Wahlberg and Ferrell - The Other Guys

The Other Guys has gotten more positive reviews than I expected it to get. I only read them after I saw the movie this past weekend. I expected to laugh, and I did quite a few times. However, I don’t think the movie . . . → Read More: The Other Guys – Mental Chatter Review]]>

Wahlberg and Ferrell - The Other Guys

The Other Guys has gotten more positive reviews than I expected it to get. I only read them after I saw the movie this past weekend. I expected to laugh, and I did quite a few times. However, I don’t think the movie was advertised properly–the trailers didn’t seem to know what the movie was really trying to be and after seeing it myself, the movie itself didn’t know either.

It was stupid, but in a good way. It seemed more like the movie should have been more strongly built as a type of “Naked Gun/Police Squad” movie but not quite as over the top. But as silly as some of the scenes were, the movie might have benefited going over the top some more. All the laughs came from the dialog and there wasn’t much to laugh at otherwise–not much physical humor. It seemed like they were trying to be really silly, but holding back and thinking, “Well, that would be just too silly.” For example, our comedy duo rush into a crime scene accidentally running over the corpse. What could have been a series of further slapstick mishaps, our other guys just sit in the car and talk about something else.

Speaking of the duo, there was a major problem here. There was no straight-man in this comedy team. I thought at first that Wahlberg’s character was the tough, cynical,  beaten down cop who couldn’t get a break. Well, he was that, actually, but that would have been enough. No, he kept thinking every suspicious lead on a case was part of a drug crime–not a bad idea, but not Don Quixote enough. This just made the character stupid. On top of that, Ferrell’s character was a straight-laced nerdy naive goofball but then, they gave him this backstory that he used to be a pimp. So neither guy is really the goof, and neither is the straight-man–they just went back-and-forth with them. But they didn’t do it enough to go all “Dumb and Dumber” on the movie. They almost went there, and probably should have. Even the Captain, played by Michael Keaton, was just another stupid guy. Come to think of it, everyone was just plain stupid.

In the end, it all felt too reserved. One of the movie’s best moments was when they did go over the top. But it didn’t involve the main actors, but Dwayne Johnson (The Rock!) and Samuel L. Jackson making a fantastic cameo while pursuing criminals and jumping off a roof in a heroic dive only to end up splatted on the pavement–cut to a police funeral. Well played.

Still, I got buttered popcorn and laughed a lot. So in that sense, the movie delivered a good time. However, The Other Guys could have been great. In other words it was stupid, just not stupid enough.

Favorite line: Farrell tries to talk down a jumper using the megaphone from an ice cream truck and suddenly says, “Oh , he’s flying!”

"Oh, he's flying!"

While I have been following the news of the upcoming sequel to Tron (titled Tron Legacy) there was a little bit of related news that certainly caught my attention.

The same group making Legacy have been tapped to remake Disney’s 1979 sci-fi movie, The . . . → Read More: ‘Tron Legacy’ movie team to remake ‘The Black Hole’]]>

Maximilian from The Black Hole (image by Super Punch)

While I have been following the news of the upcoming sequel to Tron (titled Tron Legacy) there was a little bit of related news that certainly caught my attention.

The same group making Legacy have been tapped to remake Disney’s 1979 sci-fi movie, The Black Hole. With any remake, the first question people ask is, “What from the original movie will be in the remake?” In an answer to this question, only one aspect of the new movie has been revealed: in it will be the robot, Maximilian.

There are a few people who know what this means to me. See the picture of the robot itself above and you may get an idea. Just look at it. What do you think? Do you think it looks scary? Do you think it looks corny? Do you think it is just any old sci-fi robot? Well, whatever you think about it most likely is nothing compared to what I think about it.  I will speak on this in a future post.

In the meantime, I’m stoked for the new Tron movie due out this December. Here’s a glimpse of the new lightcycles.

Lightcycles from Tron Legacy

Sweet! Before I get too excited I remember how excited I was last summer about Transformers 2 and the G.I. Joe movie. I have seen neither one in their entirety but what little I did see was enough to go beyond disappointment and travel into the highly populated realm of the ridiculous. Michael Bay and whoever made GI Joe (I firmly believe) never watched the original shows nor even held one of the original toys in their hands (let alone was ever one of the kids who imagined stories and admired the characters while playing with them). So, these parts of my childhood are left in my memory. I’m keeping them safe that way!

I am allowing my hopes to rise high for Tron Legacy, however, for several reasons: the original director is the new producer (Steven Lisberger), it was originally a movie to begin with, not a line of toys (although there were toys based on Tron, but they sucked bits!), it’s a sequel not a remake, the theme is about computers and CGI special effects were born from Tron and new effects (made to look like the computer world and not our world) will be at home, and most importantly it has Jeff F’N Bridges! Not only is he a great actor, and a recent winner of the Academy Award for best actor, he was also in the original movie. So, too, is Bruce Boxleitner who portrayed Tron himself.

So, here’s to hope!

Oh, and since I’m on a Disney World kick lately, here’s a look at some of Disney’s form of advertising for the new movie: Tron Monorails!

Tron Lightcycle Monorail

Oh sweet Jesus! That’s like chocolate-dipped double stuf chocolate creme oreo cookies surrounding a double-decker chocolate cake topped with chocolate morsels and icing.

