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Superman Week 2013: The Superman the Movie magazine (1979)

Posted in comic books, movies, Superman with tags Christopher Reeve, comic books, DC Comics, magazine, movies, pop culture, Superman, Superman Week on June 17, 2013 by Paxton

So the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, made it’s theatrical debut on Friday. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to do another Superman Week. I convinced CT over at Nerd Lunch and Robert over at To The Escape Hatch to join along. So leap in a single bound over to those wonderful blogs and see what Superman content they are offering up this week.

As for me, today I’m going to start off this year’s Superman Week with a look at the special souvenir magazine DC released for Superman the Movie.

This particular magazine was released by DC in tabloid size, so the thing is gi-normous. It’s too big for my scanner, in fact. So I had to take some pics with my camera and I’ll just have to show you those. Click any of the images to see them BIGGER on Flickr.

These are the front and inside covers of the magazine. Nice, glossy pages. I especially like the photo montage on the inside cover with the movie-stylized “S” in the middle. It helps that there’s an awesome pic of the bikini-clad Valerie Perrine in the montage.

Here’s a nice pic of Marlon Brando as Jor-El. What this magazine does well is to provide information from the movie and then provide information from the comic to compare it to. It even includes artwork from the comics. This particular section is talking about Krypton and comparing the different versions from the movie and the comic books.

In the Krypton section we get some more info on the three Kryptonian Judges who sentence Zod to the Phantom Zone. We also see a pic of a deleted scene involving the three judges dispatching a Kryptonian “executioner” to stop Jor-El from launching the rocket with his son (bottom of page). Here’s a closer look at that oddly dressed “executioner”.

Just before filming began on the movie, DC Comics had a contest called The Great Superman Movie Contest. DC asked kids to spell out words by cutting out letters from their comics (yes, they were encouraging kids to DESTROY THEIR COMICS…it was the 70s). Two winners got a cameo in the movie. The ad for the contest appeared in DC comics in 1977. This is what one of the ads looked like.

Below is a page in the movie magazine that shows pictures of Christopher Reeve and the then-president of DC Comics sorting through contest entries trying to pick the winners. The eventual winners are shown in the bottom picture looking at an issue of Superman. The two boys would cameo in the Smallville football scene with the teenage Clark Kent.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 88: Listbuster 2.0 (Part 3, whatever)

Posted in movies, pop culture with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, pop culture on June 4, 2013 by Paxton

The Listbuster topic is a topic that is beloved amongst the Nerd Lunch hosts. However, we never seem to be able to make it work. The first time we did it in Episode 17 it was a little unwieldy as we chose to do a list of 25. The second time we did Listbuster we paired it down to a smaller list, however none of us were happy with the outcome and we haven’t posted it yet. So, needless to say, while we love the idea of the Listbuster, we haven’t actually made it work yet.

Enter Listbuster 2.0. We changed the format a little bit. We chose a list that has 25 items, but we are only doing the top 10. And this will be the first time we actually do this with a guest. Jon Cross from the After Movie Diner and the Dr Action and the Kick Ass Kid podcasts joins us for the second time this week.

Listbusters

This week’s list is from the top 10 spots on IGN’s list of top 25 action movies of all time. We first have the discussion about what we feel is an action movie and what isn’t. Then we discuss the top 10 spots and we each decide whether the movies should be on the list or off and offer other suggestions if we remove any. Then we all discuss our own personal top 10 action movies. These are personal lists so we get a very eclectic selection of movies. You’re gonna like it.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or just listen to that good sh*t right here.

Reading Forrest Carter’s Josey Wales novels

Posted in books, Genres, movies, Western with tags Book Report, books, gunfighters, gunfighters and lawmen, movies, westerns on May 31, 2013 by Paxton

I have been a fan of Clint Eastwood’s 1976 western The Outlaw Josey Wales since I first saw it with my dad back in the 80s. I actually saw and know Clint Eastwood more for Josey Wales than I do “The Man with No Name” because I saw it first and it led me to Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy”. So, being a fan of it for so long I was surprised a few years ago when I discovered the movie was actually based on a 1973 book by Forrest Carter called Josey Wales: The Rebel Outlaw. The story would subsequently be retitled Gone to Texas.

Being such a huge fan of Eastwood’s take on the character I felt I needed to read the source material. So I got the above book from Paperbackswap.com and set about reading about one of my favorite gunslingers.

