While THE SOCIAL NETWORK seems to still be the conversation topic-of-choice among movie buffs I know, there’s one obscure side-issue buried in there that I haven’t seen discussed: the evidence that George Miller did know what he was doing with that JUSTICE LEAGUE super hero movie that he wasted years of his life doing only to have it cancelled. The reasons it never happened I’m sure had to do with budget and studio politics and disagreements about the best ways to utilize the corporation’s valuable licensed properties and many other factors. But I’m sure epic negativity and whining from every single comic book fan plugged into a computer didn’t help. (read the rest of this shit…)
Archive for the ‘Blog Post (short for weblog)’ Category
The fake twin who could’ve been Batman
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010Fred talks ‘Iron Fist’ with the RZA
Friday, October 1st, 2010
I promise, I got an actual review coming soon, but I thought this was deserving of a “blog” post. Entertainment journalist and frequent outlawvern.com commenter Fred Topel got a chance to speak to Wu-Tang mastermind and soon-to-be-director-of-kung-fu-movie-starring-Russell-Crowe the RZA at Fantastic Fest. This is the RZA we’re talking about so Fred doesn’t get a normal concrete type of description of what the movie is about, but instead some abstract musings about RZA’s approach to the martial arts, the philosophy of the movie, why he thinks Crowe will be great and unexpected news about his plans for the music.
I was gonna post the link even before I saw that he dropped my name in one of the questions. Thanks for that one, Fred.
article on Crave Online
short one from Screen Junkies
Black Dynamite cartoon photos
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Okay friends of the nerd community, things are really going your way this week. Don’t ever say I didn’t do nothing for your chosen mediums of expression. This is a followup to the earlier post about BLACK DYNAMITE in cartoon and comics forms. This time Scott Sanders sent me a couple pictures from the cartoon so you can see what it’s gonna look like. (read the rest of this shit…)
Required reading: David Bordwell’s Bond vs. Chan essay
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Mouth and several others have sent me the link to this blog post by the film academician David Bordwell. (Unfortunately he never mentions Seagal in there, so I can’t call him ‘fellow Seagalogist’ or ‘my esteemed colleague.’ And I’m not familiar enough with his work to call him ‘Dave.’)
It’s a good one and I figure it oughta be on the reading list. Basically he does a shot-by-shot analysis (with screen grabs) of a fight scene from the Pierce Brosnan James Bond movie TOMORROW NEVER DIES and one from the Jackie Chan movie RIGHTING WRONGS. He shows how in the Bond scene the hits or even the enemies are often off screen, and shows how the Chan scene is designed to show fluid and clear movement. He also makes a good point about how the Chan scene is able to use very quick shots and still be understandable, which proves that the problem with that Michael Bay style is more than just the editing.
Black Dynamite cartoons and what not
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
You know when you got a relative who thinks you’re into, say, motorcycle races or whatever, so every time they find a newspaper article that has a motorcycle in it they clip it out and send it to you? And you don’t really feel like you need to read about “Motorcycle Trail raises money for scholarships” or “Harley-Riding Lawyer Part of Biker Group That Helps Abused Pets,” but it’s kind of sweet anyway? Well, that’s gonna be me right now, I am that relative for you guys.
But this is one clipping that’s gonna bring us closer together. You know how some of you guys love comics strips and cartoons? And you know how we all love the movie BLACK DYNAMITE? Trust me, this is going somewhere, these two things are gonna connect together somehow, you’ll see when you click to the rest of the article. THis is gonna blow your fuckin mind right out the back of your fuckin mind container. (read the rest of this shit…)
RZA to direct Academy Award winner Russell Crowe in kung fu movie
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
My buddy Telf tipped me off to this one. E! Online is reporting that Wu-Tang Clan abbot/GHOST DOG scorer the RZA is claiming that Russell Crowe is in his long-in-development kung fu movie THE MAN WITH THE IRON FIST. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, man, but we live in a world where Steven Seagal co-stars with Robert DeNiro and Jessica Alba, where Dolph Lundgren fights Jet Li on the big screen, and where the guy from THE INSIDER and GLADIATOR is hanging out with Bobby Digital. These are some pretty good times, in my opinion. (read the rest of this shit…)
I didn’t know this: J.J. Perry choreographed HAYWIRE
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Otto S. kindly sent me this link to an interview with J.J. Perry, a veteran stuntman and the fight choreographer of UNDISPUTED II, BLOOD AND BONE and THE TOURNAMENT. The interview, on the blog of somebody named Doba Nevinosti, is pretty good and talks about Perry’s approach and his place in the new age of DTV action.
