Monthly Archives: April 2012

The Great Newspaper Comics Challenge Part 10

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In which we look at today’s comics page offerings. Because we can depend on “Batman” for all our laughs anymore.

“Classic Peanuts” shows Charlie Brown’s frustrations when his all-girl outfield leaves during a game to attend a tea party. Snoopy comes to the rescue with a bunch of blue birds. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Snoopy with any birds besides Woodstock before. I’m a little concerned about their relationship.

“Baby Blues” shows the harried mom picking up toys. Ooops, she put the baby in the toy box. The expression on her face in the last panel perfectly captures parental guilt and the feeling of “Did anybody notice that?”

“Garfield.” Two words. Projectile spitting.

“Blondie:” Dagwood uses Earth Day as an excuse not to mow the lawn. What’s the final panel? If you guessed Dagwood on the couch … you’re read “Blondie” before.

“Curtis” has an idea for a different kind of zombie movie. Instead of attacking people and eating brains, the zombie is an annoying houseguest: He leaves the refrigerator open, accidentally deletes his host’s iTunes playlist and … leaves a toe in the breakfast cereal? I can’t count the number of times that’s happened.

Another Earth Day message from “The Family Circus.” The family stands on top of a hill, looking out over a landscape. “God does a lot of coloring in the spring, doesn’t he?” Dolly says. Awww!

 

 

Here’s the ‘Cabin in the Woods’ whiteboard

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Here, on the heels of my entry about “The Cabin in the Woods,” is a shot of the whiteboard from the movie.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know the lab geeks running the horror show from behind the scenes have a whiteboard listing all the monsters possible in various scenarios at the cabin. “Giant snake,” “Deadites,” “Hell Lord” and — best of all — “Kevin” are among the choices.

A few online sites have posted this shot of the whiteboard. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.

Wouldn’t it be cool if “Kevin” was not some Jason or Freddy figure but just some annoying guy from down the street?

‘Cabin in the Woods’ a fun thrill ride

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A lot of people are comparing “The Cabin in the Woods,” the new thriller, to other movies that simultaneously exploited, explored and expanded on horror film themes, notably “Scream.”

But besides being better than “Scream,” “Cabin” reminds me more of a grown-up and bloody “Monsters Inc.,” the Pixar animated movie about a company that specializes in giving kids nightmares with monsters under their bed and in their closet.

Since I didn’t see “Cabin” until a week after it opened, I’m going to assume anyone reading this has either seen the movie or heard the basic story by now. So there might be some spoilers ahead. I won’t spoil the ending, though.

“Cabin” was written by “Avengers” director and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon and directed and co-written by Drew Goddard. On the surface, it plays like a “Friday the 13th” throwback: A group of college students — a jock, a stoner, a brain, a shy girl and a slut — go to a remote cabin to party.

From the very start, though, the audience knows something else is going on. The group is being monitored by office monkeys/scientists in a war room-style bunker. Not only are the watchers seeing everything that happens as the five get to the cabin; they’re manipulating the players and events. Gas is pumped through vents that prompts the partiers to behave in particular ways. A mild electric shock runs through the handle of a knife to make the person holding it drop it.

A few spooky things happen in the cabin — not the least of which is the uncharacteristic behavior of the five — but the movie shifts into high gear when they venture into the cabin’s basement and find hundreds of old and obscure items, including a necklace, reels of film, a studded metal ball (more than a little reminiscent of the mechanical nightmare box from the “Hellraiser” movies) and a diary of the former occupants of the cabin.

The partiers choose — and seal — their fate when they become engrossed in the diary, even reading aloud a passage in Latin. It is here when the movie seems most like “Scream,” as the stoner warns against reading the words aloud. He’s seen enough movies to know what might happen.

Before long, the long-dead cabin occupants have crawled out of their graves and begun stalking the teens.

Of course, it is the lab scenes that set “Cabin” apart from the “Evil Dead” films. We quickly find out that the lab workers are monitoring the goings-on at the cabin — as well as other sites around the world — and causing terror and mayhem. The reason? They’re servants of the ancient, Lovecraftian gods, the old ones, that once dominated the earth. And they know that bad things will happen if those gods aren’t appeased by their sacrifice.

