The Power of the Fandom

Just taking a minute to catch up on the various pop-culture tidbits that came across my desk last week.  I was kind of busy enjoying cable TV!  In a new town, got my cable hooked up, and experimenting with my new PVR and such.  Actually, it's kind of neat.  Because I now get my Internet from my cable company, and my cable modem is now part of my entertainment centre, I'm now able to plug my Blu-Ray player straight into the modem.  It's an older model, though, so it doesn't have any apps for streaming video services, and sadly, it looks like most studios are starting to abandon BD-Live.

For those who don't care, BD-Live was one of the big selling points of Blu-Ray when it first hit the market about 6 or 7 years ago.  You plug your Blu-Ray player into the Internet, and then with your BD-Live enabled disc, you're able to download and/or stream new bonus features.  About the only studio that still does BD-Live content is Universal, and they've got the right idea.  So you're not seeing trailers for movies from 5 years ago, what most Universal BD-Live discs do is stream new trailers from the Internet when you fire up your disc.

Nope, the current trend when it comes to Blu-Ray bonus features is second screen apps.  You load the app on your tablet, it syncs to the disc through your wireless home network, and the bonus features stream to your tablet while you watch the movie.  So I guess it's time to get a tablet.

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It looks like Kickstarter is giving new life to short-lived TV series.

Last week, Rob Thomas, creator of the cult classic TV series Veronica Mars, took to Kickstarter, and revealed that he'd made a deal with Warner Brothers...the studio that owns Veronica Mars.  If Thomas could raise $2 million on Kickstarter for a Veronica Mars movie, Warner Brothers would greenlight it.

Thomas got his $2 million in 10 hours...Kickstarter has branded it their most successful campaign ever.

This got some folks thinking, and they asked the creators of some other "brilliant-but-canceled" TV series about using Kickstarter to back a movie version.

Bryan Fuller, creator of two cult-classic TV shows, Wonderdfalls and Pushing Daisies, was asked about using Kickstarter to fund movie versions of his two shows.  Fuller said he'd love to, but because of how visual-effects-intensive Pushing Daisies was, he'd probably need to raise at least $10 million.

And, Joss Whedon was asked about using Kickstarter to resurrect the king of all short-lived cult classic TV series, Firefly.  Whedon said he'd love to, but between him being busy with The Avengers 2 and Nathan Fillion being busy with Castle, it won't happen any time soon.

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The first trailer for Kick-Ass 2 went online last week.

I once asked a friend of mine when we might get our true cinematic version of Watchmen.  When Watchmen came along in the 1980s, it was critically praised for deconstructing the superhero genre.  So my question was when the same might happen for all the superhero movies we've been getting lately.

One that had a good shot was Kick-Ass.  Based on the creator-owned comic by Mark Millar, it was a minor hit in 2010, and attempted a deconstruction as it pondered what superheroes might be like in the real world.  While I did love the film, I felt that, as the end drew near, it did kind of fall back into the typical superhero movie mold.  Director Matthew Vaughn had to make the first one independently, because most studios thought the film had too much objectionable content -- specifically the character of Hit Girl, a 12-year old girl vigilante who gleefully disembowels evildoers and curses like a sailor.  That being said, though, when the first film was a big hit, Universal Studios promptly swooped in and picked up the movie rights for any and all sequels.

Hence, Kick-Ass 2, coming this summer.  Based on Millar's two sequel comics, Kick-Ass 2 and the Hit Girl mini-series.  We find Mindy/Hit Girl is having a tough time in junior high, as the average street punk is no match for the typical junior high mean girl.  Dave has hung up his Kick-Ass mask, and gone back to being a normal teenager.  But, when Chris D'Amico, Red Mist in the first film and the son of the drug dealer who was slain at the end of the first film, swears vengeance, he decides to become the Mother Fucker, the world's first super-villain.  Also, the work of Kick-Ass has inspired a new batch of self-made superheroes, and a super-team known as Justice Forever now patrols the streets.  Before long, Kick-Ass and Hit Girl are lured out of retirement, and join Justice Forever to take down the Mother Fucker!

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is back as Dave/Kick-Ass, Chole Grace Moretz returns as Mindy/Hit Girl, and Christopher "McLovin'" Mintz-Plasse is back as Chris/Mother Fucker.  And joining them this time out is Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars n Stripes, the leader of Justice Forever.

It hits theatres this August.


   

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And just because I'll need a thumbnail when I post this to the various social networks, I have the heavily-hyped Star Trek Into Darkness app on my iPhone, as I count down to the new Star Trek movie this summer.  Here's what the app gifted me with on St. Patrick's Day.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Goldfinger

It's time again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, that magical time of the week where I take a look at one of the many, many DVDs in my home library.  Today, we dip back into the James Bond canon with a peak at the Sean Connery Bond, Goldfinger.  This entry is originally dated August 3, 2012.

It's Hockey Night Tonight

Well, here I am, all settled in in Westlock.  It's kind of nice to be back at a radio station the broadcasts the Oilers games.  See, whenever a radio station broadcasts a live event, there has to be some poor guy stuck back at the station pushing the buttons, manning the controls, and making sure the event is broadcast live to the world.  That person is the operator.  And at a station that broadcasts Oilers games, I frequently have to operate the Oilers games.  And I don't mind doing it one bit, because it's about the only part of my job where I get paid overtime.  In days gone by, when the Oilers were on in Athabasca, I'd pass the time by writing long, rambling blog entries.  So it looks to be time for that tradition to continue!

While the overtime is nice, such evenings usually result in me spending that overtime pay, because I eventually find myself browsing online shops and buying things I don't need.  Well, I've already started, actually.  Just got the latest e-mail that my latest shipment from Amazon.ca has shipped.  I'm kind of disappointed.  A few years ago, during the postal strike, Amazon.ca switched from Canada Post to Puralator as their courier of choice.  So, when I placed this order a few days ago, here I was making all the necessary preperations for the package to be delivered to a place where I can sign for it and all that.  And now, as I read the fine print on the notice that my order has shipped, I see they've gone back to using Canada Post.

Maybe all this is a sign that I should sign up for Amazon Prime.  It was with some hype back in January that Amazon announced they were finally introducing this program to Amazon.ca.  Essentially, for the flat rate of $79 per year, you get unlimited 2-day shipping.  It's just one of those things where I wonder if I'd get my money's worth for that $79 per year.

Anyway, what did I buy in this particular shipment?  Well, I bought Disney's latest animated epic Wreck-It Ralph.  As I said in my original review when I went to see it in theatres back in November, I was pleasantly surprised with this movie.  I went in expecting Video Game Nostalgia: The Movie, but instead got a very sweet tale about a guy trying to rediscover his spark for what he does.  And I also got the James Bond movie From Russia With Love, still considered by many to be the greatest Bond film ever made.  I don't know if you've noticed, but with the release and hype of Skyfall, James Bond Blu-Rays are dirt cheap right now.

