March 24, 1984.  Theirs was the letter that rocked Shermer High.  When it was delivered from Carl the Janitor’s hands to the school paper’s inbox, I did not even know the movement I would create by publishing it.

But where are these rebel-rousers now?   This band of diverse brothers?   Well, it took some digging, but I’ve found them.  The whole Breakfast Club.

Douglas Burbank

Shermer High School, Class of 1985

Former Editor, Shermer High Chronicle

ANDREW CLARK

Andrew surprised everyone at Shermer when he started dating class anti-hipster Allison Reynolds.  But when he went off to Lehigh University on a wrestling scholarship, they broke up.  Today, Andrew has a wife, Cheryl, and three daughters.  He lives back in Shermer where he sells cars and is a part-time assistant football coach at Shermer High School.  All of his daughters have boys’ names (Brett, Alex and Dylan).  They never amounted to much in the sports world but are all currently trying to give their father grandsons.

BRIAN JOHNSON

It would probably please everyone to know that Brian went onto an ivy league college where he majored in computer sciences and dated a sorority girl named Shawna who had a thing for nerds.  In fact, Brian still dates sorority girls, even though he is now old enough to be a father to them.  He resides in northern California where he retired young, after earning a fortune during the dot-com bubble in the mid-90s.  He also owns a house in the south of France. Because he can.

JOHN BENDER

Bender made a go of it at Shermer’s local community college but found far more success when he accidentally invented a collapsible travel bong.  He sold his invention and company for a small fortune a few years thereafter and married his high school crush, Claire Standish.  The pair has divorced twice and just recently married for the third time.  They have one son who, thankfully, did not go through high school the way John did.

CLAIRE STANDISH

Claire’s heart will always belong to John Bender, the rebel who rescued her from snobbery in high school.  Though they finished off high school meeting secretly after school and on weekends, they stayed together while she attended a state college, and got married after graduation.  She founded a boutique PR agency for local businesses but eventually gave it up to be a full-time lifestyle blogger.  Currently her blog is focused on couples who get divorced and re-married. A lot. Their son, Andy, named for John’s first best man, Andrew Clark, thinks his parents are crazy.

ALLISON REYNOLDS

After a drastic makeover and getting involved with school jock, Andy Clark, Allison was almost as popular as classmate Claire Standish.  But when Andy, broke up with her and went off to college, she retreated back to her heavy black clothing and dismal attitude.  She transferred to Sarah Lawrence during her sophomore year and soon after came out of the closet.  She moved in with her first girlfriend after their second date and the pair currently resides in Manhattan’s west village.  They are both art history professors at NYU and have a very angry cat named Bender.

CARL THE JANITOR

Carl would never know how he changed our student body when he found a crumpled letter in the library trash.  He would never know because soon after he handed it over to the school paper, he disappeared.  He resurfaced briefly in 2002 – he was spotted in a popular Shermer Italian restaurant tossing back several glasses of chianti – and then went off the map yet again, possibly for good.

PRINCIPAL RICHARD VERNON

To his credit, Mr. Vernon stuck it out at Shermer High a good five years more following the great uprising of 1984.  But soon it became quite clear that Principal Vernon was becoming unhinged. Spending far too much time in the basement files, muttering to himself, and unbuttoning his shirts just one more button, nauseating much of the student body. He retired before the fall semester began in 1990 and moved to Boca Raton, where he tried, rather unsuccessfully, to relax. He died of a heart attacked in 1996. Andy, Brian, Allison, Claire, John and I were all at his funeral.

The Ghostbusters Tour is the only way to experience the city never sleeps.  If these two guys can give up six hours from their busy schedule of  playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to recreate their favorite movie scenes, what’s your excuse for not doing something like this?

Email me your videos to dan@misflix.com.

Put him on a stilt.

It makes sense that the Gotye song, “Somebody That I Used to Know,” gets stuck in your head.  Everyone can relate to that song.

What doesn’t make sense is when the Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd rap song, “City of Crime,” from the the 1987 movie, Dragnet, gets stuck in your head.  Unless you live in St. Louis.

We’ve all daydreamed about surviving  a zombie apocalypse.  I’ve often wondered if I have what it takes to leave loved ones behind in order to survive.  I won’t know the answer until it actually happens.  If only there was  some kind of experience I could participate in that could prepare me for the end of days.  Oh wait, there is.

For a fee of £139.00 you can find out if you have it in you to fight off those flesh eating ghouls in an abandoned mall in Reading, Berkshire (that’s in England for all of the Yankees who read this site).

And Steven Spielberg wonders why he never made it in the entertainment industry.  Stop calling QVC and ordering movie posters and do something with your life.

Beastie Boys member, Adam Yauch (MCA), passed away today. Though he had been battling with cancer, his death has not been identified.  Along with Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz, the Beastie Boys elevated the expectations of music, not just rap but music, to the next level.

