Die Hard: Year One #1 cover

People always ask me, “Mike, why do you read those crappy indie comics?” or “There’s a comic book based off of that TV Show/Movie?” and every time, I give those people the middle finger. Mind you, I do realize these are my friends I’m flipping off but nevertheless, this comic is one of those ‘crappy indie comics’ that I read: Die Hard: Year One. But to my surprise, this comic is anything but crap; it’s fantastic.

With writer Howard Chaykin and artist Stephen Thompson, this comic surprised me at how well put together it was. I mean, when someone thinks of a prequel to a movie in a comic book form, all hope becomes lost for it because, in all seriousness, how many good comic books have been released that were in relation to a hit blockbuster series (here in the US that is)? I can’t say I know of any.

And here we have Die Hard: Year One #1. Let me explain why this comic was so great after the break. (pseudo-spoilers abound)

(more…)

I am determined to give a straight up review on this movie. I really am.

Tuesday night I went with a few friends to the midnight premiere in Grand Rapids, MI, of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. We arrived around 11:15pm and managed to find four seats for all of us. Immediately I remembered why I hate the general public: non-stop douche-baggery for 45 minutes until the previews started, and then of the 560 people (not including myself and my three buddies) could not shut up even into the previews and through the movie. This is a major annoyance for me, but the atmosphere isn’t really the point here.

Coming into this movie, I had just watched the first Transformers movie about 8 hours before because I hadn’t actually sat down and purposely watched it in the past given my extreme disgust with Michael Bay. So, I had the plot in my head: Megatron was beaten, Shia LeBeouf proved he can scream a lot, there was a yellow Camero Transformer (Bumble Bee) that was pretty cool, and Optimus Prime was a totally awesome dude.

The movie began… and I cried. (spoilers abound)

(more…)