Retro Heroes!

If there's one quirk of the superhero genre I love, it's period superheroes.  Two of my guilty pleasures are the Shadow and the Rocketeer, and a lot of that has to do with their late-1930s settings.  The Watchmen movie tried hard to be set in the 1980s, but it's 80s-ness never really came through for me.

So it's kind of neat that we have two Marvel Comics movies in production right now that will be set in times past.

First up, Captain America.  We've been promised that it's a full-blown, World War II epic, with Cap fighting Nazis and the Red Skull in the European theatre.

And we got our first picture of Captain America in action today!  I love these spy photos from the set...we don't get enough of these anymore.

Now that we see these pictures, I can see that it really is influenced by the Ultimate Captain America costume.

Oh, and the spy was quick to point out that this is NOT Chris Evans, who's playing Steve Rogers, but his stunt double.

We have another spy photo from Captain America, too.  Here's Cap being pursued by two HYDRA agents. 

In case I haven't said it yet, Captain America is being directed by Joe Johnston, who did Jurassic Park 3, October Sky, and...The Rocketeer!  His most recent film was that remake of The Wolfman. 

It's due to come out next July.

And as I said, that's not the only retro superhero film that Marvel's working on.  Also filming right now is the X-Men prequel tale, X-Men: First Class, which details the founding of Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted, and Xaiver's falling out with Magneto. 

In order to keep with prequel aspects, the entire thing is set in the 1960s!

The villains in this particular tale are the secret society known as the Hellfire Club, and here's our first look at January Jones as Emma Frost.

Looks like a very 1960s-appropriate costume for Ms. Frost.

Rounding out the cast are James McAvoy plays the young Professor X, Michael Fassbender plays the young Magneto, and Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Shaw, the leader of the Hellfire Club.  Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Kick-Ass) is directing, and Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men films, is back on board as a producer.

It's due out next June. 

Pretty Pictures of Newt

As you know, I'm a huge fan of Pixar.  A few years ago, Pixar announced that they were working on an animated film called Newt.  It was to follow the adventures of a blue-toed newt, living alone in a cage in a laboratory, fearing that he is the last one in existence.  However, when he hears news that a lone female blue-toed newt is discovered in the wild, he breaks out and heads off to find her in order to save the species.  However, when they meet, they take an instant disliking to each other.

Earlier this year, it was learned that Newt had been shut down.  No word on why...it's hardly the first animated film to get shut down in pre-production.  But still, given how high-profile its announcement was, it was a bit of a surprise.

Anyway, because they know they have such a rabid fanbase, Pixar went ahead and released 30 pieces of concept art from Newt.  I'm sharing my favouites with you.  Because Pixar is awesome.

And these are beautiful.

Movie Review -- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever

Well, I have a proud tradition at this here blog that I always review the latest straight-to-DVD animated films that I pick up.  I picked up one while I was in the city today, so why am I wasting time?  Let's get to my review of....

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:  Turtles Forever

Directed by Roy Burdine and Lloyd Goldfine

Starring the voices of Michael Sinternaklaas, Wayne Grayson, Sam Riegel, Frank Frankson, Veronica Taylor, Scottie Ray, Johny Castro, Tony Salerno, Sebastian Arcelus, and Dan Green.

Backstory:  2009 marked the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.  As such, there was lots of celebrating in the comic book world.  The makers of the current Ninja Turtles cartoon (henceforth called the "03 cartoon," because that's the year it premiered) came up with a great way to celebrate.  They decided to do a crossover with the original Ninja Turtles cartoon (the 87 cartoon).  2009 was also when Nickelodeon bought the Ninja Turtles franchise lock, stock, and barrel, and decided to reboot the franchise with their own 'toon.  So, the '03 cartoon's 25th anniversary celebration also served as the final episode of the '03 cartoon.  I knew it was going to be released as a direct-to-video film, but it wound up not coming out until a year after it was televised.  Oh, well.  It's out now!

Plot:  The '03 Turtles are stunned when news reports start popping up, of 4 large turtles fighting crime on the streets of New York.  When they investigate, they soon come across...the '87 Turtles!  Turns out their latest battle with the '87 Shredder and Krang caused the Technodrome's trans-dimensional portal to malfunction, sending them all to the '03 Dimension.  The '87 Shredder decides to seize this opportunity, and enlists the '03 Shredder for help.  However, this discovery of alternate dimensions and more Turtles does not sit well with the '03 Shredder.  The '03 Shredder surmizes that all of their universes branched off from a prime universe..."Turtle Prime."  The '03 Shredder figures that the only way to be finally rid of the Turtles is to destroy "Turtle Prime," and thus destroy all of reality.  It's up to theses Turtles of two worlds to join forces, defeat the '03 Shredder, and save all of existence! 

