Trailer Park Boys:Countdown to Liquor Day

Thanks to a buddy that lives in Nova Scotia,I found out about what has become one of my favorite sitcoms of all time. Trailer park boys,which sadly does air in the USA,was a TV series that aired on Showcase up in Canada. A few years ago a theatrical movie was made and released. But it really wasn't in the same continuity of the TV show. Well sometime last year I found out that Trailer park boys was ending and wrapping it all up with a second theatrical movie. Of course this film ,as far as I know,didn't play any theater in the USA. But this past Tuesday it got a DVD release. And thanks to Netflix I got it Saturday. The movie like most seasons of the show opens up with Julian,Ricky,and Bubbles getting outta jail. But when they get back to their home,Sunnyvale Trailer park,everything has changed. But Julian has a plan to make sure they all end up very rich and won't have to worry about anything. Besides Corey and Trevor,who most fans of the series will know why they didn't appear,almost every other character makes at least a cameo appearance. I'm not sure how funny this movie will be to someone that has never seen the show,but to long time fans it is one of the funniest movies I have seen in years. The producers had a much bigger budget for this film than they ever had for the TV show,and it shows. You get more locations and and I am sure there is some cameos by Canadian celebs that I didn't notice. The soundtrack was almost perfect,just needed more Helix. The only thing missing from the movie is an appearance of the Bottle Kids. But that doesn't harm the film at all. Trailer Park Boys:countdown to Liquor Day is almost perfect and gets a A-.

Daredevil-The Cutting edge

Daredevil The Cutting Edge came out a few years back. And was part of a line of novels based on the various Marvel heroes. I found it in a local used bookstore over 2 years ago. And finally dug it out to read a few days back when my insomnia had flared up and I was averaging about 1 or 2 hours sleep each night. First off the novel is very short,249 pages to be exact. It has two main stories going on at once. The first one is all about a pro-bono case Matt Murdock takes that involves a bio tech company that seems to be buying up huge amounts of land in and around Hell's Kitchen NYC. The second story is about a new villain that has been nicknamed The Cutter by the local press,At first it looks like the Cutter is attacking random people in the Hell's Kitchen area,and cutting them up with a huge knife. Daredevil runs into the Cutter during one of his nightly patrols,and is weirded out cause he can't seem to get a lock on the Cutter's heartbeat. Sadly by the second chapter I had figured out not only who the Cutter was,but that the bio tech company,and the Cutter were connected. And had made a pretty accurate guess on how the novel would end. If I had paid more than a buck for this book I would be pissed. But for a buck it was an OK way to pass 3 hours. Daredevil The Cutting Edge earns a C-.

Random lots of comics on ebay can be fun.

I love those 100 comics for 10 cents each plus 8 or so bucks to cover postage deals you can find on ebay. In one of the more recent ones I got I got in the first issue of the early 80's Marvel Comics "Indiana Jones" monthly comic. From what I can remember at first it had a hard time getting a steady art team on the book. The first issue has John Bryne doing layouts with Terry Austin doing the finishes and inks. And you can see examples of the typical "John Bryne" faces on some of the characters. This first issue was also written by John,and it turns out to be a quick fun read. The story starts off with Indy in his college class room,and one of his students is standing there with a matchstick in her mouth. Indy shows off his amazing whip handling skills and knocks the match stick outta her mouth with out ever touching her. Turns out this is a way to earn extra credit in Professor Jone's classes. From there the Dean of the college shows up to info Indy that a former student is on campus and would like to talk to him. Indy goes and meets up with the student,who it turns out has seemed to found some legendary lost giant golden statues somewheres in Africa. But before he can explain more he dies. It seems a mysterious man has thrown a knife threw the open window into the back of the former student. So Indy declares he is off to see if he can find these legendary artifacts. When he finally reaches the town that the former student had been conducting his research in ,He runs into the dead man's sister. Who tells Indy she has more info back in her hotel room. Indy follows her back to the room to find it torn to shreds. And then they are both attacked by some white robed men that manage to keep Indy occupied long enough for them to escape with the sister. Indy follows his assailants through the back alleys. And then realizes it is a trap. And is dumped down a chute into a dark tunnel underneath the city. He then is introduces to a large sinister man who tells Indy that he wants Jones to find the statues for him. And since this man is holding the sister hostage Indy agrees. It seems the dead man who found the statues has marked a spot on a map where they are supposed to be. And it is a fog enshrouded island that doesn't seem to be on any map. After landing on the island Indy encounters a few booby traps.But He finally finds a tall gleaming tower right in the middle of a mountain range. Inside the tower he finds the legendary statues,and is checking them out when he is knocked unconscious. When he comes too the sister and Indy are chained up hanging over a pot of molten gold. And are slowly being lowered by what seems to be the worlds oldest Jungle Jim serial villain rejects. So with this cliffhanger the issue ends. The artwork besides that some of the faces look the same,a problem I have always had with Bryne's art,is adequate. And the story moves fast and feels like the first chapter in one of those old Republic serials. Next time I am at the comic shop or a con I will be sure to look for the further issues of this series. The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #1 gets a B-.

