Part 2 of our new feature: Is it worth a Redbox rental. We watch shaky movies for you and decide if they are worth that $1.50 Redbox rental. Today's movie is the Wedding Ringer starring Kevin Hart, that chick from the Big Bang Theory, and that dude that voiced Olaf in Frozen. When those are your selling points, you should know your movie is in trouble.
So is it worth your $1.50. In a word, no. In two words, Hell No! Look, Kevin Hart is a funny dude, I guess. I am not the fan that some people are and I think as a stand up he is highly overrated. But the material in this movie is not worthy of the meager talents that he has and he cannot elevate the movie into something that is even passable. I may have had two chuckles this entire movie.
The movie is a Hitch rip off essentially. Black guy works with fat white guy who has outkicked his coverage on the girl he is going to marry. The biggest difference being Will Snith is a movie star who can make ( or could make) average material entertaining, whereas Kevin Hart can't do that yet and probably never will. The weird premise is that the dude has no friends to be his best man or groomsmen. Really? What dude has no friends? Even the most secluded dudes I know have at least 1 person they can count on!
So its bad. I kinda want to petition all of you for a penny to get my money back for watching it for you!
As DC is getting the big room all to themselves at comic-con this week, so much information is coming out about Batman V Superman. I thought it was great to see Wonder Woman front and center on the cover of EW this week. From reading the articles, it seems that she has a prominent role in this movie and is not just in a cameo/guest appearance. There was the picture of Bruce and Diana Prince and information from the numerous articles out stated that she knows Bruce is Batman so that is an interesting choice on how their relationship will proceed moving forward. So good for DC and I hope they do not disappoint this week; although they are really competing against themselves!
One of the more interesting things coming out in all this hype by DC is that the director of Batman V Superman and Ben Afflek as well were stating that they DC movies are different from the Marvel movies in that they are more " realistic". Werd? This got me to thinking about this and I am not sure if I can roll with that. Look, they are trying to distinguish themselves from a pretty crowded market of comic book movies and they have to bump their product because no one else will- I get that! But they should pump the breaks on "more realistic". These are comic book movies- none of it is realistic. This is fantasy and make believe- none of it is realistic. I think DC and their fans fall back on that argument because of Batman. And Batman should be their most realistic hero because he does not have any superpowers. If you go back and look a the Dark Knight trilogy, it does have a grimy, realistic feel to it because the hero is so grounded. Batman's tragic backstory plays into that and they have made that moody, emotionally detached version of Batman cannon for the character moving forward. This is the natural overreaction to the campiness of Batman and Robin and no one wants to go back to that version of the Dark Knight. So I get where people are coming from... with Batman!
But, the other DC cinematic movie is Man of Steel. Um, there is nothing realistic about that movie or the character- no matter how hard they try to "Batman" him up. Yes his dad died and that is tragic but he is still a super powered ALIEN with god like powers. No realism there. The director of MOS and of BvS, Zacj Snyder stated that the ending of MOS is realistic in t how they are dealing with the destruction caused by Superman and Zod at the end of the movie and that is one of the reasons for Batman getting involved in all of this. Ok? I guess that makes it more realistic but that wont make your movie any good. Look, people that watch this movie don't care about that! No more than they cared about taxation of trade routes in the Phantom Menace. People want to see Superman being Superman and there is nothing realistic about the character.
I wrote about this before in that DC maybe needs to power down some of the other Justice League folks to give their movies a more grounded feeling but maybe I was wrong. If they are going there with Justice League, then maybe they need to go all out. Each super with their super powers batting powerful super villains. That would make them distinct from Marvel! If you wound be a ying to the yang and distinguish their properties from Marvel in a positive way. How would the public receive it? I don't know but copying the Marvel way may not be the best formula for success for DC!
