Blog Archives
Timecop: The Berlin Decision
Timecop: The Berlin Decision 2003
I don’t think I even knew that there was a sequel to Timecop until I started looking up information about the Jean Claude Van Damme version. It’s not surprising because it came out several years later, direct to video, with none of the same stars. Instead of Van Damme, we’re given Jason Scott Lee as yet another foreign lead and Timecop. And the villain this time around is also a member of a group trying to eliminate the Timecop program as a member of the Society for Historical Accuracy, or something like that. There is a bit of a problem with plot clarity, but there is quite a bit more questioning of the possibilities of time travel, including the beginning and titular scene where Brandon Miller seeks to kill Hitler while timecop Ryan Chan stops him in order to preserve the timeline in spite of any possibly positive repurcussions. I also noticed a surprisingly improved fight choreography, as Van Damme is a noted martial artist himself, though there are a few fight scenes that were better than anything from the first one.
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Are Awards Important if You Don’t Watch “Awards Movies”?
Recently another film critic was in the news, it seems that lately the only time that film critics get in the news is whenever they go out of their way to shine a negative light on film criticism, whether it’s calling 911 during an industry screening, or yelling vulgarities during an awards ceremony. I’m one who rarely pays attention to any of the awards shows. When I was younger, I used to always watch the MTV Movie Awards for a couple reasons. One was that it was almost always an entertaining show, and two was that the movies that were getting awarded were the movies that I was very aware of and if I hadn’t seen them, I had really wanted to see them. Now I don’t even bother with that awards show. Some time during this past year the conversation was brought up about watching all of the Academy Awards Best Pictures winners. Several people on Twitter were discussing how many they had seen, and when I counted up my tally, I had about half a dozen, and they were all also commercial blockbusters as well. So what is my point exactly? I’m not entirely sure, but there is definitely a disconnect between the general public, and most film critics, whether amateur bloggers or professional critics, and in my opinion most of the time the only difference between the two is one of the two gets a paycheck.
Filmwhys #21 The Seventh Seal and Batman: The Movie
Welcome to another episode of the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast where my guest John LaRue of The Droid You’re Looking For asks me why I haven’t seen The Seventh Seal, a classic Ingmar Bergman film with Max Von Sydow best known for the scenes where he is playing a game of chess with Death. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen Batman: The Movie, the classic theatrical production spun off of the first season of the campy TV show from the 60’s.
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Hentai Kamen
Hentai Kamen: Forbidden Superhero 2013
What better way to bring in the Christmas spirit than to talk about an asian movie about a superhero who wears a pair of panties as his superhero mask and dresses like Borat was way too modest. Really though, this is a superhero spoof movie that’s much better than the awful Superhero Movie while going through a lot of the same types of conflicts and story beats, except in every case it turns it into something so ridiculously sex-related that it becomes absolutely hilarious. I’m sure some people won’t get the joke, but I thought that the level of seriousness this movie treated a superhero with a pair of women’s panties on his face was just the right amount of absurdity and obscenity to make me laugh hysterically through most of this movie.
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Filmwhys #20 Double Indemnity and the Pumaman
Welcome to yet another episode of Filmwhys, aka the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast. I’m trying to get into a more regular schedule having a new episode up every two weeks on Saturday, and hopefully there’s something extra I’m working on coming in the new year. This episode my guest is Will from Exploding Helicopter who asks me why I haven’t seen Double Indemntiy, the great film noir thriller from the brilliant director Billy Wilder and in return I ask him why he hasn’t seen The Pumaman which doesn’t have quite as good of a pedigree, but was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s a so-bad-it’s-good movie with a low budget, cheesy acting, and a crazy plot.
