Friday the 13th: Top 10 Jason Voorhees

It's Friday the 13th and you know what that means...Friday the 13th Marathon! The Friday the 13th slasher-horror franchise has been scaring audiences (and murdering teenagers!) for the last 34 years! While everyone has their favorite movie or scene, only the hardcore fans have their favorite Jason Voorhees...and that's why this Friday the 13th CHERNOBOG'S BLOG celebrates the men (and boys) who portrayed the machete-wielding, hockey-mask wearing, (and possibly misunderstood) mass-murderer. CHERNOBOG'S BLOG PRESENTS: Friday the 13th - Top 10 Jason Voorhees!

#10 C.J. Graham - C.J. was the 6th actor to play Jason in Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986). C.J. also appears in flashback footage in Part VII and a short entitled Jason Vs. Leatherface (2003).
#9 Ted White -As one of the many actors who played Jason in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) he was also uncredited and according to Fangoria magazine, the role made him feel "uneasy", thus he insisted his name be removed from the credits. He went on to appear in other popular 1980's movies Tron (1982) and Starman (1984).
#8 Richard Brooker -  Richard was discovered in a casting magazine called "Dramalogue" and became the first Jason to wear the iconic hockey mask in the originally 3-D, Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)!
#7 Warrington Gillette -  As the second actor to play Jason Voorhees, he originally auditioned for the roll of Paul in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) but director Steve Miner was impressed with him and offered him the part of Jason instead. Although he is credited as Jason, he only appeared in the final scene when he jumps through the window.
#6 Tom Morga - Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) Tom portrayed Jason (uncredited) during flashbacks and was also the stunt-double for Dick Wieand who played Roy, the copycat killer.
#5 Steve Dash (aka Steve Daskawisz) - While he is technically the third actor to play Jason, Steve appeared in most of Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) except for the final scene which was played and credited to Warrington Gillette.
#4 Derek Mears - The latest addition to the Voorhees brotherhood and 8th actor to portray Jason, Derek appeared in the 2009 remake/reboot Friday the 13th starring Jared Padalecki (Supernatural).
#3 Ken Kirzinger - In 2003, New Line Cinema pitted their two horror franchises against each other in the ultimate heavy-weight fight that is Freddy Vs. Jason, directed by Hong Kong action filmmaker Ronny Yu . At 6'5", Ken is the tallest actor to play Jason and rumor has it, appeared in full costume at a dentist's office to have dental work done. At the end of the film (among the many proposed alternate endings) Jason emerges from Crystal Lake victorious, holding the decapitated head of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), although he winks at the camera as a send off being his final performance as Freddy!
#2 Ari Lehman - Friday the 13th (1980) First in the Top 10 Jason's is the boy, who at the age of 14 played the role of the first Jason Voorhees whose brief appearance in the surprise ending of the film left the audience both in terror and wonder. As of 2009 Ari performs with his horror rock band "First Jason".
#1  Kane Hodder - The most popular Jason Voorhees, Kane has played Jason in four films including Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993) and Jason X (2001). Fun Fact: Kane also appeared as Jason on an episode of The Arsenio Hall Show in 1989.

BONUS: Jason Voorhees Body Count = 167 people!

