Astro City #18

/ / Comics

Astro City #18So much of Astro City deals with the fringe, normal people on the periphery of the super-hero world, that when you get a comic centered around a particular hero you are always a bit surprised. Beginning a new four-issue arc, “The Dimming of the Day” gives us a peek at aging crimefighters Crackerjack and Quarrel while offering a contemplative look back at the humble origins of the later who used her natural gifts and tragic family history to carve out a life as a super-hero.

Quarrel’s back story takes up much of the first issue of the arc while introducing the idea of two crimefighters whose heroic exploits may be coming to an end. Wiser and more armored, but a bit slower these days, how hard is it for a hero to admit that it might be time to hang up the tights?

Although I’ve quite enjoyed the short one-off issues of the current series, Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson open a door here I’ll gladly walk through and stick around to see what does happen when a super-hero decides (or is forced to) retire? Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $3.99]

Astro City #18 Read More »

The Imitation Game

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Imitation Game
  • IMDb: link

The Imitation Game

Code breaking is an art as much as a science and never was it needed, or more artfully accomplished, than by the British during World War II. Set during the middle of Second World War, The Imitation Game follows an unlikely group of scholars, mathematicians, linguists, chess champions, and intelligence officers who were thrown together with the singular goal of breaking Germany’s unbreakable code known as Enigma. Enter Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) who might have been the biggest hero of the war if every advancement he made in cryptology (including the creation of the first computer) hadn’t been state secrets until well after his death.

Based on the novel by Andrew Hodges and adapted by Graham Moore, the film is anchored by Benedict Cumberbatch who lends a vulnerability to the abrasiveness of Turing whose own co-workers often struggled to get along with. In one of her most understated roles Keira Knightley stars as Joan Clarke, the lone female member of the team to break Engima, even if she had to officially work as a secretary in order to do so.

…

The Imitation GameRead More »

The Imitation Game Read More »

Unbroken

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Unbroken
  • IMDb: link

UnbrokenMash-up The Bridge on the River Kwai and Rescue Dawn, while oversimplifying it for mainstream audiences, and you’ve got something that looks quite a bit like Angelina Jolie‘s directorial debut. Unbroken isn’t a bad film, but unwilling to color outside the lines Jolie takes a remarkable story and offers us a paint-by-number hero tale that only marginally entertains while struggling to celebrate a man’s inspirational journey as a prisoner of war during World War II.

After clips showing us what a punk kid he was before falling in love with track and field, the film centers around the war experience of former Olympian Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) whose Olympic moments and life following WWII are glossed over and ignored. Instead the screenplay by the Coen Brothers (in the most un-Coen Bros. script you’ve ever seen), Richard LaGravenese, and William Nicholson is a somewhat unfocused look at Louis’ life in war spending an inordinate amount of time focused on the weeks he was lost at sea before skipping ahead to offer highlights of his P.O.W. experience which by on-screen time you may mistakenly feel were of near equal length (rather than weeks on the raft versus the years spent in the camps).

…

UnbrokenRead More »

Unbroken Read More »

Into the Woods

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Into the Woods
  • IMDb: link

Into the WoodsBased on the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods offers a fairy tale adventure featuring a host of well-known characters whose stories all begin to intertwine over three days in the mysterious woods filling the space between their various homes. The story begins when the Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) learn their inability to have children was caused by a curse put on his family by an evil Witch (Meryl Streep). The Witch, however, offers the couple a way to break the curse if they can gather an odd assortment of items before the blue moon in three days time. And that, as you might expect, is where the other characters come in.

To gather the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold the Baker and his wife will come into contact with Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and his mother (Tracey Ullman), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), and a pair of princes seeking true love (Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen).

…

Into the WoodsRead More »

Into the Woods Read More »

Samurai Jack #15

/ / Comics

Samurai Jack #15The final issue of “The Quest of the Broken Blade” pits Samurai Jack against Aku without the magical sword which is the only weapon the evil demon fears. Those waiting for a big throwdown between the pair are not going to be disappointed as the entire comic is a single battle between Jack and Aku that ends with the samurai’s sword restored and Aku’s relentless attacks paused as the evil shape-shifting master of darkness escapes once more.

How the sword reappears is a bit of a surprise but certainly fits into the metaphysical aspects of the comic and the animated show which spawned it as the character not only finds the strength to keep fighting from within but the weapon by which to do so as well.

…

Samurai Jack #15Read More »

Samurai Jack #15 Read More »