Movie Review: Halloween (1978)

This was a review for John Carpenter's "Halloween" that I wrote a few years ago after watching it at a nearby theatre.

 "Halloween started as a low-budget horror film about babysitters being stalked by this serial killer, not a man with a backstory but a force of evil."

-John Carpenter, 2001

"Laurie Strode was EVERYBODY'S daughter, everybody's sister and therefore, if you believed Laurie Strode existed, then when Michael Myers comes in you are afraid for her."

-Jamie Lee Curtis, 2001

Movie Review: Halloween (2018)

This was something I wrote on Facebook two years ago after seeing the latest "Halloween" movie at the time.

In his review of Halloween from 1978, Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and compared it to Hitchcock's "Psycho".

Having just returned from seeing Halloween, the new sequel, I too can compare that to "Psycho".

Unfortunately, it's the remake of "Psycho" from 1998, directed by Gus Van Sant which made a lot of people ask, "What's the point?"

Movie Review: Jaws

"What is special about 'Jaws' is that it hits, in everyone, a primal fear of the unknown that's in water.

-Roy Scheider (2001)

In 1975, a young, then-unknown, Steven Spielberg in only his second effort as director, released a thriller called Jaws, based off the bestselling novel by Peter Benchley. Throughout the years, most people recognize the movie more than the novel and if they did read the novel, they'd find it's the exception to the rule of, "The book is better than the movie."

Know what this movie needs? A subplot where Brody's wife cheats on him with Hooper.

The Comics Conundrum: Max Overacts

It was in April of 2014 at the Calgary Expo on the last day of the show for that year. I found myself walking towards the back of the hall where there were some food vendors when I noticed a table with a particularly eye-catching picture on the table.

I'll be honest, I use this line quite a bit to make myself sound clever...

The two characters were Max (left) and his best friend Klaus (right), stars of the webcomic, Max Overacts. I briefly chatted with the creator of the series, Caanan Grall and decided to purchase the first volume of the comic. The one picture had made me laugh and figured the book might give me a few chuckles.

Movie Review: "What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"

I remember back in May of 1994, it was the finale to Star Trek: The Next Generation and the build up to this finale was massive. A show that had a bumpy beginning had now become the most popular show on television and they were bowing out and it seemed like everyone was treating this as the big deal I, as a seven year old, knew it to be.
The finale lived up to the hype, was a perfect way to wrap up the series and cap off a season where the show was starting to run out of ideas.

When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended in June of 1999...it barely made a blip on the entertainment radar.

"Sensors confirm no coverage from Entertainment Tonight or Entertainment Weekly, Captain."

Movie Review: Shazam

The DCEU (DC Expanded Universe) hasn't had the easiest of starts when it comes to cinematic universes. Man of Steel which I originally liked, I actually began to dislike the more I thought of it to the point where I don't care if I ever see that movie again.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice made me wonder HOW a cartoons from my childhood could do a better job of showing the Caped Crusader & the Man of Steel's first encounter.

Wonder Woman I really enjoyed when I first saw and while I might have a few problems with it, I would probably still enjoy it if I were to watch it again.

Movie Review: Us

After the success of his first film, Get Out in 2017, the big question everyone had about Jordan Peele was a simple one: What's next?

Yes, he was going to be doing a revival of The Twilight Zone but what about a feature film?
The answer came to us Christmas Day with the trailer for his new film, simply titled Us.

The Comics Conundrum: Go Go Power Rangers!

Power Rangers in one form or another has been around since I was around six years old. I remember seeing it for the first time in first or second grade but in all honesty, I never thought it was that great.

Calgary Expo 2017 Wish List

Well, here we are again, once again it's time to slowly start gearing up for the Calgary Expo. While I may have been a bit critical of their guest line-up last year, (Feeling there was more of an emphasis on celebrities than comic creators) I must admit, I had a great time. Picked up some great comics, some great art, met some artists I admired. Even got to do a fist bump with Stan Lee-how cool is that?

Oh and he upped the resale value of my Spider-Man trade paperback...

And as they've recently announced guests like Nathan Fillion, Christopher Lambert, Danielle Panabaker, Millie Bobbie Brown and Jim Shooter, I figured that I would give them a list of people I would like to see them invite this year. 

Schweitzer-Man meets Stan Lee!!!

I had gone to the Calgary Expo many times over the past few years and despite getting the autographs of some actors, artists and writers, I never sought one from the man who was arguably the main attraction to each and every convention he went to: Stan Lee. 

You'd think a huge nerd and history buff like me would want the autograph of one of the few living legends left from Marvel's golden age but, and I must be honest, sometimes I'm not the biggest fan of Stan Lee himself. 

I'm not going to deny his accomplishments but I think a lot of times people give him too much credit undeservedly and he's very unwilling to share that credit. 

Schweitzer-Man Meets Steve Blum

I had hoped that I could kick off my first day in the Calgary Expo by getting the autograph of the one and only Stan Lee. However it seems that I should have checked the program a lot more closely because it turns out he was doing his autographs in an entirely different building. 

By the time I had already figured this out, chances of me getting an autograph from him at the time were slim to none. It wasn't a total loss though since he would be doing other signings throughout the day so I decided to head towards the main autograph area and get the John Hancock of voice actor Steve Blum.