Captain Zorikh's New Media Blog

Spider-Man Down!

2011-04-19T23:18:00.001-07:00

So they have shut down the previews of the musical "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark." Who didn't see this coming?

This was the latest "Most Expensive Musical in Broadway History." It's production was suspended before it even had its first preview. It was figured that it would have to have something like five years of sellouts to break even. Its out-of-town previews were plagued with accidents and technical nightmares.

Sure with such a confluence of talent, Bono, Julie Taymor, et al, you might expect to have something spectacular, but somehow it just never seemed to gel. Perhaps it was overambitious. It seems that everything today, especially when it's an adaptation of a comic book superhero, has to be bigger, grander, and groundbreaking in it's scope and interpretation of the source material. But that is a big risk.

Motion pictures made the same mistake. Each Batman movie got bigger and grander until the collapsed under their own weight. It was then up to the smaller pictures of the lesser-know n comics properties, like Blade, The Mask, and Barb Wire, to show how a comic book movie could be successful.

On Broadway a smaller-budget musical "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman" was a success in 1966. I was adapted into a TV movie in 1975...

But the risk there is that the small scale will inappropriately understate the material. Movies like "Captain America" and the Cathy Lee Gifford "Wonder Woman" showed us that...

But big budget or small, traditional or groundbreaking, whether on stage or screen, there must be a solid story and engaging characters. Through all the hype, sound, and fury surrounding "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark," nobody accused the show of having either.

New channels, old shows and movies

2011-04-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was told of new channels on the new HDTV system that has been in effect for the past couple of years. I figured, then, that it must be time to re-scan for tv channels that could be picked up by my digital converter box.

The new channel selection reminds me of cable TV from the 1970’s. There are kids’ channels Spanish channels, shopping channels, Christian channels, Spanish kids’ channels, Spanish shopping channels, Spanish Christian channels, Spanish kids’ Christian shopping channels, Chinese Channels, Korean channels, and a few channels that show old TV shows and movies.

This is a great opportunity to see what the medium of television was giving us before cable TV and changing technology and social mores gave us the diversity, excitement, and mature subject matters we see today. Shows like “Robin Hood,” “Life with Elizabeth,” “I Married Joan,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Peter Gunn,” "Daniel Boone," and “Bat Masterson” show us the attempts that were made to fill time on TV with quality, wholesome entertainment. We also occasionally get to see some well-known actors in their younger days. Acting, writing, and directing styles were very different back then. We even get to see views of cultures that don’t exist anymore, like dinner/dance nightclubs and beat poets.

But what is more personally interesting (and addictive) is This TV (HDTV 11-3 in New York City), a station that shows nothing but movies almost all day and night (with some children’s shows in the morning). But most of the movies are the second-tier, lower-budget sequels and knock-off movies with less-well known actors. Instead of “Bad News Bears” we get “Here Come the Tigers.” Instead of “The Magnificent 7” we get “Guns of the Magnificent 7” and “Magnificent 7” Ride. Instead of “The Guns of Navarone” we get “The Iron Coast.” Instead of “The Wild Angels” we get “The Glory Stompers.” Instead of “Oceans 11,” James Bond, or even Matt Helm, we get “Salt and Pepper” and “One More Time.” Instead of "True Grit" we get "Rooster Cogburn." Instead of "Billy Jack" we get "The Born Losers."

I find it nice to see that these lesser-known works of pop culture get an opportunity to be screened, especially on free TV. Cable TV, the growth of the VCR (followed by the DVD and Blu-Ray), and the commercial effectiveness of the infomercial have meant that free TV has been showing fewer and fewer movies over the past two decades. And even on cable and at the video store, older and lesser-known movies have been drowned out by the ongoing crush of major blockbusters, reality TV, and the forward march of time.

I fear that This TV will go the way of many other stations that have been movie-heavy or had a single programming concept (WPIX in the 1980’s, MTV, The Nashville Network, the Sci-Fi Channel, WBIS). It will find greater profits in original programming and diversity. Then these movies will go back to the dustbins of film-making history. But for now, let’s enjoy seeing what our parents and grandparents saw, and let that inform us on where they came from when we don’t understand them.

R.I.P. Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

Liz Taylor is dead.

She was an icon, a legend, a true queen/diva of celebrities, a multi-married beauty as famous for being herself, if not more so, than anything good she accomplished.

She was also a talented actress, hardworking businessperson, and caring philanthropist.

But I will let all the other biographers and obituary writers go into those details. I suppose I was “always” aware of Liz, she being the celebrity she was. I’ll bet nary a week went by in which her name was not in the paper, somewhere, several times, even when a movie she was in was not playing somewhere.

My first awareness of her as a “current” personality (as opposed to simply someone who was in a lot of old movies) was when the Weekly World News ran a photo of her walking down the street titled “Look Who’s Looking Good!” It seems she had recovered from a period of corpulence and dissolution and was now fit and happy. This must have been a rare example of WWN actually reporting a true story, for shortly thereafter, she starred in the TV movie “Malice in Wonderland.”

This film was heralded as a sort of “comeback” for here. My mom watched it, and commented with astonishment at how good she looked.

The glow of that moment stuck with me, and from then on, whenever her name came up, I always thought of that WWN article.

It was that article that I thought of just yesterday when I stumbled across an article in the National Enquirer in which it was reported that her latest ex-husband was having financial troubles, and how it was unlikely that Liz would be able to help, being that she was 79 and in the hospital. Of course they ran an unflattering picture of a gaunt, tired-looking Liz with an oxygen tube in her nose. I wondered how she had been doing since she was reported “looking good.” Now I know.

Some Thoughts About Super Bowl XLV, 2011

2011-02-07T05:39:00.000-08:00

To those pop stars who feel the Nation Anthem deserves a personal interpretation: Just sing the damn song.

Cowboys & Aliens had better not suck.

There should be more movies like the Kia Optima commercial.

Three fantasy commercials in a row: Coke/Dragon, Thor, VW Passat/Kid Vader

Coke makes a good commercial with a nice message. If only world peace and co-operation were as simple as sharing a coke. At least it’s a start. Life must have sucked for lonely 19th-century Latin-American border guards.

Very interesting approach taken by that Detroit car company making a luxury car. They made an extra-long commercial about Detroit that seems designed to get people to sympathize with the American auto industry and the people of that city. Well, it was effective, but made me wonder why they are not advertising an affordable, efficient, quality car that every American can own.

The halftime score, 21-10, is exactly the same as the final score of Super Bowl XII, Cowboys-Broncos, the first one I ever watched.

The Black Eyes Peas halftime show should go down as one of the best ever. It ranked up there with the year that Stevie Wonder played. Kudos to them for actually singing and not lip-synching. The Tron-inspired costumes and production design was appropriately spectacular and over the top. Having Slash enter to play “Sweet Child of Mine” was a nice touch and actually gave me chills. I do wish they had followed up with getting Dick Dale to play “Miserlou” in their song that samples it.

The montage of clips from TV shows about the Big Game was very clever.

The game itself was very exciting, a fast-paced, high scoring affair with lost of turnovers, and exciting offensive plays. Green Bay pulled out ahead early, but Pittsburgh, playing like the underdog they never have been in Super Bowls past, came back and kept the game interesting.

"XLV" stands for "Xtra Large Victory."

I missed the intro to the Pittsburgh Steelers before the game, but Sam Elliot’s into to the Green Bay Packers perfectly set the stage for the victory and return to glory that would ensue. Heck, I would listen to Sam Elliot read the phone book. Or Darwin.

Wizard Cancells Magazine; My Experiences and Thoughts Thereof

2011-01-28T12:34:00.000-08:00

So word has gone out that Wizard is ceasing publication of their magazine immediately. This announcement was made the day after Wizard World announced that it was going public and publishing a web magazine. This makes Wizard a company that Though I have not been an active reader of the publication over all of its 19 years of publication, I do have some experience and opinions regarding it.

I first became aware of it when I started working at a comic book shop called Comic Mania located next door to the School of Visual Arts. I started work there the very day it opened, which was the day that my Freshman year at that school began. This was at the height of the comic book boom that was spearheaded by Image and Valiant. Wizard magazine seemed to be the greatest cheerleader for this boom, and for Image Comics in particular. Their “hot picks” repeatedly highlighted the latest works from Image, and their prices of back issue Image Comics seemed to escalate faster in their price list than any other. IT was often packaged in a plastic bag with collectible premiums like trading cards and comic previews. No doubt it was bought up as much for its collectible value in that bloated market of the day as for its content.

As the years passed, the comic book industry busted, and I drifted away from the scene a bit. Then I got involved in working for the Big Apple Convention. As my responsibilities in working for that convention increased, I became more aware of what was going on, and I noticed that Wizard was holding conventions. Image Comics had eveolved into a company that, frankly, had better comic than when they first started out, and Wizard Magazine gave more balanced coverage of the comic book industry, market, conventions, and related culture and media. In fact, the magazine became pretty much the pre-eminent publication of such matters.

At this time, the Big Apple Con was the only comic book convention in New York that managed to survive from the mid- 1990’s to the mid 2000’s. Then Reed Exhibitions came along and set up the New York Comic Con at the Javits Center. After a few years, Reed and Wizard started buying or starting conventions in different cities, and scheduling these events at times that sometimes made it difficult to attend them all. Wizard bought up Big Apple Con, re-naming it Big Apple Comic Con.

At the latest of these conventions, Wizard gave out free copies of their latest issue. It seemed thinner than I remembered the magazine used to be, and the content seemed light and sparse. Now the magazine is gone from the newsstands, and the content will only be available on line.

Se we can all add Wizard to our bookmarks, in the same file as Newsarama, Ain’t it Cool, and all the other sites that post up the latest announcements from the comic book, movie, TV, toy, and convention companies. WE can wonder if Wizard will or will not be interested in promoting those things that will be appearing at their conventions over those that will not, and we can wait and see if they will give insight into news items that will make their content as worth perusing, if not more so, than any of those other sites.

R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen

2010-11-28T23:23:00.000-08:00

When I watched a DVD of "Superhero Movie" last week (a film that I felt was a thin spoof of "Spider-Man," with but a few references to "Fantastic Four" and X-Men" and could have been so much better if they opened it up to spoofing more superhero movies) I noticed Leslie Nielsen looking a little old. I realized the guy is no spring chicken, but I thought part of the look was makeup and costuming for the role. Then I saw the picture in the obit at New York times Obituary. He looked like a gaunt masque of death.

I never knew that Mr. Nielsen had a serious acting career apart from "Forbidden Planet." He was just so great at the comedy and slapstick. But I guess it proves that talent is infinitely adaptable.

Some Thoughts About the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2010

2010-11-25T09:44:00.000-08:00

The shong from Memphis is a fabulous Broadway musical number...just like every other fabulous Broadway musical number. It kind of made me think I was watching Family Guy, which has a lot of fabulous Broadway musical numbers.

The guy playing Jerry Lee Lewis in "Million Dollar Quartet" has totally got the moves of the Killer down. From what I saw here and on the Tony awards, though,makes me wonder if this is a musical play or a tribute concert.

Crystal Shawanda's Native American/County/Pop fusion fascinates me.

The U.S. has become a cultural colony of Japan. There were appearances by Hello Kitty, Takashi Murakami, Power Rangers Samurai, and Pikachu, and the NYPD Marching Band played the theme to Space Cruiser Yamato.

Those dancing penguins are cute!

HAAPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Pieces of April - nothing original, but well done

2010-11-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

When a movie is just like every other movie of its type, it really has to be done well to be tolerable.

In this case, "Pieces of April," written and directed by Peter Hedges and released in 2003 (which was just broadcast on PBS, Channel 13) hits a lot of notes of a young indie director's movie:

Hot girl in counter-cultural clothing and makeup - check.
On-location shooting - check.
Estranged family that doesn't understand her - check.
Arguments between mom and dad - check.
Road trip - check.
Oddball urban characters - check.
Rough, trash-strewn, graffiti-covered urban landscape - check.
Generally quiet soundscape - check.
Girl breaks down in tears - check.
Bikers - check.
Reconciliation with family at the end - check.

