Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment proudly presents the return of America’s favorite animated family on DVD when “THE SIMPSONS” – SEASON 18 arrives on December 5.

Featuring Springfield’s lovable legitimate businessman, this long-awaited season features commentary on each of the 22 episodes and never-before-seen deleted scenes along with the bonus episode “22 For 30” from Season 28 that includes a memorable scene with Fat Tony.

“THE SIMPSONS” – SEASON 18 was a historic one; the last before The Simpsons Movie, the season-finale 400th episode, “You Kent Always Get What You Want”, “24 Minutes” with guest star Kiefer Sutherland, Treehouse of Horror XVII with the sepia-tone classic “The Day the Earth Looked Stupid” and much much more.

Guest stars include Michael Imperioli, The White Stripes, Tom Wolfe and Natalie Portman and classic episodes include the Emmy-nominated “The Haw-Hawed Couple” and WGA winner “Kill Gil, Volumes I & II.”

Don’t delay, buy today!

BONUS FEATURES

• 4-Disc Set Contains The Complete Eighteenth Season With All 22 Episodes
• Welcome Back, Loyal Fans!
• Audio Commentary On All Episodes With Writers, Actors and Directors
• Deleted Scenes With Commentary
• Bonus Episode
• Multi-Angle Animation Showcase
• Special Language Feature
• A Conversation With Fat Tony
• And more!

Every month Well Go USA releases title after title of engaging films to movie-enthusiasts throughout North America.  This time, we’re bundling three of their most recent titles into a single giveaway!

The Final Master
In 1930s China, unrest rules the nation. Chen, the last Wing Chun master, arrives in Tianjin to expand his kung fu – but his ambition gets him entangled in a power struggle between Tianjin’s martial arts Grandmaster, a dominant underworld Madam, and the town’s military leaders. Can he protect his family from the dangers of the martial arts world, or will it consume everything he loves?

Bitcoin Heist
Hackers have become the bank robbers in the new world of crypto-currency. In order to catch the most wanted hacker, “The Ghost”, an Interpol special agent assembles a team of thieves to plan the ultimate heist. But as any good criminal knows, there is no honor among thieves.

Railroad Tigers
In this action-comedy caper harkening back to Jackie Chan’s classic Hong Kong films, a railroad worker (Chan) and his ragtag group of freedom fighters find themselves on the wrong side of the tracks when they decide to ambush a heavily armed military train filled with desperately needed provisions. Unarmed and outnumbered, they must fight back against an entire army using only their wits, in a series of a dazzling set pieces and action scenes rivaling anything seen on the big screen.

And we’re giving away three sets!

To enter, please send an email with the subject header “Well Go” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following:

Well Go USA’s first releases focused on this giant,
flying turtle-like creature and protector of children?

Please include your name, and address (U.S. only. You must be 18 years old).

Only one entry per person and a winner will be chosen at random.

Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on August 13th, 2017.

“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the epic science-fiction adventure that continues to captivate audiences, marks its 35th anniversary with a two-day-only return to cinemas nationwide. “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” will be presented in a digitally remastered Director’s Cut and, as an added bonus for Star Trek and movie fans, William Shatner will appear in a newly produced in-depth interview that will play before each screening.

Fathom Events and Paramount Pictures will present “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” on Sunday, September 10, and Wednesday, September 13, at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time each day.

Tickets for “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 35th Anniversary” can be purchased online by visiting www.FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices. Moviegoers throughout the U.S. will be able to enjoy this event in more than 600 select movie theaters. For a complete list of theater locations visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

“Making Star Trek II seems like only yesterday,” Shatner said. “Even back then, we knew we were creating something really special, and to have The Wrath of Khan back on the big screen 35 years later is a wonderful testament both to the film itself and to the incredible passion of Star Trek fans.”

Director Nicholas Meyer’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” was a box-office hit upon its release – the sixth highest-grossing film of 1982 – and continues to be revered and quoted by fans. The film, a continuation of the original Star Trek series episode “The Space Seed,” finds longtime Starfleet nemesis Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) alive and well, marooned on a seemingly lifeless planet. When he’s discovered by Chekov (Walter Koenig), Khan will stop at nothing to exact revenge against the man who exiled him on the barren world: Admiral James T. Kirk.

Kirk must lead his loyal crew – including Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Bones (DeForest Kelley), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Sulu (George Takei), Scotty (James Doohan) – and an unprepared group of trainees led by half-human, half-Klingon Lt. Saavik (Kirstie Alley) in a race against time to stop Khan from deploying a device that threatens the entire universe. Bibi Besch, Paul Winfield and Merritt Butrick also star in the film, which features an unforgettable musical score by the late James Horner. The Director’s Cut of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” is currently available on Blu-ray^™, with more than two hours of in-depth bonus features.

“Star Trek II holds a special place in the hearts of Star Trek fans,” Tom Lucas, Fathom Events VP of Studio Relations, said. “Fathom is proud to work with Paramount Pictures to present it again on the big screen, with all of its excitement, action, drama and emotion.”

Produced by Elizabeth A. Bell, Peter Berg,
Matthew George, Basil Iwanyk, Wayne Rogers
Written and Directed by Taylor Sheridan
Starring Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen,
Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Julia Jones,
Kelsey Chow, Graham Greene

Wind River is a well-written, character-driven thriller very much in keeping with Taylor Sheridan’s previous screenplays, Hell or High Water and Sicario.

Sheridan makes his directorial debut with this film that takes its name from the desolate, snow-bound reservation in Wyoming.

Wind River is a very strong debut, but it can’t quite measure up to those two films.

I think most genre fans would agree that Sheridan and Jeremy Saulnier — who wrote and directed the excellent Blue Ruin and Green Room — are carving out the same kind of dark, violent cinematic territory as Sam Peckinpah, Don Siegel and Walter Hill.

They haven’t achieved that kind of status yet, but they both seem well on their way.

Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen get equal billing on the poster (you soon forget they’re both Avengers on the side), but it’s really Renner’s film. He plays Cory Lambert, a local game tracker who keeps the wolves and mountain lions from killing the farmers’ sheep and cows. His personal tragedy is central to the film, laying the groundwork for his dogged pursuit of justice in the murder of a local girl.

