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Evil Dead: Setting a New Trend in Mainstream Horror?

April 8, 2013

So there we have it, The Evil Dead “remake” in all of it’s bloody glory! I saw it this last weekend on a Sunday afternoon matinee, with a packed theater and I am happy to say the flick exceeded my expectations! Kudos to Fede Alvarez for putting his heart and soul into a movie that I feel real horror fans can get behind. I can’t express enough how awesome it was to see a mainstream Hollywood horror movie deliver the gore the way it was meant to be. CG blood was no where in sight, the effects made me cringe and the story was simple and brutal. I enjoyed it even more so because to me this really wasn’t a remake, we got several hints through the film that these events were talking place after Ash’s experience there and if you stuck around after the credits we indeed got a message from the man himself. Alvarez swore up and down that Ash would NOT appear, even in a cameo in this one. I’m not saying the last scene promises anything to fans but the simple fact that we’re now hearing about Ash returning in Army of Darkness 2 and then both movie worlds colliding for one final flick make me just about wet my pants!

evil dead 2013

Now that’s not to say this was a perfect movie, like many reviewers have complained, I’ll agree there’s not much for character development here. But you know what, Evil Dead was never known for in depth character development! It delivered one purpose, to send chills down your spine and attempt to gross you out as much as possible. I think this flick did exactly what is was supposed to and then some. It makes me think of how rad it will be to see Ash plopped into this sick and twisted reality as the same old idiotic hero we’ve come to know and love. Older but not the least bit wiser. Finally giving us fans what we’ve wanted, one more night out with the King.

It seems the movie was a success too at the box office making over 30 Million in it’s first weekend snagging the number one spot. Things are looking good in the world of the Deadites! So let this be a lesson to all these Hollywood so called horror directors. Give people a quality movie, skip the CG blood-it looks like shit and always will, get creative without solely relying on your computer, plan your shots and make us feel and believe that we’re really there fighting for our survival! Something this latest Evil Dead succeeds at on so many levels!
Does MC Chris Deserve His Own Cartoon TV Show?

April 6, 2013

So a couple days ago we got a six minute teaser of the proposed MC Chris cartoon he’s been hoping would be picked up by an unsaid network. From what I understand it hasn’t happened yet and now he’s trying to get the word out there in other ways to get some sort of buzz going about this cartoon.

I’ll admit I’m not entirely certain at this point in time about what I think about Chris personally as I have seen some bummer videos on Youtube and heard several stories where he’s supposedly treated fans in a less than respectful fashion. However, the guy has went out of his way to apologize for being a douche, admitted wrongs and seems to have turned around his general attitude toward playing live and respecting the people who have made him who he is today. Yeah all that aside MC Chris is a pretty bad ass nerdcore rapper, in fact he’s probably the best around. So I give the guy another chance for redemption and now we all get to judge for ourselves if his cartoon has the potential to be a bonafide hit! Here it is:

Well what do you think? Is this the next Invader Zim?! Is Chris the next Bugs Bunny?! It’s hard to tell at this point, this 6 minute clip shows some potential. The animation is decent enough for something like the Adult Swim swim crowd and it’s got some cool, fun action sequences however some of the comedy aspect of it could use a little more work. Parts seemed to drag a bit at points, but I did enjoy how it bursted into a cool rap song after the rather tedious “Don’t get me started” bit. I think personally this could be a pretty rad show, Chris knows his nerd culture and with a little more planning I think the show could move in some genuinely awesome directions. So yeah, I think this has got what it takes to win over a network, with a little more comedic planning I’d hope this show could prove to be a real laugh, because for me that’s all that was really missing from this otherwise rad little teaser…
Siskel & Ebert “Evil Dead” 1981 Review

April 5, 2013

Today we had the passing of Roger Ebert a true mogul in the world of movies. A big part of my childhood as well, as his TV show was seen many times for me in the 1980’s as a kid and I pretty much always could trust his judgement on films. It’s kinda strange knowing we won’t be hearing more from him, but he left behind a legacy…

I thought I’d at the very least post the Siskel and Ebert review of the original Evil Dead back in 1981, as the big hype seems to be the release of the remake this week. Ebert in this one seems to understand that there was something special about the original here. It was always so interesting hearing what these two icons had to say and they did some review some cool and lesser known movies at the time. So what did they have to say about the original? Check it out….Thanks again for Ebert for guiding us to better movies, rest in peace….
Weird Ass Forgetten Cartoons: Disney’s Anti-Nazi Short Films?

