Comics Movies
Comics and movies both blossomed in the cultural landscape of the 20th Century. And as they flowered they cross-pollinated one another with their brightest blooms and their most effective arrangements. The digital revolution has opened many doors to the previously unfilmable, leading to an explosion in the number of comic book adaptations.
For many people 'comics movies' mean gaudy titans in tights pounding the snot out of one another. However, if you remove the properties of the two big American companies (DC and Marvel), a broader spectrum of the fantastic and mundane is revealed.
Presenting for your selection, a cornucopia of pocket universes born of ink, transformed into light. For Superheroes peruse the DC and Marvel sub-headings under Comics Movies, stage left.
Pictured: Marv (Mickey Rourke) takes a moment to collect his thoughts in 2005's "Sin City" - cinema's most faithful comic book adaptation to date.
The Losers (2010)
6.4/10
Director: Sylvain White
Starring: Jason Patric, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Columbu...
An explosive action tale of betrayal and revenge, 'The Losers' centers around the members of an elite Special Forces unit sent to the Bolivian jungle... Read more
The Mask (1994)
6.9/10
Director: Charles Russell
Starring: Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Peter Green
Inspired by the manic 1940s cartoons of Tex Avery and based on the comic book of the same name, this loopy tale has a bank clerk discovering an ancien... Read more
The Mask ( Blu-ray ) (1994)
6.9/10
Director: Charles Russell
Starring: Amy Yasbeck, Cameron Diaz, Jim Carrey, Peter Green, Peter Riegert, Richard Jeni
Inspired by the manic 1940s cartoons of Tex Avery and based on the comic book of the same name, this loopy tale has a bank clerk discovering an ancien... Read more
The Mindscape of Alan Moore (2006)
7.6/10
Director: DeZ Vylenz
Starring: Alan Moore
Alan Moore is a creator of comic books and graphic novels and in this portrait of the artist as contemporary shaman, someone with the power to transfo... Read more
The Nine Lives Of Fritz The Cat (1974)
5.4/10
Director: Robert Taylor
Starring: Skip Hinnant, Reva Rose, Voices Of, Bob Holt
This sequel to the notorious original finds the hippie feline in the '70s. Now on welfare with a nagging wife, he smokes dope for escape, and fantasiz... Read more
The Phantom (1996)
4.9/10
Director: Simon Wincer
Starring: Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams
That masked, purple-clad defender of the jungle leaps from the comic's pages to the screen with this adventure saga. Billy Zane stars as 'The Ghost Wh... Read more
The Phantom (2009)
5.9/10
Director: Paolo Barzman
Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Sandrine Holt, Ryan Carnes, Cameron Goodman
Before Superman, Spiderman and Batman there was... The Ghost Who Walks. Young urban daredevil Kit Walker (Ryan Carnes) finds himself recruited by a se... Read more
The Phantom: The Serial (1943)
4.9/10
Director: B Reeves Eason
Starring: Tom Tyler, Jeanne Bates
Tom Tyler stars as the purple-and-black hero of the African jungle, helping fiancee Jeanne Bates' archeologist father locate the Lost City of Zoloz an... Read more
The Punisher: Extended Edition (2004)
6.5/10
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Starring: John Travolta, Roy Scheider, Thomas Jane, Will Patton, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Be...
Based on the Marvel comics brutal anti-hero character and coming across like some down and dirty 70s revenge flick, "The Punisher" finds FBI agent Fra... Read more
The Rocketeer (1991)
6.4/10
Director: Joe Johnston
Starring: Alan Arkin, Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Sorvino, Timothy Dalton
A glorious adventure for all, about a young pilot who is transformed into a jet-propelled hero when Nazi agents attempt to steal a top- secret inventi... Read more