DC Comics may be in the midst of a bit of a bumpy road in getting some of their characters up onto the big screen, but they have no such issues with their animated teevee movie offerings. Superman Returns had all the best intentions, but was a bit of a mess. Green Lantern was one of those dream projects that I never thought would become a reality as a geeky young comic book reader...it was a train-wreck. Christopher Nolan's Batfilms made a lot of money...I could never get over that Batman sounded like cookie monster and had a lame Batmobile. Joss Whedon wrote a script for a Wonder Woman movie, but the Warner Bros powers that be figured that they could find someone better to do a super-hero movie.

Ever since the the Paul Dini / Bruce Timm Batman series of the early 90's, DC cartoons have been on an incredible role of quality output. That show's story continuity and character design style went on to encompass Superman, Justice League, Batman Beyond, a number of small screen films, and the big screen Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (which I think is the best representation of the character that ever appeared in cinemas). After they concluded that universe of stories, they produced a very fun anime style Teen Titans and a bunch of stand alone non-theatrical movies featuring various incarnations of their characters.

I finally got around to watching the adaptation of Frank Miller's 1980's comic book masterpiece, Batman: Th Dark Knight Returns. Despite the looming shadow of having the task of putting one of the greatest and most important comic books ever produced into animation form, they greatly succeeded and did not disappoint. The Kill Bill style cut in two chapters mini-epic features Peter Weller as Batman and Michael Emerson as Joker, both of whom would do equally fine jobs in a live action version of the script I'm sure.

You would think that sooner or later that the film executives would come to their senses and let this team do the big screen movie franchises instead. If that happened we just might have Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern...wouldn't that be a better movie watching world to be in?

While listening to an episode of the FEaB podcast, the topic of Muppet Babies came up between hosts Matt Mira and Scott Mosier.

The Muppet Babies cartoon featured lil kid versions of Kermit and Gonzo and all the other mainstay Muppets in imaginative day-care adventures. There were never any scenes of the Muppet kids being dropped off or picked up by parents, so it might've actually been an orphanage, I'm not positive.

As we all know, The Muppet Movie establishes that the Muppets all meet up as adults as Kermit instigates a road-trip to Hollywood to attain fame and fortune. Contradictory to that, in the teevee special A Muppet Family Christmas, there is a scene in which the gathered Muppets watch a home movie from when they were babies. Meaning we have conflicting histories in the Muppet-verse, one time-line in which they've been friends since they were kids and one in which they meet as adults. The only possible reasoning is that the bulk of The Muppet Movie is of course a based-on-a-true-story account bio-film that the Muppets have produced and are watching.

So, Muppet Babies, book-ends of Muppet Movie with the Muppets in the theatre, and Muppet Family Christmas are in continuity...core of Muppet Movie is the Muppets acting in a movie in which they play themselves and re-tell a fictionalized account of their origins. I'm glad that we could get all that mess figured out. Now, the real issue of concern is that the Fraggles in Muppet Family Christmas are the same size as Kermit, when we all know that they are much tinier then that. What the hell is the deal with those enormous Fraggles?

I love Mike Mignola's Hellboy universe of comic book characters. Especially great is how he hasn't rested on the singular popularity of Hellboy, in fact, for the past few years Hellboy has appeared in many fewer issues than his other Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense characters have been more in the front line. Former Hellboy sidekick, the fish-man Abe Sapien recently graduated up to reular ongoing series status star, and other bizarre characters like Lobster Johnson show up in their own mini-series every so often.

The latest strange character from the mind of Mike Mignola to spin off into his own mini-series is Sledge-hammer 44, which at first glance seems to be a World War II Iron Man. Because the character is in the Mignola-verse, that rather simple concept ends up being much more imaginative and interesting. Best of all, is that Dark Horse seems to have learned lessons from the mistakes of bigger goliath companies like DC and Marvel. Sledge-hammer 44 is a two issue series that you can enjoy is you are a Hellboy super-fan, or if you have never heard of Hellboy and just think that a guy in a robot suit fighting Nazi's sounds like a cool thing to read about. You don't have to buy three dozen other books to know what the hell is going on.

Do you like hilarious things? Then you should buy the House of Fun one-shot from writer /artist Evan Dorkin and Dark Horse Comics. I'm pretty sure that here is more funny in this single comic book than in entire seasons of teevee series, multiple stand-up comedy events, or giant stacks of other books. New adventures of Milk and Cheese alone would be worth the price of admission, but there is so much more (mostly wonderfully offensively more). Put newspaper comic strips to shame with their unwarranted claims at providing humour, read House of Fun instead.

The latest super-hero story-line twist that DC Comics has released onto their New 52 Universe is the introduction of Carrie Kelley. Carrie is a creation of Frank Miller, a female Robin side-kick to a crazy senior citizen Batman in the 1980's comic book masterpiece, The Dark Knight Returns.

Of course, not so surprisingly, this development has caused an unleashing of anger from many nerds on the interwebs. I avoid most of these comments by trying to stay away from comment boards on various geek websites. My eye has unfortunately caught a few bouts of typed out negativity though. What always drives me crazy about this kind of stuff is it's a level of critiquing anger leveled towards a thing which they have not even read yet. If you read it and don't like it, that's fine. How about we refrain from death threats to comic book writers at least until the topic of the subject is read? Actually...y'know what...just don't send death threats to someone because they wrote something you don't like in a comic book. Take a step back and realize that that is lunacy. Would you like receiving death threats? I don't think so.

I have read Batman & Red Robin # 19 (Batman will have rotating side-kick guest stars for the time being after the heartbreaking loss of Damien), and I liked it a lot. Carrie is indeed in it, though the Robin connection is a bit of a misdirection. The actual story explores how Batman is acting even more off-kilter than a guy dressed like a bat normally does, and how he is acting in a state of vigilante genius mourning. As the title states, previous side-kick Tim Drake guest stars in the book, as does the less likely guest-star of DC's take on the Frankenstein Monster.

