Yo, Joe!

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the summer action flick now has its Super Bowl spot online. Opening August 7th, starring Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Byung Hun Lee, Sienna Miller, Rachel Nichols, Ray Park, Said Taghmaoui, Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans and Dennis Quaid.

January Comic of the Month

Incognito #1

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips put their cult hit Criminal on hold to premier a 5 issue mini series titled Incognito. It has that noir feel that Brubaker’s writing and Phillips’ pencils mesh perfectly to create another surreal world. We follow Zack Overkill, an ex-super villain who is hiding out in the witness protection program. All Zack wants is to get back to the days when he roamed free and could be the badass he wants to be.


Brubaker presents us with the ending first, slowly working his way backwards and giving us Zack’s origin story. Capturing Zack’s “file clerk” job in a paperless world is exactly how desk jobs really are. Making us have sympathy for a super villain isn’t easy and right away you have a hard time pulling for Zack. But Brubaker does make it work with ease by presenting the world and everyone in it as complete pricks. Why should Zack care about anything when he attempts to lead a some what normal life only to be harassed and spit on by the world? Zack is frustrated with his place in society and eventually turns to drug use. While using, Zack realizes that these “fun” drugs are causing a reaction with his medication from the Feds. More importantly they cause the drugs which inhibit his powers to stop working. Now that Zack is free we find ourselves back at page one. With the story completed and now we can jump head first into issue two Brubaker doesn’t just leave us without a cliff hanger. That final page alone brings many possibilities of where the story can go. The only thing I didn’t really like was the story telling Brubaker used, it felt like if you read it in chronological order it would have worked just as well if not better.

Sean Phillips’ art is meshed wonderfully with the Val Staples colours, bringing a sense of realism and mood to the comic. While never using bright colours to offset the tone of the book, Phillips’ stark contrast brings a beautiful shade of grey throughout the entire book.

And a bonus is the back matter material, which many people know from Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal. It is a quick history lesson on pulp magazines, written in an essay form accompanied by a Phillips art relating to it. We are treated to “The Shadow” by Jess Nevins.

4 out of 5
Colin Enquist

Joe Hill Writes a Fantastic Comic Book

and that is, Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft

BY COLIN ENQUIST

I was never aware of Joe Hill’s work until this mini series. Hill wrote a collection of short stories titled 20th Century Ghosts and the novel Heart-Shaped Box both with critical acclaim. After reading the plot summary before issue one was released I wasn’t completely sold but thought it could be interesting. With this being Hill’s first time writing a comic book I planned on waiting for the story to be collected in one volume. I am glad I did, as the presentation of the hardcover version is gorgeous.

The main enjoyment for me on any horror film or book is the atmosphere. You can scare a person with the moments of blood splatter and random killing. Or making you jump with a quick scare tactic that isn’t really making you frightened but just caught off guard. But if you are actually making a person quiver while they are reading it takes some talent. At times I feel Hill has that talent, but other times not so much as Locke & Key doesn’t quite deliver consistent atmosphere. Now that does not mean the book was a failure. The pace of the story worked well like any great story. Jumping from each characters perspective over each issue brought us more details towards the big picture and helps bring the story together.

Gabriel Rodriguez pencils are good and very descriptive of catching the characters emotions from panel to panel. Jay Fotos who provides the colours really helps sell certain pages. When Bode first walks through the magical door that “kills” him you see a colour change in his skin which was very creepy. We see Bode’s skin change become its natural colour as he “lives” again. The panel layout made the book very easy and quick to read, never getting confused on what panel comes next.

The book does tell a complete story but it leaves lots of questions for future volumes (which Hill has stated this is the prologue to a three act story with act one and two being 24 issues total and the final act will be an original graphic novel). I would recommend this book but knowing that the next mini series is just around the corner means more reading in your future.

3 out of 5 stars

DVD Vault: The Interpreter

An assassination attempt on the foreign president of Matobo is overheard by Sylvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) who tells the Secret Service about what she heard. Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) is assigned the task of keeping the Matoban president safe during his address to the United Nations. Keller also leads the investigation into finding out the truth, in the process he interviews Sylvia and cannot decide if she is a victim or a suspect in this case. This was also the final film directed by Sydney Pollack, who convinced the Secretary General to allow filming inside the U.N. for the first time. The language “Ku” spoken in the fictional country of Matobo was also created from scratch for this film; it is a cross between Swahili and Shona.

With the film juggling politics, racism, change and aloneness it is sporadic yet intriguing. With a little misdirection the film takes you along for a few twists and turns. Stalling briefly for a few scenes between Kidman and Penn’s characters which show they have very little chemistry together after the first couple scenes. Penn seems to be forcing his acting throughout the entire film mainly due to a very limiting script. Kidman on the other hand was strong showing the fear and strength of Sylvia’s character. The end has a few illogical moments that can’t be overlooked even using certain information that proves it could be possible. Clever films use seeds of little information early on only to bring it all together near the finale. This is a film that does that but not as well as it could have. But after the lacklustre ending drags on longer than it should we are left with a question. What was the point of all the themes early in the movie? Yes it juggled a lot of themes in the end but all it really shows us how much anything can change, in the span of 20 years or 20 days. With a few holes in the plot this film could have been cut down by about thirty minutes and been a great film, but with the longer run time and unnecessary subplots we are left with an average film filled with promise.

3 out of 5
Colin Enquist

The Duel of Frost/Nixon

A history lesson that is given by the way of a Hollywood feature film, Frost/Nixon (Michael Sheen/Frank Langella) describes the Watergate incident and the Nixon resignation. We are then treated with the lead up and the interview that helped define David Frost’s career. Ron Howard is the director of this adapted British play. This movie is showing David Frost’s side of the interviews and while it is successful, Frost just is not that interesting. A far cry from a bad film but you can only riveted when the talk is about Nixon or Nixon is actually on screen. Frost shows no backbone during most of the film and looks nervous and scared, but in the end he is fearless. Never backing down for a moment during the final interview until he gets Nixon right where he wants him. Sheen pulls off the acting as the believable playboy, talk show host with the guts to put his career on the line for a chance to get his interview. Sam Rockewell, Mathew McFayden and Oliver Platt play the “crack” investigative team David Frost hires to help research and bring down Nixon. Sam Rockewell’s character James Reston stands out above the rest but tones down when Sheen or Nixon is on screen.

Langella, although he does not look much like Nixon his demeanour bring us a performance that embodies the former president and after a few minutes of screen time Langella becomes Nixon. Acting arrogant when needed and bringing to the surface the former presidents mannerisms and voice inflection perfectly. Nixon is intimidating and commands respect with only his presence in the room and Langella does this splendidly. Nixon is brilliant at toying with Frost during their interview which is treated like a duel. Kevin Bacon also has minor supporting role as Nixon’s aid that portrays admiration, pity and embarrassment never sure what to do when Nixon is confronted. Hans Zimmer provides us with another fantastic score; it does not overpower but just sits idly in the background adding dimension to the film. Although a few dull moments in the middle of the film don’t make this a perfect film, but since the ending is already known and the story is fairly basic it proves that Howard is still a director that knows his way around a movie set. This movie is up for a few Academy Awards and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Langella accepting best actor or the film walking away with best editing.

4 out of 5
Colin Enquist

Ted Philips reports on Dr. Manhattan

A nice teaser for all the Watchmen fans out there. This only brings raises my expectations for the film.