Monthly Archive: July 2017

Ellis & Hamner’s Red & Red 2 get 4K Ultra HD Treatment in Sept.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Relive the action-packed adventures of retired and extremely dangerous special agents in the most amazing picture quality available today when both RED and RED 2 arrive separately on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray™ and Digital HD) on September 5 from Lionsgate. RED features an all-star cast including Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary-Louise Parker. In the film’s sequel, RED 2, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Byung Hun Lee join the franchise.

Both movies are available for the first time on 4K Ultra HD, which provides over four times the resolution of Full HD and includes High Dynamic Range (HDR) to deliver the brightest, most vivid and realistic color with the greatest contrast. The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray will also feature Dolby Vision™ high-dynamic range imaging and Dolby Atmos immersive audio. Dolby Vision transforms the TV experience in the home by delivering greater brightness and contrast, as well as a fuller palette of rich colors. Together with the captivating sound of Dolby Atmos, consumers will experience both cutting-edge imaging and state-of-the-art sound technology for a fully immersive entertainment experience. The exhilarating thrillers RED and RED 2 will be available separately on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack for the suggested retail price of $22.99 each.

RED OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

Frank (Willis) is a former black-ops CIA agent living a quiet life alone…until the day a hit squad shows up to kill him. With his identity compromised, Frank reassembles his old team – Joe (Freeman), Marvin (Malkovich) and Victoria (Mirren) – and sets out to prove that they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Stand back and watch the bullets fly in this explosive action-comedy.

RED 2 OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

Retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses (Willis) reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device. To succeed, they’ll need to survive assassins, terrorists and power-crazed government officials, all eager to get their hands on the superweapon.

RED 4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY/DIGITAL HD SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Audio Commentary with Retired CIA Field Officer Robert Baer
  • Deleted and Extended Scenes

RED 2 4K ULTRA HD/BLU-RAY/DIGITAL HD SPECIAL FEATURES

  • “The Red 2 Experience” Featurette
  • Gag Reel
  • Deleted Scenes

RED CAST

Bruce Willis                                          Die Hard Franchise, The Fifth Element, Armageddon
Morgan Freeman                  The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Million Dollar Baby
John Malkovich                    Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich
Mary-Louise Parker                             “Weeds”, “Angels in America”, “The West Wing”
Helen Mirren                                        The Queen, The Debt, The Hundred-Foot Journey

RED 2 CAST

Bruce Willis                                          Die Hard Franchise, The Fifth Element, Armageddon
John Malkovich                    Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich
Mary-Louise Parker                             “Weeds”, “Angels in America”, “The West Wing”
Catherine Zeta-Jones           Chicago, The Terminal, Ocean’s Twelve
Byung Hun Lee                     The Magnificent Seven, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Anthony Hopkins                  The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, The Elephant Man
Helen Mirren                                        The Queen, The Debt, The Hundred-Foot Journey

Martha Thomases: Superhero Summer Love

Summertime summertime sum-sum-summertime. Long days. Sultry nights.

Summer is hot. Literally. We are very aware of our bodies, and the bodies of those around us. We wear lighter clothes. We wear sunglasses and/or glamorous hats.

Love is in the air, or at least lust.

Naturally, I asked myself, “What do superheroes do about this?”

I mean, skin-tight costumes are hot. Literally. And while certain superpowers like invulnerability might make it easier to wear synthetic fabrics or leather, that still doesn’t explain how a Batman can get through a humid Gotham summer.

I guess he’s had his mind on other things. Last month, he proposed to Catwoman Selina Kyle, on a rooftop, both dressed in their superhero outfits.

Neither one of them appeared to be sweating. Although it’s raining, so maybe that made a difference.

I like the Batman/Catwoman romance. I liked it in the old comics I read as a kid, and I liked it in The Dark Knight Rises. I loved it. I loved the Alan Brennert story, The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne, where they got married the first time.

I’m not sure I love this Batman and this Catwoman together.

There are a lot of iconic relationships in comics. Because some characters have been in existence for more than 75 years, these relationships have gone through a lot of ups and downs. If you’re a continuity geek (and sometimes I am, but not about this), you can make yourself crazy with the seeming contradictions over the years. Is Lois Lane a jealous snoop, or an independent professional dedicated to her craft? Is Carol Ferris a stuck-up heiress or a lonely little rich girl? Is Iris West a busybody nagging busybody or simply a person who doesn’t like to be lied to? Is Steve Trevor a macho man or a wimp?