Peter J Tomasi and Pat Gleason have written and drawn an impressive run on their Batman title. I think it's hands down the best Batman comic now that writer Grant Morrison is finishing up his run in Gotham. The curse of a shared universe is that you have to fall into pace with what happens elsewhere. I have a feeling that they would have liked to continue to tell stories with Damien Wayne as Robin, but that was not meant to be. I don't care how it's done, I don't care if it's some horrible magic or alien twist, I want Damien back. Until that happens though, or even if it doesn't, I look forward to seeing what these guys do with this book now. A lot of geeks have said that there's nothing good from DC's New 52 line. I have a feeling they haven't read Batman & Robin.

When I first heard of Warm Bodies, I didn't really get expectations too high, despite my usual enjoyment of films with zombies in them. I figured that it would be another in the weird and unwanted Twilight sub-genre of movies that have come out on the heels of those sparkly vampire movies, like Red Riding Hood and Beastly. It most decidedly is not, and is actually a quite intelligent and original zom-rom-com (although based on a book, so not wholly original).

There are both fast moving zombies and plot developments new to the zombie mythos within the movie. Which means that there are zombie fans complaining about the legitimacy of the motion picture, many I'm sure who are whining about it even though they haven't sen it yet. What these horror fan-boys must remember is that zombies aren't real, and therefor there can't really be rules as to how they are supposed to act. There are rules as to how lions or airplanes act, because those things are actually in existence. Zombies have made quite a come-back to movies and books and video games in the past decade or so, so when they can an interesting plot point twist thrown at them, I am all for it. I love the traditional George Romero zombie movie. One of the highlights of my life in fact was when I visited the graveyard where the opening scenes of Night of the Living Dead was shot. That doesn't mean that I fear change though.

You can check out this new take on the brain eating horror movie mainstay when Warm Bodies screens at the Mayfair on Monday April 15th and Tuesday the 16th at 9:30pm.

One of the best things about being a roller derby side-kick is getting to tag along and help out on their road games. In the past few years I've traveled into the States with them to Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania as a non-skating official (meaning I help keep track of the score and other stuff like that). What better way would I get to visit our friends to the south, and such cultural meccas as Sudbury and Scarborough in out homeland?

Up bright and early today to jump in to the Rideau Valley Roller Girls party bus and head across the border to Manchester, New Hampshire. Our Vixens will take battle against the Skate Free or Die All Stars at 7:00pm. As long as I don't get stopped at the border because they think I'm a law-breaker named Jamar (almost happened), good times should be had by all.

Watching The General, the Buster Keaton in the Civil War cinematic classic, at the Mayfair is quite the happening in it's own right. Now, make it a Silents is Golden screening, with musical accompaniment to the silent masterpiece and it's even more special. If the music is coming from the ensemble Viola Dana, who are visiting all the way from the far off land of Australia, that makes this one night only event rather spectacular. It's always difficult to truly claim that an experience is once in a life-time, but this just might be one of those situations.

The General screens tonight at 6:30pm at the Mayfair.

The negative in regards to the latest incarnation of the long and diverse Hulk mythos is that he wears a ridiculously ugly suit of techno-armour that looks like it could've been torn right from a Michael Bay Transformers character design. The positive is that it is written by Mark Waid (2012 Eisner award winning writer of Daredevil) and that this story arc is drawn by living legend (and creator of Beta Ray Bill, one of my favourite characters) Walt Simonson.

Hulk has had many incarnations, ranging from a suit wearing Las Vegas enforcer to a gladiatorial space Conan to the rampaging Jekyll & Hyde monster that most know and love. This latest twist on the comic book icon explores the notion that Bruce Banner is tired of hiding from the law, walking around the dessert and washing dishes for a living in order to try to stay out of people's way and avoid turning into a big green monster and smashing things. He is one of the most brilliant people on the planet, and he's tired of Tony Stark and Reed Richards getting all the praise and reward and getting to live in awesome New York City buildings. Luckily, Bruce Banner has reached a level of being able to reign in the Hulk and only transform when he wants to transform. So, he goes to SHIELD (Marvel's super spy organization if you are somehow not in the know of that) and suggests a proposal. He gets all the financing and resources that being a scientist for the SHIELD organization brings, and in trade they get to use the Hulk as a weapon against evil.

In honour of artist Walt Simonson being on board for a few issues, this is a Thor guest starring story. And something super awesome happens on the last page. I will not tell you what that thing is though, or even hint towards what it might be, because spoilers are evil. Just, y'know...avoid the internet until you read the issue if you want to remain surprised. If you type in Hulk to Google I'm sure spoilers will be quick and unavoidable and bring on smashing like levels of anger.

I very rarely venture out of the safe and high quality surroundings of the Mayfair for my big screen movie watching. Usually the only time I'm not at the Mayfair for watching movies it's because I'm doing to so at a special event like the Ottawa Animation Fest, or Fantasia or the Montreal Comiccon. A couple times a year I will go to the multiplex to see a new Hollywood release, but I never spend money in doing so. I will make use of points off of my Visa card or I'll be going because I got a hold of some advance screening preview passes. That helps me feel as if I'm not cheating on the Mayfair.

Last night my friend was nice enough to take me out for a belated movie night viewing of the new Evil Dead movie. I am fairly confident that we will screen the latest deadite gore-fest sometime in the near future, but I've had bad luck with spoilers of late and wanted to see the film before some jerk ruined plot twists or surprises for me. I unfortunately came to remember something last night. I hate multiplexes. I don't just say that as a repertory theatre owner.

Well, to be fair, in this instance there was nothing wrong with the multiplex side of the screening presentation. In recent past there have been all kinds of different issues with my multiplex movie viewing experience. This time around it was really more my loss of faith in humanity vs sub-par movie patron customer service. I don't want to generalize or profile, but when a overweight Vanilla Ice looking 20-something in a too small Chicago Bulls cap and too big Chicago Bulls jersey rolls in with a similarly attired gang of incorrect baseball cap wearing guys and reality show star looking girls roll in, there is a sense that annoyance is on the horizon. And it was indeed annoying with lots of talking and cel phone checking on their part.

