A Week of Entertainment - Issue 3

Gotta say, I thought it was a slow week for anything real newsworthy.  So much so, that I'm leading off with a poster.

Poster of Future Past - This is the new poster released for the upcoming X-Men movie.  Don't have a whole to say about it.  I just thought it was cool and can't wait for the movie.

No More Monkey Business - Well, maybe a little bit more.  Everyone's favorite go to man in Hollywood to play the role of monkey is taking off the CGI mask and heading to the director's chair.  Andy Serkis is done monkeying around.  Now he wants to direct someone else to do it in the new live action Jungle Book.  On a side note, this will be another Snow White and the Huntsman/Mirror Mirror situation.  Two companies taking a beloved classic Disney cartoon and making a live action version.  It looks as though Serkis will be directing for Warner Brothers, while Jon Favreau directs his own version for Disney itself.

Aarruaghah, my back! - It looks like Arnold "I'll be back!" Schwarzenegger is keeping his promise once again.  The 66 year old Austrian actor is coming back to play the same T-800 robot he made famous waaaaay back in 1984.  Here's what he had to say:

“The way that the character is written, it’s a machine underneath,” he said. “It’s this metal skeleton but above that is human flesh, and the Terminator’s flesh ages, just like any other human being’s flesh. Maybe not as fast, but it definitely ages."

So, Skynet was able to develop technology that could teach itself and eventually take over the world, but they weren't smart enough to develop a synthetic skin that wouldn't age?  That's kinda weak Ahnold.  I love that you're back in the movies, but let this Terminator thing go.  All that being said.....I'm sure I'll probably go see it.

TMNTrash - I kid, I kid.  It's just that this new Ninja Turtles movie (new trailer) has two huge strikes against it.  Michael Bay and Megan Fox.  Yes, I will admit that I thought Transformers was entertaining.  Then they went and made 2 and 3.  The slightly promising news is, Bay is only producing, and in the trailer at least, Megan Fox had no dialogue.  Hopefully they will keep that to a minimum in the film too.  Although the storyline of Shredder working with O'Neil's father to create the turtles is something that will be hard to wrap my head around, the trailer had a few good things.  One, the turtles' fun-loving side showed through in a few of the scenes.  Two, the turtles' faces look a little funky, but other than that they don't look too bad.  Three, William Fichtner!  Seriously, I'll watch that guy in anything.  I mean, have you seen Drive Angry? Probably not, because it was a really crappy (although a lot of fun) Nicolas Cage movie.  Most of that fun is because William Fichtner is awesome.

Until next time......Kowabunga dudes!

Weekend Top 10 at the box office:

1 - Noah (new release) $44M

2 - Divergent  $26.5M

3 - Muppets Most Wanted $11.4M

4 - Mr. Peabody & Sherman $9.5M

5 - God's Not Dead $9M

6 - The Grand Budapest Hotel $8.8M

7 - Sabotage (new release) $5.3M

8 - Need For Speed $4.3M

9 - 300: Rise of an Empire $4.3M

10 - Non-Stop $4M

Movie Review: Draft Day

In Draft Day, the latest from Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), we get a day in the life of Sonny Weaver, Jr (Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams).  He is the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns whose father, the previous GM, has recently passed away.  The majority of the film takes place on the NFL draft day following Sonny from the time he gets up until draft itself.  It's a behind the scenes look at who he's going to pick, trades he makes, and the draft that ensues.

Yeah, I didn't thing that sounded like a real exciting plot either, but this movie has a lot going for it in my opinion.  First is the plot itself.  They took something that doesn't seem real exciting and made you feel how stressful it could really be.  Sonny has to take final looks at his draft prospects and find out if there is anything about them that they missed before.  There are trades offered from other GM's and there is conflict within his own franchise.  A clock is also occasionally thrown up on screen giving the countdown until the draft.  It gives a sort of feeling of pressure seeing the clock count down as he unveils more trades and info.

