Chocolate Movie Review

Alright, so I don't know why i chose this as my first movie review. There's a lot to say about this film, because where there are a lot of reasons that I really enjoyed this, there are a few that made me take a step back too. Anyway, here we have a Thai film that came out in '08. So right off the bat, this is one pretty sweet martial arts film, but it's all in Thai, so unless you speak the language you're going to be reading subtitles. To me that's never been a big deal, but I know it bugs some people, But in this film it might not be such a huge deal for you. I'll explain why as I break this review into two parts. One that consists of the actual film, direction, and acting. And the other where I want to talk specifically about the action sequences. 

So my beef with this film lies mostly in it's plot. It's kind of weak, and not really a whole lot happens for the first 15- 20 minutes, which isn't too bad, because it's getting the setup out of the way to make room for the action. Basically the film revolves around this girl who has pretty severe autism, but with that she also has some kind of of savant like martial arts capabilities. There were a few things that kind of bugged me about this idea. I don't really know why they chose to go with this story, when it would have worked just as well if they hadn't used the gimmicky story, but what evs. So she has the ability to pick up on martial arts moves as she sees them. That's fine to me, I've seen this a few times before, so it works for me as an ability. Like a more grounded believable version of Taskmaster or that girl in season 2 of  Heroes. But my beef with this is that I'm not sure that even if someone was able to mimic these moves perfectly I'm not sure that they'd know the perfect timing, especially if they had autism. Not only that, but footing is something that doesn't even factor in. If she's autistic how does she know how to keep her footing and how to do all these acrobatic moves and shit. I mean sure she could mimic them, but what if the ground is more slick than when she saw the move used? There's even once where she pulls her pants up a tiny bit, which is totally common if you're in a fight, but i'm not sure someone with as severe a grade of autism as she has would know that that would get in the way of her moves. It wasn't a big deal, just something i noticed and chuckled at the 2 or 3 times it happened throughout the film. The main character's acting is pretty good. She goes from playing this character that I didn't doubt once was autistic, and instantly flipped to a bad as shit, ass kicking machine. Everyone else it was kind of hard to tell. Again the film wasn't in English, so i can never tell how much of the cheesyness is poor acting or just inflection. 

So while you have a kind of weak platform to base these action sequences around, they really made the most of them. I'm not sure if the director and the action director were the same person or what, but it's almost like a different film when they go into kick ass mode. There's little to no wire work, and it's all realistic acrobatics, with what appears to the untrained eye, mine, pretty awesome martial arts. I mean just when you think they can't get more imaginative with these set pieces they keep doing things to one up themselves. I mean the first action sequence, twenty minutes in, was awesome, and everyone after that was better and better. I will say though, there's one scene where this random dude walks out to fight the main character and he appears to have turrets and he fights a lot like Voldo from Soul Calibur or something. It was a cool fight but if you think about it for more than 30 seconds it's a little fucked up that these two gangs are having two handicapped people do their fighting for them... Then right after that one dude just pulls out a gun and kills as many guys as he can with that one clip, and then switches over to a katana for an all out sword duel. I loled. This is followed up by a platforming/fighting combo scene that involves a building, a monorail, and signs extending from the building between them. I mean this is so inventive and awesome to watch, it kind of makes me wonder why we haven't seen something like it coming out of Hollywood for films like Prince of Persia, or a Mario adaptation, where it actually makes more sense. My only problem with this scene is that it's the final action set piece, and it doesn't really feel like it. It almost felt like the last two major fights should have been switched. Both scenes are none the less awesome, but it was just a bit weird as a last set.

Now my point from before is that if you're watching this movie, you're really watching it for the action, so there's not really a lot of reading when there is, and during the action there's next to no dialogue, so you can sit back and enjoy the show without having to read at all. I enjoyed the shit out of this film, and I plan on buying it for my collection to throw on for background noise so that when I see the action scenes I can stop and watch them, and walk away during the boring parts. If you like what you see, and want to check this film out for yourself, you can Search Amazon.com for Chocolate, or you can just click the box below. 

The Sword Vol. 3 - Earth

So my problem with the last volume, was that it was just so cut and dry. There was not really a whole lot there as far as substance. It was just go here, find bad guy, fight! This one takes that even above and beyond. In the second volume it takes Dara and Zakros two and a half issues to start fighting. In this volume she finds the next guy in one issue... so right after she kills Zakros, Spoiler if you hadn't read vol. 2 yet, she heads to Mexico to find this other douche... it all just seems so easy. There's no build to it, there's not detective work going on to find him, it's just "hey lets walk over here and fight him!" Maybe it's because the writers know that the strong point of this book is the combat, but i can't tell.

