With the release of my latest book, “Tempus Machina: A Short (Time Travel) Story” (available now on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible), AND Podcasters Assemble – Season 12 on the “Back to the Future” Trilogy, I figured it would be a good opportunity to take a look back at some of my favorite Time Travel movies… so far!
Continue readingTag Archives: movies
Every Star Destroyer in STAR WARS!
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with Star Destroyers. From the very opening of 1977’s “Star Wars” (Episode IV: A New Hope) – that moment when this behemoth of a starship engulfs the entire screen, completely dwarfing the outgunned Rebel blockade runner, my imagination was completely caught in it’s tractor beam. Maybe it’s the simplicity of it’s gray triangular visage, or the sheer scale and firepower of these massive imperial battle ships. We’ve seen A LOT of different Star Destroyers in the Star Wars movies since that first space battle above Tatooine, so this is my breakdown of every (on screen) Star Destroyer…
Top 25 Best Lightsaber Battles in STAR WARS!
Reblogged from Geek to Geek Media!
In the past 45 years, Star Wars went from being a surprise blockbuster hit in 1977, that spawned a trilogy with a loyal fanbase to a massive cultural phenomenon. And thanks in a large part to Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm back in 2012, for better or worse, there seems to be no end in sight for the mammoth franchise set in a galaxy, far, far away.
Continue reading9 Reasons why ‘The Skywalker Saga’ was always about Emperor Palpatine! (Star Wars)
Back on Season 2 of Podcasters Assemble (covering the Star Wars movies), I correctly predicted that Emperor Palpatine, Darth Plagueis, and Supreme Leader Snoke were all one in the same… well, at least from a certain point of view. In “Star Wars – Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker” we learn that “Palpatine’s back… somehow”, and while this reveal could have been handled and set up better, I do think Palpatine’s inclusion in the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga actually makes A LOT of sense.
Say what you will about the prequels and sequels, Ian McDiarmid’s portrayal of the evil Sith Lord is one of the best things about the Star Wars movies. He’s not just the ultimate embodiment of evil in the franchise, Emperor Palpatine is literally the main driving force behind Episodes One through Nine!
Continue readingThe Best X-Men Movie Watch Order?
Now that mutants are officially being introduced into the MCU (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ms. Marvel, Wakanda Forever, Deadpool and Wolverine, etc), I figured it might be a good time to revisit Fox’s X-Men series, before it’s inevitably rebooted by Disney.
Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with 2008’s “Iron Man”, before Sam Raimi’s Spider-man trilogy, and following the success of 1999’s “Blade”, Bryan Singer gave us one of the most serious takes on a comic book franchise to date, with 2000’s “X-Men”!
Continue readingErik’s TOP 15 DC MOVIES (so far)!
With several new DC movies coming out this year, including: Matt Reeves’s “The Batman”, “The Flash” (starring Ezra Miller, with Michael Keaton returning as Batman), “Black Adam” (starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”, and “Batgirl” (plus James Gunn’s “Peacemaker” on HBO Max and an upcoming “Green Lantern Corps” series), as well as next year’s “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”, I thought I’d take a look back and *try* to rank my favorite DC movies so far…
The Comic Zombie Podcast: Issue #1
The all-new Comic Zombie podcast is out now!
In their first episode: “Holy Bad-Movies, Batman!” – Chris Carroll and Erik Slader endure 8 hours of Batman films (two of which were good) so that you don’t have to!
Will they decipher the plot of “Batman Returns”?
Will they solve the Riddler’s ‘e.nigmas’?
Will they survive “Batman and Robin”?!
Find out here, this Bat-time, this Bat-channel!
(Also, be sure to check out Issue Zero: This Time, it’s personal!)
The X-MEN movies
Check out our Podcast Episode where we rank the X-Men movies here!
There was a long period of time where the only super hero movies we had were the Christopher Reeve Superman films, which (as we discussed HERE), had their considerable ups and downs (mostly downs), and the Batman franchise (which we discussed HERE, HERE, and HERE), but this was before the excellent Christopher Nolan reboot, so it was also mostly bad.
Then the late 90’s hit and Marvel (with New Line Cinema) had a surprise hit on their hands with Blade, and all of a sudden it felt like there might be a chance we’d get some more. That’s when Fox dropped a bombshell and announced they were going to finally, FINALLY, release a live action X-Men film!
Say what you want about the first movie, and we will, but it really opened the floodgates for the huge wave of superhero films (that mostly sucked) for the early 21st century. For better or worse we probably wouldn’t have the Spider-man movies without this one!
Fifteen years later, and the franchise has had its ups and downs (notice a trend?), but found its footing again with X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past. Now, with X-Men: Apocalypse, Deadpool, and a third Wolverine film looming, the franchise appears to be in as good a shape as it has ever been.
But how did they get here?
The Superman Movies! (part one)
The first, and greatest, super hero, Superman has had a rather mixed bag when it comes to adaptations of his comic book adventures. There have been numerous television shows, radio serials, animated series, animated movies, video games, and live action movies, more of which were either just ok or straight up more bad than good.
What is it about the big, blue boy scout that leads to so much crap?
You would think the elements that have been in place for 75 years now would be easy to adapt to the big screen, or the small screen. It’s not like there aren’t literally hundreds of pre-made stories in his publication history that are begging to be filmed and thrown on the screen, yet time and time again people think they can ‘improve’ upon the man of steel and his epically large library of awesomeness, and time and time again they fail miserably.
That’s not to say there haven’t been some success stories… “Superman: The Movie” was a high point, as were the Bruce Timm animated series and his representation in that same universe’s “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited”, as well as a handful of direct to DVD animated movies that did well. Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” may have divided some fans on its quality, but both Erik and I will go to our graves defending it.
But for each of those, there are Superman 3, Superman Returns, Lois and Clark, most seasons of Smallville and the dreaded Superman 64! It’s curious. And as bad as those are, you wouldn’t believe some of the utter shit that almost got made. (6 Terrible Superman movies, you won’t believe almost happened!)
For now, just to keep things relatively simple Erik and I are skipping 1951’s “Superman vs the Mole Men” and are only going to discuss the live action feature films, starting with…
Holy Bat-movies! – Part 3
We did it! We made it! I was worried for a second…
In Part One – we covered Batman ’66, Batman ’89, and Tim Burton’s Batman Returns…
Then in Part Two – we tore apart Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and the god awful Batman and Robin…
Now it’s time to review Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy!
Batman Begins (2005)
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale (Batman), Liam Neeson (Ra’s Al Ghul), Cillian Murphy (Scarecrow), Ken Watanabe (fake Ra’s), Katie Holmes (Rachel Dawes), Michael Caine (Alfred), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon), Tom Wilkinson (Carmine Falcone), Rutger Hauer (Mr. Earle)
Batmobile:
Plot: A true origin story following Bruce’s life periodically from the murder of his parents to his travels around the world making himself into Batman, one step at a time. He becomes a member of, and eventually turns against, the League of Shadows, who come to Gotham to get their revenge and destroy the city. As Batman, he must face the Falcone mafia, the Scarecrow, and Ra’s Al Ghul, while trying to rekindle his relationship with childhood friend turned assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes, establishing a relationship with Jim Gordon (one of the only honest cops in Gotham), and working to get his company back from Mr. Earle.
Comic Zombie 