Movie (Short) Reviews

Hittin' 'em quick, just 'cause I can!

3:10 to Yuma
I'm not a big Western guy, and there are very few I actually like, but I thought I'd give this one a shot. I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't the greatest movie I had ever seen (or even the greatest Western), but it was entertaining, if a little slow and drawn out at times. I don't regret watching it though.

Speed Racer
I think I may have already talked about this one on here. Maybe not, I can't remember. Anyway, it was a fun flick. I'm glad I didn't pay money to go see it, but it was still pretty entertaining for me. Having only seen the cartoon a couple of times I didn't really have anything to compare it to, but it seemed to get all the references and homages to it correct.

The Heartbreak Kid
All of Ben Stiller's movies feel like the same movie to me anymore. I loved Meet the Parents, but all the rest just seem like lame attempts to recapture that particular magic. This one does not. Moving on...

The Happening
M. Night Shyamalan is notorious for making novels/films with deep, underlying themes and "lessons" in them, and this one is no different. Unfortunately, from the first mention of plants it becomes apparent what this movie is really about and it comes off overly preachy. Furthermore, while I really liked what The Village represented, all of his movies feel the same. They have the same type of dialogue, the same pacing, and the same, well, dumbness intertwined in them all. And finally, whoever told Mark Wahlburg to portray his character in the manner he did issued him no favors. He was so unbelievable in that role.

The Forbidden Kingdom
Not exactly what I expected, but it was a fun, family friendly martial arts flick, surprisingly with the kid from Sky High as the lead. Jet Li was phenomenal as the Monkey King, and Chan, of course, was a natural as a drunken master again. And the girl that played Sparrow was not only a talented actress and martial artist, she was stunning as well. Overall, I enjoyed it enough.

Definitely, Maybe
Cheesy at times, but romantic to be sure. Decent date movie, and it made me feel lonely. It was good for what it was to be sure.

I know there are a couple more I watched recently, but I still can't think of what they were. Must not have left a lasting impression...

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The Stranded #1 Review

Click the post title to read my latest review of the new Virgin Comics title The Stranded #1, which is the first collaboration between Virgin and the Sci Fi Channel.

Chuck Moore of ComicRelated.com has graciously allowed me to post reviews on his site, so I'll have a few more coming soon, so be on the lookout.

Chris Partin of ComicAddiction.com also extended the offer of posting reviews, so some may show up there sometime as well. I'll keep you posted.

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Lazy Day

First, I am feeling much better as I type this, about at 85%, so that's really good comparatively speaking. Especially since for the better part of the day I was in bed afraid to move it hurt so bad. But things seem to have taken a turn for the better this evening.

That said, since I was in bed and couldn't sleep, it became a movie marathon day for me today, and I had a bunch of stuff on hand to watch oddly enough. So today I watched The Marine, Pulse, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Stealth, and Doom.

Did I mention I love movies?

So, I'm tired and about to turn in, but I'll give a brief review of each.

The Marine: 3.5 of 5
Pretty good movie actually. Much better that Condemned if you ask me, but the acting was still not spectacular. And the music nearly killed the film. There were also some strange beats, but overall I enjoyed the flick. Probably wouldn't watch it again though.

Pulse: 3 of 5
A ghostly horror tale that seemed to be a subtle commentary on the evils of technology in a round about way. That concept has been done better in other films, but the overall story was interesting here. I didn't feel a resolution though, and that bothered me.

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift: 3.5 of 5
I thought this film was pretty good actually. I didn't care so much for the lead actor, but I felt that if they were going to continue the franchise that this was a good way to do it, moving it away from the cop infiltrating storyline of the first two. And the surprise at the end was pretty cool.

Stealth: 4 of 5
I really liked this film for what it was. The flying sequences were cool, and the acting was great. The story had some decent twists. Could have been better, but I'd watch this one again.

