Tagged: Best
VIRUS: The Most Underrated SCI-FI Monster Movie of the 1990’s!
I had to throw some props out there today for a rad flick that seems to get no love from anyone, “Virus” is a totally bad ass B-movie from 1999 and everyone needs to get down with it already! Chances are you’ve never seen this movie, but I recently watched it again the other night and it’s like ten times more awesome than I originally remembered it to be! The movie was actually hoping to be a big Hollywood hit, but it suffered at the box office and got totally panned by the critics. Apparently we were watching two different movies?!
Virus might be Jamie Lee Curtis’ best movie ever, however she claims it’s her worst and that she’s actually really embarrassed about appearing in it at all. I say totally WRONG Jamie! This is John Bruno’s only feature length movie he’s directed, otherwise he’s only done a handful of Star Trek: Voyager episodes and a Terminator 2 short film with James Cameron that was used at the T2: 3-D attraction at Universal Studios. Yeah I saw this one in person and it was a helluva good time!
To me though VIRUS which is based on a Dark Horse comic of the same title is jam packed with stupid awesome action and a ton of cool ass robotic monsters! I was seriously surprised to find out after watching it that it was actually not made in the late 80’s as the special effects are largely practical and the small amounts of CGI are done pretty damn flawlessly. It goes to prove once again that practical and CG used together can have some magnificent results!
The story is pretty simple and borrows heavily from Alien, attempting at making Curtis the new Ripley. If you’re looking for substance you’re not going to find it here but if you’re looking for some gory gun blazing fun on a mysterious abandoned ship in the middle of the ocean then you’re in for a treat. Also this flick’s got a Baldwin brother and Donald Sutherland lending some of their least inspired acting chops. But actually I don’t know, does William Baldwin have any acting chops to begin with?!
Bottom line here, this movie is rad. I could watch movies like this one all damn day long. It’s a ton of fun and once it gets going you’ll wonder why the hell it’s missing a cult following. So I’m gonna start the cult here today and hopefully make Jamie Lee Curtis eat her words on this one….
Frankenstein’s Army: The Coolest Horror Flick of 2013?!
Do you like cool monster movies as much as I do? If so Frankenstein’s Army looks like a total winner here in this most recent preview just released yesterday! I’m big fan of World War II horror movies and this one could shape up to be one of the best ones yet. To me this movie is looking like a great BPRD story arc filled to the brim with insane Nazi monster soldiers.
It appears that the Nazi’s have their own Doctor Frankenstein that’s constructing creatures with some pretty menacing weaponry melded to their bodies. The trailer is jam packed with action gore and some pretty outstanding fx.
I also read a pretty stellar review on BloodyDisgusting.com so this one is going to the top of my “to see list” pretty rapidly. Opening in select theaters July 26th I’m crossing my fingers this one hits a theater in Portland! Check this shit out!
Comic Book Cover of the Week: Lex Luthor the Big Time Bully!!
This has got to one one of the most hilarious comic covers ever! The idea that Luthor had to defeat his foes was brilliant, turn his enemies into children and kick the shit out of them! Simply genius! Lex proves to be a truly heartless bastard on the cover of Action Comics #466 as he’s shown clocking the kid Superman from behind. What a prick! Still he earns points as one of the nastiest villains of all time for this cover alone!
He’s a Super Freak! He’s Super Freaky Yow!!
Nuff said!
Comic Book Cover of the Week: Daredevil Tightens The Noose…
Daredevil to me has always been Marvel’s answer to Batman. He’s a vigilante searching the streets at night for whatever scum may be lurking in the shadows. He’s also had some pretty dark story lines over the years and this particular comic book cover drawn by John Romita Jr. is about as dark as it gets. This particular issue follows Matt Murdock during his “nomadic” spree where he wanders around the city after burning his belongings. He stays in a small bed and breakfast and helps a married couple in need sever their ties with their criminal family. During this period we get a very dark Daredevil indeed. This cover is a fave of mine…
Amazing Animated Short Shorts! The Hulk Runs Out of Toilet Paper!
I just discovered three of the most kick ass animated short films yesterday, I liked them so much that I had to share them here. Now don’t get me wrong I love the new Pixar type animation, I really do, but I still have a soft spot for the old school type animated cartoons. You know the ones that look like they were hand drawn. Well I seemed to have hit the jackpot with these three little cartoons!
David Stodonly has animated at Dreamworks for about ten years now and done films like “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Kung Fu Panda 2 & How to Train Your Dragon” to name a few. Here in these shorts he’s decided to animate some crazy great shorts old school style by drawing by hand and his style and fluid movement reminds me of one of my faves, Don Bluth. Check these out and demand he create more!
The first one is right up my alley as it’s about a little everyday occurance that turns Banner into The Hulk!
The Hunger Games…which is quite Bizarre!
Finally a completely awesome Harry Potter cartoon..
Comic Book cover of the Week! A Classic Monster Brawl From Bernie Wrightson!
Bernie Wrightson is easily one of the BEST artists ever in the world of comic books and fantasy. If you want a monster drawn right in an eerie landscape he’s the man for the job. Which is why he most likely drew this weeks cover of the week.
