So, the that thing that millions wanted to see dropped the other day and of course, it was thanks to being (surprise!) leaked a day early. Hold on to your hats, please:
Butt, that’s not all, folks…
Looks good, doesn’t it? Anyway, let the shutdown fully commence here until the game ships, simply for sanity’s sake. I managed to miss out on that OLD leaked in-progress progress game footage, the only reason I’m posting this trailer is for the news value and yes, the fact that Rockstar Games continues to produce some incredible looking titles despite an increasingly jaded fan base that will pore over every millisecond of official footage just to nitpick on what they didn’t see and/or just guesstimate on every aspect and end up being 1000% WRONG when the game does finally ship (again, as usual). Already, some sites are turning GLORIOUSLY into self- parody as they pixel and polygon count, wonder if every map has been properly mipped and examine this brief trailer more than the Zapruder film a few million times over, so expect to see this nonsense continue with each new trailer released (le sigh). Warning, this won’t be pretty, but that’s the Internet today for you (if you still haven’t realized).
Yes, I’ll gladly accept a review copy IF I get one, but life won’t stop if that doesn’t happen and I need to (gasp) actually pay to secure a copy.For now, I’m sitting back and waiting this thing out for at least a year, unless Rockstar has an actual hands-on at their NYC offices and I get an invite (like the good old days.) Eh, we’ll see…
Alrighty, I haven’t done a giveaway in a LONG while, but I was going through a huge pile of movies here and found a stack of sealed duplicates that I picked up from a Severin Films sale last year when they were clearing out their DVD section, so I ended up with a dozen or so extras. Anyway, I like surprising people at random, so yep, I’m going to gift ONE lucky reader with these discs and that person has to do nothing but wait for the box to arrive. Of course, there’s a catch or two:
One, you have to be a subscriber to the blog. Two, you need to be a US resident. Sorry about that last part, but it’s far easier and a lot less expensive to just ship a box of movies almost anywhere in the US than to deal with customs forms and the package being delayed, opened and inspected by overzealous types out there.
No, YOU’RE throwing your back out dancing around the room to this!
SO, what IS inside the box, you ask? Well, let’s just say it’s a mix of genres and leave it at that. I think there’s one kid friendly film on the mix, a few horror films, a trailer collection and other strange stuff. Everything seems to be out of production from the distributor or rights have changed hands, so jump into the pool, if you’re able to. I’ll randomly pick someone off my subscriber list and shoot an email out to that person asking if they want the movies (say yes, please) and I’ll ship out your box around the end of the week. OR, you can reply in the comments without giving out personal info and if you’re chosen, we can work out the details via email. NO, I won’t sell your info to some shady company or send you those Sea Monkeys you ordered back when you were a kid. I guess it’s just me trying to be more human than “social” or something. An experiment, if you will. Humor me and be rewarded in the process. Good luck!
When a little film called Star Wars was released back in 1977, I was one of a seeming minority who didn’t go rush out to see it. Not that I didn’t want to, mind you. There were assorted issues and I was out of the loop for a bit in my movie viewing. It wasn’t until summer 1978 when a friend of the family popped by to ask if I was interested in going to see the film, which of course, I agreed to. We arrived to the theater late, walking in on the scene where Luke and his Uncle Ben are buying C-3PO and R2-D2, so that was disappointing. But we agreed to watch the film a second time and sat through the second part of the double feature, a rather unusual science fiction film from 10 years earlier called The Terrornauts. I’m guessing that whomever picked this as a good film to show with Star Wars had never seen either movie or just thought “well, it’s also a space flick sooooo…” (or something like that). Seeing movies in Times Square was very often bizarre like that, from what I understand and recall from a few odd occasions.
It followed me home- can I keep it?
Anyway, the plot: a small team of scientists working for Star Talk, a UK-based organization dedicated to tracking signals from outer space in order to find life on distant planets, get a lot more than they bargained for when not only do they get that signal, aliens decide to yank their entire facility off the Earth and deliver it to their planet where there’s an interplanetary war about to take place. Guess who gets to stop that war with more war in the lowest budget manner (we’re talking Woolworth shower caps as a costuming option, folks). Yes, we sat through this flick just to see the other one and yes, when I told friends at school, they all laughed at me for seeing Star Wars over a year late.
The more amusing thing was around a year later, The Terrornauts started popping up semi-frequently on local TV, so I was able to introduce it to some new friends and yes, we hated it, but found plenty of amusement at the visual effects and general cheesiness of the film. At least they got in a shot that’s replicated almost exactly on the film’s poster art. On the other hand this wasn’t an interstellar epic like Star Wars or even a This Island Earth on a less than shoestring budget.There are plenty of good intentions here, it’s just that the execution is somewhat off the mark.
