-Today was the day, nearly three quarters of a year after the fact Blackest Night has come to its conclusion. I’ve been along for the ride since the beginning traveling down a road that while bumpy at times proved to be a fantastic trip nonetheless. Along the way there were many sights to stop and just take in. Heroes and Villains returning from the dead or in some cases joining them, Old faces we haven’t seen comeback almost like a half of fame quarterback returning to lead a team to the Super Bowl (or in Brett Favre’s case the NFC Championship), Anyway enough gushing, on to the review.

Blackest Night was broken up into 3 essential reads, that being the main Blackest Night series as well as Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. The spin-offs also proved fun but proved unnecessary to enjoy the overall experience although Blackest Night Wonder Woman and Flash proved quite interesting and well worth the price of admission. Over countless issues we’ve witnessed old friends become new enemies and more costume changes then a high school musical. We've had emotional baggage up to our ears and mind games galore. It's all been part of a rather wonderful formula.

In-case you need a refresher here goes (Blackest Night Spoilers up to BL 8)

-Black Rings attach to dead heroes and bring them back as Black Lanterns, notable zombie heroes include Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman and the list goes on and on.

-Heroes unite to try and take down said Black Lanterns but can’t as they just reform and continue killing people all the while building up the Black Lantern Central Power Battery to 100%.

-Once the Battery gets charged Nekron is unleashed and wants to end all life in the universe to bring about a little peace and quite.

-Some living heroes who have died in the past are turned into BL’s including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, etc… Black Rings also try to (and almost) grab a hold of Hal and Barry but the two get away.

-The Various other colored corps each deputizes someone on earth into their corps (not by choice). Some inspired choices include Yellow Lantern Scarecrow, Orange Lantern Lex Luthor and Red Lantern Mera!

-The corps fight off the BL’s by learning that mixing the various color lights kills them permanently. Lots of epic battles occur throughout the core 3 books.

-They still can’t defeat Nekron and all seems lost until the White Entity is finally unleashed and joins with Sinestro.

This takes us to now, the corps have all arrived on earth and are throwing down with the Black Lanterns. This leads to a bit of a stalemate as White Lantern Sinestro can’t die as neither can Nekron seeing as how they control Life and Death respectively. What plays out in Blackest Night 8 is an epic conclusion to an epic storyline that I will not ruin for anyone out there. What I will say is that Geoff Johns masterfully wraps up his epic space opus with BRILLIANT art from Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert and Joe Prado with coloring by Alex Sinclair. Mixing all of these awesome talents just makes everything even better. To create some of the epic battles on display could be no easy task and I tip every hat I own to the talent involved.

Story wise it all wraps up and makes sense considering what has been going on for the last several months. We get the resolution we’ve been promised while also leaving open some crazy possibilities. Without getting into specifics, the status quo in regards to who is dead and who is alive has successfully been flipped on its back, spun around and thrown across the room. By the end of the issue you will find yourself wondering just how far reaching the effects of Blackest Night have reached, its questions like this that will drive people like me crazy while waiting for Brightest Day!

Geoff Johns has made Green Lantern the most consistently awesome read in the DC universe and with Blackest Night has successfully brought the rest of the DC Universe into the fold of things. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for zombie tales (though I don’t think of Black Lanterns as zombies) but Blackest Night has since day 1 been what I look forward to on my Wednesday’s. The series has been filled with more memorable moments then you could shake a stick at whether it was Kyle's death/rebirth, Guy's becoming a Red Lantern, Sinestro taking the spotlight, Mogo, Ant-Monitor, etc... again the list is just too damn long to go on but needless to say it was more than enough to keep any comic fan happy and now sadly like all great things it has come to an end, but in ending has ushered in a new exciting path for the DC Universe, one could almost call it a Brightest Day…ZING!

A perfect “Summer Blockbuster” event comic that has kept me on the edge of my seat for months, so then Mr. Johns, what do you have in store for us next???

Final Verdict:

9.5 out of 10

it loses half a point cause it had to end :-(

What we have here is a list of all 13 episodes from series 5, some with titles some without, most with a synopsis. It's all just frosting on the cake that we get to dig into Sunday (or two weeks from then if you actually wait for BBC America...) It's an exciting time indeed.

Wanna see the interior of the New TARDIS without waiting until Sunday? Sure we all do! Anyway here are the pics:

Sorry to continue to bombard all you nice people with Walking Dead news but things just seem to be moving along so rapidly recently, anyway...

This time from the 6th Episode of the new series titled Vampires of Venice taken from Friday Night with Jonathan Ross:

We know who's playing Shane but this show will live or die by it's Rick and today there is word on who is the front runner to play the lead in The Walking Dead:

Straight from PAX East comes a performance of the Scott Pilgrim theme song with accompanying visuals from the upcoming SP Game. In the last week we've gotten the Poster, The Trailer (finally) and now this, It's been a very Scott Pilgrim filled week...not a bad thing, not a bad thing AT ALL!

AMC's is making a pilot of the FANTASTIC Robert Kirkman comic The Walking Dead, thats old news by now but its still sounds so cool.