We never learn much about Olsen’s generically named, randomly assigned rookie FBI agent Jane Banner — it isn’t even established in the film that she is a rookie, except that she’s clearly in over her head from the very beginning. In a case where the victim froze to death running from her assailants, an FBI agent showing up in the middle of a snow storm with no winter clothing makes it clear that she’s not literally not suited for the job.

After getting minimal help from the understaffed tribal police (the great Graham Greene — who else? — plays the tribe’s top cop), Jane turns to Lambert for help. Lambert, despite having married a Native American woman and living on the land, is still an outsider himself, and one who has no authority when it comes to murder. But he knows the land and he knows the people and without him, Jane would have no chance at cracking the case.

Sheridan wrote such a great role for Emily Blunt in Sicario, so I’m surprised that the the biggest flaw in this film is Olsen’s character. It’s refreshing that she isn’t some sort of unrealistic super agent who has insights into this secretive community that no one else has. And there is, fortunately, no romance between her and Renner’s character. But for the film to not even address the consequences of her lack of experience? That feels off. I can’t help but think there’s a discarded draft out there with a better version of (or that makes much better use of) Jane Banner, rookie FBI agent.

The film ends with a sobering note about how many Native American women have gone missing in the U.S. — no one knows the real number. That fact leaves you with more of a chill in your bones than the shootouts and the blood on the snow.

If the film, which is based on a true story, ultimately fails its female protagonist, it draws attention to the all-too harrowing real crimes that inspired it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

There’s no getting around it: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a debacle of gargantuan Warcraft-like proportions. Valerian joins a handful of embarrassing underperformers and high-profile studio misfires this summer—Transformers 5, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Cars 3, The Mummy, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Alien: Covenant have all performed alarmingly below expectations—but Hollywood studios won’t shed a tear over the failure of Valerian because they had no hand in its production or distribution and therefore had no interest in seeing the most expensive independent movie ever produced become a blockbuster in the first place.

I had high hopes for Valerian ever since production was first announced. Though I knew from the outset the movie is based on a French comic series, I always thought of it as a spiritual cousin to The Fifth Element, in lieu of an actual sequel to it. The possibilities for an ongoing new universe of space opera flicks tickled my imagination.

To say Valerian fails to live up to expectations is a gross understatement: despite its fancy effects and colorful production design, the movie is completely and utterly dead on arrival. The myriad reasons why the movie doesn’t work—notions ranging from wrongful casting, wooden acting, and lack of chemistry to convoluted plotting, clunky dialogue, and assaultive CGI—would require a lengthier discourse than the film deserves.

Valerian cost a pretty penny and certainly shows it, but its failure to catch on with audiences does not bode well for future ambitious movies produced outside of the Hollywood studio system. It continues to be an increasing shame that there aren’t more “original” movies being shown nowadays, and that so few of the ones we get to see are lavished with the sort of production values afforded for Valerian. Expensive tentpole universe building will remain the dominion of Hollywood studios, and more daring fare will have a harder time finding funding and an audience. We’ll be inundated with more generic studio product and probably won’t see a fresh movie on the budgetary scale of Valerian ever again, and that’s too bad.

The current Hollywood movie climate is thick with innocuous and interchangeable buddy/romantic comedies; animated kiddie flicks with pop music and fart jokes; ongoing and interconnected superhero escapades; ever-dispiriting remakes and reboots of better films; indistinguishable prequels and sequels to irrelevant franchises; and live-action adaptations of classic animated movies. Rarely do we get a Baby Driver or a Dunkirk—a fresh bit of untested intellectual property from a Hollywood studio that is not adapted from a superhero comic or television series—and rarer still do we witness films like these becoming modest to phenomenal box office successes (all judged proportionally to their budgets, naturally).

Relatively smaller and more adult-oriented pictures like Baby Driver and Dunkirk are surprise hits this season, yes, but it’s sad to think that even in this veritable cinematic wasteland, a big expensive movie based on new and untested idea is not necessarily a sure thing. It helps immeasurably when the movie is actually good, but even this is no assurance of success: witness last summer’s terrific The Nice Guys, which inexplicably tanked in theaters. Newly up for autopsy is the curious relative failure of the new Alien prequel Covenant, which is light years better than its predecessor Prometheus and deserved to be a bigger box office draw.

Writer/director Luc Besson inevitably loses a bucket load of critical and commercial cred for the failure of Valerian. His peculiar sensibilities are not everybody’s thing and so his filmography is hit-or-miss, and perhaps he’s not as accomplished a writer of dialogue as some of his writer/director peers, but when Besson’s arresting style meets a memorable plot populated with intriguing characters—consider La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and even the delightfully ludicrous Lucy—the eventual result is a modern-day cult classic so full of cinematic joy and invention that the wild fervor of Besson’s devoted fans seems wholly justified.

Besson has made enough great films—even his misfires are snappily directed and entertaining enough in their own right—that fans will give him a pass and be there for his next picture, whatever it may be. And—who knows?—perhaps in time audiences will warm to Valerian on home video and find within it the charms and thrills that escaped me during my theatrical viewing.

As to whether we’ll ever see Hollywood or any other independent studio hand Besson a like-sized budget again—or ever fund a second Valerian flick—will depend on how well the film performs overseas and on DVD. A Pacific Rim sequel is in the can and another Warcraft movie is reportedly still in the works, both thanks to gangbusters China receipts.

Could a sequel to Valerian eventually come to pass?

Stranger things have happened.

Time travel seems to be a theme this issue to varying degrees of success, for example Green Lantern & Cyborg are reinvigorated by it, but an editorial oversight spoilt Justice League. Everafter was superb, worthy of a journey to television for sure. Pick up the back issues if you can.

Over in Green Arrow, Ollie proves there is life beyond Star City in his team-up road trip storyline. Savage Things and Injustice 2 made sure that the element of surprise was a way to breath new life into their books. Nightwing, meanwhile, uses this week as an opportunity to change things up by embracing the past.

Looks like its time to start new adventures! This is my look into the DC Universe this week!

EVERAFTER FROM PAGES OF FABLES #12
Writers: Dave Justus & Lilah Sturges
Artist: Travis Moore

Every story has an ending and Everafter is no different.
As Texas becomes the battleground for the Shadow Players, loyalties come into question and a final battle begins.

Feathertop tries to finally lay the crisis at the school to rest. He brings in to Bobby reveal the fate of the students of the horrific siege.

There is little time for respite as Speckland is now a Fable. The balance of power shifts dramatically and the future is uncertain.