The strongest part of the whole film is the cast.  Kudos to the casting director because these guys all play well off each other.  On top of all the stress of the day, he of course has a love interest who is also the funds manager of the team, Ali (Jennifer Garner, Dallas Buyers Club).  The relationship adds to the stress of his decision making, and their onscreen chemistry is pretty good.

Through the whole film Sonny is trying his hardest to put together the best team he can.  However, he is a man who cares about character as well as stats and wants to go with his gut.  This is where he butts heads with the owner (Frank Langella, Robot & Frank) and Coach Penn (Denis Leary, The Ref).  They both think the golden ticket is the man with the best stats.  Costner and Leary's scenes together may be where the movie shines brightest.  All of the supporting roles really hit for me as well, from the prospective picks, to his mother, to the other GMs.  Reitman also threw in a little comic relief to lighten the mood in a few scenes without going over the top and disrupting the flow of the film.  Sonny's new assistant, Rick (Griffin Newman), brings just the right amount of well placed chuckles throughout.

The editing was also done in an interesting way.  There are many phone calls throughout the film, so it cuts to split screen quite often.  They didn't just keep it static though.  If someone were walking across the room, they would walk out of their frame, in front of the other person, and on to the other side of the screen where it would be split again.  It was a little different, but it worked well enough for me for the purpose it served.

This is a solid film.  I'm a sucker for a good Kevin Costner sports movie.  I can't say it is going to wow anyone, however, that being said, I can't point out too many inherent flaws in my opinion.  It's got a real solid cast and even if it is an exaggerated Hollywood version of what goes on behind the scenes at draft day, it's still an interesting peek behind the curtain.  Also, there is a lot of draft lingo thrown out there with the trades and the rounds and everything, but don't be intimidated.  I don't know the first thing about behind the scenes football, and they still made it easy enough to follow it.  If you're a fan of Costner or football or both check out this movie.

Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10)

Memorable Quote:

Sonny: Give me five minutes, then you can fire me.

Movie Review: Divergent

Divergent is the newest movie to come from another hit YA series of books.  It's brought to the big screen by Neil Burger (Limitless).


In a dystopian future (is there any other kind.....no, seriously, when is someone going to write about a future with sunshine and rainbows?), it is 100 years or so since the great war (which is never really explained or talked about) the crumbling city of Chicago is shut off from the world by a giant wall.  Within the walls, to keep the peace the city is divided into five factions....the brains....the athletes....the basket cases....the princesses.....and the criminals.  Wait, back up, wrong movie.  There actually are however the smarties (erudites), and athletes (dauntless).  Also, the selfless (abnegation), the farmers (amity), and the honest ones (candor).


At the age of 16, all members of society must take a kind of aptitude test to see which of the factions they fit into.  A place for everyone, and everyone in their place (except for the factionless, who don't pass initiation and end up homeless).  This story is about Tris (Shailene Woodley, The Descendents) who takes the test only to find out that she doesn't belong in any one particular group.  This is called divergent.  She finds out quickly that being divergent means not living long if anyone finds out.  At the choosing ceremony she chooses to join the dauntless because she grew up thinking they must have the most fun.  They are the young pretty ones who run around jumping off trains and climbing buildings and getting tattoos.  They are also the group in charge of protecting the city (from what, we are never told).  She trains under Eric (Jai Courtney, Jack Reacher), who's kind of a douche, and Four (Theo James, Underworld: Awakening), who looks like a long lost brother of James and Dave Franco and eventually becomes the love interest of Tris.  While training, Tris comes across a plan of the erudites to brainwash the dauntless to help take over the government completely while also killing off the divergents because they are apparently a danger to society.  Will she stop this heinous plan?  I'm not telling.


