• Across 110th Street
• Black Belt Jones
• Black Caesar
• Black Samurai
• Blacula
• Boss Nigger (hell, I don’t even like TYPING that last word, but it’s the title, so…)
• Coffy
• Cooley High
• Coonskin (not too fond of this one either, but again, it’s the title…)
• Dolemite
• Ebony, Ivory & Jade
• Foxy Brown
• Shaft
• Shaft’s Big Score
• Shaft in Africa
• Superfly
• Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song
• The Black Gestapo
• The Mack
• Three The Hard Way
• Truck Turner
• Willie Dynamite

When I asked the gentlemen at the Black Dynamite panel the other night if I could see more of Black Dynamite’s little brother Jimmy because of the amazing way he talked, Byron Minns and Maichael Jai White suggested I watch Willie Dynamite and Blacula, so I’ll start with them. I’ll then watch Dolemite, from which much of the inspiration for Black Dynamite is based, I’m told. I’ll likely take the rest in order.

This’ll happen once I’m done my run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which I’m going through for the first time (I should write about that, come to think of it, because God DAMN that show is amazing). I’m in the second to last season, so it won’t be too long now. I’ve seen two of them already, Shaft and Superfly, but I saw them when I was a kid (thanks TV, my surrogate dad). Overall, I’m quite excited to jump into these movies. I’m hoping that once I watch them, I’ll find Black Dynamite even funnier on my next viewing.

Also, if you have any suggestions as to movies to add to my list, please don’t hesitate to mention ‘em. If I can get ‘em, I will. Thanks for readong, and have a great day.

Once I arrived, I purchased two copies of Black Dynamite: Slave Island (which was just released that same day) and began reading. The new comic — written by Brian Ash of The Boondocks fame — is funny as hell, and written so well I could easily hear the characters in my head. It was also inked by Jun LoFamia, who was around doing comics in the 70′s, so it really captured the artwork of the time. After reading the comic, I killed time walking around Meltdown, which I’d never been in before. It’s a great comic shop, so if you’re in the LA area, I highly suggest checking it out.

Eventually we all lined up for the screening of Black Dynamite. Now, I’ve seen the move itself well over a dozen times, but I’d never seen it with an audience, so this was quite exciting. The energy of the crowd was infectious, and we all had a wonderful time watching the film and laughing at all the right places. After the film, we were given a small break so the podcast folks could get all set up. A lot of folks used this time to read the new comic.

Eventually Chris Hardwick, the Nerdist podcast’s host, came out and introduced the panel. All of the panelists were met with thunderous applause, and since I was right up front, they all walked right by me, which was pretty awesome (the perks of arriving early). Eventually everyone got settled in and Mr. Hardwick began asking questions.

The panel was very lighthearted, spirited and energetic. While Michael Jai White can have a very serious look, he’s actually very funny (and his serious look was commented on by director Scott Sanders). Scott Sanders gave lots of fun details about filming, while Byron Minns gave details about Bullhorn, the writing, and his encyclopedic knowledge of Blaxsploitation films in general. They also talked about the new comic and the upcoming animated series. When the opened up the floor to questions, I actually got to ask one, which was a lot of fun. I could go into more detail, but I was laughing so much I honestly forget a lot of what was said, and I also honestly want y’all to listen to the podcast.

After the panel was over, we got a special screening of the (I think) never-before-seen eleven minute pilot to the Black Dynamite Animated Series, which is being done by the same folks behind The Boondocks. It also has the original actors reprising the voices of their characters, which was awesome.

While I don’t want to give too much away, I will say that the episode was HILARIOUS. Imagine Black Dynamite and his crew fighting some evil Muppets and you get some idea. While the rest of the episodes are still being written, they confirmed that the show was picked up and will be on Adult Swim in the hopefully-not-too-far-future.

After the screening was said and done, we all went back out to the comic store itself (all of the previous events were held in the gallery in the back) and got in line for the signing. It’s funny, I usually don’t give a dang about things getting signed, but in this case, I REALLY wanted one of my comics as well as my Black Dynamite DVD signed, so I awaited patiently in line with the hundred or so other folks.

Everyone at the table was VERY nice and gracious, and had no problem signing both my DVD cover and my comic, which made me gleefully excited. Another nice touch is that, while we were all waiting to get our stuff signed, Adrian Younge and the Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra played music for us. Adrian Younge is the gentleman behind the music for the movie, and as I love 70′s music, this was a real treat. Even though it was late, once I got my stuff signed, I stuck around for the rest of the band’s set.

