Follow-Up Review : “Crossed + One Hundred”

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

I take another look at Alan Moore and Gabriel Andrade’s “Crossed + One Hundred” now that the initial six-issue storyline is complete.

Trash Film Guru

Fair warning : there are a few key “spoilers” ahead — not just for Crossed + One Hundred, but for Southern Bastards and The Wicked + The Divine, as well — so if you’re not completely caught up on any of these books, skip the seventh paragraph following this one, pick up again at the tenth, and you’ll be in good shape. Got that? Okay, my conscience is clear.

*********************************************************************

A little while back, I reviewed the first issue of Alan Moore and Gabriel Andrade’s Crossed + One Hundred from Avatar Press, and I’m not sure how many of you took my advice and jumped on-board with it, but I’m guessing it must not have been a very big number because my inbox hasn’t been flooded with emails from random strangers thanking me for turning them onto this series (although I did receive one, which I appreciate) and…

View original post 1,251 more words

‘Cuz I’m A “Creep” — I’m A Weirdo —

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

I think I liked this one — or at least most of it?

Trash Film Guru

What’s the next line in that song? Oh, yeah — “what the hell am I doing here?”

Spoiler alert : I kinda wondered that myself for the last two minutes or so of Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass’s 2014 indie horror (now streaming on Netflix even before it hits Blu-ray and DVD) Creep, but that was only after thoroughly digging the first 80-or-so minutes a lot more.

Yes, folks, we’re back on the “found footage” train here, and with a distinctly limited cast of characters, at that — in fact, just two. Brice (who co-wrote the script) stars as “millenial looking for a buck” freelance cameraman Aaron, while Duplass (who not only co-wrote, but directs here) is Josef, who has enticed him with a $1,000 cash offer to come to his cabin up north in order to , he says, document an average day in his life for his…

View original post 627 more words

It’s A “Dark Summer” Alright — At Least For 81 Minutes

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Here’s one to avoid like a McDonald’s breakfast special —

Trash Film Guru

Jeb Bush has a plan to save America from our supposed economic crisis — according to statements that have issued forth from his own mouth, we all need to work an unspecified number of longer hours, we shouldn’t expect to retire until we’re 67 or 68, and we’d better not look forward to Medicare being there to take care of our health insurance needs once we finally do get to stop working because he wants to “phase it out.” Apparently, if we enact all of these austerity measures (let’s just call ’em what they are, even if Jeb and his corporate sponsors think we’re stupid enough to think of them as “reforms”), then — and only then — will we get ourselves out of this mess he insists we’re in.

In short, then, poor, working-class, and even middle-class Americans should just buckle down and get ready to have a shittier…

View original post 1,899 more words

Trash Film Guru Vs. The Summer Blockbusters “Ant-Man”

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Trash Film Guru

If you accept the axiom that “super-heroes are our modern mythology,” then allow me to start this review with a little bit of myth-busting. It’ll be fun, I promise.

Myth #1 : I reflexively hate all Marvel movies. This idea has become so entrenched among my friends and readership (such as it is) that I’ve come to accept it myself. But before I sat down to write this thing — well, okay, I was already sitting down, but I hadn’t started writing yet — I looked back over my past reviews of Marvel flicks and discovered something curious, namely : I’ve actually “gone easier” on most of these than even I thought.

Thor? I gave that one a pretty decent write-up. Captain America : The First Avenger? I gave that a glowingly positive review. X-Men : First Class and X-Men : Days Of Future Past? Again, wildly…

View original post 1,357 more words

Trash Film Guru Vs. The Summer Blockbusters : “Terminator Genisys”

Posted on July 11, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Patrick Lussier just can’t catch a break.

Think about it : after toiling away in tinseltown as an editor for a couple of decades, he finally hits it semi-big as a director with the (go on, admit it) deliriously fun and sleazy 3-D remake of My Bloody Valentine in 2009. Since then? Well, shit — it’s all been downhill.