I am so back and forth on this movie. I liked the Dark Knight but I though the rest of the Batman trilogy was balls. I thought the concept of MOS was OK but the execution was heavy handed and was rushed to conclusion. I know people are gonna lose their minds from the trailer this week and good for them but I caution you( and myself) that trailers makes all, well most, movies look good. I am hoping for the best when this movie comes out because if done properly, it will be great to see these characters on the screen and to eventually see a Justice League movie. I am just not sure if DC has the patience to pull it off because they want it so bad.
Is
Hollywood out of monkeys ? Why do we need Top Gun 2 ?!! Who wants to
see Tom Cruise play someone's father/ mentor. I'm sure Kelly McGinnis
and Val Kilmer have already advised they are available to reprise their
original roles. Both of them have been dragged down the dusty road of
time by their faces. Throw in Meg Ryan too....
Dang... How they look like this and Cruise still look 35?
Surely they will add some minorities. The Hispanic guy named Renaldo Sanchez Codename " Chalupa
" who wants to protect his new country from America's enemies. The
woman, probably played by Rhonda Rousey (she's in everything else)
Codename "Chude " chick-dude. The black person will have a checkered past, Codename "Selma", was Affirmative Action'd into Top Gun. They will also have a redneck, Codename "Skynyrd".
The movie will spend the first hour showing the heroes fighting each
other, then Cruise will go into some scene chewing diatribe telling them
that he was just like them until he killed his co-pilot. They all then
get on board to work as a team.
Then the movie goes into "Best of the Best/ Pitch Perfect " mode. There is an America versus the World competition, The Xenu - HubbardGames. The bad guys have some new technology, courtesy of Edward
Snowden. Team America is struggling in the competition. One of our
pilots gets killed, probably the black pilot, of course . Team America
gets inspired. Skynyrd eats Chitlins and we win. Where's my damn Banana ?
As get we closer to comi-con, lots of information is leaking out about upcoming movies. Entertainment Weekly about broke the internet leaking their Trinity cover yesterday ( I will have more to say about that later). But one of the articles in there was about our Merc with a Mouth- Deadpool!
EW has a feature article about the movie that is coming out in February 2016. The movie will star Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, AKA Wade Wilson, This will be the 2nd time Reynolds has played the role. Originally he played Wade Wilson/Deadpool in the unfortunate Wolverine: Origins. And to be honest, he was not the worst thing about that movie- especially before he was turned into the"Deadpool". His introduction in the movie and the use of his powers was actually kinda cool. They were able to play upon Reynolds' natural ability to be a smart ass and this scene works on many levels. The movie goes super downhill from here, tho!
Ryan Reynolds has been attached to the Deadpool movie project since Wolverine: Origins and the movie was set to be made shortly after Origins. But then Origins did not perform well, Ryan Reynolds made Green Lantern and that did not perform well and Fox mothballed the project in developmental hell. During that developmental time, a studio worked with Ryan Reynolds and completed this VFX short that truly did break the internet. It was so well received, the process for making the Deadpool movie was green lit to the movie we are going to see in 2016
So now as info comes out, the movie will be rated R and from yesterday, movie producers said it will be an "Hard R"-whatever the hell that means. There have been some R rated superhero movies int he past- probably most notably Blade, the Watchmen and Sin City. And those movies were successful in various degrees. But from the sounds of things, this movie is gonna be crazy violent and gory, and with language to match and I have to say I am surprised. Movie studios are about making money and making an R rated movie about a comic book character immediately takes a set of eyes off that movie( kids) because their parents( if they love them) wont take them to see that movie. I have a 10 year old son who loves the character Deadpool. There is no way in hell I am going to take him to see this!
And I find myself torn about this. The comic book movie fan in me wants to see THAT Deadpool movie that is true to the character and that is violent and funny and breaks the 4th wall. I think it has the potential to be unique and unlike anything we have ever seen. But its also a comic book movie and these movies, while enjoyed by adults, are made for kids and making a super violent comic book movie for kids is kind of an oxymoron, Adults have their option of plenty of movies to see for violence, language, and nudity if that is what you want. Do we need to make comic book movies just for adults? I truly an conflicted!
