Today, I will be posting my favorite Super Bowl commercials.
From mashable.com
E-Trade’s 2010 Super Bowl ad that featured the E-Trade baby talking to his girlfriend about the importance of having a diversified portfolio was a hit with fans, but not with everyone. Actress Lindsay Lohan sued E-Trade on grounds that the commercial was a parody of her life, as it featured a “milkaholic” baby named “Lindsay.” The $100 million lawsuit was settled, but Lohan’s reputation hasn’t improved much.
Today, I will be posting my favorite Super Bowl commercials.
From askmen.com
This was the best offering from this year’s Doritos/Pepsi “Crash The Super Bowl” finalists, though the ad’s seemingly endless setup could annoy some viewers. The payoff, however, is worth it. Just when you think you already know the joke, it surprises. For every man who’s ever dated a woman with a dumb dog, you know the temptation to taunt it. She hates you for it, but that only makes the temptation stronger. Trying to lure a pug into a glass door became a new pastime for Americans after this aired — or they at least tried it with their drunken pals.
Today, I will be posting my favorite Super Bowl commercials.
Budweiser, Frogs (1995)
Croaking frogs saying “Bud…Weis….Errrrr.” This was my junior year of high school and we didn’t stop talking about this commercial for months.
Jeff Lemire takes us away from the Baker family this issue to focus on one of Buddy Baker’s films as the lead in Red Thunder. Right away Jeff Lemire uses the narrative in the film to parallel whats happening in Buddy’s life with his family. We see Buddy as Chas, a down on his luck father who is separated from his wife and hasn’t seen his son in over a month . When Chas decides to suit back up to earn the respect and interest of his son and ex – wife things go terribly wrong and he ends up in the hospital. Chas is greeted by his ex wife and son in the hospital and its apparent that they don’t want to see him do this anymore , but Chas is not picking up on the fact they want him to stop.
Jeff Lemire nods his hat to films like Crazy Heart and The Wrestler, even on the opening page the film is presented by Liramax and is directed by Ryan Daranovsky obvious nods to The Wrestler. The narrative switches back to Buddy and his family when we see the picture start to buffer and stop. It is here that we are brought back into the van that is now the Baker’s shelter from The Rot as they are on the run in search of Alec Holland aka Swamp Thing.
The art in this book is handled by Jeff Huet for the movie scenes and Travel Foreman for the scenes after. Both artists do an amazing job of creating an atmosphere wit Jeff drawing very cinematic scenes to help establish that you are watching a film and Travel delivering cleaner line work than Ive seen in previous issues . As always this is a pretty book.
Jeff Lemire continues to tell a well crafted tale and seems to be It seems like Buddy’s role as the Red Tornado is going to have more in common with the way his family views him in the immediate future . Animal Man continues to be one of DC’s books on the stands . Lemire is doing a great job and has more than able artists backing him up creating a very different Superhero book that you cant help but love.
Just got to check this out today. MaxLandis the writer of Chronicle decided to give us a very relevant and hilarious retelling of The Death and Return of Superman. Stuff like this makes me happy that famous people are nerds too.Heres a brief description followed by the short film. A somewhat-mostly-accurate educational parody film by Max Landis, Produced by Bryan Basham Starring Elden Henson, Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Morgan Krantz and many more.
There have been a few films that have caught me by surprise by how well they execute a story in their genre. Chronicle definitely falls into the realm of the found footage genre . Films like Paranormal Activity and The Devil Inside have proven to be successful at the box office using Horror as their choice to carry a story. Chronicle however falls more into the territory of a teen drama / superhero film.
