Somewhere in the Garden State a warden is saying, "that's the last time I show the Shawshank Redemption to the inmates on movie night."

An AP story ganked from CNN.com -

Pinups of bikini-clad women hid jailbreak route, officials say

ELIZABETH, New Jersey (AP) -- Two inmates escaped from a county jail, hiding the holes they made in the walls by putting up photos of bikini-clad women, officials said.

Otis Blunt, left, and Jose Espinosa escaped from the Union County jail Saturday night, officials say.

Authorities searched over the weekend for Jose Espinosa, who was awaiting sentencing for manslaughter, and Otis Blunt, who was facing robbery and other charges. They also launched a review of jail security.

The two got out of the Union County jail Saturday evening. The county prosecutor's office said the two apparently removed cement blocks from two walls, squeezed through the openings, jumped to a rooftop below and then made it over a 25-foot-high fence. The section they escaped from was supposed to be the most secure area of the facility.

"I'm extremely disturbed that a jail with the capability of security it has would foster a breach of this nature," County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's editions.

Espinosa, 20, an alleged gang member, was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to manslaughter in a 2005 drive-by shooting in Elizabeth. Blunt, 32, was awaiting trial on charges of robbery and weapons offenses.

The men helped cover up the break by placing dummies under their bed blankets, and hiding the wall holes with magazine photos of women in bikinis, authorities said.

Excellence in marketing...

Chanukah style!

Oh. My. God.

Just in case you need to let your wee ones know not to trust their local catholic priest, here's an educational coloring book!

Happy Ninja Day!

Today is the second annual Ninja Day. In honor of the national holiday, I wanted to talk martial arts and...well, ninjas.

First, check out these links -

The search engine Ninja.com and the info site askaninja.com and of course a Wiki on the subject. And of course, check out the following...





The day has inspired me to talk martial arts, a subject near and dear to my heart.

I have been involved in the martial arts since I was twelve, starting with Ryu Renshi-Dan Karate. I am ranked in that, Shotokan, and modern Wushu. I have trained under Yao Li, and Hoy K. Lee (Jow Ga Kung Fu), and dabbled in Aikido and Tai Chi (what can I say...I get around).

Growing up, I used to watch the old Shaw Brothers films. Most were trash, and I knew that back then, but there are a number of great martial arts films and a number of names starring in those films now with whom many Americans have become familiar.

Here are some of my favorites -

10. Jackie Chan's Police Story - Based loosely on a true story about a cop protecting a witness for the state in a corrupt Hong Kong, this is among the best of Jackie Chan's films which tend to be entertaining, but cliched. This is as much police drama as it is martial arts action film.

9. The Crow - I suppose you could make an argument that this isn't technically a martial arts film. I, on the other hand, would argue that it is. Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee's son, died in a tragic on set accident when the residual remains of a bullet left in the barrel of a gun acted like a projectile when the blank behind it was activated, pushing the cartridge remains out like a bullet, and into Lee's gut.
It was, by far and away, Lee's best film and would likely have led to other roles. That said, there are some great action sequences, and the fights, while raw and lacking the precision of most martial arts films, are well choreographed.

8. The Legend of Drunken Master - Jackie Chan, the clown prince of the martial arts, starred in this humorous and entertaining look at Wong Fei Hung, China's hero of legend. Some great fight sequences featuring drunken fist.

7. Once Upon a Time in China - One of Jet Li's earliest historical martial arts epics surrounding the stories told of national hero Wong Fei Hung. A very different look at the same martial artist that inspired the previously noted Jackie Chan comedy. Directed by legendary Chinese director Tsui Hark.

6. Fearless - Billed as Jet Li's final martial arts epic, this film goes back to the roots of the international Wushu Federation. There is a definite similarity in the story to Fist of Fury in that it deals with Japan-occupied China, and the hero of the story ends up in combat with a Japanese champion at the end of the tale. There is also something of the tale of the prodigal son to the story. Beautifully filmed piece.

5. Kung Fu Hustle - From the writer/director/star of Shaolin Soccer, this cleverly covers just about every cliche from every martial arts film ever. To top it off, it's well written, fun, silly and tense all at the same time. If you haven't seen this, you need to.

4. Unleashed - Also called Danny the Dog overseas, this might be the best acting you will ever see from Jet Li. The supporting cast includes Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins. This is one hell of a film.

3. Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior - Tony Jaa, quite simply is one of the most impressive martial artists I have ever seen. I will pop this one into the DVD player just to skip from one fight sequence to the next. One of the best ones in this film starts and ends in about four seconds.

2. Fist of Legend - A Jet Li remake of the Bruce Lee classic Fists of Fury. The climactic fight sequence was one of my favorite fight sequences in any martial arts film ever.

1. Enter The Dragon - The Bruce Lee classic. The best film he did, and the one that was supposed to launch his American career, cut tragically short by what is believed to be a aneurysm. The movie itself was supposed to give the world an Asian super-spy, James Bond without the gadgets. It even inspired the great parody "Fist Full of Yen," in the John Landis comedy Kentucky Fried Movie.

Honorable mentions (ie: depending on my mood, many of these could bump almost anyone of the above off the above list) -

House of Flying Daggers
Jet Li's Hero
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Shaolin Soccer
Fist of Fury
The Big Boss
The Bodyguard (Tom yum goong)
Magnificent Butcher
Wheels on Meals
Black Mask
Batman Begins
Equilibrium

For those of you not familiar with the last one, a Christian Bale movie, I give you the gun kata...

Christmas on the idiot box

A little background...

I love animation, comic art, comic books and comic strips. Always have.

I love the work of Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Bakshi, the work of Hayao Miyazaki, and the advances made by Pixar. Growing up a ten minute drive from the Museum of Cartoon Art when it was located in Rye Brook, NY, I would wander the exhibits for hours, and spend time sitting in the viewing rooms watching things like the old Max Fleischer Superman cartoons (absolutely brilliant animation, by the way).

For me, as a youth, part of the magic of the holidays (be it Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas), was the animated specials. For me, there have been a handful of greats, some classic, some relatively new, but destined to be classic.

These are, for my money, the best animated Christmas specials...

10. South Park - Technically, this isn't a Christmas special done for television, but was an animated short done for animation festivals like Spike and Mike's, and is directed at adults. But there are few Christmas related things funnier than the scene in this first South Park animated piece when Jesus shows up and yells at Santa, "Kringle, you ruined my birthday!" To which Claus replies, "there can be only one," as he whips out a samurai sword.

9. Frosty the Snowman - Not my cup of tea anymore, but a sweet piece about the enchantment and magic of Christmas for any kid.

8. Year Without a Santa Claus - Gotta give this one props for bringing us the cultural icons Heat and Cold Miser. I still find myself occasionally singing the Heat Miser song.

7. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Five words...The Land of Misfit Toys. I don't think I need to say anything else.

6. A Claymation Christmas Celebration -This was a result of the annoying California Raisin commercials in the 1980's and they do indeed make an appearance. In spite of that, this is a pretty entertaining collection of Christmas carols coordinated to claymation.

5. Bugs Bunny Christmas Carol - Actually, not the big BB at his best, but still an entertaining endeavor from Warner Brothers' big animated star.

4. Justice League: Comfort and Joy - If you haven't caught this one, find it. This is amongst the best of the animated series Christmas specials. Nothing says Christmas like the Flash and the Ultra-Humanite.



3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas - The classic Seussian Christmas complete with song and narration from Frankenstein himself, Boris Karloff.

2. A Wish for Wings that Work - Of all, probably my favorite, and the one I think as the best. Based on the Berkeley Breathed kids book, this features old Bloom County favorites Opus and Bill the Cat in a story as much about accepting who you are, as it is about the goodwill of the season.

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas - The sentimental favorite, the music and story is tinged with that little bit of angst that creeps in to the edges of the season for so many. More religious than I tend to like for a holiday that co-opted the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, but it still comes back to the goodwill message of Christmas. Besides...it's Charlie Brown.

Yeah, the Simpsons had some good episodes, and there were other South Park episodes, but right now, these are what I'm putting on my list. I'm sure I've forgotten shows I would want to include on the list, but anything I missed, feel free to remind me.

For the month before Christmas...

Tis the season! Mulled apple cider, the smell of pine and chestnuts roasting over an open fire (always sounded like a euphemism to me for the emasculation of the masses by retail America at this time of year...or is that too cynical?).

But for the film minor that I was, this presents a wonderful time of year with classics like A Christmas Story, It Happened One Night, and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. I make it a point every year to watch A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life - but at the same time it's also a brutal time for film-goers with saccharine fare like 1990's A Mom For Christmas starring Olivia Newton-John, or 1941's Penny Serenade. For the most part, though, I like to go a different route.

I have a fondness for the non-traditional holiday movie. Not quite Silent Night, Deadly Night or Black Christmas - but I don't mind the occasional explosion or fight sequence in my holiday entertainment (not all of them fit that mold, but most are not the first movie that comes to mind when you think Christmas).

And here is my holiday dirty dozen, my twelve favorites for the holidays (mind you, not necessarily the best, just the order in which I am most likely to re-watch) -

1. Die Hard - The action film that keeps on giving. It made, "Yippee-ki-yay, mother fucker," an acceptable holiday greeting. Okay, so it didn't quite do that, but it provided a cathartic outlet for the person who just came from the mall, allowing the frazzled holiday shopper to imagine their fellow shoppers as Hans Gruber plummeting from Nakatomi Tower.


2. The Ref - What says Christmas in America more than Dennis Leary and familial dysfunction? And it's hard to complain about a cast that includes Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis.


3. Trading Places - John Landis has directed two of my favorite holiday films (I always watch An American Werewolf in London around Halloween). Then there's this. The only thing that might say Christmas in America more than familial dysfunction is unbridled capitalism.


4. Lethal Weapon - What do the first four films on the list have in common? Guns. It's all about the Christmas violence. At least three have hostages, and two have serious violence. Don't you just love it when the in-laws get together?


5. Love Actually - Just a nice film that can be watched with the family. A whole bunch of stories intersect in this British comedy showing just about everything that a family or an individual might go through during the holiday season.


6. Millions - Another excellent British comedy that can be watched with the family, as long as the kids are of an age to understand some of the things, as this does go some places that younger kids might have a hard time understanding.


7. The Lion in Winter - Fans of good acting, rejoice. Just like any modern story about the holidays, this fictional chronicle of a family Christmas in the house of Henry II, and Eleanor of Aquitaine is filled with just as much dysfunction as any of the films on this list. The acting is absolutely brilliant from Peter O'Toole, Katherine Hepburn, and youngsters Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Daulton (yes, A View To a Kill, that Timothy Daulton).


8. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, or whatever you call him, has a showing in Narnia after the land has had 100 years of winter with no Christmas. When things look bleak, he shows up to cheer refugee children/Narnian royalty Peter, Susan, and Lucy with gifts of peace and goodwill: sword, shield, dagger, bow, arrows - you know the old saying coined by Sun Tzu, "He who aspires to peace should prepare for war."


9. Die Harder (DH2) - Back to good old fashioned Christmas violence.


10. Better Off Dead - John Cusak's Christmas classic, complete with stalker newspaper boy.


11. Scrooged - A competent modern retelling of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Bill Murray is solid and entertaining, but the funniest stuff is from the supporting cast of Carol Kane, Bobcat Goldthwait, and David Johannson (Buster Poindexter).


12. Bad Santa - Billy Bob Thornton pretty much plays that uncle that no one wants to acknowledge they have. The guy is pretty much a screw-up, but finally gets something right. Not an uncommon story line, but done with a lot more edge than you see from most holiday films.

Cue the 1970's porn music, please

So...

Last night I was watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with my wife and my daughter while eating dinner. Nothing fancy - kabobbed chicken marinated in a souvlaki sauce, a sauteed melange of vegetables (tomatoes, onions, peppers, and zucchini) with some crumbled feta, and some rice pilaf. I only mention the dinner, because it is relevant to the following.

For those who have not seen the film, it is an excellent adaptation of the C.S. Lewis source work of the same name - complete with a unicorn. More on the relevance of the unicorn momentarily.

As I mentioned, we were eating dinner while watching. Not an uncommon practice in my house - the three of us sitting in a tight grouping, my five year-old daughter between me and my wife, often discussing the movie we're watching.

By the time the movie reached the climactic battle (see picture above), my five-year old daughter and my wife had finished her dinner and moved to the couch. As I was feeding our infant daughter with one hand, and eating with the other for the first half of my dinner, I was the lone family member still eating.

I had just shoveled a fork-full of rice into my mouth when my eldest innocently asked her mother, "why is Peter on a unicorn?"

To which my wife replied, "maybe he just enjoys the smoooooth ride."

I nearly blew rice out my nose.

Happy Thanksgiving!

http://entertainment.msn.com/video/playerN?pid=65UcwE6g0BrHya02xCavmnwMW5VICJN-

Not your child's cartoons...

Outside of fans of the genre and the Japanese, animation has long carried the stigma of being a category of film that caters only to kids. I bring this up, because I was recently watching Ralph Bakshi's opus to this nation's popular music, American Pop, and it had me thinking - what are the best animated films with an adult target audience.

