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Blade Runner is getting all the press and blog posts, but let’s not forget the other cinematic gem that was released 25 years ago today…

Two screen caps from MegaForce - What a cool jumpsuit and headband.

MegaForce was also released on June 25, 1982. Starring Barry Bostwick as Ace Hunter. He’s the leader of Megaforce, an elite group of American soldiers who travel the world to fight Evil. I don’t think I’ve even seen this movie, but looking at some comics with Carter yesterday, I stumbled across the MegaForce ad offering up membership in MegaForce for only one dollar. For your hard-earned dollar, you would get:

  • The official MegaForce patch
  • MegaForce membership card
  • Reflective bike decal
MegaForce Membership Comic Book Ad

I never joined, but I remember wanting too, thinking the movie looked like the coolest thing to come along since Star Wars. Those were the days when you had to send off for cool stuff by the mail. There was no instant gratification of the Internet. It reminds me of the scene in “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie waits for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring and is disappointed when he decodes an Ovaltine ad.

I say bring back the mail order promotions and while you’re at it, where is my MegaForce DVD?

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Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones (for the upcoming 4th film)

Amazing how one photo can create a feeling of excitement or anxiousness. As the talk (and years) of a fourth Indiana Jones film continued, I kept thinking to myself “Harrison Ford will be too old” and “What’s the point.” After seeing that one image, I take it all back. That doesn’t mean the 4th Indiana Jones film won’t suck, but seeing that photo makes me want to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark again and makes me hope that Indy 4 will be great.

Ron Weasley and his siblings stand with wands posed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The next image shows perfectly one of the reasons I love the Harry Potter series of films. There’s a continuity to the films that has never been achieved before (on the movie screen). It’s similar to watching 2-hour, big budget episodes of a television series like LOST or Heroes. It’s been cool to watch the kids in the Potter films grow up and I hope they all continue in the last two films of the series.

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The Ultimate Nick fury character was visually based on Samuel Jackson

Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that Samuel Jackson is shooting a cameo as Nick Fury in the Iron Man movie. If this is true, then I hope it’s a setup for many more cameos and future roles to come.

In Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics, Nick Fury (who is based on Jackson) has dealt with nearly every hero/team in the Universe. He formed the Avengers team of that universe (named the Ultimates). With Marvel producing and developing Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor and others in house, let’s hope these links continue to build toward something practically unseen of in the movie world.

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Silver Surfer

Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer comes out this weekend and I’m not ashamed to say I’m excited about it. When I finally made it out to see Spider-Man 3, I enjoyed it, but would have enjoyed it more if Carter could have watched it as well (it was a little to scary for him). I would have also like a few more action sequences (or extended versions of the existing ones). As it was, I felt the villains (and Spidey) received too little screen time. After all, that’s the real reason I go see the silver-screen versions of the comics, to see cool, live representations of the comics I’ve loved for years. I think the new Fantastic Four movie will deliver just that (and Carter and Jill will be right there with me), thanks to the PG rating.

Next up is Transformers and it keeps looking better and better. New tv commercials keep popping up and the “big robots” keep looking better and better. It looks a little explosion heavy, so Carter may not make it to that one, but I’d say that we’ll get to see lots of big robots transforming and beating each other up and what more could you want?

It looks like Marvel is making plans for 2009 and lining up Captain America and Thor for their big screen debuts. These two are the next logical step (after 2008’s Iron Man and Hulk). Throw in an Ant Man film that’s been rumored for a while and you’ve got the perfect setup for an Avengers film in 2010. Since Marvel Studios owns the rights to all of these characters (with Paramount distributing the individual films), there is no reason a team film can’t be done.

It’s too bad DC hasn’t gone Hollywood as well as Marvel has. Their slate of upcoming films includes only the next Batman (The Dark Knight) film (featuring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger). Another Superman film has been rumored, as well as films starring Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash. Rumors aside, Batman is the only one in production.

Sadly, that sums it all up. Let’s see some more DC films. Also, I’m ready for a real photo of Heath Ledger as the Joker, none of the viral marketing stuff, let’s see the real thing. The I Love Harvey Dent Too website stated “see you in December.” I guess we have to wait until then.

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Quite a few good finds in today’s Digg and RSS feeds, but none quite worthy of a full post, so it’s a list of links today:

Why is Gas so Expensive is not only a good explanation what goes into gas production, it actually explained several terms I hear around the office quite a bit. Definitely worth a read if you want to learn a little bit more about where all the money goes when you fill your gas tank.

TubeWad looks back at MTV’s The Maxx and reminisces about the days when MTV wasn’t a teen, reality-tv network. The Maxx was based on the Sam Keith comic from Image comics and faithfully translated the story to the screen with animation that was groundbreaking for TV. I remember watching The Maxx and the follow-up show, The Head.

Instructables: not sure how I’ve missed this site for as long as I have. Lots of good ideas to look into further when we get moved into the new house.

retroCRUSH offers their selection of the 100 Scariest Movie Scenes and I’ll have to disagree with many of them, especially on the ranking. Many of the scenes from JAWS would be higher up, as would The Exorcist, if I made the list. However, I didn’t and they did, so they get big props for taking time to compose the list.