Rating: ««« out of 4 stars

Running time: 107 minutes

Are you sick of the standard superhero movies hitting the multiplexes every three and half weeks?  Bored with the same ol’ macho men in tights pummeling other macho men in tights ad nauseam? Do you enjoy “Adult” films that obtain their “R” rating by having the immature mentality of a hormone-crazed teenager?

You’re in luck! The new Marvel Comics’ movie Deadpool is your one-stop shop for Uncanny Carnal Carnage. This is “Hard R” material that shakes off many conventions of the genre. While it earned its rating for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity it all results in some harmless fun.

Let’s thank – and this is hard for me to type – Ryan Reynolds for delivering a performance that is a pure delight. Reynolds has always been at his best as an annoying loudmouth and Deadpool is a character that allows for a culmination of his particular talent. Here he gives us a hilarious Anti-Hero that plays like the offspring of Ace Ventura and The Punisher. If not offspring, then second cousins.

Director Tim Miller provides some shining moments of satire. This is his first feature-length film and it is apparent that this is a talented man who finally gets to play with the big kid toys. See the stunning opening credits as an example as the camera floats through a frozen moment of violence sprinkled with a handful of great sight-gags.

Here’s the only bummer, here’s the rub. While the film does a solid job at de-constructing the tropes and themes of the superhero film, it plays it too safe by staying comfortable in the Origin Film template. Everything going on throughout the film plays fresh as it pushes the boundaries.

The violence is ferociously silly and Deadpool frequently talks to the camera to remind us that he knows he’s in a movie. All innovated techniques, all things upping the ante set down by another great film of the same ilk called Kick-Ass(2010).

But while Deadpool pushes and pulls at the fabric of the familiar, the story settles into the predictable. While presenting us with the “where” and the “why” is understandably important, the filmmakers could have – should have – followed the standard they used for the rest of the elements of film and made something different.

Had that happened Deadpool could have accomplished more than merely making fun of the comic book movie; it could have re-invented it.

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Gallup-McKinley County Humane Society handles deadly canine virus

The Gallup-McKinley Humane Society faced the start of a cruel summer with a distemper outbreak at the shelter. Nearly two-dozen dogs were euthanized after being infected by the often-fatal canine scourge.

The shelter declared a four-week quarantine due to a distemper outbreak, according to a June 24  press release.

Distemper attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems of adult dogs and puppies. It’s highly contagious and can be transferred from dog to dog via airborne exposure (sneezing or coughing). And it’s often fatal in puppies. Survivors can face a lifetime of neurological and other health problems.

In a Sept. 16 interview with the Sun, one of the shelter’s directors, Cosy Balok, said the shelter had to put about 23 dogs down due to the virus. She said the shelter’s first distemper case appeared in June.

“When we first got a couple cases of it we were hoping that just by putting those isolated cases down then that would be it, but then more and more cases started popping up. So it was probably over a month’s time that we put them down,” she said.

She explained that it can be difficult to control the spread of distemper in a shelter, but that it can be isolated in controlled environments, such as a single dog or puppy owner’s home.

“If you have a dog at home and your dog comes down with distemper, you can do the treatment that the veterinarian gives you to do for them at home. But in our case, when you have a facility, unless you had an isolation room for each animal, you’re spreading it while you’re treating it,” she said. “So that makes it very difficult, because we can get a pup that doesn’t seem too sick, we can be treating it, but it can be shedding the virus. So you have an effect that’s just snowballing.”

Balok said that a dog that is 10 kennels down from a dog who has distemper can become sick with the virus.

Symptoms include lethargy, loss of appetite, diarrhea, upper respiratory issues, gunky eyes, and noticeable clogged nasal passages.

Even if the respiratory symptoms are treated, the virus often reaches the brain, causing the dog to have seizures. Balok said that at that point, it’s basically impossible to treat the virus.

It’s this virus, and other diseases, that make it crucial for people to vaccinate their pets. Balok said puppies need a distemper and parvo vaccine at least three or four times, two or three weeks apart.