Growing up in a small town in Michigan I was not a huge fan of music.  I guess looking back on it, I did not like what the 80′s had to offer.  Then License to Ill came out and everyone told me I had to listen to it because it was the greatest thing they had ever heard.  So I borrowed my brother’s cassette tape and listened to it.  I did not get License to Ill.  The Beastie Boys came off as people my parents told me to avoid if I came across them in person.  Paula’s Boutique was a different story.  I was a little bit older and it was at a time in my life when I didn’t listen to my parents.  I’m glad I did.  That album introduced me to so many other musicians I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t listened to the album and the samples they used on it.  After that I was hooked.  Not only on the Beastie Boys, but music in general.

Yauch was very passionate about movies.  He co-founded Oscilloscope Laboratories, a huge producer and distributor of independent films.  He wanted to make sure people saw interesting and different movies, movies he’d want to watch, instead of movies that were easily marketable.

You were one of a kind, Adam.  RIP MCA.

Here are some of my favorite Beastie Boys videos he directed as Nathaniel Hörnblowér.

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The mysterious man known as Sean Hartter created these reimagined/retro/alternate universe posters for The Avengers.  Do you think Tom Selleck would have been a better Iron Man than Robert Downey, Jr.?

To see more of his posters, visit hartter.blogspot.com

Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

To purchase t-shirts designed by Hartter, go HERE.

This is what The Avengers would have looked like if they had assembled in 1978.

The only way to celebrate Wes Anderson’s birthday is  by running in slow-motion in a bright, color-coordinated track/jump suit while listening to obscure British Pop music – Bill Murry is optional.

[the Films of] Wes Anderson

If Wes Anderson directed Spider-Man

It takes a lot to be called good.  It takes even more to be called great.  So imagine what you have to be able to do to be called fantastic.

During a science mission in outer space Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm are exposed to cosmic rays that gives them superhero powers.  With their new powers they form the Fantastic Four, which was  the first superhero team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and go by their new names:  Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and The Thing.

This comic book has two film interpretations.  Unknown to the cast and crew, the 1994 movie was only made by legendary low-budget producer, Roger Corman, to secure the copyright for the Fantastic Four property.  The 2005 Fantastic Four movie was made to cash in on the success of other comic book movies like X-Men and Spider-Man.  What four do you find more fantastic?

1994 Fantastic Four

2005 Fantastic Four

He’s Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can.  So does that mean he scares the shit out my girlfriend when she sees him crawling up a wall?  I don’t think my shoes are big enough to smash him.

Spider-Man made his first appearance in the comic book, Amazing Fantasy #15.  The great thing about Spider-Man is that he was just a teenage kid dealing with teenage problems who just happened to have the strength and agility of a spider.

Spider-Man is a billion dollar franchise that has had TV shows, animated series, comic books, and films based on him.  What we need to know is out of all of them who is the friendliest neighborhood Spider-Man?

1977 Spider-Man

2002 Spider-Man

2012 Spider-Man

Who could be more patriotic than, Captain America?  Maybe Second Lieutenant U.S.A. or Warrant Officer 1 of the Country Responsible For Derek Jeter.

Marvel.com says, “In World War II patriotic solider Steve Rogers recipient of the ‘Super Soldier Serum’ became the living symbol of freedom, Captain America. Left for dead while frozen in ice, the star-spangled hero with an indestructible shield awoke years later to continue his never-ending battle for liberty.”

Captain America has been seen in two made-for-TV movies and two films.  When there are more than one superhero sporting the red, white, and blue tights, how do we determine who is the best?  The only way to answer who best represents the United States of America is to let the people decide.  What Captain America is more patriotic?

1979 Captain America

1990 Captain America

2011 Captain America

UPDATE:  In celebration of The Avengers finally making it to the big screen this Friday, enjoy this repost of our Top 6 Essential Marvel Comic Book Movies that was written last year.  

Greetings friends!

In light of Captain America arriving in theaters next week this writer will break down his biased and completely subjective look at 6 essential Marvel Comics properties to have been given the Hollywood treatment (for better or worse):

1.  X-Men 1 & 2

The first two X-Men films are the epitome of what can be right about a comic book turned into a film.  They, as best a 2 hour film can, follow some of the classic X-Men story lines that have been laid down over the history of the book.  The films also featured stellar actors who fit so right in their roles.  Everyone had dreamed of seeing Patrick Stewart as Xavier and these films delivered!  The balance between story and action was ideal.  Like a good comic the films creative teams knew when they had time to explore the characters and when they needed to kick into a faster gear.  And just like the comics the films dealt with morality and ethical issues that seems cut and dry and some that didn’t.  The mutant registration act, Magneto’s and Xavier’s versions of striving for justice in a world that didn’t treat them fairly.  Where would you fall in the struggle if you were forced to choose?
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