October Movie Marathon - Week 2 and 3
Current mood: sick

Why hello there!

Yes, I'm continuing my October Movie Marathon. As it stands right now, I don't think I'm going to make my 31 movie deadline. Sadly some things came up that kept me from watching movies. I'm going to try and make it...but who knows. We'll see how far I get at the least.

So first off...no stupid picture this week. Sorry. No time to take one, and I'm not feeling that well today...so I'm not taking one right now.

As for last week...quick rundown of the movies I watched:

1.) In The Mouth Of Madness
2.) The Thing
3.) Resident Evil: Extinction
4.) the Devil's Advocate
5.) The Ninth Gate
6.) 1408 - Extended Directors Cut
7.) The Devil's Backbone

You want to see my thoughts on these...go read my last blog entry. For the next set of movies, I guess I focused on the more comical side of Horror. Now...ON TO THE NEXT MOVIES ON THE LIST!

8.)Cannibal! The Musical
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115819/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: Based on a true story...written, directed, and stared in by Trey Parker. A Film before they made South Park. It's a musical. It's a story of Canabalism. This movie is cheesey goodnes. It's bad...but in a good was. It's no wonder Troma distributed this movie as it fits in with their style.
Grade: C

9.) Club Dread
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0331953/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: Continueing my try through a more light-hearted comedy horror theme, we go to Broken Lizard's entry into the horror genere. Honestly, it's not their best movie...but damn if it ain't funny.
Grade: B-

10.) The Night Stalker
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067490/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: The Night Stalker starring Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak. This is Kolchak's first outing. It a great movie. Kolchak is a reporter in Las Vegas who is covering a string of bizzar murders that seem to be cause by none other than a vampire. There's horror, there's action, there's comedy. This movie was ahead of it's time in all honesty.
Grade:A+

11.) The Night Strangler
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069002/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: The Second made for TV movie in the Kolchak universe. After being run out of Las Vegas for refusing to back off the story about a Vampire serial killer, Carl finds himself in Seattle. There he runs into his old boss Tony Vincenzo, who very reluctantly hires him on to one of the local newspapers. Carl is put on the trail of another set of serial murders, however this time it's a series of murders that seems to happen once every 21 years. All the same charm and witt from the first movie is here. I love this stuff.
Grade: A+

EXTRA: Kolchack: The Night Stalker TV Series
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071003/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: As an added bonus for myself, and because I had just gotten done watching the 2 made for TV movies that preceeded it, I decided to watch the TV series, Kolchack: The Night Stalker. While I'm not officially counting it as part of my movie marathon, I am listing it as an extra. This is one of those rare TV shows that no matter how out of date it looks or feels, it still remains timeless. Kolchak's voice overs give off the feeling that you've discovered a book, a diary, or a recording and are looking back in time at the events that happened in the 1970's.  This show inspired The X-Files, and it's easy to see why. It's too bad that when someone decide to try to remake the show and update it for a modern generation, instead of taking it's ques from the original series, it instead took it's ques from the X-files. Thus being a copy of a copy....and those are never anywhere near as good as the original.
Grade:A+


12.) Black Sheep
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0779982/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: It's a horror movie about sheep. Read that line again. You read it right. Never thought I'd see the day. Basically a genetic experiment has gone horrably wrong, turning the sheep of New Zealand into bloodthirsty killers. It's bizzar, it's scary, and it's entertaining. Honestly, I really enjoyed it. I will admit something the movie strays too far into the humor element almost forgetting the horror aspect, but it doesn't do it too much, so it's not a problem.
Grade: B+

13.) Shaun of The Dead
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: Zombie comedy flick. This is a brilliant movie. It's got the right level of sense of humor and horror. Even when it goes into a moment of silly, it never strays from the horror of the situation. This is the perfect Horror/Comedy movie because of it.
Grade:A+

14.) Fido
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457572/
How I watched the Movie: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: Figured since the trailers made it look like a movie that could take place immeadiatly after Shaun of The Dead...I'd watch it immediatly after watching Shaun of The Dead. The general gist of it is it's a story about a boy and his dog...er well...zombie actually. A Zombie the boy has named Fido. Less than a minute into the movie it's obvious that the movie is not a modern day movie. It's very much a period piece. It really feels as though I'm watching an episode of Lassie...but with a Zombie. The movie even makes a few Lassie jokes throughout the film. It was a pretty enjoyable film, actually. Not as good as Shaun of the Dead, and nor does it really have any horror elements to it. I was also surprised by all the recognizable actors that were in the film. Carrie-Anne Moss plays the mother with Billy Connolly playing Fido. Henry Czerny playing the villian of sorts in the film.
Grade: A-

