Checking out the zeroth issue of the new Star Wars series, Dawn of the Jedi by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema.
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Good Morning, Vietnam is one of those movies I vividly remember being taken by my parents to go see as a kid, but my only memory of it is laughing and Robin Williams’ trademark scream, “Gooooooood Morning, Vietnam!”

I love war films and this is one I’ve been meaning to revisit it for a long time. With the release of the Blu-ray, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to come back to it and decide its worth.

There are a lot of films set during the Vietnam war and the 80s was their heyday. There are classics like Platoon and more forgettable fare. Somewhere in between, in my mind, was this comedy/drama mix. Directed by Barry Levinson, this film, though based on a true story, seems to be a massive audition reel for Robin Williams, highlighting his stand up routines, his dramatic abilities, and his over the top ad-libbing.

For the most part, it was an entertaining film, though the war aspects of it were completely by the numbers. I think the real star of the film is Bruno Kirby who you’ll remember from The Godfather Part II and City Slickers. He played the uptight officer who doesn’t think Williams’ brand of humour is funny at all and his performance in the film is easily the best.

As I watched, I grew more and more shocked that my parents took me to see it at seven years old. There’s quite a bit of swearing and plenty of inferred sexual talk and situations. It doesn’t bother me, I was just shocked that my parents seemed to think it was appropriate for a kid of seven.

The message of the film is certainly one that’s still applicable, about questioning the point of the Vietnam war and questioning the purposes behind censorship. It certainly put a human face on the Viet Cong, both for the American GI’s in the film and the audience.

For those who like war movies and/or Robin Williams, I’d recommend picking up this Blu-ray for your collection. It’s a solid, though by the numbers, war film.

It’s less than $15 on Amazon.

Tonight’s episode was the second part of Obi-wan’s undercover mission to disrupt a plot to kill or kidnap the Supreme Chancellor.

Obi-wan is dealing with Cad Bane’s distrust for him and continues to get double-crossed, tortured, and beat up. He’s also put into situations where he’s expected to act like a cold-hearted bounty hunter and you can tell that it’s just not in him. Can Bane tell, too?

Like the phantom menace that he is, Palpatine is playing both sides and unleashes Anakin on the bounty hunters (and Obi-wan’s alleged killer) to both protect him and avenge Obi-wan’s death.

It’s a masterful plan that will further stretch Anakin’s trust in the Jedi Council and their trust in him. Watching Palpatine manipulate Anakin through the war is one of the things I think The Clone Wars does the best. Being an episode smack dab in the middle of a giant story arc, the first two thirds of this episodes suffer slightly from all the posturing they must do to set the scene for the third act of this episode, and for the second act of the arc itself. I feel it’s coming to a satisfying payoff, though. (I hope.)

The third act was an action-packed culmination of the story thus far. And I absolutely adored the way the nighttime skyline of that moon like planet looked butted up against the horizon during the battle between the ships. It had a very beautiful aesthetic to it.

I love how this arc seems to be a beautifully blended mix between a western (no arc with Cad Bane will escape reminiscing about westerns) and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed… (Or, to a lesser extent, Infernal Affairs.) That whole theme hearkens back to that line in the opening crawl of Revenge of the Sith that Dave Filoni is so fond of quoting: “There are heroes on both sides, evil is everywhere.” You have Palpatine undercover for the enemy in the Republic, Obi-wan undercover for Republic with the enemy, and Darth Sidious working hard to blur the lines between good and evil all the way around.

I wonder, too, how Ahsoka is going to react in the long run to Anakin’s behaviour. He’s disobeyed the council once again to get revenge. He’s sided with the Chancellor when he should have trusted his masters. He’s used the force to choke and interogate simple barkeeps in front of her. He’s clearly let his anger, fear, and agression come out to play. Will she call him on it? Or will she take it in stride as something that’s okay for a Jedi to do to get the job done in the name of the war effort and protecting the Chancellor?

It’s interesting to try to think of Ahsoka’s view of the galaxy. Raised in the shelter of the Jedi Temple, she’s apprenticed out as a Padawan learner at the beginning of the Clone Wars. War and idealistic compromise are all she knows. It’s all many of the apprentices know. Is this all part of Palpatine’s Grand Plan? Does he want to so poison the well of the Jedi that even Padawan learners who may survive the purge are so disillusioned with the world and cynical to their place in it that they won’t retaliate?

Who knows?

That is what I love about this show, though. It raises questions like this about the Star Wars mythology and that sort of thing excites me to no end. Even if the episode isn’t the best the series has had to offer thus far as a stand-alone, as part of a larger arc and as part of the Star Wars mythology as a whole, it’s incredibly effective.

