Do you want Search?
Random Post
Random Post
Search
Search
The Wolf of Wall Street
InGood, Movie Reviews

The Wolf of Wall Street

January 2, 2014By

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street
2013
Written by Terence Winter
Based on the book by Jordan Belfort
Directed by Martin Scorsese
The Wolf of Wall Street
The rise and fall of a criminal gangster doomed by his own lifestyle is a tale that Americans have loved for decades. Enter The Wolf of Wall Street, the most recent epic. The criminals aren’t the mobsters so familiar with sweeping biopics, but the criminals of the modern era, banksters in business suits. Despite the fall of Belfort happening in the 90s, much of the arc fits will with the most recent financial collapse and the continual work of bankers and Wall Street money men who make millions of dollars by moving fake money around in financial markets.
The Wolf of Wall Street
I saw some people declare that Martin Scorsese was in rare form, or had returned. Like Scorsese is some guy who was being forced to make terrible movies or something. Trust me, Scorsese was making the films he wanted to make, they just weren’t the films some people wanted to watch. If every film was Goodfellas, what’s the point of having Goodfellas?

Jordan Belfort hits Wall Street and learns the ins and outs of success. Basically get on the phone and swear at rich people to buy stocks, earning money off commissions. Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) takes him under his wing with an amazing lunch on the first day that lays the whole corrupting world of money, excess, and power out before them. Hanna is downing alcohol at an alarming rate, and shows off his magic bullet – cocaine! At this point Belfort is a teetotaler during working hours, but as we saw during the opening, he’ll soon be downing more pharmaceuticals than are stocked at your local Walgreens!
The Wolf of Wall Street

American Hustle
InMovie Reviews, Ugly

American Hustle

January 1, 2014By

American Hustle

American Hustle
2013
Written by Eric Singer and David O. Russell
Directed by David O. Russell
American Hustle
A swindling couple are forced by the FBI to assist in going after bigger game, but the operation to take down corrupt government officials spirals out of control as it becomes a mystery on who is conning who. American Hustle is filled with great performances that are among the most realistic and complicated characters of the year. It’s a shame they’re trapped in the plot of an hour long USA Channel original program! Heck, the characters even use the word “leverage” multiple times, and Leverage is among my favorite of those shows (it also features criminals who swindle criminals, though it aired on TNT!) Sure, sure, the film’s all loosely based on ABSCAM, but the real reason to watch American Hustle are the performances, not the crime story.
American Hustle
Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a street kid who learned at a young age that everyone was out to take everyone, and set out to get his own, even if it meant doing things outside the book. He graduated from smashing windows to drum up his dad’s glass business to loan scams, offering money to desperate people and pocketing the deposit as he disappears. Even his appearance is a huge cong, with one of the most complicated comb-overs in history. He falls in love with Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), a woman of the world who is one of the few that has the same cultured interests (such as jazz). She takes to his scams and soon the pair are running through the clients. Despite being careful, they don’t stay entirely off the radar, and are soon set up by FBI Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso is trying to make a name of himself at the FBI, much to the chagrin of his supervisor Stoddard Thorsen (Louis C.K.), who advocates a more cautious and nonflamboyant approach to bringing down criminals. In exchange for leniency, Rosenfeld and Prosser must now help DiMaso go after bigger game, corrupt politicians and businessmen.

Jeremy Renner is literally unrecognizable as Mayor Carmine Polito, he’s as Jersey as you can be without having dated someone from Jersey Shore. Polito is a heartfelt good guy who is trying his darnedest to revitalize New Jersey and bring in casinos for jobs and money. Unfortunately he does so via methods that are extralegal at best, which makes him a target of DiMaso.
American Hustle

The Thing 31 Godzilla
InCinema Articles

The Thing #31 (January 1986) and the Godzilla Marvel Legacy

December 31, 2013By


The Thing 31 Godzilla

Godzilla, man, you got a drooling problem! It needs to be said…


The Thing #31 – Devil Dinosaur: The movie! (January 1986)
Writer – Mike Carlin
Penciler – Ron Wilson
Editor – Mark Gruenwald
The Thing 31 Godzilla

Godzilla just wants to be friend with his old metal pal!


Godzilla made one last official appearance in Marvel comics canon before disappearing into the ether. There have been several Godzilla-like creatures that will be discussed below, but as far as I can tell, they’ve never been officially counted as Godzilla. So let us tackle The Thing #31. The Thing is among the first comic books I ever bought. I bought two of those “comic book 3-packs”, one containing 3 issues of The Transformers and one with 3 issues of The Thing. While The Transformers became the series I would get every month and subscribed, The Thing became a series I would get in the quarter bins at comic shops, but it was still a good read (hence my buying them.) I was never that into the Fantastic Four, because Spiderman ruled all, but I often had extra money for cheap comics that would be good. Several images here are take from the Marvel Chronology’s entry of The Thing #31.

