Nerd Movie

[Pinky]

I met Aaron Lowe in early 2013 and wrote a few movie reviews for a new site he was working on. I put a thread about it here, but I've closed that thread now. Life happens, time passes, flux capacitor... fluxing. Still working on it and all new stuff, so let's see what's going on now!

Nerd Movie is still on facebook and twitter, and while the website is offline for a bit, project growth is still under way, and we'll be checking back here for wassappenin with groups, cons, communities, and all the other nerdtastic stuff that keeps us motivated through our alternate lives of coffee and jobs and paying bills.

[Pinky]

Canadian Comics Action Auction



The Canadian Comic Action Auction Group is a private facebook group developed by Aaron Lowe of Nerd Movie specifically for

"buyers and sellers who love comics and want to buy and sell to other enthusiasts... We believe in reasonable prices, and accessible comics for all. You may sell at any price but the ethic of charging what you are likely to get rather than what you dream is possible presides here
FAST...FUN...ACCESSIBLE COMICS FOR ALL!

GROUP TYPE
Buy, Sell, Trade"

As this is a Canadian group, Canadian prices apply. Americans are welcome to bid and save money on exchange but be aware that international shipping is more costly. If you join from other countries outside the U.S. and Canada, ask about pricing and exchange within the group.

[myke]

Thanks Pinky for the information about the site!

I have a small collection of comic's myself mostly handed down to me from a relative, the website looks interesting.

myke

[Pinky]

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

In June 2013, I wrote a Buckaroo Banzai review for the Nerd Movie site. Even though it's my own contributed content, I wrote it exclusively for Nerd Movie. It hasn't been seen in awhile because maintenance and stuff, so I'm copying it here to SyfyDesigns, with Aaron's blessing.

I wrote this in my email to Aaron when I submitted my review-

"There are so many Buckaroo Banzai reviews out there in so many forms, I took liberties to be as different as I could in a thick soup of redundancy. I also included links to what I think are the most interesting and pertinent sites and even got a couple of my own screen snips from my dvd. I think this was the most rewritten review I've ever done because my head has already been so saturated with other people's reviews. Gets really old that everyone out there describes this movie the same way. Kevin Smith even spent 45 minutes doing a documentary about it, so it's literally been reviewed to death. Still, it's just about my fave movie EVER and deserves a sparkling fresh write up."