Apparently he was then considered Hollywood’s new “go-to guy” for 3-D flicks for all of about five minutes, but when his next one — the (again, go on and admit it) flat-out awesome Drive Angry tanked at the box office in spectacular fashion, it was back to the editing room (or, as is most likely the case, laptop) for poor ol’ Pat. And again, most of the movies he worked on — like the criminally-underappreciated Apollo 18 — were way better than their tepid reception among audiences and critics (but what do they know, anyway?) would indicate. Other projects his name was attached to, like Halloween 3 (and no, I’m not talking about Season Of The Witch), failed to materialize altogether.

Then comes another big break — hell, the biggest break of all — out of the blue. The long-shelved script he wrote (or co-wrote, as the final credits would indicate, since it was later tinkered with by Laeta Kalogridis) for yet another Terminator sequel/reboot was “back on” at Paramount, with Alan Taylor of Thor : The Dark World “fame” slated to direct. It even had a name : Terminator Genisys. And Lussier would be getting an executive producer credit on this big-budget blockbuster as well.

So what happens? It absolutely tanks at the ticket windows. And so the hard-luck saga of Patrick Lussier continues. I predict we’ll next see him as an editor on Paranormal Activity 9 or Insidious Chapter 6.

All of which is one heck of a shame because, once again contrary to popular belief, Terminator Genisys is actually pretty damn good stuff.

Damn good stupid stuff, to be sure, but so what? Apologies to all the James Cameron fans out there who don’t like to acknowledge this simple fact, but 1984’s original The Terminator had much more in common — both in budgetary and stylistic terms — with the Roger Corman fare that the future director of Titanic and Avatar cut his teeth on than it did with the billion-dollar bonanzas for which its auteur would eventually become famous. In point of fact, it’s essentially one of the last low-budget sci-fi exploitation pictures that didn’t go straight to video. And it’s absolutely awesome.

I’m not here to tell you that Terminator Genisys is as good as that was. Shit, it’s not even close. But it is much closer to the original in spirit than it is to the later, much-more-lavish sequels/prequels — the last two of which, Terminator 3 : Rise Of The Machines and Terminator Salvation, were positively atrocious. This, at least, feels like a “proper” Terminator flick again.

Are there plot holes big enough to plow an armored tank through? Absolutely. But that’s just part and parcel of the goings-on with a movie of this nature — and besides, they engage in this sort of “timey-wimey” gimmickry on Doctor Who all the time these days, and it’s praised as “quality” television rather than the cheap and obvious stunt it is (and speaking of Doctor Who, don’t blink — sorry, couldn’t resist! — or you’ll miss Matt Smith in this). I’ll take it served up as it is here without any pretense towards faux-intellectualism, thank you very much. And anyway, are people really complaining about getting to see present-day Old Arnold Schwarzenegger duking it out vs. CGI-reconstructed Young Arnold Schwarzenegger? Where’s your sense of fun, folks?

I guess it all just depends on who you ask. While Terminator Genisys currently “enjoys” a rather atrocious 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics hold court, it’s faring much better on the IMDB scorecard, where the fans have their say, with a perfectly respectable 7.1 out of 10. In other words, real people like this movie.

And what’s not to like? We’ve got “liquid metal” T-1000s squaring off against Ah-nuld’s earlier T-800 model. We’ve got cheesy one-liners galore. We’ve got a new plot twist involving John Connor (here played by Jason Clarke) that’s actually interesting. We’ve got a reasonably dashing new hero in the form of Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney). We’ve got Oscar winner J.K. Simmons doing the “old man tilting at windmills who no one else will listen to” role that he’s perfected down to a science (when he’s not selling his soul to Farmers Insurance, that is). We’ve got explosions, aerial battles, and likable good guys vs. suitably despicable bad guys. We’ve got an amped-up version of the internet that’s out to destroy the world, with requisite Luddite authorial sympathies attached. And, oh yeah, we’ve got this grin —

My only gripe is that Emilia Clarke just plain can’t cut it as Sarah Connor. She tries her best, sure, but she’s no Linda Hamilton. Consequently, her love story with Courtney’s Kyle Reese ends up falling a little flat. But that’s small potatoes compared to everything Taylor and company (including, of course, Lussier) get right here — rather than trying to one-up the original, which never really worked anyway, they just set out to add a worthy celluloid appendage to it. When looked at that way, Terminator Genisys is — against all odds and the loud chorus of naysayers out there — a tremendous success indeed.

