I've only just started the podcast up again, and already I'm taking unexplained absences. Sorry there was no show last week. I had to put in some overtime at work and then family came to visit. But I'm back! And I've brought Episode 8.03: Secret Origins.
I once again wade into the "music or no" debate on the podcast, going into the secret origins of the podcast.
Recapping the Marvel news of the week, as there's been a lot of new about their films.
Sharing my general thoughts on the Hobbit trilogy, as my Blu-Rays arrived the other day.
But the big thing is doing another installment of Mark Tastes Random Things. I had a friend visit Japan back in the summer, and he brought me back some legendary Japanese Kit Kats. They'd been sitting in the back of my fridge since July, so if this is uploaded, I didn't die.
Here we are again with Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of a movie I own, and ranting about that movie. We're closing out Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy with Spider-Man 3. This pops up in my notes at May 24, 2014.
It looks like 2015 is going to be a good year for the superspy genre. We just had Kingsman: The Secret Service, which had a good time embracing and lampooning the cliches of the genre. And I thought it was pretty darn good. This Christmas, we get the original superspy, James Bond, returning in Spectre. And this summer, two pretty sharp looking films in the genre.
The first up is The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Based on the classic 1960s TV series of the same name (which was created with input from James Bond's creator, Ian Flemming), it follows the secret agency UNCLE, a multi-national task force established to take down threats to the entire world. The primary threat: THRUSH, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.
Our heroes are the dashing and heroic CIA agent Napoleon Solo, and the enigmatic KGB agent Illya Kuryakin. Of course, as this show was released in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, depicting the CIA and the KGB working together was quite groundbreaking.
This new movie version had been in development for quite some time. Guy Ritchie, who brought us the legendary British crime films Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and also the Robert Downy Jr Sherlock Holmes films, is directing. Solo is played by the current big screen Superman, Henry Cavill. His partner Kuryakin is played by the current big screen Lone Ranger, Armie Hammer.
Here's the trailer!
I'm digging this trailer. Given the now kinda dated premise, it was a good idea to set it in 1963. Looks like with Solo and Kuryakin they're going with a "buddy cop" formula, depicting them as professional rivals who are forced to work together. And is just me, or does the American accent/voice that Cavill adopts for Solo make him sound kinda like Christopher Reeve? (Cavill is British, in case you didn't know.)
As I've blogged before, the Mission: Impossible franchise is one I want to like, but I always find the films kind of lacking. I remember enjoying the hell out of the first two when I first saw them, but I barely remember them. I have yet to see the third one, although I'm curious to see what JJ Abrams' reboot was like, because I'm one of the few trekkies who thought he did a good job rebooting Star Trek. But I did enjoy Ghost Protocol, mainly because I adore the work of director Brad Bird.
This fifth installment has been given the title Rogue Nation, and to direct it, Cruise recruited Christopher McQuarrie, no doubt because they had a good working relationship on Jack Reacher. And trying to forge some continuity in this series, it looks like the IMF team is made up of agents from previous films, such as Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner.
The trailer gave us our first glimpse of the plot, which involves Ethan Hunt and his team trying to take down the Syndicate. In the original TV series, "the Syndicate" was just the catch-all term for organized crime rings. But for the film, looks like they've been rebooted into an evil IMF...the THRUSH to IMF's UNCLE.
Trailer ho!
Yeah, looks like it has this franchise's one defining characteristic: Tom Cruise doing crazy stunts. And I find it kinda weird that they music they use is a remixed bubblegum pop tune by a Disney kid. And Alec Baldwin is in it! Again, as I've blogged before, I find it tough to take him seriously anymore after his years on 30 Rock.
As with the rest of the franchise, I want to like this but...meh. It was originally supposed to come out this Christmas, but got moved up to this summer out of a fear that it would get crushed between the new James Bond and Star Wars films. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is go see it on July 31.
I've been wanting to sit down and jot this down for a while...just some capsule reviews of the half-a-dozen or so films I've watched on Netflix recently. The Three Musketeers
A few years ago, I remember first watching the trailer for a new movie version of The Three Musketeers by the creative team behind the Resident Evil films. I watched that trailer and though, "This looks so ridiculous and over the top...I must see it." It was one of the first titles I looked up on Netflix.
And I was not disappointed. It was ridiculous and over the top, but not so much that it got goofy. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty ridiculous. Milday de Winter becomes some kind of 17th Century Black Widow. And steampunk airships. Dear God. Steampunk airships. I can't believe they actually rip off the climax of The Wrath of Khan. Replace starships and a nebula with steampunk airships and a storm cloud.
