That’s right, you’re seeing it, we’re broadcasting live right here! You can also find this show live on CulturesmashTV on youtube or you can join us to chat over on google plus! Just look up Culture Smash! If you missed the live show, you can see the video on youtube or get the audio podcast from iTunes!! The preshow starts at 6 pm Central!

With all of the focus these days being on videogames and multimedia entertainment it’s actually nice to see companies still working to innovate the good ol’ outside games. There’s still something to be said about getting out in the sun with friends or family and playing some games in person. With that in mind we’re checking out RingStix.

The Game

Explaining how to play RingStix is simple, mastering it is another story. Each player has two stix that look sort of like curved swords. You drop the small ring onto the two swords and push the swords together. Pick a direction and quickly pull the swords apart and watch the ring fly. Your opponent then attempts to catch the ring on one or both of their swords. That’s really all there is to it. The thing is that it’s quite difficult to properly execute more than once or twice. The ring is slim and small and looks really subtle flying through the air. It ends up being a small target to try and catch on the end of a stick. It’s not impossible but it takes a good amount of time investment to get it right. This isn’t the game you take outside for a fun afternoon with people who have never played it before. What you’ll end up with is an afternoon of helping them figure out how to master the game.

On the other hand, if you have a group who has taken the time to learn how to play the game, how to toss and catch the ring, it’s actually quite an innovative little game. You can play it in your yard, at the beach, basically anywhere you’d take a Frisbee. Some good hand eye coordination and even some general sports skills will be a great plus to enjoying this game too. I took the game out with a couple of friends to give it a go and the below video shows how it all went down:

6/10

Build Quality

The stix are well made as is the ring. They’re hard plastic and fairly rugged. Now the packaging promises that the ring glows. We had very little luck making that happen. The set comes with a convenient carrying bag to keep it organized.

5/10

Overall RingStix is innovative and has potential with future iterations and updates that would make it just a little easier to play. At this point only fairly skilled outside gamers need apply.

Overall (Not an Average) 6/10

The Review
The Game 6/10
Build Quality 5/10
Overall (Not an Average) 6/10

Marvel’s  Avengers set more records with its second week on the big screen and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down! Dark Shadows was new this week and it made a few bucks and garnered a horrible 42% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes so there’s no competition there. Will the board game brought to life Battleship stand a chance against Marvel’s super team?

Here are this week’s actual numbers:

Directed: by Jon Knautz
Starring: Aaron Ashmore, Cindy Sampson, Trevor Matthews

I really wish someone (not named Joss Whedon) would write a good horror movie.

The Movie

The Shrine tells the story of newspaper reporter Carmen (Cindy Sampson). She stumbles across a case where a local backpacker has gone missing in Europe and wants to pursue the lead. So along with her assistant Sara (Meghan Heffern) and her photographer boyfriend Marcus (Aaron Ashmore) she sets off for Poland on an unapproved trip to find the truth. Once there they find a small rustic town with a mysterious fog hanging over a certain part of the forest. Then for the next hour the writer and director rips off The Exorcist, The Village, The Gate, Evil Dead and too many other movies to name here.

There are so many problems with this movie I just don’t know where to start. First off, when they get to the town almost no one speaks English but we never get subtitles for what is being said. In and of itself this isn’t a problem but late in the movie there is a good chunk of the dialogue that is in Polish (I’m assuming) and it is a bit hard to figure out what is going on. Also there is a scene when the three leads walk into the forest and find the fog. The two females both walk into the fog and reemerge with stunned looks. It is eventually revealed that they both saw the same statue and we are to assume that just the sight of this statue leaves them speechless. May be, however both actresses play this as flat as a pancake and their blank stares do not reflect awe as much as dead behind the eyes. The only thing worse is the explanation for the fog covered shrine, “It’s our curse.” The end.

I used to love horror movies. When I was a kid there were plenty of low budget horror movies that held my fascination. Then everyone decided they could write one and many, many small studios popped up allowing said movies to be made. And I’m glad that the technology is available and affordable so that some real innovation can happen outside of the studio system but that also lends to a lot of would be Wes Cravens trying to film their “vision.” Most of these movies are poorly written and acted but somehow they got distribution.

