How Did The Last X-Men Stand?

In 1982, I bought my first X-Men comic. It wasn’t the first time I was immersed in the Marvel Comics mutant mythology, but it was the first time that I actively sought out a comic with characters far different than the usual Superman / Batman fare. It was a classic story: X-Men versus Dracula, an off-side pairing that still remains an active part of my psyche as the coolest of the cool.

Fast forward eighteen years to 2000, when …read more

Posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 by Mark  

V For Vendetta Voices Our Fears

Alan Moore and David Lloyd created the cautionary comic “V for Vendetta” in the early 80’s, but it would be impossible for a 21st century telling of the tale not to evoke our current authoritarian leaders, or the gradual forfeitures of our civil rights.

Embracing this inevitability, the Wachowski brothers have condensed this British epic into a slightly more modern — and slightly more American — …read more

Posted on Monday, March 20th, 2006 by Jeff   1 Comment »

Underworld Evolution

Kate Beckinsale — as the death-dealing vampire warrior Selene — blasts her way through the new goth-action sequel Underworld Evolution.

Part summer popcorner, part horror flick, it seems fitting that a series that introduced the world to vampire / werewolf hybrids be a bit of a mixed breed itself. The plot holds up reasonably well, but thanks to the near-constant combat, we’re never really …read more

Posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 by Jeff   4 Comments »

Chronicles of Narnia Will Restore Your Faith… in Disney

The first book in the Narnia series, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, has made a stunning transition to the silver screen. The child heroes were each fully-realized characters, and the respective avatars of Good and Evil — Liam Neeson and Tilda Swinton — were impressively so. The casting alone would have made this a worthy film, but while C.S. Lewis himself was opposed to a real life telling of his story, fearing for the believability of his non- …read more

Posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2005 by Jeff