That’s right. You heard me. Anyone who grew up in the 80’s know the power of the word: ThunderCats.
We know the of the Sword of Omens. The doomed planet of Thundera and, of course, the refuge that will be Third Earth. We know of Mumm-Ra the Everliving. We know of the Mutants, the Lunataks and Hammerhand and his Berserkers who harry our feline heroes.
We know of the Ro-Bear Berbils (and what kid didn’t want their very own Ro-Bear Berbil). We know of Hachiman, the Warrior Maidens, the Wollos, the Bolkens and the Tabbuts. We know of other Third Earth allies such as The League of Third Earth, Mumm-Rana, Mandora the Evil-Chaser, Sondora and Hook Mountains’ Snowman.
So, this coming July on Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers Animation in conjunction with Japanese animation house, Studio 4.C, will reboot and bring back one of the gloriest of glories of my youth. This new ThunderCats animated series looks to bring in the nostalgic older fans who remember the original series with differing levels of fondness. It also looks to introduce the kids of these parents to a piece of their parent’s childhood, but with new millenium sheen.
The trailer released during WonderCon 2011 says it all. This series looks to have epic battles between the ThunderCats and the Mutants. A mash-up of technology and magic. It also has Cheetarah, now with a new, more modern hairstyle instead of the 80’s big-hair style she had in the original series. I must wonder if the boys today will wonder with awe when they see Cheetarah in action for the first time the way their fathers did 20 or more years ago. We shall find out in three months.
There’s several very good films that I need to review over the next few days but, at the moment, I really need to write about Basement Jack, a low-budget 2009 slasher film that I watched on Chiller. Why do I need to write about Basement Jack? Well, I’m already hesitant to go to sleep because I know I’m going to have nightmares about this film. So, consider this to be my attempt at a quickie exorcism. Indulge me because I need to get this film out of my system.
Why Was I Watching This:
I love horror movies and, even though they always seem to end up giving me nightmares, these old school slasher films are like catnip to me. I can’t resist watching them, if just to see if they can keep the inherently predictable conventions of genre interesting.
What’s The Movie About:
Basement Jack (Eric Peter Kaiser) is a serial killer because when you’ve got a name like Basement Jack, it’s not like you’re going to become an accountant. Anyway, Jack’s thing is that he goes from town-to-town, selects a family to kill, and then secretly moves into their basement until there’s a thunder-storm. Once it starts raining, Jack proceeds to brutally kill the family.
Karen (Michelle Marrow) is only person to have ever survived being attacked by Jack. Now, Jack is obsessed with Karen and follows her from town to town. So, Karen decides to turn the tables and she starts following Jack. Except, of course, Jack was already following her so it would seem like for her to follow him, all she would really have to do would be turn around. But anyway, I guess the important thing is that Karen-and-Jack have one of those hunter/hunted connections.
Jack and Karen both end up in a new small town where Jack sets off on another murder spree while Karen hunts for him. She does this by teaming up with a seriously incompetent cop named Chris (Sam Skoryna). Unfortunately, all of Chris’s fellow officers are 1) convinced that Karen is the murderer and 2) kinda stupid. Will Karen be able to convince the cops that Jack is real? Will Jack continually manage to stand back up after taking more damage than anyone should, realistically, be able to take? And most importantly, will Lisa be able to sleep tonight?
What Worked?
Oh my God, this film should not have disturbed me as much as it did. Seriously, I’ve seen thousands of horror movies that all had better production values, better gore effects, and better acting. And yet, Basement Jack really made me paranoid. I think that’s because director Shelton does manage to create a legitimate feeling of dread that saturates every ludicrous frame of this movie. There is remarkably little humor in this film and, as opposed to a lot of slasher films, all of the victims here just come across as normal, likable people (as opposed to being slasher movie stereotypes).
Kaiser is a genuinely scary killer and Morrow makes for a sympathetic protagonist. She brings a lot of conviction to her role. Exploitation vet Lynn Lowry (remember her from the original Crazies and I Drink Your Blood?) plays Basement Jack’s domineering mother and wow, she is scary.
Now, I’m going to admit there’s one image in this film that I know is going to give me nightmares tonight. It’s of a policewoman who, after being gutted by Jack, is seen lying on the floor, trying to stuff her intestines back into her body and oh my God, I wish I hadn’t seen that because it really got to me. I’ve read several other reviews that have all criticized the CGI gore effects as looking fake. Maybe they do, I’m not really an expert on anatomy. All I know is that image of those intestines sprouting out across a twitching body; that image is trapped in my head. It’s something that I truly wish I hadn’t seen but I still have to list it as something that worked because film horror is supposed to leave the viewer uncomfortable.
