Johnny D's Blog

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2011

2012-01-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2011

It's time for my biased list of favorite films from the past twelve months. Even though attendance at movie theatres was down in 2011, it was actually a pretty good year at the movies. I found that I enjoyed far more films than I disliked. In fact, there were so many outstanding movies that it was harder than usual to narrow it down to the top ten.

Honorable Mentions

Before I get to the main event, I'll mention a few films that didn't quite make it into my top ten this year. These films are fun and worth seeing, but there were at least ten other films I liked better.

The critics may have maligned Green Lantern, but I think that this is a well-told superhero origin story with lots of action and great characters.

Thor is another cool comic book film that works largely because it focuses on the dysfunctional relationship between the God of Thunder (Thor) and his misunderstood step-brother (Loki).

Midnight in Paris is a fantastic Woody Allen movie with romance, comedy, and time travel. What more could you want? Allen has always been an expert at turning his backdrops into characters, and this movie certainly brings the "city of light" to life.

Source Code, the second film by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie), is a trippy action thriller about a soldier who keeps waking up in the body of a stranger on a Chicago commuter train. Lots of twists and turns keep the audience guessing. This film has a great mix of action and interesting character development.

Super, is a film about a guy who decides to become a costumed vigilante after his wife leaves him for a drug dealer. Although he has the best intentions, he has absolutely no discernible skills other than an insane will to stop crime, and a lot of dumb luck. For a comedy, this movie delves into some incredibly dark territory, and you'll often end up feeling guilty for laughing at some of the material.

Bellflower is billed as an apocalyptic romance, and that's a pretty good description. The story is about Woodrow and Aiden, two friends who spend their free time building flame-throwers and muscle cars in the hopes that a global cataclysm will occur and thrust them into a post-apocalyptic world ala Mad Max. But when Woodrow falls for the unpredictable Milly, he experiences his own personal apocalypse.

Attack the Block is an awesome low-budget British sci-fi flick about a gang of south London punks protecting their neighborhood against an alien invasion. It's directed by Joe Cornish, who worked as a producer on Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and has a fantastic sense of kinetic energy. This film also features one of the most unique alien species I have seen on the big screen in years.

Speaking of fantastic kinetic energy, I would be remiss if I didn't mention The Adventures of Tintin, an animated film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson. The film is based on a popular European comic book and has a kind of young Indiana Jones vibe to it. It's a hell of a lot of fun and well worth your time.

I love The Muppets, which stars and was co-written by Jason Segal. Although it takes a little while for it to get going, watching Kermit, Gonzo, Piggy and the gang on the big screen is like welcoming back old friends. Hearing the Muppets sing "Rainbow Connection" again brought tears to my eyes.

Anyone who has a love for classic films should do themselves a favor and catch Martin Scorsese's Hugo. This starts out as an adventure/mystery about a scrappy orphan living in a train station in France, and morphs into a love letter to history's earliest movies and the pioneers who made them.

In any other year, many of the above films would have made my top ten, but this year there were just too many great movies to choose from.

Top 10 films of 2011

Here are my choices for the best of the past year, presented without spoilers:

#10: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

After the abysmal Tim Burton remake of Planet of the Apes in 2001, I didn't expect to ever see a decent "Apes" film again. That's why it comes as such as shock that Rise of the Planet of the Apes is as good as it is.

At its core, Rise is the heartbreaking story of a scientist who, with the best of intentions, sets in motion the events that will bring down the human race. Andy Sirkis' truly brilliant motion capture work as Caesar the ape is the heart and soul of the film. This is science fiction as I love it, with fantastic action sequences, a lot of humanity, and big moral and ethical conundrums.

#9: Captain America: the First Avenger

This is a good old-fashioned superhero flick set in the early days of World War II. Unlike many of the grim and gritty anti-heroes we tend to see a lot of, Cap has always been about fighting for the little guy. In the film, Cap's alter ego, Steve Rogers, makes it clear that he doesn't relish the thought of killing Nazis, he just doesn't like bullies.

I like that Steve Rogers isn't an over-muscled Adonis through the first half of the movie; instead, he starts as a scrawny 98-pound weakling who just wants to do the right thing. When he finally gets his super abilities, he retains the humility of a little guy from Brooklyn who's been bullied all his life. Chris Evans makes a fantastic Captain America/Steve Rogers and Hugo Weaving is an excellent foil to the hero as the evil Nazi super criminal, The Red Skull.

Director Joe Johnston, who also helmed another great period superhero film, The Rocketeer, had the right sensibilities to bring these characters and this time period to life.

#8: Drive

Drive reminds me of a modern-day Clint Eastwood "spaghetti western." Like Eastwood's iconic "Man with No Name," the protagonist in this film (played by Ryan Gosling) is a taciturn loner with a mysterious past who is only referred to as "the Driver."

The Driver is a Hollywood stunt man who leads a double life as a wheel man for local criminals. When the Driver gets involved with the wrong criminal (played brilliantly by Albert Brooks) and a beautiful woman from his apartment complex (played by Carey Mulligan), his solitary and ordered life starts to spin out of control.

I like how stripped-down this movie is. I enjoy the growing sense of menace as the main character is drawn into situations that it doesn't look like he can get out of. I especially like the stellar ensemble cast including Ron Perlman, Bryan Cranston, and Oscar Isaac.

#7: Warrior

Warrior is a lot like the original Rocky film, only with two protagonists. Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy play Brendan and Tommy Conlon, two brothers who are involved in the brutal sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). Although at the start of the film the brothers have become estranged, the one thing they do have in common is a hatred for their abusive, ex-alcoholic father, Paddy (in a heartbreaking performance by the great Nick Nolte).

For different reasons, both brothers enter an MMA tournament with the highest-ever purse in the history of the sport. Both are underdogs and not expected to make in through, but end up on a collision course which forces them not only to face each other in the ring, but the personal issues they have from their horribly dysfunctional family.

Both brothers' stories are equally compelling, and by the end of the film, knowing that only one can win the tournament, as an audience member I didn't know which brother to root for.

#6: Another Earth

Another Earth is a quiet little indie sci-fi film where the science fiction is largely the backdrop for the human drama. When a duplicate planet Earth appears in the sky, events are set in motion that cause the lives of a student and a composer to intersect both tragically and beautifully.

I like how the themes of grief, guilt and redemption are played out in this movie, with the second planet Earth constantly hovering in the background, reminding us of other possibilities on other worlds. Brit Marling, the star and co-writer of this film, is a talent to watch. William Mapother (perhaps best known as Ethan Rom from the popular television series Lost) also gives a powerful, gut-wrenching performance. It is the chemistry between these two actors that holds this picture together.

#5: X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class is my second-favorite "X-Men" film after the excellent X2: X-Men United. It is not a perfect movie, but what really makes me forget the film's shortcomings are the incredible performances of James McAvoy as young professor Charles Xavier, and Michael Fassbender as young Erik Lehnsherr (AKA Magneto). As any comic book fan knows, Xavier and Magneto are destined to become enemies, but the story of how these two men met and became friends has never been told on the big screen.

I love that this movie is set in the swinging 60s, with the Cuban missile crisis playing out in the background. The earliest X-Men comics were written during this era, so it struck me as appropriate. I also enjoy seeing young Xavier as a womanizing intellectual hipster, and young Magneto as an obsessed Nazi-hunter.

Although not all of the characters in this movie are very well drawn out, I have to give honorable mention to the performances of Jennifer Lawrence as the young Mystique, and Nicholas Hoult as the young Hank McCoy. Seeing the different characters interact and work together at the beginning of the movie, and then being forced to pick different sides of the mutant conflict at the end is a big part of the drama.

#4: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

The "Mission Impossible" film franchise is unlike most others; instead of the quality of the movies getting worse as more sequels are released, it gets better. No one is more surprised than I am that this movie is so high on my top ten list this year, but it was really that good. Perhaps the increasing quality is due to the fact that every MI movie has a different director. In this case it's Brad Bird, who until now has only directed animated films (such as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles). Bird is fantastic with action, and this movie has, hands down, some of the best action set pieces that I've seen in the last few years. I know it's cliché, but I can literally say that I spent most of the movie on the edge of my seat.

Another departure from the earlier Mission Impossible films is that this one focuses more on the whole IMF team, not just Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt. Sure, this is still a Tom Cruise movie, but for the first time, his supporting players (portrayed by Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, and Jeremy Renner) play a major part in both story and action.

Most of the movies on my top ten list this year are rather deep. They delve into characters, ideas, and themes in a way that elevates them above typical action films. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is not deep; it's just a hell of a lot of fun and an epic popcorn movie.

#3: Rango

Rango may be the most unique western I've ever seen. This animated feature, directed by Gore Verbinski, tells the story of a chameleon who, through a series bizarre circumstances, exaggerations, and downright lies, becomes the sheriff of the water-deprived town of Dirt.

Not only does this movie understand the heart of the west, but it has a real trippy vibe that just makes it unique. Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) is an incredible "hero on a journey" character, and is surrounded by other iconic personalities like Rattlesnake Jake, the classic western villain who lives by his own code. The character designs are the most original I've seen since Toy Story. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Rango is on par with Pixar's finest computer-generated films.

#2: Hanna

Hanna reminds me of Luc Besson's The Professional, in that it is a perfect fusion of foreign art film and American action thriller. The movie opens with the title character, Hanna (played by Irish actress Saoirse Ronan) living with her CIA-trained father (Eric Bana) in the wilds of Finland. Her isolated life is forced to change when dangerous forces come looking for her, led by a ruthless intelligence agent (played by Cate Blanchett).

On the one hand, this is a pretty straightforward action picture with the heroine traveling through Europe avoiding bad guys; but on the other, this is a modern-day Brothers Grimm fairy tale with Hanna as the lost princess, her father as the huntsman and Blanchett as the wicked witch.

The action sequences are poetically filmed and never slow down, the metaphors are drawn well, and the characters are multi-layered and continuously fascinating.

And now, my favorite movie of 2011...

#1: Super 8

Super 8, directed by JJ Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, is a throwback to some beloved classic films like Stand By Me, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Perhaps "throwback" is the wrong word, because this movie is its own unique entity, paying homage to these films without copying them.

Super 8 takes place in a small Ohio town in 1979, where a group of 13- to 14-year-old kids are filming a zombie movie with a super 8 camera. During a night of filming, the children witness a catastrophic train crash, and accidentally record something alien escaping from wreckage. The science fiction part of this story is exciting and well-told, but it is really just the backdrop to the real human story of these kids and their families.

It's not easy to find actors this young who are good, but all of the kids that were cast in Super 8 are terrific, especially Joel Courtney as the sensitive Joe Lamb; and Elle Fanning as Alice, the girl he is interested in.

Perhaps one of the reasons I feel so connected with this film was because in 1979 I was a 13-year-old kid running around with my friends in a small town in upstate NY. We were always working on some kind of wacky artistic project and getting into crazy adventures (although we never encountered an alien as far as I know). It's this sense of nostalgia, coupled with great storytelling and compelling characters that makes Super 8 my favorite movie of last year.

Summary

And there you have it -- my top picks for last year at the movies. Feel free to get in touch and tell me what you think, or tell me about a great film I may have left off the list. Once again I would like to thank Jem Matzan for his stalwart friendship and excellent editing skills.

John Michael Decker is an actor who loves to go to the movies. This list is just his way of showing appreciation for all the entertainment he's enjoyed over the past year.

A Father's Letter to Santa

2011-12-25T20:13:00.001-08:00

This is a beautiful note that was hand delivered to Santa at Macy's this year. I think it is a good reminder of what this day is really about.

Happy holidays to all and to all a good night.

-JMD

A FATHER’S LETTER TO SANTA

Macy’s Herald Square, NYC

12-19-2011

Dear Santa,

You are a form of wonder and magic in our world and I am so grateful you exist! This year I would like to share some of the things I’m grateful for. May my list continue to evolve and grow more in 2012!

2011 Gratitude List

Ð My gorgeous and devoted wife! She does so much to keep our lives flowing beautifully. Bless her heart for keeping our home so sweet and neat. So grateful she’s willing to satisfy all my most primal intimate desires! May our partnership continue to evolve in delightful and unexpected ways.

Ð My dynamite son Jasper! He reflects the best and worst of my own nature every day. From him I’m learning how to go with the flow, turn away from anger and turn instead towards compassion and love.

Ð My cats – they hold for us our anxiety and fear to lessen our load in life. And they cuddle so nicely.

Ð My beautiful home and amazing landlords! Even months when our rent is late, we are supported gracefully at home.

Ð My job! I never have to be on mass transit in rush hour – so grateful for that. And for having created an opportunity to share what I love with others and get paid for it. So blessed.

Ð My friends! I have great company in my life.

Ð I’m also grateful for all of the ways I’ve been DIS-SATISFIED this year. More than ever, I’ve turned that distress into an opportunity to grow. I’ve had lots of support to plant new seeds for an even more generative life in 2012. May those seeds grow into a beautiful garden.

I have a whole lot more stuff I’m grateful for, too. But if there’s anything you can bring down the chimney this year it’s more of the same, let me live a life with endless potential for growth and beauty.

Merry Christmas Santa!

Love,

Eric

Lance Proton vs. the L.O.S.T.

2011-11-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Our new comedy/science fiction CD, Lance Proton vs. the L.O.S.T. is now available for download. If you love old Flash Gordon serials and are a fan of zany Monty Python type humor, than you will love this. I encourage you to head on over to CD baby and check it out! You also might want to download our first CD, Lance Proton and the Space Battalion of Justice!

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TheProtonPlayers

John Michael Decker reviews "Those Across the River," an exciting new horror novel.

2011-04-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Those Across the River Review

John Michael Decker

The year is 1935. Frank Nichols, a former history professor from Chicago, has moved to the quaint little town of Whitbrow, Georgia with his paramour Eudora. Frank’s intention is to write a book chronicling the history of his ancestor, an infamous Civil War general. But Whitbrow is a town with many dark secrets. Secrets which threaten to erode not only Frank and Eudora’s newfound happiness, but their belief in a rational world as well. There is something evil dwelling in the old Savoyard Plantation across the river. It is something ancient with a connection to Frank that he can scarcely imagine. It has a long memory… and it is patient.

Thus begins Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman. The best horror novel I have read in years. I say this not because Chris Buehlman is a dear friend of mine. I say it honestly because it really is just that good. Although this book won’t be released until September of this year, I have been lucky enough to receive an advanced copy. To say that Those Across the River is a page-turner is putting it mildly. I’ve been busy and yet I still burned through this novel in three days.

Christopher Buehlman excels at pacing and he is a confident enough storyteller so that he really takes his time setting up his scenes. He is a master of language and this book effortlessly transported me to another time. Another place. I felt all of the pressures of surviving in the Great Depression. I could smell the sweat of the characters as they were traipsing through the dark woods. I could hear all the sounds of the humid August night in Georgia. The tension was slowly ratcheted up, and the more I read, I found myself being filled with a deepening sense of dread. I was fully invested in the characters so when the truly horrific stuff happened it was well earned by the author.

Now there are a lot of people who are going to read this and compare Chris Buehlaman to Stephen King or Dean Koontz. I would dispute this claim. Don’t get me wrong… the material in this book is similar to things that have been covered by other horror authors. And I am a big fan of King and Koontz. But to me, reading a novel by someone like Stephen King is like eating at McDonalds. It’s good, it’s fast, and it’s usually pretty satisfying. But reading a Christopher Buehlman novel is like dining on filet mignon with an interesting red wine and classical music playing in the background. This is literary, historical, horror and I really think that Buehlman’s unique writer’s voice puts him in a category all his own. I can easily see this book being translated into a movie. I can see Chris attaining real fame with this work. So if you want to get in on the ground floor of something really special, I highly recommend that you pre-order a copy of Those Across the River today.

http://www.amazon.com/Those-Across-River-Christopher-Buehlman/dp/0441020674

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2010

2011-01-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2010

It's time for my biased list of favorite films from the past year. Although the quality of mainstream films wasn't as disappointing as 2009, this still wasn't a great year to go to the movies, and often I'd find myself let down when I stopped by the theatre. Still, just when I thought I'd lost my faith in modern cinema, I would be treated to something cool or unique enough to remind me why I spend so much time and money there.

Honorable Mentions

Machete is a hell of a lot of fun, and great showcase for the amazing Danny Trejo. Trejo has been a staple in Hollywood for almost 30 years, but this is his first leading role. At 66 years old, the brick-faced actor looks like he could kick Stallone, Van Damme, and Schwarzenegger's asses without breaking a sweat.

Although I'm not a big fan of the new 3-D craze in Hollywood (most of the time the 3-D conversion process is awful and you would be better off seeing the less expensive, less murky, 2-D version of the film), I have to admit that Piranha 3-D is a hoot! This is an unapologetic film that knows and embraces its shlockly Piranha roots. It is a B movie in every sense of the word -- the screen is filled with the three Bs: Boobs, Blood, and Beasts. If you are looking for Oscar-caliber performances and a gripping plot, avoid this movie like the plague. If, however, you want to kill an afternoon with a bunch of friends and laugh your butts off at idiots getting munched by swarms of prehistoric killer fish, then it doesn't get much better than Piranha 3-D.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the latest film by Edgar Wright (the awesome director who brought us Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) is also tremendous fun. Although I didn't enjoy Pilgrim as much as Wright's previous two movies, this tale of a Canadian slacker who must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil exes in a universe run by video game rules is very solid and offers lots of big laughs. At times Scott Pilgrim was too hip for its own good, but overall it is a really enjoyable film.

Top 10 films of 2010

And now for my official list of 2010's best ten movies. In case you haven't seen them, I will do my best to say what I liked about them without spoilers.

#10: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

This low-budget Finnish film was undoubtedly my most unique movie-going experience of the year. Rare Exports is a horror/comedy in which a group of miners near the Korvatunturi mountain discover an ancient being frozen in black ice -- a being known the world over as Santa Claus. But this isn't the jolly old elf who appears in Coke commercials, and the local villagers soon learn that this discovery should have been left well enough alone.

Rare Exports isn't a perfect film. There are pacing issues, and there is a scene that should be at the end of the movie that just isn't there (if you see it, you'll understand). But sitting in the theatre, I was constantly surprised and delighted and truly didn't know what was going to happen next. As a man who has donned the white beard and the big red suit, I found this movie to be especially engaging.

"He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake." When you think about it, that's really creepy!

#9: Kick Ass

Kick Ass is a film based on the comic book of the same name that asks the question: What if a normal high school kid decided to put on a costume and fight crime? As you might imagine, the protagonist, Dave Lizewski, gets the crap beat out of him. A lot. But he also becomes an Internet sensation, pisses off the mob, and inspires a number of copycat vigilantes, most of whom are not mentally stable.

This movie is completely twisted and wrong in the best possible sense. It embraces its over-the-top violence and eye-for-an-eye sense of justice, and still manages to throw in a dash of pathos amidst the hilarious high-energy action.

#8: Centurion

Centurion is a historical action movie written and directed by Neil Marshall. It takes place in 117 AD and deals with a Roman garrison's attempt to wipe out the Picts inhabiting the Scottish Highlands. Although the Romans have superior numbers and weapons, they can't compete with the Picts' guerrilla tactics. When the Ninth Legion is sent to eradicate the Picts once and for all, things go horribly wrong and a small band of Roman soldiers must flee for their lives across hostile terrain.

Critics were not kind to this film, which is essentially a 97-minute chase scene, but I really enjoyed it. The characters are engaging, the battle scenes are exciting, and the cinematography is beautiful.

#7: Splice

Splice is an original reinterpretation the old Frankenstein story. The theme that man should not play god with the creation of life is an old one, but I've never seen it so well executed as it is in this film.

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play ultra-hip genetic engineers who splice human DNA together with several different animals, creating a beautiful but unstable chimera which they name Dren. Initially they do this in the name of science, but soon they come to look upon themselves as parents to their creation. It isn't long before the unpredictable nature of the creature, combined with the dysfunctional issues of the scientists, creates a deadly situation.

#6: Harry Brown

Harry Brown features a tour de force performance by Michael Caine as the title character. Caine's compelling and raw performance as a retired marine who is pushed to the edge by local gangs elevates this film beyond the level of a Death Wish clone and turns it into a true classic.

Harry's transformation from a sad and lonely octogenarian into a calculated killing machine who can barely contain his rage is astonishing to behold. In the hands of a lesser actor this could have been a train wreck, but Michael Caine pulls it off. I was mesmerized by his character, and if Caine isn't at least nominated for an Oscar for this movie, then truly the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is blind.

#5: Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky is a director known for movies that focus on obsession, and Black Swan is no different. Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, a timid ballet dancer who wins the lead role in Swan Lake. Although she is perfectly suited to portray the White Swan, her ridged dancing style isn't right for the evil Black Swan the piece also requires her to play. The majority of the movie is Portman's character driving herself to the edge of madness in an attempt to give the perfect performance.

I know next to nothing about ballet, so it was fascinating for me to watch a film exploring backstage life in a world I will never be a part of. Natalie Portman is fantastic as the tragically obsessed Nina, and co-star Mila Kunis is also excellent as Lily, Nina's dark twin in the ballet company.

#4: The Social Network

When you combine the writing talents of Aaron Sorkin and the directing skills of David Fincher, you know you are in for a treat. The Social Network focuses on Mark Zuckerberg, the socially awkward yet intellectually brilliant man who created Facebook while he was still a student at Harvard. Although Zuckerberg becomes the youngest billionaire in history, he faces both legal and emotional challenges from all sides.

What is fascinating about this film to me is being able to watch Zuckerberg's rise and fall, which essentially occur at the same time. Like so many of us, Zuckerberg really was his own worst enemy.

#3: True Grit

Joel and Ethan Coen are directors known for movies with crazy plot twists that come out of left field, so it is really cool to see them make a straightforward western. The Coen brothers' take on True Grit is as "gritty" as one might expect. They excel at dialogue, and it's as good as it's ever been in this film.

This movie is about three very diverse characters thrown together on a quest to find Tom Chaney, a criminal who killed a young girl's father. Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a 14 year-old girl raised with a harsh western eye-for-an-eye mentality. Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn, the ornery one-eyed U.S. Marshall that Mattie hires to hunt down her father's killer. Cogburn's chief qualification is his reputation of being the meanest lawman in the state. Matt Damon rounds out the cast as LaBoeuf, an arrogant Texas Ranger who has been on Chaney's trail for a while and doesn't want to share his quarry with any partners. This is the best western I've seen since Tombstone, largely due to the incredibly interesting interplay among the three main characters.

#2: Toy Story 3

It's rare to see a trilogy of movies that all are excellent, but with Toy Story 3, Pixar manages to do just that. This film beautifully closes the story of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and friends in a way that is exciting, satisfying and truly touching.

As Andy, the owner of the toys, gets ready for college, Woody, Buzz, and the gang have to face the possibility of becoming obsolete. What use is a toy when there is nobody to play with them?

And now, my favorite movie of 2010...

#1: Inception

I love movies that explore the concept of blurred reality -- what is real and what is illusion -- so it should come as no surprise to anybody who knows me that this was my favorite film of the year. Director Christopher Nolan spent nearly nine years developing the script for this movie, and it shows. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a man who specializes in stealing ideas from people's dreams, but early in the film he is presented with a unique challenge: Could he implant an idea in a person's mind through his dreams? We never learn exactly how this is accomplished; we just accept that in the reality of this film, the technology exists to invade another person's slumbering mind. The movie is very clear about the rules that allow this to happen, and so as an audience member it is easy to just go with it.

Although the special effects are amazing in Inception, it doesn't rely on them too heavily. This is a film about ideas, not CGI. I don't want to say too much about the plot because this is a film that can easily be spoiled, and it is well worth it to watch the movie with a fresh perspective, descending into the layers of the dreaming subconscious along with the characters. I love films where you are never sure whether the characters are experiencing something real or just an illusion, and if it is an illusion and the characters believe it is real, then doesn't that make it real?

Suffice it to say, the acting is solid, the story and direction are superb, and this move is well worth repeated viewings.

Summary

And there you have it -- my top picks for last year at the movies. Feel free to get in touch and argue, or tell me about a great film I may have left off the list. Special thanks Jem Matzan for his friendship and for acting as the editor of this article once again.

John Michael Decker is an actor who has been playing an evil sheriff in the summer and jolly old St. Nick in the winter. It's good to find balance in life.

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2009

2010-01-15T04:42:00.000-08:00

John Michael Decker’s Top Ten Films of 2009

It's time once again for my biased list of favorite films from the past year. It was difficult to put the list together this time, largely because it was such a disappointing year at the box office. More often than not, I’d end up walking away from the movie theatre feeling let down.

Films NOT on the list

Before, I get to the list, I’ll mention a few films that didn’t make the cut. I suspect that people will ask why these few in particular didn’t they make it into my top ten, so I’ll explain.

Avatar isn’t on the list because although the special effects were remarkable, I just didn’t find the story all that original. Moon didn’t make it because I didn’t get the chance to see it, although I’ve heard that it’s great. I was completely underwhelmed by Sherlock Holmes. I have to give props to Where the Wild Things Are for some gutsy artistic choices, but ultimately I thought it was a depressing mess that completely missed the point of my favorite children’s book.

Top 10 films of 2009

And now for the official list of 2009 films that I can gladly recommend. In case you haven’t seen them yet, I will do my best to say why I liked these movies without giving away any major spoilers.

#10: Paranormal Activity

This is a low-budget film based on a simple premise that was executed beautifully. The story centers on a twenty-something yuppie couple, Katie and Micah, who have been troubled by strange noises late at night. Katie feels that some entity has been haunting her since she was a little girl. In an effort to figure out what’s going on, her skeptical boyfriend Micah decides to videotape the room while they sleep. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that things get stranger and more intense as the story progresses. Although this movie was similar in style to The Blair Witch Project, I thought Paranormal Activity was much scarier.

#9: Zombieland

I love zombies and am very grateful that they have become popular in the American zeitgeist again. This is a really fun horror/comedy about a world overrun by the walking dead, and the four very different living people who band together to try to survive in it. Again, this movie has a simple premise, but was a lot of fun to watch, and amidst all of the laughs and the horror there was even some pathos thrown in. Woody Harrelson stars as Tallahassee, a man who seems to have been born to kick undead ass, but Bill Murray nearly steals the show with a brief cameo.

#8: Drag Me To Hell

After the disappointing Spider-Man 3, director Sam Raimi is back in fine form with this throwback to his earlier B-movie work, especially Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. This movie was advertised as a horror film, but like Zombieland, it was really a horror/comedy, and a hilarious one at that. What I liked best about this movie was the fact that so many of the characters were utterly unlikeable, so when horrible things start happening to them, you really enjoy it. There is a relentless energy to Sam Raimi films, and very little subtlety, but damn if they don’t make for some incredible escapism. If any lesson can be taken away from this film, it’s that you don’t mess with angry, old, half-blind, Gypsy hags.

#7: Watchmen

Watchmen is based on the graphic novel of the same name, written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons. In writing Watchmen, one of Moore’s intentions was to showcase the comic book format by demonstrating exactly how the union of words and pictures could tell a story in a unique way that no other medium could. The graphic novel is a dense, multi-layered story that delves into the psychological aspects of the “superhero.” It was a brilliant, groundbreaking work when it came out in the mid 1980s, but it was never meant to be made into a motion picture.

That being said, director Zack Snyder did about as good a job as anyone could in translating the graphic novel into a film. As a fan of the comic book version of Watchmen, I really enjoyed this movie. Snyder manages to capture perfectly on camera the distinct visual world that Dave Gibbons created in the book. With one or two exceptions, the casting was excellent. However, even the 162-minute running time isn’t enough to capture all of the subtle nuances of the book.

#6: The Road

The Road is an extremely powerful film set in a bleak dystopian future. Viggo Mortensen gives an outstanding performance as a man whose love for his son allows him to endure horrific conditions in an effort to hold onto his and his son’s humanity. This is not an easy film to watch; the material, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, is extraordinarily dark, but I found the journey more than worthwhile.

#5: Up

Up is another Pixar masterpiece. The story, about an old man and a young boy on the adventure of a lifetime, is at times hilarious, touching, and ultimately uplifting. Up breaks new ground with its digital 3-D effects, but unlike other movies I’ve seen this year, it has more going for it than just pretty pictures. The characters are outstanding, the story is original, and the voice talent was perfectly cast. This movie is a wonderful reminder that it’s never too late to go out and find adventure in the world. Of all the films on my list this year, Up has the broadest entertainment appeal for the widest audience.

#4: The Hurt Locker

At its heart, The Hurt Locker is about men who intentionally put themselves in dangerous situations. Jeremy Renner plays Sgt. William James, an action junkie put in charge of an elite squad of bomb disposal operatives in Iraq. Director Kathryn Bigelow did an amazing job of creating suspense in the many bomb disarmament scenes. The character conflicts were both interesting and realistic, especially the dynamic between the unpredictable Sgt. James and the more cautious, by-the-book Sgt. Sanborn played by Anthony Mackie. I went into this movie knowing nothing about it and left pleasantly surprised.