Instead, I choose to see these relationships as reflections of both their times and the people (usually men) who write them. This is especially obvious in stories from the 1970s and 1980s when the modern day feminist movement achieved its first successes. You can tell that the writers (and, probably, editors) know something is happening, but they aren’t sure what they are supposed to do about it. So you get a lot of female characters proclaiming themselves “women’s libbers” while wearing hot pants.

(Note: I’m not saying no feminist ever wore hot pants, or that wearing hot pants is anti-feminist. I’m just saying it wasn’t as common in real life as it was in say, Metropolis.)

Today, with movies and television as well as comics, we have a lot of different versions of the same relationships from which to choose. I enjoy Lois and Clark in the Superman comics, who are comfortable being married and being parents. I enjoy Barry Allen and Iris West on the television Flash, mostly because Candice Patton is so refreshingly straightforward. I thought the Wonder Woman/Steve Trevor dynamic in the new Wonder Woman was totally believable, way more than it has been in the comics for decades.

I’m not so sure about the current versions of Batman and Catwoman. Bruce Wayne has been through even more trauma than usual lately, what with losing Tim Drake and everything. If I were his shrink, I would advise him to wait at least a year before making any life-changing decisions. I know he’s hurting, but divorce would hurt even more.

At least until the next ret-con.

The Complete Peanuts, 1999 to 2000 by Charles M. Schulz

This is the end; this is not the end.

This volume finishes up Fantagraphics’ decade-plus reprint project covering the entirety of Charles M. Schulz’s fifty-year run on Peanuts, with the last full year of strips and the few in early 2000 that Schulz completed before his health-forced retirement and nearly simultaneous death. (Sunday strips are done six to eight weeks early; his last strip appeared on the Sunday morning of February 13, and he died the evening before, in one of the most perfectly sad moments of timing ever.)

So that’s the end.

It’s also the beginning: also included in this book are all of the Li’l Folks strips that Schulz created for the St. Paul Pioneer Press from 1947 through early 1950, and which he eventually quit when his attempts to move it forward were turned down, freeing him to rework much of these ideas (and even specific gags) into what would become Peanuts.

But it’s also not the end: there is one more book in the Fantagraphics series, the inevitable odds & sods volume with advertising art and comic-book strips and several of those small impulse-buy books from the ’70s and ’80s that Schulz wrote and drew featuring his Peanuts characters.

So The Complete Peanuts, 1999 to 2000 is the end of Peanuts. And it’s the pre-beginning of Peanuts. But it’s not the end of The Complete Peanuts.

Since we’re talking about a fifty-year run by one man on one strip, and a publishing project that spanned more than ten years itself, perhaps some context would be useful. Luckily, I’ve been writing about these books for some time, so have a vast number of links back to my prior posts on the books covering years 1957-1958 , 1959-1960 , 1961-1962 , 1963-1964 , 1965-1966 , 1967-1968, 1969-1970 , 1971-1972 , 1973-1974 , 1975-1976 , 1977-1978 , 1979-1980 , 1981-1982 , 1983-1984 , 1985-1986 , 1987-1988 , 1989-1990 , 1991-1992 , 1993-1994 , the flashback to 1950-1952 , and then back to the future with 1995-1996 and 1997-1998 .

By this point in his career, Schulz was an old pro, adept at turning out funny gags and new twists on stock situations on a daily basis.  But maybe his age had been catching up to him: there’s a wistfulness to some of the gags from the last few years of the strip, and something of a return to the deep underlying sadness of the late ’60s and early ’70s. But Peanuts was always a strip about failure and small moments of disappointment, and that kept flourishing until the end.

And, if his line had gotten a bit shaky in the last decade of Peanuts, it was still expressive and precise. And there’s no sign of his illness until in the the very last minute: the third-to-last daily strip, 12/31/99, suddenly has a different lettering style in its final panel — maybe typeset based on Schulz’s hand-lettering, maybe done by someone else in his studio to match his work. Then the 1/1/00 strip is one large, slightly shakier panel with that different lettering. And 1/2/00 is the typeset farewell: Schulz, as far as we can see in public, realized he couldn’t keep going at the level he expected of himself, and immediately quit. There was no decline. (The last few Sunday strips, which came out in January and February of 2000 but were drawn earlier, don’t show any change at all until that final typeset valedictory — the same one as the daily strip to this slightly different audience.)

