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UHF
UHF 1989
This is one of my favorite movies from when I was younger. I grew up listening to Weird Al’s parodies and when I saw that he had made a movie, I just had to see it. I was expecting a movie parodying movies just like his songs parodied songs. What I wasn’t expecting was a superhero movie. Weird Al plays George Newman, someone who can alter reality to suit his own means, and he uses his powers to defeat the evil head of the C8 corporation, R. J. Fletcher, a mastermind enemy with his cadre of henchmen trying to eliminate George’s base of operations, his UHF headquarters.
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The Adventures of the American Rabbit
The Adventures of the American Rabbit 1986
On this Easter Sunday, after my daughter’s romp through the house finding all of her Angry Bird eggs I decided to kill two birds with one stone by putting on a somewhat Easter themed superhero movie. It’s got to be Easter themed since it has rabbits in it, right? Anyway I actually vaguely remember watching this movie when I was a kid but man does it totally not hold up in any way shape or form. Even Jena herself got bored with the movie when it was about halfway through and it’s only 80 minutes long. I thought it was great because I recognized a few voices from my childhood viewing, like the voice of The American Rabbit was Barry Gordon who also voiced Donatello in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a smaller part, the gorilla Ping Pong was played by Lorenzo Music who voiced Garfield for a long time, though his voice here reminded me a lot more of Tummy Gummy from the Adventures of the Gummi Bears. But even viewing this movie through a soft haze of nostalgia wasn’t able to save it from the ludicrous plots of villainy and barely there presence of the hero himself.
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All Star Superman
All Star Superman 2011
One thing that I enjoy about this site is when I go into a movie completely blind. I’ve done a bit of research and have had help to create a very inclusive list of comic book and superhero movies, and yet when I actually choose one of the movies I’ve never seen before, I don’t seek out synopses, or watch trailers, I like to go into the movies completely blind, and this was the case with All Star Superman. Many of the Superman stories I enjoy the most are the ones that try to get to the heart of his humanity, and yet All Star Superman really embraces his alien nature more than just about anything I’ve seen before. I have to admit that at first it was quite offputting, but by the end of the movie there was enough heart in it to win me over.
Superman and the Mole Men
Superman and the Mole Men 1951
Whenever I see lists of superhero or comic book movies, typically the first movie on that list is this one. Superman and the Mole Men is generally considered the first full length superhero movie even though there were serials for both Batman and Superman before this one. I knew practically nothing about this movie before I watched it other than it was in black and white, it starred George Reeves as Superman as it was essentially the pilot for the television series, and it had Mole Men in it. I was expecting a cheesy, old timey movie with bad fight scenes between Superman and some Mole Men. What I got instead was something a little closer to the Twilight Zone where the Mole Men aren’t actually the antagonists and there is a lot more morality issues going on than I would have first expected. It did have some goofy old timey qualities to it considering that I rarely watch a black and white movie. In fact I can count them on one hand. But it was a lot better movie than I expected it to be. It’s worth a watch if you’re a fan of Superman and you enjoy the occasional classic movie.
What ifs! What if you could kill one superhero?
Obviously I don’t mean in real life. But if you had the power of publishing to greenlight the storyline death of any one superhero, which would it be? Would you pick a superhero that’s too popular for his/her own good? Or one that you just personally don’t like? Would you like to see them go down in a big throwdown fight to the finish, or do you just want them gone whichever way possible? Of course, one thing that’s usually inevitable when it comes to superhero deaths is that they never stay dead. Would you like to see that changed in your case? I think practically every major superhero has died at one point in time, most notably Superman. But Spider-Man, Captain America, Green Lantern, Batman have all died at one point in time. If a famous comic book character dies, should they stay dead? Does it count if someone else takes up their mantle? Often times a death raises the popularity of a character rather than ending it. Personally, I think Wolverine is a good choice to die. It’s a tough one to do though, since the X-Men timeline basically has his lifespan extended from the revolutionary war on through two generations of mutants or more in the future. He’s a great character, but I think it would be good for him to go away for a long while, a victim of his own popularity. What say you? Leave your answer in the comments! Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
The Curse of Three
The Curse of Three
aka Why is the Third Superhero Movie the Worst?
Sequels have long been a sure sign of a bad movie. Take an existing popular movie, try it again and see lightning strikes twice. Most of the time it didn’t. Then somewhere along the line, maybe in the late 80’s early 90’s, filmmakers started making sequels that lived up to the original’s expectations. Or oftentimes in the case of superhero movies, exceeded them. Especially in superhero movies, once the origin story is out of the way, the sequel is the best place to get a good action filled story in. But then something else happened, it started with Superman III. Where the sequel was as good as the original, the third movie went way downhill in terms of plot, action, and just overall quality. Is it a curse, often times it doesn’t matter whether the third movie has a bigger budget or a smaller budget, the same people behind the scenes or new ones, they almost always end in crap. Is it a curse, and can it be broken?
Will a Superhero Movie Ever Win an Oscar?
aka Will a Superhero Movie Ever Win (another) (non-technical) Oscar?
The Superhero Movie has never really been thought of as Oscar material, it’s simple, light material without any depth or expert filmmaking involved. It’s easy to poke fun at a superhero movie because there are so many that win Razzies rather than Oscars, like Catwoman. But filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Bryan Singer can elevate typical superhero fare to something much more great. In fact, The Incredibles is the only superhero movie to win an award, but in the smaller animated category, Christopher Nolan is the only one out there that brought a non-technical win for Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight in a live action movie, though several years earlier Warren Beatty brought on a nomination for Al Pacino in his comic strip adaptation of Dick Tracy.
Superhero Shorts: Rage
Superhero Shorts: Rage
Welcome to another edition of Superhero Shorts, where I take a look at a superhero themed short film and have a brief talk with the creator. This time I’m talking with Stephen Henning who created an original supervillain named Rage in a short using a lot of news footage and special effects. As usual, you can check out this UK based short film below, or you can visit the White Hat Films’s YouTube page, also note that while the video’s runtime is over 30 minutes, that includes over 14 minutes of outtakes after the short.
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What ifs! What if you could pair up any two superheroes?
Crossover event, superpowered team up, whatever you want to call it, it’s usually an interesting thing to see two superheroes who normally would never exist next to each other suddenly team up to battle a common foe. Do you choose two heroes who are polar opposites to see how difficult it would be for them to work together like say Lobo and Captain America, or would you pick a more natural pairing that would compliment each other nicely like maybe Mr. Fantastic and Plastic Man. Personally, I think there could be a lot of fun interaction between Hellboy and Spider-Man, that would be a really odd team-up but could make for some very unique situations. So who do you think would make a good match? Anything is fair game, DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, from movies or only in comics, and anything in between.
All Superheroes Must Die
All Superheroes Must Die 2013
aka Vs
This movie is something that was completely off of my radar aside from the fact that it was on my full list of superhero movies under the title “Vs”, and then a couple weeks ago I saw a review of this movie on Today I Watched a Movie, so when I saw it available at Redbox I picked it up. (And because Redbox asked so nicely, you can also look to see if you can find All Superheroes Must Die at Redbox) It’s an interesting premise: Four superheroes get captured by their archnemesis and placed in a town littered with explosives and hostages where they must play an almost Saw-like game to escape with their lives. It is low budget and it shows, though they do have a clever excuse that the villain suppressed their powers with a serum so they never get a chance to showcase any of their powers, and as a result the movie feels more like a psychological thriller than an actual superhero movie. I think there’s still a lot to like in this movie and was invested from start to finish.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 