The latest installment of the Fast and the Furious Franchise barely delivers the fun one would expect from a mindless action movie.
Upfront, I’ll say this: Hobbs and Shaw is trash. Most going in probably knew this already, but wow what a dumpster fire. I came into this movie with ZERO expectations. The best case was a lot of fun action scenes pieced together with a shotty storyline.
A team of MI6 agents, led by a female operative (Vanessa Kirby), are on a mission to retrieve a programmable super-virus, called the “Snowflake” when they are ambushed by a terrorist organization, named Eteon. The female comes toe-to-toe with Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a cybernetic super-soldier that kills all the agents except her. She barely escapes with the virus, but everyone believes she has gone rogue, wanting the virus for herself.
Luke Hobb (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) are both recruited to retrieve a programmable supervirus, called the “Snowflake.” When they find out they are booked to work together to recover the virus, tension rises and the two enemies have to deal with their egos to save the world. The stakes are raised when it is revealed that the female operative is, Deckard’s sister, Hattie Shaw.
The Cast
The cast was having a lot of fun in the movie. Johnson and Statham do what they do best: be themselves. They are clearly having fun, and they are joined by a cast with surprise cameos that also have fun. Helen Mirren is Shaw’s mother, who is in prison and is clearly only there because she wants to be. Joining in the surprise cameos are Ryan Reynolds, who plays CIA agent Locke, and Kevin Hart, who plays Air Marshal Dinkley. The two of them do their best to have fun with the scenes and are welcomed breaths of fresh air. Idris Elba is, as always, a joy to watch. His role as a superhuman is entertaining to watch, and he helps pose a threat that even Hobbs and Shaw can’t handle on their own. Vanessa Kirby does a great job, too. She plays well off the two and gives a fun dimension to the hot-headed duo.
The Vision
I guess I’ll start with the positives . . .
The cinematography was fun, sometimes . . .
. . . that’s it.
The writing was utter bull, and this is in the context of not expecting much from it. The lines were cringeworthy cliches at best, and terrible plays on catchphrases or wordy exposition at its worse. God, I wish the dialogue was cut in half. Even Reynolds had to do his best to make the terrible exposition and forced jokes to seem somewhat natural. The only actor’s lines that didn’t feel overly forced and somewhat believe is Hart.
The movie’s pacing varies throughout its excruciating 2 hours and 16-minute runtime. You are constantly hurled with action over and over again that you eventually become desensitized to it, leaving you alone to the brittle skeleton this movie is exploding off of. The movie has a bit of a split personality feel to it. The beginning melds the two characters and their styles together, but, then, after a crazy action sequence climax (it’s so ridiculous), the film shifts gears and has a completely different feel to it. It felt like two movies were being crammed into one, and, by the time we got to the film’s actual climax, it was exhausting and completely over-the-top (dude, I’m not joking, this is ridiculously stupid).
The Takeaway
Man, this movie was tough to watch and tough to digest. I was hoping to go to a fun, stupid movie, but it just ended up being an eh stupid movie. The number of action sequences try to top each other, and it seemed that they tried to have as many different kinds as possible to appeal to all action fans. If this was 15 years ago, this would match the quality of a straight-to-DVD movie (but obviously with a bigger box office).
Final Thought
Just don’t. Even if you like The Rock and Statham and the Fast and Furious franchise, it will be on streaming soon.
P.S. The website for this movie is standard and bland. Kind of fitting for the movie, if you think of it.
In Philosophy, Free Will is the designated doctrine that our collective conduct as humans is bathed in personal choice and not providence, whether physical or divine. No matter whether Jew or Gentile, Atheist, Believer or somewhere in the middle, I think we use it as comfort- a kind of Thunder Blanket for the Soul. Whether you’re in the milieu of Fatalists or the preserve of “God’s Plan”, you still may find momentary solace in that there’s the possibility that your outcome in is your hands. This is what makes the philosophy so great… and so scary as well.
It is within the fifth episode of Preacher (AMC), “Bleak City,” that I’m beginning to fear both the characters and the writing staff are beholden to a fate worse than illusory freedom- and that’s boredom.
We open in on a PowerPoint Presentation showing the wonderment of Australia in the offal splattered Melbourne Information center. As the Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) waits for Jesse to ping on his radar through Genesis, Eugene (Ian Colletti) prays for the deliverance the wave of mutilation surrounding him. Though I love their dynamic, it seems to be showing signs of wear. Nothing’s changed for five episodes between the duo up until this point. Since we’re at the turn of the season, could this all change?
Elsewhere in the city, Jesse (Dominic Cooper) looks for some reliable wheels. Hitting a hiccup when he is found out as a fugitive by Jaxon (Shaun Goss), a stuttering employee, Jesse finds himself at a crossroads. He chooses to offer the option of free will instead of taking by force. As a reward, Jesses forces Jaxon not to stutter anymore through the power of Genesis. Your boy has blipped and the Saint is now on the movie with Eugene in his slipstream.
Out of the parking deck and nearly hitting a garbage truck, Jesse is face to face with a gob-smacked Eugene. Before they can make sense of the moment that’s lead them there, Preacher peels away before the Saint of Killers could fill him with them lead there.
As Custer continues out of city limits, grappling with whether he should go back for Eugene, he comes to a literal crossroad. Attempting to continue, he’s again thwarted by an oncoming right from the right. This appears to be all the sign Jesse needs, as he relents and makes that yoU-Turn. I mean, he decides to be better, right?
Back at the Holy Bar and Grail, an elated Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) is reunited with a seemingly happy and vindicated Tulip (Ruth Negga). Over drinks, Cass and Tulip relay stories about the Vamp Troupe is Louisiana and a Blitzkrieged bus ride to Hell with a group of Nazis, respectively. As Jesus Christ (Tyson Ritter) slays on a vintage Asteroids cabinet, a newly freed Archangel (David Field) asks the barkeep Kamal (Miritana Hughes) for a room to change in and a phone for a special date. I’m going to let that entire paragraph set in. Honestly, if I could have an entire bottle episode just set in the Holy Bar and Grail, I’d happily take it.
After some prodding, Cassidy admits to Tulip that he did tell his boy, Jesse, that he and Tulip did stuff. Now, there are three ways I would take it amongst each character. Tulip would say they fucked. Jesse would say Cass betrayed. Cassidy would say he and Tulip had ‘a moment.’ Oh, Cassidy, never fucking change and stay golden you ole’ softie. At least his nose is hard enough to take a snook from Tulip before she learns that her man is now a wanted fugitive for killing a seemingly innocent cadre of ‘sex tourists.’ Believe it or not, that’s a legitimate term!
Meanwhile, at Masada, it’s found that Jesus Christ is playing hooky. This presents a problem to Herr K. Starr (Pip Torrens), with Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery) offering the Grail as a whole her life in penance to negligence, letting both Tulip and Cassidy slip through her spindly fingers. As the Grail is always in servitude to someone higher in the rungs, Featherstone stands in contention to being done in by Hoover Two (Aleks Mikic), though the task is handed to him. Hoover Two is sycophantic to a poetic rather than Featherstone’s militant degree, so this becomes a battle of wills betwixt who is more loyal.
As she’s about to meet her demise for a second time, the phone rings, giving her a figurative and literal window of time to jump out of, deploying her interesting flying squirrel/parachute raiments more application once again. This gives me pause. Are all Grail suits equipped with this feature? If not, are only the upper echelon given these suits? If not, because it’s Featherstone, a clever and pedantic soldier? If so, did she customize her suit for evasion and escape? Curious and curiouser.
Back on the all-white court (how apropos), we find Hitler (Noah Taylor) playing squash with possibly a Nurse called Betty? Anyway, Herr storms in, shoving his possible Nazi sympathizer to the floor and proceeds to show the Fuhrer the more ‘McEnroe’ points of what is a SET! I mean, how dare Adolf sneak a peek into the Not-Ready-For-Primetime-Player Humperdoo! Oh, and if you’re wondering, according to Hitler, he’s a go for the Apocalypse and someone everybody can believe in. I mean when’s the last time you trusted a world leader? Yeah? Me neither.
As another victim had Bitten the Dust, the Saint of Killers is convinced Jesse will rear his head again because of Eugene and Eugene alone. It so turns out that Jesse is scoping out a particular construction site and through a tracking shot, we don’t know what he’s doing but we know he’s hatching a plan as he uses Genesis on the entire worksite. This sparks the interest of the Saint of Killers and Eugene like an abused puppy continues to follow.
Back at the Holy Bar and Grail, Cass takes all of the blame (surprise, surprise) and wants to go back to rescue Jesse. This is sounding either like a pattern or something so close to a prix-fixe meal I don’t know if God was the chef or just the writers wanting him to really drive in the fact that he’s still at war with himself. Hasn’t the poor lad suffered enough? He’s a fan favorite. Does he finally break free and make a choice or is that his lot he feels he’s dealt?
Tulip refuses his mission to rescue Jesse. He’s created a shitstorm for her all of her time of knowing him and she is grabbing free will by the horns in not being betrothed to his plights. Cass is free to come with her and Jesus to Vegas, but it’s up to him and his time is wasting. Sorry, Cass, but that’s a sticky wicket.
Moving along the road to the construction site Jesse had basically set a beacon out to, the Saint of Killers and Eugene arrive. Oh, wait a minute. Yep, it was a trap. The Saint of Killers gets the wrecking ball and Jesse gets a few moments to rescue Eugene before the Saint could put spurs to dirt again and walk among anyway he wants to kill.
As Tulip tunes up her ’72 Chevelle Super Sport, she gives J.C. one last chance to opt-out. His reasoning is actually flawless. He was born a man and he was to be without constraints. He was made to walk among the earth, so what better a person to take a walk than with Tulip? Tulip, still finding a reason to rid herself of the shit agrees. They just need Cass on board.
Back in the Holy Bar and Grail, the now dapper Archangel tries to convince by word that Cass has a good thing going and that he has feelings (which I believe he does.) He’s called a ‘gob-shite’ by Cass, but maybe it’s the visual played out that Cassidy needs more. Up comes the Demon from Hell the Archangel fell for as a verboten, a more special love. They engage in a dance compliment of Queen’s ‘Love of My Life’. Cass at the end seems moved.
Meanwhile, over in the city of Melbourne, Jesse after breaking into a car with Eugene shares a heartfelt apology. It seems heartfelt, as he’s been harboring the damn thing for seasons. The moment is cut short though through Jesse’s incompetence of hotwiring foreign vehicles, causing them to flee.
Outside the Holy Bar and Grail, Tulip and Jesus get vulnerable through a shared joint, waiting for Cassidy. We learn that Jesus actually did commit two sins by sleeping with a woman (who was married). Hey, he’s human! If the Almighty wanted his only begotten Son to be perfect, he would have created a fucking robot or some shit.
Anyway, we learn that Humperdoo is pure, unabashed innocence and is his favorite son. Tulip reflects what Jesse said last episode: God is an asshole. The only thing is that Jesus doesn’t take well to that. We get it. We can talk shit and lament about our families. If you say it? We take offense.
As Tulip honks and waits for Cass, our favorite hopeless romantic Vampire is still at war with himself. He compares his plight to Han and Luke and brilliantly so… BUT calling his bluff is all about Tulip’s thing. She absconds with Jesus to the open road. At first, it’s exciting, but then the high comes down and Jesus imagines himself in a bank robbery upon Tulip’s suggestion as to what to do. Ensues this interesting dream sequence J.C. wants no Penny in. Frustratingly, Tulip drives him back to Masada.
As the Archangel at the Holy Bar sits his Demon down for a nip of champagne, he approaches an intent Cass. The Angel’s face is forlorn as if happiness had lept from it. Cass, inspired will take his advice about love. Shame. The Archangel extracts his sword and pitches it into the forehead of his beloved. I mean, she is a Demon after all, and the balance must be maintained. As demons are angels gone left, they can regenerate and thus ensues their knockdown, drag-out fight in the place they just shared ‘a moment’ with.
Jesse also shares a moment with Eugene, as he chokes out a cop. Thinking that he’s freaked out, Jesse assures him he’s taken the high road and he’s not dead. They enter the car and proceed onward.
Across town, in a more permanent means of sleep, the Saint of Killers listens to the radio of his latest victim. Jesse so happened to respond and now this retro Terminator has another ping to connect the dots. I feel that either Jesse has some plan or no plan, feeding on what he feels is God’s plan and testing it.
At the outskirts of Masada, Tulip gives Jesus a little bit of playful guff, being the Boy Scout and all. Despite his refusal, he cannot argue with that. Is it free will he’s doing it or is it his dad’s plan? No matter what, Tulip maintains that his dad is a fucking asshole. As a Fatalist, I say the universe can be as well.
At the bar, as bedlam is all about, Cassidy, garbed in a jacket and a shemagh with a pair of bad-assed Aviators that would make Tom Cruise jealous makes his exit. He finds Tulip outside and continues the journey to Terras Australias.
Back at the Summit, a worried Herr and Hitler make contact with an approaching STAR. Jesus refuses to shake hands with the Fuhrer, but rather gives him an unsolicited hug. Now back to business.
As Jesse crawls out of his stolen Police Car, Eugene revels. Apparently, no amount of apology could take the place of anguish and pain, though you might be tied. I think that’s called a ‘Deuce’.
However, I call this episode a Love. It’s a zero score. I honestly didn’t care for it. Now, if they happen to get over the berm, it might be different, and I have faith it will deliver. So right now, the jury is out. It’s dazzled me, set a fire in my heart, then put a little water on what is supposed to be a turning point.
Can it deliver in the last five? Stay tuned to find out!
KILLJOYS -- "Three Mutineers" Episode 506 -- Pictured: (l-r) Aaron Ashmore as John, Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch, Luke Macfarlane as D'Avin -- (Photo by: Ian Watson/Killjoys V Productions Limited/SYFY)
In this week’s episode of Killjoys, Team Awesome Force and the warden try to save the supermax.
A Prison Takeover Gone Wrong
In the aftermath of Sparlo and Coren’s move to take over the supermax, Team Awesome Force is in awfully tricky situation. Firstly, John comes upon the wounded warden in one of the hallways and he helps her out, seeing her as a good resource to get top level access to the prison’s mainframe so he can get word to Dutch and D’av as well as Zeph back in Old Town. He tricks one of the other prisoners into giving him his gun and the warden is suitably impressed. Johnny even patches her up and the two make their way to her office. Once inside she ends up giving him full access and he learns that the Herks is equipped with a full on cloaking device since the ship used to belong to smugglers.
Meanwhile, Dutch and D’av must deal with Sparlo and crazy Coren. The former assassin makes a number of strategic moves this episode, initially she agrees with Coren that they should ransom the Qreshi siblings in order to have the funds to feed the prisoners. Originally, the uprising plan was to get the hells out of the J it turns out. Dutch sees that there is clearly a disagreement between the two criminals and uses it to her advantage. She then manages to convince them that she is their best option in hostage negotiation because as a Killjoy she’s dealt with Qreshi a lot. She’ll pretend to be the warden and explain that they lost control over one sector of the supermax during the Bellaxion. After Dutch changes into the warden’s clothes to look the part, she is able to persuade Sparlo that the Qreshis aren’t going to let them leave this place alive and asks what’s stopping Coren from slitting his throat once he gets what he wants. The Killjoy suggests she give back the hostages without a ransom or questions, he takes out Coren and then they go home. Sparlo comments however that he there’s no going home for him, but she counters not as a criminal perhaps but what about as a hero? The man appears to agree to it and she takes the call with the Qreshi security head.
D’av in the meantime convinces Coren to let him look for Evi Robbel because he has the signal receiver she gave that he can use to trace it back to her. The psychotic criminal agrees and has one of his goons go with the Killjoy. Sparlo and Dutch return to the common area and updates the group that their people will dress up as a guards during the exchange and then once that’s concluded they are out of there. Coren says that he needs Dutch for the negotiation and D’av to find the heiress and so the only person he really doesn’t need is Sparlo. He then shoots the other man in cold blood. The former assassin is shocked momentarily but quickly controls her emotions and says what’s done is done and they need to get on with it. Sparlo’s right hand man does the same thing and asks his new boss what’s their next move. The two men dress up as guards and escort Dutch to meet the Qreshi security team.
Dutch tells Coren that his ask is too high and that the Qreshi won’t go for it. Mace agrees and reveals that he himself is from a Qreshi noble family (because every house has a black sheep). Too late however as the security team arrives and the Killjoy posing as the warden makes some small talk and says that the criminals want one million and safe passage. But before she can add anything else Captain Pike interrupts and informs her that should be fine, he just needs to talk to his people first. As the man leaves with his squad, Coren is pleased as pie but Dutch knows something isn’t right because that was way too easy.
We next discover that it was indeed fishy because John and the warden seen that one of the Qreshi security guards planted a fusion bomb on the ship via a surveillance feed. The two work together and manage to disengage the device. Once back in the office, Nucy volunteers to go into the Herk’s mainframe to take control of the communications system so that he can help his friends. The AI is able to do so just in time as Dutch ends up in a gun fight with the Qreshi security team (Nucy informs her that she is in danger over the loudspeaker because explosives have been planted on the ship). She tells Coren that the Qreshi aren’t here to negotiate but to make sure the Robbels don’t get out alive. One guard is left behind and the other two get the hells out. The former assassin sees her chance and she attacks Coren with Mace dealing the death shot to avenge Sparlo’s killing.
Dutch runs into Johnny and the warden and he tells her that the other woman is on their side-ish. Nucy then announces that she’s detected other spots where explosives were placed but also that five men are heading towards the personal quarters where D’av and the Robbels are being held. The warden tells John that she’ll take care of the bombs so he can save his friend. Dutch asks why they should trust her and he says for starters Rennicka hasn’t tried to kick him off the ship. She protests that she was trying to get him out so that he could send a message of Zeph. He counters that they are on a floating satellite and he could easily press the send button. The warden quickly takes herself out of this private matter by taking care of the bombs and suggests that they figure their crap out before their friend dies. Dutch comments after that John is also really good at icing her out. She adds that she was there too and remembers what their fake life had been like, but he hasn’t even asked her once how she’s been feeling about it. So yes, she did try to send him away because it was easier to have him gone than him to be there and not be her friend.
D’av does find Evi who is hiding inside a laundry bin through the signal receiver. The Killjoy reveals to Sylas that his sister gave him the device in order to murder him. They are taken to an office to await further instructions with the siblings bickering the entire time. D’av ends up telling Evi to fall over while the other inmate is distracted trying to reach Coren and Mace. The elder Jaqobis brother tries to convince the dude to help because they can’t lose a hostage. He then manages to take the man out. As Evi debates killing her brother as she is now in possession of a weapon, Nucy informs D’av that three members of the Land Robbel security force were on their way there to kill them all. The Killjoy tells the siblings that their uncle has been using them against each other so that he can head the house and suggest they team up instead. Thankfully though, John and Dutch arrive to take out the kill squad. Nucy interrupts the reunion to let them know that an orbiter class cruiser has entered the area and Dutch knows it’s the armada.
Khlyen Finally Finds Pree
Khlyen in the meantime has told Gared what’s been happening in Westerley and how if he wants to save Pree he needs to switch out his id because this is his last chance. This action will enable the other man to listen in on conversations Pree has. Khlyen achieves this by manipulating Gared into doubting his man.
When the two men meet and have a moment alone, Gared reveals that he told Cindy about their relationship and that it’s over with her. When Pree asks what brought this on, his partner responds that if he wants to have a good life then he should be honest with the people he cares about. Pree doesn’t say anything more when his id beeps and he comments that a new warrant is in and that he’s going to go freshen up. This gives Gared the opportunity to reluctantly pull the switch.
Pree then heads over to Zeph’s hideout and finds her with Fancy. She’s asked Fancy to come over to help her identify some lab equipment that may be a wee bit stolen. Quickly she douses the former Hullen soldier with a spray (that she’s been working on) that does a memory wipe. It appears to work as Fancy suddenly doesn’t know who he is or who they are. The scientist explains to Pree that she’s figured out a way to replicate The Lady’s water delivery system and that means they can’t be controlled anymore. Khlyen however is listening in on their entire exchange onboard the armada. Zeph then receives Johnny’s message detailing that Team Awesome Force is at the Herks Supermax but Qreshi security forces have rigged the ship to explode.
He decides to take the armada to the prison ship worried for his daughter’s safety. The Lady arrives at the cockpit pissed off that he’s set this course. Khlyen explains that his informant within the rebellion provided information that the Qreshi have planted bombs on the supermax and plan to destroy it. However, what they don’t know is that Team Awesome Force has come up with a sneaky plan. They put the fusion bombs on the Robbel security force’s ship making it seem that it was moving away and then having both it and the supermax explode. But in actuality the prison activated its cloaking device so even the Hullen armada cannot detect them. Poor Khlyen is devastated thinking he’s lost Dutch.
Meanwhile Fancy’s true memories are restored and while he and Pree are out at Old Town, guards that are still under The Lady’s control come after them. Fancy tells the other man to run but he personally ends up getting caught.
A Trip For Two
As Jaq gets to know his DNA mom for the first time, he asks her if she was scared when the green was dying. Aneela answers that she was but Khlyen put her back in the one place that was safe, the cube, and then he found her. The young man then says now they need to sneak back into the Quad to save his dad but they’re going to need money. Aneela is confused about it and Delle Seyah tells Jaq to go on ahead as she tells her lady love that they needed Dutch’s DNA to free her and so that involved some kissing. As the two women share a smooch themselves Aneela pushes away when she realizes that Delle Seyah is human again, while Delle Seyah figures that the other is still Hullen. Well how is that possible when the green was destroyed?
At a trading camp, Delle Seyah discovers that Aneela had only booked passage for two people to Westerley, though they find out that no one is allowed on the planet at the moment and the closest they can get to is Leith. Pissed, Delle Seyah slaps down some money and says three for Qresh and they’ll take it from there. The trader though says the deal is for two and tells them to figure it out and then come find her. The former head of the Nine is pissed that Aneela would change their plans without telling her with Aneela saying this is very human of her. But just then a local ruffian arrives saying that Delle Seyah cheated during their game through Jaq. The man accosts her and an angry Aneela gets involved herself with a swift kick that sends the man sprawling to the ground. She proceeds to say that if he touches her family again she will feed him his own skin and the human filth wants to test her she will put her foot so far up his ass that he’ll taste her ancestors boots. This sends the goons scurrying away and Jaq saying to the folks proudly, “That’s my mom!”
As the family of three are walking the road along, Aneela tells Delle Seyah to carry Jaq’s bag because she needs to speak to him and the other woman loses her cool, throwing chunks of dirt. The two finally have an angry talk where Delle Seyah thinks Aneela doesn’t want her anymore because she is human, but the truth is that Aneela is scared that Delle Seyah will think she’s a monster because she isn’t human. But then the Hullen female realizes that her lady hasn’t changed with the former leader of the Nine adding that in her younger years she was even worse than she is now. The two reconcile with Aneela telling Jaq to leave because she’s about to get some sexy time with her mom. Delle Seyah then asks though if the other woman wasn’t mad at her then why just two tickets and her son answers that he’s the one who is staying behind.
Aneela puts Jaq inside the cube so that The Lady cannot get to him and he’ll be safe.
Dutch and Johnny Work It Out
Back inside a prison cell, Johnny reveals to Dutch that what’s been bothering him isn’t their fake romantic relationship together but that he enjoyed not being shot at and he was scared that if he wasn’t a Killjoy he would lose what they had as friends. She ends up proposing that for one year he is taking a Killjoy sabbatical and if at the end of it he has something better, she is going to personally fire his ass. He can go to his farm and find someone to make sausages with but he’s never going to lose her.
D’av then comes in and says the prisoners are waking up. The warden makes a surprising move by telling the inmates that they are all still alive thanks to Team Awesome Force.
Final Thoughts
Thom Allison has the most gorgeous eyes that no human being should have.
Fancy asking if he is a scientist too because he feels smart might just be the most adorable thing I’ve seen in a long time.
How is Aneela still Hullen when the green was destroyed? Had she consumed so much of it its permanently altered her even though the source was gone? What about Khlyen?
Jaq’s look of total confusion as he watches his two moms get turned on by each other’s evilness is hilarious.
It’s a relief that Johnny and Dutch have finally talked out their feelings, the effect on their relationship was the hardest part of The Lady’s nefarious plans to watch.
Seeing Khlyen devastated with the belief that Dutch died is really touching and makes me believe that he himself is human and no longer Hullen.
Hello and Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome to Weekend Movie Brawls!
Here, we take an in-depth look at films with similar themes or stories and we pit them against each other in a competition based on their merits. For example, it can be two animated films of the same type, two films which take place during a certain time period, two films with similar plots or an original film versus its remake.
The reason we make this a weekend thing is because when else might you have the time and energy to relax and see something you haven’t seen before?
We’re on the second-to-last week of August and the heat is still on. Here at The Brawl, it’s Ladies Night, and have we got a battle for you. Get your singles ready because it’s a Battle of the Male Strippers!
Let’s meet our competitors…
In this corner…
1) THE FULL MONTY (1997)
THE PLOT
“Gaz” (Robert Carlyle) and his friends are out-of-work industrial workers. On top of being unemployed (and unable to find any work), each of the gang has problems ranging from marital insecurities to child custody drama to depression. One night, Gaz sneaks into a Chippendales dance club and sees the female clientele shelling out big-time cash to the dancers — and he proposes to his friends that they put on a one-night only act and go “The Full Monty” (full nudity) in order to earn their way back to the top of their games. There’s only one problem: they’re all pretty much average guys that don’t actually look the part…but Gaz is convinced they can do it and get the money they need and regain some of the self-worth they lost to begin with. Directed by Peter Cattaneo.
…and, in this corner…
2) MAGIC MIKE (2012)
THE PLOT
Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) is a roofer by day and the star attraction of a male stripper act dubbed “The Kings of Tampa” by night. He’s great at what he does and the act is insanely popular — but Mike wants out of the life because he knows he can’t do it forever. He has his sights set on a small business venture, building unique furniture. This entire thing is thrown for a loop when Adam (Alex Pettyfer), one of Mike’s workmates on his roofing team, is brought into the fold to repay Mike for getting him into an exclusive nightclub — and unintentionally becomes part of the act. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
SCORING
The scoring in Weekend Movie Brawls is simple. There are five categories: music, casting, writing, production (which includes design, costumes, make-up, etc), and direction. Each of these will be awarded a letter grade, from A to F. As in school, each of these letter grades has a number associated to it. An “A” is worth 4 points, “B” is 3 points, “C” is 2 points, “D” is 1 point and “F” is worth nothing. The highest score wins.
The final scoring will not be revealed until the end of the contest.
In the event of a tie at the end of a brawl, the winner will be decided via a playoff round at a later date.
And, as always, THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS, so if you haven’t seen these films, get out of here while you still can.
If you’re still game for this, read on!
MUSIC
Musician/Composer Anne Dudley of “The Full Monty”.
THE FULL MONTY
A core member of the Synth-Pop group “The Art of Noise”, composer Anne Dudley did the score for the film. It’s very sneaky and clever, I suppose. There just isn’t much of it. The entire score is allegedly around 10 minutes. The rest of the film’s soundtrack is your typical mix tape of pop songs you might or might not hear in a strip club. Dudley won an Oscar for her score and I’m still not sure how that happened. Danny Elfman’s score for “Men In Black” was nominated the same year and was far better. And this is coming from somebody who grew up on The Art of Noise and is a huge fan of Dudley’s work. I hate to break it to you, but Elfman should have won the Oscar that year — but the Academy simply hates Elfman. The only reason the Academy forked over the award to Dudley is because “Titanic” was the film winning every Oscar in 1997 and “The Full Monty” was a simple sympathy vote. That said, what there is of this score is cute. It’s just not “great” by any means. The pop cuts are decent and they’re used well within the film — especially Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” which serves as the background music for a hilarious scene in a British job centre.
MAGIC MIKE
There’s no score for the film save for a contracted piece by Jack Rayner who composed the military stripper piece in the middle of the film. The rest of the film is comprised of pop cuts — but they’re fairly unique selections. “Pony” by Ginuwine is Mike’s signature song. Countre Black does a breathy cover of “It’s Raining Men” while Matthew McConaughey actually wrote and performed a piece of his own for the film. Everything fits into the film and doesn’t feel like somebody said “This would be a good stripper song.”
CASTING
Matthew McConaughey (left) and Channing Tatum (right) star in “Magic Mike”.
THE FULL MONTY
It’s a British film with a great British cast. Everyone here is great. Robert Carlyle is attractive and fun while his group of guys are very sweet. Mark Addy is wonderful as Dave, an overweight man who is sure that his wife wants somebody who’s more like what she sees on the Chippendales’ stage when she goes out with her friends. Tom Wilkinson is great as Gerald, an aging man nearing the end of his shelf life. The main issue is the lack of depth in the other characters. We hear their stories but the film doesn’t have time to actually show you everything, so to speak.
MAGIC MIKE
Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey are already great choices for the leads. Tatum brings a very genuine charm to the role of Mike while Matthew McConaughey plays “Dallas”, the man who owns the club and the show. He’s all business. He was nominated for an Oscar for the film but didn’t win it — though he would for “The Dallas Buyer’s Club” a year later. The cast is nicely rounded out by Olivia Munn and Cody Horn who play Mike’s friend-with-benefits and a girl who Mike tries very hard to woo, respectively. Alex Pettyfer perfectly plays Adam with a sense of innocence while the rest of the strippers are comprised of Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez, and former wrestler Kevin Nash (he was “Diesel” in WWE and played a version of himself in WCW while he was in the nWo), who plays “Tarzan”, the act’s oldest stripper who can’t move all that well anymore. All of them are perfectly placed in true Soderbergh fashion. Even Gabriel Iglesias has a small, but no less useful role as the club’s DJ, Tobias.
WRITING
“The Full Monty” screenwriter Simon Beaufoy at ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ film premiere, London, Britain – 10 Apr 2012 (Photo by REX Shutterstock (1689361h))
THE FULL MONTY
Simon Beaufoy was the screenwriter for “The Full Monty” and it’s a great premise with some wonderful self-deprecating dialogue as the boys try to work through their personal (and physical) insecurities and worries. Beaufoy didn’t get any love from us Americans but his script for “Slumdog Millionaire” would.
MAGIC MIKE
Reid Carolin wrote the script for “Magic Mike” as well as its sequel, “Magic Mike XXL”. Next to a documentary feature, those are the only two things Carolin has written. It’s not that the script is terrible, the cast does their thing so naturally, it just seems like everyone read a story outline and improvised everything. The story is straightforward, what there is of it. It’s more or less a slice of life then it is a “story”. At times, it feels like watching a documentary about these people. It’s not completely riveting but it’s fun to watch.
