3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain
10,000 A.D.: The Legend of the Black Pearl
Author Archives: Pseudoplasm
The Thing (2011) •••• [four out of five]
Carpenter’s original The Thing is an amazing movie, certainly one of his best and one of my favorite slow-burn horror movies, but it has its flaws. So does The Thing remake / prequel. However, as written by Eric Heisserer and shot by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., The Thing manages to do what so few remakes figure out – that a remake can only get so far on nostalgia, and needs to be able to stand as its own film…
Wrath of the Titans •• [two out of five]
In Wrath of the Titans, director Jonathan Liebesman seems to have a better grasp on action sequences than Clash’s director Louis Letterier – whose keep-moving pace worked well for his Hulk film but seemed like he didn’t use a sense of scale properly for making Clash feel like something epic – and yet I still fell asleep…
House of Voices •• [two out of five]
The production on this is pretty beautiful, and actually looks, in moments, more like Silent Hill than Silent Hill did, and yes, this was before Martyrs, and Laugier grew from the experience from film to film, but, well. Shucks. I just wanted this to be a gem and instead it’s a wandering, voiceless affair that’s not spooky or interesting enough to merit attentiveness…
This Film is Not Yet Rated •• [two out of five]
When I first saw “This Film…,” I loved it. I thought it made a valid point and pointed out incisive truths about the film industry. When I watched it again, I didn’t love it so much. Those two positives still exist, but once you know what’s coming you can focus on the execution, which is bias and almost ignorantly idiotic…
Adventures in the Rifle Brigade – Garth Ennis ♦♦♦ [three out of five]
Who knows what caused Ennis to put this together – 6 extreme war stereotypes form a special ops group during WWII times, sent on precious undercover missions purposefully or accidentally. Ennis wrote 2 3-issue storylines with this troupe and they are, at times, hilarious. But they’re also one-joke humor, and have the feeling of whimsy – a funny idea that either fulfilled a contract or was expanded to fulfill a publishing schedule…
An Accidental Death – Ed Brubaker ♦♦♦♦ [four out of five]
If you’ve enjoyed the more tempered, naturalistic stories Brubaker’s worked on (I’d actually include his work on Gotham Central as an example, oddly enough), ‘An Accidental Death’ is a great read…
Some TV Reviews
The Ballad of Halo Jones – Alan Moore ♦♦♦♦ [four out of five]
If you’re a Moore fan, you’ve already read and sung the praises of Halo Jones. If you’re new to comics or just getting into Moore, I would suggest this as a valid addition to your collection – it’s a good taste of overseas sci-fi and still, however many years on, a pretty bold and original approach to the genre…
Real Steel ••• [three out of five]
You’ve seen this before: the drinkin’, gamblin’ rabble-rouser who – for some reason or another – has to take a youngster under his wing whilst he goes about his drinkin’ and gamblin’ ways. Surely that youngster won’t cause him to expose a heart of gold and turn his life around… While Real Steel doesn’t miss a beat for that genre, it gets some key things right to keep you enjoying the movie…
vaguely-offensive 