Category Archives: Blogs
The CK’s Not-So-Secret-Santa Review Swap
There’s a blogathon that was started over at The Cinematic Katzenjammer in July called the Not-So-Secret-Santa Review Swap, I didn’t get around to joining it back then, but when it came up again here for Christmastime, it sounded like an interesting change of pace. Considering that my site isn’t exactly the best place to showcase the movie I received as my “gift”, Love Actually, I considered hosting it there, but instead what I will do is also point out some of the review gifts related to my site like Dredd, including the one I handed out, Bounty Killer. I hadn’t heard very much about my movie, Love Actually, before this year where it seems to have exploded into my own blog feed with equal parts of love and hate over the movie. It’s a very unusual type of movie, it interweaves many different stories about love, set at Christmastime, and it is not a family film by any stretch of the imagination with plenty of swearing and some nudity. There’s a couple different ways to look at what the film is trying to do which is probably colored by what you ultimately think of the film as a whole. It is a look at many different types of love and relationships, but it also includes several unhealthy relationships. The stories are all generally separate from each other, but they are also connected in several different ways. It’s a very atypical holiday movie, and yet it ends with everything coming together the same way every other holiday movie does. And which side of the fence am I on? Personally, I didn’t care for it very much.
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My 2013 Superhero Movie Roundup
2013 has been a pretty good year for me, I caught most of the releases that I wanted to catch, found quite a few hidden gems here and there, caught up on plenty of classics, and started a brand new podcast that’s been going swimmingly. I’m going to avoid taking another look at some of the worst movies this year, instead of giving them more attention, I prefer to focus on the positive and the negative will eventually fade away. I’ve got a top 10 list of superhero and comic book movies and while I might have a couple that you would expect, I imagine that most of the list will be a bit of a surprise.
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Is Marvel’s strategy a bad thing for superhero films?
The other day I came across an article whose argument was basically that the Avengers have ruined the Hollywood concept of a superhero movie. Essentially, the fact that all of the lead up movies to the Avengers were all connected-yet-separate and then there’s this big movie that tied them all together which became a huge thing. And now it’s happening everywhere. DC is doing it by bringing in Batman, Wonder Woman, and who knows who else in the second Man of Steel movie, Sony is doing it with Spider-man with two more sequels in the works and they just announced that their two spin off movies are about Venom and the Sinister Six. Even Fox is getting on board with The Wolverine teasing Days of Future Past which connects the First Class franchise to the first trilogy and have already announced Age of Apocalypse in 2016, not to mention the fact that they’re also supposedly tying the Fantastic Four into that universe somehow. The question is basically asking if the days of the stand-alone superhero movie are gone and these movies are becoming more like comic books, only a part of a much bigger whole that will only end when the money stops. Not only that, but it’s becoming the only model, and that’s a bad thing. Personally, I think it’s a good thing and for more reasons than just getting more superhero movies, which I’m all for too.
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Blu-Ray #MovieMagic Giveaway
It’s coming up on time for the holidays and I’m pleased to say that once again I’m able to offer you a blu-ray giveaway sponsored by Partners Hub. This time around is a bit more chance involved as you are able to win one of 21 different titles including the superhero movies The Wolverine and Man of Steel, as well as the comic book inspired movies 2 Guns, The Lone Ranger, and Red 2 as well as many more. You have 2 ways you can enter the contest, and if you do both you’ll double your chances to win: 1) Comment on this post and mention which one of these movies you are most hoping to win. And 2) Follow me on Twitter, and sent a tweet mentioning me @Bubbawheat with the hashtag #MovieMagic and tell me what superhero movie you most want to get on Blu-Ray, whether it’s in this giveaway or even if it’s not on blu-ray at all. The contest has ended, thanks to everyone who entered!
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Am I Getting Tired Of Superhero Movies Yet?
It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these more free flowing blog posts and one that’s been rattling around in my mind for a while is the question if I’m getting tired of superhero movies yet. I’ve been doing this site for almost two years now and superhero and comic book movies make up around half of my overall movie watching nowadays more or less. There’s often the theory that they are all pretty much the same kind of movie, a sci-fi fantasy action movie with a hero in a costume and half the time it’s essentially the same origin story, especially when they keep rebooting the franchise every few years. So what is it that keeps me from getting bored with superhero movies, or am I actually getting bored with them, hence the frequent lack of actual movie reviews around here for stretches at a time. The short answer is no, I’m not tired of this blog, these movies, or anything else surrounding it.
