the m0vie blog

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 5 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Darren

With The Spirit Archives, Vol. 5, we get our first real taste of what The Spirit looks like without Will Eisner. I’ve always felt like The Spirit belonged to Eisner in a way that very few iconic American comic book characters belong to a particular creator. The Spirit belonged to Eisner in the same way that The Adventures of Tintin belonged to Hergé. I am fond of Darwyn Cooke’s revival of the character, and there’s something interesting about the Kitchen Sink anthology series, but those exist mainly as curiosities or companion pieces to Eisner’s work on the character.

In many ways, this stretch of strips, published by Eisner’s staff and colleagues during his army service, feels the same sort of way. It’s more of a historical curiosity than an end to itself.

Lighten up…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, Car body style, Clairvius Narcisse, Comics, Ebony White, Eisner, Eisner Award, Ellen, games, Haiti, Huntress, marvel comics, New Orleans, Ron Goulart, Royal Flush Gang, South America, Tomb of Dracula, United States, World War I | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Oranges

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Darren

There’s an interesting film in here, somewhere. The Oranges teases the possibility of brutally exposing the seedy underside of suburban life, as we follow an affair between a married man and his best friend’s daughter, but The Oranges is far too shallow to land anything resembling a killing stroke. The adult cast is composed of talented veterans, but the script doesn’t give them much to do – instead The Oranges treats their children as the focal point, misjudging the talent of young actresses Leighton Meester and Alia Shawkat. It all feels too light, too cosy, and too willing to pick the low-hanging fruit to really create an interesting study of life in the ‘burbs.

Keeping it in the family…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alia Shawkat, Catherine Keener, christmas, Conditions and Diseases, David, film, Food, Fruit, Health, hugh laurie, Leighton Meester, Movie, Neurological Disorders, non-review review, oliver platt, oranges, review, stroke, United States | Leave a comment »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Last Outpost (Review)

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also next year’s release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I’m taking a look at the recent blu ray release of the first season, episode-by-episode. Check back daily for the latest review.

You know, a lot of people would argue that Star Trek is about understanding. That it’s about embracing and respecting cultures, even when they hold values different than your own. Sometimes that is to a fault, like in the last episode (Code of Honour) where Picard allowed his Chief of Security to engage in a fight to the death to avoid violating local custom. (Which he then violated by reviving the loser.) However, it appears that such open-mindedness only applies when you look and act appropriately human enough.

If you are a Ferengi, then your culture shouldn’t be respected and acknowledged. It should be mocked and ridiculed.

He’s all ears…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Data, Ferengi, Klingon, Last Outpost, Next Generation, picard, Rick Berman, Romulan, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek Online, Star Trek's Next Generation, star trek: deep space nine, star trek: the next generation, Starfleet, Starfleet ranks and insignia, Trekkie, United States, William Riker, Worf | 10 Comments »

Immatürity for Charity, 9:30pm, RTÉ 2, 27th December 2012

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Darren

I received this and thought it was worth sharing, in aid of a good cause.

This Christmas, some of the best actors and film crew in Ireland have come together for a sketch-show comedy special in aid of St Francis Hospice, Raheny. Immatürity for Charity features a whole host of Ireland’s top thespians including Domhnall Gleeson, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Huberman, Robert Sheehan, Hugh O’Conor, Brian Gleeson, David Wilmot and many more. Their mission: to embarrass themselves with pride and embrace their immature side in comedy sketches that aim to raise money and awareness for the hospice.

Brendan Gleeson - IFC

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Amy Huberman, brendan gleeson, Brian Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson, Hugh O'Conor, Ireland, Robert Sheehan, Sketch comedy | Leave a comment »

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 4 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Darren

As with the previous collection, the War looms large in The Spirit Archives, Vol. 4. While Eisner had been keenly following events in Europe from the start of the strip, things really come to a head here. These are the strips for the six months following the attack on Pearl Harbour, and – understandable – there’s a strong patriot undertone to everything here. Eisner would eventually put his patriotism into action when he was drafted, leaving his character in the hands of his staff – who dutifully kept the comic warm for him during his term of service. While Eisner’s early work on the strip isn’t quite as good as the work that would follow, and the shadow of the Second World War dominates, these are still fascinating stories told by a master storyteller.

