Filed Under christmas, malcolm magic, robots
Today totally got away from me, so I’m going to post this awesome Christmas card I got from the Blink Twice boys and be done. I’ll try to do some catching up tomorrow.
Merry Christmas to you too, Robin and Lawrence! Thanks!
Filed Under robots, scifi, shyamalan, spies, wanted
Did a lot of catching up at the movies this week.
WALL-E
As promised in the trailers: very cute and sweet. I was hoping for more than cute or sweet though, like with Ratatouille, Toy Story 2 or Finding Nemo. All of those movies touched me. They made me re-feel things I’d forgotten about. The robots weren’t able to do that for me. I liked them all and wanted them to be okay, but they didn’t tell me anything about me, so I didn’t like it as much as some other Pixar stuff I’ve seen.
Also, I have serious questions about life on that spaceship.
Four out of five Fred Willards.
Get Smart
Not at all what I expected, but I still really liked it. I’ve never watched Get Smart, but I imagined it was sort of like Inspector Gadget or the Pink Panther movies. I figured Maxwell Smart was one of those incompetent heroes who managed to bumble and slapstick their way to successfully closing cases. Steve Carell’s Maxwell Smart actually knows what he’s doing most of the time, but things just don’t always go his way.
The funniest bits were in the trailer, so I was disappointed in it as a comedy. I was pleasantly surprised though about how well it worked as a straight – if lighthearted – spy movie. Everyone in it was awesome from Carell to the Rock to Alan Arkin (who had way more to do than I thought he would) to Anne Hathaway.
Four out of five swordfish.
The Happening
I like the premise. This would’ve made an awesome B-movie in the tradition of Day of the Animals or The Day of the Triffids. Absolutely nothing wrong with the plot. What’s wrong with it is all in the execution.
Shyamalan takes the movie way too seriously and tries so hard to ground it in reality – to make us feel what it would be like if this really happened – that he achieves the opposite effect. The performances practically quiver with the strain of looking sincere in the ridiculousness of the situation. I wanted so much to lose myself in the story, but the dialogue and the acting were so forced and fake that I never could.
Two out of five killer plants.
Wanted
After seeing Wanted, I truly believe that if you sling your gun just right while pulling the trigger, you can curve a bullet. Okay, maybe not, but my problem with Wanted has nothing to do with unbelievability. My suspension of disbelief is quite healthy and the movie did nothing to compromise it. The story stayed true to the internal logic it set up for itself and it was a darn fine story besides. There were plenty of surprises and everyone stayed in character, even when doing so wasn’t the easiest choice for the movie to make.
My complaint is about the main character. The movie goes to such great extents to portray Wesley as a loser in the first act that it succeeds too well. I didn’t feel sorry for him; I pretty much hated him and felt like he was getting exactly what he deserved out of life. He was such a pushover and let people walk all over him to the point that I finally figured, “If this guy doesn’t care about himself, why should I?”
The movie eventually overcomes that flaw by turning Wesley into someone I like and can root for, but then drops the ball at the end by having him go back and revisit his old life from his new perspective. I’d rather he have left that life behind completely, but he still cares enough about the jerks who’ve made his life miserable that he feels he has to go back and prove himself to them.
If Superman was created as wish-fulfillment fantasy for kids, Wanted is wish-fulfillment fantasy for the cubicle set. If I hated my life as much as Wesley does, I might like Wanted more. I might feel challenged by the final line of the movie instead of thinking it sounded hollow and stupid.
Still, lots of cool action sequences, a really smart plot, and the movie raises some interesting questions about things like faith and loyalty.
Four out of five super-bullets.
All in all, not a bad week at the movies.
Filed Under doctor who, giant monsters, lord of the rings, robots, sam hiti, thundarr
Ooka the Mok
By
Why Frodo sucks
According to Chris Sanders.
Los Tiempos Finales Giant Monster
By Sam Hiti. I cannot wait for this book.
Doctor Who
By Dave Perillo.
Robur the Conqueror
By Frank R. Paul.
Filed Under hulk, robots, shyamalan, spies, talking animals, wanted
Oops. I forgot to do this earlier. Here’s what looks good this month at the movies.
