SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

 

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017)

Directed by Jon Watts

Written by Jonathan M. Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers

Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, Jr., Jacob Balaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, and Laura Harrier

Rated PG-13

Okay, another quick, even more off-the-cuff than usual one here because this weekend...everything went wrong.

But a week or two ago I took in this movie for the second time so it's fresh enough to blather on about for a minute and I'm really challenging myself to make this a habit again.

On to the blathering....

THE WARNING - XXI CENTURY BLOOD

 

Okay....busy this week, and only a one-day weekend (which is now over) so I'm just gonna toss this out here so I can say "Yeah, I posted something!"

The Warning is a band comprised of three sisters, the oldest I think is maybe seventeen now, and they rock. I've been catching their videos on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/luisvillarr) for a while now, when I first stumbled upon them while cruising videos of drum covers - it's a thing I do, okay? - and saw then ten-year old Paulina destroy a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You." They've been complimented by Kirk Hammett of Metallica, who shared their cover of "Enter Sandman" on Twitter, and appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show doing Ozzy's "Crazy Train." 

What I'm saying is, they're good.

Recently they released their first full-length album of all original material, XXI Century Blood. Now, aside from not being an actual movie/comic/book reviewer, I'm also not an actual music critic so I'm just going to drop in the video for the title track here and encourage folks to check 'em out on their own.

 

 

Oh, and drop by their site and buy some stuff:

https://www.thewarningband.com/

 

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: FALL OF MAN

 

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: FALL OF MAN

Writer: Van Jensen

Artist: Ron Salas

Colors:Mike Atiyeh & Caitlin McCarthy

Letters: Taylor Esposito

Publication Date: 2016

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

 

 

Okay, I was actually going to take a break from The Six Million Dollar Man and/or Bigfoot stuff but I haven't finished the book I'm currently working on and kinda zoned out during the movie I was watching, so I dug out my trade paperback collection of this other SMDM title from the folks at Dynamite.

 

Should be a quick one....

 

THE HUNTING GROUNDS

HUNTING GROUNDS (2015)

Directed by  John Portanova

Written by John Portanova

Starring Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, Jason Vail, D'Angelo Midili, David Saucedo, and Bill Oberst Jr.

Rated R

Just watched a movie. Here's what I thought.

With SPOILERS as usual if you're worried about that sort of thing.

THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR

THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR

Writer: Brandon Jerwa

Artist: David T. Cabrera

Colors: Sandra Molina

Letters: Joshua Cozine

Publication Date: 2014

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

Okay, yeah. A loooonnnngggg time ago I was trying to keep a fairly regular schedule of writing...well, something... and giving rundowns on some comics and movies and such. I ended up never finishing putting down my thoughts on the last two issues of this title, Dynamite Entertainment's THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR.

I'll try and fix that now....

RIP George A. Romero

I was a horror fan pretty much from birth.

Some of my earliest memories (we're talking kindergarten, here) involve getting up extra early on Saturday mornings to watch the tail-end of the late-late-late horror movie that went off just before cartoons started, along with trying to catch Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Night Gallery every chance I could. So NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD had been on my radar all my life as something I needed to see.

In middle school/junior high we had a teacher that collected movies. I know, now days, 'collected movies' doesn't sound like a big deal. Heck, I have a couple thousand myself. But he collected actual, real, honest-to-god film prints. And he regularly brought them in to school and ran them before first bell and during his home room. Just enough time to usually watch a whole movie a week. I had him for two years, so I got to see a bunch of stuff in his class.

Since it was a school setting, most of what we watched were pretty tame fare. A lot of serials from the 30s and 40s - Nyoka, The Tiger Woman, Captain Marvel - that sort of thing. But sometimes, mainly around Halloween, he expanded the selection some. We watched the Roger Corman FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, and the killer-worm flick SQUIRM (he had to hold his hand in front of the project lens during the shower scene - we were, after all, kids).