Overall, this is one of those events I’ll cherish for a lifetime. It’s also funny. For a while, I was burnt out of going to stuff like this, but now I think I’m ready to go back to more events and conventions…once I get a full-time job of course. I hope you’ve enjoyed my story, and invite you to Flickr to see all the photos I took from the event. Thanks for reading, and if you’ve not checked out Black Dynamite, you really should. It’s on Netflix streaming at the moment, and totally worth the measly $5 at Best Buy (OMG, really? $5?! That’s a steal!). Thanks again for reading, and have a great day.

There are certain movies wherein I don’t care if I get them on Blu-ray or DVD. For example, movies I own for which I wouldn’t double dip Love Actually on Blu-ray, nor Grosse Point Blank, Date Night, Enchanted or Juno, because I don’t feel there’s any compelling reason to, since I don’t care whether these movies are in high-def or not.

So what do about you guys? I’m insanely curious. Thanks!

Now does it hold up because it’s part of a cherished childhood memory, or because it’s actually good music? I’m not sure, probably a bit of both. To experiment, I listened to another soundtrack I have on my media player, “Blade Runner” by Vangelis. Now, I love the movie “Blade Runner”. Love, love, love it. But do I love the soundtrack? Kinda. Maybe one has to be in a certain mood to listen to it, but it doesn’t have the same resonance that “Transformers: The Movie” does for me.

Maybe this means that, for a soundtrack to hold up, it’s up to our individual connections to the music? Does the music itself transcend these connections and become timeless? I’m sure these questions have different answers for each individual person, album, and so on, but for something as timely and possibly dated as “Transformers: The Movie”, I’m sure someone else would find it horrifically too 80′s while I just totally love it.

So what about you? What are some soundtracks that, for you, stand up to the test of time and repeat listens regardless of when they were recorded? I’d love to hear your answers in the comments. Thanks for reading.

First off, we have Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike from the recent Star Trek movie) as Batman, who I think does a fantastic job in the role. It’s quite Conroyesque, if one can say such a thing, but with it’s own flair that makes it his own. Greenwood does a good job of bringing the intensity of the character to the screen, and — unlike other DC Animated films — I didn’t doubt for a second that I was hearing Batman when he spoke.

Jensen Ackles (of my favorite show, Supernatural) is The Red Hood, and he does a stupendous job. Ackles’ experience playing the intense and internally tortured Dean Winchester on Supernatural laid good groundwork for his work here as The Red Hood, as the character is fierce, tortured and amazingly intelligent. Even though I knew Ackles was in the movie, I didn’t even know it was his voice until several minutes in, so he does a good job making the role his own while NOT being Dean Winchester at the same time.

In one of the film’s few negatives, while Neil Patrick Harris does a fantastic job as the wise-cracking Nightwing, he’s only used for a fraction of the movie before he’s taken out. I understand the need for this, storywise, but it was still a little jarring to see him get taken out so quickly after his introduction, and felt this underutilized Harris’ contribution to the movie.

Making up for that, however, are John Di Maggio and Wade Williams, who play The Joker and Black Mask, respectfully. These two actors put their all into their roles, and it shows. Di Maggio doesn’t try to copy Mark Hamill’s performance as The Joker from the Animated Series, and it’s appreciated, as he adds his own nuance to the role. This Joker seems even more psychotic than Hammil’s, and it works in this PG-13 format (which I’ll talk about more in a moment). Williams also does a fantastic job as Black Mask, appropriately chewing up the screen in any scene he’s in. Other notables in the cast include Jason Isaacs, Gary Cole and Phil LaMarr. Overall, the voice acting here is fantastic, and I wasn’t taken out of the movie for a moment because of it.

Moving onto the story, this is the most brutal Batman animated story since Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker around a decade ago. Within the first few moments, for example, a teenager is beaten to near-death with a crowbar, and that’s not even the worst violence portrayed in the movie. This movie is unabashedly brutal, but since the story is so action-packed and graphically rich, it works. There are a lot of facets in this story, but in the end it comes down to revenge versus redemption, I think. Without giving any details away, many of the characters go through quite a bit of pummeling by the end, both physically and psychologically. It’s a very gritty story, moreso than many of the other DC Animated movies, and honestly shouldn’t be watched with small children.

I also have to praise the animation in this particular feature. There are a LOT of very physical fights that are almost acrobatic in nature, and the animation in this movie captures that better than any of the other animated features to date, in my opinion. There are several key moments where, if the animation were less fluid, the battle scenes would not have worked, but in this movie, they all work flawlessly.

Overall, with an exceptional combination of story, voice cast and animation, I think Batman: Under the Red Hood is one of the finest works that DC Animation has put out to date. It’s full of action, has a great story, fantastic voice acting and wonderful animation. If you have any interest at all in Batman, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. I’ve seen elsewhere where it’s been said to be better than the live action Batman Begins and The Dark Knight…and they well might be correct (despite the fact that animated Batman is nearly always better than live-action Batman).

