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!

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Viva Las Vegas

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly rant about one of the many DVDs I possess.  Today, we get to what's generally considered one of Elvis's greatest films, Viva Las Vegas.  This review is originally dated August 27, 2011.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - A Hard Day's Night

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, what started as a feature on my podcast and has become a rambling series of blog entries.  Today, we get to one of the greatest films in rock and roll, the Beatles classic A Hard Day's Night.  This entry is originally dated August 20, 2011.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - A League of Their Own

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I try to find meaning in my sad, lonely existence by watching DVDs and blogging about them.  Wow, that sounded funnier in my head.  Imagine "Weird Al" Yankovic saying that in his trademark over-the-top way, and you'll get what I was going for.  Anywho, on this week's installment, we get to my sister's favourite movie, A League of Their Own.  This entry is originally dated August 13, 2011.

The Chocolate Lady Was a Soldier

I've tweeted this tale, I've shared it on Facebook, and I told it on the air, so it's time to blog it for posterity.

In case you haven't heard, the federal government is spending $28 million to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.  You probably saw the TV commercials, because they were running non-stop during the Olympics.




If you haven't been to the movies in a while, this spot is also being shown in theatres as part of the pre-show.  I was catching a movie about a month ago, when this spot started playing on the big screen.  When Laura Secord made her appearance (at about 0:25 in the spot), I heard the guy behind me turn to his buddy and say....

"So...the chocolate lady was a soldier?"

Oh, God.  I had to bite my tongue to stifle my laughter.  Did he not pay attention in Social?  Did he not even see the heritage moment they made about her?

That still makes me laugh every time I think about.  "The chocolate lady was a soldier."  Sounds like the tagline for a blaxploitation film. 

Tenenbaums

Perusing the new Blu-Ray releases today, and I see that The Royal Tenenbaums hits Blu-Ray today.

That's one of the movies where my memories of the events leading to me seeing the film are more vivid than the film itself.

Long story short:  I had a job interview in Vancouver.  After the interview, I met up with my best friend's girlfriend's best friend and we went to see it.

Closest thing to a date this old geek has ever been on.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my little series of blog entries where I watch a DVD in my collection and just rant on it.  Today, we get to the first James Bond film, and it's the most controversial one.  We're looking at On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  This review is originally dated June 12, 2012.

Tubes and Tourists

I originally come from a little town called Entwistle.  It's a nice little town.  Former Prime Minister Joe Clark once called it a "flyspeck on the map."  During the railway boom at the turn of the century, it was rumored to have the biggest brothel west of Winnipeg.  I've always felt that Entwistle, though, was a town of opportunity.  It lays right along the Yellowhead Highway...exactly halfway between Edmonton and Edson.  It also lies at the intersection of the Yellowhead and Highway 22, bringing lots of traffic north from Drayton Valley.  Back in the 1990s, Transportation and Travel Alberta gave a lot of highways in the province cute nicknames to bolster tourism.  Highway 22 became the Cowboy Trail.  At the intersection of the Yellowhead and the Cowboy Trail is Entwistle...my home.

And it was that talk of tourism where I first began to see the opportunity in Entwistle.  At the crossing of such two major highways, and all that traffic coming through, all Entwistle needed was a good tourism hook to get people to pull off the road for an hour or so and spend some money.  Around 20 years ago, the provincial government was nuts for tourism projects.  You might recall that, it was 20 years ago, that lots of communities across the province began building the world's largest such-and-such to be their tourist attraction.  I used to see all those "world's biggests" being built on the news and started daydreaming about what Entwistle could build to be tourist attraction.  Little did I know that the proper tourism opportunity was always there, right in front of me.

Flowing through Entwistle is the majestic Pembina River.  Entwistle sits on the border with Pembina River Provincial Park.  The park and its campground was always rather popular.  It has this wonderful little beach at a bend in the river, and it was the perfect place for cooling your feet on a hot day.  But for as long as I could remember, it was a very popular spot.  It was always crowded, and my earliest memories of the park are of cars parked along the highway because there was no room left in the park.  And floating down the river was a multitude of tubes.

The Pembina as it winds through Entwistle has always been popular with tubers.  Get yourself an old inner tube, and just lazily float down the river.  You can even do it completely within the park.  When my brother and I would do it, we'd start at the beach and then float down to the campground's "E" loop.  It was fun.  But, there were always those braver than us, who would venture further up the river, to the massive railway trestles, and set out from there.  One of the most popular places to start your journey was a patch of Crown land behind the Entwistle Cemetery.

In about the past five years or so, knowledge of the Pembina River in Entwistle and how great it is for tubing has exploded into the mainstream.  A few locals decided to take advantage of it.  They opened up a business called Pembina River Tubing.  They rent tubes to the tourists and run a shuttle bus out to that patch of Crown land.  Their business is on an old lot in Entwistle that used to house a junkyard.  Business is good, and it's good to see.  Finally, someone found a tourism hook for Entwistle and how to make some money off it.

"Damn you, Mark!" you might be saying.  "You haven't been to Entwistle in years!  You don't know how bad it is."  Granted, my view of the tubing company is biased.  For you see, Pembina River Tubing is located, literally, right across the street from my parents' house.  So most of what I know about the comes from my parents.  And my parents have long shared my desire for Entwistle to find its tourism hook.  They love having the tubing company there.  In a small town, where growth is rare, this new business offering new employment opportunities is a breath of fresh air.  And when it comes to have such a busy business for neighbours, my parents will say never will you find nicer neighbours.  The owners are always dropping in to make sure that everything is fine and they're not disturbing the neighbourhood too much.

