Superhero Flicks, Part 17: Other Comic Films

So, that (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) wraps up, like I said, costumed heroes, and adventurers that dance that edge into super.

This batch, we delve into other comics based properties.


Heavy Metal

The film-

Ohhh, FINALLY, I get here!

This one is a whole other dimension than even Punisher, or Freddy vs Jason.

This is my soul, this is my essence.
Burn my movie collection a thousand times, and I'll always rebuild, and it'll always restart with this one.

Heavy Metal...Heavy Metal......my...precious....*touches the screen*

The history-

From the very beginning, this was my movie.
It called to me, like the green crystal in Superman.

It came to HBO when I was a kid, and try as they may, my folks couldn't keep me from it, I saw bits and pieces of it.
The bond happened there.

In my teens, I watched it again and again on scrambled Cinemax.

I had dreams about it where I was in a world where they'd figured out how to project movies into the atoms of the sky, and Heavy Metal was the whole sky.
And it was good.

I loaned my neighbor, who had Cinemax, my VCR, so he could tape it for me.

I braved dangerous winter road conditions to purchase the cassette tape of the soundtrack, at that stupid evil fucking mall, full of stupid evil fucking teenagers.

I played it to the point of audio degradation.

I have the CD now, and STILL it gets me high like drugs!

I bought the official VHS release, I have the DVD, I'll get the the fucking gamma-ray laser edition if/when it comes.

I have...the Elmer Bernstein orchestral score to this fucker.
I waded through lakes of blood to get it.

...so...yeah...I'm a  fan....

Anyway, somehow, Kevin Eastman (of Turtles fame) acquiring the Heavy Metal magazine company with his Turtle-dosh helped bust up the legal bullshit, and get this released on video so it can belong to the ages.

Sneering comic elitist scum can say what they want about the man, we owe him for that, if nothing else.


Heavy Metal 2000

The film-

Ayep, every part 2 that came out in 2000 has "2000", instead of 2 on there.

Ehhh, it's got its moments, but it's sort of an inferior knockoff of the first one.

You got a green crystal as the Macguffin, you got a quest, you got spaceships, you got monsters, you got alien bars, you got a psycho villain, you got titties...

All the same ingredients are there, but mixed around.

Kevin Eastman was essentially showing off his hot wife.

Like Paul Anderson does with the Resident Evils.

It's...not BAD...but...I haven't broken my back to upgrade it to DVD either...

I do dig the soundtrack though.
Some truly great tracks on that.
IMHO.
..except the Insane Clown Posse one...I hate their stupid stinking guts.
Easy enough to track skip that though.

The history-

Um...well...this spins off of Eastman's "Melting Pot", universe, and that world was germinating as far back as my Casablanca story in Turtles, check that out if you missed it.


Fritz The Cat

The film-

...mmm, not one of my faves, but, I'm glad I have it.

Now, dig this, Robert Crumb disavows this flick, and even went as far as killing Fritz off to avoid sequels, and he has a rant about it in "Crumb",....but, I've got the fucking graphic novel of all the Fritz strips now...and it's totally faithful to his shit.

A perfect page by page adaptation, before they were de rigueur in the 00's/10's.

You couldn't ask for better.
He's a big fucking baby, and a big fucking liar when it comes to this film.

The History-

As for the X rating?
Ppppttt, hard R nowadays if it had to be rated.
Tops.
But...the MPAA, and the random yahoos they get to screen this stuff have always been a joke.

Anyway, it's famous for that.
Frankly, you see worse on South Park nowadays.
"Woodland Critter Christmas", kicks Fritz's ass.

But, it's important for history.


American Splendor

The film-

From here...

The life and times of Harvey Pekar adapted from the pages of his comic.

I like it better than "Crumb", actually.
Shit, I like HIM better than Crumb the person.
Crumb's a documentary, so it's still my favorite documentary.

The love story is great IMO. It's both fascinating and uplifting how he essentially built his family with the power of the comic, so, it gives geeks like myself the hope that "hey, maybe that could happen to me!", y'know?

Course, we all know Harvey Pekar is dead now.
Dammit. The heroes always croak on ya.

