Screen Rant » Paul Young

Before They Were Movies: Early Attempts to Bring Superheroes to Life Onscreen

Paul Young — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:39:05 +0000

Both DC Comics and Marvel would have you think that big-budget, blockbuster films like Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, Green Lantern and The Avengers are their only attempts to bring popular comic book characters into the live-action arena. They would like everyone to forget the sometimes absurd, ridiculous and often ugly reality: that there were numerous early – and failed – attempts to bring super heroes to both the big and small screens.

Over the next few pages you can read about these early superhero attempts and the actors who portrayed them on-screen. Some you may be familiar with, but we’ll bet you’ve never heard of many of them.

NOTE: This list doesn’t cover every instance of every superhero who has ever appeared on TV or ...

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SR Pick [Video]: Short Film ‘Chameleon’ Keeps You Guessing

Paul Young — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:14:24 +0000

The casual moviegoer may consider a short film to be anything that plays before a Pixar movie, but the more enthusiastic cinephile understands that short films can sometimes be more exciting, interesting, and have a better story than the average big budget blockbuster film.

Cue director Sam Lemberg and his new short film Chameleon, based on a short science fiction story by author Colin Harvey (read the entire short story HERE). In under six minutes Lemberg has managed to make a film that is interesting, well acted, has decent SFX, and will keep the viewer guessing up until the very end – an impressive feat.

Chameleon picks up seven months after a hostile race of aliens have invaded Earth and the government fears that the aliens are modifying their DNA to ...

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10 Badass Rabbits (That Aren’t the Easter Bunny)

Paul Young — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:32:12 +0000

Santa Claus has a pretty tough job – travelling the globe using nothing but the power of reindeer in his quest to deliver every child a Christmas gift. The Tooth Fairy has it just as rough – sneaking into children’s bedrooms in the middle of the night, swapping his cash for their discarded molars.

The Easter Bunny? The only task he’s required to complete is painting a few eggs and hiding them in the place of his choosing – quite a cushy job when you think about it. He makes all rabbits seem like they are strictly innocent, sweet and cuddly – when the truth is, there are plenty of badass rabbits out there.

So, we’ve gathered ten of our favorite badass hares that ...

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10 Obscure but Awesome Greek Gods & Monsters Fit for Film

Paul Young — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:33:03 +0000

Most movie lovers are familiar with the standard gods, demigods and monsters from Greek mythology. Writers like Homer and Hesiod once told stories of these characters through epic poems, but now modern audiences hear these tales in theaters. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Immortals, Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans all draw heavily from Greek mythology – using it as the main source for their stories.

While it is refreshing to see Wrath of the Titans (read Our Review) introducing audiences to several new creatures – including the Chimera, Makhai and the Titan Kronos – Greek mythology has hundreds of characters. We’ve sifted through a good portion of that mythology and found 10 obscure gods and monsters we ...

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Wal-Mart to Begin Offering DVD-to-Digital Conversion Service

Paul Young — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:51:54 +0000

Have you ever wanted to take an old DVD from your collection and transfer it to your laptop, phone or tablet, but had neither the time or know-how to make that happen? Typically, your only choices would be to lug a portable DVD player around and a stack of DVDs with you or use an online service like Netflix, Hulu Plus, iTunes or the Android Marketplace. The antiquated way requires the hauling around of bulky equipment while the newer ways to watch movies require a great internet connection for an enjoyable experience.

Wal-Mart aims to offer a solution to that dilemma next month when they begin rolling out a new DVD-to-digital service at their 3500+ store locations. Wal-Mart worked out a deal with five of the biggest studios in Hollywood – 20th Century ...

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DVD/Blu-ray Breakdown: January 3, 2012

Paul Young — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:29:14 +0000

The New Year is off to a fast start, as far as new Blu-ray releases are concerned. 32 films, documentaries and concerts all get Blu-ray releases today and on our list are a TV show, a couple of interesting films about disease worth renting, and four films not even worth watching. There were eight Triple Features released today – some good, some bad – but we selected the Western one as our main pick.

Let’s take a look at what the first Breakdown of 2012 has to offer.

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DVD/Blu-ray Breakdown: December 27, 2011

Paul Young — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:13:34 +0000

It has been a great year for cinemaphiles in the Blu-ray world with hundreds of films – old and new – hitting the new release shelves each week. This is the final week for new Blu-ray releases in 2011 and the movie offerings are hitting the “bottom of the barrel” stage. Director Uwe Boll is back with yet another potential miss, Hugh Grant, the male Kathryn Heigl of the nineties, sees his first American-made romantic comedy released today. A bunch of astronuants try to convince us the moon is a very scary place, teenagers try to cheat Death and a real life cowboy all get Blu-ray releases. That said, there a couple of great TV shows released this week that should be a must own for any fans of these series.

