Fishing in the Discount Bin - Tomorrowland

Here we are again, on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog about a movie I own.  This time out, we get to one of Disney's underperfomrers from last year, Tomorrowland.  This is in my notes at October 25, 2015.

Nerding Out Over the Comic Con Trailers

Alrightie, with the San Diego Comic Con this past weekend, there's been a ton of new trailers released, and these are the ones I feel like blogging about!

First up, Wonder Woman!


My thoughts:  Finally!  Been craving a Wonder Woman movie for so long!  I mean, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are the Big 3 of DC Comics.  The fact that this trinity has gone incomplete on the big screen for so long is blasphemous!  Hopefully, Gal Gadot will able to pull this off in the lead.  I mean, as awesome as she was in Batman v Superman, we got to see so little.  So, I'm hoping she can build on that.  Chris Pine looks like he's going to be a pretty good Steve Trevor, and I'm sure he'll bring the same amount of cockiness to the role that he brings to Captain Kirk.  The World War I setting intrigues me, as Wonder Woman was born in World War II.  Since I love it when superhero films are done as period pieces, I'm curious to see what the World War I setting brings to the table.  Colour me excited!

Next up, Justice League!


My thoughts:  Zack Snyder is back directing, and he assures us that he learned his lesson from Batman v Superman and he'll be lightening the mood this time out.  It's already showing in this trailer.  I'm really diggin' the scenes with Ezra Miller as the Flash.  As The Flash is one of my favourite TV shows right now, I can see Miller's doing a lot of things similar to Grant Gustin on TV.  What he's going to do differently, we'll have to wait for the movie.  Looks like much like the cartoon, the Flash is going to be the jokester in the League.  "Arthur Curry.  I hear you talk to fish."  Trademark "Ben Affleck smartass" smile.  I love it.  Hopes got a little bit higher.

Pallet cleanser from the superhero films:  Kong:  Skull Island!


My thoughts:  When this was announced a couple years ago, people were like, "Really?  Another King Kong remake?"  But, my excitement has gone up a bit when it was announced this is now in the same cinematic universe as 2014's Godzilla reboot, and they're setting up Kong vs. Godzilla for 2020.  Based on that, I see they've really increased Kong's size in this film.  I think they're skipping the New York stuff altogether, and this is mostly going to be on Skull Island.  My curiosity is piqued.

Across the street to Marvel:  Doctor Strange!


My thoughts:  Marvel can do no wrong at this point.  Might be worth spending the extra money to see it in 3D because I'm sure of those visuals are going to look trippy as hell. 

Star Trek Nerding Out: Beyond and Discovery

Well, I had myself a pretty busy weekend.  Saturday, I was live on location at Jarvie's Family Days, where I got to take in the lawnmower races.  And Sunday...well, I had to take Sunday to go see Star Trek Beyond.

Now, I'll be honest.  Expectations were pretty low as I went into Star Trek Beyond.  I did not like Star Trek Into Darkness, as I have blogged and podcasted extensively about.  The trailers, with their dirt bike races and Beastie Boys soundtrack, left me cold.  But still, after all this, Star Trek remains my first fandom, so I knew I had to make it out opening weekend.

And much like Ghostbusters, I am pleasantly surprised at how much I FREAKIN' LOVED IT!

Seriously.  This is the most fun I've had with a Star Trek film ever since, well, the first film in this reboot series.  There is no gigantic callback to a better Star Trek film that pulls you out of the action...this is free to be its own thing.  However, there are also lots of Star Trek Easter Eggs, like sprinkles on your sundae, that just make everything sweeter.  (A lot of them, shockingly, have to do with Star Trek: Enterprise.  I'm re-watching that one on Netflix right now, so maybe it was just top of mind.)

The starship Enterprise is halfway through its 5 year mission of deep space exploration, and a certain malaise is starting to envelop the crew.  Kirk and Spock are starting to entertain other offers.  While make a stop at Yorktown -- Starfleet's most remote starbase -- to re-stock and for some shore leave, a distress call is received from a nearby unexplored nebula.  Since the Enterprise is the most advanced ship there, our heroes go off to investigate.  But, it turns out to be a trap, and soon, the Enterprise is destroyed, and our heroes are stuck on an unknown planet, littered with alien technology, and at the mercy of a warlord named Krall.  With the help of Jaylah, an escapee from Krall's wrath, Kirk, Spock, Bones, and all the rest valiantly try to stop Krall.  Just who is Krall and why does he have such a beef with the Federation?  One of the many mysteries out here, in the final frontier.

