Crank 2 Trailer

Irreverent. Over The Top. Completely Unrealistic. This makes the first film look like The Sorrow and The Pity. And I got all this from a trailer. Suffice to say, the following clip is the very definition of NSFW.

http://www.intralinkfilm.com/video.php?id=245

Speed Racer

When writing critical pieces, I like to accentuate the positive, and not tear things down arbitrarily. This in turn leads to probably the highest average review score for me as opposed to my fellow TMBC reviewers. This is mostly because I'm picky as hell about what I watch, and generally have a good idea about what I'll like. But, back on the other hand, I don't love championing things that are generally pretty popular....it can feel a bit too safe. Which is why I am taking great pleasure in lauding a movie that is getting widely panned and underperforming at the box office, like many other works of true genius: Speed Racer.
Adapted from the beloved anime series, Speed Racer tells the story of Speed (Emile Hirsch), a young man obsessed with racing. He is the son of Pops (John Goodman) and Mom (Susan Sarandon) Racer, and older brother to Spritle (Paulie Litt), the original trouble-making little brother, along with his pet chimpanzee Chim-Chim. Rounding out the ersatz family are mechanic Sparky (Kick Gurry) and Speed's longtime girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci). Speed grew up idolizing his brother Rex (Scott Porter), who became estranged from the family, and apparently died during a particularly dangerous cross-country rally. Now grown up and a promising driver, Speed is approached by Mr Royalton (Roger Allam) of Royalton Industries, who wants Speed to join his massive stable of drivers. Of course, Speed turns him down since his father has always been independent and Royalton tells him that the Grand Prix has always been fixed, and Royalton warns Speed that he will never succeed without his backing. Speed is eventually approached for help by Inspector Detector (Benno Furmann) with a conspiracy linking Royalton to mobsters. Guiding and watching over Speed during this time is the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox).
At the heart of the story is love for something, and the importance of family. The crux of that love is racing in it's purest form, but it could easily be about a number of things. While the story is solid but nothing that you haven't seen before, I can guarantee you've never seen a visual treat like Speed Racer. The Wachowski Bros wanted to make it a "live-action anime", and they succeed wildly. The only drawback (this is debatable) is that there is so much going on for so long that one needs to have a relatively high threshold for sensory overload. The universe of Speed Racer definitely tends towards cartoon behavior with anime flourishes, speed lines, etc, but wisely keeps one foot in reality, keeping the film grounded. I was a little unsure of this from the previews, but there is more realism there that I had been lead to believe. The cast is extremely instrumental in doing this: there is a lot of love for the characters, and everybody clearly did their character homework. But hands down, the real breakout performance is from Fox, who shines as the enigmatic badass Racer X. I never thought of the Wachowskis as actor's directors, but they have done a fine job with Fox, who obviously worked his ass off. I find it a little ironic that he comes across as so much looser than Dr Jack Shepherd playing a laconic character like Racer X, but after seeing him in this I lamented what a great job he could have done had he been cast as Cyclops in the X-Men movies. After the ninja fight, I was even convinced that he would have been a great Batman.
But I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It moves quickly for a film of it's length, and I was left slightly exhausted, like the Flash just took me out for a jog. Sadly, this movie got crushed in opening weekend by current box-office champ Iron Man, and won't be able to catch up much between Prince Caspian and the imminent release of Indiana Jones 4. But I feel that Speed Racer is a future cult classic and family favorite, and hope that people warm up to it soon, as it is more than worthy.

Erik Larsen Talks Good Sense

href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16182">

Comic Mysteries Solved #4: The Red Hulk is.......

.......Thunderbolt Ross. I didn't see it before, but there were some big clues in this issue, namely:

-We haven't seen the two of them in the same shot yet
-A retinal scanner at an Army base nearly identifies the Red Hulk......he would have to be military personnel to get that so quickly, wouldn't it?
-The obscured conversation between Banner and Ross was a big giveaway.

Too bad I can't solve the mystery of where the hell Jeph Loeb's writing went......

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!!!!

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=7088

What???????I can beat the crap out of Mortal Kombat characters with my favorite characters from the DC Universe this fall on the XBOX 360? Yes, please!

If You've Gotta Go........

......go with a smile. At least, it looks like that's how Heath Ledger is ending his film career, after overdosing on drugs in New York City.

.......I have to wonder......is this a joke to promote the film? It's pretty fucking sick if it is, but as wacky as some of the marketing has been, I don't think Warner Bros would go this far.

