Movie review: Kick Ass

Kick Ass completely delivers as its title suggests! Imagine the cutest puppy you've ever seen, arming it to the teeth with an array of guns and tactical weapons, then setting it loose in a locked room full of bad guys. Add raw awkward teen humor and you've got Kickass in a nutshell. It's pretty safe to say the general public is unaware of this story, not knowing what to expect. Let's face it, the way it's marketed, it looks like a "cute hero flick." Well, they won't know what hit 'em after they see a pre-adolescent girl kill and dismember bad guys. If you're a fan of Mark Millar's comic that inspired this film, they followed the source material fairly well, making adjustments to fit the big screen.

I throughly enjoyed this movie. It was fun and violence with a side of blood shed and tears. It raises the question of real people attempting to be real superheroes. The real answer... you will vet your ass kicked... if unprepared! Since this is a film based on a comic, they spared no expence in adding subtle and blatant hints of inside-comic-humor which I found hilarious. What I really liked was how they quickly disolved potentially campy scenes or dialouge (that so many bad superhero flicks fall victim to) with American Pie style humor. As if they wanted to bring you back to reality and remind you this is a superhero flick... just have fun with it!

Hitgirl was definitely the highlight of this movie! She delivered a performance similar to that of Natalie Portman from The Professional. She's got quite the acting chops and it really showed well in this movie.

I highly recommend this movie as it gets an A+ in my book!   

Dr. Pepper Mark IV

With Iron Man 2 just around the corner, more commercials are hitting the masses. So far, this one is my favorite. The Dr. Pepper can with the Mark IV face is pretty sweet keepsake (no pun intended) which I'll have to pickup. "Stan The Man" is also a nice touch.

In Brightest Day

With DC's Blackest Night recently concluding, it's no surprise the title of the next saga is to be "In Brightest Day" I really enjoyed this story and can't wait to see what happens next. Below is a teaser pic I found on Bamkapow.com.

Green Lantern's Suit WIll Be CG

Word on the street is that Ryan Reynold's won't actually be wearing a tangible suit as The Green Lantern, DC's latest comic book movie that's currently in development.

"Remember, the Green Lantern suit is something that should look alien — it needs to seem other worldly. It encompasses any creature that wears the ring, and Hal Jordan is the first human to ever wear the suit. This was a chance for Dickson [Ngila Dickson: Costume Designer] to do something different. You also have to consider that Hal changes into the suit multiple times in mid scene, and the cg also allows him to do this."

If you ask me, this make perfect sense, and if done right could work very well. Many GL fans are upset that this may take something away from the overall visual of Green Lantern, that a tangible suit is needed to add realism. Well, don't forget, they were able to successfully pull this off with Golem, Dr. Manhattan and (dare I say it) Jar Jar Binks! With CG technology's continued sophisticated growth, Iron Man and Avatar being prime examples, I think this could actually do wonders for Green Lantern.

If Ryan Reynolds plays Green Lantern with a level of seriousness, leaving out his Van Wilder antics, this could be a great film. Here's to hope!

Read the full article on Green Lantern's suit here.

Theater Movie Stands

Is there a name for these things? Pop-up stands perhaps? Anyway, here are two impressive movie stands I saw, during my recent trip to the movies. I purposely placed the table and chairs in front of the Iron Man 2 stand just to show the enormity of the thing. Below Iron Man 2 is the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot. I'm a bigger fan of Jackie Earle Haley than I am the Elm Street franchise, but I thought this movie stand was pretty eye catching.

Christian Bale's latest film "The Fighter"

Directed by David O. Russell, "The Fighter" stars Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams. This is a movie I stumbled upon on the internets, and don't know if it will have a mass release. It sounds like a screening has already happened last week. Here is the general plot per imdb.com:

"The Fighter, is a drama about boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO'd by drugs and crime."

Sounds like a pretty solid film, I'm hoping it will show in my neck of the woods.