The Shrine falls into this category. But unlike the B-movies from the past this movie just doesn’t have any of the true horror or any other emotion to drive it along. Too often it relies on gore or thread bare horror movie clichés as substitutes for real horror. The Shrine is not alone in this as most of today’s movies depend on the audience to have a memory cache of horror movie tropes already implanted in their minds so that the “homage” or callback to an older movie will justify lazy writing (they didn’t even give the three leads last names). Don’t get me wrong, there are some good horror movies being made these days but by in large most of them fall well short of the mark. The Shrine is no exception.

3/10

The Video

16:9 aspect ratio and standard definition is so so. I’ve seen far worse but in these days of blu-ray and HD televisions watching a standard definition disc is like trying to listen to an old cassette copy of Led Zeppelin IV after the onset of CD.

5/10

The Audio

The Dolby Digital stereo leave a lot to be desired. The sound mixing is low and sometimes the dialogue is almost impossible to understand.

2/10

The Packaging and Special Features

This is really a bare bones release, standard clamshell packaging and no real special features. Commentary, Behind-the scenes footage and the original theatrical trailer are all that is offered here. And none of these are worth the time to view.

2/10

I really do long for some original ideas in the horror genre. If you want to see a fresh take go see Cabin in the Woods. If you want to see a stale, under acted movie that was shelved for two years watch The Shrine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Overall (Not an Average) 3/10

The Review
The Movie 3/10
The Video 4/10
The Audio 2/10
The Packaging and Special Features 2/10
Overall (Not an Average) 3/10

Directed by Robert Rodriguez
Starring David Arquette, Salma Hayek, and William Sadler

Rodriguez describes the film in the commentary as Happy Days for the first 75 minutes and Fonzie snapping with a shotgun in the last 10. Except, Fonzie’s not a self-destructive and pretentious ass, and Happy Days has likeable characters, so that doesn’t work at all.

The Film

Dude (played by David Arquette and not to be confused with THE Dude) is a small-town greaser in the 1950s, clashing with other switchblade-wielding greasers and constantly at odds with the hard-ass sheriff (William Sadler). Dude’s girl Donna (Salma Hayek) keeps trying to get Dude to do something with his life and pursue his music, but Dude just can’t stay tied down. He’s got to rebel against the system, against society, against the girlfriend trying to tame him.

The film is part of a series of 1950s period pieces for the Showtime network. It’s Robert Rodriguez’s first Hollywood production, fresh off El Mariachi, taking several of his quick, one-man-crew tricks with him. The film is well made, that’s for sure. The shots and editing is good. It consistently flows and actually remembers how much ammunition a gun can hold (not true for a lot of movies). The acting is good. It’s the actual story and the written characters where the film flounders.

Dude really is a rebel without a cause, in that I don’t really get any motivation out of him other than being a self-involved jerk. He has some daddy issues to give him a push to make something out of his life, but he doesn’t try that either. He’s rude and lewd when there’s no call, cares more for being his own man than for his friend or girlfriend. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers references (with cameo from Kevin McCarthy) try to play on Dude’s anti-conformist nature, but he’s trying too hard at it that it comes off as pretentious. David Arquette does a good job playing Dude, but he’s playing a character I don’t care about. Pretty sad for the focus of the film.

And the hair grease, I don’t know why, but it just looks disgusting. At least it pays off with the funniest part of the film at the skating rink.

There’s no catching ending or thrilling action. The movie is well made, but it’s just not captivating. Most of the characters are hard to connect to, and those who aren’t don’t get enough attention. The few high points it has where Dude outwits the others aren’t enough to save it.

3/10

The Video

The film is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, with 1080p high definition. Really though, the Blu-Ray release doesn’t add anything noticeable. Rodriguez did re-color the film for home video, and the colors are vivid. The actual footage though doesn’t have that Blu-Ray pop of clarity, and some scenes are downright blurry thanks to poor zoom-ins.

