In it’s opening weekend, Avengers: Age of Ultron made $631 million dollars worldwide (1) and is going to be one of the biggest, blah, blah, blah… Hollywood’s hyper-fetish with comics goes back a long time and along the way there have been some good, some bad and some that make you wish the comic was never even drawn in the first place. (We’re looking at you, Howard the Duck) But there are a lot of cool movies people may have forgotten about or may not have known were based on comics, thankfully, Jalshamoviez has them all. So here’s a top-ten list of comic-based movies that deserve a second chance.
- Tank Girl (1995)
With all the fuss about no female leads in these types of movies, I had to find one and I totally forgot this one was made. The script sucked, but there were some pretty cool scenes for the 90’s and Lori Petty totally gets in to the character. Naomi Watts was in this this flick, too, which I also forgot. Can’t go wrong with Iggy Pop, either. Mostly you’re just waiting to see if Naomi and Lori make out.
- Constantine (2005)
First off, the movie doesn’t follow the graphic novel very well and the purists went ape-shit, but, screw their pretentious asses. Like most Keanu Reeves movies, if you go into this movie with no expectations, you’ll probably enjoy it more. They all can’t be The Matrix, you know. A forgettable Rachel Weisz co-stars, but there’s also a pre-douchebag Shia LaBeouf, so it evens out in the end. Oh yeah, for the kiddies Gwen Stefani’s husband appears as a demon.
- American Splendor
There are a few actors that I seem to gravitate towards and Paul Giamatti is definitely one of them. He is a complete riot when he gets pissed off and lets his voice rise. This film does Harvey justice, in my option, as well. The entire film has a morose feel to it, just like his drawings. You feel as though even when something goes right, it doesn’t really help the overall situation, so you’re still depressed. And Judah Friedlander completely nails Toby.
- Time Cop (1994)
Time Cop was Van Damme’s highest grossing film he had a lead in (2) and, along with Bloodsport and Kickboxer, is one of his best movies. The late-Ron Silver plays a great ‘dickhead’ antagonist plus Mia Sara makes (what seems like) her first public appearance since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. JVD at his peak, a great character-actor villain and a grown up Sloane Peterson, what more do you want??
[JVDs peak is more like a cliff, though. His next movie was Street Fighter and JVDs career totally tanked after this.]
- Road to Perdition (2002)
For the first time, Tom Hanks gets to play kind of bad ass. It’s a long ways from Bosom Buddies and Bachelor Party, as he plays an Irish-mob hitman with a conscience. But in the end, he stays true to his Tom Hanks-edness. This movie is based on a graphic novel that came out in early aughts and kind of strays, but the themes stays true to the source material. Probably the best received movie upon release on this list.
- Heavy Metal (1981)
The soundtrack was awesome, but the movie was just a cool. The cab-driver vignette is totally rad and the first time I saw the robot sniff all that coke, I nearly peed myself. Great pre-CGI animation, too. It’s kind of confusing if you’re stoned, but, really, that’s the point, isn’t it?
- Spawn
I think I put this one so high on the list because I was such a big fan of the comics. It’s one of the more violent movies on this list, and the story is decent, although it lags at times. John Leguizamo in a fatman clown-suit, doing those voices is priceless. A lot of differences from the comics, but still a cool flick.
- Fritz the Cat
No way in hell this movie gets made today, much less receive major distribution. There are scenes in this movie that will still offend people, perhaps more so in the uber-PC of today, but it is one of the funniest movies I have seen. The 70’s were some crazy friggin’ times, man.
- A History of Violence
When this movie was released and I really didn’t expect it to be such a good movie. There are some key differences in the book, but for the most part is stays true. William Hurt got nominated for an Academy Award for about five minutes of acting, but it was actually well deserved. He pulls off a great piece of acting in the climax scene. “You can die…Joey”
- Mystery Men
I love this movie. It’s the complete anti-Avengers super-hero flick. Anything with Paul Rubens and Tom Waits is going to be good. Roger Ebert had a saying that any movie that had Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh can’t be that bad. I kind of feel that way about Tom Waits.
[Try to look past the fact that it has Dane Cook. I have no idea why people find him anywhere near funny. He is not. Never has been. Not even when you went to go see him live that one time was he ever funny. Not once.]
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