Anyway, Paul Giamatti is great in this, but I have yet to see anything he wasn't great in.
"Sideways", "Man in The Moon", "Private Parts", he's one of the great character actors.

He's supposed to be Colonel Tom Parker in "Bubba Nosferatu", I really hope that gets made someday.
Giamatti is quoted as saying "I'm going to fucking break my spine in half if I have to get that thing done".
Godspeed, Paul and Don!


The history-

Got this for "Christmas", during The Year of Hell.

We didn't have Christmas, I just opened my shit as it came in the mail.

Loved this though.
The tear-jerky bits got to me more cuz of..y'know..stuff.

This, n' Human Centipede are carved into my memory in a weird but special way now.

Yeah, and here's the other clip I watched in the hospital waiting room, besides the Freddy one that there was an incident over...





Oh, the hypocrisy. Now, look how political Dave has gotten in old age...tch...
10's Dave would let Harvey go for it.
Oh, too late, he's dead.


Oh...let's do the ka-ka...


30 Days Of Night

The film-

Oh, shit, that's German, or something.
Well, fuck it, it had the best picture.
Didn't like that stylized nondescript red shit they had on the others.

Double fuck it, cuz I ain't seen it, and ain't gonna.
Just doesn't look like my cuppa.

The history-

Lotta non-hero comics stuff coming out lately that I get the cynical feeling is nothing more than a hacky way to bypass the typical byzantine Hollywood script submission system.

There, said that.
Deal with it.


300

The film-

From here...


Um..yeah...I'm thinking lately that Frank Miller might be a closet Nazi.
He picks this of all possible stories in history,..Spartans, the originators of that eugenics shit, and it's referenced, and even plays out in the morality of the piece with the whole hunchback thing...
Then you got swastika throwing stars in "Sin City", and "The Dark Knight Strikes Again", you got swastikas on the tits of the evil chick in "Dark Knight Returns", and she comes back in "All-Star Batman", you got Sam Jackson in Nazi regalia in that shitty "Spirit", movie...
Again, and again, authoritarianism posing as macho, swastikas, why does this stuff keep repeating?
Geez...you can't even really call it closet...it's been out and proud since 9/11...
I dunno, maybe I'm reading something wrong...
But...no, watching this creeps me the hell out.
If it doesn't intend to be a fascist tract...it fucking is that.


The history-

I felt uneasy and sad writing that at the time.

Since then, "Holy Terror", has hit the shelves.
Yeah, he's totally out of the closet now, he's full on fascist batshit.

Full blown, "Turner Diaries", level crazy.

Fuck you, Frank.
I say that with no more guilt or reservation.

You were great in your youth, I'll always love Year One, Dark Knight Returns, and the first Sin Citys they did the movie from.

But now...go away.

I gotta say though, the silver lining is, man, I've knocked the shit out of the editors at Marvel/DC...but, someone is still awake over at DC if they rejected "Holy Terror", despite it being by the mighty Frank Miller.

I would give good money to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
Yes, indeedy.



Alien vs. Predator (and Requiem)

The film/history-

See here.

Barb Wire

The film-

Ka-ka.

The history-

N/A


Bullet Proof Monk

The film-

The ads to this didn't give me anything to be excited about.

Looks like another aging karate man doing a CGI fuckfest for one last big payday to me

Like Jackie Chan in "The Tuxedo".
Aw, shit, am I on the hook to review that too now?
Fuck you, this is the review for both.
That's the end of that bullshit.

The history-

N/A


From Hell

The film-

S'okay.

The GN is a fucking phone book though, so, I'm guessing a lot of shit gets left out.

The history-

N/A


Ghost World

The film-

Well....Terry Zwigoff directed it....tch...I dunno....

*Skims Wiki summary* doesn't appeal as flat text...maybe it's the performances...

*Shrug*

Someone recommend this to me.
Otherwise..pppt.

The history-

N/A


Cowboys & Aliens

The film-

Well...at first glimpse, it looks like a white guy version of how I described "Bulletproof Monk".

But...people are going ga-ga over the fuckin' thing, so, maybe it's worth a look.

The history-

Eh...I'll catch it when it comes to Redbox.


Up next, more of these.