The film starts by introducing us to Andrew a socially awkward teen who is picked on at school , has a mother who is terminally ill and a drunken father that takes out his frustration on Andrew because he was let go from the Fire Department due to an injury . Andrew has bought a camera and decides that from now on he is filming everything in his life. He wants to document his life and his experiences . Andrew’s only immediate friend is his cousin Matt who convinces him to go to a rave with him. Andrew brings his camera to document their time together and after getting picked on again takes a break outside . Were introduced to our third main character Steve at this point who is running for school class president . He tells Andrew that he is with Matt and that he needs to follow him and get what they found on tape . At this point if youve seen the film you know these three characters end up discovering something that gives them their powers. The whole sequence is done well and Andrew’s camera ends up malfunctioning as Steve starts to have a nose bleed.
We jump into what seems to be a few weeks into the future. Andrew , Matt and Steve have all grown closer to each other as they realize that their brush with death has given them the ability to control things with their mind. This part of the film is what I would refer to as the harmless part of the film . We get to see our three main characters becoming closer friends as they share a bond and secret now that binds them together. One of the first things Andrew learns how to control with his mind is his camera . This is one of the single smartest choices director Josh Trank and Writer max Landis make in the movie. It allows us as viewers a way to view all three characters interacting together while the camera pans and moves around them . You never feel as though your watching a fond footage film at this point.
After a day of goofing off Matt , Andrew and Steve are driving home and at this point things in the movie start to get dark. You start to see Andrew change as he realizes how powerful he is becoming. The three friends agree to not use their powers against other people and not to use them in public and things seem to go back to normal. Steve invites Matt and Andrew to meet him out in an abandon spot , and reveals to them that he has learned how to fly. This leads to one of the coolest sequences of the film. I don’t know if another film has managed to achieve the sense of flying better than Josh Trank has in Chronicle . The sound editing use of camera and special effects are done so well.
Shortly there after a series of events happen to Andrew that lead him to feeling helpless and picked on again. I don’t want to spoil anything for you but the film takes a very unexpected turn after this and has you by the throat until the climactic and powerful finale that sees all of Seattle get destroyed as Andrews passed rejection and abuse effects him and his relationships with his new best friends.
This film was made for only $12 million dollars but is executed in a way that is comparable to District 9. The three main actors all come off convincing in their portrayal of being friends and teenagers . The script itself bu Max Landis is great. It doesn’t talk down to the audience and manages to tell a heart-felt story with great characters and strong story telling. Josh Trank pulls off an amazing job with showing us a found footage film that doesn’t manage to make you feel sick to watch and does an amazing job of having the characters not act with one and another but the camera itself as its being controlled by Andrew . All three of the main actors definitely do a great job in their roles but this movie belongs to Dane Dehaan and as Andrew. He manages to have you sympathize with him in the beginning of the film and fear him in the latter part of the movie . You see how he could turn into the monster he becomes but also sympathize with his journey along the way.
I urge everyone to check this film out in the theaters this week before new trailers pop up ruining the final 15 min of the film. There are huge action sequences that you need to see without having them spoiled for you . Buildings fall characters die , and we see a fight that is comparable to Superman 2 , but executed again for only $12 million dollars. Everyone involved in the film will have a safe future in Hollywood and if Fox decides to go forward with offering Josh Trank the Fantastic Four franchise I hope he brings Max Landis along for the ride. In short go see this film.
Venom #13
Writer: Rick Remender
Art: Tony Moore and Val Staples [Color]
Still in Vegas after being blackmailed and going A.W.O.L. to steal an item (which turned out to be the Toxin symbiote) for Jack O’Lantern and Crime Master, Flash Thompson has fallen back into his alcoholism to cope and pushing Betty Brant as far away as possible. After all, the closer she, or anyone else, is to him, the more danger they’re in as a result of the aforementioned villains knowing who he is.
Flash’s bender won’t last long, though. The Red Hulk, on orders from Captain America, has arrived to collect him. Unfortunately for both of them, there’s evil–for real–afoot in Vegas thanks to a certain black-hearted entity who wants to bring Hell to Earth.
Blackheart, the son of the devil Mephisto, is masquerading as a casino owner and is intent on tricking the new Ghost Rider, Alejandra, into completing the final step of his plan. Meanwhile, X-23 has her own issues with Blackheart, who she only believes to be a casino owner who purchased a vial of her blood on the black market.