It's got a phenomenal cast, too. Because it's the Resident Evil team, Milla Jovovich is Milday de Winter. Christoph Waltz is perfectly cartoonishly villianous as Cardinal Richelu, with TV's Hannibal Mads Mikkelson making the perfect henchman in Rochefort. Ray Stevenson kicks butt as Porthos, Luke Evans (Bard in the Hobbit films) is an upstanding Aramis, and James Cordon, aka that guy from those Doctor Who episodes, is the perfect comic relief as the Musketeers' servant, Planchett.
I found this one to be delightfully entertaining. Perfect for a rainy afternoon.
When I saw the first trailers for the 2012 remake of Total Recall, something about the whole endeavour seemed off to me. Paul Verhoeven's late-1980s grit and grime was such a part of the look and feel of the original, that this remake looked a little too slick and polished for my tastes. And that feeling just kind of hung over the whole film.
Don't get me wrong, I found the new dystopia they created rather interesting. Rather than Mars, it now takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. After the ravages of war, only two regions on Earth remain livable: the United Federation of Britain, which is the remains of Europe, and the Colony, which is the remains of Australia. Travel between the two is possible via the Lift, a massive elevator that travels through the Earth's core. Rather than a rebellion fighting against the corporations that control Mars, it's the Colony fighting for independence from the UFB.
Other than that, the story beats match up so closely with the original, you really start to wonder why they bothered with a remake. There's an epic battle on an elevator. There's a three-breasted hooker. And yes, in the midsection, there's a fake-out where they try to convince Quaid that this is all a dream.
Another thing that I liked was they beefed up the role of Quaid's wife, played by Sharon Stone in the original, and Kate Beckinsale in this remake. Rather than kind of disappearing when Quaid's adventure begins, she actually becomes the leader of the agents hunting Quaid down, taking on the Kurtwood Smith role from the original. It was a great way to keep her present for most of the film.
Yeah...it just kind of devolved into generic sci-fi action. Good, but the original's still better.
This one piqued my interest when I saw it. Many years ago when I was in Japan, this was a film talked about and discussed by my Japanese co-workers, as they found that, to gaijin like myself, it was their first exposure to "everyday" Japanese culture. (i.e. not filtered through anime and Godzilla films). That, and for my first few months, it seemed to be on NHK constantly. It's also accredited to introducing the Yakuza - the Japanese mafia - to North American pop culture.
Michael Douglas plays Nick Conklin, a typical burnt out New York City police detective, currently up on corruption charges. One day, he witnesses a murder in his local watering hole, and catches the Japanese man who did it. Turns out this murderer is Sato, a high ranking Yakuza lieutenant, and Conklin witnessed a Yakuza hit. In order to get out of town for a few days, Conklin gets the job of escorting Sato back to Osaka for trial. But, the Yakuza swindle this gaijin detective into releasing Sato to them. Looking to save face (and, since he was on corruption charges, there's already accusations that the Yakuza bribed him), Conklin decides to stick around in Osaka and help the Osaka Police Department re-capture Sato.
This is such a run-of-the-mill 1980s cop film, that the Osaka location doesn't do much to spice things up. They try to play off rule-breaking Conklin and the by-the-book Osaka PD as being a culture clash, but no, it's the same "buddy cop" clash you've seen in every cop film. I was expecting more culture clash, but no. I was hoping for more from director Ridley Scott. Yes, this is the same Ridley Scott who gave us Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator.
When I saw those first trailers for Men in Black 3, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought, "Really? It's been 10 years since the last one...are people actually clamoring for this?" And I also remember reading about it's trouble production. They started filming without a finished screenplay. It's been known to happen with these big blockbusters...but in making Men in Black 3, an incomplete script turned out to be such a big problem that they actually shut down filming for a few months to get it done. But still, fond memories of the first two made me decide to check it out.
A brutal alien mercenary named Boris breaks out of the Men in Black's maximum security prison on the Moon, and since Agent K put him away 40 years ago, Boris swears vengeance. Upon hearing this news, Agent K grows unusually despondent, and Agent J gets concerned. When Agent J shows up at MiB HQ the next day, he receives quite a shock. Turns out Agent K was killed in action 40 years ago, trying to apprehend Boris. But Agent J remembers history playing out differently. The only conclusion they reach is that Boris must have gone back in time and teamed up his younger self to kill K. The only solution: Agent J must go back in time and team up with the young Agent K to set the timeline right.
Of course, the joy in this is Josh Brolin playing the young Agent K. With some make-up prosthetics and careful mimicry of Tommy Lee Jones' southern drawl, he is a young Tommy Lee Jones! This does kind of become Agent K's origin story, as he goes from the freewheeling young man to the stoic, gruff agent we all know and love.
There's some great new concepts, too, such as Griffin, an alien that K and J team up with in the past. His people exist in five dimensions, allowing Griffin to see all possible timelines and advise K and J as to what they need to do to save the future. Griffin also provides a movie-ending gag that's as good as the epic camera pull-back that ended the first movie. Boris is a great alien, too, who seems to be nothing but a mass of scorpions masquerading as a human.
