Buffy Fights a Demon She Can't Defeat: HD Reformatting

Do you want to watch the acclaimed TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer in High Definition?  It is 2014, after all, well into the 21st century, so why not?

Well, according to this article, titled "What's Wrong With Buffy's HD?" you might want to stick with your old standard definition DVDs.

Apparently the cable channel Pivot has been airing a much-maligned HD version of creator Joss Whedon's Buffy in 16:9 format, so it fills up the whole rectangular screen.  Trouble is, Buffy, which premiered in 1997, was shot in the TV standard-of-the-time 4:3 closer-to-a-square ratio. 

Just as wide-screen theatrical movies have long been bastardized when they aired on old square TVs in chopped up, panned and scanned versions, now the same thing is happening with TV shows being converted to HD screens.

Good grief.  Just slap some black bars on the sides and give me the WHOLE remastered HD picture.  Don't do this bad, often silly, re-framing and cropping; to illustrate what the issue is, just have a little five second intro showing WHY reformatting 4:3 images to the full 16:9 screen is a bad idea (visually, aesthetically, artistically).  I would hope viewers today would be more informed of this kind of thing.  Maybe not.

May The Names and Faces Be With You

After percolating and circulating on the interwebs for a couple weeks that nifty teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has received a postscript.

JJ Abrams and company, via Entertainment Weekly, finally have put names to faces.  Find out who Finn, Rey, BB and Kylo are here.

Still no word on what the story is, but we'll take what we can.  And doing this "announcement" in the style of the old Topps Star Wars cards is a very fun and cool way to do it.  Props to whomever came up with this idea.

Extraordinary Artist Kim Jung Gi

This is beyond amazing.

Artist Kim Jung Gi freehand drawing in ink - with no sketches laid out - an incredible fantasy tableau.  The control he has in that pen-brush is exquisite. It is truly breathtaking.

James Bond Will Return...

...in SPECTRE, which was announced today.  (See article on Deadline.com)

Yes, it seems that the Daniel Craig-helmed super-spy series is getting back to its roots in a major way by bringing back the fictional terrorist organization SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion).

And where SPECTRE goes can Ernst Stavo Blofeld, he of the bald pate and super-fluffy white Persian cat, be far behind?  Even though his character is listed as Oberhauser, acclaimed actor Christoph Waltz is believed to be the new Blofeld in the film.  (If that is the case, I hope it comes across better than the silliness of Benedict Cumberbatch as "John Harrison" who every one KNEW was Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, despite all the denials of the filmmakers.)

The new film appears to be more in the mold of a traditional Bond film: for the first time in a Craig-Bond movie, we will have Q (Ben Whishaw), Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), M (Ralph Fiennes), a new Aston Martin (yea!), Dave Bautista as a classic Bond uber-assassin named Mr. Hinx and James Bond facing off against SPECTRE.  Could a giant hollowed-out volcano base with jump-suited henchmen be far behind?

Comic Book Art from the 1980s

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I'm a firm believer in that old adage.

The awesome blog Marvel Comics of the 1980s has many pictures worth many thousands of words.  Two posts recently caught my eye there: Favorite Last Pages from the 1980s.

Here is a sample, an incredible piece from Bill Sienkiewicz's run as artist on The New Mutants.

The second post was Favorite Splash Pages from the 1980s.  Below is a fun splash page by penciller Paul Smith and inker Bob Wiacek from The Uncanny X-Men.

(Artwork and characters copyright 2014 by Marvel Comics.  No infringement is intended.)

Glen A. Larson, Veteran TV Producer/Writer Passes

If you grew up in the 1970s and 80s and watched TV, you owe a big debt to writer/producer Glen A. Larson.

He created series such as Alias Smith and Jones, Quincy, M.E., Magnum, P.I (co-created with Donald Bellisario), The Fall Guy, Knight Rider, Automan, Manimal, Buck Rogers and the original Battlestar Galactica.  He also produced series such as The Six Million Dollar Man and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. 

Mr. Larson seemingly defined American television in those periods.

He passed away Friday, November 14 at the age of 77 according to Variety.com.

Thank you, Mr. Larson, for the endless hours of fun and adventure.

Rosetta Probe Lands On Comet

It took ten years.

Four billion miles.

Three "slingshot" orbits around the Earth (plus, once around Mars).

But the Rosetta probe has finally landed on a comet.  Yes, for the first time in history, humans - specifically the folks at the European Space Agency - landed a probe. on. a. comet. 

Amazing.

It's A Genre World, We Just Live In It

Lotta things happening in the genre worlds right now:

Christopher Nolan' s Instellar is set to move and thrill us in early November.

The super-cult TV favorite Twin Peaks is coming back, with original creators David Lynch and Mark Frost returning to run things.

Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man is rumored to be the "villain" in the upcoming Captain America 3.

