I’ve never made any secret about my devotion to Shakespeare in Love. I think it quite rightly won the Academy Award for Best Picture, beating out Saving Private and Life as Beautiful. The only film I would have been okay with beating it would have been Terrence Malick’s beautiful Thin Red Line.

But because it came out of nowhere and beat out a popular favorite in Saving Private Ryan, people seem to discount it for some reason.

You shouldn’t. You should check it out once more.

Everything about this film is a 10. The script is a finely tuned swiss watch, carefully taking you from scene to scene, increasing the stakes with every moment and offering a wonderful and heartbreaking and romantic story. For Shakespeare geeks, the way it weaves in nods to Shakespeares work (particularly Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night) is a master stroke. The acting is second to none. This, not Iron Man, is the film that made me fall in love with Gwyneth Paltrow. Joseph Fiennes (little brother to Ralph) is absolutely brilliant as young Will Shakespeare, and the supporting performers (including Tom Wilkinson, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench, and Ben Affleck, among others) are stunningly perfect… The music is wonderful, the cinematography brings you to the place. Above all, it’s funny and warm.

It’s a cinema geek’s dream.

With the release of the new Blu-ray clocking in at less than $10, I’m hoping that some of you will revisit this film and give it another chance. Let go of all the baggage from it beating Saving Private Ryan. And it looks and sounds fantastic in this format.

If you’re a cinema geek, I really think you’ll find a lot to love in revisiting this film. It easily rates on my top 10 list (not counting the 10 movies that comprise the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises). It’s a movie I revisit often and will continue to do so. It’s timeless, getting better with age and repeated viewings.

And while you’re revisiting it, you simply HAVE to (re)watch George Lucas in Love. It marries the creation of Star Wars to the plot of Shakespeare in Love. It’s one of the best fan films out there.

I’ll be honest. I’m not sure what it is people do or don’t expect out of this show. After every episode this season I hear about half of the people collectively on the Internet scream and moan that not enough happened in a given episode, that there weren’t enough zombies, that the characters were acting in frustrating ways, or that no one died.

The other half praises the show for being fantastic.

There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.

I would have thought the mid-season finale had laid to rest any uncertainty about the abilities of the showrunners. The final moment of the mid-season finale was built to with such delicate, dramatic care that even thinking about it gets me a little teary eyed. Thinking about what the aftermath of Shane’s actions and the fate of the girl would be has turned my stomach in knots over the winter. Every time I think about it, I want to shake my fist in the air and shout “Kirkman!” as I’m wont to do while I’m ingesting stories he’s written or had a hand in.

This episode delivered on the goods as far as I’m concerned.

I’m watching this because of the characters, not for zombies, or gore, or death. I want to see these people grope in the dark for answers to their survival and try to survive in the long term. Thanks to Shane’s actions there are very definite stress fractures in the group. Because of the heightened tension of the situation, cooler heads simply aren’t prevailing. Laurie in particular seems to have simply lost it, taking actions that don’t make sense out of a maternal helplessness.

Carl seems to have the most level head of all the characters. This is his world. This is the world his generation is inheriting.

And the scene in the bar?

Worth every minute of this episode. First, the final philosophical debate between Rick and Hershel was well-played and well-acted. Then, when the newcomers arrive, it has all the feeling of a Tarantino film. It reminded me of the bar scene in Inglorious Basterds and had the same uneasy rise of tension, making it one of the best scenes of television I’ve witnessed.

Did “a lot happen” in this episode? Maybe not in the traditional sense, but the dynamic of the group is changing, and the circumstances are ever evolving, providing nuance to a show that could easily beat us over the head with a zombie every twenty seconds.

I’m on the record as admiring their restraint and this episode worked very well for me.

For those interested in next week’s episode, be sure to join us at Brewvies Cinema Pub every Sunday night to watch it on the big screen! Arrive early. Full details here.

“Crisis on Naboo” is the final part of this current arc of The Clone Wars, whereby Cad Bane and Count Dooku have meticulously plotted to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine on Naboo. The early episodes of the arc had Obi-wan infiltrating the organization in disguise as a bounty hunter.

This episode has Dooku springing his trap, Obi-wan trying to foil it, and Anakin getting left in the dark in the middle.

