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MOVIE REVIEW: Live Free Or Die Hard

1559747260-1952543Well, after 12 years John McClain is back in full force with Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth sequel in the series, and the sixth sequel to come out this summer. I have to say going into the flick I wasn’t expecting much, especially after seeing the trailer, which only made me believe Ric Meyer’s micro-review in saying that this isn’t a Die Hard sequel, it’s actually the unwritten sequel for Unbreakable. So between that and the fact that this is the first Die Hard film to receive a PG-13 Rating, I was less than excited for it.

Having that frame of mind, I think I was able to enjoy the film much more. I wasn’t looking for a direct comparison to the first three movies, I just wanted a good John McClain movie, and that’s what I got. The biggest issue with Bruce Willis’ character is that Willis himself has so drastically changed his acting style in the last 12 years, that it’s like asking Walt Disney’s head to unfreeze itself and start drawing exactly like he used to. Granted the fun loving, swearing Bruce Willis that we remember from the first flicks is long gone, and we’re left with the bald, grumpy old man Willis who looks like he has to force himself to smile, but we all just have to change with the times, and even McClain has to age.

Following the formula of With a Vengeance, our hero is accompanied by a would-be sidekick, who fights spends a good chunk of the movie deciding whether or not this is a battle worth fighting, and of course breaking out of his mold by the end of the movie to become someone super cop John McClain can respect. This time around, we get Mac Boy Justin Long as the cowardly super hacker Matt Fuller. Long played the role just as any sidekick should, by accentuating the heroism of…well, the hero.

Also along for the ride were Maggie Q and Tim Olyphant as the evil duo. Everywhere I go, guys are falling in love with Maggie Q, and until checking out this movie I didn’t know why. She manages to play the seductive-yet-deadly henchwoman very well. And as per usual, Olyphant oozes charisma as the bad guy in this picture. I’ve been following this guy since Gone in 60 Seconds, and I’ve had nothing but good things to say about each of his roles.

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Harvey Birdman going down

  • Uncategorized
  • July 3, 2007

harveybirdman-5421298The New York Post (I read it only for the Page 3 girls, honest) reports that Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law is ending its run after 39 episodes. The series, which helped launch CN’s "Adult Swim" block back in the carefree days of September 2001, will air a new episode Sunday, July 15 (11:45 PM). That’ll be followed by a 30-minute sendoff special July 22 (also 11:45 PM), in which Harvey falls into a drunken spiral after his methods are questioned and his past legal wins are overturned.

No word on what will happen to the characters, although I understand Peter Potamus is supposed to appear on the next season of The Biggest Loser, Avenger has something lined up with Animal Planet, and Myron Reducto is going to show up on Heroes — although it will be a small part.

Artwork copyright HB. All Rights Reserved.

Big ComicMix Broadcast Explodes!

Pop culture madness takes no holiday as the Big ComicMix Broadcast jumps right into the week with the rubdown of the coolest comics and videos to grab on your day off… plus news of a YaBaDabba Marathon, Reviews of LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD and TRANSFORMERS plus proof positive that even a well rounded guy can strike gold with a mindless top 40 hit!

Press The Button – it’s safer than fireworks! Honest!

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Happy 60th birthday, Dave Barry!

davebarry-5768050Yes, it’s the 60th birthday of Mr. Language Person himself, David Barry Jr. Without his tireless "journalistic" efforts, the world might never know about exploding whales, or how to count to a million billion gazillion, or even what phrases would be good names for a rock band.

So let’s all gather round our monitors and watch the fireworks a day early…

Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Reviews

highlord-3818281I should warn you about these link-lists: Mondays tend to be longer than usual (since there’s a lot of content that goes up on the weekend, or early on Monday), and the beginning of the month tends to be longer than usual. Since we’re just past both of those things, this is going to be a really long one…

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist reviews Dragons of the Highlord Skies by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

A.N. Wilson reviews Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go in the Telegraph.

SF Crowsnest reviews a whole bunch of things this week:

  • first, here’s a review for Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier – a collection of essays by scientists about the plausibility of and evidence for various paranormal claims.
  • and there’s a review of Cory Doctorow’s new short story collection, Overclocked
  • another review covers Kay Kenyon’s new science fantasy novel Bright of the Sky
  • a review of Ian McDonald’s Brasyl
  • a review of Eliot Fintushel’s Breakfast With the Ones You Love
  • a review of Kage Baker’s new “Company” short story collection, Gods and Pawns
  • a review of David Deveraux’s Hunter’s Moon
  • a review of a new art book – James Bama: American Realist – about the cover artist best known for his ‘70s Doc Savage series
  • a review of Charles de Lint’s Memory & Dream
  • a review of Chris Moriarty’s Spin Control
  • a review  of David Anthony Durham’s first fantasy novel, the epic Acacia
  • and several other reviews, too, but my fingers are getting tired.