He had a poster frame by his desk and would swap out movie posters every week or so and one week he put up the poster for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It took some cajoling, but finally he relented and so my first viewing of this groundbreaking, classic horror film was sitting in a darkened classroom in one of those uncomfortable school desks along with my classmates with the teacher trying to keep us quiet as kids screamed during the scariest bits.

I never had the chance to tell Romero this story, but I like to think he'd be amused at traumatizing a classroom full of kids. I mean, who wouldn't?

The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention

Okay.

First, I'm not even going to try and act like I'll be getting back to regular posting any time soon. Every time I do that it seems to pretty much guarantee I'll disappear and now we're coming up on our busiest time of the year at work, so let's just forget that noise and I'll do what I can when I can.

Right now, I want to give a quick recap of my weekend at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.

Back in the saddle...I hope.

 

So...been awhile. Again.

While the work weirdness has wound down (at least as far as hours go - how much longer I actually have a job...different story) the computer decided it was as good a time as any to start giving me fits. 

After dealing with it for a couple of weeks - running every virus/malware scan I could and even re-installing Windows - I think I finally hit upon the root cause of my problems when my hard drive up and died.

I've had computers for a long time. I've never EVER had a hard drive fail, which I guess is why it never occurred to me that it was dying, especially since it's still a fairly young machine. I was even trying to figure out if my new graphics card was causing the problems.

Anyway...new drive, yet another Win8 installation, and I'm slowly getting my old stuff reloaded so things seem to be working fine now. And my Skyrim has never looked better. 

I'll try to get back to semi-regular postings but I wanted to get something out there sooner rather than later so I figured I'd plug a couple of things.

First, there's the trade paperback collection of the rather fun THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN series from Dynamite. Most of my postings last year were of this series as the individual issues came out and I dug every one of them, so it's nice to have everything all in one handy package. Plus, I figure every copy bought is another vote for James Kuhoric getting to continue the title. 

Also up is the ATHENA VOLTAIRE COMPENDIUM, a hardback collection of the excellent web-comic-turned-paper-comic adventures of a high-flying, monster-hunting, Nazi-fighting aviatrix in the 1930s. I'm a big fan of pulp adventures and I'm a big fan of this series. Can't wait to see what Steve Bryant has in store next for Athena.

Both are available at Amazon and other fine retailers.

Rocket Ranger Reloaded

http://rocketrangerreloaded.com/

Work has been its usual insane self these last few weeks, which explains why I pretty much go missing this time of year, every year.

BUT...I had to poke my head out for this.

Way back in the day when I was just a baby ArcLight, I had a Commodore Amiga computer. Fantastic little machine, complete with a Buckaroo Banzai reference in the manual.

Without a doubt, the coolest games I had for it all came from Cinemaware; the World War I flight game WINGS, the 50s-movie style giant ant game IT CAME FROM THE DESERT, and the pulp serial inspired ROCKET RANGER.

Cinemaware is back. They've released Amiga-emulated versions of WINGS and ROCKET RANGER already. They have a great, updated version of WINGS out, and now they're working on supercharging ROCKET RANGER. 

That's where this post (and the above graphic) come in. The Kickstarter campaign is almost over and they still need some help. Hit the link, download the demo, and toss some spare coin their way so they can continue bringing back the old school games in new school style (and releasing emulated versions of the originals for nostalgic types like me).

I know only about four people actually read this (Hi, Mom!) but I figured I'd do what I could to help them out since I love their stuff so much.

Kickstarter link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/850516062/rocket-ranger-reloaded

THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR #2

THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR #2

Writer: Brandon Jerwa

Artist: David T. Cabrera

Colors: Sandra Molina

Letters: Joshua Cozine

Publication Date: October 2014

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

Well, the real life stuff has been kicking up lately (tis the season and all that claptrap) so I'm behind on blathering on about stuff, but here we go with issue two of Dynamite's Bionic Woman revival.