#3: Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino crafts an incredibly entertaining World War II flick filled with memorable characters and his usual sharp dialogue. The basic premise of the story is that a young Jewish woman named Shosanna plots revenge against the Nazis for murdering her family. At the same time, an elite squad of Jewish, American, Nazi-killing soldiers nicknamed “the Basterds,” try to take out all the bigwigs in the Third Reich in a single strike. The two revenge plots collide at a tiny movie theatre in France. Brad Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of “the Basterds,” but the best performance is by Christoph Waltz, who portrays the charmingly evil Colonel Hans Landa.

#2: Star Trek

I’ve always been a huge Star Trek fan, but I have to admit, after five television series and ten films set in the Star Trek universe, I was pretty much over it. The concept was tired and I thought that I’d rather see the whole franchise fade into obscurity than have to face another bad Trek film.

And then producer/director J.J. Abrams did the impossible: He managed to create a Star Trek movie that not only reinvigorated the franchise, but wiped away 40 years of bloated continuity, brought action and excitement back to the Star Trek universe, and reminded me of everything I loved about the original series in the first place. Recasting the original characters with younger actors was a risky move on Abrams’ part, but the performers managed to capture the spirit of their iconic characters without just imitating the original actors.

And now, my favorite movie of 2009...

#1: District 9

So Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was all set to produce Halo, a movie based on the video game of the same name. As often happens in Hollywood, the project fell apart, so Jackson offered a virtually unknown South African director $30 million bucks to make whatever film he wanted to. The result was District 9.

District 9, directed by Neill Blomkamp and starring Sharlto Copley, is a fairly low-budget picture by today’s standards. At the start of the film it looks as though we are going to be watching a mockumentary about stranded aliens contained in a detention center in South Africa, but the movie quickly picks up the pace and we are treated to an action-packed sci-fi thrill ride with some amazing set pieces and excellent social commentary. The aliens in the movie are interesting and multi-layered. The protagonist, Wikus VanDeMerwe, is an unlikable jerk at the start of the film, but by the end he has gone through an incredible transformation (just watch the movie and you’ll know that I mean that on all kinds of levels). Lately people have been touting Avatar as the film that has reinvented sci-fi for the 21^st century, but don’t listen to them -- District 9 is truly the film that accomplishes this.

Summary

And there you have it -- my top picks for the year in cinema. Feel free to get in touch and argue, or tell me about a great film I may have left off the list. Thanks again to Jem Matzan for acting as the editor of this article.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor who has been trying to get back into the writing groove. He sincerely hopes that 2010 will be a less disappointing year at the box office.

Haiku Reviews

2009-03-16T11:42:00.000-07:00

So I came up with a wacky idea today... What if I were to write reviews of recent films I've seen utilizing the poetic structure known as "haiku?" That's right, full movie reviews in three lines. Five syllables, seven syllables, and then five syllables. Sure, these won't be as comprehensive as the movie reviews I used to write for Entertainment In Review, but they will be concise.

Here we go...

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE

Frank is dead inside

Jigsaw a caricature

Tom Jane was better

(**)

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Did the urchin cheat?

Time and Fate may hold the key

or "it is written"

(*****)

DOUBT

Is the priest a perv?

Meryl Streep seems to think so

Catholic School can suck

(****)

HULK VS...

Thor battles the Hulk

The Hulk clobbers Wolverine

Both fights deliver

(****)

CORALINE

Strange little girl lost

Parallel life seems better

Animated goth

(***1/2)

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

Oscar loved this flick

Brad Pitt ages in reverse

It wasn't all that

(***)

UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS

Origin of the war

Between vampires and wolves

Very cool prequel

(***)

GRAN TORINO

Eastwood is a grump

Thrown together with a teen

Bigotry loses

(***1/2)

TAKEN

Spook father gets mad

Bad guys snatch his girl in France

Justice swift and cold

(**1/2)

FRIDAY THE 13th (2009)

Familiar horror

Camp Crystal Lake vomits blood

Jason's blade must drink

(***)

STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI

Kristin Kreuk is hot

The rest of the film is not

Video game pics rot

(*1/2)

WATCHMEN

A geeks dream come true

Snyder's adaptation rocks

Resplendent violence

(*****)

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN

The Rock drives a hack

Alien kids are his fair

Adventure ensues

(**1/2)

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2008

2009-01-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

It's time, once again, for my extremely biased list of favorite films of the past year. I must confess that this year I didn't see nearly as many movies as I have in the past, so if you think that I snubbed your favorite independent film, chances are that I just didn't see it. Please don't yell at me for excluding films like The Orphanage, The Wrestler, and Slumdog Millionaire from my list. I've heard that they are all excellent, I just didn't get the opportunity to see them. I'll try to catch them on DVD in 2009. With that disclaimer out of the way, here is the list of my ten favorite films of 2008, arranged in descending order.

#10: Cloverfield

Think The Blair Witch Project meets Godzilla and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the filmmakers were going for here. A lot of people hated this movie about shallow 20-somethings trapped in New York City as a giant monster attacks, but I loved this original take on the "big city stomping creature" genre. One warning however, if you get motion sickness easily, avoid this movie like the plague. The handheld camera style could make you sick.

#9: Quantum of Solace

I'll say it right from the start: Quantum of Solace was not nearly as good as Casino Royale, the film that preceded it. Still, I love Daniel Craig's take on Ian Fleming's super spy, James Bond. The grittier, less tongue-in-cheek 007 in the Craig films is a breath of fresh air. Taken on its own merits, this was an excellent action flick.

#8: Tropic Thunder

This hilarious comedy, written and directed by Ben Stiller, is a great sendup of Hollywood stereotypes. In the film, several diva actors trying to make an Apocalypse Now-type war movie unwittingly end up in a real combat zone and are forced to fight for survival. The three leads -- Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black -- give excellent performances, but the real surprise are the cameos by Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey, who both steal every scene they are in.

#7: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

This is another great comedy produced by Judd Apatow, who really has a talent for funny. In this film, Peter, a devastated television music composer, travels to Hawaii to get over the tremendous dumping he received at the hands of his former girlfriend, Sarah. Unfortunately, Sarah is staying at the very hotel that Peter has booked with her new rock star boyfriend. Hilarity ensues. This film is a cathartic experience for anyone who has been through a bad breakup... and lets face it -- who hasn't.

#6: Hellboy II: the Golden Army

While this is not as good as the original Hellboy, it is nonetheless a very fun comic book film with compelling characters and excellent visuals. Director Guillermo del Toro is an amazing storyteller. and I can't wait to see what he does with the Hobbit movie. The fun part about the Hellboy films is that even though the main characters are freaks, there is something very human and sympathetic about all of them.

#5: The Incredible Hulk

This was so much better than the 2003 Ang Lee-directed Hulk, which was ponderous and over-intellectual. When it comes right down to it, the Hulk has always been a character that is more about smashing than talking. The Incredible Hulk combines the best elements of the comic books and the television show to create an action-packed adventure with Edward Norton playing an intense Bruce Banner, and William Hurt portraying General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, his arch-nemesis. Yes, the story is intelligent, but they don't skimp on the action.

#4: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I know that a lot of people took issue with the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, but I really enjoyed it. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my all time favorite films, and was a thrill to see Harrison Ford put on the fedora and whip again to portray one of the most enduring screen characters of all time. I liked that they allowed Indy to age in this film. I liked how it was soaked with 1950s nostalgia. I liked the supporting performances, especially Cate Blanchett as Irina Spalko, the main villain; and John Hurt as Harold "Ox" Oxley, the professor driven mad by the crystal skull artifact. It was also a hoot to see Karen Allen reprise her role as Marion Ravenwood, the best of Indiana Jones' girlfriends.

#3: Wall-E

After the disappointing Cars, I thought that Pixar Animation Studios was losing its touch, but last summer's Ratatouille was very strong, and Wall-E puts the studio back in top form. Even though the star of this film is a trash-compacting robot, the film is really about the human need for connection. It also serves as a cautionary tale about the direction the human race is heading.

#2: Iron Man

Superhero films have become a legitimate genre over the past several years. There are good superhero movies and bad superhero movies, but Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr., is a great superhero film. Downey was born to play Tony Stark, the boozing, womanizing playboy who gets a dose of reality when he learns that the weapons he has been building for the US military are being used by terrorists, whereupon he decides to set things right as the high-flying Iron Man. There is great ensemble work in this film, particularly from Gwyneth Paltrow, who gives one of her best performances as Pepper Potts; Tony Stark's girl Friday; and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, Stark's business partner who may not be as friendly to our hero as he first appears.

And now, my favorite movie of 2007...

#1: The Dark Knight

A wise person once said that the greatness of a hero is judged by the worthiness of his opponents. If this is true, then Christian Bale's Batman has become one of the greatest heroes of all, based on his foe in The Dark Knight, the late Heath Ledger's Joker. I mentioned above that I thought that Iron Man was an excellent superhero film; The Dark Knight transcends the superhero genre. It is simply a great film. A new classic for the ages. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is nothing short of brilliant, and like Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman back in 1989, Ledger steals every scene he is in. But Heath Ledger doesn't just play an out-of-control loony like Nicholson did -- his Joker is much more complex. I would say that the Joker of The Dark Knight isn't so much insane as he is a brilliant nihilist dedicated to chaos; a perfect counterpoint to the order-loving Batman. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the performance of Aaron Eckhart, who plays the tragic Harvey Dent, a character who starts out the film being like Batman and ends the film more as a disciple of the Joker. Of all the characters in the movie, Eckhart's Dent makes the most interesting journey.

Summary

And there you have it -- my top picks for the year that was. Feel free to get in touch and argue with me or tell me about a great film I may have left off the list. And remember, each person views a movie through the lens of their own experience and personal taste. Just because I love something doesn't mean that you have to feel the same. This year I'd like to give a special thanks to Jem Matzan for his friendship and fine editorial input over the past three years.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and self-avowed comic book geek. This is his tenth top ten films list. In 2009, John wants to remind everyone to work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like nobody's watching.

John Michael Decker's top ten films of 2007

2008-02-21T08:56:00.000-08:00

And now, here is my 2007 Top Ten Film list as seen on...

http://www.entertainmentinreview.com/

John Michael Decker's top ten films of 2007
Written by John Michael Decker
Jan 12, 2008 at 06:28 PM

It's time, once again, for my biased list of favorite films of the past year. Overall, I have to say that out of the approximately 55 flicks I saw in 2007, I enjoyed most of what I viewed. There were, of course, a few stinkers like The Reaping, Ghost Rider and Transformers, but thankfully these were the exception and not the rule. 2007 was a good year for comedies. Ratatouille, Knocked Up and Superbad were all awesome, but they didn't quite make my list. In fact, there were plenty of movies that I would have liked to include on my list including the crime drama American Gangster, the animated adventure Beowulf, and the fun Korean monster flick The Host, but I only had ten slots to fill. Now here is the list of my ten favorite films of 2007, arranged in descending order from ten to one.

#10: Shoot 'Em Up

Synopsis: In this action comedy, Clive Owen plays Mr. Smith, the angriest man in the world. Through a series of mishaps, Smith ends up as the guardian of a newborn infant who is pursued by seemingly every scumbag and hitman in the government's employ. With the aid of a hooker sidekick (played by the beautiful Italian actress Monica Bellucci) and a number of guns, Smith shoots his way through this 86-minute film. Now you may think that the relentless amount of gunfights and carnage would get tired after a while, but director Michael Davis imbues this movie with such a zany energy that it was hard not to get swept up in what is essentially an adult cartoon.

I know I'm going to take a lot of heat for putting this flick on my list. It's not what one would consider a particularly deep or meaningful film -- just a mindless escape, really. But damn, I had fun watching it.

#9: Bug

Synopsis: This film is almost the complete opposite of Shoot 'Em Up. It's a deep and disturbing psychodrama about a couple's descent into madness. There are few characters and locations in this film, which gives it a very intimate feel. It was almost more like watching a play than a movie, which makes sense because it is based on the play by Tracy Letts.

Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon give raw, Oscar-worthy performances as two lovers who manage to feed off the negative aspects of one another to the point where each enables the others insanity. William Friedkin directs in a way that really gets under your skin.

For more, check out my original review of Bug.

#8: Stephen King's The Mist

Synopsis: A mysterious fog rolls into a small town, bringing with it creatures that would give H.P. Lovecraft nightmares. A band of citizens hunker down in a supermarket for their mutual protection, but before long, sociological and economic differences have the survivors at each others throats.

In my opinion, Frank Darabont had directed some of the finest Stephen King adaptations ever put on celluloid. Both The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were excellent, but this is the first time that Darabont had adapted a true King horror tale. The results were magnificent.

I love films where the human protagonists end up being just as horrible as the monsters they are fighting. This movie also has one of the most unnerving endings I've ever seen in a horror film.

#7: Sicko

Synopsis: Rabble-rousing documentation Michael Moore is at it again, and the target of his latest film is the American health care industry. What I liked so much about this particular documentary was that it did more than just make me angry. There were some real moments of humanity and courage thrown into the mix. There were still a lot of the stunts for which Moore is famous, but they didn't seem as cheap to me in this picture as they have in his past work.

Love him or hate him, Moore is a talented and provocative filmmaker, and it is hard to view his work and not be moved somehow -- even if you are moved to put your fist in his face.

#6: Stardust

Synopsis: When a young man named Tristin promises the village beauty that he will track down a falling star for her, he finds himself in a mystical realm populated by all manner of magical creatures and colorful characters.

This whimsical adventure is based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. It reminded me a lot of one of my all time favorite films, The Princess Bride. This is really just a fun, old-fashioned, swashbuckling fantasy-adventure with lots of memorable performances, particularly from Michelle Pfeiffer as Lamia, a wicked witch obsessed with youth, and Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare, a flamboyant buccaneer.

#5: Hot Fuzz

Synopsis: Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, the toughest, most relentless, most hard-boiled cop in London. But Angel has to face his greatest nightmare when his jealous colleagues have him transferred to Sandford, the village with the lowest crime rate in England. To make matters worse, in Sandford, Angel is partnered with Danny Butterman (played by long time Pegg collaborator Nick Frost), a bumbling oaf who is obsessed with American action films. But before long this odd couple realize that there is more going on in this idyllic little town than an escaped goose and underage drinking.

The actor/writer/director uber-team of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright join forces once again to do for cop films what they did for horror flicks in Shaun of the Dead. This was a great send-up of the American action film, with some real character moments and enough of its own action to fill up three other movies.

Check out my original review of Hot Fuzz.

#4: 300

Synopsis: Another adaptation of a comic book graphic novel, this film is a liberally interpreted account of the battle of Thermopylae by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. Although I would hesitate to call this "history," it is a balls-to-the-wall action flick with great characters and wall-to-wall action.

Although some may be turned off by the graphic battle sequences throughout the film, I found the movie's kinetic energy hard to look away from, and there is substance in the idea of a few brave men fighting for an ideal bigger than all of them. Zack Snyder is turning out to be quite a fine director, and I can't wait to see his next film project, an adaptation of Watchmen, the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Check out my original review of 300.

#3: The Simpsons Movie

Synopsis: The lovable moron, Homer Simpson, inadvertently causes an ecological disaster in his hometown of Springfield that is so horrible that the EPA feels the need to place a giant dome around the town and cut it off from the rest of the world. Hilarity ensues.

The Simpsons is one of my favorite animated television shows, but I have to confess that over the past few years it's lost its edge. But the show debuted on December 17, 1989, and one has to expect some slump in quality after 19 seasons on the air. I am happy to report that when I saw The Simpsons Movie, the old magic was back in spades. This movie gave me several of the best belly-laughs I've had last year.

#2: No Country for Old Men

Synopsis: Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin) is hunting near the Rio Grande when he stumbles across a group of dead bodies and a satchel filled with over two million dollars in cash. Before long, Moss finds himself on the run with the money, being pursued by deranged serial killer Anton Chigurh (played with real malice by Javier Bardem) and honest Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (performed by veteran character actor, Tommy Lee Jones). The film then unfolds, essentially, as a character study of three men. The poor hunter who thinks he has struck it rich, but is in way over his head (Moss). The stone-cold killer with his own twisted sense of honor (Chigurh). And the law man who can't quite believe that an evil force like Anton Chigurh can exist in the world (Tom Bell).

The Coen brothers are two of the finest filmmakers working in Hollywood today. They may have surpassed themselves with this crime thriller based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. The plot twists and turns and never quite leads us where we think it will. This is a very thoughtful film. The characters are real and unpretentious. I have heard that a lot of people were underwhelmed by the ending, but I loved it. It haunted me and I was still thinking about it days later. To me, this is the mark of a fine movie.

And now, my favorite movie of 2007...

#1: Grindhouse

Synopsis: Grindhouse is a good old-fashioned double feature. The main body of the film consists of "Planet Terror," an end-of-the-world, zombie picture directed by Robert Rodriguez, and "Death Proof" a unique slasher flick where the killer's weapon is a car rather than a knife, directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Although both "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" are very enjoyable, if I had viewed them independently, I don't think they would have even made my Top Ten list. Certainly neither of these films independently is as good as No Country for Old Men. What blew me away about Grindhouse was that Rodriguez and Tarantino crafted the entire movie into an experience. Specifically, the experience of seeing a couple of exploitation films at an old grindhouse theater sometime in the 1970s. It was the little details that really sold the illusion. The scratchy film quality. The missing reels. And especially the fake trailers that were thrown into the mix, each written and produced by top directors Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Rob Zombie. I can honestly say that the experience of seeing Grindhouse was the most fun I had at the movies last year.

Check out my original review of Grindhouse.

Summary

And there you have it, my top picks for the year that was. Feel free to get in touch and argue with me or tell me about a great film I may have left off the list. And remember, each person views a movie through the lens of their own experience and personal taste. Just because I love something doesn't mean that you have to feel the same.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and self-avowed comic book geek. This is his ninth top ten films list.

Copyright 2008 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

Four More Film Reviews

2007-10-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more film reviews, originally published on Entertainment In Review.

http://www.entertainmentinreview.com/

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Written by John Michael Decker
Jun 04, 2007 at 11:43 AM

Who would have thought that a series of films based on an amusement park attraction would have developed into such a lucrative franchise? In the 21st century, pirates are more popular than ever, and a lot of the credit for that must to go to the Pirates of the Caribbean films and the incredible performance of their star, Johnny Depp. In the 20th century, the romantic and stereotypical image of the pirate primarily came from three sources: the novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, the play Peter Pan by James M. Barrie, and the Gilbert & Sullivan musical The Pirates of Penzance. Well, now I think it is safe to say that the Pirates of the Caribbean films can be added to that list. What modern day child will be able to hear the word pirate without conjuring up images of the eccentric Captain Jack Sparrow as portrayed by Depp? Now that the first trilogy of Pirate films is done, I am left to ponder, was it worth the wait?

The story

At the end of the last film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Captain Jack had been betrayed by the beautiful Elizabeth Swann and left chained to his ship, the Black Pearl as a gargantuan Kraken bore down on him. Not only that, but James Norrington had delivered the heart of squid faced Davy Jones to Lord Cutler Beckett, giving Beckett control of Davy Jones and his haunted ship, the Flying Dutchman. With the Dutchman and its enchanted crew of damned sailors at this command, it seemed as if Beckett could destroy the last vestiges of piracy on the seven seas. In the meanwhile, witch woman Tia Dulma has spirited Captain Barbossa back from the dead to help Will Turner and what was left of Captain Sparrow's crew find Jack, who was imprisoned in Davy Jones' Locker.

Confused? If you went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, but hadn't seen Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, you would be -- there is no re-cap at the beginning of the film to let the audience know what they missed. But then again, there were probably only half a dozen folks who missed the last film. And those people were raised by wolves and lived secluded lives separated from all popular culture.

As Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End begins, Captain Barbossa has led his ragtag crew to Singapore to meet Captain Sao Feng and obtain a ship from him. Barbossa wants to call a meeting of the Brethren Court of nine pirate lords, and to do this he needs to find Jack Sparrow, who is one of the nine. To find Sparrow, he needs a ship from Sao Feng, but since Sao Feng has a grudge against Captain Jack this will not be an easy task. The last time that the Brethren Court was held, the pirates managed to trap Calypso, goddess of the sea, in human form, and for reasons of his own, Barbossa wants to free her. For her part, Elizabeth is racked with guilt for betraying Jack in the first place. Will Turner, who last saw his true love Elizabeth kissing the roguish Sparrow, is confused about her true motivations, and also wants to find a way to free his father, "Bootstrap" Bill Turner from his servitude on Davy Jones crew. Are you still with me?

If you feel lost, you are not alone. Trying to write a simple synopsis of this film is like trying to untangle the Gordian Knot. Suffice it to say that Captain Jack is rescued in short order. What kind of Pirates of the Caribbean film would it be without Captain Jack? Every character in this movie has their own secret agenda, and every character has made side deals with other characters to accomplish their own ends. There is so much double-dealing, double crossing and four-flushing going on that it is easy to get lost -- and frankly, I got lost several times.

This script is an overly-complicated mess. Sure, there are some amazing action set pieces and some wonderful character moments and interactions, but the story itself is so muddled and confused that it just becomes a headache to try and follow.

The cast

The cast of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is top notch. Leading the ensemble is Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow, perhaps the most endearing and memorable character of his career -- and that is saying something, considering Depp's vast and impressive resume. The wobbling, effete and seemingly mad Sparrow steals every scene he's in and makes the other actors have to work twice as hard to keep up. This is a cinematic creation on par with Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones or Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, and Depp should be acknowledged for his impressive work, even if Captain Jack doesn't appear in the strongest film this time around.

One actor who can keep up with Depp is Geoffrey Rush, whose character Captain Barbossa is a scene-stealer in his own right. He plays Barbossa almost as a tarnished gentleman -- an exciting character choice. It's an awful lot of fun to see Rush and Depp share the screen together again -- two great actors at the top of their game. Barbossa may not be as showy as Sparrow, but he is no less interesting.

Keira Knightley gets to do a lot of swashbuckling in this film, and she is quite good at it. Although there were moments where I found her character Elizabeth Swann a little shrill, for the most part I enjoyed her work in this one. Poor Orlando Bloom's character Will Turner spends most of the film brooding and just doesn't measure up the other performers around him. It's not that his performance is bad. It's just that the actors in the film are so much better, he can't help but to seem lacking.

Bill Nighy gives a wonderful performance behind computer-generated effects as Davy Jones, a character who looks like he came out of H.P. Lovecraft's imagination. I would say this is one of the more successful computer generated character's I've seen. Perhaps because they didn't animate Nighy's eyes, so we can see him express a full rage of emotions. The great Chow Yun-Fat does a nice turn as Captain Sao Feng, one of the nine pirate lords. And there is a fun cameo by Keith Richards as Captain Teague, Jack Sparrow's father. It's a nice bit of stunt casting, as it is common knowledge that Depp based Jack Sparrow's wobbling gait on Richards' own walk.

Overall the performances in this film are great. It's too bad these interesting characters weren't given a better script to work with.

Production quality

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End does an amazing job of blending live action with computer-generated effects. More of the action takes place at sea, correcting a mistake from the last film where the pirates spent way too much time on dry land. The monstrous crew of the Flying Dutchman are especially well rendered as twisted fusions of fish and man.

The original music by Hans Zimmer is rousing and memorable. Gore Verbinski is an able director who does a find job mixing the fantasy elements of the story with the gritty feel of life at sea. The fight sequences are well done and original. Production-wise, I have nothing to complain about.

Overall

This film is a feast of great sights and sounds lost in a hopelessly confusing script. Although it is a lot of fun to watch these eccentric characters interact with each other, they get lost in a terribly convoluted story. Some judicious editing and a tighter script would have improved this film greatly. Fans of the first two films should definitely check it out, but don't expect it to be as charming as the first one.

Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Script quality: 5/10
Acting quality: 8/10
Production quality: 9/10
Format and length: Action/Adventure, 168 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Stellan Skarsgard, Naomie Harris, Chow Yun-Fat, and Keith Richards
Director: Gore Verbinski
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and a freelance writer. He once played a pirate for an event at the Turning Stone Casino, but people were too busy gambling to enjoy his piratey antics.

Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

Bug (2007)

Written by John Michael Decker
Jun 07, 2007 at 12:38 PM

The idea of bugs are revolting to most people. There is just something so alien about them. Perhaps it's the way they can hold completely still like a statue and then suddenly skitter toward you at inhuman speeds. I think that everybody has some kind of bug that they fear. In the brief times I lived in Brooklyn and Orlando I developed an abhorrence for cockroaches. When I went to see Bug at the Crossgates Mall last week, I expected it to be a horror movie about an infestation of insects. I was wrong -- it's not a movie about bugs themselves, so much as it's about the idea of bugs. Or, to put it more properly, bugs as a metaphor for paranoia.

The story

Ashley Judd plays a doleful waitress named Agnes, who works at a honky tonk in Oklahoma. She lives alone in a dilapidated motel room, where she has been receiving a number of prank phone calls. She suspects her dangerous ex-husband, Goss, who has just been released from prison. One night her best friend and fellow waitress, R.C., convinces the lonely Agnes to take a stranger home after work. A man with haunted eyes named Peter. At first Peter seems harmless enough, so Agnes invites him to spend the night. She fears her ex-husband and thinks that having Peter around will grant her some measure of security. Gradually, it becomes apparent that Peter is anything but harmless. He is a gulf war veteran who claims that he was the victim of a number of experiments. Worse still, he sees bugs everywhere, and it turns out that Peter's paranoia is infectious.

This is a very tight script by actor and playwright Tracy Letts based on his play of the same name. Perhaps because of that, Bug almost feels more like a play than a movie. The vast majority of the story takes place in the cramped motel room, which progressively feels more claustrophobic and creepy as the film progresses. As the room gets messier and more disorganized, the sanity of the characters inhabiting it also degenerates.

This is the story of a descent into madness, and it is not pretty. It is not glamorized or sanitized the way Hollywood films often treat mental illness and often it is not easy to watch. When this movie was over, I was in shock. I literally had to walk around the mall for a half hour to decompress before I could get into my car and head home. This picture is an effective physiological thriller, but perhaps it is too effective. I think that the experience of seeing this film might just be too intense for most moviegoers. This isn't the fun thrill ride one might get from a good zombie picture; it is a really harrowing experience.

If there were a weakness in the script, it would be that it is unclear how much time passes during the course of the story; Agnes' deterioration seems to happen a little too quickly. Otherwise the script is quite believable.

The cast

One reason this film is so effective is the daring and raw performances of Ashley Judd as Agnes and Michael Shannon as Peter. Ashley Judd's Agnes begins the movie as a broken woman haunted by the mistakes of her past, and her downward spiral is heartbreaking to behold. Michael Shannon's Peter is more of a tragic figure than a menacing one; his is a self-destructive character whose rampant paranoia keeps him from getting the help he so desperately needs. The relationship between Agnes and Peter is like a Greek tragedy, as the two characters' personalities combine in such a way that they bring out the worst in each other. Watching their descent is like driving past a bloody auto accident. You want to look away, but you can't. These are Oscar-caliber performances, but I doubt they will be acknowledged -- horror films rarely get their due.

Bug has a very small cast, which contributes to the feeling that this is a play and not a film. The supporting players are all excellent. Harry Connick Jr. is wonderful as Goss, Agnes' ex-con ex-husband. He walks around like a coiled spring, creating real tension every time he's on screen. One never knows when he will explode into violence. Lynn Collins is also quite good as R.C., Agnes' best friend who tries to help her, but is far too late. And Brian F. O'Byrne does a creepy turn as Dr. Sweet, who claims he wants to "help" Peter but seems to have a more sinister agenda.

Production quality

Bug was directed by William Friedkin, who also directed The Exorcist, one of my favorite horror pictures. Friedkin always seems to get intense and realistic performances out of his casts, and this movie is no exception. This is a low budget picture, but Friedkin manages to do a lot with a little. Most of the film consists of two people alone in a motel room talking, but he manages to make it riveting.

The pacing of the film is very good and the the story moves along at a nice clip. In a summer of bloated over-long movies, this was very refreshing.

Overall

Ultimately I enjoyed Bug on a purely artistic level, but I would not recommend it to general audiences as it is far too intense. But if you are feeling brave, and want to see some top notch acting, then you might want to give it a try.

Title: Bug
Script quality: 8/10
Acting quality: 10/10
Production quality: 7/10
Format and length: Horror/thriller, 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Lynn Collins, Brian F. O'Byrne, and Harry Connick Jr.
Director: William Friedkin
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor. Occasionally he plays the part of a freelance writer. John would like to see a film about a haunted veteran who is paranoid about fluffy bunnies.

Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

Written by John Michael Decker
Jun 13, 2007 at 11:37 AM

To me, Las Vegas has always been about appearance. It has a glitzy facade designed to distract visitors away from its seedy underbelly. Perhaps because of this aura of misdirection, Vegas has always been a great city to stage stories about heists. Now while I don't particularly like Las Vegas, I enjoy films that take place in the city. It's part of the weird dichotomy of the place. The latest heist movie to take advantage of Las Vegas is the Steven Soderbergh-directed Ocean's Thirteen. I liked Ocean's Eleven, the 2001 re-make of the 1960 film of the same name starring the Rat Pack. I wasn't crazy about the 2004 sequel, Ocean's Twelve, though. Ocean's Thirteen falls somewhere in the middle. While I thought It was better than Ocean's Twelve, it was not as good as Ocean's Eleven.

The story

As Ocean's Thirteen begins, Ruben Tishkoff (Eliott Gould) is swindled out of a real estate deal by oily billionaire Willie Bank (Al Pacino). Ruben is so upset by this that he has a heart attack. But Bank doesn't realize that when you screw with one of Danny Ocean's gang, you screw with them all. So Danny (George Clooney) rounds up the old gang, including Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) and Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), to pull a job that will totally ruin the grand opening of Bank's new casino. They intend to fix all the games at once so Willie will lose his shirt at his gala opening. Of course, there are the usual twists and turns that one expects in a heist film of this kind, including the necessity of pulling in Danny's old adversary, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) into the plot to help.

As with all the Soderbergh-directed Ocean films, the details of the heist come second to the personalities of the characters. Unfortunately, because there are so many people in this film, we never get that deep beyond the surface "coolness" of the characters. Sure, there are one or two personality quirks which are amusing, but none of these people get particularly well fleshed out.

The story moves along at a quick pace and there is some fine dialog, but I found myself getting bored and wishing something really interesting and surprising would happen. It never did. Perhaps I've seen too many of these heist pictures and become somewhat jaded, but there were no real surprises for me in this movie. You can only watch cool people being cool for so long before you start to get antsy. Not that the story was flat out bad. It was diverting in moments, but there was nothing really memorable. If someone asked me to recall story elements of Ocean's Thirteen in a month, I doubt that there would be much that I would remember.

The cast

This movie is really more about its famous cast than it is about the story. And this is an incredibly talented cast. The main three protagonists in the film, played by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, are all terrific performers with tons of charisma. However, I've seen them all do better work in other films. It was obvious that this cast really enjoys working together, but I couldn't shake the feeling that they were making this movie more so that they could hang around together off camera, than for any other reason.

There were tons of talented supporting actors who didn't get that much screen time because the story had to service so many elements. So the characters played by Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Eddie Izzard, Carl Reiner, Andy Garcia, Eliott Gould and others were really just glorified cameos.

Al Pachino was appropriately arrogant as Willie Bank, but ultimately a two-dimensional bad guy. The best new performance in this film came from Ellen Barkin as Bank's uptight, right-hand woman. But, as with the rest of the film, they never delved that deeply into her motivations.

Putting together a cast of incredibly charismatic actors is all well and good, but because that was all this movie really had going for it, I was left wanting for more.

The production

Steven Soderbergh is a really fine director and there was nothing about this production to complain about. Nothing to really sing about either. Everything about Ocean's Thirteen felt like they were just going through the motions. It was a slick, good-looking film, but nothing sticks out in my memory as being particularly fantastic.

Overall

Ocean's Thirteen was very much like Las Vegas itself. A shiny exterior that, while was pretty to look at, ultimately left me feeling empty and used.

Title: Ocean's Thirteen
Script quality: 5/10
Acting quality: 6/10
Production quality: 6/10
Format and length: Comedy/Crime Drama, 122 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Ellen Barkin, Eliott Gould, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner, Shaobo Qin, Eddie Izzard
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and freelance writer. While John is not a gambling man by nature, he would bet good money that if they ever make another "Oceans" film, he will not be there to see it.

Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

Knocked Up (2007)

Written by John Michael Decker
Jun 25, 2007 at 03:38 PM

Looking over my last several reviews it occurred to me that I've been writing a lot about horror, action and comic book related films. It's time for a change of pace. To that end I've decided to review a romantic comedy. This is the type of movie I usually wouldn't go to see unless I were on a date. To me, going to see a romantic comedy is like ordering a pizza. You know what you're going to get even before you place the order. You know there'll be sauce and cheese and crust, and yet the quality of the pizza varies wildly depending on where you order it. Some pizzas are fantastic and some are pretty lousy. I am happy to report that Knocked Up, the new romantic comedy written and directed by Judd Apatow, was pretty darn great.

The story

This movie is about two people who are completely and totally mismatched. Alison Scott is a correspondent for E! television. She has just been promoted to an on-air position, and she is on the fast track to success. Ben Stone is a jobless slacker -- a pot-head who lives with a posse of stoners and dabbles in Internet porn. Alison is beautiful, blonde, and statuesque. She could be a supermodel. Ben is short and doughy. His prospects are bleak. He lives life one day at a time and never makes plans. While Alison is refined, Ben is crude. Where Alison is uptight, Ben is relaxed. The only thing they really do have in common is the fact that neither of them is ready to start a family.

One fateful night when Alison goes out to celebrate her promotion, she meets Ben at a bar and they end up having a drunken hook-up. Eight weeks later Alison learns that she is pregnant with Ben's child. Ben may be a loser, but he has a good heart, and agrees to support Alison in any way that she needs him, even though he has no clue as to how to proceed.

The rest of the film tracks the nine-month pregnancy and the journey of two people who really don't know each other at all who are trying their best to make a bad situation work, even though by all rights they should never be together.

This is such a simple idea, but it is executed very well and mined for every drop of comedy that it has. Though the humor is pretty crude, it is grounded in reality and often hilarious. And even though many of the laughs are raunchy, there is a lot of heart to this story. It reminded me a little bit of a Kevin Smith film, because he is also very good at mixing rude humor with pathos, but whereas Kevin Smith's dialogue is very stylized, the script here by Judd Apatow is much more natural and real.

The cast

Many viewers will recognize Katherine Heigl, who plays Alison, from the television show, "Grey's Anatomy." While I confess that I'm not a big fan of "Grey's Anatomy," I thought that Heigl was terrific in this role. She played the hormonal ups and downs of a pregnant woman, as well as the genuine fear for her future, with grace and aplomb. Likewise, Seth Rogen was excellent as Ben, the clueless slacker with a good heart. Through the film, both characters have to evolve and change in order to make their ill-conceived relationship work, and their journeys are engaging and entertaining.

Another thing that is wonderful about Knocked Up is the great number of standout supporting performances. Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd are very funny as Debbie and Pete, Alison's sister and brother-in-law. Years earlier, Pete had married Debbie because she was pregnant, and through them Alison and Ben see a window into their own possible future. Also hilarious are Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill and Martin Starr as Ben's gang of hapless friends. They supply some of the best lines and funniest moments in the film as they try to be supportive of Ben in their own, unique, clueless manners.

The production

Judd Apatow wrote and directed The 40-Year-Old Virgin in 2005, and uses a lot of the same actors for this film. Apatow was also a writer on the short-lived but critically acclaimed television series, "Freaks and Geeks," which I liked a lot. He has proven himself to be an able director with an ear for dialogue and a deft touch at getting strong comedic performances out of his cast.

Overall

There are no real surprises in this film, but it still works on a lot of levels. It's a good date film because it can be appreciated for both the raunchy humor and the sweetness of the relationship that develops between two likable characters.

Title: Knocked Up
Script quality: 8/10
Acting quality: 8/10
Production quality: 7/10
Format and length: Romantic Comedy, 129 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Katherine Heigl, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Johah Hill, Martin Starr, Joanna Kerns, Harold Ramis
Director: Judd Apatow
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is an actor and freelance writer. He has never had a first date go as wrong as Ben and Alison's did.

Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

2007 Summer Movie Report Card

2007-10-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here are my last two articles for Entertainment In Review.

http://www.entertainmentinreview.com/

2007 Summer movie report card: part 1

Written by John Michael Decker
Aug 14, 2007 at 12:42 PM

It's been a while since I've written article for Entertainment in Review. The past few months have been extremely busy. I've been performing and directing at the Sterling Renaissance Festival in northwestern New York, and in addition, the first few weeks of July I was involved in co-producing a science fiction comedy which was recorded and performed in a 1950s radio show style. Needless to say, I did not have the spare time to sit down and write reviews, as much as I missed that activity. Well, now I finally have a few days off, and I thought that instead of writing a review of one movie I would create a report card for the summer movie season so far. I will list all of the films I have seen in the summer season up until now, write a brief synopsis for each, and give them a simple letter grade. I realize that this will not be as detailed or comprehensive as my usual reviews, but you will receive a good overview of what the season has been like thus far.

Spider-Man 3: The weakest of the Spider-Man films so far, but still an enjoyable adventure with a quick pace and great special effects. The multiple plots made the final product feel cluttered. Like many of the summer films this season, it could have used a better editor. As a Spider-Man fanatic, however, I enjoyed seeing some of my favorite comic book scenes played out on the big screen. Grade: B+

28 Weeks Later: A good sequel to the wonderful 28 Days Later. Not as shocking or as scary as the original, but still with enough thrills and chills to make a horror fan happy. Once again, the audience is left to ponder which is worse; the mindless hordes of flesh eating cannibals or the military/industrial complex in charge of rebuilding humanity. Grade: B

The Hills Have Eyes 2: A fun soldiers vs. mutants horror flick that is strong on action but light on surprises. It's got a 1950s nuclear paranoia element that I really dig. I love how in many films, radiation is like a magic wand that can grant people extraordinary and often horrible powers. Grade: B-

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End: Great performances and top-of-the-line special effects don't quite save a meandering and convoluted plot. There are some enjoyable "yo ho ho" moments, and Johnny Depp deserves an Oscar for his performance, but I still spent much of the movie scratching my head and trying to figure out what was going on. This needed some serious editing -- even more than Spider-Man 3 did. Grade: C+

Bug: An incredibly effective psychological thriller that burrows under the skin and leaves the viewer feeling disquieted and paranoid. This film features some amazingly powerful performances, but is so intense that I would not recommend it to general audiences. Grade: A-

Mr. Brooks: A bizarre thriller that features Kevin Costner as a nebbishy everyman who also happens to be a serial killer, and William Hurt as his psychotic imaginary friend. Though the plot didn't always make sense, I found the premise original and the film largely engaging though often unintentionally funny. Grade: B-

Ocean's 13: This was the lackluster conclusion to George Clooney's "Danny Ocean" trilogy. The story was all style and no substance and I left the theatre barely remembering what I had just seen. Grade: C-

Knocked Up: A genuinely funny and sometimes warm-hearted comedy about a night that goes terribly wrong and forces two people who are polar opposites to try and make it as a couple. Grade: B+

Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer: Like the first Fantastic Four film, this movie fails to capture the energy and wonder of the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic books that inspired them. The special effects are hit or miss and the main characters are largely miscast. The portrayal of Dr. Doom, who is one of the best characters ever to be featured in a Marvel comic, is especially terrible. There are a few fun moments, but they are few and far between. Grade: D+

Live Free or Die Hard: A very enjoyable, if somewhat by-the-numbers, action film that shows that Bruce Willis still has what it takes to play a convincing action hero. While not as good as the classic original Die Hard, it was cool to see Detective John McClane in action again after so many years. Grade: B

Transformers: I enjoyed the Transformers cartoon from the 1980s, so I thought the live action version might be a hoot. Boy was I wrong. The acting was wooden, the dialogue was embarrassingly corny and Michael Bay's directing style is nausea-inducing. Though the special effects were good and it is always fun to see giant robots pounding on each other, I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone other than a Transformers fanatic pay good money for this experience. Grade: D

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: If you accept that the Harry Potter books are better than the movies, and just judge the films on their own merit, than you can enjoy them for what they are. This was a very good addition to the Harry Potter film franchise. This movie is almost more of a thriller than a fantasy. As the mood gets darker and the stakes get higher, the films just keep getting better and better. Grade B+

Sicko: This is my favorite Michael Moore documentary so far. Now I haven't always bought the baseball-hat-wearing, everyman persona that Moore affects, and I freely admit that he often uses cheap stunts to prove his points, but this time he was more restrained and balanced in his expose of American HMOs. I liked that this film had some genuine moments of humanity. Grade: A

The Simpsons Movie: This is the most enjoyable film I've seen this summer. In fact, I doubt I'll see another movie that is this good for the rest of the summer season. While the Simpsons television series has become somewhat lackluster over the past few years, the movie had all the edginess and hilarity of the old school Simpsons cartoons in spades. There were more laughs per minute in this flick than in anything I've seen in years, and I'm talking about big, gut-busting laughs here, not just polite titters. I attended the film with a bunch of my friends from the Renaissance Festival, people who usually have vastly different ideas about what makes a good movie, and we all thought it was amazing. Grade: A+

So those are the films I've seen since the summer blockbuster season opened. As usual this is just my opinion, and you can feel free to agree or disagree with me. I'll write another article later wrapping up the 2007 batch of summer films.

John Michael Decker is an actor and sometime freelance writer. Anyone in the Syracuse area this summer can drop by the Sterling Renaissance Festival and see John portray Damian Spector, the evil sheriff of Warwickshire until August the August the 19th.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.
Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker No reprints without written permission.

2007 Summer movie report card: part 2

Written by John Michael Decker
Sep 30, 2007 at 02:44 PM

With the arrival of autumn, I thought that it was high time for me to get off my butt and finish my Summer Movie Report Card. Between this article and my 2007 Summer Movie Report Card: Part 1, this will cover every film I've seen between May the 5th through September the 22nd. I would again remind the readers out there that these reviews are simple synopsis of the films I've seen along with a letter grade. This will not be the usual in-depth kind of review one would usually find for a single film on Entertainment In Review. It will be a good overview of the summer as a whole.

Ratatouille: Brad Bird, the man responsible for The Iron Giant and The Incredibles brings us this lovely little gem of a film about following your bliss. Even if you're a sewer rat and your bliss is gourmet cooking. You can rarely go wrong with a Pixar film. Grade: B+

The Bourne Ultimatum: A balls-out action flick with a realistic edge and a fine performance by Matt Damon. This is the third film in the Bourne trilogy and, wonder of wonders, all three segments are great -- a truly a rare occurrence in a movie trilogy. Grade: B+

Stardust: This is a fine adaptation of the comic graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. It is a fairy tale with a wacky sense of humor in the tradition of The Princess Bride. I particularly enjoyed the performances of Michelle Pfeiffer as a wicked witch and Robert DeNiro as a gay pirate. Grade: A-

The Invasion: Yet another adaptation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but not nearly as good as the Don Siegel-directed 1956 movie or the Phil Kaufman version from 1978. Though the performances of Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig are outstanding, the film itself is lackluster and fails to capture the feeling of fear and paranoia generated by the past classics. Grade: C

Superbad: A blisteringly funny high school comedy about those painful last days of school. And sure, this material has been covered by many other filmmakers, but I just found this one particularly hilarious. I really have a soft spot for movies that can combine raunchy humor with real pathos. Grade: B+

War: This was a by-the-numbers action set piece with Jason Statham and Jet Li playing a cop and an assassin respectively, and locked in a game of cat and mouse. I was bored through most of this picture and probably would have given it a much lower grade if not for the surprisingly clever plot twist that was thrown in at the end of the movie. Grade: C+

Halloween: Rob Zombie's bloody remake of the John Carpenter slasher classic is an awful lot of fun for those who enjoy that genre. While I must confess, to my shame, that I have never seen the 1978 version of this film, I liked this one for what it was. This flick had all the hallmarks of a "B" movie: Beasts, Blood, and Breasts. Grade: B-

Rush Hour 3: Did we really need a Rush Hour 3? Didn't Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 say all there was to say about the bizarre team up of Jackie Chan's by-the-book Inspector Lee and Chris Tucker's loud-mouthed LA cop, James Carter? How many times can two such incompetent boobs save the day? This one is for fans of Chan and Tucker only. Grade: C-

3:10 to Yuma: Director James Mangold's remake of the classic 1957 western of the same name. In this version, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale play the characters originally portrayed by Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. The real power of this tale doesn't come from gunfights as much as from the battle of wills between the two main characters wonderfully acted by Crowe and Bale. Grade: B+

Dragon Wars: D-War: This film from director Hyung-rae Shim is based on Korean myths. Perhaps if I had a better handle on the source material, I would have enjoyed this film more, but the story didn't make a lick of sense to me. I did, however, enjoy the scenes of dragons battling helicopters. Grade: D+

Shoot 'Em Up: In this psychotically over-the-top action picture, Clive Owen plays Mr. Smith, a gun enthusiast with some serious anger management issues. With a baby and his prostitute girlfriend, Smith is on the run from nefarious forces led by a scenery chomping Paul Giamatti. If you can let go of logic and just go with this, it is one hell of a fun ride. Grade: B+

Resident Evil: Extinction: If you are looking for a movie that's going to sweep the Oscars and change modern cinema as we know it, that you should probably avoid Resident Evil: Extinction. If, on the other hand, you want to see a gorgeous supermodel kicking the crap out of zombies in a film directed by the guy who gave us Highlander, than you could do a lot worse than this film. Grade: B-

Summary

So there you have it--my very biased opinion of the summer blockbuster season of this year of our Lord, 2007 anno Domini. Hopefully this will give everyone a good idea of what they can rent over the next few months. I saw a lot of films, but I didn't see everything, so feel free to drop me a line through Entertainment In Review and let me know if there was a great film that came out this summer that I shouldn't have missed. Save me some popcorn...

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and wanna-be action film star. He has a lot on his plate these days and won't be contributing as much to Entertainment In Review as he has in the past, but hopes to be writing a lot more here in the near future.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.
Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

The Greatest Comic Book Films of All Time!!!

2007-10-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of an article that was first published on Entertainment In Review.
http://www.entertainmentinreview.com/

The greatest comic book films of all time (so far)

Written by John Michael Decker
May 22, 2007 at 12:31 PM

In its opening weekend, Spider-Man 3 earned $151.1 million on more than 10,000 screens at 4,252 locations, shattering box office records. Because of that, I think we are only going to see more films based on heroic four-color adventures, not less. It's safe to say that comic book movies are here to stay. The bottom line in Hollywood has always been about cash, and lately, films based on comic books or about superheroes have been raking in a ton of it. Even on television, the most successful new series of the past season has been NBC's excellent serialized drama about a group of ordinary people spontaneously developing super powers, "Heroes." In the 21st century, superheroes are bigger than ever. But the question is, are all comic book films good? To be honest, I would have to say no. Most of them are either mediocre (Fantastic Four [2005], Superman Returns [2006]) or downright terrible (Batman and Robin [1997], Catwoman [2004]). It seems like for every X-Men that comes out, there are at least five Judge Dredds that follow. However, when they are done well, there is nothing I enjoy more than a good comic book movie.

Comics as literature

My infatuation with this type of film began with the comics themselves, which itself started when I was in the first grade. I am dyslexic. Not severely so, but enough so that learning to read was a difficult frustration for me. My mother, who ironically enough was a reading teacher, did her best to foster a love of literature in my brothers and me. To this end she would read to us every night. Early on, the books she read that I enjoyed the most dealt with Greek mythology. Something about Greek heroes fighting monsters resonated with me on a deep level. One day I was accompanying my mother while she was running errands at Stone's Pharmacy, the local drug store in Lake Luzerne, NY. For the most part, I saw the pharmacy as a place to get ice cream or to goad one of my parents into buying me a match box car. That particular day, though, I noticed a rack of colorful magazines. Even though I couldn't read at the time, I was fascinated by the combination of pictures and words and I convinced my mother to buy one for me. My first comic book was an issue of Superman. I don't remember the number.

That night, instead of a book, I had my mother read me that issue of Superman. I loved it; Mom hated it. For weeks, I would nag my mother to buy me comic books (they only cost a quarter in those days) and read them to me. She was a good sport at first, but there came a point where she stopped. "John," she said to me, "these comic books are garbage. You know that I will read you any book you want me to, but if you want to read comics, you are going to have to learn how to read them yourself." At that point I was already hooked on comics. I couldn't give them up, so I sat down and I taught myself to read. It didn't happen overnight, and it was hard work, but I credit comic books with giving me the medium I needed to learn how to read. And as I've grown older and more sophisticated, comic books have also grown more sophisticated. I would place Frank Miller's "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns," Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" comic books, and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" alongside any so-called "serious" literature.

Comic books are a unique art form invented in America and combining the written word with graphic artwork. I have come to realize that comic books are, in a very real way, the American version of mythological heroes and gods. Where as the Greeks had Ulysses and Perseus we Americans have the Green Lantern and Captain America. The stories may not be as old as some of the Greek myths but they are no less valid.

Comics as film

Adapting comic book tales to the big screen is not always easy. With obscure comic book characters like Blade the Vampire Hunter, filmmakers can take some liberties with the character and often improve upon the printed material. But with more well-known, iconic characters like Spider-Man or Superman it becomes more difficult to make changes to the characters that comic book fans will accept. The secret is to find filmmakers who love and understand the comic book characters they're bringing to life, and hope that they are able to distill the on-the-page essence of what makes a particular character tick, and translate that to film.

Here is a brief list of some great films that are either based on actual comic books, or on the idea of the "superhero" that was popularized in comic books. I think they are all worth seeking out and viewing:

Conan the Barbarian (1982): I know that Conan got his start in the Robert E. Howard pulp novels and magazines, but I was first introduced to the Cimmerian Barbarian in the Marvel Comics of the 1970s, so in the back of my mind I always think of him as a comic book character. This film captures everything that is great about Conan, perhaps the best sword and sorcery pulp character ever created.
V for Vendetta (2006): Alan Moore's comic book work is notoriously hard to translate onto the big screen, but this film does about the best job I've ever seen of interpreting Moore's powerful, moody vision of a totalitarian future.
Robocop (1987): This film was not based on any comic books, but there were comics based on the film later on. Paul Verhoeven's awesome, over-the-top, dark comedy/action flick about a bleak future and the cyborg supercop trying to make things right is an excellent example of the super hero origin story.
The Rocketeer (1991): Highly enjoyable adaptation of the Dave Stevens graphic novel. Bill Campbell makes an excellent protagonist and Jennifer Connelly has never looked better.
The Crow (1994): This dark and moody film is an excellent adaptation of the James O'Barr comic book. Only marred by the fact that it is Brandon Lee's last performance.
Darkman (1990): Sam Raimi's first foray into superhero films is fun, dark and high-energy. It is a perfect stepping stone between his earlier films, like The Evil Dead, and his later pictures, like the Spider-Man movies.
Blade/Blade II (1998, 2002): These are examples of movies that improve on the comic book source material, with great scripts by David S. Goyer and a strong lead performance by Wesley Snipes.
300 (2007) Brilliant adaptation of Frank Miller's wonderful hack and slash graphic novel. A testosterone dripping tour de force.
The Iron Giant (1999): A great animated movie where, like in Hellboy, the hero fights what he was created to be to become something greater.
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987): Some may argue that this is a horror movie, or even a horror comedy, but to my mind it's a superhero origin film. Watch it and then tell me I'm wrong. The protagonist, Ash, played by Bruce Campbell, is certainly a hard-luck superhero by the end of the film.
X-Men (2000): While Bryan Singer's first go at an X-Men film isn't perfect, it is none the less a very enjoyable picture with some excellent acting and direction amid hit or miss special effects.

And now here is a list of my personal favorite comic book films of all time. I will list them in descending order from 10 to 1.

10. Batman (1989): I do have to give props to Tim Burton for his first Bat-flick. The production design is awe-inspiring and actor Michael Keaton gives a much stronger performance as the Dark Knight than anyone gave him credit for -- especially considering that Keaton was physically totally wrong for the role. But it is Jack Nicholson's bizarre, over-the-top take on the Joker that steals the show. Let's face it, the movie should have been called Joker. Even though the plot falls apart in the last 15 minutes, this film still holds up.

9. Unbreakable (2000): In this remarkable movie, director, M. Night Shyamalan takes the basic rules of comic books and plants them in the real world, showing us how superheroes and villains might behave if they escaped from their four-color universes. Bruce Willis as David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah "Mr. Glass" Price make a marvelous yin and yang in this picture.

8. X2: X-Men United (2003): Bryan Singer does a splendid job of balancing several interesting characters and plot lines in this action-packed adaptation of the Marvel Comics world of mutants. Often in a comic book film with too many characters the story can get muddled. That is not true in this case with X2. As with all the X-Men films, Patrick Stewart's Professor Charles Xavier and Ian McKellen's Eric "Magneto" Lensherr steal the show as the Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X of mutant rights. Hugh Jackman makes a marvelous leading man as the mysterious Wolverine. This is also the only X-Men film to feature my favorite mutant character from the comics -- Nightcrawler, played with great charm by Alan Cumming.

7. Frank Miller's Sin City (2005): To adapt this crime comic to the big screen, Robert Rodriguez literally used Frank Miller's comic art as story boards and replicated his scripts word for word, creating the most faithful adaptation of a comic work thus far. I wish that more comic book films were this true to the source material.

6. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993): This animated Batman film comes the closest to the spirit of the D.C. Comics source material. I'd also highly recommend "Batman: The Animated Series," which this movie was spawned from. The world of comic books can be so fantastical that I think sometimes animation is the best way to go when adapting the material.

5. The Incredibles (2004): Speaking of a great animated superhero movie, you can't go wrong with The Incredibles. This is the film that the lackluster Fantastic Four should have been. A movie about a family of superheroes with heart. This is my favorite Pixar film so far, which says a lot in itself.

4. Superman/Superman 2 (1978, 1980): These still stand up as some of the greatest comic book films of all time, thanks in no small part to Christopher Reeve, who inhabited the character of Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman like no other actor could. I did believe a man could fly. Superman is the rosetta stone of comic book films. It is the template that all the others followed.

3. Hellboy (2004): The "Hellboy" comic book (written and drawn by Mike Mignola) contains elements of many of the things I love. Old-school comic book action, pulp fiction, folklore, Lovecraftian mythology, and big monster fights. But at its core it is about a really screwed up guy who decided to ignore destiny and choose his own path. I didn't think anyone could gather these disparate elements together and turn them into a decent movie until director Guillermo del Toro surpassed my wildest expectations by doing just that.

2. Batman Begins (2005): This is the first live-action Batman film to be worthy of the complex comic book character. Director Christopher Nolan, writer David S. Goyer, and lead actor Christian Bale did a magnificent job creating the dark world of Bruce Wayne and his even darker alter ego. This is a Batman movie with real emotional depth that focuses more on the psychology of Bruce Wayne than on the Batman's freakish rogues gallery (as delightful as the bat-rogues are). This is a Gotham City one could truly believe is real. This is a film that understands its comic book source material.

And now, my favorite comic book film of all time is... A tie! This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.

1. Spider-Man/Spider-Man 2 (2002, 2004): The first comic book I ever read by myself was an issue of Spidey Super Stories. It was a comic affiliated with the television show "The Electric Company," and it was specifically designed to teach kids to read. Perhaps because of this, Spider-Man has always been my favorite comic book character. He's the everyman of superheroes. A nerdy teen who lucks into super powers. Sam Raimi certainly captures the essence of the old Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics in these wonderful films. Toby Maguire really adds depth and pathos to his portrayal of Peter Parker and The Amazing Spider-Man. Others may argue that there are superior comic book films out there, but to me there was nothing greater than seeing the lives of Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson and the great villains like Doc Ock and the Green Goblin come to life on the big screen.

So there you have it -- the best comic book films made as of this writing. If you are a fan of these kinds of films, but haven't read the material they're based on, then I urge you to go to your local comic shop and peruse some comic magazines. There's something for everyone.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and freelance writer. In 2005 he was in a car accident and had to get a stainless steel plate and several screws installed in his right shoulder to repair a broken arm. To John's chagrin, this did not give him super powers of any kind. What a gyp!

Several Film Reviews

2007-03-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some reviews I wrote that were originally posted on Entertainment In Review...

http://www.entertainmentinreview.com/

The Queen (2006)
Written by John Michael Decker
Jan 10, 2007 at 06:08 PM

At it's heart, The Queen is a film about clashing ideologies: past vs. future; ancient tradition (represented primarily by her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England) going up against more modern sensibilities (represented primarily by Prime Minister Tony Blair). I think that, as Americans, we often forget just how relatively young our country is compared to most European nations. Europe has a history that stretches back thousands of years. The United States of America has only been around a little over two centuries. Watching The Queen reminded me of some of the unique difficulties and advantages that can occur in a country as old as England with such rich and ancient traditions.

The story

The year is 1997. Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) has just been elected Prime Minister of England by a landslide. To Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren), who has already seen nine Prime Ministers come and go (her first being Winston Churchill), this isn't a big deal, and Blair has a lot of work to do to prove himself to her Majesty.

When Lady Diana Spencer is killed in an automobile accident in France, the royal family's reaction (as dictated by Queen Elizabeth) is restrained, to say the least. To the Queen, Diana was always something of an embarrassment. Since Diana and Prince Charles are divorced, Diana is technically not a part of the royal family at the time of her death. Elizabeth feels that a dignified silence is the way to handle the situation. The Queen has nothing favorable to say about the former Princess Diana, so the only polite thing to do is remain silent. Her Majesty's main concern is protecting her grandsons from the press, so she takes the family into seclusion.
This reaction does not sit well with the British people, who loved Diana and felt like she was their voice in the court. This leaves Tony Blair in the unenviable position of trying to convince the monarch to make a public statement about Diana and in doing so diffuse the public relations disaster. The Queen finds Blair's overtures presumptuous in the extreme. It is this fascinating conflict which carries us through the film.