And the score! Danny Elfman really delivers. The first Men in Black film got Elfman his first Oscar nomination, and he's having a ball revisiting these themes.
Very clever, a lot of fun, and a worthy addition to the Men in Black franchise.
I like trains. But, they don't make a lot of movies about them. So, when the 2010 film Unstoppable came along, all about trains, I was mildly curious. Unstoppable has also become a sad note in film history, as it is the final film from legendary action director Tony Scott (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, True Romance) before his tragic suicide in 2012.
Denzel Washington is Frank Barnes, a well-respected veteran train engineer. Chris Pine is rookie conductor Will Colson, and they're thrown into their first job together. But, some idiot yard engineers accidentally leave a train full of volatile chemicals idling, and the breaks fail, and we've got a runaway train. The first half of the film is Barnes and Colson trying to beat the runaway train to a siding so they can safely get out of its way, while the railroad company tries a variety of half-assed schemes to stop it. The second half, with Barnes and Colson now behind the runaway train, this puts them in a unique position to try and sneak up behind it, hitch on, and slam on the breaks to stop it.
Washington and Pine are good together, as they do the typical seasoned veteran/rookie bickering. And Rosario Dawson shows up, and she's pretty good too, as the yardmaster who tries to stop the train, and is the lone voice of common sense in these films as all the stuffed shirts attempt their half-assed, face-saving train-stopping plans.
Great cast, some great train action scenes, and you've got Denzel and Captain Kirk. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a pretty enjoyable film.
He we are again with Fishing in the Discount Bin, as I watch a tasty treat of a film on home media, and then blog about, because what else am I going to do on Sunday afternoons? Watch sportsball? I'm going through Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy right now, and we get to the extended edition of the best one, Spider-Man 2. This is in my original notes at May 18, 2014.
As I’ve been saying for quite a while now, as much as I’m usually
down on Daylight Savings Time, I’m thrilled that it’s now light out
later! I can go home from work in the daylight! And it’s a good
feeling that I’m trying to hang onto.
As such, in this week’s podcast, Episode 8.02: Springy Weather, things kind of got away from me as I found I had lots to ramble about. Some of my ramblings:
In honour of Pi Day, I tell a little story on how knowing math recently won me fabulous prizes!
Throw a little love to Shout! Factory and their recent home media releases
Recapping the Star Wars news of the past week
The creation of cinematic universes, including the announcements of Valiant and Ghostbusters universes
An installment of Mark Tastes Random Things on the Shamrock Shake
And an update on the music yes/music no debate.
All this and more in this week’s episode of U62: The Targ!
Here we go again with Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the many movies I own, and ramble about it. We're going to start on Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy now, kicking off with the appropriately titled Spider-Man. This shows up in my notes at May 17, 2014.
Well, now that I’ve rebuilt the website, I guess it’s time to start
generating content, and what better way to do that than by bringing back
the podcast?
Episode 8.01: Back and Catching Up continues the
proud tradition I do on every first podcast back from a hiatus, and
that’s begin by explaining the hiatus! Then I take you around the
website and all the awesome rebuilding I did, and then ramble about all
the things that happened while I was gone, such as:
“Weird Al” Yankovic releasing his album Mandatory Fun and talking a lot like he was retiring.
Marvel Studio’s announcement of Phase III of their Cinematic Universe, and the fact that they got Spider-Man back!
And general reaction to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer
Plus, I have an important lesson for you, the listeners, so give it a listen!
Well, gang, my hard work for the past few months is finally done. Well, done to the point where I think it's ready for public consumption.
My I present my newly rebuilt and redesigned website, Chaos in a Box.com!
My website had been due for an overhaul for quite some time now. As much as I liked how it looked, my knowledge of HTML peaked in 2003, and it was starting to look it. And every time I wanted to update it or revise it, I found myself dusting off my old copy of Microsoft Front Page and having to write a new webpage from scratch.
Besides, I never really finished my last rebuild 9 years ago, leaving it a mess of dead links spread across three servers. It would all get very messy if you started clicking around too much.
So I started thinking about doing a rebuild about a year ago. Rather than always having to build a webpage from scratch, I started looking at all the DIY web designers that are out there now. Having read the reviews, and chatting with friends that are more knowledgeable than me, it looked like WordPress was the way to go. I had one of those more knowledgeable friends install WordPress on my server for me, and I was off to rebuild my website!
Then I kinda got bored with that and finally opened a Netflix account.
But then, as 2015 started, my employers realized I had two weeks of leftover vacation time from last year. And they really wanted me to get it off the books. With two weeks off, I figured this would be the perfect time to just sit down in front of my computer and get it done. Once I tweaked the settings in WordPress and got a layout and design I liked, it just a ton of cutting and pasting as I copied all my old webpages, and pasted them into WordPress's templates.
