Blog Archives
Moonwalker
Moonwalker 1988
If you’ve never heard of this movie, you may very well be wondering why I’m reviewing a movie featuring Michael Jackson and a bunch of music videos that wasn’t even released in theaters. And I have a few reasons for you. The biggest reason is that in this movie, Michael Jackson sees himself as a superhero plain and simple. Another reason is that in my memory I think I had played up the superhero portion of this movie more than it actually was. And as for why I’m reviewing a direct-to-video movie? Kudos on knowing this site well enough that you read my initial list of movies. When I started this site, the plan was to watch and review at least 100 theatrically released superhero movies this year. In the past few months working on this site, I’ve expanded my focus. I’m posting something seven times a week, including three movie reviews. I want to keep doing this past just the first year, but I also don’t want to waste all the good movies too soon. So over the next few months I’ll be reviewing more straight to video movies including many of the well-made animated movies from Marvel and DC. I’ll also at some point be adding reviews for more heroic movies that aren’t quite superhero movies, like fantasy or sci-fi movies under the heading “Almost Super”. But I think this movie qualifies as a cheesy superhero movie, if only just barely. It’s definitely got the cheese portion covered.
Masters of the Universe
Masters of the Universe 1987
First off, I’d like to thank everyone who voted in my poll, it was a very close race but in the end most of you wanted to see me review some classic cheesy superhero movies. I’m not sure if some of you wanted to torture me with bad movies, or if you are more like myself and actually enjoy watching these low budget (or in some cases high budget) over the top cheesy superhero flicks. I have a lot to choose from but I went with a movie that was actually on the list of 33 of the worst superhero movies ever made. Of course, it wasn’t one of the movies that I chose because I enjoyed it a lot when I was younger, and ever since it was mentioned, I’ve been dying to watch it again. It’s got Dolph Lundgren as a guy who never wears a shirt, playing a character who usually only wields a sword, and yet he manages to grab as many huge laser guns as he can get a hold of. It’s got the great Billy Barty playing comic relief, and it’s Courtney Cox’s feature film debut. And yet it takes itself so seriously that you just have to get wrapped up in it all, and for the first time in quite a while, Jena actually sat with us and was invested during the entire movie. She cheered for He-Man and booed Skeletor, saying she hated “the stupid skeleton guy” and that she would “break his bones”. It was great seeing her get so worked up.
The Avengers
The Avengers 2012
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen and read a dozen reviews of The Avengers already. This is one of them. I probably won’t say anything you haven’t already heard before but at least I’ve watched over 40 superhero movies already this year so while I may not be an expert, I may see things at a slightly different angle having seen so many similar movies. But let me just cut to the point here, it was awesome. It was better than any of the Marvel lead ups and while it may not have taken the top spot for my favorite superhero movie of all time, it’s definitely made it into the top 10. But first let me do a quick rundown in case you haven’t actually seen the Avengers yet and would rather pick one or two out of the five lead-in movies to watch first to prepare. If you want more information about the Tesseract, the big blue macguffin that everyone is after then watch Captain America to see what it’s capable of. If you want to learn more about the main villain of the movie, watch Thor to learn why he’s doing what he’s doing, and you also get a hint of the aliens in the universe even if it’s not the exact same ones. If you want to see more from S.H.I.E.L.D., watch Iron Man 2 to see how they began preparing for the Avengers Initiative and a hint of what Black Widow is capable of.
Thor
Thor 2011
I’ve finally gotten to my last pre-Avengers movie, although I did technically cheat a little in my watching order, I just couldn’t wait and I saw the Avengers already. But since I want to keep my schedule going, I am reviewing Thor first and the Avengers will have to wait until Tuesday. I am also doing a slight schedule change and posting my blog topic for the week on Wednesdays now for a full seven day schedule. This may change in the future if I feel that reviewing three movies a week is a bit much for me but we’ll just have to see how it goes for now. Back to Thor, I was never a big fan of Thor, he never really showed up in any of the cartoons I watched when I was younger except maybe in an episode or two of Spider-Man or Iron Man but none that I remember. So watching this movie when it came out on DVD last year was really my first introduction to the character outside of a couple things. I knew that his hammer could only be picked up by someone who is worthy enough to wield it, and I knew he was essentially based on Norse mythology.
