Posted on April 28, 2010 by Darren
What is it about the X-Men and crapsack futures? Mark Millar has taken everybody’s favourite feral anti-hero and dropped him in his own particular horrible future. Old Man Logan takes a familiar Millar conceit – “what if the bad guys won?” – and applies it to the familiar Marvel Universe. Of course, this being Millar, he’s piled even more horror and crappiness on top of that, giving us an inbred Hulk family and wild dinosaurs, but it’s an idea that many will recognise from his own Wanted, among other works. Of course, this being a Wolverine book, we follow the familiar antihero as he attempts to navigate post-apocalyptic America (divided into four kingdoms) while delivering a mysterious package with former Avenger Hawkeye.
A hulkin' good time...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alan moore, arts, comic book, dark knight returns, mark millar, marvel comics, marvel universe, old man logan, Red Skull, steve mcniven, wolverine, x-men | 8 Comments »
Posted on April 27, 2010 by Darren
The Time of Angels aired on Saturday on BBC and managed to singlehandedly demonstrate that Stephen Moffat is the master of scary Doctor Who and also that the show’s budget cuts were nowhere near crippling. Looking absolutely stunning in High Definition and looking every part, as Moffat alluded, like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster, The Time of Angels also offered the second appearance of Moffat’s own creation, the Weeping Angels, following their initial appearance in Blink a few years back. Part of me wonders if Moffat has, four hours into his first season, done what Russell T. Davies spent his entire run attempting – has he introduced a classic recurring Doctor Who monster?
Angels and demons...
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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bbc television, blink, doctor who, flesh and stone, stephen moffat, the time of angels, the weeping angels | 2 Comments »
Posted on April 26, 2010 by Darren
Avatar is already the fastest selling Blu Ray of all time, knocking The Dark Knight from its perch. But what really struck me is how close the Blu Ray sales figures – estimated at 2.7m – are closing in on the DVD numbers – 4m. Could Avatar not only save the planet, but also the home media format?
Blue Ray?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3d, avatar, blu ray, bluray, DVD, dvds, home media, records, sales, vhs | 14 Comments »
Posted on April 26, 2010 by Darren
I hope you aren’t tired of comic book movies, because it seems like the past few summers have just been an attempt to whet our appetites for even more of the four-colour heroes. Marvel, ever keen to stay one step ahead of their “distinguished competitor”, have announced a scheme to allow the less well-known of their characters a day in the spotlight. DC is still struggling to get its iconic heroes to the screen, let alone put together a coherent shared universe, and Marvel is already scouring the depths of its published materials for new films. I have to admit, I’m kinda excited about the news.
Who's next?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: comic book films, comic books, dc, film, genre, marvel, Movies, subgenre, superheroes | 7 Comments »
Posted on April 25, 2010 by Darren
I love Gift Grub. I really do. Due to traveling arrangements to work, I seldom get to hear it on the radio any more, so I jumped at the chance to see it live in Drogheda. For those unfamiliar with the concept, they’re a series of softly satirical sketches which run on the commercial radio station Today FM, gently mocking all manner of high profile Irish figures – begining with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and gradually ballooning out to cover Ronan Keating, Roy Keane and even international celebrities like Jose Mourinho. The series of sketches have enjoyed all manner of successes, even releasing singles ‘Jose and his Technicolour Overcoat’ and Keane’s ‘I Think I’d Better Leave Right Now’. The audience last night was treated to fantastic renditions over both songs, including an encore of Technicolour Overcoat (with karaoke ‘woah-oh’ thrown in). It was a good night.
Infacta...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: bertie, bertie ahern, drogheda, gift grub, gift grub live, keith duffy, liveline, mario rosenstock | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 24, 2010 by Darren
Myself and the better half had the pleasure of taking in a show in the national theatre last night. Director Jimmy Fay has brought Shakespeare’s MacBeth, the play known in the industry as “the Scottish play”, to the stage. I studied MacBeth in secondary school, as one of the big four tragedies. I would have rather studied Othello or Hamlet, but at least it wasn’t King Lear. We had high hopes in settling into our seats for the full performance – Fay had brought The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui to the stage only last year in a show that remains perhaps my favourite of all the plays I have seen at the Abbey. Did MacBeth live up to those expectations?
"Something wicked this way comes..."
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey, aidan kelly, dublin, eileen walsh, jimmy fay, macbeth, macbeth at the abbey, play, review, shakespeare, the abbey, the abbey theatre, Theatre | 3 Comments »
Posted on April 23, 2010 by Darren
Ah, mobile phones. Or cellular telephones to our overseas readers. How did we ever get by without them. Can you imagine a time when you were actually able to have a legitimate excuse for ignoring people trying to get into contact with you? When you were unreachable, save at home or at work? I reached my teenage years just as mobile phones became truly moble – I came of age as they became standard accessories for everyone. So I’ve never really lived in a world without them. So I’ve never really had a chance to stop and think about how they’ve influenced movie-making and the like. While they’ve undoubedly made it easier to write genres like dramas or romances where you no longer have to worry about characters sharing a geographic location to have a conversation, I think their biggest area of influence has been on horrors or thrillers, movies which took great pride in isolating individuals and having them face threats or challenges on their own. How has this changed?
Is there a life on the line?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cellular, cellular telephones, films, mobile phones, mobiles, Movies, phonebooth, phones, pulse | 7 Comments »
Posted on April 23, 2010 by Darren
Papillon is a great film. I fall just short of declaring it a masterpiece, but it’s certainly a proud cinematic achievement (seriously, there’s some lovely stunt work going on here). Based on the true, kinda true heavily fictionalised story of Henri Charriere (his real name is never given here, except for a brief shot of his jail cell), the movie is pretty much an episodic collection of incidences from his time in captivity, having been wrongly convicted for killing a pimp. Naturally some of these individual segments work better than others, and some seem a little disjointed, but Steve McQueen really ties it all together. Which is really something since he’s starring opposite Dustin “Oscar gold” Hoffman.
Hail to McQueen...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: dustin hoffman, escape, film, Movies, non-review review, papillon, prison, review, steve mcqueen | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 22, 2010 by Darren
It’s already happening. We’re already calling Kick-Ass a failure. Even though it managed to narrowly slide into first place at the US Box Office over the weekend, there are tonnes of pundits ready to dogpile on top of it and describe it as the most epic kind of failure. It seems to be a cyclical experience every time that a big geek film emerges, that has experienced a large amount of pre-release hype on the old interweb: Snakes on a Plane, Watchmen and Grindhouse among others. So how come Hollywood keeps pandering to a niche that never seems to show up?
Did Kick-Ass get its ass kicked? Should we call it Ass-Kick?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: box office, economics, failure, films, geeks, grindhouse, hobo with a shotgun, hollywood, home video, kick-ass, machete, Movies, nerds, snakes on a plane, studios, watchmen | 13 Comments »
Posted on April 21, 2010 by Darren
Why did I have to follow Grant Morrison?
– Joss Whedon’s email correspondence with Marvel
What with all that talk of Whedon directing The Avengers on the big screen, I decided it was worth checking out his run on one of the most enduring superhero teams of all time.
Is this a breakout hit?
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, astonishing x-men, astonishing x-men omnibus, avengers, breakworld, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Cassandra Nova, comic books, Comics, cyclops, emma frost, Genosha, grant morrison, graphic novel, john cassaday, john cassidy, joss whedon, kitty pride, marvel, marvel comics, Mutants, new x-men, nick fury, review, scott summers, x-men | 2 Comments »
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