"Green Room" is a violent thrill ride into a Skinhead world nightmare

A pretty violent movie about the detriments of finding yourself at the wrong place at the wrong time. It comes off as a modern day Deliverance; however, no one quite gets to squeal like a pig (although  the late Anton Yelchin's character comes pretty close at one point). The movie looks great, with a predominant green-filtered look, and the director Jeremy Saulnier, who also made the underrated Blue Ruin, shows that he's the real deal with some rare talent. In both of his movies, he has managed to tell a great story, with more tension, suspense and terrific acting, in 95 minutes or less, than most movies that are at least half-an-hour longer. Here's hoping that modern cinema is movies under 100 minutes, and not the horribly overproduced, over-written and super-long Hollywood disasters such as Batman vs Superman, The Lone Ranger and John Carter, to name just a few. The future of quality movies lies in great storytelling and memorable characters, not in overblown running times. If it were only so easy, though.
A-

"They're Not Like Us: Black Holes for the Young" is a pretentious exercise in abstract conversation

They're Not Like Us is truly unique experience of a comic book series.  It is at once fascinating and intriguing, but that feeling doesn't last more than a few minutes.  After the completion of the first Trade Paperback, Black Holes for the Young (which collects the first six monthly issues), is an abstract, existential and a bit too philosophical work to be entertaining, and as a result it's simply a headache inducing bore.

There are several characters that one can easily equally despise in Black Holes for the Young, but I suppose at the center of all these pretentious douchebags is a girl called Syd, a suicidal, telepathic rebellious teenager/young adult who has mental powers she's not even aware of.   After a failed attempt of trying to take her own life, she is taken out of a hospital by a mysterious man, referred to by everyone as The Voice, and then brought back to his mansion somewhere in San Francisco.  There, she will meet other rich, annoying and self absorbed douchebags, all who have some sort of psychic and telepathic abilities which elevate them above the rest of the human population, who are clearly their inferiors.  We know this, because they all spend countless pages just talking about how great they are, and how terrible everyone else is, and how they will make the world a better place, and blah blah blah.

Writer Eric Stephenson creates a world where there isn't one single likable character.  Syd, for all her initial goodness, appears confused in this spider's web she finds herself in, clearly out of her element, and surrounded by people who don't give a shit about anyone else.  Just how exactly Stephenson plans on developing a long-term series out of that terrible of a concept is beyond me, but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.  The artwork, by Simon Gane and Jordie Bellaire, is just as bland and unimpressive; the characters appear as if they're missing souls altogether, which would be ok, if this was a Robert Kirkman serial about the Zombie apocalypse, but alas, 'tis not so.

I read comics all the time.  In a single week, I'll average about 4 or 5 different Trade Paperbacks from various series.  I can honestly say that They're Not Like Us: Black Holes for the Young is the worst thing I've ever read from the American comic book market.  Never have I looked forward to turning the final page more than last night, as my brain and eyes took a beating they will never recover from. Perhaps this material is simply above my IQ level, or perhaps it's way, way below it.  What can I say... I'm not like them at all!
D-

"Lazarus" volume 1, Family, is an updated version of Game of Thrones' conflict among the elite

Forever Carlyle is a true badass.  I mean, if there was a movie about her, she'd be played by Michelle Rodriguez, no doubt, with just the right amount of attitude and necessary violence (it is no wonder the actress is a fan of this series, for she probably already sees herself as the heroine in question).  Forever isn't exactly human: she's a hybrid of woman and robot, and as a result, is practically invincible.  In other words, she's a Lazarus.  I'd hate to be the guy who stands her up, or even hints at playing with her emotions.

Writer Greg Rucka and artist Michael Lark's Lazarus: Family is the first Trade Paperback of this serial, which is original and engrossing aplenty to keep one turning the pages.  We are introduced to a world of the future where food is scarce, and only the powerful and rich families are able to get by; the remaining citizens on the planet are simply scavengers and petty criminals who've barely enough to eat.  The Morray family is quarreling with the Carlyles over crops and theft and what not, and this is leading to a near conflict.  Consequently, one of the sons, Jonah Carlyle, insists on starting a war with Morrays, a suggestion his patriarch brushes off, especially when he sends Forever on an important assignment, neglecting Jonah in the process.  The conflict that ensues is nearly equivalent to the one we see on HBO's Game of Thrones on a weekly basis, where the rich and the powerful begin to wage war against each other over petty differences such as titles, bragging rights and pure jealousy.

Rucka does an impressive job of creating a whole new world that we're not necessarily used to, and even better characters who are more human than they first appear.  Lark's illustrations are murky and a bit fuzzy, but still more or less perfect for an action series such as Lazarus.   Based on the cover of the first issue - which is what attracted me to this series to begin with - Lazarus delivers action, blood, double crosses, betrayal and best of all, great drama.  In other words, it's goes about its business as well as it possibly could.
A-

"Unfollow" is an Anti-Social Network, intertwined with an assassins-filled Tarantinoesque movie

Larry Ferrell is a super-wealthy social media mogul worth over $18 billion.  But diagnosed with a terminal illness that leaves him shriveled and hairless on a sure deathbed, he decides to give away his entire fortune equally to some lucky 140 random people.  These multi-billion fortune future heirs are as diverse and distant from one another as can be, and their interaction with each other will determine who will live and who will die, for the last person standing at the end will walk away with the entire $18 billion to themselves.

