Archive for the “movies” Category

This past Friday I saw the movie that claims to start the summer, X-men Origins: Wolverine. For years the back story of Wolverine has been incredibly confusing. However this all changed a few years ago with a min-series entitled, “Origins”. This finally put the beginnings of one of the Marvel universes most celebrated characters. The movie holds close to this part of the story. However when it comes to other bits of Marvel history it is far less faithful. There will be a few “spoilers” but lets face it, no one who goes to see this movie was expecting The Usual Suspects.

I love Pixar movies.  In my mind, that studio can do no wrong.  Eventually their streak will come to a screeching halt but I’m guessing that their new movie, Up, won’t be the one that does it.

On a side note, is the kid in this movie asian or just chubby?  We’ve been debating that at my work today.

So let me come right out and say it, there is a lot of digital blue penis in The Watchmen. Doctor Manhattan, one the stars of the film, is a man made of energy who is naked for almost the entire movie. For a small time he’s in human form, and when out on a mission sports a banana hammock. I’ll be honest that I felt a little uncomfortable seeing a flaccid blue dong on the IMAX screen repeatedly.

Right now that’s out of the way, on to the review.

Those who know me on any level are quite aware that I’m a huge movie nerd. Those who know me slightly better know that I am also a fan of professional wrestling. While my interest in the “squared circle” has waned over the years it is still there. So when I heard that one of my favorite directors, Daron Aronofsky, was directing a movie called The Wrestler I was almost immediately interested. It stars Mickey Rourke fresh off his fantastic turn in Sin City (one of my favorite films in recent memory), and has gotten a large amount of Oscar buzz. The last three weeks I’ve been off of school and had a chance to take a day and see several movies (BTW see Valkyrie it was great, The Spirit can be skipped, and Frost/Nixon is great if you are either a theater or political nerd). However I had one slight problem, I live in Utah which, along with its other flaws, is one of the smallest markets in the country. So while this movie has won awards, including a recent Golden Globe for Rourke, its not playing in my state. So what is a geek to do?

For those of you that just couldn’t bring yourself to sit through The Day the Earth Stood Still knowing full well that Keanu Reeves’ acting ability will ultimately drive you suicide, here is the non-bootleg version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  It looks to me to be a pretty good flick with lots of mutant entertainment, but knowing how I’m often disappointed by comic book flicks, I will reserve judgment until I actually see it next year.

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

In three separate movies that I’ve watched this year, I’ve seen the same actress . . . get snubbed.  Olga Kurylenko (who, as best I can tell, is not a leper) has been in Hitman, Max Payne, and Quantum of Solace.  Her role has varied from film to film as one would expect and she seems to do well with whatever material is given to her (not saying much for two of those three).

However, one thing that is constant is that the male star seems to have absolutely no interest in her at all!

May Payne

Photoshoot for Quantum of Solace

Hitman

In two of the three movies she is topless and just about begging to guy to have some fun with her, and she’s shut down each time.  Not even Bond has a roll with her.  Of course, she’s a little more angsty in QoS than most Bond Girls are, but it’s never stopped him before!!

Next Tuesday, the biggest blockbuster of the year will make it’s triumphant DVD debut.  This film also happens to be a geek-friendly movie based on one of the coolest super heroes in history.  If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m talking about The Dark Knight.  This is one DVD that will be making it’s way into my collection.  

I have a major gripe over the way that movie studios have been screwing people that buy DVDs over the past few years.  When DVDs first started hitting the market, they were advertised as having super cool bonus features including deleted scenes, commentaries, trailers, bloopers, featuretes, etc.  DVDs were a gold mine for the movie lover that enjoys useless information in documentary form.  Those days are now gone, and I don’t even blame the introduction of Blu-Ray discs.  I blame greedy movie stuidos that know that movie geeks will pay extra for this stuff.

Most of this mirrors Squishy’s comments, but I thought I’d add some of my own.

How to handle traffic on the freeway.

My wife and I had a date night so we took the opportunity to go see the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. As with previous James Bond movies, the title came from Ian Fleming. It was the title of a short story in Fleming’s James Bond short story book “For your eyes only.” As with previous title uses, elements of the short story were not used in the movie.

Quantum of Solace picks up right where Casino Royale left off. So I would highly recommend re-watching that movie before staring QoS. If you had any doubt if this was an action flick, that was disproven in the first minutes of the movie. James Bond having to take a lot of matters into his own hands reminded me of License to Kill and Die Another Day. I also enjoyed the Goldfinger tribute when one of the Bond Girls is killed and left for Bond to find.

Holy Crap.

Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.

Squishy was right!

PS.  Holy Crap.

Awesome . . . Frakking Awesome

Yesterday I finally got to see the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace. I’ll hold off on any deep review because I hate spoilers as much as the next guy. However I will say that it has taken Bond films in a whole new direction. Quantum is really unlike any other Bond movie you’ve ever seen. It does not feature a visit to Q branch, there really are no gadgets (even his beautiful armor and smoke bomb less Aston Martin gets badly beat up before the credits), there is no Money Penny, and not even an order for a vodka martini. Yet as someone who has been watching Bond movies as long as I can remember I have to say I loved it.