As you may recall, the first issue had some stuff I wasn't all that thrilled with. Let's see what happens next....

EXISTS

EXISTS (2014)

Directed by Eduardo Sanchez

Written by Jamie Nash

Starring Chris Osborn, Roger Edwards, and Brian Steele

Rated R

So, another week, another bigfoot movie.

Yeah, it's another 'found-footage' movie, and I've already mentioned how tired I am of those, but as long as they keep making them about bigfoot and aliens and the like I guess I'll keep watching.

Luckily, third time seems to be the charm with this run of sasquatch-themed movies.

There are issues, of course. One problem it can't help is that I've seen THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (multiple times) so a group of five twenty-somethings going off to, yes, a cabin in the woods, is always going to remind me of that film and make me wonder who bet on 'sasquatch/wendigo/yeti.'

The other big problem is how much of a cookie-cutter plot most of these movies tend to have. 

This one, however, manages to play with the formula a tiny bit and that really elevates it in my opinion. It's also possible that I wouldn't have liked it so much if I hadn't just sat thru BIGFOOT WARS and WILLOW CREEK recently but I have and by comparison, EXISTS is a big(foot) step up.

Director Eduardo Sanchez - of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT - gives us a group that includes Brian, played by Chris Osborn, who tags along with the specific intent of shooting video of the trip to post on YouTube. As such, he's prepared with multiple cameras, including a handful of GoPros, to capture the guys doing things like making stunt jumps with their mountain bikes into the local lake and stuff like that. This gives the audience a variety of viewpoints on the events and cuts down a little on the 'why is he still filming/how is he managing to keep things in frame?' issues. 

Another thing that gave this monster-fan a thrill - you get to see the creature! In broad daylight, even! Considering that ninety-nine percent of these movies cut to black just before we ever get a look at whatever is going on, this is a huge and welcome change. The bigfoot outfit was designed by Spectral Motion of the HELLBOY movies and other top films. It was worn by Brian Steele, doing quite the 180 from his turn as Harry in the HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS TV series.

If you're interested in either bigfoot or found-footage films, I'd say give this one a rental.

WILLOW CREEK

WILLOW CREEK (2013)

Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait

Starring Bryce Johnson and Alexie Gilmore

Not rated

Netflix got around to sending me Bobcat Goldthwait's WILLOW CREEK.

On the plus side, it was made loads better than BIGFOOT WARS.

On the minus side...it follows the 'found footage' formula to the letter. Lots of setup. Some tension. Some panic. End credits.

And remember how the preview and poster for QUARANTINE (the 2008 US-made remake of REC) ended up showing the final scene of the film?

Don't watch the preview for WILLOW CREEK. Or if you do, cut it off when the title comes up on screen. 

Or watch the whole thing and see a nice, condensed version of the film in two minutes and save yourself the other seventy-five minutes.

Man, that makes it sound like the whole thing sucks. It's really not that bad, it's just nothing particularly special and I had some hopes for this one.

It comes down to weighing how you feel about bigfoot movies versus how you feel about found footage films. I'm about sick to death of found footage films but I keep watching them. They keep coming up with ideas I'm interested in, but without fail they pretty much end right when they get interesting and leave me annoyed more than anything else.

  

BIGFOOT WARS

BIGFOOT WARS

Directed by Brian T. Jaynes

Written by Andrea Doss, Frederic Doss, and Jacob Mauldin

Based on the books by Eric S. Brown

Starring Holt Boggs and C. Thomas Howell

Not rated

So I had nothing else going on the other night and decided to rent BIGFOOT WARS (after seeing that Netflix could send me WILLOW CREEK on disc).

Bad decision.

Aside from kinda-okay-looking-in-a-70s-movie-style sasquatches and C. Thomas Howell chewing scenery as a pot smoking hillbilly survivalist  there's pretty much nothing to recommend this film. (Judd Nelson got roped into it too, somehow.) Okay, there's some decent gore, too, I guess.

