Category: Horror

The 25 Best Action Movies to Get Your Blood Pumping

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Gem Seddon and GamesRadar present The 25 Best Action Movies to Get Your Blood Pumping.  Seddon has come up with a great list.  It was hard to pick just three, so depending on my mood, my choices could change.  But for now, here they are (with some thoughts to follow)…

5. Aliens (1986)
Action hero: Ellen Ripley

The film: Ridley Scott’s atmospheric opener saw Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) trapped on a spaceship with a single Xenomorph, so it made sense for James Cameron’s sequel to try and up the ante: an abandoned space colony, a unit of gung-ho marines and an entire hive of acid bleeding bugs.

Most action-packed scene: Confronting the queen in the bowels of the industrial complex, Ripley has a few nice mother-to-mother moments before later strapping into the power loader and fighting her claw to claw.

 

2. Die Hard (1988)
Action hero: John McClane

The film: New York cop John McClane picks the first of many wrong places and wrong times to visit his wife at work, but for star Bruce Willis and director John McTiernan, the timing couldn’t have been better. Putting an ordinary Joe in the middle of a firefight, confining a terrorist takeover to a single, claustrophobic building, and balancing quip-smart dialogue with hard and heavy action set-pieces, Die Hard set the mold and broke it at the same time.

Most action-packed scene: A rooftop bomb. A short fire hose. A plate glass window. The rest is history.

 

8. John Wick (2014)
Action hero: John Wick

The film: Director Chad Stahelski overcomes first-time jitters in his filmmaking debut, largely due to his experiences as a martial arts stunt co-ordinator. This revenge actioner throws in some dark motivating factors for Keanu Reeves leading man. His vendetta kill mission is the most dazzling work Reeves has accomplished since his first time tackling Neo.

Most action-packed scene: Wick enters a club wherein he punches, kicks, headbutts and shoots anyone who crosses his path. Each strike hits with an eerie precision.

I was glad to see Stallone made the top 25 with First Blood. I was also happy to see both John Wick films made the cut.  If it was my list I would have found room for Rambo and Enter the Dragon.

31 Things We Learned from Frank Darabont’s “The Mist” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 31 Things We Learned from Frank Darabont’s The Mist Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. The opening set, where David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is painting, is designed after Drew Struzan’s actual studio and features copies of his most famous poster work including The Thing and Pan’s Labyrinth. “My idea was our artist here is painting a movie poster for a fictional Dark Tower film.”

6. He picked Melissa McBride (The Walking Dead) from tapes given them by the local casting director, and she impressed even the more seasoned actors during her initial scene in the market where she’s concerned about her kids. “The audition was thrilling, but what she did on set was even more thrilling.” The cast and crew burst into applause when he called cut.

23. The jump scare at 1:24:53 — William Sadler pounding on the glass door — made King jump in his seat on first viewing. “It was really one of the most gratifying moments because I scared the crap out of Stephen King, with the oldest trick in the book.”

 

The Walking Dead: 15 Mysteries The Creators Have Completely Neglected

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Tara Diaz and ScreenRant present The Walking Dead: 15 Mysteries The Creators Have Completely Neglected.  Here are three of my favorites and my thoughts on each…

15. WHAT’S WITH THE FREAKY ZOMBIE SOLDIER THAT RICK ENCOUNTERS?
Little has been mentioned about the military operations that took place at the start of the spread, and this has a lot to do with the fact that Rick is in a coma while a big chunk of the action occurs. In the very first episode, Rick climbs into a tank to protect himself and rather awkwardly bumps into a zombie soldier who is extremely unwelcoming.

This tells us that there was some attempt to contain or diminish the epidemic, but how and why it failed is never really looked into at all. The whole premise of the show revolves around the aftermath, so it’s understandable why the creators have decided not to show this, but still, it would be interesting to see if there were any mistakes made on the government’s part. Fear the Walking Dead‘s attempts to do so were…we’ll say ineffective.

For me, the most exciting part of any zombie tale is when the outbreak starts and nobody knows what is going on or what to do.  It might be interesting to see a flashback to the start of the outbreak following a heroic soldier who, you guessed it, ends up as a zombie in the tank with Rick.

6. WHAT’S ZOMBIE GIRL’S DEAL?
Zombie girl with the little teddy bear is the first ever walker Rick sees and kills. And of course, this is an extremely emotional moment for Rick, as he comes to terms with the fact that he’s going to have to blow this little monster away. Big ones, little ones, they’re all the same. They’re monsters, they’re no longer people, and they’ll have to be put down.

Something that stands out as slightly off is the fact that Zombie girl bends down to pick up a teddy bear to take with her. This seems rather odd, considering the walkers don’t possess human traits or emotions and only really seem to care about getting their five humans a day, if you know what we mean.

I don’t like zombies who can think.  They shouldn’t be pumping gas or firing guns or using rocks to break windows (although I can over look that in Romero’s NOTLD car scene).  Yet, for some reason the little girl picking up the stuffed teddy bear didn’t bother me.  Maybe because it seemed more of an instinctive act than a premeditated action.

1. HOW DID THE VIRUS EVEN START?
They haven’t really touched on this subject, although there’s been a few attempts to find a cure. What we do know is that humans, or most of them, already live with the zombie pathogen which will become active upon their death. ‘Zombification’ can also be caused by a walker’s bite or scratch, which transmits an infection that kills and subsequently releases the pathogen.