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Book Nights: Super Born: Seduction of Being
Super Born: Seduction of Being
by Keith Kornell
I was initially reluctant when I got an e-mail asking me to review a superhero novel, I was even more reluctant when I read the initial synopsis for it mentioning the main character as a single mom and a review blurb calling it “hypersexualized”. I also don’t own an e-reader which made me turn down a previous offer at reviewing a superhero novel, but even with my doubts they were still willing to send me a physical copy of the book. It was a rough start, I wasn’t fond of the overly sarcastic humor nor the frequent talk about sex which wasn’t helped by the cover that looked like I was reading a cheesy romance novel. The science mumbo-jumbo was equally over-specific and absurd, and the characterization of the superheroine main character felt like it was written by a man who was not a feminist by any stretch of the imagination. I soldiered on through the rest of the book was rewarded with much of the same, but underneath all of that there was an interesting plot that kept me wanting to know how it was all going to end up.
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This Film Is No Longer Available Due To Copyright Infringement
Whenever anyone chooses to make a fan film, the biggest risk that they take is the fact that they are using characters that they don’t own the rights to, and therefore run the risk of getting shut down by the company that does hold the rights to those characters. Of course, it doesn’t happen very often, and there’s the whole “fair use” excuse, often including a disclaimer at the beginning or the end claiming that they are making no profit on this intellectual property and the rights belong to whichever company it may be. On top of that, there are literally dozens of fan films that are made every year, some even get upwards of a million views on YouTube and they are allowed to remain with no consequences whatsoever. But what happens when it’s your project that gets shut down? What rights do you have, what options are out there, and if you’re just a fan that wants to see a good film regardless of who owns the characters, how can you actually get the chance to see it? Unfortunately, when a company chooses to use the dreaded “Copyright Infringement” hammer, there’s not really much you can do. And if they are the ones who own the character, isn’t it really their right to exercise?
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Ghoulish Guests: Bubbawheat’s Five Favorite Movie Monsters
Check out my guest post over at Anti-Film School where I talk about some of my favorite movie monsters.
I did one of these last year for the “Five Films That Scare” me and when I made the short list for this year, I realized that I had a lot of overlap, especially since I only had three horror films on that list. I could easily put Tomie and the Gremlins on this list as well, but they are worthy of at least honorable mentions. Tomie is a long running series over in Japan and there are some pretty bizarre and monstrous versions of Tomie in some of the later movies, and who doesn’t love the Gremlins? But anyway, this year I’ve got an all-new list and it’s all tied to horror this time, no funny business.
5.) Ju-On: The Grudge
Ok so I lied, this list isn’t 100% all new since this made my honorable mention last year, and even though the girl/young woman with long black hair…
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Bounty Killer DVD Giveaway
Once again I’ve been contacted by the folks at Partners Hub to host a giveaway. This time it’s for a futuristic shoot-em-up independent movie based on a graphic novel called Bounty Killer. It’s out in limited release this weekend and comes out on DVD next month. Click the picture below to check out the Bounty Killer app and take a look at the trailer.
DC Animation Should Make a Theatrical Feature and it Should be The Killing Joke
I’ve said before to anyone who would listen that DC Animation should release a theatrical feature. They haven’t done one since practically their first all the way back in 1993 with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm which was more or less a spin-off of Batman: The Animated Series and had a fairly limited theatrical release. Since then, they’ve released several other spin-off movies for Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond, and Superman: TAS before releasing their first stand-alone Superman movie Doomsday in 2007 based on the Death and Return of Superman comic book arc. Their very next one, Justice League: The New Frontier would be their first PG-13 rated feature. In the following years, they’ve released 15 other straight-to-home-video animated movies based on other popular comic book runs as well as a handful of short films included on some of the DVDs. The stories they tell in these animated features are much more like what you would find in a Japanese Anime movie, these aren’t kids films, they are grown up stories based on well written comics. They are done on a direct-to-home-video budget, but it is used efficiently and often has some amazingly high quality animation, as well as a superbly chosen voice cast. Marvel is dominating the box office while DC is hit and miss, and I think a well placed animated movie could be a great selling point for DC.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 