With one magic word…

If you’re under 25, then you probably don’t remember when the AMC network aired nothing but old movies. I’m talking black and white movies and westerns, lots of westerns.

Back then, AMC stood for American Movie Classics, and it was one of my favorite channels to watch every weekend. The reason for this was because in the early 1990’s AMC would air movie serials on Saturday mornings.

This is where I first discovered serials from the 30’s and 40’s, including: Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, the 1943 and 1949 Batman serials, and more.

But there was always one classic serial that eluded me until this day, and that is 1941’s  “The Adventures of Captain Marvel.”

The reason I never saw this serial was because I couldn’t find it on dvd. I suppose I could have found it online, but I didn’t want to risk missing an episode or two. But as luck would have it, I found a used dvd copy of “The Adventures of Captain Marvel.” at a flea market for just $2.

The 12 chapter Captain Marvel serial was made by Republic Pictures, and just like in the Fawcett Comic series of the time, it featured young Billy Batson transforming into the superhero Captain Marvel when he says the magic word “Shazam.” The serial starred Tom Tyler in the title role of Captain Marvel, and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as his alter ego, Billy Batson. Captain Marvel had multiple writers and was directed by William Witney and John English.

The serial opens at an archeological expedition in Thailand, at a place referred to as the volcanic Valley of the Tombs. Inside one of the sealed crypts, the expeditions discovers a mysterious device called the Golden Scorpion. When the Golden Scorpion’s quartz lenses are aligned, it emits a powerful beam, which can destroy, but can also turn stone into gold.

The youngest member of the expedition is radio broadcaster Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.), and he’s one of the few that decided not to enter. Because of this act, he is chosen by an ancient wizard named Shazam (Nigel De Brulier) to be the recipient of amazing powers. To activate them, all Billy has to do is utter the wizard’s name, and he is transformed into Captain Marvel!

The scientists leading the expedition, decide that the Golden Scorpion is too powerful and could fall into the wrong hands. To avoid that, they each take one of the lenses that power it back to the States where they all agree to hide them.

But soon a mysterious hooded figure calling himself the Scorpion steals the device hoping to turn it into a weapon. The expedition scientists are now in grave danger, and the only one who can stop the Scorpion’s plan now is Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler).

I gotta say that out of all the classic movie serials I’ve seen over the years, “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” is one of the best. It’s amazing the amount of stuff Republic Pictures was able to put on the screen despite what I’m sure were limited resources, and lack of special effects. But skill and imagination, the filmmakers delivered a great Captain Marvel tale.

Okay, so some of the special effects are primitive to say the least. In several of the flying shots, they use a life-size dummy dressed in one of the Captain’s costumes. But I have to imagine kids in 1941 were blown away seeing Captain Marvel soaring across the screen like that. Plus the transitions from the wired dummy to Tom Tyler were pretty damn seemless, and a huge improvement over the live action-to-animation switch Columbia Pictures used in their 1948 Superman serial.

Republic Pictures definitely got their money’s worth. There’s even a sequence where Captain Marvel is trapped in a cave that is about to be flooded with lava that features some surprisingly strong rear projection work. I’m usually not a fan of this technique (see early James Bond movies), but it looks awesome in Captain Marvel.

Now we get to the action, and let’s just say that compared to other action/adventure serials of the time, Captain Marvel is a lot more violent. The bad guys use everything from spears, machine guns, pistols, a guillotine; a torture cage; and automobiles. This twelve parter has a huge body count, and I swear even Captain Marvel throws a guy from the top of a building. This is surprising to me since I assume this serial was aimed at kids in 1941.

Like any movie serial of the 30’s or 40’s, “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” features several things you’ve seen before: plenty of people driving places; the girl getting kidnapped; the hooded villain; car chases; meetings; and the dim-witted friend.

None of this surprised me, I expect seeing those things in this sort of movie. But the one thing that did bug me was seeing Frank Coghlan, Jr. get hir from behind, kidnapped and conveniently gagged about half a dozen times. If this were real life, poor Billy would have mutliple concussions. I think the only character that got knocked out even more than Billy was poor Betty (Louise Currie).

 

Despite these minor complaints, I think “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” was well ahead of its time. The acting for the most part is solid, Captain Marvel looks great, and the special effect are quite good for 1941.

If you’re a fan of classic movie serials, I highly recommend tracking this down, and now its easier than ever because the entire serial is now out Blu-ray. So go watch Captain Marvel!

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Better late than never review: The Mummy

Possible spoilers ahead!