The brain is directly affected; a walker displays no human intelligence or emotion (except for the occasional teddy bear attachment), yet has primal abilities such as smell and movement. The only way to destroy a walker is to damage their brain, and there has been no mention of a permanent cure, as of yet. It would be interesting to find out what triggered the infection in the first place and whether this was man made or a natural occurrence. None of the characters seem to have any real knowledge on the subject, and it’s possible no one really knows what happened! Except Robert Kirkman, of course.

While it might be interesting to discover how the virus started, it is kind of cool that no one seems to know.

Stephen King Interview!

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Jenelle Riley has a nice interview with Stephen King at Variety.  Here are a couple of tidbits…

Do you enjoy acting? A lot of people cite your performance in “Creepshow” as memorable.
What they really talk about is the bit I did in “Sons of Anarchy” where I played a crazy guy who cleans up bodies. That was fun. Look, I like to sing in the shower, too, but that doesn’t mean anybody’s ever going to put me on a record.

Is there anything that scares you? 
Oh God, yes. Air travel is a big one with me because I feel like I’m not in control. I’m close to 70 now, so I’m worried about basically having the cheese slide off my cracker — Alzheimer’s, dementia, stuff like that. I don’t like bugs, I don’t like bats, I don’t like things that creep and crawl. With the exception of snakes, somehow they don’t really turn my dials. But I’m also afraid of people like Brady Hartsfield, they’re out there. And it crosses my mind every time I do a public event. You think about somebody like Mark David Chapman, and you think maybe somebody’s got a knife out for you. But that’s part of life.

Hard to believe Stephen King has been knocking out best-sellers for over 40 years!

The Walking Dead: 15 Awesome Things You Didn’t Know About Daryl

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Caitlin Leale and ScreenRant present The Walking Dead: 15 Awesome Things You Didn’t Know About Daryl. Here are three of my favorites…

15. HE’S STRICTLY FOR TV
Don’t expect Daryl Dixon to pop up in the comics anytime soon – or ever, according to The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. He got fans’ hopes up on April Fool’s Day back in 2014 when he posted a joke comic book cover with Daryl on the front. However, Kirkman was quick to clarify that the cover was a joke, saying in an interview with MTV that he’ll never bring Daryl to the comics. The creator cited Daryl’s “immense popularity” as the main reasons that he’ll never write a crossover, explaining that despite the fact the television show is based on the comics, the two are on different paths and have core differences as a result. Unfortunately, Daryl just happens to be one of those differences.

10. YOU MIGHT BE READING INTO HIS TATTOOS TOO MUCH
Crossbow, motorcycle, tattoos – Daryl has all the “tough guy” bases covered. Daryl’s tattoos have been revealed on the show before, most notably in Season 3’s “Home.” Merle rips off Daryl’s shirt in the midst of a quarrel during the episode and reveals a host of scars over Daryl’s back. The point of the shot was to emphasize Daryl’s traumatic upbringing, but fans latched on to something else: what could Daryl’s devil-like back tattoos mean? According to Norman Reedus, not much. The actor has said that he opted out of covering his tattoos or giving Daryl his own unique designs and simply kept all of his personal tattoos for his Walking Dead character. Reedus also has several other tattoos besides the two revealed on his back: he also has his dad’s name (also Norman) on his chest, his son’s name “Mingus” on his right forearm, and several others.

3. DARYL WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN AS A RACIST DRUG ADDICT
It turns out Norman Reedus was an excellent choice to play Daryl Dixon, and not only because his talent shines through onscreen. Daryl was originally written as a harsher, more antagonistic character, akin to his brother Merle. Basically, he was just supposed to be another racist drug addict. Kirkman says you can see these characteristics come out the most in Season 1. However, Reedus wasn’t so convinced that this was the right choice for his character. As the show went on, the actor transformed his character from one exactly like his brother to one more resentful of his past and upbringing. Kirkman has said that it’s Daryl’s complexity that fans enjoy so much today is all due to Reedus’ creative choices, so if you’re a big fan of Daryl’s character, you have the actor to thank.

Jonathan Maberry Interview!

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ComicBook101.com recently posted an interview with Jonathon Maberry that’s worth a read.

Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestselling author, executing a wide-ranging body of work for Marvel, Dark Horse, and more. He is currently doing loads of stuff with IDW, from the frenetically-paced, terrifyingly good ‘V-Wars’, to the angst-loaded, twist-laden ‘Rot & Ruin’. A fan would be breathless following the work of this writer, just as we were when he granted us the following interview, in which he promised lots of rot, ruin, and paranoia, among other things.

Check it out!

25 Things We Learned from the “Kong: Skull Island” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 25 Things We Learned from the Kong: Skull Island Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

5. The image that Bill Randa (John Goodman) hands Senator Willis (Richard Jenkins) was originally of Godzilla, but he fought against that as he felt the film needed to be about Kong from the beginning.

25. The post-credits scene almost didn’t make the cut as several voices felt it didn’t fit, but he argued successfully for its inclusion knowing that audiences would love the tease into the bigger monsterverse to come.

14. The helicopter occupant falling into Kong’s mouth is an homage to the 1933 film version where Kong actually ate people.