Jun 21

Behind The Panels Issue 62 – Daredevil: End of Days

Behind-the-Panels-iss62-CoverIn this issue, Mark Millar is one step closer to royalty, Man of Steel bends the US box office to his Kryptonian will, there’s another X-Men crossover event, Marvel adds two more films to Phase 3, Sony tangles a four-part web and we guess how many gallons of body oils were used in the new trailer for the 300 prequel. PLUS our Kick-Ass Pick of the Week: Daredevil: End of Days by Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack and just about anybody who has been involved with Daredevil over the last few decades.

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On our next Issue: We go to the movies with Man of Steel

Your Hosts: Richard Gray and David McVay

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For show notes in detail head over to Behind The Panels

Jun 19

Minute Review – Lovelace

Amanda Seyfried-Lovelace-posterWe have talked about the Linda Lovelace biopic war on this site for sometime. First we heard about Inferno starring Lindsay Lohan as Lovelace but that almost fell apart when Lohan had to depart the project. Then we heard that a competing project called Lovelace starring Amanda Seyfried was coming. Inferno got back on track with Malin Akerman taking the title role, but it seems that Lovelace is first out of the gate.

So after all of that, was Lovelace worth it? Kinda, maybe.

Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) was a small town girl raised in a religious household. She meets and quickly marries Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard) who seemingly saves her from her life and introduces her to a life of fun, sex, porn and eventually fame. Or does he? In an interesting piece of narrative, the film then flashes back and shows us how the events really played out. Spousal abuse, forced to do porn at gun point and exploitation.

Lovelace is a frustrating film because it isn’t a bad film but it seems only give us an over view of the events rather than getting into detail. It feels vaguely like a telemovie with boobs. The film didn’t seem to trust that its story matter was strong enough, it felt it had skip huge portions of Lovelace’s life. The film was an hour and a half long and it felt it needed more time to tell the latter part of her life.

Amanda Seyfried is wonderful and believable as Linda Lovelace, probably the best work of her career. Sarsgaard is good at being slimy, but this does feel like a retread of his Hammond character from Green Lantern.

I saw Lovelace at the Sydney Film Festival and I have no idea if it will get a cinema release but I would say wait for DVD/Blu-Ray anyway. It’s not a bad film, but it really isn’t worth cinema dollars.

The photoshoot scene from Lovelace

Jun 19

Minute Review – Star Trek Into Darkness

StarTrekIntoDarknessWhat can I say that hasn’t already been said about this stellar sequel to 2009’s reboot of the Star Trek franchise? How about that I loved it and it was the sequel that I hoped it would be. You take this great cast and, now that the origin story is out of the way, throw them into an epic space adventure. Bombastic effects, a mysterious villain, a rousing musical score and Klingons make for a fun ride.

In Star Trek Into Darkness, a mysterious terrorist attacks Starfleet and Kirk and company are sent to get him. Along the way Kirk and Spock build the ever important friendship that defines the entire series, the villain reveals a big secret and Starfleet may not be as pure as everyone thinks. This is satisfying stuff as the new series continues along its alternate timeline established in the first J.J. Abrams film.

I can’t say much more without giving anything away, so let me finish by saying that the 3D conversion is pretty good but probably not necessary. I saw the film twice, once at a standard cinema and once at IMAX. I preferred the standard cinema presentation because J.J. Abrams shoots pretty tight and on the huge IMAX screen it all felt a little claustrophobic to me.

Run, don’t walk, to see this superb sci-fi flick.

Jun 19

Minute Review – The Hangover Part 3

hangover_part_3The Wolf Pack is back in this third, and hopefully last, chapter of the hugely successful series of raunchy comedies. This time the series comes full circle and the gang heads back to Las Vegas to find Mr. Chow so they can save their friend Doug from a mobster.

To say that the film feels like a retread of the previous two films would be an understatement. The Hangover was essentially a one joke film, a group of friends have a wild night that they can’t remember and then spend the whole film re-tracing their steps to find out what happened. How they have managed to milk this for three films is a mystery to me.

The Hangover Part 3 is not a terrible film, it’s just that it seems to have forgotten that it is supposed to be funny. The Hangover Part 3 works if they were trying to make a semi-decent action/thriller but it fails miserably as a comedy. After Due Date (which I hated, but that is a story for a different time) and now this film, it would seem that director Todd Phillips has forgotten what funny is.

Although much better than the second chapter, it isn’t even in the same league as the very funny and irreverent first film. This is a wait for DVD/Blu-Ray only, don’t waste your money or time at the cinema.

Jun 18

Behind The Panels One-Shot – The Nicola Scott Interview

Behind-the-Panels-Nicola-ScottThis week, Richard and David had the opportunity to chat with Nicola Scott, the Australia artist best known for her work with DC Comics and Gail Simone on Birds of Prey and Secret Six. She has worked on several titles within the New 52, including Superman with George Pérez. Nicola is currently working on Earth 2 with James Robinson.

Nicola chats about the challenges and joys of creating something from scratch in Earth 2, and her plans with the book beyond Robinson’s departure later this year. She discusses approaching iconic characters such as Superman and her experiences in working with the US comics industry from her home in Sydney.

Nicola will appear at Supanova in Sydney on 22 and 23 June 2013, and at the Oz Comic-Con in Melbourne on 6 and 7 July 2013. Drop in and say hi. You can buy tickets to the event at http://supanova.com.au/ and http://www.ozcomiccon.com/

We need to thank Nicola for her time, and the good people at Oz Comic-Con for arranging the chat.

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The Rest…

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Jun 15

Behind The Panels Issue 61 – All-Star Superman

Behind-the-Panels-iss61-CoverIn this issue Hellboy comes to Oz Comic Con, Man of Steel gets a sequel already, Sex Criminals stops time with sex, Zombies come to Riverdale and Fables heads to the big screen. PLUS our Kick-Ass Pick of the Week: All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

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On our next Issue: Daredevil: End of Days by Brian Michael Bendis

Your Hosts: Richard Gray, David McVay and guest David Longo

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For show notes in detail head over to Behind The Panels