This issue is all about journeys. For Ich, it’s a journey through the soul as he works towards figuring out his next move. For Sebastian, it’s a hunt to find Ich and track him down but more is revealed about this enforcer of god’s law in the second issue. He is revealed to be a demon (hinted at in the previous issue) and the silent man who follows him is not some kind of illusion but is instead an assassin who is only known as “The German.” It was a bit hard to tell in issue one what he was as the character says nothing and disappeared from panel to panel. Considering this is a series with magical masks and worms which take people on soul searching walkabouts, it becomes easy to question what is real and what is an illusion. Still, this intrigue will help to keep readers engaged.
Not much action takes place compared to the previous issue. It’s easy to see this issue’s purpose is to deliver more backstory about the characters and where each is coming from. Luckily, Ariel Olivetti’s art hasn’t diminish in quality and the look of the world he is crafting is still intense, detailed, and incredibly eye pleasing. Fans of art in comics need to make sure to give this comic a read as the time and effort which went into creating it translates onto the page.
The series is still engaging but the lack of any real action scenes really hinders this second issue especially with the fact it’s part of a miniseries and halfway of the story has been told. Still, the art is engaging and the series is shaping up to be one of the best Graphic Novels which will be produced this year once all the individual issues are collected.
Movie theater marathons are all the rage these days, and 20th Century Fox is getting in on the action. The studio has announced plans for an Independence Day double feature leading up to the release of Independence Day: Resurgence.
The first film starts at 5pm the day before Resurgence‘s official release date. The sequel is scheduled for 8pm, giving fans the opportunity to “be among the first to see” it.
See the flyer below for the details:
Click here for more information and to get tickets!
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Independence Day: Resurgence hits theaters everywhere on June 24th. It features the return of stars Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman, while adding Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher to the war for humanity. Will Smith is not reprising his role of Captain Steven Hiller.
Despite reports to the contrary, Channing Tatum remains committed to playing Gambit. The actor is attached to play the Cajun mutant, but people are wondering if he might do a DC film.
Recently, it was stated Rick Famuyiwa would direct The Flash for Warner Brothers and DC Films. On Twitter, the filmmaker was noted to have followed Tatum, whose planned Gambit movie has yet to begin production. Previously, the “X-Men” spin-off was scheduled to shoot last March for an October 7, 2016 release. Rumours alleged Tatum had been planning to star in a DC film, such as Shazam.
However, these reports appear to be unfounded. According to Latino Review”, a source described the rumours as “totally off-the-mark, and assured us that Fox was moving forward with Gambit, with Tatum fully committed.” Yet the fact remains that Gambit is still without a director.
Currently, 20th Century Fox doesn’t have non-compete clauses with regard to actors playing other comic book characters. Such examples include Halle Berry appearing as Storm in the original X-Men trilogy and starring in 2004’s Catwoman. Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds also played Green Lantern in the 2011 box office flop.
Marvel Studios does have a stipulation that contracted actors can’t play other Marvel characters. However, Guardians of the Galaxy star Vin Diesel is attached to play Black Bolt in an Inhumans movie, which is currently in development.
Despite the delays, producer Simon Kinberg says Fox is focused on bringing Gambit to the big screen. He explained they are determined to find the right tone for the script and voice for the character.
Patrick Wilson is one of the finest actors working today, honest to God he is. He is a personality chameleon, able to garner sympathy from the biggest of scumbags, or pity from heroes. He can be a charmer in an indie picture, a leading man in a blockbuster, it doesn’t matter to him. The problem is, the guy just doesn’t show up in as many films as some of his peers. Now, if you look deep enough you can occasionally spot a VOD release from Wilson, but as far as marketable cinema, we simply need more Patrick Wilson.
Here are his five greatest films:
5. Bone Tomahawk – S. Craig Zahler’s brilliant 2015 western/horror was a terrific example of genre mashup and an unbelievable cast playing off one another to perfection. Patrick Wilson plays Arthur, the town doctor whose wife is kidnapped by a tribe of cannibals. Despite having his broken leg in a splint, Arthur is determined to track down the savages with Sheriff Hunt (Kurt Russell and his mustache), Richard Jenkins’ Chicory, and Matthew Fox’s Brooder.
As a straight genre role, Wilson uses his universal charm and determination to hold his own against Russell and Jenkins. He also has the toughest task here, given his broken leg in the story, and it allows Wilson to show off the more physical side of his acting talents.
4. The Conjuring – James Wan’s house of horrors throwback is terrific for a number of reasons. It hearkens back to a classic “haunting” tale, it has genuine scares, and an ensemble that includes Llili Taylor, Ron Livingston, and Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, real-life paranormal investigators. Wilson is again part of an ensemble, and his work here and in Wan’s Insidious serves similar purposes. But as a film surrounding Wilson and Co., The Conjuring has the slight edge.
