Comic Book

Comic Book Villains is a satirical black comedy about, you guessed it, comic books and the sometimes strange people that collect them. The movie is a little darker than expected so perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had I known what I was about to see. Still, it was a fun movie that pokes fun at the world of comic book collecting/collectors.

DJ Qualls plays Archie, an all around good guy and the narrator of the story as well. Qualls is perfect as the comic book geek type. His favorite place to hang out and buy/read comics is at Raymond McGillicudy's (Donal Logue) comic shop (the names of the shops escapes me). Raymond is into the comic book scene and has the shop because he loves dealing with comic books. Across town is Norman and Judy Link's (Michael Rapaport & Natasha Lyonne) comic shop. Norman and Judy are there strictly for the money. Archie loves Raymond's shop and his knowledge in comics plus he finds everything he likes there so he has never found a reason to visit the other shop. On the other hand, there is "Conan", played by Danny Masterson from That 70's Show. Conan claims he is a descendant of the creator of Conan The Barbarian comic books and is the instigator for the whole movie because he visits both shops regularly and provides information to both.

The movie takes it's dark turn after both shop owners discover there is a pristine collection of comic books that belonged to a deceased comic book collector who had a great collection. After that, the backstabbing, double-crossing, dirty tricks and much more begins the dark tone of the movie.

My favorite characters were Norman and Judy Link. Rapaport usually plays a tougher character and it was different to see him in more of a submissive position here, especially to his wife. Lyonne also did a great job as a "comic book villain" and certainly looked her best here as well. Also, Danny Masterson played a subtle instigator well, not unlike his character Hyde from That 70's Show. Overall, worth a look. 6.5/10

Here's a great cast, with a good concept for a plot, how can it go wrong?

It can, if there's no writing! OK, that's not fair, if there's CONSISTENT writing. Like so many SNL skits, the first half is well developed, then, well, they have to end it somehow.

I had the same problem with this movie that I had with Monster's Ball. Now how could I mention those two movies together? One is the great academy award winning darling, one is a straight to video farce.

But both suffer from the fatal flaw: failing to convince me of the characters' motivations, and changes. In Comic Book Villains, we get a basic greed motive, but I didn't care what happened to any of the characters except Archie. That may have been intentional, so we wouldn't feel horrified by their bad behavior, but that just goes to show how de-sensitized we are to violence. It's a plot device to end a movie, not a logical or understandable part of the plot.

I guess if you feel you have to see all movies with references to comic books, go for it. But otherwise, use your 90minutes for something else.

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."

Was this supposed to be comedy? It could hardly be called funny. A serious movie? Let's not even ask.

This movie transitions from lighthearted, mediocre but sweet/harmless farce to some sort of dark thriller in a way that is simply bizarre. The characters went from benign to murderous without any evolution... they just went from good to evil, plain and simple (I apologize for using that phrase). Both halves of the movie were vaguely interesting, and watchable. Neither was amazing. If the writers had chosen one tone to stick with throughout the movie, it would've been a regular old two-star, maybe two-and-a-half. But this... this was like if halfway through You've Got Mail, Meg Ryan went insane for some reason and started murdering people. It just fundamentally doesn't make any sense.

As for the acting, Logue was actually fun to watch, Cary Elwes (of whom I'm a fan) made me cringe, Eileen Brennan was actually quite likable, and DJ Qualls was hardly ever on screen despite being the narrator. He went through the first half of the movie mildly, and the second half with a sense of unease. Just like me.

"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-)