February 2012

Castle – The Blue Butterfly

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Castle – The Blue Butterfly
  • tv.com: link

castle-the-blue-butterfly

In order to solve the murder of a treasure hunter Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle (Nathan Fillion) are forced to solve a homicide from 1947 involving the same murder weapon, a private detective, a gangster (Mark Pellegrino), and a $1 million blue diamond necklace in the shape of a butterfly. The cast does double duty as both themselves and the characters in the private eyes memoirs as the search for “The Blue Butterfly” begins.

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Fatale #2

/ / Comics

fatale-2-coverEd Brubaker and Sean Phillips continue their noir horror tale with a second issue that focuses solely on the 1950’s storylines where Hank Raines finds himself falling more and more under the influence of the beautiful Josephine while her husband, Detective Walt Booker, continues his investigation into an occult murder for his own nefarious purposes.

The second issue continues to impress, although I was a little disappointed to find the modern Nicolas Lash story wasn’t woven into the the story.

We get mysterious symbols, betrayal, murder, marital infidelity, forbidden passion, police corruption, secret meetings, secrets, cult members speaking in tongues, lies, and more foreshadowing that monsters in this world are lying in wait just under the surface waiting to strike.

If you have any interest in pulp and noir tales, with a little horror thrown in, here’s a comic you really should enjoy. I would have like more of Nicolas’ story here as well, but I can wait until next month. Worth a look.

[Image, $3.50]

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Coming Soon

/ / Film News & Trailers
  • Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
  • IMDB: link

Here’s our first real look at Spidey’s return to the big screen in The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield as the Web-Head, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors, Sally Field and Martin Sheen as May and Ben Parker, and Denis Leary as Captain Stacy. Honestly, half of the trailer makes me think this could be a lot of fun… but the other half (Peter’s parents, some of Spidey’s wisecrackin’, and Emma Stone) I still have quite a few doubts about. Spidey swings into theaters on July 3rd.

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Project Nim

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Project Nim
  • IMDB: link

project-nim-dvdFrom director James Marsh, Project Nim examines the study undertaken in the 1970’s which was an attempt to prove a chimpanzee, raised by humans, could be taught to act human and communicate through Sign Language.

The documentary includes interviews from several of those involved in the project including Herbert S. Terrace who led and championed the study for years but eventually concluded Nim only learned signs tied to certain rewards but never developed a full understanding of the language he was using.

Project Nim has an amazing wealth of documentary footage taken from the study. With this footage, and the interviews, Marsh puts together a film that not only documents the study but captures the emotional experiences of those involved with Nim including those who only saw him as an experiment, those who thought of him as part of their family, and those who were physically attacked by a chimpanzee they had come to view as a friend.

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Winter Soldier #1

/ / Comics

winter-soldier-1-coverWriter Ed Brubacker is the man responsible for returning Bucky Barnes from the dead and creating the character of the Winter Soldier. The last volume of Captain America saw Bucky slowly regain his memories after been brainwashed as a Soviet assassin kept in deep freeze for years. His stint filling in as Captain America was the best Cap storyline anyone has done is some time.

Once again Bucky’s been brought back from the dead in a new series penned by Brubacker that puts the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow on a mission to track down other Soviet sleeper soldiers as he tries to redeem himself for some of the damage he did while working for the KGB.

As a first issue it works well, and I’ll stand by my statement that Brubaker seems more interested in telling Bucky stories than Cap stories right now. I don’t doubt that in time this could become Brubaker’s best monthly title.

I’m less sold on the art by Butch Guice. Although it certainly fits the feel of the comic, it’s just not a style choice that I’m overly fond of.

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