Let’s ...

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DVD/Blu-ray Breakdown: December 20, 2011

Paul Young — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:08:48 +0000

There are only two weeks worth of new DVD/Blu-ray releases left in 2011, and as the year winds to a close, finding quality movies on the new release shelves is becoming harder to do.

This week offers movie fans just 19 total new releases to choose from, and of those, we could find nine that interested us, such as Warrior and Midnight in Paris, both four-star films. Mixed with them are a handful of mildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable films – Dolphin Tale, A Farewell to Arms and Margin Call – and a couple of films that don’t quite live up to expectations – Colombiana and Straw Dogs.

Fans of the animated show Futurama will be pleased by the thirteen episodes from season six ...

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The Most Memorable Tattoos From Film & Television

Paul Young — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:43:53 +0000

Tattoos aren’t just for sailors and criminals anymore – people from all walks of life get them for all sorts of reasons: to commemorate a special event in their lives like the birth of a child or the death of a loved one, to let everyone who sees it know what their favorite flower, animal, or sports team might be – or maybe it’s a symbol that holds a special significance to them and they keep hidden on an ankle, calf, or other non-visible-while-clothed part of the body.

In the movie world, tattoos usually have a defining meaning to convey to the audience about the characters that wear them. A tattoo can help the audience ...

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DVD/Blu-ray Breakdown: December 13, 2011

Paul Young — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:14:24 +0000

There are 26 new releases out on Blu-ray this week and of those we have picked 10 we think are worth talking about. It is an interesting mix of films: a classic black and white comedy – Seven Chances starring Buster Keaton – a summer blockbuster – Rise of the Planet of the Apes – an award winning drama – Heavenly Creatures – an animated martial arts bear – Kung Fu Panda 2 – a family friendly action film – The Rocketeer – a neighbor who is a vampire – Fright Night – and a high-kicking, limb-severing, face-punching ninja movie from the ’80s – Five Elemental Ninjas.

Let’s see which are worth owning, which are worth renting and which ones to avoid altogether.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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DVD/Blu-Ray Breakdown: December 6, 2011

Paul Young — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:57:50 +0000

There are a couple dozen new releases out on Blu-ray this week, including several popular summer films – Cowboys & Aliens, The Hangover Part II, The Debt and The Help - a couple of box sets – Mission: Impossible Trilogy, Scary Movie Trilogy – a classic historical war film from the ’70s – Tora! Tora! Tora! – and two remakes packaged together – The Omega Man and I Am Legend – and a classic Hitchcock crime-thriller – The Lady Vanishes.

Even families have something to watch with the uninspired, yet humorous, Mr. Popper’s Penguins.

Let’s take a look at nine of these the new releases we think are interesting, and see what special features they offer.

NEW RELEASES

Cowboys & Aliens

Click the Image to Own the ...

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The Best & Worst Movie Posters of 2011

Paul Young — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:12:11 +0000

Every year, literally hundreds of films are released around the world, and movie posters are one way studios promote these films. Some posters are fantastic – showing the creativity of the artist and/or studio promoting the film. Others are just lazy and unoriginal, showing nothing more than images of the main characters staring intently into space. Others still are just laughably and ridiculously bad, showing that almost no thought or effort went into making them.

There were over 1,000 movie posters released this year, but since there isn’t a central database containing every poster, there is a chance we might have left out your favorite. Still, we managed to sort through the dreck and mundane offerings to bring you what ...

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DVD/Blu-ray Breakdown: November 29, 2011

Paul Young — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:51:25 +0000

This week’s Blu-ray breakdown consists of movies involving couples sleeping together, some butt-kicking martial arts action, dead preppy kids, little blue creatures in New York City, vampires, a pizza delivery guy, a superhero, and an idiot – basically like a family reunion (minus the superhero).

There are 36 films released on Blu-ray this week and we have listed 10 possible choices for you to add to your ever growing catalog of films. Below you will find the synopsis for each film, our score if we reviewed the film, as well as, the score from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB – all to help you make the decision whether to purchase, rent or skip. Or you could just read our final verdict on each one and base your decision on that.

Let’s get to it…

NEW RELEASES

The Smurfs

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NYCC 2011: Cosplay Photo Gallery

Paul Young — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:53:49 +0000

The New York Comic Con, though not as big and popular as the massive event that is the San Diego Comic Con, still brings out people in droves – and where there are comic book fans, there are sure to be plenty of people dressed in cosplay. NYCC 2011 was no exception.

Ranging from store-bought superhero costumes to elaborate and expensive homemade costumes, the cosplay fanatic will go to great lengths to dress as their favorite superhero, sci-fi, fantasy or anime character. In the world of cosplay, originality is the key to being successful and success is often judged by the number of people asking to take your picture.

