He’s Back! Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Last Stand’

Wow…has it really been 9 years since his last leading role in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines – oh right, yeah that’s whySeriously I think I speak for all of us when I say he needs to come back and kick ass. This new acting chapter should be fun to see, and we know there is more of him to come in the next few years (please be good). Will he be the same action icon with one liners or something more serious? I would like to see something more serious, but I also don’t want him to lose his personality (Batman and Robin was too far). The picture below shows the main characters in his latest film – Last Stand. This is director Kim Ji-Woon‘s first American film.

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Know Your Sith! Week One: Darth Kruhl

I’m proud to bring everyone a new weekly post that I prefer to call “Know Your Sith”.  And yes that is a play on the words ‘know your shit’. Just like Sith Happens and Sith-head. Basically we will feature a new Sith Lord every week and a brief bio including their claim to fame and some pivotal moments for them in the Star Wars universe. And just so everyone knows, we won’t be covering well known Sith Lords such as Darth Vader, Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus. This is a chance for the Star Wars fans out there to have a little back story on Sith Lords from some of the expanded universe work out there including comics, games and novels.

At one point George Lucas issued an edict to the expanded universe writers and figure heads: No Sith and No Galaxy Spanning Wars. Also I think he said no more Wookie Jedi, which is a damn shame. But once the New Jedi Order series started the whole galaxy spanning war thing sort of went out the window. With the completion of the NJO series the no Sith rule also went out the window and now we have Old Republic Sith, post NJO Sith and Legacy era Sith. To the layman, those are several of the different time eras in the Star Wars expanded universe.

And now for this week’s Sith Lord:

DARTH KRUHL

“A Sith has many ways to kill.”

Race: Human (Home Planet Unknown)

Claim to fame: Almost took out the Emperor Roan Fel

Moment of Shame: Dying by blaster bolt. I mean seriously, you’re a Sith.

Sith Affiliation: The Order of the One Sith

Darth Kruhl definitely didn’t have much face time, but definitely made an impact and proved that he was pretty bad ass. Showing up in the widely loved Legacy comic line written John Ostrander, Darth Kruhl was one of the One Sith Order’s best assassins and intelligence operatives. We were able to watch him single handedly manipulate and ultimately bind the planet of Munto Codru to the will of his Sith Emperor, Darth Krayt, but it is Kruhl’s assignment following that which makes him stand out.

Darth Kruhl is charged with assassinating the exiled Emperor Roan Fel who at this point is the second most powerful being in the galaxy behind Darth Krayt. (Politically, not in terms of force use, though Fel was definitely no push over) After infiltrating the heavily fortified Imperial capital of Bastion Kruhl finds Fel meditating in his garden when he springs to attack. Unfortunately Fel was waiting for such an assassin. Kruhl fights valiantly, nearly killing the Emperor at one point, even without a lightsaber. But Fel finally gains the upper hand finishing Kruhl off with a blaster bolt to the guts.

The fight itself was one of the best in the Legacy comics, like a fight between two lone samurai in a bamboo thicket. Many of the fights in Legacy involve groups of force users and tons of limbs and heads flying to and fro, but this one felt more personal and the stakes were quite high. Kruhl more than likely would have never left the planet alive after killing Roan Fel but would have been regarded very highly by his Sith bretheren for sacrificing himself to eliminate Darth Krayt’s competition to the throne. Even failing in his mission I have to say… that Sith had balls.

Stay tuned next week for another installment of Know Your Sith!

The Trailer for Red Dawn is Online (Finally)!!

Back in 2009, 1984’s Red Dawn was remade but has remained out of our reach because of MGM’s bullshit money troubles. This delayed movies in the pipeline such as The Hobbit, Skyfall, Robocop, and even Cabin in the Woods so there were many projects that were sidelined in both the development and distribution stage. Luckily, the time has finally come for the Wolverines to rise as we finally get to see the release of the trailer into the internet!

