Tagged: review

Review: ‘Networked: Carabella on the Run’

Networked: Carabella on the Run

By Gerard Jones & Mark Badger
134 pages, NBM Publishing, $12.99

The issue of privacy in the digital age is an ongoing dialogue as some people feel too much personal information is available to anyone skilled at cyber research while others prefer sharing every aspect of their lives. For several generations, the specter of George Orwell’s Big Brother has loomed large over the evolving technology field, occasionally raising the concern that the government will use this data in ways to which we would object – if we knew.

Privacy Activism is a non-profit company designed to make people aware and give them knowledge and tools to determine how much they want to share or to protect. To educate the younger masses, they created Carabella, a hip, blue-skinned college-aged woman and have used her in several outreach programs. For her third appearance, she has been turned over to master graphic novelists, Gerard Jones and Mark Badger, for Networked: [[[Carabella on the Run]]].

Given the graphic novel’s agenda, one can forgive some of the heavy-handedness of the storytelling and the over used cliché of a government conspiracy to use the personal data to control the population. Carabella is an odd girl as her college friends get to know her. There are too many things that seem unfamiliar to her and she has trouble navigating the basic social conventions.

When she starts receiving texts and e-mails from students interested in getting to know her, she freaks out, wondering how they discovered her contact info. In time, she finally meets engineering student Nick Shumer and falls for him. As she begins to let down her guard, he begins acting oddly, which makes sense since he recovered a bit of her personal technology that he reverse engineers for his own purposes.

The tech, essentially the protomatter of the story, enables him to perfect the most technologically sophisticated walking shoes and he loses sight of things as he is seduced with fame and fortune. In time, though, Carabella realizes what he has done and finally reveals her secrets that propel the story in an entirely different direction, addressing the core privacy issues.

The first half is more engaging as the characters act like real people and the world of college feels right for the theme. The science fiction second half is lots of action and deering-do but also feels more predictable and less compelling. Jones does a nice job with Carabella’s personality while Nick’s character seems to be changing scene by scene.

Badger’s art flows nicely from scene to scene and the work has a fresh feel, although some of his color choices struck me as odd given the role color plays in the second half. Some of the shading to the faces isn’t as successful as one would hope.

There are some strong messages here and plenty of food for thought. Presenting this information embedded within an entertaining graphic novel was a great approach. The agency gets credit for providing chapters online along with a guide for teachers to use, to drill home the messages in the classroom.

With luck, we’ll be seeing Carabella again.

Review: ‘Wolverine and the X-Men: Final Crisis’

dvd-72dpi1-6905065[[[Wolverine]]] and [[[the X-Men]]], the fourth animated interpretation of the Marvel mutants, was the most radical and also the most short-lived. Lasting a mere 26 episodes, the Nicktoons series apparently wasn’t popular enough with ratings and merchandise to merit financing a second season. Marvel Animation clearly thought they had a hit on their hands and images from the developing second season were released. Additionally, the final scene was a teaser for the second season. But, alas, this was not to be.

Lionsgate, today, is releasing the sixth and final volume of the show, probably three volumes too many, but at least they are affordably priced (and at Comic-Con International, a complete series set was announced).  The single-disc contains just the final three episodes, which aired under the name “Foresight” but is being released under the more commercial [[[Final Crisis]]]. Having previously reviewed the last two volumes, Fate of the Future and Revelation, I was curious to see how they wrapped things up.

All the threads and main players throughout the season turn up and have their moment as the conflicting timelines and threads are woven together into a massive climax. We have Magneto and the inhabitants of Genosha readying for an all-out assault while he has manipulated players so he thinks he controls both sides of the conflict between man and mutant. What he has not counted on was the Hellfire Club and their plans to unleash and control the Phoenix force.

In fact, the role of the Phoenix in this interpretation is the most
radical departure from the comics as is the Hellfire Club’s reason for
existing. As a result, one of the more visually impressive moments of
this series occurs. And as with the comic books, the action never
overwhelms all the emotions at play, especially the romantic triangle
between Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Emma Frost.

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Review: ‘$5 a Day’

One of the great joys of reviewing movies for ComicMix is being offered little gems I’ve never heard of, the movies that come and go too quickly to gain much attention. For example, take [[[$5 a Day]]], which sports a solid cast led by Christopher Walken – right there, you want to see this, right? Walken rarely repeats himself and is always fun to watch on screen. He’s backed by Alessandro Nivola, Peter Coyote, Amanda Peet, and Sharon Stone so it’s a good crew.

On the surface, this sounds like your paint-by-numbers buddy/road film as an estranged father and son go on a cross-country trip. Even with that cast, it might be a little different, but now imagine the car is decorated in Sweet & Low packaging and that every stop along the way is precisely calculated to take advantage of complimentary food or discounted gas.