Honestly, I found the list difficult. For some reason, the animated sitcom seems to bear greater appeal for adults than feature length - The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, The Critic, and Futurama all came to mind quickly and easily. And for whatever reason, when these shows have attempted feature length film versions, all have been weak (I know a lot of people liked Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, but I found it to be a half-hour episode with a lot of boring filler that made it closer to 90 minutes - I was highly disappointed).

I noticed as I worked on this list that half of films that came to mind were foreign, and that the more recent it got, the more likely the piece was foreign.

10. Fantasia - When you really think about it, this is really nothing more than a really pretty music video for classical music. There is no overlying nor underlying storyline, just a lot of animation that was years ahead of its time. A pretty strong argument can be made that this is targeting children, however, I have to admit, I gained a greater appreciation of the film as I got older.

9. Wizards - Fascinating piece done by American animator Ralph Bakshi. Bakshi is clearly making an editorial statement about war, and propaganda with a heavy reliance on Nazi imagery to make his point. Inconsistent and sometimes slow, this movie is definitely worth watching.

If you're an animation fan and you have missed this one, find it.

8. Heavy Metal - Flawed, but fun. More promising than it delivered, this anthology took stories from the earliest issues of the magazine and linked them with the common element of the "lochnar," an ancient artifact of evil. The movie featured art and stories from the likes of Moebius and Richard Corben.

Heavy Metal suffers from a problem common to anthologies: inconsistency. The Moebius and Corben pieces are pretty to look at, but lack the substance and entertainment value of some of the other pieces.

Unfortunately, the movie's sequel, Heavy Metal 2000, was lacking in the promise of the first.

7. Wicked City - This mid-1980's Japanese horror-noir piece is often acknowledged by fans of manga and anime genre as a seminal piece of Japanimation, influencing everything and everyone from films like Urotsukidoji and La Blue Girl to Todd MacFarlane's Spawn. Demons and cops - how can you miss?

6. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - From the Japanese series of the same name, the movie follows bounty hunter, or cowboy, Spike and his co-horts on the trail of a terrorist on a bio-formed moon of one of the solar system's other planets (at one point in the series Spike asks one of his cadre who is returning to Earth why she would want to go to "that pit.") More a thriller than an action film, this is not for those looking for a shoot 'em up action-fest. Think taut detective drama with action.

This easily could have been done as live action, as could several of the films on this list, however, I really believe that any of these done as live action would have lost something.

5. Akira - One of the first feature length pieces of Anime that I ever saw, and (from my own stand-point) a fascinating study on the deep seated lingering cultural impact of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the Japanese psyche. Adapted from the comic book of the same name, Akira was revolutionary when it came out.

At the time, the leading American animation house (Disney) utilized three-layer animation (three cells to create the effect of depth). Akira used five. It created a richness and depth of motion not previously seen in American animated films.

As for the story - that's a little more difficult. Let's just say that the government is messing with forces they don't completely understand.

4. The Incredibles - This one making the list I see as the most likely to create arguments, as I think this is the only one that people might view as a kids film. That said, the movie borrows heavily from Alan Moore's Watchmen and deals with a number of adult themes, including the concept of sacrifice for the greater good.

Death is not treated with kid gloves in this piece - although it is at times treated comically ("no capes!"). Nor is the mid-life crisis of Mr. Incredible which nearly destroys his family.

3. American Pop - In my opinion, the best of Bakshi's films, American Pop follows four generations of the same family and its relationship with American popular music from the early part of the 20th century until approximately 1980. In typical Bakshi form, the man utilized his patented roto-scoping technique to integrate live action with his animation to great effect.

If you haven't seen this one, find it.

2. Princess Mononoke - The Miyazaki environmental masterpiece is beautiful, violent, bloody, and gentle all at the same time. It is a story with a hero, but no true villain - unless ignorance is counted as a villain. It is as much about preserving and honoring the past, as it is about accepting the change that the future brings.

Like Akira, this film is touched by the cultural impact of the atomic bombs, but with a less bleak outlook for humanity.

I have probably watched this film a half dozen times and it never gets old.

1. The Triplets of Belleville - Were it not for this piece of French animation, Mononoke would have garnered the top spot. Belleville is strange and wild, as much an homage to the animation of the 1920's and 30's as it is a nod to those who ride in bicycling's biggest race - the Tour de France.

A deserving winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar, this film is fascinating not only for its beautiful animation and story, but for the fact that through the course of the entire film there might be a total of five lines of dialog.

Not to be missed.

I spent a lot of time considering other films - The Simpsons Movie, Beavis and Butthead Do America, even hybrids like Cool World and even The Wall - but either the movies themselves fell short, or, in the case of The Wall, really lacked enough animation to be considered animated. Other pieces like The Animatrix, and Titan AE were filled with promise, but the creators' ambition failed to live up to the promise.

Granted, I have yet to see Beowulf, and recent attempts at the adult audience with films like A Scanner Darkly, but this is my list, and I am sticking by it until I see better.

Yet another meme...

4 jobs I've had:
Reporter
Stunt coordinator (music video)
Martial Arts instructor
High School English Teacher

4 movies I love to watch over and over:
All That Jazz
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Princess Mononoke
Lawrence of Arabia

4 places I have lived:
Chappaqua, NY
Boston, MA
Williamsburg, VA
Frederick, MD

4 TV shows I enjoy watching:
Scrubs
Eureka
Battlestar Galactica
Heroes

4 places I have been:
New Orleans, LA
Portland, ME
Venice, Italy
Aachen, Germany

4 websites I visit daily:
si.com
boston.com/
thecoffincorner.blogspot.com
bostonherald.com

4 favorite foods:
Chicken Scarpariello
Pizza
Beer (I write about it for a brewing newspaper, I better like it)
Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 places I would rather be:
Maine
Ireland
Massachusetts
New Orleans

30 Days of Undead on a Plane...

I meant to talk about this shortly after I saw it. A couple of weeks ago I saw 30 Days of Night. The adaptation of the graphic novel is a worthy addition to the horror lexicon.

The movie was thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end - and this is coming from somebody who is not really a Josh Hartnett fan.

Outside of Hartnett, the film is largely filled with character actors of the "I recognize that guy, but I don't know from where,"-type. Unless you're a serious film fanatic, you won't place anyone of them, but you will recognize them.

The vampires themselves were, as my wife said, truly frightening, and completely lacking of humanity. This wasn't one of those tales of tragic love like Dracula, or even Fright Night, in which the vampire encounters one who looks like the long lost lover. This is a tale about predator, prey, and survival - and we're no longer the top of the food chain.

While I enjoyed the first two Blade films, those were really action films. This might have been the best vampire horror film that has come out of American cinema since Near Dark in 1987 (but still not quite on par with Russia's Nightwatch).

