4.5 Razors

Avengers #10

/ / Comics

avengerrs-10-coverDanger Room meet the Avengers, Avengers meet the Danger Room.

Our heroes split up to recover the remaining Infinity Gems leading each team into a bit of trouble as the members of the Illuminati didn’t exactly make them easily accessible. Along the way we learn Noh-Varr doesn’t understand sarcasm (much to Spider-Man‘s dismay), and the fact that Tony Stark now owns Area 51.

Issue 10 is filled with action and some very entertaining interplay between out heroes. There’s a humorous one-page conversation between Ant-Man and Iron Fist while the pair are stuck together on monitor duty (and similar situation between Hawkeye and Mockingbird), Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel‘s reaction to the Danger Room, and Iron Man’s attempt to justify his actions.

All that plus our heroes finally come face-to-face with the villain amassing the Infinity Gems for himself – the Hood (who’s gotten his grubby hands on yet another gem). Must-read.

[Marvel $3.99]

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She Gave Me a Pen

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • Title: Say Anything…
  • IMDB: link

“Get ready for greatness.”

say-anything-posterThe quote is stolen from the film as Llyod shares his love for Diane with his two best friends but I also think it’s appropriate for those who are getting ready to watch the film for the first time.  Cameron Crowe’s love story between the likeable slacker and the class brain “trapped in the body of a game show hostess” is pure movie magic and is indeed the stuff of greatness.

Llyod Dobler (John Cusack) is a friendly underachiever who everyone knows and likes.  The film begins with graduation and we learn that Llyod has no idea what to do with his future except maybe become a professional kickboxer and take Diane Court (Ione Skye) to the end of the year party.  Llyod has carried a torch for the beautiful but aloof valedictorian for years and the scene where he invites her to the party should bring smiles to every guy who has ever shot for the moon and asked out his dream girl.

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Between Sunrise and Sunset

/ / Home Video, Theme Week

Let me tell you a strange but wonderful story.  Once upon a time there was a filmmaker who made a small independent art house movie that was moderately successful.  No big stars, no special effects, no plot twists here kids.  It was just a two character piece about a man and woman finding each other in Vienna and spending one day and one night together sight seeing, discussing their lives, loves, beliefs, desires, both large and small, and falling in love. 

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Garden State

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • Title: Garden State
  • IMDB: link

garden-state-dvdGarden State is one of those films I missed in the theaters and hunted down on DVD after a number of people had recommended it to me. I’m so glad I did! Zach Braff’s first time as writer/director produces a truly great romantic comedy with a heart bigger than even an infinite abyss.

Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) leaves his struggling acting career and returns home for the first time in nine years to attend his mother’s funeral.  Andrew is disconnected from his family, and life in general, through a variety of medications that create an overall malaise.  The death of his mother and his return home begin a series of events that allow Andrew to reexamine his life and start to live again.

On his return to New Jersey Andrew meets up with old friends Mark (Peter Sarsgaard) and Jesse (Armando Riesco) and has an unexpected encounter at the doctor’s office where he meets Sam (Natalie Portman). 

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Tough Love

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Lust, Caution
  • IMDb: link

lust-caution-poster

Not totally unlike his last work, Ang Lee‘s Lust, Caution is a love story lead down the wrong path thanks to forlorn circumstances.  And although Lee’s movie about gay cowboy’s may have worked more thoroughly, there’s still a lot to this Mandarin-language film worth checking out.

Taking place in a World War II China when the Japanese were posing a threat, Lust, Caution focuses on a group of theater students who decide to stop putting on patriotic plays and start killing those Chinese sons a bitches who turned coat to the east, using a young woman (Wei Tang) to infiltrate one such traitor household.  They find out their task is much easier said than done after their target, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), disappears across the country suddenly and without notice.  All the hard work and planning of six young nationalists goes down the drain.

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Tough Love Read More »