WHAT LOOKS GOOD #344: A SORT OF BALANCE?

And here's this week's What Looks Good column!  Enjoy!

WHAT LOOKS GOOD #341: BACK TO THE GRIND

Oops.  Forgot to post a link to this What Looks Good column from a couple of weeks ago.

Mondo Marvel #29 - Annuals 1964

Ring in the Holidays with me as Mondo Marvel #29 takes a look at Fantastic Four Annual #2 and The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 over at Comics Bulletin!

Motörhead - (Don't Need) Religion

Happy Birthday, Lemmy!

MISFITS 2.07 Review

And with that, we say goodbye to our Misfits until next Fall sometime.  And from what I understand they're talking about extending the third season with more episodes and a variety of writers.

Which, I have to admit, I'm not very excited about.

On the one hand, I'd love to see more of our heroes, but on the other, it may spread the show out too thin.  It's impossible to tell at the moment, but I'm looking forward to the new season with a touch of hesitency.  Especially given how this season has wrapped.

But then again, maybe the way this season wrapped sets us up for a more extended approach next time.

We'll see, I guess.  But now, Spoiler Alert!

Film Review: BLACK DEATH (2010)

Black Death
Written by Dario Poloni
Directed by Christopher Smith

And our journey through the films of Christopher Smith comes to an end (for now), with his latest, Black Death.  This is a bit of a departure for Smith, as not only is it the first of his films that isn't straight horror, it's also the first time he's working from someone else's script.

As such, it doesn't demonstrate the leap in creative growth that we've seen through the course of his previous films (Creep (2004), Severance (2006), and Triangle (2009)), but it's still a sure-handed piece of work that lives up to its full potential.

For the uninitiated, Black Death is set during the late 14th Century during the height of the Bubonic Plague in England.  A young monk, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) is struggling with his love of a young lady, Averill (Kimberley Nixon) and his duties to the monastery.  In order to save her from the spread of the disease, Osmund sends her away from the city, where she promises to wait for him in the nearby forest for a week.  If he doesn't decide to leave the monastery by then, he'll never see her again.

After praying for a sign from God to help him make his decision, Ulric (Sean Bean) arrives.  Ulric has been tasked with investigating a local village where it is rumored that the dead walk the earth and the plague has not struck, all thanks to the villagers' pact with the Devil.  As this village is very near where Averill is waiting, Osmund takes this as his sign and volunteers to lead Ulric and his motley band to the village.

Spoilers Ahead!

MISFITS 2.06 Review

When is a finale not a finale?

When there's an extra Christmas episode later in the week, that's when.

But technically, this is the Series Two finale, and we get the wrap-up of the major storylines of the previous five episodes.  Most of it is pretty entertaining, but I must confess to having narrative problems with the way everything comes together in the end.


Spoiler Shields Up!

MISFITS 2.05 Review

We're moving quickly toward the season finale (and the Christmas Bonus Episode!), and visions from Curtis' little jaunt to the future are starting to occur.  Last week's hanging from meathooks was the first event, and this week Simon becomes a man and we get to see what was actually happening up on the rooftop between Curtis and Nikki. 

Here's a hint, it's not superheroic at all, but is pretty graphic.  She wasn't kidding about not wanting to get cum on her dress.

And she's not the only one with that concern as this week; everyone is getting busy.  Ironically, except for Alisha.  Oh!  And except for Nathan.  Poor Nathan.  At least he gets murdered again.  What's all that about a connection between Death and Sex?  I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching Nathan get murdered over and over again.  Is that wrong?

But how was the episode, you ask?  Put your spoiler shields on to find out!

FRINGE 3.09 "Marionette" Review

Fringe
3.09 "Marionette"
Written by Alison Schapker & Monica Breen
Directed by Joe Chappelle

Say goodbye to Fringe for until January 21st, folks.  And when it returns, it's going to be on Friday nights.  You know, the Friday nights on FOX that signals the end of all things Sci-Fi on the damned channel.  Let's face it.  Nothing has survived Friday nights since The X-Files, and while one might argue that Fringe is the natural successor to that show, the ratings aren't great.  And if they're not great on Thursdays, what are they going to be like on Fridays?

Remember, Friday scheduling helped kill Firefly.  It helped kill The Sarah Conner Chronicles.  It helped kill Dollhouse.  Hell, just check out this: The Friday Night Death Slot.  While one might argue that Friday isn't instant death for a show, this is FOX we're talking about.  Look at those numbers.

