Comic Book Villains (2002)

I have been meaning to watch this 2002 movie since seeing it on video store shelves 20 years ago. It has so many potentially appealing elements for me: A solid cast including two of my favorite actors to breakout circa 2000, Donal Logue and Natasha Lyonne. I like heist or crime stories set in unusual milieus, and this one is set in the world of comic stores and collecting that I grew up in. That kind of familiarity with a subculture can be frustrating when filmmakers get it wrong, but the film is written and directed by James Robinson (Starman [the comic, not the movie]), an actual comic writer and collector, so I figured it would feel legit. The few reviews at the time were mediocre, but it seemed like a dark comedy about nasty people, and I often like those more than the average critic/viewer.

The movie follows a rivalry between two comic shops. Raymond (Logue) is the comic book lifer. He holds court, pipe in hand, with his younger, nerdy regulars. Every surface of his store is covered in posters, ads, and back issues, and it is in need of multiple repairs. Someone asks him what's in this week, he replies "New Mignola, new Allred, plus the usual garbage," showing he would rather share his opinions/judgements than try and sell some of that "garbage" that might keep his store open. One day one of his regulars (convicted rapist Danny Masterson in a thankfully brief role) tells him about a recently deceased man who left behind a lifetime's collection of comics. One great detail, that regular insists everyone call him "Conan" because he claims he is related to Conan author Robert E. Howard. So yeah, Robinson definitely nailed the setting. I have known these weirdos, and I could practically smell this store from my memories.

Trouble is, Conan is also a regular at another local comic shop, and he mentions the collection to owners Norman and Judy Link (a pleasantly understated Michael Rapaport and not-so-understated Natasha Lyonne). The Links are businesspeople, not enthusiasts, and also sell Magic cards and other items that bring in kids and families who actually buy things instead of just standing around talking all day. This is another accurate detail; my childhood shop probably would not have survived the comic bust of the late 90s if not for the collectable card game boom that followed.

Both parties meet with the deceased man's mother (Eileen Brennan) and weasel their way into glimpsing the collection. They immediately see it is a potential gold mine, but she has no interest in selling. Raymond's customer/buddy (DJ Qualls) befriends the old lady while Raymond and the Links scheme, with Raymond eventually looking up his old high school bully (Cary Elwes) to help steal the collection.

Unfortunately, this movie fails to deliver on all that promise. Let's start with presentation: the music in this is often distractingly terrible. This is supposed to be a black comedy that dips into dramatic territory, but the score feels like it belongs in a 90s family film. It is wall to wall and oppressive, frequently playing "wacky" while nothing comedic is happening on screen. And it doesn't fit the ACTUAL comic beats of the movie when they happen, either. DJ Qualls' character also narrates throughout, and he is one of the weaker links in the movie. It's both a writing and performance issue, as the character just feels too nice and bland to fit into this world, and if his happy ending is supposed to temper the movie's nihilism it's an overcompensation.

I could try and ignore that stuff if the movie were funnier or more compelling. It's too light on laughs to recommend as a comedy, and the dramatic stuff is underdeveloped. Logue and Lyonne get the juiciest roles, with their characters becoming fully unhinged. But I needed more development to get them to that point. This feels like it is missing a second act with more back and forth escalation between the rivals and some more scenes to develop the darkness in each character. Logue's character especially has a really unpleasant scene that could have felt like a cutting look at proto-incel "nice" guys and the anger and nastiness that grows in them, but instead his creepy misogyny basically comes out of nowhere (unless Robinson is saying this is what all these guys are like). I think Robinson just bit off more than he could chew as a first-time director working from his first non-genre script. Still, I appreciated the nostalgia trip of walking into a 2000-era comic shop. If I had seen the movie back then as a nihilistic teenager, I probably would have liked it a lot more.

Watched this on Tubi. I swear I searched for it on justwatch a month or two ago and it wasn't streaming anywhere, now it popped up on Tubi. This is not the first time it felts like whoever secures movies for Tubi has been reading my search history, but I ain't mad at it.