PRODUCTION
(L-r) JOE MANGANIELLO as Big Dick Richie, ADAM RODRIGUEZ as Tito, CHANNING TATUM as Mike, MATT BOMER as Ken, and KEVIN NASH as Tarzan in Warner Bros. PicturesÕ dramatic comedy ÒMAGIC MIKE,Ó a Warner Bros. Pictures release.Photo by Claudette Barius
THE FULL MONTY
It’s a modest production. Low-budget but charming. Simple cast and simple story. There’s not a whole lot of style or much going on and a lot of it requires patience in the big lead-up to the climatic stripping scene where they finally go “The Full Monty”.
MAGIC MIKE
Steven Soderbergh makes every film look beautiful. He could make a movie of a man reading the phonebook look interesting. His photography is colorful, the cast is eclectic (I seriously had to double-take when I saw Kevin Nash in the film — but even HE works) and everyone seems right at home.
DIRECTION
Director Peter Cattaneo of “The Full Monty”.
THE FULL MONTY
As I said, Peter Cattaneo directs a no-nonsense film that’s straightforward and doesn’t show much style. It’s a film…and Cattaneo went to TV after directing three more films and he’s been there ever since.
MAGIC MIKE
Steven Soderbergh injects everything he has into this film and makes one that seems strangely personal and affecting despite the subject matter. Soderbergh frames his shots beautifully and has a gritty, colorful look.
THE WINNER
FINAL SCORING
Music
Casting
Writing
Production
Direction
Totals
Full Monty
2
3
3
3
3
14
Magic Mike
3
4
3
4
4
18
POST-GAME THOUGHTS
In the end, it was an easy choice. Despite “The Full Monty” being a sleeper hit in 1997, it can hang with bigger films but can’t top them. “Magic Mike” was a Soderbergh baby. Despite losing last week’s contest, Soderbergh rebounds with a huge win over a brother in arms…or a brother in…other appendages, perhaps…anyhow…
NEXT WEEK: We’re gonna do a battle that may or may not piss off the entire Internet…it’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”…versus…”Space Jam”…prepare to get a little animated in the comments! See you then!
Coming off the intense heels of the last episode’s Preacher (AMC), we arrive at the Office of Herr K. Starr (Pip Torrens) in a pow-wow with the Almighty (Mark Harelik) himself engaged in a lovely fireside chat. Herr grumbles as to how Jesse (Dominic Cooper) evaded him, though he’s had him dead to rights. The Omniscient One understands, however, that the All-Father Starr doesn’t want Custer’s last breath but his penultimate last breath- over and over and over again. This all hails from a little run-in with the Preacher, resulting in a design on his dome-piece that even Georgia O’ Keefe wouldn’t shy away from. God promises to do that in due time to Jesse’s soul. It’s part of his plan, right?
Now back to our regularly scheduled chaos, wherein Jesse and his pilot Steve (Ditch Davey) are riding a nosedive into the ocean faster than you could say Holy FU- CRASH! Amid the flotsam, both Preacher and Steve survive and find refuge in a deployed raft in a torrential storm. While Steve sees his hopes of rescue sink faster than the raft is filling with rain, Jesse seems to be filled with vim and vigor. “This is just the beginning,” Mr. Custer thinks. Little does he know, he’s right.
At Bensonhurst, Cassidy (Joe Gilgun) is being trollied up to his jolly good time. With a twinkle in eye and plume in palm, he is walking, erm, rolling tall. As the crew stops for the Emissary of Hell, Hitler (Noah Taylor), the hand-grenade Hannibal picks his lock, snaps the necks of his handlers and hides their bodies with silence and deftness that would have Solid Snake fist-bumping him. Just before a stunned Frankie can get a grasp on the situation, Cass gets his mitts on Frankie’s rifle, tossing it to the side. Looking scrappy as ever, Cassidy shows Frankie (Lachy Hulme) some good time with bare-knuckled fanfare before showing a coup-de-grace Toscani won’t soon forget. Oh, I forgot, it’s kind of easy to forget the hippocampus when its skewered like stuck-pig at a Luau. Let us not forget that the rectum is nightmarishly elastic!
Checking in on our buoyed boys, Jesse is frantically relieving the boat. He knows this is just a test. A trial by fire on the water. I don’t know about you, but even if I were imbued with the power of Genesis, I always hated tests in school, especially pop quizzes. Since a wet blanket on a raft is as good as a gaping hole, Jesse uses Genesis on Steve, commanding him to “Be Positive” and shake his tail feather to help with the water-logged vessel. Hey, if you had any kind of cheat sheet (come on, we all had them taped in our calculator cases,) you would put it to good use as well.
Speaking of feathers, Cass, now escaped runs into Tulip (Ruth Negga) as the elevator doors part. As we’ve come to know, things in this world are never easily earned, and before he could take another step, he’s stopped by Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery) at gunpoint. Tulip, hidden from view of all Grail agents can do nothing but merely look at Cass as he feigns ignorance brilliantly. It’s a skill of addicts. As the doors close, Cass is taken back. As the doors open, an intent Tulip plays her Double Ohhh- shit. She’s caught by Hoover Two (Aleks Mikic). Playing it cool, she learns she’s summoned. Tulip can outrun a shit ton, but can she truly outrun a possible Ultimate Plan?
Beaming in his cell, Cass ruminates on how Tulip came back to save him. This realization has his happy melt into horror, as he’s merely the cheddar in this mouse-trap and Featherstone is the cat. His Archangel (David Field) bud laments that, as he’s been by his side, heard his story and casts nothing but a mere shadow, saving him from sunlight.
Before entering the Chambers of the Emissary, Tulip learns of her task and the guidelines affixed to it. She is to be his valet, and no speaking unless spoken to, no pictures, no selfies, and no touching.. unless he touches you. In that case, act positively. Sounds kind of creepy, doesn’t it? Though Tulip tries to Snake her way out of getting into the Suite, it seems there are even some things she cannot do.
Inside, Tulip finds a room fit for a King. This is when she finds out who is her big assignment: Jesus Christ (Edition No. 1 / CGC Grade: 9.5). Oh, come on, I’m sure there’s a little imperfection somewhere!
Painfully yet unsuccessfully trying to break free from his shackles, Cass has no choice but to listen to the heavenly parrot above his head. This coupled with the fact he is grappling with his feeling that it’s more tragic in Tulip dying than her being, quite literally, Jesse’s Girl, has Cassidy more determined than ever to break free and make the first thing on his list, eat Iago.
As Steve blisters in the sun, Jesse scrambles to find anything, including First Aid for his friend. When the Pilot’s optimism spell becomes too much for concentration, Jesse tells him to “Stop Being Optimistic.” This leads to a frantic few moments of Stevie-boy freaking the fuck out before in a last-ditch effort Jesse resorts to the “Feel No Pain” command. This ain’t no fun Violent Femmes ditty.
At this point of numbness, Steve is ready to die. Jesse, whether in his heart in defiance of God stays positive and assures his quite literal life mate that belief should be in him, the man in the boat for the time being. This will come to bite them both in the…
In the Emissary Suite, Tulip stands in awe of God’s Only Begotten, yet gives him an alias. Hey, scars run deep and you can’t take the game out of the player.. and other bromides I can’t think of now. In a sign of mutual respect, Jesus presses the flesh with Tulip (look up the phrase, you degenerates!)
Jesus senses that Tulip is in trouble. A knock at the door is heard and who should pop his head in but Herr K. Starr. As Tulip tries to shield herself from his good eye, Starr runs down the amenities, noting that his counterpart from Heil has also arrived. Upon leaving, Herr gives pause to Tulip. Swearing he knows Her from somewhere, she reaches for her peace. As an Emissary of such, Christ deescalates by inquiring into his child, Humperdoo. Giving a flowery sentence or two, Starr makes an excuse, an exit and Tulipemerges saved.
As Hoover Two sets up the meeting quarters, complete with dossiers for Hitler, Jesus, and Starr, the latter arrives worried. They cannot produce true Humperdoo just yet and the stand-in may just have to do to assuage both the Creator and First Born/Sacrificed. Though it’s still less stressing than booking Beyonce!
In this scene, Hoover Two once again, through a fox-like ‘permission to speak freely’ ruse, waxes almost mellifluously, singing the praises of a languid Herr K. Starr, citing him as ‘sitting pretty.’ He’s a smoothie and one that’s filled with strawberries and cheap bourbon. His words of praise would get anyone drunk. I’m still not sure if this is a foxy power play or if he wants to be Number One with a Bullit. Either way, he dismisses himself and leaves that to ring in Starr’s head. Opening the presentation packet, the term “sitting pretty” rings quite melodiously… that is until his goddamned ear slinks off, in the grotesque fashion we’ve come to love or loathe. It plops down on the visage of Jesse Custer.
Back on the raft, Jesse fashions a makeshift sail. Looking up to the heavens, he hopes for a wind. He knows this is a double-sided glass matter. A gust flares up and through a moment of victory, all seems riiight… Steve’s hand seems to be savagely chomped off by a shark. Due to Jesse’s well-meaning and equal selfishness for concentration, he’s made an ant-hill into a mole-hill into a mountain through the gift/curse of Genesis.
After a tourniquet is applied, their sail sets, well. Along with that had Jesse’s last straw blown in the wind. Custer still lies to the man, telling him not to give up hope.
Back at the Suite, after Tulip had relayed her entire plight to the Lord, she apologizes about lying about her name. She excuses herself, not wanting to get him involved, but he offers his services. Although all meaning well, we soon learn that not even V.I.P.s can get behind certain ropes. Tulip now takes it on herself to fight fire with fire.
As Cass finally frees himself from the shackles of oppression (and the skin of his hands in the process), he makes good on his promise. Scaling the walls and pouncing on his wing Criminy Cricket, lunch is served. With a second and full flash later, in comes the Archangel as the most bad-ass Uber one could call next to possibly a Valkyrie.
In Our Raft of Perpetual Stasis, a bleeding out Steve confesses the last of his remaining remorses to Preacher Custer. He also begs Jesse to save him. You see, Jesse made the mistake of asking a desperate guy who doesn’t believe in God to believe in him. Even Heinrich Heine said, “Of course God will forgive me; that’s His job.” Jesse explains that Genesis isn’t that miraculous. Like he has all the time in the world to explain to someone who’s dying the intricacies of it… So through its power, he’s able to give the guy one last breath.
As Tulip takes point to Jesus through the catacombs of the dungeon, they nearly escape detection through Featherstone. Entering the cell, they find one dead angel husk and zero Vampire. This leads Tulip to tell Christ her unflinching three-point plan. A.) Get out of Masada. B.) Find Cassidy. C.) Do ‘Whatever the Hell I want.’ Intrigued, Jesus wants in.
While Jesse buries Steve at sea, he recites a stirring eulogy, complements of the Good Book, 1 Corinthians 15:54-5… Damn. The last part was interrupted by sharks feeding on the dead. You’re right, Jesse. The big man is an asshole… But wasn’t He always?
So as the good Lord taketh, in reverse, he also giveth. And Lo, an angel appeared in the southern hemisphere. It was Australia. Hey God, good on ya.
Remember how we had seen Hitler before? Yeah, I don’t like seeing him either, but here we are now, seeing him requesting a private performance in the chambers of the fake Humperdoo. He’s fully aware of what he can do. This will surely mean leverage if he knows that the descendant is a fraud. He approaches the ivory keys…
Meanwhile, Eugene (Ian Colletti) and Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) finally arrive at their destination, the Gulf of Mexico. Well, surely, this ain’t Australia. This is where we see the Saint puts all of his sense of geographies to good use. Stoking up the hammer with his breath as if his fucking lungs were just two chambers of Hades, he fires his Peacemaker into the beach until it erupts into the beach of Australia. I mean, he kills a greeter as well, but he’s called the Saint of Killers. Gene, as usual, catches up, but not before passing the same raft Jesse used. Preachers aren’t the only men on a Mission.
In terms of this overall episode, I did see a bit more subtlety than shock, which I adore much more. I am he for the story a lot more than anything else. This script kept it tight and didn’t shift in too many beats. The test of Jessie was inevitable, but it also brings to mind if Jesse was in control at all? As an atheist but brought up Catholic, I love everything this series has thus offered me. It’s profane but somehow reverent. It shows the human condition and lack thereof (if you’re a fatalist as I am). Thus far, of this season, this one stands currently as my favorite.
KILLJOYS -- "A Bout, A Girl" Episode 505 -- Pictured: (l-r) Luke Macfarlane as D'Avin, Aaron Ashmore as John, Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch -- (Photo by: Ian Watson/Killjoys V Productions Limited/SYFY)
This week’s episode of Killjoys brings us an epic prison tournament, Jaq and Delle Seyah try to find one of Khlyen’s cubes, and Khlyen looks for Pree in Old Town.
The Bellaxion
It’s fighting time at the Herks supermax as benefactors of the prison have arrived for this year’s Bellaxion, a tournament where prisoners are picked to duke it out and the winner will have a chance to battle the Qreshi champion. If he or she wins, they have a chance of freedom, but frankly that’s never happened before. D’avin is pretty confident that he’s going to get picked for the tournament by the Qreshi royal siblings but is actually rejected. Well that’s got to sting. Dutch thinks now is the perfect time for them to make a move with everyone focused on the tournament. They approach Sparlo to try get some help with man power but the criminal won’t have it. The man is currently embroiled in a turf war with Coren plus if the warden even gets a whiff of trouble their neck chips will get activated. Apparently the last time someone tried to remove it their head exploded.
When the trio visit the area that’s being set up for the fights, Johnny has Nucy scan the vicinity and she indicates that there is a single frequency jammer in the area. He then says that if he had one of the chips he can upload it to the mainframe and bypass all the encryption keys and use that to disable all the security fences of all chips. In addition he’s already got a plan on how he can get into the warden’s office to get into the mainframe the other two just need to figure out how to get into the tournament. Johnny’s plan is pretty suave, he has Nucy program a low level virus that he then uploads into the system. The warden then comes to him being that he is apparently the only hacker in the supermax who can get rid of it. At first on of the prison techs is trying to fix it but the Killjoy is able to use his superior intellect into bullying the other man into letting him use the console.
Meanwhile, D’av had been called by one of the Qreshi royals for a private meeting. Turns out she wants him to kill her brother because of a power struggle. She tells him that her sibling is actually the worse one and that he would let the entire prison starve if he had his way. Dutch in the meantime is able to get into the fight after showing of her skills in an impromptu bout against one of the contestants. The Qreshi male likes her style and puts her in. During her first round, she viciously bites her opponents neck in order to rip out his chip. The warden then has a chat with her and they come to an agreement, the Killjoy continues to fight so that the prison head can make the royals think twice before telling her how to run her own shop and in exchange Johnny is freed. The other woman warns the former assassin though not to try anything because she wouldn’t want an enemy. But of course this is exactly what happens as the warden finds out that Dutch had taken another prisoner’s chip and she is removed from competing while Johnny is put into solitary.
D’av and Dutch are forced to go to Sparlo and ask for his help. They reluctantly explain how John can control everyone’s chips and they have a way to do that but they need him. The criminal then agrees to help them out provided that his and his group’s chips are disabled. The Killjoys agree to the bargain. The elder Jaqobis brother is then goes back to the Qreshi sister and cuts a deal with her too, as long as she makes the warden put Dutch back into the tournament he will kill her brother for her.
The former assassin is allowed to compete again. Sparlo holds up his end of the agreement and is able to free Johnny from solitary. The two make their way to the warden’s office where the tech expert is told by the other man to disable his men’s chips first and to open the armory. Johnny says that will take too much time so he’ll just erase those them from the system. As he watches Dutch about to fight the Qreshi champion on screen, the tall man is suddenly shot in the head and the Killjoy knows something is wrong. At the fighting pit, Sparlo’s men take out the guards and the warden disables all the prisoners via their chips except of course that doesn’t work on the ones with the weapons. We discover that Sparlo’s double crossed Team Awesome Force by teaming up with Coren. In other parts of the supermax, Johnny comes across the warden who appears wounded.
The Search For Pree
In Old Town, The Lady and two of her Hullen minions are on the ground with Khlyen who has identified Pree as having woken up and leading the rebellion. He asks her why she hasn’t put out a warrant on the man and she responds that it would alert his compatriots and drive them underground. She has the element of surprise and wants to keep it that way. Khlyen tells her then that they’ll find Pree at The Royale, since he is the true owner of the establishment and will eventually make his way back there. As they are waiting, he makes a drink and tells her to sip it. She unknowingly smiles and Khlyen comments that her body recognizes that the beverage was something made for Westerley children and it evoked comfort. Once she understood what it meant to love then she would understand humans.
Khlyen goes up to talk to the bartender asking if he’s seen Pree and the other man answers not for days but he should talk to the guy sitting by himself (Gared) who is his best friend. He heads to that direction but whispers to Gared that Pree is in trouble and to leave now while going over to another man who is also alone at another table. This poor soul is taken to be interrogated but clearly doesn’t know anything. The Lady soon figures out though that Khlyen is stalling and that he’d better find Pree or else Yala will burn along with everyone else. He is able to track Gared down after and says that the other man needs to wake up now.
The Cube
On a distant planet, Jaq and Delle Seyah are in a forest trying to find one of Khlyen’s elusive cubes. The young man won’t say why they need it for but there is clearly tension between the two. Jaq has been apparently getting visions but it doesn’t seem to work when he’s stressed out. Delle Seyah asks him to hold her hands, close his eyes, and just breathe. This works but instead he sees D’av, Dutch, and Johnny inside the supermax. Jaq freaks out saying that they need to go back to the Quad to help his dad but the older woman says they need to find the cube first. She says that they would be walking into a trap because using loved ones against their enemies is bad bitch 101 and she invented that move. Delle Seyah lays down some hard truths that they can’t always live the life they want in the middle of an apocalypse and that he was born to do a job because she hasn’t gone through all this crap protecting him for nothing. He looks back at her coldly and says that he wishes she was the one they lost in the green instead. Ouch.
Later on that night, Delle Seyah ends up dreaming with D’av reassuring her that she’s doing a good job with Jaq. The kid’s alive and he’s not broken, but she’s bruising him. The younger man isn’t cold like her but she counters maybe he needs to be to survive. Dream D’av counters her point that Jaq doesn’t need to be like her but he does need her. The Killjoy tells her that the kid has been trying to tell her something important all day and she needs to wake up. As soon as she does, Jaq is nowhere to be found and Delle Seyah tries to go after him. She is finally able to track him down and she tells him that he asked her what they were without Aneela and the truth was she didn’t plan for him. She was full, she was fine and now he’s here she’s still fine but she won’t be if anything ever happens to him. Delle Seyah says it’s because he is her son and she is his mother, losing Aneela doesn’t change any of that. He jokes a little that queens don’t cry, but she admits this one does now as she’s a teeny bit broken. She then gives him the choice of going after his dad if that’s what he wants to do. Jaq doesn’t answer though and looks off to the side and when she asks what he’s looking at it he responds with the cube. The former member of the Nine doesn’t see it though and so her son makes her hold out her hands, close her eyes, and take a deep breath. When she opens them the cube is suddenly visible. He then explains that this is why they need Dutch’s DNA but he makes her promise that they are still going to find D’av. Delle Seyah nods and Jaq puts the DNA swab onto the surface of the cube and out walks out Aneela!!!
Final Thoughts
Were the cubes somehow still linked to the green? Or was Aneela somehow able to go to another inter-dimensional pocket that is linked to the cubes?
It makes total sense that Jaq would need Dutch’s DNA since it was only her and Aneela who could access the cubes.
The look on Delle Seyah’s face the moment Aneela appeared was everything. Her character has grown so much since season one and it’s been such a treat to witness that.
The Lady really did a number on Dutch by screwing with her relationship to Johnny. What needs to happen for them to repair their relationship?
Hello and Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome to Weekend Movie Brawls!
Here, we take an in-depth look at films with similar themes or stories and we pit them against each other in a competition based on their merits. For example, it can be two animated films of the same type, two films which take place during a certain time period, two films with similar plots or an original film versus its remake.
The reason we make this a weekend thing is because when else might you have the time and energy to relax and see something you haven’t seen before?
On hot nights, in dark shadowy streets, bad things are done. Last week, we did car heists and examined the two “Gone in 60 Seconds” films. This week, we’re doing modern heist films which involve the art of the con…in a four-way battle for the top spot!
Let’s meet our competitors…
In this corner…
1) OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001)
THE PLOT
A remake of the 1960’s Rat Pack classic, Danny Ocean (played, this time, by George Clooney) engineers a plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos during a big fight night at the MGM Grand. His long-time friend, Rusty (Brad Pitt) is reluctant but isn’t entirely opposed and the two work together to assemble of diverse team of con-men, thieves, and hackers in order to pull it off — but things get complicated once Danny’s old flame, Tess (Julia Roberts) — and her new boyfriend, the owner of one of the casinos Ocean is planning to rob, come into play. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
In corner #2…
2) CONFIDENCE (2003)
THE PLOT
When Jake Vig (Edward Burns) and his crew con a man out of a briefcase full of cash, they figure out that the money actually belonged to a local crime lord named “The King” (Dustin Hoffman) and he’s none to happy about it. When one of Vig’s crew is murdered in cold blood by The King’s men, Vig figures it’s only a matter of time before he and his entire crew share the same fate, and he proposes the idea of working with The King to recover his money in order to get out of trouble…but things get interesting once his mark catches on to the scheme — and Vig’s long-time nemesis gets close to nabbing Jake after years of chasing him. Directed by James Foley.
In corner #3…
3) NOW YOU SEE ME (2013)
THE PLOT
Four illusionists known as “The Four Horsemen” find themselves at odds with the F.B.I. and another illusionist as they they seemingly pull off bank heists during their shows — and fork the money they steal over to their audience. But, as the authorities close in, they find that bank heists are simply the tip of the iceberg and the crew’s biggest trick is yet to come. Directed by Louis Leterrier.
…and, in corner #4…
4) HEIST (2001)
THE PLOT
After Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) ends up on camera during a somewhat botched heist, he decides to retire from a life of crime with his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) and sail away to the Tropics. This doesn’t sit well with his fence, Mickey (Danny DeVito) who withholds Joe’s payment for the botched heist until he agrees to pull one last job: robbing a Swiss Airliner of its cargo of gold, which Joe reluctantly agrees to…but he has a few tricks up his sleeve. Directed by David Mamet.
SCORING
The scoring in Weekend Movie Brawls is simple. There are five categories: music, casting, writing, production (which includes design, costumes, make-up, etc), and direction. Each of these will be awarded a letter grade, from A to F. As in school, each of these letter grades has a number associated to it. An “A” is worth 4 points, “B” is 3 points, “C” is 2 points, “D” is 1 point and “F” is worth nothing. The highest score wins.
The final scoring will not be revealed until the end of the contest.
In the event of a tie at the end of a brawl, the winner will be decided via a playoff round at a later date.
And, as always, THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS, so if you haven’t seen these films, get out of here while you still can.
If you’re still game for this, read on!
MUSIC
Musician/Composer David Holmes of “Ocean’s Eleven”.
OCEAN’S ELEVEN
Electronic Funk/Jazz Hip-Hop maestro David Holmes was the guy doing the music here and his score is gorgeous, fusing old school with the news school. Here, you’ll find instrumental jazz elements such as the xylophone, bass, bongos, and brushed symbols mixed in with downtempo funk and quick, playful beats and electronic keyboard effects. This is, at times, seamlessly interspersed with sneaky, classy cuts from Arthur Lyman, Percy Faith, and Quincy Jones. The result is a pseudo-retro blast which matches the hip, easy-going attitude of Ocean’s team, the swingin’ Vegas atmosphere. (SAMPLE: “Rodney Yates” by David Holmes from the film.)
CONFIDENCE
Not to be outdone, Christophe Beck provides a similar experience — but ditches the retro jazzy aspects from Holmes, giving us a score which features a little more of a modern orchestral feel with a downtempo chill/house edge to it. The soundtrack seems a bit too hip and electronic at times but it’s still very good and fits the neo-noir aspects of the film beautifully. (SAMPLE: “All About the Money” by Christophe Beck)
NOW YOU SEE ME
Brian Tyler gets scoring duties here. I’ve been a huge fan of his work since “Bubba Ho-tep”. His work on “Now You See Me” is fun to listen to with strings front and center in the orchestra accompanied by big brass horns and big, heavy drums. It matches the grandiose setting and reputation of The Four Horsemen but also is a bit Bill Conti-esque. Not that that’s a bad thing. Conti is great but it comes across as over-produced at times, and the liberal use of drums take a good score and make it sound like Conti playing somebody’s music when Oscar hosts are walking to the podium. That, and there’s nothing memorable past the main theme. (SAMPLE: Brian Tyler’s main score for “Now You See Me”)
HEIST
Theodore Shapiro scores “Heist” and the main theme reminds one a bit of what Holmes did with “Ocean’s Eleven” but it’s not that, exactly. It’s an action score, reminiscent of an old 70’s crime film. Shapiro’s score sounds mostly electronic rather than “live” but what’s here is really quite good. (SAMPLE: “Love of Gold” by Theodore Shapiro)
CASTING
The cast of “Confidence”.
OCEAN’S ELEVEN
Holy shit, this thing is impeccably cast. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts are the main stars and even the B-team shines with Carl Reiner, the late Bernie Mack, Elliot Gould, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, and Eddie Jemison killing it in their roles. These aren’t Oscar-worthy performances, mind you, but the star power alone carries the sucker and nobody is bad in their role. Everyone’s fun here.
CONFIDENCE
The cast is different but no less great. Edward Burns is the lead while Paul Giamatti and Brian Van Holt play Burns’ teammates. Frankie G and Rachel Weisz are the two add-ons and when they play together, you believe them. The mere look they have (wearing business suits throughout much of the film) just adds a sense of professional style and each actor has personality. The villains in the film are also beautifully cast in the great Dustin Hoffman and his bodyguard played by Tim Lister and, damn, there’s Robert Forster and Morris Chestnut playing the marks while character actors Luis Guzman and Donal Logue play two cops on the take…who work with a bent FBI agent in Andy Garcia. Once again, NOT Oscar performances, but performances fitting of the film.
NOW YOU SEE ME
The cast includes Jessie Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco as the “Four Horsemen”…and they’re decent in their roles. Eisenberg and Fisher shine more than Harrelson and Franco do mainly because Harrelson and Franco seem so laid back next to the two of them. Mark Ruffalo plays “Cop Role #17” which is comprised of getting frustrated at every turn by the Horsemen while Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine appear in thankless roles as two people who end up on the wrong end of the Horsemen’s wrath. Still, everyone here is good. They just suffer from a questionable script.
HEIST
60 percent of the main cast of “Get Shorty” is here. You can’t go wrong with Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito as the two big stars. Both are veterans and both play off each other extremely well. Delroy Lindo and the late Ricky Jay play Hackman’s partners in crime here and they’re also outstanding. The cast is rounded out by Sam Rockwell and Rebecca Pidgeon, the latter of which is aggravatingly icy at times in terms of her performance. This isn’t a new thing. I’ll just get this out of the way: she’s the wife of the film’s director and has made appearances in a bunch of his movies. She’s beautiful in the film and reminds me a bit of Marie Windsor in Kubrick’s “The Killing”…but, boy, she’s robotic and recites her lines with almost no emotion. In any case, she still works here and the film’s acting is superb.
WRITING
Writer/Director David Mamet of “Heist”.
OCEAN’S ELEVEN
This may be the only weak spot of the picture. Ted Griffin would pen the script and it has some fun moments and witty dialogue and I DO love that the con is on for over half the picture as Clooney and his team have to infiltrate Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) and his casinos so that they can rob them. The main issue I have is how ludicrous it all is when you step back and think about it: at one point, the boys realize that a main chute they need to traverse is guarded by laser tripwires which will alert security to intruders. The crew already has magical equipment that re-directs calls from Benedict’s men to 911 directly to Ocean’s hackers…but they can’t find a way to cut the power without the use of an EMP?! Which they have to steal from a high-tech lab?! A lab which should be heavily fortified and guarded by the military being that THERE’S AN EMP DEVICE INSIDE?! If you’re not familiar with this, it’s basically a machine with generates an Electromagnetic Pulse which is supposed to knock out all electrical power for good until the entire grid can by physically repaired by electricians and engineers. Except the machine’s effects only work for about ten seconds before everything in Vegas is restored and all the cars that would be stuck in traffic are suddenly working and moving again. It’s just silly stuff. As is the sub-plot with Ocean getting his ass kicked by a street thug hired by Benedict…who also happens to work for Ocean and who has to cover for Ocean when he goes on the heist anyhow after being ex-communicado by Rusty (Brad Pitt). Luckily, the witty attitude and the heist are fun to watch but the plot holes are ridiculous.
CONFIDENCE
Doug Jung wrote “Confidence” and I have no idea why he doesn’t get more work. He would go on to write “Star Trek Beyond” and “The Cloverfield Paradox” and…nevermind. I just answered my own question. This, in my opinion, was his opus. A film full of likable characters who always have the answer to everything and know what to do about it all. Jung’s script is told from Jake’s perspective as he tells the tale of the events which led up to his being held at gunpoint by his mark’s bodyguard. There are so many great lines in the film as he reveals his thoughts about life and the art of the con. He tells you everything you need to know in the first five minutes of the film, revealing that a confidence game is “like a play where everyone knows their part…except for the mark.” It becomes clear, quite quickly, that Jake knows EXACTLY what he’s doing at all times and that even though it comes down to “dumb fucking luck” at times, he leaves nothing to chance, telling the audience that, in Chess, a good player sees “20 moves deep” to the point where they’ve already beaten their opponent before the game has started and that pulling a con is the same: you have to see that deep. This is beautifully juxtaposed with Vig putting in a good performance in front of The King’s muscle in “Lupus” (I kid you not, that’s his name in the film) and while he deals directly with his mark on the phone. Every single time you think something’s gone horribly wrong, things end up all right. It’s a satisfying script.
NOW YOU SEE ME
If you thought “Ocean’s Eleven” was ludicrous, “Now You See Me” will drive you insane. Three writers are credited here and only one of them seems to have any clout. The plot (four street magicians/illusionists are brought together by an unknown benefactor for reasons that aren’t entirely clear until they achieve their one big heist) is intriguing but the execution is not very good and smacks of too many cooks in the kitchen. The opening is promising, introducing us to each of the magicians and their magic skills but everything beyond that seems so silly. They’re a popular act — but they pull jobs in full view of the public and willingly attract suspicion at every turn? The authorities can’t ever find these guys? Woody Harrelson can literally control the minds of ANYONE and make them do ANYTHING to the point of subduing people with his skills? It’s a lot of fun and the movie is slick but it’s also uneven and gets just a touch serious at times.