The lab workers are also the source of much of the film’s humor, which is as crass and mean-spirited as it is funny. The scientists, led by Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins, are cold-hearted (mostly) and unfeeling as they must be. Their jobs are to stage modern-day human sacrifices. There’s no room for bleeding hearts here — except for the ones being ripped out on the lab’s monitors.

It’s hard to imagine, given the ending, how a sequel to “Cabin” could happen, but I guess a prequel is possible. What’s more likely is the Internet will fill up with speculation/fan fiction set in the world in which “Cabin” takes place that will fill in the backstory of the lab and its workers, how their system was set up and maintained and how it otherwise interacted with the outside world. Do the lab workers commute? Is the lab government-sponsored?

The lab workers, who also include Amy Acker and Tom Lenk from Whedon’s “Buffy” and “Angel,” are perfectly cast and always believable.

The archetype young people offered up for sacrifice are likewise terrific. The movie was made a couple of years ago and sat on the shelf not because of its quality but because its original studio, MGM, was having money problems. Since then, Chris Hemsworth (who plays the jock) has become a star as the Marvel comics character “Thor.” He’s got a big summer between this and “The Avengers.” Hemsworth is good and he and his four co-stars — Kristin Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Jesse Williams and Fran Kranz — are well-cast and play their parts perfectly. Kranz, who was in Whedon’s “Dollhouse” TV series, is very Shaggy-reminiscent as the stoner.

Random thoughts:

The sterile, underground labs and monster holding cells of “Cabin” reminded me of the Initiative, the secret military experiment from the fourth season of Whedon’s “Buffy.” Only instead of stocking a compound full of monsters to kill teenagers, the Initiative captured monsters to experiment on them.

Another “Buffy” echo: “Cabin” builds on the idea of thousands of years of human sacrifice to appease evil. Of course in “Buffy,” the Slayers and Watchers were created, thousands of years ago, to fight evil.

I hope someone’s working on a detailed analysis of the whiteboard in the war room that contained all the monsters and scenarios. I tried to read as much of it as I could and caught some of the other threats like “Kevin” — a Jason stand-in, possibly? — but I would love to see everything that was up there.

Do you think the monsters in the movie were supposed to be real in their world? Or were they created, “inspired” by old horror tales and movies? Or does — as one clever person I know suggested — “Cabin” take place in the same world as all those old horror movies, finally taking us behind the scenes of Jason, Michael Myers, Freddy and all the rest?

“Cabin” is, for those with strong hearts and stomachs, cool, geeky fun. Maybe best of all, it made me want to re-watch “Buffy” episodes and some favorite recent horror movies.

Saying goodbye to Jonathan Frid

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One of the pop culture icons of my childhood is gone. It was announced today that Jonathan Frid died April 13 in his home in Canada. He was 87.

Frid was, of course, Barnabas Collins on the classic supernatural daytime drama “Dark Shadows.”

His death came just a few weeks before the May 11 release of the Tim Burton, Johnny Depp big-screen version of the venerable soap. Frid, along with other regulars from the TV series, appears in the movie, which is pitched as a much more light-hearted take on the gothic drama.

“Dark Shadows” aired late afternoon weekdays from 1966 to 1971. Frid didn’t join the cast until several months in, however, when groundskeeper Willie Loomis (John Karlen) accidentally released him by opening his coffin.

I’ve noted before that the show was a special one for me. I came home from elementary school every day, sat down at the coffee table in my living room and watched the show while I did my homework.

My deepest appreciation for the series, however, came when it aired in syndication years later. Then I recognized all the tricks and treats the series contained: Wild storylines that involved not only vampires like Barnabas but witches, werewolves and ghosts and even time travel.

“Dark Shadows,” like many soaps at the time, was videotaped with little room for error or fixing of same. Actors would sometimes forget their lines or bump into furniture or doors while making a dramatic exit from a scene. I loved the show anyway.