Hopefully we'll at least get to see the rest of the season, but I have no hope for a fourth.  I mean, the first episode back on Friday the 21st is called "Firefly" for Pete's sake.

Anyway, back to this week's episode, "Marionette". 

Look!  Spoilers!

DEXTER 5.11 "Hop A Freighter" Review

Dexter 
Episode 5.11 "Hop a Freighter"



And here we are, one episode left in the season, and I'll be quite honest.  I have no idea what's going to happen next.

For those of you late to the party, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is in love.  Sure, it's with supremely damaged Lumen (Julia Stiles), with whom he shares the urge to murder wrongdoers, but it's love nonetheless.  Last week we discovered that Jordan Chase (Jonny Lee Miller) was an alias and that his little group of rapists and thugs had been engaging in their funny games for years.  Maybe a decade or more.

And it all started this one time, at camp.

Dex and Lumen had tracked down the last of Chase's pals and, um, disposed of him, while Chase tried to set them up to be caught by Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) and Quinn (Desmond Harrington).  It was a near miss, but thanks to a stray footprint in the mud, Deb was able to start intuiting just what was going on.

Much to Dexter's dismay.

And oh yeah, Liddy's (Peter Weller) caught Dex and Lumen on tape, preparing for a kill.  Oops.

Spoiler Screens Up!

WHAT LOOKS GOOD #338: MULTIMEDIA POTPOURRI

I'm at the helm for this week's What Looks Good column over at Comics Bulletin, and there are lots of interesting things to see in comics, movies, and television this time around!

THE WALKING DEAD Episode 1.06 Review

The Walking Dead
Episode 1.06 "TS-19"
Written by Adam Fierro & Frank Darabont
Directed by Guy Ferland

And with that, we say goodbye to our cast of characters until sometime next year. 

And it's going to be a long year.  But not as long as it could have been, thanks to the convenient tying up of narrative lines that, if there had only been one season, would have been a nice, if bleak, open ending.  Instead, it serves as a way to start the Second Season with something of a clean slate. 

I'm a little surprised that the episode wrapped up as neatly as it did, to be honest.  And with nary a zombie in sight.

I was expecting some sort of crazy scientist twist, with Dr. Jenner (Noah Emmerich) deliberately infecting someone to continue his research into a cure, or something along those lines.  Instead we get something a little more believable, a little less melodramatic (in a pulpy way), and a little more disturbing.

Spoiler Shields On.

MISFITS 2.04 Review

Misfits, Episode 4, took a dark turn this week, but it wasn't entirely unexpected.  I'm going to assume that folks have had enough time to get caught up with last week's revelation about the identity of Super Hoodie?  Well, this week we get a little more exploration of his character, the dynamic between he and Alisha, and the roles these characters are going to be assuming as the series goes on.

Okay, that last bit is more speculation than anything, but I think there are clues already around that this episode kind of brought more into focus.

All that and a new member of the crew.  Sort of.  Two new members, really.  But really, kind of just one.

More on that below the break.  Spoilers Ahoy!

Film Review: TRIANGLE (2009)

Triangle (2009)
Written & Directed by Christopher Smith

I can remember seeing commercials for this movie when it was in the theaters and thought it looked like a lame "Bermuda Triangle" horror film with a masked killer involved.  As such, I promptly ignored it.

That was a mistake, because this movie is pretty amazing.

It was also before I knew who Christopher Smith was.

Smith has written and directed three films so far (follow the links to see my reviews of the first two), Creep (2004), Severance (2006), and Triangle.  He has a new film in production out on DVD in the UK as I type this (thanks Kelvin!), called Black Death, starring Sean Bean and David Warner.  According to IMDB, it's "set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, [where] a young monk is tasked with learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village."  It seems to have premiered at Screamfest in October, but I haven't heard anything else about it on this side of the Atlantic.

You can bet your ass I will see that one in the theaters, if it comes to my crappy little town.

Hats off to good friend Mr. Martini for recommending this one.  His recommendation coincided with our viewing of Severance, proving once again that great minds think alike.

Spoilers Ahead!

Ta Daa!

NEW UK HORROR BONUS: CREEP (2004) Review

Creep (2004)
Written & Directed by Christopher Smith

The night is still young (sort of) and I don't feel like crawling off to bed yet, so before the NaBloPoMo sands finish running through that hourglass, I guess I can throw one more review up for the month.

