Much like Puffy Chair, this one stars Duplass as a an immature adult, Sam, who wants to hang on to his adolescent dreams. He doesn’t have a job-job, his girlfriend just broke up with him and he’s in a band that plays for a handful of people at a bar. The first third or fourth of the movie just shows his life and soon gets him to his aunt’s house. Said aunt is played by the amazing Melissa Leo and also has a teenage son Oliver who’s kind of a jerk. We’re introduced to him as he throws a squid meant for dissection at a girl in his class. Turns out that Oliver’s estranged father was supposed to take him and his pal Jake on a camping trip, but flaked out, so Sam eventually agrees to take them.

The trip to camping and the actual experience in the woods/on the beach (they’re in Washington, so I guess that’s a thing that makes sense) makes up the real meat of the story as the boys not only explore their relationship with girls and each other and Sam gets a taste at some real responsibility in watching over a pair of teenagers. In a relatively short period of time–the movie has an 88 minute run time–writer and director Craig Johnson does an excellent job going through the characters’ stories without being super obvious and “movie” about everything.

Here’s an example that gets into some spoiler territory, so if you want to go into the movie completely clear, skip this paragraph. There are hints during their travels to the camping area that Jake might be gay or at least questioning his sexuality including a somewhat confusing scene where he stops making out with a girl in a pool to swim over and start wrestling with Oliver who was also making out with a girl in said pool. There’s a quick moments where Sam opens the boys’ tent and they’re kissing. This event spurs on the rest of the movie from that point, but I was really impressed with how it was handled. In a clunkier movie you would have seen a whole scene between the boys leading up to this, but none of that is necessary.

In a way, the movie reminded me of Cold Weather which I didn’t like. They both have main characters who could be considered averse to responsibility, but Duplass pulls off this kind of role with a confident brashness that makes me like him instead of annoyed with him. Both films also take advantage of the beautiful scenery in the shooting area, but while Cold Weather simply shows you these scenes, True uses the environnents for the purpose of the scene and builds the story around them (or at least the second half). That way, you get both the beauty and actual story instead of stopping the latter for the former.

So, to put it simply and state the obvious, I really dug True Adolescents. It showcased it’s players really well and also showed an economy of story that fit very well with the tone of the film. Plus, kind of like the Duplass Brothers films, I got the idea that Johnson made it on a pretty low budget. I could be wrong about that and haven’t done any research, but as always, that “I’m gonna make a movie” spirit is one that I can appreciate and feel the need to foster in myself. Maybe this year!

In an age filled with comics that mine past characters and stories like blood diamonds, Jeff Parker’s Agents Of Atlas is one of the best. Maybe it helps that I don’t have an incredibly deep knowledge of characters like Jimmy Woo, Venus, Gorilla Man, The Uranian (formerly Marvel Boy), Namora or M-11, but it almost doesn’t matter because Parker is a master of giving these characters amazing personalities and back stories that I am completely absorbed by.

I’ve written about the volume before this one already, but not the original on the blog. I actually first wrote about it for Wizard as a Book of the Month and it was a pleasure. One thing that I’ve thought from the very beginning, though, is that this should have been presented as a series of minis like B.P.R.D. instead of this strange stopping and starting that happens because, unfortunately-but-not-surprisingly, the comic book market can (or will) not support a quirky fun book like this that offers tons of entertainment, but doesn’t necessarily drive the overall story of the Marvel Universe, though it does play well within the bounds of things like Dark Reign.

Anyway, the story itself revolves around the continued adventures of the Agents as they support Woo in his efforts to change the evil Atlas organization into one that does good. This involves their continued ruse to Norman Osborn that they’re still bad guys as well as some scenes between Namorita and Namor in an attempt to have their two kingdoms join forces, but the real meat of this volume comes in the form of a war between Atlas and another similar organization that’s headed up by Jimmy’s ex girlfriend. Here’s another thing that Parker excels at: mixing legitimate character beats and overarching plots with the kinds of things that are awesome but can easily be handled poorly, like M-11′s upgrade or the dragon fight (or lack thereof). In the hands of a clumsy writer these could have been groan-worthy, but I was so invested in these issues and characters that I was full-boat in. BLOW EM UP, M-11!

