Category: Reviews

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Review: ‘Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection’ on DVD

tom-and-jerry-chuck-jones-collection1-7827852I have to laugh when I watch old [[[Tom and Jerry]]] cartoons. First, of course, because they’re funny. The original series of 114 theatrical cartoons by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Hollywood cartoon studio were produced between 1940 and 1957, seven of them winning the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons)…a tie for most awards, one should note for the animation snobs out there, with Walt Disney’s [[[Silly Symphonies]]] animated series. A series of perfectly dreadful and too-often released cartoons followed, produced in Eastern Europe (cheap labor, I would imagine, and worth what they paid for it), produced by Gene Deitch at Rembrandt Films in 1960 before, thank the animation heavens, there came Chuck Jones in 1963.

Which brings us to Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection, hitting stores on Tuesday. Jones was one of the handful of master animators to influence the entire look and feel of the Warner Bros. animated line with his Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Tweety and Sylvester and countless other cartoons. But after 30 years, the studio closed its animation section and Jones set up his own shop, Sib Tower 12 Productions, with partner Les Goldman. MGM came knocking, and the 34 madcap adventures included in this collection was the result.

The second reason I find to laugh at these, or any classic animated shorts is because of how the reality of these characters clashes with the perception that has grown up around them since the 1950s when they began appearing as Saturday morning children’s programming. These cartoons were not created, originally, as children’s fare. They were, instead, part of a program of entertainment shown to adult movie audiences in a day and age when theaters routinely ran double features and the bill changed twice a week. Before, between and after the movies, however, came a variety of subjects: a newsreel, a short feature (usually humorous), a cartoon, and coming attractions, at the minimum. Look at a World War II era Bugs Bunny cartoon; that was not kid’s stuff!

Because as I watch these cartoons—and they are a lot of fun, have no doubt of that—I’m struck at how mercilessly violent they are. Heavy objects routinely fall and crush their victims (Tom), explosives blow in hand or in the victim’s (Tom’s) mouth, an axe used to chop open a mouse hole chops a victim’s (Tom’s) tail like a chef chops a carrot. The network censors chopped a lot of that material out of the cartoons when they went to TV in the 1960s, and, by the 1980s, the original essence of these little seven minute masterpieces was corrupted beyond redemption, to the point that as the writer of the Tom and Jerry syndicated newspaper strip for Editor’s Syndicate around 1990, I was told Tom could chase Jerry, but if he caught him, he could do him no harm. No hitting, no smashing, no slamming, certainly no chopping of tails. These guys were pals they just chased one another for fun.

Bugs Bunny has suffered a similar fate in the modern world: A friend working on a Bugs Bunny promotional comic book project was told by WB to change a gag because “Bugs would never produce a mallet out of nowhere and whack someone like that!”

But thanks to home video and DVD and the demand of the marketplace for original and uncut material, the truth is coming out. Tom and Jerry is funny and it’s funny because it’s violent. Take away the psychedelic randomness and well-constructed but mean-spirited violence of a situation like Tom and Jerry or the Road Runner and Wiley E. Coyote and all you’re left with is the existential angst of the eternal loser pursuing that well-known definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again in expectation of a different result.

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Review: ‘Lost’ Seasons 1 & 2 on Blu-ray

ABC’s Lloyd Berman had a nifty idea: turn [[[Survivor]]] into a drama. He handed the notion off to producer J.J. Abrams, who at the time was riding the critical wave of success with the network’s [[[Alias]]]. Abrams, in turn, sat with Damon Lindeolf and Carleton Cuse and they brainstormed a concept and characters.  From there, they shot an expensive, moody, intriguing pilot that got everyone’s attention. And suddenly, Wednesday nights were appointment television evening as everyone wanted to watch [[[Lost]]] and dissect it the following morning.

In the hands of these three, they took a high concept and turned it into one of the most layered and nuanced television programs ever attempted that demanded the audience pay attention. Not just to the dialogue or performances, but the little details in the backgrounds. Was that really Hurley winning the lottery being broadcast on Korean television? By concentrating on the show, by demanding our attention, the producers delivered with surprise after surprise, twists and turns that you couldn’t possibly see coming.

They hired an ensemble and told them all they were expendable. And wisely, they used flashbacks to make us care about these unfortunate survivors. We learned about them, and their odd connections with one another, while propelling the storylines forward as the island itself came to life. Before that first season ended, it became clear the island was going to be as important a character as Jack or Claire or Charlie or Locke. Nothing may have surprised as much as learning that Locke was wheelchair bound before the crash. The island was magical in some way.