2017’s “The Mummy” is the latest reboot of the franchise that began way back in 1932. This time, we’re introduced to Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), the only child of the Egyptian pharaoh, Ahmanet. Ahmanet was destined to rule the land, until her father’s wife gave birth to a son, and Ahmanet suddenly found herself second in line to the throne.

Feeling robbed of her destiny, Ahmanet makes a deal with the Egyptian god of death, Set, allowing evil into herself that makes her kill her entire family. She also plans a human sacrifice that will allow Set to return to man’s world. These acts however, end with her mummified alive and sent to parts unknown.

In modern day, army reconnaissance sergeant Nick Morton (Tom Cruise), likes to make some extra money on the side with his best friend Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) by hunting treasure and selling them on the black market. When one of their “missions” goes wrong, they call in air support, and the bombing accidentally uncover the ancient tomb of Ahmanet. They’re soon joined by anthropologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), and together they explore the contents of the tomb.

The three eventually stumble upon the sarcophagus of Ahmanet, and everything is fine until Nick’s lack of patience accidentally frees Ahmanet from the prison to which she has been confined for centuries. Now Nick is caught in the middle between Ahmanet who seeks to complete the ritual that would fulfill her deal with Set, and a group called Prodigium, led by Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe).

When “The Mummy” was released this in June, it bombed with audiences. Domestically, “The Mummy” only earned a little over $80 million. Overseas the box office has been much better, but the numbers are still shockingly low for a Tom Cruise summer blockbuster, and a troubling start to Universal’s Dark Universe.

The critics meanwhile, weren’t very kind to this movie. As of this writing, “The Mummy” still has a 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, a number that’s unlikely to ever improve by much. Well I have something say to those critics that savaged this movie:

I thought “The Mummy” was rather entertaining. So screw you guys!

Now, I’m not saying the 2017 film comes close to the 1932 classic, or even matches what the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz did. But what I liked about the new Mummy is that it attempts to bring a fresh spin to the classic premise. And I’m not just talking about the gender-swapped villain. This movie actually adds something to everything that has come before.

This was the first time I’ve seen a mummy turn her victims into zombie like creatures, and trying to seduce Tom Cruise with power. The introduction of Prodigium is also a big deal, as is the idea that curses are real. I even liked that apprently situations like this have been happening for centuries.

Makes you wonder what else we don’t know about, and what else is hiding out there. All of this could mean that all the previous Mummy movies might still be cannon. At one point we even see the book of the dead from the 199 flick. But more importantly, the ending of “The Mummy” alone, opens up a slew of new opportunities for this world.

The cast I thought was fine, but the writing really let them all down at times. Tom Cruise tries his best to give Nick Morton some charm, but the script makes him nothing more than a selfish bastard.

Annabelle Wallis’ Jenny Halsey, starts off as a strong character who is there to do her job and do it well. She even stands up to Nick after he takes something from her, but she eventually ends up as a damsel in distress and love interest. I don’t blame Wallis for this, once again it was the script that failed the actor.

Sofia Boutella as Princess Ahmanet was good, but not as memorable as Arnold Vosloo was in the 1999 movie. Her back story is a compelling one. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the princess whose destiny is taken from her, but instead, the script makes it a point of unnecessarily sexualizing her once she awakens. However, I did like her design, and some of her action scenes were rather good.

At the end of the day, “The Mummy” is not a perfect movie. But it is better than “Bram Stoker’s Legend of the Mummy .” Look it up kids, look it up.  Anyways, this new Mummy  could have used some script editing, which would have helped every character and the overall story the filmmakers were trying to tell.

Even so, I still say that this movie is a decent action/adventure retelling of the classic story that adds some exciting new ideas.  I honestly didn’t expect much from this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised by some plot ponts, some of the action scenes, and the ending alone has me excited to see more.

“The Mummy” final score: C+

Comic Flashback: X-Cutioner’s Song

Today when we look back at 90’s X-Men comics, we don’t have too many positive things to say. The entire decade of X-Men comics is often the butt of jokes, sometimes deservedly so. But not all of the 90’s were bad for the merry mutants.

There were some good stories back then like: “Fatal Attractions,” Chris Claremont’s final three issues, the Marc Silvestri Wolverine run, and the classic “X-tinction Agenda”  and “Age of Apocalypse” to name a few. Other good books also came out the in 90’s. In fact, one of my favorite X-Men crossovers of the time was released twenty-five years ago this month. I’m of course talking about the twelve part “X-Cutioner’s Song.”

