Oscar-winner Charlize Theron stars as elite MI6’s most lethal assassin and the crown jewel of her Majesty’s secret intelligence service, Lorraine Broughton, in Atomic Blonde. When she’s sent on a covert mission into Cold War Berlin, she must use all of the spycraft, sensuality and savagery she has to stay alive in the ticking time bomb of a city simmering with revolution and double-crossing hives of traitors. Broughton must navigate her way through a deadly game of spies to recover a priceless dossier while fighting ferocious killers along the way in this breakneck action-thriller from director David Leitch (Deadpool 2, John Wick). Theron is joined by James McAvoy (Split, X-Men: First Class), Sofia Boutella (The Mummy, Star Trek Beyond) and John Goodman (Transformers: The Last Knight, Patriots Day) in what critics are calling “the best spy movie in years,” Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV.

And we’re giving away 15 copies on Blu-ray!

To enter, send an email with the subject header “ATOMIC BLONDE” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following question:

Who wrote the graphic novel The Coldest City, which was the basis of Atomic Blonde?

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 November 19th, 2017.

Produced by Bryan S. Sexton
Written by Adam Marcus, Debra Sullivan
Directed by Adam Marcus
Starring Michelle Renee Allaire, Petra Areskoug,
Scott Burkett, Melissa Corkern, Pat Destro,
William Dixon, Tracy Drolet, Curtis Fortier,
John Gilbert, Joyce Greenleaf, Nathan Hedrick,
Megan Helbing, Joe Howard

Much like its titular holiday staple, Secret Santa is a very mixed bag. An extremely violent, very gory black comedy, the film never settles on a consistent tone, which does have the advantage of keeping viewers on their toes, but it also results in some unsuccessful moments and scenes.

Performances are all over the map as well: lead A. Leslie Kies plays it straight and is thoroughly believable while others in the cast also give it their all but go way over the top.

Despite some bad moments, it all kinda works. Secret Santa details the deterioration of a (HUGELY dysfunctional) family dinner at Mom’s at Christmas time. Kies, playing April, the only child Mom actually approves of, is bringing her boyfriend to meet the family for the first time and is nervous. Very understandably nervous, once he – and we – meet these people.

During the course of the awkward evening, accusations and revelations fly at a machine-gun pace, eventually leading to madness and murder. But is festering animosity coming to the surface the only thing to blame for the sudden turn to violence?

A lot of this is fun and the film is never dull. However, some of the humor is cornball or outright bad – such as when two characters square off just before a brutal fight and another yells, “Let’s get ready to rumble!” Yikes!

There’s also a jokey reference to Carpenter’s The Thing that falls with a thud, unfortunately, and as the violence escalates, so does the gore, to the point where the “funny” violence becomes ugly and disgusting, killing the humor completely.

And yet, this is mostly lip-smacking, mean-spirited fun, with a terrific turn by Ryan Leigh Seaton as April’s bitter, miserable sister. Despite being saddled with both of the aforementioned groaners, she makes the most of her role and is unafraid to be made unattractive and colossally unlikable.

Director Adam Marcus could have made this film much more focused and tonally consistent; if he had, we might have had a holiday classic on our hands.

Yet even with its many flaws, Secret Santa serves up a good-n-nasty antidote to the traditional, treacly, “Yay, family! Yay, Christmas!” fare we usually get around the holidays.

For more details visit SecretSantaTheMovie.com

Executive Produced by Kristen Edgell
Produced by Shelaney Campbell, Dan Blaney
Written and Directed by Steve Greenstein
Narrated by John Klug
Featuring Joseph Greenstein

What’s the most physically demanding feat you’ve ever accomplished?

For many a lay person, perhaps you may recall a particularly challenging boot camp class, participating in a 5k fundraiser or even just attempting to climb a rope in gym class.

For Joseph Greenstein, AKA The Mighty Atom, his accomplishments included twisting horseshoes with his bare hands, biting through steel chains and preventing an airplane from going airborne by tying the plane to his hair. Call it folly or follicle abuse, for Greenstein, it was just another performance as his stage alter-ego, The Mighty Atom.

At 5’4 and weighing in under 150 lbs, Greenstein’s accomplishments were all the more miraculous considering his modest stature. A Polish Jew who had aspirations for greatness, Greenstein built his strength and honed his craft by traveling the world as a strongman’s understudy in a circus. Learning the secrets of both physical and mental toughness, Greenstein made it to the U.S. with an entrepreneurial spirit and vision that was way ahead of its time.

For writer and director Steven Greenstein, grandson of Joseph, the Atom’s story is a compelling one that justifies documentation for modern times. At a svelte 74 minute runtime, the film deftly utilizes stories from family members, fellow strongmen and NBC radio interview with The Mighty Atom himself to drive a narrative that empowers mind and spirit.

Themes of showmanship, entrepreneurship and heroism help The Mighty Atom rise above being “just” a real life superhero tale. Yet, there are tales of Greenstein’s heroism both on the sideshow stage and off.

There’s a story of Greenstein, who proudly showcased the Star of David on his performance singlet, single-handedly knocking out the attendees of a Neo-Nazi meeting. And another of him launching a violent, anti-semitic heckler through a storefront window.

It’s an important and timely theme in this film, demonstrating the anti-semitic rhetoric many Americans assume was isolated to WWII-era Europe, was also a real threat for Jews in the States. The quick history lesson helps to provide context as to how a sitting U.S. President can claim there are “good people” marching alongside Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, VA. Certainly, Greenstein’s heroism today would be welcome presence.

There’s no doubt a unique talent like Greenstein would be a social media sensation of epic proportions in our connected world. He was also ahead of the health craze movement, selling soaps, vitamins and laxatives that promoted body cleanliness and good energy. Yet, all of these business undertakings proved foreign and non-lucrative in the 1950s and 60s. Today, they could have been popular products at Whole Foods, GNC. Not unlike the fictional Sin City strongman, Marv, Greenstein had the rotten luck of being born in the wrong decade.

Fortunately, his grandson has managed to capture not just the tales of his incredible physical feats, but the legacy of his mission. The film ends with a narrative of refusing to accept outcomes just because they are perceived to be “impossible”.

In The Mighty Atom’s world, that meant overcoming a lot of physical pain to entertain, amaze and inspire the masses who saw him perform. For the majority of us, that lesson rings relevant for overcoming emotional trauma and social barriers to accomplish great things for our communities, our families and ourselves.

So whether you’re a brave soul thinking about starting a business, or an aspiring strongperson yearning to learn how to hammer a nail through a 4×4 with the palm of your hand, The Mighty Atom has plenty to offer you.

8 out of 10 stars

The Mighty Atom arrives on iTunes, Amazon & Google Play on Nov. 14th.

Produced by Johanna Teichmann, Martin Choroba
Written by Johanna Stuttmann
Directed by Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt
Starring Ben Litwinschuh, Lutz Simon Eilert,
Helena Pieske, Ludwig Trepte, Sylvie Testud,
Alexandra Finder, Matthias Koeberlin

At the age of twelve most children’s biggest concern is which video game they’re going to beat. It’s not figuring out how to take care of their siblings.

Unfortunately for Jonas, this is now his life.

After his mother’s bout with mental illness results in her leaving them behind for the weekend to go to the “sunny valley” to deal with her demons.

With their father dead, Jonas is now the parental figure to his younger brother and sister.

However, when a weekend turns into something much longer, Jonas now has to figure out life as they began to drift into their own fantastical world.

Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt’s The Spiderwebhouse is a depressing story about abandonment and mental illness wrapped in the cleverness of a fairytale. While the movie is a missed opportunity to explore the affects of depression, it is visual fest about childhood devotion, love and the power of the imagination. Jonas, who often plays caretaker to his mother during her bouts of depression is able to switch on his parental instincts within seconds. However, as days turn into months, the children who are afraid to step outside, turn a horrifying environment of decay into a haunting castle where spiders and other creepy creatures are their friends.

Each frame feels like a screenshot from a Hans Christensen novel with one scene more beautiful than the next. The German dialogue seems to drift away as the visuals became even more stunning.