And they know that the Pembina River is their lifeblood.  They routinely patrol the Pembina River, looking for those who may have fallen behind.  They even formed a group called Friends of the Pembina, who patrol the river and clean up the trash.  Yup.  As far as my parents are concerned - a couple of lifelong Entwistle locals - Pembina River Tubing is doing everything right.

But there are those who don't think so.  My mother always says nothing gets her blood boiling like reading a little Facebook group called the Pembina Interest Group.

The Pembina Interest Group is dedicated to trying to keep the tubers out of Entwistle.  When the locals opposed to the tourists first rallied together under this banner, their goal was to shut down Pembina River Tubing.  They blame Pembina River Tubing for bringing the tubers to town.  I don't think that's how it happened.  I personally believe the mass influx of tourists began further back that that.  I believe it was the one-two punch of the Wabamun Lake oil spill, followed by Wabamun Lake Provincial Park being closed for renovations.  Wabamun Lake is very popular as a weekend getaway for Edmontonians, and with their lake access cut off, they began venturing farther west looking for a new weekend destination.  And they found Entwistle.  As I said earlier, for as long as I can remember, the river has been popular with tubers, so naturally the new tourists would want to try it themselves.  Like all good entrepreneurs, Pembina River Tubing didn't create the demand...they saw the demand and rushed to fill it. 

I guess the Pembina Interest Group also came to the realization that Pembina River Tubing is not to blame.  Over the past month or so, their shift has focused to the Entwistle Cemetery.  As I mentioned earlier, a very popular staging area for people to launch their tubes has been a patch of Crown land behind the cemetary.  And the only way to access this land is to drive through the cemetery itself.  Needless to say, what was once a very quiet country road has now became a very busy thoroughfare, as people drive down the road, through the cemetery, and to the Crown land.  My memories of the highway next to Pembina River Provincial Park being clogged with parked cars is now applicable to the cemetery road.

It does trouble me that the Entwistle Cemetery has become somewhat of a major thru road, but since the only information I'm getting is from the Pembina Interest Group, I can't help but wonder how much of it is hyperbolic.  Most of the "spy photos" they post on their Facebook group are of the multitudes of cars parked on the Crown land.  Despite their allegations, they have yet to post a photo of people parking on the graves, picnicking on the graves, peeing on the graves, having sex on the graves, or any other disrespectful behaviour to the graves that they allege happens. 

But if what they say on their Facebook page is true, they have been sending those photos to the Edmonton media.  They must have finally caught someone's attention, because back on Monday, I noticed stories about the tubers in Entwistle in the Edmonton Journal, on Global TV, and on CBC Edmonton.  And there I got to hear from Parkland County.  Entwistle, you see, dissolved their village council about 10 years ago and became a hamlet in Parkland County.  That's been adding to the Pembina Interest Group's frustrations, as the seat of power is all the way in Stony Plain, and they feel the west end of the county is being neglected.

In the news stories, they county officials say that a new road will be built over the winter to bypass the cemetery, and this should once again preserve the cemetery's peace.  Off the record, I can tell you that my parents are about to lose their neighbours.  Pembina River Tubing has acquired a parcel of land on the south side of Entwistle, and hopes to build some permanent facilities closer to this new road.  So accommodations are being made.  But it's not enough for some.  There are those who won't be happy until every last tuber is gone from Entwistle.  And that saddens me.  Their logic eventually boils down to selfishness.  After you go through the hyperbole of graves being vandalized and Pembina River Tubing being a blight on the community, you find, "Tubing on the river used to be our little secret...we want it to be our secret again."

That's long been my frustration with small town living.  So much opportunity, but no desire to pursue it.

Perhaps that can be best summed up by a discussion I saw on the Global TV Facebook page about this news story.  Let me paraphrase:

Tourist>>  I don't know what Entwistle's complaining about.  Build some restaurants, build some motels, get rich off these people.

Local>>  Pfft!  We already have motels and restaurants.  We don't need more.

Much like the oil and gas that drives this province, tourism is a resource.  And like all resources, it must be properly developed and managed.  What's going on back home is almost a Fort McMurray situation.  They've become a boom town, and now their struggling to keep up.  And sitting there screaming, "TUBERS GO HOME!" is the wrong way to go about it.

Steps are being taken.  That new road around the cemetery is a good thing.  But why stop there?  Why not take that patch of Crown land and develop it into a proper campground?  Built a proper boat launch for the tubers.  Set up some camping stalls so they'll stay longer and spend more money.  And with a park comes park rangers...the more law enforcement that the Pembina Interest Group says is needed.  In a way, that is where the Pembina Interest Group is doing a good deed.  They say on their group that every weekend their filing more and more complaints with SRD, the RCMP, and most other law enforcement agencies.  The more complaints will show the greater demand for officers of the law.

As it has for most of my life, Entwistle sits at a crossroads, literally and figuratively.  At the meeting of the Yellowhead and the Cowboy Trail, so much potential lies.  And as always, I wonder, can that potential be developed?

Further Reading:

The Official Website of Pembina River Tubing


The Pembina Interest Group on Facebook

The Edmonton Journal's article on Entwistle's massive influx of tourists

Here's Global TV's story on the tourists




And here's CBC Edmonton's story on the matter.



And here's a picture of the beach at Pembina River Provincial Park, which best matches my memories.

Doctor Who: Series 7 Trailer

A friend of mine once called me a fan of Doctor Who from the beginning.  I'm not so sure that can be said, because the show started 14 years before I was born.  For folks of my generation, I think you can call yourself "a fan of Doctor Who from the beginning" if you started watching it in reruns on YTV around 1991 or so.  Yeah...I remember in the early-1990s, YTV started showing reruns of Doctor Who with a lot of hype.  I was into it back then.  I'd always catch the last 5 minutes or so because it was on right before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I remember watching the First Doctor stuff...it was always at the end, he'd be in the TARDIS control room, delivering the moral of the story, and I'd think, "This is it?  The famous Doctor Who?  Just some old guy in a room speechifying?  Shut up and get to Ninja Turtles!" 