“X-Cutioner’s Song” ran in Uncanny X-Men #294-297, X-Factor #84-86, X-Men #14-16, and X-Force #16-18. The crossover was written by Scott Lobdell, Peter David and Fabian Nicieza, and featured art by Andy Kubert, Greg Capullo, Jae Lee and Brandon Peterson. The plot of the crossover went something like this:

After an assassination attempt leaves Professor Xavier in critical condition, the X-Men scramble to find his attacker… Cable. The manhunt leads the X-Men into conflict with X-Force, and if that wasn’t enough to deal with, Cyclops and Jean Grey are kidnapped by the forces of Apocalypse.

Each issue of the “X-Cutioner’s Song” came polybagged with an exclusive trading card featuring one of the story’s key characters. Because of the bag and card, I think each issue was a little more expensive than usual, but I didn’t mind that. This event was a huge deal for a young fan like me, so I bought two copies of each issue. One copy was for me to read, and one copy went directly into one my long boxes to keep.

“X-Cutioner’s Song” held a lot of firsts for me: this story was the first time I saw art by Brandon Peterson and Jae Lee; this was also the first time I saw all the X-Men books come together like this; this was the first time I saw Havok as a true leader; the story showed me X-Force could survive without Cable; and this saga was when I first learned of Wolverine’s love of pork rinds.

I loved the “X-Cutioner’s Song” twenty-five years ago, and I still do today. However, I’m also aware enough to recognize the story has its flaws. The twelve issues start off strong, but by the time you get X-Men #15, the story has lost some steam. Like many big event series from Marvel, “X-Cutioner’s Song” is overstuffed with characters, subplots, and some WTF moments.

I’ve never done the math, but there has to be well over two dozen characters involved by the time we get to the third act of “X-Cutioner’s Song.” It’s just too many, and many of them suffer from it. However, I do respect that the entire story was told in the main x-Men titles, and not in 24 separate mini-series or tie-ins like Marvel does today.

Despite some shortcomings, this crossover hold up well after twenty-five years. “X-Cutioner’s Song” is a highly entertaining X-Men crossover. What makes it all the more enjoyable is the amazing art provided by Jae Lee, Brandon Peterson, Andy Kubert and Greg Capullo. Their art is distinctive and full of great moments. I remember spending countless hours trying to imitate Capullo’s and Lee’s art.

All in all, “X-Cutioner’s Song” is one of the best early-‘90s crossovers. It certainly throws everything at you, including the kitchen sink. The single issues are easy to find in dollar bins, and there are several collections to be found. So if you haven’t read this story, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of the “X-Cutioner’s Song.”

Book Challenge Review: Thor Vol. 1: The Goddess Of Thunder

Synopsis:

Mjolnir lies on the moon, unable to be lifted! Something dark has befallen the God of Thunder, leaving him unworthy for the first time ever! But when Frost Giants invade Earth, the hammer will be lifted — and a mysterious woman will be transformed into an all-new version of the mighty Thor! Who is this new Goddess of Thunder? Not even Odin knows, but she may be Earth’s only hope against the Frost Giants! Get ready for a Thor like you’ve never seen before, as this all-new heroine takes Midgard by storm! Plus: The Odinson clearly doesn’t like that someone else is holding his hammer — it’s Thor vs. Thor! And Odin, desperate to see Mjolnir returned, will call on some very dangerous, very unexpected allies. It’s a bold new chapter in the storied history of Thor!

Collects Thor (2014) #1-5.

A Brief History:

All right, I may have cheated a little bit by choosing Thor Vol. 1: The Goddess Of Thunder for the 2017 Book Reading Challenge. This is not a book in the normal sense, although if it weren’t for comics at a young age, I’d probably still hate reading today.

Also, in my defense, one of the items on the book challenge was to pick something in the backlist of a new favorite author. So I chose Jason Aaron’s first Thor arc because:

A. I hadn’t read it
B. Jason Aaron is one of my favorite comic book writers

My Thoughts:

Forget everything you ever knew about the God of thunder, because Thor Vol. 1: The Goddess Of Thunder changes everything!

This is the arc that introduced the comic world to a brand new and mysterious Thor. And let me tell you, even if you now know who she is, Goddess of Thunder is still worth reading. This trade has sooooo much going on, it’s crazy.

