WISHING YOU A BLESSED EASTER 2018...

BROTHER BONES RETURNS IN RON FORTIER'S CITY OF LOST SOULS!!!

A Brother Bones adventure reminds me of nice chunk of chocolate: dark and moody in appearance, but in taste, exquisitely sweet. This has never been more the case than in Ron Fortier's latest offering, "City of Lost Souls": a series of interlocking episodes that spice up the Undead Avenger's already delicious legacy. 

A large sum of the atmospheric flavor stems from the skull-faced crusader's stomping ground, Depression-era Cape Noire: the offbeat ingredients of which would give even the intemperate Gotham City a spirited run. Much the same can be said of Brother Bone's bizarre and divergent adversaries.  

In the case of "City of Lost Souls", we have Doctor Satan, a juicy homage to the mysterious, movie-serial titan of terror. He's abetted by the Bela Lugosi-based, Synthetic Man manufacturer, Professor Bugosi and his henchman, the Rondo Hatton-inspired, Waldo Danzinger: stand-outs among Fortier's rogue's gallery for reasons that any seasoned, horror fan would know. They're complemented by Harry Beest, who possesses the same percipient verve as DC's Gorilla Grodd and so many of those legendary "Planet of the Apes" antagonists. And for a little, alluring scintillation, we're treated to the sexy, parasitic Sister Blood and the beautiful Alexis Wyld, who was once the apple of Beest's eye and now desires the Undead Avenger's head. 

This eccentric blend delivers quality creeps with every page turn, with the participants being consistently classy and sophisticated in their rottenness: each molded in the tradition of those endearing villains we've met in good ol' chapter plays and B films.

Marvelous, brooding illustrations by Rob Davis bridge the exciting ensemble and accentuate its brimming weirdness; Michael Stribling delivers one helluva Satanic cover. As with all Airship 27 products, this is an outstanding package from front to back, from start to finish. 

By the time I flipped to the final page and ruminated upon this entry's intriguing intricacies, I grew wracked by a bittersweet craving: fulfilled, yes, but hungry for another nibble. The best I can do is reread (re-taste) the well-worded layers, and of course, await the Radio Archives audio edition. In any event, I'm grateful to Fortier for allowing his supernatural protagonist to prevail. The appetizing "City of Lost Souls" has proven the ideal way to achieve that oh-so-essential goal. 

"City of Lost Souls" is available for purchase in Kindle and paperback at ... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1946183369/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521917491&sr=8-1&keywords=brother+bones%3A+city+of+lost+souls.

FAREWELL, DEBBIE LEE CARRINGTON...

Though you weren't always visible (concealed, that is, by clever disguise), your charismatic aura penetrated each of your cinematic adventures. 

You graced, in particular, a good number of imagi-movies and television shows, including "Amazing Stories"; "Batman Returns"; "Bedtime Stories"; "Bitch Slap"; "Bones"; "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer"; "Bride of Chucky"; "Curse of Chucky"; "Captain EO"; "Dexter"; "Ewoks: Caravan of Courage"; "Ewoks: Battle for Endor"; "Return of the Jedi"; "Flight of the Reindeer"; "The Garbage Pail Kids"; "Harry and the Hendersons"; "Howard the Duck"; "The Lone Gunmen"; "Men in Black"; "Mighty Joe Young '98"; "Polar Express"; "Scary Movie 3"; "Seed People"; "Spaced Invaders"; and of course, "Total Recall '90", where you made Thumbelina the gutsy stuff of alternate-reality legend. 

Your career is one that many would--and should--envy, Ms. Carrington: a towering achievement of delightful dreams and infinite inspiration.

I saw Pacific Rim 2...

Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim" surprised a lot of people (myself included) by being more than a clobbering, CGI giant-robot fest and something driven by empathetic characters and engaging scenarios. 

Four years after the mega-hit comes Steven S. DeKnight's "Pacific Rim: Uprising", which jumps ten years farther into the future, beyond the big "Battle of the Breach", leaving the saga to a new group of Jaeger-puppeteers and new, colossal threats. For all intents and purposes, the sequel (penned by DeKnight; Emily Carmichael; and Kira Snyder) exceeds the first film's wonderment and takes the concept to clever and refreshing heights. 