George Romero Winds Things Down — And Up — In “Empire Of The Dead : Act Three” #3

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Yeah, I know — this review is late. But hey, so was the book. So let’s explain both, shall we?

The third issue of George Romero’s Empire Of The Dead Act Three didn’t exactly meet its monthly deadline, but there’s good reason for that — artist Andrea Mutti now has a (much-deserved) high profile gig as the regular penciller and inker on Brain Wood’s new long-form historical series for Dark Horse, Rebels, so obviously something in the schedule has to get shunted to the back burner. I would expect, therefore, that the final two issues of Empire will likewise hit shops a week or two after their initial solicitation dates, so we might as well get used to it. Likewise, he’s brought in fellow Italian Roberto Poggi to help out with the inking chores on this series (meaning that, when we include cover painter Francesco Mattina — who does another bang-up job on this issue — we’ve got an all-Italian art team in place now), but fear not : their brush styles are very similar indeed and even on a third or fourth glance through the book it’s pretty hard to tell who inked which particular pages or panels. I believe the world we’re looking for here is seamelss. As for why I’m late with this review, the reasons are far more prosaic : my LCS got shorted on the book and didn’t get in more copies until this past Wednesday. So there ya go.

The biggest news as it relates to this series, though, happened well “off-page” between the last issue and this one — Empire Of The Dead has, perhaps to no one’s surprise, been optioned for television. Sure, sales haven’t been great on this title on the whole, but any zombie project with Romero’s name attached to it is bound to attract Hollywood interest on some level, and while it sounds like it may be a year or two before this finally hits our TV screens, the various press releases related to it definitely give off the confident vibe that it is coming and that this won’t be one of those projects that languishes in development or pre-production hell forever. Or until the rights expire, take your pick. The undead in all their various forms are a hot property right now, and all indications are that the producers want to get the ball rolling with this one as fast as humanly possible. Time will tell, of course, as it always does, but my money is on this turning up on some cable network or other sometime in, say, the tail end of 2016. If I were a betting man, I’d even be willing to place a modest wager on it.

So, hey, that’s all fine and good, but what about what’s happening in the actual comic?

I’m glad you asked, because the shit really is hitting the fan hot and heavy now. Election day has arrived in post-zombie-apocalypse New York, and even though the Federal Reserve back is being robbed, an aerial bombardment is plastering the city, and various members of our rogues gallery, most notably Dixie Peach, can see the writing on the wall and have decided to beat a hasty retreat, Mayor Chandrake’s still got this thing in the bag. Chilly Dobbs was always a pretty worthless wind-up-toy of an opponent, and his backers leave him high and dry before the ballots are even counted. Good thing there’s a bar close by for him to drown his sorrows at.

Chadrake’s victory proves to be short-lived, though, as the entire edifice that is his power structure is crumbling fast. Detective Perez has the workings of the “relocation camp” for kids figured out, and he’s out to bring the whole place down — with Paul Barnum, Dr. Penny Jones, and semi-intelligent zombie Xavier coming to much the same decision, although arrived at of their own accord, more or less simultaneously. Might now be a good time for Chandrake to head for the exit himself? If so, what will be left? And who will be in charge of whatever remains?

These are the burning questions that will be with us as this series finally wraps up, and for those who have been waiting for that always-just-around-the-corner “big payoff,” this is the issue where we start to get it in earnest. Events are moving along at breakneck speed now, and a suitably epic finale appears to be in the works. Those of us who have stuck with this comic are definitely buckled in good and tight for the duration, methinks.

The art, as you can see from these sample pages, looks darn good, Romero’s dialogue is starting to feel a bit less clunky, and the various plot points, disparate as they all were not so terribly long ago, are converging in near-relentless fashion. The zombie-vampire war with humans caught in the middle is upon us, and I don’t know about you, but that sure sounds like my idea of a good time!

