It's happening again, only worse. Three years ago, the stars were aligned in May 2006 to offer up a movie-a-week -- literally, a new movie every week that I was just dying to see. I planned it out months in advance, letting Terri know about my plans so she would be prepared with the customary eye rolls, shoulder shrugs, and what-can-I-do?-my-husband's-an-idiot looks. One after the other, I scoped MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III, POSEIDON, THE DA VINCI CODE, and X-MEN: THE LAST STAND. In hindsight, of course, not the best of months. Now here comes May 2009, looking to blast May 2006 out of the Ward Record Books, and -- surprise, surprise! -- my wife is coming along for part of the ride.
Here's the rundown, only partially filled at this time: WOLVERINE, STAR TREK, ANGELS & DEMONS, TERMINATOR: SALVATION, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN, UP, and DRAG ME TO HELL. Actually, my wife doesn't know about that last one yet, but by the time May 29th rolls around, she'll be too exhausted to care.
The verdict? WOLVERINE -- disappointing. STAR TREK -- An outstanding reboot to the franchise. ANGELS & DEMONS -- surprisingly entertaining. The rest of them -- well, I hope the best is yet to come. Although they'll have to go far to give STAR TREK a run for its money. For a change, I'm not pontificating. (Sorry to disappoint you, Chaz.) I'll wait for the May picnic meeting.
Then I'll pontificate. (Just watch 'em head for the door. Heh, heh.)
P.S. And what about Terri, might you ask? Well, she liked ANGELS & DEMONS a lot more than DA VINCI CODE, as I did. And she's the main reason NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM is on the calendar -- she laughed a lot at the first one. Plus, she wants to see UP as much as I do. Three date movies in less than a month -- it's like 1989 all over again, but with higher ticket prices.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Watchmen on DVD
Hey John,
How come everything else comes out on DVD in 30 seconds and a movie like Watchmen, which didn't burn up the box office is set for a July release???? I am really jonesing for that one.
How come everything else comes out on DVD in 30 seconds and a movie like Watchmen, which didn't burn up the box office is set for a July release???? I am really jonesing for that one.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
So Much For the Superhero Winning Streak
2008 was a great year for comic geeks at the movies, with the success of Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and to a lesser extent, The Incredible Hulk and Wanted. But 2009, unfortunately, has not gotten off to the same flying start. Watchmen turned out to be overrated and somewhat pretentious, and now, here comes Wolverine, the Canuck with Claws, stepping away from X-Men "group mode" to fly solo. It's bits and pieces of a fun movie that don't add up to a whole heck of a lot.
Wolverine is, arguably, the most popular character in the Marvel Comics stable, so it was only natural that the powers that be would send him out on his own, sooner or later. (It helps when you give Hugh Jackman, the man with the claws, a producer's credit. Not to mention letting him film the thing in his own Australian backyard. What, did Canada decide to raise its taxes?) But the movie was such a mess, I found myself nitpicking from the get-go.
Let's start with the background detail, which takes up the first 15 minutes. I've gotten along perfectly well without Wolverine's backstory for over 30 years, thank you very much. I really didn't need to know that his real name is -- or was -- James Howlett, and as a child, he suffered the trauma of unwittingly killing his ...oh, please. If you can't fill in that blank on your own, you've already failed Screenwriting Cliches 101.
I think I knew from the comics (It's hard to say, since I haven't read Wolverine or X-Men regularly since about '95) that Wolverine has always had some sort of blood feud going with the psychotic Sabretooth. That little tidbit is given ample screen time here, with Wolverine and Sabretooth as half-brothers bouncing from one war to the next across the decades. I guess the "healing factor" that makes Wolverine a mutant also works as its own immortality drug. (Well, at the very least, it must slow the mortal part down a lot.) Wolverine/James Howlett/Logan/Who the hell knows? is recruited by Col. William Stryker for a special ops detail made up of other secretive mutants, and Sabretooth comes with him, mainly for the chance to kill lotsa folks legally. Stryker, played by the older Brian Cox in X2, is played here with equally bureaucratic smarm by Danny Huston, who I liked as the head vampire in 30 Days of Night. Knowing that Stryker has to live so he can cause all sorts of mischief in X2 kind of takes away the suspense, but that's the way it is with prequels, folks.
