Jet Li’s Epic Remake, The Art Of Alex Ross, Donner’s Superman, And More — The LRM Weekend

 

 

 

By David Kozlowski   |   14 July 2017

Welcome to Issue #4 of The LRM WEEKEND, a weekly column highlighting cool and unique videos about film, TV, comics, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, animation, and anime. We also want to hear from you, our awesome LRM community! Share your favorite videos to: @LRM_Weekend and we’ll post your Tweets below!

LAST ISSUE: 7.7.17

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Jet Li’s Fist of Legend (1994)

BONUS: Rare Jet Li Interview (English w/ French subtitles)

What Is It?

Fist of Legend is a Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Gordon Chan, featuring action choreography by the legendary Yuen Woo-ping (Drunken Master, The Matrix), and produced by Jet Li, who also starred in the lead role. The film is a remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury (aka The Chinese Connection). This movie is a quasi-historical tale about the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, China in 1914 during WWI.

Why Should We Care?

Fist of Legend is one of the greatest martial arts movies ever made. It is also a respectful homage to one of Bruce Lee’s great films, and many of the fight scenes in this movie are almost shot-for-shot from Lee’s Fist of Fury. The action is precise, highly technical, and often very brutal. The fight scene above is merely one of several great battles in this epic film.

If you love martial arts films and haven’t seen Fist of Legend, I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. The fights show the tremendous contrasts between the Japanese fighting styles, which emphasize short-range punches and kicks from the school of”hit me, I’ll hit you harder,” compared to the more fluid Chinese systems that entail circular movements, trapping blocks, and odd-angled strikes.

SOURCE:  ElvanVideo Music

SOURCE: Video Master

Who Should We Choose For Our Next Fight Of The Week?

Drop us a Tweet: @LRM_Weekend with a link to your favorite fight video, and we’ll post it in an upcoming edition of the LRM WEEKEND along with your Tweet!

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Each week we’ll highlight interesting, and offbeat, videos regarding some of our favorite LRM topics currently trending on YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, and other popular video sites around the Internet.

Honest Trailers: Fate of the Furious (#41 Trending on YouTube)

What Is It?

Watch the latest combination of F-words and numbers take on all the things you’ve come to expect from the franchise — cars, butts, and costars who likely hate each other — Fate of the Furious!

Why Should We Care?

Look, I’ll be honest with you, I don’t get the Fast and the Furious movies (judging by the box office over the last 15 years, I’m in the minority here). These are big, dumb summer blockbusters that really don’t give two s**ts about physics, logic, or even passable dialogue… and clearly nobody cares, because these films literally firehose money at theaters every couple of years.

The latest chapter in this never-ending franchise, The Fate of the Furious (2017), has entered the crosshairs of the folks over at Screen Junkies and their ongoing series of often-scathing Honest Trailers reviews/analyses/takedowns. Today, bear witness to the savaging of a Hollywood blockbuster — I defy anyone to disagree with their breakdown!

This is the just the kind of video that we love to stumble across — please share with us cool videos like the above, and we’ll post it in future LRM WEEKEND columns!

SOURCE:  Screen Junkies

What Do You Want To See In Next Week’s Trending Video?

 

Drop us a Tweet: @LRM_Weekend with a link to your favorite trending video, and we’ll post it in an upcoming edition of the LRM WEEKEND along with your Tweet!

 

Debuting in LRM Weekend: The Creators, a series of profiles, interviews, and documentaries with the legends and innovators of our favorite comics, movies, shows, and characters that span the last 100 years of pop culture.

The Incredible Art of Alex Ross

Alex Ross' compositions and lighting is greatly inspired by Norman Rockwell (see below).

Alex Ross’ compositions and lighting is greatly inspired by Norman Rockwell (see below).

Norman Rockwell's "Right to Know" painting from Look Magazine in 1968.

Norman Rockwell’s “Right to Know” painting from Look Magazine in 1968.

What Is It?

Nelson Alexander “Alex” Ross (1970-present) is a truly unique comic book artist (and writer) known for painted works, including: covers, posters, interiors, and layout/design. Ross exploded onto the comic’s scene in the 1994 miniseries Marvels, collaborating with writer Kurt Busiek. He has since done a variety of projects for both Marvel and DC Comics, such as the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come, which Ross co-wrote. Since then he has done covers and character designs for Busiek’s series Astro City, and various projects for Dynamite Entertainment, and concept and marketing art for many Hollywood film projects.

Why Should We Care?

Ross’ art style is highly reminiscent of classic American illustration from the 19th and 20th centuries, including Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyendecker. Ross was trained at Chicago’s American Academy of Art and went on to work in advertising as a storyboard artist. His comic’s breakthrough occurred in 1990 with a five-issue miniseries, Terminator: The Burning Earth, by Ron Fortier and published by NOW Comics.

