Harlem Nights

 

TITLE-Harlem Nights

SOURCE-Paramount DVD

My brain was telling me this had come out when I was like 10 and that was the major reason why I didn't see it for years. Then before sitting down the write this I looked up the release year. Nope I wasn't 10. Guessing it was more the film got horrible reviews and with comedies my Dad normally waited and rented them on home video.

Set back in the probition era this movie was written,directed and starred Eddie Murphy.  Back when he was box office gold. Which is why when Harlem Nights flopped it hurt his career. Eddie is Quick a orphan kid who saves the life of Sugar a candy shop owner who also runs a speak easy and brothel. 

After this quick set up the film skips ahead to when Quick is grown and is now Sugar's number 1 man. Seems a corrupt racist cop has been paid off to harass Sugar. So Quick and the rest of the crew,which includes Red Foxx and Della Reese,come up with a plan to make them each enough to leave Harlem and start over in another town.

Harlem Nights is a comedic heist crime drama. Really it was Eddie wanting to do a period piece and cast lots of the older talent he loved.  So you get classic stand up comedians like Richard Pryor as Sugar or Red Foxx as a dealer in the casino. 

While this movie didn't do that great at the box office seems like thanks to cable airings it is now considered a hit. I know for me it was one if I ran across it on cable and it wasnt gonna be cut to shreds and packed with ad breaks I would watch it each time. That is why when I found this DVD cheap I had to grab it.

If you enjoy slightly raunchy 80s comedies this is worth seeing.

Harlem Nights gets a B.

Lego Justice League Attack of the Legion of Doom

TITLE-Lego Justice League Attack of the Legion of Doom

SOURCE-WB DVD

Late last year while grabbing sharpies and snacks for a indie show at Dollar Tree I spotted a stack of DVDs. This one came with a lego figure of the Trickster. So figured $1.25 for a figure and a dvd I would take the chance.

And like lots of DVDs I buy it sat in the unwatched pile for months. Then the other day was told "Find something goofy to watch before dinner." This was the first thing I thought of.

The Justice League has a new threat. Like in the Superfriends cartoon I loved as a kid it is a grouping of all the big villains. THE LEGION OF DOOM! and they even have thier Darth Vader helmet looking HQ.

This somewhat plays out like 3 connected episodes of a Lego Justice League tv show. With every 24 minutes a conflict being resolved and we get more clues as to why this one General is so against Aliens.

Decently animated and with a pile of inside jokes for the grownups watching,this turned out to be a decent way to pass an hour and a half. 

Only extra is a 20 or so minute look at the foley work done for the movie. At first I figured I might watch 4 minutes of this then skip the rest. Nope it kept my attention it's full run.

Not sure I would have paid the 15 or so bucks this sold for when it came out. But for barely over a buck and I got a Tricker Lego figure,who is on a shelf in the kitchen above one of the two freezers,this was worth seeing.

No clue if this is one of the DC animated movies on MAX. If not check your local Dollar Tree for a copy.

Lego Justice League Attack of the Legion of Doom gets a B-.
 

Creepers Book 1 The Piano

 

Weeks ago I was in my local Dollar Tree trying to find snacks,with my trips to the coast I usually buy snacks at Dollar Tree to save cash,and I saw there was a pile of these fairly short kids horror books. Averaging 100 pages and costing $1.25 I took the chance and grabbed the 4 I found on the shelves.

Days maybe weeks later the bag they were in was sorta and I did some research. I had figured they were some kids horror books made recently thanks to the Goosebumps movies doing big money. 

Nope these were UK published originally in the 90s when Goosebumps was huge.

There's the UK cover.

Some Canadian company got the rights to the 29 or so of these books. And now is republishing them with new covers and they are sold at Dollar Tree for $1.25 each. Heard they get released in batches of 5 every few months. With 10 so far being out. And yes I have found all ten.

The Piano has a family who's daughter plays piano. They find a nice one for cheap while out one day and buy it. But this is a spooky piano. One that will just start playing one of two songs.

The piano and songs have a connection to  the mother. And one night when the parents are gone and a bad storm hits the piano's songs finally reveal their warning to the kids. To not move to a new home known as Treetops.