The cast

When The Queen premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Helen Mirren's performance received a five-minute standing ovation. In my estimation this was well deserved. In the hands of a lesser actress, Queen Elizabeth II might have come across as an unlikable and cold shrew, but as portrayed by the incomparable Helen Mirren, we see a complex woman who must balance centuries of tradition against the fickle whims of the people. These are unimaginable pressures which would break most human beings. Mirren's Queen is made of stronger stuff. When the Queen shows a brief moment of all too human vulnerability it is especially touching.

Actor Michael Sheen's portrayal of Tony Blair makes a fine foil to Mirren's Queen. After Blair makes a powerful speech about the "people's princess" in the wake of Diana's death, he becomes more popular than ever. This only serves to make the Queen's silence on the matter seem even more insensitive. But Blair's conflict (well played by Sheen) is that he is really quite in awe of the Queen and the royal traditions even as he is trying to take England into the 21st century.
There is a wonderful scene where Elizabeth reminds the Prime Minister that although he is the golden boy of the moment, that kind of popularity is at best fleeting. It is a sobering moment for Blair.

In general the cast of the Queen is excellent. The standout supporting performances go to Helen McCrory as Tony Blair's monarchy-hating wife, Cherie; and James Cromwell as the Queen's stolid husband, Prince Philip. Sylvia Syms is also a hoot as the Queen Mum.

Production quality

The direction, score and script of the Queen are all rock solid. I would give special kudos to the cinematography. There were several wonderful long and lavish tracking shots that beautifully established the locations of the film. This technique helped to make the English countryside a character in and of itself. I was very fond of a scene were the Queen gets her car stuck in a muddy ravine. As she is waiting for assistance she sees a large stag that her husband and grandsons have been hunting. This was a beautifully shot scene where we can really see the connection between a woman and nature at it's most raw and powerful.

Overall

The Queen is a solid drama with wonderful acting. The film does a fine job of presenting several different points of view of a complex and emotional subject, and it accomplishes this in a fair and balanced way. The audience is invited behind the scenes of a world most of us will never see, and made to think about conflicts most of us will never face.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

Title: The Queen
Script quality: 8/10
Acting quality: 10/10
Production quality: 9/10
Format and length: Drama, 97 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
Cast: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Sylvia Syms, Alex Jennings, Helen McCrory
Director: Stephen Frears
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor, comic book nerd, and self-avowed movie nut.

Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberentino Del Faunto) (2006)
Written by John Michael Decker
Feb 02, 2007 at 05:47 PM

Pan's Labyrinth is a fairy tale written and directed by Mexican-born Guillermo del Toro, director of Mimic, Blade II, and Hellboy. But be warned: this is no namby-pamby, Walt Disney-type, "happily ever after" fairy tale. This film is a hardcore folktale in the style of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. del Toro understood that authentic fairy tales were cautionary stories with harsh life lessons, so beware to those who are faint of heart -- Pan's Labyrinth is not for the squeamish. However, if you can get past the few instances of intense violence, this is a fantastic film.

The story

This film takes place in Spain in the 1940s, with the postwar repression of Francisco Franco as the backdrop. The central character is a young girl named Ofelia, a highly imaginative child with dark, haunted eyes. As the story begins, Ofelia and her pregnant mother, Carmen, are on their way to live with Carmen's new husband, Captain Vidal. The Captain is a cruel, authoritarian figure who cares little for his new stepdaughter. He is primarily concerned with his unborn son and with his duty of putting down the rebel forces hidden in the forest. Meanwhile, under Captain Vidal's nose, his servant Mercedes and his personal physician, Dr. Ferreiro, are assisting the anti-Franco rebels.

In order to escape from her harsh surroundings, Ofelia loses herself in her books and fairy tales. Before long she encounters a real fairy, who leads her into an ancient stone maze on her stepfather's property. There she meets Pan, who claims to be a faun -- a creature who smells of the earth and looks like a cross between a man and a goat. The faun informs Ofelia that she is a fairy princess who has been reincarnated in the form of a human girl. If she can complete three tasks for him, he will return her to her true father, who is the king of an underground fairy realm.

From there the story unfolds in many exciting and unpredictable directions. The real question the viewer is left to ponder is whether the fairy folk Ofelia meets are genuine or just products of her vivid imagination. I have my own theories, but I will leave it to each viewer to determine where the truth lies.

The cast

It is difficult to find talented child actors, but young Ivana Baquero, who plays Ofelia, is exceptionally talented. She brings a dreamy, ethereal quality to her role, which makes one believe that she really could be a child of another realm. Likewise, the performance of Sergi Lopez as Captain Vidal is excellent. He plays a sadistic and evil man, and yet he is not two-dimensional. Though it is barely hinted at in the dialogue, we sense a complex back-story for the Captain involving the death of his own father.

I would also like to single out the work of Doug Jones, the only American actor in the cast. Although he is buried under layers of latex and prosthetics, he manages to give some incredible performances both as the faun, Pan and as the Pale Man, a creepy fairy monster who has one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. Many actors would get lost under all the makeup, but Jones manages to act through it to the point where we can see all of his complex emotions shining through the prosthetics and giving them life. This is no easy feat. In a world of CGI characters, I really admire a good makeup performance. Jones is a modern day Lon Chaney.

Production quality

This is a beautiful movie to look at. The harsh reality of post civil war Spain blends flawlessly with the fantastical elements of the fairy worlds that are shown. The makeup and costuming are top notch and the score is both evocative and haunting.

Guillermo del Toro's script is beautiful. This really felt like some ancient folktale, and yet it is completely original. Last summer M. Night Shyamalan wrote and directed his own version of a fairy tale, Lady in the Water. Although I enjoyed Lady in the Water, there were times the script felt clunky and forced. Pan's Labyrinth has a more natural flow and is a much better example of a modern day fairy tale, with all due respect to Mr. Shyamalan's efforts. M. Night Shyamalan is widely acknowledged as an original and unique voice in modern cinema and I don't dispute that. But I would also point to Guillermo del Toro as a great cinematic visionary.

Overall

In the original Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, I believe it was one of the wicked stepsisters who cut off a part of her foot to try to fit into the glass slipper. This is the kind of lesson the characters learn in this film. In early folklore, the fairies were dangerous and chaotic trickster beings not to be trifled with. These are the kind of creatures we meet in this movie.
If you are not opposed to some graphic content and don't mind reading subtitles than I would say that Pan's Labyrinth is well worth your precious time and hard-earned cash. This movie works both as a period drama and an epic fantasy and combines its diverse elements very well. Had I seen Pan's Labyrinth last year, it most certainly would have made my top ten list.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

Title: Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)
Script quality: 10/10
Acting quality: 9/10
Production quality: 9/10
Format and length: Foreign/Fantasy/Thriller, 112 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Alex Angulo, Doug Jones
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and sometime freelance writer. Once a faun told him that he was secretly the King of a magical realm, but he's pretty sure that it was just his imagination. That or the concussion.

Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

Primeval (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
Jan 17, 2007 at 05:46 PM

Primeval is one of those suspenseful horror thrillers where an insane animal (or group of animals) runs amok. This kind of man vs. beast picture was most successfully executed by Steven Spielberg in his 1975 classic, Jaws, and perhaps also Inoshiro Handa's Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Is there any better representation of nature gone wrong than a four-hundred-foot, radioactive dinosaur? But I digress). The "monster" from Primeval is represented by a 25-foot crocodile with the unlikely name of Gustave. This film is not as successful as Jaws or Godzilla, King of the Monsters; it is not even as good as The Ghost and the Darkness (Stephen Hopkin's flawed but underrated rouge lion picture from 1996). But perhaps it does have some value for horror fans.

The story

An intrepid news crew from the United States is sent to South Africa to film a giant, man-eating, crocodile who has been marauding his away through the local villages. This would be a dangerous assignment in any circumstance, but this mission is made even more perilous by the civil war that is tearing the region apart. When the news crew's cameraman accidentally films a vicious warlord slaughtering a shaman and his family, he and his allies become the warlord's next targets. Meanwhile, Gustave the giant croc is merrily eating his way through the film's characters. Good guys, bad guys -- it doesn't matter to Gustave as long as his meals are alive and wriggling.

This film claims that the events it portrays are based on actual occurrences. I find this hard to believe since the story unfolds in such a predictable Hollywood fashion. There is one idea this movie puts forth that I think is cool, though: According to the film, Gustive became a man-eater by snacking on all the bodies the warlords had dumped into the river. Thus the civil war had literally created its own monster. Other than this fascinating tidbit there is nothing in Primeval that I haven't seen done better in many other films. Don't get me wrong -- I generally enjoy flicks with indestructible monsters, but this film claims that Gustive is a real animal, and then presents us with a crocodile who is immune to knives, bullets, grenades, and even a vehicular assault from a Land Rover. This really pushes the claim's credibility.

The cast

The characters in Primeval are a series of bad stereotypes. There is the ultra-macho newsman with a chip on his shoulder (Dominic Purcell); his smartaleck cameraman side-kick (Orlando Jones); and the plucky, hot, novice newswoman (clad mostly in tight t-shirts) whose job it is to argue with the hero and then fall into his arms at the first sign of danger (Brooke Langton). And let's not forget the Captain Ahab-like character whose obsession with destroying the croc endangers the party (Jurgen Prochnow). I could go on, but none of these characters are particularly memorable.

I would not fault the actors, however -- they were really doing what they could with the bad script they were handed. There just wasn't a lot to work with here.

Production quality

Primeval is helmed by veteran television director Michael Katleman, who used lots of jump-cuts and floating camera moves. This MTV short attention span style of directing is reminiscent of what one might find in a Michael Bay (not my favorite director) movie. All of the herky-jerky camera moves just made me feel isolated and removed me from the story, which as I said above, isn't that strong to begin with. It didn't help that the majority of the action happens at night, and the film is so murkily lit that often it is hard to tell what was going on.

I will have to confess, however, that the special effects used to bring Gustave to life are pretty cool and the scenes where the croc is munching away on his hapless victims are appropriately gruesome. This is a great looking monster; too bad he doesn't get to appear in a better film.

Overall

I wouldn't recommend this movie to you unless you're willing to turn your brain off and vicariously enjoy the carnage. Sometimes it can be satisfying to see jerky characters get eaten.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

Title: Primeval
Script quality: 3/10
Acting quality: 5/10
Production quality: 4/10
Format and length: Suspense/Horror/Thriller, 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Dominic Purcell, Brook Langton, Orlando Jones, Jurgen Prochnow, Gideon Emery, Gabriel Malema
Director: Michael Katleman
Movie Web site: No official site as of this writing

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor, comic book nerd, and self-avowed movie nut.

Ghost Rider (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
Mar 02, 2007 at 03:48 PM

Ghost Rider is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. He first made an appearance in Marvel Spotlight #5 in August of 1972. By September of 1973, the Ghost Rider was appearing in his own self-titled comic book, which has been published on and off by Marvel ever since. Visually, Ghost Rider has always been one of Marvel’s most unique and interesting characters. The image of a skeleton, wreathed in fire, dressed in leather, and sitting astride a flaming motorcycle is visceral indeed. The concept of a hell-born spirit of vengeance fused with a human host (in this case, stunt rider Johnny Blaze) is also very cool. Unfortunately, this has not always been Marvel’s best-written comic book. The film version of Ghost Rider suffers from the same problem as many of the comics on which it is based. There are strong visuals, but not much substance to back them up.

The story

The movie begins by telling us that the devil has always used human beings as hosts for his personal bounty hunter, the Ghost Rider. Cut to a modern day carnival where a young stunt rider by the name of Johnny Blaze learns that his father, Barton Blaze, has developed a case of terminal cancer. Desperate to save his father’s life, Johnny rashly makes a deal with Mephistopheles, the Devil. Johnny will give the Devil his soul if he will cure his father’s cancer. The Devil is as good as his word and the next day Barton’s cancer has completely disappeared. But as with all Faustian deals of this kind, there are strings attached. That night Barton Blaze dies in a fiery motorcycle crash while performing a dangerous stunt. Mephistopheles informs Johnny that he is now his property and that someday he will come to collect. A guilt ridden Johnny abandons his one true love, Roxanne Simpson and rides away through a storm. The film next cuts to many years later. Johnny Blaze has become a world famous stunt rider. Roxanne is now a television reporter and just as she comes back into Johnny’s life, Mephistopheles also returns. He informs Johnny that he is to be the latest incarnation of the Ghost Rider and that his first mission is to hunt down the Devils own son, Blackheart, who is challenging his father for control of Hell itself.

With a plot like this, this movie could have been great. It should have been epic. Instead it is completely laughable -- and most of the laughs are unintentional. In order to enjoy a comic book movie, I don’t necessarily ask for logic. But the film does need to be true to its own internal logic. There are numerous plot holes and logic flaws riddling this movie. I will give an example that does not include too much of a spoiler: At one point a cop hits the Ghost Rider in the face with a billy club. The blow is strong enough to unhinge the Rider’s lower jaw. Being a supernatural being, the Ghost Rider simply snaps his jaw back into place and goes on his way. At another point in the film the Ghost Rider is struck by a Mack truck. He emerges from the wreckage completely unharmed. How is it that a club is strong enough to break his bones but the impact of a truck barely fazes him? Yes, I know this sounds like nit-picking, and if there were only one or two incidents like this in the film I would have ignored them. But this kind of logic error happens with such alarming frequency that one is left to wonder if the writers were paying attention.

The Ghost Rider is so powerful that he dispatches his enemies (both human and demonic) with relative ease. When the superhero has no great challenges from the villains he faces, the hero is substantially diminished. There is no sense that the Ghost Rider will ever fail. Even the Devil turns out to be a pretty weak foe. Is it too much to ask that a movie about a man who sells his soul to the devil be a little scary?

The cast

Nicolas Cage portrays the older Johnny Blaze in this film, and his character choices are bizarre. Cage’s Johnny Blaze is like a weird fusion of Evel Knievel and a bad Elvis impersonator. He eats jelly beans out of a champagne glass, listens to the Carpenters and loves watching monkeys on television. Now, it does make sense that Johnny Blaze would be a hapless dumbass. One would have to be a hapless dumbass to make a deal with the Devil. But never once did I see in Cage’s performance a sense of dread. Never did I feel that sword of Damocles hanging over Johnny Blaze’s head.

Peter Fonda plays Mephistopheles. It’s a neat bit of stunt casting to have the star of Easy Rider in a film about a motorcycle-riding superhero. Unfortunately Fonda is really just phoning his performance in. This film was clearly just a paycheck for Mr. Fonda. Eva Mendes makes for some voluptuous eye candy and not much else as Roxanne. Her performance is really just terrible. Note to Hollywood casting directors: there are a lot of pretty actresses who can really act. You should consider hiring them sometime. Likewise Wes Bentley’s portrayal of Blackheart was laughably bad. He came across as a sneering punk. It's disappointing because he was so good in American Beauty.

Not all of the acting in this movie was horrible. Veteran character actor Donal Logue was quite good as Johnny’s road manager, Mack. And Sam Elliott was excellent as the mysterious Caretaker, the Yoda-like teacher character. It’s nice to know that even in a thankless role in a cheesy film, Sam Elliott is still cool as hell. It’s a real shame that the Caretaker character was so under-utilized. Lastly, Matt Long does a better job playing the 17-year-old Johnny Blaze than Nic Cage does playing the older Johnny. It didn't seem like they were playing the same character.

Production quality

Ghost Rider was written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, who has worked with Marvel characters in the past, specifically as the director of Daredevil. I think I was one of only about three people on the planet who actually liked Daredevil. There were some scenes in this movie that were nice to look at. The motorcycle stunts were well-filmed, and the CGI effects looked great. The Ghost Rider himself really did look cool. The character moments, however, were uninspired, and the script was just sloppy and uneven. Overall, this was a mess.

There is a trend in Hollywood to make films that should be rated R, PG-13, or PG. This way they get a bigger audience and make more money. Sadly, this just dilutes the material and weakens the overall product. This could have been a dark supernatural tale about sin and redemption. Instead it is a joke.

Overall

I would not say that this film is a total loss. I certainly did get a lot of laughs out of it. This is the kind of movie you go to see with a group of friends for some Mystery Science Theatre 3000-style heckling. But be warned: You’ll enjoy this movie more if you check your brain at the door.

Title: Ghost Rider
Script quality: 3/10
Acting quality: 4/10
Production quality: 6/10
Format and length: Action, 114 minutes
MPAA rating: PG
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott, Wes Bentley, Donal Logue, Matt Long, Raquel Alessi, Brett Cullen
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Movie Web site: Click here
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John Michael Decker is a struggling actor, a comic book nerd and sometimes a freelance writer. John might sell his soul to the Devil for a cooler Ghost Rider movie.

300 (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
Mar 20, 2007 at 01:53 PM

Action lovers, 300 is the movie for you! This film is a glorious ballet of severed limbs, arterial spray and gratuitous beheadings. A take-no-prisoners exploration of honor, duty, glory, combat, and victory. Now while I wouldn't recommend 300 to general audiences, for fans of hard-core combat sequences this will be nirvana.

The Story

This story takes place in 480 B.C. This is basically the tale of Leonidas, King of Sparta; the famed Greek city-state known for its remarkably disciplined soldiers. Early in the film an emissary representing Xerxes, the God king of the Persian Empire, pays a visit to Sparta. The emissary informs King Leonidas that he must make an offering of earth and water to Xerxes or be invaded by the massive Persian army. Leonidas kills the emissary in short order, but he has a problem. The ancient laws forbid any of the Greek city-states from declaring war on an enemy without the permission of the Ephors, inbred priests to the old gods. Leonidas lays out his battle plan to the priests, but they deny his petition to go to war. Unbeknownst to the Spartan King, the Ephors have been bribed with Persian gold. Knowing that he cannot "officially" go to war, King Leonidas decides to take a walk with 300 of his best-trained men. They just happen to be walking towards the advancing Persian hordes. Leonidas' forces are hopelessly outnumbered by the massive enemy troops, but they are Spartans -- the best warriors of their age -- and they know the Greek terrain.

From this point on, the film is basically a big, very engaging battle scene. This is real over-the-top action with larger-than-life characters and epic stakes. Although some viewers may be turned off by the extremely graphic violence, I absolutely loved it. This was not meant to be hyper-realistic like the battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan, but heightened reality more akin to the battles from the Lord of the Rings pictures. There was one unnecessary subplot involving the Queen dealing with the machinations of devious politicians back in Sparta, but it was not so distracting that it took away from the overall story.

The Cast

This is not the kind of movie that requires classical acting. Like the story, the performances in this film are over-the-top. But the scenery chewing is appropriate for this kind of epic yarn. The actors are all up for the task and do a fine job, but I will mention a few of my favorite performances.

Leading the cast is Gerard Butler as King Leonidas. His performance is powerful and charismatic. One could really believe that he is a leader of men, and that his soldiers would die for him. I also loved the fact that Leonidas was given a dry sense of humor. It made him feel well-rounded and less like a soulless combat machine. Lena Headey is also very good as Queen Gorgo, who has the warrior heart of her husband, Leonidas. David Wenham plays Dilios, who is a great warrior, but his true gift to his Spartan brothers is his storytelling ability. And Rodrigo Santoro is excellent as Xerxes, the Persian King who fancies himself a god. A hero is nothing without a great villain to test his mettle, and Xerxes is a fantastic villain.

Production quality

300 is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, the man responsible for writing and co-directing Sin City. Miller's graphic novel was inspired by the 1962 film The 300 Spartans, which he saw as a child. As with Sin City, the visuals from 300 are lifted right off the comic book pages and splashed onto the screen. Miller has a very dynamic visual style that translates well to the big screen. Although this is a live action film, the look was very stylized and animated.

Zack Snyder directed 300 and co-wrote the screenplay. He also directed the excellent remake of Dawn of the Dead a few years ago. It is obvious that Snyder has a great love and respect for the comic book graphic novel that spawned this story and that is reflected in every aspect of the production. The visuals are spectacular, the soundtrack is stirring, and the fight scenes are breathtaking. The computer special effects blend effortlessly with the costume and make-up work. I just can't overemphasize how spectacular this film looked.

Overall

Now if all this film had to offer was pretty pictures, seeing it would be an empty experience. But the core of 300 is about valor and sacrifice for a greater good. It's about a few men who are willing to walk into the arms of death itself if that means that their wives and children can continue to live as free people. I know how corny that sounds. But it is also glorious.

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Title: 300
Script quality: 9/10
Acting quality: 7/10
Production quality: 10/10
Format and length: Action/Historical, 117 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Michael Fassbender, Tom Wisdom, Andrew Pleavin, Rodrigo Santoro
Director: Zach Snyder
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor, a comic book enthusiast, and sometimes a freelance writer. As an admitted nerd, John freely admits to "geeking out" upon seeing one of his favorite graphic novels translated to screen.

Black Snake Moan (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
Mar 23, 2007 at 10:14 AM

At its heart, Black Snake Moan is a movie about the blues. That deep ache that one can only feel if they’ve first experienced the bliss of love. The pain the characters in this film feel is almost palpable, as is the Tennessee heat, which seems to waft off the screen. Black Snake Moan is a love story, albeit a twisted one. It reminded me of a modern Tennessee Williams play on crack. This flick starts out well enough, but somewhere along the line it goes terribly wrong.

The story

Samuel L. Jackson plays Lazarus Woods, a former Memphis blues musician who is now a poor farmer in rural Tennessee. Lazarus’ wife Rose has just left him for his younger brother, and as the film opens Lazarus is a walking time bomb. Christina Ricci plays Rae, a survivor of childhood abuse who has grown up to be sexually promiscuous wild child. Rae is in love with Ronnie, played by Justin Timberlake, who is a nervous young man with a stomach condition.

When Ronnie leaves town to join the army, the pain is almost more than Rae can take, and she falls back on old habits, which include abusing alcohol and drugs and sleeping with any man with a pulse. One morning Lazarus finds Rae, beaten near to death, feverish, and clad in her underwear, lying on the road in front of his farm. Since Lazarus is a God-fearing man, and is still feeling raw and helpless due to his own heartbreak, he decides that God has put Rae in his path so he can cure her of her wickedness. One way that he accomplishes this is by locking Rae to his radiator with a forty-pound chain.

Now up until this point, I really enjoyed this movie. The story was warped, but entertaining. Then suddenly, the script gets very preachy. The characters bond a little too quickly and the resolution was a little too simplistic and pat. Such complicated and interesting characters deserved better. I’m sorry, but if a stranger chains you to a radiator it’ll take you a lot longer than a few days to warm up to them.

I think that the hardest thing for any writer to do is to devise a satisfying ending for their stories. Perhaps this is because in real life things don’t end the way they do in the movies. Situations change, but life goes on. I felt that this story tried too hard to tie up loose ends and resolve conflicts, and the ending came off as being ridiculously insincere. Not to mention cloying and, “holier than thou.”

The cast

Samuel L. Jackson is an excellent actor and his character choices are both interesting and compelling. Unfortunately the script does not do him service. Through the course of the film, Jackson’s character Lazarus goes from a guy who tries to open up his younger brother’s face with a broken beer bottle, to a sage father figure. Now there is nothing wrong with a character going through a dramatic change through the course of a story, but this script just doesn’t connect the dots.

Christina Ricci’s performance as Rae is also excellent. She manages to play sexy, predatory, vulnerable and damaged all at once, and is wearing next to nothing for most of the film. This would be a challenge for most actresses, but Ricci pulls it off with style and aplomb. Unfortunately, the resolution to her storyline was just simplistic and unbelievable.

There were some nice supporting performances in this film, especially from John Cothran Jr. as Reverend R.L., Lazarus’s friend and conscience, and S. Epatha Merkerson who plays Miss Angela, the town pharmacist who has an inexplicable crush on Jackson’s volatile Lazarus. Justin Timberlake was fine as Ronnie, the dim boyfriend who is blind to his girlfriend’s flaws, although he was never good enough to make me forget that he is pop icon Justin Timberlake.

Production quality

Black Snake Moan was written and directed by Craig Brewer. This is a good-looking film and it is obvious that Mr. Brewer has talent, but the script just got bogged down with self-righteousness and preaching. Issues like adultery, nymphomania and child abuse just can’t be washed away with chains, a little kindness, and down home southern cooking.

The blues music that serves as the soundtrack to Black Snake Moan is very fitting for this film and Jackson does a nice job on the guitar and with his vocals. The productions values are all very nice. I guess that my real problem is that this tries to be a “message film” and the message just didn’t fit with the movies lurid sensibilities.

Overall

I think the best way to sum up this movie is, “nice try, but no cigar.” The film tries to balance being an exploitation picture and a Baptist sermon and comes up short on both counts. Fans of Sam Jackson’s acting or of Christina Ricci’s body may want to check it out, but the overall experience left me feeling empty and a little bit dirty.

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Title: Black Snake Moan
Script quality: 5/10
Acting quality: 7/10
Production quality: 7/10
Format and length: Drama, 115 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake, S. Epatha Merkerson, John Cothran Jr., Michael Raymond-James
Director: Craig Brewer
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and sometimes a freelance writer. Given the chance, he would probably chain Christina Ricci to a radiator. Not to cure her of her wicked ways, but because it would just make such a good story to tell his friends.

The Last Mimzy (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
Apr 03, 2007 at 11:40 AM

The Last Mimzy is based on the short story "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Henry Kuttner & Catherine L. Moore under their pseudonym Lewis Padgett. I've never read the story myself, so I can't say how faithful an adaptation this film was to the source material. I can say that this is a science fiction movie aimed at family audiences and that it wasn't entirely successful.

The story

The Last Mimzy begins in a utopian future. In the opening scene we see a teacher telling her students to "tune in" because she's going to show them how their future was saved. We then flash back to modern times where we meet Noah and Emma Wilder, two seemingly normal kids from Seattle. While on a family vacation, Noah and Emma discover a strangely-shaped box on the beach that is filled with mysterious toys. The siblings decide to keep this box a secret from their parents. Before long their exposure to the toys starts altering the children in fantastic ways. Noah goes from being an underachieving C student in school to winning the national science fair. He stops wearing his glasses and becomes an expert at golf overnight. Emma develops the ability to levitate objects and to seemingly separate her molecules and then reconstitute them. When Noah accidentally blacks out the power grid for half the state, Homeland Security zeros in on the Wilder family, thinking that they are a national threat.

My main problem with this film is that from the very first scene, we know that everything is going to turn out for the best. We can see that the future is safe, so there is no real jeopardy when we flash to the main story. The "Mimzy" in the title of the film is a futuristic artificial intelligence in the shape of a stuffed rabbit. But the rabbit has no personality. We only ever see it as a lifeless toy that makes vaguely disturbing purring sounds. Why didn't the filmmakers animate Mimzy? Give it a personality? When it was revealed that Mimzy was a living thing that might die, I was unmoved because they failed to make me believe that Mimzy was anything more than a child's toy.

The premise of this story is great. The idea of two kids from the present being given the responsibility of saving the future is rife with possibilities. The execution of the story is bland and as lifeless as the stuffed rabbit we are supposed to care so much about.

The cast

Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn are the young actors who portray Noah and Emma Wilder respectively. Their performances are decent but uninspired, and I was never convinced that the future of the human race was at stake. Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson play David and Jo Wilder, the parents who are blind to the fact that their children are radically changing until it is almost too late. I didn't think that the performances of Hutton and Richardson were bad, but I found it hard to believe that the characters could be so dense. Rounding out the unbelievable performances is Michael Clarke Duncan as Nathanial Broadman, who is in charge of homeland security. This film portrays homeland security as being embarrassingly paranoid and incompetent. Well, maybe that last part isn't so far-fetched, but I digress.

The best performances in the movie come from Rainn Wilson, who plays Mr. White, the science teacher who first notices that something in not right with the Wilder children, and Kathryn Hahn as his hippy girlfriend, Naomi. Their relationship was quirky, but at least seemed real. Rainn Wilson is hilarious on the television show The Office, and it was nice to see him playing a totally different kind of character.

Production quality

The special effects in The Last Mimzy, much like the performances, are fine but uninspired. There was no visual effect that really blew me away or that sticks out in my memory as being particularly spectacular. Likewise, when I try to remember the score of the movie, I just can't recall what it sounded like. I doubt that I will remember much about this film in a year's time.

It seems to me that director Robert Shaye really played it safe in this film. There is nothing in this story that is too scary for children or that would really offend anyone and the result is a very bland film.

Overall

In trying to sum up my thought about The Last Mimzy, the words that spring to mind are "wasted opportunity." This is not a horrible film, but neither is it great. Families taking their children to see The Last Mimzy will not be offended, but neither will they be inspired.