I put in almost full workdays, taking breaks occasionally to enjoy some sunshine, eat, and watch episodes of Jem on Netflix. It was a lot of cutting and pasting. But at the end, I had some statistics: 248 podcasts, 188 movie reviews, and 348 entries in my original blog were all copied over.
It's all there now. It's searchable. You can dig it all up. The best thing I discovered about WordPress was its embedded MP3 player, so you can now easily listen to my podcasts in your browser.
When I did my last rebuild 9 years ago, a friend of mine was sad that I dumped all my movie reviews prior to 2004. So, just for him, I found all my older movie reviews in my archives, and my movie reviews section is complete once again, all the way back to when I started doing them in 1998! The first movie I reviewed was the first American Godzilla film, in case you're curious. And re-reading those early reviews, I'm almost embarrassed at how much I loved LOVED LOVED The Phantom Menace when it first came out.
My original blog is there as well, but I buried it a little bit. I mean, I haven't updated it in 9 years, so there's no reason for it to be so front and centre. Besides, back then, I had no qualms whatsoever about naming names and calling out people who pissed me off. I did have instructors at NAIT who pulled me aside and said, "Gee, Mark, if you keep saying stuff like that online, you're going to find it really difficult to find a job," and I do know of at least one job the blog cost me. Reading it again all these years later, I'm a touch embarrassed at it all. But I can't help but remember how passionate I was back then...how serious I was about my writing. I really remember posting my articles on Sunday night, and getting excited e-mails from my friends on Monday morning telling me how awesome my article was and how amazing a writer I was.
So, for those reasons, I kept it. However, some articles are "special editions," where names have finally been changed to cover my own ass protect the innocent. And besides, as I observed when I first attempted this rebuild a year ago, most of this stuff has been online now for 10 years or more. If it was going to come back and bite me in the butt, it would have by now. (The one incident I mentioned happened a mere month after I posted it.)
It's all there for the world to see. As Dinobot said with his dying words, my tale is told to those who ask, the ill deeds with the good, so that I may be judged accordingly. Head on over to chaosinabox.com, and read my tale.
Here we are on Fishing in the Discount Bin once again. Not quite done with The Matrix franchise yet, as we still have to tackle it's universe-expanding anime spinoff The Animatrix. This pops up in my notes at May 10, 2014.
I was facing a dilemma. I wanted to go see Kingsman: The Secret Sevice, but at my usual theatre in West Edmonton Mall, it was only playing in Ultra AVX. For those who don't know, Ultra AVX is currently one of Cineplex's premium theatre experiences. You get the maximum allowable screen size without going IMAX, the most state-of-the-art sound systems, assigned seating, more comfortable chairs...and $3 more on the movie ticket.
Yeah, I'm cheap enough that the extra $3 is enough to give me pause. If I'm going to see a movie in 3D, I'll spring for it, because the assigned seating assures you a good seat. But for a regular ol' 2D movie? Ehh....
And then I remembered I don't always have to go to West Edmonton Mall. As much as I love browsing in that cathedral to consumerism, it's not always required. Hell, whenever I drive into Edmonton, I always drive by Cineplex's North Edmonton theatre. It's a good theatre, I've seen lots of movies there, and most of the shops I wanted to check out where there on the north side anyway. And the North Edmonton theatre was showing Kingsman in a regular ol' theatre. I was only going halfway this time...to the north side!
On the north side is the Best Buy I usually blow money in, and I had $7.99 left on my last Christmas gift card. $7.99 is just enough for one Blu-Ray out of the discount bin, and I knew what I was going to get....
Independence Day is one of my favourite films. Hands down, you will never find better popcorn entertainment. And I was due for the Blu-Ray upgrade anyway. Sadly, the Blu-Ray didn't include the extended edition that was on the DVD, so I guess I'll be hanging onto my DVD a little longer. Oh, let's be honest, I never throw away any DVDs. I love movies too much, in all their formats.
But it wasn't just oldies, had to pick up the hot new release of the day, Disney's Big Hero 6. Like many a geek, I believe that superheros and animation are a genre and a medium made for each other. And when Disney bought Marvel, we were all a tingle at the prospect of a Disney animated Marvel Cinematic Universe. Big Hero 6 drew its inspiration from a short-lived Marvel comic from about 10 years ago. Some people were upset that it wasn't an official Marvel production with the Marvel logo up front and everything, but Marvel admitted that Big Hero 6 was so below their radar on what to adapt that they just kind of gave it to Disney and said, "Do with it as you will."
Anyway, when I saw it back in November, I had a great time with it. And, because The Lego Movie got snubbed, it managed to nab the Oscar for Best Animated Film, too. Could always use more Oscar winners in the library.
