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2 Guns

by George Sax
If it sometimes appears that the comic book industry has recently been eating Hollywood’s lunch, this may be because it has been. It’s hardly an unfriendly takeover. The movie industry’s increasingly intense search for “tent pole” properties and franchising opportunities has been leading it to comics and their often blunt-edged, fantastical, and adaptable stories. Marvel Entertainment and DC Entertainment are now owned by Disney and Time Warner, respectively, and the big guys aren’t the only successful players. Independent Boom Comics, tiny in comparison, sold the movie rights to its 2 Guns comic series to Universal, which has now brought out a big, loud, jazzed-up, and star-led vehicle with blockbuster and franchise ambitions.

I'm So Excited

by M. Faust
Pedro Almodovar first attracted international attention in the mid-1980s with a series of splashily colored comedies that were unlike anything the world had seen from Spain, especially under the repressive reign of Franco. They presented a cheeky pansexuality in an era when gay culture onscreen was still taboo (at least, unless it was presented in the most melodramatic of ways).

This is Martin Bonner

by M. Faust
We first see a man, black and in prison uniform, being questioned by two older white men. They’re trying to interest him in a rehabilitation program to prepare him for his release from prison. We assume that this is going to be his story. But when the scene ends, we leave him to follow one of his interviewers. His name is Martin (Paul Eenhoorn), and he is new to this job.

Byzantium

by M. Faust
Are vampires played out? The living dead who feed from the blood of the living have been horror’s most durable genre, despite seeming to have been exhausted years ago by endless recyclings of Count Dracula. But once in a while someone comes up with a new take on the story that makes it seem fresh, while investing it with capable, stylish filmmaking and performers who don’t simply treat it like genre work.



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