I still remember with bitter disappointment watching the last episode. This was 1971, of course, before the Internet and news of show business — particularly a geeky daytime drama — was hard to come by.

The final episode reflected an effort to tie up loose ends. The last storyline for the show had all the actors playing their ancestors in the past. Near the end of the episode, bite-type neck wounds are inflicted on someone. Is a vampire loose at Collinwood?

But the voice-over narration contradicted that ominous development and predicted a happy ending for Bramwell Collins, played in this storyline by Frid:

There was no vampire loose on the great estate. For the first time at Collinwood the marks on the neck were indeed those of an animal. Melanie soon recovered and went to live in Boston with her beloved Kendrick. There, they prospered and had three children. Bramwell and Catherine were soon married and, at Flora’s insistence, stayed on at Collinwood where Bramwell assumed control of the Collins business interests. Their love became a living legend. And, for as long as they lived, the dark shadows at Collinwood were but a memory of the distant past.

The words had an element of finality to them and I suspected the worst. The following Monday I tuned in and, sure enough, the show was not on.

My disappointment was massive. I even wrote a letter to the Indianapolis TV station that aired the show, asking if it would return. I don’t recall getting an answer.

“Dark Shadows” — all 1,200-plus episodes — is now available on DVD for the enjoyment of fans.

I’m leery of what Burton and Depp have done with the remake, but I’ll probably see it.

And if he does indeed appear in the movie, Frid will be a welcome sight.

So I’ll mourn his passing and enjoy my memories of my afternoons with Barnabas and family and all the enjoyment Jonathan Frid gave me over the years.

‘Night of the Comet,’ ‘Buffy,’ Black Widow: Butt-kicking heroines

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With “The Avengers” coming up on May 4, it’s interesting to note that one of the first clips from the movie officially released, a couple of weeks ago, was one of Black Widow, the non-superpowered, female member of that particular boys club, easily escaping from some bad guys and demolishing them in the process.

It’s a pretty good action scene, if mild compared to what we’ve subsequently seen involving Thor, Iron Man and particularly the Hulk.

But there was some nice symmetry to the clip’s release considering that “The Avengers” was directed by Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

There’s been some backlash to Whedon’s signature use of petite female characters as ass-kicking heroines, including Buffy and other slayers from that series and “Angel” as well as River, the programmed killing machine in “Firefly.”

But it’s interesting to note that Whedon has cited in at least one interview “Night of the Comet” as one of the influences on the creation of “Buffy” the lame movie and terrific 1997-2003 TV series.

Not long after the series ended, Whedon told IGN:

So, you know, when I hit on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it was right around the time when Revenge of the Bimbos, or Attack of the Killer Bimbos or something – there were a lot of movies coming out that were proto-silly ’50s style titles. They were on the video store shelves. I worked at a video store. I would watch them, and I’d be like, “You know what? This is just another bimbo movie. These women aren’t empowered at all. They just made up a funny title.” I was like, “I would like to make a movie that was one of these crappy, low-budget movies, that like the Romero films, had a feminist agenda, had females in it who were people, and had all the fun, all the silliness. Night of the Comet was a big influence. That actually had a cheerleader in it. With a title that would actually make people take it off the video store shelves, because it has to sound silly and not boring. 

“Night of the Comet,” released in 1984, was the story of two Southern California teenagers, sisters Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart), known as Reggie, and Samantha (Kelli Maroney), known as Sam, who survive the end of the world, brought on by global exposure to a comet that reduces most of the world’s population to red dust and turns the rest into zombies.

Reggie and Sam, after a moment of shock and loss, quickly set out to survive in the post-apocalyptic world and connect with other survivors.

Although they’re teenagers — and the movie was released during the “Valley Girl” craze — Reggie and Sam are level-headed, even matter-of-fact, about the end of the world. There’s the customary all-you-can-shop scene, played to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” set at the mall, but George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” succumbed to the same idea a few years earlier.

And even though Sam is a cheerleader, the sisters are hardly pushovers. Raised by a career military man, the two quickly find supplies — although Sam is scornful of Reggie’s choice of automatic weapon, noting, “Daddy would have gotten us Uzis” — and are more than capable of defending themselves and other, less capable strays they come across.

