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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Star Trek is Copyright 2013 & 2014 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. No infringement of those rights is intended with this parody. Screencaps from Trekcore.com.

Celebrate Movie Posters Of Old

A blogger named Frederick has a terrific fun blog called HELD OVER MOVIES where he puts up old newspaper ads for movies. 

Check it out for a couple reasons: 1. the great rush of nostalgia at seeing ads for pics like Orca, The Spy Who Loved Me, Planet Of The Apes, chop-socky classic Exit The Dragon, Enter The Tiger and something called Superargo vs. Diabolicus, and 2. the thrill of seeing old-style poster designs and paintings (before Photoshopping everything became the norm).

Since Darren Aronofsky's new film Noah is coming out in 2014, this poster for In search of Noah's Ark seemed the perfect thing to post here.

Godzilla ROARS In 2014!

Move over, Mothra. Cram it, Cloverfield.  And pack it in you Pacific Rim kaijus. The first - and best - giant monster of them all it coming back to the big screen in May 2014. 

We can only be talking about Godzilla.

The new American Godzilla film is directed by Gareth Edwards (the fun low budget scifi movie, Monsters), with a shooting script by Frank Darabont.

This first teaseer trailer is phenomenal.  Serious, smart, great mood and atmosphere, incredibly realistic visual effects.  And, holy crap, that ROAR at the end is - to use a classic Marvel Comics cover blurb - "senses shattering!"  

This movie should rock so f#@%!*& hard!

Here's the teaser from You Tube:

Three Words That Strike Fear Into Movie Watchers

Here are three words on film posters that strike fear into movie-watchers everywhere: "and Richard Grieco."

Mr. Grieco has been coasting on his status as one of the 21 Jump Street TV brat pack dudes, but, come on now, that show ended over 20 years ago.  Grieco was only on it for one season, plus one season on his character's spinoff show.  Jump Street was nowhere near as influential or popular a show as, say, Miami Vice, so come on people, it's time to stop renting the crap Grieco makes.

Comics Alliance had this to say about "mockbuster" The Almighty Thor, which stars Patricia Velasquez, Kevin Nash "and Richard Grieco" - "Almighty Thor is nowhere near as good as you want a movie starring Richard Grieco as Loki and Big Daddy Cool Diesel Kevin Nash as Odin (with absolutely no effort made to hide his tattoos) to be, but it does feature dinosaurs and Thor with a machine gun."

Other flicks starring some folks "and Richard Grieco" include, A House Is Not A Home and Evil Breed: The Legend Of Samhain.

Tom Laughlin: Indie Director/Writer/Actor of Billy Jack Film Series Dies

"I'm going to take this right foot...and I'm going to wop you on that side of your face.  And you want to know something...there's not a damn thing you're going to be able to do about it."

I imagine Billy Jack is having that conversation with St. Peter at the pearly gates.  Yes, you read that right, Billy Jack or rather his earthbound form of actor/writer/director Tom Laughlin has passed, on December 12 at age 82, from this reservation onto the next.

No one did Native American-US Army vet-turned-pacifist-action-hero like Laughlin.  He played the black hat-wearing, denim-clad Billy Jack in four films: The Born Losers (1967), Billy Jack (1971), The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and Billy Jack Goes To Washington (1977).

As a kid, I loved the first two films in the series.  Laughlin had a likeable, genuine screen presence (although it's obvious when his double, Hapkido master and the movie's fight choreographer Bong-soo Han is being used).  Billy Jack wasn't a superhero, but man, could he open a can of whoop-ass on a bunch of dumb rednecks.

Community - A Look At Season Five

Community.  You love it.  You...can be indifferent to it.  I would say without a doubt that it was the most creative series on TV in its first three seasons (under creator and showrunner Dan Harmon), although, admittedly, it wasn't always the funniest.

After Harmon was fired for season four and other producers were brought on to guide the show, I lost interest, but watching the early episodes in syndication has got me wanting to once again sign up for classes at Greendale Community College. 

Here is the trailer, via YouTube for Season Five, which features the return of Dan Harmon to the creative reins of the show.  While I am sad that Donald Glover is leaving the series (the relationship between his character Troy and Danny Pudi's Abed is the true heart of the series)  I cannot wait for the latest paintball episode.

22 Jump Street...Hell, Yeah

Because the 21 Jump Street movie was such a wonderful, funny, raunchy surprise, here for your viewing pleasure is the restricted red band trailer for 22 Jump Street on YouTube:

SNL Puts Guy Fieri Into Christmas

The Christmas season brings to mind a few things:  snow, grandma getting run over by a reindeer, Rudolph specials, presents, and...Guy Fieri?