What makes Ross’ art style so distinct is his highly-realistic depictions of superhero characters, who appear lifted out of the 1950s. Ross works with live models and photo reference to create his dynamic and realistic images. His technique employs gouache paints, which are an opaque, water-based medium that many artists find challenging to work with — it usually goes down as thick and opaque, but like watercolors can be blended and manipulated to create amazing results, as typified by Alex Ross’ works.

Many of Ross’ most iconic images have also been translated to posters and toys. DC DIrect has optioned many of his characters for sculptured figures and busts. Visit any comic book store in America and you’ll doubtless see Ross’ art on book covers, hanging from the walls, and locked behind glass cases.

SOURCE: Norman Rockwell Museum

SOURCE: Westosha Art

Tells Us About Your Favorite Comics, Film, or TV Creator!

Drop us a Tweet: @LRM_Weekend with a link to your favorite comic, film, or TV creator video, and we’ll post it in an upcoming edition of the LRM WEEKEND along with your Tweet!

Each of us grew up watching a wide range of movies and TV shows from the 60s-90s that turned us into the fanboys and fangirls that we are today! Whether it’s Ultraman, Jackie Chan, Voltron, Akira Kurosawa, or Knight Rider (you know who you are!), we want you to hear about your favorite movie and TV trailers.

Richard Donner’s Superman (1978)

BONUS: Richard Donner talks about casting Christopher Reeve.

What Is It?

Film: Superman (1978)

Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman

Genre: Action-Adventure

Synopsis: Just before the destruction of the planet Krypton, scientist Jor-El (Marlon Brando) sends his infant son Kal-El on a spaceship to Earth. Raised by kindly farmers Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter), young Clark (Christopher Reeve) discovers the source of his superhuman powers and moves to Metropolis to fight evil. As Superman, he battles the villainous Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), while, as novice reporter Clark Kent, he attempts to woo co-worker Lois Lane (Margot Kidder).

Why Should We Care?

We can all debate which film(s) kicked-off the modern era of superhero cinema. Jon Favreau’s Iron Man (2008) definitely initiated the MCU, and some might argue that Stephen Norrington’s Blade (1998) should be recognized for what it did for the genre, others may point to Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) as a seminal moment… but the true beginning of the Hollywood superhero genre has to be Richard Donner’s Superman (1978), starring Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman.

While the special effects might look (a lot) dated by today’s standards, and some of the characterizations a bit odd (see: Lex Luthor) when Superman first debuted on the big screen, the sense of flight and the spirit of the comic book depicted in this movie was a true game-changer for Hollywood. Christopher Reeve defined Superman in a way that perhaps no other actor has ever inhabited a role, and even today his shadow looms large over the DCEU.

SOURCE: TrailersPlaygroundHD

SOURCE: Jordan Riefe

Give Us Your Ideas For The Next Throwback Trailer!

Drop us a Tweet: @LRM_Weekend to share your favorite movie trailer from the 60s-90s, and we’ll post it in an upcoming edition of the LRM WEEKEND along with your Tweet!

It’s the weekend, which means it’s finally time to catch-up on all the stuff we’ve bookmarked on Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Vimeo, Twitch…you get the idea. The LRM community has millions of hours of stuff on our collective DVRs. We want to hear from you, tell us the shows, movies, etc. you’ve recently finished, or have queued-up!

Rod Serling’s Planet of the Apes (1968)

What Is It?

LRM fanboy, David Kozlowski, recommends watching the original Planet of the Apes film from 1968, starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, and Roddy McDowall.

Why Should We Care?

The Planet of the Apes franchise began in 1968, but it’s route to the big screen took many interesting twists and turns. French novelist Pierre Boule (The Bridge Over the River Kwai) wrote La Planète des Singes in 1963, a sci-fi novel about a distant planet dominated by apes, which was inspired by Charles Darwin’s pioneering work. Twilight Zone creator, Rod Serling, was hired to write the script, introducing Cold War themes.

This is one of the great sci-fi of the 20th century, and still (mostly) holds up today. The film was plagued by a tight budget ($5 million), forcing many in the cast to share or swap masks and costumes. The film went on to earn more than $32 million domestically and spawned four sequels.

SOURCE:  Classix T

SOURCE:  William Forsche

SOURCE:  WatchMojo.com

El Rey’s The Director’s Chair

What Is It?

LRM fanboy Joseph Jammer Medina has been neck-deep in watching The Director’s Chair, an original series from Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey Network.

Why Should We Care?

The Director’s Chair is pretty much every film fan’s wet dream. Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez sits down with high profile directors that include Robert Zemeckis, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann, Jon Favreau, Guillermo del Toro, John Carpenter, and more. Over the course of 45 minutes, he asks them about their history, their process, as well as what went on in their heads when making their classic films. Rodriguez is a fantastic interviewer, and it certainly helps that you have one director asking another director questions, because you get answers for questions that would have otherwise never been asked.

SOURCE: El Rey Network

What do you think about this week’s selection of videos? Let us know in the comments down below!

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Night Terror Banner   GenreVerse FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoGBreaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube! Subscribe on: Apple PodcastsSpotify |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play
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