Ron Perlman

The Flashpoint Paradox

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
  • IMDB: link

The Flashpoint ParadoxAlternate reality stories are nothing new in comics. Although not originally designed for that purpose, Flashpoint became a major storyline in DC Comics to help the publisher transition from the established DCU continuity to that of their New 52 reboot. Spanning more than 75 issues the story centered around the Flash finding himself trapped in a darker version of the world he knew with heroes similar, yet different, from those he called friends, and a war between Atlantis and Themyscira threatening to destroy the Earth.

The results of Flashpoint were mixed at best and I certainly wasn’t expecting much when I heard DC had chosen the project for their latest straight-to-DVD feature. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is actually pretty good and arguably the best animated feature the company has put out over the last couple of years since Batman: Under the Red Hood.

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Giant Robots vs. Monsters

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Pacific Rim
  • IMDB: link

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Pacific RimThe idea behind director Guillermo del Toro‘s latest movie is hardly original. The world, not just Hollywood, has made a living on giant monster movies for decades. We’ve also seen a number of giant robot movies, particularly big-budget CGI-extravaganzas in recent years. Even animated movies such as Monsters vs. Aliens have pitted two groups of giant creatures against each other.

More than Blade II (the only watchable film from that franchise) or either of the Hellboy movies, del Toro’s latest is easily his most mainstream attempt at a summer blockbuster. We certainly get the director’s spin on things, and designs of creatures who seem right at home in Hellboy or Pan’s Labyrinth, but the story from the director and co-writer Travis Beacham itself is by the book (and doesn’t even attempt to color outside the lines). The result is a film that feels a lot like a mashup of Robot Jox, Independence Day (complete with last-minute inspirational speech and wacky scientists), Top Gun, Transformers, and various monster movies all spruced up with sexy CGI and de Toro’s eye for creature design.

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Green Lantern: The Animated Series – Prisoner of Sinestro

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Green Lantern: The Animated Series – Prisoner of Sinestro
  • tv.com: link

Green Lantern: The Animated Series - Prisoner of Sinestro

Reunited with Razer (Jason Spisak) and searching for the Anti-Monitor and answers about the legion of Manhunters under his control, Hal Jordan (Josh Keaton), Kilowog (Kevin Michael Richardson), and Aya (Grey DeLisle) receive an urgent transmission from Sinestro (Ron Perlman) who is trapped aboard a Spider Guild transport after capturing one of the most wanted assassins in the universe who the Guild are willing to destroy the entire ship rather than let escape.

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Drive

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Drive
  • IMDB: link

drive-blu-rayBased on James Sallis‘ 2005 novel, adapted for the screen by Hossein Amini, Drive stars Ryan Gosling as a getaway driver with no name who finds himself in a sticky situation when he breaks his own rules. If this sounds a little like The Transporter franchise, well it is, but director Nicolas Winding Refn decides to treat a rather ordinary action tale as an art house film drawing comparisons to dramatic action films of the late 60’s and 70’s like Steve McQueen‘s Bullit.

The Driver has everything he needs. His evident skill gets him consistant stunt car work and the far more lucrative (though far less legal) jobs no one else can do. His business partner (Bryan Cranston) has just closed a deal with a mobster (Albert Brooks) to buy a stock car which will allow the Driver to finally hit the big time. But when the Driver allows himself to be sucked into the troubles of an attractive neighbor (Carey Mulligan) and her young son (Kaden Leos) by agreeing to help her husband (Oscar Isaac) pull off a big score things go horribly wrong.

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Season of the Witch

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Season of the Witch
  • IMDB: link

season-of-the-witch-blu-rayTwo Teutonic Knights (Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman) who have grown weary of killing innocents and become deserters of the Crusades are given the chance to redeem themselves by transporting an accused witch (Claire Foy) to a far away monastery. The accused is charged with spreading the Black Death across the world.

Along for the ride are a priest (Stephen Campbell Moore), a knight (Ulrich Thomsen), an altar boy (Robert Sheehan) and a swindler (Stephen Graham) as their guide.

There are good Nic Cage films, silly but passable ones, and plenty of gawdawful crap. Season of the Witch fits in the last category. The nature of the witch is given away far too soon, and the twist of the true nature of her evil will seems nothing more than a forced attempt to raise the stakes of a film you’ve given up on long before its climax.

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