Subject: Action Adventure Films

• Comic-Con 2007: The Beginning

  This is the real ghost train. San Diego, Wednesday night, downtown, after dark. All that's here is a smattering of oases of light, from cheap drug stores to greasy spoons offering a "really big Taco Plate" for $3.50. The streets, for now, are mostly empty, and those riding the trolley around you are dirty and old, with faces that bespeak hard labor for too little pay...and judging by the content of their mouths, no dental insurance. The allegedly spooky rides at the OC Fair have been easily be

  July 26, 2007

• Comic-Con 2007: Of Paramount Disappointment, plus Jessica Alba and Peter Fonda

  Damn, the lines here suck. Used to be that Comic-Con got bigger every year, and they expanded the available space to fit. Then the space ran out, and stuff kept getting bigger anyway. I wait in line half an hour for the Paramount panel, and don't even get close to getting in. Regroup. An hour later, get in line an hour early for the Lionsgate panel. Line is all the way to the back loading dock. I get in. But this astonishes me: after all that wait, once initial guest Jessica Alba is done, half

  July 27, 2007

• Comic-Con 2007: It figures, Dr. Jones

  Hasbro just unveiled the new Indiana Jones figures, all three based on Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones, Ceremonial Belloq with Idol, and Sallah). They're Star Wars scale, with high articulation (the only one not fully-posable is a version of Indy with whip-cracking action) and attention to detail. The line will be launched with a mix of figures from Raiders and the new fourth film, but Temple of Doom and Last Crusade will be represented later. "No comment" on vehicles, but they do not ha

  July 27, 2007

• Comic-Con 2007: Beowulf Cummin' At'cha

  It's not clear how aware the rest of the world is of the new Beowulf movie, but it's quite the huge deal here. Coming out in November in 3-D, 3-D IMAX, and plain old regular (not the way to see it if you can help it), this is a performance-capture animated film, a la Polar Express. I'm going to assume "spoilers" aren't a huge issue in the story of Beowulf, but if you don't know the names of the monsters he kills, possible spoilers ahead. First, though -- the obvious question on most people's m

  July 28, 2007

• Comic-Con 2007: Iron Man

  Oh hell yeah! Fuckin' Sabbath! YES! Thith ith cool, huh-huh, huh-hu, DUN DUN DAH DAH DAH, DUNANUNANUNA DUN DA DA DAH! Pardon momentary lapse into Butt-head-dom, but considering that the Transformers live-action movie failed to use the obvious theme song, one can never be too sure with Hollywood. But the clip from Jon Favreau's new Marvel movie Iron Man has the Black Sabbath tune of the same name, and all is right with the world. Clip: Arms manufacturer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is in a mo

  July 29, 2007

• Comic-Con follow-up: See Naked CG Angelina for Yourself

  No doubt some readers recall my description of the Beowulf footage shown at Comic-Con, featuring a photo-realistic 3-D naked Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother. While you won't see that exact footage until the film comes out later this fall, you can get a glimpse of all of Jolie, and much more, in the new Internet-exclusive, age-restricted Beowulf trailer. As you'll see -- assuming you can get past the age filter -- some of the CG people look better than others, to put it mildly. But Jolie lo

  September 4, 2007

• Oscar Nominations are announced

  And yes, I'm up prior to the crack of dawn to get them to you. The biggest surprise, if you can call it that, is the strong showing by MICHAEL CLAYTON, with six nominations. Not so surprisingly, THERE WILL BE BLOOD and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN each have eight. Via CNN, because it announced even before the official Oscar site: The nominees for best picture are "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Atonement," "Juno" and "Michael Clayton." JUNO? Really? Just goes to show there's a ri

  January 22, 2008

• Stan in the place where you live

  As much as I've always loved superheroes, I've always felt there was something just a little off-putting about Marvel head honcho Stan Lee, the person. And it isn't a righteous indignation thing about not giving his collaborators their due credit; Stan has relented on that score in later years, and Jack Kirby's dead now. No, there's just something about him that feels really cheeseball, from the way he tends to address audiences as "True Believers" and is prone to exclamations like "Excelsior!"

  May 9, 2008

• LYT's Film Pick of the Weekend 5-21-08

  Film pick of the weekend comes early this week, because when weekends go long, the movies open sooner. And we all know what you're going to go see at midnight tonight. I call it INDIANA JONES AND THE KICKING OF YOUR CRYSTAL ASS. (Don't tell me that "crystal ass" makes no sense. If Echo and the Bunnymen can sing about shattering your crystal heart, I can move the metaphor to other regions of the body.) [EDIT: A friend posing as an anonymous reader informed me via my personal blog that the Echo

  May 21, 2008

• Grabbing a Tiger by the Tale

  February 8, 2001

• Why America Loves an Asian Martial-Arts Flick

  February 22, 2001

• Dr. No

  Regency South Coast Village

  April 9, 2009

• Director Marc Forster Has a License to Confuse and Bore in the New Bond Flick 'Quantum of Solace'

  November 13, 2008

• Triple Threat in Newport Tomorrow: Terminator, McG and Dan Aykroyd

  Whoa, it's like the Newport Beach Film Festival is all "I'll be bawck" and stuff. Huh? What we're trying to say is, the recently concluded NBFF will be presenting a special preview screening of the upcoming Terminator: Salvation -- tomorrow night!Tickets are $20, and proceeds go to the film festival and the student governments of Mater Dei, Corona Del Mar and Newport Harbor high schools. And Terminator: Salvation director and OC native McG -- yes, that's what he calls himself -- will be at the s

  May 19, 2009

• Summer '08: Batman Saved the Season, While a Little 'Sex' Went a Long Way and the Indies Went South

  September 4, 2008

• 'The Incredible Hulk' Becomes the Not-Terrible Hulk Under Ed Norton and Director Louis Leterrier

  June 12, 2008

• [Summer Guide] Movies to Look Forward to Now That Indy and Carrie Bradshaw Have Used Up All the Hype

  June 12, 2008

• 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' Is Its Own Temple of Doom

  May 22, 2008

• [Special Screenings] Local Screenings of 'Fahrenheit 451,' 'Spider-Man 2,' More

  May 1, 2008

• The Incredible Stanman

  May 1, 2008

• Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man Is a Thing to Marvel

  May 1, 2008

• 2007: a Comic-Con Odyssey

  Or, How I learned to stop worrying and love sleep deprivation, huge crowds and wonderful toys

  August 9, 2007

• The Big Con

  Out of the basement and into the spotlight, Comic-Con 2007 is the place to be

  July 19, 2007

• Superzero

  Spider-Man 3 spins a web of mediocrity

  May 24, 2007

• (Jan) Hammer Time!

  OnDVD: Cocaine Cowboys

  January 25, 2007

• FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

  April 14, 2005

• Indiana Jones and the Throbbing Temples of Doom

  July 5, 2001

• Save Yourself From McG's 'Terminator'

  May 21, 2009

• The ampm on Bristol and Red Hill Sells Expired Kit-Kats

  ​Yes, the title of this blog is a serious charge. I realize that. But it's one that I'm able to back up.Last week, I went to the ampm (that's the "official" way to spell the name of the place, I know it looks weird all lower-case, but take it up with them) on the corner of Bristol and Red Hill on Costa Mesa to get a bag of Hot 'n Spicy Chex Mix--a surprisingly hard to find thing these days, especially since the introduction of the greatly inferior "Jalapeno Cheddar" Chex Mix (seriously, it mig

  August 17, 2009

• Serenity

  October 1, 2009