What Didn’t Work:
Oh, trust me, a lot didn’t work. Like most slasher films, this one was riddled with a combination of plot holes and characters just acting as stupid as can be.
As our male lead, Sam Skoryna displayed all the charisma of a spilled intestine and, to be honest, most of the other actors gave performances that were fairly atrocious. For some reason, one of the film’s detectives is played by musician Billy Morrison and his English accent is just so jarringly out-of-place in the film’s middle American setting. (What makes the situation especially odd is that no one in the film ever comments on his accent. Trust me — I live in middle America. Hell, I’ll be really pretentious — I mean like Sasha Stone pretentious — and say that I am Middle America. No, actually, forget I said that. That sounds really stupid. Anyway, my point is that if you’re the only Englishman in town, people are going to remind you of that every chance they get.)
An attempt was made to give Basement Jack some backstory and to explain why he does what he does. And by that, I mean that this is one of those movies where the action comes to a sudden halt every few minutes juts so we can be told that a man,who hides in people’s basements and only kills when it’s raining, is mentally ill. Gee, filmmakers, thanks for clearing that up.
And finally (SPOILER!), I am so sick of seeing slasher movies that end with a close-up of the killer’s signature killing tool just so we can suddenly see the killer’s hand come out of nowhere and grab the weapon. I mean, is anyone ever surprised by this anymore? I guess, at one time, this seemed like a twist ending but today, it just comes across as being lazy. (END OF SPOILER!)
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments:
Just like our heroine Karen, I usually try to flirt my way out of traffic tickets as well.
It’s been awhile since I attended San Francisco’s WonderCon (it used to be held in Oakland until 2001) and on Saturday, April 2, 2011, I was finally able to check it out once again even if just for a day. This trip into The City to attend WonderCon was actually a last minute deal. I actually bought my One-Day Pass from the WonderCon online site just the day before. I usually like to plan these con excursions in advance so I know which panels to visit and how much to bring to spend. Being a last minute decision I didn’t really plan on spending any amount past what I wanted to eat and panels ended up just being the ones WonderCon had lined-up for upcoming films.
I took BART into the city around 9:30AM and arrived at the Moscone Center South building around 10:20 or so to pick-up my badge. Unlike my experience at Anime Boston 2008 and Anime Expo 2010, getting my badge (even just a one-day one) was pretty painless. Despite a crowd that was already numbering around 10000-plus strong (in my visual estimation and with unofficial total attendance looking to be as high as 40000+) I got through to the pre-register line in less than 10 minutes just in time for me to begin my walk of the Exhibit’s Hall where the dealer tables and exihbitor’s booth were set-up.
For the next hour or so I just walked around the Exhibit Hall just looking at the items for sale and the many comic book related stuff that I used to collect religiously (the thousands upon thousands of bagged and boarded comic books in my house would attest to zealotry). I was surprised to see a lot more indepedent comic book tables. I was also very surprised to notice that the Marvel and DC booths were smaller than I had anticipated. Maybe the bigger booths for these two giants were being saved for San Diego Comic-Con, but with WonderCon getting bigger and bigger each year I thought they’d at least make an effort.
I was very surprised to notice that at least a quarter of the dealer’s tables were dedicated to anime and manga related items. One dealer’s table (more like a booth actually) was all about Gundam and other mecha kits). If I had actually planned ahead for this convention I definitely would’ve dropped at least a couple hundred dollars on several model kits I saw which had me drooling. Below are just a few of the kits that I wouldn’t have minded buying.
Once my time walking around the Exhibit’s Hall was done I knew I needed to get in line for the start of the first film panel that was going to be held at the Esplanade Ballroom. I ended up being in the middle pack of the line despite the line already having wound it’s way outside the Center. The Ballroom looked to have enough space and seats to seat 5000-plus attendees. The line was actually organized very well (I think this is where anime cons could take a lesson from the WonderCon and SDCC organizers). No one was complaining as the volunteers manning the line knew how to keep things organized and actually had the info on whether there was enough room in the Ballroom to accomodate everyone.
