People who lack emotions, ironically, can spur conflicted emotions in filmgoers. As Amanda (“Ready Player One’s” Olivia Cooke) says in “Thoroughbreds,” since she doesn’t feel emotions, she has to work harder to be good. As a viewer who does feel emotions, I dislike her for lacking something that defines humanity, but then I chastise myself. […]
Last week, Disney fired “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (2020) writer-director James Gunn (who also wrote and directed the first two pictures) for tweets he made from 2008-11, where it seemed like he was workshopping tasteless jokes with his Twitter followers. He sounds like a struggling comedian on the least funny day of his […]
A little more than a year after the “Angel” TV series ended, the saga returned in comic-book form via new licensee IDW. Whereas Dark Horse’s Volume 1 told various hardboiled Angel Investigations mysteries in Season 1, and the short-lived Volume 2 made Angel into a more traditional four-color comic superhero in a Season 2-set yarn, Volume […]
Fox 21 announced Friday that a new “Buffy” TV series is in the works, with most media using the term “reboot.” This usually means “remake” or “re-imagining,” and that’s how most fans took it. Ninety percent of comment threads and tweets were therefore negative about the announcement. Some fans took “reboot” to mean “spinoff” or […]
Comics list: The “Buffy” Dark Horse comics from 1998-2004 are mostly non-canonical. Yet several stories expand on the TV show’s narrative.
TV review: Compared to “Scream,” “Slasher” is gorier, with remarkably creative kill scenes. But it’s also a more compelling mystery.
The four-book serial novel “The Lost Slayer” (August-November 2001) is one of the grimmest “Buffy” stories on record, oddly taking place near the start of Season 4, a relatively sunny point in the timeline. It’s ambitious, as Christopher Golden brings our favorite Slayer into an alternate future, thus allowing for narrative freedom not usually found […]
Marvel Cinematic Universe flashback (TV review): Luke Cage joins the Netflix pantheon with a nice dose of Harlem history.
Often when a comic book series ends, that final issue will sit in its slot on the racks for a long time afterward, since there is no next issue to replace it. My enduring memory of “Tales of the Vampires” (December 2003-April 2004) is seeing Issue 5 on the rack for a year or so. […]
Director Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “Ready Player One” – now available for home viewing — captures the spectacle and banter of Ernest Cline’s novel without fully tapping into the serious stakes nor the veneer of dystopian sadness. The 2-hour, 20-minute epic has the type of momentum a gamer could relate to after realizing the hours […]