HEIST
David Mamet wrote his own movie. The dude is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who won it for “Glengarry Glen Ross”, one of the most fantastic achievements in the entire stage world. The film was even better. His film, “House of Games” is an absolute noir-masterpiece, evoking Hitchcock and the films of Cary Grant. “Heist” is a GOOD script, not great. The dialogue and the way it’s written are very much Mamet-esque. The main complaint I have is how stilted some of it is and how puzzling it goes out of its way to be, to the point where it gets ridiculous and writes itself into a corner. Fran’s character arc is one of these and you’ll be wondering, like I did, why she would even go out of her way to physically seduce a guy at the odd request of her husband AND end up with him. Still, this is a good script and nowhere near as convoluted as “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Now You See Me”.
PRODUCTION
Isla Fisher in “Now You See Me”
OCEAN’S ELEVEN
This is a big, handsome production with Steve Soderbergh at the helm. Beautiful, honest photography like he had in “Out of Sight” and “Traffic”. The music is beautiful here with lots of class and style and a great cast. Everyone seems to have a lot of fun and the movie is a blast despite a weak script.
CONFIDENCE
This is neo-noir at its finest. James Foley casts his characters in shadow and color as he did when he directed David Mamet’s aforementioned “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Foley entices his audience with pure style and shots of his attractive cast as they walk the city streets like they own them. You feel like you want to be a part of this team and the script is extremely sharp.
NOW YOU SEE ME
It’s a big magic show which builds to its final act. The problem is that it can’t decide whether it’s a heist film or an action film. It’s also puzzling that, while their casting is much welcomed, why Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are almost absolutely wasted in the film. Plus, the ultimate reveal is one you might actually see coming. It’s not a bad film. It’s well-shot and the acting is decent but the flaws will easily outweigh the good points of the film if you stop and think about things.
HEIST
It feels like classic Hollywood. There’s maybe an explosion or two but the film is all acting and storytelling. Even the opening utilizes a black-and-white version of the Warner Brothers logo and features the old matching score to go with it. It’s a simple production and that’s all it needs to be.
DIRECTING
Director Steven Soderbergh of “Ocean’s Eleven”.
OCEAN’S ELEVEN
Steven Soderbergh is the director on the picture and ever since he re-invented himself with 1998’s “Out of Sight”, crime films have been where he excels. His direction is so good, you won’t even mind the weak script. His photography is artsy with liberal use of rich color pallets and surrounding audio. He knows how to set a scene and he does well keeping everything focused with a cast that would be far too big for any other director to handle.
CONFIDENCE
It drives me absolutely fucking NUTS that this is the same man who directed two of the last three “Fifty Shades” film. He directed “Confidence” and the superb “Glengarry Glen Ross”, then goes and does the terrible “Perfect Stranger”, then recovers with TV work — then goes and does “Fifty Shades” and — I can’t. Nope. At least he had this and GGR. This is one of his two masterpieces. Foley directs a modern noir picture with a great cast and slick plotting from his screenwriter and he comes up with the second-best film of his career.
NOW YOU SEE ME
Louis Leterrier did the severely underrated “The Incredible Hulk” with Ed Norton before this. Then he went on to do “The Brothers Grimsby” after it. Thankfully, he’s on his way again with the new “The Dark Crystal” series. Here, he directs a fairly slick film with a very streamlined, high-tech look. It’s a beautiful movie to look at with clean photography and sense of mystery…if only he wasn’t working with such a shitty script.
HEIST
Mamet does crime film noir. It’s great. What else can I say? His blocking of actors and use of sound is gorgeous as he opts to keep his Heist bits silent. Even his gun battles, much like Michael Mann, are realistic. This might be his last best film.
THE WINNER
FINAL SCORING
Music
Casting
Writing
Production
Direction
Totals
Ocean’s Eleven
4
4
2
3
4
17
Confidence
3
4
4
4
4
19
Now You See Me
2
3
2
2
3
12
Heist
3
4
3
4
4
18
POST-GAME THOUGHTS
James Foley’s “Confidence” pulls a bit of an upset this week by besting a fantastic writer/director in David Mamet and a heavyweight in Steven Soderbergh. “Heist” was hot on its heels and was almost on par if it hadn’t tried to turn so many corners that didn’t end up making much sense. Despite all this, it was a horse race throughout the contest with “Confidence” hitting the big buckets when it needed to.
NEXT WEEK: It’s hotter than hell. Over 100 degrees where I live…and we’re gonna get hotter next week. It’s Ladies Night here at the Brawl…and we’re pitting The Full Monty against Magic Mike…be sure to bring your singles and come back to us!
Up until this point, Preacher (AMC) has provided us answers to questions we never even knew existed. What’s Hitler’s Hell Cell like? What would happen if you got into a scrap with Angels that literally can not perish, no matter how ya dispatch ’em? Can you kill nearly an entire cast in a pilot season denouement and live to tell the tale?
In the tertiary episode, “Deviant”, we find that the ole’ creative team still has a bit of propane in their tanks.
We open in on Cassidy (Joe Gilgun) getting his meaty cudgel flayed Six Ways ‘Til Sunday as a means of torture by heavy Frankie Toscani (Lachy Hulme). Though we know our favorite self-saboteur sees this as some extreme and demented version flagellation, this was painful to observe even for yours truly. The amount of sadism in any given episode of this series doesn’t only push the envelope, it fucking cuts its tongue on it gleefully grins as the blood drips down its lips. But I, digress. The fact is this viscera from the opening scene is for the sake of making a Toscani’s Face Creame, a PENIS-PERFUME. Yep, complete with cute ad spot and all. Preacher’s never taken itself too seriously and that’s why the fans love it.. It’s just a bloody shame that they haven’t spoken, as it couldn’t stretch the viewership for one more season.
But back into the swing o’ things, we travel to Texas, where Arseface (Ian Colletti) attempts to convince the Saint of Killers (Graham McTavish) to take repose from the all that walking. HA! This proves to be useful as an asshole on the elbow. The dynamic, however, works for me. There is something just so magical about a Murderous Mime and the Feckless Failure around his neck. They finally agree on grub, because though the Saint of Killers eats objectives like Skittles, Arseface actually requires sustenance.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East at the De Sade Ranch, we meet up with the youngin’ that jacked Jesse (Dominic Cooper) for his boots down yonder. Inside, Custer cleans the clock of the Madame and proceeds up to the boy, but not before receiving a thank you in the form of some strong airborne drug.
At the Grail Hospital, under the aegis of her own crazy cunning and blonde bob, Tulip (Ruth Negga) poses as a staff member “recovering” from the carnage. Upon the poppa Doc refusing to release her with a psychological exam, my girl lets the inner Hellcat raging inside her prowl around for a moment, knocking the dude unconscious. Say what you will for Cassidy or the titular Preacher, but Tulip has always been the reason I came back for the show and though it may never happen except maybe through a web series, I’m rooting for that Broken Flower to man the goddamned driver’s seat! Alas, she’s immediately descended upon and given a sedative. Sadly, this is a fitting metaphor for women in general in the Biz…
As Cassidy in Masada grabs a bit a sharp perspective and jams the spike in his arm like a junkie, his shackled Archangelic (David Field) cellmate hanging about his head like the Sword of Damocles seems like the best Devil on his shoulder. This visual is striking- Cassidy is literally down in the dumps as his more ‘elevated’ chum offers some advice. Cassidy doesn’t want to leave his shit hole and through his Debbie-Downerism, we cut to-
Stark sunshine beaming through the panes of an otherwise pedestrian diner. As the diner doesn’t serve whiskey, the Saint of Killers stares down Arseface with the menace that could skull-fuck a hole through his head without laying a finger on his. Gee, I guess turtle pie isn’t a worthy stand-in for the good stuff. Who’da thunk?
We go back to Proinsias’ Pity Party, where he relays where it all began to his pal on high. We rewind to 1916 Ireland. Cass leaves his family to join the war effort for Irish Independence, promising to them his safe return. When he’s thrust into the Crimson mists of battle, Cass makes the Cardinal sin going AWOL, leaving his mate Billy as worm food at the hands of the British.
We see sink further into cowardice near a bog, observing two British Cavalrymen until he gets in DEEP- he’s pulled in but what I would consider a swamp vampire and is turned. Returning home, he waits in the shadows. He’s a changed person and no longer a man figuratively and literally. He’s a creature that can no longer enjoy a sunny day, and that’s his penance.
Back in the Grail, Featherstone (Julie Ann Emery) is on the prowl as well with a thirst for picking flowers. Breaking into Tulip’s quarters, she finds her Osaka get up got up and walked away. Oh, now the game’s afoot like Donkey Kong. That’s the saying goes, right?
At sickbay, after waking up, Tulip is submitted to the classic Rorshach Test. In natural O’Hare fashion, the images are evocative of gore and guns as the only Tulip could muster up. She’s labeled a Psychotic Deviant. Gee…
As Jesse goes to rescue the reluctant little urchin during a photoshoot at the Brothel, he finds a whole world of opposition. What ensues next is- well, it ain’t sunshine, lollipops and rainbows as the Son of a Preacher Man administers some graphically unChristlike things to his would-be dispatchers. The scene, which actually I think is the most exciting and bloody fights we’d seen in a while on here plays out like a mix of Borne Identity By Way Of Tarantino. Hey, brah’s got skills to pay the bi- ahh. Seems he’s a little bit of arrears, as, amidst the melee, the kid’s killed. Well, I guess Jesse chalks it up to God’s plan and leaves town with Pantless Pilate. God observes from afar.
Back at base, Hoover Two doesn’t mince words to Herr K. Starr (Pip Torrens) fishing for compliments. In a winning statement, Two places value on moral compass rather than physical beauty. The boner-inducing Hallmark moment is shattered when Featherstone busts in, revealing that Tulip walks amongst them.
Speaking of revealing moments, as Arseface is dropping some kids off at the pool, the adorably clueless Cornfed is introduced to how neighborly your stall mate can be… before being stung.
As he’s being taken away in cuffs, he screams for the Saint’s help, but it falls on deaf ears… that is until the Saint of Killers lives up to his name and blows the copper’s head clean off (though it’s never clean and still sometimes on.) I guess the Saint has been listening to Arseface all along! Boner-inducing Hallmark moment back on!
Back at the airport to Australia, Jesse runs into none other than a newly back on top Hitler (Noah Taylor). With Satan deadsies, Fuhrer tries to give Jesse the soft sell on joining him in reigning the one and only true underground. Preacher answers to nobody though and delivers one of the most satisfying scenes in the whole series- Hitler down on his knees, begging for life.
In a gore covered car, the Saint feels a disturbance in the force, telling Arseface he feels Jesse using Genesis in the Middle East. ROOOAD TRIP!
Back at Grail, Featherstone finds Tulip was released. Even worse, she finds Cassidy’s not in his hell pit of sorrow. Dude’s gone to Bensonhurst. Even more jarring is the turbulence Jesse experiences en route to Australia.
Developed by Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen, ‘The Boys’ has become one of Amazon’s most watched series. Based on the hit comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Photo Credit: Amazon Video
Rated Amazon’s best original series on IMDB, ‘The Boys’ is an in your face hit about a ragtag team of vigilantes who work together to take down a group of abusive corporatized superheroes. A gritty yet borderline darkly comedic story that looks at how acclaimed superheroes, corrupted by fame and power, would actually behave in the world when left unchecked.
From its characterizations to its hard-hitting social commentary on the superhero, this series will shock and surprise you, all while sharing some very dark truths along the way. That said, here are seven reasons you should check out Amazon’s ‘The Boys.’
We talk about ‘The Boys’ on the latest episode on The Workprint’s TV Talk. Available on iTunes and GooglePlay.
The Comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson is Fantastic
‘The Boys’ creators are well-known for an in-your-face approach. With Ennis’ writing in the acclaimed ‘Preacher’ series obliterating any notion of censorship, and Robertson’s emotive yet violent art style on comics runs such as ‘Happy!’ and ‘Transmetropolitan’, showcasing a talent for blending extreme acts with context of character.
Together, their run on ‘The Boys’ was a phenomenal blend of rebelliousness boundary pushing that took the superhero mythos and placed the genre on its own head. This, atop of being a brilliant and almost satirical take on authoritarians with corporate interests — as superheroes have become synonymous with A-list celebrities, elite athletes, and multibillion-dollar franchises (think Marvel).
It’s a great comic you should read. Especially if you’re going to follow this show.
The Showrunner Eric Kripke has a solid track record.
Eric Kripke is a fantastic showrunner who had created the longstanding series ‘Supernatural,’ which is now airing its 14th season. A feature unheard of for most television shows.
Atop of this, not only is he a fan of the original comics, but he’s also been an accommodating and adaptive showrunner who likes to balance the rhythm of the story with the space on the comic page, creating a whole different feel for ‘The Boys’ in adaption.
Atop of this, just like the original comics creators, Kripke isn’t afraid to tackle on tough subjects such as Trump Era conservatives and #MeToo.
In Eric Kripke’s reddit AMA, He emphasizes that the brutality and realism of the series is meant to feel as authentic to the real world as possible. A super punch would literally go through a regular squishy human. A well-loved and attended to hero would likely grow full of themselves and obsess about image above everything else.
#MeToo
One of the biggest storylines of the series addresses Starlight’s own messed up #MeToo moment early in the series. And while there were many ways the story could’ve gone sour if executed poorly, the series does a great adaptation of dealing with the difficult issue while keeping relevant. The series, not shying away from talking about the difficult situation or making Starlight a victim. Atop of this, they even contextualize the perpetrator, giving him a sympathetic layer of depth to understand why he’s horrible yet while never actually forgiving him.
The Seven are a perfect take on a modern Justice League
The Seven
Starlight – Also known as Annie January, she’s the newest member of the seven and the only morally good person in the group. A good-natured girl from Iowa, she wants to be an inspiring superhero, leaving her country and conservative roots to join the Seven after nailing the thorough auditions.
The Deep – An Aquaman inspired hero who is beloved by the people for his environmental rights issues. Often the joke of the team. Actually a disgusting psychopath.
Translucent – A superhero who can turn invisible with indestructible skin. He’s a pervert that likes to spy on people using the bathroom. Known as America’s sweetheart.
Queen Maeve – A Wonder Woman inspired hero who used to care about doing the right thing but has slowly lost her morality overtime working with The Seven. She’s often found with a drink in her hand. Queer.
Black Noir – A Batman styled hero who serves as the group’s ninja. He doesn’t speak at all. A complete mystery whose motivations remain unknown.
A-Train – A Flash inspired speedster with The Falcon’s sense of style. Often defends his title as the fastest man in the world. Cares more about image and his place in the seven above all else.
Homelander – A Superman type of hero with Captain America’s sensibilities. Leader of the Seven. A beloved American icon. Total psychopath.
Now, The Seven are what happens when you take a real-life Justice League or Avengers type of superhero group and let them runaway with the company credit card. What’s different in the show is that it isn’t about government regulation on superhumans. This series is all about how superheroes can make lots-and-lots of money and what if the world was run by their franchise billions (like it is today). Most importantly, who would stop them?
The Cast is Stellar but Karl Urban Steals the Show
The cast is phenomenal. Erin Moriarty from ‘Jessica Jones’ plays a sincere but powerful superhero in Starlight, really excelling in the Superhero genre by subverting the victim trope on its own head. Anthony Starr is a perfect rendition of Homelander, a character whom you’ll absolutely love to hate, especially as he sells more-and-more of the bullshit American dream.
Though hands down, the best performance is by Karl Urban. He plays Billy Butcher, a character whose sole motivation is avenging his raped and murdered wife by any means necessary. Urban plays the character with a tough guy, British accent, whose arrogance and debonair for doing the dirty deeds necessary is excelled only by how much of an asshole he is. Making the audience question who’s really at fault in the war between himself and Homelander.
There are also some amazing guest appearances. Simon Pegg (Whom the main character, Hughie, is actually inspired by in the comics) plays Hughie’s father. Billy Zane plays himself working with other actors who are Superheroes in a movie series. But most importantly, Haley Joel Osmund as Mesmer, a washed-up telepath turned circuit junkie and author who wants to be able to see his estranged daughter.
The Style is Dark
If you like cold and dark DC styled lighting tones, you’ll love this series. It’s very Zack Snyder and reminiscent of Watchmen. Which is befitting, as I’ve personally told friends about this series as ‘Watchmen’ if every hero was like The Comedian.
To top matters off there are so many trigger warnings for this series. Gratuitous sex, drug use, bloody eviscerations, analingus, and rape. All featured. None of it tasteful (except maybe the analingus).
Despite this, all the excessiveness is actual contextual in selling the world of this story and all fits organically in this universe. Delivering a gritty tale by sharing some harsh truths most series are too afraid of portraying about the superhero genre.
Production of ‘The Boys’ Season Two is underway. Photo shared by Eric Kripke.
Season 2 Promises More
Again in the Kripke AMA what we know about season 2 is that ‘The Boys’ are on the run wanted by the law. Homelander somehow becomes an even bigger asshole. And Stormfront, portrayed by Aya Cash, joins The Seven. There’ll also be a blind hero who sees through echolocation.
It’s also less going bigger and more of a deeper character study. So be ready to learn a lot of backstories.
KILLJOYS -- "Ship Outta Luck" Episode 504 -- Pictured: Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch -- (Photo by: Ian Watson/Killjoys V Productions Limited/SYFY)
In this week’s episode of Killjoys, Team Awesome Force attempts a prison break that doesn’t quite go according to plan while Zeph wakes up Pree and Turin on Westerley.
Herks Supermax Prison
Dutch, D’av and Johnny find themselves transported to a supermax prison after being taken by The Lady and the other Hullen. The former assassin decides that they need a distraction, grab the guards’ guns and then shoot their way out as they wait to get processed. Dutch attempts it but is quickly subdued via an electronic implant. They then earn a trip to visit the warden whom isn’t convinced that they are Killjoys or that The Lady even exists. Dutch ends up in solitary confinement, D’av is thrown into the loony bin section, and John gets laundry duty.
We find out that The Lady has made a deal with Khlyen where he suggested that they throw the three into the supermax to serve as bait to bring Jaq out of hiding. He has instructed the warden to keep only one of the prisoners alive. The alien leader states that he surely hopes Dutch is the one to survive. His response is that every father is driven to protect his child, but she corrects him by saying every good father is driven to do that and wonders has he actually been one? Khlyen doesn’t fall for her goading however and just changes the subject that he’s done everything he can for her and that Jaq will come. The Lady scoffs and says that when his family starts dying one by one it better be the incentive the first born needs.
Dutch wakes up in solitary with a creepy next door neighbor who keeps talking to her. He says that no one can escape this place and the best spot to be in hell is on top of it. Just then a guard opens a small slot to confirm that she’s still inside, Dutch notes that this happens every 50 minutes. Her neighbor comments that’s cute and he used to do that too. This place gives them a lot of time and he’s used it to plot his revenge against the Killjoys that put him in here. She realizes that her team was the one who handled his warrant back in season one.
In the meantime, Johnny is making his own plans to get the hells out of there. First thing he needs is one of the arm band devices that the guards have so he can get an electronic lay of the land. Another prisoner behind him says, “Hello gorgeous” and he quickly is able to use this situation to his advantage by hitting a guard from behind with his laundry cart and crying out, that the guy behind him did it for Carlos. Johnny is quickly pushed out the way and the guard takes the other man to see the warden all the while slipping the arm device stealthily. The Killjoy clearly justifies his best thief in the Quad title right there. He then pulls up the inmate manifest to find his brother and Dutch. Interestingly there’s a theft proof auto destruct function is initiated but John smashes the screen and is able to salvage an important component. When no one is looking, he takes the memory chip that Lucy told him to take in last week’s episode (which contained info on the DNA analysis of the hatchling) and he slots it into the small device. He then programs it with Lucy’s voice and names her New Lucy, or Nucy. He then says to call him John and she acknowledges with Shawn. Inside joke here, actor Aaron Ashmore (who plays John) has an identical twin brother named Shawn. He then works to help out his other teammates, first he gives Dutch a spoon and then goes to see his brother.
D’av is inside the psych ward and is talking to a chair while still drugged. As he comes out of it he meets another inmate named Calvert who explains some important things to him. In there is better than outside because the food’s better and you can actually get decent sleep through the drugs. Also if he acts up too much he’ll get electric shock halo and then you really will be crazy because it fries your brains permanently. John comes to see him soon and explains that they must be in an underground facility and they just need to find vertical access tunnels to climb their way out of there. The elder Jaqobis brother asks how John is doing given that he’s lost Lucy and Dutch, if anything he’s the one who should feel awkward about this whole situation. But Johnny brushes it off and tells the other man that he needs an electric shock halo, kicks him and starts calling out that they’ve got a biter. D’av is then restrained.
Dutch times when her next guard check is and when the slot opens she pulls the man’s arm into the prison cell and uses it to yank him against the door repeatedly until he falls unconscious. She then takes a fingerprint using the back side of the spoon and then uses that to unlock the door. Her cell mate asks for her to let him out too but she leaves apologizing that she’s on a schedule. John and her then dress up like psych ward attendants and find D’av. After using the same spoon to get him out of the electric shock halo, the three move on towards the access tunnels but the nerdiest member of Team Awesome Force says they need to go on a slight detour to the warden’s office because he needs her override code to open the access hatch. He is able to open her office doors and as he is on her console looking for the information, instead the forward shields open revealing that they are in space and not underground. Moments later, the warden shows up with two heavily armed guards.
The warden though cuts a deal with them as Dutch realizes that she is being paid to keep them alive. The other woman corrects the Killjoy that she’s only paid to keep one of them alive and it doesn’t matter which one. She’s gotten word that there is going to be a hit attempt made on Sparlo, the criminal who controls the inside of the supermax that even the guards are afraid of him. If they can find out who is behind the assassination attempt she’ll transfer them outside of hypermax and into G wing, a much nicer and less secure part of the prison. To survive X wing where Sparlo is being detained, Dutch comes up with a plan after they meet Calvert who is back on kitchen duty. The other inmate says that the good slop is reserved for Sparlo’s gang who makes certain that she doesn’t get her ass whooped too much. The former assassin then cooks up a scheme that they have a business proposition for the prisoner that he won’t be able to refuse, the ability to get him fresh produce. However, their plans goes to crap when Coren Jeers, Dutch’s next door neighbor in solitary is released back into the populace and he outs them as Killjoys.
They end up back at the warden’s office and she wants throw Dutch back into solitary so at least one of them is alive. The Killjoy counters and says that they should be released back into X wing and they’ll stop the assassination attempt from happening and find out who ordered it. She points out that this is the perfect opportunity for the assassin to feel safe now that everyone is distracted by them. Then they’ll nab whomever it is for the warden to question to her heart’s desire. Dutch isn’t scared about the other prisoners, they’re used to people wanting them dead and it hasn’t stopped them yet.
Dutch and D’av hide out, she thinks the hitman is one of Sparlo’s own bodyguards. He starts to babble that it’s nice to be just the two of them doing normal stuff, not that anything is normal. He even says no pressure and it must be confusing given that people had previously thought they had babies together and adds that it’s a vulnerable time for John. Dutch agrees and feels that Johnny blames her for losing the love of his life. D’av is a little taken aback but agrees that sure his little brother lost the love of his life and wants it back. She admits so does she and that a piece of her heart is gone too. The elder Jaqobis brother is confused but soldiers on and states that she wants to be with Johnny then only to discover that Dutch was talking about Lucy and they all missed her. Just then Sparlo and his gang appear in the hallway where the crime boss goes to lift some weights. One of the men go to use the bathroom when the three Killjoys approach him. Dutch has him on a choke hold but he soon passes out from a sedative. They realize that the man has been drugged and that Calvert must be the hitman because she could slip the drug in via their food and had access to the stuff through her time in the psych ward.
In the weight room, Sparlo’s other bodyguard passes out and Calvert appears, telling Sparlo that she never actually needed his protection. Team Awesome Force arrives in time however and eventually are able to subdue the other woman. They also manage to get the crime boss to agree to put the word out that they are under his protection and that he officially owes them one. Calvert however says that if news travels that she snitched then she’s done for. Sparlo counters that no one needs to know that she talked and once the warden gets her she’ll disappear but he wants to know who’s after him. She gives in and says Coren Jeers wants his turf.
At the warden’s office, Dutch turns down a transfer for them to G wing because from her perspective they need to take over this ship and use it to find The Lady then win. Since its only two inmates per cell, John tells them to take it and since they are supposed to make scary new friends he might as well start now.
Old Town
Meanwhile back at Old Town, Zeph manages to find her hideout again despite having been brainwashed. Inside, she sees a small note on a communicator that says, “In case of emergency watch me.” Shrugging, Zeph does and is shocked to see a recording of herself greeting her as Zepherelli, a nickname she hates so that she would know that the person on the screen is really her. The recording goes to say that if she is watching this then they have been memory wiped and instructs her to find the protein inhibitor device then inject it into her neck. Zeph does as she’s told and realizes that she needs to save Dutch and that she needs help.
She first goes to Turin who still thinks he’s a drug dealer. Zeph tries to entice him and he thinks it’s for some sexy time but she says no it’s for a new super awesome drug she’s calling Reality Man. He passes but she doses him anyways and apologies by saying this isn’t insubordination since she is a Killjoy after all. Turin begins to remember everything and he curses up a storm ready to write someone up for this crap. The two of them then drag Pree into the basement hideout and inject the protein inhibitor on him as well. The actual owner of The Royale wants to wake Gared up too but Zeph and Turin agree that waking more people up will bring unwanted attention and the other man is currently safer where he is. They need to focus on getting Dutch and the boys out. Pree then remembers that there is a dead zone in one of the maps he saw while borrowing a company tablet. Turin thinks that must be an underground holding facility there. Zeph is able to remove a dummy feed to reveal that it is actually housing a crap ton of black root ships. They make their way over to investigate.
They are able to take out two guards and Zeph wonders why The Lady would leave so many ships with so little security. She then notices that it’s on preprogrammed autopilot and has logged the same flight path for the last 44 days. Then it hits her that this is how the alien has been making it rain in Westerley every day on schedule. She takes a sample of the liquid inside the ship in order to figure out how The Lady is using it to do the memory wipes and eventually stop it. The plan is to go back to Old Town and solve this somehow because there is no other help coming. But before that they blow all the ships up.
Hullen Armada
Back on the Hullen armada, Khlyen is with The Lady and one of her hatchlings. She informs him that Dutch killed some of them but she can always make more. They are apparently not strong enough to survive in this atmosphere yet but they will be. He asks her if he’s meant to be impressed that she’s cloning an army but she says he should be afraid. The Lady then adds that what separates their two species is emotional memory, humans keep reliving their past experiences and keeping the memories alive and meaningful. Their obsession with the future is because they can’t forget their past. She will take this from them and give it to her people and teach her race to dream of more and then they will be perfect.
After Zeph and Turin blow the Black Root ships up, a Hullen soldier tells The Lady that 30% of her west seeding fleet was destroyed and she instructs that he be thrown out the airlock. Khlyen suggests that she increase the amount of showers in the factory until they can be replaced but The Lady is pissed saying that they have a rebellion. She wants him to find out who is awake although doesn’t have a next step planned. It seems that inhabiting a human body also means that she is prone to human emotions which she views as weak and poisonous. He explains that emotion is the price of emotional memory. She still doesn’t understand why they keep fighting her when she controls them, but Khlyen says that their resilience comes from their ability to hope.
Final Thoughts
I am so relieved that we have Nucy.
Am the only person who thought of X-wings whenever X wing was mentioned?
How does Team Awesome Force stay looking so clean with great hair in prison?
Dutch looks fantastic in green (really in anything but especially in this color).
Pree being worried about Gared with Cindy is adorable.
Hello and Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome to Weekend Movie Brawls!
Here, we take an in-depth look at films with similar themes or stories and we pit them against each other in a competition based on their merits. For example, it can be two animated films of the same type, two films which take place during a certain time period, two films with similar plots or an original film versus its remake.
The reason we make this a weekend thing is because when else might you have the time and energy to relax and see something you haven’t seen before?
It’s August and the heat is on. While the days are bright and sweltering, the nights are full of mystique, both good and bad. The halogen-lit streets are full of mystique and certain deeds are done in the shadows…and we see plenty of those in this battle as we pit both versions of “Gone in 60 Seconds” (the 1974 original and 2000 re-make) against one another!
Let’s meet our competitors…
In this corner…
1) GONE IN 60 SECONDS (1974)
THE PLOT
Insurance Investigator by day and chop shop owner in secret, Maindrian Pace (H.B. Halicki) has been tasked by a South American drug lord to steal 48 cars in five days. Pace is so good at what he does, the first 47 aren’t an issue. It’s the 48th car, “Eleanor” (a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1), which proves to be somewhat harder to obtain than the others. The film is notable for having a 40-minute car chase which wrecked nearly 100 different cars and was shot across six cities. The film was directed by its lead actor, H.B. Halicki.
…and, in this corner…
2) GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000)
THE PLOT
Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) is a retired car thief (wonder what retirement package that comes with) who comes back into the fold after he learns that his baby brother, Kip (Giovanni Ribisi), has taken up his big brother’s line of work and is in way too deep with L.A.’s biggest mob boss, Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston). In order to save his brother’s life, Memphis must steal 50 cars in three days. Directed by Dominic Sena.
SCORING
The scoring in Weekend Movie Brawls is simple. There are five categories: music, casting, writing, production (which includes design, costumes, make-up, etc), and direction. Each of these will be awarded a letter grade, from A to F. As in school, each of these letter grades has a number associated to it. An “A” is worth 4 points, “B” is 3 points, “C” is 2 points, “D” is 1 point and “F” is worth nothing. The highest score wins.
The final scoring will not be revealed until the end of the contest.
In the event of a tie at the end of a brawl, the winner will be decided via a playoff round at a later date.
And, as always, THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS, so if you haven’t seen these films, get out of here while you still can.
If you’re still game for this, read on!
MUSIC
Photograph by Michael Lewis Trevor Rabin photographed by Michael Lewis at his home studio in Los Angeles CA on 6/12/15 for Variety Magazine.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (1974)
The film was mainly a family affair. Halicki’s brother, Ronald, and Philip Kachaturian conducted the score for the film. It’s basically a 1970’s action TV score, nothing particularly memorable here.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000)
Trevor Rabin takes over scoring duties, having done Jerry Bruckheimer’s bidding with “Con-Air” and “Armageddon”. Out of everything he’s done, I might say that this is my favorite score of his. His focus seems sharper as the rock and synth cues are beautifully mixed in with some of the non-score stuff (almost seamless with The Crystal Method’s “Busy Child” while “Always Was a Sucker for a Redhead” mixes PERFECTLY with BT’s “Never Gonna Come Back Down”). Great work.
