Blog Archives
First Impressions: Lammy Awards 2013 Best Genre Blog part 2
Ok, I went through all the action-oriented and foreign genre sites yesterday and now I’m back to finish up the rest of the Genre sites to see what I’m up against and share my thoughts with you. And remember, if you’re a Lamb member yourself, feel free to use these first impressions to help make your decision on what to vote for to make the final nominees for this year’s Lammy awards.
First Impressions: Lammy Awards 2013 Genre Blogs part 1
I did this last year with the other 5 horror and sci-fi sites I was up against, and this year things are done a little bit differently. The category has been split up into horror and an all-encompassing “genre” category. I was, and still am, in favor of this change because there are so many sites out there that focus on a specific genre of movies that might not work in any other category. There’s also an extra narrowing down of the field of blogs. Now instead of going from the entire Lamb database down to the 5-10 nominees, the field is narrowed down to eligible sites either through their own inclusion, or the inclusion of others. So again, I’ll be checking out all the sites in my category and sharing my first impressions. This will be a little more interesting due to the fact that the genres are so wildly encompassing, but I will try to group them as best as I can. Some of the things that I found myself looking at were: frequency of updates, ease of finding an actual movie review within the genre, overall feel of the site, and as a matter of curiosity: if they include a link back to the Lamb site or not. While linking back to the Lamb isn’t a very big factor in getting my nomination, if it’s a close tie between two sites, linking back to the Lamb could push them over the edge.
Follow Friday: Marked Movies
Welcome to the long awaited return of Follow Friday, where each time I feature and interview a fellow blogger and follow their suggestion to another blog to feature next time. 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. Way back when I last had one of these, Morgan from Morgan on Media directed me to Mark Walker’s site Marked Movies
The Curse of Three
The Curse of Three
aka Why is the Third Superhero Movie the Worst?
Sequels have long been a sure sign of a bad movie. Take an existing popular movie, try it again and see lightning strikes twice. Most of the time it didn’t. Then somewhere along the line, maybe in the late 80’s early 90’s, filmmakers started making sequels that lived up to the original’s expectations. Or oftentimes in the case of superhero movies, exceeded them. Especially in superhero movies, once the origin story is out of the way, the sequel is the best place to get a good action filled story in. But then something else happened, it started with Superman III. Where the sequel was as good as the original, the third movie went way downhill in terms of plot, action, and just overall quality. Is it a curse, often times it doesn’t matter whether the third movie has a bigger budget or a smaller budget, the same people behind the scenes or new ones, they almost always end in crap. Is it a curse, and can it be broken?
Will a Superhero Movie Ever Win an Oscar?
aka Will a Superhero Movie Ever Win (another) (non-technical) Oscar?
The Superhero Movie has never really been thought of as Oscar material, it’s simple, light material without any depth or expert filmmaking involved. It’s easy to poke fun at a superhero movie because there are so many that win Razzies rather than Oscars, like Catwoman. But filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Bryan Singer can elevate typical superhero fare to something much more great. In fact, The Incredibles is the only superhero movie to win an award, but in the smaller animated category, Christopher Nolan is the only one out there that brought a non-technical win for Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight in a live action movie, though several years earlier Warren Beatty brought on a nomination for Al Pacino in his comic strip adaptation of Dick Tracy.
Is Blade really a superhero?
AKA are Vampire/Witch/etc hunters superheroes?
With Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters out this past weekend, I’ve been thinking about the role of the supernatural hunter in the superhero genre. The obvious example in favor of the argument is Blade. He’s part of the Marvel Universe right alongside Spider-Man and Iron Man, and yet if you look specifically at the movies, they’re pretty much straight up vampire hunter movies, without a trace of superhero in them. And for the purposes of this post, I’ll be lumping together vampires, werewolves, demons, and witches under the term supernatural hunter, since many of them follow the same kind of formula. So where does that leave other supernatural hunters in movies like Ultraviolet, Underworld, Vampire Hunter D, or even Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters? That’s what I’d like to figure out.
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Thanks for a wonderful 2012
Like many people, the holiday season has kept me busy, and away from the television for the most part. I’m currently taking in all of Watchmen for a hopefully epic post in the near future. I watched the theatrical version, and Tales from the Black Freighter, and plan to watch Under the Hood and hopefully the Ultimate Cut and some more special features before writing my post on it. But for now, I’ll join everyone else in taking a look back at what 2012 has brought me.
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Where I’ve been
As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been pretty absent for the past couple weeks. That’s because I’ve moved. It’s not a huge move, but I did cross state lines, going from near one big city to near an even bigger city. I’ve gone from just south of Indianapolis to the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. My job is still the same, though I’m not only working an extra 5-10 hours a week, but also my travel time has increased to 12 hours a week (up from just over 1 hour), this will actually be a help to this blog… when I actually get a laptop that works because I can watch movies and write reviews during my ride, but that’s not for a little while yet. So things will likely remain slow for a while until my work smooths over or I get a new laptop. My original goal of reviewing 100 movies this first year is very close and I’m not letting that fall by the wayside. So keep an eye out and things will hopefully soon get back to normal. And by the way, be sure to check out As You Watch Podcast episode 7, where Nick, Joe, and Vern bring in Andrew and Sarah from Two Tickets For… to sub for me as they talk about Woody Allen’s Match Point. Check it out, leave some feedback. They’re calling it the best episode ever, I’m not sure what that says about me 😉 Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Follow Friday: Morgan on Media
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 time. 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. Last time Le0pard13 of It Rains… You Get Wet led me back to Radiator Heaven so it allowed me to have my own choice, and I picked Morgan on Media.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 
Special Features, do you still watch them?
Dec 1
Posted by Bubbawheat
I remember when I first started getting into DVDs. I was never very much a VHS collector. When I was in college, I had a massive collection of 10 VHSs. My DVD collection numbers well over 1,000. If I can remember well enough, my VHS collection consisted of: Monty Python’s Holy Grail, Seven, Disturbing Behavior, The Nine Inch Nails music video collection, The Game, and a couple others I don’t remember. But when I first got my Fight Club DVD (I also remember at the time that the DVD came about a full 9 months or so before the VHS was due out) one of the things that intrigued me was the four commentaries and a full second disc of special features. I watched at least 3 out of 4 of the commentaries, and I quite possibly watched them all, I also explored most of the special features on the bonus disc. And from the very start, I was hooked. If there was a choice between a single disc release and a two disc release, I went with the extra special features. I own the 3 disc Hellboy: Director’s Cut, the 3 disc Sin City, all three of the four disc extended Lord of the Rings movies, the ultimate Matrix box set with a full 3 discs of special features… which brings me to the point of this post.
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Posted in Blogs
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Tags: Blog, commentary tracks, discussion, movies, special features