Category Archives: 00’s movies
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang aka Sine Your Pitty on the Runny Kine! 2001
Something that I started in the first year of this site and revisited just last year was to “celebrate” Black History Month in what little way that I could by reviewing films that featured Black superheroes. I covered most of them during the first year of this site including pretty much all of the good ones. It wasn’t until last year when I decided to revisit this idea with Abar: The First Black Superman as well as a couple episodes of Filmwhys where I could cover some Black cinema outside of the realm of superheroes. This year I found a couple more Black movies to watch and I decided to start with this film which is pretty far from your typical superhero movie. But it does seem to follow the typical origin story pretty closely with a few tweaks here and there. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few moments of completely absurd humor, the jokes didn’t connect with my sense of humor and without that I was left shaking my head more often than shaking my gut.
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Heavy Metal 2000
Heavy Metal 2000 2000
It’s been a while since I’ve participated in a blogathon that I didn’t host, but when I saw the O Canada Blogathon over at Speakeasy all the way back in October I figured I could come up with something Canadian to join in. Although my first two thoughts were shut down for various reasons, I knew there was a very obscure Canadian independent film called Sidekick, but it’s also so obscure that I’m having trouble getting my hands on it. I also knew about a French/Canadian production called Crying Freeman, but looking into it I realized it was based on a manga rather than a comic and I’m holding off on those for the moment. So last on my list was this one. I had watched the first Heavy Metal last year but hadn’t heard good things about the sequel and since I didn’t care for the original all that much I didn’t have high hopes for this one. And for the most part my fears were right.
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FTMN Quickie: Watchmen Director’s Cut
Similar to what I did with the Punisher Extended Cut a few months back, I finally got around to watching the Director’s Cut of Watchmen that I’ve owned on DVD for well over a year now. And similar to the Punisher cut, this version doesn’t have a huge amount of changes, instead there are many small additions to the film that adjust the pacing and shift the tone a little bit here and there. If you want to read my thoughts on the theatrical version of the film, you can find that right here.
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300
300 2006
I’ve reached a couple milestones as I write this review. This appropriately marks my 300th review for a comic book or superhero movie, on top of that I’ve also recently passed my fourth year writing on this site and it’s been a lot of fun and I’m finally getting down to the nitty gritty of superhero and comic book movies. Along with the new movies and just a small handful of notable films I’ve yet to cover there will likely be a lot more obscure and foreign films in the future. But as for the film that I’m actually discussing here today is one of the reasons why Zack Snyder went on to make Watchmen, Man of Steel, and is currently in charge of the DC Extended Universe. It’s a film that I’ve seen before, likely when it was in theaters, I used to own, and spawned a second movie that’s a prequel and sequel all at the same time. It’s been years since I’ve seen this film and it has suffered a bit from being parodied to death, but for the most part it still holds up as an enjoyable film with lots and lots of abs.
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The Crow: Salvation
The Crow: Salvation 2000
I’ve had my share of ups and downs with the Crow series, the first one is one of my all time favorite films and I never bothered with any of the sequels until starting this site. Not only that, but it’s taken four years before I finally got to the final entry in the franchise. Well final for me since it’s technically the third one released, it’s not like they’re interconnected at all, and there’s the ever present possibility of another film in the near future even if it’s been in development hell for years now. But back to the film itself, it was a bit of a pleasant surprise. For what it’s worth, this is definitely the second best film in the Crow franchise, unfortunately there’s still a pretty wide gap between this film and the first one.
FTMN Quickie: Punisher Extended Cut
Punisher: Extended Cut 2004
Often there aren’t very many differences between an extended cut of a film and the theatrical edition. Often it’s just a scene or two, or a couple extra shots before or after certain scenes. And once in a while there’s a film that has some drastic differences between the theatrical cut and the director’s or extended cut like with Superman II or Daredevil. This falls somewhere inbetween those two. There is enough of a difference that I felt like I should comment on it, but there’s not enough of a difference to write a completely new review for the whole film, so instead I decided to just do a little quickie review of the Extended edition of the Thomas Jane Punisher film from 2004. If you would like to read my full thoughts on the theatrical version of the film, read here.
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Graphic Horror: From Hell
From Hell 2001
Next up on the chopping block is the first of many Alan Moore adaptations, though I have covered most of the later ones already here. This is a fictionalized account of the Jack the Ripper murders in the late 1800’s in London’s East End. I will say that one thing this film did do for me is renew my interest in the actual Jack the Ripper case, at least for a few hours of Wikipedia and Google video searching. I find it interesting that last year or so there was someone who claimed to have used DNA evidence to “solve” the murder, and yet none of that was enough to make it into the Wikipedia pages a year later. The film is more of a thriller mystery with Johnny Depp put center stage with his slightly eccentric character, though much more dialed back than most of his characters in recent years post Jack Sparrow. I had heard mixed things about this adaptation, and I fall on the line that I thought it was greatly dumbed down for audiences even though I have no experience with the comic, but I was intrigued by the mystery slightly. And since this is a mystery film I will give warning that I will be discussing the killer as presented in this film in case you would rather watch the film and be surprised.
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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.
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American Splendor
American Splendor 2003
Before I decided to watch this film I didn’t really know much about it. I knew it starred Paul Giamatti playing a bit of an average schlub, and that it was based on an indie comic book. But aside from that I knew nothing else. Watching the film I found it to be completely fascinating and unique. To try and explain it, it’s an adaptation of a mostly autobiographical comic book that combines dramatizations with actors as well as brief interviews with the actual author and some animated flourishes. I had never really heard the name Harvey Pekar before watching this even though I was vaguely aware of the name American Splendor. I found that while watching the film I was completely drawn to this very average and somewhat depressed guy and his story of his minor success. It was funny, it was touching in moments, but most of all it just felt very real.
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Hulk vs. Wolverine
Hulk vs Wolverine 2009
After watching Hulk vs Thor I had to move right onto the second half of the double feature with Hulk vs Wolverine. And even though they are essentially two halves of a double feature, there is nothing connecting the two stories aside from the fact that Hulk is fighting another Marvel character. While I wasn’t all that fond of Hulk vs Thor I can’t say that I was impressed with Hulk vs Wolverine either. But I will say that between the two of them, this half of the double feature comes out on top, partly because of the surprise inclusion of Deadpool who I had completely forgotten was in this.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 