Hello there :D i like poster art, films, graphic novels, vhs.........just loads of things really. if i list them all here then you will no doubt leave and no one wants that. Lets just say i like cool stuff and leave it at that ;)
Now we all know Marvel’s mutants get a rough deal. Dying, getting brought back to life, having their powers stripped away and almost causing the destruction of the Earth all seem to happen on a weekly basis for these guys. So it’s nice to see that Pete Holmes can inject some humor into the X-Men world with a series of shorts from his late night talk show, called Ex-Men.
The basic premise behind this is that Professor X is cleaning house and ridding the X-Men of the more useless or flawed members. The shorts amount to Xavier, played by Holmes, calling the various mutants into his office to sack them all. So sit back and enjoy Charles Xavier in a more twisted vein than we are used to seeing, shit-canning some of our favorite heroes with absolute joy:
Gambit:
Iceman:
Wolverine:
The full playlist is available on Pete Holmes’s Youtube page and includes Storm, Nightcrawler, and Jubilee.
My personal favorites are the Wolverine one that plays Logan as a dumb jock and the Angel sketch where Xavier cannot stop wetting himself over how awful Warren Worthington really is.
If you liked these then maybe check out Pete’s fantastic Batman parodies, which started out as a collaboration between College Humor and Holmes’s sketch comedy group Front Page Films and more recently have been incorporated into The Pete Holmes Show. Here’s a taste:
Now some people may say John Claude Van Damme is back, but for me he never left.
Much like his brother in arms (though they may not see it that way) Steven Segal, they have toiled their trade in the DTV market with varying results. They were both a huge part of the 80s/90s action genre and they both still entertain audiences today. But it is Van Damme on this occasion that is having a more main stream popularity surge. We had the incredible JCVD movie and then it all went quiet until TheExpendables2 with a very nice villain turn which he also used in the fantastically dark UniversalSoldierDayofReckoning movie. But strangely it is his comedic turn in the CoorsLight adverts which really grabbed people’s attention
Oh as well as the splits advert he recently did, showing off he still has the dexterity of his youth
This all culminated in WelcometotheJungle (not the Dwayne Johnson one) where Van Damme really gets to play in the comedy sand pit.
Here the premise is simple, preppy style office workers go on a retreat to chill out and learn combat skills from none other than Van Damme himself. See the trailer below and be prepared for maximum chuckles.
Storm Roughchild, man that’s an awesome name. The great thing about this movie is that Van Damme gently mocks his own self-image but still manages to come off as generally rock hard. The scene where Van Damme’s anguished fight moan goes on a little too long is genius. Some of the other comedy elements fall a bit flat to be honest, though the LordoftheFlies scene has promise.
That takes us to Van Damme’s return to his action roots with EnemiesCloser. Check out the trailer below…
With hair that Doc Brown would be jealous off and a relaxed approach to random killings Van Damme really shines in this trailer. Tom Everett Scott and Orlando Jones come out of this pretty good too, with some nice action scenes throughout the trailer, but it is once again Van Damme’s show. He gets some great action here, especially with him dressed in a Mountie uniform kicking ass and taking names. This film has a ‘Ten Little Indians’ feel to it with the two guys being hunted by Van Damme’s militant group. The thing I liked about Van Damme here is he plays a character very similar to the type of people he would normally be fighting against. The complete lack of interest in the deaths around him as well as the mad glint in his eye makes this all come together nicely.
Welcome to the Jungle and EnemiesCloser have a 2014 release date. With all this going on it looks like Van Damme is going to be a busy man and this reviewer cannot wait to see what he round house kicks our way in the future. Until then here are the posters for both movies to keep you going until 2014.
Nurse 3D is a film that has been on a bit of a slow burn since it was completed over 2 years ago. For whatever reason Lionsgate felt the need to hold this back, maybe they wondered how the hell they were going to market this type of movie. This is a fair point because it is not your typical horror flick, feeling more like the slew of crazy female stalker movies from the ’90s, with echoes of Fatal Attraction and Single WhiteFemale.
They have finally decided now is the right time for us to see some killer nurse action, and ‘the killer nurse movie’ is certainly not a new concept. They have been a staple of the horror genre on and off for years in the low-budget arena of film making. Quentin Tarantino was obviously influenced by the sub-genre, as is evidenced by Kill Bill.
