COMIC BOOK VILLAINS -- James Robinson, dir

©2002
studio: Lions Gate
dir: James Robinson
cast: Donal Logue, Cary Elwes, Michael Rapaport, Natasha Lyonne, DJ Qualls, Eileen Brennan
screenplay: James Robinson

Told from the point of view from Archie (Qualls), a comic book collector, this is the story of a rivalry between two comic book shop owners. One (Logue) does it for the love of comics, while the other shop, run by a husband-and-wife team (Rapaport and Lyonne) are in it strictly for the money. The situation brews to a head when a sneak collector, Conan (Masterson) discovers a large collection of perfectly-preserved classic comics, leading the two shops to vie to acquire them, along with a "villain" (Elwes) who hopes to steal them first. [from IMDb]

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I think, perhaps, that it is not possible to make a good movie about comic book collectors. The people in this movie are pathetic. Writer/director Robinson tries valiently to make Archie a like-able person, but he's still a "nerd" and no one really cares much for him. Everyone else in the film is about half a step up from being despicable.

I wondered if anyone connected to the movie even knew anything about comics as the comic book lover and owner of the "good" shop, Raymond, spent time in his shop smoking a pipe. I can't imagine anyone who handles comics that regularly would infest them with smoke.

The violence was completely out of character, and I never once believed that Raymond had it in him to kill anyone.

Eileen Brennan does a great job, but her reason for hanging on to the comics seems slightly far-fetched.

This is a film to avoid.