Wednesday, June 27, 2018

We Watched it for You: Ibiza






As many of you know, the Producer when he is not doing work for brothascomics works in the field of education.  And while that may not pay as much as it should, it does provide an extened summer vacation that allows me to catch up on movie and television shows that I am way too busy for during the school year.

A continued feature here at brothascomics is: We Watched it For You as we watch movies on Netflix and give you a review and determine if you want to spend the time watching it yourself.  As the summer vacation began, my first movie in the que was Ibiza

Ibiza Trailer

Now many of you may not have heard about Ibiza and neither had I.... until I got an Instagram account and many of the "models" I follow on IG tend to vacation there.  Ibiza is an island in Spain and, contrary to the controversy after this movie premiered, is known for its world class party scene.

This is sort of where our movie picks.... well actually it picks up in New York City as young, career woman, Harper( played by Gillian Jacobs) is sent to the island on a work trip by her boss and brings along her two best gal pals for the trip.  Now in the tradition of Girls Trip and Bridesmaids, you know shenanigans are going to follow.



At a huge party, Harper makes eye contact with the sexy, celebrity DJ and they share a moment backstage and arrange to hook up at a later date, but of course things go astray and the booty call moment is missed and the rest of the movie is spent trying to hook it back up.  Harper's two best friends of course are along for the ride and do their best to party and help their friend find the DJ as he has headed of to the island of Ibiza for another gig.

this is Rob Stark


The movie is rather predictable with the will they or wont they and the jokes follow a certain pattern and each character kind of fills the stereotypical roles, but it works out well enough.

There are all the gags you get in a raunchy movie from penis jokes, drugs, drunkenness, sex, etc but its all in good fun.  Overall the movie is perfect for Netflix viewing.  Its light, easy, funny, and besides the money you pay monthly for Netflix, relatively cheap.  Good summer viewing for couples looking for a laugh after you put your kids to sleep.

Two Thumbs Up!!

The Producer

We Here: MegaCon




Brothascomics continues our spotlight of cosplayers of color.  Although comic book conventions can be a wonderful experience for those in attendance, the focus and attention of those attending at the cons often falls to traditional comic book fans( white males).  As time has gone on tho, more fans are coming to conventions and we like to highlight their hardwork and dedication.
Check out our Flickr stream for all photos from Megacon Orlando and other cons

Brothascomics on Flickr




The Producer








Friday, June 15, 2018

The End of BatFleck



BatFleck Era Over

Word on the street is that Ben Affleck's run as Bruce Wayne and Batman is coming to an end as the DC cinematic universe makes changes at the top and forges a new direction and tone for their movies.  The DC slate at this moment has Aquaman coming out in December 2018, Shazam at some point in 2019, and the Wonder Woman sequel in the summer of 2019.  There is talk of a Harley Quinn movie with the Birds of Prey, two different Joker movies, and a Flash movie that is supposed to be like a Back to the Future movie and not Flashpoint which was originally announced.  Absent from that schedule are Cyborg, Superman, Green Lantern Corps, and their flagship character, Batman.  Whereas there are/were plans for a new Batman solo movie starring Ben Affleck-directed by Matthew Reeves and starring Deathstroke, those plans seems to have been scrapped or modified greatly as they look to movie Bruce/Batman into a younger character.

As much as people complained about the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman, the reason the movies he appeared in failed, were not because of Ben Affleck.  Batman V Superman gave us the Sad Ben meme but his characterization of the character was not the reason the movie didn't connect with audiences.  Yes the character was a bit dark but the movie delivered by Zack Snyder was also dark.  His scenes as the brooding character matched the movie and the ridiculous ending with the Two Martha's had nothing to do with Affleck.



His next appearance in Justice League- again, not his fault.  Zack Snyder and then Joss Wheedon delivered an uneven movie with an equally uneven performance by all the characters involved.  The shortomcings of that movie had very little to do with BatFleck.  He gave a performance worthy of the writing and the direction- which both failed on multiple levels.

I think older, over this bullshit Bruce/Batman is a character worth exploring- especially if he was going to give way to either Nightwing, Red Hood, or Robin.  Building out of Batman's extended family and shifting Bruce into more of a facilitator of the Bat-Family has potential; while still pulling Batman out of the mothballs when necessary.

I can imagine Ben Affleck is probably over being Batman tho.  His performances were not appreciated by fans or critics and I get the sense he felt the material was beneath him.  Regardless, I will miss him as Bruce and Batman!

