3 Razors

Sledgehammer 44 #1

Sledgehammer 44 #1There’s something very Atomic Robo-ish about this first issue from Mike Mignola and Jason LaTour featuring a battle between men of iron in the middle of WWII (and I mean that as a compliment). Although less wacky than what you’d get from Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener, this first issue of a two-issue limited series about a man of iron who falls from the sky and the Army unit ordered to look after him is a pretty good read.

Although the art doesn’t quite explain the electric attack our metal hero uses on the Nazi troops and their robot of destruction, I really enjoyed LaTour’s designs. The mysterious man or robot in question, however, isn’t the focus of the issue as much as the unit he saves and who is tasked with keeping him out of the reach of the Nazis when his energy is spent.

I know Dark Horse, and Magnola in particular, like these two and three-issue mini-series, but I’m not sure the comic publisher might not have been better off teasing this and then releasing the whole story in a single old school double-sized issue to complete the nostalgic feel of the comic. For fans.

[Dark Horse, $3.50]

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Transformers: Regeneration One #89

Transformers: Regeneration One #89Shockwave and Grimlock in the same comic (and Shockwave even gets the cover)! Yeah, I’ll give that a look. IDW’s Transformers: Regeneration One #89 continues the storyline from the original Marvel Comics series which ended in 1991. In the latest issue, which takes place mostly on Cybertron, Grimlock faces the wrath of his fellow Dinobots for betraying them to Scorponok.

As Grimlock tries to talk and/or beat some sense into his (far too intelligent) Dinobot brothers about his “ingenious” plan to betray the Autobots and release the “warrior gene,” elsewhere on the planet Hod Rod (in, by far, the most ridiculous storyline) discovers a pair of ancient Primus relics which allow him to view and fight the Transformers’ past.

On Earth, Optimus Prime is out for a pleasure drive (really, he doesn’t do anything more in his one page cameo), and on the crashed Ark a battered Decepticon awakens as Shockwave brings his broken memories into focus and plans his next move. For fans.

[IDW, $3.99]

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and the Brain Rapist

  • Title: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
  • IMDB: link

The Incredible Burt WonderstoneThe Incredible Burt Wonderstone is an odd film about the change in magic from old school tricks and illusion to elaborate and dangerous stunts of endurance during the 1990’s, and the petty jealousies that go on behind the curtain, that feels at least a decade late. Written by Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who gave us the equally uneven Horrible Bosses) the script is inconsistent, especially during the movie’s third act, but it delivers a surprising number of laughs when it embraces the sheer absurdity of its premise and characters with a gleeful zeal.

The film stars Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi as a pair of old school Las Vegas magicians Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton (think Siegfried & Roy without the tigers) whose act and decades of friendship have seen better days. The pair’s partnership comes to an end when popular new street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey as a mix of David Blaine and Criss Angel) forces the pair into uncharted territory doing dangerous stunts that leave Anton severely injured and Burt out on the street looking for a new job.

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The Intouchables

  • Title: The Intouchables
  • IMDB: link

the-intouchables-blu-rayBased on the nonfiction book by Abdel Sellou, this French odd couple comedy stars Omar Sy as an ex-con out on the street who is hired as a caregiver for a rich French aristocrat (François Cluzet) with whom he has nothing in common. Most of the humor early on deals specifically with Driss’ (Sy) learning his new responsibilities, his discomfort with various aspects of his new job such as dressing Phillipe and “draining the ass” of a man he doesn’t know, and his fumbling juvenile attempts to woo Philippe’s completely uninterested assistant (Audrey Fleurot) into bed.

From there The Intouchables moves into the inevitable phase of the two finding common ground and becoming friends. Subplots involve Driss’ attempt to be a painter and keep his cousin () from following his same path, the relationship between Philippe’s daughter (Alba Gaïa Kraghede Bellugi) and her boyfriend (Thomas Solivéres), and Driss pushing Philippe to meet the woman (Dorothée Brière) he’s been corresponding with for months.

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Oz the Great and Powerful

  • Title: Oz the Great and Powerful
  • IMDB: link

Oz the Great and PowerfulThere’s no Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Cowardly Lion, but by the end of Oz the Great and Powerful the stage will be set for a young girl from Kansas to make her own journey to Frank L. Baum’s magical land of Oz. This completely original script by screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire offers us the origins of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz (James Franco), who, as the film opens (in black and white), is nothing more than a traveling carnival magician and con man on the dusty plains of Kansas.

The first quarter of our story is centered around presenting Oz in his own world before whisking him away to the magical land of Oz via the most likely transport: a tornado. Franco is well cast as the smarmy, selfish, womanizing, con man wishing for greatness (but too lazy to work for it), with an unquestionable greed for fame and fortune and an uncomfortable relationship with the truth. Oz’s myriad of failings leads to a hasty escape from the carnival that traps the magician’s hot air balloon in the middle of a Kansas twister leading to a journey somewhere over the rainbow.

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