On the art side of things, this collection definitely has a solid group of pencilers like Gabriel Hardman, Carlo Pagulayan, Dan Panosian and Paul Rivoche. They each have a fun, dynamic style that fit their individual issues, but I have a pair of minor complaints. First, I wish there was a list of which artists drew which issues somewhere in the collection. I also, as much as I like the individual artists, prefer for series’ like this to keep a consistent look throughout. Really, any one of them could have done it, but I get a little thrown when I’m constantly noticing the differences from issue to issue and I can’t easily look and see who did what. Again, that’s not a huge complaint and it didn’t bother me a ton, but it’s something I noticed that took me out of the story just a bit. Otherwise, though, I think Agents of Atlas is one of the best damn superhero comics around and should be read by everyone, superhero fans and not, alike. I need to get the rest of these collections.

Mysterius The Unfathomable (Wildstorm/DC Comics)
Written by Jeff Parker, drawn by Tom Fowler
Collects Mysterius The Unfathomable #1-6

Mysterius is the first non-Marvel comic of Parker’s I’ve ever read. I was a little worried because sometimes writers work really well within the world of the Big Two but don’t when allowed to write whatever they want. Thankfully, that is not the case here and Parker produced a fantastical action drama starring Mysterius, an immoral magician/conjurer and his brand new assistant Ella who goes by the alias Delfi at Mysterius’ behest as they encounter a demonic version of Dr. Seuss, a man trying to become a god at Burning Man and even more craziness all woven together into not only a great example of episodic fiction, but also overarching storytelling.

Before getting into more of the story details, I have to take a moment to sing the praises of Tom Fowler. Bangarang, this is a nice looking book that wavers between pretty and ugly in all the right ways. I’m sure I’ve seen Fowler’s art before, but this was the first time I really found myself drooling over his pages. There’s a cartoony style to this comic, that works so well, balancing the dark real world moments in the first few pages to the completely bonkers world and demons found in the Dr. Seuss-type guy’s dimension. I was blown away by those pages and stared at them longer than a lot of pages I’ve looked at recently. So awesome, you guys. A lot of times, art in comics feel less important than the story–much like the visuals in some movies–but in this case, it’s equally if not more important. They seem to lift each other up, it’s great.

Storywise, Parker pulls a bit of a trick on the readers by getting us to think the book is initially going to be a series of vignettes, but winds up connecting all the different elements to create a satisfying combination of–and I’m starting to sound like a broken record here–the episodic and the long range ways of telling a story. Plus, the very idea of a Dr. Seuss-like writer putting demonic incantations into his books is ingenious. There’s a lot more going on, but that is easily my favorite part of the book.

I actually tweeted to Parker how much I enjoyed the book and asked if there are plans for more stories to which he replied that he and Fowler “badly want to make more.” You can add me to the list of folks on that list as well. We need more Mysterius in our lives.

Here they are with a few choice quotes and notes. Emily & Ty (“I know she’s a great competitor, but I hate her,” – Ty), Tyree & Jasmine (not on good terms; he says they’re business associates. “Why didn’t I think to make out with CT, Dunbar, somebody else,” – Jasmine), Naomi & Leroy (he doesn’t care if she hooks up with someone, she says she’ll kill him and whoever else he hooks up with, woof),  Abe & Cara Maria (sounds like he still digs her), Aneesa & Rachel (Rachel seems more bitter than Aneesa),  Camila & Johnny (he doesn’t have a girl right now),  CT & Diem (they haven’t talked in over a year),  Dunbar & Paula (she hates him, he knows this),  Dustin & Heather (doesn’t seem to be any bad blood), Wes & Mandi (not much bad blood either), Mark & Robin (dated for a while years ago, she thinks it was a bad choice to break up with him), Sarah and Vinny (she voted him into the Gulag/Gauntlet whatever on their last season together, ouch) and Priscilla and Nate (who never hooked up and are clearly substitutes for Zach and…whatever the blonde girl’s name is, see, I already forgot her). The winner of the finale gets $150K, second gets $100K and third gets $40K which is interesting because the last one or two seasons have given exactly nothing to the third place people. So, after all this set up, they head to the house which is a shack. I kid! It’s an awesome place, of course. They’re in the Dominican Republic, by the way. Everyone grabs beds and starts drinking. There’s a hilarious scene where Paula is literally standing up on a balcony looking down on younger, fitter women talking and having fun while her voiceover tells us she envies them because they haven’t been betrayed yet. It’s like something out of an intense drama, but it’s funny because it’s Paula, you know?