The next day the family is recovering from the storm and all that the night before and learn during the storm the new home they were considering in Treetops was hit and the owner crushed.

Sure this is written for kids 6 to 10. If I had been that age when these were out I would have read a few and then borrowed some King or Barker from my Uncle. 

Only paying a bit over a buck for it,this made for perfect "throne" reading. Yea I am one of those that likes to read while in the bathroom. The chapters being so short they are perfect for this.

From the bit of research I did on these books seems they are aimed at  a younger audience than the Goosebumps books. So maybe once I finish these 10 I should read a Goosebumps novel see how that reads to me. I didnt mind the TV show back in the day.

Creepers Book 1 The Piano gets a C-. 

IP Man 2

 

TITLE-IP Man 2 Legend of the Grandmaster

SOURCE-Well Go USA DVD

I had heard of the IP Man films. Then found 2 and 3 cheap on DVD. Thinking I paid 50 cents each. 

Needed something to watch after dinner tonight. Wanted some action and took a chance.

Almost 2 hours later I was looking on Ebay and Amazon for how much a DVD of the first IP Man film would cost me.

Ip Man,said Yip Man,is the guy who way later in his life taught a teen age Bruce Lee martial arts. And supposedly Ip Man's life was crazy.

Ip Man 2 is just a bare bones plot to string together 3 major fights.

Fight 1 is when Ip Man is wanting to join the local Martial Arts Society. So he can teach martial arts in the city. He fights a series of challengers. All while perched on top a table. With the final challenger being Sammo Huong. Great fight with some impressive stunts.

Fight 2 is Sammo Huong vs a boxer. Seems some I think Australian Boxer is in China and ends up challenging anyone. Sure Sammo has slowed down some. Still this fight was damn good.

Then the final fight IP Man vs Twister the boxer. Holy fuck. This was just pure action.

Maybe the story would have caught me more if I saw the first film. With this endding with a 7 year old Bruce Lee coming asking to be trained and being sent away I wonder if part 3 will be about IP Man training Lee?

Worth seeing for the 3 fights. 

IP Man 2 gets a B-.

Stormwatch Post Human Division Vol 1

 

So last month covered the 3rd tpb  in this run of Stormwatch. Stormwatch is an odd series for me. I got into it so so late. 

After the Authority took over the USA ,Stormwatch gets reformed. But this time funded by the USA.Less super powered members. But we still got Jackson King in charge.

Read this entire trade while waiting in a Ear Nose and Throat doc's waiting room. And was surprised at how dense this was for a comic from it's era. Yea you got splash pages. But then you would get page after page of multiple panels with piles of dialogue.

Art is good writing is good but with a catch. No clue how this would read to anyone that hasn't read at least all of Stormwatch vol 2 and at least the last 20 issues of Stormwatch vol 1. So this isn't a friendly to new readers TPB.

Oh and this TPB references a few times the Wildstorm vs ALIENS crossover. The TPB of that Crossover is LONG Out of print and the issues that make it up are not cheap.

Stormwatch's leader,Jackson King,is reforming the team. Using what super powers being they got left and the cream of the crop of the humans. And we get a surprise return from a few long thought dead members of Stormwatch.

If you have read and enjoyed previous Stormwatch vols Stormwatch PHD is worth tracking  down. I actually found the first 2 or 3 issues in the cheap bins and read 1 and 2 before getting these trades.

Stormwatch Post Human Division TPB 1 gets a B+

Madame Web

TITLE-Madame Web

SOURCE-Sony Blu Ray

So years back I heard Sony was wanting to make a Spiderman universe of films. Ok yea there is enough stuff there it can be done. First up was Venom. Sure that makes sense he is popular. Watched Venom and it was decent. Then we got Venom 2 which was ok and Morbius.... Morbius was worth the buck I paid for the DVD,still sealed,at the Pawn shop 3 months after it hit home video.

Saw Madame Web announced and wondered how this would work. The old blind lady in the wheelchair that sees the future?

Saw the trailer OK yea get it now she will lead a team of teenage Spider Women. Spotted the second Spider Woman and Aranya in the trailer.