Though Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Becket and Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost aren't on hand for this outing, fans of the original film will be comforted to know that Mako Mori (Kinko Kikudi) has a significant, supporting role. Otherwise "Uprising'"s (new and old) cast consists of quirky but heroic Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman); nervous and enigmatic Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day); supportive and alluring Jules Reyes (Adri Arjoni); demanding and determined Liwen Shao (Tian Jing); and resentful but capable Cadet Viktoria (Ivana Sakhno). There's also the film's leading lady, spunky and inventive Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeney); accompanied by the commanding, by-the-book Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood, resembling his dad to a startling tee); and Petecost's sometimes freewheeling yet anguished son, Jake (John Boyega). The latter eventually leads the courageous way against the gigantic problems that await, at first struggling to find his mettle, but then embracing his cause with respectable gusto.

Young Pentecost's somber refocus is the script's steady motif, but his relationship with Lambert is also important, as well as his mentoring of Namani, who must prove herself every step of the way. There are rocky moments that rise from out the various intermingling, and things do get heated, but as del Toro's film taught us, teamwork is essential when it comes to monster fighting, or for that matter, any avenue of life. To its credit, "Uprising" doesn't forget this purposeful notion.

As the teamwork builds, we're fed plenty of thunderous flash, and as far as computerized calamity goes, many will find the results arresting and therefore, fulfilling. However, with hardware and monsters as massive as those depicted, nations would fall under their impetuous pounding within seconds, thus defeating the purpose of any Jaeger intervention. For better or worse, "Uprising'"s big, final battle occurs on congested, urban turf and for a period far too long to remain credible. The first film (and the same can be said of most Toho, DC and Marvel flicks) could be blamed for this approach as well, but "Uprising" hurls it to novel exaggeration.  

There are,  however, quiet, philosophical moments that counter that exaggeration. They give the sequel a benevolent brush of "Ultraman" "Space Giants" and "Johnny Sokko", where sacrifice, bravery and honor were always at play. That "Uprising" makes use of these aspects designates it to a more special and human category than most of its building-breaking, cling-clanging competition. 

The film also twists the kaiju threat in a unique way, so that it becomes a kind of "Real Steal" goliathon midway through. An air of mystery and betrayal shines through this plot device, though its resourcefulness might prove a hard act to follow. 

Perhaps, in this respect, the next chapter should throw caution to the wind and dispatch a giant-monster battle royal to rival all others. The "Pacific Rim" technology could even reintroduce King Kong and Godzilla's mechanical counterparts. I sure wouldn't mind seeing those simulations in the brawling, Legends Films brew, and as far as extended universes go, that kind of crossover would guarantee ticket sales from here to Timbuktu. 

AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST (MARCH '18): READY FOR TAKEOFF!!!

It's that wondrous time again, folks, when Captain Ron Fortier and Chief Engineer Rob Davis take us on another Airshp 27 flight of fancy with Podcast March '18!!!

This episode caters to the upcoming Pulp Factory Awards and Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention; plus special focus is given to legendary "Red Sonja" author, David C. Smith, who'll act as a panelist at the latter. (Smith, I might add, is a longtime friend, which makes his participation all the more exciting.)

Details on Airship 27's upcoming Brother Bones; Sherlock Holmes; Moon Man; and Allan Quatermain anthologies are also supplied. 

Tune in today at ... http://zone4podcast.com/airship27-37/... to fill your head with all the informative New Pulp fun!!!

I saw Professor Marston and the Wonder Women...

Friends warned me that I wouldn't fancy "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women", not only in that it overlooks much of William "Charles" Moulton Marston's precise molding of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman and his lie-detector device, but that it was more politicized fiction than fact. 

After viewing the film, I must admit, they were right; though I do wholeheartedly realize that most cinematic, historical dramas slip into clever alteration (e.g., David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia", George Pal's "Houdini"...Tim Burton's "Ed Wood"), but "Marston and the Wonder Women" is a supreme example of cherry-picked and hazy misinformation, regarding a character I've admired since childhood.  

Written and directed by Angela Robinson, the film stars Luke "Dracula Untold" Evans as Marston; Rebecca "Iron Man 3" Hall as his brilliant wife, Elizabeth; and Bella "Dark Shadows" Heathcote as Olive Byrne, the pretty intern whom they (by hook or by crook) seduce. (Incidentally, Marston's granddaughter has stated that the relationship between her grandmother and Byrne was at best sisterly, never sexual: a matter obviously ignored by Robinson's script for creative license.)

Byrne, incidentally, confirms at one point that she's the niece of Margaret Sanger, founder of the controversial Planned Parenthood and one who reputedly endorsed black genocide. Though Sanger's name is inserted with an air of defiant respect, it's never explored further than that, which sets the pace for much of the movie's touch-and-go progression. 

