Bullet to the Head is the latest film to star ass-kicking pensioner Sylvester Stallone. He plays Jimmy Bobo (really), a hitman with morals – don’t they all – who gets himself in a right old tiswas after his partner is killed by Game of Thrones and Conan the Barbarian’s Jason Momoa after a routine job. Tech-savvy (ie, smartphone-owning cop) Taylor Kwon looks into the murder Bobo committed and decides to team up with the crim in order to find out who’s really behind all the killing and intrigue and why. Kwon is played by Sung Kang who has starred in a number of Fast and Furious films and was cast as Thomas Jane was not ‘ethnic’ enough. Former NFL cheerleader Sarah Shahi plays tattoo-artist totty and Bobo’s daughter Lisa and Christian Slater turns up as a well-connected sleaze who’s clearly watched Eyes Wide Shut too many times.

Bullet to the Head defies rigorous analysis and that’s probably the highest compliment you can give it. It’s a meat and potatoes action flick in which folks get shot, punched and stabbed, there’s tokenistic nudity for the female actors, our heroes crack wise and everyone goes home happy. It doesn’t do anything badly enough to really stick in the craw and even does some things rather well – Stallone and Momoa’s axe-fight faceoff, for example, is wincingly impressive.

This slightly unexpected level of decentness can perhaps be attributed to director Walter Hill, the man behind such classics as The Warriors, Streets of Fire and Brewster’s Millions, who helms his first feature film since Undisputed, ten years ago. There is a cheap and cheerful yet slick and stylish feel to the film, reminiscent of eighties exploitation. Credit is also probably due to the apparently well-regarded source material, a French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent and Colin Wilson.

If we’re being uncharitable, we could call the film out on its weak roles for women, its predictability and unoriginality and the fact that its funny lines aren’t really all that funny. We could question the fact that the basic structure of the film is Kang asking someone on his phone for the name of a bad person, him Googling them, Stallone beating them up and then repeating. We could wonder why no one in the film sleeps for about three days. But let’s not be uncharitable. Bullet to the Head may not be the picture to spark a revolution in action cinema, nor may it be your new favourite film or even represent the best work Stallone has done recently. It is, however, a perfectly enjoyable film and a likable distraction from the fact that our own lives don’t feature nearly enough axe fights, tattoo parlour bullet removals and Bulleit Bourbon product placement.

Bullet to the Head is released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 3rd.

Fast & Furious 6, the latest installment of the decades spanning Fast Cars & Family saga sees director Justin Lin bow out from the franchise in spectacular style with the biggest scale, most spectacular and almost certainly dumbest installment yet.

With the insane popularity of the previous film, which grossed $500 million worldwide and garnered the most positive critical reception since the first film back in 2001, Lin has been given the keys to even bigger playground here with palpable increasing production value and a directorial vision which with every installment sense his first effort, 2006’s Tokyo Drift, has gotten more coherent and pleasingly more confident in using crunchy practical stunt work throwing away the CG riddled horror at the climax of Fast & Furious (the 4^th adventure) and instead developing action sequences with multiple points of focus which never jar and never disorient, which is something of a miracle given the vast, overblown and at times stretching to a strange sort of self – reflexive parody which becomes quite sublime. These action sequences are also varied, with car chases, girl-on-girl fistfights (Haywire’s Gina Carrano bringing some A-grade badass throughout) and flying headbutts all featuring in a film which does feel too long at well over 2 hours but is able to stick the landing due to such fun carnage.

Where the film does sputter a little is whenever it has to slow down and actually tell a story. Vin Diesel’s Dominic rumbles on about family in the same way he always has, the film continuing this franchise’s vain attempts trying to make these larger-than-life characters human for no real reason and Paul Walker’s Brian contributes the same level of nothing he always has. The supporting characters conform to type well enough also but the melodrama surrounding Michelle Rodriguez ‘s Lettie is played far too seriously for what it is and slows things down when you just will the film to keep up the pace. The film also hobbles Hobbs, the man-mountain, take no prisoners character Dwayne Johnson brought with spectacular style last time round, as he becomes a sentimental idiot which completely destroys the strong sense of credibility built earlier in both the last instalment and this film, something necessitated by the plot which frankly, is as stupid as they come.

