2 Razors

Batman & Harley Quinn

  • Title: Batman & Harley Quinn
  • wiki: link

Batman & Harley Quinn Blu-ray reviewBatman & Harley Quinn is Batman: The Animated Series Lite. Co-written by Jim Krieg and Bruce Timm, featuring Kevin Conroy as Batman, and set in the later style of BtAS, the straight-to-video feature has some of the feel of lesser episodes of the animated series. Sadly, it also has some stunningly bad dialogue, odd tangents (super-hero-themed restaurants and bars for henchmen) which are only loosely connected to the plot, juvenile fart jokes for the kiddies, and an over-sexualized nature that’s certainly not directed at the same audience. In other words, it’s something of a mess – although starting out be recasting one of the most iconic roles from the TV-series was a good hint that something would be amiss.

In our tale, Batman (Conroy) and Nightwing (Loren Lester) enlist the help of a reformed Harley Quinn (Melissa Rauch) to stop her gal-pal Poison Ivy (Paget Brewster) and her new partner the Floronic Man (Kevin Michael Richardson) from unleashing a virus to turn all animal life on the planet into plants.

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Batman #29

Batman #29 comic reviewBatman #29 is a bizarre issue. I never thought I would see Batman offer criminals a huge payday to continue their mayhem in Gotham City. The entire comic takes place at the Wayne Manor dinner table where Bruce Wayne has gathered both the Riddler and the Joker (and some of their top lieutenants). With the War of Jokes and Riddles raging, and Batman impotent to stop it, Batman decides to… throw a dinner party?

The inconsistent use of narration continues, disappearing in an issue that seems to take place more in real time than the narrated series of events Batman is relating to Catwoman years later. The setting is bizarre in the extreme, but I have even more trouble with Batman contemplating throwing in the towel and further facilitating the nefarious deeds of dozens of criminals (offer one side $1 billion). Wouldn’t calling in the Justice League (or literally anything else) make more sense?

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Dunkirk

  • Title: Dunkirk
  • IMDb: link

Dunkirk movie reviewChristopher Nolan‘s Dunkirk is surprisingly bad for such an accomplished director. Set during the Dunkirk evacuation of mostly British troops surrounded by Axis forces during World War II, Nolan brings his talents to bear in crafting a visually impressive film. However it’s three-part story, amateurishly cut together in confusing fashion, featuring a migraine-inducing overbearing score (which the director has been infatuated with ever since Inception), without a single trace of emotional resonance, left me detached from both characters and events for most of its running time.

The film inter-cuts three separate plot threads of vastly different lengths creating all kinds of trouble when the threads have to be woven together later in the film. The shortest of these centers around Tom Hardy as a fighter pilot whose action takes place mostly far above the fray. The next, in terms of length, involves a civilian boat hired to help evacuate soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk. And the longest story centers around soldiers on the beach, most notably Fionn Whitehead and Aneurin Barnard, desperately searching for any way off the coastline before the German army arrives.

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Castlevania – Necropolis

  • Title: Castlevania – Necropolis
  • wiki: link

Castlevania - Necropolis TV review

Okay, I’m rooting for the vampire. The first episode of Netflix’s Castlevania introduced us to Dracula (Graham McTavish), his wife (Emily Swallow), and the series of events which would lead the vampire to declare war on all humanity. “Necropolis” introduces us to our reluctant hero Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage) who spends most of the season’s second episode fighting in bars and alleyways. Forced out of his drunken stupor first to defend himself and later to protect an old man from murderous priests, Belmont hardly earns any sympathy from us and really only looks somewhat heroic when compared to Dracula’s murderous army and the religious zealots which directly caused them to be unleashed on the world. I’m sure glad this season is only four episodes long as I don’t think I could stand spending much more time with Trevor Belmont. And, yeah, I’m rooting for the vampire.

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Double Impact

  • Title: Double Impact
  • IMDb: link

Double Impact Blu-ray reviewOur Throwback Thursday post takes us back to the action of the early 90s. Double Impact is ridiculous, even for a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Playing twins (not the last time he would attempt this) separated for 25 years and brought back together to avenge their parents’ murder, Van Damme stars as both Kung Fu expert and Yoga instructor Chad and seedy criminal type Alex whose girlfriend (Alonna Shaw just happens to hold the keys to get their high-kicking form of justice). Along with the action and ridiculous dialogue the script also makes the most out of Chad being mistaken for Alex on multiple occasions (including by his girlfriend).

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