I have four more films that I can add to my list. I won’t count them until the reviews are posted! But look for reviews over the course of the weekend:
THE HURT LOCKER
GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT
LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
STREET FIGHTER: LEGEND OF CHUN LI
Also watch for reviews of film classics (which are new to me):
THE COMANCHEROS starring John Wayne
BAREFOOT CONTESSA starring Humphrey Bogart
LAST MAN ON EARTH starring Vincent Price
Oh also if you have any suggestions that I should add to my list. Please give me shout by adding a comment to this post!
We all remember waking up and dashing to the TV on Saturday morning anticipating the latest dose of Saturday morning cartoons. I remember sitting glued to the TV with my giant bowl of Shreddies still in my PJs awaiting the latest installment of Superfriends, Dungeons & Dragons and yes, Bugs Bunny.
Those days have long past with the world of digital cable and 600 channels of nothing.
My point is that with the so many television shows coming to DVD I want to point out some Saturday morning cartoon gems we desperately need on DVD.
First off I want to congratulate Warner Bros for releasing Plastic Man: The Complete Animated Series on DVD September 1st. I am dying to get my hands on that set because it used to be one of my favorite shows as a kid. Bring it on!
Since they are releasing Plastic Man what about a release of the Spider-Woman: Animated Series. She is such a huge character in Marvel comics now. That should be primed and ready. We have seen releases for of that single Spider-Woman vs. the Fly episode and it wasnt even the best episode of the series.
For those of you who don’t Spider-Woman is Jessica Drew, who as a child she was bitten by a poisonous spider. Her father, Dr. Alexander Drew saved her life by using an experimental spider serum that inadvertently gave her spider powers. (if you call psionic web blasts spider powers) . She became a reporter for Justice Magazine during the say and became Spider-Woman thwarting evil at night.
I liked the show because when it aired there wasnt a regular Spider-Man cartoon going!
The voice of Spider-Woman was none other than Joan Van Ark from TV’s Knot’s Landing and the show lasted 16 episodes but it was nice to see that there was another female superhero besides Wonder Woman. I was also a fan of the comic series. Please bring this to DVD!
Another I would love to see was FANGFACE from the famed Ruby-Spears company who rivaled Hanna-Barbera in their day.
Fangface in many ways was just a rip off of Scooby Doo with four daring teenage detectives uncovering the mysteries and monsters who seemed to haunt their every move.
Except for a second, imagine that Shaggy was a reluctant werewolf who could turn into a werewolf at the drop of a hat. Then picture than this werewolf was part Tazmanian Devil, part Yosemite Sam and well unpredictable. Oh not to mention he always dreams of eating one of the teens.
There was just no other cartoon like FANGFACE. It was brilliant! It took an old tired concept and well injected chaos into it. I really don’t know why this show isn’t loved more! Please, please release it on DVD!
Click HERE for part two of Blast from the Past II!
If you are not a Wes Anderson fan. This could be the worst movie ever. The animation looks so choppy and disjointed. I think it is trying to look like the storybooks but if you want that rent Coraline, which is utterly brilliant if you haven’t see it!
What a tender sweet little movie with a dash of realism that may break your heart.
Joseph Gordon Levitt is one of the undiscovered treaures in movies. The man seems to be able to act circles around people. I guess if that is possible, then he does it.
Any how Levitt stars as Tom Hansen, a whiz at writing greeting cards. Tom falls hard for the new girl in the office, Summer (Zooey Deschanel). Summer wants a casual relationship, Tom does not. We know where this is headed!
Or do we? Because the film is told in a non-linnear fashion. Like say, Memento. But imagine if you will you take this 500 day relationship and shuffle it as you would a stack of cards. And the film tells you to play 52 pickup with the cards of this relationship. Sometimes you get hearts and sometimes you get spades its that simple.
What is great is how each card is carefully handled and the how the film uniquely deals with all the emotions of love, hate, anguish, love at first site and well infatuation. It is a brilliant little piece of filmmaking and Levitt is right at the centre. Deschanel is good but because we are so much inside Levitt’s head in the movie we really never know Summer’s real reasons for the things she does. Sound familiar guys?
I could really relate to Levitt’s character because I have been in his situation more times than I can remember and it was nice to see how far I have come since I was him. Maybe it was because of that is the reason I loved this movie. Another could be it is just really good!
I also loved the film’s music choices especially “Your make my dreams come true” by Hall & Oates. That scene is priceless.
A lot of the buzz online is that this film is poised to be the next Juno. But a friend of mine may have put it better that it will be the next Little Miss Sunshine. Why do I agree? Because I would say that this film has the same kind of amazing type script of Juno. I would say that Levitt’s performance is a break-through like Ellen Page in Juno. I would also say that 500 Days has a tone more like Little Miss Sunshine than Juno.
One more thing, this film may have one of the best last lines in movie history!
After seeing the film Julie & Julia at a preview screening tonight, I decided I wanted to have a contest with myself.
When I was a film critic my record for seeing movies in one year was 648 movies in 365 days. That was 648 movies also that I hadnt seen before. It helped when I was seeing sometimes 2 to 5 a week in theatres as a critic.
Now with my full time job it will be quite the momental task to break that milestone. So my goal is to watch 650 movies in one year. And review and comment on the interesting ones I find along the way.
Okay the rules are as follows. They can be any kind of movie but they have to be ones I havent seen starting July 26. That is really going to be difficult for me since I have about a 2000 movie collection and well for 10 years was going to 2-5 movies a week in theatres.
I hope to blog each and every day about with interesting columns, classic reviews and new reviews and well everything movies and of course my contest. If you are a movie lover stay tuned!
My name is Dean Kish. I was an internet film critic for ten years until I gave it up and moved into television. I wrote reviews for some of the largest websites on the web. (Aintitcoolnews, comingsoon.net and many others) When I was doing the reviews full time I had a readership of nearly 2 million subscribers.
I still follow my dream of getting people to talk about movies and embrace movies each and every day. I will probably never stop that til the day I die.
I think movies have to cherished, held tight and savoured like a great glass of wine.
In this blog I hope to reignite the passion I used to push into my reviews and hope to get people to talk about a movie. That is my blog goal.
Those days have long past with the world of digital cable and 600 channels of nothing.
e of my favorite shows as a kid. Bring it on!
Another I would love to see was FANGFACE from the famed Ruby-Spears company who rivaled Hanna-Barbera in their day.
