Iron Man
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Screenplay by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrance Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Faran Tahir, Shaun Tobb, Clark Gregg, John Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson and Stan Lee
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 2008

On May 2, 2008, Iron Man premiered here in the US and went on to pull in over $200 million worldwide.  As a lifelong comic book geek who just happens to have every issue of Iron Man through the mid 1990s (starting with Tales From Suspense #39 from back in March 1963), I must admit that I have been dreading the release of this film since I first heard about it a few years ago.

While I am a big fan of both Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr., everything I saw or heard about this flick screamed “pure cheese” to me for some reason.  Every still I saw or report I read gave me horrible flashbacks to earlier crappy Marvel movies like Daredevil, Electra, the Punisher and that God-awful Generation X made-for-TV flick from the mid-90s.  I had resigned myself to yet another horrible comic book film with my only hope being that, maybe, somehow, it might not be as bad as Catwoman.

After standing in a long opening day line and being forced to sit in a crowded theater, I have to say I have never been more glad to be proven wrong in my entire life.

Read More »

Dagon
Directed by: Stuart Gordon
Screenplay by: Dennis Paoli
Story by: H.P. Lovecraft (short stories “Dagon” and “Shadow Over Innsmouth”)
Starring: Ezra Godden, Raquel Meroño, Macarena Gomez, Francisco Rabal, Brendan Price, Uxia Blanco, Birgit Bofurull, Ferran Lahoz
Running Time: 98 minutes
Rated: R
Release Date: 2001
DVD Release: 2002

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”

Anyone familiar with me at all knows I am an absolutely monster H.P. Lovecraft fan.  I was introduced to his writing back in the late 80s and it has stuck with me through the years.  He was a master of atmosphere and mood, and there are few who have been able to match his ability in the horror-genre.  In fact, the nature of his stories makes them very difficult to film.  There isn’t a lot of action or big scares.  Everything he does is in the building of terror and hopelessness, and a film based on someone slowly being driven insane really isn’t the most exciting thing to an audience raised on slasher or heavy-gore flicks.

That being said, a lot of people have tried to adapt his work in the past to varying degrees of success.  Which brings us to Stuart Gordon and his film, Dagon.  Gordon is best known for his Re-Animator and From Beyond films, also loosely based on Lovecraft tales.  The Dagon adaptation, originally named “Shadow Over Innsmouth” after the inspiration for the movie, was originally to be Gordon’s third film after Re-Animator and From Beyond, but he was never able to raise a large enough budget to do the film justice.  After 15-years, Gordon hooked up with friend Brian Yuzna and was able to get the cash to shoot Dagon.  Read More »

City of Violence
Directed by: Seung-wan Ryoo
Screenplay by: Jeong-min Kim, Won-jae Lee and Seung-wan Ryoo
Starring: Doo-hong Jung, Seung-wan Ryoo, Kil-Kang Ahn, Beom-su Lee
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rated: Not Rated
Release Date: 2006
DVD Release: 2007

To me, almost nothing is better than a good martial arts movie…well, except for a good musical, but they really are the same thing.  As a kid growing up in Hawaii in the 70s and 80s, I was exposed to more martial arts movies than anyone has a right to.  That love continues till today and my collection of martial arts movies on DVDs stands now at more than 400.

When I first started hearing rumors about an over the top action flick from Korea and by the director of Arahan, Seung-wan Ryoo, I knew I had to see it.  I was able to track down the Korean release in early 2007 and was simply blown away.  And now, thanks to the fine folks of Dragon Dynasty, you too can experience this martial arts epic in the form of a 2-disc “ultimate edition” release.

Read More »

In my career I’ve worked on a ton of movies — big budget, low budget, made for TV, direct-to-video…you name it and I’ve done work on it.  In spite of all the bigger flicks I’ve worked on, my absolute favorite experiences were on the set of the micro-budget film, “Bite Me, Fanboy.” 

BMF was shot and put together on a shoestring budget — although, on the money we had to do it I doubt we could have actually affored to buy shoestrings — and filmed late at night on the weekends for about 6 weeks.  I believe we had about 14 days or so of shooting.  The majority of the film was shot at Comic Relief in Berkeley, California, which was a lot of fun to get to do.

Anyway, I’ll talk more about the flick in upcoming posts, but to start I’ve posted a copy of the Blooper Reel from the “Bite Me, Fanboy” DVD release.  It’ll give you an idea of the blast we all had while filming.

Oh, and before I forget, you can purchase the “Bite Me, Fanboy” DVD at the Nifty Comics Store.  Check it out!

-NiftyMat, Professional Nerd
http://www.thenfitynerd.com

Black Belt Jones
Directed by: Robert Clouse
Screenplay by: Alex Ross, Fred Weintraub and Oscar Williams
Starring: Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers, Eric Laneuville, Alan Weeks, Malik Carter
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated: NR
Release Date: 1974
DVD Release: Blax Film

Earlier this week I received a copy of one of my favorite films of all times, Black Belt Jones. I’ve been dying to get this flick on DVD for more than 10 years now - since I wore out my old VHS copy. Now, I found it on Amazon and I’m not completely sure where the DVD came from. As far as I can tell there has been no official DVD release of the film, but the copy I received in the mail is a fairly nice transfer from a company called “Blax Film” and judging from the cover art may have originally been an Asian release or bootleg. The only real downside to the DVD is there are absolutely no extras aside from trailers for some other flicks.