It was a story of a young woman (Katie Holmes) living in an inner-city neighborhood with her boyfriend (Derek Luke) preparing Thanksgiving dinner for her family. The family happened to include her terminally-ill mom (Patricia Clarkson), and this was the first time that the girl had ever cooked Thanksgiving dinner.

This film proved that just because a film is a lot like many other films doesn't mean it can't be very good.

"The Patriot," on the other hand...

RIP: Harvey Pekar

2010-07-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

RIP: Harvey Pekar

There's not much I can say that has not been said by others. His work proved that an ordinary life can be incredibly complex and quite fascinating. He cut through the bull and said exactly what he wanted to say. His honesty and truthfulness will be missed.

I had always been vaguely aware of comic book "American Splendor," but was more into superheroes and science fiction , so I never really looked into it. My mom saw the movie and insisted that I see, but I never made it to the theater while it was out. I finally saw the film when it was shown in the public library at Glens Falls, NY.

As a movie, I found it very original and unique. It was refreshing in it's honesty in showing the "unglam" life of the subject, and even admitting that actors were better looking that the real people.

So here's to the man who made uncommon use of the common life, and expanded the possibilities of the comics form.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/07/cleveland_comic-book_legend_ha.html

Soime thoughts about the Tony Awards this year....

2010-06-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

Does Sean Hays remind me of Jon Cryer, or does Jon Cryer remind me of Sean Hays, especially when Jon is doing something "gay" on "Two and a Half Men?"

Daniel Radcliffe and Katie Holmes looked like Frodo and Arwen in "The New Adventures of Middle Earth" on the CW Network.

It's good to see my old Stuyvesant High School classmate, Lucy Liu back in town. I wonder if she made it to the last couple of reunions we've had that I missed?

I am constantly wondering if I am missing some of the gay in-jokes.

Kelsey Grammer in "La Cage Aux Folles" looks like Tony Curtis.

Almost every nominee is a well-known movie actor.

Catherine Zeta Jones is one of the most beautiful and talented actresses in teh history of women, but "Send in the Clowns" always depresses me.

The Jewish chick from "Glee" is frickin' awesome!

Miley Cyrus is finally old enough to be up late enough to be on "The Late Show."

Superhero movie actors nominated for awards:
Kelsey Grammar - Beast "X-Men 3"
Alfred Molina - Dr. Octopus "Spider-Man 3"
Scarlet Johansen - Black Widow "Iron Man 2"
Liev Schreiber - Sabertooth "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"
Christopher Walken - "Batman Returns"
Rosemary Harrris - Aunt May, "Spider-Man 1, 2, 3"
...and all of them were in superhero movie sequels.

When I tuned in, Green Day was opening the show. I have not really been keeping up with trends on Breadway like I used to, but I remember whn it was in such a state that having a modern rock band at the R=Tony;'s would be a sign that they were desperate. But perhaps its a sign that Boradway is not more accepoting of a greater variety of musical forms that ever before.

After the musical numbers from "Million Dollar Quartet" and Memphis" I was really in a mood to hear more "birth of rock & roll" music in a movie. So I watched "Great Balls of Fire."

Brilliant, just brilliant, having Sean Hays come out in the Spider-Man costume. Between that, Rosemary Harris, and Alfred Molina, who needs a $42 million musical?

Nothing thrills and excites the soul in quite the way a well done Broadway musical number does.

A Midsummer Night's Avatar depression

2010-04-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had the pleasure of enjoying the Trevor School’s version of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and now I know what “Avatar” depression is.

I had heard that folks were getting suicidally depressed after seeing “Avatar,” and I couldn’t understand why. When I saw the movie, it inspired me to do things, like fight in a grappling tournament (see my review from Feb 8, 2010). Then I saw this.

The play was set in a mostly bare, open, piece of floor in front of the seats with multi-leveled platforms. It opened with gentle mystical sounds being made by the fairies. A freaky figure, who we would later learn is Puck, entered, moving in a not-quite-human way and observing the audience. A character dressed in shirt and tie then entered, put on a sleeping cap, and lay down. The fairies pulled a strip of paper out of his hear revealing the title of the play.

From there, the play began. The fairies were portrayed by 5 lovely young ladies in motley leather vests, torn stockings, and face paint, contributing as a sort of punk-pagan presence to the proceedings. They served as a sort of Greek chorus, and furniture, and background, and framing device for the entire play.

The performances of the actors ranged from the enthusiastic to the excellent, utilizing the natural talents of the performers well. Notable were Helena’s ballet, Bottom’s gift for physical comedy, and Lysander’s flexibility.

The cast brought an excellent sense of unity to the world of the play. They had a remarkable synergy that enthralled the audience, making us eager to embrace the world in which they lived.

A particularly nice touch was to have Titania enter and relate to Bottom as he went through the suicide scene in the player’s play at the end of the show. It gave a sense of development, and a degree of depth to both characters, and made the play a bit more affecting than a mere comedy.

The last bit of action had the sleeper at the top of the play waking up and finding the banner with the title of the play. This represented the fact that the entire story was a dream, and gave the piece a symmetrical close.

Oddly, while much of the action was very funny, I didn’t find myself laughing out loud as I do at certain TV shows, or as much as the rest of the audience. But at the end, when the lovers had been united in wedlock and the players and done their play, when the lights went down and music came up before Puck’s epilogue, I found a great sadness coming over me. The music was a familiar melody that felt, in context, like a beautiful sunset at the end of a very good day. It was the perfect ending, but it was an ending, and we will never have that day back again.

The effectiveness of the play even came through a sub-optimal viewing set-up. The seats were on a set of particularly deep bleachers of gradual elevation. This meant that the back rows were very far from the action without being high up, and thus their view was were blocked by people’s heads. For a piece with such a strong environment, it would have been nice to be more physically embracing of the audience. Perhaps they could have figured out a way to do it in the round, or to have allowed the audience to sit on the floor within the performance area.

Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably Shakespeare play that is most adaptable to various media. Its location on the borders of a fairyland allows the production a lot of leeway to use its media. It got me to thinking of ways to do it with various movement vocabularies I have been familiarizing myself with lately.

But the fact that I will never be able to recapture the precise magic of this particular production if very sad.

Latest Adventures in Hi-Def TV

2010-04-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

When Hi-Def TV became the standard, as regular readers of this blog may recall, I held out to the last minute and beyond (while I tried to figure out why I wasn;t getting a signal) But once I did finally embrace the Hi-Def revolution, I noticed that Channel 5 was duplicated on Channel 9-2, and Channel 9 was duplicated on channel 5-2. It was convenient because if I wanted to flip between chshows on those two channels, or the adjacent channels, I could save one click. Of course it was also a little annoying because when surfing I had two more clicks to go through that were simply du[plicate channels.

Well, now those "2" channels are now blank.

So, what's gonna happen? Are they gonna put new channels there, like 4, 7, 11, and 13? Cuz right now they are two blank black spots on the dial. Couldn't they at least point a camera at a fish tank or something?

Swan Lake: is it ballet?

2010-04-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine fwded a link to this video of the Great Chinese State Circus' reinterpretation of "Swan Lake":

This is amazing and beautiful, but is it dance? Is it ballet? There is little chemistry between the two dancers and there is almost no storytelling at all, it's just one amazing move after the other. In that "World Championship of Dance" competition the Chinese had a similar idea: They got the Shaolin monks to string together a bunch of acrobatic martial arts moves, but that's not really dance, is it? Like any art, dance should make you feel something more than "what amazing technique!"

Any partner dance is about the relationship of the characters and the chemistry between the two dancers. Check out these versions of "Swan Lake":

You can't help but feel the attraction and the struggle between the two lovers over their forbidden romance in the first video, and the finale really knocks you out. Every move is a dialogue between the dancers that progresses the story. It's about using the movement vocabulary and physical virtuosity to tell a story, not just impress you with skill.

Just for fun I decided to look up "Swan Lake Pas de Deux," because I understand it is a standard, with traditional choreography. I found this...

...which is another part of the story, and has a "black swan" seducing the hero. Now I want to see the whole thing because I am intrigued by the story.

I searched a bit more and found thwo more interesting versions, this one has no stage set and no chorus...

...and this ballerina is particularly expressive in the same dance...
...

Reading the comments is very informative and helps the appreciation of the performance and the art. The comments about the ballet are about the beauty and perfection of the dancers, the emotional content of the scene, the expressiveness of the performance, and comparing with other performances. The comments about the Chinese acrobats is mostly "amazing@! Incredible! Did they use wires?" etc

Z

Hurrah for Universal Sports!

2010-03-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

When the switchover to digital TV happened, and I finally got my digital converter box to work, it was small pile of "so what? Big deal." to me. So we got "crystal clear digital reception" now. That was only if the antenna was pointing in the right direction. Otherwise you got a perfectly black screen. Art least with analog we could sort of make out the picture through the snow and ghosties.

Sure, it's convenient to have a weather channel on 7-3,but Icould find out that kind of info by a quick look out the window most of the time.

Extra kids channels? That's merely an excuse to put less kids programming on the regular channels.

The Spanish stations seem to be doubled up. What's the point of that?

New York Nonstop and LiveWell, have yet to impress me with their programming (although LiveWell did show Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speches uncut late one night).

And what's with that channel that only shows certain roadways and intersections?

But NBC's Universal Sports ans just given me programming that has me saying "All Is Forgiven!" The Paralympics! Legless hockey! Armless biathlon! Visually-impaired cross-county skiing! Before this channel, I was lucky to stumble upon a few highlight on Wide World of Sports or something, but now I am getting the full games and events!

I can;t wait till the summer games to watch wheelchair rugby!

Kick-Ass kicks ass!

2010-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

On Monday night I was fortunate enough to have obtained a pass to the advance premiere of “Kick-Ass,” the new movie based on the comic book written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita, Jr. Of all the movies I wish I had seen before making my latest movie, this is the one that fit’s the category best.

The story is a Campbellian hero’s journey that takes the concept of “what if a real person tried to be a superhero” to the dirtiest, most violent, foul-mouthed, and glorious degree.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, it goes sorta like this: A high school student comic book geek wonders why no one has ever really tried to be a superhero. Of course this kid and his friends are regularly pushed around and ignored by girls, and muggers don’t even have to threaten them with violence. One day he buys a scuba suit and tries to be a superhero. It doesn’t work out, but he doesn’t give up. His example inspires others, and he winds up in a deadly, violent confrontation with an organized crime boss. People die, and he finds the hero within himself and becomes a man.

“Comic book movies,” that is, movies based on comic books or comic book characters, come in two varieties these days. There are those that are based on a character, usually with a long publishing history, and try to build a movie around the concept (with varying degrees of seriousness and success), ie: Superman, Bat Man, Spider-Man, etc. Then there are those that are based on specific comic book stories or graphic novels; A History of Violence, Sin City, Watchmen, Etc. Those of the latter kind seem to have a higher rate of success, both as movies and as adaptations, and this movie, fortunately, fits that pattern.

The casting of the movie is excellent; combining perfect talent (Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz) and some inspired “gimmick casting” (Nicholas Cage, Christoher Mintz-Plasse). As the hero, Johnson’s face echoes Toby Maguire’s “gee, something good actually happened to me” cockeyed half-smile, combining cultural reference with endearing honesty. Cage, as the ultimate badass superhero, does some of his best work as a mild-mannered father, and hits all the right notes imitating the delivery of a noted 1960’s TV actor. Mintz-Plasse brings a surprising darkness to a role that seems like a development of his character in “Role Models.”

There are differences between the movie and the book. Some of them are simply matters of the necessary structural difference between a movie and an 8-issue comic series. As Mark Millar stated in the Q&A after the screening, the miniseries was an eight-act structure, while a movie has a three-act structure. Some of the differences, though, were blatantly involving the difference between what you can do in a comic book and what you need to do to sell a movie. Millar pointed out that one change (and a very drastic one, I thought) was instituted because they simply needed to have some sex in the movie.