The remake was filmed primarily in my home state of Michigan, which is exciting! Since it was filmed back in 2009, it’s like the casting director struck at rich as they got stars before they hit it big such as Chris Hemsworth, obviously most recently in Thor and The AvengersJosh Hutcherson also starred before he hit the jackpot in The Hunger Games. Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights), Connor Cruise (Seven Pounds, Being Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman’s Son), Isabel Lucas (Transformers 2, The Immortals), and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Watchmen, The Losers and Magic City) also get some screen time in the long-awaited remake. This time, it looks like the North Koreans are being dicks instead of the Russians although initially it was the Chinese that was going invade the United States but it was changed in the last year so we didn’t have to piss China off when the film was released over there. But enough talking, watch the trailer below!

Graphic Novel Review – The Pound

 

Do you like werewolves? Do you like people chasing werewolves in a slapstick kind of way? Then this may be the graphic novel for you! This is the Pound written by Stephen Nilson (Justice League Unlimited) and drawn by Karl Waller (X-Men The Movie Prequel).

The story revolves around two dog catchers called Scott Allison and Howard Lynch.

Now Scott is your basic hard man with a heart. He has a lovely wife called Jennifer, some kids (I forget the names but trust me they are just there for the hero to save so you don’t need to know!) and a kick ass handlebar mustache. His pal Howard has none of these and he’s a bit on the weak nerdy side, but they both have one thing in common. There jobless! So they set up their own firm and on a routine job accidentally capture a werewolf! Not to spoil the plot, but essentially from here the story goes into a scheme involving a werewolf and vampire council and a plan to turn all the people at the local fair into werewolves!

The characters are simplistic but fun. Scott and Howard are very much like ‘Tucker and Dale’ (from the film of the same name) but less red-neckish. In fact this could be called ‘Tucker and Dale vs. Werewolves’. The main villain is Dante, and he’s a big beefy werewolf grunt kinda guy who snaps necks when he is mad, and has a vampire lover. He’s like your typical muscle villain and does not really get his hands dirty till the end in a fun homage to the old monster team up movies of the 40’s. His son Darnell is a big part of the story to and is used as the exposition device to give us and the two leads the scoop on monster lore.

There is some violence and a bit of gore throughout this, but the tone of it is more up beat and reminded me of The Goonies or The Monster Squad. A bunch of colorful characters going on a weird adventure together is always fun to read. One annoying thing is that it seems every bloody character is a monster! It reminded me of the later series of Heroes where every Tom, Dick and Harry popped up saying “I have a power!” Other than this it is a very fun read with Stephen Nilson’s script doing the business and Karl Waller’s artwork been slightly cartoony, but dramatic at the same time. I love how he draws some of the werewolves like actual dogs with their tongues flapping about! I also liked how they introduced a new team-mate at the end without any of the team knowing.

The ending is really funny and leads into the sequel that is coming in September so its a great time to check it out.

The Campaign – 2 AM Text Review

My buddy Aaron is a bartender for a certain movie theater here in Michigan, and on occasion, the theater will have advanced employee screenings for movies a couple nights prior to the film’s release. These are his thoughts on The Campaign

Aaron: The campaign is simply Will Ferrell being Will Ferrell. its an act we’ve come to know and love from Talladega Nights, Semi-Pro and Step Brothers. – 1:44 AM

Aaron: If you like Will Ferrell, you’ll like this. If not, you won’t Plain and simple.  – 1:48 AM

Aaron: And Zach G did well replacing John C Reilly. Worth the price of admission if you have time on your hands. – 1:49 AM

Aaron: Boob count: nip slips count, so 1.  – 1:50 AM

The Amazing Spider-Man – 2 AM Text Review

Ted – 2 AM Text Review

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – 2 AM Text Review

Batman Before Batman: Bob Kane’s Inspiration – The 1930 Mystery Film “The Bat Whispers”

Batman is a character that has survived in the hearts of fans for decades. More importantly he’s survived as the star of a comic magazine, being one of the few characters to be consistently published since his first appearance in 1939. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger as a companion character to mirror the success of the recently created Superman, Bats has had a lasting impression on the world around him. But where did he come from? The groundwork for Batman is clear if you are looking for it, and the creators were never shy about listing their inspiration for the character.

So let’s take a look at the story behind the Bat. The inspiration that led to a fan favorite here at Grizzly Bomb, and across the world. While there are definitely famous inspirations from other media like Zorro and Sherlock Holmes, I want to start with one of Bob Kane’s early inspirations; The Bat Whispers.

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