And Warner Brothers is banking A LOT on their stable of DC Comics characters translating into movie blockbuster franchises.

To the Falcon Cave, Robin!?

Did the Batmobile/Tumbler make the Kessel Run in less than 3 bat-parsecs?

Check out the video link to Variety.com at the end to find out the latest tit for tat shenanigans between Star Wars: Episode VII director JJ Abrams and Batman v Superman helmer Zack Snyder.  LINK.

Move over Baby Groot, Baby Chewbacca In Da Hizzy

The Award for Cutest Photo EVAR (this week) goes to this ridiculously cute pup in the Chewbacca getup (first seen at SlashFilm.com)

Kirby Glass Beats Google Glass

Google Glass?  I'd prefer Kirby Glass.  Just look at that image.  WOW!  Please, someone out there, one of you amazing prop/model makers, make this thing a reality -- maybe not with the all Cosmic Implications that usually come with a creation of Jack Kirby's, but a nice prop replica would be awesome.

I am so surprised that more movies or TV shows are not using Jack Kirby's incredible, even far-out designs, such as the one above from Captain Victory, as inspirations.  With CGI anything is possible now, so what say you, filmmakers, production designers and concept artists? 

(Image copyright its respective rights holder. No infringement is intended.)

Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1

Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy is simply the most fun movie to hit theaters in years.  Its soundtrack of classic rock staples only adds to the film's many charms.  Give the tunes a listen, and you'll be groovin' like Dancing Baby Groot in no time.

Fan-made Dancing Baby Groot

Guardians of the Galaxy is perhaps the most fun movie to grace multiplexes in many a year.  Jaded cynics can surely find fault with it, but many people, including me, just sat back with a large ice cold beverage and enjoyed the frak outta this movie.

I don't know what kind of merchandising Marvel/Disney has out for the movie, but I know they are kicking themselves they didn't think of this little gem like Patrick Delahanty did: an actual Dancing Baby Groot!

Star Trek Action Figures

As a huge Star Trek fan you'd think I'd have a ton of Trek-related toys, figures, statues, games, books, movies, merchandise, swag, what-have-you.  I do have some of that stuff, but not nearly as much as I might want.  Plus, I simply have no space to properly display things like that if I even had it.

One of the things I have unfortunately had to stay away from is Star Trek action figures.  I am so picky about likenesses, details and such, that I have none of that stuff in my "collection" save for an awesome Mego Gorn figure sent to me by a good friend.

Star Trek fan James Sawyer knows a thing or two about collecting ST action figures.  In fact, here's a neat post from his blog A Piece of the Action, about collecting the figures for the seven main stars of Star Trek.

(photo copyright James Sawyer)

Mad Max: Fury Road - The Road Warrior Returns

The Road Warrior (1982) is one of my all-time favorite movies.  The bleak, desolate world created and brought to life by director/co-writer George Miller, actor Mel Gibson and their amazing team of filmmakers, artists, craftspeople and, lest we not forget, stunt drivers feels so real, you want to shake the dust out of your clothes after watching the movie.

Road Warrior, or Mad Max 2 as it was known in its native Australia and other parts of the world, was so influential that to this day, over 30 years after it was first released, cheap knockoffs are still made that ape aspects of the movie - mainly its football shoulder pad, leather-clad fashions.

I'm always drawn to characters like Max.  A wounded man who just wanted to be left alone after the tragedy he suffered, but who did the right thing when no one else did, or could do.  That fits the mold of many a classic Western film character too (and more than a few characters from Samurai films).

Now, finally, MAD MAX IS BACK.

Mad Max: Fury Road, scheduled for released May 2015, puts George Miller back in command, with Tom Hardy donning the weathered and tattered Main Force Police uniform of Max Rockatansky.  Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron, sporting a very cool mechanical arm, co-stars.

Start revving your engines.  The chase is about to begin...again.

Divert Away From Divergent

Here's some free advice: AVOID THE MOVIE DIVERGENT AT ALL COSTS.

This Harry Potter/Hunger Games/any high school-set story was a terrible crush of a bore.  It's set in a dystopic, post-apocalyptic Chicago just so we can see all the familiar city landmarks overgrown with weeds.

Shailene Woodley, who I enjoyed in the movie The Descendants, is our focus here as Triss, a young girl on the cusp of womanhood who has a decision to make, and it's not what frappaccino to order at Starbucks.  In Future Chicago, everyone is divided amongst five factions: Abnegation (selfless); Dauntless (brawny law enforcement); Erudite (brainiacs/nerds); Amity (peaceniks); and Candor (honesty).

When you come of age you have to take a sort of future SAT test to determine which faction you will belong to -- think the sorting hat scenes from Harry Potter.  The silly thing is, even if the test determines which faction you should be assigned to, you can still just chose whichever faction you want to be in.  So why have the friggin' test in the first place?

