The Fuse, Vol.1: The Russia Shift

Saw this Trade paperback at the comicstore the other day (the New Other Realms in Iwilei), and after reading a little bit about it online,  decided to pick it up! So far a really great story of two Detectives working a futuristic Space Station, gonna be picking this one up from now on!

All-New X-Factor, Vol.1-2

They're Not Like Us #1-2

Just began reading one of the most exciting and beautifully drawn new series, "They're Not Like Us", the story of a girl who wants to kill herself because she can hear everyone's thoughts and is drowning in the barrage of dialog crashing in her head.
She is saved by a peculiar man who spirits her away to live with others like her: teens who are coping with their own mutant powers while hiding away in a peaceful suburban neighborhood. But are these people she is with good or bad? What are their plans for the future? and why is everything they do so heavily shrouded in mystery?
I first grabbed this comic off the rack because of the beautiful art, and was immediately pulled in by the intriguing story. So far it's one of my new favorites!!!!

The Legacy

Back in the horror boom of the 70’s, the decade that gave us The Omen and The Exorcist, it seemed like everywhere you turned there was yet another new soon-to-be-classic spooky screen gem, and in 1978, there were two flicks that came out that became huge faves of mine- the excellent Anthony Hopkins ventriloquist dummy film MAGIC, and the Katharine Ross /Sam Elliot starring movie THE LEGACY. While I’d acquired Magic years and years ago, it wasn’t until only very recently that I got ahold of a copy of The Legacy, and just this past weekend I checked it out once again, and OH! How the memories came back!

Katharine Ross as Maggie Walsh in The Legacy

Amidst all these great horror flicks, there was something about The Legacy that I really took to. I hadn’t seen it in the theaters, the first time I saw it was on television- and in fact my main draw to watch it was because my favorite musical act was The Who and I’d read that lead singer Roger Daltrey was going to be a character in it! But it only took a bout 20 minutes before I fell in love with the lovely Katharine Ross, and from that point on, I made sure to watch it every time it came on!

Katharine Ross with Charles "A Criminologist" Gray

The Legacy tells the tale of a young woman named Maggie and her boyfriend Pete, who take a trip to England in prospects of a lucrative freelance architect job. But they are met with blockades on their journey, and it seems no matter what steps they take, something or someone is guiding them to the mysterious Ravenhurst Estate, where we find that others beside her have gathered. She is shocked to find that they seem like part of a cult, and even more alarmed when they inform her that perhaps she is part of their sect as well.

with Sam Elliot as Pete

Meeting the Members

Roger Daltrey as Clive

I don’t know what drew me into this film so much, perhaps the enchanting English countryside backdrop, the spooky old manor with its halls filled with renaissance paintings and rooms with secrets doors, but the visuals really knocked out the young moviewatcher in me. The intricate way that the hapless victims all get murdered was fascinating to me (especially the woman diving in the pool who gets stuck under the water)… Even the illusion of the servants who turn into cats when you look away was a novel idea for me at the time.

Awaiting their Patriarch

Spooky Nurse Adams (Margaret Tyzack)

Of all the scenes, the one that always stuck with me throughout my life was the one where Maggie and Pete have had enough and try to leave Ravenhurst. They steal some horses, go into town and get a car, but no matter WHICH road they drive down, they KEEP ENDING UP BACK AT THE ESTATE. As a youth, this was such a thrilling scene! Eventually they give up and go back into the house, where Maggie begins to piece together exactly what is going on and what the LEGACY has in store for her.

Unable to Escape

History Lessons

Meeting the Head of Ravenshurst

She Got The Power

And Katharine Ross… MAN, I know I’ve gushed about her time and time again here, but it has to be said how freaking gorgeous she is here! Arguably the queen of the late 60’s-70’s groovy girls with her starring roles in The Graduate, Butch Cassidy&The Sundance Kid and The Stepford Wives, she is one with a very distinct look of her time. So pretty and now I’m ready to dig out The Graduate again!

