Category Archives: Marvel
Hulk
Hulk 2003
It’s finally time for me to begin assembling for the Avengers, and while many people try to forget this installment of the franchise and it was made before Marvel decided to make all the movies lead up to a big crossover movie event, it is generally considered that The Incredible Hulk is a sequel and not a reboot. So by this theory I decided to watch this version of the Hulk first to refresh my memory before heading into its sequel. On top of that, it’s a great chance for me to once again become involved with the LAMB and their Lamb’s in the Director’s Chair. This time around the director is Ang Lee who at the time seemed like a very interesting choice to take on The Hulk. He had just come off of his acclaimed and popular Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and it was thought that he would bring a unique take on the Hulk, and he definitely did do that even if it might not have been a good thing.
The Punisher
The Punisher 2004
I’ve been a fan of this movie ever since it came out, I’m not sure if I saw it in theaters, but if I didn’t, then I saw it shortly afterwards. I have yet to see the extended edition of this movie but I would really like to sometime. Extended editions aren’t always improvements to the movie, I know several times that I watched the extended edition of a movie without realizing it, and I know in the case of Superman: The Movie, it felt like it was too drawn out and I think I would have preferred watching the theatrical version rather than the extended edition. But other times, movies get cut down for other reasons and the extended edition is actually the preferred version, like in the case of Daredevil. But since I already own the regular version of this DVD, I went ahead and watched it tonight instead of watching The Spirit that we rented last night so I could finish up the non-trilogy of Punisher movies. There were a few scenes that I didn’t care for as much as I did when I first watched the movie, but I still enjoyed it a ton more than either of the other Punisher movies I’ve watched this week.
Punisher
Punisher 1989
It was Sunday morning, and I hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep. When I got up I realized that Jena had made her way into our bed at some point during the night. I’m a very heavy sleeper by the way. Considering how little my wife enjoyed Punisher: War Zone, I decided to let her out of watching this movie which by my understanding was just as bad of a movie and just watch it by myself downstairs while they slept. This was on my list of 33 of the worst movies, but when I watched it, it didn’t seem that bad to me. I mean, it wasn’t a great piece of cinema by any means, but it was a solid if fairly generic 80’s action movie. And as I looked through some of the trivia, I was surprised that this has the second highest body count of the three movies at 91 kills, War Zone comes in first at 97, and the Thomas Jane version comes in at a paltry 45. This also has the benefit (or possibly detriment) of having a few brief nude scenes, but then half of them are of Dolph Lundgren.
Punisher: War Zone
Punisher: War Zone 2008
I’d like to take a quick moment before starting this review to talk about video rental stores. Many people say they’re a dying breed, and many big chains have shut their doors for good, but at least here in the midwest, there’s still one chain that seems to be doing just fine. It’s the same one I’ve been going to since I was a kid and I’ve seen it grow and it still appears to be doing well when other stores are closing their gates. I’m not sure what it is they do right, but Family Video is a great place to go. It’s a lot harder for me to browse around on the internet unless I’ve got some inclination of a movie that I want to see, but my favorite section to browse around Family Video is their large 2 for $1 section that features tons of straight to video classics and B movies. That’s where I found this gem of a movie, sadly they didn’t have the Dolph Lundgren version of the Punisher or I would have rented that one there as well. But anyway I watched Punisher: War Zone yesterday evening and I chased it down with a much better movie called The Expendables. They felt surprisingly similar in certain ways, but where War Zone faltered, Expendables flourished.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 2012
So once again, I’m watching a movie late into the night just before my own personal deadline of midnight Eastern time. Hopefully it’s the last time for a while since I’ll be getting back to two movies a week instead of three. Anyway, I spent this evening watching the new Ghost Rider movie and let me tell you, I’m not even sure where to begin. It was something else that’s for sure.
So anyway, this movie takes place what seems like a few years after the first movie, and it has a little animated recap of what the Ghost Rider is and how Johnny Blaze came to gain the rider’s curse. They have a brief mention about how he thought he could control the curse which was how the first movie ended. He had the chance to close the deal and become a normal human again, but instead he chose to keep his curse and try to use it to do good. Apparently that didn’t work and now he wants to get rid of it again. And don’t you know, there’s a black French guy that tells him he knows some religious guys that can get rid of it for him. Of course, that’s not the whole story, apparently there’s also a half devil kid that’s set to bring on the apocalypse or something along those lines. But it’s all good.
Blade: House of Chthon
Blade: House of Chthon 2006
It’s not looking like I’m going to get around to watching the new Ghost Rider anytime soon, so instead I decided to check out something else that I hadn’t seen before. When I bought the Blade series on DVD it wasn’t just a trilogy, it was four movies. The extra movie at the end was the TV movie slash pilot episode of the short lived television series on Spike TV. Blade: House of Chthon. My wife and I were both curious about it so we decided to pop it in and check it out. Long story short, I can see why the show didn’t make it past its first season.
Blade: Trinity
Blade: Trinity 2004
I’ve been feeling awful all day with an annoying runny nose and sinus headache while running all over town running errands. But I finally get to cap it off with a movie I remembered really enjoying as the last movie in the great Blade Trilogy. As a minor side note, I keep thinking this movie’s subtitle is actually Trilogy instead of Trinity. It wasn’t an awful movie by any means, but there was a lot of stuff in it that I completely didn’t agree with or didn’t make sense that I must have completely overlooked the first time I watched it.
Blade II
Blade II 2002
Another couple days and it’s not looking good for me seeing Ghost Rider in theaters. I’m not interested at all in seeing it in 3D, and it’s not too easy with my schedule to catch one of the few 2D showings. So I’ll keep an eye out for it and watch it when I can. Instead I’m pushing forward with the Blade Trilogy and I’m now on the second movie. This one is known for being directed by Guillermo Del Toro right before he went on to direct Hellboy. It also has a lot of typical changes that good sequels tend to have.
Blade
Blade 1998
I partly wanted to see the new Ghost Rider movie, but after reading several reviews for it, I didn’t much want to go out and see it in theaters. So things didn’t work out and at the last minute I put in Blade. I think I made the better decision. Of course if I want to stick to my schedule and have this finished by midnight it means that I only have half an hour to write this. So for those of you reading this, you can see what me writing quickly and without being able to do a second take on it later. Of course I always have the option of going back in and editing, but that’s not worth mentioning right now. Also, if you read this early you got to see this without most of the pictures, lucky you.
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider 2007
It’s Thursday night, my Steel post went up today and I realized that I didn’t have any more banked reviews. Doing three reviews a week this month is a lot tougher for my schedule than I expected it to be. Luckily I currently own the Blade trilogy, so it’s just a matter of getting to see the new Ghost Rider sometime this weekend. And to prepare for Spirit of Vengeance, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on the original Ghost Rider movie. It seems like there’s not a whole lot of love out there for this movie, and while it does have some pretty bad moments, I spent most of the movie grinning like a fool and I’m psyched to see the new one.