Well, thanks to the folks at Saturday Night Live you now can add the super-bleached host of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" to your holiday yulelog with their Guy Fieri Full Throttle Christmas Special.

More fun than the actual Guy Fieri himself, SNL's X-Mas special features the "human equivalent of the food (he) makes," with guests like Kid Rock, Criss Angel, Kimbo Slice, Mimi from "Drew Carey" and the dudes from Duck Dynasty.

Check out the insanity here, courtesy of Screen Crush.

Twizzler Goes Star Trekking

Star Trek.  Twizzlers.

Two great things that boldly go together?  Well, apparently someone thought so, which is why we get this Twizzlers candy ad with a Star Trek TOS Enterprise and theme.

A funny thing, though, is they pattern the "warp effect" after the one used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, not the Original Series, which uses the refit Enterprise and has a different musical theme.  But it works better in the context of the commercial (and it's another way to utilize more Twizzlers in the mix), so we'll let it slide.

Oh, well, it's still fun, with some great visuals.  And Twizzlers are still a sweet treat.

Star Trek Scribbles From Long Long Ago

My brother M sent me this pic.  It's from an old notebook* of mine from 1982.  Yup, that's a epic Star Trek Federation versus Klingons battle that I drew/doodled. 

Can't recall who won, though (hopefully, the good guys).

* Yes, kids, before blogs and the Interwebs and tablets and lasers you had to draw shit in spiral-bound school notebooks!

Bananas: A New "Canvas" For Art

Two words: BANANA. ART.

Japanese “banana engraver” Keisuke Yamada once again shows that any material can be used in the creation of art.  Even delicious potassium-rich bananas.

Check out his great takes on Homer Simpson, Darth Vader, Marge Simpson, the Alien from Alien, and others at Comics Alliance.

Marvel Comics Shined In The 1980s

In the early 1980s, it was a good time to be a comic book reader.  There was a true renaissance going on in those four-color pages and Marvel Comics was at the center of it.  Under the direction of Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter, writers and artists like Chris Claremont and John Byrne on Uncanny X-Men; Frank Miller working as writer and penciller (then later as breakdown artist for penciller/finisher Klaus Janson) on Daredevil; and Walter Simonson breathed new life into Asgardian mythology in penciling and writing The Mighty Thor. 

These creators, and others with similar passions on other titles, breathed new life into characters that were nearing the end of their second decade of publishing.  Some titles, like X-Men (which had been featuring reprints of earlier tales) and Daredevil were close to being canceled before these young creators took hold of them and revitalized them for a new generation of readers. 

A wonderful blog called Marvel Comics Of The 1980s celebrates that decade of creativity, including those heady early 80s years spotlighting not only the titles and talents listed above, but also gems like Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz's acclaimed run on Moon Knight; David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr.'s seminal Iron Man stories (many facets of which were used in the recent Iron Man big screen movies); and John Byrne's epic run on Fantastic Four, widely viewed as the best run on that title since the 100+ issues from series creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Green Lantern Shines Brightest In 60s Cartoon Series

Ever watch the 2011 Green Lantern movie they made with Ryan Reynolds?  They gave it a huge budget.  Reynolds was certainly a likeable comedic actor.  And they tapped Martin Campbell - who directed the incredible James Bond flick Casino Royale - to helm the film.

The result: total wackness.  Just a dull, boring movie.  Nothing memorable about it, except how unmemorable it was.

Filmation Animation did a Green Lantern cartoon series in 1967.  It was much more fun, faithful to the comic books, and exciting than the big budget movie ever was.  Check out this episode from YouTube.  And yes, the baddie is named Evil Star!

Blog Flim Sketchr Highlights Movie And TV Conceptual Design Art

There's a great blog called Film Sketchr which showcases a range of incredible artwork done for fantasy and science fiction films and television shows.  It includes concept art and paintings, storyboards and more from legends like Harper Goff (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Fantastic Voyage), Ralph McQuarrie (Star Wars: The Original Trilogy and ET), Andy Probert (original Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: The Motion Picture) to legends-in-the-making John Eaves (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Oz The Great And Powerful) and Ryan Church (Avatar and Star Trek: 2009 Reboot).

Check it out here.

Spider-Man's Foe Kraven The Hunter Needs A Makeover

Spider-Man has faced his share of supervillains both in the 4-color comic book pages and on the silver screen. Green Goblin.  Doctor Octopus.  Sandman.  Venom.  The Lizard.

With Amazing Spider-Man 2 due in theaters in 2014, the villainous Electro will be added to the list.

