2010 Features

Star Wars Memories – Like a lot of kids born between the mid-1960s and early 1980s the original three Star Wars films were a big part of my youth. So, it was with an odd sense of "holy-crud that was a long time ago!" that I recently read that The Empire Strikes Back (1980), was released 30 years ago May 21. Though I now believe that Empire is the strongest of the original trilogy, I didn't always think that way.

The Modern Comic Book Film – Comic book characters have had a long history with the movies. As far back as the early 1940s Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel were all fighting villains in movie serials and there were film versions of the 1950s Superman and 1960s Batman TV shows released in those respective decades. But it really wasn't until the late 1970s with the film Superman (1978) that comic characters really came to the forefront of the movies and were seen as a major audience draw.

Pray that he's still out there—somewhere – Last time we talked about the film Mad Max (1979). This time the focus is on The Road Warrior (1982). The Road Warrior picks up a few years after the events of Mad Max. If the world of Mad Max was teetering on the brink of collapse then the world of The Road Warrior has completely crumbled ruining whatever was left of civilization in the process.

…Remember, He's on Your Side – When I was in high school my favorite film was Road Warrior (1981). I think the reason that film appealed to me is that it presented a sort of nihilistic view of the near-future that I've always found interesting that was also being explored in films like Escape from New York (1981), The Terminator (1984) and Alien (1979). The main theme of these films seemed to be that the future might not be as great as we might have once imagined and that this bleak time could be here before we know it.

Comics Worth Collecting – I've been collecting comic books in one form or another for as far back as I can remember. The early ones I recall having were a few issues of Spider-Man and Batman along with a oddities like Mad Magazine and the Star Trek comic from Gold Key all tucked away in a box in our toy closet. And though the height of my comic collecting craze (the three c's) was probably from 1992 to around 1999, to this day I still buy comics. The one major difference between then and now is that while I used to visit the comic shop each week looking for new issues of my favorite titles, now I tend to buy collected editions of comic titles.

What to Watch this Spring – As the TV season races towards its summer break and the multiplexes take a quick breath before the crush of the upcoming summer movie season, there are some interesting things to catch on TV and watch in theaters during this transitional time of year.

Summer Movie Preview – Each summer film season seems to have some sort of theme, be it a summer with a few films about asteroids about to smash into the planet or one chock full of films about future civilizations. Unfortunately, the last few years the theme has consistently been "remakes, comic books and TV adaptations" and this summer seems no different in that respect.

Underbelly: It's a Jungle Out There – I've been a big fan of the Australian crime series Underbelly for the last several years now. Unfortunately for most Americans, though, Underbelly has never officially aired anywhere in the US which means that no matter how many people I extolled the virtues of the series to didn't really matter since most couldn't easily see the show. Luckily, though, Underbelly just began airing here in the US on the DirecTV channel The 101.

The Best Films of 2009 – Admittedly, I am a big fan of writer/director Quentin Tarantino. There are very few films of his that I don't consider classics and I'm one of the few who found his last film Deathproof as part of Grindhouse (2007) brilliant. Needless to say, when Tarantino's latest film Inglourious Basterds about a Dirty Dozen-esque team of allied agents fighting Nazis during WWII was announced I found myself giddy with excitement.

Best TV Series of 2009 – To be honest, when I first heard of Modern Family last summer, I wasn't that much interested in the show. Everything I had read and seen about the series made it seem like it was yet another comedy meant to appeal to as wide a range of audience as possible. And when a comedy tries to appeal to, well, everyone it's almost never that funny. But when I actually started seeing promos and clips from the show online, I had a major attitude adjustment. In fact, Modern Family is one of the most unique and funny comedies that has aired in quite some time.

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