We ended last weekâs dissertation by asking if superhero stories are science fiction. You remember? Good. I cherish your acuity. And, acute citizen that you are, you have already broadened the question to include pulp stories and entertainments like the Star Wars franchise.
Letâs focus on that, for surely we are all familiar with it. The Star Wars saga has spaceships, ray guns, bizarre aliens and even a girl who is clad in a harem costume for no other reason, apparently, than that sheâs awfully cute: all stuff that used to be staples of science fiction, especially the pulpy kind. But I donât recall those words â science fiction â being used to describe anything Star Warsian. And the stories themselves contain no references to real world (universe) science or extrapolation from current reality. In fact, the storytellers go out of their way to deny any such connections: the first movie begins with the words âLong, long ago in a galaxy far away…â In other words, dear moviegoer, you can hunker back in your seat and forget about measuring whatâs happening on the screen against whatâs possible. Dammit, just enjoy!
But here a conundrum puts us in mud. If something looks like science fiction and acts like science fiction, donât those qualities, in fact, make it science fiction? Youâre asking me? (Perhaps I should have tried harder not to doze during those eight a.m. philosophy classes, though I donât know if Thomas Aquinasâs metaphysics would contribute much to our discourse.) As noted above, a conundrum, and one with no ready solution.
We know that civilization would be well-nigh impossible without classification, codification, grouping the chores that absorbed Linneaus and Aristotle and their ilk. We have to know what things are and we have to have names for them if we want to talk about them, which we do. Let us unequivocally approve of calling things names and giving those names precise meanings. None of which tells us what Star Wars is.
Iâm hardly the first to address this problem. A few decades ago, around 1940, well before Star Wars, someone coined the term âscience fantasyâ for Robert Heinleinâs novel Magic Inc. Maybe thatâs as close as we can come, right now. As the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction tells us, âscience fantasyâ has never been clearly defined. So maybe weâre stuck with it.
But...bleech! Generally I feel kindly toward oxymorons and thatâs what I believe this is, but something about it irritates me. Itâs clunky, right? Canât we do better by Star Wars? Find a new classification? Or… hmmmm maybe weâre in the process of evolving past our need to classify. And wouldnât that be interesting, and significant, and just possibly scary?
Maybe theyâve already done it, those inhabitants of a long ago in a galaxy far away.
James Bond endures, with the 24th film, Spectre, scheduled to open November 6. The sinister organization has plagued 007 from the earliest films but have yet to rear their hoary heads in the current incarnation with Daniel Craig as Bond.
For those who are new to MI-6 and international espionage, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment want you to come up to speed. To that end, they have released seven of the films in special edition Blu-rays, DVDs and collectible box-sets.
The Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbooks spotlight the six films featuring the SPECTRE organization (From Russia With Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, For Your Eyes Only) and the three recent features (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall) each featuring packaging inspired by the films’ iconic opening title sequences.
For those who own these in some other high definition incarnation, you won’t need these. They contain the same special features although they do come with Digital HD codes.
The Steelbooks are solid, durable and visually attractive. Each one is distinctive just like their title sequences, carrying on the Maurice Binder tradition.
So, how do the films hold up? Sean Connery set the tone all others have attempted to match with varying degrees of success. The Cold War tensions infuse Russia along with some thrilling, authentic action sequences. A real sense of spectacle can be found on Thunderball, given all the aquatic Deering-do. Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played by a variety of actors, menaces Bond time and again but the worst may well be in On Her Majesty’s Secret service, the once-reviled George Lazenby vehicle. It is far better than its rep and packs an emotional wallop.
Roger Moore’s more erudite and comical Bond shows up in For Your Eyes Only and is among the best of his outings.
It is currently up to Craig to carry on the tradition and despite looking nothing like Ian Fleming’s prose descriptions, he brings the right danger and gravitas to the role as the franchise received an overdue freshening. The rebirth cycle took three films with Spectre tidying up loose ends.
If you don’t want the entire 23 films (and some are clearly lesser offerings), the Steelbooks are not a bad sampler to have.
