Archive for reviews

I “man-down” and review Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Posted in monsters, movies, pop culture, Twilight, vampires with tags , , , , on April 29, 2013 by Paxton

Twilight 4 Part 1

Here we are again, Twilight. Once more we stare at each other across the squared circle in anticipation of this little dance that we’ve done three different times already.  You show up all sparkly and melodramatic and I punch holes into your face until I’m wheezing and wishing I was watching porn.

Let’s begin this dance with a synopisis…

So the movie starts with Bella and Edward’s wedding. It’s in the woods. People show up in florescent tuxes and ascots. It’s all very ethereal and annoying. Not surprisingly Jacob isn’t in attendance until during the reception. He comes with an understandable chip on his shoulder. Edward is now actually trying to be nice and reason with him. For once, I actually feel like Edward cares for Bella.  He tells Jacob that he needs him to help protect Bella. Jacob discovers that Bella hasn’t been turned yet and then he keeps focusing on the eventual “love making” that Edward is going to impart on Bella’s still human vagina and how it could kill her. It’s a rather awkward situation and Jacob just keeps going on and on about it.

After Jacob runs off very dramatically with his pack, Bella and Edward retreat to the Cullen’s private Brazilian island (of COURSE they have an island) to spend what feels like 6 months on their honeymoon. And then Bella and Edward “do the deed” and she and the bed come out looking like the scene of a street fight. Edward vows never to lay with his wife again, until he does about 10 minutes later. Bella turns up preggers with a mutant child that grows months in a matter of weeks.

The wolfpack discovers the pregnancy and plan to attack and kill the “abomination” (I agree).  Jacob violently leaves the pack to protect Bella.  Bella becomes weak and pallid as the baby is drawing off her life force (much like this movie is doing to me).  She painfully gives birth to the child and, in spite, gives it the terrible name Renneesme (I don’t care that it’s a combo of their mothers’ names…it’s still terrible).  Edward injects his “poison” into Bella’s heart after birth to turn her into a vampire but the process doesn’t seem to take and Bella seemingly dies as the Cullens and wolfpack battle.  Jacob goes to kill the child himself now that Bella is “dead” but finds he’s creepily “imprinted” on the horribly named child.  Since Jacob now wants to have intercourse with the baby, by the werewolf rule, she can not be harmed.

Bella and Edward
“Oh look, Jacob wants to have sex with our newborn child. How sweet.”

Bella is cleaned and dressed for her “funeral”, I guess, but suddenly her wounds heal and she awakens as a newborn vampire.  And I suddenly realize that I have nothing left to give this terrible, terrible franchise.  I’m struggling to find the testicular fortitude to finish the one last movie in this saga.  The rest of the movies were bad, this one just was….meh.  It wasn’t just f**king awful, especially compared to the second and third movies, but it’s not good, either.  I was surprised that I liked Edward a little bit more in this one.  He actually seemed less wooden and melodramatic and more protective of Bella.  Jacob was even more of an irritating hot head than usual.  And I used to like him once upon a time.  We get some pretty good vamp vs werewolf action, but the wolfpack people suck.  You know, I try to find one thing I like and two others that I hate spring up and take its place.  Like the movie is actively trying to get me to hate it.

I think I’ve said this before, but I’m going to watch the last and final (praise Jesus) movie out of sheer dogged stubbornness.  But I won’t enjoy it.  Like  experiencing a prison rape at Riker’s Island, I’ve just got to bite down and get through it.

Bionic Review: Dynamite Comics’ The Bionic Man (2011)

Posted in Bionic Man, comic books, movies, pop culture, TV shows with tags , , , , , , , , , on March 29, 2013 by Paxton

Bionic Review

SMDM Book

Richard Anderson, the man who played Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man TV series tried for years to get a Bionic Man movie off the ground.  Many different writers took a stab at a script.  In the mid-90s, Kevin Smith famously wrote a script for a Bionic Man movie that was a reboot of the TV series.  I was very excited about this prospect as, at the time, I was a big fan of Kevin Smith and loved the idea of him re-imagining the Steve Austin universe (of which I was a big fan). Unfortunately, nothing ever happened on that project.  It just disappeared.  Then, in March 2011, Kevin Smith announced that his unproduced script would be re-adapted into a comic book series for Dynamite comics.  The comic’s script would be written by Phil Hester and be based on Smith’s movie script.  The book’s interiors would be drawn by Jonathan Lau, it would have Alex Ross variant covers and the name would be Kevin Smith’s The Bionic Man.  The first issue would be released in August 2011.