The reason?

“Antibodies are protecting the [puppy] from viruses, and they’ll protect them against the shot,” Balok said. “You don’t know at what point a mama’s antibodies disappear from the baby, and then they’re on their own, so you’re giving this vaccination series in hopes that you’re hitting the time after their immune system from their mother has faded away.”

When a dog turns 1-year-old, it has built immunity against a variety of illnesses, but the dog still needs to get a booster shot annually to maintain its immunity against distemper and a host of other doggy diseases.

The Gallup-McKinley County Humane Society hasn’t seen a case of distemper in about a month, so Balok believes the shelter staff has contained the spread for now.

She said that distemper, even though it can spread quickly, is easy to kill. Disinfecting areas with bleach and water and other cleaning supplies can wipe out the virus.

“I don’t want people to totally freak out about it because they can actually treat their animals. Just because their animal gets it doesn’t mean they’re going to die from it if they get it treated right away,” she said.

One way to prevent a dog or puppy from getting any virus is to keep them at home and away from other dogs until they’ve received their series of shots.

“You shouldn’t take your puppies out to public areas until they’re fully vaccinated. Before they’re spayed or neutered you should make sure they’ve had all their puppy shots,” she said. “Try to prevent them from being with other dogs during that time of going through their vaccination series.”

The humane society, she said, needs foster homes to prevent the spread of diseases within the shelter.

“Shelter situations are very stressful on animals, especially puppies,” Balok explained. “You don’t like them to be in the facility for very long because it’s very stressful on them, and when they’re under stress it lowers their immune system.”

Community members can volunteer to foster a litter of puppies, or a litter and their mother. The shelter provides fosters with everything they need to make their experience as enjoyable and successful as possible.

To learn more about fostering, call the Gallup-McKinley County Humane Society at (505) 863-2616.

By Molly Ann Howell
Sun Correspondent

Rating: «« out of 4 Stars

Running Time: 108 min.

At this point, we’ve seen more takes on the famous and enormously popular Jane Austen novel than probably any of us can count. At least the latest adaptation does throw in a new and unexpected element into the mix - the undead. Yet, while Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has its moments, the movie is afraid to take any liberties or poke fun at its source material. It’s well mounted but feels a bit stiff and doesn’t go far enough to maximize the outrageous potential the material possesses.

Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James) is a young woman living with her parents and sisters. Concerned for the future of the family, their mother (Sally Phillips) encourages the ladies to begin looking for well-to-do husbands. Oh, and there’s also an infection spreading across the land that causes people to die and turn into flesh-eating zombies. In between her warrior training, Elizabeth and her sisters meet many suitors. However, the two who make the biggest impression on the lead are a charming soldier George Wickham (Jack Huston) and blunt, stuffy, aristocratic monster hunter, Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley).

The filmmakers have clearly decided not to emphasize the outrageousness of the situation, perhaps to its demerit. Sure, there are some changes and an interesting wrinkle to the zombie formula (a dead person can speak normally and it takes time to show visible signs of their demise), but after seeing the ladies fight some off early on, events quickly revert back to the classic plot of Elizabeth sorting out her complicated feelings for the two men.

Despite the new challenge in identifying a zombie, little is done with it creatively. It does play a part in the opening and at the very end of the film, but overall this concept is never fully utilized. The interactions and budding relationships between characters progress traditionally and the dramatic potential for suspicion of infection between the ladies and their suitors isn’t emphasized as much as it should be. There’s little tension or drama among the leads as to the threat or who the undead may be. At least the performers are decent, taking their roles seriously and acting as though they are in a straight-forward retelling of Austen’s material.

People coming to the theater will expect the heroines to take on more zombies between their romantic escapades. And what’s so surprising about this mash-up is just how unexceptional the horror and action sequences are. There’s a good moment or two, including a scene in which a formal conversation is abruptly stopped by a zombie meeting his demise via a loud musket shot. It’s an effective and jarring moment that contrasts traditional etiquette with a dose of, if not reality, then a jolt of violence. Unfortunately, there aren’t more scenes like this to add more subtext to the concept.