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Legends of the Knight
Legends of the Knight 2014
It’s not so rare these days to find interesting projects looking for funding on Kickstarter, it is a bit more rare to find projects that actually catch my own personal interest. But when I heard about this project, I was happy to make it my first Kickstarter donation, giving $10 so I could get a digital download when it became available. This is a project by Brett Culp which takes a different look at Batman. It doesn’t look at the character himself, but instead takes a look at the impact that character has had on the world itself through a handful of people and their inspiring stories of how they take one part or another of Batman’s philosophy or his story as a whole and use it to improve their own lives and the lives of others. It is a documentary which takes a look at about a dozen people across the country who all have a strong connection to Batman in one way or another. Through a series of interviews and plenty of Batman artwork and children dressed up as Batman, we get to see a slice of these people’s lives and how Batman has made their lives better. You can view the trailer and find out more information at their official website.
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Is Marvel’s strategy a bad thing for superhero films?
The other day I came across an article whose argument was basically that the Avengers have ruined the Hollywood concept of a superhero movie. Essentially, the fact that all of the lead up movies to the Avengers were all connected-yet-separate and then there’s this big movie that tied them all together which became a huge thing. And now it’s happening everywhere. DC is doing it by bringing in Batman, Wonder Woman, and who knows who else in the second Man of Steel movie, Sony is doing it with Spider-man with two more sequels in the works and they just announced that their two spin off movies are about Venom and the Sinister Six. Even Fox is getting on board with The Wolverine teasing Days of Future Past which connects the First Class franchise to the first trilogy and have already announced Age of Apocalypse in 2016, not to mention the fact that they’re also supposedly tying the Fantastic Four into that universe somehow. The question is basically asking if the days of the stand-alone superhero movie are gone and these movies are becoming more like comic books, only a part of a much bigger whole that will only end when the money stops. Not only that, but it’s becoming the only model, and that’s a bad thing. Personally, I think it’s a good thing and for more reasons than just getting more superhero movies, which I’m all for too.
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The Wolverine
The Wolverine 2013
I’m one step closer to watching all of the 2013 superhero and comic book movies of 2013 and this is one that I’m really disappointed that I missed out on in theaters since I’m a big X-Men and Wolverine fan though I’m not about to do any sort of X-Men marathon again any time soon. This is Hugh Jackman’s sixth turn at playing Wolverine, at least if you count his brief cameo in First Class and at least three more on the way with Days of Future Past coming out next year, Apocalypse announced for 2016, and another solo Wolverine movie very likely it seems that Hugh Jackman will be playing Wolverine until he is too old to pull off the mostly ageless mutant. This time around he’s put in Japan which is part of his origin story though this movie has it take place after the events of The Last Stand. He is brought there so a business tycoon named Yashida who used to be a soldier and was saved by Logan at Nagasaki during the atomic bombing. He is now dying and offers Logan an opportunity to relinquish his healing abilities and die a natural death. Things expectedly go sideways and Logan is left to protect Yashida’s granddaughter named Mariko while his healing abilities have been taken from him. Reminding me a bit of 2 Guns, there’s some good character interactions but it’s mixed with a heavily convoluted plotline. And I’d also like to note that I did watch the unrated extended edition for this review.
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Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United
Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United 2013
It’s the start of December, nearing the end of 2013 and this is the last superhero movie release of the year. It’s also the first straight-to-video release from Marvel using CGI animation rather than the mix of traditional and CG that they’ve used for their past releases. It ends up looking much better than many of the cheap and/or old CGI cartoons of past home video releases and TV shows, but it’s still quite obviously far from the level of a theatrical release and the cheapness of the animation does show. It also felt like it’s aimed at a younger audience with a lot of humor that tends to focus more on slapstick and childish attitudes. Even the voice work has an air of cheapness that doesn’t quite capture the essence of either of the characters. There are some fun moments in the movie enough that I don’t regret watching it, but it really felt a lot more mediocre than I was expecting in more ways than one.
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Superhero Shorts: Punisher No Mercy
Superhero Shorts: Punisher No Mercy
Welcome to another edition of Superhero Shorts where I feature a superhero themed short film and ask a few questions from the filmmakers. This time around I’m talking with director Jason Ambrus and producer/writer/actor Shawn Baichoo and their Punisher short where he takes on a small group of mob bosses and also faces off against Elektra. As usual, you can watch it below or you can view it on their YouTube channel and you can also visit their Facebook page.
