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Top 5 Exclusives of WonderCon 2013

WonderCon starts today and will be running through the entirety of this weekend in Anaheim, CA! The exclusives list isn’t as extensive as San Diego Comic-Con or New York Comic Con, but there are still some very cool items available. Here’s what we think are the best.

Aardman Batman and Robin Action Figures 2-Pack (DC/Graphitti Designs)
Price: $39.95, Limited to 2000

Different than the Aardman Batman NYCC 2012 exclusive, this Aardman Batmn sports the classic blue and grey uniform. Also included is an Aardman Robin, whose costume looks like a cross between Dick Grayson’s and Tim Drake’s Robin costumes. If you’re not interested in an Aardman Robin and want to save some money, you can still order the NYCC exclusive black and gray costumed Aardman Batman directly from Graphitti Designs’s website for $25.

3.75″ Larfleeze and Guy Gardner Action Figures 2-Pack (DC/Graphitti Designs)
Price: $29.95, Limited to 5,000

This 2-pack looks better designed than the John Stewart and Atrocitus 2-pack from NYCC 2012. Guy looks like Guy. I love the smirk on his face. Orange Lantern Larfleeze looks great. And you get a figure of Larfleeze’s orange construct minion Glomulus. If you missed the John Stewart and Atrocitus 2-pack from NYCC, you can find that on Graphitti Designs’s website for $25, $5 less than this set. Personally, I’d rather pay the $5 extra for this set if I had to choose between the two.

Will Eisner’s Spirit Artist Edition: Limited Signed and Numbered (IDW)
Price: $300, Limited to 100
If you want this, you may have had to order it already. IDW took pre-orders for this book on their website on 3/27 and had it listed as sold out on 3/28. If you’re interested in buying this, I recommend making the IDW booth your first stop at WonderCon to see if they have any available. Is this version worth $175 more than the regular edition? Well, it’s signed by a man who died 8 before this book was published. I’m not sure how IDW pulled that off. My guess is that IDW cut Will Eisner’s signature from legal documents and pasted them in the book. That, or IDW has one hell of a paranormal communications division. The other difference is the cover. The regular version features The Spirit front and center, while this version has him regulated to a small circle  in favor of femme fatale Sand Seraf. On a side note, Sand Seraf has one of the coolest names ever in comics.

Gil Kane’ Amazing Spider-Man Artist Edition: Limited Signed and Numbered (IDW)
Price: $250, Limited to 250
This version has a different cover than the regular edition. I like this cover much better. It’s also signed by four of the creators involved. Sadly, IDW’s paranormal communications department was unable to procure Gil Kane’s signature, but it is signed by Stan Lee, John Romita, Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. That’s an impressive classic Marvel line-up.

It’s not as cool as the John Romita Artist Edition Limited Edition, which was the same price and included a head sketch by Jazzy John Romita. Like the limited edition of the Will Eisner Artist Edition, this version is listed as sold out on IDW’s website as of 3/28. Head straight to the IDW booth if you want to buy this.

David Flores’ “Deathshead” Vinyl Figure
Price: $100, Limited to 30

I have to give David Flores props on his ballsiness. He’s releasing this scary looking skull faced Mickey Mouse in Anaheim, aka Disney-town. WonderCon is a stone’s throw from Disneyland. I’m interested in finding out if Disney’s lawyers give him a hard time about this when they hear about it. That said, this vinyl figure would make a very cool looking antithesis to the cuddly Mickey Mouse on your coworker’s desk.

Star Wars Legacy Volume II #1 Exclusive WonderCon Variant Cover (Dark Horse)
Price $5, Limited to 1,000
This variant cover features Han Solo and Princess Leia’s descendant, and series star, Aina Solo wielding her recently found lightsaber. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Star Wars Legacy takes place a long time in the future of the Star Wars universe. Writer/artist Gabriel Hardman and writer Corinna Bechko will be signing this issue at the Dark Horse booth on Sunday. Make sure to get a ticket to the signing when you pick up this issue. DC has a couple of variant covers available at WonderCon too, but they’re just lazy, recolored editions of Justice League of America #1 (because that issue needed another cover) and Batman #17 at 2 1/2 times the regular cover price (cough, ripoff, cough).

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Skyfall – Review

5/5 – SKYFALL IS AWESOME!

I thought about making this only a three word review: Skyfall is awesome. And leave it at that. Three words, a shot of the poster, and call it a day. It doesn’t come from laziness. It’s just matter of fact. Skyfall is awesome. That’s really all you need to know.

