On October 4th, 2006, director Terry Gilliam took to the streets of New York to promote his new film, TIDELAND, and to seek alternative means for funding independent film…
Tideland opens this Friday, October 13th, at the IFC center in downtown New York.
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Also, be sure to check out our QuickCast interviews with Terry HERE.
The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦
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BOOK REVIEW: The Rebirth of Seeds
The Rebirth of Seeds (myspace.com/therebirthofseeds) by Renard E. Williams, and published by Event-Horizon publishers, is not your average book of poems. Many other poetry books are just filled with words of hopes and dreams accomplished and lost, but do not really leave the reader something to carry with themselves in their daily lives. Rebirth isn’t one of those books. In this collection Williams leave the reader with enough insightful heat to re-spark the soul in its journey to know itself. For him, the inspiration behind the book was to act as a guide to give his children a greater outlook on life.  “In writing this work, I wanted to make a sort of family manual-something I could pass on to my children so they wouldn’t make the same mistakes I did,” Williams explains.
Uniquely done, the book is broken down into three sections; poetry, commentaries on selected poems, and a glossary of terms. The book is an easy read no matter what frame of thought the reader is coming from. He bears his soul allowing the audience to see the internal struggles that are common to all. For example, the poem “Big Momma Speaks” talks about dealing with the loss of a loved one, and hearing their words in order to gain a better understanding of ourselves. Another poem in the book entitled, “INC” compares love relationships to corporations where each party comes with an agenda to only benefit themselves. Even more magnetizing, he eloquently speaks on social and spiritual issues from an unbiased observer’s point of view, so that everyone can take his words and apply it to their own situation. If that’s not enough he then bears his intellect so readers can see his thought process behind his writing in the commentaries. All in all “Rebirth” is a great re-remembering of what we’ve always known about ourselves but often tend to forget. For inquiries on the book, the publishing company can be contacted at UrbanGuru@MSN.com, and 323-281-1701.
The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦
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Have a THINGAMABOB? Send it in!
October 9, 2006
In last month’s column, I challenged you loyal PftL readers (as well as those opportunistic whores that just like to win free stuff) to come up with a superhero team based on Marvel Universe characters-only. Listed below are the ones (in no particular order) that, for one reason or another, did not make the grade along with the usual insipid comments about each team from yours truly.
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Gary from Minnesota goes for a self-described “second stringers” draft with the team living out of the Windy City, using Lila Cheney’s rock star money for backing and calling themselves “ShaodwFlight”:
Kitty Pride (Shadowcat) ““ The hardest person to come up with was a team leader. Most people who would make a good team leader are probably going to get snatched up right away (Captain America, Iron Man, Cyclops, Storm, Reed Richards, even Wasp). So I went with someone, who’s a little young, but has demonstrated leadership ability. She’s been trained by the best, she’s incredibly smart, proved her mettle, and did I mention she’s cute as a button? She helped form “Excalibur”, and she kept the team together despite some lackadaisical stories. But give her, her old blue costume with the mask. That was cool.
Emma Frost ““ You have a character who’s been around the block. She has incredible psi-powers, and she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. Very good addition
Talisman (Daughter of Michael TwoYoungmen) ““ Elisabeth brings that sorcery vibe that every team needs. But don’t get her when she doesn’t have any emotions. Get her later on in the series. She’s a little more powerful, and she isn’t confined to Canada. Plus, that costume was hot.
Strong Guy ““ Hey the name implies everything. He’s uber strong, and he brings a much needed sense of levity to the group. Plus, the shades are hip. Trying my darndest to stay away from mutants for the last two team members.
Puck ““ Yeah, he’s short, and he can do cartwheels at people. But imagine if Strong Guy used him for a fastball special. Plus, he’s going to be the grounded guy. The guy that holds this team together. Not only that, but he doesn’t take up a lot of room when they’re traveling. Good for those people who need the leg room.
Tigra ““ You always need that one character who’s walking a little close to the edge. Greer Nelson fits that bill. Tigra is my sixth member. She can work in a team environment, and she’s got her teams back(so she might lose it at any moment). Having a supportive team leader (Shadowcat), and a really strong mentor (Puck), she’d be able to make it. Plus, she can smell your fear, and she looks darn great in that outfit.
PftL’s Take: Well, Gary, I liked the name of the team and for using Kitty as a team leader (a role that she held when leading Warren Ellis-produced X-Men). But it just seemed more like an offshoot of the X-Men universe. It not a bad team; just not all that different than what is out there now.
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Here’s a team drafted by John in Florida with the moniker of “The Replacements” (sounds familiar):
Longshot (Leader) – Everybody’s favorite 3 fingered, lucky, X-Men wannabe would the leader for my team. He definitely has leadership skills, considering the rebellions against Mojo that he’s led several times, but he’s flawed too…mindwipes can do that to you. Plus, if Longshot is involved, Mojo works either as an enemy or an awkward Ally (Longshot leading his own super-team? RATINGS!)
Beast – No, this isn’t an X-Men thing. The fact of the matter is though is that Beast is simply brilliant. He’s one of the most gifted minds in the Marvel Universe, and with his wide areas of expertise, specifically with science and technology, he’d be a valuable asset to any team. Plus he’s a veteran of the superteam structure, (Being a member of various X-teams AND the Avengers). So I’m snatchin him up while the snatchin is good. He’s definitely 2nd in command and all-around Jack of All Trades material. Specifically, I’d prefer the Avengers era Beast with Blue fur but still mostly ape-like in appearance…I’m not diggin’ the cat thing.
Toxin (Patrick Mulligan) – The fact that he’s the offspring of Carnage will contribute to the overall bada$$ factor of the team. Toxin also has that wet-behind the ears protoge thing going on too as well as that deep angsty feeling of moral ambiguity and trying to control the inner beast that is the symbiote. Wolverine eat your heart out.
Nico Minoru (of the Runaways) – She’s young, she’s cynical, she’s magic. What’s not to like? Magic: when it’s on your side is never a bad thing and the “Staff of One’ is a neat little artifact. There might be some tension here, since she doesn’t really fit the classic “hero” archtype and is annoyed by people who do (check out Young Avengers and Runaways #2 if you need proof). But I think she could be persuaded by Longshot’s charm.
Echo – With photographic reflexes, Echo has the adaptation feature on her side. Plus as has been demonstrated in New Avengers, Echo has serious infiltration skills that could be put to use. Just supply her with lots and lots of file footage and she’s good to go.
Rom The Spaceknight – We have the token alien and backup tech head here. His nifty little tools and ability to stow things in a pocket dimension help, not to mention his super strength, invulnerability and big friggin’ lazer would make Rom a serious heavy hitter and clean up man.
PftL’s Take: John, I dug your inclusion of ROM (who never seems to get his proper respect for his Sci-Fi contributions to comics in the 80s/90s) and the attempt to turn Toxin into a force for good on this team. However, with the one-trick player that is Nico, the team does drop a little. And that drop is just enough to make a difference.
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Dewey from the Quaker State gives his draft picks then explains his team’s name (This team is about stealth, with many different specialties here. I know the “undercover ops” superhero concept is getting a little stale, but this team is well-equipped to handle just about anything: espionage, supernatural threats, and scientific curiosities, in addition to any supervillain shenanigans. Note the motif for the majority of the team, and take another look at the team name. Where are the Wild Things? Right here baby.):
Black Widow (Natasha Romanov): The original Black Widow is our team leader. She has been a soldier, a spy, a superhero. Bonus points for being the hottest redhead in comics, and Trinity before there was anything called a “matrix.” (Just ask Bryan Hitch.) She has been on many teams, and is apparently worthy of being a “Mighty” Avenger when this whole Civil War shakes out. Natasha has been a valued compatriot of both Daredevil and Captain America. For her costume, there is no other choice but the full black spandex with gold gauntlets. Did I mention she is my favorite comic book character of all time?
The Falcon: Every team needs a quality flier, and with his newly updated wing system he is modern, and kick-ass. (Though I have a soft spot for the 70’s costume–heck, I had the action figure!) You’ve got surveillance, you’ve got air power, you’ve got a real “bird of prey.” There’s a reason why Captain America trusts him with his life. There can be no higher recommendation.
Diamondback: Let’s fulfill our “villain as a hero” quotient right here. And hey, look at that, she has ties to Captain America! Her story has gotten incredibly convoluted, but take the classic Gruenwald era character, and do a Geoff Johns-style reboot on her, and she is ready to take her place on this team.
The Lizard: OK, another “villain as a hero.” Curt Conners is a scientist, so he would lend knowledge to this team (every team needs that geek who can go all “CSI” for them. Or, if you want a little more old-school–Giles.) And when the chips are down, he can become the savage Lizard. Might be due for a little Peter David rewrite where Conners finds some way to merge his intellect with the Lizard–but not all the way. (Yeah, I had this action figure, too.)
Paladin: Sure, he’s got a goofy costume (or is it so out-there, it is actually cool?) But he’s a crack shot, and every team that does not have an archer should have a gunslinger. This one’s my guy.
Jennifer Kale: It is good to have a mystic on your team, and if you are a Steve Gerber fan, you can’t go wrong with Kale. Besides, the team is nicely balanced, and I dare you to find a hotter bunch than this one!
Team Mascot: Howard the Duck. No, I am not cheating by putting in a mascot. No, he is not a seventh member. Sigh. Whatever. He has been a survivor, battled all kinds of menaces martial and supernatural, and his origin is tied into the Nexus of All Realities. If you considered this a pitch, you might see where some of this is going for stories…
PftL’s Take: I liked the pick of Wendy the Good Little Witch (Jennifer Kale). And you’re right on Paladin’s costume. But this team lacks some brute strength and physical toughness. Gotta have someone who will just roll up their sleeves, barge in and mix it up with anyone. Outside of that, this team is a good one.
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New Jersey’s own Adam J. offers his team named “The Pliskin Six”:
The Thing – One of Marvel’s iconic characters is sure to go in the first two rounds. I figure my team needs a tank, but one that is a little more dependable than the Hulk, or of better record than someone like Rhino. Also, this is a public team, so I can’t think of a better person to earn the public’s trust (BTW- I’m with Iron Man). The ever-loving blue eyed Thing will never leave a fallen comrade, is about as brave as anyone in the Marvel U, and is stronger than just about anyone. His years of experience working in a team atmosphere also make him a solid first rounder. Also has a catchphrase.
Iceman – Probably drafted a tad too high, but his popularity will more than likely have rushed him, and he’s someone I just need to have on my team. Ice sliding makes him the equivalent of a speedster. He also can covertly disable security systems with his sub zero temperatures should a mission call for it. His ability to see heat signatures also helps in stealth missions. Like Grimm, has mucho team experience. Most importantly though, he’s an Omega level mutant, which means almost unlimited power.
Exodus – A forgotten product of the 1990’s, Exodus is a solid sleeper pick at the third round. He’s near invulnerable, can fly, produce various psionic energies, and can even bring the dead back to life. He has shown himself capable of simultaneously:
1) Amplifying Genoshan mutates’ hatred of humans;
2) Crushing Genosha via a massive force field;
3) Immobilising (sic) Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Crystal and Jean Grey in another force field;
4) Protecting himself from attacks; and,
5) Dealing out massive amounts of damage to both the X-Men and the Avengers. Bad Ass.
Multiple Man – One man army. Any and all physical contact creates a duplicate, so he really can’t be stopped. Near unlimited intelligence due to the fact that he frequently (sic) sends duplicates into the world to learn various skills he can reassimilate. Has worked for the government before, so he will be a welcome addition in the new, post Civil War Marvel.
Black Widow (Natasha Romanov)(Team Captain) – The woman’s a pro. I figure she’d fall this low to her lack of “powers” but there are few tactitians (sic), combat fighters, stealth, and beautiful characters in all of comics. She’s been a member of S.H.I.E.L.D for God knows how long, and was the right hand lady of Nick Fury for most of her tenure. Also, has ties with Iceman from their Champions Days together, has worked with a Jaime Madrox dupe in S.H.I.E.L.D., and worked with Grimm after the Secret War debacle. It’s her time to lead. Anytime you can get a team captain at #5 means that it’s a good pick. She also has Avengers ties to the last member of the team”¦
Mr. Immortal – So he’s a Great Lakes Avenger (or Great Lakes X-Man, or Great Lakes Champion, or whatever it is their called now). The dude can’t die. Ever. And he’s a homo-superior. What more could you want?
Exodus is the one wild card of this team. I’m unsure how well he would work not being the team letter. That’s part of the reason I stacked this team with so many mutants. Some similar genes may ease him into the team. Widow isn’t so headstrong and self absorbed where she’d be a “my way or the highway” type leader. She would assess everyone’s attributes and come up with the most rational plan available.
PftL’s Take: Adam, good pick with the Thing ““ not many people go for Ben Grimm when picking a team. However, Mr. Immortal is very similar to Nico of the Runaways as far as having one power and not a very solid one. And I would think that the eventual downfall of the team would be at the hands of Exodus. Here’s a choice selection from Marvel Universe’s bio on the guy:
“”¦Exodus has displayed a fragile psyche, as well as a fundamental disregard for the lives of regular humans”¦ Presumed to be one of the most powerful mutants on Earth, Exodus’ mental instability and lack of morals make him an unpredictable, extremely dangerous individual.”
Yikes, he has too much Mike Tyson in his character for my tastes.
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Here’s J.A. from Connecticut with his team and subsequent justification (My concept is for a group of individuals who can work well together, but have versatile power sets that allow each member to play multiple roles as needed.):
Team Leader ““ The Multiple Man: Jamie Madrox ““ Why the leader? He’s cutting his teeth as a leader in the new X-Factor books, and seems to be doing well despite some personal insecurity. Why him in general? His powers are versatile, often under-estimated, and always used creatively. Jamie tends to fill a support role to other team mates in a fight, but his powers come in very handy when information gathering in the field.
