Another Birthday Shopping Spree

Well, it was my birthday about a week ago.  And, much like I did last year, I decided to celebrate by going to iTunes and spending five whole dollars on some of the movie themes I'd always adored, but could never find the soundtrack albums for.  And, going back to my college radio days when I just couldn't wait to play a new album on my college radio show, I think music is the best when you share it.  Hence, this blog entry today.  So what did I blow my $5 on this year?

Theme from Astro Boy - Composed by John Ottman

The CGI movie version of Astro Boy from a few years ago was such a mishmash.  They strayed too far from the source material, and instead wound up just cramming in every popular idea about robots from Saturday morning cartoons over the past 30 years.  However, John Ottman's score wound up being a true highlight of the film.  As I said when I did the film on Fishing in the Discount Bin, it's a far, far better score than the movie deserved.




Welcome Back - End Titles from X-Men: Days of Future Past - Composed by John Ottman

And speaking of Mr. Ottman, he is director Bryan Singer's composer of choice.  A friend recently remarked that the X-Men films seem to be cursed with bland scores, but I don't feel that way about Ottman's music for X2.  That's the only X-Men theme that sounds like an honest to God superhero theme that you'll find yourself humming.  Needless to say, I geeked out hard when I discovered that Ottman returned to the franchise with Days of Future Past, and I was grinning like an idiot when I heard the opening bars of his X-Men theme during the opening titles.  The theme in question kicks in at about the 1 minute mark in this end credit suite. 



Overture from It Could Happen to You - Composed by Carter Burwell

When I first saw this romantic comedy way back in 1994, I remember thinking, "Wow.  The music in this film is perfect fairy tale music."  It's something I was reminded of when I caught it on TV a few months ago.  For those who don't remember this film.  Nicholas Cage is a hard-working, New York city beat cop.  Bridgette Fonda is a waitress with a heart of gold who's fallen on hard times.   When Cage has lunch in Fonda's diner one day, he discovers he doesn't have enough money for a tip, so he shows his lottery ticket to Fonda and promises to split the winnings with her, 50/50.  When he winds up winning the $4 million jackpot, he stays true to his word and splits the winnings with her...much to the chagrin of his wife, Rosie Perez.  As the money begins to turn Perez into a materialistic harpy, Cage and Fonda begin to fall in love, as they both enjoy using their winnings to spread random acts of kindness about the city.  It's just a sweet movie.  There's just two tracks of the score on the soundtrack album...I really should just buy them both.




Ringo's Theme (This Boy) from A Hard Days Night - Composed by Lennon/McCartney; Performed by the George Martin Orchestra

It doesn't matter what your opinion of the Beatles is, A Hard Day's Night is just a good movie.  And what little score it has is amazing instrumental versions of Beatles songs, courtesy the Beatles' longtime producer George Martin and his orchestra.  The most famous piece from the movie is the instrumental version of the Beatles song This Boy, which plays as Ringo temporarily ditches the band to go for a walk, think things through, and winds up having a conversation about life, the universe, and everything with a kid ditching school.




The Simpsons Theme from The Simpsons Movie - Composed by Danny Elfman; Performed by Green Day

Because.  That's why.

Time for Mandatory Fun!

It's that wonderful time that comes around every 3 or 4  years...the time when those three little words are uttered that bring me so much joy.

Mark's getting laid!  New Weird Al!

"Weird Al" Yankovic is out today with his brand new album, Mandatory Fun.  There's already been a lot of pre-release hype around this album, mainly due to the fact that this marks the end of Weird Al's record contract.  Some interpreted that to mean that Weird Al is retiring, but he's disputed that in many interviews already.  If anything, he's one of the artists who think that the end of the traditional record contract is right around the corner, and everything's going digital from here on out.  Weird Al has been grumbling for a while now that he'll be going to an all-digital distribution model.  It'll allow him to be more timely and topical with his parodies.  And besides, his main competition these days are the billions of parodies that pop up on YouTube shortly after a song becomes a hit, while he's sitting around, twiddling his thumbs, amassing an album's worth of material.

Of course I pre-ordered the album on Amazon.  I rarely pre-order stuff months in advance, but a new Weird Al album is one of those exceptions.  I even paid the extra shipping to have it delivered the day it comes out.  So, since it comes out today, you'll understand my confusion when I got the alert from Amazon last Wednesday that it had shipped.  "I'm not going to get it early, am I?"

And sure enough, look what the friendly UPS guy delivered on Friday.




Needless to say, I was excited.  I texted my friends right away to share the good news.  "Dude!  Now rip it and leak it to the Internet!" one of my friends joked.  Although, as I started going through the tracks and sharing some of the lyrics with my friend, he changed his tune to, "Umm...I was just kidding.  But if you do want to rip it and send it to me...."  But nope.  I decided not to ruin the surprise for the world.

That being said, I did have the entire weekend to sit down, listen to it, and pick it apart.  So now that it's the official release date, time to share my thoughts on Mandatory Fun!

Oh, Yeah. There's A World Out There

See?  What did I say?  The day job got busy, and the whole going out to movies and having adventures on weekends started taking a back seat.  But I'm kind of in the eye of the hurricane right now, so while I have this brief moment of calm, may as well take a moment to celebrate the little things.

Like my birthday.  37.  In a row.

It was a my birthday a week ago.  Didn't do anything spectacular, just a little family get together with my folks.  And, as has been the traditional way to celebrate my birthday ever since I turned 11, we went to see a movie.  This year, I dragged my parents to see Transformers: Age of Extinction.

It's been five years since the Battle of Chicago (aka the last movie), and thanks to the devestation caused by the Decepticon invasion, humanity has decided they want the Transformers off of Earth.  The friendly military team NEST, that helped the Autobots fight the Decepticons, has been replaced with Cemetery Wind, a CIA black ops team dedicated to hunting down and exterminating all remaining Transformers.  And they're led by a very evil Dr. Fraiser Crane.

Enter Cade Yeager, a struggling inventor living in rural Texas.  One day, he purchases an old beat-up semi with the intent of stripping it for parts, but soon discovers it's actually a badly wounded Optimus Prime.  Cemetery Wind descends on Yeader's farm, and now Optimus Prime, Yeager, Yeager's daughter and her boyfriend, are on the run.  Before long, Yeager is swept up in a war that he (and the audience) barely understands, including a Transformer bounty hunter named Lockdown working for the mysterious "Creators," and a robotics firm looking to build their own Transformers, with their star project being a robot known as "Galvatron." 

I'm not ashamed to say I loved this movie.  After the steaming pile that was Revenge of the Fallen, and the "yeah, we're out of ideas" that was Dark of the Moon, it's like for Age of Extinction, Michael Bay finally got my checklist of everything I hated about the last two.  Stupid-goofy comic relief from the humans?  Toned down considerably.  Straying away from the Autobots just as things are getting interesting to focus on the stupid human subplot?  Gone.  Focusing more on the Autobots and allowing them to breathe more as characters?  Yes.

That's what really got me about the character of Optimus Prime.  We've never seen Optimus Prime like this.  He's angry at how humanity has turned on him.  He's pissed off that his kind is being hunted down like dogs in the streets.  When he growls that he's going to find the human who's been slaughtering Transformers and kill them, it's shocking.  But, it gives Optimus Prime a character arc, something I don't think he's had in the past few films.