Flight of the Living Dead...

From Snakes on a Plane to Zombies on a Plane. Surprisingly well acted, and decently written, this latest entrant into the zombie genre is good fun for fans of the undead. The movie feels a little long in the set-up, as a 747 heading to Paris runs into a major storm front while carrying some questionable cargo.

Of course, that cargo gets loose and starts eating passengers.

Once the zombies are on the loose, look for the stewardesses carrying body parts in their mouths. Some of the best scenes ever.

Personally, I feel that this was more deserving of a theatrical release than Snakes on a Plane. C'est la mort.

Memed again...

So my wife memed me. I have to come up with eight random facts about me...

1. I love football. I played and/or coached for approximately seven seasons. The same number of seasons that I ran track, and played in little league. This upcoming year will see me playing my tenth season of Australian football.

2. The only athletic endeavor which I have been involved with longer is the martial arts which I started around the age of twelve and practiced regularly until I was 31. After a six year hiatus I have started teaching Kung-Fu again on a weekly basis. All-told, I have been at it for 20 of the last 25 years.

3. Growing up I never thought I would live south of the Mason Dixon line for any truly extended period of time. Boy, was I wrong.

4. I miss Portland, ME and have been gone from the New England city for too long.

5. Every year that the Aussie rules season starts, I think "this year's gonna be the last." I've thought that for about the last four. It never seems to take.

6. My wife is a hobbit fetishist - that's how we ended up dating in the first place.

7. I have interviewed Steve Sabol, and Olympic participants Bela Karolyi, Shannon Miller (gymnastics), and Kate Sobrero (soccer).

8. Somehow my journalistic career has taken me from writing about sports to writing about beer. It's not bad work if you can get it.

As always, these things die here with me.

Nailed with a meme

My wife's friend Anna nailed me with the following meme regarding books...

Total number of books:

Easily in excess of 1000.

Last book I read:

Currently I am reading both I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The last completed was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.

Last book I bought:

Technically, Kelly bought the Harry Potter...off hand, I would say Living to Tell the Tale.

5 Meaningful Books:

Let's see...five meaningful books, and I can't repeat anything Kelly had. Well that's just a nuisance considering I'm the one who introduced her to Matt Ruff, and I know I've read the book more times than she has. Since I can't use Fool on the Hill, guess I'll have to dig deep on this one -

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez. Read this for the first time in college. Absolutely brilliant.

The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien. Probably have read the trilogy (which I am counting as one book) close to two-dozen times. It never gets old. And if you're not impressed by a guy that has created a whole world, with history, different cultures, languages with gramatical structures, then you're just not worth my time.

Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke. Brilliant piece regarding mankind's evolution. One of a handful of books that I was exposed to in high school that had an impact on me.

Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzakis. One of the other impact books from high school.

God Bless You Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut. My favorite from an author from whom I have a hard time picking a favorite. In the writer's universe of dark satire, there's something I always found to be gentle and nostalgic about this book.


Not much into tagging others, so in my case, the meme stops here...

In Honor of Halloween

My apologies to my handful of readers out there, I have been remiss. In honor of the impending holiday, I wish to address a few entertainment items for All Hallows...

First and foremost, I am inspired to take issue with this list at time.com. This is a list of the top 25 horror movies and includes Shaun of the Dead and Bambi. I understand the argument for SotD, but feel that it's like including Scary Movie, or Young Frankenstein on a horror film list - not a horror film, belongs there about as much a...well...Bambi for Christ's sake. Bambi!? This list completely loses credibility.

This list, however, has inspired me to do the following three lists - top ten horror parodies/comedies, top ten vampire films, and top ten horror films. You won't see films like Audition (torture porn), or un-scary splatter-fests like Dead Alive (I know those that like this film, just not one making my list because I never found it to be the least bit scary. Messy and gross does not equal horror). I don't necessarily have an issue with blood in horror - I just think there's a certain line where it stops being complimentary and starts being ridiculous - but that's just me.

Some of my criteria include how the film has aged, whether or not the film is legitimately scary, how willing I am to rewatch the film, and sometimes just a gut feeling.

Here we go -

Top ten horror parody/comedies -

10. Dead and Breakfast - This bad, low budget zombie film makes no pretense about being anything other than a bad, low budget horror film, and even makes fun of that fact. However, it is bad enough that it would not even have made the list were it not for an absolute genius soundtrack from Zacharias and the Lobos Riders being sung by the movie's very own pseudo-Greek Chorus.

9. Love at First Bite - Probably the only one on the list that is definitively dated, but also still the only funny vampire parody/comedy (don't get me started on the travesty that is Dracula: Dead and Loving It). To this day, Arte Johnson, the first Renfield outside of the Bela Lugosi Dracula that I can remember seeing, remains my favorite Renfield.

8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The original with Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland, I think is an under-rated comedy. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't a great film, but it had its moments. And quite honestly, it demonstrated a gift for comedy that I didn't think Luke Perry had in him.

7. Scary Movie 3 - For my money, the best of the Scary Movie series. Of course it takes aim at an easy target in Shamalan's Signs. Of course there are a number of other movies parodied, including The Ring, but among the can't miss scenes are the movie's openning with Jenny McCarthy and Pam Anderson who has a much better sense of humor about herself than any would initially expect.

6. Murder Party - This low budget horror/comedy has a brilliant "MacGyver" moment that just shouldn't be missed. Sure, this movie that looks like it was shot on a shoe-string gets off to a slow start, but once the protagonist gets to the party, the film really takes off.

5. Ed and His Dead Mother -Miriam Margolyes steals this pseudo-zombie film from her co-stars Steve Buscemi and Ned Beatty. Totally worth the rental and the hour and a half required to view.

4. Slither - Another zombie film complete with alien invaders. What is it about zombies and comedy? Nothing as funny as rotting flesh, brain-eating humans? No matter, this over-the top piece of film-making is a fun ride.

3. Army of Darkness - Any of you primitive screw-head horror fans out there that haven't seen this, then don't waste my time arguing with my list. This isn't an optional film for horror fans - it's compulsory, so if you haven't seen it, don't get back to me until you do.

2. Young Frankenstein - For a long time this Mel Brooks classic has been the standard against which all horror parodies needed to be measured. It remains one of the most brilliant parodies, not just horror parodies, but parodies of all time, and a strong argument can be made that it should still be number one. However, for my money, I give you number one...

1. Shaun of the Dead - British actor/writer Simon Pegg gave us the quintessential Zombedy. There are none better than this, and the tributes to the greats of the zombie-genre are both clever and funny. Not a horror film, but certainly a top ten zombie film.

