Fishing in the Discount Bin - Kick-Ass 2

Here we are once again, Fishing in the Discount Bin.  My obsession with superhero franchises continues as I watch the most-pirated film of 2013, Kick-Ass 2.  Don't worry, I'm watching the film on my legally-purchased Blu-Ray.  This shows up in my notes on January 11, 2014.

Netflix Nonsense - Rocky

So, a few months ago, I took to Facebook to publicly roll my eyes at the prospect of yet another Rocky movie in development.  I was taken aback slightly by one of my Facebook friends who saw that as a challenge and began defending the entire Rocky franchise.  It did get me thinking, though, that for such a famous and notable film series, I've only ever seen the first one once, and the last one once.  So, upon noticing that all the Rocky films are on Netflix, I decided to start working my way through the franchise.  Let's get this blog series started, shall we?  Let's take a look at the film that started it all, Rocky.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer

Probably the most anticipated superhero film of next year, now that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice got pushed back to 2016.  The culmination of Marvel's "Phase II," that began with Iron Man 3 just over a year ago.  Once again, the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes crashing together to face a threat that no hero can face alone.

The trailer was originally supposed to premiere next Tuesday, during Marvel's TV incarnation Agents of SHIELD.  However, when the trailer got leaked on Wednesday evening, Marvel shrugged and said, "Well, I guess we may as well release the trailer early."

The entire gang is back from the first film and most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Chris Hemsworth returns as Thor, Chris Evans is back as Captain America, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow, and Mark Rufalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk.  Also joining the Avengers this time out is Don Cheadle as War Machine.

We get some new heroes joining the team, too.  Aaron-Taylor Johnson, last seen battling Godzilla in Godzilla, is Quicksilver, and Elizabeth Olsen, last seen playing Johnson's wife in Godzilla, is his brother The Scarlett Witch.

Now, you may be thinking, "Wait a minute.  I saw Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past, so isn't Quicksilver an X-Men character, meaning Marvel can't use him?"  Well, yes.  But Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch have always been more widely known as Avengers and not Magneto's offspring.  So, Marvel and Fox made a handshake arrangement.  Marvel can use Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch as long as

a)  Marvel doesn't mention they're mutants
b)  Marvel doesn't mention that Magneto's their father.

Based on their first appearance in the post-credits sequence for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the speculation is, rather than mutants, their powers will be the results of HYDRA experiments. 

Also joining the team is Paul Bettany as the android Avenger the Vision.  Since Paul Bettany has done the voice of JARVIS, Tony Stark's AI, in all the Iron Man films and the previous Avengers, the speculation is that Vision's movie origin will turn him into an android built by Tony Stark and given life by some new upgrade of JARVIS.

And what villain is so mighty that the Avengers are almost destroyed doing battle with him?  Well, that would be the killer android Ultron, played by James Spader through the miracle of performance capture.  In the original comics, Ultron was a creation of Ant-Man, before turning evil.  For the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it looks like Ultron will be a creation of Tony Stark's.

The plot, as I've cobbled together online over the past few months, is thus.  Following the dissolution of SHIELD in the wake of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Avengers have been working overtime to fill the void.  With SHIELD no more, the Avengers are now bankrolled by Stark Enterprises.  In order to help out, Stark builds an android army he calls "the Iron Legion."  Of course, it's just a matter of time before this android army grows sentient and becomes Ultron.  Then, in pure killer robot fashion. Ultron figures the best way to save the world is to destroy it and remake it in his own image. 



Wow.  The first Avengers looked pretty darn big, but this actually looks bigger. 

We don't get much of a glimpse of Quicksilver or Scarlet Witch and their abilities.  I'm really curious about how Quicksilver is portrayed, and how they differentiate him from the Quicksilver we saw in X-Men: Days of Future Past. 

And I'm still geeking out about the Hulkbuster armor.  For those who don't know, the Hulkbuster is Iron Man's armor that makes him as big as and as strong as the Hulk for they ever have to battle.  And dude, it looks like they do battle.

