Alan Rapp

HBO’s Perry Mason – Chapter One

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Perry Mason – Chapter One
  • IMDb: link

HBO's Perry Mason - Chapter One television review

Bearing little to no resemblance to either Erle Stanley Gardner’s original novels nor CBS’ long-running television show, the first episode of HBO’s Perry Mason reimagines the famous defense lawyer Perry Mason as a low-rent private detective (Matthew Rhys) who only steps into the courtroom once, as a witness. Down on his luck, with questionable morals, and in need of money (that he unsuccessfully attempts to extort from a client), Mason accepts a job from an old friend (John Lithgow) to look into a case involving the kidnapping and ransom of a baby that goes horribly wrong.

…

HBO’s Perry Mason – Chapter OneRead More »

HBO’s Perry Mason – Chapter One Read More »

News of the World

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: News of the World
  • IMDb: link

News of the World movie reviewThe idea of a man travelling from town to town to read newspapers may seem quaint in today’s information age, but the collaboration between Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks offers a classic low-key western that is the dramatic equal to their previous collaboration, Captain Phillips. It may not be The Searchers, but Greengrass offers a wide-open canvas for Hanks to provide one of his better performances in recent years.

Traveling from town to town, reading his collection of recent newspapers, Captain Kidd (Hanks) comes across a lynched soldier and a young girl (Helena Zengel) who, as one character succulently put it, has been orphaned twice. Raised by the Kiowa people who killed her family, only to see the tribe wiped out by Union soldiers, Johanna’s only living relatives live far south towards the home Captain Kidd has avoided since the end of the Civil War.

The set-up is fairly simple, the reluctant Kidd decides to deliver the wild girl no one else seems to be able to control, home. On the road, the pair encounter various obstacles while learning a bit about each other, themselves, and where they belong.

…

News of the WorldRead More »

News of the World Read More »

Action Comics #1028

/ / Comics

Action Comics #1028 comic reviewAction Comics #1028 offers an epilogue to “The House of Kents,” and really Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.’s entire run on the title. Most notable for some small moments, the issue works to both catch-up readers who may have not read every issue as well as set-up a new status quo within The Daily Planet whose new owner is… Jimmy Olsen?

Aside from Jimmy summarizing the storyline from his Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen series which gave him half of Lex Luthor’s fortune (and provided the capital needed to buy The Daily Planet), the comic also catches readers up on Conner Kent suggesting that the clone’s powers may have a shelf-life. It also takes Connor back to the Kent Farm (which seems a little odd given his reunion with the Kents was already covered in Action Comics #1022) and also reintroduces him to an old friend.

…

Action Comics #1028Read More »

Action Comics #1028 Read More »

The Stand – The End

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Stand – The End
  • wiki: link

The Stand - The End television review

The first episode of CBS’ new adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand focuses primarily on introducing Harold Lauder (Owen Teague) and the object of his obsession Frannie Goldsmith (Odessa Young) who are the only two survivors of Ogunquit, Maine and Stu Redman (James Marsden) who becomes a prisoner of the United States Government after he is the first person to show an immunity to the virus wiping out 99% of the world’s population. 42 years after the book’s publication and 26 years since the first television adaptation of the novel, the first episode jumps around a bit on the timeline before offering us a glimpse of the viral outbreak Charles Champion (Curtiss Cook Jr.) lets loose on the world.

…

The Stand – The EndRead More »

The Stand – The End Read More »