Random Film of the Week(end) 3: MAGIC


magic posterIf you were an impressionable young lad or young lady of a certain age growing up in the 1970’s, the TV commercial for this film probably scared the piss out of you and more than once at that. I was 14 and at the time this came out and man, it freaked the hell out of me, especially when it popped up late at night.

That meant I just HAD to see it back then, even if it meant sneaking into a theater playing it. Of course, being the more carefree 70’s, that bit of stealth action wasn’t necessary at all, So I managed to get in with a friend from school and ended up being a bit disappointed that the film, while good, wasn’t as chilling as the TV spot. Of course, a few years later I saw it again and got a new appreciation for it, so I’m probably just like a few of you who also caught this back in the day.
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World War Z Trailers: (Almost) No One Gets Out Alive…

I have to say that the less one believes in this whole “zombie apocalypse” sub-genre that’s taken the world by storm, the more comic some of these films, books and other media tend to be. Look, the fact that people are making money off of being so-called “experts” in zombies and surviving the horror of the “inevitable” invasion means there are way too many fools parting with their money that they should be spending on better things. Hell, even this awesome-looking flick will become something of a “zombie” itself once it goes into heavy cable rotation in what, nine or so months after it’s released? Or Christmas, if the film needs to grab some big holiday bucks as a home video release.

My bet is we see a good deal of this summer’s flick pop up by the end of this year or early next as big-deal Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs. Granted, most will be milked further as “Director’s Cut” or “Unrated” versions with all sorts of extra footage and bonus features, but hey – some things never change as time goes on… Well, until some jerky corporation decides ALL physical media is like a zombie that needs its head chopped off and we’re all forced to sit in front of a damn monitor of TV that’s connected to crappy internet that LAGS like molasses made in hell because everyone is trying to download or stream the same flicks at the same time. Bleh – I’d rather get my brain eaten by a damn zombie than suffer through that crap, that’s for sure…

Star Trek: Into Darkness Trailer 2: Jumping Off Tall Stuff Is The New Black (Part 2)…

Speak of the devil, here’s another trailer for J.J. Abrams’ sequel, which is still making some old-school Trekkies livid for basically having more action in two minutes than half a season of the original series. I say as long as the plot is solid and the characters well-written and acted, i don’t mind at all. I’m still cracking up at all the shots of people jumping off high places, as it seems to be a hallmark of the director’s style. The funniest thing about these shots is you KNOW everyone jumping in them isn’t going to end up like Wile E. Coyote a the bottom of a ravine at all… it’s just how and where they land that’s going to keep the sequence going. Hmmm… someone needs to make a YouTube video of EVERY Abrams jump-off shot and landing and post it so I can fall out of my Captain’s chair in hysterics. Get on it and get back to me – that’s your homework assignment for the week…

Iron Man 3 World Tour: The Cast Gets Around, The Crowds Go Wild…

Well, these big press and fan-packed junkets are always weird and often dull as hell for the casts of these blockbusters, but you have to give Robert Downey Jr. a few metric tons of credit for doing his own awesomely quirky thing to shake stuff up. Well, reaction to the film is definitely great overseas, so that enthusiasm will no doubt carry on as the film arrives at a mega-multiplex near you on May 3. Hey, you still have time to finish that Coke can Iron Man outfit you’re working on (yeah, I know you didn’t want me to say anything, but…), so get to it! Just leave the windows open when you’re spray painting, as huffing in those fumes will do you in faster than the Mandarin with his can opener ring…

The Lords of Salem “Beasts” Clip: You Can Run, But… You Know The Rest.