3. Hard Candy – This disturbing little gem from the mid 2000s put Patrick Wilson – and his costar Ellen Page – on the cinematic map. Here, Wilson plays Jeff, a photographer who meets a young girl online and invites her back to his home for “a photo shoot.” And by young, we’re talking fifteen. Hard Candy subverts expectations early on when Page’s Hayley turns the tables on Jeff and things grow increasingly dark as the story plummets to its nihilistic conclusion.
This is Wilson showing off his finest talent: the ability to squeeze every last ounce of sympathy from unsympathetic characters. Jeff is a scumbag, at least we think he is, but Wilson’s desperate portrayal and insistence that he’s an innocent photographer begin to work on the audience. Is he really a monster? We’re pretty sure, but not totally sure, and that’s because of Wilson’s dedicated performance.
2. Watchmen – Another ensemble story, Zack Snyder’s (only good) comic-book adaptation was a polarizing but ambitious story. Spanning decades, and existing in an alternate 1980s that makes the dystopian 1985 from Back to The Future II look like a walk in the park, Watchmen has terrific performances top to bottom. Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach nabs most of the accolades here, but Patrick Wilson’s Dan Dreiberg is an exercise in nuance in a film not that committed to such subtlety.
Dreiberg is formerly Nite Owl – a sort of Batman cover band – but in the story of Watchmen Dreiberg has hung up his cape and cowl. He’s pudgy, timid, emasculated, but when the time comes he slips into the costume once again with great zeal. Dreiberg is the audience’s inroad to the film, the only former superhero who seems to be a truly good person, and Wilson’s performance is vital in bringing humanity to the film.
1. Little Children – If Hard Candy put Patrick Wilson on the map, Little Children proved he had the ability to carry an honest adult story. In Todd Field’s suburban melodrama, Wilson plays Brad “The Prom King” Adamson, the object of lust for desperate housewives who falls into an affair with Kate Winslet’s Ruth. Brad is an Adonis drifting aimlessly through this landscape of dissolved dreams. He’s reluctant to let go of his former glory, opting for late-night football and watching skateboarders over studying for his BAR exam.
While the story veers into disturbing subject matter with a subplot involving a sex offender ruffling feathers in the neighborhood (Jackie Earle Haley, owning again), this remains the story of Wilson’s Brad and Winslet’s Ruth. It’s a terrific display of Wilson’s good looks, his smarmy jock persona, and once again his ability to garner sympathy where there should be none.
Some fans complain that the mid 2000’s seem a little barren. True, very few years can match the success of horror’s late 70’s to mid 80’s run. However, I honestly believe if you dig around enough you can easily secure enough valid entries to mold an interesting and debatable top 5 list for any year. Let’s start with 5 fun fright films celebrating their 10th anniversaries in 2016.
5. Slither
This creature feature stars Nathan Fillion and the incredibly eye-catching Elizabeth Banks. Slither is a throwback film with a nostalgic 80’s double feature feel. A fantastic early effort from Hollywood heavyweight James Gunn that almost perfectly balances the absolute ridiculous and gooey monster filled fun. All though it sometimes skirts close to former genre staples like David Cronenberg’s 70’s masterpiece Shivers, it always feels like a well crafted mix of originality and homage. 6.7/10
4. Silent Hill
Not everyone’s cup of tea but this 2006 supernatural horror film based on the iconic game of the same title, maintains a large and active fan base visible on social media and every major horror event I attend. A more than serviceable cast including Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean add substance to this beautiful shot nightmare. Some of horror’s most visually exciting creatures live in this hellish town of mystery and madness. 6.9/10
3. Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon
A fan favorite that came out of nowhere 10 years ago and had old school horror hounds making the obligatory “Have you seen this yet?” phone calls. A decade later it holds up well as a smart and creative take on the slasher sub-genre. Leslie is calculated, nice and deadly. He validates his predecessors before lulling us into an entertaining and memorable finale. One question remains, all these years and no sequel? Leslie has potential to join the greats, he just need another outing or two. 7.1/10.
2. Black Christmas
There’s not a better looking slasher gore film on this list. It strays from the 70’s classic enough to make it worth watching on its own merit. A superb cast of young and veteran actresses including Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Lacey Chabert offer better than average horror movie performances. The top-notch cast combined with the many great kill scenes, make the 2006 version of Black Christmas and it’s 1974 original, a perfect holiday double feature. It’s a remake and some won’t appreciate that but. it’s one of my 14-year-old daughters favorite yuletide watches and it seems to be a classic for that upcoming generation of fans. 7.4/10.