And the names. The names demanded attention to find their sources and understand what that also told us about the characters.  There was nothing like it and we were enchanted.

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Review: ‘The Complete Steve Canyon on TV’ Vol. 2

The second volume of [[[The Complete Steve Canyon on TV]]] is just out and there are 12 more episodes from the one season series based on Milton Caniff’s wonderful comic strip.  As with volume one, no one other than Canyon appears from the strip and there’s precious little in recurring characters on the show.

This is a perfect example of 1950s television when the star was role model perfect and merely there to propel stories along. We learn nothing about Canyon, who has a wide network of friends and acquaintances from coast to coast. While based at Big Thunder, his adventures take him far and wide as he helps those in need or is caught up in problems that just happen to occur.

Clearly, the highlight of the two-disc set is the Christmas episode written by Ray Bradbury. On the one hand, it’s a typical holiday television story and on the other, it has a spiritual and emotional depth missing from so many seasonal tales. Not only that, unlike so many Canyon episodes it tugs at your emotions as Canyon ferries a group of Hungarian refugee children to a German base where local families will host them for the holiday. Canyon has to figure out why one girl finds no joy in the holiday and his solution is a nice, universal one.

On the other hand, some of the histrionics in other episodes stagger those of us raised on more nuanced acting. “[[[The Search]]]” has a hammy Jeanette Nolan as a panicked wife begging Canyon and the Air Force to locate her missing, well-connected husband. She chews the scenery, wailing beyond human reason for most of the 30 minutes.

The remaining stories range from illness overseas to a damaged landing wheel. The final episode, “[[[Strike Force]]]” starts off well with a tension missing from most of the other stories but then becomes tedious as Canyon commands a three-part strike team on a Cold War exercise over the Atlantic. We’re told how difficult the coordination will be and how tough it is on the pilots for flying 10-12 hours each to be precisely in position on time but everything goes perfectly with no twists, surprises or reason to worry. The episode did make great use of archival footage.

Another pleasure in watching these shows is to see guest stars we know from their later works. Leonard Nimoy has a fairly thankless role in one while Gavin McLeod and Jack Weston get the have some fun with more substantive roles in a different story. The final episode, “Strike Force” has a blink-and-you-miss appearance by [[[Mary Tyler Moore]]].

The episodes are crisply restored, most complete with commercials from the era with audio commentary from some o the guest performers and historians. This is definitely worth a look for those who love the character or old-time television.

Review: ‘Bayou’ Volume One

One of the first questions posed regarding digital comics is just how you make any money from a strip available for free. The usual answer is that the strip, if it’s any good, will find an audience who will then happily pay for a print compilation. That seems to be the model for DC Comics’ Zuda Comics as they released Bayou
, the first book collecting Jeremy Love’s charming southern serial.

Zuda has been a nice place to find some new talent or see familiar talent try new things. The interface is fairly dreadful but the content is a nice mixed bag, veering just a little too much on the traditional genres of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Few, though, use the genre as a jumping off point with the same affection and craft as Love’s feature. He called it “a southern fried odyssey”, set in 1933 Mississippi when the races were segregated. Two little girls, one white and one black, play as equals despite their parents’ views. When the white girl goes missing, Lee’s father is arrested for the crime and so begins the girl’s adventure.

Working with 1-4 panels per page (or screen), Love leisurely introduces us to the world of the Deep South and its players. Wisely, they are products of their time but not stereotypes or clichés. His simple art and lush color are wonders I these days of scritchy line art and oversaturated pages. Love knows how to tell a story from pacing to dialogue to art and color. No wonder the strip was lauded last month at the Glyph Comics Awards taking home five awards, including Best Writer, Best Artist and Story of the Year, Best Comic Strip, and his lead character, Lee Wagstaff, was declared Best Female Character.

The problem with the collection, though, is that at 160 pages we get only part of the story. Nothing is resolved and everything is left dangling, forcing you to wait for a second volume or more before we find out who these creatures living in the Bayou are and will Lee be fast enough to save her daddy from a lynching he does not deserve.

The book also lacks any sort of introductory material about the strip, Zuda or Love. All we get are a few sketches at the back to show the development, but even those pages are lacking context.

[[[Bayou]]] in print is a wonder to behold and comes recommended but be careful. Love’s work and the world he created are addictive and you will be left wanting much more.

Review: ‘Defiance’ on DVD

We here at ComicMix write about heroes all the time. They tend to be muscle-bound, wear spandex and appear in the fevered imaginations of writers and artists. In the real world, people are given the title hero when they are bystanders, victims, or their feats are fairly ordinary. As a result, the term has been somewhat watered down and in need of rehabilitation.

