Yep, it’s just a blog post folks
Yes, it’s come to this. I had a feeling it would happen sooner or later, but I figured it would end up happening later. First off, I have to mention that I still enjoy every part of this site and I’m not giving it up by a long shot. But I do have to say that I’m kind of down about it for various reasons and will be slowing down for a little bit. Instead of posting every day, I’ll be posting about every other day or so.
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy 1990
Before I get into some more classicly bad and/or cheesy superhero movies, I picked this movie for our new podcast. I won our first game and next Tuesday will be the second episode of the As You Watch Podcast. You can be involved too. If you want to watch Dick Tracy and review it on your site, I will gladly link to your reviews so we can all discuss it together. Anyway, Dick Tracy came out on the heels of Tim Burton’s Batman movie and tried to cash in on that first wave of Superhero movies, but it was fairly short lived as nothing besides Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seemed to have any pull with audiences at the time. Dick Tracy was inspired by a classic comic strip that dates back to the 30’s. Warren Beatty pulled a lot of his influence to make this pet project, initially getting it greenlit under a moderate budget before ballooning it to almost double before he was done. The results were fairly impressive for the time, with all the bright colors and unique characters that looked like they were almost taken directly off the comic book page. But while there are still a lot of great things about the movie, it just doesn’t quite hold up as well anymore, at least in my opinion.
FTMN Poll: What’s your favorite type of “bad” movie?
Bad movies, some of them are hard to watch, but others transcend that barrier to become a real treat. I just got done watching several that I totally didn’t like and will shortly be moving on to a few that I predict I will enjoy a whole lot more, so I have to ask “What kind of ‘bad’ movies do you like the best?” Is it the ones that are cheesy and campy which make the bad jokes incredibly charming? Or is it the ones that try to take themselves seriously, but are either so over the top or just cheaply made that their piss poor efforts are hilariously bad? Vote, share some of your favorites, enjoy!
Almost Super: Die Hard
Almost Super: Die Hard 1988
I was never a big fan of the huge action movie franchises when I was younger. I think out of all the well known movies by the big action stars of the 80’s and 90’s, I had only seen Total Recall and Last Action Hero. It was only a couple years ago when I finally saw Die Hard back to back with the first Lethal Weapon after watching Live Free or Die Hard, mainly because I’m a huge Kevin Smith fan and try to watch almost everything he’s been involved with. That reason was also what made me watch Roadhouse – in the special edition DVD, he and Scott Mosier do a really fun commentary track for it. I never did go on to watch any of the sequels, but of the four films, the original Die Hard was head and shoulders above the other three in terms of quality. There’s a reason that for years and years after this movie came out, action movies like Speed were referred to “Die Hard on a Bus”. It was the benchmark of a great action film, and over twenty years later, it still holds up as a great flick. It is well crafted twists and turns with just the right amount of comic relief without being too silly. And John McClane himself is practically a superhero in his own right, taking on an entire pseudo-terrorist-cell all by himself.
Superhero Shorts: Batfan
Superhero Shorts: Batfan
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m talking with Anders Wotzke about his Batman parody, Batfan. Where he takes a simple concept and goes all the way with it, coming up with something pretty funny. As always, you can watch it right below, or you can check it out on his YouTube channel along with his many video reviews, you can also visit his movie site MovieDex.
Follow Friday: Flixchatter
Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday where each week I feature and interview a fellow blogger and follow their suggestion to another blog to feature next week. I prefer this over a blogroll because it gives each blog their own time to shine, plus I personally rarely click on blogrolls so why would I expect you to? Not only that, but I get the chance to check out some great blogs I might not have found otherwise found, talk to some great people, and share the conversation with you. Of course, if you would rather see something like a blogroll, I have collected all of my previous Follow Friday sites in list form which you can find right at the top of the page. This week I was directed by Castor over at Anomalous Material to check out Ruth’s blog Flixchatter
Superhero Movie
Superhero Movie 2008
I was hoping that this would be the last bad movie I watched for a little while, but then Morgan from Morgan on Media pointed out this bizarre 80’s Australian superhero parody musical called the Return of Captain Invincible starring Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee, and after I looked up the trailer, it’s making me want to get back to some more classic cheesy superhero movies. At least after I watch Dick Tracy for our upcoming podcast, As You Watch. Which I should also mention that if you want to join in, I will gladly link any reviews to Dick Tracy so you can watch along with us, your deadline to get links in to me is Monday, August 27th. But back to today’s movie. I remember it being promoted as essentially a parody of all the superhero movies that were out at the time, though it primarily focused on the original Spider-Man movie, which was pretty dated even at the time considering that Spider-Man 3 came out before Superhero Movie. All of the other Superhero movie references are all just brief one-scene cameos, though the movie does stick with only parodying Marvel properties. I wasn’t much of a fan of the style of humor either, which basically consisted of playing a scene as close to Spider-Man as possible, then throwing in a sex/fart joke at the end.
Guest blogger: Is Spock a Superhero?
Welcome to the first guest post here at Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights. When I started this site, it was my idea to have it be a personal challenge to seek out, watch, and review superhero movies. And my overall goal was, and still is, to watch and review every superhero movie ever made. But this site has been growing and expanding as I keep getting new ideas and inspirations. I’m now on a daily schedule, and to help me meet that schedule, I could use a little bit of help. The first person that stepped in was Alan from The Great Movie Project. If you’d like to participate too, I’m accepting any “almost super” movie reviews for sci-fi/fantasy movies that aren’t quite superhero movies, but still have that heroic/comic book quality to them. I’m also accepting “second opinion” reviews, if you have a different viewpoint on a superhero movie that I’ve already reviewed. And finally, I’m accepting blog style articles like this one that takes a more general look at the superhero genre without being about one single movie. Today, Alan is looking at how Star Trek, and more specifically Spock relates to superheroes in cinema. And I’ll be back tomorrow (hopefully) finishing up my bad movie mini-marathon with Superhero Movie.
As You Watch Podcast #1
Our introductory episode where you can meet all of the hosts. Me, Vern from VideoVangaurd.com, Nick of Cinematic Katzenjammer, and Joe from Two Dude Review. We also talk about out top 3 films of all time, the movie releases for the week ending 8/17, and we play a little game. I hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back with episode #2 in two weeks. Click right here to listen to our premier episode. And tomorrow will be a brand new feature from a guest poster. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Name our new podcast
So we’ve got a new podcast coming out tomorrow, but we still haven’t decided on a name yet. I put up three of the most popular ones, so it’s up to you to vote on it, and you’ll be able to hear it tomorrow. So let’s hear those votes!
Update: Thanks for voting in the poll, but we ended up going with something different anyway. After much discussion, we named it “As you Watch Podcast”.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 