Category: Movies

How Sly Stallone Made the Cover of a French Graphic Novel

Today we have the Colin WIlson cover to the French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tête written by Matz and illustrated by Colin Wilson.  If you think the the tough-guy on the cover looks like Sylvester Stallone, you’d be right.

See, Du Plomb Dans La Tête was the basis for Stallone’s film Bullet to the Head.

What’s interesting to note is the character (that Sly ended up playing) from the original graphic novel was drawn to look a bit like Sly as Jack Carter.  When Sly took on the role for Bullet to the Head, Walter Hill (the director) opted for a different look and Sly agreed.  So in the movie Sly doesn’t look like Jack Carter but on the Du Plomb Dans La Tête cover he does.

And now you have the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey would say).

Ranking All “Rocky” / “Creed” Movies

Sam Stone at CBR.com recently posted Every Rocky Movie Ranked. Stone did this by averaging the professional critics’ scores from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Joe Leydon at Variety had the same idea so All Eight Rocky Movies Ranked were done by Joe.

Not to be outdone, John Orquiola at ScreenRant provided All 8 Rocky & Creed Movies Ranked.

Follow the links above to see the individual comments and rankings for each of the Rocky/Creed films.   I created a chart to make comparisons easier.  I also added my rankings in the last column.

It was interesting to see that except for Rocky at #1 and Creed as #2 there wasn’t a majority consensus for any other ranking.

Jack Carter and John Wick by John Beatty!

On November 23, 2018, aka Black Friday, John Beatty and I met in his studio to do a livestream broadcast of John’s John Wick / Jack Carter drawing for my Stallone Sketch Collection. Click on the photo above to see a much bigger version.  We were joined in the studio by Ron Wendt who took the photos below.

That’s John…

That’s me…

And that’s John with his reference working on the art.  You can click on the video link below to see and hear how everything went down.  We had a blast with viewers texting in questions and even a couple of call-ins to the studio.

John is considering adding tones to the Carter / Wick piece and if he does I’m sure I’ll join him in studio, so maybe you will consider swinging by as well.  John draws live most Monday through Fridays and loves to interact with those who tune in.  You should give it a go and tell him I sent ya.

Dead Film Franchises Begging to Be Revived

ComingSoon ran a piece called Dead Film Franchises Begging to Be Revived.  Of the films listed, here are the three I felt most deserving and a couple of more that didn’t make the list but should have…

Kill Bill – Tarantino has talked up a sequel for many years now.  The set-up was right there in Kill Bill, Volume 1:  Ambrosia Kelley (who played Vivica Fox’s daughter) is now grown and would return to take revenge on The Bride.

Blade – I didn’t care for Blade; loved Blade II and thought Blade: Trinity was good.  So, why not bring back Snipes for another outing?

Dirty Harry – My initial thought was, “No.”  But the idea of Scott Eastwood picking up his dad’s role as Harry Callahan got me thinking that it could work.  My biggest concern is that the social climate is much different now than it was when the original Dirty Harry was released.

Two movie franchises that didn’t make the list but should have…

Billy Jack – I’d love to see a remake of Born Losers, the film that introduced Billy Jack to the world.  Get someone like Kurt Sutter to take the reigns and you’d have a winner.

Escape from – Snake Plissken continues to be a popular character with fans.  Have Wyatt Russell (Kurt’s son) put on the eye patch and let’s go.

 

10 Remakes Better Than the Originals

Scott Beggs and Mental Floss took a look at 10 Remakes That Are Better Than the Originals. Here’s what Beggs had to say about three of my favorites that made his list (and my commentary after)…

3.  THE THING (1982)
Itself a remake of An Affair to Remember (just kidding), John Carpenter’s paranoid horror film captured a Cold War sensibility of neighborly distrust. Its predecessor, The Thing From Another World, stood out even among the mountain of now-cheesy 1950s sci-fi creature features, but Carpenter injected the zeitgeist even deeper into the film’s tissue to create a movie with complexity and a radical flamethrower.

Craig – While I wouldn’t agree that Carpenter’s remake is better – how do you improve on a classic? – I do agree that Carpenter’s update has also achieved a cult classic status.  I remember seeing Carpenter’s version on opening weekend in a nearly empty theater and coming out really liking the film but not loving it.  The Thing (pun intended) of it is, the movie like the creature in the movie grows on you,

4. SCARFACE (1983)
The movie that spawned a million dorm room posters and impressions of Al Pacino is a remake of Howard Hawks’s 1932 film that was neutered by the Hays Code. That version still shows the violent rise of a gangster based on Al Capone, but it had to explicitly condemn everything shown on screen and tack on the subtitle The Shame of a Nation (just in case audiences thought killing people was something to aspire to). It’s absolutely one of the most important genre pictures in the vault, but Brian De Palma’s Miami-set festival of bullets successfully updated it with a slathering of the greasy greed of the 1980s. Like its forebear, De Palma’s movie had its own struggles with the ratings board, earning a debilitating X rating because of its intense violence.

Craig – I agree with DePalma’s Scarface is better than the original, but I would also argue that the original was just as controversial pushing the envelope of violence and sexual innuendo.

 

9. THE CRAZIES (2010)
Fans chewed their fingernails off when Overture Films announced a remake of George Romero’s 1973 zombies-by-another-name horror flick, but it turned out to be ripe for remake pickings. The government assault on a town suffering from the military’s own biological weapon was effectively moody but had problems that Breck Eisner’s version cleaned up considerably. Justified star Timothy Olyphant is perfect as the beleaguered small-town sheriff, and the film works as a tense survival thriller with a boatload of spine-jolting scares.

Craig – I really liked the remake much more than the original.  And like both John Carpenter’s The Thing and Brian DePalma’s Scarface liked The Crazies remake better with each additional viewing.

“The Big Chill” Trivia

Scott Beggs and Mental Floss present 10 Memorable Things About The Big Chill.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. KEVIN COSTNER PLAYS A DEAD BODY.
The entire movie revolves around the suicide of Alex Marshall, an unseen college friend linking all the other characters together. Alex was originally in the film for one scene, but Kasdan cut it, effectively removing a young Kevin Costner from the movie except for one sequence where he lies motionless as Alex’s body is prepped for the funeral.

7. IT CONTRIBUTED TO GLENN CLOSE MAKING SOME ACTING HISTORY.

Everyone’s obsessed with EGOTing, but with an Oscar nomination for The Big Chill, a Tony nomination (and win) for The Real Thing, and an Emmy nomination for Something About Amelia, Close became the first actress to score all three major acting award nominations in a single calendar year. That’s a feat even fewer people have pulled off than the EGOT. Bob Fosse did it with directing and choreography in 1973, and Jason Robards became the first actor to do it in 1978. Unfortunately, she didn’t win the Oscar—and never has, despite six nominations (so far).

9. AN OCTOPUS ACTS AS A SUBTLE SYMBOL.
If we only saw an octopus once in the movie, it might be a happy accident, but there are at least two times that a soft-bodied cephalopod appears on a TV screen in the massive home the friends are sharing. You don’t have to dig too deeply to see the connection: eight limbs, eight friends, all interconnected and living (for the time we spend with them) as a single unit.