Jindabyne

Cast
Laura Linney
Gabriel Byrne
John Howard
Deborra-Lee Furness
Screenwriter
Beatrix Christian
Director
Ray Lawrence
Running Time
124 minutes

Four men leave the small Australian town of Jindabyne for a weekend fishing trip. On finding the body of a young Aboriginal woman floating in the river, they decide not to immediately alert the authorities. Upon their return, the truth gets out, polarising the community.

The murder acts as a catalyst bringing feelings and cultural clashes to the surface, in a small group of friends and the local community. I liked it but it doesn't exceed the sum of it's parts which were done well but could have been better.

4 Rise of the Silver Surfer

Cast
Ioan Gruffudd
Chris Evans
Jessica Alba
Michael Chiklis
Julian McMahon
Kerry Washington
Andre Braugher
Laurence Fishburne
Doug Jones
Director
Tim Story
Screenwriter
Don Payne
Mark Frost
Running Time
95 minutes

Preparations for the celebrity superhero wedding of Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards (Gruffudd) and Invisible Woman/Sue Storm (Alba) are at fever pitch when, wouldn’t you know it, inconveniently devastating climatic phenomena herald a new nemesis and the potential destruction of the planet. Dang, guess the honeymoon will have to wait!

Dreadfully bad, I could go into detail but the prospect is just too depressing!

Veronica Mars Season 1+2 DVD Box Sets

Cast
Kristen Bell
Percy Daggs III
Teddy Dunn
Jason Dohring
Francis Capra
Enrico Colantoni
Creator
Rob Thomas
Running Time
935 Minutes NTSC
Aspect Ratio
Anamorphic Widescreen

A little bit Buffy. A little bit Bogart. A dash of Nancy Drew. Veronica Mars takes the best and brainiest of the American culture of crimesolving and adds a unique vision of its own - brooding, edgy darkly funny and just plain dark - to become one of the hottest, sleekest series of the new century.
Veronica (Kristen Bell) is an outcast in a trendy SoCal beach town. Once she ran with Neptune High’s in crowd. But she’s on the outside after her best friend is murdered and her sheriff father accuses the wrong man as the perp: the dead girl’s billionaire father. Dad loses his job, Veronica loses her popularity and both struggle to build a detective agency and new lives. E-mail scams, cults, car thefts — you name it, Veronica investigates it. But her obsession is the murder of her friend. And she’ll take any risk to solve it.

Cast
Kristen Bell
Percy Daggs III
Teddy Dunn
Jason Dohring
Francis Capra
Ryan Hansen
Kyle Gallner
Tessa Thompson
Enrico Colantoni
Creator
Rob Thomas
Running Time
929 Minutes NTSC
Aspect Ratio
Anamorphic Widescreen

[If like me you come to this cold there are minor spoilers on the back cover blurb and you might want to avoid looking at a name on a folder in the inside art]Who knocked on Veronica’s door at the end of Season 1: Duncan? Logan? Someone even more surprising? "I was hoping it would be you," the teen sleuth said. Now you can see who rated that rare Veronica smile, then uncover the newest mystery to envelop the town of Neptune.
It begins when Veronica misses the bus — a school bus that minutes later plunges off a cliff into the Pacific. It may be a tragic accident. Or suicide. Or murder.It may (or may not) be tied to Lilly Kane’s murder. But you know Veronica’s on the case, even when other mysteries lead to danger and double crosses, even when her love life takes a couple of dives onto the pool deck, even when.. well, wait and find out.
Season 2: new characters, new revelations,drop-dead dialogue and dead-on cool. Return to Mars. It’s everything you like about Neptune.

I really love these! I raced through the first box set, bought the second and did the same, they're just amazing. I watched the show for the first time on DVD, not really knowing anything about it, other than Joss Whedon [who has a cameo in season two] had said good things about it. So the recent news that the show was cancelled after the third season comes as a blow.
The first season has the through plotline of the Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried) murder case driving it, which is usually a B-plot in most episodes until the finale. The second is more fragmented in it's overall structure but just as good. The depth of continuity this show has, especially in the season two finale is jaw dropping. I love the sustained darkness and pessimistic tone of the show [there's even a downbeat Xmas episode] with Veronica up against impossible odds armed only with her wits, backbone and a stungun, fighting the world in defense of her father and to bring her best friend's murderer to justice. It's just an amazing story, brilliantly told.
If I had to give any criticisms of the show it would be that several characters seem to drop off the face of the earth for multiple episodes, a couple because they physically left town, but others for seemingly no reason. In one of the featurettes Kristen Bell says the second season focuses more on the community of Neptune although I think this could have been done much more, because the more tangible a world she lives in, the better. The absense of supporting characters who Veronica surely sees on a daily basis is surreally strange.
The cast are all great but Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring stand out. Buffy's Alyson Hannigan appears in the first season, I think she was a little miscast and is joined by Charisma Carpenter in the second.