Before I copy it here, I just want to add that this movie seriously tops the most badass scifi concoction ever dreamed up, and the actor spotting is delicious. I must also add that SyfyDesigns was one of the very few sites posting about a public Buckaroo Banzai watch party before it's 30th anniversary rolled around, and you can see in this thread that I was all over it months before.

~~~~~~~~~~



The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension is one of those cult flicks that wound up being a veritable Who's Who of 'Before They Were Scifi Stars' cast lineup- Peter Weller (Robocop, 1987), John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun, 1996), Jeff Goldblum (The Fly, 1986), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, 1985), and many more. The lengthy cast list can be found at The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) - Full cast. Watching this movie is really fun for actor spotting, especially with the hindsight of knowing the films and awards they went on to achieve, probably one of the most improbable coincidental circumstantial scifi films of all time for that alone.



The whole Buckaroo Banzai concept feels like being dropped into a parallel world where Hollywood took a wildly different turn, because very quickly we find out that Buckaroo Banzai is a legend not only for his rock and roll band (the Hong Kong Cavaliers) and evidently wildly successful comic book, but is also a brilliant brain surgeon and scientist in 'real life' with a direct line to the President. The feel of this movie is that you missed the first movie, the novelizations, and the merchandising and cut straight into one of his many ongoing adventures. By the closing credits you feel like you should be able to find more movies, just because that's the way the movie is made, but alas, there is only this one movie, and it feels like it mysteriously showed up from an alt time and place where very different histories played out in the movie industry. Some people don't get that the fantasy and 'reality' are so cleverly woven together from this angle of insinuating that much more merchandising is going on that they find it confusing and overdone, but if you can adapt and play along in your mind believing that Buckaroo Banzai really is a 'thing', then this is just an incredibly fun movie, and some even call it genius.



Since this movie is almost 30 years old, I'm not going to worry about spoilers because the way I'm about to say it has never been said before in the surprisingly numerous reviews out there- In a nutshell, the 1938 War of the Worlds really happened but got hushed up, and it's all Buckaroo's mentor's partner's fault that a banished group of alien lizards called Red Lectroids were released to Earth's dimension during a failed experiment driving through solid matter. That being said, now the movie will make a lot more sense and you can enjoy your popcorn while you catch all the other cool stuff. Being a MSTie fan will definitely give you an edge your fellow movie watchers might not have for this delightful combo of young hotties before they were famous and the dorky action/romance/scifi/comedy they all wound up in together. Rotten Tomatoes said this movie was the "Top Aborted Franchise of All Time", according to 366 Weird Movies, and numerous nods from other movies and actors are listed at 10 Ways 'Buckaroo Banzai' Has Infiltrated Pop Culture [Movies]~ The Geek Twins.



It helps a great deal to read more about this movie from several sources, like Wikipedia, but it's even more fantastic that there is a fun spoof website called the Banzai Institute For Biomedical Engineering and Strategic Information that also links to merchandising (I own a coveted t-shirt which wows the rare locals who actually saw the original movie release in the theater). If you are willing to shell out a couple hundred dollars (or even $900 at present listed on one copy), you can own a brand new original out of print Buckaroo Banzai: The Novel, which, by the way, is not a novelization of the movie, but a first person account like a biography of one of the characters in the movie. And like the movie, you either love or hate the book.



But what is The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension really about? It's certainly not your typical superhero movie, more like your millionaire genius playboys and their fanbase saving the Earth from annihilation by aliens. It gets complicated when you have to keep the good aliens straight from the evil aliens and catch that the evil aliens have been stuck on Earth long enough to develop weapons testing right under the Air Force's nose, but between the actor spotting and the quirky gag scenes, not to mention all the stunts Peter Weller does, plus saving the girl, it just makes for really good popcorn eating. If you buy it, get the special edition, packed with lots of extra stuff. In the end, Buckaroo helps the good aliens stop the bad aliens before the good aliens blow up the Earth in a last ditch attempt to stop the bad aliens from blowing up their own Planet 10, but it's all good, the only thing missing is the knuckle bump after it's over.

This is my favorite trailer video on youtube, possibly fan made.

By Janika Banks aka @PinkyGuerrero
grandfortuna.xanga.com

[Pinky]

Lexx (1997-2002)

In February 2013 I wrote my first review/recap exclusively for Nerd Movie, and naturally it was about Lexx. My submission was sent in two parts, so hopefully I am reconstructing this correctly.

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Lexx (1997-2002)

The Divine Order is turned upside down when the most powerful weapon of destruction in the two universes is accidentally stolen by a security guard, a love slave, and a robot head. The only hope to reclaiming the Lexx- a bioengineered bug ship the size of Manhattan- lies with an undead assassin from an ancient prophecy. What can go wrong? Hailed as Star Trek's evil twin, Lexx blows up planets and the scifi you know right out of the universe.



Lexx was not received well in the United States due to graphic sexual themes and weird story telling, often referred to as the soft porn of scifi, but continues to be a cult favorite around the rest of the world. Lexx boldly took scifi film to Orwellian depths it never went before with cannibalism, mass genocide in the guise of government Order, sex slavery, and repurposing humans into serviceable robot parts. What happens when ordinary people get hold of the Lexx? While other space themed story arcs revolve around military, Lexx tips revolution over and blows it up.



Season one of Lexx is a collection of 4 movies starting out on the Cluster, capital of the League of 20,000 Planets and judicial headquarters for His Divine Shadow. The Lexx, bioengineered and grown on the Cluster to become the ultimate weapon near the end of over 6000 years of war, is a 'big bug' that can fly through space, blow up planets, and talk to its captain. Fans fall in love with Lexx because it thinks like a bug and remains innocent of every devastation it creates on command, a leading character in its own right. Guest actors in first season include Barry Bostwick as Thodin, Tim Curry as Poet Man, Rutger Hauer as Bog, and Malcolm McDowell as Yottskry.