If you missed Bond 50, there is also The Ultimate James Bond Collection features all 23 films together in one Blu-ray box-set, which includes a 24th space for Spectre. This one also offers “Everything or Nothing”, a 90-minute documentary on the untold story of 007 and a pocket-sized James Bond 50 Years of Movie Posters book including the best posters from Dr. No through to SPECTRE. This collection will is exclusively available at Amazon.com.
It’s a fun week in NYC, with everyone getting into the Halloween spirit. At my day job, I was chatting with some of my co-workers about the upcoming festivities. They were talking about taking their kids trick-or-treating. Since this is city living, they were talking about the trick-or-treating event at their local mall.
Growing up in the suburbs, I always had tons of houses to hit up for candy. Going out on Halloween wasn’t a special event, it was serious business. I wasn’t really in it for my costume, it was all about the trick-or-treating. Getting all that candy require planning and dedication. I loved every minute of it. Because, free candy. If it were socially acceptable for a 32 year-old, I would still go trick-or-treating today.
However, different locations mean something different for Halloween. City kids go to events either at stores or a building that sets hours. It all seems so weird to me. As you can probably tell, I have such fond memories of demanding candy from strangers. That sounds wrong but that is exactly what trick-or-treating is: politely demanding candy from strangers.
I did make it a point to let them know about Halloween Comic Fest. This is the fall’s answer to Free Comic Book Day, where stores hand out some free, Halloween-inspired comics to kids of all ages. This event is usually a smaller affair than FCBD but still just as fun. Plus this year is extra-special because it actually lands on Halloween. The majority of the books are usually all-ages, which makes it an even better event for all those trick-or-treating city kids going to stores.
Trick-or-treating has evolved and adapted to fit the needs of every community, so it is interesting to learn about how it has changed. Still, I miss my days of walking for miles and obtaining a gold mine of candy. At least I have Discount Candy Day (a.k.a. Nov. 1st) to look forward to!
Until next week! Enjoy your tricks, treats, and forthcoming cavities.
I hate being bored, so over the years Iâve managed to shorten my attention span to the point when the good stuff runs out, so do I. Therefore, from time to time I have a little to say about a lot of things. For example:
DC / Warner Bros finally gave credit where credit has long been due: appending Bill Fingerâs name to Bob Kaneâs as the men who made Batman a Day-One success. It is marvelously ironic that the first time Iâd seen the âCreated by Bob Kane with Bill Fingerâ line was on Cartoon Networkâs <a href=”
Chicken DC Comics Special 3: Magical Friendship, which, for the record, I enjoyed â certainly a lot more than the second one. Hawkman vs Robot Chicken? Priceless. Anyway, Billâs name is supposed to be deployed in similar fashion on all future Batman stuff, including their electronic comics (left). Itâs about time. And lawyers. And egos.
Iâm looking forward to Marvelâs upcoming Red Wolf series, even though it clearly indulges in usually needless future-continuity winks such as Sheriff Steve Rogers and Mayor Wilson Fisk. Nonetheless, Iâve always been amused to see the standard Marvel heroic fantasy from the standpoint of earlier times â 1872, in this case, or World War I or whathaveyou. Our ComicMix pal John Ostrander has written more than a few of these for Marvel and they always conveyed a sense of fun. Same thing with Howard Chaykin. Red Wolf might be a little-remembered Marvel character â as was the Phantom Eagle â and I have no doubt there likely will be some sort of SHIELD reference. OK, thatâs part of the fabric of the Marvel Comics Universe and sometimes itâs difficult to by-pass the opportunity to get cute. If this new series is half as much fun as Skottie Youngâs variant cover (right), itâll be completely worthwhile.
Hey, Supergirl teevee producers! If you actually say the word âSupermanâ on your television show, just who is going to sue you? Warner Bros? Well, actually, I know one producer who wound up being sued by his own company, so I shouldnât be quite so sarcastic. But, hell, I am who I am. After a while going so far out of your way to not say âSupermanâ takes the viewer out the story. If you donât want to say Superman, you shouldnât be allowed to use the Big Red S. It was very conspicuous by its absence. And annoying.