There are a few good twists and turns that i didn't really see coming, and i liked the way they played out for the most part. Also there's a lot more back story in this volume, but not on any of the main characters just the villain. Now while these characters are really interesting, and it's cool to see where they came from, and some of the shit that they did in the past, especially when Dara's dad is in those flash backs, but it is kind of a moot point by the end of the volume. I mean This is kind of a big *Spoiler* but does it really make a whole lot of sense to spend six issues building up a character's back story if you're going to murder them at the end of the arc? I dug what i saw, i just don't see why i saw it. It didn't reveal anything about the overall plot, just character development for a dead guy...

But like i said, if you're still reading this it's because of the action. Now while the swordplay in this volume kicks it up a notch, and they keep finding new inventive ways to use it and it's abilities, the "earth bending" we'll call it for lack of a better term, was a bit lack luster at first. See, in the fight with Zakros i wasn't sure what they could do that would top other times I'd seen these kinds of abilities, and they did a great job from the start. Where as here he kind of just throws rocks at her for a while. It was a little uninspiring, but maybe the slow build to the good stuff was to balance out for them finding him so soon. Like you can find the bad guy right away, but we're going to make the fighting kind of lame for a while just so there's still a build. When it gets going there is some cool stuff that he does with the Earth that i kind of had to take my statement back a bit, i just don't know why they didn't start doing the cool stuff a little sooner? Also, my least favorite aspect of the book, the fact that they're fugitives and they're on the run, is kind of ramped up at the end of the book by a kind of plot twist/cliff hanger. It's not a huge shocker when you get to it, I'm just not sure if i like where it's going.

If you read one and two, this one is more of the good stuff from that. But the stuff that those were missing this doesn't give you either... so if you're already liking this then who am i to tell you to stop, but if not then there's nothing that new, yet anyways. Also if you haven't read one and two, you could pick this up if you want. If you don't give a shit about the story, it would almost be easier to just pick up the random issues with combat, because that's really where the book shines. Just pretend it's the Lost Chapters of Avatar or maybe a super distant sequel or something... If you do want to check the book out, you can Search Amazon.com for The Sword Vol. 3 earth, or just click the box below.

Thanks for Reading!
James

Girls Vol. 3 - Survival

So now three quarters of the way into the book, and we still have no idea what the fuck is going on in this town. I mean don't get me wrong, we've got a pretty good idea what's happening, but why or how? Yeah... don't look forward to getting any answers in this volume. If that's something that's important to you, then you're kind of shit out of luck, if not, like me, then this volume was fucking sweet!

The weirdness gets cranked up to maximum volume. I mean shit has been fucked up throughout this whole series, but in this volume, the creepiness, and the pervertedness, and the depravity, and the insanity are all at maximum levels. All the while these survivors are practically ripping each other apart because the tension is so high. I love books like this so much. I don't understand why more Survival Horror stories don't get this really easy formula. It doesn't matter what the "monster" is per say, but what does matter is the mood. And the tone in this book is spot on. I will say that there are a couple of characters who have seemed pretty normal up until now who are kind of pushed to their limits. Not only in what they can take, but what the audience can take as well. There are certain things that happen that you'll want to punch certain characters right in the face, and other times you'll want to just bury them alive. This next bit is kind of a *Spoiler Alert* but I've been waiting to get to this volume, so i can talk about this fucking lady. There's this one lady, and this lady is always in one of these survival stories, but she grows into a character who has the ability to turn all the other ladies, and some of the guys too, into mindless drones doing her fucked up bidding. You can almost never pick her out from the beginning either, because she's always like "oh, don't mind me, I'm totally mild mannered, and am totally not a insane bad guy : )" But then let shit hit the fan a little bit, and she goes into super villain mode! It is absolutely crazy what some of these characters do in this volume, and what other characters let them get away with. I kind of walked the line between loving seeing the depravity of these characters, and really wishing a giant sperm would shoot them with a laser. There was a handful of scenes that i really liked these villainous ladies though, specifically one where they make a pit with sharpened poles and lure the girls in so that they can mow them down with shotguns. Now psychopath ladies or not, that's kind of badass...

