Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie, Paranormal Romance and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Artist, Publisher

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5 out of 5

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s SUPERMAN!

Sixty-nine years ago this world turned a corner. In 1938, two young boys created a hero that would inspire an entire planet and someone who this world would adopt as its own son. Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster gave us Superman, the world’s first superpowered hero.

Produced by Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, X-Men), Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman is an in-depth look at the Man of Steel’s history, going way back to before Siegal and Shuster created him, what led up to it, and what happened once they put pen to paper.

This is a remarkable documentary. It covers the comic books, all TV series, the movies, cartoons, even a hokey Superman musical.

Interviews with Stan Lee, Gene Simmons, Mark Hamill, Adam West, Annette O’Toole, Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh, Jack Larson and a host of others are peppered throughout, with the whole documentary narrated by Kevin Spacey.

This is the history of the Man of Steel.

This is the amazing story of Superman.

Go watch it.

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5 out of 5

He was thought dead. The laughter was supposed to have ended.

But evil never dies.

The Joker is back!

His mission? Why, give Gotham a wedgy again!

But this Gotham is different than the one the Joker left behind. It’s a new Gotham with a new Batman.

Plenty of surprises abound in this thrilling chapter in the Batman Beyond universe.

This movie is brilliant, pure and simple.

I’ve seen both the regular and the uncut versions of this film and it’s the uncut version that’s being reviewed here (the regular is virtually the same and has only a few altered scenes).

The uncut version doesn’t hold back and isn’t sensitive to the viewer’s eyes. This one’s much more violent than the regular version. In the original release, certain events were only implied. In this one, they are shown. (If anything, I was surprised at how graphic this cartoon was compared to the Batman Beyond and Batman: TAS episodes.)

Ah, yes, the joys of direct-to-DVD releases.

The Batman in Batman Beyond, Terry McGinnis, is real. You care about him, you relate to him. You want to be him even when the tension mounts between him and his mentor, Bruce Wayne.

The Joker’s nasty in this and once more Mark Hamill, with that creepy laugh of his, reminds us why he was born to play the Joker. The dialogue, the jokes—utterly fantastic!

The story is stellar, with multiple plots going on at once. It also answers the questions you have about the fate of the characters from Batman: TAS, which had a series finale that fell flat. (It was just another episode, really.)

The first time I saw this film I couldn’t believe what happened to one of the Bat regulars. It still blows me away every time I see it.

Wow.

Language warning: Blasphemy

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4.5 out of 5

The Mayans warned us thousands of years ago that 2012 would mark the end of the world as we know it.

They were right.

We just didn’t listen.

Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), separated dad and smalltime novelist, goes for the ride of his life when him and his family are caught up in the end of the world in the year 2012.

Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) stumbled onto the truth of what was really happening to the earth back in 2009. He showed his friend and colleague Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who in turn told Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), who in turn told the President (Danny Glover). Plans were made. Research done. Even some advancements were made . . . but all for naught.

Catching wind from lunatic conspiracy theorist and radio broadcaster Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson) that all the rich folks in the world plus those who would create the perfect gene pool were to be held up in a series of arks till the disasters ran their course, Jackson Curtis takes his family on an adventure to head them off and get onboard themselves.

Disaster after gigantic natural disaster ensues and the Curtis family narrowly escapes with their lives, that is, until they find the arks somewhere in China and learn that the powers that be have other plans in mind for humanity’s survival.

If there was any one word that I would use to describe this film, it would be “big.” Actually, not just “big,” but “BIG!!!!” HUGE! COLLASSAL! GIGANTIC and UTTERLY MASSIVE!

At the time of this review, this movie is still in the theatre. It definitely is a must-see-at-the-theatre movie. You need that big screen and surround sound to do it justice.

Everything is big scale in this one: the collapsing buildings, the giant earthquakes, the mountains crumbling, land folding over itself and falling a zillion feet to the earth’s core, the tsunamis, the dust clouds—the list is endless, and everything is done HUGE. The whole time I was just sitting there with my mouth hanging open going, “Whoa . . . whoa . . .”

Sure, there are a few convenient plot devices and a few impossible odds are overcome, but I went into this thing expecting a popcorn blockbuster with over-the-top special effects and that is exactly what I got. I left the theatre with a huge smile on my face.

Though I personally don’t buy into the world ending in 2012, this is still one worth seeing.

Go see it. You’ll love it. Good times for all.

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4 out of 5

There are rumors of a six-foot bat in Gotham City. Whispers. Suggestions. Nothing concrete. But all that changes after the Batman confronts Carl Grissom’s men at Axis Chemicals and Grissom’s top hood, Jack Napier, gets dropped into a vat of chemicals, transforming him into the maniacal Joker. Discovering he had been set up by his boss to take a fall at Axis, Joker takes over Grissom’s operation, in turn allowing him to try and take over Gotham City itself, with only the Dark Knight to stop him.

This was the film that gave us the “movie Batman” we know today: dark and armored. If it wasn’t for director Tim Burton’s gothic and grim vision of crime-ridden Gotham City and its brooding protector, I suspect the edgy superhero movies of today wouldn’t exist.

Michael Keaton takes on the title role as billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and his rubber-clad alter ego Batman, delivering one of the greatest Batman performances that many, at the time, hadn’t expected from “Mr. Mom.” And after his memorable line during the opening rooftop scene, “I’m Batman,” from that moment on he had you sold that his version of the Dark Knight meant business and quenches any lingering thought that Batman, thanks to the 1960’s TV series, is a campy superhero.

Stealing the stage is Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Basically take the Jack from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and crank it up to 100 and you have the Joker. Nicholson does a brilliant job of blending the serious and twisted Joker while also playing the crazy, laughing machine. I’m sure when Batman: The Animated Series came along, Nicholson’s Joker was the template for Mark Hamill’s performance as the voice of the character. Awesome.

Danny Elfman’s haunting and lonely score only adds to the movie’s eeriness.

My only problem with the film was there wasn’t enough Batman. I remember that bothering me as a kid. Batman shows up all of four times in the film, the first being something like only for a minute. Each subsequent time gets progressively longer, thankfully.

Bold, atmospheric and downright fun, Batman is one for the ages. It was where the modern dark superhero movie started.

Language warning: Cursing and blasphemy