Sunday, February 16, 2014
William Katt's Star Wars Audition with Kurt Russell
Guess the Greatest American Hero was not ready for Interplanetary work
Kurt Russell Star Wars Audition
Glad this never happened. Love Kurt Russell but lets face it he is still in DISNEY teen movie mode... ever see KR as the Invisible Boy?
1974 Wonder Woman TV Movie / Pilot AND 1967 Mini Pilot
Doing some research I stumbled across this (COUGH) gem which can be seen on YOUTUBE.
Cathy Lee Crosby starred in this fiasco. As with so many TV versions fo Superhero TV shows on a budget, we have way too much talking created by second rate writers. No need to waste too much time on a Pilot never picked up to a series. You can tell in the first few seconds why the Linda Carter version is remembered in its stead...
Basically this 74 minute pilot can be summed up this way. Wonder Woman and another Amazon fight with the worst stick fight of on camera history over a burro. What an ass wrote this? And by stick fight, it almost feels like a parody movie of a pillow fight. No stunt doubles required in this "film".
"WHY GEORGE" WHY GEORGE INDEED?
While on the subject of failed ideas, if you have not seen this terrible idea for a 19060 Batman style comic adaptation, you really must see for yourself....
SHORT REVIEW this 5-minute "PILOT" is more of bad off-Broadway play trying to squeeze in every bad Jewish Mother joke....
Justice League: War Animated Feature Direct to Video from DC Comics
Just watched this on Amazon.com
There is a lot of controversy. Mostly from the Comic Book types, which I am not. I am an avid DC movie/TV/animation fan. LOVE the Bruce Timm years mostly like most of us do. This one is different. It does seem a little disappointing after the awesome FLASHPOINT PARADOX....
So I feel like I am on a role. I recently reviewed a series of films that have turned old material into grown up fair. And I keep coming back to the same theme. The film world - in this case the animated feature world - has finally caught up to the comic book world changed by Frank Miller and others that turned the old BLACK & WHITE world of good & bad and playing the various levels of grey.
This also seems to try and turn JLA into the Avengers. While I did not love this at first, I figure if you are going to do the origin story AGAIN lets do something fresh. Rather than a team brought together for the common good (Originally by Martian Man Hunter), this team is more reluctantly forced into co-operating by the situation. Ego and insecurity get in the way of great team work. In the end the fact that they win is almost by happen chance. This feature does not get quite as dark as other new world Superhero Offerings, but I think it has a nice mix of the new and old styles. Imagine if Frank Miller directed 1970s Superfriends - the one with the Scooby Doo knock offs, not the Wonder Twins...
This is far from being my favorite of the DC animated feature series. But I was thoroughly entertained.
I really like Shazam - so we are no longer calling him Captain Marvel right LOL Voiced by RUDY - I mean Sean Astin, the character really came alive. This character always seems so dumb. But was always one of my favorite. Back in the 4th grade I had a dream about stumbling into a scientist's lab and become a superhero. I think in many ways this is most of our dreams' until we discover girls, right?
Also I loved the CYBORG (Shemar Moore - Criminal Minds) origin story, which I had not seen before.
Dark Seid has obviously been juicing. Never seen him so big before LOL. The previous appearance Superman/Batman: Apocalypse was far better.
I think you have to judge each of the DC presentations based on the target audience. Arguably this offering was geared towards a younger audience, minus a few choice words that totally otherwise ruin this argument. The animation and voice direction is definitely better for younger crowds.
There are a lot of DC Movies head to video this year. - maybe making up for keep us waiting so long for another Superman / Batman installment. Looking forward to Son of Batman and
VAMPIRE ACADEMY: This Movie Sucks
OK, I saw this movie preview for months and said, oh crap a campy "Twilight." SKIP
My wife saw the same preview and said "Vampire Mean Girls." MUST SEE
I lost. We saw. I almost hurled.
A good example of how better casting, writing, acting and directing were missing. A oversized HOGWARTS wannabe castle as a backdrop is not enough for a movie.
(Which was true of 1/2 the harry potter films too)
The only reason I am calling this a KID MOVIE and not a BIG BUCKET OF GREASY CHICKEN (as I said I would) this is one of those movies based on a book series with a cult following. This cult following seem to be like so many others that fell in love with something like JRR TOLKIEN decades ago and just druel over anything similar. Similarly, after Ann Rice, people were Vampire crazy and sucked down veins of just about anything they were given.
Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief)
AND the only reason I am giving this any credit it sort of has that RL Stein quality campy horror at times. So I am assuming teenagers w/o care of acting etc will be happy to watch.