I don't know what else to say about this series without giving the best parts away, but i am still digging the shit out of it, and i can't wait to do the review for volume 4. If you liked Volumes 1 & 2, then definitely check this out, because it just keeps getting more and more interesting, and this is my favorite volume yet. If the other two sounded lame, and this one sounds cool, go back and check out the first two, because this one probably won't make any fucking sense without them. Not only that, but now that you know where the story's going, it might be a bit easier to accept the weirdness. If/When you decide to pick up this series, you can Search Amazon.com for The Girls Vol. 3 Survival, or just click the box below.

Thanks for reading!
James

Batman - Year One Review

Take a look at the first year of Bruce Wayne being the Batman. Honestly though, this is almost more like "Jim Gordon - Year one". For every one page about Batman, there's two about Gordon and what he's doing. The story starts with Gordon being transferred to the GCPD, and Bruce Wayne's return from studying abroad. It follows these two characters through some pretty boring situations for the first issue or so. It's not really entertaining, and not a whole hell of a lot happens. It does slowly build to be interesting, but it takes it's time. There's a pretty entertaining scene, for the wrong reasons, pretty early on where before he's Batman, he just puts a mild disguise on and goes on patrol and gets his ass kicked pretty severely by a bunch of prostitutes... i loled... Anyway. Jim Gordon is really the start character here. I guess they just couldn't find a way to make Batman's first year appear interesting, because he does fuck all, and Jim kicks a bunch of ass. You watch him rise to the star cop that he is, and why the public likes him, and why all of the other cops respect and/or fear him.

Once Batman finally gets the suit on, his scenes get a little better, and i can say i enjoyed them quite a bit. There's one really bad ass scene where Batman gets cornered by the GCPD and the building is collapsing or something. It's the best "Batman" scene in the whole movie, and while it was good, it's just sad that there was nothing better. Jim Gordon has a weird side plot where he starts dating this chick from his precinct, and has a kind of affair on his wife. It's a little awkward because nothing is really ever done with it. I would say that i wish i had seen more of it... but i don't. It was weird and felt kind of forced, Almost like they had plans for it when they set out, but lost them somewhere. Batman's bits feel more like a Punisher story, because there's no real villain here. There's a couple of crooked cops that Gordon deals with, and Selina Kyle, Catwoman, and Harvey Dent, who would later become Two-Face, make cameos, but they're not much more than that. It's insinuated that Batman's working with Dent, but like i said since it's almost done from Gordon's point of view, you don't really know for sure what's going on here and there. Catwoman doesn't even interact with batman, she just gets mistaken for him once or twice. She even has a line in the last issue that goes something like "next time I'll just have to do something worse" so that she gets the recognition instead of Batman, and then the book ends shortly after without even going back to her character. Or there's one scene before that *Spoiler Alert* where she's robbing some crooked people and Batman helps her out for a second from the shadows and she smiles at him. And i don't really know what his motivation for helping her was. Maybe he thought she was another vigilante or something, but Batman's never seemed like the kind of guy that runs off the honor system if you ask me...

I will say this for the book. I'm glad it was written. Because if books like this and Long Halloween hadn't been written, despite how mediocre i feel that they are, then they wouldn't have been able to inspire similar scenes in Christopher Nolan's films Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight. I mean there are several scenes in this book that are copied right into Begins, which is really awesome for Batman fans. Now maybe it's because i saw the films first, who knows, but i just didn't feel that this book held up as well...

I just don't know. There's not a whole hell of a lot of story here, and there's almost no resolution. As a Batman story I didn't really find it all that interesting, not a lot was revealed about the character, and there isn't too much to be seen. There was a slow build up to what felt like a rather anticlimactic ending... If you're looking for a Batman origin story, then go watch Batman Begins, but if you like Gordon a lot then this might work for you too. If you'd like to check this book out for yourself, you can Search Amazon.com for Batman Year One, or you can click the box below!

Thanks for reading

James

Acme Comics - Longwood, FL

My son and I, yes that's him in the photo, just started visiting this store recently. It is definitely the farthest i drive to visit a comic shop regularly, but it's well worth it. Acme is an awesome comic shop with super friendly staff. Every time I've been they always greet me, and i usually get some pretty sweet conversation too. As you walk in there's one long counter on your right with all kind of cool shit underneath and hanging on the back wall. In the back right corner there's all the new comics and trades, with older collectibles hanging on the walls. In the middle of the store is a large collection of long boxes that houses the bulk of their back issues that are alphabetically ordered. Then the back left half of the store is a huge toy section. Throughout the store there are life size statues of characters including, Silver Surfer, Batman, and Spider-man, which is not only really awesome, it totally adds atmosphere to the shop. Then throughout if you happen to look up, certain ceiling tiles are replaced with full size drawings that are cool to go around and look at, but could honestly probably be placed in a slightly better location so as not to break one's neck every time you'd like to appreciate the art. A for effort though.

