America to Once Again Miss the Point of Judge Dredd

I'm fond of saying that the 1995 Stallone vehicle Judge Dredd is proof that Americans are idiots, because it completely fails to grasp that the British comic it was adapting was a parody of American action films. From the looks of it, this new version hasn't learned that lesson either.

Anarchy at the Movies: Snow White & the Huntsman/Prometheus

Been falling behind lately. Here's a twofer to make up for it.

Movie Review: Prometheus

(Author's Note: My new job has me quite busy, and while it does allow me the ability to see many more new releases than I did when I was broke with nothing but time on my hands, it also makes it harder to get these made in a timely fashion. That's why I release these as written reviews ahead of time, just so you guys have SOMETHING.)

When the fuck did it become so hard for Ridley Scott to find decent writers? Seriously, since when does a guy with this kind clout end of with such shitty scripts to work with? Between this & Robin Hood, I'm beginning to think the guy doesn't even read his own movies anymore and just focuses on making them look pretty.

You see, like everything else Scott's made in the last few years, Prometheus is an absolutely gorgeous film. Beautiful set pieces, breathtaking cinematography, truly immersive especially in 3D...all of which fails to conceal the fact that the movie is just not very good. It doesn't really work as a prequel to Alien (oh yeah, spoiler alert, Prometheus is a prequel to Alien) in fact at times it feels more like a remake; a dumber yet paradoxically more ambitious remake but a remake nonetheless.

Anarchy at the Movies: Men in Black 3

You won't need a neuralyzer to forget this one.

Movie Review: Men in Black 3

At one point in his career Will Smith was releasing yearly summer blockbuster hits with such reliability that he earned the nickname “Mr. July”. These days though, that title seems less accurate. Think about it, his last summer action release was Hancock: FOUR YEARS ago. While still able to turn a profit with his mere presence, the man hasn’t really been a ubiquitous summer star since I, Robot.

So it’s perfectly natural that Smith would want to make something to remind people of his career's glory days and perhaps reclaim his crown. But making a sequel to one of his old hits ten years after the fact strikes me as pretty desperate. I mean what’s next? Bad Boys 3? Wild Wild West 2? Independence Day 2? (Ok, actually that last one might kinda rock) And worse still, he didn’t even bother to release a single for the soundtrack this time. I mean come on dude, I know you haven’t made an album in seven years, but honestly! It used to be even when Will Smith made a bad movie you still got a kick-ass music video to go with it. Instead we get...Pitbull. Ugh.

Top 15 Batman: The Brave & the Bold episodes

A few months ago one of my favorite cartoons of the last decade aired its very last episode. Batman: The Brave and the Bold was the best small screen adaption of everybody's favorite Caped Crusader since Batman: The Animated Series, in that they were both extraordinary good at being what they were trying to be, even if they were trying to be very different things. BTAS, which introduced what must constitute at least half the fanbase by now to the character, drew most of it inspiration from Bronze Age Batman, the era of Dennis O'neil and Neal Adams. BTBATB, on the other hand, is clearly a product of the Silver Age and the works of Dick Sprang. Wildly creative and oftentimes hilarious, this show was the very definition of Saturday morning fun done well. So as a demonstration of my love for this show, I've decided to memorialize it with a list of my top fifteen favorite episodes (because I couldn't bring myself to trim it down to ten).

Anarchy at the Movies: Marvel's The Avengers

The prophecies were true.