There was one flaw with the premise of this movie that kind of bothered me.  Everyone (other than divergents) supposedly get matched up to a specific faction.  You find out, however, that regardless of this, you may still choose to be in whichever faction you'd like anyway.  If this is true, then it doesn't really make any sense whatsoever for them to think that divergents are a danger to society.  If you can look past that, then this film has a decent world that it has built up, and I stayed at least mildly intrigued through the whole thing.  There were some things that just didn't get explained all that well, but mostly minor stuff.  During the initiation however, Tris gets put through physical and psychological testing.  In the psychological she gets through a fear test (in which you find out she must have seen Hitchcock's The Birds as a child) faster than anyone has before, and this poses a threat of exposing her as a divergent.  In the years and years of giving this test, nobody else ever was clever enough to do the same as her without being divergent?  I don't think so.


The acting was fairly solid throughout.  Woodley did a fine job in her role.  I really enjoyed Theo James as the mysterious love interest.  Miles Teller also was quite good as her competition in the initiation.  Oddly enough it was the big stars that seemed a little off to me.  Ashley Judd plays her mother and just did not work well for me at all.  And Kate Winslet didn't seem to be playing at 100%.  Who knows, maybe the pregnancy was throwing her off.


Overall, the movie doesn't have the greatest premise, but they've built an intriguing enough world that I was never bored.  The pace kept up well throughout and never lingered.  It moved smoothly from plot point to plot point and had a cool scene with a zip line that must have run from one side of the city to the other.  It has a few silly scenes and plot points keeping it down a notch, but if you are into the whole YA novel turned movie craze and these kind of stories interest you, then there might be something her for you.  It's kind of like Hunger Games Lite.  I will more than likely revisit this world with the next movie.


Rating: *****----- (5 out of 10)


Memorable quote:
Peter: You wouldn't shoot me.
Tris: Why does everybody keep saying that?

A Week (or 2) of Entertainment - Issue 2

A little busy with a state pool tournament last weekend, so I took a week off from this.  I know, already faltering after one issue.  But anywho, here's a few of the stories from the past two weeks that I personally found interesting or worth noting.

Last week they revealed the new logo for Fox's upcoming show Gotham.  I personally like it.  It's got everything you need.  It's dark and gritty the way Gotham should be, it's got the searchlight which will be the future sight of the bat signal, and I love the callback to the old animated series with the blimps flying through the city.  The show will be the story of Gordan's (played by Ben McKenzie) rise from detective to police commissioner.  It will also address the rise of the various villains such as Penguin and Catwoman.  The only thing that worries me is the friendship that will evolve between Gordon and a young Bruce Wayne.  I don't think I really want it to fall mostly over to Bruce's story and turn into another Smallville.  Nothing wrong with Smallville, but I would just rather see Gordon's story.  By the way, do I get some sort of commission for this since I had this idea way back in 2008 as witnessed by the end of this blog?  Anyway, I'm looking forward to checking this show out.


Another show I need to catch up on now that the first season is on Netflix is Arrow.  I was only really semi-interested until they recently introduced a little character named Barry Allen.  Coming fresh off of Arrow, he's getting his own show and they have recently showed the first pic of the costume.

I'm not going to praise or diss the costume.  History shows that you just can't judge it til you see it in action.  I'm instead just going to say how excited I am to see a new Flash tv show come to the small screen.  Rumor even has it that Jonathan Wesley Shipp has some as yet unspecified role! (He played the flash in the short lived live action show from 1990)


Speeding right along we come to a clash of the titans.  As of right now May 6, 2016 is going to be a big day for fanboys.  It's the current release date for Batman vs. Superman AND Captain America 3. (I know, more superhero news....hey, it's what I like).  I know this release date is going to change for one of the two powerhouses, because let's face it.....money.  But, how cool would it be to have two superhero movies this big open on the same day?  That would be one heck of a double feature.  Of course you have Captain America who's third movie in the well established Marvel-verse I'm already excited for if CA 2 is near as good as early buzz says.  Then you have Batman and Superman together for the first time on the big screen.  I don't care who says they hated Man of Steel.  Good or bad, this next movie is going to be a can't miss event.  Make mine Marvel and DC.


