Criminal

So recently I bought 2 of the 4 book criminal series. A series that I started a couple months back and was excited to get one step closer to finishing. The series is by Author Ed Brubaker. A man who is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. And as much as I love his mainstream work he has done with Batman and Daredevil I love more his side vertigo projects including sleeper and incognito.

Criminal
























This is an ongoing series that appears to have at least 2 more issues or books coming out. The first two Coward and Lawless are two of my favorite books and will go down in history as two of my favorite books ever. The other are good but not great. I started reading the series a little while ago when I found them at the library. They had the first too on shelf and I ran through those pretty quickly. Then I started to search amazon and realized that this was an ongoing series so I searched at the library for the next two and found out that they had like 3 copies of bad night and non of the dead and the dying so I knew what that meant... it meant I was going to have to buy the other two. When I found them at borders it was not a question of how much as much of how many should i buy. long story short bought the last two and checked out the first two.

As I reread the Coward and Lawless I started to see something different about these books. A small thread that ran through the first two books, small connections and references that had not noticed the first time through. So I was equally excited about reading the dead and the dying. It did not disappoint. Again you can see the small thread leading through all the stories. And so it did through Bad night. The cool thing about this series and Mr. Brubaker as a whole is that he has a very distinctive Noir style that is not forced down your throat but massaged into the story as it should be. Its not the basic Film Noir detective story but rather has the grittiness and feel of a Noir. This was always very cool too me and kept me interested in reading more. The stories are always fun and very engaging and the writing and drawing styles alike are great. I would suggest this series to anyone interested in comics but it is definitely aimed at adults, no kids allowed.

I am more excited to talk to Ed brubaker at the emerald city comicon next week. I hope he is willing to sign my book and take a picture. Plus I hope he is as chill as I can imagine.

Saw this one yesterday in 3d. From what I have been hearing not too many people have been enjoying this flick for this that or the other reason. But I will honestly say that I really enjoyed this. I wouldn't say that it was one of my favorite films, hell I wouldn't even say that it was one of my favorite Tim Burton flicks but it was damn enjoyable. The story was different but interesting from start to finish. The acting as usually was pretty damn cool. The visuals were fun as hell. And as always it had that nice little dark side that Tim Burton is known for. I thoroughly enjoyed the retailing of this classic story, the best thing is that it was not the same as any of the other stories before so it gave it gave them a bit of freedom with the story.


The Good:
- Graphics were amazing
- The cheshire cat
- Johnny Depp: Mr. Depp played an awesome Madd Hatter
- All the other actors all played their parts very well and made for an enjoyable movie
- Classic Tim Burton
The Bad:
- The 3d was very unnecessary and I can only imagine would have been just as good in 2d. I would have loved to see this movie actually made in 3d vs. being rendered in 3d afterwords.
- Because it was made by Disney it showed some similarities to Narnia
- The white queen was a bit corny but I feel this was done on purpose and she was still very good.

Overall I would suggest this for anyone who enjoys Tim Burton's movies and anyone who enjoys Alice in Wonderland. The movie was just good. I will say that I would like to see Tim Burton stretch his wings a bit. This is kind of a side track but the man has a great talent and has many great skill but has allowed himself to become a one trick pony. All of his movies are dark, most of his movies have Johnny Depp and Whats her name in it... But damnit I still enjoy his stuff.

Damn this was a busy week and I have actually watched a couple flicks for the first time in a while... I have been listening to the smodcast for a bit recently and started to get a little excited for this movie and hell look at the cast and the director... I had heard it was a buddy cop comedy but the reviews I read were pretty lousy so I didnt know what to think when going into it... But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised the movie was not only hilarious but was actually pretty cool... From the moment it started to the final seconds of the film I was laughing the whole time and enjoying myself... there were some corny parts and some jokes that were a little forced but the movie was hilarious the best part about the movie is that it reminded me of the classic buddy cop style movies i.e. lethal weapon, die hard, Beverly Hills cop, etc. So much so I am currently watching Lethal weapon 1 to get more of that. I would suggest this movie for anyone who enjoyed cop movies from the past and anyone who enjoys funny action flicks. The jokes were good the combo of Bruce and Tracy was hilarious and even all the side characters were great. If I was going to rate this I would give it a 8/10 for fun alone...

You Tube!!!

