Author Archives: Bubbawheat
Guesting at the Matineecast, aka “The Circle is Complete”
While I do get the occasional chance to make a guest appearance on other people’s podcasts, I don’t always feel the need to share them here on this site, especially when I get the rare chance to talk about movies that aren’t superhero movies. But this past weekend I got the chance to make an appearance on the podcast that really inspired my Filmwhys podcast, especially as far as his format goes where he has a single guest, opens up with some movie-related questions before digging into some no-nonsense talk about a new release and two other movies that connect to the new release in some way, one chosen by himself and the other chosen by his guest. If you have listened to Filmwhys, I’m sure you can tell which parts I cribbed off of his notes and where I spun it in my own direction. Anyway, since I did make it out to the theater opening weekend for Guardians of the Galaxy, I was happy to come onto his show to discuss the new release. And for my Other Side, I chose a James Gunn written superhero movie that’s even more lesser known than Super, which is the Specials. So make sure you go and visit theMatinee.ca for Matineecast episode 118 and hear our thoughts on Guardians of the Galaxy, the Specials, and some other movie from another director known for superhero movies about a group of misfits banding together. You’ve probably never heard of it.
The 10 Best Superhero Movies of All Time Blog Relay
I’ve always been a fan of blogathons and there’s one type of blogathon that has really captured my imagination as far as ways to make it a bit more interesting for me. Some may say that I like to overcomplicate things, but when it comes to these relays there is the idea that it becomes this ever-changing list, but there are some items that stick around for a long time, and others that come in a go out a bit more often. I wanted to take this concept of a blog relay and twist it in such a way that it has a definitive ending. That when all is said and done, there is a single top 10 list that is agreed upon by the most members. But before I get into the rules and what not, I will start out with my own list that’s not specifically just my favorites, but what I think are the best superhero movies of all time.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy 2014
There are a few things that I don’t do lightly, one of them is to go to the movie theater not just on opening weekend, but on opening night. Of course, it does help that these days opening night isn’t the midnight showing, I was able to catch a nice early 8pm showing and it wasn’t even the first one. But the reason why I ventured out to do this is because I was really excited to see this movie and my usual time to go on Saturday morning wasn’t nearly as early as I would have liked. But that’s all beside the point, I’ve been excited to see Guardians of the Galaxy from the first teaser and the fact that it’s directed by James Gunn. While he doesn’t have a perfect track record, I could really get behind what he’s trying to sell here. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Specials, but Tromeo and Juliet was my first Troma film, I enjoyed the live action Scooby-Doo movie for what it was, and I’m a big fan of his Super. It’s still crazy to think how Gunn was chosen for this movie in the first place, but I’m glad he was. The humor hit in all the right places for me, the soundtrack was amazing, and the ecclectic cast somehow managed to mesh in just the right ways. I don’t think it’s the Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel Universe as I’ve heard it called, but it’s another well placed entry in the universe.
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Pizza Man
Pizza Man 2011
This is another one of those lesser known, indie superhero movies that flew under the radar for me. And to be honest, I don’t often go digging for these gems, but I always keep an eye out for them to cross my path and this one did through one of my favorite movie sites to read Today I Watched a Movie who picked this up at Wal-Mart and gave it such high praise that I had to check it out, and so I picked it up for myself a few days later and it sat on my DVD shelf for a couple months before my wife finally put it in our DVD player for us to watch. I’m not as fully sold as TIWAM was, but it’s still a solid superhero send-up with a fun plot and quite a few recognizable characters.
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Filmwhys #33 The Graduate and All-Star Superman
Episode 33 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Bruce Leslie from the Heroes and Villains Podcast and the Hero Movie Podcast who asks me why I haven’t seen the Graduate, the classic comedy that gave Dustin Hoffman his breakout role and made the name Mrs. Robinson famous. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen All-Star Superman, the DC Animation adaptation from a well known comic book story arc about Superman’s last days on Earth from writer Grant Morrison.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies
After spending a couple months going through my own choices as well as the polls for some of the outliers I finally have a full list of 100 movies that I think are essential for a true fan of superhero movies. There are many good ones, and some bad ones, but there is something noteworthy among every single one of them either due to the character, the circumstances around the movie, or simply the merits of the movie itself. I’d like to thank everyone for their contributions and support throughout making this list, I really appreciate it. Now without further ado, let’s get on to the list itself.
