Just in time for the holidays, Warner has unleashed a trio of Superman related sets for collecting by Comic book fans and Superman buffs like yours truly. As someone that very much is a hardcore fan of the Man of Steel, these three sets deliver depending on what vision of Superman you ultimately prefer. No matter, Superman is still a fascinating and thrilling superhero, and works well with the television format. Finally after many years of being just available on DVD, Superman The Animated Series: The Complete Series is finally available on Blu-Ray, remastered and complete for the fans. While it isn’t given the deluxe royal treatment that “Batman: The Animated Series” was afforded, it’s a decent boxed set with every nook and cranny of “Superman: The Animated Series” right down to the “Batman/Superman” animated movie.
Tag Archives: Adaptation
Dracula 2000 Or: Before Gerard Butler was a Meme
Dammit I love “Dracula 2000.”
I’m not too sure what the ultimate plan was for the Dracula character in the larger scheme of things, except the fact that everything had to be rebooted in the new millennium apparently. Everything had to press the reset button, including Dracula. This Dracula was a hunky vampire for the modern age where he would once again roam free to build his army, and do battle with Van Helsing. And he would do it set to rock music that ruled the radio, wreaking havoc to the tune of System of a Down, Linkin Park, and Disturbed, to name a simple few.
Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958): The Film Detective Special Edition [Blu-Ray]
The Z Movie to end all Z movies, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” is both a cult classic and a classic piece of cinematic trash. It’s a god awful attempt to take the Frankenstein tale and retro-fit it in to a teen horror drama about coming of age, legacy, and uncomfortable scenes of men aggressively hitting on high school girls. In either case, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” is something of an anomaly, it’s a movie that’s been widely accepted within the genre, but it’s just so painfully bad when you finally experience it.
Syfy’s “Day of the Dead” Continues The Trampling of Romero’s Legacy
When the trailer for “Day of the Dead” arrived, it looked interesting but stumped me. The trailer for the Syfy series was a fast paced dark comedy with zombies, goofy one liners, and a bunch of action. It felt more like “Return of Z Nation” rather than a throwback to Romero. This could have been given any generic title like “Zombie Warz” or “Country Zombie Jammie Jam” and never really miss a beat. There’s no reason at all to call this “Day of the Dead” and pretend it’s honoring Romero’s original movie, and it’s sad Syfy has resorted to this.
It’s all brand recognition. It’s an easy sell, an easy pitch, and has a built in audience.
“Chucky” is a Return to Form for the Series
The original Don Mancini 1988 horror film “Child’s Play” was both a slasher movie and a psychological thriller. We’re given an immense amount of exploration in to the mind of serial killer Charles Lee Ray, and we see him transfer his body in to the Good Guy doll. But when Andy is given the cursed doll, every time someone dies and the body count rises, there is the suspicion that perhaps Andy is committing the murders and Chucky is an outlet for his feelings of alienation. “Chucky” reaches back in to the original narrative and brilliantly adjusts it for a modern setting.
“I Know What You Did Last Summer” Is a Failure on Every Level [Digital]
After whatever that MTV reboot of “Scream” was, networks and companies seem to be learning all the wrong lessons from it. Rather than breathe new life in to a once solid slasher series, Amazon has botched it from out the gates. Instead of a tense, white knuckle slasher/murder mystery, Lois Duncan’s novel is adapted in to an erotic teen drama thriller. Think less “Slasher” and more “Riverdale.” It’s a glacially paced glorified drama with a horror tint that downplays the horror and slasher aspects of the aforementioned movie series in favor of gratuitous sex, pointless nudity, and droning dialogue.
Five Questions I’m Still Asking About “The Walking Dead”
As with all good things, it come to an ends eventually, and “The Walking Dead” is finally ending in 2022. Although AMC has yet to finish finding new ways to tell Robert Kirkman’s story, the OG series is coming to a close. I have mixed feelings about it, since every year from 2010 “The Walking Dead” was an event for me.
I eagerly looked forward to it every single Sunday for so many years. Now that they’ve decided to end it, there are five lingering questions that I’ve had since Season Two. This has a lot to do with the fact that AMC screwed original show runner Frank Darabont leaving Season Two and Three to feel messy and unfocused, but they’ve yet to really offer ideas or thoughts on these questions I’m still wondering about.