Welcome to the only movie Kevin Smith Directed but didn't write. The movie where Kevin Smith fell out of love with Bruce Willis. The movie that convinced Smith to only direct his own movies. A movie that while not well received is still incredibly funny. Willis and Tracy Morgan's characters have been partners for 9 years. Something that Morgan thinks is awesome but Willis could care less about. Morgan goes in to try and get some information out of the suspect by doing famous lines from movies. When he gets to a die hard line Willis said he has never seen that movie. It's a funny moment. It gets Morgan the information he needs for him and Willis to start their case. While on the case we find out that Morgan thinks that his wife is cheating on him. It distracts him throughout the movie. The bad guy shoots up the school and runs. Morgan in a cell phone costume runs after him. It's the funnest stupidest thing ever. The bad guy escapes by hoping in front of a train. The dude risked his life to get away. He deserved to get away after that. It gets both of them suspended and just in time to mess Willis up just before his daughters wedding. Willis can't afford to give his daughter the wedding she wants and her step dad keeps pointing out that he can. You can already see how much tension there is between the two men. This suspension could not have come a worse time. Morgan puts a nanny cam in his house to spy on his wife who is very buddy buddy with the next door neighbor. Meanwhile Willis tries to sell his prized baseball card, it is right then that the store is robbed by Seann Williams Scott. There goes the daughter's wedding. He lies to the other cops about the people who stole the card so that he and Morgan can go and find him themselves. They track him down to a house and have a standoff with him that is ended by the lady of the house showing them all up. She catches the badguy and punks all of them out. She was scary as can be! With his help they find the man who has the card. He tells Willis and Morgan that if they want the card back they have to help him find his stolen car. They go find the worse car thief in town. It turns out it is an 11 year old kid. Who beats up Morgan, cause he is pathetic. Willis threatens to take him home to his mother and the kid tells them everything. He is more afraid of his mother than he is of the police. They steal some guys car, these are the heroes of the film. SMH. In the trunk of the car they find a woman tied up and gagged. They let her out and take her to get herself cleaned up. The badguy wanted the car back to get the girl. Morgan asks Willis to look at the nanny cam for him so that he can see if his wife really is cheating on him. Willis looks at the footage and sees that she is hooking up with some guy but he turns it off and lies to his partner. The two cops looking into gang stuff find Morgan's gun and call Willis asking him to meet up with them so that they can go after his partner who they think is dirty. While is dealing with them, Morgan is watching the girl and decides to watch the nanny cam for himself. He sees that she was cheating on him and is heartbroken by it. Willis gets back to the motel and Morgan tells Willis that he say the nanny cam. Neither one of them seems to notice that the girl has been in the shower for a long long time. Willis finally opens the bathroom door to find it empty. The girl is gone. She left them a note telling them that she doesn't want them to die for her. They get Scott out of jail to help them out. He finds out that Morgan's wife really was cheating on him and he suddenly changes course and starts acting all buddy buddy with him. Trying to make him feel better. Willis doesn't like them getting along, it annoys the hell out of him. Scott tries to do some parkour to get into the house and get Willis's baseball card back but he is showing off and falls, hitting his head. Willis can't find a pulse and thinks he is dead. So Willis just goes in himself. Meanwhile the bad guys find the girl and Morgan watches the tape again. Once he gets past the start he finds out that his wife wasn't cheating on him. She set him up,the guy was her gay cousin. He is beyond excited and who can blame him? His wife is so hot. Willis is still in the house when all the bad guys come home, dragging the girl with them. They are about to torture the girl when Morgan calls and tells him that he has the crucifix that the guy is looking for. He splits his forces, half of them go to the meet up spot and the rest stay there. The two cops who think that Morgan is a bad guy show up just as Morgan starts shooting his way into the house and Willis sneaks out. Willis than joins up with those two cops to try and get back into the house. He tells them to call it in while he goes to try and save the girl. We find out that the crucifix is really a flashdrive and it has come down to the leader of the badguys, holding the girl at gun point standing off with Willis and Morgan. They stop him and save the girl. The day is won and Willis tries to go back into the house to find his card but not before the captain stops them and tells them that they are going to get an award and are reinstated. Willi goes looking for his card. He finds it, turns out that Morgan shot Willis's card. There goes his chance to pay for the wedding. Now he has to suck it up and ask the step father, who is an ass, to help him pay for it. His ex-wife tells Willis to let her new husband give away the daughter with him. Something that Willis agrees to even though it kills him. Morgan stops the new husband from giving the daughter away, so that Willis gets to do it alone. As he should as the real father. After the start of the credits we see that Scott is still alive, he pranks the girl working at the morgue before leaving. Over all this movie is funny as hell. While not the same humor as Smith's own movies it is a close enough fit that you can see why they went to him to direct. I love this movie and I think most people who give it a shot would too.