i love a good movie trailer comp

For me at least with some movies the best thing is the trailer. So I have always loved compilations of various movie trailers. And within the last few years the great company Synapse has released 5 volumes of 42nd Street Forever. 42nd street back before NYC was "cleaned" up,was the street that had piles of what are known as grindhouse theaters. These theaters usually had double or triple bills,cheap prices. And showed a wide genre of films. Sadly nowadays most of these films are forgotten or have become lost. But at least with some the great trailers still survive. Each volume of this must buy series runs about 2 hours. And the trailers are grouped by genre,IE Martial Arts films,then some Horror films,etc. One thing I love about volumes 3-5 is that they now have a group commentary for the collections. This is a good way to not only learn more about the films the trailers are advertising but also lots of interesting trivia about this era of film history. Most of the film trailers used on this series are in decent shape,but you will get a few per volume that have all the speckles and other hints of damage. But when you consider that most of the companies that released these trailers/films were first off very low budget and second went out of business many years ago,it is surprising how good 90% of the trailers look. One thing I have always done when watching each volume is keep a pen and piece of paper nearby cause I always end up seeing a trailer for a film that I feel the urge to track down. Sometimes I get lucky and the film is out on a nice anamorphic digitally remastered DVD. But then with a large percent of these films ,you will either have to find an old vhs release or acquire the film from one of the many "grey market" dealers that are on the Internet. One quick word of warning before I finish this review,I you are easily offended by nudity,violence,gore,or stuff that is just un PC avoid these DVDs at all cost. But if your taste in film runs more to Sonny Chiba and Jim Kelly give one of these great compilations a try. I give the 5 volumes and counting a well earned A+.

Quick update

Thanks to near daily panic attacks,I haven't been posting as much as i should. I just got one of my medications changed and still haven't adjusted to it. So hopefully by the weekend at the latest I will have some new reviews posted.