And just a quick note.  It's rumored that Sebastian Stan has signed a 9 movie deal with Marvel.  I don't want to go into spoilers for people who don't read Captain America.  For those of you who have read Winter Soldier and beyond, put the pieces together with that.  I'm excited if it means what I think it means.


Getting away from superheroes, we have a new teaser trailer for Peanuts, coming in 2015.  Normally, I groan at the thought of classic characters like these getting a makeover for the 21st century.  But watch this trailer and tell me you don't get a warm nostalgic feeling when you hear that old familiar Peanuts music start to play.  Then we get the Snoopy laugh and the signature "Good grief".  It's a short teaser, but it already feels like they have the tone of the characters done right.  It makes me smile every time I watch it.  Here's to hoping.  If the movie flops, I guess we can always pull out the old classic holiday episodes.


Speaking of old properties getting new treatment, rumor has it Ghostbusters 3 is still a go.  Of course this movie has been in the rumor mill for so long it's basically a running joke.  I love the first, and yes, even the second movie, but this third is so late in coming that I have never really paid much heed to any of the rumors.  That and the recent passing of comedy icon Harold Ramis, have left me cold to the idea of a third movie.  Recent news has piqued my interest though.  Lord and Miller are now in talks to direct.  After what they did with a children's book, an old 80's undercover cop drama, and recently children's building blocks though, you now have my attention.  Good luck, and remember not to cross the streams.


On a final note, Jimmy Fallon had what I think may be my new favorite introduction for a guest on a talk show (not that I really had one before).  Check out the clip here.


As before, let me know what you think of any of these stories, or stories I may have missed that you found interesting.  Comment below.


Until next time.....who you gonna call?


Weekend Top 10 at the box office:
1 - Divergent (new release)  $56M
2 - Muppets Most Wanted (new release)  $16.5M
3 - Mr. Peabody & Sherman  $11.7M
4 - 300: Rise of An Empire  $8.6M
5 - God's Not Dead (new release)  $8.5M
6 - Need For Speed  $7.7M
7 - The Grand Budapest Hotel $6.7M
8 - Non-Stop  $6.3M
9 - The LEGO Movie  $4.1M
10 - Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club  $3.1M

Movie Review: Need For Speed

Need For Speed is the sophomore effort by former stuntman turned director Scott Waugh.  His first film being Act of Valor which is shamelessly plugged in this film.  His eye for stunts is the one shining point to this otherwise generic racing film.

Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad) and his gang of mechanic friends are just trying to get by running his dead father's auto shop.  Money is tight, he's falling behind on loans.....enter Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper, The Devil's Double) as an old street racing rival turned pro.  There's bad blood from a stolen girlfriend or something?  Dino offers him a job which will help pay off the loan.  Then he offers to race Tobey to go all or nothing.  This race results in Tobey's best friend being run off the road and killed by Dino.  Dino runs away, gets an alibi and Tobey takes the fall for a two year stint in jail.  This seem long-winded?  That's just the set-up for the rest of the film, and it took up 30-40 minutes.  And still it didn't seem like it really gave any depth to the back stories of the characters.

From there Tobey gets angry and tries to get into a secret underground race in California to get back at Dino.  The majority of the film is essentially a race to get to the race in time.  Meanwhile, Dino hires other drivers to "take out" his competition along the way.  I guess what's next is a spoiler, but you've probably already figured out that he gets to the race in time and wins.  The end.

I want to be fair to the movie and at least play up it's strengths.  Like I said, Scott Waugh was a stuntman before, and that is a good thing for this film.  He did all practical effects.  What you see with the driving was really done.  Little to no CGI or special effects.  Some of the stunts are pretty cool, one involving a jump and another involving a helicopter.