I hope this movie is successful! I may not see it because of my son out of a sense of fairness to him but I kinda wish I didn't have to choose between taking my son to an ultra violent comic book movie and seeing it by myself.
More and more information has been coming out about the Gambit movie. Most of the information is coming from Gambit ( Channing Tatum) himself. News that the first draft of the script is done, the director has been chosen, and Gambit will make an appearance in Xmen: Age of Apocalypse next year setting him up for his solo movie. Information has also been leaked that the Gambit movie will be an origin story.
And today's information is that Channing Tatum is working on his accent for the movie and his card tricks.... Sigh
Look, Gambit is one of my favorite characters from the comic and from X-men the animated series. I wrote before about how I liked his swag and how here breathed some new energy into the Xmen comics in the 90's when they were getting stale.
But Fox is going about this movie all wrong- on so many levels. Fox is working from the outside in on their movies and I think that is a mistake. If they are committed to having a solo movie for Gambit, he should have been introduced in the movies already. You have to give reasons for people to care about this character outside of the X-universe. Granted, he will be in AoA but for how long? That movie is already chocked full of heroes and reintroduction of heroes( Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey). A Gambit cameo is not going to make people care enough about the character to go see a solo movie. The thought I guess is that they are banking on Channing Tatum to carry the movie based upon him being Channing Tatum. This is also a mistake. He is a star ( I guess) and he has the Magic Mike thing and 21 Jump Street but those movies are not succeful because of Channing Tatum. They are brands and he participates in the brand. A Gambit solo movie will need to be carried by him and I am not sure he is up to it!
But most important, I am not sure the character itself is interesting enough to carry a solo movie. I've always felt that Gambit works best in short doses, He comes in, he is cool, he uses his cool powers, and then he moves out. I am not sure learning about the thieves and assassins guilds or the marriage between him and Bella Donna is the origin story they are going for But if they are, I am out already.
Maybe they introduce Mr. Sinister and his connection to Gambit but that seems like a stretch too since they have not introduced Sinister yet. But it looks like they are doing Morlocks in AoA and maybe Gambit is introduced that way as working for Sinister like he was in the books? I just don't know and I just donut trust Channing Tatum and Fox to pull it off.
*** this article will deal with the original team of Alpha Flight not the many failed restarts of the book and the teams which were undeniably terrible. You can check out all X-Men history with Alpha Flight in the X-Men the animated series. They do it in 22 minutes!
Happy Canada Day! I do not know what that really means because I am an American but it seems to be very important. From a comics perspective, tho, I wanted to look at the original Alpha Flight- which some described when they debuted as Canada's answer to the Avengers. Werd? I wouldn't go THAT far but they are definitely Canada's answer to the X-men and that is where we start!
In case its not obvious, Weapon Alpha is wearing Canadian Pajamas
In the late 1970's, John Bryne( artist) and Chris Claremont were in the middle of their fantastic run on the X-Men. Claremonts writing and Byrnes super clean artwork made the book a must read for comic book heads then and even today when you are looking to see classic X-Men stories. During that run and fleshing out the character, Wolverine, they introduced Guardian( known as Weapon Alpha), as a member of Department H and the military division in Canada that was in charge of their superheroes. In that process, Wolverine left Department H and Guardian was sent to retrieve him and bring him back to the team in Canada. Naturally, Wolverine refused and we get this battle between Weapon Alpha and the X-Men issue 109. This is our first appearance of Guardian( James Mac Hudson) and the first mention that there are Canadian superheroes.
