Friday, August 27, 2021
R.I.P. MARILYN EASTMAN...
With your faithful partner, the late Carl Hardman, you devoted your life to the stage, at one point merging with George Romero's influential Latent Image (aka, the Laurel Group).
It was as Helen Cooper in Night of the Living Dead that you gained fame (just as Mr. Hardman gained such as your fictional spouse, Harry), igniting screens with deftness and tension.
Other screen appearances include Santa Claws, Houseguest, Night of the Black Mass (alas, still unreleased) and even an episode of Perry Mason, but as the mother of Kyra Schon's ghoulish daughter you seized immortality. (And your cameo as a bug-eating zombie holds ceaseless, pop-cultural weight, too.)
Bless you for entertaining us, Ms. Eastman, and being so gracious to those who knew and loved you. You will be deeply missed, affectionately remembered.
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
IANQU'S DEAD
Through death comes life, according to Adarcah Ianqu's audible dead: short in chapters, but inundating in its oscillating trek.
Dead, in fact, sets one upon a ceaseless, Stygian stream, riding waves that are at one moment gray, then violet and blue, welcomed by open arms, but punctuated by fearful ears and flooded lungs.
The journey starts with "thoughts", where one hears wistful murmurings, commencing with a pregnant nothingness that tosses and turns (an unsettled slumber?), cursed by an air of berating doom.
One feels so "alone", the chords soft yet cutting, and after a spell, anchored by organic chains. A greater emptiness invades, but it's not at all an emptiness if it coruscates a consecrated soul.
As one sloshes through the void, the dominions of the "darx" sing, creating a shrill trill that's alien but familiar, as if defining a comeuppance that one has foreseen from the time of one's birth, a path straight into the catacombs of one's finite heart.
One wails like babe, feeling frigid and "lost". In the wallowing whispers, one bucks, wishing to row backward, but the tide is too strong.
One's heart comes to a stop. The outcome is "dead", and here in death, the noise is more conciliating, numbing one's soul with a single, humming groan.
The violet and blue break back to gray. Will one be reborn only to die again? Only time and further listens will tell:
https://adarcaheancu.bandcamp.com/album/dead?fbclid=IwAR1RKHFc6DI6cTV7EwUtXavpUuDZfXYem6BN1i1trFoUUgyt-hzN0qLeuqw
Saturday, August 21, 2021
FEMFORCE #193: ENTER FEM-PARAGON
Femforce #193 slugs its way into stores with a wild, full-color extravaganza.
The spotlight falls again upon stunning Stardust, previously transformed by the Dark Matter Energy and now up against the transformed Nikki Latimer, a Fem counterpart to the powerful Paragon. Verden Fell, meanwhile, dashes off with Alizarin Crimson's cadaver, and to bolster the ominous escapades, we get Nightveil, Synn, She-Cat and Ms. Victory along for the ride. Oh, yeah!
Bill Black, Bobby Ragland, Eric Coile, Jeff Austin, Josh Rodriguez, and Mark and Stephanie Heike bring it all to vivacious life with their creative skills, establishing #193 as another monumental entry in a long, prestigious line.
Buy Femforce #193 at your favorite comic shop or online source. (I got mine at Steve's Comic Relief on Quakerbridge Road in Lawrenceville, NJ: a tip-top spot to fulfill one's superheroic needs.)
And remember, Femforce #194 is right within reach!
Friday, August 20, 2021
An Alternate Reality: I saw Reminiscence...
Reminscence is a new dystopian movie, written and directed by Lisa (Westworld) Joy, starring superstar-for-good-reason Hugh (Wolverine) Jackman. It paints a soggy future (during the time of a nondescript war), where a Miami private eye uses (as a profitable sideline) an opiate-technology that lets folks relive parts of their past (mainly brighter days in light of the darker ones that have come to be). In actuality, Reminiscence is a somber variant of Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, which borrows from Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days, Douglas Trumbell's Brainstorm and the "memory" prose of Philip K. Dick to noir-esque, alternate-reality effect.
For people to tap into the coveted past, Jackman's Nick Bannister straps his clients into his memory machinery (a brow brace and a quasi-isolation tank) and along the investigative trail, meets Mae, played by Rebecca Ferguson (Jackman's Greatest Showman costar). Mae's long-legged allure and classic-movie mystique make Bannister fall in love with her, but alas, Mae vanishes one day without a trace, and Bannister's obsession with the knockout inspires him to comb their stockpiled memories to find her. (This goes against the advice of Bannister's caring assistant, Watts {Thandiwe Newton}, as Mae's path points to a criminal mastermind, Saint Joe {Daniel Wu} and a strong-arming fixer, Cyrus Booth {Cliff Curtis}, who are tied to estranged elitists.)
The story's execution tugs at the heartstrings with all the lost-love pangs one might expect (and Ramin Djawadi's pulsating score propels its pathos, along with that old, Richard Rogers standby, "Where and When"), all contained within a beguiling and sprawling adventure. But this adventure isn't Homer's Odyssey, but rather a much more intimate voyage in line with Richard Matheson's Somewhere in Time, Nicholas Meyer's Time After Time and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone tale, "the Long Morrow". In this regard, Bannister's intent is as significant as if he were searching for a mountainous treasure in some far-away land, and his lady fair proves as difficult to grasp, since the path to regain her spirals into addiction.