It had all the vibe of a classic heist film, reminding me of movies like Ronin or Ocean’s 11. At least as far as the Bounty Hunters are concerned. I loved the plan, I love the way it was executed. It made a couple of things in “The Box” make more sense (particularly the video game training aspects of it) and that was actually a good thing. The episode also kept up the recurring dilemma of Obi-wan selling out his ideals, watching Bane and others kill innocents and having to watch, not interceding for fear of blowing his cover.

Sure, this episode was action packed and had a great plot, but this episode wasn’t about any of those things. This episode was about Palpatine driving a wedge between Anakin and the Jedi, Obi-wan included. This episode was about Palpatine playing a game of chess from both sides and smiling devilishly when pieces began to fall. In the third act of the episode, when Anakin tells Obi-wan that if he’s in the dark, what else is it they don’t know? They could all be in the dark about everything.

He’s really hit on something and I’m not even sure he realizes how completely right he is.

Anakin is slowly drifting to the Chancellor as his emotional guide, even more than ever, making his final descent in Revenge of the Sith make more sense than ever.

My only complaint about “Crisis on Naboo”? It didn’t really look or feel like Naboo. Maybe I’m just being nitpicky because I walked out of a theatre screening of Phantom Menace in 3D and had the look of Naboo fresh in my brain. When the Jedi land on Naboo, it looks more like a town out of an old western than the lush old Italian Naboo. I guess it’s fine on one level, since that’s the vibe they seemed to be aiming for in the episode, but it just didn’t look like Naboo, not in the lighting or the color palate. Maybe there’s a reason for it and I just missed it.

I absolutely loved where this episode ended, though, with the climactic fight between Dooku and Anakin. It was very well done. I never tire of watching Dooku fight, his style is so elegant and fun to watch.

I wouldn’t hesitate to say this was the best episode of the four. I really liked it except for that one, minor, nit-picky complaint.

Other than that, I’m completely on board with this episode as being one of the best of the season.

I attended a packed midnight screening of The Phantom Menace last night. The Alpine Garrison of the 501st was out in force, my friends Jeff and Jimmy from The Big Movie Mouth-Off were on hand to officiate a costume contest, and I oversaw a trivia challenge. (The answer to the winning question was “Jaxxon.”)

It was a great event and a great night.

I was surprised to see as many little kids there as I did. Not because I thought little kids wouldn’t want to see it, but because even I left my kids home thinking it would be a waste of money to let them sleep through the movie. Hell, I was pretty confident I was going to fall asleep through it myself.

But it just goes to show that The Phantom Menace is still going strong.

As far as the actual movie is concerned, if you’re not already a fan of The Phantom Menace, there isn’t much about this release that’s going to change your mind. Unless you drop all your preconceptions and angst about what it wasn’t and just go in expecting to enjoy what it was, this release isn’t going to offer anything new for you.

For those of us who are fans and have been since day one, this is a great opportunity to see it on the big screen. I was wary of the 3D, but the conversion on these films was good. There was never a moment where I thought it was too overwhelming or too underwhelming, it seemed appropriate for the film.

Would I still rather just see it in 2D? Yes.

But I’m glad I’ve been able to see it in 3D. It really is like watching the movie for the first time again with a whole new layer added to it. It surprised me how much the shape of the sets and the set design really popped. The biggest winner in this conversion is Gavin Bocquet and his production design. The conversion made the sets and props almost seem tangible. If nothing else, they put on display the workmanship and creativity that went into them in a way that we’d never seen before.

This is certainly worth your time at least once. I’m going back (with the kids) to see it this evening and I couldn’t be more excited. They’ve never seen this film on the big screen and I can’t wait to see their reaction to it. My daughter has been begging for a couple of weeks to watch the Blu-ray of The Phantom Menace and I’ve staved her off, telling her we’d just wait for the big screen and now that the day is here, she can’t contain herself.

I’m doubly excited to see it again with with a refreshed head, not ready to fall asleep. And I’ll probably see it a few more times for good measure. It’s so hard to pass up a Star Wars movie on the big screen.

It is worth noting that it seems that in the 3D conversion process, they did significantly brighten the image of the film so that with the glasses on you’re not missing much of the original color or luminosity at all. That’s always a very frustrating thing when you’re watching a 3D film and I feel like Lucasfilm compensated for it beautifully.

The Phantom Menace 3D hits theatres today. If you like Star Wars, you’ll probably be there to see it. If you’re in the Salt Lake area, you might just see me there, too.