In the book, that loops right back around to the earliest Li’l Folks, which had typeset captions. And then we can watch Schulz take over his own lettering and get better at it over the three years of that weekly strip, hitting the level he maintained for fifty years of Peanuts after not very long at all.

We can also see Schulz’s art getting crisper and less fussy as Li’l Folks goes on, as he turned into the cartoonist who would burst forth with Peanuts in the fall of 1950. Li’l Folks is minor, mostly — cute gags about kids and their dog, mimicking adults or pantomiming jokes based on their shortness — but there are flashes of what would be Peanuts later. And I mean “flashes” specifically: Schulz re-used many of the better ideas from Li’l Folks for Peanuts, so a lot of the older strip will be vaguely familiar to readers who know the early Peanuts well.

Perhaps most importantly, putting Li’l Folks at the end keeps this 1999-2000 volume from being depressing. It’s already shorter than the others, inevitably, but putting the old strip back turns the series into an Ouroboros, as if Schulz was immediately reincarnated as his younger self, with all of his triumphs ahead of him (and heartaches, too — we can never forget those, with Schulz and Peanuts).

Peanuts was a great strip, one of the true American originals. And it ended as well as any work by one creator ever could, having grown and thrived in an era where Schulz could have control of his work. (If he’d covered the first half of his century, that probably wouldn’t have happened: Peanuts is the great strip that ended partly out of historical happenstance and partly because Schulz and his family wanted it so.) So there is sadness here, but there’s a lot of sadness in Peanuts anyway: it’s entirely appropriate.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Alien: Convenent Hits Disc in August

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents Ridley Scott’s return to the universe he created, with ALIEN: COVENANT, the newest chapter in the groundbreaking ALIEN franchise, arriving on Digital HD August 1 and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ and DVD August 15. Limited Edition Exclusives will be available at Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an unchartered paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a terrifying threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

Featuring an all-star cast including Academy Award Nominee Michael Fassbender (X-Men franchise, Steve Jobs), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Billy Crudup (Jackie), Danny McBride (This Is The End) and Demián Bichir (The Hateful Eight), ALIEN: COVENANT is loaded with bonus material including a making-of documentary, deleted and extended scenes, commentary by director Ridley Scott, an inside look at “David’s Lab,” crew fear tests, and much more.

Fans can also pick up exclusive editions of ALIEN: COVENANT at Walmart, Target and Best Buy!

    • Walmart – Alien Day fan art designed t-shirt (4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray formats)
    • Target – 36-page book packaging featuring an inside look at David’s Lab and the creatures of Alien: Covenant, PLUS behind-the-scenes photography and concept sketches (Blu-ray format)
    • Best Buy –Alien baby Xenomorph steelbook (4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray formats)
BONUS FEATURES

  • Deleted and Extended Scenes
    • Prologue (Extended)
    • Walter in Greenhouse
    • Oram and Daniels (Extended)
    • Walter Visits Daniels
    • Daniels Bedroom Flashback
    • Jacob’s Funeral (Extended)
    • Ledwards Fall
    • Crossing the Plaza (Extended)
    • Daniels Thanks Walter
    • Rosenthal Prayer
    • Walter Reports Back
    • Stairs to Eggroom (Extended)
  • USCSS Covenant
    • Meet Walter
    • Phobos
    • The Last Supper
  • SECTOR 87 – PLANET 4
    • The Crossing
    • Advent
    • David’s Illustrations – Image Gallery
  • Master Class: Ridley Scott  – Documentary on the making of Alien: Covenant
  • Director Commentary by Ridley Scott
  • Production Gallery

ALIEN: COVENANT 4K Ultra HD™
Street Date:                             August 15, 2017
Prebook Date:                         July 12, 2017
Screen Format:                       Widescreen 16:9 (2.40:1)
Audio:                                      English Dolby Atmos / English Descriptive Audio 5.1 / Spanish DD 5.1 / French DTS 5.1
Subtitles:                                 English SDH / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                       Approximately 122 minutes
U.S. Rating:                             R
Closed Captioned:                   No