This book not only introduces the new Thor, but it gives us one of the best supporting casts in comics. We get a borderline crazy version of Odin, a kick-ass Thor mom, and a Lady Sif who is tired of taking the Odinson’s crap. And did I mention the old Thor lost an arm?

Final word and Score:

Without a doubt, Thor Vol. 1: The Goddess Of Thunder is one of my favorite Thor stories ever. The art by Russell Dauterman and Jorge Molina is gorgeous, giving each character a distinct personality. The story by Jason Aaron turned out to be much more than I expected, and will keep you coming back for more.

I’ve been reading the current Thor book for a couple of months, but now I wish I started from the beginning. Thanks goodness Goddess of Thunder came to my rescue.

Thor Vol. 1: The Goddess Of Thunder gets an: A

And just like that, another item is crossed off the 2017 reading challenge:

Guilty Pleasure: Stick It (2006)

ctually, Ali told us weI remember it like it was yesterday (or eleven years ago): It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon in spring 2006 when yours truly, TNU member Laneit, some of his work buddies, and our pal Ali, decided to see a double feature at the Patriot Cinemas behind the Hanover Mall.

Our first feature that day was what I consider to be one the greatest movie ever made, “Stick It.” Okay, so this movie isn’t an all time classic, but it is the best gymnastics movie out there. What can I say? “Stick It” still cracks me up whenever it pops up on television.

For those who don’t remember or haven’t heard of the movie, “Stick It” is a 2006 comedy written and directed by Jessica Bendinger, and starred future Civil War reenactor Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, future inept tv cop Missy Peregrym, and my mid-twenties crush, Vanessa Lengies.

“Stick It” is the story of Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym), a former gymnast who bailed on her team before the Olympic qualifiers. She had good reasons for bailing out, but they’re only mentioned in a couple of scenes. She now spends her time back home in Plano, Texas, hanging out with her best friends (a pair of teenage boys), doing stunts with bicycles and skateboards. One of her X-Games runs goes bad, and she causes thousands of dollars in damage to a construction site.

Haley is ordered by the court to attend the Vickerman Gymnastics Academy in Houston. This is a legendary establishment because its producing “more injuries than champions.” Vickerman (Jeff Bridges) is an old school kind of coach, and if you don’t like that, too bad. Once Haley arrives, some of the other students resent her for walking off Team USA, especially Vanessa Lengies as Joanne Charis. But Haley eventually wins over teammates, Mina Hoyt (Maddy Curley), and Wei Wei Yong (Nikki SooHoo).

I thought the movie was well made, and gave you all the information you needed to understand the sport of gymnastics. There’s plenty of humor of course, but the gymnastics stuff is easy to follow even if you haven’t watched the sport.

Plus, one of the reasons some of the routines in the film look so good is because the filmmakers hires real life gymnasts as extras, and stunt doubles, including Olympic Gold medalists Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin.

Yeah, I can’t deny it: “Stick It” is one of those guilty pleasure movies I don’t mind watching now and then. From what I recall, the guys in the group liked the movie, the girls not so much. Actually, Ali told the guys we were all going to hell for seeing the movie. But for me there are just some parts that always crack me up, like when the judges do the routines, or when Jeff Bridges gets on a trampoline.

This may sound like silly stuff perhaps, but it’s still funny stuff nonetheless. And come on, where else will you see Jeff Bridges doing gymnastics? However, I think what I will remember the most about going to see it, came after the movie.

In between our double feature, we drove across the street to get something to eat at Papa Gino’s. As we ate, Laneit told his then wife that he had finally found his dream job thanks to “Stick It.” When she asked what it was, Laneit replied it was spraying the gymnast’s butt with that non-stick stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Better late than never review: How to Be a Latin Lover

Possible spoilers ahead!

I haven’t always been a fan of Mexican comedy superstar Eugenio Derbez’s television work. All of his shows were annoying rather than funny. But Derbez won me over with his 2013 dramedy “Instructions Not Included,” which turned out to be a surprisingly good film. Now, Derbez is back with his latest film, “How to Be a Latin Lover.”

In Latin Lover, Eugenio Derbez stars as a middle-aged gold-digger named Maximo, who has never worked a day in his life, and has mooched off older women since he was young. Life is great for Maximo, until he gets dumped by his extremely wealthy 80-year-old wife (Renee Taylor) for a younger model played by Michael Cera.

Now-penniless and homeless, Maximo moves in with his sister Sara (Salma Hayek). He then decides to help his shy 10-year-old nephew, Hugo (Raphael Alejandro), land the girl of his dreams. But Maximo has an ulterior motive fo doing this: The boy’s crush happens to be the granddaughter of Celeste Birch, (Raquel Welch) one of the wealthiest widows in the country.