How awesome is Skyfall? I rank it higher than The Dark Knight Rises in movies from 2012. And I loved The Dark Knight Rises. Not good enough? Fine. Skyfall is better than a unicorn riding a dragon. That’s right.

Skyfall is more awesome than this!
Still not good enough? Are you nuts? That’s a mythical beast riding another mythical beast! Fine, Skyfall is more awesome than Batman riding a Tiger with bat wings.
Why does this Tiger have bat wings? I don’t know, but it’s awesome. Not as awesome as Skyfall, though.
I haven’t seen many James Bond movies. I can count the ones I’ve seen one one hand and still have fingers left over. Skyfall makes me want to watch all of them. The only thing stopping me is that I’m not sure if I will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed Skyfall. Maybe I’ll just watch Skyfall again.
I’m really hoping that director Sam Mendes comes back for the next James Bond film. He’s already said he’s out. Hopefully the trucks of money the producers drive to his door changes his mind.
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Dark Shadows – Review

2/5 – Another
2/5 – Watch the trailer instead.

After the disappointment that was Alice in Wonderland, I had high hopes for Dark Shadows to be the movie that would redeem Tim Burton in my eyes. The trailer looked very funny. But as can often be the case, the best parts of Dark Shadows were in the trailer.

If you’re not familiar with the origins of Dark Shadows, the film is based on an old soap opera of the same name. A family from the 60s (or the 70s in the film version) has a very distant relative move in with them…namely a recently unearthed vampire ancestor.

The trailer for Dark Shadows made the movie seem like it would be very tongue-in-cheek and campy, like the excellent Brady Bunch movie from the 1990s. Unfortunately, the tongue-in-cheek campiness is kept to a minimum beyond what what was already shown in the trailer.

Instead, we get a movie that was overly long and slowly paced. The screenplay seemed lazily written. Maybe screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith was trying to make the movie feel like a soap opera brought to the big screen, but there was a little too much deus-ex-machina towards the end. One character gets special powers out of nowhere, turning the tide in the climatic battle. The love story between Barnabus and Victoria never goes anywhere and seems tacked on. Victoria is often relegated to the background, despite being Barnabus’s supposed reincarnated true love.

The movie is not completely bad. There are some funny lines and amusing montages, but as a whole it’s a disappointment.

Johnny Depp should play Michael Jackson in the Michael Jackson story.

After watching the movie, I turned on an episode of the Dark Shadows television series on Netflix’s streaming service. Wow, I thought the movie was slow. It amazes me that fans can watch this show in marathon sessions. Dark Shadows the TV show is the definition of slow. I didn’t even make it to the introduction of Barnabus. There was a scene where a character was staring at the wall of a crypt for a good 30 seconds. It was like watching a small-screen adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

I recommend listening to the This American Life story on a Dark Shadows convention more than watching either the movie or TV versions of Dark Shadows. That story was great.

I haven’t given up on Tim Burton yet. I still very much look forward to watching Frankenweenie. The trailer looks great, but then again so did the trailer for Dark Shadows.

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ParaNorman – Review

I was really excited to see ParaNorman.  I remember cackling during the trailer in the theater every time that little Igor kid would come on. And this would happen every time I saw the trailer. So when ParaNorman arrived from Netflix, I immediately put it in my DVD player.

That funny Igor kid never showed up.

When is this kid appearing, already?

It turns out that the movie I was excited to see was Frankenweenie. It was about a half hour into the movie that I realized this. Oops.

The movie I was looking for.

ParaNorman is an enjoyable movie, even if it’s not the movie I meant to watch. I didn’t laugh during it as much as I did during the trailer for Frankenweenie, but it is still a well told story. It’s like The Sixth Sense for kids. Young Norman sees dead people, a lot of dead people. There’s a cool sequence where he’s walking down the street and we see all the ghosts that he sees. It basically turns his quiet suburban commute into the crowded streets of Manhattan. A lot of people are dead, and they all want to talk to Norman.

I was surprised to see ParaNorman earn a Best Animated Feature nomination. It was not even in the same league as Wreck-It-Ralph. But I can see why kids would love this movie: ghosts, parents who just don’t understand, kindhearted fat jokes. What more could a kid want?

Still, I hope Frankenweenie is better.

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Osombie – Review

1/5 – This puts the zero in Zero Dark Thirty.

After watching Zero Dark Thirty, I headed home and popped its sequel, Osombie. I won’t lie, I was genuinely excited for a movie about Osama Bin Laden coming back as a zombie. Sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Savage Dragon did it better.