And speaking of browsing online shops, I was starting to fret that I may not have a chance to buy these.  As you know, I collect Star Wars action figures.  And, a few years ago, they created some exclusive Star Wars action figures of the Star Tours characters, and you could only get them at Disneyland.  I had a cousin go to Disneyland, and humbly requested that he bring me back a couple for my collection...and here they are!

Well, a couple years ago, Disney decided it was time to update Star Tours, and along with that came new characters for Star Tours.  And, about a month ago, Disney announced that there's a new batch of Disneyland exclusive Star Tours figures, starting to show up at Disneyland and Walt Disney World gift shops right now.  I was wondering if it would be cheaper to buy them on eBay, or go to Disneyland and buy them in person.  (My mother was all for me going to Disneyland...until I decided to hit up my folks for the money for such a trip.)

But then, I was perusing one of my Star Wars action figure databases, and they revealed that they are now available at the online Disney Store!  I was all eager to see this, but after I went there, and calculated the shipping, and converted it to Canadian money, it came up to $75.  That's the kind of price that always makes me think twice.  When I started this hobby of collecting action figures all those  years ago, I swore I would never spend more than $20 on a figure.  But, you know, this is a 5-pack of figures, and $75 / 5 = $15.  That's within my principles....

But let's take a break from online shopping, shall we?  It's been almost a week, and I haven't sat down to blog about the new Iron Man 3 trailer yet.



They keep assuring us that it's not, but this sequel sure looks darker and grittier than the first two.  After very subtly referencing him in the first two films, we finally get a look at Iron Man's arch-enemy, the Mandarin, as played by Ben Kingsley.  And right now, I'm totally digging that final shot in the trailer of all the different Iron Man armors.  Dude...is that a Hulkbuster?  I swear I saw a Hulkbuster.  All I know is I will be there on opening day,  May 3. 

And it appears that I'm about all rambled out on this Tuesday night.  It's back to the game, and the Oilers are currently leading 2-0.  Go Oil. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Smokey and the Bandit

Welcome once again to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly monument to how I don't have much of a social life as I watch one of the many movies in my video collection and blog about it.  This time out, we're doing the #4 movie of 1977, Smokey and the Bandit.  This entry is originally dated July 29, 2012.

The Test Results Are In....

Don't mind me, just nostalgic for the days before social networking when quizzes like this were frequent blog posts and littered the Internet.



Created by Oatmeal

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers -- Extended Edition

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the many, many movies in my home video library.  Today, we get back to the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings with The Two Towers.  This entry is originally dated July 15, 2012.

Do It A Little Faster

One of the first things they told us in broadcast school about developing an on-air persona was to find someone you liked, and copy them.  Not going to lie...one of the folks in radio I try to emulate is Mike McGuire.  He became famous for his very generous spirit on the air, and I can tell you, that generosity continues over into real life.  He was a year ahead of me at NAIT, where I got to know him.  During my Great Year of Unemployment...that year between finishing NAIT and pounding the pavement looking for my first radio gig...he was incredibly supportive, always offering advice and encouraging words.  Plus, you know, he's the one who introduced me to "Weird Al" Yankovic, and is thus pretty much responsible for the greatest day of my life. 

For those who may not have heard, I've been transferred to the radio station in Westlock, but my new place isn't going to be open for me to move into for another week.  So, for the past few weeks, I've been commuting from Athabasca to Westlock everyday.  Tonight, while on the drive home, I plugged my MP3 player into my car stereo and fired up the latest episode of Mike's podcast.  One of Mike's newer passions in life is running, and in this episode, he was chatting with one of his running coaches.  So, as I was driving off into the sunset, listing to Mike and his coach talk about running, my mind started to wander and it wasn't long before I was reflecting on my experiences with the sport of running.  And, like most of my experiences in sports, it mostly takes place in junior high gym class.

I once talked to some of my friends to see if they had to go through the monthly ritual of the 12-minute run.  The name explains it all:  once a month, we'd have to run laps in the gym for 12 minutes straight.  Usually, to warm up to it, we'd also do as many push-ups as we could in a minute, and as many sit-ups as we could do in a minute.  But the centerpiece was that 12 minute run.  One time I looked it up online to see if the 12-minute run had an actual purpose, or if it was just something the gym teachers made us do when dodgeball was going to require too much effort.  Turns out it actually does serve a purpose...it's one of the few fitness tests that teachers can give to gauge a child's improvement.  So it was just what you do in gym for an exam.

But still, it was that one thing once a month that I loathed.  Being an nonathletic person for, well, ever, gym class was never my best class.  And it was that one day a month where things seemed to get the most competitive.  There was a big board on the gym wall that charted our progress and our personal bests, you see, so it quickly became a competition to see who could do the most laps.  While the die hard jocks would always get numbers up in the 50s, I was usually languishing down there in the 20s.  I'd run a bit, but walk for most of it.  When the jocks lapped me they'd always take a moment to glance and smirk.  The girls who had, *ahem*, female troubles, and were excused from the exercise, would usually commandeer the gym's sound system and crank up whatever cassettes they had in their Walkmans.  So it all played out to the bubblegum pop of the late-80s/early-90s.

But as the school year went on, something strange started happening every month, as I looked at that board and charted my progress.  I was getting better.  I was able to do more laps.  I was able to run longer without taking a break by walking.  I'll never forget the first time I hit 30 laps.  My teacher made a big deal about 30 laps, because that was equal to 1 mile.  Even more momentous was the first time I was able to run for the whole 12 minutes without walking.  I was enthralled.  I even remember which late-80s pop gem was playing on the gym's loudspeakers when the buzzer went off and 12 minutes was up.



Suddenly, the sideways smirks of the jocks didn't sting so much.  I did it.  I finally went for 12 minutes.  I went the distance, literally and figuratively.  For pretty much the only time in gym class, I felt like I accomplished something.

Don't get me wrong, though.  I still hated the 12-minute run with a passion.  My vision of Hell is still doing laps in the gym for infinity while New Kids on the Block plays on an endless loop and the Devil is a young, 20-something woman fresh out of teacher college who's just a little too perky and encouraging.  Still, though, if you can go through hell and manage to accomplish something...you feel good.

Well, I'm settling into middle age quite nicely, and now that I'm a grown up and don't have to do anything that I don't want to do, I've fully embraced my nonathletic ways.  But I do love to walk.  I'd spend my afternoons just roaming around Athabasca.  Saturday mornings, I'd even make a weekly trek from Canadian Tire to Athabasca University and back.  And for the past couple of years, I'd start thinking, "Ya know, if I did this a little faster, I'd be running." 