The team of Players gather for another mission but will everyone get their ‘Happily Ever After?’

A satisfying end to the series. Everafter has had a groundbreaking and controversial run and this issue was no different, even the art was stylistically breathtaking and up front.

I never read Fables, but I think I shall have to pick up the trade paperbacks because if this is the spin off it definitely deserves attention.

I sincerely hope this isn’t the last we see of the Shadow Players and as this series ends on a cliffhanger its left me really hungry for more.

Justus, Sturges and Moore have delivered a brilliant conclusion and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

GREEN ARROW #28
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan Ferreyra

Oliver wastes no time infiltrating the Lexcorp building seeking confirmation of the Ninth Circle in Metropolis. Lex humours Ollie before revealing he snubbed their offers of business and misinterprets the visit as a request for money.

Meanwhile, Superman has his hands full as citizens of the Big Apricot begin attempting suicide.

Lex discovers the Ninth Circle are taking revenge on his finances after he rebuffed their offer.  The Circle have also launched a cyber attack that has exposed all the secrets of the Lexcorp staff.

As Superman and Green Arrow race to save the citizens, Lex locates and repurposes the malware planted by the Ninth Circle.

The trio of heroes save the day and end up bolstering public opinion of Lexcorp. The trail has gone cold and Ollie learns his next stop is Gotham City!

This was an unexpected gem. I fully expected the issue to focus on Oliver Queen, instead we had a unique look into Lex Luthor and his analysis of people.

I liked the link to Sherlock Holmes and seeing the machinations of the Ninth Circle taking on the ‘greatest criminal mastermind of our time’ and winning, at least for a while.

The ending was schmaltzy and completely out of character for the title but as it was in Superman’s city and was a story about hope, happiness and optimism it worked extremely well. With Gotham being Ollie’s next visit and Bruce being so similar to Ollie, it will be fun to see how that mirrors this issue.

GREEN LANTERNS #28
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Eduardo Pansica

The first of the Green Lanterns have arrived! Brill of Grenda, Kaja Dox of Yod-Colu, Alitha of Galactica, Z’Kran Z’Kran of Mars, Jan-Al of Krypton, Tyran-R of Tamaran and Calleen of the Elemental Cosmos. The power of the green spectrum flows through them but they have no discipline or training.

The newly gifted protectors of the universe quickly fight amongst themselves and display deep selfishness, even as Jessica and Simon offer to tutor them, they abuse their new powers.

The safeguards built into the modern rings don’t exist in this time and with their lack of control one of their number suffers a terrible fate. Baz and Cruz may be newly graduated but they are the only Lanterns that know how to use the rings.

Like it or not they must form the Green Lantern Corps to survive.

Meanwhile Volthoom tracks down his Lantern but if he gets his hands on it the universe is doomed!

I really disliked the Volthoom storyline and the fact that both Simon and Jessica are constantly written to some dated stereotypes. I find this strange as they were created to bring some diversity to the human members of the Corps. I’m not saying that to knock the work on this series, it is something I’ve noticed across the DC Universe.

To see Simon and Jessica step up and offer to train the new Lanterns shows a shift in characterizations and suddenly this arc has become interesting. It was also interesting to see these seven new characters bringing seven (sorry six) new angles to the story. Is Simon going to take an ancient ring? With it not having safeguards does this mean it might be a more powerful weapon in the present day?

SAVAGE THINGS #6
Writer: Justin Jordan
Artist: Ibrahim Moustafa

As we look back into the lives of Cain and Abel and what led to their first kill. We learn that neither of them is innocent and Cain wasn’t the monster we were led to believe, at least in the beginning. Twenty-five years later, in the modern day as Black Forest goes up against Kira and Abel they edge ever closer to capturing Cain.

As New York reels from the devastation wrought by the attacks, they discover by telecast, the horror of Cain’s true plan.

I never believed one brother was more innocent that the other but I wasn’t prepared to see Abel being the influence that set Cain onto his dark journey.

The plot with the adult Cain’s dark plan gains far more gravitas with the flashbacks.

Cain and Abel are two very psychologically damaged individuals and with each passing issue it becomes ever more apparent.

We are fast approaching a conclusion to this conflict, but I wonder where the book will go after the inevitable final battle.

INJUSTICE 2 #7
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo

Ted Kord is dead.

Batman and the team are reeling from their loss and the funeral forces Jaime Reyes to make a decision about his future.
Ollie and Dinah prepare to tie the knot but as with any wedding, nothing goes smoothly.

In this case, a supervillain attack by Ra’s Al Ghul’s Suicide Squad appear and kidnap the children of the heroes. Bruce arrives in Wayne Manor to find Damian stealing the body of a family member.

Blindsided, Bruce is left battered and bruised as Damian escapes with the body for nefarious purposes…

The series is seriously off-book. Everytime you think you know where it’s going, especially in relation to the game’s storyline, it suddenly mixes things up.

The plot to kidnap the children of the heroes to force their hand was not something I could predict. The superhero wedding not going smoothly was a prerequisite but Ra’s plan was definitely an inspired move. The surprises didn’t end there with Damian and the exhumation finalising the one-two punch.

I thought I would be reading something closer to an adaptation to the game, but what we have is so much more. Taylor obviously has a master plan.

CYBORG #15
Writer: John Semper Jr
Artist: Cliff Richards & Will Conrad

The cure to the OTAC virus lies within Cyborg, but not the one we know.

Vic’s mother on this earth heads the resistance and shows the team of rebels a video of Silas giving the location of the cure.

Unfortunately ‘Cyborg-2’ fell in battle against the OTAC forces and was assimilated for their cause. Refusing to admit defeat Cyborg, Exxy, Beast Boy and Variant race to track down

Cyborg-2’s and come up against Doc Magnus’ Metal Men. All seems lost and then a holographic message from Cyborg-2 ensures it.

Mirror Match? After all this time, I honestly thought this story was running out of steam but then something as simple as a mirror match reels me back in. I saw it first on Superman III and then years after in video games.

The dystopian future has been done to death but the addition of Beast Boy and the Metal Men piqued my interest. How this alternate timeline fits in with the OTAC plot in our timeline remains to be seen but this is a nice diversion, the equivalent of a decent double espresso.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #26
Writer: Bryan Hitch
Artist: Fernando Pasarin

The future is lost. Sovereign an armoured villain rules a dystopian future. She dethroned the Gods of Olympus and stole their powers laying waste to the earth.