Their selection on comics is really good, I've never not found what i was looking for, and i have been pleasantly surprised at the selection of indie books that i either love and don't see often enough, or haven't read and would like to give a chance. and their collection of back issues is impressive to say the least. I've been several times with friends looking for obscure issues of popular, and not so much, series and found pretty much what they were looking for, if not spot on. My only gripe here is that the back issues are separated into two groups, popular and not... and I don't really see why. Because if you wanted to separate them by company that'd be one thing, but there are certain books that i don't know where to look for and have to ask. Is Savage dragon an indie book? Spawn? What about books like Walking dead that have more fans than they know what to do with? Or how about smaller Marvel titles like Captain Britain and the MI13, is that an indie book since no one bought it? That kind of organization style has never made sense to me. Why do small books instantly not become indie just because they have a Marvel or DC logo, and "indie" books remain so even when they have ridiculous amounts of readers...? Probably not the shops fault, but still.

Now i would be remiss if i didn't mention that, Acme,hands down, has the best collection of Statues, Busts, Toys, and Action figures I've ever seen. Now whether that interests you or not it's at least something you should check out once. There are several aisles on one side of the store dedicated to just toys, and they're separated by saying one aisle is star wars toys, the next is Marvel toys, etc. It's so cool, and i dare anyone to browse for more than a couple minutes and play "You Nostalgia, you lose!" Then there are walk in cases in the back, kind of like a humidor or something, for the more rare and expensive busts, statues and toys. It's so cool, being someone who's always been, and always will be, a huge toy nerd seeing shit i grew up on, and would spend quite a bit of cash if/when i get the chance.

The staff is super cool and laid back. Every time I've gone I've enjoyed their company, and wished i could stay longer. There's nothing like meeting someone who you've never had a conversation with before, and realizing that not only do they have all the same interests, but they are dying to sit and chat you up about them. I will say that the last time i went they didn't have as much time to hang out, but it was a Saturday and there were quite few people there and they are a business. I have seen shops handle a bigger crowd better, but not many. The first time i went i was browsing in the toy section with my almost two year old son. One of the guys asks me how I'm doing and i say, with a grin, something along the lines of "not too bad, trying to stop my son from fucking up all you guys stuff". He says that he'd appreciate it with a laugh. He asks if it's our first time to their shop, and when i say so he welcome me and asks where I'm from. I mention that it's a smaller town about an hour or so away and he mentions that that's kind of a far ways to drive. He then says "you know what that means don't you? Since you've got to drive all the way here, you should just open up a shop of your own." i say "yeah, but then i wouldn't buy comics from you charming people anymore" and you know what he says? "it would be worth it. One more comic shop in the world, and I'd take that as a trade. Hell i might even come and visit." I feel bad for not catching this guy's name, but how awesome is that? That's the kind of shit that will keep people coming back to your store and wanting to hang out. Acme is definitely in my top five favorite shops I've ever been to, and i don't see that changing any time soon.

If you want to check this shop out for yourself, which you totally should, you here's a handy map to get you there:


View Larger Map

Thanks for reading
James

The Sword Vol. 2 - Water Review

Alright, so like before if you haven't read either this or volume 1, you may want be weary of spoilers. It's kind of hard to review a series without giving away a few of the earlier bits. So the last book ended in a decision for Dara to murder her attackers. This seems like the obvious choice, and really isn't that big of a spoiler, but then again her dad did leave them alive for millennia... I'm still hoping they get around to answering that question, because one thing there isn't a whole hell of a lot of in this volume is answers. 

This book is so straight forward, that if you can't follow what's going on here you might need to give up comics, or reading in general. This is six issues of her hunting down this guy Zakros and trying to kill him. They do not deviate from this at all, and that is literally all there is here. There's an awkward scene pretty early on where they get a ride from these people who recognize Dara from the news, and freak out. She then saves them from some attacking Pirates. Now not only is that awfully silly to begin with, but as soon as she's done leaving three more people for dead in the ocean, these people are all of a sudden totally back on her side. It's not too ridiculous, but since this is one fraction of one issue that this scene occurs, it just feels a little rushed and awkward... 