This type of story isnt’ the most original as it has been done countless times. “How to Be a Latin Lover” doesn’t exactly break new ground either, but I still enjoyed the heck out of this movie. Why, you may ask? Because the cast is so damn good.

No one in their right mind would ever think of Eugenio Derbez as a ladies man, but to his credit, Derbez is able to sell himself as having once been irresistible to women. It can’t be denied that Derbez is charming, and despite the character he’s portraying, you do want to root for the guy. And not many comedians today could pull off some of the physical comedy he does in this movie.

Also good in the film is Salma Hayek as Sara. She has enough problems to deal with when Maximo shows up at her door. But she was great at calling Maximo out on his B.S. and when she finally tells her boss off, it was rather fun. Hayek even got a chance to show off her singging pipes in one of my favorite moments of the movie.

The big surprise was seeing Rob Lowe as Derbez’s frenemy who serves as nothing more than arm candy for Linda Lavin. Every time he appeared onscreen, his scenes got more twisted as he had to indulge the older woman’s role-playing fantasies. The whole thing was hilarious simply because it was Rob Low at the mercy of this lady.

At the end of the day, “How to Be a Latin Lover” is a silly, sometimes raunchy comedy that’s also full of heart. It’s the cast that really made this movie work. Latin Lover may not go down as a comedy classic, but for nearly two hours, I laughed my head off. And that makes it a successful movie in my book.

“How to Be a Latin Lover” final score: B

 

 

 

Better late than never review: Shin Godzilla

Possible spoilers ahead!

Last year’s “Shin Godzilla” (or “Godzilla: Resurgence”), is a reboot of the classic Japanese series. In other words, this movie has nothing to do with the 2014 “Godzilla” movie that briefly starred Bryan Cranston, or any of the upcoming sequels Hollywood is working on. And that my friends, is a very good thing.

Since this a fresh start, “Shin Godzilla” marks the first time that the Japanese and the world at large have ever encountered Godzilla. However, the basis of the original story ideas remain: The American government dumped nuclear waste after World War II, that a thought to be extinct lizard feeds off of, causing it to mutate.

The film’s main protagonist is the Disaster Prevention bureau analyst/leader Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa), he and his team will be tasked with finding a way to stop Godzilla as it nears Tokyo. I really liked Hasegawa in the role, and I liked that the film shows him growing into the role of a leader. Basically, if he’s on-screen it’s because something important is happening.

But for the most part, the film uses too many dialogue scenes between various superintendents, supervisory committees, ministers, scientists, bureau chiefs and cabinet secretaries, all looking at the Prime Minister for a decision.

I guess the point was to show how flawed the decision-making process was for them, but it got old rather quick. However, it was nice to see these people finally realize that in order to stop Godzilla, they had to work together.

For what I think id the first time ever, we got to see Godzilla evolve. When he first appears on land, Godzilla doesn’t have legs and just kind of slides on his belly from place to place. But each time he re-emerges, he’s evolved, eventually becoming the monster we all know and love. The end result is a really cool redesign that keeps all the right ingredients, but also gives the monster a new and deadlier edge.

As you can probably tell, “Shin Godzilla” is very different from other Godzilla films. It’s not as action based as past entries, and not as funny either. Shin instead focuses more on dialogue and a few characters. But that’s not to say “Shin Godzilla” is boring. The action is spectacular, and the devastation Godzilla causes has ramifications for not just Japan, but the world.

The battles between the military and Godzilla brought back memories of the 1954 original film. And I may be wrong, but it looked like the filmmakers used some model and miniatures work during these battles, and that’s always good. Also, I was damn excited to hear the old Godzilla theme music again as the military launched their assault.

I became a Godzilla fan in the summer of 1989 when I watched my first Godzilla movie, “Son of Godzilla,” on TNT. Back then, TNT and sister station TBS would often run “Two Weeks of…” movie marathons. Thanks to them, I was fortunate enough to watch many of the old Godzilla flicks that summer, turning me into a fan for life.

“Shin Godzilla” brought back some great memories of those days, and even though the film has a couple of script issues, it’s still a damn good movie. This is the Godzilla movie I didn’t know I needed, and it’s much better than any of the Hollywood Godzilla flicks we’ve seen. As far as I’m concerned, this is the one and true Godzilla.

“Shin Godzilla” final score: B+