I have to say, I’m really surprised how close to the story the movie was. Carter writes a very good, gritty, action-y western. The feel on the page is the same as watching the movie. It helped that I had Eastwood’s visage burned into my brain whenever I hear the name Josey Wales. The mannerisms, the speech. It’s obvious Eastwood was very respectful of the original stories and strayed little from not only the character but the overall storyline. The only thing I think the book does better is the character of Laura Lee is a much better character in the book. But, honestly, I’m not a big fan of Sondra Locke, so that may have been a factor.

But the book, I can honestly recommend it for both fans of Eastwood’s movies and fans of good, western action in general. The book is a fast paced read, clocking in at around 200 pages and offers a lot of gunfights and good dialogue. It actually got me excited to read Old West fiction again, something I haven’t really done since high school.

In 1980, Carter followed up Gone to Texas with a sequel called The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales. This sequel was also included in my book copy. Needless to say, I was pretty eager to read this sequel and see what could have also been a sequel to Eastwood’s Josey Wales (Eastwood did consider doing it but it never developed).

The story picks up a short time after the original book. A terrible tragedy befalls Josey Wales’ bride and his newborn child. Honestly, the tragedy is told in detail and it’s pretty horrific to read, especially as a father. And the rest of the book is also incredibly violent, even more so than the first novel which is not as much as you’d expect. However, I was pulled in again by Carter’s writing style and the way he tells a story. It’s another excellent Josey Wales novel and I liked it as much if not MORE than the original.

It’s sad that Carter never wrote anymore Wales novels. I know Eastwood had the book and I think he was considering, but by 1980 I think he wanted to do other movies and leave the Western behind. When he did his final Western, Unforgiven, I was surprised that the main character wasn’t Josey Wales, however, there may have been rights issues.

So if you enjoy good action, you can’t go wrong with these Josey Wales books. They are excellent examples of fast paced Old West fiction that I personally enjoy reading. Do yourself a favor and give it a chance.

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Podcast Double Feature: Nerd Lunch Episode 87 and Cult Film Club Episode 7

Posted in movies, podcast, pop culture with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, pop culture on May 29, 2013 by Paxton

First off we have episode 87 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast in which we are again joined by our friend Jeremy from Geek Chunks to discuss Ultimate Movie Trilogies.

Jeeg gives us a few categories like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alien Invasion and “Wild Card”. We then all have to come up with our own Ultimate Movie Trilogy for that category. It’s a lot of fun and I think you’ll be surprised by some of the movies that get selected.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. Or listen to it online right here.

Next up we have Episode 7 of the Cult Film Club podcast. This month Jaime, Shawn and I talk about the mid-90s video game to movie adaptation Mortal Kombat.

We talk about our history with the game, some of our favorite characters and whether all of the early 90s CGI holds up in this 18 years later. It’s a fun discussion, come join us.

Download the latest episode from iTunes or listen to it online right here.

Review of the TV movie The Dreamer of Oz (1990)

Posted in movies, pop culture, TV shows, Wizard of Oz with tags movies, Oz books readthru, pop culture, reviews, TV shows, Wizard of Oz on May 16, 2013 by Paxton

I’m going to continue with my reviews of all things Oz with a TV movie that NBC aired in 1990 called The Dreamer of Oz.

Dreamer_of_Oz_title

The movie was a fictionalized biography of the adult life of L Frank Baum and how he was inspired to write The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I remember watching much of this when it originally aired. My family had no desire to watch it so I was vetoed during commercials and had to switch back and forth, sometimes missing chunks of the story. However, I remember it fondly and I wanted to revisit it for my Oz series.

In the movie, L Frank Baum was played by John Ritter.

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Baum’s wife, Maud, was played by Annette O’Toole. Maud’s mother, Mathilda Gage, was played by Rue McClanahan.

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Also of note, Ritter’s real life son, Jason, played one of his sons in the movie which I thought was a nice touch.

The movie is actually book ended by scenes at Grauman’s Chinese Theater (aka, TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood) in 1939 during the world premier of the MGM musical version of The Wizard of Oz. A reporter takes an elderly Maud Baum aside and asks her about her husband Frank and how he came to write the book.

The rest of the story is told in flashback and begins about the time Maud meets Frank during a party thrown by one of Frank’s sisters. We see the courtship of the couple and the many lean years in which Frank tries to do different jobs and make ends meet. We see him start to tell his children and the children of the neighborhood pieces of a larger story about what he calls “The Magical Land”. The ideas are developed over the years and we see some of the inspirations for characters along the way. Eventually Baum meets WW Denslow while writing the book Father Goose which would go on to be a big hit. Baum gambles the royalties of that book to sell what is now called “The Land of Oz” book. And, obviously, it hits. Big time.

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