ALIEN: COVENANT Blu-ray™
Street Date:                             August 15, 2017
Prebook Date:                         July 12, 2017
Screen Format:                       Widescreen 16:9 (2.40:1)
Audio:                                      English DTS-HD-MA 7.1 / English Descriptive Audio 5.1 / Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 /French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                                 English / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                       Approximately 122 minutes
U.S. Rating:                             R
Closed Captioned:                   No

ALIEN: COVENANT DVD
Street Date:                             August 15, 2017
Screen Format:                       Widescreen 16:9 (2.40:1)
Audio:                                      English DD 5.1 / English Descriptive Audio 5.1 / Spanish DD 2.0 Surround / French DD 2.0 Surround
Subtitles:                                 English / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                       Approximately 122 minutes
U.S. Rating:                             R
Closed Captioned:                  Yes

Tweeks: Maddy Reviews The Wendy Project

On July 18th, Super Genius will be releasing what I think could be the best graphic novel you read all year! The Wendy Project is a modern take on J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan illustrated by Veronica Fish (Archie, Spider-Woman, Slam!) and written by Melissa Jane Osbourne.

It’s about Wendy Davies, a 16-year-old who crashes her car into a lake in New England while her little brothers are in the backseat. When she wakes up in the hospital, she’s told her youngest brother, Michael, is dead, but Wendy insists that he’s alive and with Peter Pan. The story then follows her to her school where she has to walk the line between reality & fantasy. And during all of this she’s given a sketchbook by her therapist to document the transition between her two worlds. You will love this book. Trust me!

Catch the Failed Saint Pilot on VOD Next Week

Directed by Ernie Barbarash, The Saint is an all-new reboot of the pop culture phenomenon which spanned decades. Staring Adam Rayner (Tyrant) as THE SAINT, along with Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse TV), and featuring a cameo from the late Sir Roger Moore who starred in the original 1960s TV series, The Saint is a mystery spy thriller for a new generation. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment celebrates the digital release of The Saint on Digital HD/VOD on July 11, 2017.

With a new cast and new plot, The Saint, a modern-day Robin Hood, faces 21st Century challenges. Simon Templar is The Saint, and the stakes are higher than ever. His latest adventure involves $2.5 billion in African aid funds, a persistent FBI agent, and an innocent girl held hostage.

With a history of intrigue, from the original novels in the 1920s, to the movies and a TV series in the 60s, THE SAINT is sure to delight new, and tried and true fans. A must-own for any crime drama connoisseur!

The Saint Digital HD/VOD:
Street Date: July 11, 2017
Screen Format: Widescreen 16:9 (1.85:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English / French / Spanish
Total Run Time: Approximately 126 minutes
U.S. Rating: Not Rated
Closed Captioned:  Yes

Glenn Hauman: Is Binge-Reading Bad For Comics?

On a whim the other day, I decided to go re-read some old Warlock comics.

It was an extremely mind-blowing experience, and not for the usual reasons when reading Warlock.

The issues blurred by in a smear— or maybe that was the old crappy printing. The seams in the stories were much more visible than I remembered. Things that seemed deep and profound just came off as silly and obvious. Even Adam Warlock himself, instead of being the tormented golden child trying to find his place in the universe, sounded and acted like a whiny brat.

Why? What happened? Was this book hit by the suck fairy?

No, that wasn’t it. It was because I was taking it in waaaay too fast. These books were simply not designed to be consumed one after the other so quickly.

You may have noticed this phenomenon yourself.

Scott McCloud spends a chapter in Understanding Comics about the way time flows when you read comics, how time is perceived, and the relationship between time as depicted in the comics by the creators and how it’s perceived by the reader. But, amazingly, he missed one important unit of time— the gap in time (and therefore reading) imposed from publishing.

We’ve talked for a long time about comics being written for the trades — that moment where we gather up six or so issues at a time, every six months or so, and put them together for a single unit of consumption. But for a lot of history, comics weren’t like that. There were no trades to be had. There were just single issues that you had to wait a month for. (Or, depending on where you grew up, you waited a week for 5-8 page chunks of stories, either in The Spirit section of the Sunday paper or something like 2000 AD.)

There were gaps of time. Cliffhangers. Come back next issue, kids!

