4 Razors

Doctor Who – Cold War

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Doctor Who – Cold War
  • tv.com: link

Doctor Who - Cold War

After a bit of a miscalculation The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) materialize on a sinking Russian nuclear submarine near the North Pole in 1983 which has just picked up a rather unusual passenger in the form of a Martian Ice Warrior whose mere presence on the sub puts the entire crew, and perhaps even the entire world, in danger. While the ships first officer (Tobias Menzies) dismisses The Doctor’s explanation of events as pure rubbish, the ship’s Captain (Liam Cunningham) and scientist (David Warner) try to keep an open mind.

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42

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: 42
  • IMDB: link

42Written and directed by Brian Helgeland, 42 chronicles the struggle and rise of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) as Major League Baseball’s first African American player. Although a bit formulaic (it seems we’ve got several similar racially-themed sports movies over the past decade or so with The Express, Pride, and Remember the Titans), Helgeland successfully delivers an emotional and uplifting tale that’s more concerned with the historical importance of Robinson’s ascension to the majors than the any specific game of baseball in which he played.

In a straightforward story like this that doesn’t dig too deep into the hidden recesses and personal life of its main character to offer new insights not already available to the general pubic much of the success or failure is going to rely on the performances to carry the film. Here Helgeland makes terrific choices as Boseman (who coincidentally played Floyd Little in the similarly-themed The Express) carries the film with the ease Robinson swung a bat or caught a fly ball.

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Batman and Red Robin #19

/ / Comics

Batman and Red Robin #19Damian may be dead, but he won’t stay that way if Batman can help it. Batman and Robin begins anew with Batman getting a different member of the Bat-Family filling-in for the recently departed Robin. That doesn’t mean you can classify Batman and Red Robin #19 as a team-up by even the loosest definition of the term.

Overcome with grief Batman has sought out Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. in an attempt to learn what keeps the undead creature alive and find a way to resurrect his son. It’s certainly an unexpected cameo, and the first time we’ve seen the New 52 version of the Dark Knight driven to such extremes. That said, the story worked for me (especially as the New 52 has been vague about both the existence and Batman’s knowledge of Lazarus Pits leaving that option, at least for now, off the table).

Carrie Kelley, the young woman who would become Robin in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is given new life as a Gotham City College student who had been tutoring Damian before his death. Bruce is unlikely to forget his first face-to-face meeting with the spunky young woman as she opens her door dressed in a Robin costume.

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Super Dinosaur #18

/ / Comics

Super Dinosaur #18The latest issue of Super Dinosaur gives us the destruction of Castle Maximus, the rescue of Julianna Dynamo, the capture of Max Maximus, and the birth of the series’ new villain Tyrannosaurus X (who is ever bit as awesome as his name would suggest).

The comic begins with the destruction of Maximus’ home base just as Super Dinosaur and his team were preparing their assault, putting all the heroes a bit on edge throughout the rest of the comic, particularly Derek who still can’t remember his mother even after the team finds her comatose body (possibly foreshadowing more twists to this story?).

The best part of Super Dinosaur #18 is the evolution of Minimus into the far more deadly threat of Tyrannosaurus X. Aside from looking pretty cool, the character’s unique match of brains and brawn gives the series a legitimate super-villain whose far more interesting, and threatening, than Maximus. His addition also pumps some new life into a comic that at times (despite it’s absurdly awesome premise) has felt a little stale. Worth a look.

[Image, $2.99]

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Dirk Gently

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Dirk Gently
  • tv.com: link

Dirk GentlyBased on the novels by Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul) Dirk Gently was an all-too-short TV-series starring Stephen Mangan as the title character, a detective who relies on random chance and finding connections in the seemingly unconnected nature of things to solve the cases brought to him which includes a missing cat which leads him to solve a double-homicide, a man whose horoscopes are coming true, the theft of a valuable robot, and the murder of several of the detective’s former clients.

Managan is terrific in the leading role of a swindler whose methods, almost inextricably, get results. The show also starred Darren Boyd as Dirk’s old friend turned partner Richard MacDuff, Lisa Jackson as Gently’s secretary Janice, and Helen Baxendale as MacDuff’s girlfriend Susan.

Although the show only lasted four episodes (all included on this two-disc set), it managed to capture the quirky nature of Adams’ characters and is certainly worth a look for fans.

[Acorn Media, $39.99]

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