The first panel was the upcoming Jon Favreau western and sci-fi mash-up, Cowboys & Aliens, which started around 1pm. There was none of the cast on-stage, but writer-proder Robert Orci and the director himself, Jon Favreau were in attendance. One thing which Favreau said to start off the panel which I (and probably some of the many veteran con attendees) agree on was how WonderCon was beginning to become a major stopover for film studios wanting to promote their big tentpole, genre films.Once the initial talk was over and done with Favreau announced to the crowd that we would be seeing a WonderCon-exclusive 9-minute footage that will never be shown elsewhere with scene that will only be seen once the film was out. This got a huge positive response from the crowd and the footgae didn’t disappoint. It had the right amount of seriousness to the scenes with enough comedy from how these Western-period characters were reacting to a sudden invasion of cosmic proportions.
The rest of the film panels I was able to see were the one’s for the upcoming films Hanna and Immortals. The former had director Joe Wright and the film’s titular star, Saoirse Ronan (who was quite the charming Scottish lass and decided to wear a Wonder Woman tee for her very first comic book convention) on-stage talking about the film. This panel was actually quite good in that several clips from the film were shown to highlight some of the ideas and themes Wright was going for. One thing which got a loud response (positive it seems) was how Wright and Ronan wanted Hanna to showcase the idea of girl empowerment through their use of their minds instead of falling back on Hollywood’s idea of hypersexuality as the one and only way to empower females. To say that Joe Wright didn’t agree with Zack Snyder’s attempt at girl empowerment would be an understatement. I don’t agree with his entire explanation, but then again I don’t think he’s seen Sucker Punch so he’s basing it on the promotional materials.
Tarsem Singh’s Immortals would be the last panel I would see and the film definitely looks to have a 300 vibe to it, but even more fantastical with Greek pantheon getting involved in the matter. A huge response from the female audience roared when the film’s star in Henry Cavill appeared onstage. I like him in Showtime’s The Tudors and still remember him being the young teen in The Count of Monte Cristo, but seeing him onstage made me see what Snyder saw in Cavill. My apprehension in him becoming the next Superman has been tempered now and I hope he does very well in the part.
Well, that final panel ended my day at WonderCon 2011. There were several things I observed which made me hopeful that future WonderCon’s will be something I plan for instead of just trying out. The crowd in attendance by mid-day was bigger than Anime Boston and was almost as large, if not bigger, than Anime Expo 2010. For some the crowd might not have looked that big, but the spacious Moscone Center South building looked as if it could accomodate even more people. The spaciousness of the building allowed for people not to be packed in too tightly while walking around. It is no wonder that Hollywood studios are now seeing WonderCon as an alternate destination, or at least a complementary one, to San Diego Comic-Con to promote their films.
San Diego Comic-Con will always be the big destination but with that event becoming so huge the last half decade other venues became places that could accomodate the studios. One thing I heard people (especially bloggers and entertainment reporters) about San Diego Comic-Con was how many films were being promoted and how those attending looking to write about it could never get to see all of them. This wasn’t the case with WonderCon. Everyone who got into the Esplanade Ballroom could see all the film panels and some never left their chairs once the room opened up.
While a One-Day Pass may seem enough to see all that WonderCon had to offer I think the next time I attend I shall plan ahead and get a 3-Day Pass instead to get the full experience. I will say that this day was a good practice for when I attend Anime Boston 2011 in less than 3 weeks. Here’s to hoping that the organizers of Anime Boston continue to get better with their logistics. As much as I prefer anime and manga to comic books nowadays, the anime/manga convention organizers still have much to learn from the comic book ones in the logistical department. All in all, it was a good time to spend a warm, sunny Saturday.
Oh, while I was walking the Hall I did take a picture of something that I thought Lisa Marie probably would’ve found too cute, but since I decided on not spending any cash at the Hall I didn’t get her an example of Uglydoll:
Hi! So, guess what today is? *sigh* Yes, smartass, it is Sunday but that’s not what I was looking for. *shaking head*
It’s my anniversary! That’s right — one year ago today, I posted my first review on this site and twelve months and 243 posts later, I have yet to shut up.
So, I was wondering — what should I do to observe this occasion? Well, I guess I could so what most people would do and not make a big deal out of it but — well, I’m incapable of not making a big deal out of stuff. Briefly, I considered posting a nude picture as my way of saying thank you but who wants to see that, right? So, as I woke up this morning from my usual 2 hours of sleep, I asked myself, “Lisa, what are you going to do?”