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Welcome to the second film not taking place in the View Askewaverse. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks play best friends who live together and have no money at all. Aw being poor, I know it well. The opening of the film shows them getting ready to go to work and we see Seth hurt his poor balls using a hand warmer. Who the hell would put that down their pants? It's pure insanity. While this was Kevin Smith trying to make a stoner comedy that wasn't in the same vain of his other films. But it does feel very much like his other movies. In a good way. After all, who isn't a Kevin Smith films. We see early on that Zack has feelings for Miri but that she just sees him as a friend. The two friends go to their 10 year reunion that for some reason takes place on Thanksgiving. Miri goes and hits on the man who she crushed on in high school. The man who would go on to play Superman and the Atom. He is the king of DC comics yo. She basically begs him to have sex with her when Zack shows up with Jason Long who turns out to be the guys boyfriend. When they go home the power goes out and they don't know what to do. Zack comes up with the brilliant idea to make a porn. An idea that Miri has no interest in. Slowly over the night he talks her into it, even selling her on having sex with him in the movie. They hire Jeff Anderson to be the DP and get a cast together, including Jason Mewes. The rent a warehouse and have everything read for their new porn, Star Whores. The day they are set to start filming the warehouse is destroyed. All their equipment is destroyed as well. All seems lost until Zack finds out that his boss was recording them and he uses that camera and the store to make the porn. Everything goes great until Zack and Miri have sex. In the midst of it they fall in love. It is the least sexy sex the world has ever seen but boy is it romantic. Miri felt it a bit more than Zack did and the two start to behave weird. They try to talk it out when the power comes back on. The cast and crew turned everything back on for them. The night of the last shooting day comes and Zack and Miri get into it, fighting over the sex of it all. He moves out of the apartment and leaves the movie as well as the coffee stop. 3 months later Zack gets pulled in to take a look at the footage and realizes what he has known all along. What he even told Miri that last night, that he loves her. He confesses to Miri that he never slept with anyone else. He tells her that he wants to be with her and she starts crying, so enter a naked Jason Mewes to ruin everything. Turns out he lives there and she changed rooms to smell him, creepy but romantic. The movie is one of the stupidest funniest movies I've ever seen. Kevin Smith always kills it! Kevin Smith, the man, the myth the legend. Where Buffy the Vampire Slayer is what changed my life and made me want to be a writer, Kevin Smith made me want to be a film maker. And a podcaster. Now Every Monday I am reviewing the world of View Askew and everything that takes place inside the Jay and Silent Bob world but Smith has a few movies that take place outside of that world. So I thought I'd cover them here. First up we have the film Jersey Girl. The movie starts as Gertie, the daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's characters, tells her class about how her parents met. We see that as their relationship grows his job becomes a bigger and bigger problem. He puts it first, above everything else. J-Lo tells him off for it and he promises to change. The baby is born and everything is happy till J-Lo dies. Ben's character freaks out and is kicked out of the room and honestly who could blame him. His wife just died. He reaches out to his father, played by the late great George Carlin, to help him out by watching his daughter, who he named after his late wife, while he went to work. He is assigned Will Smith as a client. He doesn't know who Will Smith is. Who the hell doesn't know who Will Smith is? He is now a single father and yet he still puts work above everything else, including his new born daughter. He just expects his father to take of everything but his dad pulls a fast one and takes off, leaving Ben to be a father for once. He brings his baby to the press meeting and baby power blows up in his face. He makes a joke about blow and Will Smith is late. Everyone screams at him chanting Fresh Prince and he tells them to shut the hell up and goes off on Will Smith, calling him a nobody. There goes his job. This causes him to have to move back in with his father out in New Jersey. We jump to when his daughter is 7 and he is still living in Jersey. Now working with his father. While driving his daughter around in a street cleaner he tells her she is riding in the batmobile, can you say forshadowing? Affleck was meant to play Batman and everyone knows it, we always have! No one will hire him because of what he did to Will Smith. Things are not going well for our hero at all. At least until he takes his daughter to the video store and he meets Maya played by Liv Tyler. She shows up at his house and asks him for a date and won't take no for an answer. Why don't women do that for me? Thanks Kevin Smith for making me feel worse for being single! When Maya finds out that Ben's character, Ollie, hasn't had sex since his wife died she talks him into having sex with her. He fights off the offer as long as he can but finally caves. Must be nice to be Ben Affleck. Ah but cocked blocked by the kid. Isn't that the way? He tries to hide her in the shower but his daughter flushes the toilet and she screams. Thus starts the interrogations. She even black mails her father. She is way too smart. They have to close off a street in the