This could have been the story about an epic struggle to save the future. This should have been about the end of childhood and the loss of innocence. In some alternate universe this might have been a film with a message about how we need to wake up now if we are going to save the future later. I wanted to see a film that would break my heart and yet give me some hope for things to come. What I saw was a whitewashed disappointment. Perhaps my expectations were just too high.

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Title: The Last Mimzy
Script quality: 4/10
Acting quality: 5/10
Production quality: 6/10
Format and length: Fantasy/Science Fiction, 90 minutes
MPAA rating: PG
Cast: Chris O'Neil, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, Rainn Wilson, Kathryn Hahn, Michael Clarke Duncan
Director: Robert Shaye
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor, a freelance writer and a science fiction nerd. If John ever found a talking robo-bunny from the future, he would ask it for lottery numbers.

Grindhouse (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
Apr 19, 2007 at 12:22 PM

Nowadays when a film is produced, multiple copies of the print are made and sent to movie theaters around the country. It was not always done like this. Back in the 1970s, when a low-budget movie was produced, often they would only make three or four prints of the film, which would be passed from theater to theater. Because of the constant recycling of the material, the prints would get scratched and damaged. Sometimes entire reels of the film would be missing. The kinds of sleazy exploitation flicks that would get this treatment usually featured excessive gore, violence and sex. The theaters that would show these kinds of films came to be known as "grindhouses" because they would "grind" out these movies. Directors Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) have banded together to recreate a good, old fashioned, grindhouse double feature experience -- scratched film, missing reels, and all. To accomplish this, Rodriguez directed a zombie flick called "Planet Terror," and Tarantino directed a serial killer thrill ride called "Death Proof." To enhance this experience they even got some of their friends to produce fake trailers to be inserted between the two feature films. These fake trailer segments included Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving," Edgar Wright's "Don't," Robert Rodriguez's "Machete" and my personal favorite, Rob Zombie's "Werewolf Women of the S.S." The end result of this experiment is a highly enjoyable, over-the-top filmgoing experience called Grindhouse.

The story

The first full-length feature we are treated to in Grindhouse is Rodriguez's loving homage to the '70s zombie flick: "Planet Terror." When an experimental gas is accidentally released on a military base in Texas, pus-covered, flesh-eating, undead abominations start running amuck in Austin. The only hope for humanity lies with a go-go dancer named Cherry (Rose McGowan) and her boyfriend, a windmill of destruction named Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). Early on, Cherry loses her leg to a zombie attack, but it is soon replaced by a fully functional machine gun, which Cherry puts to good use, mowing down zombies in strangely sexy and acrobatic ways.

The pacing of "Planet Terror" is rocket-ship fast, and the story is unashamedly zany. Blood and gore are unloaded by the bucketful and just when you think the boundaries of decency and good taste can't be pushed any further, they are. I loved the all-or-nothing attitude of this segment. The plot is too insane to be taken seriously, so all you can do is hang on and enjoy the ride.

The second part of this double feature is Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof." In this segment, Kurt Russell plays a sociopath named Stuntman Mike. Because Stuntman Mike is too emotionally damaged to meet women in traditional ways, he hunts them down, plays head games with them, and then kills them with his tricked-out muscle car.

The pacing of Tarantino's "Death Proof" is much slower and more deliberate than Rodriguez's "Planet Terror." Because of this, the pacing of the entire film slows down at the start of "Death Proof." As a viewer I found this to be quite jarring. But at least we were treated to Tarantino's fantastic dialogue, which took a bit of the sting out of the lumbering pace at the start of the feature. Although I must confess that Tarantino's use of language, while impressive, is not as sharp here as in some of his other films. And even though the beginning of "Death Proof" is slow, once it gets going, it is quite thrilling. The conclusion of this feature literally had me holding my breath and clutching my seat. There was not as much violence and gore in "Death Proof" as there was in "Planet Terror," however the violence that is there is much more intense and disturbing. As with many films that I personally enjoy, I would not recommend this to the squeamish.

The cast

Grindhouse features an enormous ensemble cast, many of whom appear in both features. Rose McGowan goes from playing the death-dealing Cherry in "Planet Terror" to the hapless victim Pam in "Death Proof." It's a nice contrast and shows some real acting range.

Marley Shelton plays Dr. Dakota Block in both features. The great character actor Michael Parks plays Sheriff Earl McGraw in both features as well. This is a character he also portrayed in the Rodriguez-directed From Dusk Till Dawn and the Tarantino-directed Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Volume 2. Little Easter eggs like this are sprinkled all throughout Grindhouse, and that is a big part of the fun for hardcore movie geeks like me.

Grindhouse is filled with all sorts of fun character performances. Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, and Naveen Andrews all stand out in "Planet Terror," and some of the better performances in "Death Proof" include Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell, Vanessa Ferlito, Tracie Thoms and Sydney Poitier. There are even some fun, "blink or you'll miss them," cameos by Nicolas Cage and Bruce Willis.

The acting style of the film is frenetic in "Planet Terror" and more real and grounded in "Death Proof." Since the style of each feature is different, this change in acting style is appropriate. Quentin Tarantino has his requisite cameo in both features. Tarantino is only a mediocre actor, but I can forgive him for this because he is such a brilliant writer and director.

Production quality

As with the rest of Grindhouse, the production quality of each feature was very different. Rodriguez relied on cutting-edge computer generated special effects for his segments, and Tarantino stuck with more old-school film techniques and stunts, including the most exciting car chase this side of the French Connection. Robert Rodriguez wrote his own score for "Planet Terror" and Tarantino used rock classics to supplement "Death Proof." Either of these films presented by themselves would have been enjoyable, but by putting them together in this format something unique was created.

Both features were deliberately scratchy and worn-looking, which made one feel that at any time the film could fall apart. In a strange way this added to the overall tension of the experience. Both major segments featured a "missing reel" which allowed the audience fill in the lost scenes with their imaginations. Although this technique might annoy some film-goers, I thought it was really cool.

When you get more than one creative mind on a project, often the result can be disastrous when egos clash. This was not the case with Grindhouse. This production was nothing short of brilliant, and what the directors created is both retro and unique. A lot of love went into this production.

Overall

Tarantino and Rodriguez succeeded spectacularly in recreating the grindhouse experience for a modern audience. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself this much at the movies. For film aficionados who are feeling nostalgic for '70s exploitation cinema, this is a must-see.

Title: Grindhouse (Planet Terror and Death Proof)
Script quality: 8/10
Acting quality: 7/10
Production quality: 10/10
Format and length: Horror/Thriller, 191 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Rose McGowan, Kurt Russell, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Naveen Andrews, Michael Parks, Quentin Tarantino, Rosario Dawson, Sydney Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoe Bell, Danny Trejo, Bruce Willis
Director: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

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John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and sometime freelance writer. John feels that he was born to be in a 1970s style exploitation flick. He could easily have played 'cowardly zombie victim #8' in "Planet Terror."

Pathfinder (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
Apr 23, 2007 at 01:04 PM

I first heard about Pathfinder last summer, and the only thing I heard was that it featured Native Americans battling Vikings. That was all I needed to know -- I was hooked. It was supposed to open last summer, but the release date kept getting pushed back. Usually this is a bad sign, but my enthusiasm did not wane. The idea of a battle for America five hundred years before Columbus set foot in this country was just so epic. And now, almost a year after I saw the first Pathfinder trailer, I finally got the chance to see it.

The story

A Viking ship lands in North America and leaves behind a young boy. The child is discovered by a woman from the Wampanoag tribe. She and her husband raise him as their own. The young man, who is named 'Ghost' because of his pale skin, is inundated in the tribe's culture, but he is never completely accepted by them. When the Viking hordes return in force, set on destroying the Wampanoags and settling on their land, Ghost must use both Viking and Native American skills to save his adopted people.

There is a scene in this film where Starfire, the beautiful daughter of the great leader, Pathfinder, tells Ghost that every man has two wolves fighting inside him, vying for control. One of those wolves is Love and the other one is Hate. When Ghost asks Starfire which wolf wins, she tells him that the victorious wolf is the one that gets fed. I can tell you that the Love wolf starves in this picture. Ghost pretty much becomes an unstoppable engine of revenge, with little time for romance. Of course, this doesn't stop the bad guys from abducting Starfire and using her against her hero.

Pathfinder is a non-stop action picture with very little characterization. However the action is so well done that I didn't mind so much. The film lunges from one graphic battle scene to the next and moves at an exciting pace. I love the archetype of the outsider characters -- people who belong to two worlds and yet because of this are rejected by both. To the Wampanoags, Ghost is a child of the "Dragon People." They fear he will become one of them. To the Vikings, Ghost is an abomination who has turned his back on his culture and become a savage. One of the problems is that Ghost is just an archetype and not a fully fleshed out character. The same can be said for every character in this movie.

The cast

Karl Urban, best known for playing Eomer in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, portrays Ghost in Pathfinder. Although Urban pretty much plays anger and little else, he is physically imposing and a very charismatic performer. I liked the fact that Ghost used guile and cunning as well as brute force to fight the Vikings.

The great character actor Clancy Brown was perfectly cast as Gunnar, leader of the Viking hordes. No one can put out an imposing, bad-ass vibe quite like Clancy Brown. Russell Means, a famous Native American activist, played Pathfinder, the wise old chief who points out to Ghost that his quest of revenge will eventually destroy him. Means was quite good, but didn't get enough screen time for my taste. Moon Bloodgood was very beautiful as Starfire, but she had a modern American vibe that didn't really fit in the period material. Still, she fulfilled the "damsel in distress" quotient admirably.

There were no other performances worth mentioning. In general the Vikings were portrayed as evil, soulless monsters bent on destruction. The Native American's were all noble and wise and completely outclassed by the superior weapons and the sheer savagery of the Norsemen. It was ironic that the Vikings were constantly referring to the Wampanoag as "savages," when they were the truly ferocious and inhuman tribe.

This is a beautiful picture to look at and I found the basic story engaging enough. If only the characters had been more fleshed out, this could have been a great film instead of just a good one.

Production quality

Pathfinder was directed by German native Marcus Nispel. Nispel also directed the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003. The flair that Nispel showed for realistic gore in Chainsaw is translated to Pathfinder. The action sequences are excessively violent, but extremely well done.

The backdrop of the great northeastern American wilderness gives the film an epic feel. I love movies where the land itself becomes a character. The Vikings all look as though they stepped out of a Frank Frazetta painting, striding out of the mist with their swords and battle axes, adorned with animal skins and horned helmets. Historically Vikings never decorated their helmets with animal horns, but damn if it doesn't look cool. The cinematography is dark and moody, which conveys a nice sense of menace. The fight choreography is amazing.

Overall

I really enjoyed Pathfinder, however I have to confess that this is a guilty pleasure. It is bombastic, loud and lurid. The morality presented in this movie is pretty black and white; I prefer more shades of gray in stories. At least the Vikings are presented as a genuine threat and not just wimpy villains who would fold at the first sign of trouble. Through most of the flick Ghost is in over his head, and this is the way it should be. Although this is not as good as the recently-released historical action epoch 300, I do think the film has value for action and adventure lovers.

Title: Pathfinder
Script quality: 6/10
Acting quality: 5/10
Production quality: 8/10
Format and length: Action/Historical, 99 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Karl Urban, Moon Bloodgood, Clancy Brown, Russell Means, Ralf Moeller, Jay Tavare, Nathaniel Arcand, Kevin Loring
Director: Marcus Nispel
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)

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John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and sometimes a freelance writer. Last summer John had a small part in the independent film The Adventures of Don Juan and Miguel: The Hump of Destiny. John's character ran away when a telekinetic Frenchman hurled a large fish at him. He wonders how he would have faired against Vikings.

Hot Fuzz (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
May 02, 2007 at 01:43 PM

In 2004, director Edgar Wright and actor Simon Pegg combined their considerable talents when they wrote the brilliant zombie spoof Shaun of the Dead, which was directed by Wright and starred Pegg. Now they have set their sights on a parody of the buddy cop genre with the hilarious Hot Fuzz. Not only was this a side-splittingly funny movie, but it was a better action picture than most of the flicks it was lampooning.

The story

Nicholas Angel is a super-cop. His beat is the mean streets of London. Angel is so focused on his job to the exclusion of everything else in life that his arrest rate is 400 times higher than the other cops in his precinct. Out of sheer jealously, Angel's superiors transfer him to a small, rural village. It is difficult enough for action junkie Angel to deal with life in the town with the lowest crime rate in England, but to make matters worse he is assigned a bumbling idiot as a partner.

Sergeant Angel's new partner is PC Danny Butterman, son of his new boss, Inspector Frank Butterman. Danny is an oafish man-child whose fondest wish is to be Keanu Reeves from Point Break or Will Smith from Bad Boys II. Danny instantly worships Nick Angel, but Nick can barely tolerate Danny or the rest of the cops in his new precinct (who are all just slightly more competent than Danny). It looks as if Sergeant Angel will be consigned to a life of chasing escaped swans and arresting underage drinkers, when a series of mysterious "accidents" seem to indicate that there is something more sinister going on in town that it at first appeared.

This movie could have gone for simple slapstick, and that would have worked fine, but it does more. The characters in the story are interesting and quirky. Nick Angel and Danny Butterman are fleshed out and not just simple movie parodies. The violence is quite graphic, but this keeps the humor from getting too light. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but the last half hour of this movie had more action packed into it than ten regular action movies. And the action managed to be both exciting and funny. I was in a pretty full theater when I saw Hot Fuzz, and the final third of the film had the entire place howling with non-stop laughter.

The cast

Simon Pegg is excellent as the intense and over-serious Sergeant Nicholas Angel. I never would have dreamed that he would have been able to pull off a role as a credible action hero after his underachieving slacker in Shaun of the Dead. Before I saw this film I just didn't think Pegg had the proper bearing to portray a super-cop. I was wrong, he was terrific. By the end of the movie, Pegg's Sergeant Angel had managed to out-Dirty Harry Clint Eastwood and make Mel Gibson's Martin Riggs look like a sissy.

Nick Frost, who was so great as Ed the mega-slob in Shaun of the Dead, made a great foil for Pegg as the dimwitted Danny. His insane enthusiasm for buddy cop pictures and longing for real action was made even funnier when he found himself in the very situations that he had only previously seen at the movies.

This film was filled to the brim with colorful characters portrayed by some of the best old school English character actors like Bill Nighy and Edward Woodward. Jim Broadbent was terrific as the laid back, level-headed Inspector Frank Butterman. Former James Bond Timothy Dalton was just gleefully chewing the scenery as Simon Skinner, the oily owner of a local grocery store chain -- A terrific character performance. I also really enjoyed the performances of Patty Considine and Rafe Spall as detectives Andy Wainwright and Andy Cartwright respectively. Two clueless tough guys who refused to believe that the obvious murders taking place in their town were anything other than accidents.

Overall, this was a top-rate cast.

Production quality

Edgar Wright does a fine job directing this film. Though this is undoubtedly a comedy, it has the feel of an action picture. Many movie comedies look like television sitcoms, but Hot Fuzz does not fall into this trap. Though the characters are quirky and often bizarre, they always seemed real to me and never devolved into flat caricatures. The script is terrific and I hope that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg will have many successful collaborations in the future.

Overall

I really enjoyed seeing American action movie sensibilities invading quaint small town England, like a steroid-engorged bull charging through a stodgy china shop. Though this film is intended to parody action films, it succeeds in surpassing many of them. For lovers of cop pictures and of dark humor, Hot Fuzz is for you.

Title: Hot Fuzz
Script quality: 9/10
Acting quality: 8/10
Production quality: 7/10
Format and length: Foreign/Action/Comedy, 121 minutes
MPAA rating: R
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward, Bill Nighy, Patty Considine, Rafe Spall
Director: Edgar Wright
Movie Web site: Click here
Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is an actor and occasional freelance writer. John has always wondered what it would be like to leap through the air in slow motion while simultaneously firing two guns. Then he remembers that he really doesn't like guns all that much outside of films. Damn real world.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Written by John Michael Decker
May 07, 2007 at 01:00 PM

May is here, and even though summer doesn't officially begin for a month and a half, with the release of Spider-Man 3, the summer blockbuster season has officially begun. As usual, the summer movie season is filled with sequels. Besides Spider-Man 3, we can expect to see Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End and Live Free or Die Hard, among others. When filmmakers produce a sequel, they try to top their previous work, but in this effort, often character development and substance is lost in favor of bigger explosions and more car chases. By the time the third film in a series comes out, many times it is far inferior to the films that preceded it. This seems to be especially true of the comic book film genre. X-Men 3: The Last Stand is not as good as X-Men or X2 X-Men United. Blade: Trinity was not as good as Blade or Blade II. Superman III was far worse than the first two excellent Superman flicks. True to form, Spider-Man 3 is not as good as the first two Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man films. That's not to say that Spider-Man 3 is a bad movie, though -- far from it.

The story

As Spider-Man 3 begins, life is going wonderfully for Peter Parker. His romance with the beautiful actress Mary Jane Watson is heating up. He is excelling in his science studies at Empire State University. And best of all, the public has embraced Peter's alter-ego, the Amazing Spider-Man. All this good luck is starting to inflate Peter's ego, but as any long time reader of the Spider-Man comics can tell you, any time it looks like smooth sailing for Peter Parker, bad luck is right around the corner, ready to smack him back down to earth.

Peter's bad luck begins when a meteor crashes into earth, releasing an alien life form that initially appears as an animated glob of black, viscous goo. The alien is a shape-shifting symbiote that attempts to bond with Peter Parker by taking the form of a sleek, black, Spider-Man costume. The costume grants Parker increased powers but also amplifies his aggressive tendencies and negative emotions. In addition to this, Peter learns that the man who actually murdered his Uncle Ben is still alive and has recently escaped from jail. This man is Flint Marko, a petty criminal who stumbles upon a bizarre particle experiment while fleeing from the police. The experiment gives Marko the power to morph any part of his body into sand. To make matters worse, Peter's former best friend, Harry Osborn, who mistakenly believes that Spider-Man killed his father (the super villain known as the Green Goblin), decides to punish Spider-Man by taking over his father's identity as the new Green Goblin.

One would think that these issues would be enough to keep Peter busy over the course of the two hour and twenty minute running time of the film, but he is plagued by even more problems. Peter has become so wrapped up in his life as Spider-Man, that he fails to notice when Mary Jane is having serious problems of her own. The rift between Peter and MJ only increases when she meets his beautiful lab partner, Gwen Stacy, who has a crush on Spider-Man. Gwen has been dating Eddie Brock, a freelance photographer who is Peter Parker's rival at the Daily Bugle. The two men are competing for a staff job and Brock is willing to cheat to get Peter out of the way.

The major problem with this movie, as you may have been able to guess by the above synopsis, is that it has way too many sub-plots. This film introduces so many new characters and situations that it is hard to keep up, and none of the storylines are as fleshed out as they need to be. The film pits Spidey against three villains: The Sandman (Flint Marko), Venom (the alien symbiote bonded to a jealous Eddie Brock), and Harry Osborn in the guise of the New Goblin. One villain with a more complete storyline would have made for a much tighter film.

That being said, this was a really enjoyable movie to watch. The fight scenes and special effects were incredible -- especially the fights between Spider-Man and the Sandman, which seemed to be ripped right from the comic book pages. And the major characters (Peter, Mary Jane and Harry) all had interesting, emotional, story arcs.

The cast

As this is the third Spider-Man film, the returning actors all know their characters very well and were able to imbue their performance with nuance and heart. As usual, Tobey Maguire was excellent as Peter Parker, the science nerd with the overwhelming sense of responsibility. The only flaw I found in his performance this time around occurred in the middle of the film when the alien symbiote was bringing out his darker personality. Maguire chose to play evil Peter Parker by wearing black, combing his hair over his eye and swaggering around as if he were Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever. Other than this unfortunate section of the film, Maguire's performance was grounded and multi-layered.

Kirsten Dunst does a fine job of portraying Mary Jane Watson's hurt and anger as she and Peter become estranged and her acting career hits some rough water. As a struggling actor myself, I could relate to the plight of this character. James Franco, as Harry Osborn, also does some nice work in this movie as he grapples with his darker impulses, a journey that mirrors Peter Parker's. J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and Rosemary Harris as Aunt May Parker also turn in their usual fine supporting performances. It would be hard to imagine a Spider-Man flick without the excellent work of Simmons and Harris.

Out of the new additions to the cast, I was the most impressed with Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko. He played it not so much as a one-dimensional thug, but as a man who was trying to do right by his family and unfortunately kept making all the wrong decisions. Bryce Dallas Howard was very good as Gwen Stacy, who in the comic books was the great love of Peter Parker's life before he met Mary Jane. I just wish they had given her a little more screen time.

The weak link in the acting came from Topher Grace, who played Eddie Brock. He came across as a weaselly version of his "That 70's Show" character, Eric Forman. He just didn't have the gravity to pull off a serious villain. This was just a poor casting choice.

Production quality

The special effects in Spider-Man 3 were amazing. It is obvious that director Sam Raimi loves Spider-Man and the universe he inhabits, which is a key ingredient to bringing the four-color world of comic books to the big screen. Sandman's morphing effects were especially well rendered and Venom looked appropriately creepy. I hated the design of the New Goblin costume. He looked more like an extreme sports Power Ranger than a super villain. In the comics the Green Goblin always wore a rubbery fright mask that showed off his expressions. The look of the comic book Goblin is much more monstrous and visceral than anything they came up with in the films.

The rest of the production is just fine. From cinematography to score, this was what one would look for in a summer blockbuster. Sam Raimi is a skilled director; his films always move at a super-kinetic, fluid pace, and are exciting to watch.

Overall

Spider-Man 3 is a fun movie and should be especially enjoyable to fans of the comic book created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Had the filmmakers exercised a little more restraint and not tried to pack so much into it, it could have been epic.

Title: Spider-Man 3
Script quality: 6/10
Acting quality: 7/10
Production quality: 9/10
Format and length: Action/Science Fiction, 140 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Bruce Campbell
Director: Sam Raimi
Movie Web site: Click here (Flash required)
Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor, occasional freelance writer, and a comic book fanatic. He dreams of being a super-hero, but in his heart he knows he would be a more successful super-villain.

Sympathy for the Monsters

2007-02-22T13:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a reprint of an article that was originally posted on Entertainment In Review. You can read my film reviews and other articles there. Just click on...

http://www.entertainmentinreview.com/

Sympathy for the Monsters

Written by John Michael Decker

Feb 21, 2007 at 01:23 PM

Monsters have been around for as long as man has been telling stories. When most people think of monsters, they probably imagine horrible supernatural beings that are up to no good. We conjure up images of villainous horrors that must be vanquished at any cost. We think of Dr. Frankenstein's lumbering abomination being pursued by angry villagers with torches, Count Dracula getting a stake plunged through his undead heart, or even Godzilla rampaging through Tokyo, vomiting radioactive fire at helpess soldiers. Folklore and mythology are rife with tales of heroes' epic battles with monsters. Consider the old English legend of Beowulf fighting Grendel, the Greek myth of Hercules battling the hydra or even the biblical tale of St. George slaying the dragon. As storytelling has become more sophisticated -- from oral tradition to written word to the cinema -- monsters have continued to play an important role in our modern tales. Think of King Kong's last stand at the Empire State Building, the unstoppable great white shark from Steven Spielberg's Jaws or even the slash-happy Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise and it is apparent that monsters still hold a powerful position in our collective psyche. I think it is fair to say that, more often than not, monsters play the role of the bad guys in our stories. Most people root for the protagonists of an adventure to slaughter the monster -- most people, but not me. I love monsters, and most of the time I feel sorry for them.

I think that my great love of monsters started when I was a young child in the 1970s. I grew up in the small town of Lake Luzerne, NY. It was a very rural area and this was before we had video games or the Internet to occupy our time, so we had to rely on our imaginations for much of our entertainment. My brothers and I enjoyed camping and often our parents would let us pitch a tent and sleep in the back yard on warm summer nights. My Dad, who has always been a great natural storyteller, would tuck us into our sleeping bags and spin us an original tall tale, usually involving he and his brother battling some kind of monster on Long Island, where they grew up. Sometimes, when he didn't have an original story to tell, Dad would read to us from H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allen Poe. Then, about a half hour after he said goodnight, Dad would put on a rubber Halloween mask and attack our tent. First we would hear him rustling around the yard. Then his silhouette would appear on the side of the tent. And finally, he would burst through the flaps, growling out his best Lon Chaney impression. We would end up chasing each other around the yard as he snarled and we giggled. I think the best part of the whole experience was the anticipation. Waiting in that tent with our plastic flashlights, not knowing when the "monster" would strike. From an early age I learned that monsters were cool.

Back in those days we didn't have cable television, in fact, we only had a little black and white TV that got four channels by aid of rabbit ears. On Sunday afternoons there was a television show that solidified my great affection for monsters. It was called the Creature Feature, and it would play classic monster movies. It was the Creature Feature that introduced me to the wonderful Universal monsters like Dracula and the Wolf Man, giant Japanese creatures like Godzilla and Mothra, and even some great Sci-Fi flicks like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And it was watching the Creature Feature that really got me to start sympathizing with the plight of the poor, maligned monsters.

Take for example, the classic Universal monsters. In Frankenstein (1931), it would be easy to judge the creature that the great Boris Karloff portrayed as "evil." In actuality he is a victim of Dr. Henry Frankenstein's hubris. Stitched together from various corpses and brought to life by electricity, Karloff's monster was then abandoned by Dr. Frankenstein (played by Colin Clive). Left to fend for itself in a world that was revolted by its very appearance. No wonder the poor creature struck back. The real villain was Henry Frankenstein, who did not take responsibility for his creation. Frankenstein's monster: Lumbering killing machine or misunderstood man-child? You decide.

I also have great empathy for Count Dracula. As portrayed by Bela Lugosi in the film Dracula (1931), the Count was all class. Lugosi's Dracula was a survivor. He had to drink the blood of other living creatures in order to sustain his existence. He was only doing what he had to, and he did it with great style and panache. The Count knew that he was a creature of the night, and was true to himself. Like the ultimate survivor he was, Dracula always managed to cheat death and return to menace mankind again and again -- you have to admire his tenacity. Count Dracula: Blood sucking fiend or crafty survivor? You decide.

But my favorite Universal monster was not based on any Victorian literature, but rather on ancient European folklore. I speak, of course, of the werewolf from the film the Wolf Man (1941). In the movie, Lon Chaney Jr. plays Larry Talbot, a rich gentleman who has recently returned to his homeland. On a moonlit walk with a pretty girl, he is attacked by a gypsy werewolf (played by Bela Lugosi of Dracula fame) and cursed to transform into a snarling, man-eating beast when the moon is full. In a sense, poor Larry Talbot has contracted a deadly disease, albeit a disease that threatens the lives of everyone around him. The Wolf Man: rampaging beast or lost soul? You decide.

Werewolves, vampires (particularly Count Dracula), and Dr. Frankenstein's monster have appeared again and again in the cinema since Universal's earliest days. Even though the stories they appear in might change, the feelings of sympathy I have for movie monsters have not. Most monsters (Universal or not) elicit sympathy for the same reasons as the big three. Dracula, as I said, is the ultimate survivor. This could also be applied to the shark from Jaws, or the extraterrrestrials from the Alien films. I would not classify the giant shark or the alien bugs as evil so much as following their genetic codes to survive. Frankenstein's monster, as I said, is an accident of science. The same could be said for Godzilla, who is really an allegory for the hydrogen bomb --the ultimate hubris of man. Godzilla is more akin to a natural disaster than anything else. When he comes to town, as with an earthquake or tsunami, all the poor humans in his path can do is hunker down and hope they survive long enough to clean up afterward. And like the Wolf Man, my favorite giant monster, King Kong is more of a victim of circumstance than anything else. The big ape was kidnapped from his home environment and displayed as a curiosity. Is it any wonder that he broke loose and wrought havoc on The Big Apple? As with Africanized honeybees and fire ants, the lesson of King Kong is that some animals should not be relocated.

But there are exceptions to every rule. Sometimes the monsters in horror films really are... well, monsters. Examples of the fiends I speak of are Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Michael Myers from Halloween, Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th, and Freddy Kruger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. These monsters have become iconic in their own way, although they lack the personality of the classic movie creatures. I cannot argue with the fact that these antagonists are pure evil; this new breed of monsters tend toward soulless killing machines with an inexplicable hatred for teenage hormones. Usually, however, the parade of human victims in these films are so annoying and stupid that by the time the bad guys devise a creative means to butcher them I am relieved -- so once again I am rooting for the bad guys.

And what about zombies? Those shambling, undead, flesh-eating abominations that George A. Romero often features in his films? These things are like anti-ghosts. Instead of being souls without bodies they are bodies without souls. They tend to have even less personality than Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees, but what they lack in conversational skills they more than make up for in sheer numbers. I love zombie flicks. Perhaps it is because in the really good zombie films, the animated corpses represent us at our worst. Take George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, where the mindless undead are compelled to congregate at a shopping mall. Also, I must confess that it is extremely satisfying to see rag-tag groups of human survivors put bullets in the heads of zombie hordes. In movies when Nazis, robots or zombies get destroyed, I never feel any kind of guilt. What I have yet to see is a Nazi-cyborg-zombie combination -- now that would be a cool monster!