The beauty about the sub-genres of horror, such as vampire or zombie films, is that the movies aren't necessarily horror films. For example, what we see as horror now tends to be suspense filled and violent. Seventy years ago when Bela Lugosi played Dracula, the monsters were almost sympathetic, tragic figures in what was almost like Greek tragedy. That said, here are, in my opinion, the ten best vampire flicks of all time...

10. John Carpenter's Vampires - Not really a good film, per se, but it kept me thoroughly entertained. There are a number of holes, and the occasional reliance on the contrived, but James Woods is very watchable as a vampire-hunter with a chip on his shoulder.

9. 30 Days of Night - I'm not positive that this belongs, just because I'm not positive it has staying power. However, this was something new and different in a genre that's often plagued by a rehashing of the same thing over and over. Personally, I thought it was worth the price of admission and I would go see it again. It was, I think, the best vampire film since the first two Blade films - and if it ages well, I would venture to say it's better than either.

8. Blade/Blade II - Not without problems, but certainly entertaining action flicks. Blade II might be the better of the two, with the vampire that preys on other vampires a great surprise at the opening of the flick. As for why I list the two together - I don't rightly know, but it just feels right to me to keep these two as one film.

7. Fright Night - A Halloween favorite of mine, I love breaking this one out to watch this time of year. Honestly, Chris Sarandon makes a great vampire, both intimidating and charismatic at the same time.

6. The Hunger - Well acted, well put together rookie effort from Tony Scott with a tres memorable scene between a young Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve. Also a bit of a different twist on the genre.

5. From Dusk 'til Dawn - I put this on my list in spite of the fact I feel that the movie is weak until George Clooney knocks Quentin Tarantino out. After that things really pick up. Honestly, this film would probably make the list based on Salma Hayek's costuming alone. I know straight women that were turned on by her in that. Satanico Pandemonium could bite me on my ass any day...or night as the case may be.

4. Cronos - Some early work from Guillermo Del Toro (his second film on the list along with Blade II), Cronos feels more like a Grimm's Fairytale than your classic vampire film. Definitely worth a look.

3. Near Dark - A personal favorite, this film pretty much avoids use of the term vampire, and creates its own mythology. Utilizing what feels like half the cast of Aliens, this piece from James Cameron's ex features Lance Henriksen as one of the most evil MF vampires you will ever see.

2. Dracula - The tragic tale of Vlad Dracul as portrayed by the iconic Bela Lugosi is still and always will be a great film. If you have a problem with this one, you just don't know film.

1. Nosferatu - The original Murnau silent film was brilliant, and comes with a worthy 1979 remake. This silent piece of horror genius contained a brilliantly creepy Count Orlock as played by Max Schreck with make-up that still influences that of make-up artists currently working in the genre. The only vampire film worthy of being ranked higher than the Carl Laemle classic with Lugosi.

Now, ten must see horror films. For my money, these are the best there ever were...

10. 28 Days Later - Technically, not a zombie film. However, it might be the most influential film on that sub-genre since George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The sequel is worth a look too.

9. Silence of the Lambs - The first horror film that I ever saw after which I felt dirty. Anthony Hopkins actually makes a serial-killing cannibal...charismatic. You find yourself both horrified by his actions during his escape and rooting for him at the same time. When done watching the film and you have the opportunity to analyze what you just watched...well, that's when the dirty feeling slips in. Just brilliant.

8. Phantom of the Opera - Lon Chaney sacrificed for his art, using wires and putty to contort his face into disturbing, painful fright-masks. This, like Murnau's Noseferatu, should be viewed by anyone that sees themselves as a horror buff/historian. Sure, it's a little dated in the over-the-top nature of silent film acting, but what Chaney did with prosthetic make-up work was so far ahead of its time, this film is a must-see.

7. Dracula - What can I say about the Laemle piece that hasn't already been said.

6. Psycho - This begins a series of seminal horror films that each changed the face of the genre. Without Hitchcock's Ted Gein inspired suspense-thriller, films like Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre never get made. Tony Perkins plays Norman Bates with a disarming, boyish charm that is just as disturbing as Anthony Hopkin's charismatic cannibal, Hannibal Lechter.

5. Night of the Living Dead - The seminal zombie film, and a horror film socially conscious on a previously unseen level. It was a horror film with a social conscience, that made a concerted effort to comment on race relations in America in the 1960's. It dealt with issues of isolation, communication, hate, and the mindless drone mentality of the establishment.

4. Hellraiser/Hellbound: Hellraiser II - Arguably the most original conception of Hell and the Devil since the inception of film. This, to me, has always akin to Dante's Gates of Hell - something we hadn't previously seen. It's a shame that it has been marred by a series of mediocre to piss-poor sequels.

3. The Exorcist - Sure, the special effects could probably use an updating, but outside of that, this film could have come out, pretty much as it is, last year and it still would have been hailed as one of the best horror films of all time. I could easily list this (or my next) as my number one.

2. Alien - This Ridley Scott sci-fi/horror classic might very well have spawned more college thesis in regards to horror and rape than any other film out there. It was also the first instance of a truly strong female hero in a boogey-man/monster-under-the-bed sort of movie, and spawned a series of female bad-asses throughout the genre.

1. The Shining - It is the horror film that I can't turn off, no matter where I come into it. Quite simply the best ghost story of all time, and if Stephen King can't figure out that Stanley Kubrik made one of the greatest films of all time, then it's his loss. I still can't believe the POS that King attached his name to on the SciFi Channel a couple of years ago. What a travesty that was.

And we all know how long its been...

since an original story idea has been used at the movies or in books. For example:



Via http://funnyimagedump.com/

Faaabulous Pt 2.

"Spartan!"

No fair that you are the only one that gets to comment on 300.

I myself have not seen many movies this year, but I found 300 completely entertaining. A good movie? Frak, no. But damn enjoyable to watch. Why? I'll give you a few reasons:

1. Half-naked, well-built men. (okay, so maybe you weren't as into this as I was. Being male at all. Then again, if you were watching 300, maybe you do...)
2. Lots and lots of violence. Hee, hee!
3. Getting to yell "Spartan!" A lot.
4. Boiled skulls!

That last argument comes from the same guys that brought MST3K to you. You can download a riff track here, sync it to your DVD player, and listen to commentary so brilliant, it made 300 worth watching a second time. And darn it, looks like I am going to have to sit through Battlefield Earth and Star Wars: Episode I again.

In short, if you have nothing to do on a Friday night, grab a case of beer and drink every time you 1) hear someone yell "Sparta!" or some variation or 2) see blood fly in slow motion. If you aren't enjoying it, you'll be out cold within 20 minutes.