4/10

The Audio

The audio is all English, with 5.1 and 2.0 stereo, and it’s clear enough. The soundtrack is pretty fitting, with a lot of period early rock songs performed by Johnny Reno, who also played the head of the band in the film. There’s a weird clip from The Shadow radio shows added into the score, which doesn’t fit, but I can still appreciate it.

6/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

If you look at this box and see Sin City, a more famous Robert Rodriguez film, you’d fall into the same trap I did. The cover puts stars Arquette and Hayek in black and white, except for Hayek’s red dress and lips. The back similarly mutes all the colors except red. Roadracers is not like Sin City, so don’t get your hopes up. (There’s also not a lot of roadracing either, but that’s a different story)

Bonuses are limited to audio commentary with Robert Rodriguez, and a 10-minute behind-the-scenes “film school” with Rodriguez. The commentary and the film school feature are really the only reason to own this at all. Not because they’re amazing, but because they showcase a prominent director who really is proficient at several aspects of movie making. The audience gets to see the process as he learned as well in making a Hollywood production on short time and cash and how to pull that through.

5/10

Overall (Not an Average)

One of the main reasons Robert Rodriguez says he did the film was simply to get Salma Hayek an English acting credit so the studio would let him cast her in Desperado. That level of directorial interest doesn’t speak highly. This film is a much better study piece on working with little time and cash, learning what tricks and tips to use. Beyond that, with its unlikeable characters that never seem to learn anything, it’s not worthwhile.

4/10

The Review
The Film 3/10
The Video 4/10
The Audio 6/10
The Packaging and Bonus Features 5/10
Overall (Not an Average) 4/10

So there wasn’t a lot to say about Fantasy Film week but we discuss the awesomeness that is Marvel’s Avengers! We also hit on Machete 2, Netflix reviving Jericho, a subsidized XBOX 360, Comics, and yeah the whole zombie penis thing. Finally, what city in the U.S. is the most porn addicted? We have the answer and we discuss!

So finally, after some unexpected delays the final episode of Culture Smash focusing on Toy Fair 2012 is live!! In this episode Victoria checks out the Walking Dead board game, the latest from Wiz Kids games, she flies or tries to fly an RC helicopter, and she punches stuff! It’s not over though, we’re bringing you additional extended scenes, bloopers, and much more from these three episodes over the coming weeks. So stay tuned! Scroll down and check out this episode or click it from the sidebar on the right!

Starring: Rebecca De Mornay, Jamie King, Shawn Ashmore
Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman

The release date on IMDB says 2010 for this film but we’re just now getting it on Blu-Ray. There was a little bit of buzz around this film during its production because you had the creator of the Saw franchise taking on a remake of one of the truly most nihilistic films ever made. Surely the man that was behind all of those bloody traps in Saw would have the wherewithal to truly bring us something horrific. Mother’s Day seemed like a film that was ripe for a remake from my standpoint. I prefer to see bad films that had the spark of something great get remade and see that spark cultivated rather than see a great film tarnished with a subpar remake. If it’s possible, the original Mother’s Day has been tarnished.

The Movie

The original film followed the exploits of a mother and her inbreed sons as they drug unsuspecting campers into their horrific world simply for the pleasure of the mother. Girls that the brothers caught were treated as literal playthings and the boys would play with their toys as their mother directed. The film was cheap and the execution of much of it is fairly basic but it all played together into something that was truly disturbing at the time of its release. The film was made by the brother of Lloyd Kauffman (owner of Troma films) and it worked better than any of his brother’s projects.

This remake is connected with the film in name only, well other than one little wink at the audience. In this film the brothers have been separated from their mother and after a botched robbery they have to go into hiding. They head home only to learn that their mother has sold their house and she is in an RV with their sister. The new occupants are a group of young people who the brothers have now taken hostage. Eventually the mother and sister regroup with the brothers at the house and they set out to concoct a plan to assemble enough money to get out of the country.