Bootleg or not, it’s great to have Black Belt Jones on DVD. I believe Black Belt Jones to be one of the greatest of the so-called Blaxsploitation films of the 1970s and the forerunner of the modern action film. Watching Jim Kelly in Black Belt Jones gives a great look back at the source of the Arnold/Stallone/Segal/Van Damme/Whoever action flicks of the 80s, 90s and today. It is one of the original sources and originators of all of the bits that eventually became cliches in modern action movies, down to the pithy one-liners. It’s a shame that a film that was such an influence on modern action movies has become forgotten. Read More »

Kamen Rider the First
US Title: Masked Rider the First
Created by: Shotaro Ishinomori
Directed by: Takao Nagaishi
Screenplay by: Toshiki Inoue
Starring: Masaya Kikawada, Hassei Takano, Rena Komina, Hiroshi Miyauchi, Eisei Amamoto
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated: NR
US Release: Media Blasters

As a young nerd growing up in Hawaii, one of my favorite TV shows was Kamen Rida V3 (as a white kid from the East Coast, I was mocked for saying “Kamen Rider” and quickly learned to drop the hard “R” sound in “rider”). It was a great action Sentai series that premiered in the early 70s and ran, well, forever in Hawaii. Later iterations of the show were released in the US as the Masked Rider. As big a fan I was of American comics and superheroes, I was completely enamored with Kamen Rida V3 (pronounced Kamen Rida V Shree). Since I wasn’t old enough to have watched the shows when they originally aired, I missed out on the original 2 Kamen Ridas (creatively named V1 and V2) outside of their few appearances and team-ups with V3. They always seemed cool and mysterious and as a kid I always wished I could find out more about them.

Finally, 20-something years later, the adult me is happy to say that I’ve had my wish fulfilled. Released in 2005 by Toei in Japan and in 2007 by Media Blasters, the all-new Kamen Rida the First film took me by surprise. I first saw pieces of it while roaming the weekly Frank & Son comic/toy conventions here in Southern California. One of the booths had it playing on a tiny portable DVD player. I squinted at the amazing images coming across the screen for about 10 minutes before I was chased away for not buying anything. I then found some clips on YouTube and was blown away. I knew I had to track down this lost piece of my childhood. It took a few months, but I was able to score a copy on Amazon and one week later I had the DVD in the tight grip of my sweaty little hands. Read More »

DOA: Dead or Alive
Directed by: Corey Yuen
Screenplay by: JF Lawton, Adam Gross and Seth Gross (why it took 3 writers on this screenplay confuses the hell out of me)
Starring: Jaime Pressly, the moon-faced Devon Aoki, Holly Valance, Sarah Carter, Eric Robers, Robin Shou (not sure if “starring” qualifies here), Matthew Marsden, Brian J. White and Steve Howey…the guy from Reba
Running Time: 87 minutes
Rated: PG-13 for violence and a rather homely Devon Aoki

I’m not going to both spending a whole lot of time on the plot of this movie.  You’ve seen “Enter the Dragon,” right?  Or any of its whole host of knock-offs?  Then you know the basic plot to this one.  Group of people are invited to an island, run by a creepy man dressed in Chinese pajamas, for a martial arts tournament with a sinister secret.  There’s some additional attempts at a plot by the writers, something about Devon Aoki’s brother being missing or some crap like that, but no one really cares.  Read More »

30 Days of Night
Created by: Steven Niles and Ben Templesmith
Directed by: David Slade
Screenplay by: Steven Niles, Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster and some other people
Running Time: 113 minutes
Rated: R for icky blood and bad acting
Official Website

I welcome you to the first installment of The Nifty Nerd’s Dinner and a Movie.  Every week I’ll review a new movie and tell you what you should think about it.  This week Aaron and I went to check out “30 Days of Night.” 

I’m going to start off by saying that I haven’t read any of the “30 Days of Night” comics.  While I do enjoy some of the work by Steven Niles, I am completely turned off by Ben Templesmith’s art (for those of you who don’t know, Steven Niles wrote and Ben Templesmith was the artist on the original “30 Days of Night” comic book mini series).  To me he’s always been a pale reflection of Bill Sienkiewicz — he’s trying to ape Sienky’s style but doesn’t have any of the structure or technical ability to back it up.  I feel like he’s a prime example of what is wrong with comic books in general today. 

In spite of my dislike of Templesmith’s work, I allowed the A-Man to drag me along to see the flick at the opening last night.  The thing that suprised me most when we arrived at our local AMC 30 mega-movie-plex was how uncrowded the theater was.  It looked like AMC had been set up for a huge crowd, with roped off areas for each showing, but the place was half-empty.  Very strange for the 7pm showing of a big budget release on a Friday night.  The empty theater was a sign of things to come. Read More »