(In all seriousness, it actually wasn't a terrible adaptation of the graphic novel. There are a few changes that were made to flesh it out some but which I considered unnecessary. The narration was irritating. Otherwise, though, the graphic novel pretty much acts like a storyboard for the movie. )

Bourne again, and other observations

Over the last month I have managed to catch Live Free or Die Hard, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and The Bourne Ultimatum (in addition to DVD releases Hotel Rwanda, and 300 - neither of which I will address here). The three that I caught in the cinema were thoroughly entertaining. Surprisingly, I think the best of the three was the fourth installment of Die Hard.

Don't get me wrong - all were entertaining summer fare, and none were without problems - but the issues I had with LFDH didn't jar me out of the film, or force me out of the moment the way the issues with Potter and Bourne did.

Here it is in a capsule - would I recommend all three films? Yes - they were all well paced an highly enjoyable, and I would recommend them in the order in which I listed them in the first paragraph.

LFDH is arguably the best Die Hard film since the first one. Justin Long as the sidekick in what is essentially a buddy-action flick was a great addition as he and Willis play well off of each other. The addition of John McLane's college-age daughter was a pleasant surprise considering my expectation that it would be one of the movie's weaknesses.

Kevin Smith, on the other hand, I would say was one of the movie's weaknesses, and there were some minor plot issues. Beyond that, the movie was solid.

Order of the Phoenix was fairly well done for the most part, however, the movie lacked character development of the new characters it introduced like Tonks who will become more relevant in subsequent movies and there were moments that the special effects regressed to the looks of those in Sorcerer's Stone - particularly in the case of Grawp, Hagrid's brother. Grawp was rendered in a cartoonish manner that I have not seen since the troll in the bathroom.

It was jarring to say the least.

However, we were introduced to Dolores Umberage as played by Imelda Staunton. Staunton couldn't have been any more perfect for the roll.

The final installment of the Bourne films is the weakest of the three - mostly based on the following - the story line lacks the meat of the first two films as Jason Bourne continues to search for his past, the chases are not as well shot as in the previous films, and fight sequences are also not as well filmed - often coming across as chaotic and confusing. In spite of the problems, it's still an enjoyable 111 minutes worth of action and intrigue and worth the price of admission.

Faaabulous

A brief word about the adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 which I recently watched on DVD.

As bad as it was, I am glad I saw it, if for no other reason than to be able to give the film the following one sentence review -

It is the best unintentional comedy to hit the screens since Showgirls.

That is all.

A Nude Rue McClanahan

Now did that catch your attention or are you still clawing out your eyes in pain and anguish?

She's not really nude actually, but you can catch Rue McClanahan stripping in the 1968 Hollywood After Dark, with film commentary provided by Mike and the 'bots from Mystery Science Theater 3000-only it is not really "Mike and the 'bots" but rather "Mike and the human 'bot incarnations." This is part of their new (hopefully series) Film Crew project which my Mike and I rented from Netflix.

Hollywood After Dark, like most MST3K films, is incredibly painful to watch on its own, but entirely amusing with MST3K-style razzing. I think the movie itself has something to do with a bipolar junkyard supervisor/hipster/strip club administrator finding love and committing some type of crime for a man with rabbit teeth. I think someone gets killed with a lamp. Anyways, Rue places the love interest and there is a lot of stripping. Scary, scary stripping.

The host segments pretty much suck but to MST3K fans, it is gratifying to know-it's back. And with naughty language too!

But also a semi-clad Rue McClanahan.

And everybody was Kung-fu fighting...

Them cat's were fast as lightning.

Just caught Live Free or Die Hard today. It was a pretty entertaining romp through the mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. But I'm not really here to talk about that.

What I do want to talk about is the trailer for War, due out August 27.

For those of you who don't know me, I used to teach at the Boston Kung-fu/Tai-chi Club up in the Bay State. I started training in the martial arts when I was 13 in New York, learning Ryu-Renshi Dan and Shotokan Karate. I moved on to modern Wu-shu, tinged by Hun-gar, and dabbled in Aikido and Jow-Ga. I get geeked up for good martial arts films.

Honestly, they don't even have to be that good - they just need to be entertaining.

Jet Li is one hell of a martial artist, and Statham isn't shabby, particularly for someone who first learned it, by some reports, for the movies (hell, I'd known a few who had trained for years who don't look as sharp as he does). I'm hoping it's a decent script. Even if it's not, I'm probably going to see this one. After a number of poor choices that I will write off to a lack of familiarity with the English language, Li has rebuilt his reputation with movies like Hero, Fearless, and Unleashed.

Statham was entertaining in The Transporter, and its weaker sequel, not to mention the weak scripted adrenaline-rush, Crank.

So, yes, I realize there is potential for all sorts of badness here, a-la Kiss of the Dragon, but I've already got my Martial-Arts geek on, based on the trailer I saw in front of Live Free or Die Hard. And if it sucks, come fall, I'll wash the taste out of my mouth with Balls of Fury, due out August 30.

Wait...that sounded gay, didn't it?

I got a two in three chance...

65%

My Sister-in-law and Superman

Recently my sister-in-law made a great observation over on her blog. She talks a little bit about the fact that the super-hero so closely associated with "the American Way," is an illegal alien, and the irony of that, given the current immigration debate.

The funny thing about Kal-el, Superman, or Clark Kent...whichever name you choose to use, is that he's not just any illegal alien. He is the ultimate illegal alien. He's not even of this world, let alone this country.

Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both sons of Jewish immigrants of European descent, Superman's alien heritage can be thought of as highly symbolic of not just their backgrounds, but the backbone upon which all of the United States was built. It was no accident that the character was written as an alien.

The funny thing is, when taken as a whole - the heroes we read about in the comic books as we grew up were all criminals. Just look at DC's line-up - Superman, Wonder Woman, and J'onn J'onzz were all illegal immigrants, or aliens. All, including Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and others, are vigilantes - behavior considered criminal by law.

Consider the further irony of the saber-rattlers who wrap themselves in the flag and call for English to be declared the official language, and who want to close our borders. Let's just take English. Last I checked, they speak German in Germany, Japanese in Japan, and Italian in Italy - yet in America, we speak English - a language this country inherited from another country. If we really want to be AMERICAN, maybe we should look at the languages and dialects of the Cherokee, or Sioux, or Huron.

They were here long before whites...which brings me to my next point.

We are the cast-offs of the rest of the world, other country's refuse. Without immigration, legal or otherwise, we would not have Albert Einstein (would not have won World War II), Ayn Rand, Carnegie-Mellon University, John F. Kennedy, pizza, or hot dogs (a close relative of the German bratwurst). Those are just a fraction of the things and people we would be without. Hell, even our language is a mish-mash of German, French, Latin, and the old Anglo-Saxon languages.