In the meantime the family torments their hostages and forces one of them that happens to be a doctor to help a wounded brother. It sounds weird to type this but the torture in the film wasn’t meaningful enough. It feels placed in the film at extremely random points just to try and make the film feel edgy. At its heart this film is no more than a simple by the numbers suspense drama with a couple of ok actors delivering bland and uninspired dialogue. The mother sometimes seems to take no pleasure in the torture and then suddenly she kind of does seem to like it. Nothing makes sense, and not in that these people are crazy kind of way. It falls flat due to weak writing and execution and no amount of “these people are crazy” works in this case. It did work however in the original film. At least in that film the villains had a singular vision and purpose, even if it was all gross.

3/10

The Video

The widescreen HD presentation has that low budget indie look to it probably due to tighter budget and the claustrophobic sets but at the same time the presentation is clean and the colors are quite well represented on the disc. The image does get a little murky outside in the dark but not to a terrible degree. Overall it’s a good enough looking film.

7/10

The Audio

The studio is a fairly basic presentation with surrounds getting some time but dialogue often coming off just a little soft in places. You’ll ride the remote a little with this one, just a little.

7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

The film is packaged in a standard slim blu-ray case with De Mornay larger on the cover and the others leads listed. It’s not inspiring, much like the film.

A feature audio commentary is a must for most films. It offers up the deep behind the scenes information from those closest to the film. It makes a great companion to the featurettes. Wait, it makes a great companion. Well, there aren’t any featurettes or anything else really, just the commentary. While it’s a good listen some interviews and behind the scenes footage were required to round this presentation out.

3/10

Mother’s Day isn’t just a poor excuse for a remake it’s a poor excuse for a movie. Mother is definitely not pleased….

Overall (Not an Average) 3/10

The Review
The Movie 3/10
The Video 7/10
The Audio 7/10
The Packaging and Bonus Features 3/10
Overall (Not an Average) 3/10

Written by: Ed Brubaker
Artwork by: John Romita Jr.

So the fight is on. Hope Summers is the target of the all-powerful Phoenix Force and the Avengers and X-Men fall on different sides when it comes to how to handle the situation. When the force has taken over humans in the past it used that interface into the world to hurt and kill people. Captain America believes this will happen again and Cyclops thinks the force represents a new start for mutants. At the end of issue #2 the force called to hope and just that alone ripped Wolverine apart. He of course heals at the beginning of issue #2….

The Story

This installment is a transitional issue into the next phase of the story. The X-Men outsmart the Avengers long enough to escape. Hope also made a run for it and is in hiding. It seems that she is making it appear that she is in several locations at once so the Avengers split up into smaller groups to check each location. While we don’t see what the X-Men’s plan is in this issue it’s easy to predict that they will also split up to check the locations leaving the window open for smaller one on one battles in upcoming issues. This plot device is as old as words and it’s slightly disappointing to see that Brubaker is using it as a way to provide fan service battles rather using some more inventive reason for crafting the fights.

Another problem that remains is the reasons behind some of the characters actions. The biggest one is why the X-Men, who have suffered more than anyone at the “hands” of the Phoenix are so sure that its return is a good thing. From discussions with a friend who is a little more in tune with modern X stories than me I’ve learned that it’s possible that Cyclops believes Hope to be the reincarnation of his dead wife Jean and maybe the combination of the powerful force that killed his wife and her reincarnated body will in some way bring her back. Having not read much modern X-Men I can’t comment on the validity of this assumption. That leads back to the problem that there hasn’t been enough development of the story. It’s possible that some of the tie-ins offer up these details but a summer blockbuster should be able to 100% stand on its own leaving the tie-ins as supplemental for hardcore fans. If it doesn’t stand on its own then it’s a complete failure. On a smaller scale, Cap’s decisions do make more sense overall but some of his more minor choices seem kind of off kilter.

There’s really only one fight in this issue and Cap fans may be disappointed that the super soldier needs help to handle his foe. Cap is a badass and when written properly he should be able to find a way to deal with any situation. There’s a lot of complaining here but there’s still some fun to be had with the story and I’m confident Brubaker won’t let us down. This issue though, is a bit filler-ish and the stage that is being set is a bit to formulaic. I hope there are some surprises coming. We’re also in dire need of character development.