The Underground Is Alive And Well : “The Adventures Of Tad Martin” #sicksicksix

Posted on June 20, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

If you want a genuinely different reading experience that’s absolutely unlike anything else out there right now, may I humbly direction your attention to Casanova Frankenstein’s “The Adventures Of Tad Martin” #sicksicksix.

Trash Film Guru

Hey, look — as a longtime (nearly lifelong, sad truth be told) comics reader, I’m not complaining (much) about the current state of the medium. Sure, “The Big Two” suck, by and large — but they’ve always sucked, by and large, and there are more independent titles out there than at any point since the pre-implosion days of the early 1990s to satisfy the discerning reader’s need for something well-done, intelligent, and different than the capes-and-tights fare being peddled to an ever-dwindling audience at ever-increasing prices by Marvel and DC. Creator-owned books are “where it’s at” these days, and the burgeoning web comics “scene” is providing an outlet (even if it is, in almost all cases, a non-paying one) for up-and-coming cartoonists to get their material out there to the public without having to pound the pavement looking for a publisher willing to stick their neck out and take a…

View original post 996 more words

Good News! You Don’t Need To “Starve” For A Great Read Anymore!

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Don’t look now, but Brian Wood is on a roll.

The once-hot wunderkind comics writer, who was felled last year by allegations of sexual harassment at comics conventions, apparently did some sort of public mea culpa/’fessing up, and is now deemed to be perfectly employable again.

For my part — to the extent that it even matters — I guess I’m still a little bit uncomfortable about the whole thing, but let’s be honest : Wood is certainly not the first industry pro to attempt to play the “casting couch” card with eager young female talent, nor (sadly) will he be the last. And there have been a lot worse offenders than him over the years. But he was the first to get called out publicly on social media for laying on the “I can really help you get a break in the industry, let’s got up to my room and talk about it” line, and he deserved it. I give him credit for not ducking the issue once it came to light, and better still for not “victim-shaming” the target of his unwanted and unwelcome advances — and the fact that feminist colorist Jordie Bellaire is still willing to work with him on Rebels despite having a more-than-full-plate of assignments should probably tell us all that Wood does, in fact, “get it,” and is appropriately regretful for his sleazy, boorish behavior — but I have to confess, the whole thing has seriously dampened my enthusiasm for a guy who was doing not just good, but often excellent work, and wasn’t at all afraid to pepper his narratives with spot-on leftist and progressive themes.

In short, I genuinely thought Wood was one of the good guys. Now, I’m not so sure.

What I am sure of, though, is that he’s come out of his self-imposed exile and is producing some of the strongest work of his career. The aforementioned Rebels that he’s doing over at Dark Horse with artist Andrea Mutti is a supremely engaging Revolutionary War period piece that looks to be his next Northlanders-style historical epic, while assuming the role of his next DMZ-esque series about class politics in a dystopian future we have the just-released Starve from Image Comics, which sees him teaming up with artist extraordinaire Danijel Zezelj and superstar colorist Dave Stewart (who, in a classy move, has been credited along with the writer and artist as a third co-creator on the book and owns a one-third copyright on the material). Wood has come out with rhetorical guns blazing on both titles, and seems bound and determined to win back his fans’ loyalty by producing top-quality product. So far, I gotta say, the results are very impressive indeed.

Just how impressive? How about this — the debut issue of Starve actually has me interested in a story about a goddamn celebrity chef, an “occupation” for which I harbor not just zero respect, but a healthy amount of outright contempt (along with the entire sick, bloated, excessive, nauseating edifice of “foodie culture” in general — half the world is starving to death and we have the nerve to critique food based on its “presentation” and “flavor profile”? Give me a fucking break). What’s next, I ask you? A genuinely human and moving story about a member of the Bush family?