The children of the League are all that’s left and their vain hope of reaching a time travel device. Aquaman attacks them on their quest, he is now known as Curry, half Atlantean, half the salvaged body parts of Cyborg and sporting a black lantern ring, he is Sovereign’s man-at-arms.

Barely making it to the portal in the old Infinity base, the youths arrive in the present and come face to face with their parents.

Can the Justice League fix their mistakes in time or damn their children to a fate worse than death?

The concept is solid. The concept is fun.

The hindrance is that aside from hints and the odd namedrop, by the end of the issue we’re still guessing who these children of the League actually are.

Is that Jon Kent? If it is then why is he wearing both Wonder Woman and Superman’s costume remnants? A roll call could have genuinely increased the enjoyment of the issue. In fact this was the first time in a while (since the Molly storyline) that I wholeheartedly enjoyed Justice League.

NIGHTWING #26
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Javier Fernandez

As Dick mourns the death of Brendan ‘Giz’ Li his head is all over the place, so the last thing he needs is a visit from Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress.

Helena promises that she is only in town to help Nightwing investigate Li’s murder and though he appreciates the assistance, Dick can’t shake the feeling Helena has an ulterior motive. As the two heroes hunt down links to the mafia and a man named Dracul, Pigeon and Defacer struggle with going straight or turning back to crime.

Dick and Helena expose a mafia fronted fight club in their hunt for Dracul but find him too late. A ‘deathbed’ recording reveals he was an undercover Spyral agent and now Nightwing & Huntress must face their past – or die.

Spyral and Grayson have been a giant elephant in the room since Rebirth.

Huntress being over in Birds Of Prey and residing in a different city helped alleviate matters. Now their past has caught up with them and it is great to see the acknowledgement being made in a bigger storyline. I wonder if they’ll go ‘full on spy’ for this adventure? I wish that Mikel Janin was back to bring things to life as the art seemed almost sketch-like in execution. It does feel good that the book is consciously taking a new direction.

The dead aren’t the only things to fear when “The Walking Dead” The Complete Seventh Season arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD) and DVD August 22 from Lionsgate and Anchor Bay Entertainment. Rick Grimes and his hardened band of survivors face their greatest challenge yet in Negan, the volatile leader of an opposing group. “The Walking Dead” The Complete Seventh Season stars Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually), Norman Reedus (Boondock Saints franchise), Lauren Cohan (The Boy), Danai Gurira (All Eyez On Me), and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV’s “Magic City”).

Picking up immediately after the thrilling cliff-hanger, Negan forces Rick and the group to fall under his will, brutally convincing them to live by his rules. To prevent further bloodshed, Rick genuinely believes they can make life under Negan, however terrible, work. But he soon learns that Negan can’t be reasoned with, and they must prepare to go to war now. Victory will require more than Alexandria, and Rick will need to convince their new allies from the Kingdom and Hilltop to band together with the common goal of taking down Negan and his army.

The five-disc home entertainment release of “The Walking Dead” The Complete Seventh Season features hours of never-before-seen bonus features including audio commentaries, deleted and alternate scenes, and nine featurettes looking behind the scenes of the show, delving deeper into the characters and checking in with “The Walking Dead” writers. “The Walking Dead” The Complete Seventh Season will be available on Blu-ray and DVD for the suggested retail price of $80.99 and $70.98, respectively. Season eight of “The Walking Dead” premieres Sunday October 22 on AMC.

BLU-RAY / DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

• Audio Commentaries
• Deleted & Alternate Scenes
• “Inside The Walking Dead” Featurette
• “The Making of The Walking Dead” Featurette
• “In Memorium” Featurette
• “A Larger World” Featurette
• “Breaking & Rebuilding” Featurette
• “A New Chapter of Fear” Featurette
• “Top Walkers” Featurette
• “Warrior Women” Featurette
• “The Writers of The Walking Dead” Featurette

For more details, visit Facebook.com/TheWalkingDeadAMC

Welcome back to Graphic Breakdown!

It’s August! Things are still hot over at DC!

Let’s look at some of the Rebirth titles hitting the stands today.

Batman #28
Written by Tom King
Illustrated by Mikel Janin

Tom King has really turned this title around. This is another installment of the awesome storyline “The War of Jokes and Riddles.” King is killing it with Janin. They gave this title an identity that was sorely needed.

After a harrowing first six pages (and I mean HARROWING) the book goes full throttle. The Joker and the Riddler each have the same demand: “Bring me the Batman and the war ends.”

Needless to say, Batman does not comply. This leads to Gotham being put under siege from the two villains. Because of that, we have an awesome fight between Deadshot and Deathstroke. It ends on a high note too.

Mikel Janin is awesome. His art is the best this title has seen since the Rebirth started. This storyline is a great turn for this book. Read it.

RATING: A

Shade: The Changing Girl #11
Written by Cecil Castellucci
Illustrated by Marley Zarcone

Ah, the weird and wonderful world of Shade: The Changing Girl. The team of Castellucci and Zarcone are one of the best in comics right now. Shade’s on a trip and this issue has a new destination.

That destination is Los Angeles. Zarcone immediately makes Los Angeles appealing with the art. Shade is off to find the person who starred in her favorite television show. She eventually does. It’s a wonderful meeting and spins this title in another direction.

Castellucci does a great job of giving us characters to care about both in dialogue and actions.

I would recommend this title to anyone. Start from the beginning though. The journey to this point is worth it. Give it a read. It’s excellent.

RATING: A

Superman #28
Written by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason
Illustrated by Scott Godlewski

The Kent family is on vacation! This is the second issue where they are traveling around and I’m loving it. This issue takes them to Washington D.C. as Clark and Lois take their son to learn some good old American history.

Tomasi and Gleason make that the thrust of the issue. There are no real threats. Just the Kents traveling around Washington looking at the Washington Monument etc.

A really nice moment is when the Kents accidentally meet a family called the Dowd’s. I don’t want to spoil it but it’s a nice honest and human scene.

The art is not bad at all. This title is sharp and every month it’s unique. Tomasi and Gleason have made Superman relevant and that’s an achievement for sure.

One of the better all time Superman runs for sure.

