Donomark

Batman Returns, for the purposes of the Comic Book Revue Podcast. My pick for the month's review. Very quickly one remembers that this is the archetypical "style over substance" movie. You can try to critique it on an intellectual level, and should you do so your conclusion can reach no other than the one that says this movie is crap. The story's virtually non-existent, the dialogue can be random as hell, and it's a pretty shoddily done attempt to have the villains team up against Batman I think. That said visually this is to my mind the most engaging Batman live-action film. Batman, Catwoman and the Penguin, for what their individual designs are, all look great. They look either sleek or in Penguin's case justifiably grotesque. His makeup is very good. The purpose of the movie should not be asking if it makes sense, it should be whether or not you enjoy the ride. There are many reasons to. The performances are all terrific. Absolutely great. DeVito goes for it as the Penguin and honestly disappears into the role for me. Michelle Pfeiffer is perfect as Catwoman. Not exactly the one from the comics because she's a lot darker and uniquely insane, but her voice fits the character so well that she could continue to portray her in animated properties today. Her overall performance is the one to watch. Michael Keaton is, still, one of the best Batmen ever. Moreso for his Bruce Wayne, as I love how understated and nuanced he is. He's never as well written as Bale's Wayne, but there's always that palpable sense to his performance that he's forever bothered by his life, and him being Batman is how he deals with it. Plus, his first scene in the Manor is one of the coolest Batman scenes you'll ever see. Plus this thing for some reason has Walken in it, which will always be a plus. What kills the movie for me is how despicably dark and ugly it is as a film, especially a Batman film. Nowadays people online piss and moan about how the Nolan movies are "realistic" and etc., but this is almost hard to watch at times due to how weird and violent this movie gets. Things like the Ice Princess falling to her death on-screen, baby-dumping in the first two minutes, Kentucky Fried Walken, vulgar sex dialogue including exploding the "erogenous zones" of little boys and girls and Catwoman groping Batman's dick in my opinion have no business being in a Batman movie. There's a difference between being "dark" and being "unsavory", and this film crosses it over and over. That's what I take away from the movie overall, not that it's Burtony nonsense or that Batman kills exactly, but that it's just completely unfit as a Batman movie and actively works to insist it.

The FF7 teaser ending with the intro music nearly made me cry...

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back About as by-the-numbers and predictable as it gets. Lacks the lulz factor the first one contains from Eric Roberts and James Earl Jones. Phillipe Rhee vs. Neo Nazis should've been awesome, but it watches like every third Walker Texas Ranger episode ever. Points for Gina Gershon one-film-before-Showgirls appearance and Christopher MacDonald playing a good guy, but doesn't save it worth a damn. Fight scenes are uninspired and no fun as well.

Happy B-Day! Dan be all like: https://youtu.be/gvObIj7MKXY?t=3m25s

Rest in Peace

Awesome. Nothing about this sucks.

Is this going to be a weekly show?

Permission to Die. A 3-part James Bond comic story from Eclipse Comics in 1989 written and illustrated by Mike Grell. Fun stuff. Grell's artwork can carry a story alone, and it helps that he's clearly a Bond fan. There's enough of a Bond movie vibe while the little details keep it in the novel canon such as Bond's design and the details of MI6. A perfect marriage really. There's more that a little Dalton in how Grell draws Bond, which is no bad thing, but inserts random Moore-esque bad quips as the story goes on to give the fans of the lighter-hearted eras what they want. Rampant sex and violence complete the total package.

Spider-Man Renew Your Vows #1 Contrived crap. Titled "Why We Can't Have Nice Things", the Marvel Universe apparently has to die if Spider-Man has a family. Someone get Slott off this character now please.

"Someone asked me to dub their anime." YOUCH. Seriously?

This was a great listen. Little hard to hear the questions sometimes, but Haley Atwell and Ming Na Wen were awesome.

Happy b-Day!

I got the DC Comics Visual History for Christmas and have, day-by-day, been making my way through it. It's a year-by-year and eventually month-by-month rundown of the most notable comics and events in the company's history, ever since Detective Comics first published in 1937. Through this I've been made aware of two things: 1-that the company always went through times of struggle and crisis every decade for the first half of its existence. Especially in the 70s during the DC Implosion. 2-, it can't be denied that DC's best decade was the 1990s. Every year it's just hit after hit after hit, beginning with the Dark Knight Returns in 1986, and having a string of financial and critical successes straight through the year 2000. I love 90s DC, but seeing it broken down year by year really makes it incontrovertible that they ruled the industry in the 90s.

Happy B-Day!

Hahahaha

Yay Bulma!

Super Happy B-Day!

S'been a week. Starting on Sunday spending the majority of the day at a tire shop getting my car fixed after it spontaneously caught a flat, leading to me dropping $850 on other assorted problems with it. Only a preview of the week as a whole caring for my perpetually ill mother (she's got Parkinson's) getting more and more paranoid and depressed not making enough money at my lame job as it is. It's been the status quo for a while now, but this week all the stinging effects of this life have really been hitting home, signaling that something's gotta break soon.

Agreed on all counts, although the third film I can't speak for sure having not seen it yet. But it would give you a preview of your eventual Lindsay Lohan month!

Having seen Heathers a few nights ago, I can easily see how it can not be someone's cup of tea. Having seen BS Dracula immediately before listening to the podcast...agreed on all counts. What's the song played at the end?

Get back to me when they make an Invisible Man movie with Hawley Griffin

Has Denzel Washington seriously not been suggested yet? Malcom X, Philadelphia, Remember the Titans, Glory, Training Day...

OHHHKAAAY...SO.

I really like that story and Echo as a character. I'm pissed off that she was killed in whatever story she died in. Can't excuse the Clerks references and all that tho...

The actual comic is SOOOOOO not meant for a film adaptation, IDK what they're thinking.