In any case, our main protagonist here is one Gavin Cruikshank (the coolest name for a new character in comics in quite some time), a sort of Anthony Bourdain-if-he-still-shot-smack who hosted, a lifetime ago, a semi-popular cable TV cook-off show called — you guessed it — “Starve,” but chucked the Hollywood glitz and glamour a few years back to go on an extended booze-and-drugs-fueled bender in Hong Kong. Sounds like a plan, right? There’s just one problem — he’ still contractually obligated to do eight more episodes of his show, and the network has called in its marker by cancelling his credit cards and sending a private plane over to bring him back Stateside ASAP.

Ah, well — no good thing lasts forever, I suppose. Oh, and did I mention that while Cruikshank was off on his heroically-extended “lost weekend” that the world economy collapsed, the rich bastards at the top took open control of all aspects of society, his show was transformed into a competitive “cook something good for the 1% or die” monstrosity that’s now hosted by his former chief rival and is the biggest thing on TV, and that his vindictive ex-wife, with whom he has a teenage daughter that he hasn’t seen in years, bulldozed her way to the top of the network that airs it and will therefore be his new boss? Yup, a lot of shit can go down when you’re not paying attention.

Not that Cruikshank is necessarily the easiest hero to root for himself, mind you : the ex has good reason for hating him given that he was well into his 40s — and 17 years into their marriage — before he finally came out of the closet (ignore the scene where he appears to be flirting with a female flight attendant, I guess), but I still suspect his heart is generally in the right place when, after returning to his show and being commanded to cook “the common meat” (dog, in case you were wondering) in a way that his rich paymasters will find appetizing, he determines, with steely resolve, to use the next eight episodes to get his show back, get his money back, get his daughter back, and bring the network crashing down. No doubt about it, friends — flaws and all, I like this cat. Even if he is a chef.

Plus, how cool is is that we’re getting as our central protagonist a gay guy in his mid-5os with substance abuse problems? Seen anyone like that in any Marvel or DC books lately? I didn’t think so.

Nor will you anytime soon, of course, which is why independent comics aren’t just “important,” but vital. And while lots of creators are being offered all the freedom they want with publishers like Image, how many of them are really giving us something that falls all that far outside of standard super-hero adventure fare? Starve isn’t just out to nudge you out of your comfort zone, but to obliterate it altogether — how cool is that?

No doubt this is a sophisticated story, and it’s a damn good thing that it’s presented in such a visually sophisticated manner. Zezelj employs highly inventive panel layouts, cinematic angles, and expertly-deployed shadowing to give his work almost an “updated Krigstein” feel (I say almost because, let’s face it, no one will ever be as flat-out awesome as Bernard Krigstein), and it’s no exaggeration in the least to say that this is the most artistically accomplished book on the racks right now with the possible exception of Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ Providence (even though Zezelj and Burrows’ art styles couldn’t be more different). This is just great art, it’s also smart art, and there are a number of panels here that are more than suitable for gallery framing.

Which brings us, finally, to Dave Stewart, whose amazing colors bring it all home. “Smart art” needs smart coloring, too, after all, and Stewart doesn’t miss a beat, knowing precisely which dominant hues to bring to the foreground at any given time while letting a limited-but-varying selection of secondary tones play out against each other in the background. I’d fork over a 33% ownership stake to get this guy onboard, too, that’s how good his work is.

Are you sold on getting this yet? Because you really should be. About a year ago at this time, Vertigo was saying that their nine-issue series series The Names, by Peter Milligan and Leandro Fernandez, was going to be “the comic where the 1% finally get what’s coming to them” — and while it didn’t exactly deliver on that promise, Wood, Zezelj, and Stewart seem more than ready to do just that, plus interest. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of reading this first issue three times already, and there’s no doubt that I’m — sorry — very hungry for more.

Trash Film Guru Vs. The Summer Blockbusters : “Jurassic World”

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

“Everything old is new again.”