I have to note that I liked Liev Schreiber's portrayal of Sabretooth. Even though he looks nothing like the comic book character, Schreiber is a hell of an actor, and he chews into his role (literally) with feral glee. The movie wakes up every time he comes onscreen, which is often enough to warrant a Netflix rental down the road, I guess.
But one good performance is not enough to save this movie. There's all sorts of things going on here that really make no sense. For instance, why would Stryker spend a kazillion dollars to turn Wolverine into an adamantium-laced force of nature, then attempt to kill him when he doesn't want to play ball? Can bureaucrats be that petty? (Dumb question.) Soon after Wolverine goes on the run, he meets up with Ma and Pa Kent (or wait -- was that Uncle Ben and Aunt May?), a pair of walking homespun cliches with targets on their backs whose sole reason for being in the film is to give Wolverine another excuse for opening a mega-can of whoopass on the bad guys. (As if Jackman needed another reason, being stuck in this movie and all.)
I was waiting for something special, and kept getting stiffed. Even the CGI was lame this time around. The claws looked painted into the frame, and as for that final smackdown -- wouldja believe Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Deadpool duking it out atop the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor? No damn way that's going to look real.
I think the saddest part was waiting until after the end credits for what has now become the signature of all Marvel Comics movies: the "special surprise" extra scene. Even that was boring. I read somewhere that they actually have a couple of different "special surprise" scenes playing at the end of different prints of the film, and if you want to see them all, you have to see the film multiple times. Fat chance of that. I'll wait for the inevitable special edition Blu-Ray. Maybe.
Give Liev Schreiber 4 stars out of 10, tack on an extra 2 stars for a cool helicopter fight scene, and you've got something that's worth a rental on a rainy day. Me, I'm already counting the hours until the Star Trek premiere.
Wolverine is, arguably, the most popular character in the Marvel Comics stable, so it was only natural that the powers that be would send him out on his own, sooner or later. (It helps when you give Hugh Jackman, the man with the claws, a producer's credit. Not to mention letting him film the thing in his own Australian backyard. What, did Canada decide to raise its taxes?) But the movie was such a mess, I found myself nitpicking from the get-go.
Let's start with the background detail, which takes up the first 15 minutes. I've gotten along perfectly well without Wolverine's backstory for over 30 years, thank you very much. I really didn't need to know that his real name is -- or was -- James Howlett, and as a child, he suffered the trauma of unwittingly killing his ...oh, please. If you can't fill in that blank on your own, you've already failed Screenwriting Cliches 101.
I think I knew from the comics (It's hard to say, since I haven't read Wolverine or X-Men regularly since about '95) that Wolverine has always had some sort of blood feud going with the psychotic Sabretooth. That little tidbit is given ample screen time here, with Wolverine and Sabretooth as half-brothers bouncing from one war to the next across the decades. I guess the "healing factor" that makes Wolverine a mutant also works as its own immortality drug. (Well, at the very least, it must slow the mortal part down a lot.) Wolverine/James Howlett/Logan/Who the hell knows? is recruited by Col. William Stryker for a special ops detail made up of other secretive mutants, and Sabretooth comes with him, mainly for the chance to kill lotsa folks legally. Stryker, played by the older Brian Cox in X2, is played here with equally bureaucratic smarm by Danny Huston, who I liked as the head vampire in 30 Days of Night. Knowing that Stryker has to live so he can cause all sorts of mischief in X2 kind of takes away the suspense, but that's the way it is with prequels, folks.
I have to note that I liked Liev Schreiber's portrayal of Sabretooth. Even though he looks nothing like the comic book character, Schreiber is a hell of an actor, and he chews into his role (literally) with feral glee. The movie wakes up every time he comes onscreen, which is often enough to warrant a Netflix rental down the road, I guess.
