We don’t generally have comedy roasts in the UK. Imagine This is Your Life but instead of the avuncular Michael Aspel, you have George from Seinfeld. And rather than being surrounded by friends and family, the celebrity is encircled by past co-stars known to feel a strong sense of genuine animosity towards them, alongside C-list comedians itching to raise their profile whilst feigning mild interest in their work.

Bill Shatner occupies a peculiar space in the pop culture consciousness. Frequently lambasted by his own fanbase for his oft-imitated speech pattern; his hair (or lack thereof); his weight; his bizarre singing style and his proclivity for not turning down any work made available to him (American Psycho 2, anyone?), the man is also revered as a cult legend.

Hosted by Jason Alexander, who makes a completely valid point that you might never have heard of any of the roasters (and if that goes for the Americans, what chance do we have?), the agenda for the evening becomes clear. Everyone takes it in turn to approach the podium and insult each other. Then they insult Shatner. Then they pretend they don’t really mean it. Rinse and repeat.

It’s easy to ridicule Shatner, but to take the piss in an inventive new way might prove a little tricky. So how did the professional comedians come up with new material? Easy – they don’t; they merely resort to calling each other cunts.

After Shatner’s entrance to the studio on horseback (and why not?) he is ensconced in the Captain’s chair and almost immediately assumes the posture of a stroke victim. As with the majority of the guests, you get the strong impression that he’s desperately trying to smile through the pain of both the barbed comments from complete strangers as well as the awkward attempts at humour. He’s no stranger to self-mockery and seemingly takes the roasting well. Apparently the only off-limits topic was his finding his wife dead in a swimming pool.

Among the comedians taking part is Lisa Lampenelli. Apparently she’s supposed to be America’s Queen of Mean and yet her material is amongst the tamest. Reading her set from a crumpled piece of paper with a stilted Andy Parsons-esque delivery didn’t help endear me to her. Andy Dick, one of the few I’d heard of, spent the majority of the evening licking people. Others I recognised included Fred Willard, Farrah Fawcett, and Artie Lange of Howard Stern. George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were the only Trek stars who elected to take the opportunity to publicly vent their respective angers, and there are short pre-filmed segments from Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman and Sandra Bullock.

Shatner himself is mostly silent throughout. Every so often the camera will focus on his rictus grin for a reaction shot and you’d be forgiven for thinking the disc is skipping. Only Nichelle Nichols seems taken aback occasionally, but this is perhaps understandable given the nature of some of the comments thrown her way.

I’m not quite sure why this is only now coming to DVD having been aired on US TV in 2006 but after ex-Golden Girl Betty White makes an offhand comment about outliving Artie Lange, a prediction that almost came true after his suicide attempt earlier this year, I was morbidly awaiting a comment directed toward Farrah Fawcett regarding her mortality. The nearest we got was an advisement that she stay out of the sun. Close, but wrong kind of cancer.

I don’t have a problem with the concept of a roast, and I’m all for public tributes of celebrities done in a humourous, non-sycophantic manner. This was pretty much the opposite. Rather than displaying any genuine affection, each individual set was essentially a vicious diatribe followed by that clichéd phrase, “but, seriously, folks,” and then professing some adoration for Shatner that even he didn’t buy. I don’t know why this exists.

Thankfully the DVD is uncensored. I can only imagine how infuriating this must have been in the aired version with every other word having to be bleeped out. It is, though, strangely missing an intro segment with Bill Shatner calling Leonard Nimoy and asking him to be part of the evening. One can only imagine that Nimoy watched the original broadcast, went back in time courtesy of some red matter, and advised his younger self not to take part.

The only really enjoyable pieces are the sporadic pieces of archive footage of Bill hamming it up in various shows and commercials, just because he couldn’t turn down the paycheck… Ah, I think I’ve just realised why he agreed to this.

Technorati Tags: den of geek, roast, shatner

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Remember the days when He-Man would be forced to plough through a small army of Skeletor’s moronic henchmen? When the Turtles fought hordes of faceless foot soldiers? Without exception the non-human characters would be despatched by being thrown off-screen and then shown to be dazed, but crucially alive.

The first sequence of this movie gives us an extended battle between the Amazons, lead by Queen Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) and Ares, the God of War (Alfred Molina, no stranger to playing comic book villains) and his army, the likes of which we haven’t seen before in animation. The exhilarating five minute sequence, very reminiscent of Frank Miller’s 300, culminates in a beheading.

Whew.

Zeus (David McCallum) steps in to stop the Amazons slaughtering Ares, who is instead bound with magic gauntlets and made effectively mortal. Only another god can set him free. As a form of compensation, Hera (Marg Helgenberger) offers the Amazons a new beginning on the island of Themyscira where they’ll be shielded from the ravages of ageing on a man-free utopia.

