Tagged: film
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!
A Band Called DEATH: The Founding Fathers of Punk Rock!
I just saw the recently released documentary “A Band Called Death” documentary on VOD. Let me guess, you have no idea who Death is? Well that’s not a surprise as the band is only recently getting the recognition they most rightfully deserve and it only took about 40 years! So just who the hell are these guys? Well without spoiling too much of this excellent documentary I’ll say this, they were punk before punk was punk. Yeah Death formed way back in 1971 and they were an all black punk band long long before The Bad Brains. Yep before The Ramones these guys were kicking some serious ass.
Three brothers all who had the passion for bands like The Who and Alice Cooper got together to make some of the most ass kickin’ punk rock songs of all time. To say these guys were ahead of their time is an understatement as they were turning up loud and fast during a time when the Motown scene was booming. Not a label would touch them with a name like Death but they never faltered for nearly ten years these guys went virtually unheard and only released a 45 record to the public yet had an amazing full album that never saw the light of day until recently. They eventually disbanded and that’s where the story gets real interesting.
This is easily one of my favorite rockumentaries I’ve ever seen it ranks right of there with ‘The Story of Anvil’ in terms of portraying the true fight of an underdog band. It’s a truly heart warming movie full of some amazing rock and roll and a load of great stories. If you’re a fan of music in general you have gotta check this out. If you thought you knew everything there was to know about punk rock and it’s origins the you need to see this. The unlikely rise of a band called Death who formed over forty years ago proves that dreams really can and do come true…
Building a Human Replica is Harder Than You Might Think!
Seriously folks, check out this extensive video for building a human replica by Peter Serafinowicz! This new sci-fi short proves it’s harder than it looks I guarantee this one will make you laugh your ass off! Check it out it’s a great vintage style film that brings to mind classic stuff like Westworld. Now you know why people act so weird-they’re most likely human replicas on a mission to build a million Eiffel Towers!!
Siskel & Ebert “Evil Dead” 1981 Review
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….
ADI: Wizards of Special FX!
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!!!
Video Tonfa Takes on The Deadbeat at Dawn!
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…
Evil Dead 4: Less Talk More Rock Mr. Raimi!
Here we go again and again….So it seems the big news is that Sam Raimi has mentioned that he’s going to write the script this summer for Evil Dead 4 with his brother. Apparently he mentioned this in an interview promoting his new “Oz the Great & Powerful” movie opening soon. First I really can’t say I am excited for this new Wizard of Oz prequel, Raimi to me seems like the new Tim Burton and unfortunately that’s not a compliment. Aside from his sorta return to form film “Drag Me to Hell” it’s been a while since he’s put out anything too stellar. This Oz film reminds me of more of the same “Alice in Wonderland” style glittery forgettable Hollywood schlock. I just don’t have any interest in sitting through more of that type of stuff anymore. However a piece of me got excited about this Evil Dead script thing and then I remembered he promised back in 2008 that part 4 was in the works back at the San Diego Comic-Con and then I remember he’s been making these promises since the early 2000’s!
So what we all need now is less talk. Let’s see some REAL progress! I would love to see one last adventure with an older, wiser, grumpier Ash. Bruce is not too old for the role either he’s only 54, I am certain if he spent a little time getting into shape (or not) he could bring us all the performance we’ve been hoping for. My question is if Raimi get’s his ass in gear and makes this happen is it going to be a glittery pile of Hollywood shit? Is he going to go for an Army of Darkness style plot where it’s Bruce in front of a green screen for an hour and a half? Or will this new Evil Dead reboot “boasting no CG” set the bar for the way this fourth movie is filmed? We can only hope! Drag Me to Hell showed a glimmer of promise for a fourth installment, yet if Ash would have been the lead character in that movie I would have been sorely disappointed. If Evil Dead 4 is to work it’s got to push the bar real high, pushing the Horror Comedy genre to a new level and set a new standard. With all the money Raimi has now from Spider-man we had better see a movie that outshines it’s two predecessors. It’s one thing for Raimi to be a “Tim Burton” but if he becomes a modern day “George Lucas” then Evil Dead 4 (if it ever really sees the light of day) it could be a tough stain to erase from our minds for a nearly pitch perfect horror franchise….Raimi I’ll be watching you!
P.S. Hey Sam if you know what the true fans want, it’s not special effects like this!
Compliance: Easily The Most Frustrating Movie of the Year!
Wow… I just finished watching “Compliance” the other night, which was just recently released on DVD. I’ve never seen a more messed up, irritating movie in perhaps my entire life! This movie will make you want to scream, pull your hair out of your head and pick up your television and throw it out the window. Yes I”m not kidding. It’s been a long long time since I’ve seen cinema this frustrating and if you don’t believe me I dare you to watch it. I guarantee you will want to teleport yourself into the tv screen and kick all these peoples asses to the moon.