LINKS: Friday the 13th Films, Friday the 13th Wiki, WB Shop

Star Wars Weekends 2014

Another Summer, another Star Wars Weekends at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios! This was my 5th time to experience Star Wars Weekends since my first in 2008. Every year seems to get better and better with more guests, more events, and even more surprises! This years' theme "Join The Rebellion" coincided with the announcement of Disney XD's newest animated series Star Wars Rebels, premiering this Fall. Leading up to Star Wars Weekends, Disney hosted an exclusive Rebel Rendezvous on May 15th to give fans an early preview of Star Wars Weekends merchandise available! Although Star Wars Weekends takes place from May 16 to June 15 this year, I was only able to go to the parks on May 23-25. Hosted by James Arnold Taylor (voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Clone Wars) this weekends guests featured Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ashoka Tano on Clone Wars), also Warwick Davis (Wicket (Ewok) Star Wars Eps. VI), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett, Star Wars Eps. V & VI) and Tiya Sircar (voice of Sabine Wren, Star Wars Rebels). I got to meet Jeremy Bulloch and got a picture and autograph from Boba Fett himself! Since the acquisition of Lucasfilm, Disney has some big plans for Star Wars but it has very little affect on the already successful Star Wars fan event. If anything, we shall no doubt see even more additions and special events to future Star Wars Weekends. One of the biggest draws for Star Wars fans and Disney collectors alike is of course all of the exclusive merchandise available at "Darth's Mall". Some of this year's items included special pin lanyards that look like the medals Luke and Han (but not Chewbacca!) were awarded in Eps. IV. Also available at "Ackbar's Snackbar" were limited edition Darth Vader popcorn buckets and Stormtrooper mugs, (which unfortunately sold-out very quickly!). One of the most unique additions to this year's Star Wars Weekends was through the augmented reality app Aurasma where you can view special animations and videos just by scanning certain images on Star Wars Weekends merchandise.
Surprisingly, Disney added another weekend  to Star Wars Weekends which featured a VERY special celebrity guest: Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamil from June 6-8. Also appearing was Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) and Ray Park (Darth Maul, Eps. I) and Taylor Gray (voice of Ezra Bridger, Star Wars Rebels).
Unfortunately, I was unable to go to this weekends' event. The unfortunate thing about Star Wars Weekends is they don't announce the weekends where specific celebrities are scheduled to appear until only a few weeks before the event which makes vacation planning for those who live in other states virtually impossible and only the luck of the draw (or belief in the Force!) will you be able to see the celebrities you want. I had already met Warwick Davis in a previous events along with Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Ray Park. Star Wars Weekends has many events and special shows to see during the weekend including Legends of the Force: Celebrity Motorcade, the Padawan Mind Challenge, celebrity talk-shows, and more! Not to mention the other Star Wars events available year-round such as the Star Tours ride and the Jedi Training Academy. Possibly the best event for this years Star Wars Weekends was the addition of a nightly music and fireworks show called "Symphony in the Stars", which was an impressive and wonderful end to Star Wars Weekends!

LINKS: Disney's Star Wars Weekends, StarWars.com, Disney.com

Summer Blockbusters: May Reviews

The Summer Blockbusters have arrived!!! Every month in Summer holds more excitement and hype that my movie reviews can't be contained in just one blog entry, so I've decided to give each month it's due with brief reviews of my favorites. Let's kick-off the Summer with May's releases: Enjoy!

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (2014)- Directed by Mark Webb, this squeal to 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man establishes the new franchise trilogy with Andrew Garfield as the new "Amazing" Spider-Man! This movie sees the return to the classic Spider-Man costume instead of the more "modern" costume in the last movie. As Peter Parker graduates High School, he is kindling his relationship with Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) while still trying to be a superhero, while he's haunted by the death of Gwen's father Captain Stacey (Denis Leary) at the hands (or claws) of The Lizard, who Peter promised to leave alone! This new movie introduces a new villain Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, as Max Dillon, a socially awkward and eccentric electrical engineer at OSCORP, who's obsessed with Spider-Man, after being saved by Spider-Man from a speeding armored truck, he later falls in a tank of electric eels and becomes Electro, able to absorb and project large amounts of (blue) electricity! Thinking Spider-Man either tricked him or forgot about him in his deranged mind he goes on a rampage sucking power from New York City. Meanwhile, Peter's childhood friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns as his father Norman Osborn lays dying from a mysterious disease, and it just so happens that Harry is also afflicted with the disease that coincidentally Peter's father was working on a cure before he disappeared! As Peter and Harry both realize the only thing that can possibly cure Harry is Peter's spider-infected blood, Peter has to decide whether or not to risk his secret identity which may or may not save his friends life! With this movie we've started off the multiple villains angle way to early as we deal mostly with Electro throughout the movie we are introduced to new villains including the new Green Goblin and a few brief cameos (which I will not spoil) leading into the next movie. Overall Electro makes for a weak addition to the new Spider-Man franchise. While many fans including myself were disappointed with the Lizard in the last one, it seems the movies have begun to dig at the bottom of the barrel for Spider-Man villains, while Spider-Man has always been known for his colorful rogue's gallery, yet not too many of them could possibly carry an entire movie. That is why the next logical step would be to introduce many villains in the next movie, namely "The Sinister Six". While this seems promising for my fellow Spidey "fanboys" out there, it doesn't necessarily lend itself to a good movie. When is more villains, too many, when we introduce too many characters we become Batman & Robin (1997), lets not forget it hasn't been that long since the disaster that was Spider-Man 3 (2006).