Jonas is well equipped in his new role; daily tasks of taking care of the billy, taking out the garbage and household chores are done with masterful precision (for a 12-year old) as he retains order with his siblings.

As the story progresses the film becomes more spellbounding and while these children are fending for themselves, you become wary of anyone discovering their secret and reporting them to the authorities. There’s a majestic quality to their chemistry that feels authentic, and emotional. Ben Litwinschuh, Lutz Simon Eilert and Helena Pieske are dynamic and should easily go on to have successful careers.

Cinematographer Jürgen Jürges, works his transformative magic as well-stocked cabinets become full of cobwebs and desolation. With the weight of the household on his shoulders, Jonas begins to exhibit small cracks of transforming into his mother as the camera swirls around him to show a battered sunken house swallowing him whole.

Unfortunately, The Spiderwebhouse is not prefect. Filled with a multitude of plot holes, there’s too many question left unanswered to go unnoticed. Whether this is intentional as to not make the story too sad for the audience, the film suffers from this transgression and isn’t fair to the audience that invested their time with this film.

While there are glaring mistakes, the film is still Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt’s surprisingly good debut. Filled with talented children, a creative cinematographer and a well executed script, The Spiderwebhouse is an impressive start to hopefully a very long career.

The Spiderwebhouse is playing in limited release and is available On Demand.

Produced by Justyn Ah Chong, Yaniv Elani,
Nate Gold, Matthew D. Ward
Written by Matthew D. Ward
Directed by Justyn Ah Chong, Matthew D. Ward
Starring Trevor Peterson, Persia White,
Caitlin Gerard, Demetri Goritsas,
Christopher Wolfe, Melinda Lee, Sondra Blake

The creator of a once-successful, now-flailing kids’ show is given an ultimatum: make the show work again or you’re gone.

In order to achieve this, the execs force the creator, Jeb (don’t call him Jebediah…), to go to a remote house in the woods, along with several other writers, to write all thirty episodes of the new season in one month.

Jeb arrives before the others, all the better to plant hidden cameras to spy on his co-workers.

Though upon their arrival, the disdain most of the writers have for Jeb is immediately quite clear, even before Jeb spies on them without their knowledge.

The obviously unstable Jeb rapidly unravels as the pressure to deliver mounts and the others’ morale begins to erode.

Not-bad premise for a low-budget, dramatic horror film is boosted by good performances, especially by Trevor Peterson as Jeb. Looking a bit like a scruffy, hipster version of Art Hindle, Peterson dives right into the Creep Factor and rarely lets up.

It’s an especially solid performance considering the character isn’t all that believable on paper. Peterson does a good job attempting to sell the character’s seeming reversals and at times impenetrable motivations, but the hardest thing to swallow for me was that someone this unhinged was able to hold a steady writing job in the first place.

I suppose we’re meant to see that he’s reaching the end of his rope at the start of the film, but I found it difficult to even imagine a backstory wherein he created a hit show and kept it going.

Other character motivations, especially toward the end, are even more problematic (there are a couple of eye-rolling moments here). And I felt by the time the credits rolled, Wichita didn’t really add up to much or bring anything new to the “stalker” or “cabin in the woods” subgenres.

Peterson’s performance makes the film worth a look, and it’s more than competently put together, but the whole thing feels passionless, as if everyone involved really wanted to make a movie and it just happened to be this one.

Wichita is now playing On Demand

It’s one of a kind. Puzzling out classic, intriguing Mahjong leads you to expose the truth in the world’s most famous murder mystery, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. 

Available for free on iOS and Android, Mahjong Crimes, exclusively combines the classic tile game with the lavish period settings of Agatha Christie’s great detective story.

The plot thickens

In an all-new take on one of the world’s most popular games, 250 levels of Mahjong Solitaire unlock clues as you travel through 5 different scenarios within Agatha Christie’s iconic mystery.

As you climb into your elegant compartment aboard the Orient Express, you’ll be faced with 1 of 7 inscrutable varieties of the classic tile-matching game. You may have to beat the clock to reveal a hidden clue. Or the tiles may have letters rather than Chinese characters, and matching those letters spells out an important facet of the case.

It is endlessly entertaining and is the only Mahjong game to feature an Agatha Christie murder mystery.

“It’s amazing to see Agatha Christie’s story taking shape so brilliantly in this 21st century medium,” says James Prichard, Chairman and CEO of Agatha Christie Ltd (who also happens to be the extraordinary writer’s great-grandson).

The facts of the case

• Mahjong and Murder on the Orient Express: two timeless classics combined into a single great game
• 250 challenging levels, in 5 scenarios from Agatha Christie’s mystery
• Power up to get ahead in the game
• Collect unique Mahjong tile sets
• The game stays fresh with more levels, mysteries and tile sets added regularly

To celebrate the release of this exciting new game, we’re giving away a prize pack that includes a Mahjong Rubik’s Cube and a $20 Google Play Gift Card!

To enter, send an email with the subject header “MAHJONG CRIMES” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following question:

How many times did author Agatha Christie utilize the character of Hercule Poirot in novels, short stories and plays?

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 November 19th, 2017.

Produced by Meghan Doherty
Written by Albert Birney,
Kentucker Audley, Meghan Doherty
Directed by Albert Birney, Kentucker Audley
Starring Sylvio Bernardi, Albert Birney,
Kentucker Audley, Tallie Medel, Meghan Doherty

What do you do if you create a moderately successful Vine channel concerning the everyday life of a gorilla named Sylvio and then the platform just dies and goes away?

If you are Albert Birney, creator of the Simply Sylvio vine videos, you team up with a few other micro-budget filmmakers, raise a modest amount on Kickstarter and create a feature length story around Sylvio and his quest to celebrate the quiet moments of life.  For this feature Birney teamed up with Kentucker Audley, and Meghan Doherty to create a story where Silvio, a gorilla, is trying to get by as a debt collector with a hobby of making short videos of a hand puppet named Herbert Herpels doing things like making toast.

Since Sylvio doesn’t speak, his job as a telephone debt collector is aided by a computer generated voice. While this is used occasionally throughout the movie, most of the scenes with Sylvio are with him being mute and somewhat detached from what is going on around him.

The story follows Sylvio as he tries to collect a debt on a man doing a cable access talk show out of his house and accidentally gets sucked into being part of the show. He accidentally breaks a large number of props and ends up being the most popular part of the show. He is asked back and gains some notoriety for his destructive ability.

Some of the bits in the film mimic the gags in the Vine videos but the overall plot goes with the conflict between the puppet shows Sylvio wants to do and the much more popular breaking things segments on the cable show. It’s an interesting take on what we want to do versus what we are praised for doing.

There’s a certain kind of low-budget film that takes the world as we know it and knocks it just a little askew. Films like Frank or Lars and the Real Girl force the audience to reexamine most of what is considered normal in light of the main character’s quirks and eccentricities. Sylvio does this as well.

No one in the film makes a big deal out of a gorilla interacting with humans or having a job and driving a car. Everyone knows Sylvio is a gorilla but the absurd nature of the situation illustrates the troubles we all can have. No attempt is made to make Sylvio an accurate depiction of a gorilla in either appearance or actions. In the end, this film shows how we reconcile the different parts of ourselves.

This movie is not going to be for everyone. This isn’t in the vein of a Jim Carrey slapstick comedy. If you come into this film expecting a standard plot and high-dollar production values then you’ll probably stop about a third of the way through yelling, “What is this thing that I’m watching? Nothing is happening and there’s a gorilla.”

But if you like low-budget films that move forward in a measured pace and have a bit of whimsy mixed in with the pathos then this might be the film for you.

For more details visit SylvioTheMovie.com

Produced by Steve Mitchell, Matt Verboys,
Dan McKeon, Clff Stephenson
Written and Directed by Steve Mitchell
Featuring Larry Cohen, J.J. Abrams,
Yaphet Kotto, Rick Baker, Joe Dante,
Eric Bogosian, John Landis, Traci Lords,
Michael Moriarty, Barbara Carrera,
James Dixon, Cynthia Costas Cohen,
Laurene Landon, Eric Roberts,
Robert Forster, Martin Scorsese,
Mick Garris, Fred Williamson

I’ve been a Larry Cohen fan since my teens, when I caught the enjoyable but admittedly ragged It’s Alive on The Movie Channel and sneaked into his film Q: The Winged Serpent when I was thirteen.

