Amanda Swisten: November 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Vault Master is sellin' out.

I hated to do it, but desperate times call for desperate measures....

I am now utilizing Google AdSense at the Vault and on my Blog, and I am selling adspace at the Vault as well.

The site has managed to pay for itself over the years thanks to commission earned from Amazon.com and Movies Unlimited.com, but quite frankly, I need more cash. Christmas is coming, I have bills up the wazoo, and aside from getting a second job (hard to do when no one is hiring), whoring out the Vault is the next logical step in my quest to battle debt.

I did not come to this decision lightly (I've personally always tried to keep the Vault ad-free), and I will do my best to keep the ads as unobtrusive as possible (i.e. no annoying popups!)

And on that note, if you are at all interested in advertising your film, movie website, or (preferably cult) film-related products at the Vault, by all means contact me at vault_master[at]bmoviefilmvault[dot]com.

Monday, November 23, 2009

The "Army of Darkness" invades ye olde Vault review archives!

After two nights of painstaking work, I've refurbished my old review for Army of Darkness into something readable!

Expect more old reviews to be uploaded as months go by, along with a few NEW reviews too. Speaking of which, expect a brand new capsule review to be posted within the next week for "The Wild Man of the Navidad," an indie flick that is one part "Legend of Boggy Creek" and two parts "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Sound good? Well it isn't, and I'll explain why in my upcoming review! Stay tuned b-movie fans!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Gul Ahmed

Gul Ahmed is one of the famous brand company in pakistan.

Its is doing a lot of good work, specially in kurta designing.

Gul Ahmed introduce a new style.

the very fantastic cloth are use and some designing on top.

you can use for party, marriage event and birthday.

Nice Sherwani with bold colors ,suits every one .

black color of sherwani with design in brown color gives

excellent look...

Usually sherwani is for wedding , but one can ware it in parties as well...

Sherwani with cream color gives decent look,

these color can be ware by all persons having dark completion...

so no need to be worry..

here is all range of colors..

Gul Ahmad is doing really amazing work in selecting kurta colors,

it's really nice to ware in light green color of kurta in summers .

it gives cool effect...and nice as well..

In this Gul Ahmad design shirt in new style. In this u look black and white mixing and difference style of collar that color red.

Torture the Vault Master 3D!

Just in time for the holidays, I present a gift to all of you dedicated readers out there: For the third time in my site's nine-year run, you can choose the 3D film I will have to suffer through! Voting is open to the public and will end halfway through December. The resulting review should be up just in time for Christmas! So what are you waiting for? CLICK HERE and pick my three-dimensional cinematic poison!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Comic Book Review: Batman vs. Predator (1991 - 1992)

It is rare for me to pick up comic books these days, but I couldn't help but grab the three issue "Batman versus Predator" mini-series that I saw sitting on the shelf at my buddy Ryan's comic shop. (Charging Star Comics in Conklin, NY!) I've dabbled a bit in DC / Dark Horse comics crossovers (Superman vs. Aliens issue #1), so I was curious and a bit excited to dig into this trio of comics. Sadly, I was less than pleased with the first ever battle between the Dark Knight and his extraterrestrial foe.

As the tale begins, a mysterious killer begins knocking off anyone that is lauded as a champion or hero in Gotham City. The first victim is Gotham's newest heavyweight champion boxer. His demise is soon followed by the deaths of other notable figures (mainly criminals), which of course attracts Batman's attention.

Eventually Batman tracks down and squares off against the bloodthirsty hunter, and barely escapes with his life. Seriously injured, the Dark Knight is laid up for a while, as the cops and criminals of Gotham attempt to fight back against the Invisible Slasher, with disastrous results.

Eventually Bats recovers, arms himself with a suit of armor equipped with sonar, and goes after the Predator. He ultimately defeats the fierce creature just as its "posse" arrives, and is shocked when his powerful foe commits seppuku. As the other Predators load their fallen comrade onto the ship, one of them bows before Batman and gives the victorious hero a sword.

Though Batman is sure that the Predator's kin will think twice about visiting Gotham again, the transparent alien trophy-hunters would return in several more "Batman vs. Predator" adventures.

Ok, admittedly the storyline here is pretty cool, but it is basically a retread of "Predator 2" with Batman substituted in for Danny Glover, which isn't really a big deal in my book. My main gripe with the story involves the way the Predator chooses his victims. Apparently the most fearsome hunter in the universe is a couch potato, and picks his prey via the evening news.

Also, as a result of watching too much T.V., the Predator talks (or rather, mimics) an awful lot here. Guess they weren't sure how to write out the Pred's patented clicking/purring language so they figured he had to say "son of a ...." on a frequent basis. (Yeesh... and here I thought the folks at 20th Century Fox were the only ones that could sully the Predator's good name.)

Another strike against this series is the artwork. While a lot of it is good (particularly the artwork for the covers on the "Prestige Editions" of all three comics, done by artist Arthur Suydam, which is far better than the normal covers that were done by Chris Warner), there were far too many panels that were just a mess. Heck, a few times I didn't even realize what was going on until I backtracked and gave the page another thorough look.

"Batman vs. Predator" is something that sounds great on paper (sort of like "Robocop vs. Terminator"), and it could have been something special, but as it stands, this three-issue run is handled clumsily and turned out to be a (minor) disappointment. It does deliver the goods, but for me, it was a truly unsatisfying read.

There are two other "Batman vs. Predator" series: "Batman vs. Predator II: Bloodmatch," in which Batman and Huntress go after a particularly vicious "rogue" Predator, and "Batman vs. Predator III: Blood Ties," in which a duo of Predators hunts the Dark Knight AND the Boy Wonder. (Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that there's a "Batman and Superman vs. Aliens and Predator" comic out there as well.) While I'm not going to rush out and track them down, I will most likely give these comics a chance, if only to see if any improvements were made since the first "Batman vs. Predator" story arc.

If you're a huge Batman or Predator fan, you will most likely want to add "Batman vs. Predator" to your collection (if you haven't already). Otherwise, you may just want to spend your hard earned cash on something else... like the production of your very own "Batman vs. Predator" fan film!