Currently playing : The Orange Box Release date: 09 October, 2007

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October Movie Marathon - Week 1

Ok Folks who care...may care...may not care. whatever. I guess I should start off and explain exactly what I'm doing. Every year for Halloween I'll usually sit down and just watch a bunch of movies that fall under the categories of Horror, Suspense, and Sci-fi. Usually the movies will have some sort of supernatural element. This year, I'm deciding to do something a little different.

Taking a Cue from some people on the Bendis board (http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/), among other places, I have decided to do a 31 movie marathon. I will watch 31 different movies over the course of October. Sadly I won't be able to watch a movie every day...but I'm going to try to watch at least 7 movies a week. Hopefully I'll make my goal. I'll be posting the results of this on a week by week basis. What I'll provide is a list of the movies I watched, I'll link to an IMDB page in case you want to look up stuff about the movie, I'll give my thoughts from immeadiatly after watching the movie, and finally I'll give the movie a grade. The grading system will be based on my enjoyment of the movie and will be done in the same fashion as school grades: A, B, C, D, and F. I hope you enjoy this little expiriment of mine. Who knows...if I enjoy myself enough, I may do it again next year.

This is the first week's worth of movies.

1.) In The Mouth Of Madness
IMBD Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113409/
How I watched it: DVD

Thoughts on Movie:I love this movie. It's honestly one of my favorite John Carpenter movies. The Lovecrafian themes in the episode are perfect. I tend to watch this movie around Halloween ever year...so it seemed perfect to start this little marathon up with it. It's not a 100% perfect movie, but it's up there.
Grade: A-

2.) The Thing
IMDB LINK: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/
How I watched it: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: Horror movie with a Sci-fi twist. It's been a while since I've seen it. Still holds up REALLY well. This is probably my third favorite of John Carpenter's movies (2nd being Big Trouble In Little China). Figured might as well follow up with this one second. Watching this has really made me want to go back and play the video game, which I didn't think was too bad. I surprised myself by enjoying this a little more than In The Mouth of Madness.
Grade: A

3.) Resident Evil: Extinction
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432021/
How I watched it: Movie Theater

Thoughts on Movie: First off...I liked the first Resident Evil movie. I thought the second one was a good movie...even though it wasn't on par with the first. This movie was...eh...not so good. I'm glad I didn't pay for it, if that tells you anything. I think I'm getting tired of see the character of Alice getting more powerful with each movie...It's starting to get rediculas....and they set us up for yet another movie. so...eh.
Grade: F+

4.) The Devil's Advocate
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118971/
How I Watched It: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: I haven't watched this movie in I'd say 4 or 5 years. Gotta say that even though his accent suchs ass, Keanu didn't do that badly of a job in this movie. I still really enjoyed it. Pacino made a good Lucifer.
Grade: B-

5.) The Ninth Gate
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142688/
How I watched it: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: Ah...yes...Johnny Depp in a movie looking exactly like Dr. Strange being an asshole...but making you root for him to win over evil...only to find out he's an evil bastard just like everyone else in the film. Highly enjoyable. I remember my mother wondering why the hell I liked this movie as much as I did when it came out. Honestly Johnny Depp giving a damn good performance, and the writing and everything was just so well done. The Ending even left it up to interpritation...and there are different ways to interpret it.
Grade: B

6.) 1408
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450385/
How I Watched it: DVD - Extended Directors Cut

Thoughts on Movie: I honestly didn't like 1408 when I saw it in theaters. My complaint was that it felt like there was stuff missing from the movie...and the ending didn't work for me based on the rest of the movie. I thought that Cusack and Jackson were great in this movie, but that hollywood ending just bothered me too much. So I heard there was an extended version that had extra scenes and a different ending, and I figured I had to check it out. Wow...I honestly like the movie better now. There were a few added scenes...but the major difference was the ending, and I think it works better for the over all film. Wish they had stuck with this one than with the other one.
Grade: B+

7.) The Devil's Backbone
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256009/
How I Watched it: DVD

Thoughts on Movie: It's been a while since I've seen this...and even then I only watched once before. Honestly I bearly remember this movie...so it's like watching it for the first time all over again. The movie has a weird creepy atmosphere to it, but at the same time it's honestly not as scarry as I remember it being. The effects in the movie are simple, but effective when it comes to the ghosts. It also surprised me on how similar Pan's Labrynth (a movie I'll be watching later in this experiment) is to this movie. They share alot of the same themes. This movie's ending is not nearly as depressing, though.
Grade: A

That's it for this week. I'll post again at the end of this next week with 7 more movies (or if I can find the time, I may watch more than 7.) Later.