Zayne Carrick’s now fighting for the Mandalorians? Curse you, double mandatory conscription! GONK gets a kick out Knights of the Old Republic – War #2.

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On the run, superspy Jahan Cross has to turn to some unlikely allies to help him uncover the Iron Eclipse plot in this week’s issue of Agent of the Empire #3. (more…)

The suspense heats up in issue #4 of Crimson Empire III – Empire Lost, out this week!
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The box is part three in Obi-wan’s undercover infiltration of Count Dooku’s plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine on Naboo. Count Dooku, wanting to test the mettle of the bounty hunters he’s handpicked, he contrives for them to be tested in a virtual environment that will kill those unfit for the mission and whittle his team down to the 5 best men for the job.

Meanwhile, Anakin is given orders to just sort of back off and leave Obi-wan to his devices, reminding us for the only time that Obi-wan is really the bounty hunter Rako Hardeen in disguise.

I’m going to be honest, this episode was fifty-fifty for me. The visuals were great, with the exception of a couple of weird quirks in Dooku’s animation. Seriously, there was about a shot and a half where he looked a little silly, but that’s forgivable and no big deal. Watching Obi-wan’s struggle to choke back his instincts as a Jedi to act like a bounty hunter is certainly a fascinating struggle to watch which more than makes up for any minor glitches in the animation.

What I really loved the lighting schemes that hearken directly to Revenge of the Sith in Yoda’s meditation room. Visual touchstones to the actual films are always very welcome and the theme is very much the same to match the lighting: Anakin is instructed to do nothing to save those he loves and it kills him, bringing him that much closer to the brink of the dark side.

I also loved all the flourishes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind leading up to the box and I loved the Enter the Dragon sort of showdown at the end of the trial, with a crazed Dooku watching from the safety of his control room. All it needed was mirrors. The choral music in that sequence stood out in the scene, as well as the moment with Cad Bane’s intervention, easily the best moment in the episode.

But what I don’t understand about this episode is the story. Why did Dooku need to test the bounty hunters this way? Why didn’t he hire the five best bounty hunters to begin with? Why did the 11 bounty hunters agree to the test in the first place, knowing how lethal it was? Wouldn’t it be easier to get a bounty hunter to accept a job where he’d be assigned to kill other bounty hunters? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to hire them all and have them fight to the death down to the last five men,? Is making these bounty hunters perform in a series of lethal video game puzzles really the best way to test their skills?

And wouldn’t the cost of operating a death trap as elaborate as The Box just be ridiculous and cost prohibitive? I mean, think about the cost of such an immense box, the size and scale of it, the amount of workers it would require to build, the cost of gas to burn for the fires… The supply of credits for the Separatists must be inexhaustible…

Something about the test and the box itself just didn’t add up for me. It seemed like a very silly video game and maybe that’s what they were going for. It didn’t work for me as well as it will probably work for others, but it certainly entertained Dooku.

I guess this seems very much like Dooku’s modus operandi. Remember how he found Asajj Ventress in the micro-series? Perhaps Dooku would have been right at home as a Roman noble, watching over the gladiatorial battles for their entertainment and brutality.

For visuals, lighting, and effects, I give this episode high marks. It looked beautiful and had some very cool flourishes. For the story, I just don’t understand why we couldn’t have cut to the chase and made this a three part arc, skipping this episode completely.

But my feelings on the story didn’t diminish my enjoyment at all, which is I guess why it was worth airing the episode rather than skipping it. For all its faults, I had a good time watching it, even if I did find myself scratching my head at some of the where’s and why’s.

Next week I’m hoping for a payoff to these last three episodes that will really knock my socks off, and something tells me I’m going to get it.

A few times each month Mexicus Prime will be teaming up with another member of BSR to review a completely random comic. Top or bottom of the pile; first, last or middle issue of a story arc – literally anything he can get his hands on will be haphazardly reviewed with extreme bias.

DC COMICS THE NEW 52

RED LANTERNS ISSUE #1

BY PETER MILLIGAN, ED BENES , & ROB HUNTER

Mexicus Prime – The splash page on the second page of the comic does a good job describing, or rather, pushing the tone of the weird, fucked up, gratuitous violence that this book delivers. *Spoiler Alert* A Red-Lantern Kitty flying through the cosmos spewing blood out of his mouth. I laughed so hard when I first saw this page! I kept going back to it throughout the read turning to it crying out of laughter and shaking my head saying “WTF?!”