The process could have begun last winter when two movies about World War II were released, featuring very different kinds of heroes. Neither Valkyrie nor Defiance made a lot of noise at the box office nor did they ignite a debate over the nature of heroism in times of war. And that’s a shame, really, since in the former, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, was a patriot, a German who saw Hitler for the devil he was and risked everything to take him down, paying for it with his life.

[[[Defiance]]] visited a different side of the war, that of the victims, the Jews who rose above their adversity and defied by Nazis by surviving, led by three amazing brothers. Bother films suffered because by the time they were made and released, the country’s mood was too dour to pay attention to serious dramas or care about dated acts of heroism.

Today, though, Defiance comes out on disc and worth a look. Again, an incredible story from the war has been uncovered and brought to the screen. Edward Zwick first began writing this story in 1999, based on Nechama Tec’s [[[Defiance: The Bielski Partisans]]], and finally managed to shoot the story in 2007, starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell as the brothers Bielski. They were your lower class workers in Belarus when the Germans began killing the Jews. To survive, they fled into the forest where they played as boys. Fairly quickly, the scattered refugees in the forest coalesced around these three, who took on the responsibility of caring for them, and more importantly, organizing them to survive the impending winter.

While the film focused entirely on that first formative year, it should be noted they survived in the forest for three years, with over 1200 walking to freedom when the war ended.  The brothers had their differences, with Tuvia (Craig) and Zus (Schreiber) arguing over what to do and Zus eventually leaving to serve with the Russians for a time. But we see how these “street smart” people came to lead a motley crew of intellectuals, peasants, upper class, and just plain folk who needed guidance. We watched as news reached them of now-dead loved ones, including Tuvia and Zus’ wives. In time, people took Forest Wives and Husbands, seeking comfort where they could.

Zwick is no stranger to historical tales ([[[Glory]]]), and brings the same attention to detail and character here. Not only do the brothers evolve over the course of the story, but we watch all the bit players adapt, change, and grow; filling the screen with a sense of life that Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie was devoid of.  The movie is not entirely faithful to history as combat sequences including the climax were added for “Hollywood” concerns but their struggles, especially the harsh winter, ring true.

The film is backed by several special features. The 30 minute Making Of shows the attention to the little things extended to the weapons, costumes, and makeup – all well displayed. Zwick took portraits of some of those who survived and we’re treated to a nice black and white gallery. Children of the Otriad: The Families Speak, though, is the highlight, as the children and grandchildren of the Bielskis talk of their fathers and what they were like after the war. Whereas Asael (Bell) died soon after these events, the two remaining brothers survived and worked side-by-side in the trucking industry here in America for 30 years. We see them as older men in bar mitzvah footage, and it’s hard to see these elders as war heroes but there they were and while Zus still had a spark of life, Tuvia carried a gravity about him. Lilka (Alexa Davalos), the woman who came to marry Tuvia after meeting in the forest, never seems happy in the footage. Her children spoke of her inability to fully enjoy anything, another price exacted by World War II.

Review: ‘[[[Valkyrie]]]’ on DVD

valkyrie-dvd-5151520World War II seems to have generated countless stories about heroism and bravery, stories told for the point of view of the allies and the axis, stories told about life on the homefront and life in the foxhole. As a result, it remains an enduring source of fodder for filmmakers as more and more details come to the surface. Through the 1950s and 1960s, most of the WW II movies were highly fictionalized accounts and by the 1970s war stories were played out, fewer and further between. In the last decade, we’ve had history to sift through and we now know of [[[Schindler’s List]]]. Valkyrie, Bryan Singer’s entry into the pantheon, intended to tell us of the closest a plot to assassinate Hitler came to working.  Presuming you were taught anything about the war in school, you might not even know there were over a dozen attempts to kill the Chancellor of the German Republic.

It’s a story worth telling but it should have been better told. The film was well structured by writers Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander and Singer is to be commended for shooting on location, which gave the film a great look. The cast, led by Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp, Bill Nighy and Eddie Izzard, is to-notch with many performers closely resembling their real world counterparts.

All that was missing was giving a damn about any of these players. The script drained each and every character of personality, sapping the energy out of a story that should have been as compelling as the facts. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, credited as the mastermind behind using Hitler’s own Project Valkyrie against him, was actually an outspoken critic of Nazi Germany. He was a brilliant, well-educated man who spoke multiple languages, loved literature and was partial to horses as well as being a family man, raising four children and embarking on his mission while his wife carried their fifth child.