April 4, 2013

I recently ran across this old Disney Anti-Nazi cartoon and it’s a truly weird piece of animation! This ten minute cartoon was released on January 15th, 1943 and these cartoons actually saved Disney from going bankrupt after a low box office return for the now legendary classic Fantasia.

Disney was contracted to make 32 cartoon WWII propaganda short films for $4500.00 each. This one is most popular of these largely forgotten cartoons. I guess in a weird way the world’s hatred for Nazi’s saved Disney’s career. These are some really bizarre cartoons that were based on a book by Gregor Ziemer. I wonder what the rest were all about? Apparently these shorts were banned for quite some time. Honestly strange stories about Walt Disney never cease to fascinate me!
Axe Cop Goes Animated!!

March 31, 2013

Axe Cop is coming to us in fully animated form! For those of you who don’t know it’s a comic book series written by five year old Malachai Nicolle and drawn by his older brother Ethan.

So yeah it’s a pretty hilarious series which obviously makes for the perfect cartoon! Check out this awesome trailer for the upcoming series coming to the Fox Saturday-Late Nights starting July 27th!

Confused? Need to know Axe Cop’s origin before committing to the series-no problem! Check it here:
ADI: Wizards of Special FX!

March 29, 2013

I just wanted to post a couple videos from ADI, they are an effects studio that specializes in hands on practical effects. Their work never ceases to amaze me. Today they are still pushing the bar with their makeup and animatronics, which I hope more people take notice of. I’ve heard recently that most movies today are made to look like video games, as so many kids expect their movies to look that way and that glossy shiny video gamey look may actually be intentional. There’s a time and a place for both styles of fx, practical and CG and when they are used together it’s often times has created the best moments in cinema.

But for movies today ADI is pretty much the best at what they do. They’ve done a ton of work on some great films, the biggest controversy was all of the special effects they did for the prequel to “The Thing” which ended up a box office flop. The work they did for the film was replaced with shoddy CGI and this outraged the real fans of the iconic 1982 masterpeice. Had they used the ADI versions the prequel would have been the perfect companion piece to that movie. I just watched a great mini episode of Fangoria’s Blood & Guts with Anthrax’s own Scott Ian and it was worth posting again here.

It just goes to show you that these type of effects aren’t dead and in many cases to this day are better than CG. It also reminded me of how rad the monster design was for Goro from the campy Mortal Kombat. Seeing stuff like that done over fifteen years ago makes me wonder why they chose to go fully CG on characters like The Incredible Hulk. Well I guess I am going to have to at least watch Mortal Kombat again! I recommend subscribing to their Youtube channel, there;s some amazing stuff on there!!!

Also any chance I get I love to show this Green Goblin they were working on for the Raimi Spider-man movie. A total shame they didn’t go with it, however my bet is that in the newest reboot of The Amazing Spider-man, The Green Goblin will most likely appear in the third movie-Hollywood don’t blow it get ADI to design his look!!!
Hulk Smash Colorforms!

March 29, 2013

I loved the hell out of Colorforms as a kid! I had an Incredible Hulk Colorform set and a Spider-man one too. For being such a simplistic toy it sure kept me busy! I had to post this groovy commercial from the 70’s for a Hulk Colorform set. This was the same one that I had and it brings back some great memories.

The best thing was if you had more than one set you could have the Hulk and Spider-man and hell even Superman all meet in the same setting! Check it!

Superman! Wait only 98 cents?!!!

Batman!! Don’t forget The Penguin’s umbrella!!
‘The Wolverine’ Trailer: Did They Finally Get it Right?