This movie is so serious that it is unintentionally funny.  Early on, we are introduced to the various factions.  We see the Erudites teaching school, the Abnegationists running the government, etc.  When the Dauntless people arrive by running up the street grinning and laughing, I fully expected them to break out into song, as if Divergent were channeling Newsies or West Side Story.  Not only do the Dauntless-ites run onto the scene, they immediately started climbing the framework of the L Train, which they seem to ride a lot when they aren't running everywhere.  It was a supremely stupid, silly scene, although 12 years old doubtless thought it was rad.

Triss goes against the SATs/sorting hat and picks Dauntless, and the rest of the movie is her getting schooled at their rock quarry HQ.  When we first see the digs, all the Dauntless kids are hanging out and chatting away; it looked and felt just like high school.  And this movie had that extremely juvenile feel of high school, with the jocks (among an entire faction of jocks) bullying Triss and her other non-steroidal friends.  Plus it included a couple of High School Cafeteria Scenes (TM).

The cast was uniformly pretty and bland (see the usual casting on any show on The CW).  Woodley has large expressive eyes, but she tears up a few times in the movie and, I swear, it was like somebody held up a Fresnel lens in front of her because her eyes become ENORMOUS when she cries.

At some point the movie remembered it should have some kind of plot since the whole waste of movie was Triss training at/for Dauntless High, so they shoehorn in something about a mind-control drug and one faction wanting to take control of the gubmint.  South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone hit it on the head in their movie Team America that every movie should have a montage.  Divergent could have seriously benefited from that axiom with all the training nonsense. 

I can't believe there are supposed to be two more movies after this one.  I think they're called Astringent and Detergent.

Ed Wood - Interesting facts about this Tim Burton gem

Well, kids, Halloween is right around the corner.  One of my favorite movies to get me into that Halloween spirit is Ed Wood, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as the "worst director of all time."

It's an amazing film, featuring lush black and white photography and a great cast, with Martin Landau winning an Oscar for his moving portrayal of the legendary horror film icon Bela Lugosi.

Film School Rejects has posted an article that pulls 40 interesting items from the DVD commentary track.

Coherence movie - Big Ideas in a Small Package

I have it on good authority that the 2013 indie movie Coherence is a smart, engaging work of sci fi.  The story concerns the strange events that unfold among a group of friends gathered for a dinner party after a comet is sighted.

It's got a big idea in a small package, with a feel reminiscent of the best of the original Twilight Zone TV series.  The film was shot largely at director/co-writer James Ward Byrkit's home; the main cast of eight worked with a loose script and improvised their dialogue.  If you recall, this was how The Blair Witch Project was done, and also the way the great Christopher Guest shoots his improv comedies like Best In Show and A Mighty Wind.

Here's the trailer of Coherence from You Tube:

Orphan Black's Clone Dance Party

I've heard so many great things about the BBC America series ORPHAN BLACK - the incredible acting from lead Tatiana Maslany, the premise - but I've yet to catch the show.

This visual effects clip of the "clone dance party" makes me want to watch it even more.

Star Trekking with DC Comics

We love all things Star Trek at the blog here. Back in the day - 1987 to be exact - DC Comics published "Who's Who in Star Trek," a limited series featuring the work of various artists as they gave you the rundown on the most prominent characters in Star Trek up to that point.  Howard Chaykin did the amazing cover artwork (issue No. 1, below).

(art from DC Comics of the 1980s)

The great blog DC Comics of the 1980s has Chaykin's art on display for both issues. 


Star Trek is a Registered Trademark and Copyright 2014 by CBS Studios, Inc.  No infringement of those rights is intended with this article.

1980s Sci-Fi and Fantasy TV Intros

Here's a great video posted to You Tube which compiles a ton of fun old sci-fi and fantasy TV series opening titles.  The poster, RwDt09, titled it, "11 INTROS TO TACKY 80s SCI-FI/FANTASY TV," but I recall being enthralled by a least of couple of these lost gems: Manimal (due to Stan Winston's great spfx makeup work) and Wizards and Warriors (which had its comedic charms).

But The Highwayman...any show where Sam J. Jones drives a big rig with a GIANT FREAKING HELICOPTER on the front...yeah, that's the definition of "tacky."

Count how may of these shows had one of those openings that explained the show's premise each and every week (The Phoenix, Matthew Star, Outlaws, Highwayman).

Expendables IV: The Wrath Of Shatner

William Shatner.  Expendables 4. 

Let's make it happen, Stallone.

Gotham tv series to shine a light on Batman's Universe

Comic book adaptations are all the rage now-a-days.  Marvel has been consistently lighting up the theatrical box office the last several years with not only their Marvel Cinematic Universe films featuring big guns Iron Man, Captain American, Thor and the Avengers, but also their top tier heroes in separate studio franchises in Spider-Man and the X-Men consistently racking up the big numbers.

