The Return of Movie Posts

Between snow & a sore throat, I've been home for the past 5 days. I guess I should use some of that time to catch up on the list of movies I've seen. My last post on the topic was in June, so this is long overdue.

• The Court Jester. It was really strange seeing Angela Lansbury when she was so young.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Starfighters. This movie has no plot whatsoever; it's just a string of events that happen.
  
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. This is not nearly as good as the first FF movie, and that wasn't anything more than a dumb but entertaining super-hero flick.
  
• Iron Man. Now this is how do do a super-hero movie. Everybody says Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for the role. They say it because it's true.
  
• Double Indemnity.
  
• Best in Show. Teena has commented that Christopher Guest's movies are all pretty much the same, with the only difference being the subject in which the characters are involved. I can't argue with that, but they're still funny.
  
• Ocean's 13. I have a weakness for caper movies.
  
• The Muppet Show, Season 2. It's a wonderful thing when a fondly remembered show from your childhood lives up to your recollections even after you're an adult.
  
• Wall-E. Oh man, does Pixar make some great movies. Simply delightful.
  
• Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well, it's better than Temple of Doom.
  
• The Mist. A very scary & brutal adaptation of a Stephen King story.
  
• Planet of the Apes. The original, not Burton's remake. I had never actually seen this before, or if I had, I was so young that I don't remember a thing.
  
• The Ghost and the Darkness.
  
• The Fountain.
  
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
  
• Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs. I think the first Futurama (direct to DVD) movie was better, even with way too many call backs to the series. Still damn funny, though.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Doomsday Machine. An incredibly incoherent movie that simply demands to be made fun of.
  
• The Muppet Show, Season 1. The first season isn't as strong as later ones. I guess that's why it took us longer to finish this even though we bought it before the second season.
  
• A Hard Day's Night. I love the bit where somebody asks Ringo if he's a Mod or a Rocker and he replies, "I'm a Mocker."
  
• The Dark Knight. I think there's some kind of rule stating that anybody who reviews this movie has to mention Heath Ledger's amazing performance as the Joker, but this really feels like a film & a half. I think it would have been better if they could have moved most of the Two-Face story to another movie.
  
• Clash of the Titans.
  
• Amazon Women on the Moon.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 1.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: The Wasp Woman.
  
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004. The Daily Show's election coverage from 4 years ago.
  
• Ghost Rider. This is the cheesiest movie I have EVER seen. And the thing is, I cannot tell whether or not they were trying to be cheesy. I suspect they were, but I'm not certain.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 2.
  
• Cloverfield. I think the monster was, for some reason, attracted to the video camera the characters were carrying around for the entire movie.
  
• 28 Weeks Later.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 3.
  
• Hairspray. They really should have just cast a woman in the Edna Turnblad role. As it is, you just spend too much time thinking, "That's John Travolta in a fat suit & drag."
  
• Six Feet Under - The Complete Series. Teena & I watched this with some friends. It took us a long, long time to get through the whole series, but it was definitely time well spent. The final episode lives up to the hype surrounding it. Just an amazing series all the way around.

I am not caught up yet (this only gets us to mid-September), but I think that's enough for now. Good to stop on a high note. I'm hoping it won't be another 6 months before I get back to posting about movies again.

Cold Weather

Because Portland got a lot of snow yesterday (more than Vancouver did), my workplace is shut down today, so I am enjoying a surprise 3-day weekend. Anyway, on to the books I read last week.

505. FreakAngels, vol. 1 by Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield. The first (of I hope many) collection of a web comic I really enjoy. I look forward to it each week, but it reads even better when collected.
     
506. The Couriers, vol. 1 by Brian Wood & Rob G. Big, loud action comic. (Checked out of the library.)
     
507. The Couriers, vol. 2: Dirtbike Manifesto by Brian Wood & Rob G. (Library.)
     
508. The Couriers, vol. 3: The Ballad of Johnny Funwrecker by Brian Wood & Rob G. (Library.)
     
509. Fables, vol. 11: War & Pieces by Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham. This volume wraps up the major story that's been brewing since the very beginning of this series.
     
510. Aqua Leung, vol. 1 by Mark Smith & Paul Maybury. Pretty standard adventure story that could have used some proofreading. The art is pretty, but the story feels extremely generic. (Library.)
     
511. X-Men First Class: Band of Brothers by Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz, et al. More angst-free X-Men stories. Yay!
     
512. Superman vs. Brainiac by various. I wish Amazon had the actual cover image for this book (they often do not have the actual cover image for graphic novels); it's a terrible cover. First, and most importantly, it's ugly. But also, it's impossible to tell whether Superman is winding up to punch Brainiac in the face or if he's turning tail to run because Brainiac scares the crap out of him. I'm sure it's the former, but if it is Superman is seriously overbalanced, and would fall right over. (Although I guess that is less of a concern when you can fly.)
     
