Filmwhys #37 When Harry Met Sally… and Batman Begins
Welcome back to another episode of Filmwhys starting off my first event here on the show. For the next five weeks I’ll be taking a look at plenty of Batman, and what better place to start then at the beginning. At least the beginning of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. My guest is Jess from French Toast Sunday who asks me why I haven’t seen the classic romantic comedy for people who don’t necessarily like romantic comedies When Harry Met Sally… and in return I ask her why she hasn’t seen the beginning of Christopher Nolan’s epic Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman Begins.
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Superhero Shorts: Super Zero
It seems like it’s been a little while since my last installment of Superhero Shorts, where I take a look at a superhero themed short film and ask a few questions of the creator. But I’ve got a couple for you here in the near future starting off with Super Zero here today from writer/director Mitch Cohen where he takes the zombie apocalypse and throws in a schlubby gamer geek with a knack for gadgets and brain cancer who ends up being a Bad-Ass Zombie slaying superhero. As usual, you can watch the short below, or you can visit Mitch’s YouTube channel.
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Sin City
Sin City 2005
After hearing the reviews for the disappointing sequel Sin City: A Dame To Kill For I had decided to wait to revisit the original movie until after seeing it for myself. I thought that doing it this way around would remind myself of how good it could have been rather than setting myself up for disappointment. And in that respect it worked exactly the way I hoped it would. There are still a handful of issues that I noticed in the sequel that were also present in the original, but for the most part, the original still holds up almost 10 years later while the sequel is the one that feels dated. I don’t specifically remember seeing this when it was originally in theaters. I was a fan of Robert Rodgriguez from Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn but knew nothing about the Sin City books. But I liked it enough to get the three disc DVD edition that has a version where you can see the four stories individually and extended. It also came with a mini reprint of the comics used in the movie so you can see how visually similar they ended up being. There’s just something about this movie that can be felt, the actors are better, the cinematography is better, there’s just a more intense feeling that everyone involved knew they were doing something different. This was an experiment in filmmaking, the digital cameras were fresh. Rodgriguez was able to change up his style of directing, letting the cameras roll continuously and let the takes flow naturally. There was just an unspoken buzz in the air that can still be felt, something that was absent in A Dame to Kill For.
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Filmwhys #36 Goldfinger and The Iron Giant
Apologies for the brief lack of posts here this week, things have been rather busy at home and I while I was able to watch several movies for a couple podcasts and a review, I haven’t been able to sit down for long periods of time to do the important parts: writing and editing. But here is Episode 36 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Chris Ramey from AfterCredits who asks me why I haven’t seen Goldfinger, one of the most iconic classic James Bond films starring Sean Connery. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen the Iron Giant, Brad Bird’s modern classic and underappreciated gem of an animated film made before he went on to do the Incredibles for Pixar.
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Santo vs. Las Mujeres Vampiro
Santo vs. Las Mujeres Vampiro aka Samson vs. the Vampire Women 1962
It’s probably not too surprising that I occasionally bite off a little bit more than I can chew. And/or I am a very absent minded person and will easily forget things if I get distract- Squirrel! A few weeks ago, I agreed to take part in a blogathon hosted by Movies Silently called Accidentally Hilarious where bloggers would take a look at classic bad films that are so bad they are hilarious even though they were never intended to be comedies. There wasn’t a lot for me to choose from, and many of those early superhero films are hard to find, or are Batman which is an intentional comedy and also is just one year after the cutoff date of 1965. So I chose this film which is part of a long line of Santo films. This one is probably the most famous of them as it’s one of the only ones that got an English language dub and was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Santo is a Luchador superhero who may or may not actually have superhuman strength, but does occasionally battle supernatural forces of evil. I’m not sure if I’ll go back and check out other Santo movies, especially after watching this one. And while I did watch the English dub of this movie where he is constantly referred to as Samson, I will be referring to him as his original Spanish name, Santo.
