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Exclusive Interview: “Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind The Cape” Writer Robert Cremer

 

One has only to go out on Halloween, and look at the happy faces of every kid wearing fangs and a cape, to see the influence of actor Béla Lugosi, the iconic star of 1931’s classic horror movie Dracula.

But while that may be his most memorable role, Lugosi didn’t just play dashing and dangerous, and he didn’t just act. All of which is presented in Robert Cremer’s upcoming biography, Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind The Cape, which has just launched a Kickstarter that includes some special (and exclusive) editions of the book.

In the following email interview, Cremer discusses what’s in Cape, as well as what approach he took to this biography.

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Books Movies

Exclusive Interview: “Alien: Enemy Of My Enemy” Author Mary SanGiovanni

 

With Alien: Enemy Of My Enemy (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Mary SanGiovanni isn’t just putting her spin on this sci-fi series, she’s also concluding a loose trilogy that started with David Barnett’s Alien: Colony War and continued in Philippa Ballantine’s Alien: Inferno’s Fall. In the following email interview, SanGiovanni discusses what inspired and influenced her sci-fi horror thriller, as well as how it connects, and disconnects, from the other two books.

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Exclusive Interview: “Aliens: Vasquez” Author V. Castro

 

In a movie full of colorful characters, Aliens‘ bad ass space marine Jenette Vasquez still managed to stand out. It is just too bad we don’t get to know her better. Or rather, it was… Now, fans of this bad ass soldier can get to know her better, and her family, too, in V. Castro’s new novel Aliens: Vasquez (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview about it, Castro discusses the scope of this military sci-fi space opera horror story, as well as how her own heritage informed it.

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Exclusive Interview: “The Star Trek Cookbook” Writer Chelsea Monroe-Cassel

 

While a lot of food in Star Trek comes from the replicators, there’s plenty of fresh food where no one has eaten before. And no, I don’t just mean gagh. But you don’t have to visit the promenade on Deep Space 9 or the galley on the U.S.S. Voyager to enjoy them; you can make them at home thanks to Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s new cookbook, The Star Trek Cookbook (hardcover, Kindle), the origin of which she discusses in the following email interview.

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Exclusive Interview: “Alien: Inferno’s Fall” Author Philippa Ballantine & Co-Author Clara Čarija

 

In a movie — like, say, Alien — the person writing the screenplay and the person who came up with the story are not always the same person. Or people. Like, say, Alien, which has a screenplay by Dan O’Bannon, but a story by O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. But you don’t usually see this with novels, even novels connected to such movies, as, say, Alien. Or at least you didn’t until now, and the release of Alien: Inferno’s Fall (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), which (as it says inside) is, “A novel by Philippa Ballantine” and has a “Story by Philippa Ballantine and Clara Čarija.” To find out what this means for Philippa, Clara, and, of course, you, dear reader, check out the following email interview.

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Comics DVDs/Blu-rays Movies Reviews TV

“Aquaman: King Of Atlantis” DVD Review

 

For years, some comic book fans regarded Aquaman as a joke. Heck, there was a whole Robot Chicken DC Comics Special about it. But then they cast Game Of Thrones‘ Jason Mamoa to play the man from Atlantis, and now no one is laughing at Aquaman. Well, almost no one. As a companion to Mamoa’s Aquaman, that movie’s director, James Wan, executive produced a three-part animated miniseries for HBO Max called Aquaman: King Of Atlantis that presented a rather silly take on the fish king. But while fans of the sea man will enjoy this animated romp (which has since been reconfigured into a movie) on DVD, they’ll find the disc is rather lacking in the extras department.

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Exclusive Interview: “Alien: Colony War” Author David Barnett

 

While every Alien and Aliens novel is, of course, connected to the movies, comics, and games, David Barnett’s Alien: Colony War (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) is in the unique position of being the first in a loosely-connected mini-series that will also include Alien: Inferno’s Fall by Phillipa Ballantine and Clara Carija, and Mary SanGiovanni’s Alien: Enemy Of My Enemy. In the following email interview, Barnett discusses what inspired and influenced this military sci-fi space opera novel.

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Comics DVDs/Blu-rays Movies Reviews

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” DVD Review

 

Like people who prefer to listen to music on CD, or still subscribe to cable TV, people who buy movies on DVD often feel like they’re an afterthought or second class citizens. Which may not be the intent, but it’s hard not to sigh loudly when one of your favorite band’s new album is only available digitally, one of your favorite shows has a new installment only available on a streaming service, or your favorite movie of the last year is released on home video, but the DVD version has fewer extras than the Blu-ray and 4K editions.

Which is where standard definition fans of Spider-Man: No Way Home find themselves: sighing hard. While the Blu-ray and 4K editions come almost fully-loaded, the DVD has just two of the sixteen available extras.

But while it may not be fair, for people considering buying Spider-Man: No Way Home on DVD — especially if they only want it for the movie — this isn’t a bad way to watch Spidey’s new adventure, all things considered.

Spider-Man No Way Home
For those who didn’t see it in theaters,

Spider-Man: No Way Home picks up right where Spider-Man: Far From Home ended: With Mysterio outing Peter Parker as Spider-Man, and laying the blame for the crimes he committed in the previous movie right at Spidey’s feet. In an attempt to rectify the situation, our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler does what anyone would do: He asks his local wizard to mess with the fabric of reality. But wait, hang on, don’t mess with M.J.’s memories. Or Ned’s. Dang it, now you’ve done it; the barriers between our world and parallel ones in the multiverse have been weakened. And here come the bad guys.