Another change was a bit more of a trade-off than a pander to the masses. There is a moment in the comic book where the hero makes a moment of immense personal sacrifice, paying off a setup from very early in the story and showing the character take control of a situation unlike he had ever done before in his life. That scene was eliminated in the movie, allowing for a touching moment between a father and daughter. This gave more of the movie to another character, and made it less about the titular hero. The hero did get to have his hero moment later, but it was not as strong and significant as the one in the book.

The audience, packed with fans of comics in general and the original comic in particular, ate this movie up with a spoon. They cheered and laughed at all the right moments. I happened to be sitting between two women who were not fans, and they seemed a little shocked at some of the violence, though at they end they admitted it was a good movie. I agree that the gun violence does get a little gratuitous at times, but this is not a movie for the weak of heart. Life and death can be an ugly, unforgiving business, and by not skimping on the blood and violence, they show how far you have to go if you really want to be a hero.

And that’s what heroism is about. It’s about taking your lumps for something you believe in. The hero, Kick-Ass, believes in fighting for decency, protecting the weak, saving lives, and helping people. Even in the face of death, he keeps true to his beliefs, and takes his lumps.

In my movie, “Redemption,” the main character proves that he is willing to take his lumps to be the best that he can be. This movie is the grittiest, gutsiest, most literal expression of that I have ever seen.

Avatar review: I am a happier man because of this movie

2010-02-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night I went and saw Avatar, and I am glad I did.

Even though the movie is basically “The Last Samurai” and "Donnie Brasco" on another planet, there is enough visual spectacularism that I got a thrill watching it.

Also, and more importantly, the execution of the idea (a man who has lost something finds himself in the camp of the enemy, where he is adopted by the tribe and finds what he has lost, then rebels against his former masters) was very compelling. It worked best for me in the sequences where the hero, Jake, was learning how to use his alien avatar body to run through the trees, ride giant birds, and then became part of the tribe. The physicality of his actions was exciting, seductive, and made me want to do them myself; and as he earned the acceptance of the tribe, I really believed, and sympathized with, his desire to belong.

The climactic battle scene was a bit gratuitous, but the peril felt real, and the payoff was highly acceptable.

I had heard that there are people who have been having suicidal bouts of depression after seeing this movie. That made me think that there would be a really depressing payoff at the end, but no. The balance of life and death, good vs. evil, and overall justice is resolved in a perfectly satisfactory manner. Apparently some people just find the real world suicidally depressing compared to watching the movie.

The effect this movie had on me was that it inspired me to compete in a grappling tournament the next day. The physicality of wrestling and grappling is the closest I have ever come to the physicality of the alien tribe in the movie, and Jake’s growth and acceptance by the tribe mirrors my current journey through the world of submission grappling. So I had an outlet through which I could exercise my longing to be a part of the world of the movie, and I am a happier man because of it.

Read my writeup on the tournament at My other blog.

A little quirk about digital TV...

2009-11-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

I suppose it is convenient for folks who prefer to watch their shows in Spanish that the new digital TV converter box remote control has a button to select languages right on it. However, it occasionally fools me.

A few months ago a surfed into an episode of "Family Guy" (a show I enjoy mostly for Brian and Stewie, not so much for Peter) and heard Spanish. I know the show occasionally throws these "meta" sort of things in, so I could completey accept the possibility that they decided to boradcast an entire episode in Spanish.I decided to give it a shot, and it was actually kind of funny for a while. But then it got a little wearing. But that was still in keeping with what I had come to expect from the show, something that's kinda funny that just kinda drags until all the humor has dissipated from the joke and you just wanna say "get on with it!" So I surfed away.

Then tonight I surfed into "Family Guy" again, and heard them speaking spanigh, but this time I checked the "audio" button onthe remote, and whataya know? It was set on Spanish! with the touch of a button I got back to English!

Funny how that happens.

30 Rock gets it.

2009-10-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

I don't usually watch sitcoms. Maybe one or two, like if an episode of "M*A*S*H" comes around, or a late-night "Honeymooners." But tonight I had the TV on while I was cooking dinner and allowed myself a glimpse at this week's "Comedy of the Awkward" (see my previous posts if you don't get what I mean).

Tonight on 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin went to a very small, blue collar, "middle-America" town, one that us "city slickers" might call "back woods" or even "redneck." He has been upset that Tina Fey has been seeking the next great, all-American comedy star in places like San Francisco and Toronto. He finds a ventriloquist and falls in love, thinking that people in these smaller, more rural areas are somehow better, kinder, nobler folks. Tina Fey, whatever her motivations, wants to prove him wrong. With but a few brief heckles, she brings out the worst, rudest, nastiest, most impolite, raunchy, and downright offensive comedy out of the ventriloquists, thus totally blowing Alec Baldwin's worldview out of the water. so much so, in fact, that he stomps on the dummy at breaks its head off.

The punch line , and I;'m not quite sure how it got there (I don;t have TiVo), came when the dummy said "All God's Children are terrible."

OK, that might not be completely true, there may actually be good people in the world, but just being in a small, rural community does not make you a more "good" person than living in a big, cosmopolitan city makes you a bad one. There is good and bad, smart and stupid, cruel and kind everywhere. Sometimes it's a different kind of cruel or kind, smart or stupid, but people are people, and they always will be.

And sometimes it can all be wrapped up in one person. I just chased down a purse snatcher and helped get the victim's purse back, but my choice led to the person I was with getting knocked to the ground and getting hurt. What does that say?

It's official: The Zombie Apolcalypse has gone Mainstream

2009-10-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

It all began with George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead
. That movie begat a few sequels and remakes (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, etc), a series of spoofs (The Return of the Living Dead (Collector's Edition) and 4 sequels), at least one porno (Erotic Nights of the Living Dead) and then more remakes (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut), , Night Of The Living Dead 3D
), and the nuclear post-apocalypse genre was co-opted by zombies. Movies like "28 days later" and the "resident Evil" series took us there. Then "Shaun of the Dead" gave us the heroic comedy and "Doomsday" gave gave us the tribute pastiche.

Then "Zombieland" came along and gave us the John Hughes road picture zombie movie (which I thoroughly enjoyed, by the way). In the world of the printed word Max Brooks gave us "The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead" and "World War Z." Comic books gave us everything from Marvel Zombies to Black Gas to Walking Dead to Dead World, to Zombie Highway to Jesus Hates Zombies, adaptions of Shaun of the Dean and continuations of Romero's Living Dead franchise. There is even a very clever webcomic called "Zombie Hunters."

And now I know the Zombie Apocalypse has finally, and officially been embraced by the mainstream. It was spoofed in The Simpsons in last night's Halloween episode.

How My Sitcom Choices Reflect My Life

2009-10-09T06:55:00.001-07:00

Hen I was a kid, I wanted to be popular in school, and I watched "Happy Days."

Over the past year I have spent some time dealing with relationship issues, and I watched "Two and a Half Men."

Now I am dealing with career issues, and I find myself watching "The Office."

Comedy of the Awkward.

2009-10-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight, in a fit of “Dammit, I just wanna,” I watched most of “Parks and Recreation” and all of “The Office” and “Community” on NBC (Channel 4 in NYC) tonight. These shows are part of a trend I like to call “Comedy of the Awkward.”

When my generation (specifically, me) was growing up, it was the era of “Free to Be You and Me.” Time was not spent on training us to behave and get along in society. We did not learn how to “fit in” and “get along.” We were allowed, nay, encouraged to “express ourselves.” There was no need to go into something with a preconceived notion, to blindly accept authority, to follow the rules. We could just “be ourselves,” say what we thought, and ask questions.

(…and just as a non-sequitor aside, don’t you hate it when something that your ex-girlfriend who is no longer talking to you got you interested in comes on TV and now the person you would have enjoyed talking about it with won’t talk to you? Yes, freestyle wrestling is on TV right now. Anyway…)

We were told never to assume that people are what they seem to be, not to judge a book by its cover. Trained that all people are just the same, only different, to be fair and honest and generous, to say what we mean and accept people at their word.

All this made us completely unable to get along with people who somehow missed the whole point of the 1960’s and ‘70’s, the people who went to school, got jobs, and went to work, who basically came before us and set up and ran the world that we would have to move into when we got out of the shelters of our progressive schools and enlightened families.

So there we were, uncomfortable in our new suits and constricting ties, awkwardly attempting to fit into the social scenes that we were not brought up in, squirming as we heard the jokes and assumptions that were made about different ethnicities, genders, financial status, sexual orientation, etc. Suffering the indignities foisted upon us by schemers and scammers, opportunists and assholes. We slowly, awkwardly, tragically came to realize that all that wonderful, utopian stuff we had been raised to believe has a snowball’s chance in hell at being accepted by the rest of the world just on the basis of its rightness.

And so, our life would be filled with awkwardness. Everything we would say and try to do would be misunderstood and wind up getting us in trouble. We would have to accept the fact that we are different and unique, and learn to either reject that and embrace the mainstream, or revel in it and fight that good fight, never compromising, even in the face of Armageddon.

And so Amy Poehler has to deal with people who don’t recognize her female political heroes and a judging committee for a beauty pageant that only sees the “hot” one. John Krasinski faces office rebellion when he finds himself having to decide how to distribute the raises for the year. Gillian Jacobs learns that helping someone live their dream does not always mean that you are going to get warm and fuzzies from them.

And this kind of comedy would not exist if it weren’t for my generation thinking that the world could ever be a different, better place.

RIP Les Paul

2009-08-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Lester William Polsfuss, AKA Les Paul, passed away yesterday. This is the sort of death that makes the passing of time noticeable.

Les Paul had invented the guitar that made Rock & Roll possible. He also pioneered multi-track recording that made recorded music able to go places live music could not. Considering these feats were accomplished before "Rock Around The Clock" hit the airwaves, and so many of the early rockers have left us, it truly shows how much time has passed since then.

I always wanted to see Les Paul live, when he was at Fat Tuesdays, then at Iridium, but I neve quite managed to get ther.Now I will never be able to.

Grab life while you can. Do what you want to do. If the fact that Les Paul's constant curiosity about the possibilities of electrified music drove him to invent instruments and techniques that allowed for breakthroughs in the entire world of music does not inspire you to do so, the fact that I never got to see this man perform live once in his 94 years, the last several decades of which he spent performing weekluy right here in my hometown, should.

Farrah Fawcett: Warrior

2009-07-06T19:24:00.000-07:00

It was easy to see her as a "bubble-headed blonde" with that face, that body, that hair, and that poster, but Farrah was always a fighter and a warrior.

The easiest thing to recognize is her success as an actress and mode. One must work tirelessly to gain that level of success. But also she starred in the first TV show with a team of female fighters for justice, "Charlie's Angels."

"The Burning Bed" raised awareness of the issue of battered women, in no small part because of Farrah.s Emmy nomination and the mere fact that she was playing a role atypical for her.

Late in life she was an example of courage as she battled the cancer that ravaged her body.

As Los Angeles prepares for the thousands that will descend upon the Staples Center for the tribute to the "King of Pop," Let's remember Farrah for giving the term "celebrity" a better name.

Captain Zorikh

Death of Three Icons

2009-06-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

In my life, I have noticed celebrity deaths coming in pairs and threes,
frequently thematically arranged. Orson Welles and Yul Brynner, two kings,
passed together in the 1980's. We lost Jim Henson and Sammy Davis, Jr., two
groundbreaking beloved entertainers, in the early 1990's.

Now Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson have passed away. And all
of them have spent time in the sci-fi fantasy world.

Ed McMahon, though never a big, featured player in the genre, did dutifully
bring his character to play in several episodes of "Alf," "Amazing Stories,"
"Sabrina the Teenage Witch," and the movie "Bewitched."

Who can forget the dreams we had of Farrah Fawcett after seeing her plead that
Michael York get "dark hair" in "Logan's Run," or in her space suits in "Saturn
3"?

And whatever else you can say about Michael Jackson, he was in the best produced
3D science fiction short film ever shown at Disneyland, "Captain Eo," and he
did create the "zombie dance" from "Thriller."