Wish some of that came through beyond perfunctory scenes of him leaving the family to go kill the Führer.  Cruise is restrained but also bland. The others allying himself were also drained of personality so we never understand why everyone revered Ludwig Beck (Stamp), who was actually quite the legendary figure and a reason so many signed up for the July 20 Plot. Instead, Stamp sits around and makes phone calls.

The actual plot is like a [[[Mission: Impossible]]] story with the usual complications but add to this a lack of conviction on the parts of various players, which at first slows and later tips the balance of action on that fateful day in 1944.  It’s fascinating to see the way communications worked back then, and how people had to sit around and wait for the news over the teletype or radio.

In the end, though, we see how the plot failed and what became of the conspirators but by then, their fates leave you unmoved because after nearly two hours you don’t care about any of them.

Instead, you can skip the movie and go the special features on the DVD, now available. There’s the usual Making Of which shows the detail that went into securing the locations and what some of the locale people thought of the production, especially those still alive who recalled that day. But, best of all, is the 42-minute documentary from Kevin Burns that tells a far more compelling story as the children of von Stauffenberg and other conspirators discussed what they remember plus what their lives were like in the years that followed. This made us care and showed an aftermath the film barely acknowledged. The documentary also tells us some 700 people associated with the plot were tried – that’s a much larger scope than implied in the film which would have given the story more impact.

If I were you, I’d rent the disc, skip the film and watch the documentary.

Review: ‘[[[Taken]]]’ on DVD

taken1-3080009No one knew what to make of Taken when it opened in late January and the film garnered largely positive reviews but as the winter dragged on, the Liam Neeson action film took in more and more money. As it hits DVD, the global box office take stands at a robust $220,789,777 and was the feel good movie of the season.

The movie, though, is thoroughly predictable. Liam’s 17-year-old daughter goes to France with a pal and immediately gets kidnapped by a white slavery ring. Former Special Forces (or whatever) Dad flies over and is told he has a mere 96 hours to find her of she vanishes forever. So, we know there will be mayhem, the clock will tick down and he will save her. It’s a modern day Charles Bronson flick. I get that.

The trick is to make the journey an enjoyable one and frankly, it’s so standard that there’s little to be entertained by. Fights, car chases, double-crossing people, been there, seen that.

Neeson is not your first thought as an action star, [[[Star Wars]]]  not withstanding. He’s more the everyman and he wrings your sympathy and you cheer to see him in action, regardless of the predictable outcome.

What would have been a lot more interesting would have been to show us two points of views, not just Liam Neeson’s. The most original thing in the film is the moment he tells her she will in fact be kidnapped. From that point, it would have interesting to see parallel tracks – while Liam Neeson sought his daughter throughout Paris; we also see what Maggie Grace as the daughter had to endure. As it stands, she appears to be the only one who was not drugged, not sold right into street prostitution and by happenstance, the sole virgin capping off an auction for international clientele. That makes her a little too precious and frankly, would have given Grace, a capable actress if too old for the role, something to do other than look terrified or cry.

In fact, other than Neeson, no one is given much of anything to do or so say to round out the story and show us the world Neeson thought he left behind.

Cowritten by Luc Besson ([[[The Professional]]]) and Robert Mark Kamen ([[[The Transporter]]] films), the film felt on autopilot from beginning to end. And with 96 hours to accomplish his task, we’re never given a good sense of when Neeson sleeps, eats, or actually rests. Sure, he’s driven, but he can’t be at his peak for that length of time and the story avoids the issue entirely, a common problem with stories like these. Pierre Morel directs with a nice attention to detail and setting, getting a good, smoldering performance from Neeson but everything else looked pretty much like his Transporter.

The movie comes in the release edition and an extended version that amplified the violence here and there but adds nothing to the story and barely three minutes to running time. The extras are perfunctory with Le “Making Of” featuring everyone gushing over how wonderful everyone else was. The Inside Action: Side by Side Comparisons of six sequences is more interesting.

The stars and crew are all capable of so much more; the overall product is a lackluster affair.

Review: Wolverine reference books

It’s fascinating to see the same material presented in competing books, approached in entirely different ways.  DK Publishing, the successful home to the various character-specific Ultimate Guides, offers up Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon (200 pages, $24.99) while Pocket Books, which has been home to the Marvel novels, gives us The Wolverine Files (160 pages, $40).  The former is written by DK mainstay Matthew K. Manning while Mike W. Barr, not a writer normally associated with guide books or Wolverine, handles the second book.

Both detail the character’s background, his friends, his foes, his greatest capers, and a look at his deeply fractured psyche and tortured soul. 

