#entertainment column

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Gore Verbinski has the potential to have a cult-classic on his hands with "Good Luck, Have Fun, Dont Die". An ensemble B-List cast, Zazie Beetz as Michael Pena's love interest like something out of "The Faculty" could have been worse. Nods to "Dog Day Afternoon", "Pulp Fiction", Futurama, Speilberg's "A.I." and Pixar's "Toy Story" pepper this film set in modern L.A. that opens at a Norms of all places, which couldn't be more L.A. unless if Verbinski decided to open this picture at Roscoe's. The source material beefs up Verbinski's anti-wi-fi tale despite the film having a large reliance on both A.I. and CGI. The hypocrisy is glaring, but how else could the audience get treated to a giant chimera that can piss and vomit confetti so late in the film? Sure, the social commentary of this movie treats A.I. and it's position as a singularity as an inevitable event, but Matthew Robinson's script still admirably pushes for a recall for humanity to use technology as a tool and nothing more. That's the meat and potatoes, but in the background electric hum, "Good Luck …" features Robinson's thoughts on gun control, population control, crisis actors, cloning, ethics and other rabbit holes while ultimately just going for the low hanging fruit by demonizing the tetrahedron as the symbol of ire - as if there isn't other sacred geometric symbolize to repurpose for horror. But throwing Zazie Beetz on screen every other second saves this film from becoming too bogged down by it's inspirations and backstories. Yes, the backstories of the character take up at least a third of the film when they could have been cut down to a minute flashback each, tops. I find this new trend to attempt to earn audience empathy through drawn out flashbacks mid film annoying (that I've noticed since 2025's "The Housemaid"). Not everybody can be Tarantino or Nolan, and the guy who set off "The Ring" franchise definitely is not that. But, the twists and turns throughout the film keep "Good Luck …" refreshing, the social commentary and plot keep Verbinski's film relevant and timely, and the cast is fun to root for - which is needed in a survival film, something "Good Luck …" 's contemporaries in the box office like "Primate" would do well to learn from. I haven't seen an ending this unpredictable since "Love Lies Bleeding" or "Bugonia" - except I dont feel preached to when coming to the end of "Good Luck …", no, instead I filled the theater hall with applause. Oh and I turned my phone back on to type this because I conciously turned it off mid-screenijg of "Good Luck …" because the message got to me.

It's sometimes better to attract bees with honey, but in the case of "Good Luck …" , Norms and a plate of Hostess cakes can work just as well too.

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V.V. 26th/Jan.MMXXVI

[earth-1218designate]

Check Me From Earth-33 on "Absolute Martian Manhunter" No.4

Clearly inspired by the Vertigo-era of comics (specifically the Vertigo CMYK quartely's I used to get back in the early 2010's on my way into college), Camp and Rodriguez' "Absolute Martian Manhunter" is always a sobering experience, as Rodriguez plays with the color spectrum blatantly pulling at the metaphysical auras that their reader's posses, while Camp works the heartstrings with his slice of life narrative featuring Detective Comics' original martian. Once again the issue is rife with suicide bombers, wanton violence based in reality, and disputes stemming from relationships held together by the idea of civilized Western society that has yet to be realized. Released just in time for the summer solstice, a heatwave swelters in Martian Manhunter's Middleton and due to the sweltering weather conditions the inhabitants of the city have responded by going at each others throats. Visceral images of police officers bucking bullets at traffic stops, neighbors going at it in slums they've occupied for years like they were war-torn countries, and religious zealots taking crucifixes to bash in the brains of members from opposing denominations fill the pages as the Martian see's his marriage crumble apart since the mate he chose internalizes the Martian's absence from his heavy work schedule as a reason to escape his familial commitments. The spread that starts from page 16 with a vulnerable Martian Manhunter consoling his wife is my favorite sequence in the issue, equating the argument to the precarious situation of diffusing a bomb. To see the Martian make his last stand on his knees, is an oxymoronic reality all to common in marital relationships, inherently since the rules of engagement to even get into such relationships involves a man kneeling in a mode to beg and bargain the female for said relationship. As a person who's been in that position before, I do have to say the pressure is somewhat aleviated observing the situation from the panels, but not by much. It's still a striking image - to see a man willingly reduce himself to half his size just to hold on to a woman like a child, resting his head on her proverbial womb. Pure vulnerability in the panels, and despite the effort at humanity the situation still blows up in all our faces - the characters and the reader alike.