And yes, I got my geek on hard when they started dropping names like "Galvatron."

It does have its flaws, though.  Damn, it's a long movie.  When what felt like the end happened, I realized we hadn't seen the "all over the ads" Dinobots yet.  There was about another hour after that point.  And while we don't have the stupid-goofy human subplots anymore, they make up for it in quantity.  Lots of people doing stuff, it's easy to get confused.

I give it a very entertaining three Nibs.  Complete review is over at the main website. 

Jump forward a week, and I decide to hit the city again, flush with birthday money.  I'd been saving my dollars to make this my birthday present anyway, and with some birthday cash to push it over the top, I figured it was time to buy the one thing I wanted to complete my home entertainment system.

I bought myself an Apple TV.

For those who don't know, Apple TV is Apple's streaming media device.  Plug it into your TV, and now all your iTunes downloads can run off your TV.  But that's not all.  It's got your various streaming video services like Netflix built in. While it doesn't have as many apps that other streaming video players have, it more than makes up for it by playing stuff streaming off my computer, meaning I can watch things I've downloaded from other services.  And if the app's not on the Apple TV, it's on my iPhone, so AirPlay to the rescue! 

Granted, such a thing is a "want" and not a "need" because I've got a Smart TV with those apps built in, but playing with it last night, watching Netflix on the Apple TV just looked better.  Probably because the Apple TV can put out 5.1 channel surround sound, and because it's an external device, I can turn off the damn soap opera effect. 

But even with such wonderful new technology, I'm still hooked on buying new Blu-Rays.  I stopped in at HMV because I was growing frustrated with Amazon.  The classic Beatles film A Hard Day's Night just got a spiffy new Criterion edition.  Even though I pre-ordered it in May and it came out in June, Amazon was telling me they weren't going to be shipping it until August.  So with that bugging me, I went into HMV, and there it was, sitting on the shelf.  And for $10 cheaper, too.  So I canceled my Amazon order on my iPhone and bought it then and there.





After some browsing in the mall, there was just one last thing to do my my city trip checklist.  I'm sure you know by now of my love of fast food.  And I've noticed over the past few months that the American burger chain Carl's Jr has begun making inroads into Canada.  Apparently, they began their Canadian expansion a few years ago, and they've finally begun popping up in the Edmonton area.  So before heading home, I knew I had to give Carl's Jr a try. 

The only problem was, I had lunch at lunch time, and I was heading home at 3PM, so I was still pretty full from lunch.  Sadly, my first meal at Carl's Jr was going to be a light one.

I settled for their Famous Star, which looks to be their basic cheeseburger.  I skipped the combo, so no fries, and just a small Coke to wash it down.  Being a flame-broiled burger, I found it tasted very similar to other fast food burgers that boast that claim, such as Harvey's or Burger King.  In fact, if I closed my eyes and tuned out my surroundings, I could have sworn I was eating a Whopper.  I'll have to try them again, and when I'm not so full, so that way I can have one of their bigger signature burgers, fries, and the whole deal. 

And with that, it was time to get home.  I was eager to get home.  What, with the Apple TV, I was eager to fire it up and start testing it out.  All in all, a nice break.  I think my eye of the hurricane analogy was appropriate, because if what they said at Friday's staff meeting pans out, things are about to get crazy again. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Raiders of the Lost Ark

It's time for Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch something in my library and blog about it, because I don't have a life.  I never know what to write when it comes to these truly legendary, much-beloved classics.  Books have been written on them, many another critic has heaped praise on them...so what more can I add?  But yet, I try once again as we look at Raiders of the Lost Ark.  This shows up in my notes at October 19, 2013.  

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Sherlock Holmes

Fishing in the Discount Bin is upon us once again, where I watch one of the many films I own, and the blog about it, because I'm o so lonely.  Today, we have the film that signaled pop culture's recent return to a love of Sherlock Holmes, 2009's Sherlock Holmes.  This pops up in my notes at October 6, 2013.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Iron Man 3

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin.  Again, I love how the timing of this thing works out.  It seems that I always wind up revisiting the big blockbusters of a year ago.  Hence today's entry, Iron Man 3.  This is dated in my notes at September 29, 2013.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Rocketeer

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of one of the many, many, many movies I own.  Today's film is yet another classic adventure film produced by Disney that was hoped to launch a franchise, kinda flopped in the theatres, yet grew to become a cult-classic.  And that is The Rocketeer.  This is dated in my notes at September 22, 2013.

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Shadow

Time once again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of something in my movie library and blogging about it, because I'm terribly alone.  Today, I finally get around to one of my favourite guilty pleasures, The Shadow.  This is originally dated in my notes at September 21, 2013.  

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Django Unchained

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I blog about one of the many movies I own on a home media format of some kind.  I think this is the first Tarantino film I do, and it's his most recent, Django Unchained.  This shows up in my notes at September 18, 2013.

Last One For a While

I look at my bank balance, and I read this chronicle of my leisure time, and it makes me sad.  I have seen far more movies at this point in the year than I have at this time last year.  And all these weekend trips into the city are starting to make a serious impact on my savings.  So I think I'm going to have to impose a moratorium on going to see movies.  It's just starting to become unaffordable.

But, much like a dieter who has one last day with all their favourite foods before starting the diet, I knew there was one last movie I had to see before swearing off the movies for a while:  X-Men: Days of Future Past.

It began like most days.  Up at the crack of dawn, a leisurely breakfast, and then hitting the road.  I do like driving.  As I said in a previous podcast, if I ever win the lottery, I'll probably take a month off work and just drive.  And driving early in the morning is the best.  Clear skies, empty roads, just go.  No side stops on this trip.  I knew I'd be heading straight to West Edmonton Mall, catching the movie, and then coming home.

Although, as I remarked to friends, I was on the fence when it came to seeing X-Men in the city, or in the small town, one-screen theatre in the neighboring town of Barrhead.  I'd been wanting to sample it for a while.  But, ultimately, tradition won out.  I've seen every X-Men movie in West Edmonton Mall, and darn it, that's the way it shall continue.  The first and only midnight screening I've ever been to was for the first X-Men, and that was at West Edmonton Mall.

Didn't do much browsing in the Mall before the movie.  It had been two weeks since I was last there to see Godzilla, so I didn't really think there'd been much new since then.  However, while browsing in HMV, I did succumb and buy a new album.  As I've already mentioned several times, I was pleasantly surprised by Wreck-It Ralph and how much I enjoyed it, so when I saw the soundtrack album at a decent price, I couldn't help but snatch it up.




Entering the ol' Scotiabank Theatre in West Edmonton Mall, I was a little bit turned around, as it's currently undergoing renovations.  I can hardly believe it's been a part of the Mall for 15 years now.  I remember being there in Y2K for that midnight screening of X-Men.  The theatre had only been open for a year at that point, and to a few of my friends, it was the first time they'd been treated to the animatronic fire-breathing dragon, and the giant Batman and Yoda hanging from the ceiling.  Back then, I was still in awe of all the glitz, but my friends weren't.  "Too Vegas," I remember one commenting.

