DVD Recommendations 3/3/08

Hey there, loyal readers (haha!), it is time for another DVD recommendation (haven't there been so many already?).

This week's recommendation comes courtesy of Warner Premiere: it's the DC Universe animated original movie, Justice League: The New Frontier, based on the Darwyn Cooke graphic novel of the same name (well, similar name; the book was called DC: The New Frontier).

I read the Cooke book (I just got far too much pleasure out of that rhyme than I really should have) a few years ago and it has been one of my very favorites ever since. Not only is the art style right up my alley with it's retro, art deco feeling, but the storytelling really shines with an alternate history retelling of the time period closely following the Korean war.

Just like the graphic novel, The New Frontier focuses mostly on Justice League members Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter (who happens to be one of my favorite DC Universe characters). Problems arise, however, when the animated film begins to feel a little loose and disjointed-- hardly allowing enough time for each of the characters, especially some of the lesser ones, to really stand out. The movie also fails in many respects to fully explore much of the social-economic and geo-political strife at the time, instead opting to only briefly reference these disturbances in passing. It may have worked better in the comic, where I could dwell on each frame, giving them all the time I needed to reflect on their significance, whereas in the DVD things felt rushed in order to compliment the seventy-five minute running time.

Things I did like: Jeremy Sisto as Batman. His confrontation of J'onn J'onzz is incredibly cool.

That being said, Justice League: The New Frontier is an enjoyable picture, especially for fans of the characters and Darwyn Cooke's work. Despite being somewhat disappointed, I will agree with others that there are still moments of brilliance in The New Frontier and I recommend it to comic book lovers everywhere.

AdVANTAGE: POINT -- Movie Review

Friday night I saw what just might be the best movie of 2008: Vantage Point.

What is Vantage Point you might ask? It is the directorial debut of television auteur Pete Travis who brought us-- what else-- television show episodes. Travis clearly honed his skills on the small screen because Vantage Point delivers up compelling, up close and personal drama in figurative spades.

Vantage Point is a taut political thriller that takes major risks. Told through multiple perspectives, the film centers itself around an attempted assassination of the American President, played wonderfully by Tom Skerritt. Where Vantage Point differs from similar cinematic offerings is in it's poignant and topical conclusion when the villains, a group of ambiguous Spanish terrorists, receive their comeuppance at the hands of a wayward little girl in search of her possibly exploded mother. The terrorists, having single handed annihilated hundred of U.S. government secret service officers, try to avoid hitting the girl with their stolen ambulance (an obvious geopolitical allegory) and roll the vehicle multiple times, killing it's evil occupants. The president, however, emerges the twisted wreckage unscathed (possible symbolism?) where he reunites with Denis Leary, a down and out former bodyguard, in tender embrace. The chilling, foreboding final words"Podus is in the hand" send theatre patrons back to their homes with a broadened perspective of the terrible plight of the peoples of the Sudan and some regions of the arctic.

All in all, Vantage Point was a fantastic experience and one that I easily and whole-heartedly recommend to anyone with a love for timely political drama.


President Skerritt delivers a rousing address to a heathen nation