The Summer of funnybook movies continues with the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, this past weekend. While I know that many critics panned the first Hellboy. Personally I liked it (granted, I had to see it a couple of times to fully get its rhythm, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as some make out).

Anywho, as stated, back for a second bite at the cinematic apple is Mike Mignola’s demonic WW II hero with an attitude and a mean right cross, Hellboy. To be sure, while this reviewer has long been a fan of the Dark Horse comicbook series, and did enjoy the red monkey’s initial film, I wasn’t so sure that we were ever going to see him onscreen again, especially after his initial outing. I mean, it was fun and all, and (as stated) I enjoyed it, this reviewer seemed to be in the minority.

Anyway, as with the first film (and comic) Hellboy (Perlman) and his crew of misfits — including Abe Sapien (Jones)>, Liz Sherman (Blair) — His boss, Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) and the rest of the BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) are the chaps who keep the world safe from the beasties who go bump in the night. Yeah, yeah it sounds — and looks — a little bit like Men in Black, but that’s not only OK, but it is to be a little bit expected, as the two comics and films are essentially drawing on similar source material.

Having said all of this, the film is a fun ride, and is a testament to the scathingly brilliant vision of Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) is simply wonderful to behold, and truly needs to be seen to be believed.

The Perfessor

No, there isn’t anything that weird (or unsafe) about this post. It is just my coy way of telling you all that I’ve been to the movies again and I want to wax eloquent about it here in this space.

This time out we are going to talk about Hancock and Wall*E. So if you are up for spending a couple of hours in the dark, then you’ll want to spend some time watching both of these films. The first is an adult (stereocomic) take on superheroes while the second is the latest outing from the folks at Pixar (the folks who gave us The Incredibles).

continue reading "A night in the dark"

Years and Years ago, I wrote a film column for a local publication. The column was titled From the Shadow of the 14th Row (which, by-the-by) is the title of a song by Styx). While I still write a film column (that shows up in both print, as well as a couple of places on the Web) I no longer use that title. Anywho, I saw a couple of films last night with my son, and here is what I thought of them. (If you wait a couple of days and visit my column, Suspension of Belief, you’ll be sure to find them there — one day eventually, I’ll probably wind up having all my web content posted in one place, but for now it is where it is).

Continue on for mini reviews of You Don’t Mess with the Zohan and Wanted:

continue reading "From the Shadow of the 14th Row"

Well, I could have told you all (and perhaps I did), but this past weekend, Steve Carell and Get Smart (once hailed as the smartest show on TV) ruled the multiplexes while Mike Meyers’ lowbrow, tepid bit of sophomoric, frat-boy humor (which one critic pointed was nothing but a recycling of his Austin Powers material) bit the big one:

LOS ANGELES (June 22) - Maxwell Smart took control of the weekend box office in North America, while Mike Myers lost his mojo with his new comedy.

“Get Smart,” a remake of the classic television spy spoof, sold an estimated $39.2 million worth of tickets during its first three days, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said Sunday.

Moviefone via AOL Movie news

While I haven’t as yet seen The Love Guru, I could tell that it was going to seriously suck. Apparently all Meyers’ did was repackage his Austin Powers shtick and give him a bogus Indian accent rather than an annoying British accent. From what I could see, all the gags on the trailer could have come from Austin Powers, and I’m not the only person who thinks so, so does this guy over at Cracked.com.

To be sure, I will probably go see it (so you won’t have to), and then come back here and trash it (because that is how I get my fun).

The Perfessor

While our good buddy Walt has been out diggin’ in in the dirt (and cow tipping), I’ve been spending my time (drinking, carousing, and spreading the seeds of insurrection), doing what I enjoy most (blowing crap up), going to the movies.

Here are some of the flicks that I’ve recently seen:

Baby Mama: This is a modern-day, formalistic screwball romantic comedy-lite; complete with hidden agendas, oddball characters, and a fair dose of random silliness, all of which contributes to a very enjoyable evening out at the movies. Cute, fun, and lighthearted, with a little bit of social commentary; what more could you ask for from a romantic comedy?