Movie Review: Clash of the Titans

I finally saw Clash of the Titans last night. I was thoroughly unimpressed with this film. When the trailers first hit the internets, I was genuinely excited to see this being remade. Who didn't love the charm that the original 1981 version had in all it's stop-motion glory. For the remake, I was particularly thrilled about the caliber of actors lined up: Liam Neason, Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes, all under the direction of Louis Leterrier. It sounded like a recipe for success. Unfortuinately for me, it was quite the opposite.

The storyline felt quite disconnected. They were doing well with Perseus' plight at the start of the film, but the movie takes a quick turn for the worse. Suddenly, soldiers are dismembering a statue of Zeus, Perseus suddenly knows how to wield a sword while assembling a gang to take down the gods, and there's a Krackin that shows up for less than a few minutes. I mean, the story wasn't really grounded anywhere, and I could care less if the Kracken ate the princess that was to be sacrificed or if it destroyed the city of Argos.

Did CGI take a few step backwards on this film? Or were they trying to recapture the stop-motion essence the original film had. Either way, it was terrible. It's as if a photoshop expert made this film, cutting and pasting their way throughout the movie. From Medusa to the Krackin, nothing really made my eyes flicker with excitement.

In the end, what glory was one? It just didn't feel like anything was at stake. I like every actor in this film including the director, it just seems like it was written all wrong. This movie gets two thumbs way down.

Better than Travelers Checks

"Republic credits? Republic credits are no good out here. I need something more real." -Watto

It didn't occur to me that I've always wondered what Republic Credits looked like until I stumbled upon this. I wonder who's images are a posted on the other denominations?

Wonder Con 2010

Wondercon 2010 has come and gone, and I was able to attend one-of-three days. I would've preferred to have gone all three days, but I couldn't. In regards to my schedule, they couldn't have picked a worse weekend. In addition to Wondercon being scheduled during spring break and Easter weekend... I just had too many things going on. I was only able to attend on Friday. The only day it rained!

It was a cold rainy Friday and doors were scheduled to opened at 12:00PM. There were well over three hundred people lined-up to enter the exhibit hall when my friend Adam and I arrived. People in line were already getting con-exclusive fever, itching to make a mad dash for the Blackest Night figures. If you remember Comic Con 2009, people went ape-shit for these figures. The new Hal Jordan and Sinestro figures, exclusive to Wondercon, were no exception. I must admit, the fever was quite contagious, as I jumped in line to take a shot at the lottery. It was another hour to potentially get a winning ticket to buy these figures, so I didn't actually get onto the convention floor until 1:15PM. In the end, it was a waste of time, I didn't win.

Finally on the exhibit floor, the first thing I noticed was how crowded it was for a Friday. Again, the weekend schedule attributed to that. All the usual booths were there, as well as many familiar faces. You go to these things long enough, you begin to notice all the regular convention go'ers, greedy to hunters included. With cash in hand, I was ready to buy-up a storm and fill some holes in my collection. Unfortunately, Friday was not the day for deals, and I ended up not buying a thing. But I did walkout with some cool swag.

The day ended with my attendance of Kevin Smith's keynote. With Cop Out recently being released, he didn't have anything to promote beyond his usual raunchiness that we all love. He was not shy at all about his famous Southwest experience. Without further a due, here are some pics to share. Enjoy!

3 day badge and only attending 1 day!

Cosplayers in full effect!She was soooo proud of this hat!

Mighty Mugs you'll never find at TRUCustom Iron Man!Geoff JohnsQ from TNG

Helen Slater

Booth babes that are welcome to kick my ass!SwagKevin Smith

Smallville coming back for more

I'd say about 80% of my friends stopped watching Smallville the moment Lana Lang was hooking up with Lex Luther. I don't blame them for feeling like the show has jumped shark. Being the faithful follower that I am, I've stuck around, and I have to say the show has grown better with age. Gone are the days of teen angst and "meteor monsters of the week!" Now we have real deal villains like Brainiac, Doomsday, and Zod! What I like most about the show, now, is that the writers are digging into more comic book roots. Smallville has more of a comic book feel without being terribly campy. Whatever they're doing... it's working! Smallville has been approved for a tenth season, despite being in the graveyard time slot of Friday nights!

(The picture above is a mock-up... pretty sweet right?)