 

So.  X-Men: Days of Future Past.  I quite enjoyed it.  Based on the classic X-Men story of the same name.  In a nightmarish future, humanity is ruled by the Sentinels...giant, mutant-hunting robots.  The remnants of the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood form the resistance.  With time running out, they come up with a desperate plan.  The nightmare of the Sentinels came about in 1973, when Mystique assassinated Bolivar Trask, the inventor of the Sentinels.   This made Trask a martyr for the cause, and thus the Sentinels were pressed into action.  Our heroes have developed a method for time travel.  They want to send Wolverine back in time to 1973, unite the younger Professor X and Magneto, and present a united front to stop Mystique.  Will the plan succeed?

The film continues to explore the Professor X/Magneto/Mystique trinity that they started in First Class.  The way I see it, Mystique has become Darth Vader.  Magneto is the Emperor, seducing her to the Dark Side, and Professor X is Obi-Wan Kenobi, trying to pull her back from the edge.  

And I loved the scenes in the future.  Bryan Singer has said that he considered The Terminator one of the best time travel films ever made, and that The Terminator was his model to follow.  He says he even had a nice, 2-hour lunch with James Cameron where he picked Cameron's brain about time travel in the movies.  And in all the future scenes, you can feel The Terminator's influence.  

Quicksilver.  Dear God, Quicksilver.  I hope DC finally gets their act together and makes a Flash movie, because that's exactly how you depict superspeed.  And as a friend pointed out, it's become so rare to see a character who actually enjoys their superpowers and has fun with them.  And Quicksilver definitely has fun. 

And the final scene.  I don't want to say too much, but I will say it's a cameo-palooza.

Not much to hate about this.  As one friend pointed out, the music score is kind of bland, and it seems this franchise has always been cursed with bland music.  That being said, when the orchestra struck up with John Ottman's X-Men theme, I was thrilled to hear it again.  Ottman also did the music for X2, and as far as I'm concerned, his X-Men theme was the only one that was any damn good.  (Skip to 2:15 to hear the theme I'm talking about.)




All in all, I loved it greatly.  I've got the complete review up at my main site. 

And that's it.  My money-saving, movie-free summer can now begin.  It shouldn't be to tough, as there's really nothing on my radar until Guardians of the Galaxy comes out in August.  "But what about Transformers: Age of Extinction?" you're probably asking.  Well...I think I'm getting burnt out on Transformers.  Granted, I got excited when I first saw the Dinobots in the Super Bowl spot, but everything else I've seen since then has me going, "Eh, what else ya got?"  So I think it's time I take a break from Transformers.

Anyway, I've blogged enough, and it's sunny out, so I think I'll go outside and play.  That's still free, right?

For The Targ, It Is Time To Rest

Well, gang, it's getting to be that time of year again, where my day job is cutting into my free time just a little too much, so it's time to put U62: The Targ on summer hiatus.  But before I go, I'm giving you a season finale in the form of Episode 7.15: Summer Fun.  The ramblings to tide you through the summer include:

• My thoughts on Godzilla
• My thoughts on X-Men: Days of Future Past
• A quick rundown on some of Disney's Star Wars plans
• And offering my thoughts on all the Ant-Man hubbub

Plus, various diversions, sidetracks, and off-topic rants that are intrinsic to the podcast!

So download it, and stock up your MP3 player with summer reruns as well.  And I'll be bringing back U62: The Targ  this fall!


Click here to go download it!


Head here to subscribe in iTunes!


Be a fan in Facebook! 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Muppet Movie

Here we are again, Fishing in the Discount Bin.  Watching a movie I own and then blogging about it because why not?  This time out, one of my childhood favourites, The Muppet Movie.  This pops up in my notes at August 30, 2013.

The Unofficial Journalism School

I've finally begun the long and arduous task of rebuilding my website, Chaos In a Box.com.  I mean, I still give that URL out to people as my online calling card, and I'm paying for the URL, so people should see something a little better than my early-2000s HTML-ing skills when they go there.  Besides, when I first moved servers some 8 years ago, I wound up with a lot of dead links that I've been meaning to go back and fix.  A friend of mine installed everyone's favourite web software for me, WordPress, and I'm slowly starting to transfer everything over.

But, seeing as to how I wrote every page by hand before my website had a proper back end, that's some 400+ webpages I have to reformat and copy over.  It's a lot of cutting and pasting, pretty much.

Yesterday was my first real day of copying and reformatting.  I managed to copy over and reformat the earliest pages of my website, the very genesis of my blog, and that's my opinion column, Chaos in Print, which ran in The Dagligtale, the student newspaper of Augustana.

See, back in the day, I had my radio show on the college station, but I wanted more listeners.  So, in a flash of cross-promotional genius, I started writing an opinion column for the Dagligtale to plug my radio show.  This being the late-1990s, the dot-com bubble was still blowing up, so I desired a web presence.  Following the advice of some friends, I found some free web space and started building a website.  Needing content for my website, I started posting my columns.  Then, I graduated from college.  I no longer had my radio show, or my opinion column in the newspaper.  But I still had my website, so I thought, "Why not keep writing the column, and posting it on the website?"

And thus, I started blogging.  I don't think I actually heard the term "blog" to describe what I was doing for another 2 or 3 years.

It was interesting, skimming over those old articles and reformatting them.  What happened to you, college Mark?  So full of passion and fire...  Here's some of the highlights:

• Armageddon is the greatest movie ever made!
• Dax from Deep Space Nine and the Pink Power Ranger are the hottest women ever!  (This was a recurring motif)
• Physics is the last bastion of free thought.  (I was told that a philosophy professor quoted this on a final exam.)
• Today, I visited 100.3 the Bear and acted like a total hick.  I'll never work in radio for real.  (Yes, I visited the Bear and wrote an article for the paper about how real radio stations operate.)
• When something's this big, you can't help but get swept up in it.  (This was me describing the hype for Episode I) 

In fact, that last quote makes me chuckle.  That's from the final article I wrote for the Dag.  I called it The Interview.  I was laughing at how that column came to be.  It was perhaps my first lesson in the true power of radio.  For their final issue of the school year, and their final issue ever, the co-editors of the paper decided to dedicate the paper to "The 10 Most Interesting People on Campus."  The people were to submit their nominations, and whoever got the most nominations would be declared one of the most interesting, and asked to write an article.

So, when the paper came out, and nominations were open, I got behind the mic on my show and said, "Hey, everybody!  Be sure to nominate me as one of the most interesting people on campus!"  The Dag came out monthly, so on my show, for a whole month, I encouraged people to nominate me.  I was told later on that the co-editors were very unhappy with how I encouraged the listeners to vote for me, and I could tell when they called me up to inform me that I had made it and asked for my article that, yeah, I had made them grumpy.

But I knew it was the only way I would be able to get an article in the final issue, as I really offended one of the co-editors in my final months.  That guy...I did not get along with him at all.  He wanted to make the paper "edgy," and thus printed a lot of highly bizarre, surrealistic, offensive articles.    He told me once he kept trying to dump my column, considering it not "edgy" enough, but the other editor always vetoed him, because the other editor liked my stuff.  Things came to a head when that one co-editor was running unopposed for Student Union President, and thus launched his "edgy" campaign.  I countered by running an equally "edgy" campaign, encouraging people to vote no for him.  And I learned a lesson that's still true in the real world:  people who tell you to question authority really don't like it when you question them.

(Just typing those words makes me want to go back into the newsroom.)