This is an episode of the original series writ large.  Krall's true identity and motivations are straight out of many classic original series episodes.  And Idris Elba plays him as a classic villain.  Sophia Boutilla as Jaylah is a fun new addition to our crew.  The whole thing is just fun.

While stranded on the planet, Spock and Bones get paired off, and we're treated to some classic Spock and Bones dialogue.  And Leonard Nimoy's death is worked into the show quite poetically.  

If I have one problem, it's got to be the fight scenes.  They're so dark that it's tough to follow the action.

I give it 3.5 Nibs!  Full review over on the website. 

---

I've got another blog entry in me geeking out about all the trailers that came out of San Diego Comic Con, and I was going to save this for that.  But since I'm talking Star Trek, this seems like a good place to do it.

We have a title and name of the ship for the new Star Trek series.  Get ready for...Star Trek: Discovery.

A week or so ago, they did announce how we're getting it in Canada.  I think we're the only country in the world where it's going to be on broadcast television.  They'll be showing it on Space, with episodes eventually making their way to Crave TV, and Netflix too, if I read the news release correctly.

To unveil the title, they also put together this announcement teaser that was shown at San Diego.  And this is a deep cut Star Trek reference here.



That ship, my friends, is the McQuarrie Enterprise.

Ralph McQuarrie, of course, is the legendary artist that designed the Star Wars universe.  The ships, the droids, Darth Vader's armor...all McQuarrie.  Now, back in the 1970s, McQuarrie was commissioned by Paramount to redesign the Enterprise from of their many failed Star Trek reboots.  And that's what McQuarrie came up with!

I know, a lot of people are complaining about the quality of CGI in that clip.  The creators have already said that they just threw that together in 3 weeks to have something to show at San Diego, and that the finished TV series will look much better. 

And already there's rampant fan speculation.  Because the ship's registry number is NCC-1031, many are wondering if this'll focus on Section 31, Starfleet's shadowy Black Ops group that was first introduced on Deep Space Nine. 

We'll know when the series premieres!  Star Trek: Discovery starts filming this fall, for a January 2017 premiere. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Avengers: Age of Ultron

Here we go again, on Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the too-many Blu-Rays I own.  Today, we get to one of last summer's biggest movies, Avengers: Age of Ultron.  This is in my notes at October 17, 2016.

Ghostbusters Review Is Online

Went to the city yesterday, but really not much to blog about.  Went in, bought pants, saw Ghostbusters, treated myself to a Blizzard at Dairy Queen, came home.  So really, all I want to do is plug my review of Ghostbusters, which is now up over on my main site!

The short version:  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I FREAKIN' LOVED IT!  The best compliment I can give it is it's a Ghostbusters movie.  Let's face it:  an established formula exists for Ghostbusters, and it sticks to the formula while giving us some great new heroes to root for and few new spins on said formula.  I really, really liked it, gang. 

Anyway, full review on the site! 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Blue Thunder

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I bloggitty blog about a movie I own and have recently re-watchity watched.  My mother once pointed out that the 1980s seemed to be all about the super-vehicles, so we get to the famous super-helicopter movie, Blue Thunder.  I originally watched this and jotted down my notes on October 17, 2015.

The Houses of Entwistle School

I come from Entwistle, so I went to the appropriately-named Entwistle School.  One of the few schools in the Parkland School Division that's Kindergarten through Grade 9.  What most people don't remember is that Entwistle School is divided into four teams -- much like the houses in the Harry Potter franchise.  Gold, Green, Red and Blue. 

It all started in Grade One.  Early in the year, my teacher, Mrs. Maddock, told us about the four teams, that we'd already been sorted into our teams.  So to start the school year, we were having a giant meeting of all our teams.  When she started dividing us up, she told me that I had been sorted into Gold. 

Gold was meeting in the science lab, down in the junior high end of the school.  When you're just 6 years old, that's a long, scary walk from one end of the school to the other.  We found our seats, and the meeting began.  We had to get to important business like electing a Team Captain.  I don't remember who it was, but it was Grade 9 kid.  And we also had to decide on a team cheer.  We eventually decided on "Gold is Bold!," once it was explained to us littler kids what "bold" meant. 

