Pads & Panels

Title: The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy

Format: Blu-ray

MPAA: PG-13

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: J.R.R. Tolkien, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson

Producer: New Line Cinema

Film Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Eric Stuckart

The Film

If you’ve never seen Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there’s a good possibility that you’ve wandered onto the wrong website. The films, massive in both their scope and vision, lovingly took the unenviable task of bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s books to life, but they did so in a way that was both colorful and entertaining. And now, the classic trilogy is finally available on Blu-ray, but fans may want to save their money and hold off on this box set, for things aren’t always as they seem. (more…)

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Title: Jonah Hex Vol. 6: Bullets Don’t Lie

Publisher: DC

Writers: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti

Artists: Darwyn Cooke, J.H. Williams III

Rating:

Review by: Eric Stuckart

Readers curious about Jonah Hex, but not sure where to start, would do well to pick up Bullets Don’t Lie. Collecting issues #31-36, it might not go into his back story too much, but it does offer up a broad cross-section of the anti-hero and what he stands for. It comprises six separate stories, and they all stand on their own, telling the tales of a bounty hunter scorned by nearly all he encounters but who still manages to keep a strong moral code. The artwork is vibrant and evocative of the Wild West, and does a good job telling the stories without words. With an atmosphere as thick as blood, things in Jonah Hex’s world are never black and white. The subject matter is dark and grimy, and definitely for mature audiences, but it doesn’t commit the crime of pushing the envelope just for the sake of shocking the reader. (more…)

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Title: Star Trek

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Written by: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman

Producers: Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

Star Trek had plenty riding against it. It has a young, hip cast, but no real star power (other than maybe Eric Bana) to draw an audience to the summer blockbuster. It is another in a long line of series reboots (and that term is used loosely here considering the film’s plot) in the last decade. It is a “reboot” of a somewhat cheesy film and television series that started in the late 1960s and hasn’t had a critically acclaimed film since the 1996 iteration, First Contact. Furthermore, it is a cheesy series the fan base of which can be very rabid, in that special kind of nerdy way. On top of this, early trailers made it look like a run-of-the-mill summer blockbuster with gratuitous sex, giant explosions and ADHD camera work. (more…)

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