Alan Rapp

News and Notes

/ / Film News & Trailers

Movies.com shares the first look at Angelina Jolie as the title character in Maleficent, the live-action film version of Sleeping Beauty presented from the villain’s point of view due to be released next Spring

Variety is reporting that director Ivan Reitman‘s next project will be a time traveling adventure about a teacher and his students entitled Field Trip

Deadline is reporting that India-based animation house DQ Entertainment Ireland Ltd. has set their sites on a 3D stereoscopic version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book

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Captain America #13

/ / Comics

captain-america-13-coverCaptain America tracks down Jack Garrett, the leak in S.H.I.E.L.D. who has been supplying HYDRA with names of criminals in witness protection, which leads him one step closer to Henry Gyrich. We also see how Gyrich is controlling the new Scourge, who no one but a still unconscious Diamondback knows is Cap’s old friend D-Man.

The latest issue moves the plot forward, and sets the table, but other than a quick battle at the airport where Cap takes down Garrett (and the HYDRA agents sent to silence him before he talked), it is a little light on action.

Sharon Carter and Dum Dum Dugan set a trap that gets them Gyrich. However, Cap’s already in the field after the new Scourge before Diamondback wakes up, meaning he’s not aware he’s hunting a friend who has been brainwashed by HYDRA.

As to the big throwdown between old friends (teased on the cover but not shown here), we’ll have to wait at least another issue. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Ghost Rider: The Sequel No One Was Demanding

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
  • IMDB: link

ghost-rider-spirit-of-vengeance-dvdAnd I thought the first movie was dumb. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and somehow still found myself disappointed. Somehow co-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the brains behind the Crank films… and Jonah Hex) manage to deliver a film that’s less engaging, and arguably makes less sense, than the first trainwreck.

One of the few things Ghost Rider had going for it was the look of the Rider which the sequel completely redesigns with a pitch-black skull and constantly burning and flaking clothes (that never come close to actually burning away) that’s more distracting that anything else. But hey, here’s a film that needs all the distractions it can get.

The Rider also appears to be mildly retarded this time around as he moves around as if he’s a marionette with half of his strings cut, jerking in this direction or the next before the film is sped-up (in Crank fashion) for Ghost Rider to, most unimpressively, take vengeance on the wicked.

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Fairly Legal – Finale

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Fairly Legal – Finale
  • tv.com: link

fairly-legal-finale

In the show’s Second Season finale Kate (Sarah Shahi) mulls over the consequences of moving in with Justin (Michael Trucco) while mediating a dispute between a lesbian couple (Lindy Booth, Rebecca Staab) whose relationship ended after they were fired by a news agency. Although the conflict appears to be settled easily Kate gets suspicious when the fact checker’s notes on a big corruption story aren’t returned to her, as promised as part of the settlement.

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Shockwave HISS Tank

/ / Toys & Collectibles

Mashup one of my favorite Decepticons and one of my favorite Cobra vehicles and you get… a toy that doesn’t look like either one? What I can tell you: The Shockwave HISS Tank will be a 2012 San Diego Comic Con exclusive, and come with Destro and B.A.T. figures, energon cubes and tiny non-transforming Soundwave with cassettes. It will come packaged in a box that has been made to look like a 6th issue from the classic G.I.JOE Vs. Transformers comic book series. What I can’t tell you: Will it actually transform?

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