Category: Movies

Evan Bryce Knows the Cure

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Today we have the return of Evan Bryce and his riff on Sly as Cobra. I’ve been a fan of Evan’s art for a few years now and we’ve become friends via the internet. We’d met just once at Heroes Con in 2009 and I got a cool Sly from The Expendables sketch.

Evan didn’t make it back to Heroes in 2010 and he wasn’t supposed to be there this year. However he surprised everyone and made the trip. I asked for a Stallone character sketch of his choice and he went with Cobra and threw in the car and cityscape background as a bonus.

Evan is an exciting artist and one to keep an eye on. You can see more of his work at his blog or his Deviant Art site. Plan to spend a while.

100 All Time Best Comedies

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Recently TimeOut.com posted their choices for the 100 Best Comedies of All Time.  Using just their list, here is my top ten…

  • Airplane: The only other movie that made me laugh so hard was Richard Pryor Live… and why didn’t it make the 100 Best list?
  • Blazing Saddles: At the time it was one of the craziest movies I had ever seen.  Mel Brooks‘ masterpiece.
  • Dr. Strangelove: One of my favorite movies.  It’s not an all-out laugh fest like the first two because of the subject matter.  A masterpiece.
  • Arsenic and Old Lace: My favorite Cary Grant movie.  I can watch this one anytime.
  • Planes, Trains and Automobiles: I was surprised at how good this movie was.  A comedy with heart and real LOLs.
  • National Lampoon’s Vacation: Probably gets bonus points because I have so many fond memories of watching it with my ex-brother in law.  I actually like Christmas Vacation better, but it didn’t make the list!
  • Raising Arizona: Nick Cage’s funniest intentionally funny movie.
  • The Pink Panther Strikes Again: I saw it in a theater back in high school and although it’s not as funny as I remembered it to be, my memories of it are good enough to get it into the top ten.
  • The Princess Bride: A classic fairy tale that happens to be pretty dog-gone funny.

“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