True story: I sold He-Man action figures in high school. Lots of He-Man action figures. Reluctantly. In 1984 I was a stock boy at the local dime store in town, and the busiest section of the store by far was the toy aisle. As an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons geek deep in the throes of a cynical adolescence, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe made me indignant. The toy line represented
Movies / Island of Misfit Films: Oblivion (1994)
This month, Oblivion rolls into theaters. The ambitious science fiction film features Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, and Morgan Freeman, and is adapted by writer/director Joseph Kosinski from his own graphic novel of the same name. Time will tell if it may swirl in the shoals and someday wash up onto the beach here on the Island of Misfit Films. But today’s blog entry has not been transmitted through a wormhole from the
Movies / Island of Misfit Films: Hero at Large (1980)
These days it may be hard to remember a time when live-action superheroes were a rarity on the big screen. Sure, a steady trickle of them stretches back to cliffhanger serials that featured characters such as Captain Marvel (1941), Batman (1943) and Captain America (1944). At times they’ve blossomed into prominence, like the Reeve era of Superman films (1978-1987) or the Batman franchise that ran from 1989 through 1997. Over the past
Movies / Island of Misfit Films: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! (1984)
For the record, this review will in no way pretend to be unbiased or critically detached. I have been drinking the Buckaroo Banzai Kool-Aid long enough that my tongue is permanently stained purple. I am a Blue Blaze Irregular, a Team Banzai booster, some might even say on the “over achiever” side of the fandom continuum. Tough noogies. And yet, even I recognize that The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th
Movies / Island of Misfit Films: The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
Playing anthropologist on the Island of Misfit Films comes with certain risks attached. There are a lot of bad films out there. Some of them are so bad, they’re good, but most are so bad that they will leave you cursing the day you spent time and money chasing them down to document their strange and forbidden customs. The Giant Spider Invasion is a film toeing the line between “too bad to be good”
Movies / Island of Misfit Films: 2010 (1984)
Someone is going to take issue with me featuring 2010 as a resident of the Island of Misfit Films. There are good reasons to protest. Excepting some “future” technology that looks awkwardly retro in the actual 2010’s and a plot that partially hinges on a military showdown between the United States and a Soviet Union that somehow missed Perestroika and its own dissolution in 1991, 2010 is a solid speculative science fiction