On the other hand, Iâm surprised Iâm enjoying Gotham so much this season. I was ambivalent about it after the end of the first season, but two weeks into this season ComicMix columnist Marc Alan Fishman said I should check it out. He was right: the show improved significantly, particularly with respect to Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon. Of course, the addition of Michael Chiklis to the cast as Gordonâs boss also added to the fun. The story itself ebbs and flows and is too often carried by bravura performances by Chiklis, Sean Pertwee and Robin Lord Taylor â not to mention Carol Kane, who is a national treasure. But itâs fun.
Ed Catto did a wonderful tribute to Murphy Anderson in this space a few days ago, and I second each of his statements. Iâd like to bring to your attention his work on a different piece of our modern history. The very first issue of Ms. Magazine featured a story abut Wonder Woman, a worthy idea for the start of Americaâs first mass-market feminist magazine. The cover featured one of the best Wonder Woman pieces Iâve seen. This cover (left) was penciled and inked by my old friend, Murphy Anderson. Of course we will miss him, and of course he left us with a lifetime of wonderful artwork. A true master of our medium.
Too often filmmakers interpret or reinterpret works from other media, nowhere near often enough creating new characters and situations. Look at Tim Burton, for example, he started off taking Pee Wee Herman and producing a feature version of his television series. He returned with the original and still funny Beetlejuice before tackling his version of Batman. Since then, he has not given us anywhere near enough original fare but all can be forgiven if you pause to consider Edward Scissorhands. Thankfully, 20th Century Home Entertainment has seen fit to cause us to consider the film since it has released Edward Scissorhands: 25th Anniversary on Blu-ray.
When it opened a quarter century back, I adored it, calling the Johnny Depp vehicle as a modern day fairy tale and it still holds up. I last watched it two years ago, showing it to my 9th graders as part of a film unit. They were taken by the visuals and the story, the timeless look of suburban America and the universal theme of fear of the unknown.
Up on the mountain outside the small community, an inventor (Vincent Price) has created life but lacked the ability to complete the boy (Johnny Depp), giving him a variety of shears for hands. In time, just before he could apply the hands as a birthday gift, the man dies of old age and Edward lives in the musty castle all alone. That is, until local Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs finds him and decides to bring him home to live with her family: husband Ed (Alan Arkin), shy daughter Kim (Wynona Ryder), and son.
Once they and their neighbors see Edward can use his bizarre appendages to design gorgeous topiary, they flock to be near him. He goes on to become a much-desired hair dresser, revealing new aspects of each woman’s personality. Along the way, he continues to long for Kim, who is freaked out by him, and prefers the company of her stoner, small-minded friends.
Then things take a turn for the worst and suddenly Edward is haunted, haunted, and literally run out of town for being too different. It is very much representative of the 1950s mindset although the pastel color scheme has a more timeless feel. The lovers are separated by fear and hatred giving us a bittersweet ending, without a happily ever after.
The film is narrated, much like a good old fashioned fairy tale, by a grandmother, and frames the tale as something magical.
Visually, the movie has Burton’s usual quirky sensibilities but they’re strong and totally appropriate to the subject matter. The Danny Elfman score is also pitch perfect.
Fox has remastered the film and it sparkles in its AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 track is a match to the visuals and it is a joy to watch.
Given the film’s age, there’s little surprise that the special features are a meager lot. It starts with a standard EPK package (4:39). We also have Theatrical Trailers (4:17). There are commentaries on separate tracks from Burton and Elfman, which can be interesting but far from revelatory. An anniversary package deserves a little more TLC so it’s a wee bit disappointing but overall, this is well worth having.
Jessica Jones is the next up in Marvel’s series of Netflix TV shows, and I am beyond excited for it. I was excited for Daredevil, I loved Daredevil, I am excited that there’s going to be more Daredevil; but if possible, I think I may be more excited to see Jessica Jones than I was even to see Vincent D’Onofrio playing the Kingpin. Why? I’ll tell you why.
Jessica Jones is an odd duck in the Marvel universe. When the story opens, she’s not a hero (anymore) and she’s not a villain. She’s tried the hero thing, and has now made the choice to walk away from it. She’s had a horrific traumatic experience, and is now trying to live life on her own terms. In fact, she’s pretty much the Harry Dresden of NYC (without the male gaze and other weird holdovers from the early Dresden Files books. Sorry, Jim Butcher; I’m a huge Dresden fan, but those early stories have a few issues).
