The City Strip #145 – No Ninja No Ninja No
Welcome to another week here in the City of Films! This comic is your treat for you joining us, it’s a laugh riot it is. It’s a holiday here in Canada, so if things seem a bit slow it’s because I’m resting in my single person pool with some nachos. It’s how I roll.
My Five Favourite Non-Human Characters on The Simpsons
It was the season finale of The Simpsons yesterday (24 seasons, that’s crazy) and I thought it would be fun to do a Simpsons themed article. So I present to you…My Five Favourite Non-Human Characters on The Simpsons!
Wait…what? Seriously? Isn’t that the type of article you’d write once you’d…I don’t know…completely exhausted all other options? I mean…you’ve only done two articles so far…not counting all those Star Trek ones last week.
My god, so…so this is really happening, we’re really doing this then? Favourite non-human characters from a cartoon show? For real? This is…this is what we’re doing?
Sigh.
Alright, here goes. Strap yourselves in folks ’cause this will be…something. Poor dear, I fear he’s lost his mind.
Star Trek Week: The Final Extra
Star Trek Week has come to a close and Star Trek Into Darkness has premiered. Thank you very much to everyone who put up with my week long Star Trek obsession, but as a final little tidbit of Star Trek goodness I’d like to share these very cool posters a talented artist has done for the first six Star Trek movies.
Check them out below!
My Top Ten Favourite Episodes of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE
Here it is folks, the final day of Star Trek Week!
Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT), or simply Enterprise as it was known for the first two years, was the series that many fans blame for killing Star Trek. It premiered the same year Voyager ended and by that point it was felt that Star Trek in general needed a break. Waiting a few years to make people hungry for Star Trek again would not have been a bad thing in my opinion. That said, I always enjoyed ENT and was disappointed that it wasn’t given seven seasons like its brethren. That’s right, Enterprise was the first series since the original that did not last seven seasons.
The premiere episode, Broken Bow, debuted on September 26, 2001 to big ratings but for the next four years those ratings would slide down and never recover. In fact, during the later part of season three, word spread that this could be the last season of the show. Similar to what happened in 1968 with TOS, fans bombarded UPN and Paramount with letters begging for the series to be renewed, and as in 1968…it worked…for one more season. Star Trek: Enterprise would last four seasons with a total of 98 episodes. Its last episode, These Are the Voyages…aired on May 13, 2005 and would signal the end of Star Trek. For the first time since 1987…there would be no Star Trek series in production.
Another Holy Sh*t Trailer for PACIFIC RIM
Another trailer has been released for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim. I wasn’t too excited for this, but with each trailer it’s beginning to really grow on me. Monsters (known as Kaiju) come from the sea and humans build giant robots to defend themselves (know as Jaegers)
The scale on this flick looks amazing, it has to be seen on the big screen. This is what summer movies are all about, hmm what other clichés can I throw in here? Oh! Tour de force. Nailed it. The film stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Ron Perlman.
Pacific Rim opens in 3D on July 12th. Will you be checking it out? Will it put Transformers to shame?
Watch the trailer after the jump below, here’s a gif to hold you over.
FYI: The first Guillermo del Toro film to feature Ron Perlman as a human character since Cronos. Guillermo del Toro’s other films with Ron Perlman (Hellboy series) feature him as a non-human character.
Book Review: Mike Hammer – Complex 90
Max Allan Collins is the bestselling, award-winning author of Road to Perdition, the graphic novel that inspired the Oscar-winning movie starring Paul Newman and Tom Hanks. Titan Books has been so kind as to send us a copy of his latest release in the Mike Hammer series, Complex 90. Before his death, Mickey Spillane chose friend Max Allan Collins to complete the unfinished work.
Hammer accompanies a politician to Moscow, where he is arrested by the KGB and imprisoned. He quickly escapes, but back in the States, the government is none too happy. Russia demands his return to stand charges, and various government agencies are following him. Why does Russia want him back, and why was sent to Russia with the senator in the first place?
This is Collins’ seventh collaboration with Spillane (check out our 2012 review of Lady, Go Die!), set in 1964 is once again hits hard with the violence and body count talk. Mike Hammer has killed 45 Russians he admits to the U.S. government – like James Bond we really can just shrug it off; Russians just make for great baddies. So there’s the sex and violence here if you’re still wondering. The plot is easy to follow; the dialogue is strong but cliched sometimes. Again, like Bond, women just tend to lay down for this guy at any moment.
If you want a solid detective story, you have it here. Complex 90 is not your typical Mike Hammer story; he’s taking on some serious KGB thugs here. The cold war isn’t a light setting for a book, so I’m glad to see they handled it with care. At times it’s very over-the-top Rambo style; killing 45 Russians single-handedly? You jest. The important thing is, Mike gets his answers. An obscene amount of bullets were fired for them, but hey, it’s great fiction.
ORDER NOW: Amazon.com
More CoF Book Reviews:
- Tales From Development Hell
- Mike Hammer: Lady, Go Die!
- Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion
- The True Adventures of the World’s Greatest Stuntman
- Hollywood Movie Stills
- The Book of Alien and Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual
- The Twenty-Year Death
- The Dark Knight Rises – The Official Novelization
- Spartacus: Morituri
- The Cocktail Waitress
- Anno Dracula – Dracula Cha Cha Cha
- Olly Moss’ Silhouettes From Popular Culture
- The Great Showdowns
- Tarzan – The Centennial Celebration
- Dark Shadows – The Visual Companion
- Flash Gordon
- The Art of The Croods
- Peter Cushing – A Life In Film
- Plague Nation
- Supernatural – Carved in Flesh
- The Art of Epic
Trailer for LAST VEGAS Starring Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline
Here is the first trailer for the upcoming comedy Last Vegas. The film stars Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline as four old friends who decide to throw a bachelor party for Douglas’ character, the only one of them who has remained single.
We all said it was The Hangover for our dads, it looks like the studio isn’t afraid to admit it. That being said, it looks better than The Hangover. I like the lead actors, especially Douglas, so having them all together is just going to be fun.
The film also stars Mary Steenburgen, Jerry Ferrara, Romany Malco, and Roger Bart. Last Vegas opens on November 1st.