The Producer

Movie Review: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom





I was able to get an early press screening for the new Jurassic World movie and I wanted to drop a review.  This is the sequel to the highly successful relaunch of the Jurassic Park franchise in 2015 starring Chris Pratt. That movie reinvigorated the tired Jurassic movie franchise making over a billion dollars worldwide and spawning the inevitable sequel.

Like most movie franchises, the sequel usually promises you bigger, stronger, faster, and Fallen Kingdom does much of that.  The plot/premise of the movie is that the island that hosted the dinosaurs in the 2015 movie has been abandoned after the animals went wild and started killing everyone.  But now the island is actually being destroyed volcanoes and an ethical dilemma has occurred: Do we save the dinosaurs?

Now to me, that answer woulda been simple: Let them burn and we roll credits on this movie about 3 minutes in.  Alas, that is not the movie being made here as Claire(played by Bryce Dallas Howard) works for a philanthropist who would love to save the dinosaurs; especially Blue, the ultra smart Raptor trained by Owen( played by Pratt)

Of course these two characters had a romance in the original movie and the chance of getting Blue back pulls our romantic leads back to Dinosaur Island.  Once on the island, we get to see the majestic dinosaurs and, like all Jurassic Park movies, there is a double cross and a plot underfoot to steal the dinosaurs and use them for nefarious purposes.  There is a B plot related to a little girl and cloning that really adds nothing to the story.  People came to see the dinosaurs, man!

Overall, a fairly solid sequel; although each movie becomes more and more ridiculous of getting the humans and the dinosaurs to interact.  This movies ending pushes that into an entirely ludicrous position for the, I am sure 3rd movie: Jurassic World 3: Dinosaurs Gone Wild.

The Producer

Sony still trying to make Fetch a thing






Black Cat and Silver Sable Shelved

News broke this week that Sony dropped the Black Cat and silver Sable movie from their production slate.  The movie, which was probably a long shot to get made anyway, disappeared from their release calendar to not many peoples surprise.

Sony, against all conventional wisdom and common sense, continues to build up a spider man universe without using Spiderman.  As Spidey is shared between the MCU and Sony, it does not appear that Marvel wants Tom Holland appearing in any movie they do not have a say in( and who can blame them).  Sony has gone full bore into the Venom movie this fall which will be absent Peter Parker/Spider-Man and word on the Blerd streets is that most are not overly excited to see Venom without Spider-Man.

On top of that, Sony dropped news this week that they are threatening us with a Morbius movie as well.  Again, another Spider villain who without Spider-Man is just a dude in a 70's leisure suit, fangs, and a bad haircut.

I wish Sony would just stop this.  I mean full stop.  There is no real audience for these characters on the big screen without Spider-Man and even then that would be a stretch.  Black Cat is a great comic book character and she has inspired some awesome cosplay at cons across America, but is anyone really waiting with baited breath to see Felicia Hardy on the big screen?

The extended Spider-verse is really filled with one not characters who, over the course of 50 plus years, have never really been fleshed out.  That lack of serious development has left those characters as one note stereotypes full of comic book tropes carried out over the history of the book.  The characters only stay relevant because of their relationship with Spider-Man.

I guess Sony is really pining all their hopes on this Venom movie in the fall.  Maybe this movie breaks the mold of non- Peter Parker supporting cast and makes money for Sony to continue down this road to a Spider-Man extended universe. Or maybe, people want to see Spider-Man VS Venom and this movie will crash and burn.  We'll see!

The Producer

The Marvel Hacks: Season 3, Ep 4







The Marvel Hacks are back.... In Blerd Notes we talk the toxic fandom that is Star Wars, why they should never remake Willy Wonka,  and the ridiculousness of DC building their movie universe around characters of Suicide Squad.  With the books, we review the new Justice League book, Ant Man and the Wasp, Immortal Hulk, Marvel 2 in 1, and our throwback X-Men story has us dealing with newly Asian Psylocke and the Mandarin.  Fun listen with your boys the Sandman, Brother Beavis, and The Producer from Brothascomics.

Podcast available on Soundcloud and Apple Podcast, Google Play, and Stitcher Radio

Marvel Hacks Podcast

The Producer

Sunday, June 3, 2018

The Marvel Hacks Season 3, ep 3



The Marvel Hacks are back this week as we review some milestone issues from the Might House of Marvel.  We review Iron Man 600, Amazing Spiderman 800, and Man of Steel #1.  Plus we put a nail in the coffin for Falcon #8 and review the new Black Panther book. Fun all around listen from the crew at Brothascomics

https://soundcloud.com/brothas-hutchinson/spiderman-retrospective


Podcast is also on Itunes, Stitcher, and Google Play... just search @brothascomics