Like Harry, she comes from a tortured past of literal manipulation and has major trust issues; wields a ton of power; and because of her abilities, keeps getting sucked in, no matter whether it’s what she wants or not, to the greater world of the super-powered heroes and villains. And also like Harry, her past, her powers, and her present issues often make her life a big ol’ mess; and have given her some serious attitude. I love the complexities and rough edges of her character; and I love that Marvel appears to be presenting a three-dimensional, imperfect (and therefore human and relatable) woman as the second headlining female in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following on the excellent and nuanced performance of Hayley Atwell as Agent Carter. Jessica Jones is a no-nonsense badass with a rebellious streak and (well-founded) control issues, and she’s not trying to make friends; but she also has a heart that is still looking to do good.
This is illustrated in the Netflix tie-in comic that I picked up at NYCC. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, with art by Michael Gaydos (the same writer and artist team who did the original 28-issue comics series), the comic references Daredevil’s run-in with Turk in the Daredevil Netflix series, and shows Jessica Jones tracking Turk down; but not to inflict Daredevil-style justice on him. Instead, she’s there to collect on child support payments that he owes. As she says, “I don’t know what messed-up house you grew up in that made you think it’s okay to be the way you are; but you brought kids into this world, and if you can’t be there for them like a grown-up, the least you can do, I mean the very least, is provide for them; so that maybe the cycle of nonsense that created you stops with you.”
It’s an interesting sentiment to punch home in the tie-in introductory book; and it emphasizes that in Jones’ world, a) your past doesn’t provide an excuse for you not to try to fix your future (something she’s dealing with herself); and b) what she cares about are the individual responsibilities and characters of the people she deals with.
Although I confess I am not deep into the lore of Jones in the comics (I haven’t explored too far into the MAX line, although of course I have all the Deadpool stuff), from what I know the original series also took this track of being more personal and less grandiose, so it seems Netflix is sticking with the flavor of the source material, which is great. Netflix is also sticking with the gritty, intense feel of the MAX line of comics. The show’s trailers continue in the dark vein of Daredevil, and Krysten Ritter has so far done an excellent job of conveying Jessica’s complex character in the trailers. It’s clear from her portrayal that this character’s story is deep, and messy, and complicated; and that makes for good TV. This is the kind of character I can’t help but want to see more of.
Netflix also looks to be delving into even darker, more disturbing territory than Daredevil with the introduction of Jessica’s nemesis, Killgrave (the Purple Man in the comics), played by David Tennant (who is always good value, as the Brits say, so I’m looking forward to seeing him in this). Although I don’t know all of the indignities Jones suffered at the hands of Killgrave, even the thought of someone having the power to manipulate one’s behavior is chilling, and the hints of her past <a href=”
the <a href=”
are über creepy; so I’m sure what we’ll see in the show will be pretty terrifying. And I like that, as with the Kingpin, the villain here didn’t start out as e.g. an all-powerful god of mischief, or the ruler of his own little country. He did, however, start out as a spy, so it will be interesting to see what they might do with that in the show.
It will also be cool to see how Luke Cage (played by Mike Colter) starts to fit into the Netflix/Marvel universe. He’s the next character slated to have his own show, and he appears in the Jessica Jones trailers and is listed as appearing in all episodes. Given that Jones and Cage have both a working and a romantic relationship in the comics, it makes sense to introduce him here; but I’m curious to see how he fits while she is the main character; and to what extent she will then be appearing in his series. Regardless, in the brief appearances I’ve seen so far, I’m liking the character.
The bottom line as we ramp up to Jessica Jones is that it looks like we’re in for an intense, chilling, suspenseful, intricate story enveloping a character with a fascinating tale to be told, possibly set as an investigative procedural; and I really love investigative procedurals. It also looks like Netflix is going to continue its strong start with Daredevil as we move into round 2 before going on to Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and finally, The Defenders. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but it seems that Marvel’s idea of tying this string of shows into each other and then into an ensemble cast affair may just turn out to be as awesome in reality as it sounds in concept. And on that note; when Jessica Jones rolls around on November 20, I am so. There.