CASTING
H.B. Halicki in 1974’s “Gone in 60 Seconds”.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (1974)
Once again, everything here is pedestrian — only what’s necessary. Nobody here is a master thespian. The premise was the main attraction. That said, everyone does their jobs, more or less. Halicki is playing a regular joe. Most of the dialogue is spoken in voice-over which is odd but adds a bit of style…but it does come off as people just sitting there at a microphone, reading lines.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000)
Disney had money. Lots of it. So, the cast was A-list as they come with Nicolas Cage, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie, Will Patton, Delroy Lindo, and Robert Duvall just to name a few. It isn’t Oscar-worthy acting mainly because the dialogue is so god-awful, you can’t help but laugh at them when they try to inject some conviction into the proceedings. It works, for what it is. Any film with a cast this stacked isn’t going to have trouble attracting attention.
WRITING
Scott Rosenberg, writer of the 2000 “Gone in 60 Seconds” remake.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (1974)
Halicki “wrote” this thing. I put that in quotes because there wasn’t really a script. I’m not kidding. Everything was ad-libbed by the cast and crew. The dialogue had to be sewn together by editor Warner E. Leighton who said that he had a hell of a time trying to match footage to the recorded dialogue. That said, what’s here is just people saying things about cars and what to do next. It moves everything along. It’s the clever premise which counts…except it’s basically just an idea and nothing more.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000)
Scott Rosenberg wrote this thing. He puts his spin on what Halicki gave us in ’74. It has its moments. The action sequences within are great but a lot of this feels somewhat padded with a competing car thief sub-plot that’s reduced to ash in the first third of the film. Robert Duvall saying the words “Raymond Calitri is a jackal who has torn at the soft underbelly of our fair town” is SO hokey as is Nicolas Cage telling his younger flunkie thieves that their “decision-making privileges have been revoked for the next 24 hours” after one of them nearly clubs a cop in the head with a metal bar. The almost-sex scene between Cage and Jolie is cringe-worthy as they talk about boinking while stealing cars and make out and…just…no.
PRODUCTION
“Gone in 60 Seconds”, 1974
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (1974)
Here’s the meat of things. Halicki’s overall production is a cult classic. The quiet music drops, the stilted voiceover work, the shitty writing (or what there was of it) is all just precursor to one of the greatest action sequences ever committed to celluloid: an insane 40-minute car chase across Southern California which just exhausts you — albeit in a good way. It’s beautifully shot and edited and directly inspired filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino on films like “Kill Bill” and “Death Proof”.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000)
This is a big budget production. Big actors, an actual screenwriter, a pumping rock score (along with some choice soundtrack cuts) and some artsy cinematography. The issue with the film, however, is that, with all that Hollywood wealth, the lack of heart is evident. Whereas the original thrilled audiences with a record car chase (the longest in film history), “Gone in 60 Seconds” gives us one that’s about a little less than half that long and it’s CGI’ed in portions, which was a luxury H.B. Halicki didn’t have when he directed his film. Still, the overall production works for what it is — but it’s style over substance.
DIRECTION
(from left to right) Giovanni Ribisi, Jerry Bruckheimer, Angelina Jolie, and Nicolas Cage in 2000’s “Gone in 60 Seconds”.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (1974)
H.B. Halicki was committed to his craft. He wrote, produced, starred (and did his own stuntwork) AND directed this film. You can tell this was a close, personal project of his. His main goal was to entertain moviegoers. I admire that. This isn’t the greatest film of all-time or even what one would regard as a “masterpiece”…but it’s HIS masterpiece and it’s a masterpiece to nearly every single movie buff and gearhead I know. This film had conviction and Halicki’s breathless direction in the final 42 minutes of his movie buries all the other flaws I spoke about.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000)
Dominic Sena was a competent director, having given us the great “Kalifornia” and the severely underrated “Swordfish”. I can see the appeal in wanting to direct a film like this given the premise and the cast…and there’s some beautiful sepia tone soaked daytime photography and all the night sequences are drenched in blue. There’s a stylish color element…but, unlike Sena’s other aforementioned efforts, this film is brainless and nowhere near the memorable film the original was.
THE WINNER
FINAL SCORING
Music
Casting
Writing
Production
Direction
Totals
GI60 ’74
1
1
1
4
3
10
GI60 ’00
3
1
1
2
2
9
POST-GAME THOUGHTS
I know I’m gonna sound like an ass saying this, but I am surprised at the outcome. It was a close battle. What the 1974 original lacked in quality, it made up for in overall production which goes to show you that you can have all the money in the world and you still might not have half what it takes to make something watchable. In the end, it came down to the man behind the film. The original “Gone in 60 Seconds” is one of the most memorable films of its kind and that reputation won it a victory here today.
NEXT WEEK: We’re in the dog days of August and still exploring some fairly dirty deeds…and the con is on! We’re going to find out who the real con-artist is our “Con-Artist Film Battle”…the movies will be determined so be sure to join us next week!
Season 3 Episode 21 of Young Justice investigates Granny Goode, sees Kaldur happy in his queer relationship, and finds a special secret with Violet.
The Outsiders Investigate Granny Goode
The episode begins with Cat Grant reporting for GBS live at the Babylonian theatre in Hollywood, where the new movie The Great Khan is premiering (Which if we remember, is actually the story of Randal Savage in this world). She interviews the head of Goode World studios: Gretchen Good, aka GRANNY.
At that same moment, Oracle coordinates an infiltration mission with Black Lightning and Nightwing, who openly flirts back with Oracle right in front of Black Lightning (It’s implied Dick and Barbara are dating, or at least, having “Playtime after the mission” together).
Using Dreamer’s motherbox, Nightwing and Black Lightning scout Granny’s house which detects apocalypse technology. They break in easily, much to Nightwing and Oracle’s suspicions, and a trap is sprung. Nightwing and Black Lightning fall into a flash of light off-screen.
In Shayeris (a city in Atlantis), Kaldur spends time with his lover Wyynde, and the two see that the gilled metahuman girl (who’s going by the name Dolphin) is enjoying her new life among the Atlanteans. Kaldur gets a message from Oracle asking for help in investigating Nightwing and Black Lightning’s disappearance. Reluctantly, he chooses to save his friends as nobody else is available. Wyynde joins him.
“I’ll never get used to sucking and blowing like this,” Wyynde
If it hasn’t been stated enough, Wyynde is absolutely gay for Kaldur, and his first reaction adjusting to surface world breathing non-subtly confirms it. The duo confront Granny at her home, who is honest about having taken Nightwing and Black Lightning — though at no fault of her own — as the two were trespassing.
“Obey your Granny. My command is Darkseid’s will.”
Granny takes Kaldur and Wyynde to the X-pit, where through Atlantean magic, they are able to resist the endless subliminal messaging. Granny lets the two men return to Earth with their friends though is hesitant to let the Motherbox free. Nightwing and Black Lightning attack their friends, now obviously controlled through the X-pit. Granny commands overlord to kill the motherbox but back at HQ, Violet and Victor feel the Motherbox’s pain. They boomtube the HQ team to Granny’s place and save the day.
Violet cures Nightwing and Black Lightning of mind control and then heals the Mother box. In the commotion, Oracle fires a flashbang at Granny through a drone and the team retreats back through the boomtube knowing that Granny is officially Granny Goode.
Back at HQ, Oracle sits by Nightwing’s bedside while he recovers. Wyynde doesn’t see the appeal of the surface world though reaffirms his love for Kaldur.
Malcolm and Karen have a baby
In their car, Malcolm and Karen confess that they both tested negative for the Meta-Gene. They discuss the potential future of their baby in a changing world of Metahuman issues. Karen’s water breaks.
At the hospital, Karen has the baby. It’s a beautiful moment that’s shortly interrupted as the doctor discovers something is wrong with it. The medical staff discover the newborn was born with a tiny hole in its heart. Despite having just given birth, Karen suits up to shrink inside her own baby and fix the hole. While inside her child, she decides to ‘do the right thing’ and begins augmenting her baby’s DNA.
The Mother and Father Box
Back at headquarters, Victor (Cyborg) says farewell to his father. They are greeted by an arriving Beast Boy and Prince Brion who are returning from battle with the condiment king.
Shortly after, Beast Boy tests Victor’s limits of his now in-control abilities. Meanwhile, Prince Brion speaks with Helga about his guilty feelings over violet. Helga finds it admirable he’s forgiven the sins of Gabrielle (Violet’s original person) and mentions the prince has become a popular figurehead for both the Outsiders and the people of Markovia.
When the group is finally assembled, both Victor and Violet lead a team to rescue Grandma Goode’s infiltration team. After the battle, Brion and Violet makeup in an embrace as Hegla looks on concerned. She wants to extract Brion and Terra from the team informing her superior, revealed to be Ultra-Humanite. Helga has been working for The Light since the beginning.
In the post-credits, Granny reveals to Darkseid that she’s located the anti-life equation (assumed to be Violet).
Final Thoughts
Kaldur and Wyynde are very gay this episode and it’s beautiful. There’s also a lot in terms of big-game revelations, such as Violet’s reveal. To be honest, a lot of storylines are forcibly coming to a close and I’m kind of happy as this season has been up-and-down for most people. Personally, I’ve loved the romances but have disliked the Beast Boy #WeAreAllOutsiders social media movement.
Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer - Preacher _ Season 4, Episode 1 - Photo Credit: Lachlan Moore/AMC/Sony Pictures Television
“Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” James 1:3
For those who’ve been keeping score, Preacher (AMC) is on its last season. This I believe had less to do with the waning viewership, as its audience is fierce and fervent, but that was the crux. It wasn’t bringing up the numbers that The Walking Dead or than the infinitely better .. Call Saul was spiking at, it had a stalwart audience. Couple that with executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg making the move from Sony to Lionsgate and move on to new projects.
Mind you, in the mid-90s, when the Garth Ennis penned a love letter to ruffling feathers was ruffling feathers, even in 2006, HBO thought the subject matter was too hot to handle (and ultimately, too cold to hold).
Fast forward to 2016 when the soil in the cable market is chomping at the bit for the next titillation. On AMC, we were used to the Walking Deads of the time. What more could shock and make us think?
I personally don’t believe this wanted to exceed its reach. This is a show that arches for the Heavens, may nab an angel or two, is fine with dining on their corpses… and before AMC gets any other ideas, I hope to Christ that’s not the next permutation of the fucking Walking Dead series. In terms of creativity, those guys are in Limbo and the creativity and wit of Preacher don’t merely bury them in the ground. It sends them straight to Hell.
During this ride, we’ve seen things profane and humane. We’ve followed the ‘Yellow-stained’ Brick Road to perdition. We’ve encountered a world wherein, ne’er do wells, vampires, love interests, those reformed and looking to get sober from a life of crime, mystics, hillbillies, Ecumenical royalty, angels, Satan, inbred Sons of God and a dusty Son of a Preacher Man.
“I just whooped your ass.” Austin 3:16
Starting on the first episode of this final season (“Masada”), we find God finding little ye faith in the Genesis with which Jesse has to inhabit. All ensues a choppy but cute video as to why HE is the arbiter of what lives and what dies.
As an atheist, I found this charming. He plays around with scientific fact as though it were a playset and I think if even the mod hardcore of ‘Christians’ were to complain about that, you cannot say it ain’t part of his Goddamned plan!
We also see Cassidy and Tulip, figuring their fate that swapped tongues once is at their impending doom… for being guilty at their mutual best friend’s fealty. We also see that Cassidy is fucking flayed time and again, in a Fortress that Herr K. Starr‘s in with his surviving lackey, Lara Featherstone. For those of you not in the proverbial know, Lara is an agent of the outfit that is trying to get Genesis (which is a nigh GOD power, willing anyone to do its bidding- the perfect spawn twixt angel and demon, which is nigh flawless, making it more lethal) out of its perfect host, Jesse. A god wants what a god wants, I guess.
The heart, bleating or beating wants it wants as well, and both Cassidy, the coolest vampire ever and Tulip, the coolest gangster mol (but Jesse’s girl) since I don’t know when touch lips, all bets are off. They’ve been having some out and out rows as to how she belongs to. Tulip is a one-woman army, and will stop at little to besmirching her good name (due to self-hatred) of sticking up and going after the people that make her find happiness.. so she pursues Cass’s kiss, knowing impending doom.. but it doesn’t stop.
Months ago, Tulip would’ve been cheery waking up to a drained Jesse.. but that was months ago.
Cassidy is held captive, in a fortress. Don’t worry, he has an angel in the same torture about him… But then Cass is released.
Cass is released into an almost Medical Theatre as the subject of torture, the Main Stage!
Meanwhile, at the Holy Bar and Grail in Masada, a classic bar fight arises but is immediately blown clear by none other than Jesse and Tulip. In tandem, by the word of Genesis command this otherwise self-righteous, sententious and boorish group, or what’s left of them agree. Hey! Look! Jesse has a congregation!
Whilst being riddled with bullets, on a Catherine Wheel-like stake, Cassidy is flayed.. oh, I’m sorry, circumcised by none other than a mobster that knows his way around a straight edge and strop by none other than Frankie Tasconi!
As Jesse arrives at Masada, Herr K. Starr meets him with a bit of protection and sass, covering his and others ears with what would be the equivalent of hunting headphones. Oh, I’m sorry, they are earmuffs. Earmuffs on! They kill the will toward your master and bury every whim you’d ever had and ever known of fucking free will.
Hope you had them still on because if not, you’d have been enlisted into his sleeper cell army that will not kill your own kind but also aid in cock-teasing a thirsty vampire who has tortured his torturers on a shiny pristine plate. I thought you guys were supposed to be tight! Clearly, there is something seething outside of what Taylor Swift loves and a vampire hates- Bad Blood.
As Tulip tries to storm ‘surreptitiously’ the fort, she is found out and thus ensues a firefight and her only entre into the whole goddamn thing is done in, literally by a door.
Jesse, in command, by way of Genesis puts under his spell one of the upper echelon, and though she’d been helpful in the past, those non-pearly gates take a lot more to get through than a simple prayer. This person is literally crushed by the gates as they are closed and Tulip has just lost her way into Cassidy’s salvation.
As Jesse and Cassidy navigate their exit through their catacombs of seething, Tulip’s failure sounds the alarm. Now, she needs to find the switch and since her only agent on the inside is now literally on the inside… and outside, she needs to ascend the large side of the cliff that can open that behemoth of a door.
I say for what? Both of these guys put you through shit, you’d gone nothing but through shit and even if all goes well, your life would follow shit… For what?! Just my opinion though. Back to our regularly scheduled program…
As Jesse Custer and Cassidy wreck house, Tulip reaches the top of the mountain… Mt. Douche, where she encounters Lara Featherstone: the T-1000 Starr’s crew and the albatross around her neck. She’s been encountering her for the longest time and thought alone would like to see Lara dispatched, she still continues to thrive, even after being thrown off of the mountain.
As though fisticuffs are in play, Jesse and Cassidy engage firstly in verbal animosity and from a bromance goes into a bro-hate, as Tulip, a point of contention if brought up. If Shakespeare or any writer has taught us, there is no wrong Rose… Only those who are assholes, as both of them are. They tussle until the only properly smelling flower emerges… Tulip, actually opening the door to their freedom.
Cassidy chooses to remain to take care of some things, though Jesse wants him to take advantage of this chance… plus, dude can’t go out in the sun.
Back at the bar, Jesse and Tulip figure out their next mode of play. Jesse, within the fight with Cass, needs to clear some air, and this ain’t smoke up his ass. He straight-up asks if his beloved, the wonderful and down ass girl, Tulip, the one that we’ve seen him ride or die with until know… has slept with Cassidy. She latently lies. At this point, I don’t know if it’s self-preservation or self-immolation. She downright denies it.
Though Jesse claims not to be mad at either outcome, it’s a loaded question, like a revolver.
If you take one bullet out, it’s your lucky day, but play Russian Roullete, it’s going only one place.
That bullet finds its place in Jesse’s dreams, as he finds himself in an inception type dream/nightmare where the Apocalypse is abounding. Or the dispatching of Herr K. Starr is his goal… though he finds himself choking Tulip until Genesis forces him to stop. This guy should cleary just write a journal.
Instead, he pens a missive to Tulip for his departing and explaining why.
Cassidy naturally is caught for wanting to stay in the fortress. Tulip wakes up to see what invitation that may awaken… a blonde wig and a plan.
As a hitchhiking Jesse picks up a ride from a pedestrian chicken farmer, Herr K. Starr dismisses Lara, his most loyal of servants.
This is where we find that Starr and the Big Man Upstairs, none other than, are in cahoots…
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of these robbers?” Luke 10:36
Now that the table is set, we settle in for part-Deux, (“Last Supper”) and it turns out those two aren’t the only ones working in tandem…
As Jesse ambles down the road with his newfound friend with a Newberry winning tale of how she got out of the porn business, they come across a boy and his ailing dog. Jesse, the concerned old Softee, asks his chauffeur to backtrack and in what is clearly an old fashioned run the jewels situation and naturally makes a fun joke a killing one. The dog didn’t have to die Jesse, the dog didn’t have to die. I sense a theme!
Cassidy and his moyle, Frankie nearly have a moment of understanding before the Art of Torture 101 commences. Frankie cuts, so to speak, to the core of Cass and, speaks something we’ve known of him for the longest time… he’s a glutton for punishment, as he feels he deserves it. It’s the way cooler and way less staunch version of mortification of the flesh or as we know, ritual flagellation. Its basic premise was to self cleanse for wrongdoings.
I mean, Goddamn- we either go to confession, take Step 8 in a program, or book a Cupping session. Ohh, how far we’ve come.
Tulip, through the fun instrument of a rocket launcher simply blows the hinges off the door to Masada and proceeds back into the Hellmouth or a base one could consider, an amalgamation of any big boss battle fortresses at any time.
Cass, truly pulling a stellar 127 Hours on his shackled foot only to ambush the guards that check on him. Mind you, all of this time, an angel, suspended and captive in that darkened well is observing his cunning. This angel I believe will be the Chekov’s gun to this season. Cass escapes.
Back at the Holy Bar & Grail, a sect of Herr K. Starr’s garrison sing the lives of their recently befallen, reminiscent of something that sounds unsettlingly Ivy League like. Meanwhile… the search for Tulip continues, and it stamps its muddy, bloody boots at the barkeep’s doorstep in the form of Lara.
Trekking, no bootless is Jesse, until he finds respite with a guy on a camel. Seeing as though they are in the desert, surely a guy that doesn’t have to the same belief system would take pity on him- right? He does, and it works for an ephemeral time until it doesn’t. Ya see, this good samaritan, just as Jesse was, views another on a camel. They put pedantry in play and what ultimately happens is Jesse has to mediate.
To put this videogame terms, do you remember when a Genesis cartridge would sometimes glitch? Ostensibly, through his brand of mediation of a ‘gift’, a Tarantino-esque math problem presents itself. What do you get when one guy (+1) tries to preach, sorry, a peace accord with two other guys (+2) and their camels (+2)? Pencils down. You get nothing but bloodshed and a dude hating being alive. In arithmetic, that equates to a 1. In all honesty, that is a minus. Good on ya, God. You inadvertently constructed two conflicting types, cut from the same cloth, who clash. I applaud you. Hipsters have been doing that shit for years.
As Starr is coronated the new All-Father, we also see that the Staples-Print-Copy Jesus‘ have been rounded up and given a lead bath until they find the real One. I mean shit, talk about a Where’s Waldo!
Through guile and fearing for his life (yes, Vampires aren’t precisely immortal), Cassidy is able to jack some boss raiments, complements of the ‘pharmacology’ department and make his one and very calculated move out of that Hell-Hole solid.
That door opens, and he gets to taste salvation- except it is day time.
Having a hankering for the goodies in Heaven-Base-Amaze-Balls, Cass uses his aversion to that flaming star as a legitimate excuse, retreating back to the pharma room, where he can jack all the heroine he can carry. It’s like Tony Montana on one of those ‘All You Can Fit It To Your Cart’ contests Toys ‘R Us used to have back in the day… except, there’s an actual checkout.
Coming back with his fluffy pillows, in an almost nod to Captain America in the elevator brawl (and who doesn’t love elevator fights), Cass has given up the white ghost, despite his attempts not to. Ya think he’s safe, being coked up by now, but though a scrappy young lad, the guy has his weakness.
Jesse, goddamned well intent on finding a very specific rock that can only be found in Australia, Tulip is turned on by Kamal to Agent Lara.
As Grail agents descend on the bar, a white-knuckled chase ensues, which the agents of the Grail pursuing what is basically a fucking rad muscle car on their little smart car looking things on wheels. Could you even call something that looks like that, even on four wheels a car anymore?
As the wheel wagon around Tulip, she kicks up dust like a horse that isn’t satisfied with its disposition.
Painting a veil of pure dirt and rock, Tulip creates what is probably her most florid work of art ever. She takes out each, and every one of the cars, dispatching them like a slasher film, with the aid of her four wheels, two brain hemispheres, and zero fucks. Until there is one left- and that is Lara. I mean, a cat plays to death with mice for fun and that’s what makes them the deadliest of animals next to the dolphin.
Starr, surprise surprise is given a Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me A Find, Catch Me A… Ohhh, yeah… about those circumcisions we were putting in bags? It wouldn’t for your health. His ear was severed but now I guess now he could be fucked by the word of God in Dolby.
As a last middle finger this series was firing on, it wasn’t Tulip driving at all, but rather in fact Kamal, who orchestrated a diversion with Tulip posing as one of the ‘victims’ in her blonde wig on board with a semi-unlucky fart of a car.
Concluding this two-part opener, en route to the Land Down Under, which could also be a smooth nod to Hell (and where Seth and Evan are now stationed production-wise), Jesse has a fever dream of Cassidy on the plane with him, hashing out their differences. This is money. However, we also see that God, the Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth (I’m still, as a Catholic for some 18 years and an atheist for the last 17 don’t understand why they never included Hell) is the overseer and an actual Woodwright and our world is something he creates and crafts. It’s not prepared and it certainly and his Goddamned plan.
If you loved Moonlighter, you’ll enjoy it’s DLC, Between Worlds.
Moonlighter is an adorably pixelated indie game that focuses not just on dungeon crawling and crafting but the merchant side of killing beasts, as well. By night, your protagonist Will takes to the local caves, killing all manner of enemies in procedurally generated dungeons. By day, Will takes those hard-earned mob skins and claws and whatever else they drop when he beats them to a pulp and sells them in his local shop. It’s an interesting play on the typical fantasy tale, focusing more on the town aspect of where warriors get their goods before they head off into battle. As Will the merchant, you play a capitalist guessing game based on customers’ reactions and adjust your prices accordingly. And despite some of the bugs at launch, I couldn’t help but praise Moonlighter because it is such a unique premise.
A year later, Digital Sun’s Moonlighter has released its first true DLC and with it comes another major dungeon, more weapons, and a bunch of town and story upgrades. You’ll really get the full use of the DLC once you’ve beaten the main game and choose to continue the story.
The biggest feature of Moonlighter: Between Worlds is a brand-new interdimensional dungeon, complete with 10 randomly generated floors of dungeon crawling goodness. It’s here that you’ll get most of the content in the DLC, making full use of a new armor and weapon set and two new companions for Will’s entourage. With more gears means more baddies, and Between Worlds introduces 10 new enemies, as well as 5 minibosses. Since Between Worlds encourages players to explore older dungeons for the sake of acquiring long since used crafting items, the minibosses are a much needed addition to keep old dungeons from feeling stale.
Perhaps the best portion from Moonlighter’s DLC is the new Slime Alchemist shop, accessible only within the interdimensional dungeon. Once Will reaches the second floor (and every other floor thereafter), he can talk with the oddly friendly merchants who use a slimy currency acquired by beating mobs within the dungeon itself. But be forewarned, once Will leaves the dungeon, the currency disappears, and should he want to buy special items from the spectral merchants, he’ll have to fight more monsters to get it. These merchants offer Will potions, portals, and even an assortment of weapons, that like their currency, also disappear after leaving the dungeon. Each miniboss in the DLC dungeon drops an item, be it a blueprint or the actual slime weapon, but the bonus to this gear is that it’s often significantly more powerful than even the best items from Rynoka’s blacksmith. If you’ve got the slime to spare, it’s more than worth it to give the weapons a go.
Other additions for Moonlighter: Between Worlds include: more rings for the New Game Plus players, a couple of additions to Will’s Shop, especially since now he’ll have to suss out interdimensional loot prices, and finally, a new NPC: the Trader. The Trader is an interesting character in that he introduces haggling to the once sleepy town of Rynoka. Long gone are the days of set prices; the Trader allows Will to barter over the amount of items he’s willing to trade for rarer, more in-demand artifacts, including items found only at the Trader. If you want to upgrade your endgame weapon and armor sets, you’re going to have to do business with the Trader.
Unfortunately, Between Worlds still suffers from some of the issues that plagued the base game. Bugs keep players from completing achievements; the final rune bow is impossible to craft because the item needed to create it doesn’t exist in the game; the final boss can get stuck in unreachable terrain, causing the player to rely on companions or restarting the fight; customers can get stuck in merchant tables, fixed only by reverting to an earlier save; and most irritatingly, exclamation marks persist above NPCs and chests, despite clearing them of the seen information.
On top of the more glitchy problems, combat still doesn’t feel quite right in Moonlighter. Despite playing on PC, I recommend using a controller because the default keybindings are unnatural and infuriating. Some enemies land hits and do damage despite nailing the dodge combo and one of the mid-tier dungeon enemies still manages to steal items at random, without any chance to recover them (something even the final boss allows).
The shop pricing mechanic remains the most unique part of Moonlighter and while I think it’s simply fine as it is, for any planned sequel, I would like to see the developers explore more aspects of the supply and demand. Originally, I believed the customers’ varying levels of interest in an item correlated to how often I sold it, but instead it seems to only be connected to an original selling price. Once I found that sweet spot for an item’s price, managing Will’s shop became automatic and the only change was at which point during the day that stupid bird bring every NPC to a standstill. Moonlighter has the building blocks for an immensely unique gaming experience and with time and tweaks to keep the game from feeling too stale, it could be one of the better action adventure games on the indie scene in recent years. It’s a brilliant mix of retro art design with more modern gameplay elements, all wrapped in a package that doesn’t take a few dozen hours to complete. You can beat of the dungeons in a day or two and not feel drained or like you’re rushing through content.
As it stands, Moonlighter is still an adorably unique experience that has done well to emulate that Stardew Valley feeling of “just one more day”, keeping gamers interested until that final end credits screen appears. Between Worlds is a great addition to the story at large, giving players a satisfying conclusion to the base game and adding enough content to feel new and exciting while maintaining the pieces that made the base game so enjoyable. For the price at $6.99, if you enjoyed Moonlighter, Between Worlds DLC is more than worth the cost.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a little gem from the late ’80s, is a great tribute to the noir genre that takes its viewers on a fun ride through the history of cartoons.
A hardboiled private eye. A cartoon rabbit. His cartoon wife. A noir story juxtaposed with a lively world of cartoon characters.
If you haven’t seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit, GO WATCH THIS MOVIE. I’m not joking. I’m being 100% serious. I don’t intend this as a spoiler warning, I mean to say that this movie is such a delight and an amazing piece of art that you should go and enjoy it. This article isn’t going anywhere, so stop reading and go watch it. I’ll wait.
. . . .
. . . .
Okay, you watched it? You sure you did? In case you didn’t, here is your second chance to stop reading and watch it.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a fascinating piece of art and a trailblazer of sorts in its blending of live-action film and animation. Many people typically cling to Space Jam as this masterpiece of childhood nostalgia, but this movie is my Space Jam. Who Framed Roger Rabbit merged two awesome distinct styles and has everything. Plus, this movie came out in 1988. That’s wild.
The story is compelling and keeps you invested throughout all its twists and turns, which is aided by our two protagonists, Eddie Valiant and Roger Rabbit.
Eddie Valiant is a private detective that used to work with his brother, Teddy, on cases with both humans and Toons (as the cartoon characters are referenced to). This all changed when his brother was killed by a toon, forcing Eddie to go down a spiral and pledge that he will never work with Toons ever again. Roger Rabbit is a cartoon star known for his famous animated shorts, but when we joins the story, it seems like he is starting to lose his edge. If he doesn’t get his act up, he will lose his job and not work in the business again. Valiant and Rabbit cross paths when Rabbit’s boss hires Valiant to take pictures of wife, a suspected distraction of Rabbit. With a fit of rage from Rabbit seeing his wife playing “pattycake” with another man, Roger runs off. The next day, the man is dead and Rabbit is suspect number one. This kicks off the journey of Rabbit trying to prove he was framed, and Valiant reluctantly obliging.
The rest of the movie is a great noir detective story that is highlighted by the colorful world made up of a variety of Toons, both original and famous characters, such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Betty Boop, and more.
The Cast
Private Eye Eddie Valiant is portrayed by the brilliant Bob Hoskins. Hoskins nails the classic noir hero: defensive and reclusive on the surface, layered with pain and genuinely positive emotion. Thanks to his performance, the character of Eddie Valiant has depth, and we can enjoy rooting for this broken man.
Comedian and actor Charles Fleischer turns in a masterful performance as the voice of Roger Rabbit and gives life to this wacky and ridiculous cartoon character. The beauty of a character is it gave Fleischer a vast emotional range to showcase his skills and steal the show. The dynamic between these two is just a joyous thing to watch and never gets old for me.
Christopher Lloyd has a major role as Judge Doom, a very intimidating judge whose mission to capture that suspected murderer Roger Rabbit. Another major character is Jessica Rabbit, a humanoid cartoon married to Roger, is brought to life by actress Kathleen Turner and singer Amy Irving. Jessica Rabbit has made her mark on pop culture as a sex symbol and played an integral part of the narrative.
The Vision
The writing is beautifully done by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, based on the novel “Who Censored Roger Rabbit” by Gary K. Wolf. I would be doing you a disservice by telling you all the specifics so I will try to give you a broad overview. The narrative is littered with mysteries and moments that effectively build tension between the characters and the ultimate goal of solving the case. One of the highlights, which I know I have mentioned multiple times, is the use of the animated characters. They populate the screen with filling in the background or utilizing the spotlight perfectly.
Speaking of the animation, the post-production of this movie took over a year to finish. This was before the CGI and digital animation we enjoy today so making this movie was a challenge for the creative team. Working with the great cinematography of Dean Cundey, the animation team had to work on the actual film of the movie and make sure the characters were where they needed them.
Vice did a great article chronicling the various methods they were forced to come up with for animating the movie, but you can read that here AFTER you have watched the movie, eh.
The Takeaway
I feel like this is very obvious if you actually read this article. I love Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Since it is made in the 80’s, there was one small Native American joke that made me cringe a bit, but otherwise, the movie holds up very, very well. It’s so strange to see the filmmaking achievements of the animation being incorporated with the beautiful noir story.
Final Thought: If you haven’t watched it, watch it. If you have, rewatch it. If you know me, let’s watch it together.
P.S. Unfortunately, there is no website for the movie anymore. Siigh.