One baddie we hope will NEVER see the big screen is Kraven The Hunter.  Kraven has simply the WORST costume design probably ever.  He wears an open vest with a lion's head - the big cat's eyes are where Krav's nipples would be (more on this later).  He also wears leopard spotted tights (Leopard.  Spotted.  Tights.) and strappy sandals.  Top this all off with a mustache that makes the Village People insanely jealous, and you have the worst-dressed spider-villain of all time.

Don't believe me, check out this pic:

Oh, and his "eye-nipples" shoot out some kinda jungle date-rape drug or sleeping gas (see panel 4, below).

Art by John Byrne and Dave Hunt, sourced from Grantbridge Street & Other Misadventures. Spider-Man and all characters shown are Copyright by Marvel Comics.

Space Ghost Designs

Hanna-Barbera produced a nifty adventure cartoon in the 1960s called Space Ghost. It ran in syndication for a number of years in the 70s which is when I eventually caught it.

Space Ghost was designed by now-legendary comic book artist Alex Toth.  I found these early Space Ghost designs at a blog called Rip Jaggers Dojo. It's always interesting to me to see an artist's design process (that early sketch would have been more cumbersome to animate).  That first sketch with the boots and the underwear on the outside would have made Space Ghost just another standard superhero costume knockoff. 

Mr. Toth's overall creedo of "less is more" prevailed and he nailed it with his amazing final minimalist Space Ghost costume design (among other refinements, no boots, no undies on the outside).

Galoob's ST:TNG Toys Revisited

Remember back in the day when Star Trek: The Next Generation first graced our tv screens?  After years of re-runs of TOS, new Star Trek: TNG episodes meant new Star Trek toys!

Whether you were an avid toy collector or just liked to keep a Data or Geordi action figure sitting atop your desk at work, or a phaser in the drawer to vaporize trespassers to your work station, the fine folks at Galoob Toys sought to please all those folks with some great toys.

The amazing site Trekcore - which this site is forever indebted to for their screencaps of every ST iteration - has a great three-part series looking at the Galoob/ST: TNG connection. It's a must read.

Trekcore's Part 1 of their Galoob retrospective.

Beam Me Up, Flipper

Post-Star Trek TOS, William Shatner guest starred on The Six Million Dollar Man as Steve Austin's friend and a fellow astronaut Josh.

Instead of getting into an accident and getting $6 mil worth of bionics, Josh instead passed through some kind of weird energy field in space and came back with the ability to understand dolphin math (and hear weird computer sounds in the process)!

Yes, apparently Flipper and his buds use sine, cosine and fractions just as much as they gulp down fish treats.

io9 has a terrific clip of these proceedings.  Just wait til you get to the end for the wacked out math stuff.

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" Teaser

On May 23, 2014, the X-Men return to the big screen in "X-Men: Days Of Future Past" an adaptation of one of the best storylines in X-Men history.

Adapting the classic John Byrne and Chris Claremont comic book tale is returning director Bryan Singer, who helmed the first two X-Men films.  Here's the first teaser trailer:

Led by the seemingly ageless Hugh Jackman - donning the indestructible claws of Wolverine - this latest movie is practically bursting with on-screen talent.  Returnees from X-Men: First Class include James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult.  They star along with veteran X-franchise actors Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Halley Berry, Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore.  According to Screencrush, we'll be introduced to new mutants including fan-favorite Bishop, Sunspot and Blink.  Oh, and some guy from some little-seen show called Game of Thrones is also in the mix: Peter Dinklage.

The movie probably needs to run about 3 hours - we're talking Lord Of The Rings runtime - to cover all those amazing actors and all those storylines.

The Thing With Two Heads - A Movie With Half A Brain

Yesterday we had a Man With Two Brains.

Today, naturally, we get a man with two heads, or more specifically, The Thing With Two Heads.   Yup, this is what happens when you combine an Oscar-winning actor (Ray Milland, for The Lost Weekend), a former NFL football star (Rosey Grier) and a very goofy blaxspoitation script.

Or as the tag at the top of the poster so succinctly puts it, "They transplanted a WHITE BIGOT'S HEAD onto a SOUL BROTHER'S BODY!"

Steve Martin Brightens Your Halloween With His Two Brains

Because Halloween is just around the corner (or should that be "coroner?" Bazinga!), it never hurts to have an extra brain or two handy for the candy jar.

Here's a great bit from the Steve Martin classic The Man With Two Brains, with the old subdural hematoma versus epidural hematoma quandry:

Soylent Bell

You like Taco Bell?  Hey, who doesn't, especially since some marketing genius decided they should make taco shells out of Doritos chip flavors like Cool Ranch and the ubiquitous Nacho Cheese.  Brilliant!