Nat is a broken man claiming to be dying of a brain tumor. His life irrevocably changed when he and the love of his life broke up and he became a drifting conman whose greatest pride is managing to live on $5 a day. Often it involves the ultimate in frugality such as saving box tops to get a Barbie-themed Polaroid camera which he regularly uses to take “photos for my wallet”.

Ritchie grew up, learning his dad’s cons and tricks, until he wound up spending 11 months in jail when one of the scams went south. He’s distanced himself from his dad and has been eking out a living as a health inspector but his inability to open up to Maggie means their relationship is breaking up. Nat’s summons to Atlantic City begins their reconciliation and the launch point for a poignant portrait.

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Review: ‘James and the Giant Peach’

jamesandgiantpeachsebluray-3419328Movie technology needed to catch up to the imagination of author Roald Dahl. By the time that occurred in the 1980s Dahl was in his final years and barely got to enjoy proper adaptations of his works. His imaginative fiction was incredibly vivid and picturesque while also having a dark undercurrent, an edge that set them apart from other children’s literature.

His widow, Liccy, finally allowed his 1961 novel, [[[James and the Giant Peach]]], to be adapted by the team of producers Denise Di Novi and Tom Burton and director Henry Selick. They had previously proven their mettle as a team with the delightful [[[A Nightmare Before Christmas]]] and were seeking something else to do with their stop-motion wizardry. The results in 1996 were a stripped down adaptation, but one that Liccy and children around the world embraced.

Walt Disney Home Entertainment is finally releasing the movie on Blu-ray this Tuesday. The Special Edition comes complete with both Blu-ray and DVD, but no digital copy, so this is a littler less special than other releases.

The story of young James Henry Trotter is told here with some substantive changes from the novel including his age and whereabouts when his parents are killed by a rhinoceros (in the film, a thunder storm of horrific proportions, in the book, the real animal). He comes to live with his vile and cruel aunts, Sponge and Spiker, who delight in tormenting him. Through it all, James’ optimism never wavers and he’s a model child, keeping his dreams of visiting New York City to himself.

His behavior and nature is rewarded when a Mysterious Stranger approaches him with a bag full of magic. Accidentally spilling some of the glowing objects, a dead tree soon after reveals a growing peach, which becomes mammoth in proportion. As the aunts profit from displaying the object to the curious, James is left to clean up after the tourists. That is, until he finds a tunnel and burrows deep within the fruit and encounters a hardy band of insects and an arachnid. Together, they take the peach on a journey, heading towards the Big Apple.

The rest of the film is a romp as they go from adventure to adventure en route to Manhattan and then finally arrive. Inexplicably, the aunts arrive soon thereafter, only to receive an overdue comeuppance, one far less interesting than their prose fate.

Selick interestingly begins and ends the film with a live action James (Paul Terry) but once he enters the peach, the film shifts into fantasy land with stop-motion figures. As a result, we get nicely detailed and designed ensemble including Mr. Old Green Grasshopper (Simon Callow), Mr. Centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), Mr. Earthworm (David Thewlis), Miss Spider Susan Sarandon), Mrs. Ladybug (Jane Leeves), and Glowworm (Miriam Margolyes, who is also Aunt Sponge).

Things move along briskly although things do stop for some unmemorable and unnecessary songs. Randy Newman’s Oscar-nominated score was all we ever needed and the pacing does stop even though the songs are at least plot or character specific.

Being remastered for Blu-ray, the visuals are sharp and wonderful to watch, with excellent sound.

The only new extra on the Blu-ray disc is an interactive Spike the Aunts game, which takes nice advantage of the technology. The original extras: a short Making Of featurette, a Newman music video, “Good New”, still gallery can be found on the standard DVD.

Review: ‘The Job’

thejob3dhirzcmyk-2044283How desperate does a man get before he agrees to do the unthinkable? How low must you fall before you allow yourself to get caught up in something immoral, illegal, and just plain dangerous?

These themes are barely touched on as we encounter Bubba (Patrick Flueger), a jobless, down on his luck guy in a nameless small city in the low budget dark film [[[The Job]]]. Based on a 1998 stage play by Shem Bitterman, who went on to script and direct this adaptation, the story is a slow act of seduction.

While sitting in the coffee shop where his long-time love Joy (Taryn Manning) works as a waitress, he is befriended by a drifting salesman named Perriman (Ron Perlman), who gives him a job lead. That begins the long, torturous descent from just plain lost to lost, confused, and crossing the line between good and evil.