Quick bite of lunch, and I was off to the theatre! Here's why I do like going to catch movies at West Edmonton Mall. When I'm ridiculously early, I can go browse and entertain myself. But North Edmonton is in a power centre. And as most critics of power centres will tell you, they are not very pedestrian friendly. I got a good parking spot near the theatre, but then I had no desire to walk all the way across a frigid parking lot to check out some of the stores. So I wound up going to the theatre early. I mean, I'm usually at a theatre early to get good seats, but this is early even for me.
I typically don't eat at the movies anymore, because I mostly go to weekend matinees these days, and since it's right after lunch, I'm not hungry. But I ate this time because, hey, I'm ridiculously early and standing in line at the snack counter is something to do. And then I went into the theatre. Getting there super-early is good because then you can pick the good seats, and you can open your loud, crinkly candy wrappers without bothering anyone, but I looked at my watch, and I had 40 minutes until showtime.
At least I was finally able to get onto the Timeplay server and get that working on my phone. I have a friend in Vancouver, and they've had Timeplay at their theatres for a while now, and he loves it. They only rolled it out to Edmonton theatres this past summer. You've got the special app on your smartphone, and then, during the pre-show at the theatre, Timeplay comes up and you can play interactive trivia games and win stuff. My friend in Vancouver tells me he's won free popcorn and such, but out here, all they ever seem to offer for prizes are SCENE points. It's weird. I've been convinced to sign up for dozens of rewards programs (so much so that I now carry a second wallet just for all the rewards cards), I go to see so many movies, but Cineplex's SCENE is the one rewards program I haven't signed up for.
Anyway, even though I got Timeplay working, I didn't play. Why? Because they flash your name on the leaderboard up on the big screen, and I'm actually pretty self-conscious about seeing my name up in lights. Strange given my day job, right?
So, I was getting pretty jazzed to see Kingsman. It was essentially James Bond from the creators of Kick-Ass. If they could skewer the tropes of the superspy genre the same they did the superhero genre, then I knew it was going to be a good time. I was shocked when my Mom said she wanted to go see it, because Colin Firth, star of a hundred rom-coms, is one of the stars.
Eggsy is a kid in London who's been in and out of trouble with the law for most of his life. Seeking to avoid a prison sentence, Eggsy calls on one of his deceased father's old colleagues, Harry Hart, to bail him out. Harry sees potential in the boy, and reveals that he and Eggsy's father are members of a top-secret spy agency called Kingsman, and that Eggsy has what it takes to be an agent. Eggsy begins his basic training, while Harry goes off on his latest case, investigating the tech billionaire Richmond Valentine, who's been brokering secret deals with world's richest and most powerful, and throwing those who don't go along with his scheme into his private prison. Soon, it's Harry and Eggsy on the case, hunting down Valentine before he can destroy the world.
I enjoyed it. As expected, just like Kick-Ass, it was very profane, very bloody, and very self-referential. That being said, it had the same problem as Kick-Ass, in that the creators have too much love for the formula they're lampooning to stray too far from it.
I give it a solid 3 nibs. Go check it out!
Normally, this is where I'd post the link to the complete review on my website, but I am so close to finishing rebuilding my website, that I'm going to hang onto it, and it'll be the first content when my rebuilt website goes live.
And from there, it was just a nice, leisurely drive home. Since I didn't have as far to drive home, I was home a lot earlier than I thought I'd be, and still managed to enjoy a lot of my evening. And, most importantly, I save $3 on a movie.
It's time once again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly watching of a movie I own, then ranting about it. We're finishing off The Matrix Trilogy with The Matrix Revolutions. This is in my notes at May 4, 2014.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of a DVD, Blu-Ray, and occasionally, an ol' VHS I own, only for me to sit here and rant about why I like it. Right now, I'm working my way through The Matrix franchise, and we get to the second in the trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded. This shows up in my notes at April 27, 2014.
Hey! I just realized that the Oscars are less than a week away, and I haven't blogged my usual list of Oscar picks yet!
This is a proud tradition, going back to the early days of my website, and my college radio show. See, I do my Oscar picks a little bit differently than anyone else. Every other Oscar preview show you watch, they'll be telling you about the Best Picture predictions, and the Best Actor & Actress predictions, but not me. I'm only going to give you my picks in the categories that I have good track record in predicting the winner: Best Visual Effects, Best Original Song, and Best Animated Film. So, let's get to it!
So I do this bit on my podcast called Mark Tastes Random Things, where, live on mic, I sample whatever latest pre-packaged food concoction I've discovered and offer my thoughts. It all started a few years ago when, at the Bargain Store, I discovered the Jones Soda Holiday Pack on sale, and bought one. I figured it'd be a good bit as I sampled their Gingerbread Soda and Candy Cane Soda and rambled about it. And it was good.