LINKS: Official Website, Marvel.com

GODZILLA (2014) - When news first came out of the new Godzilla movie, fans were both excited and skeptical, since the epic-failure of 1998's Godzilla directed by Roland Emmerich and the 2004 release of Godzilla: Final Wars, marking Godzilla's 50th Anniversary, it seemed that a new Godzilla would never be made. Through all the pre-production and production difficulties, it was finally announced that Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. with rookie director Gareth Edwards (Monsters (2010) would bring Godzilla back from the depths. While the movie appears like a Godzilla reboot it actually draws upon previous Godzilla films and story-lines making it seem relevant to the long tradition including a reference to a discovery of a large creature in the Pacific Ocean in 1954 and the discovery of a colossal skeleton in a mine in the Philippines in 1999. While many Godzilla movies feature a seemingly unbeatable Kaiju monster, which no one can defeat except of course for Godzilla, who,  throughout his long 60 year history went from nature-avenging destructor to civilization-saving hero! The movie begins with tragedy at the Janjira nuclear plant in Japan where a supposed meltdown attributed to an earthquake is the cause of a area-wide quarantine. Plant supervisor Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) loses his wife in the disaster and feels guilty for sending her to his death. 15-years later, Joe is still trying to uncover the conspiracy of the disaster. After having been arrested for trespassing his son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a Navy EOD now living in San Francisco with his family, goes to Japan to bailout his father. There Joe and Ford attempt to return to Janjira and uncover the truth. As they are captured (again), we also meet Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) who studied the skeleton in 1999 and reveals that the disaster was caused by an unknown creature designated MUTO, now hibernating but coincidentally is awakened and wreaks havoc on Hawaii. Suddenly Godzilla appears and battles the creature however we learn there is yet another creature in Nevada, which destroys Las Vegas. The showdown with two MUTOs and Godzilla occurs in San Francisco Bay and if you've seen at least a few of the 30 Godzilla movies over the years, you know what happens. The initial appearance of Godzilla is somewhat anti-climactic and it seems as though the focus of the film is more about the MUTOs than Godzilla? If the producers of the film had gone with tradition and made just "another" Godzilla film it wouldn't have held up to the hype. More fitting it should've been called "Godzilla VS. MUTO" (or vice versa) and not just simply Godzilla. In the end, it remains just another mediocre Godzilla movie with very little originality besides the redesign of the creature and being an American production. While it is fun and entertaining to finally see a new Godzilla movie after waiting a decade, it remains somewhat of a disappointment. In the words of a good friend of mine: "Only Japanese people should be allowed to make a Godzilla movie!" (Thanks OrcDorc.com!)

LINKS: Official Website, Godzilla Movies, Toho

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014) - While the X-Men franchise has had it's ups (X2, First Class) and downs (X-Men 3, Origins: Wolverine) over the years, the franchise has finally come to it's ultimate apex with the original franchise along with the prequel franchise coming together in one explosive finale!  Director Bryan Singer returns to the franchise after abandoning it for Superman Returns (2006) and leaving us with Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) Thanks (NOT!) "Loosely" based on the 1981 story-line written by Chris Claremont with art by John Byrne, Days of Future Past takes place both in the Past, Present and Future of the X-Men cinematic universe. In the near future, the world is a much darker place, giant robotic Sentinels hunt-down and destroy the last remaining mutants as they make their last stand to ultimately change the past and thus remake their future. With new additions to their fighting force Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), Storm (Halle Berry), and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), led by Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) together again with Magneto (Ian McKellen) to fight a common enemy! The plan is to send Wolverine's mind (with the aide of Kitty's new and unexplained powers) back in time to 1973 to stop the assassination of Bolivar (Peter Dinklage) Trask, (a scientists who created the Sentinels) by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) aka Raven. Wolverine wakes up in the past and has to convince the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and young Beast (Nicholas Hoult) to help him stop the assassination. first they have to break young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) out of a highly secured prison under the Pentagon with the help of Quicksilver (Evan Peters). The fate of the past and future comes together in an epic battle for the ages! Some of the newer additions to the mutant menagerie in this movie (however brief) is Bishop (Omar Sy), Blink (BingBing Fan),  Sunspot (Adan Canto) and Warpath (BooBoo Stewart). The newest mutant to create controversy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is of course Quicksilver, while having a small part in this movie is a big part of X-Men history, but who will also be appearing in the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron (also the end-credits stinger at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier) played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass)! Although not as faithful to the comic books, Days of Future Past functions as a proverbial reset button to the errors of the franchise. With the convenience of time travel, it causes major effects on the story and characters in the franchise which will be revealed in the end. Overall it is an impressive and intense turning-point within the X-Men movies (which remain a property of 20th Century Fox!). Be sure to stay for the end-credits for what could quite possibly be THE most epic moment in X-Men movie history, equal to the Thanos reveal at the end of Avengers!