Then there were a group of women sitting behind us who somehow seemed to not realize that they had bought a ticket, entered a theatre, and had instigated the interaction of being in the presence of a horror movie. I think they thought that a movie called Evil Dead was a Julia Roberts romantic comedy or involved a plot-line in which Matthew McConaughey learns himself a valuable lesson. And half the audience thought it was completely acceptable to comment along with the movie as if they were sitting at home with a friend on the couch. Not just punk kids, but grown-up productive members of society who should know better and feel ashamed. After the experience I feel I'm happy to stay in my Mayfair home at all times to watch movies.

Anyhow, the good news on the night is that despite the sub-par and frustrating surroundings, I loved the movie. Fede Alvarez makes his feature film directorial debut and does so with style. What we have here isn't just a carbon-copy or unnecessary remake like The Ring or Friday the 13th, but an impressive addition to the Evil Dead legacy. It's scary, it has brains, some striking performances from the young cast, and most importantly is really scary.

The movie is produced by Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell, the masterminds behind the previous three Evil Dead films. They are actual producers on it too, not just slapping their name on it in exchange for a pay-cheque. As people love to point out, Hollywood is in the midst of loving unoriginal properties, whether they be remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, spin-offs or adaptations. I like to have a glass half full view on the situation, and look at examples like Evil Dead as filmmakers making the best of the situation. If we are going to have another Evil Dead movie instead of another new concept along the lines of Drag Me to Hell...I'm glad that those involved are giving it their all and making worthy films none-the-less.

We can only dream that the box office success so far ($29 million in its first four days off of a $17 million dollar budget) will lead to another horrific Evil Dead adventure, maybe even one with Bruce Campbell doing more than producing duties and stepping in front of the camera.

I'm hard pressed to single out a favourite band, but every-time I see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform (be it live or in a music video or on The Late Show) it brings me much joy. Looking very forward to listening to the entirety of their new album. I am very glad to share a planet with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

John Dies at the End is the new film from Don Coscarelli, shockingly enough his first feature directorial effort in a decade. He's been thanked on half a dozen movies, written and directed an episode of Masters of Horror, but somehow a whole ten years has passed by since the cinematic brilliance that was Bubba Ho-Tep.

The elderly Elvis Presley vs cowboy mummy masterpiece is a mighty accomplishment to follow-up, especially for me since it is one of my favourite movies of all time. I had a feeling that the movie might be weird and fun in a good bad movie kinda way, and was happily surprised that it was indeed great and is surely destined to become a cult classic.

I thought I might have no idea what was going on in a David Lynch kinda manner, but the screenplay was very well crafted. It was an impressive puzzle piecing adaptation of the novel, especially considering the Doctor Who timey wimey aspects of the plot. Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes, both newcomers enough that I don't believe I've seen either of them in anything before, turn in fine performances as a pair of slackers who fall into a supernatural world of monster hunting and universe saving. Paul Giamatti turns in a fine supporting role, and you even get to see Doug Jones in a rare non-monster costumed performance (as you may have seen him in Hellboy or Pan's Labyrinth). All of this plus nasty slugs, giant monsters, bug aliens, gross spider things, a meat man and a heroic dog.

We can only hope that we get another bizarre piece of movie magic from Don Coscarelli again before 2022.

Catch John Dies at the End on Tuesday April 9th at the Mayfair.

The artist who undertook the challenge of redesigning a bunch of female super-hero icons in a more fully clothed manner says that he didn't do so in any kind of moral code pushing manner. I believe him, but none-the-less it does point out the rather horrible trend in some comics books of revealing costume design when it comes it's female hero's.

This is nothing new of course, seeing as how Vampirella first appeared in 1969. Her traditional outfit is a bit more forgivable seeing as she was from a purposeful B-movie kinda horror storytelling world. When it comes to comic books in the 1990's, things were fairly horrible. Even as a kid I could look at Psylocke's costume in the X-Men and realize that it was pretty ridiculous and the lack of pants didn't really make any sense. Even Supergirl has one back and fourth a bit, and at her costume design worst sported a rather stripper-esque attire that I could never imagine her cousin Kal approving of. I love Power Girl, and the costume design here manages to pay tribute to her geek famous wardrobe, while making use of slightly more real world sensibilities.

I really like all of the fully clothed designs that artist Michael Lunsford whipped up, you can check out the rest of them at his Supernormal Step website.

It's derby night in Ottawa! Well...Rockland...but that's kinda close to Ottawa. It is worth the trek. All the pertinent information can be viewed in the above banner, or click over to the Rideau Valley Roller Girls site. Don't miss out on the premiere bout for the new travel team, the Rideau Valley Vixens. And you know what a brand new derby team means right!? An excellent excuse to buy a shiny new t-shirt!

Watching a classic silent film up on the big screen in a theatre that opened in 1932 is quite the amazing movie watching venture. Now, add live musical accompaniment to that, and you've got a truly rare cinematic experience. At the Mayfair tonight and tomorrow (Friday April 5 and Saturday April 6) we're screening The Passion of Joan of Arc , and Tom Peters will be on hand to perform his score. He will be playing an electric six string double bass, and will b accompanied by Joelle Morton on an amplified viola da gamba. If you are a movie aficionado, it might just even be more awesome than 3-D dinosaurs.

I was working on a documentary pitch for the bulk of the day, and took a brief break to check in on Mayfair social media stuff. I wish that I hadn't, because it really added a depression to the rest of my day. My Mayfair Twitter partner in crime wrote on our Twitter page - "The balcony has closed". Being a geek of the cinema, I instantly understood the reference, and zapped over to google to proceed to get choked up at the news that Roger Ebert had died.

I admit that I never really watched Roger's teevee show all that much. I do my best to avoid spoilers, even before the term spoiler existed, so watching a movie review / clip show kinda' goes against that practice. I also was rather opposed to the thumb up or down rating of a film, seemed all a little too black and white. It too easily put films into a 50 / 50, good or bad and no other possible level in-between of a classification. I would disagree with Roger on occasion. He liked both of the Tomb Raider movies somehow. And his views on video games made him sound quite a bit closed minded and out of touch.