If you must see this one, at least try to catch it for free so you only lose five hours of your time. (No, the movie isn't five hours long. IMDb claims it's only 75 minutes. It just seems *much* longer.)

Looking around, I've seen where C. Thomas Howell and one or two others involved in the movie took to Twitter to basically apologize for how it turned out. And Howell has been in Asylum movies, so....

The movie is supposed to be based on a series of novels by Eric S. Brown. I've yet to read any of Brown's original work, so I don't have any idea how close it may have gotten.

The director, Brian T. Jaynes, also directed 2010's BOGGY CREEK, which kinda covered the same territory (and for which Brown wrote the novelization). They could easily be connected. It's also a little bit better. 

NAKED ZOMBIE GIRL

NAKED ZOMBIE GIRL

Written and Directed by Rickey Bird
Starring Meghan Chadeayne
Not Rated

With a title and poster like that, it's pretty easy to get an idea what Naked Zombie Girl (NZG going forward 'cause I'm lazy) from Hectic Films is about. Just to clarify - the 'Girl' of the film is not a 'Zombie' (this isn't another Dawna the Dead), but never fear, she does end up quite 'Naked' before too long.

This short film clocks in at just over twenty-five minutes long. It's been making the rounds at horror conventions and film festivals and as I was settling down to write this, the NZG facebook page announced they'd won Best Horror Short at the Austin Indie Flix Festival. Go, team!

As the film starts, three people are in a car, apparently fleeing from...something. News reports on the radio, as well as one of the car's occupants suffering from a bite wound, make it clear the zombie apocalypse is upon us. In short order, the car craps out and the bitten dude decides to end things by way of a gun in his mouth. The two remaining girls barely have time to react to this before the car is surrounded by zombies.

Our heroine, played by Meghan Chadeayne, escapes, losing her dress in the process (and that's where the 'Naked' part comes in at). She quickly finds her courage and a chainsaw and proceeds to go to town on the zombies.

Overall, the thing is very well done and looks better than a lot of full-length b-movies I've seen. Decent zombies and a fair amount of practical gore effects. There's also some computer generated gore but I'm far more forgiving of CGI in a low budget short that was filmed over the course of just a couple of nights than I am in a big budget feature. And, it's hard to deny the appeal of Meghan Chadeayne kicking zombie butt while baring her own for much of the running time.

NZG is part of the new wave of 'grindhouse' inspired films that have come out lately, so there are film scratches and other grunge effects applied to make it look like a '70s drive-in movie. Personally, I could've done without most of that but better that than the jumpy 'found footage' style that hasn't gone away yet.

I don't know if they're even considering filming a feature-length version of the story, perhaps showing how the characters ended up where the short starts and of course continuing on past the end, but I'd be all for it if they are.

If you get a chance to see a screening, I'd say go. The website for the film indicates that it will be for sale at some point, but if you live in a cultural wasteland and are impatient like myself, there's a GoFundMe campaign for a Naked Zombie Girl comic book that can get you a download of the film for a fifteen-dollar donation. That's how I got to see it. As of this writing, there are still four downloads available.


Naked Zombie Girl website
Hectic Films website
NZG comic GoFundMe page
NZG facebook page

THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR #1

THE BIONIC WOMAN: SEASON FOUR #1

Writer: Brandon Jerwa

Artist: David T. Cabrera

Colors: Sandra Molina

Letters: Joshua Cozine

Publication Date: September 2014

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

Well, after a fantastic, way-too-short run of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX, the fine folks at Dynamite now bring us their continuation of THE BIONIC WOMAN.

I've already praised James Kuhoric's work on the SEASON SIX series. It set a mighty high bar for pretty much any other tie-in/continuation/reboot anyone might attempt. Perhaps inevitably, the new Bionic Woman series doesn't quite reach those heights (but hey, it's a first issue so I'm willing to cut a little slack while everyone is warming up).