June 6
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan: The Michael May from early June was way looking forward to a movie with a laugh-out-loud trailer in which Adam Sandler plays a bullet-catching super-spy. That’s the only reason I’m listing it. The current Michael May is hearing that it’s even worse than Little Nicky. That’s impossible, but my interest in it is still severely diminished. Still, I’ll give it a look on DVD and find out for myself.
Mongol: (Limited release) I know precious little about Genghis Khan, but I’ve always been curious about him. Plus, the trailer for this looks amazing.
Kung Fu Panda: Already saw it. It was exactly what I expected: a fun movie about anthropomorphic animals kicking each others butts as only CGI martial artists can. The theater where we saw it lost sound for about ten minutes, but I liked it enough that I’m interested in sitting through it again to fill in what I missed.
June 13
The Incredible Hulk: Seen it. Liked it.
The Happening: This is another one that I’m less excited to see now that it’s been out and people aren’t saying very nice things about it. Then again, people tend not to say nice things about Shyamalan movies and I tend to like his stuff anyway. Still, I was hoping that the buzz would be more positive.
June 20
Get Smart: Everything about this looks hilarious. Steve Carrell and the Rock can do no wrong anyway, but even Anne Hathaway – whom I can usually take or leave – looks very, very takeable here.
June 27th
WALL-E: I’m not as excited about this as I think I should be (too much emphasis on the Cute in the marketing probably), but it’s Pixar and I trust them.
Wanted: Now this I’m excited about. And only a little because it’s Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Mainly it’s the level of energy I’ve seen in the trailers. I’m expecting great things.
What looks good to you?
Filed Under femme noir, indiana jones, lord of the rings, obama, robots, spies, tolkien
Indiana Jones makes Life better
My automatic dislike of licensed versions of classic boardgames is pretty much suspended where Indiana Jones is concerned. And Pirates of the Caribbean.
Warren Ellis on Obama
I’m not going to link to it, but I recently found out that another Michael May runs a conservative political blog. I don’t really feel like this is the place to talk about politics, but just to balance things out a little, here’s a link to Warren Ellis’ thoughts on Obama. They pretty much mirror my own:
I like what I know of Barack Obama. I’m glad it’s him. I have concerns — about the strength and breadth of his platform, and, frankly, about his safety, in a country where supporting a black man over a white woman is apparently worth confronting someone in email over — and I distrust the messianic Obamania I see here and there. I understand the sentiment and its roots, but I don’t like it: it invites the universe to fuck with your life. But, from my perspective over here in Britain, he has something America needs in a leader right now.
Indiana Jones is better than commies
Well, that pretty much goes without saying, doesn’t it?
Is Sydney Pollack’s directing interfering with your phone call?
I’ve seen the Martin Scorsese one at the theater, but I didn’t realize there were others. Man, I’m going to miss Sydney Pollack.
What the heck. Here’s Scorsese’s too in case you haven’t seen it:
Zombie Cosette
I’m not a big zombie fan. I know… heresy. Grab the stakes and torches. I just don’t care about Evil Dead: The Musical. I am a big Les Miserables fan though, so this poster for the zombie musical cracks me up.
World War Robot
Isn’t that the best title for a comic ever? And Ash Wood’s art for it is especially good.
Speaking of robots
The third issue of Femme Noir will feature a robot mobster. How cool is that? Writer Christopher Mills has a preview at his blog.
The “real” Indy
Not really, but it’s still a cool story about a real-life adventurer.
Who is Bilbo Baggins?
Guillermo and Peter ain’t saying who’ll play Bilbo in the Hobbit movie, but they’ve definitely been thinking about it and this quote from Del Toro sounds very promising:
We are writing based on [Ian Holm's performance], but other than that, we have ideas [of who could play him] … I can tell you that it’s down to a few names that we all agree upon. And that our first choice … completely, magically, we said the same name. All of us!
Burn After Reading
I love the Coen Brothers and I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited to see one of their movies. Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and JK Simmons in a spy comedy? September can’t get here fast enough.
Filed Under giant robots, robots, star wars, wonder woman
Monster Bike
Monster Trucks don’t do much for me, but this…! Batman needs one of these.
Thanks, Robert Hood!
Wonder Woman in Playboy
Remember how upset people got when Playboy ran a Wonder Woman-themed pictorial? I wonder what they’d think of this. (No nekkidness, but still probably not safe for work.)