The other good thing is some of the acting.  This narrows down mostly to the two leads, Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots.  I thought they had pretty good chemistry together, and were fun to watch when it was just those two.  Sadly, they had very little to work with because they apparently forgot to hire a script writer.  Another character who most didn't like because he was too over the top was the one I liked because he was too over the top.  That was the "mysterious" DJ Monarch (Michael Keaton, Robocob (2014)).  I also enjoyed Scott Mescudi, who played one of his comic relief mechanic friends.

Then there were the other actors.  Again, not entirely their fault.  Some of it was just the bad writing.  A good example is Dominic Cooper playing the bad guy.  He's very bland in this movie, but I know he can act.  He's fun as Howard Stark in the Marvel movies, and if you want to see some of the best acting of the past few years, watch him in The Devil's Double.  He is absolutely phenomenal.

The biggest downfall of the film is the story, and before you start, I was well aware that the story was going to be weak going in.  However it's the character development that makes it not work.  The whole opening of the film didn't work because even spending as much time as they did you still didn't really care about the rivalry.  I wanted Tobey to just take the initial money and go back to his shop.  He took the race instead.  This also was frustrating because Pete's death is what ultimately drives him to the end of the film.  We're supposed to feel sympathy about Pete's death, but it was the result of a reckless race through town where they caused several car accidents and almost killed a homeless man.  Tobey is supposed to be a sympathetic protagonist through the movie, which would have worked for me if I didn't watch him leave a path of death and destruction across the whole country through the entire movie.

Despite all this, I still did have a little fun watching the middle "Smokey and the Bandit" section of the movie.  Yes, he causes accidents, but it's a little fun watching him evade the cops across the country with the help of two friends in a truck (resulting in a high speed gas refill), and one eye in the sky (Mescudi inexplicably showing up in multiple stolen aircrafts including a Cessna plane, a news helicopter and somehow an Army helicopter with a stupefied co-pilot).  And like I said, Keaton brought a little life to the end of his movie with his "mysterious, identity unknown" DJ Monarch.  (Not sure how this works, when he plasters his face on his web feeds). 

Overall, it's really not a great movie.  If you can turn off your brain for the plot holes and make it through the 30-40 minute set-up, you might have fun watching the racing and high speed chases, if that's what you're after.  I'd at least suggest a red box rental when it comes out.

Rating: ****------ (4 out of 10)

Memorable Quote:
Julia Bonet: Never judge a girl by her Gucci boots.

A Week of Entertainment - Issue 1

This is just a little recap of the things I found interesting in the entertainment world over the past week.


First off, the Oscars happened.  As if nobody knew that already.  I thought Ellen did a fine job, and so did most everyone else I guess.  It had the most viewers of any Oscars for the past 10 years.  I'm not sure I understand all the people who hate on the Oscars every year.  Is it all politics?  Yes. (Heck, 2 of the academy members  apparently came out anonymously and admitted to voting 12 Years a Slave as best picture without ever having seen it.)   Is it actors patting themselves on the back?  Yes.  You don't like that?  Quit complaining and watch something else.  Despite these things, I still love watching the Oscars because it's still entertaining and it's about celebrating movies.  The only time it's messed up is when they choose a terrible host *cough* James Franco *cough*.  I loved watching Seth McFarlane last year.  And Ellen was quite entertaining this year as well.  It also helped that the movies were all quite good too.  Even if some people voted 12 Years without seeing it, it at least was one heck of a film, and quite deserving.  (Even though I wanted Gravity to win, but hey, they got umpteen million other Oscars that night.)  The Oscars make for a fun night to get together with friends and celebrate the one thing that everyone loves....movies.  My wife and I had our second annual Oscar party which was quite successful and a lot of fun.  Hope to keep it going.


Now, we have been seeing a ton of trailers for Captain America: Winter Soldier, and I have been getting more and more excited about this movie.  I think this is gearing up to be one of the best of the second phase for Marvel.  Usually I don't like getting too much of a look at a movie before it comes out, but I've gotta share the clip that they sent out this week.  All I've got to say is AWESOME!  I want more!