Despite the pomp and circumstance of that meeting, the teams never really played a big part in everyday school life.  I have no memories of my teachers looking at me and declaring "10 points from Gold!" whenever I started acting up.  My friends who were also in Gold would occasionally look at me, and we'd all declare "Gold is Bold!"  About the only time it ever really mattered was on Track & Field Day.  I don't know if it was just my school, or all schools, but once a year, near the end of the school year, all normal classes would be suspended as we all went sprinting, and threw a shot-put, and all those other sports that people only care about when the Olympics rolled around.  That was also the only time that our teams would interact.  I'd occasionally recognize the Team Captain, and we'd give each other a little "Gold is Bold."

But things changed around the third grade.  At Track & Field Day that year, my teacher, Mrs. Strocher, was asking us what our teams were.  She asked what my team was.  "Gold is Bold," I blurted out.

She consulted her clipboard.  "Says here you're in Green."

I was puzzled.  "No...pretty sure I'm in Gold."

"Nope.  Green."  End of discussion. 

I was perplexed.  There was no meeting!  There was no electing of a Team Captain!  Did Green even have a cheer?  Was this legal?  Didn't matter.  Now I was in Green. 

Grade Three was around the time we got a new principal, Mr. Thiessen.  No doubt the restructuring was his doing.  Mr. Thiessen was a bit of a physical fitness nut.  He loved boasting that he was once an assistant coach for the B.C. Lions.  And so, Track & Field Day began expanding.  When the Winter Olympics in Calgary rolled around, we held our own Winter Games.  Now the Winter Games became a thing.  One year, Track & Field Day was rained out, so it was postponed to the following September.  Now the Autumn Games became a thing.  No team meetings at the start of the year...no devising of clever cheers.  Your team was announced at the Autumn Games and that was it. 

Grade 7 soon dawned, and with it, junior high.  Things really change in junior high as the hormones start kicking in.  Now, instead of teams, we were separating into cliques.  It was a small school, and for a love of Star Trek and other similar pursuits, I was branded the geek.  No one wanted to hang out with the geek.  That's when I started learning what "Participant" on all those ribbons I won at Track & Field Day meant, and that they were nothing to be proud of.  That's when I started concluding that physical education was simply designed to humiliate students like me.  That's when Track & Field Day started becoming my Ditch Day. 

Luckily, I had understanding parents.  They started trusting me more and more to make my own decisions about my education.  When Track & Field Day was coming up, I didn't have to make any grand, Ferris Bueler-esque schemes to get out of it.  I would just say I didn't want to go to school because it was Track & Field Day, and they'd roll with it.  Made a lot of great discoveries on those Ditch Days.  That's where I first discovered Al Music. 

Grade 9 soon drew to a close, and with it, my time at Entwistle School.  Going to high school meant going to the next town over.  But that final day of Grade 9 was like every final day of school.  There was a massive assembly were all the awards for the year were handed out.  I always felt a twinge of sadness at the awards assembly.  Don't get me wrong, I always made out pretty good.  But all my awards were in the fields of academics, and I'd always come home with a good amount of certificates, testimonials, and plaques.  But never a trophy.  Only athletes won trophies.  I would have loved to have won a trophy...just once.

During the ceremonies, my science teacher, Mr. Jamison, came up to me, and quietly got my attention.  "Psst!  Mark!"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"What team are you on?"

"We still do this?"

"Yeah.  What team are you on?"

"Last I checked, I was in Green."

"Well, now you're in Blue." 

School would be done forever in just another half-hour, so I realized, at this point, it no longer mattered what team I was on.  Mr. Jamison went back up to the front, and slipped a note to Mr. Thiessen.  Mr. Thiessen reviewed the note, then turned on the mic.  "The next award goes to the best athletes in the school.  This was the team that did the best at the Autumn Games, the Winter Games, and Track & Field Day.  And I'm pleased to announce, that this year, the winner is the Blue Team!  I now call upon the Team Captain, Mark Cappis, to come up here and accept the trophy." 

That was the only time I ever got to hoist a trophy at the awards assembly.  It sat on my lap for the rest of the assembly, and at the end, I had to give it back to the staff to go back in the trophy case.  And with that, my time at Entwistle School came to an end. 