It’s only natural that all four heroes should converge when the shit hits the fan later in the issue.
Overall, this issue moves at a nice pace. Rick Remender does a great job of establishing why X-23 and Ghost Rider are in Vegas, as well as giving readers a quick background on who they are. The student-mentor conflict between Alejandra and former Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze is also very well-executed, as are the Venom/Red Hulk fight panels.
The only thing that kind of made me scratch my head here were the “symbiote warriors”–symbiote-outfitted clones of X-23. While the idea is very much in line with my inner 8-year-old’s dreams of a Wolverine-bonds-with-the-Venom-symbiote scenario, it all just feels very ’90s now.
Regardless, there’s a certain level of camp there to be appreciated. Tony Moore and Val Staples capture this with realistic-yet-pulpy art that matches the over-the-top nature of a story like this.
With five more parts coming in the next five weeks, this story has potential to be a fun ride.
STORY: 7.5/10
ART: 8.5/10
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Written by: Ed Brubaker Art by: Sean Phillips Cover by: Sean Phillips Publisher: Image
Still white-hot from the hype-machine of the interweb, Fatale has once again sold out at the distribution level. Luckily I was able to snag a copy at my local shop this time around. From what I understand this comic is still flying off the stands. Check out my review of issue #1 if you missed out on all the action last time around. Layers of Lovecraftian-esque lore are woven around this mystery as we dive deeper in to the quest for some ancient heirloom. The McGuffin plot device set’s this one up for another round immersive cult drama.
Brubaker doesn’t beat around the bush and ditches some speculation baggage straight away for the sake of clarity. In the “Story Thus Far” opening section in Fatale #2 we are given some new information about the characters and a reveal about the back story. Josephine from present day is also the mystery girl from the 50’s in the lost manuscript (and from the what I gathered from the sub-text it is a true story). Apparently Josephine is some kind of succubus ala Hellraiser, because she hasn’t aged a day since the ’50’s (it was visually hinted, but now I definitely know). Also Nicolas’s god-father, Dominic Reign (also known as Hank Reign), is the main reporter character in this apparently autobiographical manuscript. Things that were clues are just straight up spelled out for you. Now I can just concentrate on the 1950’s back story at hand. Thank god, because it’s a tangled one.
Josephine is searching for an heirloom that Detective Walter Brookes has hidden in his home somewhere. That triangular cult marking from the first issue is scratched on the floorboard, but it turns out o be a dead-end revealing military medals and old war photos. Meanwhile Brookes is investigating an occult murder/suicide that was discovered last issue. They’ve stumbled cult members who’ve sliced off their own eyelids so they can stare at the sun. A chase and a beat down later, the cult member tell’s Brooke’s cryptically that the “Bishop will meet with you”. The next thing you know Hank Reigns is being chewed out by someone in a bar about an article he wrote to stir-some shit up about police corruption. Then he’s deep in his affair with Josephine. She used to be Brookes’ lover and talks about what a bastard he is and how she has to make his life hell. There’s a juicy bit about the cult symbol and it’s meaning is revealed “no one, not even god, can see you when you sin”. It gets a bit convoluted after that. A slit throat, adultery discovered, and a guy with razor-sharp teeth.
With all this cross-cutting the web of this story seems like it is getting out of hand. Ed started us off with some clean-up in the summary, but muddied the rest of the chapter. Plots and subplots are not defined enough for me to really understand what is going on. I get the general character motivations but not much beyond that. Which is a shame because I really love the subject matter. Brubaker’s narrative writing style flows great and Sean Phillips gritty noir art is in top-form. Just explain some shit, because I’m stuck in quagmire of loose-ends and don’t know which way is up. I need a character to hang my hat on. Who’s the lead, Nicolas Lash or Dominic “Hank” Reign? Or are they supposed to be the same character and just not know it? Also Josephine or the cult need some details revealed to get this one back on track. Sadly I find myself not really caring about any or the characters because everything is so shrouded in mystery. It’s only issue 2 though, so I’m going to give Brubaker the benefit of the doubt. He’s rarely steers off-course for long.