I will start by saying I really enjoyed the art of ED BENES. I thought the panel work was very well done. Silly story aside, I really loved the way the characters in this book were drawn. It reminded me of an IMAGE comics Darkness/Witchblade look mixed with Green Lantern. The panels were really intriguing especially when our lead character ATROCITUS is having his vision of the future to come. Not a comic I could recommend right now. Art alone is not enough of a push to collect this monthly. I want to come back later and see where they’re at with this. Hopefully after this story has been flushed through their system, they can deliver us a little bit more to chew on.

Arse-bot – When Mexicus Prime handed this comic over to me, he simply said, “Wait until you see the first splash page.” Sure enough, upon reading it I was met only a few pages in by a flying Red Lantern cat, spewing blood, and then proceeding to maul a bunch of aliens, one of which he scalps. The whole scene is pretty ridiculous, and while it’s funny, the story didn’t improve much for me as I kept reading.

We learn that our main anti-hero character, Atrocitus, is essentially having problems with the Red Lantern equivalent of erectile dysfunction. He’s lost a lot of his rage and his subordinates seem to be able to sense this and are losing respect for his leadership. This issue goes on to tell the back story of Atrocitus, and he eventually comes to a conclusion about his life’s mission, but questions whether or not his fellow Red Lanterns will follow him.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Lantern books, and frankly have little to no knowledge of the Red Lanterns. Being that this is a New 52 issue, I was hoping for a little more back story. Readers familiar with the Red Lanterns may enjoy the arc this first issue is clearly setting up, but for me, I am too detached from these character and nothing in this issue sparked an interest to continue on with the series. Blood-spewing Red Lanterns are a pass for me.

I believe that the ability to suspend disbelief is a big factor to the enjoyment of a movie. Of course, sometimes the degree of suspension can vary from person to person. I also believe that movie trailers help us decide our degree in a big way. I can vouch for this with my own enjoyment of the movie Sucker Punch. From the very first trailer I knew that all I would be getting out of this experience was pure eye candy. And that’s what I got. So walking into Chronicle this evening I had good expectations as to where my levels were. If you have ever read the occasional comic book or seen one of the many blockbuster superhero movies that seem to come out multiple times a year, I think most people should be ready for this one.

Chronicle begins with Andrew, a high school loner with some serious family issues. His mother is terminally ill and his father is an abusive alcoholic. It all begins in 1st person because Andrew has decided to start filming everything with a camera because… well, he’s not all right in the head (See above screwed-up family life). The first five minutes of this film seemed a bit strange to me and I was wondering if this is how the whole movie would feel. Not too impressed so far. But it really built up well and the direction the film’s leads was quite enjoyable. I won’t get into a detailed review of this movie because I think you should all go check it out for yourself, but I will give a brief synopsis.

Andrew, his cousin Matt and Matt’s friend Steve find a mysterious hole in the earth. They investigate and come across something that grants them ‘super powers’. The trio’s powers don’t manifest immediately but they learn to build upon them over time. Their slow ‘flexing’ of power was executed wonderfully and it made me reflect back on my childhood. I defy anyone to tell me they didn’t wish for some kind of extraordinary super power when they were growing up. What child didn’t run around their house pretending to be Superman? The scenes in which the three boys are slowly learning and expanding on their ever growing, new found abilities are the ones that stick with me the most. Eventually, Andrew’s powers grow to the point that he can make the camera follow him where ever he goes. So instead of seeing the movie through the eyes of Andrew, we slowly switch over from 1st person POV to 3rd person. From here on out the movie focuses on the descent into darkness that Andrew, the one in the group that has grown the strongest, experiences.

The movie most definitely had a low budget feeling to it (a measly $15 million dollars was allocated), but I also knew that going in. I was amazed at what they accomplished in 83 minutes and 15 million dollars. Were there bad moments in this movie? Of course! See above budget. Was the acting great? The three actors (Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan) were new to me, as was Director Josh Trank, but it was cast well and edited nicely for a movie such as this.

It has been 13 years since The Blair Witch Project came out, and Hollywood has done very well financially with the endless clones of “found footage” movies. The creators of this film seem to have found a way to put a fresh face on this tiring genre. But the biggest thing I walked away with after seeing this movie was how much more excited I am or this year’s upcoming superhero movies like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Chronicle really wet my appetite!

Chronicle hits theaters today!