Ben Grimm (aka The Thing) goes to visit his friend, stuntwoman Sharon Ventura, who is working on a movie about Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur. Ben likes Sharon because she reminds him of a lost love, Tarianna. Sharon Ventura would eventually become Ms. Marvel, be a hero for a bit, be a villain for a bit, and then get replaced by a Skrull. Welcome to Marvel continuity!

Ben arrives and starts attacking Devil Dinosaur, because he doesn’t realize it’s a robot! But he’s not the only one to make the mistake, as out of the sea arises the reason we’re writing this entry: Godzilla!

Yes, he’s actually called Godzilla! Looks like someone forgot or thought that The Thing would be too under the radar for Toho’s lawyers.. .Godzilla has escaped from captured jerkoff Dr. Demonicus, thanks to Godzilla’s cunning plan of distracting the evil Dr. with Iron Man’s suit so he could get captured, at which point Godzilla probably just wandered out of the undersea headquarters. Or maybe SHIELD got off their lazy duffs and raided the compound and Godzilla got set loose that way.

The Thing 31 Godzilla

How dare that coward Godzilla not mindlessly destroy the robot and instead leave when he realized his mistake!

47 Ronin
InMovie Reviews, Ugly

47 Ronin

December 31, 2013By

47 Ronin

47 Ronin
2013
Written by Chris Morgan and Hossein Amini
Story by Chris Morgan & Walter Hamada
Directed by Carl Rinsch

47 Ronin

Oishi looked and saw a horrible edit job that brought dishonor to his clan


47 Ronin becomes the final financial disaster of 2013, schizophrenic mess of a picture that manages to be offensive on several levels while not having the simple decency to be entertaining (either good or bad) and sits mired in the muck of mediocrity. An untested director was suddenly given stacks of cash to make a big budget effects movie, and quickly things fell apart. After the studio stepped in, things somehow got more confusing. In the end, the only people happy are people who get happy when dumb things happen.
47 Ronin

Michael Jackson!


The 47 Ronin is a classic tale of true Japanese history that has enough events going on that a straight adaptation would easily work as a mainstream film, and has before. In fact, the 47 Ronin has be adapted so often there is even a term for genre that is the various adaptations of the work – Chushingura. Due to censorship laws, the original plays featured altered names and events, and some retellings are stylized adaptations that mix myth and history. A 300-style adaptation is not out of the bounds of accepted reality, and I do not fault the film for trying that angle, it could have been interesting had it been applied correctly. Dragons, strange beasts, golems, witches, bird people, ogres, and magic swords are elements of many successful films. But it is not to be.
47 Ronin

Good thing Kai and Oishi tricked those trolls into staying out until sunrise!


Reeves plays a half-Japanese half-British character who is raised by the Lord Asano, Kai is entirely made up and shoehorned into the story. From the narrative it’s clear Reeves wasn’t the original star and has had scenes added on, while Hiroyuki Sanada’s character Oishi is either ignored or suddenly the focus during random scenes. That disrupts an already cluttered tale simplified down for mainstream audiences, gives no characters enough development to give them dramatic weight, and many things simply happen for reasons never explained. The official story is new director Carl Rinsch originally had even less of Keanu Reeves, and was forced to do reshoots to beef of the role. The hints of studio interference are obvious – Reeves’ Kai suddenly had a love interest (the Princess Mika), was inserted into the final battle fighting a dragon (more on this in a bit), and spends a lot of the running time looking at other events.
47 Ronin

At least she takes good care of her teeth!

Temptress of 1000 Faces
InBad, Movie Reviews

Temptress of a Thousand Faces

December 29, 2013By

Temptress of a Thousand Faces

aka 千面魔女 aka Qian mian mo nu aka Temptress of 1000 Faces
Temptress of 1000 Faces
1969
Written by Song Jin
Directed by Jeng Cheong-Woh
Temptress of 1000 Faces
This sexy Shaw Brothers crime caper has influences from the classic female-lead action films of yore, the 1960s Jane Bond films, James Bond, Eurospy, and even Fantomas! Temptress of a Thousand Faces meshes these sources all together into a terrific crime caper. One of those films where there are master thieves who can be anywhere and disguised as anyone. Even your mom! Okay, probably not your mom. Or is that just what they want you to think? You better call your mom an make sure, just in case. It’s the old master of disguise story, but with no need to worry about people being turtlely enough to join the turtle club. Because none of them are! Freaking lack of turtle love in Temptress of a Thousand Faces…