As dumb as the plotting is, the film does relishing wallowing in it through and through and it is somewhat hard to criticise the strange sense of honesty. Ludicris and Tyrese Gibson comment on the craziness of things happening around them fairly often and a touch of the rampant self-seriousness which the earlier films took themselves has been wiped away as a result. The tease of next year’s installment looks like things will change again but for this story, it is clearly fitting.

Fast & Furious 6 is a bit of joy bringing propulsive action with less filler than previously seen. The best film in the franchise yet with a tease for a seventh which could well top it. My personal surprise of the year so far, and fair play to all involved.

**** 4/5

Writer-Director Jeff Nichols’s latest film Mud  is a coming of age tale that combines the country brashness of Huck Finn  with the grand adventure of Stand By Me, and adds the ability to capture a rustic subculture similar to Beasts of the Southern Wild.  All these different elements come together to tell a deeply personal tale of the complexities of life, love, and the bitter sweetness of growing old. This modern fable brings you deep into the makings of its character to provide a unique prospective to this naturalistic world. Nearly every performance has an impeccable sense of authenticity. Much of the story rest on the shoulders of the film’s two young leads, and they carry that weight with a sheer will far beyond their years.  This makes for a genuinely heartwarming tale that does not shy away from its darker side.

Nichols places the film in his own home state of Arkansas, and his personal experiences clearly paid dividends. He brandishes a beautiful portrait of these river filled landscapes that seemingly go on forever. The story revolves around two teenage boys Ellis (Sheridan) and his best friend Neckbone (Lofland) who set out to an island on the Mississippi River to look for a boat that has been mysteriously logged up in a tree. They soon discover someone has actually been living in this boat turned tree house. The person taking up residence goes by the name of Mud (McConaughey), and with one quick look at him you can understand where he got that name. Mud requires the help of these boys and promises to repay them with his boat. The boys agree and begin to form a bond with Mud, but soon discover there may be more to the story of Mud than they first realized.

People forget just how great of an actor Matthew McConaughey can be. He tends to automatically be associated as the aloof goof of romantic comedies. Last year with his work in Killer Joe, Magic Mike, and Bernie, he was able to shed much of that stigma. His performance here is only further proof of his craftsmanship. Mud is a tangent storyteller who answers nearly every question with an elongated tale full of local colloquialisms. McConaughey gives the character this perfect soft edged temperament.  On the surface he has a surprisingly welcoming persona that is clearly covering up a rougher interior. All of his workings make him an enigmatic figure full of intrigue.

Though McConaughey is the biggest star and the film is titled after his character, he is not the main
protagonist of this film. That honor goes to rising star Tye Sheridan. Sheridan gives what may be the film’s best performance. He is a complete natural in the way he portrays his multifarious character. Nichols challenges Sheridan by giving him a character that is fully faceted with adult emotions. He may be wise beyond his years, yet he still maintains a childlike wonderment full of romantic ideals. Ellis is consistently being berated with the harsh realities of life. His parents are in the midst of a divorce, which could lead to losing the one place he has called home. Mud evolves into the one person he can hang his idealistic hopes onto. Sheridan’s young age has no hindrance on his maturity as an actor. His emotions are tossed into a continuous tizzy as the world around him begins to crumble. Whatever the story requires of Sheridan’s he is more than willing to deliver.

Mud’s narrative is layered with a number of different facets and subplots. Nichols deliberately slows down the pacing for much for the film. He divvies out story bits and distributes them in a rather lackadaisical fashion. While it helps support the overall static atmosphere, it does leave you sitting and waiting for something to happen for a good bit a time. With so much to dissect it is hard to mind all this time, nevertheless there are points were you are ready to move on.

Overall the story is quite fascinating. Nichols scribes one robust script drenched in substance. The scope is surprisingly large with everything it encompasses. In a way Mud’s story alone would be enough to service an entire film. When you add Ellis’s story it broadens things even further.  Still, with such an array of story bits it is able to maintain an unremitting intimacy, because every story element has a distinct purpose. Ellis’s relationship with his parents in many other films would just have been a run of the mill subplot. Instead, here it forces Ellis to deal with the repercussions of their withering relationship. With everything this story entails it could have easily fell victim to overdone melodrama. Luckily, that was never the case as every emotional payoff was well-earned.