The play on the color spectrum is also important to observe since the rotating of the colors through night and day alludes to the choice of emotions humans choose to engage when dealing with life's various situations. That even when the situation appears dire, human beings still have the innate will to choose. Though the emotional spectrum isn't exactly a pool of choices, the fact that there's still a choice emboldens a sense of responsibility, which is inspiring for an audience attuned to the U.S. superhuman comic book template of modern morality tale.

I truly enjoy how irregardless of the consistent violence and real time viewing of the fracturing of relationships, Camp & Rodriguez are always able to turn these plot devices into empathizable moments, even when the characters presented are at there most selfish and base - whether that is exhibited through a suicide bomber strapping up that dynamite to his abdomen or a marriage teetering on divorce through miscommunication. It's amazing how Camp & Rodriguez are able to tell such a human story with a green martian lurking in the background of nearly every panel.

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V.V. (def. Verses)

30th/Jun.2k25

[v-v-viewz]

Angel Studios finally got one. It looks as if to keep from being overly preachy but still express their religious zealotry they just set "Solo Mio" in the Jesuit stronghold of Italy and filmed a bunch of guys saying their prayers and just called it a day.

I'm glad they went that route to allow Kevin James do what he does best, be a schlub - who this times up the symp factor by being left at the altar.

Shots of James riding through Italy by himself not only captures the audiences heart, but also James' personal Talia Shire, Gia, portrayed by Nicole Grimaudo - and mama earth couldn't look any better.

Supporting the budding couple, "Buffy's" Alyson Hannigan gets some scenes in with Kim Coates who portrays the devil on the shoulder to Jonathan Roumie's angel, complete with his own stifling wife portrayed by Julee Cerda.

These characters serve as cautionary tales to one of the Christendom's biggest tenets - monogamous marriage - and shows just how insane and sad such relationships can be in this age of enlightment.

"Solo Mio" in this case is a sobering romantic comedy, opting not to hold punches about modern relationships and how people still tend to maintain their own identities within them, by being as selfish as possible.

But the serendipity - complete with a hotel conceirge that moves like the bartender in "The Shining" and Andrea Bocelli doing duets at family get-togethers (obligatory in Italian cinema, see : "The Godfather Trilogy") - allows "Solo Mio" to float it's way through the box office, just in time to plan a trip to Sicily for Valentine's Day - sand in the luggage rack optional.

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V.V.

8th/Feb.MMXXVI

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"Badlands" does not mark the first time that the Predator franchise has been sold out, but here under Trachtenburg's direction Aison's script feels particularly soulless.

Not once did I ever think the Predator franchise would resort to inserting a cuddly creature to sell plush dolls at one of it's production parent companies theme parks, but here we are in the "Badlands".

I have reason to believe that with the titular landscape being a planet named after the seven cycles of hell/existence/what have you and an intro that features a Yautja catapulting from the heavens like Samael in Paradise Lost that "Badlands" was going to be deeper than it was, but disappointingly Aison and Trachtenberg's production turned out to be neutered, borrowing heavily from it's more mature sister franchise in Dan O'Bannon's "Alien".

The main antagonists and protagonist is from Scott's "Alien" and the best easter eggs are from Cameron's "Aliens", given the big mech fight scene which by this point of the film having endured so many Star Wars and family summer blockbuster tropes I commented aloud that "this film is far from intellectually stimulating".

I don't believe that that is too much to ask from this series given the promise the first couple of minutes gave with the Milton nods, but there was too much of a heavy reliance on a family oriented plot and easter eggs from the Alien franchise for "Badlands" to be a good picture.

I personally would like to believe that there is a better cut of "Badlands" that didn't make it past the 20th Century cutting room floor, a cut where the glory kills and gore weren't delivered as a mockery by some muppet and where philosophy was the overarching plot instead of a tool to use for an intro to another family friendly Disney film.

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V.V.