The big switch is this time the thief is a woman. The thief being female throws the entire police force for a loop, as everyone is looking for a male master thief. I’m not sure why, almost every crime shown involves women, maybe the police have all taken stupid pills. It’s girl power, but only sort of. Of course, only another woman can take her down. Further continuing the gender bending, the police officer hero is the female Ji Ying, while her boyfriend Yuk Dat plays the Torchy Blane role of reporter who is on the case. But unlike Torchy, Yuk Dat doesn’t contribute to the solving of the case, just becoming yet another chess piece to be played by the mastermind and the detective.
Temptress of 1000 Faces
Temptress of a Thousand Faces was discussed before during our Infernal Brains episode covering the Jane Bond films. If you prefer your reviews in audio format, that’s your best bet, along with a whole history of the genre that won’t be repeated here. But if you love things written down, then feel free to read on! Or just look at the pretty pictures. Either way, hopefully you are convinced enough to track down a copy, because you will not be disappointed!
Temptress of 1000 Faces

Ji Ying (Tina Chin Fei) – Police office who is tired of all this Temptress of 1000 Faces crap and directly challenges her. Which turns out to be a big mistake. The only bigger mistake is when Temptress makes destroying Ji Ying’s life personal instead of just killing her. Ji Ying is a fierce fighter and crack shot, and often is fighting while in her underwear because stuff like that just happens in Temptress of a Thousand Faces.
Yuk Dat (Chan Leung ) – Journalist boyfriend of Ji Ying. While the media influence on Temptress is a theme, Yuk Dat is less of a driver and more of a cog in the machine, something that makes his character less important. In fact, it’s hard to remember much in particular about him.
Molly (Pat Ting Hung) – Newspaper reporter and photographer, and a major female character who doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere in the grand schemes of the regular characters.
Temptress (It is a mystery…) – Who could this mysterious female villain with a thousand faces be? It is a mystery, a mystery that only a mystery movie could solve. Luckily, this is a mystery movie, so expect it to be solved by the end of the movie!

Temptress of 1000 Faces

Iron Man 196 cover
InCinema Articles

Iron Man #196 (July 1985)

December 28, 2013By


Iron Man 196 Godzilla

Cool how Dr. Demonicus didn’t even bother to look for Godzilla! (Jerk!)


Iron Man #196 – (No title) (July 1985)
Writer – Denny O’Neil
Penciler – Rich Buckler
Editor – Mark Gruenwald
Iron Man 196 Godzilla

All these potential cool monsters we will never see…


We skipped Iron Man #195 because Big G was a no-show. I’m sure exciting things happened. Or not. Jim Rhodes was talking with an Indian spirit guide or some nonsense last issue to cure his migranes. That continues as we start this exciting entry. He left his Iron Man armor behind in the mystical dimension you go to when you get Indian spirit guides to cure your migraines, and now he can’t go back to get it, because you can only go to that dimension once.

Hey, I don’t write this stuff! I just write about this stuff.

Yada yada, the armor somehow has formed up and is seeking something out. Expect something weird to happen.

Godzilla returns to Dr. Demonicus’s base with a mouthful of Stark’s old Iron Man armor that Stark ditched in issue 194. Dr. Demonicus pauses his work on making more mutant monsters to bring about Pax Demonicus in order to play around with the armor for revenge. Someone needs to learn to complete his projects before he begins new ones!

Because the wayward Rhodes Iron Man armor has returned to this plane of existence and is causing trouble, Stark grabs a bunch of parts of spare costumes from the Wes Coast Avengers’ closet and suits up to go investigate. Dr. Demonicus tracks him down and attacks wearing the old Iron Mas costume, but the alternate plane Iron Man suit joins with Stark and soon Demonicus is defeated and will be spending some time in the slammer.

And that’s the end of March of Godzilla 2013, once again I’d like to thank…

RING RING RING!
Oh, no!
RING RING RING!!!
Hello?
Yo! It’s The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing! Did I ever tell you about the time Godzilla was in my comic?
Well, Mr. Grimm, we don’t have that comic, so we can’t..
Check your inbox, kid! I gotta go clobber some pizza while smoking a cigar or something! Yancy Street!
Okay, it looks like March of Godzilla 2013 will continue again for the second time! You can’t kill us, we’re like that stuff growing between the tiles in your shower!
Iron Man 196 Godzilla

Godzilla: Mastermind!

Older 
116117118119120
 Newer