However, right now, I'm more interested in the small screen.  Specifically a corner of the Batman-universe to be covered in the upcoming Gotham tv series, which follows a young pre-Commissioner Jim Gordon as he learns what it means to be a good cop in a very bad city.

The cast looks amazing, headed by Ben McKenzie (last seen in the great, lamented cop show Southland) as Gordon, the always interesting Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, Gordon's GCPD mentor, and Sean Pertwee assaying the role of Alfred the butler, watching over the young Bruce Wayne as he deals with the loss of his parents.

The Fox Network looks to have faith in the show as they've given it a series commitment (the number of first season episodes yet to be determined).  Bruno Heller, of Rome and The Mentalist fame, is showrunner.  SuperheroHype.com has a chat with Heller.

Gotham debuts in Fall 2014.  Bat-night and bat-time to be determined.

Another Bat-Short for The Batman's 75th Anniversary

Acclaimed animator/writer/artist Darwyn Cooke has a new short film featuring one of the more unique twists on the Batman mythos, a futuristic version called Batman Beyond (based on the short-lived animated series of the same name).  It was created to celebrate Batman's 75th Anniversary this year.

Actor Kevin Conroy once again voices the aged Bruce Wayne, with the new younger Batman voiced by actor Will Friedle.

Cooke first came to fanboys' attention after designing the amazing opening titles for Batman Beyond, seen below. 

The Batman Is Back In A Bruce Timm Short Film

75 years.  That's how long the Batman has been prowling the streets of Gotham City, delivering his unique, laser-focused brand of two-fisted justice after first appearing in Detective Comics #27, cover dated May 1939.

Legendary animator Bruce Timm - the chief designer and architect of Batman: The Animated Series - returns to the cowl with a terrific animated short film he conceived and directed for DC Entertainment to celebrate Batman's long reign.  It's sepia-toned for a vintage feel, retro-cool and doesn't waste a single frame. 

And, yes, Kevin Conroy voices Batman.

Avengers Assemble (Via Waffle Iron, If Necessary)

The fine, funny folks at College Humor featured a pic (click here) comparing and contrasting the Avengers circa their 1978 TV incarnations with the big budget 2012 incarnations.  What a difference a couple decades and a few hundred million bucks does to a superteam.

But to be fair, while Thor, Captain America and the Hulk are all from late 1970s CBS TV series/TV movies, CH's '78 "Iron Man" is actually a character called Exo-Man, which is not a Marvel Comics character, but rather a TV movie/pilot that didn't get picked up.  Ok, so it's an Iron Man rip-off, and from what I vaguely recall from watching the thing, Exo-Man used a giant wafle-iron-like device to suit up.  Oh, here it is (thanks YouTube) .

Holy Bootleg Figure, Batman!

We don't feature toys too much on the blog here.  The newer toys enjoy the best manufacturing processes, with things like laser scanning, better sculpting and articulation, and just better materials than toys of old.

There are still places that make toys that are, shall we say, less than of good quality?  Yeah, we're talking about crap bootlegs that look like they were made 40 years ago under the most backward of manufacturing conditions, with lots of poisonous lead-based paint likely used for good measure.

Comics Alliance has a nice post up about bootlegs, specifically a bootleg Batman that has to be seen to be believed.  (photo from WeirdoToys.com)

This is just all kinds of f--ked up, but in a hilarious way.

Photoshop Phasered Fumetti

Blasts from the Photoshop TOS Fumetti past.

Star Trek is Copyright 2014 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc.  Screencaps from Trekcore.com. Metaluna monster Copyright Its Respective Rights Holder. No infringement of these rights is intended with this parody.

Snake Plissken takes on Hazel the Maid

Perhaps the greatest "double feature" EVER aired on OTA station Antenna TV this morning.  From 6a -8a, they showed the scifi actioner "Escape From New York," featuring the adventures of the cynical, wise-cracking, take charge Snake Plissken.  This was immediately followed by two episodes of "Hazel," the classic 1950s sitcom about the adventures of a cynical, wise-cracking, take charge maid named Hazel.

I just know Hazel would have had a field day cleaning up NYC after it became a maximum security prison. 

Swing On Over To The Monkey Bar

Because it's a slow news day as far as monkeys are concerned, and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes isn't out until July, here's a primate photo-op I ran back in December 2009.

Planet of the Apes series is Copyright 2014 by 20th Century Fox. No infringement of those rights is intended with this parody.  Andy Serkis mo-capped all the monkeys in this pic!

A New Food Truck Rocks Vasquez

Star Trek is Copyright 2014 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. No infringement of those rights is intended with this parody. Screencaps from Trekcore.com. Metrons eat free.