And here's one other thing that the two celebs who died on the same day have in common. They both got the world to refer to them by their first names.

Analog to Digital Conversion, Part 2: What to do if your digital converter box doesn't work, if it says “weak signal” or “no program,” or if the setup

2009-06-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

What to do if your digital converter box doesn't work, if it says “weak signal” or “no program,” or if the setup wizard does not appear on the screen after you plug it in.

That's what happened to me when I finally got my Digitalstream converter box. I hooked it up to my VCR, attached my rabbit-ear antenna that came with my TV to the box, set the VCR (which I use as my TV receiver) to channel 3, made sure the switch on the converter box was set to channel 3, and turned it on. I got the Digitalstream logo, and then a moving, screen-saver type image of a box with the words “No Program,” followed by another one saying “Weak Signal.”

I assumed that either A) this would be fixed when the changeover to digital TV happened, or B) that my antenna just wasn't strong enough to pick up the new digital signals. B was confirmed for me when I saw the program being broadcast by Channels 2 and 4 saying that you may need a new antenna, and when I visited a Radio Shack in Manhattan. I was told that I would need a new antenna. I didn't have the cash on me, so I waited until today to visit the Radio Shack in my neighborhood.

Once there I found that there were several different models of antenna, a $20 model, a $30 model, a $50 mode3l and a $60 model, the difference supposedly being their strength. I took the cheapest one and hoped for the best. I came home and plugged it in and lo and behold, the same result as with the rabbit ears!

I called 1-888-CALL-FCC to see if they could help me. While the phone was ringing I picked up the remote control for the converter box and noticed a “Menu” button. Upon pressing it, I found a menu that included “Auto Scan.” When the service rep came on the line I told him my problem and he asked me if I has scanned for channels. I told him that I had just found the menu, and would call back if I needed him.

It seems that for whatever reason, the “Setup wizard” did not activate, and that I simply had to bring up the menu myself. So, if you find yourself in this situation, here's what you do:

1. Hook up the digital converter box to your TV (or your VCR if that's what you use to receive your signal)
2.Turn on the TV and set it to Channel 3.
3.Make sure the channel 3-4 switch is set to channel 3.
4.Turn on the converter box.
5.Push the “Menu” button on the remote for the converter box.
6.Find the “Channel” function or “Channel scanning” function.
7.Find the “Auto Scan” function
8.Select that function and “Update” or Rescan” for channels.
9.When it is done, exit the menu function and you are all set to watch HDTV!

Next: What I found there!

Analog to Digital Conversion, Part 1

2009-06-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

So the Great Conversion from analog broadcasting to digital signals has occurred. Out of a sense of perverse curiosity I watched it happen Friday night. I tuned in at about 11:49 and expected to see some kind of tribute on Nightline or something to the passing era of analog broadcasts, the days when one could just buy a TV, plug it in, turn it on, and get all the information in the world for free. Perhaps they would give a more in-depth explanation for the treason for the change-over (“digital TV is so much better” just never quite rang true for me). Instead I saw that Channels 7 (ABC) and 13 (PBS) were already dead, 2 (CBS) and 4 (NBC) were playing a loop about what to do if you were still “seeing this message” (watching analog TV), 5 (Fox) was playing “The Simpsons,” 9 (My9) was showing “Law and Order,” and 11 (CW) was showing “Friends.” Most of the UHF channels were still active too, but some had shut off already.

The “The Simpsons” ended and in the middle of the credits, with no fanfare, or explanation, BLINK! It all went off. I quickly switched to the onher channels. Before long, they all were off except 17 (GCN), 35 (The Jared Whittaker Channel) and 60 (a home shopping channel). I actually got to see channel 47 blink off as well.

My friend Fred says this feels like a sign of the Zombie Apocalypse.

More to come...

A thought about the Tony Awards, 2009

2009-06-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Who knew Niel Patrick Harris could sing?

Hamlet 2, or Why I Hate Inspirational Movies, but Love Their Parodies

2009-04-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching a DVD of "Hamlet 2' a movie a missed in theaters, partly because I didn't have the time and money, and partly because the reviews were lukewarm, at best.

OK, it's not really true that I hate inspirational teacher movies. "Dead Poet's Society" was pretty good, "Renaissance Man" had some redeemable features, and I'm sure I'd enjoy "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" if I ever saw it. But as the genre gets older, with every "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "Dangerous Minds" it gets more and more stale.

Even the mainstream entertainment establishment has recognized this, however, in this post-modern new millennium, and it has pretty much become a given that any new entry into a genre has to be a parody. But mainstream being what it is, it seems that its the independent features that do it best.

Thus, "Hamlet 2," a story of a hopelessly mediocre but very hard-working actor who finds himself teaching drama in a high school in Tuscon Arizona, saddled with a class full of "Latinos," and facing the elimination of the drama program. He is inspired to create a brand new show to inspire the class and save toe program, and in the end he does. Along the way he loses his wife, meets Elizabeth Shue, and creates a First-Amendment furor.

In several ways, this was a positive, uplifting spin on "Waiting for Guffman." Whereas in that film, the show created by the fish-out-of-water writer/director/actor that inspires a community is "nice," but not great, and each person involved goes on to a sadly mediocre life, "Hamlet 2" gives us an exciting, outrageous play-within-a-movie with Hamlet, "Sexy Jesus," time travel, and a song about face rape.

But both movies are played for comedy, and many a true word has been said in jest. While a serious drama about an inspiring teacher or regional theater might suffer it the audience cannot buy the drama or the writing or a performance or casting (Michelle Pfeiffer as a former marine?), comedy gives one a chance to go over-the-top, look at the absurdity of real life, and allows the audience to accept what in a drama might be considered a shallower character.

Yet, "Guffman" was a downer. I saw it for the first time while in the middle of a theater tour (the Infamous Biggs-Rosati Trois Mousketaires tour) and it really cut close to home. It showed the sad side of those of us who feel a need to prance on a stage for audience approval, and are so willing to do wit, we will do it anywhere, for anyone.

"Hamlet 2" is an uplifting comedy. It really made me feel like creating a piece of entertainment was something that I wanted to do, that it could unite a group of people and give them something to live for, that it could help people see things they had not thought of, and could transcend cultural differences.

Currently my movie project is in a very delicate and exciting stage. The project has a lot of potential, and is finding a lot of resources, but if I don't focus and work hard for the next three weeks, it will all fall apart. Seeing this movie inspired me. When the "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" number came up, not only did the '50's rock & roll number give me the chills such music always does, it also got me all misty-eyed because I saw the cast coming together and their dreams and ambitions coming true in one great moment of unified cause.

And inspirational movies, being such a done genre,that they are hard to take seriously anymore, by simply admitting that it's been done before and going for the comedy inherent in such a done genre, disarms the critical senses, and allows the audience (well, me specifically) to buy into their reality and accept the movie for what it is, and the emotions of the characters as real.

So my new list of the top two inspirational movies includes: "Role Models" and "Hamlet 2"

Shame on That '70's Show

2009-02-15T23:04:00.000-08:00

Grwoing up in the 1970's, I learned to appreciate hat everyone should do what they feel they should do. It was the "free to Be You and Me" decade, where if a boy wants a doll, a girl wants to play baseball, and a man feels like crying, there's nothing wrong with that.

Tonight I stumbled upon an episode of "That '70's Show" in which one character was outed as a roller disco freak nicknamed "Rainbow." His dad was the conservative Korean War veteran who was constantly ashamed of his son for his unmanly behaviors, so it was expected that he wouldn't like it. But when his friends found out, they also were embarrassed, and held an "intervention" (to use an anachronistic term).

They brought the boy's dad to the roller disco rink, where they caught him in the act of dancing and having a ball in his shiny red shorts. His father told him a story about a boy from his youth who had wanted to be a ballet dancer, and years later was with the NYC Ballet. When he returned to the old neighborhood a bunch of the fellows "beat the crap out of him." After that, the roller disco boy dropped his skates and elbow pads in the trash and said "outside I m nobody, but there I was a star!"

Shame on "That '70's Show." this boy is constantly kidded for being a Star Wars fan, being particularly unathletic, and a million other things. True, the tall beautiful redhead is his girlfriend, but in the world of the show, nobody truly appreciates his passions. Once he strapped on this skates, he was confident, smooth, sure of himself, and having a ball. He found meaning and joy in his life. To take that from him was just wrong, and totally against what the 1970's were about!

I have seen 65 out of 235 films

2009-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

I found this note from a fellow Grinnell College allumnus. Looking through this list, I am reminded of the movies I have not seen, and why I have not seen them, as well as the movies I have seen, and the circumstances at which I saw them. Some of them I saw on video or TV at Grinnell College. Makes me thing of polling my fellow allumni to ask what movies they saw while they were in college and whether they had any effect on them.

According to this, I definitely have more of "a life" than I did in high school and the first few years after my first attempt at college. Then I was going to movies or watching them on TV with alarming regularity. Of course as a fan of sci-fi, fantasy, war, western, historical, and "psychotronic" films, many of the movies I had seen would not have been on an equivalent list from back then.

I also noticed a few re-made titles. I am certain the makers of the list meant the Will Smith - Martin Lawrence "Bad Boys," and not the Sean Penn vehicle from the early '80's. The "Dawn of the Dead" that I saw was the original. They list "Hulk," but not "The Incredible Hulk." Ion that las one, I figured for the purposes of this game one was as good as the other.

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 of these films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
() Starsky and Hutch
() The Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane!

Total: 8

(x) The Princess Bride
() Anchorman
() Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
() Saw
() Saw II
() White Noise
() White Oleander
() Anger Management
() 50 First Dates
() The Princess Diaries
()The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total so far: 9

() Scream
() Scream 2
() Scream 3
() Scary Movie
() Scary Movie 2
() Scary Movie 3
() Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
() American Pie 2
() American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp

Total so far: 10

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
() Resident Evil 1
() Resident Evil 2
() The Wedding Singer
() Little Black Book
() The Village
() Lilo & Stitch

Total so far: 14

(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
() Signs
() The Grinch
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
() White Chicks
() Butterfly Effect
() 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
() Robots

Total so far: 17

() Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
() Universal Soldier
() Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
() Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
(x) KingPin
() Never Been Kissed
() Meet The Parents
() Meet the Fockers
() Eight Crazy Nights
() Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG

Total so far: 19

() A Cinderella Story
() The Terminal
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Passport to Paris
() Dumb & Dumber
() Dumber & Dumberer
() Final Destination
() Final Destination 2
() Final Destination 3
() Halloween
() The Ring
() The Ring 2
() Surviving X-MAS
() Flubber

Total so far: 19

() Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
() Practical Magic
() Chicago
() Ghost Ship
() From Hell
(x) Hellboy
() Secret Window
() I Am Sam
() The Whole Nine Yards
() The Whole Ten Yards

Total so far: 20

() The Day After Tomorrow
() Child's Play
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
() Ten Things I Hate About You
() Just Married
() Gothika
() Nightmare on Elm Street
() Sixteen Candles
() Remember the Titans
() Coach Carter
() The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
() The Mask
() Son Of The Mask

Total so far: 20

() Bad Boys
() Bad Boys 2
() Joy Ride
() Lucky Number Slevin
() Ocean's Eleven
() Ocean's Twelve
() Bourne Identity
() Bourne Supremecy
() Lone Star
() Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
() The Fog
() Ice Age
() Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
() Curious George

Total so far: 22

(x) Independence Day
() Cujo
() A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
() Children of the Corn
() My Boss's Daughter
() Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
() Rush Hour
() Rush Hour 2

Total so far: 25

() Best Bet
() How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
() She's All That
() Calendar Girls
() Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon
() Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 32

(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
() Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
() Catch Me If You Can
() The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
(x) Reign of Fire
() The Skulls
() Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
() Shrek 2

Total so far: 35

() Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
() Old School
() The Notebook
() K-Pax
() Krippendorf's Tribe
() A Walk to Remember
() Ice Castles
() Boogeyman
() The 40-year-old Virgin

Total so far: 36

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Total so far: 42

() Baseketball
() Hostel
(x) Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
() Devils Rejects
() Elf
(x) Highlander
() Mothman Prophecies
() American History X
() Three

Total so Far: 44

() The Jackel
() Kung Fu Hustle
() Shaolin Soccer
(x) Night Watch
() Monsters Inc.
() Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
() Willard

Total so far: 47

() High Tension
() Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
() 28 days later
() Orgazmo
() Phantasm
(x) Waterworld

Total so far: 52

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
() The Hills Have Eyes
() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
() The Last House on the Left
() Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness

Total so far: 55

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
(x) Ewoks The Battle For Endor

Total so far: 62

(x) The Matrix
() The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
() Animatrix
() Evil Dead
() Evil Dead 2
() Team America: World Police
() Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
() Hannibal

Total so far: 65

Now add them up and...