LINKS: X-Men Movies Official Website, Marvel

Star Wars Day 2014: Top 10 Favorite Things About Star Wars!

Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth Be With You! To Celebrate this year's Star Wars Day, I thought about why I love Star Wars and how it is so much a part of my life. I'll admit it: I am obsessed with Star Wars! I can't imagine my life without it, just sitting here typing and I look around me and I realize just how much Star Wars stuff I have and what it means to me. So this year in honor of Star Wars Day, CHERNOBOG'S BLOG PRESENTS: TOP 10 FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT STAR WARS! Enjoy!

#10 Toys - Star Wars changed the face of toys and action figures forever. Back in 1977 before anybody had ever heard of merchandising for movies, George Lucas capitalized on the licensing and merchandising rights for his new movie franchise and made a fortune. When the movie first came out there wasn't much in the way of toys until Kenner produced the "Early Bird Certificate Package" which gave kids the chance to send away for the action figures before they were ever released. With the success of the Star Wars, Kenner produced thousands of toys, action figures, vehicles, and play-sets for Star Wars and many other franchises until the company closed in 2000 and merged with Hasbro. As an only child of the 1980's, I was deeply into Star Wars toys along with G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Masters of the Universe. Of course, my collection of Star Wars toys grew in large thanks to the "spoiling"  of my parents and grandparents.

#9 Role-playing Games (RPG) - With the success of book/table-top RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons during the 1980's, in 1987 West End Games produced a series of RPG books set in the Star Wars Universe which included several source books and adventure guides. Later in 2000, Wizards of the Coast received the licensing to produce a new series of RPG books until 2012 when Fantasy Flight Games produced a new version called Edge of the Empire.

#8  Board Games - Star Wars has inspired some of the best board games over the years starting with the classics 'Escape from Death Star Game', 'Jedi Master Game' and 'Battle At Sarlac's Pit Game'. Over the last few decades there has been an increase in many different licensed board games such as Monopoly, Risk, Stratego, Trouble, Battleship, and even Operation! My personal favorite is the Trivial Pursuit Star Wars Classic Trilogy Collector's Edition with R2-D2 timer!

#7  Art - The art of Star Wars is what really gave it's universe meaning from the first design sketches to the fully painted designs of artist Ralph McQuarrie. His paintings and designs made Star Wars what it is today and not to mention all of the other artists and designers of Lucasfilm who have added to his legacy. Also credited for much of the Star Wars poster art is artist Drew Struzan, who is also known for more than 150 famous movie posters including Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and Rambo.

#6  Video Games - Video games have always been a big part of Star Wars with the very first classic arcade game in 1983 to the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game in 1998. Other games have included many different titles on both video game consoles and PC including popular titles as Dark Forces, The Force Unleashed, Knights of the Old Republic, Battlefront, even LEGO Star Wars and my current favorite (and addiction), Star Wars: The Old Republic (a.k.a. SWTOR)!

#5 Television - Star Wars have been featured on TV in several spin-offs and series starting with the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978 to the short-lived Droids and Ewoks cartoon series from 1985 to 1986 during my childhood. To promote the release of Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Cartoon Network produced a series of shorts entitled Star Wars: Clone Wars from 2003 to 2005, created by Genndy Tartakovsky. Recently there was a huge following for the Emmy Award winning Cartoon Network animated series The Clone Wars which ran for five seasons from 2008 to 2013, prompted by a 2008 full-length CG animated movie. Currently the sixth season dubbed "The Lost Missions" are now available on Netflix. Next fall, Disney XD will be premiering a new series Star Wars Rebels, set between the events of Ep.III and IV featuring new heroes and villains!