As I watched more and more of his films, I quickly realized that enjoyable but ragged would be a common description, but so would intelligent, imaginative and original.

Probably the most original of his films – and the one that sealed it for me as a Cohen fan forever – is God Told Me To.

After being introduced to the film by my college roommate, fellow movie nerd and lifelong friend Mark, I did my best to spread the word as well. I even wrote a paper on it for a film class; after reading it, my professor proclaimed, “I HAVE to see this movie!”

I’ve seen all of his films (and a smattering of the wealth of television he wrote and created), have read the excellent book Larry Cohen: The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker by Tony Williams, and even got to meet him at the 2012 Saturn Awards. A small group, including Cohen and frequent Cohen actress and friend Laurene Landon, hanging out, drinking cocktails and talking movies. Pretty great.

Needless to say, I was very excited to watch the new documentary, King Cohen, which details his life and career and features interviews with the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Landis, Joe Dante, J.J. Abrams and collaborators such as Fred Williamson, Yaphet Kotto, Robert Forster, Michael Moriarty, and many others.

The vast majority of the insights and anecdotes are very positive: everyone seems to like Cohen, even his ex-wife. Peers admire him for putting his visions on screen for peanuts, even if, as is noted more than a few times, safety (or permits) didn’t always come first.

There’s some amusing crosscutting between Cohen and Williamson at several points in the film, with Cohen telling a story about the making of one of their collaborations and Williamson flat-out saying that Cohen is lying. Even while calling his friend a liar, Williamson’s affection and admiration for Cohen shine through.

It’s nice to see the semi-reclusive Moriarty on hand as well, especially considering he did some of his best – and certainly quirkiest and even unhinged – work in his many performances for Cohen.

It’s been noted that other recent films on iconic directors (De Palma, Spielberg) suffered from not being long enough and thereby giving some films in their respective canons short shrift. I’m sure there are Cohen fans who will feel the same way about King Cohen, but I didn’t really feel shortchanged by the film at all. Sure, I’d love to hear about God Told Me To all day long, but director Steve Mitchell does a very commendable job of making the film feel thorough and satisfying. Hell, even Wicked Stepmother (in my opinion, Cohen’s only flat-out bad film) gets its fair share, mainly due to the behind-the-scenes drama involving star Bette Davis, and her subsequent trashing of the film and Cohen on the talk shows, which apparently left him crushed.

There are so many great anecdotes and insights that even casual movie fans should get a kick out of the film, and students of writing will likely be fascinated by Cohen, who is called both a “prodigy” and the “king of the premise” here.

With my background knowledge of Cohen, I didn’t expect to hear any major revelations in the doc, and I didn’t. No matter. I still found the film greatly enjoyable and quite valuable as a record of the man and his work. More than my enjoyment, I truly hope King Cohen might nudge films fans unfamiliar with him to seek out his films. They’re almost always a blast, and so is King Cohen.

For more information, visit KingCohenMovie.com

For those of you who didn’t know metro Atlanta has become a hotbed of film production in the last few years. The ancillary benefit of this is if you live in certain areas of the city or hang out in certain places you can rub elbows with the rich and famous. With Georgia’s decent weather, economic development incentives and low cost of living, I assume this phenomenon will continue for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, with the federal government’s anemic response to the destruction of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria there has been a huge outpouring of support out of the local community. Two local restaurants, Buen Provecho & Porch Light Latin Kitchen have spearheaded local relief efforts, taking in millions in donations and getting the goods to Puerto Rico and distributed to those in need.

Scarlett Johansson has been a passionate advocate for Puerto Rico recovery since the hurricane hit and rather than sit on the sidelines she decided to do something. Avengers: Infinity War is currently filming in the Atlanta area and she partnered with her cast mates, the Fox Theater, The John Gore Organization, Marvel and Disney to put on a reading of the classic American play Our Town. All proceeds went to benefit the Hurricane Maria Community Recovery Fund. If you have the means, please consider giving. Americans are dying and they need our help.

Marvel and Disney donated the production costs and the wonderful employees of the Fox Theater donated their time to make something very special a reality. Over $500,000 was raised for Puerto Rico. It was a wonderfully uplifting experience.

Growing up outside New York City I’ve been to the theater hundred of times. One of my earliest memories of my grandmother is her taking me to see Sandy Duncan on Broadway as Peter Pan. With all my theater experience, I’ve never attended a reading, so it was a really new and fun way to experience the theater.

Because the production came together quickly there was no time to put on the full show. Each member of the cast was assigned a part and they all sat on stools and read out of script books. I’ve been to theater starring Nathan Lane. I’ve been to Hamilton in NY while Chris Jackson was still George Washington. I’ve never experienced this kind of star power up close and personal.

In person our beloved Avengers are a little different than on screen. Ruffalo, Renner, Downey are all relatively small men and Scarlett is really tiny. Chris Evans, however, is Captain America sized. Well over six feet, carved out of granite with a look that says, “I can take everyone in this theater if I am forced to.”

Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Frank Grillo and Chris Evans headlined the show. (Is Frank Grillo being there a spoiler for Infinity Wars? I mean maybe, right?) RDJ had the biggest role as the stage manager and ScarJo played the female lead, Emily Webb.

After 10 years of fighting bad guys together the rapport between the Avengers on stage was clear. Very early in the reading Chris Evans was left hanging because Robert Downey stole page 12 out of his script book. It couldn’t have been a more Tony Stark/Steve Rogers moment. The cast is just sitting there, wondering who was supposed to be talking. Frank Grillo points out to Chris Evans that he was up and Evans saying, “I don’t have page 12.”

“I wonder how that happened,” was the snarky comment from Robert Downey. The crowd roared. Chris Evans laughed and shook his head the way Cap would have and the show continued. Obviously, I was in nerd heaven.

Mark Ruffalo played Dr. Gibbs to Jeremy Renner’s George Gibbs. As father and son they were really funny, with Jeremy playing the role a bit more modern and a bit more obnoxious than Thornton Wilder may have intended. The crowd ate up every moment.

Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johannson sat next to each other on the stage and their affection for each other was clear. There were moments of them poking each other like siblings, holding hands and he kept giving her tissues because it seemed like she was suffering from a cold or allergies. These were sweet human moments we don’t usually get to see as fans.

The third act of Our Town gets very serious and the professionalism of the cast became apparent. The joking around stopped as the story focused on ScarJo. It was really compelling to see her invest totally in a role she had only read once before, manufacturing the raw emotion and pain that Wilder wrote into the character. With the stylized nature of most of her movies it is easy to forget that she can bring it. She’s a top notch professional player and the third act showed it to the Atlanta crowd.

ATL friends! Come one, come all to our benefit production of #OurTown tomorrow night ONLY, featuring some of your fav Avengers as well as yours truly! Link to tix in bio ( creds @jimmy_rich)

A post shared by Robert Downey Jr. (@robertdowneyjr) on Nov 5, 2017 at 2:14pm PST

All in all Our Town was a smashing success raising a huge amount of money for Puerto Rico and entertaining over 3000 fans. It was a very special night and I was thrilled to be a part of it.

5 out of 5 stars.

Comic book fans are among the most devoted fan base in all of geekdom.  They love what they love, and there’s no such thing as an expiration date as they can revisit the stories and characters that they love again and again.

One such title is Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau’s The Perhapanauts, a paranormal team who tackle strange and terrible creatures who have crossed over from the worn fabric of reality to lurk in the shadows and the night.

And now, the beloved agents of Bedlam are the focus of an awesome Kickstarter which offers not only a stuffed version of Choopie, the team’s Chubacabra and the Bedlam Cryptid Field Guide, a must have for any paranormal investigator/enthusiast.

Rewards begin at $10 for the digital guide, $30 for the plush Choopie and there’s also physical versions of the guide and a deluxe edition available along with other options including t-shirts, limited prints and original artwork.

You have less than a week to make your pledge.
Don’t waste another minute!