But reading those articles and remember those struggles, I just couldn't help but laugh.  It's like finding the diary you kept when you were 8-years old in the back of your closet.  There's no doubt in my mind that, at the time, I felt THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER!   15 years later, I just can't laugh at how silly it all was...at how silly I was.

That's another reason why I've been hesitant to start rebuilding my website.  I know I'll be running into a lot of stuff like this.  How many of YOU want to make the diary you kept when you were 8-years old public?  But on the other hand, it has been public for 15 years.  If someone really wants to read it, they're going to find it regardless.

That being said, though, a few names may be changed to protect the innocent.

And while we're on the subject, all this reminiscing about my time writing for the school paper made me decide to go back in my notes and dig out this reminiscing I wrote a few years ago.  November 20, 2010 is where it appears in my notes.  I only shared it with a few friends when I wrote it, but now, I feel it's safe for public consumption.  I titled this piece The Unofficial Journalism School.  Inspired by an article I read in the Edmonton Journal celebrating the anniversary of the Gateway - the student paper of the U of A - I decided to write my remembrances of the student papers I wrote for.  In addition to the Dagligatle, I wrote for the Nugget, NAIT's student paper, when I attended NAIT. 

So here's The Unofficial Journalism School.

Marvelous Marvel Trailers

This past week, we were lucky enough to get, not one, but two new trailers for Marvel Comics adaptations!  Let's take a look at the bigger one, shall we?  Guardians of the Galaxy.

That's the poster, now here's the trailer.




I don't know what to say...I'm totally diggin' this.  Every time I hear the classic rock accompanying epic shots of spaceships, I get fond flashbacks to watching Heavy Metal late at night on basic cable in my teen years.

This is why many are saying this is the big gamble for Marvel.  First up, it's not a widely known property.  Secondly, the trailers are making it look just so darn quirky.   But, the more I see, the more I like.  I like quirky.  Things like a walking talking raccoon *ahem* adjusting himself.  What?  This just look so strange it might work.

Now, this was the bigger one of the week, so you're probably wondering what the second Marvel adaptation trailer was.

When Disney bought Marvel five years ago, the immediate question was, "Does this mean we'll be getting Disney animated movies based on Marvel Comics someday?"  Ladies and gentlemen, today is someday.

Big Hero 6, like Guardians of the Galaxy, is one of Marvel's lesser-known properties, only surviving 2 mini-series.  It follows the adventures of Japan's premiere superhero team, with each member being Marvel's take on a beloved stock character from manga and anime.  Marvel's editor Joe Quesada said he wasn't surprised when Disney gravitated towards Big Hero 6, as the relationship between between young hero Hiro Hamada and his robot Baymax did seem rather Disney-esque. 

There's a lot of rage already from the Marvel zombies that the Marvel logo isn't at the front of this trailer, but I'm not surprised.  Again, according to Quesada, Marvel's been pretty hands-off with this one and it's been Disney Animation's baby all the way.  Besides, at the end of the day, since Marvel owns Disney, does it really matter what label Disney chooses to stick at the front?



Again, I kind of like what I see.  With the "armor popping off a chubby hero" gag, they're trying to invoke memories of Pixar's The Incredibles.  I do like the gag with the soccer ball, though.  I want to see more the heroics, though!  I've always been a big fan of superheroes in animation, so let's bring on more of the heroes!

The creative talent behind this one are Don Hall, who did Disney's last venture into 2D hand-drawn animation, 2011's Winnie the Pooh, and Chris Williams, who co-directed Bolt.  The voice cast has yet to be officially announced.  It's due out this November.

And while I'm talking Marvel movies, I feel like offering up a comment on yesterday's shocking news that Edgar Wright is no longer directing Ant-Man.  This is shocking, because Wright has been attached to direct Ant-Man ever since Marvel started producing their own films in 2006.  For the past 8 years, he's been refining the script and he's been responsible for the casting of Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.  This has been his baby for so long that, for him to be gone, it's surprising.

But then, maybe not too surprising.  I have read that, ever since Marvel decided to do their whole "build up to an Avengers movie every few years" plan, the studio has become more hands-on, and more involved in the creative process.  Jon Favreau once said that's why he turned down Iron Man 3.  He had so much freedom making Iron Man, but making Iron Man 2, the studio starting insisting on all this extra stuff to be added in to start building up to The Avengers that it became frustrating. 

Which pretty much explains why the split is being described as "differing visions" for the film in their official news release.  Wright has been pretty up-front from the beginning that he wanted it to be largely comedic in tone, which probably wouldn't mesh too well with Marvel's current plans.  While they are lighthearted, they aren't comedic. 

No word on who the new director is, but Marvel says it'll be announced shortly.  Maybe Marvel will do like Pixar does with their constant changes in directors on their films, and Wright will get a co-director credit for his efforts.  Or at least a special thanks. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Daredevil

Here we are again, with Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the many movies I own and blog about it, because I really need to get out more.  With all the Ben Affleck as Batman news, I figured it was as good a time as any to revisit Daredevil.  This shows up in my notes at August 24, 2013.

Waste of a Long Weekend

Well, the Victoria Day weekend has come to a close.  As much as I enjoyed just sitting around my house, enjoying the silence, I figured I should try to get out and do something.  So, with the final day of the long weekend here, I jumped in my car (Ol' Bessie-Lou, I call her), and headed off into the city!

As I've blogged before, in order to assuage any guilt I feel about spending too much money, I always figure I should buy at least one thing I actually need.  Well, then, lucky for me, I'm in need of a new jacket.  I've had my old one for 12 years now, and I've worn holes in all the pockets.  I've grown quite tired of losing stuff into the lining.  That, and I've grown quite a bit in the past 12 years (i.e. put on weight), leaving my old one embarrassingly tight in some places.  So a new jacket was definitely in order.

First stop, then, one of the many reasonably priced department stores!  And, I found one quite quickly.  It fit, it was in a colour I liked, and there were no holes in the pockets.  I'm now ready for long walks in the rain! 

With the necessities acquired and my guilt subsided, it was now off to my beloved West Edmonton Mall.  Did some browsing at my usual haunts, and made a grand discovery.  Something has finally happened that I've been wondering about since that fateful day in the autumn of 2012. 

The Disney Store now stocks Star Wars stuff.  I didn't snatch up anything because I found it to be mostly ridiculously overpriced, however, don't be surprised if one of those exclusive talking Han Solo action figures eventually finds its way to my collection.

Then off to HMV to peruse the DVDs and Blu-Rays, because my collection isn't big enough.  I managed to finally find a copy of Father Goose, released to Blu-Ray around a year ago.  This is one of my mother's favourite movies, and I wound up watching it a few times when I was a kid.  Released in 1964, Father Goose stars bonafied Hollywood legend Cary Grant.  Grant plays Walter Eckland, a beach bum content to drift with the tides in the South Pacific.  However, it is during World War II, and one of his pals, an officer in the Australian Navy, shanghais him into becoming a spotter -- he hides out on a deserted island and reports any enemy planes that fly overhead.  Hilarity ensues when a sassy French schoolmistress and her seven students get stranded on Walter's island.  My 10-year old self enjoyed it well enough, so it'll be interesting to see if my grown-up self gets more of the jokes. 

