Team 7 #2 Review

I don't disagree with the assertion that Team 7 is a pointless series. It's sort of an inherently pointless exercise to showcase a team formed in the early days of the New 52 universe and comprised mainly of characters that have their own solo books set in the present day. We all know where this is leading for most of the players involved. But the most important thing is that I'm enjoying reading the adventures of characters like Black Canary, Deathstroke, and Grifter more in this series than I am in their own books. So yay for Team 7.

Issue #2 wraps up the team's first mission as they battle Eclipso zombies aboard a floating, trillion dollar prison. Given the absurdity of that sentence, it's a shame the tone of the series isn't a little goofier. That goes double considering that the book is penned by Luther Strode creator Justin Jordan. But Jordan plays it mostly straight, aside from the handful of 80s action movie one-liners. It's entertaining, regardless. The general team dynamic is fun, and Jordan is able to flesh out the various players enough that the #0 issue seems almost pointless in hindsight.

One element I would like to see done away with is the narration. Though the captions are written from Dinah's point of view this month, the narration is just as bland and unimportant as it was in issue #1. When the captions could simply be erased from the book with no ill effect on the story, that's a sign that they need to go.

Unfortunately, Team 7 is already becoming yet another New 52 book that suffers from inconsistent art teams. Ron Frenz provides breakdowns again, but this time Julius Gopez steps up to handle finishes. The storytelling is decent enough throughout, but the finer detail is diminished somewhat. Few panels really stand out and grab the reader's attention.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Premium Rush Review

Riding a bicycle can be fun and it’s good, healthy exercise. And in real life, some great competition can be had from a bike race. But it’s pretty difficult to sell riding a bicycle as the basis of a would-be cool action-thriller and there’s a reason there’s not a ton of truly bike-centric movies, after a couple of attempts in the '80s like Quicksilver and Rad. (Arguably the greatest bicycle movie ever made? Pee-wee’s Big Adventure).

That’s the tough road Premium Rush has to face going in, but it’s not an insurmountable one. With the right characters and a clever story, sure, why not? We suspend a lot of disbelief at the movies, so why not go with the flow on the story of a bike messenger who finds himself carrying a valuable package that has him in mortal danger from some unsavory types? There’s room for some cool chase scenes and bike stunts, and it doesn’t hurt to have a terrific actor like Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead. Unfortunately though, Premium Rush never really comes together and plays as a profoundly silly film for much of its running time.

Gordon-Levitt stars as Wilee (as in Coyote), a Manhattan bike messenger who lives his life at full speed – literally, because he has fixed gears and no breaks on his bicycle. Which may be pretty stupid and dangerous to some, but Wilee has his own POV on it and about how you should never slow down in life and such and such. Subtle, Premium Rush is not. Picking up a package from a friend, Nima (Jamie Chung), Wilee is approached by Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon), all smiles and grins as he claims the package was given out as a mistake. But when Wilee refuses to give it back, intent on delivering it to its proper destination, Monday turns out to be a rather unhinged, violent type who will do just about anything to get the envelope and its mystery contents back.

Premium Rush takes place over the course of a few hours (several flashbacks give us some info on what occurred for Monday and Nima earlier in the day to set up the events that will plague Wilee later), as Wilee -- aided by his semi-estranged girlfriend and fellow bike messenger, Vanessa (Dania Ramirez) -- races through town with Monday in pursuit. And yes, Wilee does think to go to the cops, only to hit a big obstacle when he does. One you’d think he might think of ways around, but if he did, then the movie would be over.

Premium Rush comes from David Koepp, who directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with John Kamps. As a screenwriter, Koepp has had his hand in an incredible amount of blockbusters, including Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds and many, many more. But in-between writing mega-budget films for the likes of Spielberg, he’s also directed smaller films, with mixed results. I’m a big fan of Stir of Echoes (starring Quicksilver’s own Kevin Bacon!), though Secret Window was pretty bad, while Ghost Town was pleasant, if forgettable.

Premium Rush is a lesser offering from Koepp. It never gels and one of the biggest problems is the lack of a consistent tone. This is all pretty ridiculous stuff, but ridiculous can be fun or exciting. And there are moments in Premium Rush that work and wink at the audience – Wilee is able to quickly glance at a packed intersection and think through what would happen if he chose one of several possible routes, which we see play out a few times. The carnage some of these “What if” scenarios lead to is overtly cartoonish and funny, hinting at an offbeat, self-aware version of this story that sadly is never embellished upon.

Instead of embracing that feel, we get some huge tonal shifts throughout the film. The backstory on how sweet immigrant Nima (Chung is asked to pull off a Chinese accent she can’t sell) got involved with these shady characters is incredibly schmaltzy and earnest, and includes some scenes seemingly meant to pull at the audiences’ heartstrings, with eye-rolling results. And Wilee’s life lessons through the day feel very awkwardly designed to give his character that “he learned something about himself” arc studio execs love, whether earned or not.