Wolverine and the X-men Volume 2 Deadly Enemies

Prior to watching this DVD I had seen a few random episodes of this ,the newest cartoon based on the X-men franchise. This DVD contains 5 episodes. The stand outs are the first one on the disc,which has Storm now back in Africa. Back in her role as weather Goddess. She ends up getting possessed by the Shadow King. And starts using her weather control powers to devastate Africa. The X-men team comes in and thanks to Emma Frost manages to get the Shadow King outta Storm's mind. And Storm stops the massive deadly weather she has started. This is also the episode were Storm rejoins the X-men. The next episode is all about how now that mutants are public knowledge and being hunted down by the government, a lot of them are booking passage on various cargo ships to Genosha. Genosha is an island that is ruled by Magneto that is a safe place for all of mutant kind. Nightcrawler stows away on a ship and before they make it to Genosha,the ship is attacked by pirates. Who seem to be lead by Spiral,who has the Reavers as her muscle. It seems they are attacking these ships bound to Genosha,and taking captive the more powerful of the mutants aboard to be used in a kinda of "Gladiator" challenge to the death. After they have attacked and disabled the ship that Nightcrawler is on,and taken the mutants they wanted. Nightcrawler uses the young mutant kids that are left to pursue Spiral's band of pirates.And they manage to take down Spiral and the Reavers and sink their pirate ship. The X-men arrive after the fact and Nightcrawler rejoins the team. Then we get a coda to the story were it is revealed that Spiral is working for Mojo. And I get a strong feeling that this will lead to more story lines either later this season or in the next season. Then you have what I consider one of the best animated things to ever come outta Marvel comics. The episode starts out with Wolverine in the city being chased by the government's special anti-mutant team AKA MRD. Wolvie is heavily out numbered but then a huge helicopter lands and Nick Fury of Shield sends the MRD out,and ask to speak with Wolverine. It seems the Hulk is up in the Canadian Rockies,He is very mad and has already destroyed 3 cities and will soon cross the border over into the USA. Wolverine at first doesn't want to go on this mission,but Fury blackmails him,by telling him the Shield has info on all the X-men that he is more than happy to turn over to the MRD. So Wolvie agrees to go try to stop the Hulk. He is dropped off in the wilderness of Canada. And soon realizes that Fury hasn't given him all the facts. It seems that a hiker up in this area has gotten the curse of the Wendigo. Which turns a normal human into a huge white version of a Sasquatch. Wolvie manages to track down Hulk and by a knockout gas grenade to the mouth,gets the Hulk to turn back into Bruce Banner. While they are regrouping in a cave,Banner reveals that he was working with Shield ,and was gonna use one of the various chemicals that he has used unsuccessfully to cure him from being the Hulk,and Shield thinks this formula will cure the man who has the curse of the wendigo. Banner and Wolverine are on their way to the crashed helicopter that has the cure in it,when they are attacked by about 5 or 6 wendigos. It seems when the first wendigo bites someone he transfers the curse to the victim. After a long battle Wolverine and Banner manage to get some darts that have the cure inside them and turn all the Wendigos back to their human forms. But Wolverine finds a Shield emblem on one of the former Wendigos. So when Fury shows back up to take Wolvie and Banner back to America,Wolverine reveals that he has found out that Nick Fury and Shield are behind the first Shield agent becoming a wendigo. This pisses Wolverine off,so he goes and hits Banner with a massive sucker punch. and leaves. Of course the sucker punch gets Banner angry and Fury and his agents are left with a massively pissed off Hulk to deal with. After watching all the episodes on this DVD I have found that the show is well written and has very good animation. I plan on getting all the other episodes that have gotten a DVD release. And watching the second season when Nicktoons Network finally airs it. Wolverine and the X-men Volume 2 earns a A-.