And now, with summer blockbuster season upon us, I of course, had to go see the big movie of the weekend.

Ah, Godzilla.  16 years after the last time they tried to do an American remake, Toho granted the USA a do-over.  And may I say, this time out, they do Godzilla right.  This feels like a Godzilla movie.  The music, the acting, the pacing, the giant monster fights.  It's a Godzilla movie!

But, because it is a Godzilla movie, it suffers from the same problems inherent to the franchise.  That is, it's kind of weak when there's no giant monster fights.  But the actors do the best they can with what they're given.

And it's such a tease!  Lots of other reviews have pointed out the similarity to Jaws, and how they only tease Godzilla for most of the film, only bringing him in for the climax, and I tell ya, it gets incredibly frustrating.  But it works, as when he does appear, I had to literally bite my tongue from cheering. 

So, yeah.  It was pretty good, but dang it, I want more Godzilla in my Godzilla movies. 

I've got the complete review up at my website, for you to see.

And that was pretty much it.  Just an attempt to get out and about and enjoy some of my long weekend. 

The Week That Was

Well, we had a lot of interesting movie and TV news break last week, and here I am, just chilling out at home, alone, on a long weekend and getting bored, so I may as well take to the blog and blog about it!

First up, the big movie news of the past week, they released the first picture of Ben Affleck as Batman!

He is standing next to the new Batmobile.  The new Batmobile looks like a beefed up version of the Tim Burton Batmobile....like if the Tumbler and the Tim Burton Batmobile had a baby.

So what do I think of the suit?  It's very heavily influenced by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, as evident in the gigantic bat on his chest and the short stubby bat ears on the cowl.  I don't know if Affleck actually got that ripped, or if those muscles are sculpted into the suit.  Either way, this is an iteration of the Batman suit we haven't seen on the big screen yet.

Zack Snyder, the director of Man of Steel and this currently untitled Batman vs. Superman sequel, did say that this a B&W photo, so I'm wondering what the final colour scheme is.  If they keep with the Dark Knight Returns influence, probably grey and black.

I like it.  It's a new look for Batman, at least on the big screen, but I'm still hoping to see it in motion.  And hear what voice that Affleck adopts for Batman.

What else caught my eye?  We had the season finale of Arrow, and alongside that, came this magnificent 5-minute preview for their upcoming spinoff, The Flash.




I've been enjoying Arrow in its first two seasons, and since this is from the same creative minds, I'm optimistic.  I'm liking what I'm seeing.  I've always had a soft spot for The Flash, mainly because I adored the original live-action show from 1990.  And watching this, it does feel a lot like the pilot episode for the 1990 show.

The big similarity I'm seeing between this and the 1990 pilot is the fact that, after Barry Allen's lab accident, STAR Labs swoops in to start studying Barry Allen to find out why he did not die.  And then, when his powers start manifesting, the STAR Labs scientists start becoming his support team.  On the original show, though, it was just one STAR Labs scientist, who evolved into Barry Allen's love interest.  This time, though, it looks like he does have a whole team.

The big difference, though, is right away, they're starting with the Flash's rogues gallery.  Based on the glimpses we see, the Weather Wizard is going to be the villain in the pilot.  And that is a good thing.  The main criticism of the 1990 show is they waited until about 2/3rds through their first and only season to start introducing the rogues.  Looks like they've learned their lessons.

Looks like their going with Barry Allen's New 52 origin.  Originally, Barry Allen had no defining tragedy in his past.  In the New 52, his mother was murdered by that mysterious yellow blur, and his father was framed for the murder.  SPOILER WARNING:  The murder is the Reverse-Flash, who, in his demented mind has the ultimate Flash fanboy, decided to go back in time and murder Barry's mother and make the Flash a better hero by giving him a defining tragedy. 

My one complaint:  not sold on the Flash costume.  It's kind of baggy.

Speaking of trailers, we got the new trailer for Transformers: Age of Extinction.




I don't know...I think I'm done with this franchise.  When we got our first glimpse of Dinobots in the SuperBowl spot, I geeked out.  But as I see more and more in these trailers, I'm just seeing more the same.  Big robots, big explosions.  The novelty is gone.  My childhood nostalgia is satisfied.  I'm very indifferent towards this.

And lastly, this caught my eye.  Did you know Disney is doing a new live-action movie version of Cinderella?  Kenneth Branagh is directing it, Lily James from Downton Abbey is Cinderella, Cate Blanchett is the wicked stepmother, and Helena Bonham Carter is the Fairy Godmother.

They released the first teaser and the teaser poster this week, and I really like the teaser poster.

I like this poster.  We usually get bad Photoshop jobs of the actors, but we don't get posters like this anymore:  just a single, iconic image from the film.  The icon here:  the glass slipper, although here, it looks more like it's carved from crystal. 

I won't bother posting the teaser, because it's pretty much just the poster, with the camera shooting some loving close-ups and whipping all around it.  But still...I just like this poster.

Cinderella comes out in March.

We Got a Podcast!

It's the start of a new week, that means you need some new stuff to listen to while you do stuff!  Stuff!  That's why, for you, I've got a new episode of U62: The Targ!  On this week's episode, Episode 7.14: Mark Dreams of Movies, I ramble about

• my thoughts on the season finales of Agents of SHIELD and Arrow
• my opinion on Cineplex Odeon's plan to start charging $2 extra for the centre rows
• I just re-watched Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man.  That is a very sad movie.  I tell you why!

All this and more on U62: The Targ!


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Fishing in the Discount Bin - G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly watching of a movie I own, followed up with blogging about it.  This time, we get the sequel to one of my childhood favourites remade for the big screen, G.I. Joe: Retaliation.  This pops up in my notes at August 3, 2013.

Son of Batman Review

Well, it's that time again.  DC and Warner Brothers have given us the latest in their series of straight-to-video animated films about some of those great DC characters!  (And by "great DC characters," I mean Batman and/or Superman, because the suits determined those are the only ones that sell well and hence the only animated films we're going to get.)  It arrived on Friday, and watched it over the weekend, so let's crack the shrink wrap and take a look at...

Son of Batman

Directed by Ethan Spaulding

Starring the voices of Jason O'Mara, Stuart Allan, Morena Baccarin, Thomas Gibson, Giancarlo Esposito, Xander Berkeley, David McCallum, and and Sean Maher.

Backstory:  So, a few years ago in the Batman comics, they figured it was time to shake things up and add a new Robin.  The latest to take upon the mantle:  Damien Wayne, the long lost son of Bruce Wayne and Talia, the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul.  Conceived during one of their romantic dalliances, young Damien was being trained from birth to be the world's greatest assassin, and eventually take leadership of Ra's Al Ghul's organization, the League of Assassins.  People weren't sure what to make of Damien at first:  brutal, violent, sadistic, and spoiled from a life of privileged, but under the guidance of his father, he did become a great hero and worthy successor to the role of Robin.  Of course, it was time to bring him to life in animation.  The latest animated offering, Son of Batman, is loosely based on Batman & Son, the storyline that originally introduced Damien. 

