4.5 Razors – Page 72 – RazorFine Review

Stranger Things – Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers

Alan Rapp / September 10, 2016 / Television Reviews

Title: Stranger Things – Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers
wiki: link

Overflowing with 80s Speilberg style, Stranger Things opens with not one but two pre-credit horror sequences teasing of something very dangerous. The first of these takes place at the Hawkins National Laboratory where something some kind of dangerous creature has escaped. The second involves something ominous hunting down middle school student Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) on his bike ride home from playing Dungeons & Dragons with his friends Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). In neither case do we get a good look at the creature, but it’s obvious something very strange is going on in the otherwise sleepy town of Hawkins, Indiana.

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Usagi Yojimbo #157

Alan Rapp / August 30, 2016 / Comics

Title: Usagi Yojimbo #157
Comic Vine: link
Writer: Stan Sakai
Artist: Stan Sakai

“The Secret of the Hell Screen” concludes as Miyamoto Usagi and Inspector Ishida lay a trap to capture those responsible for the pair of recent murders at the temple which houses the most bizarre piece of art Usagi has ever come across in his travels.

Although Usagi uncovers the identity of both killers, the rabbit ronin isn’t given the backstory for why a priest would go to such lengths to protect the temple and its devilish attraction. However, the reader is given a short history of the former general and his first stop at the temple which forever changed his destiny and made him the into the priest (and now killer) he is today before leading into a rain-drenched battle between all four men. The fact that his story remains undiscovered by all but the reader adds another level to his tragic tale.

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Hell or High Water

Alan Rapp / August 19, 2016 / Movie Reviews

Title: Hell or High Water
IMDb: link

Hell or High Water is more than it appears to be at first glance. The simple story of two brothers robbing banks while literally being pursued by a cowboy (Jeff Bridges) and an Indian (Gil Birmingham) through small Texas towns is grounded in complex motivations playing as much on character-driven drama as themes from westerns and heist films which screenwriter Taylor Sheridan and director David Mackenzie use to frame the tale. Shot against the bleak canvas of West Texas (or, to be more accurate, New Mexico standing in for West Texas), Hell or High Water is an engrossing, entertaining, and often amusing, film.

Ben Foster and Chris Pine star as Tanner and Toby Howard. The estranged brothers have been reunited after years by a recent tragedy and a driving need which will push them to robbery. As the film opens, the two perform a pair of well-planned, if shakily executed, robberies of two West Texas banks. Taking only small denominations from the cashiers’ drawers, the two limit their exposure and the police’s chances of tracing the money. Needing a large amount of cash by the end of the week for purposes which will eventually become clear, the pair are just getting started.

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Mockingbird #5

Alan Rapp / August 4, 2016 / Comics

Title: Mockingbird #5
Comic Vine: link
Writer: Chelsea Cain
Artist: Kate Niemczyk

The next stop on Mockingbird‘s search for answers about the unusual virus in her system is a super-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. medical lab deep below New York City where S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists have been experimenting with Bobbi’s blood on cadavers and accidentally created a group of rampaging zombies. You know, an average day in the life of a Marvel hero.

There’s plenty of action here along with Bobbi’s unusual new “glow stick hand power” which seems to repel zombies. Since that’s kind of a limited resource, I’ll be curious to see if Mockingbird can find additional uses for the new power. However, once overrun by zombies the hand power proves less than effective and it’s time for our hero to fall back to more traditional means of zombie fighting. Mockingbird smash!

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