1. The Hills Have Eyes
Yes, another remake, and our top entry at that. Shame on us. However, you have to confess this amazing vision of terror from original creator Wes Craven (R.I.P.) and talented French filmmaker Alexandre Aja is truly unforgettable, all over again. The ultimate examination of a suburban family’s fight for life against a forgotten clan’s brutality and guerrilla warfare tactics. The bloody opus is redone at pitch perfect tone. Including the original version’s intensity and uncomfortable sequences designed to make the viewer throw their preconceived notions of horror on film completely out the window. 8/10.
That’s all for now Horror Hounds. Don’t forget to vote for your favorites in the comment section, or feel free to leave your own top 5 list from 2006. Come see me at The Horror Hound Page & Group on Facebook. We’ll be back next week with our top 5 horror films of 2001 (15 years ago) to discuss with all you fans out there. See us then.
‘Conjuring 2’ Proves If You’ve Seen One Haunting Then You’ve Seen Them All
While the supernatural scares are always popular with American horror audiences, ‘The Conjuring 2‘ shows how tired this genre is becoming.
The sequel to 2013’s ‘The Conjuring‘ follows the returning Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga) as they reluctantly take on another haunting. This time in gloomy North London. After dealing with the infamous Amityville case, the pair want a break. The paranormal activity that haunts the English family is enough to bring them out for one last investigation.
My biggest gripe with the film is the unoriginal plot being based around jump scares. I’ve never noticed how lazy these supernatural moments come off until you see doors being locked just for some weak tension. If the film focused more on original elements and less on cliches, it would have been a far more entertaining experience. ‘Conjuring 2‘ felt like a carbon-copy of the first film.
And who was asking for that pointless scene of Patrick Wilson singing Elvis? The whole theater was on the edge of their seat for that…
It isn’t all negative though. There was a scene with a creepy painting that unnerved me. Very rarely can a scare be built that well and this was a great example of how to do it. The film needs far more inventive new spooks like that.
Also the acting from everyone involved was so honest. The fear was believable, the humor was natural, and the chemistry between Wilson & Farmiga is undeniable.
‘Conjuring 2′ isn’t downright deplorable but needs to change its ways. Director James Wan (Saw, Insidious,Furious 7, Aquaman) has banked on his horror formula for years now. If he wants to make impactful genre pieces though, there has to be some sort of re-invention within this supernatural horror genre.
Do you agree with my review? Will you be seeing ‘The Conjuring 2‘?
LEGO is probably the worst offender in the toy market when it comes to spoiling movies. While they aren’t always accurate they can sometimes ruin major surprises such as Giant Man in Captain America: Civil War. This new set for the upcoming Doctor Strange shows us a number of things such a Wong taking flight with fans, a look at the Sanctum Sanctorum, and Doctor Strange and Baron Mordo fighting some sort of monster coming out of the wall.
The set doesn’t reveal any other details; we don’t know who is in control of this monster or where it comes from. This seems like a detail that could be seen in the next trailer but there is no way of knowing for sure. As always if you want to be spoiler free for Marvel movies it’s best not to collect LEGO.
Its been a while since I’ve done a rant post…right? And of course it wouldn’t be one of my signature rant posts unless it was a topic that 99% of people don’t really seem to care about or even think about. So today I’m going to bring up the issue about how to rate a show. Mostly I want this to be helpful, since I think that if you know where you rate something it can make it easier to talk about it to other people and share that kind of stuff. So before I get into how I think you can more accurately score your favorite and least favorite anime, let me give a little context as to why I felt the need to even talk about this stupid topic.
I was listening to a podcast I hate (because I just do things like that). They ended up scoring a show and I heard one of the reviewers talk about how when they score based on objective things from the show and don’t really compare it to other shows. This is completely the wrong way to score something and you won’t get anything out of scoring something this way. I was so mad that someone with a fair bit of influence would say something that no reviewer or critic would ever say. So I felt the need to contact them and get a little more context (still waiting on a response though).
First of all, scores are entirely personal. When you score something it doesn’t have to do with anyone else receiving that piece of work. A score is a personal decision you make to give something you viewed. Of course scores can change over time for good or bad depending on how your viewpoint changes. But there should never be another person trying to influence you scoring something if that isn’t indeed the way you feel about it. Of course someone can argue your views and maybe influence you otherwise, but thats something different entirely. One of the biggest thing I think is bad about people scoring these days is giving things high scores because everyone else thinks it’s a masterpiece except the one scoring it. That’s bullshit, why would you give something you didn’t like a high score? Some would say objective qualities, but I think that holds little value in a review/score.
