The 1930s and 1940s produced many fun serials, bringing us such entertaining offerings as Flash Gordon to Captain Marvel to the screen, but while the serial format died off long ago director Kerry Conran took that pulp feel and added in a dash of Hayu Miyazaki, not to mention a whole lot of inspiration from…
Category: Film
Movies
The Phantom (1996) – Review
The 1990s saw many a studio scrambling to snatch up comic book properties, hoping to launch a franchise to rival the one Warner Brothers had with their Batman movies, and in 1996 Paramount Pictures would take their shot at the superhero genre with an adaptation of Lee Falk’s comic strip hero The Phantom. Would they…
The Rocketeer (1991) – Review
In 1982 comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens created “The Rocketeer” a character that was a brilliant homage to the Saturday matinee serial heroes from the 1930s through the 1950s. It’s popularity among comic book fans led to Disney and director Joe Johnston doing their best to bring that comic book hero to the big screen,…
The Shadow (1994) – Review
Following the success of Tim Burton’s Batman many studios were scrambling around to get their hands on their own comic book-type property, so that it could turn into the next big thing, this led to Universal Pictures teaming up with producer Martin Bregman who had acquired the rights to the pulp action hero The Shadow….
The Shadow: The Serial (1940) – Review
The popular pulp action hero The Shadow was made popular via classic radio series and pulp magazines but in 1940 the character had only one singular venture into the world of serials – following the likes of Flash Gordon and Captain Marvel – where he received very mixed reviews, which is probably why this serial…