SUMMER KOMIKON 2010
April 17, 2010, Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman

Inglourious Basterds

Just saw this film recently (yes, I'm way behind when in comes to movies), and I'm really wondering why so many people are so "bravo!", "excellent!", and all that about this movie. Me... not so much.

Okay, so from here I'll be assuming you've seen the film so you'll know what I'm talking about.

Some parts were brilliant, especially the opening scene. Very tense, and you can really feel the emotion from the characters. One other scene that was executed well was the bar scene where the spies were trying to avoid an incident with the German soldiers. Very Tarantino (which means it's talky), but again, the tension was built up excellently.

What really bothered me with this movie is that the titular characters, the Inglourious Basterds, were not really important to the film at all. You could remove them from the movie and it would have made little difference. The main plot about the orphaned Shoshanna's revenge on the Nazis would have been sufficient to carry the movie, even without the Inglourious Basterds involvement, which really doesn't involve them as the movie went along. It just so happened they had the same goals in the end. And even if the Basterds weren't there in the climactic scene, Shoshanna's revenge would have still killed Hitler and the Nazis.

Come to think of it, if they just jettisoned the Basterds altogether, and made it a simple tale about Shoshanna's revenge plot, I guess I would have liked this movie much better.

Phantom/Captain Action is PREVIEW's STAFF PICK for January 10!

From the PREVIEWS website:

Those of us who are old enough to remember the Captain Action toys of the 1960s will recall that one of the coolest facets of the action figure was the ability to change from the Captain persona into one of a host of popular superhero characters. This alone made the toy extremely valuable to kids because the figure became two toys in one and gave you more opportunity to develop complex and often convoluted play schemes. In a flash, he could be transformed into Captain America, Batman, Flash Gordon, the Lone Ranger, or the Phantom to mete out justice to the collected plastic villains of said scenario.

This month, the folks at Moonstone have stepped into the fantasy battles of yesteryear by pitting Captain Action against the Phantom in their first-ever comic book crossover (since the original toy allowed you to crossover the characters during play). There is something incredibly nostalgic about this pairing that has me incredibly interested to see what writer Mike Bullock and artist Reno Maniquis have in store for the iconic heroes. Moonstone has been cranking out a respectable and quality line of comic books for over ten years and they seem to have really found a strong niche with these classic pulp inspired characters. If you enjoy classic action fare or are a fan of either character, this series is a must to check out in March! If only I still had the toys.