Thursday, April 20, 2023

Friday Watch Party: Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

cool job, but you left two behind, Clark



Earlier this week we saw the 85th anniversary of the first appearance of Superman and Lois Lane in print in the famed Action Comics #1.  It's a great comic, and Superman has had many great stories to tell over the years.

This is probably not one of them.

Starting from a promising set-up, the movie is plagued with budgetary issues that impact everything along the way.  It has its highlights, but...  yeah.

Join us as we leap a good decision in a single bound, and behold:  Superman's apartment and its curious decor!  Lenny Luthor!  Lex's goofy scheme to infinite wealth!  A literal Chippendale's dancer as our super-powered meanie/ horn-dog!  

It's the movie that killed a franchise and set Superman back 20 years at the cinema!

Day:  Friday 04/21/2023
Time:  8:30 Central/ 6:30 Pacific
Cost:  $3
Runtime:  90 minutes

(link live ten minutes before showtime)

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Superman and Lois at 85




April 18th marks the 85th anniversary of the release of Action Comics #1.  This comic includes the first published story of Superman and Lois Lane.  

Originally, Superman was imagined as an unstoppable force for good and a champion of the oppressed.  This hasn't fundamentally changed, but the scope and scale at which Superman operates in comics and film has expanded to include liberating whole planets and more nuanced takes on what a man of steel can do and not be painted as a villain by the general public. 

In many ways, Superman is a combination of traits borrowed from existing popular fiction.  Doc Savage had a Fortress of Solitude, The Shadow had dual identities to fight crime, Zorro was out there swashbuckling and in a love triangle of which he was two sides.  John Carter of Mars was an alien on Mars whose origins on Earth made him super-human elsewhere.

PodCast 239: "The Raid 2" - A MikeS/ Social Bobcat PodCast Episode w/ Ryan



Watched:  04/09/2023
Format:  Netflix
Viewing: First
Decade:  2010's
Director:  Gareth Evans




The Social Bobcat is back, and this time he brought a whole case of whoop-ass. Join Ryan and MikeS as we talk about the surprisingly well-developed sequel to the 2011 film that came flying out of Indonesia like a boot to the head. In this installment, we ponder sequels that increase the scope and breadth of the original and stand-alone just fine. And somehow still manage to kick a metric ton of ass.


SoundCloud 


YouTube


Music:
Prison Riot - Joseph Trapanese, Aria Prayogi, Fajar Yuskemal, The Raid 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)  
Showdown - Joseph Trapanese, Aria Prayogi, Fajar Yuskemal, The Raid 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 


Action Watch!

Monday, April 17, 2023

Nintendo Watch: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)




I officially entered a new phase of life on Saturday when I went to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) with a cohort of second graders in support of my nephew's birthday.  I'm now an uncle who goes to movies he didn't select.  It's a good thing.

I am not anti video games, but I can describe my relationship to gaming as "apathetic".   The how's and why's of this phenomenon are uninteresting and best served in a dedicated blog post.  But even when we got our first Nintendo Entertainment System, I didn't have any Mario-related games.  I was spending my money on comics and tapes at the time.  Aside from a brief flirtation with a Wii and Mario Kart, never got into it.

90's Watch: Chungking Express (1994)




As Jamie and I discussed after the movie - the 90's were the wild west for cinema in the US.  Indie cinema and the *flavor* of that indie movement were a truly big deal.  It was also a rich era for a semi-mainstreaming of international cinema as the same theaters that carried those indie pics also brought in some European film and Hong Kong cinema.  I'm not saying no theaters do this anymore, but it was much more a part of your standard film scene at the time.

And if you didn't see it in theaters, you might still find the movies for rent - maybe not next to Robot Jox at Blockbuster, but in the go-go 90's Austin film rental scene, I could walk across the street from my dump of an apartment and get whatever I wanted at I Luv Video.  

But, as mentioned before, I just never picked up the films of Wong Kar-Wai.  I was too busy watching Chow Yun-Fat kick ass or whatever.  I was still a dude in my 20's.  Grant me peace.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Superheroes Every Day Watch: Man of Steel (2013) - Part 1C



Danny of Superheroes Every Day has launched a PodCast!  And we're the first guest!  

