Blog Archives
Filmwhys Extra #19 Tales From the Crypt
I know Halloween is a few weeks passed, but I had a lot of fun re-watching the first four seasons of Tales From the Crypt and just had to discuss it with someone. So, episode 19 of Filmwhys Extra, my guest is Kristen Lopez from Journeys in Classic Film and we discuss the HBO series Tales From the Crypt. From our first experiences with the show to some of our favorites and some of our less favorites and even touch on the spin-off movies briefly.
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The Guyver
The Guyver 1991
I was always a relatively big fan of anime. I watched a lot of the anime films shown on cable in the 90’s as well as the cartoons and shows inspired by anime and Japanese shows. This movie reminded me a lot of those types of kids shows with a mix of Ultraman, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, and whatever else got in the mix. It also has a couple icons of TV and cinema, albeit for completely different reasons, as well as a small stable of horror regulars from both behind the camera and in front. The one thing this movie does well is a large number of creature effects including a small handful of amazing transformation. On the other hand, even though there are a few noted actors, there are plenty of amateurs and it definitely shows. There’s not a Troll 2 or the Room level of bad acting, but no one is winning any awards for their delivery here. There’s an overly complicated setup that makes very little sense when you get right down to it, and yet the whole thing is more or less supposed to be a comedy. While it did make me laugh out loud a small handful of times, it was often for the wrong reasons.
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Elektra
Elektra 2005
After the moderate success of Daredevil, Fox decided that instead of going ahead with a sequel they would instead make a spin-off movie based on what they thought was the most successful part of Daredevil, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra. Here, she is a full-on assassin who ends up caring about her next targets and decides to save them from the evil clan of ninjas called the Hand, she eventually battles against a group of supernaturally powered ninjas while protecting the treasure, which is similar in nature to the key from Buffy. And while Daredevil is considered a bad to ok movie with an ok to good director’s cut, Elektra is pretty much considered on of the many bad movies with a female superhero as the lead and performed dismally at the box office. I vaguely remember watching this in theaters when it came out because I was (and still am) a fan of the Daredevil movie and enjoyed it at the time. However there is probably a reason why I waited so long to revisit this movie as it did not hold up to my memory at all. I am now in agreement that this is a pretty awful movie with a small handful of redeeming qualities to it. I’m also not sure if an R-rated director’s cut could help redeem it in the same way that Daredevil’s did, nor do I think anyone is really clamoring for one.
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Big Hero 6
Big Hero 6 2014
Even though this was the last big superhero movie of 2014 that I had been looking forward to, the biggest reason why I wanted to see this movie in theaters is because of my daughter Jena and her 8th birthday this Saturday, November 8th. So that was the mindset I was in when I made it to the theaters to watch this latest Disney animated movie. In fact, I realized that even though I’ve had a pretty poor theatrical track record for the past several years, I had seen every Disney Animated movie in theaters since Wreck-it Ralph a couple years ago. There has become a finer line between the Disney animation studios, as the quality and subject matter between Disney Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and to a lesser extent the DisneyToon Studios with the likes of Wreck-it Ralph and Frozen being as good or better than Monsters University or Brave. So I was hopeful that the trend would continue with the first animated collaboration between Marvel and Disney. I have seen most of Marvel’s previous animated works and they were nothing special, and even though this movie doesn’t have any connection with the live action Marvel Cinematic Universe, I was still very excited to see it based on the trailers. I was hoping for a lot of laughs, a lot of action, and I had already heard that it had a lot of heart, and that’s exactly what I got from it. It’s true that it was fairly predictable even when it was trying to throw some twists out there, but it was still done well enough that I didn’t much care and just enjoyed the ride. Not only that, but Jena was there and completely on board for the whole ride as well. And as always here, I will be discussing the movie as a whole including any plot twists and reveals, so spoilers have been warned.
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Filmwhys Extra #18 The Scribbler Interview with John Suits
Filmwhys Extra episode 18 where I got the chance to talk to John Suits, the director of the recent comic book adaptation of the psychological thriller/mystery/superhero movie the Scribbler. We discuss the origins of the movie, some of the visual style, and plenty of other things so be sure to check out the movie on VOD now.
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V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta 2005
Remember, remember
the fifth of November
the gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
why the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot
It’s rare that either a superhero movie or a comic book movie would be the most well remembered for a line of poetry commemorating a holiday that’s not even celebrated in the US. And even though fans of this movie still probably don’t know exactly what it means to celebrate Guy Fawkes day, they still know the opening lines of that poem and likely no more of it other than vague references to Guy Fawkes and blowing up Parliament. There certainly isn’t mention of lines further down in the poem “A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, A penn’orth of cheese to choke him, A pint of beer to wash it down, And a jolly good fire to burn him.” Although the pope is never hung nor burned, there is a priest who is killed. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this movie, but it’s always stuck with me as being one of my favorites. This was the first work from the Wachowskis after the Matrix trilogy though they only wrote the movie and directed the climactic fight sequence. Even without their direction, it has a lot of visual style to it, so much so that I considered forgoing a written review altogether and just share a collection of the dozen or so screenshots that I took while watching the movie over the past couple nights.
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Guest Post: The Best Animated Heroes of 2014
It’s been a while since I’ve had a guest post here but I got a request a while back from someone who wanted to do an article on the best kid’s heroes. At the time, I was in the middle of my 100 Essential Superhero movies project so I declined back then. But with Big Hero 6 coming out this weekend, I thought it was a great time to take a look at some of the best heroes for kids that have come out this year, and so let me introduce you to Catherine Ross. She is a full-time stay-at-home-mum who believes learning should be enjoyable for young minds. An erstwhile elementary school teacher, Catherine loves coming up with creative ways through which kids can grasp the seemingly difficult concepts of learning easily. She believes that a ‘fun factor’ can go a long way in enhancing kids’ understanding and blogs at kidslearninggames.weebly.com/.
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Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November
It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve written a general blog post that wasn’t a review or a list. Most people who know comics or comic book movies, or are in the UK know that the 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Day. Here in the US, it’s not that important of a day outside of the fact that it is very prominent in the movie V for Vendetta. And it seems like more than any other movie, this is one that tends to get reviewed most often on or around the fifth of November. And, unsurprisingly I had also intended to watch and review this movie around this time for the past two years of writing on this site, and yet I have been unable to remember the fifth of November until this very year. Although I won’t be able to post my review tonight, I will be watching the film tonight.
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5 Films That Should Be Superhero Movies
There’s a couple movie releases that have been making the rounds on the festival circuit and have been slowly rolled out into wider releases that sound like they should be full-fledged superhero movies. So, I thought I would take a look back at a few more movies that should be superhero movies solely based on their titles. I don’t do a lot of parody posts here, but I do like playing around with photoshop so I thought I’d share with you what I think these movies should really be. Enjoy!
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Filmwhys #40 Modern Times and Elektra
Episode 40 of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest is Adam Portrais of the Hero Movie Podcast who is also a big superhero movie fan and discusses one each week on his own podcast. But he’s also a classic film fan and asks me why I haven’t seen Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last silent hurrah featuring his Little Tramp character at the end of the silent film era. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen Elektra, the less interesting Daredevil spinoff and one of the very few superhero movies featuring a female protagonist.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 