Source: io9

Apparently today’s superhero role models just don’t measure up to the ones of yesteryear. According to a psychology professor, boys exposed to superhero stories are learning that men “exploit women” and don’t have “the virtue of doing good for humanity.”

The BBC says:

Professor Sharon Lamb surveyed 674 boys aged four to 18 to find out what they read and watched on TV and in films. With her team at the University of Massachusetts, she then analysed the types of male role models the boys were exposed to. It showed two main types of man – the aggressive superhero or the slacker who does not even try.

“There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday,” said Professor Lamb. “Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns.”

Boys could look up to and learn from comic book heroes of the past because outside of their costumes, they were “real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities”.

Read more here…

Superheroes of today are all muscle, colorful costumes and bad ass weapons. What is so wrong with that? Well, back in the day Batman and Robin didn’t use guns and they didn’t swear. Didn’t Superman of yore even save a cat from a tree? Try catching him doing that today. It would never happen.  Also, I agree with the BBC that male superheroes today are so caught up with their fancy machinery and menacing enemies, we never get to see them in day to day existence.

If you notice too, in these types of action films, the guns keep get bigger as the years progress and the violence has gotten more prevalent. I understand they need weapons to defeat they’re enemies, but the movies are usually all about the violence and techy gadgets. The males never show fear, pain, and emotion (well maybe Toby Macguire did in Spiderman, but less so in the second installment).

Superheroes today aren’t really role-models. They’re basically killing machines in flamboyant costumes, IMHO. However, this doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good superhero flick by any means.

What do  you think? Are superheroes bad role models?

www.werewolves.com has gathered a good list of werewolf movies that would keep you up all night this weekend

Where would our favorite werewolf movies be today if they didn’t have groundbreaking movies to pave the way? And while the newer movies are filled with great special effects, Dolby surround sound, and makeup techniques and tools that truly transform man to beast, we simply wouldn’t be where we are today if it weren’t for these vintage films. And every now and then, we like to tip our hats to the movies that made it possible for all the great wolf movies that we enjoy today! Pick one of these up this weekend (or all of them) and take yourself back to a time when werewolves were just a tiny bit simpler, but still oh-so-awesome!

An American Werewolf in London was the first werewolf movie to be released by Universal Studios. And while it may not have been as successful as The Wolf Man, it was successful enough to also have a remake of it done. Check out this pseudo-trailer that some clever little devil put together for the original film. The original trailer is simply a reflection of a full moon in a body of water. This one’s much better, I must say!

More here

I really like The American Werewolf movies, they were the first ones I saw. What is you favorite werewolf movie?

Source: herald-review

Yesterday I read that Alice in Wonderland made 117 million dollars its opening weekend. Unfortunately, I was eating a pretzel at the time.

After being heimliched back into coherence, I began to feel like Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes, instead of viewing the wreckage of the Statue of Liberty, just imagine that American cinema is lying down there in shambles on that beach head.

You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you!

If you had told me five years ago that nearly every blockbuster would be filmed in 3D in the near future, I would have said, “You have a problem, sir. Seek help.” If you had told me that people would gladly pay more money for the priviledge of seeing movies in an inferior medium, I would have committed you myself.

Read more here…

This article is hilarious and sooo true. As all my fellow staff members at OBS know, and some of our fans, I really am NOT a fan of 3-D.  I know some of my fellow staff members agree with me on this sentiment and I am glad someone else out there does too. One of the only times I love to wear 3-D glasses is for a Pink Floyd Laser Light Show.  That type of viewing experience needs 3-D.  Not ever darn movie ever made starting in 2010.  I also agree with the sentiments that if you pay the extra charge for the glasses, you should be able to keep them, not pay a ‘rental fee’.  If that’s the case I’ll spend less money, rent the movie, watch it on my 60″ flat screen with the lights off , with my one dollar  3-D glasses I got from Blockbuster the last time I rented a 3-D flick.  Saves me tons of money. I can see it now…3-D contacts…for those who hate wearing glasses.  Where will the madness end?

Brought to you by OBS staff member Rose

Name: The Time Machine (1960)
Rated: PG
Running Time: 103 minutes

Director: George Pál

Synopsis
When an English gentleman and inventor, George (Rod Taylor), invites four high society friends over for dinner, his friends ponder his tardiness. Ms. Watchett (Doris Lloyd), George’s housemaid, announces that a handwritten note from George informs that they should head to the dining room and start dinner without him. After they sit down and start their feast, George appears torn and tattered through the doorway and begins to tell his friends his journey in the time machine.

Review
The Time Machine released in 1960, is based on the novella by H. G. Wells of the same name, first published in 1895. The prospect of seeing this older film excited me for I never had the pleasure and I tried to put my 21st century film expectations aside for I did not want it to cloud my judgment.

Seeing George sit in his ‘Time Machine’ at the starting date of 1902, the special effects depicted the changes in the outside world that he could easily view from his garage. Night and day sped forward, as did the weather and a view of a clothing store mannequin depicted the change in style of women’s dress through the years. One gaff I found with this is, his city was pummeled from WW II and that good ol’ trusty storefront mannequin remained constant, which made no logical sense. The Time Machine time stop-motion and time-lapse trickery did win an Oscar for Best Special effects so that renders me mum on any further digs. Maybe.