middle of town and people are pissed. Ollie talks the town down and everyone buys what he is selling. He reaches to his old assistant to try and help him get a job. He agrees. Ollie gets the job but his final interview is the same day as his daughters play. He lashes out at her and alienates everyone in his family. She hates the idea of New York. She tells him that she wishes he died instead of her mother and he tells her that she and his mother took his life away and all he wants is it back. How heart breaking is that? It's enough to bring me to tears. Maya more or less breaks up with him. Telling him that her living here and him living in New York would never work out. She doesn't mean it, breaking down into tears the second he is gone. Once in New York for his final meeting he ends up sitting next to Will Smith. Talk about irony. The two men hit it off. Will Smith tells him he would rather play in the dirt with his kid and Ollie blows off his interview to go watch the play. Finally learning what is more important. It isn't the most original story but it is one filled with humor and heart and what more could you ask for? The blocked off road that he sold the town on now blocks him from making it to the play. He ditches his car and runs to the school, trying to reach the school in time. Her song, with her grandfather starts and he still hasn't made it. Maya starts off the song just as Ollie gets there but all the doors are locked. The grandfather is about to go in but Ollie makes it just in time to go out on stage and make his daughter's night! The teacher faints and the audience is in shock. This 7 year old girl just did a play about killing someone, Sweeney Todd. But they get on board and applaud her. The night is a win. He even gets the girl!! For a movie that doesn't get a lot of love it is a true masterpiece. Anyone who doesn't love Jersey Girl doesn't have a heart. Simple as that. Another Joss Whedon movie? Yes sir! While on break from the Avengers Joss got some friends together and shot his take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. It's in black and white and stars a great deal of people from other Whedon projects so if you are a fan of those shows you'll love this movie. Hell I love it and I'm not really all that into Shakespeare. My mom use to take me to plays all the time. It was never really my thing. If you are fans of the show Angel this movie is great for another reason as well. It's the chance to right a wrong on that show. We finally get to see Wesley and Fred get together. True this time they are playing different characters. Wesley plays Benedick while Fred is Beatrice. Well Wesley who was played by Alexis Densiof also plays Benedick while Amy Acker plays both Fred and Beatrice but you guys get what I mean. Really to see them together all you have to do is start the movie. It's starts with Benedick feeling all awkward and sneaking out after fooling around while Beatrice pretends to be asleep. Setting up how they feel about each other. They like one another but don't want to admit it. They are both too proud. It's a testament to their acting and Whedon's directing that the old time speak fits nicely within the modern setting. In the wrong hands it could have gone horribly wrong. But here it just seems to work. Since this story has been around since before any of our great grandparents were even alive I won't dive into the plot like I normally do. I'll just stick with the actors and their work. The film was shot in Whedon's home. The scene where Benedick is sitting next to a dollhouse talking serious is beyond amusing. As it is when he is rolling around on the ground trying to listen in without being seen. Densiof plays funny well. It's something that he showed us on Season 3 of Buffy and the first season or so of Angel before he became a badass. Not to be out done, Amy Acker's performance is also chalk full of physical comedy that cracks you up everytime you watch it. Whether it be the first or 31st time watching it. She can bring humor and comedy in the same scene it is truly a skill and don't get me started on when she plays with the heart strings. I know it's not this movie, but try watching Angel A Hole in the World and not crying. You're heartless. Nathan Fillion also brings a great deal of humor to his role with Tom Lenk as his faithful sidekick. If they had a few more scenes it would be safe to say they stole the movie. As it is they stole every scene they were in. Over all this is an amazing fun movie. Shakespeare fan or not. The most misunderstood movie ever made. That's how I would describe The Cabin in the Woods, written during a three day stay in a hotel room by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. Joss produced while Drew took on the directing duties. The two men felt that horror movies have become nothing more than torture porn so they wanted to send it back to it roots. Show what horror movies are supposed to be while also making fun of them. This is the part that no one seems to understand. Cabin in the woods isn't a horror movie, it is a satire. It was advertised as a horror movie and that might be why people don't seem to understand it, but that isn't the movie or its creators fault. If you go into the movie, knowing what it is than there is no way you don't fall in love with it. The film starts off in an office building with two guys just talking, about nothing really. Before too long Amy Acker's character comes up to them and starts telling them that everything is down to them and Japan. They are vague about what it is but that Japan has never failed and they haven't failed in a long time. As they are driving on their go-cart the title of the film shoots onto the screen as it freeze frames. It is really reminiscent of old school B-Horror movies. Kind of what you would get if you watch old Grindhouse films, or the two movies that make up Grindhouse