Kevin Smith's Bionic Man 1 Kevin Smith's Bionic Man 4

Up to this point I have read the first 14 issues of Dynamite’s The Bionic Man. The first 10 issues contain the story arc that is taken directly from Kevin Smith’s unproduced script.

Essential Plot:  It starts off very similar to the original TV show/novel.  The events have been updated a bit and a few things changed.  We actually start off, not with Steve Austin, but with a break in at a government laboratory.  An unknown assailant kills all the scientists and steals what looks like a bionic arm.  Then we cut to Steve Austin at home.  He’s still a test pilot.  He’s engaged to Jaime Sommers.  Austin is about to retire as a test pilot and marry Jaime.  He just has one more test flight to make.  And what happens is exactly what you expect.  Something goes wrong with the flight, Austin crashes and loses both of his legs, his right arm and his left eye.  In this story he’s good friends with a younger version of Oscar Goldman.  They convince Steve to become a part of their bionics experiment, so the government pronounces him dead and begin the operations to graft on the bionic limbs.  There are several issues devoted to Steve’s recovery and coming to grips with the fact that he’s now part machine.  In issue #7 Jaime returns as Steve unexpectedly finds himself at her house and reveals to her that he’s not, in fact, dead.  In this issue we also discover that the earlier mysterious assailant from issue #1 has ties to Austin and the bionic program, so the rest of the story arc is discovering information about this assailant and Steve going after him to put a stop to his plans.

The next issue after the Smith arc, #11, was a standalone issue.  Steve goes back to his parents’ ranch for some soul searching.  We meet his parents and see that his father is dying.

Issue #12 begins the first new wholly original story arc.  It’s written by Phil Hester and Aaron Gillespie and drawn by Ed Tadeo.  This story introduces the fan favorite bionic Bigfoot from the TV show into the new bionic universe.  Austin discovers some unscrupulous people are attaching bionic parts to Bigfoot creatures so he teams up with one of them to help.

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Continuing my journey down the yellow brick road…

Posted in books, Classic literature, movies, Wizard of Oz with tags , , , , , , , on February 20, 2013 by Paxton

Following the Yellow Brick Road

On January 31, 2012, I made a resolution to read all of the original L Frank Baum Oz books in 2012. I completed that goal on Dec 20, 2012, just under ten months later.  You can visit my Oz Archive to see the reviews of all 14 of those books.

Oz checklist

It was a fun ride and I’m really glad I finally did it.  I have such an affection for the original movie, which led me to read the original book and even through reading these 14 books, I have kept that love.  The books were mostly good.  Yes, there was some bad, but nothing was just terrible.   I would have thought that by the end of this challenge I would be a little “Oz’d out” if you know what I mean.  But, honestly, it’s just kindled that flame a little bit more.  I think I don’t want this column to end.

While I don’t plan on making another year long resolution, I do plan on reading more Oz and L Frank Baum books.  After Baum, Ruth Plumly Thompson took over Oz for another 19 books.  Will I read all of those?  Maybe.  Eventually.  But not next year.  There are also other movies like 1974’s Journey Back to Oz and the upcoming Oz the Great and Powerful which will be released in March 2013.  I will continue to consume this media and review them under this banner.  I’ll even continue to read some of Baum’s other non-Oz writings like The Sea Fairies, Dot and Tot in Merryland and Father Goose: His Book.

I just have enjoyed myself so much experiencing this challenge that I want to keep it going.  And I plan to.

Thank you for experiencing it along with me.  Stay tuned for more to come.

Movie Board: My Favorite Movies of 2012

Posted in movies with tags , , , , on January 9, 2013 by Paxton

Movie Board

This will be the first year that I don’t actually have a physical “white board” in which I wrote down all of the movies I saw this past year.  My movie list is kept all digital now with Google Spreadsheets (like my book list).  So, it’s sad, but for the most part I think I’m retiring my literal “white board”.  Who knows, maybe I’ll bring it back.  We’ll see.  To see previous years’ picks, click the image above.