#4 Comic Books - The Star Wars comic books have been around almost as long as the movies, first with the Marvel Comics series from 1977 to 1986 and lasting 107 issues. In 1991 Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights to the Star Wars franchise and began a long run of titles featuring many different story lines within the Extended Universe. I remember reading several of the original comics and especially as I got into comic collecting more of the Dark Horse titles, particularly Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi and Shadows of the Empire. As the Dark Horse Comics era comes to an end, it was announced in 2013 that Lucasfilm and Marvel Comics were reuniting and will begin publishing new comics in 2015! See Timeline of Comics

#3 Books - The first novelization of Star Wars was published in 1976 as Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker although credited as written by George Lucas, it was actually ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster from Lucas' original script. Foster would later go on to publish the first Extended Universe novel in 1978, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. As the popularity for Star Wars books increased a book series featuring Han Solo and Lando Calrissian in their own adventures. In 1991, Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn was published beginning the immensely-popular "Thrawn Trilogy". Since then, the Star Wars legacy has continued with hundreds of novels featuring stories from the ever-expanding universe with new books.

#2 Music - Without the music of John Williams, the Star Wars films would be an entirely different experience! When director Steven Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas to score his 1977 film Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope), who knew how much of an impact a musical score would have on the reception of the film. Both the film and it's soundtrack were incredibly successful and it remains to this day the highest grossing music recording of all-time, earning Williams an Academy Award for Best Original Score. Williams also scored Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) completing the original trilogy. Both scores earned him Academy Award Nominations. Then in 1999, Williams was asked to score all three of the prequel films including Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). While Williams' musical legacy continues in other popular films, other composers have credited his influence for their own music including composer Kevin Kiner for his work on the themes for Star Wars: the Clone Wars.

#1 Movies - On May 25, 1977, the world of movies changed forever with the premiere of Star Wars (also later known as Episode IV: A New Hope)! Creator/writer/director George Lucas took his influences from the films and serials he loved as a child and his studies in film-school to create a new, epic, space-opera. Star Wars broke box-office records and became one of the first modern blockbuster films and remains one of the most financially successful films franchises of all time! I consider myself a 2nd Generation Star Wars fan as I was born shortly after the initial release of the first film. I can recall seeing the first two movies at home either on TV, early VHS and Laserdisc. One of my favorite earliest memories is seeing Return of the Jedi at one of the few remaining local Drive-In theaters around the age of four and I have been obsessed with Star Wars from then on. I watched, played, read, slept on (sheets), ate (Star Wars cereal) and basically lived Star Wars my whole life! I was not overly-excited to be present at the opening of Episode I as so many of my fellow fans were and much to my dismay, shared in their disappointment. My original preconceptions of the prequel trilogy have changed over time and I have learned to come to terms with my love/hate relationship with the Special Editions of the original trilogy as well as the prequels. As news of Episode VII continues to increase, my thoughts and feelings are conflicted as to the future of my beloved Star Wars. As I'm not very fond of director J.J. Abrams due to his questionable reboot of the Star Trek franchise, however, when Episode VII is released I will be there waiting with millions of fans despite my expectations.
Thank you! "May the Force be With you!"

LINKS: Star Wars Official Site

TV Review: SALEM

With the popularity of current paranormal primetime TV dramas on the rise like the CW's ongoing series Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, the unlikely channel WGN America begins airing new original programming beginning with SALEM. Salem is in fact a Supernatural hour-long TV drama focusing on witches and witchcraft and drawing its inspiration from the historical events occurring in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. However, the show is not without it's own dramatic license in perpetrating the widely-held belief that there were in fact witches in Salem and as it does so through the very graphic depiction of witch-like activities, not to mention it's overuse of nudity, sexuality and violence on level with Game of Thrones to increase their ratings. The show stars Shane West as John Alden Jr., having returned to Salem long after being thought killed during the French and Indian Wars having learned that Salem is suffering a witch hysteria led by the Reverend Cotton Mather (Seth Gabel) and his once beloved Mary (Janet Montgomery) is now married to the wealthy landowner George Sibley (Michael Mulheren). With her servant/confidant Tituba (Ashley Madekwe) they have concealed the fact from John that she was pregnant and in a bizarre ritual aided by Tituba, "got rid of" the baby. As conspiracy, panic and fear spread through the town John tries to find out the dark truth behind these witch hunts! While the shows' premise holds some fascination within the genre of horror/supernatural/witchcraft, the flagrant historical inaccuracies of the characters and events only further add to the false history and myth of one of early America's darkest and most mysterious periods in history and is a mockery to those 20 real people who died because of it. I have always held a great fascination with Salem and the Witch Trials and have even visited the site myself and while the story still resonates within popular culture from the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller which is also a fictionalization of those events holds more truths than this new TV show from the writers of Terra Nova and the director of Girls.

