The Show must go on

 We used to go to the movies quite regularly in the before times. We tried to get out at least a couple of times a month.  Since the shut downs, we have been keeping our movie night, but watching them at home. 

 

The last movie that we saw in a theatre was back in March 2020 when we saw Onward. I wasn’t as impressed with it as some were but it was still enjoyable.  We had seen some movies in the drive in since then.  We saw New Mutants last fall, and the new Suicide Squad this summer.

 

We were getting ready to go back in September but then they had changed the rules and open up the theatres to the entire population, vaccinated or not.  So we decided to pass for a while.  They soon restricted access back to vaccinated only as the number again increased. 

Our first movie back was the new James Bond film No Time to Die.  It was a bit of an odd experience.  The theatres used to include buffer space between guests but have dropped that so we had people who had bought the seats right next to us.  Because there was the space, we shuffled over a seat to allow room. 

 

I found this movie okay as well.  Daniel Craig isn’t in my top three Bonds, and I was never a fan of the reboot when they brought him in.  This had a lot of nice nods to older fans but, with this being Craig’s last film in the franchise, I am not sure how they will continue the series without another reboot.  Which would be a shame as they have built up a really good supporting cast. 

 

I suppose that we will have to see where they go from here.

Kickstarters - updates

My Kickstarters have been paying off.  I’m still waiting for my first one – OGRE Designer’s Edition from May of 2012 – but should finally be shipping soon.  This one is going to be huge.  I’ve even ordered a few of extra sponsored counter sheets.

The Dungeon Roll from back in March came in earlier this month.  It’s so tiny.  The box is the Kickstarter mimic version instead of the regular treasure chest version.

I just got Walk the Plank in this week with my extras.  It too is a bit smaller than I would have thought.  I got the pirate stickers and ghost pirate figure as Kickstarter bonuses and had ordered the Sharkspansion and Pink Robot for Get Bit as well.  This had been paid back in April – so that makes it the shortest turnaround time I have.

My only other Kickstarter was a non-game one – the Veronica Mars movie.  That was paid back in April too.  We already got the DVDs back in August but still are waiting for the t-shirts.

So far, my experience has been very good with these.  I haven’t been checking as often as I could but, so far, nothing else has caught my eye – or my pocketbook.

going back to the vault

Before I was even married I started picking up the Disney animated movies on VHS. I figured that I would have kids at some point and would want to share the movies with them and even if I didn't have kids I would still want to be able to see them again.  Besides being pricy (usually about $25) the clamshells that the movies came in took up more space than regular movies. When we had to empty the wall unit to move it so we could update the flooring, we decided to not put them back. Unfortunately, we haven’t picked up most of them in DVD yet.

I really wanted to get the ‘classic’ Disney movies – Snow White, Cinderella, Dumbo, Robin Hood, and so on. We even got a bunch of the ‘secondary’ Disney movies but, for a while there, they were churning them out. I’m not sure I’m in any hurry to get Cinderella 2 or the extra Belle movies again.

In some ways Disney’s “vault” system works in our favor. Instead of having all the movies available all of the time, they cycle through them every few years, removing the old ones before they go on clearance (sending them ‘back to the vault’) to maintain the integrity of their pricing. While this keeps the films artificially valued high , it also helps to spread out the cost of buying the entire set.

So now I have to recollect them, because I need to have them, to share with the kids and for ourselves. It should also give us a chance to watch some of them with the kids again.

by title or theme?

In removing the dvds in order to move the wall unit for the flooring, we got a chance to put them back in a new order. Previously I had them organized by theme, in roughly the order in which they were bought. While this worked fine for me to find movies, it was a bit harder for others to find movies if I wasn’t there.

Since we had to take them all out anyways, I took this time to sort them as my wife wanted – alphabetically. While I liked having all the werewolf films together – American Werewolf in London, Cursed, Dog Soldiers, The Howling, Silver Bullet, Wolfen, and so on, they are now spread over multiple shelves.

I did make a few caveats. All the TV series are together on one shelf.  All the kids movies are on two shelves.  All the movies series are together – allowing Pitch Black to remain near the Chronicles of Riddick, as well as keeping the various James Bonds films together.

We’ll try it this way for now. It should be easier to slip in the new movies as I left room on the shelves for new acquisitions. It would probably be less of an issue if we didn’t have to double-layer the dvds. We used to have to triple-layer the dvds but freed up a few shelves by not putting back the VHS movies. We’ll have to move the shelves again when we add the baseboards and paint so I can always move them around again if I find that this isn't working out.