Summer movie season is filled with car chases, explosions, and superhero heroics. Sometimes it is freeing to take a step back and appreciate the smaller things. Mud is ideal counter-programing for a season full of high-profile blockbusters. Those looking for something different will be pleased with this quaint adventure jam-packed with purpose. Don’t’ be surprised if  that impact only grows as the years grow older.

**** 4/5

The Hangover Part III bills itself as the ‘epic finale to the Hangover trilogy’, which is pretty bold stuff for what is ostensibly a fairly knock-about, not that funny comedy series. Yeah that’s right, I said not that funny. I saw the first and didn’t really laugh, I skipped the second because I heard it was awful and wasn’t invited to watch it for free and I didn’t really laugh at this third outing. That’s not to say I didn’t find the film fairly watchable and inoffensive – it provided a similar level enjoyment to finding that the cup of tea you forgot about hasn’t gotten as quite cold as you expected it to.

Part III picks up a couple of years after the last film. Alan (Galifianakis) has gone steadily off the rails and his friends Phil (Cooper) and Stu (Helms) agree to take him to a rehab clinic. En route, they are intercepted by John Goodman’s aggrieved gangster, who conscripts the gang into tracking down their bad penny Mr Chow (Jeong), who has stolen lots of gold from him. Hi-jinks ensue, in a previously untapped action-thriller manner.

Whilst I may not be a big fan of the Hangover series thus far, I have become a big fan of Community and as such, Ken Jeong. I was looking forward to seeing him on screen and his outrageous behaviour is probably about as funny as the film gets. I also liked the parts of the film that were (hopefully) deliberately portentous and grandiose, providing a drier kind of humour than you might typically expect.

But yeah, generally speaking, the film isn’t really that funny. You don’t have the ridiculous set up of the first or (I’m told) the second and as such, there isn’t really an element of farce. The trio don’t actually go out drinking and there isn’t an actual hangover in the film to speak of. This is a bit odd. That they’ve gone for the whole gang-land thriller thing is a bit odd, kind of like seeing a thirteen year old boy wearing his dad’s suit.

So whilst there aren’t many laughs (certainly none that would emanate from the belly region) and the plot is a bit of a mismatch with the tone of the previous films, the basic charisma of the three main stars allows you to watch the film without getting too upset or annoyed about it. Unlike other comedies coming out soon, it doesn’t outstay its welcome and at least attempts to throw a bone to female actors, giving Melissa McCarthy a role with at least four lines. Heather Graham is also given a token cameo too. It’s sure to make millions and will probably entertain many people in the cinema and in their homes for some time to come, but don’t go in expecting The Hangover Part III to reinvent the comedy wheel.  Most of the stars have already bettered their appearances in the series and will most likely do so again. In the meantime, I guess there are worse ways to slum it cinematically than in this.

Epilogue:

Do you ever wonder if Galifianakis is sick of his beard but can’t get rid of it because then no one would know who he was? I reckon he’s the kind of guy who grew a great big beard for his own amusement, then by chance happened to star in a film that made him loads of money and very famous and is now trapped in a facial-follicle trap of his own making.

The Hangover Part III is in cinemas now.

After a temporary retirement and a brief stint as the Governator of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has returned to the silver screen. Schwarzenegger has had a few cameos in The Expendables  franchise but The Last Stand  marks the first time Schwarzenegger has taken the lead in a film since Terminator 3. With such a long layoff one wonders if Schwarzenegger could pick up where he left off. While he would never be confused with an acting savant, he brought a certain magnetic charm that made him one of the world’s biggest action stars. Perhaps it’s an issue of too much rust on the gears or a hindrance due to advanced age that has water downed his charismatic persona. His movements are achy, his punches are feeble, and his trademark one-liners are haphazardly executed. The film surrounding him does not do him any favors either. While there are a number of well-crafted action beats, it gets bogged down with unnecessary subplots and a cavalcade of one note characters.