But one good performance is not enough to save this movie. There's all sorts of things going on here that really make no sense. For instance, why would Stryker spend a kazillion dollars to turn Wolverine into an adamantium-laced force of nature, then attempt to kill him when he doesn't want to play ball? Can bureaucrats be that petty? (Dumb question.) Soon after Wolverine goes on the run, he meets up with Ma and Pa Kent (or wait -- was that Uncle Ben and Aunt May?), a pair of walking homespun cliches with targets on their backs whose sole reason for being in the film is to give Wolverine another excuse for opening a mega-can of whoopass on the bad guys. (As if Jackman needed another reason, being stuck in this movie and all.)
I was waiting for something special, and kept getting stiffed. Even the CGI was lame this time around. The claws looked painted into the frame, and as for that final smackdown -- wouldja believe Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Deadpool duking it out atop the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor? No damn way that's going to look real.
I think the saddest part was waiting until after the end credits for what has now become the signature of all Marvel Comics movies: the "special surprise" extra scene. Even that was boring. I read somewhere that they actually have a couple of different "special surprise" scenes playing at the end of different prints of the film, and if you want to see them all, you have to see the film multiple times. Fat chance of that. I'll wait for the inevitable special edition Blu-Ray. Maybe.
Give Liev Schreiber 4 stars out of 10, tack on an extra 2 stars for a cool helicopter fight scene, and you've got something that's worth a rental on a rainy day. Me, I'm already counting the hours until the Star Trek premiere.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Harper's Island
I caught the premiere episode of the new CBS mystery thriller Harper's Island earlier tonight, and I was hoping someone else on the blog had seen it, too. It's a surprisingly effective take on the old And Then There Were None plot device -- if Agatha Christie had been inclined to dabble in Italian giallo, that is.
A couple of dozen invited guests are boated out to an island resort off the coast of Washington state to attend a wedding. There are the usual soap opera touches -- the from-poverty groom "isn't good enough to marry" the rich bride, the groom's childhood friend must revisit the scene of a family tragedy, ex-boyfriends show up, yadda yadda yadda. It's all set-up for what CBS is really trying to sell: a creepy, violent, 13-week serial killer show.
Because it seems that the guests are going to die, one by one. (CBS even adds a crawl inviting people to log on and vote to predict next week's victim.) The premiere episode actually offered two shocking deaths for the price of one, bookending the show. The first one (Say, have you seen Cousin Ben?) is surprisingly gruesome for network TV, and you immediately find yourself wondering just how far CBS, the home of the geezer demographic, is willing to go.
Evidently pretty damn far, if the second death is any indication. It's shocking on two levels -- the way it is filmed, and the identity of the victim. The viewer is immediately reminded of the death of Janet Leigh in Psycho, and I was left with the feeling that all bets are off. I'll be back to see it next week, and if the storyline improves, I might just last until this thing wraps in July. Which is more than I can say for most of the cast, apparently.
A couple of dozen invited guests are boated out to an island resort off the coast of Washington state to attend a wedding. There are the usual soap opera touches -- the from-poverty groom "isn't good enough to marry" the rich bride, the groom's childhood friend must revisit the scene of a family tragedy, ex-boyfriends show up, yadda yadda yadda. It's all set-up for what CBS is really trying to sell: a creepy, violent, 13-week serial killer show.
Because it seems that the guests are going to die, one by one. (CBS even adds a crawl inviting people to log on and vote to predict next week's victim.) The premiere episode actually offered two shocking deaths for the price of one, bookending the show. The first one (Say, have you seen Cousin Ben?) is surprisingly gruesome for network TV, and you immediately find yourself wondering just how far CBS, the home of the geezer demographic, is willing to go.
Evidently pretty damn far, if the second death is any indication. It's shocking on two levels -- the way it is filmed, and the identity of the victim. The viewer is immediately reminded of the death of Janet Leigh in Psycho, and I was left with the feeling that all bets are off. I'll be back to see it next week, and if the storyline improves, I might just last until this thing wraps in July. Which is more than I can say for most of the cast, apparently.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Last Gasp (?) of the Senator
You know how people are supposed to go through all these stages of grief with the death process? Denial, anger, etc, etc. to a final acceptance? It's hard to say where the Senator Theater sits in this process, but if last night is any indication, denial is in full swing.