I happen to like Rob Zombie’s horror films and more particularly, how he’s grown as a director since House of 1000 Corpses, which blended horror and black humor in the style of a bunch of 1970’s genre flicks. The Devil’s Rejects worked even better as a sequel thanks to his darkening the characters and comic relief even more in favor of a relentless sense of dread and some truly shocking violence. The soundtrack was also amazing for its use of classic 1970’s radio songs that drove some key scenes (the ending of the film is particularly brilliant). His takes on the Halloween films were really cool because he gave Michael Myers a back story that made you actually feel for the disturbed kid who’d become the unstoppable killer of your worst nightmares. I keep meaning to see The Haunted World of El Super Beasto on cable, but I keep missing that animated feature or finding it on somewhere in the middle and I want to see it from the beginning. Anyway, The Lords of Salem looks pretty creepy based on the clips and trailer I’ve seen, so I just may have to check this out at some point. Of course, I’m so busy that it’ll probably be on cable late at night with me half hiding under a blanket…

Two More Reasons To Grab Message From Space On DVD…

Sure, it’s not the best sci-fi flick out there, but there’s a certain crazy exuberance in these clips that makes Message From Space pretty hilarious in its own right. Yeah, I like bad films as well as great ones, so sue me. or at least watch this one and some of the others I recommend from time to time. You’ll get an education on cinema and not have to pay too much to some silly film school where all you’ll learn is you’ve gone into debt and no one will hire you to work on a feature film because you spent too much time in class listening to some old guy telling you there’s nothing better than Citizen Kane. Which is true in some respects, but there are a LOT of great (and not so great) movies in other genres worth seeing…

Shout Factory Thaws Out 1990’s Captain America (And Its Camp Awesomeness)…

I remember seeing this at a convention and being floored at how cheesy some parts were but overall, it being really fun it was to watch. Cap with those wings on his head straight out of the comic book, battling the Red Skull and a bunch of Nazi creeps worked well for what it was, but of course, Marvel buried this budget flick for ages soon afterward. It’s actually not bad at all and LIGHT YEARS better than the terrible TV series that ran for a short time in 1979. Then again, it seems that Cap has gotten better with age in terms of his film and TV appearances. The most recent flick was sheer fun from start to finish and even the video game kinda-sorta based on that flick wasn’t half bad, warts and all. Anyway, if you loved that new Cap flick and want to check out one that’s in the same vein, defintely hit up Shout Factory’s site and grab this comic book flick if you like your heroes imperfect yet still able to put a boot up the butt of the bad guys

Iron Man 3 Featurette 2: Tony Stark Certainly Doesn’t Buy His Suits At Men’s Wearhouse…

Another week, another Iron Man 3 making-of feature bound for the home video release (mark my words). It’s fun seeing Marvel set up their universe through these recent flicks that do an interesting job at condensing that huge history from their comics into two-hour (or less) chunks easily digested by the masses. Granted, for some reason Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and some other heroes haven’t yet gotten that “perfect” reworking as film properties (at least in my opinion), but it’ll be interesting to see how the characters from other films cross over into the more popular ones over time…

Man of Steel Trailer #3: NOW We’re Going Somewhere…

Yeah, that’s more like it. Of course, given the buzz building up around this one, it’s still going to be polarizing at the end of the day because of the new, darker tone and weird Superman costume some still hate with a passion. Of course, I say let’s see this as a nice restart to a franchise that went off the rails after the second film (and even then, that second film was half of what it could have been thanks to a directorial change that added a wee bit too much funny stuff). If this new flick IS as amazing as it looks, I’m hoping there’s a story arc sitting in a safe somewhere that can be whipped out to ensure the same quality goes into that (inevitable) sequel…

After Earth Trailer: Isn’t There A Happy Future Flick Out There?

 

OK, OK, I get it. We’re totally screwed in the future. SPOILER ALERT: “Soylent Green is people!!!”  Oops. Wrong movie. Anyway, as good as these films look with all those fancy effects and enotional performances, it’s turning into a parade of “We’re DOOOOOOMED!” cinema, which for my dime, was done better back in the days of cheaper and campier “B” flicks. Don’t get me wrong, folks – I like watching these films from time to time, but it seems that Hollywood LOVES to follow trends and run them into the ground to an overly numbing degree. Of course, try telling that to the masses who end up plopping down the cost of a movie ticket on a regular basis to see these similar flicks and you’ll probably catch a popcorn bucket to the head…