As I blogged before, the first time I opened my heart and gave it a chance was 1996 American-made TV movie, and I loved it.  YTV had stopped showing it by then, so I'd have to wait 9 years before the revival began.

I tuned in to catch the revival, the Ninth Doctor stuff, and I was hooked...well, from about halfway through the first series.

And now we're getting ready for Series 7 of this revival.  If you haven't heard yet, they decided to split the series in half again.  They're going to show the first 5 episodes this fall, take a break for the annual Christmas special, and then show the remaining 8 in the spring.

I've been reading some of the borderline-spoiler info that's going around online, and then, a few days ago, this promo image was released online.

OH...MY...GOD.  That just looks so awesome!

So what do we know so far?

• The premiere episode is going to be called Asylum of the Daleks.  The second one is going to be called Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.  The third one's going to be called A Town Called Mercy.
• Celebrity guest stars!  Ben Browder, star of Stargate SG-1 and Farscape, shows up in an episode.  David Warner, who's done so freakin' much, is going to be in an episode.  And the original Emma Peel herself, Dame Diana Rigg, pops up.
• They filmed in the USA again!  They did some location filming in New York City.

But of course, the sad news, as has been known for some time now, is that this'll be the final  series for Amy Pond and Rory Williams.  The first 5 episodes will be the farewell arc for Amy and Rory, and the Doctor's new companion will be introduced in the Christmas special.  The new companion will be played by Jenna-Louise Coleman.  We don't know here character's name yet, but rumour is it's Clara.

No word yet on the premiere date...the BBC likes to keep that pretty close to the vest.  But rumour is it'll be at the end of August.

Why Kevin Smith is My Hero

Yesterday was the birthday of my hero, Kevin Smith.  I was thinking about posting something on Facebook, but would have been long and rambling and more appropriate for the blog.  But I'd already posted a blog entry yesterday, and I like to limit myself to one entry per day.  So that's why I'm a day late.

As I've blogged a bit in the past, I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's.  I love his work.  How I came to be a fan is a rather common story, if the DVD bonus features are to be believed.  There I was, in my freshman year of college.  It was just a quiet Saturday night in the dorms, and I was hanging out in the TV lounge.  And I tell ya, that was a perfect place to experience new movies.  It wouldn't be too long before someone would come into the lounge with some videos and go, "Hey, mind if I watch this movie?"  And one night like that, a guy came into the lounge with a little movie called Mallrats.

And I loved that film.  There it was, a group of characters, talking and making jokes about Star Wars and comic books and stuff I liked!  I'd never seen myself represented on screen before.  It was a pretty funny film, too.  According to those aforementioned DVD bonus features, that's kind of way Smith has stopped jokingly apologizing for the film.  It found its audience in home media.  And through that, it became the perfect gateway film.  People would like it, and search out more films by him.

That's exactly how it was with me.  At around that time, I was just discovering the Internet and searching out more about movies.  So I started learning more about Mallrats and the guy who made it.  I found out he made a movie called Clerks, which I remember Siskel & Ebert raved about in my final days of high school.  He just had another movie come out called Chasing Amy, which sounded pretty good from what I was reading.  It was a few more months before I saw those two films.  The local video store had a 2-for-1 special for college kids, and one night, it was me in the TV lounge with some videos, asking if I could watch them.  It was a double feature of Clerks and Chasing Amy, and from that point on, I was hooked for life.

But there's a fine line between being a fan of someone's work, and declaring them your hero.  What makes Kevin Smith my hero?  Well, for that, I have to recount the story of how Clerks came to be.

Smith has told the story many times.  There he was, in the early-90s, working minimum wage shit jobs, and trying to figure out what to do next with his life.  As he always was a movie geek, he went out to see a movie one night...a little independent film from Richard Linklater called Slacker.  At the end of the film, Smith said, "If that's a movie, then I can make a movie."

With most people, that's where it ends.  They have that thought, and then they go back to their lives.  But not Smith.  Something in Smith's brain changed that to, "If that's a movie, then I will make a movie."  He went off to the Vancouver Film School, but determined that they weren't teaching him anything that he couldn't learn from Laserdisc running commentaries.  He dropped out, and did it early enough in the semester that he actually got a refund on his tuition.  He took that refund, along with an insurance settlement, sold his comic books and Laserdiscs, and juggled credit card debt, to raise the $27,000 budget for Clerks.

He recruited his pals who graduated from the Vancouver Film School to be his crew.  He got a lot of his buddies to star in it.  He set it in the convenience store where he worked.  He'd work all day and film the movie all night.  When that was done, he managed to find a distributor for it, it got in the famous Sundance Film Festival, was picked up by Miramax, and Smith became one of the indie darlings of the 1990s.

That's why Smith is my hero.  People are too damn content to sit back, watch something, and go, "Pfft.  I could do that."  Smith is one of the few who actually got off his ass and did it.

And that's something that kind of carried over into my life.  When I was in college, the happiest was when I was doing my college radio show.  After college, working a variety of minimum wage shit jobs, listening to the radio on those long drives to and from work, and thinking, "That's being on the radio?  Pfft.  I could do that.  I know I can do that.  I did that."  So after finishing conquering the self-doubt, I went and did it.  And I'm still doing that to this very day.

