Comic Book: The Movie

This mockumentary, starring directed by and starring Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame, about a comic book geek (which in real life Hamill is) called in to help a production company "re-imagine" (i.e. bastardise) a classic comic book series, Commander Courage, and his attempts to inject some integrity into the project, has its moments but not enough of them to appeal greatly to non-members of the comic book fraternity.

The film rambles in a familiar video diaristic way with cameos galore by all sorts of well-known people like Stan Lee, Hugh Hefner, Kevin Smith, and, most enjoyably, Sid Caesar and Jonathan Winters, as well as various bods who make their living voicing TV cartoon characters, but without enough originality, rigour or wit to make it more than a minor addition to the spoof genre.

The direct-to-DVD release contaions a separate disc just for the extras. These include, Behind the Voices Shot at the Comic-Con which is itself the venue for a sizeable portion of the movie, this 51-minute program presents a panel discussion that goes over the movie. Hamill sets up the subject and we then meet the panel that includes Billy West, Jess Harnell, Roger Rose, Scott Zakarin who appear in the movie, comics writer Peter David, and voice actors Maurice LaMarche, Gary Owens, Tom Kenney, Jim Cummings, Daran Norris, Lori Alan and Rob Paulsen; Deleted Scenes; Four Color Frenzy, a behind-the-scenes featurette that mixes behind the scenes clips and interviews with Harnell, Rose, Zakarin, Hamill, West, Stan Lee, Daran Norris, and Donna D'Errico; Stan Lee on Comic Books and Movies (9 minutes, 8 seconds); The Origin of Commander Courage, a recreation of an alleged Commander Courage Radio Show (7 minutes); a throwaway Commander Courage re-enactment outside the Comic-Con expo and a lot of interviews by Hamill in character including an extended version of his interview with Kevin Smith that appears in the film and one with comic fan, Hugh Hefner.

 

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