Giant Robot Jellyfish
Tell you what. Slap some lasers on it and I’ll take twelve.
Thanks, Talien’s Tower!
But I’ll only need one of these
Thanks, SF Signal!
Sam the Robot
I’d forgotten all about this character from Sesame Street.
A lot more classic Sesame Street at Kung Fu Rodeo.
Filed Under aliens, chuck, flash gordon, grant gould, indiana jones, jessica hickman, keira knightley, robots, shazam, thing, wanted
Namely: write ups on underappreciated DC characters like the Grim Ghost (who’d be much more interesting if he still called himself the Gay Ghost), G.I. Robot (it’s all there in the name, pal), and the dino-kicking, poison-blooded Green Man. Gorilla Grodd’s there too, making me fantasize about what a cool comic it would be to have him fight the Green Man, G.I. Robot, and the Gay Ghost.
Did Millar bait-and-switch the Wanted movie?
“What many people don’t know is that Wanted was optioned before the series was concluded … At that time, Mark had an idea based around a society of assassins that worked underground or behind the scenes, and that’s what the producers bought. Mark then decided to go in the direction that Earth was once populated by superheroes, but they have been vanquished, … and supervillains now run the Earth [in] five major cabals that run the whole world.”
Before the series was “concluded?” It sounds to me like it was optioned before the series was started. I’m not saying that Millar was necessarily unethical because I don’t know what kind of communication went on with the filmmakers as he was changing his mind. I am saying though that I’m way more excited about the movie than I am about ever reading the comic.
“You have to please the original fans, but also make it survive on its own for people who might not be familiar with the series,” Segal said. “So we try to do both, and that’s constantly the balancing act. But I think the underlying similarity between adapting Shazam and adapting Get Smart is you have to love the source material, you have to embrace it. You can’t look at it as a fixer-upper.”
Grant Gould and Jessica Hickman interview
I talk about ‘em every time the word “convention” gets brought up. Now you can get to know them a bit yourself thanks to this Comics Bulletin interview.
Chuck news
Tony Hale (Buster from Arrested Development) will be joining the cast of Chuck next season as a Buy More efficiency expert. That promises some really funny moments, but in the meantime, you can catch up on Season 1 when it’s released on DVD September 16.
Kiera?
The Keira Knightley 2009 Calendar is already available for pre-order. I wonder if misspelling her name will cost them any sales.
Filed Under giant robots, robots, scifi, star wars, westerns
Star Crash
How the heck did I miss this when I was twelve? Naomi from The Spy Who Loved Me, Captain Von Trapp, the Hoff, and the crappiest effects you’ve ever seen. I wanna see!
Thanks, Christopher Mills!
The Empire Strikes Back in 60 seconds
Thanks, Star Wars Blog!
High Tech Noon
Forget Outland (not really, it’s awesome). Here’s your real scifi update of High Noon.
Thanks, SciFi Signal!
The Builders
And what do they build? Giant robots, natcherly!
Thanks, Robert Hood!
Robot Pulp Fiction
I can’t embed this one, but it’s clever enough to make it worth clicking through.
Filed Under brad meltzer, conventions, cori doerrfeld, eli stone, indiana jones, king kong, robots, sam hiti, scott foley, star wars, superman, the unit, thor, tyler page, victor garber
Kong movie sequel
I haven’t read it all the way through yet, but I’ve got Joe DeVito’s book Kong: King of Skull Island. There was nothing really wrong with the book to make me put it down, but I was trying to read it directly after the disappointing prequel novel, King Kong: The Island of the Skull and the Thoroughly Awesome Peter Jackson movie. The prequel novel burned me out on anything that wasn’t the movie and unfortunately, DeVito’s book fell into that category.
Still, it’s got pretty pictures and promised to be a cool story, so I’d like to get back to it if only I had the time. Markosia did a comics adaptation, but the art was disappointing, so I didn’t buy it. Fortunately, there’s going to be a movie. Hopefully, it’ll be better than the previous attempts at movie sequels.
My two bits on the Thor casting rumor
Of course it’s not news that Marvel would love to have Brad Pitt play Thor. I’m sure Marvel would love to have Brad Pitt play Batroc the Leaper if they could get him. What’s important about this no-brainer is that it’s made me realize that yes, someone like Brad Pitt would make a good Thor and that no, it doesn’t have to be a no-acting muscle-man in the role.
