Comic Book reminded me of a DVD bonus item that might be included with a disc's main attraction.
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Sometimes movie studios make good decisions. Miramax Films and Buena Vista Home Entertainment made a good decision by ensuring that "Comic Book: The Movie" went straight to video in 2004. I can't imagine they ever had any thought of releasing it to movie houses, but the film deserves to be seen, if for no other reason than to document a world so many of us know little about. Now, if only the film had held our attention longer, it might even have been entertaining.
Mark Hamill directed and stars in this mockumentary of sorts about the comic-book industry: the fans, the fanzines, the movie spin-offs, and the conventions. I say "of sorts" because the movie in part attempts to send up the comic-book business and in part pay homage to it. But it's so lightweight it succeeds mainly in tiring the non comic-book fan and possibly alienating the true comic-book believer. Fact is, the film never makes clear just what it's attempting to do. Using a host of cameo appearances by celebrated cartoonists, animators, comic-book writers, and movie actors, the film strives to be another "This Is Spinal Tap," "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show," or "A Mighty Wind." Lamentably, Hamill is no substitute for Rob Reiner or Christopher Guest. The jokes in "Comic Book" fall flatter than the pages of the Sunday funnies on the dining room table. At least the funny papers are sometimes funny, lying flat or not.
Oddly enough, I could find no writing credits for this film either at the beginning or at the end. I can only assume that since it's Mr. Hamill's directorial debut, he had a big hand in its creation, also, as he is in real life a comic-book collector, comic-book historian, and comic-book creator ("The Black Pearl"). But being a comic-book expert and afficionado does not necessarily qualify one for making a film about the topic, as "Comic Book: The Movie" demonstrates. Rather than being a gentle spoof of its subject or a backhanded tribute to it, as the mocumentaries are that I mentioned above, "Comic Book" is merely a languid litany of comic-book names and lore. It's not biting, funny, or particularly informative. Nor is it even whimsical or faintly patronizing. It isn't much of anything, in fact, except tedious and amateurish. Of course, it's supposed to look amateurish, but this movie isn't amateurish in the sense that it looks like it was made by professionals pretending to be amateurish; it looks genuinely amateurish, and where's the fun in that? It's not even so badly amateurish that it can be taken as good, campy diversion. It's just plain amateurish. And an enormous waste of talent when I list for you the people involved.
The movie's setup is pretty thin. Hamill plays a fellow named Donald Swan, a high school history teacher, comic-book enthusiast, and owner of a comic-book store. Because he's something of an authority on an old comic-book hero named Commander Courage (a character made up for the movie) and because Commander Courage is about to become the star of a multimillion-dollar Hollywood blockbuster, the studio has hired Swan as a consultant for the upcoming film. Not only that, Swan decides to do a documentary on the making of the Commander Courage film and on a big comic-book convention in San Diego that is hyping the flick (a real convention, incidentally, called the Comic-Con International, where much of the movie was filmed). This setup gives Hamill the latitude to interview a whole lot of comic-book people, and it's where most of the cameos appear.
But as an added twist, the insensitive studio in the movie is going to change the nature of the Commander Courage character altogether, giving him a new costume, a new terrorist-fighting stance, and a new, sexy female partner. Swan hates the idea. He's a comic-book traditionalist, a defender of the Golden Age of comic books, who doesn't want his hero messed with just to sell a movie where the Commander gets lost amidst multiple car crashes and explosions (shades of "Daredevil," "X-Men," "LXG," and the like). So Swan goes off on his own crusade against the very studio he's working for.
The extent of the humor? The actor hired to play Commander Courage at the Comic-Con Convention complains that the headpiece he's required to wear makes his head sweat. And the codpiece he has on is ridiculously oversized even for a superhero. A few barbs are also thrown at Hollywood for their debasing of comic-books, but that's about it.
Among the supporting cast are Jess Harnell as Ricky, Swan's cameraman, probably the best part of the show. Harnell is a voice specialist who's been heard in everything from "Toy Story 2" to "Star Wars." His mimicking of each of the Beatles is one of the film's few, if brief, delights. Lori Alan and Roger Rose play Anita Levin and Taylor Donahue, the Hollywood movie producers who have no interest in comic books and are only intent on making a quick buck and ditching Swan as soon as they possibly can. Billy West plays Leo Matusik, the long-lost grandson of the late originator of the Commander Courage character and the only heir with any legal right to the cartoon character. Finally, Donna D'Errico plays Papaya Smith, the ultra-sexy bombshell airhead hired to costar in the proposed "Code-Name Courage" film.
Then, you want cameos? How about Stan Lee, creator of "Spider Man" and the "X-Men." Or Peter David, writer of "The Hulk." Or "Playboy" magazine guru Hugh Hefner. Or actor Kevin Smith; writer/producer Paul Dini of the animated "Batman"; Mark Evanier, writer of the animated "Superman"; special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen; writer/producer Scott Shaw of "The Simpsons;" former "Lost in Space" costar Billy Mumy; writer/producer Bruce Timm of the animated "Batman"; actors Ron Perlman and cult favorite Bruce Campbell; co-creator of "Futurama" and "The Simpsons," Matt Groening; announcer and cartoon voice, Gary Owens; and many more. Unfortunately, none of these folks get anything to do or say that's either funny or enlightening. Most of them seem to have been simply trying to enjoy the San Diego comic-book convention when Hamill and his film crew arrived. They look largely embarrassed.
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[release]11675[/release]