Roger was an amazing writer though. All of his accolades and awards and year's of service easily enough prove that. I was always in the habit of reading his reviews after I watched the movie in question, to see what his thoughts were. I have also read most of his books, whether it be one filled with gushing and deserved praise for Martin Scorsese, or a book filled with reviews of terrible movies. I've never read anything from Roger that wasn't interesting, informative and fun. On top of his writing skills, independent and cult cinema never had a better friend who helped spread the news of their existence to the mainstream.

Unlike many other critics, what I really loved about Roger was that it was evident that he really loved movies. And when he didn't like the movie, he didn't degrade it with insults or bad puns, but would still turn in a review that was a good read despite it's sub-par movie source in question. Roger loves B-movies and sci-fi and the classics, he could equally extol the virtues of Federico Fellini or Russ Meyer, of Woody Allen or a giant monster movie. In the past few years, when his illness increased and his ability to verbally communicate decreased, he because a corner-stone of blogging and twitter, both of which I read daily. And thanks to the magic of the interwebs, pretty much every review that he has ever written is easily available for one's perusal. Sadly, I will never get to read what he thinks about upcoming releases, and I won't get to us his quotes for new movies screening at the Mayfair anymore.

Kind words about Roger will roll in over the next few days and be re-posted on all the geek movie sites. I will read a lot of them, and many will likely leave me choked up and teary eyed. By coincidence, we are screening The General at the Mayfair in the near future. Not just are we screening the Buster Keaton classic, but we also have live musical accompaniment to o along with it. It was one of Roger's top 10 favourite movies, I think he would have enjoyed watching it with us at the Mayfair.

There was an interesting non-super-villain punching twist in writer Rick Remender's Uncanny Avengers # 5. The series focuses on a team of combined Avengers and X-Men, assembled by Captain America, to promote unity on the heels of a super-hero disaster which resulted in an alien possessed God like Cyclops killing Professor X. The captain put mutant X-Men alum, and Cyclops' little brother, Havok on the front-line as the leader and face of the team.

At a press conference, Havok stated, "I see the word mutant as divisive. Old thinking that serves to further separate us from our fellow man. We are all humans. Of one tribe. We are defined by our choices, not the makeup of our genes. So, please, don't call us mutants. The M word represents everything I hate.". A reporter then asks what should he be called then if not a mutant, and his response is "How about Alex?".

By the time it took me to read and get around to writing about this, the comic has already caused the usual harsh retorts and angry rants from some of the online nerd community. I think there are two things to remember before sending a person death threats over plot-lines in a comic book. 1 - The views of a fictional character are not necessarily those of the writer. 2 - Characters have to do and say things that may lead to conflict. If not, stories would be very boring.

I for one am very intrigued by this take on the mutant cause within the Marvel universe. I don't think Havok is being disrespectful or flippant or uncaring. I think he is pointing out that no matter what we look like, no matter our strengths or weakness, no matter what cool things we might be able to do that someone else cannot...we are all human beings. I think that that belief is a train of thought that can be admired within a super-hero role-model world.

I have totally accepted and embraced our cinematic digital over-lords. There are still some fans of the cinema who fear the change, some who have even gone to the extent to threaten to never return to a theatre unless it is screening a 35mm film. It's not that I don't understand the concern that some have about changing technology, I can identify with the romantic aspects and age old tradition of film spooling through a projector. I have a film strip filled with some of my favourite things tattooed on my arm.

At this point though, complaining about digital cinema presentation is a lost cause. It's not even a battle worth fighting or worrying about, film is pretty much extinct. If you want to watch movies, those movies are almost all being shot via non-35mm means, and are being projected via a non-35mm system. If I read a comic book on a tablet instead of off of paper is it not a comic? If I listen to my favourite band on an MP3 player instead of a record player are they not still songs? If I watch a movie on VHS or DVD or Blu Ray or 35mm or digital projection...it's all still watching a movie.

Not only is digital projection still watching a movie, it's watching a movie in such high quality that most viewers would have no idea of the difference. If fact, considering how poorly prints have been treated over the years, you are more likely to an enjoyable unhindered movie watching experience via digital than a poor ole' beat up film print. Recently at the Mayfair we've had movies like Duck Soup, Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein and Jason and the Argonauts...all were digital and all were gloriously pristine in their presentations. There is unfortunately absolutely no way that such could be said for film presentations...more so, there are no film prints in existence for us to screen of these classics.

Anyhow...I watched a very well put together documentary on the subject titled Side by Side. It is hosted by Keanu Reeves, and it is super evident that Keanu loves the 35mm film. It is a very even and interesting account on the past, present and future of movie production and distribution. Interview subjects include filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Danny Boyle, David Lynch and a whole bunch more. Side by Side is on the Netflix for your at home movie watching enjoyment.

What I think it all comes down to is that there should be more concern about whether the movie is good or not, instead of what kind of camera it was shot on and what the projector looks like. Does it look good up on the screen? Yes? Great. Then don't fret about whether it's projected via celluloid magic or digital magic, just sit back and eat your popcorn, drink your Coke, and enjoy the over-all movie magic.

Wait...is Easter the day we celebrate Jesus defeating the Easter Bunny or the Easter Bunny defeating Jesus? I'm not sure how that all played out in historical texts. I commemorate the mighty battle today by eating Batman logo and Darth Vader helmet shaped chocolates that the Bunny left me in celebration of his victory, or as penance for his embarrassing defeat. As long as I get some chocolate, I will support either side.

Nothing lifts ones spirits like a brand new episode of Doctor Who. Part of me wishes there were 25 episodes of Doctor Who every season with shorter breaks in-between. I must concede to agree with show-running mastermind Steven Moffat that having less of something great and building up anticipation due to waiting is not the worst thing in the world.

Conveniently enough, the latest episode can be viewed on the Space website. I haven't had actual teevee for years, and think that watching stuff in this website manner is really the best way to support the shows you love. Most of us never had Nielsen ratings boxes hooked up, so we were never supplying ratings points to the incredibly flawed teevee popularity ranking system anyhow. Where-as streaming a show and putting up with the mild inconvenience of a handful of commercials results in something teevee folks can measure and use to lure in advertisers, that in turn pay for budgets of those shows that you want there to be more of.

