooked cops, mobsters and refuse to quit no matter the cost.  This movie will influence everything from ‘Dirty Harry’  to Frank Miller’s Sin City.  What do you say?”

“Let’s do it!”

The Tagline:  “A hard cop and a soft dame!.”

The Overview:  Glenn Ford is Detective Sgt. Dave Bannion, a rare honest cop in a town run by a mobster named Mike Lagana.  Bannion is sent in to investigate the suicide of a fellow cop.  It should be an open-and-shut-case, but when a prostitute provides evidence that there’s more to the case, Bannion begins to dig deeper.

Then the prostitute turns up dead — the result of a torture murder — and Bannion is ordered to stand down.  He refuses.  How can one honest cop bring down a powerful mobster and a police force full of cops on the take?  Dave Bannion is going to find out… or die trying,

*** Beware – minor spoilers can be found below ***

The Good:

  • The direction by Fritz Lang.
  • The cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Graham, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby, and Lee Marvin!  They are excellent.
  • There is an undercurrent that runs through this movie that what you’re seeing on the surface is just a hint of what is really going on.
  • The movie is perfectly cast from the main stars to the smallest roles.  Carolyn Jones [best known as Morticia on The Adams Family] has a small, but important role.
  • Bannion’s confrontation of Lagana in his mansion.
  • The interplay between Bannion and his wife.
  • Bannion in the bar [all of the scenes – with the prostitute, later with the bartender, and again when he backs down Lee Marvin].
  • Bannion’s scenes in the hotel with Debby Marsh.  Will he cross the line?  Will they?
  • The guy’s who get the drop on Bannion… and what happens next.  [It is not what you’d expect.]
  • Bannion and Mrs. Duncan.  Will he cross the line [and not like he might have with Debby Marsh]?

The Bad:

  • Lee Marvin as Vince Stone.  He’s a mobster on the rise and he’ll do or have done whatever Lagana orders.
  • Hot coffee near Vince Stone when he’s mad.
  • What happens to people who cross Mike Lagana.
  • What happens to people around Dave Bannion when he won’t back down.
  • What happens to lawbreakers when Dave Bannion is on the case.

The Ugly:

  • Getting a face full of hot coffee.
  • Dave Bannion’s last line of the movie.  ; )

Rating: 5 out of 5

The Inside Story of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”

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If you’re a fan of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, you’ll want to check out Eddie Deezen’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit: The Inside Story.

If you do, you’ll learn…

  • Why the title to Who Framed Roger Rabbit doesn’t end with a question mark.
  • That before Bob Hoskins earned the starring role that Harrison Ford, Bill Murray, Sylvester Stallone, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, and Ed Harris were all considered.  You’ll also learn who the comedian was that was never offered the role, but would have “happily taken on the role of Eddie.”
  • The silly reason John Cleese didn’t get the role that ultimately went to Christopher Lloyd.
  • Why Who Framed Roger Rabbit had the most cartoon characters from different companies in the same project, “yet  Popeye, Tom & Jerry, Little Lulu, Caspar the Friendly Ghost, and the Terrytoon characters (except for Mighty Mouse)” didn’t make it into the film.
  • And a whole lot more.

 

Source: Neatorama.