Category: childhood nostalgia
Indiana Jones 5: Anthony Ingruber as Young Indy? PLUS Indy Cartoon!
Well ‘Indiana Jones 5′ has officially wrapped on filming and we’re now in the editing phase of the movie, hoping soon to receive a trailer to the finale of the Indiana Jones franchise! I have high hopes for this final installment but i gotta be honest too, I got a mountain o’ worries as well without the original team of Lucas/Spielberg writing or directing.
I’ve heard a LOT of rumors and supposed leaks from the set and I can say from what I’ve heard I was not particularlly impressed.
Many are claiming that Indy will be passing the torch to his female assistant and time traveling to team up with a younger version of himself. Who knows exactly what’s true here I recently watched a video from “Indiana Jones Nerd” that’s claiming Anthony Inguber might be making an appearance as he was rumored on set of Indiana Jones 5?
So is this true? Probably not! Hollywood is known for making terrible decisions with their big rebooted cash cow sequel franchises. I went extendively in to my idea of how they could please fans and reboot Indiana Jones perfectly right HERE utilizing Anthony Ingruber as young Indiana Jones for the 5th installment. I think it’s a pretty solid way to do it but apparently they’ve got other plans, most likely passing the torch on to a strong female lead to continue on as the character. For the record I’m fine with that as long as it doesn’t feel forced and the story’s good. But judging from the Star Wars sequel trilogy I wouldn’t bet a got damn penny on that happening. I’m going as far to say that my gut feeling is Indiana Jones Part 5 is going to be an even bigger disappointment than The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a movie that admittedly over the years, I think has aged quite gracefully, despite some serious problems with bad CGI fx and his son Mutt being a turn off overall for fans. Whatever the case color me intrigued and in the meantime let’s not fret too much. Take a look at this incredible animated Indiana Jones vignette from 2016 from Patrick Schoenmaker & take a moment to remember the good old days of classic Indiana Jones….
Comic Cover of the Week: The Sentinels Hunt…The FALCON?!
Here’s a visually stunning cover from the nearly forgotten ‘Falcon’ 4 issue mini-series from 1983! I’ve always loved this one & this sweet series had four super memorable covers. This one by Paul Smith, whom I just love so much for his work on the X-Men in the eighties, always stuck with me as I found it intriguing that the mutant hunter Sentinels had a chance run in with The Falcon, was he a mutant? This again proves how effective, emotionally resonant, and truly memorable a simplistic cover can truly be…
Now I have to revisit the series To find out exactly what was really up with this issue! Its been way too long…
That Time The HULK Fought The HUNCHBACK of Notre Dame?!
I was rewatching some of my favorite eighties cartoon episodes straight from my childhood recently & was reminded why The Incredible Hulk series from that era remains one of my faves! It used to be paired with ‘Spider-man and His Amazing Friends’ during the Marvel “power hour” on Saturday mornings!
I’ve stated here a few years ago that as much as I liked The Incredible Hulk animated series of the early eighties there just wasn’t enough appearances from the jade giants rogue’s gallery. As far a real villains, he only really went head on with The Leader, Doctor Octopus oddly and the Puppetmaster. As a kid I’d always hoped to see The Abomination, The Rhino, The Bi-Beast or M.O.D.O.K. pop up to cause The Hulk some trouble. Instead in a strange twist we got an epic battle between the green goliath and of all people, The Hunchback of Notre Dame(?!) in an episode from 1982 called ‘When Monsters Meet’.
Yep, Quasimodo for some reason showed up not only in the animated series but also in a special one shot issue from 1983 the that I still personally adore to the this day! And at a mere 60 cents you just CAN’T complain right?!
What’s so perplexing is I could never quite figure out just why the hell they chose to pit the Hulk against him in the first place? I mean surely there were better villains to feature in an animated series! But still…
…And really who would’ve thought that Quasimodo actually had the super human strength to go one-on-one with The Incredible Hulk in the first place?! I’m impressed! They actually managed to make him into a pretty frightening and formidable foe. Go Quasi!
I’m guessing that this particular one shot issue, which featured actually a pretty sweet savage battle, was created in some sort of way to generate more excitement around the animated TV series? Either that or someone was just a real BIG fan of The Fighting Irish and just simply couldn’t resist making Quasimodo into a bonafide Incredible Hulk bad-ass villain. I think the results worked shockingly well, don’t you?
Whatever the case I just had a an 80s flashback of owning this weirdo one shot comic book beautifully illustrated by Sal Buscema and seeing this particular episode for the first time. Believe me, though an ODD choice of a story and semi stupid villain, it made me long for those Saturday mornings and sugary cereals of sooo many years past…
Cult Flicks In Desperate Need of a Blu Ray: 1988’s ‘WATCHERS’!