Psylocke: Betsy Braddock (The British, Pre Ninja, armored X-men version) ““ Betsy has experience as the temporary leader of Excaliber. As such, she makes an excellent second in command. Her telepathy can provide vital information to teammates quickly, and while armored she is a capable support fighter.
The Invisible Woman: Sue Richards ““ Long established as a team player, I’d imagine Sue would get along even better when not taking orders from her husband while in the field. Her powers are an excellent blend of offensive and defensive, and she can fill either role in a pinch.
Speedball: Robert Baldwin ““ He’s personable and also a well established team player from his time with the New Warriors. Like Sue, his powers are both defensive and offensive, but more importantly they are unexpected by most super-villains.
Box: Richard Bochs ““ He’s intelligent enough to construct a robot, which would make him the brains of the team. While controlling his robot, he becomes the strong man of the group, and gains the supplemental powers of flight and various sensory equipment. I’ll take brains and brawn in one package any day.
Warlock: (New Mutants Era) ““ Warlock’s metamorphic powers by nature can adapt to numerous situations. I like the New Mutants version because he’s much more of an innocent (which will offset some of Madrox’s brooding) and (in my humble opinion) displays greater loyalty to his teammates.
PftL’s Take: The Roger Bochs pick was a deft one. But with the number of X-Men/Alpha Flight members on the team, the team suffers from a lack of an identity.
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Corey T. from sunny FLA submits his team:
Mr. Fantastic (Team Leader): Going for consistency using the same first pick I did last year. It seems to me that, the arguably smartest man in the Marvel Universe should be the team leader. Not only is he a master strategist, but his ability to train other heroes in the use of their powers is unparalleled.
Doctor Strange: OK, it might be claim this is too powerful of a character or too big of name to be claiming for a second pick. But if anyone read one issue of any Defenders comics, it should be obvious that this man should never lead a team. But Strange isn’t just here for power, but more to give the team the necessary knowledge and resources to deal with magical threats. The one of the only weak spots in Reed Richards abilities.
Iceman: We got a glimpse of the true extent of Iceman’s powers when Emma Frost took over his body, but lately he’s been showing us even more.
Winter Soldier (Bucky): So, I can’t take Captain America. Alright, I’ll take the man’s backup. Sure, he might be a wild card due to mental issues, but there’s no denying his abilities.
Cloak: It was between a teleporter or a speedster and Marvel seems to have more of the former than the latter. As cool as Nightcrawler is, for the 5th pick it had to be Cloak. This is fine by me, though. He is a great mass teleporter, despite the discomfort of his passengers.
Victor Mancha: OK, so he just got shredded in the Young Avengers/Runaways Civil War Special, but that’s why a teenager is not a team leader. He got shredded due to arrogance. It’s already been shown how super hero obsessed he is. Amongst this crowd, I don’t think arrogance is going to be an issue. Not to mention, he has Reed Richards to point out that Shield has dealt with both Magneto and Polaris so they probably have weapons for super folks with magnetic control. Besides from trying to justify this pick despite the character recent injuries, he is also a creation of Ultron with the power one would expect Ultron to provide. On top of this, the potential of his magnetic powers, as well as his secondary abilities, have just begun to be tapped.
PftL’s Take: Ya know, I almost picked Cloak for my team so, of course, I dig that pick. The same goes for the doctor. As for the others, ehh. I’m just not feeling it, dog. Again, half of the team is X-Men derived. Two is okay but three is a bit too much.
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Kasey from Utah goes for the classic old-school style with his team, aptly named “The Dudes In Red Tights”:
Leader ““ Daredevil. Despite the theme I thought it would be best to have at least one legitimate hero. Daredevil is the only member of the team who I actually know something about.
Red Guardian ““ Since I was looking for red tights, I found this guy first and was immediately intrigued and impressed. A communist Captain America for the Soviets. A close ally of Stalin. I figure now that the dream of communism has withered to a mere whisper in the Cuban coastal winds, this guy would be looking for work (something he wouldn’t have to do if communism were still popular). Bitter, disillusioned and desperate, Red Guardian could be the obligatory cynical naysayer of the Dudes In Red Tights team.
Hellion ““ The team needed mind powers and this guy fit the bill with his telekinesis. He also seems like a good candidate to go off on his own and get into trouble, something every team needs.
Crimson Crusader ““ CC is actually pretty damn powerful. Control gravity? Hells yeah! Unfortunately, he is powerless without his sister Pandora around. Too bad she doesn’t have red tights stretched over a manly package or she could’ve been on the team too. Alas, without her, he supplies the “˜Aquaman’ role on the team.
Rocket Racer ““ This is by far my favorite member of the team. A skateboard riding brother from the seventies. He doesn’t have super strength, or psychic ability or any of that crap, he shoots motherf***in’ rockets! Out of his wrists. And he rides a skateboard thing too. That is freakin’ badass. I envision Rocket Racer as the reliable backbone of the team who doesn’t need to upstage anybody else.
PftL’s Take: Kasey, there’s some good stuff here. But, as you mention in your write-up, Crimson Crusader is, essentially, useless unless his sis is backing him up; eerily similar to the Wonder Twins. And since there’s only five members, The Dudes in Red Tights are a little light in those tights.
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Aaron from across the pond in Ireland sends in his my ideal team-up since I was about 12 (albeit with a few minor changes) with the team name of “The New York Knights”:
1) Daredevil (Matthew Murdock) – Not only has this character been consistently at the top of the “great reads” list for the last couple of years but he has also stayed very clear of super hero groups. A trait which while character driven, annoyed the hell out of me. I’ve always thought he would make a fantastic reluctant leader and with his strict vision for justice and morality has the back-bone to be a believable one. And also, less we forget his very cool outfit…
2) Luke Cage – Long time close friend of Daredevil and long time bad-ass also. It would be more than easy to believe Luke would follow DD into the gates of hell, if not just for loyalty but for the love of handing out some ass-whoopin. One of the only (to my mind) legitimately “street” characters in the Marvel Universe and finally getting his due on the Avengers run. His personality works great in a team environment as he’s just that little bit different from every other “hero”.
3) Iceman (Bobby Drake) – I’ll be honest, I have loved this boy from the day I was born. Remember the “Spiderman and Friends” TV series from the early 80s? My favourite show as a child. I’ve stayed loyal to him despite him being pretty much over-looked in x-men history. This is one of the originals folks! Fuck Cable, where’s Bobby Drake? He’s well adverse to team-environments (so much so that you can play 5 degrees of separation with him and his other team members far too easily), already New York based and with powers growing by the issue along with a new frosty demeanor (god I love puns) to go with it.
4) Archangel (Warren Worthington III) – A character who, when you look into his history, had been tormented from the word go. Never had an easy break as far as personal (and physical) life goes but was blessed with inheriting a fortune. He’s also an original x-man with Iceman who in recent years has been slightly forgotten The possible ‘cash’ behind the group or the teams ‘iron-man’, depending on how you want to look at it. Easy competition for leader of the group. Either way, an obviously solid addition to the team but also gives the advantage of having the wonderful payoff of having both an Angel and a Devil in the team 🙂
5) Hawkeye (Clint Barton) – Recently deceased, but when has that stopped a comic-book character before? I love the idea of having a non-super powered hero in a team. It always leaves room for jealousy and over-compensation. But it also adds an element of weaponry, something that is always forgotten about when it’s usually a big bruising punch-up. What kid doesn’t love cool gadgets? Hawkeye had the lot A huge amount of experience with the Avengers, but can he handle life without Cap and Stark? The token outsider to the group. That pointy mask has got to go though…
6) Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) – The “hot-piece-of-ass” in the group but don’t let looks deceive you, this girl can hold her own. She is often placed as the fun loving, reformed bad-girl in the Marvel Universe, but don’t forget folks, her decent into the costume world started because she was date-raped in college. Heavy stuff. A worthy counter-balance to Spiderman (and also her anchor to the group through his friendship to DD) she would be integral element to the team dynamic With her ability to “affect probability fields” aswell, she would add a nice bit of comic-book cheese if the writer saw fit. (Such a stupid power, but fantastically absurd at the same time)
PftL’s Take: Double A, this one was solid. However, the balance just seems off. I would actually expect to see this lineup in a Defenders-style comic. Not that it’s a bad thing but it’s somewhat bland.
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Michael from our friends in the Great White North offers two groups. The first one is called “Hell Hath Nick Fury”:
1. Thor (Simonson era) – Thor provides both power and passion. I don’t believe there’s anyone in the MU that can realistically go toe-to-toe with him (with the exception of Odin, but let’s not go there). I also don’t believe there’s anyone in comicdom that can go toe-to-toe with him (Superman be damned).
2. Nick Fury (mid-90s) – The leader. He brings smarts, tactics, and gadgets. What more do you need?
3. Doctor Strange – Mystic and psychic power — a lot of mystic and psychic power. Welcome aboard, Doc.
4. Invisible Woman – Stealth and hotness. Both vital.
5. Blade – Sheer brutality on a day-to-day basis. Also, what if the team happens to run into vampires?
6. Speedball – Speed, balls, and comic relief.
PftL’s Take: Hey, it’s a shout-out pick for Blade, which is surprising since the movies did so well. Outside of that pick, the rest are decent; just too blah, I guess. And who would’ve thought that that irrepressible Speedball would get selected more than once? Not me, that’s for sure.
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Michael also submitted the first all-villain group named “Doom and Gloom”:
1. Doctor Doom — Not the stupid movie version. He’s the leader. The kickass ruler of Latveria. One of the few villains that could get a team together and keep them together through brains, cash, and force of personality.
2. Juggernaut — The muscle. Nuff said.
3. Mystique — Shapeshifting is both cool and useful. She’s also got a wicked mean streak.
4. Scarlet Witch (Brotherhood) — Brings the psychic pain.
5. Deadpool — Because assassins are cool.
6. Quicksilver (Brotherhood) — Fills the need for speed. Also, it’s nice to keep siblings together.
PftL’s Take: Honestly, this team, outside of Deadpool, is the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, plain and simple. It could’ve been better, really.
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Jesse from The West Coast also sent two teams in for the contest. The first one is called “The All-New and Improved West Coast Defenders”:
#1 Captain America (leader) (setting: current) ““ My first pick, and leader, is Captain America. Captain America has led not only the Avengers, but often takes a leadership role when the MU is gathered against an overwhelming force (Secret Wars, the Infinity Gauntlet saga, and Operation Galactic Storm all come to mind). Guys like Thor and Hercules respect and follow his command. He takes the time to train and improve the members of his team, both as individuals and as a unit. Having Cap lead a team may be a clichéd, but it is so for a reason.
#2 Beta-Ray Bill (setting: current) ““ A warrior’s heart, a hammer with the powers of Mjolnir, and now stranded on Earth, Beta Ray Bill is my second pick for this team. Loyal and brave Bill is a hero that serves to strengthen any team. In the larger team dynamic Bill, fills the role of both the heavy hitter, and a defense against both mystic and cosmic foes.
#3 Clea Strange (setting: 70s/80s) ““ Heroes join together in order to face those threats that no single hero can withstand. In the MU, there are often strange visitors from distant dimensions who come to conqueror reality. Every team needs a mystic to face such opponents. With my third pick I have chosen Clea Strange. Every bit the accomplished mystic as her husband, but sadly often ignored and even unknown by current fans, Clea is both a warrior and a nurturer who will compliment and support this team both on and off the field.
#4 Beast (setting: early 90s) ““ My fourth pick is the one and only Hank McCoy. Blue, furry, and non-cat like, Hank McCoy. Granted everyone has a preference as to what Beast should look like. But I chose this era of his career not only for the way he looked, but the way he acted as well. I chose the version of Beast who would just as soon make a joke and cause trouble as bust out a 37 word sentence to answer if he wanted take-out for dinner that night. Every team needs a comedian to keep things light during tense situations. Hank has a brilliant mind, is a proven fighter, and as already mentioned will serve to keep the spirits of the team high.
#5 Franklin Richards (setting: early 90s) ““ Most readers know Franklin from his series of Calvin and Hobbes knock offs. However, there was a time when the first born of Marvel’s First Family, had power to spare. Any kid that can create entire dimensions (all be it a dimension where everyone has misshapen feet), would be a welcomed addition to any team. Obviously, his age and inexperience in the field serve as detractors to his inclusion on the team; however I believe that the tutelage and care of Clea would provide the guidance needed for Franklin to come in to his own as a hero. The watchful and nurturing eye of Clea would also help to elevate the doubts and concern that Sue would have in placing her child in such a dangerous situation.
#6 Mockingbird (setting 80s) (I am assuming since we are allowed to choose the era of our characters, we can choose an era from before they died (heck, if Bucky can make it back from the dead”¦) ) ““ Mrs. Barbara “Bobbi” Morse Barton aka Mockingbird is the last pick for my team. Since she is technically dead, I felt that she was safe to save for the last pick; however she is far from the weakest member of the team. Bobbi has been trained as a spy and in the art of hand to hand combatant. Both of these skills will be helpful to the All-New Defenders. She has served on teams in the past, and knows what it takes to work alongside others.
PftL’s Take: This team is solid from top to bottom, except for little Richards. I remember that he has some sort of god-level powers (just try to forget “Heroes Reborn”. I dare you). But for me, he nicks this team ever so slightly to knock from the top spot.