Comics creators in the past used those intervals at the same time they were constricted by them. Chris Claremont was mocked for years for reintroducing all the X-Men every single issue, but he knew that every issue was going to be somebody’s first, while other readers were just going to have forgotten who was who over a month’s time. (And over time, X-Men became the most popular title Marvel published. He had to be doing something right.)

The biggest beneficiary of this gap? I claim it was Watchmen. Readers were tossed into a such a deeply detailed world where we were trying to just get more – we had to read the back matter of the issues, the non-comics stuff which hinted at a much larger world because there was nothing else to read. And fans would pore over it and discuss and argue while waiting, waiting for the next issue.

Around 400,000 readers read Watchmen episodically, you can tell who was screaming over the three-month gap between issues #10 and #11. But since then, there’s been the Watchmen collected editions, which is the way most people have read it in the three decades (yikes!) since with a total print run well over 4 million copies at this point.

And I really have to wonder… how are the new folks reading it? Are they going straight through? Are they skipping over the text pieces, and maybe coming back later? I don’t know, but I do know that they don’t have to wait for the next installment… and that has to change how the book impacts you.

What do you think?

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Arrives on Disc in August

Burbank, CA, June 26, 2017 – Don’t miss the royal showdown when King Arthur: Legend of the Sword arrives onto Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital. Acclaimed filmmaker Guy Ritchie brings his dynamic style to the epic fantasy action adventure King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Starring Charlie Hunnam in the title role, the film is an iconoclastic take on the classic Excalibur myth, tracing Arthur’s journey from the streets to the throne.

From Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Entertainment, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword stars Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) and Oscar® nominee Law (Cold Mountain, The Talented Mr. Ripley), along with Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) as Mage; Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (Legend of Tarzan, Guardians of the Galaxy) as Bedivere; Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) as Goosefat Bill; and Eric Bana (Star Trek, Hulk) as Arthur’s father, King Uther Pendragon.

Guy Ritchie (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the Sherlock Holmes films) directed the film from a screenplay by Joby Harold (Awake) and Guy Ritchie & Lionel Wigram, story by David Dobkin (The Judge) and Joby Harold.  The film is produced by Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, I Am Legend), Joby Harold, Tory Tunnell (Awake, Holy Rollers), and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Sherlock Holmes producers Steve Clark-Hall, Guy Ritchie and Lionel Wigram.  David Dobkin and Bruce Berman are executive producers.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword will be available on Ultra HD Blu-ray for $44.95, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack for $44.95, Blu-ray Combo Pack for $35.99 and DVD for $28.98. The Ultra HD Blu-ray features an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the theatrical version in 4K with HDR and a Blu-ray disc also featuring the theatrical version. The Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack features the theatrical version of the film in 3D hi-definition and hi-definition; the Blu-ray Combo Pack features the theatrical version of the film in hi-definition on Blu-ray; and the DVD features the theatrical version in standard definition. The Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and Blu-ray Combo Pack include a digital version of the movie with UltraViolet.  Fans can also own “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” via purchase from digital retailers beginning July 25th.

Additionally, all of the special features, including interviews with filmmakers, new original shorts, featurettes, and deleted scenes, can be experienced in an entirely new, dynamic and immersive manner on tablets and mobile phones using the Warner Bros. Movies All Access App, available for both iOS and Android devices. When a Combo Pack is purchased and the digital movie is redeemed, or the digital movie is purchased from an UltraViolet retailer, the Warner Bros. Movies All Access App allows users to watch the movie and simultaneously experience synchronized content related to any scene, simply by rotating their device. Synchronized content is presented on the same screen while the movie is playing, thus enabling users to quickly learn more about any scene, such as actor biographies, scene locations, fun trivia, or image galleries. Also, users can share movie clips with friends on social media and experience other immersive content. The Movies All Access app is available for download on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.

The Blu-ray discs of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword will feature a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead. To experience Dolby Atmos at home, a Dolby Atmos enabled AV receiver and additional speakers are required, or a Dolby Atmos enabled sound bar; however, Dolby Atmos soundtracks are also fully backward compatible with traditional audio configurations and legacy home entertainment equipment.

