TV and Movie Medley: Arrow Season 3

Howdy readers! Sorry for the delay! Abrupt moving is a trifle hectic but what can you do about that? For the time being there will be fewer posts but that is mostly due to work, looking for a new apartment and dealing with Californians. That being said, let's get on with today's topic. As Season 2 wrapped up, Queen and his growing band of merry men (insert pervy or Robin Hood joke here) had defeated the awesome might of Deathstroke a.k.a. Slade Wilson and his Mirakuru super soldiers from destroying Starling City...and pretty sure Ollie left town to hit the island and work on his tan. This is Arrow Season 3.

Fighting skills by the League, Hair by Paul Mitchell.

Ollie ( Stephen Amell of Hung, Private Practice, Heartland, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Arrow and The Flash) is leading his team against crime with Roy Harper as Arsenal (Colton Haynes of The Gates, Look, Teen Wolf, Arrow, Arrow: Blood Rush and Triumph) Diggle (David Ramsey of Con Air, The Good News, All of Us, Dexter, Outlaw and Blue Bloods) and tech support/hacker Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards of Soldiers of the Apocalypse, Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story, Arrow, Arrow: Blood Rush, Normal Doors, Vixen and The Flash) as they deal with the aftermath of Slade's super soldiers, petty crime and the impending "Big Bad" of the season. Queen is attempting to make "The Arrow" a symbol of justice and not a killer as he was as "The Hood" but it is slow going.

Meet your Mystery Date!!

 

With the loss of Queen Consolidated to a perspective buyer a one Dr. Raymond Palmer (Brandon Routh of Superman Returns, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Fling, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Chuck, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow) whose technological savvy, marketing and being a beacon of enterprising hope breathes new life into Starling City with the hopes of prosperity and much needed capital. But does Palmer have...other ideas as well? With his brief encounters with the League of Assassins, a friend has fallen and a mystery needs unraveling. As if that was not terrifying enough, Ollie is being weighed and measured by Ras al Ghul (Matt Nable of Killer Elite, Riddick, Son of a Gun and Hacksaw Ridge) but to what end? Does he view Ollie as a threat, potential ally or hell he may be going the route of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the comics and looking for an heir to the throne.

Thwack!

What does this hold for the city?? How come no one has up and outright abandoned this town??? How long can they stand this level of madness??

This season brings out some new characters of note including the Atom of the Justice League, Nyssa Al Ghul and some reprising characters as well. The budget got steroids for the season and my God the stunt coordinators earned their money from gun fights, mixed martial arts, grappling attacks and tons of wire work. The story progresses well, the flashbacks embodies Ollie as a whole but dammit the only well rounded female character is an assassin. Yeah CW, not every girl needs to be the following one note concept: Bitchy, judgemental, clingy, ambivalent or pathetic. Not a good way to portray women CW. 

Hey kids, it's Clark Kent!!!

Adrian Paul Week: The Owl

Welcome to the gathering!!.. of Adrian Paul fans for Day 2 of Adrian Paul Week. Yeah, I know I need to cut down on the Highlander quotes, comments and general silliness than is I but it is so damn fun. No offense to MacLeod, but I loved Peter Wingfield's Methos. That man could have lopped the head off a cat snoozing, in the sack, in a outhouse, you name it.

Today I wish to bring about a TV movie title that provided some entertainment. Based on the books by novelist/TV writer Robert Forward (Secret of the Sword, She-Ra: Princess of Power, C.O.P.S., The Real Ghostbusters, The Legend of Zelda and Captain Planet and the Planeteers) comes the story of a soldier turned mercenary who lost his wife and daughter to criminals of unknown. He spends his nights prowling the streets for scum to unleash his rage on. This is The Owl.

Oh no cameraman, he spotted you! RUN!

Alex L' Hiboux (Adrian Paul of Love Potion No. 9, Dead Men Can't Dance, Merlin: The Return, The Breed, Tracker, Charmed, Alien Tracker, Throttle, Little Chicago, Highlander: The Source, Lost Colony: The Legend of Roanoke) was a soldier once. After his tour was up he found his family to been dispatched by criminals and yes, yes I get it is too close to the Punisher and you need to move on. A hopeless insomniac, living off of sugar, caffeine and anxiety Alex "The Owl" operates as a mercenary for whatever or whoever meets his price or cause.