RATING: A-

New Gods Special #1
Written and Illustrated by Shane Davis
Written and Illustrated by Walt Simonson

I have to come right out and say it: I’m an unabashed Shane Davis fan. I love his art. There’s something about it I’m drawn to. Sadly, I can’t say the same for his writing. The art is wonderful here, but the story is pretty standard.

Kalibak has taken over as leader of the Bug colony! Orion and Lightray must help out Bug and his people get out of the predicament they are in! Will it happen? Davis doesn’t give us any real twists or turns. Everything is matter of fact.

Again, great art, standard story.

The backup by Simonson is much better. Simonson is still a master and he proves it here. The tale of young Orion and his friend Seagrin is wonderful. It’s too short, but I’m glad it’s there.

Pick this up for the Davis art and the backup story.

RATING: B

Deathstroke #22
Written by Christopher Priest
Illustrated by Diogenes Neves

Priest continues his cool run on this title with the second part of the “Defiance” storyline.

Deathstroke is now leading a team called Team Defiance and it’s great…This issue finds them trying to retake a U.S. Embassy in a foreign country.

The character moments are really what make this title sing.

When Dr. Light tells Deathstroke he led the team into a situation where they got their butts kicked, Slade simply replies: “Builds character.” I laughed out loud.

Priest can also handle the action scenes extremely well. The art works great for this new direction.

Pick it up. It’s a constantly evolving, exciting read every time.

RATING: A-

Bane: Conquest #4
Written by Chuck Dixon
Illustrated by Graham Nolan

The cover alone on this issue is great. It’s like living in the 1990s all over again. Then, you actually read the comic. At that point, it DEFINITELY feels like your living in the 1990s.

Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan create this comic like the last 25 years of comic books didn’t happen. Bane is on a conquest!

Bane wants to conquer the Vor, as they have made Bane very upset. He runs into Catwoman in this issue as well. It’s all very bombastic. Chuck Dixon makes it enjoyable though, even when things seem over the top.

The art by Nolan is great. He’s probably at the top of his game now. Pick this up.

It’s not the best Batman story currently on stands but it’s still reminiscent of a time when comics were excessive. That’s just a good time in general.

RATING: B

DC Comics Bombshells #32
Written by Marguerite Bennett
Illustrated by Mirka Andolfo, Laura Braga, and Aneke

This is a good book if you don’t take it too seriously. I only read the last three but I am liking this enough. The writing by Bennett is light but suits this title well.

Supergirl fights Faora in this issue and it’s a good fight.

Hugo Strange lets loose his failed lab experiments. He sends them to Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s crazy circus.

A third storyline involves Killer Frost as she sends her mythical army into the city.

All of this is leads to one thing: a supernatural Nazi invasion!

The story was good. The art was a bit off, but that happens with three different artists.

All in all, a good second tier DC book!

RATING: B

Harley Quinn and Batman #1
Written by Ty Templeton
Illustrated by Rick Burchett

This short comic is a wonderful surprise!

This was created by the classic Batman and Robin Adventures team of Templeton and Burchett.

This is the preview comic of the upcoming Batman and Harley Quinn animated film.

It’s wonderful to see this team together again. Besides the nostalgia factor, we are treated to a cool tale with Batman, Harley Quinn, the Joker and other Batman characters. It’s awesome.

The only downside is that it’s only 11 pages. Still, there will be seven chapters released digitally coming up. I can’t wait to read them all. This is too perfect.

RATING: A

Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura,
Gregory Chou, Erik Howsam, Joey Tufaro,
Taylar Wesley, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
Screenplay by Knate Gwaltney
Directed by Luis Prieto
Starring Halle Berry, Sage Correa,
Lew Temple, Chris McGinn

Sometimes you have to wonder how a movie gets catapulted to the big screen.

There are certain stories that are done a disservice when told at a one-story high scale.

That’s the case with Kidnap, so much so that immediately after viewing I thought of all the TBS Sunday afternoons that I will be spending watching this minimally ambitious movie on a minimally sized screen.

Halle Berry stars as Karla Dyson, a single mother who is devoted to her young son. When he is abducted and she sees him disappear into a car, everything in her says to fight back and take this chase into her own hands. As Karla races to find her child’s kidnappers, she proves that nothing is as determined as a mother separated from her child.

One of the reasons that this movie stands out is because of its acting (or lack thereof). When this type of story is presented, we’re usually met with the trope of the superhero mom who is given immense strength, agility, nerves of steel and complete presence of mind in an unthinkable situation. Kidnap shines in that it is clear that Karla is reacting in the moment and building this plane as it flies. She hyperventilates, talks to herself, and panics constantly. In other words, she behaves exactly as you would imagine a common parent would when faced with their greatest and deepest fear.

Unfortunately for the film, Luis Prieto is possibly out of his depth in making a thriller stay at engaging for even an hour and a half. There are many times during the first two-thirds of the movie where it just seems like you are watching an extended car chase masquerading as a feature film. The last third of the movie is pretty rewarding as she grows closer to overtaking the kidnappers, but I cannot honestly say that it is worth the first two-thirds of the movie, which dragged on interminably.

Halle Berry isn’t the strongest actress out there, but she plays this role very well. The majority of the movie is focused on her in her car, so she has a lot of lifting to do in order to tap the emotions of the audience. Her ability to come off as meek but drawing from a sudden and ill explained sense of resolve does give an air of reality and relatability. Of course, sometimes this portrayal gets overly campy and looks more like a Rescue 911 reenactment. That is due more to the awkward pacing and simplistic script than Berry’s acting chops. Only those behind the camera can take claim for the several glaring continuity errors that will take an avid moviegoer out of the experience and wonder how such general items could be missed.

The threat of your child disappearing is a very real one, and Kidnap does the minimal work of capturing that heart-gripping fear. I just wish it did a better job of gripping my attention.

Produced by Akiva Goldsman,
Ron Howard, Erica Huggins
Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner,
Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel
Based on The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel
Starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey,
Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim, Fran Kranz,
Abbey Lee, Jackie Earle Haley

Both Sony and director Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) have “forgotten the face of their father” in adapting The Dark Tower.

What should have been an epic world-building introduction to Stephen King’s magnum opus seems to have devolved into what plays like a failed 90-minute television pilot. Because for an epic to thrive it needs to be…well…EPIC!

And it starts out sounding kinda epic:

The last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter O’Dim, also known as the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), determined to prevent him from toppling the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.