Not only does The Last Stand mark Schwarzenegger’s return to film it also marks the American film debut of South Korean director Jee-woon Kim. Jee-woon comes with a strong pedigree stacked with a variety of quality films from a multitude of genres. Experience gained from making a something like The Good, The Bad, The Weird should pay dividends with a movie like this. The Last Stand  shares a similar Western like atmosphere. The story revolves around Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) the leader of a drug cartel that his broken free from imprisonment. With the aid of a souped-up sports car he hopes to escape back to Mexico. The only thing standing in his way is a small town and its old-time sheriff (Schwarzenegger) with a troubled past. Using all of his well-earned experience this grizzled sheriff hopes he and his inexperienced crew have what it takes to stop one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals.

The basic premise has classic 80’s action written all over it. Jee-woon does deliver a number of fun action set pieces. A finely tuned team dismantling a highway road block and a high caliber shootout in the middle of a desolate town were two moments that stood out among the rest. The best action typically occurred when Schwarzenegger was not the focal point. It was as if Jee-woon’s sensibilities and Schwarzenegger’s style were at odds with one another. When Schwarzenegger was on-screen things came to a screeching halt. There were glimpses of the Schwarzenegger we know and love, but when he would recite one of his classics witty quips it felt like you were watching a bad Schwarzenegger impression. Maybe this can be the warm-up he needs to regain his prior greatness.

Though compared to Forest Whitaker, Schwarzenegger was an all-star. Whitaker continues his Cuban Gooding Jr.-esque fall from Oscar winner to direct to DVD star.  He plays the FBI agent that allowed Cortez to escape custody. Whitaker’s subplot does everything it possibly can to derail the film. It goes on for far too long and adds nothing to the overall story. Sure, it provides an opportunity for Cortez to flex his muscle as a criminal mastermind, but Eduardo Noriega lack of personality makes that attempt mute. Plus it lingers on these boring characters to seemingly buy time for future events. If these characters were more well-defined this entire subplot may not have been so pointless.

Unfortunately the other characters are not much better. There are examples like Lewis Dinkum, a flaky weapons collector played by Johnny Knoxville. Dinkum is not only a failed attempt at comic relief, he is an unsuccessful effort to market to a younger audience. This casting reads as if the movie studio was hesitant to believe Schwarzenegger could still draw a crowd. So they doubled down by throwing Knoxville in to balance things out. One wonders what type of control Jee-woon had on this film, because as an outsider looking in it doesn’t look like he had much. The script he was working with was certainty one of the biggest issues. Conversations between characters were lazy attempts to establish backgrounds. Information was forcefully inserted into the dialog as if people are reading each other’s life stories on the back of baseball cards. More importantly this messy exposition added little substance to the narrative. It tried to be more than the sum of its parts.

When you are watching a film like The Last Stand there are certain expectations you have as an audience. You are not looking for high class cinema – just a good ride with plenty of action. This delivers on some of that promise. Those who have a wet appetite for throwback action will get slivers of what they crave. With stronger editing and a tighter script  there wouldn’t be such a lack of excitement. Who knows what the future holds for Schwarzenegger’s or Jee-woon’s movie careers.  Hopefully this will just be a small roadblock to their upcoming success.

The Last Stand is released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 27th.

If you’d like us to consider your project to feature in a future edition of Back This!, make sure to drop us a line.

Christmas Slay

Started by writer/director Steven Davis, the Kickstarter campaign for Christmas Slay is almost at fruition with, as of writing, only ten days to go in the campaign. Looking for £7000 to fund a two-week shoot in Bulgaria (standing in for the snowy mountains of Scotland), Davis’ film promises to be “a unique take on the slash and stalk genre, a film inspired by so many great movie such as Friday the 13th, Black Christmas, Silent Night Deadly Night, A Nightmare On Elm Street and so many other cult horror classics of the 1970′s and 1980′s”.