Plot:  Deathstroke mounts an assault on the headquarters of the League of Assassins, with the goal of taking leadership of the organization of Ra's Al Ghul.  With Ra's Al Ghul dead and the League of Assassins now at war with Deathstroke's legions, Talia knows there's only one man who can keep young Damien safe while she leads the war against Deathstroke.  It's time for Damien to meet his father:  Batman.  At first, Batman isn't sure what to make of his young son.  Spoiled, vain, arrogant, and thirsty to avenge his grandfather's death.  But, Batman realizes the young man has potential, and they soon launch their own investigation into Deathstroke's plan, which brings Batman back to his old nemesis, Dr. Kirk Langstrom, aka the Man-Bat. What is Deathstroke's ultimate plan?  Can Batman stop his son from heading down a path of vengeance? 

What I Liked:  The most pleasant surprise was Sean Maher (Simon from Firefly) popping up to do the voice of Nightwing.  He's a really good Nightwing, and I like how Nightwing and Damien instantly adopt a sibling rivalry.  There's some good fight scenes.  Jason O'Mara has the great gravelly qualities of Batman's voice perfect.  Oh, and Talia's cleavage. 

What I Didn't Like:  OK, I've seen and/or read the story of Robin's origin story many times now to know that this is pretty by-the-numbers.  Thomas Gibson is woefully miscast as Deathstroke, being unable to bring the qualities of gravelly menace to the voice that the role requires.  I'm sorry, I hear that voice, and he'll always be Greg from Dharma and Greg.  But perhaps the biggest missed opportunity is in the Bruce Wayne/Damien Wayne relationship.  There's no father/son dynamic at play.  There's no struggles on Batman's part as he deals with fatherhood.  It's all, "Oh, yes, here's another fine orphan with qualities to make him a fine Robin."  Couldn't we have had Batman struggle just a little bit with the knowledge that he's FATHERED A CHILD and attempt to be a father? 

Final Verdict:  So formulaic.  Really offered up nothing new, or anything that made Damien such a notable character in the comics.

2 Nibs

Bonus Materials:  Goodies on the Blu-Ray include a featurette on the League of Assassins, a featurette on Damien's brief history in the comics, a featurette on the character design, 4 bonus cartoons from the various Batman animated series, and a sneak peak at the next animated film, Batman:  Assault on Arkham.  Which is going to be based on the best-selling Arkham video games. 

New Week! New Podcast!

I'm starting to grow sad as I pump out my podcast, U62: The Targ.  It seems like I just started doing it again, but looking at the calendar, it's getting to be that time of the  year where I'm going to be very busy in my day job, so I take the summer off from the podcast.  But, that day's not here yet, so in the meantime, I get to give you Episode 7.13:  Just Stuff.  In this one, I ramble about:

• I don't think I ever told the tale of working on the crew of the MuchMusic VJ Search.  So I finally decide to tell that tale.
• It's another installment of "Mark Tastes Random Things," as I sample and give my thoughts on Domino's Specialty Chicken, aka the Chicken-Crust Pizza
• And I give the rundown on all the comic book based new TV shows we're getting this fall:  two from Marvel and FIVE! from DC.  

All this and more on U62: The Targ!


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Fishing in the Discount Bin -- Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog about something in my movie library that I've watched recently.  We return to the cinematic saga of Hellboy with Hellboy II: The Golden Army.  This appears in my notes at July 28, 2013.

Typical

Not all trips to the city are full of fun and excitement and wacky misadventures.  No, sometimes their full of the mundane, the jobs that must be done, and collecting the necessities of life.

For example, on Saturday, I was in need of a kettle.

It didn't take long to figure out that the mysterious puddles being left on my stove top were coming from my old, leaky kettle.  Time to retire ol' greenie and get something new.  The housewares section of Wal-Mart had something new to boil the water for my tea, so now I was on me-time.  Because I'm an overgrown manchild, that meant heading over to the toy section to see what's new in the world of action figures.

And that's where I saw something that made me roll my eyes.  Star Trek Hot Wheels.  Not classic Hot Wheels versions of the starship Enterprise.  Hot Wheels cars done up with Star Trek graphics.




So of course I had to buy a couple for my personal collection of toys.  What really struck me as odd was the fact that it looked like they took the graphics from the old 1960s comic book.  The logo is even the logo that adorned Star Trek merch back in the 1960s.  Not pictured are the ones I actually got:  Spock and Uhura. 

Down the road to Best Buy, still one of my favourite places to browse.  Now that I finally have the HDTV I'd been longing for for several years, I find I leave the store less sad than I used to.  There's currently not much out in the way of Blu-Rays that I'm after, but I still like to look.  Because you'll never know what I'll find.  Like the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy, newly released and newly discounted to plug the new Amazing Spider-Man 2.

When I got my first DVD player all those years ago, I swore I'd only upgrade from VHS to DVD if one of two criteria was met:

1. It's one of my favourite movies.
2. There's enough new bonus materials to warrant the re-purchase.

Now, as I upgrade from DVD to Blu-Ray, I find I've added a third criteria:  the disc is just so cheap, you guys.

So I snatched up the Spider-Man trilogy.  $30 for the boxed set, so that's $10 per disc.  How could I say no?  And there'd been some double-dips on the Spider-Man DVDs over the years, all now compiled onto the Blu-Ray, so criteria #2 was met, too.

 

And with all that Spider-Man on my mind, of course I was off to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  I know the critics have not been kind, getting mixed reviews all around.  I, on the other hand, kind of liked it.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the main crticism.  There's a lot of stuff in this film.  Despite what you see in the commercials, Rhino is just a glorified cameo.  Way too little time is spent developing Electro as a villain.  He just kind of gets his powers and goes nuts.  Same deal with Harry Osborn and the Green Goblin.  Near the end of the film, you realize that they only stuck Green Goblin in there to do that...infamous thing he did in that one comic one time.  Ahem.  

(Trying not to spoil it, because it did surprise me that they went there.)

There's lots of good, though.  Andrew Garfield IS Spider-Man.  He's got the quips and the wisecracks down pat.  It's nice to see Spidey's scientific side, as we see him tweaking his web shooters to Electro can't short them out.  And, just like the last film, the true heart is the Spidey/Gwen Stacy romance.  Forget the superhero stuff, put Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in a romantic comedy, because they are THAT good together.

Ultimately, this is a transition film.  They're trying to resolve and do away with what people didn't like in the last film, and set up their whole Spidey cinematic universe, with the two sequels and the Sinister Six film and the Venom solo film in the making.  But there's lots of good in it, so if you focus on the film, you'll like it.

I give it a 3 out of 4 Nibs, and you'll see I have my full review up on the main site.  

And that was my latest day in the city.  Would you like to come over for a cup of tea?  I've got this shiny new kettle and all. 

The Targ on a Typical Day in May

I'm sure you're expecting me to say it.  But I'm not going to.  As I mention in this week's podcast, I appreciate setting aside a day to celebrate a franchise I love, but to do so because of a stupid pun makes no sense.

So when you're done with your Wookie Cookies and Blue Milk, why not give a listen to Episode 7.12:  Nope.  Not Gonna Say It.  Just a brief episode this week, as I ramble my thoughts on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the announcement of the Episode VII cast.

So, on this Star Wars Day, may I say...live long and prosper. 


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Fishing in the Discount Bin - Hellboy

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly rundown of some movie I own.  I seem to be on a bit of a Guillermo del Toro kick, as today, we get to one of his pet projects, Hellboy.  This appears in my notes at July 27, 2013.  