The Art of Dishonest Storytelling

There is currently a minor flurry of activity on a lot of comic book websites regarding the "controversial" recent Spider-Man storyline One More Day. For the non-readers of comics, here's the Reader's Digest version of what happened: Peter Parker's back is against the wall as a direct result of the events of Marvel's Civil War (Spider-Man revealed his identity on national television, ended up a fugitive from the law, and his Aunt May took a sniper's bullet intended for that him that he couldn't stop.). His Aunt May is slowly dying, and there's nothing that he can do about it. He frantically searches for help, and is told at every turn, even from the powerful mystic Dr. Strange, that there is nothing that can be done about it.......until the devil shows up. Mephisto, basically Satan in the Marvel Universe, tells Peter that he can save his aunt......for a price. He doesn't want Peter's soul, but his marriage. This, to him, would be "so delicious". The marriage of Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson would be erased, and they wouldn't remember it. MJ argues that Aunt May is at the end of her life anyway, and that they have many years ahead of them. Peter states that she is dying because of him, and he can't live with that. After some discussion, MJ agrees, and Peter goes along with it, with the added stipulation that Peter's unmasking would be undone as well. The deed is done, and Peter wakes up, late as usual, and Aunt May is healthy and live again. He goes to a party, where the long-dead-in-comics Harry Osborn appears. Also, Peter seems to have lost the organic webshooters given to him in the films, and adopted by the comics several years ago. In short, there have been very drastic changes to continuity here.
Marvel Editor-In-Chief/"One More Day" penciller Joe Quesada has been very outspoken on the subject on Peter and MJ's marriage, and feels very strongly that it was a mistake, just a marketing gimmick. He feels that Spider-Man is at his best as a character when his personal life and superhero career collide and make problems for each other, and that there are many more opportunities for that with a single Peter. Agree or disagree (I personally disagree), Quesada makes a good case for single Peter. But......here are the problems I have:

-Quesada mentions the collision of Peter's personal and Spider life. Although it is treading familiar ground in some ways, the (final) death of Aunt May would be fertile ground for some powerful stories and an interesting next chapter in the life of Spider-Man.

-Quesada stated in a comicbookresources.com interview that the reason Mephisto was involved, rather than simple divorce, is that:

Sure, that would have been a very easy solution. However, how would a parent feel when they had to explain to their kid that Spider-Man just got divorced from his wife? How would that headline read across the AP or on USA today? The same can be said with an annulment. Sure, divorce is a reality of life, but Peter Parker and Spider-Man are not the types of characters that would do that. Spider-Man is a worldwide icon and is considered one of the good guys, like Superman. There's always the option of killing off MJ, but over the years way too many key characters in Spider-Man mythology have been killed off. Much like the marriage, those deaths hurt the book. The Spider-Man books were better with Harry in them, as well as Norman. Also, how much older would Peter seem as a widower -- yikes!

That is a weak, weak excuse. Not so much the part about all the death in Spider-Man, but everything else. One theory that's being thrown about is that Quesada wants to make Spider-Man more accessible to younger readers. I have several problems with the use of Mephisto here:

1) It's fucking lame. Mephisto want's Peter Parker's marriage? It would be delicious to him? Why? I have a hard time buying that. It just doesn't ring truthful.

2) A hero as experienced as Spider-Man makes a deal with the devil?????? Yeah, that's easier to explain to the kids. "Spider-Man isn't married anymore because he made a deal with the Devil, Honey. It happens in life sometimes." Peter Parker should know better. He's not an idiot like Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider) who doesn't have all that much common sense.

One More Day had the potential to be a very, very powerful story. The first two installments were pretty good, when it seemed that there was going to be no saving on Aunt May, and that Spider-Man was headed for the biggest tragedy since the death of Gwen Stacy. Instead, they pulled a huge cop-out, using a supernatural deus ex machina to conclude what should have been a very human story. Interestingly enough, there was a lot of resistance from the writer as well. There are lengthy interviews with Quesada here:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/

and a very, very interesting email from the writer of the book, J. Michael Straczynski here:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=141756

There is an excellent roundtable on Newsarama here that breaks down OMD in a very exact, frank matter. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=141416


The big problem here is that I, and a lot of other people feel that Quesada implemented his personal feelings on Spider-Man in a manner that was creatively detrimental to the books, and the characters. What Joe Quesada did to Spider-Man makes it nigh impossible for me to enjoy the character anymore. I will be dropping Amazing Spider-Man from my subscription today. If Dan Slott, Steve McNiven, or any of the new creators on ASM are reading this? I'm so fucking sorry, dude. I really don't want to punish the new creative teams for something that they didn't do, but I feel like I have to watch my wallet in matters Marvel very, very carefully from now on. I feel that I need to show my lack of support for such a dubious creative decision. Quesada has a kind of reputation as a huckster among comic fans, and this incident makes his bullshit pretty much unforgiveable.