6/10

The Artwork

The artwork here by John Romita Jr. is as great as ever with solid lines and a nice fence walk between Marvel’s modern cinematic style and the classic comic book work of Romita’s father and other predecessors. Good stuff.

8.5/10

Overall (not an average)6.5/10

AvX #3 is a subpar installment in what has been an entertaining summer story. Brubaker and Co. have a lot of work to do and they better get to it PDQ!

The Review
The Story 6/10
The Artwork 8.5/10
Overall(not an average) 6.5/10

Marvel Entertainment took on a huge challenge considering their limited experience in film. Their goal became to tell an epic story that began with Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk and ended with the upcoming The Avengers film. Now to be honest it’s a little of a George Lucas Star Wars thing in that the first couple of films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (not to be confused with Ang Lee’s Hulk) may have very well been made in a vacuum because those films are only connected to the overall story by thin strands.

Continue reading the review here!

The Fantasy Film Ball Summer Block is Here!! We bid on 36 films in the contributor block and the listener block is going simultaneous!! It’s a ton of movie talk, bluffing and bidding! Good times! See if you agree with our strategies!

The zombies are coming, there’s no doubt about it! There are a few options out there for fighting and escaping. Well nothing strikes fear into the heart of your local brain hungry zombie than, you guessed it, the Chevy Cruze! The Cruze gets 42MPG so you can go a long way on just a little fuel which is a good thing if the local gas station is swarmed with the walking dead!

Adding to the Cruze’s infamy among zombies was an interesting trend that appeared when identifying what cities seemed to be safest from a zombie apocalypse. In order, the safest cities are: Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Pittsburg and Minneapolis-St.Paul.

Michigan State University professor Glen Stuzky, who teaches a course on preparedness for a zombie apocalypse, explained the trend by saying, “The data reveals a statistically significant drop in the number of Zombies per square mile (ZpM2) in the cities with the highest number of Cruzes per capita. Apparently, even with minimal brain stem functioning, Zombies have figured out that the 600 miles per tank has put Cruze owners beyond the reach of the Hoard.”

In reaction to the looming zombie apocalypse, OnStar has already started plans to develop Zombie Dodger, a service that will launch in the event of a zombie outbreak. With the push of the OnStar button, a friendly representative will share the locations of the zombies nearest to you and send directions for an escape route. In anticipation,

Check out this news report!

Speaking of the walking dead, and we were right? Chevy and Telltale, the makers of the Walking Dead video game have come together to celebrate the Cruze’s ranking as the most feared car by zombies by giving us some copies of the game. That’s right you can practice taking out the walking dead before you have to jump in a Cruze and make a run for it.

We have 10 copies of the game to give away! You’ll get a download code which will work through Steam on both Mac’s and PC’s. Just go to Steam and set up a free account if you don’t already have one and use the code in the redemption section. You’ll get all five episodes of the game! To be entered to win just hit the submit button below and provide your email address and let us know your favorite way to take out a zombie, or just leave your answer in the comments section below!

Submit

Contest ends 5/15/12

Just in time for the Avengers movie, it’s Marvel Minimates Series 44! Featuring the comic-book versions of some of the most famous Avengers, these two-packs will be available exclusively at comic shops and specialty stores starting tomorrow! Each Minimate is 2 inches tall, fully poseable and comes packed with accessories and interchangeable parts. Thor comes with an alternate head, Giant-Man comes with all the parts to turn him into Ant-Man, and be on the lookout for the rare variant set featuring Ant-Man II, a.k.a. Scott Lang!

So, it’s not an unboxing, it’s a boxing! Here we have the cool little guys in the boxes that we know some of you will keep them in forever. The packaging is pretty cool, but come on, open them up! Check out these images of the toys and of course their packages!

Ok so there are only two things to say about this. The first is watch it and drewl in anticipation and the second is go to what is easily the best film of the year so far, The Avengers, and see it again on the big screen. Yup this trailer is playing in front of The Avengers. A self respecting geek couldn’t hope for much more!