6thNov./MMXXV

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After "Love Hurts", I said I was done with chivalrous vengeance flicks, but James Hawes brought me back to see his pic with "The Amateur", and this presentation is every bit a master class in the spy-thriller profession. Hawes' joint is "Enemy of the State" with a romantic angle as Rami Malek stars as Charlie and goes on a quest to hunt down his wife's killers. There's a translatable nobility throughout the film as well as a load of truly empathetic moments for those who have lost a loved one in their personal life's journey. Caitríona Balfe as Charlie's hacker pal, Inquiline, truly helps to drive this point while on screen. Laurence Fishburne falls back into old habits with a teacher role that he's been pigeonholed in since The Matrix, and for good reason. These two really put the spirit in the film, whereas if it was just Malek portraying awkward, chances are Hawes picture would not be the surprise success that it is. "The Amateur" capitalizes off the everyman capabilities of say Jessie T. Usher in "Shaft", but without all the immaturity. This is "Enemy of State" without the Ridley Scott runtime, a "Bourne" flick without the bouts of boredom. Humor is kept to a minimum, there's a lack of gore, but still I found it impossible to not keep my eyes on the screen, which is a tough sell even for a Bond flick. The trick here was in casting Rami Malek (something Marvel Studios has missed the boat on with their upcoming depection of Dr. Doom) as a convincing everyman. Yes, he's traversing throughout Europe and has a caucazoid wife but he's brown skinned and gives a damn about the atrocities the U.S. commits in the name of freedom in Somalia and Yemen.

For a tired genre, Martin Ware's main casting choices (outside of plain jane Rachel Brosnahan) is fresh enough for me and should be a loud enough message for the next moron who wants to waste an actor like Malek for a villain role in the next Bond film.

V.V. 10th/Apr.2k25

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As last year's "Godzilla Minus One", "Shin Godzilla", the latest Toho feature film, draws attention away from the iconic kaiju and focuses instead on the humans affected by Godzilla's strolls through Tokyo. Whereas, "Minus One" had a mixture of focal points on Japan's military and civilians, "Shin Godzilla" puts the lens on the parliament behind Japan and turns this kaiju flick into a political thriller - unlike "Bourne", but more like "Vice". The Orthochromatic version of this picture provides an excellent study for the Godzilla character from monstorous puppet to CGI beast. And the added layers to Godzilla's natural defense mechanisms as he transforms is also a great nod to the evolution of the character who has permeated the kaiju genre and helped to pioneer it into a global phenomenon. The subtitled version of this film is at times frustrating, especially given that all the characters who were military personnel had to be identified with their rank and status, while they were in the midst of dialogue. That left a bit of the script lost in translation. If Toho has enough time to drop kaiju flicks back to back, year after year, then they have enough time to develop an English dub too, especially since the only other characters that did not speak Japanese in the film were U.S. English speakers - because the film wanted to showcase how much more "humane" Japan is in comparison to the U.S. - despite both countries being UN partners.

If Toho is going to take the time to insult their English speaking audience, the least they can do is make the audio comprehensible to their largest overseas audience's ears.

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V.V. 31st/Aug.MMXXV

[earth-1218designate]

There's a lot of great things here for Illuminati's debut issue :

I've seen DMX's "Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood" cover paid homage to before by Keron Grant (during Marvel's Hip-Hop Variant promo admist my community college days), but the black colorway this time around with a black woman on the A cover speaks volumes as to what AWA has in store for this series.

The premise is simple : a sexpot moves down from Missouri and gets caught up in the L.A. music industry scene, turning up dead and triggering an investigation from her sister that will lead her sister to a first hand experience with L.A.'s underworld - both criminal and metaphysical.

There's nothing fresh to that story, but AWA is giving the artists a pass to do what they want here and that means tits are out and asses are up - even if initially the only naked women in this adult comic can be found on an autopsy table.

Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz are reunited from their Hardware run over at Milestone for interiors - and it cant be overstated that these two have resumes that stretch into classic album covers for the likes of GZA and EPMD. Sanford Greene is no slouch either (just check his work with Chuck Brown) he gets the B cover and Bryan Edward Hill ties it all together in between writing duties with his far more complex run over at Marvel on Earth-6160's Ultimate Black Panther.

