3 Razors

G.I. JOE #10

G.I. JOE #10“Threat Matrix” comes to an end as Duke confronts the Mad Monk, the Special Missions team hunts down the JOE leader who Cover Girl believes may be Cobra’s mole, and the Baroness is forced to make a choice between Cobra and Destro when Cobra Commander and his troops invade the arm seller’s home.

By the end of the issue the JOEs will stop the Mad Monk’s plan and save Duke’s comatose wife whose chest the villain’s wife and daughter strapped the bomb to. It’s not a complete win as Monk gets away and questions linger about Duke’s unexplained wealth (which we learn about in the issue’s final flashback).

The split between Destro and Cobra opens up new possibilities for the character and I’m happy to see the series sticking with the relationship between the Baroness and her silver-headed boyfriend. The flashbacks certainly give Duke a feet of clay which I have mixed feelings about as I do with Monk getting away to cause more trouble for the JOEs in the future. For fans.

[IDW, $3.99]

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The Crazy Ones – The Stan Wood Account

  • Title: The Crazy Ones – The Stan Wood Account
  • wiki: link

“We’re advertisers, we’ll sell anything to anyone. We’re basically a pimp and a mink cat
away from being whores.”

The Crazy Ones - The Stan Wood Account

While Simon (Robin Williams) tries to keep the firm’s business partner (Brad Garrett) from questioning the fictitious “Stan Wood Account,” which is actually a pseudonym for an old client Simon was to have fired off years ago, Sydney (Sarah Michelle Gellar) deals with the unexpected romantic advances of an old actor (Ed Asner) who Simon brought back now that his old 80s campaign has caught on again on YouTube.

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Daredevil: Dark Nights #6

Daredevil: Dark Nights #6The mini-series final arc begins here as Matt Murdock heads down to Miami with a witness and agents of the FBI to protect the lawyer’s latest client, a dishwasher unfortunate to witness a drug dealer stab a man to death in a back alley.

Murdock gets a couple of surprises while enjoying the lush surroundings. The first, running into Misty Knight at the hotel pool, is rather pleasant. The second, having his witness be abducted and seeing the man’s FBI protector gunned-down in front of him, isn’t as much fun. Together Daredevil and Misty night search for the missing witness who both fear is already dead, a search which will lead them to take on the kingpin of Cuba as the story continues.

I always enjoy Daredevil’s various flirtations with a host of female and criminals who can’t get enough of Daredevil (seriously, blind lawyer is like catnip for the super-hero/villain set). The sexual tension between the pair is obvious, and entertaining, as is the art by Thony Silas. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $2.99]

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Thor: The Dark World

  • Title: Thor: The Dark World
  • IMDb: link

Thor: The Dark World

Trading in directors and screenwriters (only one of the six credited here for story and screenplay were involved in the first film), Thor: The Dark World proves to be a solid follow-up to director Kenneth Branagh‘s 2001 origin story for Marvel Studios’ version of Thor. With nearly the entire cast of characters already introduced in the first film director Alan Taylor and his half-dozen writers can take the time to delve a little deeper in the supporting cast and give several characters from the previous film stand-out moments in the sequel.

I keep mention the number of writers on Thor: The Dark World because the script itself does feel like an odd mix of concepts and mashed-up designs that don’t always quite work. There is plenty to question in both film’s villain (Christopher Eccleston), an odd amalgam of Star Trek and Lord of the Rings, which to be fair so is much of Thor’s lore which jumbles sci-fi and fantasy with relish, and His quest to destroy all of creation with magic floaty water (that is shown mostly as smoke because apparently the CGI folks couldn’t decides what the “Aether” should actually be).

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In a World…

  • Title: In a World…
  • IMDb: link

In a World...

Premiering at Sundance earlier this year first-time writer/director Lake Bell‘s In a World… quickly became a critical darling taking home the festival’s award for screenwriting. I’ve been largely unimpressed with Bell and her forgettable career which includes one of the worst comedies I ever had the misfortune to sit through, so I can definitely understand her reasoning for wanting to but together the kind of role no one else was offering her.

As the film of a first time director In a World… shows promise and centering the story around the largely untapped world of voice-over artists gives the otherwise by-the-numbers romantic comedy something of an unique feel. Bell’s time in the industry also allows her to put together a pretty strong indie cast of familiar faces.

But despite the intriguing set-up and good performances, most of the promise of In a World… is unfulfilled. Bell’s creativity in one part of the story is balanced by laziness in another as she fails to do much other than offer up what amounts to a slightly better than average romcom.

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