Three writers from Cinegeek had the opportunity to take in an advance screening of The Avengers. Rather than each of us, or even one of us, writing a spoiler filled review we decided to condence our comments down to a paragraph or two and share our thoughts with you here. A more in depth spoiler riddled review will come after the film’s release but for the time being you can see what our impressions of the film are.

The Avengers is the culmination of one of the most complex, yet simplest stories every put on film, or films. It breaks down to good vs. evil. The scope of the story is epic though, the most epic ever attempted in film, or successfully attempted at anyway. One can rightfully argue that the Star Wars Saga is just as epic and it too takes place across six films. The differences are many but the primary difference is the consistency in the movies. The worst of the Marvel films, The Incredible Hulk, is at least 7 out of 10 on our rating scale. The Star Wars films can’t claim that success. The Avengers is a true climax to the story full of clever dialogue, blockbuster action, some predictable plot twists and some true shockers. It’s the best film in the series and a must see. I expected greatness from this film and I was not disappointed. It’s a comic book movie in every way and that’s possibly the best thing I can say about it.

Stephen Lackey
Editor

Avengers is AWESOME!! This is the movie that Marvel has been building to since 2008’s Iron Man and it has been worth the wait. Who could have imagined that a single movie would be the sequel to five other movies and be better than any of the originals? Marvel has struck gold with this franchise and the man at the helm of Avengers, one Mr. Joss Whedon, has just walked through the door of the A-List VIP room.

Without getting spoilery let me point out a few things to watch for. First, Mark Ruffalo knocks it out of the park as Bruce Banner. I am a huge Edward Norton fan and loved him as Banner in The Incredible Hulk but Ruffalo transcends playing Banner and becomes Banner. Second, Hulk is the star of the show. Never saw that one coming. Thirdly, this is an Avengers movie with Joss Whedon directing not a Joss Whedon movie about the Avengers. Think Astonishing X-Men. And finally, in last year’s Thor we were introduced to the Cosmic Cube and Avengers continues Marvel’s cosmic universe by introducing a major player during the movie’s coda. Just like last year when I walked out of Captain America my only thought after seeing Avengers is, “I can’t wait for what’s next!!”

Alan Smith
Contributor

I can’t think of a movie I watched with such unbridled joy and excitement as when I first saw The Avengers. It’s a comic fan’s dream come true. Joss Whedon’ expertise for ensemble casts and superhero tales made a spectacular film. Everyone was perfectly cast and expertly acted, with even newcomer Mark Ruffalo making me forget that anyone else had played Bruce Banner. All the Avengers get their due screen time and development. The fights, they’re all stunning, vibrant, and full of action, utilizing every hero equally and to their strengths. I want to say that you can go into Avengers without having seen the prior Marvel films. Technically, I think that’s true, with the characters explained well enough, but I couldn’t even consider recommending that. This movie doesn’t build to a climax. It IS a climax to an almost 13-hour film, and every minute is worth it.

Nicholas Qualls
Contributor

So I handily won the first ever CineGeek fantasy Film Ball game by strategic choices and brilliant deductive skills, well ok mostly just because I won Hunger Games in the bidding but Journey 2 and a few other money makers did seal the deal for the Winter/Spring block. Jonathan pulled an upset over Bill with his choice of Hunger Games as well in the listener bracket. The summer block won’t be so easily won though. There are several films that will make big bank this summer and many other that will make moderate money so the game will definitely be much more challenging.
Below shows all of the films that both the contributor and listener brackets will be bidding on for the summer black. The only difference is that the listener bracket will not get the last month of films because their games must end before ours so that we have a winner to participate with us in the fall game. The bidding is going to start out pretty insane since the first film up for grabs will be the hotly anticipated The Avengers. Check out the entire list of films we’ll be playing for below and make your own predictions. Then join us live Wednesday night at 6:30c on Ustream to see how the bidding goes. If you can’t join us live as always you can grab the webcast the next day on Stitcher Radio or on iTunes just by searching “CineGeek”.

