Batman: Year One

Okay I admit that I am not just a Movie Geek but a Comic Book Geek as well…Okay I am also a Die Hard Gamer as well… okay I am an all-around geek, but I don’t consider that to be a problem because as they say on G4 “It’s a Nerd’s World”.

It is also no secret that I am a huge Batman geek. I admit that I am the man that spent all of my time a couple of weeks ago playing Arkham City which is awesome by the way.

Well one DVD/Blu-Ray that recently came out is Batman: Year One.

I know what you are thinking. Isn’t that Batman Begins? Well, not really.

You see the things about these flicks is simply Warner Premiere releases a line of Direct to DVD flicks in the DC Universe. They are primarily animated movies based on popular comic storylines. Some are flat out taken from the pages and placed on the screen while others are loosely based on the original work.

Now what I like about these are that they not only include the flick but they also are loaded with special features that are a present for many and all DC Comics fans.
These features include special documentaries on not just the story and the making of the flick but in-depth documentaries on the original work detailing the process from inception to the market reaction and the legacy of the work.

Some releases also include biographies on writers and Artists and profiles of the villains as well as the behind the scenes origins of certain characters such as Robin, Supergirl or the Darkseid.

Other features include Animated Shorts that follow smaller characters in the DC Universe. Not to mention selected episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, and Justice League.

These Features alone are worth the purchase of the Disc.
Batman: Year One is no Exception.

The main movie features outstanding animation telling the story of both Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon as they arrive in Gotham City for different reasons.

Wayne is returning to Gotham after traveling the world for thirteen years learning the skills to make him a crime fighter, and coming to Gotham to begin his mission.
Gordon is coming to Gotham to accept a job as a Police Lieutenant for the corrupt GCPD.

The story follows the characters as they narrate their story “Dexter Style” as is in the original Comic.

Other Characters featured in the story are Selena Kyle following her origin to become Catwoman as well as her young protégé Holly.

The flick will keep you entertained if you can forget the fact that you saw the whole story before in Batman Begins.

Now let us get on to the Special Features.

The documentary Heart of vengeance tells the story of how the writers and artists of DC Comics’ journey of taking Batman from his campy 1960’s image to his Dark Roots and the origins of the Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and his return for Batman: Year One and the direction that the franchise to the Dark Knight Rises.

Other Features include a round table discussion with the heads of Batman at DC discussing the directions of the character and where he is going in the future.
What I mainly want to talk about here is the Catwoman short film that first off is HOT in some parts. Catwoman voiced by Eliza Dushku pursues a criminal across Gotham to uncover the truth behind his smuggling ring.

The short is awesome.

There is very much a Catwoman theme to this release. Could Dark Knight Rises have something to do with it?

Anyway this release is definitely a Buy for all Batman fans.

5 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts (close in the Catwoman short)
3 Beasts
4 Car Chases
3 explosions

3 Stars

Comic Fans Check it out!

Chronicle

Now for those of you that do not know what the Found Footage is, please allow me to explain what it is. The basic plot is the audience is shown home video footage of someone filming for a verity of reasons. Then without warning something happens and the person filming doesn’t either cut or run out of tape or battery power and it usually ends with the deaths of the characters or we are told what became of the characters. For many years the genre was marketed as a true story and what we are seeing is the footage that was found. Sadly in recent year’s people are much harder to fool.

I love the found footage genre. Most people complain about it but I like it. Now I admit that some of them like Cloverfield gave me a migraine but sometimes that happens. Hell, there are some Video Games that give me a migraine so I am going to leave that there.

Well I recently decided to check out Chronicle which is a different approach to the subgenre. This flick is both a found footage flick as well as a Superhero flick. However it takes its own approach.

The Flick follows three teenagers, cousins Andrew, and Matt and popular teen Steve as they go to a rave and find a hole in the ground with a strange glowing plant inside. Later on the trio discovers that they have strange powers as a result of this encounter.

Andrew who is relentlessly bullied by both his abusive father and classmates becomes the strongest of the three and begins to see himself as the “Apex Predator” and goes down the dark path leading to a confrontation with the other characters.

One interesting thing about the shooting of the film is the fact that it is filmed with not just one camera and that the characters can use the cameras with their powers so making it look like it is being filmed by another person. I also like the visual effects in this flick, especially in the scene where the kids are flying and encounter an airplane.

The characters are likable and the story where we are shown Andrew’s decent into becoming a super villain.

I definitely recommend this flick.