Super hero movies rule right now because they’re starring real actors and I’m confident that whoever they get to play Thor will be able to hold his own next to Robert Downey Jr., Ed Norton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the Avengers movie.
Mystery of the Crystal Skulls
The SciFi Channel’s currently running a documentary on the crystal skulls legends. Gotta set my TiVo. Looks like the next showings are tomorrow at 4:00 PM and May 28 at 10:00 AM. I’m assuming those are Eastern Times.
The Terminator countdown clock marches on
The US military is building warbots that look like spiders. Do these people not watch movies?
Why I’m not at all excited to see the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon
Because Topless Robot is totally right that we don’t need more Jabba and Tatooine stories. I think Lucas is as tired of Star Wars as I am. I saw the trailer before Speed Racer and I was actually bored. I never thought I’d say that about Star Wars.
Eli Stone and The Unit renewed
This may fall under the category of Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me, but it makes me very happy that both Eli Stone (Yay, Sydney’s Dad!) and The Unit (Yay, Dreamy Noel!) have been renewed for next season.
Seriously? Victor Garber is probably my favorite actor right now. He’s “sinnnnfully delicious.” (My undying love to you if you get that reference.) And it occurs to me that his daughter on Alias used to be married to Dreamy Noel, so… small world.
Welcome to Your World, Baby
Cute, pink, children’s books are something else that I don’t often talk about here, but it’s Truly Awesome that Cori Doerrfeld – one of my favorite visual artists – is illustrating a cute, pink, children’s book for Brooke Shields. Cori and her husband Tyler Page are two people I always look forward to seeing at conventions and getting new stuff from.
Speaking of conventions
Here’s a picture Jess Hickman took of me and Sam Hiti jawing before MicroCon while Grant Gould is hard at work.
The Book of Lies
Brad Meltzer’s new book will feature the search for two murder weapons: the gun that killed the father of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, and the item that Cain used to kill Abel. Sounds very, very cool.
Indiana Jones makes everything better, ad infinitum
Filed Under aliens, flash gordon, frazetta, galaxyquest, giant monsters, giant robots, knight rider, larklight, nazis, robots, star wars, steampunk, thundercats, vikings
Star Wars 1942
This idea is really long overdue when you think about it.
Out with Flash Gordon; in with Knight Rider
Really neither Flash Gordon’s cancellation nor Knight Rider’s being picked up as a series should come as a surprise.
GalaxyQuest comics
I don’t know if this can capture the Awesomeness of the movie, but I’m sure gonna find out.
Larklight
For those of us who like the steampunk movies but were a tad disappointed in The Golden Compass, here’s our second chance.
Frank Frazetta’s Savage World
More here.
Not too incredible Shrinking Man
Enough with the comedy remakes of cool scifi properties. It’s not attractive on Land of the Lost and it doesn’t make me want to see The Incredible Shrinking Man either. I mean, Eddie Murphy? Honestly.
Robot McGee explains fine art
Is fine art a mystery to you? Never fear. Now there’s a robot who will explain famous paintings to you. Sort of.
Steampunk Star Wars action figures
Somebody give this man a job designing these things so they can be mass-produced and I can buy them.
Steampunk anthology
This sounds like a must-have and Bookgasm’s interview with the editors is a must-read if only for the numerous recommendations of other steampunk books.
Giant Styrobot
Pretty self-explanatory actually.
Giant monster attacks inevitable
Why oh why will no one listen to the scientists?
We can say with certainty that there will be a giant monster attack on Washington DC within the next twenty years, and that this monster will probably pee on the Jefferson Memorial…
Wake up, people!
Giant robot imprisons cars
And it’s not like we can rely on our giant robots. They’re already turning against us!
Stupid scientists plan giant, buzz-saw-wielding, “fire fighter” robot.
This is going to go horribly, horribly wrong.
Kim Jong Il unfolds into giant robot
We’re all doomed.
Outlander poster
On a lighter note, the alien vs. Vikings vs. giant monster movie Outlander now has a poster.
Super Robot Red Baron
“Red Baron is a show that’s all about chunky-looking giant robots fighting each other and thrashing lots of model buildings, which is a formula that’s pretty hard to find fault with.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Thundercats, Ho!
I guess Thundercats Season 2 is available in the UK now or something.
