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The Spider-Man saga started quite a long time ago…1962 to be exact, and since then, everyone’s favorite web slinger has seen just about all there is to see within the pages of a comic book. Plus, the guy’s abilities are pretty impressive, so needless to say his enemies have been out to harness that for some time now. One successful attempt at that has led to the recently released series, Scarlet Spider.
Ordinarily this is not my cup of tea, but when one of my favorite press agents in the Cleveland area market asked me to post this, how am I supposed to say no? I’m too nice of a guy. Anyway, I’m sure just seeing this here on the pages of Why So Blu will put a smile on the face of fellow staff writer Gregg Senko. Gregg…this one is for you! So without further ado, let’s skip all the verbose adjectives and check out the official new trailer for Step Up Revolution. Cue it, yo! Continue reading ‘STEP UP REVOLUTION Trailer Release!’
Wrapping up my work at 2012’s Newport Beach Film Festival, the last film I was able to attend was the romantic-themed comedy-drama, Save the Date. Having just watched Lola Versus the previous night, I felt like I found myself more or less in familiar territory, except that Lola Versus took place amongst a hip bunch of New Yorkers, whereas Save the Date revolves around some of the exploits of a hip bunch of Los Angelinos. It is another independent film that deals with a woman coming out of one relationship and finding her way into another, despite the fact that everyone still hangs around with each other, occasionally. I can’t hold the film back for timing on my part, though I can be put off by the drastic tonal changes that take hold over the course of the film. I appreciated the performances, as it starred people I liked seeing, but a lot of the warmth this film has is brought down by the required drama of a film of this type. Regardless, it is the kind of film that I generally like when it comes to this familiar story and the film had enough in it for me to enjoy it overall. Continue reading ‘NBFF Review: Save The Date’
I kicked off the last night of the Newport Beach Film Festival with a really offbeat piece of work. Doppelganger Paul (Or a Film about How Much I Hate Myself), to borrow a descriptor from one of my favorite NBFF programmers, is a sardonic, strange, occasionally humorous, and fairly introspective film that plays like an alternative type of buddy movie. It revolves around events that bring two very different people together in an effort to confront some of the issues they have and share, given that they would appear to despise themselves. Very much fitting the bill of an independent feature, it is the way the film’s moody sense of humor carries over with the players involved, which makes this somewhat slow film worthy of an open-minded viewing. Continue reading ‘NBFF Review: Doppelganger Paul (Or A Film About How Much I Hate Myself)’
To go a completely different direction from Detention of the Dead, the first film I saw at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Wednesday night, May 2, 2012, the follow up screening was an offbeat romantic comedy, starring an actress who is currently a fixture of independent and art house features, Greta Gerwig. Lola Versus may play out in its own sort of way, but it very much follows a lot of the same patterns that these types of films tend to have. That does not make it bad, as I liked a lot of the film, save for some issues I had with the third act. Despite the disastrous nature of some of the romantic follies Gerwig’s character becomes involved with, the film had enough going for it to make it work for me. Continue reading ‘NBFF Review: Lola Versus’
After seeing The Avengers twice, it seems like the entire concept of combining the Iron Man, Thor, and the Captain America franchises along with all of their supporting characters into one massive movie seems like a kick-ass idea with no chance of failure. But back in the late nineties that concept represented some pretty audacious thinking considering that Marvel had up to that point only licensed their characters such as Spiderman, Daredevil, Punisher, and the Fantastic Four to other studios with mixed results. While I’m sure that they regret that decision now, it was a necessary one for them to raise the capital to make their own movies which they did starting with Iron Man to great success. The first Iron Man movie showed that Marvel meant to do business differently with their surprising and yet inspired choices, as they hired Jon Favreau to direct the film and in their most brilliant bit of casting to date, hired Robert Downey Jr. to play Tony Stark/Iron Man. That tradition continued through hiring Kenneth Branagh to direct Thor and Joe Johnston for Captain America. Marvel continued to surprise fans by casting Chris Evans as Captain America even though he was already playing another Marvel hero – Johnny Storm. All of those unpredictable and brilliant choices have led up to The Avengers, which represents the biggest roll of the dice for Marvel and yet it’s also the one most guaranteed to succeed. Can all of these disparate universes and characters fuse together to become the biggest superhero movie of all time? Two words…Hell yes!!! Continue reading ‘The Avengers – The Sum Is Greater Than The Parts’
