Wednesday, 28 January 2009

The Reader

Cast
Ralph Fiennes
Kate Winslet
David Kross
Lena Olin
Bruno Ganz
Screenwriter
David Hare
Director
Steven Daldry
Running Time
124 minutes

The Reader opens in post-WWII Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her. The two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair. (The Weinstein Company)

Thoroughly absorbing, well told and interesting story but it didn't move me. The critical events had happened years before and should have haunted the film and Winslet's character but the sense of that was largely absent.

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

The Wrestler

Cast
Mickey Rourke
Marisa Tomei
Evan Rachel Wood
Mark Margolis
Todd Barry
Screenwriter
Robert Siegel
Director
Darren Aronofsky
Running Time
109 minutes

Back in the late ‘80s, Randy “The Ram” Robinson was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, twenty years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centers around New Jersey. (Fox Searchlight)

More a fictional documentary than a drama really. It has two strong and brave performances from Rourke and Tomei. The amount of preparation and guts it took to play those roles is very impressive. Tomei's character is perhaps cliched, after twenty odd years of working in a strip club I think you'd be pretty much emotionally bullet proof.

Tuesday, 20 January 2009

April Comics

Newsarama has the new Marvel and DC solicitations for April.

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


THE FLASH: REBIRTH #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver
Through the decades, many heroes have taken the mantle of The Flash, but they all ride the lightning that crackles in the wake of the greatest hero the DC Universe has ever known, the man who sacrificed himself to save the Multiverse: Barry Allen!
Following the events of FINAL CRISIS, Barry has beaten death and returned to a fast-paced world that a man out of time wouldn’t recognize. Or is it a world that is only just now catching up? All the running he’s done before was just a warmup for the high-speed race that he and every other Flash must now run, because even though one speedster might have beaten death, another has just turned up dead! From Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the visionaries responsible for the blockbuster GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH and THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR, comes the start of an explosive and jaw-dropping epic that will reintroduce to the modern age the hero who single-handedly birthed the Silver Age of comics! DC history will be made, and the Flash legacy will be redefined!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale April 1 • 1 of 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

The price is worrying but since I missed out with Green Lantern, I want to be on board this one from the start.



DEAD ROMEO #1
Written by Jesse Blaze Snider
Art and cover by Ryan Benjamin
Jonathan Romero, aka “Dead Romeo,” was the lead singer of the ‘80s rock band “The Dead Romeos.” But that was before a mysterious set of circumstances turned him into a vampire and sent him straight to Hell. Now he's back on Earth and he has a difficult choice to make: Kill his true love and earn his permanent release from eternal damnation – or protect her and burn for eternity. Either way, someone is going to die!
It’s vampires, romance, rock and dismemberment like you’ve never seen before! New writer Jesse Blaze Snider joins artist Ryan Benjamin for a bloodsucking good time in this all-new 6-issue miniseries.
On sale April 1 • 1 of 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The art looks great and it just seems cool.


THE WARLORD #1
Written by Mike Grell
Art by Joe Prado & Walden Wong
Cover by Mike Grell
At the Roof of the World in Tibet, a team of paleontologists and adventurers has made the find of the century: perfectly preserved dinosaur specimens that appear to have died mere days before! Their expedition takes a deadly turn when they uncover an impossible portal to another world – an unbelievable country at the hollow center of the Earth, the mythical land of Skartaris! But they’re not the first surface-worlders to find themselves stranded in Skartaris, and their arrival in his peaceful home triggers an unforgettable new adventure for the hero who has taken the land as his own: Travis Morgan, the Warlord! This new ongoing series marks the return of creator Mike Grell to the fantasy saga that made him famous! Reunite with Tara, Shakira, Tinder and the rest of the cast in a story that continues the adventures of the Warlord but opens up a new era where any reader can jump aboard.
Along with Grell’s scripts – and lushly painted covers – comes the art of rising star Joe Prado (ACTION COMICS, SINESTRO CORPS SECRET FILES)! DC’s finest fantasy franchise is reborn!
On sale April 8 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Never heard of this before but fantasy comics are few and far between.


AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #23
Written by CHRISTOS N. GAGE
Pencils & Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS
This is it...the explosive issue that changes everything! From the moment it was formed, the Initiative has had more than its share of dark secrets. Now, they've all come out. On top of everything else, can the Initiative survive this? Well, the title of this story is THE INITIATIVE: DISASSEMBLED...
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

Mostly love Ramos' art and Gage is a fine writer so definitely getting this, somehow I missed the solicitations for the previous two issues which they also did.



SECRET INVASION AFTERMATH: BETA RAY BILL – THE GREEN OF EDEN #1
Written by KIERON GILLEN
Penciled by DAN BRERETON
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
SECRET INVASION has ended. The Skrull armies have been routed and destroyed. In the wake of his battle in aid of Thor and Asgard, Beta Ray Bill has departed Earth once more, to bring justice and order to the stars. But when Bill becomes savior of a space-faring alien colony, he'll discover that perhaps – just perhaps -- it's possible to be too much of a hero. Soaring action and adventure starring your favorite horse-faced Demigod of Thunder, by Kieron Gillen (NEW UNIVERSAL: 1959) and Dan Brereton (GOD-SIZED THOR)!
40 PGS./One-Shot/All-New/Rated T+ ...$3.99

No idea who the character is but for Brereton art I'm there every time.