Then they spend some time wandering around this island that Justin led them to because he remembered Dara's dad bring it up in class one time. So I don't want to ruin exactly how it goes down, but there's a pretty sweet scene involving water manipulation and a bathroom. Basically Zakros can manipulate water and all it's forms, so he takes all the water out of all of the plumbing in the bathroom, which is kind of gross, and then freezes it locking them in a room together. And proceeds to beat the piss out of this girl while her friends decide whether or not to rescue her. And while this is a cool scene, i'm starting to doubt the competence of her companions. I get that they're on the run, so they don't really have shit else to do, but they're following this girl around on a vengeance trip. She just heads down to some island in the bahamas on a whim, and then when she gets captured due to her own stupidity, they actually have to sit around and debate whether to run for the fucking hills, or to pick up the super powerful sword and lend a damned hand.

Then there's a pretty cool chance scene that leads up to the end battle. I don't want to ruin it, but the tides get turned pretty quickly, pun intended, and Zakros really is allowed to unleash god's wrath on this girl. Again, i don't want to spoil it, but the combat is easily the best part of this book. And i almost feel like they sat around thinking up these really creative combat scenes and then tied them together with this weak ass story. That being said the last issue or two of this book really makes it worth it, because those scenes are so fucking cool. This would easily be a better movie, or TV show or something than a comic. The actors could convey the kind of emotion i'm just not getting from the book, and these scenes, that while awesome as shit on the page, would be absolutely epic on screen. 

And like i said that's about it. There really isn't a whole lot here. I do have to say that if you read the first six issues and you don't really dig it, at least give it this volume too, because i'm almost positive that the first volume was setup for these cool boss fights. They got the backstory out of the way, and for this whole volume it's barely there, and when it is it's laced very well with the story and action so it's almost not noticeable. This is easily the Luna Brother's weakest book yet, but i'm still enjoying it quite a bit. If you like what you see you can Search Amazon.com for The Sword Vol. 2 Water, or you can click the box below. 

Thanks for reading!

James

Girls Vol. 2 - Emergence Review

    

Alright, so if you haven't read these first two volumes yet, there are probably going to be some spoilers ahead! The book starts right up where the last one left off and some pretty big shit goes down in these first couple of pages. This is so smart on the writers part because they find a way to isolate the characters, and create that non escapable feeling of claustrophobia. Also it eliminates a large quantity of people in the town making the cast of the book large, but not overwhelming. 

For a large part of this book the cast is split into three groups. One is the survivors from the bridge incident who are now hunkered down in the largest house in town and they mostly just sit around and interact with each other.. The other is a group including the Sheriff who head to the north exit to see if they can escape there. The last is the Pickett father and son duo who basically serves as the comic relief.

So the first group of people find out that one of the survivor guys slept with a bunch of these girls, and in turn that Ethan was the first one to do so. Then everyone freaks out and begins to persecute these two dues. Now the one guy who slept with them did it in the road after a shit load of people died and some of the girls even murdered people. That guy's kind of fucked up, and he deserves to be yelled at. Now Ethan on the other hand didn't really do anything wrong... I mean he picked up some girl who was hurt and clothed her and gave her a place to stay for the night. She came on to him and seduced him. There's not really anything wrong with that in my eyes, but maybe i'm a bit bias because i'm a guy, but whatever. But other than that it's kind of like I said, they don't really have a lot to do. The dialogue is great, so I didn't have a problem with it, but I can see someone who is more driven by action being a bit bored until the later half of this book. But regardless of whether you like the action or dialogue more, the climax of this volume is really fucking cool, and i don't want to say more than that, but it's creepy and you're not sure what exactly is going on, or who's going to survive. 

The second group led by Wes, the Sheriff, heads to the north and when they realize they're walled in there too, they begin to search to see how far this wall goes. I'm not really sure why this was done, because they don't really have a lot to do. I mean I didn't have a huge problem with it while I was reading it, it's just in retrospect. I guess it allows tensions back at the house to grow between everyone without a source of authority, but other than that the coolest thing that comes out of it is a fight with a bear... 

These last two characters are insinuated to be kind of villainous, but mostly they come off as incompetent. That being said it is really fun to watch them fuck off and get messed up. I laughed out loud several times during these parts and are the funniest parts in the series thus far. After a while this group meets up with the second and there's a bit of confrontation, but it's resolved pretty quickly. This all builds towards a bit of a conclusion for the book, but it's more a cliff hanger than anything. 

I read right through this volume, and loved almost all of it. The mysteries of this series are so intriguing that I found myself rushing to the end of every chapter. It might not grab everyone this way, but by this volume you should know if it's for you or not. If you like what you see, you can Search Amazon.com for Girls Vol. 2 Emergence, or you can click the box below. 

Thanks for reading

James