3 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
2 Beasts
2 Explosions
1 Car Chase

3 Stars

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

You want to know what I really like about HBO? Allot of it is their documentaries. They have some of the best topics especially in their America Undercover line. Now I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the Taxi Cab Confessions but to each their own.

One documentary that was made by HBO was shot in 1993 titled Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills. The film follows the murder of three children in West Memphis Arkansas and the 3 teenagers accused of their murder. What the film crew realized while they were making the movie is that the three accused Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, who would become known as the West Memphis 3 were convicted based on circumstantial evidence and mostly prejudice due to the fact that they wore black clothes, listened to bands like Metallica, as well as they had read Stephen King books.

Now this documentary did what documentaries are supposed to do. They are supposed to make you think and a good documentary is supposed to make you angry. This documentary did both of those for me.
Paradise Lost told me the story of a modern day witch hunt. Just the fact that you could be not just accused of murder but also convicted of the crime based on the fact that you wear black and are a little different. It makes be thank my lucky stars that my Father’s business transferred him to Texas where I was raised and not Arkansas.

In 2000 a sequel was made titled Paradise Lost: Revelations that follows the reaction to the original film.

Well into 2007 new DNA evidence was uncovered and Filmmakers Joe Berlinger Bruce Sinofsky began shooting the next installment of the West Memphis 3. The new evidence was so strong that John Mark Byers, adoptive father of murder victim Christopher Byers, Who was long outspoken about the guilt of the WM3 changed his position as well as victim Stevie Branch’s Mother Pamela Hobbs.

In August of last year The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered that the WM3 be granted a retrial 18 years later allowing all of the new evidence. However in a surprise move the WM3 were offered a Alford plea bargain where they still plead their innocence but they change their plea to guilty and they are sentenced to time served.
Now There are a lot of angry people on this decision, most namely the three men wrongly convicted of the crime that they did not commit as well as their families as well as the families of the victims.

Now you ask ,Why was this plea bargain made?

It is simple The state of Arkansas did this in order to avoid a new trial because if there were to be a retrial and the WM3 were found to be innocent then there would be many of civil trials that would follow. There would be suites from the WM3 as well as the families and the cost should go well into the millions.

Not to mention the fact that the killer of the children walks the streets.
Now let’s talk about the flick.

I definitely want to recommend the other two flicks to all of you but the truth is that it really isn’t that much of a necessity. The flick goes back to the beginning and shows the case and the evidence that was not brought to the trial. It is different from the first as now it is all done in hindsight which is always 20/20.

We are then shown the people involved in the case and where they are now. The most interesting person here in my opinion in Mark Byers ,because he is featured prominently in the previous documentaries loudly claiming the guilt of the WM3. He even goes as far as to argue with the other supporters. Byers is also a suspect in the murder of not just his son but in the death of his wife who had passed since the original film and is shown submitting to a polygraph that he passes.

Well in the decade since Revelations, Byers has done a complete 180 and is now a strong supporter of the “Free the WM3” movement. His attention and anger is focused on the new suspect in the case as well as the West Memphis Police Department for locking up the wrong people.

I have to give credit to Byers for looking at the facts and then admitting that he was wrong and even receiving a letter from Echols. Now the flick spends a lot of time following Terry Hobbs who is named as a suspect and then sues the Dixie Chicks for Defamation after she mentions him as a suspect.

The imagery at the end of the documentary is highly moving as we are shown images of the three being released and returning to their families and it is shot and edited for great storytelling.

This is how to make a documentary.

I not only recommend checking out this documentary, This Film even received a Oscar nomination which was highly deserved.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Let me talk a little bit about rednecks. They get a pretty bum rap especially in horror flicks.

Here is the recipe for one of these flicks.

A group of college kids go out to the woods to drink, smoke Dope and have pre-marital sex and at some point run afoul of some local yokels that proceed to chop slash and mutilate them.

That is the basic Slice and dice, but did you ever think of it from the redneck’s point of view.

Well that is the plot of Tucker and Dale vs Evil. A Horror/Comedy currently available.

This is the story of Tucker and Dale a couple of friendly rednecks that have just purchased their new vacation home and they have to fix it up.

Now there is a good chance that the cabin in the woods may have belonged to one of the members of the Texas Chainsaw family because it is covered with Bones and plenty of creepy news clippings of past crimes and disappearances in the area. Tucker and Dale have their own ideas about their origins.

Well there are also a bunch of College kids heading out there for their party activities and they run into the duo and make up their own minds about them and a simple misunderstanding results in a massive bloodbath.