The house is littered with pictures of the couples back when they were together. As Mandi points out, some of them–like the one of Diem revealing her post-chemo hair to CT–are really sweet, while others not so much (she thinks one of the ones she’s in with Wes is actually of them having sex, aww puppy love). Jasmine being the incredibly stable person we’ve all come to know and love destroys the picture of her and Tyree and trashes it. They’ll last forever! The pictures kicked off a storyline that I believe will make up the emotional spine of this season. That sounds silly and usually the deepest emotions felt on these shows are betrayal, lust and greed, but I really do think that this experience might offer Diem and CT the opportunity to patch things up. On the last season of Rivals, he showed that he had changed and tried to convince Adam of such. He’s a different dude, but there’s still a lot of hurt there. She’s mad because he hooked up with someone on The Duel II and told her about it directly to her face, but he’s mad because she wasn’t there for him when he needed her and he claims she’s the one that broke up with him. I know it’s corny, but I really did say “Aw” when they showed the picture of her and him from back in the day. I hope they can work things out, get back together and destroy the competition. That’d be fantastic.I’m verklempt, gimme a minute. Okay, I’m back. The night before the first challenge, the contestants are told to show up in their Speedos and that they’re gonna get sticky. Before taking off, Dustin, Naomi, Heather, Nate and Priscilla are talking about starting their own alliance and throwing in Paula or Johnny if one of them wins. It’s a great plan, actually, though the problem with this system–at least in the beginning–is that, for a while, unless one of the good teams really screws up, you’re going to have a pretty crappy team losing the challenge that won’t seem like they can take out a real competitor team. So, if one of them did win and tossed in Paula, but they went up against some chumps, you’re just going to paint a target on your back, right? Right. So, the challenge is called Give Me Some Honey and like (I assume) most of the future ones, it was set up above water. This particular one involved one person from each team running across a beam, hopping into a bathtub filled with honey, running back across the beam and having their partner scrape as much honey as they could of their body. The top two teams would compete against each other to see who the Power Couple is while the losers would go straight into The Dome. If you fall off, you’re still in the game, but you’ve got to climb up a rope ladder and do it again. Two teams went at the same time, but since it wasn’t a race, it was more of a psychological thing than anything else. By the way, it tickles my fancy that the game-makers took so much time to make things as awkward as possible between these former couples. I can only assume that the others will make this even more apparent. Personally, I think that going back and forth as many times as possible is a better strategy than wasting time scraping every inch of your partner. Anyway Dustin & Heather and Dunbar & Paula are up first. Man, Dunbar looks chunky, but he won’t be the most unathletic dude up there. Dunbar & Paula get their asses handed to them. As my lovely wife so beautifully put it after Paula complained about doing so poorly “Um, Paula, you’re used to it, you’re Paula.” My wife is awesome. Robin & Mark and Rachel & Aneesa were up next with the former crushing it. Then Tyrie & Jasminea and Wes & Mandi both did pretty well. Abe and Cara Maria did better than Leroy and Naomi (who might be a legitimate sex addict, where’s Dr. Drew?). Johnny and Camila do a good job nest, but Emily almost falls a few times as she gets honey scraped off her body by Ty (who, remember, was borderline abusive, just want everyone to keep that in mind).  Nate and Priscilla then go up at the same time as Diem and CT and it’s just embarrassing. Nate falls like four times, I think. It doesn’t look like he made it across and got scraped once. Seriously, bro, you’re literally a genius. Bad showing. The worst part about this is that it saves Paula and Dunbar from the Dome. Damn you Nate! Vinny and Sarah go last. Vinny looks HUGE. Sorry dude, I know that’s mean, but it’s true. Of course, Priscilla and Nate came in last, but the final two teams trying to get the Power Couple spot come down to Mark & Robin and Johnny & Camila. The race is close, but Johnny and Camila come out with the win. Blech. As any fan of the show could have guessed or written themselves, we then cut back to the house where Johnny is talking to Dustin and Heather. They’re on to him and don’t want to owe anyone. I’m so glad they didn’t grovel in front of him. It’s smart because it shows they’re tough, but also going up against Pri and Nate isn’t much of a risk, you know? So why not show some balls. But then, Wes tries getting into Camila’s head, which CT alerts Johnny about. This leads to several conversations that don’t do much but put Wes and Mandi up on the possible list of Domers with Heather and Dustin. WHO WILL THEY CHOOSE?! 