Instead, everything about The Dark Tower screams WE’RE ON A BUDGET SINCE WE DON’T KNOW IF THIS WILL ACTUALLY WORK AT THE BOX OFFICE BECAUSE OUR SCRIPT SUCKS AND MCCONAUGHEY HASN’T SEEMED THIS BORED SINCE THE PRESS TOUR FOR FAILURE TO LAUNCH!

Sony flat out needed to go for it. Maybe not John Carter of Mars go for it, but at least commit to the fact that this could be your studio’s The Lord of the Rings and not The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. Unfortunately what we end up with is the CliffsNotes version of a screenplay directed by the lowest bidder.

Budget and scale aside, there’s not an ounce of weight to the proceedings. Teen protagonist Jake Chambers is either going to help prevent The Dark Tower from falling or be the cause of it, dragging the only surviving Gunslinger (think The Last Jedi) from an alternate earth, who seems to have given up on life, into the fight. They tell us the stakes are high, but we never feel them for a single second. Ultimately robbing us of a few potentially heartfelt moments that would have gone a long way toward our investment in these characters. But alas…

While Idris Elba and Tom Taylor, as the Gunslinger and Jake respectively, do have something at least resembling chemistry, it’s Matthew McConaughey, as the Man in Black, who feels like he’s sleepwalking through someone else’s movie. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he wasn’t this dull. And for a character who already appears to be godlike in his control over people, what could possibly be his motivation for unleashing the monsters that will consume the universe if the Tower crumbles. He’s not suicidal, so maybe he’s looking for a challenge?

If you’re looking for one, go see The Dark Tower.

Learning a bit more about the people who’ve just moved into your neighbourhood isn’t just neighbourly! It’s important to keep yourself and your family safe. Background checking services have proven to be a blessing in this regard as they’re highly effective in mitigating such risks. If you too want to protect yourself and your loved ones from potentially harmful neighbours, it’s be best that you opt for a reputed background checking service. One of the ways to do that is by going through the best online reviews for the top-rated providers.

Let’s now acquaint you with 4 good reasons why you should run background checks on your neighbours.

That guy down the street who has invited your son over for some PlayStation games may seem all nice and good. However, are you sure that you’d like your kid to go over and play at his house – completely unsupervised?

It’s inevitable that your kids will mingle with neighbours when you’re not around, and perhaps even get influenced by them. Carrying out a background check on neighbours that interact with your kids will help you filter out anyone suspicious, who needs to be reported.

For the protection of your pets

There’s always that neighbour who despises everyone’s pets. Whether you have a curious cat who sneaks under other people’s porches every now and then, or a constantly barking dog, a pet-hating neighbour can do terrible things to your innocent companion/s.

Please don’t think that you’re overreacting here! People are indeed capable of doing such nasty things! Poisoning other people’s pets isn’t something uncommon – in fact, ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has created a webpage to help people prevent it.

To guard your property

I’m sure you’ve heard that a thief would steals anything that isn’t bolted to the floor! It may well become a reality in your case if your neighbour has a drug problem or a criminal background. Running a background check on any such suspect will help you make prior arrangements to guard your belongings.

If you go out of town pretty frequently, the last thing you’d want to do is unknowingly ask such a neighbour to water your plants! Knowing about people in your neighbourhood can potentially save you thousands of dollars in theft and/or damage.

To guard against sex offenders

Carrying out a background check will immediately tell you about the complete name and exact location of any sex offender in your area. With prisons getting overcrowded, non-violent offenders don’t get as long sentences as they used to earlier. Many of them are either sentenced to less than 2 years or are released on probation. Would you still let your teenage daughter go out jogging at night knowing that there are 15 sex offenders in the vicinity?!

The world’s top protection agent [Ryan Reynolds] is called upon to guard the life of his mortal enemy, one of the world’s most notorious hitmen [Samuel L. Jackson]. The relentless bodyguard and manipulative assassin have been on the opposite end of the bullet for years and are thrown together for a wildly outrageous 24 hours. During their raucous and hilarious adventure from England to the Hague, they encounter high-speed car chases, outlandish boat escapades and a merciless Eastern European dictator [Gary Oldman] who is out for blood. Salma Hayek joins the mayhem as Jackson’s equally notorious wife. The film will be “hitting” your theatres on August 18.

But here’s your chance to see it early!

BOSTON
For your chance to download passes to the advance screening of THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD on Tuesday, August 15 at 7pm at AMC Loews Boston Common, click here: http://www.lionsgatescreenings.com/XwvUn39272

HARTFORD
For your chance to download passes to the advance screening of THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD on Tuesday, August 15 at 7pm at Bow Tie Palace in Hartford, click here: http://www.lionsgatescreenings.com/LdbyM35534

Remember seating is first come, first served and not guaranteed so please arrive early!

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Produced by Hyun-chul Kim, Young-hwan Jang
Written by Sang-ho Oh, Kwan-Hyun Park
Directed by Kwang-Hyun Park
Starring Chang-wook Ji, Eun-kyung Shim,
Oh Jung-Se, Ahn Jae-Hong, Kim Sang-Ho
Fantasia Film Festival selection

When I have the opportunity to see a movie like Fabricated City, a South Korean tale of gamers helping one of their own who’s been framed for a rape and murder, I can’t help guessing if the film will have elements of cyber adventure like Neal Stephenson’s Reamde, or Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. The movie teases this kind of action but quickly devolves into a somewhat standard action-adventure, cat and mouse story with a side of extra hacking and technology.

Director Kwang-Hyun Park, a renowned director of commercials whose previous film Welcome to Dongmakgol was the 2005 entry from South Korea to the Academy Awards, does bring some good story elements to this film and keeps the action coming through the last half of the film.

The story concerns Kwon Yoo, played by Kwang-Hyun Park, a successful television actor who has been in several highly-rated shows, as an unemployed former Tae Kwon Do champion and gaming addict. In his online persona of the Captain, he leads a merry band of gamers through tough combat situations hindered only by the weak link in the group, Mr. Hairy or Yeo-wool outside of the game, played by Eun-kyung Shim, a former child star that has made the difficult transition to adult roles.