Once I heard that Netflix released a horror show called Djinn, specifically one that was done by a Jordanian production, I was ecstatic.
Finally, one of my favorite genres in both film and literature is now is a TV show on Netflix, with actual Arab representation in front of and behind the camera!
I sat anxiously in front of my television, with the lights off (as one does for horror productions), and plowed through the five-episode series only to find myself left with sheer…
Now before continuing, I would like to take a moment to state something that I want to make abundantly clear.
The cast was really awesome. Salma Malhas, Sultan Alkhail, Hamzeh Okab, Aysha Shahaltough, Zaid Zoubi, Ban Halaweh, Yasser Al Hadi, Mohammad Nizar, Mohammad Hindieh, Mohammad Hindieh, Abdelrazzaq Jarkas, Hana Chamoun, Faris Al Bahri, and Manal Sehaimat, all of you were really something special during this show. I felt like I was back home in the Middle East, and the emotions and dialogue that all of you captured is fantastic. I feel that actors in the Middle East don’t quite get a lot of attention (due to our culture’s obsession with musical superstars), and to all of you I say, “chapo ba!” Keep acting and keep kicking ass in what you are doing. It doesn’t go unnoticed.
Ok, back to my train of thought! I plowed through the five-episode series only to find myself left with sheer….and utter disappointment! (See what I did here? Take note on how to build suspense for a moment).
Like seriously, what was going on? It really breaks my heart to write a negative review on an Arab-centric performance but seriously creators – Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya, Elan Dassani, Rajeev Dassani – you really need to understand the genre that you are exploring before making a production based in that genre.
Below, I’m going to list a couple of observations on why this particular show fails at being a good horror production.
First, there is a complete lack of suspense within the basic plot. As I kept going through each episode I was waiting for something to occur that would really resonate or rather scare the shit out of me, but it never occurs.
I felt no empathy for the characters, which is key for the genre, as those moments of pure horror (in this case cheap violence) within Jinn comes underserved.
This is a failure of the writers trying to build up unearned suspenseful moments in the story. Just because these moments occur, it doesn’t mean that those moments will land and have the intended effect on the viewers.
Yes, the characters aren’t moral upstanding students or citizens, but at the same time, there was no real build-up to who those characters are in order for the audience to form some sort of attachment to them. Otherwise, their eventual demise is simply a footnote in the story that doesn’t really provide urgency or build suspense if you will to the unbeknownst viewers.
Second, the production was cheaply put together with no real thought to what was going on. To make this latter point, I would like to state that at least (what felt like) 40% of the shots are B-Roll footage of Petra.
As much as I love archaeological sites, having studied them during my previous graduate careers, I am here to watch a horror show, not a documentary on Petra.
This is disturbing because there are only five episodes in the series and they average between 25-47 minutes long.
This tells the writer in me that there is no focus on developing a solid plot and script, which really should be the driving focus of this show as well as any other production and piece of literature that exist.
Yes the camera they used is top-notch and the shots were beautifully filmed, but you have to keep in mind that every scene in a show or movie, any chapter or panel in books, have to have a purpose as to why it is shown in the first place. Less to no B-roll and more purposeful sequences. Take your time with it and don’t rush.
Furthermore, if the production does not have enough finances to do special effects, then don’t do special effects. What was up with that twisty water thing from the faucet that would occur when the protagonist Jinn, Keras, would show up? Also, do Jinns only show up when people are in the bathroom?
One does not need to have a lot of money to create a scary or suspenseful movie or show. Play on the other senses on the audience, through music, dialogue, lighting, to create spooky effects that will resonate with the viewer throughout the show.
I highly recommend the creators watch horror films by Alfred Hitchcock, who is known for scaring the utter shit out of multiple generations with a very modest budget.
Lastly, the story could have been better. The basic premise of the show Jinn isn’t necessarily a bad one, but the execution of the plot, however, wasn’t great,
For example, there were too many characters involved in the story, especially considering the production limitation of five episodes. Why that was so, I do not know?
Jinn should have focused in on a couple of characters and developed them to make them more relatable to the audience. That way, each character would have a purpose and (internal and external) challenges. With this Jinn would earn those moments that any horror fan anxiously awaits when pressing play.
It pains me to write a scathing review, especially when people from my culture are given the opportunity to be on Netflix or any network.
My wish is to see more productions reaching out to multiple writers and artists from across the globe, Arab or not, and create something that will get people from different cultures to sit down and enjoy the tale.
Instead, I feel that Jinn is another rushed production that uses basic tropes as a way to simply just get something out there. Hopefully, it’s not just a simple cash grab.
P.S.
I read briefly online that government officials wanted the production to stop because of simple kissing scenes? To that, I say, your people, as well as other people around the world, are both doing (and watching) way more inappropriate things than was depicted in this barely PG-13 production. It’s 2019. Grow the fuck up and leave artists be.
Hello and Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome to Weekend Movie Brawls!
Here, we take an in-depth look at films with similar themes or stories and we pit them against each other in a competition based on their merits. For example, it can be two animated films of the same type, two films which take place during a certain time period, two films with similar plots or an original film versus its remake.
The reason we make this a weekend thing is because when else might you have the time and energy to relax and see something you haven’t seen before?
To close out July, we’re going to have the battle to end all battles…it’s Batman v. Superman in a 6-film, no-holds-barred contest!
In this corner…the first three Batmen film…
1) BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1966)
THE PLOT
The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), The Joker (Cesar Romero), Catwoman (Lee Meriwether), and The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) have found a way to take over the world by vaporizing members of the United Nations! But Batman (the late Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) are on the case in this 1966 cult classic. DIrected by Leslie H. Martinson.
2) BATMAN (1989)
THE PLOT
Over 20 years later, director Tim Burton gave us the darker, grittier Dark Knight we became accustomed to seeing in the comics of the time. Batman became the legend Gotham was famous for: a supernatural entity that roamed the city’s rooftops and punished criminals. Here, we see Batman (Michael Keaton) take on his greatest adversary: The Joker (Jack Nicholson). Directed by Tim Burton.
3) BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
THE PLOT
After director Joel Schumacher and writer Akiva Goldsman laid waste to the franchise, Batman was re-booted once again in 2005. Christian Bale took over the role as we finally got the story of Batman’s origins and witness his initial struggles and first major battle against the corruption of Gotham’s officials and the gangsters who pay them off. Directed by Christopher Nolan
…and their opponenets…
1) SUPERMAN (1978)
THE PLOT
Superman’s (Christopher Reeve) origins are covered here, from his birth on Krypton to his childhood with the Kent family in Kansas to his eventual journey and arrival to Metropolis as “Clark Kent”, and not a moment too soon: Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) is plotting the destruction of part of the United States so that he can claim what’s left for his own. Directed by Richard Donner.
2) SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)
THE PLOT
Sharing continuity with the Superman films of the late 70’s and early 80’s, Superman (Brandon Routh) returns to Earth after an extremely long absence to find that, while some things have changed quite a bit, other things have stayed the same: Lois (Kate Bosworth) is married with a child and Lex (Kevin Spacey), free from prison, has decided to wreak havoc on Earth so that he can have a piece of it for himself. Directed by Bryan Singer.
3) MAN OF STEEL (2013)
THE PLOT
In an attempt to compete with Marvel, Warner Brothers scrapped anything else having to do with “Superman Returns” or the Christopher Reeve-led franchise and not only re-launched Superman but an entire “universe” of DC Comic characters. With “Man of Steel”, we get everything we got in the original Superman on steroids, not only chronicling the life of Superman (Henry Cavill), but his mother and father’s struggles on Krypton but Kal-El’s struggle to find his place in the world. Directed by Zack Snyder
SCORING
The scoring in Weekend Movie Brawls is simple. There are five categories: music, casting, writing, production (which includes design, costumes, make-up, etc), and direction. Each of these will be awarded a letter grade, from A to F. As in school, each of these letter grades has a number associated to it. An “A” is worth 4 points, “B” is 3 points, “C” is 2 points, “D” is 1 point and “F” is worth nothing. At the end, the final score will be average total of each of the 5 categories. For instance, if the score at the end of a round is “20”, this will be divided by five, the number of categories, for a final score of “4”.
Seeing how this is a tag team effort this week, each score will simply be added up. The side with the biggest score wins. Plain and simple.
The final scoring will not be revealed until the end of the contest.
In the event of a tie at the end of a brawl, the winner will be decided via a playoff round at a later date.
And, as always, THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS, so if you haven’t seen these films, get out of here while you still can.
If you’re still game for this, read on!
MUSIC
Oscar® nominated composer John Williams conducts a suite from his score for “The Book Thief” during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “The Oscar Concert” on Thursday, February 27, 2014 at Royce Hall in Los Angeles. The Oscars® will be presented on Sunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre® in Hollywood, CA and televised live by the ABC Television Network.
BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1966)
Nelson Riddle did the music for the film as he would do for the series. It’s incidental music with a groovy edge. Neil Hefti did the original “Batman” theme song we’d hear on the show. Riddle’s score sounds less like Batman and more like a spy show in the 60’s, with big band-esque jazzy cues, sleazy sax licks, and swinging melodies. I’d give this sucker a lower grade but I can’t. It’s simply a product of its time which perfectly matches the campy tone of the film and the effort behind it is more than obvious.
BATMAN (1989)
Danny Elfman conducts the score for this film…and it’s phenomenal, perfectly matching the darker mood of Tim Burton’s “Dark Knight” version of the character seen in the later comics. It’s big and bold, playing to the Joker’s hideously jovial outlook on life and death and provides Batman with music that suits him perfectly: mysterious and heroic. It’s gorgeous.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
All Hans Zimmer had to do was reinvent the wheel. He doesn’t QUITE knock it out of the park. It’s different than what Elfman put together — and, really, it needed to be. Zimmer goes electronic and plays it safe, tapping into what he did for Jerry Bruckheimer on “The Rock” with big, heavy drums and synthesizer with percussive orchestral hits. It’s not as gothic and outlandish as Elfman’s score, it’s just more heroic. Still, it’s a great listen.
SUPERMAN (1978)
John Williams’ score for Superman is iconic. The heroic opening horns of the main theme and the lead-up to the main overall theme STILL give me chills and it doesn’t end there. The later cues as he saves Lois from the helicopter, the epic theme as he’s about to leave Kansas for good and his fight against Luthor’s plot at the end are so insanely good, it transcends the character and lifts you up in the most inspiring manner possible. It’s bright and heroic, which plays in perfect juxtaposition with Danny Elfman’s darker, but no less heroic, “Batman” score.
SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)
Composer John Ottman had the unenviable task of doing what John Williams did. He does a fine job imitating John Williams’ famous opening theme but the rest of the score is missing the epic edge Williams unleashed on moviegoers all those years ago. Ottman puts some ethereal elements into his score and some of it works, but most of it is a fairly unmemorable action score.
MAN OF STEEL (2013)
Once again, Hans Zimmer took the helm for “Man of Steel” — and gives us a score that is beautiful and epic in all the right places. Yes, he goes electronic and that’s evident during the scenes where Jor-El attempts to save his son from the destruction of Krypton in the opening scenes as well as the segment where Superman learns how to fly. It’s NOT John Williams, but it’s definitely more original and memorable than what Ottman did seven years prior. The score is worth it alone for the track “What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World?”, which ran during the film’s second trailer. It’s just as inspiring as John Williams’ original Superman Theme, giving me goosebumps each time I hear it. The rest of the score suits the action. It’s heavy and loud, but still a good listen.
CASTING
Jack Nicholson as “The Joker” in 1989’s “Batman”.
BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1966)
Say what you will: the principles in this movie are well-casted. Adam West and Burt Ward play Batman and Robin with conviction while Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, Lee Meriwether, and Caesar Romero have a hell of a time playing The Riddler, The Penguin, Catwoman, and The Joker, respectively. They fit within the early comic book models beautifully.
BATMAN (1989)
Jack Nicholson plays “The Joker”…and he’s brilliant. Playing the darker version with the same over-the-top and sadistic manner we see in the comics, he’s the best part of the film, almost overshadowing just about everyone else. Burton casts Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne…and he’s fine, but he doesn’t quite completely fit the role simply because he doesn’t really look the part of the famous billionaire playboy that Bruce Wayne is. Kim Basinger rounds out the cast as Vicky Vale and she’s here solely as a love interest for Wayne. She’s wussy and uninteresting and blah. Pat Hingle plays Commissioner Gordon and this works even though he’s more of the ’66 Batman type while Robert Wuhl is also here, for some reason, as Vale’s partner, Alexander Knox. Michael Gough makes for a perfect Alfred. It’s decent casting.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
The film’s casting is impeccable. Christian Bale takes over as Batman/Bruce Wayne and he’s brilliant, not only pulling off the part of Batman as a dark, mean protector of the streets of Gotham but, also, the character of Bruce Wayne, which is is HUGE considering that the first portion of the film is about Wayne’s life before he took up the mantle of The Batman. As Wayne, he’s handsome, debonair, and perfectly cocky. The best Batman there has ever been (including the films Ben Affleck was in). I say that with no shame. And that’s not all. The film has Cillian Murphy playing Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow, Michael Caine as Alfred, Liam Neeson as R’as al Ghul, Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon. Katie Holmes is the weak point in the cast and was thankfully replaced by Maggie Gyllenhall in the sequel to the film. Holmes plays Rachel Dawes as a squeaky, one-note Assistant D.A. who, once again, serves as a love interest for Bruce Wayne who clearly doesn’t have time for that sorta thing. The cast also has Morgan Freeman and the late Rutger Hauer just in case you didn’t think that was enough and both are fantastic.
SUPERMAN (1978)
The late Christopher Reeve plays Superman/Clark Kent and I think it’s safe to say that every single actor who played the role after that was modeled after him. He looks the part and is completely confident in the role. When he’s Kent, the transformation to wimpy, mild-mannered dweeb is uncanny. Gene Hackman does a fine job as Lex Luthor despite the fact that he’s inexplicably paired with two bumbling sidekicks in Ned Beatty and Valerie Perrine. I don’t know why it’s so difficult for producers to cast an imposing bald due to play Luthor, but here we are. The late Margot Kidder plays Lois Lane who is tough as nails, just like her comic book ocunterpart, but melts like butter whenever she sees Superman. Marlon Brando, who is in the film for about five minutes, somehow got top billing over everyone else in the movie.
SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)
Brandon Routh plays Superman/Kent here. He looks and sounds like Reeve and you can tell that’s what they were going for. He just doesn’t quite fit the part completely and, at times, looks like an 18-year-old wearing Superman’s costume. Kate Bosworth is Lois Lane and…no. Gone is the tough-as-nails Lois we saw in the film, replaced by a soft-spoken mother type. Kevin Spacey steals the show as Lex Luthor, ditching the campy characteristics of Hackman’s take and embracing the darker, more sinister, arrogant side of the Luthor in the comics. It also helps that he’s bald and remains so throughout the film.
MAN OF STEEL (2013)
Henry Cavill is Superman here. We don’t see him as Clark Kent until the very end of the film but in the seconds we do see him as Kent, it works beautifully. Cavill plays Superman as a bit of a tortured soul. He’s an alien on Earth and despite growing up with wholesome values taught to him by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner & Diane Lane), he still suffers through childhood because he can’t control his powers and feels the need to do good things for people, despite the complete lack of appreciation and acceptance at first. It’s a beautiful characterization, one which reminds me of the “Birthright” stories in the comics. No Lex this time around. Zod is the main villain played with angry ferocity by the great Michael Shannon, who plays Zod with pure evil running through his veins. He makes you HATE Zod with every fiber of your being. Amy Adams is Lois Lane here and, thankfully, some of the toughness returns to the character. It’s nice to see this side of Lois again. Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer play Superman’s Kryptonian parents Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van and they’re also outstanding in the brief time they’re given.
WRITING
David S. Goyer (left) and Christopher Nolan (right) of “Batman Begins”.
BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1966)
Pure junk from Lorenzo Semple, Jr. Yes, I know we gave high marks to the casting and the music, but this is definitely a weak point. It’s a plot about Batman and Robin trying to stop the main villains from turning members of the United Nations to dust in order to throw the world into chaos. It’s beyond silly.
BATMAN (1989)
Writers Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren have a dozen writing credits between the two of them. The script for “Batman” isn’t the greatest thing ever read. The plot and tone could be construed as campy — but it’s campy in a dark way. After Batman’s legend grows, The Joker attempts to tamper with Gotham’s toiletries, mixing in deadly chemicals with toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoos and soaps in the city. When Batman cracks it, The Joker becomes annoyed with him and starts to play head games with him which leads to a deadly tit-for-tat between the two. It’s entertaining, to say the least and it’s great to see the final confrontation between the hero and the villain if only The Joker wasn’t the only thing driving the film.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
This is the epic Batman script Hollywood didn’t know they were looking for. David S, Goyer is one of those writers who is ALWAYS on the cusp of greatness. He wrote all three “Blade” films (the first two are great) and then he’ll turn around do something like “The Crow: City of Angels” and you look at him like, “really?” He has an assist here from director Chris Nolan and the two write a beautiful story about the life of a young Bruce Wayne as he grows up to see his family murdered in front of him in an alley in Gotham City, which drives him to become Gotham’s savior. The film is reminiscent of Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One” without the stylish dialogue — though the film doesn’t really need that and goes for an all-out spectacle. It has some great lines and set pieces and moments where you’re cheering. This is the best of three scripts.
SUPERMAN
The script features the epic origins of Clark Kent and his arrival in Metropolis doing good for the people of the city. That part is great. But Lex Luthor’s plot of utilizing ICBM’s to trigger an apocalyptic earthquake on the San Andreas Fault is ridiculous as it sounds, even for Lex Luthor, but that’s what we get here. That isn’t even the worst part of it. The main problem with this is the lame solution (Superman literally reverses time by making the planet spin backwards) which is so outrageously stupid and also negates the point Luthor attempts to prove: that, even with all his powers, Superman is fallible and imperfect. It could have used a darker ending but it’s clear the filmmakers didn’t want viewers leaving with severe depression. Still, it’s mostly entertaining.
SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)
Superman goes off to “find out if Krypton really exploded and died”. That’s the expository set-up for the film, literally spewed on the screen to fill us in on what’s happened since we saw Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, just in case you forgot about that film. Strike one. Luthor’s plot is to use radioactive shards of Kryptonite to grow some sort of island where he can thrive. This makes no sense whatsoever. Strike two. Superman basically gives Lois a kid and leaves, like a deadbeat dad. Strike three. Everything else seen is in homage to the first film. Superman actually repeats the line about airline safety to Lois after he comes back and lands her plane. I have zero idea what Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris were thinking when they wrote this garbage but Bryan Singer thought they’d be perfect since they wrote for him on X-Men 2, so…
MAN OF STEEL (2013)
The script for Man of Steel plays everything straight. Not a lot of camp to be had and, sometimes, there’s a lack of fun and a feeling that this is all mechanical. David Goyer (who wrote “Batman Begins”) wrote this and it’s not bad. It’s definitely the most solid of the three Superman scripts here. Superman is humanized and the story is well-told. There aren’t many memorable lines to be had but definitely some memorable moment.s
PRODUCTION
BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1966)
It’s a beautiful production, full of colorful, intricate sets and villains to match. The fight scenes are still a riot to this day with “BAM!” and “SOCK!” splashed on the screen whenever Batman and Robin’s fists and feet make contact with henchmen and different villains. It’s just a fun time, all told, as campy as it is.
BATMAN (1989)
This is a hell of a production. Burton takes the big, bright Gotham we see in 1966 and re-makes it into the gothic hellscape we know from the comics with aged, weather-beaten stone seen on old City Halls and churches. There are towers and gargoyles and trash and steam that spew forth. It’s all shot in color, but the city has elements of noir to match the darker tone of the later comics. The costume design sees Batman in a version of his older grey suit, this time covered in all black with yellow tinge added to his belt and chest logo. The Joker’s costume design is the color Gotham is missing with deep purples, blues and greens. The film is a big, epic production with a nice script and great music. Nicely done.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
The movie (and the second film in the series) was filmed in Chicago, so the wide, distant shots of the city don’t feel as gothic as they should, but this is made up for by soundstage production and CGI elements, plus a brownish-yellow color pallet. Regardless, it’s the overall package and “Batman Begins” is a near-perfect film with an epic script, great characters, excellent music and breathtaking moments.
SUPERMAN (1978)
The entire film screams “EPIC” from the music to the cinematography. Despite a script that gets silly toward the end, 1978’s “Superman” is a journey for the viewer and delivers a hero everyone can get behind. If I had my way, I’d take the plot of “Superman II” and make that the first film, but nobody’s perfect.
SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)
The movie goes for the gusto with the same epic feeling the 1978 original would strive for. Unfortunately, “Superman Returns”, for all its pageantry and attempts at greatness, feels like a cheap imitation of the Reeve films. Yes, there are exciting moments like the plane rescue near the beginning and Superman flying around like a madman trying to stop the destruction of Metropolis at the hands of Luthor is great…but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. It’s just updated. Plus, the plot makes no sense and neither do some of the smaller plot points (Superman was able to fly around and save everyone with shards of Kryptonite still in him; Superman is able to lift a Kryptonite island into space despite the fact that it’s LITERALLY MADE OF EXPOSED KRYPTONITE; WHY is Superman seeing if Krypton still exists if it blew up already?! WHY???) and the actors are so-so, with the exception of Kevin Spacey.
MAN OF STEEL (2013)
It’s epic. What else can I say. From the moments on Krypton to the scenes of a young Clark Kent as he grows up and establishes his legend, to the first moment he takes flight, to the moment where he proves his worth by defending Earth from Zod and his minions. Just about everything here is beautifully executed — even if gets dark and gritty and loud and into Michael Bay territory with the sheer number and level of explosions we witness. The thing is…if you’ve ever read an epic Superman comic book where the Earth needs saving (“Doomsday”, for instance), then there’s nothing to complain about. Things occasionally get wrecked. It’s not the version of Superman we’re used to but I love the fact that he’s an alien who just wants to be accepted. It’s a great proudction.
DIRECTION
BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1966)
It’s basically a long version of the TV show, directed by Leslie H. Martinson, who does what he can with great actors reading an awful script. It’s the same style we’d see in the TV show and it has some style but it’s not great. More for nostalgia than anything else.
BATMAN (1989)
Tim Burton’s direction is always going to be interesting. His dark, gothic style is perfectly suited for the Caped Crusader and his style and choice cinematography is outstanding. Everything looks great.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
Chris Nolan can seemingly do no wrong. He brings us a Batman picture which not only met the bar set by Tim Burton, it raised it. Nolan’s style and penchant for almost sterile realism works beautifully on this film and it helps that he has the script and cast to match. With this film, Nolan brought Batman back to life after Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman nearly destroyed it.
SUPERMAN (1978)
Richard Donner does a fantastic job of directing a film which, aside from “Lethal Weapon”, I don’t think he ever topped when it came to that cinematic epic most directors hope to make. He makes you believe Superman can fly and brings a pop culture icon to life.
SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)
Bryan Singer directed “The Usual Suspects” and a few of the “X-Men” films and he was great at that first one and the first two X-Men movies. To say that “Superman Returns” was a massive disappointment is an understatement. It barely made back its baffling sky-high budget and ensured that a sequel would be too risky for the studio unless changes were made. Singer’s direction isn’t horrible, it’s just not great. He’s better in the dark, exploring the psyches of flawed heroes rather than making this overbudget nonsense. None of this feels like him and there’s no style to it.
MAN OF STEEL
Let me preface this: I hate Zack Snyder with the heat of a million suns. He directed a slick, caffeinated remake of the classic “Dawn of the Dead”, went on to direct “300” which, while pretty to look at, was a mess of a film, shot mostly in slow-motion which made the whole movie feel like you were underwater with the actors. He followed that with the unwatchable “Watchmen”, one of the few films I EVER wanted to walk out of and the god-awful CGI children’s film “Legends of the Guardian” about owls fighting for supremacy. Yep. You heard me. Then he did “Sucker Punch”, a misogynist fantasy about women who try to forget about rape and other dehumanizing acts by imagining that they’re battling dragons and robots and crap while that’s going on. There are people who defend this movie rabidly. There’s a guy on IMDB who actually titled his review (and I quote), “Just like Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut'”. No. No, it isn’t at all “like” “Eyes Wide Shut”. They’re not even in the same league or ballpark or UNIVERSE. When he was selected to direct “Man of Steel”…I finally gave him a shot…and this is my favorite Snyder film. Right before he shit all over all that goodwill by producing the awful “Batman v. Superman” and the equally awful “Justice League”. Here, Snyder does an outstanding job, applying his gritty style and slow-motion to a film which really needs it. “Man of Steel” is an epic, but it also wrings emotion from the audience, exhausting them with a lengthy final battle between Superman and Zod before Superman learns one of the hardest lessons of his life in killing Zod in order to stop him. It’s the ending the original “Superman” didn’t have the guts to push on its audience. It’s gutsy in that Superman isn’t supposed to kill — yet it works because it’s the moment where he finally learns what it is to be human and make decisions that aren’t desirable.
THE WINNER
SCORING
Music
Casting
Writing
Production
Direction
Totals
Batman ’66
3
4
1
3
2
13
Batman ’89
4
3
3
4
4
18
Batman ’05
3
4
4
4
4
19
Supes ’78
4
4
3
3
4
18
Supes ’06
2
2
1
2
2
9
Supes ’13
3
4
3
4
4
18
Batman
50
Superman
45
POST-GAME THOUGHTS
It was a big battle between two of the biggest comic book icons the world has ever known. Each side had their underdog, each side had their film that hit for average, and each side had its power hitter. In the end, the Batman films triumph over Superman as “Superman Returns” ultimately became the Superman films’ Kryptonite while the charm of 1966’s “Batman” proved to be the best of the two underdogs.
NEXT WEEK: It’s a hot, sticky summer…perfect time to see “Gone in 60 Seconds” do battle with…the original “Gone in Sixty Seconds”…
Season 3 Episode 20 of Young Justice has a major character coming out of the closet following a positive trend in this season’s portrayal of LGBTQ characters. It also delves into some very messed up family issues.
One of the best things about Young Justice is its commitment to the season-long story arc. This season has seen the Young Justice Outsiders team form both out of necessity to hide from government bureaucracy (mostly pushed by Lex Luthor), but also, to serve as a social media-driven voice to stand for what’s right in the public eye, especially about meta-human rights (via Beast Boy and the #WeAreAllOutsiders movement).
This episode is especially interesting in that you partially see a bit of the fallout from Batman’s choices in the last episode, where Kaldur deals with feelings of betrayal within the story’s B-plot. Accentuating this feeling of failed parenting, are also separate storylines involving the three queer characters (Violet, Harper, and Kaldur) of the show, along with a Cyborg driven main plot.
Victor, Frankenstein
To begin, Victor gets a phone call from his father, who desperately wants to speak with him again. Victor rejects him, as he ignored Victor throughout his entire life. Shortly after, Victor starts to collapse, and when he’s found by Forager, it’s revealed that the Father box that made him part machine is taking over his body.
To help, Conner brings Dreamer of the forever people from New Genesis in order to examine Victor. With her Motherbox’s diagnosis, she discovers Victor’s only hope is to put him into the chair of Metron, the New God responsible for much of the boom tube technology including the Father Boxes.
With Dreamer’s quick guidance, Conner leads a team of Black Lightning and Forager to Metron, where they arrive at the Source Wall.
Shortly after they leave, Silas Stone arrives to see his son Victor. This angers Victor immensely, aggravating him to undergo more Father Box transformations. With his and everyone else’s permission, Silas offers to put Victor into a coma to help slow down the infection process.
Meanwhile, Conner’s Young Justice team chases after Metron through a boom tube, where they arrive at a new location and find parademons in a battle with Superman. Together, the two supermen stop the raiding parademons, though Darkseid’s forces were able to get away with some rare minerals. Conner asks Superman to be his best man at his wedding, to which the man of steel agrees (though is utterly surprised). Forager asks Metron to return to Earth to see Victor and the New God agrees.
The boys return with the New God, Metron; however, he reveals that he’s only there to watch Victor die and study how a box can override a human. Unable to accept this, Black Lightning attacks Metron with Superboy, as Brion gets Victor into Metron’s chair, effectively purging Father Box from Cyborg, though it’s still unable to fully cure him.
With the conflict resolved Metron leaves though Black Lightning asks him if Granny is the same as Gretchen Goode, to which he replies both no and yes.
Finally, Cyborg hugs his dad goodbye and thanks him for the help.
Violet says goodbye for Gabrielle
Meanwhile, the Outsiders discover that the Violet Harper (Halo) has run away. Terra tells Artemis that she and Brion had taken the news of Gabrielle’s role in their parent’s assassination negatively, and so Artemis decides to find Violet herself. Terra tags along due to feelings of guilt, as Gabrielle and Violet should be considered different people despite having the same body.
At Dhabar, Violet returns to Gabrielle’s family, explaining her full story and apologizing for taking Gabrielle’s body as her own (Violet is a combination of Gabrielle and a Motherbox’s spirit). She feels the need to tell them the truth: that the real Gabrielle had died.
Upset, Gabrielle’s father condemns Violet for possessing his dead daughter’s body. Though Gabrielle’s mother is relieved and thanks Violet for the bittersweet closure.
Afterward, Violet returns home and is embraced by the Outsiders team, who are all thankful that she’s returned. Afterward, Terra informs Slade (Whom she’s secretly spying on the team for) that there is nothing to report — showcasing that the girl my be switching over to the side of good.
Megan acts as Counselor to Harper
Megan speaks with Harper Row about Violet, who has evidentially run away. Though the two shared an intimate moment it seems Harper is brushing it away like everything else in her life.
Megan talks to Harper about her brother, Cullen, who had shown up to school with a black eye. She’s especially concerned about how she caught Harper with alcohol and a gun in school and offers to try and help the girl.
Putting the clues together, Megan notices that it was around the time Harper wasn’t around when her brother had gotten that Black Eye. Again, she offers help and this time, Harper accepts.
They reveal that Harper and her brother have been repeatedly abused by their father.
Kaldur Comes Out as Queer
Kaldur talks with a trapped meta-teen girl, whose special gills prevent her from living on land. He takes her back to Atlantis to live out a life with his family, and she thanks him, though asks him what is wrong.
Though it’s subtle, it’s evident that Kaldur is evidently upset over last week’s events, as he discovered that Batman was using him and his team as a involuntary distractions, in order to use his separately secret batman-team to sabotage Lex Luthor. Both the meta-teen girl and Aquaman himself, reassure Kaldur with their confidence in his resolve.
Later, after coming to terms that he’s still a good person despite all the moral grey areas of his story the last two seasons, we see Kaldur share a kiss with Wyynde, a former enemy turned close friend and perhaps something even more. Though he’s definitely queer It is unsure whether Kaldur is gay or bisexual, given his affections for Tula, an Atlantean woman who ended up choosing his best friend over him in season one.