So I knew it was time for a resurrection a few days ago when I was at the grocery store, and, in the pop cooler, I found a bottle of Jones Soda's Peanut Butter and Jelly flavour.
Since I'm still in a netherworld of rebuilding my website before I start up the podcast again, I turned to Sound Cloud to do a special installment of Mark Tastes Random Things for the Jones Soda PB&J flavour.
But that's not all! Cleaning out my hard drive, I found two, never-released-to-the-public installments of Mark Tastes Random Things that I made just to make my friend laugh.
I was ready to make this segment a one-and-done thing, but my friend loved it so much, he encouraged me to keep doing it. And, since I love fast food, one of the main topics quickly became whatever latest promotional item the nearby fast food restaurants are serving.
I joked about this on my podcast as to why I think my friend encouraged me to do this. I think it's because I've become his fast-food-consumer-by-proxy. See, about 12 years ago or so, after reading books like Fast Food Nationand watching movies like The Corporation, he decreed fast food restaurants to be the evilest of the Evil Corporations, and swore to boycott all fast food forever. I, however, have no such political convictions, so I have no problems with a mass-produced burger.
So it makes sense that these two episodes I made just for him were some of McDonald's promotional items in late 2013. First up was the McDonald's After Eight Pie. Are you familiar with that tasty chocolate known as the After Eight? Well, McDonald's figured out how to turn it into a pie. After one co-worker described them as "murder your wife for one delicious," well, I knew I had to give it a go.
But that's not all! At around the same time was the last time McDonald's brought back the most famous of their promotional items, the McRib.
And that's all I got right now for Mark Tastes Random Things. In one way, it's good announcing practice, as they taught me in broadcast school that one way to practice your announcing is to narrate your surroundings while you're driving down the road. And here I am, narrating what I'm eating! I don't like doing it, though, because I don't know how to fill the dead air while I'm actually eating. Should I smack my lips and make all kinds of obnoxious loud eating noises? I don't know.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I gaze upon one of the many movies I own and rant about it. I think it's time I delve into the Matrix franchise, and crack open my ol' Matrix boxed set. Let's take a look at The Matrix. This is in my notes at April 27, 2014.
Well, not really. Sony still technically owns the movie rights to Spider-Man. Sony still has financial and creative control over the character, and will handle all production and marketing and distribution of any Spider-Man solo films.
But, under this new deal that's been signed between Sony and Marvel, Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios and grand czar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is now in charge of the Spider-Man film franchise, and Spider-Man and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are now free to interact with each other.
So how did we get here? Well, way back before they formed their own movie studio, Marvel did what any other comic book company would do: sell off the movie rights. The movie rights to Spider-Man were sold off ages ago, and after a court battle that lasted for most of the 1990s, the rights were granted to Sony, and thus the Spider-Man film franchise that we know was born.
However, the turning point was this past summer and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Granted, it made $700 million worldwide, but it was the lowest-grossing Spider-Man movie ever. That, coupled with the critical drubbing it got, had fans everywhere screaming, "Give Spider-Man back to Marvel!"
Meanwhile, ever since Marvel formed their own movie studio, they have been trying to re-aquired all their properties. As we learned during the Sony hacks, it turns out Marvel and Sony were having some deep negotiations about Marvel regaining Spider-Man. And some 11th hour shenanigans must have taken place for Marvel to get their way, because rather than the big splashy media events they like to do to announce this stuff, it was mentioned in a news release sent out just before midnight on Monday.
So, with Marvel now running the Spider-Man film franchise for Sony, and Spider-Man now free to interact with the Avengers, Marvel's been shuffling around their release schedule. The first Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man film is coming in July 2017, and the release dates for Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and The Inhumans are all being shuffled around to make room. Spider-Man is also allowed to appear in one Marvel film before his first solo film. It's all but confirmed now that that appearance will be in Captain America: Civil War, because Spidey was a big part of the original comic storyline.
New franchise-runners also means a new Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield, who I thought did a stellar job despite mediocre stories, is being show the door. Apparently, Marvel wants a younger Spider-Man, more like the teenager that Spidey is always known to be. (Garfield just turned 31 in real life.) Marvel apparently wants an actual teenager to play the teenaged Spider-Man.
And Sony has also announced that, despite these developments, their still soldiering on with their Sinister Six, Venom and TBD Female Character spinoffs. Of course, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been canceled in favour of the Marvel reboot.
And out of all this, all I can think is, "Is it too late to film a new post-credit stinger for Avengers: Age of Ultron, one featuring Spider-Man?" I was always more of a DC guy when I was a kid, but the only Avengers comic I had was one where Spidey tried to join the Avengers. Alarms were going off in Avengers Mansion, the Avengers assembled to track down the intruder, and they eventually found Spider-Man, who had made a web hammock beneath the QuinJet's wing, where he just casually said, "C'mon, guys, let me join."
