June - 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters, #182: The Sheriff of Nottingham

Joe Pace

Jun 29, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters, #182: The Sheriff of Nottingham

Robin Hood was never really a hero of mine (my own political leanings aside). And other than maybe Errol Flynn's prehistoric relics, or the uber-70s Disney version with the animals, the screen has struggled to produce a compelling version of the legend. 1991's Prince of Thieves is no exception. Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman sleepwalk their way through a fairly standard, fairly boring interpretation, rendered halfway watchable because of Michael Kamen's memorable score. And

Favorite Fictional Characters, #181: Jessie

Joe Pace

Jun 28, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #181: Jessie

I've never been a fan of anime. It's just not my cup of sencha. And while I dipped a very brief toe in the card and video games, Pokemon was never a passion of mine as it was for my brother Al, his son Albert, or my own eldest. But I've watched the cartoon, and while it reflects the animation style and hyper-exaggerated kinetic characters I don't really enjoy, there's certainly some amusement to be found there. My favorite part has always been Team Rocket, the recurring bad g

Favorite Fictional Characters, #180: Chief Casey Ryback

Joe Pace

Jun 27, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #180: Chief Casey Ryback

It's no secret that Steven Seagal is a bizarre creature, but in the late '80s and early '90s he was the epitome of the cinematic bad-ass action hero roster that included Norris, Van Damme, Willis, Stallone, Gibson, and Schwarzenegger. For those of us 15 or therebouts in 1990, it was a genre designed expressly and deliciously for our consumption. Seagal's films were right in our wheelhouse - one man against the forces of crime/evil/darkness, armed only with his wits and skill

Favorite Ficitional Characters, #179: Frances "Baby" Houseman

Joe Pace

Jun 26, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Ficitional Characters, #179: Frances "Baby" Houseman

I suspect 1987's Dirty Dancing has long been a guilty pleasure for many of my vintage, both women and men. It's a fairly uncomplicated tale, a coming-of-age narrative garbed in a thin shawl of social commentary, but it's mostly well-acted, and boasts a lively musical heartbeat that sustains some of the more boring plot points. While Patrick Swayze's Johnny has his moments, and Jerry Orbach's father figure is enjoyably grumpy, my favorite part of the story has always been Baby

Favorite Fictional Characters, #178: Lt. Frank Drebin

Joe Pace

Jun 25, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #178: Lt. Frank Drebin

Someone's been swimming in raw sewage, and he's not the only one who loves it. I've mentioned before that parody films are a dicey business, and that far more fail than succeed. Even within the Naked Gun franchise there's more miss than hit, especially as both the actor and the premise aged. But when it was good, there was nothing funnier than Leslie Nielsen's bumbling, good-hearted Police Squad Lieutenant Frank Drebin. Nielsen played Drebin straight, even as the world melted

Favorite Fictional Characters, #177: Puck

Joe Pace

Jun 24, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #177: Puck

John Byrne and Chris Claremont's joint tenure on the X-Men from 1977 to 1981 produced some of the best comic books of all time, including the Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, and the Proteus storyline. During that explosively creative era (one that saw the introduction, among others, of Kitty Pryde and Mystique), Byrne used the pages of the X-Men to launch Alpha Flight, a Canadian super-team. The team grew into their own book in 1983, with memorable characters such as

Favorite Fictional Characters, #176: Temeraire

Joe Pace

Jun 23, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #176: Temeraire

Temeraire is a dragon. Lots of dragons in fantasy, of course, from Smaug to Toothless to Puff. What makes Temeraire different is that he exists smack in the middle of one of my favorite literary sub-genres, nautical fiction set during the Age of Sail. Author Naomi Novik has created an alternate history in which wooden naval ships fought alongside an air force consisting of dragons, a bewildering array of species and variants. These dragons are sentient, intelligent, and work

Favorite Fictional Characters, #175: Satan

Joe Pace

Jun 22, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #175: Satan

Here's a fun question: Satan, real or fictional? I've included other purported deities on this list, but that's not really the debate I'm inviting here. The Satan I'm talking about is a very specific one, the character Parry from the sixth book in Piers Anthony's strange and masterful Incarnations of Immortality series, For Love of Evil. As I've mentioned before, Anthony is a weird dude, and his sci-fi/fantasy has some serious sexual obsessions that at times verge on misogyny

Favorite Fictional Characters, #174: Mona Lisa Vito

Joe Pace

Jun 21, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #174: Mona Lisa Vito

1992's My Cousin Vinny is a fun, predictable little movie, with Karate Kid Ralph Macchio clinging to the last vestiges of his cinematic relevance and wiseguy Joe Pesci capitalizing on the height of his. It works, in part because of a stellar supporting cast, including gravel-throated Fred Gwynne as the irascible rural judge (his final role). But let's not kid ourselves - the real luminosity here is 28-year old Marisa Tomei in her breakout (and Oscar-winning) turn as Mona Lisa

Favorite Fictional Characters, #173: Freakazoid

Joe Pace

Jun 20, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #173: Freakazoid

In the mid-1990s, animation was undergoing a renaissance, led by Disney's renewed feature-length greatness but also by heightened production quality and boundary-pushing creativity on the small screen. Around 1995 the WB! was doing some wild stuff with the Animaniacs, and in that same vein burst forth Freakazoid! Under the aegis of Spielberg, creator Paul Rugg spawned a hero for the internet age, a geeky kid who derived his powers from a computer virus. Designed as a comedic

Favorite Fictional Characters, #172: Sinbad the Sailor

Joe Pace

Jun 19, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #172: Sinbad the Sailor

Sinbad comes late to the Arabic fable-cycle we know as the 1001 Arabian Nights, appearing first in recognizable form in the 17th century, but the intrepid sailor is an archetype of long provenance in Arabic cultural history. For centuries, inhabitants of the Middle East plied their various mercantile trades throughout the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean, and melded with literary imports such as Homer's Odysseus, these merchant-sailors gave rise to a rich storytelling

Favorite Fictional Characters, #171: Homer Simpson

Joe Pace

Jun 18, 2016

Favorite Fictional Characters

Favorite Fictional Characters, #171: Homer Simpson

There are dozens of denizens of Springfield who could make this list. Lugubrious, spineless newscaster Kent Brockman and unabashed plutocrat Montgomery Burns are two of my personal favorites. But as this is Father's Day, I give you the paterfamilias of 742 Evergreen Terrace himself, TV's best dad since Fred MacMurray, Homer Simpson. Homer was originally designed to serve as the angry-dumb dad and foil of the intended series star, precocious delinquent Bart. But before long, G

1

2 3

Categories

Archive