Trying to do it a little faster might be key as I get ready to move to Westlock.  One of the great things about Athabasca is all the hills.  A brisk walk is enough to get you to work up a sweat.  But Westlock...it's very flat.  More effort is going to be needed to get the heart rate up.  But I've already read a few warnings online.  Running is not something you can start overnight.  You can't just jump off the couch and say, "I'm going to run 10K today!"  You won't make it and you'll feel crappy and you'll quit.  So, you have to ease yourself into it.  Much like the 12 minute run of old.  Just do as much as you can, and then start walking.  And then run again.  Just keep doing that on a regular basis, and before you know it, you're going for the whole 12-minutes.

At least, I think that's how it works.  I don't think I'll go as hardcore as Mike and get me a coach and start training for marathons and such, but just go a little faster.  When you put it like that, it doesn't seem to hard. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin: King Kong (2005) - Extended Edition

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly ramble about one of the movies in my DVD library.  Today, we get to the extended edition of Peter Jackson's King Kong.  This entry is originally dated July 14, 2012.

Down Time

I know, between prepping to move to Westlock and the stresses of starting a new job, I really shouldn't be going off on flights of fancy, but I'm fond of quoting my mother:  "Sometimes, you just have to treat yourself."  I'm also fond of quoting Captain Kirk:  "The greater the intelligence, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."

And that's how I'm justifying going into Edmonton yesterday.

I still had some money left on a Christmas gift card, and I had it earmarked for getting Skyfall on Blu-Ray.  The latest James Bond movie, and, in my opinion, the best of the Daniel Craig ones to date.  Had to get that for my collection.

Plus, also, more James Bond movies!  As I've already blogged, I'm not in much of a rush to upgrade my DVDs to Blu-Ray, because I don't have a HDTV yet to fully enjoy them.  But I don't know if you've noticed, but the James Bond Blu-Rays are dirt cheap right now.  So while they are priced so low, I've been upgrading them while I can.  Back in the fall, I got The Spy Who Loved Me, because, damn it, my DVD just won't play any more, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the lone George Lazenby Bond film, because it was the toughest one for me to find on DVD, so I figured I should snap up the Blu-Ray while I could.  A couple of months ago, I upgraded Tomorrow Never Dies and The Living Daylights, so the last of mine to upgrade was Goldfinger.  And there it was, in HMV's 2 for $20 section.  But, what other one to get for $20?  I decided to go with my second favourite of the Roger Moore Bonds, Moonraker.  So, I guess, rather than just my favourites, I'm now getting my second-favourites as well. 

Well, I haven't upgraded everything yet.  I still have to get Casino Royale on Blu-Ray, but darn it, most places still want full price for that one.  But I see, to tie-in with Skyfall, it's just been released in a nice little 2-pack with Quantum of Solace, so that just might be worth getting.  

but yeah...that was pretty much it.  Not a very eventful city trip.  Got in, got my movies, got out. 

But I did get some work done on the moving-front.  Before I left for the city, raided Athabasca's grocery stores to get more boxes.  And it gave me time to watch some Saturday morning cartoons.  Justice League Unlimited is now on in re-runs, and it's still a great adaptation of the DC Universe.  This one featured a character I wished they explored a little more, Galatea. 

The mytharc of Justice League Unlimited concerned Project Cadmus, a secret government agency tasked with creating super-weapons should the Justice League ever fall to the dark side and this army of superheroes try to take over the world.  Their chief assassin and super-soldier:  Galatea, an evil clone of Supergirl.  Whereas Supergirl is always a teenager of 16 or so, Galatea was artificially aged to her physical prime...age 30, I believe they said in her first appearance.  However, a fluke in cloning process has given her an empathic link with Supergirl, which resulted in the side effect of Galatea being cursed with a conscience. 

This particular episode happens when things with Cadmus and the JLA come to a head, and Galatea is dispatched to lead an assault on the Watchtower...the Justice League's space station headquarters.  Professor Emil Hamilton, the scientist who created her, is doing all that super-soldier monitoring stuff, making sure she's ready for battle, outfitting her with her latest gear...it's all very business like, with Hamilton having an air of detachment about it all.  He's just doing his job.  When the job is done, when Galatea gets up to leave, she pauses at the door for a moment, turns around, and comes back to Hamilton and gives him a great big hug...like how any soldier would say good-bye to their loved ones before going off to war.  She whispers in his ear, "Good-bye, Dad," and then heads off to slay the Justice League.

And the lock of surprise and horror on Hamilton's face, as he realizes that this living weapon he's created has come to regard him as its father, is priceless.  Their relationship  is definitely something worth exploring.  But sadly, that was Galatea's second and final appearance in the show.  Hopefully, the comic writers will pick it up some day. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - King Kong (1933)

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the many, many DVDs in my home video library.  Today, we get to the genesis of all giant monster films, the grandfather of the special-effects driven blockbuster, the original King Kong.  This entry is originally dated July 13, 2012.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part II Review

Well, I think it's time to take a break from packing and panicking about the move to kick back, relax, and finally take in the latest DC Comics/Warner Brothers direct-to-DVD animated movie.  Let's take a look at....

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part II

Directed by Jay Olivia

Starring the voices of Peter Weller, Ariel Winter, David Selby, Michael Emerson, Mark Valley, Michael McKeen, Robin Atkin Downes, Tress MacNeille, and Conan O'Brien

Backstory:  Again, for the most part, I've been enjoying this series of direct-to-DVD movies, but it seemed like craziness to try to adapt The Dark Knight Returns.  With such a seminal graphic novel, you can't help but fear they'd get it wrong.  But, at least they had the good sense to split it up into two movies to make sure it would be done right and not rushed.  Part I came out back in the fall, and quickly became a critical darling, sweeping much love online.  Me?  I merely thought it was good, not great.  But I had hope for Part II.  Because of how they split it up, I knew Part II was when we'd be getting to all the good stuff from the graphic novel.  So does Part II bring us a satisfactory conclusion?

Plot:  When last we left the Caped Crusader, it was the dystopian 1980s.  Batman, now in his 50s, comes out of retirement, takes down a viscious street gang known as the Mutants, and gets back to work cleaning up the streets.  During Batman's years of inactivity, the Joker has been existing in a catatonic state in Arkham Asylum.  But with Batman's return, the Joker snaps back to life and begins plotting the mother of all comebacks.  But in this era, most superheroes have given up their secret identities and gone into hiding, save for one Man of Steel who sold out and became a government agent.  With Batman keeping law and order in Gotham City, the government is starting to look foolish in the public eye.  The stage is set for two climactic showdowns:  Batman's final battle with Joker, followed by Batman resisting arrest at the hands of Superman.

What I Liked:  This movie is very faithful to the original graphic novel.  And there's a few nice embellishments as well.  Of course, since they did away with Batman's internal monologue, the dialogue then conveys most of the information, and Batman and Joker's banter during their final battle is amazing.  The action sequences are also pretty good, with Batman and Superman's final fight being much more brutal than what they did in the comics.

What I Didn't Like:  Naturally, this movie had to be very compressed when compared to the comics, so a few things had to get cut out.  Certain scenes and certain side plots are reduced to throwaway lines, which is a little disappointing,

Final Verdict:  Probably as best an adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns that we'll ever get.  But still, the book is better.

3 Nibs

Bonus Materials:  For bonus features on the Blu-Ray, you get a featurette on the times that Batman has fought Superman in the comics, a featurette on the Joker, a featurette on adapting the legendary graphic novel, 3 bonus episodes of Batman cartoons, and a preview for the next film Superman Unbound, coming out this summer.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - John Carter

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the many movies in my home video library.  I already remarked that, thanks to how the schedule is working, I seem to be doing movies that came out a year ago.  And, it was almost a year ago that the new record-setter for biggest bomb of all time came out, John Carter.  This entry is originally dated June 24, 2012.

The Super Bowl Movie Spots

It's been a few days, and I haven't had a chance to sit and blog about the Super Bowl movie spots.  Not much really caught my eye this year.  According to the news the day after, the most watched one was the one for Oz: The Great and Powerful.  And I'm still scratching my head that they made a sixth Fast and the Furious movie.  But there were a couple that did catch my eye.

One that grabbed my attention, our latest look at the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness.


We didn't get to see much new in this spot, but I am still interested.  With Benidict Cumberbatch's line, "I'm better than you...at everything," I'm starting to get more convinced that the villain is Khan...or some genetically engineered super soldier.

And yes, I do have the much-ballyhooed app, and I've already scanned it and seen the 2-second longer version.

The other one that caught my eye was for Disney's The Lone Ranger.  At 90 seconds, it was the longest movie spot at the Super Bowl...almost the right length for another trailer.


It's looking good...but still very different from The Lone Ranger that I grew up with.  I still fear that they pumped it full of supernatural BS.  The last time they did that with a perfectly good Western hero was Jonah Hex, and look how that turned out.

It just might be a good summer at the movies.

From Up on Poppy Hill Trailer

I've been waiting for a glimpse of this film.  Coming to theatres in North America later this spring, the latest from the legendary Japanese studio Studio Ghibli, From Up on Poppy Hill.

From Up on Poppy Hill originally hit theatres in Japan in the summer of 2011, and served as a reconciliation between father and son.  The screenplay was written by Studio Ghibli's genius emeritus, Hayao Miyazaki.  And the film was directed by his son Goro Miyazaki.  Goro had long been reluctant to get into the family business, having had a successful career as a landscape architecht.  He made his directorial debut with the 2006 Ghibli film Tales from Earthsea.  He originally joined the project as a consultant...then got promoted to a storyboard artist...and finally getting promoted to director.  The elder Miyazaki was apparently furious with the decision.  As Hayao said in an interview at the time, there used to be a rigid system in Japanese animation where you'd cut your teeth on TV shows before graduating to animated films, but a new generation raised with the Disney films of the 1990s wanted to leap straight into feature animation.  He felt his son just hadn't paid his dues.  But, Tales from Earthsea hit theatres, and Hayao Miyazaki felt it was pretty good, and father and son reconciled.  Hayao admitted that the main character in his 2008 film Ponyo was based on Goro at age 5, and they finally officially worked together on From Up on Poppy Hill.

By the way, if you've never heard of Tales from Earthsea, I don't blame you.  While the elder Miyazaki liked it, most critics didn't.  It's kind of regarded as the Cars of the Studio Ghibli catalog...it's not very good, but it gets a pass because it was made by studio know for high quality.  When Disney dubbed it and released it in theatres, it didn't get a wide release, only playing it a few film festivals in 2010, and then they quietly released it on DVD in 2011.

And speaking of Disney, From Up on Poppy Hill is notable in that it's the first Studio Ghibli film since the late 1990s that's NOT being dubbed and released by the Walt Disney Studios.  It's being released by a company called GKIDS.  GKIDS originally started as the organizing body of the New York International Children's Film Festival.  In 2008, they expanded into theatrical distribution, bringing to North American theatres such Oscar-nominated animated films as The Secret of Kells, Chico & Rita, and A Cat in Paris.  In 2011, they scored a major coup when they acquired the theatrical distribution rights to the entire Studio Ghibli catalog.  I think Disney still owns the home video rights.

That being said, though, there's a lot of Disney personnel still involved in the dubbing process.  The dub was produced by legendary producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen "the new boss of Luscafilm" Kennedy, who produced the dubs of Ponyo and The Secret World of Arrietty.  The English dub was once again directed by legendary Pixar sound designer Gary Rydstrom, who directed the English dubs of Tales from Earthsea and The Secret World of Arrietty.  And, following the Disney tradition, the dub has an all-star voice cast, including Once Upon a Time star Sarah Bolger, Anton Yelchin, Gillian Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christina Hendricks, Chris "Mr. Big" Noth, Beau Bridges, Aubrey Plaza, and Ron Howard.

So, given all that, what is the film about?  Set in early 1960s Japan, it's the tender coming-of-age tale of a teen girl named Umi, who has a daily routine of raising signal flags in her front yard which overlooks a nearby harbor.  These flags soon catch the attention of a boy named Shun, and they engage in the typical teenage romance.  And they soon band together to help renovate and fix up the building that houses their high school's clubs.  And Umi tries to come to terms with her father, who died during the Korean War when she was very young.  

It did play a few Oscar-qualifying runs at film festivals in the fall, and many thought that, with the Ghibli name, it would have been a lock for a Best Animated Film Oscar, but it wasn't.  It starts hitting theatres in North America this March.  But, let's be honest, GKIDS doesn't have quite the reach of Disney, so if you want to see it in theaters, keep an eye on your local movie listings for when it hits your local art house.

Upon Leaving Athabasca

I've been thinking for the past few days that I'd like to sit down and share a few thoughts upon leaving Athabasca, but the more that life gets in the way, I find the desire to do it is starting to leave me, so I figured I should do it while the shred of desire is left.

People keep asking me if I'm excited that I'm leaving, or starting the new gig, and the truth is...no.  That's no slam against Athabasca, or Westlock, or the Company, it's just the way I am.  When I went to Japan all those years ago, I wasn't excited until I was pulling up to the airport.  When I cam home from Japan, I wasn't excited about going home until the plane touched down at Edmonton International.  When I started working in Athabasca, I wasn't excited until my second day at work.  It was on the second day when I felt truly on my own and that it was all on me.

So, no.  I'm not excited yet.  There's still too much to do.  I still haven't found a place in Westlock, and once that's done, there's the packing and the moving.  Excitement will find its moment.

I wish I did sit down to write this, though, before I did my final show back on Friday.  When things were done and I was reviewing the audio, I was a little embarrassed.  If I sat down to write this and had collected my thoughts a little more, before going on the air, I wouldn't have sounded so raw.  It would have been polished a little more.  But there are nuggets of truth in there.

As I said, because small town radio stations have notoriously high turnover, there's a large segment of the listening population that thinks I've only been here six months or so.  But I was here just shy of 7 years.  April 2006 - February 2013 is how it'll read on my resume.  And the little old radio station went through quite a few changes in those years.  I started when we were on AM and a country music station, then we flipped to classic hits and changed our name, then we flipped to FM and changed our name again.  In a performance review, I was asked what I felt my greatest contribution to the station was.  I said consistency.

But as I said on the air on Friday, one thing that has constantly amazed me about Athabasca and the listening area is the ability of the community to band together and achieve the impossible.  I know the go-to example in recent years has been how Athabasca opened their homes to the Slave Lake evacuees during the Slave Lake fires, but I was thinking before that.  I was thinking about how the Athabasca Regional Multiplex came to be.  When I first started here 7 years ago, the Multiplex was still an empty lot and a dream.  Yeah, the town and the county chipped in some money, there were a few provincial grants as well, but the lion's share was raised by the people because they needed that facility.  The field house isn't named after the Rotary Club through some name-rights deal...it's because the Rotary Club single-handedly raised $2 million for the building.  When the Edmonton Oilers had their kids training camp here a couple years ago and I was emceeing the opening ceremony, I said that minor hockey built the Multiplex, and I stand by that.  The Multiplex started when the Athabasca Minor Hockey Association approached the municipalities and said, "We need a new rink."  Minor hockey did the vast majority of the fundraising.  The Multiplex was built by the people.  The grand opening of the Multiplex in the spring of 2008 was the last big event I got to cover before being promoted from news to on-air.

Lots of people don't remember that, either.  I started here as the news reporter, and spent two years doing that before I became the wacky morning guy.  I paid my dues spending late nights covering town council meetings, followed by early mornings writing it up for the 6AM news.  A town concillor stopped me the grocery store the other day and asked if I'd ever spend late nights covering town council meetings.  Apparently, he'd forgotten that I was the reporter at all those town council meetings back when he was the mayor.  I missed covering council meetings when I left the news department.  They go from high drama to deep lunacy...they're delightfully entertaining.

One thing I'll miss the most about Athabasca is Athabasca University.  I love that place.  I'm a big fan of post secondary education - that's why I've done it so many times - and for this world class facility to be in a small Alberta town is just amazing.  Every year, when Convocation rolls around, and people from all over the world come to Athabasca to have their moment on the stage and accept their hard-earned degree, I just can't help but cheer.  It's a signature Athabasca event that really deserves more attention.  Even when I was no longer a reporter and wasn't obligated to be there anymore, I'd still take a moment to head up there and take it in.  And it was practical, too, as I'd often be hanging around the Financial Aid office trying to find help in finally getting my student loans paid off.

As I packed up the various mementos around my office, I took a moment to remember.  I had a hockey puck from the Battle of the Border...a fundraiser held for the Multiplex.  The Canadian Women's Olympic hockey team took on the American Women's Olympic hockey team in an exhibition game.  I've got another hockey puck from the Oilers, and that aforementioned training camp for kids they held here a couple years ago.  I took down my Canadian flag, which had hung in my dorm room all throughout my college years, and when the 2010 Winter Olympics came along, I hung it in my office to cheer on Team Canada, and just kind of left it up.  I remember when the MLA came down one day to record some commercials.  He looked at that Canadian flag, rolled his eyes, let out a sigh of disgust, and said, "You really should have an Alberta flag up."  I threw out my trophy from when I represented the station at the Winter Festival of Speed in Lac la Biche a few years ago.  I came in third, and the person who placed first - the announcer from the Bonnyville station - decided to play a rather mean-spirited prank on me.  I'm still sore about it.

Athabasca really has been the culmination of a life's goal.  When I was 10 years old, I saw the movie Good Morning Vietnam and decided that being a radio announcer was what I wanted to do when I grew up.  When I went to college, first thing I did was volunteer for the college station.  After college, I thought the whole radio system would be out of my system and I could become a grown up.  But it wasn't.  So I went back to college, got my degree in broadcasting, and started in Athabasca.  And now, I'm getting ready to head off to a new town, new station, and do it all over again.  The dream goes on.  The adventure continues.

I think excitement is finding its moment.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Time for Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly gaze at something in my home video library because I really don't have much of a social life.  This time out, we're doing the second in Robert Downey Jr's take on the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  This entry is originally dated June 24, 2012.

The Targ New Year's Special: 35% More!

Man, o man, I just can't seem to find the time to do this anymore.  But I've got stories to tell, and I like being on the radio, so why not bust out a podcast?  Time for a new episode of U62: The Targ!

I've already talked on the various social media about how awesome Star Wars Identities was.  But, that's not the only thing I did at the Telus World of Science.  I also took in an IMAX documentary and saw my first ever planetarium show.  And, I also tell some tales of my Christmas vacation, such as finally getting my holy grail of Star Wars action figures, and sampling some very tasty treats I got for Christmas.

So check out my New Years Special:  35% More


Click here to go download it!


Head here to subscribe in iTunes!


Be a fan in Facebook! 

Fishing in the Discount Bin: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -- Extended Edition

Welcome to this week's edition of Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I go through my DVDs, watch one, and blog about it.  This week, we start on Peter Jackson's extended editions of his epic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.  Yup, it's the Fellowship of the Ring.  This entry is originally dated June 17, 2012.

Star Wars Identities Link Collection

So, if you're my friend on Facebook or if you follow me on Twitter, you know that, back on Thursday, I went to see Star Wars: Identities at the Telus World of Science.  And I loved it!  So I just thought I'd take a minute to collect all the links I've been posting to the social networks.

Now, Star Wars Identities is more than just a wide collection of props from the Star Wars films on display.  The educational component is they explore everything that goes into creating our identity:  our upbringing, the influences of friends and mentors, life events that come along and change things...stuff like that.  And they use the story arcs of Luke Skywalker from the original trilogy and Anakin Skywalker from the prequels as their prime examples.  The interactive component is you wear this special wristband, and along the way, you have to make certain life choices.  And at the end, you get to see the Star Wars character you created.

This is me.  This is me in Star Wars.  This is the character I created.

 

To read my character's bio, just click this link! 

But that's not all.  I also had my camera along and took lots of pictures.  I took lots of video, too, and edited it together into a little home movie.  So, here it is, my little film, entitled Mark Goes to Star Wars Identities.




This video is lovingly dedicated to my friend Kenten, because only he would give me the idea of doing a Red Green/Star Wars mash-up.

I do have a gigantic, epic length blog entry planned talking about my impressions and reflections on, not just Star Wars Identities, but my first trip to the Telus World of Science in about 15 years or so.  Hopefully that'll be up in the next day or so...getting it finished is top of my to-do list for this Sunday. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin: Superman -- The Animated Series

Welcome back to another edition of Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the many, many, many movies in my home video library.  Today, it's my recent attempt to tackle a TV series.  It's the classic 1990s cartoon Superman: The Animated Series.  This is originally dated in my notes as June 10, 2012.

Scarecrow's Oscar Picks: 2013 Edition

Well, it's that time of  year!  The Oscar nominations were announced a few years ago, so it's time to do what I've been doing since I started blogging in the late-1990s.  It's time for me to do my Oscar picks!

Now, as I've been doing since the late 1990s, I tend to do my Oscar picks in the categories that I care about.  I mean, you're going to get all kinds of speculation for the big ones like Best Picture and Best Actor and Best Actress and stuff like that.  So, when I started doing this, I started by focusing on the categories that I care about:  Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects.  So let's take a look at what we've got.

Best Visual Effects

The nominees are:

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Life of Pi
• The Avengers
• Prometheus
• Snow White and the Huntsman

Wow, lots of good choices there.  I think that, when it comes to The Hobbit, the Academy will probably do what they did with The Lord of the Rings.  They'll save all the awards for the third and final film.  So that's probably out of the running.  Snow White and the Huntsman, didn't see it, can't speak to it.  And as much as I loved The Avengers, I really don't think there's anything new and groundbreaking visual effects-wise.  However, the one that the critics keep coming back to...the one that they keep raving about the effects in, is Life of Pi.  Everyone's taking about it's use of 3D, and how a combination of a real tiger, animatronics, and CGI is all coupled together to bring the film's tiger to life.

My Prediction:  Life of Pi

Best Original Song

The nominees are:

• "Before My Time" from Chasing Ice
• "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from Ted
• "Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi
• "Skyfall" from Skyfall
• "Suddenly" from Les Miserables

This category has gotten tougher and tougher for me to call.  The main reason why I started predicting this one back in the 1990s was because, in the 90s, Disney animated films ruled this category.  But I don't think a Disney movie has been nominated in this category for a great many year.  Most of these songs, I have not heard.  I'll try to link all the nominees up there to the song on YouTube.  But let's see..being a James Bond fan, I thought Skyfall the song was pretty good.  Ted was from the creators of Family Guy, and I see that Everybody Needs a Best Friend was done by all the composers who work on Family Guy.  They've done some good songs, it would be nice to see them win.  But still, the critics generally love Les Miserables, and with people saying the film was shunned because it didn't pick up nominees for  Best Director, so I'm sure a lot of people will go for that one.

My Prediction:  Les Miserables

Best Animated Film

It's funny...I just wrote up a Fishing in the Discount Bin for Chicken Run, and as the urban legend goes, this category was created because the Academy felt guilty about not being able to give Chicken Run anything.  I started predicting this one when the category was new 11 years ago, and I was still running down to the theatre to see every new animated movie that came out.  Which reminds me...I think I'm due for another Animated Film Catch-Up.  Anyway, the nominees are:

• Brave
• Frankenweenie
• ParaNorman
• The Pirates!: Band of Misfits
• Wreck-It Ralph

Wow!  I've seen three out five nominations this year!  I think that's a personal record.  This seems like a category that'll be too close to call.  While Brave really didn't gel for me, Pixar is an Oscar darling.  I missed The Pirates! in its theatrical release, but I still really want to see it, because it's from the UK's Aardman Animations, which is another Oscar darling.  And ParaNorman, while it fizzled at the box office, got a lot of love from the critics.  With this one, though, I'm really leaning towards Wreck-It Ralph, because when I went to see it, I found it to be very pleasantly surprising, so maybe the Academy will feel that way, too.

My Prediction:  Wreck-It Ralph

And, as always, just to sell out and be mainstream, let's do the big one, shall we?

Best Picture

• Amour
• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Les Miserables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

 Wow, I have seen a grand total of one of these films.  That would be Django.  I still don't like the fact that they increased it from 5 films to 10 films.  Well, it's not 10 films anymore.  It's "as many as their needs to be."  The goal was to open it up and include more mainstream films, so people would stop going, "Oh, those are all films I've never heard of."  And, well, all that seems to have happened is we get more films that no one has heard of.  So I think I'm just going to pick a name out of a hat here

My Prediction:  Les Miserables

The Oscars are on February 24 this year.  Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, is the host.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Astro Boy

And here we go again with Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the many DVDs in my video library.  Today, we conclude our retrospective on the films of Imagi Studios with their second, and sadly, final film, Astro Boy.  This entry is originally dated June 9, 2012.

Django Unchained Review is Up

My review of Django Unchained is now online!

Head on over to my main site to check it out:  www.chaosinabox.com. 

Obtaining the Holy Grail

Well, Christmas vacation 2012/2013 is coming to a close.  I took 2 weeks off for my Christmas vacation, rather than my usual 1 week.  Around the middle of November I got an e-mail from the boss, informing me of my unused vacation days and asking me to use them up.  I was taken aback, usually because I get that e-mail in the middle of January and I take a week off in February to use them up.  But everything seemed to be moving ahead of schedule this year, so I proposed doubling my Christmas vacation to get those unused days off the books, which everyone around the office seemed to be OK with.

And boy, do I know how to cap off a vacation or what, because for my final day (yesterday), I made...A DENTIST'S APPOINTMENT!  Yup, got my teeth cleaned.  I made the usual small talk with the hygienist, which usually revolves around why a guy from Athabasca goes all the way to Spruce Grove to see the dentist.  Quite simple really:  every time I start asking around Athabasca, the dentists in the area keep telling me they're not taking new patients.  So finally I said, "Screw it, I'll keep going to my regular guy."

Besides, it gives me a reason to take a day off work, and as we've already established, I have a real problem with not using up my vacation days.  

So, with a mouthful of clean teeth, I was off to Edmonton to spend all those lovely, wonderful Christmas gift cards.  First stop:  Wal-mart.  For you see, I was in need of a new pair of shoes.  Now that winter is in full swing, I wearing snow boots, of course, but what to do when I get to work?  I don't like wearing the snow boots around the office, because wearing them all day, the feet got hot and sweaty -- and not in the good way.  So I like to slip off the boots and wear some more comfortable footwear.  I know some colleagues at some of our sister stations have been known to wear slippers or Crocs, but a few years back a memo was sent out, saying that such footwear is officially frowned upon.  My solution:  cheap, $10 runners.  And my usual pair of "office runners" had become worn down to just nothing.  Seriously, it was like binding my feet in rags.

After I got my new shoes, and a few shirts I liked, I fell back into old habits and headed to the toy section to see if there were any new action figures I wanted to obtain for my collection.  And yes, there were.  A few years back, they started this group of Star Wars figures called "The Vintage Collection," where the packaging is designed to look like the original Star Wars figures from the early-80s, and I'm a sucker for that retro stuff.

I remember the summer of 1999, when me and most of my friends were in a cloud of new Star Wars stuff, thanks to the release of The Phantom Menace.  For those few of my friends who dove head-first into the new Expanded Universe stuff that came along, they were quick to tell me that Aurra Sing - a character with barely a second of screen time in Episode I, was quickly becoming a rising star in the Star Wars fanfic community.  So, with all those memories of my friends telling me about the awesomeness of Aurra Sing, I figured I should grab her action figure.

As I've blogged before, I never really got into the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Seeing the very-bad movie version that started the series was when I officially declared myself burnt out on Star Wars.  Although, my friends who've stuck with it tell me it's gotten a lot better as the TV seasons wore on.  As such, The Clone Wars is vastly under-represented in my collection.  But, from what I did see, I do know that Ahsoka Tano is one of the stars of the show, being the Jedi apprentice of Anakin Skywalker.  She's a tragic character without knowing she's tragic...as we all know from the events of Revenge of the Sith, she's going to die.  As she's not in Revenge of the Sith, she'll probably die in the final episode of The Clone Wars.  But she'll live forever, encased in carbonite blister packaging.

Now I was off to Best Buy, to start spending my Best Buy gift cards.  I already had one Blu-Ray picked out.  As you know, I'm a huge fan of the folks over at Pixar.  And, in late fall, they released their second compilation of the short films, entitled The Pixar Short Film Collection Volume 2.  So, of course, Pixar junkie that I am, I knew I had to get it.  That was the only one I was planning to get, but as you may recall, I blogged a few months ago that, as part of the Skyfall hype, pretty much all of the James Bond films are now being released to Blu-Ray.  And I saw the brand-new Blu-Ray release of the Timothy Dalton Bond The Living Daylights.  The Living Daylights was the one I had earmarked to be upgraded to Blu-Ray next, as I have the basic edition DVD with no bonus features.  And there was the shiny new Blu-Ray, loaded with all the bonus features...for just $6.99!  How could I say no when the price was so ridiculously low?

New DVDs in hand, it was now off to West Edmonton Mall to catch a movie the way it was meant to be seen...on the big screen.  I just wasn't going to let my Christmas vacation end without catching a movie.  (While I'm at it, apologies to my mother, who was really hoping I'd take her to see Les Miz before going home.  Being the only one in the family who actually takes time to go to movies anymore, most all of my family waits for me to come visit so they have an excuse to go to the movies.)  But before I was off to the movies, there was a small side trip.

As I blogged a couple of weeks ago, my Holy Grail of Star Wars action figures has been the McQuarrie Concept Stormtrooper.  Every time I got to the city, I swing by the comic book and collectible shops to see if one is in...and to see if the price is something I can afford.  Many years ago, when I started this action figure collecting hobby, I said I'd never pay more than $20 for a figure.  And, if you've never been to a comic book and collectibles shop to buy an action figure, let me tell you, they are rarely less than $20 in those places.  Now, as you'll recall in that blog entry from a few weeks ago, one of my shops in West Edmonton Mall had the McQuarrie Concept Stormtrooper for $25.  Just $5 more than my self-imposed limit, when such a limit made sense to a 14-year old kid working part-time in a grocery store.  So I sucked it up and walked away, because I guess I don't like spending five extra dollars to be happy.  I fully expected it wouldn't be back when I returned.

I returned and...it was still there.  And, even better, it had been marked down to the "Mark can sleep at night" price of $19.99.  I could not believe that it had been marked down to less than $20.  Not even the clerk could believe it when he rung it up for me!  "I paid a lot more than $19.99 for mine on eBay," he grumbled, as he placed it in a shopping bag.

So, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me a great sense of joy and accomplishment to reveal to you my Holy Grail of Star Wars action figures...the McQuarrie Concept Stormtroooper.

It's a Stormtroooper!  With a lightsaber!  And a shield!  How awesome is that?

As great as it would have been to call it a day after that, there was one last thing left to do.  I went to see Django Unchained.  The latest from Quentin Tarantino, as he offers up his rendition of the Spaghetti western.  Set 2 years before the Civil War, Jaimie Foxx plays Django, a freed slave who becomes a bounty hunter and goes after the ruthless plantation owner that bought his wife.  Christopher Waltz, the German actor who won an Oscar for Tarantino's last film, Inglorious Basterds, plays Dr. King Shultz, the dentist-turned-bounty hunter who frees Django, and becomes Django's partner, best friend, and mentor in the bounty hunting trade.  And Leonardo diCaprio plays the ruthless plantation owner. Calvin Candee.

The usual Tarantino flourishes are there, in the dialogue and the blood.  My God, the blood...probably Tarantino's bloodiest film.  Not his most violent...but definitely his bloodiest, as each gunshot just sends out geysers of blood.  Probably his most cameo-filled movie too, as Tarantino loves bringing out these fondly remembered actors from TV and exploitation movies and giving them one more shot.  The one cameo I was pleasantly surprised to spot was Tom Wopat, Luke Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard, showing up as a Texas marshal.

(Another Dukes of Hazzard reference I kept getting...it's established that Calvin Candee's plantation is in Chickasaw Country...in The Dukes of Hazzard, Chickasaw County was Hazzard County's neighouring county.)

If I have a complaint, that would be that this is the first Tarantino movie where I felt it kind of dragged in places...it felt about a half-hour too long.  It was like Tarantino was allowed his indulgences a little too much.

All in all, though, a very entertaining film, and another great addition to the Tarantino filmography. 

And that's it!  Christmas vacation 2012 draws to close, and I'm back at work on Monday.  I'm buff, I'm tan, I'm well-rested.  I should take vacations more often. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - TMNT

Time again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the many DVDs in my collection.  This time around, I attempt to get all serious and analytical, but the film I choose to do it with is TMNT, aka the computer animated Ninja Turtles movie.  This entry's originally dated June 8, 2012.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Secret World of Arrietty

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly evidence that I have too much time on my hands because I watch one of the many movies in my video library and blog about it.  This time out, we're chatting up the latest Sudio Ghibli release that got a major theatrical release in North America...The Secret World of Arrietty.  This entry is originally dated May 26, 2012.

News from Markworld: 2012 in Review

As I began doing last year, allow me to blog my annual Christmas card letter, in the off chance that those friends who've drifted away may wonder whatever became of me and are googling my name one night.

Good tidings, all!  Mark Cappis here, with my annual Christmas newsletter, letting you know the things that happened to me in the year that was.

I know, I try to get this out at the start of December, so I can get new snail mail addresses and update the Christmas card list, but as I’ve been trying to write this, I find myself encountering a terrible case of writer’s block.  No matter how hard I wrack my brain, I just can’t find any interesting tidbits or sparkling bits of news to pass along.

Not the most attention grabbing intro to a newsletter, I know.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that, at some point in the past, we knew each other.  And whatever our relationship was, it convinced me that you might be interested in knowing what’s happening to me.  So...here’s what’s happening.


What’s Going On In My Life
You’ll still find me up in Athabasca, Alberta...far enough north for most to be considered the remote part of the north.  I’m still working at 94.1 the River, the radio station in Athabasca, and filling the role of “wacky morning guy.”  Come springtime, I’ll have been working here for seven years.  Yup, the same length as the average Star Trek TV series.  It’s a little bit strange.  Back in the days of minimum wage crap jobs, when you’re there for six months and then move on to another one, the thought of staying in one job for seven years is somewhat alien.  But now that it’s approaching, I find it somewhat comforting.  Obviously, someone must be liking what I’m doing to keep me around for so long.  And I must be liking what I’m doing to stick around for so long. 

When we last spoke one year ago, I revealed that the low pay that comes with radio had gotten me down, so I’d gotten a second job at Buy-Low Foods.  Well, I gave that up back in May.  As much as I appreciated the additional income, I was just starting to find it too difficult to balance the two schedules.  Granted, this means that finances are incredibly tight, but I’m managing. 

And really, that’s it.  Oh, and I saw The Avengers.  That movie is so good, you guys. 


Favourite Quote of the Year
“Puny god.” – Spoken by the Hulk, after he pounds the tar out of the evil Norse god Loki, in The Avengers.  Dude, when I saw this in the theatre, the audience was laughing so hard, I actually missed it.

To Be Found, You Must Make Yourself Visible
As always, my online footprint is massive, and you can always find out what I’m up to with a click of a mouse:

Chaos in a Box.com (my website):  www.chaosinabox.com

Midnight Ramblings (my blog):  www.chaosinabox.blogspot.com

U62: The Targ (my podcast):  www.chaosinabox.com/targ

My work blog:  www.941theriver.ca

Facebook (personal page):  www.facebook.com/chaosinabox

Facebook (fan page):  www.facebook.com/officialchaosinabox

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/chaosinabox

My YouTube Channel, where I sometimes make videos:  www.youtube.com/mcappis911

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/105350704002510248210/posts


...And the Adventure Continues...
We’re reaching the end now, which is good, because I’ve struggled long enough to come up with things to say.  In the end, all I can think of is what they taught me in school.  When you don’t know what to say, just wrap it up and go to the next song.

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you’re chewin’ on life’s gristle
Don’t grumble!  Give a whistle!
And this’ll help things turn out for the best....

‘Til next year!

Mark Cappis

 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - American Graffiti

We're rolling right along with Fishing in the Discount Bin.  Today, we get to one of the films that George Lucas made before he became "the Star Wars guy"...American Graffiti.  This entry is originally dated May 25, 2012.  

Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser

WOO!  The one big summer blockbuster of 2013 is finally giving us its first glimpse.  And that would be Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to 2009's critically acclaimed reboot of Star Trek.

"But Mark," you're saying.  "Why are you just blogging about it now?  The trailer's been online for a few weeks."  What, you're talking about this?




That's actually the "announcement teaser." That's right, movie promotion has gotten so ridiculous these days that trailers have trailers.  Before I started typing up a blog entry, I wanted to wait for the full trailer, which went online yesterday!

I know that 2009's gritty reboot of Star Trek had its detractors.  Many die-hard Trekkies felt that the optimism and the bright future predicted by Gene Roddenberry, and the haughty sci-fi and weighty debates about the human condition were abandoned to make just another big dumb action movie.  To be fair, many made the some complaint about the Next Generation films, too.  I, though, loved 2009's Star Trek to pieces.  For the first time in a long time, it was a Star Trek movie that actually felt like a movie.  It was critically acclaimed, was a massive hit, and it looked like Star Trek was back in a big way.

The sequel was originally supposed to come out this past summer, but director J.J. Abrams got so busy making Super 8 that the film wound up getting pushed back.  Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, the writers of the first film, are returning to scripting duties, and this time around their bringing their fellow Lost writer and guy who wrote Prometheus, Damon Lindelof.

The entire cast of the first film is back, led by Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock.  And this time around, they're doing battle with a mysterious villain played by Bennedict Cumberbatch, best known as Sherlock Holmes on Sherlock, and the current #1 pin-up boy for many a girl geek.

Speculation is still running rampant on who the villain may be.  Along with the release of this trailer, came the revelation of the character's name:  John Harrison.  Those more knowledgeable in Star Trek canon than I have identified John Harrison as a very minor background character who was in a dozen or so episodes of the original series.  Many are saying that this is just an alias, and John Harrison's true identity will be revealed in the film, much like how Marion Cotillard's character in The Dark Knight Rises was originally announced as Miranda Tate, but as the film went on, we learned she was actually a very familiar Batman character.

Ever since the end credits rolled on the first one, the #1 contender for the villain has been Khan.  During interviews for Dredd, Karl Urban, reprising his role as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, let slip that the villain is Gary Mitchell.  Mitchell was the villain on the original series' second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before.  Mitchell was one Capt. Kirk's dearest friends who was granted God-like powers when he came into contact with a mysterious energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy.  Kirk was then forced to kill his friend before he went mad with power and re-made the universe in his image.  So who is the villain?  We'll know for certain when the movie comes out.

But, something that didn't get as much fanfare was the announcement of another returning character.  It was revealed that Alice Eve is in the cast as...Dr. Carol Marcus.  For those who've never seen Wrath of Khan, Dr. Marcus was an old flame of of Capt. Kirk's, and the mother of Kirk's son.  Might this film include the conception?  Does this connection to Wrath of Khan lend more support to the theory that Khan is the villain?

Many mysteries are surrounding this film right now.  And I like that.  That's why I'm kind of reluctant to go see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in IMAX because I don't want to see the first 9 minutes.

But enough of my rambling!  Here's the full trailer!




In the off-chance the YouTube police have it taken down by the time this goes up on Tuesday morning, here's the link to see it at the Apple Trailers website.

So what are my thoughts on this?  Very similar to my thoughts upon seeing the trailer for the first film.  I'm still getting used to seeing Star Trek on such an epic scale.  The mystery of the villain is really played up, and I'm starting to get really, really interested.  And the whole thing with doing the Vulcan salute through the glass?  Man, they're really playing up the allusions to Wrath of Khan.

Needless to say, I will be there on May 17, when it hits theatres.  

Hobbit Review is Online!

My review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is now online.

Head on over to the main site to give it a read.