4 Razors

The Social Network

  • Title: The Social Network
  • IMDb: link

Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is an asshole, or he’s at least trying his damnedest to be one. That seems to be the central point of The Social Network which gives us a traditional tale (genius without people skills, rise to power by stepping on your friends) with a fresh take, several good performances, and some darn fine dialogue by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

In the film director David Fincher and Sorkin team-up to adapt Ben Mezrich‘s 2009 nonfiction novel The Accidental Billionaires about Zuckerberg’s life and the creation of a little thing called Facebook (maybe you’ve heard of it?). The film tackles everything from friendship to cut-throat business tactics and class warfare.

We begin with a lengthy pre-credit scene involving Zuckerberg’s break-up with his girlfriend Rooney Mara which will lead to the drunken creation of his first social networking site later that night, and lay the foundation for the later creation of Facebook. It’s a great scene to start, though both actors seem to struggle initially with the pace and tempo of a very wordy Sorkin scene.

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Human Target – The Complete First Season

  • Title: Human Target – Season One
  • wiki: link

Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) is a former assassin who now works to save lives as a security specialist by blending into the background, diagnosing a threat, and eliminating it.

Along with former police detective Laverne Winston (Chi McBride) and the unscrupulous Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley), our hero tries to protect various clients by putting himself in harms way. The series is loosely based on the Vertigo Comics series about a detective/bodyguard who assumes the identity of the target as a master-of-disguise (which isn’t a skill set of the TV-character).

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Castle: The Complete Second Season

  • Title: Castle: The Complete Second Season
  • tv.com: link

Mystery novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) returns for another season to shadow, and bother, NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) in the second season of Castle. (Read the first season review here.)

Highlights from the season include the publication of Castle’s first Nikki Heatnovel “Heat Wave,” vampires, the “best case ever” concerning a dead con man who may, or may not, be dead (and may, or may not, be a secret CIA agent), models, a dominatrix (Dina Meyer), a missing bullet, a two-parter involving a serial killer obsessed with Nikki Heat, a murdered bigamist, a Mayan curse, a new boyfriend for Beckett (Michael Trucco), and Alyssa Milano guest-stars as Castle’s long-lost love, and the one who got away, in A Rose for Everafter.

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Castle – A Deadly Affair

  • Title: Castle – A Deadly Affair
  • tv.com: link

Crime novelist Rick Castle and Detective Kate Beckett are back from their summer break, and I couldn’t be happier. Nathan Fillion is perfectly cast as the smug mystery novelist, and Stana Katic is just the right mix of smart and sexy. My only complaint with last season was the late swerve that kept them from getting together in the finale. Maybe this year? (I won’t hold my breath.) Anywho, the third season’s opener finds Castle in the doghouse with the NYPD and even arrested for murder. 

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Batgirl #14

  • Title: Batgirl #14
  • Comic Vine: link

I believe a petition needs to be started immediately for a Batgirl/Supergirl book. Yeah, that’s how much I liked this issue. When Supergirl comes to Gotham and 24 Dracula’s burst into life from a 3-D movie, well, you know fun is to be had. Lots to enjoy here included the little quips between Kara and Stephanie about everything from college flicks to super-heroing.

Writer Brian Q. Miller actually makes me like Supergirl again (who’s been languishing in some of the lamest and most depressing story arcs in her own book for months). This is the Kara, the super-powered girl from Krypton who thinks pillow fights are in integral part of college, kicks serious ass, and innocently wonders if Steph’s bra has a bat on it (it doesn’t), that I want to see.

Throw in several humorously drawn moments from Lee Garbett as our pair of heroines take down the Dracula’s all over town, and a terrific cover by Stanley Lau, and you’ve got yourselves a one hellova fun comic. I wasn’t kidding about the petition. I definitely want to see more of these two together. Must-read.

[DC $2.99]

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