The Blogboard Jungle

     Remakes can be both good and bad depending on your view and some can be a good supplements to an original film.  The best case in my opinion to the latter is what was done with Evil Dead  (2013) and Dawn of the Dead  (2004), those you don't mind too much as they worked with what already existed and used modern effects to modernize the story.  I think the reason those remakes were easier to swallow was because they maintained the rating the original films did so that makes an old school fan like myself want to see these remakes. That isn't the case with the new Robocop (2014) as Screen Junkies honest trailer points out that the remake of a movie that originally had an NC-17 rating and got watered down to an R rating is now PG-13.  I have to admit I may not bother with it, but my curiosity will most likely get the best of me.  If you haven't seen the original, you should but if you want some funny footnotes on it check out their Hones...

    I remember growing up looking forward to all the action movies coming out every summer, for a while during the era of Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damm we had films like that coming our fairly regularly.  But, after Jackie Chan, a few Matrix films and some of Jet Li's stuff it seems that form of action is pretty scarce.  So a while back when I saw trailers for some films that seemed like they were fitting the bill I was pretty excited.  I have finally seen both of them, and Man of Tai Chi is definitely the better movie. This film is directed by and stars Keanu Reeves as the main villain who runs an underground fight club for the 1 percenters.  He plays Donaka Mark a private security company CEO who does the illegal fight club streams on the web to the rich as his black market income.  A lot of my friends don't like Reeves because they find him a little dry in most of his performances but for this film that actually works well for him as a...

There are certain films made that maybe not everyone is a fan of, but you are.  It can be a movie that a lot of people hate, or that really successful one that people love.  Whatever it is, certain films grab hold us of because of how we relate to them.  While it's not my favorite movie, I like to watch it because I can relate to going to White Castle at 3 in the morning because I got the munchies from an over indulged evening with family and friends.  The film that I relate these experiences to is Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle . The film is in the genre of what a lot of people call "stoner films" like Cheech and Chong, and although I don't participate in the indulgences they do in that film I can relate to craving some of those little burgers.  Another one I caught recently and keep watching is The World's End because I can relate to having that one night as a young man thinking, "This is probably one of best times of my life".  That film revol...

  And apparently he can't answer.  You know how much we love his stuff around here, so it's not surprising that he can't wing it at something he is attaching his name to.  He was set to speak in Las Vegas for Samsung about their curved HD TV during the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), and maybe the lack of explosions and child hood heroes being destroyed were too much for him. In his defense, public speaking can be difficult even for people comfortable with it but when you were relying on a prompter and you're used to working with stuff that is already written trying to "wing it" can be difficult.  He said,  "The type is all off. Sorry. But I'll just wing this."  Maybe they should have blown something up to get him back on track. This video is all over the web:

Especially when your business, is the business of competition.  The WSOF  ( World Series of Fighting ) put a challenge out to Bellator , who airs fights on Spike TV almost weekly through most of the year.  The challenge is to find out which of these two promotions are the definitive number two behind the UFC .  Obvioulsy counting ratings and viewers would provide the true answer but where's the fun in that?  The following is a tweet from the WSOF issuing the challenge: The challenge is out! #WSOF vs. @BellatorMMA in a 10-fight PPV, winner takes all. What do you think, who wins? pic.twitter.com/LX4m5NigUW — WSOF (@MMAWorldSeries) January 6, 2014 Like the days the WWE (then WWF) and WCW were fighting for ratings they could not challenge their wrasslers versus our wrasslers so to speak.  But, in the game of  Martial Arts competition or MMA with a little open mindedness and some negotiating this is very possible.  Before people knew who D...

     Another year done and a new one to look forward to. After trying the traditional New Years Eve in New York City it got me thinking about my real new years eve tradition.  The Twilight Zone marathon before during and after the festivities. Talky Tina, a classic scare in the episode, Living Doll . For as long as I've been alive every new years eve/day and fourth of July I love to sit through these.  As I was getting ready for my adventurous night out to ring in the new year a friend texted me about a sale on Amazon where I could buy the complete collection for half price.  I was about to jump on it when I thought it would take away from their special place these stories have in my heart.  Rod Serling is one of my all time favorite story tellers and he had a great passion for the craft of story telling that even other great story tellers like Breaking Bad 's Vince Gilligan recognize when they speak of what legacy they hope their storie...