I SO WANT THAT TO BE MY POST-CREDITS STINGER IN AGE OF ULTRON!!!
Meanwhile, over on the DC side of the street, we just had the epic 2-part episode of Gotham showing us the secret origin of the Scarecrow.
Yes, everyone I went to college with, I know the Scarecrow was on Gotham. For those just joining us, Scarecrow has always been my favourite Batman villain. So much so, that back in my college radio days, Scarecrow was my on-air name.
I'm enjoying Gotham for the most part right now. I'm just a little afraid they'll fall into the Smallville trap. On Smallville, it was always fun to see these hints and secret origins of various Superman characters, but by season 6, you're screaming at the TV in frustration. "GET ON WITH IT!"
So for Scarecrow's secret origin, we met the Scarecrow's father, Dr. Gerald Crane, and the Scarecrow proper, Johnathon Crane, is just a teenager. The elder Dr. Crane lost his wife in a house fire, and he blames himself for her death because he was too afraid to go back in and save her. Thus leading to his obsession with phobias and fears. Dr. Crane has been torturing people by literally scaring them to death, in an attempt to find a cure for fear. And of course, he experiments on his son. The final scene is the future Scarecrow, having received an overdose of his father's cure, cowering in fear as he hallucinates being harassed by terrifying scarecrows.
It was OK. I'm not sure I like this idea of the Scarecrow being a legacy villain, taking the mantle from his father. But you can see some motivations. Maybe now the Scarecrow becomes obsessed with fears and phobias because he's trying to cure his condition.
What can I say? I always kind of hoped they'd do young Scarecrow much like how they're doing young Riddler. Have Prof. Johnathon Crane be this brilliant, yet slightly off, professor of psychology over at Gotham University who's called in as a profiler on a couple of cases. And, since it's been established that Harley Quinn studied psychology at Gotham University, I always had this idea that maybe Harley Quinn studied under Prof. Crane. So you can introduce young Harley Quinn by having Harlene Quinzel be one of Prof. Crane's grad students.
In other news, I'm on vacation again this week, burning off more vacation time. Decided to head into the city, because I always enjoy how wonderfully uncrowded West Edmonton Mall is on a weekday morning. Swung by HMV, and I stunned myself. I finally bought Brazil on Blu-Ray.
Brazil. Terry Gilliam's legendary dystopian tale. Rather than anything malicious on the part of the state to crush your will and bring you under control, it's the relentless bureaucracy. I have actually never seen it. I've been wanting to see if for ages. Way, way back in high school English, when we were studying 1984, it was a film that my teacher would reference and name-check a lot. I knew a girl in college who cited it as her favourite movie. With that pedigree, I knew I must see it some day. And besides, it's a Criterion edition. The Brazil Criterion has long been held up as one of THE Criterion editions, and the reason why Criterion does what they do.
Since I got my first DVD player in 2001, I've been eying the Criterion of Brazil, but I always stopped myself because Criterion editions get pricey. But, that day, I looked at the $39.99 price tag, and said, "Screw it. Let's get it." And then I got to the till, and when the clerk rang it up, it came up at $32.99. Clerk said, "Huh. The computer says it's $7 cheaper. I won't tell if you won't." And I got it for the lower price.
With a new Blu-Ray in hand, it was then upstairs to see Jupiter Ascending.
Yay! The Wachowskis are back with a new sci-fi epic! Always curious to sew what else the creators of The Matrix are creating. And I know I'm a minority here, but I love, love, LOVE Speed Racer. So what did they concoct for us this time?
Jupiter Jones. The daughter of Russian immigrants. Makes her living as a cleaning lady, scrubbing the toilets of Chicago's elite. Inspired by stories of her astronomer father, who died before she was born, she gazes up at the stars and dreams of something more. "Something more" falls in her lap one day when aliens try to kill her at a medial clinic, and Caine, the half-human/half-wolf bounty hunter rescues her. Turns out Jupiter has the exact same genetic make-up as the recently deceased Queen of the Galaxy, and under the rules of ascension of the galaxy, this makes her next in line for the throne. Of course, this makes her a target for the Queen's children, because her existence is a threat to their claims to the throne.
I got strong John Carter vibe from Jupiter Ascending. They focus a little too much on world-building than plot and character development. And despite being our protagonist, Jupiter isn't very proactive, just kind of going along with the flow of this new world she's been thrust into. And, as such, the plot gets rather repetitive, as Caine is always charging to her rescue, as she gets swept up down the wrong path.