However, Manning’s book gives readers a far more detailed accounting of the backgrounds of the characters and storylines. Taking a chronological approach, he offers up overview of specific eras followed by key issue spotlights plus long looks at the key people in his life, both the good and the evil. Interspersed are also short bits regarding how the stories fit in with the overall publishing program at Marvel along with some insight into the creators and their efforts.  As a result, this is a far richer, and cheaper, reading experience.

DK, known for its hyperkinetic layouts, tones things done here and makes each spread easier to read, with nice call outs, and judicious graphic selections showing the great range of art styles employed through the years.

If this book is to be faulted, it’s in not providing enough information regarding the behind-the-scenes work that led to these stories and events. For example, why did Bill Jemas decide that 2001 was the time to finally provide Logan with an origin?  Also, Wolverine’s unusual friendships with Jubilee and Kitty Pryde are given short-shrift and both deserved more space.

Barr’s approach is the more creative, with files, reports, letters and memos from the people in Wolverine’s life summing up the man’s background and career. Written from the point of view of Nick Fury, Natasha Romanov, Jasper Sitwell and others, it has varied voices which make for a different reading experience.

The book is more cleanly designed, resembling a S.H.I.E.L.D. case file with tabs along the edge to replicate the look of a report. There are margin notes from Fury and sections are redacted to give it that “declassified look”. The profiles of people and places read not too different from a Marvel Handbook page and the art skews to the works from the last decade and could have benefited from material culled from earlier points in his publishing career.

While a more varied read, it’s also not as complete a dossier and for $40, it should offer a lot more, especially with the competitive book.

If both books are beyond your wallet, Marvel competes with their licensees with [[[Wolverine: Weapon X Files]]], a 64-page comic book for a mere $4.99. Head writer Jeff Christiansen and his ten colleagues have the advantage of the files being the most up-to-date given the shorter schedule for a comic versus a book. The Handbook pages follow the traditional format and scream for a redesign and the pick-up art is hit or miss.

Want more Wolverine after seeing the movie this weekend? You have plenty of options.

Review: ‘Star Trek’ Season One on Blu-ray

star-trek-the-original-series-season-1-blu-ray1-9346062All eyes are on what J.J. Abrams and his team have done to reinvigorate public interest in Star Trek. The reason the franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry, needs any attention at all is the result of inept studio focus during the 1990s and beyond. To Paramount’s management at the time, [[[Star Trek]]] was a cash cow to be milked dry as often and in as many ways as possible. Any care about creativity was a lucky happenstance, not by design. Therefore, they let [[[Star Trek: Voyager]]] limp along on their UPN network only to be followed by the even limper [[[Star Trek; Enterprise]]]. The film series, featuring [[[The Next Generation]]] characters, kept hitting the reset button until [[[Nemesis]]], which had a disinterested director foisted upon the series at a time it really needed to improve its game given the critical drubbing the television version of the franchise was receiving.

By the time [[[Enterprise]]] was canceled and Nemesis got ignored at the box office, everyone agreed it was time to let the entire behemoth rest. Some argued forever, others wisely knew Paramount would never let it go so bet on three to five years.

What everyone seems to have forgotten is what Roddenberry got away with back in the 1960s. Today, we’re reminded of that once more with the release of the first season of the Original Series on Blu-ray. The 29 episodes that NBC aired during the 1966-1967 television season have been carefully restored, remastered, and augmented for today’s technology and audiences.

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Review: ‘The Wrestler’ DVD

wrestler1-1290019In our world, there are costumed champions fighting the good fight against costumed evil doers, done in public and for our entertainment. We call them professional wrestlers but given their names, attire, and storylines, they truly are comic books brought to life.  Unlike comic heroes, though, these players age and fade away, to be replaced by a new generation with new names, not retreads.

Frank Miller’s [[[The Dark Knight]]] was the first real look at what happens to an over-the-hill hero. The body is slower to heal, the acrobatic daring-do that came so effortlessly leaves the body drenched in sweat.

Wrestlers, especially those doped up on steroids, watch their bodies break down and get reduced to the independent circuit for a few hundred bucks a night or signing autographs at lightly attended local events. It’s a sad life, ripe for exploration as a film and Darren Aronofsky wonderfully covers this in The Wrestler. While everyone made a big deal about Mickey Rourke’s comeback performance, the film itself was the real revelation. It felt like a documentary, entirely shot with handheld cameras, sparing in its soundtrack, and unflinching in the portrait of an aging star who seems good at only one thing. If anything, the movie is a bookend to [[[Rocky]]]. While the Sylvester Stallone film ended with the once-in-a-lifetime championship bout, [[[The Wrestler]]] ends with a rematch of two former warriors 20 years past their prime.

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