Adventures in Chia

Back in December, I was chillin' out, watching TV, and an ad for a Chia Pet came on.  So, I took to Twitter and made this remark.

Is it weird that I always wanted a Chia Pet?
— Mark Cappis (@chaosinabox) December 18, 2013

Flash forward to Christmas morning, and I made a shocking discovery.

Today's Christmas lesson: be careful what you joke about on Twitter. You just might get it. pic.twitter.com/y8OMsxQZrW
— Mark Cappis (@chaosinabox) December 25, 2013

So, back in January, I cracked open the box, and set out to grow my Chia Pet.  But I figured that this was an experience that needed to be shared with the world.  I filmed the unboxing and then I set up my camera in the hopes of doing a time-lapse thing to chart it's growth.  And then edit it all together into a YouTube video.

I've had the video sitting on my computer about 3/4ths finished for a month now, so back on Saturday, I said, "Today's the day I finally get it done."  And get it done I did, and now it's on YouTube for the world to enjoy.

If you've got 7 minutes to kill, please enjoy "Adventures in Chia."

The Targ Returns...Yet Again

The podcast is back after a 2 week break!  You were afraid I was going to take another year off, weren't you?  But I'm back, and I've brought U62: The Targ with me!  This time out, I chat about:

• Where I've been for the past two weeks.  (Hint:  Workin' and Easter)
• Hearing stories about the Calgary Expo going on this weekend makes me long to go to a con
• Geeking out about the fact they're making a live-action Jem movie (already blogged about here)
• And a film crew hit the New Mexico desert to find the fabled landfill of E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial Atari games and other Atari hardware.  You won't believe what they found!  (Well, you probably will, as it was the big news story of Saturday.)

All this and more in Episode 7.11:  Remember to Make a Slurpee Joke


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Jem and the Hobbits

Two bits of movie news broke yesterday that boggled my mind so much that I just have to take to the blog and ramble.

Firstly, the live-action movie version of Jem.  It was announced about a month ago that Hasbro was looking to do a live-action movie version of this classic cartoon and fashion doll line from the 1980s.  Hasbro lined up Jon M. Chu to direct.  I guess Hasbro and Chu got along well together when Chu directed G.I. Joe: Retaliation.  And Jem seems to be right up Chu's alley, as he also directed a couple of the Step Up films and the Justin Beiber concert film Never Say Never.

Things seem to be moving very quickly on Jem, as just one short month later, Chu took to the Internet to announce the cast.  Ladies and gentlemen...Jem and the Holograms:

Aubrey Peeples as Jerrica/Jem - Peeples currently has a recurring role on the prime time soap Nashville, where she plays an up-and-coming country music star.  Oh, and she was one of the stars of Sharknado.

Stefanie Scott as Kimber - Scott is a Disney kid, having starred in the Disney channel tween sitcom A.N.T. Farm.

Hayley Kiyoko as Aja - Another Disney kid, as Kiyoko starred in the Disney channel movie Lemonade Mouth.  She also played Velma in the live-action straight-to-video Scooby-Doo movies.

Aurora Perrineau as Shana - She doesn't have a lot of credits on her IMDB page, just a smattering of TV guest appearances.

Along with the announcement came this first teaser poster.

Quite frankly, I'm still gobsmacked that this is actually happening.  Way back in my college years, when my friends and I would reminisce about the cartoons of our youth, we all talked about how cool this would be, but we never actually believed it would actually happen.  Looks like that got a cast with good singing credentials, too, so it looks like they'll be doing their own singing.

Now, the big question, who'll be playing the Misfits?

No word yet on a release date, but based on the original announcement, they hope to be filming by the end of the year.

---

And while we're at it, a bit of a shake-up was announced with the development of The Hobbit trilogy.  They've decided to change the name of the third and final film.

The Hobbit:  There and Back Again will now be known as The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies.

Peter Jackson explains the change in that There and Back Again no longer makes sense as the name of the final film.  When it was originally just going to be two films, it made sense because the whole second film was going to be about Bilbo and the the dwarves getting "there" and then going "back again."  But now that it's three films, the third film is going to open with our heroes already "there," so you can see the logic.

Jackson also said that he may hang onto the title There and Back Again for the eventual ultimate home media release of the trilogy. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Blade II

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing and blogging of a DVD/Blu-Ray I own because I'm o so lonely.  We continue what we started last week, by watching the popular sequel to Blade, Blade II.  This appears in my notes at July 14, 2013.

Batman Animated

It was announced that DC Comics had commissioned two brand new animated shorts to commemorate the fact that 2014 is the 75th anniversary of Batman.  The second short went online over the weekend, so may I present, Darwyn Cooke's Batman Beyond.

You might be wondering who Darwyn Cooke is.  Cooke got his start at Warner Brothers as a storyboard artist on Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and  yes, Batman Beyond.  From there, he was able to break into comic books, where his graphic novel DC: The New Frontier was a critical darling and sales success. 

Now that I've established his cred, onto the short!




Wow.  This is great.  My one complaint is it's too short.  I want  to know who sent the army of Batman robots after Batman.  That's the best Easter Egg in this whole thing:  that army of Batman robots at the end is every incarnation of Batman in animation...and a couple from live-action.  This is so good, and makes me want more of an official return to the Batman Beyond universe.

While we're on the subject, let's go back and take a second look at the first 75th anniversary short, Batman: Strange Days, which was conceived by Bruce Timm.  Timm, of course, has been the main creative force behind most DC Comics animation projects over the past 20 years, having been the showrunner for Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Green Lantern: The Animated Series and the series of straight-to-DVD animated films.  Actually, he stepped down as head of the straight-to-DVD animated films a little over a year ago so he could pursue other projects...such as this.  




Yeah...I'm still kind of "meh" towards this one.  I can see they were going for an early Batman adventure, using a Batman design reminscient of his first appearance in the late 1930s, but it just comes across as a deleted scene from an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.

And while we're going through all this Batman animated goodness, may as well share the first trailer for the next DC straight-to-DVD animated film, Batman:  Assault on Arkham.  Rather than a popular story line in the comics, this one is based on the best-selling Arkham series of video games.



I like that the Suicide Squad is featured so prominently.  I made the same observation about Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.  DC is stuck on doing films that focus on Batman and Superman, because, according to their research, those are the only ones that sell well.  So I guess the only way we're going to get films that focus on other characters is to give those other characters really prominent supporting roles.  So if this is the only way we get a Suicide Squad movie, so be it.

That being said, though, I'm really tiring of Batman and Superman adventures.  Come on.  Give us another Wonder Woman movie.  Give us a true Flash movie.  Give Batman and Superman a rest.  

No word on an official release date.  Following the official pattern, and with the next one, Son of Batman coming out next month, I'd wager this one is coming in the fall.  

Why I Work in Radio

"Why do you work in radio when you have a physics degree?"  It's a question I get asked a lot.  I've considered taking my degree off my resume because I tire of the question coming up in job interviews.  And, as I've blogged before, in a society that loathes math and swears to their math teachers that they'll never, ever, ever need that stuff when they grow up, "Radio is more fun than math" is an answer that never satisfies.

And then, last week, I was surfing the Internet, and I found an online comic called Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.  And they had a comic strip there, called "How to Solve a Physics Problem," that summed up my reasons for choosing a career in radio quite nicely.

