3 Razors

Holy 60’s Movie Batman!

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • Title: Batman: The Movie (1966)
  • IMDb: link

“What has yellow skin and writes?”
“A ball-point banana!”

Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) take on one of their biggest challenges yet as four of the villains from the 60’s Television show team-up to take down the Dynamic Duo and kidnap the World Security Council, turn them into dust, and hold the world hostage.  You know, just your average run-of-the-mill day in Gotham City.

Although not as good as the series itself (it was filmed during the hiatus between the first and second seasons), the film does capture the spirit and campiness fans of the show came to love.

We get ridiculous riddles which are reasoned (and I use that term loosely) in an insanely twisted logic to unexpected, and quite unbelievable, answers.  Oh, and don’t forget the suicidal porpoise.

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Journey to the Center of the Earth

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Journey to the Center of the Earth
  • IMDb: link

“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the center of the Earth.”

Years ago Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) lost his brother.  Now years later clues written in an old copy of Jules Verne’s novel lead Trevor and his nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) to Iceland.  There, with the help of a local guide (Anita Briem), the explorers learn the fate of the missing scientist and discover a hidden world deep under the Earth’s surface which is eerily similar to that which Jules Verne described more than 140 years ago complete with a subterranean ocean, giant mushrooms, extinct species, and even dinosaurs.

There’s much to enjoy here, especially for those who get a chance to see the film in 3-D.  The entire project was shot in Real D Cinema and provides some great 3-D moments (though, like other such films it also includes stretches without much to mention 3-D effects wise).

In terms of the non-3-D effects the film holds up pretty well capturing the unique look and style of the world at the center of the Earth by largely copying original illustrations from the novel.  It captures both the wonder and danger of the tale quite well.

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An American Girl

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
  • IMDB: link

“Don’t let it beat you.”

The American Girl series focuses on young fictional heroines centered in and around important historical events.  The Mattel dolls have spawned books, magazines, and countless accessories, and now a major motion picture.

Abigail Breslin stars as the precocious Margaret Mildred “Kit” Kittredge, an aspiring pre-adolescent reporter in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the Great Depression.  Kit’s life, and those of her firends and neighbors are turned upside down due to the Depression which causes her father (Chris O’Donnell) to seek employment in Chicago and her mother (Julia Ormond) to take in boarders (who include Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci, Glenne Headly, and Jane Krakowski) to make ends meet.

Kit takes most of this in stride and attempts to use her new experience to become a real reporter and get her first story in print, if she can just get her work past that persnickety editor (Wallace Shawn).

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Grendel: Devil Child

/ / Comics

“I always felt safe in the arms of the devil.”

Okay, this one’s not for everybody.  This bleak look at the life of a girl raised by a serial killer, ushered in an out of psychiatric hospitals, abused by a doctor she believed loved her, and mother to a legacy of Grendel, isn’t what one would call a happy tale.  Now available in a new hardcover collection from Dark Horse Comics, it is however worth a look.

Grendel: Devil Child takes a look at one of the most important transitionary characters of Matt Wagner‘s Grendel storyline.

The story follows the tragic life of young Stacy Palumbo, the adopted daughter who turned on Hunter Rose after learning of nighttime activities as the original Grendel.  Stacy spends the entire length of this tale in and out of psychiatric institutes, never quite coming to grips with that fateful night she purposely sent Grendel and Argent to their doom.

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Final Crisis

/ / Comics

“Somebody just murdered a God on our watch.”

A “final” crisis you say?  I’ll believe that when I see it!  What, it’s here?  That’s right folks the first issue of Final Crisis has hit the shelves and we’ve got the review.  Filled with appearance from countless DC heroes and villains, Grant Morrison has packed the first issue with characters, and a somewhat bewildering story.

After a brief introductory scene involving Metron supplying Anthro with knowledge, which perhaps is more than just the gift of fire, the story moves into full gear with a dying Orion and the discovery of a connection between a group of missing children, all of whom have a genetic disposition towards super-powers.

As the Justice League and Green Lanterns begin to search for the cause of Orion’s death, and the possibility of other New Gods on Earth, a villain named Libra temps the members of the Secret Society into joining his quest by offering them them their heart’s desire.  His presentation is quite convincing, as it ends with the apparent death of the Martian Manhunter (except for that odd final page…?).

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