Instead, the screenplay wedges a few brief zombie interactions within the preexisting story, or has the characters give exposition while practicing their martial arts routine. The jokes are scattershot and interestingly enough, those that make the biggest impact aren’t new. Zombie sequences are edited together in a competent but otherwise flat manner. In particular, the film’s climax leaves much to be desired. It doesn’t use the undead onslaught to its full potential and beyond the characters riding on horseback past flesh-eaters and a brief sword fight, not a whole lot of excitement results.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies would have been a little better served if it had used the novel as an inspiration, strayed further from the original story and integrated the undead in a smoother manner. Ultimately, it feels like a passable adaptation of the Austen book with zombies thrown in here and there as a throwaway gimmick, instead of using the bizarre concept as a way to satirize manners in a completely original way.

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Rating ««« out of 4 Stars

RUNNING TIME: 1 hr 57 min

Saturated with a refreshingly old fashioned sense and sensibility, The Finest Hours is an exciting throwback to the harrowing adventure films of days past. The fact that this is a Disney film makes all the more sense as the story of real-life hero Bernie Webber would have felt right at home alongside Davy Crockett and True-Life Adventures on Sunday night’s Wonderful World of Disney.

It was 1952 when an unforgiving blizzard hit Cape Cod. Snow fell in thick sheets and the ocean raged. In an unprecedented display of terrible luck, two oil tankers snapped in half off the Massachusetts’ coastline.  The coastguard had the resources to help one sinking ship but a second doomed crew? That’s when Bernie Webber (played by Chris Pine) was ordered to take a small group of four men out a tiny boat and do the best he could. The locals thought it a suicide mission but Webber is focused on the mission: “You gotta go out. They don’t say you gotta come back in.” That’s what he tells his crew. And it is that laser-focused mentality that sets us off on one of the most heroic rescue missions in American history.

This true life story is incredible. Fifty-plus years ago they did not have the technology we take for granted today. No sonar on the boat, no GPS to guide the blind. Hell, Webber doesn’t even have a compass (!!) to help him find his way. This is a living miracle story that makes for an inspiring night at the multiplex.

Aside from the source material, the film bolsters and impressive cast. Chris Pine as Webber truly transforms himself in the role. Pine is a handsome, confident man in most of his films. You don’t get cast as the new Captain Kirk without some swagger in your walk. In The Finest Hours he turns a polar opposite of his persona, presenting Webber as a quiet, reserved man who struggles for the respect of those around him. Even his lovely fiancé, Miriam, has to ask him to marry her. Not a big deal now but in sexist 50’s, this was not the norm.

Holliday Grainger plays Miriam with a strong confidence. While her story coping being left ashore while her loved one braves the impossible is important to counter-balance the tension, the filmmakers spend too much time with the character. There is not enough growth in Miriam to share that much screen time. Keep the film on the boat. Keep the film on the rescue.

The rest of the fine cast is rounded out by manly men pulling manly faces for the cameras.  Eric Bana, Ben Foster and Casey Affleck all play their roles with conviction. Affleck is wonderful as the strong-jawed Ray Sybert, one of the ill-fated men trapped on the sinking tanker. He looks like a young Errol Flynn and brings the hero vibe better than his brother Ben seems to as Batman.

What really makes The Finest Hours worth the price of admission is the special effects. They are almost subtle despite the fact they encompass the screen. You can almost forget that the cast is not really on a boat in a horror-storm. The effects are seamless. However, I don’t think it is necessary to pony up for the 3D ticket. The movie is too dark to achieve the full effect of the 3D. Stay with the standard presentation and you’ll be fine.

While not perfectly paced, The Finest Hours maintains a nice and steady stream of tension. Webber’s story is an interesting one. We need heroes and to reflect on those of the past gave me solace that there are more out there that aren’t relegated to wearing tights in a Marvel Movie.

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