Ouch! (almost)
While the film is far from Amicus Productions better known films, it has it’s share of fans out there who grew up watching this on television, so nostalgia wins here. However, it’s pretty much forgotten these days, as it isn’t legally available on disc and the digital version isn’t 100 percent flawless when you can find it online. I also had the luxury back in the day to read the book the film is based on, Murray Leinster’s 1960 novel The Wailing Asteroid, which is a “hard” science fiction tale much more suited to a film with a much more robust budget. The goofy bit here is Murray Leinster is the name of the ship at the beginning of the 1978 film Starcrash, which I saw shortly after it’s release (on Times Square, of course). Yes, I’ll have to get to that film again one day in review form, but not for a while, as it’s so mind numbing and silly in a like-ably weird manner.
Anyway, this post is part of The Hammer-Amicus Blogathon IV, hosted by Barry over at Cinematic Catharsis and Gill from Realweegiemidget Reviews. I’m posting a few days early due to a few previous commitments, but make sure to pop on over to get a peek at the other posts. As for me? Well, I’ll be back sooner that later- it says so on my contract!
Yes, I’m still here, folks. Just a bit too occupied with real life these days. Now, where were we? So, The really funny thing is, I actually found some folks to give my most awful candy to and it was quite by accident. Previously, what you got was a total surprise and I’m sure kids got what they wanted more often than not while most of the adults who picked out their own treats seemed pleased, although on a few occasions, some parental units actually asked for the “worst” candy I had because they had a kid that had misbehaved in some way and they wanted to prove that The Great Pumpkin was cut from the same fictional cloth as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or whomever. I had previously made a separate bucket for the oddball candy and usually had enough to hand out later in the evening, but one year, an elderly gentlemen popped up beside me and asked if I had any Circus Peanuts(oog) because he and his brother loved them back in the day, but his strict parents despised Halloween and wouldn’t let them go celebrate the holiday for whatever reason.
“Sometimes, you feel like a nut…”
Sometimes, a little sugar therapy goes a long way and when I told the old man that not only did I have a bunch of sealed bags of Circus Peanuts, he was welcome to as many as he wanted, he surprised me by rooting carefully through the buckets and grabbing all of the pesky peanuts, stopping every few seconds to ask me if it was OK that he was taking them. “Sure!” was my response, as I knew I’d have issues getting rid of all those so-called “peanuts” when trick or treaters would come around later in the evening. Yes, I did mention to him to go easy with all that candy, and while he cheerfully munched on a handful, he smiled and said “It’s a good thing these last forever!” and “You know, these aren’t bad STALE!” which made me gag a little, I’ll admit. The next year. I remembered to deliberately by two of three bags just for him and he was too happy that I remembered and even the Security guards didn’t mind if there was a Halloween or two with bad weather and I left a few bags in the security booth for him to pick up later. One year, I recall telling him I had a few sealed bags of candy corn left and he laughed and said “What am I supposed to do with that?” My personal (and yes, snarky) recommendation was to make some sort of “fancy” holiday candy “salad” and share it with friends, but I already have enough trouble with friends who actually follow my often bad advice, let alone nice strangers who I’ve recently met.
I’ve only been egged once while handing out treats, and it was thanks to some Catholic school punks (it’s always the “good” kids, right?), but I was more annoyed at having to rush home, take a quick shower and change than getting overly upset at some teens having a bit of stupid fun. That said, the perks of this gifty gig have outweighed the few bad spots. On a few occasions, people have surprised me with their generosity. I still recall all those free cups of coffee from the diner across the street from the park and the server from the diner who’d show up in costume and joke around with us before or after her shift. One year she was dressed as Flo from the old TV show Alice, one year she was a somewhat spectacular Bride of Frankenstein (her daughter did a great job on her hair and makeup) and she really got into the spirit of the season with her other costumes. As most of her customers were older residents, she’d sometimes take requests and dress as characters from old films or TV shows, sometimes with costume changes mid-shift. One chilly Halloween, she popped over to drop off a few orders of pumpkin pancakes with bacon (they were awesome).
You never know who you might meet…
This may be the last year I’ll be able to do this, given the current world situation (Where’s that damn asteroid? It’s a bit late, you know?). But I’ll be my normally sunny self until that day comes or I decide it’s a good year to go on an actual vacation. My doctor made me laugh a few weeks ago when he said his own kids noted he’s in his YOLO phase about a few things. Yeah, me too (sound of bones creaking and other old coot stuff)… Happy Halloween!