We cut to an unspecified period later and, on a stormy evening on this paradise island, Hippolyta is moulding herself a child out of dirt (there’s only so much entertainment a tropical island can provide). After pricking her thumb and smearing blood on her claybaby’s forehead, lightning strikes it and it turns into a real one. Unsurprisingly, the baby starts to cry. I bet Wonder Woman keeps the story of her birth a close secret; if her fellow Justice Leaguers found that out they’d piss themselves laughing. Especially Batman.

After the credits, and all grown up now, Diana wonders aloud after a fight with Artemis (Rosario Dawson) what was so bad about men. Is it possible they’ve changed? Her mother shows her Ares all locked up and explains that you can’t trust the wicked disloyal nature of Man. Hmm.

Later, injured in a dogfight, fighter pilot Steve Trevor’s (Nathan Fillion) plane crashes in a lake on Themyscira. After evading furious naked Amazons in a nearby waterfall, Steve soon encounters a furious clothed Amazon: Diana. He attempts to run away again and she kicks him in the balls.

Taken back to the Amazons, the introduction of the Lasso of Truth makes Steve admit that he thinks Diana’s breasts are impressive. The Queen proclaims that the true nature of Man is laid bare. Hmm.

Hippolyta decides that he’s to be taken back to his home country, and the emissary to the outside world is to be chosen by a contest. Diana wangles her way in under disguise and predictably wins while Steve is threatened with castration.

She suits up, hops in her invisible jet (yes!) and embarks on her mission to take Steve back to the USA…

This is the latest in the line of direct-to-DVD animated movies from DC and Warner after Justice League: New Frontier and the anthology-style Batman: Gotham Knight and, unlike its predecessors, this is very much an origin story.

Unlike Batman and Superman in previous DC Animated series, Wonder Woman has only ever been a supporting character. With this release we begin to realise that this hasn’t been a disservice to the character; the studio and DC just wanted to do justice to the Amazonian princess.

We’re all familiar with the story, but the mandate from DC was to ensure the movie stuck to canon as much as possible (it follows the Gods and Mortals arc by George Perez from 1987), to bring the saga up-to-date and relevant and to make it big. I’m confident this is going to be seen as the definitive telling of her origin. With a script by acclaimed current monthly writer Gail Simone and a production team led by Bruce Timm, this 71-minute movie revels in its Greek mythology versus a modern day sensibility backdrop.

From the first kick to the balls in the opening sequence you can tell the film has a heavy feminist slant. In fact, when the second comes mere minutes later, you begin to wonder if this might be a recurring theme of the movie. And it is a bit heavy-handed.

You get the feeling that if Diana hadn’t met a misogynistic idiot like Steve Trevor, she wouldn’t have much justification for her anti-male stance. However, the two characters’ comic rapport is exceedingly well written in the main with some very funny one-liners, especially one that pokes a little fun at some of the stranger Greek myths.

After the first epic action piece you know this movie isn’t going to pull any punches. This is rated 12 and is pretty intense. The characters are all well established; each Amazon has her own distinct personality and look, a mean feat when you consider the art style. Though in keeping with the Bruce Timm style, this is a new look for Wonder Woman, designed by director Lauren Montgomery, that has elements of both her Justice League Unlimited and New Frontier looks.

Wonder Woman’s establishing cast is gradually introduced, not necessarily where you’d expect, but in a way that works well. A couple of reviews have complained about the lack of explanation about the invisible jet, but for me, just the inclusion of the jet is almost enough to give the movie a 5 star review. According to the commentary there was going to be a line explaining it, but the writers couldn’t think of any reasonable justification. The time is much better spent on character development and plot arcs, though.

With a comparatively short running time and considering it’s an origin tale, there is a lot of story and it’s only toward the end that you feel certain things may have been rushed or overlooked.

There are plenty of sequences throughout the film that take your breath away with both their amazing backgrounds and the very rich colour palette. The opening battle scene has such a distinct look with lots of reds, yellows and browns and there are a number of large scenes with an unbelievable number of moving elements onscreen at once.

Extras
Like other DC Animated releases, this 2-disc set pack contains a huge amount – and variety – of additional content. On the first disc alone we have an informative commentary by the creative staff. These people are seasoned professionals in the world of commentaries so you don’t just get awkward play-by-plays of the action. They go into huge amounts of details on creative decisions as regards the story, the history of the character and the rating. Character design and what had to be left on the cutting room floor also play a big part. The director is very free with her praise for, among others, the Korean artists for their work during the large crowd scenes with loads of moving elements, but it doesn’t turn into a love-fest.

A first look promo of the next movie, Green Lantern: First Flight and short documentaries on previous movies also feature, as well as a 10-minute history lesson on Wonder Woman and the evolution of the character.