That's the lesson I hope you take from this.  Be like the guy who made Clerks.  Don't be content to just sit back and say, "I could do better."  Actually get off your ass and do better.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - MegaMind

Fishing in the Discount Bin time!  A series inspired by a friend of mine who said, "You know what I'd like to see you do, Mark?  Watch one of the many DVDs in your collection and just go off on it!"  So that's what I do.  Today, we get to the one DreamWorks animated film that made me drop my money and go see it in the theatre in a long time...MegaMind.  This review is originally dated March 13, 2011.  

New Skyfall Trailer!

In case you haven't heard, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise.  Such a milestone must be marked.

I look back and try to remember my first exposure to James Bond.  I think it was seeing Roger Moore on an episode of The Muppet Show.  They did a massive James Bond spoof, and I was instantly enamored.  Later that week, we were renting movies, and my brother and I begged our parents to rent us a James Bond film.  My Mom wouldn't let us get the infamously-titled Octopussy, so we had to settle for the unofficial Never Say Never Again.

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything.  All I want to do is blog about the new trailer for the latest Bond film, Skyfall, and I'm avoiding my usual preamble because I pretty much covered everything when I blogged about the first trailer a few months ago.

Anyway....TRAILER!!




Looking good!  I love how this looks.  Just some flat-out action.  We're starting to get more glimpses of the plot, too.

I'm also looking forward to this because, along with a new movie, we're also going to get the latest round of DVD and Blu-Ray re-releases of the films.  I complained a year ago that I seem to have worn out my copy of The Spy Who Loved Me...something I didn't think possible with a DVD.  So I'm looking forward to getting a replacement.

Of course, if I had money to burn, I'd probably get Bond 50...a gigantic boxed set of every James Bond film, along with a disc of new bonus features to commemorate the 50th anniversary.  And yes, they just announced, the box is designed to have an empty slot for the eventual DVD release of Skyfall.

Skyfall hits theatres on November 8.

Couple Days Off - 75 Seconds

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was just a little boy in Entwistle who dreamed of being on the radio.

And then, in 1990, at the tender age of 13, I heard a song on the radio that I instantly fell in love:  Couple Days Off by Huey Lewis and the News.







Back then, I was already widely familiar with the radio tradition of "the Friday Morning Song."  It's some tune that the morning jocks play during their show to celebrate the arrival of the weekend.  "Bang On The Drum All Day" is a popular one, but when I first heard "Couple Days Off," I vowed that, some day, if I were ever on the radio, it would be my Friday Morning Song.

Back in the fall, I decided to make it happen.  I noticed that most of the Friday Morning Songs I heard tended to be around 75 seconds in length, so my first step was to edit Couple Days Off down to 75 seconds.

And I did so magnificently.



Couple Days Off 75 Seconds by Mark Cappis


Seriously. I have no right to be as proud of this as I am.  I sincerely believe this is the best bit of music editing I've ever done.

And that's as far as I've gotten on my Friday Morning Song project.

Most Friday morning songs you hear are filled with all kinds of clips from the best in pop culture.  That's why I focused mostly on the instrumental bits when I edited it down to 75 seconds...lots of room for clips.  But I just can't find enough clips I like to fill it.

So, until then, I have to continue being massively proud of my editing job.  

To Visit the Olympics

Once again, the Olympic games are upon us.

Once again, I'm not there.

As I've said in many other forums, while I'm not a sports guy, I've always held a fascination with the Olympics.  Is it the pageantry?  Is it the hype?  Is it the stories of those who've sweated for years just to make it or break it in this one moment?   Or is it the ideal of the entire world deciding to chill for a couple of weeks, get together, and just play a few games?

I'm trying to remember when my fascination began.  You might think it was the Winter Olympics in Calgary, back in 1988.  Truth be told, I don't remember the games themselves that much.  I remember watching the opening ceremonies on TV with my parents.  I remember the endless TV commercials for the Olympic glasses from Petro-Canada.  And I remember, no matter what you did, the song "Winter Games" was constantly playing.






The first time I actually remember following the Olympics, devouring everything I could about them, was the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehamer.  I watched as much of the coverage as I could.  I read every article I could in the paper.  I remember the Edmonton Journal did this huge pictorial on all the Olympic venues, with very detailed and colourful graphics showing their interior layouts.  Did you know that the hockey rink for those Olympics was built in a hollowed-out mountain?  I have yet to see another pictorial like that in a newspaper.

And I remember being haunted by a news report pointing out how, just 10 short years earlier, the Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo.  A city that, in 1994, had become a literal war zone when Communism fell and the area referred to at the time as "the former Yugoslavia" fell into civil war.  That bit of journalism stuck with me.  The following Rememberance Day, the class assignment in English was to just write something for November 11.  I wrote an essay about how the Olympic ideals could be quickly forgotten in times of war, using the Sarajevo games as my example.  I got good marks on it.  Got to present it to the entire school during the Rememberance Day assembly.  My teacher got it published in the Edmonton Journal. 

Four years after than...Nagano 1998.  I was in college at that time.  The TV in the common lounge in the dorm was always on the Olympics.  I remember that was going to be Team Canada's year in hockey.  It was the first year professional NHL players were allowed to compete.  The drought was going to end, and Team Canada would come home with the gold in hockey.  Team Canada placed fourth.  I remember watching the bronze medal game on TV.  You could see it in the players' faces...they lost the will to win.  They just didn't care any more.  With the gold out of site, they no longer saw the point.  It was very disappointing. 

Four years after that...I arrive in Japan to begin my year as an ESL teacher.  I went out to my city of Kumagaya on the Nagano bullet train line.  I was gob-smacked.  Would I really be that close to the place I saw on TV so many times so many years ago?  And the answer was yes.  Nagano was just a short two-hour trip away on the bullet train.  I started making loose plans to head up to Nagano on some long weekend to visit the Olympic sites.  Sadly, though, with my work schedule, long weekends were few and far between.