An expert cosplayer at a Con can draw hundreds of people all clamoring to take a picture, and unlike our Cosplay Babes Photo Gallery the popular people don’t always show a lot of leg or cleavage (though ...

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NYCC 2011: Cosplay Babe Photo Gallery

Paul Young — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:18:00 +0000

New York Comic Con 2011 hit in full force this past weekend, with companies showing off the latest X-Men: Regenesis comic series and characters from Marvel, interesting looks at Total Recall, Ghost Rider 2 and Underworld 4 from Sony, updates regarding Batman: Year One and Justice League: Doom from DCU Animation. While some might think the highlight of the Con was the unveiling of footage from the highly-anticipated, Joss Whedon comic book movie The Avengers – the true reason to attend this (and any Comic Con, really) are the babes dressed in cosplay.

Comic-Cons are like superhero Halloween – i.e., they give women a reason to dress-up in skimpy comic book attire and parade around in public – and the comic book fans enjoy every minute of it. I’m not sure who said it, but the quote “Beautiful women make everything better,” is quite appropriate ...

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‘Transformers’ Complete Movie Character Guide

Paul Young — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:35:55 +0000

Transformers: Dark of the Moon arrives on Blu-ray and DVD, thus completing fans’ home video collection of Michael Bay’s Transformers trilogy.

Now that the entire series is available for home video movie-marathon satisfaction, we thought we’d follow-up our Transformers: Dark of the Moon character guide with a look back at the entire trilogy and put together a massive compilation to all the Autobots and Decepticons that have been featured in Bay’s Transformers universe (for better or worse).

We’ll start with the original Transformers (2007), move to the sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and end with third chapter Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

We’re leaving no gear unaccounted for, either – from the indistinguishable robot clones to all the silly bots that pop up in each film, to the different versions of popular characters we saw in ...

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The Evolution of the Movie Ape

Paul Young — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:47:35 +0000

The English naturalist Charles Darwin shook up the science and religious worlds in 1859 by theorizing modern man had evolved from lesser lifeforms in his book On the Origin of Species. Whether he was right or not is a religious and scientific debate for another time. Instead, let’s discuss something we do have undisputable proof of – the Evolution of the Movie Ape.

For almost a eighty years Hollywood and audiences have been fascinated with the onscreen depiction of actors and actresses playing the role of an ape. As special effects technology and makeup techniques have improved over the years, audiences have been treated to better and more realistic depictions. Sometimes, (and in the case of the new release Rise of the Planet of the Apes) the ...

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Comic-Con 2011 Cosplay Gallery: Pictures Of 74 Awesome Costumes

Paul Young — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:20:53 +0000

The 2011 San Diego Comic-Con has come to a close, and we’ve brought you plenty the best coverage we’ve ever provided (with more yet to come). Here’s just some of the information we’ve posted up over the last few days: Hugh Jackman confirming the Silver Samurai as the villain in Wolverine 2; Nathan Fillion talking Uncharted; Edgar Wright giving an Ant-Man update; the first look at Snow White and the Huntsman and Marc Webb discussing the 3D camera work from The Amazing Spider-Man.

But all of that news is only one part of the Comic-Con experience. Another major part part – and the reason some people even attend – is to see and/or be a part of cosplay. Whether you’re standing in line to see Twilight in Hall H, listening to a comic book writer discuss his industry in Room 33A or just trying to ...

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Hugh Jackman Reveals The Villain Of ‘Wolverine 2′

Paul Young — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:44:25 +0000

The 2011 San Diego Comic-Con is finally in full swing and there are plenty of movies, TV shows and comic books all clamoring for your attention and dollar. Besides all the panels, round table interviews and promotional boothes inside the convention center, studios also hold promotions outside the facility in the surrounding parking lots – in this case Petco Park (home to the San Diego Padres).

Hugh Jackman made a surprise appearance this morning to do a promotion for his upcoming fighting robot movie Real Steel, and during the Q&A time with the audience he dropped some pretty interesting bits of information regarding Wolverine 2 – namely who the main villain is and when they will start shooting the film.

Naming the villain could be considered a spoiler to some folks, so if you ...

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‘He-Man: Masters of the Universe’ Reboot Script Update

Paul Young — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:34:21 +0000

New information regarding the on-again/off-again He-Man movie reboot, Masters of the Universe, hasn’t exactly been flying at a whirlwind pace. In fact, the project has been in a serious state of flux over the past three years, as two directors were rumored to be attached – John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) and Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) – and the entire project moved from Warner Bros studios to Sony Entertainment.

Last year a Masters of the Universe script written by Justin Marks (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li) was scrapped and writers Alex Livtak and Michael Finch (Predators) were brought on board by Sony to pen a new script. Writing a script for a massive project like this must take a really long time, because 15 months ...

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