by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Now those are also movies that are misunderstood. They are so much better than people give them credit for. From there we jump to what normal horror movies start with. A girl and her friends getting ready for a trip to the woods. We have the jock, the blonde, the stoner, the books smart guy and the good girl. As they leave for their trip we see a man on the roof watching them. He reports back to the guys from the beginning telling them that everything is going to plan. On the way to the cabin they meet someone who warns them that they should turn back. That nothing good will come from going up to the cabin. As they drive through a mountain we see a bird get zapped by an invisible electric grid. These kids are here to stay and there is no getting out. No matter how bad they may want to. The cabin is the Jock's cousins, he just bought it and is letting them come and use it for the weekend. That is an important point coming up. So the book smart guy takes a scary picture off of his wall and finds out that he has a one way mirror into the good girl's room. He sees her about to take off her shirt but stops her. He has what we call morals. He even switches rooms with her so that she can feel better. The jock and blonde girl are trying to set the two of them up. The good girl does not know how to flirt at all. She is so bad at it that it is painful. Nor does she have the guys morals, she watches him undress, at least for a moment before putting the picture up and then covering it. After all the picture is scary as hell. It doesn't matter that they switched rooms, she is still being watched. They all are being watched on video camera by the office guys. We also learn that they are turning these kids into the stereotypes they need. Turning the smart pre-med student into a dumb blonde. We also see that the man who warned them also works for and is mocked by the office guys. The office guys open a betting pool on what horror story this movie will take. It's an interesting premise. They set the kids up and leaves it up to the kids to live or die. How do people shit on this movie? It is such an original idea. Has anyone ever done anything like this before? Not that I know of. People just love to hate and it is such a shame. They dare the good girl into going down into the basement when it blows open. She screams and the other run down in after her. They find a room full of old stuff. Each from different horror movies. Which ever one finishes playing with whatever object they find first will set the stage for this horror movie. Each friend picks a different object, it comes down to the wire till the good girl summons the red neck zombies. The Stoner hears voices that the rest of them can't. He some how knows all of this is wrong but no one listens to him. He is a stoner after all. The die is cast and the zombies come for our heroes. Everyone is starting to act weird, not at all like themselves and only the stoner can see it. The blonde and jock most of all. He tries to have sex with her but she stops him, the office guys can't have that so they bump up the pheromones making them both want it more. While they are getting to the good part the red neck zombies attack, killing the blonde. When she dies the office guys pull a lever and it spills blood into a pattern. The good girl tells the book smart guy that she has never had sex and then back tracks and doesn't know why she said that. Whatever they are doing to them all is affecting her as well. The good girl swears she won't leave without the blonde so the zombie throws her the blondes head. Talk about timing. The office guys can seem to control everyone but the stoner, making the gang split up even after they decided not to. The stoner is the only one who is in at least somewhat control of himself. The zombie goes after the stoner and everyone including the office guys think he is dead, if they only knew. They pull his lever and the ground starts shaking, they think it is because the creature below is excited but it is because they pulled the lever without the sacrifice being made. The gang makes it out of the cabin just as Japan loses for the first time. Things aren't looking good, even the cave in failed. The heroes might just escape and if they do the old ones will rise. Is this Buffy? The cave in finally happens and they are trapped, or are they? The jock gets on his bike and tries to jump the canyon. He might just have made it if it wasn't for the electric gate that he ran right into and died. Poor guy. Now we are down to two, or well three but we think it is only two. Ahh so complicated. The book smart guy is killed and crashes the RV into the lake. The good girl has to try and escape as it sinks to the bottom. Now that is scary. Drowning is not something that I even want to think about. So we find out that the virgin death doesn't have to happen. As long as she suffered and she has than everything is good and the ritual is complete. Only it isn't. She is on the verge of being killed and everyone is partying. Little do they know that if she dies so do they. The stoner is still alive. They get a call telling them that the stoner is still alive. The party comes crashing down at those words. Now her almost dying becomes nail biting for the people who just moments ago were having a great time. Thankfully the stoner uses his bong to fight off the zombie and saves her as well as everyone else. The stoner and good girl find their way underground and figure out that they are part of something bigger. She even finds out that they had picked their own horror story back in the basement. The office guys order them killed but makes sure everyone knows to kill the stoner first. He has to be the first to die or the world is doom. All the monsters are let loose in the underground base of the office guys. Now everything hits the fans and no one is safe. It's a