Ever wonder about the meat in those tacos,though?  Apparently, Taco Bell prefers to call it "Taco Meat Filling" and, according to this post from Jezebel.com, only about 36% of that "meat filling" is actually, you know, meat (in this case, beef).  The other 64% is stuff like, "water, isolated oat product, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, oats (wheat), soy lecithin, sugar, spices, maltodextrin (a polysaccharide that is absorbed as glucose), soybean oil (anti-dusting agent), garlic powder, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, caramel color, cocoa powder, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent), natural flavors, yeast, modified corn starch, natural smoke flavor, salt, sodium phosphate, less than 2% of beef broth, potassium phosphate, and potassium lactate."

Yum-my, right?

I predict we are about seven years before Taco Bell, and fast food joints in general, goes full on Soylent Green on us.  

 And, as usual, the American public will just shrug and order fries on the side.

Superman's 75th Anniversary Tribute Video Short

Superman turned 75 this year.

So uber-animation god Bruce Timm and Zack Snyder, director of this summer's Man of Steel, put together an amazing tribute video, which can be found at Entertainment Weekly's site.  (I originally got wind of this at Comics Alliance.)

So many decades, so many great artists; Additionally, it's nice they also included the most famous TV and film versions in there too.

Up, up and away!

Music Beyond The Stars

Ever see The Seven Samurai In Space?  You may remember it as Battle Beyond The Stars, the Roger Corman-produced scifi movie with John Boy Walton (aka Richard Thomas).

It's one of Corman's better releases, with lots of cool aliens, fun spaceship designs (hey, a starship with boobs!) and a nifty early effort from composer James Horner.  (Trivia fuctoid: James Cameron toiled on the movie first as a lowly model maker, but was quickly promoted to production designer/art director and visual effects supervisor.  Plus, Cameron would later select Horner to score his own films, such as, Aliens, Titanic and Avatar.)

Here's the main title theme, courtesy of YouTube:

Now we're cooking with dilithium!

Star Trek is Copyright 2013 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. No infringement of those rights is implied with this parody.  Screencaps from Trekcore.com. 

The Simpson's "Treehouse of del Toro Horror"

The Simpson's annual "Treehouse of Horror" (the 24th edition!) is airing on Sunday, October 6, and they have enlisted celebrated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to create the opening credits sequence.  Del Toro is a true, dyed-in-the-wool genre fan as he includes a wide range of references, everything from Universal Studios' classic 1930s horror creatures, Ray Harryhausen and Hitchcock, Godzilla, the Shining and even Blade II (which he directed - in fact, all of GdT's films get the animated nod), to Bradbury, Poe, Lovecraft and Rod Serling, for starters.

The helpful folks at Screen Crush put together this helpful primer so we don't miss any of del Toro's ghoulish fun.

Agents of SHIELD Needs More Work

Agents of SHIELD.  Or rather, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.  Or, more specifically, Disney's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

Whichever way you slice it, I watched the pilot episode of this spinoff from the Marvel Film Universe twice now.  My review: (shrugs shoulders).

It's not horrible, but it was certainly not in the Realm of Greatness that one would expect from a property that has such an amazing pedigree: Buffy/Firefly/Avengers movie god Joss Whedon directed the thing; Joss Whedon co-wrote it; acclaimed comic book writer/veteran tv writer Jeph Loeb is an executive producer; and it's based on classic comic books by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko. 

With all that going for it, it was merely okay.  And that is not okay.

In fact, The Hollywood Reporter enlisted Steranko to review the series for them.  He pretty much nailed it on the head.

Some highlights: "No menace, no tension."  Too many storylines, therefore "who in hell am I supposed to root for?"  "(Jeph) Loeb categorized the series as "SHIELD meets The X-Files." Great premise, but barely in evidence."  And "SHIELD needs to be much tougher, much stranger, much edgier to reach its potential!"

When I was watching Agents of SHIELD, I found my thoughts drifting off to the new Sleepy Hollow series.  YIKES! 

The Six Million Dollar Mustache

Re-runs of The Six Million Dollar Man are on right now.  I loved this show as a kid.

One thing: HE'S GOT A MUSTACHE! 

Yup, stone cold Steve Austin has a 'stache.  And it's a creepy looking thing: with Lee Major's patented squint, it makes Steve look smarmy, not suave (Tom Selleck's mighty 'stache has nothing to fear).  See for yourself, thanks to YouTube. 

It's probably bionic too. Or perhaps it's made from Bigfoot clippings.  Only Steve Austin's barber (and/or Dr. Rudy Wells) knows for sure.