As I stated above, there are always exceptions to the rule, and sometimes monsters are not cast as the bad guys. Some examples of heroic monsters are Ben Grimm, the ever loving, blue-eyed Thing from the Fantastic Four (he may be an ugly rock monster but he's the heart and soul of the team), and the Incredible Hulk (who really just wants to be left alone). One of the best recent heroic monsters is Hellboy. Hellboy is the creation of writer/artist Mike Mignola and first appeared in Dark Horse comic books in 1993. In 2004 Hellboy and his colorful cast of supporting characters were adapted to film by the great director Guillermo del Toro. Veteran character actor Ron Perlman portrayed Hellboy beneath a large amount of prosthetic makeup, and invested the character with great amounts of depth and humanity. There are just so many things that I find appealing about Hellboy -- he's literally a giant red devil, complete with horns, a tail and a stone right hand. He looks about as monstrous as they come, but at heart he's just a salt-of-the-Earth kind of guy. He was sent to Earth to be the beast that brings about the apocalypse. That is his destiny, but because Hellboy was raised by kind humans, he chooses to foreswear his fate and fight for humanity. The character arc is almost Shakespearean -- well, if Shakespeare had written about red devils, fish men and women who could start fires with their minds.

So yes, I love monsters of all stripes -- I admit it freely. Be they scary, cheesy, or heroic, I will always be in their corner, rooting for them to keep fighting that uphill battle for respectability. I hope this article will get you to revisit some classic monster movies and view the much-maligned beasts in a different light. Monsters need support too.

Copyright 2007 John Michael Decker. No reprints without written permission.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor and sometime freelance writer. He used to leave out milk and cookies for the creature that lived in his closet... you know -- in case it got hungry in the middle of the night.

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2006

2007-01-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

And now, here is my 2006 Top Ten Film list as seen on...

http://www.entertainmentinreview.com/

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2006
Written by John Michael Decker
Jan 01, 2007 at 08:27 PM

2006 has been an interesting year at the cinema. There have been disappointments (Superman Returns and The Prestige), films that were better than I anticipated they would be (X-Men: The Last Stand and Flyboys) and some films that were just so cheesy and weird that I loved them (Snakes On a Plane and Night Watch). There was the good (The Queen), the bad (Ultraviolet), and the decidedly ugly (Abominable). But the cream of the crop -- in my very biased opinion -- were...

#10: A Scanner Darkly

Synopsis: In the not-too-distant future, the war on drugs has been lost and an undercover narcotics officer (Keanu Reeves) must deal with a split personality brought on by his addiction to a new designer drug called Substance D.

This film is very faithfully based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, and directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused). Linklater employs a technique called rotoscoping where animators trace live action movement frame by frame, creating for the viewer a very life-like animated effect. This effect adds to the feeling of paranoia and isolation that pervades this picture.

In the end the audience is asked to wonder if sacrificing human souls is worth the price of winning the war on drugs. This is an extremely deep and trippy film-going experience.

#9: Rocky Balboa

Synopsis: After the dreadful Rocky V, Sylvester Stallone's boxing saga finally gets a proper send off with this sentimental offering. At the start of the film we learn that a 60-something Rocky Balboa now owns a restaurant in his old neighborhood in Philadelphia where he spends his time reliving past glories by telling boxing tales to his patrons. When a computer simulation shows that in his prime Rocky could have defeated current champ Mason "The Line" Dixon, forces are set in motion that may give Rocky one last chance at glory.

I liked that this movie was more reminiscent of the first Rocky than of the later offerings. It's the story of a true underdog with the deck stacked against him. Also, the chemistry between Stallone and young actor Milo Ventimiglia (who plays Rocky's son, Robert Jr.) was very nice and their scenes together were quite good.

#8: Clerks II

Synopsis: Director Kevin Smith's raunchy and hilarious meditation on friendship and moving forward finds the heroes of the first Clerks -- Dante and Randal -- working at Mooby Burger. Dante is engaged and ready to move out of state, but Randal is still happy being a slacker and feels abandoned by his hetero life mate.

Smith excels at dialog and he is back in fine form after his most recent and disappointing outing, Jersey Girl. No other director can combine toilet humor and pathos so seamlessly. I look forward to more adventures of Jay, Silent Bob and the rest of Smith's Jersey gang.

#7: Hollywoodland

Synopsis: This film explores the tragic death of television's Superman, George Reeves, in a very Rashomon-like style. Burned out P.I. Louis Simo (Adrien Brody) explores the seedy underbelly of Hollywood in an effort to uncover the mystery. Although the film offers no definitive answers as to how the tragedy unfolded, it does paint a fascinating portrait of a troubled man in a town that will eat your dreams for breakfast.

I realize that it is popular to bash Ben Affleck these days, but I thought his performance as George Reeves was a revelation. Through flashbacks we see Reeves slowly disintegrate as both his professional and personal lives crumble around him. Affleck was subtle and nuanced and is a much better actor than most people give him credit for.

#6: The Proposition

Synopsis: A harsh, bleak and unforgiving Australian western written by rock star Nick Cave. In this film, outlaw Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is given an impossible choice. Hunt down and kill his psychotic older brother or allow his younger brother to be executed.

This is a ceaselessly dark film and it is not going to be for everyone, but it is also surprisingly thoughtful and philosophical and it shows that some places on this earth are just not meant to tamed.

#5: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Synopsis: The film that pissed the most people off this year is also the funniest -- often painfully so. Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays rabidly anti-Semitic Kazakhstan journalist, Borat Sagdiyev who has come to America to make a documentary. Borat is backwards and offensive in the extreme, and yet he is so innocent that he comes across as endearing instead of hateful.

The brilliance of this film comes from the fact that most of the cast is unaware that Cohen is just an actor, and so through Borat's eyes we get to see Americans with their guard down. That honest look is not always pretty, but it is hilarious.

#4: Casino Royale

Synopsis: This is the best 007 flick in years, thanks to a start-from-scratch approach (similar to last summer's Batman Begins), a stricter adherence to the Ian Fleming source material, and a tour-de-force performance by the newest James Bond, Daniel Craig.

One thing I always admired about the James Bond character of Fleming's novels was the fact that underneath his suave exterior, Bond was a savage brute. He needed to be, to survive in his line of work, and Craig nailed this aspect of the character perfectly. This was a more vulnerable Bond than we've seen in the past -- a more flawed character -- but also far more human and interesting.

#3: The Departed

Synopsis: If Martin Scorsese does not win his long deserved Oscar for this undercover cop vs. undercover crook masterpiece than there really is no justice in the universe. In this film Leonardo DeCaprio plays Billy Costigan and Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan. Two sides to the same coin. Costigan is an undercover cop trying to get the goods on Irish mobster Frank Costello (played by the ever-brilliant Jack Nicholson). Sullivan is one of Costello's goons who has joined the police force and is trying to sniff out the rat in the Costello gang.

The tension generated by this simple plot device is really quite wonderful, and all of the elements (acting, writing, and directing) mesh flawlessly under Scorsese's practiced hand. There is a reason that Scorsese is considered a legendary director, and this is the work of a great film master at the top of his game.

#2: V for Vendetta

This film is an adaptation of the comic book graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Moore got into a dispute with the producers and so asked for his name to be removed from the credits of the movie. This is really a shame because it is the best adaptation of Mr. Moore's work ever produced for the big screen.

Synopsis: In a dark future where England has become a totalitarian state, a lone vigilante in a Guy Fawkes mask (known only as "V") proves that the people should not fear their government, but the government should fear its people.

Alan Moore first wrote this material in the 80s over concerns of what the world was turning into under world leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. In the era of George W. Bush this material is as relevant as ever.

And now, my favorite movie of 2006...

#1: The Descent

About a year ago I was at the video store and I found a pre-viewed copy of a film called Dog Soldiers in DVD format. The back of the DVD indicated that this was a movie about soldiers fighting werewolves. As I am a sucker for a good werewolf flick and the price was less than ten bucks, I bought the video. This film was so good that it is in contention with An American Werewolf in London as my favorite werewolf film ever.

I have since found out that Dog Soldiers was written and directed by an Englishman named Neil Marshall. Although it never got an American release, it broke box office records in England and Europe. I realized that I had found the work of a fresh new voice in horror cinema and I vowed to seek out all of the films that Neil Marshall made. Neil Marshall's second film did get an American release last summer. This film was The Descent, and it was one of the most spectacularly scary horror movies I have ever seen.

Synopsis: Six English women decide to go on an extreme outdoor adventure holiday in the Appalachians. What starts out as a caving expedition quickly goes horribly wrong. Initially, Marshall's film explores the very real terror of being underground: darkness, cave-ins, claustrophobia. But then, just when you think things couldn't get scarier, a paranormal element is introduced into the film that ratchets up the tension several more notches.
The movie's title works on many levels. This is about a descent into a cave. A descent into the darkness of the soul. And finally, a descent into madness. It is on par with Aliens as a truly intense thriller and it is my favorite film of 2006.

John Michael Decker is a struggling actor, comic book nerd, and self-avowed movie nut. For the past seven years or so he has been making a list of the previous year's top ten films and sending it to his friends. This year he's been asked to publish it on Entertainment in Review. He'll also be writing occasional film critiques in future columns. John comes to this web page not as a professional critic but as a guy who loves movies and who will hopefully steer you towards some quality entertainment.

Discuss this article or get some movie or music recommendations on our forum.

Yet Another Survey

2006-11-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

Awesome "Get To Know You" Survey!

1) What's your full name? John Michael Decker

2) Any nick names you want to share? Johnny D, Deck, Mudfoot, Cake, Tie Dye Owl, Jean-Luc, Ukal

3) What color is your hair? Dark Brown

4) What color are your eyes? Hazel

5) Name a favorite restaurant or two? New Way Lunch and the Dinosaur BBQ

6) Elvis or the Beatles? The Beatles

7) Captain Kirk or Captain Picard? Captain Picard

What is your earliest memory? Seeing a moose run across the road in Maine

8) When dating, do you have a 'type?' Usually Jewish women and red heads

9) Name a great film that not enough people have seen: Near Dark

10) How about a great book that not enough people have read: "Jack of Shadows" by Roger Zelazny

11) Four places you've worked? Sterling Renaissance Festival, Captain Blue Hen's Comics, Walt Disney World: MGM Studios, the Jekyll & Hyde Club (NYC)

12) Horror Films! Love 'em or Hate 'em? LOVE 'EM!!!

13) If you could have one super-power, what would it be? Telekinesis (thats MIND BULLETS!!!)

14) Now, how about a secondary super-power? Shape Shifting (how awesome would that be for an actor?)

15) Favorite eye color of the opposite sex? Green

16) What scares you? Failure

17) What delights you? Performing

18) Name a foreign country you would like to visit: Japan

19) Name four places you've lived: Lake Luzerne, NY; Smithville, TX; Golfport, FL; Chester, England

20) Ever been romantically in love? Oh yes...

21) Ever had someone you loved make you cry? Oh yes...

22) What is your profession? Actor

23) When you were a kid, what did you think your profession was going to be? Astronaut or Magician

24) Who is the hottest Hollywood star? Marilyn Monroe or Bettie Page

25) Favorite fictional character? Spider-Man

26) Are you, or have you ever been, a geek? I'm a card carrying geek

27) What is your favorite animal? Wolf

28) Who is your celebrity look-alike? Mike Myers

Checklist

2006-11-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

This list speaks for itself!

Place an "x" in all boxes that apply...

[x] I Talk A LOT when I get really nervous.

[x] I am really ticklish.

[ ] I'm afraid of the dark.

[ ] I can't sleep in a room if the door is open

[ ] I can't sleep in a room if the door is closed

[ ] I am homosexual.

[x] I believe in true love.

[ ] I've ran away from home

[x] I listen to political music

[x] I collect comic books

[x] I shut others out when I'm sad.

[x] I've stayed out all night.

[ ] I open up to others easily.

[x] I am keeping a secret from the world. (isn't everyone?)

[x] I watch the news

[ ] I love Disney movies.

[X] I am a sucker for green eyes.

[x] I am a sucker for brown eyes.

[x] I am a sucker for blue eyes

[ ] I don't kill bugs

[ ] I have "x"s in my screen name.

[x] I've slipped and fell in public.

[ ] I've slipped out a "lol" in a real conversation

[ ] I love Spam (well, just the funny subject lines... "1,000 Lemmings Can't Be Wrong!")

[ ] I bake well.

[ ] I have worn pajamas to class.

[x] I want a better job

[ ] Talked on a phone for 6+ hours.

[ ] I love Dr. Phil.

[ ] I like multiple people

[ ] I am guilty of tYpInG lIkE tHiS.

[x] I am self-conscious.

[x] I love to laugh.

[x] I have tried alcohol.

[ ] I drink alcohol on a regular basis.

[x] I have tried a cigarette.

[ ] I have smoked a pack in one day.

[ ] I loved Lord of the Flies.

[x] I have cough drops when I'm not sick.

[ ] I can't swallow pills.

[x] I have a lot of scars.

[ ] I can't sleep if there is a spider in the room.

[x] I like chocolate.

[ ] I bite my nails.

[x] I am not comfortable with being me.

[x] I play computer games when I'm bored.

[x] Gotten lost in the city.

[x] Thought of suicide before.

[x] Seen a shooting star.

[x] Gone out in public in my pajamas

[x] Hugged a stranger.

[x] Been in a fist fight.

[x] Laughed and had some type of beverage come out of my nose

[x] Pushed all the buttons on an elevator.

[x] Made out in an elevator.

[ ] Kicked a guy where it hurts on purpose

[ ] Been skydiving.

[ ] Been bungee jumping.

[x] Gotten stitches.

[ ] Drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour

[x] Bitten someone

[x] Been to Niagara Falls.

[x] Gotten the chicken pox.

[x] Crashed into a car

[x] Been to germany

[x] Ridden in a taxi.

[ ] Shoplifted.

[x] Been fired.

[x] Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back.

[ ] Stole something from your job.

[x] Gone on a blind date.

[x] Had a crush on a teacher/coach.

[ ] Celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

[x] Been to Europe.

[x] Slept with a co-worker, and/or employee.

[ ] Been married

[ ] Gotten divorced

[x] Saw someone/something dying.

[ ] have a list of people you want to kill.

[x] Ridden in a car over 400 miles in one day

[x] Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[ ] Thrown up in a bar.

[x] Eaten sushi.

[x] Cried in public.

[ ] Walked purposely into traffic with your eyes closed

[x] Liked someone even though you knew you shouldn't have.

[x] Thought of someone a lot lately.

[ ] Hate the world.

For the LOVE OF GOD! VOTE!!!

2006-10-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

Current mood: aggravated

Happy Halloween everyone. So, you know what the scariest thing I can think of today is? The Republicans still control the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court. If that's not enough to get your spine crawling and cause you to run, screaming and gibbering, to the Canadian border, than I don't know what is.

So, let's go over our current president's track record, shall we... In 2000 George W. Bush's party tampered with the election process and STOLE the victory away from Al Gore. And Gore and the Democrats were too spineless to go to the mat fighting this. Since the Democrats rolled over so easily, the Republicans tampered with the election in 2004 and STOLE another victory for the repulsive George W. Bush. You have to give those RED ELEPHANT'S points for balls.

When "W" took office in 2000, Bill Clinton had left him with an ENORMOUS Budget surplus (I apologize for not having the exact number before me, but it was in the billions). Currently we have an ENORMOUS Budget DEFICIT (also in the billions).

Say what you want about Bill Clinton, but it was on George W. Bush's watch that the WORST TERRORIST ATTACK in U.S. history occurred on our soil. Now, after 9/11, it was an appropriate move to attack Afghanistan, the Taliban stronghold. We had the support of the U.N. The sympathy and good will of most of the world. But Bush did a half assed job in Afghanistan so that he could commit the majority of our forces to an attack on Iraq. A country that had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ATTACK ON 9/11!! And he did this WITHOUT GLOBAL SUPPORT!!!

yeahbuhWHAT?!

And how did George W. Bush and his cronies convince the U.S. people that this would be a wise course of action? HE LIED TO US ABOUT WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, TAKING CRUEL ADVANTAGE OF THE FACT THAT WE (the United States of America) HAD JUST BEEN ATTACKED BY A FANATIC ENEMY!!! Using FEAR and DECEPTION to JAM this war down our throats! Just as they used FEAR and DECEPTION to STEAL two elections!

Anyone else see a pattern forming here?

So now we are trapped in a Vietnam like morass with no end in site and both American and Iraqis casualties piling up. And we have no real exit strategy. You know, folks... There was one other president who invaded Iraq. And although he is not one of my favorite people, I'll give him this, he was wise enough not to go into Baghdad. Why? Because he KNEW that this would happen. This mess that we are in today. And who was that man? Why, it was George H.W. Bush, father of our current president. Before committing our country to this tragic war, did George Jr. consult his father, George Sr.? Of course not. He's a monosyllabic, marble-mouthed, imbecile with delusions of godhood. A half-wit who is only concerned with the richest segment of the population.

As Exhibit A, I offer up this administration's responce to the Katrina disaster. If a hurricane of that magnitude had hit Kittybunkport, Maine, do you think the government would have dragged it's feet getting aide to that area? No fucking way!

Listen, this isn't information that most of you don't already know. I realize that it seems like we can do very little to change the state of the world. But this is not true. Next week we have an opportunity to wrest control of congress from the Republicans. Now, as I've mentioned, the Democrats are far from perfect, but they are a damn site better than the Republicans, and this is just the start of wining back the country from a party that is taking away our civil liberties by increments. And there are some bright lights on the horizon. Democrats who could take the White House in 2008 (I've got my fingers crossed for Barack Obama).

This is not the time to give up. This is not the time to roll over. The Republicans are FINALLY on the ropes and we need to press the advantage. So, for the love of our warm and fuzzy God, if you are a Democrate, or even if you just hate the Republicans, vote next week!

The fate of the Country is at stake.

BUMP!

That was the sound of me falling off my soap box.

My Ten Names

2006-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have always been fascinated by names and their mythological power. Therefore, this internet quiz really intrigued me...

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current street name)
Happy Dorlon

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Chubby Hubby Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
J-Dec

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Green Wolf

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Michael Glens Falls

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, last 3 letters of mom's maiden name)
Dec-jo Gio

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink )
Scarlet Lemon-aid (everybody knows that my real superhero name is the Tie Dye Owl)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Felix Edward

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne)
British Sterling

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father's middle name)
Newell Anne

My Pirate Name & Other Useless Information

2006-10-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

My pirate name is:

Mad Dog Rackham

Part crazy, part mangy, all rabid, you're the pirate all the others fear might just snap soon. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

You Are From Pluto

You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe.
You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart.
You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance.
You don't like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your stubborness.
Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you.

What Planet Are You From?

And Pluto isn't even considered a planet anymore. This blows!

You Are 60% Gentleman

Generally you act like a gentleman, but sometimes you're careless with your manners.
Most people know that you're trying your best - and that's usually good enough.

Are You A Gentleman?

You scored as The Amazing Spider-Man. After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker was transformed from a nerdy high school student into New York's greatest hero. Peter enjoys the thrill of being a super hero, but he struggles with the burdens of leading a double life. He hopes someday to win the heart of his true love Mary Jane, the woman he's loved since before he even liked girls. Right now, he just wants to make it through college and pay his bills.

The Amazing Spider-Man

96%

Batman, the Dark Knight

79%

Neo, the "One"

75%

Lara Croft

71%

Captain Jack Sparrow

67%

Indiana Jones

67%

Maximus

58%

The Terminator

58%

El Zorro

54%

William Wallace

54%

James Bond, Agent 007

46%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

You Are Wolverine

Small but fierce, you're a great fighter.
Watch out! You are often you're own greatest enemy.

Powers: Adamantium claws, keen senses, the ability to heal quickly

Which of the X-Men Are You?

Somehow, I always knew that I was a Canadian at heart.

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy

In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh.
You may end up insane, but you'll have fun on the way to the asylum.

Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, The Royal Tenenbaums, American Psycho

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

Black Comedy... Yeah, this is about right...

You Are 34% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Very popular, one of you is not enough.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 10% Conservative, 90% Liberal

Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

You are a
Social Liberal
(76% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(10% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

You Are 25% Left Brained, 75% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.
Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.
If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.
Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.
Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.
If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.
Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Which SuperVillian are you?
Green Goblin You are a disturbed scientist with an extreme dark-side, way to go!
Take The Quiz Now!	Quizzes by myYearbook.com

You Are Gonzo the Great

"Is something burning in here? Oh, it's just me."
You're a total nutball who will do anything for attention.
The first to take a dare, you'll pull almost any stunt.
You're one weird looking creature, but your chickens don't mind!

The Muppet Personality Test

Defending a Classic

2006-08-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

George Lucas had some things to say about the fourth Indiana Jones movie, slated for a 2008 release...

"We're basically going to do The Phantom Menace. People's expectations are way higher than you can deliver. You could just get killed for the whole thing. We would do it for fun and just take the hit with the critics and the fans."

What... The... FUCK!!

Excuse my language here folks, but is this idiot now not even going to TRY and make the best possible film that he can? Is he that lazy? I love the original Indy trilogy. LOVE IT! And I would rather be left with my memory (not to mention my DVDs) of three excellent films than to have the Indiana Jones franchise tainted with a ham-fisted, half-assed attempt at another sequel. As a creative person, I am left to wonder why he would even bother trying to make a film if he is not going to do his level best to make the BEST PRODUCT POSSIBLE! Here's a challenge, George. Why not try to SURPASS the first trilogy? Why not surprise us and show us that you are still capable of making a decent film? Why not live up to the hype for once? OR, why don't you admit that you are creatively bankrupt, step aside, and hand the character over to a film maker with some energy and something new to say? Think of what M. Night Shyamalan, Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson could do with the Indy franchise?

Alright, now that that's out of my system I also feel that I must defend one of the most maligned of the Indy films. I speak, of course, of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The bastard middle child of the trilogy. In fact, I would argue that this is a superior film to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Now, I think that we can all agree that "Raiders" was the best of the lot, but I will now list 5 reasons why "Temple of Doom" is better than "the Last Crusade."

A brief disclaimer. I love Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I love the fact that the main character relationship is between Indy and his Dad and not Indy and some chick. I love the opening sequence with "young Indy." I just don't feel that ultimately it is as strong as "Temple." Onward...

#1) Different direction. After creating arguably one of the greatest films of all time in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it took huge stones to take a 180 digree turn and try something different for the sequel (well, prequel really). Different setting, different side-kick, different love interest, different villains. And to my mind, it all works. Where "Last Crusade" played it safe and followed the basic "Lost Ark" formula, "Temple of Doom" took chances and was still able to pay homage to the great film serials of the past. Although, it honored different serials.

#2) That fight scene. To my mind that fight between Indy and the Thuggee slave master while Short Round was duking it out with the Prince at the simultaneously was one of the coolest fights in cinematic history. Not to mention the best single fight of the three Indy flicks. But then, I'm a big fan of old school, Jim Kirk style fisticuffs. And I like Short Round enough so that I'd like to see what the adult Shorty is up to in Indy 4 (if they were going to bother to make a good movie that is).

#3) Seat grabbing action! The non-stop action in "Temple" was just as relentless as it was in "Raiders." God, they even made the dinner scene exciting. While there are many great action sequences in "Crusade," pound for pound it doesn't match up with the unswerving break-neck pace of the first two.

#4) Honor the characters. While I loved seeing the return of Sallah and Marcus Brody in "Crusade," they were not treated with respect. In "Raiders" Sallah and Marcus were more than just light comic relief, they were solid character's with a real impact on the plot of the film. In "Crusade" they were sad shadows of their former selves. Poor Marcus especially suffered. Why couldn't they be funny, but not fools?

#5) The villains. While I enjoy seeing Indy beat the snot out of Nazi's as much as the next guy, it was cool to see him match his skills against the savage Thuggee cult and the black magic of it's leader. Indy can match wit's with other baddies besides the Nazi's and still be interesting.

Anyway, this is just one obsessed fan's opinion. Let the debates begin...

The Final Confession of Damian Spector

2006-07-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

So the Renaissance Festival is going very well this season. The first weekend was great. The character I've created is Lord High Sheriff Damian Spector, who I've engendered to be a cartoonish, mustache-twirling, villain. However, in my experience even a character played broadly for comedy needs some grounding in reality. Early on in the rehearsal period we were asked to write a letter detailing a memory our characters might have of a seminal point in their lives. I was going to write about how Damian's father, Severus Spector (a tax collector from Shropshire) turned his mother, Isabella over to the authorities for being a recusant Catholic and then made him watch as she was burned to death. But then I came up with this little memory...

~The Final Confession of Lord High Sheriff Damian Spector~
~Chief Constable of Warwick Town~
Writ on this thirty first day of October in the year of our Lord fifteen hundred and eighty eight; Anno Domini

Journeyman adventurer, thou who hast unearthed this parchment, list well to my tale of woe...

Whilst I was still young and guileless and the bloom of youth still stained my cheeks like a ripe, red, apple, I was o'er taken by a foul mania. Aye, the all too common affliction known to fops and fools alike as... "Love..." To be sure, an insidious malady that strikes down beggar and King, reducing an otherwise lucid man to an artless, dizzy-eyed, clotpole. I damn my eyes for this foul weakness which o'er came me; this shadow, this blight; hanging o'er my head like the sword of Damocles... This putrid sickness which gnawed at my guts like filthy rats fighting o'er discarded meat at an abattoir.

Cordelia was her name. When our eyes first locked I was but ten and four and she ten and six. Her tresses were spun copper hanging in ringlets about her perfect countenance. Her diminutive chin a flawless fit for my thumb and forefinger. And the orbs... Deep emerald eyes that looked through me. Into me. Verdant like the pitiless, wine-dark, seas. Under her steady gaze I was unmanned... Stripped bare... All pretence burned away...

We wed the next autumn 'gainst the wishes of mine own sire. I was the son of a landed gentleman. She a simple farmer's daughter. Father beat me near to my grave. I took the licks with nary a word. Love controlled me. More the fool I. To marry for love rather than gain... Tis insanity...

Time passed as it is want to do. For lack of a better term, I was... "Content." Mayhaps e'en "happy." An odd sensation that I recall now only with bile in the back of my throat. I had become a soldier to support my young bride. I was in Flanders in the low countries fighting the Spanish scourge for Queen and country under William of Orange when word did reach mine ears like an ill wind. My wife... My Cordelia with the iron-red hair and the dancing damnable eyes had perished in the eighth moon of her confinement whilst birthing our child... And not e'en a son at that! Better the All Mighty to deliver unto me a stillborn than a daughter. A witless girl who looked at me with her dead mother's eyes. Fie!

God was to blame. Was it not the Creator who had infected my soul with his insidious love? Was it not Jehovah who then took from me that one joyous possession? The one being in the world entire that made my black existence bearable. My wife. My life.
My Ragnarok.

The scales are out of balance. It is my estimation that God doth owe me. Since I can not take my rightful vengeance on the All Mighty, I shall seek retaliation 'gainst all his creation. This did I vow on the night I learned my wife was struck dead by God. I shall have my pound of flesh from where I will. The suffering I inflict shall be legion. Now cruelty is my joy. I laugh in the face of the carnage I inflict. And when the day doth come to face my maker, let it be he who must beware!

Triumphant Return

2006-05-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

This summer I will be making my triumphant return to the Sterling Renaissance Festival where I will be portraying the evil Sheriff of Warwickshire. I don't yet have an image of myself in costume as I have never played this part at Sterling before, and so here is a portrait of myself playing the evil Sheriff of Nottingham from the Steamer 10 Theatre's 2003 production of Robin Hood. So if you happen to be in the Sterling, New York area between the weekends of July 1st & 2nd and August 12th and 13th, drop by and look me up. I will be found twice a day at the Seat of Justice, presiding over the Trial & Dunk. There dispensing cruel wet justice to the guilty and innocent alike. Be afraid. Be very afraid...

Ships of the Line

2006-04-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

For the hell of it, I have made myself a list of my favorite space vehicles from science fiction. To discipline myself I have only allowed myself to pick one ship from each sci-fi source (in other words, I can't pick the Millennium Falcon and Luke's X-Wing Fighter from Star Wars. I have to pick only my favorite ship from that particular Sci-Fi Universe).

Top Ten Sci-Fi Space Ships

#1)USS Enterprise: The one I really dig is the refit Enterprise (NCC 1701) first introduced in Star Trek: the Motion Picture. To me, this one is the classic exploratory/adventure vehicle. I think the ship's best moment was the dog fight with the Reliant in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

#2) The Discovery: I like this ship from 2001: A Space Odyssey mostly for the fact that it has always seemed so real to me. I also like the fact that HAL, the onboard computer, malfunctions and wipes out most of the crew. It gives the ship a haunted feeling.