As a non-comic book reader, my history and knowledge about The Avengers and its characters isn’t that great and often consists of only one viewing of each of their individual movies. On the way to the theater my husband was quizzing me about the other movies so he could make sure I understood what had happened before so I would understand what was going on in The Avengers. My recollection was hit and miss as I really liked Iron Man, but didn’t really recall much of Iron Man 2 at all. As he explained the plot of Captain America I wondered if I fell asleep at the end since the only thing I could really remember about the movie was his suit and that Chris Evans is a very cute guy. I never cared much for The Hulk movies but I did enjoy Thor. The more my husband talked about the history of these characters, the more I thought that I don’t care who did what and when since I just wanted to be entertained for two hours. Continue reading ‘The Avengers (Movie Review)’
America’s favorite – and quirkiest — exterminator is back for more unexpected on-the-job adventures with Billy the Exterminator: The Complete Season Four! In this funny family docusoap about the zaniest pest removal company on the planet, we join Billy Bretherton, who runs Vexcon, one of Louisiana’s busiest pest removal companies, with the help of his brother Ricky, whom he describes as “just as crazy as me,” his father Bill Sr., and his sassy mom Donnie, who runs the office. In season four, sees Billy hit the road for the first time, in search of challenges that are bigger, better and badder than ever. Whether he’s going after giant pythons in the Florida Everglades, wrestling 10-foot gators in Texas, chasing a herd of razor-toothed javelina in Arizona, or fighting off an aerial attack by 30-pound geese in North Carolina, Billy comes to the rescue with humor, compassion… and a whole lot of attitude.
Continue reading ‘Billy the Exterminator: The Complete Season Four (DVD Review)’
I love it when a plan comes together. In one of the most ambitious film proposals in recent memory, The Avengers has finally arrived and paid off greatly. Setting itself up back in 2008 with Iron Man and adding on layers through the other four Marvel Comic films that have come since, the massive gamble of bringing in multiple actors, directors, studios, and comic properties has led to what is basically the ultimate Marvel superhero film. Frankly, this film should not even exist. It seems unwieldy to think about combining so many elements into one feature and not have it topple due to the lack of fair balance or the lack of a cohesive and unifying story, but writer/director/comic geek Joss Whedon has managed to pull it off and deliver a ridiculously satisfying experience. Continue reading ‘‘The Avengers’ Assemble For A Comic Book Fever Dream Of Fun’
Last week I released a story covering the rebirth of Valiant Comics along with reboot mentions of some of their best selling titles from the 1990’s. With X-O Manowar being the publisher’s flagship title back in the day, they made a common sense decision making the one-man army their first release in 2012. So was this do-over worth the read? Was the art worth a second look? You know the drill. Read on to check out the new Valiant’s exciting first release.
Wednesday night, May 2, 2012, at the Newport Beach Film Festival gave me the chance to see something different for a change. As opposed to another independent comedy/drama (which was the type of film I saw at the next screening), the film I was able to catch a showing of was Detention of the Dead, a horror-comedy about high school students caught up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The film is very lighthearted, playing out as a riff on both The Breakfast Club and Shaun of the Dead, even though it never quite reaches those levels. Still, the film is a fun enough watch that is very cute overall, in a gore-filled, dumb comedy sort of way. It does not really add much to the genre, but it’s a fun little ode to the joy of seeing zombie movies. Continue reading ‘NBFF Review: Detention Of The Dead’
After seeing Supporting Characters at the Newport Beach Film Festival, the next film I saw that Tuesday night was Le Skylab, written and directed by Julie Delpy. The film is a French comedy/drama that features Delpy, among many other well cast individuals, all playing the members of a large family, gathering for a reunion of sorts, as they honor a grandmother’s birthday at her country home. The film plays around with the various dynamics seen between all of the different family members and has many moments of humor, emotion, and depth in understanding where everyone is coming from. It is more aimless than plot driven, but it is an enjoyable film that brings a lot out of its ensemble cast. Continue reading ‘NBFF Review: Le Skylab’