Last week I met with my friend Kelsey to get a tarot reading. I brought along my copy of Rachel Pollack‘s Arthur C. Clarke award winning novel, Unquenchable Fire, to lend to her. Beyond being a novelist, Rachel Pollack is a well-published authority on tarot, a transgender woman who tackles the subject in her different works, as well as having written comics.
She wrote Doom Patrol for two years following up on Grant Morrison and Richard Case’s popular run on the series over twenty years, when it moved from DC’s main line to the Vertigo imprint. Her run built on the bizarre nature of Grant’s image while creating new characters.
The most important of which was Kate Godwin, a.k.a. Coagula, DC’s first – and to date only – transgender superhero, with the power to coagulate liquids and dissolve solids at will. Prior to joining the Doom Patrol, she tried out for the Justice League, and it’s implied that she was rejected in part for being an out transgender lesbian activist, brandishing a pin on her jacket stating, “Put a Transsexual Lesbian on the Supreme Court.”
Rachel Pollack was able to use the character of Coagula to discuss trans issues and to inform readers who were unaware of these issues as to what it means to be trans. She even crafts a brilliant moment in storytelling where a transcendent being requires the strongest example of a man and a woman, and Robotman and Coagula are the man and woman the best personify those genders, driving home the fact that a trans woman is a woman. Period.
So decades before the biggest and most active push for more diversity and representation in comics on the page and behind the scenes, DC had a trans superhero written by a trans woman. You would think that’d be a bigger deal, wouldn’t you? It would seem to fit right into what people have been clamoring for, doesn’t it?
That’s not to say that DC hasn’t created trans characters before; they just haven’t been superheroes. Wanda from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman run was trans, and has been both embraced by fans keeping it in the context of the time it came out and criticized in hindsight. Shvaughn Erin, the Legion of Super-Heroes Science Police Liaison, was trans but that has since been retconned and she’s back to being cisgender. Gail Simone put in the effort and created Alysia Yeoh, Batgirl’s transgender roommate for her New 52 run on the book, and often incorrectly sited by blogs and news sites as the first true transgender character at Marvel or DC. Unfortunately, after Gail Simone left the book, Alysia Yeoh has mostly faded into obscurity and the team that took over Batgirl afterward was quick to fumble on trans issues. They have since apologized and the issue in question has been modified to remove the transphobic dialogue in subsequent reprints.
I am not counting any characters that are magically trans, or have powers that allow them to change their genders, because that’s not a trans character and you shouldn’t count those either. Marvel has even less trans representation.
If you haven’t heard of Rachel Pollack’s run on Doom Patrol, it’s probably because it’s never been reprinted. And if you haven’t heard of Coagula, it’s for the same reason. Her stories have never been reprinted. After Rachel Pollack’s run on Doom Patrol ended, no one seemed to know what to do with the character, and she would appear just a little more before being unceremoniously killed off.
In order for me to read those stories, I used a combination of eBay and multiple comic shops to find all the issues. You should be able to find all the issues reasonably priced if you feel so inclined. It’s a fantastic run, and a worthy follow up to Morrison’s Doom Patrol. Rachel Pollack, in my opinion, is the last writer that truly understood the Doom Patrol.
I’ve been seeing a lot of articles written lately about the efforts DC has been putting in to making more diverse comics. If they’re really invested in that, why not bring back their only trans superhero and reintroduce Coagula to a new generation of readers? Or at very least just reprint Rachel Pollack’s Doom Patrol run? Reprinting those issues in a couple of trades or so would be a great start for DC to show that they have an interest in trans representation.
And while they’re at it, they could hire a few trans writers and artists, too. We have more openly trans writers and artists working on comics now than at any other point in the history of the medium. They’re here, they’re queer, many of them could use the opportunity to craft stories at DC or Marvel, and we could all benefit from the opportunity to read them.
The most painful thing about The Last Witch Hunter is how clear it is that Vin Diesel is passionate about the material and is having an amazing time. Almost every profile piece I’ve ever read on Diesel has mentioned his love of Dungeons & Dragons, or that he wrote the introduction for their 30th anniversary retrospective book, or that his character in xXx had a tattoo with the name of his D&D character on his stomach; his nerd credentials are beyond reproach and they’re on full display in this film. Unfortunately instead of turning that knowledge and experience in to a quality fantasy movie, we’re given a film that is about as interesting as listening to the guy behind you in line for Star Wars tell you stories about how amazing his character is in his buddy’s D&D game.