Superhero Shorts: Blinky Productions
Superhero Shorts: Blinky Productions
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week is a double feature from prolific fan-film creator Chris Notarile of Blinky Productions. He has created dozens of fan films of superheroes such as The Punisher, The Question, The Shadow, Power-Girl, the Joker, and many more. He’s also created many horror fan films as well as full length original horror films. Today I’ll be looking at two of his films, The Protector and Punisher ’79 which you can watch right below.
Follow Friday: At the Back
Welcome to the first weekly edition of Follow Fridays. I decided to do a Follow Friday for a couple reasons, one: I never click on anyone’s blogrolls, and two: I think my blogroll widget did something to cause my posts to miss their schedules. I also liked the way that both the Lamb and Fog’s Movie Reviews feature other blogs in their own post rather than just an easily overlooked sidebar. Now of course, I couldn’t just steal another idea without adding my own little spin to it, so I decided to carry on my Superhero Shorts idea of interviewing the creators of the blogs I feature, and let them choose the blog to feature for next Friday. And my first pick goes to At The Back.
Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2 2010
I think it’s kind of funny that right after putting up a poll and a blog discussing spoilers I watch a movie that was not spoiled to me in any way shape or form. Here is everything I knew about Iron Man 2 before watching it: Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard as Rhodie and he gets to pilot his War Machine suit. Black Widow makes an extended appearance in this movie. Whiplash is the main villain played by Mickey Rourke. And that’s it. I had an inkling about the role of Tony’s father, I had no idea Nick Fury played such a big role, and also had no idea about the subplot about him being slowly killed by the use of his arc reactor core. So everything going into this movie was a big surprise and I must say a delight. I can’t say right now if the sequel is better or worse than the original, but it’s absolutely on par with it.
Iron Man
Iron Man 2008
After watching the two Hulk movies that left something to be desired, I was ready to move on to an Avenger that had it all: Great characters, great plot, great action, great everything. I’m talking about Iron Man, the first movie released as part of the Avengers Initiative and arguably the best of the bunch. Disappointingly once again, Jena was disinterested in this movie and I hope it doesn’t extend to when we watch the Avengers in theaters because I’d prefer to not have that experience and everyone else’s around us ruined by an unruly five year old. I’ve heard mixed things about Iron Man 2 so I’m not sure what to expect next, but for now at least, I had a great time with this movie.
Superhero Shorts: The Hillywood Show
Superhero Shorts: Dark Knight by The Hillywood Show
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week is from a YouTube channel that my wife really enjoys called The Hillywood Show ran by Hilly and Hannah Hindi. These sisters started out doing a mashup movie character sketch show called The Hillywood Show. The highlight of the show are the well made costumes of characters such as Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Edward Scissorhands, and other Johnny Depp or Tim Burton characters. But they got their biggest boost in popularity when they made a music video parody of Twilight featuring an extended remix of Katy Perry’s Hot and Cold which brought their videos from 10s of thousands of views to over a million and have grown from there, parodying the other Twilight movies as well as Harry Potter, Vampire Diaries, The Hunger Games, and the one I’ll be looking at today: The Dark Knight, which you can watch right below or you can visit The Hillywood Show’s website.
The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk 2008
I feel like I first have to justify my viewing order for preparing for the Avengers. Out of all of the tie-in movies the only one I have yet to see is Iron Man 2. But when I decided to rewatch all of the Avengers movies leading up to the Avengers itself I knew I wanted to start with Hulk because I remembered it tying into the Incredible Hulk, and I like to watch movie sequels back to back. And to end the series, I had most recently watched Captain America this year so I wanted to put that at the end, especially because with the ending it feels like it leads directly into The Avengers. So instead of using one of the other methods to order the movies, I decided to go with this order: Hulk and The Incredible Hulk, then Iron Man and Iron Man 2 so I can watch those sequels back-to-back as well, then Thor, and finally Captain America’s audio commentary. I used to love watching audio commentaries but it’s been a while since I’ve put aside the time to watch the commentary instead of or in addition to the actual movie. It won’t get a full review but it will get a brief mention in a blog post.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 