With his on again and off again cop lady friend Danny Santerre (Patricia Charbonneau of Shakedown, Call Me, Brain Dead, Robocop 2, The Arrangement, She's All That and 100 Feet) she throws him a bone via work or just checks in on him. A doctor and his daughter Lisa (Erika Flores of Star Trek: The Next Generation, She Woke Up, Bloodlines: Murder in the Family, Visions of Murder and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) are about to blow town when Doctor Clements (David Selburg of The Man with One Red Shoe, On Deadly Ground, Species and The Bourne Identity) is snatched from the train station leaving his daughter on her own. Lisa seeks out the Owl in the hopes he can find her father before anything horrible happens to him. Reluctant to get involved he takes on the case and is bending ears and arms in no time at all.

I am almost Wesley Snipes, m'man.  I feel it.

Our gangster/rapper Cool Ice (Jacques Bolton of 21 Jump Street, Kindergarten Cop, The O.J. Simpson Story, City of Angels and Bloodlines) holds Clements in chains until he gives up the formula for this new drug coined Instant Iron so he can be the new drug kingpin. FYI, his henchman carrying his ghetto blaster THAT IS NOT EVEN PLAYING!!!!!!

Can the Owl stop the drug trade, end the bad rap tyriad and in general snap bones and one-liners??

A few comments on the flick. Director Tom Holland brought me Fright Night, Fatal Beauty and Child's Play so I figure I am in good hands and while the cinematography is fine, the soundtrack is rocking, the source material was treated with less dignity than a Glen A Larson project. Seriously, Manimal got more love.

One of the biggest effects the film has on you is the soundtrack. My brain is screaming Stallone's Cobra and low and behold it is Sylvester Levay (Composer of Otherworld, Airwolf, Cobra, The Tracker and Navy Seals) some decent bass and guitar with some whammy bar with a bit of synthesizer playing with that brushing of chimes effect that was popular in the 80's and the 90's.

Upside is Paul looked supremely bad-ass, spinning kicks, wrist locks and just blasting the crap out of these pukes.   

You must think I'm not a very nice guy...

TV Episodes: Daredevil

Hello all and welcome back to the week. Yesterday I was bogged down in chores and alas didn't feel up to getting some writing done. This week we tackle the few first episodes from a budding TV series. With 2015 here new series have been created in almost every genre. I felt this time around we see what Marvel Comics has produced via Netflix.

Ew, what did I step in?

With 13 episodes already in the bag, each an hour long, the story of Matt Murdock, lawyer by day and costumed vigilante by night, you can imagine the levels of fisticuffs he encounters on a nightly basis. Determined to clean up his city, stop crime and in general, improve the lives of others, our young hero fights the good fight on his own with only his training and heightened senses at his disposal. Will anyone else aid him in either of his guises? Will the police try to stop him? Can one man truly make a difference. Find out as we explore the first look since the disaster of a movie into a closer take on this iconic Marvel character, Daredevil.

Painkiller Jane: Heroine or Menace?

I've noticed more than a few valid complaints about how there are no really decent superheroine movies and I agreed.    Most are given skimpy outfits, one liners that would make Spidey groan and a love interest that is not merely farfetched but over exaggerated.   No real depth into a backstory or explanation on how they came to be.  Several characters have been overlooked.   Vampirella for example is a powerful, capable woman that happens to be a vampire with a great mental capacity and physical strength.  Granted her outfit looks like dental floss but nevertheless badass gal.   Dynamite Comics however has a character that essence was more or less captured on a Syfy Channel TV Movie. 

So make a munchie run, grab me a Mexi-Coke and let’s sit in.   This is Painkiller Jane.

Spoilers hurt so good…

The crux of the character is sound but her background and profession was altered.  So from being a hard hitting cop we alter Jane (Emmanuelle Vaugier of Saw II, House of the Dead 2, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Unearthed and Far Cry) into a Spec Ops Captain in charge of her unit: Painkiller.   What would be a major heroine processing and distribution center on intel turns out to be some sort of biological lab, patients are infected and soon Jane and her men too receive side-effects.  Desperate to vacate the Captain and men haul ass out only to run into about 20 men armed with Ak-47s and Hazmat suits.  Jane and her boys valiantly fight them but are cut to ribbons and left bleeding on the alley street.  The End…or is it?

