2.5 Razors

The Mentalist – Scarlet Ribbons

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Mentalist – Scarlet Ribbons
  • wiki: link

the-mentalist-scarlett-ribbons

Last season’s cliffhanger saw Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) shoot and kill Red John (Bradley Whitford), the serial killer responsible for the death of his wife and child. As the show went to break I wondered how the new season would deal with Jane’s actions. It turns out it mostly doesn’t. Of all the possible choices the writers of The Mentalist could have come up with what we get in the season premiere isn’t bad, but it is pretty damn underwhelming.

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Birds of Prey #1

/ / Comics

birds-of-prey-v3-1-coverFor the first time since 2003 the regular writer of Birds of Prey is not named Gail Simone. As part of DC’s New 52 writer Duane Swierczynski takes over a team that, quite frankly, has seen better days.

The recent run of the title never matched the heights of the first volume and, although I love Gail Simone, I wasn’t opposed to giving someone else a shot at the title. Sadly, this isn’t what I had in mind.

Not only does Barbara Gordon‘s return as Batgirl throw Stephanie Brown under the proverbial bus but it leaves a huge hole to be filled on a title that centered around her as Oracle. The comic was about the relationship between Babs and Black Canary, and started clicking on all cylinders with the inclusion of the Huntress (and great supporting characters like Zinda Blake).

Although Black Canary is present here (in another puzzling costume redesign that makes me nostalgic for any of other costumes – even her Justice League look), the Huntress isn’t part of the team and Babs is present only a token appearance.

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Batman and Robin #1

/ / Comics

batman-and-robin-1-coverOne of the relationships taken away with the DC Reboot was that of the Dick Grayson as Batman with Damian Wayne‘s Robin. In its place DC relaunches the title with writer Peter Tomasi who gives us the first issue of Damian teamed up with the original Batman, his father, Bruce Wayne.

Since we last saw him it appears Damian has devolved a bit back into confrontational character minus the progress that he had made over the course of the last year as a partner for Batman.

Tomasi does give us a couple of good exchanges between Batman and son but it’s going to take a while for this relationship to work itself out (much like the Dick/Damian relationship in the previous title). The challenge is both of these characters are sullen, and neither has Dick Grayson’s humor to balance the other out.

The rest of the story deals with Batman putting the demons of Crime Alley to rest and the introduction of a new villain named Nobody who wants nothing more than to erase Batman’s mark on the world.

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A Good Old Fashioned Orgy

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
  • IMDB: link

a-good-old-fashioned-orgy-posterSome movies get rushed through production and hit theaters mere weeks after the final frame of film is shot. Others, for a variety of reasons, go through multiple edits and end up sitting on the shelf for years. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (which was filmed back in the Spring of 2008) is the later.

The story centers around Eric (Jason Sudeikis) and his friends (Tyler Labine, Michelle Borth, Lake Bell, Lindsay Sloane, Nick Kroll, Angela Sarafyan, Martin Starr) who have thrown legendary parties at his family’s summer home for years. When his father (Don Johnson) announces his plan to sell the house the group tries to figure out how best to through their final end of summer bash. Their solution? An orgy!

The film is a mix of old friends saying goodbye to a tradition and a group of unsure thirty-somethings trying to recapture a youthful sexual spirit with a night of debauchery. The relationships work well, and we actually feel like these people would stay friends over the years. As to whether they’d all sleep together…

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Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #13

/ / Comics

green-lantern-emerald-warriors-13-coverEmerald Warriors closes its run with a team-up with Guy Gardner and Batman aboard a space station. Fans of Justice League International will get the reference (especially after writer spells it out for them in the completely unnecessary final panel).

Even if Batman and Guy aren’t the same characters they were during Keith Giffen‘s glorious run the pair work well together (though it certainly helps if you were a fan of Giffen’s League). The mystery itself isn’t explored very well (Batman solves the case off-panel while Guy grills the suspects), and, as I’ve already stated, the comic ends with a panel that (with all the subtetly of a Michael Bay action flick) directly references one of the most memorable moments from JLI.

Since it’s creation this comic has been hit-and-miss for me from month to month. The last issue works well-enough (even if its somewhat hamfisted), but if you don’t have nostalgia for JLI I’m not sure the story is going to hold up on its own. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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