Osombie begins where Zero Dark Thirty ends, with the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Unlike the raid in Zero Dark Thirty, Osombie reveals that UBL had zombies in his basement. Before being taken out by Seal Team Six, UBL downs a couple of One A Day vitamins zombie pills.

That’s right, I said zombie pills. The zombies in Osombie are the results of a super soldier program gone wrong. Instead of making Captain America, the program created a bunch of biters. I can’t help but think this was a needlessly complicated plot device. With a zombie outbreak, you don’t need to spend this long explaining how the zombies came to be. They’re here. They’re hungry. That’s enough.

I had a few problems with Osombie beyond the zombie pills. For one, if the US and British governments are aware of the zombie problem, why did they only send a small group of soldiers to wander around the desert to deal with it? The US and Great Britain are worried about the zombies making it over the border and a worldwide outbreak ensuing. So they end a half dozen people, on foot, to deal with it? I get not wanting to risk your own soldiers getting infected by sending legions of soldiers, but this is ridiculous.

All of the characters behave like they have god-mode turned on. Unfortunately for each of them, god-mode decides to turn itself off without warning.

God-mode fail.

Can we get that one guy in the squad to put his shirt back on? I get it, you want to show off your abs to your colleagues, but you do realize that the #1 cause of zombie infection is them biting through bare skin, right? Not to mention the skin cancer risks.

“I didn’t know the risks! For the love of God, where’s my shirt?!”

It’s amazing how little seems to happen over the course of the movie. Most of the film is spent following these soldiers riffing on things while wandering around the desert. It’s like Clerks 2 meets a sandbox. The most annoying of these characters is Joker, the “funny” guy in the group. His jokes are so lame that he had to steal a bit from another movie. Don’t think I didn’t notice that, screenwriter Kurt Hale.

I kept rooting for a group of zombies to just devour Joker.

Osombie is such a great name for a zombie movie! Why’d they waste that on this script? The movie plays out like it was written from someone’s first draft from Screenwriting 1. The only way I’d be able to recommend this movie is if Kevin, Mike and Bill make a Rifftrax for it.

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Life Of Pi – Review

4/5 – Ang Lee earned his Best Director Oscar

With less than eight hours to go before the start of the Oscars, I upped the number of Best Picture nominees I had seen by one by catching an early afternoon showing of Life of Pi. It’s good we showed up early, because it looked like everyone in the vicinity of Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Cinemas had the same idea.

Before the movie began, the old lady sitting behind me decided to walk her husband through the entire story of the movie in her loud old lady voice. Thanks, lady, you rock. I haven’t read the book, so I thought about turning around and yelling “Dobby dies in book 7!” at Madame de Spoiler. Instead, headphones went in, Foo Fighters came on, and spoilers were avoided. I have to admit, I considered keeping Foo Fighters going a little longer when I saw the first trailer was for the latest  Fast and Furious movie.

Life of Pi started, and despite the constant running commentary from the old lady behind me (She loves meer cats! Tigers are scary!), it was a really good movie. First off, it’s beautifully shot, and the 3D looks awesome. This is the best 3D I’ve seen in a live action movie since Avatar. But unlike Avatar, everything doesn’t look like it’s CGI. Oh, a lot of this movie is CGI, but it doesn’t have that telltale fake look that CGI usually has. I was surprised to find out that the tiger in Life of Pi, Richard Parker, was a CG creature throughout the entire movie. I thought they used an actual tiger for at least some of the scenes.

Cesi n’est pas un tigre.

Life of Pi walks the line between endearing and tragic so well, and that’s what I think is the main reason why I liked it so much. Pi goes through an experience that rivals Job’s, but the movie never turns into maudlin naval gazing. Instead, it’s lifted by by its heartwarming and humorous parts.

I’m glad Ang Lee won the Best Director Oscar for Life of Pi. With Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck both snubbed for Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, I was happy to see it go to Ang Lee for Life of Pi over Steven Spielberg for Lincoln.

See Life of Pi in the theater, and see it in 3D. The shots of the movie during the Oscars didn’t look quite as magical in 2D on my home TV as they did in 3D in the theater.

Parting thought: Gerard Depardieu is a jerk.

Jerk.
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Oscars 2013 Predictions

The Oscars are only about an hour away. Need some help winning your party’s pool? Here are my predictions.If you win, feel free to treat me to a movie! 

