My Choice for "The Prince" [2008]

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Over at Chud.com there’s a post about a crime drama written by Jeremy Passmore that John “Escape from New York” Carpenter is trying to put together.  It’s called The Prince.  Here’s how Passmore describes it:

“It’s a bit of a departure. It’s definitely more of a very character based crime movie. I don’t know what’s going on with it right now, but the premise is that this guy was the most [badass] gangster of all time in Las Vegas, and he’s left the life and created this whole new world. His wife died but he’s raising his kid. He’s living in the middle of nowhere and he’s this very religious, trying to live a straight life guy. His daughter is now going to school at UCLA and she disappears, and he goes looking for her. The trail leads to Vegas and he has to go get her, and the entire city kind of comes down on top of him.“

I don’t know about you, but I know who I’d suggest for the title role.

The Greatest?

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One of the greatest fights of all-time was the third match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. Dubbed the “Thrilla in Manila” it was the rubber match between two of the best fighters to ever step into the ring. Ali won the battle, but at a great cost. The fight took such a toil on them that both Frazier and Ali never wanted to watch it again.

Now, thirty plus years later, film maker John Dower uses that epic battle as the framework for his documentary “Thriller in Manila.” Not only does Dower take a close look at the fight, he takes the controversial stance that Ali’s dark side has been glossed over by time and that Joe Frazier was slighted due to the charisma of Ali. Dower uses new interviews with Frazier [who watches the Manila fight for the first time] interspliced with old newsreel footage and interviews to paint a picture of Ali that isn’t pretty.

You can read more about the documentary here.


Lesnar Wins Title

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I just got home from watching UFC 91. It was a fun night with most fights turning out as predicted. Kenny Florian won by rear naked choke in the first round over Joe Stevenson. The fight that everyone was waiting for was, of course, Brock Lesnar vs Randy Couture for the Heavyweight title. Couture was the fan favorite although Vegas odds preferred Lesnar.

I expected Lesnar to bum rush Couture from the opening bell. I was wrong. Lesnar displayed great respect for Couture and tried to stand with him. When Lesnar did take Couture down, he wasn’t able to hold him there. The round ended with Lesnar ahead, but Couture seemed to be gaining momentum. The second round saw more of the same when suddenly Couture went down from a short shot to the temple. Lesnar followed him to the ground and began raining hammerfists. Although Couture wasn’t out, he clearly wasn’t able to stop the barrage and the ref stepped in to stop it. Lesnar showed more class in this victory than his last. He thanked the fans, Randy Couture and the man upstairs. It’ll be interesting to see what lies in the future for both of these fighters.

Daytona Con!

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This Sunday [November 16th] from 10am to 5pm at the Holiday Inn & Suites my buddy Steve Meyers is putting on a small comic book convention. Admission and parking are free. John Beatty will be there sketching. That alone is worth the price of admission. There will be other guests and several vendors on hand. Heck, I might even get to swing by for a bit. If you’re in the area, you should too! 

The Night Gallery

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Say the name Rod Serling and most folks will come back with “The Twilight Zone.” And rightly so. “The Twilight Zone” was a classic sci-fi series that still holds up fifty years later. Although not as well known, Rod Serling’s “The Night Gallery” was his follow-up series which premiered on NBC five years after the cancellation of “The Twilight Zone.”

The conceit of “The Night Gallery” was that Serling would come out and talk about a painting on display in the “Night Gallery” and the teleplay, either an original story [many by Serling himself] or an adaptation of HP Lovecraft, Richard Matheson or another sci-fi or horror writer would follow. The paintings always related to the story that followed. It was a cool idea and I loved the show when it originally aired. [Keep in mind this was the early 70’s and I would have been 11 or 12.]

I’ve been watching episodes on RTN lately and I hate to say it, but many don’t hold up near as well as older episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” Part of the problem could be that “The Night Gallery” episodes in syndication are often cut or expanded to meet the half hour time slot.

I recently discovered this site dedicated to “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.” It’s chock full of information about the series with everything from episode guides, to misconceptions about the series to a gallery of paintings used in each episode. If you have any interest in Rod Serling or “The Night Gallery” you should check out the site. It’s even more fun than some of the episodes it covers!

Couture vs Lesnar

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This Saturday at 10pm UFC 91 will air on pay-per-view with one of the most highly anticipated mixed martial arts fights of all time. Randy Couture puts his heavyweight title on the line against Brock Lesnar. Both men are accomplished athletes with extensive wrestling skills. Couture is the more experienced octagon fighter, but he will give away over a decade and about 50 pounds. Lesnar is younger, faster, bigger and stronger, but doesn’t have anywhere near the experience of Couture.This is a tough one to call. I’d love to see Couture pull out a win — it would be the capper to a great career. Although, if Couture beats Lesnar, he’d probably come back for at least another fight or two. Couture has a nearly perfect win streak every time he has gone into a fight as an underdog — and he is the dog in this fight. Most folks just don’t see how Couture can overcome Lesnar’s size, strength and punches from fists the size of cinder blocks. Of course if everyone could see how Couture was going to win, he wouldn’t be the underdog.

I look forward to reading Raf’s predictions for the fight. As for me, I’m going to pull for Couture.

Tales of the Starlight Drive-In

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It’s no secret that I love drive-in theaters… and comic books. So does Mike San Giacomo. Mike is a writer who took his passion for drive-ins and comics and created a pretty cool concept for a graphic novel. Mike wrote “26 illustrated stories and six text stories set in a drive-in theater.” The stories take place over a 53-year period. Each story had to accomplish three things:
  1. It had to be able to stand alone, make perfect sense even if nothing else was read.
  2. Each stand-alone story must still advance the overarching storyline of the graphic novel as a whole.
  3. Each story had to somehow relate to the movie that is playing at the drive-in at the time.
How cool an idea is that? Very cool, I say!

Here’s a link to the website for Tales of the Starlight Drive-In. Here are links to Newsarama’s three part series [Part One; Part Two; Part III] covering Mike’s trips to historic drive-ins to promote his graphic novel. And here’s a link in case you want to order a copy of Tales of the Starlight Drive-In for yourself!