Side Note: in 1982, supergroup ASIA released a song called “One Step Closer” that featured a symphonic synthesizer intro which ALWAYS reminded me of The Legacy’s scene of Maggie and Pete on the horses, though I couldn’t place why. Watching the movie this weekend, I had to laugh because the musical score during the said scene sounded SO MUCH like the Asia song (with a bit of The Big Country thrown in), no WONDER I kept thinking about it!

Saga #25

Whoooohooo, ring the alarms, SAGA is back from hiatus at last (having to wait the three-four months between arcs is soooo hard as this series rocks so much) and it's as damn freaking GREAT as ever!!!!
Mmmm, think I'm gonna re-read the entire series from issue #1 all over again!

Fables, Vol.1-2

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1

Just wanted something fun to read today and heard so much good things about this wacky new series based on a C-list Steve Dtiko hero brought up to date with a razor sharp wit and a cute squirrel side-kick!

Powers, Vol.1-3

Ms. Marvel, Vol.1: No Normal

Space Station 76

As a kid growing up in the seventies, I was exposed to just about every cheesy science fiction space show there was, and I’ll be darned if the Liv Tyler movie Space Station 76 didn’t take me right back to my childhood! With its plastic toy miniature special effects, gorgeous women decked out in go-go boots. big hair and false eyelashes and smooth easy-listening music piped throughout, this flick could have easily come out in 1976 and blended right in!

 

 So much of our youth was spent making up stories of us living lives aboard spaceships and being served Jetsons-esque food via computer screens that it was like watching our made up world come to life! They even had Liv Tyler playing a kind of “Asteroids” videogame, a game we loved playing at the local bowling alley, complete with its very basic one-line patterns, oh so much memories!

 Space Station76 tells the tale of a woman (Tyler) flying up to the station as the new assistant Pilot, (and the cause and effect she has upon the crew), but really the movie is more about the little things, Tyler in her Arboretum (think shades of Silent Running) relaxing, a greasy mechanic (Matt Bomer) slaving away in the bowels of the ship, or the stylish community mother (Kali Rocha) looking through a space-age viewmaster (!) for the latest hot 70’s fashions…This movie has made a world I’d just love to curl up in!

Primer

Finally got around to checking out PRIMER, a time-traveling movie that I was warned and warned and warned again of how confusing it would be, and still managed to be completely LOST at several points! When you’ve got one guy time traveling into the future and back, it’s easy enough to follow, but when you’ve got several people time jumping in and out at different and even sometimes over each other, it gets REALLY hard to remember which version of the characters you’re watching!

 Remember in Back to the Future Part II when you had Marty and friends running around in the foreground while in the background you had different timeline Marty and friends ducking in and out? Well, multiply that by 5 and add in lying, cheating and murder and you might BEGIN to imagine the chaos!

Strangely enough, the pacing is so slow and thoughtful I still managed to really enjoy the picture even as my head was beginning to hurt trying to keep up! This is one movie that you definitely have got to see a few times before you can really get a gaasan’t wait to see what nuances I’ll pick up the NEXT time I try and watch this one!

The Wicked+ The Divine, Vol.1: The Faust Act

While running to my local comic book store to see if SAGA had yet come out of their hiatus, I ran into my friend Shirley in the parking lot and when I told her I was on my way to the comic store, she told me her favorite series as one called THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, a story about the gods and their time on earth. "Like Mount Olympus kind of Gods?" I asked, but Shirl said that it was more like SANDMAN where these humans took the embodiment of the beings like Love, Death, etc. and interacted for a short time among the living til they perished.
 All I had to hear was the reference to Sandman, and I was TOTALLY on board, and HAD to see if the comic store had it! When I got there, I was thrilled to find that Wicked and Divine had just released its first trade paperback a few months ago and IMMEDIATELY snatched it up! When I took it home and read it, I was so blown away by how awesome it was, I not only made plans to sart collecting the individual issues from that point on, but went on ebay to buy each individual issue included in the TPB (the covers were so damn beautiful, each one featuring one member of the Gods) PS: It was a good thing they had  that Wicked and Divine trade when I went in, because I was to find out that SAGA would not be coming back for one more week!!! So lucky to find this to immerse myself in as I wait!