This year seems to be the resurgence of forgotten Frank Miller projects.  This weekend saw the opening of 300: Rise of an Empire.  This is apparently what they are calling an interquel to the movie 300, which came out way back in 2006.  I guess they were sick of sequels and prequels and decided to go with movies that take place at the same time as the first.  Not necessarily new, I guess.  I mean we all saw Lion King 1 1/2 right?  But, the project I'm more looking forward to is Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, the long-awaited sequel (at least by me) to 2005's Sin City.  This week we finally saw the arrival of the first trailer.  Personally I think Rodriguez has made way too many Spy Kids movies, but I really loved the style of the first Sin City and hope to see more of the same.  This trailer really looks like it might deliver.


And last, but certainly not least, was an e-bay sale this week for arguably the most recognizable bike in movie history.  One of the bikes actually used in the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure sold this week for $36,000.  Seriously, why did no one buy this for me?  I want it.  I'll let you know when it goes up for sale again so you can break out your wallets.


Any news that caught your eye this week?  Any opinions about these items?  Let me know.


Until next time......remember, there's no basement in the Alamo!

Movie Review: Gravity

The Oscars are coming right up this evening and I thought I'd finally get around to my review of the film I think should take Best Picture tonight.  This opinion is based of course on the 6 of 9 movies I actually got around to seeing. Gravity makes me appreciate being planted right here on the ground.  Matt Kowalski (George Clooney, ER) is an experienced astronaut doing a routine mission with Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock, Speed), who is up there for the first time.  Stone is a medical engineer who was sent up to fix some computer on a satellite.  Whatever, not important, because what ends up happening is a tale of survival for the two of them in this terrifying space drama by Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).  The Russians blow up one of their own satellites for God knows what reason, and this sets off a chain reaction of debris when it hits another satellite and that debris heads straight for our protagonists.


First off, Gravity is a visual spectacle.  I more of a practical effects guy, but what they did with this film blew me away.  It is at least 90% digital effects and it is so seamless that you don't even notice.  You really feel like you are up in that emptiness of space with them.  The shots are all beautiful too, from the flying debris to the sunrise over the earth to an amazing shot towards then end of more debris falling to earth.  There was also a lot of detail put into the framing of shots, visual details, and structure of the film itself.  While the movie is about trying to survive a disaster it also more about Stone's overcoming a personal tragedy and realizing that she want to survive and live.  It is a story about faith and rebirth.  One of the most beautiful shots is when Stone makes it to a station and takes off her suit in the zero gravity.  It is framed with her in the fetal position looking like she is in the womb.  She had a tragedy back on earth and had been losing purpose and this shot takes place when she realizes that she actually is glad to be alive and would like to stay that way.  There is also a lot of religious imagery from Jesus to Buddha to Marvin the Martian....wait what?  :)


George Clooney in this film plays his usual character.  He's good as the cocky, handsome astronaut.  He however doesn't make it long (not a spoiler, I think it was given away in the trailers).  He does put in a real good performance though.  Sandra Bullock, however is the "star" in this vehicle (pun intended).  I feel it is definitely her best performance to date and worthy of the Oscar nod.  The emotion she puts into this role is amazing.  What is also amazing is her choreographed, graceful almost dance like moves through zero gravity.  I'm not sure how they were filmed, but you can tell they couldn't have been easy.  The actors, for the most part, were not working with much for visuals since it was all digitally added later.  So, she had to have memorized all her marks and had to hit them right.  And she did so gracefully.


Overall, I think this movie was simply the best of the year.  Visually striking, excellently acted.  There was definite suspense with many of the scenes having me on the edge of my seat, while still having a touching story of rediscovery.  It is on it's last legs in the theater run, but if you can still see it in the theater I would highly recommend it.  And I really don't care for 3D most of the time, but I would actually recommend this one.  It is very well done and adds a depth to the vastness of space.  In short, go see this movie.


Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Ryan Stone: "Clear skies with a chance of satellite debris"