With a cast that includes Frank Jakeman (Eastenders, Blott on the Landscape), James Payton (Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix), Dani Thompson (Zombie Women of Satan 2), Jessica Ann Bonner (Devil’s Tower, Vendetta) and newcomer Stefani Zanotti; and with special effects by Michele Mulkey (The Last Samurai, The Chronicles of Riddick), Christmas Slay promises to be an interesting take on a much-familiar genre. The official synopsis reads thus:

The story of Christmas Slay begins on a wintry Christmas Eve in the picturesque Kentish countryside, the horrific murder of a loving family, and the capture of a Santa Claus obsessed blood thirsty killer. As Christmas dawns closer the following year, a group of collage friends decide to get away from it all and relax and party over the Christmas holiday, they decide to escape to the idyllic Mistletoe Lodge nestled within the beautiful snowy mountains of the Scottish Highlands, but what starts off as the perfect festive getaway of fun in the snow and a glass of eggnog or two, suddenly descends in to gruesome blood bath of terror, and a fight for survival.

Pledges start at £1 and include the usual perks: thank you’s on social media, DVDs, posters, credits etc. Find out more at Christmas Slay‘s Kickstarter page.

DOOMED! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s ‘The Fantastic Four’

I’m a huge superhero movie fan, so of course I have seen Roger Corman’s ill-fated 1994 film The Fantastic Four. But many people haven’t, and with good reason – the film was shelved after production never to be [legally] seen again. Some say Corman struck a deal to shoot the movie in an effort to keep the rights with the studio but no one really knows the truth… Until now.

Marty Langford and his producing partner Mark Sikes (who who was involved in the development of the film as an employee of Roger Corman’s Concorde-New Horizons outfit) have, with Doomed!, set out to unravel the mystery surrounding the film, talking to those involved on both sides of the camera – promising that all of the secrets, stories and legal shenanigans that have kept this a ‘lost’ film will be revealed through an in-depth, investigative documentary.

1994′s “The Fantastic Four”, produced by Roger Corman’s New Horizons and Bernd Eichinger’s Neue Constantin Film, directed by Oley Sassone and written by Craig Nevius, is looked at much differently today than it was in the Fall of 1992, when Eichinger (who died in January, 2011) brought the property to Corman.  Exactly what was discussed between the two men prior to a deal being struck isn’t known. But the result of their collaboration *is* – the movie has never been viewed legally by anyone in the world, other than those directly involved in the production.

The filmmakers already have committments from several of the principal cast including: Carl Ciarfalio (“The Thing”), Joseph Culp (“Dr. Doom”), Kat Green (“Alicia Masters”), Rebecca Staab (“Sue Richards”), Michael Bailey Smith (“Ben Grimm”), Jay Underwood (“Johnny Storm”) and Alex Hyde-White(“Reed Richards”); as well as several of the key crew members. Plus, 6% of the film’s profits will be donated to THE HERO INITIATIVE – an organization that helps comic creators in need.

Pledges for this project start at $10 and the perks include thank you’s on social media, an eBook, DVDs, original FF posters from 1994, credits etc. Find out more at DOOMED! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four‘s Indiegogo page.

V/H/S 2

Maniac

Last Call

Man of Steel

The World’s End

Wolverine

The Heat

The Internship

Drinking Buddies

Riddick

Despicable Me 2

Red 2

The Lone Ranger

The family comedy with a moral message has been a staple of Hollywood for eons. They have also been a go-to for filmmakers looking to fill cinemas with a family audience, because we all know that the wider the demographic the more box-office right? Wrong. Some of Hollywood’s most recent family comedies have under-performed both critically and commercially. Remember Little Fockers? I do (although I wish I didn’t). That film was enough to put you off watching these types of comedies for life. That being said, the trailer for Parental Guidance actually had me in stitches – not enough to make me want to see the film in the cinema admittedly, but now it’s hitting DVD and Blu-ray I decided it was time to test the proverbial family comedy waters and see if director Andy Fickman, who previously helmed not one but TWO movies starring The Rock, could bring anything interesting to a much-maligned genre.

It helped knowing that Flickman was behind one of my favourite gross-out, post-American Pie comedies, the underrated DTV flick Who’s Your Daddy?

The plot of  Parental Guidance is as old-school as it’s cast. Baseball-commentator Artie (Crystal), who is accustomed to calling the shots in life, meets his match when he and his eager-to-please wife Diane (Midler) agree to babysit their three grandkids when their go-getting daughter (Tomei) and her husband Phil (Scott) go away for work. But (like all good family comedies come morality tales) when 21st century problems collide with Artie and Diane’s old school methods of paternity, the whole family must overcome their doubts, fears and eccentricities if they’re ever going to be a “real” family again.