Y The Last Man (Complete Series)

One of the greatest comic cook series of all time, Y: The Last Man tells the tale of Yorick, the supposed "last man" on earth and the trials and tribulations he and his pet monkey through. The series that introduced me to the fantastic art of Pia Guerra and the insanely awesome writing of Brian K  Vaughan!

X-Factor #150-262

 I love, love, love peter david's take on Marvel's wild n wooly Mutant team, and as a huge fan of Clermont and Byrne's "Muir Isle Team" of Moira MacTaggert, Alex Summers, Lorna Dane, and Jamie Madrox, I absolutely loved his X-factor reboot in issue 71 featuring  Jamie, Alex and Lorna, and when I heard he was coming back to X-Factor with a new series issue at #1 (which would later be retroactively re-numbered at 150 to continue the original run), I knew I just HAD to have it!
Peter David really cares for these characters and it is a joy to read and re-read every so oftem, so i took a month out to sit back and read 'em all over again!

Killing Zoe

 I recently re-watched the awesome Killing Zoe with Eric Stolz and Julie Delpy, a movie I haven’t seen since it first came out on video waaaaay back in the 90’s. GADS, I had forgotten how beautiful Julie Delpy was! I remember at the time I had also recently seen one of her French movies, "White", so I was already on a Julie Delpy high, Julie of course probably most famous nowadays for her “Before Sunrise” films with Ethan Hawke (which I also loved, BTW)…

Eric Stolz as Zed, Safecracker

Julie Delpy as Zoe

Killing Zoe stars Eric Stolz as Zed, a safecracker who goes to Paris to do a big bank Heist where he befriends a callgirl named Zoe (Delpy). They enjoy a time for awhile together, til Zed’s friend Eric, the mastermind behind the bank heist, arrives. 

Getting to Know Each Other

Kindred Spirits?

Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) arrives

Eric throws Zoe out of the room and prepares to take Zed out the night before the big heist. During a drug-fueled night on the town, he mentions to Zed he has AIDS, and this point brought back something I’d been wondering about the movie for some time now… 

(for those who haven’t seen the movie, here’s the obligatory )

* * * * * S P O I L E R  A L E R T * * * * * 

Zed has come to believe that this will be a smooth robbery where no one has to get hurt, and at first, things are going off without a hitch. But soon enough he and the other crime-mates are to realize that Eric has an ultra-sadistic side and when he kills a woman, they realize how unstable he is. Even more unfortunate is that we find Zoe has a day job working for this very bank, and she becomes part of the threatened hostages.

The Heist is On!

At Work Downstairs Cracking the Safe

  As Zed works on cracking the safe downstairs, he has no idea that upstairs, things are starting to unravel. People are getting killed, at some point, they realize the alarms have been tripped and the police have surrounded the bank. 

Things Getting Out of Control

Zoe Among the Hostages

It’s then that Zed comes up with the haul, having succeeded cracking the big vaults, where he sees that Zoe is one of the hostages and is about to be shot.  Zed leaps on the shooter, giving Zoe time to get away, but now Zed is at odds with the now out-of-control Eric for interfering. He attacks Zed with a blade and cuts his face, telling him their partnership is dissolved. 

Clashing with his Former Partner and Friend

So the movie reaches its’ big climax where the Police teams are swarming the bank and Eric is trying to kill Zoe and Zed. Eric has Zed in his sights and is about to execute him when he is taken out in spectacular fashion by a hail of bullets by the police, covering Zoe and Zed with a shower of blood. The Police storm in, and Zoe helps Zed out, telling clearing the way by telling the authorities he’s not one of the robbers.

A Bloody Conclusion 

  When the film ends, I’m blown away, thinking I’ve just watched a great freaking movie, til my friend, who’s been sitting off to the side goes, ‘Huh, so THAT'S why they call it Killing Zoe, I guess.” I’m like “What do you mean? “And he says, “Well, Zoe and Zed are gonna die since the guy had AIDS and his blood got into their wounds.” HUH! hat hadn't crossed my mind at ALL!
At first, I’m thinking like he must be the only guy who could come up with that bummer of a meaning for the ending...Was this the message the movie intended? That both Zoe and Zed were “doomed”? Forget it, I’m gonna go with MY interpretation of the ending, with the guy and girl escaping to live another day!