Mr Bond, I presume

Last year, Walmart had the James Bond Legacy packs on sale for $15 each. Each pack holds a mixture of 5 movies from the various Bonds. I had originally thought that these were a great deal when they had come down to $30 from the $50 they had started at but couldn’t justify the price at the time. At $15 they were too good to pass up – almost.

I snapped up the first two sets but didn’t have enough for all four sets right then. When I went back later that week for the last two – they were gone. The other Walmarts didn’t have any either. I kept checking but was unable to complete the set.

It turns out that they had pulled the sets back to the manufacturer so that they could make new sets for the 50th anniversary this year. So I had 10 movies and was missing 10 movies – not counting the new Daniel Craig films. I already had the old Casino Royale – with Peter Sellers and David Niven as well as Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery – neither of which count towards the main 20 films.

I was finally able to snag another 7 individual movies at Giant Tiger for $5 each a few weeks ago – leaving only You Only Live Twice, Moonraker, and Tomorrow Never Dies. Last weekend I picked up two of them marked down from $12.99 to $5 each at Best Buy leaving only the Moonraker – which I could truly do without. But while we were at the Real Canadian Superstore I checked the bins and found it for $7.49 – which normally would have been too much. Since it was the last one I needed though, I picked it up. This means that the last 10 movies cost me almost double what the first 10 did.

Now I just need to find some free time to sit done with the boy and watch them. Maybe I’ll try to dig out the old Victory Games James Bond 007 RPG and play him through the each movie before we watch them. He did say that he wanted to try some role playing games and the Victory Games ones have a great set of hand-outs.

The Hunger Games

We saw The Hunger Games. Shan had read the book but I haven’t yet. It was easy enough to pick up the plot and follow along. Jennifer Lawrence carries off the role of Katniss very well. She seems believable and likable enough. She seems to handle the bow believably.

Woody Harrelson pulls off the role of Hamish very well. He looks younger than he has recently and easily comes across as a bitter drunken survivor who gets sucked into believing in Katniss.

The Games itself are well handled. The CG is a bit odd in the environment – how do the creatures get created in a way that they can spring from the ground and still be able to interact? Aside from that, not much else seems odd or jarring. It really makes me think that they could easily do a Dream Park movie or series finally.

We didn’t take the kids with us. A lot of the violence was handled just off-camera but there were still a few scenes that might cause some of the younger ones some alarm.

We liked it. We look forward to the sequel and it will probably make me read the books. The arena costumes are simple enough for costuming and are even available online. It has also sparked a renewed interest in kids taking archery – which is always a good thing.

John Carter

For his birthday, we took the boy to the movies and to dinner. We saw John Carter and then went to Montana’s where he got to wear the horns.

A lot of people seem down on John Carter but we enjoyed it. Even my daughter, who had been concerned it might be a bit scary, liked it. There has been some minor controversy about the title – it was Princess of Mars like the book but was changed to not confuse people (who hadn’t seen the trailer or know about the books) about it being another Disney Princess film.

Since it was based on a series of books that was written almost a century ago (Princess of Mars was published in 1917) you would think that it might be a bit dated, but it held up quite well. Since it had influenced a lot of later works, some parts seem familiar, but not too much that it seems like a copy. They even kept the framing sequence with the author and the matter transference into an avatar on the other planet. The green Martians look fine – maybe a bit long in the tusk but they get the six-limbed look down fine.

I haven’t managed to read the books yet so I don’t know how they describe the landscape but I would have expected the sand to be more red. I also don’t know how they handled the jumping in the books but it seemed on the verge of being a bit excessive in the movie.

All-in-all, it was a fun science-fiction film that fits in well with the modern ones. I hope it does well enough to make the sequels. I’m going to have to make an effort to read the originals.

X-Men First Class

Unlike some of the other Super-Hero movies that have come out, I did read and follow X-men. I started with the new group and also read a lot of the classic ones. With the depth of history and various configurations of the groups I was quite excited to see a movie about the original group. X-men First Class is not that movie.
That’s not to say that it’s not a good film. It’s one of the better stories and the characters are all well represented. It’s just that they play fast and loose with the history and characters. Most people who have only ever been exposed to the X-men through the movies will not be bothered by this.

The Hellfire Club is well represented and the White Queen is basically wearing her comic costume. As a matter of fact, the accuracy to comic costumes is quite close in this one. Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw was a fine choice as a villain. If only Oliver Platt had a character name other than “man in suit” to match his fine role.