The second installment of Fatale is a slow intricate burn of what the fuck. The plot is dense; much in the same way The Girl WIth a Dragon Tattoo is complicated: A shit-ton of characters, WWII back story, Nazi deviants and morally ambiguous behavior.There’s a lot going on, however there’s such a genuine draw to the writing style and subject that you can help but being sucked in. It’s obvious that more pieces of the puzzle need to be put in place order to appreciate the full picture here. I would say that this is exactly the kind of comic that you wait for the trade to come out, but then you wouldn’t get the awesome bonus features that Brubaker and Phillips give you at the end. Jess Nevin writes an essay on Edgar Allen Poe and Phillips illustrates a gorgeous 2-page portrait to accompany it. Never the less, I worry that the difficult and inaccessible nature of this tale will eventually scare off readers. That would suck, because despite my criticisms I really want this to do well
Story: 6.5/10 Art: 8/10
Jerry Nelson
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Winter Soldier #1 Writer: Ed Brudbaker Artist: Butch Guice and Bettie Breitweiser
James “Bucky” Barnes has lived one tragically long life. Recently, within the pages of Fear Itself, we believed Bucky (aka Captain America) to have found peace at the mercy of Sins Asgardian hammer. But thanks to Nick Fury and his stash of a version of the Infinity Formula, Bucky was revived by a heartbroken (Black) widows request. The Marvel universe now believes Bucky to be dead and only Nick Fury, Black Widow and Steve Rogers know the truth: Bucky Barnes has revived the legendary Russian agent, Winter Soldier! Bucky is back within his element, cast in the shadows. His plan? To tie up loose ends from his days as the puppeted Winter Solider agent during the Cold War. He won’t be alone, it seems that the Black Widow is a permament partner.
This issue kicks off with the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow entering a retired soviet base, presently disguised with a casino sitting atop it. Both Barnes and Romanov being natural spies, they quickly make way to a secret door leading to the underground base. The couple make a cute game of “First to be seen buys the mornings breakfast” as they incapcitate gaurds along the various complex corridors. They come along a familiar stasus pod, much like the pod the Winter Soldier was kept “preserved” inbetween missions. But this pod is clearly marked with the name: Zephyr. Could there still be undercover agents exectuing covert assassinations within the Marvel universe? If so, who controls them? And what does it all have to do with Dr. Doom!?
Winter Soldier creator, Ed Brubaker, launches the series as writer. Brubaker was a big pull for me, as he truly understands these characters and their personal voices. This is officially a continuation of his Winter Soldier mythology, first started within the pages of Captain America. And spy espionage dramas are both, Brubaker and Barnes expertee!
Penciler Butch Guice draws one fluid comic wide ation sequence. His detail on charcter expressions and faces has greatly improved from his last arc “Gulag” within the last Captain America volume. A handful of panels almost seem like he penciled over actual photographs, much like Alex Maleev’s art style. These panels crafted strong story beats that made the moment personable… if not a bit distracting. Guice’s panel placement need be commended, though he stuck to the basic rectangular box- it’s the way they were compressed and stacked that lead the eye and made the action and dialogue flow perfectly.
This is a solid beginning for a promising series. I forsee a long life with Brubaker leading the charge. This issue was everything you hoped and waited for, plus fun twists in choice of villian! And i’m not referring to the clocked tin man. Though I’m sad to see Bucky no longer wearing the flag, I’m glad he’s not dead: Long live the Winter Soldier!
Story: 9 Art: 9
Recommended this week:
Avengers X-Sanction #3 – Two unexpected guest crash Cables party!
Uncanny X-Force #21 – Fantomex undergoes mutliple Lobotomys. Reviewed here. Swamp Thing #6 – The Rot inches ever closer to cutting off the Green.