A few issues later, the X-men are headed back from Japan after defeating Moses Magnum and a strange snow storm forces them to land in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Now, Weapon Alpha is going by the name of Vindicator and his team, called Alpha Flight confront and fight the X-men. The team of Alpha Flight at the time consists of:
Vindicator James Mac Hudson whose suit has the power of flight and manipulate magnetic forces
Northstar and Aurora- twins Jean-Paul and Jeanne Marie Beaubie who have the power of flight and speed and light manipulation Sasquatch-who, like his name, is a Sasquatch who has super strength Shaman who is a sorcerer and a doctor Snowbird who has the power to turn herself into animals from the great north. Quite a formidable team. and they give the Xmen all they could handle over issues 120 and 121. Of course, Wolverine does not join Alpha Flight( well he does but he doesn't) and the X-Men defeat Alpha Flight and leave Canada to head home. Then Alpha Flight disappears for a few years. As Byrne and Claremont are about to end their run on Xmen, Byrne is offered the chance to write and draw an Alpha Flight on-going series and in 1983, the book Alpha Flight debuts
Now if you read this book in the 80's, you know that it looked great but the writing was terrible. Villains make books( and movies) and Alpha Flight constantly struggled to find villains worth fighting. There was the military they had problems with and Beta Flight which was essentially their doppelgangers.... It was not great and the book suffered. The best bet would have been to get in a writer and have Byrne just do the pencils but they didn't do that. Instead, they go for an " aw shit" moment and kill Vindicator ( but remember its comics, nobody stays dead) in issue 12
Sure sign book is in trouble when by issue 12 they killing someone
After his death, his wife, Heather Hudson, takes the mantle of Vindicator and wears the suit to lead Alpha Flight. The book, with Byrne would last up to issue 30. After that, I bailed on the book because it got worse and worse after he left. And Alpha Flight is a book that Marvel loves to bring out of the mothballs every few years to try and restart it. To my knowledge, there has been at least 4 failed attempts to start it. Not quite sure why the Canadians cannot get it together?
The team still does exist mostly intact from the original group. Northstar is a member of the X-men now but his sister is still in Alpha Flight, along with Sasquatch, Snowbird, Vindicator, and Puck( who joined the team when the book debuted). In fact, they just had a great run in Amazing X-men beginning in issue 8
So Happy Canada Day to our friends up north. I hope the day treats you better than Marvel has treated Canada's favorite( and only) super team
With is being new comic book day, this article from last week about Amazon teaming up with Marvel to offer single issue comics is being looked at changing they way we read comics in the future. Its not that different- especially if you have or had a Marvel.com subscription or if you ever got one of those CD-Roms that had all the issues of a particular character that were popular in the early 2000's( I actually have 3: Spiderman, Jughead, and Archie).
But moving forward, this does seem to be the movement into a more digital age where we download books and read them from your computer, phone, or tablet. And I hate to sound like the " get off my lawn" old guy but I'm not quite ready for this. And I know I am getting ahead of myself!. This is just single issues but there will come a time where comic book companies are not going to do both. If this format proves to be successful, more and more books will be made available only digitally and there wont be comics to read in the traditional sense.
There is something special about new comic book day. The drive to your local comic book store, getting the books that were pulled for you but also looking at new books that have come out that you may or may not purchase. The feel of the books in your hand. The smell of new comics. If you have a great comic book store, there is the atmosphere of being around like minded folk and the conversations that spring from that. This is a ritual for me and has been for the past 20 years of hitting the store on Wednesday. I am not sure if I am ready to give that up for books being downloaded to my Ipad.
But this could be me just getting old. I used to read newspapers and magazines and now I read them on line. I used to read books, and now I download and read them from my Kindle. I used to go to Sam Goody and buy tapes and CD's and now I download all my music( legally of course)! Hell, I am even downloading movies( legally of course) now instead of purchasing DVD's. So why don't I want to give up comics?
I think there is a nostalgia attached to this for me and alot of comic book people who enjoy getting books and collecting them. We enjoy the store and the relatuionships we have built up with people at the store and digital comics would kill that- the same way digital books killed Barnes and Nobles. I am not ready to give that up quite yet.
So thanks, but not thanks to this version of technology. Leave my books at the store, turn down that loud music, and get off my lawn!
