Time travel 101: The basics

1-Don’t misplace or lose your time travel device.

2-Going to a time and place where another you exists is risky business so you better know what you are doing.

3-If you have a manual telling you how to travel in time then you better not lose it.

4-Don’t let crazy people travel back in time.

5-If you go back in time with technology that didn’t exist then for goodness sake don’t let someone from back then see it.

6-If you go forward in time be quick to recognize that you could be in trouble right away since you don’t know what you are heading into.

7-Telling someone from the future or the past you are a time traveler is a good way to get put in the looney bin.

8-Don’t move important historical figures from their time unless you absolutely have to.

9-Saving someone who was supposed to die could really screw up history.

10-If you travel in time make sure your device has the proper power to make the return trip.

Ten things I know or think about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1-I first got into their comics in the 80’s followed by the cartoons and the movies.

2-The only one of the original trilogy films I saw in the theater is my least favorite of the three (that will be revealed when I do the reviews this week).

3-My son is a huge fan of the turtles as well.

4-I like the 2007 film more than most people seem to.

5-Despite their appearance I am optimistic about the upcoming film, but will probably wait to see it on DVD.

6-In general I like most of the re-incarnations of them in cartoons over the years.

7-I have pretty much never eaten pizza in the last twenty some years without thinking of the turtles.

8-The turtles are on my travel mug.

9-The original cartoon’s theme is one of my favorite cartoon themes of all time.

10-For what it’s worth my favorite turtle has always been….

My top ten favorite spaceships

 

10-That ship from Laserblast. Crap film, cool ship.

 

9-Valley Forge from Silent Running.

8-Earth vs. the flying saucers, classic saucers.

7-Discovery 1 from 2001: a space odyssey. I love the angles they film it from.

6-Klingon D-7. They may be the baddies, but that ship is smooth.

5-The Serenity from Firefly. Hey it’s backside lights up.

4-Colonial Vipers from Battlestar Gallactica. Give me one of them fancy Egyptian flight helmets and let me fly one of those around.

3-C57-D from Forbidden Planet. It looked and sounded great.

2-Millennium Falcon. Awesome design and movement.

 

1-Well of course the Enterprise would take this spot.

There you go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Movies I own but have only watched once

1-Starship Troopers-I saw this movie once and it wasn’t even the copy I now  oddly enough. I borrowed it from a friend once. I thought it was a good looking stinker. It was full of bad performances, characters I cared nothing about and flat dialog. However the effects were stunning and so was the action. I bought it used for maybe $3 years ago and have not watched it.

2-K-pax-I bought this for a couple of bucks years ago at a K-mart that was going out of business. I watched it right away and really liked it, but for one reason or another have not put it in the player since.

3-Watcher in the woods-Horror from Disney? My wife saw this when she was a kid and bought it for us to watch around Halloween a few years back. I liked it and have put in my to watch soon pile but have just never gotten around to it.

4-My bloody valentine (original)-I had a room mate years ago who just loved 80’s horror films and he ranted on about this one. I bought it maybe 6-7 years ago out of the bargain bin. It was entertaining is high cheese quantity kind of way. Again I have considered watching it again but that just hasn’t happened.

5-The Phantom-I grew up reading the Phantom in the comics on Sundays. I didn’t see the film when it came out I heard nothing but mediocre responses to it. That didn’t stop me from picking out of the bargain bin like a decade later. I thought it was okay and really wanted to give it another viewing some day… that day has yet to come around.

 

***Do you own any films like this?

4 more lame films with cool titles-Monster edition

I think that I did a list of these some time ago, but felt the need to do another one. Here you go.

The Mad Ghoul-Just saw most of this one over the weekend. Most as in I fell asleep before the end. This artificially made creature was neither mad nor that much of a ghoul. He just looked kind of like he got up after a semi-wild night of 1930’s style partying.

The blood beast terror-Ewwww, shivers up my spine or down my spine. This blood beast is a causing terror so it must be a brutal, horrible fiend. Oh wait it’s just a human size moth that’s killed by a not so big fire.

SSSSSSSSSSS-I forget how many of that letter is in the title, but it’s a bunch. So this must be a vicious snake too mean for real words. Oh, uh the action can pick up any time…yep any time now would be just fine. Maybe it should have been called Zzzzzzzzzzz.

Lust for a vampire-Wow they’ll be dark, evil vampires pulling in woman with their hypnotic spells and their strong will and uh well is anything going to happen here? Just because there vampires don’t sparkle doesn’t mean they are any good.

Should have quit while they were ahead

Halloween-No slasher fans might be up in arms over this one as maybe a bunch of people love the later sequels. Some are alright and while I like the second film I would not have been sad had they stopped after the first film. Oh, golly-leave something open ended and up to your imagination-the horror.

Superman with Chris Reeves-The first two were great and I flip flop between which one I prefer a lot.
Let’s face it three and four were horrible so the franchise ended up batting .500 because the later sequels were so bad.

Planet of the apes-first run-The original is a classic and there is no doubt about that. The second film had a few new ideas but really the end results was a very mediocre sequel. The third film was just a reverse angle of the first with apes taking the place of the humans but it was decent. Now the forth film Conquest of the planet of the apes saw the series charge ahead and really take some risks. It was a fine film and I’m so glad they ended on that one-oh, wait they didn’t. Nope the next year they cut the budget even more and all the passion and energy of the forth film was followed up a lukewarm sequel in Battle for the planet of the apes. They should have quit before number five as instead they only had a three out five success rating and they finished on their worst film.