Fantasy Film Ball Summer 2012 Films

May
4-May Avengers
11-May Dark Shadows
16-May The Dictator
18-May Battleship
25-May Chernobyl Diaries
25-May Men in Black III 3D

June
1-Jun Pirannah 3DD
1-Jun Snow White & the Huntsman
8-Jun Madagascar 3
8-Jun Prometheus
15-Jun Jack the Giant Killer
15-Jun Rock of Ages
15-Jun That’s My Boy
22-Jun Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer
22-Jun Brave
22-Jun Seaking a Friend for the End of the World
29-Jun GI Joe: Retaliation
29-Jun Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection

July
3-Jul The Amazing Spider-Man
13-Jul Ice Age: Continental Drift
13-Jul Ted
20-Jul The Dark Knight Rises
27-Jul Neighborhood Watch
27-Jul Step Up: Revolution

August
3-Aug 360
3-Aug The Bourne Legacy
3-Aug Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
3-Aug Total Recall
10-Aug The Campaign
20-Mar The Awakening
17-Aug The Expendables 2
17-Aug ParaNorman
24-Aug The Apparition
24-Aug Premium Rush
24-Aug Sinister
31-Aug The Possession

Written by Donald Glut
Art by Jesse Santos

Doctor Spektor sets off on his final set of adventures to investigate what otherworldly beings plague humanity.

The Story

Doctor Adam Spektor is a researcher of the supernatural, pursuing mysteries across the globe and beyond. His studies lead to face offs with leviathans, mummies, ancient demons, and other-worldly deities. His assistants – including girlfriend Lakota Rainflower, his cousin Anne, the psychic Elliot Kane, and more – help Spektor investigate the mystic evils that plague man, but his relationships strain from his occult obsessions.

This fourth and final volume from Dark Horse collects the last seven issues of the mid-1970s comic series from original publisher Gold Key (other Gold Key characters like the Owl and Doctor Solar make cameos). The table of contents can confuse this by listing eight issues. That’s because the “final” issue 25 is a reprint of the first issue with a variant cover, with only that cover in this book.

Being a fourth volume, it’s actually not difficult to jump into. Doctor Spektor is from a time where every issue was expected to be someone’s first, so it has a reasonable amount of exposition to get the readers in without bogging them down. Each issue is a fairly stand-alone adventure, with all references explained well enough. Some references may even pique interests in checking out the previous books (Spektor used to be a werewolf?).

With that said though, you’re left wondering why Spektor searches out the abnormal, how he makes a living from it, and more importantly, what he has a doctorate in. You won’t find these in the previous volumes though. The book was cancelled, and as co-creator/author Donald Glut explains in the introduction, the origin story was planned as the next issue before the book was put on the chopping block.

Despite its untimely demise, Doctor Spektor is an intriguing supernatural mystery series, although it’s honestly and sadly not as surreal as I would have thought. I’m glad this volume explores some more Lovecraft-inspired mythology over the generic vampires, werewolves and mummies. The negatives? The characters take their relationships over melodramatically, and the mysticism seems solved too quickly, but that was the pacing of the day. Get everything in and out in one issue, with as much impact as possible. It doesn’t always help the story, but The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor manages through.

7/10

The Art

First off, you have to remember that this is truly a pre-digital comic of its day. The hallmarks of color bleed and over-inking are present throughout the work. I’m a fan of the covers. They’re look very surreal and even horrific in some cases. They look more like paintings than simple comic covers, with soft and detailed brush strokes to get everything just right. I wish the interior art was painted the same, but that would have taken even more months just to create a single issue. Even with the simpler penciling, inking and coloring, the interior is decent.

8/10

Overall

Is the book worth it? This trade is listed at $49.99. It only contains seven issues, so that’s about $7 an issue, too much even today. Especially since the book was cancelled in the first place for poor sales. The only bonuses are the hardback cover, an introduction by author Donald Glut, and excerpts from Doctor Spektor’s occult files (which were included in the original issues’ printings).

With such a small issue count and unremarkable bonuses, I can’t justify the high cost for anyone but a big Spektor fan from the ‘70s, needing their fix. If a cheaper softcover comes down the road, it’ll be a much easier recommended read.