I don't know why this story's been on my mind lately.  Maybe because it's the end of the school year.  Maybe it's because the Olympics are right around the corner, and "Gold is Bold" is a nice sentiment for the athletes.  Maybe it's because I work with a lot of Harry Potter fans, and they keep asking me what House I belong to.  (I finally took the online quiz at the official Harry Potter website...I'm in the one with all the bad guys.) 

But I do know I went to a small school with a tight budget.  There were no clubs for me to join.  There were no extra-curriculars outside of the sports teams.  There was nothing at school that I ever felt like I belonged to. 

Except Gold. 

Long Deserved Long Weekend

As I keep explaining to my friends and family, summer is a busy time for us radio folk.  We're live on location from just about every fair and festival that comes along, and it's no exception for us small market guys.  For all of June, it seemed like I was on location from another small town fair.  I actually enjoy it, because you get to be outside on nice days, and occasionally slip away for a corn dog or to check out the events.  But it does get taxing.  Everything peaked with Canada Day.  Once that was in the bag, I decided to take July 8 off and treat myself to a long weekend.

I really should take more time off, because I love going to the city in the middle of a weekday.  Things are so quiet.  You can go at your own pace.  And I figured it was the perfect time to get some chores done.  My car was due for an oil change, so I got that done.  With that came a twinge of sadness.  See, I hang a new air freshener in my car every time I get an oil change.  About two years ago, at Canadian Tire, I grabbed a pack of Star Wars air fresheners.  And with this oil change, the last Star Wars air freshener was done.  Went to Canadian Tire across the way to get more, but they had none.  So I went with the traditional pine tree.

From there, it was off to my usual haunts.  Went browsing for new Blu-Rays.  With a new Star Trek movie on the horizon, of course all the Star Trek movies have been re-released.  I was on the fence about picking up the director's cut of Wrath of Khan, but when I saw it for just $10, I figured, "Why not?"

A photo posted by Mark Cappis (@chaosinabox) on Jul 8, 2016 at 10:18pm PDT

B A friend on Facebook asked if it was worth getting Wrath of Khan: The Director's Cut.  My reasoning was yes.  The original DVD release featured just the director's cut.  The original Blu-Ray featured just the theatrical version.  This new Blu-Ray has both versions, so it's the only way to get the director's cut in hi-def.  Plus, if you're more into the technical side of things, Wrath of Khan was the only Star Trek film where Paramount went back to the original negative and created a new hi-def transfer.  All the other films, all they did was up-convert the DVDs.  So it's also the best-looking version of Wrath of Khan.  Other than that, it's got all the bonus features of the previous DVD and Blu-Ray.  And besides...just $10.

Then over to West Edmonton Mall.  I was surprised.  A little busier than I expected for a Friday afternoon, but then I remembered that it is the start of summer, so the tourists are probably there.  West Edmonton Mall is no longer the largest shopping mall in the world -- I think there are, like, 5 in China that are ahead of it on the list -- but it's still the largest in North America, and that still makes it a pretty significant tourist draw.

Did my usual browsing, but again, there's not much out there right now that I truly want.  Yeah, there's some Blu-Rays I saw at HMV, but I felt no burning passion to own them, you know?  I don't know if it's depression or maturity, but I no longer feel the desire to blow entire paychecks on new Blu-Rays.  So I left HMV empty-handed.

But I was going upstairs to see a movie.  Pixar geek that I am, I had to see Finding Dory, and this was my first chance to do so.  Now, on the grand list of Pixar sequels that I desire, Finding Dory was pretty low on the list.  I really didn't think we needed a Finding Nemo 2.  I mean, they found Nemo.  Where else can we go with this story? 

Well, the creators say their entire inspiration came from one line in the original film.  When Dory first met Marlin, she describes her condition thusly:  "I suffer from short-term memory loss.  It runs in my family.  At least, I think it does.  Where are they?"  So their entire inspiration was that Dory wandered off when she was a little girl, and thanks to her short-term memory loss, forgot her way home.  So that's the movie.  Dory begins having flashes of memory of her parents and how to get home, so she, Marlin and Nemo set out to get her home.

This movie is definitely a lot more melancholy in tone than the first one.  It's shown in the colour palette, it's shown in Thomas Newman's score, and it works.  They wind up adding a real undercurrent of tragedy to Dory as she remembers her family, struggles vainly to hold on to those memories so she can get home, and then it just vanishes.  But the movie's still fun.  We get some fun new characters, like Hank the septopus (an octopus that lost an arm), and the cheery Destiny the whale shark and Baily the beluga whale.  I would put it at Pixar's second-best sequel.  Toy Story 3 still had the bigger emotional gut-punch.  I give it 3.5 Nibs.  Full review over on the main site.