Click on over to the home of geeky Canadian teevee and watch The Bells of Saint John in all of it's Doctor riding a motor-bike and fighting the evils of the interwebs glory.

Watched Willow today, my belated birthday movie gathering. I know this is a controversial stance to some, and I'm not just saying this to anger swords & sorcery nerds, but I think Willow is totally a better movie than any of the Lord of the Rings franchise. It's more fun, I find the characters more engaging, there's more romance, better comedy and has a great score. If that weren't enough, the movie also has trolls, terrifying dog monsters, a giant two headed dragon, and a tiny lil' Kevin Pollack. I wish there had been more Willow movies. How come other 1980's movies like Revenge of the Nerds and Porky's and Police Academy all got multiple sequels, and yet only one Willow? Maybe now that Disney owns all the Lucasfilm library, they can bring back the Willow-vrse. Disney does enjoy telling stories starring princesses after all.

Four-Wheeled Furies, a documentary about Ottawa's own Rideau Valley Roller Girls that I co-directed makes its national television debut on CBC on Saturday March 30th at noon. You can join me, the rest of the crew, and a bunch of derby girls at the Mayfair for the event and watch the live telecast up on the big screen.

Doors open at 11:30am and it's free admission for members!

For those of you who can't make it out to the Mayfair, the show is on coast to coast on the CBC: noon EST, 1:30pm in Newfoundland, 1:00pm Atlantic, 10:00am Mountain and 9:00am in BC. Roller derby action makes for perfect Easter weekend programming for the whole family.

The new webcomic from my pal Kelly Tindall is only days away! Excite-tastic-errific! Strangebeard launches Tuesday April 2nd.

Ugh...I hate that I continue to have an excuse to not shut up about this topic. Seriously!? Dammit Hollywood poster designers...are you guys doing some kinda secret contest to see who can put out the worst poster of all time and whoever wins gets an awesome prize? Go type Drew Struzan into Google and then feel incredible shame about what you are doing and your place in the world. This is so terrible it almost makes me want to boycott the movie. They're lucky that my geek responsibilities out-way design sensibility furious anger.

Happy birthday Mr. Nimoy...tis an honour sharing a birthday day with you. I will have fond memories for the rest of my life of watching Star Trek reruns on Sunday mornings on the CBC at my Grandpa's house when I was a kid. You providing the voice of Galvatron in the Transformers animated movie was pretty awesome too.

One of my bestest friends was kind enough to not only buy me day-before-my-birthday cupcakes today, she also got me Willow on blu ray. It is one of my favourite movies of all time, I'm happy to add it to my collection, but the cover of the box leads me towards the constant complain about horrible photo-shop movie poster work.



Look at the modern photographic cut and paste poster vs the original 1980's theatrical version. I could rant endlessly about this...and have...and will likely continue to do so until they shape up. Someone got paid actual money to slap that blu ray box art together. In fact, they probably got paid a lot, and will continue to have a career slapping together more sub-par offerings for Hollywood. It comes down to a simple question though, which poster would you put up on a wall? I think statistics would hover around 100% in favour of the original.

I stand corrected in my recent statement that nothing much good is coming out from Marvel now-a-days besides for Hawkeye. They do have a number of comics well worth checking out, the problem is that their bad to good ratio is dozens upon dozens to one. To be fair, the same mathematical divide exists in movies and teevee and books as well.

Along with Hawkeye, I also enjoy and can recommend Superior Spider-man, Wolverine and the X-Men, Daredevil, and FF. As a passenger on a road-trip to and from Toronto this weekend I got to catch up on a bunch of comic book reading. The multitasking of sitting, travelling, and reading is an excellent bonus to the over-all fun of a whirlwind of a trip with friends. Amongst other comic book reading, I got caught up on the latest numbering re-boot incarnation of Captain America. This series finds writer Rick Remender (who did a great job with an amazingly original twist on The Punisher) taking a Jack Kirby influence with the character and throwing him into an alternate universe. As an added bonus the series features the artistry of Marvel Comics legend John Romita Jr.

Any main-stream super-hero comic that has a fourth issue that opens with big white lettering on a page of black, "ELEVEN YEARS LATER", makes a geek sit up and take notice.

When I was a very young lad, I think perhaps there was nothing more I wanted from Santa in the Christmas season of 1981 than the enormous Kraken sea-creature action-figure from Clash of the Titans. I did not get said Kraken. I'm sure that I got something else awesome though, Santa was always kind to me with toys the like of Kermit, Tauntaun's and Castle Grayskull.

The next best thing to the toy, is getting to see the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion monster cult classic up on the big screen. You can see Clash of the Titans on Sunday March 24th at 3:30pm, and Monday March 25th at 7:00pm. Free admission and popcorn to anyone who brings me Kraken that Santa never did.

As long as you are doing something cool, it's ok to be missing out on something cool. So, this Saturday while I'm off Toronto-ing for some roller derby, I will be missing out on an excellent triple bill at the Mayfair.

Although numerically they are chapters II, II and IV, the Star Trek films Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock and The Voyage Home have com to be known as the Star Trek motion Picture Trilogy. Unlike all the other self contained plots of the rest of the Star Trek film franchise, this trio of films serve as an over-all beginning, middle and ending of a grande tale. Many Trekkies see the Wrath of Ricardo Montalban's vengeful Khan as the pinnacle of movie Trek's, Search for Spock features death and rebirth (spoiler alert!) and a Klingon Christopher Lloyd, and The Voyage Home has time travel, comedy and whales. There are very few better trilogy sci-fi movie ways to spend an afternoon...maybe just one other way, and we aren't allowed to screen those lightsabre movies.

The Star Trek triple bill begins bright and early at 11:30am, doors open at 11:00am.

PS - The awesome Star Trek poster above is from an Alamo Drafthouse screening, as designed by wbyk.com. It's one of those limited edition dealy's though, so if you want one you'll likely have to scour the ebay.