Other new exemptions apply to DVD’s and ebooks. Now you can legally use portions of a film on DVD if it’s being used for documentary or non-commercial purposes, so maybe we’ll see all those “Downfall” parodies come back to YouTube. Ebooks can now also be hacked to be allowed to be read with a voice synthesizer, where before many complained this would eat into their ebook sales (which is very doubtful).

There are other little tidbits, but those above are the most notable. How long will these exemptions last? That’s something we don’t know, but for now, people should enjoy their new exemptions as much as possible.

Cut to ten years ago, wherein we meet Dave, a typical ten year old kid living in New York City who is, again, typically just starting to like girls. The one girl in question is Becky, a pretty blond who actually seems to dig Dave. When Dave writes her a note, which gets blown away into an odd looking shop, he meets up with Balthazar, who gives him the ring to try out, as he’s done with children for a thousand years. The ring latches onto Dave, pegging him as the Prime Merlinian. Sadly, Horvath escapes his prison and, in the ensuing fight with Balthazar, they both get trapped for ten years.

Ten years later, the real fun begins when both Balthazar and Horvath finally escape their prison. Balthazar has to locate Dave once again and teach him to be a sorcerer. Without giving away the rest of the story — as much of what I’ve just said can be gleaned from the previews — I will say that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a fun, light, funny movie that’s full of action, heart and adventure.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a very fun film, with a lot of humor. Say what you want about Nicholas Cage, but he did a fantastic job as the old, sarcastic, lovelorn Balthazar. Alfred Molina, one could tell, had a fantastic time playing the pimped out Horvath. The real star of the show, however, is Jay Baruchel as David. I don’t recall seeing him in anything before, but he was fantastic in this role. His comic timing is great, and he and Cage really worked well off of each other.

If there was a downside, it’s that the “love story” portion of the film, well, both of them, really. I’ve nothing against Teresa Palmer (Adult Becky) or Monica Bellucci (except that her voice grates me a bit), but these portions of the film felt a bit forced. I mean, David and Becky don’t kiss until the last 2-3 minutes of the film. What’s up with THAT?

Overall, though, if you’re looking for a fun, light, funny and adventerous action film, you can do a lot worse than The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It’s got great acting, a fun story that doesn’t weigh down the film or get in its way, a lot of humor and fantastic action. It won’t win any awards, sure, and I’m not sure it’ll do well enough for a proposed sequel (stay until the end of the credits), but it’ll definitely be something I buy, day one, on Blu-ray.

The story this time around sees Woody, Buzz and company preparing for the major change in their lives as a now seventeen year old Andy prepares to go off to college. The few remaining members of Team Andy ponder their fate, and through an unfortunate misunderstanding, they end up all getting donated to a daycare center.

We are introduced a surprising amount of new characters, all of whom are so masterfully crafted and performed that they amuse, scare or endear themselves to the audience with just a few lines or scenes. The stand-outs are Ned Beatty as Lotso, a teddy bear-ish character who runs the toys of the daycare center like the cruelest prison warden you can imagine, Timothy Dalton as the hilariously theatrical Mister Pricklepants, and a frightening yet heartbreaking thug known simply as Big Baby. But the one who steals the show is Michael Keaton as Ken. He and Jodi Benson as Barbie create a hilarious parody of their characters while injecting genuine heart to them as well.

Through this movie – and through all three Toy Story movies, actually – is the continuing theme of how all things end. It’s a theme that is very mature and could easily skew very dark, but is handled in a way that makes it both accessible and engaging to kids as well as adults. And while this installment has comedy and slapstick that is truly funny, it also goes to some surprisingly dark places that I won’t spoil here. But it’s the ending that is truly amazing. I don’t want to say anything about it other than the fact that I and a big burly guy sitting next to me were weeping as hard as the big burly guy’s girlfriend. Just like the first ten minutes of Up, if the last ten minutes of Toy Story 3 don’t make you cry in at least some fashion, something is broken in your soul.

This movie is the entire package. From the opening featuring a thoroughly epic dramatization of play time to the sob-inducing ending, you will laugh, cheer and cry from the heart. This isn’t just the best Toy Story movie. It may also be the best Pixar movie. While, I’m sure there will be pressure to keep the story going with more sequels (and there’s certainly doors that have been left open for that possibility), if Pixar is smart, they’ll let this be the true ending. And, if this movie proves anything, it’s that Pixar is smart. Very very smart.

In addition, the opening short, Day and Night, is one of the most innovative and creative shorts Pixar has done in a very long time.