Now streaming on Amazon Prime is The Only Living Boy in New York.

Adrift in New York City, a recent college graduate seeks the guidance of an eccentric neighbor as his life is upended by his father’s mistress in the sharp and witty coming-of-age story The Only Living Boy in New York.

Thomas Webb (Callum Turner), the son of a publisher and his artistic wife, has just graduated from college and is trying to find his place in the world. Moving from his parents’ Upper West Side apartment to the Lower East Side, he befriends his neighbor W.F. (Jeff Bridges), a shambling alcoholic writer who dispenses worldly wisdom alongside healthy shots of whiskey. Thomas’ world begins to shift when he discovers that his long-married father (Pierce Brosnan) is having an affair with a seductive younger woman (Kate Beckinsale). Determined to break up the relationship, Thomas ends up sleeping with his father’s mistress, launching a chain of events that will change everything he thinks he knows about himself and his family.

Directed by Marc Webb ([500] Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man) from a screenplay by Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire, 21), The Only Living Boy in New York stars Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water, Crazy Heart), Kate Beckinsale (Love & Friendship, Underworld), Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies), Cynthia Nixon (“Sex and the City,” A Quiet Passion), Callum Turner (Assassin’s Creed, Tramps) and Kiersey Clemons (Justice League, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising).

And we’re giving away a poster signed by actors Kate Beckinsale, Jeff Bridges, Kiersey Clemons and director Marc Webb!

To enter, send an email with the subject header “ONLY LIVING BOY” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following question:

The film’s title is taken from a song recorded by which artist?

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 November 19th, 2017
 

For more info:
Official Site | Facebook | Twitter| Instagram
#OnlyLivingBoyInNY

Our friends at SuperHeroStuff.com are not only one of the industry’s oldest superhero specialty shops, but also one of the best, with a huge selection of t-shirts, Pops!, hats, hoodies, underwear, socks, action figures, stickers, buttons, belts wallets, cardboard stand-ups, jewelry and much more including large selections for women and children.

Here are some of the latest items I checked out:

GOTG Vol. 2 Star Lord Gravel Grey Men’s T-Shirt

Fantastic shirt as seen on Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord in Guardians 2.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t transform my physique, instead showing me in full Andy Dwyer Chris Pratt form, rather than the far more buff Quill.

Nevertheless, the shirt is awesome and makes me want to listen to classic seventies music and hang out with a tree and a raccoon.

It’s soft.  It’s 100% cotton.  It’s Space friendly and goes with any model of Walkman.

Headphones not included.

Batman Detective Comics Cover No. 19 Men’s T-Shirt

The Dark Knight Detective was one of the only success stories of the New 52 at DC Comics.

This powerful image by artist Jason Fabok features Batman against a fiery background ready to swoop into action against his rogue’s gallery.

What makes this image even more iconic is that it truly captures a take on the character that’s very reminiscent of the costume worn by Ben Affleck in the upcoming Justice League film.

Made of 100% cotton, this shirt is a must have for any and every fan of Gotham City’s number one son.

Firestorm TV Legends of Tomorrow Pop Vinyl Figure

Here’s Jefferson “Jax” Jackson, the second Firestorm in the DC television universe, following the death of Ronnie Raymond.

A former star athlete, the mechanically inclined Jax, fuses with Professor Martin Stein to become a nuclear powered hero. As frequent fix-it man of the time traveling Legends, Jax often finds himself repairing their timeship, The Waverider, often while collaborating with the ships’ AI, Gideon.

This Pop! is ready for anything obsticle that he faces, including Damien Dahrk, Eobard Thawne, Malcolm Merlyn or The Time Bureau themselves.

Flash Fully Charged Men’s T-Shirt

He led the DC Universe into the Silver Age, and now he’s co-starring in the new Justice League movie and stars in his own hit television series on the CW network.

Wait, you aren’t familiar with The Flash?

Doused with chemicals (or in the path of an unstable particle accelerator) and struck by lightning, forensic police scientist Barry Allen finds himself part of the Speed Force and exhibits the powers of super speed.

Taking on the secret identity of The Flash, Allen fights crime in both his home of Central City and across the planet as the fastest man alive.

This shirt portrays Barry racing through the city surrounded by crackling lightning.

It’s awesome.

Superman America # 14 Comic Cover Men’s T-Shirt

It’s the Man of Steel, standing in front of an American shield with a bald eagle perched on his arm.

A sharp reminder that the Last Son of Krypton believes in truth, justice and the American way.

This image comes from 1942, during the second World War and is illustrated by artist Fred Ray (who not only did dozens of covers, but also interior art, and later, writing).

With patriotism no longer en vogue, this image is a testament to both the power of the character and also a reminder of all that is good.

Plus, it’s 100% cotton, so there’s that.

While Blade Runner 2049 plays through what will probably be its final week in first-run cinemas, I thought I’d share with you some more musings on the movie, which I have had an opportunity to see yet again.

First, a surprising box office update: the film’s domestic gross has inched up to $85 million—still underwhelming but this is a far cry better than what the industry typically qualifies as a “bomb.” With the movie’s $240M total global gross handily surpassing its 150M budget, the film now has a good chance of paying off its marketing spend and then earning a profit for its investors.

I’ll ’fess up: I’ve seen Blade Runner 2049 three times completely. But there’s more: as a newly minted Moviepass member, I’ve also been taking advantage of their one-free-movie-per-day offer, and during some lunch breaks I’ve been catching the movie in bits and pieces at unfamiliar theaters, sampling the film on as many different area screens at as many competing venues as possible. You could say my brain has been a stew of Blade Runner 2049 since the day it opened and, as I suspected it would, the movie has lingered in my daydreams ever since.

My theater-hopper pass has afforded me an opportunity to see the movie in pieces at least a fourth time, probably a fifth, so I’m definitely the guy to talk to about the many audio and visual Easter Eggs throughout Blade Runner 2049 that not only harken back to the original 1982 film but also give a wink of acknowledgment to some pivotal modern-day sci-fi pictures informed by Blade Runner that have happened in the interim—notably Total Recall, RoboCop, Minority Report, A.I., The Fifth Element, Tron Legacy, and Her.

While I don’t use the Moviepass card every day, having it has afforded me an opportunity to finally visit a wider radius of theaters to evaluate the range of quality of presentation, and maybe even step closer to proving a theory I’ve long had that not all theater screens are created equal.

Having sampled Blade Runner 2049 on over a dozen screens in regular 2D, Real-D 3D, and IMAX 2D formats, I can say for certain which venues offered significantly brighter images and which theaters—specifically, which auditoriums—tend to project 2D movies using 3D projectors improperly calibrated to show a 3D movie.

First, let’s address the 3D elephant in the room. Warner Bros. routinely commissions a fake post-production 3D conversion of all their perceived “tentpole” movies, but whoever had the bright idea to sanction a 3D version of Blade Runner 2049 ought to be relegated to an eternity of viewing dimly projected and poorly converted 3D movies in a shoddy theater with popcorn butter smeared on the lenses of their glasses. By design, the visual scheme of Blade Runner 2049 is dark and hazy to begin with, so further reduction in image luminosity by faking a 3D conversion can only have hampered the overall viewing experience for untold numbers of viewers.

Many of these first-weekend viewers—and I know this from personal experience—were bullied into seeing 3D showings at the most desirable times, with standard 2D showings happening very early or very late. My local theater offered Blade Runner 2049 in IMAX 2D at the preferred 7-8PM evening slot so I was glad to avoid the 3D showings altogether, but for the many viewers who did not want to pay the IMAX ticket premium, or who didn’t even have the option, those 3D showings were far more abundant than 2D showings and so there was surely a lot of “settling” for 3D opening weekend, and maybe more “thanks, but nevermind” than Hollywood is willing to admit to. I’m sure this played into the movie’s softer-than-expected debut, and directly impacted word-of-mouth.

More on 3D: Ever since the resurgence of 3D in 2009 with Avatar we’ve been living in a world of 3D ticket premiums. Problem is, there has never been any distinction between the extra fee for viewing a 3D presentation of a movie legitimately made in native 3D and the extra fee for viewing any one of the ensuing onslaught of artificial post-production 3D conversions of varying quality.