Director Thom Eberhardt’s movie is amiably low-budget. You know they filmed the deserted downtown L.A. street scenes on a Sunday morning, for example, and you admire their ingenuity.

Whedon — who I’m pretty sure is an outspoken feminist — is a fan of empowered women. Even if they’re five feet tall and a hundred pounds. As long as they can wield a mean Uzi, kung-fu vampires into the afterlife or hold their own with the likes of Captain America and the Hulk, Whedon believes that size doesn’t matter — and neither does gender.

‘Mad Men’ goes for shock value with ‘Signal 30’

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Just when you thought this season’s “Mad Men” couldn’t get any more … out there than last week’s choke-tacular “Mystery Date,” comes tonight’s episode, “Signal 30.”

The title refers to the blood-and-guts-filled, 1960s-era drivers education movie that pompous little ad man Pete sees in preparation for getting his drivers license in time for life in the ‘burbs. But tonight’s episode had mayhem all the way through.

Let’s start with Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), who can be an awfully hard character to take. I take that back. Pete is almost impossible to like, with his grasping, career-climbing ways and pissy attitude. So it was kind of fun to see him squirming and taking his licks — literally — tonight.

First there was Pete’s attempts to seduce the high school girl in his class, only to be outdone by … a high school boy, who ends up feeling up the object of Pete’s jailbait leanings. All the while, Pete watches, frustrated, from one row back in the classroom.

Then there’s Roger and Pete’s partaking of hookers at a high-class whorehouse. That unlikely twosome and Don take Lane’s client, a Jaguar executive, to a brothel. Don — still living the honeymoon life with “zoobie zoobie” Megan — sits at the bar and behaves himself while Pete, Roger and the Jag guy plunge into the beds of what would appear to be high-class 1960s Manhattan call girls.

Then there’s Pete’s comeuppance at the hands of Brit Lane Pryce (Jared Harris, who is just wonderful). When the Jaguar exec’s infidelity is discovered by his wife the account goes up in smoke and Lane throws down on Pete.

The resulting fight, right in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce offices, shows Lane delivering unto Pete a sound thrashing and is bookended by great quips from Roger: “I suppose cooler heads should prevail, but I want to watch this” and “I had Lane.”

Other highlights:

Pete showing off his wall-length cabinet record player to visitors to his home.

This season’s daring “Mad Men” fashion experience continues as Don becomes the latest wearer of a crazy plaid sportscoat.

This season’s desperation level is high. Roger’s a mess, Pete’s trying to pick up schoolgirls, Lane’s fixation on the wallet a few episodes ago and, tonight, Lane’s passionate move on Joan.

Ad man Ken’s second career as a science fiction writer. Ken’s proud wife brags about it, prompting Roger to tell him to knock it off, saying that a career in advertising is satisfying enough when things are going well.

“I remember that,” Roger says before stalking out.

The Great Newspaper Comics Challenge Part 9

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Our look at today’s newspaper comic strips. Because surely the newspaper comics didn’t stop being funny when “Pogo” trudged back into the swamp?

“Classic Peanuts” features Charlie Brown refusing Lucy’s suggestion that he bean a pitcher. A spirited discussion ensues, covering the morality of everything from “the way the early settlers treated the Indians” to “our whole system of freeways.” Schulz did this kind of thing better than anyone.

Good sight gag in “Zits:” The teenage son imagines having an elephant-like trunk instead of a nose so he can eat pizza and mess with his smart phone at the same time. “Creepiest. Idea. Ever.” his friend says. “I’m just saying that evolution could try a lot harder to keep up with technology,” he replies.

True on all counts: In “Pickles,” the protagonist fusses at her husband for eating the chocolate bar she had hidden away. You can’t leave chocolate around and not expect it to be eaten, he replies. “That’s like dropping bacon on the floor in front of a dog and expecting him to ignore it.” As she goes on to explain how carefully she had hidden the candy, the dog walks in and thinks, “Did someone say bacon?”