That being said, it is pretty funny in some places. While most of the characters speak in that faux-Shakespearean that's common to sci-fi/fantasy films, Jupiter keeps acting all commoner like and reacts to all these unbelievable situations with the same, "Holy crap." And there's a great scene halfway through showing us the galactic bureaucracy. Who knew that laying a claim to the throne had so much paperwork?
All in all, maybe I'm getting old and have seen too many space operas, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen it all before. 2 out of 4 Nibs. Complete review is over on the website.
And before I wrap this up, just one little side quest.
My new routine when coming home from the city is to take the long way through Spruce Grove, where I'll stop for supper at one of the two new burger chains making inroads into Canada: Carl's Jr or Fatburger. Yesterday, Carl's Jr won the coin toss. What can I say? I'm still enjoying the novelty of how new they are. Same way in the late 1990s when Burger King finally came to Alberta.
Anyway, on my parka, I've got a Doctor Who button. Just the smiling face of the Tenth Doctor. A friend of mine brought it back for me after a vacation in London. I'm sure he paid no more than £1 for it. But that button has become the best icebreaker ever.
Case in point, the clerk at Carl's Jr. She saw the button, let out a shriek of glee, and began extolling the virtues of Doctor Who and how it's like every great science fiction and superhero franchise rolled into one. I was pretty into it, but after about 10 minutes, I started thinking, "I'm really hungry. Can I place my order now, please?"
But still, it's great time to be a geek. Cute girls are reveling in the fandom, and not recoiling in horror, like they did when I was in high school. I just like not feeling alone anymore.
At the start of January, I was elated to discover Jem and the Hologramson Netflix, and began cherry-picking my favourite episodes. Then, I was crushed to learn that it was being removed from Netflix by the end of January. I missed my chance to watch every episode when I missed Amazon's lightening deal to get the complete series for dirt cheap...never again! Luckily, I had already booked the last week of January off to use up some leftover vacation time from last year. My plan was to sit back, relax and watch every episode of Jem.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog where I watch one of the movies I own and rant about it. Today, something a little different. I'm looking at the 1958 samurai epic The Hidden Fortress. This is dated in my notes at April 5, 2014.
Another season, meaning the good folks at DC Comics and Warner Brothers are out with another straight-to-video animated film. Let's look at the latest one....
Starring the voices of Matt Lanter, Sam Witwer, Jason O'Mara, Shemar Moore, Jerry O'Connell, Christopher Gorham, Rosario Dawson and Nathan Fillion.
Backstory: Well, again, I lament that the bigwigs decreed that the only films that sell well are ones featuring Batman and Superman, and the only way we'll really get one featuring another DC hero is if they feature prominently in a Justice League story. Hence, the latest film, Throne of Atlantis, based on the New 52 Justice League story of the same name, and giving us the gritty reboot of the origin of Aquaman. This is also the latest in the new batch of "shared continuity" films that they're giving us, following up on the last Justice League film, War. So how does this latest animated outing fare?
Plot: In the wake of Justice League: War, the King of Atlantis is dead. Orm, heir to the throne of Atlantis, is eager to take advantage of this, and with the assistance of Black Manta, is eager to stir up tensions between Atlantis and the surface world and bring on full scale war. But Queen Atlanta knows there is another hope...the child she had with a surface dweller, who resides on land, unknowing of his destiny. Meanwhile, a series of mysterious attacks on submarines and the the theft of some nuclear missiles has drawn the attention of the newly-formed Justice League, and they being investigating. In the course of their investigation, the learn of Atlantis's existence, and that war is coming. To stop the war, the race begins to find the true heir to the throne: Arthur Curry. Will Arthur accept his destiny as Aquaman and the ruler of Atlantis and bring peace to Atlantis and the surface world?
What I Liked: Well, with Aquaman always considered a bit of a joke, there's a few good gags. Our first introduction to him is drunk in a bar, talking to the fish in the aquarium. And they do make a subtle reference to the over-the-top Aquaman we saw on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. There's some good character bits with our favourite Justice Leaguers, as Superman teaches Wonder Woman the benefits of a secret identity, and some good Flash/Green Lantern banter. And it's a great introduction to Aquaman's world, as Mera is also given a prominent role.
What I Didn't Like: I'm really starting to think this franchise is wearing out its welcome, as there's a whole "been there, done that" hanging over the proceedings. I'm getting tired of watching the Justice League take down hordes of invaders. Aquaman's origin story is such a routine origin tale. We've just...seen this all before.
Final Verdict: I'm getting so very tired.
2 Nibs
Bonus Features: For additional goodies on the Blu-Ray, you get a featurette on the score, a deleted scene featuring Nightwing and Robin, the 2014 NY Comic Con panel promoting the film, a featurette on Aquaman's rogues gallery, 4 bonus cartoons featuring Aquaman, and a sneak peak at the next in the series, Batman vs. Robin.