Former SNL Alum, Tina Fey (30 Rock, Mean Girls) plays Kate Holbrook, a 37-year-old, successful VP of a large organic food company run by a very restrained Steve Martin —her new-age, California-style loopy boss). Up until now Kate hasn’t wanted kids, but apparently her biological clock has just kicked into overdrive. Everywhere she looks, she sees the cute, adorable faces of cherub-faced infants. Now she wants one, but can’t (she has defective girl parts) so she chooses instead to hire a surrogate mom who turns out to be the very unrestrained Amy Poehler. Way a lot of fun, go and enjoy.

The Happening: This yet another creepy film from Wunderkind M. Night Shyamalan (The 6th Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) who cut his cinematic teeth on delivering us films with a (usually subtly telegraphed) “twist” Here he is doing something similar, only not so much. The Happening is a well-paced, heart-pounding paranoid thriller about a family on the run from an inexplicable and unstoppable event. Is it the work of Terrorists? Has the U.S. Government targeted it’s own citizens? Or has the Earth itself decided to strike back in its own form of eco-survival? This “Event” is something so subtle and mysterious that it terrifies everyone and threatens humankind’s very survival.

This film is different than other Shyamalan’s films in that it doesn’t so much wrap everything up neatly, as is his wont, but leaves a bit of an air of mystery around what is occurring. Quite a good film, and much better than The Lady in the Water (which was both too confusing and predictable at the same time.

The Hulk: This is so NOT the film that we saw in 2003 where we spent the first half of the film waiting for Bruce Banner to turn green and hit something and the second half of the film no longer caring. This one jumps right in with Banner already the Hulk and on the run form the U.S. Government — in the form of General T-Bolt Ross — that wants to turn him into the ultimate weapon (much in the same fashion that “The Company” in the Alien flicks wanted to turn those nasty beasties into bio-weapons). In fact, in some fashion (with all of the origin material recapped under the opening credits, you can consider this to actually be the follow-up to that first, forgettable, flick).

This one hits all of the numbers right, combining action, angst, and a big, angry green Goliath with equal amounts of drama, humor, and lost love to form a more well-rounded product. Plus, there is the requisite amount of back-story in this film to (loosely) tie it into not only last month’s Iron Man, but into foward-looking projects (including 2011’s highly-anticipated Captain America.

Get Smart: now, here is the best of the lot. In it’s day, Get Smart was the coolest, smartest, hippist TV show on the air. Written by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, this show lampooned everything from “modern day” culture to the then-current spate of Spy films. (Think I’m exaggerating? Tell me another prime-time, family-friendly show that can spin off a film titled The Nude Bomb which carries a “G” -Rating!). Here the same can be said. this is a true tribute to the TV show without being silly, demeaning, or, well just plain goofy.

If you ever watched the show, you will love this flick as it delivers everything you want it to deliver, from Agent 13 hiding in a tree, to Steve Carrell’s dead-on, blank-eyed Maxwell Smart stare and delivery of likes like “I Missed it by that much,” “Sorry about that, Chief,” and “…would you believe…” This film has the perfect cast, a solid script, great pacing, as well as people healming it that have an obvious reverance for the source material. Always a sure winner.

Whelp, Kiddies, that’s it for this installment of Films at the Café. catch you in the funnypapers!

The Perfessor

With the funnybook red&gold/green “One-Two” punch of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk knocking on the Summer blockbuster door to kick off the Summer season, I just wanted to look down the road a bit to see what we can expect for the rest of the funnybook year to come, because, unlike this guy, I’m actually looking forward to this year’s slate of funnybook films.

First of all, June is going to be rounded out by Wanted (which began life as a creator-owned comicbook mini-series, by Mark Millar and J. G. Jones which was published by Top Cow in 2003–‘04. This one is an action-packed adventure staring Angelina Jolie as a killer assassin who is schooling a young man James McAvoy in the art of the kill. The trailers look very cool (but then again so did those of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and we all know how that one turned out, eh?).