513. Omega the Unknown by Jonathan Lethem & Farel Dalrymple, with Karl Rusnak. Lethem's reworking of one of Steve Gerber's stranger (and that's saying something) 1970s comics. (Library.)
     
514. JLA/Avengers by Kurt Busiek & George Perez. Nice of DC & Marvel to finally collect this in an affordable format.
     
515. In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot by Graham Roumieu. This just didn't work for me. There were funny bits, but for the most part, this left me cold. (Library.)
     
516. Marvel Adventures Iron Man: Armored Avenger by Fred Van Lente, et al.
     
517. Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi. Yeah, I've read this before, but those times I checked it out of the library. I finally picked up a copy because Amazon had it for sale at like 60% off.
     
518. 100 Bullets, vol. 12: Dirty by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Heading toward the series climax in the next volume. (Library.)
     
519. Ultimate Iron Man vs. Hulk: Ultimate Human by Warren Ellis & Cary Nord. Somewhat overpriced, but a good example of Ellis's superhero work.
     
520. Thunderbolts, vol. 2: Caged Angels by Warren Ellis & Mike Deodato Jr. Ellis does even better when writing supervillains (and still better when writing characters he created & owns). And Deodato's artwork has improved since the 90s (see last week's post).
     
521. Batman: Ego and Other Tails by Darwyn Cooke. No, that's not a typo. There is a Catwoman story in this collection. Gorgeous artwork.
     
522. Artesia by Mark Smylie. I had been interested in this book for quite a while, but never enough to spend the money on it. Then I found a copy for half price, so I gave it a try. Despite having to keep track of a huge number of strange names (too often par for the course in fantasy settings), I quite liked this, and I'll be looking for later volumes, even if they aren't discounted 50%.
     
523. Essex County, vol. 3: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire. Touching end to the trilogy. (Library.)

Snow Day

Due to inclement weather, I'll have tomorrow off, and I'll update then.

Breaking 500

495. Local by Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly. Great stories about a young woman, presented in a beautifully-designed book. (Checked out of the library.)
     
496. Chamber of Mystery: Witchcraft, vol. 1 by various. Pre-comics code horror stories. Not from EC, not actually all that good, but still interesting.
     
497. Good-Bye by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Alternative manga from the 70s. (Library.)
     
498. DC Goes Ape by various. Stories featuring gorillas. Once DC's forte.
     
499. I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert, et al. Colbert's tone doesn't quite come across without him delivering the lines, but still quite funny.
     
500. Tales of the Multiverse: Batman - Vampire by Doug Moench and Kelly Jones. Nice, creepy artwork, but the writing is overwrought.
     
501. The Death of the New Gods by Jim Starlin. Cosmic Sturm und Drang that was undone by another writer even quicker than is usual in comics (because DC's editors apparently don't talk to each other). (Library.)
     
502. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, pt. 2 by Akira Himekawa. I enjoyed this adaptation of the video game, but I doubt I'll get further volumes in the series, since they'll be adapting games I haven't played. I may pick this series up again if they get to Wind Waker.
     
503. Thor Visionaries: Mike Deodato Jr. by Warren Ellis, William Messner-Loebs, & Mike Deodato Jr. I can't say I'm actually a fan of Deodato, but I do like Ellis & Messner-Loebs' writing, and I found this for half price.
     
504. Order of the Stick, vol. 3: War & XPs by Rich Berlew. The latest collection of the web comic.

Attempting to Catch Up

I'm a week behind, but I don't really feel like writing much today.

474. DNAgents: Industrial Strength Edition by Mark Evanier & Will Meugniot. Reprints of an indie super-hero series from the 80s. Comics sure used to be a lot talkier than they are now.
     
475. In Odd We Trust by Dean Koontz & Queenie Chan. I haven't read any Koontz before, but I enjoyed Queenie Chan's manga-esque series The Dreaming, so I thought I'd check this out. That was a mistake. I really didn't like this. Mostly because the dialogue was atrocious, full of awkward exposition and baffling attempts at characterization*. I don't know if Chan adapted an existing short story, or if Koontz did the actual writing, but it was awful. I won't be looking for any more of Koontz's work. (Checked out of the library.)
     
476. The Spirit: Femmes Fatales by Will Eisner. I'm not looking forward to the upcoming Spirit movie. It looks too much like it will be Sin City lite, rather than an actual adaptation of Eisner's work, but at least the movie means that we're seeing more of the original work released in an affordable format. (Although there is quite a bit of overlap between this volume and The Best of the Spirit, but I'll take what I can get.
     
477. Strangeways: Murder Moon by Matt Maxwell & Luis Guaragna. A mixture of wsterns & werewolves. (Library.)
     
478. John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Family Man by Jamie Delano, Ron Tiner, et al. I think one more volume will mean that Delano's run on this series will finally be completely collected.
     
479. To Terra..., vol. 1 by Keiko Takemiya. This may be a hugely influential manga series, but it felt extremely generic to me and did not hold my interest. (Library.)
     