Best Picture – Argo. I’m going with my head this year instead of my heart for my picks, but I’m glad they match up here. I think the Academy feels like they made a mistake for not bothering to nominate Ben Affleck for Best Director and will give Argo the best picture as retribution.
Leading Actor – Daniel Day Lewis. If you pick anyone else, don’t even both reading the rest of this post. You’re losing your pool.
Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz. Waltz and Tommy Lee Jones are in a dead heat according to the Vegas odds. I’d like to think Waltz’s performance in Django can beat out Tommy Lee Jones playing Tommy Lee Jones in a wig.
Leading Actress – Jennifer Lawrence. But Jessica Chastain deserves it.
Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway
Animated Feature – Wreck-It-Ralph
Cinematography – Life of Pi
Costume Design – Anna Karenina
Directing – Stephen Speilberg – Lincoln
Documentary Feature – Searching for Sugarman
Documentary Short – Open Heart
Film Editing – Zero Dark Thirty
Foreign Language Film – Amour
Makeup and Hairstyling – Les Miserables
Original Score – Life of Pi (Toss up between this and Lincoln)
Original Song – Skyfall
Production Design – Les Miserables
Animated Short Film – Paperman
Liver Action Short Film – Curfew
Sound Editing – Life of Pi
Sound Mixing – Skyfall
Visual Effects – Life of Pi
Adapted Screenplay – Argo
Original Screenplay – Argo
Good luck! 
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Zero Dark Thirty – Review

5/5 – Zero Dark Thirty should be on your Must See list!

I didn’t think it would happen, but I might now like a movie from 2012 more than Argo. I loved Argo and am glad that Ben Affleck has been taking a bunch of awards home for it, but wow, Zero Dark Thirty, you are amazing.

To be honest, I wasn’t too excited for Zero Dark Thirty. I thought Hurt Locker was great, but it was so emotionally draining that I wasn’t sure if I could sit through another Kathryn Bigelow military movie. I had a feeling I would probably respect ZDT more than I would actually like it. Still, I wanted to see as many Best Picture nominees as I could before the Oscars, so I went with my Billy and Bryan Show co-host and frequent commenter on this blog, Bryan, to see it at at Cobble Hill Cinemas.

First, a little about Cobble Hill Cinemas before I get into the movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our Saturday screening qualified for the discount rate. Their discount calendar is little complex. Tuesday and Thursday movies are discounted all day. Monday and Wednesday are discounted before 5 PM. The first screening of a movie is discounted on Saturdays, but only if it is before 1 PM. And I think the fifth screening of a movie is discounted on Ash Wednesday if the date ends in a vowel.

There’s also some new items on the menu at the snack counter: Mexican coffee, and the Abuelita which is Mexican coffee mixed with hot chocolate. Oooo, how worldly! One Abuelita, please! Unfortunately, the drink becomes a little less exciting and worldly when you realize it’s coming from a Nescafe machine.

Okay, enough about the snack counter.

The opening minute or two of Zero Dark Thirty is very intense. The screen is black and all you hear are news reports and 911 calls from September 11, 2001. It’s rough, because I was immediately taken back to that day. At the same time, I was wondering why Kathryn Bigelow decided to start the movie like that. My theory is that it primes the audience to identify with the US interrogators who were using enhanced interrogation techniques.  All I can say is that it worked, because I found myself very much rooting for Jason Clarke’s character Dan to get information from that first suspect.

Jason Clarke is great in Zero Dark Thirty. I’m surprised he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar. Maybe his role in the film was too short to qualify as a Best Supporting Actor?

The real shining star of the movie is Jessica Chastain. Her character, Maya, reminds me of Erin Brockovich era Julia Roberts, and not just because they both have fair skin and red hair. It’s because they’re both no-nonsense women on missions, who are sacrificing their personal lives and going to the breaking point for the greater good. Maya’s response to James Gandolfini, when he asks who she is, might be my favorite line in the entire movie.

I’m surprised that Jennifer Lawrence is favored to win the Oscar for Best Lead Actress over Jessica Chastain. I liked Silver Linings Playbook a lot, but outside of her scene-stealing speech in Pat’s house, I didn’t think Jennifer Lawrence’s character was Oscar favorite-worthy over Maya.

There were a surprising number of TV actors in this movie. Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Harold Perrineau (who, surprisingly did not yell “WALLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTT!!!!!” even once), John Barrowman, Mark Duplass and Christ Pratt all have roles. Out of them, I knew only Chris Pratt was in ZDT. He’s not in the movie as much as the trailer suggests, but he gives a very good dramatic performance. I’m so used to him in the comedic role of Andy on Parks and Rec that I forgot I first saw him in the drama, Everwood.

I’d been on a Torchwood and Doctor Who binge right before I saw ZDT, so when John Barrowman appeared on screen, I giggled.

After seeing Kyle Chandler in both Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, I’m fairly convinced he is an actual CIA agent.

Coach Taylor is Agent Chandler’s cover story.