Currently playing : Blitz: The League Release date: 15 November, 2006

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Might not be reachable for a few weeks...
Current mood: chipper

I'm in the process of moving. No internet at the new place. Not sure when I'm gonna lose the internet at my old place. So...if you try to contact me...and I don't respond. That's why.

Currently reading : Devil Dinosaur By Jack Kirby Omnibus HC By Jack Kirby Release date: 01 August, 2007

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I Just saw Transformers!

Just saw the new movie. A few friends took me to an advanced screening of it as an early Birthday present.



HOLY FUCKING SHIT. This movie is the most awesome thing I've ever seen. I loved it. HOnestly the best movie of the summer. It was everything I wanted out of a Transformers movie and more. The battles were amazing. Nothing felt forced or over the top. Everything was prefect.

I honestly can't tell you people enough how much I loved it. Let's just say I plan to go see it again Monday Night. This movie is that mazing. Go see it, you won't regret it.

Currently playing : Transformers the Game Release date: 26 June, 2007

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I just saw the movie 1408
Current mood: awake

Just got home...and wow. My thoughts are simply this: John Cusack is an amazing actor. I loved him in this movie. All the parts were perfectly acted. Samuel Jackson even managed to slip the F bomb in the movie (it was probably in his contract). The Special Effects were great. The camera shots and everything looked amazing. The story, however, was lacking. It didn't have so much a Resolution to anything as it just kinda ended.

The movie started good enough. We got to know the character. We got to know the history of the room. I'd say The movie was REALLY good up until the moment the main character first tried to leave the room and was unsuccesful. After that point, while there were many things that seemed interesting and a little bit unerving...the story never really went anywhere. I'm not sure what the point of the movie was other than "That room is Evil."

However...John Cusack and Sam Jackson's acting in the movie really saved it. As I said...the movie was wonderfully shot. I think everything was great...aside from the actual story. The Story had a lot of great ideas...but didn't really go anywhere with them...and in some cases the story was pain causing Predictable.

Should you go see it? I say wait for it to come out on DVD. It's not a bad movie. It's just not a movie you need to see.

Personally I should have predicted the movie was like this...it's PG-13. PG-13 thriller movies never end up being that great.

And on that final note..I would like to say that before the movie started I saw the trailer for 3 different horror movies that all had the same plot. Each one was a main character being kidnapped or held in captivity and either being tortored or watched by some unknown person. Seriously...Doesn't Saw and Hostel pretty much have this plot covered? Do we REALLY need 1000 other movies that are trying to be like them? God.....I hope this Hollywood trend changes soon...I don't know how much more of this crap I can take.

Currently listening : Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue By Trocadero

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Why aren't you listening to Staple Pop?
Current mood: artistic

Ok Folks. Here's the deal. I know...I haven't posted a new blog in while...and for that I apologize. Been busy with other things. Give me some more time and I'll update more...and have a website up....and maybe even a few more surprises that you didn't see coming.

HOWEVER....I'm not writing this here blog to tell you about all that. I'm asking why you are not listening to Staple Pop.

For those who don't know, every week I participate in a Podcast (god I hate that term...should I call it a Webcast? or...maybe a Pop-Cast...get it? Staple Pop...Pop-Cast? Eh...my humor is waisted on you people.) Called Staple Pop. In this podcast is a roundtable of very intellegent and highly opinionated individuals. All I've got is opinions...so luckly the others can be intellegent.