#3) The Millennium Falcon: George Lucas is reputed to be a big gear-head, and the Falcon has always struck me as Han Solo's muscle car in space. I love that it was always on the verge of shaking apart at the seams but in a pinch it would pull through.

#4) Serenity: This is the ship that first appared in the Joss Whedon short lived television series, Firefly, and then in the movie, Serenity. It wasn't a battleship. It wasn't an exploratory vessel. It was the home to nine lost souls just trying to survive in a complicated universe.

#5) the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space): The Doctor's seemingly innocuous blue police box (from the long running British television show, Dr. Who) is, in reality, one of the most versatile space vecicles in all of science fiction.

#6) Battlestar Galactica: I like the Galactica from the current series on the Sci-Fi network better than the one from the 1979 show. This old war-horse has tons of personality and really feels like an aircraft carrier in space.

#7) Babylon 5: I know. I know. Technically this is a space station and not a space ship, but it was the location of much intrigue and adventure on the television series of the same name, so it goes on my list.

#8) the Nebuchadnezzar: Morpheus's awesome ship from the Matrix trilogy is really more dedicated to exploring inner-space than outer-space, but that's what gives it it's charm.

#9) the Nostromo: This space mining cargo ship from Alien was dark and creepy and the perfect location for the title creature to creep around in. A true "haunted house" in space.

#10)the Vanguard: This rocket ship from Lance Proton & the Space Battalion of Justice first appeared on the Sterling Radio Showcase. You've got to love a ship that runs on vacuum tubes and sprockets.

Internet Survey

2006-04-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

This is one of those silly internet surveys which was sent to me by a friend. I liked this one because it wasn't too long...

Four jobs you have had in your life:

1. Comic Shop Manager for Captain Blue Hen Comics in Lancaster, PA
2. Summer Camp Counselor/Arts & Crafts Director at Hebron Camp
3. Concession Stand Sales at Hoyts Cinemas in Saratoga, NY
4. Atmosphere Performer at Disney's MGM Studios in Orlando, FL

Four movies you would watch over and over:

(Only four? Alright, off the top of my head...)
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (That's like one big super-movie)
2. The Indiana Jones Trilogy (same as above)
3. King Kong (1933)
4. Spider-Man/Spider-Man 2 (another "super-film")

Four places you have lived:

1. Lake Luzerne, NY
2. Smithville, TX
3. Chester, England
4. Gulfport, FL

Four TV shows you love to watch:

1. Lost
2. Veronica Mars
3. Prison Break
4. Battlestar Galactica

Four places you have been on vacation:

1. London, England
2. Seattle, WA
3. Rome, Italy
4. Edinburgh, Scotland

Four websites I visit daily:

1. yahoo.com
2. aintitcool.com
3. comicbookresources.com
4. google.com

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Hot Dogs from New Way Lunch (A.K.A. Dirty Johns)
2. Pizza with lots of meat & extra cheese
3. New York Cheese Cake
4. A really good Steak

Four great books I would recommend to a friend:

1. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
3. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
4. Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Gotham City
2. The Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs
3. Marvel Comics' New York City
4. Starfleet headquarters in future San Francisco

Four people I am tagging that I think will respond.....

1. I
2. Have
3. No
4. Clue

The Liquid Clock & Other Haikus

2006-03-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

The Liquid Clock

His mind is swimming

Witness time slow to a crawl

Clock-Eye dreams of fish

***

Green Monarch

Trust the Lizard King

At his feet reptiles bow

Wisest of cold bloods

***

Eternal Seeker

The immortal walked

No one could fathom his truth

It begins anew

***

Drago Slumbers

Sleeping dragons lie

And remember times gone by

The ancient ways die

***

Science v. Odin

Dinosaurs return

Science strikes down the old gods

PANDEMONIUM!

***

Cereal Saturdays

Obscure cartoons rock

Watching Space Ghost on suger

"Thing ring do your thing"

***

These haikus are copyrighted by John Michael Decker. Any publication or sale of this work without the authors express written permission is forbidden.

--------------------------------------------------------

=====

"And I'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"

John Michael Decker

The Letter

2006-02-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

So, it was one year ago today that I got into that car accident in Tampa, Florida that broke my arm. I was working at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival at the time. With no health insurance to speak of, it was quite a financial blow. It has been a year of struggle and frustration. A year when it seemed like every decision I made was wrong. A year of working at jobs which I find totally unfulfilling. I would be lying if I said that I haven't been fighting despair. And I've been asking myself, "Why have I wasted so many years working a Renaissance Festivals when I could have been seeking work that would benefit me more in the future?"

That accident did more than just break my arm. It reminded me of what a fragile thread we all hang on by. It caused me to question every decision I had ever made up to that point. What if I had been killed? What legacy would I have left? Did I make a difference in anyone's life? The fact that I'm going to be turning 40 this June has only served to compound my angst.

Then, the other day, I received an e-mail from a young man named Eirik Bjorkman. Eirik (that's the oldest known spelling of "Eric" in case you were wondering) is a talented young man who I helped direct in the Groundling Support Troupe my last two summers at the Sterling Renaissance Festival (2003 and 2004). I'll let the letter speak for itself...

Hello Johnny- D!!

Greetings from Eirik land! I was just sitting about thinking about that day 2 years ago, at the ren faire, when all the young kids were pushing your legs and arms down and laughing. Damn, a touching moment! So that inspired me to write this email. How are you doing? Any plans for the future?

I am looking at colleges, finishing up my senior year, our school play is in 4 weeks, and i have the male lead! Hooray! I directed and had the lead role in my senior project, we did "The Bald Seprano". It went very well, I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I finally found an amazing girlfriend, who happened to be a groundling this past year. She was the one in the bright blue dress, if you remember. So that is very good for me.

I wanted to send this email cuz I haven't been very good at keeping in touch for the past few years, taking for granted that I'd always be seeing everyone again. Butthis year there is no groundlings, so i am making sure that the contacts that i want to keep are being kept. I miss you, you really did a lot for me in the two years that you helped me at the faire. Not only did you help open the door of acting for me, but you've done soooooo much more than that. You re-defined my idea of a good person. Your kind spirit and gentle charisma have really helped me in hard times, even the ones that you haven't been present for. I feel that i really need to thank you for that. You've been a great role model for me, and you still are a good influence on me! Stay cool, and stay funky fresh! I love you man!!!!Sending lots of hugs and love,

Eirik Bjorkman (aka Center Dateless, Raphael Dapifer, and Amias James Throckmorton)

That is way I waste my time with this theatre stuff and that is why I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. Thank you, Eirik. Your letter meant more to me than you could possibly know. I needed that.

--JMD

Ten More Flicks That Rock

2006-02-16T14:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of ten more movies that I think of as classics. These are films that I could watch at any time. Flicks I would recommend to any of my friends. Of course, they all fall into the Sci-Fi/Action/Fantasy category, but that is just what I dig. Here is the list in no particular order...

TEN MORE FILMS THAT KICK-ASS!

1) Highlander (1986): Christopher Lambert stars as Connor MacLeod, an immortal being who must fight others like himself throughout the centuries. Visually spectacular with some real pathos and a kick ass score by Queen. Also features Clancy Brown as MacLeod's psychotic nemesis, the Kurgan and the great Sean Connery as his mentor, Juan Ramirez. This is one of those movies that I thought was fairly cheesy the first time I saw it, but upon subsequent viewings, it just got better and better.

2) Alien (1979): Ridley Scott's "haunted house in space" film still holds up, even after all these years. Although not as intense as the sequel, Aliens, it is scarier and more claustrophobic. The Alien design by H.R. Giger is still one of the most original and creepy creations in cinematic history.

3) Near Dark (1987): This is my favorite vampire movie (even though, never once, is the v-word uttered in the script). Sadly, it didn't do as well at the box office as it could have because it came out at the same time as the inferior Lost Boys. It brilliantly captures the bon vivant that an immortal being must feel and places the action in a gritty, western setting. Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein (who played space marines Bishop, Hudson and Vasquez in Aliens) are excellent as Jesse, Severen and Diamondback, the three toughest vamps, and the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream is awesome.

4) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984): While many people disparage the second film of the Indiana Jones trilogy, I give Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford major props for taking the movie in a completely different direction than Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is an excellent, two-fisted adventure.

5) The Road Warrior (1982): This is the second film of Mel Gibson's Mad Max trilogy, and by far the best. In this one Gibson's anti-hero, Max must help a clan of survivors protect their precious oil from a gang of insane thugs in a post-apocalyptic future. Great violent fun.

6) Leon, The Professional (1994): This flick is an interesting fusion of a French art film and an American action movie. It also features a star making performance by a 12-year-old Natalie Portman. The love story between the girl and a foreign hit-man, Leon (played by Jean Reno) should be creepy, but instead it is strangely compelling.

7) Ladyhawke (1985): In this film directed by Richard Donner (the one who made us believe a man could fly), Rutger Hauer (as Captain Navarre) and Michelle Pfeiffer (as the Lady Isabeau) play two star-crossed lovers plagued by a terrible curse. They are damned to be always together, eternally apart--for as long as the sun rises and sets. As long as there is day and night. And for as long as they both shall live. Although Matthew Broderick's wisecracking thief, Gaston the Mouse and the soundtrack by Alan Parsons & Andrew Powell seem a little too modern for a story set almost 700 years in the past, this is still a highly enjoyable fantasy/adventure with heart.

8) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982): Not only the best Star Trek film ever made, but arguably one of the best action movies of the 80s. It was so good that subsequent Star Trek flicks continually tried to copy it's formula, but none were as effective. It is also a great joy of mine to watch William Shatner's hero, Captain Kirk and Ricardo Montalban's villain, Kahn try to out scenery-chew one another.

9) Planet of the Apes (1968): Twilight Zone creator, Rod Serling, penned the screenplay for this brilliant social satire. Features some fantastic make up effects that hold up even by today's standards and some hilarious scenery-chewing by gun nut, Charlton Heston. "Get your filthy paws off me you damn, dirty apes!"

10) Blade Runner: the directors cut (1982): Visual stylist Ridley Scott outdoes himself with this futuristic film noir adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novella, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. This is a thought provoking and substantive meditation on the nature of life, both natural and artificial.

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2005

2006-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Everybody!

Well, you've been waiting for it all year and now here it is! My top 10 film list from two, double-aught, five. Disclaimer: I am not a professional critic. These are just my very biased opinions. Enough blather! Here is my list from 10 to 1:

#10) GEORGE A. ROMERO'S LAND OF THE DEAD: George A. Romero, the Orson Wells of zombie flicks, brings us another enjoyable (if disgusting) chapter in his epic zombie-world saga. In this one zombie fighters, who are hunkered down behind a walled city, must face political corruption on the inside and rapidly evolving undead forces on the outside. Oh, how I love the hell-feast of the damned!

#9) KUNG-FU HUSTLE: How best to describe this unique film? How about this; Bruce Lee style kung-fu action merged with loony tunes zaniness with a dash of Gene Kelly like choreography on crack. This film was one fun trip.

#8) HARRY POTTER & THE GOBLET OF FIRE: Although the films are never quite as charming as the Harry Potter books, this movie did a fantastic job of condensing J.K. Rowling's 734 page novel into an exciting, cohesive, little flick.

#7) THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE: I confess that I have never read any of C. S. Lewis's Narnia series, nonetheless I found this movie to be quite excellent on several levels with some of the best computer generated character's this side of a Peter Jackson film.

#6) WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT: I can not adequately describe how delightful I found this film going experience. From it's comedy of English manners to it's quaint claymation animation to the corking plot and off the wall characters, this was a joy from start to finish.

#5) HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS: This was basically the Romeo & Juliet story told within the context of a martial arts action masterpiece amidst some breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

#4) SERENITY: If you've never seen Joss Whedon's short-lived but brilliant television series, Firefly, than this science fiction western may not pack the emotional punch it should. But as a huge fan of Mr. Whedon's small screen work, I was blown away by his first big screen effort (the first movie to be both written and directed by Joss Whedon).

#3) FRANK MILLER'S SIN CITY: This is film noir, pulp fiction, and hard boiled action at it's best. Beautiful, lurid, shockingly stylized violence mixes with gorgeous dames, classic cars, and tough guys with hearts of gold. Look out for Mickey Rourke's bravura performance as Marv - a psychotic thug with a soft spot for dead hookers.

#2) BATMAN BEGINS: At long last, a live action Batman movie with real emotional depth that focuses more on the psychology of Bruce Wayne than on the Batman's freakish rogues gallery (as delightful as the bat-rogues are). This is a Gotham City one could truly believe is real. This is a film that understands it's comic book source material.

And the number one best film of 2005...

#1) KING KONG: Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson shows his love of the original 1933 King Kong with this beautiful re-make. This movie works extremely well as an action adventure, but it goes way beyond that. What really makes this new Kong click is the very palpable chemistry created between the characters of Ann Darrow (as played by Naomi Watts) and Kong himself (performed by Andy Serkis in a motion capture suit). It is not a sexual chemistry (that would be creepy) but more a love that develops between two beings who have lost everything and find connection in their mutual loneliness. Sure, it's cool to see a 25 foot silverback gorilla fight a pack of hungry t-rexes (who doesn't love a good monster fight?), but the real impact of this story is how the power of love is a double edged sword. We all know the positive aspects of the emotion, but this film points out how love can also consume and destroy like a fire.

So there you have it. Feel free to contact me and critique my choices.

See you at the movies.

Johnny D.

Holiday Greetings

2005-12-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

Season's Beatings, Friends,

On this eve of Christmas Eve I just wanted to wish everyone an awesome Holiday season. But this Merry Christmas wish comes with a dire warning. There have been reports of some fat bastard squeezing down chimneys and rummaging through cupboards looking for half-eaten food stuffs. Some men call him... FATTY CLAWS!!! Dum! Di! Dum! Dum! (That was a dramatic music sting). I like to think of him as... DARK NICK!!! DAA DAA!!

Anywho, this deer abusing, soot covered, freak likes it when children sit on his lap and beg him for free merchandise. Then he gives them candy canes. Sick f@$ker! I wouldn't fool around if I were you. I recommend that you set up a bear trap in your fireplace. When the crimson intruder gets his size 11 clamped in good ol' stainless American steel, blast him in the face with a shot gun before he can gnaw through his leg and escape. I know this sounds harsh, but then you can take his magic bag filled with endless toys and use it to become the most powerful entity in your neighborhood.

Sweet, sweet power! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

Why, Santa? Why didn't I get that G.I. Joe with the Kung-Fu grip?

But I digress... Let's remember what this holiday is really about. It's not about some white-bearded, milk-guzzling, mutant who enslaves elves and forces them to make trinkets in his sub-zero Gulag til their fingers bleed. No. It's about the arrival of our saviour. A man we can all look up to as a shining example of what we can only aspire to be. I speak, of course, of Superman. I think that dead Kryptonian scientist, Jor-El, said it best...

"Even though you have been raised as a human being you are not one of them. They can be a great people, Kal-El, if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good. I have sent them you, my only son."

Yeah. Superman is groovy (sigh). Big Love and Merry Christmas from your Uncle Johnny!

"And I'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"

Johnny D

Worst... Films... EVER!

2005-12-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

It's a lot easier to make a "worst film" list than it is to make a "best film" list. So I have limited my list to movies that were not only bad, but that disappointed me deeply at some level. Films I expected better of (because of the directors or the actors or the concept), but which let me down. And so, without further ado, here is my list of the worst, most disappointing films I have ever seen...

WORST MOVIES EVER MADE

1) The Passion of the Christ (2004): In making this film, Mel Gibson's assertion seems to be that we are all responsible for the death of Christ, so we should all be punished by watching a nice guy horribly tortured for nearly three hours. Excellent production values can't save this, ugly, vile film which is filled with lurid violence and raciest undertones. For a far superior movie about the life of Jesus Christ, I would recommend Martin Scorsese's controversial 1988 masterpiece, The Last Temptation of the Christ.

2) Batman & Robin (1997): This psychedelic dry-heave of a film brought to us by schlock director Joel Schumacher nearly killed the Bat-franchise and ended comic book movies forever. It also marked a steady decline in the quality of films starring action guru, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Loud, over-packed, over-acted and campy, this movie is devoid of any redeeming value and a slap in the face to fans of the Batman comic books.

3) Highlander II: The Quickening (1991): I loved the original Highlander which came out in 1986, so when I heard that actors Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery were teaming up with director Russell Mulcahy for a sequel, I was excited. When I got to the theater what I got was a convoluted mess that didn't even respect it's own established continuity. But you know what they say... "There can be only one... Good Highlander film."

4) Star Trek V: The Final Frontier/Star Trek: Nemesis (1989, 2002): These are, by far, the two most disappointing movies in the Star Trek canon. They both consisted of ridiculous plots, embarrassing character portrayals and juvenile humor that is, more often than not, at the expense of the characters the fans had grown to know and love.

5) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999): Apparently George Lucas lost his copy of "Hero With 1,000 Faces" when he made this lackluster prequel to his original Star Wars trilogy. The archetypal character's of the first three films were replaced by boring, two-dimensional, stereotypes; the most insulting of which was the computer generated side-kick, Jar Jar Binks. This savagely annoying character wasted every frame of film he was in (nearly 88 minutes of the movie). On the plus side, this move does have some amazing lightsaber duels and boasts impressive special effects. It's just too bad they are wasted in such a loss of a film.

6) Cursed (2005): I enjoyed the Scream trilogy, and I love werewolves, so when I heard that Scream director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson were re-teaming to make a werewolf flick, I thought that it would be a fun ride. Instead this was a stupid, insipid, waste of a movie with plot holes you could drive a truck through. The acting is bad. The special effects are bad. The writing is really bad. On a side note, two days after I saw Cursed, I got into a serious car accident and broke my arm. So, for me, this movie really was "cursed."

7) Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie (2000): I have played Dungeons & Dragons and I generally enjoy movies in the sword and sorcery genre, so I thought this film might be fun. By the end of the movie, I was left scratching my head and saying, "what the hell just happened?" What had happened was that I had lost about an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back.

8) Showgirls (1995): Who would have thought that a movie with this much gratuitous nudity could be so horrible? 'Nuff said.

9) Planet of the Apes (2001): Normally reliable director, Tim Burton missteps here with this awful re-make of the 1968 classic. Although the special effects are excellent and the acting is decent enough the plot just spirals into incomprehensible nonsense. What seems to have been lost on Burton was that the original Planet of the Apes was a brilliant social satire, not just an exploration of the weird for the sake of being weird.

10) Jersey Girl (2004): I am a huge fan of Kevin Smith and four of his original five films, so I was extremely disappointed to see him make this sappy pile of drivel with an ending that was apparent almost before the movie started running. Where are Jay and Silent Bob when you need them?

My Favorite Films of all Time

2005-12-01T14:10:00.000-08:00

Making that list of my favorite comic book flicks got me thinking about my favorite films ever. And now, for no reason whatsoever, here is a list of my top 20 favorite movies ever made (as of December 1st, 2005). I have not included any comic book films, because I love that genre so much that it gets it's own list. Here we go...

MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME

1) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003): It's hard for me not to think of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King as one giant super-movie. Director/Co-Writer/Producer Peter Jackson did a brilliant job adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's classic trilogy of novels into an epic film trilogy. Jackson captures Tolkien's voice, themes, and characters but ups the action quotient making this a very enjoyable, layered film going experience.

2) Excalibur (1981): John Boorman takes a realistic, gritty look at the Arthurian legends in this spectacular film filled with excellent performances and layered with symbolism.

3) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981):Director; Steven Spielberg, writer; George Lucas and actor; Harrison Ford teamed up to redefine the way action movies are made forever. Ford's Indiana Jones is still one of the most endearing characters ever put on film.

4) Jaws (1975): Another early Spielberg masterpiece about three very different men trying to destroy a sea monster. This movie is both highly suspenseful and character driven.

5) King Kong (1933): This early sound film was truly a classic in every way. This beauty and the beast story is still very watchable and poignant, even 72 years later. I can't wait to see what Peter Jackson does with the re-make in a few weeks. It will, no doubt, be superior to the mediocre 1976 re-make.

6) The Empire Strikes Back (1980): The best of the Star Wars movies and a grand Space Opera. This is truly George Lucas at the top of his game. He takes his ideas from Star Wars and expands on them in unexpected and exciting ways. The archetypal characters reach one at the gut level.

7) Star Wars (1977): I can still remember sitting in the movie theatre and watching this movie for the first time. When the giant Star Destroyer crawled across the screen firing on Princess Leia's smaller space ship something in me changed. I was then transformed into a Science Fiction Geek forevermore.

8) Shakespeare in Love (1998): Like one of Shakespeare's plays, this excellent film blends history and fabrication to create the unforgettable tale of two star-crossed lovers. It is a celebration not only of love, but of the theatre.

9) The Terminator (1984):James Cameron's action packed, balls to the wall, love story about a man, a woman, and an unstoppable killing machine.

10) Aliens (1986): James Cameron uses the movie Alien as a jumping off point into this incredibility suspenseful action/Sci-Fi epic about two mad mother's on a collision course.

11) Pulp Fiction (1994): Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino changes the way films are made with this highly original collection of tales about very bad men doing good things.

12) Fight Club (1999): David Fincher's brilliant, dark, social satire about men pushed to the edge by our consumer society.

13) The Matrix (1999): Larry and Andy Wachowski blend cyber-punk fiction, kung-fu action and zen philosophy into this highly watchable, visually stunning picture.

14) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke team up to create one of the best pure Science Fiction movies ever made.

15) Tombstone (1993): Epic retelling of the story of the gunfight outside of the O.K. Corral and it's bloody aftermath.

16) The Shawshank Redemption (1994): This is that rarest of films, a prison story with an uplifting ending.

17) Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 (2003-2004): Like the Lord of the Rings, I have to think of these two movies as one giant, super-film. This is Quentin Tarantino's highly enjoyable homage to kung-fu, spaghetti westerns and bloody revenge films of the 70s.

18) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000): Two touching love stories are couched in a Martial Arts action flick.

19) The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1966): A great spaghetti western and the best of Sergio Leone's "Man With No Name" trilogy.

20) An American Werewolf in London (1981): A film that works as well as a comedy as it does as a horror movie.

The Greatest Comic Book Films Of All Time! (So Far)

2005-11-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

THE GREATEST COMIC BOOK FILMS OF ALL TIME! (So Far)

1) Spider-Man/Spider-Man 2 (2002, 2004): Spidey has always been my favorite comic book character, and Sam Raimi certainly captures the essence of the old Stan Lee comics in these wonderful films. Toby Maguire really adds depth and pathos to his portrayal of Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man.

2) Batman Begins (2005): This is the first live-action Batman film to be worthy of the complex comic book character. Director; Christopher Nolan, writer; David S. Goyer and lead actor; Christian Bale do a magnificent job creating the dark world of Bruce Wayne and his even darker alter ego.

3) Hellboy (2004): When I first read Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic I didn't think it could ever be put on the big screen, but not only does director Guillermo del Toro succeed in capturing what makes the comic great on film, he improves on the source material.

4) Conan the Barbarian (1982): I know that it could be argued that Conan got his start in the Robert E. Howard pulp novels and magazines, but I was first introduced to the Cimmerian Barbarian in the Marvel Comics of the 70s, so in the back of my mind I always think of him as a comic book character. This film captures everything that is great about Conan, perhaps the best sword and sorcery pulp character ever created.

5) Superman/Superman 2 (1978, 1980): These still stand up as some of the greatest comic book films of all time, thanks, in no small part, to Christopher Reeve who inhabited the character of Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman like no other actor could. I did believe a man could fly.

6) The Incredibles (2004): This is the film last summer's lackluster Fantastic Four should have been. A movie about a family of super-heroes with heart. This is my favorite Pixor film so far, and that is saying something.

7) X2: X-Men United (2003): Bryan Singer does a splendid job of balancing several interesting characters and plot lines in this action-packed adaptation of the Marvel Comics world of Mutants. I can't wait to see what he does with Superman Returns, next summer.

8) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993): This animated Batman film comes the closest to the spirit of the D.C. Comics source material. I'd also highly recommend Batman: The Animated Series, which this movie was spawned from.

9) Frank Miller's Sin City (2005): To adapt this crime comic to the big screen, Robert Rodriguez literally used Frank Miller's comic art as story boards and replicated his scripts word for word creating the most faithful adaptation of a comic work thus far.

10) Unbreakable (2000): In this remarkable film, M. Night Shyamalan takes the basic rules of comic books and plants them in the real world, showing us how super-heroes and villains might behave if they escaped from their four color universes.

Honorable Mention:

11) The Iron Giant (1999): Another great animated movie where, like in Hellboy, the hero fights what he was created to be to become something greater.

12) Robocop (1987): Paul Verhoeven's awesome, over the top, film about a dark future and the cyborg super-cop trying to make things right.

13) The Crow (1994): An excellent adaptation of the James O'Barr comic book. Only marred by the fact that it is Brandon Lee's last performance.

14) Darkman (1990): Sam Raimi's first foray into super-hero films. Well, maybe his second (see Evil Dead 2).

15) Blade/Blade II (1998, 2002): Another example of the movies improving on the comic book source material with great scripts by David S. Goyer and a strong lead performance by Wesley Snipes.

16) Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987): Some may argue that this is a horror movie, or even a horror comedy, but to my mind it's a super-hero origin film. Ash rocks!

17) Batman (1989): I do have to give props to Tim Burton for his first Bat-flick. The production design is awe-inspiring and actor Michael Keaton gives a much stronger performance as the Dark Knight than anyone gave him credit for. But it is Jack Nicholson's bizarre, over-the-top, take on the Joker that steals the show. Let's face it, the movie should have been called, the Joker. It's just too bad that the plot falls apart in the last half hour.

18) X-Men (2000): While Bryan Singer's first go at an X-Men film isn't perfect, it is none the less a very enjoyable picture with some excellent acting and direction amid sub-par special effects. As with Tim Burton's Batman, the story falls apart in the third act.

19) The Rocketeer (1991): Highly enjoyable adaptation of the Dave Stevens graphic novel. Bill Campbell makes an excellent protagonist and Jennifer Connelly has never looked better.

Ten Kick-Ass Comic Book Characters

2005-11-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me know how much I love fictional characters. Below is a list I have compiled of 10 of the greatest tough-guy, grim-and-gritty, take-no-prisoners, characters currently appearing in comic books. They all have a kind of pulp fiction vibe and if you are not reading their books, I would recoment that you seek them out.

And now, without further ado, here is the list of the characters in no particular order...

1) John Gaunt AKA GrimJack (IDW): This character is a great fusion of Sam Spade and Conan the Barbarian and he resides in the cool pan-dimensional city of Cynosure.

"When they come to me, they're in trouble, or they want some. I bust people out of prison, hunt down vampires, fight alien Gods--All the fun jobs people are too squeamish or too polite to do themselves. Call me a mercenary. Call me an assassin. Call me villain. I am all that and more. My name's John Gaunt, but out on the streets of Cynosure, I am called... GrimJack."
--GrimJack, (Vol 1) #1 (Comic Book), John Ostrander

2) Hellboy (Dark Horse): The worlds greatest paranormal investigator (and by "paranormal investigator" I mean that he beats the holy bejesus out of paranormal stuff).

"I never deal with what I am. I don't think about it. I just do my job, which usually involves me beating the crap out of things a lot like me.
--Hellboy, The Right Hand of Doom (Trade Paperback), Mike Mignola

3) The Goon (Dark Horse): He routinely beats the crap out of zombies and monsters with his fists. If there are too many of them, he grabs a wrench.

"The nameless man, the zombie priest, had come to town to build a gang from the undead. But even the undead fear... The Goon."
--The Goon, Rough Stuff (Trade Paperback), Eric Powell

4) Conan the Cimmerian (Dark Horse): As a child, he tore out a wolf's throat with his teeth. Nuff said.

"Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities... there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand... to tread the jeweled thrones of the earth under his sandalled feet."
--The Coming of Conan, the Cimmerian (Novel), Robert E. Howard

5) Red Sonja: the She Devil With a Sword (Dynamite Entertainment): This chick slaughters her enemies wearing a chain mail bikini. That makes her one tough broad in my book.

"Know also, O'prince, that in the selfsame days that the Cimmerian did stalk the Hyborian Kingdoms, one of the few swords worthy to cross with his was that of Red Sonja, warror-woman out of mystic Hyrkania. Forced to flee her homeland because she spurned the advances of the a king and slew him instead. She rode west across the Turanian steppes and into the shadowed mists of legendry."
--Red Sonja, the She Devil With a Sword, #0 (Comic Book), Michael Avon Oeming & Mike Carey

6) Snake-Eyes (Dynamite Entertainment): From the pages of G.I. Joe this silent ninja is the badest bad-ass in a battalion of bad-asses.

" ... "
--Just about any issue of G.I. Joe.

7) Cal McDonald (IDW): This foul-mouthed, alcoholic, drug addict is also a hard boiled L.A. detective who screws with the supernatural daily.

