Everybody's Doing It

The end of another year is upon us. That means there are going to be hundreds of "Best Of" lists. So what's one more? This is my first attempt at such a list, and just like most of the other lists, it is based on my opinion. This is a small list, as I am not crazy. Feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line if you feel the need to voice your displeasure with my choices.

Best Horror Movie of 2009: Drag Me to Hell - Sam Raimi comes back to horror movies. It wasn't The Evil Dead, but was a lot of fun

Best Horror Movie of the Decade: Let the Right One In - The best vampire movie I have seen in years, maybe ever. It is getting an American remake, which will have a lot to live up to.

Best Action Movie of 2009: Star Trek - J.J. Abrams breathes life into a franchise that was all but dead. Even non-Trekkies loved this movie, and that speaks to what a great job that all parties did on this film.

Best Action Movie of the Decade: The Bourne Ultimatum - Has the best one on one fight seen in recent memory, and wrapped up the trilogy nicely

Best Comedy of 2009: The Hangover -This movie will probably be remembered for not just being hysterical, but for inspiring hundreds if not thousands of guys to try and recreate the night they saw on screen. Problem is, the majority of those guys will either never make the wedding or end up dead.

Best Comedy of the Decade: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - In the last decade, no movie is more quotable that this. It was brilliant in it's zaniness, and was responsible for making Will Ferrell a star.

Best Movie of 2009: Inglourious Basterds - Not much action at all, but one of the best war movies ever made.

Best Movie of the Decade: The Departed - Martin Scorsese does another mob movie, but even though this time it is the Irish mob instead of Italians, it is no less brilliant. Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon at their best.

Best Movie Trailer of 2009 (for a movie coming out in 2010): Kick-Ass - I have to agree with everyone else; this movie looks like it is going to be a lot of fun in crazy and inappropriate ways. Hit Girl looks like she is going to be the breakaway character, and people are saying that this movie will revive Nicolas Cage's career.

Best Comedy of 2009: Modern Family - Yeah the year ain't over yet, but this show has outclassed every other comedy by being consistently funny.

Best Comedy of the Decade: The Office - The misadventures of Michael Scott and the employees of Dunder Mifflin continue to make me laugh, and miss my days working at Warner Bros.)

Best Animated Show of 2009: Titan Maximum - The guys responsible for Robot Chicken spoof Japanese giant robot shows to hilarious effect.

Best Animated Show of the Decade: Family Guy - They take shots at everyone and everything. Nothing is sacred and you may feel a little guilty when you laugh, but you still laugh hard anyway.

Best TV Show of 2009: Supernatural - In what may be the final season, demon hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester have been manipulated in unleashing Lucifer on earth and now have to stop him from unleashing the apocalypse on earth. the mess will get bigger before it gets better, but the last year of the show has been spectacular.

Best TV Show of the Decade: The Wire - HBO's show started off with the cops vs the drug dealers, but was actually so much more than that. It was the best show that no one watched, a sad fate too many great shows have.

Best Comic Book of 2009: Irredeemable - Mark Millar does a story of what would happen if a Superman like character finally went nuts, and it ain't pretty. If some movie studio is smart, they would option this for a movie.

Best Comic Book of the Decade: Daredevil - Matt Murdock has been through a lot in his life, but that last decade saw him locked up, married, divorced, fired from his law practice and leading a group of ninjas that spent most of their existence trying to kill him. Only Captain America went through more crap, and he was dead.

Best Video Game of 2009: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the Playstation 3 - Everything the last Indiana Jones movie should have been: thrilling, funny and just a fun time. An exclusive to the Playstation 3, it is probably the best game on that system.

Best Video Game of the Decade: God of War II for the Playstation 2 - Follow up to the great God of War, Kratos continues his quest of vengeance against the gods of Olympus. Visually stunning at the time, games are still going for that God of War feel (I'm looking at you, Bayonetta and Dante's Inferno.) 2010 will see the release of God of War 3 and the end of the trilogy.