Batman-The one’s that Burton guy started-The 1989 films had some flaws, but it was exciting. At the time I had no reason to think the follow-up would stink up the theater yet it did. The third film was a little better or not as bad. Yet the forth film was a big-budget stinker as still has people shaking their heads at it.

***Feel free to add your own examples.

Top five cool girls/women from 60’s and 70’s cartoons

1-Trixie from Speed Racer. The girlfriend of Speed Racer so she wasn’t totally independent, but she was way cool. She knew about cars, she could pilot a helicopter and she even knocked down bad guys at times.

2-Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo. Scooby and Shaggy were the comic relief, Freddie was the drives, Daphne was the eye candy, but the brains and heart and soul of Mystery Inc. was definitely Velma. Just a shame she kept dropping her glasses.

3-Jayna of Zan and Jayna from the Super Friends. An alien who partnered with her brother and were in the Super friends. She could turn into an animal while her brother could turn into some kind of water related substance. So Zan would be snowball or some ice cubes while Jayna was a tiger or an eagle-who got the best of that deal?

4-Gravity Girl from the Galaxy Trio-She left a pampered life to fight crime. She is also the equal of her two male teammates.

5-Natasha of Boris and Natasha from The Rocky and Bullwinkle show-Hey, I didn’t say they had to be heroes. Actually the show began in 1959 but lasted until 1964 so it spent more time in the 60’s. She was cruel and cool at the same time. Kind of creepy yet still likable.

5 good things about Star Wars: A new hope

Hey, Star Wars day is tomorrow and although May the third be with you doesn’t have quite the same ring to it I still want to knock out a short liust today. I am a Star Trek fan first and formost, always have been, always will be. Star Wars comes after that, always has, no doubt always will. However I still like Star Wars quite and definitely not only acknowledge it but admire it’s importance within the genre and in film making. However I think the film does more with themes, effects and details that it does with it’s morals. There are some really good movies here however they are not that deep…nope they are not. I didn’t come here to argue I came to give credit. I decided to narrow my list down to 5 good things about Star Wars-A new hope. yes, there are more than 5 total, but my list will be 5 that I like about this 1977 film. Here you go in no real order.

1-The rebels have dirty ships with grease spots on them. This is an awesome display of attention to detail. The Empire has shiny ships because they are the power the top of the line equipment (except for guns that don’t shoot straight). The rebel forces are throwing this attack together as they go. It makes sense that their ships would not be the newest or the shiniest, but they may have good enough mechanics and back planet fliers to pull it off.

2-The interior of the Millenium Falcon. Again with the attention to detail. Most ships we see in sci-fi prior to this are military or exploring ships and both tend to be top of the line unless they have been in a space for a long time. This ship is different because it’s a smuggling ship and privately owned so Han and Chewie may not be taking a swifter around regularly. The interior has a closed in, but lived in feel to it which absolutely fits the kind of ship that it is.

3-Droids! I like some sci-fi robots before this film of course, but C-3PO and that R2 unit certainly gave droid more personality then they had largely had before. We are also introduced to various societies in the Star Wars worlds that use droids in a number of different functions.

4-The number of different aliens we see even if some are just for a few seconds. Not just because we love seeing them, but it makes sense that a world where space travel is commonplace would have beings from many different worlds livign together although no always in harmony.

5-Peter Cushing. Yes, Alec Guniess was solid in his role and Han Solo no doubt took his part and ran with it. You can keep praising Darth Vader, but it took several people to present him while Cushing played the arrogant, ruthless villain with ease all while strutting around the Death Star in his slippers.

There you go. May the thir force or forth be with you!

Top five Frankenstein creations

 

1-Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and the Son of Frankenstein. Karloff nailed it right away with both the look and movements and his performaces still hold up even today.

2-Freddie Jones in Frankenstein must be destroyed. Jones has a different brain in his body but isn’t the typical creature that the Doctor/Baron normally makes. He plays it all the emotions the situation calls for and then some.

3-Christopher Lee in the Curse of Frankenstein. The ideas in this Hammer film are similar to what Universal did a couple of decades earlier. However Lee adds his touches to really make it a differen version.

4-Tom Noonan in the Monster Squad. Another version of the monster as showing kindness which goes against the other monsters in this film being well monsters.

5-Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein. Yeah it’s a spoof but since I didn’t put “in horror film” in my title this pick is fair game. The script was great and the other performances in this film were on, but if the monster wasn’t perfect it wouldn’t have been the comedy classic that it is.

There you go.

Ten 1980’s movie sequels that were actually you know good

Okay, so all sequels don’t suck. No really they don’t.Here’s the test I set- name ten sequels from the horror,sci-fi or fantasy genres that were made in the 1980’s and that are at least good. The catch is you can only use one film per franchise.

The Empire Stri damn Lucas and his trilogies, so it doesn’t count. Well on to the list.

Star Trek 2-Best Trek film ever.

Superman 2-Even better than the original.

Phantasm 2-Solidly good.

Critters 2-I found it to be a good comedy/sci-fi/horror film/

Friday the 13th part 2-My favorite in the series.

Indiana Jones and the last crusade-As much of a remake of the first film as a sequel, but I’ll count it.

Evil Dead 2-Way better than the first film.

Nightmare on Elm street 3-Dream Warriors-Got the series back on track after the mediocre second film.

Halloween 2-The first film stood very well by itself, but still a good sequel.

Aliens-I prefer the first film but boy they did a great job here combining horror and action together.