Movie Musings: Green Lantern

(Alternate title- Green Eggs and Hal)

The old adage goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

Never before has a phrase been so loaded as the attempt to put ANY comic book film into words. I think I’ve been holding off on reviews, thus far, in this approaching Summer of the Comic Book Geek for a sole reason; this one is the one I feared the most in terms of its success. It was every comic book geek’s personal parallax…would this film be as terrible as we feared?

TV Thoughts: SGU's 'finale'

Shows on television have a lot of expectations to live up to. They have to either fit a very specific mold, or break that same mold; And a lot of them fail to do so to the dismay, anger, or sometimes satisfaction of their scathing critics...the average viewer.

I won't try and sway you or berate you, the open-minded reader, with why you should have watched this show and maybe have had a hand in staving off its untimely cancellation.

But what I will do is give you some insights to a show that should have lasted awhile longer, and had its legs cut out from under it before its proper time had come.

TV thoughts: spy games

when, exactly, did government agencies, specialty cops, and spies become so populous on TV?

okay, somewhat rhetorical question. I will always prefer Fox Mulder to Jack Bauer, but it seems to me that everywhere I look there's another one. Whether it's philosophy and forensics or just friday night fodder, there's always a badge and a gun onscreen.

Comic Corner: Age of X miniseries

There's something about alternate-universe comic books.

Whether it's simply a sense of "through the looking glass" or some deep desire to savor the twisted perversions of what classic comic book characters can become, i will always read through, and have now often found myself dropping money on, the intricate and unique beauty of a Parallel Reality.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. whether we're talking more classic examples of "Star Trek" or simply a bold, brave new step in storytelling, the writers who dare to dream differently have always gotten a little more respect from me for trying something new.

Movie Musing Sucker Punch

Of all the Zach Snyder films I’ve seen to date, I think Sucker Punch ranks in the top slot.
One must assume going in, however, that the plot will be thin or convoluted, the beauties be scantily clad, the visuals stunning, and the ending scene bordering on unbearably preachy; And as always these things hold true to some degree. “Watchmen” did it with about 85 % faithful respect to the original text, and “300” was a very pretty animating of Frank Miller’s bloody take on the greek history. But those films, to me, were lessened in quality by Snyder’s attempts to put his own stamp on someone else’s story.

TV Thoughts: In Treatment

hey folks! been awhile, I know. but I've got another fine show to recommend, one that not enough people I know are familiar with.

today's installment, we'll cover In Treatment.

HBO has a fine quality to their dramas, they manage to lure you in and keep you hooked with the more average-life qualities and somehow creating some compelling dramas with them. I'm thinking primarily of Six Feet Under, here. Not everyone can find a show about a family running a funeral home 'exciting' but yet it's utterly entrancing, to this writer.

"In Treatment" is another fine example. Gabriel Byrne (probably best known for Usual Suspects) stars as a therapist, Paul Weston, and the weekly installments have a fun little twist; each episode is only about twenty minutes to half-an-hour long. they cover the various patients he has on a weekly basis, and his interactions with them. So, while you've got forty episodes on your hands, in reality you're only watching about eight weeks of therapy, intensely personal, with five different clients.

TV Thoughts: Sherlock

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

tell that to the Great Detective.

the new BBC series, "Sherlock", balks that old axiom in a manner both brassy and gleeful; Taken from actual Holmes texts and repositioned in a modern context, this is a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century.

In a manner of speaking, this "series" is quite interesting; They've recreated an origins approach to the classic pairing of one eccentric detective and one old soldier with a slant for medicine --excellently executed by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman -- and gives us a faithful interpretation of our adventurers.

the series is currently set to premiere in the US later this month, but avid fans can find the UK's airdates from earlier this summer. Rather than a longer, drawn-out season, the writers have opted to have three 90-minute episodes, a format which has only whetted this viewer's appetite for more such runs.