This flick is both entertaining and funny as Hell with great blend of both Slapstick comedy and Bloody kills. Fans of Sean of the Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre alike will enjoy it.

Definitely tells you not to judge a book by it's cover.

I say that it is a good Saturday night movie to check out with a six-pack of Beer and your friends. I definitely see a cult following in the future.

11 Dead Bodies
2 Breasts
5 Beasts
1 Car chase
1 Explosion
2 Impalings
1 Burning
Weed eater to the face
Machete to the Throat
Finger Fu
College student Fu
Saw Blade Fu
Wood Chipper Fu

4 Stars
Check it out

John Carpenter's The Ward

I am a huge John Carpenter fan. I admit that he is who inspired me the most to become a filmmaker.

I had the honor to meet him at the 2010 Texas Frightmare Weekend.
(Which the DVD featuring an EXCLUSIVE QnA with Carpenter and the cast of Christine is available at www.texasfrightmarevideo.com).

Now with the exception of two episodes of Masters of Horror Carpenter has not directed a flick in a decade, Not since 2001’s Ghosts of Mars. He did help produce some flicks but other than that he had taken some well-deserved time off.
Now he has returned with John Carpenter’s The Ward.

This was a Damn Good Flick and I am not just saying that because the director is one of my favorites,My Manager was watching the flick as well and she agreed.

It is the story of a young woman who after setting fire to a farmhouse is arrested and taken to mental hospital and placed in a ward with four other girls. It turns out that there is a malevolent spirit in the ward that is picking off the girls one by one and are preventing them from escaping the Asylum.

The flick definitely has the Girl Interrupted meets The Ring feel as Amber Heard tries to piece together the identity of the supernatural menace leading us to a twist that even I did not see coming.

Kudos go to Amber Heard as Kristen and to Jared Harris as Dr Stringer.

It definitely shows that Carpenter hasn’t lost his touch.

Cinematography was excellent. However it felt different that Carpenter did not score the movie as he had so many in his past. That being my only Issue and I can accept it.

5 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
1 Beast
1 Spike to the Eye
1 Electrocution
1 Slashing

4 Stars

Check it out

The Resident

You want to know something; I was researching for my current movie project watching this new show on Investigation Discovery called Stalked: Someone is watching hosted by Michelle Ward.

Well I was taking into consideration that most of these cases feature a woman being stalked by a man and I started thinking that the documentaries and news specials feature that type of stalking but movies feature a woman stalking a man.

Now the documentaries show this because it is the most common which makes me wonder why the narrative film shows the opposite.

Lets look at it we have Fatal Attraction where Michael Douglas has a brief affair with Glen Close and she stalks him and boils bunnies and such because she “Is not going to be ignored” as well as 2001’s Swimfan, 1995’s Malicious with Molly Ringwald which I do recommend to all of you. 2009 Had the flick Obsessed with Ali Larter, and we all remember the Crush with Alicia Silverstone and Cary Elwes.

Now to my knowledge the only real movie that features a Woman being stalked by a man in a non Slasher kind of way is 1982’s The Seduction starring Andrew Stephens and Morgan Fairchild.

Now If I have forgotten any flicks please leave me a comment naming it because I can’t think of any others.

Now there is another flick that has the woman being stalked by a man.
Please let me take this moment to mention Hammer Films which is one is one of the greatest Horror Production companies that is currently making a comeback along with Ammicus to bring us modern horror movies.

I want to go into more detail about the flicks but all of you horror fans already know about them and If you aren’t a horror fan then I have to wonder why you are reading my reviews.

Now let’s get on to the flick.

Hillary Swank plays an ER Doctor who finds the perfect apartment with a great landlord and his Grandfather (played by the incomparable Christopher Lee in a different kind of role for him). All goes well at first she even finds herself attracted to her landlord (Jeffery Dean Morgan). That is until the flick reverses itself and we are shown his point of view and see that he has devised the whole thing and just how far he will take obsession.

Believe me it is pretty creepy especially when Swank gets back with her estranged boyfriend.

This flick is definitely worth checking out. The pacing is very suspenseful in a DePalma kind of way. It is shot very nicely as well as the characters are all likable as it is shot and you find yourself feeling sorry for the stalker before he makes you hate him when he crosses that line of no return.

Fans of Psycho I recommend this to.

3 Dead Bodies
2 Breasts (Possibly a Body Double)
1 Beast
3 Stars
Check it out