whole new game. Versions of monsters from almost every horror movie you have ever seen shows up. This is what the Initiative on Buffy would have been like if they had more money. It's one of the coolest scenes I have ever seen in a movie. They even have a unicorn thrown in for good measure. You want to talk about good writing, the one office guy keeps talking about wanting to see a merman kill people, he thinks it will be the coolest thing ever. Well he lays on the ground hurt and a merman comes over to kill him. It turns out to be the lamest thing ever. He dies at the hands that he wished to see everyone else die at. Irony at it's best. Where as the other office guy is killed by the good girl. Not so good anymore. It turns out that the weed that the stoner was smoking made him immune to everything that the office people were doing to them. They find their way into a room where the markings that are filled with blood rests. It is there that Ripley herself shows up to explain everything. The Blonde represented the whore, the jock was just the jock, as was the book smart guy. The stoner represents the fool while the good girl is the virgin or as close as they could find. The two of them learn about the old ones. They learn that if the rituals fail than the old ones rises and ends the world. They ask him to make that sacrifice. He turns down the offer. Figures that this world isn't worth dying for. The good girl is torn, kill her friend and save the world or let the world burn. The choice is taken out of her hands when the warewolf bites her. The stoner saves her from the wolf and the zombie girl saves him from Ripley. Up comes the sun and the end of all things. The movie ends with a giant hand breaching the surface of the world, a sign of things to come. But not before learning that the jock didn't even have a cousin. This movie is amazing. It's funny, thoughtful and exciting. It packs a powerful massage, that dying for the greater good isn't always the best thing. That if the greater good demands that you die maybe it isn't really the greater good. Sometimes the board has to be reset to zero in order for things to change. Now I know this isn't a real movie, more of a documentary or a special but I've been dying to watch this since I missed it when it aired on TV and I finally found it so I wanted to talk about it.
They talked to the family of both Joe Simon and Jack Kirby the creators of Captain America. The character who sky rocketed Timely comics from a small start up to one of the biggest comic companies in the world. America was avoiding the war, even as news of what Hitler was doing was spreading. Joe and Jack put Captain America hitting Hitler on the cover of their first issue. Believe it or not this caused a lot of problems for Timely comics. People saw them as trying to stir things up. After all Hitler was a head of state and we weren't at war. When Pearl Harbor happened it changed everything. Captain America started selling over a million comics. War broke out and Jack and Joe had to go serve like most people. Unlike Stan Lee who served as a writer during the war in a unit with Dr. Seuss of all people, Jack had to go on the front lines. Not really fair but neither is life. Let's just be glad they both made it back in one piece and would go on to give us the Marvel universe we know and love today. As the war came to an end superhero comics went out of fashion. Captain America more than most. After all Cap and Bucky no longer had Nazi's to fight. What were they to do? Well the book was cancelled. It wasn't till Avengers #4 when Stan Lee decided to bring Captain America back. He more or less erased the 50's cap and reconned that Captain America was frozen in the ocean at the end of World War 2. As the 60's went on race tension in America hit an all time high. Stan thought that Captain America should have a black partner, to help show America what could be. Enter the Falcon. The book itself made Nixon into a villain in the book. Changing Cap from a by the book government superhero into someone who cared more about the spirit of America instead of what America has become. Ok, maybe this is cheating but who cares, it's my website and my reviews and I want to do this so suck it up. Today's review, the commentary of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Why would I do a review on a commentary track? Well this isn't just any commentary track. It's a musical all its own! How amazing is that? The second song is all about the WGA strike of 2007, something that shook the industry and inspired Joss Whedon to make this. In-between the songs the actors and writers play exaggerated versions of themselves. Like when the groupie, not Maurissa Tancharoen but the other one, paid Joss Whedon $10 to sing a solo. What was the solo about? Paying $10 to get to sing a solo. It was so meta. And it wasn't really a solo because Nathan Fillion jumped in on it after paying Joss $15. Who comes up with this stuff? Nathan follows it up with another song, this one about how he is better than Neil Patrick Harris. I mean i love Nathan Fillion but come on. That's a hard one. Felicia jumps in with her own song about art, or about how sexy Nathan is, or her show the guild. She's all over the place. Zack raps, what? Zack Whedon raps his song. I like it. But as cool as his rap is, and it is cool, after I finish talking about the Commentary I'm going to review the Dr. Horrible comic book he wrote, that's right there is a comic book. Say what! OK back to the commentary, he spends his whole song trying to act like he is all hard and thug but his brother Jed keeps point holes in all of his stories. It's so funny and really reminds me of Eminem. Maybe Zack is the next Slim Shady, we can only hope. Simon Helberg, of Big Bang Theory fame who plays Moist on the movie drops by to sing a song for his character that was cut out. It's so corny, and you guys