The first episode of the first season is slightly longer than originally aired and that set has some extra scenes on the last disk, they strangely seemed to have had foley sound added which you don't normally get, why weren't they edited back into the episodes? The menu on the first set is odd, the first 5 discs have a "Special Features" sub-menu screen which contains nothing, but on the last one it contains just a single item the compiled deleted scenes. There are no commentaries on either set which is a pity [although yes, they are usually disasters]. There's a specific episode during the second season where a major character leaves, it would have been a fascinating insight into the mechanics of the show to have had one with Rob Thomas and the Actor. The deleted scenes of the second season are on each disk accessible through the "Special Features" and episode sub-menu screens. There are two featurettes and a gag reel on the second set which are great, I just wish Warner Brothers had loaded these sets with wonderfull stuff and maybe more people would have got them and the show would still be going.

Ocean's Thirteen

Cast
Ellen Barkin
Matt Damon
George Clooney
Brad Pitt
Andy Garcia
Al Pacino
Carl Reiner
Elliott Gould
Director
Steven Soderbergh
Screenwriters
Brian Koppelman
David Levien
Running Time
122 minutes

After their old chum Reuben Tischkoff (Gould) is double-crossed in a business deal and hospitalized, Danny Ocean (Clooney) reconvenes his charming gang of thieves and heads to Las Vegas to gain revenge on the man who put Ruben at death’s door: shark-like hotelier, Willy Bank (Pacino). Their plan is simple: break the Bank by destroying his new multi-billion dollar hotel. However, it won’t be that easy…

I completely forgot this film moments after it ended. It's good, I enjoyed it, there's fun to be had but if the heist had gone the other way I wouldn't have really cared.

Half Nelson

Cast
Ryan Gosling
Shareeka Epps
Anthony Mackie
Director
Ryan Fleck
Screenwriter
Ryan Fleck
Running Time
107 minutes

Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) teaches in a poor school where his unusual approach engages the pupils. But out of school, frustration fuels his drug habit. One night troubled student Drey (Shareeka Epps) chances upon him while he’s high, and a bond is forged.

First off, this movie is depressing. It's a mood piece with little plot to speak of and the mood is that of depression, but does that make it a bad movie? My answer would be no, although most people would probably disagree. It is what the makers intended it to be, a sort of antidote to those inspirational teacher dramas like Dangerous Minds presenting a more realistic portrayal of the situation. I suppose that film and others [like the recent Hilary Swank film, which I haven't seen] are based on true stories but then the "and finally..." items on news shows are true they're just not representational of what normally happens in life. The acting is very fine by the leads but the problem is that it's just an incredibly depressing film. I might watch it again on TV years from now but I wouldn't want to now or want to buy it on DVD, although that actually might be the best way to see it for the first time in a more low key, relaxed setting on a rainy afternoon.
Really I need to have two scores for this film, one for artistic quality *** and one for enjoyableness * but I'll stick with my system.

Las Vegas Season One DVD Box Set

Cast
James Caan
Josh Duhamel
Nikki Cox
Vanessa Marcil
Molly Sims
Marsha Thomason
James Lesure
Creator
Gary Scott Thompson
Running Time
15 Hours 53 Minutes PAL
Aspect Ratio
1.77:1 Anamorphic

Take a spin on the wheel of TV's most electrifying series ever, Las Vegas. The slots are hot and the girls are even hotter in this brand-new DVD collection of the entire first season, starring some of today's biggest guest stars. Follow the fast-paced exploits and action packed escapades at the Montecito Hotel and Casino with an elite Las Vegas surveillance team, led by commanding Big Ed Deline (James Caan) and his slick, good looking righthand man, Danny McCoy (Josh Duhamel). Along with the sexiest support team to hit the Strip, they're out to catch card-counting cheaters, costly streaks of random luck and the schemes of rival casinos. It's Sin City like you've never seen it before in the series Variety declares is "Bottom line: Jackpot."