They choose Wes and Mandi. The Dome challenge is called X Knocks The Spot (not the best name they’ve ever done, but probably not the worst). Basically, all four Domers stand on these platforms and have to dodge this spinning X by either jumping over the low arms or ducking under the high ones. It’s kind of like a Wipeout challenge, but the arms aren’t moving that fast. This one’s more of an endurance game. Whichever team has the last person standing, wins. They start off and as Heather notices, Priscilla is standing kind of sideways, which seems like a good idea, but she’s actually doing a lot more work. Of course, she’s the first to go at around the 20 minute mark. So, now it’s up to Nate to keep them in the game. But, come on, it’s Nate. He lasts another 10 minutes, but soon falls meaning that Wes and Mandi are heading back and they’re heading home. This of course is followed by Wes and Mandi talking themselves  up, saying they just showed how good they are while Johnny said he was glad they were back so he could mess with Wes some more. Yeah, good call there, man. So, while tonight’s episode wasn’t very surprising (rookies getting sent home pretty easily), I do think this season has the potential to be interesting. As I said when talking about the trailer, this is a group of people that don’t easily fall into many of the old alliances. Sure Paula and Johnny are there, but they don’t have a ton of people to back them up. The rookies have a good chance of staying strong, especially because Dustin & Heather and Leroy & Naomi have some skill (though I’m not sure about Naomi’s athletic abilities, we’ll see on that one). At one point, Mark talks about allying himself with some of the other vets, but I think it would be a good idea for him to get in with the rooks, at least on the sly. I mean, for most of these people, he’s new. By the way, Mark looks amazing (my wife confirmed this) and could probably win this whole thing on his own if Robin keeps her head (unlikely). So, I guess we’ll see how this one goes. You’ve got game players like Johnny and Wes who will probably just keep throwing each other in whenever they win and then wildcards like CT. Others will play sheep roles, but I think the rookies do have a pretty good shot this time around. Let’s hope that this will finally be the season that breaks the cycle of alliance awfulness!

So, the description I had in mind is pretty correct for maybe half of the movie. Then it gets into the realness of the situation. As a fan of bad movies, I understand that mentality. We like laughing earnestly made things that turned out pretty crappy. It’s the same thing as my current favorite podcast How Did This Get Made? But, there’s a dark side to that, of course. Most directors, actors and crew members don’t go into a movie saying “Let’s make something laughably silly.” They go in wanting to make something good or to create something that will be a stepping stone to something bigger and better. Being in a movie like Troll 2 might get you a line at a Horror Hound convention in Cincinnati, but it’s the kiss of death if you’re looking to move on to something bigger and better (unless of course you’re George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston).

That other side of the coin gets its own spotlight in the doc and it honestly made my stomach hurt. And I’m not even referring to the people who still hang on to the possibility of acting (the mom) or the ones looking back at their careers thinking they could have done more (Grandpa Seth), though their scenes made me sad for another reason I’ll get to in a minute. The director of Troll 2, Claudio Fragasso has zero sense of humor when it comes to his work. This man talks very deeply about the sharing of human emotion and, at the end of the movie, very awkwardly interrupts a screening where the actors are joking around about not being able to understand him and not understanding the script. This man was clearly passionate about the project and (maybe) liked the finished project. He does not have a sense of humor about any of this. I feel bad for him.

