Nathan's Movie Reviews

  Twin Peaks (2017) Directed by David Lynch     I'm going to be honest here, I'm not actually sure what to say. David Lynch's work is very personal and hard for me to explain in words just what I like about it so much, and Twin Peaks 2017 might be the hardest. Still I am going to do my best. Twin Peaks is an 18 episode continuation and conclusion to most (if not all) of the major plot points of the Twin Peaks universe.  This is basically an 18 hour long movie broken up into hour long episodes and just like Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, I feel like even the most ardent Peaks fan needs to know some things from going in to the new show. First, while this is a continuation of the original show, thew tone is very different and the world is different too. 25 years has passed in our world between the two series (the original 90s one and 2017) and it has for the people of Twin Peaks too. The characters have changed (some predictably and others very unexpectedly) and the wo...

  Strangehaven (1995-Present) Written and Drawn by Gary Spencer Milidge     This series is something else. As much as I enjoy my superhero comics or "capeshit" as my superhero burned out brother calls it, every now and then I do need a break. Sometimes that's a break to movies or video games or even independent comics. So when I finished watching through all of Twin Peaks (the original series, Fire Walk with Me and Twin Peaks the Return) I was left with the emptiness of having no more Twin Peaks to watch and went to my bookshelves to try and fill the void. I stumbled on three volumes of Strangehaven that I had purchased because one of my favorite youtubers had introduced me to in a video (that I will link to below). The plot of this series is that a man named Alex Hunter crashes his car and is taken to the village of Strangehaven where he meets strange and quirky characters and finds himself discovering the town's secrets, but that's where the Twin Peaks compariso...

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) Rated R    2hr 14min Directed by David Lynch Starring: Sheryl Lee, and Ray Wise     Welcome back to my mini Twin Peaks binge where I try to collect all of the many thoughts about the insanity and fantastic(ness?) that is the world of Twin Peaks. I have already covered the original series, so the next stop is the prequel, sorta sequel movie that is Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Oh boy, does this film come with a million asterisks before you even watch it. First of all, if you were watching the original series and mad at the cliffhanger and wanted this movie to resolve everything, then be prepared for disappointment. If you were thinking that since this movie is a prequel and that you can use this to get into the world before watching the series, you are wrong. Because this movie would spoil the whole mystery of who killed Laura Palmer, which would drastically impact a newcomers enjoyment of the show I feel. If you are a fan of the...

  The Invaders # 1-12 (2019) Written by Chip Zdarsky Drawn by Carlos Magno & Butch Guice        I have never really cared about the Invaders, although I do respect and understand their place in the larger Marvel Universe. To give some context, The Invaders were Marvel’s first superhero team existing in the Golden Age of comics, and being made up of the superheroes Marvel’s predecessor Timely Comics had at that time.(Although being retconned into existence in the late 60s)The team consists of Captain America, his sidekick Bucky (eventually the Winter Soldier), Namor (one of the first mutants and the King of Atlantis), Jim Hammond (the original Human Torch who is an android and not the Johnny Storm Fantastic Four version), and his sidekick Toro (also an android) as well as a host of other characters including Spitfire and Union Jack. The basic premise of the story is that Namor has killed Americans on US soil and is acting like more of a jerk (than usual ...

  Batman 3-D (1990) Written and Drawn by John Byrne        The 1990’s was a distressing time for comics. The rise of the young Image artists with their aggressively grim and dark characters like Spawn and Youngblood. Marvel struggling to stay relevant with a ridiculous assortment of gimmicks, such as holographic and glow in the dark covers, while most of their best talent quietly left for rival DC Comics. The worst was by far DC, who took part in the gimmickry and was still being outsold by both Marvel and Image. The big 2 had become the big 3 with DC taking home the bronze. This is one of those gimmicks.     I would describe the story but there really isn’t much of one. A simple murder mystery with the Joker, Penguin, Two Face and the Riddler as the suspects. Nothing that hasn’t been done a million times before and in a lot of cases it was done better. The book also has Batman pin ups by some of the best artists of the time, and a classic 1940s B...

  Green Lantern: Earth One volume 1 (2018) Written by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko Drawn by Gabriel Hardman      DC Comics has been around for a while. With characters dating back to the late 30s and 40s and multiple retcons and reboots and too many imprints to count, things can get confusing. Needless to say, following the continuity can be damn near impossible at times. But have no fear, Earth One is here! DC created the Earth One line to simplify things and set things back to square one. Not necessarily to retell their origins in the perfect distillation, but to let great creators take a stab at injected some life into some of these older properties. A nice jumping on point to someone who had never heard of any of these characters. Some were great, others were horribly mediocre. But for me the best representation of the potential of this idea is Green Lantern: Earth One. Green Lantern seems to be a tough nut to crack as they say, for some bizarre reason. I’v...

Twin Peaks (1990-1991) Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost      I know I know. I'm setting myself up for failure. How exactly am I (or anyone really) supposed to talk about the work of David Lynch (a master of dreamlike surrealism and picturesque Americana.) with any degree of intelligence? No idea, but here we are. Twin Peaks is quite possibly my favorite show. Which is a bold claim, because if you have looked around and seen any of the shows that are on going today on cable or on the many excellent streaming services, then you'll know that we are living in a golden age of tv. That being said, I absolutely mean it when I say that Twin Peaks is one of the best shows ever made and stands toe to toe with the best. I didn't grow up with the show and only watched through it all completely recently. But, for the average person I should explain what Twin Peaks is. The briefest synopsis I can give is that the a small town and it's inhabitants are forever changed when the bod...