As you can probably guess if you’ve seen any Marvel movie since Captain America: Civil War (save for Eternals), Spider-Man: No Way Home is an exciting, clever, smartly written action movie that just as easily could’ve been called Avengers…something. The Avengers In The Multiverse Of Madness — that has a nice ring to it. And it would explain why the aforementioned wizard is Dr. Strange, and why his and Peter’s co-stars include Strange’s pal Wong, Happy Hogan, and some super people I won’t mention.

That said, Spider-Man: No Way Home does do right by some of the super people I’d rather not mention: the aforementioned bad guys. (Suffice it to say, the rest of this paragraph and the one that follows come with a SPOILER warning for people who managed to not have this movie’s secrets spoiled.) While Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of the Green Goblin is as solid as it was in Spider-Man, Alfred Molina does an even better job of bringing Doctor Octopus to life than he did in Spider-Man 2, and the same can be said of Jamie Foxx’s take on Electro, which didn’t work in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but does here.

As for the super heroes who aren’t bad guys, like Dafoe and Malina, Andrew Garfield is still a rock solid Spidey, while Tobey Maguire, who always felt off when he put on the onesie, works much better here, in part because — like Harrison Ford in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and, uh, Ford in Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull — Maguire doesn’t try to pretend to be as young as he was when he first donned the suit.

(End of spoilers)

As good as the returning players are, though,

the real stars of Spider-Man: No Way Home are the current Spidey and his pals. Tom Holland remains the best Spider-Man by far, and he’s clearly met his match in Zendaya (M.J.), Jacob Batalon (Ned), and Marisa Tomei (Aunt May).

In fact, one of the many highlights of Spider-Man: No Way Home come when M.J. and Ned have to work together, and in service of Spider-Man’s quest, but without the titular superboy at their side.

All of which puts Spider-Man: No Way Home on par with the previous Spidey movies, Homecoming and Far From Home, and the best Marvel movies: Iron Man, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, and Captain Marvel.

As for how Spider-Man: No Way Home looks and sounds on the DVD, well, not as bad as you might expect. Especially if most of your experience watching standard definition stuff on a high definition TV is limited to when you accidentally DVR Rick & Morty from the wrong version of Cartoon Network. Sure, the image isn’t as sharp as it would be in HD, but it is clear and not at all fuzzy. And the sound is even better, especially if you have a home theater that supports surround sound.

More importantly, the Spider-Man: No Way Home DVD presents the movie with the original letterbox dimensions, not full-screen, pan & scan, windowboxed, or pillarboxed.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the DVD version of Spider-Man: No Way Home is rather lacking when it comes to the extras. Unlike the 4K and Blu-ray editions, the DVD only has 2 of the 7 behind-the-scenes featurettes (it’s missing “Action Choreography Across The Multiverse,” “A Multiverse Of Miscreants,” “Enter Strange,” “Realities Collide, Spiders Unite,” and “Weaving Jon Watt’s Web”); neither of the two roundtable panels (“The Sinister Summit, Villains Panel with Dafoe, Molina, and Foxx” or “A Meeting Of The Spiders, Heroes Panel”); none of the “Stories From The Daily Bugle,” whatever those may be, or any of the “Stunt Scenes Previsualizations” featurettes for the “Apartment Fight” or the “Shield Fight.”

Though what they did include…

on the Spider-Man: No Way Home DVD — “A Spectacular Spider-Journey With Tom Holland” and “Graduation Day” — are good.

In the former, Holland, his No Way co-stars, and the filmmakers talk about his time as Spidey, with footage from both Holland’s auditions and the set of the new movie.

Then, in the latter, Holland, Zendaya, Batalon, and Tony Revolori (who played Flash Thompson), discuss working on all three Spider-Man movies, and what it, and No Way Home, mean to them personally and professionally.

Neither of which will shock you, of course — they’re making-of featurettes on an officially released Sony product, after all — but they do provide interesting insights into the stars of the movie.

Though why they didn’t include something about the actual making of the movie — or even the main conceit of the film, the multiverse aspects — is beyond me.

It’s also beyond me why, with all the extras they did include, the 4K and Blu-ray versions of Spider-Man: No Way Home are apparently incomplete as well. For starters, they don’t have any kind of running commentary. Not being able to hear Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon wax philosophic while Cumberbatch verbally shakes his head at these damn kids is just tragic; as is not being able to hear the same from Holland and two of his other co-stars I promised not to spoil.

And none of the versions — not the 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD — have the movie’s trailers, which is especially annoying given that it does have the ones for some unrelated movies. Though they do have some that are relevant as well; specifically, Morbius, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Holland’s Uncharted movie.

Spider-Man No Way Home

Obviously,

DVD is not the best way to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home if you can help it. And for people who do prefer this format, or have no choice, this DVD should’ve been much better. But if you’re just getting this DVD for the movie — the excellent movie — and maybe one more chance to hang out with Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon until the inevitable fourth film (Spider-Man: Home For The Holidays? Spider-Man: Home Alone? I got a million of them), the DVD of Spider-Man: No Way Home is a solid way to enjoy this exciting, engaging, and hopefully not spoiled superhero action flick.

SCORE: 7.0/10

 

 

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Comics DVDs/Blu-rays Movies Reviews

“Catwoman: Hunted” Blu-ray, 4K, DVD review

 

One of the many highlights of the anime Batman: Ninja was seeing his coworkers get a proper Japanese makeover. And now, in what I hope is the first of many, Batsy’s gal pal Catwoman is getting her own anime with Catwoman: Hunted (Blu-ray, 4K, DVD), a rather fun and quippy tail, er tale.