They always bring up objectivity on that aforementioned podcast, and it sickens me every time. Everything is subjective to a certain extent and art is “almost” always going to get different opinions on what works for different people. Since there are so many different types of people there are countless things that will work or not work for a person when it comes to art/entertainment. So talking about things that are subjective and making them sound objective won’t help anyone who watches your review (except for the extremely gullible and sheepish type). People respond to emotion and tend to connect with other people’s similar emotions. When your review/score something, it’s better to talk about how something made you feel and why it made you feel that way. Then someone can better understand why you would feel that way and may even realize a shared opinion. Any person can read and understand a book on storytelling and blurt out formula’s on what a show succeeded in or not. It takes a true reviewer/critic to understand why something made them feel a certain way. These are the most important reviews and you will find you get more out of these. How a show makes you feel is the only thing that should drive you to watch it. Hence the way a show made you feel should be the biggest consideration when scoring something. Now of course there are a lot of variables when considering how something made you feel and some of it has to do with why. But if you aren’t being true to your feeling about a show, you might as well not score it at all.
Another thing is that an Anime, or any piece of media for that matter, doesn’t exist in a bubble. Some like to act like they don’t compare things when taking into consideration a score or how to feel about a show. This is a lie and nonsense. Scores mean nothing if you don’t have something to compare it to. It doesn’t matter if a show is the worst thing ever to be made, if it exists in this bubble that some people pretend to use, then its always going to be the best. It has to be, because the only thing it has to stand up to is itself. An easier way to look at this is to think of scoring as giving value to shows on a personal level. It’s in out nature to give value to things and not to other things. Because somethings make us feel better than other things, and we are smart enough to tell the difference between those things. Were not monkeys like those people on said podcast that just forget what they’ve watched previously and try to blindly score something with no compass. We have a compass that remembers what we like and why we like, so we should use it.
Like I said before, this topic is completely ridiculous and petty and wont really enhance your anime viewing experience. But I think that if you are more true to the things you like and show that when you talk to other people, the conversations will be better. There will be better understanding of viewpoints, and empathizing, and maybe a little bit of influence towards something you like. Like scores, anime/art is meaningless if we can’t share it with others, and being able to share your opinions honestly is an important tool when you enjoy that art.
The first end credit scene at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier was not the scene that fans were expecting, After two movies of build up and hints many people thought that Bucky would be taking up the shield and becoming Captain America. Instead, Bucky decided to not only willingly freeze himself he does it under the protection of T’Challa in the fictional country of Wakanda.
While on a panel at Wizard World Philadelphia this weekend actor Sebastian Stan was asked about what the next appearance of the Winter Soldier will entail since that scene seems to hint that he will be in Black Panther.
“I don’t know, man. I mean, there’s obviously a very clear answer but I’m not maybe say it, now. Where did he end up at the end of the movie? That’s the movie he should be in. I feel like that would be the natural… But I don’t know.”
It isn’t that surprising that Stan isn’t 100% sure about whether or not he will turn up in the movie but the team up would be an interesting one. T’Challa spent all of Captain America: Civil War trying to kill Bucky only to turn around and not only give him sanctuary but also refer to him as a ‘victim’ which no one in the Marvel universe has done.
The Marvel universe is expanding and with so many characters running around it only makes sense that smaller team-ups would begin to happen. It will make everyone appearing in Avengers: Infinity War a little easier to handle.
Black Panther is due for release on February 16, 2018 and is being directed by Ryan Coogler.
There’s no doubt that the idea of Mad Men star Jon Hamm playing super slapstick spy Sterling Archer enters the realm of dream casting. That being said, it shouldn’t surprise fans to learn that Archer show producers Adam Reed and Matt Thompson have been heavily considering the possibility. Archer recently completed its seventh season and has unfortunately received declining ratings over its past few runs.
During a recent sit down with Daily Beast, Thompson discussed the future of the series and the very real concept of a Archer live-action film adaptation.
In the interview Thompson talks about the growing debate among his team about the project and the inevitable (and likely soon approaching) last season of the animated comedy.
“It’s all up to whatever Adam [Reed] wants, to do, but he and I have definitely talked about it,” stated Thompson. He added the discussion has been an ongoing conversation over the past few seasons. ““We vacillate between if you do it, why are you doing the TV show? And should it be live-action, or should it be cartoon?”
Thompson went on to explain that the crew behind the hit FX series have always had one name in mind as their pick to play Sterling Archer himself. “It’s Jon Hamm. If Archer goes live-action, I do believe it will be Jon Hamm.” The tone of that remark may seem harsh to fans of the animated series given that lead titular character’s spot-on comedic timing is often attributed to the vocal performance of H. Jon Benjamin. While Benjamin doesn’t exactly fit Sterling’s physical description, it’s hard to imagine any Archer project without him involved.
Despite the delays, producer Simon Kinberg says Fox is focused on bringing Gambit to the big screen. He explained they are determined to find the right tone for the script and voice for the character.