Casting Calls that sound pretty stupid now (in most cases)

It is fair to say that the majority of my movie enjoyment comes from the actors. You can have the best story idea and production values in the world, but if you have a stiff delivering the lines the movie will suffer. Conversely, a great actor trying to work with crap won't be able to save your movie either. But a movie that has that "perfect" casting, like Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man or Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley*... those films were just magic.

But what if those guys did not get those parts? Who could we have been looking at instead? Here are a few films that are near and dear to me, and the castings that could have been.

Superman (1978): The part of the Man of Steel was played by the then unknown Christopher Reeve. But here are 5 actors that were also up for the part:

-Warren Beatty (considered)
-Charles Bronson (tested for the part)
-James Caan (turned it down)
-Clint Eastwood (turned it down)
-Arnold Schwarenegger (tested for the part)
Also initially considered for director: Sam Peckinpah.

The Matrix (1999): Neo was played by Keanu Reeves, Morpheus by Laurence Fishburne and Agent Smith by Hugo Weaving. It could have been:

-Sean Connery as Morpheus (turned it down due to not understanding the script. Later agreed to do The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as he regretted passing on The Matrix as well as Lord of the Rings)
-Kevin Costner as Neo (considered)
-Jean Reno as Agent Smith (turned it down to do Godzilla)
-Sandra Bullock as Trinity (considered)
-Val Kilmer (turned down parts as Neo and Morpheus)
Warner Bros wanted Brad Pitt to play the part of Neo. The Wachowski's wanted the part to go to Johnny Depp. Somehow, Keanu Reeves was the compromise. How much you wanna bet that would not be the case today?

Ghostbusters (1984) Bill Murry played Peter Venkman, Rick Moranis played Louis Tully and Ernie Hudson played Winston Zeddemore. But what about:

-John Candy as Louis Tully (the role was originally written for him)
-Eddie Murphy as Winston Zeddemore (role was originally written for him)
-John Belushi as Peter Venkman (role was originally written for him)
On top of this Huey Lewis and the News turned down the opportunity to write the Ghostbusters theme song.

*If you were curious, Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone and Mickey Rourke were all conidered for the part of Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop. With any of those actors cast the movie would have been more action and less comedy. It would also a more expensive film than the studio wanted to make. So things were rewritten to be more of an action-comedy and Eddie Murphy was cast.

In the case of Spider-Man, instead of Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spidey and Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin, it could have been Heath Ledger as your hero. If that doesn't work for you, how about Leonardo DiCaprio? Nicholas Cage almost had the part of The Green Goblin/Osborn. Also considered for the Goblin was John Malkovich.

"This is nothing like a porn convention."

This past Saturday, I went to my first video game convention, excuse me, "expo". Along with 2 friends, we thought that this would be a fun day of sights, both old and new and perhaps hours of fun. Of all the coverage that things like CES (Consumer Electronics Show) or E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) would get, our expectations were high.

Turns out, our expectations were too high.

We were expecting to see new games that were slated to be released this year or early next, a bunch of people huddled together, trying out hundreds (or at least dozens) of demos of the new games, developers endlessly hawking their wares for consoles and PC's. But that was not to be. The only new game demos were for Sega's Bayonetta and EA's God of War clone Dante's Inferno, both being released for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. There was also a new game for the PC, Warhammer Online but that was the extent of the games coming your way this holiday season or for early 2010.

There were consoles set up at this thing, they were just kind of spread out and playing random things. The newest available game that I could see was Batman: Arkham Asylum, and that was released in August. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was recently released for the Playstation 3 and has been highly regarded as the game of the year, but I never saw it there. Maybe it was there, over by the Jedi. Oh, you heard that right; the Jedi. This group of Jedi to be specific. Why are Jedi at a video game convention, but not a Star Wars game in sight? I thought that they were all wiped out. And why did the Jedi have a table? They were not selling anything. The Army was there too, doing recruitment and had a game of Halo running in the background. It would have made more sense for the Army to be running Call of Duty 4 or even their own game since the Army has that now. I guess the Jedi were competing with the Army for recruits. Both were getting the same amount of table visits: none.