Everyone's raving about how the background music is a creepy version of I've Got Not Strings from Pinocchio, making folks wonder how this is going to be some kind of creepy Pinocchio tale. 

Everything about this just looks good.  Joss Whedon is back writing and directing, and it looks like he's going to knock it out of the park again.

The Avengers:  Age of Ultron hits theatres on May 1, 2015. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin -- Godzilla: Tokyo SOS

Here we are, once again, with Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly watch of a movie I own, and blogging about it, because "content creator" is as good a hobby as any.  Today, we journey into the wonderful world of Godzilla with 2003's daikaiju epic, Godzilla:  Tokyo SOS.  I originally scrawled this in my notes on January 1, 2014.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The X-Files: Fight the Future

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Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Blues Brothers

Here we are, once again, with another edition of Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly gaze upon my movie library and I begin saying, "I haven't watched that one in a while."  Today, we get to the 1980 comedy classic The Blues Brothers.  This originally appeared in my notes at December 28, 2013.

Two Trailers: Inside Out and Big Eyes

Hey!

There's a couple of trailers I've been wanting to sit and blog about for a while, but tonight, I finally have a chance to sit down and do so!

First up, let's take a look at Pixar's latest, Inside Out.  Let's be honest, Pixar's been in kind of a slump lately.  We had the abysmal Cars 2, the disappointing Brave, and the "eh, it could've been worse" Monsters University.  The slump caught up with them, as this year's originally scheduled film, The Good Dinosaur, ran into production delays and got pushed back to next November.

So, fingers crossed that Inside Out is a return to form.  Returning to the director's chair is Pete Docter, the writer and director of the Pixar classics Monsters, Inc. and Up.  When we first told of the project back in 2011, all we were told was that it takes place inside a little girl's mind.  As time goes on, we're told that it takes place inside the mind of a little girl named Emily, who's coping with her family's big move to San Fransisco.  And it's told from the point of view of the personifications of her emotions, who guide her through this journey.  Those emotions are:

• Joy, voiced by Amy Poehler
• Anger, voiced Lewis Black, the stand up comic whose made anger an art form
• Disgust, voiced by The Mindy Project star Mindy Kaling
• Sadness, voiced by Phyllis Smith; probably best remembered as Phyllis on The Office
• and Fear, voiced by SNL alum Bill Hader

Roll clip!




Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet, as we see precious little of the film.  It reminds me a lot of the first trailer for Wall-E, because that one also relied heavily on clips from other Pixar films.  It looks bright, it looks colourful and...yeah.  All I can do is get mildly excited and remain cautiously optimistic.

Inside Out comes out on June 19.  

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Next up,we have Big Eyes, the latest from one of my favourite directors, Tim Burton.  Burton is another guy who seems to have been in a slump lately, as he seems to be stuck in this cycle of big screen reboots and adaptations starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  So I'm glad to see that Big Eyes looks to be Burton scaling things down a bit, and doing away with his safety net of Depp and Carter.

Burton re-teams with his old Ed Wood screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski to bring us another biography of quirky American individuals, Margaret and Walter Keene.  Margaret Keene is the painter who gave us those infamous paintings of children with really big eyes.  Thanks to the marketing savvy of her husband Walter, the paintings became a pop culture phenomenon in the 1960s.  However, Walter began taking credit for the paintings himself, much to the chagrin of Margaret.  The question of the true authorship of the paintings became an intrinsic part of their bitter divorce.

Amy Adams plays Margaret Keene, and Cristoph Waltz plays Walter.




This looks interesting.  Given the timing of the release and the subject matter, it's definitely Oscar bait.  I'm really enjoying Burton scaling things down and doing something smaller than his recent work.  It think it's worth a look-see.

Big Eyes comes out on Christmas Day. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Doctor Who: Series 7

It's time again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch something and blog about it because, not being a sports guy, what else am I going to watch on Sunday afternoons?  It's time to tackle the current #1 sci-fi franchise in the world as I revisit Doctor Who: Series 7.  This appears in my notes at December 15, 2013.