Batson's Blog

When I recently blogged about Cobra Commander and the upcoming movies of 2013 , it got me thinking: what are some of the best real-life incarnations of villains from the comic books? I have a feeling Cobra Commander could easily fit into that category. Take a look at the cartoon-to-real-life transformation: Come G.I. Joe 2, we'll see if the acting lives up to how awesome the photos look. In the meantime, I came up with a little list. There’s a variety of reasons for my choices; sometimes it’s the costuming that makes the character come to life. Other times it’s the physical appearance. Sometimes it’s just really amazing special effects that makes it work. Whatever the reason, these are some of the best villains that made it to the big screen: 10. January Jones as Emma Frost ( X-Men: First Class , 2009) It's really just looks that landed Jones on this list. She looked the part. My fellow South Dakotan is not the most amazing actress, but she didn’t to be ...

Since I’ve never seen it, the original Total Recall is on my Netflix list. Last week, I watched the new Total Recall . That’s one that probably shouldn’t be on anyone’s Netflix list. There were some pretty brutal critic and viewer reviews of it last year. The movie also didn’t do very well at the theatre. BoxOfficeMojo shows that it made close to $59 million. Unfortunately for Columbia Pictures, the production budget was $125 million. It’s not actually that bad of a movie. It’s not good, but I’ve seen worse. Granted, I’ve never seen the original. This film is a remake, so it was already likely at a disadvantage with most fans of the original film. On paper it probably looked good. Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel star in the movie. Three decent actors with decent resumes behind them. It just didn’t work though. The movie starts off with Farrell and Biel running away from what appear to be Storm Trooper-like robots. Biel ends up reluctantly gettin...

The other day I was shopping at Target and I walked by the DVD section. It did my heart good to see several He-Man DVDs, sitting proud and prominent with the rest of the children’s DVDs. I’m a huge fan of He-Man, so I waited for this one to come out on DVD for a long time. It seemed the Masters of the Universe franchise never got the recognition I felt it deserved. While The Transformers and G.I. Joe were brought back as live action major motion pictures, He-Man’s only film adaptation is stuck in the 80’s, with cheap effects and a poor plot. About five years ago, the rights were finally sold to a distributor and the classic He-Man TV show from the 1980s were available to DVD. Hopefully today’s generation of children will be able to enjoy it as much as I did. Seeing He-Man on DVD got me thinking about other movies or TV shows that aren't on DVD, but really ought to be. Here are 10 of the TV shows and movies that are on my “It should be on DVD!” list: Honorable Men...

With all the super hero films that have been made in recent years, there’s one film that I feel movie makers are missing the boat on: Wonder Woman. There have been talks about making a Wonder Woman film since the early 2000’s when Sandra Bullock, Lucy Lawless, and former WWE wrestler Chyna were considered strong candidates for the role . In this – the era of the super hero film – a Wonder Woman script is apparently being worked on. It's the same story with the rumored Justice League movie. That puts a movie theater release at least two years out, so we’ll see if it actually happens. Let's say a script got approved and production dates were set. Who would be the raven-haired beauty to cast? Chyna probably wouldn't have given the best acting performance in the world, but in 2000 she did look the part. She, of course, had the athleticism. I don't know that it would have been anything more than a B-movie if Chyna was cast in the lead role, so it's probably ...

If you were seeking a friend for the end of the world, I hope you weren’t unfortunate enough to find Seeking a Friend for the End of the World . That may be too harsh. After all, the movie didn’t absolutely suck. It was alright, at best, though. I had high hopes because the cast was fairly impressive. Steve Carell and Kiera Knightley lead the cast – filled out by Melanie Lynskey (the girl from Two and a Half Men ), Adam Brody (the dude who was on the O.C. ), William Petersen (you know how he is, C.S.I. fans), Rob Corddry and Patton Oswalt. That’s what should have tipped me off. Anytime you get a bunch of comedians together, the movie can be a hit or miss. Sometimes the comedians are given too much leniency with the script and they ad-lib their way into the ‘trying too hard’ zone. The movie had a few funny moments, but it all felt very...already done. The scene with Patton Oswalt talking about “stuffing the cookie” with Steve Carell was comedic shock value that wasn...

As you start off the New Year, why not do it with some humor and entertainment sent straight to your Twitter feed? I’m not one of those who has Twitter updates sent to my phone, so unless I’m at work, at my desk (yep, I use Twitter for work purposes all the time), I’m not inundated with updates. I work in news media, so I get all the updates from the Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, and the local police. There’s some light-hearted tweets as well, but a lot of what I see is about vehicle accidents, fatalities and criminal investigations. When I am on Twitter, I like a little variety. A little bit of entertainment to be sprinkled in with the death and destruction. Here are 12 celebrities I follow that usually provide me with a laugh, if not a break from the hard news: 12. Barbara Eden ( @Barbara_Eden ) Jeannie is on Twitter. Doesn’t get much better. Watching Barbara Eden in her revealing pink outfit on “I Dream of Jeannie” re-runs was something I did a lot of. Now, you’...