Anyway, I combed through my movie log and picked 5 of my favorite movies released in 2012.  Notice I’m not saying “best”.  That is so subjective, I’m just telling you my “favorite” movies of 2012, in no particular order.


Marvel’s The Avengers – Who am I kidding? This is my favorite movie of the year. It’s probably the greatest movie ever filmed.  I can’t add anything more to what’s already been said.  You’ve seen it or you are in a coma.  And I’m sorry for you coma people because you’re missing the best movie ever made.


Django Unchained – Just got a showing of this movie in under the wire and HOLY SHEEEEE-IT, it’s amazing. I think I like this one even better than Inglourious Basterds.  Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio are the reasons to see this movie, but I don’t mean to discount Jamie Foxx or Samuel L Jackson.  This is one well acted, well written movie and…IT’S A WESTERN!  Yes, maybe this will cause Hollywood to try it’s hand at more of them.  However, I am concerned that Disney’s The Lone Ranger may kill that notion, quick.  But I hope not.


Skyfall – Is this the best Bond film of all time? No, it’s not. However, it’s probably the best Craig Bond film. For me, right now, it ranks up there, possibly in the top 5 of all time Bond movies. We’ll see, though, time will tell if that holds up.  Fantastic movie.

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Review of Oz Book 9: The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)

Posted in books, Classic literature, Wizard of Oz with tags , , , , , on November 21, 2012 by Paxton

Following the Yellow Brick Road

In 1915, one year after Tik-Tok of Oz Baum released the ninth Oz book, The Scarecrow of Oz.

Scarecrow of Oz

This book features two new characters to Oz, Cap’n Bill and Trot. Both of these characters previously appeared in the Baum non-Oz works The Sea Fairies (1911) and Sky Island (1912).  Bill and Trot set sail from California for a short ride in their row boat.  A storm suddenly appears and the duo find themselves in a fairy land (but not Oz, just yet).  Bill and Trot find their way to the land of Mo, which previously appeared in the non-Oz book; The Magical Monarch of Mo.  As you can see, Baum started to fold his previous non-Oz characters and lands into his Oz books when it was clear no one wanted to read anything but the Oz books.  It makes these later books interesting in that almost every character and land had appeared in a previous non-Oz book.

Anyway, Bill and Trot run into Button-Bright in the land of Mo.  Button previously appeared in not only the Oz books but in Bill and Trot’s last book, Sky Island.  So the group makes their way to Jinxland.  Jinxland is sort of a “sister” land to Oz.  It’s found on the same continent but divided by a nearly impassable mountain range.  Anyway, our heroes get tangled up in the drama of the King of Jinxland, his daughter, the gardener she loves and a royal suitor she doesn’t.  The scarecrow shows up to help and all is set right with the world.

I honestly am not sure why this book is named after the Scarecrow.  He only shows up at the very end, but he does help save the day.  Truthfully, I was a little disappointed in the story.   The characters were good.  I liked Bill and Trot, I even enjoyed Button-Bright more than I did in previous books.  I just was a bit let down by the entire story.  I’m hoping I’m not getting “Oz fatigue”.  Since Bill and Trot appear here and in the two previous books, I may wind up reading, at the very least, Sky Island.  Sky Island also features Button-Bright, like I said, and Polychrome, the Rainbow’s Daughter.  However, I may also read The Sea Fairies as I’ve read that Baum considers that his best work.

As you can see, it’s getting harder to define what I’m going to read because as of this point, Baum is incorporating so many of his non-Oz characters into the Oz books, that it’s hard not to just say f**k it and read them all.  Or f**k it and stop reading.  I’m going to continue reading these main Oz books as I only have a few left and I want to finish them by the end of the year.  Next year, I may catch up and read some of the other non-Oz books like The Sea Fairies, Sky Island, The Magical Monarch of Mo, The Master Key, etc.  But right now, I’m focusing on the core five Oz books I have left.

My final verdict on this Oz book is that, compared to the books before it, this one is disappointing overall.  It’s still a good book, but in relation to the other Oz books, it’s only okay.  I’m hoping this is a temporary dip in quality and that the next book is better.

Below is my checklist of Oz books.  I’ve crossed off the ones I’ve currently read.  Next up in the Oz series is Rinkitink in Oz.
Oz books checklist