Let's look at, say, Ron Lewandowski - a regional director with the Minutemen, a self-appointed group of America's protectors. The last time I checked, Lewandowski was a Polish name. Not exactly Native American, if you know what I mean.

Personally, I have grandparents who arrived on these shores by way of Italy and Ireland.

Is there a better way for these people to come into the country? It's hard to say - but I do know that trying to close our borders and rounding up millions of illegal immigrants is kind of like sticking your thumb in a leaky dike as a tsunami is about to crash.

If, as a people, we let the concept of isolationism take over and allow small minded bigots to pass legislation that destroys any chance for these people to become legal citizens, we should remove the sign from the Statue of Liberty that exhorts other countries to give us their poor, sick, and huddled masses. Remove it and replace it with a sign that reads "foreigners go home." And then we should tell the writers throughout the comic book industry to go to hell, because the criminals they write about don't reflect the "American Way."

Fantasy geeks rejoice

What is best in life?

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women.

It appears, according to Cinematical, that a new Conan movie may be in the plans at New Line. Cinematical reports that New Line has an 18-month window on the rights with one option to extend the rights of unreported duration.

With Conan the Governor immersed in the political machinations of California, and Mako having passed away, the casting for one of the roles that has become inexorably linked with Shwarzenegger's acting career is now wide open. I expect that the names that Hollywood will come up with for the old pulp-novel and comic book stand-by will include the likes of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, or even John Cena.

It's hard to see anyone other than Arnie in the roll...that said, it should be noted that he wasn't cast for his acting ability, or that funny look he gets on his face when he's straining really hard and gritting his teeth. He was cast for the exact same reason that anyone of those wrestling stars would be cast - because they're large, muscle bound creatures that would be a match for the physicality of the roll. Let the speculation begin.

Personally, if they had to go with one of the wrestlers, I vote for The Rock. Ten years ago I would have gone with Kevin Sorbo. If they don't want to go pro wrestler, I could also see them looking at Vin Diesel.

The more I speculate about this, the bigger a car wreck it feels like.

Comic books, the movies and the last 17 years...

The better part of the last two decades have seen probably the most successful marriage of the comic book and film industries ever. Sure, there were adaptations for film and television of some of the biggest names in the comic book industry that predate 1990 - most notably the Adam West Batman series and films and the early Superman serials and the George Reeves series, not to mention the reinvention of the character in 1978 with Christopher Reeve.

Since 1990 and Tim Burton's popular butchering of Batman, we have seen everything from the cerebral American Splendor, to the heroic X-Men, to the heroic Goth tragedy The Crow (boy, there's a mouthful). Some have been excellent, others less so.

For my money, the ten best have been (the order is pretty much subject to change on my whim, but this is pretty much how I see it) -

1. American Splendor - How Paul Giamatti didn't get at least a best actor nomination out of this is beyond me. The movie may deal with many more serious issues than other comic book adaptations, but this little slice of Harvey Pekar's life is absolutely fascinating, in part because of how it was filmed, but in larger part because of Giamatti.

2. A History of Violence - Admittedly, I am coming from only one side of this, having never read the graphic novel, but for a movie, it was pretty damn good. Worth watching, if for no other reason than to see the performance of William Hurt.

3. The Crow - Honestly, I enjoyed Brandon Lee's swan song more than the comic book itself. Dark and moody, this is the movie that Burton's Batman should have been. Even Michael Wincott who played the villain in The Crow was a better villain than Jack Nicholson's Joker.

4. Blade - Very nice adaptation of one of Marvel's fringe characters. Good action, decent acting, and nice development of their very own mythology surrounding Vampires.

5. Batman Begins - Finally, a Batman movie that was shot right, cast right (Katie Holmes notwithstanding), and scripted right. Ironic though that it took pretty much a British cast to get the American super hero right.

6. Spider-man - Outside of making the Green Goblin look like some sort of nouveau sports mascot, I was impressed with the adaptation's faithfulness (in spite of certain liberties, such as the biological webbing) to the comic book, and personally had no issue with Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane as many fans do. The character itself is kind of innocuous, so why would I be bothered by any vaguely competent actor in the roll?

7. X-Men - An entertaining action film well done from beginning to end.

8. Heavy Metal - This animated piece, dated by today's standards, is a personal favorite, and I know, not to everyone's taste. I never understood the need to string the vignettes together, as most of the stories probably would have stood on their own. Like the magazine, the stories varied from the comic, to the tragic, to the melodramatic...and it always reminds me of college, but that's a different story.

9. Sin City - Frank Miller's homage to the noir detective stories of the 1940's. If you go into it expecting a deep and meaningful film, be prepared to be disappointed.

10. The Rocketeer - Reminiscent of the 1940's serials, upon which the comic book was based, this was just fun. Pay particular attention to Timothy Dalton and Alan Arkin who appear to be enjoying their parts more than anyone else in the picture.

There are plenty of others that I would consider - Akira, Men in Black, The Mask are all worthy, and on another day, one of them might bump one of the above. For today, though, that's my list.

I would love to hear what others have to say about their favorites, or what you might disagree with that made my list.

Movie Review: The Fountain

Okay, here I am chiming in with a movie review.

As the mom of a two year old with a simmering distain for rude movie-goers, I have gotten into the habit of waiting until things come out on DVD to watch them. This is remarkable, given a five year period when I saw virtually everything in the theater (I worked at a movie theater and saw things for free-those were the days).

So The Fountain. Have you ever had that feeling where you are feeling suicidal, but need that extra push to get you to actually "go through with it"? Then The Fountain is the movie for you! Let me tell you, it has the one thing you need-90 minutes of meditation on the inevitability of death.

I haven't even quite decided if I know what was going on in the film, let alone if I liked it. I can say that I am not sure if it works. Apparently I am not the only one. Scouring the Internet for other conversations on what exactly this film might be about, I could not find a consensus. And whether one loves it or hates it seems to be the main talking point-there is no middle ground.

It is definitely the type of film that could be dissected in a film class, but does not make for an enjoyable Saturday night flick. But if you are feeling particulary pensive and desire to drown in your sorrows or want to join in the discussion about this very strange film, Netflix it and brew yourself up a nice cup of tea, 'cause it'll be a long night.

Super Teams, the new frontier for Hollywood...

The dominoes appear to be falling.

With the The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer about to be released, rumors that the Watchmen is floating into the casting stages, additional rumors about an Avengers movie, a script in the can for the Justice League, and three X-Men movies, and The Fantastic Four, not to mention The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen under the belts of Hollywood studios in recent years, it looks like the movie mill is really just now ramping up its foray into the world of super teams. But how many could they do, and how successful will they really be?