After a moderately cheesy opening battle that ends up being part of video game, we get the start of the real story as Kwon finds a lost phone at his cyber cafe and returns it for a reward. He later wakes up to police accusing him of raping and murdering the owner of the phone. His trial and time in prison for this crime are the slowest and most boring parts of the movie. It’s not like they should be cut out entirely but they seemed to go on forever.

A traumatic event on the outside causes him to gain a purpose in life and using his previously mentioned but not seen combat skills, he breaks out of prison and goes on a quest to clear his name.

Once Kwon is out of prison the story moved along at a pretty good pace. The action was barely believable but fast paced with lots of stunt driving and an improbable engine replacement. The ability of the technology far outpaces what is currently available. The number of monitors built into things (tables, walls, whole floors) and the kind of access to CCTV footage and personal records of individuals was cinematic and played well into the tropes of hackers and the government can get to everything and manipulate it and you at will. But much of it was very unrealistic. I was reminded of the 1995 movie Hackers and how it’s brand of ‘cool’ computer graphics was derided as cheap and cheesy. These were more smoothly executed but within the confines of a story happening in the present they were out of place. If more effort had been made to set the story a bit into the future, like Minority Report or the forthcoming Ready Player One, then this kind of computer graphic technology wouldn’t seem out of place.

The movie followed a series of reverses where the good guys and the bad guys would get one over on each other. It kind of reminded me of a much less gruesome version of the back and forth between the Secret Agent and Serial Killer in I Saw the Devil.

Overall there very little character background around the principles. We learn nothing about Kwon Yoo outside of the fact that he is good with video games and tae kwon do and loves his mom. It is hinted that he was kicked off the Tae Kwon Do team but nothing is ever said about why this happened or how it affects his character. His main video game helpers also just show up and can abandon their previous lives to help the Captain fight the set up. Yeo-wool, Mr Hairy, has an extensive and expensive computer set-up with no explanation of how or why or anything. The helping gamers miraculously have all the resources they need with only a line or two of background that sets them up as at least two dimensional characters. They perform in real life as well or better than their gaming personas in tough physical situations.

But in the end, outside of dragging before the prison break, this wasn’t a bad film. While it did well in South Korea, I don’t see it doing very well in the US outside of a niche audience that likes Asian action cinema already.

Produced by Ken Arnold, Dan Deluca,
Jeffrey Allard, Demetrea Triantafillides
Written by Dan DeLuca, Jamie Nash
Directed by Mitchell Altieri
Starring Ken Arnold, Dan DeLuca, Dan Franko,
Kevin Jiggetts, Kara Luiz, Rain Pryor, James Remar,
Matt Servitto, Tiffany Shepis, Max Gray Wilbur
Fantasia Film Festival selection

“Lets kill some dead people!”

The Night Watchmen bills itself as a “Vampire Comedy” and it gets that pretty dead on.

This is a film that gets right to the point and yet does not feel rushed. The movie wastes no time… less than 15 minutes in and all the characters are introduced and the plot is fully in gear. For a movie that is only 80 minutes,  The Night Watchmen is paced pretty well only, really suffering in the last five minutes where a final gag would really have helped.

Instead, they play it straight.

Not sure why as the rest of the movie is constant subversion of the tropes of vampire films, buddy films and siege movies. It is also nice to see a comedy that knows it is R rated and plays to that. Copious amounts of nudity and gore are here to be found. In the era of the PG-13 film this was refreshing.

What are The Night Watchmen? Well, they are the night watchmen of a dying Baltimore weekly newspaper which happens to get a vampire clown rock star (yes I am serious) dropped off in their shipping department (the stoner delivery guys transposed the numbers on the address). After that it’s all vampires turning the humans and possibly making them into Zompires (that is something that comes up).

The only line of defense are the lazy and useless night watchmen including Ken (Ken Arnold) a former “marine” who is about as capable as a blind woodsman with a gun, Luca (Dan DeLuca) the maybe former hitman perhaps cannibal quiet guy, Jiggetts (Kevin Jiggetts) the worst black dude ever, Karen (Kara Luiz) the lesbian editor who is smarter and better with a weapon than any of the men and new hire Rajeeve (not his real name) who is starting his first night after getting kicked out of a goth metal band (Max Gray Wilbur).

They must survive the night until the sun can vanquish the evil. It does not go well for them and that is where the humor comes from. This movie is way funnier than it deserves to be. This is a movie less about plot and more about characters and funny distractions of which there are plenty. I was honestly shocked at how much I laughed at the gags here. Sure some were dopey and did not work but far more did than didn’t. That is the strange part here as the movie is written by and stars people who are most well known for roles in things such as The Wire, Law & Order and the like. Sure there are comedies on their resumes but when I see an actor that was a main character from The Wire on the writing credits “comedy” is not what comes to mind. But as I said this works.

Directed by Mitchell Altieri and co-starring James Remar (yes JAMES FREAKING REMAR). Remar is a sleazy sex addicted nerd so yeah, I bet you never saw that before. The direction is obviously low budget with CG blood in many scenes and even CG gunfire but in a strange way that plays into the goofball tone of the movie. This is not a serious film that wants to be high art… in fact I think it would rather be HIGH art (hehe). Yeah, a bag of weed plays a key role in the plot. Apparently vampires can still get high.

The Night Watchmen does not suck. The film sticks it’s neck out to be funny and even with the cross to bear of it being yet another vampire comedy it has staked out it’s place. I wager if they had tapped a different vein this may not have worked.

That said it’s not a perfect film. Some bad CGI does pull you out of the film and that ending needed a gag or two but overall I really enjoyed the movie.

The world’s most beloved DC Super Heroes are back together – but unlike any iteration you’ve ever seen – as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and DC Entertainment present Justice League Action: Season 1 Part 1, the first DVD collection of the hit Cartoon Network animated series! Featuring the voices of some of the top celebrities in the business today, Justice League Action: Season 1 Part 1 comes to DVD ($18.94 SRP) on October 10, 2017.

Witness the Justice League like never before in this all-new animated series where the pace is quick, the action is relentless and the fun is non-stop! The “Trinity” of DC’s Justice League– Superman (voiced by Jason J. Lewis), Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Wonder Woman (Rachel Kimsey) – are joined by a galaxy of rotating allies and enemies like John Constantine, Zatanna, Booster Gold, Plastic Man, Lobo, Mr. Freeze, Black Adam and Swamp Thing. The Super Heroes must battle enemies that include space invaders and bizarre forces of magic as they try to defend Earth from Super-Villains intent on destroying the planet. No matter the threat, the Justice League is ready for the challenge.