Doom: 4 of 5
I was really surprised by how good this movie was. I'm even tempted to give it a 4.5, but not quite. The acting was excellent in my opinion, as was the directing and the story. And I loved how toward the end it went first person shooter like the video game. That made the movie for me, even though I've never played the game. This was just a really good movie and I'd definitely watch it again.

And that's all for tonight.

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Myth Conceptions

That's right! Finally, a new Myth Conceptions! Check it out by clicking the title of this post!

Also, the new SBC Reel is up.

And one more new review, this time of Nexus: Space Opera #1!

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Bunch of Reviews

Okay, here are several reviews I've done over the past few weeks:

Black Coat: ...Or Give Me Death #1 (of 4) - Ape Entertainment

G.I. Joe: America's Elite #25 - Devil's Due Publishing

Helios: Under the Gun #4 (of 4) - Dakuwaka Productions

Hero By Night #1-4 (of 4) - Platinum Studios

Okko: The Cycle of Water #2 (of 4) - Archaia Studios Press

Purity #3 (of 4) - Dakuwaka Productions

The Killer #3 (of 10) - Archaia Studios Press

The Secret History Book One: Genesis - Archaia Studios Press

The Sire #1-3 (of 3) - MikeBooks & After Shock Comics

Unique #1-3 (of 3) - Platinum Studios

Most of them were pretty good. I was impressed with Platinum's offerings more than I thought I'd be. Nice stuff.

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Keeping Up...

I read a friend's blog the other day about not realizing how long goes between posts when you're busy and it made me feel bad. Here I claim I update this daily (then semi-daily) and then I go for days, almost a week between posts anymore. I get the emails from my sitemeter indicating that views have drastically dropped and it makes me feel even worse. Not because I care about view counts, but because it means people are losing interest or I'm just not providing content to read.

That said, I'm going to try to do better. It's hard when you get so busy and when you get downtime the last place you want to be is the place you work, which for me is the computer. But I started this blog to connect with people, to share things - such as my projects, my thoughts, etc. - and to give updates on my work. Lately all of those have been few and far between. And I know all of you out there understand, and I appreciate that, but I still want to try to post more. So here I am.


Another friend mentioned to me recently how surprised he was at how open I am in this blog, and it's funny because in person I'm not that open. I'm a pretty guarded person actually. I'm not shy and I love meeting new people and talking and hanging out as much of the next guy. But I'm also a loner of sorts, as contradictory as that may sound. I'll put it like this. When I go home or somewhere alone that's exactly what I want to be, alone. I stay up late at night because of the solitude.

I also don't let a lot of people in. I've been hurt by a lot of people in my life that were supposedly close to me, and I guess it built up a wall. I'm not too trusting and it takes a lot to earn my trust. And except for those I'm close to I really don't talk about myself a whole lot when you meet me. If someone asks a question I'm honest because that's all I know how to be. If it's something personal I'll try to tactfully avoid the question. But I'm still a fun-loving, easy to get along with type of guy. It's just hard to get inside and become one of my very, very few close friends. It takes a long time to build that kind of relationship with me.

Which is why it's weird to hear that I'm so open. I'll be the first to admit, though, that in the written word I'm far more verbose than in the spoken word. I'm also a lot more articulate when I write. When I talk I'm just myself, and I don't use a lot of big words as it's usually off-putting to most. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, I don't know.

In any case, I guess this blog allows me an outlet that I don't really have elsewhere. I don't really have a lot of close friends that I can talk to, and you can only talk to your parents about so much. My brother's half my age, so he doesn't get where I'm at understandably. So this is my outlet, my venting if you will. On top of that it gives people a rare opportunity to get to know me better than they would if they met me in person first.

And that's the beauty of the internet. I've developed bonds with guys in different states or continents without ever meeting them in person. I feel open enough with some of them to talk about things I don't post here or talk to most people about. Without the internet these kinds of connections wouldn't be possible, so I guess technology is good for something. I never have had a lot in common with people around me and have never felt like I fit in. Now that I'm older I view that as a good thing in a way, but when I was young it was hard. But thanks to this blog and forums and so forth I can converse with tons of people who share the same interests as me and it's quite a refreshing experience, let me tell ya.