Now me reviewing a family comedy may be surprising to some of you long-term readers. After all I tend to focus all my energies on horror, thriller and sci-fi flicks. If I do review comedies, they’re usually of the gross-out kind or the occasional spoof movie. However I do have a soft spot for family-friendly comedies – no doubt due to being raised on the likes of The Great Outdoors, Parenthood, Uncle Buck and National Lampoons Vacation. And I will always give the genre a fair shake, all in the hope of finding a film that measures up to the classic I grew up with. Sometimes you hit gold – I remember loving Meet the Parents on first release – but more often that not you end up with a dud like Tooth Fairy 2 (although its my own fault for even trying to watch that one!). Thankfully Parental Guidance falls more towards the former than the latter.

Besides a surprisingly sweet, old-fashioned yet good-natured script from Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse, whose only other major credit is the 2007 animated movie Surf’s Up, the real highlight of Parental Guidance is the cast. Billy Crystal is his usual acerbic comedic self and has the perfect foil in Bette Midler, whose flamboyancy screams awkward grandma and whose grandiose performance matches Crystal’s loud comedy stylings to a tee. Meanwhile Tom Everett Scott channels his inner geek as Tomei’s techie house designing husband. Speaking of Tomei, whilst she never really feels young enough to be Crystal’s daughter, she does pull off the frazzled daughter role with aplomb and her interaction with the kids of the film really does feel incredibly motherly – especially in the later scenes with the film-stealing Bailee Madison.

However Madison doesn’t really get to shine for most of the movie, merely fulfilling the high maintenance daughter role for the majority. That is until the tear-inducing argument she and Tomei have and the eventual mutual understanding the two come to – those scenes are core to why Parental Guidance succeeds as both a comedy and a family drama. In fact without the films entire final third act this film would have been a typical slapstick-esque comedy a la Meet the Fockers et al., but the switch to the more dramatic and the heart-string tugging story means that you leave the film feeling fulfilled on an emotional level as well as on a humorous one.

A film that made me laugh, touched me emotionally and most of all surprised me, Parental Guidance is released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 27th.

**** 4/5

His latest film, The Dark Prince, is another take on the Dracula legend which stars Brit actor Luke Roberts as the titular character and Jon Voight as Van Helsing. The film, which was lensed in Romania, is currently at the Cannes Film Market and director Teo has revealed the films poster on his Facebook page (which if you’ve any interest in low-budget filmmaking you really should be following).

Mark, being more proactive this weekend than I, takes the lead this week. I only actually bought one comic (in addition to a swish box to keep my burgeoning collection in) and I have chipped in where necessary.

May 15th 2013

Iron Man #10, Kieron Gillen, Dale Eaglesham, Marvel (Mark)

“The Secret Origin of Tony Stark” kicks off proper after last issue’s prologue, which saw the space-faring Stark on the hunt for a genocidal robot named 451 but betrayed at the last moment by his supposed partner and control of his armour wrested from him, only to be forced to watch a filmed message from Tony’s father, Howard. We pick up shortly after that film has ended, leaving Tony in a state of disbelief at the actions his mother and father took, and the bulk of the issue is a flashback to daddy Stark’s days trying to find a way for his and his wife Maria’s unborn son to come to term, a process made difficult by an undefined affliction.

What follows is a snapshot tour of Marvel’s many scientists and magic users who can’t help but eventually lead him to the aforementioned 451…who’s imprisoned in a Vegas casino run by little grey men. So, naturally, Howard has to gather a team of blasts from Marvel’s past to Danny Ocean his way in (something of a recurring trope in Marvel comics of late…), and while it’s nice to see Johnny Woo and Dum-Dum Dugan every once in a while the whole episode feels a bit ephemeral – though much more entertaining than Hickman’s recent folly, certainly. Gillen’s flair for witty dialogue and economical characterisation (“Just pay me enough to keep me in dog food and gin,” for example, says all I need to know about Howard’s demolitions expert) carry the scenes that feel a little lacking, though honestly there aren’t really that many, mainly due to the constant forward momentum he brings and the elegant, expressive linework of Dale Eaglesham, who actually brought me back to this series after Greg Land drove me away back at issue #1. Suffice it to say that there’s enough in this story to keep me coming back next month.