After seeing his city destroyed during an atomic air raid in the 1960’s and escaping a volcanic eruption of hot oozing lava just in time, he travels forward full throttle thousands of years into the future. Changes to the earth terrain encapsulate him under rock. Finally in the year 802,701 he is able to venture into his surrounding and stops. Here he meets the Eloi, an unassuming, uncaring, universally blonde childlike community that lives in fruitful abundance and unabashed naivety, which is reminiscent from something out of Twilight Zone.

After his first encounter with the Eloi, by saving a woman named Weena (Yvette Mimieux) from drowning, he follows her to have lunch with the rest of the Village of the Damned look alikes. Here he questions the Eloi and realizes they are being controlled by the Morlocks who live underground. Society as he knew it has been divided between those who don’t work and don’t care, to those who rule them and use them as cattle. His image of the Garden of Eden quickly falls away. After visiting a library and all the books turn to dust, he is distraught at the idea that the Eloi has let civilization and knowledge fall by the waste side and allowed themselves to become lambs for the slaughter. Here the acting is laid on thick. George yells, rants and raves with aplomb but to no avail. Wanting to leave such an unstructured and jejune existence, he tries to flee but his time machine is taken by the Morlocks. Cue the battle of George and the Morlocks, who look like they are dressed in store bought Halloween costumes. I must admit I laughed when I saw them.

I know I am suppose to take this movie at face value and look upon it in awe of the special effects ability of it’s time but it was difficult. In moments like these is where I say the book would be better than the movie. You are able to fabricate your own scenes and there is nothing wilder and more real than ones own imagination.

The ending was paramount in my enjoying the film for I appreciated the moral it conveyed. George returns back to the future with the ideology that he can make a difference and change the Eloi and make a better life for himself and them. There are additional morals to be learned and more psychological aspects to consider, but I’ll let you figure those out, for regardless of the fact that it might not be the best acting you’ve ever seen nor the most believable special effects, the story it tells is timeless.

Rating: 7/10 stars

Due to the new Alice in Wonderland coming out, a lot of Alice merchandise is hitting the shelf’s including SyFy’s Alice on DVD. One of our staff members bought and watched it and now brings you a nice little review.

Brought to you by OBS staff member Erin

Name: SyFy Alice
Rated: TV-14
Running Time: 240 minutes

Director: Nick Willing

Synopsis
150 years after the original Alice visits, another Alice has come to Wonderland, but it’s very different than the one Lewis Carroll described. The Red Queen has complete control over the inhabitants, keeping them submissive with “tea” harvested from oysters…

Alice Hamilton is a martial arts instructor who lives with her mom while searching for the father who disappeared when she was ten. Her world is turned upside down the night she introduces her boyfriend to her mother; after he leaves her apartment he is kidnapped and Alice chases after him, following the kidnappers through a mirror.

Review
Following the success of Tin Man in 2007, SyFy hoped to revamp another classic, this time Alice in Wonderland, with a 60’s drugs, crime, and casino feel (think “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane).

What could have been an amazing concept was marred by simplistic writing and some less than believable acting from some of the major characters. Even Kathy Bates was less than stellar. Despite this, I watched the miniseries twice; just to see more of Hatter and the White Knight.

If you can get past the subpar acting, it’s worth watching at least once. The way the characters were interpreted for this modern adaptation are interesting: from Hatter running a tea house, to the White Rabbit organization and the members of the court, the caterpillar is head of an anti-Red Queen Organization, and Tweedle Dee and Dumb are psychotic doctors. However, the March Hare would have been better if his back story had been flushed out more; he seems like an addition that was thrown in at the last second.

I’m not sure if a third part would have developed some of the half thought out plot lines, but it may have helped.

Rating: 5.5/10 stars

moviesblog.mtv.com:

Forget the idea of retro-fitting old movies for 3-D, which sometimes reminds me too much of when Ted Turner thought it’d be a good idea to colorize classic films back in the mid-80s. Vampires are a much better trend. If you don’t believe me, just check out the mash-up video “Gone with the Wind with Vampires,” which takes the all-time top-grossing (adjusting for inflation) classic and tosses in a plot involving bloodsuckers. Rhett Butler as a Civil War-era Dracula? Or is he more like a 19th century Edward Cullen? Either way, it fits.

Here are five more classics that could be retro-fitted with vampires:

“Casablanca” (1942)
Never mind that WWII backdrop, this is now a story of a city in North Africa taken over by vampires. For the most part they let the humans there function normally, as long as the undead are kept moderately fed via regular donations (and gambling losses). But if the humans attempt to flee Casablanca, the deal is off and the rampant bloodsucking begins. Keeping things somewhat in check is the neutral Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), nightclub owner and intermediary, who deals directly and indifferently with the head vampire, Renault (Claude Rains). That is until the one human he cares about shows up.

More here

Lol this is hilarious, though it would kill my teacher to see one of his favorite classics like this . And I love how Dracula blends so well in some scenes.

What do you think of these vampire retro classics?