Ok so I am a man who loves Youtube and what they have become and I love the service they provide. Hell I would never imagined that I could watch Leroy Jenkins a million times over on one site. The site is just amazing. But one trait has started to become prevelant and annoying. For whatever reason every time SNL or someone puts out a funny video or a classic music video these stupid kids think they can do it just as good. I dont know why kids have video cameras to start with but why do they think I want to watch them remake one of my favorite SNL digital shorts.
This became more noticeable to me when I was on the Interweb searching for a digital short called letters to my sister. This was one of the earlier digital shorts staring Bill Hader, Andy Sandberg, Kristen Wiig, and guest star Shia LaBeouf. This video is so freakin Hilarious. But for whatever reason if you search for it on Youtube you will find like 200 videos and they are either complete remakes or they have some Douche bag kid editing themselves into it... Either way its annoying and frustrating. I dont know why every kid wants to make a video of themselves and put it online. I dont want to see some stupid kid with a video camera remake my favorite videos who would. Dont get me wrong now if you want to jump online and do something completely original and make it funny or so awkward that its funny go for it...
Like the starwars kid I loved the starwars kid... . A video that is so sad that its hilarious. This kind of stuff I want to see. But some kid remaking something that was already funny there is no art in that, I dont need that stuff in my life. And I cant count the times that I have jumped on youtube to watch this kid do his thing...

David Elsewhere the kid in the orange shirt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcUF3vGgwNc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiLK7S2fXqQ

and hell while looking for David Elsewhere I found these kids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HkFK_wTss0

This is impressive. This is what I want to see not some stupid kids trying to make a music video to some song and just looking the fool. I am tired of that shit. I say we stand up against it. I say we fight. We bring the war to the streets and protest. I SAY GIVE ME GOOD YOUTUBE VIDEOS OR GIVE ME DEATH. No more stupid punk ass kids showing the world how sad and uncreative they are. The only sad people that should be on the internet better be fat and trying to do something only skinny kids should be doing. No more stunner shade videos. No more kids trying to be cool. No more douche bags using video cameras their parents bought them to remake things that are funny. I Say Be Creative, Be Insightful, Be inventive. OR GET OFF THE WEB!!!!

Wolfman

I remember the first preview I saw of this film and I was damn excited to watch it. Then came the push back on the release... fear quickly overcame me and i was worried that the studio may have seen something in the movie that was not worth watching or that scared them. Because in the movie theater business everyone knows that February-April is the crap releases of film. Every once in a while you get a gem but as a whole you see movies that dont fit into the summer or Christmas releases. For example check out the movies that have come out since January... Day Breakers, Leap Year, Youth in Revolt, The Book of Eli, Legion, Tooth Fairy, Edge of Darkness, Percy Jackson, Cop Out, The Crazies, etc. These movies are not necessarily bad but are not all star movies. So the movie came out and i hesitated to watch it, my worst fears were already being confirmed though. As employees came and went to the movie and I did not hear one good thing come from it I was desperately worried.

So Saturday rolls around and i happen to have the day off so we decide to watch this movie. The film started out pretty slow and the distractions of people talking behind me was not the most frustrating part of the first half of the movie. Besides being slow the story was convoluted and pretty strange. But i was still holding out a little hope, then all of a sudden there was it was my gleam of hope, when you see the man transform into a werewolf for the first time, it looked very smooth and very clean, and sadly was literally the best part of the movie. As the man finishes his transformation the wolf that rises does not strike fear into my heart but laughter into my belly, because the wolf that rises is very similar to a wolf of many years past... I remember saying to myself, "wait is that a fucking teen wolf??" And sadly even though it looked identical to a werewolf from a low budget comedy of the 80's it was not in a sports jersy shooting hoops but rather was howling at the moon doing its best to be menacing. Even now I am struck with the realization that this is what the studio saw, this is the reason it got pushed back to the lower class season of movies. After this sad pathetic attempt at making a werewolf I was completely drawn out of the movie and found my self nodding off and laughing more then engaging in the film. When the end finally came I left that theater as quick as possible ready for cleansing my eyes and mind of that painful eye rape.

Overall I was really really excited for this movie after the first trailer, and when the posters came my excitement continued. I noticed my feelings turning a bit when the standee came out and it was cheap and pretty uninteresting, but I still held out hope. And even though my fellow employees warned me of what was to come I still held out some hope. But yet it was not worth the time. The film was bad. The only good thing that came from it was the transformation. The story was terrible and honestly a bit predictable. The makeup was just horrific and this coming from the day and age where you see amazing things happening on screen. I would suggest no one to watch this movie, maybe renter just out of morbid curiosity but nothing good came of it.

Sne@Ky