LIKED
- The Hangover justifies the hype; it is bust-a-gut funny and often, for a comedy where a guy humps a tiger, wickedly smart. If you had told me a couple of years ago that Bradley Cooper would finally make the jump to true stardom in a comedy where the funniest bits all go to Zach Galifianakis, I would probably have looked at you funny and said “how does that go again?” But it’s true, because Cooper is obviously the leading man in this movie and Galifianakis and Ed Helms are his support.
- President’s Choice makes passionfruit (and diet passionfruit) pop now? I sometimes think there is a little room at President’s Choice headquarters where there’s this one guy whose sole job is coming up with new flavors of pop. (I mean, it would explain the lychee soda they introduced last year.) But the passionfruit is easily their best entry since blackcurrant a couple of years ago (and why did they discontinue blackcurrant)?
- Holy shit, The Brothers Bloom is staggeringly good. Clever, funny, charming (even if I didn’t already have a massive crush on Rachel Weisz I would have one now), and it has plot twists that you genuinely sometimes do not see coming, which is all too rare in modern moviegoing these days. Terrific performances, dialogue, visual conception, everything. It is hard to explain how amazingly good this movie is.
- Okay, I’ll admit it: Wipeout is a guilty pleasure. The jokes have gotten better since last year (not much better, but still), and the obstacles have gotten more clever. It’s still television gone stupid, but it’s good for a laugh.
DID NOT LIKE
- Flash: Rebirth reads like Geoff Johns trying out his greatest hits album on repeat. “Hey, Green Lantern Flash is back from the dead but there’s a problem and also Sinestro Professor Zoom is not, in fact, dead but actually behind a lot of the new problems that Hal Barry face, plus everybody else who was ever a Green Lantern Flash gets to look vaguely incompetent as well.” Beyond a nice, brief interaction with Superman, this is almost more offensive than Ultimatum due to sheer badness.
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Wait, they brought back the original Zoom, too!? KEE-RIST, why not just use the OTHER Zoom? You know, the one that Johns himself created?
This just further proves that:
a) DC shouldn’t have brought back to Barry.
b) Lightning (Rebirth-wise) doesn’t strike twice.
Thank you for saying those things about Flash : Rebirth that I did not have the wherewithal to articulate.
ThatNickGuy: The way Zoom was brought back makes sense given the rules of the Flash as established in the 90s.
That said, the execution STILL sucks ass, Rebirth is a terrible fucking idea made print, and it does seem to be Green Lantern Rebirth dipped in a can of red paint.
GL Rebirth made me do something I never thought I’d do: Give a hoot about Hal Jordan. Flash Rebirth is doing the opposite, changing my lack of caring about Barry Allen into genuine antipathy.
Here is the thing: almost all these character were designed to communicate very simple messages to boys. Some of them are capable of communicating the same type of message to adults, but really that is a happy accident. The first thing a writer should keep in mind when crafting these stories is the original intent.
To me, the message of the Flash is that given enough time you can figure out a solution to any problem using the scientific method. Over time, it has acquired a related, secondary message about generations and learning from your mentors.
Bringing Barry Allen back as the unmatchable, perfect Flash is totally at odds with the entire point of the character.
I was hoping the bad guy in Flash Rebirth would be Colonel Computron. It would at least lighten things up a bit.
Garfield: Johns is using Captain Frye and not mentioning his stint as Captain Invincible. Levity is not on the agenda.
Whoohoo! Nice to see some love for The Brothers Bloom, a movie that’s being tragically ignored. And yes, the twists are handled masterfully–the filmmakers know going in that everyone’s going to expect a twist, and they play it beautifully.
Haven’t read Rebirth yet but, I can’t imagine ANYTHING being worse than Ultimatum. And I used to really like some of the ideas in Ultimate Marvel (specially USM). As said by a thousand geeks before me: Damn you Loeb!
I had a thought last night: Red is the new “II”. Speedy, Green Arrow’s former sidekick, is now Red Arrow; Robin, Batman’s former sidekick, is now Red Robin. Anyone want to lay odds on Wally West being called Red Flash to complete the trifecta?
Yeah, I’ve got to agree with Al. There’s no way there’s anything even worse than Ultimatum.
And I’ve read Chuck Austen’s porno comics. So it’s saying something when I say Ultimatum is the worst comic I’ve read.
Eric: So does that mean that Pieface is going to become a Red Lantern?
Thanks for the PC Passionfruit heads up. Tasteee.