The Last Witch Hunter suffers immensely from a lack of stakes. It features an immortal badass killer, Kaulder, who not only can’t die but any injury he suffers heals instantly Wolverine-style. All of the supporting characters are seemingly introduced immediately before being put in peril so you have to really bond with them quickly to feel anything at all for them. Michael Caine, the only actor in the cast capable enough to overcome this script problem, is imperiled off-screen and is afflicted with some kind of curse that is barely explained nonsense seemingly designed so they could have their emotional moment but still bring Caine back for the sequel. Things ramp up dramatically toward the end of the movie when they strip Kaulder of his immortality and directly imperil the entire world or maybe just New York City (and honestly is there even a difference) but by then I was just too far-gone to care.
Reportedly, this script came about from Vin Diesel telling one of the screenwriters about one of his Dungeons & Dragons characters. While I’m not sure any movie should come about through a story like that, it makes his investment in this movie palpable. He believes in his character and every silly nonsense word that comes out of his mouth. In a weird way, it’s one of my favorite performances of his career because he’s trying to put this movie on his back and just make it better through sheer force of acting. Diesel isn’t on that rare level where he can make a movie better just by trying harder, but I can appreciate that effort even if it isn’t quite enough.
There isn’t enough original stuff in this movie to make it feel worth the time and effort of making it. Fantasy is so well trod these days there’s nothing in the flashback scenes that I haven’t seen in Game of Thrones, or Lord of the Rings, or even How to Train Your Dragon. The contemporary stuff at its very best feels like a slightly reskinned version of Men in Black and at worst like an episode of Charmed. I sort of liked their take on a bar for witches (even if that’s not exactly new ground) but my enthusiasm was dashed when the place is destroyed within five minutes of being introduced on screen. Nothing feels like a fresh take, or a new use of metaphor, or a deeper look at a theme, it’s just recycling stuff we’ve seen and hoping the new arrangement proves compelling and it doesn’t.
I often complain about movies feeling too compact or too drawn out, and The Last Witch Hunter is in a strange limbo in between. Everything feels too rushed and there isn’t any space for the story to breathe or for the characters to reveal themselves to us, but also I left that 106-minute movie convinced it had been two and a half hours long. It might be an impossible task to make this a compelling film narrative. This is a story that would work much better in a novel: it would have proper space to build, internal monologues could make exposition a little less clunky, and the stakes could be more clearly defined.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I would want to read that novel either.
Given its setting during the Christmas season and with “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” playing as the credits rolled, Die Hard rapidly became a beloved Holiday classic. So, it’s no surprise to see 20th Century Home Entertainment kick off the Holiday gift giving season with the release of Nakatomi Plaza: Die Hard Collection. All five films in the series along with a bonus disc are packed into the base of a plastic replica of the famous locale of the first film. The structure measures 15″ high, mounted on a base which measures 7 1/8″ square and will stand proudly atop your mantle or bookshelf, a reminder of the series; enduring popularity despite the premise wearing thin with each installment.
The first, with Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis), attempting to stop terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) from killing everyone at a holiday part attended by his ex-wife (Bonnie Bedelia), is riveting, taut, and filled with some wonderful human moments from the major characters. McClane is world-weary everyman merely trying to survive, risking all to save the woman he still loves, encouraged by a lone cop (Reginald VelJohnson) via walkie-talkie.
Adapted by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart from Roderick Thorp’s Nothing Lasts Forever and The Detectives, the film was expertly directed by John McTiernan. The critical and box office success led 20th Century Fox to order up a sequel.
Set in a deserted airport terminal, McClane is called to do the impossible a second time and with less satisfying results although it was nice seeing Dennis Franz play a different kind of cop.
The third installment followed the then-popular trend of mismatched buddies and they wisely paired Willis with Samuel L. Jackson, playing a different kind of everyman. They ran from one end of Manhattan to another, avoiding a sniper who turned out to be Gruber’s brother (Jeremy Irons), seeking revenge.