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Comprised of mainly supporting characters is the genesis for the name of Jesse’s second team ““ “The 8 Page Back-Ups”:
This team consists of misfits, and heroes who are for one reason or another out of sync with the world in which they live. I found that looking for heroes that fit the “person out of time” mold, many came from the world of Captain America. I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise. Choosing mostly supporting characters, lead to the creation of the team’s name. Each of these heroes have served in supporting roles in various places around the MU. Now is there time to shine as individuals and as a team.
#1 Nick Fury (leader) (setting: 70s and 80s) ““ The Nick Fury I have chosen to lead this team is the gruff yet lovable, Nick Fury of days gone by. With his ever present cigar, and his habit of calling those under him “Goldbricks”, Nick is a season veteran of both domestic and foreign wars. He knows when to push his team, and when to give them their space. He is comfortable staying behind to monitor and lead missions, but is willing and able to enter the fray and mix it up with the bad guys. Nick lives as a man who is way past his prime and should have long been forced into retirement due to failing health. However, thanks to regular doses of the Infinity Formula, he continues to fight the good fight. As a man out of time in his own right, he will be able to relate to the others on his team.
#2 Winter Solider (Bucky Barnes) (setting: current) ““ The Winter Solider is a highly trained spy, combatant, and sniper. Bucky has worked solo and in team settings. He fought in WWII, and is now only the physical age of a twenty-something. He is currently working with Fury, so we know that the two of them can work together. He is a perfect fit for this team.
#3 Spitfire (setting: current) ““ Jacqueline is trained at combat, has worked in team settings, and also can serve as the team’s speedster. Once again, she is a WWII alum who is currently in the body of a twenty-something. She has worked with both Bucky and Fury in the past. Both of these elements make her yet another perfect fit for the 8 Page Back-Ups.
#4 Lockjaw (setting: 80s) ““ There is not a bigger misfit in the MU. Part of a team deemed as “inhuman” with a base relegated to Earth’s moon, Lockjaw would fit nicely into a team of outcasts. Ok, so the above is stretching it a bit, and the current status quo is that Lockjaw is nothing but a big old dog, so why would I want him on the team? I choose to think of the characterization of Lockjaw that was given to us by the infamous John Bryne, the Lockjaw who could speak, but seldom chose to. I know there were objections to Lockjaw being that intelligent compared to the way he was treated by the Inhumans, but I never saw that as a problem. Sure they didn’t speak to him much, but he isn’t exactly a conversationalist. And if his dinner was served in a bowl away from the family, that doesn’t meant they were disrespecting Lockjaw. Rather they were giving him his dignity. His anatomy doesn’t allow him to sit at a table with the rest of the royal family, and no doubt having (again due to his physical make-up) to eat from a bowl is not a pleasant or dignified experience. Allowing him to do so away from everyone else actually bestows dignity on him. Lockjaw knows what it means to be an outcast that is why he has befriended Ben Grimm. I say we return him to that characterization of intelligent, noble, and yet silent. So now that he belongs on the team, can he aid in the field? I would think his strength coupled with his power of teleportation would come in handy, and more than fill this need.
#5 Doughboy (setting: late 80s/early 90s) ““ The Doughboy I have chosen for this team is the one that is rid of the Primis persona. He is simply a pliable creature ready to serve his current master. His loyalty and his shape shifting abilities would know doubt help the team in combat and on missions. Not to mention is there not a bigger outcast than someone who is basically a giant blob of barley sentiment play-dough.
#6 Valeria Richards (setting: 2027 – Again I am pushing “the choose the era” rule here) What I mean by 2027 (is that given the MU that is currently published and set in 2006) in 2027 Valeria will be roughly 22 years old. Plus we all know that at some point there will be another future story, or a way to age Valeria to adulthood, cause FF and time travel are like Pirates and Bluebeard.) ““ Valeria Richards (the current toddler and second child of Reed and Sue for those of you keeping track at home) all grown-up (prematurely matured and/or brought to the present from the past) is the final member of this team. Granted, she hasn’t shown any powers yet, but she no doubt possesses them. Just look at her parents. Speaking of possession, Valeria also has whatever latent powers that were put in her as she is the familiar spirit of Doctor Doom. In fact the betrayer in our midst (and controlled by Dr. Doom) is a great twist for any happy little family and team. Valeria much older than she should be and/or out of time, betrays the team, then its found out to be Doom all along, and the team works to have her feel accepted, and keep her on in the team. That is my sixth, and needlessly complicated final pick for my team the 8 Page Back-Ups.
PftL’s Take: I commend the Lockjaw pick since that creature is probably the coolest dog in all of comics ““ even ahead of Krypto. But, yeah, the Valeria pick is a leap since there has not been any documented (read scripted) history on her character as an adult. Plus, if you’re going to commit to a theme team of back page heroes, you really can’t justify someone who had his own title.
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Well, who did win? Well, while the entry pool was considerably less than it was last year, this year was still hard to decide who the winner would be. After tossing and turning over it for a couple of days and making cases for all of the submissions, there was just one that caught my eye just a smidge more than the others.
So, congrats to JR from Parts Unknown and his winning entry:
Photon (Leader) ““ That’s right. Monica Rambeau. Why, you ask? Well, there’s plenty of reason. She used to lead the Avengers. She currently leads Nextwave, or whatever that weird Ellis team is called. (I wouldn’t know, I’m not reading that book.) She’s got a military background. She’s got a pretty cool looking costume. But most importantly: She’s probably one of the fastest characters in the Marvel Universe. At top speed, she’s moving at the speed of light. That’s to the sun and back in sixteen minutes. She can be pretty much anywhere on the planet before you can even think about calling her. Add in her leading experience and you’ve got an extremely valuable player.
Doc Sampson ““ Every team needs a strong guy, and Sampson’s traded blows with the Hulk. That’s a good recommendation. Also, he’s a doctor. I’m not sure in what anymore, but he is a doctor, and any kind of booksmarts comes in handy. Just give him his suit with the lightning bolt and something to keep his hair in place so he can grow it longer and we’ve got our tanker!
Karnak ““ This Inhuman’s underrated, in my opinion. If you use him right, he’s tactical perfection. The ability to find the weakest point in something and how to break it is painfully useful. Pair him up with Doc Sampson and have him tell the Doctor where to hit. It’s a match made in heaven! Plus, his connections with the Inhumans Royal Family don’t hurt.
Equinox, the Thermodynamic Man ““ I’d have trouble trying to think of a more obscure character. He popped up two or three times in Marvel Team-Up, if you’re interested. Basically, he’s got control over both fire and ice. It’s like having the Human Torch and Iceman in one crazy-go-nuts shell with horns for some reason! But for serious, he’s about as strong as Spider-Man (not awe-inspiring in the Marvel U, but it’s something) and has some elemental control. Sure, he’s a villain, but you can throw one of those Suicide Squad collars on him, or whatever the Marvel version is. He’s powerless now, but we’re allowed to futz with the time period, so let’s have him at the peak of his powers, in that issue of MTU with Yellowjacket.
Unus the Untouchable ““ Every team needs a mutant. Why not Unus? He’s an ex-con with nothing to lose, and force fields to project. The entire team runs into the battle, light beams flying, fire and ice going every which way, but they need a few seconds to observe the situation. Keep Unus close, within a tight enough proximity that he can cover everyone with a shield, and move as quickly as possible to where they need to be. He’s a powerful support member who can also assist in combat, via force field-shoving. Oh, and as for the time period I want for him: the not-dead one, and also the not-crazy one. Here’s hoping there’s some overlap.
Longshot ““ All right, we’ve got a leader who can turn into light. We’ve got two strong guys, one who can control half the elements. We’ve got a tactical genius. We’ve got shielding. Now, all we need is a little bit of luck. That’s where Longshot comes in. He can use his lucky powers to shove the forces of fate into the team’s hands. Plus, he’s a pretty good fighter and acrobat, so he can assist in combat without a problem.
PftL’s Take: As I looked over all of the picks, this one kept coming back to me. It’s a very solid and tough team. There are some questions ““ the capability of being team players by both of the villains being the obvious one. But having Photon as the leader was great and seeing guys like Doc Sampson (very underrated) and Karnak picked really filled out the team. If Ellis or Benids wrote a one-shot of this one, I would be the first in line.
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Thanks to everyone who took the time to submit a team this year. It was really appreciated.
Well, I’m off the Longbox this week. Come back next week for the final edition of Preachin’ from the Longbox. Until then, don’t forget to keep you bags and boards together and your continuity straight.
by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose with colors by Anthony Lee
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Disclaimer: All material in Spook’d is fictitious and intended solely for the purpose of entertainment. Names are fabricated and any similarity to real people or places is purely coincidental except in those cases where public figures are being satirized.
Let’s state this up front. The Departed is Martin Scorsese’s best movie in a long time. Yes, it depends on how you define “best,” but for me it is his best since the terribly underrated Bringing Out the Dead, which is the last Scorsese movie that feels” like a Scorsese movie rather than some heartless Oscar whoring prestige production.
That being said, here are some qualifications. The middle drags. The final shoot out goes “a body too far” (explanation to follow). And I hated the rat on the rail in the last shot. What the hell did it mean? What does it mean? The film is also more straightforward than most Scorsese movies. And despite what Michael Ballhaus says, there is more violence in The Departed than in Infernal Affairs.Still, it is Scorsese’s “late masterpiece,” as they say in the quarterlies. And surprisingly, it is as good as the source film, 2002’s Infernal Affairs, though there are some key differences. Infernal Affairs may be more psychologically nuanced (the Matt Damon equivalent discovers that he likes being a cop), but The Departed sports a terrific cast, well used, an intelligent script, non-stop music; it is a Scorsese buff’s wet dream.
Yet there is a strange tone of detachment that hangs over the film. It’s that unfelt glossy bloat that afflicted Gangs of New York, supposedly a life long “dream project,” and The Aviator, which felt like a job for hire. Scorsese’s last explicit job for hire, Cape Fear, was an interesting psychological study beneath its suspense surface, but has more in common with The Departed than with Aviator.
An increasingly important figure in Scorsese’s films, at least since Alice, is the unsubtle manifestation of pure irrational evil. This figure of evil, who marches through Scorsese’s films in the form of Keitel as Sport in Taxi Driver, Joe Pesci’s character in Casino, and Cutter Gangs of New York, probably has his roots in the director’s Catholicism, though external evil of this kind is not the focus or concern of the religion. Sometimes the “evil” is the central character’s divided self, such as Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, and even the shaver in the short film The Big Shave. Indeed, a tour of Scorsese’s filmography suggests that his strongest films highlight his interest in or exploration of this ominous figure and the weakest have no villain (Kundun, Aviator). An exception is Bill Cutter in Gangs. Despite Scorsese’s attention to detail, the film still feels (that is, assuming that we have all seen the ideal cut).
Yet, The Departed does go over some of the same terrain as Gangs of New York. Both are tales of a youth (Leonardo DiCaprio) going undercover to defeat a brazenly evil man who, to different degrees, knew his father. And both share an interest, a fascination, a revulsion even, for a figure of absolute evil. Nicholson’s Frank Costello is in line with Scorsese’s earlier portraits of callous gangsters who brook no dissension, be it Keitel’s uncle in Mean Streets, who insists that the epileptic Teresa is “sick in the head, or Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas. Nicholson’s addition to the template is a heightened level of scary wackiness. What’s interesting to contemplate about his character is why people love or obey him in the first place. His top aide, Mr. French (Ray Winstone), is loyal, and Damon’s character is devoted, but why? What do they get out of it, since Costello gets all the money and the girls. And despite his ferociousness, characters like DiCaprio’s, who seem to be in constant jeopardy, talk back at him. There is even an element of the Whitey Bulger case in that Costello, it turns out, is a protected FBI informant, which really pisses off Sullivan, who feels betrayed by this underhanded, behind the back self-insurance.
I was surprised by two things. One, its fidelity to the source film, and how dark some of the early shots were, in defiance of what Ballhaus said in his AC interview. There, you will recall, Ballhaus said that he complained that Infernal Affairs is too dark at times. Yet Ballhaus starts out his film, intentionally of course (to mask Nicholson’s age for scenes set 15 years earlier) with shots of the actor in dark silhouette.
In his script, William Monahan ( Kingdom of Heaven) makes two key changes. In Infernal Affairs, undercover cop Tony Leung sees a police psychiatrist who seems to know that he is an undercover cop, while gang mole Andy Lau marries an aspiring novelist, and whom he met (as seen in 2) when she was arrested for public drunkenness. In Monahan’s version, DiCaprio’s Billy Costigan and Damon’s Colin Sullivan “share” the same woman, psychiatrist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga, whom you all remember from the great Running Scared), which strikes me as a peculiarly American obsession or at least an obsession of movie makers. Second, Monahan changes Sullivan’s motivation. Lau finds that he likes being a cop, and part of the actions he takes at the end, including killing Sam, are designed to insure that he can continue to thrive as a cop.
But these are interesting variations on a great premise. And The Departed proves to be one of the few films released this year worth talking about at this length.
THE TURNING POINT
Last week I set out a plan to take over the world. Cleverly disguised as an invitation to filmmakers to shoot a short film by the end of this month, this call to arms will be seen in the coming years as THE BEGINNING OF THE END!!!!!!!! Or, quite possibly, THE END OF THE BEGINNING!! Or, if historians mishandle the facts, THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE. But I surmise that THIS, October 6th in the year of our lord 2006, is a turning point for us all!!!*
*(“us all” being myself and the two people reading this)
TO THIEF A CATCH
Still struggling for a topic for your short? Relying on the old adage that “all good ideas are taken?” Amen, I say. My advice in this situation is quite simple: steal. Steal like the dickens. There’s no room for shame in the movie business “not after “Anaconda”. Do you know how many “Casablanca” rip-offs were made after that film struck gold? Now obviously, you don’t want your film to stink of unoriginality. So be SPECIFIC about your thieving. Make it a challenge. See if you can steal a single line from each of your twenty favorite films and make a story based on those lines. Try avoiding the obvious ones, like “We are now the knights who say: Icky Icky Icky Sublang Whupsunofverch…” But steal a couple of gems, a couple of random quips, and you’re on your way.