This is a solid team for an indie dedicated to showing off beautiful black women in comic books raw and unfiltered.

For this weeks "Check Me From Earth 33", I could have easily chosen one of the many Marvel books that had Storm in it like Hellfire Vigil or Avengers No.794; or said something about Doc Mid-Nite and Scandal Savage's undeniable chemistry in Jeff Lemire's JSA No.9.

But though those Big Two books had black women in them, none of them had down to earth scenes of a black woman indulging in the coping mechanism of a shot of whiskey in a sorry attempt to forget the pain of losing someone close to her or playing her sister's guitar to invite those memories to flood back - along with her sister's corporeal (and vengeful) spirit !

That scene in particular is why I would pick up the Greene variant over the Grant cover this time around, because Greene repurposing that interior on the cover is far more poignant than retouching up the Mexican Wolverine in an unrelated ploy to get people to touch the book because it's the closest most readers (including myself) will get to touching some boobs this week.

AWA has been on fire this year, and I am happy to see they are not stopping after wrapping Johnson and Palmiotti's wildly entertaining "Pop Kills".

The only name I would like to see detatched from this book is it's main benefactor, Charlamagne Tha God :

From the coon character he regularly exudes as his on air personality whenever he goes live on syndicated urban radio to his sexually deviant nature that has made issues for him off the mic - I have no idea why he has been allowed into this medium other than paying to have an executive credit on a blaxploitation comic book.

It pisses me off because Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys got the axe on it's penultimate issue and Ed Piskor took his own damn life - both over sexual allegations, but Charlamagne can waltz into this culture just because he can throw some money around, while creative minds unlike him have lost their lives or had their lives work tarnished by the same hersey?

That's another reason why I prefer Greene's virgin cover : I'd prefer Charlamagne's name off the cover.

He's done major damage to the black community and the image of black males in particular and if the allegations are true the physical bodies of black women have not been safe from this clown either.

I dont care how much money he threw at AWA to kickstart this project. Charlamagne's name messes up the legitimacy of this book that otherwise has a solid team and a cool story - but a terrible investor far from an angel.

Want to talk about shadowy figures in the entertainment industry. Well, with Charlamagne funding this passion project, readers can go as far as the cover and get that conversation started.

Love him or hate him (like I do), that is excellent marketing. And after picking up issue one, I dont find myself dropping Illuminati before it's five issue run is done, just because an asshole has found a way to attach himself to AWA Studios.

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V.V.

7th/Jun.2k25

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Since "F1" is a Jerry Bruckheimer Production, there is a certain expectation of "summer blockbuster" that just isn't met here. The film honestly focuses too much on Pitt, who plays his typical washed-up, lone wolf role - except this time he's channeling his "Ford vs. Ferrarri" persona and taking it on a worldwide tour - sadly and primarily in the EU. Pitt is like the U.S. mascot in this film, which makes "F1 "feel more foreign than it's supposed to. The rest of the stars speak in anglophone - just like a Bond flick, so why Idris couldn't have just starred in this himself is beyond me. And because Pitt is used as a crutch, Idris, Bardem and the rest of the cast are handicapped as Pitt goes through the motions in his typecast role with some goofy looking, assumedly Irish, love-interest (Kerry Condon) - who's supposed to be "the first female mechanic" or whatever non-threatning feminist position the screenwriters had ready for her character. This is supposed to be a summer blockbuster - I saw better car crashes on a racetrack in Adam Driver's "Ferrarri", and that's an arthouse flick. Another slap in the face is that there are no U.S. cars driven throughout the film. Beginning in Daytona and having a big scene in Vegas, the team behind "F1" really couldn't put an SRT, a SuperSport or a GT - something on the tarmack? You got Pitt driving a Porsche from the start of the film, who is this film aimed at?

Certainly not blue collar audiences, who actually are the only ones who give a damn about a racetrack at a U.S. movie theater. Might wan't to run back "Ford vs. Ferrarri" to get my proper fix then, but not this Pitt flick. Nah, I dont ever want to see this film run again.

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V.V. 27th./Jun.2k25