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.
Shogun Assassin (1981)
7.4/10
Director: Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston
Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Masahiro Tomikawa
A stunning visual ballet of violence and bloodletting that tells the tale of a samurai warrior who travels across the countryside pushing his young so... Read more
Flash Gordon ( Blu-ray ) (1980)
6.5/10
Director: Mike Hodges
Starring: Brian Blessed, Mariangela Melato, Max von Sydow, Melody Anderson, Ornella Muti,...
Flash, Dale Arden and Dr Hans Zarkov journey through the cosmos to do battle with Ming the Merciless who is terrorising the earth. This up-dated versi... Read more
Flash Gordon (1980)
6.5/10
Director: Mike Hodges
Starring: Brian Blessed, Mariangela Melato, Max von Sydow, Melody Anderson, Ornella Muti,...
Flash, Dale Arden and Dr Hans Zarkov journey through the cosmos to do battle with Ming the Merciless who is terrorising the earth. This up-dated versi... Read more
Popeye (1980)
5.2/10
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston
The legendary anvil-armed sailor of the seven seas comes magically to life, in this delightful musical version directed by Robert Altman and starring... Read more
Lucky Luke: The Ballad of the Daltons (1978)
4.8/10
Director: Henri Gruel, Rene Goscinny
The villainous Dalton brothers are a few days into their 2,400 year-long prison sentence when they learn of the death of their Uncle Henry. Before he... Read more
Golgo 13: Kowloon Assignment (1977)
7.5/10
Director: Yukio Noda
Starring: Sonny Chiba, Etsuko Shihomi, Emi Shindo, Callan Leung
Based on a best-selling Japanese comic, Sonny Chiba stars as 'Golgo 13', a master assassin whose calling card is a single shot between the eyes. Match... Read more
The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976)
7.7/10
Director: Henri Gruel, Pierre Watrin
Starring: Asterix, Obelix, Vitalstatistix
Caesar is bemused when Roman soldiers claim the indomitable Gauls must be gods because they are so powerful. To defeat the Gauls once and for all, he... Read more
Friday Foster (1975)
6/10
Director: Arthur Marks
Starring: Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Pam Grier, Scatman Crothers, Yaphet Kotto, Thalmus R...
Statuesque action star Pam Grier is supremely cast as comic-strip heroine Friday Foster. A free-lance photographer with an insatiable thirst for adven... Read more
Hanzo the Razor 3 - Who's Got The Gold? (1974)
Director: Yoshio Inoue
The last in the Hanzo trilogy, this time our hard-as-nails super-stud cop is on the trail of a plot to smuggle gold out of the national treasury. Nat... Read more
Lone Wolf and Cub 6: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
Director: Yoshiyuki Kuroda
Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama
In this, the final film, the evil Lord Yagyu Retsudo, having failed in his previous attempts to eliminate Ogami, deploys his ultimate weapons; his dau... Read more