Headed to Toronto tomorrow (or I think to be more specific the outskirts of central Toronto) to help out at the fourth annual Quad City Chaos roller derby tournament. Besides for the normal levels of awesome that happen at a weekend full of roller derby, this tournament is extra special and historical as it is the first ever WFTA sanctioned tournament in all of Canada (WFTA stands for the Women's Flat Track Derby Association). For more information, go and check out the Toronto Roller Derby website. I will be there adding up numbers in a hectic manner in scoreboard assistance, in between free-time of derby watching enjoyment.

I read the first issue of The Private Eye comic (available on a pay whatever you want business model at panelsyndicate.com) off of my tablet. It was just as great as I hoped that it would be. It was formatted for sideways tablet reading and not in a traditional comic book shape. That small adaptation made it seem like another step towards living in a future where we don't read anything off of paper or buy movies or music in a format that we then have to put on a shelf and clutter our homes with. Most importantly of course, these are all baby steps towards the final goal of a world filled with jet-packs, holodecks and maid robots.

Brian K Vaughan, one of my most favourite of writers, has a new comic book series out titled The Private Eye. Along for the ride, he has the very talented Marcos Martin, who has recently handled artist duties on some great Daredevil and Doctor Strange tales. That is excellent enough news for anyone who enjoys comic books or reading in general.

What makes this comic book release extra interesting is that it is happening solely as a digital download, and the price is up to you. Stuff like this might be seen as bad in terms for the future of comic book stores, seeing as the creators are not only cutting out the middle-man of a publisher, but also of a store. I think comic book shops will be fine in the long run. Even if 100% of the comic book publishers and indies go digital, there's still a lot of action figures and shirts and board games and old comics and countless collectibles that collector's will continue to spend their money on.

How moves like this could effect publisher's is a different matter though. I don't think that Batman or Spider-man are in any danger, but we might see more and more big name talent go the creator owned route vs working for the big guys. Much like musicians going straight to websites to sell their work, they don't need record executives and comic writers and artists may not need to split their profits with publishers. Robert Kirkman makes a lot more money and has a lot more control over The Walking Dead than if it would have been published at Marvel or DC.

Also of interest is that geek culture, whether it be fans of comics or music or movies, are continually proving that there is money to be made in this manner despite the ever looming far of piracy. Stealing stuff online is never going to go away, but it's promising to see that people have the mind-set that if they support what they like, more of it will be made. I'm noticing an ever increasing number of Kickstarter style produced movies successfully making it to the big screen, more bands relying on selling music directly to their fans without a major record label, and more comic book creators stepping away from a desire to work for Marvel or DC.

The first 32 page issue (or a possible 10 issue maxi-series) of The Private Eye is currently available for whatever price you deem fit at panelsyndicate.com

Got my latest TeeFury purchase in the mail today. I love TeeFury, they have amazing designs and money from sales goes straight to the artist (the top artist has made nearly $70,000!). I'm still a lil' confused as to how they skirt copyright laws, in the case of this shirt it's not just one intellectual property but a mash-up of characters owned by Nintendo and Nickelodeon. I'm pretty sure that both of those companies have pretty high quality lawyers on hand. I think it's covered under similar parody rules that allow for the existence of Mad Magazine. I won't bring too much attention to it though...I want them to keep making shirts for me to buy.

Finally got a hold of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 4, and I spent Saturday night marathoning through the first 11 episodes. The season kicks off with an underwater three-parter that looks just beautiful on Blu Ray, and we also get a fun R2 / 3P0 episode.

Maybe the most impressive part of the entire series so far has been episodes 7 through 10 of this season, which focuses on a group of Clone Troopers under the leadership of a Jedi General who is seemingly inept and mad with power. The dark alien world that the characters are on showcases some of the most impressive visuals ever seen in Star Wars. These combined quartet of episodes show off not only some great war themed storytelling, but bring the Star Wars universe into a place not widely explored before with soldiers questioning command and a plot that delves into the horrors and casualties of war.

These are exciting times for Star Wars, and I am looking forward to catching up on seasons 4 and 5 of this animated series. Many seem to think that it's the best Star Wars produced since the hey-day of The Empire Strikes Back. I am not a detractor of the prequels as some Star Wars geeks are, but the more Clone Wars I watch, the more I think I am inclined to agree.

Tomorrow at the Mayfair we are screening Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein and Jason & the Argonauts.

I love Abbott & Costello and the Universal Monsters, yet have somehow never seen this movie. I continue to be confused as to why only Frankenstein is in the title and it ignores Dracula and the Wolfman. Jason & the Argonauts is not only a movie that Tom Hanks hails as being better than Citizen Kane, it also has one of the most amazing fx scenes of all time in the form of the Argonauts battling against a batch of undead skeleton warriors. It is a staggering piece of work.

It is possibly the greatest one two punch of a movie matinee offering in the history of independent repertory theatres. Sunday March 16 at the Mayfair - Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein screens at 1:00pm followed by Jason & the Argonauts at 3:00pm.

If this news about Army of Darkness 2 isn't real I am going to tear down the interwebs with my bare hands.

There's not a ton of great stuff coming out of Marvel Comics. They are the biggest comic book publisher on the planet, they are definitely not the best though. Smaller publishers like Image and Dark horse put out a much larger number of high quality books month in and month out. The one book that they have been publishing the past few months that stands out is Hawkeye.

The art is beautiful and the super-hero on his not saving the universe off-days storyline is a fresh twist. Best of all is that it's self contained, so you don't have to buy a dozen other cross-over Avengers books to know what the hell is going on. The latest issue, Hawkeye #8, is in the comic stores now.

There is another issue of Saga out. It has been on the comic store shelves for a couple of weeks actually, I am just running behind on most of my comic book readings. Anyhow, a new issue of Saga means I make a new blog post to tell you that if you are not reading Saga that you are missing the best comic book being published today.

Our new ongoing dinner and a movie cross-over promotion with our friends at ZaZaZa continues tonight, and will happen every Tuesday night at the Mayfair. Gourmet pizza AND a Mayfair movie...what more could you possibly ask for on an evening out?