Well, for the most part, I’ve observed the occasion by being kinda lazy. Seriously, I’ve spent today in my beloved Hello Kitty robe (pictured above, it’s so comfy!), curled up on my couch with my feet tucked underneath me. I’ve been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Chiller.
Of course, to be honest, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer always makes me want to go out and like start kicking people out of the hope that they’ll turn out to be vampire or a demon or a Riley. And since, I’m just a teensy bit more klutzy than Buffy and Faith, that show has indirectly been responsible for a lot of sprained ankles.
Anyway, I’ve decided to observe my anniversary by doing two things. First off, I’ve read through my 243 previous posts and I’ve selected ten that I think pretty much tell you all you need to know about both who I am and my own taste in film. And here they are:
2) 10 Reasons Why I Hated Avatar (posted on April 21st, 2010) — In which I explain why I’m right and everyone else is wrong.
3) Too Sordid To Ever Be Corrupted (posted on August 1st, 2010) — My manifesto in which I explain why I love the grindhouse.
4) Titanic: In Retrospect (posted on October 6th, 2010) — In which I discover whether or not Titanic is still as good as I thought it was when I was 12.
10) Lisa Marie Takes a Sucker Punch (dir. by Zack Snyder) (posted on March 27th, 2011) — In which I defend the most unfairly maligned movie of 2011.
And secondly, as I think I’ve made clear here, I love trailers. Quite often, I’d rather watch the trailer than the film itself. So, here’s the trailer for a film that, at the suggestion of the Trash Film Guru, I will be watching and reviewing at some point in the near future — Birdemic: Shock and Terror.
Enjoy!
And, on that note, let me just extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has read anything I’ve written over the past year. I’m especially thankful to those of you who have taken the time to comment and let me know your opinion (except for Vermont Fran and Outraged Bob, who were kinda humorless and boring about it). I’ve had a wonderful time this year, sharing and interacting and here’s hoping that this next year will be even better!
I was going through my notes of my Saturday over at this year’s WonderCon when I got a tad bored and began to look at some AMV’s on YouTube. I realized as I was watching these AMVs that I hadn’t seen using Black Lagoon as the foundation. Well, I sure solved that. The latest AMV of the Day is “…To Be Loved” and it’s definitely Black Lagoon-centric.
I’ll start off by saying that Papa Roach is not a bad I particularly enjoy listening to. Well, I really don’t like most of the bands which came up during the so-called nu-metal craze of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I will admit that the song “To Be Loved” by Papa Roach was a good pick to highlight just how action-packed the anime series Black Lagoon truly is. This series has one of the most kickass female characters in anime/manga with Revy.
Revy is the hard-drinking, chain-smoking and all-around badass fighter and gunslinger for the mercenary group she belongs to. There’s a reason why a majority of the scenes in the AMV has her pretty much eother punching, kicking or shooting someone or someones. She’s always getting her and her team in trouble with her attitude but she’ll always be the first to solve said problem. Usually through the use of an inordinate amount of violence. There’s a reason why so many anime/manga fans love her and it’s not just because her usual attire is a very short tanktop and very short cutoff jean shorts.
So, while I don’t like the band used for the video I do at least like the choice of song. Long live Revy!
Since this weekend has turned into Green Lantern weekend due to the promotional blitz by Warner Brothers to hype up it’s upcoming live-action film of the same title I would be remiss not to include as part of his hype the upcoming animated film from Warner Premiere and DC Animation: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.
This latest in DC animated films (all of which have been good to great. Not a stinker in them) is an anthology film which takes six stories of the greatest Green Lanterns and links them to the current danger threatening the Guardians (creator of the Green Lantern Corps), the GL Corps and the universe itself.
Before this weekend’s WonderCon footage for the live-action was shown I was more excited for Green Lantern: Emerald Knights than I was for the Ryan Reynolds live-action. It had a great voice cast with Nathan Fillion (fans’ first choice for live-action Hal Jordan) as Hal Jordan with Elisabeth Moss, Jason Isaacs, Kelly Hu, Henry Rollins and Steve Blum rounding out the ensemble cast.
I think with the batting average of the DC Animation being quite high I have high hopes that Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will follow in the footsteps of it’s predecessor and have critical and general success.
I posted just recently that Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment had been dropping the ball when it came to promoting their upcoming superhero action-adventure film slated for this summer blockbuster season. Green Lantern had its first teaser released around November of 2010 and the reception to that trailer was lukewarm at best and dismissal of the film at it’s most vocal.