The cast is good. Who is the cast? Well, there's the head of the table, Brandon Zuern. He's Manages a comic shop, and has a large knowledge of everything comics. He also has the amazing ability to tell you what book you should be reading...and he's right every time. Next we have Mike Pruitt. He's a big DC guy, and happens to be the man that is the glue to the rest of the show. Then there's Tim Doyle, Former Retailer and fellow Artist. He also has a huge array of comics knowledge...and did I mention the man is talented in the art department? Agreeing to sit through all the male geekery and high end nerd-ery is the female of the group, Lauri. She adds the female opinion and lets us know how big of dorks we all are. Also appearing on the show occasionally is Dave O'Leary. What he lacks in comics knowledge, he makes up for in knowing what he likes and a singing voice that could make doves cry. (A Prince refference?! here?! Oh my.)  Oh yeah...and I also appear on the show as much as possable. However, who cares about me on the show? You should be listening it for everyone else. I'm just an added bonus.

I've been participating in this podcast for a while off and on. If you listen to the backlog...the episodes may not be the best..but there were some good ones. You could just hear the potential in every episode. Well, now we all got together and are trying to work at improving the show and turning that potential into a reality. We've already completed phases one and two of the plan. Phase one: Get intellegent and opinionated people who have good chemestry. Phase Two: Improve Audio (recorded at the wonderful Infinity Recording Studios). Now...it's time for world domination. We're stepping up our game...so now you need to give us a chance and listen.

How do you listen? Well...you've got choices. 1.) Go to the myspace page. Go look at my friend's list. It's listed RIGHT THERE in my top friends on the front of my profile.  Just click on it. At the myspace page you'll get to hear the latest episode. Go look at the pictures gallery to see pictures of the cast. Read the new blogs that should be coming up in the future. It's all a nice little package that you get for fee! You don't like Myspace? You don't want all that extra stuff? You just want to listen to the show...maybe download it to your podcast or mp3 player? Well...then you've got Option # 2.) iTunes. Go to iTunes. Do a search for Staple Pop. Can't find it? Go to the podcasts section and THEN search for Staple Pop. Seriously...it is there. I just checked. I found it, so can you. There may or may not be a 3rd option in the future...but we'll come to that later.

So there you have it. Options. Go listen to the show. It's quite a good show. You get some Comics news. You get some Comics opinions. Hell, you even get many laughs. How can you sit there and not listen when you get all this amazing entertainment for the price of nothing? Is it because you feel guilty? Guitly of getting something this high of quality and not paying for it? Well...I'm sure there is something that could be done about that...but I'm just gonna tell you to listen to the show to find out. ENJOY it. It's only going to get better.

If you don't listen to Staple pop then the Dracula Ninjas have won. You don't want them to win do you? No, you don't.


Oh...and in case anyone was wondering...my new profile pic was art by Tim Doyle. The guy's got talent.

Currently playing : Forza Motorsport 2 Release date: 29 May, 2007

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My Free Comic Book Day Report!
Current mood: accomplished

Ok....Here's my Free Comic Book Day report of sorts....complete with pictures!

On Wednesday my local shop sent out a notice stating that any self publisers were welcome to come out and set up at a table to sell their books. Sadly this notice was sent out with a late notice, so not many people picked up on the offer. At first I thought about trying to get a book together and giving it away for free...but then I realized I couldn't put anything together...and wasn't going to give it another thought...HOWEVER...a few Friends of mine who run a local podcast (that I sit in on in their roundtable of people), http://www.myspace.com/staplepop/, asked if I wouldn't mind helping them out with putting some CDs together for their table and also sitting at the table and helping to talk up the show and give out said CDs. Of course...I said sure. I honestly had nothing better to do.

I even anounced on the show before FCBD that I would give out free sketches to anyone who asked. This was to help get people out to the table. Who would pass up a free sketch?

So...I stayed up all night...made some CDs filled with MP3s of the show with the help of my friend Joe. Got a few hours slep..Woke up bright and early and headed out to Austin Books & Comics



However...the Free Comic Book Day stuff wasn;t in the store...they actually got a second area to host everything...





 The room was filled with free comics.









We set up our table...I even set up a sign saying the CDs were free, and that I would sketch something for free if asked!



Here are some pictures of Brandon and Mike Poseing with the CDs

Brandon:


Mike:


Sadly since Brandon works at the comic shop...he couldn't stay at the table. He had to run the store. However Mike and I had alot of fun. We even recorded a special Free Comic Book Day Episode of Staple pop. Mike and I interviewed some of the local creators about thier wooks and projects along with some of the fine folks just attending the convention. It was alot of fun...and the episode is up for listen up on their myspace page (listed above).

Oh...I forgot...I did sketches!