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Filmwhys Extra #14 Interview with Garrett Gilchrist
Episode 14 of Filmwhys Extra where my guest is Garrett Gilchrist from Orange Cow Productions, The Thief Archive on YouTube, and many other places. We talk about his She-Hulk fan film that he worked on back in 2007 but mostly talk about Richard Williams’ grand, unfinished animated film the Thief and the Cobbler which has a fascinating history behind it and Garrett’s involvement in restoring the film to as close as Williams’ vision as possible.
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The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant 1999
I don’t remember the first time I found out about the Iron Giant. I know it wasn’t in theaters, I wasn’t one of those lucky few that caught it during its brief and relatively unsuccessful theatrical run. I don’t remember if I went back to it after watching Brad Bird’s later feature the Incredibles or if I just happened across it on TV or a random video rental trip. I always thought it was an interesting look that called up the retro 50’s style and the film itself is actually set during that time as well. It was also a movie that I didn’t initially consider as a superhero movie, but when I did my final poll for the 100 Essential Superhero Movies I included it and it nabbed the second spot, which is likely more a testament to the quality of the movie than to its place as a superhero movie. There are definitely superhero elements; this is an origin story of sorts, the Iron Giant himself has more than enough super powers, and at the end of the day he uses Superman himself as inspiration to save an entire town. I will do my best for this to not just be a gush fest, but it will be tough as this is one of my favorite movies and it’s a shame that it has taken me this long to get around to reviewing it here.
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Saturday Morning Memories
I realized that it feels like it’s been a while since I wrote a more casual blog post here, it’s been all movie reviews, podcasts, and lists. Since it is Saturday morning right now, I thought it would be nostalgic for me to go through some of my Saturday Morning superhero memories of some of the cartoons that I liked to watch when I was younger. And while I am calling this Saturday Morning Memories, I certainly don’t remember the difference between which cartoons actually came on during Saturday morning and which came on during the after school block. I grew up in the 80’s, but I did continue to have a love of cartoons through my teenage years so I will be covering some of those 90’s cartoons as well.
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 2014
There’s one thing that I’ve been enjoying about 2014 that I did not enjoy about 2013. Even though there have been roughly the same number of superhero and comic book movies, last year they were all packed into the 3 or 4 months of summer, while this year they have been spread out to mostly 1 or 2 a month. August has been the biggest month with three theatrical movies, and the rest of the year is pretty wide open with only the limited release Birdman, the graphic novel adaptation The Scribbler, and the first Disney/Marvel animated collaboration Big Hero 6. To date, I have only missed a couple theatrical movies including this one. It’s actually surprising because if you would have asked me last year, this would have probably been number two on my most anticipated list behind X-Men: Days of Future Past. But as I learned more about the movie from the trailers and the early reviews I decided not to take the time out of my busy schedule to go see it and instead waited until I could watch it at home. Ultimately, I think that was the best decision for me to make because when all was said and done, this is my second disappointment of the year next to Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t nearly on the same level as that movie, there is still plenty of fun to be had here, and some great action beats. The problem is that it tried to combine too many characters and interconnected sub plots that just made it too confusing. It isn’t a Spider-Man 3 debacle, but it’s a far cry from the other movies. And finally I will give a quick spoiler warning as I will be mentioning a significant plot point from the end of the movie.
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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 2007
I can honestly say that I don’t remember much about the release of this movie. I was a fan of the first Fantastic Four and I was looking forward to seeing what happened with the sequel. I was glad that they were bringing in the Silver Surfer and Galactus even though I had heard that they had turned him into a giant cloud. I don’t remember if I knew about the minor controversy with Doug Jones doing the motion capture and speaking role during production, but replaced by Laurence Fishburne’s voice afterwards. It came after a middle of the road movie and featured one of the most popular characters from the Fantastic Four, but it failed to generate enough interest and barely cleared its budget domestically. I still consider the first movie to be a guilty pleasure of mine and I expected more of the same out of the sequel. And while there is still some of that fun charm that I enjoyed in the first movie, it ends up working against itself more often than not. And on top of everything else, it fails at way too many of the necessary superhero tropes. There’s a weak villain, a weak climax, and a sacrifice that neither had weight nor real impact.
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