On a more somber note: It was reported today that Ian Abercrombie passed away. He was the voice of Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious on The Clone Wars at the age of 86. Dave Filoni, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Baker, and all the other principals behind The Clone Wars posted of their broken hearts. It’s certainly a shame. Tonight’s episode highlighted some of the great work he’s done over the years and he will be missed by fans of the show as well.

This week’s Blu-ray pick of the week is the Hugh Jackman-starring, father-son bonding, robot-fighting flick, Real Steel. I know, I know, “Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots: The Movie!”, but hear me out before you turn your nose up.

Some friends and I went to see Real Steel in theaters expecting a sort of action flick with tons of giant robots fighting and plenty of the charming Hugh Jackman to boot. What we got instead was a surprisingly heart-felt film with less robot boxing than what may have been portrayed in any trailer or commercial for it.

Real Steel follows the story of Charlie (Jackman) who once was a great boxer, but now carts around a fighting robot to various underground venues, making bad bets and enemies along the way. Human vs. human boxing has all but been over-shadowed by the ridiculously popular robot boxing, and Charlie tries to carve out a living with his bot outside of the professional arenas. Aided by his friend/love interest/mechanic, Bailey (Evangeline Lily), Charlie is barely making ends meet and owes a lot of dangerous people a lot of money. It’s not long before Charlie’s estranged son, Max (Dakota Goyo), enters the picture through a tragic chain of events that will, of course, affect Charlie’s life in some incredible ways. Once Charlie and Max find a sparring robot they dub Atom the two really start to bond, and given the setting this actually works very well. Max has all the faith in the world that his smaller-by-comparison robot can compete with any other boxing bot out there, and as he learns more about his father, begins to have that same faith in him as well.

We’ve seen this type of father-son-bonding story before in superior films (Rocky Balboa anyone?), but director Shawn Levy executes a film that has a lot of heart and somehow manages to avoid becoming too unbelievable or cheesy despite one of the main focuses being 10-foot-plus tall boxing robots. Also, there are fighting 10-foot-plus tall boxing robots. While there may be far less robot fighting than one may expect to see, there is -in my opinion- the perfect amount to balance out the action and family drama. The robot bouts are exciting and well rendered, and unlike the Transformers films, easy to follow.

Going into Real Steel I never expected to like it as much as I did. I was expecting more of an action and popcorn flick with plenty of robot fighting to entertain me for a few hours; what I got instead was a surprisingly touching, decently acted and scripted film with the bonus of awesome fighting robots. I never expected to be making a recommendation such as this, but I’m telling you: Check out Real Steel, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Special Features:

Four featurettes:

Countdown to the Fight: The Charlie Kenton Story

Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman’s Champ

Making of Metal Valley

Building the Bots

Deleted and extended scenes:

Extended “Meet Ambush”

Deleted “Butterfly” Storyline

Bloopers

Audio commentary with director, Shawn Levy

Real Steel is available on Blu-ray and DVD today, you can pick it up over at Amazon.com!

This colorful little puzzler has such a quirky way of dragging you in and filling your day. Built on the concept of pulling out blocks to create stairs, you spend your time figuring out ways to get to the top of colorful towers to rescue children. Yes folks, my worst enemy, those cute things that throw up, urinate and cry, and I spent my weekend trying to save them.

To give you a little background on my opposition to Pushmo at first, I declined 4 peoples invitations to buy the game. To explain the stupidity of my decision the game is $6.99, at that price the purchase should have been a no-brainer.I, however, let my digital snobbery get the best of me, doubting that any game is worth more than a couple of bucks. Finally after a few weeks of harassment I ponied up the dough my only regret is not having done it sooner. Now I spend my days trolling the internet for QR codes to solve and trying to create the perfect puzzle. This game is intuitive, imaginative and worth every penny. Hundreds of different and creative levels will keep you pushing from puzzle to puzzle, waiting to see what’s around the corner. Themed worlds ranging from training, to transportation, to dinosaurs helped keep the playthrough fresh. The hokey story is nothing more than a mechanism to force you to solve puzzles and I found myself blasting through that without reading, just to get to the next puzzle. Visually the art style is bright, cheery, and the 3d is exceptionally polished for a Virtual Console title. The controls are simple and easy: A to jump, B to grab, R to view the entire picture, and your d-pad moves you around. You can pick up the title and begin playing with minimal tutorial. The soundtrack isn’t something I’d blast in my car, but it fits the style of the game perfectly. If you haven’t played it on your 3DS you’re later to the game than I was, jump on board, pick this one up.

