Did I mention before how much I love The Incredible Hulk?
Well it all started back in my childhood and I had to take a quick moment here to post a few new old vintage Hulk commercials from back in the day! The first is a cool one featuring Lou Ferrigno and the second is just a great late 1970’s Hulk “Rage Cage” Commercial! Enjoy!!
Rage Cage!!
Lastly the amazing Incredible Hulk Sega Genesis game from 1994-I forgot how RAD this one was-I need to play this again ASAP!!
I decided last night to re-watch the more recent prequel/re-boot “The Thing” from 2011 as I thought I may have been too tough on it the first go round. What I discovered is that it was even less impressive the second time. This is due mainly to some rather crappy CG which replaced Studio ADI’s incredible practical monster effects they crafted for the movie. Many were outraged by the fact that their work was CG’d over and with good reason. Had the movie stuck with the original footage it may have made it the perfect companion piece to the Carpenter version, one of my all time favorite movies ever. Anyway it made me long for a real inventive monster movie, I’ve already stated how excited I am for Harbinger Down, which is the upcoming monster movie from the team who’s practical fx were replaced for The Thing reboot. The movie boasts to be a full on showcase for the power of practical monster effects in the age of CG. However there still isn’t a trailer! Hurry it up guys!
Well luckily us fans of The Thing have another movie to look forward to that’s set to release. Blood Glacier, an awesome looking monster movie from Austria set to release May 2nd here in the USA boasts similar claims to Harbinger Down. This one claims to utilize some amazing practical monster effects as well with a little tasteful CG thrown in for good measure. The plot sound quite intriguing as well and carries a message regarding our environment, which is basically to stop fucking with it! Check out the synopsis and the rad trailer!
“The gates of hell are made of ice in this tense horror thriller paying homage to The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13. Four technicians and scientists at an alpine research station discover a glacier of blood high in the mountains. Testing the red liquid oozing from the ice, they discover a new alien organism with the astonishing capability of transforming the local wildlife into horrific hybrids and monster mutations. With the Minister of the Environment hiking to the station for an official visit, many frightening questions must be answered if the confrontational team are to survive and cope with the giant wood lice, the beetle-foxes, crossbred flying predators and much, much worse…”
Well the one good thing about having your own blog is that you can shamelessly hype your own shit! In this day and age of the internet let’s face it, it’s hard to get anyone to help you get the word out there on your own projects. So as you may or may not know, my musical alter ego is Mister Saturday, the first and as far as I know ONLY nerdcore reggae dancehall artist. I’ve been cranking out these ridiculous songs for years now, singing or toasting (as a Jamaican might call it) which is essentially rapping about the kind of stuff I want to hear in a reggae song. Stuff like Star Trek, The Incredible Hulk, Land of the Lost, Three’s Company, Godzilla, D&D and comic books. Basically stuff that you would never hear a reggae artist sing about ever, past or present.
Being a big fan of reggae since I was a kid in the 80’s I decided it was time to make these type of songs myself, whether anyone liked it or not. So, this brings me to my latest song, I wrote over a popular Swedish dancehall riddim about H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot. I realize most people probably don’t even remember Herbie the Robot, but in the 1970’s he replaced The Human Torch on the animated series!
They actually thought The Human Torch was bad for children because they thought kids might try and light themselves on fire to emulate the character! So we got good ol’ Herbie instead! Well he kinda disappeared after that series, so I decided to find out where he went! Check it!
What’s there to be afraid of in a little lake out in the woods? Beavers? Muskies? Snapping Turtles maybe? Well “Beneath”, which was just released on dvd this last week brings some horror to the little fresh water lakes of the United States! I really enjoyed this little creature feature directed by Larry Fessenden, it’s got a lot more going on that just a vicious fish. The story revolves around a group of recent high school graduates as they head off for a night to camp and party down on some land one of their families have access to. It seems from the start there’s more than meets the eye a foot as it’s clear one of the teenagers has some sort of knowledge that the lake they are headed to has something beneath the surface that’s to be feared.
So we end up with six teens in a rowboat headed across the a small lake in the middle of the woods. The trip across turns into a fight for survival, not only from a vicious man sized fresh water fish but also against each other. That’s where the film gets really interesting, after their boat is damaged and begins sinking it seems it’s everyone for themselves. I enjoyed this also because it’s setting reminded me a lot of places where I grew up in Wisconsin in the north woods and would spend summers. This ones got a few nice twists and turns too and makes you question just how you might deal with something similar.
The monster was also well done, with no CG, which helped make this little film feel all that much more real. The fish actually looked like something that might even possibly exist in some small lake in the middle of nowhere. Like some kinda freak giant catfish or something. Using digital effects here may have really ruined the mood and realism of the situation. The fish actually moves and acts like a real fish, it’s not lightning fast it’s just a giant fresh water fish! So props to Fessenden for keeping it old school while also keeping the atmosphere nice and creepy. Something he’s a master of. So check this out, it may not be the next Jaws, but it feels all too real in the same way!
Man do I miss those old Marvel Team Ups!! That’s why this weeks Cover of the Week comes straight from that series awesome Man-Thing and Spider-man team up! Issue #122 was always one of my favorites as a kid, I mean what’s not to love about this bizarre comic book cover?! Spider-man is literally trapped inside the Man-Things squishy gross ass body! Loving monsters as much as I do this cover is still one of my faves by Hannigan & Al Milgrom!