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX #6

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX #6


Writer: James Kuhoric
Art: David T. Cabrera
Colors: Fran Gamboa
Letters: Joshua Cozine
Publication Date: September 2014
Published by Dynamite Entertainment

The story so far....

Steve's bionics have been severely damaged by Maskatron, leaving Jaime to go alone to Kennedy Space Center and investigate the alien presence taking over the workers there. Oliver Spencer has given Oscar the means to rebuild Steve despite the Bionics program being shut down, and has a plan to regain control of Maskatron at the risk of his own mind. And the Soviets plan to do some rebuilding of their own with a soldier who was injured during Steve's fight with the B-YAGA armored tank suit.

Now....

ORBIT: ALICE COOPER

ORBIT: ALICE COOPER

Pre-order: 9/10/2014

Writer: Michael L. Frizell

Artist: Jayfri Hashim & D.A Frizell

3 covers: Cover A: $3.99, Cover B $5.99 and cover C $9.99

Digital Price: $3.99

BIASAC: CGN008000, BIO022000,JNF007000, CGN007000, BIO005000,  BIO004001

Alice Cooper is a man, a band, and an idea that took on a life of its own, a voice for shock and glitter rockers whose influence created stars like Marilyn Manson and KISS. Behind the paint, the boa constrictors, and the staged executions is a man whose creative energies gave rise to a legend. Half truth, half fiction, Alice Cooper defines fame.

KISS may have entered my young consciousness first but Alice Cooper wasn't far behind. As much as I'll always be a member of the KISS Army (no matter how much of an ass Gene Simmons continues to make of himself) there's no doubt that Alice Cooper is indeed The Master. His headlining Theatre of Death tour in 2009/2010 was easily the best concert I've ever attended.

Mostly he's been doing opening shots on tours lately (with Iron Maiden in 2012 and currently with Motley Crue on their last tour) which is kind-of unfortunate...for the bands that have to follow him.

I had the great good fortune to catch him yet again just this last week, and the show was as fun as ever. I always say, if you only see one rock concert, it should be KISS, but don't you dare turn down a chance to see The Coop.

Next month, Dynamite should have the first issue of their new Alice Cooper comic out, along with a reprint of 1994's Neil Gaiman written adaption of Cooper's album The Last Temptation.

Along with that, we get Bluewater Comics's biographical comic and in one of the rare instances of fortune smiling on me, they've provided me with a preview PDF. It's part of their Orbit series of biographies. From their site: "Orbit is a line of biographies with a skew towards a more male demographic." Other celebs in the orbit line include Howard Stern, Stephen King, and Keith Richards.

On the surface, it reminds me of the old Rock N' Roll Comics of the early nineties, but with much better production values.

The story opens as a group of children, led by Rhiannon, gather at night around a Ouija board to summon Steven, Cooper's alter-ego from Welcome To My Nightmare (and Goes To Hell, The Last Temptation, and Welcome 2 My Nightmare, I suppose) to help protect her little brother, Drew, from a supernatural evil he's accidentally summoned. But in the group is Suze, a girl with a rather impressive knowledge of the real Vincent Furnier and his journey to become the character of Alice Cooper.

This framing story allows Suze to correct some of the incorrect info that's been spread about (and often by) Cooper over the years. Starting with how the original band didn't really use an Ouija board to conjure up, and eventually take the name of, a witch named Alice Cooper. Along the way, Suze recounts the stories of the band's first meeting with Frank Zappa, the infamous chicken incident, and we even get a bit of his views on family life (he's a romantic who still dates his wife) and religion (he is a minister's son, after all).

As it's just a short comic book, there's no way to get into the details of Cooper's life and career but it is a pretty good overview of the man who wanted to drive "a stake through the heart of the Love Generation."

If you're a fan, I'd say check it out....