So I'm glad I started this blog a year and a half a go or so.


I have to give a quick shout out to Matt Yocum who gave me some props on his blog. I was supposed to do some lettering for him, but scheduling and computer problems prohibited it. Luckily he got someone else who did a great job. So go check out Devolution, which is a cool story too, and Matt's Devolution column!


Elsewhere in the wide world of comics, I've posted a piece on Marvel's The Initiative at SBC, which lists all the related titles in the story line that have been revealed so far through July. I'm sure there will be more to add after Marvel's solicitations go online Tuesday.

We've also gotten a whole bunch of new writers for the site who have been turning in a lot of reviews thankfully. So come check those out. We've got some great writers on board.


As for my work, I did wrap all the finishing touches on Nocturnal Essence #1 thankfully, and began working on some other stuff for someone else, though I've neglected to update the writer, so hopefully he'll read this.


Small Press Idol round 2 is underway and Scott is nearing completion on our materials for the round. He showed me I think three of our five characters inked the other day, so hopefully this week he'll get a chance to color those bad boys. I did a second draft of the bios, but we're still kicking them back and forth.


I have sadly not done any other writing in a long time. It sucks because I'm so busy I don't have time to do the one thing I want to excel at more than the other aspects of comics. But hey, ya gotta pay the bills, right?


Ending on a personal note, man I had a restful weekend for a change... sort of. Friday I wasn't feeling well (my stomach, again) and took some medication, which typically knocks me out for a couple of hours. Well, I guess being ill mixed with the medication and my near state of exhaustion just kind of teamed up on me because I wound up sleeping for over 12 hours straight! And then I was still tired, but I forced myself to stay awake and work some. Then I crashed for another 8 Saturday! Today I also slept in late and then kind of chilled and watched TV for several hours, something I rarely do. Usually I'll tape most of my stuff and watch it in spurts. But hey, it was a nice change of pace. I may not have gotten out of the house, but at least it gave me some time away from the computer, which was very welcome, and I love the computer. I'm just in front of it way too much.

I guess that's about it. It's after 5am now and I've got a busy day ahead of me, so I'm gonna chill for a bit before tackling it.

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New Reviews!

Here's a whole slew of reviews I've done recently:

Civil War: The Confession

Civil War: The Initiative

Dynamo 5 #1

Family Bones #5

Gamekeeper #1

Mouse Guard #6

Noble Causes #27-28

Thunderbolts #112

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Reviews - The Summons, The Departed

My brother and I finally finished The Departed last night, and let me tell you that was a great movie. What made it great, though, was the ending.

I'll be honest with you, the movie itself was going a little slow for me. The story itself had the potential to be just like every other undercover cop story out there. With the wrong director or slight alterations in the script it could have even been on par with Lucky Number Slevin, which would not have been good. But the way it played out made it all worthwhile, and the acting was top notch. Filled with an all star cast (DiCaprio, Damon, Nicholson, Sheen, Wahlberg, Baldwin) and some intense and emotional drama, the movie, for me, lived up to the hype. It was gritty, the direction was excellent, the plot gave us several shockers and the ending was just classic.

Here's the spoilers...


Everybody dies! Well, everybody except Baldwin and Wahlberg, who both had relatively small roles in the film compared to the other big players. It's not often in a film that both lead actors bite the big one, but that's exactly what happened here. And if it hadn't happened that way it would have made it into just another movie. That ending, in my opinion, landed it the Oscars it received. Great storytelling.


Now onto the book I've been reading, The Summons by John Grisham. While I was into it towards the middle, overall it was not his greatest work by far. As I mentioned before, I have not read his other books, but I have seen several (Rainmaker, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief, The Firm, Runaway Jury) of the film adaptations. If the books of A Time to Kill and Rainmaker are better than their film versions, which is usually the case, then The Summons far pales in comparison, but it was still enjoyable... until the end.