This year we're hosting a mini-Marx Brothers March Break Film Fest at the Mayfair. That is quite a mouthful, it took me a couple of times to get it right when trying to do the Mayfair answering machine message last night.

In past years we've screened whatever the latest kids movies were that were available, ending up with such cinematic classics like Alvin & the Chipmunks and Smurfs. Screening mainstream kids stuff like that is a bit more profitable at times, though not exactly my favourite movies of all time...well, to be fair I didn't watch them. I am going to jump to the assumption that neither of those examples is going to knock Jaws or American Graffiti off of my favourites list.

There were no new Hollywood kids movies available, so we've decided to go with more of a classic family friendly offering for some of this years March Break scheduling. Plus, how could the opportunity of tongue twister pun of a title like Marx Brothers Marx Break (also listed as The Ides of Marx) be passed up?

We have four selections from the Marx movie library for your viewing enjoyment: Animal Crackers on March 11 & 12 at 1pm, Monkey Business on March 11 & 12 at 3pm, Horse Feathers on March 13 & 14 at 12:30pm, and Duck Soup on March 13 & 14 at 1:30pm

There are few things more enjoyable than seeing a classic B-movie filled with Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creatures up on the big screen. Even better, thanks to the new digital projector that we've recently gotten a hold of at the Mayfair, the image is at a crystal clear quality as if you were watching it on it's original release. Watching a film such as this one at the Mayfair is akin to time travel. There is no better giant crab monster motion picture in the history of cinema!

Mysterious Island screens today at 3:45pm, and tomorrow (Monday March 11th) at 7:00pm

Can we get rid of Daylight Savings Time stuff yet? Why in the futuristic surroundings of the year 2013 do we still have to worry about if it's dark for an extra hour in the morning or at night? All that the event does is slightly mess up sleep patterns and make a bunch of people run late because they forgot to re-set their alarm clock. I'm pretty sure that if we abolished setting our clocks forward or back once each time a year that it wouldn't result in apocalyptic disaster and turmoil. Street-lamps and flash-lights and light-bulbs are plentiful and easily attainable now-a-days, we can get rid of the dark with the flip or a switch.

Geoff Johns run as writer of various corners of the Green Lantern portion of the DC Universe will soon come to its end. Shortly before his upcoming departure, he helped introduce the latest human member of the Green Lantern Corps, Simon Baz. Comic book writers are often cursed with a damned if you do / damned if you don't conundrum when writing good stories and appealing to the fan-base. On occasion some might complain that there isn't enough cultural diversity in comic book super-heroics. Then when an Arab-American who is a good man on the wrong side of the law is introduced into the crime-fighting fold, some nerds react negatively.

I've thoroughly enjoyed Geoff Johns extensive writing contributions to the Green Lantern mythos, especially when drawn by Doug Mahnke. I also think that the character Simon Baz has a lot of potential as being an interesting every-man hero in the midst of gods and aliens and universe threatening dangers. I always think that people who lash out and complain and moan about such super-hero comic book plot twists should maybe just stop reading them all together. They would have so much more free time to complain about other things!

I love Star Wars and the Nerdist so much that I purchased an actual physical paper copy of a magazine! A magazine, for those of you not in the know, is like a blog or a website but the words and pictures are on glossy paper instead of some form of computer screen. This latest issue of Wired features Nerdist mastermind Chris Hardwick and a cover exclaiming that Star Wars is back. I'm always excited by the promise of more Star Wars, but it doesn't seem like it really went anywhere. The Clone Wars animated series is currently on teevee, and there seems to be a never-ending output of Star Wars related comics, book, and video games.

The crux of the article within is about the new hope brought on by the Disney / JJ era of Star Wars that is on our horizon, only a short two or so years from now. There's a bunch of fun pictures and nostalgic articles from various geeky writers and celebrities about their love of Star Wars. Of course some prequel bashing slips in there, including one entry that ends with the writer lamenting and asking if we remember when Star Wars was perfect? Star Wars was of course never perfect. My controversial view about Star Wars over-all is that the original trilogy isn't as amazing as people might think and the prequels aren't as terrible as some think they are. Many of the people who whine about Star Wars now-a-days seem to forget that they saw the original trilogy as children and the newer films as adults. That age gap causes a much skewed perspective on one's entertainment preferences. I used to love Tron...then I saw it as an adult and was very confused as to how I ever could've thought the video game themed movie was amazing.

I look very forward to another round of Star Wars movies, and will avoid the internet comments section because when they trash JJ's directing of them I know it will just piss me off. I prefer to watch and enjoy my Star Wars in a cheering and joyful manner like Chris does on the cover of Wired.

My favourite day of year is the first one in which I get to wear my Converse. Today was that day. I know that spring isn't officially here yet, but for me the first Converse day of the year is the sign that the seasons have turned.

More Bat Spoilers! Got caught up on a bunch of Bat-reading, including Batman #17. This issue featured the conclusion of the latest in the never-ending crossovers between the Bat-family of comics, Death of the Family. This story-arc, as spearheaded by flagship Bat title writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, featured the grand return (or introduction of depending on the point of view) of Joker to the New 52 DCU. Snyder and Capullo are in the midst of an impressive run within the shared Batman universe, and this tale brought the whole Bat family (specifically Robin, Red Robin, Red Hood, Nightwing and Batgirl) to the verge of disaster. There were a couple of moments so on the verge of being terrifying in this issue that I thought they were going to bring Joker and the Batman mythos to a darker place than maybe ever visited before. Excellent climactic edge of your seat comic book story-telling throughout the whole issue. Most appreciated is the comic book trend that although an inter-title crossover, you can just read the Batman issues to get the whole story. Meaning that you can read the spin-off books to get further story-points if you'd like, but not necessary if you don't have the finances, interest or time to undertake a bunch of other comics if you don't want to.

I just wish that I had read this issue before reading the much more tragic Batman Inc #8. It was very bitter-sweet to read a story with Damien Wayne / Robin in which he came out slightly more successfully and more alive in the end. Sniff.