know me, I love corny shit, it's just how I am, don't judge me. Please don't judge me, I just want to be liked. Ninja ropes, I'm just going to leave this here. Words can't describe. Next up the groupies sing. Telling us what the movie is really about, namely them. I mean if you have seen the film you can't think it's about anyone other than the groupies. They really carry the film and give it the heart that it needed to elevated it to the next level. They ask Maurissa why she didn't play the part of Penny and she answers simply because she is Asian. She sings about how Asian people can't get roles that aren't just stereotyping. It leads into Joss's song. Oh shit son the man himself sings! He sings about how it feels to be a film maker. A story telling. How no one appreciates what they do and just tear into it as if they are entitled to the story, as if the artist who created have no feelings. After his song everything falls apart and everyone leaves, but for NPH who stays to sing his own solo. He sings about how great he is. He can do the whole show himself, I mean he is NPH. He starts to lose it at the end, his isolation drives him crazy. It's so funny, he plays crazy so well. As amazing as Dr. Horrible is the Commentary is almost even better. Just as NPH is about to cry everyone comes back and patches things up just in time to say goodbye. Aw isn't that sweet! Ok so now for the review on the comic book written by Zack Whedon because why not? The intro alone is worth the price of the book. It is a email convo between Jed, Maurissa and Joss talking about writing an intro to the book with special guest Nathan FIllion just for kicks. It's full of laughs. No really, it is. First up we have Captain Hammer: Be Like Me. It's basically a PSA from Captain Hammer telling people that super villains are everywhere. The nerdy emos and the smart people. Report them all to the police because otherwise you will become their sidekick and end in jail with some big guy who likes you. Captain Hammer is a tool, but we love him. The Second story is all about Moist, called Moist: Humidity Rising. This is the origin story of the B character that we all needed. As a young child he was dry, too dry. His dad wanting to help got him a radioactive humidifier that turned him into Moist. A man so pathetic that even sex hotlines hang up on him. Poor sap. He sees Dr. Horrible get beat up and is inspired to help him. That shows you what kind of guy he is. He is inspired by people who get beat up, not the ones who win the fights. Go figure. Next: Penny: Keep your Head up. Penny does too much. Way too much. She goes out of her way to try and help everybody all the time. At the expense of herself. She goes on a date with a guy so nerdy he makes me look cool, hey am I cool? Who knows. Anyways, she swears off guys, did she sees Dr. Horrible! The Evil League of Evil. Where the Horse is king. And he can talk, something that the rest of the ELE doesn't seem to know till the end. Johnny Storm tries to stop them from killing the town by poisoning the water supply while the heroes are gone but he has to freeze the water to do it. He is now seen as a villain by everyone. Poor sap. Last up, Doctor Horrible. It explains why he was in line in the other stories and sets up the movie nicely. It shows how he grew up loving a mad scientist super villain who killed a super strong hero and wanted to be just like him. The boy needed better role models. The graphic novel collected all of these short stories setting the stage for the film. They are an incredible read that adds a great deal of depth to the world. Any fan of the film should check it out. My all time favorite non movie movie of all time. Does that sentence makes sense? Ok maybe not but the point stands. It wasn't really a movie when it came out but when put together it basically is a movie so let's just call it a movie. Deal with it! What makes it so great? Everything. The songs are funny, the acting is on point. I mean let's run down the three leads, first up is the one and only Neil Patrick Harris. One of the funniest guys around. The guy can do no wrong. In the film he plays the hero, or well villain, Dr. Horrible, who just wants to win the girl and make a world a better place by well taking it over and remaking it in his own image. Looking around at the world we live in can you blame him? So if he is the villain than who is the hero? Well look no farther than the one and only Nathan Fillion who plays Captain Hammer, the hammer is in his pants. Just saying. He plays the over the top self important hero who thinks that the whole world revolves around him. He is after all Nathan Fillion and is there anyone that fans love more? I didn't think so! Finally we have the leading lady. The love interest to both Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer. Who better to play this important role than the queen of the internet herself, Felicia Day. Her character is named Penny, she is a young woman who does laundry and tries to help the homeless. On top of the great talent acting in this film we have the incredible writers, not only writing the story which is great in and of itself but also the songs! Oh the songs. Joss Whedon came up with the idea and called on his brothers Zack and Jed Whedon along with Jed's soon to be wife Maurissa Tancharoen to help him write this master piece. So the film was broken down and released into three acts. The first act is all about setting everything up, it is all about Dr. Horrible having one more chance to get into the evil league of evil. He plans to steal the part of his freeze ray only Penny shows up and he finally gets to talk to her but messes everything up by being distracted by his criminal activity. He remote controls a van and it almost hits her but he stops it in time, only Captain Hammer knocks her out of the way and she thanks him for saving her. Dr. Horrible gets the part