Back to the mom and Grandpa Seth, oh man, I felt so bad for them too. Grandpa Seth sits on his easy chair surrounded by Hoarders-level stacks of books or magazines or something and explains that he would have liked to act more, but didn’t want to move to LA. He then goes on about how he wished his career had been different, but it’s all topped by the very end of the movie where they’re catching everyone up on these folks and all it says is that he’s retired and likes Family Guy. What? Really?! That’s a life? Ugh. Meanwhile the mom from the movie has one scene where she talks about getting back into acting, presumably after her elderly mother passes away (it’s not directly said, but that’s how I took it) and saying that she just wants to run away to a completely different places with different neighbors who don’t make the kind of high pitches sounds that would make Lloyd and Harry would get annoyed at. These two got to me because they either are still holding on to or held on too long to the dream of being an actor. These are the kinds of things that get to me, being a wannabe writer of fiction. How long do you hold on to lofty dreams? When is it time to just say “Nope, not gonna happen, I don’t have it in me” or “The cards are not being dealt in my favor”? Oh man, too close to home as I’m nearing my 29th birthday.

But, thankfully, there are less sad parts and people in this movie. The young boy from the movie is the one spearheading the documentary. He embraces the whole thing in the same way fans of bad movies do, but it’s because he has already processed the feelings of embarrassment and career-dread unlike some of the others. He makes a great touchstone, but the real star of the film is the dad, George Hardy. George is a dentist and one of the nicest guys around. He’s cool with the film’s legacy, for the most part. But, even he has a a few dark moments in the film, both of which revolve around conventions. The first has almost no people coming to a screening of Troll 2 and the second is a big horror show that leaves him with the impression that the attendees are weird, some of his fellow attendees are desperate losers and director Neil Marshall is kind of a jerk. Now, all of those things may be true (I have no idea, I’ve never been to a horror convention), but seeing the main “I’m okay with my life” person in the movie go down that path is a bummer. That’s life though, we all have our bad moments. I got the impression that George was very excited to embrace this underground fandom at first, but got bored with it very quickly. He saw the movie 20 times and doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would like movies ironically and he even says he doesn’t like horror flicks, so what’s the appeal for him? I’m guessing that “I want to be famous” spark that still lies inside him from his days of wanting to be an actor.

What makes this movie so interesting, aside from the various perspectives that one film can create in its audience and crew, is how it showcases so many different aspects of humanity and the desire for fame. Some people in Troll 2 went on to make their own movies while others gave up and went into other fields. There really is a lot to unpack in this film, far more than the “It’s so bad it’s good” fans might want, actually. This isn’t an obsessed fan’s love letter to the film, more like a document of how one film has changed the lives of many. I liked it a lot, but I’m not sure if I’ll watch it again. Sometimes things just get too real.

Anyone who knows me or reads this blog on a regular basis knows that I’m a fan of goofy, bad movies as well as awesome ones, so this podcast could not be more in my wheelhouse. Add in the fact that some of my favorite comedians like Patton Oswalt, Nick Kroll, Ken Marino, Casey Wilson, Matt Walsh, Adam Scott and Rob Huebel among plenty of others, an appearance by Lost’s Damon Lindelof talking about Superman III and directors Lexi Alexander and Brian Taylor talking about Punisher War Zone and the Crank movies respectively and I honestly can’t stop listening to these episodes.

I was initially drawn to the podcast because of the interview with Taylor about Crank. Those are two of my favorite movies of the past ten years so it was interesting to hear people as much in love with it as I was geeking out with the director. Then I started going through the episodes of movies I had seen like Catwoman and Burlesque, but I realized even with movies I haven’t seen like Old Dogs and Jingle All The Way, the manner in which these folks talk about the movies brings you right in. In fact, I think it’s almost better not having seen the movies. The episode with Doug Benson and the gang talking about the second to last Twilight movie was particularly hilarious.