BORED? STORYBOARD!
Today I’m putting the finishing touches on my storyboards. This, in my opinion, is the most helpful preproduction you can possibly do. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been brought to the set of a film only to stand around as the director and cinematographer wander around looking for the perfect shot. Time wasted. Just the act of sitting down to conceptualize how your story is going to look will shift your thinking. You’ll etch a dialogue between two people and immediately know whether it looks right. If it doesn’t, go back to any film you love and study where the cinematographer puts the faces on the screen. Next week, I’ll post a sequence of these shots for y’all. If you’re doubting your directorial expertise, I guarantee storyboarding will get you over that hump.
HAVE YOU CALLED YOUR MOTHER LATELY?
To make this film on the cheap, you’ve got to aim high and buy LOW. It’d be great to have a fully paid union crew, but we all know that ain’t gonna’ happen. And it’s okay. Darren Aronofsky’s mother worked catering for his first film, “Pi”. Does the film LOOK like it was shot by a misfed crew? Not so much. So grab as many people who love you or owe you money, and ask them to take some time out of their upcoming weekend(s). And remember, you may lose friends by overworking them, but your mother will always be your mother no matter how much she wants out of it.
REFORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE
Right now is the perfect time to take advantage of new media formats, as well as old. Places like Pro8 (find it on the web at www.pro8mm.com) here in LA offer their own quality 8mm film stock. If you’ve got an old Super 8 camera, you’re halfway there. It costs around $35 to buy and process a role of Super 8 film. Granted, a role is only 3 minutes long, but if you maximize your shoot, you can get everything you need in the can for under $150. Or shoot with the old Fisher Price PXL200. Or take a thousand shots with your cell phone camera. Whatever format you shoot in, just make sure it doesn’t look like you hired your sister to do the lighting (which, most likely, you did).
SHOOT THE SHORT, AVOID “THE SHLONG”
We shot a great film three years ago called “Advantage Hart” (see it on www.ifilm.com) starring Kate Bosworth. What was a mystery to us was why festivals weren’t gobbling it up. And then we realized: festivals didn’t know what to do with a 34 minute short film. It’s a little long. A few more scenes and we had ourselves a feature (which would have been better for the film, to be honest). In the end, we got into two festivals and the film has been nothing but a burden to its creators. So please, make it short and sweet. Save the big monologues and the epic storylines for your big epic. In the meantime, give people the best damn five minutes you can. You’ll be surprised how much more willing people are to watch a flick that’s five minutes long than one that’s thirty-five minutes.
RAPE THE LAND
October is easily the most visually stunning month of the year: bright leaves, warm sunsets. It’s hard NOT to capture some real beauty. If you’ve got a scene outdoors, don’t set it on a street corner, set it on a hillside. Underneath a red maple tree. Use that soft, forgiving autumn sunlight to light your actors. I’m fortunate enough that 90% of my story happens on a farm and in the woods. The production value is free. All I’ve got to do is capture what’s already being provided.
DEADLINES
By this time next week, I will have secured my major locations, my cast, and my crew. The script is done as of today, and the storyboards as well. Make a checklist for yourself, and see if you can catch up with me. Take time out of your work day; trust me, your boss won’t mind. Everybody likes movies. Offer him/her a part. He’ll blush, he’ll get excited, he’ll get behind you 100 percent.
And THAT’S when you ask for the raise.
Hell, if it’s gonna’ happen, it might as well happen now.
NEXT WEEK: SHOOT FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER.
-Sam Jaeger
As we strive to preserve the greatest films in cinematic history, we here at the Criterion Collection have to ask ourselves a lot of difficult questions. Would Kurosawa have removed that conspicuous hair from the lens in THE SEVEN SAMURAI, had he been able? What is the proper framing of the final battle in SPARTACUS? Is ARMAGEDDON and THE ROCK director Michael Bay functionally retarded?
In the end, we have to trust our instincts. Just like when it came time to select one film deserving of the Criterion treatment from all of the great releases of the late 1980s. Although the early 70s gets so much of the attention and praise, the late 80s actually gives that time a run for its money as one of the most daring and interesting periods of 20th century cinema. Just listen to some of the top-grossing movies of this era, and try to pick one that isn’t a bona fide classic: PLATOON. ALIENS. FATAL ATTRACTION. TOP GUN. Moviegoers at the time could pick from any of dozens of brilliant films like THE LAST EMPEROR, THE COLOR OF MONEY, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, THE KARATE KID PART II, THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, MEATBALLS III, SHANGHAI SURPRISE, PETER PORN, PSYCHO III, THROBBIN’ HOOD, DEATH NURSE, and, of course, Jon Cryer’s magnum opus HIDING OUT.
But those films, each a great success in their own way, don’t quite fit the Criterion bill. It takes a truly special film to warrant one of our definitive edition DVDs. We prefer to focus our attention on overlooked or neglected masterpieces, which is how we came to our latest release. This film was unjustly overlooked during its initial release, perhaps because it was a small, foreign-produced character piece up against blockbusters like Demi Moore’s ONE CRAZY SUMMER and the Blake Edwards-Ted Danson combo, A FINE MESS. The film, MOKUSHIROKU: MATRIX YO EIEN NI, tells the story of a lone soldier who inadvertently causes the brutal death of his army’s leader, which leads to a massive slaughter by enemy forces. Then, this soldier, in spite of being a whiny jackass with no practical leadership experience, somehow manages to guide his army to victory. He largely achieves this by opening a futuristic Chinese puzzle box.
Also, it stars robots who can turn into cars.
Released in the United States as TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE, this film never achieved the widespread success that a work of this caliber deserves, perhaps because it was so far ahead of its time that audiences mistook it for an incomprehensible piece of crap masquerading as a 90-minute toy commercial. But that meant viewers missed career-defining performances by the “Unsolved Mysteries” guy, the BREAKFAST CLUB guy, and that one guy who talks really fast. And who could forget Orson Welles, in his final role, as a giant talking anus? Certainly not us, and we’ve tried.
The Criterion edition finally gives this visionary film the treatment it deserves. The three-disc set contains three versions of the film: the theatrical release with a new transfer personally overseen by a crack-smoking hobo, a rare director’s cut that features .5 seconds of extra footage, and a new, never-before-seen “tolerable” cut consisting of ten seconds of TRANSFORMERS followed by the entirety of John Huston’s THE MALTESE FALCON.
That’s not all! All-new special features include:
Long-lost alternate takes of the infamous “S word” scene, featuring the “F word,” the “MF word,” the “HMFS” words, the “Q word,” and a particularly blue take featuring a five-minute string of obscenities that would make Lenny Bruce blush.And much, much more!
Yes, now you can experience the movie the way that director Nelson Shin intended it: alone, bored, and shunned by your friends. So get yours now… because you should never put off ruining another fond childhood memory until tomorrow.
The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦
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Have a THINGAMABOB? Send it in!
The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the Quick Stop Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
Thank You For Smoking (Fox, Rated R, DVD-$29.99 SRP) is one of those flicks you walk away from thanking jebus that the filmmakers pulled no punches in their satire. What could have been a watered-down ersatz treatment of the tobacco lobby instead unspools as a hilarious indictment of our modern consumer culture. Aaron Eckhart’s performance as Nick Taylor – brilliant spin-meister for big tobacco – is a brilliant portrait of the devil with a wink and a smile, out to further his client’s cause in society and culture. This is definitely a must-see flick. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, a Charlie Rose interview with the director and cast, and more. Smoke if you got ’em.
It’s encouraging and heartening to me that, even almost 60 years after he was created by Carl Barks, Scrooge McDuck has a rich enough mythology that amazing stories can still be spun by what Barks wrote all those years ago. The average person would think that modern Duck artist Don Rosa had mined all there was to be had in his 12-part epic masterpiece The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, but they’d be wrong. There’s are plenty of areas to be explored in Scrooge’s storied past, and Rosa has done that with the stories featured in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion (Gemstone, $16.99 SRP), which features seven tales reaching back into McDuck’s adventures in Panama, Java, the Old West, and the Yukon. There’s even commentary on each by Rosa. Here’s hoping for another volume in the near future… So get crackin’, Don!
While fans who have been snapping up the seasonal sets will have virtually every episode on the new 2-disc South Park: The Hits Volume 1 (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$26.99 SRP) – save for the still-scathing Cruise indictment “Trapped in a Closet” – there is one overriding reason why fans of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s cutout world will want to grab this as fast as they can. That reason? The first official release of the legendary short that started it all, “The Spirit of Christmas.” I honestly never thought I’d see the day. The other 14 episodes are just icing on the cake.
Conspicuously missing from the recent remastered re-releases of George Harrison’s catalogue was 1973’s Living In The Material World (Capitol/Apple, $29.98 SRP). That’s now been rectified via a special edition featuring a pair of bonus tracks (“Deep Blue” & “Miss O’Dell”), and a limited edition bonus DVD featuring a 5.1 remastered performance of “Give Me Love” from his 1990 concert in Tokyo, a video for “Living In The Material World,” and alternate/demo versions of “Miss O’Dell” and “Sue Me, Sue You Blues.” Here’s hoping that even more releases like this are in the offing, since there’s still plenty of unreleased material in the vaults.
Having a friend who was a big fan of The Greatest American Hero (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, DVD-$99.99), I can think of no better Christmas gift for him than the tin-encased collection of the complete 43-episode series, which is limited to an edition size of only 20,000. Why so limited? Well, in addition to the 80’s classic, the set also features a reproduction not only of Ralph Hinkley’s cape, but also an iron-on transfer and a copy of the famous alien instruction manual (which is a battery-powered delight). Believe it or not!
The end of the Baudelaire orphans’ tragic journey is nigh, but there’s one last piece of Lemony Snicket’s puzzle to piece together before resolving the series of unfortunate events, and the clues are to be found in The Beatrice Letters (HarperCollins, $19.99 SRP). The beautifully bound volume (the material itself is actually contained within a hardbound file folder) contains correspondence between Snicket and the doomed Beatrice. There’s just as many questions as there are answers (well, actually, there are more questions than answers), but there are plenty of clues for fans to chew on until volume 13 is released.
It’s been double-dipped already, but the Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition (Sony, Rated PG, DVD-$29.95 SRP) justifies its purchase price – and its very existence – with a brand new high definition transfer of the film that is truly spiffy. In addition to the bonus materials available on the previous special edition (including commentaries from the Pythons, sing-alongs, “How To Use Your Coconuts” educational film, “The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations,” 1874 BBC Film Night, unused ideas, trailers, and more), the new set features an animated medley of songs from Spamalot, Secrets of the Holy grail featurette, and a bonus 3rd disc with the film’s soundtrack album. Ni!
I still cannot comprehend why ABC cancelled Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$26.98 SRP). It was an improv show with a single set – dirt cheap – but it was one of the most gut-bustingly funny shows to spend a half-hour with. With regulars Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, Brad Sherwood and host Drew Carey, it was must-see TV. I’m quite happy that we’re finally getting season sets (sort-of) with the release of Whose Line: Season One Volume One, containing the first 10 episodes. What’s even more brilliant, though, is that the outtakes and gag reels featured on the set are completely uncensored – and believe me, these guys knew how to go spectacularly off-color. More sets in a hurry, please.
Compared with Sinatra’s almost sterile duets package – during which Frank never met a single one of his singing partners – Tony Bennett’s star-studded Duets: An American Classic (RPM Records, $18.98 SRP) is positively energized by the fact that Tony actually recorded every track with his guests. The guest list is a thing to marvel at – including Paul Simon, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bono, Elvis Costello, The Dixie Chicks, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, and more – and the tracks themselves are fantastic. Give it a spin.
Before his regular spotlight on The Daily Show, I had no idea who Lewis Black was. Who would have thought that he’d be one of the most caustic, insightful, and hilarious political comedians of our generation. In an age where we our lives as Americans seem to be lived in a perpetual state of irony, Black is a welcome slap across the collective face. Which is all to say that you should definitely allow yourself to be pleasantly slapped by his latest stand-up special, Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed (HBO, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP). The DVD features 15 additional minutes of footage, plus 5 additional pieces.
It’s been a few months since Warner Bros. unveiled one of their fantastic “Signature Collection” box sets, but they’ve certainly returned with a pair of must-haves for any film fan. Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection Volume I & Volume II (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.98 SRP each) have, as their centerpieces, the newly remastered 3-disc special edition of The Maltese Falcon – which features both the 1931 & 1936 versions of the film, as well as an audio commentary, Warners’ 1941 “Night At The Movies” (with a vintage newsreel, musical short, and cartoons), trailers, makeup tests, 3 radio show adaptations, and a newly-produced documentary (“The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird”) – and the 2-disc special editions of Casablanca and The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, which feature audio commentaries, featurettes, documentaries, Warners’ “Night At the Movies,” radio shows, trailers, and more.. That alone should be reason enough to pick up the sets, but if you need more proof, they also feature Bogie in Across The Pacific, High Sierra, They Drive By Night, Action In The North Atlantic, All Through The Night, and Passage To Marseille. Each film features its own complement of “Night At The Movies”, with additional featurettes, radio shows, commentary, and even blooper reels.