SHERWOOD, TX #2 (of 5)

OFFICIAL SOLICITATION:

SHERWOOD, TX #2 (of 5)

Written By: Shane Berryhill
Artist: Daniel Hillyard
Colors: Charlie Kirchoff
Cover: Andrew Robinson

ROB HOOD, shot and left for dead by members of the Nobles Motorcycle Club, has miraculously survived. After a year in hiding, Hood assumes the identity of a mysterious new member of the Jesters MC known only as "Loxley." As 'Bike Week' begins in Nottingham, Texas, the disguised Hood puts his plans for revenge into motion. 

12 Gauge Comics continues their re-imagining of the Robin Hood story in issue two of SHERWOOD, TX.

Rob has survived being shot by the Nobles and has remained in hiding while he recuperated, picking up his father's bow along the way.

Now Bike Week is here and Rob starts his quest for revenge. He helps Much infiltrate the Nobles and steals a truck with supplies the Nobles had brought in for Bike Week, taking it to Padre Tuck at the Sherwood Mission to give back to the people the Nobles have been victimizing. Meanwhile, the Nobles have rounded up another group of young girls to serve as Bike Week 'entertainment.'

I'm really enjoying the twists to the Robin Hood legend here, turning it into a gritty, 70's-esque biker film while keeping the familiar set-pieces from the legends. In this issue, instead of donning a disguise and competing in an archery contest, Rob dons Much's gear to participate in a bike jousting tournament, ensuring Much's place in the Nobles gang.

With the the setup out of the way, things are already kicking in to high gear as we're now two issues in to a five issue mini-series.

I'm generally a fan of more realistic art, but the clean, slightly exaggerated style is working for me on this title; stylized enough to tell the mythic tale of Robin Hood but realistic enough to portray the world of outlaw biker gangs involved in sexual slavery and murder. (Okay, you can tell I'm no art expert, yes?)

Take a look at the nifty motion-comic trailer for a better idea....

Sherwood, Texas : Trailer featuring ‘Answer to No One’ by Colt Ford from M2 on Vimeo.

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #3

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #3

Story: John Carpenter and Eric Powell
Writer: Eric Powell
Art: Brian Churilla
Colors: Michael Garland
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
Publication Date: August 2014
Published by BOOM! Studios

"Hey! Relax! I'm an expert at not listening to anybody."

                                                                              - Jack Burton 

 

Just a quickie 'cause I'm late on this one....

Eric Powell's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA series continues, as Jack and Egg arrive at the House of the Seven-Faced Widow to try and retrieve the souls of the three Storms in their effort to save Wang Chi from Qiang Lu.

This series continues the fun of our hero Jack being entirely too dense to realize just how out of his element he really is. Along the way, we get a look at both another ex-wife, and another example of just how oblivious Jack can be about things going on around him. While the events of the film might've been the first time Jack knew he was up against supernatural evil, it looks more and more like it was around him all the time and he was too self-centered to see it.

The series continues to get the feel of the film pretty much dead-on, with a lot of the humor coming from Jack's non-stop commentary and way of twisting everything into some story about him. Watching the villians trying to deal with this guy who isn't giving them anything like the respect/fear they're accustomed to is one of favorite aspects of the book.

If you enjoyed the movie, or even just like your Chinese mysticism served up with a healthy portion of comic irreverence, you should give this book a shot.

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX #5

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX #5


Writer: James Kuhoric
Art: Juan Antonio Ramirez
Colors: Fran Gamboa
Letters: Joshua Cozine
Publication Date: August 2014
Published by Dynamite Entertainment

The story so far….

Oliver Spencer's Maskatron has been a resounding failure - the out of control robot has savagely repossessed Barney 'The Seven Million Dollar Man' Hiller's bionics and is now working on doing the same to Steve Austin. Meanwhile, an alien organism is transforming the NASA crew at the Kennedy Space Center.

Now....