The whole crushing on the teacher is creepy. It would be less so if the teacher did not seem SO much older than the student. Or if the actor playing that teacher clearly has spent more time at the gym than in acting classes. Arnold got lucky. Rest of you back to class...
The name Stragoi is tarnished. Want to see a great indy horrow film? Watch STRIGOI. I watched it last year on NETFLIX. That is how you do a Vampire movie on a budget!!!
I did like Sarah Hyland (Modern Family) who played both the geeky teen hang on and killer vamp well.
THE ONLY THING that seemed cool? The possible future episodes. But I thought the same thing with TWIGHLIGHT and lost time and time again....
ROBOCOP 2014 Review and Preview Video
So I grew up in the 70s and 80s. By 1990s I was into my 20s. Before 1990 everything was black & white. We were the good guys. USSR the bad. In movies it was very clear who was good & evil. I was a Superman fan geek from day one. Because of this I resisted the quickly growing darker side of comics that focused on the grey areas...
Graffic Novels like THE WATCHMEN were way ahead of its time in the 1980s. I Suppose it makes sense Frank Miller was involved in later versions of ROBOCOP that have abviously influenced the most recent adaptation - even thought Mr Miller's name is found noweher on this movie officially.
This movie is great!!! Not just as a SciFi geek. The writing, direction and performance is perfect. If for nothing else to see Samuel L. Jackson basically play Glenn Beck. The obviously far right wing voal arm of NRA and Big Business (The Far Right Religeous aspect left out LOL)... And - SPOILER ALERT - break out of character at the end when the character gets mad and SLJ crys out his famous line from so many movies (MINUS SNAKES & PLANE) I was on the floor...
So when I first saw this preview, I thought, OH CRAP, here they go ruining another childhood fave... Mostly because ROBOCOP 1987 was not a great film. It was a good fun flick. Perfect for POPCORN. And the sequels were terrible attempts to make money on the name.
BUT THEN last week I saw a preview showing Joel Kinnaman. OK YOU GOT ME!!! On TV promos I did not recognize him at all. Have you seen THE KILLING on AMC? Joel Kinnaman costars with Mireille Enos. Or if you are like me you bulk watched on NETFLIX. Love this guy. Enos is the star but the edgy Kinnaman is as funny and hard core real as the drug addict cop. The perfect undercover guy.
Probably the funniest part of the movie is Samuel L Jackson. In my mind this was a hilarous parody on Glenn Beck. SLJ's character is clearly bought by big business and NRA type interests. He is the modern TV version of Beck or Limbaugh - Yell enough and enough ignorant folks will follow and listen. Sorry just got too political, but that is the point.
This movie is a modern Superhero Movie, where good & bad are not black & white - And I just don't mean SLJ impersonating Glenn Beck LOL. The bad guys are big business, but they truly have safety for all as a goal. While they may cut corners, they want to deliver for the money the rake in by the ocean full. Amerca has become the ulitmate police state with the rest of the world living in fear of robotic police. But the big argument, shown at the congressional level, why not use this as home?
So ROBOCOP is the way to get robots on US streets.
Every character, no matter how noble or innocent, has a selfishly motivated moment. Even when ROBOCOP goes after his own killers, there is more personal revenge plot driving the machine and less noble justice goals.
ROBOCOPS failures in many ways happen because the "GOOD" doctor from OCP - played by Gary Oldman - makes descisions to save his and OCP ass to make ROBOCOP seem perfect for a short time - which leads to bad results.
At the end of this story, however, the old school BLACK AND WHITE ending redeems those that rose above and chose to be GOOD to redeem their failures.
As always I love Michael Keaton as the bad guy. I met MK as a romantic comedy goof ball type. But he was great as the sadistic neighbor in Pacific Heights. This character is a likeable exec. More of a Bill Gates than a Lex Luthor. Really not until the end do you see this guy will cross the line for selfish gain. The rest of the movie you can identify with his descisions as long as you are not OWS type...
BUT My favorite part of the movie? Jackie Earle Haley!!!
What is it about this guy? Again this guy was the brooding hitter form 1970's Bad News Bears. But now everytime he shows up he is the biggest smallest bad ass of all time... He cracks me up. .And the more straight he plays the tough guy the funnier it is. And to his credit, not trying to make fun of the guy. I really wish HUMAN TARGET on FOX was better because JEH rocked. (The show sucked)
GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!
EXTRA LARGE POPCORN
WATCH ORIGINAL MOVIE with Peter Weller
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