Put "I've seen x out of 239 films" in the subject line and repost it.

Is Everyone Gay?

2009-01-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

I just channel-surfed into Channel 13's late-night indie film. In an early scene a woman making a toast at a wedding says that she wants to make love to the bride.

Well, this movie had no swords, soldiers, or spaceships, so I surfed away and landed on "Family Guy." It was an episode about gay marriage.

Is everyone gay?

Wait, I just surfed back to the movie on channel 13. She was not talking about the bride, she was talking about the groom and his two best friends.

Wow, did I read that wrong. Maybe it's just because it seemed so much like a sign pof the times that I assumed it was the other thing.

Well, I guess I can't rant on how I hope that everyone gets over this whole gay marriage thing. Legalize it and move on.

John McCain, Forgotten Man...

2008-12-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

One of several random thoughts about the media in 2008.

NBS is currently having its Today Show year-end wrap up. They just named the Five Most Intriguing People of 200. They are 5 – Miley Cyrus, 4 – Tina Fey, 3 – Michael Phelps, 2 – Sarah Palin, 1 – Barack Obama.

After the rundown the hosts, Al Roker, Ann Curry, Meredith Vierra, and Matt Lauer, mentioned a few other names that were worthy of mention, including the Jonas Brothers, Beyonce, and Joe the Plummer. However, somehow there was not a mention of John McCain.

Elsewhere in the program Hillary Clinton had gotten some screen time, and the election itself was covered, but poor McCain, somehow, was the forgotten man this year. Older than all the other candidates (some might joke “combined”), not terribly charismatic, disabled, saddled with being of the party of one of the most embarrassing presidents in American history, and being unpopular among its hardcore base that had carried it to victory for the past three decades, the poor guy can't catch a break

Role Models, the Greatest Movie Ever!

2008-12-02T00:56:00.001-08:00

I am very, very glad I saw this movie. I cried.

It tells the story of two men in differing stages of arrested development who find themselves in a court-ordered position to mentor two young boys. Through this process, all four people find what they did not even know they needed.

I identified with three of the four people. I identified with one boy because he is a LARPer. He finds in the world of Live Action Role Playing a world where he can immerse himself and live out fantasies that are not possible n the real world, be the best that he can be, and ultimately find the confidence to grow up.

I Identify with the bored yuppie. He is really a wanna-be yuppie, who in 10 years has not been able to get out of a job he despises. He sees through the fallacy of pitching energy drinks while preaching against drugs and wishes desperately that he could break out of his rut. The darkly ironic world around him has given him a cynicism that goes beyond world-=weariness to true nihilism.

I identify with the Man-Boy. He sees the irony too, but in a benign way, doesn't care. He recognizes that the stupid, demeaning, morally bankrupt job he has pays his rent and allows him to get laid without ever having to put on a suit, or even shave. With few responsibilities, he is free to under-achieve, so long as he has fun and no one tells him what to do. He doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, he his happy within himself and blissfully unaware of the effect he has on those around him.

In the course of the film, the bored yuppie sees that there is opportunity to find happiness, by creating one's own world, and sharing it with others. People are imaginative enough to create shared fantasies, establish parallel societies in which one can be something that the “average person” may not understand. Although in the world of this film it was a LARP, for some people it is their bowling league, their stamp collecting club, or even political activism.

The Man-Boy realizes that making a connection with somebody can be more rewarding that hedonistic pleasure. Feeling the beneficial change you can bring to a person makes you feel like a worthwhile person, and betraying a trust that person has given to you is the worst feeling in the world.

The LARPer learns that if you can take a chance with one thing, you can take a chance with anything, and even if in one thing you don't succeed, in something else you might. Most importantly, though, he he realizes his dream of becoming king of his LARP, if only briefly, and then realizes his greater dream of kissing a girl he likes.

This movie also taught me a few things about film making. One cannot underestimate the importance of setup and payoff. Everything in the movie built up to a big payoff at the climax, and between identifying with three of the four protagonists, following the story arc, and understanding the motivations of all the characters, and furthermore, understanding truly why bringing a pickup truck dressed up like a minotaur into a LARP while dressed like the members of Kiss is true wish-fulfillment for me, all the comedy, drama, and emotion that had built up in the film, and in my life, came pouring out of my tear ducts.

Terrence Howard Fired From Iron Man 2!

2008-10-22T01:09:00.000-07:00

Terrence Howard is an Oscar-nominated actor. He gave a fine performance as Col. James Rhodes, Tony Stark's friend and miltiary liason to Stark Industries. He apparently will not be repeating the role http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/terrencehoward_blog.html http://www.cinematical.com/2008/10/20/terrence-howard-doesnt-know-why-iron-man-dumped-him/

This is not the first time a character has been played by another actor in a subsequent film in the series. James Bond, Batman, Harvey Dent, Rachel Dawes, Lt. Saavik, Kitty Pryde, Dumbledor, have all fallen into this category.

But I wonder how I feel about this. first off, Col. Rhodes was a re-interpretation of a character from the comics. The original "Rhodey" was not an officer, and was a much more "ethnic character" than the movie version. Terrence Howard has made a career out of playing some of the most well-spoken, mainstream, polite, "white" black people in the movies, and this was no exception. He would do a damn fine job of it, making me believe every word he said, every scene he was in.

Don Cheadle certainly has darker skin color, and potential for more "ethnic character" and even comedy. But was this the right choice for the movie.

Every movie adaptation makes changes from the original story for various reasons, including updating the material to fit current events and society, as was the case here. Placing Tony Stark in Afghanistan rather than Vietnam effectively updated the story and gave it relevance. The character of Rhodes was upgraded to one of greater authority and achievement, whereas the original was practically a sidekick to Tony Stark/Iron Man. Can Cheadle bring the same sense of nobility and authority to the role, or will they rewrite the role to play to his comedic strength? And will audiences buy the change, or will it distract form the picture?

Whatever the answers, I am disappointed that an actor of Howard's character will not get to return, and become War Machine. And I was very curious as to how Lando Calrissian would have done as Two-Face.

What the Hell's Kitchen Chef Taught Me

2008-09-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

I usually don't watch "reality" shows or make time for "makeover" shows, but every once in a while I surf past one at get curious enough to stay tuned. Last night I stumbled on to "Kitchen Nightmares," Where Chef Gordon Ramsay goes into various restaurants that are not doing so well and fixes them up. In some cases all they need is a re-focusing of the menu and better efficiency in running the business. In others, the just need to be neutron-bombed and completely re-done from the ground up. In every case, after a visit to the restaurant as a customer and an observation of an evening, Gordon shuts down the place, makes changes, and when the place re-opens, it is a big success, and when he revisits, the place is doing even better because they have stuck with the changes.

Of course nothing is ever as perfect or quick as it appears on TV, but one thing does come through. In almost every case, the restaurants were poorly and inefficiently manged, certain egos were getting in the way of good work, and things needed to change. Gordon totally broke down the owners' and manager' egos and then showed them how to make the business work. Also, simplicity, focus, and efficiency were a big part of wheat he brought to the business.

This is a good lesson for a lot of us, especially people like me who are "all over the place." We have to cut out the crap, ditch the excess baggage which is holding us back, and focus on our strength. Ego is nothing. Success is everything.

So, the Incredible Hulk, Eh?

2008-08-24T22:10:00.001-07:00

Well, I first saw this movie sneaking in after the first 15 minutes or so. I came in during a chase scene where Banner was running from the soldiers under General Ross trying to catch him, the scene that ended with the first appearance of the Hulk. I figured I had missed some of the initial character set-up and I didn't know if the origin of the Hulk had been shown, and I had not seen the Ang Lee movie, so I was willing to take the movie on its terms at that. I thought the the movie was awesome! The Comic Book Superhero Movie genre has finally hit its stride, with Dark Knight, Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men 2, and now this.

Then a few days later I saw the entire movie. It seems all I missed was the montage of shots that covered the origin and a little set-up of Banner in Brazil. There was very little dialogue, very little character development or even exposition to get you into the character and scenario. It's ;like the filmmaker assumed you knew the origin already and this was just a quick reminder.
From what I hear tell, the Ang Lee film was all about how childhood abuse had built up much anger in Bruce Banner, which was the source of his great rage as thew Hulk. This movie did not even touch anything regarding anything about any possible psychological background for Banner, and was the weaker for it. It acted as if all the background was either known by the audience already or was being hidden so that the reveal would be the shock.

This workled a little bit, such as when Betty Ross first called General Ross “Daddy,” if you did not know the connection there it was a worthwhile reveal. But still, as the movie was set up as if you were plopped into the middle of a story, as a stand-alone feature it would have been strengthened by just a little more character set-up.

That having been said, there were many reasons that it did work as a Comic Book Super Hero Movie. As a genre, the CBSHM plays best to comic book fans, especially those familiar with the character. By the time the movie is made, it can be assumed that the character is popular enough to support a movie. That being the case, there must be a reason the character is popular. Therefore, the best CBSHM's are true to the character and trust the source.

The source for this movie, and character, seems to be as much the 1970's TV series with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. The references are legion: Banner says “Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry. There is a clip from another Bill Bixby TV show, “The Courtship of Eddie's Father,” playing in one scene (although I think “My Favorite Martian” would have been a more appropriate homage). Lou Ferrigno has a cameo appearance. Banner is referred to as a “Fugitive” no less than twice (“The Fugitive” was a TV series that predated, and was conceptually much like the Hulk TV series).When Banner changes into the Hulk, at one point we see the close-up on his spot-lighted eyes just like the TV show; we see the shirt split across his back; we even see the Hulk pull the shirt off his chest, Ferrigno-like.

The action is astounding. I often have problems with these sorts of action movies when the director feels we have to have everything close-up, in your face, to give a sense of the drama. Michael Bay (Transformers) and Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever) are particularly guilty on that score. This time, however, the director trusted the drama of the actual action, allowing us to see the Hulk battle his adversaries, much the way Fred Astaire and Gene Kelley and Jackie Chan were always allowed to be seen in action. Yay!

However, weakness is shown when the movie assumes that all viewers will be familiar with the character, and thus necessary set-up and development is set aside. So this is an awesome movie , but could have been just a little bit more.

Narnia: Deus Ex Machina...well Duh!

2008-08-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

I saw the latest Chronicles of Narnia movie, “Prince Caspian” the other day. First off, it fulfills the requirement of a wizards and warriors fantasy movie quite capable. There are magical creatures, court intrigue, lots of armor and action, noble heroes, dastardly villains, and courage, resourcefulness, and faith wins out in the end. The four children from the first movie travel back to Narnia a year later their time, 1300 years later, Narnia time. They find the ruins of their old castle, and that the country is overrun by humans who have taken over the land from the magical creatures, much the way the White Man took over America from the Native Americans. The human prince who is supposed to fulfill a prophecy by becoming king escapes a murderous rival and resolves the differences between his people and their enemies.

Yes, the story very satisfactorily plays out the formula. The good people live, the bad people die, but only because they are killed by other bad people or by good people in a fair fight.

One thing that did seem remarkable, was that after many more centuries than the US has beenin existance, the conquerors of Narnia had not neither subjugated, assimilated, nor exterminated the original inhabitants. In a similar ammount of timejust about every people that Rome conquered had fallen into one of these categories. Further, in the resolution of the film, rather than the two people reconciling and learning to live together (a very modern, American idea), the had-been conquerers are sent packing. You'd think after several hundred years, and at least 9 kings (Prince Caspian was to be the 10th of that name), they would have started to identify the land as their home.

