Author Archives: Bubbawheat
Superhero Shorts: Uncanny X-Men
Superhero Shorts: Uncanny X-Men
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m getting ready to start watching the X-Men movies by watching a fan made series based on the Phoenix Saga. Below you can watch the first episode “Birth”, or you can visit their YouTube channel at ThrowbackStudioz.
Follow Friday: The Smoking Pen
Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday where I take a look at a great movie blogger that you should check out too. I prefer this over a blogroll because it gives each blog their own time to shine, plus I personally rarely click on blogrolls so why would I expect you to? Not only that, but I get the chance to check out some great blogs I might not have found otherwise found, talk to some great people, and share the conversation with you. So this week I was directed by filmsRruss to check out a blog dedicated to action movies, guns, and all things badass, which does include quite a bit of coarse language, and so does this post FYI. I’m talking about The Smoking Pen.
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon 1980
As I continue my venture into the great chasm of cheesy superhero movies I decided to seek out the 1980 movie of Flash Gordon. There was very little about this movie that I knew of going into it. I knew the hero was named Flash Gordon, the villain was named Ming the Merciless, Queen did the theme song which I had heard, and of all people my older sister actually gave it her endorsement. I do have a Facebook account, but I only use it for old friends and family. I posted about the poll I had on what to watch, mentioning the cheesy movies like Flash Gordon was tied with X-Men and my sister wrote “Flash Gordon isn’t cheesy, it’s awesome!” After watching it, I agree. It’s awesome, horribly horribly awesome. This movie made me laugh harder and more often than the Avengers. There was so much wrong with this movie, but it played it all so earnestly I just had to buy into it.
Avengers Redux, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Try the Theater
It may sound odd, but I haven’t been to a theater in about four years. The last movie I remember seeing was Wall*E, back when Jena was too young to really enjoy or remember it, shortly afterwards we ran into some major money troubles and have only recently gotten to the point where I think we’ve just about fully recovered. I was originally going to title this blog “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Theater” so that should give you a little preview of how things went. We went down to the local AMC twelve screen, the only theater in our relatively small midwest town outside of a single screen theater that shows mostly independent movies so we could watch the Avengers.
Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck 1986
There was only two things I really remembered about this movie before I picked it up on clearance at a used DVD store for about two bucks: I had watched it when I was younger, and I recently skimmed a review for it that had a picture of duck boobs from it. Based on that alone, my wife was against letting Jena watch it with us. But ever since we brought the DVD home, she has been interested in the movie based on the cover artwork alone. My wife was upstairs going to bed early, it was late, my review is due in a couple hours to meet my own personal deadline (which I’ll be about an hour late on), the movie is rated PG, so we started watching it together. Jena’s one word review of Howard the Duck: “Fantastic”. I’m glad I let her watch it with me, it may not be a stellar parenting choice, but I’m ok with it. And while there is that moment of pseudo-nudity, it’s presented in a non-sexual manner, and she is a girl after all. Howard the Duck managed to combine adult themes, childish humor, minor amounts of action, and a love story between a human and a duck. It was bad, but based on the reactions of my daughter, and my wife who came down halfway through the movie, it was worth it. (note: running behind, pics will be added tomorrow)
FTMN Poll: Post-Credits Scenes
Post-Credits scenes, sometimes they’re cool, sometimes they’re ok, and sometimes they’re not there at all. How do you feel about them? Do you always sit through the credits regardless, or do you find out beforehand if you need to sit through them? If you stay and there’s no scene, do you feel cheated? If you leave and find out there was an awesome end scene, does it annoy you? And do you have a favorite one that you’ve seen?
I know the Avengers had not just one, but two post-credits scenes. There’s one right after a few of the main credits, and there’s yet another one after all of the credits. Do you think it’s overkill? Personally I enjoyed staying until the end, at least until I had a daughter. I haven’t tried staying to the end since then but I imagine it will be a struggle. And of course, there’s always home video where you can just skip past all the credits and cut straight to the bonus scene. Share your opinion, vote, leave a comment, tell me what you think. Tomorrow I’ll have my review of more cheesiness with Howard the Duck and on Wednesday I’ll share the story of what happened when I went to the theater for the first time in about four years. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Moonwalker
Moonwalker 1988
If you’ve never heard of this movie, you may very well be wondering why I’m reviewing a movie featuring Michael Jackson and a bunch of music videos that wasn’t even released in theaters. And I have a few reasons for you. The biggest reason is that in this movie, Michael Jackson sees himself as a superhero plain and simple. Another reason is that in my memory I think I had played up the superhero portion of this movie more than it actually was. And as for why I’m reviewing a direct-to-video movie? Kudos on knowing this site well enough that you read my initial list of movies. When I started this site, the plan was to watch and review at least 100 theatrically released superhero movies this year. In the past few months working on this site, I’ve expanded my focus. I’m posting something seven times a week, including three movie reviews. I want to keep doing this past just the first year, but I also don’t want to waste all the good movies too soon. So over the next few months I’ll be reviewing more straight to video movies including many of the well-made animated movies from Marvel and DC. I’ll also at some point be adding reviews for more heroic movies that aren’t quite superhero movies, like fantasy or sci-fi movies under the heading “Almost Super”. But I think this movie qualifies as a cheesy superhero movie, if only just barely. It’s definitely got the cheese portion covered.
Superhero Shorts: Shamelessly She-Hulk
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week is an unique edition about an unfinished feature length fan-film from filmmaker Garrett Gilchrist and his fan-film in-progress: Shamelessly She-Hulk. Below you can check out the directors reel, or you can visit their YouTube channel at OCPmovie, or you can visit the Orange Cow Productions website.
Follow Friday: filmsRruss
Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday where I take a look at a great movie blogger that you should check out too. I prefer this over a blogroll because it gives each blog their own time to shine, plus I personally rarely click on blogrolls so why would I expect you to? Not only that, but I get the chance to check out some great blogs I might not have found otherwise found, talk to some great people, and share the conversation with you. So this week I was directed by At The Back to check out a blog I’ve visited before, and even received an award from, filmsRruss.
Masters of the Universe
Masters of the Universe 1987
First off, I’d like to thank everyone who voted in my poll, it was a very close race but in the end most of you wanted to see me review some classic cheesy superhero movies. I’m not sure if some of you wanted to torture me with bad movies, or if you are more like myself and actually enjoy watching these low budget (or in some cases high budget) over the top cheesy superhero flicks. I have a lot to choose from but I went with a movie that was actually on the list of 33 of the worst superhero movies ever made. Of course, it wasn’t one of the movies that I chose because I enjoyed it a lot when I was younger, and ever since it was mentioned, I’ve been dying to watch it again. It’s got Dolph Lundgren as a guy who never wears a shirt, playing a character who usually only wields a sword, and yet he manages to grab as many huge laser guns as he can get a hold of. It’s got the great Billy Barty playing comic relief, and it’s Courtney Cox’s feature film debut. And yet it takes itself so seriously that you just have to get wrapped up in it all, and for the first time in quite a while, Jena actually sat with us and was invested during the entire movie. She cheered for He-Man and booed Skeletor, saying she hated “the stupid skeleton guy” and that she would “break his bones”. It was great seeing her get so worked up.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 