As super-hero films go, even as action films go, it’s quite good. If you have no preconceptions of who would be in the ‘first class’ of X-men, and don’t know who designed Cerebo, the Blackbird, and the yellow and black costumes, if you don’t know when Hank turned blue and fuzzy, when Xavier ended up in a wheelchair, and when Banshee, and Havok joined the X-men and when Shaw, Mystique, and Emma encountered the X-men and when Emma gained a diamond form, and if it won’t bug you that Moria and Banshee are no longer Scottish, then you should have no trouble with this film.

I knew all this going in and it’s probably what prevents me from liking this film more. I liked it quite a bit, but could have liked it even more if some of these had been closer to what I already knew.

In brightest day, in darkest night

Again, while I have read some Green Lantern comics, I didn’t follow Green Lantern avidly. The movie hit all the points I was expecting, galactic adventure, Green Lantern Corps, Guardians, OA, Abin Sur, Sinestro – all are in here. It’s just what they do with them.
Ryan Reynolds manages to pull off Hal Jordan and Green Lantern. The costume is still recognizable to the comics. But with all the time in space he doesn’t convey any sense of wonder to us. Even a test pilot should have some awe at flying under his own power and that doesn’t come across.

A hero is defined by his villains. Green Lantern does have a great villain, a true challenge but, while he does appear briefly in the film, he’s not the villain. Instead we have a big black and yellow cloud called Parallax and a big-headed guy called Hector Hammond.

The ring allows you to create anything, limited only by your mind. Using it to bring the beat down on a wheelchair-bound big-headed balding guy does not make for good visuals.

All in all, a passable enough film but only a tease of what the second one might be. We saw it in 3D and again it wasn’t used enough to justify the additional cost at the ticket counter.

There was nice scenes with him trying "the oath", and with Carol Ferris recognizing him in costume. I really look forward to the next film - with a full-on Sinestro and Star Saphire.

Thor

We took Shan to see Thor on the weekend – for Mother’s Day. I had a few concerns before seeing it but was very pleased with the way they had managed them. While I had occasionally read the Thor comics I didn’t follow it closely so, while it seemed fine to me, more faithful readers may have issues. I am fairly conversant with Norse mythology, unlike some of the other people we saw it with – but both sides were able to follow along.

Thor is portrayed as a belligerent bully only interested in glory and gets humbled by his time on earth. His costume, another Kirby one, made the translation to the big screen without too much modification. The look of Mjolnir, and its use was very consistant to the comics - the spinning, throwing, steadfastness, and return were all well represented. Odin, Heimdall, and Lady Sif are all handled well. The Warriors Three appear in more than just a cameo, Jane Foster comes across a bit goofy but plausible.
I did have a bit of an issue with the movie making it look like Odin lost his eye in battle with the frost giants instead of giving it up for knowledge but most people won’t know anything amiss about it. The Rainbow Bridge was a bit cheesy but still worked. I really liked how Thor explained the World Tree to Jane - it helped to bridge the myth vs science part very well.

Who really stands out is Loki. Not only does he actually wear the crazy Kirby-horned helmet, but they actually made it look not goofy. He is portrayed as scheming more to bring about a good end rather than scheming for evil’s sake – Luthor and Doom could definitely take note here. It’s a lot easier to see him as a misguided hero than a two-dimensional villain. I think he was very well done.

Little nods to long-time fans include the references to Donald Blake, the appearance of Stan ‘the Man’ Lee, the billboard listing “Land of Enchantment, Journey Into Mystery” (Thor first appeared and starred in the comic Journey Into Mystery before eventually getting his own self-titled book), and Hawkeye. While barely seen on camera, the sarcastic wit in his brief scene really makes me look forward to Hawkeye’s next appearance. Shan may be a big Green Arrow fan, but I’ve always been a bigger fan of Hawkeye.

All and all, we were very pleased with the film. I feel it felt true to both of the source materials (comics and myths). The costumes and look were true enough to the comics style and the sense of a bigger world that the Marvel comics do so well was handled well. I think it is a good addition to the Marvel set of movies and will help bring nonreaders up to speed in preparation for the Avengers film.

Sucker Punch - good times

It’s certainly very stylized. I can understand why some people have a problem with it – in that they feel like they’ve been cheated by the ending. We didn’t – we liked it. If you’re paying attention to the narration, the opening story, and who picks up the action after the first change then the ending doesn’t surprise nearly as much.
The girl’s dream costumes are pretty sparse – but this is clearly shown in the ads and posters. If they offend you, this may not be the movie for you.
We liked Zack’s take on 300 and thought he did a great job with Watchmen. Sucker Punch fits in nicely with those two. If you didn’t appreciate either of those, you may not like this one either.

