Month: May 2008

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Saw this today. It is a good popcorn summer movie.  I would say a 6 out of 10.

The movie pays homage to the previous movies.  And has several strong points.  But it also has some weak ones.  Mainly in the effects department.  Obvious CGI all over the place.  Plus certain types of action that are just too wild even for the Indy-verse.  If you are an Indy fan, then definitely go see it.  It also mentions items from the Young Indiana Jones series – putting that into Canon.

I will go into more details below.  Warning.  There will be spoilers.

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It’s My Party And I’ll Die If I Want To

Awesome movie! Go to www.scotchworthy.com and order one right now – it is only $15 with $3 for shipping ($10 international). Before I even start writing, you need to get a copy. I’ll wait.

I first heard about this movie from the Drunken Zombie podcast, an award winning podcast. Nothing but praise. Then the Night of the Living Podcast, best horror podcast out there, reviewed it. Nothing but praise all the way around. I was skeptical at first. But then I got to see it. wow.

Now this is a low-budget movie. But that detracts nothing from it. This movie has everything a horror movie needs: blood, gore, violence and nudity. (I know you can have a horror movie without those elements, but where’s the fun in that?)

I do not want to go into too much detail on the plot. Since I want people to see this movie, I don’t want to risk spoiling it for you.

Did I mention it has a choose-your-own adventure option when viewing it?

Instead, check out the trailer:

I give it a 9 out of 10. This has put Scotchworthy Productions on my radar. I am looking forward to their future releases.

Never Cry Werewolf

I saw this movie on the Sci-Fi network on 5-11-08.   Like all Sci-Fi movies it did not have good special effects at all.  But that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The movie begins with a werewolf killing a registered sex offender in a small town.   Good, right?  A man moves into an old house beside a family consisting of a mother, her 16 year-old daughter and younger son.  The son befriends the newcomer in town and helps him work on his house.  The girl, Lorne or Lorna, seems creeped out a little.  She finds he has hairy palms.  insert joke here.  And makes a joke to her friend about him being a werewolf.   That night, through her brother, Kyle’s telescope she seesthe neighbor, Jarod, bring home a prostitute and kill her.  Seem familiar?  It gets better.  She takes the police over there and brings up that she knows he is a werewolf to the police.  Of course, they do not belive her and she has tipped her hand to the werewolf.  The werewolf however, has a pocket watch with an old picture of his long dead bride in it.  And she looks just like Lorna.  Jarod becomes obsessed with Lorna and wants to turn her into his mate.  Lorna and one of Kyle’s older friends go to a gun store where Redd Taylor, a down on his luck TV game hunter, is signing autographs.  While there, the werewolf and his demon dog attack the guy with Lorna.  yada yada yada.  We get to the showdown where the relunctant Redd Taylor helps Lorna take out the werewolf before midnight.  Ensuring that she and Kyle’s friend do not become a werewolf.

What we have here is a lame Fright Night ripoff.  Kevin  Sorbo plays Redd Taylor, the TV game hunter.  Basically a ripoff of the Peter Vincent played by the masterful McDowell.  the Lorna character is a melding of the Charlie and Amy characters.  Kyle’s friend is basically Evil Ed.

Now since I am a sucker for even the worst werewolf movie, I will probably rent the DVD to see if there were any scenes cut for broadcast.

Overall, I give this a 4 out of 10.

I hope this was an homage to Fright Night.  And I hope the DVD release will make it better.  Maybe after I have lived with it for a bit, I’ll like it better.

Gnome by Dave Dwonch

This is a nice one-shot from one of the hosts of the Geek Savants podcast. Gnome is published by Super Real Graphics.Gnome is an all-ages comic book that tells the story of the last guardian gnome defending the earth from an entity trying to break through. The story is set in the 1950s and also focuses on Andy a young man who has moved from the big city to a small town and is trying to make a life for himself. He has inherited a house from his later uncle. A man who kept pretty much to himself and disappears under suspicious circumstances. Andy ends up getting a lawn gnome statue at a flea market.

The lawn gnome comes to life and works with Andy to get ready to fight the entity trying to enter our world through his basement. I’m not going to further spoil the plot. I may have already said too much. But this is not just the tale of the last gnome on earth, but also a coming-of-age tale for Andy. Sorta.

This book is awesome. Plus Dave did a pretty cool thing for people who pre-ordered the comic through DCBS (Discount Comic Book Service), he would sketch the hero/villain of your choice as a gnome. I, of course, elected to get one done of my City of Heroes character, Vindicator done. I’ll post a pic here

as soon as I can get it scanned in.

You can still get a copy of this book. Ask your local comic shop to order it, or you can get it from Super Real Graphics or Amazon.com

From the back of the book:

“Gnomes are real! Believed to be simple yard decoration, these Garden Gnomes once roamed the Earth as its greatest protectors. Lonmg ago a curse was placed upon them, petrifying them until the day they were needed to protect the Earth once more. In 1956 the world was in peril … and one lonely gnome answered the call.”/

Iron Man

Saw Iron Man this weekend. Awesome. I have never been a big fan of Robert Downey Jr, but he delivers in this one. The story is faithful in spirit to the comics and tells an excellent origin story.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark a wealthy industrialist whose company primarily develops weapons. He gets kidnapped and made to create a weapon for a terrorist group. Instead he creates his first suit of armor and trashed them and escapes. This is not a quick part of the movie either. They really go into details here and give Tony an understanding of just what use his weapons have been put to. When he eventually gets back to the US he holds a press conference and announces to the world that Stark Industries is out of the weapons business. Obadiah Stane, Tony’s partner, clearly does not like this and convinces Tony to keep out of the limelight for a time, while he spins this in a positive direction. In seclusion at his home, Tony begins working on an improved suit. Eventually getting it right and heading back to the middle east and destroying a cache of weapons the terrorist group has. We learn that Stane was working with the terrorists to kill Tony and he has been supplying them with weapons. Stane gets ahold of Tony’s first suit of armor and creates his Iron Monger suit. Then we get a nice confrontation between Iron Man and the Iron Monger.

Pros: Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark, Pepper, Happy Hogan, Obadiah Stane, Jim Rhodes, the Iron Man armor (all versions), the action sequences

Cons: Computer AI Jarvis. The only negative aspect of this movie. Jarvis is not a flesh and blood servant, but an AI construct.

I can say this movie gets a rating of 8.5 out of 10. To put this in perspective, Spider-Man gets a 9 out of 10, Spider-Man 2 gets a 9.5 and Spider-Man 3 gets a 5. X-Men 1 gets a 7, X-Men 2 gets a 8 and X-Men3 gets a 2.

Go see this movie now! And stay after the credits for a scene capper that helps setup a future Avengers movie.

I am really looking forward to the Incredible Hulk movie coming out June 13th.