The View From The Mountain

I was watching a video on YouTube about the "wacky" animated fantasy films of the 80s, and it made me realize that this year marks the fortieth anniversary of Fire And Ice . Unlike the other fantasy films (both animated and live-action) that were released in the 1980s, Fire And Ice was notable because it was a collaboration between animated film director Ralph Bakshi ( Fritz the Cat , Wizards ) and noted fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta. Fire And Ice takes its inspiration more from the Conan the Barbarian stories (which Frazetta became first known for, having drawn the covers for them) rather than the Lord of the Rings . Bakshi was no stranger to J.R.R. Tolken’s works, having produced his own animated version of LOTR a few years prior. Bakshi re-used his favorite form of animation, called rotoscoping, where actors are filmed onstage, and their actions on film are then hand-drawn, frame by frame, by an animator onto cells. This provides a far more reali...

Hey, Venom’s back, and he brought Carnage with him! The first Venom film snuck up on me, despite the fact that I was never a huge fan of the character. It was Tom Hardy’s deft performance, along with the generous dash of humor, that won me over with the first Venom film. But the inclusion of Woody Harrelson in a scene at the very end, along with the hint that he would be Carnage, was so tantalizing that I wished that had been the main storyline of the first film. Well, Carnage--a villainous version of Venom in red--takes center stage in this sequel, as Woody Harrelson’s deadly alter-ego runs rampant over San Francisco, aided by his girlfriend (well-played by Naomi Harris, who played Moneypenny to Daniel Craig’s James Bond), who can kill people with a blast of her ear-shattering shriek, sort of like Marvel’s villainous version of DC’s Black Canary. With two fine actors as these playing baddies, it’s a shame they’re not on screen for very long to be really e...

When I was a kid, my G.I Joe figures were twelve inches tall, and they came with an assortment of vehicles, many of which I had. I was a kid back in the 1970s, and G.I. Joe then was mainly an adventurer, he was an Indiana Jones-type of explorer several years before Raiders of the Lost Ark had even been released. When the G.I Joe resurgence happened in the 1980s, I was too old to be playing with G.I. Joes, having given my old figures away to my younger cousins. Besides, I really didn’t care for the whole 80s craze of having the cartoons be nothing more than half hour commercials for the toys. When I heard they were making Snake Eyes, I originally thought it was going to be a remake of the Brian DePalma film starring Nicolas Cage as a cop trying to uncover a conspiracy during a hurricane in Atlantic City. In other words, I really had no knowledge of the “new” G.I. Joes--one of which is a dude dressed in all black who goes by the handle of Snake Eyes. But when I went in ...

Coming nineteen years after the first X-Men movie, X-Men: Dark Phoenix wraps up the superhero team saga without any mention of Hugh Jackman’s Logan/Wolverine (Jackman retired from playing the character after 2017’s Logan ) in a more toned down adventure that, at times, seemed derivative of past (and better) X-Men movies. It’s the far-flung future of 1992 and the X-Men are called to rescue the crew of the space shuttle, which has come under attack from a strange cloud of energy from outer space while in orbit above Earth. Jean Grey’s (Sophie Turner) already considerable physic powers receive a major boost when she’s exposed to the otherworldly energy. And not only is she more powerful, but she can also see through a lie that Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) had created within her mind as a child in order to “protect” her. This incites Jean to become very cranky, which is not a good fit for a person who’s now armed with the powers of a god. Vuk (Jessica Chastain), the leader of an ali...

Warning, this review has spoilers for this movie. First off, I enjoyed Avengers: Endgame ( A:E ). It’s hard not to enjoy this epic superhero tale, which unites a group of heroes in a daring plot to undo a horrific, universe-wide mass murder that’s been committed by an interstellar warlord named Thanos (well-played in motion capture by Josh Brolin). Even though time travel is involved, the Russo Brothers do a grand job in keeping a handle on it, making sure that the concept, as well as its execution, is understandable to lay audiences. And even if the science explanation is lost on some people, it doesn’t really matter, because A:E gets very far on its charm and excitement. However, with a three hour running time, A:E can still be very unwieldy, and it even drags badly in many sections. I did not see A:E in the theaters, instead I waited for it to hit home video, and I’m very glad that I did this. I paused the movie after every hour for either a bathroom or a snack replenishment br...

Before Batman first premiered in the summer of 1989, my younger self was convinced that it was going to suck really badly. Here were my reasons: it was directed by Tim Burton--who, at that point, only directed Pee Wee’s Big Adventure , and Beetlejuice --and it starred Michael Keaton, an actor, who, at that time, was best known for starring in comedies like Mr. Mom . Once I heard that ‘Mr. Mom’ was playing Batman, I was convinced that the then-new Batman film was going to be a disaster. Of course, back when I held these firm convictions about Tim Burton’s Batman , I hadn’t actually SEEN the movie yet. When Batman opened, it wasn’t just a hit movie, it was a cultural phenomenon. The character was already a well-known commodity, thanks to the 1960s Batman TV series, which served as my introduction to the Dark Knight back when I was a toddler. However, it felt as if the entire nation happily suffered Batman fever during the summer of ’89. Batman , both the film and the character, was ...

When I finally saw Shazam , the latest superhero movie from the DC Comics Universe, I thought it was marginally good at first. It was interesting, and a little bit funny…cute, even. But as I kept watching Shazam , something really nice happened. It got better. And then from that point, just when Shazam was getting really, really good, something even more amazing had occurred. Shazam had become fantastic. I should mention that I have been a fan of the Big Red Cheese from a very long time ago, back when he was known as Captain Marvel and had a TV show alongside another superhero named Isis (this was back in the 1970s, before that name became thoroughly trashed by real-world connotations). You see, “Shazam” was the phrase that young Billy Batson used to turn into Captain Marvel, a super powered hero to comes to the aid of those in need. But since Marvel Comics hijacked the Captain Marvel name for their own second stringer hero, the Shazam filmmakers, led by director David F. Sandber...

Released two years after Conan the Barbarian , Conan the Destroyer was the first and only sequel starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular warrior. John Milius, who wrote and directed the first Conan movie, wasn’t available to helm the sequel due to prior commitments. Milius recommended veteran film director Richard Fleischer for the job. Fleischer helmed The Vikings (which was a film that Milius enjoyed and mainly why he recommended Fleischer for Conan II), as well as the Walt Disney version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea , and Soylent Green , among many others. Fleischer would also direct Schwarzenegger once again in Red Sonja (released the following year), starring Brigitte Nielsen in the lead role. Conan the Barbarian made a ton of money back in 1982 even with an R rating. Both Schwarzenegger and Fleischer had initially expected Conan the Destroyer to also be R rated--until Universal, the studio that released the Conan movies, informed them that Destroyer must have a ...

The Captain Marvel that I knew and loved as a kid was from DC Comics. He was the superhero that young Billy Batson turned into whenever he said the word “SHAZAM!” I used to read the DC Captain Marvel comics in the 1970s, as well as watch his half-hour TV show (which aired in an hour block with Isis , another female superhero who will probably never be revived, thanks to negative present-day connotations with her name). By the time Marvel Comics had gotten hold of the Captain Marvel name and recreated her as Carol Danvers in the 1990s, I had stopped reading comics on a regular basis (they were just getting too expensive for me). So I really had no idea who this new-fangled (at least to me) Captain Marvel was when I started watching her film, which was the next stop on the ongoing cinematic saga that the Marvel superhero films have become in recent years. There was one main draw for me in seeing this Captain Marvel , and that was the woman who plays her, Brie Larson. I first saw B...