It’s very pretty with the entire film appearing in muted colors reminiscent of Noir films or sepia photographs. Except a brief framing sequence, the majority of the movie takes place in a noir/caper dream with various genre sub dreams as the story progresses.
While the mix of modern and old in the sub stories can be a bit jarring (notably the WWII vs the Fantasy Orcs) the soft focus makes it all work together. It does seem a bit like Zack couldn’t decide on which genre he wanted to make so he mashes them all together for this film. But as it’s for the story within the story – it all makes sense.

While Emily Browning shows off her great legs as the lead Baby Doll, I feel it is Jenna Malone’s Rocket that steals the show. Vanessa Hudgens manages to hold her own as Blondie. Jamie Chung plays the pilot Amber and Abby Cornish rounds out the main cast as Sweat Pea.

Shan and the kids also liked the film. G was a bit concerned about the fates of the other girls – but it is sufficiently vague about what happens to them in the ‘real world’. It could be that I’m deep into Crimson Skies right now but I liked the Noir story and the various sub stories as well. All in all - I'd recommend it - I'm certainly looking to pick it when it comes on DVD to hear some of the commentary.

Re-rez Ram!

We saw Tron: Legacy this week. Visually it was beautiful. Story-wise, it holds up fine. There are a lot of familiar faces and a few nods to original series (look for Dumont on the shipping containers, Dillenger’s son in the boardroom, the bits on the fireplace).

While Flynn’s son is the main character, it also has Olivia Wilde from House, Beau Garrett from the second Fantastic Four movie, with Bruce Boxleitner, and Jeff Bridges reprising their roles from the original. There are also cameos from Serinda Swan (Zantanna from Smallville), James Frain (from Tudors and Tru Blood), Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, Red Eye), and a wacky Michael Sheen (Lucian from Underworld) as Castor.

There is also a scanned version of a younger Jeff Bridges as Clu 2. Except for the flashback in the real world, he didn’t seem that odd. From a technological standpoint this is groundbreaking. Some people are having problems with it.

In fact, some people have issues with the whole movie – saying that, while visually beautiful, it didn’t have that much of a story. That said, I didn’t go to see this film to change my world view. The story was more than adequate for me. It certainly had more layers than Avatar (invaders bad – natives good), and a better story than LOTR.

My issues with the movie were few. I missed the old soundtrack – years of playing the video game have burned the old theme in my head. For a 3D film, it didn’t make a lot of use of the 3D format (unlike Resident Evil Afterlife and Journey to the Center of the Earth). With Rizler being Tron – as shown by the T symbol on his chest, if would have been nice to see his face occasionally. Cindy Morgan was missed – a cameo would have been nice.

The games were good, the visuals great, the upgrades were acceptable. There were enough nods to the old movie and enough backstory provided to cover those who hadn’t seen the original. If you enjoyed the original (which I feel still holds up fine) then you should be fine seeing this one.

As my son said – ‘Word cannot describe how awesome it was’.

summer movies

Knight and Day - Finally, a fun movie from Tom Cruise like he used to make. This one has all the charm and fun that we used to expect from him. The story held together enough and the glossing over parts worked very well. Cameron Diaz holds her own in this one. We certainly recommend it as a fun action film. Tom is still 'the guy' in this one.


Predators brought back a lot of the feelings of the first Predator movie. You don’t see the Predators much in this sequel but it doesn’t suffer because of it. Having just seen the Brothers Bloom, we were a bit unsure of Adrian Brody as a callous action hero but he managed to pull it off quite well. The action holds up and the many targeted characters held up enough for an action film. Good fun all around.


The Sorcerer’s Apprentice tied in to the part from the Fantasia clip and rolled in with Merlin vs Morgana Le Fey. Nic Cage is suitably wacky and Jay Baruchel came across as a believably dubious apprentice. The blend of physics and sorcery was a nice touch – I loved the Faraday cage and Telsa coil.

Tears for Toys?

We took the kids to see Toy Story 3. It was worth seeing. The Toy Story franchise has been very good – the first movie was great, the second movie added nicely to the story, and now the third movie has furthered the story even more and provided a nice final ending. It was fairly predictable but there were still a few moments near the end where we were all choked up.

If you have seen any of the others, I recommend this as well. If you haven’t seen them yet, then watch them and then go see this one. And take your kids with you. Now they are asking us to dig out their old Buzz and Woody toys so they can play again.

Movies: Prince of Persia / A-Team

We have been able to take the kids to some more movies lately.

Prince of Persia. I had played this a bit when it first came out as a side scroller – but never managed to get very far at all. The movie was fun – like a medieval parkour fest. I seem to remember there being more cleavage in the trailer though. It’s predictable – being that it’s based on time travel to a degree but still a fun bit of summer fluff.

A-Team. I have to admit that I didn’t really watch the show when it was on. Mark used to watch it so I did catch a few and Shannon used to watch it. That said, the movie was fun enough. It shows how they get together and works with the current war. I was good with the characters (I thought Liam would bother me but he didn’t) and the story held together enough for what it was.
The cameos with the old actors was a nice touch - stay until the end of the credits!

Iron Man 2

We saw Iron Man 2. I think it was easily as good as the first one. Iron Man, Whiplash, War Machine, Justin Hammer, and the Black Widow – what more could you want? I used to read Iron Man from about 100 – to up in the 200s. This movie (and the first one -Rhodes, Stane, Iron Monger, Fury, SHIELD) were everything I could want from the Iron Man franchise – drinking problems, inventing, armor-on-armor battles, corporate maneuvering.

Some people don't like this one as much as the first. Granted, the first Iron Man was really, really good - especially since it incorporated the origin pretty close to the original. I maintain that this one was as good.

The only downside - is that the son now wants me to build a Warmachine costume for him for Halloween. It's not as impossible as it seems. There's a lot of good pepakura files out there that could be scaled down. It would just be a lot of work - and I don't think our current computer is up to it. We'll have to see how he feels closer to the summer when I have a bit more time to work on these.

Movies - Dragon Training, Titans Clashing, Ass Kicking

We have been able to see a few movies lately.

How to Train Your Dragon - We didn’t read the books but it was still a fun movie. The 3D effects worked well with the flying. It’s well recommended for the family.



Clash of the Titans – I had seen the original and liked it better. We saw it in the faux 3D and found that it was a bit distracting. I hear it’s a bit better without it. The visuals were good, the story okay. I don’t recall any djinns in my Greek myths. All in all, still pretty fun but I recommend seeing without the 3D.



Kick-Ass – was aptly named. This was a very fun movie with a lot of good nods to us comic book fans. We’re big fans of Hit-Girl – now we have to see how we can make a costume for G for the conventions. Big Daddy looks like it would be more trouble – upon further detailed study the boots could be tricky.

Figure Painting started!

To count a figure a being fully painted, it has to be covered and based. While I didn’t manage to finish painting any figures in February, I finally did manage to start on some. I’m painted up some gangs for the Rules With No Name. I’m making some four man teams based on some western movies.

So far I have painted up a Silverado team and started painting an Unforgiven team. I got to watch Silverado again lately to get the colors and will have to watch Unforgiven when I’m off as the internet let me down in pictures for both movies.

IMDB.com, which is usually pretty good for images wasn't good in either of these cases. A site I did find that helped me out somewhat was the Internet Movie Firearm Database.

Wolfman delivers

Some people are coming down on the new The Wolfman movie. We saw it on Tuesday and liked it a lot. Of course, I'm usually pretty easily satisfied by a werewolf movie. My checklist is pretty small - is there some violence (check), a werewolf transformation (check), running through the woods/fog (check/check), a hot babe (mostly check). So it worked fine for me. Shan's a big fan of the gothic horror so she thought it was a truly great film.

Some people may not like the flatter-faced wolfman but I thought it was a good version based on the original wolfman makeup design. But then, I've been spoiled by werewolf films from An American Werewolf in London, Howling, Dog Soldiers, both Teen Wolves and the Ginger Snaps series. I also liked Wolfen, An American WereWolf in Paris, Cursed, the Underworld series and Wolf Park. I wasn't such a fan of the Werewolf TV series, Wolf, or the later Howlings though.

So, I may not be the most critical in this genre but I certainly enjoyed it. There were a lot of nods to the original movie in it. You should probably see the original Wolfman to be able to compare it better. It still pretty good to watch - and neat to see the total lack of a full moon scene.

Ninja goodness

Over the holidays we finally got to see Ninja Assassin. It was as much fun as we had hoped. It was good to see Sho Kusugi again. He was part of the beginning of the Ninja mania back in the day – starring in Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination, as well as The Master TV series.

The fight scenes would have seemed a bit too limb-choppy if I hadn’t recently come across this site which shows what a sharp sword can actually do.

There was a bit much of CG stars being thrown. In order to remain hidden, these ninja crews must have great cleaner squads to recover all evidence.
All-in-all, if you've been missing ninjas on the screen, this one more than fills that void.