Final Thoughts
As a final note, I’ll be reviewing/recapping the remaining episodes of Young Justice Season 3 (also called Young Justice: Outsiders), whose second half of the season began premiering July 2nd.
If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend the series as it’s been a marvel in both its animation, but also in its fearless approach to storytelling. With powerful themes of standing up to authoritative administrations, fighting for human civil rights, and brokering peace not through lies and skeevy manipulations (Like Batman this season) but by coming out in the open and supporting one another with a brave face about what’s right (Like Beastboy and the #WeAreAllOutsiders movement).
With only six episodes remaining and a season 4 that’s already been confirmed, it’ll be exciting to cover this animated series which has very much adapted over time.
The fourth season of Veronica Mars does an excellent job balancing a new intriguing story while respecting the elements that made the series a fan favorite.
“A long time ago, we used to be friends, but I haven’t thought of you lately at all”
The iconic first lines of the Veronica Mars theme song accurately represented my reaction when I heard they were doing a revival for Veronica Mars. I remember back in college binging the show at the recommendation of a friend and falling in love with the teen-noir show (which originally aired from 2004-2007). The writing was solid, and the show was an enjoyable run for three seasons. Then, the Kickstarter film, released in 2014, was a lot of fun and seemed like a fan-service end to the series. So when I hired off the revival series coming in 2019, I was surprised but slightly intrigued.
Finally, I sat down one day and decided to watch the first episode. Then, the next. Then, the next. I couldn’t stop, hot damn.
Geez, man. This is how television should be done. The revival season of Veronica Mars is only eight episodes long, and it acts as a masterclass on how to write a concise narrative with twists and turns.
Five years after the events of the movie (and 12 years after the end of the show), Veronica, played by Kristen Bell, is back in her hometown of Neptune, California. A lot of it feels the same: working with her dad solving cases, annoyed by the ongoing events of Neptune, and living in a self-imposed isolation. The thing that has changed is that she is living on her own, and Neptune is dealing with Spring Break. Everyone that lives there hates the incoming people vacationing, and they all have their different ways of dealing with it. Unfortunately for Veronica, someone sets off a bomb, killing four people and sparking a case involving a serial killer and the lives of everyone around her.
The Cast
With the limited number of episodes, not everyone that has graced the screen in Veronica Mars could make an appearance. Yet, the people that were brought in put in their best efforts to make Neptune feel whole again.
Kristen Bell obviously puts in a phenomenal performance as Veronica, and the season did a great job letting her explore her emotional range as an actor. Enrico Colantoni returns as Keith Mars and is a joy to watch as he deals with the impact of his career and all the events he’s experienced.
Other regulars were given their moments to shine and stand out. Jason Dohring comes back with a Logan that has grown and trying to keep progressing. Francias Capra, who plays Weevil, is given some intense emotional scenes opposite Bell. Though he tries, it is difficult to match intensity with Bell in the scene.
Also, two new big name additions to the cast brought solid performances to the show and gave the revival a breath of fresh air: JK Simmons and Patton Oswalt. Two favorites of mine brought their acting chops to a show I love.
The Vision
The season really embraces its noir roots: a flawed but compelling lead and a case that seems almost impossible to crack with twists and turns. The case, in particular, requires her to give here all to solve it but doesn’t give it all back to her. It also accomplishes something interesting, at least in my perspective as a viewer. Naturally, I’m a fan of Veronica, but the season started off with me almost not liking her; it took me the working of the season to get back on her side, and I loved that. The show does not rest on its former laurels
Beyond Veronica, the writers make an effort to flush out the other characters and present them in a fascinating light. The place where a Logan or a Wallace is in follows a logical continuation of where we left off with the characters. I also want to point out that a very peculiar name joined the Veronica Mars writing team: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Yes, the former basketball player and author joins the writing team. Definitely took me by surprise and double take while the credits rolled on the first episode.
The Takeaway
The revival is an amazing watch, and it was a great treat in a time where streaming services are so saturated with content. I’m torn between wanting more and being satisfied with the hard work the Mars team put in to this project.
One thing I’ve always appreciated about these series is that the beautiful, sunny Southern California background is a perfect contrast to the dark elements of the Noir storytelling.
Final thought – If you are a fan of Veronica Mars, the revival is a perfect gift for you in 2019. If you haven’t seen the show, I strongly, strongly suggest you take some time and watch the series from start to finish. It’s all on Hulu, and you will not be disappointed!
P.S. I know this is not a movie entry, but I did not find a fun website for Veronica Mars. Oh well!
Dale Highland has deadly secret, one she’s been running from since the age of seventeen. Ten years as a fugitive has made her highly skilled in disappearing, but she’s also lived her life alone and detached from people. Unbeknownst to Dale a supernatural hunter is on her trail and meeting him will bring her face to face with her past and the truth of her origins.
A paranormal fantasy, The Demon Within is a richly crafted story of angels and demons with tons of high-octane action and unexpected twists. Dale’s story starts soon after she wakes up from a blackout and finds a dead body nearby. While she attempts to contain her panic, we soon discover that this has happened to her before. In fact, her first murder was the reason why she ran away from home as a teenager. Dale didn’t understand why this kept happening, only that she didn’t know how to stop it.
Her journey to discover has past wasn’t something she was looking for initially. Throughout most of the story Dale is in survival mode until she meets John Goodwin, a half angel hunter who has been looking for her for a very long time. She is inexplicably drawn to him and through some unforeseen circumstances learns that he is more than human while she is part demon. I’m a big fan of The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices series by Cassandra Clare and so I was immediately intrigued by author Beth Woodward’s take on the angels versus demons narrative.
John is a part of an angelic paramilitary group called the Thrones. In Christianity, the Thrones are the third highest class within the angelic hierarchy with only the Cherubim and Seraphim ahead of them. In Woodward’s world, the angels had fallen from Heaven eons ago and a great civil war occurred causing the group to fracture and factions to develop. Through John, Dale finds out not only does she have demonic blood, but her mother is one of the most powerful demons in existence. On the run from the Thrones who seek to kill her, she must find a way to control the gifts she’s inherited while trying to stay alive and determine whom she can and can’t trust.
I genuinely enjoyed reading The Demon Within and was rooting for Dale to figure out how to manage her powers and learn more about her origins. She is a well-rounded character with both strengths and weaknesses, but she genuinely wanted to help people despite the circumstances she finds herself in. Her relationship to John is interesting as well because at first it seemed fairly predictable with the mysterious handsome stranger who suddenly pops into the heroine’s life. Without spoiling too much however there is an unexpected change that occurs and it completely took me by surprise in the best way possible. I love complicated storylines where you don’t clearly know who the villains or the heroes are and the world is painted in shades of gray.
Woodward does a terrific job in bringing her readers into the story. From Dale’s life in New York, to a temporary stop at an amusement park, and eventually returning to her childhood home in Pennsylvania, audiences are treated to the sights and sounds of each location. Apart from scene setting, there were also lots of interesting details that contributed to Woodward’s supernatural world. One of my favorites were the introduction of fractal bullets, which are a nasty work of weaponry. One of the characters gets hit with this ammunition and the results are incredibly unpleasant.
The author also has a way with drama and action. Dale’s life up to this point has been trying to survive with bouts of unexplainable violence when she is thrust into a chaotic world that she doesn’t understand. Eventually though things begin to make sense and she has to cope with who and what she is. Woodward’s pacing was well done and while there are lots of adrenaline pumping scenes, Dale also had moments of calm in order to process her new environment as she meets varied characters along the way.
The Demon Within is the first of the Dale Highland series with Embracing the Demon as the sequel. For lovers of paranormal fiction this book will surely be riveting.
We had a chance to sit down with the author and all things demons and angels.
The Workprint: I am a big fan of angel and demon storylines and was instantly drawn into this narrative, what inspired you to focus on these two supernatural creatures?
Woodward: I really like playing with the ideas of what’s “bad” and what’s “good.” In most stories, demons are the bad guys. But who decides that? What makes them “bad” exactly? What makes angels “good?” I tend to be skeptical of conventional wisdom, so I really liked the idea of a story that challenged these norms.
The Workprint: What was your process in world building for this story?
Woodward: As I started getting into the project, I knew I wanted my angels and demons to be disconnected from whatever happens after this world. Is there a god? Is there a heaven and hell? They don’t know any more than we do. They’ve been at war for millennia, but very few people remember exactly why. So I had to think about the toll that would take on the older angels and demons—and about how that would affect the worldview of the younger ones who were born into this conflict.
I have to give Robert Peterson, my editor, a lot of credit with helping to push me to expand this world beyond what I had originally imagined, both in its mythology and in its scenes. He was constantly pushing me to invent new places and gadgets and scenes, and to make them as interesting as possible.
The Workprint: Dale’s journey to understand and accept her past was a key aspect in the character’s development. It seemed that a lot of characters were dealing with their pasts in one way or another (Isaac, John, Amara) – what do you hope that readers will takeaway relating to this theme after reading The Demon Within?
Woodward: Everyone is shaped by their pasts. It’s inevitable. But you have a choice in how you let that influence you, and what kinds of choices you make because of it. A lot of my characters make really bad choices because of their pasts. They are terrible role models
The Workprint: Towards the end of the story we discover a very important detail about John’s past that is total a game changer. Was that something you had always planned while you were writing his character?
Woodward: Oh man…how much can I say here without getting spoilery? The gist of it is, yes, it was planned. Some of the details got changed during my writing process, but I knew the general direction very early on.
The Workprint: Amara was also another fascinating character and I would love to know more about her! Are there any interesting details you could share that weren’t in the book?
Woodward: Amara is thousands of years old. Angels and demons arrived on Earth very early in humanity’s existence, and she’s been kicking around since then. I think, once upon a time, Amara would have been a lot more impetuous than she is in The Demon Within, and probably a lot more hedonistic and fun. But she’s shaped by tragedy, and was driven by anger and vengeance for a lot of years. By the time you meet her in The Demon Within, the years have taken their toll. She’s had a lot of time to think about the things she’s done, and she has a lot of regrets.
The Workprint: What were the most difficult and the most fun scenes to write?
Woodward: The most difficult were the middle scenes in the book with Isaac at Funland Amusement Park. I pretty much gutted and rewrote the middle of the book twice, and I just could not figure out how to keep the amusement part scenes from being draggy. I thought about killing the sequence altogether. But I think it worked out well in the end, and Isaac ended up being one of my favorite characters in the story. (The character wasn’t even in the first draft, but I love him so much. The evolution of that character was really one of my favorite parts of writing the story.)
The most fun scene to write, easily, was the scene down in the abandoned City Hall Subway Station. First of all, I really love abandoned places, and some of those old New York subway stations are beautiful, so I loved doing the digging to find pictures of what it looks like now. I even rode the 6 train around the loop at the downtown end of the line to see it through the window when I was visiting the city. (Do this, if you have a chance, because it’s awesome.) Plus, I got to write about cool things like jumping off of subway cars and being flayed by mechanical spiders. It was awesome!
The Workprint: Lastly I read that you are a fellow Doctor Who fan! Who would you say is your Doctor?
Woodward: The 10th Doctor or the 12th Doctor. David Tennant is definitely cuter, and he’d be the one more likely to inspire me to run through time and space in a phone box, but Capaldi broke my heart so many times with his performance. He really grew into that character and made it his own.
Thank you for the chat Beth! I am now itching to read Embracing the Demon.
You still have a chance at The Nerd Girl Books Blog giveaway! Check out details below to win one of the books.
Along with the tour is also a special Nerd Girl Book Giveaway where you can enter to win a free copy one of the books above. Clicking the link or select below. Ends after July 31st.
FOLLOW ALONG
We’ll be covering the Book Tour from July 28-30th, but you can also catch-up and follow along Nerd Girl Books on twitter to read other reviews as well. Schedule below.
Thom Yorke, the acclaimed Radiohead lead singer, starred in this beautiful short film shot by academy nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson. Which coincided with Yorke’s album release late last month.
When people first caught wind of Anima Technologies, it looked a strange viral advertisement for the newest season of black mirror. As billboards littered London, and periodicals and news ads in both the US and Milan, all pitched this strange looking device: a camera which could help you remember your dreams.
A device that allowed you to capture that surrealist part of the unconscious.
Though like any good skeptic in the digital age, most people saw it as a cautionary red flag. Especially when someone called in the number on the ad which went straight to voicemail saying that the center was defunct. Whatever was happening… was over.
Which is why it was surprising that this was the first ad for Thom Yorke’s third solo album, ANIMA, which debuted on June 27th.
Being no stranger to digital gimmicks though out the years, Radiohead were pioneers in digital music-making and distribution since the popularization of the internet. ‘Kid A’ released back in 2000, was one of the first albums marketed entirely online. ‘In Rainbows’, back in 2007, was released with a pay as you want model which made more off digital sales than the rest of the Radiohead albums combined.
Which is why it’s strange that a lot of this album was the result of Thom Yorke’s anxiety and fear of over technological dependence; its perversion over the art of being human and transience. It’s a theme that the singer has dealt with for years, creating cultural gems about the subject like ‘Paranoid Android’ and ‘Weird Fishes’.
In fact, you’ve more than likely heard Radiohead on television as of late. Their ‘Exit Music for a Film’ you’ve likely heard in Umbrella Academy, Black Mirror, or even this Westworld Gem right here.
Having dealt with the subject for years, over time, Yorke’s developed quite a signature style creating music that is looped with electronic rhythms of melancholy about the futility of life, yet also surprisingly, dance motivated in life’s celebration — all driven by Yorke’s haunting falsetto voice. With spasmodic lyrics that are based on artistic imagery and a vocabulary that embraces clichés, intentionally written to simulate a mind being consumed by meaningless data.
Anima, symbolized through Jungian symbology, is above all else manifested anxiety in haunting reverberating pulses; via a synthesis of art and music. Anima is Yorke’s attempt at understanding life through explorations into the unconscious dream.
Anima
The short opens with Yorke and travelers on a train, where they dance a tired dance of mundane workers, the world continuing on its hopeless mechanical ways, as Yorke glances at a woman in the distance (Dajana Roncione, Yorke’s real-life girlfriend). She leaves behind a parcel and Yorke, breaks the mold of the mundane in order to return it to her — this all being told through music and dance.
After some dimension altering scenes, including a poetic take on inner frustration, external judgment, and shadows, he and Ronicone’s character finally meet and the two artfully dance in a dream sequence and embrace in a strangely sentimental way, conveying the idea that love conquers all darkness.
Now I’ll be honest, Anima seems more like a strange music video to most. Though it would be a disservice to only consider it only so For one, it’s one of many short films Netflix has begun to foray into artistically within the past several years. But more than anything, it’s also got some fantastic dance choreography and is an emotional story about finding love in an unkind world.
It also has some great lighting and is sort of Yorke seen in a distance, judging himself for the camera to capture, so if you like his work, you’ll enjoy Anima. Though I’ll admit it’s definitely more art than story.
Part steampunk, part historical fantasy, sprinkle in adventure, grit, and colorful characters, The Tombs tells the story of sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl who desperately wants the life she once led before her mother was mysteriously taken into a malevolent asylum filled with secrets.
The world author Deborah Schaumberg creates is dark, intense, and gritty, but it’s also rich with history and intrigue. When we first meet Avery, she had just tried to see an old friend but was rebuffed and the cold reality of her life is made abundantly clear. She then makes her way to The Works, an iron factory where she labors a welder. It’s important to note that she’s the only female welder in employment. Avery learned her skills from her father who was a mechanical whiz, but he tended to drink more than he worked after her mother was kidnapped. She endures long hours in terrible conditions with little pay in order to keep her family afloat. Trouble starts however after an accident at the factory that causes a big explosion. Avery thinks she is responsible after beginning to exhibit the same signs of madness her mother had. Except it isn’t hallucinations but a burgeoning psychic gift, the ability to read people’s auras and see their memories.
The journey Avery takes of self-discovery is not an easy one as she struggles to understand the changes she is experiencing. She takes a big risk by going to the Tombs by herself in order to see her mother and ask about the visions she started seeing. She now suspects that the older woman wasn’t mad after all. The visit does not turn out well when her true identity is discovered by the evil Dr. Specter who runs the facility. While Avery manages to escape with the help of her best friend Khan, the men in the crow masks begin to hunt her down and she is forced to hide to keep both herself and her father safe. Luckily however, she was able to see her mother briefly before fleeing the asylum and is told to seek Niko at the Gypsy camp.
Avery turns out to be a healer of a kind and she embarks on voyage to learn more about her abilities and discover the truth about her mother and why she was taken to The Tombs. Along the way we meet a host of interesting characters such as Khan, a long time companion who clearly feels more for her, Katalina the fiesty knife throwing Romani, Geeno the weld rat with an affinity for insects and machines, shy and timid Hurricane, and Indigo, Katalina’s brother who has strong talents of his own. As far as foes, Schaumberg gives some dimension to the villains through Avery’s gift, allowing readers to get an idea of how these men became who they are. For instance, a surly Tombs guard we meet early on seemed threatening and hateful but our heroine is able to see that he once had a dog he truly loved and this has an impact on his actions through the story.
While the pacing of this novel wasn’t the fastest, it worked because the author was able to really flesh out the characters, their interactions, the settings, and the many issues that surrounded the times. From workers’ rights to the impacts of war, child labor, capitalism and prejudice and racism against immigrants are all topics that are still very relevant today. Inclusion of these themes into the narrative resonated with me and was a stark reminder that while society has progressed since 1882, we still have a long way to go. The added elements of airships, clockworks, mechanical limbs, and automata insects were a sheer delight.
The debut novel of Deborah Schaumberg is highly recommended for fans of young adult fiction, historical fantasy, steampunk, strong female characters, and paranormal adventure. We had the chance to interview the author and she gives us a small tease on what we can expect in the future sequel.
The Workprint: It’s been such a pleasure to read The Tombs and explore this alternate world of 1882 New York. What inspired you to choose the location and the time period for your story? This was such an unexpected delight for me having just recently moved to Brooklyn myself and it felt like I was unearthing some hidden secrets.
Schaumberg: Location was easy – I was born in Brooklyn! I have always been fascinated with the history of New York. Time frame took a little longer to decide on. Ultimately, I wanted my story set pre-electricity, when gas lit streets added so much atmosphere to the setting. I also love the gritty, grimy, industrial feel of the Industrial Revolution and it certainly fit well with my steampunk elements.
The Workprint: I thoroughly enjoyed reading all about the different places, people, gangs, and businesses in The Tombs. These details added a rich texture to the narrative and would love to know what your world building process was.
Schaumberg: Research, research, research! It was so much fun to learn about the clothing, politics, events, and neighborhoods that existing at the turn of the century. I uncovered weird facts and interesting stories along the way – some of which I was able to include, like the actual Tombs building. As far as process, I built the world as I went. I started with the main places, like where Avery lived and worked and where the Tombs was located, (all real places btw). Then, if I needed her to travel by boat or hide somewhere, I found actual places that would work. I used a poster size map of 1882 Brooklyn / New York to figure out how long it would take, by foot or by horse, to get around. And I made a timeline that included my imagined storyline woven with the history. For example, the labor riots and formation of the labor unions coincided with Avery spying on a secret meeting of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. (A labor union of the time period.)
The Workprint: The Tombs plays such an integral part in Avery’s story as well as in the lives of other characters, what drew you to write about an asylum with many dark secrets?
Schaumberg: I must have a dark side! I loved how creepy the true history of the Tombs is. I loved that it was really built over the collection pond for blood and guts discarded by tanneries and slaughterhouses! Where else would the evil Dr. Spector and his crow-men carry out their dreadful deeds?
The Workprint: Which characters did you enjoy writing the most? Which were most difficult?
Schaumberg: Ooh, so hard to choose. I guess top two would Avery and her father. His young-at-heart, endearing personality reminded me of my own father, (minus the drinking), and I loved their close relationship. I also particularly enjoyed writing Hanover Gentry, the adorable chemist living in the Tombs. Most difficult would be Dr. Spector. I wanted his depravity to feel real and fleshed out as a character, without delving too much into his back story. (Saving that for Book 2!)
The Workprint: Did you have a favorite scene to write and what was the most difficult one?
Schaumberg: Another tricky question…one of my favorite scenes to write was when Avery finds the exquisite greenhouse hidden within the Tombs. I loved the contrast of its beauty to the darkness of the rest of the asylum. Most difficult…the ending. I actually ended the book earlier but my editor at Harper asked me to close up some loose ends. I added two more chapters!
The Workprint: What do you hope that readers take away from Avery’s journey thus far?
Schaumberg: So, I would love readers to come away with a feeling that we are all connected. That our energy affects those around us. But what I’ve learned is that readers connect to The Tombs in many different ways. I love when they reach out and tell me what they came away with.
The Workprint: The ending was a major cliffhanger with Indigo, Khan, and Katalina still on the ground, do you plan on writing a sequel and if so is there anything you can tease about where these characters find themselves next?
Schaumberg: I do plan to write a sequel, as I hinted above! And without giving away too much, I can tell you that Avery will face Dr. Spector again, but this time she will know a secret from his past.
The Workprint: Lastly, what helped you most during the writing process for this story?
Schaumberg: Coffee…chocolate. In that order.
Thank you so much Deborah for chatting with us! You can follow her on Twitter at:
The Nerd Girls Books Blog Tour is also doing a giveaway! Check out details below for a chance to win one of the books.
Along with the tour is also a special Nerd Girl Book Giveaway where you can enter to win a free copy one of the books above. Clicking the link or select below. Ends after July 31st.
FOLLOW ALONG
We’ll be covering the Book Tour from July 28-30th, but you can also catch-up and follow along Nerd Girl Books on twitter to read other reviews as well. Schedule below.
In Quentin Tarantino’s ninth movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his love letter to the ’60s has fun playing in the world but bloats an interesting character study.
As a fan of Tarantino’s movies (I haven’t watched The Hateful Eight for a laundry list of reasons), I was excited to see this after seeing the trailer in theaters. I mean, cool ’60s vibes and Leo dancing; what more can you want?
Well, turns out I wanted a fulfilling, concise narrative with consistent pacing over the 2 hour and 40-minute movie.
Okay, okay, don’t get me wrong; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a lot of fun, and I’m not saying it was a bad movie overall. Just, compared to his other movies, Tarantino got caught up in having fun with making the movie. I know, I sound terrible. Of course, he should have fun making a movie. But, let’s look at what we have.
For those who don’t know, this is how a Tarantino movie plays out: Multiple stories, time-lapses/narrative rerouting, multiple homages and fanfare, a cast of stars, shots focused on feet, and then an ending that usually ties everything up. Got it? Good.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood follows that pretty well so which part made me wanting more? Well, there are two main storylines.
The first storyline is a 1a and 1b kind of situation, focusing on leading man/fizzling actor Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his faithful friend/stunt double Cliff Booth (played by Brad Pitt). Dalton has made a career of being a Western star, but he is currently struggling to get his groove back. Booth has been cruising with a simple life being Dalton’s shadow for work. Watching Dalton try to recapture his glory while dealing with his insecurities and dealing is an intriguing character study that captivated me and kept me invested. This, coupled with Cliff Booth understanding his career is tied to this man, provides us with a focused narrative enjoying the 1960s.
The second storyline was where the disappointment came. Margo Robbie plays Sharon Tate (yes, Sharon Tate in the late 60’s). The actress is coming off the release of her new movie, The Wrecking Crew, enjoying new success and the good life of marriage to Roman Polanski and Hollywood living. Though her storyline helped establish the world and let us have fun in Hollywood, it ultimately does nothing to help with the story, even slowing the pacing.
The Cast
To be honest, everyone did a phenomenal job. When it comes to the performances on screen, it’s one of those rare occasions where there isn’t a visible weak link. Even Al Pacino, who recently has been publicly viewed as kind of insane, put in a solid performance.
Unsurprisingly, Leo steals the show and commands the audience. It was reported that he took a pay cut to work with Tarantino again so Quentin should count his stars and consider himself lucky for having a truly amazing performance for a bargain. Brad Pitt does well displaying his trademark charisma and charm, and Margo Robbie delivers with her doey-eyed perspective of brand new Hollywood.
The Vision
Naturally, with this being a Tarantino movie, the film is beautiful to look at. The color palette, which is enhanced with clips of old Hollywood movies being shown for story purposes, gives the period piece a great warm feeling. Seeing the likes of DiCaprio standing next to older actors was a treat.
The cinematography, masterly shot by Robert Richardson, hit on the Tarantino feel we all love and appreciate. Ranging from the creative movements to the well-placed framing, the movie is a visual dessert. This is aided by the effective job the set design team and wardrobe and make-up did to round out the 60’s feel, giving our story an aesthetic home.
In recent Tarantino fashion, this movie indulges on story building. There are plenty of scenes where an old Rick Dalton movie is referenced, and we are taken out of the story to watch a scene from the past project. Though fun at times, it can mess up the flow of the movie, especially feeling a bit excessive in the first act.
The Takeaway
Like I said before, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a lot of fun. The music, the feel, and the journey it takes us on makes the overall experience a fun watch. I won’t lie, certain times I felt like I was watching Tarantino make a Scorsese film.
Yet, I did find myself being bogged down by the film’s pacing. It’s not uncommon for a Tarantino movie to run well over 2 hours, but certain aspects of the movie definitely felt a bit too indulgent and made me want more of the main story.
Final thought – If you are a fan of Tarantino, I would definitely check this out at some point, whether in theaters or in the comfort of your own home. If you don’t know or don’t like Tarantino, indulge if you enjoy the cast and are down with ’60s vibes. DiCaprio’s performance alone is worth at least one watch through.
P.S. Enjoy the website of this movie. I will make a mission of mine to check every film website I view to see if they put effort into it. Boy, it’s a fun one.
As part of the Nerd Girls Book Tour, I reviewed Stronger Than A Bronze Dragon, a YA fantasy adventure written by author Mary Fan, and even got to interview Mary about the book and her writing process.
Book Review
Overall, the book is fantastic. It’s fast-paced and set in a Chinese mythological world featuring epic sword battles, mysterious shadow creatures, magical enchantments, and steampunk aesthetics — so picture a steampunk Mulan with the action bar raised to five thousand.
The story follows the journey Anlei, a warrior-girl from the outskirt village of Dailan. It is a place which has little going on save for its infamous dragon shrine that holds the mysterious River Pearl. Which legends say host a great power encased inside.
Anlei serves as one of the village guards — a non-traditional role for women — as the emperor has refused to send aid, forcing many of the surviving townsfolk to defend against the Ligui: dark shadow monsters who take on many shapes and forms. When the Ligui materializes into the world, they run amok and kill indiscriminately, whatever is closest to them.
Showing great prowess in combat and acrobatic ability, Anlei’s duty is to defend the village by slaying Ligui with her father’s magical sword. Though in fulfilling this, she is also always on the lookout for the mysterious Shadow Warrior, a Ligui that slew her father in combat whom she holds a personal vendetta against and seeks to kill in revenge.
Until the day the bronze mechanical dragons came, and with them, the arrival of Viceroy Kang, a powerful official to the emperor. After Kang converses with the village’s Headman Su, he decides to finally send soldiers under one specific agreement: The River Pearl and a chosen bride from the village to justify Kang’s sent reinforcements — revealed to be, Anlei.
Forced to choose between the life of a warrior or forced marriage, Anlei’s decisions are once again cut short once the River Pearl is stolen. Chasing after the mysterious yet kind thief with noble intentions, to reobtain the River Pearl, Anlei is recruited on a quest which takes her on a wild adventure to slay the demon king, Mowang. Though like all the best stories, not everything is as it seems.
There are a lot of great things about the book that I can’t fit in one review, but I’ll try my best. For starters, Mary is a wonderful descriptive writer who knows how to engage the audience without losing them, showing great skill in describing the details while also not tossing too much information at once.
This is especially showcased in her fight and action sequences, which there are a lot of in this book. The fights do a great job balancing elaborate fight scenes and conveying necessity, pushing the story along for a whirlwind of a ride.
Likewise, the fantasy elements are heavy with airships, magic, spirits, and machinations — all for a very Chinese and Steam Punk feel which feels authentic and grounded. What’s great is that the characters seamlessly acknowledge these elements about the world which sells the world rather easily.
Atop of this, Anlei’s lack of people skills but impressive fighting and scouting ability helps convey the tiny intricate physical details from her point of view. To the reader this showcases itself as magnificent descriptive scenes that still leaves plenty of mystery — especially with regards to character motivations, never breaking the slow revealing plot of the overarching story.
Anlei is such a relatable character whose expectations about balancing honor and duty really strikes at the heart of the reader. How much slaying the Shadow Warrior means to her sense of honor, but also, how much her identity is reshaped by duty to her people.
Arguably, one of the best things about the book is that midway through reading it, the plot shifts its focus, giving the story an entirely new perspective. Looking back, you see everything built up until that point, you can see the previous chapters from an entirely new point of view. Which was very enlightening and honestly surprised me as a reader.
My only issue with the story was a bit of the villainous intentions. Though I will admit I appreciated how it all came full circle.
I enjoyed it and if you like action fantasy adventures with a kickass female protagonist, you’ll probably like this. Highly recommend you check it out for yourself.
Interview with Mary Fan
I got to talk with author, Mary Fan about some of her influences and the process in creating her book Stronger Than A Bronze Dragon. Here’s some of that conversation below.
Who are some of your influences as a writer?
It’s hard to say specifically, since I like to read far and wide, but I feel like a lot of the books I read as a kid still influence my writing style. Harry Potter for its action, adventure, magic and mystery, The Hunchback of Notre Dame for the empathy it shows its characters, Gone With the Wind (I know! I know!) for its depiction of an unapologetically strong heroine.
Do issues or current events in society influence your story choices?
Yes and no. I haven’t written a deliberate parallel to current events before, but a lot of what I observe in the world around me makes its way into my story. For instance, with STABD, I think I was influenced by all the feminist voices calling out the impossible standard for “likability” in women — how if a male boss yells at an employee, he’s tough, but if a female boss does it, she’s a bitch (they’re both jerks).
What inspired you to make this story?
The first idea I had was for a sort of Cinderella retelling — rich man chooses a poor girl for a bride and makes her royalty. Except, in an unhappy twist, Prince Charming is a jerk, Cinderella has no say in the matter, and the kingdom is cursed. Then I started brainstorming what would prompt a wealthy man, who could have any pick of noble ladies, to force a marriage with a poor girl in the first place. From there, a plot was born, and it ended up having virtually nothing to do with Cinderella at all.
From magic to airships to automatons and ethereal creatures, STABD does an excellent job combining different fantasy elements. Did you know which ones from the beginning, you were going to incorporate for your story?