I did meet a budding artist there. He was hoping that his creation might get picked up as an animated series. Personally his art style was not for me, as it looked like a comic book that was drawn by an 8 year old. A slightly talented 8 year old, but one that knew nothing of how the human anatomy worked, or how bodies were put together. Also, the story looked to be a mix of Thundercats, Mortal Kombat and the Lion King. All of that together is not a good thing. Hell, Thundercats alone is not a good thing. But the man has his dreams and I wish him well.

There was a classic game section there, but it was run by a church, and afraid of being told I would be saved by playing Ms. Pac-Man, I stayed away from that section. The kids that were trapped there looked like they wanted to be free from that section too, but were stuck because of the parents. I bet the parents saw the big Dante's Inferno display and steered the kids to the older game section. Good thing too, as the demo on display was for the Lust level.

QVC was there, hawking a bunch of accessories for the Nintendo Wii. Whether this took place or not, one can only hope. One day people will realize that you don't need a bunch of sports accessories for the Wii's controller. Some stuff may be fun to have, but you don't have to go nuts.

All in all the day the expo was hideous. I wasn't able to find any of the old games that I was looking for, and one of my friends wondered if this is what a porn convention would have been like. The 3 of us left, dejected and feeling more than a little dirty, possibly like we would have having left that porn convention. The highlight of the entire day was being able to see my friends (one I hadn't seen in years) and eating lunch at the Brick House. Eating there makes everything better.

Public Service Announcment

The new season of the Venture Bros will debut October 18th at midnight on Cartoon Network. If you used to watch the show and have missed some of the greatness, it can be purchased here. If you are unsure as to what the show is like, you can sample some of the awesomeness right here.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (played on the Playstation 3)
Available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii
Players: 1-4
Published by Activision

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the sequel to 2006's Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This time, you are (mostly) playing through two storylines from the comics: Secret War and Civil War. Before its release, the game's developers Vicarious Visions announced that this time the game would be following the popular Civil War storyline, but ultimately the game was a bit of a letdown, in so much as if you played the prior title (or X-Men Legends or X-Men Legends II) there is a distinct feel of been there, done that. This is not to say that the game was bad, just maybe a little too familiar.
You start off with the crew of Iron Man, Captain America ,Wolverine and Spider-Man who are currently being led on a secret mission by the head of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury. The 5 are currently in Latveria operating only on Fury's word that they need to be there. This mission is essentially the training level and set up leading to the drafting of the Super Hero Registration Act. It is not until the super hero group called the New Warriors botch the capture of a super villain (during the live broadcast of their reality TV show) that the Act becomes law, and divides the heroes. Here the player will have to choose a side: go with Iron man and the Pro-Registration heroes, or tell the government to suck it, and side with Captain America and the rebels. ***Spoiler Ahead!!***The game sticks close to the premise of the Civil War storyline, but suddenly deviates from it to a lame one note villain, put there simply for the purpose of bringing heroes back together. ***End Spoiler***

Depending on whose side you choose to take will determine the heroes (and villains) that you have access to through the majority of the game. This by no means dilutes the selection of good heroes however. It just means that you will have to wait a bit to control Mr. Fantastic if you sided with Captain America. No matter which side you choose, you will have access to the new combo this time out, which are the fusions. These are the combination of two characters powers, which when unleashed do a pretty good amount of damage. The powers fall into 3 categories: Clearing Fusions, Targeted Fusions and Guided Fusions. With the amount of heroes to control in the game (25), there are multiple combinations that you can try out, but some of the fusion animations are pretty similar. The game does support online play, so you can get three other buddies and hero it up.