Up next month we have Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Batman: The Dark Knight, both of which also look good. Batman, as you all know is a character from the DC stable of heroes, but you might not know that Hellboy hails from Dark Horse an upstart Left Coast comicbook company that has found it niche in successfully linking up with a number of Hollywood Studios (either by adapting their movies to comics (Aliens, Terminator), or by having characters that began life in their comics go the other way and make the jump into movies (Barb Wire, The 300, Sin City). Much has already been written about this Batman Returns follow-up and the unfortunate and tragic death of Heath Ledger. From what I’ve seen of the trailers and how spectacular the previous film was, this one is going to be the one to beat this Summer.

Further out we can expect Punisher: War Zone this December, and (from what we’ve heard) this one will be better than either The Thomas Jane/John Travolta film or the original Dolph Lundgren version. Again, I’m holding judgment on this one until I see some more. Also scheduled for a December release is the Film Whiteout, Based on the comicbook. Whiteout follows U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko as she uncovers the first murder ever in the Antarctic just as the sun is about to set for six months. She must catch the killer before he leaves the ice or be stuck there with him in the dark for six months. I read one installment of this comic (I think it was something I got on Free Comicbook Day) and it read real well. Glad to see it is being made into a film.

There actually might be more, but this is what I know of right now.

Oh yeah, I’m formally issuing a “WTF” Alert for our Imperious Leader.

The Perfessor

Well, it has been a while since I went on about movies in this column, and that is not because I Haven’t been watching them, but rather because I have been very busy lately (if you want to check in on what I’ve been watching, and get the extended reviews, you’ll want to go check out my film column, Suspension of Belief).

Some of the films I’ve been to lately have been the new Indiana Jones flick (about which I did post), but last night I went out with my son and we did a doubleheader, that is to say we went to the multiplex and then “theater jumped.” (To be sure, it was really a double-and-a-half-header, as there was more time between the first and second flick than we needed, so we sat in on about 45 minutes of Iron Man, before sliding over into seeing the new Narnia flick. We started the night off with The Strangers, which we both enjoyed. Last week, I checked out Baby Mama with the wife, which was quite cute. Some of the others were Street Kings (staring Keanu Reeves) and the very forgettable, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

I really wanted to see The Strangers because of the marketing campaign. The premise is that a young couple were brutalized by a trio of strangers one night at their house out in the woods. the part that hooked me was the line where the girl victim asked the intruders “Why are you doing this to us” and the intruder responds “Because you were home.” The film claims to be based on true events only, when you go to the Wikipedia reference for the site you discover that is something of a stretch.

The movie is inspired by an event from the director’s, Bryan Bertino, childhood, among other things. A stranger came to his home asking for someone. Later, he found out that empty homes in the neighborhood had been robbed. With that memory in mind, Bertino created this, his debut screenplay. The screenplay is also inspired by the events of the Charles Manson murders.

Still, it is a fairly decent genre flick. The fact that it was obviously a small-budget film with only a few actors, and none of them really “A” listers, also helped the film. there is a maximum of suspense and foreshadowing, and a lack of actual blood and gore, which elevates it above much of the dreck that tends to populate this type of flick. Oh yeah, if you want to get a real visceral experience from the flick, either before you go, or after you come back, check out the official site, and then go to the interactive experience room. it is very cool, and an excellent example of what a well-dome web site can do.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was also quite good. A much darker version of the original, which lended itself to making it much more interesting. Here the four kids from the first flick finally get the opportunity to return to Narnia, only while it has been a year for them, it has been almost 4,000 for the mystical world. The wonderful world they left behind is in ruins, and the four of them must lead the Narnians in a quest to reclaim what was theirs.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall wasn’t nearly as funny as it probably should have been, and I chalk that up to the slip-shod way it was put together. I mean,. there were funny bits, but I couldn’t get past the feeling that this would have made a good 15 minute SNL-type sketch, but by padding it out for 111 Minutes made it about 100 minutes too long.

Well, that’s really it for now. I’ve promised the Mrs. that we will go and see Sex and the City tonight, and even though I never really watched the TV show — either on HBO or in syndication, I’m not quite sure what my reaction to it is going to be (although if the three intruders from The Strangers were to show up at the end, and hack the four female stars to death in a bloody display of random violence and splatter-punk gore, I probably wouldn’t mind at all).

The Perfessor