What I Liked:  Man o man, when the '03 Shredder gets his hands on the Technodrome, he turns it into the WMD we were always told it was.  He turns the robotic Foot Soldiers into an evil machine army that would make SkyNet proud, and with his hands on mutagen, he promptly creates an unstoppable army of mutant warriors.  You know...everything we wished the '87 Shredder would do, back in the day.  The scenes on Turtle Prime are also amazing.  SPOILER ALERT:  Turtle Prime is the world of the original Eastman and Laird comics from 1984, and are rendered completely in black and white.  And be sure to hit pause when the '03 Shredder starts skimming through other dimensions.  It's Easter egg-irifc, as just about every other known incarnation of the Turtles is represented. 

What I Didn't Like:  The plot does seem somewhat reminiscient of the DC universe animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.  I'm sure there are only so many ways to do multiple-Earths stories in comics, so I'll give them a pass.  And I don't remember the '87 Turtles being so...jokey. 

Final Verdict:  A more than enjoyable outing that Turtles fans will find quite satisfying. 

3 Nibs

Bonus Features:  Nothing.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada. 

Scott Pilgrim Review

My Scott Pilgrim vs. the World review is online!

Head on over to my movie review site to check it out! 

Neither Smoke, Nor Rain, Nor Coughing Fits

So, if you watch the news, you know we're in rough states here in Alberta right now.  We've got smoke blowing in from the BC forest fires, making our air quality the worst it's been in years.  On top of that, there was rain in the forecast for this Saturday.  And, on top of that still, I'm feeling quite under the weather right now.  Lived in Athabasca for 4.5 years now, and finally got sick enough where I felt I had to see a doctor.

Naturally, with all this going on, I jumped out of bed and said, "I'm going to the city today!"

I had to go to the city.  I had a very important reason to go to the city.  I had to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  Because it opened in #5 last week, I knew that my chances to see it in the theatre would be running out fast.

You've probably seen the commercials for it.  Scott Pilgrim is a young 20-something in Toronto who plays in a band, and he meets the girl of his dreams, the bewitching and enigmatic Ramona Flowers.  But Ramona's got some serious baggage following her around...seven evil exes, and if Scott and Ramona want to live happily ever after, he must defeat all of them in combat!  Which is where the film gets its visual flair.  All the fights take the form of super hyperactive video games.

This film makes me wish I played more video games in my youth, because it's so full of references to the 8-bit era of video games that most of the jokes were over my head.

Other than that, I enjoyed the hell out of this film.  It's all about that period you go through in your early-20s, when you're finally casting off the last vestiges of your youth and learning to be a grown-up.  Needless to say, it brought back happy flashbacks to my college days, as I saw elements of people I knew in pretty much every character on screen.  It's all about discovering that yes, she has a past, and if you're a man, and if you love her, you'll get the f--k over it and work things out.

This has been a lean summer for films.  Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, and now Scott Pilgrim vs. the World are the only films that had me walking out of the theatre 100% satisfied.

Then I stopped in at HMV.  There were lots of DVDs in the discount bin that caught my eye, but I was craving new music.  A lot of those digitally remastered Beatles albums that made such a big splash a year ago are now starting to pop up in discount bins, so I snatched up Magical Mystery Tour.  This one has more of my favourite Beatles tunes on it.  I am the Walrus...Penny Lane...All You Need is Love...Strawberry Fields Forever...so why the heck not?  Hmmm...it just occurred that I seem to be limiting myself to the Beatles' soundtracks.  First A Hard Day's Night, and now Magical Mystery Tour.  I guess that means Help! and Yellow Submarine will be next.

And then, that led to one of the more embarrassing moments in my life.  Since HMV's discount bin CDs are usually marked "2/$30" and all that, of course I was buying a second album.  A grabbed my second choice, and walked up to the counter.  The clerk was this attractive young blond.  She rang up the Beatles, and then my second album.  She looked at the album cover, looked up at me, and said, "Really?  You like Selena Gomez?"

At least I was able to hold my head high and answer her truthfully:  "I tend to put the Disney Channel on for background noise, and she gets stuck in my head."  Heck, the only reason why I ever sat down and watched a whole episode of the Selena Gomez show is because I discovered her TV mom is Hawkgirl.

So yeah.  Selena Gomez.  It's unremarkable, bubblegum pop, but it gets stuck in your head.



All in all, worth getting out of the house. 

Sunday Morning at the Movies

While flipping around the channels on this Sunday night, I managed to catch the final episode of At the Movies.  The majority of the online film community has been shedding a tear for the end of this 35-year franchise and what it did for film.  Let me bring you up to speed.