March 27, 2013

I won’t lie, I’ve been looking forward to finally seeing the trailer for ‘The Wolverine’ for quite some time now. The wait is over, we finally got to see a glimpse of what we’re in store for this summer. As you may know I loathed X-men Origins: Wolverine with a passion. I still have a hard time pumping myself up for any Hugh Jackman Wolverine stuff after enduring that giant heaping turd of a film. However I’m a fair guy and give things more than their fair share of chances, though I’ve said here before that I’d actually love a Wolverine reboot with a whole new cast. Still I am reaching deep down within my soul and looking past the last couple Wolverine based flicks and again giving Hugh one LAST chance to redeem himself as everyone’s favorite berserker. So I watched the trailer several times now and to me this looks like a pretty solid attempt at a ‘decent” Wolverine adventure.

Did it wow me like I was hoping? No. Did it suck as bad as I was expecting? Not at all. I give this teaser a solid B. This meaning that it could go one of two ways. Way down or way up on the scale of what us true Wolverine fans have really always wanted. First I gotta say Jackman looks good as he always has in the role, he’s a great actor and fully capable of bringing us the best Wolverine performance we’re likely to ever see on screen. I can be knit picky about wanting Wolverine’s crazy comic book hair all day, but hey this is Hollywood and they want to make Wolverine super sexy, not a freaky, hairy little five foot tall mutant with fucked up hair. I get it. I let go of ever seeing that version of the character on screen.

So with this trailer we see Logan apparently heading back to Japan to become “mortal” because he’s tired of living forever with all the pain he’s endured in his life. It appears Lord Shingen weakens his healing factor much like in the original Claremont/Miller limited series from 1982 which this movie is loosely based on. However in that story he heads to Japan to find his fiancee has been forced into marriage by her father Lord Shingen, to an abusive Yakuza crimeboss. Hence Wolverine goes batshit crazy against a clan of ninjas ect.

This movie version looks like it’s trying to head into a “more epic” storyline, amping up the special effects and including a bunch of villains into the mix. This to me could be the first sign of a mistake in the movie. Trying to cram too much into a perfectly human story of love and revenge. However it’s really too soon to jump to any conclusions. One thing that appears to be missing is the blood and violence needed to properly tell the store of a man with razor sharp blades indestructibly bound to his knuckles. This movie better not skimp on the blood. I want to see Wolverine’s claws slice and dice like they do in the comic, in all of the past films we never see any blood, severed arms, legs, ect. I know this is a PG-13 movie but at least give us a little in the way of what sort of damage this mutant would do in a real world with weapons like that. Again, too soon to tell, this movie could indeed give us all that and more. I just can’t take another bloodless kiddie Wolverine flick. So all that said I wasn’t blown away by the trailer. It has potential, unfortunately we don’t yet know if it will finally raise the bar to the true potential of what an amazing Wolverine flick can and should be….what do you think?
Video Tonfa Takes on The Deadbeat at Dawn!

March 25, 2013

Last Friday evening I had the pleasure of hosting a little event at my vintage clothing shop here in Portland, Oregon called Hollywood Babylon. We showed two movies and hung some awesome art by Tim Goodyear, who’s “Video Tonfa” work can be seen in Pork Magazine regularly. Goodyear does movie reviews, but not only that, he gives his own interpretation of the movies VHS /dvd box art and reviews the film where the movie’s synopsis normally appears. It’s a rad way to read a review and it’s also pretty damn fun to look at! So when we decided to have him grace the store walls with his art he also gave us an event poster featuring his interpretation of one of the movies we watched, Deadbeat at Dawn, which I have raved about here not too long ago. The movie got a great new look on the poster, and if this flick ever gets released again on dvd I hope they decide to use Goodyear’s work for the box art! Check it

Also here’s a great interview with Goodyear via GRIDLords and a close up of one of his reviews…
Rom: Spaceknight – Best Action Figure Ever?!

March 22, 2013

Whoa just ran across this awesome vintage Rom: Spaceknight action figure commercial! Rom was kinda the shit back in the 1980’s and he was first and foremost a toy before actually being a Marvel Comic book character.

Somehow though it seems his staying power wasn’t too strong as we really don’t hear too much about the guy anymore. Still viewing this rad old school commercial makes me wanna scope out Ebay and get myself one of these! As a kid I always wanted one, and from this commercial i am sure you can see why he was the talk of the block for kids-check it!