As the new 2-disc special edition proves unequivocally, even four decades on, Brian Wilson was a certified genius. The newly remastered 40th anniversary edition of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (Capitol, $29.98 SRP) features both the mono and stereo versions of the album, plus a DVD with 5.1 mixes. The DVD also features a new edit of the 1997 “Making of Pet Sounds” documentary, Brian Wilson interview material from 2003’s “Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live In London,” a previously unreleased discussion between Wilson and Sir George Martin, a trio of 1966 promotional films, and a photo gallery.
Amid Amidi has provided a much-needed fill for a gap in animation history with his comprehensive look at the UPA-style of design that came to prominence in the 1950’s. The book is Cartoon Modern (Chronicle, $40.00 SRP), and it’s packed with not only a ton of information on the period and the artists behind it, but also loaded with artwork, which makes it a tome to sit with on a cold winter day and fully take in at your leisure. One disappointment, though, is that I always get a certain sense of elitism from Amidi’s discussion of design, dismissing the contribution of story to great animation and over-elevating the art itself. In animation, I believe the two go hand-in-hand in creating the pieces that truly strike a chord in a viewer. Still, a minor quibble for an overall great book.
Slowly but surely, the Disney animated feature library is getting the 2-disc “Platinum Edition” treatment, although I think that the quality level – and intelligence – is not quite as good as the original 2-disc special editions of flicks like Emperor’s New Groove, Tarzan, and Atlantis. The new edition of The Little Mermaid (Walt Disney, Rated G, DVD-$29.99 SRP) does sport a very stunning remastered picture and soundtrack (even if Disney has done their PC revision to a few scenes), and bonus features (I don’t consider a crappy music video with a Disney Channel “star” a bonus feature, mind you) including an audio commentary, deleted scenes, The Little Match Girl animated short, a making-of featurette, a Hans Christian Andersen featurette, and a virtual tour of the aborted EuroDisney Little Mermaid ride.
And speaking of The Little Mermaid, while the remastered soundtrack is very much appreciated on the new 2-disc special edition of the soundtrack (Walt Disney Records, $15.55 SRP), the 2nd disc full of those aforementioned Disney “stars” butchering the tunes is definitely a waste of plastic. The only halfway decent track is Raven-Symone’s “Under the Sea,” but even that is an overproduced piece of pop trash that completely drowns a great song.
I admit that, as the death and depowerment count of some major characters in the third X-Men installment began to rack up, I found that I couldn’t care less. In fact, I’ve been so disappointed by Marvel’s mutant movie franchise as a whole, that I hoped the title The Last Stand (Fox, Rated PG-13, DVD-$29.98 SRP) was a literal acknowledgment to all those who’ve detested the pathetic scripts and ham-fisted adaptations of favorite stories and characters found in all 3 films – people like me – that it was all coming to a merciful end. If only. The story this go round has to do with Frasier and some cure for mutants with wings and blue skin, and Juggernaut running around, and… Oh, who cares. The DVD features a pair of audio commentaries, deleted scenes, and 3 alternate endings – none of which are any better than the one they wound up with.
He seems incapable of cranking out anything worthwhile now, but all it takes is a spin of the new unrated director’s cut of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) to remember why we once gave a damn about Guy Ritchie. Watching the energy, intelligence, skill, and verve he displayed then makes me wonder what in the hell has happened to him since. Besides Madonna. The bonus features are limited to featurette on the film’s cinematography, and a rather ho-hum compilation reel of the flick’s expletives.
Modeled after the Disney Treasures DVD releases of rarities, Disney Comics: 75 Years of Innovation (Gemstone, $12.99 SRP) features two dozen rare Disney comic stories from across the breadth of those aforementioned 75 years, starring Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Scrooge, Br’er Rabbit, Jose Carioca, Li’l Bad Wolf, and more. Some of these stories have never been reprinted before, and it’s well worth picking this up just for them.
Currently available as a Target exclusive, the 2-disc DVD-licious! collection of some of the best highlights and interviews from The Ellen Degeneres Show (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP) is a breezy, fun watch. Ellen is a natural talk show host, never upstaging the guest, but completely unafraid to make things fun and interesting. What I can’t believe is that the show has been on for over three years. Time certainly does fly.
The fourth season of Ellen (A&E, Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 SRP) is the one that featured the PA announcement heard ’round the world, as not only the character, but also Ellen herself loudly and proudly came out of the closet. It’s a shame that her sitcom went downhill creatively after this landmark season, since it would have been even more powerful a statement if she’d been able to keep the show going for years after. The 3-disc set features all 25 episodes, plus an audio commentary with the writers of “The Puppy Episode.”
Even though this seems to be the 47th release of the film on DVD, those bastards have probably added just enough new bonus material – including newly-remastered picture and sound – to make picking up the Scarface: Platinum Edition (Universal, Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP). The 2-disc set features deleted scenes, documentaries, and clips comparing the theatrical and TV versions of the film.
It was only a matter of time before someone decided that a series following the real-life adventures of an Indiana Jones-type would make for interesting TV, and that show is Digging For The Truth (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 SRP). Following explorer/survival expert Josh Bernstein into the heart of the Andes in search of El Dorado or Ethiopia on the trail of the Ark of the Covenant, it’s an engaging archeological journey through history. Heck, he’s even got the hat for it. The 4-disc set features all 13 first season episodes, plus a “History in the Making” featurette.
By my calculations, the fifth set of Benny Hill (A&E, Not Rated, DVD-$49.95 SRP) should be the penultimate collection of hill’s bawdy, gut-funny long-running Thames show, covering the years 1982-1985. This was the era of the leggy “Hill’s Angels,” who are interviewed in a newly-produced featurette.
Watching the first season of Thriller (A&E, Not Rated, DVD-$79.95 SRP), it’s as if some of the best (and worst) of Hammer horror style had made it to the small screen. The stories definitely are of the old school horror bent, full of ghosts, psychosis, and oodles of Satanists. Even better for the viewer discovering this series, its also jam-packed with the kind of stars only a British series of the 70’s could deliver, including Bob Hoskins, Stephen Rea, Patrick Macgee, and even Hayley Mills. Bonus features include interviews with creator Brian Clemens and the directors, plus episode introductions.
It seems the stuff of TV movies, but Unknown White Male (Genius Products, Rated PG-13, DVD-$24.95 SRP) is a documentary which follows the true story of Doug Bruce, who woke up on Coney Island with total amnesia. Chronicling his struggle to put his life back together – from family, friends, and career to just his own sense of self – it’s a sometimes poignant, sometimes joyous, sometimes sad study of what defines a person’s life. Bonus features include featurettes, deleted scenes, interviews, and more.
Sci-Fi’s decision to cancel what was still an enjoyable series continues to be puzzling, but fans in mourning can assuage some of their pain by picking up the complete ninth season of Stargate SG-1 (MGM/UA, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP). In addition to all 20 episodes, the 5-disc set features behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentaries on all episodes, and a continuation of the SG-1 Directors Series.
There’s just something about seeing The Munsters in color that’s slightly… wrong. See if you agree with me by picking up The Munsters: Two Movie Fright-Fest (Universal, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP), which contains both Munster, Go Home! and The Munsters’ Revenge.
No one is going to call 1961’s animated Dick Tracy Show (Classic Media, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP) a great show, but it was reasonably faithful to Chester Gould’s classic strip. This 4-disc set features the entire 130-episode run.
It’s been an incredibly long wait, but the second volume of Transformers: Armada‘s first season (Rhino, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP) – ending the series, in fact – has finally touched down, featuring the final 26 episodes of the ultimate battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons.
I’m still not entirely sure to make of Danny Elfman’s Serenada Schizophrana (Sony Classical, $18.98 SRP), his foray into orchestral composition as opposed to film composing. I think I like it. It’s definitely a unique experience.
I’m still not sure what the purpose is behind Disney Dossiers: Files of Characters From The Walt Disney Studio (Disney Press, $24.95 SRP). Supposedly, it’s meant to be evocative of files kept by casting agents with information about a certain actor and their “type,” strengths, and background. Unfortunately, this results in a rather awkward collection of characters with uninteresting “Yeah, I know that” text and a poor selection of artwork accompanying it. Why can’t we get the incredibly informative Disney Encyclopedia of Animated Characters back in print? Or a deluxe collection of classic model sheets for the company’s heavy hitters? Please? No more of these cutesy, unsatisfying gimmick releases, thank you.
Often overlooked, some of the most uniquely quirky TV programs being produced today are coming out of Canada, and the series Corner Gas (VSC, Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP) certainly fits the bill. It’s an oddball premises, to be sure, but the show focuses on the life of gas station proprietor Brent LeRoy, whose station is located in the sleepy town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, which is full of the usual complement of off-kilter characters. The complete third season has just come out, featuring all 19 episodes plus an hour-long documentary.
It’s hard to imagine a time when someone pitching the idea of doing an undercover agent infiltrating a gang of bank-robbing surfers would be a green-lightable affair… And then to stack the deck by casting Keanu Reeves as the agent and Patrick Swayze as the gangleader… I mean, it’s just mind-blowing. You can relive those heady times with the new special edition of Point Break (Fox, Rated R, DVD-$19.98 SRP), featuring deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a retrospective documentary.
So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…
Adult Swim’s Dana Snyder and FRED’s Ken Plume set out to have a literate conversation between two pals, but inevitably devolve into a verbal, and funny, free-for-all full of bickering, infighting, and the special kind of male bonding that comes from conflict expressed through the podcast medium.
Actor/comedian/raconteur Dana Snyder, you’re certainly aware, is Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Master Shake, Squidbillies‘ Granny, Minoriteam’s Dr. Wang, and The Venture Bros.‘ Alchemist. Available for weddings and bar mitzvahs (bat availability pending), you can keep tabs on him via his website, www.eyeofthesnyder.com.
Ken Plume is the editor-in-chief here at FRED. He is a friend of Dana’s, as well as his arch-nemesis.
VISIT THE SNYDECAST EXPERIENCE
KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #16: Tommy Can You Hear Me – [adult swim]’s Dana Snyder and Ken Plume’s weekly chat podcast returns with a letter from out of the blue (straight from where they grow their own), Dana’s illustrious voice-acting history, and Ken’s growing distrust of his co-host.
[CONTENT WARNING]: This podcast may contain some foul language and horribly off-color jokes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
DOWNLOAD: (right click to save)
Episode #16 (MP3 format)
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VIDEO BLOG #59: “My Musical” ““
Things have been incredibly (as in “super”) busy lately, but we haven’t forgotten about you all. Here’s a brief teaser for the whiz-bang mega-musical episode that wil be gracing your TV sets after the new year…
Download Scrubs Video Blog #59:
The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦
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Have a THINGAMABOB? Send it in!
-by Ken Plume
With the first of the 2-part season finale of The Venture Bros. airing this Sunday Evening (October 8th) at 10:30pm on adult swim, we thought now would be the perfect time to run our in-depth interview with James Urbaniak – better known to fans as Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture.
He’s also the voice of Rusty’s brother, Jonas, Jr., and the villainous Phantom Limb.
An OBIE Award-winning stage actor, cinephile’s will recognize him from Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool and the upcoming Fay Grim – not to mention dozens of other roles, including Robert Crumb in American Splendor.
On the small screen, he’s currently starring as the murderous “Accountant” on NBC’s Kidnapped, airing at 10pm on Wednesdays.
You can read his actor-y blog at http://urbaniak.livejournal.com/
Let’s say we get this show on the road…
KEN PLUME: I’ve very much been looking forward to speaking with you. Especially discussing the picture that’s been painted of you by Jackson (Publick) and Doc (Hammer).
JAMES URBANIAK: The what?
KP: The picture that has been painted of you by them.
URBANIAK: I’m not aware of that.
KP: It’s mostly complimentary.
URBANIAK: Does it hang in the AstroBase?
KP: Yes. Doc paints it in his free time.
URBANIAK: I haven’t seen the painting. I didn’t even know it existed. Is it one of his detailed portraits?
KP: Well, you’re wearing lingerie.
URBANIAK: Right.
KP: One of his frillier choices.
URBANIAK: Yes. He just put my face over the girl’s body.
KP: It’s really how he sees you.
URBANIAK: Yes (laughing). He sees everybody that way.
KP: But no, it’s quite flattering and you have the most provocative come hither look.
URBANIAK: Well, I can’t wait. Are you joking or are you serious?
KP: I can’t believe you think I’m actually serious about that.
URBANIAK: No, I – you’re saying there’s a painting of me that Doc made. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had actually done that.
KP: That’ll be for the DVD cover art.
URBANIAK: I wouldn’t think it would be a detailed portrait, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d rigged up a cartoon…
KP: (laughing)
URBANIAK: That’s what I thought you meant.
KP: No. They had painted a portrait through words of what it’s like to work with you.
URBANIAK: Oh, I see…
KP: But naturally I fell into the pitfall of not thinking about exactly how I was saying it – since Doc is a painter, I should have been more clear…
URBANIAK: It’s a late hour and I start to get tired…
KP: Well, that’s good. It means you’ll be more free in revealing everything.
URBANIAK: Got it.
KP: Tell me everything about Hal Hartley.
URBANIAK: Yeah. (laughing)
KP: So if we were to go back, you were born in New Jersey, correct?
URBANIAK: I sure was.
KP: Would you say that there were any inclinations toward this sort of actorly path, or were there other things that held your attention earlier on?
URBANIAK: Well, when I was a kid I always enjoyed performing, like in school, and when I was in elementary school I was always sort of picked to be in, you know, school plays and… I remember, like, third grade, fourth grade and fifth grade, all those years in a row the teachers would spend part of the day having us perform little sketches and plays that we would write and perform. And I really loved doing that sort of stuff, and I was always picked to be in everyone’s shows.
