3.5 Razors

Hotel for Monsters

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Hotel Transylvania
  • IMDB: link

hotel-transylvania-posterI usually enjoy animated films in all shapes and sizes, but I can sum up my heightened interest for Hotel Transylvania in two words – Genndy Tartakovsky. For those who don’t recognize the name, Tartakovsky is responsible for creating Dexter’s Laboratory, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and a little slice of awesome known as Samurai Jack. Tartakovsky also help produce The Powerpuff Girls (and write my favorite episode of the series).

Although Hotel Transylvania isn’t Tartakovsky’s creation, you can certainly see his fingerprints all over the film in a script he helped punch-up and his influence to push the movie towards a more high-energy animation style resembling Tex Avery’s classic cartoons. The result is a fast-paced, zany comedy with just enough of the director’s deft touches and humor to make it stand-out from more generic animated fare. At times the film certainly panders with obvious (and even cheap) jokes for the kids, but Tartakovsky’s take on a hotel for monsters is better than it has any right to be and should satisfy kids and most adults as well.

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Captain Atom #0

/ / Comics

captain-atom-new-52-0-coverCaptain Atom isn’t the first of the New 52 titles to get the ax, but it is the first one I’ve really enjoyed to go away. Captain Atom #0 provides a rebooted origin for the soldier turned super-powered hero, and while it works well enough, like most of the New 52, it’s not nearly as good as the origin the character already had.

Now I didn’t read the Captain Atom‘s original Charlton Comics run, but when DC bought the rights to the character (along with others like the Question and Blue Beetle) and gave the hero new life in his own title following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths I was there to grab it, and all the issue that followed. (Hell, I was in the prime of my junior high comic book buyin’ days.)

In the post-Crisis origin (which, by the way, was good enough to be used in a recent issue of Young Justice) Nathaniel Adam was an Air Force pilot framed for murder who volunteered for a risky experiment only to be shot 20 years into the future and turned into super-human with the ability to tap into the Quantum Field.

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Hawaii Five-0 – La O Na Makuahine

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Hawaii Five-0 – La O Na Makuahine
  • tv.com: link

hawaii-five-0-la-o-na-makuahine

Hawaii Five-0 opens its Third Season by resolving the multiple cliffhangers left from last season’s finale. McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) sits down for a frank talk with the mysterious Shellburne, which turns out to be the codename for the mother (Christine Lahti) he long believed dead. Believing Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos) is safely behind bars, and with many unanswered questions, McGarret convinces his mother to return home, but due to an incredibly complex escape planned by Frank Delano (William Baldwin) Wo Fat is once again loose.

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Daredevil #18

/ / Comics

daredevil-18-coverThe Matt Murdock must be crazy storyline continues as Matt returns from a date with Kristen McDuffie to discover his crazy ex-wife Milla in his bed. Or does he? A little investigation by Foggy reveals that simply be the case as Milla is still locked up the loony bin. It should be obvious to everyone (as it has been for several issues) that someone is gaslighting Hell’s Kitchen favorite hero.

The back-up story involves Foggy’s new client, a private nurse who is the sole suspect in the locked room murder of her employer, drug kinpin Victor Hierra. After speaking to the woman’s brother Foggy believes in her innocence and, despite his recent fallout with his partner, agrees to look into Milla if Daredevil looks in on the case.

I was tired with this arc the moment writer Mark Waid introduced it. We know Daredevil isn’t crazy and despite what Foggy sees here, he should know better too. Still, Waid is a good storyteller and Daredevil #18 has good action and an unexpected cameo from a character I’d all but forgotten about.

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Hawaii Five-0 – The Complete Second Season

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Hawaii Five-0 – Season Two
  • tv.com: link

hawaii-fivd-0-season-two-dvdThe rebooted Hawaiian police task force returns for a second season. Over the course of the year Commander Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) will continue to track down the notorious Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos) and search for the mysterious Shellburne. The Second Season returns CIA Agent Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik) and Captain Fryer (Tom Sizemore) in recurring roles and introduces two important new supporting characters in McGarrett’s former commander and surrogate father figure Joe White (Terry O’Quinn) and Lori Weston (Lauren German) as the new Governor’s (Richard T. Jones) self-appointed member to the Five-o task force.

The first episodes of the season deal with proving McGarret wasn’t responsible for the death of the Governor (Jean Smart) and Kono’s (Grace Park) undercover work to take down a former cop (William Baldwin). By the sixth episode of the season the team is back together (when McGarret isn’t off on his own searching for old friends and new enemies).

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