I started my blog this month but I've added the films I saw last month and the Tru Calling review which I'd posted on eBay but later removed to place here. Anything that I've seen or read before, it's my intention to look at again before I post reviews but this one is an exception simply because I cannot face watching it again.
The pity of it is that it could have been great. Vegas at it's heart is a terrible place, preying on the weak minded, destroying their lives and the Casinos make sure this whole process runs smoothly. It could have been a kind of corporate Sopranos with James Caan as a great heavy. Instead the show plays out like Baywatch. In I think the first of the four commentaries, on the first episode's Nikki Cox mentions her character had started out as a hooker but changed to a casino hostess. So perhaps in the beginning the intention was that this was going to be a great drama but somewhere along the line it was turned into rubbish. Vaguely I think there were a couple of good fun episodes and lots of mediocre ones.

Marvels

Writer Kurt Busiek
Artist Alex Ross
Letterer Richard Starkings/Comicraft
Publisher Marvel

Welcome to New York. Here, burning figures roam the streets, men in brightly-coloured costumes scale the glass and concrete walls, and creatures from space threaten to devour our world. This is the Marvel Universe, where the ordinary and fantastic interact daily. This is the world of marvels. Witness the birth of this fantastic universe from the inside. See the world's greatest heroes in a different light, with a new awe and a touch of fear. For first time, experience the Marvel Universe and whole new perspective, yours.

Marvels is fully painted by Alex Ross, I remember looking at a copy of Astro City years ago and although being initially amazed by the art something bothered me about it as I examined it further. Now at this point it would be good to describe exactly what that is but I'm not sure exactly, maybe and I'm referring to Marvels here there's a kind of grandiosity that painting gives to every panel, the splash pages are staggering but the other more low key panels seem unbalanced by it. Dan Brereton [Nocturnals] who also fully paints his books I don't have a problem with, possibly because all his characters are fantastical and never in ordinary situations so the style seems to suit that more.
The story follows Phil Sheldon a Photojournalist in New York witnessing the early years of the Marvel Universe. It's great and I would give it 5 stars if it weren't for my problem with the art.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

Writer Howard Chaykin
Penciller Mike Mignola
Inker Al Williamson
Colourist Sheryl van Valkenburgh
Letterer Michael Heisler
Publisher Dark Horse

Since their first appearance in 1939, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have ranked among the most beloved characters in fantasy. Their rollicking adventures in the fantastic land of Nehwon have influenced the work of some of the best in modern fantasy, including Michael Moorcock, Terry Pratchett, and countless others. First published in 1991, comics legends Howard Chaykin, Mike Mignola, and Al Williamson's long out of print four issue graphic adaptation of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser is collected here for the first time.

Mike Mignola is of course most famous for his Hellboy creation. His artwork here took me a little by surprise especially the faces of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser which seem a little ill defined [The cover is not indicative of how their faces are illustrated inside. I think the cover image was a new one for this trade]. The overall quality is excellent but the faces surprised me. I guess that's why he prefers to draw monsters and chose a non-human design for Hellboy.
Prior to getting this trade I was not familiar at all with Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. It's an adaptation of seven Leiber short stories [which are Sword and Sorcery] and the first 16 pages from The First Book of Lankhmar, the first of the authors series of novels. I read The Lord of the Rings about 20 years ago and all the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard a few years back so I love this kind of stuff although it's more jokey than those. It's very good although the stories don't gell together to form a greater whole and have a disjointed feel.

JSA: The Golden Age

Writer James Robinson
Artist Paul Smith
Colourist Richard Ory
Letterer John Costanza
Publisher DC

Some of the greatest heroes of the 1940s, including the original Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman, Starman, and others, return in this epic tale. The story follows their postwar adventures as they battle evil in a world they fear may no longer need them. And as their importance wanes, a new hero, Dynaman, rallies the nation behind his fascist agenda.

I first came across James Robinson as the writer on the Jack Knight Starman series (1994-2001). Which may well be my favourite character and Comic Book series that I've read so far.
I am not familiar with the work of Paul Smith and in the Howard Chaykin introduction he says "Mr Smith takes a very different approach, working in a style reminiscent of the period he's illustrating. It's a risky choice, taking the distinct chance of being parody but he pulls it off, and grandly."
For the most part I like his style I'm not that familiar with the comics of the period but it works very well. The story starts slowly and there are a lot of characters which is a little confusing especially if, like me you're not familiar with the golden age DCU. Overall I think it's excellent and perhaps when I re-read it and am more familiar with the golden age I'll change the score to five stars.