I also tried to ham it up for some pictures:




So I did a total of 4 sketches. 2 of which were given away...and the other 2 I ended up keeping cause they weren't wanted. Sadly not alot of people seemed to watch sketches. the 2 I actually did give away were requested by 2 little kids...and their reactions to them were a bright spot in my day. One girls, who was wearing a Supergirl Costume wanted a picture of Wolverine...and from what I heard was so happy with the sketch that she was showing it to everyone. Sadly I didn't get a picture of her with the sketch...but I did get a picture of the drawing!



The second drawing was done for a little boy who requested a picture of Daredevil! Again...no picture of the kid...but here's the drawing:



ANd finnaly the other 2 pictures...which were kept by me cause no one wanted them...plus I mainly drew them for fun cause no one else was asking for a sketch :(

In honor of the new movie, I drew Spider-Man...well sorta..




And I drew this for my co-hort for the day, Mike...but I ended up forgetting to give it to him (I'll just give it to him the next time I see him)



The joke with that picture is that it saw "Staple Pop Meets..." and the picture is of Mike and myself. Mike and Brandon are the true hosts of Staple Pop...and without one of them...there is no Staple pop, in my opinion...so the picture is a bit of a in jest joke aginst Brandon...hence the text at the bottom. :D


As for Books....I got 10 of the FCBD books...but I haven't read any of them yet, sadly. Probably wil get to them tomarrow. The books I grabed were: The Last Blood, The Astonishing Wolfman, White Out, Amazing Spider-Man, Digital Webbing Presents... (Grabed it for the Punks! The Comic story), Comics Festival 2007, Marvel Adventures Ironman and The Hulk, and a few others I can't think of at this exact moment. I've heard alot of good things about The Last Blood. The Wolfman book is written by Kirkman, so that's gotta be good. And yadda yadda yadda.

Anyways...I had fun. Hope you enjoyed this little report.

Currently watching : C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation - The Complete Fifth Season Release date: 29 November, 2005

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Comic Space Anyone?
Current mood: busy

Just thought I'd let others know...Aside from the website I'm currently working on...and this Myspace thing...I've also got a page over on Comicspace.com. I've had one there since Comicspace first started...but completely forgot to mention it on here.

You'll actually find alot of my artwork on there...though not all of it...as I'm saving alot of it for the website. But I do update it when I can. Go check it out: http://www.comicspace.com/lab_rat/

While there I suggest you check out some of the other comic artist's pages there.

In other news...Staple was fun. Didn't get my comic done in time for staple (but I at least got it done...sorta). Some of the pictures in my profile are from Staple. I'm still working on my actual con report with all the pictures and everything. It's taking me so long mainly because of work and also trying to get some other things done. Not to mention video games have been eating up all my time. Between Crackdown, Worms, Def Jam: Icon...and the slew of old X-box games I recently purchased...my time is pretty much been filled. I fear the day Guitar Hero 2 for 360 gets released...cause that will pretty much end any life I had outside of work.

But that's that. I'm gonna end this thing now. Will post about stuff when stuff gets done or actually happens.

Currently listening : No More Kings (Dig) By No More Kings Release date: 06 March, 2007

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STAPLE!
Current mood: determined

Staple is apon us again! This year I actually have a table!

I got the table very last minute, so I'm in a mad dash to get everything ready. Currently tryng to put together a Mini-comic completely from scratch. So far I'm doing ok...I've still got 3 or 4 more pages to go. Hopefully I'll have everything done in time for Staple itself.

Also I'll be giving out Free CDs of MP3s from the Staple Pop Podcast. Feel free to check those out.

At the table with me will be my good friend Xero Reynolds, creator of the online webcomic Swordwaltzer. He'll be selling some of his Merch, and I'd highly recomend his stuff. Out of the 2 of us, he's the only one with actual talent.

In other news, still working on My Website. Don't have a site design yet. Have an idea for what  want, but trying to figure out how to implement it. Sadly I'm a bit rusty when it comes to HTML, and I've got no knowledge with any of the other website script languages. However, do feel free to visit the site as I will be updating with a few things here and there till I get a full website designed and uploaded.

Other than that, not much going on. Alot of video game playing, comic book reading, and drawing. So...pretty much the same as always.

Well, I gotta get back to drawing...so yeah,

-John

Currently playing : Crackdown Release date: 20 February, 2007

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I wonder how long this one will last....

Yeah....

Currently watching : Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition Release date: 28 November, 2006

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