Hollywood is two for five in quality entertainment with the super groups, producing decent films in only the first two X-Men films.

We have yet to see Hollywood produce a decent product from an Alan Moore work, so I have relatively low expectations on the long-rumored Watchmen movie, particularly considering what is leaking about casting choices which include Keanu Reeves as the favored actor to play Dr. Manhattan.

As for the Avengers, there is no script yet, although there is a writer who has discussed working on an Avengers movie.

The Justice League is another matter.

Even though, according to reports, a script has been turned in, with DC tied up in Superman and Batman projects, this could either be a long wait before we see anything made, or it could be that there will be several re-writes of the script which is said to include both of DC's heavy hitters.

This is one of those projects that I would love to see made, but doubt it would be done right (anyone who has seen clips of the ill-fated and never aired pilot of the Justice League television show shot in the late 90's on youtube knows of which I speak). I first really got into the JL while reading Batman in the mid-1980's. I thought highly of Keith Geffen's writing and enjoyed many of the satellite characters like Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, and of course J'onn J'onz.

The title itself was not terribly popular, getting canceled after a 10-year run (although not terribly unpopular, either), but, as always, was reincarnated as the Justice League of America. The JLofA was more serious, leaving behind some of the humor that laced the pages of its 1980's counterpart. One of the questions becomes, what incarnation of the league will the movie tackle?

Without Batman or Superman, the major characters, probably in order of recognition for the non-comic book fan become Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern. That begs the question of marketability with the general public in the eyes of the producers.

I leave you with this question - can a Justice League film without Superman or Batman be worth the investment of cash into big name actors if the Superman and Batman are written out of the script?

Stan Lee and Disney together again for the first time

According to a report at the Cinematical Blog, Stan Lee has just inked a deal with Disney to...essentially produce new ideas for movies, television, and DVD's. Lee and his POW! Entertainment is expected to be a creative force giving Disney any number of original characters.

The two biggest things I can think of off the top of my head that Lee has given us in recent years have been the short lived Stripperella and the reality show Who Wants to be a Superhero. Given his recent track record, I would call this a win for Lee and a loss for Disney.

Let's face it, Lee, while still a name, just isn't the creative force he once was.

Much like his former partner in comics, Jack Kirby, Lee's work has declined with age. Sure, late in the game Kirby had come up with DC characters The New Gods, Darkseid, and the One Man Army Corps (OMAC), but he also did Kamandi: Last Boy on Earth.

Here's hoping Lee can show some of the old magic that he had when partnered with Kirby and the two came up with the Silver Surfer, the Incredible Hulk, and Fantastic Four.

Since I've been talking about zombies, how about horror comics...

Horror comics are an interesting thing. Vastly popular when the medium was first coming into its own, EC Comics was at the forefront publishing horror, crime, and science fiction titles. Better known as the publisher of Mad Magazine at this point, EC's horror line all but vanished by 1955, shortly after the Comics Code Authority came into being.

The impetus of the CCA was Dr. Fred Wertham and his book, Seduction of the Innocence. Wertham, a psychiatrist, linked juvenile delinquency to comic books based on flimsy evidence and sloppy processes. In spite of that, his book was well received and sparked a major censorship movement with parents and government.

In a move to avoid major governmental interference, as the senate launched an inquiry into the industry, the industry itself launched the CCA and imposed their own limits. EC's horror and crime lines, typically considered more adult fare, had difficulty passing the industry's strict guidelines - those guidelines are where much of the superhero moral code was born that permeated DC throughout the late 1950's until the 1980's.

EC's horror comics, often hailed by industry historians as ahead of their time, went away. In it's place, comics like the watered down 1960's entry from DC; Strange Adventures.

But a new player hopped on the boat in the mid 1960's - Warren. Warren skirted the issue by publishing their comics as magazines, rather than comic books, thus avoiding the need to pass their work through the Comics Code Authority. The big three that came out of Warren (at least that I enjoyed), were Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. Often done in anthology format, these magazines would have several short horror pieces. In the cases of Eerie and Creepy, they were strung together by a Tales from the Crypt Crypt Keeper sort of character - Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie.

Unfettered by the limitations of the CCA, artists like Neal Adams, Frank Frazzetta, and Gene Colan stretched the limits of comic art at the time, exploring places that hadn't been seen in the medium in a decade.

Why? Because these were the teenagers ten years earlier that saw the EC horror comics, and as adults in the 1960's were demonstrating their artistic influences.

Personally, I have always had a soft spot for these magazines. They are the bridge between EC in the 1950's to Heavy Metal in the 70's and 80's and the Silver Age grandparents to DC's Vertigo horror comics like Hellblazer, and more recently, Marvel's Legion of Monsters line, which is even reminiscent of those anthology magazines, running at least two stories with wildly divergent artwork.

For those who haven't caught the Legion of Monsters, I would recommend the titles that I have seen, with the caveat - be prepared to expect at some point during the run some weak tales. It is just the nature of the anthology style beast.

Braaaaiiiinnnss

A quick revisiting of current poll standings in regards to Zombie films - I have had additional sentiments expressed to me or outright voted at the WiredFrederick site. The current standings are as follows -

1. Night of the Living Dead (19 points)

2. Tie
Dawn of the Dead (2004 - 15 points)
Dawn of the Dead (orig - 15 points)

4. Shaun of the Dead (12 points)

5. 28 Days Later (10 points)


6. Tie
Evil Dead II (5 points)
Army of Darkness (5 Points)

8. Night of the Living Dead (1990, 4 points)

9. Dead Alive (3 Points)

Also receiving votes, Ed and his Dead Mother, Zombi 2, Grindhouse: Planet Terror, Night of the Creeps and Return of the Living Dead.

What is it about these films that attract us? Or are you one of those who dislike this genre? If so, why?

So, over at Wired Frederick...

I have had a poll running regarding what the best zombie movies of all time are (that would be www.wi-fred.blogspot.com). So far I only have three votes, and would like to see a few more.

As it is, weighting each place (5 points for 1st, four for second, and so on), and number of votes received acting as the tie-breaker, here are the rankings -

1. Dawn of the Dead (2004) - 10 points on 3 votes
2. 28 Days Later - 9 points on 2 votes
3. Shaun of the Dead
Evil Dead II - 5 points on 2 votes (each)
5. Night of the Living Dead (original) - 5 points on 1 vote
6. Dawn of the Dead (original) - 4 points on 1 vote
7. Army of Darkness - 3 points on 1 vote
8. Dead Alive - 2 points on 1 vote
9. Ed and his Dead Mother
Night of the Creeps - 1 point on 1 vote (each)

C'mon people, I know there are other zombie fans out there. I want to hear from you - your top 5 zombie films in order, best to worst.