The people we meet are unique and have almost character-defining origins.  There is Dave from St. Louis, a thug who often hallucinates panthers or leopards; Courtney is a wealthy New York socialite, who spends her time skydiving just above Manhattan; Ravan is an Iranian journalist who's been abused and tortured by soldiers; there's Deacon, a Grizzly Adams looking former special ops soldier, whose recluse in the Alaskan wilderness is interrupted by him winning the so-called "Golden ticket" as one of heirs to Ferrell's fortune; and there's also Akira, a Japanese intellectual with prosthetic legs and a tattooed face.  They have all been brought over to the Bahamas, Ferrell's residence, by the mogul's often masked assistant, Mr. Rubinstein, in order to be informed of their inheritance's rules and requirements.

As written by Rob Williams and illustrated Michael Dowling (the cover by Matt Taylor is also great), Unfollow is a well imagined contemporary thriller involving our infatuation and dependency of social media on a minute-to-minute basis.   The story is well told, without much confusion, and for the most part it's entertaining enough to follow, since its ultimate conclusion does intrigue me.  The characters talk the real talk, rather than the written kind, and the artwork is detailed and very engaging.  After reading the first volume, I can't say I'm overwhelmed, but I'm not bored, either.  It has left me curious as to where it will go from here, and as a result, I won't be unfollowing it.
B

"Popstar" is all too familiar, and its wit is a bit too little, too late

After numerous mockumentaries from the last few decades - or should I say, "rockumentaries" - Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping arrives at the scene tardy by just too many decades, even if its subject matter is rather contemporary.  I can't honestly recall another such genre film that was actually funny other than the one Rob Reiner directed that started it all way back in 1984, This is Spinal Tap.  But not only are the jokes stale (the only one at which I laughed out loud is a song called Fuck Bin Laden, which is hysterical in more ways than one), the subject matter, which is clearly based on Justin Bieber's over-the-top-lifestyle, is redundant: we don't actually need a movie to spoof Bieber, for his life already is a joke among most adults the world over, despite his high financial success.  Result is a movie that feels too long even at mere 80-plus minutes.  Andy Samberg continues to appear in below average films, both commercially and critically, and I suppose he always has his TV success to fall back upon.  Honestly, most people with his poor big screen track record should feel lucky to still be employed, regardless of the medium.
C

"Emelie" is below average - for a 'babysitter from hell' premise (Bolger is hot, though!)

She might smile and have the general appearance of a nice, loving and considerate babysitter, but make no mistake, Emelie is a strange girl.  When she's not showing the three children their parents' home-made porn, then she's feeding one of their dear hamsters to the eldest son's snake, or even playing with a real firearm right in front of them. Emelie is definitely atmospheric, but it's also so very low budget that the director couldn't afford to show any real shock or horror: whenever something terrible or violent or bloody was about to happen, the editor cut out of the scene, leaving us to mentally imagine the possible horror.  In some movies this ploy is effective, but in this one, alas, it isn't: it's a good idea made without much imagination. As sexy and mysterious as Emelie may see (Sarah Bolger is quite the vixen, if you ask me), director Michael Thelin simply never has her do anything more daring than a drunk and disorderly frat party may bring out of one of their guests.  This is a film well conceived, but perhaps executed without anyone having taken any real chances.  It may as well be rated PG, for it comes off more family friendly than a dark Harry Potter movie.
C

"Hellboy: Wake the Devil" places the red demon hero in a longer narrative with memorable villains

Unlike the previous issue of Hellboy issue that I read, which featured several shorter stories and vignettes of Mike Mignola's favorite BPRD agent, Wake the Devil is a longer narrative than I'm used to seeing.   Not only that, but it features - for a change - villains that are somewhat memorable, and foes that Hellboy will struggle in defeating.  After all, what would be the point if he was smashing right through everyone, right?

Wake the Devil introduces us to new villains, such as Ilsa Haupstein, a former Nazi, and Vladimir Giurescu, an immortal who can be healed by moonlight alone, to name just a few.  It also brings back the irreplaceable Rasputin, the antagonist from Seed of Destruction, who is a villain in more than one comic these days (he also makes appearance in the Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese series).  Hellboy will naturally fight these villains and other demons and monsters, just as he typically does with his large right hand made of stone, punching everything that approaches him straight into oblivion.

Also typical of Mike Mignola's artistic style, the action scenes appear chopped up and out of sync, because apparently Mignola edits his comics a bit too much, almost to the point where what we see does not make a lot of sense, at least when it comes to one frame transitioning smoothly into the next.  This has been an problem in previous episodes, and continues to be still.  I suppose we could just call this a Mignola effect, and strip any negative connotation we may otherwise have with such a style away altogether.   No need to call a duck something else, if all we want is to hear it quack.

This episode is still a step up for this series, which continues to improve with each new issue.  I'm still not crazy about it as a whole, and part of me feels bad, because I honestly want to like it, since Hellboy is a very likable character.  But the stories themselves are simply not very clever,  recycling the same-old-same-old "Nazis wanting to wake up demons and ghouls from the underworld" storyline to the point of exhaustion.  They come across as something that was written for either a novel format or the big screen, but definitely not for comic book readers above the age of 12.  At least not a comic that features Mignola's inconsistent artistic style.
B-