Blog Archives
Captain America
Captain America 1979
There are only a small handful of Marvel movies that I have yet to watch, and they all happen to fall within the realm of the dark days of Marvel in the late 70’s when they first started shopping their properties around to other live action studios in order to make TV shows and TV movies. One of the first ones was the famous Incredible Hulk TV show with Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk and Bill Bixby as David Banner, and just one year after that came out, there was this attempt at turning Captain America into a similar television property just one year after a full slate of superhero television properties like the Six Million Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk. It started out with this introductory TV movie which aired in January and followed with a sequel that aired in two parts in November. Even though it’s called Captain America it barely resembled anything close to the Marvel comic, and changed nearly everything about his origin in order to help fit within a limited television budget. Not only that, but it barely made for an interesting TV movie regardless.
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Ant-Man
Ant-Man 2015
It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve gotten the chance to see a new release in theaters, and there have been a small handful of new releases that have come out on digital and home video in the past few weeks that I plan on visiting very soon. But Ant-Man initially felt like Marvel’s first risky venture. Arguably last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy was also considered a risk, but the hype leading up to the release along with all the trailers were exceedingly positive the entire way through. Here, the fan reaction has been hit or miss with all the promotional materials leading up to the release, not to mention the backlash when Edgar Wright dropped out as director shortly before filming. Considering that Marvel has essentially become its own machine, with a similar tone in all of its movies with variations falling more on the drama half of the equation, I went in with moderate expectations and I really enjoyed myself. It was almost as funny as Guardians of the Galaxy, though it did have a slightly different style of humor, and the action was also quite impressive considering it generally involves the hero becoming really small and back again.
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Book Nights: Overpowered
Overpowered by Mark Kruger
My track record with superhero novels has been hit or miss, but somehow I keep getting asked to review them. If only filmmakers or studio PR were this forthcoming. But after my very pleasant experience with The Heart Does Not Grow Back, I was offered another opportunity to review a superhero novel. Largely because it was the same people I happily accepted, and since the book was the second in a series they graciously included this one which was the start of this series. There have been a lot of films centered around young adult book series lately and I have seen very few of them, at first glance Overpowered with its young heroine Nica front and center seems like it might just be another blip in a sea of similar books. But I really enjoyed this story about a small town with a sinister secret, it had elements of Disturbing Behavior (in a good way) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and after I finished, I’m glad I’ve already got the second book ready to go.
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Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome 1947
And here we’ve come to the final film in the Dick Tracy theatrical run in the mid ’40s which came out in the very same year as the previous film Dick Tracy’s Dilemma which was released in July where this one was released in September. This means it’s also still relevant to the 1947 Blogathon which is still going on through today at least. It again has Ralph Byrd in the role of Dick Tracy but brings in Boris Karloff to play the heavy named Gruesome. This film also brings back quite a bit of the humor and quirkiness present in the first two films to end on a high note. And, like the last three it is currently available to watch via Hulu. It’s well worth the still quite short sixty-odd minute runtime.
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Dick Tracy’s Dilemma
Dick Tracy’s Dilemma 1947
Over halfway through these Dick Tracy films I’ve finally hit the first of two released in 1947 which fit in with a certain 1947 blogathon going on. Dick Tracy’s Dilemma interestingly keeps much of the supporting cast of the first two films. But replaces Morgan Conway’s Dick Tracy with Ralph Byrd who actually was the original Dick Tracy in the earlier serials. With the change in leads came a slight change in tone, where Dick Tracy vs Cueball has been the lightest of the three films so far, this one would be the most serious in tone as well as the most suspenseful. Even with the more serious tone, it was still an overall fun watch with enough comic relief from the side characters to help lighten the overall tone.
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Dick Tracy vs Cueball
Dick Tracy vs Cueball 1946
I’m continuing my journey through the four feature length Dick Tracy films of the mid ’40’s with the second installment. Most of the cast of heroes return, and even a minor actor from the last movie returns in a different role to die yet again in this film. Compared to the last one, this has a lot more fun with the concept with several more very over the top characters along with a slightly deeper cat and mouse mystery aspect with some of the major players. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the first Dick Tracy film, and once again it can be found to watch on Hulu.
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Dick Tracy, Detective
Dick Tracy, Detective 1945
Getting ready for the 1947 blogathon later this week I decided to jump in and go all the way back to 1945 with the only comic related heroes in film back then outside of serials with Dick Tracy. There were a total of four Dick Tracy films released within a few years of each other. As far as my knowledge of Dick Tracy goes, it really begins and ends with the 1990 film starring Warren Beatty. This film starts out with many of the iconic Tracy villains in cartoon form alongside the credits, but once things get going it is much more of a typical noir mystery thriller with some comic relief. I was actually quite surprised at how well some of the humor hit me and all in all it was a fairly decent not to mention that it was only about an hour long and to top it off, it’s available right on Hulu right along with the other three.
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American Splendor
American Splendor 2003
Before I decided to watch this film I didn’t really know much about it. I knew it starred Paul Giamatti playing a bit of an average schlub, and that it was based on an indie comic book. But aside from that I knew nothing else. Watching the film I found it to be completely fascinating and unique. To try and explain it, it’s an adaptation of a mostly autobiographical comic book that combines dramatizations with actors as well as brief interviews with the actual author and some animated flourishes. I had never really heard the name Harvey Pekar before watching this even though I was vaguely aware of the name American Splendor. I found that while watching the film I was completely drawn to this very average and somewhat depressed guy and his story of his minor success. It was funny, it was touching in moments, but most of all it just felt very real.
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Hulk vs. Thor
Hulk vs. Thor 2009
As you may or may not know, before Marvel Studios went on to make the first Iron Man film and start its path towards complete box office domination, they cut a deal with Lions Gate Films to make a large handful of animated films based on several different characters. This was a mini double feature produced towards the end of their run and the last ones that I have yet to review, though I do remember watching them around the time that they came out. It’s a title that makes sense on a surface level, one of the biggest things that any comic book fan comes around to at one point or another is the question “who would win in a fight?” and then proceeds to pit two characters up against each other in an imaginary battle. It’s also something that tends to happen every now and then within the comics themselves, so it makes sense that they would pit the Hulk up against two of the most powerful and popular Marvel heroes to see who would win. Today I’m taking a look at the fight between Hulk and Thor. Unfortunately, it’s not the battle royale that one might have expected, instead it’s a bit of a let down similar to the last big pay-per-view boxing event.
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Weird Science
Weird Science 1985
As things continue to slow down here despite my repeated assurances of getting back on track I have managed to watch another comic book film. I had seen this film when I was younger alongside several of John Hughes’ 80’s classics, I also became a fan of the Tales From the Crypt series several years later, and I also realized that there were several different variations of the Tales From the Crypt comic book including “Weird Science”, but I never made the connection that this was inspired by one of those EC comics until recently. I even remember watching the spin-off TV series for a while with Vanessa Angel replacing Kelly LeBrock. I do remember it being one of those early 80’s movies where computers can basically do anything even though 30 years later they’re still mostly just used for looking at cat pictures and writing about movies. While it was a fun nostalgia trip, I can say that it didn’t really hold up as being that impressive of a movie outside of Kelly LeBrock’s 80’s hotness.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 