That was Friday.  And I was off again to the city on Saturday.  For you see, Thursday was my birthday, and it's become traditional in my family to meet up with my parents, and they treat me to dinner and a movie.  What was my birthday movie this year?  Independence Day: Resurgence.  The first Independence Day was my birthday movie 20 years ago, so it just made sense.

Independence Day: Resurgence was fun, but....   I have the same complaint about it that I had about the remakes of RoboCop and Total Recall.  It was a little too slick...a little too polished.  The original had some kind of grit that the sequel was lacking.

I fully predicted Independence Day: Resurgence to be this year's Jurassic World:  just one great big, gigantic 1990s nostalgia trip.  But whereas Jurassic World felt free to get down in the muck of nostalgia and wallow, Independence Day: Resurgence seems more like a perfunctory checklist of things people liked about the original.  Landmark destruction?  Check.  President gives an inspirational speech?  Check.  Jeff Goldblum?  Check.

And the strange thing is, I kinda wish the movie was longer.  The original film had some breathing room, and we actually got a chance to get to know the characters.  In this one, we barely get a chance to meet the new saviors of humanity.

So, yeah.  It was fun, but...  I give it 3 Nibs.  Full review over on the website.

Then my parents took me to dinner at the Keg.  Wow.  I know, I know.  I'm enough of a small town rube that I consider the Olive Garden to be a fancy place.  So the Keg is super, duper fancy.  And there I was, wearing baggy shorts and my grubby T-shirt that I wore yesterday.  I felt mildly embarrassed just walking through the front door.  I explained to my parents that I barely go to real restaurants anymore.  Hell, I've been in Westlock for a little more than 3 years now, and there are still a bunch of popular local eateries that I haven't tried.  It's just because I have no social life, so when I go to a real restaurant, I feel mildly judged.

How I think people see me at a fast food place:  Look at that man.  No doubt he's heading home, and just stopped here for a quick bite.  Safe journey, weary traveler!

How I think people see me at a real restaurant:  It's Saturday night and he's here by himself?  Fuck that loser.

But I had a delightful meal with my parents, and then it was time to head home and record a podcast.

Yes, Saturday night was when I finally cracked open a bottle of Crystal Pepsi.  I won't rehash the details, because I recorded it all live on my podcast.  It's Pepsi, and it's clear.  And it's awesome.

Once I got home and uploaded my podcast, I decided to describe my day in meme-form.

And now, here we are on Sunday morning, and it's time to decompress.  Goof around online, do some blogging.  It's a grey, rainy day in Westlock as I write this up, so it'll be a Sunday of Netflix on the couch.  I'm so thrilled that I discovered that every Star Trek series is now on Netflix.  I've begun binging on season 2 of Enterprise.  That's the only season of Star Trek I've never seen, because it was on during my year in Japan.  I hadn't watched any Enterprise at all in such a long time.  I was watching the first five minutes, and I was like, "This doesn't seem so bad.  It seems like some classic Star Trek action.  Why did I loathe it so?"

And then they cue up the theme song.  Faith of the Heart, which was actually the theme song to the film Patch Adams, re-purposed.




And I'm like, "Oh.  Right." 

Crystal Pepsi Returns!

Had to take a break from my hiatus for a special installment of U62: U62: The TargThe Targ.  More specifically, a special installment of my segment “Mark Tastes Random Things.”  What random thing did I have to taste?

Crystal Pepsi.

I loved Crystal Pepsi back in the day.  It was Pepsi…THAT WAS CLEAR!  It was so awesome.  I personally felt it didn’t taste exactly like Pepsi.  When it went away, I was sad.  When I first launched this website, I had a page dedicated to my love for Crystal Pepsi.  I longed for its return.  So, when they announced it was coming back, I was elated.

When I got my hands on my first bottle, I knew I had to share it with you.  So I drink it live on the air, and tell you all about it.

So enjoy, The July Special: The Return of Crystal Pepsi!

Listen over on the main site!

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Lion King

Well, for the past few weeks on Fishing in the Discount Bin, I've been plowing through several of Disney's classics from the Disney Renaissance.  Looking through my notes, this stretch ends with The Lion King.  This is in my notes at October 4, 2015.