SYNOPSIS

When the child Arthur’s father is murdered, Vortigern (Jude Law), Arthur’s uncle, seizes the crown.  Robbed of his birthright and with no idea who he truly is, Arthur comes up the hard way in the back alleys of the city.  But once he pulls the sword from the stone, his life is turned upside down and he is forced to acknowledge his true legacy…whether he likes it or not.

BLU-RAY AND DVD ELEMENTS

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 4K, 3D and 2D Blu-ray Combo Packs contain the following special features:

  • Arthur with Swagger – Charlie Hunnam is a gentleman, a hunk and a rebel, setting new standards as king and new rules with the ladies.
  • Sword from the Stone – Director Guy Ritchie as he breathes 21st Century life and luster into England’s most iconic legend and he creates Camelot for a new audience!
  • Parry and Bleed – Charlie Hunnam and other cast members get a crash course in swordplay. Vikings versus Saxons style!
  • Building on the Past – Londinium comes to life with a new design of Medieval Urban life, built from scratch.
  • Inside the Cut: The Action of King Arthur – Join stunt choreographer Eunice Huthart as she teams with Director Guy Ritchie to create the mind-blowing action of King Arthur
  • Camelot in 93 Days – Friendships and romances strengthen and fray as the realities of a 93 day shoot set in.
  • Legend of Excalibur – The world’s most famous sword is brought to life for a new generation.
  • Scenic Scotland – Wrapping a monumental production on location in glorious Scotland.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Standard Definition DVD contains the following special features:

  • Arthur with Swagger – Charlie Hunnam is a gentleman, a hunk and a badass, setting new standards as king and new rules with the ladies.

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ELEMENTS

On July 25th, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword will be available to own for streaming and download to watch anywhere in high definition and standard definition on favorite devices from select digital retailers including Amazon, CinemaNow, FandangoNow, iTunes, PlayStation, Vudu, Xbox and others. On August 8th, “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” will be made available digitally on Video On Demand services from cable and satellite providers, and on select gaming consoles.

BASICS
 
PRODUCT SRP
Ultra HD Blu-ray $44.95
3D Blu-ray Combo Pack $44.95
Blu-ray Combo Pack $35.99
DVD Amaray (WS) $28.98

Standard Street Date: August 8, 2017
DVD Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French
BD Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese
DVD Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French
BD Subtitles: English, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some suggestive content and brief strong language
DLBY/SURR   DLBY/DGTL   [CC]

Mike Gold: America Drinks and Goes Home

It’s been quite a while since I’ve plopped my butt down on an airline seat. There are several reasons for this, the primary one being I loathe being treated like shit.

As we have seen from all too many recent incidents, once onboard airplane employees have complete control over your fate. If you do not promptly obey their every command or, say, object to their anti-peanut policy, they can and will have you arrested. If somebody on the plane thinks you look weird, or you look like a Muslim or some other type of person they find noxious, they will complain to a flight attendant. If you have yet to take-off, the airplane Nazis will call the goon squad and have you taken off the plane, sometimes by force. If you’re in the air, you likely will be arrested when the plane lands. Paranoid Fox News watchers, and that is redundant, now own your ass.

Ever since my upper left arm and shoulder was replaced with metallic prosthetics, I’ve figured to be safe I need to get to the airport at least four hours before my flight because employees of the government’s Transportation Security Agency, better known as the TSA, are likely to lose their minds when I approach the metal detector machine. Adding four hours to the two hours it takes me to get to the airport and park my car and get to the security line makes my driving anywhere east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon line faster and a lot cheaper and much more pleasant.

But now, I no longer have to worry about that. According to our friends at the CBLDF – the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – the TSA may require passengers to require books and other written materials to be scanned separately.

The TSA already wants to copy or cop our laptop computers, smartphones, and tablets, and that is beyond the pale. It’s also un-American, but since when has our government given a shit about that? But this latest decision is one step beyond. I will no longer voluntarily submit myself to their terror.

According to the CBLDF, “In 2010, for instance, the ACLU represented Nick George, a college student who was handcuffed, detained, and interrogated at Philadelphia International Airport while carrying a set of Arabic-English flashcards and the book Rogue Nation by Clyde Prestowitz – a former Reagan Administration official who was critical of foreign policy under George W. Bush.”

