FTMN Quickie: Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition
Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition 2016
Once again my movie viewing was decided via a Twitter poll which resulted in the mixed bag of revisiting the epic superhero film of the year made even more epic-er with about 30 minutes of footage so it now clocks in at just over three hours. Now, if you recall my original review for Batman vs Superman, I’m not one of the haters of this film, I thought it was just fine and I have been fully expecting that this extended cut makes some improvements. It’s just so difficult for me to put three hours into a movie, especially when I know that it’s just for one of these two paragraph quickie reviews looking specifically at an alternate cut of a film that I’ve already reviewed. But I did split the viewing up over about three nights and I did still like more than I didn’t like. But boy did those moments I didn’t like stick out like a sore thumb even more this time around. Is the Ultimate Cut really the best way to view this movie? A loose maybe is really the best I can do for that question right now.
Monkeybone
Monkeybone 2001
While I did put up another poll on Twitter for the movie that I should watch & review next, I haven’t had time to fit in the 3 hour cut of Batman v Superman just yet. So in the meantime, I had a little bit of time the other night and decided to toss on this film which is currently streaming on Netflix. It’s a movie that I had watched many years ago because I’m a fan of weird animation and dark fantasy movies. I remember generally liking this film, but never had a real desire to revisit it or own it. Watching it again now, I really appreciate plenty of the visuals and designs on the fantasy world, but the overarching story that drives the plot forward leaves a lot to be desired, especially everything that happens in the real world.
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Filmwhys #82 A Few Good Men and Weird Science
The Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Jeremy Fogelman, contributor to Hotchka.com and co-host of the podcast Nerd Punches Nerd who asks me why I hadn’t seen A Few Good Men, one of the great classic courtroom movies from the high point of Rob Reiner’s directorial career with one of the greatest lines in cinema history. And in return, I ask him why he hadn’t seen Weird Science, one of the classic 80’s teen comedies from John Hughes which was based on a story from an EC Comic.
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Robocop 2
Robocop 2 1990
It’s true that I don’t always go with the flow the way it was meant to be, though the last time I really remember doing this in terms of this site was way back during the first year when I watched the three Spider-Man films backwards so I could compare the original Spider-Man right against the reboot Amazing Spider-Man. This time is was mostly a case of laziness considering that I already owned Robocop 3 and it was sitting right in front of me even though I hadn’t seen Robocop 2 before. And I was completely right in thinking that it didn’t matter as the three movies have very little to do with each other in terms of continuity, they merely tell three different stories with several of the same characters. The original is important to have seen to set up the characters, but once you’ve got that, you’re gravy. This is also notable to have been directed by Ivan Kirshner who is most well known as the director of the Empire Strikes Back, widely considered to be the best Star Wars movie. The film itself falls somewhere between the ultra-violence and satire of the original and the pandering-to-the-audience comedy and low budget of the third.
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Surrogates
Surrogates 2009
Without any real clear direction that I wanted to take for the rest of this year, I decided that I would work on clearing out the mini backlog of movies that I’ve purchased over the past several months and even years that I keep putting off for one reason or another. I also put four movies up on a Twitter poll and even though there were only a few votes, this film won. Surrogates was barely a blip on the radar for me, it came out against Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and also when my daughter was 2 and we weren’t going out to the theaters any time soon. It was a moderately high-budgeted movie that flopped here in the US, but ultimately made a small profit when including its worldwide gross. It’s got a fascinating concept and does a lot to build this slightly futuristic world, but then it gets bogged down by the action and falls flat on its face with an oversimplified ending.
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Filmwhys #81 In the Mouth of Madness and Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned
The Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Rilla previously from Soiled Restroom Cinema who asks me why I hadn’t seen In the Mouth of Madness, one of John Carpenter’s lesser known films that combines the cult status of author Stephen King with the imagery from H.P. Lovecraft. And in return, I ask her why she hadn’t seen Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned, a low budget, made-for-TV anime from the 80’s based on a Marvel comic version of Dracula that crams about a dozen story arcs into an hour and a half movie.
Robocop 3
Robocop 3 1993
I’ve been feeling rather indecisive as to what direction I wanted to take next on this site. I still have a small handful of relatively good, or at least mediocre and well known comic book movies that I still need to get around to and a whole lot of dreck. So I decided to make a little Twitter poll with a couple good movies, a bad movie, and an oddity to see what won out. It shouldn’t have come to much surprise that this is the film that won. And despite the fact that I have yet to see Robocop 2, I was certain that it didn’t matter. It also helped that I had the DVD sitting in front of me from a clearance bin I picked up months ago. I am a big fan of the original Robocop, but I’ve never really given much thought to the sequels. I was a little surprised to see that this was rated PG-13, and even more surprised considering it still had a fair amount of blood and swearing, just toned down from the levels seen in the original. It had a scant few impressive moments, and notably more laughably bad moments. It really just lost sight of what made Robocop an interesting property in the first place in return for a failed attempt at marketing towards a younger audience. But one of the more interesting things about this film, especially coming from this site, is that comic book writer Frank Miller co-wrote this film (as well as the second).
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Crimson
Crimson 2013
I’m always on the lookout for superhero and comic book movies, especially some of the more obscure ones. But it still came as a surprise when I was looking through the DVD section of my library in a relatively small suburb of Chicago when I happened to see a DVD that caught my eye for this film. It surprised me even more when I looked it up on IMDB and saw that it only had 13 user ratings which made me wonder how it ended up in this library in the first place. But less surprisingly was that it was an ultra low budget film along the lines of something like Captain Battle or the Amazing Bulk, only with surprisingly lower production values, acting, or much of anything else.
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Superhero Podcast Review: Talk From Superheroes
I missed the schedule for the last one of these two weeks ago due to the fact that I had a week off of work and that’s when I typically listen to podcasts. I did manage to listen to a few over that week, but I didn’t get around to listening to at least 3 episodes of this podcast which I planned on reviewing which is the minimum that I listen to for this series. But I have managed to listen to a few more episodes and so it’s time for another Superhero Podcast Review where I check out a superhero podcast and give it one of three ratings: Subscribe, Selected Episodes, or Unsubscribe. And I’m always looking for new ones out there so if you host, or know of a superhero podcast that I haven’t covered here, let me know about it and it may end up on the next edition.
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Sketched Out on TV – a New Podcast
Hey readers, I just wanted to do a quick post to share a new podcast project that I’ve been working on for quite a while now. While it’s not entirely connected to superhero movies, the first episode does have a nice little superhero connection. I’ve joined forces with a co-host Chris Revill of Let’s Chat with Revill and Friends to discuss sketch comedy shows, something that I’ve loved just as long as my love of superhero movies and TV shows. Each episode we’ll be discussing a different sketch comedy TV show and will specifically be looking at a single sketch from the show. There are currently two episodes available to listen to now and we will be submitting to iTunes after the next episode drops. Click here to subscribe and/or listen to all the available episodes. In episode 1 we discuss the big one, Saturday Night Live, specifically when the Rock first hosted in 2000 and played Clark Kent in one of the sketches. And in episode 2 we discuss Mr. Show with Bob and David, specifically the Thrilling Miracles sketch from the second season with super pan. I hope you’ll listen and subscribe. Feedback can be sent to SketchedOutOnTV@gmail.com, you can follow us on Twitter @SketchedOutOnTV and if you have any suggestions for sketch comedy shows we should check out, be sure to let us know!
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 