Author Archives: Bubbawheat
Filmwhys #58 Dial M For Murder and Buckaroo Banzai
Episode 58 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Jay Cluitt from Life vs. Film who asks me why I hadn’t seen Dial M For Murder, one of Hitchcock’s classic murder mystery thrillers that’s full of twists and turns. And in return, I ask him why he hadn’t seen the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension which I have spared you the full title in this episode title where Buckaroo Banzai is a neurosurgeon, particle physicist, rock star who saves the world and becomes a superhero. Or at least we discuss what exactly makes a superhero in our opening topic.
Read the rest of this entry
Gen 13
Gen13 2000
Most superhero movie fans are aware of the unreleased Fantastic Four movie made in the mid 90’s in order for the company to retain the rights to the characters for a few more years. That wasn’t the only unreleased comic book movie to exist, just likely one of the most well known. The Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie was also mostly unreleased as it never came out in theaters, but eventually had a home video release in the US. Gen 13 has never officially been released in the US to date for a very different reason. Gen13 was a comic book initially published by WildStorm comics which was a part of Image comics. The film was produced in part by Buena Vista Pictures, owned by Disney set for a 2000 release date on home video. By the time this film was nearly completed, WildStorm comics was struggling and was sold to DC comics which is owned by Warner Bros. As a result, this film was shelved in the US and only released in a handful of other countries through Paramount Pictures as the distribution company. Which is a bit of a shame because while I didn’t fall head over heels for this film, it’s something that could have had a niche audience and it deserves that at least. Since it was unreleased in the US, it wasn’t rated by the MPAA, but if it was I imagine it would have to have at least a couple minor cuts in order to get a PG-13 rating. There is a bit of non-sexual nudity along with plenty of blood but no gore. But as for the origin story it tells, it’s just above average.
Read the rest of this entry
Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal 1981
You may remember that one friend you had when you were younger, you know the one who had the hidden stash of Playboys and knew how to get alcohol and cigarettes. Or the one who had the cool dad who let him and his friends watch whatever they wanted from their VHS library or have the run of the TV which also happened to have HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax. Or maybe you were that kid and your friends would come over to your house. I don’t remember those friends very clearly anymore, but I do remember visiting one of those friends when I was somewhere around early middle school, maybe 5th grade and we watched Heavy Metal because we weren’t supposed to be watching it. I remember when I was younger I had a love of darker animation like Secret of N.I.H.M, the Last Unicorn, and The Mouse and his Child, but the days where I would discover Liquid Television, Vampire Hunter D, and Akira were still several years away, though Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards was also right around this time even if I don’t remember if it came first or not. So this was unlike anything I had ever seen before and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Over twenty years later I’ve finally gotten around to revisiting it and unfortunately it’s not everything that I remember back when I was 12 or so.
Read the rest of this entry
Hero at Large
Hero at Large 1980
This was one of the first obscure movies that I wanted to watch during the first year of this site since it did have a theatrical release here in the United States even though I had never previously heard of it before. I wasn’t exactly sure what to think of it as the cover art featured John Ritter with his feet in a giant washbasin and his costume hung up in the background. What I got was a really heartwarming comedy about a struggling actor who wants to make a real difference. It’s rather far-fetched at times, but Ritter’s Three’s Company era charm really won me over even as he’s going after his across-the-hall neighbor with an almost stalker-level abandon. It also had an overwhelmingly late 70’s feel to it with some of the fashions and overall look to it, which makes sense as it did come out right at the beginning of the new decade in 1980. There was also one brief nod to Superman which had come out to great acclaim just two years prior.
Read the rest of this entry
Is Warner Bros. Relying Too Heavily on Batman?
I’ve been meaning to write on this topic for quite a while now, but since recently it came out in the news that next year’s Batman vs. Superman is supposedly even less a sequel to Man of Steel than we initially suspected and is much more a Batman story. But even if you discount the whole Batman vs. Superman issue, there’s still the matter of what they’re doing with their home video releases. This year alone, Warner Bros. have released seven straight-to-video animated movies and one more that’s due before the year’s out. Every single one of them features Batman in some way, shape, or form, and half of them have him specifically in the title of the film as the main character. You have to go back four years to 2011 to find a year where Batman made up less than half of that year’s line-up, having only Batman: Year One released alongside the other actually non-Batman titles All Star Superman, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, and the live action Green Lantern.
Read the rest of this entry
Thursday Movie Picks: Train Scenes
There’s been a couple times in the past where I joined in this weekly discussion topic started by Wandering Through the Shelves where there’s a new topic for each participating site to choose three movies and the occasional honorable mentions that fit within the theme of the week. This week’s theme is Train Movies, but as I can only think of a single train movie that fits in this site’s focus, I decided to narrow it just a bit and go for train scenes. It seems like every other superhero has at least one moment where they need to stop a train for one reason or another, but here’s my top three, unranked.
Read the rest of this entry
The Incredible Hulk Returns
The Incredible Hulk Returns 1988
It’s time to finally finish these Incredible Hulk movies as I end with the first one to come after the end of the TV series. I don’t see myself going all the way back to the original pilots for the show as they feel more like they should be considered pilots rather than TV movies, though I may visit them sometime down the line when I run out of other films to watch. But that’s beside the point, I’m here to talk about this film which was also intended to be a spinoff pilot for a potential Thor series, like the Trial of the Incredible Hulk was intended to be a spinoff pilor for a potential Daredevil series. So once again, this movie focused as much if not more on the origin of their version of Thor than they do on Banner and the Hulk. Though it’s interesting that this was the only TV movie that brought back the character of McGee, the reporter who was apparently a big part of the series and this is his only appearance in these TV films. In fact, this was his last major acting appearance. As far as the quality goes, I would say that it falls somewhere in between the other two, it has a lot of fun moments with Thor, but it also doesn’t really go anywhere by the end.
Read the rest of this entry
Filmwhys #57 Asphalt and the Lone Ranger
Episode #57 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Fritzi Kramer from Movies Silently who asks me why I hadn’t seen the 1929 German silent film Asphalt, one of the last silent films from Germany before sound films took over. And in return, I ask her why she hadn’t seen the 1956 version of the Lone Ranger which brought the adventures of the television series to the big screen for the first time in an adventure that surprisingly had some small similarities to the recent Johnny Depp movie.
Read the rest of this entry
The Trial of the Incredible Hulk
The Trial of the Incredible Hulk 1989
My first real exposure to the 1970’s Incredible Hulk series was the final film the Death of the Incredible Hulk, so I decided that I would go ahead and continue the trend by watching the three films that followed the series in the reverse order. This was the second of those films and was originally intended to introduce Daredevil as a possible series in its own right. I find it interesting how television was handled differently back then, there are many series that initially started out as a stand alone pilot movie, and if the movie was successful, then it would launch into production to air the next year give or take. It’s also worth noting that while I didn’t care for the Death of the Incredible Hulk at all, I generally enjoyed this film. There was a lot more done with its television budget in terms of sets and cinematography, and the characters felt more fleshed out. There were still plenty of gaping plot holes and sub par special effects, but they were integrated into the story much better.
Read the rest of this entry
September Update, stats, and the like
It feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve gone and done just a regular blog-style post where I share my thoughts on where the site is, where it’s been, and where it’s going. I’ll also share a few stats from August which I totally didn’t steal from another blogger who I follow but can’t remember but when I do remember I will totally give them a link right here. I find it fascinating how things can change over time. I’m closing in on four years writing on this site and what it is now is pretty different from what it was three years ago even though I’m still watching and reviewing superhero and comic book movies as the one constant.
Read the rest of this entry
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 