Great “Doonesbury” today: Soldier Melanie, disappointed she hasn’t heard from her family, calls home. Her brother explains that the kids have been sick or busy with activities. “Sounds crazy,” she agrees. “Where are you calling from?” he asks. “Afghanistan,” she replies. “Wait, we’re still there?” her brother asks.

“Beetle Bailey” rushes past the door to Sarge’s office to avoid the big bully. “I feel a strong breeze in here,” Sarge says. “And it smells like Beetle,” another soldier says. Wait, they know their troops by how they smell? So do they even use dog tags anymore?

In “The Family Circus,” Jeffy runs around inside the house like a madman, jumping over furniture, jumping on the bed, doing backflips. He’s exhausted and settles in his bed when his mom scolds him for not getting outside and getting exercise. And thus parkour was born.

 

More new ‘Avengers’ pics, clip

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How many more days until May 4?

I told myself I wasn’t gonna do this. But I’m prematurely geeking over “The Avengers.”

It’s not like I’ve been waiting for this movie since I was in elementary school or anything. Not like I’ve been waiting since the first “Iron Man” movie had a hint of, ultimately, the superhero team-up that is “The Avengers.”

Not like the Twitter reaction to this week’s premiere of Joss Whedon’s movie hasn’t been pretty much uniformly praiseworthy.

Not like Marvel didn’t just release a quick clip of Cap and Thor fighting aliens.

Not like I didn’t just read my first review of the movie. I’m not even going to link to it. The review gives too much away.

Sigh.

Twenty days.

A moment to mourn ‘The Fades’

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“The Fades” has left us before we really got to know it.

If the name of the BBC supernatural series doesn’t ring a bell with you, that’s probably a good indicator that the show was little-seen. But believe me, it was much admired in some quarters.

Previously in this blog I’ve noted that the show, about a British teenager, Paul, who discovers he’s a “Buffy”-like Chosen One, was one of the best modern-day incarnations of that type of story: A young person, overmatched by regular everyday life,x finds the weight — and fate — of the world on his (her in “Buffy’s” case) slim shoulders.

“The Fades,” which aired around these parts on BBC America, had only about a half-dozen episodes in its first season. The storyline resolved itself to a great degree but really left fans wanting more.

It was not to be. The channel BBC3 announced a few days ago that a second season would not be produced.

I doubt that decision — which has been greeted with some “outrage” by fans, according to news accounts — will be reversed, but I think you’d still enjoy the first (and only) season of the show. It’s been available On Demand and is out on disc.

If you start watching, be aware that after a slightly awkward opening episode, the show moves into creepy good mode.

There’s not much of “The Fades” out there, but what there is is quite enjoyable.

Madchen Amick fans assemble!

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What do actress Madchen Amick, the newspaper comic panel “The Family Circus” and the giant flying snake thing from the previews for “The Avengers” have in common?

They’re pretty much the most popular topics I’ve written about in this blog.

Since early this week, when I followed up on my “Mad Men” review with an entry noting that Andrea, the old fling of Don Draper who showed up on Don’s doorstep — and under his bed, choked to death, in his fever dream — was played by Amick, hundreds of readers have checked out the blog.

So, in the spirit of cheap plays for page views, I wanted to note the popularity of Amick, best-remembered for most of us as diner waitress Shelly in the cult classic TV series “Twin Peaks.”

I also wanted to note that most sources online appear to agree that Amick, born in 1970 according to her IMDb entry, looks pretty amazing.

It doesn’t take much Googling to determine that clips of Amick, particularly in a bikini from the cable TV series “Californication,” are out there.

Go ahead and Google. I’ll wait.

Anyway, Madchen Amick is now forever enshrined in this blog’s hall of fame, along with Billy, Jeffy and the the rest of the Keane comic strip family as well as the Leviathan or whatever flying beastie the Avengers will face.

Now if there was only some way to get Madchen Amick, the ghostly grandparents from “The Family Circus” and the flying snake thing from “The Avengers” all into the same blog item.

Hmm.