Here’s some incredibly exciting news, it’s been reported that a new Phantasm movie is on the horizon! We recently got a “Phantasm V: Ravager” movie poster from out of nowhere! This is the fifth and FINAL installment to the Phantasm series.
Then it was reported that the movie has been secretly shooting since 2008. This however also comes with surprising news that Don Coscarelli didn’t direct it. From what I understand he only produced, this comes as a bit of a shock as Phantasm is his baby and if anyone associates one thing with Don it’s this legendary horror franchise. Even though this may cast some doubt about the flick, which was directed by first timer David Hartman, Coscarelli did co-write the script. Well today we get the official teaser trailer for the movie-it seems the whole gang is back! Check this out as Reggie gets badass again bringing to mind my favorite, “Phantasm II”!! I can’t wait….this looks great!
So here I am again, weighing in on the the look of the movie version superheroes and villains-yes I know it seems these days that all I really can do is bitch about how lame all the comic characters look on the big screen! One character I’ve continued to have a big problem with is The Green Goblin! In my opinion one of the coolest looking villains in all comic books, rivaling that of the Joker. Let it be known I hated the Willem Dafoe power ranger Goblin’s get up. Terrible. Let it also be known that the Franco Goblin from Spider-man 3 was the worst piece of shit put to screen yet! So now we have yet another chance with the upcoming Amazing Spider-man 2 to finally get the Green Goblin right!
I’ve already bitched about how he looked so far from the pictures that have been released for the new film, though the images were small of the Goblin it still looked like an uninspired pile of green Hollywood horse shit! However today they released a new close up of Dane DeHaan as The Green Goblin:
While it’s still isn’t a great representation of the iconic villain. I have to say it’s maybe the best version we have seen on the big screen so far. At the very least he looks kinda like a goblin right? I mean he’s still not green, and he still has same the typical Hollywood battle armor that we see it seems in every movie these days but at least he looks kinda creepy? My hope is that he continues to “mutate” in the movie, maybe his skin turns green, his nose grows even longer and then he suddenly gets the urge to throw on some purple duds and the ol’ purple Goblin hat! I know, that’s not going to happen, but a guy can dream right? At the very least they didn’t make him a fully CG character. The pic above does give me some hope though…
I have a feeling that this second movie is going to be a bit of a disaster. Electro certainly doesn’t thrill me and DON’T even get me started on this thing they are calling The Rhino!! Hollywood just doesn’t get it, mainly because they are trying to appeal to a much larger group of people than just us comic book fanatics. So the chances these days that you’re favorite superhero/super villain is gonna look like a full on tool is incredibly likely in this day & age….
Still I take every chance I can get to show what The Green Goblin originally was planned to look like back in the Sam Raimi days, I guess this design just looked too much like…..The Green Goblin?!! Uggh….
Stretch Armstrong and Stretch Monster were all the rage in the 70’s and early 80’s, so natural Marvel & Mego had to get on board with the trend! Sure having Stretch Spider-man and Hulk really didn’t make any sense!
To me it would at least make sense to have a Mr. Fantastic stretch figure wouldn’t it?! I guess they did it far later in the game, but still these were a time when toys really were something special-either that or I’m just a nostalgic geek!!
Finally Mr. Fantastic from 2005, not sure if he was filled with the weird goo that the ones from the 70’s were though!
Today we got a sneak peak at some pictures of The Avengers: Age of Ultron Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. There was some serious outrage there on The X-Men: Days of Future Past version of our favorite speedster-I can’t say I was too impressed with him! So we now get a look at the Whedon version, who to me looks kinda like a regular dude with some fancy Nike running shirt on. So I can’t say he looks great, I can’t say that he looks like a complete D-bag, well maybe a little. But first lets refresh our memories of what Quicksilver really looks like:
Here’s another older Quicksilver pic, by the master John Byrne:
Now let’s refresh our memory with the dip shit rollerblader from 2001 Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, wow I’m still amazed at how fucking stupid he looks:
Now the new pic of Avengers: average Joe too much hydrogen peroxide hair Nike neighborhood jogger dude Aaron Taylor-Johnson version:
What do you think? Is the Avengers version better? I’ll have to say yes, though it’s far from wowing me. Personally I’d have to say this one here impresses me most! DC wins this time with a great looking live action rendition of their own speedster The Flash!!
Hell, DC’s 1990 version of The Flash looks better than both of the Quicksilvers! This guy really looks like the Flash! And he’s got a huge bulge!! Way to go again DC!
Avengers #201 from 1980 has a truly memorable cover by George Perez & Terry Austin! It’s not often you see Jarvis showcased as the lead in any comic book much less and Avengers issue. This however features the legendary butler ready to action telling the Avengers to “stand back”! So just what is it that Jarvis feels is a job only he can handle? Well it turns out that he takes on an adult bully named “Bruiser” while he visits his mother! Bruiser is terrorizing her neighborhood when Jarvis decides to take matters into his own hands. Yep Jarvis finally gets his own arch nemesis which he makes short work of! I always liked the Jarvis character and it’s too bad they decided to make him an “operating system” to Tony Stark in the movies. Perhaps they were afraid he’d just come off as a cheap version of Batman’s Alfred? Also, Captain America kinda pisses me off as on the cover of issue #201 he’s clearly laughing at Jarvis-what a dick!! Show some respect Rogers!
Universal Dork 