Well if you ask me it may be considering todays new casting for the 2011 film.

Michael Bay today announced on his website that he has signed up (willingly???) three newcomers to his Transformers Trilogy and get this...They are some damn fine actors to boot!

So remember the other day when I posted the trailer for Harry Brown? Sure ya do! Anyway I was able to partake in watching it last night and am back with my review, ready? Well here goes.

Harry Brown follows Michael Caine as he lives his life in an area overrun by youth violence. Harry has lost everyone in the world with the exception of his equally old friend Leonard. The two meet at the pub and drink pints while playing chess, the kind of fun only old men can enjoy that is until Leonard has had enough with all the hoodies roaming the streets, causing violence, selling dope and just being plain Jersey Shore-ish. Leonard stands up for himself one day and ends up getting killed because of it. This makes Michael Caine Hulk out a bit and get all Bruce Wayne on everyone’s ass. That is a simple explanation of the plot of the flick…actually that is basically the plot without giving away all the fine details. It’s simple enough but a movie like this doesn't need any kind of game changing plot devices when you’ve got Michael Caine acting all bad-ass and man does he deliver.

"Wizards chess Alfred?"

I’ve always been under the impression that anyone who wasn’t a Michael Caine fan must surely be a Nazi or something equally as evil because honestly he is right up there with Eastwood as far as Icon’s go. Harry Brown lives and dies by Caine. When he’s on the screen it’s a blast but when he isn’t it becomes the same old same old, thankfully Caine is on screen at least 90 percent of the time. As far as the other actors go they all do their jobs, there aren't any phoned in performances but nor are there Oscar worthy ones. I enjoyed Leonard, Played by David Bradley (aka Filch from the Harry Potter flicks) but he knocked off way to early in the film. I would have liked to see some more back and forth between Harry and Leonard but the film barely hits and hour and forty minutes so I guess we couldn't have any additional character moments for poor Leonard.

B-A-D-A-S-S

Throughout the film there are several memorable moments including an opening scene that is quite fascinating in how brutal it is, it really sets the pace for whats to come and thats not the end of the violence, make no mistake this is a hard R. Stabbings, Shootings, Drugs, F-Bombs we get it all in this one. When some punk is committing a crime you get pissed and want them to get theirs and when the time finally comes and Brown gets with the revenge you cheer (including an awesome scene in drug dealers lair). The cinematography is on par with other gritty films such as this, things are familiar but never boring.

I did enjoy Harry Brown just not as much as I would have liked, I think I really hyped it up in my head to being Caine’s best performance ever without having seen it. It is a memorable character but Harry Brown doesn’t really hold a candle to some of his more memorable roles such as Alfie, Alfred Jasper, etc… Having said that I could not see anyone else pulling off the role of an aging vigilante as well, anyone else and I’m probably not writing this review right now. At the end of the day Harry Brown is a good movie that you should watch if you have the opportunity, Caine’s best? No, but even if it was Caine’s worst (which it isn't) it would still be better then most actors at any point in their careers.

Harry Brown is out this week on DVD in the UK and comes to selected theaters in April in the U.S. Worth at least a Rental or Matinée depending on your country.

Final Verdict

7 out of 10

Sinatra Enjoys Harry Brown

Not long now until the Matt Smith Era begins. Below are all the trailers released so far for your viewing pleasure:

Seems like Marvel has officially offered the role of Steve Rogers aka Captain American to Chris Evans aka The Human Torch. Of all the names thrown around I was pulling for Evans the most, I've liked him in everything I've seen him in and he can play serious (just watch Sunshine) so those fearing that Cap might become a wise cracker should fear not. It's still not OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL because there is no word whether he has accepted the role or not but hopefully we will know soon enough.

Well then watch this interview with new stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and after some talking you get a nice little clip. Got the video from Blogtor Who the best source for your Doctor Who needs.

So much news in the last day or so...

Tim Burton to Direct Addams Family

With summer movie season about to kick-off some movies will surely be missed here and there, Especially if it is a UK release that us American's don't have immediate access to. One such film is Harry Brown a revenge thriller starring Michael Caine that came out in November of last year in the UK but wont be hitting our (limited) screens until April 30th which is might in the hot zone of a (unusually) front-loaded summer movie season.

Yesterday was my Birthday (YEA ME!) and it was also as if by fate the first day of shooting on Green Lantern. I can't say I've always been a GL fan but I can say that over the past 4-5 years (since I got back into comics) that Hal Jordan and crew have become my favorite part of comics. I love the concepts and stories that Geoff Johns and crew have been weaving since the rebirth of Hal Jordan. The gods of Nerdom has seen fit to make the stars align and start filming my most anticipated comic movie (Yes more so than Dark Knight!) on the day of my birth. Anyway there is some awesome news to report as Abin Sur, aka The original Green Lantern from our sector has been cast and will be played by Jango Fett himself Temuera Morrison. Morrison is a good character actor and easily one of the best parts of Attack of the Clones so I dog this info.