The next day, it was back to Deal$, where I purchased $5 worth of paper Halloween bags with Happy Halloween and Trick or Treat printed on them in orange and green ink, a dozen smaller plastic pumpkin buckets, four packages of Halloween confetti (bats, cats, ghosts, skulls and such; each bag came with a free pack of Halloween glitter), a few packs of giant Halloween stickers, a few glow sticks and a box of aluminum foil sheets. The previous night, I’d painted the buckets with the black enamel paint, adding large pumpkin faces to each bucket and using the orange fabric tape to cover up some misprinted text. The tape wasn’t exactly the same color as the buckets, but those Halloween stickers were quite handy in covering things up when needed.
I dumped a bag of confetti and glitter in each bucket, then cut open four of the huge bags of mixed candy and poured the entire bags into one bucket. Then I started sorting the candy by type. Hard candy in one bucket, chocolate in another, gummy candy and small boxes of miscellaneous treats went to a third bucket. The funny thing was, there were also small sealed bags of mixed candy corn, a few rolls of Necco wafers, a lot of Smarties and (EEK!) a few sealed bags of Circus Peanuts. Those went into bucket four (the Trick bucket). Then I opened up a package of the paper bags and filled about 20 or each with a mix of every type of candy so when a bag was handed out, each person was guaranteed a little of everything. The small pumpkins were for carrying six bags each and I brought two buckets (one small, one large) to the security booth in the Oval to show to the guards on duty that afternoon.
Everything was approved, but one of the guards told me my skull mask was a bit too scary (boo!), so I pulled out one cute alternate I’d brought and got a thumbs up from him. Another more senior guard told me to just wear whatever I felt like (I’d planned to bring both masks anyway) and to just have fun. The next few days before Halloween was just me deciding what to wear and when to show up. The final outfit was a heavy orange sweater with an orange sweatshirt underneath, black sweatpants and a pair of black Chuck Taylors, plus the two masks, one of which was stored in one of the large buckets. As far as those buckets went, a few of the aluminum foil sheets went into two of the large buckets along with a few glow sticks. I’d remixed the candy selection to be a mix of everything, stuck a few sheets of foil in the bottom on top of the confetti, crinkled the foil a bit and put a few glow sticks in the bottom of the buckets so when it was getting darker, I’d use the glow sticks to give off a little extra light. The crinkled foil made for a nice effect.
Cute alert!
Halloween was the next day and I decided to head out around 1:30 PM with two big buckets of mixed candy, some loose paper bags and four smaller bag-filled buckets. The plan was to hand out filled bags and hand out empty bags to those who wanted to take a chance at picking their own goodies. I lived about three minutes away, so if I needed a bathroom break or to get more treats, it was a short walk to get home. When I got to the park, one of the security guards told me I was a bit too early, but I told him we’ll see what happens as it happens. There were smaller pumpkins loaded with paper bags of candy all set to be grabbed from a table when I returned home for a break.
I still remember my first “customers”. At about 1:45 or so, A dad pushing his daughter in a kid-sized wheelchair walked up to me. He wore a harness with a toddler securely strapped in. The younger child was fast asleep. “Is that candy free?” he asked. “The freest!” I responded. The security guard gave me a thumbs up (He was munching away on a bag of candy I’d given him earlier) and nodded as I handed the dad two bags of candy to inspect. He want through both bags and said “Okay, this looks fine.”, before handing one bag to his daughter in the wheelchair. She wore a pink sweater under a small puffy jacket, pink tights with big stars on them and was holding onto a plastic wand of some sort. When she got the candy, she smiled broadly and said a quiet “Thank You.”. I smiled back, leaned forward a bit to ask her name and then, *BOOP!*, she reached out and conked me on the head with the plastic wand she was holding. “Trick or Treat!” she laughed. Her dad laughed as well, as did I.
Dad then asked if I could give him an extra bag for his son, who was arriving via school bus about a half hour later, and of course, I did. I also asked if he wanted to grab a bag of candy for himself, but he declined, saying he’d swipe a little from the other bags. A few minutes later, a person dressed as a clown arrived and joined me. The security guards all knew her well and introduced us. The clown wore blue overalls with multicolored stripes, a blue shirt with stars, a blue fuzzy jacket and a huge blonde Afro wig. The first thing she did after shaking my hand was mime a big sneeze and gold colored confetti flew out of the wig, landing all over the place. “Does that every year” One of the guards said, laughing. “Oh, the team from Maintenance just loves November the first” another guard joked.
Even with all my current health issues, my favorite holiday is coming up and I’m very likely going to to once again take part in an annual Halloween candy giveaway. A few residents have been doing this for about a dozen years (some for much longer) and it’s always rewarding to see those smiling kids, some of whom have popped up over later years as teenagers and young adults to grab a bag or two of treats (or a few bags of treats). Meeting all those parents over the years has also been rewarding as I’ve found a whole lot of parents who like not having to take their kids again out unless it’s to a Halloween party they’ve been invited to later. (but not too late).
More like before midnight, honestly.