KP: What’s the earliest one you can remember?
URBANIAK: I remember writing a puppet show that I did with my friend Roger Stein in, I think, the third grade. And it was sketch, and it was two sock puppets… actually, it was a sock puppet who won the lottery. It was a very short play. I was the puppet, and my friend read the radio announcer who was announcing the winning lottery ticket. And the sketch was that I talked about how I bought a lottery ticket and they were gonna announce the winner, and then my friend said, “And the winning number of the lottery is, 1, 7, 8, 5, 3, 4, 7, 2, 1, 8, 9…” and it just went on and on for like, you know, a minute. And that was that sketch. And then later that year, Roger Stein and I, as eight year old boys are wont to do, got into a fight. And Roger said, “I can’t believe that I did all those things for you and I read all those stupid numbers in that play!”
KP: Really knows how to dig the knife in…
URBANIAK: Yeah.
KP: Was that a template for other creative battles you would have as a professional actor?
URBANIAK: (laughing) Exactly! I spent three years within the 70s in these elementary school classes writing and performing these little skits. I later realized that not every school system in America did that, but I just kinda worked out, and it was something I always enjoyed. No one in my family was in show business or anything.
KP: How would the kids respond to the sketches?
URBANIAK: They were very successful. It was a kind of a weirdly formative time for me, because it was a really early time just kind of creating stuff and performing.
KP: And how would you respond to the audience reaction?
URBANIAK: I would get all jazzed and, you know, excited. A major event in my life was in the fourth grade. I tell this story to many friends, but I think it’s the first time I’ve talked about it in an interview.
KP: I could be a friend.
URBANIAK: It was the… was it fourth grade? I think it was fourth grade. Yes. We were gonna do a school… the class was gonna do a play. And the play was called “Penelope’s Perilous Predicament.” And it was a published children’s play about a girl who was kidnapped by Martians and essentially sold into white slavery on Mars.
KP: Oh, lovely.
URBANIAK: Yeah.
KP: Very progressive school.
URBANIAK: (laughing) Well, she’s basically kidnapped by Martians and then becomes a servant on Mars, and then her family finds her and she comes home.
KP: Gotta love those elementary school allegories.
URBANIAK: Yeah. And I was very excited about auditioning for it, because I knew I was a good little actor. On the day of the auditions I got sick, and I… hold on… I gotta tell my wife I’m telling the fourth grade play story. (laughing) She just said, “Oh my god.”
KP: Tell her that’s gonna be part of the interview.
URBANIAK: So… uh… he forced it out of me….
KP: Yeah!
URBANIAK: So, I got sick and I missed the audition. And I was crushed. And I ended up getting a, you know, a part sort of as a supernumerary in the background.
KP: A Martian tree?
URBANIAK: Yeah, a Martian with no lines who just stood there. Well, I resigned myself to that. We rehearsed the play. I was still very excited about being in the play, even though I had no lines. And the teacher knew I was a good little actor, so she assigned understudy parts, and I… now, I understudied one of the lead guys. And then I also was given the job of doing the announcements in the beginning. “Parents, teachers…” – you know, “fellow students, welcome to the play.”
KP: Friends, Romans…
URBANIAK: So, I was really excited about the play. And I was so excited that I memorized the entire play. I memorized the lines I was understudying, but I just couldn’t help it. I learned the whole play. And I remember being at recess reciting it to friends of mine, the entire play. And I understudied a kid named David Briman, who played one of the main characters. There was also a kid in the play named Mark, who was kind of a weird kid who had a sty in his eye – he had this red mark in his eye – who was one of the other main characters, and his understudy was a kid who everyone felt probably wasn’t up to the job. And that kid’s name was Lance. And you could tell Lance wasn’t really into plays. He didn’t seem to really care. And I remember the day before the show someone saying to Mark, “Hey, don’t be sick tomorrow ’cause Lance is your understudy.” And the next day, I came into school and Mark was absent. And I remember a bunch of kids gathered around Lance, and Lance was reading the script, looking really uncomfortable, and kids saying, “Well, maybe your character could have a book on stage, and you can have the lines in the book.” And I said to my teacher, “I know all the lines in the play. I could do the part.” And they said, “Lance, is that okay?” and he said, “Oh yeah.” And he was really happy to be relieved of that duty, and I went on. I went on… (laughing)
KP: Lance could have won an OBIE one day.
URBANIAK: That’s right. And the next day, the kids had to draw pictures and send notes to our class, and there were all these pictures of me on stage, and kids were writing things like, “Jimmy Saves the Day.” And I told this story to a good friend of mine and every time I’m in a play or something she calls me up and says, “Jimmy saves the day.” But that was a pivotal event of my youth.
KP: Now, I want you to hand the phone to your wife and have her tell me her version of the story.
URBANIAK: (laughing) She only knows my version. So, that was kind of the pivotal… that was the highlight of my elementary school acting years. And then when I got into junior high there were a couple plays. But then in high school, I kinda lost interest in that, and I didn’t really… I was in the course of Bye Bye Birdie, freshman year, and I had a part in The Boyfriend. Two classic high school musicals. Senior year. But I didn’t really do much…
KP: But you didn’t do The Pajama Game.
URBANIAK: I didn’t do The Pajama Game. I didn’t do much in high school.
KP: Where did your interest drift during that period?
URBANIAK: In high school my interests kind of drifted all over the place. Sort of everywhere except my studies. I kinda spaced out in high school. And I kinda got into… I was never that much into comic books per se, but I was really interested in my cartooning and illustration. And it was around that time that I was thinking that might be something that I’d want to do, is actually be, like, an illustrator or cartoonist. And I got very influenced by a lot of the classic illustrators. Ralph Steadman, of course, was a big influence. And a lot of classic guys. New York illustrator guys like Arnold Roth…
KP: Was there a specific type of illustration that appealed to you… That you gravitated towards?
URBANIAK: No… You know who was also a great influence? Terry Gilliam. The Python illustrations. And I still draw cartoons to this day, and a lot of them still look like sort of Terry Gilliam drawings.
KP: Do you just draw for recreation?
URBANIAK: Yeah, just recreation.
KP: And yet you have a livejournal.
URBANIAK: I have a livejournal, yes, but I don’t have any drawings on there.
KP: But everyone else does that with a livejournal. That and poetry. Maybe you should do that for April Fools Day next year.
URBANIAK: What’s that?
KP: Just turn into your teenage livejournal.
URBANIAK: Well, I did do a post in the early days – and I started it almost a year ago. One day I did a post where I pretended to be a teenage girl. And that was a pretty successful entry.
KP: Because everyone bought it.
URBANIAK: I did my research. One way to research a livejournal would be just type in a girl’s name. Like Melody.livejounal.com, and chances are you’ll get a teenager named Melody’s page. So I was just putting in random girls names to see what they were writing about. So I did this post where I wrote poetry and talked about how people shouldn’t be mean to each other.
KP: And it was the most free you’ve ever been.
URBANIAK: But hey, sometimes I write little fictional pieces and I write little political posts which are basically me saying people shouldn’t be mean to each other.
KP: Don’t take what I said as a critique. I enjoy your livejournal quite a bit.
URBANIAK: Well thanks.
KP: Particularly its insight into the life of a working actor.
URBANIAK: Yeah. That’s sort of the idea, but the life of a working actor includes a lot of down time. So there’s a lot of other stuff that goes on in a livejournal.
KP: Well, that and the fights…
URBANIAK: Oh, the Josh Emery contretemps, of course.
KP: Yes.
URBANIAK: Yeah, there are a couple of characters – we call them characters – who sort of appear and take issue with me. Josh Emery… I’ve addressed the question of whether these individuals are real people.
KP: Quite well.
URBANIAK: I kind of think of them as professional wrestlers. The professional wrestling ring, you know, a guy comes out in a big costume and another guy fights with him, and people watch something happening and they’re entertained. That’s certainly a real event. Something’s happening. If strings are being pulled behind the scenes, well, how relevant is that really?
KP: No one can say that there wasn’t some entertainment value to it.
URBANIAK: That’s right.
KP: But the candor you have in the journal is quite nice.
URBANIAK: Oh, thanks. It was influenced by Jackson Publick, really. He’s got his, you know, which I was reading and enjoyed and then one night, I just thought it’d be fun to kinda start one on my own, and I took very, very… I was very tentative in the first couple posts.
KP: As anyone sane should be.
URBANIAK: I kinda plugged it on Jackson’s blog, and pretty soon I started getting some of his readers, and eventually this thing just snowballed out of control. Now it’s just… it’s unstoppable now.
KP: Now it controls your life.
URBANIAK: In fact, yes, I got a nice plug on GreenCine Daily a couple days ago. You know that movie blog?
KP: Yes, it’s one of the ones that links to us, as well.
URBANIAK: And so I got a couple readers saying, “Hey, I saw about your blog in GreenCine,” and I didn’t even realize they plugged it. So it’s slowly spreading. Like a noxious gas.
KP: There’s plenty to find there. There’s no one that can’t say it’s not entertaining. And eventually you’ll have to check out Doc’s MySpace page.
URBANIAK: Oh, I read it fairly often. He doesn’t update very much.
KP: No. He considers it purely a parody of what you and Jackson are doing.
URBANIAK: Right. But he had his before I started mine. Mine is kind of a combination of real life events and possibly how… you know, possible fantasy sort of theatrical situations. (laughing)
KP: My main goal is to make sure that many people visit your livejournal.
URBANIAK: Oh, thank you. Well yeah, I’m just… I haven’t really done much about promoting it. I just figured, you know, it’s the old shampoo commercial. Two friends tell two friends tell two friends, and you slowly get…
KP: Washed.
URBANIAK: And there’s a little regular community of readers and it’s fun.
KP: You do know you’re this close to having a livejournal party…
URBANIAK: A livejournal party. Ah. Well, I think part of the enjoyment of that is the fact that I don’t… we don’t really know each other. All the people communicating on here.
KP: Oh, they’ll organize it…
URBANIAK: I do have a couple friends who write in.
KP: They’ll organize it themselves.
URBANIAK: (Laughing) That’s right!
KP: They’ll send out the open invitation saying, “We’re having it at the bowling alley/Chuck E. Cheese combo.”
URBANIAK: Yeah, I had a post where I talked about – you know, one or my made up posts, where I talked about VoucherCon 2006 in Las Vegas. The convention. Because, you know, the journal is called “Voucher Ankles,” and my readers are the Voucher Anklets. And so I did kinda have this little fantasy that we had had a convention in Las Vegas.
KP: I’m telling you, you’re this close to a bowling alley in Kearny…
URBANIAK: That’s right – Bowl More Lanes. We can get the New York City/Jersey reader over there.
KP: Doc will come down with his guitar.
URBANIAK: Doc will come down. Tiny Joseph, big Venture Brothers fan, lives in Brooklyn.
KP: I’m telling you, it could be the happening of a Saturday afternoon/”we gotta get back in time before curfew.”
URBANIAK: Yes, that’s right. Well, I don’t get out of the house much anymore because of my beautiful children.
KP: Well…
URBANIAK: I got a good excuse.
KP: Well you have what, 50, 60 of them on livejournal? Why do you give all the attention to your biological ones?
URBANIAK: True.
When Jazzy John Romita prepared the above illo for the cover of Marvel Age #54 back in 1987, he managed to squeeze most of the prominent guests in attendance at that summer’s gala Parker-Watson nuptials into the picture. Most, but not all.
He left out Dwight Gooden.
That’s right sports fans, Dwight “Doc” Gooden, one-time teenage phenom fastballer for the New York Mets, who burst onto the scene in 1984 in a stunning fashion never witnessed either before or since. Comics fans, if ever there was a baseball player who, thanks to his uncanny ability to strike out batters seemingly at will, looked all the world to be a graduate of Charles Xavier’s School for Talented Mutants, it was the young Gooden.
But after dominating the National League with a 24-4 record in 1985, handily winning a Cy Young Award along the way, Gooden’s career began to take a downturn, as he posted a less than super-human record of 17-6 during a 1986 campaign that saw his dominating teammates otherwise chalk up an astonishing 108 regular season wins. And then he inexplicably missed the celebratory ticker tape parade through Manhattan only days the Mets’ memorable World Series victory. This was a man who was on track to be the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball – what happened to Doc, Mets fans began to wonder?
We all found out during the early days of spring training the following season.
Cocaine.
When Gooden – who’d always come across as a gracious, likable, down-to-earth young man – failed his drug test, his legion of fans – myself included – reacted with shock. And somewhat selfishly, we reacted with disappointment as well – the team’s star hurler was suddenly sidelined for the opening months of the ’87 season, suspended for nearly a third of the schedule for his offense, y’see, and that couldn’t be good for the Mets prospects (it wasn’t – they failed to qualify for the post season).
Finally, having served his time, Gooden prepared to take the Shea Stadium mound against the Pittsburgh Pirates on the evening of June 5th to make his 1987 debut, but not before an equally historic event took place on the very same field:
Spider-Man and Mary Jane – or perhaps actors standing in for them, I’m not entirely sure – were tying the knot behind home plate in a ceremony officiated by none other than Stan Lee that selfsame day!
Obviously scheduled weeks – if not months – before anyone had calculated Gooden’s months-delayed initial start as also falling on that very evening, the publicity stunt that both Marvel (looking to get word out on the Webspinner’s landmark stroll down the aisle) and the Mets front office (hoping to lure some extra fans into the park for a weeknight contest against the lackluster Bucs) had mutually orchestrated didn’t turn out to be at all necessary to lure folks through the turnstiles. Fact is, Spidey’s big moment probably received scant attention from the packed-to-the-rafters house, preoccupied as fans were with their tarnished hero’s imminent return.