But the ending, oh the ending. The denouement is so “perfect.” It has Aslan, the magical creature and savior, meting out justice to one and all and making sure that every dilemma is resolved by his use of magic and wisdom. This is the very definition of Deus Ex Machina. After all, the whole Chronicle of Narnia is a Christian parable, and Aslan represents Jesus Christ. So there it is.

Captain Zorikh
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The Fall: A different sort of Fantasy movie

2008-08-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Everyone in the world is going to see Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, Chronicles of Narnia, The Hulk, etc., etc. this year, but I want to encourage you to seek out another movie that is every bit as visually inventive, fascinating, and fantastic as any of those movies want to be: The Fall.

The Fall is about the relationship that develops between a young girl and a man who tells her a story. They are both in a hospital, having suffered injuries from falls. The girl has a broken arm from picking oranges, and the man is paralyzed from the waist down from a stunt accident while making a movie. The man starts to tell a fascinating adventure story that draws the girl in, and a friendship grows between them,. The film takes place around the turn of the century, when movies were just getting started, and the story the man tells takes place in an adventure-fantasy world, and is seen visualized through the eyes of the child, who interprets everything through what she knows, her family, the people in the hospital etc. However as the story develops, the man's depression and pain starts to be revealed.

The images are truly fantastic in this film. The production traveled all over the world to find sites to shoot, and they found some amazing, surreal locations. If there is any use of CGI, it is subtle and used to show things that would simply be too dangerous or difficult to convincingly show in real film.

The story told by the man is of an adventure in which an escaped slave, an Indian warrior, Luigi the Explosives Expert, Charles Darwin and his companion monkey Wallace, a primitive mystic, and a masked bandit go on a quest to exact revenge on the evil Governor Odious for wrongs he has done them. The adventure takes them to amazing places and they do amazing things, all within their characters.

The view of the story through the girl's eyes is fascinating. While the hospital is in California, and the storyteller is American, the girl is apparently from India, and her interpretations are thus drawn form what she is familiar with. One of the most blatant examples is the “Indian,” which although described by the man as having a wigwam and being married to a squaw, is seen in the mind of the girls as a turbaned, bearded, sword-wielding warrior from the Asian subcontinent.
The title refers to several falls that occur in the movie, those of the two protagonists that put each of them in the hospital, several that occur in the film, and at least one fall of a character's standing in another's eyes. Those who like looking for symbolism will find much to play with there.

This movie was made in 2006 and has taken several years to get an American release. The poster for it is as abstract as parts of the movie may feel, and I fear it may not get many viewers outside cities like New York. It is based on a 1981 Hungarian film called Yo Ho Ho which I now hope to see sometime.

In the midst of all the “Summer Blockbusters” and franchise movies and “Eagerly Anticipated” epics, I hope many, many more people take the time to see this movie. You can get your fill of fancy costumes, spectacular sets, and fantasy concepts, and still have a thoughtful movie worth thinking about that says something about the role of fantasy and friendship in life.

Captain Zorikh
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Star Wars is Everywhere

2008-08-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

I just saw the promo spot for this week's "Deal or No Deal," one of my least favorite game shows. It is Star Wars Week for them, apparently. All the girls will be dressed in "Slave Leia" costumes. I did make note of two things: 1. they were referred to as "Princess Leia," not "Slave Leia" (which make sense, after all, since "Princess..." is the name of the character as the general public knows her and "Slave..." is what we fans call her when she is in our favorite costume ;)), and that they were not wearing collars. And here I thought SM had entered the mainstream. I guess that would have just been a bit TOO daring for prime time.

RIP Arthur C. Clarke

2008-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

RIP Arthur C. Clarke
Word the world learned of Arthur C. Clarke's death on March 16 2008. He dies at the last surviving member of what many consider to be the great triumvirate of classic science fiction writers of the 20th century, Himself, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein.

Like many people, my first, and most intimate contact with Clarke was through the movie “2001: A space Odyssey.” I was born the year it came out, which was also the year the first Planet of the Apes movie came out. It was a good year for science fiction films, creatively, critically, and commercially. Both of these films took a genre that had been relegated to b-movies, world destruction, alien invasion, etc, and showed that the science fiction could be used to examine the human condition in a first class manner.

“2001” also tapped into a social movement that saw mankind's destiny in the stars and sought new ways of exploring consciousness. On the one hand, folks were attempting to find a new, harmonious relationship with the planet and beyond, and on the other, were lying down in front of the front row of the theater smoking pot watching the colors zoom past them.

As a teenager I read the novel, the sequel “2010,” (though it would be a few years before I saw that movie), and “The Lost Worlds of 2001,” the original short story and a collection of writing exercises by the author around it. This was during a summer I spent at a summer stock theater in Upstate New York. I never saw stars like that before in my life. The crystal clear mountain air opened up the heavens to me and I found myself spending hours lying in the grass of the harness racing track at the fairgrounds just gazing up at the Milky Way. I imagines that somewhere up there was the Monolith, just waiting for me.

I also read the Foundation series and Battlefield Earth that summer, so it was a good summer for Science Fiction.

But before I had ever read the books or seen the movie, I had been aware of it. Even before VHS, Betamax, and DVD made every movie have three birthdays and was instantly available to everyone, “2001” was a cultural icon. My closest contact with it was the comic book series by Jack Kirby. I found an issue of it in a grab bag from Supersnipe, the old comic book shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In it was a story of a stone-age leader who, after contact with the Monolith, uses the revolutionary technology of metalworking and the wheel to conquer his neighbors. The story then jumped forward in time to his distant descendant who's journey paralleled that of Kier Dulea in the movie.

I was very much a child of my times. The idea that mankind had a connection to the stars, a destiny beyond this planet attracted me. Having been given an unusual name in that era helped. I was a bit of an outsider, and such outsiders frequently were the ones chosen to find their cosmic destiny in stories I read and saw in the movies.

Not only had Arthur C. Clarke written the definitive story about mankind's cosmic destiny, he predicted that we would reach the moon before 1970, and he was right. In many ways, I am a product of the culture that he began.

Captain Zorikh
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More Star Wars?

2008-08-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month it was announced that there will be two new programs for television created from the Star Wars universe. One will be “The Clone Wars,” which will be a CGI animated full-length film on Cartoon Network which will cover events between “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”; the other is an as-yet unnamed series described in the New York Post as “Deadwood” meets “The Sopranos” in outer space.

But why?

The first Star Wars movie was, as we all know, but one fraction of the story George Lucas says he wanted to tell, yet it was a completely satisfactory moviegoing experience. It took us into a completely new universe that was at once strange and familiar at the same time. The story had a beginning, a middle, and an end, a backstory, a broader universe, and a conclusion and resolution. It did have an open ending, unfinished business, but one could write one's own ending. The foreground conflict had been completed.

The second movie continued the story and developed the characters that we had grown attached to in the first movie. It took us to new places and we learned new things about the characters and the universe in which they lived. But it was not the end of the story. The conclusion, as it were, was merely the set up for the climax to the greater story arc, which would come in the next film.

The third (and some thought, the last) film wrapped up the great drama, but gave us very little that was new. It made a few choices, answered some questions, but for all the sound and fury, thrill and excitement, it was really little more than a juiced up rehash of all the elements that made the first movie so new and fresh.

Yeas passed, and the technology of film making improved. Star Wars had become a cultural phenomenon that redirected popular culture. Yet eventually there were adults who had not been born when the first movie was released. A “special edition” of the Original Trilogy” was created, in which Lucas allegedly gave us the Film He Always Wanted to Make. But part of the brilliance of the first film was how he had made so much of so little. Many of the additions to the original film were quite unnecessary.

Finally, Lucas decided to tell the backstory. Sure it what we all wanted to see, but would it still have the magic?

Sadly, no. Was it the dependence on CGI? Was it that George had lost his touch for writing and directing? Was it the political incorrectness and sheer annoyingness of Jar-Jar Binks? I'll let everybody decide for themselves. The succeeding films continued to give us more lightsaber fights, more space dogfights, more alien races, and so much CGI that a rumor was spread that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would categorize it as an “animated” film.
This does not even take into account the comic books, comic strips, radio show, novels, fan fiction, Ewok adventures, Droid cartoons, and the notorious and infamous “Holiday Special.” Let's face it: we loved that original movie so much we just couldn't get enough. Fortunately the Star Wars franchise shattered Harlan Ellison's rule: less than 90% of it was crap.

So now there is almost no more room for debate, or creativity with regards to the Star Wars universe. We no longer have the freedom to wonder what made Luke's father go bad, who is that “other hope,” what happened to the Empire after the Death Star went kablooey, or even how one measures The Force. All these questions have been answered. The first movie was so brilliant for giving all these little hints and little mysteries, and we all could create our own little answers to all those question, much like the way that one would imagine the face of someone described in a book.

But lets face it, we want to see more stormtroopers in white plastic armor. We want to see what the Clone Wars were all about. We want to see a young, virile Obi-Wan face off against the future Darth Vader. We want to see Luke and Leia's parents. We want to see And we want to see our favorite badass with a purple lightsaber. Look at the prequel trilogy again. Doesn't it show you all those things you wish you had seen in the original trilogy, they just didn't have the budget to give you?

We were lucky with that first movie. It is not easy to make a perfect fantasy adventure movie, as you can tell by looking at “Battle Beyond the Stars,” “Deathstalker,” “The Sword and the Sorcerer,” “Star Crash,” even the various versions and chapters of “The Lord of the Rings.” Sometimes the best we can hope for is that the film is well produced and enables us to forget our world for a while. And instead of having to watch that same movie over and over again, we now have a large and ever-growing library of adventures in that universe, so by having established a universe we are familiar with, we can explore further concepts in that universe. We don't have to create a whole new universe for every new story.

So is it necessary to have a never-ending, ever developing universe based on a modestly produced but wildly successful sci-fi fantasy film from the 1970's? No, but it sure makes life more pleasant.

Captain Zorikh
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RIP Dave Stevens

2008-08-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

RIP Dave Stevens
Back in the early 1980's comics as a means of self-expression became much more viable with the growth of creator-owned comics properties. Companies like Pacific, First, Warp Graphics, etc gave us a whole host of new characters, all owned by their creators, in stories that were frequently more mature than the typical superheroes that dominated Marvel and DC comics. Graphic novels showed that occasionally, sequential art could tell a story no less meaningful and sophisticated than any book or movie. And most importantly, many very talented writers and artists got to do the work they always wanted to do.

In this brave new world, stepped Dave Stevens, blazing with talented, the ability to tell a story and draw women that were realistic, yet unbelievably sexy. He gave the world The Rocketeer, a dashing, heroic adventure in the tradition of the Saturday matinée serials of a bygone age. I spent many hours drinking in each page of the carefully crafted comic. I only learned later how much time he took making sure every panel was perfect, when it all looked so smooth and natural.

And of course that comic brought fetish icon Bettie Page to a new level of popularity. I had heard of her before, but to see her in these adventures made her seem like a real person. That pin-up model from the old black & white photographs was now in full-color glory. And I could easily understand poor Cliff Secord being in love with her.

The Rocketeer was eventually turned into a movie that was one of the most faithful comics-to-film translations ever (even though Bettie was replaced by a character played by Jennifer Connelly – still beautiful, but without the famous bangs).

Dave's perfectionism explains in part why there were very few issues of the Rocketeer comic book beyond the original graphic novel, which is a shame. That kind of adventure captured a spirit of fun and innocence of a bygone era, an era where pluck and courage, the conviction of doing what is right, would see a hero through against the greatest of adversity. Stevens' art and storytelling told that adventure in a way that was effective and accessible like no other had. His passing to Leukemia at age 59 assures us that there will never be any more, at least, not by his hand, and that is a tragic loss.