In this installment (3 of 3) we discuss the third, incredibly tedious and somewhat horrific act of a movie wherein a superhero debuts and immediately decides cataclysmic collateral damage is no big whoop while he fights his daddy's pal.  

Spotify:



Here's Part 1 C (you can always listen on Spotify or other providers):

YouTube:




Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Superheroes Every Day Watch: Man of Steel (2013) - Part 1B



Danny of Superheroes Every Day has launched a PodCast!  And we're the first guest!  In this installment (2 of 3) we discuss the second act of 2013's, uh... uneven Super-film, Man of Steel.  



Here's Part 1 B (you can also listen on Spotify or other providers):

48

"Cold Little Heart"
Michael Kiwanuka





Did you ever want it?
Did you want it bad?
Oh my, it tears me apart

Did you ever fight it?
All of the pain
So much pride
Running through my veins

Bleeding, I'm bleeding!
My cold little heart
Oh I, I can't stand myself

And I know in my heart
In this cold heart
I can live or I can die
I believe if I just try
You believe in you and I

In you and I
In you and I
In you and I

Did you ever notice
I've been ashamed?
All my life
I've been playing games

We can try to hide it
It's all the same
I've been losing you
One day at a time

Bleeding, I'm bleeding!
My cold little heart
Oh I, I can't stand myself

And I know in my heart
In this cold heart
I can live or I can die
I believe if I just try
You believe in you and I

In my heart, in this cold heart
I can live or I can die
I believe if I just try
You believe in you and I

In you and I
In you and I
In you and I
In you and I

In you and I
In you and I
In you and I

Maybe this time I can be strong
But since I know who I am
I'm probably wrong

Maybe this time I can go far
Thinking about where I've been
Ain't helping me start

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Tarzan Watch: Greystoke - the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)

this is the most pretentious possible Tarzan poster



Watched:  04/10/2023
Format:  HBOmax
Viewing:  First
Director:  Hugh Hudson

I can only imagine what the pitch meeting was for this movie, and I can totally see how it happened.  

In 1981, Hugh Hudson had directed Chariots of Fire, a movie that was a smash hit about pasty British guys running foot races and worrying about religion.  Like, you couldn't escape the movie, which I watched on TV once when I was sick as a kid and immediately erased from my memory.  But it was a big @#$%ing deal when adults went to the cinema.  

I'm sure it's great.  But it was an unlikely hit, and won Best Picture.  Career made for somebody.

So when the director of the footrace movie comes to you and says "we're gonna do Tarzan.  But now it's a prestige costume drama about how Tarzan is, in fact, a very sad ape man.  He is not a super-human living among men, continually pursued by hot women and fighting weird alien threats and large animals.  Instead, he's a kind of skinny French guy who does stuff you've seen apes do at the zoo.  But, you know, it's quite sad" I guess you trust and give that guy a sack of cash to give it a go.

Monday, April 10, 2023

The Great Al Jaffee Merges With the Infinite






If you don't think you know Al Jaffee, you do.  He was one of the staples of Mad Magazine for decades and decades.  He's the reason you were always trying to properly fold the back of your Mad into thirds.  

Jaffee was 102, which means he saw almost *everything* comics had to throw at the world.  He would have been about 17 when Superman arrived, fer chrissake.  His first work was published in 1942, and he joined Mad in 1955.  He delivered art to Mad until the end of 2019.  Mind-bending.  

As a cartoonist, Jaffee didn't just do fold-ins.  He also delivered classic Mad bits with a pitch and tone that informed the comedic sensibilities of the many generations who read his work.  I, myself, always appreciated the Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, which it probably took me decades to deprogram myself from emulating.



That longevity and variety of offerings means Jaffee brought laughs to folks for 80 years.  I mean, I've lost a lot of time putting this post together just because I've been reading Jaffee's work.  It holds up like crazy!

We'll miss Jaffee, but, man, what a career.