he needs but loses the girl. Act Two starts with Captain Hammer and Penny on a date. Dr. Horrible finally gets Penny to talk and hang out with him but all she talks about is how she really likes Captain Hammer and is going back out with him. It's very painful to watch. The girl always picks the super strong good looking hero over the good looking thinner villain. Oh the horrors! Dr. Horrible said his plans on the blog and the LAPD and Captain Hammer showed up to stop him. It caused him his spot on the Evil League of Evil. His only chance to get into the League now is to kill someone. He is torn on this. He only wants to be a villain to help people. Makes sense, don't question it! So by the end of the the second act Captain Hammer figures out that Dr. Horrible likes Penny and shows us what a creep he is. That brings us into Act Three where in the first song we see Maurissa Tancharoen playing one of the groupies. Very cool! We see that Penny doesn't really care for Captain Hammer and that she misses Dr. Horrible but she feels that she has to stay with Captain Hammer because it is what society tells her is right. But he is such a tool. But he did get her the building to help the homeless. So many conflicting thoughts. Not to worry we don't have to feel confused for long because this is when the freeze ray shows up and finally works! Dr. Horrible is making his move! But he can't, he pauses just before killing Hammer and it is all it takes for him to flip the script. The hero Captain Hammer tries to kill Dr. Horrible, what kind of hero is that? The gun back fires and Captain Hammer feels pain for the first time. He runs off crying and it is then that Dr. Horrible sees that Penny is dying. Her last words are telling him that Captain Hammer will save them all. Thank Joss for pulling our heart strings and making us cry. Poor super villain! The press gets it wrong and gives him credit for killing her. It is enough to get him into the Evil League of Evil. He has everything he ever wanted. It only cost him everything he ever wanted. It's soul crushing. Be careful what you wish for right? Is it any wonder that I love this movie so much? It's funny, sweet, catchy and heartbreaking. It's everything that art should be. Oh and the groupies, now they are Dr. Horribles. Sell outs! snapemaraudersfilm.comNow I don't know how many of you out there are fans of Harry Potter. Me I love Harry Potter. I remember as a kid I never really liked to read anything that wasn't a comic book. That was till my mom started reading the first Harry Potter to me. Between those books and the Star Wars novels it wasn't long before I was reading at a college level even in elementary school. These stories always held a special place in my heart and not to be rude, but I've always felt that the movies missed the mark. They didn't seem to have the magic that the books had. If professional Hollywood movies couldn't get that feeling than how could a fan film? Well all they had to say to sell me was put Marauders in the title. Sure Snape's name is first, I could never stand him, but I loved the Marauders. James Potter has always been my favorite character. Normally I put the trailer to the movies I review in these posts but since their film is on youtube I thought I'd embed it here for you to watch! Support indie film makers whenever you get the chance. It is something that I as a indie film maker feel strongly about. I've followed the making of this film for what feels like forever now. They would always post pictures from the set. It looked like it was a lot of fun to make. So how does that show up on film? Well that is what we are here to talk about. The short film Severus Snape and the Marauders by Broad Strokes. Now this just came out and I really want you all to go watch it so no spoilers in this review. The actors are amazing, I buy them as the characters I have been reading about for years. Now the actor playing Snape had a hard task ahead of him. He is after all playing a young Rickman. That is no easy task but he pulls it off. The special effects in the film are breathtaking. It feels like it could take place in the movie verse. For an indie short that is high praise indeed. As a fan of James and the Marauders maybe the story does bother me a bit but it fits in well with everything we know from the books and it is so well done. They know how to play on emotions and get you to feel for everyone involved. You can tell they are fans of the universe. This is a must watch for any fan! This film lived up to everything I wanted from it. Justin Zagri did an amazing job! Now much has been written about this movie. It is a far cry from the TV show which would come later. Is it a good movie or a bad movie? Well let's take a look. Joss Whedon had a thought, what if the blonde girl who runs from the monsters stopped and fought the monsters. It was a fun idea and one that would change his life forever. But not for a while. He started writing it while working on Roseanne. In order to get it made he had to sell it and Fran Kuzui would go on to Direct it. Changing a lot of what Whedon wanted. Through out the film you can see the Whedon whit, the characters types that would go on to populate his many worlds but at the same time miss the heart of what makes him such a fan favorite. The movie opens up as a slayer is called in olden times Europe. Her watcher who is played by Donald Sutherland warns her that she can't ever let the vampires find out who she is. It isn't long before we see that he is still alive in modern times and is looking for Buffy. That is a very weird choice, making the watcher immortal. I don't know how I feel about that, it could be interesting but it could easily go wrong, I feel that it did in this film. What of our star? Buffy Summers is a shallow cheerleader who seems more stupid than anything else. She has a jockey boyfriend who seems like a real jerk, not