Like ninety percent of all my great pop culture memories, I stumbled upon “Hypernauts” one very early Saturday morning in 1996. When I say early, I mean five in the morning on ABC TV in the US, and I recall finding it to be a rather entertaining and exciting science fiction series, then. It also helped my excitement that one of the primary stars of this action adventure series was the lovely Heidi Lucas who, kids my age at the time would remember her as one of the stars of the Nickelodeon comedy “Salute your Shorts.” This series is a long departure for her from the “Meatballs” summer camp comedy, approaching a more dramatic and gritty science fiction show that could appeal to young audiences.
Category Archives: PC Thugs
Defending "The Happening"
Out of the my top ten of 2008, without a doubt one of my favorites of that year was M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening.” Why? Well, it’s been a point of contention for quite some time now that’s granted me unabashed scrutiny and question toward the state of sanity, but as I sit here thinking it over, “The Happening” is one of my favorite Shyamalan films. More so than “The Village,” even. Because unlike other people, I’m still firm in my belief that “The Happening” is one of the most underrated and misunderstood films of the past decade.
A Love Letter to "The Walking Dead"
WARNING: We spoil everything about the comic book series so if you’ve yet to catch up with the horror comic book, display caution. Plus, the comic book may reflect storylines from the television series so, again, display caution.
Back when “The Walking Dead” began running at local comic shops across America, I just wasn’t a comic book reader. I’d spent most of my young years being an absolute hardcore comic book geek and making it my mission to catch the latest issue of Superman and keep up with the most recent multi-issue arcs, and for a long time I swore I wouldn’t stop reading comic books. To this day I still have my crate with my personal collection of Superman, Avengers, and X-Men comics tucked away somewhere in plastics with back boards.
But somewhere along the line I pretty much lost my track and moved on to something else. Frankly I moved on to collecting movies and they became replacements for comics, but mostly it was because of the dwindling outlets for purchasing comics that did me in. Once you could go in to a pharmacy to buy some comic books, maybe a grocery store, and often times the news stands were packed to the brim with amazing comic books being handled by an Asian or Mexican man who had no idea what the hell Spawn was, but was more than happy to stock them.
Based on Billions of True Stories: The Long, Slow Death of a Twenty-Something
We’ve known Larry Longstreth for a long time as a person and as a filmmaker. It’s no big surprise that we here at Cinema Crazed are big fans of Longstreth and his work in the fan film and internet arena. Longstreth is one of the finest filmmakers working in independent film today and our friendship with him is no bearing on the man as a filmmaker. We discovered Longstreth years ago when he sent us his screener for a short film about a zombie musical and we were instantly hooked on whatever he sent our way.
I Hate Anime!
I hate Anime. I know. I often get looks of shock and awe from people who know me and know I’m a complete pop culture junky but I hate Anime. I hate it in every incarnation and rarely do I ever approve of it. Liking anime is akin to having a tattoo. You grab the most obscure and edgy design imaginable only to discover your next door neighbor who happens to collect potato chips in the shape of Jesus has one and suddenly you realize you’re not really as ahead of the game as you think, and that’s just where anime fans and the anime trend finds itself. Anime fans always pretend they’re ahead of everyone else as if they’re on to something other people aren’t, when in fact all of mainstream has embraced anime as the norm and is transforming every single property it can in to anime from “Spider-Man” to “Cloverfield.” It’s not hip, and the ones that actually are obscure are much too disturbing for anyone to actually indulge in.
Cool as Ice: And Other Assorted 90's Nonsense
A Few interesting facts about “Cool as Ice”: It’s never been released on DVD and the chances of it being on Blu-Ray are slim, Gwyneth Paltrow nearly took the role opposite Vanilla Ice as his love interest but was advised against it by her father who objected the sexual content, on Amazon.com the rare VHS is available on auction for nearly five hundred dollars, and director David Kellogg disowned the film. He later went on to direct “Inspector Gadget” in 1999.
Moaning for Monstervision
I mean with respect to Gore De Vol and Penny Dreadful, without a doubt my favorite horror host of all time is Joe Bob Brigs, a surly and veritably undeniable force of nature. He was one who didn’t need gimmicks and or a costume to please his audience. Joe Bob Briggs presented the new wave of horror hosting. To where fun individuals like Dreadful and De Vol dressed up and engaged in props and plays for their audience, Briggs always seemed very aware of his mortality.