Graphic Horror: 13 Sins
13 Sins 2014
I feel like I’ve been slacking off a little bit in the horror department this year, but I did manage to get this film in. It’s a bit of an oddity as it’s a remake of a Thai film called 13 Beloved or 13: Game of Death which itself is based on a short comic called 13th Quiz Show from a series called My Mania. It’s interesting that from what I can tell, any reference to the origins of the story isn’t present in the marketing or special features of this film. It’s ultimately a cross between a reality show, a little bit of Saw, and a little Falling Down. There are some interesting ideas presented along with a bit of a distracting conspiracy theory element and a couple half-hearted twists. But overall, the film was an interesting psychological thriller with a bit of gore for good measure, and not only that but a surprising amount of dark comedy spread throughout.
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Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders
Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders 2016
I was disappointed during the last theatrical event for one of these DC animated features because I had car trouble and wasn’t able to go. Even though I wasn’t quite as excited for this film as I was for Killing Joke I figured it would still be a fun time at the theater and I was right. I don’t really have a whole lot of experience with ’66 Batman aside from the one movie, but even with only having that little bit of background I could tell the amount of care that went into this animated feature. There were plenty of references to the rogue’s gallery from the show and it captured the feel of the original show while still tossing in plenty of jokes geared towards someone who is familiar with Batman lore at large, seemingly poking fun at the darker, more modern version of Batman while celebrating the joy and camp of the earlier days.
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Filmwhys #78 American Psycho and X-Men: First Class
The Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Heather Baxendale from the MILFcast otherwise known as the official Man, I Love Films Podcast who asks me why I hadn’t seen American Pscyho, one of the breakout roles for Christian Bale and a cult satire on 80’s business class society. An in return, I ask her why she hadn’t seen X-Men: First Class, the first reboot of the X-Men that took a look at a younger Xavier and Magneto with a stellar cast and Matthew Vaughn directing.
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Graphic Horror: The Chair
The Chair 2016
This is one of the few movie fundraisers that I actually contributed money to. At the time (and now, and always but that’s not important) I didn’t have enough spare cash to contribute more than the minimum $1, but dammit I helped! But since this is an independent feature and I am an independent movie reviewer, I managed to get a hold of the screener of this film to watch it early so I can review it here for you ahead of its release here in a couple weeks and you can search for a theatrical release at tugg.com or host one of your own. The film itself is based on an indie comic from the founder of an indie comics label called Alterna comics and from the beginning it owes much of its visual style to what you might think of when it comes to a horror comic. It’s a film that doesn’t make you feel comfortable during its brief run time, and I honestly believe that’s entirely intended. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, you can see the seams of its budget show through here and there, but for the most part, it’s an intense and riveting psychological and visceral horror.
Graphic Horror: The Curse of Sleeping Beauty
It’s already that time of year again. October means that it’s time for horror movies, and while I also try to fit some horror movies in March, I don’t have any other horror plans around so I figured I’d finish off the rest of my Graphic Horror list over at Letterboxd which I realized has hit 31 movies, one for every day. There are also a couple of new films that have come out this year and I’ll be starting with those before doubling back on some of the ones that I’ve missed until now. But I’m kicking things off with a movie that I actually watched a few weeks ago because my wife picked a random movie out on Netflix. I was looking it up online afterward and realized that it was based on a comic book which meant that I had to watch it again since I was only barely paying attention the first time around. As you might be able to guess, I wasn’t a very big fan of this movie the first time around, and while I did find a little bit more to appreciate the second time around it still has plenty of problems. And as this is a new movie I will mention that like always, I will be talking about this movie in full.
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Superhero Podcast Review: Jake and Tom Conquer the World
While I haven’t been watching as many movies lately, I’m still listening to just as many podcasts and finding new ones all the time. This is another case where I did a #PodernFamily search to see what came up, though I’ve interacted quite a few times with these guys on twitter before giving them a listen. It’s another instance where it’s a bit of a stretch to call them a “superhero podcast” but comics and superheroes appeared to be a significant part of at least half of their episodes so I went with it. And again, if you run or listen to a superhero podcast that I haven’t reviewed here yet, I’d love it if you shared it with me to review in a future installment with my grading of: Subscribe, Unsubscribe, or Selected Episodes. On to the review!
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Spaghettiman
Spaghettiman 2016
You’d think that when I told you that there’s a movie about a guy who develops incredibly weird super powers and is a bit of a schlubby roommate with his overweight friend that it’s also a movie unlike anything else I’ve seen. But when it comes to this site and the amount of indie movies I’ve seen, there are actually quite a few bizarre similarities. This is not the only movie I’ve seen where the hero as a main character has the power to shoot food out of his hands. This also isn’t the only low budget movie involving superheroes where two friends and roommates have a friendly-yet-contentious relationship with each other. This isn’t even the only movie I’ve seen that seems to have chosen a random word out of the dictionary and added “man” to the end. The point is, I’ve seen quite a few of these movies, and I’m not trying to say that any of them are copying off each other, I highly doubt that any two projects had ever even heard of each other. But I have, and when looking at them comparatively, this ends up falling somewhere in the middle of these quirky, low budget, superhero movie concepts.
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Filmwhys #77 Monster Squad and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
The Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Nolahn from The Lair of the Unwanted who asks me why I hadn’t seen Monster Squad, an 80’s family horror movie that’s somewhere along the lines of the Goonies meet the Universal Horror monsters. And in return, I ask him why he hadn’t seen Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, the first animated Batman movie spun off of the successful animated series and some could say the best Batman film of all time. You can also find Nolahn’s book: The Bargain Bin Review on Amazon.
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FTMN Quickie: X-Men: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut
X-Men: Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut 2015
While I haven’t made the time to watch the extended version of Batman vs Superman, I did manage to snag a copy of the Rogue Cut of Days of Future Past that I’ve been curious about ever since it was announced almost two years ago. Rogue has always been one of my favorite characters and I really enjoyed Days of Future Past so I was curious how much of an impact this change would have to the movie. I will say that ultimately it doesn’t make a significant impact in the overall story, there are a few scenes here and there and a couple extra jokes laced with some profanity that would have pushed the theatrical version just over the PG-13 limit, they don’t make a difference in the overall narrative, but it does answer just a few extra questions.
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Superhero Podcast Review: 3 Geeks Podcast
Welcome back to another round of my superhero podcast reviews. I’ve run out of suggestions and decided to pick one out of the hat using the hashtag #PodernFamily and picking the first podcast that came up that seemed to have a superhero angle to it. If you have any suggestions for a superhero podcast that you run or listen to, I’d love to hear it. There are a ton of superhero podcasts out there, but it feels a little weird to just pick one at random to review and give one of my three ratings to: Subscribed, Selected Episodes, or Unsubsribed. But anyway, here we go with today’s podcast.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 