The film, out today on DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment, is far from engaging despite the interesting set-up and situations. None of the characters feel real or are fleshed out in a way that makes you believe they are willing to commit the acts that punctuates the rest of the film. The oddly named Bubba lets himself be talked into killing by Joe Pantoliano, in an understated role. When he decides he can’t go through with it, despite the promise of $200,000, Perriman agrees to help for half and that’s when things stop making sense and spiral out of control.

Bitterman gives oddness in lieu of clarity and twists that make little dramatic sense. Yes, setting things up so that Bubba is forced to do what he couldn’t bring himself to do is interesting but then the payoff goes from barely believable to illogical and badly constructed. Coupled with mediocre acting and lightly sketched characters, the entire movie becomes a 99 minute dreary experience.

The Alternate Ending and perfunctory Making Of featurette round out the DVD. Be warned, just watching this from beginning to end is job enough.

Review: ‘Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show’ Season One

philsilvers-s1-dvd-3d-s1-6312504Phil Silvers perfected his fast-talking, scheming promoter character during his years on the vaudeville circuit and polished it in a variety of feature films so that by the time he debuted on his own television series, it was pitch perfect. His Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko became a template for comedy roles imitated by others across the pop culture spectrum. For example, the Baby Boomers grew up with the Bilko persona imprinted on Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat. Silvers rarely varied from the character, using it to good effect in subsequent films and even the Broadway play[[[ A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]].

The series was originally called [[[You’ll Never Get Rich]]] but in less than two months after its September 20, 1955 premiere, it was renamed [[[The Phil Silvers Show]]] and was subsequently syndicated as [[[Sgt. Bilko]]]. It won the Emmy Award for best comedy three seasons running with Silvers winning once as best actor. Series creator Nat Hiken was a recognized comedy writer, now a series creator and followed with [[[Car 54, Where Are You?]]] and [[[McHale’s Navy]]]. Such was the show’s fame and success; it was among the first situation comedies to run on the first incarnation of Comedy Central.

To see what the fuss is all about, you can now own the first season, releasing tomorrow as Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show, from Paramount Home Entertainment. There are 34 episodes on five discs along with just a handful of extras.

What you get is Sgt. Bilko, head of the motor pool at sleepy Camp Baxter in Roseville, Kansas. He and his platoon of career soldiers never had money and always sought a way to get ahead – one scheme after another from card games to horse racing. Invariably, it meant out thinking the camp commander, Col. John T. Hall (Paul Ford) or fellow sergeants. Aiding him were his corporals Rocco Barbella (Harvey Lembeck) and Steve Henshaw (Allan Melvin). Throughout the season, characters recur such as his occasional romantic foil Sgt. Joan Hogan (Elisabeth Fraser), but all were in support of Bilko.

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Review: ‘Super Friends! Season One Volume Two’

At least one generation of super-hero fans grew up knowing the DC Comics heroes through their appearances on ABC’s [[[Super Friends]]]. Loosely based on the [[[Justice League of America]]],[[[Superman]]], [[[Batman]]], [[[Robin]]], [[[Wonder Woman]]], and [[[Aquaman]]] teamed up in the Hall of Justice and fought all manner of menace. Accompanying them for no rational explanation were Wendy Harris and Marvin White, along with Wonderdog.

The first iteration debuted in fall 1973 and was an hour-long adventure with 16 episodes comprising thefirst season. The series survived in various incarnations well into the 1980s when it finally faded away, ringing down one era of animated heroics. The biggest problem confronting these early missions was the network demand that there be no violence. Threats yes; actually hitting the bad guy, no.

Additionally, the stories were designed to deliver messages such as ecological awareness so the youngsters watching at home could learn something.

What they also learned was that story logic was not required on weekend mornings. The first half-season was collected earlier this year and now Warner Home Video releases Super Friends! Season One Volume Two on Tuesday. Maybe it’s telling that the packaging uses Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Dick Giordano style guide artwork than imagery from the series. Despite the fabulous Alex Toth doing design work for the series, the limited, budget conscious animation is pretty atrocious.

The wonderful Ted Knight narrates each episode as if he were reading from a Mort Weisinger script. We’re told what we’re seeing, we see it, and then the characters repeat much of the same thing. His voice, though, is pitch perfect to provide each adventure with a serious tone regardless of how ludicrous the stories are.

And they’re pretty terrible. Scientists with idiot henchmen are repeated a lot. Aliens arrive on Earth, telling us it looks pretty clean for settlement then it becomes a story of how humans are polluting the land, air, and sea. Well, which is it?

The heroes apparently hang out in the Hall of Justice, not having a life beyond the heroic personas, and wait for the TroubAlert to selectively tell them of a problem. One episode shows the computer summoning the heroes only after the third identical crime has been committed. Interestingly, Clark Kent is described not as a reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, but is instead a new commentator on television station WGBS, a nod to the then-status quo.
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Review: ‘Despicable Me’

despicable-me-6441254As any parent of school-aged children will tell you, there aren’t as many kid-friendly releases as there used to be. When I first saw a trailer for Despicable Me (releasing July 9th from Universal), I wasn’t sure if it was actually aimed toward the grade school set. When my favorite go-to site for kid-friendly events in New York City announced that they had arranged a free advance screening for the film, I did a little research, determined my kids would like the story, and signed up. I’m very glad that I did.