The CBLDF continues: “ACLU policy analyst Jay Stanley outlined just a few reasons that travelers might not want strangers perusing their choice of reading: A person who is reading a book entitled Overcoming Sexual Abuse or Overcoming Sexual Dysfunction is not likely to want to plop that volume down on the conveyor belt for all to see. Even someone reading a bestseller like 50 Shades of Grey or a mild self-help book with a title such as What Should I Do With My Life? might be shy about exposing his or her reading habits.”

If you are boarding with any of several thousand graphic novels – Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V For Vendetta, published by DC Comics, or Dan Parent’s Kevin Keller, published by Archie Comics, or J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr’s Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations, published by Marvel Comics, or damn near any manga, you may be arrested and imprisoned. That is not an exaggeration.

In recent weeks, our free press has been labeled malicious liars by Donald Trump, our nation’s Man/Baby-In-Chief, and his spokeslackeys. All too many Congresspeople from his party have either chimed in their support or declined to stand up to this sophistry. Our Supreme Court, freshly imbued with a Trump appointee so far to the right that he should have his own talk show, just took a sledgehammer to the truly American concept of separation of church and state. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, proving once again – to quote Arlo Guthrie – that not all highs are good highs.

None of this bodes well for our future. The United States of America is rapidly becoming a dictatorship. Fifty years ago, Frank Zappa wrote a song called “Concentration Moon.” It contained the obviously seditious line “American way, try and explain. Scab of a nation, driven insane.” In the subsequent half-century, when it comes to America’s vaunted freedoms we have managed to go backwards.

Oh, yes. And one thing more.

Happy Fourth of July.

 

Box Office Democracy: Baby Driver

Go see Baby Driver.  If you saw the trailer and thought it looked cool, it is all that and more and you should go see it.  If you saw the trailer and thought it looked bad go see it, the trailer only scratches the surface of the depth the movie has.  If you love Edgar Wright, you should go see Baby Driver because it is an evolutionary step for him that will take what you’ve liked about him up until now and turn it all up.  If you don’t like Edgar Wright, you should see it because this is a complete departure from the jokey stuff he’s done up until now that I understand people found off-putting.  Baby Driver is the kind of movie I would recommend to anyone that appreciates cinema as a craft.  It’s a lovingly made homage to everything one director thinks is cool and it succeeds with gusto.

The plot doesn’t matter— you’ve seen more than a couple heist movies, you’ll know the first 90% of this movie backwards and forwards (they make an interesting choice at the end, I like it and it isn’t standard).  There are criminals with and without hearts of gold.  There are external pressures and things to be leveraged.  There’s one last score and the calamity that always befalls one last score.  They made a cool movie, though.  The opening car chase is completely mesmerizing, the second is white-knuckle nerve-wracking, the third act is constant forward pressure.  The gimmick of the movie, that Baby (Ansel Elgort) needs to listen to music at all times) means there’s a constant vibe coming off the cool music.  It also means that any scene without music is immediately underlined as important.  It’s a clever device and I don’t envy whoever had to pay for all these songs.

This is the best performance I’ve ever seen from Ansel Elgort, but that might not be saying much.  He has to this point mostly done movies that are very much not for me, and while I might think he’s been coasting on being pretty he has fans who are likely seeing something.  He doesn’t have to do a lot in Baby Driver, he plays a character who doesn’t speak a lot and who constantly wears sunglasses.  He makes it work.  He makes his lines work, he does his best with his reactions.  It helps that he is perpetually surrounded by talented actors.  He primarily works with Kevin Spacey and in his most difficult scenes has at least Jamie Foxx or Jon Hamm to push him through the tough parts.  The very best scene in the movie is Elgort and Lily James dancing around in a laundromat but that might be more choreography than pure acting skill.  It’s such a fun moment though.

Fun is what Baby Driver has more than anything else.  I’ve seen better car chases, I’ve seen more complex crime plots, I’ve seen sweeter love stories, but I haven’t seen so many things I like wrapped in quite such a charming package.  There’s an energy to the movie and it comes from the crisp direction and from the ever-present soundtrack.  This might be the highest density of needle drops I’ve ever seen.  It’s hard to quantify fun or why something is fun, but Baby Driver is fun.  It’s as movie that spreads an infectious smile to your face and refuses to let up.  It’s a movie that begs you to click on it on Netflix; a movie that you trip over yourself to recommend to friends.  It’s a movie you can watch over and over again, a movie to forever be happy whittling away an afternoon.

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