This news sprang up last week but I didn't really decide to jump on it until now, I think its because its only starting to sink in now how awesome of news this is. The original report from TheSun:

This weekend proved quite productive in regards to my film viewing experience. I watched several films some old and some new but all enjoyable. So I shall now present you all a quite run down of mini reviews. First up the NEW…

NEW

The Green Zone

-Honestly after seeing the trailer who was expecting Bourne 4? Show of hands…You’re lying if you said you didn’t. Hell even if you read the book on which the movie is based on it still must have appeared that the film treatment was going to get Bourne-ized but luckily that was not the case. I mean I love the Bourne flicks as much as anyone much I also enjoy a thinking mans movie every once and a while.

Admittedly I’m THAT much into politics and one of my least favorite movie subjects is the Iraq War just based on the fact that there is so much he said, she said conspiracy garbage that no one person can no exactly what went down and how it went down especially Hollywood filmmakers. However I really enjoyed Green Zone.

All the actors involved were good, special props to Damon, Isaac’s and Khalid Abdalla who had quite a powerful role. Greg Kinnear was so-so and the normally fantastic Brendan Gleeson while still good disappointed by not being able to convincingly play an American, were as Jason Isaac’s had a flawless American accent Gleeson slipped up a lot. Not enough to dismantle a movie but still got on my nerves.

Story wise it was good, at some points things can get a bit confusing and the makers of the film took some liberties with names and situations according to official statements and the original book. Overall though I was really into it and the fact that it kept me intrigued even without Matt Damon beating people down with a spork or some other harmless instrument of death says loads about the movie.

Greengrass continues to use his handheld shaky cam to dizzying effects but not enough to take away from the overall feel, it actually may have been the perfect amount to make the audience feel like they were right there with the characters. The only negative is that there is a substantial quality loss with those handheld cameras and in this day of HD and digital projections I really don’t want to suffer through a really grainy image.

So overall some nitpicks but small problems overall. Story was good, action was decent and acting was on par with other such movies.

Final Verdict: 6.5 out of 10

New(ish)

The Slammin’ Salmon

-For those that don’t know The Slammin’ Salmon is the latest film from the minds behind Super Troopers and Beerfest, the Broken Lizard crew. I’ve always been a fan of there films, Super Troopers is classic, Beerfest is Pretty damn funny and even The Dukes of Hazard had its merits (Namely Daisy Dukes). The new film marks the Directorial Debut of Kevin Heffernan (aka the funny fat one) which is kind of sad because he has a diminished role in the film, at least that’s how it feels.

The film tells the story of a group of waiters trying to make a lot of cash in one night because they all believe they are competing for a large prize but in reality the restaurants owner (a former boxing champ played by Michael Clarke Duncan) needs to pay off a debt. That’s the basic plot and it really doesn’t get too much more complex. All the Broken Lizard actors play parts of the restaurant staff each with their individual humorous quirks.

The comedy itself is pretty standard Broken Lizard fare; you know the kind I don’t really need to explain it for you. It’s an enjoyable movie that fans of the other Lizard flicks will enjoy, I know I did. Is it the bst film they’ve made, No but its fun enough. It’s not Super Troopers hysterical but it got me to laugh, a good flick to toss a few back to.

Final Verdict: 6 out of 10

Late to the Party

Moon

-WOW. How in the world (or out of this world) was this film not nominated for some sort of Oscar. To not give Rockwell a nom is a shame ad in a year with 10 best feature nominations I can’t believe it didn’t get one.

I had been crazy about seeing it ever since I saw the first trailer but because I live in small town U.S.A. no theater anywhere near me played it. Then I was out of the country for a few months and by the time I got back it was that grey zone between its time in theaters and its time on dvd. Well I finally quenched the thirst I’ve had for several months and boy does it taste good. Like a ice cold coke out of a glass bottle on a warm summer day, Beautiful imagery, right?

Speaking of beautiful imagery this movie is filled with it. Using simple techniques Duncan Jones created a visually captivating film. The space station in which Sam (Sam Rockwell) lives looks like you’d expect a space station to look, not super futuristic and not to old school, that kind of sterile white look that films like 2001 have perfected. I actually felt while watching it that Duncan Jones must love 2001 and not just because there was an talking A.I. (Kevin Spacey) there was just a lot of small touches, the music, some of the shot construction, the sets, it all seemed like a love letter to the Kubrick classic. Having said that the film has its own legs and its story is what captivated me.

It’s some what predictable at times without being to overly simplistic, it keeps you wanting to watch, you want to know the extent to the situations occurring around Sam and even as the credits rolled I found myself wishing I could have spent more time watching Sam Rockwell’s amazing performance.

I wasn’t able to watch the Blu-Ray but would love to one day soon see it in glorious HD, I envy all those who did. It’s a fantastic film that was overlooked by the academy IMO and should be watched by all at least once.

Final Verdict: 9 out of 10

A good weekend of movies, looking forward to Repo-Men this upcoming weekend and the sure to be amazing Kick-Ass in the weeks to follow and soon enough Summer Movie Season will kick into full gear…a great time of the year!