THE DANMAN CAN

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK  meets 28 DAYS LATER   meets ALIENS   meets   THE WARRIORS   meets EXCALIBUR   meets   MAD MAX 2 . A total mashup/rip-off, but in the best sense (the way the Italians did it in the '80s), effortlessly swinging from genre to genre. 100% good/bad fun. Neil Marshall Feature Films Ranked

A nice collection of poems and short stories, with excellent illustrations by Sam Kieth .  Some of the stories tend to be ultra descriptive and a little tedious to get through, but I tried to bear in mind the time period in which they were written.

Ryan and myself, on behalf of Focus On Film Podcast , guested on the Moving The Needle Podcast this week. Please join us as we discuss all four  Mad Max  films! Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Episode 83 | The Mad Ones The only movies for us this episode are the mad ones, Mad Max that is. We review the mad max series, talk about every iteration of Mad Max, desire more Max and at the same time maybe one less movie, We never yawn or say a commonplace thing about Mad Max, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like CGI (or perhaps practical) spiders across the stars. This is a thorough, thoughtful, and fun review of the Mad Max series of films, and we hope you enjoy. Thank you for listening!

Focus On Film   Episode 29  is up! Topics include Smokey Bear, Tom Hardy and Alex's 12th Birthday Misadventure. Download the MP3  HERE In this episode: August 2015  Criterion Collection   Titles Announcement Best/Worst Of The Month  – FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), WOLFCOP (2014), A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014), MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME  (1985), BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ  (1962) "Criterion Most Wanted" "Focus On Film Theme"  & commercial music:  Daniel Sardella

Well, Mad Max: Fury Road  (2015) was fun and better than expected. But I think people need to chill out a bit on the hyperbole. Yes, the action was excellent. Yes, the vehicles were cool. Yes, the production design, makeup, and costumes were mostly great. Yes, it was a lot of fun. But I have a lot of issues, big and small. The big: the look. Right from the get-go, I've disliked the look in the trailers and marketing and it's no different in the film. It's too colorful and clean. The reason I love the first two Mad Max   films so much is because they are gritty, dirty, and a bit bland-looking (my kind of post-apocalypse). I mean, naturally they had smaller budgets and film stock looked different back then. But there was too much color grading that went on with this new film. Another big issue is the fact that people keep saying that there is very little CGI in this film, but this is only partially true. There are a few scenes that are largely CG and I didn't like the

As a non- Mad   Max film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) is good, very Spielberg ian, and contains many homages to Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) ( Maurice Jarre even did the score), but after the first 45 minutes—when the Peter Pan children get introduced—the film goes downhill and never recovers, even when it tries to throw in a Max -style chase with cool-looking vehicles at the end. George Miller should have kept this one as a non- Max film, as originally planned. Mad Max Franchise Films Ranked

Gosling goes for Lynch in his directorial debut with mixed results. I liked it... I think I might like it more on a rewatch.