If you have already picked this one up email your QR code to thomas@bigshinyrobot.com, and we’ll post them on the site, we’d love to see what you folk have created.

Comment below:

Score:

• Audio: 9
• Controls: 9
• Visual: 9
• Replay: 10
• Story: 5
• Total: 8.25

This week’s Book of the Week may be a book you’ve heard mentioned before over the last few months. It’s Stephen King’s latest novel, 11/22/63, and marks a first for me. Up until this book I had never read any Stephen King, never so much as added any of his work to my lengthy “Must Read” list. However, the story that Mr. King weaves and the pictures he paints in this novel left a lasting impression on me, which is why I’ve selected his latest for Big Shiny Robot’s Book of the Week.

11/22/63 begins of course by introducing us to our protagonist, Jake Epping – a 35-year old English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine. Recently divorced from his alcoholic wife, Epping is not an extraordinary man, but certainly an interesting one. He’s intelligent, resourceful, caring, and at times very charming. The book doesn’t take long before diving in to the time traveling aspect. Epping is approached by his long-time friend, Al, owner of a local diner, who divulges a secret he’s been keeping for years: In the store room of his diner is a portal that leads to 1958 Lisbon Falls, Maine.

From here this novel truly becomes nothing short of a page-turner. As Jake Epping takes his first steps into the past we find out that this portal takes him back to the exact same moment in time in 1958, every time – and if one steps back through the portal to the present, then back again to the past, all the changes one would have made on that previous trip are reset and you have only been gone 3 minutes in the present. After a brief trip to 1958 to have a milk shake at a local shop, Epping returns to the present completely convinced of this impossible portal and Al approaches him with a plan: To stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Al had been living in the past for 4 years (still, just 3 minutes in present time) attempting to do this, but had become ill with lung cancer and had to abandon his mission. After some convincing, and armed with all of Al’s notes of the past containing crucial information about Lee Harvey Oswald and a suitcase full of cash from some sports gambling, Epping takes on this task and steps through the portal to live in the past for the next 5 years and eventually stop the assassination of JFK.

For a good portion of this book we live in the late 50’s and early 60’s with Jake Epping, who takes on the false identity of George Amberson. Over the course of these 5 years, Epping has a sort of to-do list of things to accomplish in the past; stop the murder of the family of one of his students from his adult GED classes he teaches on the side in the present, prevent the paralyzation of a young girl at the hands of her own father in a hunting accident, and spend a great deal of time in the latter years spying on Oswald to find if he works alone in the assassination or if there was truly a second shooter. Epping finds himself more and more becoming his false identity of George Amberson, and as he settles into his life in the past makes some memorable friends and even falls in love with a local school teacher in Texas, Sadie Dunhill. But even as Jake Epping carves out a wonderful life for himself while keeping his true intentions and origins a secret, the past is obdurate, and is constantly trying to dispose of this virus from the present who his attempting to change the timeline. During his time in the past, Jake makes dangerous associations with shady bookies, must constantly face the past head-on as it fights back against the changes he’s trying to make, fight for the love of a woman he never expected to meet, find what connections the mysterious “Yellow Card Man” has to the past and present, and face extraordinary violence as he moves forward with his plans to stop the assassination of JFK to -in theory- make the present a much better place.

King paints an incredibly beautiful picture of a more simple time in America, capturing apple pie-eating Americana while keeping the story firmly planted in a believable setting in that among the romance that many have with this time in American history, there was also a lot of turmoil. As King pulls Jake Epping through his adventures in the past he creates a sense of suspense and mystery that only escalates as it moves forward, and even as our main character begins to find happiness in his new life in the past with the love of his life, there is constantly that voice in the back of your head reminding you that he doesn’t belong and the past is going to fight back to remove him from the equation to retain the timeline as it is.

I honestly can’t recommend 11/22/63 enough. Being that this is my first introduction to Stephen King’s writing, I can’t say how this stacks up to his other works, but I can tell you as someone who does a lot of reading across many different genres, this is a must read as far as I’m concerned.

You can pick up 11/22/63 by Stephen King over at Amazon.com!

January 18th marks the first time in eShop history that you can snag free demos for upcoming launches. The timing of the event was perfect for Capcom to demo Resident Evil: Revelations. After a five minute download I fired up the the gaming ready for what Capcom had brought me. What better way to prepare myself for the glory that will be Resident Evil 6, than to play a gorgeous handheld RE first?