You can post your tributes to Dave Stevens on his website at http://www.davestevens.com/
You can make contributions in Dave Stevens' name to http://www.hairycellleukemia.org/

Captain Zorikh
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Doomsday ain't what is used to be, only more so

2008-08-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

When I was much younger I was into role-playing games and wargames. I was also very concerned about the threat of nuclear war. A friend of mine told me “The Road Warrior” was the most awesome movie ever, but I was too young to go see it on my own, and my mom wouldn't take me. Then I found the game Car Wars. And I thought that this must be what the Road Warrior is about. Then finally I was old enough to see the movie in a revival theater in a double feature with Blade Runner (which I had also never seen).

I was totally blown away. This may have been my first post-apocalypse movie ever, and it was certainly the most exciting. Who knew the end of the world could be so exciting? The fast pace, the sense of speed, the production design, the action, it all left a very big impression on me. I watched that movie every time it came to the revival theaters (this being years before owning a VCR. I hunted down every bit of information I could fins about it,and when I was at a friend's house who had cable, snuck down to the living room to watch Mad Max for the first time.

I can quote chapter and verse on those movies. I would talk about nothing else for years. I even adapted Shakespeare's MacBeth to tell the story of the Nightrider. At one time I had three different Road Warrior T-shirts. My girlfriend called me her “Little Road Warrior.”

I then hunted down post-apocalyptic films like a fiend. 42nd street gave me “Warriors of the Lost World” “Warriors of the Wasteland,” and “Steel Dawn.” Revival theaters gave me ”Night of the Comet,” “A Boy and his Dog,” and repeated showings of “Mad Max” and “The Road Warrior.” TV gave me “Damnation Alley,” “Dead Man Walking,” “The Day After,” and “Weeds.” Videotapes gave me “Defcon 4,” “Radioactive Dreams,” “After the Fall of New York,” “Wheels of Fire,” “Six String Samurai,” "Gas-s-s-s-s-s or We Had to Destroy the World in Order to Save It,"and many more. I still have yet to find a copy of “No Blade of Grass.” I would judge every movie by how realistic the post-apocalyptic landscape was, how believable it was that the world had gone to hell, and how exciting it was compared to “The Road Warrior.”

In time, the Cold War ended and the fear of nuclear holocaust faded. With it, the post-apocalypse genre fell out of favor. Recently, however, it has come back with a new scourge: zombies/plague.

I am not the sociologist/historian to fully analyze the whys and wherefores of this development, but I suspect it has something to do with th acclimation of the world to the AIDS epidemic and the popularity of the zombie movies created and inspired by George A. Romero. There is probably something about the purity of zombies as an adversary: they have no soul so there is nothing wrong with killing them (again,) they are unstoppable, and they are ugly; like vampires without the sex appeal. Thus they can appeal to horror fans who don't want their terror interfered with by soul searching and sexual tension.

There is also something appealing about exploring the story of last survivors of mankind. They pick through the ruins of the old world, using familiar items in unfamiliar ways. Stylings frequently have a s&m/punk/heavy metal look, which is exciting to look at. There is usually a lawlessness that resembles the Old West, and who doesn't like a good western? There is also the opportunity to explore fright and terror, as with the collapse of civilization, there is nothing stopping the rampages of the truly depraved.

So put the appeal of the post-apocalypse film together with the modern concerns about disease and the popularity of the living dead, and you've got a new genre of film, the zombie/plague post-apocalypse film, who's most notable entries include “Land of the Dead,” “I am Legend,” “28 Days Later,” and the “Resident Evil” series.

Now put all these films together into one, and make that film not quite as good as the best of them,. And you've got “Doomsday,” which I saw last night at a midnight screening. Just about everything in it is borrowed/stolen from another movie. All of Scotland in quarantined due to a plague, like New York in “I Am Legend.” 20 years later, the land is scorched, like in “Reign of Fire,” and the plague appears in London, like in “I Am Legend” again. A team is sent in to Glasgow to find the doctor who had stayed there working for a cure, like the search for the last fertile woman in “After the Fall of New York.” They travel in large armored vehicles like the ones in “Damnation Alley” with a crack military team equipped with two-way video devices, like in “Aliens.” Also like in “Aliens,” most of the team is killed and their vehicles destroyed early. The survivors are led through a “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” type culture but escape, and find another society living in a recreated medieval culture (one of the few bits I could not place the inspiration of). There is a “Gladiator” fight scene, and then our heroes escape again, which leads to a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” type storehouse, which leads to a highway battle scene that is straight out of “The Road Warrior.” There is also a subplot involving the government that echoes “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” and “Dr. Strangelove.”

In the near six decades since the post-apocalypse film first appeared, action, horror, and violence in films has seen a steady increase in intensity. This has been due to improving technology, makeup technique, and the drive to one-up each previous film. “Mad Max” and “The Road Warrior” were breakthrough films in that regard, and future car chases and post-apocalypse action films were all compared to them, frequently failing.

“Doomsday” does not fail in trying to be harder, faster, and more intense than any similar film before it. Where earlier movies may have tastefully or strategically looked away from a beheading or a body on fire, this one showed it right on screen, front and center. With the fast pacing and quick cuts of the car chae, the pace was made even faster and the cuts even quicker. However, this extreme graphic violence and frenetic camera work and editing did not really improve the film. Instead it distracted from the story and sometimes made it too confusing to know what was going on.

I must especially say this about the car chase scene in the end. Several notes that were hit in “The Road Warrior” were blatantly copied, but were either lost in all the chaos, or were simply not done as well or were too obvious.

The thing that I thought was most specifically interesting was the medieval culture. As a well-known medievalist, I of course dug the idea of a post-apocalyptic society that chose to bring back an age of chivalry. However this culture was not one of goodness and hope that the heroes had been looking for. Instead it was ruled by a cynical madman, and ultimately was just as ruthless and evil, in its own way, as the Glasgow cannibals. Whereas in every medieval movie you would see a skeleton in a cage hanging from the castle walls, in this one, you actually saw people on the verge of death in cages right next to them. The cruel Darwinian philosophy of the ruler of this kingdom was just an excuse to kill, in as entertaining a way as possible, outsiders. The modern primitive tribal punk s&m-styled culture in Glasgow also killed outsiders in as entertaining a way as possible for them, they were merely more simplistic about their reason, their hatred of the outsiders.

So the film gets point for effort, and for showing that they know what they were trying to do, and the film did not lack pace. But if there was a lesson in there, something about a warning for the future and about how it is bad to kill people, or even let them die, that in that way we lose our humanity, but it was kind of lost in the graphic violence and hyper-kinetic editing.

Postscript: since I originally wrote this review, I saw another review that pointed out that this was a "tribute" to post-apocalypse movies. Ok, there it is then.

Hipsters on the Hill

2008-08-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

First, let me say that “King of the Hill” is the most respectable of the Sunday night cartoons. The characters in it all based in reality. Although they are caricatures, they are not impossible characters. As such, you can come to truly like and respect them, as opposed to simply being amused by them, as you would just about everyone in “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” and “American Dad.”

The lead character, Hank Hill, is the “anti-Simpson.” A reviewer pointed out that he, and the show, genuinely represented middle-class virtues. This is true. The man works hard in one of those jobs that you never think about but society as we know it could not live without. He sells and delivers propane. He believes in his product, and doing his job well. He accepts people for who and what they are, warts and all. He tries hard to see the good in people, no matter how little he understands them. And he genuinely appreciates things that he likes because he likes them, not because it is “cool” or “hip” to like them.

In tonight's episode, Hank's wife Peggy sells a house in a largely Mexican-populated neighborhood to a “hipster.” This hipster had wanted a house that was “real,” in other words, a neighborhood with no white, non-ethnic people, much like the neighborhoods I have moved into every time I have moved since I was 18: Harlem, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint. This, of course, was immediately followed by a wave of young people with questionable fashion sense playing kickball, skateboarding, and opening art galleries.

It seems that “real,” meaning “non-white” implies that there is a phoniness to white culture. That you can only be “real” is you are in a minority Perhaps this attitude is in the tradition of middle-class teenage rebellion against the apparently stifling limitations of middle class culture, against the emphasis on moderation and predictability that the suburbs became when WWII veterans came home, got married, and started raising kids. They felt that by moving into an “ethnic” neighborhood, the could get more “real.”

The truth is that, yes, suburban life is limiting. The culture that has built up there is largely a product of commercial marketing. But if you want to find a place to live that is not so much, just moving into one with no white people is not the answer.

The tradition of young people with artistic inclinations moving into ethnic neighborhoods can be traced to the American Bohemian movements of the 20th century. Artists have always lived on the edge of poverty, and thus have sought affordable housing, and showed a willingness to “rough it” in exchange for cheap living space. These spaces frequently turned out to be abandoned industrial and blighted ethnic ghettos. In the 1950's and early '60's, this took them to neighborhoods of New York City like Greenwich Village. In the '80's it was the East Village and TriBecCa. In the '90's it was Williamsburg, etc., etc. What would happen then is the process we now know as Gentrification.

Gentrification is the process by which a “real” neighborhood becomes a product of corporate capitalism. First come the artists, who hold events in the loft spaces of converted factories, etc. Then come the coffee shops and stores set up to serve the artists. Next come the wealthy people who want to see what the artists are doing. Then come the children of rich and middle class people who want to be artists. Then follow the entrepreneurs who open more fashionable coffee shops and boutiques to serve the reich people coming to see the artists and the children of the rich and middle class. By then the landlords have realized that they are sitting on a goldmine and start raising the rents, pushing out the original tenants and the first wave of artists, who now can no longer afford to live in the neighborhood they “revitalized.” By the time that's done, the only businesses who can afford to open there are large corporate chain stores like Starbucks and Victoria's Secret.

This process has become so efficient, streamlined, even, that it can bypass some of the steps, such as the artists moving in, and go straight to the children of the rich and middle-class wanting to live like artists, and that is what happened in this episode of “King of the Hill.” And looking at this particular story, that is what I find annoying about hipsters. In their worst manifestations, they are not really artists, they don;t really want to be artists, they just want to live like them.
There are three types of people. There are those who do things, like artists, cowboys, and recreational bowlers, for instance (doers). Then there are those who think it would be interesting or fun to do these things once or twice (tourists). They take art classes, go to dude ranches, make a date with friends to go bowling. Finally, there are those people who think it would be fun or cool to be the person who does these things. Those are hipsters. They are annoying because the ruin it for the rest of us, the doers and the tourists.

Doers can respect tourists if they have an interest in setting up an industry for them, That's why art classes and dude ranches exist. They take the tourists' money, give them what they paid for, and everyone goes home happy. Then the hipsters come in.

The hipsters walk into a place and say “Look at me! I'm being hip because I am doing this!” without truly digging what it is they are doing. The bad haircuts, aggressively out of shape bodies, and thrift-story little league t-shirts that don't fit are all symptoms of this. Real artists don't have time and money to get haircuts, work out, and buy clothes, that is why they look the way they do. By imitating this look, they are practically insulting the artists, as well as driving up the price of second-hand t-shirts. When they take over the ballfields to play kickball, they are not doing it because they really enjoy kickball over any other recreational sport, it is because of the irony of playing a kids game as a grown-up. They are not saying “I love this game,” they are saying “I love being being the person that plays this game.” When they do suburban middle-class things class things like set up lawn chairs and drink beer and have Tupperware parties, it is not because they are seeking the serenity that comes from a satisfying suburban middle-class lifestyle, ti is because it is fun to be ironic, and it is ironic that these “rebel artists” are doing suburban, middle-class things. And when they moved into the Mexican immigrants neighborhood, it was not because it was all they could afford, it was so that they could say “Look at me! I'm cool enough to hang with ethnic types and I'm bringing hip culture with me!”
Hank was in the neighborhood because one of his co-workers wanted him to say some words about his daughter on the occasion of her 15th birthday (a celebration in Mexican culture). There he discovered the best fish tacos he had ever tasted and other aspects of Mexican immigrant culture that he really liked. However, the hipsters had come in, acted like they were “bro's” of the locals, and playing their weird, depressing music in the local cantina. Then their presence raised the property values, and Hank's friend had his rent raised.