X-mas comics 01

I was a big fan of the Simpsons TV show for many years,but during the past decade or so I just quit watching it. I felt that the quality of the writing had fallen. Now I have know about the Simpsons monthly comic for many years now but had never bothered to pick it up. But thanks again to cheap random lots of comics on Ebay,this issue came into my possession. The main story is "Worst Christmas Ever!" which is written by Paul Dini,of the DC animated TV shows fan,and has art by Phil Ortiz. The story is a parody of how every few Christmases or so some toy will become mega hot,and all the various parents go wild trying to get one for their children. In this story the "Hot" toy is interactive Itchy and Scratchy toys. It is Christmas eve morning and the only store in Springfield is The Android's Dungeon. And of course Comic Book Guy has a nice selection of all the interactive figures,but they are all also marked up way over retail value. So instead of being the 19 or so bucks they should cost ,they are all now $80 or more. We see Marge,Milhouse's Mom,and Ned Flanders all in the store trying to talk CBG into dropping the prices at least a small amount. He of course refuses and all the parents besides Marge end up buying the toys. Marge goes home upset cause these toys are the only things Bart and Lisa have asked for this holiday season.When Bart finds out he might not get one,cause of the high price,he goes down to the store and tries to trade and barter some of his various toys. But of course he is denied.Homer is pissed and vows to drive around to all the other stores that sell toys so he can get some for his kids.After going to 3 various comic book/collectible stores and finding out that they do have the toys but at a even higher mark up. Homer gives up. On the way home sees a 18 wheeler and it's trailer overturned in the middle of the road. And when he stops to look inside the trailer Bart and him find a huge stash of all the Itchy and scratchy toys.Homer gets the "brilliant" idea to take these toys and go to outside the Android's Dungeon and sell them. Thanks to Ralph Wiggums mishearing Bart,everyone ends up thinking Homer is giving away the toys. And Homer and Bart get mobbed and give away all the toys. This causes CBG to get majorly pissed off. When the last of the toys has been given away,Homer and family head home to enjoy a little holiday cheer. But there is a sudden knock at the door,and it is Fat Tony. It seems his gang has gotten into the collectible toys aftermarket game,and They were in the middle of high jacking the truck when Homer and Bart turned up. Of course Fat Tony wants the money he would have made off selling his ill gotten goods. But since Homer gave the toys away for free he doesn't have it. Then to every one's surprise a fat man in a red suit shows up in the Simpson house.It is Comic Book Guy who gives Fat Tony a "Mega Rare Odds Maker Pete Rose Baseball Card,the Crown Jewel of the Cooperstown Hall of Shame series". And this card is worth as much or more than the toys were.Fat Tony happily accepts the card and leaves. When asked by Marge why he would do such a selfless thing CBG replies with "The Toy give-away this afternoon turned you Simpsons,However briefly into Local Heroes. If it came out that i had aided the gangsters, I would have been further Vilified by the Community and my store Shunned like a Trek Fan at a B5 Convention." Then he starts to leave and mentions that his filking group is going out to sing various Christmas Carols but with parts changed by substituting clever Sci-fi in jokes. The second story has Bart,Lisa,and Grandpa being summoned to the studio that does the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. It seems the studio head is tired of them showing the same X-mas cartoon for going on 35 years. And since back some time earlier when Itchy and Scratchy had hit a low turn,it was turned around by Grandpa Simpsons,they now want him to write a new Christmas Holiday special cartoon. And so we get "A Springfield Christmas Carol" which is a variant of the Charles Dickens classic with various people from the town of Springfield. The first story is a great tale about all the goings on in the aftermarket toy market. Having been a collector of action figures for almost 25 years now,I can see many things in this story that have happened in real life. Plus I find that Comic Book Guy is one of my favorite secondary character in the shows history. The second story while not bad,isn't as good as the first one. I find it kinda sad that this issue of Simpsons Comics is better than any episode of the show I have seen in the last decade. Simpsons Comics 52 gets a very merry A+.

Showcasing the Essentials 07

Harvey Comics Classics Volume 3-Hot Stuff the lil devil

As far back as I can remember I have been a fan of Hot Stuff. I believe this is because my father has a tattoo of this cute little devil on his left forearm. Sadly besides a short lived relaunch in the early 90's,Hot Stuff hasn't been published in many years. So when I heard about Dark Horses series reprinting various Harvey characters in the "essential/showcase" format I had to get it. We get 110 stories in this volume. Most are in black and white but in the middle of the volume we get 7 stories in full color. These were printed from the original art,so they look even better than they did when first printed. Hot Stuff was kinda an oddity in the Harvey universe. He was the only major character that didn't cross over with any of the others. He is a young devil ,who wears an asbestos diaper. He loves all thing hot,and hates the cold. His stories were usually very short,and as far as I know he had no multi-part stories in his entire history. He is also the only one of the major Harvey comic characters that never had an animated appearance. I believe this is cause of concerns of how he would be perceived in the bible belt. Even though Hot Stuff is a devil ,there is nothing at all Satanic about him or his stories. In his 3 decade publishing history he ended up building up a small supporting cast which was mainly his aunts and other relatives. Hot Stuff was also the only Harvey character to get his own title without a tryout in another title. Most of his adventures were drawn by Warren Kremer,for his first few years. Then Howard Post took over the artistic chores. And finally the very underrated Ernie Colon drew most of his stories up until the title ended in 1982. This Lil devil was one of the many "bad boys" in the comic scene. And stood out in sharp contrast to the other Harvey creations. Going back and reading the stories reprinted in this volume,which reprints various selections from the years 1957-1966,one can see how He had the same basic plot line in most of the issues. This is one of those trades that you don't really want to sit down and read all at once,it works better if you read a few at a time. I am hoping this series of reprints sold well enough for Dark Horse to come back with a second volume of Lil Devil adventures. Harvey Comics Classics volume 3 Hot Stuff gets a B.