It’s been almost 4 months since that disastrous attempt at promoting what would be Warner Brothers’ biggest film of the 2011. It looks like Warner Brothers and those in charge of promoting their films may have just learned a valuable lesson in releasing promotion materials when footage needed to spice it up for the target audience is not ready.
WonderCon 2011 at San Francisco has become Green Lantern central as the studios in charge of the film have released not just a kickass official theatrical poster for the film, but a 9-minute sizzle reel for those lucky enough to get a seat in the film’s panel at the Esplanade Ballroom at Moscone Center South. For those who weren’t able to see that 9-min footage the people at Warner Brothers have been gracious enough to release an abridged 4min and 3 second version into the interwebs for everyone to witness.
Even just looking at this abridged version of the WonderCon-exclusive footage has helped in dispelling much of my apprehension towards the success and workability of this film as a live-action blockbuster. The footage goes a long way in setting the tone of the film. Green Lantern has always been part of the cosmic tapestry of the overall DC Universe and the filmmakers seem to have found a way to show that epic cosmic side of the character and do it without making it look cheesy (though some of the CGI effects on the non-human members of the Green Lantern Corps could still use much tuning up).
Except for the part where Jordan is trying to figure out the Green Lantern oath in his living room the footage seems very serious in tone with little comedic beats like the teaser. I would hope that the film does have some comedic beats to it since this is Ryan Reynolds and early Hal Jordan wasn’t always the serious, gloomy gus he turned out later on in his Green Lantern run.
Green Lantern is slated for a June 17, 2011 release.
The grindhouse is like ballet — truly appreciated by only a few blessed and special individuals. And for those individuals, here’s a picture of my legs…
I’ve got this one on DVD, actually. Considering that it was produced by the notorious Harry Novak, it’s actually fairly entertaining and not just in a “WTF” sorta way. Still, I have to admit that the main reason I like this trailer is because of that “I don’t have to tell you anything,” line because I used to say that a lot when I was a child (actually, I still say it a lot). Unfortunately, I never had undead followers to help back up my words.
Now, admittedly, some claim that I was occasionally a just a tad bit bratty when I was a child. (The running joke, among my sisters, is that LMB stands for Little Mean Brat.) However, I was never quite this bad…
Speaking of being bratty…A*P*E was originally entitled The New King Kong until a lawsuit changed the title. By all reports, A*P*E was meant to be a “serious” film but it was advertised as being a spoof after the film’s distributors saw the final results. A*P*E shows up on AMC occasionally.
While we’re on the amorous monster front…I haven’t seen this one but it appears to be some sort of Swept Away With Big Foot type of film. The vibe here is definitely grindhouse pretentious.
And finally, here’s the grindhouse documentary that started them all — the Italian Mondo Cane! None other than Giovanni Lombardo Radice has described this film as an example of “lingering fascism.” It also inspired Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust. Also, much like An Inconvenient Truth, it was nominated for a best original song Oscar. (Note to self: Write a future post on how much An Inconvenient Truth has in common with Mondo Cane…)
Finally, in conclusion, here’s one final scene from A*P*E…
DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers have been criticized these last few months for their handling of the ad/media blitz for their upcoming summer tentpole film: Green Lantern.
People have been quite underwhelmed with the teaser trailer shown a couple months ago then with releases of concept art for the film. It’s true that the character of Green Lantern is not as iconic as Batman or Superman, but who are outside of Spider-Man and the X-Men. Still it’s been quite perplexing how little hype Warner Brothers has been working on giving this film (starring Ryan Reynolds in the role of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern). One would think that both WB and DC Entertainment would make a massive push for this film not just to try and set it up as another DC film franchise the way Marvel has been creating their very own film universe with their properties.
One thing that may be a sign that Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment are ready to unleash a major advert and media blitz for Green Lantern is the panel at this year’s WonderCon at San Francisco where the cast were available for roundtables and a con exclusive poster of the film was released. The poster will be one of the few things from WonderCon that non-attendees will be able to see and examine.
The poster goes a long way in helping dispel my feelings about this film. While I still haven’t fully bought into this project I do get a sense of the cosmic nature of this film which other superhero films of the past decade haven’t been able to convey. If WB and DC are able to build on the positives that this new poster is giving this film then maybe Green Lantern may just become a must-see for this summer.
Green Lantern is set for a July17, 2011 release date.
Through the Shattered Lens 