One could argue that Bannister's quest essays the ups and downs of nostalgia: its sweetness and woe. It explores why one would wish to reattach to a person, place or time, when improving the status quo (improving the moment at hand) would be more feasible and immediate. But then those who'd look to the present and/or future for an antidote to their emptiness aren't as prone to understand love. (The past, after all, is much easier to romanticize, no matter the flaws attached.)
This philosophical, if not psychological, perspective gives Reminiscence its draw, but alas, the story is marred by an unneeded, climate-change motif. Its allegorical, water-has-risen garnishing may look nice and shimmering, but its controversial, we-told-ya-so redundancy taints the story's pathos, which should (could) have stood on its own.
Despite this unfortunate chink, Reminiscence is a haunting experiment that challenges both body and soul: a human-condition, science-fiction product that works in direct defiance to the noisy splash that populates most high-profile, speculative filmmaking today. For those who like their escapism somber and deep, Reminiscence is without question one to seek.
FAREWELL, SONNY CHIBA...
You fought the good fight time and again, whether in fiction or real life.
From the Street Fighter flicks to Kill Bill, you were a force to reckon with, and that goes for all the great in-betweens: the Bodyguard; Karate Kiba; Deadly Fight in Hiroshima; Deadly Outlaw, the Fugitive '65; Bullet Train; Battle without Honor and Humanity; Karate Warrior; Shogun's Samurai; G.I. Samurai; Samurai Reanimator; Legend of the Eight Samurai; Vigilante in the Funky Hat; Vice G-Men; Yakuza Cop; Yakuza Wolf; the Executioner; the Terrifying Witch; Shadow Warriors, Doberman Cop; Message from Space; Invasion of the Neptune Men; and many more.
In an age where purposeless passivity is promoted to a fault, your legacy resonates as a beacon of hope, Mr. Chiba. May your strong stance and stoic persona continue to demonstrate how courage is the best and only way to fulfill one's dreams.
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Thursday, August 12, 2021
An Alternate Reality: Marvel & Disney+ Ask What If?
What If...? is a new, animated Marvel Studios/Disney + series, based on the comic-book series of the same name. The show kicks off with "Captain Carter", Agent Peggy Carter, who became the First Avenger instead of Steve Rogers on some far-out, WWII parallel plane. (So that then means Captain Britain came first, since Carter is British. Wow!)
The nine-episode, anthology program will cover other Marvel variants, as well, including the Black Panther and Star-Lord (as one?); Yondu; Drax; Iron Man; Vision; Spider-man; the Hulk; Thor; Loki; Doctor Strange; Ant-Man (#1 & #2); the Wasp; Black Widow; Nick Fury; the Red Skull; Bucky Barnes; Thanos; the Collector; and the narrating Watcher (with others presently kept more-or-less concealed for the sake of Twilight Zone-ish surprise). A number of the characters will even be voiced by the actors who played them in the Avengers movies. For example, Hayley Atwell supplies Captain Carter's voice.
Marvel (along with DC) is playing up the alternate-universe angle to the live-action extreme. It's no surprise, then, that the gimmick would spill over into super-superior animation, even if Marvel has been slack in recent years with the medium. (DC has been kicking butt with it, of course.) All the same, What If...?'s success could hit high, leading to more feature-length, animated, Marvel/Disney+ movies.
The first What If...? installment can be viewed now, with another episode set for next week. Sure, one has to pay to view, but when the concept is this revolutionary, what's a few dollars more to get in on the speculative fun?
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
I saw the Long Halloween (Part 2)...
The Long Halloween (Part 2), directed by Chris Palmer and scripted by Tim Sheridan (based on Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale's hot-selling DC series) hits the spot with rueful tricks and tragic treats, as Batman, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent continue their investigation of the haunting Holiday Killer.
This chapter comes in the wake of the Joker's raucous, Arkham escape, while the Falcone/Maroni war prevails in its Fistful of Dollars context. Meanwhile, stealthy Catwoman claws from the shadows, assisting the Dark Knight when things turn grim, as often they will in forever-autumnal Gotham.
Poison Ivy (more poisonous than ever), the Scarecrow (scarier than ever) and Mad Hatter (madder than ever) become the main, interfering antagonists at various phases (Solomon Grundy and Calendar Man pay return visits, too), but the Long Halloween (Part 2) is the tale of how Dent birthed Two-Face.
As one might deduce, the identity of the Holiday Killer skids from Two-Face's manifestation, but why spoil the inadvertent hows and whys? Let's say that the crossroads are as heartbreaking as they are ghoulish, placing the saga on an impassioned plane, with insinuations of Robert Louis Stevenson, John Wyndham and Mario Puzo to ensure the sinister segments fit.
That's high praise and warranted, for once the nefarious wreckage clears, the Long Halloween (as a seamless whole) is a memorable, noir-ish experience aimed at adults, but it sure as hell wouldn't hurt kids to watch. Within its costumed catacombs are quality life lessons for those of any age.
Pop some corn and gather up the family to view the complete saga for a fulfilling, growing-pains experience.