Movies like Tron Legacy, Hugo, The Hobbit, Prometheus, and X-Men: Apocalypse are some good examples of native 3D productions, and they all look smashing in 3D. Faring less are the spate of cheaper 3D conversions—Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Gravity, the new Star Trek and Star Wars movies, Pacific Rim, Kong: Skull Island, King Arthur, Wonder Woman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and so forth)—that give the entire format a bad name because they look atrocious.

Nevertheless, the 3D upcharge is the same—this has always seemed inherently unfair, especially when one considers the 3D premiums were sold to the public as a way to pay for all the shiny new digital 3D projectors exhibitors were forced to install and also, presumably, offset the higher budgets of real 3D productions.

As for those real 3D productions, today far fewer movies are being created in native 3D than in the few years immediately following Avatar, and most of the legit 3D pictures nowadays are animated movies, which really isn’t the same animal as a live-action 3D movie. More tellingly, after nearly a decade of 3D surcharges, surely these projectors have been paid off by now, and then some. Should the surcharges become permanent—they sure seem permanent already—studio marketers and theater exhibitors ought to be required to indicate somewhere on a film’s one-sheet and also at the actual ticket kiosk at the theater when a 3D presentation is for a legitimate “captured with 3D cameras” movie versus when the 3D presentation is for a movie artificially converted to 3D in post-production.

This should happen at the bare minimum, but there should also be a new pricing tier to correspond to a “real-versus-fake” 3D movie. Sure, charge me full-price for 3D Avatar 2 (if that long-delayed sequel ever arrives—Quick! Before the world finally sours on 3D entirely!), but for any one of those hasty post-production conversions, the “fake 3D” ticket surcharge should summarily be lowered. Fat chance, I know, but I said it anyway.

Photo: Tilde531 /Flickr

An ugly problem with the prevalence of Sony 3D projectors when used to show standard 2D movies was brought to the forefront in 2011 after a series of anti-3D screeds written by the likes of Boston Globe critic Ty Burr and the late Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert. They rightfully cried foul because too many 2D movies are being shown on projectors improperly set up for 3D and the images look downright terrible (the image gets split, and in the splitting there is in inherent and drastic diminishment of image brightness and color fidelity). Six years after the industry stuck its head in the sand in response to the Burr/Ebert tirades, the 3D/2D problem continues to be that these Sony 3D digital projectors are too frequently left in 3D mode.

Apparently, according to the original 2011 Burr article, AMC’s unspoken policy is to leave 3D splitters on 3D projectors even when showing 2D movies because it’s too time-consuming and evidently too complicated to shuttle back and forth between formats. Also, the projectors are so safeguarded against potential piracy that one false move during a manual adjustment can potentially shut down the whole system.

As such, any theater would rather offer a refund than fiddle with a Sony 3D projector, and because most folks won’t complain anyway, even if they’re intuitively aware of why they’re not getting immersed into the movie, the theater gets away with ripping off a paying customer who purchased tickets to a movie but sees only a fraction of the projection needed to properly experience that movie. I’ve seen plenty of 2D movies improperly projected with the 3D splitter activated, and the dimmer resulting image is a far cry from the bright picture intended. It’s most decidedly not how any filmmaker would want their film to be shown or viewed. Having spot-checked Blade Runner 2049 on over ten movie screens now, I can confirm an improperly projected 2D image is demonstrably darker than it ought to be, so when the nice manager tells me the beam splitter is not projecting a darker image, my eyes go crossed a little bit because I know I’m being fed a load of baloney.

One of The Good Ones: IMAX’s Laser Projector / Photo via Gizmodo

Try this out: If you’re viewing a movie in a 2D theater, when you look behind you at the projector window, you should see a single image flickering in the glass partition. If for any reason you see two identical images stacked vertically, then you know the projector is one of those Sony 3D projectors and it is mis-calibrated to split a 3D movie image…and you’re automatically losing a significant percentage of image brightness. A 3D movie will naturally be projected with the 3D splitter, the image will be that much dimmer compared to 2D, but then viewers must don the plastic goggles to observe the 3D effect, further filtering the image. It would be extremely generous to say the light bounced back from a properly projected 3D presentation viewed while wearing 3D glasses is 50% darker than untrammeled 2D projection. Try dialing down the brightness setting this drastically on your TV while watching a dark movie on Blu-ray and you’ll get the gist.

Once any movie image is reduced to this level of darkness, colors get muted and things intended to appear foggy and hazy look positively muddy and smeary. The longer and darker the movie, the more fatiguing the strain on the eye and the brain—Blade Runner 2049 and Batman v Superman are both very dark and both clock in at more than two-and-a-half hours—and so this 3D nonsense has very likely impeded the entire viewing experience of untold films for many thousands of viewers for nearly ten years.

If you find yourself at a 2D movie and the projector is improperly splitting the image for 3D, please seek out the theater manager and ask (politely, of course) if they can adjust the projector, make it brighter, deactivate the 3D splitter, etcetera. Depending on their knowledge and customer relations skills, they may be happy to oblige or call the projector booth operator, if any, to fix the issue. Most likely, they’ll tell you this is how the movie is supposed to look and it’s as bright as intended, but if you prefer you can have a refund or a free pass for a future movie.

If there’s not one already, there ought to be a monkey switch on every 3D projector—a simple manual override button that a manager or an usher or a projectionist or even a monkey could press to bypass the 3D beam splitter and reset the projector to its basic and brightest 2D projection mode. With so much at stake in the ongoing fight between traditional theatrical exhibition and home video/streaming, you’d think studios, theater chains, and especially influential filmmakers would be more interested in ensuring a trip to the cinema offers the best and most immersive viewing and listening experience possible. You’d think it more important to the studios and filmmakers that theater chains do their minimal due diligence to make their films—their products, their dreams—look and sound as good and as larger-than-life as possible. The perpetual apathy of theater operators does nothing but portend the utter doom of cinema exhibition, and what a sad day that will be when public movie theaters finally cease to operate.

Failing the unlikely quick manual fix in the projector booth, the only sure-fire method I’ve devised for avoiding 2D movies shown on 3D projectors is to learn the auditorium numbers of my favorite theaters, keep running notes of which particular screens are the ones with the problematic Sony 3D projectors, and then I avoid those screens like the plague. Movie-ticket apps are generally very helpful when it comes to informing you before you purchase a ticket precisely which screen your movie will play on, and the box office agent at the theater will always be able to tell you what movie is playing in which auditorium.

As for Blade Runner 2049, I suspect we haven’t seen the last of it before it arrives on home video early next year. The film handily qualifies for so many technical achievement Academy Awards that a limited Oscar-season reissue seems a very good possibility. Legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins is all but assured his 13th Oscar nomination, and he might finally win the gold for Blade Runner 2049. Other major and minor categories of evaluation the film handily qualifies for: music; editing; production design; costume design; sound design and editing; visual effects; and don’t count out Harrison Ford for a sentimental-favorite supporting actor nomination—the unexpected poignancy of the film’s payoff is all about Deckard’s journey, and Ford really sells it (he seems more fully invested here than in some of his other recent roles and revivals).

Depending on the upcoming crop of holiday Oscar-hopeful releases, Blade Runner 2049 has enough critical cachet to snag major nominations for director Denis Villeneuve, and perhaps even a dark-horse nomination for Best Picture. If this happens, I’d trust the studio will do a proper theatrical reissue—and that it will be a 2D issue only.

Until next time… “Within cells, interlinked.”

What exactly are blob movies?  Do they count as monster movies?  Or giant insect movies?  Or disaster movies?  Or something else?

However you classify them, blob movies comprise a very small but very intense subgenre of science fiction cinema.

I’m defining “blob” broadly enough to encompass not just the classic giant single-celled amoeboid aliens but also malevolent fungi that behave like blobs and humanoid blobs that behave similarly to their more shapeless brethren.

What’s special about these blobs?  How do they differ from other science fiction antagonists?