But I was most excited about it because Doba immediately asks about something I didn’t know about – Perry’s work with Steven Soderbergh on his upcoming action movie, HAYWIRE (it used to be called KNOCKOUT, but they changed it to HAYWIRE. Also they changed the entire premise from when they first announced it). (read the rest of this shit…)
New low budget action label
Thursday, August 19th, 2010Courtney Solomon, the guy who did “After Dark Horror Fest/8 Films To Die For,” which shows 8 low budget horror movies for a weekend once a year and then releases them all on DVD, is starting up an action version of the same kind of thing. He tells the San Francisco Chronicle, “We’re developing a new generation of action movies and looking for the next Jean-Claude Van Damme, the next Wesley Snipes. We want to get people from Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment into these pictures and do smart, smaller action movies.”
He says he told Warner Brothers, “I bet in your system there’s a whole bunch of smaller movies with good writers and directors attached that cost $5 million or $6 million, but they can’t fit into your system because you make $100 million movies.’ And they’re like: ‘Yeah, we’ve got tons of them.’ ”
I’ve only seen a couple After Dark movies and they didn’t impress me, so I got no idea what kind of quality to expect. But here is somebody with money doing exactly what we’ve all been saying somebody should do. We’ll see if they have the kind of quality control we hope for.
found via Chud complaining about it having the same name as Chuck Norris’s Brother’s Action Fest film festival
The Expendables early bird thread
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Okay, since a bunch of you are dying to write about it, here is a place where you can discuss THE EXPENDABLES. I can’t see it until tomorrow night Seattle time so I’ll be sitting it out for now.
Also did you know that Stallone and MJ used to hang out.
1. Patreon
Toss me a couple bucks a month, support the good shit, also get access to a bunch of exclusive writing. This is my primary source of writing money that has allowed me to cut down to part time at the day job. Thank you!
2. Buy my books from your local bookseller or somebody
click here for my Amazon author page (NOTE: My ten year contract has passed on the Titan books, so I don't get residuals on them like I do WORM ON A HOOK and NIKETOWN, but I would love for you to read them because I'm proud of them)
EXTRA CREDIT: Review them on Amazon! That would really help me out. Unless you didn't like them, in which case forget I said anything.
4. My exciting line of fashion and leisure products
(I get a couple bucks per item, you get a cool t-shirt, mug or lifestyle item)
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Nerd shit
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010To show that I’m not above it I will comment on the news that set off the recent Superman conversation: that Zack Snyder is on a list of potential directors for the new Superman picture. I thought about it and I think actually Snyder might work well with David S. Goyer, who wrote the script, so I’m for it. Also on the list is David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, who did MOON. I have no idea if he can pull off a big studio movie, but he seems like the most interesting director on the list.
Also they’re saying Darren Aranofsky now. I’d see that. It could be Matt Reeves (CLOVERFIELD, LET ME IN, co-creator of an old TV show called Felicity). And Jonathan Liebesman (TEXAS CHAINSAW reprequel) most likely based on the alien invasion movie he has coming out, but he’s also supposed to do CLASH OF THE TITANS 2: THE RE-CLASH.
But the rule is they always go with the worst guy on the list, so congratulations to Tony Scott, who will direct the first Superman movie where nobody can tell if the guy is supposed to be flying or not.
Tags: posts done just to keep people on topic in other comment threads
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