The Dream Merchant #1, Nathan Edmonson, Konstantin Novosadov, Image (Mark)

…Whereas in this new series from Image there’s not nearly enough in an entire double-sized issue to interest me in repeat business, unfortunately. A mildly interesting premise – a young man visits a strange world in his dreams and becomes unable to differentiate between them and reality, resulting in his committal to a psychiatric hospital – gives way to a drawn-out, ill-paced and obtuse book that fails to excite even when hooded figures chase our hero and a hospital-cook-cum-accomplice and they’re forced to go on the lam. The “dream merchant” of the title makes an appearance late in the issue, but little is revealed about his true purpose and, to be frank, I’m not all that interested in finding out what that is.

I’m sure there’s an interesting backstory to some of this, but the writing from Edmonson just didn’t compel me, with a lot of clumsy dialogue leading to unnecessary exposition and attempted characterisation taking far too many pages to make a character barely relatable when we could be getting on with the story. The issue’s at its best near the beginning when it’s in flashback mode, giving us a snapshots of the protagonist’s life and getting necessary information to us quickly and effectively, but artist Konstantin Novosadov’s style was much too sketchy for me to really be drawn into the world and his colour palette gives a samey murkiness to the pages that makes it hard to differentiate between panels, let alone tell what’s going on in wider shots. Not one I’ll be picking up again unless the trade gets great reviews, I’m afraid.

Jack: This is the only book I bought this week and honestly, I couldn’t disagree more with Mark. I thought it was wonderfully drawn –except for the way Novosadov draws noses head on. I loved the artwork, which really drew me into the book. Maybe that’s because the characters kind of look how I doodle people when I’m waiting for the dilapidated computer system we use at work to save larger files only 2,386 times better. I also especially liked the use of colour in the dream sequences.

Writing-wise I thought that The Dream Merchant offered a fairly measured account of mental illness and the tolls that has on those that suffer from it. Sure, we don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on but I was intrigued by this. The double sized issue felt like decent bang for your buck to me and I had no problem with the pacing. I’d go as far as to say I was actively thinking how much I liked where it was going and at an appropriate speed. As a limited series, I feel satisfied that we’re going to get a decent story in six issues. I liked both of the main characters and I think Edmonson has done a lot with very little to suggest the complexities of their relationship. The only real criticism I do have is for Image themselves, who described the book as a sci-fi on their site, which on the evidence of this book seems inappropriate. It’s much closer to a fantastical, magic-realism type thing, which I was pretty happy with.

FF #7, Matt Fraction, Michael Allred, Marvel (Mark)

Now, I know I probably seem like a bit of a Fraction groupie from these reviews, but the guy just keeps knocking them out of the park. I’ve already written about his Fantastic Four, and FF is great for a lot of the same reasons – chief among them being an understanding of the characters as real (enough) people and allowing each their moments to shine – but issue #7 really excels at demonstrating both the playfulness and pathos that makes it something special.

Having been transported – along with the entire Baxter Building – to the Negative Zone by the new Frightful Four (which includes a mind-controlled FF member Medusa among their number), so that clone-of-a-super-villain Bentley-23 (it’s a long story, but it doesn’t really matter) the FF decide to take the fight to their attackers. And that means ALL of the Future Foundation, including the children they’ve had to take under their wing. As Onome, a young girl, points to current Ant-Man Scott Lang, shouldn’t he be worried about them getting hurt or even dying?

But that’s where the book really steps up: he knows all too well that there’s every chance they’ll get hurt and join his daughter Cassie on the other side, but tells his charges that the world’s not going to get any safer just because they are. The ethos of the book and Scott’s struggle to look after these children are gorgeously rendered by the Allreds, who can flip from wacky to heart-achey in a moment. That pretty much sums up what’s great about FF for me.

Well, that and lines like, “Holy cats! It worked!”