When Hank discovered that the fish taco he had enjoyed was now replaced with salmon, he realized that his wife's success as a realtor was spelling the end of a way of life of his friend. Peggy realized her mistake and together with their friends, they made the neighborhood appear as white and normal as any normal, white neighborhood. They showed up at the doorstep of a hipster couple with a casserole saying “welcome to the neighborhood!” They put on sweatsuits and went walking for exercise while pushing a baby carriage. They had their middle-aged white guy in an undershirt act like he had just bought the house next door. Soon the hipsters packed up their lawn chairs, art galleries, and kickballs and moved out.

That's the sort of outcome that could only happen on television.

Captain Zorikh
http://www.captainzorikh.com
http://www.bigapplecon.com

RIP: Gary Gygax

2008-08-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

A father is gone.

The world that we in the fantasy fan community enjoy, one in which wizards and warriors, elves and dwarves, magic and monsters and yes, dungeons and dragons are common parlance owes a great deal of debt to the man who placed a dragon in a wargame.

When I was 11 year old I had heard of D&D, but had never actually seen the game. Then someone in school brought out the three books and the half-dozen dice and started a campaign. That was it. Everyone in 7th and 8th grade was hooked. Every spare moment of time was taken up by D&D adventuring. Eventually this expanded into Traveler, Boot Hill, Gamma World, Time Tripper, Car Wars, and more games that I can remember. In that school being what we would call today a “geek” or “dork” was cool. It was hip. Social status was based on being the first one to have a new game, or the best game that week.

We designed our own character sheets. We drew up our own characters. We created our own gods and monsters. “The Emperor” was the All-Powerful-Force of Evil (yes, inspired by Empire Strikes Back), “Enigma” was the All-Powerful Force of Good (from the Micronauts comic book, I think). I thought of creating an All-Powerful Force of Neutrality, but kept on going back and forth on it. My character got turned into a Gollum and stretched out to 7 feet tall on a rack. Someone created an assassin with an atomic bomb. Someone else tried to use a saving throw when the bomb went off.

We drew maps. We designed weapons. We collected miniature figures and placed them on graph paper. We designed dungeons. We collected dungeon modules and dice. Our imagination was stoked and our social interactivity was very, very high.

When I left that school and moved to a public high school, I found the social situation there very different. I never was able to get back into gaming, though I still collected everything about Car Wars for some years (as I was a big fan of post-apocalyptic movies like The Road Warrior). Eventually I found the Society for Creative Anachronism and was able to live a historically-based, live action version of D&D, and for a time sneered at those who rolled dice to gain their skills, while I actually worked for it.

I never saw more than a few minutes of the D&D cartoon, but I followed the comic strip advertisements in the backs of comic books in the early 1980's. When the Dungeon and Dragons movie finally came out, I was very excited. For decades there had been films and TV shows that, to one degree or another, I felt were trying to bring the D&D world to life, and I, in turn, had tried to turn those movies into games (you can see a list that includes many of those movies at http://www.geocities.com/historicalmovies). Now someone was actually going to make that movie for real. The movie was poor, but fun. Though the acting was uneven, the writing corny, and the Wayans brother character the most politically incorrect ethnic stereotype since JarJar Binks, it was great to see all the swordfighting, the flying dragons, and lets admit it, Thora Birch in those fantasy costumes.

There was a sequel to that movie, however, Dungeons and Dragons, the Wrath of the Dragon God, that finally did it right. A team of adventurers was assembled to go on a quest to retrieve a magic item and save the kingdom. Each character represented a different race or class of character. There was problem-solving, trap avoiding, magic using, and exciting battle action, sometimes all at the same time. Characters of differing alignments had to learn to work together. Some did not make it, but those who did found they had grown and gained skill, treasure, or power. Gygax was interviewed in the “special features” of the DVD of that film, and admitted that he was happy with the way that film turned out.

Although he lost control of the game and company that he founded, he kept active in the industry, and obviously loved creating games. Role playing games have brought many of us together, given us a common social bond, and in many cases, enabled us to get valuable life experience. Though some make the joke about how D&D geeks are socially atrophied nerds who can't deal with the real world, it has given many lived, and our culture, a richness and vitality, a passionate escape, a source of pleasure and cause for social gathering that the world would be poorer without.

Now the father of those games is gone, and we are poorer without him.

Captain Zorikh
http://www.captainzorikh.com
http://www.bigapplecon.com

A New Highlander?

2008-08-18T05:02:00.000-07:00

It seems that the Highlander is back, only this time he doesn't have a sword and he's a cop in New York. Or is it Forever Knight without the fangs?

The latest in a series of immortal adventurers is John Amsterdam, eponymous hero of New Amsterdam, a new series premiering tonight on Fox (Channel 5 in NYC). It seems this fellow saved the life of a Native American girl back in 1642 and was granted immortality as a reward. The further gimmick is that he has not left the colony he was living in at the time since then. That means he has seen the city now known as New York from its earliest days as a Dutch colony to today.

As a New Yorker and a history buff, I think this is a great opportunity to show the history of New York, which is fascinating, if not exactly glorious. I'm certain we will see flashbacks to Five Points since tho popularity of Gangs of New York, but I would love to see the 1950's of West Side Story, the late 1970's birth of Punk, the British occupation during the Revolution, and the corruption of Tammany Hall. It will also be interesting to see if they portray Robert Moses and the way he changed the face of the city.

Since this also reminds me of those other previous TV immortals, I am reminded how similar those two series, Highlander and Forever Knight, were Both had a centuries old immortal who fought agains injustce, had historical flashbacks, and a large car from the 1960's Both had a goofy sidekick and a female co-star in a profession not traditionally occupied by females. Both of these shows came out at the same time and as the years progressed, both wound up moving from one network to another, from one showing time to another, until eventually they died.

I wondered if the similarities were based on what the writers and producers thought the audience wanted, or if it is just a natural balance that such stories are supposed to have. Let's see what this show has, and hope that it does well.

Captain Zorikh
http://www.captainzorikh.com
http://www.bigapplecon.com

A Perfect "Wife Swap"

2008-08-11T06:13:00.000-07:00

I normally don't watch TV shows like "Wife Swap." As most of you should know, or will know, as more of these media-related blogs come out, I usually watch things involving swords, spaceships, soldiers, or superheroes, but I was surfing through the channels after the News Hour on PBS and I saw a woman in a room filled with swords, dragons, and other fantasy things.

It turned out that this was an episode of "Wife Swap," (http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap/index?pn=index) which actually did a recruitment drive at the Big Apple Convention last November. They toook a "perfect wife" from Kentucky and swapped her with a professional woman with a family of ghost hunters in Illinois. The Kentuckian lived in a family where she did all the work around the house while the husband went hunting and the daughters did whatever they wanted, and the stepdaughter did not get along with the dad. The Illinoisian went to work every day and her husband stayed at home and did everything around the house. For a week each wife had to live as the other wife had.

In both cases the women could not stand it. The Kentucky family expected the wife to do everything, cooking, cleaning, picking up dicarded cloithes, getting the kids ready for school, etc. The Illinois dad insisted on doing all the cooking and cleaning, even selecting the wife's clothes before she went to work in the office. The Illinois family was also vastly more educated than the Kentucky wife, and claimed to be psychic, and she felt very ignorant, even intimidated, in their presence.

By the end of the week both wives had had enough. When it was their turn to set the rules of the house, they insisted that things go the exact opposite. The Illinois husband would go to work, using his psychic abilities to help detectives solve crimes, and she would insist that they use no big words, like "inclusive." The Kentucky family would pick up after themselves, do their own laundry, and the husband would wash the dishes.

These rules met with mixed success. Then the second parts of the "changes" kicked in. The Illinois son, who had actually called the Kentucky wife "unintelligent," was sent on a blind date with a simple country girl. The Kentucky husband and his stepdaughter (who had much unreconciled hostility, had to role-play being each other to see what it was like.

The boy actually had a good time and thought the girl was an interesting person, but found out that he had hurt her feelings by being so insensitively smarter than her. The psychic dad found immediate success and fulfillment in work with a detective agency. The dad and stepdaughter realized how much they were hurting each other and how much they actually loved each other. The Kentucky family started helping the wife with the tasks they had always let her do.

In the end, the wives returned to their families and the two couples met and post-mortemed their experiences. In both cases, the couples were brought to tears. The Illinois dad realized how much he missed being appeciated and fulfilled the way work at the detective agency made him feel that way. The Illinois wife realized that her family needed her at home helping around the house and showing affection to her loved ones. The Kentucky dad realized how much hard work it is to do what he had always considered "women's work," and becaused he loved his wife, would be a better husband, and a better man, by helping, and not taking it for granted. The Kentucky wife realized that she should not let the family let her do all the work, and that it was actually better to stand up for therself, because she loved them.

My god, that was so frickin' perfect. Why can't all the relationship imbalances in our lives be resolved like this?

Thoughts about Golden Compass

2008-08-11T06:11:00.000-07:00

"The Golden Compass" was a "big event movie" by all standards. It had massive media push, a first-rate cast, cutting-edge special effects, and an incredible display at the San Diego Comic Con. By all appearances, it seemed like it would be reaching for the same audience as "The Chronicles of Narnia." It presented a world of early-20th century technology and culture with fantastic creatures and young children on an amazing journey.

But the buzz about the movie was that it was based on a book that was an anti-religious answer to "Narnia." Now I will admit right here that I do not read as many of these epic fantasy novels as some people do. Lately all my reading has by necessity had to be about Captain Marvel, comic book history, and American social history (to see why, go to my website http://www.captainmarvelculture.com). My big reading years for fantasy and sci-fi were in High School, when I worked my way through the Foundation, 2001, and Dune series. I started "The Fellowshiop of the Ring" in 7th grade but found it hard to get into somewhere around the Inn of the Prancing Pony. I read a lot of medieval and Arthurian literature after high schoool due to my involvement in the Society for Creative Anachronism and some courses in college. So I have not read Narnia, Compass, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or most other famous and popular book series that everyone else seems to have these days.

"The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" was read to mne in 3rd grade, though, and I do go to most fantasy movies when they come out. I read much of the criticism, and engage in discussions with fans and active readers of these series. I am aware that Narnia was a Christian parable, that Aslan represented Jesus Christ etc.

I am not a Christian, and am critical of certain effects that religious faith has on society. I have seen dogma get in the way of everything from simply having a good time to scientific inquiry to life-saving medicine. I have also seen faith unite people and inspire them to suffer through adversity and do deesds of great good. I also recognize that the story of Jesus fulfills many of the hallmarks of a Campbellian universal hero. The return from death, near death, or seeming death of a great and noble warrior/leader/king/hero is always a crowd-pleaser. Therefore, I can enjoy Narnia as such a magical fantasy adventure.

If the Golden Compass was a story that critiques religion and promotes science, that point was kind of lost in the translation to the silver screen. The establishment of certain story elements, such as everyone having an animal that represented their soul, talking polar bears, flying sorceresses, the seemingly magical "dust" that connected universes, and the McGuffin of the title, the Golden Compass itself, all set up a fantasy world where science as we know it did not apply. Thereofre when the religious establishment in the world of the film tried to stifle scientific exploration of "dust," it seemed as much like a coflict of the state religion against the true faith as much as anything else.

The rest of the movie fulfilled all the requirements of a Campbellian hero journey, and a magical child's adventure, that any science vs. religion debate was just lost.

That having been said, the writing felt a little stilted and unrealistic. I mean would you really trust someone who came along and gave you all that exposition that Sam Elliot gave when he meet the girl? The repeated special effect of the use of the Compass go tiresome. The Polar Bear fight was awesome, though.

Welcome to the New Blog!

2008-07-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hi folks! This is the continuation of the Big Apple Convention Media Blog (http://bigapplemedia.blogspot.com/) that I had been writing up to July 2008. It will continue reviewing topics in the media including movies, TV programs, music, comics, books, etc.

So bookmark this new page, and check out what I have to say. Comments are always welcome!

Captain Zorikh
http://www.captainzorikh.com