Follow Friday: Cool Awesome Movies
Follow Friday: Cool Awesome Movies
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. So this week I was directed by Paul over at Paragraph Film Reviews to check out Cool Awesome Movies that focus on some pretty cool, pretty awesome movies, if you tend to like your awesomely cheesy B-Movies. And they also celebrate one of the best things to come out of B-Movies, gratuitous nudity, so there’s an NSFW warning for you before you go check out the site.
Red Sonja
Red Sonja 1985
2023 edit: I apparently keep forgetting to revisit this movie after watching and reviewing Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues and revising my criteria somewhat and doing a bit of research. While Conan originated in the novels, Red Sonja as a character was created for Marvel comics within the Conan comics which absolutely makes this a comic book movie. Below is the original review presented unedited.
I have been going back and forth on whether or not to have this movie be a part of the rest of the movies or to have it under my “Almost Super” category. It’s based on a character in a Marvel comic book, but since it’s much more of a low fantasy rather than a superhero so I ultimately decided to use the Almost Super tag. Another reason why I wanted to review the movie, aside from the fact that I vaguely remember watching it and liking it when I was younger, is that the Lamb is having its Lamb Acting School for Arnold Schwartzenegger this month, and I’m not quite ready to revisit the 90’s Batman series ending in his portrayal of Mr. Freeze, so I was left to choose between the two Conan movies and this movie. And while the movie is called Red Sonja, Arnold still manages to get top billing as the secondary lead above acting newcomer Brigitte Nielson. While there were some interesting parts in the movie, it did not nearly hold up to my memory of it.
Why Do I Appreciate the Fan-Film?
Why Do I Appreciate the Fan-Film?
I’ve expanded this blog a lot over the past few months and one of the first features I introduced besides these blog posts and of course the reviews was Superhero Shorts, where I feature a superhero themed short film, which so far has always been a fan-film, and interview the creator. It’s honestly been a lot more work than it may seem, as YouTube is frought with a lot of copycat uploads so it’s not always easy to find the original if it even exists on YouTube itself. And on top of that, it’s not exactly the most popular feature on this site. Sure, there have been a couple breakout articles, such as the Hillywood show which got a big bump when they graciously plugged it on their own very popular Facebook page, but I doubt any of their fans stuck around to read any of my other articles. And Garrett Gilchrist’s interview about his unfinished She-Hulk movie, which he also graciously plugged it on his Tumblr page, though fans of She-Hulk are actually more likely to stick around on top of the fact that it is currently my favorite interview I’ve done so far. But if it’s hard to do, and not that popular, then why continue to do it?
Superman vs. the Elite
Superman vs. the Elite 2012
When I started this site, I had planned to watch only theatrical movies including all the movies that come out this year. But when I recently decided to also watch other types of releases I had forgotten to check out straight to video release dates. So I didn’t even realize that this movie had come out last Tuesday until just a few days ago, so I had to give it a look. It’s yet another DC Animated movie from producer Bruce Timm, whose name you’ll hear a lot anytime superheroes and animation are brought up. And honestly, this is one of the best of these animated movies I’ve seen so far, from the animation, to the story, to the characters, to actually getting to tell an interesting Superman story, it’s all here. It even got my wife and daughter hooked through the whole thing.
FTMN Poll and Lamb MOTM
I’ve been watching a lot of animation lately and wanted to know what you think about it? I’m a big fan of animation, both hand drawn and CG from Toy Story to Shrek to DC and Marvel animation to classics like Secret of NIMH to anime like Akira. The one thing that most people can’t get past is that it’s not a genre, it’s a medium. An animated movie can be anything from G to R to XXX, and even though popular opinion may slowly be changing, it’s still generally considered to be kids stuff.
Aside from the poll, I also wanted to plug another Lamb event – the Movie of the Month. Every month, up to 10 Lamb members choose a movie that gets put on a poll on the Lamb site (top right corner). The winner becomes the Movie of the Month and Lamb members are encouraged to watch and review it, and it’s also the topic of that week’s Lambcast. I tossed my hat in the ring this month with the movie that I enjoyed the most this past month, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. So if you want to hear me talk about the movie on a podcast, which will be my first podcast, go to the Lamb and vote for Gremlins 2!
Thor: Tales of Asgard
Thor: Tales of Asgard 2011
I was originally considering to do a mini-marathon of the DC animated movies after the response to my Green Lantern: First Flight post, but at our most recent trip to the rental store, my wife picked up this movie from the free kids movies section so I figured I might as well watch it. I really had no idea what to expect when I started it, all I knew was the tagline saying something about before there was a hammer, there was a sword. So I knew I was in for a prequel of sorts. I thought it covered a lot of the same grounds as the live action movie, and it had a lot of references to the movie, but in other places it went in a completely different direction. I generally liked it and so did Jena, but it seemed like a really odd choice for an animated movie. Especially when you consider the DVD cover which I chose not to picture because not only does it look nothing like the actual animation, but it appears to be an adult Thor, when the movie is about essentially a teenaged Thor. It’s still worth a watch if you’re a fan of Thor or the animated DC movies. It’s also a PG movie rather than a PG-13 and while it does cover some adult themes such as death and war, it does so without any blood, so it’s appropriate for younger viewers as well.
Superhero Shorts: Superman Classic
Superhero Shorts: Superman Classic
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 Robb Pratt, a professional storyboard artist, director, and animator who is currently working for Disney on their upcoming film Planes. He created an original independently animated Superman short film called Superman Classic which you can watch below. You can also visit Robb’s official site.
Follow Friday: Paragraph Film Reviews
Follow Friday: Paragraph Film Reviews
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. So this week I was directed by Ryan McNeely over at 5 Word Movie Reviews to check out Paragraph Film Reviews which is a great blog that’s reviewed tons of movies in an easy to digest short paragraph.
Green Lantern: First Flight
Green Lantern: First Flight 2009
After watching the mediocre live action origin story, it made me want to revisit an earlier Green Lantern origin movie, only this one was animated and straight to home video. It was also a whole lot better. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I really love all of the DC Animation that I’ve seen so far which ranges from pretty good to excellent. They’ve covered a lot of ground on some of the better comic book stories out there without worrying too much about being a blockbuster. They’re generally all under the supervision and occasional direction of legendary Bruce Timm. The only downside I really have with them which isn’t a major downside is that they all tend to be rather short, most of them clocking in at a little over an hour. I’m still waiting for when they have the guts to make one of these animated movies for the theaters. I imagine it’s because of the decline of 2D animation. But whatever, First Flight is still a great movie.
Why doesn’t DC make a theatrical animated movie?
Aside from a couple of their big movies like the original Superman, and some of the Batman movies, DC has yet to really capitalize on their cast of characters in the theaters. While Marvel has had a handful of bad movies, they haven’t had many unsuccessful movies. DC however has had many flops. From Steel to Catwoman to Supergirl to Superman 3 & 4 to recent disappointments like Green Lantern and the Spirit, DC hasn’t had the best of luck with their secondary characters. But one thing that DC has going for it that fewer people know about is their amazing animation department. For the past several years, DC Animation has been cranking out some fantastic direct-to-DVD animated movies led by the talented Bruce Timm who was famously behind Batman: The Animated Series. The quality of these movies is generally very high, with great animation, great stories, and great voice acting. But the question is, why don’t they make one into a theatrical feature film?
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 