First, blobs are almost always aliens.  They are either found in space, on other planets, or as malevolent visitors to Planet Earth.  The possible exceptions are the blobs from X The Unknown, Unknown Terror, The H-Man, The Stuff, and the 1988 Blob remake.  The blobs in these exceptions might be Earth-born.  More about them later.

Next, blobs always grow or propagate.  Other alien monsters might increase in strength or destructiveness, and some (like Mothra or Hedorah from classic kaiju films) might mutate, but they essentially remain the same physically.  At least they have a physical limit.

Blobs, by contrast, either grow every time they consume a victim or propagate by division or fertilization.  This is part of what makes them extra scary.

Next, blobs have indefinite shapes.  This is why we call them blobs, of course.  Some have pseudopods (like those in Island of Terror), and some take humanoid form (like in Goke or The H-Man), but at heart they are indefinite and changeable.  This makes them hard to defeat.

Next, blobs are usually mindless, at least by our standards.  Some blob monsters, like those in The H-Man or The Green Slime, seem to exhibit emotions such as anger.  But they are mostly mindless eating (or killing) machines.

The Green Slime

Because blobs themselves have little personality, the movies must feature good likeable human characters to keep the audience interested.  Kaiju movies might carry themselves on the personalities of the monsters alone (like in Daiei’s Gamera series).  Blob movies need interesting stories with characters whose lives get disrupted and threatened by the blobs.

Finally, it’s worth noting that blobs are often associated with primal or elemental forces.  They are often born from, or vulnerable to, basic forces like heat, cold, or electricity.  Fire is usually the best weapon against a blob.

Should I add anything else before getting to the movies?  I would note that there are a surprising number of British blob movies, mostly from the 50s and 60s.

Before these British movies, blob stories had appeared in science fiction pulps and comics – they include “The Thing in the Swamp” from Haunt of Fear #15 (1950) or “Slime” by Joseph Payne Brennan in Weird Tales (March 1953).  But blob movies might be rightly described as a British invention.

I also thought I’d mention the “Operation Annihilate” episode of Star Trek:TOS (1966) with the flying blobs that ultimately get defeated by UV light.

Now, to the films!  I count 17 blob films made from their beginnings in the 1950s thru the mid-late 1980s when my Claws & Saucers film territory comes to an end.

This installment, we’ll look at the three British films that started it all.  Next installment, we’ll look at Japanese and American blob films including the Steve McQueen hit.

THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT
(“The Creeping Unknown,” UK, b&w, 1955)

Historically, this picture is most famous as the first big hit for Hammer Studios.  But it’s also the first real blob movie.

The blob starts as an unseen spore.  It infects a hapless astronaut, and after the astronaut returns to Earth, the spore takes over his body and mutates him into a hideous hairy blob about the size of a car.

The actual blob is onscreen for just a couple of minutes at the conclusion, but the confrontation is very exciting.

X THE UNKNOWN
(UK, b&w, 1956)

Also from Hammer, this is a quasi-sequel to Quatermass, and it features an even bigger and badder blob creature.  In the previous film, the blob was only part of the story.  Here, it’s the main event.

This blob is more amoeba-like and less tentacular than its predecessor.  It’s apparently Earth-born, a mysterious primal underground life form released to the surface after military tests.

Historically, the film is most famous for its gore: one scene where a scientist’s face is graphically melted away down to his skull.

QUATERMASS 2
(“Enemy from Space,” UK, b&w, 1957)

Here’s the third blob movie in as many years from Hammer Studios.  You wait a while before you see it, but it’s the main event.

Whereas the first Hammer blob was car-sized and the second one truck-sized, this third blob grows to the size of an office building.

It’s probably the biggest blob in film history unless you count The Stuff (which I’ll cover in Part III), since The Stuff is technically found all over the world.

More American Graffiti is an uneven, needlessly slapstick, overly sentimental, preachy, shameless attempt to sell a soundtrack all the while riding the George Lucas cash tidal wave after Star Wars. It’s also the best movie ever made about the Vietnam War.

George Lucas, the executive producer of the sequel to his 1973 smash hit American Graffiti isn’t exactly his sequels greatest cheerleader. In 1979 the only Lucas sequel anyone was interested in was the one to Star Wars, which nearly three years later had yet to arrive. Lucas rarely mentions More American Graffiti, except to mock it only “made ten cents.”

Regardless of box office, More American Graffiti takes a unique approach to a continuing story that’s not only artistic, but all together tragically endearing. The film brings back all the characters from the original (with the notable exception of Richard Dreyfuss’s character Curt) and is set on four successive New Years Eves, 1964, 65, 66, and 67.

Like its predecessor each story takes place in space of a single day and is cleverly interwoven in a deliberately non-linear fashion to unfold each inevitable conclusion. The same conclusions set up at the end of the original film by using high school yearbook photos of the characters as title cards with the sometimes-grim descriptions of their fates, are used as the blue print for the sequel. It’s not unique to watch a film one already knows the ending of and still be entertained.

Titanic won Best Picture doing it. Better Call Saul, the “prequel” to the wildly successful TV show Breaking Bad follows the same formula as well. Most people watching the show are enjoying it with a sense of melancholy knowing it doesn’t end well. That being said, of the four New Years Eve’s in More American Graffiti there is none better at breaking your heart than the one taking place in Vietnam in 1965.

Director Bill Norton, does triple duty on More in writing, directing, and appeasing the most powerful executive producer in Hollywood (Lucas) who hand picked him for the job. Norton uses a clever device to shoot each year in a different style and film stock. This gives each day a unique feel and look which helps tell the story in a stylistic, albeit film school way. 1965 is shot entirely in 16mm using a hand held camera. Not only does this give the battle sequences a herky-jerky frenetic energy, it gives the scenes back at the base the same look the Vietnam war was sent to America’s homes in, on television. Lucas personally shot some of the handheld 65 scenes to help with the authenticity.

It’s easy to dismiss More American Graffiti as not being a Vietnam War film especially as there were several other high profile star packed Vietnam War films around the same time. 1978’s Best Picture The Deer Hunter and Francis Ford Coppola’s long awaited Apocalypse Now to name a few. More American Graffiti, a film primarily sold as a comedy, doesn’t seem to fit in that cannon.

Normally that would be true except for one thing: “Terry the Toad” played by the brilliantly underrated Charles Martin Smith.

Charles Martin Smith is an actor, director, and producer, most commonly remembered for his witty turn as the accountant member of The Untouchables from the 1987 Brian De Palma classic. At only 18 he created the role of “Terry the Toad” Fields, the lovably unlucky nerd in the original American Graffiti from 1973.

When American Graffiti first previewed for an audience up in San Francisco it was Terry’s fumbling arrival on a Vespa out of control that sent the test crowd into hysterics. That scooter lurch was an actual flub by Smith who really did lose control. Lucas loved the honesty of the moment and wisely decided to keep it in the movie. Lucas knew he had a hit on his hands and the box office agreed giving him the industry cred to spend the next four years creating the original Star Wars.

Terry, with his thick glasses and over slicked hair, is the loveable punching bag for his group of friends who rather cruelly refer to him as “Toad” due to his appearance. Terry spends most of the first film attempting to romance Candy Clark’s character Debbie, a girl so amazingly out of his league you cringe knowing it will go south at any minute. Terry is pure comic relief even though the audience spends a lot of time laughing at him instead of with him.

So having Terry be the character who ends up bravely fighting in Vietnam is without a doubt the least Hollywood thing ever. Despite the title card anchor weighing down the sequels narrative, it’s still surprising Charles Martin Smith is the actor used for the Vietnam scenes. Paul Le Mat’s too cool for school character John Milner, Ron Howard’s all American Steve, and the bad boy race villain Bob Falfa played by the newly minted box office king Harrison Ford (who returns in More for an uncredited cameo), were way more obvious choices to send into war.

And for a producer like Lucas who famously changed large narrative themes to his Star Wars franchise, swapping the fate of Terry the Toad’s title card is something people might not even notice.

But Lucas and Norton sent Terry to Vietnam anyway.

