MI4: Ghost Protocol is pretty sweet!

After watching Young Adult at the sneakeasy* last week, I couldn't resist the urge to sneak into Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol. Besides having a long name that is nevertheless fun to say, Ghost Protocol is directed by one of the best storytellers in animation: Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant, Ratatouille), and it was just starting as I was leaving Young Adult. It's like they WANTED me to sneak in and see it!

Movies That Should Be Comics #21- Young Adult

A Beautiful Mess

After 3 straight days cooped up with me and my three year old , my wife snapped suggested I go (by myself) to the movies. For whatever reason, the movie I most wanted to see amid all the holiday blockbuster hooplah was Young Adult, the story of a ghost writer of a once-popular teen novel series. Besides the fact that it stars the lovely and talented Charlize Theron, Young Adult was written by Diablo Cody (Juno, United States of Tara) and directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking). Obviously disturbed by a recent divorce, Theron's character Mavis Gary randomly fixates on an old boyfriend, her highschool sweetheart Buddy (Nite-Owl from Watchmen), who just so happens to be married with a new baby. The combination of subject matter and creative team was too much for me to resist, so I decided to check it out!

5 reasons why I cuts for "Colombiana" even though you told me not to watch it...

When I announced my intention to go watch Colombiana, the new shoot-em-up popcorn flick starring rising star Zoe Saldana, I received many texts, tweets, and other assorted comments suggesting that my hard-earned money would be better spent elsewhere. They're welcome to their opinions, but I had several good reasons to put my chips on the deck to watch this one, whether I really expected it to blow my mind or not. I wasn't expecting an Oscar-worthy tour de force (and it wasn't one), but I was hoping for a good time, which it delivered. Here's five reasons I watched it, and you should too...

Movies That Should be Comics #19- Meet Dave

For reasons i'm still at a loss to explain, I watched the sci-fi comedy Meet Dave starring Eddie Murphy (48 Hours, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming To America, Boomerang, Dreamgirls) on television the other day. I'm a big fan of Eddie's old movies and stand-up, and while I did enjoy the first Daddy Day Care (there was a kid who spent the ENTIRE FILM dressed as the Flash... I'm sorry, that's funny!), I am extremely perplexed by Eddie's family comedies. Eddie is still a phenomenal talent. He's funny, good looking, and has super star charm. he's just waiting to work with a great director, in a great film...

Rise of a Supervillain, or Clown Prince of Street Art Strikes Again?

So I finally got around to watching the heavily talked-about, Oscar-nominated street art doc Exit Through the Gift Shop this weekend. The film is directed by the anonymous street artist and culture critic Banksy, constructed primarily of footage shot by the film's presumably unwitting star, the would-be filmmaker-turned street art sensation Thierry Guetta (above), aka Mr. Brainwash.

I need to peep this anime...

This movie Summer Wars looks hard...

Okay... this is dope...

I clowned Green Lantern pretty bad when the first trailer came out, so it's only fair that I admit how much I'm feeling this one...

Another bubble Busted

I recently watched August, a movie about a struggling internet company skating on the skin of the dot-com bubble the month before the infamous terror attacks of 2001. August stars Josh Hartnett (40 Days and 40 Nights,30 Days of Night,Lucky Number Slevin) as Tom Sterling, the hotshot co-founder of Landshark, a company that does something having to do with aggregating (google it). I had no interest in August when it popped up on cable, until I realized that (like many other good stories) this movie was all about getting the girl...

Just Don't call them "Sidekicks"

I was sort of skeptical of the new Young Justice cartoon back when I first heard of its impending release. Now that I've seen it, I can barely remember what I was so worried about... 

CN Spits hot FIYAH with "Firebreather"

I can't say that I honestly expected the made-for-teevee animated movie Firebreather to be all that good. I was glad to be wrong.

about the Green Lantern Movie trailer...

"The kids will love watching a womanizer smash a chick then leave her with the tap water..." 
-LeSean Thomas (animator, cartoonist)

Movies that Should be Comics # 18 : Whip It!

Just finished watching Whip It, the roller derby coming-of-age flick-starring Ellen Page (it also happens to mark the directoral debut of Drew Barrymore). Page stars as Bliss, a 17 year old small-town girl who rebels against her pageant-happy mom by secretly joining a roller derby team.

This movie's A Hot Mess... But I liked it anyways

I recently watched Observe and Report on DVR. It's an example of a movie that I enjoyed watching, but that I would not classify as 'good'...

Movies that Should Be Comics #17: Action Jackson

After several high-profile sidekick roles, Carl Weathers proved he could carry a movie wall to wall in the 1988 smash Action Jackson, which -despite the horrible acting of Prince protege Vanity (The Last Dragon)- is one of my favorite action movies. Weathers is a good actor and a better screen presence than many of the action heroes that you can name.

Movies That Should Be Comics #16: A Knight's Tale

I just finished watching A Knight's Tale, the period action comedy starring the late Heath Ledger, on dvr. I had already seen this movie a million times before I got married, but found out recently that my wife hates it for all the same reasons I love it.

Movies That Should Be Comics #15: The King of Kong

I just finished watching the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters about the battle for the Donkey Kong world record. Not being much of a gamer myself, I was only minimally interested in watching this when it came out a few years ago. This week, I received an illustrating gig that would parody some of the events in the film (however, any similarity to any real people living or dead is purely coincidental, of course), so I sat down and watched it.

Still my favorite Comicbook Movie...

Feeling Much Better Now... by Samax Amen
The Crow is still my favorite comicbook movie (since people always argue that The Matrix and Unbreakable technically don't count). All the hooplah, cash flow, and studio biting surrounding Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (and of course the death of Heath Ledger) called to question which was greater, and even though I'm probably alone in this, I'll side with The Crow. 

Movies That Should be Comics# 14: The Book of Eli

there's only a handful of talents that automatically gets a movie onto my 'definite maybe' list (the 'must see' list is gone in this economy), and Denzel Washington (Training Day, Philadelphia, American Gangster, Glory) is one of them. Once i saw the early trailer for this post-apocalyptic action joint The Book of Eli (featuring a grizzly, disgruntled, blade-swinging Denzel and directed by Albert and Allen Hughes [Menace II Society]), it was immediately put on my schedule of things to do in the dime.

You could tell he wasn't Playin' by the look on his Grill

I didn't bother going to watch the Keanu Reeves vs Jennifer Connelly alien- invasion- as- social- commentary joint The Day the Earth Stood Still when it came out in theaters, but I figured it would be good enough to watch on television.
I figured that unless they had some game-changing special effects, there just wasn't going to be enough going on in this sci-fi remake to get me to put down cash.

F what you heard: go Watch Astro Boy!

before i went out to see Astro Boy last night, I watched the movie critics on At the Movies tear the movie apart. They hated the movie, and said that it was confused, boring, and totally inappropriate for children. They appeared especially concerned with the violence, death, and questionable character motivations at the core of the conflicts in the film. although both critics suggested skipping the movie, their reviews actually intrigued me to give the movie a chance. As often happens, the critics got it wrong.