The premise is incredibly simple, during a busy day at a fast food chicken restaurant a female employee is pulled of the register and taken into the back room by her female boss. Her boss is on the phone with a caller who claims to be a police officer reporting that the employee had stolen money from a purse of a customer there only a couple hours ago. She’s kept in the back room and slowly the “officer” on the phone starts demanding that they do a strip search of her because there aren’t any police in the area at the moment. Her boss reluctantly strip searches her and finds nothing. The demands get more and more outrageous as several other people become involved and follow the man’s demands if only because they are afraid of authority.
This movie goes into some seriously dark places and about mid way through I found myself shouting at the screen. I figured it to be just one stupid ass, yet well acted movie with a ridiculously unbelievable plot. I have to admit I almost turned it off at one point. However what was most shocking is that this movie is based on a real incident. It follows the real incident exactly as it happened in real life which blew my mind that anyone one anywhere could be this stupid and naive. With further investigation similar incidents portrayed in this movie ocurred over 70 times here in the United States. I guess to truly understand how insane this is you really have to see the movie, but be warned it will make you angry, frustrated and kinda sick to your stomach. It will also show you just how fearful and compliant people can be when dealing with people of the law…..
Here is the ABC news coverage of the story, spoilers a plenty…
Planet Hulk Movie is a No Go! Where to go with The Movie Hulk?
I’ve just read via Ain’t it Cool News that supposedly there are NO plans to bring the Planet Hulk story to the big screen. As much as I enjoyed Planet Hulk, the idea of this being a big Hollywood blockbuster movie really didn’t excite me all that much. First I had wondered how they would pull this off with Ruffalo, as Marvel has recently stated they were concerned that Planet Hulk was missing one key ingredient for big screen success….Bruce Banner!
Yeah as cool as it may have been for this Hulk story to be told if, I remember correctly Banner only appeared in Planet Hulk for a brief moment in a small side story which perhaps showed up in an annual of some sorts during that time. I do wonder why Marvel would have to have a Banner-less Planet Hulk? They’ve changed a lot in the movies from their comic origins so why couldn’t Banner co-exist with The Hulk in the big screen version? Perhaps they just don’t want to waste the time of having to make Hulk a menace to the world on screen? He seems to be working out nicely right now in the books as an Avenger and an agent of SHIELD.
So for a second though let’s imagine Marvel did indeed want to make Planet Hulk a reality, following the comic book storyline strictly. What we would have on our hands would be an entirely CG, animated movie. We all know that the big Hollywood studios rarely use live sets anymore especially for an alien world, we all know that they refuse to use any practical effects or make up to bring The Hulk to life, we all know in big Hollywood movies that aliens are 99.9% of the time entirely CG creations and since we have him teaming up with aliens in the movie there would be no use for any real on screen actors. We would have some big name actors voicing. This really leaves nothing for Ruffalo in that storyline. So to me it would be like a PIXAR flick. That could be cool, but it’s not what Avengers and Hulk fans want at the end of the day. So where does this leave the poor Hulk?
Perhaps he’s better as a team player? Perhaps the Hulk doesn’t work the way he did back in the 70’s when Bixby and Ferrigno brought him to life on TV weekly. If they do bring another Hulk movie it’s going to need a lot of Ruffalo/Banner and smaller doses of the Hulk. I personally would love a simpler classic Hulk approach to a movie. Give me The Leader as the Mastermind, throw in some henchmen like the U-foes, Half-life or the Bi-Beast and give us She-Hulk plus Doc Samson and let’s get down to business of some good smashing the old school way! What do you think should happen with the Hulk on the big screen? Should he just stay a team player? Should he have another shot at a solo film? What story would you like to see brought to life?
Zero Charisma: Another Tired Stereotypical Nerd Comedy?
I just watched the trailer for the upcoming “Zero Charisma”, a comedy again about D&D. I’ll admit this movie looks like a damn good time, but after thinking about it for a little bit it kinda started to bug me. First check it out:
Looks good huh? Yeah, but really how many more comedies are we going to get about people who either A. LARP or B. Play RPG’s being socially awkward, yet lovable man-children? I think this stereo type had a bit of truth to it like 20 years ago! I know a lot of RPG-ers and none of them still live with their mom. Hell most of them are married or have hot girlfriends / boyfriends! Yeah I get it, it’s a nerdy game, because you’re using you imagination? I find it a lot more stimulating than sitting in front of a tv for hours on end playing X-Box. I think it’s funny too that the “new guy” to the game in the trailer brings a six pack like it’s a big deal! Geez everyone, get over it, these “nerds” have been drinking beer and smoking weed at D&D for decades now! D&D for me often feels like a party and I’ll have you know there’s not a Mountain Dew near anywhere near our battle grid.
So what I’m getting tired of is this continual stereotype in movies ect. about the modern day nerd. Most people that play RPG’s don’t even fit into this bracket. I get that it’s a fun and easy topic to poke at but come on it’s time to recognize that times have changed and you don’t need to be a socially awkward moron to enjoy this type of activity. I think today you find people of all races, social classes and genders enjoy a good game in the world of adult make believe, don’t you?
Universal Dork 