It’s like 1991 all over again. In July, Marvel launched a new X-Men #1 by Victor Gischler and Paco Medina featuring a mutants versus vampires story that’s still raging on. Tomorrow, Marvel follows up that launch with Uncanny X-Force #1 by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena. It’s hard to say that this merits its own “day” in celebration of its release, but its launch certainly makes more sense than X-Men #1‘s.

Back in 1991, Marvel released Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s X-Men #1 in the same summer as Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld’s X-Force #1. Both were huge sellers with X-Men #1 at 8 million copies and X-Force #1 somewhere around 5 million in the heyday of speculative investment (X-Force also did it with only one cover compared to X-Men‘s five). While X-Force didn’t endure the way X-Men (now X-Men: Legacy) did, it was still a successful concept that was reborn coming out of 2007’s Messiah Complex storyline.

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Let Me In is a remake of 2008’s Let The Right One In – a haunting, quiet film that instantly garnered international acclaim. Going in, I expected the Hollywood remake to be a completely butchered version of the Swedish original, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. There are a few small changes, some choppy CGI and slightly overdone special effects – but the overall mood, tone, and most of the pivotal scenes felt right. The film is grainy, dark, wet and cold, with lots of blue and white tones and blurry selective focus.

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Choosing a place for lunch in West Philadelphia is always interesting. There are a lot of options ranging from gourmet burger joints to questionable food trucks, but I tend to stick with my usual places (much like where I park). It’s Friday, I decided to venture out and it was impossible to avoid seeing this image of Jeremy Piven selling Mexican food.

The truck is called “Coup de Taco” and my Thai chicken rice bowl was very tasty. Look for this truck on 40th Street between Walnut and Spruce or weeknights at 11:30PM on myphl17.

This movie is very good.  This should not surprise anyone that likes David Fincher. He has made some of the better pop movies of the past fifteen years.  Se7en, Fight Club, and The Game are all really good movies.  Yeah, The Game is a good movie.  I liked Zodiac a lot, but I know it is not for everybody.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is for nobody.  Thankfully, the social network makes us forget about that awful movie pretty quickly.

The film follows the founding of facebook up until its 1,000,000th member.  The story is told in flashback form, which is actually handled in an interesting way.   Read more of this article »

I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about this movie.  I walked into it thinking it was a semi-horror flick.  It is not in the least.  Its plot and structure are closer to an action movie than a horror movie.  I thought I’d be claustrophobic.  While at times I was a bit claustrophobic, the movie is shot in a way that makes you forget you are in such a confined space.  This does not mean the movie cheats.  It doesn’t.  At no point in time does Ryan Reynolds’s character do things that would normally be impossible in a regular sized coffin.  That is probably the most remarkable part about this movie.   It feels absolutely real.

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