Category: Movies

“The Expendables” Cast 1970s Style

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Bryan Enk at IFC.com posted an interesting article that asked and answered the question: What Would a 1970’s-Era “Expendables” Cast Look Like?   For the most part, I think Enk’s choices are spot on.  Let’s look at who he’d cast…

  • Charles Bronson – Bronson would have been my first choice as well.  Bronson would play Stallone’s character.  The only thing better would have been for Bronson to have been alive to join the true cast.
  • Malcolm McDowell – Now THAT is an interesting choice.  Enk says that McDowell would play Statham’s role, but I disagree.  I think that McDowell would be better as Dolph Lundgren’s character. McDowell has that right mix of crazy to pull it off.
  • Steve McQueen – Although Enk doesn’t list a specific character for McQueen, for me at least, it is obvious that McQueen would play the unlucky in love loner that Jason Statham brought to life on the big screen.
  • Bruce Lee – What fan wouldn’t have picked Bruce Lee to play an Expendable?  Of course Lee would naturally fit in as Jet Li’s character.
  • Lee Marvin – Great choice!  I see Lee Marvin taking on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cameo as Trench.  How cool would that have been?  Very cool, says I.
  • Richard Roundtree – I can see Roundtree in the role played by Terry Crews, but I think I’d have rather seen Ron O’Neal or Jim Brown.
  • Gene Hackman – Ok, although I didn’t become a Gene Hackman fan until later in his career [it was me, not him], I can see him playing the Eric Roberts’ role.
  • Clint Eastwood – Who wouldn’t want to see Eastwood in the role of Mr. Church played by Bruce Willis?
  • Charlton Heston – Enk has Heston playing one of the cameos played by Schwarzenegger and Willis, but since I have already filled those parts, we’d have to give Chuck a new role.

Since Enk didn’t come up with a 70’s actor to play the roles brought to life by Steve Austin and David Zayas, I’d like to suggest William Smith and Ernest Borgnine… and don’t you think we’d have to find something for John Wayne?

 

Batman: Year One – Adapting a Classic

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Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli is a masterpiece.   It is (one of my favorites and) without a doubt one of the best received graphic novels ever.

When it was first announced that Batman: Year One was being developed into a feature length animated movie, the idea was to stay true to the story and the art.   Animation Magazine caught up with co-directors Sam Liu and Lauren Montgomery who discussed some of the difficulties of adapting the classic tale of Batman’s first year.  If that’s not reason enough to click over, they also preview some of the animation art from the film.

 

Wrecked and Buried

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The last two movies I watched made for an interesting double feature. Both start out with the star waking up in a dangerous situation not fully aware of how things came to be. They then spend the remainder of the movies, on their own, trying to figure out how they can save themselves.

First up was Wrecked starring Adrian Brody. Brody wakes up in the passenger seat of a wrecked car precariously perched midway down a steep incline in rugged territory. There’s another passenger in the back seat who is dead. The driver, who was thrown from the car, is also dead. Although Brody is badly injured, he’s still alive. Whether he’ll remain that way will depend on his ability to free himself from the wreckage and then make his way up or down the ravine. Neither looks like a good choice. Brody will also have to deal with the weather, wild animals, and a wilderness man who wants the bags of money in the wrecked car’s trunk.

Buried begins when Ryan Reynolds wakes up to find himself buried in a wooden coffin. He slowly pieces together that he’s been placed there because he’s an American trucker in Iran, and his kidnappers hope to get 5 million dollars ransom for his safe return. The entire movie stays with Reynolds as he attempts to figure a way out with just a lighter, a flashlight, a pencil and a cell phone. But don’t think that this is going to be an uplifting movie about a rugged individual who finds a way to overcome with the simple things around him. Far from it. The movie is claustrophobic and relentlessly tense.

Wrecked rates a C
Buried rates a B

Kelsey Shannon: Sly as Captain America

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The amazing Kelsey Shannon makes his return to the SZ Gallery. Kelsey has worked in comics, animation, and film. He can pencil, ink and color. Kelsey plays a mean game of hacki-sack and he’s one of the nicest and most talented people that you could ever meet. Kelsey surprised me with his take on Sly as Captain America. How cool.

I got my first piece from Kelsey, back in 2002. He also surprised me with it! Then I actually got to meet Kelsey at Heroes Con in 2004. At that show he did me, this cool take on Sly as Jack Carter. It’s still one of my favorites riffs on Sly as Carter. I think we’re going to have to get Kelsey back to MegaCon or Heroes and bribe him for more sketches. If I bring big blocks of cheese it might work.

Robbi Rodriguez & Machine Gun Joe

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Robbi Rodroguez did a Rocky sketch for me at last year’s Heroes Convention. When I saw that Robbi was going to be at Heroes again this year and was taking commissions early, I asked for an iconic black and white piece of Sly as Jack Carter. Robbi knew exactly what I was looking for and came through like a champ with this piece. I was totally blown away.

So I requested another Stallone piece, this time totally of Robbi’s choosing. He decided to go with Sly as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo from Death Race 2000. It was a unique choice that I quickly got behind. Robbi not only drew Machine Gun Joe standing in his race car with a smoking machine gun, but threw in Joe’s co-pilot as well. I can’t say enough great things about Robbi’s commissions except that I want another!

You can see more of Robbi’s art here and here… and definitely again here at the SZ in the future.