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(Originally published by Paste)

The grand idea behind Valkyrie, director Bryan Singer’s first non-superhero feature since 1998’s Apt Pupil, is “Nazis weren’t all bad.” Paul Verhoeven successfully mined similar ground in Black Book, and with two of Valkyrie’s actors, Carice van Houten and Waldemar Kobus, but there’s still plenty of material to explore. With the added resonance of catching Tom Cruise partway through a career resurgence (courtesy of Tropic Thunder) all Singer needed was a taut script to keep the gears moving in time. Read the rest of this entry →

(Originally published by Chud.com)

I’ll say this for The Spirit: there aren’t many films in which a comic book creator’s full personality, from writing to composition to pacing, is translated to the big screen. Too bad the personality in question is that of writer/director Frank Miller and not original character creator (and godfather of the graphic novel) Will Eisner. Read the rest of this entry →

(Originally published at the Onion AV Club)

In the family of fighting games, Mortal Kombat is the middle child who tortures cats in his spare time, but can also dazzle with fits of charisma. The series loves gruesome combat, but pines for the mainstream adulation. When games were less bloody, that was an easy balance to strike. Gouts of gore plus catchphrases (”Finish him!”) and the allure of shocking hidden fatalities added up to massive sales and popularity. Now that those elements are commonplace, how to recapture the attention of old?

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(Originally published by Chud.com)

This isn’t exactly a normal review. After I slumped out of my screening of Nobel Son I started to write a piece describing how the experience had deflated the goofy elation I felt after seeing Punisher a couple hours earlier. The idea wasn’t to write a review, but in part to structure the piece around a new(ish) red band trailer that was sitting in my inbox, and to discuss the obvious gaming of the film’s score on the IMDB*. The idea was to write that article, not a review. I realized that would be disingenuous rubbish, as my true intent was to single out Nobel Son as total crap to be avoided at most (if not all) costs. So it’s a review, after all. Read the rest of this entry →

(Originally published by Chud.com)

Quick: name the director with the best comic timing of 2008. A lot of obvious names come to mind, and when I’m off the blood simple high that currently clouds my judgment I’m sure I’ll be able to settle down and agree that it is Ben Stiller or David Gordon Green, maybe David Wain or Jody Hill or someone else I’m completely glossing over. But right now, my answer is Lexi Alexander.

I don’t mean that in any condescending, elitist way. I’m not laughing at Alexander by any means. After seeing Punisher: War Zone an hour ago (I’m not giving this sucker any room to fade) I fully believe that I was meant to have a great time watching Ray Stevenson butcher most of New York’s criminal population as the comic book vigilante Frank Castle. Read the rest of this entry →