A couple of us -- Charlie Wittig, Dava Sentz, Gary Svehla, Gus Russo, and me -- went to the late showing of Horror of Dracula at the Senator last night, which no-longer-quite-the-owner Tom Kiefaber described as a donation from a private collector. There were many visible scratches in the print, but the color was bright and it was the Senator! This was only the second time I had ever seen a Hammer Dracula on the big screen, and if this turned out to be my final movie at this historic movie house, then Horror of Dracula certainly made just as fitting a send-off as The Godfather, which I saw last fall.
There were dozens and dozens of posters piled against the walls of the lobby, mostly selling for $20 a pop. There were also many promo t-shirts for sale -- Betts, you'll find some Star Wars shirts there -- but the hottest seller seemed to be piles and piles of the actual black aluminum marquee letters, which were going for $10 each. I was tempted to buy a couple of those, but wound up walking out with a very nice re-issue poster of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Kiefaber mentioned that there were a lot of "flea market folks" waiting at the door when the theater opened that afternoon, but what those folks didn't realize was that the best stuff wasn't coming out first, because they were putting out the most recent things, which would be on the top of the pile in their storage rooms. Kiefaber figures the oldest posters, etc. would be toward the bottom of the pile. Sure enough, when we exited the theater, the marquee letters had been re-stocked and there were fresh (well, fresher) t-shirts on the tables.
He also said they planned to show a few more movies in the next few weeks, with possibly another late feature. Senator fans (or just simply fans of movies) should take note.
A couple of us -- Charlie Wittig, Dava Sentz, Gary Svehla, Gus Russo, and me -- went to the late showing of Horror of Dracula at the Senator last night, which no-longer-quite-the-owner Tom Kiefaber described as a donation from a private collector. There were many visible scratches in the print, but the color was bright and it was the Senator! This was only the second time I had ever seen a Hammer Dracula on the big screen, and if this turned out to be my final movie at this historic movie house, then Horror of Dracula certainly made just as fitting a send-off as The Godfather, which I saw last fall.
There were dozens and dozens of posters piled against the walls of the lobby, mostly selling for $20 a pop. There were also many promo t-shirts for sale -- Betts, you'll find some Star Wars shirts there -- but the hottest seller seemed to be piles and piles of the actual black aluminum marquee letters, which were going for $10 each. I was tempted to buy a couple of those, but wound up walking out with a very nice re-issue poster of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Kiefaber mentioned that there were a lot of "flea market folks" waiting at the door when the theater opened that afternoon, but what those folks didn't realize was that the best stuff wasn't coming out first, because they were putting out the most recent things, which would be on the top of the pile in their storage rooms. Kiefaber figures the oldest posters, etc. would be toward the bottom of the pile. Sure enough, when we exited the theater, the marquee letters had been re-stocked and there were fresh (well, fresher) t-shirts on the tables.
He also said they planned to show a few more movies in the next few weeks, with possibly another late feature. Senator fans (or just simply fans of movies) should take note.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Hunt for Gollum
I just found out about this and thought I'd share: http://www.thehuntforgollum.com/
An explanation of the movie, taken from the website:
The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.
It's independently funded and fan made, so they are not looking to make any money. They include this disclaimer-
The Hunt For Gollum is an unofficial non-profit film being made for private use, and is not intended for sales of any sort. No money is being made from this film, and no one was paid to make it. It is in no way sponsored or approved by Tolkien Enterprises, the Tolkien Estate, Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema or any affiliates. This work is produced solely for the personal, uncompensated enjoyment of ourselves and other Tolkien fans. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
That's called covering their asses. : )
It will be released online for free on May 3, 2009.
The thing is, the trailer actually looks good. They must have some sort of decent budget, because the orcs (in the little we see of them in the trailer) look really good. Fan-made stuff can, er, vary in quality, but this really looks like it falls on the high end of the scale. I have seen some fan shorts that make you wince, and some that make you go "YAH!!" this is one of the latter.
After watching the trailer, I am kinda looking forward to it now. It may be a good canidate for an after the meeting viewing.