The official synopsis:
[quote]Paz de la Huerta (HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”) turns up the body heat in this wickedly entertaining story of a fatal attraction. By day, nurse Abby Russell (de la Huerta) lovingly attends to the patients at All Saints Memorial Hospital; by night, Abby prowls nightclubs, luring unfaithful men into dangerous liaisons. After Danni, a young, sensitive nurse, joins the hospital staff, Abby pursues her friendship. But when the friendship turns to obsession, Danni spurns Abby, unleashing Abby’s fury and a rampage of terror[/quote]
And the trailer…
Paz de la Huerta (Boardwalk Empire) as Abby Russell certainly has an alluring quality to her. Something seems off with her whenever she glances at a character, it’s a surprise they don’t figure out sooner that she is absolutely bonkers. She certainly seems engaging and though personally, I do not feel drawn to her strange charms, there is definitely something about her which drags you in. I am still not sure if this is an amazing piece of acting or if she is just crazy. Having missed Boardwalk Empire it is hard to know either way. Katrina Bowden (30 Rock, Dale and Tucker vs Evil) as Danni seems to play the role of the confused new comer well enough, and her tumble into this new and weird world grabs your attention for long enough to be interested in what will happen to her. The notion of Abby maybe being an escaped loony seems a tad cliché and unnecessary to be honest, but this may be a throwaway line without too much relevance to the movies outcome. Judd Nelson pops up for 2 seconds with one hum-dinger of a mustache which if nothing else should be a joy to behold.
The use of 3D actually does not gel well in the trailer, taking away from the tone they had built up, turning it from erotic horror to generic jump bait. There are certainly elements of interest here, with plenty of brief shots of syringe action which sometimes gave this film a feel of Audition by Takashi Miike. The use of sex and death seem to have a foreign film feel to it with elements of films like Nekromantik and Dario Argento’s movies slipping in there (the scene in the morgue with the bone saw seems like it could mix elements of both of these movies). But for tone and even content this felt a little like American Mary, the 2012 film about underground surgery.
The general feeling after watching this is that the dark mix of horror and sexuality will be a good thing. The film is set to release sometime in 2014. This may be one to keep your eye on in the near future.
The internet is a great thing for creative minds. Sure the criticism an artist can receive is a heck of a lot harsher than what a face to face confrontation would be and you need to be ever vigilant of the dreaded trolls who are lurking at every dark corner of the web ready to rip your work apart. However, it does offer numerous benefits such as getting your work out to numerous people on a global scale and having the freedom to do what you like. This freedom has given us some superb pieces of work which when successful, can spread like wild-fire with pop culture fans and internet users alike. There is also freedom to interact with your audience in an instant way which just might not have been possible before. It is these elements of artist freedom that both Brandon Bird and Jim’ll Paint It excel in but they both use this freedom in very different ways.
Brandon Bird may not be a name that you know but his work is instantly recognizable. In fact one image in particular sent the internet into free fall when it came out. It is the image below that most internet users will recognize and it has popped up on numerous message boards and memes and has been embraced by the pop culture universe.
Brandon comes from California and has worked in some degree in numerous projects, most interestingly helping out the punk rock group the Aqauabats with their merchandise and show designs. The thing that is so great about Brandon’s work is the sheer creativity in his mashups (Peter Dinklage as Wolverine is incredible) but also the childlike innocence behind them. They embrace childhood whether it be the rejection of children you want to play with (Harrison Ford suffers from this in one painting), or the sheer excitement as an adult we get of seeing our childhood icons mixed up in interesting yet somewhat natural feeling ways. They always gel together so well no matter what is getting mashed up or how surreal the outcome. His merchandise enforces this notion with coloring books and adventure kits available that harkens back to a simpler time when we made our own entertainment. It is ironic then that the internet has embraced his artwork so much. Maybe we all just want to remember that feeling of childhood one more time?
Jim’ll Paint It also has close connection to the internet, more accurately it is his audience he relies on for part of his inspiration. Little is known about Jim (other than we think he is called Jim) but it’s what he does that is important. He takes requests from internet users on what to paint, with the more extreme and bizarre the concept, the better. The love of retro and childhood shows that Brandon has embraced with his art is seen here because Jim’s (mostly) UK audience have looked back into their past for inspiration and got Jim to incorporate these memories into the pop culture icons of the present. So you have Jim Bowen from UK show Bullseye doing his best Thelma and Louis impression while the band T–Rex and Jurassic Park combine together to form a stunning visual piece. But it is not just retro stuff Jim excels in; his audience throw anything at him from Christian Bale watching over Ben Affleck’s version of Batman to Voldemort becoming happy he found a can of coke with his name on it. The great thing is though the audience give him the idea it is Jim’s incredible mind that puts it all together and gives his own unique spin on it. It is always an incredible experience to read what the person has requested and then see Jim’s surrealist version of it.
Both Jim and Brandon have their own websites where you can buy their products and also look for Jim’s Facebook page where you can check out more of his fans requests. If you want to see your favourite pop culture icons engaged in ways you never imagined possible, then keep checking out these guys work as they continue to create incredible pieces every week or so.
