Blog Archives
Superhero Shorts: Marvel Zombies: The Movie
Welcome back to another edition of Superhero Shorts, where each time I showcase a superhero themed short film and have a brief talk with the creator. This week I’m talking with Jim Ojala and his teaser trailer based on the popular run of the Marvel Zombies storyline where most of the Marvel superheroes had been turned into zombies and ended up attacking and killing those who they were trying to protect. I’ve kind of been wanting to do something horror themed, and as there isn’t always a lot of horror/superhero crossover, I thought this was a great choice. As usual, you can watch it below, or you can view it on Jim Ojala’s YouTube channel, and you can also visit his official website to see some of his other work and what he is currently working on.
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Superhero Shorts: Wonder Woman
Welcome to another edition of Superhero Shorts, where I feature a superhero themed short film and ask a few questions of its creator. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long ago since I featured Jesse V. Johnson’s version of Wonder Woman, but this time around Rainfall films with co-owner and director Sam Balcomb shows us his action packed take on Wonder Woman. As usual, you can watch the short below, or you can visit Rainfall film’s official site where it is currently featured on their main page, or you can visit their YouTube channel.
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Dredd
Dredd 2012
I’m not entirely sure how I ended up missing this movie last year, along with pretty much everyone else that missed this movie during it’s fairly poor theatrical run. I did actually watch it earlier this year before watching the Stallone Judge Dredd but I decided not to review it mainly because I watched it on my small laptop and the visuals, especially the slomo visuals were something that the little screen couldn’t appropriately capture. So instead I waited until I got around to watching it on my bigger screen TV so I could more appropriately judge the movie on the ever-important visuals and I was happily willing to watch it due to the interesting plot and characters. It is a far cry from the Stallone feature, both in quality of special effects, as well as the overall tone and level of violence. It is a very violent and bloody movie along the lines of what could be a Punisher movie, but it’s generally never excessive or reveling in the gore. And more to the point, especially for fans of the original character Dredd: he never takes off his helmet.
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Filmwhys #16 North by Northwest and Persepolis
I’m back once again with another episode of Filmwhys, aka the Why Haven’t You Seen This Film Podcast. This week my guest is Pat McDonnell of 100 Years of Movies who asks me the question why haven’t I seen North by Northwest, Hitchcock’s classic Cary Grant movie featuring the famous scene of him being chased by a cropduster in the middle of an open field. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen the animated graphic novel adaptation of Marjan Satrapi’s autobiographical Persepolis where she follows her early life living in Iran during a revolution and a war and the oppression of the Islamic Fundamentalists while she is an outspoken woman who eventually flees to spend time in France.
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Batman: Gotham Knight
Batman: Gotham Knight 2008
It had been a long time since I visited this movie so I figured it was overdue for a revisit. Gotham Knight is one of the more unique entries in the DC Animation canon. It’s an anthology consisting of several short films loosely tied together and all featuring Batman in one way or another. While they did try this again later on with Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, this one is done by different anime directors with very different styles while Emerald Knights all shared the same style as they were done by a single director within DC Animation. While there are a few high points, and a few weak spots, overall it’s quite enjoyable and Batman generally translates quite well to an Anime style. The only thing I don’t think translated quite as well is that Bruce Wayne is generally shown in a Bishounen style, as in he has a more effeminate look to him which is very different from the very masculine style in western animation and comics. But aside from that, it was an enjoyable movie and a welcome departure from the traditional animation style without going too far into typical Anime philosophizing and introspection that plagued the recent Iron Man anime Rise of Technovore.
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Persepolis
Persepolis 2007
While I still have plenty of straight up superhero movies to go, I thought it was a good idea to branch out into non-superhero movies based on graphic novels. And of course, this black and white, animated tale of the life of an Iranian woman living through a revolution and a war, dealing with prejudice at home and in France, was originally a graphic novel by the same name. Even though it’s in black and white, the animation is visually striking, not only that, but the story itself is very engaging. Not only does Marjan suffer through a lot of strife, but she also has plenty of moments of joy and is always surrounded by people who care about her. It’s a really great movie and well worth your time to watch.
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Filmwhys #15 Inception and Special
It’s time once again to ask the question why I haven’t seen some movie or another. This episode features someone I’ve been collaborating with for a while now, Terrence Faulkner over at The Focused Filmographer where each week we comment on the new movie posters. Today he asks me why I haven’t seen Inception if I’m such a fan of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, his epic and multilayered vision of a heist within a dreamscape. And in return, I ask him why he hasn’t seen Special, a low budget film about a parking enforcement officer named Les who joins a drug study only to have them give him the delusion of having super powers.
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Bounty Killer
Bounty Killer 2013
I was actually first made aware of this movie through a company that offered to allow my site to host a giveaway for the movie. I thought it looked like a lot of fun, had a couple recognizable names in it, and it was based on a graphic novel, so I decided I would give it a shot and I was not disappointed. It’s got great action, a great visual feel to it, and even a bit of T&A. There’s even some interesting twists and turns along the way to keep things interesting. The acting’s not going to win any awards, but that’s not surprising for this type of movie, it has a great grindhouse feel to it, but it’s much more stylish and sleek with either a decent sized budget, or someone who knows the right way to stretch a small budget. It looks great, sounds great, and I had a great time watching it.
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Special
Special 2006
It’s time once again for me to tackle this month’s obstruction for the 5 Obstructions Blogathon hosted by My Films Views. This month’s obstruction was deceptively simple: write a review that’s more than 1,250 words long, and if you want to go the extra mile write a review that’s over 2,000 words long. I try to average my reviews at about 1,000 words, I personally feel like if they’re much longer than that they are being too wordy and also fewer people want to read overly long reviews. I also thought about using this to go off on a bad movie, which is often easier to write about than a good movie. Instead I decided to take a closer look at a movie fewer people will have seen. I hope you enjoy and also be sure to check out some of the other entries in the blogathon.
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Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd 1995
I’ve been wanting to watch this movie for a while, ever since I watched the Judge Minty short even though I know it’s a far cry from the more serious tone of both the short and the recent Dredd movie with Karl Urban. What really made me want to watch it was watching Demolition Man which also starred Sylvester Stallone and had Rob Schneider in a small role, so I wanted to watch this movie with the small thought in mind that this is a future that takes place after Demolition Man, and in a lot of ways there are some similarities, but this is a very different movie than Demolition Man. I also went into this thinking that it was going to be a very bad schlockfest with Schneider hamming it up and Stallone giving a bad performance, and yet it’s not that nearly as much as I expected it to be. It’s actually a relatively good movie, but it has a poor script that doesn’t make good use of the characters, and it’s also notable for breaking one of the only things that I know about Judge Dredd the comic character: he never takes off his helmet, and yet Stallone takes his helmet off a mere 15 minutes into the movie and doesn’t put it back on again until the very end.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 