For my Christmas vacation in Japan, I headed up north to the city of Sapporo to visit my best friend, who was also an ESL teacher.  Only when I started flipping through the guide books did I learn that Sapporo was the host of the 1972 Winter Olympics.  My plans for the Christmas holiday were set.  I'd try to visit as many of the Sapporo Olympic sites as I could.  Sadly, though, this being the middle of Christmas vacation, most of the Olympic sites - most of everything, in fact - was closed, so my sightseeing consisted of walking up to the locked doors and looking inside.  Fortunatley, though, on my second-last day, Sapporo's shiny new Winter Sports Museum, dedicated mainly to the 1972 Winter Olympics, was open again, so I was able to check that out before I left.  Even paid my money and took a ride to the top of the ski jump to enjoy the view.

Here's an old picture on my hard drive...this is the view from the top of the ski jump, looking down. 

Even though Tokyo was just a 1-hour train ride away, and I spent many a weekend touring Tokyo, I never did any explicit Olympic sightseeing in the host city for the 1964 Summer Olympics.  Closest I got was, one day, I was wandering around Harajuku with some friends and a buddy said, "Hey, Mark, you like the Olympics, right?  That building over there is the pool where they had all the aquatic events."

When my time in Japan came to an end, I knew it was now or never to finally see Nagano.  I set aside two weeks to do a lazy loop through central Japan and see all the sights I'd missed, and Nagano was going to take up a big portion of that.  When I stepped off the train at the Nagano station, and was greeted with this large mural of the Nagano Olympics' logo, I felt this great sense of completion to my time in Japan.  Once I got settled at the youth hostel, I started plotting my trip.

I must have spent about four or five days in Nagano.  I got to know the clerks in the tourist information centre on a first name basis, as I started every day by stopping in and asking, "So how do I get to this venue?"  To help me out, they even dug around in the back room and found one of the old tourist maps that were printed for the 1998 Games to answer just those questions.  I went to Big Hat, which was the hockey rink.  There was actually an event going on that day so I got to go inside and stand at center ice.  I visited Aqua Wing, which was a figure skating venue for the games, but had since been converted into a swimming pool.  Had I brought my trunks, I would have gone in for a dip.  I visited the Olympic Stadium, which has since become the stadium for Nagano's baseball team.  Saw their baseball team doing laps around the Olympic park.  On one day, I took a bus trip outside of town to the ski hills and ski jump.  Once again, paid my money to ride to the top.  Sat at the bottom of the jump and had a lunch of cold soba while I saw some future Olympians practicing.  It was a very good day.

I ended my time in Nagano at M-Wave, which was where most of the speed skating was held.  Also inside they house a museum dedicated to the games.  There was some soccer match going on inside today, so I watched the game for a bit.  As I was leaving the facility, I whipped out my cellphone and called my friend up in Sapporo.  I knew, when his time was done, he'd be going home to Vancouver.  I called and asked, "Hey, isn't Vancouver putting a bid together for the 2010 Winter Olympics?  Do you know how well that's going?"  Right then and there, I extorted an invitation to crash on his couch if Vancouver got the games so I could go see them.

Vancouver was announced as the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics that following autumn, and I knew that I would be going.  I mean, it would be in my figurative back yard, there would be no excuse to not go.  Except for, of course, my chosen profession.

The Torino 2006 Games were going on near the end of my "Great Year of Unemployment."  For those new to the blog, the "Great Year of Unemployment" is what a call the year stretching from April of 2005 (when I graduated from NAIT) to April of 2006 (when I finally got a radio gig).  It was a tireless year of pounding the pavement begging for a job.  I had an interview during the 2006 Winter Olympics, and the interviewer asked why my future goals were.  "To see the Olympics some day," I said.  The interviewer rolled his eyes, let out a disgusted sigh, and said, "You're only saying because it's in the news right now."  I had no desire to expound a lot of energy convincing him otherwise, so I kept my mouth shut. 

As I blogged two years ago, during the Vancouver 2010 games, as much as I love working in radio, it's not a job that lets you do something like save up for a dream vacation.  My opportunities to see the games on home soil came and went, and I was stuck watching it on TV like most others.  But another opportunity might still arise.  Toronto has long longed to host the Summer Olympics.  They lost bids to host the 1996 and 2000 Games, and from what I gather, they're getting ready to try again.  While we've all heard that Quebec City is building a new hockey rink to try to lure back an NHL franchise, the big picture is that Quebec City wants a new hockey rink and an NHL franchise to strengthen a future bid for the Winter Olympics.  It's long been said that building the Saddledome and getting the Flames is what put Calgary's bid over the top, and the IOC has already said they would welcome another bid from Quebec City.

And of course, I could always go to one of the games held every two years overseas...it'll just be a whole lot more expensive.

But, for the time being, I'll have to content myself with Olympic sightseeing in my homeland.  Head out to Montreal, and see the Olympic Stadium before it's officially declared an eyesore and torn down.  My buddy still lives in Vancouver, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I crashed on his couch for a few days to see the Olympic sights.  But for a very attainable goal, I'll settle for going to Calgary when things are actually open.

Seriously, Canada Olympic Park, what's your fucking problem?  Every time  I go to Calgary, your Olympic Museum and Canada's Olympic Hall of Fame is closed.  Would it kill you to post some fucking hours?

 
Here I am on my last trip to Calgary, three years ago.  Once again, everything at Canada Olympic Park was closed, so I was stuck on the outside looking in.  I'm standing on the #2 spot on the podium instead of #1 as a symbol of my profound disappointment.  And as I'm sure you can tell, I'm still bitter. 

\But I must take that disappointment.  I must take that bitterness.  And I must channel it.  I need to make a plan, and start saving.  It is possible.  I will be there, someday, to enjoy the show.  To partake in the whole world getting together to chill out and play some games.

Some day, I will no longer be on the outside, looking in.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

So, my The Dark Knight Rises review is online!

Head on over to my main site and give it a read!

Bat Day

So, there's a new Batman movie in theatres.  I figured I should go see it as soon as I can, so today, I was off to the city to do just that.

Before I departed, I made the serious debate as to whether to see the film in IMAX or not.  Normally, such a thing wouldn't matter...I'd just save the extra money and go see it in a regular theatre.  But, with The Dark Knight Rises, most of the major action scenes were filmed with IMAX cameras and designed and optimized for the IMAX format.  A trend that director Christopher Nolan himself started with The Dark Knight four years ago.  Ultimately I figured, "What the hey?" and I was off to the IMAX at West Edmonton Mall.

And I learned a very painful lesson.  The last time I went out of my way to see a film in IMAX was Avatar three years ago.  (Again, director James Cameron filmed most of the film with IMAX cameras and designed the film to be shown in that format.)  West Edmonton Mall's IMAX theatre has changed in the past three years.  It's now assigned seating.  That means it's all like in a stadium now, where your ticket tells you where your seat is.  Had I known that, I would have bought my tickets online a couple of days ago so I could pick some really good seats.  My seat was good, but not great, but now I know for next time.

Going into The Dark Knight Rises, I was really excited.  It was like Christopher Nolan read my mind when it came to villains for this sequel.  After The Dark Knight, when most of my friends and I were debating with villain we'd like to see in the sequel, many scoffed when I said I'd like to see Bane.  But, for the more realistic take that Nolan was bringing to the Batman films, Bane was a perfect choice.  I could see them taking a similar approach to The Animated Series, where Bane was portrayed as a super-strong and super-smart South American hitman, brought in my Gotham's organized crime to take care of this Batman problem once and for all.  Just replace his strength-enhancing drug Venom with plane ol' steroids, and you'd be set. 

And of course, Catwoman was high on my short list of villains, too, if only because Catwoman deserves better than that Halle Berry movie from a few years ago.

But I was cautious as well.  If there's one thing I've learned from film trilogies, the third one is always the trickiest, as the director struggles to bring things to a satisfying conclusion.

So.  The film takes place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight.  In order to become "the hero that Gotham deserves" and make a martyr out of Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne retired from being Batman.  This seems to have worked, as Gotham City soon passed a new tough-on-crime bill known as "The Dent Act" and crime in Gotham is at all-time low.  Things aren't good for Bruce Wayne, though.  Still mourning the loss of his lady love Rachael Dawes, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse in Wayne Manor.  But then, one night, Bruce Wayne stumbles across a cat burglar named Selina Kyle breaking into his vault and stealing the Wayne family jewels.  A young cop named John Blake then swings by the manor, to report that Commissioner Gordon has been attacked by a ruthless mercenary named Bane, who has set up shop in Gotham City.  All of this is enough to shake Bruce Wayne out of his funk, and soon, Batman is patrolling the streets once again.  What is Bane's master plan?  Will Batman be able to rise to the challenge and once again be the hero that Gotham deserves?

I really liked this film.  It's not as good as The Dark Knight, but it's a good end to this trilogy.  In a way, it's more like a sequel to Batman Begins, as it mainly focuses on and addresses the loose ends from that film.  I know some are upset that the Joker wasn't even acknowledged in this film.  But let's be honest.  Any mention of the Joker would bring up awkward questions as to where he is and what became of him, so the filmmakers took the easy way and chose to ignore him completely.

This portrayal of Bane was really good.  I see there's been this desire to create an "anti-Batman" in the comics...a character with a similar origin, but winds up on the wrong side of the law.  It really seems like they tried to make Bane into an "anti-Batman," and it works.  His master plan is highly unique, and in seeing it play out, I think their main inspiration this time out was the classic Batman arc No Man's Land.  And in the final sound mix, Bane ends up sounding quite a bit like Destro from the old G.I. Joe cartoon.

Anne Hathaway made a really good Catwoman.  She knows how slink and sex it up, but also knows when it's time to turn off the charm and be ruthless.  I should also mention that, while they never refer to her as "Catwoman" in the film, there's always an extra emphasis that she's a "cat" burglar.

A friend of mine texted me on the drive home to ask if there were any good surprises in the film.  Sadly, I read one too many spoilers online.  That, and couple with a lot of knowledge about the Batman universe, I saw all the surprises coming.  But still, there's one surprise in the film, the filmmakers double-backed and triple-backed on it enough that it did catch me off guard when they revealed it.

And I am so glad I paid the extra to see it in IMAX.  That bigger screen really puts you in the middle of all the action scenes...a lot better than 3D.

When all is said and done, I give it 3.5 nibs.  I'll have a review on the main site in a day or so.

That's not all I did in the city today.  Had to buy a few treats.  As you know, I'm a huge fan of Kevin Smith's, but I really haven't bought much of his comic books.  Truth be told, I'm starting to get a little burnt out on Smith.  He does a billion podcasts and a dozen or so web series now...I'm just overwhelmed with the guy.  That being said though, since I was seeing The Dark Knight Rises today, and Smith has written a couple of Batman books, I decided to grab them from Chapters on my way out of the city.  So, over the next few days, I'll be sitting down to read Cacophony and The Widening Gyre. 