"Cal McDonald has made a career helping and hunting the dark creatures that haunt the world and has made as many friends as he has enemies. Among the docile ghouls of the city he is a friend. But to most, those who prey on innocent human lives, Cal is a sworn enemy."
--Savage Membrane: A Cal McDonald Mystery (Novel), Steve Niles

8) Doc Frankenstein (Burlyman): The wonderful premise of this comic book is, what if Dr. Frankenstein's creature survived into modern times to become a Doc Savage-like pulp hero.

"I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, kicked at, and trampled on."
--Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus (Novel), Mary Shelley

9) Frank Castle AKA the Punisher (Marvel): No super powers. No fancy, high-tech gadgets. Just guns, guts and an endless pit of rage.

“Been walking the streets all night. But the city's dead. Times Square is filled with tourists. The park is filled with cops. Not five years back I could've gone to either and been up to my eyes in scum. Tonight I may as well have stayed home.....Giuliani's got a lot to answer for."
-- Punisher, (Vol. 3) #5 (Comic Book), Garth Ennis

10) Jonah Hex (DC): This hatchet-scared, ex-confederate, western bounty hunter makes Clint Eastwood look like a pansy.

"Twilight faded when the desert finally went silent…In full light of the moon, James Ronnie’s face showed all the contortions of a coward who has lost the resolve to continue masking his fear. And yet, he still clung to hope…like a drowning man with a fistful of straw. The irony stood marked by the fact that it was James Ronnie’s guns that aligned with Hex on the side of justice earlier that night. But as any man, woman, or child knows, he had no friends, this Jonah Hex…but he did have two companions……one was death itself……and the other, the acrid smell of gunsmoke."
--Jonah Hex, #1 (Comic Book), Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti

There you go! What do you think? I was going to put down the Batman and Wolverine, but then I thought that they get enough exposure.

--Johnny D. (Anti-Hero)

Science Lesson Comic Script

2005-10-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Recently I was given to opportunity to write a sample comic book script for Purun New York Inc., who were looking for freelance comic book writers to do science, social studies, and math comic book strips for 3rd and 4th graders. I opted to write a sample science strip. Unfortunately, the company wanted to go with someone with a public school teaching background. They wanted someone with more knowledge of the science standards and NYC science curriculum. But I wrote a cool script and I see no reason why it should go unprinted. So here it is...

***

Science Lesson--Grade 3-4
What are Living Things?

Key Words:

Organism – (n) a living person, animal, or plant

Nutrient - (n) 1. of food; nourishing 2. nutritive substance or ingredient.

Inorganic - (adj) 1. being composed of matter of other than plant or animal origin : 2. MINERAL

Organic – (adj) 1. of, relating to, or arising in a bodily organ 2. ORGANIZED 3. of, relating to, or derived from living things.

PANEL 1.
(We are in a laboratory. In the background we see beakers, Bunsen burners, etc. In the foreground we see a man with horn rimmed glasses wearing a rumpled lab coat and a towheaded girl blowing a pink bubble-gum bubble and wearing a backwards baseball cap. The man addresses the readers).

Man: Welcome friends! I am Dr. Science and this is my assistant, Hannah Banana. Together we unlock the mysteries of science.

Girl: Yo

PANEL 2.
(Suddenly, a clunky looking robot that might have escaped from a 1950s Buck Rogers serial comes smashing through the wall of the lab. He has lobster like metal pincers for hands and a glass bubble dome for a head. Through the glass head we can see cogs and vacuum tubes. Dr. Science and Hannah cringe in shock and surprise).

Robot: I am Tobor the living robot! Halt or be destroyed!

Dr. Science: Newton’s apple!

Hannah: Yikes!

PANEL 3.
(Tobor is waving his mechanical pincers in a menacing fashion. The good doctor and Hannah have composed themselves somewhat and are facing their guest).

Tobor: Now humans, cower before a superior life form, or face the fury of Tobor the living robot! (buzzzzzzz) BWA-HA-HA!!!

Hannah: Hey, who does this goon think he is?

Dr Science: Indeed. How can you call yourself a living robot? That’s just silly.

PANEL 4.
(Tobor is now scratching his bubble like head in confusion. Dr. Science has placed a fatherly arm around his metal shoulders. Hannah is opening a door in the lab which leads to a lush, green, park outside).

Tobor: Tobor... Is not alive?

Dr. Science: Ha ha ha... Of course not. Follow me outside and I’ll explain.

Hannah: Lets use the door this time.

PANEL 5.
(The three are not outside, standing by a pond in the park. It is a sunny day and there are trees in the background. We see birds and dragonflies in the sky, fish and frogs in the pond and a cat is licking her paws under one of the trees).

Dr Science: There are certain things that all organisms have in common.

Tobor: Organisms?

Hannah: That’s just another way of saying "living things."

PANEL 6.
(Dr. Science is now gesturing towards the pond where we can see a mother duck and several of her ducklings swimming in the water along with the frogs and fish. One of the frogs is sitting on a lily pad catching a dragonfly with it’s tongue. In the background, we can see that the cat is now standing in a litter box with her tail up).

Dr. Science: Organisms, like animals, need air, water and food in order to live and thrive.

Hannah: Living things also have babies, produce waste and eventually die.

Tobor: Then Tobor is not a living thing? Tobor is like a tree?

PANEL 7.
(Now the three are standing by a tree. Flowers grow at their feet).

Dr Science: Wrong again, my metal friend. Plants are organic, which means living.

Hannah: Plants need air, water, light and nutrients in order to live. Nutrient is another way of saying "food," by the way.

Tobor: Tobor is so confused. What is Tobor?

PANEL 8.
(The three are still outside, but now they are standing in front of a table. On the table is a rock, a glass of water, a baseball bat, and a toaster).

Dr. Science: You, my friend, are inorganic, or non-living. Inorganic things do not live and thrive. They can be naturally occurring like this rock and water.

Hannah: Or human-created, like the baseball bat and the toaster.

Tobor: Tobor is a toaster?!

PANEL 9.
(Tobor is now standing between Hannah and Dr. Science. Smoke is shooting out of what passes for his ears and sparks are shooting out of his head like a tiny fireworks display).

Hannah: Yeah, you’re more like a toaster than a man. Now you’ve got it, rusty!

Tobor: (choke) Tobor is not alive. Tobor is just a machine. Activate self-destruct device in 5... 4... 3...

Dr. Science: Well, we’ve all had a lot of fun today and I’d like to think we’ve learned a little something along the way. Now lets get out of here before this crazy robot explodes!

Sources: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai October 15, 2005

This is an original John Michael Decker comic book script. Please be aware that this is copyrighted material and not to be used for sale or publication without my express written permission.

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"And I'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"

John Michael Decker

New Sci-Fi/Fantasy Shows Reviewed (Spoiler Free)

2005-10-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well, now that I've had the chance to watch all of the new Sci-Fi/Fantasy television Pilots for the 2005/2006 season, it's time I put in my two cents worth.

SURFACE (Timeslot: Mondays at 8PM on NBC)

Review: I only watched the Pilot episode of this show, but I must admit that it just didn't capture my attention. The premise is interesting enough in theory, but in execution, it was just too slow to invest me. It didn't help that the characters are not at at all engaging. I've decided to give this series a miss in favor of Arrested Development and Kitchen Confidential, two excellent comedies on in the same time slot on FOX.

Surface Grade: C-

THE GHOST WHISPERER (Timeslot: Fridays at 8PM on CBS)

Review: The two shows that this will be compared to the most are Joan of Arcadia, the show it has replaced, and Medium, the NBC show with a similar premise. Unfortunately this does not hold up well to either of those shows. It lacks the emotional complexity of Joan of Arcadia and is not grounded in realism the way Medium is. What we are left with is a sappy hour of overly optimistic drivel. Jennifer Love Hewitt is hot though.

The Ghost Whisperer Grade: D-

INVASION (Timeslot: Wednesday at 10PM on ABC)

Review: Yet another extra-terrestrial invasion series. This is only slightly more engaging than Surface. The characters are a little more interesting as well (especially William Fichtner who plays the morally ambiguous town sheriff, Tom Underlay). The Pilot was very exciting, but subsequent episodes have been rather dull. The mysteries are also not interesting enough to keep me coming back week after week. This is a poor companion show to Lost which keeps you coming back week after week with it's combination of excellent characterization and amazing cliff hangers.

Invasion Grade: C+

THRESHOLD (Timeslot: Fridays at 9PM on CBS)

Review: This show has been a real mixed bag. Like the other alien invasion shows, the mysteries that we are presented with week after week just aren't that exciting. On Lost and Veronica Mars, each week the audience is presented with mind blowing puzzles which grab the viewer by the throat and force them to return the next week. Threshold and Invasion just have half-assed Invasion of the Body Snatchers mysteries. Brent Spiner (as Dr. Nigel Fenway), Rob Benedict (as Dr. Lucas Pegg) and Peter Dinklage (as Dr. Arthur Ramsey) are all uniformly excellent and the show comes alive when they are on screen interacting with each other. On the other hand Carla Gugino (as Dr. Molly Caffrey), Charles S. Dutton (as J.T. Baylock) and Brian Van Holt (as Cavennaugh) all have pretty two dimensional, cookie-cutter characters who have failed to capture my interest. Perhaps, given time, they could become more engaging, but the alien invasion plot just isn't good enough for me to give it the time.

Threshold Grade: C+

SUPERNATURAL (Timeslot: Tuesdays at 9PM on The WB)

Review: This is a very fun, if somewhat formulaic, hour of television. Every week the Winchester boys (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) drive into a new town in their 1968 Chevy Impala, take on some new supernatural threat (usually with some kind of original twist), one of them gets to kiss a hot chick, and then, like a couple of young Lone Rangers, they drive off towards some new adventure. The acting and production values are very good, and if they could find a way to change up the "monster of the week" formula, it could go from being just good to great. But then, the first season of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer was just a "monster of the week" show, and it eventually evolved into something greater and more unique. This comes closer to the spirit of the 70s "monster of the week" extravaganza Kolchak: the Night Stalker, then the new Night Stalker television show does, but see the next review.

Supernatural Grade: B+

THE NIGHT STALKER (Timeslot: Thursdays at 9PM on ABC)

Review: The show reminds me much more of the X-Files than it does of the original Night Stalker series. This is not surprising considering the show runner is former X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz. Unfortunately, it is not as good as the X-Files was. Nor is it as fun as the original Night Stalker. Stuart Townsend just isn't as good a character actor as Darren McGavin was. But then, Stuart Townsend's Carl Kolchak is closer to the X-Files' Fox Mulder than to Darren McGavin's Kolchak. But at least Agent Mulder had a sense of humor. Townsend's dour Kolchak is so much of a downer, it's hard to get on his side. Still, the second episode was better than the pilot. Both episodes I've seen did have some genuinely spooky moments and if Townsend can lighten up a little to counter the darkness of the plots, this could be a very watchable show. I'm giving it a few more episodes before I decide weather or not I'm going to continue watching.

The Night Stalker Grade: C

Anyway, for my money the best shows to watch this season are Lost (ABC), Veronica Mars (UPN), (the new) Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi Network), Gilmore Girls (the WB) and Justice League Unlimited (Cartoon Network). That's all for now...

Decker out...

Several Haikus

2005-09-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ode to Mike Mignola

(Creator of Hellboy)

Risen from dark flame

To battle the Nazi hoard

Hellboy rules all life

***

Internet Blues

Computer's harsh glow

Contemplating my future

Future glows harshly

***

Drivin' to Florida

Sweating my ass off

Freon makes the car run cool

Zues; send me FREON!

***

Lesson

Little towhead girl

Reaches towards the kitty cat

Slashing claws draw blood

***

Spam for Breakfast

Sliding from it's tin

I masticate my fake meat

Gelatinous ooze

***

Hell in a Hand Basket

Double U must fall

Else all we hold dear is lost

The earth dies screaming

***

Doomed

The end times are nigh

A moron usurps the throne

George Bush chaps my ass

***

Red State Blues

The world is not right

Up is down and black is white

Republicans bite

***

America the Shell-Shocked

Spineless donkeys watch

Elephants rape the eagle

Democracy fails

***

Regeneration

Mother Earth strikes back

Destroying the human plague

Roaches get their shot

***

Crash

Gray clouds fill the sky

Rain dapples the pavement black

Skidding towards a tree

***

These poems are copyrighted by John Michael Decker. Any publication or sale of this work without the authors express written permission is forbidden.
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"And I'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"
John Michael Decker

The Bird

2005-09-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Long ago, on a mountain in Tibet, there was a tiny village. Within the village there was a humble cottage. In the cottage there dwelled a venerable old man. The aged man had lived in the cottage for as long as anyone in the village could remember. He rarely left the sanctuary of his home, but he received many visitors. It was reputed that the old man was the wisest person in Tibet, and for this reason many pilgrims sought his sage advice. It was said that the elderly man's counsel was both ingenious and fair and in the years that he resided in that cottage he solved many a conflict and answered many questions, both practical and metaphysical.

But as the old man's reputation grew, so did the number of people who sought him, not for advice, but for the chance to prove him wrong. To confound him with unsolvable intellectual riddles and conundrums and in doing so prove themselves his superior. And for as long as anyone could remember, the old man's logical and sagacious mind always won the day, solving any puzzles that were put before him and doing it in such a way that none could dispute his enlightened wisdom.

One day a prideful and clever youth entered the old man's cottage. Clutched between the young man's hands was a tiny object that none could see. The young one bowed before the ancient and he spoke these words, "I have in my hands a small bird. I put it to you, old man; is this bird dead or is it alive?"

Right away the old one saw the ingenious trap that the callow youth had set for him. If he responded that the bird was alive, the young man would crush it in his hands and the old one would be proven wrong. However, if he stated that the bird was dead, the youngling would open his hands releasing a bird that was very much alive, and again, the old man would be proven false.

The elderly man carefully considered his response and after a time he spoke, "The answer, my son, is in your hands."

This fable was originally conveyed to me by my friend Jerry McKinney at the Hebron Camp and Conference Center in the early 90s.

More Theoretical DC Comics Super Teams

2005-09-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

So DC Comics used to have a team of World War II heroes called the Losers (first appearance G.I. COMBAT #138-1969) which consisted of Allied soldiers who had all suffered serious failures during their military careers. So I was thinking, what if you had to put together a modern team of DC super-heroes and call them the Losers? What horrible Morts would you pull out of the DC pantheon to create such a team? Here's what I came up with...

THE NEW LOSERS:

1) Irwin Schwab AKA Ambush Bug
First Appearence DC COMICS PRESENTS #52 (July 1983)
Besides teleportation, his main power was being super annoying.
2) G'Nort AKA Green Lantern
First Appearence JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #10 (February 1988)
He got the Green Lantern gig because his uncle pulled some strings with the Guardians of the Universe.
3) Paco Romone AKA Vibe
First Appearance JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (1st series) ANNUAL #2 (November 1984)
A super heroic break dancer. Nuff said.
4) Richard Raleigh AKA Red Bee
First Appearance HIT COMICS #1 (July 1940)
This dork trained bees to help him in his war on crime.
5) Tin the Metal Man
First Appearance SHOWCASE #37 (April 1967)
He's a robot made out of tin. Not very scary.
6) Rex the Wonder Dog
First Appearance THE ADVENTURES OF REX. THE WONDER DOG #1 (February 1952)
A dog who can speak to the other animals. He might be fun on Letterman.
7) Willie Walker AKA Black Racer
First Appearnce NEW GODS #3 (July 1971)
This aspect of death dresses like a combination between a medieval knight and an Olympic skier. Just weird.

Now, for my next theoretical exercise, I have tried to imagine what it would be like if the great Marvel Comics team, the Fantastic Four (first appearence FANTASTIC FOUR #1-1961), were created within the DC Universe. You would need a brain, a freak of nature, a babe, and a hot headed kid. Here is who I would pick for my DC Fantastic Four.

THE NEW FANTASTIC FOUR:

1) Ray Palmer AKA the Adam (Reed Richards)
First Appearence SHOWCASE #34 (October 1961)
2) Rex Mason AKA Metamorpho (Ben Grimm)
First Appearence THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #57 (December 1964)
3) Dinah Lance AKA Black Canary (Sue Richards)
First Appearence JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #75 (November 1969)
4) Ronnie Raymond AKA Firestorm (Johnny Storm)
First Appearence FIRESTORM #1 (March 1978)

In the 70s, Marvel put out an interesting comic book featuring an LA based team of super heroes called, the Champions. I really dug the different character dynamics and personalities and so I have decided to created a counterpart team of Champions using characters from the DC Pantheon...

THE NEW CHAMPIONS:

1) Helena Bertinelli AKA the Huntress (Black Widow)
First Appearance THE HUNTRESS # 1 (April 1989)
The team needs a bad ass chick with no natural super powers.
2) Billy Batson AKA Captain Marvel (Hercules)
First Appearance WHIZ COMICS #1 (February 1940)
To find someone to replace Marvel's Hercules, I chose a DC character with the power of Hercules (among others).
3) Norda Cantrell AKA Northwind (Angel)
First Appearance ALL-STAR SQUADRON #25
The Champions wouldn't be the Champions without a winged dude.
4) Cameron Mahkent AKA Icicle II (Iceman)
First Appearance INFINITY, INC #34 (January 34)
He's a mutant with the power to freeze stuff. Perfect replacement for Bobby Drake.
5) Jim Corrigan AKA the Specter (Ghost Rider)
First Appearance MORE FUN COMICS #52 (February 1940)
I figured the team needed an unstoppable engine of vengeance.
6) Eve Eden AKA Nightshade (Darkstar)
First Appearance CAPTAIN ADAM #82 (1966)
Nightshade and Darkstar have powers so similar they may as well be twins.
7) Jefferson Pierce AKA Black Lightning (Black Goliath)
First Appearance BLACK LIGHTNING #1 (April 1977)
They need a classy reserve member who provides some street cred.

And now, for no additional charge, I offer you an original cool team. My theme is a team of time traveling bounty hunters put together by Rip Hunter to track down villains messing with the time continuum. I present for your amusement and edification...

THE TIME HUNTERS:

1) Rip Hunter, Time Master
First Appearance SHOWCASE #20 (June 1959)
The team leader and mastermind behind this group of heroes. This team could not exist without Rip's Time-Sphere.
2) Jonah Hex
First Appearance ALL-STAR WESTERN TALES #10 (March 1972)
The best bounty hunter in any time and experienced in time travel.
3) Bright Sky After Storm AKA Arak Red-Hand, Son of Thunder
First Appearance WARLORD #48 (August 1981)
A mighty combatant and shaman. The teams warrior/priest.
4) Sergeant Frank Rock
First Appearance OUR ARMY AT WAR #81 (April 1959)
The teams tactician and field leader.
5) Buddy Blank AKA OMAC (One Man Army Corps)
First Appearance OMAC #1 (1974)
The groups power house.
6) Immortal Man
First Appearance STRANGE ADVENTURES #177 (June 1965)
As a being who is continuously reincarnated, the Immortal Man doesn't travel with the rest of the team in the Time Sphere, but meets with them in his various incarnations throughout time, acting as a temporal liaison to the others.
7) Kamandi, Last Boy on Earth
First Appearance KAMANDI #1 (November 1972)
Resourceful team mascot.

I think I've indulged the geek side of my brain enough for today.

Johnny D (Comic Book Aficionado)

Katrina Exposes Failure of Administration

2005-09-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

Below is a copy of a letter I e-mailed to the Post Star yesterday. I think it speaks for itself...

Editor,

In a post 9/11 world one would think that the United States would be better prepared for a national crisis. Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated that we are not prepared at all. It took almost one week for FEMA and the National Guard to respond to the thousands of Americans stranded in New Orleans. One week. American citizens. Stranded without food or water or medical supplies. For one week!

I still have trouble wrapping my head around this. This painfully slow response to a national crisis is unacceptable and the people responsible need to be called to account. Perhaps if our military choppers and National Guard were at home and not in Iraq, we could have responded more promptly. Perhaps if our president had not lied to us about WMDs and involved us in the mess in Iraq, we might have been able to get help where and when it was needed. Maybe if this administration had listened to the scientific community when they warned the government about the effects of global warming, they might have better prepared the country for a catastrophe of this magnitude.

But not everybody in America is suffering. Big oil companies have reported record profits. Say, isn't the war in Iraq about oil? No, that's preposterous. It's about revenge for the attacks against us on 9/11/2001. No wait, it wasn't Iraq who bombed us. I guess it is about oil, George W. Bush being a former oil man and all. I'll bet his rich cronies in the oil business are pretty happy with the president's performance during this latest crisis. At least the ones who don't have family in New Orleans.

George W. Bush and his administration have failed the country at every level. And before you think this letter is just about Republican bashing, I feel that the Democrats have failed us as well. If the Democratic Party had found a spine and opposed the Republicans the way they should have over the past eight years, the world would not be in the mess it is today. I'll say one thing for the Republicans, at least they have a clear message (even if it is a selfish and fearful one).

John Michael Decker

Queensbury, New York

The New Outsiders

2005-09-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've been giving a lot of thought to the DC comic book, The Outsiders featuring Nightwing, Arsenal, Jade, Thunder, Grace, Indigo, Shift and Starfire. It occurs to me that most of these character's (with the exception of Shift) are not outsiders at all. They are gorgeous, athletic, and super powered paragons. If I were to create a team of heroes who called themselves "the Outsiders," then I would pick characters from the DC pantheon who are truly forced to live "outside" of normal human society. Here is the team that I think would truly deserve the title, Outsiders...

1) Cliff Steele AKA Robotman
First Appearance: MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #80 (June 1963)
2) Mitch Shelley AKA Resurrection Man
First Appearence: RESURRECTION MAN #1 (March 1997)
3) Zauriel the Guardian Angel
First Appearence: JLA #6 (June 1997)
4) Jason Blood/Etrigan AKA the Demon
First Appearence: DEMON #1 (September 1972)
5) Bostan Brand AKA Deadman
First Appearence: STRANGE ADVENTURES #205 (September 1967)
6) Daniel Cassidy AKA Blue Devil
First Appearence: FURY OF FIRESTORM #24 (June 1984)
7) Urania "Rainie" Blackwell AKA Element Girl
First Appearence: METAMORPHO #10 (February 1967)

So we have a cyborg, an immortal, an angel, a demon, a ghost, a devil and a science freak. Now that is what I would call a group of "Outsiders."

Johnny D. (honorary Outsider's mascot)

New Sci-Fi/Fantasy Television

2005-09-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's September and the new television season is upon us. This year there are no less than six new Sci-Fi/Fantasy television series being offered to us by the major networks. Every year I am always hoping for some originality from my favorite genre of television. Hoping to discover a gem of a show like Firefly (foolishly canceled by FOX after only 11 episodes aired). Here is a list of the new shows and my take on them.

SURFACE (Originally this series was going to be called Fathom)

Premise: An extra-terrestrial invasion from a new sub-aquatic life-form begins, and average earth folks have to figure out what is going on.

Timeslot: Mondays at 8PM on NBC.

Lowdown: I don't know about this one. The idea of an invation from beneath the waves rather than space is original, but advanced buzz is not good. The early preview in Dreamwatch magazine only gave the Pilot a 4 out of 10. I'm also getting unfortunate flashbacks to the dreadful NBC crap-fest known as seaQuest DSV. I will probably watch the first episode, but if it does not grab me I will give this one a miss.

THE GHOST WHISPERER

Premise: Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a young, newly-married woman with the ability to communicate with the dead, uses her power to help her fellow man. Awwww...

Timeslot: Fridays at 8PM on CBS.

Lowdown: First the negative; this sounds like a blatant rip-off of the NBC show Medium (Monday nights at 10PM). Further, this is the show that is replacing Joan of Arcadia (which was unique and interesting and canceled before it's time). That alone pisses me off and makes me want to boycott it. Where Joan of Arcadia was challenging and did not provide easy answers to the audience, Ghost Whisperer looks to be cloying and saccharine. Now, to the fair, the positive... Hmmm. Well Jennifer Love Hewitt does have a tremendous rack... Yeah, I may just skip this one.

INVASION

Premise: An extra-terrestrial invasion in the wake of a hurricane, as the residents of a small town in the Florida Everglades deal with the weirdness. Yow. That's too close for comfort considering the havic wrought by hurricane Katrina.

Timeslot: Wednesday at 10PM on ABC.

Lowdown: I have not heard much buzz about this show one way or the other, however, it is produced by Shaun Cassidy who created such cool shows at American Gothic and Roar. Both of which were cool as hell but got canceled before they even had a chance. This alone makes me want to check it out. Also, this show looks to be an excellent companion piece to the wonderful Lost (Wednesday at 9PM on ABC).

THRESHOLD

Premise: When an extra-terrestrial craft is discovered in the Atlantic Ocean a team of experts, headed by Dr. Molly Caffrey (Carla Gugino), is assembled to analyze the intention of the craft and help prepare for an alien invasion. Hey, is it just me or are the plots of many of these shows starting to sound annoyingly familiar?

Timeslot: Fridays at 9PM on CBS.

Lowdown: This show has very good advanced buzz. One of the shows producers is David Goyer (the Blade Trilogy and Batman Begins) and Brent Spiner (Data of Star Trek: the Next Generation) plays Nigel Fenway, one of the scientists assigned to Operation: Threshold. I'm also a fan or Carla Gugino (last seen in Sin City). The premise isn't very inspired (three invasion shows this season), but the cast and creative people are very interesting, so I might just give this one a couple of episodes before I figure out if I want to watch it or not.

SUPERNATURAL

Premise: Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) embark on a road trip around America, confronting ghosts and creatures out of folklore and urban legends as they try to locate their missing father.

Timeslot: Tuesdays at 9PM on The WB.

Lowdown: This show has excellent advanced buzz. Dreamwatch magazine gave it a 9 out of 10 in their advanced review of the Pilot. It is supposed to be genuinely unsettling and scary. I like the idea of two guys in a beat up 1968 Chevy Impala driveing from town to town confronting the supernatural and kicking it's ass. It's sort of like the X-Files meets Route 66. I think this show will be really cool.

THE NIGHT STALKER

Premise: Hard-boiled journalist, Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) and his side-kick, Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union) embark on investigations into stories with ties to the paranormal.

Timeslot: Thursdays at 9PM on ABC.

Lowdown: I loved the original television movie The Night Stalker and it's sequel The Night Strangler, and the original TV series was not without it's charms. Alright, so the original series was kind of dumb, But the thing that made it so fun was Darren McGavin's portrayal of the weathered, rumpled and endearing Carl Kolchak. Stuart Townsend is nothing like McGavin and this show will succeed or fail based on his performance. Advanced buzz on the pilot is pretty bad, but I like this kind of premise and I really want to like this show so I am going to give it a few episodes before I decide whether or not it is worth my valuable time.

And that's the lowdown. If I can't find anything decent to watch this season, perhaps I'll write my own Sci-Fi show.

Decker out...

Johnny D's Blog

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2011

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2011

Honorable Mentions

Top 10 films of 2011

#10: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

#9: Captain America: the First Avenger

#8: Drive

#7: Warrior

#6: Another Earth

#5: X-Men: First Class

#4: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

#3: Rango

#2: Hanna

#1: Super 8

Summary

A Father's Letter to Santa

This is a beautiful note that was hand delivered to Santa at Macy's this year. I think it is a good reminder of what this day is really about. Happy holidays to all and to all a good night. -JMD

A FATHER’S LETTER TO SANTA

2011 Gratitude List

Eric

Lance Proton vs. the L.O.S.T.

John Michael Decker reviews "Those Across the River," an exciting new horror novel.

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2010

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2010

Honorable Mentions

Top 10 films of 2010

#10: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

#9: Kick Ass

#8: Centurion

#7: Splice

#6: Harry Brown

#5: Black Swan

#4: The Social Network

#3: True Grit

#2: Toy Story 3

#1: Inception

Summary

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2009

Films NOT on the list

Top 10 films of 2009

#10: Paranormal Activity

#9: Zombieland

#8: Drag Me To Hell

#7: Watchmen

#6: The Road

#5: Up

#4: The Hurt Locker

#3: Inglourious Basterds

#2: Star Trek

And now, my favorite movie of 2009...

#1: District 9

Summary

Haiku Reviews

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2008

#10: Cloverfield

#9: Quantum of Solace

#8: Tropic Thunder

#7: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

#6: Hellboy II: the Golden Army

#5: The Incredible Hulk

#4: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

#3: Wall-E

#2: Iron Man

#1: The Dark Knight

Summary

John Michael Decker's top ten films of 2007

Four More Film Reviews

2007 Summer Movie Report Card

The Greatest Comic Book Films of All Time!!!

Several Film Reviews

Sympathy for the Monsters

John Michael Decker's Top Ten Films of 2006

Yet Another Survey

Checklist

For the LOVE OF GOD! VOTE!!!

My Ten Names

My Pirate Name & Other Useless Information

Defending a Classic

The Final Confession of Damian Spector

This is a beautiful note that was hand delivered to Santa at Macy's this year. I think it is a good reminder of what this day is really about.

Happy holidays to all and to all a good night.

-JMD