Geek of Oz

Clearly, judging from its marketing campaign,  One Chance  wants to be this season’s ‘ Billy Elliot’. It’s the story of a man chasing his artistic dream despite the brutish roots of his hometown holding him back. The one differentiating feature however is,  One Chance  is based upon the true life and struggles of lovable Welshman Paul Potts, who rose to international stardom when he won the first series of the television show Britain’s Got Talent . Whilst the film has solid performances and genuinely touching moments, unfortunately it’s hamstrung by a screenplay littered with saccharine self-aware typical biopic dialogue. 

Seven issues in and Winter City continues to impress with its high production values and dedication to storytelling. Although this latest installment represents a rather significant change of pace for the series, and indeed the absence of action was certainly a risk , it doesn't prevent it from being my favorite issue to date. This more emotionally focused story hits all of its marks and proved without a shadow of a doubt that Carl and Patrick Purcell have an impressive writing range. After the action packed climax of issue six, Winter City #7 acts as a refreshing character piece. As with the previous issues it switches between both the past and present, opening with a young Sam Winters going to church.  Sam, who is aged 12, is understandably nervous about going for the first time but what he finds is a sense of comfort in the Preacher's zealous sermon.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a fantastic sequel to 2012s box-office-colossal The Hunger Games . This film builds perfectly upon its predecessor and will leave fans salivating for what’s to come. I proclaimed my adoration for the franchise last year when I reviewed  The Hunger Games and I’m so excited about how this story seems to be shaking down. 

Drugs, booze and kinky sex are the order of the day in Jon S. Baird’s latest film,  Filth.  James McAvoy stars as Bruce Robertson, Scotland’s most debauched detective, whose personal and professional life is teetering on the brink of annihilation. Awkwardly-paced and overtly-misogynistic, unfortunately Filth never really settles into its rhythm. The film has its moments but unfortunately it left me feeling a tad meh.

I’ll be the first to admit that I'm a huge fan of comic books. It’s a great collaborative (at times just one person too) medium that produces some amazing work. Generally, the first thing you think of when you hear “Comic Books” are capes comics like Spider-Man or Batman. However, comics are much more diverse than just capes stories and Dungeon Fun is proof of that. One area of the comic book realm that has been catching my eye of late are all ages titles. Being able to cater for adults as well as children is no mean feat, but Colin Bell and Neil Slorance do it well with DungeonFun .

Part Candid Camera, part stunt extravaganza,  Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa  proves I’ll never tire of the  Jackass -style shenanigans. Led by mischief-maker-extraordinaire Johnny Knoxville, this is the most fun I’ve had at a movie in a long time. It’s a very simple set up: Johnny Knoxville reprises his grandpa character from the Jackass television show and travels around with his “grandson” (played by Jackson Nicoll),  playing pranks on innocent bystanders. Whilst it gets no points for originality, it’s a hilariously entertaining film, if you can stomach the juvenile and slightly crass material.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, where have you been all my life? Over the years a tonne of video games based on Marvel properties have been released but none have been as whimsical and downright fun as LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. Sure, Maximum Carnage and Captain America on Super Nintendo and Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on Xbox  were  fun, but none of them cap tured the scale  of the Marvel Universe like in this game.

Fruitvale Station, the directorial debut from Ryan Coogle,r can be likened to a magic trick shown in reverse. It starts with a fantastic reveal then works its way backwards to its set up. The film is based upon the real life shooting of Oscar Grant III in 2009 by a police officer during a heated exchange in the early hours of the morning. Whilst not particularly ground breaking, the film has enough positives to warrant a viewing and definitely announces  Coogler as a director to watch out for.

Something that never ceases to amaze me is just how adaptable a storytelling medium the humble comic book can be. In the same amount of page space you can create an epic spy thriller, explosive super hero romp, a high fantasy adventure or even a simple retelling of day to day life. Alex + Ada  #1, by Jonathan Luna (artist and writer) and Sarah Vaughn (writer), is a delightful example of the latter and is as deserving of space in your pull-list as any high-octane mainstream comic. Admittedly, taken at face value Alex + Ada #1 is a sci-fi story and a cliché one at that. The futuristic setting of the book is one filled with helper robots that busily hover around to assist humans with day to day tasks, so it's definitely not like we haven't seen it before. Even the key premise of the book, the story of a you man dating a robot, is well  trodden  ground.

Our pals up in Brisbane are celebrating at Supanova this weekend which means, as always, acquisition announcements. Hanabee have 3 MASSIVE announcements for us including ACCEL WORLD,  ORESHURA and BTOOOM! The only negative to these announcements is that we have to wait until February!  As an added bonus, Hanabee have also hinted at the fact that they will have even more announcements for us at Supanova Adelaide next week. What do you think they may have up their sleeves? Follow on after the jump for the new title announcements.

In the spirit of full disclosure I will happily admit I did not watch James Wan’s Insidious back in 2011 because I came down with acute blindness…my car broke down that day…no wait my dog died… alright already it’s cause I’m a scared-y cat when it comes to such films. Luckily with some recent horror classics under my belt I boldly walked in to Insidious: Chapter 2 and only shrieked twice from behind my seat but keep that between you and me. Whilst it’s an entertaining film it all felt a little too familiar, partly because it has so many references to other films of the genre but also because James Wan has already released The Conjuring this year, which Ali reviewed to moderate praise.

Scott Synder and Greg Capullo's work on Batman has been nothing short of ground breaking. Somehow this dynamic duo have managed to reinvigorate a character that didn't really need reinvigorating. The world of the New 52 Batman is darker, harsher, more complex and infinitely scarier than any Bat-universe before it. It's a more intense version of everything fans have come to love about the character and the city he inhabits. After reading Death of the Family it seems that The Court of Owls and The Night of Owls storylines were a mere primer for the terrifying trials in store for Bruce Wayne. The horror elements introduced in those stories come off as mild compared to what takes place in Death of the Family , a story arc opens with the Joker slaughtering the cops at GCPD to get his face back and proceeds to get more disturbing from there.

Back in 2011 we reviewed the first instalment of Thor and were impressed by just about every element however in hindsight, it lacked a sense of scale that could be expected of a film based around gods and monsters. In Thor: The Dark World, those concerns are smashed to pieces. Bor, father of Hannibal Lecter, grandfather of Captain Kirk's dad, was responsible for vanquishing the Dark Elves from the Nine Realms. Lead by the nefarious Malekith, a crackhead version of Legolas, the Dark Elves return in search of the ancient and destructive force, Aether. Then stuff with a hammer and lots of punching and Queen Amidala happens.