Thank you! For STABD, I had the world in mind before I had a plot. I wanted to write a story set in the kind of fantasy version of China I’d watched in Chinese TV shows as a kid (and to remove it further from its roots, I did away with the real world altogether, kind of like Middle Earth did for Europe). And I’ve loved steampunk forever (especially Treasure Planet and Atlantis — the two most underrated Disney movies ever), so I wanted to incorporate some of those elements into my fantasy.
Are the Ligui or Yueshen based on any myths in particular? What about Mowang, and the circles of hell whose origins seem well known by all the characters in this universe?
They’re not based on any specific myths… in fact, my knowledge of “real” lore is pretty spotty. But what’s “real” about lore anyway? For the Courts of Hell, I was loosely inspired by the realm of the dead in Chinese mythology, which do describe hell as courts. The exact number depends on different teachings/religions. Some speak of 10, some 3-4, some 18… I chose infinity because it seems every day, humanity finds a new kind of evil. I have a feeling the actual happenings in the Courts of Hell are a mishmash of various fantasies and mythologies I’ve absorbed.
Your talent for descriptive writing is excellent all throughout the story, particularly the cutting-pace action sequences that balances conveying information with dynamic movement. Do you outline, draw, or choreograph a fight scene before writing it? How do you know which details to focus on in when so much happens?
Thank you! I always mentally choreograph the sequence first. Sometimes, I’ll vaguely outline it in quick bullet points if I’m having trouble picturing what’s going on. For STABD, actually, I was somewhat inspired by the role-playing game I was participating in at the time (Pathfinder) — how each character has their own intentions and skills, and how whether you hit or miss depends on a roll of the dice. Actually, I used my dice in some scenes where I wasn’t 100% sure how it would play out… Anlei will always make a move, but will she hit?
At the workprint we do pieces about Joseph Campbell’s ‘Monomyth’, also known as ‘The Hero’s Journey’. Did you use this or any other plotting device when writing STABD? If so, were there any fun bits where you found your writing diverging from the outline and going into fun worldbuilding bits of detail?
There are loads of works out there about story theory and story structure, and I feel like I’ve encountered a good chunk of them over the years, absorbing what works and what doesn’t. While I didn’t intentionally use any as a blueprint, I’m certain the concepts influenced how the plotting of my book went. At a certain point, I internalized a lot of it, so I could vaguely tell when it “felt” like the right moment for a particular action. I actually think STABD maps pretty well onto Joseph Campbell’s monomyth… it even has a descent into hell! To me, the most important thing when outlining is the balance of the story… you always want the big climactic moment you’ve been building up to close to the end. Otherwise everything afterward just feels like it’s dragging on.
What is your favorite characteristic about Anlei? How is she different from characters you’ve written in the past?
Anlei is different from the other characters I’ve written about in that she’s got very low emotional intelligence — she’s bad at recognizing feelings in both herself and in others. And that’s partly because of the way she views herself and the world. The world is full of threats, and she feels she needs to be as indestructible as possible to protect herself and those she cares about. I think my favorite characteristic about her, though, is how unabashed she is in so many of her actions. She’s not so much intentionally confident as she sees the world in a very straightforward way and does what she believes she needs to with little question.
Tai, the thief character, seems to play a lot of different roles in your story. Was this originally how you intended your character concept or had his role evolved over time?
Many layers of his identity evolved during the outlining/brainstorming process, but he was always meant to be a foil and love interest for Anlei — someone who was the opposite of her in many ways, but also someone she could share a connection with. Where Anlei very intentionally takes everything seriously, Tai deliberately refuses to, often joking or laughing at inappropriate times. It’s a challenge for Anlei to first put up with him and then later to understand why he is the way he is.
Ibitsuu plays quite the magical role in your story, serving as someone uniquely helpful but also seemingly wise beyond her years. Can you tell us more about what inspired her character and would you ever consider doing a spinoff look into her origins?
Going back to the classic monomyth, Ibsituu was conceived to fill the role of the mentor. The Dumbledores, the Obi-Wans, the Gandalfs of the world. Originally, she, too, was going to be a pale old man with a white beard. But then I thought to myself, “Why?” Anlei and Tai would need help on their quest, and she would step into that role, but she could also be a lot more. I didn’t have a whole lot of space to work with, but I did my best to hint at the fact that she had this rich, adventurous life before meeting them, and she’ll go on to weave her own story long after the book is done. In a way, I felt like STABD was borrowing her… like one of those crossover events in the Arrowverse. She’s the star of her own show, and she stepped into Anlei’s briefly to defeat a mutual enemy.
It would be interesting to have a spinoff about her origins, but weirdly, I don’t think I’m the right person to write it. Even in my own head, she’s a borrowed character, and I don’t know if I’d do her justice.
You’ve made a conscious choice to write strong female characters. Anlei is a heroine with stakes that weight her personal freedom over duty to her community. Were there any themes or messages in particular you wanted the audience to take away from this?
I mostly wanted to challenge the idea that to be a heroine, one also had to be “likable.” Or that being “unlikable” automatically made a character somehow bad. Anlei doesn’t mean to be prickly (and sometimes selfish) — it’s a product of how she sees and interacts with the world. At the same time, I wanted to peel back her layers and show that she can also be very vulnerable, and that she cares deeply about people. I wanted to challenge the assumption that just because someone doesn’t act “nice,” that doesn’t mean they aren’t good at heart.
Would you ever consider a sequel?
I’d love to do a sequel! Either about Anlei’s continued adventures or possibly a spinoff about her sister, Anshui. We’ll see…
Thanks again to author Mary Fan for taking the time out to interview her, along with the awesome opportunity with The Nerd Girl Books tour, for allowing TheWorkprint to partake and getting us some reader copies.
Now go out there and support more speculative fiction. And if it’s written by women, with more representation for women, even better. At least for me.
From Monday, July 22, through Friday, July 26, we will be running articles about pinball in the lead-up to Santa Clara, California’s “California Extreme” video game and pinball expo.
For the next five days, we will take a look at the history of pinball, the resurgence of its popularity, we’ll count down the 60 best machines of all-time and we’ll take a look at pinball games you can play on your computer, game system, or mobile device so you don’t have to venture to an arcade to get the experience.
We will also feature thoughts from various people in the world of video games and pinballs which range from owners to hobbyists to the gamers themselves.
We hope you enjoy it!
If you missed previous articles, you can find them here:
The last weekend of July, each year, is a National Holiday for video game fans across the California Bay Area — and some parts of the nation and the world, as it turns out.
July 27th and July 28th of this year, California Extreme returns for the 23rd time. It’s been held, at least the last few years, at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency across from Levi Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers.
The show is multi-layered, featuring tons of arcade and pinball machines, classic, modern, and virtual, and also features sit-down stations where you can indulge in some old-school console gaming by way of a Nintendo Entertainment System or a Sega Dreamcast.
There are two huge ballrooms in the Hyatt that are dedicated to this event. Each hall is filled to the brim with arcade and pinball machines. There’s a $40 dollar entrance fee to this event, but once you get in, every single machines is set on Free Play, so you can leave your quarters at home. And the event is so popular, you actually have to wait in line, not unlike with a Disneyland attraction, to play what you want to play. The waits may be long, especially for the newer stuff and the classics, but it’s worth it all to get that thrill you might have had as a child
“I’ve been coming to this event and, eventually, helping out with this event since 2000,” says Mark Birsching, one of the head organizers of the event. He thinks about what he just said for a second, then says, “2001?” He looks at his compatriots who all share a laugh.
“It’s been a long time!” Shouts one of them.
“I saw you throughout the day, running around every which way, handling everything,” I say
Birsching smiles. He says, “Well, I don’t handle everything, I’m just more the ‘upper level’, uh…” He stops himself, perhaps registering how he might sound right now, then starts again. “I make a lot of decisions.”
Birsching is my liaison today, responsible for getting me (and, by proxy, The Workprint) into the show so that we could cover it.
And he’s being modest.
He’s been a mainstay at California Extreme since its inception, when it was a smaller event, held in Parkside Hall at downtown San Jose, California’s famous Tech Museum.
He’s been playing pinball even longer than that.
“Since I was eight years old,” he says. “I went to a bowling alley and somebody would say ‘Aw, I don’t wanna play this, you play this’ and I did. I’ve loved it ever since. This was before there were video games, before video arcades. There was only pinball and I think that’s why I prefer pinball to arcade games.”
The feeling is mutual. I love my retro-gaming. I have a PC with a nice graphics card which runs MAME, Future Pinball, and Visual Pinball through a frontend called “Pinball X”. Aside from what I covered in my article about the history of the game, it’s somewhat difficult to find a slew of pinball games, within five miles, all in one place.
The first stop on my tour through this year’s event is Stern Pinball’s exhibit. What Apple was to the “MacWorld” Expo in San Francisco, Stern is to the entire pinball world. Their highlight in 2016 was “Ghostbusters”, based on the hit 1984 action comedy. The year following that was their “Star Wars” and “Aerosmith” table. Last year, it was “Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast”.
This year, it’s “Black Knight: Sword of Rage”, the third in the popular “Black Knight” pinball series which started in the early 80’s with “Black Knight” and continued in the late 80’s with “Black Knight 2000”.
Much like 2015’s “Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons”, It’s a unique game for Stern in that it doesn’t involve a major movie or television property like Batman or “Game of Thrones” or a legendary, world-renowned rock band like Metallica or Aerosmith playing a part in its theming. It’s a modern piece, as only Stern could deliver, with its trademark LED lighting, rock music soundtrack, and full video display, showing us the Knight in all his CGI splendor.
It’s the work of veteran pinball designer, Steve Ritchie, who has not only designed some of the most classic tables in pinball history, he also was on the creative teams for the “Black Knight” machines prior to this one.
“I think we got this comment [from a friend],” He says. “He goes, ‘THE ARTWORK LOOKS LIKE IT WAS DONE WITH A MELTY CRAYON!’ And I don’t see that. I see good, old school pinball art.”
Ritchie is 69 years young. He has a quick sense of humor and he’s gruff. That’s a lethal combination. He’ll tell you exactly what’s on his mind — but, sometimes, it won’t exactly be pretty. He started at Atari, back when two young men named Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs worked there. “My stories about the two of them aren’t funny, they’re nasty, but I’ll tell you,” says Ritchie and, at first, it’s fairly benign. Wozniak was a “great guy” and a “great programmer”, but Ritchie laments working around Jobs or even getting near him. “He stunk,” he says. “I’d say hi to him but he’d never say hi in return.” He pauses, then says, “I can’t even bring myself to say his last name, I never liked him. Woz was way, way into what he did…Jobs was a dick. He treated his wife terribly…and his daughter.”
A hush falls over the room. Everyone knew this about Jobs but you can tell Ritchie treats this as a professional tragedy. He doesn’t want to say any of this about a colleague…but, since the question was asked, at the very least, RItchie tries to inject some dry levity into things, and strikes a somewhat forgiving tone about one of the Silicon Valley’s folk heroes: “He’s proof that the bad die young, too…unfortunately.”
Veteran pinball designer Steve Ritchie takes questions at California Extreme 2019.
There’s a bit more fun to be had when it comes to discussing the reasons why the Magna-Save was put dead center on the machine rather than near the right flipper: “I KNOW that anybody who had EVER played ‘Black Knight’ and ‘Black Knight 2000’ expected the Magna-Save to be next to the right flipper. We couldn’t do that because we already had the button and, it’s like…personally, I’d already mastered the use of that button. I’ve used it to launch balls, I’ve used it a million times in other games, so…I’m ok with it.”
He’s back to having fun now, but he’s not through:
“I’ll also say this: you can modify the feature on your cabinet. You’ll completely wreck the resale value…” The crowd laughs. “And, THEN, I’ll have to do a condemnation video about you! The green button will remain there and people will know how to start the game.”
The reason for the revival of “Black Knight”?
“I had previously done ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Game of Thrones’. Those two were, how shall I say, ‘approval-heavy’. With ‘Star Wars’, [almost everything was approved’.] With ‘Game of Thrones’, they said stuff like, ‘No humor,’ and I was, like, ‘Really?! No humor?! Damn…[they said], ‘No nudity,’ and I’d never put nudity on a game anyway, but it’s like…you know, you submit a piece of art, it comes back with, like, five or six things circled, ‘do this’, ‘change this color to puce…whatever…do other things and, eventually, it comes back with just one circle and I just initialed it after a while.”
The one thing he won’t let slip is his or Stern’s next project.
He simply doesn’t like discussing them.
Stern’s list of games on exhibit are insane this year: all versions of “Guardians of the Galaxy”, The Munsters”, “Deadpool”, “Aerosmith”, “Iron Maiden”, and “Black Knight: Sword of Rage” are all on display (as well as their predecessors right next to them) but there are two Stern games I have yet to play in “The Beatles”, a table obviously based on the legendary band of the same name and “Batman ’66”, a table based on the TV series with the late Adam West and Burt Ward.
It’s always a thrill to play games you’ve never played. Two years ago, when my wife and I attended this expo, “Batman ’66” was advertised but wasn’t on the show floor, much to our disappointment. Here it was, in all its glory. I didn’t exactly love the table but, then, it’s hard to hear anything when the sound of hundreds of people and an equal number of various machines are in your ear.
“Batman ’66” is a good Stern pin. The theming for the table is spot-on and it’s obvious Stern put more thought into this “Batman” then they did with their horribly ordinary Chris Nolan “Batman” table. The table is colorful and beautiful with Stern going all in with clips, audio, and music from the 1966 TV show. The lighting is nice and bright (I love the little “Bat” symbol” that appears when you light up the bottom slingshots) and the ruleset is pretty straightforward, yet complicated being that there are several missions to complete. I love the Batphone and Batmobile shots — though, for some reason, the designers thought to put the stupid crane from “Batman: The Dark Knight” in this table. Why, exactly? Is this a homage to that game? It’s just arbitrary and weird and doesn’t seem to serve any real purpose. The gameplay is also fairly slow, which is odd. All in all, I like the table but didn’t totally love it.
I attempt to wait in a line to play “The Beatles” but there’s a 4-player game going on and a slew of people waiting for a turn after that. A 4-player game is a good 20 minutes to a half hour depending on skill level, so I take the time to visit some tournament halls to see if I can get at some pinball action I’m not able to in the main hall.
After a quick jaunt upstairs, I’m told by the attendant that I can go in and “look, but not touch.” The look on my face obviously said “I need clarification on what you just said,” and she says, “You can’t play a single game in the tournament hall. But go in and take all the pictures you want!” Of course, I try to sweet-talk her with my badass press credentials, to which she says, “Nope, but try the taco bar downstairs. They might give you a discount.”
This hall features some classics in “Sorcerer”, “TRON: Legacy”, and “Attack From Mars” and the it’s obvious they’re mixing in some youth here with “Wizard of Oz” and American Pinball’s “Houdini”…but the attraction that makes me think about breaking my vow to “look, but not touch” is Dutch Pinball’s “The Big Lebowski”, a machine so rare, there are only 40 in existence on the entire planet. That’s less than 1 per state in our country if you’re doing the math and, if that doesn’t seem like a small amount to you, “Twilight Zone” sold over 15,000 tables all over the world at one point.
The table has a second playfield under the main playfield (a’la “Black Hole”) modeled after a bowling alley (complete with pins), as well as a model of Walter and The Dude’s bowling alley settled in the right corner (complete with tacky neon on the side) and, of course, The Dude’s signature drink, The White Russian on the middle right side of the table. It’s a gorgeous looking table, one which “really ties the room together”, if I can use a phrase from The Dude, and begs to be let loose if only the pinball goddesses manning the desk outside weren’t frowning upon us.
However, fortune has smiled on me: when I make my way downstairs, a Beatles table opens up for me to play. This is a table I didn’t expect much from. The previews from Stern made it seem like it was an afterthought, a palate-cleansing quickie designed to hold the average gamer over for the next big table. Additionally, I had read the early reviews: Stern copied the layout from “Seawitch”, an older game from their catalogue.
If I were giving out prizes at CAX, “The Beatles” might have been “Best in Show”.
This table is gorgeous and one of the best things Stern has put out in recent years. Sometimes, less is more. It’s a throwback to the old EM (electro-mechanical) tables, featuring bumpers, drop targets, and an orbit loop. No ramps are present here. The object of the game is fairly simple: collect songs, get multiball. The songs are, of course, sizeable samples of the band’s songs, including “Hold Your Hand”, “Ticket to Ride” and “Drive My Car”.
The color on the table absolutely pops with gold and sky blue lights in various spots. The one gimmick is the arbitrary spinning vinyl record which can alter the path of your ball on the way down, but it’s hardly an issue and doesn’t add much to the challenge. It’s not asking a lot. Unlike Stern’s other EM throwback, “Whoa Nellie Big Juicy Melons”, however, the game keeps you coming back for more because of the theming and because the gameplay is both smooth AND quick, which is something I never thought I’d say for a table as basic as this one.
Other than that, this is one of the most fun tables Stern has put out in some time, an unexpected surprise.
The last table I hit before moving on in my quest to pick the minds of the people around me is the aforementioned “Houdini” by American Pinball.
“Houdini” LOOKS great. I’m a huge fan of machines with a “showmanship” theme to it (like “Theatre of Magic”, “Cirqus Voltaire”, etc.) and it also has an air of mystery with an industrial steampunk vibe tossed in. The toys include a Ouija planchette on the right side, Houdini’s magic chest in the far right corner, and my favorite, a mini theater with red curtains surrounding the stage near top center which you can interact with.
The problem I have with the machine is that it plays extremely slow. Even if you felt like you got every bit of the ball with the flipper, the speed feels slower than it should be. Even when the ball falls, it rolls slow. Nearly every shot feels clunky as a result.
The ruleset is decent — though it’s annoying when you it tells you to shoot at a ramp or orbit — and a couple ramps and orbits are lit up next to the one they’re telling you to shoot at. And that’s another problem: the machine talks you through EVERYTHING in detail: “SHOOT THOSE BLINKING BLUE RAMP SHOTS TO MAKE HOUDINI CATCH A BULLET IN HIS MOUTH”; “SHOOT FOR THE TWO RAMPS WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT BE ALTERNATING, WE HAVE NO IDEA, BUT SHOOT AT THEM ANYHOW”…dude, just let me play. Light the ramps I’m supposed to be shooting at and let me go.
Also, the video display is fine. It’s neat when you lose a ball and the curtains “close” on the display. But Houdini walking around? Not so much. The animation for this is just plain stiff and his likeness is plain terrible.
Anyhow, it’s a nice table but the lack of momentum and speed kills it for me.
It’s here that I meet “Barak” (“like the former President” he says, “but without the ‘C’ in the middle”) who is just an attendee at CAX. He’s been coming to the expo for some time, having fallen in love with pinball when he was a kid.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
“I played it when I was young,” he says. “I had an Atari 2600…oh, and a Magnavox game system…but pinball was what I came back to. Pinbot was my favorite. I love that table.”
It’s amazing the answers you get when you ask somebody what their favorite table is.
For Mark Birsching, it’s just slightly different, yet very close to what Pinside’s Robin van Mourik told me in “A Brief History of the Silver Ball”: “I love Black Knight 2000 and Black Hole…but I think any machine that I work on until I finish it is my favorite.”
And for Steve Ritchie, it’s fairly simple: “I like The Addams Family,” which is something Ritchie has in common with Rick Priesting, a representative of Zen’s “Pinball FX 3” virtual pinball system. If you haven’t seen these, it’s absolutely insane.
We covered the world of virtual pinball in “A Brief History of the Silver Ball” as well as “The World of Virtual Pinball”. The latter covered the various apps which allow you to play a good game of pin on your phone, tablet, game console, PC, or Mac. “Pinball FX 3” was one of these…but we didn’t exactly touch on how an app such as PFX3 applies to a virtual cabinet.
At California Extreme, Zen has their cabinets on full display. They’re a little bigger than your average pinball cabinet but they house around 80 games (of their creation, not licensed titles) on one cabinet. Rick says that the company has been shopping the PFX3 cabinets to various arcade bars around the country and that a major company may be signing on, as soon as Tuesday, to feature their virtual pinball cabinets full-time..
When I ask why this place doesn’t just install pinball games in their arcades, Rick says, “It’s a maintenance issue. [The establishment] attempted to put pinball games in but the clientele is rough with everything so you’d have constant breakdowns. With a cabinet like ours, you just have to worry about the upkeep of the computer hardware and software running things. There’s no downtime, there’s no breakdowns, there’s nothing to repair. People crowd around the sucker and they like it.”
Whereas Steve Ritchie of Stern tells me that “virtual pinball is pinball, but not real pinball”, Rick says he thinks that Zen’s brand of software-based virtual pinball can co-exist with regular pinball.
“It’s bringing people into playing pinball that never would have been attracted to real pinball, naturally,” he smiles with glee. “Our stuff is the ‘gateway drug’, so to speak. You get them in and kids end up playing [our stuff] and then playing [other stuff[ on their PlayStation and they find video versions of real tables and they play those, then they come here and see the real versions and go, ‘Oh! This is the game that the video version is based on!'”
“Back to the Future” pinball on Pinball FX 3.
To the people who scoff at the notion that virtual pinball isn’t real pinball, Rick simply says, “I say to them that it isn’t really trying to be real pinball. We live in the same world. It’s about enjoying a game and having fun. Who’s going to judge another person’s taste in games? Can’t we enjoy both?”
But what about the purity of real pinball vs. virtual pinball?
Rick says, “There’s an arcade in Chicago called ‘Logan’s Arcade’. They had a Star Wars celebration there and we got permission from LucasFilm to promote our virtual cabinets there. Logan’s, mind you, is a hotbed of hardcore league pinball play. There are gamers there who, traditionally, do not like [what we have]. One of the most cynical players just walked up to me and was basically like, ‘This isn’t really pinball’ and we got into a conversation and [I convinced him to just try it out]. We were watching this guy the whole time and, by the time we were ready to leave, he was enjoying himself! He’s like, ‘It’s got flipper lag but once you get used to it, it’s not so bad!”
The best thing about virtual pinball, according to Rick?
“The immediate response to culture in the country,” he says. “If there’s another Star Wars movie, you’re gonna see a virtual table based on that just a month or two later. That would normally take a real pinball company a couple years to do, plus we can add elements you can’t find on a traditional pinball machine. And, our cabinets can connect to the Internet so you will always have the new media I was telling you about.”
It isn’t coincidence that both Rick and Priesting mention “The Addams Family”. The table, as I discussed, was crafted by Pat Lawlor whose “Twilight Zone” is my, personal, #1 Table of All-Time. It took me some time to locate it but that machine was in the second hall this year, a bit beat up with the top right and left flippers stuck and not functioning correctly. I’m so used to playing that game that I could live without the two top flippers (you can find ways around it but it cuts out half the fun) but it always breaks my heart to see a table that’s a bit worse for wear..
“Twilight Zone” is just one of the games I look forward to playing when I am at this expo. “Elvira and the Party Monsters”, “TRON Legacy” and “Black Hole” are high on my list to play as well. The latter was absent two years ago, much to my sadness, but it made an appearance this year –until it was shut off for half the time I was there due to a malfunction. Luckily, the owners showed up to fix it and I got to play the 1981 Gottlieb classic as if it were brand-new. I even finally schooled a kid who played the turn before me and showed him how to hit the famed second playfield underneath the main one. It felt good to show somebody how to put the same smile I had on their face.
When I visit CAX, I’m always looking forward to new experiences but, ultimately, it’s the camaraderie I live for. Myself, I can play versions of these games at any time. I know where to go to get my physical “Twilight Zone” fix or just a straight pinball fix and, if I can’t get that, I can just get on my PC, phone, or tablet and play some virtual pinball. But it always feels good to see a new generation fall head over heels for an obsession I’ve had for years.
“This is a community show,” says Mark Birsching. “People bring games because they want to bring them. They want to show them off, they wanna play their games and have others play their games and they want to talk to each other. Without the volunteers here, we wouldn’t have a show. There’s five or six different tournaments, both arcade and pinball, in the show, so…in the end, it’s about the game community.”
As a special summer treat, our writers and reviewers here at the Workprint were able to participate and partake as guest readers in the Nerd Girls Book Blog tour.
Celebrating some talented works of speculative female fiction, the Nerd Girl Books blog tour has been traveling from blog-to-blog, featuring reviews of recent works from authors Meg Eden, Beth Woodward, Mary Fan, Deborah Schaumberg, and Lindsey Barlow. All wonderful authors in their own respect, and each writing about strong female protagonists in familiar, yet also, unfamiliar situations and settings.
From Sunday to Tuesday, Nicole and I will be joining in on the tour and will be posting reviews of a couple of these books, including some insights and author interviews of the following:
We hope you enjoy our coverage of them the next few days as much as we enjoyed reading them.
GIVEAWAY
Along with the tour is also a special Nerd Girl Book Giveaway where you can enter to win a free copy one of the books above. Clicking the link or select below. Ends after July 31st.
FOLLOW ALONG
We’ll be covering the Book Tour from July 28-30th, but you can also catch-up and follow along Nerd Girl Books on twitter to read other reviews as well. Schedule below.
KILLJOYS -- "Blame It On the Rain" Episode 502 -- Pictured: Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch -- (Photo by: Ian Watson/Killjoys V Productions Limited/SYFY)
In this week’s episode Killjoys, everyone is chasing Dutch, Zeph shows her brilliance once again, and The Lady body switches.
Black Warrant Issued
Life for our favorite former assassin gets a tad more complicated when a black warrant is issued for her along with a kill order. Supposedly Yala is a wanted terrorist called “The Widow.” Johnny ends up going to D’avin and makes a deal to help him out as long as the Killjoy brings his wife in alive. Pree earlier brought a squad over to The Royale to case the joint in case Yala was there. She wasn’t of course, but resident agent in charge tells John that his lady supposedly killed her first husband. This understandably freaks the guy out and partners with D’av, revealing that he’s gotten a lead (from Gared) that Turin (who is a drug dealer now with super long hair) had gotten stiffed by his wife. The two go over to talk him and at first Turin is reluctant to say anything to help. Earlier, Dutch had gotten antibiotics and pain medication from him to help a wounded Zeph. She ended up pulling a gun and not paying. D’av lets the dealer punch out Yala’s husband and lo and behold he feels a lot better. Turin gives in after the Killjoy threatens violence, revealing that she tried to pay him with old tech and the only person who would have that kind of stuff is the stinky crazy conspiracy theory woman (aka Zeph). He even tells the boys where she hangs out.
Meanwhile, Dutch is eventually able to get a piece of shrapnel out of Zeph, but is unable to sew her back up correctly (she makes do with some gauze and duct tape). Once the other woman is awake again, they are back to trying to figure out why The Lady is terraforming Westerley. Zeph realizes that they don’t have much time left, only 27 more days of breathable air before the planet is ready for whatever it is The Lady needs. However, she thinks that they may be able to stall by blowing up a few factories. Dutch admits that she can’t do this alone with everyone hunting her down. She needs backup and asks Zeph if she can develop a solution that will disrupt The Lady’s memory programming.
The boys find Zeph’s makeshift weather monitoring system and D’av breaks a chip to force their quarry to come to them. To pass the time, the two end up eating at a food stall nearby. John decides to split though and tries to find Dutch on his own. He then notices some fencing that looks like some one had just passed through and he enters, realizing that Zeph’s hideout was in a much closer range to the monitoring system. Johnny eventually finds the underground hideout with Zeph literally on the ground hiding from him. Still assuming his false memories are real, he truly questions if he ever knew his wife with all the technology around him that seemed to prove that she was a terrorist.
Dutch earlier had gone above ground to fix Zeph’s device (since D’av messed with it) and runs into another Killjoy that she quickly dispatches. Then the elder Jaqobis brother shows up and she leads him on a chase, only to wait for him at the end. He points a gun at her but she tells him that she knows he won’t shoot her. Dutch asks him to please think about why that is, why it rains at exactly the same time every day, and why this all feels so wrong. The former assassin inches closer, eventually guiding his gun down and kissing him. A stunned D’av stands motionless as she leaves. He then realizes that she’s slipped a communicator into his pocket.
Fancy is Still Sexy and Has Feelings
We finally see what happened to Fancy in this episode! He looks to be a guard of sorts and Dutch stealthily grabs his weapon by pinching his butt as a distraction. Fancy thinks it’s his coworker who is on patrol with him, but the other man says he isn’t even his type and he’s kind of an asshole.
Fancy: I’m everyone’s type, it’s a curse!
Other guy: You’re kind of an asshole you know that?
Fancy: Hey, sexy people have feelings too.
The Factory
When Dutch finally gets back to the hideout, Zeph tells her that Johnny found them and they’ve got to get out of there. She asks the other woman about the protein inhibitor that is supposed to disrupt the programming and it appears to be ready. They try it out on Zeph first with Dutch telling her that some of the real memories she has will be hard because she’s lost people no thanks to her. Once the block is activated, the scientist finally remembers everything and she is both heartbroken at remembering Pip and furious at The Lady.
Dutch has thought ahead and leads the boys to the factory. They think they are catching, but she’s there to administer the protein inhibitors as well. Thankfully it works though she kisses D’av in front of John while he still thinks he’s her husband. When the two are back to their old selves, she catches them up to speed on The Lady winning and that they are in one of her factories that she uses to terraform the planet. Their plan is to blow the place up and get the hells out of there. The boys are able to plant the charges while she goes to the mainframe to sabotage it except when she gets there she finds some weird creates being kept in cooling containers instead. Zeph thinks that it could be the species that The Lady is a part off and that the terraforming could be for them.
Unexpectedly Pree shows up and the Jaqobis manage to stun him. They load him up on their vehicle and rendezvous with Dutch at the entrance. She goes off to torch the creatures and when she does the power seems to get wonky cutting off their connection with Zeph. Zeph is forced to go outside to try and fix the system except it begins to rain and she quickly carves a symbol on her forearm with a knife (it turns out to be on the no entry sign that leads into her lair). Back at the factory Team Awesome Force is captured by The Lady’s forces and the following day Zeph once again has no memory of who she really is. Somehow the planted bombs don’t explode either.
The Lady Switches Bodies
Back on the Hullen armada, The Lady decides to show Khlyen some of her power. She ends up switching her meat suit from that of a little girl to a young woman. She does this by some kind of weird bite that transfers her consciousness over into a new host. The Lady wants Khlyen to tell her where his daughter is but he counters by asking her why she brought him out of the green. She doesn’t answer but realizes that he thinks he can figure out her plans.
Later on as Dutch is killing the creatures inside the factory with fire, The Lady is physically hurt by it despite presumably being quite far away from Westerley. When Khlyen comes and asks her what happened, she responds that they found Dutch. He quickly says that she’ll never break her and the entity agrees that’s why she’s having him taken to the transfusion chamber because she knows his daughter will break for him. Khlyen calls out and says that Dutch will know it’s not him and she’ll lose the other woman thus losing Jaq as well. He finally gets that is The Lady’s true desire, to find his grandson. She doesn’t tell him what she needs the young man for, but it seems that the two will strike a deal because he can only save one of them.