6/10

The Review
Story 7/10
Art 8/10
Overall (Not an Average) 6/10

Directed by Michael E. Briant
Starring Tom Baker and Louise Jameson

The Doctor finds himself in a murder mystery where the only possible suspects are the ever-loyal robots everyone trusts, which means it’s probably the robots.

The Series

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and his new companion, the primitive Leela (Louise Jameson), find themselves on a futuristic mining vessel in the middle of a rash of murders. Everyone suspects each other, but no one suspects the loyal robot servants, bound by programming to never harm a human. No one, that is, except the Doctor.

Yes, it sounds like the 2004 I Robot film and a dozen other robot murder mysteries. This one though came out in 1977, itself only a few decades removed from Isaac Asimov’s creation of his famed Three Laws of Robotics that dictate robots shall not injure people. It wasn’t quite the cliché story it is today.

Take away that, and you still have a decent mystery story. Someone on this ship is pulling the strings to manipulate these robots into murdering the crew. The question is who. The show does a good job casting plausibility on all of the crew of the ship. Any of them could be the mysterious mad robot scientist Taren Capel, and it’s not definitely certain who it is until the big reveal.

The acting is good. Tom Baker does a fine Doctor, and it’s easy to see why he’s such a fan favorite. He is intelligent and aloof, yet still passionate and humorous. The crew of the mining ship is unique and life-like. The robots themselves are performed in a way that seems mechanical and lifeless, yet still give off an ambiguous feeling of possible emotion, helping to add to the mystery of these robots murdering and why.

The design of the robots comes across as futuristic butlers, and it works. The masks in particular are well molded and crafted human faces with a Victorian-era hairdo, very ornamental yet emotionless. The decorative attire matches well. These may be tools, but they’re also servants in a decadent society, so of course they’d look nice.

Where this goes downhill is in the ending. The Doctor’s actual technique for turning the tables on Taren Capel is almost laughable. The following resolution is over before you know it happens, with almost no care to the characters lost or left behind. It almost makes the entire adventure trivial to the Doctor, which is possibly true given everything he’s gone through.

Basically as soon as the good murder mystery is solved, the show putters out and rushes the ending. However, the ending doesn’t detract from the whole, so it’s still a good Doctor Who story.

7/10

The Video and Audio

The video and audio are television standard fullscreen in mono. The footage is littered with weird light flares off of the robot costumes. I’m sure that could have been cleaned up a bit for the DVD release, but it could have been worse in the original broadcast.

4/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

The single-disc set has a bunch of extras that seem to be standard with these Who releases, with commentary from cast and crew, test footage, set design images and so on. The making-of documentary “The Sandmine Murders” gives a good bit of insight into the production and is a good follow-up to the actual show. The light-hearted documentary “Robophobia” covers the usage of robots throughout the stories of Doctor Who, even going so far to call out Daleks and Cybermen for not technically being robots. Both these docs are worth revisiting the disc after watching the feature.

7/10

Overall (Not an Average)

This Fourth Doctor adventure is decently entertaining, even if the ending feels rushed. It’s got enough going for it, in the actual feature and the bonuses, to make it a worthwhile watch for Who fans.

7/10

The Review
The Series 7/10
The Video and Audio 4/10
The Packaging and Bonus Features 7/10
Overall (Not an Average) 7/10

This week we have Walking Dead video games to give away to ustreamers! We chat about something cool  Wal-Mart is doing (Really??), condoms in porn, movie film ball, comic coolness and much more!

Video streaming by Ustream

Yes the first annual Hunger Games, I mean Fantasy Film Ball is over for the most part. Stephen has another film coming out and Alan and Mike both have smaller films winding down but no one film or group of films can surpass the Hunger Games in the time we have left. It’s the same in the listener block with a few movies still winding down there but Jonathan has taken the day there and will be sitting in on the contributor game happening next week. We will continue to bring you the numbers each week until these movies are completely done because you never know…. (but well you kind of do know right?)

Here are the actuals: