Frankenweenie Review

My review for Frankenweenie is online!

Head over to the main site and check it out!

Just Another Sunday

Woke up this morning debating whether I wanted to go see Frankenweenie or not.  Next weekend would be better, as I'm not working next weekend and thus could have a more relaxed time, but Frankenweenie isn't doing so well at the box office, meaning its time in theatres is growing short.  Since I had nothing better to do, it was off to the city!

Oh, how times have changed.  Tim Burton originally made Frankenweenie as a live-action short film when he worked for Disney in the early 1980s.  Disney deemed the tale - a retelling of Frankenstein in which Victor Frankenstein is a 12-year old boy and his monster is his recently-dead-but-now-resurrected dog - to be too scary for children and refused to release it.  Some say Disney fired Burton over it, other say Burton quit.  Regardless, when Tim Burton started becoming a celebrity director, Disney finally released it straight-to-video in the early 1990s, and it's been a bonus feature on pretty much every DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

So, a few years ago, with The Nightmare Before Christmas rising in popularity and Frankenweenie becoming a cult classic, Disney and Burton decided to re-make it as a full-length stop-motion animated film.

Those who are fans of the original short film will be glad to know that this remake is very faithful to the original.  Tim Burton's influence is all over the film, as the film's location of New Holland is very, very similar to the suburb we saw in Edward Scissorhands.  I've heard some critics say that Edward Scissorhands is the one previous Tim Burton film that this is most similar to, and I'm inclined to agree.

In order to pad out the story to feature-length, they had to create a much larger supporting cast.  And if I have one complaint, that is, we really don't get to know these new characters.  We're told that young Victor has a close kinship with his science teacher, but sadly, we only get one scene of the two together.  Victor and the girl who lives next door, Elsa Van Helsing, have a brief scene that's very reminiscent of the Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson/over the backyard fence conversations of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, but sadly, it ends just as it gets going. 

Elsa seemed fascinating to me, but darn it, she's not in the film that much.  We see she's living with her uncle, a very mean and cruel mayor.  But again, we don't get to know her that much.  I think a great subplot would have been if Sparky (the true name of the titular Frankenweenie) originally had more accidental havoc in the neighbourhood, and Elsa Van Helsing followed her monster-hunter namesake and started monster-hunting throughout the neighbourhood.  Oh, well.

On a side note, Elsa is voice by Winona Ryder, and the character's design is very, VERY, VERY obviously based on Lydia from Beetlejuice.  A nice little callback to Burton's resume.

But yeah.  It's cute, it's fun, and it's very much in keeping with the original.  3 out of 4 nibs, full review coming to the main site in the next few days.

And of course, it's not a trip to the city unless I come home fearing that I've spent too much money on DVDs.

On my shopping list today was the new 30th Anniversary Edition of Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.  For those who may be wondering, this contains the original theatrical version, and not the 20th Anniversary Special Edition.  It's weird.  In interviews, Spielberg seems almost embarrassed that he made the special edition.  I guess the backlash that he digitally removed the guns and replaced them with walkie talkies really got to him.

But for those who liked the special edition, all of the new scenes that he put in are on the Blu-Ray in the "deleted scenes" section.  Sadly, one deleted scene that's still lost to the ages is the fabled Harrison Ford cameo. 

I also wanted to get the latest DC Comics/Warner Brothers straight-to-DVD animated film, The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1.  I'll admit, I almost gave this one a pass.  The Dark Knight Returns almost defies a film adaptation in my opinion, and some of the clips I've seen online, well, I find Peter Weller's portrayal of Batman to be a little too flat.  But the reviews online have been overwhelmingly positive, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

And that was all I'd planned to buy for DVDs today, but then, as I was browsing through HMV, I saw From the Earth to the Moon on sale for $15.  I'd always wanted to see From the Earth to the Moon, and for just $15, I couldn't say no.

For those who've never heard of it....  After the success of Apollo 13, Ron Howard and Tom Hanks felt, that while the movie was good and all, they did a great disservice by not telling the stories of the other men who landed on the Moon.  So, Howard and Hanks teamed up to make From the Earth to the Moon, a critically-acclaimed, epic in scope, 12-part mini-series that tells the tale of the entire Apollo program.  It won a slew of awards, and ever since I first heard about it in my final days of college, I really, really, really wanted to see it.

And just $15!

So I'm finally going to get to see it.


Now, as they taught me in school, when you run out of things to say, just play the next song.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly rant about one of the many, many movies in my home video library.  Today, we do the film that launched the directorial career of Tim Burton and made Pee-Wee Herman a star, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.  This rant is originally dated March 15, 2012.

The End of Athabasca's Fringe Festival

Athabasca used to have a Fringe Festival.  It boasted that it was the second smallest Fringe Festival in Canada.  (The smallest was -- and maybe still is -- in Abbottsford, BC.)  It was held in the last weekend of July every year.  Being so close to Edmonton, a few theatre groups from Edmonton would use it to try out their shows before entering them into Edmonton's Fringe.  Venues including the Nancy Appleby Theatre, the Legion Hall, the United Church, and Athabasca's old Community Centre.

The Fringe was held for nine years, from 1998 to 2007.  In my time in Athabasca, I was lucky enough to cover the last two.  Even when I showed up the second-last, I could tell that the festival's days were numbers.  Like a lot of volunteer organizations, the volunteers were starting to dwindle.  And, there some in the community that the rules of a Fringe festival were too restrictive.

As I recall, there are some rules you have to follow to call yourself a Fringe festival.  A couple of the rules I remember is you book the acts on a first come, first serve basis, and you can't say no to anyone.  With rules like that, some of the town's conservative elements felt we got "stuck" with some very explicit and risque shows, and wanted to change it to a more generic arts festival, and thus have more control over the programming.

For its final year, Athabasca's Fringe decided to take a cue from the Edmonton Fringe and adopt a theme to rally around.  They chose to unveil that theme in a big event with music and everything.  I was still the station's reporter, so I was there to cover it.  The theme for Athabasca's Fringe in 2007 was "it's MY Fringe."  People were encouraged to send in their ideas on how it was their Fringe.  It all seemed rather good.

2007, however, turned out to be the final Fringe.  The board said they were ready to step down and move on to other things, and no new volunteers took up the torch.  Well, that's not true.  The new volunteers reformed it into the "Athabasca Arts Alliance" with the goal of promoting arts year round, but I think that organization has now faded away and died.

For the longest time, we've had this poster for the final Athabasca Fringe Festival sitting in the back room at work.  I saved it from the trash heap many times.  I liked the Fringe, and I'm not sure you can tell from the photo, but it's mounted on a piece of plastic, making it very sturdy.  I just always found it too nice, and a nice artifact from Athabasca's recent past, to just throw it away.

For a while now, I've considered it donating it to the Athabasca Archives.  I've got a friend who's currently pursuing a Ph.D. in history, and she constantly tells tales of the neat things she finds in archives while doing her research.  So, I wanted to add my own neat thing to an archive.  I ran this idea by my friend, and she said, "Uhh...you'd better talk to your town archivist, first, and make sure it's the kind of donation they want."

About a week ago, some of the bosses came to visit, and they went on a cleaning and furniture re-arranging blitz.  I saved the poster from the scrap heap one last time, and figured if I was going to donate it, it'd better be now.

So after work, I tossed it in the back of my car and swung by the Athabasca Archives.  I showed it to the archivist, and she said she's love to have it for the town's archives.  In fact, she even said she had recently spoken with some people researching theatre history and who were amazed when they found out Athabasca used to have a Fringe festival and were looking for documentation on it.

I'm glad I found it a good home, and I hope this very fun part of Athabasca's recent history will be remembered.

What's On Your iPod?

"What's on your iPod?" was a popular question to ask in fluff pieces about five years ago when iPods were all hip and trendy.  I still wouldn't mind getting an iPod.  Seriously.  A 160G hard drive on the iPod classic, compared to the 4G memory on my current MP3 player.  To borrow the meme, with 160G, I could finally have ALL OF THE MUSIC!!

Anyway, it's a question I've been asking myself because, as previously blogged, I finally have an iPhone.  I seem to have spend an evening doing the thing that everyone I know who gets an iPhone does:  make a few purchases on iTunes to see what this iTunes thing is all about.  I already know what this iTunes thing is all about, because I've been buying stuff on iTunes for about four years now.  Granted, I didn't have any kind of i-Device that I could download those songs to.  But, my place is small enough that I can run a cord across my living room and plug my computer into my stereo.  Besides, you can play iTunes purchases on a regular MP3 player.  It's a simple, but annoying process of burning your purchases to an audio CD, and then ripping that CD into MP3s.

But now that I don't have to do that, I find I've been loading my iPhone with my past four years worth of iTunes purchases.

And since I've always believed that music is no fun unless it's shared, I thought I'd do a quick blog sharing a small sampling of my iTunes purchases.

First thing I bought on iTunes was ROAR!: Cloverfield Overture, from Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino.  ROAR! is the end credit music that Giacchino created for Cloverfield, and when I saw Cloverfield, that piece of music blew my mind.  It's such an amazing piece, and a wonderful homage to the music from all those classic Godzilla films.  I wasn't the only one who thought it was mindblowing, and popular demand eventually saw the piece released exclusively to iTunes.




And speaking of Giacchino, the film he won an Oscar for was for the Disney/Pixar hit Up.  The soundtrack to Up was released only on iTunes, and being a fan of Pixar and Giacchino's, had to get it.  Here's the most famous cut from the Up soundtrack, called "Married Life."




So a few years back, in 2009, my hero, "Weird Al" Yankovic, decided to finally experiment with digital distribution.  As he pointed out, when he records his albums, he does his original songs first, then waits to find out whatever's current and popular to parody.  Sometimes, his original songs sit on the shelf for a year or so before he finishes the album.  Rather than let them sit, he decided to release them digitally.  The result with his 2009 EP Internet Leaks.  My favourite cut on Internet Leaks has to be "Skipper Dan," about a promising young actor who heads out to Hollywood to make it big...but the only job he can get is playing Skipper Dan on Disneyland's Jungle Cruise ride.  Pathos in a Weird Al song...whoda thunkit?




I've found that iTunes has become a great repository for TV theme songs.  If you like that 20-second clip in the intro to your favourite TV show, you can find the whole 3-minute song on iTunes for $0.99.  I like The Big Bang Theory.  I like Barenaked Ladies.  Why not get the theme for The Big Bang Theory?  When CTV first started showing The Big Bang Theory five nights a week, I used to wonder what the music they played in the promos was.  Then I bought the whole thing on iTunes and discovered that the music is actually the theme song's bridge.



And speaking of The Big Bang Theory, let's talk about New Girl.  When I first saw New Girl, it kind of struck me as being The Big Bang Theory in reverse.  Like The Big Bang Theory, New Girl has a cast of four main characters.  However, on New Girl, it's the one woman who's the socially awkward geek, and the three guys who are normal and well-adjusted by society's standards.

The theme song stuck out for me because of a borderline fourth-wall-breaking gag in the pilot episode.  In an attempt to lift her spirits, Jess (the socially awkward geek) sings a little song.  The song is a couple of lines from the show's theme song.  At which point, one of the guys turns to her, and with shock and disbelief in his voice asks, "Did you just write yourself a theme song?"

Well, it was clever enough to get me to drop $0.99 on iTunes.




And that's just a small sampling of what I've got.  Maybe I'll do this again with some other tunes in the not-too-distant future, when again I'm just goofing around on a lazy Sunday morning.  

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Last Unicorn

It's time again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the multitude of DVDs in my home library and offer my thoughts on it.  Today, we do one of my favourite animated films from my childhood, The Last Unicorn.  This review is originally dated March 15, 2012.

My Johnny Lightening Cars

So, a few months ago, I did a blog entry about the Hot Wheels cars that have found their way into my action figure collection.  That blog entry always felt incomplete to me, as I have a few more die-cast metal cars in my collection, that are in storage with the bulk of my action figure collection back in my parents basement.

When I went home last week for Thanksgiving vacation, I figured it was time to rectify that.  I guess, then, this is Part II of my previous blog entry.  I noticed that both of these are of the Johnny Lightening brand, so it's appropriate then that I call this entry "My Johnny Lightening Cars."

I've always had a soft spot for the VW Beetle.  I'm sure it all goes back to one of my earliest conscious memories of television being Disney's short-lived Herbie the Love Bug TV show.  As such, I've also had a soft spot for the Herbie franchise.  I even took my niece and nephew to see Herbie:  Fully Loaded. 

Fully loaded...a term that can now also apply to Herbie:  Fully Loaded's star Lindsay Lohan.  Bazinga!

I know on the air I've also mentioned my fondness for the board game Monopoly.  I know I've told the story of the marathon games my brother and I used to play...the kind that start at 2PM on a rainy Saturday afternoon and end at 2AM on Sunday morning when our fighting got Mom out of bed and she ordered us to shut it down. 

I also remember that when the Dodge Viper first came out in the early 1990s, it was a really big deal to all the automobile enthusiasts I was in high school with.  Back in the early 1990s, the Viper was the ultimate sports car.  So when I saw this "Boardwalk Dodge Viper," I figured this would be a neat addition to my collection.

I've often read about gigantic, professional Monopoly tournaments.  I wonder what it would take to organize one of those for Athabasca?  Charge a modest entry fee, raise the money for charity, get the banks involved so we can get real bankers to be the bankers.  I like that idea.

Anywho, that's the rest of of my cars.

James Bond, iPhones, and How I Spent my Thanksgiving Vacation

So, while enjoying my week off, I finally had to succumb and do what I'd been planning for a while.

I got an iPhone.

If you're my friend on Facebook, then you'll know that this is something I've been thinking about for a while.  My cellphone contract was due to expire at the end of July, and I figured that would be a good time to upgrade.  But, as I also lamented on Facebook, my car ran into some troubles and getting my car fixed wound up wiping out my iPhone savings.  But I figured that would be OK.  I could make do with my BlackBerry for a few more months, get the savings back up there, and hopefully by that time, the shiny new iPhone 5 would be widely available and I could get the latest and the greatest.

But, as we've learned from the movies, fate had other plans.

I was back home in Entwistle, lounging with my folks, when my BlackBerry started acting up.  I had an older model with a trackball, and the trackball frequently siezes up.  I'd read online how to fix this, and had fixed it many times in the past.  What you are to do is to get some isopropyl alcohol and gently flush out the trackball.  Do you have an old head cleaner cassette tape or VHS tape?  Isopropyl alcohol is the head cleaning solution. 

So my Dad had some out in his garage, so I took my BlackBerry out to the garage, dipped a cotton swab into the isopropyl alcohol and began gently scrubbing the trackball.  With that done, I went to turn on my BlackBerry.

My BlackBerry wouldn't turn on. 

So, I reset my BlackBerry.  I pulled out the battery and put it back in.  It came on fine, the trackball was fine, but the keyboard was toast.  Couldn't push any buttons to make anything work.

My choices were clear:  keep monkeying with it, trying to get it work, or take it as a sign that the universe was telling me to get a new phone.

I took it as a sign.

The next day, I went into Edmonton, with my sights set on getting a shiny new iPhone.  Now, I know that the Samsung Galaxys are quite popular, and the Google Android OS is pretty much on-par with Apple these days, but I'd been fixated on an iPhone for quite some time.  Hell, I originally wanted an iPhone three years ago when I bought my BlackBerry, but the iPhone wasn't on Telus yet.  And I knew I wanted to stick with Telus.  Living up in Athabasca as I do, Telus still has the best coverage for remote, rural Alberta.  Besides, I've got about three years worth of iTunes purchases on my home computer that I finally want to be able to take out and about with me.

So, it was off to Edmonton to get my iPhone.  Now, as much as I wanted the shiny new iPhone 5, I remember reading all those news reports about how the iPhone 5 was sold out all over the world.  So I fully expected not to find it.  I figured I should go straight to the source...the Apple Store in West Edmonton Mall.  If the Apple Store didn't have it, then I'd be fairly certain that no one would have it.  And sure enough, I went into the Apple Store, chatting with a friendly clerk, and the first thing he said to me was, "I'm sorry, but we're all out of stock on the iPhone 5."  I thanked him, and went on my way.  As much as I wanted an iPhone, I figured I would be better off getting it from a Telus Store, as they would most likely be the most knowledgeable about the various Telus plans.

Rather than hang around West Edmonton Mall, I decided to hit the Telus Stores in Spruce Grove, as those are the ones my parents deal with all the time, and they say nice things.  And let me be the latest to say more nice things.  If you're ever in the market for a new cellphone, and you want to go with Telus, and you're in Spruce Grove, Alberta, then I highly recommend that you hit the Telus Store in the Westland Market Mall.  That had to be the friendliest and most knowledgeable staff I'd ever run into when buying electronics.

I walked into the Telus Store, and was met with a gruff-looking elderly man.  We did the usual clerk/customer banter.  He asked if there was anything he could help me with today.  I said I was in the market for an iPhone, and for the hell of it, I asked if he had any iPhone 5's in stock.  "Afraid not," he said.  "Sold out this morning."  So I inquired about an iPhone 4S.  I was hoping for a model with a 32G memory, because if my BlackBerry was any indication, I'll soon be stuffing the memory full of movie trailers and digital copies of TV episodes.  The clerk said that they only had 16G memory models in stock.  "OK, that'll do," I said.  The clerk disappeared into the back room and came back out with a brand new iPhone 4S.  "You're lucky," he said to me.  "I found one last 32G model in the back room.  It's yours." 

The gruff-looking (but very friendly) clerk turned me over to a young lady to finish up the transaction.  Now, she must have been in the iPhone expert in the store, because she was able to get it out of the box, get it all set up, and answer all my questions about the phone, the new plan I was signing up for, and all that good stuff.  She was even able to go into my old BlackBerry (I'd brought it with me out of force of habit) and successfully transferred over my contacts list to my new iPhone.  She was even able to show me a few tricks to help prolong the iPhone's battery life. 

And I went home that day with a shiny new iPhone 4S.  I am a little worried about my iPhone.  As the clerk reminded me, the big thing about BlackBerry's is their proprietary method for compressing data.  She said that when people switch from BlackBerries to non-BlackBerries, they can see their data usage go up as much as 6x.  But, my old BlackBerry wasn't wi-fi capable, so now that I can get on wi-fi hotspots, the data usage shouldn't go up too significantly. 

Granted, I'm expecting my data usage to be high and my battery life to be short for the next few months, because it's all shiny and new and I can't stop playing with it! 

That wasn't the only thing I had on my mind, though, that I was looking to upgrade.  For about a year or so now, you may have seen me blogging and lamenting that my DVD of the James Bond classic, The Spy Who Loved Me, seems to have given up the ghost.  I've got two DVD players, a Blu-Ray player, and the CD-ROM on my computer and it doesn't play on any of them.  Sadly, The Spy Who Loved Me had fallen out of print.  That's the thing with the James Bond movies on DVD and Blu-Ray...they're only available whenever there's a new James Bond movie about to hit a theatre near you.

So, with SkyFall coming out in about a month or so, the James Bond movies are slowly returning to DVD...some of them coming to Blu-Ray for the first time.  A few weeks ago, we got the massive Bond 50 boxed set, containing all 22 James Bond films.  I don't want all 22 James Bond films.  When DVD was new and exciting, I figured I'd just get my favourite for each James Bond actor.  And when The Spy Who Loved Me gave up the ghost, my Roger Moore slot was unfilled. 

Perusing my DVD websites, I saw that The Spy Who Loved Me was getting its long awaited individual Blu-Ray release on October 2...but only at Best Buy stores.  Since this tale that I'm sharing all took place on October 2, I knew that one of my stops would have to at Best Buy to finally get The Spy Who Loved Me. 

I was a little wary, though.  Everything I read online said that The Spy Who Loved Me was going to be available exclusively at Best Buy, but they didn't mention if that included Best Buys in Canada.  So I just took my chances and showed up at the store on the morning of October 2.  And lo and behold, there was The Spy Who Loved Me, and even better, it was at the discount bin price of $10.

At that price, I also decided to upgrade my copy of George Lazenby's lone James Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  When you're choosing your favourite George Lazenby James Bond film, you don't have much to choose from.  Actually, next on my list for upgrading would be Tomorrow Never Dies (my favourite Brosnan Bond) and The Living Daylights (my favourite Dalton Bond), and they also had them at Best Buy for $10.  They're next for upgrading because my DVDs are the plain versions...no bonus features to speak of.  I didn't get those two that day, because some times I've got to be careful.  I have been known to buy more DVDs and Blu-Rays than I can watch, and they wind up just sitting until I find the time.  A man's got to pace himself. 

So, as a vacation went, I think it went pretty good.  I got new toys and new movies.  That's all pretty much anyone could ask for. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Godzilla

It's that time again...Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I show that I have no better way to fill my free time than to sit, watch movies in my home library, and blog about them.  This week, it's the orginal giant monster epic from Japan, Godzilla.  This entry is originally dated February 24, 2012

The Lone Ranger Trailer

I think I've blogged before that I have a bit of a soft spot for The Lone Ranger.  Some of my earliest conscious memories of television are watching Lone Ranger reruns on CBC before church on Sunday mornings.  And I knew, with the comic book hero genre dominating the box office these days, it would be just a matter of time.

I've got to admit, everything I've heard about the upcoming movie version of The Lone Ranger is giving me pause for concern.  I mean, when they showed that first photo of Johnny Depp as Tonto, and he had the dead raven on his head, I was one of many who went, "What the heck are they doing?"  Plus, when you heard the rumors that the budget was was $250 million, and that werewolves eventually show up, you start going, "No, no, no...that's not The Lone Ranger."

Well, Lone Ranger promotion seems to have gone into overdrive this week.  Yesterday, we got the movie poster, and again, I was disappointed.  When it comes to doing the posters for these heroes, you tend to focus on the icons.  With the Lone Ranger, what would that be?  White hat.  Black mask.  Silver bullets.  Instead, we get this.

That just kind of rubs me the wrong way.  Why are they making the dead raven on Johnny Depp's head the icon of this movie?

Today, we got our first trailer, and again, something about it just doesn't sit right with me.



I look at that, and all I can think is "All aboard the gritty reboot train!"  That's just a little too gritty for the Lone Ranger I remember.  I can't help but focus on the music.  That music just doesn't work for me.  As I said, it all goes back to the icons.  When I think of the Lone Ranger, this is the music I want to hear.



And of course, I had to scratch my head when the trailer said, "From Oscar-winning director Gore Verbinski."  It took me a while to remember that he won Best Animated Film for directing Rango.  I'm not sure if I blogged about it before, but I'm one of the few who found Rango underwhelming. 

So, yeah.  Right now, it's just striking me as having strayed too far from the source material, but I'm still mildly curious, and will probably find myself wandering into the theatre.

To recap, this production comes to us from most the same creative team behind the firs three Pirates of the Caribbean movies:  director Verbinski, writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and star Johnny Depp, who in this, plays Tonto.  The Lone Ranger will be played by Armie Hammer, who played the Winklevos twins in The Social Network.  Veteran character actor William Fichtner plays Butch Cavendish, the ruthless outlaw who murdered the Lone Ranger's brother, and Helena Bonham Carter plays a saloon owner who helps our heroes.

Wait a minute, both Depp and Bonham Carter are in this?  How is Tim Burton not directing it?

Oh, and when I was reviewing the information for this, and talking about the music and straying from the source material.  I just remembered that Jack White is making his film-scoring debut by doing the score for this.

The Lone Ranger hits theatres on July 3, 2012. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Jurassic Park III

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly column where I rant about one of the many, many DVDs, VHS tapes, and Blu-Rays that make up my home video library.  Today, we get to the overlooked Jurassic Park film, Jurassic Park III.  This entry is originally dated February 19, 2012.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Targ!

Holy moly!  Is it that time?  Is it time for the return of U62: The Targ?  Is Mark's summer hiatus at an end?

Not quite.

I've still got a couple of busy weekends coming up, so I'm reluctant to say, "I'm back!"  However, I'm bored, I've got some free time, and I've got stuff to say, so that's as good a reason as any to do a show.  Think of this as a warm-up to Season 6 proper.

In my Thanksgiving Special:  All Stuffing, No Turkey, I talk about some of the weird stuff left behind in hotel rooms, the epic crossover that will be James Cameron on MythBusters, and the Magic Kingdom is opening up to be a little more fun for grown-ups.

So, yeah.  I'm not quite ready for a full-blown comeback, but it's a start.


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New Hobbit Trailer!

So, a lot's happened since we got our first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey back in December.  First up, we had the San Diego Comic-Con, where we got this sweet Comic Con exclusive poster.

The other big thing was the announcement that they're no longer splitting it into two movies.  They are now making a trilogy out of it.  That's right, they're making three movies out of the one book.  The big question now is how they're pulling it off.

Now, when they first announced that they were going to adapting The Hobbit, way back when Guillermo Del Toro was directing, they said that the plan was for two movies:  the first one would be an adaptation of The Hobbit, and for the second film, they were going to pour through all of JRR Tolkien's appendicies and texts on the history of Middle Earth and create a second film that would fill the gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Then Del Toro left the project, Peter Jackson got back on board, and Jackson said, "Nope, forget that.  We're going to cut The Hobbit in half and make two movies."

So the popular rumor right now is that Jackson still desires to make that "bridge the gap" film, and tried to incorporate a lot of it as subplots.  And now, in the editing booth, he's decided to make his "bridge the gap" film into a full, third movie.

That, or it's just a shameless cash grab.  I'm kind of siding with that one.

So, now that it's three films, a re-titling was in order.  The plan now for the franchise is this.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theatres December 18, 2012
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theatres December 13, 2013
The Hobbit: There and Back Again hits theatres July 18, 2014.

In the texts, September 22 is listed as Bilbo and Frodo's birthday, so fans the world over celebrate the 22nd as "Hobbit Day" and the week it falls in as "Tolkien Week."  So, Peter Jackson promised us a new trailer this week, and we got it back on Wednesday.




I'm digging this trailer.  I still like the look of these films.  As I've blogged before, when it comes to the books, I've always enjoyed The Hobbit, but found The Lord of the Rings to be boring as fuck.  So I'm looking forward to The Hobbit a lot more than I was to The Lord of the Rings.  I've said I want to re-read the book before the movie comes out...I'd better get started.

Oh, and something neat, too.  If you go to the official Hobbit website, you can see five different versions of the trailer with five different endings.  I like the one where Bilbo ponders showing his new-found sword to Elrond and finding out more about it, but one of the dwarfs talks Bilbo out of it, dismissing Bilbo's sword as "a letter opener."  I think that scene makes it a little cooler when Bilbo names his sword later on. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly column where I watch one of the many movies in my personal library, and I rant about it.  Today, we do the anime classic Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and this one is a little bit different.  Usually, when I write these, I watch the film, then when it's done, I sit down and write out my thoughts and musings.  But this one, however, was my stream-of-consciousness rambling that I wrote while watching the film.  It wound up being something a little bit different than the usual entries.  This entry is originally dated February 6, 2012.

Lincoln Trailer

I'm on a bit of a Steven Spielberg kick lately, having just picked up the nice, new Blu-Ray of Jaws.  It was the first time I'd seen Jaws from beginning to end.  I've written a Fishing in the Discount Bin on it, and it'll probably be online in a few months, but long story short, Jaws blew me away.  It was only Spielberg's second theatrical film, but to see so many of his trademark director flourishes already in play...it just speaks to his confidence as a director.

So it's a massive coincidence then that, with my kick going on, that we get the trailer for Spielberg's next film, Lincoln.  Spielberg's been trying to get a biography of Abraham Lincoln off the ground for about 10 years or so now.  Spielberg was hoping to have it in theatres in 2009 for the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, but various delays pushed it back.  From what I gather from Wikipedia, most of those delays had to do with Spielberg ordering more drafts of the script, to get it just right.

All those delays, though, wound up costing Spielberg his star.  Liam Neeson was attached for the longest time to play Lincoln, but all those delays started conflicting with Neeson's schedule, so he had to quit the project.  That paved the way, though, for legendary Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis to take on the role.

Also in the cast is Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as his oldest son Robert Todd Lincoln, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.  It's Oscar-bait of the highest caliber.

I've got a lot of catching up to do on Spielberg films.  I have yet to see Munich, or his two films that he released last year, War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin.  Methinks a trip to the video store is in order.

Makes me think though that I'll have to make the effort to catch Lincoln in theatres.  It comes out on November 16.



and because I need a thumbnail for when I post this on the social networks, here's the poster.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Simpsons Movie

Time once again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the far too many movies that I own, and just kind of rant about it.  We get to one of the most anticipated movies for fans of a particular cartoon, The Simpsons Movie.  This rant is originally dated December 27, 2011.

Michael Bay's TMNT Script

So yesterday, I was chatting with a friend of mine about Michael Bay and his upcoming live action movie version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  We all know the tale now about how he's changing the Turtles from mutants to aliens and all that, and we started discussing the leaked script that went online about a week or two ago.


And then I told my buddy, "Hey, you should check out the website Latino Review, because they did this video where they broke it down blow-by-blow and did a highly detailed summary!

When I got home, I e-mailed my friend the link, and that's when I started thinking, "Hey, this video is embedable! I should post it on my blog so I can share it with the world!"

So I did.

Give it a watch, and I'll tell you my thoughts afterwards.





And we're back.

I do kind of like the opening action sequence, where the Turtles bust out of a government installation and commandeer a truck, fighting Foot Soldiers along the way.  At the height of the Turtles craze, I was an avid reader of the Archie Comic TMNT Adventures, and that scene and set-up could come straight out of that comic.

But still, changing Shredder to a government agent with Wolverine claws and changing his name to Schrader just seems too much.  Making the Turtles not so much aliens, but the "chosen ones" who will bring peace to Dimension X just seems weird.  And making Casey Jones and April O'Neil into teenagers...no.

I agree with another assesment I read online.  They pretty much graft the plot of the first Transformers onto this.

Turtles = Autobots
Casey Jones = Shia LeBeof
April O'Neil = Megan Fox

For those who stopped following this story, Michael Bay has now said that this isn't his script.  This script was written before he joined the project, and that his script is vastly different.

Whether it's better or worse remains to be seen.

Episode 65: The Royal Tyrrell Museum

I don't go on vacation as much as I should.  It's because of a number of factors, ranging from can't really afford to go anywhere to can't think of any place I'd like to go.

About 5 years ago, I did have place in mind that I wanted to go to:  The Royal Tyrrell Museum down in Drumheller.  I remember when the museum opened back in 1985...it was a huge deal in the province, and just about every one I knew was going on a trip down there to see the museum.  I got to go see it twice.  In 1986, the family went down there on a trip to check it out.  And once again a year later, on a class trip.

As the years went on, I always wanted to go back to it, now that I'm old enough to fully appreciate it, and because I still think dinosaurs are super-awesome.  So, after I'd worked in Athabasca for about a year, I figured, "Let's do it!  Let's head down to Drumheller for a vacation and see the Royal Tyrrell Museum!"  Alas, that "can't really afford to go anywhere" thing came back to haunt me, and after looking at motel rates in and around Drumheller, I was getting ready to scrap the whole thing.  But then, after doing some research with Google Maps, I discovered that Drumheller makes a pretty good day trip from Red Deer.  So the plan was revised to crash at my sister's place, visit the family in Red Deer, and then pop down to Drumheller for a day to see the museum.

The plan was in place, and I thought that, while at the museum, I'd do something a little extra to remember it.  I had just bought myself a digital voice recorder, with the idea of being able to record my podcast live on location.  So I thought it would be neat to bring it along and record a podcast live from the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

I narrated what I saw.  I captured audio from the multimedia displays.  And the clerk at the help desk was kind enough to give me an interview.

When I got home, it took me day to pour through all the audio I'd recorded and come up with Episode 65: The Royal Tyrrell Museum.  With all that work, I was rather pleased with how it turned out.  And now that I'm on SoundCloud and everything, I thought I'd upload it for the world to hear.

In a way, this the precursor to my YouTube videos.  I had my shiny new digital camera at this point, but I didn't have my new computer with Windows MovieMaker.  Had I had all that back then, this probably would have wound up being a YouTube vid.

So please enjoy, Episode 65:  The Royal Tyrrell Museum.  


Episode 65: The Royal Tyrrell Museum by Mark Cappis

It's getting to be that time of year where I really should fire up the podcast and get it going again.  I always take the summer off because the day job gets so busy.  Hopefully, it'll be back up and running by the end of the month.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Tomorrow Never Dies

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my ramblings about the various DVDs in my collection.  Today we get to a beloved-by-me-but-not-by-the-populace James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.  This review is originally dated November 13, 2011.

Labour Day in the City

Yay, long weekend!  Yay, holiday Monday!  For those who are my friend on Facebook, you'll know my last holiday Monday in the city was pretty crappy. 

Long story short:  I found a fabled comic book store had moved, and got my first parking ticket for my troubles.

This time, though, I decided to stick to the routes I know, and so my day started at Best Buy, staring at flatscreen TVs and wondering if I'll ever have the savings to buy one.

However, I did have my sights set on a few new Blu-Rays.  First up, I was looking at getting Jaws.  I've only ever seen  half of Jaws.  I always seem to come in in the middle when it's on basic cable.  However, I feel it's one of those films I need to know to strengthen my geek cred.

Jaws' contribution to cinema history has been well-documented.  It established the event picture formula and marketing tactics that are still followed to this day.  It made Steven Spielberg a household name.  But what gets me is the massive fandom that it's built.  So truly, I felt, I should get my hands on it.  And, since it's newly released on Blu-Ray, and at affordable discount bin prices to boot, why not?

Speaking of that fandom, another reason to pick up Jaws is that it contains the fabled documentary The Shark is Still Working.  I've been reading about this film online for a few years.  It's a very comprehensive documentary about the making of Jaws, made completely by diehard fans.  They manage to interview absolutely everyone who was involved in the making of the film.  From director Steven Spielberg to the lowliest extras.  They even interviewed the narrator who did the voice-over for the trailer!  It's been making the film festival circuit for a few years and never had anything close to an official release, but those who have seen it say that it's one of the best "making-of" documentaries ever made.  So, sometime in the future, look for installments of Fishing in the Discount Bin on both Jaws and The Shark is Still Working. 

From there, I went down the road to the craft store Michael's.  I have this friend who recently went vacationing in Scotland.  And she sent me stuff!  Being an Olympics buff, she sent me a souviner poster for London 2012.  And being a railway enthusiast, she sent me a reproduction of this very cool British Railways travel poster.

Naturally, I want to get this fella framed and hanging on my wall.  So I went to Michael's and I went to their frame section.  Now I was diligent enough to measure this poster before leaving home, but I didn't write it down.  So when I was staring down the frames, I couldn't remember if the poster was 11" x 14", or 11" x 17".  So, I went with 11" x 17" because it looked more right.

And then I got it home and darn it, the poster is 11" x 14". 

Right now, I'm debating whether to take the frame back and get a proper one, or make it work.  I mean, at the end, the only thing I'm worried about is 1.5" of space at the top and bottom of the poster that needs to be filled in.  So, to make it work, I'm thinking maybe get some white poster board to put behind it, it'll match nicely with the white border that's already on the poster.  The more I think about that idea, the more I like that idea. 

Anywho, with my frolicking on the north side done, it was off to my favouritest of haunts in Edmonton, West Edmonton Mall.  And of course, on a day like today, that meant dropping off too much money on Blu-Rays at HMV.

I saw a few weeks ago that The Royal Tenenbaums had just hit Blu-Ray, and I kind of wanted to get it.  As I previously blogged, this is one of those films where my memories of seeing it are stronger than memories of the movie itself, so I got it for those reasons.  Besides, it's a Criterion release.  I figure I need more Criterions to add a touch of class to my collection.  They're pricier than regular Blu-Rays, but I was in a real "Why not?" kind of mood today.

Then, as I was browsing the shelves, I stumbled across River of No Return.  You might remember when I did this on Fishing in the Discount Bin.  This is the legendary film that Marilyn Monroe made in Jasper.  It was recently remastered in hi-def and released on Blu-Ray, along with a bunch of other Marilyn Monroe classics, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her passing.   So I saw the Blu-Ray there in HMV for the discount bin price of $15, and thought, "Why not?"  I just watched the opening again.  I've been vacationing in Jasper since I was a baby...the sights in that film are so maddeningly familiar, but I just can't place them. 

And after that, it was just miscellaneous browsing.  Stopped in at Staples to look at a few computer accessories.  For a time now, I've been thinking I've got to get a webcam for my computer.  A lot of my friends are on Skype, a lot of my family is on Skype, and everyone assumes I'm on Skype because that's just what geeks do.  But I don't have a webcam, so I'm not on Skype.  I'm thinking I have to change that. 

But not today because, man, Staples was nuts with all those last-minute back-to-school shoppers. 

But that was my Labour Day.  Time to do some labour now and pay for it!