Week of Review - Apt Pupil (1998)

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I want to be upfront here; I went into Apt Pupil with “they can’t all be winners” mentality.  I’m aware that digging through forgotten C-list cinema is by no means a sure thing and there’s every chance that among the genuine gems like Needful Things and The Mangler you’re going to come upon stuff that’s problematic or dated like Thinner.  However, I was in no way prepared for just how terrible Apt Pupil was going to be, this movie makes Thinner look like The Shining.  

It’s a film that I fully expected to be dated, tasteless, problematic, uncomfortable and more and while it was absolutely all of those things it was somehow so much less as well. 

It’s a bad movie I’m kind of shocked we ever stopped talking about yet also completely unsurprised it’s been swallowed up by the dust bin of history and banished by its own mediocrity.  I mean, when you’ve got a movie about a teen boy sociopath who forms an unsettling relationship with an old Nazi and it’s directed by Bryan Singer the last thing you expect it to be is so damn boring. 

Ash vs Evil Dead S2 Trailer

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Horror movies getting made into TV shows is a bit of a thing now.  It’s hard to say when exactly this trend started though I’d probably point mostly to 2013, that was when Bates Motel and Hannibal both premiered to shocking levels of success.  Prior to that you’d had some literary-to-TV examples like NBC’s Dracula, AMC’s Walking Dead, or the horror hodgepodge Penny Dreadful but since 2013 we’ve also enjoyed an Omen show, a Scream show, an Exorcist show in the work, and today’s subject: Ash vs. the Evil Dead.

I am a huge fan of the Evil Dead mythos; I love the original trilogy, the comics are a blast, and I’ve even enjoyed some of the video games they’ve made so when I heard “Evil Dead TV show” I was there.  And season 1 turned out to be pretty good, maybe not excellent and with a little too much padding but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Now the time has come for season 2 and along with some interesting news we’ve got a trailer and it promises to double down on all the stuff that worked about season 1 and then some. 

Star Trek: Discovery Trailer & Logo Revealed, Setting Speculation

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Over 11 years ago, Star Trek: Enterprise went off the air and ended the era of Trek on TV. Even though the franchise would be rescued from oblivion four years later with the J.J. Abrams reboot series, Star Trek as a sci-fi series of genuine renown, import, and intelligence wouldn’t reassert itself till this year.  

Thanks to a double barrel strategy, Star Trek has marked its 50^th anniversary with a major return to prominence thanks to a quality movie and an upcoming new TV show helmed by Hannibal show runner Bryan Fuller.  

Now, we’ve finally got a title and imagery. The first short teaser for the new series debuts the lead ship and gives some cryptic clues about the setting. So let’s dive into our first major look at Star Trek: Discovery. 

Panel Vision - Canadian Superheroes Guide

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For those who don’t know, this Friday is Canada Day, the day America’s lovable northern neighbors celebrate their nation’s founding.  I’ve elected to celebrate this most auspicious holiday early with a look at the various superheroes of Canada that have come out of Marvel Comics.  I’m focusing solely on Marvel for this guide because there really aren’t any Canadian superheroes in the DC roster.  

If they do exist, and I’m not sure they do, they haven’t been represented in any of the major international superhero groups like the Global Guardians or Batman Inc., which most likely means they’re a one-off character like Louisiana’s “King Billy” superhero.  Marvel, on the other hand, has an entire team of Canadian heroes with a vast and expanding roster.  So let’s take a look at proud protectors to the North with your guide to Canadian superheroes. 

Jessica Jones Netflix Show Details & Logo

Edited by Robert Beach

Marvel’s new Netflix show Jessica Jones has finally made some tangible progress with a premiere date slotted for October and this spiffy new logo debuting. We’ve also started getting some detail as to the focus of the show and how it will adapt the groundbreaking Alias comics where Jessica Jones first appeared. For those of you who’ve never heard of Jessica Jones or Alias, her story is that she’s a woman with super powers who acted as a low-level superhero for a time before retiring to the role of superhero private investigator after a traumatic experience when she had her mind enslaved by the villainous Purple Man. The mind enslavement stuff was part of what made Alias a groundbreaking work in the early 2000s and walked hand-in-hand with author Brian Michael Bendis’ other popular early superhero comic Powers, which was itself turned into a PlayStation Network streaming show. 

The crux of the matter was Jessica Jones was raped by Purple Man using his mind-control abilities, and the experienced cause her to leave superhero life but still bring justice simply as herself, no secret identities required. It was an important work then and still is now given it’s an instance of rape in comics where it's actually used well and not just for cheap shock value. Though the attack itself doesn’t take place during the series, it hovers over the proceedings in a non-intrusive manner as Alias balanced a tone between harsh grittiness and some lighter tones. As for the show Jessica Jones, let’s take a look at what we know: