Boomstick Comics

This is our 18th episode our amazing podcast called ‘Wrestling is Everything is Wrestling‘ or WEW for short, which is part of the Boomstick Comics brand on the Multi-Media Men Podcast label. That was a mouth full. Angi Sanders and  Bryan Kluger discuss in detail what happened at the 2018 Royal Rumble. We talk about the matches, the theories for Wrestlemania 34 and the 2018 Elimination Chamber PPV. If you’re a wrestling fan, you’re gonna have a good time with us. Enjoy!

And please let us know what you think by going to our Facebook page, which you should visit to catch up on all the latest information. And don’t forget to visit iTunes and Stitcher to subscribe to our podcast. Enjoy the show and see you next week! Thank you for listening.

http://boomstickcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WEW-188.mp3

We have a very fun 69th episode (HAHAHA - 69), which happens to be the second podcast of 2018, of our fun podcast under the MULTI-MEDIA MEN banner called ‘Media-Ocrity‘, where the show is just – okay. Here on the show, we focus strictly on horror/sci-fi, comic books, and video games – basically all the fun stuff that tickles your fancy. In our 69th episode, titled ‘Godzilla kills Jeremy‘, we discuss TV shows that should get the reboot treatment in this day and age, the best things on Netflix right now, including the new original anime film 'Godzilla', as well as some video game news, the new Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer, and recasting 'Kindergarten Cop'. It was so much fun. This episode is guaranteed to thrill you, chill you, and fulfill you. I am joined pop-culture wizard Jonathan Atterbury and comic book artist Jeremy Megert.

And don’t forget to visit iTunes and Stitcher to subscribe to our podcast. Enjoy the show and see you next week! Thank you for listening.

THE FILM

There might be a few hundred reality shows based on cooking competitions. Some involve chefs, while others involve children trying to cook five star meals. It's all terrible. More than 10 years ago, a woman named Cathryn Michon made a film in the style of a Christopher Guest Mockumentary (Best in Show), called 'Cook Off!', which showed us some whacky characters in a cooking competition. Again, this film was made more than 10 years ago and has been sitting on a shelf for the right time. Turns out, it was never the right time and for some reason, we have this horrible movie in front of us.

The poster and cover art of 'Cook Off!' would have you believe that Melissa McCarthy stars in the film as she is front and center on every piece of promotional material. That's not the case though as she might have around 10 minutes of actual screen time in the whole film. This annoys me to great end when companies do this. One of the problems I think we have here with 'Cook Off!' is that Cathryn Michon took on the roles of directing, producing, editing, writing, and starring in the film. She hasn't done much at all and I don't think she handled any of these aspects well at all. It's a shell of a film that takes all of its cues from Christopher Guest, but never pulls off any of the dry humor, wit, or charm that any of his films have. Michon took on too much and it became a lazy script. She even had Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno-911) help write the script here and there and star in the movie too, but nothing helped.

Like 'Best in Show', this 'Cook Off!' film follows a group of off-beat individuals who enter a cooking contest to win a cash prize. We meet each of these individuals and their families first and see just how strange they are. The cooking competition gets underway and instead of having these entrants cook something delicious, they all cook their "best or favorite" meals, which are all flat out disgusting. One dish is even called "That Time of the Month Crab Puffs". This is what we're dealing with here.

The humor isn't subtle or witty. It's just annoying and unfunny. I could go into each contestant here, but I won't, because they are all the worst stereotypical characters you could write with no real direction. Even though the film is 98 minutes long, you still feel like 45 minutes needs to be cut out. It's that bad, which is unfortunate, because there are so many great comedic actors here, but given the script, nobody could do anything to make it better. Stay clear of this one for sure, as you won't have an appetite for anything after watching this.

THE VIDEO/AUDIO

The Video: 'Cook Off!' comes with a 1080p HD transfer and is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The film is shot to look like a guerrilla style documentary, so there are varying degrees of sharpness and color palettes. On the whole, the colors are warm and show good primaries, mainly being the color red in the competition room. Other shades of blues and yellows show up nicely throughout. Detail is sharp for the most part, but can be a bit murky and soft.

We have a very fun 69th episode (HAHAHA - 69), which happens to be the second podcast of 2018, of our fun podcast under the MULTI-MEDIA MEN banner called ‘Media-Ocrity‘, where the show is just – okay. Here on the show, we focus strictly on horror/sci-fi, comic books, and video games – basically all the fun stuff that tickles your fancy. In our 69th episode, titled ‘Godzilla kills Jeremy‘, we discuss TV shows that should get the reboot treatment in this day and age, the best things on Netflix right now, including the new original anime film 'Godzilla', as well as some video game news, the new Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer, and recasting 'Kindergarten Cop'. It was so much fun. This episode is guaranteed to thrill you, chill you, and fulfill you. I am joined pop-culture wizard Jonathan Atterbury and comic book artist Jeremy Megert.

And don’t forget to visit iTunes and Stitcher to subscribe to our podcast. Enjoy the show and see you next week! Thank you for listening.

http://boomstickcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/media-ocrity-6969.mp3

THE FILM

There might be a few hundred reality shows based on cooking competitions. Some involve chefs, while others involve children trying to cook five star meals. It's all terrible. More than 10 years ago, a woman named Cathryn Michon made a film in the style of a Christopher Guest Mockumentary (Best in Show), called 'Cook Off!', which showed us some whacky characters in a cooking competition. Again, this film was made more than 10 years ago and has been sitting on a shelf for the right time. Turns out, it was never the right time and for some reason, we have this horrible movie in front of us.

The poster and cover art of 'Cook Off!' would have you believe that Melissa McCarthy stars in the film as she is front and center on every piece of promotional material. That's not the case though as she might have around 10 minutes of actual screen time in the whole film. This annoys me to great end when companies do this. One of the problems I think we have here with 'Cook Off!' is that Cathryn Michon took on the roles of directing, producing, editing, writing, and starring in the film. She hasn't done much at all and I don't think she handled any of these aspects well at all. It's a shell of a film that takes all of its cues from Christopher Guest, but never pulls off any of the dry humor, wit, or charm that any of his films have. Michon took on too much and it became a lazy script. She even had Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno-911) help write the script here and there and star in the movie too, but nothing helped.

http://boomstickcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cook-off-blu-ray-review.mp3

Like 'Best in Show', this 'Cook Off!' film follows a group of off-beat individuals who enter a cooking contest to win a cash prize. We meet each of these individuals and their families first and see just how strange they are. The cooking competition gets underway and instead of having these entrants cook something delicious, they all cook their "best or favorite" meals, which are all flat out disgusting. One dish is even called "That Time of the Month Crab Puffs". This is what we're dealing with here.

The humor isn't subtle or witty. It's just annoying and unfunny. I could go into each contestant here, but I won't, because they are all the worst stereotypical characters you could write with no real direction. Even though the film is 98 minutes long, you still feel like 45 minutes needs to be cut out. It's that bad, which is unfortunate, because there are so many great comedic actors here, but given the script, nobody could do anything to make it better. Stay clear of this one for sure, as you won't have an appetite for anything after watching this.

THE VIDEO/AUDIO

The Video: 'Cook Off!' comes with a 1080p HD transfer and is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The film is shot to look like a guerrilla style documentary, so there are varying degrees of sharpness and color palettes. On the whole, the colors are warm and show good primaries, mainly being the color red in the competition room.

THE FILM

Natural disaster films will always have a special place in my heart. Most of the time, they are over-the-top, ridiculous, and never make a lick of sense. Still, there is something entertaining in watching giant cities fall due to an alien invasion, a giant lizard, or is with the case of 'Geostorm', extreme weather. No matter what the premise, these films usually have the same intentions and plot structure, which usually involves one hero guy to save the day, millions of casualties, hilarious one-liners, and enough insane plot tangents that would cause you to have a headache.

If you're going into these types of movies, you'll have to go in with a certain expectation, or you will definitely not enjoy it. You have to suspend all belief in science, realism, and plausible actions. If you do this, you're gonna have a good time with what's on screen. 'Geostorm' is no different in this realm of movie genres. Behind the wheel on this vehicle is Dean Devlin, who is no stranger to natural disaster films. Devlin has written and or produced 'Independence Day', 1998's 'Godzilla', and 'Eight Legged Freaks' to name a few.

'Geostorm' marks Devlin's directorial debut and he pulls no stops, but fails short of anything worth while, despite the over-the-top catastrophe that takes place. 'Geostorm' cost $120 million to make, but only made $33 million in theaters. It did far better overseas, which made back it's money and then some, but has yet to find a big audience to to the incoherence of it all. In the near future, there have been major weather events that have caused significant damages and killed a lot of people. The world has come together and developed a satellite system that prevents the storms from happening by firing missiles into the storm.

The brains behind this operation is Gerard Butler, which should tell you everything about this movie. For some reason, Gerard Butler is difficult to work with and is fired from this job where his younger brother Jim Sturgess replaces him. For the next few years, the satellite system works perfectly, until it doesn't and major cities fall and many people die by way of car sized hail, fire tornadoes, and even an ice storm in the desert that instantly freezes people to death. Turns out, there is a mystery person behind this who has injected a virus into the satellite system to cause these problems. It's now only up to Gerard Butler to travel to space and even kidnap the president of the United States, played by Andy Garcia to fix this problem. Mix in some henchmen, far-fetched theories, and Ed Harris, and you have a natural disaster picture that is highly entertaining and equally hilarious.

None of it makes sense at all. You'd think that Dean Devlin would have known through years of experience to make solid and well-rounded characters or even frame a bit of action well, but that's not the case. The visual effects aren't that good and the action beats of extreme weather and cities falling never really put you in the action. In fact, all of this you've seen before in past Marvel films or other disaster flicks. All this being said, if you're a fan of these ridiculous films, then 'Geostorm' is for you, the same way 'Sharknado' would be.

THE FILM

Back in 2009, the brilliant filmmaker Sam Raimi journeyed back to his horror roots and made a fun-as-hell horror-comedy film called 'Drag Me To Hell'. For those of you who don't remember who Sam Raimi is, movies like 'Evil Dead II', 'Army of Darkness', 'The Spider-Man Trilogy', and 'Darkman' are some of his accomplishments. Raimi and his brother and frequent collaborator Ivan Raimi had an idea for a horror film called 'The Curse', but when Raimi booked the 'Spider-Man' gig, that film was put on hold for the next decade. After 'Spider-Man 3' was released, Sam and Ivan went quickly back to their idea to work on a low budget horror film again, which turned into 'Drag Me To Hell'.

If you've seen the British horror film 'Night of the Demon', you'd see some good similarities between the two, but Sam wanted to make a movie about a pleasant and very nice individual who makes one bad decision out of their very own greed, which comes back to haunt them in a the most horrific way. 'Drag Me To Hell' centers on a young woman named Christine (Alison Lohman), who is a sweet and well-mannered loan officer at a bank. She's kind, funny, and has a good boyfriend she loves (Justin Long). Her boss at the bank is always riding her to make the "hard decisions" in order to keep bank profits up and not allow people who need help with extensions or past payments. Christine doesn't agree with this sentiment, but when an elderly gypsy woman comes in and kindly asks for an extension on her house, Christine does not allow it in order to impress her boss and gain a small promotion.

The old gypsy woman, played perfectly by Lorna Raver, curses Christine to hell for eternity. The rules are that Christine is now in possession of a button from the gypsy woman and must pass the button along to someone else within three days or she will be devoured by demons in a fiery hell below forever. Of course, none of this seems believable, but when strange and terrifying things start happening, Christine must try to make things right. The film is rated PG-13, which for a horror movie on Sam Raimi's watch, isn't the way to go, but Raimi wanted to do something different and rely on a psychological horror rather than a ton of gore.

Needless to say, Raimi succeeded here on all levels. His ability to show shadows behind doors or evil footsteps lurking is highly suspenseful and works in each scene here. The more potent scares are in your face and downright terrifying, which might leave you nervously laughing at any moment. With the horror genre, Raimi perfectly inputs his comedic genius that rallies behind that of 'The Three Stooges' and some other off-beat dark humor, which is such a delightful and delicious mix of dialogue and gore. The performances are all solid, but the person who stands out is by far Lorna Raver as the old gypsy woman.

Raver is a stage actress who is sweet and kind, but in this film, she is ugly, ruthless, and scary-as-hell. It's a great transformation and Raver just jumps into the deep end with her character and never swims back to the edge. At it's core,

THE FILM

Natural disaster films will always have a special place in my heart. Most of the time, they are over-the-top, ridiculous, and never make a lick of sense. Still, there is something entertaining in watching giant cities fall due to an alien invasion, a giant lizard, or is with the case of 'Geostorm', extreme weather. No matter what the premise, these films usually have the same intentions and plot structure, which usually involves one hero guy to save the day, millions of casualties, hilarious one-liners, and enough insane plot tangents that would cause you to have a headache.

If you're going into these types of movies, you'll have to go in with a certain expectation, or you will definitely not enjoy it. You have to suspend all belief in science, realism, and plausible actions. If you do this, you're gonna have a good time with what's on screen. 'Geostorm' is no different in this realm of movie genres. Behind the wheel on this vehicle is Dean Devlin, who is no stranger to natural disaster films. Devlin has written and or produced 'Independence Day', 1998's 'Godzilla', and 'Eight Legged Freaks' to name a few.

'Geostorm' marks Devlin's directorial debut and he pulls no stops, but fails short of anything worth while, despite the over-the-top catastrophe that takes place. 'Geostorm' cost $120 million to make, but only made $33 million in theaters. It did far better overseas, which made back it's money and then some, but has yet to find a big audience to to the incoherence of it all. In the near future, there have been major weather events that have caused significant damages and killed a lot of people. The world has come together and developed a satellite system that prevents the storms from happening by firing missiles into the storm.

http://boomstickcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/geostorm-blu-ray-review.mp3

The brains behind this operation is Gerard Butler, which should tell you everything about this movie. For some reason, Gerard Butler is difficult to work with and is fired from this job where his younger brother Jim Sturgess replaces him. For the next few years, the satellite system works perfectly, until it doesn't and major cities fall and many people die by way of car sized hail, fire tornadoes, and even an ice storm in the desert that instantly freezes people to death. Turns out, there is a mystery person behind this who has injected a virus into the satellite system to cause these problems. It's now only up to Gerard Butler to travel to space and even kidnap the president of the United States, played by Andy Garcia to fix this problem. Mix in some henchmen, far-fetched theories, and Ed Harris, and you have a natural disaster picture that is highly entertaining and equally hilarious.

None of it makes sense at all. You'd think that Dean Devlin would have known through years of experience to make solid and well-rounded characters or even frame a bit of action well, but that's not the case. The visual effects aren't that good and the action beats of extreme weather and cities falling never really put you in the action. In fact, all of this you've seen before in past Marvel films or other disaster flicks. All this being said, if you're a fan of these ridiculous films, then 'Geostorm' is for you, the same way '

THE FILM

Back in 2009, the brilliant filmmaker Sam Raimi journeyed back to his horror roots and made a fun-as-hell horror-comedy film called 'Drag Me To Hell'. For those of you who don't remember who Sam Raimi is, movies like 'Evil Dead II', 'Army of Darkness', 'The Spider-Man Trilogy', and 'Darkman' are some of his accomplishments. Raimi and his brother and frequent collaborator Ivan Raimi had an idea for a horror film called 'The Curse', but when Raimi booked the 'Spider-Man' gig, that film was put on hold for the next decade. After 'Spider-Man 3' was released, Sam and Ivan went quickly back to their idea to work on a low budget horror film again, which turned into 'Drag Me To Hell'.

If you've seen the British horror film 'Night of the Demon', you'd see some good similarities between the two, but Sam wanted to make a movie about a pleasant and very nice individual who makes one bad decision out of their very own greed, which comes back to haunt them in a the most horrific way. 'Drag Me To Hell' centers on a young woman named Christine (Alison Lohman), who is a sweet and well-mannered loan officer at a bank. She's kind, funny, and has a good boyfriend she loves (Justin Long). Her boss at the bank is always riding her to make the "hard decisions" in order to keep bank profits up and not allow people who need help with extensions or past payments. Christine doesn't agree with this sentiment, but when an elderly gypsy woman comes in and kindly asks for an extension on her house, Christine does not allow it in order to impress her boss and gain a small promotion.

The old gypsy woman, played perfectly by Lorna Raver, curses Christine to hell for eternity. The rules are that Christine is now in possession of a button from the gypsy woman and must pass the button along to someone else within three days or she will be devoured by demons in a fiery hell below forever. Of course, none of this seems believable, but when strange and terrifying things start happening, Christine must try to make things right. The film is rated PG-13, which for a horror movie on Sam Raimi's watch, isn't the way to go, but Raimi wanted to do something different and rely on a psychological horror rather than a ton of gore.

http://boomstickcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/drag-me-to-hell-blu-ray-review.mp3

Needless to say, Raimi succeeded here on all levels. His ability to show shadows behind doors or evil footsteps lurking is highly suspenseful and works in each scene here. The more potent scares are in your face and downright terrifying, which might leave you nervously laughing at any moment. With the horror genre, Raimi perfectly inputs his comedic genius that rallies behind that of 'The Three Stooges' and some other off-beat dark humor, which is such a delightful and delicious mix of dialogue and gore. The performances are all solid, but the person who stands out is by far Lorna Raver as the old gypsy woman.

Raver is a stage actress who is sweet and kind, but in this film,

I had the distinct pleasure to talk with actor/filmmaker and known Starship Trooper Casper Van Dien about his new film 'Showdown in Manila' amongst other things. We dive into working on the film, which was filmed on location in Manila and eating all the fun food. We also talk about his performances as Tarzan, Griffin Stone in Beverly Hills 90210, and his interest in music. Starship Troopers is also talked about of course. One of my favorite moments is when Casper discusses his deleted scenes in the film Rules of Attraction, where he played Patrick Bateman. Such a great story. Casper Van Dien is a badass. Check out 'Showdown in Manila' if you can.

The audio is a little wonky here, so you might have to adjust your volume.  And don’t forget to visit iTunes and Stitcher to subscribe to our podcast. Enjoy the show and see you next week! Thank you for listening.