Grizzly Review – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the mastermind behind the original “Sherlock Holmes” novels, a series of gripping mysteries led by one of the most famous characters in literary history. The books are witty, suspenseful, well-plotted, and the character of Holmes, as well as his sidekick Dr. John Watson, are two of the smartest and slickest protagonists to ever hit the page. Their ability to transform the most miniscule detail into the one that cracks the case was so invigorating that readers couldn’t help but just keep going.

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#10 – Countdown to Christmas: WHITE CHRISTMAS

To me, there are few films more classic and heartwarming around the holiday season than Irving Berlin’s 1954 masterpiece, White Christmas.  Comedy!  Drama!  Romance!  Song and dance routines!  Men dressed up as women!  This film really has it all.

White Christmas focuses around the vocal stylings of two of the time’s greatest singers: Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney.  Throw in colorful characters like “Mr. Slapstick” Danny Kaye, and “I’m not really singing but check out my sick dance moves” Vera-Ellen and you have a party just waiting to happen.

Crosby and Kaye play Wallace and Davis, two army vets who are now a somewhat popular traveling song and dance act.  Clooney and Ellen are the Haynes sisters, same profession, but slightly less popular.  The two pairs meet and in their adventures find a failing inn in Vermont that is owned by Wallace’s and Davis’ former commanding general in the army.  Determined to save their hero’s business, the four put on a show at the inn to bring in guests and revenue.  They put on the show (with a little relationship drama, of course) and the inn is saved!  Hooray!

This film also gave birth to the very popular holiday song of the same name.

White-Christmas

There’s just something about movies made from the 40s and 50s.  Sometimes I feel like they just don’t make them like they used to.  A good song-and-dance routine can really push me over the edge.  And men just don’t wear their pants as high as they used to.  Ah, those were the days.

4/5.

#11 – Countdown to Christmas: ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS

In 1985, One Magic Christmas was first released. It starred Mary Steenburgen (one of my favorite actresses of all time) as Ginny, a mother of two children, Abbie and Cal. She and her husband Jack (Gary Basaraba) are struggling to make ends meet, making the holidays a very stressful time for the family.

Jack has been out of work for some time, and likes fixing bikes. Although he cannot yet fulfill his dream of opening his own bike shop, he still does what he can for the kids in the neighborhood. Ginny is a grocery store cashier and does not like her husband’s idea of opening a store because they need funds immediately.

An angel, Gideon (played by legend Harry Dean Stanton), sees Abbie trying to mail her own letter to Santa Claus. He returns the letter to her because he believes she should try to get her mom to mail it. She almost gets hit by a car, but Gideon stops it from hitting her. He also tells Abbie not to be afraid of what may happen the next day and that she needs to help her mother to find her Christmas spirit.

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Hero Express: Dark Knight Station – My Own Reaction to the ‘Rises’ Prologue

Welcome to Dark Knight Station, the Hero Express‘s main stop for all the news on The Dark Knight Rises.We’ll keep you up to date on all the biggest bat-news coming straight from Gotham City.

Mind the gap and avoid the shadows; This stop is the Dark Knight Station for December 16th, 2011.

This edition of Dark Knight Station is going to be a little different than the others. Last night I went to the midnight show of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Like most of the audience in the theatre, I was really there for the 6-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises. I’ll drop some info on the latest news below, but first I want to talk about the 6 minutes of Rises I got to experience. I’ll try to spoil as little as possible about what actually happens in the clip. I’m going to get right into it, here is my spoiler-free reaction to my first glimpse of The Dark Knight Rises.

Like the bank heist that introduced us to The Joker in the preview for The Dark Knight, the prologue is a high-tension scene that introduces us to the main villain, Bane. We’re dropped in almost mid-conversation and immediately start asking questions. If you followed the movie’s viral marking campaign, you’ll have a little more to go on, but suffice it to say that things escalate very quickly before taking an unexpected turn. Then it all goes haywire. The focus of the clip is to give us a sense of Bane’s capabilities and methods – again, it’s very much like The Dark Knight‘s prologue in that sense – but while The Dark Knight showed us The Joker was calculating in his ruthlessness, Bane makes it very clear that he has no love for subtlety or theatrics.

“Oh shit…”

That’s not to say that there’s no room for mind-bending action; the climax of the  preview is a sequence that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. It’s guttural and physical, and the IMAX camera makes it look gorgeous. Think of the sequence in The Dark Knight when Batman flipped the semi, then go much bigger.

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#12 – Countdown to Christmas: SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS

We’ve had a wide variety of films in the Christmas countdown so far (some of which I’d never even heard of, never mind seen) but none of them are as craptastic as 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.

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Comic Rack – The New 52 Omnibus, Creative Team Changes, & A Fond Farewell

Welcome to Comic Rack! Your weekly look at all the comic news from across the industry!

The New 52 Omnibus! – (TheSource)

This one I’ve been waiting for. The entire line up of the New 52 will be featured in the omnibus, and you can now own every first issue from every new series, if you don’t already. Don’t believe me? Here are 3 reasons why you need to get it:

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