Alan Rapp

American Underdog

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: American Underdog
  • IMDb: link

Adapted from Kurt Warner‘s autobiography, American Underdog follows the unlikely journey of small-time college quarterback Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi) from college, to being completely out of football stocking shelves at a Hy-Vee, and ultimately to the NFL. Much of the film focuses on Warner’s personal life, his relationship with Brenda Meoni (Anna Paquin) and her children, and his struggles in finding life after football.

The film from directors Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin is attempting to cash-in on a tale similar to Invincible and The Rookie. However, both of those films were produced by Disney who has a better feel for the genre. While it may not measure up to either of those two films, American Underdog is still an interesting look at the lesser-known aspects of Warner’s life although it skirts over his professional relationships in the NFL with everyone except his coaches. 

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The Matrix (Zombie) Resurrections

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Matrix Resurrections
  • IMDb: link

What a piece of shit. I’m pretty sure The Matrix Resurrections exists solely to shut-up people who thought it was impossible to make a Matrix film worse than The Matrix Revolutions. Well, there’s no argument now. Holy fuck, this movie is awful while constantly preening at the camera (often in bad makeup) smugly thinking it’s the shit by repackaging fan fiction takes on The Matrix as original content.

The reimagining/sequel brings back Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, along with a few other familiar faces, while recasting other key roles, relying completely on nostalgia and emotion for the original film (often restaging or simply replaying  scenes), and blending that all together in a mishmash of half-baked ideas that ignores as much about the original films and characters as it uses when it suits the film’s purposes.

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Red Sonja: Black, White, Red #5

/ / Comics

Three more tales of Red Sonja are captured here by various writers and artists. Each story from Red Sonja: Black, White, Red #5 has a common theme of Sonja being either the hunter or the hunted.

My favorite of the three tales, in “The Hunted” Baron Raaf has hired an assortment of mercenaries to hunt Red Sonja but the She-Devil with a Sword dispatches them one by one before going after the man who sent them.

Red Sonja hunts a witch and fights werewolves on the side of a mountain in “The Chill Touch of Sorcery!” And Sonja meets a new challenger in the brash “Erik the Black: He-Demon with an Axe” who walks into a tavern boasting of his greatness to Sonja but never walks out.

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The Hand of God

/ / Home Video
  • Title: È stata la mano di Dio
  • IMDb: link

Filippo Scotti stars as the aimless Fabietto in 80s Naples in this coming of age story from Paolo Sorrentino. We’re introduced to Fabietto’s extended dysfunctional family including his womanizing father (Toni Servillo), prankster mother (Teresa Saponangelo), older brother with dreams of becoming an actor (Marlon Joubert), and lascivious aunt (Luisa Ranieri). The film is beautifully shot by Daria D’Antonio framing our stumbling protagonist disconnected from the world long before tragedy strikes upending his life even more.

Sorrentino doesn’t seem to have a destination for Fabietto in mind. Although he grows over the course of the film taking interest in more than football, it’s hard to tell how much he’s actually learned. The untethered protagonist means the film seems aimless as well, even if that’s the point as Fabietto finally discovers he can no longer allow life to pass him by and must start making hard choices.

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The Amazing Spider-Man #81

/ / Comics

Despite what the cover suggests, this isn’t a Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man comic although it does feature the first meeting of Ben Reilly and Miles Morales (at least with both of them wearing Spidey costumes) who the Beyond Corporation wants their corporate hero’s help in stopping him from using the name Spider-Man.

The bad guy of the issue (if you don’t count the evil corporate types of Beyond while foreshadowing the inevitable turn of Maxine Danger as a super-villain) is the utterly forgettable Rhizome who the two Spider-Men team-up to stop. Seriously? It took two of them to stop what looks like a drunken mistake by Poison Ivy? Anywho, Maxine isn’t pleased with Ben for not pushing the copyright issue with the other Spider-Man, although she may have other more pressing concerns involving Doctor Octopus.

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