Let’s not beat around the bush here: people like their cyborg movies. With the new Robocopon the way and movies like Manborg catching audience’s attention, it seems that director Rolfe Kanefsky wanted in on this action as well. His response is the film Megafoot where a cyborg Bigfoot goes toe to toe with your standard garden variety Bigfoot. Now the timing for this film is perfect. Since Sharknado and Wolf Cop, people have been more and more intrigued by movies that wear their love of the trashy movie genre on their sleeves and don’t try to be anything other than some good old B movie fun. Though little information is known about the movie at this time, it seems from the artwork already published online that this film fits into that category. Below is some concept art taken from the Megafoot Facebook page showing a potentially awesome scene from the movie.
I don’t know much about director Rolfe, but boy does he have an impressive resume in the low budget horror field. Just a brief look on his IMDB page reveals his involvement in some cheesy classics like There’s Nothing Out There (1991), The Killer Eye (1999) and TheHazing(2004)
Rolfe had this to say about the release of his poster which you can see below.
“Thought I’d share the poster for hopefully my return to the horror genre. A new script that I wrote and, if all goes well, will be directing in the Spring. Let me introduce you to my creature feature, Megafoot! What do you think?”
Now we all know looks can be deceiving and whether we actually see this monster look as awesome as he does on screen as he does in the poster is something we will have to wait for. Rolfe certainly seems like the guy to pull it off, so fingers crossed we might have a cult classic on our hands. Keep checking here at Grizzly Bomb for more updates as they arrive as this could give Bigfoot the biggest entertainment resurgence since Harry and the Hendersons!
So now two new trailers have arrived for the film which is fast becoming the bane of all pop culture fans everywhere. Yes you guessed it it’s the Robocop remake. Why do people hate this movie so much compared to other remakes? The lure of nostalgia is obviously strong and the fact the original movie is beloved by fans (because of its hard-hitting violence and social commentary means the new movie has very big expectations to live up to. As a Robocop fan myself I feel their pain, there have been too many sub standard remakes to make anyone think differently. But after seeing the first trailer a while ago it did peak my interest enough to not be to judgemental about it. This new trailer expands more on the information we saw in the first trailer. Watch it below and see what you think.
Some interesting things come out of this. We see a lot more emphasis on Alex Murphy as a family man and the problems caused with him now being a big old cyborg. Gary Oldman Doctor gets to show the more sensitive side of science here and he is engaging enough, while Joel Kinnaman as Murphy looks in this trailer a little bit of an under whelming screen presence. In his defence though aside from a few brief moments of confusion over his new form, he is mostly seen blowing stuff up which we see a fair bit off. ED 209 and the Robodrones cover the streets and some nice scenes of Robocop in training and jumping about on the street show the action is a lot more streamlined and (dare we say) Hollywood than the gritty original. The robots have a Battlestar Galactica feel to them which I am still not sure about, more exposure should confirm whether I like or dislike this style. The worry that the speed that the CGI scenes whiz by the viewer could easily turn this into another Transformers movie if all the film is constantly like this.
Let’s move on to the next trailer now and we notice a slightly different tone here. Check out the trailer below.
“Why is America so Robophobic?” is not only an awesome line but could also be a little tongue in cheek jab at the haters of the film. There are some more alternative action scenes here, but for the most part this focuses on the propaganda element of the film and it does this to great effect.. Media spinning Samuel L Jackson as Pat Novak and money grabbing Michael Keaton as Raymond Sellars shine when ever they are on-screen (not surprising with their strong screen presence). The trailer makes sure that the audience knows that O.C.P are still money grabbing scum bags.
So overall the film still looks kind of impressive and this reviewer is still very interested to see how this all pans out. There are some concerns here aside from the memories of the past affecting the present. The action scenes from both trailers, though they look fast and streamlined also look a bit to sharp and kind of hollow. It fits in with the style of movie they are going for, less grime more style but I’m concerned that this will become more style over substance. This gleaming, futuristic look the film is going for were everything is made to look slick and polished makes Murphy having his hand still human seem slightly redundant. Would O.C.P not just whip it off and give him a robot hand as it is more productive? I can understand the face exposure because that shows a human side to him which people can relate to. I assume the hand has been left there as a nod to the fans. Story wise I doubt it will make a difference either way. I have noticed that each trailer seems to make Robocop less cop and more superhero like. The shots of him jumping high up in the air and the sleek, black armour he now has on would not look a miss in an X-Men movie. Some of the fears I have about this been a tad dull and suffering from Total Recall remake syndrome (look at my previous article on this to see what I mean ) are still there, but it is tricky to truly know from just a trailer. At least it warrants a watch and if nothing else I want to be able to see this film and then say whether it crashed or burned through my own view point. All we need is an entertaining movie and that cannot be too hard to make right? Well should not be to long until we find out the films released on February 2014 (changes withstanding). For now I leave you with some publicity stills that showcase a few familiar faces you may recognise from the above trailers (like Jackie Earle Haley as Mattox). Enjoy and remember don’t be a Robohater people!
Grizzly Bomb 