How many times have you heard that one? Well, in the case of the just-released (and record-setting in terms of its worldwide box office take) Jurassic World, it turns out that tired old adage is actually quite true, since director Colin Trevorrow has chosen to hew pretty closely to Steven Spielberg’s original model for this fourth installment in the previously-presumed- moribund franchise extrapolated from the works of Michael Crichton. There’s certainly nothing happening here that one could call overtly “new,” per se, but gosh — it’s been so long since Jurassic Park III that it all just sorta feels new, ya know?

CGI technology has come a long way since the original Jurassic Park made its debut in 1993, as well, and that’s a big factor — maybe even the biggest factor — in this new flick’s by-popcorn-movie-standards “success,” but don’t think that means I’m damning Jurassic World with faint praise. Truth be told, we just got back from seeing it in Imax 3-D and it’s got pretty much everything you’d ever want in a brainless summer thrill ride : superb effects, likable leads, drama, suspense, tension-cutting humor, nicely despicable (sorry, does that even make sense?) villains, and mile-a-minute thrills. My wife and I both left the theater smiling and I ain’t ashamed to admit it.

My only real gripe is one that I knew I’d have going in — Jurassic World continues the morally-questionable trend established at the series’ outset of using kids placed in danger (in this case brothers Zach and Gray, played by Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins, respectively) as its primary focus/narrative crutch, with benevolent adults coming in to save the day (here represented by Chris Pratt’s “dinosaur wrangler” character Owen, and Bryce Dallas Howard — who, goddamit, Hollywood is bound and determined to make a star out of yet! — as their hitherto- inattentive aunt Claire, who’s one of the park’s big-wigs), and I’m sorry, but if you don’t know why that scenario is inherently creepy to some of us, then you haven’t been paying much attention to the some of the uglier and more salacious rumors about Spielberg’s personal life that have been swirling around for decades now. And that I won’t repeat here. So let’s just move on, shall we?

In any case, that solitary-but-predictable qualm aside, the fact of the matter is that Jurassic World is expertly-crafted throwaway fun. Not every movie needs to re-invent the wheel to stand out, and Trevorrow wisely has that figured from the outset here. All we want from his big-budget extravaganza is pretty much the same sort of story that had us jumping in our seats all those years ago, and to feel the same sort of “rush of excitement” that we did back then and which the two previous installments in the series just weren’t able to capture. It’s a dinosaur movie, for Christ’s sake, so just give us a shit-load of dinos on the loose and we’re gonna be happy! How hard is that to figure out?

About the only wrinkles to the formula here are the introduction of the new genetically-engineered “super-dinosaur” Indominus Rex, and the hare-brained scheme laid out by the villainous Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) to train Velociraptors to be — uhhmmm — super-soldiers for the US army. But rich people with more money than sense employing unscrupulous lackeys and amoral scientists have been a Jurassic staple, in one form or another, from jump, and one might even argue that really smart people doing really dumb things has always been at the heart of these flicks. That’s okay with me if the end result is admittedly disposable fare done with this much gusto, flair, and panache. There are a million and one reasons to write off Jurassic World as derivative, senseless garbage, sure — but when you’ve got five or six bloodthirsty dinosaurs battling it out for supremacy at the end, I don’t care about any of those intellectual (or, as is more often the case, pseudo-intellectual) arguments. I’m just having a damn good time.

“Airboy” #1 — Comic Creators Behaving Badly

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

There’s no other comic on the stands quite like James Robinson and Greg Hinkle’s waaaaaaayyy post-modern take on “Airboy” !

Trash Film Guru

Remember Joe Matt’s Peepshow? At the height of the early-’90s autobiographical comics craze, Matt pretty much blew the whole thing up by going places even the most honest and/or foolhardy (depending on your point of view) of his contemporaries would dare venture — mostly by being probably a bit too forthright about the depths of his porn addiction, but he also wasn’t afraid to show what a self-centered, one-sided prick he could be in relationships, and frankly I found that far more candid and unsettling than watching him jerk off for page after page (after page, after page — in fact, Matt himself shared a funny story on facebook a couple of years back about meeting Guillermo Del Toro after a movie premier and Del Toro, upon their introduction, remarking to him that “I’m not sure I want to shake this hand”). The end result of all this, near…

View original post 770 more words