Author Archives: Bubbawheat
Hero of the Year
DC Superhero Girls: Hero of the Year 2016
This is the first feature length movie based on the initiative that DC has started about a year ago that combines toys, a webseries, and comics that are targeted towards girls rather than boys. And since there isn’t a large enough roster of notable women superheroes in the DC universe, they add in a handful of villains into the mix to make up the full slate. One of the biggest issues that I had with the webseries was that it focused too much on the girly aspects of the concept and not enough of the superheroism, this film is much closer to the right balance with a fair amount of action, humor, and friendship without spending too much time on makeovers and costume designing.
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Zoom
Zoom 2016
This year has been an interesting one, I’ve discovered and watched more films in the past month or two than I ever anticipated coming out this year with a few more to come. This film is one of the few that found its way to me via the PR department which suggested that I watch the film via the site We Are Colony. This film is one of the few where I do stretch the definition of a “comic book movie” to include movies about comic books themselves. The comic book in question is written by Allison Pill’s character and also plays a large part of the movie via animation. I wasn’t exactly sure where this film was going, and there is one major component of the story that’s easily spoiled, and is in much of the advertising for the film but is actually better if you’re unaware of it for the first watch. There’s a lot of humor, a lot of sex and nudity without having a lot of actual nudity, and it has an interesting concept that can be surprising, but I will be spoiling in this review. One final note about We Are Colony’s site, it unfortunately wasn’t a great experience for actually watching the movie without a solid high speed internet connection, there’s very little buffering allowed and there’s no option to lower the video quality – or if there is, it’s not easily found. So trying to watch this movie with a spotty internet was more of a pain than it should have been.
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Batman Unlimited: Mechs Vs Mutants
Batman Unlimited: Mechs Vs Mutants 2016
Within a month of me finishing all of the animated comic book movies out there, they went and released two more already. Starting off with the latest entry in the Batman Unlimited series, something that I tend to think of as the “toy series” as it coincided with the release of a new toy line and overall is more kid friendly than the current Warner Premier animated movies that tend towards PG-13 to R for a more adult audience. Even when just looking at this comparatively to the other two Batman Unlimited movies that came before this one, there was a level of inconsistency with many of the characters like Penguin and even Killer Croc. But while it did take a while to win me over, the level of humor across the third act made up for a lot of nothing in the first two. At least a little.
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Superhero Podcast Review: KAPOWcast
It’s time once again for another superhero podcast review where I’m checking out the last podcast that has been recommended to me. My final verdict comes down to one of three recommendations: Subscribe, Selected Episodes, or Unsubscribe. I’m always looking for new ones to check out so if there’s one that you’re a part of, or one that you listen to and I haven’t reviewed here yet, leave a comment, send me an e-mail at Bubbawheat@msn.com, or hit me up on Twitter @Bubbawheat. This is also one of the first ones where I’m going off of the minimum number of episodes listened to before reviewing with 3 plus a 4th that I’m listening to as I write this review, so before I get into things I will say that I’m not quite sure I have a full feel for this podcast but I’ll do my best to share what it’s about.
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Almost Super: Sinister Squad
Last year I checked out my first Asylum feature with Avengers Grimm and this year the same director has created a pseudo sequel that’s much more of a mockbuster with Sinister Squad. While Avengers Grimm seemed like it was just a loose amalgamation of an Avengers movie having an extremely loose connection to Age of Ultron, this hews much more closely to Suicide Squad. It’s tough to really call this even a pseudo sequel as the only character that appears in both movies is Rumpelstiltskin though his character is very different in both movies besides being played by different actors. The only real connection is the writer/director Jeremy Inman whose first film, Superhero Party Clown, I actually quite enjoyed. This movie feels like it has more character to it, and while it’s nearly as incomprehensible as Avengers Grimm was, there are many more enjoyable moments and the acting overall is much more passable. I won’t say I fell in love with this movie, but I’m not disappointed that I watched it.
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Inseparable
Inseparable 2011
Something that I realized while watching this movie is that it’s actually a fairly common trend, especially for lower budget superhero films to present the actual superhero as someone with some type of mental break. Whether they are delusional in some way where they don’t entirely realize what’s going on, and often they are represented with an actual version of a psychotic break where they are seeing hallucinations and/or what they’re experience isn’t entirely real. This film is yet another one along those same trends and while I didn’t know it before I started watching it, I caught onto the thread very early on. It’s also interesting that it is a Chinese production, and yet it brought on Kevin Spacey and pushed him into essentially a lead role in front of the supposed main character. Like many of these superhero films with a delusional main character, the film becomes a mix of comedy and drama, though it doesn’t quite go into very dark territory that others tread into. It doesn’t do anything entirely new, but the leads are likable, especially Kevin Spacey and overall it’s a fun story.
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Filmwhys #75 Sixteen Candles and Josie and the Pussycats
The Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Emily Mackay from Movies and Mayhem who asks me why I hadn’t seen Sixteen Candles, one of the seminal 80’s coming of age films from writer/director John Hughes. And in return, I ask her why she hadn’t seen Josie and the Pussycats, a 00’s revamp of the Archie comics characters turned into a meta narrative about pop culture at the time.
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Superbob
Superbob 2015
It’s time to catch up with another movie from last year that I wasn’t able to see because it wasn’t released here in the US. This is a little independent comedy from Grain Media and first time director Jon Drever. Often, I think to myself that there’s almost nowhere new that a superhero movie can go, it just has to do something that’s been done before well. And while there have been several concepts out there about a loser who gains super powers to become a superhero, there hasn’t been anything that’s gone quite the same way about it that Superbob does, and that’s not even discussing the pseudo-documentary style of it either. I initially wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie, but the nervous charm of Bob made me laugh quite a bit throughout the film and it has a nice heart at the center of it all. A pleasant surprise of a movie and currently available in the US to stream via Flix Premier.
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Filmwhys Extra #28 What is a Comic Book Movie?
It’s been a while since I’ve done a Filmwhys Extra episode, the episode between the episodes before I started my Filmwhys Spotlight project. But this idea came to mind a few weeks back and I just had to make it happen. So without further ado, The Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast crossover episode with two other comic book movie podcasts 24 Panels Per Second and Meanwhile… and their respective hosts Dru Jeffries, David Babbitt, and James Thompson where we ask a seemingly simple question: What is a Comic Book Movie
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Superhero Podcast Review: Chimpions
Welcome back to another requested edition of my Superhero Podcast review where I take a listen to a superhero-centric podcast and let you know what I think about it. This edition’s podcast is a very fresh one so if you’re interested it won’t take too long to catch up, but there’s always a learning curve going into podcasting so keep that in mind as well. Also, this one will be breaking my format even more than the last time where this podcast doesn’t discuss superhero movies at all, but I’ll get into that more in the main review. As usual, if you run or listen to a superhero-themed podcast that you think I might enjoy taking a look at, be sure to leave a comment, write me an e-mail at Bubbawheat@msn.com or hit me up on Twitter @Bubbawheat.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 