Wednesday 30 January 2013

Zero Dark Thirty

Cast
Jessica Chastian
Scott Adkins
Jason Clarke
Taylor Kinne
Mark Strong
James Gandolfini
Mark Duplass
Joel Edgerton
Jennifer Ehle
Kyle Chandler
Édgar Ramírez
Stephen Dillane
John Barrowman
Callan Mulvey
Harold Perrineau
Chris Platt
Frank Grillo
Screenwriter
Mark Boal
Director
Kathryn Bigelow
Running Time
157 minutes

Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow re-teams with her "Hurt Locker" screenwriter Mark Boal for a chronicle of the decade-long search for wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden, eventually culminating in his death during a raid by the Navy's SEAL Team 6.[Metacritic]

It's great although the constant stream of well known TV actors that kept appearing was distracting and the sense of a decade passing wasn't put across enough.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

April Comics

CBR has the new DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Image solicitations for April.

This is the stuff I'm thinking about in addition to my regular pull list.



X-MEN #1
BRIAN WOOD (W) • OLIVIER COIPEL (A/C)
Variant Cover by TERRY DODSON
Variant Cover by MILO MANARA
Young Variant Cover by SKOTTIE YOUNG
X-MEN 50th ANNIVERSARY VARIANT BY NICK BRADSHAW
WALKING DEAD-POOL VARIANT ALSO AVAILIBLE
Because you demanded it! The X-Women finally get their own book, from critically acclaimed superstars Brian Wood (X-MEN, ULTIMATE X-MEN, DMZ, The Massive) and Olivier Coipel (AVX, HOUSE OF M, THOR)! An old enemy shows up at the X-Men's door, seeking asylum from an ancient evil come back to earth. Meanwhile, Jubilee has come home, and she's brought with her an orphaned baby who might hold the key to the earth's survival...or its destruction. Against a backdrop of what seems like an alien invasion and an eons-spanning war between brother and sister, Storm steps up and puts together a team to protect the child and stop a new threat that could destroy all life on earth!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

Unfortunately there's no chance this will be $2.99 next issue because I'd love to get this.


X #0
Duane Swierczynski (W), Eric Nguyen (A), Michelle Madsen (C), and Raymond Swanland (Cover)
On sale Apr 10
FC, 32 pages
$2.99
One-shot
Three crime lords in the decaying city of Arcadia have received photographic death sentences from the mysterious “X Killer.” Their cunning defenses won’t stop Arcadia’s vigilante from making sure each one of them suffers. From the pages of Dark Horse Presents.
• Duane Swierczynski (Punisher, Godzilla) and Eric Nguyen brutally relaunch Dark Horse’s classic vigilante!
• Super Violent!

I got some of this first time around so I'll try it.


JUPITER'S LEGACY #1 – GEM OF THE MONTH
story MARK MILLAR
art / cover A FRANK QUITELY
cover B BRYAN HITCH
cover C DAVE JOHNSON
cover D PHIL NOTO
APRIL 24
32 PAGES / FC / M
$2.99
The comic-book event of 2013 finally arrives as superstar creators MARK MILLER and FRANK QUIETLY give us the superhero epic that all future comics will be measured by. The world's greatest heroes have grown old and their legacy is a poisonous one to the children who will never live up to their remarkable parents. Unmissable.

Quitely's art is always great.


CHIN MUSIC #1 – GEM OF THE MONTH
story STEVE NILES
art / cover TONY HARRIS
APRIL 17
32 PAGES / FC / M
$2.99
Shaw is a man on the run and lost in time. Fleeing ancient enemies, Shaw finds himself in prohibition-era Chicago surrounded by gangers and demons alike and caught between law enforcement and the local supernatural underground. CHIN MUSIC is a tale of mysticism and violence like nothing you’ve experienced before.

Harris' views of women aside he is a terrific artist.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Django Unchained

Cast
Jamie Foxx
Christoph Waltz
Kerry Washington
Leonardo DiCaprio
Samuel L. Jackson
Don Johnson
Walton Goggins
Screenwriter
Quentin Tarantino
Director
Quentin Tarantino
Running Time
165 minutes

Django is a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz. Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles – dead or alive. (The Weinstein Company)

Fantastic.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Les Miserables

Cast
Hugh Jackman
Russell Crowe
Eddie Redmayne
Anne Hathaway
Helena Bonham Carter
Sacha Baron Cohen
Samantha Barks
Amanda Seyfried
Screenwriter
William Nicholson
Director
Tom Hooper
Running Time
158 minutes

A musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel about a recently-released prisoner named Jean Valjean struggling to survive during the French revolution.

The live singing took some getting use to but I did and enjoyed it. It's strange the sound was identical whether they were singing in a chapel, in the street or beside the river. I've said before how film musicals would benefit from casting musical theatre actors and I still hold to that. I wept at the end although more for the mood created than for any of the characters except really Hathaway's.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

The Impossible

Cast
Naomi Watts
Ewan McGregor
Tom Holland
Geraldine Chaplin
Samuel Joslin
Oaklee Pendergast
Marta Etura
Sonke Mohring
Screenwriter
Sergio G. Sánchez
Director
Juan Antonio Bayona
Running Time
114 minutes

An account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.[Metacritic]

An amazing achievement in many ways but it still probably doesn't come close to the magnitude of what happened.