I’ve been looking at my VHS tapes lately and have been compiling a list of some of my favorite cult horror flicks that for some god forsaken reason have still gone without an official fancy new blu ray release! One of the first movies that comes to mind is one of my all time favorite underrated gems of the late 80s, featuring Corey Haim in the lead role in this nostalgic, yet largely underseen creature feature ‘Watchers’ directed by Jon Hess (Alligator II).
I definitely consider this to be “prime” Cory Haim and quite frankly the perfect addition to a double feature with ‘The Lost Boys’. In some ways it almost feels like an extension of Haim’s character “Sam Emerson” in The Lost Boys. He’s got his rad eighties fashion, comedic licks and hair dialed up to an 11 and really is perfectly in line with the tone of The Lost Boys. In my opinion at least, it’s a perfect campy 80s creature feature/coming of age adventure featuring teen heart throb Haim on the run with with a canine who possesses human intelligence thats escaped from a secret nearby research facility. If you’re a fan of dogs in leading roles in horror movies this is definitely a gem!
What are they on the run from? Well, Michael Ironside and a savage mutant beast dead set on reuniting with the dog and literally destroying anything in its path of course! To put this in a nutshell, this flick is the epitome of what a series like Stranger Things is trying to desperately replicate. The Watchers is the real deal & it’s naturally got the authentic 80s “kids in danger” charm down perfectly to a T. Like an R-rated Amblin production.
I actually also really dig the special effects on display here, there’s some cool gore and also a pretty sweet realistic, yet slightly stupid looking savage hairy monster! I really don’t mean that to be a negative either, I like the monster, he just looks kinda like a moron!
A very realistic stupid looking monster, hey I’ll take that any day of the damn week! This movie was based on a Dean Koontz novel and spawned several sequels. My second favorite of them is 1998’s ‘Watchers Reborn’ the 4th installment which features Mark Hamill in the leading role. I’d love to see all of the sequels get a Blu-ray release as well and hoping that someone like Vinegar Syndrome or Shout Factory can grab this and give it some new gas in it’s tank.
It was released on VHS and also an out of print combo DVD with the sequel that features “Beastmaster” Mark Singer included which is very hard to find now. So all kick ass blu ray labels out there take notice, The Watchers is the perfect movie to get into the grimy hands of some hungry horror hounds and ripe for the picken!
The Winter Olympics with The Hulk & Spider-man?!
The Winter Olympics are in session and even though not a lot of people seem to be particularly interested this year I thought it would be cool to showcase a classic GIGANTO comic book cover that features a sporting event that’s WAY more up my alley!
The Winter Olympics featuring The Incredible Hulk versus Spider-man center stage! Now that’s one event that I’ll show up for any time of the the damn year!
This particular issue is presented in one of my favorite formats that Marvel used to put out, the gigantic treasury edition comic books were absolutely nuts to have as a child! This was an epic issue from 1980 that had a sweet back cover as well featuring some Olympic Winter Mole Man mayhem!
Does the NEW Luke Skywalker Truly Have What it Takes?!
I wanted to quickly give my two damn cents worth here about The Book of Boba Fett’s controversial Luke Skywalker appearance! This was much more than a cameo as you already know by now and its got people talkin’ for sure.
I’ve gotta say, as much as I’m normally against using CGI to replace real actors, the Luke Skywalker that showed up was indeed pretty amazing! A 1000% improvement from what we got at the end of The Mandorian: Season 2. If I didn’t know any better I probably would’ve thought he was just an ordinary actor on set. It really did feel like it was 1983 all over again.
That being said I do think there is still room for improvement and I’m not entirely sure that an full series could be driven yet by this portrayal of Luke Skywalker yet. I think the main issue for me personally comes with his his voice, which from what I understand wasn’t just Mark Hamill speaking all the lines and impersonating his younger self. From what I understand his voice was actually generated using old Star Wars radio broadcasts and using some sort of AI synthetic generator to bust out his lines.
If that truly is the case it’d be clear why some of Luke’s dialog delivery felt a bit robotic. What I think is most important going forward is to have Mark Hamill involved in the creation of this character in as many ways possible. He’s an incredible voice actor and I think he could easily deliver the lines impersonating a younger version of himself with a little practice.
I’m also not sure how they are generating Luke Skywalker’s face but clearly they need to be using Mark fully for the facial emotions of the character going forward if they haven’t already. I’m really looking forward to a ‘behind the scenes’ of how this episode was created to see exactly how they did it and exactly what his involvement truly was.