The Incredible Hulk #197 has got the Hulk facing off against another of Marvel’s classic green behemoths Man-Thing! This issue back from 1976, when comics where only a quarter (gasp!) features these two brutes going toe to toe, of course though the evil Collector has something to do with with this deathmatch! Wrightson was well know for Swamp Thing so it’s a treat to see him pencil the mighty Man-Thing and the Hulk. Wrightson would later return for the classic Hulk & Thing team up graphic novel from 1987 “The Big Change” another awesome monster filled story…
Even More Universal Dork Halloween Horror Picks! The Tall Man!
So this year’s list of horror movies to check out at the theater seems pretty weak ass to me. So far we have has V/H/S which got incredibly mixed reviews, Sinister (who former Universal Dork contributor The One From Beyond warned me was a complete pile of dog shit) and Paranormal Activity 4 which is jammed packed with even MORE doors slowly opening! So what the fuck is a horror hound supposed to do in this day and age of shitty Hollywood Horror? Well I just recently viewed Pascal Laugier’s “The Tall Man” and really enjoyed the hell out of it!
This movie probably should have seen a wide release especially with Jessica Biel as the movies’ main starpower. Now if you’ve seen Laugier’s previous movie Martyrs then you know this guy is a real talent. That movie caused quite a stir and left me with images that to this day are hard to erase from my mind. So I would never really recommend Martyrs to anyone because it’s just too much of a challenge to view. However I am glad I saw it and even though The Tall Man is a much much different type of horror film I can see strong similarities in how the stories unfold in both.
The plot is simple in The Tall Man, it follows a mother (Biel) who’s a doctor in small troubled town suffering from economic collapse. There many children have since gone missing and many locals believe it to be the work of an evil supernatural being called The Tall Man. It’s not long before our main character comes face to face with the legendary stranger as he attempts to steal her son. Now honestly that’s all I should really tell you about the plot, anything more would spoil this cool little film that has a LOT to say in the end.
You will be scratching your head mid way through confused as hell I promise but in the end it will all make sense. If you have seen Martyrs you know what I mean. The movie has many elements to it and to simply call it a horror movie would be a crime. However I think this was an exciting watch and one of the better new horror movies I’ve seen in quite some time. For those of you who’ve seen Martyrs don’t worry this one won’t leave you quite as scarred just more intrigued than anything else…
More Universal Dork Halloween Movie Picks! Heavy Metal Horror!
Here we go again with another movie pick for you this Halloween that you should be able to easily find for a Halloween horror movie night! Let’s face it movies are expensive to go to these days-and who the hell has got the money to risk on a shitty mainstream Hollywood horror flick these days? Well save some money and fear not fellow dorks I have got another gem for you to check out!
Trick or Treat from 1986 is a GREAT little bundle of cheezy horror served up they way it should be in the 1980’s-with a rockin’ metal soundtrack! Yeah this movie is all about heavy metal and the harm it can do to you when you play records backwards! Back in the 80’s people were obsessed with playing vinyl backwards because they swore all the metal bands were putting subliminal evil messages in their music! However I bet if you played some Patsy Cline albums backwards long enough you’d sure as hell hear something that’d be perceived as evil!
Anyway this rad movie has Marc Price, Family Ties’ “Skippy”, as our teenage metal head outcast nicknamed “Ragman”. He’s picked on by the jocks and longs for love from one of the most popular girls in his school. Well one day he gets a present for local metal DJ played by Gene Simmons, a final unreleased record by his favorite artist Sammie Curr, a recently deceased heavy metal superstar. When he takes it home and plays it bad things begin to happen and soon Sammie Curr returns from the dead with demonic powers and even more fucking bad ass rock and roll chops! Throw in a few monsters, some rock n’ roll and a ton of 1980’s electricity flying all over the place and boom-instant classic.
This is pretty much the perfect 80’s horror flick it’s just a damn good time all around. The perfect movie to drink beers with friends on Halloween. The more recent dvd releases of this movie have put pictures of Gene Simmons & Ozzy Osbourne on the cover implying they are the major stars of the movie, laughably they end up in the movie for a combined total of maybe a minute and a half tops! Still there a ton of fun to be had with this cult favorite, if you haven’t seen it check it out this Halloween and if you have it’s probably time to rock out to this once again!
Universal Dork’s Halloween Horror Picks #2! Cronenberg’s BEST!
People just love Cronenberg! However many people who love him today for movies like Eastern Promises & A History of Violence have long forgotten his amazing horror films like The Fly and his best in my opinion “The Brood”. If you have never seen this incredibly creepy movie from 1979 you are missing out big time. It’s also best that you know as little as possible about the plot as it will confuse you right up until the truly shocking finale. It’s been described as a horror version of Kramer vs. Kramer and I’d have to say that’s a neat way to look at this one.
It’s follows the story of a man who’s wife is receiving a strange theatrical therapy to help her with mental and emotional problems she’s experiencing. However when the husband finds bruises and cuts on their daughter he begins to suspect his mentally imbalanced wife may be to blame.
To make matters worse a brood of horrifying mutant children begin creeping around inside their house and soon people end up dead. This one is a Cronenberg masterpeice that should not be missed or seen again this Halloween! A true horror classic!!
Universal Dork 