Alan Rapp

Time Out for Vengeance!

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Time Out for Vengeance!
  • tv.com: link

batman-brave-bold-time-out-for-vengeance-catman

When Batmen of various eras start disappearing from history its up to Batman‘s (Diedrich Bader) friends to travel in time and save them before the world forgets the Dark Knight Detective. This episode is so jam-packed full of action it’s hard to know where to begin. We get Guy Gardner (James Arnold Taylor) and Ice (Jennifer Hale), Blue Beetle (Will Friedle) and Booster Gold (Tom Everett Scott), Caveman Batman (with a giant Cromagnon coin in his Bat-Tree), Fire (Grey DeLisle), Timemaster Rip Hunter (Bloom) and his time sphere, Robot Batman, giant statues coming to life, Pirate Batman, a T-Rex, the JLI, pompous (yet always highly entertaining) Aquaman (John Di Maggio), sea monsters, Roman Centurion Batman, and the all too brief return of Catman (complete with the giant robotic cat he used in his very first comic book appearance)!

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Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

/ / Comics

red-hood-and-the-outlaws-1-coverOf all the the issues set for the DC Reboot this was one that caught my interest. Here are three characters who, each in their own way, had been abused by the old DCU. I was curious to find out what the New 52 versions might look at. And you know what? I’ll admit, I kinda like it.

The first half of the issue centers around the Red Hood and Starfire breaking Roy Harper out a military prison in Qurac and getting reacquainted. First off let me say I like this version of Jason Todd far more than Grant Morrison‘s (and thankfully his additions to the character have been ignored here). I also felt the inner-monologue of each of the three characters worked well.

Some might object to this version of Starfire, but she’s always been hyper-sexual and at least writer Scott Lobdell’s explanation for her behavior (that as an alien she sees humans as roughly all the same and has a far less puritan view of sex than anyone who watches FOX News) makes more sense than the childish version we’ve seen before. And, thankfully, Roy Harper is in far better shape then we last saw him before the Reboot.

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Charlie’s Angels – Angel With a Broken Wing

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Charlie’s Angels – Angel With a Broken Wing
  • tv.com: link

charlies-angels-tv-rebootWow, did that suck. I wasn’t expecting much from the reboot of the late 70’s show focused on three women working as private eyes for a mysterious unseen benefactor, but in the very least I expected it to be dumb fun.The original wasn’t Shakespeare but at least if felt competent. Sadly, neither of those words can be used to describe this version.

“Angel With a Broken Wing” may be one of the worst pilot episodes I’ve ever watched. The writing and dialogue is one step away from intentionally bad (and yet still painfully unfunny). And don’t even get me started on the acting. These young women might be able to act (hey, anything is possible) if given better material but I have a feeling we’ll never know (at least as long as this show stays on the air).

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Moneyball

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Moneyball
  • IMDB: link

moneyball-posterIn the early 2000’s the Oakland A’s had just lost three of their big name stars and the small market team was in trouble in terms of continuing to compete in a league where they could be outspent by more than $100 by the likes of the New York Yankees. A’s General Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) knew something had to change.

Hiring an assistant (Jonah Hill) who believed the team could compete by relying on sabermetrics (created by Bill James) rather than traditional models of building a team, Beane became an innovator by showcasing how a small market team could compete against the big boys.

The film begins with the playoff loss to the Yankees in 2001 and follows the rocky course of Beane instituting a completely new way of thinking to the old school baseball front office scouts and staff. The film highlights the early struggles and eventual success of the team over the 2002 season as well as focus on Beane’s relationship with his daughter (Kerris Dorsey).

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Killer Elite

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Killer Elite
  • IMDB: link

killer-elite-posterTired of killing, the world’s best mercenary (Jason Statham) calls it quits only to be pulled out of retirement a year later by an oil sheikh (Rodney Afif) who holds one of his oldest friends (Robert De Niro) hostage to make sure Danny takes the job.

It seems a few years back the British S.A.S. killed three of the sheikh’s four sons. Now he wants vengeance before he dies and has chosen Danny to be the instrument of that revenge. In return he’ll release his friend and agree to pay Danny and his team (Dominic Purcell, Aden Young) $6,000,000.

Simple, right? Well it would be if it wasn’t for the fact that the Her Majesty’s Special Air Service are the best trained soldiers in the world. And if you didn’t know that going in the movie will remind you, more than once (except, of course, when our hero needs to dispatch nameless agents with relative ease).

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