The second disc backs this up with two further comprehensive documentaries focusing on the history and the mythology of Wonder Woman and two of Bruce Timm’s favourite episodes of Justice League Unlimited prominently featuring the character.

For my money, this is the best of the DC Animated Movies so far. Dedicating a movie on this scale to a character unproven to stand alone in the world of animation could be seen as a bit of a risk, but a production team this dedicated and faithful to the property means you end up with something especially beautiful.

As well as an origin, we get distinct arcs for each main character leaving an opening for a sequel featuring an enemy very familiar to the Wonder Woman mythos.

Film: 5 stars
Disc: 5 stars

Technorati Tags: Bruce Timm, claybaby, DC Animated, den of geek, invisible jet, misandry, wonder woman

We watched the entirety of the first disc’s 10 episodes, pausing only to watch a couple of episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. You know, for some variety.

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You’d think Dethklok would have nothing to worry about. They’re the number one metal group in the world, with an economy larger than Belgium’s. They live in Mordhaus, a foreboding tower reminiscent of Skeletor’s Snake Mountain, and travel via various Dethklok branded vehicles to their gigs. This is a band whose fans will risk death to attend a recital of their 30 second coffee jingle.

But they’re a metal band – of course, they have problems. Ridiculous infighting, egos growing wildly out of control, girlfriends almost tearing the band apart, disagreements with the record label, and that one time when they accidentally summoned a giant Finnish troll…

Voiced by the two co-creators, Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha, Dethklok is comprised of the brooding Nathan Explosion on vocals, fastest guitarist in the world, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, second fastest, Toki Wartooth, William Murderface on bass, and Pickles the drummer. Ever watchful of the band’s movements is a secretive group, The Tribunal, led by Mark Hamill’s Senator Stampingston. Constantly attempting to infiltrate and destroy Dethklok from within, the Tribunal’s attempts are constantly confounded by the band’s incompetence, generally resulting in a spectacular variety of deaths.

The show has often been compared to Spinal Tap, and this isn’t an overstatement. Minus the faux-documentary style, the cartoon follows the mundane activities of the group doing normal things while remaining true to their ideals (which essentially boils down to continuing to be as metal as possible). There are so many references to other bands it’s untrue. From a hilarious Guns n’ Roses pastiche, to the fast-food chain Dimmu Burger, to the sheer number of guest voices from genuine metal groups (Metallica, Cannibal Corpse, Faith No More, King Diamond). Like Spinal Tap, the dialogue is all too quotable, and the show has spawned a music CD release with another on its way.

Like other Adult Swim cartoons, each episode lasts around 12 minutes, and tends to end rather abruptly, without any definitive resolution. That’s fine, they don’t need to be any longer. It’s entirely long enough to parody an aspect of metal without becoming a tired concept and, if boredom does set in, you’ll be on to the next episode by the time you realise it. There’s a continuing plotline running throughout the season concerning The Tribunal, but each episode works just fine watched standalone.

When a show can feature Kirk Hammett as the voice of the Queen of Denmark, you know the show doesn’t take itself seriously and neither should you. You don’t need to be drunk, stoned, or even a massive fan of this particular genre of music to enjoy the show; the only real difficulty is in understanding some of the voices. But that’s a small challenge, and soon you’ll be singing along to the infectiously metal theme tune and then, before you know it, you’ve become one of the fans who will run the risk of having their face torn off to see another episode.

What the show loses in taste and decency, it makes up for with sheer unbridled violence. And metal. If you don’t like Metalocalypse you’re probably really mean or boring.

Identical to its Region 1 release, the show is presented in faux widescreen (a disappointing non-anamorphic 1.78:1). Sound is Dolby Digital 2.0, which holds up perfectly well, but you can’t help thinking more would’ve been better, given the subject matter, and the dialogue in the episodes remains censored although a minor concession is made by covering the worse swear words up with guitar chords.

Extras
Thankfully, though uncensored, the extras on the 2-disc set seem at first to be rather meagre in offering, but it turns out that the majority of them are hidden as easter eggs. For a box set that has over 70 minutes of bonus material, that’s a lot of clicking around.

Sorely lacking in audio commentaries, you’ll notice that the bulk of the extra content is either uncensored versions of scenes in the show, or extended scenes.

An accurately animated guitar lesson (“The Skwisgaar Skwigelf Advanced Fast Hand Finger Wizard Master Class”) for the previously-mentioned coffee jingle and an extended version of Murderface’s bass solo head up the first disc with other notable extras like Nathan Explosion reading Hamlet, a tour of Mordhaus, and Murderface playing the Paperboy-esque videogame, “Wheelchair Bound”.

Episodes: 4 stars
Disc: 3 stars

Technorati Tags: adult swim, den of geek, dethklok, metal, metalocalypse, murderface murderface murderface, omid pizza