Movie Review: Spectre

Movie: Spectre

Director: Sam Mendes

Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux

Studio: MGM, Columbia

Release Date: November 6, 2015

Review by Matthew Funk

There’s a moment in 2012’s Skyfall that struck me as perfectly “Bond.” At the top of a Shanghai skyscraper, Bond trades intense blows with an assassin who has just killed a man in the next building over. They grapple and swing at each in silhouette, framed against the psychedelic images glowing on the screen behind them. It’s at once stylish and brutal, and gives the audience everything they want in a way they’ve never seen before. Unfortunately, there’s no moment like that in Spectre.

COCOA Reviews James Bond, The Vision, Klaus, and Scooby Doo Team-Up

Catch up on all the latest video reviews from the Central Oregon Comics Outreach Alliance!

We wrapped up the Halloween season with ghostly-themed Scooby Doo Team-Up #13, which see the Mystery, Inc. joining forces with DC’s Phantom Stranger, Deadman, and the Spectre!

The creepiness doesn’t end there, however, as we continued with Marvel’s Vision #1, which used the Vision and his new family in a chilling Twilight Zone-esque tale.

Then, just in time for the new Spectre film, 007 gets a new comic series in James Bond #1, and appropriately for a character who deals in shades of grey, the COCOA crew is split over it.

We may have started with Halloween, but we ended with Christmas with Grant Morrison’s Klaus #1, which features the comic book legend’s fascinating take on the origin of Santa Claus.

Be sure to catch up with all of COCOA’s videos at our YouTube channel and follow COCOA on Twitter @sipofCOCOA and on Facebook at facebook.com/COCOAcomics

TV Review: Fargo, Season 2 Episode 5

Series: Fargo

Episode: Season 2, Episode 5, “Gift of the Magi”

Air Date: November 9, 2015

Channel: FX

Review by Matthew Funk

One of the most noticeable things about FX’s Fargo is its color palette. Each scene is painted in a quiet swath of greys, whites, browns and cold blues, and when there’s a bright color imposed on the landscape, its often indicative of something out of place. The flashing lights of a police car, the bright clothing of someone who brings too much attention to themselves, a pool of blood in the snow.

So when the fifth episode of this season opens with a campaign bus boldly displaying the bright colors of the American flag, driving across an eerily flat piece of grey land, against the backdrop of an even greyer sky, the imagery is hard to miss. The American dream has arrived in Fargo, and it’s come there to die.

COCOA Reviews Howling Commandos of SHIELD, TMNT, Sam Wilson: Captain America, and Art Ops

Catch up on all the latest video reviews from the Central Oregon Comics Outreach Alliance!

For Halloween week, we got appropriately spooky and reviewed Marvel’s Howling Commandos of SHIELD #1 by Frank Barbiere and Brent Schoonover, which split the COCOA gang down the middle with its monstrous antics.

We then take a look at the beginning of a big new arc for the heroes in a halfshell with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #51 that we found to be a fun and fresh new status quo for the turtles.

I then dragged everyone into another political discussion about Sam Wilson: Captain America #2, which provided some interesting conversation about how the comic reflects our times.

Finally, we looked at another of the new wave of Vertigo titles with Shaun Simon and Mike and Laura Allred’s Art Ops #1, which provided us with a mindbending look into the nature of art itself.

Be sure to catch up with all of COCOA’s videos at our YouTube channel and follow COCOA on Twitter @sipofCOCOA and on Facebook at facebook.com/COCOAcomics

Halloween Funk: A Dozen Comic Book Demons and Devils

Need some spooky comic book content to frighten up your day? Well head on over to Blastr, where I recently contributed an article spotlighting some of the four-color netherworld’s most nefarious denizens! Have a damned good Halloween!

Afternoon Funk for 10/29/15: Captain America and the Polarization of American Politics

“Keep politics out of comic books.”

That’s what Fox & Friends called for after the release of the first issue of Marvel’s new Sam Wilson: Captain America series earlier this month. By now, you’ve likely heard all about the controversial content that had many conservative readers and pundits taking offense, and even calling for the writer’s removal. A lot of arguments have been made for and against the story, but with the release of the second issue of the series yesterday, I’m taking the opportunity to look at the climate that allowed for this to even be an issue.

Morning Funk for 10/13/15: How Splatoon is Keeping Online Shooters Fresh

I’ve always been a big fan of video games. While I didn’t get a console of my own until the Gamecube at the end of its lifecycle, I’ve had access to games all my life. But in the last few years I’ve felt the gap widening between what the gaming industry seems to think I want, and what I actually want.

My biggest gripe with the current state of gaming is the disappearance of local multiplayer. Online multiplayer has made local all but extinct, and shooting games lead the charge on that, eager to abandon the split-screen displays of the past. I understand this inclination: online allows for more players, “screen cheating” is now a thing of the past, and it encourages players to be constantly plugged-in for things like updates and DLC. But I can’t help but find this trend a bit sad. No online experience has ever been able to match the feeling of wondering if the person next to me is going to punch me for that last kill. Gaming used to be more social, and more fun to me as a kid than it is now, because the industry has skewed so hard toward a solitary experience.

Because of this, I’ve largely given up on shooters. More than any other genre, shooters seem to sell the online multiplayer as the primary game mode, and I have had little interest in investing my time into taking on the steep learning curve required to be competitive enough to enjoy most of the games.

Enter Splatoon.

COCOA Reviews Headlopper, Tet, Ninjak, and Star Wars: Shattered Empire

In the latest COCOA video reviews, Chris, Cameron, Ashley, Justin, Phil and I tackle releases from September! We try not to lose our heads over Headlopper #1, find ourselves divided by Ninjak #7, praise the visual storytelling and coloring in Tet #1, and ask special guest BB-8 to weigh in on Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens–Shattered Empire #1.

Headlopper:

Ninjak:

Tet:

Star Wars:

I wrote a review of Shattered Empire back when it released, which you can find here, and as always, be sure to follow COCOA on YouTube for even more reviews and videos.

Afternoon Funk for 9/29/15: Batman Day, Bill Finger, and Comics’ History of Bad Contracts

This past Saturday, comic book stores across the country celebrated “Batman Day” by giving away free Bat-stuff in honor of the Dark Knight. It was only the second official Batman Day, this time celebrating the 76^th anniversary (albeit a few months late) of Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27. It was appropriate, then, that a little over a week earlier, DC Comics—and their parent company, Warner Bros.—finally reached an agreement with the estate of Bill Finger, Batman’s co-creator, to properly accredit him for his contributions. Up until now, Finger has never been officially acknowledged as a part of Batman’s creation, despite being crucial to the creation of Batman’s character. Due to a shrewdly written contract signed back in 1939, Bob Kane alone has been credited with the creation of the character. It is a sad state of affairs that it has taken so long to fix this, but unfortunately it is all too common in the comic book industry, which is why I’ll be taking this opportunity to dig in to this case as well as a few other infamously bad contracts.