The demo leve is titled “Ghost Ship” we find our character exploring an elaborate bedroom, and being asked to regroup. You explore a bit, find a screwdriver, and fight your first zombie. Baddy #1 is a spike-fisted mummy looking monster, a few shots fired and you can continue on. The over the shoulder view is identical to the popular mechanic used in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, the standard mechanic allowed me to relax into my usual comfort from R.E. 4, which was quite comforting. The item finder was an interesting addition to the game, and I found my self walking through rooms scanning everything just to be sure I didn’t miss any ammo opportunities.

Wrapping up the pre-play left me foaming at the mouth.  I’m going to have to buy the full version.  I won’t be purchasing the Power Thumb, or whatever stupid name that additional grip accessory is called, during my 3 plays through the demo I consistently asked would an extra analog stick help this? I don’t think it will… I suppose for curiosity sake I’ll have to test it out with and without, but I think it’s safe to say that you can get by simply with the game on this one. Have you folks played the demo yet? If so, what’d ya think?  If not, why the hell not?!

The Law In These Parts (originally titled Shilton Ha Chok) is an Israeli documentary done by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz. The movie chronicles Israel’s legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip through the past 50 or so years.

I am someone who likes politics but I admittedly don’t know too much about certain topics, Israel being one of those topics so I went in knowing very little. The other thing is I for the most part don’t like the documentary format. I like documentary programs on the history channel or discovery channel but usually when it comes to documentaries they are so heavy handed and so biased that it’s hard for me to figure out if that’s really going on or not. But this documentary does something of which I have never encountered before. The entire film is done on a sound stage where a desk and chair have been set up with a green screen behind it. The documentarian is also the narrator and questioner and he asks a series of Israel Supreme Court Judges their takes on all of the legal issues that presented themselves in occupying a territory. He doesn’t pull any punches and he really digs deep into the legality of overtaking this group of people. While they are talking, old film reels and documentaries of the history of this area is shown on the green screen behind the judges.

But what really gets to me and made me love this film where in most documentaries I don’t, the filmmaker many times throughout the film stated and wanted to make it very clear that the information he was presenting was his own reality, done through the lens of how he understood it, that he was clearly biased towards one way or another and that he was clearly editing the interviews to best serve his own purposes. Having him be clear about that really put me at ease because I could take the information he was presenting and get enough of a basis to go out and study all of this stuff for myself afterwards as well. There was one particular part and this is a bit of a spoiler, where he was talking to one of the judges about a case where most of the actions in the case were kept private, those reasons were said to have been because the documents needed to be private for the protection and safety of the people. It was quite fishy, but then the film maker jumped in saying this interview he was having with this man was 3 hours long, and he himself is editing it down so that only the choices he chooses to show are being shown and the footage of the rest of the interview is not available to us as an audience.

The footage shown and the interviews held were very powerful and at the end it was hard to implicitly state which side is right and which is wrong in the entire argument. This movie is largely political but even so it is incredibly interesting and it never feels slow. The explanations he gives to not only the incidents but also to film making at the same time hold some interesting parallels and this movie is one I highly recommend if you can get out and see it. The movie is in Hebrew with English subtitles.

Upcoming times include Saturday afternoon at the Broadway at 3:45, as well as four more screenings throughout the rest of the week in Park City. For more information check out the Sundance page located here.

http://filmguide.sundance.org/film/120047/the_law_in_these_parts

In an effort to foil an assassination attempt on the Chancellor, the Jedi Council sees fit to send Obi-wan Kenobi deep undercover, infiltrating a Republic prison, and joining up with Cad Bane’s group.

It’s an action packed adventure, that is a great start for a four-part arc.

It’s always a hard thing to judge the first piece of a longer story because there really isn’t any closure or anything definitive to latch on to, but quite a bit about this story came to mind and conjured up some excited smiles.

Ultimately, there’s a darkness about this episode. Not just in the color palate or the fact that it’s at night, but I can’t imagine anything darker than the Jedi have set into motion a plan as dark and devious as something Darth Sidious would be capable of. This is a plan of deception, putting a Jedi into harms way after faking his own death. It calls to mind something Yoda said at the end of Attack of the Clones to Obi-wan about Count Dooku. “Joined the dark side, Dooku has. Lies, deceit, creating mistrust are his ways now.”

What are they doing but lying, deceiving and creating mistrust? Particularly on the part of Anakin.

Anakin has no idea that Obi-wan is alive. With his struggles to keep his loved ones alive and seeking revenge for their deaths, this deception has already pushed him to the teetering brink between the light and the dark. Add to the fact that Mace Windu is in charge of this operation and it’s easy to see why Anakin dislikes him so much and for so many reasons in Revenge of the Sith.