5 days later Jane awakes in a military hospital, her wound dramatically healed leaving faint tissue scarring that should be the result of weeks of healing not days.   Her commanding officer Colonel Watts (Richard Roundtree of Shaft, Outlaws, Seven, Vegas Vampires, Desperate Housewives and Heroes) feels they need to do more testing for the fact she was the only one in her unit to come out alive.  Doctor Graham Knight (Tate Donovan of Love Potion No. 9, Partners, Hercules, Friends, The O.C. and Damages) establishes a rapport with Jane and gains her trust with his promise to fix whatever occurred.   Jane notices other aspects of herself beyond her healing such as: heighten state of awareness to her surroundings, dexterity, speed, strength, to process information at an accelerated level and analytical thinking on a scale that rivals gifted intelligence.    

While slightly reveling in her new found abilities, Jane also knows the military will use her as a weapon, escapes during a military transport to a safer location and without killing or even injuring her captors.  Doctor Knight may be the only man to help her but can anything be made to assist her?  Will she want to give up this new abilities and what of Timmy trapped in the well?

TV director Sanford Bookstaver (The Chronicle, Fastlane, The O.C., Bones, and House M.D.) tackles a comic book character devised by Joe Quesada (The Ray, Batman: Sword of Azrael, Daredevil and Ash) and Jimmy Palmiotti (Punisher, Ghost Rider, The Nam, Daredevil and Ash) and frankly as a fan of the comic itself I though Vaugier’s portrayal was spot on.   Tough as nails when the bullets start flying but emotional when the danger has subsided, trying to figure out her next move or if she in fact even has a next move.  Okay a lot of TV movies are hammier than Shatner’s  $h%* My Dad Says but overall my only complaint is the story moved too fast and didn’t allow for some real development but hell it was two hours so guessing a mini-series arc was the way to go.   Say now, isn’t there a Painkiller Jane series starring Kristanna Loken?   Hmm…I wonder.

Night Man: Man of...well night mostly.

Hey kiddies, thought I would drop by with another TV series review. Yeah, I was feeling up for it.   So grab a seat, a refreshing soda and kick back.  This is Night Man.

Spoilers have secret identities too…

Ill-fated comic book company Malibu Comics creates a realm known as the Ultraverse; a land with heroes and heroines of science and magic alike.  Mutants and super powered beings roam this world until Marvel Comics bought them out in 1994.  The idea was to capitalize on this new bastion of characters and incorporate them into the existing Marvel Comics universe.   But hey who gives a crap about that?! 

Today we are talking about Glen Larson’s (creator of Magnum P.I., Knight Rider, Quincy, M.E., The Fall Guy and Manimal) adaptation of Night Man made for two seasons.  Loosely based on the comic book character, Johnny Domino, an accomplished saxophone player and former martial arts instructor is struck by a lightning bolt in a freak accident involving a cable-car and attempted political assassination.  Johnny (Matt McColm of Night of the Warrior, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The Protector, Space Cowboys, Baywatch and The Matrix Reloaded) discovers after this bizarre trauma that he is telepathically able to recognize evil.  After being released from the hospital and an attempt on his life he encounters Rollie Jordan (Derek Webster of Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, Mental and Damages)a brilliant engineer who is of four men that created high tech body armor and weapons for the Department of Defense only to have their project gutted due to budget cuts.  Wanting to hold onto their jobs and reputations, they decide to move the armor into law enforcement only to find out the prototypes are being auctioned off to foreign powers and possibly terrorist cells.   With the aid of his father Frank (Earl Holliman of Forbidden Planet, Police Woman, Hotel de Paree and The Wide Country) former Bay City officer the trio tries to intercept the bad guys and rein in the cops for assistance.  

  Johnny feels the cops won’t arrive into time and uses the prototype armor which consists of: a poly-weave Kevlar and Nomex hybrid, an anti-gravity flying belt, a holographic woven cloak that allows him to be rendered invisible, an optical lens that sees every spectrum of light and doubles as an offensive laser beam.

Okay the storyline is a bit hokey, the cops are a trifle inept and frankly the fact that Johnny manages to keep his identity secret at all is something of a miracle.  The concept of a vigilante striking out on crime by his or her lonesome is not an original story but that jazzy saxophone intro you will NOT get out of your head.  This show is a bit of a guilty pleasure and yes for the haters I shall hang my head down for this.   Similar to the Flash’s production, this show had potential to continue fairly well but alas the dreaded Nielsen ratings felt this show was not up to snuff and after only two seasons it went away like a puff of smoke.  This rating board also thinks such shows as Road Rules and Jersey Shore are worth your time so keep that in mind and hey at least check out the pilot if you are interested.