I’m a big fan of Shannon and his eccentric performances in projects such as Boardwalk Empire and The Runaways have been excellent. But he’s actually pretty bad in much of Premium Rush, seemingly deciding the only way he could feel at home in the midst of this ho-hum story was to go way over the top, as a bellowing, New Yawk thug. At one point, he has to exclaim, to himself, something akin to, “I can’t believe I’m chasing a kid on a bike!” while trying to run down Wilee in his car, and he follows it up with an incredibly goofy laugh that sounds like he’s about as dangerous an antagonist as Captain Harris in the Police Academy movies. All he lacks are some wacky sound effects to accompany him.

Ramirez is believably tough and capable in an underwritten role (she is mad about Wilee’s lack of dependability, yadda yadda), while Gordon-Levitt’s usual charisma and innate likability help sell more of what happens in Premium Rush than might otherwise have occurred with a weaker actor at the center. And the fact that the film was actually shot in Manhattan adds some excitement, giving a “you are there” feel as Wilee and his friends zoom through the busy, bustling streets.

But despite Gordon-Levitt’s valiant efforts, Premium Rush rarely comes to life and overstays its welcome. Ultimately, you’ll feel more satisfied by an actual 90 minute bicycle ride.

Source : ign[dot]com

MTV's The Inbetweeners: "First Day" Review

Remaking a British sitcom can be a dangerous exercise. For every success, there are many, many more failures. So while the U.S. version of The Office has enjoyed years of success, the likes of Coupling and Free Agents have failed in their first season, while Red Dwarf and Spaced didn’t even make it beyond the pilot stage.

So it’s with some trepidation that one approaches The Inbetweeners, MTV’s remake of the British sitcom of the same name, which spawned three hugely successful series and a low-budget spin-off movie that grossed tens of millions at the U.K. box office.

In response to such success, MTV has taken an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to the show, appropriating the same characters, situations and in many instances jokes and simply transplanting them to America.

And if the below trailer was anything to go by, it was set to be a disaster; a louder and more obnoxious carbon copy of the Channel 4 show. But trailers can be misleading, and so it is with The Inbetweeners, a comedy cover that, while not the equal of the original, nevertheless regularly delivers laughs.

As with the U.K. version, proceedings kick off with teenager Will (Joey Pollari) being transferred to public school Grove High because his mother can no longer pay his private school fees. Showing up with a blazer and briefcase, Will is a walking, talking target to the rest of the kids, so the vice-principal quickly pairs him with nice-guy Simon (Bubba Smith) to show him around.

And that’s where the fun begins, as Simon and best friends Jay (Zack Pearlman) and Neil (Mark L. Young) initially rip the living piss out of Will before eventually taking him under their wing, the three mismatched friends soon becoming four.

They share the same traits as their UK counterparts; Will awkward and uptight, Neil dumb as a rock, Jay a compulsive liar and Simon a wet blanket who’s obsessed with childhood sweetheart Carly D’Amato.

And once the first half of the U.S. pilot has mined the first half of the U.K. pilot for jokes (Will’s mum being hot, Neil’s dad being gay, Jay claiming to have stuffed both his penis and balls into a girl) it then cribs from a different episode in which the boys bunk off school, buy booze, get dunk, and visit Carly’s house, with predictably disastrous results.

Joey Pollari as Will, Mark L. Young as Neil, Zack Pearlman as Jay and Bubba Lewis as Simon.

Yet while the proceedings are caked in the stench of déjà vu, the episode is nevertheless consistently funny, the old jokes just about hitting their mark second time around, and the new ones laugh-out-loud funny, most notably a marvellous set-up and pay-off involving a child molester.

The show also manages to be just as rude, if not ruder that the original (you actually see Simon’s boner in this one, albeit through his trousers) though it’s a shame that the more explicit swear words are bleeped out, and we wait with baited breath for the American equivalent of the word ‘clunge.’

And after a somewhat shaky start, the cast quickly settle into their roles, though their delivery apes the British performances a little too closely, with none of the lads yet the comic equal of the originals, most notably Zack Pearlman as a less cruel and therefore less funny version of Jay.

With the U.S. series following the template of The Office by interspersing U.K.-inspired scripts with original episodes throughout the first season however, it looks like the American cast will soon get the chance to flex their own comedic muscles in new settings and situations.

But on this early evidence, MTV’s The Inbetweeners is much better than it has any right to be, never quite hitting the hilarious highs of the original, but delivering just enough laughs to make the Transatlantic journey worthwhile.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and definitely doesn't look like Will from the British Inbetweeners. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com