The story, in short, is about a Law Professor, Ray Atlee, who finds his father, a well-respected Mississippi judge, but a poor father, dead in his home. Shortly after Ray finds $3 million stashed behind the sofa, and thus the real story begins. Someone else knows about the money, and the ensuing journey sees Ray scramble to protect his life and the money while trying to solve the mystery of who's after him and where the money came from, and in the meantime lying to everyone close to him.

As I said, the middle of the story, which made up the bulk of it was interesting. There were people following Ray leaving cryptic clues for him no matter where he went. He drove and flew through and to several states, and they were always there, watching him. Meanwhile he was dealing with his father's estate, a drug addict brother and a number of other problems besides the money issue.

The ending is what made this book drop in quality. First, though, being a smart man as Atlee is, there are some things he should have figured out or thought of, like checking to see how these people knew where he was at all times. You'd think he'd check to see if his car was being tracked. Then he just becomes a total wuss at the end of the book and runs for his life, landing himself in jail for speeding and carrying a weapon.

Without giving anything away, in the last few chapters of the book it became painfully obvious who was behind it all and how it had all played out. Early on I had a hint of this as well, and was thoroughly disappointed that the plot was that thin.

Overall, it was a decent read, but the ending ruined it for me. Oh well.

And that's it for the reviews today.

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And the Hits Keep Comin'

Forgive me for getting personal again, but I have to talk about some stuff.

I'm telling you, I think our family is cursed! Okay, so over the weekend two really terrible things happened. First, the milder of the two, my Papaw fell at the rehabilitation center and they didn't even notify any of the family that it happened. So my aunts have been dealing with that drama.

Second, my 18 year old cousin was playing a gig at a local club I think Friday night. His mother and her husband, and his brother and his girlfriend were there. Well, his brother, my cousin Chris (33 I think) went outside to get the car and got mugged and stabbed! He had just gotten paid too, so the mugger took all the money they had.

Chris has been through several ordeals this past year, most of which I won't go into. He has a condition where he passes out and it really caused some trouble last year. The man is raising three or four kids (I've lost track) and works really hard. This was just one more thing to pile up on him.

We didn't find out about all this until yesterday. None of the family bothered to let us know anything for some reason. So it's just been a real mess.

I've had a touch of the flu the past couple of days (yep, sick again), but aside from one incident it hasn't bedridden me yet. I had laid down for an afternoon nap the other day around 2:30pm and ended up sleeping 9 straight hours! I hardly ever am able to sleep for more than 3-4 hours straight, so that really took me by surprise. I'm still pretty fatigued, but I'm pushing on anyway.

On a lighter note, I got to see The Departed finally last night. My brother and I almost finished it, but got too tired, so we'll finish it today or tomorrow. I'll hold off any comments until then.

Back in the wide world of comics, it's been busy, busy, busy. In my job I worked at least 20 hours over the weekend, but we got some pretty cool video interviews posted on the site out of it.

Small Press Idol is still slow going right now. Only a couple of new entries have come in the past two weeks, and even though a few more are promised to trinkle in it looks like Round 1 is winding down. We still have nearly three weeks before Round 2 begins though. Ugh.

Man I'm glad I posted this entry because it reminded me of something I have to do. I completely forgot about my column this week! And it's due tonight! Sheesh. I am so behind on things. But never fear, I have a feeling this week is the week I'll get all caught up... hopefully!

I read Civil War #6-7 a few days ago. I'm going to review #7 for the site, so I'll hold off on that for now. Suffice it to say that I'm somewhat pleased and somewhat disappointed.

I'm also still reading The Summons by John Grisham, though I'm finally nearing the end. I've been reading that book really slow and very little at a time, mostly due to lack of time. I have to say it's not one of his best stories, but I'm still mildly enjoying it. I'm really curious how things will play out. Maybe I'll give it a full review here when I'm done.

Well, back to work I go, I go.

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