Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012): Nic Cage is el Fuego

The last time we saw Nic Cage here at The Lair, everyone's favorite over-actor (that's not William Shatner) was on the run from the devil after escaping Hell in 2010's Drive Angry. What a difference a couple of years makes.... And a sequel for that matter. This time instead of avoiding Old Scratch, he's pursuing a headlong course right at him in the surprising sequel to 2007's Ghost Rider. After the fist film flopped, and for good reason, there was little hope that Cage could spin the character into a franchise, but with a pile of taxes to be paid, Cage has taken to appearing in a lot of unexpected films in the last few years. Somehow, he got Marvel Comics to go along with the idea for a second go at Johnny Blaze, enlisted the directors of Crank, signed on the scenarist of the Chris Nolan Batman films, and, perhaps most shockingly, made a movie that is pretty dang fun. I know this kind of tips my hand, but Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is the type of film that is going to divide people right down the middle. One group will love the over-the-top acting and action, and the other might feel a little pissed. Hopefully not flaming pissed, but more on that later.

Buggin' On Shorts: The Batman Complex

Here's a little tasty mash-up I found when I was perusing Topless Robot today, The Batman Complex. In a nutshell (get it, nutshell), Bale's Bruce Wayne is just a crazy Brit who think's he's Batman. Then Leonardo is out to Incept him, and between the miasma of scenes from The Machinist, the Batman movies, Inception, The Fighter, American Psycho, and one really nice surprise appearance. It's got a couple of editing hiccups where the movie seems off and a tad on the convoluted side, but I thought it was worth checking out. So here it tis', enjoy....

Now head over to Freddy in Space and see the other best video today, the trailer for a new Call of Duty : Black Ops map called 'Escalation'. You may ask why should you care? I did. I'm only a casual game fan at best. Here's why:Robert Englund, Michael Rooker, Danny Trejo, Sarah Michelle Gellar and George Romero, 'nuff said? Check it Out, and tell Mr. Boots the Bugg said hello.

Christmas Shorts:Lobo's Paramilitary Xmas (2002) -The Main Man vs.The Man With The Sack

For those of you not familiar with the DC Comics character Lobo, imagine, if you will, if Mad Max was a biker from space with the attitude of a WWE wrestler and the politeness of Charlie Sheen on a date with a porn star. That gets pretty close, but still doesn't explain who the intergalactic badass is. Lobo's Paramilitary Xmas Special (2002), based on the comic one shot of the same name, was directed by Scott Leberecht. At the time, Leberecht was a film student and scraped together a budget of $2,400 for the project. The director, who had previously worked in visual effects on films like Spawn and Flubber, has since directed a few other shorts, but is slated to make his feature debut in 2011 with the sensitive vampire tale Midnight Son. Lobo's Paramilitary Xmas Special also stars Andrew Byniarski, best known to horror fans as Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot. It's a real shame that his best known character only emotes with grunting and power tools because Byniarski really brings Lobo to life.

I'm going to include a couple of pictures here, but better yet, I've found the whole shebang to embed here. If you have any doubts about checking it out, let me give you the final selling point, the plot. Lobo is hired by The Easter Bunny, who is tired of being second best, to take out Jolly St. Nick. You can't tell me that doesn't make you want to press play!