Comic Book Villains

Comic Book Villains

The semi-sociopath who reigns over the other similar souls in his comic book emporium has been worked enough to be a cliché. There is even such a chubby unkempt looser lovingly portrayed as part of the Simpsons repertoire. Other than displaying a life that many of us can look at condescendingly, can this be a lead character for a movie?

Opening in a vein of light hearted reminiscence of small town Americana, the drama builds with the discovery of the death of a "collector." This man had lived with his mom his entire fifty some years with only one love, collecting comics. Our Simpsonesque character is now in a contest with another store owner to see who can finagle the mother of the deceased into selling this bonanza.

A standard criticism of many films is that the characters devolve into cartoon figures. This film does quite the opposite. It starts with clichés and whimsy and slowly peels away this facade to expose a throbbing violent human conflict. When goaded by their true passion, love of comics and the wealth to transcend their limited horizons, greed rears it's transforming head. What is more amazing, the fim still manages to keep a sense of wit, but now with a mordant ironic tinge that is intrinsic to the human condition when raw passion transcends reason.

This is inspired filmmaking. Not a scene, not a line, not an expression was included that did not ring true. This movie was not well received by the voters of my internet site, so what you have just read it a minority report.

These types of stories, by which i mean, a group of people who's true natures are exposed by greed and obsession, will either work for you or not, and by default the climax will seem over the top and take away half the audience.. but no matter the ending, the ride there is very well executed, and went way past the expectations i got from just watching the trailer.

The great cast of guys who steal scenes in other films, was one i was very interested in, but i sceptical about the actual film, i thought past the interesting plotline,it would be poorly written and directed by a moron.. but it so wasn't!

It's one of those movies that through good storytelling just makes you watch, and not want to get up, and the 90 minute runtime just flies by! not one scene is wasted, not one performance is perfunctonary, it's just completely well made all round, and very well written/directed. I think the negative comments are from people who are expecting way too much from the film, and maybe movies in general.. if you're someone who just goes along with the ride, so long as it's all relatively credible, and you like the cast, then i think you'll have a great time, no doubt! this film went way past my expectations!

my only quibble, and it's so minor, plus it seems unavoidable with films about greed, HOW THE HECK DO YOU END IT!! if the film was being completely realistic, then the film's ending probably wouldn't happen, but in real life the ending would be pretty dull, and lose the whole comic book feel to the film.. comic books also use violence as a device, comic books are visually over the top representations of everyday things.. many characters in comic books are 2-dimensional simple folk.. hence the title to this movie, and in general the whole feel and look to the movie (which btw looks VERY good for such low budget!).. so the ending in after thought may seem to be slightly over the top, and doesn't seem to fit the characters, but while watching i was hooked! and so will you! :)

definately worth the rental!! maybe even a buy. It's hard to recommend as a film for comic book fans, because that's like saying every girl is going to like a chick flick, but there are comic book references aplenty, and comic book collectors for fellow guys to relate with.. so i think a comic book fan might get more out of it than others, but not necersarily enjoy it more.. but what's great about this movie, is that you don't need to know ANYTHING about comics to enjoy it, you can even watch it in mute! it's really well made!

I admit that I rented this movie simply because I love comic books (and have been wanting to see it ever since I first learned it was being made); however, the movie really surprised me. It was a very entertaining tragicomedy, namely thanks to its premise of trying to get a 45-year-old comic book collection from an unrelenting mother.

Donal Logue put forth an excellent performance as the bankrupt and shabby local comic store owner, and Cary Elwes actually made a believable thug. Despite cliché hijinks from the Natasha Lyonne-Michael Rappaport team-up and unnecessary narration, the story makes good with incorporating capitalistic competition, laid-back criminals, and comic trivia. In short, anyone can really enjoy this movie, but it is a must-see for what Stan Lee calls "true believers."

"Comic Book Villains" tells of an old lady who's sitting on her late son's valuable comic book collection and two competing comic book store owners who want it at any cost. Among its many deficits this shabby film has a handful of second rate actors, an amateurish screen play, obvious low budgetness, awful music, and a generally lame execution. Cinematic junk food. (C-)

Kind of a unique idea for a dark comedy. Competing comic book store owners trying to outwit each other for a prize collection. Unfortunately the crazed collectors are all, except one, unlikable, unsympathetic, and greedy. The movie is very uneven, with characters morphing from just scheming crazies, to murderers. It is at this point, when almost everyone has transformed into killers, that "Comic Book Villains" seems to have run out of ideas, and rapidly spirals downhill. If after the confrontation in the old ladies home, the script had been fully developed, the movie might have worked better on several levels. As it stands, it is at best, a very mediocre black comedy. - MERK