Tuesday night, May 1, 2012, at the Newport Beach Film Festival proved to be a pretty entertaining one. I managed to see a couple films, which were both very enjoyable. The first was Supporting Characters, a film about two young film editors in New York, who are in the middle of working on a film project that has lasted for months, while also sorting out their romantic relationships. Despite being set in modern times, the tone and handling of the characters and various scenes of dialogue definitely calls back to 70s Woody Allen, regardless of how successful it is in truly matching up. The film may be a little too loose and all over the place as a whole, but there was a charming quality to all that was occurring and I enjoyed the core friendship in this story. It is too well scripted to be described as breezy, but it certainly fits the type of being a film that gets by with ease. Continue reading ‘NBFF Review: Supporting Characters’
On April 26th, 2012, the opening night of the Newport Beach Film Festival saw the world premiere of Jewtopia. Based on one of the longest running off-Broadway plays, Jewtopia is the film adaptation, which revolves around two friends dealing with the prospect of finding love with Jewish women. Unfortunately, while billed as a “comedy”, I can’t recall ever even smiling during this terrible feature. Jewtopia turned out to be one of the worst films I have seen in recent time, managing to leave me so unsettled that I could not honestly write up a review immediately after I saw it, choosing to let my emotions simmer down instead. Now, even after having calmed down, I still have nothing very positive to say. The cast and crew may have had a good time, but the bad jokes, bad story, poorly established comedic style, among other factors, all proved to sum up to a bad time at the movies for me. Continue reading ‘NBFF Review: Jewtopia’
After [intentionally] missing the theatrical release of One For the Money, I finally got around to watching one of 2012’s least-talked-about movies! I’m saying all of this due to the underwhelming 2% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes and the many poor things I heard. Aside from that one film I liked of hers (Knocked Up), Katherine Heigl gives one of her worst roles, even topping her flop a few years ago, Killers. Enough of that, let’s get on to the goods: One for the Money, based on the best-selling book written by Janet Evanovich, is about a normal woman becoming a fake officer to do well on her cousin’s bail bond assignment. I guess she’s looking for a few not-so-good-men (wonderful tagline, folks)! Does One for the Money make the big bucks? Read on for more. Continue reading ‘One for the Money (Blu-ray Review)’
Two brothers with very different ways of looking at the world come together to help each other find their way in the “whimsical comedy” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME, debuting on Blu-ray and DVD (both with UltraViolet™) June 19, 2012 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. The film will also be available On Demand and for Digital Download on June 15, 2012. Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as the hapless title character, Ed Helms (The Hangover 1 & 2) as his slightly more accomplished brother and Academy Award® winner* Susan Sarandon as their long-suffering mother are “beyond wonderful”
(Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) in this quirky and hilarious comedy from Mark and Jay Duplass (Cyrus). Continue reading ‘‘Jeff, Who Lives at Home’ on Blu-ray June 19th’
Kicking criminal butts and taking the law into his own hands, Danny Trejo (Machete, “Sons of Anarchy”) ignites the screen in the gritty, violent and enthralling film Bad Ass, arriving on Blu-ray and DVD June 5 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Inspired by the viral video of a vigilante citizen taking action into his own hands, Bad Ass also stars Ron Perlman (“Sons of Anarchy,” Hellboy) and Charles S. Dutton (Alien 3). Decorated Vietnam hero Frank Vega returns home only to get shunned by society leaving him without a job or his high school sweetheart. It’s not until 40 years later when an incident on a commuter bus, where he protects an elderly black man from a pair of skin heads, makes him a local hero and he’s suddenly celebrated once again. But his good fortune suddenly turns for the worse when his best friend Klondike is murdered and the police aren’t doing anything about it. Continue reading ‘‘Bad Ass’ on Blu-ray June 5th’
Modern action stars are rare to come by these days. There are plenty of past action stars who occasionally star in action movies still and there are younger actors that have done a few action movies, but a true action star is not as big a commodity these days. One of the few still consistently putting out work is Jason Statham. It is unfortunate that Statham’s films continue to only pick up moderate success, as he has a cool, steely charisma and knows how to deliver a whoopin’, but at least the man is fairly consistent. Safe delivers a fairly conventional action film experience, which is made better in spurts do to the early work done to really establish the characters, before settling into crazy action mode. It helps that Statham adds some shades to his performance here, that distinguishes his character a bit more, this time around, but mainly, Safe delivers what fans would want in their standard Statham action film. Continue reading ‘You’re Generally ‘Safe’ In The Hands Of Statham’
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