I know the internet is already filled with people complaining about movies, but that’s not really what this podcast is about. At least not in a complete bitching kind of way. For the most part–and I’ve listened to a half or third of the episodes so far–the hosts really do appreciate bad, goofy movies and enjoy pointing out how crazy some of them are (All About Steve sounds INSANE) though, of course, there are some that they just flat out hate. But, because those movies are in the minority, the overall experience is fun, like sitting in a room with a few cases of beers, some pizza and some pals laughing at some of the weirder movies ever made. I’m actually kind of bummed that I will be caught up in the next day or two (I think I listened to a dozen or so episodes yesterday) because then I’ll have to wait like everyone else for new episodes. But, that’s part of the fun of podcasts: finding some that’s been around, downloading like crazy, putting that in your ear holes and then punching on the new episodes as they come in.

And that’s why I like this remake, the basics might be the same, but the specifics are so different that I get drawn in. Both flicks have female entry points, but the difference between the two movies and characters is pretty huge. Unlike the original we start off in the woman’s house and really get personal with her, even seeing her last love making session with her husband. Then BANG zombie apocalypse is full on. She’s on the run and winds up catching up with other survivors. I like that Snyder kept the idea of a woman getting pregnant in all this mess, but I’m also glad that he transferred that to another character in order to give Sarah Polley’s Ana the opportunity to do lots of other things in the movie like fall for a fellow survivor and really get into the action. Speaking of which, the whole pregnancy thing gets insane in such an amazing and creepy way that I’m still surprised it’s in a pretty big budget studio horror movie. I just shook a bit thinking about it again. Bleh. But in a good way.

Another change I liked about the film is how it opens up a bit. The wide open claustrophobia of the first film is pretty amazing and complex, but there’s also something to be said about these people being proactive and looking to get the heck out of there. The building up of the trucks might be just a little goofy, but it made enough sense and seemed likely, so I was in. And the chainsaw thing is a GREAT idea, though not for a couple of the characters. Snyder seemed to have a good handle on mixing the “have fun with it” mentality with the “this is serious business” one in a way that really hits for me.

So, yeah, I like this movie and I’m glad I picked it up for a buck at a used book store in New Hampshire a month or so back. It’s cool to have different takes on both the zombie genre and a specific story idea like that of the original Dawn Of The Dead. I will say that I’m surprised exactly how much of this movie was borrowed or straight-up swiped for Dead Rising and its sequel–two video games I wished I loved but really wound up disliking. It might seem strange calling this out for a remake of another movie, but it felt at times like whole scenes from the movie were digitized and dropped into those games. Speaking of video games, I actually played Left 4 Dead 2 with my dad on Xbox Live, and I think the intense feeling of that game has helped put me into zombie movies a little bit better. There are scenes that felt exactly like the game with zombies coming on, the character blasting away and trying to push them away without dying. It’s kind of an interesting way that one medium can alter the way you experience another one. Fun stuff.

Even before hyping my own links, I’ve got to call out this amazing post from Topless Robot. My pal Rob Bricken tore through a Washington, D.C. news report about DC comic books not being appropriate for kids. Mind you, they are clearly labeled as not for kids. His indignation is palpable and amazing.

In addition to my daily posts over on Spinoff, I also wrote a really fun piece about Mattel and their DC action figures for CBR in addition to pieces about Hoax Hunters, Rebel Blood, Near Death, the Artifacts finale and I even helped out with the CBR Top 100 Comics of 2011!

I also wrote about Black Widow’s costumes for Marvel.com!Phil Noto drew Hellboy!

If you’re a How I Met Your Mother fan and saw the episode from a few weeks back, I highly recommend checking out the Puzzles website, especially the calendar and menu. Looks like quite the NYC hang out.