Carrying on, naturally…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Devil, Dolan, Ebony, Eisner, Eisner Award, Ellen Dolan, German, German American, jeph loeb, King Hobo, republicans, Spirit, The Spirit: Femmes Fatale, United States, Will Eisner, world war ii | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Celeste & Jesse Forever

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Darren

While it’s not quite as novel as the core idea might suggest, Celeste & Jesse Forever has a fascinating central concept. Most romances leave off after the initial courtship – the “and they lived happily ever after” all but printed at the bottom of the end credits. Celeste & Jesse Forever offers a somewhat skewered take on that. We begin at the end of a marriage, and follow the two central characters as they try to deal with living apart from one another. The movie isn’t as subversive as it could be, working hard to integrate conventional romantic formulas into this new framework, but it is something a bit different – and the concept carries it quite far. A winning central performance from Rashida Jones and a charming sense of humour help keep the movie interesting, even if it never quite commits fully.

Celeste & Jesse Forever is well worth a look, if only to demonstrate that there is room to tinker with the conventional formula for romantic comedies.

The long kiss goodnight…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andy Samberg, Bounty Hunter, Celeste, elijah wood, Emma Roberts, film, Five Year Engagement, i love you man, Jesse Forever, Jones, Movie, non-review review, rashida jones, review, Ugly Truth, Will McCormack | Leave a comment »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Code of Honour (Review)

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Darren

Remember how yesterday I said was hesitant to throw around adjectives like “worst” or “mind-numbingly” or any other similar sounding pejorative term? I was doing that so that when I did string them together to form a sentence or a description, it would carry a bit more weight. After all, Star Trek: The Next Generation didn’t have the strongest first season, as I keep noting apologetically in these opening paragraphs. However, Code of Honour is pretty dire by any measure, and it remains one of the low watermarks of the troubled first season.

Yes, I did type “one of”, but that doesn’t make Code of Honour any easier to manage.

Not quite steps to greatness…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Amok Time, arts, Brent Spiner, Code of Honor (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Data, Earth, Earth Sciences, education, Environment, Honour, Klingon, Lutan, Michael Salla, Organizations, patrick stewart, Ro Laren, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the original series, Tasha Yar, Television | 6 Comments »

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 3 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Darren

Join us the December as we take a dive into the weird and wonderful Will Eisner Spirit Archives, the DC collections of the comic strip that helped define the medium.

At this point The Spirit had survived a year. That first year had seen Eisner establish the strip, lay down many of the rules that would define the comic for the rest of its impressive twelve-year run as a regular fixture in the Sunday papers. This third volume is hardly the most essential in the twenty-six volume set, but there’s a sense of confidence in the stories the Eisner is telling and how he is telling them. The strip arguably wouldn’t hit its stride until after Eisner left for the war, and came back with a broader range of experience, but one can see the roots of that later success even in these (relatively) early adventures.

We’ll always have Damascus…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, comic strip, Comics, crime, dc comics, Eisner, Eisner Award, Ellen Dolan, Film noir, joss whedon, murder, punisher, Short story, Sphinx, Spirit, The Spirit Archives: Volume 12, The Spirit: Femmes Fatale, United States, Will Eisner, Will Eisner Spirit Archives | Leave a comment »

International On-Line Film Critics’ Poll Nominees Announced…

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Darren

The nominees for the 2012 International On-Line Film Critics’ Poll 2012 have been announced. Open to all films released in the United States between November 2011 and November 2012, it allows for a slightly different playing field than the Oscars typically does. It also means that I am (as a non-American) far more likely to have seen all the nominees, with only Lincoln yet to see among the Best Picture nominees. Anyway, I will be sending in my ballot soon enough, but take a gander at the full list of nominees below. It’s a strong list, to be sure.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Actor, Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, arts, awards, ben affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dark Knight Rises, Lincoln, Movies, oscar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tree of Life, United States, Visual effects | Leave a comment »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Naked Now (Review)

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Darren

I stand by my original observation that it was a smart idea to set Star Trek: The Next Generation a century after Star Trek. After all, Gene Roddenberry’s original Star Trek was over two decades old by the time that Encounter at Farpoint aired. Twenty years is a long time in entertainment – it can feel like a century. The world had changed since Star Trek appeared, and setting the story in a brand new world with strong (yet not strangling) ties to the beloved original series allowed the best of both worlds.

However, the problem with the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is that it doesn’t quite realise this yet. It’s busy trying to do “Star Trek”, even though times have changed. The Naked Now, the second episode of the series, is the perfect embodiment of this problem. Star Trek: The Next Generation should have been establishing its own identity, rather than trying to simply emulate its predecessor.