How I learned to stop worrying and love publishing

Hello.

So along with writing on this here blog, and writing scripts about Christmas dinners, I've been writing DVD reviews for a local street press, Reverb.

Here are my two latest pieces. If you'd like to see them in their full glory (and c'mon - who wouldn't?), click here:

The versions of my pieces that appear on this blog are my personal opinion only.

Please to enjoy!

Article 1: DVD review of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Rating: 4/5

They say every Hollywood film is a romantic comedy. No matter the genre, at the end of the day it's about the union of two people.

Director Edgar Wright has taken this idea to heart. Shaun of the Dead is a Zombie Romantic Comedy, or Zom-Rom-Com, Hot Fuzz is a Buddy Cop Romantic Comedy (Bud-Co-Rom-Com?) and now he brings us Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, a Video Game Comic Book Slacker Romantic Comedy (suggestions welcome on how to shorten that one).

Scott Pilgrim's precious little life is turned upside when he meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers. Literally. She rollerskates through people's minds, or the subspace highway for those in the know. But she also has a rather interesting dating history. And now Scott will have to face it in a series of battles to the death if he wants to win Ramona's heart forever.

From the awesomeness ratings of the main characters to the video game references to the fight scenes, it's obvious that Wright has captured the essence of the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O' Malley. It's very much grounded in the slacker genre, perfectly made for a generation who grew up on Super Mario Brothers. It also has the Edgar Wright touches – comic dialogue, visual gags, television references, and the hip hop montage that has become his stylistic trademark. And the 8-bit version of the Universal logo.

That's not to say there aren't flaws; is Michael Cera playing Scott Pilgrim or George Michael Bluth again? And why does someone as boring as Ramona have so many exes obsessed with her? And it has also become a trademark of Wright's films that you can see where the finish line should have been, which is usually ten minutes before the actual finish line. But that's not to say you should let these flaws stop you from enjoying the film, because it's a whole lot of fun. And some of the music was written by resident cool guy Beck. It's no Hot Fuzz, but it's one of the best movies of 2010.

Extras: outtakes, feature commentary and technical commentary. Unpreviewed.

Article 2: The best comic book movies of 2010

Graphic Action
Film and comic books represent a world of possibilities for telling stories visually and it's little wonder they inspire one another regularly. 2010 was another interesting year for the comic book movie and these are some of the year's biggest ordered from most to least awesome.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World (dir. Edgar Wright)
That a story of a no-hoper obsessed with video games forced to battle his girlfriend's exes appeared unadaptable now seems silly since Wright made it seem so easy. Get indie royalty to write some music, add video game sound effects and an RPG structure, get Michael Cera to grow his hair and it's done. Not Edgar Wright's Finest Hour, but certainly Scott Pilgrim's.

Kick-Ass (dir. Matthew Vaughn)
A bunch of vigilantes fighting crime may not be an original idea, but Vaughn's take on this dark anti-Superhero graphic novel is deceptively brilliant. Costumes tailor-made for wearing at Halloween parties, references to the comic book world, car-dancing to Gnarls Barkley, and a 13 year old girl calling a scary bunch of drug dealers the C-word. This film really does have it all!

Red (dir. Robert Schwentke)
Warren Ellis's tale of former black-ops agents targeted by their old organisation for a more permanent retirement is brilliantly brought to the screen by some of the best actors of the last 30 years. And with Dame Mirren shooting the heck out of FBI agents in a white gown and combat boots, how can it go wrong?

Iron Man 2 (dir. Jon Favreau)
Tony Stark has no super powers other than his intellect, resourcefulness and utter disdain for being ordered around. This is his second outing and while it's not a patch on the first one, it's a fascinating insight into the high visibility of national security – something the US military deals with daily. It also has Robert Downey, Jr. No further explanation of its awesomeness required.

Jonah Hex (dir. Jimmy Hayward)
Exploding steam trains? Check. Prostitute girlfriend with sass aplenty? Check. Grumpy antihero who shoots first and asks questions later? Check. Some weapon far advanced for its time? Check. We all know how well the technology thing worked for Wild, Wild West. But maybe the director didn't. Shame on you, Josh Brolin. You're better than this. You're not, Megan Fox.