Whoa, there are 700 unreleased Thin Lizzy songs according to The Onion. They will be mine, oh yes, they will be mine. Maybe I should get the rest of their existing records, too. The Superman: Earth One book only looked interesting because of Shane Davis’ art, but the Batman version by Geoff Johns and the always amazing Gary Frank? I’ll buy that for some dollars. (via CBR)

I am definitely on board for this Bruce Lee documentary called I Am Bruce Lee. Like how they put it right on front street. (via /Film)

Like I said, it’s about a guy who decides to become a crimefighter. This guy happens to be a real ass-kicker who trains himself in the martial arts on a regular basis whose parents were murdered and little brother raped by a gang of attackers. It’s pretty heavy stuff for a movie about a guy dressing up and fighting criminals. But, it does give the character–who goes by Mirageman as an alter ego–an emotional center and reason to not only train himself (he doesn’t want it to happen again) but also to dress up and protect people (it inspires his now disturbed little brother).

The first twenty minutes or so are pretty serious. The material is serious, the character is serious and even the drawings shown in between scenes are serious. It even looks like something shot for Cops. Then there’s a tonal shift that viewers should get used to when Mirageman tries on different costume possibilities. This is probably the best version of that kind of scene I’ve ever seen in a superhero movie, it’s just great, but then we’re back to the serious stuff sort of. I mean, the dude looks silly running around in broad daylight wearing a bright blue costume, but since he takes it seriously and the criminals eventually start taking him seriously as his fame grows, it seems less silly.

And then, you get this weird sequence of scenes cutting between Mirageman jumping around rooftops and doing martial arts moves on a black background. This scene does not have a point and looks like something out of that 70s live action Spider-Man TV show (if it had legit fighters). After that, more seriousness, but towards the end there’s an entire fight sequence that not only really lays on the blue tint (distractingly so at times) but also the 70s soundtrack. It’s pretty serious for the rest of the movie as he takes on a gang that, I think, is made up of kiddie touchers.

So, how are the action scenes? Awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Spanish martial arts flick, but it reminded me of the Thai one because it always looks like dudes are really getting their asses kicked. The way the film is set up is interesting too because it’s not like a traditional action film where the good guy is directly opposed to a bad guy. It really is solely focused on Mirageman and his exploits in a realistic way. He either sees a problem or is made aware of one and he does his best to solve it. He succeeds sometimes and fails others, but the stakes are always raised and he, in turn, responds to them by upgrading his style or accoutrements. But, because of the format, you don’t necesarrily get the kind of big set piece fights that we all love so much. That’s okay, though, it works for the film which takes a very real world approach to the whole thing.

At the end of the day, this feels like two movies smashed together, like two different writers, directors or editors decided to combine two different movies about the same character. One went very real world and grounded with his movie and the other wanted to make an homage to 70s vigilante flicks. I have to say, I’m more interested in the latter, but I still liked the finished product. If you’ve got some time to actually sit down and watch a movie, give it a watch. I didn’t mention that it’s in Spanish, but it is, so you’ll have to read the flick, but to be honest, if you’ve seen enough action or comic book movies, you’ll get the gist from looking up every now and then. That’s what I did.

Anyway, Steele Justice is one of those movies where exactly that happens. This Vietnam vet has had trouble since coming home form the war and just when he meets back up with his old army buddy, a group of Vietnamese mobsters role in and kill the friend and most of his family. Pushed to the edge, John Steele uses his war training to wage his own war against the killers! Man, I should write the summaries for the back of the DVD boxes or Netflix.

There isn’t a whole lot that sets this movie apart from the hundreds of others out there like it except for the cast, which I thought did an interesting job of casting against type for some of the players. Steele is played by Martin Kove who played the coach of the evil Kobra Kais in Karate Kid. I’m sure he’s played lots of other roles, but he will always be the jerk who punched through two car windows at the beginning of Karate Kid 2 to me. The movie also stars Ronny Cox who played the nefarious Dick Jones in RoboCop as a good guy and Sela Ward as Steele’s long suffering exwife who also happens to be a music video director. A personal favorite scene of mine is when Steele shows up to the set of a music video. He pulls up behind some very 80s dancers who don’t seem to notice the stolen police car, ill fitting cop uniform or shot gun for a while. It’s funny stuff.