LINKS: Salem Official Site

Music Review - Black Label Society: Catacombs of the Black Vatican

Black Label Society: Catacombs of the Black Vatican is the 10th album from Zakk Wylde's heavy, yet more bluesy hard-rock band. Since their recent lineup changes and return to their blues-rock roots with last years' acoustic experiment Unblackened Live, BLS have a slightly different sound than their earlier work. BLS has always been Wylde's baby, constantly changing and evolving, it's sound reflects both the virtuosity and unique talent of Wylde and his ever growing following. With the first track "Fields of Unforgiveness" the album has a slow but steady start with a heavy blues-vibe featuring Wylde's signature soloing style. "My Dying Time", the first single (and video) from this album, hearkens back to "The Blessed Hellride" (2003) era with a song very similar in style to his hit "Stillborn". Some of the slower, more melodic songs include "Angel of Mercy", "Scars" and "Shades of Gray" featuring Wylde's acoustic guitar talent, which (especially "Shades of Gray") can even bring you to tears. To compliment the slower songs, some of the heavier songs include "Heart of Darkness", "Beyond the Down" and "Damn the Flood". One of the most impressive and interesting songs structurally is "Empty Promises", which include strange moaning feedback sounds. Deluxe versions of the album include two bonus tracks: "Dark Side of the Sun" and The Nomad". The artwork for this album features striking images from The Sedlec Ossuary, (a.k.a. The Bone Church) a church in the Czech Republic that is decorated with thousands of bones and skeletons.

LINKS: Black Label Society.com, Zakk Wylde.com

Movie Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

With Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe already underway, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the next chapter in the story of "The Star-Spangled Man". In this politically-charged comic book/superhero movie from the studio that brought The Avengers (2012) together in THE Ultimate comic book movie team-up, Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) must fight for his country like never before as he questions his purpose and the meaning of freedom. Meanwhile, Cap continues to deal with being a man out of time in an ever-changing world. Now working directly with S.H.I.E.L.D. under Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Cap is sent on assignment with Agent Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), to rescue hostages taken by foreign pirates at sea. What begins as a simple hostage situation, literally "blows up" into a world-wide crisis with S.H.I.E.L.D. as the target of the mysterious "Winter Soldier" and Captain America is branded a fugitive. Cap and Black Widow now must fight this new threat and avoid capture, along with a new sidekick Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon (Anthony Mackie). A surprising added character in this film is Senator Alexander Pierce played by Hollywood veteran Robert Redford, who adds an interesting yet dull addition to the story and a weird twist to the plot. This sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) is a fast-paced and much more violent movie with an added darker tone combined with the military/political intrigue of a Tom Clancy story along with James Bond-like action. It's a much more exciting and intense film than the first movie, which was plagued by a slow-moving plot and slightly over-the-top comic book-style storytelling from director Joe Johnston. As a fan of both Marvel Comics and Marvel movies I always feel there have been some hits and misses since Marvel started this cinematic franchise with Iron Man (2008), while almost all of them have been huge box-office success it often leaves fans wanting particularly within the sequels (i.e. Iron Man 2 (2010). The Winter Soldier however, does not disappoint, with a much needed realism and tension within the story and also growing chemistry between the characters, namely Cap and Widow. This movie also brings audiences just one-step closer to Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, as we are treated to an end-credits stinger (No Spoilers!) which reveals two new major characters! The Winter Soldier is a great experience, not only as a Marvel movie, but also as a stand-alone action movie itself and a must see for fans and action-lovers alike!

"...It's more about his [Captain America] discourse with the way society is and current political climate...given the technological advancements we have today, it brings up the question of how far are we willing to sacrifice our civil liberties and our privacy in the name of security."
- Chris Evans from a D23 interview



 

LINKS: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel.com