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TV Nights: The Flash Series
With the new Flash TV show on the horizon I thought it would be a good idea to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a while here but never really had the time for it, watch a TV season to review here. If you’re a regular visitor and noticed a lack of regular posts lately, this is why. Instead of watching a 75-120+ minute movie to review, I bunkered in for the long haul to watch 22 episodes of the Flash, and did make a little time for a movie here and there between episodes. I watched a lot of television when I was younger and I’m certain that I watched the entire run of the Flash back in 1990 when I would have been the ripe age of 10 years old. Twenty four years later and the only thing that had stuck with me was a scene involving Barry alphabetizing books on a shelf as a test for his powers which ended up being in one of the last two episodes. Exciting, I know. But looking back on the show, it’s definitely dated and covers a lot of the typical sci-fi/superhero cliched storylines in it, but aside from that it was quite an enjoyable watch and it’s disappointing that it didn’t find an audience back in 1990. I can only hope that the new series lives up to the standard that this episode has set for it in my eyes.
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 1993
This is one of the very few superhero movies left that I had not yet seen before that I really felt like I was missing out on an important and/or great movie. There’s still plenty out there for me to watch, but most of the rest of them are more obscure and/or pretty bad. When I ask the question “What’s your favorite superhero movie?” this movie has come up on more than one occasion so it’s got to be a pretty good movie, and it’s more or less a spin-off of the amazing 90’s Batman: The Animated Series which I watched and loved back when it was coming out with new episodes, and I’ve also seen and enjoyed every one of DC Animation’s home video Batman movies so I was looking forward to finally watching this one and I’m pleased to say that for the most part it didn’t disappoint. My only qualms come from the fact that I did watch this one out of chronological order and so many story elements that were used in this movie were done as well if not better in later movies that I was already familiar with. But aside from that, it was great to finally see this movie and the nostalgia from the animation and music style from the animated series.
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Chicago Lamb Meet-up Aftermath
Since I haven’t posted much content lately (I’m working on it, just been very busy with non-blog stuff, and still watching the Flash TV series with just 2 episodes left) I thought I’d write up a quick post about the Chicago Lamb Meet-Up that happened last weekend. I’m not a hugely social person, but since I had already talked to almost everyone that showed up on either their podcast, mine, or both, it felt a lot more like meeting a group of friends instead of a bunch of people I had never met before. I considered doing a podcast for Filmwhys, but didn’t really have any ideas or the equipment to make it happen. But I did appear on the two other podcasts that recorded on Sunday in Alcohollywood Studios. So make sure you check out The Lambcast where we mostly played a somewhat movie-related round of Cards Against Humanity along with a bit of a discussion afterwards. I also appeared on The Lair of the Unwanted where we also mostly just played a big Game of the Unwanted though I didn’t make as much of an appearance on that episode. And if you want to see what I actually look like, I appeared on a video over at Film Yarn where I talked about my top 5 of the year so far, which unsurprisingly feature four films that I reviewed on this site and the fifth was also featured. I also wanted to thank everyone from French Toast Sunday, Clint from Alcohollywood, Chris from After Credits, Dylan from Man, I Love Films (kinda), Vern from Vern’s Video Vortex, Nick from Your Face!, Lackey from The Nightmare Gallery, and a couple I missed on Saturday, Dan from Public Transportation Snob, and Steve from 1001 Plus. Next week should have some more posts again including an animated Batman movie I should have watched a while ago, a classic superhero movie, my thoughts on the Flash series, and finally the final 100 Essential Superhero Movie list. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Filmwhys Extra #12 Anime Superheroes
First off, I’d like to apologize for the recent lack of content. Been busy lately, and aside from being busy I’ve been watching the 1990’s Flash TV show which takes up a lot more viewing time than a movie to do a single post but I should have that one done sometime next week. I’ve also lost the motherboard on my main computer so that’s slowed me down a bit as I’m now working with my laptop hooked up to my main monitor. Anyway, I’ve got another episode of Filmwhys Extra for you here! Episode 12 of Filmwhys Extra where my guests are Jenn from Reappropriate.co and Stephen from Silver Emulsion and we spend some time talking about anime and how it compares to western ideas of superheroes, how they’re connected, how they’re influenced, how they influence, and whatever else we decide to talk about.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 