T h e D a r k
K
n i g h t s’ R e t u r n s !
By
Nicholas Sheffo
When the
impressive Iron Man became the big
surprise hit of the early Summer, everyone (read “expert”) was spewing about
how Marvel Comics was ahead of DC Comics on the big screen as if it had always
been that way, conveniently forgetting that it took Blade back in 1998 for Marvel to have any live action feature film
that worked at all. Sure, Superman Returns barely broke even and
no one really celebrates it and in its wake, Warner and DC Comics panicked,
putting every live action project on hold… except one.
Before
Bryan Singer’s Superman venture turned out not to be the Superhero homerun his
first two X-Men films did, the next
Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman film was not going to have The Joker, but after Singer’s film hit a sour
note, that changed. In one of the
greatest, saddest changes of gear in cinema history, Heath Ledger was hired and
now, we all know the incredible on-screen results and terrible off-screen end
to a young actor tired of easy paychecks for bad films, wanting to take risks
and make a name for himself as more than just a pretty face.
Even
before his passing, there was no doubt that The Dark Knight would be a very big film. Like any good studio at its best, Warner
Bros. took the project seriously and once again was all-out in backing the film
and well over $400 Million with a take heading towards Titanic proportions, rave reviews, huge positive fan response and
shockingly positive general audience response, the film has made all-time
filmmaking history and those “experts” are no longer making stupid Marvel/DC
comparisons.
The fact
of the matter is….
For
the rest of the essay, go to this link…
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7386/The+Dark+Knights’+Returns!
Besides our constantly changing
sidebar highlighting the best new discs, we have a master list of key titles we
constantly update. The link to
highlights in both formats here on the site is:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4249/Highlights+of+software
You can also put “Blu-ray” (or even “HD-DVD”) in our search engine for the latest coverage of software
releases, at over 700 titles and counting.
Keep checking in for exclusive analysis of all the latest releases,
including many that most other sites and magazines have not covered!
The Best Film Magazine On
The Market!
Though it is hard to argue the
importance of film publications like American Cinematographer, Indie
Slate, Cineaste or Moviemaker and what they deliver,
but so much of film history and production is not being covered properly or of
key films that deserve whole new audiences.
If you love film, you’ll love the new hit magazine Cinema Retro, which is
getting bigger and bigger. You may want
to see about subscribing now while supplies last on the latest issue. You can visit their site at:
www.CinemaRetro.com
“CINEMA
RETRO" IS THE NEW MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO CLASSIC & CULT FILMS OF THE '60S
& '70S. WRITTEN ABOUT AND BY THE ACTORS & FILMMAKERS OF THE ERA. EVERY
ISSUE A LIMITED EDITION COLLECTOR'S ITEM!
Their
site offer film news you cannot even find on IMDb, Variety or The Hollywood
Reporter websites. Then there is their
amazing magazine, one of the best of its kind on the entire market and a must
for any serious film fan, so good that many issues are selling out. ISSUE #11 includes:
Film in
Focus tribute to Michael Caine's classic crime caper Get Carter
Exclusive
interview with director Joe Dante
David
McCallum recalls the making of Sol
Madrid and Mosquito Squadron
A look
back at the scandalous teen schoolgirl sex drama Baby Love starring 15 year old Linda Hayden
Inside
the making of Gerry Anderson's unheralded sci-fi classic Doppelgänger (aka Journey to
the Far Side of the Sun)
Tribute
to original scream queen, Barbara Steele, star of the Mario Bava horror classics
The Films
of Doris Day – Part 2 focuses on her greatest performance, opposite James
Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me
The
mystery of who really played the villainess Bambi in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever
The Films
from U.N.C.L.E. Part 3 – The making of One
Spy Too Many
Raymond
Benson's top ten films of 1970
The
Queen's visits to Pinewood Studios
The Ian
Fleming centennary museum Exhibition in London
The
latest DVD, soundtrack and movie book reviews – plus the usual rare stills from
the Cinema Retro archive
And that
is just a single issue!!!
Contact
the producers and get any issue to see for yourself. By the way, back issues are running out as
the magazine expands and does so worldwide.
In the
meantime, back to the site:
FulvueDrive-in.com is about providing the most
direct, expert, detailed (without ruining anything for first time viewers and
listeners, as we are not into spoilers), informative, fun, bold, vital
information we can come up with. That
fun, yet College-level and all
accessible way in which we cover material here benefit all our readers. Some of them are getting the hang of our
technical section, but others are starting to catch on. We are doing our best to stay on top of the
latest releases and what is happening or being released that you may not have
heard about. If it is something you know
about, we will likely have information and observations you will get nowhere
else.
Now for some other sites worth
checking out…
The
newest of a growing trend of sites covering only the high definition websites
is High Def Disc News, whose primary content is authored by two big,
enthusiastic fans: Justin Sluss and Brendan Surpless. They have been up for less than a year and
the site is already loaded with a surprisingly large number of reviews and news
items. See more at http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/
Blogs are
all over the place, and some (like our writer Dante Ciampaglia’s Crazy From The Heat) cover film and
entertainment. Daniel Johnson recently
wrote us about his. He is a fine writer
and implores “For amazing movie articles, crazy cinematic lists, and riveting
reviews go to Film Babble Blog!"
The link is:
http://filmbabble.blogspot.com/
If you
are interested in wild, wacky productions or something more ambitious and
serious, you can check out the new website for Stone Phoenix Productions. We figured it was worth including instead of
the usual review and theory coverage:
http://www.stone-phoenix.com/
Continuing their winning ways
is DVDBeaver, a site that covers DVDs and films from all over the world like no
other, and is one of the only other sites besides ours to do so. Their link is:
www.DVDBeaver.com
We believe that we are one of
the few sites that manage to cover both the technical parts of filmmaking, as
well as the content and form of the films themselves more thoroughly than you
would usually find on other sites or in print.
They have reviews as well, but our favorite section is their
ever-growing DVD Comparisons section, which features very technical details on
several versions of a given film. Often,
they are even from different DVD Regions, but they are always accompanied by
still images from each DVD covered. Gary
W. Tooze’s site is everything the net is supposed to deliver and we will be
adding anything we can to contribute to their efforts as they do ours. For starters, see Nicholas Sheffo’s comments
on comparisons for Midnight Cowboy, Ronin, Taxi Driver, Johnny
Guitar, The Harder They Come, Lawrence Of Arabia, A Hard Day’s
Night, Rosemary’s Baby, The Aviator, Magnolia, Jaws,
Casino (see our HD-DVD review), Robocop (also on this site), Bram
Stoker’s Dracula, John Carpenter’s Vampires, Dances With Wolves,
Planet Of The Apes (1968, also on this site), The Shadow (1994), Night
Of The Hunter, Charade (early review), King Kong (1933,
unrestored imports), Playtime, (prior to the new Criterion DVD reissue) Apocalypse
Now (Redux), Diary Of A Chambermaid, The Night Stalker/Night
Strangler double feature (also on this site) and The Good, The Bad &
The Ugly. A few of those also happen
to be covered on this site. Be sure to
give them a visit, all titles of which can be accessed alphabetically on the
site by clicking the “DVD Comparisons” at the lower left hand corner of the
DVDBeaver logo on their home page. More
comparisons are on the way and their site adds material everyday like we do.
www.cinegeek.com is run by Stephen Lackey
and has its own love of anything Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy or Cult. The web needs more alternative sites like
this, so be sure to visit them.
Thank you for visiting. We add new material everyday and hope you are
enjoying everything.
-- The Management