It comes out does nothing. Plan was see it when it hits STARZ in June. Then found the above pictured Blu ray,with the digital code still working,at a local junkstore. For cheap.

Cassie Web has a birth that was complicated. She was gonna die not long after birth. Her mother knows of a rumored tribe of Spider people in Peru that might hhave a cure. Goes down there and gets bit by a magic spider not long before dying while giving birth.

Skip ahead 30 years Cassie is now a EMT on a rig with Ben ,Parker yes it is Uncle Ben. After dying for a minute when plunged in a wrecked car into the river she starts seeing flashes of the future. 

The three Spider Women? They are all teens that she has to protect. Cause the man that shot and kille Cassies mother has spider powers and knows that in the future the 3 Spider Women will kill him.

Cassie with her new found powers must keep the three women alive. And why in most of her dreams and future visions do we keep seeing a huge S?

Doesn't sound that bad. The acting is decent. The FX work is good. What hurts this so much is 15 or so minutes into the film we see the future where the 3 Spidey Females kill big evil dude. THis lasts 6 minutes tops. And we don't see them with their powers at all until the 4 minute flash forward right before the credits.

Yea the movie they marketed on HEY SEE THIS TEAM OF SPIDERTEENS. Barely has them. Even when they dont have their powers yet. Cause like the film is titled ,this  focuses on Madame Web.

The other thing keeping this from being better is the length. Yea I know few know most of the main characters. When I first watched it 2 of the  4 in the room got who Ben Parker is. Still no need to be 2 hours long.

Oh and btw this being set in 2003 NYC and having Ben Parker as a 30 year old we still have  a cameo from Spiderman.

The Blu Ray looks great sounds good. Has more than a few extras,that I haven't watched yet. Not worth the still 20 bucks they want for this. But it is better than Morbius an if you findd it cheap take a chance.

Madame Web gets a C+

Constantine VOL 2

 

TITLE-Constatine VOL 2 Blight

PUBLISHER-DC Comics

While I have read a pile of Hellblazer,I have never read any of the John Constantine that came out after that long running ended.

This TPB collects the second batch of 6 issues from what is pretty much VOL 2 of Hellblazer.

JL Dark,the magic based JLA team,is all missing. Mister E is going and killing ever magic user on Earth. Absorbing their powers. And he is coming after Constantine next.

Being a Hellblazer comic of course while managing to survive this attack John also gets screwed. Now in debt to the daughter of Sargon the Sorcerer. Plus Constantine is no closer to finding where Zartana has disappeared too.

That is the first 2 issues of this trade. With the following 5 covering the Forever Evil event. 

John makes a backup JL Dark,which is Swamp thing,Nightmare Nurse and Phantom Stranger. They head to the outskirts of Heaven to maybe get help. 

The Spectre and Zurial stop John from entering Heaven. After meeting up with God,who appears as a Scotty Dog,John figured out what he has to do next.

Someone from John's past has been putting all this in motion. John now knows where Zartana is and what he has to do.

And while John and the rag tag team manage to defeat the evil mastermind it seems like once again John Constantine has to sacrifice to get the victory.

The writing was way better than I expected. This being connected to the proper DC universe I knew it might be toned down from what I got use to in the Hellblazer run. Really it didn't feel that much different than a story from that run.

The art,covers and interiors,were all nice to look at. Lots more bright colors than I am use to in a Constantine comic. And still it was good. 

Constantine Blight TPB gets a B+

Stormwatch Post Human Division Volume 3

 

Ahh Stormwatch the little Wildstorm comic that kept going for so long.

Been a Stormwatch fan for a bit now. Read the Ellis run. Read all of the DC NEW 52 run. So all I had left was Stormwatch Team Achilies and Stormwatch Post Human Division.

Months back I read the first 3 issues of the PHD run and enjoyed them. Then found the above pictured trade cheap. This trade collects issues 13 thru 19 of PHD.

The world has been almost destroyed by supers. Stormwatch is back in the sky,Jackson is back running it and trying to save as many people as he can. While using what is left of Stormwatch to protect what is left of mankind. 