Final Thoughts
Where did the creatures that The Lady has been storing on Westerley come from?
D’av called Dutch his girlfriend! Awwww these two lovebirds.
How was The Lady able to get out of the green to begin with to then pull Khlyen out?
Sean Baek has amazing comedic chops and delivered Fancy’s lines so well that I spat out water laughing. It was brilliant. And of course Fancy is everyone’s type, I mean come on now.
It seems awfully complicated to plant false memories on all the residents of Old Town just as a means to try and trick Team Awesome Force into finding Jaq for her. There has to be another reason why The Lady has decided to do this.
The scene between Dutch and Zeph was so heartbreaking when the scientist finally remembered who she was. Zeph continually proves how extremely badass she is.
Obsidian Entertainment’s immensely popular CRPG, Pillars of Eternity is finally making its way to the Nintendo Switch. It looks as though developers are starting to understand that the real strength of the Switch is not the ability to play co-op and adorable family-friendly games like Mario or Zelda, but to instead have the ability to play massively long RPG’s anywhere we choose. Waiting at the pharmacy! At the back of math class! During a boring weekly office meeting! While driving!* No one has time to sit on their couch or at their PC to sink 100 hours into Fire Emblem: Three Houses. By putting these story-driven RPGs, gamers can take the exposition with them! If it sounds like a shill for the Nintendo Switch and playing RPGs on their portable system, please Nintendo, send me some money.
Originally released in 2015, Pillars of Eternity is a CRPG that follows the likes of other popular games in the genre like Baldur’s Gate or Divinity: Original Sin. If you enjoyed those games, then let’s be honest, you’ll like Pillars of Eternity. It’s essentially a D&D campaign with funny companions who are mostly assholes to each other. Good, wholesome times with a bunch of demons and dragons thrown in for good measure. And now it’s on the Switch!
Greetings, Watchers! We are happy to announce that the original Pillars of Eternity adventure is coming to the Nintendo Switch on August 8th, complete with both of the White March expansions!
— Pillars of Eternity II: #Deadfire (@WorldofEternity) July 26, 2019
The Switch version of Pillars of Eternity includes both White March expansions so if you decide that you haven’t spent enough time in Eora, you can up the level cap and play for a few dozen more hours. For only $40, it’s a pretty good deal. But don’t let me sell it to you, let Nintendo’s website do that for me:
Features:
• Award-winning writing, story and artwork of Pillars of Eternity, along with the expanded world and content of The White March: Parts I & II.
• Expansive character creation that impacts your personal story with races, classes, and character backgrounds to choose.
• An epic universe to explore, filled with intriguing party members and companions, a variety of in-game factions, and a lovingly rendered world to traverse.
• All major updates from the original PC version, including a raised level cap, expanded party AI options, and new difficulty levels.
• The deep and classic Real-time with Pause Combat system that feeds your inner tactician.
Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition launches on the Nintendo Switch on August 8th.
*The Workprint is not responsible for you taking our sarcasm as real advice. Please don’t actually play your Nintendo Switch while driving. The game won’t save if you smash the system to bits because you were being irresponsible.
The Art of Self-Defense is a new, dark comedy that attempts to digest the awkward journey of one’s identity through the ancient practice of Karate.
Jesus, what did I just watch?
The Art of Self-Defense was one of the most awkward, darkest, hysterical, and amazing films I’ve seen in a while.
I came into this movie knowing nothing except that it was a dark comedy with Jesse Eisenberg as the lead. What I came out of this movie knowing was that I had witnessed a film crafted to examine the perception of “what a man is in society.”
Casey Davies, a socially inept mild mannered accountant, is attacked during the middle of the night by a random motorcycle gang, hospitalizing him. Afraid to walk the streets at night, he joins a local dojo to learn the ancient ways of Karate so he can defend himself. In the process, he steps into a dangerous world led by a strange Sensei, played by Alessandro Nivola, and must figure out if this is where he belongs and who he is.
The Cast
In what critics and viewers can claim is a typically Eisenberg role, Jesse uses this opportunity to flex his acting chops and put in a strong performance as we follow his character’s journey as he is confronted with hyper-masculinity. This has been a personal favorite of mine when it comes to Eisenberg’s career.
The film is well-paced and does a fantastic job of allowing you to feel out the situation. When Casey’s awkward personality interacts with confident individuals not afraid to express themselves, we are placed in those moments, letting it sink in. The narrative dimension of Karate being the driving force in this movie adds to the overall ridiculousness The rest of the cast also does a great job providing stellar performances, with the pack being led by Nivola and Imogen Poots as Ana, an experienced Karate student/teacher. Nivola is arguably the most entertaining performer on the screen, with his dedication to the art of Karate being showcased to use as Gospel.
The Vision
Riley Stearns, the writer and director, excels in balancing the tone of this film (Office Space meets Fight Club) with its critique of toxic masculinity. The movie seems simplistic in its presentation, but the subtle choices in his characters and the world they live in helps set the mood for the audience. The intentional choices of color plays an essential part in the narrative while reflecting the characters that don them. The stylistic choices extend to the distinct camera choices, aided by cinematographer Michael Ragen, who alternated between static compositions with slow-motion action sequences that heighten the humor.
The Takeaway
This movie was a blast, and it was refreshing sitting in the theater laughing at such a strange movie while constantly acknowledging how ridiculous The Art of Self-Defense is.
Since the narrative is relatively focused on a handful of characters, each of the main players gets a share of development. The vibe of the film almost feels like a period piece with some of the technology used in the film. It feels like the story is stuck in time, which acts as another critique on the antiquated idea of masculinity.
A warning: this film gets very violent and, at some points, graphic. It also doubles down on awkward comedy so those that may be uncomfortable by this should be weary.
Final thought – If you can appreciate a movie that is very dark, uncomfortable at times, and laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, go check out this movie and support it in theaters, as you should with smaller release, independent movies.
P.S. Once you see the movie, go and enjoy their interactive website. Glorious!
From Monday, July 22, through Friday, July 26, we will be running articles about pinball in the lead-up to Santa Clara, California’s “California Extreme” video game and pinball expo.
For the next five days, we will take a look at the history of pinball, the resurgence of its popularity, we’ll count down the 60 best machines of all-time and we’ll take a look at pinball games you can play on your computer, game system, or mobile device so you don’t have to venture to an arcade to get the experience.
We will also feature thoughts from various people in the world of video games and pinballs which range from owners to hobbyists to the gamers themselves.
We hope you enjoy it!
If you missed previous articles, you can find them here:
The last few days, we’ve been counting down the Top 60 Pinball Tables of All-Time, doing 20 tables at a time. The countdown started on Monday, continued Wednesday, and concludes today.
If you’re a pinball veteran, your list might be close to ours. If not, feel free to sound off in the comments about what you believe to be the greatest game you’ve ever played! If you’re a novice to the game and have never played pinball before, welcome!
We hope this list gets you into your local pinball arcade and gets you playing!
Let’s roll!
20) DIALED IN (Jersey Jack, 2017)
This is the first Jersey Jack table to make it on this list. Designer Pat Lawlor returns to give us a table…that has a lot going on. It’s insanely innovative with shots which require actual thought and strategy to make. The smartphone feature and 27″ LED TV screens are ingenious. The playfield is colorful and the action is quick…however, the theme is a bit lacking (it’s a weird disaster/city theme which doesn’t quite connect. Still, this isn’t a bad table and I’m sure with a few more plays, it will end up higher on the list in the future.
19) THE CHAMPION PUB (Bally, 1998)
“The Champion Pub” is an insanely fun table that offers up a gaming experience unlike most tables out there. The entire idea behind the game is to get jewels for a title belt you’re fighting for. Along the way, you literally “train” with things like a heavy bag, a speed bag and a jump rope. This leads you to your “fights” against different fighters (who all look the same because, let’s face it, this isn’t a Playstation 4) for pride and money and points. The fighting and training systems are very clever and well-executed and require precise reflexes and shots. You’re either with this or you’re not. Ultimately, three of the four missions work for me. While the speedbag mini-playfield is very cool and the heavy bag/fighter is clever, the jump rope bit doesn’t feel like part of the game. Neither do random DMD games like “catch spit” or “card games”. Even the fighting and heavy bag are flawed thanks to two ramps which are designed to re-direct your shot to the bag/fighter. The intent is to create “headshots” instead of constant shots to the jaw. My issue is that those ramps lead to an unintended drain dead center, This happens a little less than half the time in my opinion unless you get lucky and happen to tip the ball elsewhere to prolong the turn but it happens and it’s annoying. Regardless, “Champion Pub” is a winner.
18) STAR TREK – Pro Version (Stern, 2013)
“Star Trek” is a smooth machine. I love that you can choose which “mission” you want to play before you play it. It never really feels like the same game twice. Ramps and targets are fairly easy to hit. That’s not really a criticism as the speed of the game more than makes up for it. The callouts and dialogue are a touch weak as some line readings come across as phoned-in. I know it’s an arcade piece but the actors could have at least made it sound like they were trying. The playfield is colorful, yet extremely lazy. In any case, the game reminds me of a high-tech “Attack From Mars” at times. It’s a hell of a lot of fun to play and the action makes you feel like you’re living the new films.
17) THEATRE OF MAGIC (Bally, 1995)
There’s a lot to like about “Theatre of Magic”. The playfield is absolutely gorgeous with unique ramps that resemble red rug-covered “stairs” and a beautiful “magic trunk” that gives you several different missions to play. It’s incredibly polished and classy. The issue is that the trunk is the center of everything and the audio constantly reminds you of that. That’s your #1 target every single time. Either that or the one or two ramps which are easy to hit. That and points are too easy to accumulate. A player with little to no skill with decent reflexes can hit 250M in about five minutes or less. It’s so easy, you basically don’t even need the missions. That said, it’s a great table, reminiscent of “Tales of the Arabian Nights”, with an equally beautiful soundtrack and presentation.
16) MEDIEVAL MADNESS (Williams, 1997)
I get the appeal. The machine feels like you’re playing “Army of Darkness” without the Deadites. There are goofy, tongue-in-cheek call-outs and the game play is nearly unrivaled…but it feels somehow one-note to me. I like taking out the castle but it almost seems so easy and repetitive. This is 90’s arcade schlock at its worst. I don’t mind a game not taking itself seriously but damsels sound like valley girls and the guys (and various other characters) spout off modern pop-culture phrases and slang like “I’m gonna get medieval on your behind.” Yes, really. It’s cute but just not for me. I DO, however, think the playfield and toys are gorgeous and colorful with some great lighting that really pops, especially during the night. MM is Top Ten material…but not for me and it’s definitely NOT the #1 table of all-time as so many other deem it to be.
15) CIRQUS VOLTAIRE (Bally, 1997)
“Cirqus Voltaire” is basically the third part of my “Showmanship Trilogy” which, for me, consists of “Theatre of Magic”, “Tales of the Arabian Nights” and this game. I name it such because they all share a penchant for grandiose melodrama that wraps around the player and consumes them completely. Each one has outlandish toys and gimmicks as well as epic, cinematic musical scores and game audio. Here, “Voltaire” goes over the top with a game about a mythical circus run by a mysterious “ringmaster” that you need to defeat while activating various portions of the circus in order to put on the big show. The game is smoooooth with shots and ramps that recall “Creature From the Black Lagoon”. They’re easy to hit in succession and it’s satisfying when you do. The “sideshows” are a lot of fun and unpredictable and one such mini-game involves the backglass and a catapult system which is ingenious. The design is excellent with a colorful playfield and a really cool neon ramp on the right, something we’d later see expanded on Stern’s “TRON Legacy”. The design of the table is so insanely beautiful, photos can’t do it justice. The main gripe I have with this game is that it’s too simple: wake the Ringmaster, beat him, repeat, just like “Attack From Mars”. Additionally, gaining pieces of the “Cirqus” is pretty easy to do and you can finish the game fairly quick if you know what you’re doing. Even still, “Voltaire” is a lot of fun and rewarding.
14) HOT SHOT (Gottlieb, 1973)
I adore this table. I was hooked the moment I played it. The game is simple, yet so much fun because it relies on a player’s precision skills. I’ve played the game several times and I’ve only been able to knock out all the pins once. The design of the table is simple, yet colorful and is a fun Gottlieb EM.
13) SCARED STIFF (Bally, 1996)
After the awesome table that was “Elvira and the Party Monsters”, she returned with “Scared Stiff”, a fine table to be sure, but a slight step down from its predecessor. The design is eye-popping. The playfield is brilliant and colorful with a 60’s grindhouse horror cinema feel to it. This is capped by a coffin/crate in the center of the table and a giant ramp covered by the skeleton of a dragon’s neck and skull. The music matches the theme but gets really repetitive very quickly. The frogs screaming each time you hit one is not great audio because you seem to hit them every five seconds. Elvira has her usual double entendres but they’re more innocent this time around and some of the others seem forced and too scripted (“Nice bone…eh, us”; “Oh! I’m having multiple jackpots!”; “How ’bout another ball?”) to be truly memorable. “Stop the Spider” is also repetitive and wrecks the flow of the game. Sorry. I’ve never liked it. It’s just an annoying feature that gives you repetitive tasks to accomplish (“Fish Head” for the 173rd time in ten minutes?!) and makes it feel like something completely separate from what you were just doing. Aside from that, the gameplay is very smooth. It’s fairly easy to hit the ramps and I love the light show during the multiball event, though it just sort of “happens” without much fanfare. Great ball drain sequence (no pun intended). The first game was simple and had so much charm. This new table lacks that and feels like overkill. It was beautifully simple whereas this game is needlessly complex and repetitive. Even still, a fun play.
12) MONSTER BASH (Williams, 1998)
This may be one of the greatest pinball games I’ve played and would be a LOT higher on the list…if only it wasn’t so easy to beat. Seriously. I’ve played this game about 15 times and I’ve beaten it and gotten every monster and instrument most of the games I’ve played. It’s straightforward, delightfully so considering the audience it’s aiming for, but it’s almost TOO straightforward — to the point of being too simple. That said, this game is just too awesome with a cute theme and mission wherein the player has to gather the six monsters of rock for the ultimate concert. The shots are fairly simple to make, yet requires precise shooting (the Gillman’s lagoon shot is difficult to the point of frustration at times). The problem is that there are only six monsters to collect and it’s just a series of ramps and lanes you have to hit in repetition. Not much of a challenge. Great toys (love Dracula floating around as a moving target and a rising Frankenstein’s Monster…just brilliant) and a playful theme make this a winner, though.
11) TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS (Williams, 1996)
This has to be, without a doubt, one of the most beautifully-designed tables I’ve ever played. Colorful playfield, awesome toys (the spinning lamp with the accompanying spinning audio is something you can’t get out of your head) and cinematic-level audio (the musical scoring in this game is incredible and doesn’t sound at all synthetic or electronic) make this game a winner. The issue is that the ball draining down the middle is an annoying problem — but it’s replaced with joy when the machine calculates your score set to a nice light show and sitar music before a brilliant blue flash of light travels along the board and finishes things off. The female narrator adds a magical tone to the proceedings and battling the genie is always uniquely satisfying. This table is a winner — though the “missions” can get repetitive.
10) GHOSTBUSTERS – Pro Version (Stern, 2016)
Ghostbusters is one of the best Stern tables I’ve ever played. Not without its flaws: the rules are aggravating and don’t really make a whole lot of logical sense. The magna-slings make you want to scream (seriously, who thought it was a good idea for the two bottom bumpers to arbitrarily sling the ball downward toward the drain?!), the coding STILL needs some fixing, balls jump off the playfield and completely miss targets and ramps which frustrates players even more…but, by god, when this game works, it works. The music and the call-outs are amazing. I love the little touches that truly evoke the film: Tobin’s spirit guide, Louis shouting “Who brought the dog?”, the kick-ass containment unit shutdown effect where you get the unmistakable siren while the machine shakes and goes nuts with blinking red lights…it’s truly clever…if only the gameplay was better.
9) INDIANA JONES: THE PINBALL ADVENTURE (Williams, 1993)
“Indiana Jones”, I love you so. You’re easily Top Ten material, yet you sometimes make things so hard for us. Ramps are incredibly hard to hit every single time I’ve played you. But, sometimes, all goes well and I can hit ramps like magic. Your playfield is rough around the edges but so colorful (and you look GREAT at night) and the toys…the little biplane, the Aztec monument, the “Path to Adventure”…yes, you leave clutter where you’ve been but DAMMIT, if it isn’t clever. The “gun” plunger is REALLY cool. And I love the Adventureland/Disneyland version of you with your modified wood cabinet which fits right into the theme of the shop and land you’re in. It’s a shame not every single cabinet was made that way but you are what you are and you’re still a joy to play. I love to play you…see you tomorrow, Indiana Jones…
8) THE SIMPSONS PINBALL PARTY (Stern, 2003)
A fun table that’s rewarding provided you can hit all your targets with accuracy. The issue is that there’s a LOT going on here with respect to the toys and playfield. That’s to be expected. The Simpsons universe is huge with so many characters and landmarks. The bitch of it is that the game feels like a mish-mash of ideas that never go anywhere. The field can come across as intimidating because of the sheer amount of features and mini-games. Even still, this is a highly enjoyable pin.
7) PINBOT (Williams, 1986)
“Pinbot” is one of about five tables that got me into pinball. What isn’t to like here? The name of the table is catchy, the design is eye-popping and colorful and the audio is an absolute work of art which works in tandem with the visuals. The package is beautiful. The only bad thing I can say about it is the table’s penchant for draining out the left side without touching the bottom flipper on some turns. Doesn’t happen all the time and perhaps it’s a balancing problem with the version I played. That and the strangely ironic bagatelle on the right side (a neat idea, to be sure; it melds pinball’s past with its present here) that really doesn’t do much. Other than that, “Pinbot” is a classic.
6) ELVIRA AND THE PARTY MONSTERS (Bally, 1989)
I. Love. This. Table. First played it as a teenager in an apartment complex gameroom and I absolutely fell in love with it. Aside from the game playing fast (and frustratingly draining to the left side all the time), it’s still easy for even a novice to master. The game has excellent audio that makes you shake your head and smile because it’s SO Elvira and making well-timed shots or activating multi-ball only makes her that much more playful with one-liners like “Don’t touch me THERE…” or “Ooooo, nice organ!” (with regard to an actual organ tune, not one’s actual “organ” – heh). Music has about two or three tunes that play during different modes. Hitting ramps is satisfying and the game features one of the best Multiball activation light and call-out sequences next to The Twilight Zone. One of the greatest tables I’ve ever played.
5) BLACK HOLE (Gottlieb, 1981)
The game is deceptive in that it feels simple but takes skill to truly master. It has a really cool retro space theme that reminds one of Disneyland’s Space Mountain (complete with a cool soundtrack which sounds like a spaceship engine idling, reminiscent of the main loading room at Space Mountain, that plays as you play) and a really deep blue color scheme which looks even cooler in a dark room. The main gimmick is the upside-down mini-playfield below the main table where you accumulate points in the “black hole”. Very cool idea that inspired several modern tables including “The Twilight Zone” and “Congo”. The only con I can think of is that the ball feels like it moves too slowly even when you give it a good whack with the flippers. The main bumpers and pins are also stretched out too far on the board so there’s a distinct lack of targets to hit. No ramps, either, but that’s not really much of a complaint. The table is very fun to play. This is far better than “Haunted House” because it keeps things simple. I will probably take some heat for that but it’s true. This is one of the five greatest machines of all-time.
4) ATTACK FROM MARS (Bally, 1995)
SO. MUCH. FUN. Your goal is take out four or five saucers hovering over major world cities. Each flying saucer toy rules. They “hover” near the back with their little blinking lights and you can’t help but be charmed. Beating the main saucer over and over is always satisfying and gives you a hell of a light show which turns off all the other lighting on the table, save for the upper saucers and gives you a strobe that blinks as the saucer “explodes”. Great stuff. The only cons are the game seems too simple and there’s not much else to do except blow up the same saucer over and over. That and you can score 100 million points just by hitting a target and letting the ball drain. I’ve never played a game where your final score is an average of 2 billion points. Maybe that’s the joke, I don’t know, but it’s odd to be able to score that many points on a table. It doesn’t feel like you’ve “earned” anything. Even still, this is a great, fun game.
3) TRON: LEGACY – Limited Edition (Stern, 2011)
This may be the game that roped me back into pinball. The first time I ever saw it was when my wife and I were walking through the Tomorrowland “Starcade” at Disneyland. Or, what was left of the Starcade, an old Tomorrowland attraction which used to be a two-story arcade featuring all the latest and greatest arcade and pinball machines. During Starcade’s waning years, it was reduced to one floor, only took up about 500 square feet and became a mish-mash of 80’s arcade games (including a Wreck-It Ralph machine – wink, wink) and a couple pinball games. I had no idea, at the time, that new pinball machines were still being manufactured until I saw TRON Legacy. I didn’t play it, mind you. When you’re at Disneyland, the last thing you really wanna do is play video games and pinball. I figured I’d run into it again and I was right. Finally did just last year and it didn’t disappoint. It’s easy to play for novices and will challenge experts. While the playfield is just decent (Stern has a problem with this sometimes), everything else is gorgeous. The LE version features beautiful neon-lit ramps which mimic the the “Light Cycle” effect from the film, a moving Recognizer and a cool “rumble” motor that really immerses you in the game. The audio is also absolutely stunning with re-worked Daft Punk tunes from the film and crystal-clear dialogue and sound effects from the film. The call-outs, while not entirely memorable, work well and I love the ball drain sequence with the ramps seemingly “dancing” with light in darkness while the DMD tallies your score. One of the ten best tables I’ve ever played, easily. This game is a masterpiece.
2) AC/DC – Premium/LE Version (Stern, 2012)
This is the game that knocked “Tales of the Arabian Nights” out of my Top 10. “AC/DC: LE” is a fantastic game on nearly every single level. As with most of Stern’s rock tables, I’m not a huge fan of AC/DC but I’d listen to their stuff probably before any of the other bands Stern has signed. The game is smooth as hell, giving you the option to listen to about a dozen of their best songs — and each one gives the table its own unique “personality”. For “Thunderstruck”, there’s thunder and lightning when you hit ramps and targets while “T.N.T.” gives you explosions. “Hells Bells” lights the table red like fire and gives you access to the lower “Hell” playfield. It’s ingenious. The ramps are smooth and fairly easy to hit and each one is rewarding. The toys include a heavy requiem bell (which gives a nice, convincing “GONG” sound when you hit it) and a concert stage where the guys “play” during certain modes. The only downside to the game is the DMD which doesn’t have a lot to offer in the way of animations and, while the music is there to compensate, the sounds are fairly generic. Overall, however, this machine is a blast to play and probably the best of Stern’s rock tables.
WE ARE OFFICIALLY AT THE #1 PINBALL TABLE OF ALL-TIME…BUT, FIRST, A RECAP OF THE TOP 60…
60) Total Nuclear Annihilation (Spooky Pinball, 2014)
59) Class of 1812 (Gottlieb, 1991)
58) Black Knight 2000 (Williams, 1989)
57) Batman: The Dark Knight (Stern, 2008)
56) Haunted House (Gottlieb, 1982)
55) Sorcerer (Williams, 1985)
54) Funhouse (Williams, 1990)
53) TX-Sector (Gottlieb, 1988)
52) Iron Man (Stern, 2010)
51) Taxi (Williams, 1988)
50) Sing Along (Gottlieb, 1967)
49) Black Knight: Sword of Rage – Pro Version (Stern, 2019)
48) Game of Thrones – Pro Version (Stern, 2015)
47) The Walking Dead – Premium/LE (Stern, 2014)
46) Safe Cracker (Bally, 1996)
45) X-Men – LE (Stern, 2012)
44) The Sopranos (Stern, 2005)
43) Fish Tales (Williams, 1992)
42) Creature From the Black Lagoon (Bally, 1992)
41) The Machine: Bride of Pinbot (Williams, 1991)
40) Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Stern, 2018)
39) Jack*Bot (Williams, 1995)
38) Black Knight (Williams, 1980)
37) Transformers – Pro Version (Stern, 2011)
36) Avengers – Pro Version (Stern, 2012)
35) Fathom (Bally, 1981)
34) Aerosmtih – Pro Version (Stern, 2017)
33) Atlantis (Gottlieb, 1975)
32) No Good Gofers (Williams, 1997)
31) The Munsters – Pro Version (Stern, 2019)
30) Metallica – Pro Version (Stern, 2013)
29) Spider-Man – Vault Edition (Stern, 2016)
28) Black Rose.(Bally, 1992)
27) Guardians of the Galaxy – Pro Version (Stern, 2017)
26) Deadpool – Pro Version (Stern, 2018)
25) Who Dunnit (Bally, 1995)
24) The Addams Family Gold – Special Collector’s Edition (Bally, 1994)
23) Spider-Man (Stern, 2007)
22) Elvis (Stern, 2004)
21) Star Wars – Pro Version (Stern, 2017)
20) Dialed In (Jersey Jack, 2017)
19) The Champion Pub (Bally, 1998)
18) Star Trek – Pro Version (Stern, 2013)
17) Theatre of Magic (Bally, 1995)
16) Medieval Madness (Williams, 1997)
15) Cirqus Voltaire (Bally, 1997)
14) Hot Shot (Gottlieb,1973)
13) Scared Stiff (Bally, 1996)
12) Monster Bash (Williams, 1998)
11) Tales of the Arabian Nights (Williams, 1996)
10) Ghostbusters – Pro Version (Stern, 2016)
9) Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (Williams, 1993)
8) The Simpsons Pinball Party (Stern, 2003)
7) Pinbot (Williams, 1986)
6) Elvira and the Party Monsters (Bally, 1989)
5) Black Hole (Gottlieb, 1981)
4) Attack From Mars (Bally, 1995)
3) TRON: Legacy – Limited Edition (Stern, 2011)
2) AC/DC – Premium/LE Version (Stern, 2012)
AND THE #1 PINBALL TABLE OF ALL-TIME IS…
1) TWILIGHT ZONE (Bally, 1993)
Bally’s “Twilight Zone” is the greatest pinball game of all-time.
It’s near-mythical. A true triumph of sight, sound, and mind. Based on the famous television show of the same name, the table is a classic, featuring a gorgeous playfield, outstanding toys (including a clock that keeps perfect time and a gumball machine that locks your ball up inside and spits one out), a revolutionary upper playfield with magnetic, invisible “flippers”, and a ceramic pinball called “The Powerball” which figures into one of the many modes the game has to offer. The rule set is extremely deep with no DMD-based mini-games to take away from the flow. The lighting on the table is beautiful and adds to the atmosphere while a small, repeating segment of Golden Earring’s “The Twilight Zone” serves as the main background music. The voicework is an absolute delight with Rod Serling guiding players through a pinball version of the Fifth Dimension, a ghostly voice warning you not to touch the door leading to The Twilight Zone, and Talking Tina rewarding you with an Extra Ball when you earn one. Even the small details, like the delivery of that Extra Ball, are brilliant. When you’re told to shoot again, a small robot walks across the DMD, carrying your ball. When he drops it, your ball rolls out to the plunger at the exact same time. The multi-ball call-out is the best in all of pinball. The machine goes insane and every light on the table flashes as the little voice warning you NOT to touch the door goes haywire — and the door blows up, leading the player to balance three balls at once. The Jackpot call-out is AWESOME if you can make the piano shot during this event.
The table is the work of Pat Lawlor. He’s been mentioned before in this list, having been behind “The Addams Family” and the brand-new “Dialed In”. With “Twilight Zone”, Lawlor was given full creative control of everything and he produces a wonderfully complex table which, like the show, has plenty of imagination and thought put into it. The table is magical, at one time holding the most patents in pinball history for all the various working parts on the table, and has stood the test of time.
Every other machine before and after may attempt to top it but they’ll find that it’s impossible to escape…The Twilight Zone.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE TABLE OF ALL-TIME?
“XENONPH” (of VPForums): Before I found the world of Virtual Pinball, my favorite pinball table was “Pinbot”. I loved the sounds and the playfield layout where you had to hit all targets to light all lights in center grid to open the eyes up for multi-ball capture. My favorite table now is “Congo”. But, then, I also loved the movie, so I was already a predisposed Congo fan! There are a lot of different objectives on the table that make each game different from the one before, and I like the layout.
ROBIN VAN MOURIK (of Pinside): Most often, my latest purchase will be my favourite game. When a game is new, there’s so much to discover, much like a honeymoon phase.
“STAT” (of VPForums): For sure: Williams’ “Indiana Jones”. In about 1995, i played the whole afternoon with just 1 Coin [and got so many] Replays and Extra Balls [that I lost count]. I was the first guy in our city (Wels, Austria, which has 60,000 people) to have finished the table. [Their entire scoreboard was filled with my initials!]
GARY (of Bobcat Batteries in San Jose, CA): Bally’s “Playboy from 1978. Great vintage table. It’s my prized machine and it’s in my shop!”
“BOLTBAIT” (of VPForums): This is your most difficult question! I think my favorite machine changes from day to day. I love the old electro-mechanical (EM) games of the 70’s as these were the tables I grew up with. They had scoring wheels and chimes for sound effects. The rules were simpler back then and the objectives were clear–hit all the card targets from 10 to King, then hit the special target, etc. Of all the EM games I’ve played, probably my favorite would be Buccaneer–it is a VERY challenging table and it works perfectly on my B2S cabinet. I also love the solid-state (SS) games of the 70’s and 80’s. They had digital sound effects (beeps and boops), LED score displays, and more complex game play. Examples would be Kiss and Playboy. Now, I’m really getting into the modern computerized games of the 90’s+. They have animated digital displays, digitally recorded sound effect with musical scores, and complex rules. Of these, my favorites would be: Star Trek the Next Generation, Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, and both Elvira games. One thing I really like about Scared Stiff is that you can complete the six objectives in any order you like–in fact, you can work on multiple objectives at the same time. Finally, there are some amazing games available here that were never made in the real world! For example, Cartoons and Night of the Living Dead. (I’m a big fan of distressed tables.) There is a whole list of original machines here that are created by some amazingly talented people just because they love pinball and are obsessed with some topic.
CHRIS RUMMEL (of the Pacific Pinball Museum): Medieval Madness is a personal favorite. The Monty Python absurdity, intuitive rules and objectives, and frequent multiball are all very appealing to me. Plus, it’s the first game I ever got my initials on.
“KABS” (of VPForums): That’s a hard choice for me…”Star Trek: The Next Generation” is one and “Banzai Run” was probably my first favourite machine, It was a simple game but also difficult. I love how the game went up into the backglass too.
That’s it for the Top 60 Tables of All-Time! What’s your favorite table? Leave us a comment and let us know!