For this reason alone More American Graffiti should be elevated to the same status bestowed kitchen sink Vietnam films like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Given this is a sequel we’ve had an entire film to get to know Terry as a poor geek going from girls to a guns. Watching Terry’s fate unfold slowly interspaced throughout the film is like watching a sick loved one slip away. This is especially sad after having fell in love with him in the first film. More doesn’t have the same thrilling battle scenes of many of the other Vietnam films but it does keep you focused on Terry’s journey as if his choices are your own.

Terry spends much of his time in Vietnam desperately trying to get sent home. His soldier arc is someplace between Yossarian in Catch-22 and Klinger from M.A.S.H. In an attempt to self inflict a flesh wound with a rigged up rifle, Terry inadvertently gets shot at by his fellow soldiers.

Miraculously unharmed, he ends up drawing the ire of his Major played by the wonderfully sadistic Richard Bradford. Bradford’s Major Creech has it out for Terry putting him on “shit duty” by literally making him clean latrines when he’s not under the constant peril of battle. Look out for a young Delroy Lindo as a Sergeant tormenting Terry at the behest of the awful Creech.

Creech’s hatred for Terry is mutual. Although Terry’s attempts to get sent home are played for laughs it shows the unashamed disillusionment he felt about Vietnam.

Shame and pride are for suckers, which is all the more reason to be concerned when Terry, and his best friend/door gunner, Joe Young (played by the extraordinary Bo Hopkins reprising his character from the original,) are assigned a gung ho new pilot, Sinclair, played by Jim Houghton.

Sinclair is a hotshot helicopter pilot fresh out of the world with a rulebook mentality that almost gets them killed. It doesn’t take Sinclair long to realize Terry is the better soldier and listening to him is a good idea especially when he saves his life after being shot down on a riverbank.

In saving Sinclair, Terry shows his bravery, strength, and cunning especially as he has to trick the cowardly Creech into not leaving them behind during a firefight. Charles Martin Smith clearly worked out for his role and spends a lot of the movie with his shirt off making him as unlikely a stud as he is a hero.

The most heartbreaking scene in the entire movie and the reason, in my opinion, More American Graffiti is the best film made about the Vietnam War, occurs before they’re shot down in what would normally be considered throwaway conversation between Terry and Joe. Joe informs Terry when they get back to the world he intends on making him an “honorary member of the Pharaohs,” without having to go through the whole “blood initiation.” He tells Terry they should open a used car dealership together adding, “you sell em, we steal em!” For this scene to work in full context one must watch the original film to understand what an amazing thing Joe has offered.

In the original American Graffiti, Joe and his street gang spend most of the entire film terrorizing/hazing Curt played by Richard Dreyfuss. They would never spend a second with a guy like Terry back home. It’s unclear if they even really know him in the first film, let alone be best friends. It’s inferred Joe and Terry bonded in Vietnam when they discover they’re from the same hometown and become unlikely friends in war. It’s Terry’s reaction, played with brilliant nuance by Charles Martin Smith, that devastates. He smiles and acts enthusiastic and says “great!” If this “offer” by Joe was made before they went to war it would be the biggest thing to ever happen to Terry, even bigger than his ill fated date with Debbie in the first movie.

But here, in a helicopter heading into battle zone, it means truly nothing. But Terry still smiles, and he lies. He lies not because he isn’t pleased with Joe’s offer, or because he knows Joe’s not completely serious, he lies because Terry is a good person and Joe still needs to hear it. Joe still needs to be important and that’s how friends make you feel. Terry’s lie is subtle and it’s kind. All of this happens moments before Joe is killed.

The original title card and the one used at the end of both films reads: Terry Fields was reported missing in action near An Loc in December of 1965.

So we know poor Terry doesn’t make it, or does he?

Although the filmmakers give you a very positive and comedic spin on how Terry really survives by pulling a fast one on Major Creech (using a poop gag no less) it cannot be reasonably believed he’s alive.

At the end of the 1965 segment Terry successfully fakes his own death, and dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt, heads off alone through the jungle with the hopes of hiking his way to Europe presumably where he will lay low for the rest of his life. There, away from all his loved ones who think he’s dead, Terry will start anew!

No. Terry’s dead. He stepped on a tripwire, got killed by the Viet Cong, or simply died from exposure. Lucas and Norton delivered a Butch and Sundance ending without ever realizing it with Terry the Toad. What’s even worse is the explanation of Terry’s “death” given to his family, most assuredly by the cruel Major Creech, labeling his fate “missing in action.” Creech saw the latrine explode, the whole base did, why did they lie to Terry’s family? Was Creech so full of useless pride he needed to cover up the fact a latrine was infiltrated on his base, on his watch, that covered him and a visiting congressmen in shit? So it would seem. Terry may have been unlucky in love, he may have been unlucky at life, but his compassion and humanity are hauntingly beautiful. Vietnam was a tough war. More American Graffiti gave us a character we grew to love and then they took him from us.

Although the rest of the film doesn’t provide the same emotional punch as the 1965 segment it is still very powerful especially when Terry is referred to in other segments in the past tense. This serves to further remind you’re watching a dead man walking.

Marvel Netflix buffs will love seeing an early Scott Glenn (Stick from Daredevil/The Defenders) performance as well as the aforementioned Harrison Ford in an early post Star Wars turn. Coincidentally both Glenn and Ford did small parts in Apocalypse Now as well the same year.

It’s also worth mentioning Cindy Williams reprisal of Laurie as a housewife fighting for liberation who gets caught up in a campus protest is wonderful. Like Terry, she exhibits a strength we never knew she had.

More American Graffiti is definitely worth a second look especially as a companion to the original movie. It provides a landscape of American naïveté, sorrow, and beauty through a narrow looking glass of 1960’s hindsight history.

Monograph by Chris Ware
Written and illustrated by Chris Ware
Preface by Ira Glass
Introductions by Francoise Mouly
and Art Spiegelman
Published by Rizzoli
ISBN-13: 978-0847860883
Released 10/17/17 / $60.00

Chris Ware is one of those creators who is in a league of his own.

Very few people can make me buy an expensive book just on their name alone.

Charles Burns is one. Daniel Clowes is another. Seth. Joe Matt. Chester Brown.

And of course, Chris Ware.

This book is all about Chris Ware as written by Chris Ware. Yet, I’m hesitant to call it an autobiography.

It’s so much more that that.

Ware recounts his artistic rise here from his early beginnings growing up in Omaha to where he is presently.

He combines pictures with words and in doing so, he tells us the significance of them.

What he does though through this method is give the reader the newest Chris Ware book. Every page goes deeper than just the surface of what we see. Look closer and you’ll find yourself digging and exploring. That’s the best part of any book by Ware and part of the joy of experiencing him.

If you’ve never read anything by him before, don’t start here. This is where you should end up.

Start at the beginning. Read the Acme Novelty Library or Building Stories or track down the Jimmy Corrigan collection. Go find his New Yorker pieces. Either way, work up to this.

If you love superheroes, great. I do too and they are enjoyable to me. If you want a different experience altogether, start reading Ware (or any of the cartoonists or artists mentioned).

Ware has a unique and sometimes confounding way of looking at the world. It’s amazing to me what he does. This book starts only to scratch the surface of him. I’ll be re-reading this again and enjoying the experience on another level. You should jump aboard. It’s something you’ve never seen before in print and that’s a promise.

RATING: A

Star Hawks, Vol. 1: 1977-1978
Written by Ron Goulart
Illustrated by Gil Kane
Published by IDW Publishing / Hermes Press
Library of American Comics
ISBN-13: 978-1631403972
Released 4/25/17 / $49.99

When I started in junior high school in 1971, I was already a science fiction fan and I couldn’t wait to discover what new sci-fi/fantasy books were waiting in the new school library for me! But I was disappointed. Oh, there was some Verne and Wells, but I had already caught up on their best-known works. I craved something more modern. But there was not a Bradbury to be had. Nor Heinlein. No Sturgeon or McCaffrey. Not even Edgar Rice Burroughs!

In truth, my school library had exactly ONE relatively recent science fiction book and that was What’s Become of Screwloose? and Other Inquiries, a then new anthology by a writer I had never heard of named Ron Goulart.

