August 2011

Leverage – The Queen’s Gambit Job

  • Title: Leverage – The Queen’s Gambit Job
  • tv.com: link

leverage-the-queens-gambit-job

The mid-season finale gives us a trip to Dubai, a chess tournament, a young prodigy (Ayla Kell), terrorists, a double-cross, and the return of Nate’s (Timothy Hutton) former co-worker and the team’s nemesis. Sterling (Mark Sheppard) comes to Nate for help in keeping a nuclear reactor component out of the hands of some very dangerous people.

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Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #13

green-lantern-emerald-warriors-13-coverEmerald Warriors closes its run with a team-up with Guy Gardner and Batman aboard a space station. Fans of Justice League International will get the reference (especially after writer spells it out for them in the completely unnecessary final panel).

Even if Batman and Guy aren’t the same characters they were during Keith Giffen‘s glorious run the pair work well together (though it certainly helps if you were a fan of Giffen’s League). The mystery itself isn’t explored very well (Batman solves the case off-panel while Guy grills the suspects), and, as I’ve already stated, the comic ends with a panel that (with all the subtetly of a Michael Bay action flick) directly references one of the most memorable moments from JLI.

Since it’s creation this comic has been hit-and-miss for me from month to month. The last issue works well-enough (even if its somewhat hamfisted), but if you don’t have nostalgia for JLI I’m not sure the story is going to hold up on its own. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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Coming Soon

  • Title: The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito)
  • IMDB: link

Antonio Banderas stars in Pedro Almodóvar‘s lastest film about a brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by tragedy and obsession, who creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. Elena AnayaMarisa ParedesBlanca Suárez, and Bárbara Lennie also star. The Skin I Live In opens in limited theaters in select cities on October 14th.

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The Intrepids #6

the-intrepids-6-coverI really enjoyed the first couple of issues of this mini-series about a team of children raised to take down mad scientists. The last couple of issues have lost a little steam, but this finale brings back pieces of what made those first few issues so strong (including killer cyber-bears, a trained battalion of baboons, and cyborgs) as The Intrepids turn their attention on the real villain in their midst, the man who trained and “improved” them: Dante.

I happy the Dante storyline was wrapped up with the final issue of the mini-series. If the team does earn a second mini-series, or an on-going title, I’ll be glad to see them start fresh without the spectre of Dante still hanging over them.

Issue #6 is a good conclusion to a series that’s given us some great moments (and memorable panels). It might not be as strong from beginning to end as I’d like, but where else do you see a grizzly bear with a mini-gun strapped to his back? There’s enough here that I’d be willing to give a second mini-series a chance as well. Worth a look.

[Image, $2.99]

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Doctor Who – Let’s Kill Hitler

  • Title: Doctor Who – Let’s Kill Hitler
  • tv.com: link

doctor-who-lets-kill-hitler

After a mid-season break Doctor Who returns with an episode centered around River Song’s (Alex Kingston) first encounter with the Doctor (Matt Smith). The episode, involving a friend of Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory’s (Arthur Darvill) named Mels (Nina Toussaint-White), a trip to Nazi Germany, and tiny time police in a human-sized robot, has all the markings of a classic Doctor Who serial. And on that level it works well. However, there can be only one episode where River meets the Doctor for the first time, and that means there’s an entirely different scale on which to judge “Let’s Kill Hitler.”

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