Season two of Lexx changes to a television series that continues immediately with backstory and plunges headlong into frightening disaster. A character change grips viewers while the series launches into a delightful conflict of bawdy fun and grim reality that mock our crew mercilessly in directions that will leave you spinning. This season is everything you ever wanted to see go wrong in Trek or any other scifi series, and the creators have a lot of fun coloring outside the lines. The most popular episode of Lexx with viewers around the world at 2.18 is Brigadoom, filmed as a theater experience with a separate soundtrack, with rare handmade costuming and an ancient Russian sounding fight song, according to Russian fans.

Season three of Lexx is very dire. The Lexx has drifted without food for 4000 years while the crew is in stasis and becomes caught in the gravity well between two planets, Fire and Water. The entire season is fraught with mysteries and dangers, love and deception, navigating the torments of hell and the delights of heaven trying to stop Prince from gaining control of the Lexx. Never has scifi so beautifully choreographed philosophy, bureaucracy, and even the hint of religion into such a masterful soap style drama, with stunning landscapes and what was groundbreaking CGI for the time period.

Season four of Lexx is a discourteous romp around the Earth when Lexx finds the Little Blue Planet. The entire series finale is a very tongue in cheek mockery, chock full of stereotypes and bad puns, even inside jokes about the scifi film industry. Fans scatter in all directions between it being cute, ridiculous, rude, and outright genius. Season four is the most often quoted as least favorite, but if you are a mistie (MST3K fan), you totally get the fun the creators had with the filming, with spins on everything from alien possession to Godzilla to where vampires came from, and much more. Unfortunately, Americans were the butt of the political joking (along with the Pope), so between that and the risque 'soft porn', it disappeared from American television networks never to be seen again, until streaming tv came along.



Even though Lexx ended with season 4, the creators inserted hope for a continuing story at the very end. Who knows, maybe someday there will be more Lexx, especially with so much inherent content for prequels.



by Janika Banks aka @pinkyguerrero
grandfortuna.xanga.com

[Pinky]

Mystery Men (1999)




In a world of poorly timed spoofs and parodies, Mystery Men earns the hit and miss brilliance award from yours truly. The reviews on this 'other guys' movie- "We're not your classic heroes, we're the other guys"- are so spread out over the love/hate spectrum that a person could almost set up a viewer psyche analysis chart based on this movie alone.

Mystery Men, chock full of stars and cameos, flopped at the box office during a brief industry spasm when superhero movies suddenly careened into high dollar cheese, case in point Batman & Robin (1997) - IMDb starring George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think to remain true in reviewing Mystery Men in proper context, we must remember this vital part of its placement in movie history. Mystery Men was not only a spoof, but a spoof within a spoof, a layered mockery of not just superhero movies but of the industry itself.

Champion City is a spotter's dream, fun to frame advance and study. Of course it's a spoof on Gotham City, which gets even more fun when you watch the Shoveler drive up to his pink house after a late night saving spree with the boys.




Captain Amazing really does look amazing, but things take a turn for the oh so delightful when the underdogs try to save him later in the movie. This is where you can imagine Batman outgrowing his angst and getting a little fussy with the help.




And who hasn't dreamed of being chosen at a superhero tryout?



Mystery Men is a brilliant tongue in cheek story about the average person's struggle against public expectations in our daily aspirations to rise above the mundane meaningless grind, even if only by a little, while highlighting the industry flaws that veered superhero movies a little off track for awhile. Reviewers who missed the continual fun winks and nods and demanded to know when this movie was supposed to get funny probably weren't cognizant of anything deeper. If anything, that subtlety was probably Mystery Men's undoing for the masses, but for the rest of us it remains a rare gem of sparkling effervescence in an industry that sometimes takes itself a little too seriously. Special wink here to movie reviewers.

Mystery Men - Rotten Tomatoes -The Tomatometer gave Mystery Men a 60% while they reported audience rating at only 51%.

Bad Superhero Parody Movies - Blankman, Mystery Men, John Hancock, My Super Ex -You really can't please some people.

FILM REVIEW: Mystery Men -- Blade Runner meets Naked Gun - The Tech -Lectury. Let's see the reviewer make a better movie.

F This Movie!: Unsung!: Mystery Men -Appreciative, you can tell this guy doesn't hate his job.

Amazon.com: Mystery Men: Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, Greg Kinne -John Q Public seems to like this movie just fine.

Seeing Past Crazy: Why Mystery Men is the Greatest Superhero Movie Ever -Wow, someone went deep.

But what about my own review? In the words of 'Baby Bowler', "Let's do some carnage!" Movie quoting as a sport escalates off the roof with this movie, setting it at a solid second to Spaceballs for me. I've watched Mystery Men more times than I've watched Galaxy Quest, which is my fave ever scifi spoof. This movie is my favorite comfort movie when I'm too sick to get out of bed and my favorite movie when I'm tired of everything else. As fallback movies go, I have gotten more value out of this dime than any other movie. Why is that? What is wrong with me?!

That is exactly what Mystery Men is all about, all us other guys. We're not the CEOs drawing up viewer schedules, or producers tossing cash around. We're the Roys and Jeffs and Eddies, just trying to make the world a little better place. We're not rich like Lance Hunt (the Mystery Men version of Clark Kent), or set up with corporate sponsors like Captain Amazing, but we do have standards and dreams and clear boundaries of where evil should be stopped. We all know people like the characters in this movie, we can all identify somewhere on the Champion City spectrum. If we aren't the wannabes ourselves, then we are the wives and mothers and girlfriends and children of the wannabes. Or maybe we even identify with the bad guys in the gangs recruited by Casanova Frankenstein. If there is a movie reviewer out there who can't identify with a character somewhere in this movie, I want to know what in the world makes them think they are qualified to judge superhero movies in the first place. The whole point to comic books and superhero movies is the wannabes who buy the merchandise. The industry wouldn't exist without wannabes.

If you've not yet seen Mystery Men, don't let bad reviews color your decision and skip this one. Of all the superhero movies ever made, this one is my favorite. Batman wishes he had friends like these.

Mystery Men trailer

by Janika Banks
grandfortuna.xanga.com
@PinkyGuerrero on twitter