And, since it's just not a trip to the city without buying a DVD, I bought the brand-new Blu-Ray edition of Smokey and the Bandit.  I know!  You're probably thinking, "That really doesn't seem like you're kind of movie, Mark."  For some reason, I remember this movie being on TV a lot when I was a kid.  Hell, my earliest conscious memory of begging my parents to buy me a toy was getting my Dad to buy me the Hot Wheels 2-pack of the Bandit's Trans-Am and Smokey's police car.  This is Universal Studio's 100th anniversary, and lots of their films are getting 100th anniversary Blu-Rays.  And when I heard that the 100th Anniversary edition of Smokey and the Bandit came out, I just thought, "I want this."  And at the bargain bin price of $15, how could I say no?  I'll probably spend a lazy Sunday afternoon watching it tomorrow.

And, had to take one last swing by the Apple Store and gaze longingly at the iPhones.  If you're my friend on Facebook, then you've already heard my tale of woe.  My cellphone contract officially runs out at the end of this month, and when I signed into that contract three years ago, I said, "When the contract's done, it'll be time to upgrade!"  I've enjoyed my BlackBerry, but I've had my heart set on an iPhone for quite some time.  I've been diligently pinching my pennies throughout the year, saving my money for an iPhone.

And then, that wonderfully mysterious "service engine soon" light came on in my car back on Tuesday.  And along with it, it disabled my remote starter.  Rather than fret about it, I made the appointment with the mechanic to have a look at it.  The problem is in the pollution control system, and requires a replacement part.  And paying to get this fixed will wipe out my iPhone fund.

I'm pretty bummed out about that.  I know, as someone pointed out on Facebook, I shouldn't be here bitching about my first world problems.  But then, to quote that great philosopher of our time, Ally McBeal, "These problems are important because they happen to me."

All in all, not a bad day.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Back to the Future Trilogy

 Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I just go off on one of the DVDs I own in my collection.  This week, one of my all time favourite franchises, The Back to the Future trilogy.  No doubt I'll revisit this in the future and look at each film individually.  But until them, just some bullet points on why I like it.  This entry is originally dated March 6, 2011. 

First Request

So, in my day job, I do a request show.  For a while now, whenever I play the first request of the show, I've been thinking, "I should play that clip from The Empire Strikes Back.  You know...the smug admiral who says 'Our first catch of the day.'" 







So, I know they've got some pretty good sound boards over at the official Star Wars website.  In my free time this afternoon, I went by those sound boards, seeing if they had that clip.  And lo and behold, they did!

And a few clips more.

So I went a little overboard, threw in some music, and made this clip.




First Request by Mark Cappis


I don't know if I'll actually use it on the air, but man, it makes me laugh.  Besides, if I use it, I'll need something for the last request of the day, and they don't have the clip I want for that.

Han Solo:  "You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home."

Man of Steel Teasers

Confession time.  Despite its flaws, I kind of like Superman Returns.  When all is said and done, I feel it's a movie that needed to be made.  The Richard Donner/Christopher Reeve Superman films just became so iconic, that if any kind of reboot were to be made, they would have had to have been acknowledged and referenced and been the basis for the films.

Let's be honest.  For most superhero films, writers usually go to the best-known storylines in the public consciousness.  And, with Superman, the Richard Donner/Christopher Reeve films are the best-known storylines.

So, Superman Returns had to be made.  Now that all the homage, tribute and expected follow-up is out of our collective systems, we can do a proper reboot.

But the lesson we can take away from Superman Returns is that a lot of writers these days find Superman to be a tricky character to write.  I mean...a near-omnipotent being with a strict moral code.  In our grim and gritty anti-hero society, people find him tough to get a handle on.  Which is why it's kind of weird that Man of Steel, (aka the Superman reboot) comes to us from those who have really popularized the grim and gritty anti-hero superhero films...Christopher Nolan and the makers of The Dark Knight trilogy.

As the legend goes, shortly after the release of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer were sitting around brainstorming ideas for the film that would eventually become The Dark Knight Rises.  In their brainstorming sessions, Goyer said one day, "Too bad we're not doing Superman.  I have a great idea for Superman."  Nolan said, "Really?  Let's here it."  Goyer told Nolan his idea, and Nolan said, "That...is...AWESOME!!"  They went and pitched it to the bosses at Warner Brothers, and of course, Warner Brothers said, "The guys in charge of our biggest superhero franchise want to do another superhero franchise?  SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!"   (Money in this case being a green light.)

Nolan, however, wasn't took keen to direct, so after a talent search throughout Hollywood, they finally hired a director in Zack Snyder.  Snyder, of course, has his comic book cred, having directed 300 and Watchmen.  The interesting trivia bit is Snyder turned down the chance to direct Superman Returns, citing he just didn't know how to make Superman relevant in this day and age.  So this script, apparently, made Superman relevant to a guy who wrote off the character.

Time for the cast, and once again The Dark Knight crew decided to fill their cast with well-known character actors.  For Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El, they chose Henry Cavill, probably still best known as one of the stars of The Tudors.  For his legendary lady love, intrepid reporter Lois Lane, they went with one of my top celebrity crushes, Amy Adams.  Laurence Fishburne will be playing Clark Kent's boss, Perry White.  Christopher Meloni, fresh off his time on Law & Order: SVU, plays an Army general wary of this Kryptonian.  Richard Schiff from The West Wing plays one of Superman's friends-turned-enemies, Dr. Emil Hamilton.  Superman's Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara, are being played by Russel Crowe and Ayelet Zurer, and his human parents on Earth, Johnathon and Martha Kent, and being played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane.  

For a villain in this piece, they skipped Lex Luthor!  That's one thing about The Dark Knight trilogy that I liked, and I like to see that they're trying to emulate.  Save the best-known arch-enemy for the sequel, so that way in the first one, you're completely free to focus on the origin story.  The villain in this one is General Zod, to be played by Michael Shannon. 

The first teaser hit theatres this weekend in front of The Dark Knight Rises.  There are two versions of this first teaser.  The first has a narration spoken by Costner as Johnathon Kent.