something that the Buffy we will come to love would ever allow. Now we see that there is an old and powerful vampire who kills the slayer from the start of the film, from there we see him waking up in the here and now. At a local club Buffy and her friends make fun of two outsiders, Pike and his his friend. It isn't long before the vampire king's lackey turns Pike's friend into a vampire. He's the Jessy of his time. Buffy meets her watcher and he tells her the history and destiny of the slayer. Kristy Swanson is a good actress but she doesn't bring the character to life very well. Maybe it is my bias of being a fan of the show but Sarah Michelle Geller gave the character an edge that Swanson doesn't seem to have. This scene of learning about the Slayer history isn't believable. It just seems poorly acted and missing heart. Their interactions through out the film are almost painful to watch, they have no real chemistry. Again I could be putting it up to Buffy and Giles as a comparison and that isn't fair. They had 7 years to build it and this movie only had a few hours but still there was more going on in Welcome to the Hellmouth than there is on this film. The first time she sees a vampire is in a graveyard when Merrick, the name of her watcher takes her to train. It is something right out of a cheesy B-Movie, which is the point. It's fun and light and one of the more enjoyable parts of the film, if you like corny which I do. Pike's best friend flies up to his window and asks to be let in. Pike doesn't, no idea why he would. The only thing I want to know is why is he not more freaked out? If my friend could suddenly fly I would be a great deal more freaked out. He's flying for crying out loud! It seems that no matter what universe Buffy is in, her mother doesn't seem to care about her at all. I mean she comes home late and is covered in dirt and her mother doesn't care at all. It insane. Not as insane as the flying vampire that haunts her dream. I'm guessing that makes him the head vamp but there are better ways to convey vampire powers than swinging guys on wires. It just looks so fake. Buffy skips out on meeting up with Merrick so that she can go to cheer-leading but he comes to find her and try and talk her into fulfilling her duty. She ends up listening and thus starts the Rocky montage. Only nowhere near as inspiring. Pike quits his job and plans on fleeing. Who could blame him, his best friend is a bloody vampire that tried to come into his home and kill him. Meanwhile Buffy confronts Merrick about how she is the one that risks her life while he sits around and does nothing. He tells her how he is reborn each generation with the knowledge to help the slayer with her quest.The two of them seem to have a bond that isn't really created on screen. It seems kind of forced this early. It also doesn't help that Swanson doesn't bring the right sarcasm into the role. Pike is surrounded by vampires as he tries to flee town. He floors it and escapes but just barely. And even then it is only due to the help of Buffy. She is at last starting to fill into her role as hero. She takes him home and tells her what is going on. It takes him a little time to come to terms with it but it is the start of what could only be a true romance. It is weird seeing Buffy feeling all nervous over a guy who not ten minutes earlier had way too much fun making fun of him. At the basketball game one of the player is now a vampire and is making a scene at the game. Buffy the cheerleader watches from the stands as Ben Afleck, Batman himself, tosses the vampire the ball, afraid of what will happen. Buffy stops him from killing anyone but now he knows who she is. For some reason the slayer has to stay secret in this universe. As if the slayer couldn't hold her own against the forces of evil. This time Buffy's life is saved by Pike. The Vampire king decides that Buffy isn't ready so he just kills Merrick instead. No more watcher as Buffy moves forward with saving LA from the evil vampire. Buffy's friends all turn on her. She tries to go back to be a normal teenage girl after feeling like a freak. Pike tries to make her see the truth of it all but she doesn't want to see it. She feels like it is her fault that her watcher died. The Valley girl is back and Pike is pissed. Their fight is what tipped the vampires off to her name. Didn't they just see her face like five minutes before this? But now a name changes everything? I guess. Her boyfriend breaks up with her answering machine and takes her friend to the dance while her other friends act like they don't know her. Her life can't go back to how it use to be. Too much has changed and she is starting to understand just how much. The vampires attack the dance and Buffy goes outside to face them. There are dozens of vampires, much in the vain of what the Prophecy girl episode will become. Meanwhile the kids inside the party are playing Nazi Zombies as they try and break their way in. Only Pike seems to be holding his own against them. Karma always being a champion of the little guy strikes by letting one of Buffy's old friend get carried off by a vampire. So the vampire lackey takes forever to die. Over acting like crazy. I get that it was meant to be funny but they tried way too hard to get a laugh from people. Meanwhile the annoying principle is giving dead students detention and knocks out another one of Buffy's old friends. Can teachers do that? In the end Buffy and Pike took down the vampire king and ride off on his bike into the night. The credits rolls as clips of students and the principle give the news a report of what happened. There is even an after credits scene. It's of the lackey still dying. Over all it isn't a bad movie. It isn't a great movie either. It is what it is and the show takes the best parts of it and makes it better. Check out the show! |
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