(In the stadium that night, by the way, was my old buddy Ron Marz, not yet a comics scribe, but still in the employ of local daily, The Kingston Freeman. The paper’s sports editor invited Ron to take in the proceedings with him from the press level, and while Ron recalls that game itself vividly, details regarding the faux wedding ceremony seemed to have escaped his attention. Ah well, Ron always did seem to be more of a DC guy anyway…)
As I recall things, while Gooden’s return dominated the discussion on Howie Rose’s pre-game radio show, I do remember the host making a passing – and bemused – reference to the Spider-Man stunt just before going to commercial. And later that night, at least one local NYC TV station included the briefest of glimpses of the happy couple leading into their segment about the game. But they had plenty more to show, so ex-bachelor Spidey was lucky to merit even a passing mention.
The Mets – and Gooden – won, 5-1. More disturbingly, center fielder Lenny Dykstra and transplanted-center-fielder-playing-left Mookie Wilson collided in mid-air as they both pursued a fly ball destined to fall smack dab between the two of them. Miraculously, as horrendous as it looked – and it was the sort of clip that got played over and over and over again – neither was banged up very badly. Peter and Mary Jane, though, most likely missed the play entirely, heading as they were off on to their honeymoon…
Gooden came back to win 15 games that year, but what had once looked like a lock for a first ballot Hall of Fame career ahead of him slowly degenerated into a middling baseball resume, the sort that justifiably gets passed over by Cooperstown voters. Beyond the stats, Gooden’s never really been able to shake that other monkey off his back either, and, sadly, is currently serving a one-year prison sentence on drug related charges. Such a shame.
And the once happy Parkers?…
All was sweetness and light in the beginning, but THESE days? Well, you know…
(Literally, YOU know. I’m fudging here because I’m afraid I don’t keep up with the trials and tribulation’s of Ben Parker’s nephew the way I used to, but from what little I’ve been able to garner from internet sources, the Parker’s union isn’t in much better condition than Gooden’s Hall of Fame credentials. Pastor Lee must be SO disappointed…)
Hembeck.com – home of the brave and promoter of peanuts, popcorn and Cracker Jack Kirby! Stop by anytime – we’re ALWAYS in season!
-Copyright 2006 Fred Hembeck
The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦
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Have a THINGAMABOB? Send it in!
by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose with colors by Anthony Lee
Larger Comic Version | ARCHIVES | OLDER ARCHIVES
Check out the preview to the Image comic Jeff writes…
E-MAIL WRITER | ABOUT JEFF | ABOUT SETH | BRAT-HALLA BLOG | BRAT-HALLA FORUM | ARCHIVES
The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦
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Have a THINGAMABOB? Send it in!
October 03, 2006
Still working my way through the titanic stack of review discs on my desk, so let’s not waste any time, and get right to the reviews…
BCI/Eclipse, under their Ink & Paint label, have recently released BLACKSTAR ““ THE COMPLETE SERIES (1980-81), probably the last Filmation cartoon I remember actually getting up early to watch. I was into D&D then, and anything with a sword & sorcery theme caught my interest. Unfortunately, it aired in the same timeslot as Ruby-Spears’ superior THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN on another network, so unless THUNDARR was a repeat, I usually opted for the post-Apocalyptic barbarian over the sword-slinging astronaut, John Blackstar.
Loosely inspired by interplanetary romances like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars” pulp stories, BLACKSTAR tells of an American astronaut, who, after passing through a black hole, finds himself stranded on the primitive planet Sagar. The planet is ruled by the evil, Darth Vader-esque Overlord, and opposed by a motley band of freedom fighters, including the sorceress Mara, shape-shifter Klone, and seven pink “trobbits.” John Blackstar somehow comes into possession of the Starsword, a mystic blade that can be combined with the Overlord’s Powersword to become the Powerstar ““ an ultimate weapon that the Overlord desperately covets.
Watching it today as a 40+ adult, I find that BLACKSTAR is actually somewhat better than I remembered. The animation still looks pretty slick and, oddly enough for a Filmation adventure show, uses very little, if any, rotoscoping. The character designs and background paintings are excellent, really selling the alien environment of planet Sagar. The scripts ““ mostly by animation and sci-fi veterans J. Michael Reeves (BATMAN ““ THE ANIMATED SERIES) and Marc Scott Zicree (SLIDERS) ““ are fun and fast paced. I still hate the little pink “trobbits,” though, and prefer the episodes that play down their child-friendly antics.
BCI’s DVD full-frame transfers are excellent; the source material on BLACKSTAR looks much better than the prints used on their previous FLASH GORDON set, with bright colors and virtually no visible debris or damage. Extras include an informative booklet of liner notes, writer and producer commentaries on two episodes, on-screen interviews with many of the creators of the show, two image galleries, and “The Magic of Filmation” documentary.
If you’re nostalgic and want to revisit your childhood ““ or know kids who are into fantasy adventure ““ BLACKSTAR ““ THE COMPLETE SERIES is well worth picking up.
Obviously intended to play off of Disney’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN sequel, comes Sony’s “Midnight Movies” double feature FORTUNES OF CAPTAIN BLOOD/CAPTAIN PIRATE (1950/1952), two low budget Columbia “epics” starring Louis Hayward (THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK).
Based on the same Rafael Sabatini source novel as the Errol Flynn classic, FORTUNES OF CAPTAIN BLOOD chronicles the adventures of Captain Peter Blood, a physician who is branded a traitor by the English Crown and sold into slavery. Escaping from his masters, he turns to piracy on the high seas with a crew of former slaves. Hayward makes a suitably dashing hero and pretty Patricia Medina is convincing as the love of his lawless life. Shot in black & white on the Columbia backlot, FORTUNES is nonetheless an exciting little swashbuckler, with enough swordplay, derring-do and tongue-in-cheek wit to make for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon viewing.
The sequel, CAPTAIN PIRATE, takes a place a few years after the first. Blood has retired from piracy and about to get married, when a pirate imposter starts committing terrible atrocities in his name. Blood quickly reforms his crew and sets sail again in an effort to clear his reputation. Made two years later in color, with Hayward and Medina reprising their roles, CAPTAIN PIRATE is not only a worthy sequel, but an entertaining, family-friendly adventure in its own right.
Packaged as part of the “Midnight Movies” line (although these are really more like Saturday Matinee flicks) Sony has presented these two films on individual single-sided discs, in clean, sharp 1.33:1 full-frame transfers, which appear to be the original screen ratios. There are no extras aside from the usual optional English, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish subtitles.
Two fun pirate films for one low price, in a high-quality (if no-frills) presentation. If it sounds like your cup of grog, how can you resist?
As a follow-up to their first erotic DVD release, GWENDOLINE, Severin Films has brought to DVD another single-named softcore classic, FELICITY (1979).
This 1979 film, written and directed by John Lamond, chronicles the sexual awakening of a young Catholic schoolgirl as she spends an exotic and erotic summer in Hong Kong, experiencing all manner of sensual pleasures, including masturbation, voyeurism, bisexuality, and, eventually, romantic love.
Starring a lovely and luscious young Canadian actress named Glory Annen, FELICITY is a tasteful and well-made film, beautifully photographed and edited. The Hong Kong location footage is extraordinary, truly giving the film an exotic feel, and the sex scenes are all sensual and scalding hot. Annen’s performance is natural and unaffected, carrying the essentially plotless film effortlessly on the strength of her natural charm (and charms).
Severin’s region-free disc provides a crystal sharp 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and a Dolby Digital mono soundtrack. The film is presented uncut, with footage never before seen in the U.S. Extras include a better-than-average commentary track with writer/director Lamond and star Annen, the original theatrical trailer and a sexy still gallery.
If you’re looking for an erotic film that you can watch with your significant other, FELICITY is a good choice, with a sensitive yet sexually-charged storyline, an appealing heroine, and a minimum of sleaze. Highly recommended.
Back in the early Seventies, the king of TV horror was Dan Curtis. His reign began with his successful gothic soap opera DARK SHADOWS, and was cemented with two TV movies starring Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak, THE NIGHT STALKER and the NIGHT STRANGLER. McGavin went on to reprise the role in a short-lived series without Curtis’ participation, and in response (it seems) Curtis attempted to launch another, similar franchise.
Anchor Bay is about to release on DVD ““ in fact, for the first time ever on video, as far as I can determine ““ Curtis’ 1973 TV movie, THE NORLISS TAPES.
This obvious pilot film starred Roy Thinnes (THE INVADERS, THE X-FILES) as David Norliss, a San Francisco investigative reporter working on a book debunking the supernatural. A year after taking the publisher’s advance, he calls his editor to tell him that he cannot write the book. A few days later, Norliss mysteriously disappears. When the editor shows up at Norliss’ home looking for him, he instead finds a pile of numbered cassette tapes. Playing the first one, he hears Norliss relate a terrifying story about his investigation of strange events in Carmel County involving a wealthy widow, her apparently undead spouse, a strange sculpture, and some bloodless corpses….
The movie plays out very much like Curtis’ NIGHT STALKER telefilms, with first-person narration by an investigator who is at first a skeptic, but soon caught up in unexplainable events. William F. Nolan’s teleplay follows the same structure and beats of Richard Matheson’s STALKER scripts, the minimalist musical score is again provided by Robert Cobert, and Curtis has even cast Claude Akins in a lawman role nearly identical to the one he played in the original Kolchak movie.
The biggest difference though, is that THE NORLISS TAPES is essentially humorless. Thinnes’ David Norliss is obviously a very serious, brooding sort of guy, where Darren McGavin’s Carl Kolchak was a wise-cracking wiseass with a lot of charm. This may have hurt the pilot’s chances of becoming a series back in the early Seventies. On the plus side, though, THE NORLISS TAPES co-stars the 1973-model Angie Dickinson (BIG BAD MAMA), and that’s a very good thing.
The DVD (which goes on sale today), is a bare-bones affair with a sharp, full-frame (the original aspect ratio) transfer, mono sound and a few trailers for other Anchor Bay/20th Century Fox horror titles. The transfer is solid and clean, and looks fine; the mono soundtrack is clear and strong.
While not quite as memorable as the NIGHT STALKER films, THE NORLISS TAPES does have a good, original story and an intriguing set-up. Too bad there was never a series or sequels. And since it rarely airs on TV anymore (outside occasional showings on Fox Movie Channel) it’s great to have it on DVD.
Buena Vista recently sent me a copy of one of their latest teen horror flicks, STAY ALIVE (2006), and while it’s no classic, I found it entertaining.
The premise is that there’s this “underground” survival/horror video game, called ““ you guessed it ““ Stay Alive, and if you play it, you unleash the evil of the game story into the real world. Even worse ““ as the ad copy makes explicit ““ if you die in the game, you suffer the same fatal fate in reality, at the hands of the Blood Countess.
The nonsensical story incorporates (and takes great liberties with) the legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who, so obsessed with maintaining her youth and beauty, took to slaughtering female virgins and bathing in their blood. According to the film, the Countess apparently fled Europe for the American South, where she resumed her sanguinary beauty treatments at a local plantation. It is this plantation that is the setting for the video game.
The cast is made up of your usual group of attractive, young twenty-somethings. The only face that was familiar to me was Agent Cody Banks himself, Frankie Muniz, as one of the die-hard gamers who uncover the game’s sinister secret.
Sure, the dialogue is cheesy, the story logic lacking, and you don’t have to have seen as many horror movies as I have to figure out by the end of the first act which characters are going to die and which are going to survive, but it’s fairly well acted (as these kinds of flicks go) and the direction by William Brent Bell is basically competent and occasionally suspenseful.
STAY ALIVE is available in two different DVD editions ““ as a full-frame, PG-13 version which not only cuts out almost all of the (already minimal) gore and profanity, not to mention nearly half of the picture, and an unrated, 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen version. Obviously, the unrated, widescreen edition is the preferable one. Bonus features include a filmmaker commentary with the director, a Visual Effects featurette and an interactive game that you can play with the disc menus and your remote control.
Not a great horror film by any stretch, but I found it entertaining, and will probably watch it again one of these days. You might find it worth a rental, if you’re feeling undemanding.
Ida Lupino. Tom Skerrit. John Travolta. William Shatner. Eddie Albert. Ernest Bognine. Only one Seventies Satanism screamer can claim all of those worthies in its cast, and that’s the perennial drive-in and late night TV classic, THE DEVIL’S RAIN (1975) ““ the only devil-worship shocker with real-life Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey as technical advisor!
Directed by Robert Fuest (THE ABOMINABLE DR. FIBES), RAIN is an entertaining, old-fashioned horror thriller, light on logic, but full of cool imagery and PG chills. Hollywood legend Lupino is the matriarch of a family that possesses a book coveted by a Satan-worshipping coven led by Borgnine. When Lupino, her eldest son (Shatner) and the book all go missing, little brother Tom Skerrit heads for a desert ghost town in search of them. There he finds a cult of robed, eyeless devil worshippers (including a very young Travolta) hanging out in a de-consecrated church and a big jug full of stolen souls. With the aid of college professor Eddie Albert, Skerrit attempts to free the souls and rescue his family from the cult.
It’s a lot of fun, if a bit tame by today’s standards. The desert settings are appropriately eerie, the visual and make-up effects are pretty good (especially for the time), and the ending still packs a punch. The performances range from good to outrageously over-the-top, which should be no surprise, considering the actors involved.