The second has a narration spoken by Crowe as Jor-El.




Upon looking at these trailers, all I can say is I'm very underwhelmed.  This doesn't look like a Superman movie.  They are sleepy.  They are boring.  They lack the iconography that we've come to associate with Superman.  Seriously.  Why is Superman on a fishing boat?

I guess we'll have to find out on June 14, 2013, when Man of Steel hits theatres.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the many DVDs in my collection, and then rant about it.  We get to the first TV show in this series.  I never really figured out how to do TV shows.  Should I binge watch the entire series?  Just watch a handful of my favourite episodes?  It's something I'm still figuring out.  For our first series, we get to some of Aaron Sorkin's work, his short-lived series about working on a TV series...Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  This article is originally dated February 16, 2011.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Doctor Who: The Movie

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I just rant about a DVD in my collection.  This started as a feature for my podcast, and I wrote several dozen reviews before I abandoned it, so I've been posting my old notes to this here blog.  Today, we get to something very special.  I've become a Doctor Who fan in my old age, and I was able to acquire my first-ever exposure to Doctor Who; the 1996 American-made TV movie known simply as Doctor Who: The Movie.  This review is originally dated February 14, 2011.

Reflections on my birthday

So it was my birthday this past weekend.  Well, Saturday was my birthday, but I couldn't do much on Saturday because I was working.  However, my parents did come up to buy me dinner, which was really nice.  They brought me a really neat present.  Apparently, there's a this little comic book and collectable shop in Jasper now, and whenever they're in Jasper they see it and think of me.  In their latest trip, they brought me this.

It's a tin sign, featuring a very classic looking Wolverine.  I came to the X-Men party kind of late, so when it comes to art of Wolverine, I'm used to things like highly detailed Alex Ross prints and the like.  So, to see some good ol' 1980s-era promo art for Wolverine is kinda cool.  Still figuring out a good place to hang it.

On Sunday, I was able to head off into the city and go through with my annual birthday tradition.  Ever since my 11th birthday, I've gone to see a movie on my birthday.  So this year, I was off to see The Amazing Spider-Man.

I really liked The Amazing Spider-Man.  What really sold it for me was the Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy romance.  It just seemed so much more real and genuine than the Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson stuff in the other trilogy.  And it was really neat how they re-told the origin of Spider-Man.  Like a lot of folks, I was kind of upset that they were going to be re-telling the origin story so soon after the last movie.  So you start looking to how they're going to re-tell it...what they'll be focusing on this time, and omitting.  And I really like how they retold it.  It was such a different take on it, that I actually got a little bit misty-eyed when ol' Uncle Ben bit the dust.

That being said, though, with all this emphasis on character, I don't think we really got to know Dr. Curt Connors as our villains.  It would have been nice to have spent a little more time with him before he turned into the Lizard.  And, as I'm sure you can tell by the commercials, they're really playing up this whole "mystery of Peter Parker's parents" to be our over-reaching arc for this new batch of films.  It's kind of forgotten early in the film, then brought back again for the now-requisite post-credits sequence.  It seems extraneous at this point.  Ya know, it's still fine to make a film franchise where the films mostly stand alone.

With the other Spider-Man films out there, I'd put it a shade below Spider-Man 2, but with the reboot coming this soon, you just can't shake the feeling that you've seen it all before.  I give it 3.5 out of 4 nibs.

I've got my complete review over on my main site, so check it out if you so please.

Then it was off to HMV.  I'd resolved to spend a little birthday money on a Blu-Ray I'd been denying myself for a long time:  the original 1933 edition of King Kong.  I've been looking at this one in HMV for 2 freakin' years, but for some reason, I'd always fret about it being too expensive or some BS like that, and so I finally said, "Fuck it.  Let's get it."

And then, because it was on sale, I also bought the 2005 Peter Jackson remake of King Kong.  Now, as I've blogged many times before, I'm in no rush to upgrade my DVDs to Blu-Ray, because I still don't have an HDTV to fully enjoy them on.  But, I have enjoyed Peter Jackson's King Kong remake enough to be curious enough about it's extended version.  Yes, like his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson did an extended version of King Kong.  And when I saw that the Blu-Ray contained both the original theatrical version and the extended edition, and it was on sale for just $15, I figured "Why not?"  It's going to make an interesting double-feature next weekend.

And then I had to swing by the Apple Store.  Three years ago, when I bought my BlackBerry, I signed for the three year contract and said, "Yeah, after three years it'll be time to upgrade."  Well, my three year contract runs out at the end of the month.  And I really want to upgrade to an iPhone.  But I'm starting to get cold feet.

Because, dude, iPhones are expensive.

Right now, I'm looking at the iPhone 4s with the 32G memory, because it's the top of the line for iPhone's right now, and I figure I might need a bit bigger memory with all the messing around I'd be doing with it.  Right now, that goes for ~$260.

And I'm certain that if I did my shopping around, I could probably find a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Google Android with most of the same features for around $50.

But...but...iPhone!

So I'm still figuring out what to do on that front.

But all in all, the birthday weekend wasn't too bad.  I've been too busy to go into the usual spiral of depression it usually brings.  I'm still waiting for that moment where I officially become a grown-up.  If anything, the words of Dr. Johnny Fever describing the radio announcer lifestyle grow more and more accurate every day:  "Pushing 40 and still living like a college kid." 

And here's what I've been listening to while writing this.  Jazz covers of Studio Ghibli music.  SO AWESOME.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Inception

It's time for Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I rant about one of the many DVDs in my collection!  I've been going though a stretch of movies related to Christmas 2010.  Here, we get to the last one I bought with my gift cards...one of the biggest movies of 2010, Inception.  My notes on this one are originally dated January 28, 2011.