[[[Despicable Me]]] is about a supervillain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) who is distraught to discover that a young up-and-coming villain named Vector (Jason Segel) is stealing his place in the spotlight. When Gru is unsuccessful in infiltrating Vector’s lair, he goes to a local orphanage and adopts three little girls who have been going around the neighborhood selling cookies for a fundraiser. This is where he film’s tagline “Super bad. Super Dad.” comes from. Now, those of you who have seen a few touching movies about old curmudgeons whose hearts are warmed by having children in their life can probably guess the basic plot, but keep in mind that the target audience will not. Additionally, there is much more going on than just the basic plotline.

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Review: ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 1 Collector’s Edition’

avatar-the-last-airbender-9733354If you’ve been to a movie theater in the past five months, chances are you have seen a trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s live action version of [[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]]. If you’ve been in the audience for a family friendly film, you’ve probably also heard many parents and kids excitedly buzzing about the trailers. But if the trailers for the major motion picture are all you know of The Last Airbender, you’re really missing out.

My kids and I were first introduced to the series, which originally ran on Nickelodeon from 2005-2008, when a friend sang it’s praises as a wonderfully engaging show that was appealing to both kids and adults. The series, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, follows a boy named Aang, the last-known airbender (person with the ability to manipulate the element of air) who is also the Avatar – someone who has the power to master all four elements – who is discovered by a brother and sister from the Water Tribe and sets out with his new friends (along with a flying bison inspired by Miyazaki’s catbus) to defeat the war-hungry Fire Nation from destroying the world. My kids loved it, and it quickly became a household favorite. We also soon discovered that many of our friends were fans of the show, as well.

Now, in anticipation of Shyamalan’s film, Nickelodeon is releasing a shiny new collector’s edition of the first season, which goes on sale June 22nd. In addition to having the entire, completely awesome first season, there are special features and bonuses-a-plenty. The set comes with two exclusive bonus discs, along with a preview edition of the upcoming book Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Art of the Animated Series (which was released on June 15th). The book has a wonderful collection of concept sketches and descriptions of character development for the series. My kids squealed with delight when they saw the book and actually sat together nicely for over an hour to look at all of the pictures and discuss their favorite things about each character.

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Review: ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia’

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia
DK Publishing, 208 pages, $16.99

clone-wars-encyclopedia1-3120930Ever since it was mentioned in the original [[[Star Wars]]], fans have always been curious about the events of the Clone Wars. It was a never a factor in the original film trilogy, just a nifty throwaway line to add depth to George Lucas’ mythology. Then we got to finally learn of the wars’ origins in [[[Attack of the Clones]]] (2002) and [[[Revenge of the Sith]]] (2005).

But people wanted to learn more and Lucasfilm happily obliged, first with Genndy Tartakovsky’s marvelous animated series, which ran from 2003–2005 and then the more recent 3D CGI series which has been running since 2008. Character designer Kilian Plunkett referred to the imaginative work of Tartakovsky when creating the look of this series and it visually is a good fit with the live-action films.

With a sprawling cast and campaigns occurring throughout the Galactic Empire, fans, casual and diehard alike, could benefit from a scorecard. DK comes to the rescue this month with [[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia]]]. Measuring 9.25 x 6.25 inches, its at a smaller trim size than the more recent pop culture offerings.

There are 204 character profiles, a page apiece, covering the events of the first two seasons, all 44 episodes inclusive. Each page has a full-figure shot, vital statistics, some call outs to denote details and short paragraphs placing the character into context. Apparently, the content does not reflect events or characteristics from the first animated series.

Yes, the series airs on the Cartoon Network which has a younger audience, but since the book is described as being aimed for 8-17 years old, it also offers far too little in the way of detail. The uncredited writers should have given us some overview of the era, a brief timeline for events, and maybe a clue as to where each character made a first appearance.

Instead, we get surface details offering no greater understanding of the people and their place in the wars. Padme Amidala’s page, for example, tell us she is secretly married to Anakin and likes to look for the good in people. Nothing about her upbringing, her evolving relationship with Ani and other details to make her a more interesting and better understood character.

The CGI frame captures from episodes along with selected poses are a little too dark so details and expressions are needlessly obscured.

Much as we expected better from Lucas’ more recent efforts, so too have I come to expect more from DK. This book is pleasant to skim through but makes you want far more than is offered.

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