The odds on favorite for Best Picture going into Sunday’s Academy Awards is Argo, and I’m very happy for Ben Affleck. He was unduly snubbed by the Academy for Best Director, so I hope he walks away with Best Picture. But after seeing Zero Dark Thirty, my personal race for Best Picture is too close to call.

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Silver Linings Playbook – Review

4/5 – The movie where you realize Bradley Cooper is a serious actor.

It has to stink having the movie where you show the world that you’re a really good dramatic actor comes out the same year that Daniel Day Lewis has a new movie. That’s exactly what happened to Bradley Cooper with Silver Linings Playbook. If Daniel Day Lewis wasn’t in Lincoln this year, I think Bradley Cooper would walk home with the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role.

I like Bradley Cooper a lot, but if you had told me this time last year that I thought he would be the runner up for the Best Lead Actor Oscar, I would have called you nutty. Before Silver Linings Playbook, Cooper has been known mostly for his very good comedic skills (Wedding Crashers, The Hangover) and movies that banked on his good looks (The A-Team, Valentine’s Day). 
Silver Linings Playbook is the movie that tells the world Bradley Cooper is one damn good actor. In the movie, he plays Pat, a guy who had to do a stint in a mental institution after having the worst day of his life. In Pat’s defense, I think everything he did to that teacher in his bathroom was justifiable.
Weird Tie-In Merchandise: Silver Linings Trash Bag Vests, exclusively at Target

Pat has issues: rage, insecurity, an obsession with his separated wife, and Cooper plays these issues brilliantly. His parents have issues in the movie too, and you can see how they’ve influenced Pat in how well Cooper plays him to be both a little like his mother and a little like his father. 
Speaking of Pat’s father, Robert De Niro turns in a great performance as Pat Sr. Robert De Niro in Silver Linings Playbook is the antithesis of Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln. In Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones’s Thaddeus Stevens is Tommy Lee Jones in a wig. But Pat Sr. is not just Robert De Niro in an Eagles sweater. There were points in the movie where I found myself completely lost in the family dynamic of Pat’s family. I wasn’t seeing Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro on the screen. I was seeing Pat and Pat Sr.
I can relate to Frank Sr’s superstitions. My dad and I once banned my mother from 
the living room when we thought she was jinxing the Yankees during the World Series.

Jennifer Lawrence reminds you that she’s the same actress who excelled in Winter’s Bone, not just the face of Hunger Games. She has a scene-stealing scene confronting Pat and his family. This scene is definitely what has garnered her so many awards nominations. It’s definitely the second-best scene in the movie.
What’s the best scene? Without a doubt it’s a scene I don’t want to spoil, but one that comes near the very end of the film. I laughed hysterically, and then did so again a few moments later, and that’s all I’ll say on that.

David O. Russell once again created an excellent movie. His last movie, The Fighter, was my favorite movie of 2010. While Silver Linings Playbook is not my favorite movie of 2012, I definitely give it a very high recommendation. 

I fully expect their dance to be incorporated into many weddings.
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Moonrise Kingdom – Review

5/5 – Super Cute! 

I feel like I am stuck in a strange cycle when it comes to Wes Anderson movie. A new Wes Anderson movie is released. I fail to see it in the movie theater. I see it on DVD. I love it and vow to catch the next Wes Anderson movie in the theater. A new Wes Anderson movie is released. I fail to see it in the movie theater…

Moonrise Kingdom is adoraballs. This is the movie you want to turn on when you’ve had a bad day at the office. It’s full of whimsy without being too twee. This is definitely one of my favorite movies that was released in 2012.

Suzy & Sam

Kara Heyward and Jared Gilman are terrific as the movie’s young lovers, Suzy and Sam, who flee the watchful eyes of their parents (or scout masters, in Sam’s case). It’s amazing that this is both of their first movies. They both did fantastic jobs in their lead roles here.

Scout Master Ward

Wes Anderson movies are known for their very memorable supporting characters and Moonrise Kingdom is no exception. Edward Norton is great as the very earnest Scout Master Ward. But if I had to pick a favorite character from the film, it would be Bob Balabin as The Narrator. I loved the way Anderson filmed him, addressing the camera in a variety of poses, like an older Ferris Bueller.

The Narrator

Moonrise Kingdom is nominated for Best Screenplay at this year’s Academy Awards. Will it win? I hope so. I think it should have been nominated for Best Costume Design as well. That would have been a harder category to win against the period pieces that tend to dominate that category, but it would have been nice to throw a nod in Moonrise Kingdom’s direction, as the outfits definitely helped make the movie.