The problem that this game could not overcome (for me) was escaping the feeling that I had done all of this once before. Once again you are in the 3/4 top down format, following your four chosen heroes as you pound on generic soldiers and then participate in a boss battle against another hero or villain (or group of heroes or villains) on the other side, just like in the previous entries. Powering up your heroes is still done by collecting experience from your victories, answering trivia questions and collecting the odd hidden power up icon. The "If it ain't broke" axiom may apply in most cases, but I am beginning to see cracks in the structure. And if there is a Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, (possibly following the Skrull Invasion storyline), Vicarious Visions may need to do a little more than the option of combining powers to save the franchise.

Final Verdict: A good rental, that will fill a good 8-10 hours if only going through it once. Not a hard game by any means. Decent graphics though not groundbreaking. The Civil War storyline is here in spirit, but has been changed from the comics, and not in a good way. Overall, I'd give the game 3 stars out of 5.

Summer Movie Opinion

The Summer Movie Season of 2009 is now over, and there were some fun movies out there. I would like to say that I enjoyed all of the movies that I saw, but that would be lying. Of the 10 pictures that I sat through, 8 were good, enough that I could see owning them (and of those 8, 3 are “must buys”). The other 2 movies were just not good, seen out of curiosity and nothing else. One of those movies I was merely let down. The other was possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

First the Good:

Star Trek: easily the best movie of the summer. You didn’t have to be a Trekkie to love this flick; there was no prior knowledge of the Trek universe needed to enjoy this movie. Yes it would help in some cases, but going in cold you would have been fine. The movie was fun and paced beautifully. Anyone that wants to do a re-boot of anything needs to watch this movie to see how it’s done. Cast with only a couple of major stars (Eric Bana, Lenoard Nimoy and Simon Pegg to name 3) and the rest of the cast filled with lesser known actors, this was almost the perfect movie? What would have made it better? More of it.

Inglourious Basterds: This is Quentin Tarantino’s best movie to date. The film has about as much action as his previous best picture, Pulp Fiction so if you enjoyed that you have an idea what to expect. Basterds also has the best movie villain of the summer if not the year in Col. Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz. He alone is well worth the price of admission.

District 9: I was not sure what to expect when I went into this movie. The ads didn’t really give me much, and I am not really one for the viral marketing thing. But my curiosity got the better of me so I went to see this, and I was glad that I did. Not total science fiction and not total government conspiracy picture either, but a mix of the 2 that worked a lot better than I would have expected. This had to be the most pleasant surprise of the summer.

The Hurt Locker: This movie was good for one thing, and that was the tension that it produced. A movie filled with just good actors (no Clooney, no Pitt etc) there was always the purveying fear that anyone could die at any time. And when dealing with film a about a bomb disposal unit in Iraq, that is the precise tension that is needed in a film like this. Great performances and a different look at something besides combat made this a fun, if sobering film to watch.

Public Enemies: Johnny Depp as the bank robber John Dillinger, Christian Bale as the FBI agent Melvin Purvis, both of them directed by Michael Mann. How could you not go see this and like it?

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen: While this movie was not as good as the first one, it was still great fun. And sometimes fun is all you need from a summer movie. The premise was a simple one (giant robots blow crap up) and even had bonus eye candy (Megan Fox laying of stuff, Megan Fox walking around…). I think that a lot of people were expecting more from this movie than what it was: an action picture that was based on a children’s toy. If you were looking for the meaning of life, this was the wrong film to find it. If you were just looking for a good time, then director Michael Bay delivered again.

The Hangover: The movie was hilarious. They took a simple premise (guys going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party) and mined gold out of it. Not as quotable as the legendary Anchorman or even Talladega Nights but still great fun. There are plans for a sequel (and due to its financial success, blatant rip-offs) and those films will have a lot to live up to. I doubt that lightning can strike twice, but I am glad that I was there the first time.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Another solid entry in the Harry Potter franchise. Each chapter of the story gets a little darker as the kids get older, and that only makes sense. If you have not read the books and are only familiar with the movies, then all of the twists and character fates will be a great surprise to you. For those of us that have already read the books, we know may already know what’s coming but it is still an enjoyable ride.

