Mystery

Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #11

/ / Comics

Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #11When secret peace talks between two warring nations are put in jeopardy by a medieval ghost it becomes a job not only for Mystery, Inc. but also a chance for the group to team-up with Secret Squirrel and his sidekick Morocco Mole. What happens when a talking dog, a talking squirrel in trench coat, and a bunch of meddling kids get in on the action? Wacky fun, that’s what.

Of course it’s only a time before the investigators and their new super-secret spy friends are all captured and thrown into an elaborate death trap by the ghost (who actually turns out to be Secret Squirrel’s arch-nemesis Yellow Pinkie) in his secret volcano lair. Hey, it happens.

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1995 – The Usual Suspects

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Usual Suspects
  • IMDb: link

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

The Usual SuspectsOn or around this date 20 years ago The Usual Suspects hit theaters for the first time. Written by Christopher McQuarrie (who recently gave us the best Mission: Impossible movie yet) and directed by Bryan Singer (who has struggled to make a film even half as good ever since), The Usual Suspects introduces us five criminals through a series of flashbacks which recount the events which brought them all together in a police line-up and what then led them to the docks a fateful night leaving only a single member of the group alive to tell the tale.

Despite the fact that the film hinges on reveal and twist ending, it works as well on the twelfth viewing as it does the first. Kevin Spacey stars as Verbal Kent (a role that would earn him an Academy Award and make him a star) who recounts the events of the crew’s movements to Customs Agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) while attempting to keep certain facts about the boat and the mythical Keyser Soze from coming to light. The definition of an unreliable narrator, Verbal’s accounts are all Kujan and the audience are given to deduce the truth for themselves.

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Sneakers

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Sneakers
  • IMDb: link

“Too many secrets.”

Sneakers

Some movies age more gracefully than others. Even 20 years later Sneakers continues to entertain despite how much of the plot revolves around technology of the time. Robert Redford leads an unusual team of experts blackmailed by who they believe to be the NSA into stealing a Russian mathematician’s little black box which is the key to decrypting all known codes.

Along with a former CIA agent (Sidney Poitier), a blind computer expert (David Strathairn), a conspiracy nut (Dan Aykroyd), a hotshot kid (River Phoenix), and his ex-girlfriend (Mary McDonnell), Martin Biship (Redford) will attempt to stay one-step ahead of both government agents and shadowy figures (Timothy Busfield, Eddie Jones) while trying to capture the box and trade it for their freedom.

With the stellar cast (which also includes supporting roles by Ben Kingsley and Stephen Tobolowsky), Sneakers provides a humor-packed thriller complete with conspiracies, blind-man stunt driving, and the best use of Scrabble ever seen on film.

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Grumpy Old Mr. Holmes

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mr. Holmes
  • IMDb: link

Mr. HolmesAdapted from Mitch Cullen‘s novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, Mr. Holmes is an intriguing, if flawed, idea offering audiences a look at the retired detective fighting senility while struggling to remember the details of his final case decades before. I say flawed because despite a terrific performance from Ian McKellen removing the keen intellect from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes also removes the character’s most definable trait leaving only a hollow shell in its place.

Taking place three decades after his retirement into the country to spend his time with his bees, a senile and grumpy Sherlock Holmes struggles to remember the details of his final case which he is certain Watson wrongly chronicled. His secluded existence is witnessed only by his housekeeper Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney), her son Roger (Milo Parker), and the occasional visit from Sherlock’s doctor (Roger Allam). Returning from a trip to Japan at the opening of the film, which is chronicled in flashbacks inter-cut with those of his final case and his current retirement, Holmes strikes up an unexpected friendship with Roger who helps reignite the detective’s memory.

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Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #10

/ / Comics

Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #10A museum putting on display of a cursed ruby in their Egypt exhibit brings both Mystery, Inc. and Johnny Quest‘s family to investigate. It doesn’t take long for things to pick up with the appearance of a mummy who steals the jewel.

In Scooby-Doo fashion the culprit is unmasked as a henchman of the evil Dr. Zin who has nefarious plans for the jewel which means a journey for all of the investigators to Monster Island (which thankfully is populated with man-made monsters, also keeping with Scooby tradition) in order to save the day.

To this point I’ve much preferred the issues of Scooby-Doo! Team-Up involving Scooby and the gang teaming up with various super-heroes than various Hanna-Barbara characters, but Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #10 is quite fun as the gang joins forces with the Quest family to solve a mystery. The mummy and the theft of the jewel create a natural crossover for the teams while providing some fun moments between various characters (including Scooby and Bandit discussing their crazy human counterparts). Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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