Previously released by VCI, THE DEVIL’S RAIN is getting a new lease on life from those wizards at Dark Sky Films with a new, much-improved edition hitting shelves on Halloween day. Boasting a superior 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer from a 35mm vault print (the VCI version was non-anamorphic and a bit dark), and sharp 2.0 Dolby Mono soundtrack, Dark Sky’s new special edition includes an informative commentary track from director Fuest moderated by Marcus Hearne, the original theatrical trailer, vintage radio spots and newsreel footage of Anton Lavey conducting a Satanic wedding in the 60’s.
Once again, Dark Sky has proven that they’re one of the top cult film labels around by taking a previously-released horror title and making the earlier edition obsolete. If you’re a fan of RAIN or Seventies Satanic thrillers in general, you’ll want to pick this up. And if you own the VCI disc, you may seriously want to consider an upgrade.
Recommended.
One of the great science fiction films of the atomic Fifties, THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955), has recently been re-released on the digital format by Universal Studios.
Directed by William Alland (aided by an uncredited Jack Arnold of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON fame), THIS ISLAND EARTH stars rugged Rex Reason and fetching Faith Domergue as nuclear scientists recruited into a secret research project by the mysterious (and mysteriously big-headed) Exeter (Jeff Morrow). Eventually the scientists discover that Exeter is an extraterrestrial (his HUGE cranium probably should have been a clue) desperate for new energy sources for his homeworld, and are swept away against their will on his flying saucer to the war-torn planet Metaluna.
Produced on a comparatively huge budget, THIS ISLAND EARTH was Universal’s answer to MGM’s lavish blockbuster FORBIDDEN PLANET, and the studio’s only Technicolor sci-fi extravaganza. Although the story moves a bit slowly by today’s standards, the special effects and scope of the film are still impressive.
The new Universal DVD is a bare-bones affair without a single extra feature and a static menu screen. The film is presented in 1.33:1 full-frame format, although, by most reports, the movie was intended to be matted for widescreen theatrical exhibition.
Previously released in the early days of the DVD format by Image Entertainment, universal’s new disc is a slight improvement, with a sharper, brighter transfer. Unfortunately the print used shows some minor age-related wear, some scratches, dust and debris. It’s not terrible, but one wishes that Universal had taken this important genre film back to the computer lab and give it a full-fledged restoration. Hell, I don’t even like the way the Art Department cropped the original poster art for the DVD cover ““ the design is off-balance and doesn’t even show the best parts of the art.
THIS ISLAND EARTH is a classic science fiction epic that still awaits a definitive release, but for now, this one will have to do. At least it’s inexpensive.
From 1953 to 1969, author Don Glut (best known for the paperback novelization of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and a bunch of Gold Key comic books from the Seventies, like Dr. Spektor and Dagar) made amateur monster movies with his family’s 16mm movie camera. Of course, lots of kids made home movies, but what made Glut’s flicks different was that his efforts were frequently written up in issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and later, publications like Filmfax, Fangoria and Starlog (where I read about them years ago).
I WAS A TEENAGE MOVIE MAKER (2006) is a documentary of Glut’s amateur filmmaking “career,” covering all 41 home, student and short films that he made during that above-mentioned 16-year span. From his earliest efforts, attempting to remake and sequelize classic Universal “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” films, to his later efforts as a film student using actual costumes and props from classic science fiction films and cliffhanger serials (courtesy of his friendship with superfan Bob Burns), Glut covers each short film in detail and shares many entertaining anecdotes about their making. Interspersed throughout the documentary are comments from Randal Kleiser (director of GREASE and Glut’s college roommate), Bob Burns, Famous Monsters editor Forrest J. Ackerman, Jim Harmon and even Glut’s mom!
The 2-disc special edition also includes all 41 of the films discussed in the documentary, each one accompanied by an audio commentary by Glut. There are also several behind-the-scenes bits, outtakes, and still galleries.
Cinema Epoch’s DVD presents the material in a full-frame transfer, which is quite nice overall, though Glut’s short films understandably vary in picture quality due to their age and amateur production. The packaging is slick and the material is fascinating. As a kid, I always wanted to make movies like these and never quite managed to make it happen. It’s a lot of fun to watch these now as an adult and admire the drive, talent and sheer strength of will that teenage Glut and his friends demonstrated in the making of these ambitious little motion pictures.
I loved I WAS A TEENAGE MOVIE MAKER, and it’s highly recommended.
A lot more reviews are in the pipeline for the next several weeks, including a bunch of horror disc reviews in time for your Halloween movie marathon planning: THE BORIS KARLOFF COLLECTION, THE INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES, VOODOO MOON, THE LAST BROADCAST and more. I’ve also got a nice selection of drive-in action flicks, with THE SISTER STREET FIGHTER COLLECTION, 9 DEATHS OF THE NINJA, GALAXINA and KILLPOINT, plus some sci-fi television with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SEASON 2.5 and my final FARSCAPE and ANDROMEDA reviews!
Comments about this column or DVD-related questions? Feel free to contact me at dvdlateshow@atomicpulp.com.
I haven’t seen The Departed, and probably won’t till it opens (I’m banned from screenings of Warner Bros. movies), but I have been researching the film in depth. Here’s the why and how of it.
Why? Well, for one thing, it is the new fucking Martin Scorsese film, man, and that should be cause for celebration among all film students. And it is Scorsese where we like him best, in the mean streets among the thugs and victims of urban crime. Just as we all prefer Woody Allen’s earlier, funny movies, most of us merely tolerate Scorsese’s forays into Tibetan mysticism, Catholic mythology, and music history. Even better, The Departed is an American adaptation of a Hong Kong film that is masterly in its own right.
The how of it, in lieu of yet seeing the film, is to watch the trailer a hundred times, see the HBO making of, and read all the articles and interviews connected with The Departed. I haven’t caught up with the Jack Nicholson interview in Rolling Stone yet, but I’ve read just about everything else, in magazines ranging from Entertainment Weekly to American Cinematographer.
More important, I’ve see the three films in the Infernal Affairs trilogy. I’d wanted to see them before the first one became a Scorsese remake project, but, you know, time is short and new films keep coming in the door. But this weekend I made the effort, and walked up the street to my neighborhood video shop, Movie Madness, rented the DVDs and then viewed the three films in a row. The second two films in the series were probably not strictly necessary, as I gather that Scorsese and his screenwriter William Monahan, concentrate on the first film, but you never know, and in any case, Infernal Affairs 2 is hailed as a good prequel, and some viewers think that the Godfather 2-ey Infernal Affairs 3 is the best of the lot.
They are indeed three terrific films, and if you haven’t seen them, at least do yourself the favor of seeing the first film, perhaps after seeing Scorsese’s version.
Released in 2002, Infernal Affairs is written by Alan (Siu Fai) Mak and Felix Chong, and directed by Andrew Lau (Wai-Keung) and Mak, with Lau also pulling co-DP duties, although Christopher Doyle did the prep work on the film and shot part of it. And it’s not what you think. Viewers used to John Woo’s nonstop visual pyrotechnics and its influence on most HK films thereafter might be justified in assuming that Infernal Affairs is in that tradition, but it isn’t. IF is a scrupulously realistic crime drama. There are only one or two shoot outs, and they are conducted in a plausible fashion. Most of the film concentrates on the psychology of its protagonists, and confines its suspense to This is the kind of film wherein silence on the other end of a telephone line looms larger in IF‘s fearsome universe than bullets.
Have you ever seen a film that actually made you jealous? That was my reaction to Infernal Affairs. The premise is so clever, and has so much potential, surely almost all of it realized in the trilogy, that I sat there squirming in envy. But the film’s success is not based soley on the cleverness of the premise. Director Lau explores the mirror positions of his characters with cunning and wisdom. It’s the kind of film you think about for days afterwards, mentally revisiting the nuances and implications.
Scorsese’s film sounds like an accurate account of the source. Stills from the film, the trailer, and a few early reviews suggest that key scenes from the HK version make their way into the new one. The broken cast, the meeting in the movie theater, the Our esteemed leader Kevin Smith, in his review of the film on Ebert’s show last night, even revealed that one of the best scenes in the HK version, when the two moles make their first contact via cel phones, has become one of the best scene sin Scorsese’s adaptation.
I’ve also been reading Black Mass: The True Story of the Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, by reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, their 2000 account of Boston crime king Whitey Bulger and his links to the FBI, as preparation for the film’s milieu. But that task has turned into a pleasure rather than prep work. It’s a great book of true crime, but I’m coming to realize that, although the movie is set in Boston, Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello has only tangential connections to Bulger and his case. No for a cinematic recreation of Bulger and his environs one must turn to the Showtime series The Brotherhood.
The rash of promotional magazine articles has also filled in some details about this most anticipated of movies. Among them is the American Cinematographer interview with DP Michael Ballhaus. It’s a weird interview because Bauhaus admits to abhorring violence, and only consents to doing Scorsese’s films because, vaguely, “the way he plays those scenes tells you something about the characters.” Ballhaus is one of the few collaborators who will admit to having seen the source film (Scorsese and the screenwriter say they have avoided it) – and I wish he hadn’t. Everything he says about Infernal Affairs is wrong. Ballhaus says he enjoyed Lau’s movie, but adds that ” Infernal Affairs is a very fast-moving and stylish picture, but it has a very different style than The Departed. Marty’s version is much more character-driven, whereas the Chinese version [sic; it’s not a ‘version,’ it is the actual movie, of which ‘Marty’s’ is the version], while very good, doesn’t have the same depth. It was good for me to see Internal Affairs because it helped me learn what to do and not to do in our film. The original is lit very darkly in places and is rather mysterious, which is sometimes good. However, it’s occasionally a bit difficult to see the characters, and ti’s also primarily action-driven. Ours also has a lot of action, but we took a more American approach to the material.” To paraphrase Peter Gallagher in the great Malice, all due respect, Mr. Ballhaus, but knock it off. Everything you say is wrong. Infernal Affairs is well lit. If there are parts of the film so dark you can’t see the characters I’d like to know where they are. Does he mean the movie theater scene? And what does he mean by “mysterious”? What does that mean? On the subject of action, the reverse of what Ballhaus says is true. Infernal Affairs is character driven, not action driven. That is perfectly obvious. I suspect he saw Hard-Boiled and thought it was Infernal Affairs. How condescending of Ballhaus to say that viewing the source taught him what not to do. And what is this more “American” approach to the material”? What does that mean? Based on what American films in general do lately I would guess it means drain it of all interest and importance. It’s American movies that can’t develop characters of late, and it is HK films that have out-Hollywooded Hollywood when it comes to coherent, suspenseful, and amusing action. Infernal Affairs also showed that HK films have greater, not lesser, depth of character in their films. What a string of ridiculous, inaccurate, embarrassing, condescending, self-serving, and ignorant statements.
The interview with Scorsese in Entertainment Weekly also bothered me. Scorsese seemed disengaged. When reminded that he is using the Rolling Stones’s “Gimmee Shelter” yet again to kick off a film, lamely replied that, “I guess I’m repeating myself.”
But now that I think about it, the last several of Scorsese’s films have felt off, bloated New Hollywood films with good parts but an overall empty feel, even when the film is a lifelong dream project like Gangs of New York. Some of Scorsese’s best films are ones he’s had to be talked into doing, like Raging Bull. Does he not want to make films? Is he ambivalent these days? And why are his most recent films so much less like a “Scorsese film”? Is it the collaboration with DiCaprio? Is it the influence of the Weinsteins? Is Scorsese simply changing? Or am I not able to keep up with his work? Is it possible that Scorsese only has one great truly personal film in him, and he did it already, back in 1973, with all the rest the work of a metteur en scene?
I am hoping that all these doubts, questions, and fears will be put to rest with The Departed.
by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose with colors by Anthony Lee
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The web. It’s a big place, full of plenty of distractions ““ some funny, some informative, some ludicrous, some disturbing, some inane, some profound. Each and every weekday, we present links to a few of our favorite finds”¦
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My Small Light in the Huge Askewniverse
Greetings Earthlings, the extraterrestrial Emcee has landed! Some of you may know me from my music, the posts on the View Askew post board, or the cool shorts Mattt Potter has cut to some of my songs. For those that don’t know me, hi-my name’s Thaahum (pronounced Thaa-Hoom-with a long ‘a’ sound), and I’m a writer and I rap once in a while too. Don’t be alarmed though, it’s not the hip hop that’s played on most of your local radio stations, where all they talk about is how rich they are or how many chicks they committed various sex acts with. Naw, my music actually has lyrics people can understand, and relate to (what a concept, music with a message)!
I gotta thank Kevin Smith for always supporting up and coming talent, no matter what their art form is. I also have to thank the Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Ken Plume, for giving me the opportunity to have my own column on the site, “Keneteph’s Korner.”
So what can you expect in my part of the universe? Well to be blunt – really good shit! I’ll be featuring talented people in the entertainment field you normally wouldn’t hear about. Sometimes you’ll have heard about them, but the articles will show a perspective on them the audience can gain something from.
The first article was on co-writer of the Occult Crimes Task Force (OCT) comic book, David Atchison. He and actress Rosario Dawson both write the series. I hope you guys enjoyed it. This week I have a review on an urban poetry book called The Rebirth of Seeds by Renard E. Williams.
Some say I’m a pretty good writer, but you ask if I really got skills behind the mic? You be the judge. I leave you with a verse I did giving props to the crew I’m a fan of the most – Kevin Smith – Takin’ Out Sukkas. Mattt Potter of View Askew recently cut a funny video to this song, which can be seen via the links below:
Peace,
Thaahum
Keneteph Entertainment
www.keneteph.com