It wasn’t long before I recognized Goulart’s name on a history of the Pulps at a local bookstore, then on some comic strip and comic book history articles and books. By 1977, he one of my favorite authors.

Gil Kane was probably my first favorite comic book artist, even before Kirby and Wood! Kane’s Green Lantern and Atom stories for DC had gotten seven year old me to write my first (unpublished) letters to comics…or anybody else at that point for that matter! At Marvel, Kane’s Captain America and Hulk runs were early favorites, also.

I was also a major Trekkie and a pretty big Star Wars fan!

So yeah, I was the exact target audience for the Star Hawks newspaper strip that debuted in late 1977 by Ron Goulart and Gil Kane. Only neither of my local papers ever picked it up. I read about the strip in various fanzines and mags like Starlog, but outside of a few examples, I never saw it at all when it was running.

I believe the great comic strip paper, the Menomonee Falls Gazette ran it toward the end but distribution in my area was spotty by that point. In time, the Comic Reader picked it up but it was so long between issues I quickly lost interest. I grabbed the two cheap mass-market collections that were published but the strips were reproduced so small and poorly that I ended up just writing the whole thing off.

Until now.

As I’ve noted before, we are in a Golden Age of strip reprints. Wait long enough and it seems every worthy newspaper strip is popping up again in one form or another. Some time back Hermes Press put out a much-awaited complete single volume of Star Hawks but it unfortunately is said to suffer from small and often less than stellar reproduction.

Hermes Press has now teamed with IDW’s amazing Library of American Comics to give it another go, however. Not sure of their exact involvement overall but both publishers are credited in this first of three volumes and the results are impressive. The only thing I can see that one can complain about here is that the Sunday strips are in black and white rather than color. No mention of any reason anywhere that I can see.
immediately recognizable as unique is that unlike every other daily strip ever, it was double-tiered for most of its nearly four year run.

The story itself was traditional space opera, more Buck Rogers meets Robin Hood than Luke Skywalker. That said, it’s hard to deny roguish hero Rex Jaxon’s resemblance to Harrison Ford’s Han Solo. He and his large, bald, mustachioed partner (think Alan Hale, Sr as sidekick to Errol Flynn) are essentially interplanetary cops but they come across like somewhat less moral versions of classic movie heroes. Their assignments seem just an excuse to go get involved in other people’s issues, on this case on alien planets.

Although an expert on comics, Ron Goulart hadn’t really written many himself by that point (or any that I can think of) but he does pretty well, undoubtedly aided by Kane’s natural visual storytelling genius. It’s all easy to follow and well told. It’s just…Well…I still don’t care for Star Hawks very much!

The format is good and the plots move along just the way they should but I never feel all that invested in any of the characters and Goulart’s signature light touch—so familiar from his prose—sometimes seems a little heavy here.

By this point in the ‘70s, Kane’s art had evolved past what I personally consider his best period. He was in one of his most prolific periods, though. While the layouts are smooth, his character anatomy is unquestionable, and good use is often made of the double tier effect, his Star Hawks work often seems too crowded, too over-feathered, too overinked, and most likely much of it reproduced with a muddy effect when it was done even smaller in the newspapers of the day.

So I’m left with mixed feelings about Star Hawks, Vol. 1. On the one hand, it’s a high quality collection of strips I’ve wanted to read for nearly four decades, by a writer and artist whose work I have long enjoyed, working in a genre I like, and reproduced about as well as you’re ever going to find.

Ultimately, though, I found this volume, no matter how attractive it is, rather disappointing. It just doesn’t come across to me as the creators’ best work. I guess I’d consider it an interesting experiment. In fact, my favorite parts of the book were the behind the scenes articles that include an extensive piece on Gil Kane by Daniel Herman and a behind the scenes Intro from Ron Goulart.

If you were ever a Star Hawks fan, this book is for you. If you’re coming to it cold, or nearly so, I can’t imagine you particularly getting into it at this late date. Sorry.

Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View
Written by Various
Narrated by Jonathan Davis, Ashley Eckstein,
Janina Gavankar, Jon Hamm, Neil Patrick Harris,
January LaVoy, Saskia Maarleveld, Carol Monda,
Daniel José Older, Marc Thompson
Published by Random House Audio
ISBN-13: 978-0451486219
Released 10/3/17 / $45.00

Along with space battles, lightsaber duels, and a wide array of colorful creatures, Star Wars is also known for its iconic sayings.

“From A Certain Point of View” is not just a clever variation of the truth explained by Obi-Wan Kenobi, it is also the title of the newest novel from a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View celebrates the 40th anniversary of its cherished namesake with forty short stories that occur during A New Hope.

Every tale is told from different perspectives by various characters brought to life by a cast of renowned writers including John Jackson Miller, Matt Fraction, Christie Golden, Chuck Wendig, and Claudia Gray. The narrators range from celebrities to voice actors/narrators, including Ashley Eckstein, Marc Thompson, Jon Hamm and Neil Patrick Harris. Some of the stories fill in minor plot holes from the film, other stories answer some long outstanding questions, and others are purely entertaining. There are some accounts that miss the mark, but the overall collection is an audible delight to the ears.

Did you ever wonder who that poor Rebel soldier was that Darth Vader choked to death aboard the Tantive IV?

Well, his name is Captain Raymus Antilles and the self-titled Raymus opens the anthology with a story that bridges the gap between the end of Rogue One and the start of A New Hope. Raymus’ recollection of events leading up to his death flushes out the tension on the ship before it’s boarded by the Empire. I’ll give a little spoiler here: Raymus didn’t know that he was harboring the Death Star plans until he was ensnared in Vader’s unforgiving grasp. This strengthened his resolve as he tried to stall as much as he could before he reached his end. Marc Thompson’s telling of the opening story is a great example of how the narrators bring the writers’ words to life, which makes for a joyful listening experience while evoking a wide array of emotions.

There are some stories, however, that fail to reach their goal due to creative decisions. Time of Death takes the reader through a poignant moment in time as Obi-Wan Kenobi tells the story of his own death. Hearing Kenobi question his life choices and go back and forth on whether he should have raised Luke instead of the Lars family gives the reader even more insight into the character while feeling a hint of sadness for him.

It should have been intriguing to hear The Emperor react to the news of Kenobi’s demise.

Unfortunately, the Shakespearian rhyming of the narrative makes it difficult to take the material seriously. Palpatine was written by Ian Doescher, who also wrote William Shakespeare’s Star Wars trilogy. So, under normal circumstances, it makes sense…but not here. None of the other stories are written and narrated in this manner, causing them to stick out like a sore thumb as opposed to diversifying the collection.

Jon Hamm as Boba Fett in the Paul Dini penned Added Muscle was an oddity unto itself. Hamm’s voice is too distinct to suspend the slightest disbelief, however, the dialog and bravado fit our favorite bounty hunter like a tailor-made Mandalorian helmet.

All angles are explored in what is essentially a tribute to the inaugural film. Claudia Gray’s Master and Apprentice is an amazing account of Qui-Gon counseling Obi-Wan after Luke ran off to find Owen and Beru. The audacity of Conan Motti filing an incident report against Darth Vader is even more ludicrous than his disturbing lack of faith and Will Wheaton’s report of rebels left behind on Yavin 4 paints the galactic war in a surprising light.

There are way too many stories to list here and perhaps, too many from the Mos Eisley Cantina for comfort. Everyone has an opinion or a story to tell and Star Wars is no exception. Truths are told. Secrets are revealed. Things we saw in the movie are altered, which is not surprising from a book titled From a Certain Point of View.

While this offering is not required reading for new canon junkies, it’s without question the most fun you will have with a Star Wars book due to its creative brilliance coupled with a masterful pairing of narrators and writers.

Based on a real warrior from Thailand’s Ayutthaya period, Broken Sword Hero follows the heroics of legendary military general Thongdee. From the disparity as a young runaway to the toughest warrior among his people, a legendary fighter with unparalleled skills in Muay Thai and swordplay, fights for the freedom of his people.

And we’re giving away 3 copies on Blu-ray!

To enter, send an email with the subject header “BROKEN SWORD HERO” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following question:

What is your favorite martial arts movie?

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 November 26th, 2017.