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DENNIS O’NEIL: Continued stories revisited yet again…

In last week’s installment of what some of you may be beginning to think is an endless blather, when I was discussing movie serials I neglected to mention that serials were among the first non-comics forms to use superheroes. During that decade, lucky young popcorn eaters could see Superman, Batman, Captain America and, in my opinion the best of them all, Captain Marvel in the continued chapter plays that were a staple of Saturday matinees. (That probably doesn’t exhaust the list, but memory is not my greatest gift… At least I don’t think so…) Having seen some of the above-mentioned entertainments, and having, within the past two weeks, seen the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four movies, I realize that the serial makers were born too soon.

Because, let’s face it, some of the serialized costumed do-gooders look kind of silly. That’s because the directors lacked the technology to make them not look silly. It takes an army of costumers, model makers, CGI wizards, animators and, probably, guys whose jobs I’ve never heard of to produce, on the screen, what cartoonists produced with ink on paper in large quantities for lousy pay. Of course, we comics readers had to bring some of our own imaginations to the artists’ static, silent images, but that was okay, we could do that.

Consider the preceding two paragraphs a digression, please. And now we return to our regularly scheduled topic –

What about these continued stories, anyway? Good or bad? Pro or con?

Let’s begin with the obvious con. If you come in late, maybe you’ll have trouble understanding the story. There are remedies for this problem. The serial makers mentioned in the opening digression showed the last minute or so of the preceding chapter before getting on to new material. The old radio serials used a similar technique, and a lot of current television shows begin with a voice over intoning something like, “Previously, on Your Father’s Moustache…” and then we get brief takes of the scenes that will escort us into the new action.

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In Memoriam: Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007)

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Frederick Thomas Saberhagen is reported to have died at his home in Albuquerque, NM on the afternoon of Friday, June 29th, after a two-year battle with cancer.

Fred Saberhagen was best known for the long series of novels and stories about the implacable life-destroying thinking machines known as the Bersekers; the series began with the collection Berserker (1967) and ran for nearly two dozen books in the years since. The Berserkers typified the central SFnal conflict of Humanity versus the coldness of the universe, and Saberhagen rang dozens of changes on that idea, always championing the impulse of life to go on and thrive against all odds. He also wrote many other science fiction novels and stories, beginning in 1961, when Galaxy published his debut story, "Volume PAA-PYX."

Saberhagen’s fantasy work was centered around the long "Book of Swords" series, which began as a trilogy in the early 1980s and extended into a further eight-novel "Book of Lost Swords" sequence, a connection to his earlier Empire of the East trilogy, and a new series begun with 2006’s Ardneh’s Sword. Saberhagen was quoted at the time as wanting to try a fantasy series with a large number of magical objects — the twelve swords — since most such series had only one or two powerful items.

Saberhagen’s horror novels were also notable, with his The Dracula Tape (1975) being a then-modern, very atmospheric retelling of the events of Bram Stoker’s Dracula from the point-of-view of the Count, in his own words. The series continued for another nine books, including The Holmes-Dracula File (1978), in which Dracula encounters Sherlock Holmes. (more…)

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Links About Art and Artists

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SF Revu interviews two artists in their current issue: John Jude Palencar and Stephan Martiniere.

Eddie Campbell has been posting a lot about covers (mostly from Bacchus and related comics from the late ‘90s), but today he writes about what kind of paper he draws on.

Illustration: The Arm of the Stone, copyright John Jude Palencar

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BOOK REVIEW: Drawing Comics Is Easy (Except…)

  • Uncategorized
  • July 2, 2007

Reviewed by Lillian Baker, age 8

51t5hnycrtl-_ss500_-4802169I started making comics when I was three. When I was six, I made copies and started to sell them at soccer. Last year, when I was seven, I sold them at my dad’s table at the New York ComicCon. Alexa Kitchen wrote and drew her new book when she was seven, too. She’s nine now.

She is a talented girl. I can tell because I read a lot of her books. She makes up really really really good stories. I see that she gets inspired by Calvin and Hobbes a lot. She talks to her doll dog. His name is Kora 2. Other characters are Lucy, who is the girl on the cover, and Denis the cat.

It’s a book about drawing, not just funny cartoons. It’s very funny, though.

Alexa is a very nice girl.

Drawing Comics is Easy (Except When It’s Hard), by Alexa Kitchen, age 7
Published by DKP
$19.95
www.alexakitchen.com

The Doctor’s New Companion?

  • Uncategorized
  • July 2, 2007

And, again I state, there’s a spoiler or two here.

major_oliver-9322435British media are reporting the new companion next season on Doctor Who will be played by Tom Ellis, who was the handsome Doctor Thomas Milligan on the season finale, The Last of the Time Lords. Ellis is perhaps best known for playing the handsome Doctor Oliver Cousins on the long-running (except by Doctor Who standards) soap opera and PBS money-sucker Eastenders.

The BBC has not confirmed these reports, several of which ran this morning on the BBC. Freema Agyema’s character of Martha Jones will be appearing on three episodes of the adult Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, and will be rejoining the Doctor Who cast mid-season. We don’t know if the new companion will stay around, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time (is that a pun?) there were two companions. Or even three.

We also don’t know if Ellis would be repeating his Doctor Milligan role; we recall that Martha Jones was revealed to be the identical cousin to the character Freema Agyeman played in the previous season.

 

 

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