At the Movies started way back in 1975 when Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert started meeting on Chicago's PBS station to review movies.  It was such a hit, that in the early -1980s, it went into syndication, first by Tribune Entertianment, and then by Disney.  During this era, it was most commonly known as Siskel and Ebert, and brought the world of movies into people's homes.

But, the past decade was not kind to At the Movies.  It all began in 1999, when Gene Siskel passed away.  Roger Ebert then had a rotating panel of co-hosts until Y2K, when he settled on his fellow Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, and it became Ebert and Roeper At the Movies.  It was like that until 2006, when Roger Ebert had to step down due to his failing health.  So, it was Roeper and rotating co-hosts until 2008, when Disney decided to take the show in "a new direction."  That new direction was critics Ben Lyons and Ben Mankewicz.  I never caught it during this era, but reviews were not kind.  Last year, they were replaced with critics A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, but it was too little too late. 


Watching that final episode, I was a little sadder than I thought I'd be.  I have fond memories of Siskel and Ebert.  In the early-1990s, my parents were good church-going folk, but I didn't want to go, finding church to be too boring.  Being old enough to be left at home on my own, my family would leave me at home on Sunday morning while they went to church.  And I stayed at home and watched Siskel and Ebert. 

The early 90s was the perfect time to be watching Siskel and Ebert.  I mean, growing up in small-town Alberta, where you rented movies from the local gas station and the closest movie theatres were an hour away, where else was a kid going to be exposed to the entire world of movies out there?  And with the rise of independent film in the 1990s, Siskel and Ebert was where I was first exposed to Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarintino, Hayao Miyazaki, and many other fantastic filmmakers.

Hell, my first exposure to Clerks was when the special edition laserdisc came out, and Siskel and Ebert showed the original ending to Clerks on the show and debated whether Kevin Smith was right to cut it or not.  (Consensus:  he was.)  My first exposure to Hayao Miyazaki was their review of My Neighbor Totoro.  Ebert loved that film so much.  That show gave a lot of films exposure that wouldn't have gotten any. 

And now, it's done.  Great films will still get exposure, though.  My favourite film, The Iron Giant, was brought to my attention, not because of a TV show, but because of all the reviews I read online.  Great films still have a way of getting out there.  Part of the problem, though, is on the Internet, there's just so many voices to weed through.  Not like the old days, when it was just two guys talking about films, and you were eavesdropping through the TV. 

Grindhouse Finally on DVD

Good news, all my fellow fans of Quentin Tarintino and Robert Rodriguez!

Grindhouse is finally coming to DVD in its original, complete, theatrical presentation!  Actually, it's only coming to Blu-Ray.

Grindhouse: 2-Disc Collector's Edition will contain ALL of the bonus material on the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of Planet Terror and Death Proof, along with some all-new bonus materials.  The new stuff:

• Rodriguez offers up another installment of his "10 Minute Cooking Schools," which has become a popular staple on all his DVDs.
• All of the intermission cards
• ALL of the fake trailers, including Hobo With a Shotgun, which was only shown in select theatres.
• Brand new extended versions of the fake trailers Don't and Werewolf Women of the SS, complete with running commentaries by their respective directors Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie.  (It's long been rumored that Zombie shot an hour's worth of footage for his 3-minute Werewolf Women trailer.)
• "Making of" featurettes for the fake trailers Don't, Werewolf Women of the SS, and Thanksgiving.
• The storyboards and fake movie posters for Don't. 

Be advised that this set will include the ORIGINAL THEATRICAL VERSIONS of Death Proof and Planet Terror.  You might remember that when they were shown in theatres, the two films occasionally had cards pop up saying "scene missing" to replicate the grindhouse experience.  When the two films were released individually on DVD, they were "extended versions," with all thsoe missing scenes put back in.  Well, on this super deluxe special edition, those cards saying "scene missing" will be put back in, and the scenes will once again be cut out.

In a way, I'm kind of disappointed that this is being released on Blu-Ray.  I always thought it was a great way to create a purely theatrical experience, without the need for gimmicks like 3D. 

It drops on October 5. 

Oh, and some other DVD news, regarding Family Guy's forthcoming scene-for-scene spoof of Return of the Jedi.

As I've blogged previously, they seemed to have trouble coming up with a title.  Originally, as a slam towards the Ewoks and all the animatronic characters in Return of the Jedi, they were going to call it Episode VI: The Great Muppet Caper, but they ran into copywrite trouble with the Muppet folks.  Then they were going to call it We Have a Bad Feeling About This, after the famous line uttered in ever Star Wars film. 

Well, the artwork for the DVD cover has been released, and we've discovered that they've decided to name it after Admiral Akbar's most famous line, which has become quite the Internet catchphrase.

That's right, it's called It's a Trap!.

Don't forget, it hits DVD and Blu-Ray on Dec. 21.