Whenever a form of technology goes through a change, or when anything changes for that manner, there are a sect of folks who are upset and make a lot of noise that the previous version was superior. Some people were upset when teevee entered homes alongside the radio, when compact discs knocked off records and tapes, when podcasts made tuning in to talk shows at specific time-slots seem obsolete, when films started using sound, when teevee became colourized, and I'm pretty sure every time a new model of car is released.

So, now that digital projectors have pretty much completely replaced film presentations, that are of course certain cinema fans who pine for the past and fear for the future. I understand the point of view that film is good and digital is bad, I have just come to not believe or agree with that train of thought. Film has been around for a hell of a long time. It is an impressive near miracle that it has hung in there for well over a century. Some other technological marvel like the car isn't the same as they were when first invented, yet film and film presentation (with a few switches here and there over the years) pretty much remained the same.

To be honest, most movie goers don't seem to care whether the movie that they are watching is being presented on film or digitally or on VHS. From what I've gathered, most patrons coming out to see a movie are more concerned about the over-all experience of getting out of the house to see a movie on the big screen in a nice location. Movie geeks (of which I am too of course) should not fear the future, they should embrace it's new possibilities. There were countless movies that we were never able to get at the Mayfair, simply because the film prints did not exist or were not readily available.

Now, thanks to our newly acquired digital projector, we are not only able to continue to screen new films like Skyfall and Argo...but we are also able to screen newly made available classics. Case in point, this-evening I will get to watch a vintage Ray Harryhausen stop-motion monster movie on the big screen for the first time ever! Presented in Dynamation (I'm not quite sure what that means), tonight I'll get hit with the awe and wonder of watching our hero battle a cyclops and giant two headed birds and sword wielding skeletons. The only thing better would be if it would be possible to watch the movie when it was first released and to be truly knocked over by how the hell this movie magic was made.

The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad screens in all it's digital glory tonight at 7:00pm at the Mayfair. The first of four Ray Harryhausen themed movies that we are presenting this month...none of which would be available to view if not for the movie magic of current digital marvel of technology.

I guess this post should be prefaced with a warning of Batman comic spoilers, but news travels so fast that I'm probably one of the last geeks to actually read this latest shared universe twisting issue.

Every once and a while a comic book can completely sideline me, depress me and leave me in somewhat of a state of shock. Batman Inc #8 did all those things to me, along with leaving me with sorrowful curious thoughts as to what may have been if this horrible sacrifice had not befallen this character that I've grown to love so much in the past few years. I do not hold a grudge towards Grant Morrison, my favourite writer on the planet, for instigating this this tragic plot device. He'll not be getting death threats from me, and DC Comics won't be receiving notice that from now on I will never ever buy a Bat comic for the rest of my days (some rather unstable and semi-insane comic book readers have a habit of doing such things when something they disagree with goes down in one of their favourite books). Bad things befalling characters are a necessary turn in pretty much every story ever told. If stories had no conflict or villains or death or woe, storytelling might be quite a bit more dull indeed.

It's really quite a complimentary statement that I've been left in such a state after reading a comic book. Moments after reading the comic book in question I headed out to help by score-keeping at my friends roller derby event. Without kidding or sarcasm in the least, I had a genuine underlying sadness hidden underneath the surface on an otherwise fun night. As I've stated before, specifically in regards to the untimely demise of Blue Beetle a few years back, the face the comic books have the story-telling power to make one sad or happy or scared or excited is truly proof that it is an amazing medium to tell a tale indeed.

A death in a super hero comic book doesn't necessarily mean that you stay dead forever. In fact, in the DC Universe death seems to be a part time endeavour for almost everyone. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow and many other a hero have died only to reappear amongst the living sooner or later. I hope the same rings true for lil' Damien Wayne. Who will feed Bat-Cow?

For the second Saturday night in a row it's Rideau Valley Roller Girls Derby Night in Ottawa! Okay, well...it's actually in Rockland which is way off on the outskirts of the city. I promise you that it's worth the trek out past suburbia to attend the event. All the pertinent info can be found by linking over to the RVRG site or reading the poster right above this post.

Sure, there's probably some other sporting event you could watch on teevee tonight, but that sport is filled with greedy millionaires who don't care about you. Derby is awesome and different and has that tinge of punk rock cool, and it's a much more interesting thing to tell your friends that you did on the weekend. You stayed home and watched hockey on Saturday night? Boring! You went out to a roller derby bout on Saturday night? You are the envy of your friends, family and co-workers! Jealousy abound from everyone you tell. Will likely lead to fame fortune and ultimate happiness.

I'm not sure what my first introduction to Bill Murray was, maybe it was his appearances on SCTV, or it might have been watching Meatballs or Caddyshack or Stripes when I was technically much too young to be allowed to view any of those movies according to ratings boards. I know for sure that after seeing Ghostbusters in the theatre when I was a lil' kid, full blown hero worship love kicked in.

In the years to follow I loved Scrooged and What About Bob? and Groundhog Day. I loved the hint that his career might take a different turn when he started taking on roles like in Mad Dog & Glory and Ed Wood and Hamlet. Of course I've loved Bill's ongoing filmmography of work with Jim Jarmush and especially Wes Anderson. I even loved his turn as Bosley in Charlie's Angels.

I especially enjoy that he has a lovely air about him of just not giving a damn. There's a video from last year that circled the interwebs (and screened at the Mayfair's Fake Trailer Fest) where Bill shot a quick slo-mo walking scene with some fans in lieu of signing autographs. He spends his spare time in awesome horrible attire participating in celebrity golf tournaments (and he's good!). His appearances on Letterman are the favourite episodes amidst my favourite show. I don't think he even has an agent or a team handling his career the way most super-stars do. He works who he wants to work with, partakes in media as he wishes, and stays out of the hurricane of the Hollywood eye. I have a Ghostbusters tattoo on my arm, and I think it's just as much a tribute to him specifically as the overall film that I love so much.

So, all that gushing will make it not so shocking to hear that I am quite excited to see Bill's latest film and his portrayal of U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt. The Mayfair screens Hyde Park on Hudson tonight at 7:00pm, on Saturday March 2nd at 6:00pm and Sunday the 3rd at 7:30pm.