At this point though they’re definitely moving in the right direction and as quickly as technology seems to be changing it’s clear that they can likely recreate almost any older classic character that they choose. What does this mean for the future of actors in Hollywood and movies? I’m not quite sure. Some of it’s a little creepy to be honest, but in this particular case of bringing back one of the most iconic cinematic heroes, I guess I’m totally fine with this rendition of Skywalker! And for continuity’s sake I hope Disney goes back and replaces The Luke Skywalker from the end of Mando Season 2 with THIS new technology to smooth it out! I’m also not opposed to the idea of Luke being recast at this point either using Sebastian Stan, though to be honest I would really have to see him in the role to see if he’s actually truly believable as the character. Alden didn’t sell Han Solo for me so I still remain a bit skeptical recasting any of the original trilogy characters! Though I do think if they would have used Anthony Ingruber in the role of Han Solo I’ll be singing a different tune. I can’t wait until Wednesday to see what happens next….
Comic Cover of the Week: Bill Sienkiewicz Does it Again!
I’m convinced over & over again, when it comes to comic book covers there is NO one better than Bill Sienkiewicz! Check this mega epic artwork from ‘What If?’ #47 way back from 1984! Bill gets the job done here as usual with some amazing painting and just downright epic imagery featuring Loki. Bill gets the job done here as usual with some beautiful painting and just downright epic imagery of Loki in all of his wicked glory, This easily could have been used as an iconic metal album cover from the era, no questions asked-Bill is the BEST!
Will James Earl Jones Return as Darth Vader in ‘KENOBI’?!
So all I seem to be hearing about these days from Star Wars fans is how damn excited they are that Hayden Christiansen will be returning, now as Darth Vader in Disney Plus’s upcoming Kenobi series. As someone who’s admittedly still not a real gigantic fan of the prequels (though I do like the story), I can at least admit that I am genuinely excited to see the return of Hayden and most importantly importantly Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. I find it quite intriguing that they’ll be getting another chance on screen to somewhat vindicate their characters from the (imo) poorly directed/executed prequels. I’ve always thought both of them were great actors and I do look forward to seeing what they bring this time around under new direction. But now as the dust settles there’s a giant elephant in the room that I think needs to be talked about. With the return of Darth Vader we must all be eagerly expecting the return of James Earl Jones right?!
You’d think this would be all over the Internet and commentators on YouTube would have have lots to say about the original voice of Darth Vader returning perhaps one last time as Mr. Jones is now 90 years old. Yet I really haven’t seen a peep out of really anyone. Perhaps they are hoping that Hayden will be doing the voice of Darth this time around even with the helmet.on? I wanted to throw it out there that NOT having having Jones return to the role would be an absolute damn crime against Star Wars entirely! But what surprises me most is the lack of interest in Star Wars community on this topic altogether so far.
I guess the questions that need to be answered are is he interested in doing it at all? And do fans want him to return? Given his age I would imagine having him voice the character one last time would be a top priority. It would also give this Disney Plus series the much needed credibility that it seems to have lost from the “Sequel Trilogy” and the many disappointments surrounding it. I think not connecting him to this performance would be a giant mistake.
The answer is obviously simple, the role of Darth Vader should be shared by both Hayden and James, Hayden voicing Vader without the mask and of course Jones with the mask on, it’s a no brainer. So to all of you Star Wars fans out there, is this something that concerns you at the moment?! Let’s get some hype around this topic and make sure we get James Earl Jones back one at least one last time for an iconic performance as Darth Vader!!
Halloween Party Tips: How to Make a True MONSTER in the 70s!!
It’s time to take a spooky trip down memory lane! Not everyone is an artist but literally anyone can make a monster using using the Monster Maker Kit that was released way back in the late 1970s by Tomy! Yeah you could mash up a whole variety of creepy monster villains with this nifty toy, and as a kid I definitely made my fair share of them.
Interchange the head, the abdomen and the lower body to create some wild weirdos by rubbing your pencil over the top of your chosen creations. It was a ton of fun back in the day, though after. a short period you might discover it slightly redundant-but who gives a shit when you’re making monsters! So check out this sweet little blast from the past with this creepy forgotten little commercial, simpler spooky times must NEVER be forgotten!
Creepy Comic Cover of the Week: Marvel’s MISTER HYDE!
I think Marvel’s Mister Hyde is easily one of the creepiest villains in their ranks of baddies! He’s a more fucked up version of the Banner/Hulk dynamic and he even wears a weird ass old school suit and cape like the original literary character. The dude can go head to head with The Incredible Hulk and is one of the loosest cannons in all of Marvel comics! I have always adored the cover of The Amazing Spider-man #232 and think its a certifiably sinister depiction of the villain! Brilliantly drawn by Al Milgrom and John Romita Jr way back in 1982- Hyde is a perfect villain for the Halloween season!
Universal Dork 