This feels a lot like the run Warren Ellis had. Big huge threats that last at most 2 issues. Little hints early on for what will happen issues down the road. And  a few nice callbacks to previously mentioned minor things.

Nice art that is easy to digest while helping push forward the story. Not an overbundance of 2 page splashes.

And now I want to go get the rest  of the TPBs covering this era of the Wildstorm universe.

Stormwatch PHD vol 3 gets a A-.

Wetworks Volume 2 TPB 2

 

Ahh Wetworks. The Whilce Portacio series from Image. That cause of various events came out 2 years into Image's run instead of that first year. Also one where I had a huge chunk of hte first vol. But besides the sourcebook I have never read any of the issues.

Wasn't that long ago I was at the nearest Ollies. Saw this trade and it was cheap and took a chance. Cause the basic premise of Wetworks is a good one.

Military unit gets connected to this golden liquid metal. Which will cover them and they have to fight werewolves and vampires.

The TPB pictured above reprints issues 6,7,8,9,13,14,15 of vol 2. Yes it skips a pile of issues. No idea why. But it contains two full storylines.

Up first is The Scapegoat Effect. First issue penciled by Wetworks creator Whilce Portacio. Wish he had done more than one issue in the tpb. The leader of Wetworks,Dane,is rebuilding the team. And also we got a civil war in the vampire nation. All of which ends with a portal to another world being opened and more powerful vampires flooding Earth. 

Then the second storyline,Unholy War,brings to a head the civil war. Seems various factions in the Vampire Nation are trying to take over. 

After wiping out a small Europeon city and heading to a bigger one Mother One,the former member of Wetworks,gets changed into a cyborg/vampire/something else. Saves everyone. And all it costs the world is one nation of the world gets turned over to the Vampire Nation.

The art is good but having 6 different  artists across not many more issues than 6 isn't great. There is times where from one page to another the look totally changes. Yea I get it I am going from the end of one issue to another. Still it is jarring.

Writing it damn good. Reads a bit like a slightly more serious version of Larry Hama's run on GI Joe with a supernatural element added.

Wetworks Vol 2 TPB 2 gets  C.

Physical media,thift stores,junk stores and why I am up early on Friday and Saturday mornings

 

Ever since I started working back when  I was 15 I have been a collector of movies on whatever physical media I can get. And  I never really stopped buying.Even back 6 years ago when I started streaming I still buy dvds/blu rays and 4Ks. 

And I would have people that asked me why. Why are you still buying them when you can just stream the movie? Why do I have more dvds than most stores that sell them?

Why? Cause many reasons. First off when I stream say Snakes on a Plane all I get is the movie. Not the commentary,not the deleted scenes. Just the film. Secondly I never know when for example Airheads will leave streaming. Not that long ago I saw Airheads was streaming on Hulu. Cool I want to watch it. Watched it and enjoyed it again. Maybe 3 weeks later want to watch it again but now it isn't streaming. 

Noticed over the past 5 months more and more people talking about how they are rebuilding their DVD library. Guessing people just sold off their DVDs once they started streaming. Dumb idea.

And right now is the time to get back into physical media. Once a week I make a circuit of the pawn shops,junkstores and thrift shops.  And depending on the store prices can be as cheap as 50 cents a dvd/blu ray,all the way up to buck per dvd and 3 bucks for blu ray.

As to why I am up early on  Friday and Saturdays...the best junkstore in the area is only open those two days. Opens at 8am and gotta be there early to  get the  deals. Like  how recently I got 4 seasons,two of them still sealed and new, of Everybody Loves Raymond on  DVD. 50 cents a season. Less than a week after buying them I had the two sealed season sets sold and  made a 14 buck profit. Which of course got usedd the next week on more cheap DVDs.

And that picture at the top. That is a new blu ray from Terror Vision. A small boutique company. And somehow they got a deal to get that one film into big box stores,like Walmart. So to support a small company and hopefully make it where more smaller companies can get stuff into mass market stores I grabbed that movie sight unseen. Turned out to be a good movie.

Now I gotta finish getting dressed cause it is time to hit my secret junkstore and see what I find.