480. Black Jack, vol. 1 by Osamu Tezuka. Now this manga is interesting. It's about a brilliant but unlicensed doctor who handles extremely unusual cases. Weird, and occasionally disgusting, but fascinating. I'm looking forward to future volumes.
     
481. Six Feet Under: Better Living through Death edited by Alan Ball & Alan Poul. A companion book to the HBO series.
     
482. Gimmick, vol. 2 by Youzaburou Kanari & Kuroko Yabuguchi. (Library.)
     
483. Star Trek: New Frontier by Peter David & Stephen Thompson. David brings his series of Star Trek novels to comics.
     
484. Northlanders, vol. 1: Sven the Returned by Brian Wood & Davide Gianfelice. Vikings!
     
485. Doktor Sleepless, vol. 1: Engines of Desire by Warren Ellis & Ivan Rodriguez. Mad science for the 21st century. Ellis has not forgotten that mad scientists are villains.
     
486. Thor, vol. 1 by J. Michael Straczynski & Olivier Copiel. Meh. (Library.)
     
487. Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III, Jay Geldhof, et al. Another great comic from the 80s finally reprinted.
     
488. Conan, vol. 0: Born on the Battlefield by Kurt Busiek & Greg Ruth. The story of Conan's childhood. (Library.)
     
489. Three Strikes by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Brian Hurtt. Great crime story. I have been very impressed by every non-superhero story I have read by DeFillippis & Weir.
     
490. Crossfire, vol. 1: Hollywood Hero by Mark Evanier & Dan Spiegle. A spin-off from DNAgents that is quite a bit better than the source material. That's because the emphasis is less on super-heroics and more on Hollywood (a subject Evanier knows a lot about). I'm hoping to see more collections, especially if they include Evanier's essays about his life in show biz.
     
491. Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez.
     
492. Mystique, vol. 2: Tinker, Tailor, Mutant, Spy by Brian K. Vaughan & Michael Ryan.
     
493. Mateki: The Magic Flute by Yoshitaka Amano. Gorgeous art. (Library.)
     
494. Nation by Terry Pratchett. A rare non-Discworld book from Pratchett, but this is just as good as any in that series. Wonderful & highly-recommended.

Well, look at that. I did get caught up after all, and I actually wrote something about most of the books.

*Admittedly I don't know any fry cooks, but I doubt many invest as much of their identity in their jobs as Odd does.

Lazy

No update this week. Spent too much time playing Animal Crossing.

Taking a Break from Animal Crossing

Teena & I just picked up the latest Animal Crossing game, so I'm going to try to keep this short as I want to get back to our cute new town.

463. The Martian Conspiracy, vol. 1 by Jason McNamara & Paige Braddock. Pretty good science fiction action story. (Checked out of the library.)
     
464. JLA: That Was Now, This Is Then by Roger Stern & John Byrne. I have to admit this wasn't Stern's best story, but he has written some great super-hero comics in the past, and he deserves my support.
     
465. Blue Beetle, vol. 4: Endgame by John Rogers, Rafael Albuquerque, et al. Now this is a fun comic. It makes me feel like I did when I read comics as a kid. Highly recommended.
     
466. Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan by Jiro Kuwata. This is a collection of 60's Batman comics from when the TV show was airing in Japan. These stories are insane. Imagine goofy silver-age comics viewed through a filter of Japanese culture. I especially love the story where a gorilla has acquired the intelligence level of the scientist who was experimenting on him (the ape), but the gorilla knows it will revert to its original state in a few days so it sets out to capture Batman & perform the experiment again so it can acquire Batman's intelligence. I said the stories were insane.
     
467. Empowered, vol. 3 by Adam Warren.
     
468. Hikaru no Go, vol. 13: Professional Match by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. More manga about go.
     
469. Herbie Archives, vol. 1 by Shane O'Shea & Ogden Whitney. Oh, so strange. Comics about a fat kid who doesn't speak in complete sentences & who is constantly sucking on a lollipop. But he is known and respected around the world & throughout time. Bizarre & wonderful comics. (Library.)
     
470. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, vol. 1 by Akira Himekawa. Reading this manga made me want to play the game again.
     
471. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, vol. 3: Wolves at the Gate by Drew Goddard, Joss Whedon, & Georges Jeanty. I continue to enjoy these comics. And they're definitely doing things that would be impossible with a TV show's special effects budget.
     
472. Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel by A. B. Sina & LeUyen Pham. A good story, but only slightly related to the video games. (Library.)
     
473. Love & Rockets: New Stories, no. 1 by Los Bros Hernandez. When I first started reading Love & Rockets (man, that was 20 years ago), I preferred Beto's work over Jaime's (Mario's has never really worked for me), but nowadays it's the reverse. I think it's because Beto has moved away from the Gabriel Garcia Marquez-esque Palomar stories. Still great stuff, though.

Now, back to Animal Crossing: City Folk.