Source: ‘Tron: Legacy’ team mount a ‘Black Hole’ remake

Further reading: Screenrant on the Black Hole

Since about 1999 all the cherished stories, movies, toys, and cartoons from my childhood have come back … back in fashion, back in popularity, back in new movies. This trend is part nostalgia, part retro-lust, part Hollywood-out-of-ideas, part grown up fans giving fan-service, and part clueless directors meddling (and screwing) . . . → Read More: Summer Movies I Want to See Destroy My Childhood]]>

Childhood's End Cover

Since about 1999 all the cherished stories, movies, toys, and cartoons from my childhood have come back … back in fashion, back in popularity, back in new movies. This trend is part nostalgia, part retro-lust, part Hollywood-out-of-ideas, part grown up fans giving fan-service, and part clueless directors meddling (and screwing) with beloved childhood characters. These were characters and stories that I loved when I was younger and it is not that I now see them with a different lens, I see them through someone else’s lens … and that someone, the movie director, usually has mental issues. How did this trend start in 1999? Well, that is when the first Star Wars prequel came out.

This summer, I am excited to see several movies because even after seeing so much destruction of my childhood world, I still hold hope that the movies will not only do them justice for an audience now, but will not betray the core of what made these stories interesting in the first place. I guess I am eternally optimistic because this summer seems to be shaping up as an onslaught to the remaining tidbits of childhood fantasy and youthful wonder that still remain in me. I am talking about two movies in particular: Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe.

Back to Star Wars I for a moment … well, so much has already been said about Star Wars Episode I that there is really not much I can add. The only thing that made that movie a Star Wars movie was lightsabers. Other than that, it ranged from boring to ticking-me-off. I could (and probably will at some point) go off on that tangent, but “now is not the time for this.”

We did get Lord of the Rings not long after the Star Wars prequels began and the “Rings” trilogy was excellent and no changes ticked me off *too* bad–I can give them some credit for the changes they made in Two Towers … sorta, I mean, some of them did not even make any sense (Elves at Helm’s Deep? Aragorn’s near-death? … again, this is for another bloggie day). The trend has seen ups and downs.

Let us get to this summer already! The Transformers sequel, well, before I see it I am already split on it because of the first movie. What was wrong with the first movie? Where to begin? My inner fanboy protested quite a bit: the design of the robots was fugly–to the point of it just being *wrong*. They look like a giant mechanic buzzard puked up shards of glass, steel, and tires … that talked.

When you saw the original cartoon robots, or “Generation 1,” you could tell from their robot modes what they would transform into. They were simpler, cartoonish, yet, effective.

How Devastator Should Have Looked

You could see car and plane parts that made up their robot form. Airplane nosecones made up their chests. Car doors extended into arms. In these movies, their robot forms are so unordered and so jigsawed the robots look like they should transform into junk yards.

Devastator in Transformers 2

Aside from the design of the bots, I had a couple other issues: the robots hardly ever talked to each other. They usually only addressed the humans. Humans? Humans were a minor role in the original story–this is what made Transformers different from Robotech. Okay, now I am wading in deep geek waters here, but my point is that the focus in the TV cartoon was the Transformers, not some-kid-meets-the-Transformers story as in the movies. This would not bother me so much if they had just brought out more character in the robots like the original series. In this movie, they were all pretty much the same. They each just had a voice.

Here is the other side of the coin. I kinda liked the movie (Transformers 1) … simply because it delivered what it was supposed to deliver: big transforming robots blowing shit up. It worked (to an extent). There was action, there was comedy (though it was pointless juvenile comedy), there were great special effects, and it was fast-paced. While it did not take advantage of the rich characters and subtle message of preservation of the original series (yeah, those ideas are there if you look), it was fun.

Maybe the next one will be better in my eyes as I will have more proper expectations. Meaning I will have to lower my “fandom expectations” and heighten my “casual-movie-going expectations.”

[Update] … Wow, the reviews for Transformers 2 are bad … really bad. In the time I started to write this post until today, I have heard enough about the movie to not see it. All the problems I listed above about the first movie are doubled in the second one (or, remain unremedied). Plus, it is about two and half hours! Sheesh, and this is for kids? I think I learned enough from this review to bypass the theater experience and wait for the DVD (rental).

Now, on to G.I. Joe. G.I. Joe was always second place behind Transformers as far as my love of cartoons and toys. But here comes the G.I. Joe live-action movie. All the rumors and images I have seen of this movie are quite promising. They pretty much had me sold when the character of Snake Eyes was announced to be played by Ray Park. But wasn’t Ray Park in Star Wars Episode I? Let me not digress …

However, I saw something that could only be construed as sheer stupidity–the design of Cobra Commander. The character of Cobra Commander is not difficult to design. He either wears a mirror-shaded mask or a hood.

Cobra Commander - Mask

Cobra Commander - Hood

See? Simple. Effective. Striking. That’s *bible*! And I saw that in this movie they are giving him, yes a mask, but one that is translucent, in the shape of a skull, with tubes coming out of it. It looks like some ventrical filter for a Dyson vacuum. Imagine Darth Vader *partially* unmasked, and the part that remains looks like a plastic femur.

Cobra Commander - "Skeletor"

C’mon! That is nothing whatsoever like the original! At least have a resemblance! At least look at the source material! It looks like Skeletor from He-Man (no need to revisit that!). What are they thinking?!

Grrr …

I have gone on about this long enough.

Sigh.

… I think I will see G.I. Joe anyway. I will give it a chance and hope against hope.