The two-disc Justice League Action: Season 1 Part 1 is packed with a star-studded acting roster, including Mark Hamill (The Joker, Swamp Thing), nine-time Emmy Award winner Carl Reiner (The Wizard), Emmy & Golden Globe winner James Woods (Lex Luthor), two-time Emmy winner Jon Cryer (Felix Faust), Golden Globe winner Christian Slater (Deadshot), Sean Astin (Shazam), Ken Jeong (Toyman), Diedrich Bader (Booster Gold), Andy Richter (Chronos), Jake T. Austin (Blue Beetle), Mena Suvari (Killer Frost), Lacey Chabert (Zatanna), Jerry O’Connell (The Atom), and Patton Oswalt (Space Cabbie). Casting also includes some clever nods to fanboy favorites of TV and film, like Michael Dorn (Atrocitus), Armin Shimerman (Zilius Zox), Peter Stormare (Mr. Freeze), Noel Fisher (Clarion the Witch Boy), Jasika Nicole (Vixen), Khary Payton (Cyborg), Robert Picardo (Harvey Dent/Two-Face).

“We are delighted to bring our fans the first release of the hit Justice League Action series,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, WBHE Vice President, Family & Animation Marketing. “With action-packed adventure and a star-studded voice cast, this DVD is perfect for kids and families to enjoy together.”

New episodes of Justice League Action airs Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. on Cartoon Network.

KA-POW! This is the book Batman Fans have been waiting for! For the first time, the classic 1960s TV series, starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, gets the lavish, in-depth coffee table book tribute it so richly deserves. From the Rogues Gallery of Villains, including the Penguin, the Joker and Catwoman, to the car every kid wanted – the Batmobile – it’s all here! Holy History Batman!

Bob Garcia and Joe Desris’ book provides an in-depth and highly visual overview of the show, and the cultural impact it had, defining the Dynamic Duo for a generation, and bringing Pop Art to Primetime.

From the creation of the show, through the production of its 120 episodes over 3 seasons, to its legacy and afterlife in continual syndication around the world, the book will relive favorite moments, uncover behind the scenes secrets, and celebrate the people both in front of and behind the camera who brought Batman to the screen.

Filled with classic images, and rare and previously unseen photos and production art from archives and the private collections of Adam West, among many others, this will be the definitive companion to the series, both for long-standing fans, and newcomers discovering the show’s charms for the first time.

Now available as an awesome collector’s edition featuring an exclusive clamshell case, and alternative jacket, comes Batman: a Celebration of the Classic TV Series, signed by Batman and Robin themselves, Adam West and Burt Ward. Each copy is numbered, and this is strictly limited to 150 copies world-wide.

This extraordinary collector’s item costs just £350/$500 and can be ordered from the links below:

• Titanexclusives (UK)
• Another Universe (US)

BATMAN and all related characters and elements are ™ and © DC Comics. (s17)

Produced by Susan Leber
Written and Directed by Michael O’Shea
Starring Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine, Aaron Moten

There’s a whole lot to unpack in this film. So let’s get started.

Milo (Eric Ruffin from The Good Wife) is a quiet and troubled kid who lives in the ghettos of NYC. His parents are dead. His brother is an ex-gang member who doesn’t talk much about his past. All of the local gang members call him “freak.” And he would rather live in his fantasy world of vampires than the real world.

In fact, he’s so obsessed with vampires that he fully believes that he is one. The movie opens with Milo drinking the blood of a man in a public restroom.

Eventually, Milo meets Sophie (Chloe Levine from The OA and The Defenders), a young woman who needs a respite from her abusive grandfather.

The two bond over dark obsessions and the deaths of their parents. With her help, Milo starts to break out of his shell a bit, but he’s still under the impression that he’s a vampire. He has notebook upon notebook of his notes about the “truth” about vampirism and his nighttime exploits.

Using a fantastical monster as an allegory for real-life violence is nothing new. It’s maybe not even anything new to put all of this into a story of how race and violence mix to create the circumstances of young people in ghettos. But The Transfiguration is a really complex allegory because there’s so much going on in a seemingly simple story.

First thing’s first: I really like the movie a lot. The acting is spot on. Eric and Chloe are amazing in the two roles that carry the entire movie. I love the ambition of putting this kind of story into an urban, gang-life setting. It was constantly surprising and heartbreaking at just about every turn.

If there’s a problem with the film, it’s that it doesn’t go far enough to really hone its message. It’s obvious that Milo is caught up in a life that doesn’t suit him at all. Sure, he’s not involved with the gangs, but the gangs touch his life on a daily basis. He sees their violence. He’s the victim of it at times. His vampire obsession is his attempt to control the violence, but it’s also a result of the violence. If you’re constantly surrounded by violence and constantly told that you’re bad by the society around you, why shouldn’t you just go ahead and succumb to that violent lifestyle? He just chooses to be a monster instead of a gangster.

But does it go far enough to explain that it’s society that causes a lot of the violence in the ghettos? That it’s society that pushes these kids to feel like they need to join gangs in the first place? They need a refuge from the violence that’s thrust upon them in the rest of society, so they reach out for the one place where they can control violence and be accepted: gangs. The one time that this is spoken of is when Milo’s brother tells him, “There’s always someone doing something worse than you. You do what you gotta do to survive. Someone will ALWAYS be worse.”

It’s really up to the viewer as to whether this is enough or if there needed to be something more. Maybe some action during the film that shows this. Personally, I feel like the ghetto was shown as such a vacuum that the outside world almost didn’t have any influence on it. I don’t think that was writer/director Michael O’Shea’s intention at all. But the only time the outside world has any affect on anything that happens in the ghetto is when the cops are involved, and they’re really just used as tools. They’re pretty much not controlling their own actions.

This is kind of a minor quibble, but it does weigh on the film. It would have been interesting to see what an African American director would have done with the same material. Would this issue have been fixed?

Milo talks about a lot of vampire films throughout his story. (Sophie tries desperately to push Twilight on him, but he’s not having it. Good for him.) The one that sticks out the most, of course, is George Romero’s Martin, another film about a man who believes he’s a vampire. The Transfiguration is definitely a good successor to Romero’s legacy of socially conscious horror.

The Transfiguration is available On Demand starting August 8th.