The last two focus more on John and his children, one at a time, in increasingly hard to swallow premises, made good only by the interplay between father and offspring.
So, if you already own either the wonderful Die Hard Collection, Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection or the Die Hard Legacy Collection, do you need this one? Well, do you have room for the tower? Do you want the bonus disc with an hour of stuff? The box containing the discs also comes with a 32-page booklet with some BTS photos and there are collectible cards featuring the antagonists.
For the record, the box contains the Blu-ray versions of Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Die Hard: With A Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard (includes Unrated Version), A Good Day to Die Hard (includes Unrated Version) and a code for their digital HD versions. The bonus disc is not available digitally.
Decoding Die Hard (1:47:01) contains seven featurettes: Origins – Reinventing the Action Genre; John McClane – Modern Day Hero; Villains – Bad to the Bone, Sidekicks – Along for the Ride, Fight Sequences – Punishing Blows, Action – Explosive Effects; and, The Legacy – The Right Hero for the Right Time. All of these are repurposed from the Die Hard: 25th Anniversary Collection.
The collection in one form or another is well worth having as Bruce Willis is always fun to watch regardless of how preposterous the premise.
“Don’t believe everything you read or hear, remember a large part of our world is made up of fiction!!” • Victoria Addino
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” • Albert Einstein
“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” • George Orwell,1984
“Am I the only one who knows? I’ll bet I am; nobody else really understands Grasshopper but me – they just imagine they do.” • Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle
I haven’t read The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick, for many years, not since my “Introduction to Science Fiction” class in my freshman year at Quinnipiac University.
I didn’t love it, even if it had won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963, and even though it was one of those books during the 1960s that was blowing everybody’s mind in Haight-Ashbury and anywhere else where people were tuning in, turning on and dropping, and even though my professor waxed on and on about its brilliance. (BTW, I started college in the fall of 1971, the tail end of the social revolution was coming to an end – im-not-so-ho – since the spring of 1970 with the killing of college students at Kent State by the National Guard, and eventually lead to “Dance Fever with Deney Terrio,” “Disco Duck,” and polyester jumpsuits.)
That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate it, or I didn’t understand it. I just find Dick to be very depressing. Okay, okay, you can all guffaw and snicker at that, so let me rephrase: I find reading Dick’s works to be heavy going; his themes are overall incredibly morose… y’know: life sucks, and then you die.
No matter what life you perceive as yours.
The Man in the High Castle professed to be an alternate history – what if the Axis powers, i.e., Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire, less Mussolini’s Italy, had won World War II? – with what I guess you can call a twist ending (I won’t give away any spoilers here), but what it’s really about, and what is at its heart, is its questions on the nature of reality and the human response to what is a perceived reality.
This afternoon I watched the first two episodes of The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime, produced by its eponymous studio. Produced and co-written by Frank Sponitz (The X-Files), it’s a beautifully crafted series, obviously done with love, and is a “triumph of world-building,” as Entertainment Weekly put it. It captures the darkness, dreariness, and depressiveness of the book; more disturbingly, it also reveals the psychological acceptance of a “it-is-what-it-is” acceptance of life under the Reich and the Japanese Empire by the American public, with very little display of “heroic Resistance fighters” to be seen. But there is resistance; and that is what drives the story, at least on the surface.
My one complaint is that it’s very slow going; just like the book, you really have to pay attention. No bathroom breaks allowed!
Though I’m interested to see how Sponitz and his fellow writers handle what is a very complicated ending that asks very existentialist questions, I don’t think I’m going to be rereading the book any time soon. To paraphrase Sex and The City:
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
Cookie Preferences
Manage your cookie preferences below:
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Name
Description
Duration
comment_author_url
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_email
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
WP Consent API is a plugin that standardizes the communication of accepted consent categories between plugins.
Name
Description
Duration
wp_consent_{category}
Stores your consent preference for a specific cookie category (e.g., functional, marketing). It ensures consistent consent management across WordPress plugins supporting the WP Consent API.
30 days
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
We ended last weekâs dissertation by asking if superhero stories are science fiction. You remember? Good. I cherish your acuity. And, acute citizen that you are, you have already broadened the question to include pulp stories and entertainments like the Star Wars franchise.
