Party Like its 1979

Click on over to SuperheroShows.blogspot.com to see how they partied in 1979.

Retrospective 1978 Has Arrived

Check it out 1978 at SuperheroShows.Blogspot.Com

The Trek Backlash Begins

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Haha

Superheroes on Screen - Retrospective 1977

The retrospectives continue over at SuperheroShows.Blogspot.Com (video clips included). 1977 was a particularly good year including including, The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Man, Superfriends, Wonder Woman, Shazam! and others. Check it out.

Superest Sequels - The Sequel

Check out my top 15 picks here.

Coming Soon to a Computer Near You...

Lets face it. Blogging was pretty much invented to help the unemployed feel productive. I jest... But now that I have a job, Serve With Chips has taken suffered dearly. This site has been around for over 3 years now and has received over 900,000 hits, and it may well live as long as the Internet stands, but it will probably not be getting that many more updates from here on out.

Its time to rebrand and refocus. Superhero Shows (SHS) will try and limit its scope to movies, TV shows, or even plays, live action or animated, involving super powered beings. Hopefully, having a limited focus will enable me to provide more consistent content.

See you all there.

Superheroes on Screen - Retrospective 1990

If you like big budget superhero fair, then you may want to steer clear of


1990__________________

Before there was Spider-Man, Sam Raimi brought us Darkman. Staring Liam Neeson, the movie is about a dude who is attacked and left for dead by a ruthless mobster, after his girlfriend, an attorney runs afoul of a corrupt developer Liam is left with burns over most of his body. While hospitalized as a comatose John Doe, he is unwillingly subjected to a radical treatment that destroys the nerve endings connected to his skin, neutralizing his ability to sense physical pain but increasing his brain's emotional output to compensate. Half-crazed, Liam escapes the hospital and decides to get revenge on the criminals who took his life away, but now as a masked vigilante, known as Darkman. The movie is actually pretty good, especially for a lower budget ($16 million) attempt.

In 1990, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hit the big screen with a surprisingly dark (though true to the source material) tone. The film cost $13.5 million and banked 10x that. Though slow at times, this movie is a step ahead of the sequels that followed (though TMNT aint bad).

Hoping to repeat the previous summer's Batmania (Dickmania?) Dick Tracy employed Danny Elfman to write a dark score to this visually interesting film. It also had an all star cast including Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Dick Van Dyke, and Madonna. Not a bad movie, but Tracy is no Batman. The movie broke $100 million, but while Batman is now on film #6, Dick Tracy #2 never materialized.

Much like the failed Fantastic Four and Punisher attempts, Marvel tried to make a low budget Captain America movie. It was so bad / cheesy, it never made it to the silver screen. Thanks to youtube, its crappiness will not be forever forgotten.

The last of the Incredible Hulk TV specials aired in 1990 titled Death of the Incredible Hulk. This outing unsurprisingly featured Hulk dying.

Another Danny Elfman scored project was the one season wonder of the Flash. Following in the footsteps of the Dark Batman film, this series features a darker Flash. Later in the season, the tone lightened up a bit to allow for characters such as The Trickster portrayed by Mark Hamil, a role that may have won him the job of voicing The Joker in the Batman Animated Series.

There you have it, the heroes made due with low budgets back in 1990.

Wild Trailer

I don't know how you turn a book that can be read in 5 minutes into a movie, but the trailer is making me a believer. Could this be this generations Labyrinth? Methinks, maybe.

Bat Logolution

I saw this over at /film and had to copy it. This most definitely qualifies as stuff that matters to nerds.

Miyazaki's Next is Coming to Us U.S. Americans

The Mighty Miyazaki's film Ponyo (on a Cliff by the Sea) has finally been given a US release date: August 14, 2009. Pixar and Miyazaki may finally have a face-off come Oscar season.

The Marvel Shuffle Continues

Having repositioned itself less than a week ago, Thor has now moved up a month from June 17, 2011 to May 20, 2011. I guess Paramount forgot to consult itself when aligning the Marvel dates because it turns out that they want to open Transformers 3 on July 1, 2011 (whether or not that will happen depends on a lot of things, but as of now it is looking not likely as Michael Bay wants 2012). Fearing Thor's legs would get swept out from under him (See Hellboy 2) Thor was moved up to just 2 weeks after Spidey 4. I guess, according to Marvel that while Thor is made to tremble by large transforming behemoths, Spidey aint afraid of no Norse Thunder God.

At this rate, it looks like 2011 is getting stuffed fuller than a Christmas Turkey. The smart money is on Thor moving again, but honestly, shouldn't they be a little more concerned with making the movie, at least for now, than scheduling its debut? And if studios are squatting on release dates 2 and 3 years out, where is DC? So far, they have Green Lantern (which I will believe it when I see it considering the recent Justice League debacle, and earlier Batman vs Superman SNAFUS) and a whole lot of nothing. How is an average Joe like me supposed to fill out my social calendar for 2013 when I dont even know if there will be a Batman film that year!

Superheroes on Screen - Retrospective 1991

A year that was not long remembered when it comes to superheros:

1991__________________


For better or for worse, the most long lasting product of 1991 just may be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze. This is due in part to the appearance of Vanilla Ice and his rendition of the Ninja Rap. The movie was rushed out less than a year after the original and was a big step down. It was the beginning of the end for the once hip shell-heads.


The other, and better, feature film of 1991 was the Rocketeer. Not a box office hit, the movie was actually a pretty decent depiction of life for a 1930's hero - which pretty much only required a jet pack and a mask. Imagine how someone with actual super powers or even just Batman's arsenal could dominate back then.


Lastly and leastly, 1991 didn't bring us a live action Power Pack television show. Although a pilot was made for the Marvel team, good luck ever seeing it.