For example, the film never adequately addresses the fact that Marston created Wonder Woman as a patriotic symbol against the National Socialist German Workers Party: that Diana Prince was first and foremost an icon of American pride and purpose and wore the colors of the U.S. in direct response and respect of her adopted nation. Her outfit's coloring wasn't, as the movie implies, an accidental afterthought. (For the record, artist Harry G. Peter was instrumental in designing Wonder Woman's pro-American image.)

Robinson's script ties fetish pioneer, Charles Guyette (JJ Field) to Diana's attire, as well as Marston's popular DISC theory and the related, lie-detector prototype, but it never elaborates on how the mythical heroine became an instant, pure-at-heart sex symbol for servicemen and adolescent boys: for all intents and purposes, a super-powered girl next door they all could respect and adore, while living vicariously through her love interest, Steve Trevor. (I must also note, in this regard, that many feminists, new and old, have struggled with Wonder Woman's pin-up semblance. Reference or projected insinuation to this is skipped in the film. The pre-end credits segment would, however, lead one to believe that the feminist movement, in general, supported the character on all counts and at all times. This is untrue and offensive to those who know the ironic truth.)

Beloved publisher Maxwell Charles Gaines (Oliver Platt) also appears about midway through the story, but was he ever so mean-spirited to our trailblazing, Harvard professor of psychology--so contemptuous of the comics he popularized--to have shown such overwhelming disdain toward a potential bestseller?  (If one applies a little research, one will find that Marston didn't seek Gaines to publish Wonder Woman; for the professor was already employed as a comic-book consultant when the publisher suggested that the intellectual write a story, which then became the Amazon's intro.)

Though we're bestowed a glimpse of the '50s purging of comic books during Fredric Wertham's ridiculous "Seduction of the Innocent" period, this acts only as a throwaway wraparound, with a "Fifty Shades of Grey" theme quickly taking interminable center. With this, the heated merger expands and is supposed to make us champion the trio's free-love cause. However, beyond one embarrassing scene that occurs later in the film, the threesome's activity is tucked away from public view and if by chance it ever did occur, it may not have been nearly as racy as Robinson's depiction. (This element of the film, whether real or imagined, would have worked better by mimicking John Duigan's "Sirens", in which provocative imagery and philosophical discussion are intermingled through a consistent and profound strand.) 

"Marston and Wonder Women" also fails to make full, star-billing use of the professor's character through a creative process. As a result, don't expect to see the "modern-day Athena" figure into any extensive examples of Marston's work, either through flashback or reverie. (There's a lasso-based segment that offers some promise, but never reaches stimulating fruition and avoids Marston all together.) 

This gross omission gives the film the same, stifled construction of Bill Condon's "Gods and Monsters" (an adaptation of Christopher Bram's "Father of Frankenstein"), where the opportunity to present recreations of James Whales' directorial masterpieces never materialize, thus relegating the creator's creations beyond necessity.Why evade the essence of what could drive home a movie's meaning? Why add "Wonder Women" to the title, if there's no substantial indication of exactly how its female leads influenced the DC icon? Sorry, but presenting our protagonists wearing exotic attire and engaging in Eric Stanton antics isn't enough.

Alas, by the time the credits rolled, "Marston and the Wonder Women" left me unfulfilled and discouraged. The film is, I dare say, on a par with those awful, social gatherings I've been forced to attend, where after a few drinks, the clustered SJWs begin to profess that they'd never move next door to a "person of color". That sort of holier-than-thou hypocrisy upsets me and for much the same reason, so does this insincere, historical account.

HAPPY SPRING 2018...FROM VINCENT AND I...

Syfy Serves New Vision of Old Krypton...

The Syfy Channel is flying into the superhero scene, with a fascinating foundation for a DC favorite in "Krypton". 

The ten-episode series takes place two hundred years prior to the legendary planet's destruction, with Superman/Kal-El's grandfather, Seg-El, as its lead, played by sturdy and spry Cameron Cuffe. Seg-El is a lot like Jor-El when it comes to colleague conflict, but will have lots more time to redeem the family name. 

Ian McElhinney portrays Seg's grandfather, Val-El, with Ramus Hardiker as Seg's good buddy, Kem and Elliot Cowan as Daron-Vex. To ensure DC fans will stay hooked, Shaun Sipos will appear as the adventurous Adam Strange and Blake Ritson as the cold, brash Brainiac. Georgina Campbell; Wallis Day; Ann Ogbomo; and Aaron Pierre comprise the rest of the Kryptonian cast.

From those few clips shared, the show looks on target in its architectural design: a cross between Krypton in Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill's big-screen, WB outings.