An explanation of the movie, taken from the website:
The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.
It's independently funded and fan made, so they are not looking to make any money. They include this disclaimer-
The Hunt For Gollum is an unofficial non-profit film being made for private use, and is not intended for sales of any sort. No money is being made from this film, and no one was paid to make it. It is in no way sponsored or approved by Tolkien Enterprises, the Tolkien Estate, Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema or any affiliates. This work is produced solely for the personal, uncompensated enjoyment of ourselves and other Tolkien fans. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
That's called covering their asses. : )
It will be released online for free on May 3, 2009.
The thing is, the trailer actually looks good. They must have some sort of decent budget, because the orcs (in the little we see of them in the trailer) look really good. Fan-made stuff can, er, vary in quality, but this really looks like it falls on the high end of the scale. I have seen some fan shorts that make you wince, and some that make you go "YAH!!" this is one of the latter.
After watching the trailer, I am kinda looking forward to it now. It may be a good canidate for an after the meeting viewing.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Heroes and Villains
Entertainment Weekly, in its far-less-than-infinite wisdom, has come out with another of their polls designed to tick people off (like me) and get them writing (also like me). This one's on the Top 20 Heroes and Villains of All Time, combining movie and television characters within the same list. Some of their choices are spot-on, others just plain flat-out insane. Here are their lists. See how many you agree with.
Top 20 Heroes:
1. James Bond
2. Indiana Jones
3. Superman
4. Harry Potter
5. Ellen Ripley (the Alien movies)
6. John McClane (Die Hard)
7. Han Solo
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
9. Robin Hood
10. Spider-man
11. Mad Max
12. James T. Kirk
13. Foxy Brown
14. Will Kane (High Noon)
15. Harry Calahan
16. Jack Bauer (24)
17. Nancy Drew
18. Batman
19. Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
20. Sydney Bristow (Alias)
Top 20 Villains:
1. The Wicked Witch of the West
2. Darth Vader
3. Hannibal Lecter
4. The Joker
5. Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
6. Mr. Burns (The Simpsons)
7. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct)
8. Voldemort (Harry Potter and..well, everything)
9. Dracula
10. Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
11. J.R. Ewing
12. Norman Bates (Psycho)
13. Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)
14. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
15. Snow White's Evil Queen
16. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
17. Michael Myers (Halloween)
18. Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)
19. Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction)
20. Jack Torrance (The Shining)
On the one hand, it was nice to see older characters like Robin Hood, Atticus Finch, and the Wicked Witch represented. But on the other hand... Gordon Gekko? Mr. Burns?? Nancy Drew??!!?? Are you @#$%ing kidding me? I'll add a post later with my own choices, after I give it some thought. Hmmmmm.....
Top 20 Heroes:
1. James Bond
2. Indiana Jones
3. Superman
4. Harry Potter
5. Ellen Ripley (the Alien movies)
6. John McClane (Die Hard)
7. Han Solo
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
9. Robin Hood
10. Spider-man
11. Mad Max
12. James T. Kirk
13. Foxy Brown
14. Will Kane (High Noon)
15. Harry Calahan
16. Jack Bauer (24)
17. Nancy Drew
18. Batman
19. Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
20. Sydney Bristow (Alias)
Top 20 Villains:
1. The Wicked Witch of the West
2. Darth Vader
3. Hannibal Lecter
4. The Joker
5. Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
6. Mr. Burns (The Simpsons)
7. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct)
8. Voldemort (Harry Potter and..well, everything)
9. Dracula
10. Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
11. J.R. Ewing
12. Norman Bates (Psycho)
13. Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)
14. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
15. Snow White's Evil Queen
16. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
17. Michael Myers (Halloween)
18. Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)
19. Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction)
20. Jack Torrance (The Shining)
On the one hand, it was nice to see older characters like Robin Hood, Atticus Finch, and the Wicked Witch represented. But on the other hand... Gordon Gekko? Mr. Burns?? Nancy Drew??!!?? Are you @#$%ing kidding me? I'll add a post later with my own choices, after I give it some thought. Hmmmmm.....
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