Here then, is "How to Solve a Physics Problem."

I think I'll starting handing this out, only crudely scribble out the final step and replace it with "become radio announcer."

In fact, reading this strip, it triggered a flashback, and I think I can now pinpoint the exact moment when I realized a career in the mathematical sciences wasn't for me.

So I was taking this one math course.  The problems in this course were so complicated that no mere calculator could solve them.  You had to write computer programs to solve them.  So the course was about 50% math and 50% computer programming.

I was down in the computer lab, working on the latest assignment.  My program just finished compiling, so I tested the program with a few problems I already knew the answer to.  The program spit out the correct answers, so the program was working.  I fed in the first problem.  Got the right answer.  I fed in the second problem.  Got the right answer.  I fed in the third problem.  And got a strange error message.

Obviously, I made a mistake writing my computer program.  So I looked over the code, spotted a few errors, corrected them, and went back to work.  And again, the third problem gave me a strange error message.

Again I checked over my code.  Again I rewrote my computer program.  And again, that third problem on the assignment gave me a weird error message.

I puzzled over this all week.  I'd go through the code, spot some supposed error and correct it, only for my program to keep giving me strange error messages for the third problem.  I couldn't take it anymore.  I gathered up my notes, and I fell back on the last (honest) refuge for a student who's stuck on an assignment:  I went to the professor for help. 

In the professor's office, I showed him my work.  I showed him how my program kept giving me the right answers for the first two problems, but always a strange error message appeared when it worked on the third problem.

After reviewing my work and listening to my concerns, my professor took a deep breath and said, "I'll let you in on a little secret, Mark.  You will always get an error message for the third problem."

I was silent for a moment while I processed this.  "What?" I asked.

"The third problem is an unsolvable problem in this field of mathematics," my professor elaborated.  "There is no known solution for it.  No matter what you do, you'll always get error messages.  It's like trying to divide by zero on your calculator."

"Why would you put such a problem on the assignment?" I asked. 

"Just to give you an example of the kinds of problems you'll run into in the real world," he said.

"So you're saying I've literally lost sleep over this assignment for nothing?"

"Welcome to the life of a mathematician, Mark."

Since my assignment was pretty much complete, then, I handed it in to my professor and went on my way.  I think that's when I realized the life of a mathematician wasn't for me.  Who wants to constantly lose sleep over problems with no solutions? 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Blade

Time once again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly look at one of the movies I own on a home media format of some kind, and blogging about it.  Because I have a lot of DVDs and a blog, so, why not?  Today, it's back to the beginning.  According to the comic book geeks, our current run of superhero films started with Blade.  This appears in my notes at July 13, 2013.

Sunday Superhero Goodness

Sorry there's no podcast this week.  Wound up getting busy, and I didn't have much worth saying anyway.  However, I feel I at least owe you a blog entry this Sunday, and there's something I need to get down on paper.

So...I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

I saw it back on Wednesday night, actually.  I keep forgetting that I live close enough to the city now that I can conceivably go into the city after work some night and catch a movie.  So, back on Wednesday, a co-worker said, "Hey, I'm going into the city to see Captain America tonight.  Wanna come?"  And I said, "Yes, please!"

So how's Cap been spending his time since the Battle of New York (aka the events depicted in The Avengers)?  Well, Cap decided to stick around with Nick Fury and the Black Widow, and he's now one of SHIELD's top commandos.  However, Cap is starting to feel some unease about what he does and how SHIELD operates.  This comes to a head when Black Widow strikes off on her own on one mission to complete her own separate mission.  This leads to Cap asking questions of Nick Fury, who begins asking questions of his superiors, represented by one Alexander Pierce.  The questions strike a nerve, and before long, there's an attack, and Cap is declared to be a rogue agent.  With the Black Widow helping him, alongside new ally Sam Wilson (the Falcon), Cap soon finds that there's a conspiracy at the heart of SHIELD, and with the mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier on the trail, Cap and his new friends must save the world.

Right of the bat, I'd say my favourite part has to be Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow.  This is, by far, the best Black Widow we've had to date.  She's not just there to tease the Avengers (like in Iron Man 2, and he's not just there to have a couple of cool fight scenes (like The Avengers).  She actually does stuff of importance in this film.  Johansson injects her with a new level of sass, and it all works wonderfully.

Anthony Mackie as the Falcon is good, too.  We've seen the Falcon fly in the trailers and TV commercials, but the first time you see him fly in the film, you will cheer.

The action is good, the humour is good, the plot is good, everything about it is good.  About the only problem I had was when I saw last week's Agents of SHIELD the day before which kind of gave away some plot twists.

Anyway, I've got the complete review of it up at my website, so feel free to go read it. 

Meanwhile, over at DC Comics, they're celebrating Batman's 75th anniversary.  As part of the celebration, DC and Warner Brothers have commissioned 2 new animated Batman short films to celebrate.  The first one, from Batman: The Animated Series legend Bruce Timm, when online this past week, and it's called Batman: Strange Days.




My thoughts?  It's OK....  It doesn't quite have the epic feel as the Superman 75th anniversary short, which told the characters entire history in 2 minutes.  This feels more like a deleted scene from an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.  It's good, but I wanted something more encompasing of the character's history. 

Let's wait to see what the second short brings us. 

Fishing in the Discount Bin - Dogma

Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blogging about something in my DVD library that I'd recently re-watched.  Being a die-hard fanboy for Kevin Smith, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to tackle a Kevin Smith film in this here blog, but here we are.  Today, I re-watch his classic religious parable, Dogma.  This appears in my notes at June 30, 2013. 

Netflix Nonsense - Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Welcome back to Netflix Nonsense, where I blog about that thing I just saw on Netflix.  As we all know, the gritty reboots of fairy tales seems to be one of the trends at the box office, what with Snow White and the Huntsman a few years ago, and Malificent coming this summer.  But there was one fairy tale gritty reboot that came out a year ago that I wanted to see, just because it looked so freakin' ridiculous.  And that was Hansel & Gretel:  Witch Hunters.

Targ Ho!

Sunday morning, which means while you're sleeping in and/or getting ready for church and/or getting ready for an afternoon of sportsball on TV, I'm working hard to bring you radio awesomeness!  Well, this week's episode of U62: The Targ kind of lacks in the awesome department, as you'll see in the title Episode 7.10: Announcer's Block.  What's on deck?

• I ramble about this week's episode of Community, which was a spectacular rip on G.I. Joe.  
• My thoughts on the legendary samurai film The Hidden Fortress, which was the inspiration for Star Wars
• Leading to just general ramblings about Criterion collections

So drop it in your MP3 player, gather round the computer, or just do however you like to listen to podcasts.  Just listen to mine!  (did that sound needy?)


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Fishing in the Discount Bin - Quantum of Solace

And we return to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of something in my movie collection, and then blogging about it, because why not?  Today, I officially run out of James Bond movies in my collection with Quantum of Solace.  This originally appears in my notes at June 9, 2013.

Netflix Nonsense - Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Welcome back to Netflix Nonsense!  In my efforts to get my $8 worth, I tend to sit down and blog about whatever I recently viewed on Netflix.  And, geek that I am, I figured it was finally time to tackle that beloved Star Wars spin-off, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.