When I saw that Gary Busey was in an action movie called Eye of the Tiger and that the poster showed the actor holding a small child AND a shotgun, I knew I was in for a treat, but I had no idea how crazy of a treat it would be. I must admit that my love for Busey came while I was in college and the Comedy Central show I’m With Busey was on. He’s just so bonkers and kinetic and crazy in real life that I started noticing a lot more when he showed up in movies. Sure, I’d seen Lethal Weapon, but Busey wasn’t Mr. Joshua to me, he was Busey. Same goes for his character in Predator 2.

In this flick, which yes contains the theme song from Rocky III on several occasions, Busey plays Buck Matthews who is not only a Vietnam vet, but also just got out of prison in time to come home and see his wife murdered by some motorcycle riding thugs. His little girl is alive, but not doing well, so he and his pal J.B. (Yaphet Kotto) decided to take the town back from the corrupt sheriff who’s letting the biker gang, lead by Blade (William Smith), basically run the town. It’s kind of a mix of the Rambo/Steele Justice set-up with Road House which is a combination I can always get behind.

The surprising thing about this movie, is how far it goes in showing scenes I’ve never seen in a movie like this. You get the obligatory “hero at the funeral” scene, but instead of letting it just be that, the biker gang actually comes rolling down the hill, driving around the grave and then leaving. I was pretty blown away by this for some reason. Don’t they know that will just make him more angry? There’s also a scene where Buck is trying to get some information out of a criminal in the hospital. He does the usual threat thing, but then goes nuclear. To coerce the villains, he rubs Vaseline on a stick of dynamite, shoves it in the guy’s ass and lights a long fuse. That was another shocker. I like seeing new and unexpected things in movies like this. I think that’s what makes me watch more of them than I should. That and the punching.

To be clear, though, this is about as much of a J.J. Abrams show as Lost was, meaning not a lot. As fans of that other series know, that ship was driven by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof after being launched by Abrams. Similarly, the good ship Alcatraz was created by Elizabeth Sarnoff who wrote and produced on Lost and Deadwood, Steven Lilien who wrote on Boomtown and Kyle XY and Brian Wynbrandt who also wrote on Kyle XY. But the comparisons to other Abrams shows is pretty strong, considering the mysterious premise and Garcia in a lead role.

Of course, like a lot of people I didn’t know any of that going into the series. I just knew it was a mysterious new show with Abrams attached and I was interested. We missed the first episode that played at 8:00PM on Monday, but was able to catch the second episode which is the series’ actual timeslot (thank goodness because I’m not about to stop watching How I Met Your Mother). Even having missed the first episode, I was still able to get the gist–it helps that a voiceover in the beginning pretty much lays everything out for you. I’d like to go back and see exactly how Hauser brought Rebecca and Doc into the fold, but I’d imagine it’s because she was trying to hunt down a killer who wound up being a time-displaced Alcatraz inmate and he was drafted because of his area of expertise. That part isn’t complex, which is good because, as the series bounced between the 60s and the present day, you don’t need a lot of additional baggage this early on to figure out what’s going on.

And there is a lot going on. Hauser knows a lot more than he’s letting on and Rebecca knows that, but can’t get much more information out of him for the time being. The inmate who the captured in the first episode has some kind of key that has yet to be identified. Heck, one of the people who we see in the modern day shows up in the past looking exactly the same age!

Like I said, I’m glad they put this one on at 9:00PM on Mondays because that was one of our few weekday slots that didn’t already feature shows we look forward to every week and I think Alcatraz can make that list. Even since Lost ended, I’ve been looking for another hour long drama with lots of action and mystery to keep me engaged and I hope this is it. As it is, I’m intrigued and appreciate some of the teases and reveals they’ve shown us already with only two episodes in. I am curious to see how they handle this series. Fox can be iffy at best when it comes to letting series’ like this play long enough to grab viewers. I hope they do and that the writers have a solid plan for getting the information to the viewers efficiently. I mean, I like the concept, but I don’t want to see 299 episodes of inmates getting captured to find out what happens.