This time it's a look back at the way the month started, with another New UK Horror Film.  We were so impressed with writer/director Christopher Smith's horror-in-the-woods-while-on-a-team-building-exercise film, Severance, that Dr. Girlfriend and I decided to check out his earlier film, Creep. 

It's nowhere near as polished as Severance, which is to be expected, but it's still a bit of fun.  If only a bit.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Finish Line

So NaBloPoMo is finally over!

And yes, I am going to wuss out with a final post that really doesn't accomplish much.

Thanks to everybody who's been reading.

There will be more soon, particularly once Dr. Girlfriend and I decide on our next film festival subject matter.  We'd appreciate any suggestions that you folks might make.  Right now I'm leaning toward Assassins in Film, or perhaps Director-Specific runs of films (David Cronenberg and/or John Carpenter are at the top of my list), but I'd love to hear some ideas of what others might want to watch, read and talk about.

Now I'm going to go pretend I don't have a blog for a couple of days.

See ya!

THE WALKING DEAD Episode 1.05 Review

The Walking Dead
1.05 "Wildfire"
Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Written by Glen Mazzara

I'm writing this just minutes after watching the latest episode of The Walking Dead, so I'm not sure how coherent it's going to be.  Up to this point, it's been kind of easy to discuss the show, since I've been intimately familiar with the comic and love the entire genre of zombie narratives.  Sure, a lot of the field is awful.  But there are gems in there, to be sure.

The best works tend to deal with the people realistically.  Which means with all the tragedy, anxiety, hope, fear, humor, successes, and failures.  That's one of the things that The Walking Dead does best in its comic format, and it's one of the things that the TV series is shaping up to do best, too.

Most of this episode is straight out of the comic, but we're getting a huge plot shift here, and I'm not sure how to react to it just yet.

Get your Spoiler Shields up, and let's see if I can figure out what it is I want to say.

A LATE ZOMBIE REVIEW: DEAD SET

For the past three years, Dr. Girlfriend and I have initiated a yearly Easter Zombie Film Marathon (you know, to celebrate the Resurrection), and after watching each film, I've written up a blog post about it.  For the most part.  2009 was a rough year, schedule-wise, and all we really got to watch was the UK Zombie TV series, Dead Set.  And I never wrote it up.

So a friend was over last night, and he'd never seen it, so we watched it one more time.  And since we're nearing the end of NaBloPoMo, and my brain is starting to shut down, I figured now was as good a time as any to write it up.  But before we get to that, here's a list of the other Easter Zombie Film Marathon Entries so far:

2008:

• Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
• Zombie Honeymoon (2004)
• Horror Express (1973)
• Blue Sunshine (1976)
• I Walked With a Zombie (1943)
• Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead (1997)
• Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) (1974)
• Dead & Buried (1981)
• Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1972)
• Deathdream (Dead of Night) (1972)
• City of the Living Dead (Gates of Hell) (1980)
• Demons (1985)
• Fido (2006)
• Battlefield Baseball (2003)
• Enter. . . Zombie King! (Zombie Beach Party) (2003)
• Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love (2003)
• Les Revenants (They Came Back) (2004)

2010:

• Pontypool (2009)
• To Kako (Evil) (2005)
• Boy Eats Girl (2005)
• Isle of the Dead (1945)
• Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)
• Sugar Hill (1974)
• Night of the Comet (1984)
• Night of the Creeps (1986)
• The Zombie Diaries (2006)
• Plaga Zombie - Zona Mutante (2001)
• Dead Snow (2009)
• Grey Knight (1993)

As you can see, 2009 was a bit of a letdown with just Dead Set and some various television show episodes involving zombies.

Anyway, Spoiler Shields On, and away we go!

CRONENBERGIAN DUEL: SPLICE vs HUMAN CENTIPEDE

Over the past few weeks I've finally caught up with a couple of films that, from what I'd heard, each attempted to stake a claim to the cinematic void left in Cronenberg's wake as he's moved on to more mainstream fare.  Both films were released in 2009 and both do decent jobs at what they set out to accomplish.  Critical reaction has been split with mostly positive reviews of Vincenzo Natali's Splice, and mostly negative reviews of Tom Six's The Human Centipede (First Sequence).

Of course, as usual, I had pretty much the opposite reactions.

I know both of these films have already been out for more than a year, and everyone I know has already seen them, but still, for those who are as far behind as I was, Spoilers Ahead!