The Bad:

Terminator - Salvation: A missed opportunity. This could have been good, maybe even great. Hell I would have settled for just silly fun, but that was not to be. This felt more like a movie that should have been on the Sci-Fi (excuse me, SyFy) channel, instead of a summer “blockbuster“. The movie was just flat, and that is not a description that should be given for an action picture.

And the Hideous:

G.I. Joe - The Rise of COBRA: This was not only the worst movie that I have seen all summer, but the worst movie that I have seen all year. A combination of curiosity and self-loathing got me to go and see this movie I suppose. The lesson that I learned was that it is better to sit at home and do nothing than to just go to the movies to just go. Please know that I am not one of the fan-boys who believe in the purity of the ‘80’s cartoon or someone who was looking for a gritty R rated movie. I would have just liked a good movie, and this was not it. It is possible that I was not the target audience. Wherever that audience was, I have no idea. But they are missing a movie and someone needs to get it to them. Quickly.

Steve - Conclusion

By this point, it’s been a really long day.

The General wanted me to be some kind of secret weapon for him (see, I told you that scientists and the military were not good). He told me that if I was a true patriot, that I would just man up and do my duty. I asked him if that speech ever worked for anyone and what did he know about my uncle. The general just looked at me and told me that he’d tell me everything that he knew, but I had to go with him. I decided that I didn’t want to know that bad, so I turned around again and started to walk away. He didn’t chase after me or even have the soldiers that stayed with him try to shoot me in the back. It’s not like it would have done any good anyway.

I was Death. How do you kill Death?

On my walk away from the General, I saw the other soldiers that carried War away loading him into a helicopter. The scientist that told me how lucky I was and all that was there with them, and he looked over at me. He didn’t say anything (which was good, because I was too far away to hear it and the helicopter was pretty loud) but I could see his face. He was afraid when he looked at me. The first time he saw me, he was fascinated, but now I could see fear in his face.

Wonder what that means?

I watched to helicopter fill with the remaining soldiers and lastly the General, whose face had not fear on it, but maybe contempt, I guess. I’m sure that eh was mad because I didn’t choose to go with him and be whatever it was he wanted me to be. But I didn’t really care. I needed to figure out what I was going to do, why hitting War felt so good and so wrong, and what was I going to do about the other two Horsemen? Should I do anything?

That was 15 year ago.

Now, I am a 27 year old fighting not only the army, but 3 other Horseman of the Apocalypse. At some point over the years, War tracked down the other 2 and got them to join the cause. How the General is keeping them form “the work” is anyone’s guess. Maybe I’m more of an issue than I thought. I moved out to the desert to avoid as much loss of life as possible. I found out over the years that I can be killed, but it has to be done by all three of the other Horsemen. The army is in on the fight mostly because the General has the President’s ear and her being a religious nut, I have been branded not only a terrorist, but a threat to the American way of life and God himself, and must be “eradicated from all planes of existence” as the President has been saying for the last few years. I figured out that I initially felt wrong about my fight with War due to us being related in a way. But just because we were related, both forces of nature or agents of chaos, it didn’t matter. I already had one dysfunctional family and I was not going to be a part of another one.

They managed to track me down again, just like they always do. The 3 Horsemen stopped talking to me as much as they used to. No more speeches, just violence. They attack, the army attacks, there are explosions, screams the whole nine. It all ends up looking like a Michael Bay movie. I win enough to get away, find some other desert hole to hide in, and they lick their wounds, track me down and we do it all again.
I don’t know why I haven’t killed them yet. I know that I can, but on some level, I guess I am just having too much fun.

end