This is a step backward for the Jedi. They’re selling out their ideals. And even if they foil this assassination plot (which they obviously do) they’ve lost by drifting closer to the dark side of the force and their eventual ruin.

Visually, at least for the first third of the episode, I got a very strong Kurosawa noir vibe. They were in the evil underworld, completely out of their element, much like Toshiro Mifune in Stray Dog, or the cops chasing the kidnapper in High and Low. The scenery matched that sort of vibe and I liked it very much.

For the rest of the episode, I felt like I was watching some sad mix between Brubaker and Serpico.

Obi-wan is in prison, in a bad place, and he’s got no one he can rely on. Add to that the prison escape where he’s expected to kill clones and anyone else standing in the way since he’s impersonating a hardened killer and you have all the ingredients of a fascinating moral quandary for Ben Kenobi.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this episode showed another improvement in animation and lighting. There was one moment in particular, when Obi-wan swallows the voice modulator, where the internal lighting and the work James Arnold Taylor did mixing his different voices came together to give me a moment that, on a technical level, simply made my jaw drop.

That’s one of the things I absolutely adore about this show. Every episode there seems to be a moment, at least once, sometimes more, where I just have to stand back and marvel at what they’ve accomplished.

As for “Deception,” for the first part of a four part arc, this episode set the scene nicely, but also gave me so much to chew on as far as the lore of Star Wars and that fascinating bridge between Episode II and III.

Mexicus Prime is back to writing duties here at BSR after a hiatus of spending six months on a beach in Cancun in a tiger speedo (an actually speedo made from a tiger pelt), drunk off of mojitos! 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!

DARK HORSE COMICS

FLAMING CARROT COMICS # 25

ART & STORY: BOB BURDEN

Mexicus Prime-

Wow! What a funny comic book! Flaming Carrot Comics #25 has the same quirky comedy that can be found now-a-days in a DEADPOOL MAX (Deadpool & Hydra Bob buddy comic) title, but without the profanity or sex. From the beginning page of the book, you read about the Flaming Carrot and how he got to be a super hero (well sorta). Next you’re given a small glimpse into Raphael’s (TMNT) life studying, or rather trying to, and deciding to go out on the town to learn about “Adult Behavior”. From there on out you have a very fun, buddy-comic that may be immature to the casual reader, but really funny for those who can appreciate brainless comedy.

I didn’t mind the artwork, but I wouldn’t say it drives the story; black and white with minute details here and there. At times the bunched panels had arrows to direct the reader on where to go next – a small gripe, but again, I’d like to stress that this was very enjoyable and I’m kicking myself in the ass that I haven’t collecting these comics in the past!

Arse-bot-

I didn’t believe Mr. Prime when he first handed over issue 25 of Flaming Carrot Comics and told me that it was incredibly funny. The prior week we had stumbled upon this issue – which is a cross-over with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – and thought it looked like the dumbest thing we had ever seen. A guy with a giant flaming carrot “mask” on wearing flippers teaming up with Raphael from the TMNT?! Seriously?!

Oh how wrong we were. There are few comic books that I have read that have made me audibly lauch as I read them, Flaming Carrot Comics #25 is now on that list. The very first page explaining the Flaming Carrot’s origin story had me completely hooked:

Having read 5,000 comics in a single sitting to win a bet . . . . . This poor man suffered brain damage and appeared directly thereafter as – – – – THE FLAMING CARROT! CHAMPION OF JUSTICE! . . . MASTER OF ADVENTURE! . . . DREADNOUGHT OF CHICANERY! . . .

This cross-over adventure follows Raphael as he ventures out to find out what it means to be an adult and stumbles across the Flaming Carrot. An adventure of course ensues and Raphael ends up coming down with a case of amnesia, so the Flaming Carrot gives him a new superhero identity, The Dark Avenger – armed with toilet plungers and a utility belt made of band-aid cases sewn together. Much like Mexicus Prime, I don’t want to give too much of the plot or punch lines away, as I think this comic is at its best when you don’t know what to expect and I would hate to rob the readers of that. I assure you though, this comic book is hilarious and very much worth your time!

Burden’s art isn’t “amazing”, but his style fits this story very well in black and white. Really, if I were to name my only complaint about his style it’s that the Ninja Turtles’ eyes look perpetually closed – but that’s just a nit-picky gripe. Burden pens a story filled with humor that is both subtle and slapstick that is sure to make you laugh out loud right from the start.

Flaming Carrot Comics #25 is the first issue in a three-issue arc and both myself and Mexicus Prime encourage you to scour your local comic shop to find these issues and pick them up!