Syfy's stab at DC mythology is an obvious reply to Fox's acclaimed prequel, "Gotham" and of course, UPN's long-running "Smallville". Whether "Krypton" captures the supreme appeal of those tumultuous, coming-of-age sagas is yet unknown. It'll all come down to what the writers cook up and how empathetic and/or villainous its players are.

For some, having another live-action Superman incarnation, even if it's in "prehistory" mode, may seem superfluous, but for those loyalists who appreciate all aspects of DC, there's never enough of this stuff to go around. With "Dark Knight'"s David S. Goyer and "Sleepy Hollow'"s Damian Kindler serving as producers, things do look promising, enough so that we probably needn't fear the show ever mirroring CW's now blasphemous "Supergirl". Fingers crossed, anyway...

"Krypton" debuts March 21 at 10 pm. 

I saw Lara Croft's Return...

It was only a matter of time and long overdue that Toby Gard's Lara Croft return in a new cinematic adventure. This time she's brought to life by the enchanting Alicia Vikander. To quote Bart Simpson, "Whoa, mama!!!"

Vikander already made her mark on the imagi-movie scene with Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" and Guy Ritchie's "Man from U.N.C.L.E."  The latter more than the former likely landed Vikander the Croft role, but either way, her quality track record has made her an ideal successor to Angelina Jolie. 

Directed by Roar "the Wave" Uthaug and scripted by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons, this lush, exotic reboot springs an initially reluctant Croft on a trek to locate her dad, Lord Richard (Dominic West), who appears to have met his demise in pursuit of an ancient tomb (ripe for raiding) of a Death Goddess on a mysterious island near Japan. 

The flashbacks featuring Lord Croft define the father/daughter relationship (a propelling point of young Croft's development), even if we discover their loving link has become anguished, if only due to time's passing. 

Lord Croft, however, isn't the only man to impact the young swashbuckler. Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) and Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) add inebriated amusement and ruthless tension to her journey and perhaps reinforce "Tomb Raider" as being more male oriented than it should be to certain modern eyes, but this only helps ensure the sojourn stays a veritable guy film. Whether people (phony-baloney SJWs, in particular) wish to admit it or not, "Tomb Raider" has always been a product designed for and aimed at guys. Nothin' wrong with that.

It's important to note, however, that the virile influence never stops our prim and proper yet tough-as-nails archaeologist from staying on valiant track, fighting the elements and fulfilling her ambitions. And rest assured, she's never ever an unidentifiable, pitch-perfect Mary Sue. That's right: This gal does at least struggle, making her victories all the sweeter when they do come. 

There is less in the way of supernatural interludes to characterize Croft's feats this time (what's conjured is at best implied), with the 2013/15 computerized reinventions dictating much of the plot. Because of this, Croft's exploits stream more in the Bondian mode, but then as many Fleming fans know, the super spy's sprees tend to bob of ethereal wonderment, even though they're served as secular.

To aggrandize the terrestrial excitement, Vikander is, of course, easy on the eyes, though I'd have preferred a few glamorous scenes. I realize the need for realistic ruggedness (and the tomb sequences demand it), but for cryin' out loud, "Tomb Raider" is the stuff of impetuous fantasy; so why not shoot the works? (Also, it didn't hurt that Jolie played up the lipstick and mascara for the role, and let's not forget Raquel Welch and Martine Bestwick in Hammer's "One Million Years B.C.", or for that matter, Gal Gadot in the recent "Wonder Woman" and "Justice League", as well as Scarlett Johansson in her many Black Widow appearances. Glamour sells {and works}, folks, and its inclusion would be sensible in any unconventional safari, so its omission here is a discernible, missed opportunity.)

Even with this vexatious mar, I remained entertained throughout (and Vikander still pulls off the charm, regardless of her many smudges and scars). Thanks to the tight script and Uthaug's adroit direction, I couldn't help but lose myself in the unbounded exhilaration. In fact, I'll go so far to say that the new "Tomb Raider" hits the spot more than "Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", and I don't mean to cast aspersions on the latter, but this Croft entry sticks more to the mission at hand, presenting its thrills with dexterous delivery, not only in the way a crackerjack video game should play, but in the way the best and most unpretentious action films and movie serials operate. 

I sure hope Vikander tackles a sequel, but even if not, she ought to be damn proud of what she's accomplished, and the "Tomb Raider" fan base would be foolish not to give her the respect and accolades she deserves. Whether one chooses to acknowledge it or not, Vikander and Croft are now intertwined; and pop-cultural history is now sealed for generations to absorb and savor.