One early October morning in 2012, I went to the management office and inquired about handing out candy to kids in the complex. There was yes, a full background check.They also checked my state and city ID and address to see if I was a resident here. The process took about a half hour or so but it gave some of the staff something else to do other than whatever other tasks they did. Then, a security officer went over a few basic ground rules with me. I had to be inside the Oval area (an outdoor oval-shaped park open to residents), sit on a bench near the security booth, stand near the booth or both (the security guards were more or less protecting me from any rowdy antics). I was told not everyone celebrates the holiday and to be respectful and don’t “force” fun or candy on anyone if they refuse. I also had to let security search the candy I was giving out and it all had to be sealed. They also wanted to see what I intended to wear on that day. If the mask and/or costume were deemed too frightening, I’d need to have a backup handy.
I got a rock (and a roll- that’s a sandwich, right?)
The next day, I did some shopping. The first stop was Deal$, which is now a Dollar Tree ($1.25 Tree, actually), where I bought $40 worth of bagged mixed and wrapped Halloween candy and a few $1 Halloween masks, which were simple pull over the head masks with mesh faces. I bought three with skeleton faces. three with Ghostface inspired images and four cuter cartoony masks, just in case. Then I went down the street to a small thrift store and bought a few irregular orange sweatshirts (3 for $5). The shirts, I found out later just needed to be laundered and were “irregular” only because they were labeled incorrectly by the manufacturer.
Got milk?
To store the candy, I found a great deal in Summer 2011. A local hardware store had a special on what they called “DIY” Halloween buckets, which were large orange buckets, some of which were unpainted or were misprinted on one side. “How much for a bucket?” I asked. “Tell you what” the clerk said. “it’s a slow day. so buy $10 worth of stuff and I’ll thrown in two buckets for free”. That was too hard too pass up, so I asked if the store had cloth tape in orange (I needed two rolls) and some black enamel paint. The clerk (he was actually the shop owner) pulled a drawer open and and picked two rolls of orange tape out, then from behind the counter, he produced a medium sized can of black enamel paint. “Just opened this yesterday. My son painted that sign.” He pointed at a sign for the buckets. It was $11 for the tape and paint but the owner added four more buckets for a buck each. He rang me up, then wrote me a receipt on a small pad and tore off a copy, placing it, the tape and the can of paint in one of the stacked buckets. “Thanks for the business” he nodded and flashed a wide smile as I nodded back and left the shop. There was still a lot of work ahead for me…
OK, we’re still here, smoky acrid skies and all. (coughs. Thanks, Canada!) Some thoughts on the current scribbly situation along with other randomly generated ramblings:
Yes, we’ll continue to blog, albeit at a less than rapid clip than I’d prefer. The effect of pair of strokes I had a few years back have jumped up to remind me the writing process can be extremely daunting, especially when speed and quality are the issues. I have to constantly check my work, go back and edit, then reread everything before hitting that publish button or else you’d all be asking for an English translation into English or begging for me to start posting in Semaphore or Braille. Yes this takes a while to do and I hate it, but trying to rebuild a skill set is supposed to be a constant battle (at least in terms of the writer acquiring an honest, original “voice” in which to write in). Or something like that. Learning should always challenge.
That 10-yard stare makes for a common sight.
I’m also planning to reestablish connections with certain PR firms that I’ve previously dealt with (Hi there (again!) in order to receive (or get back to receiving) products to review. For a while, I was strictly purchasing products I reviewed or meant to review. But that’s gotten to be fairly expensive over the years, as I believe the “best” way to properly evaluate something is to actually pay for it while also pointing out its positive and negative aspects in a fair, unbiased (or biased in some cases) manner. “Biased”, of course, in that I’m a fan of some entertainment genres that don’t get the proper respect by too many very well-paid, freebie-loving “influencers” and “journalists” these days and I’d love to do my small part in helping raise a more positive impression of these genres. Tall order, especially in this giveaway friendly age. But it’s something I like to do as much as I can, while I still can. Granted, the current landscape is rife with those aforementioned (and extremely wealthy in many cases) types who expound on all sorts on products via a current format where some are paid to review and/or gift stuff from assorted sponsors, easily raking in hundreds to millions of fans who often rely on opinions of always raised voices and shock-tainted performances a more than actual facts. Personally, I’ve never been paid to review anything (although, a PR firm sent me a $50 Gamestop card after I’d posted a favorable review, which, by the way, had NO effect in my impressions). No one has ever told me they’d pay directly for a positive review, However, I have been asked a few times how much I’d charge to review something, or asked to review particular products primarily for some sort of payout and long term gain as other products to arrive later, but still haven’t taken that more lucrative bait.
SO Predictable (for me, at least!)
Of course, this makes me the absolutely dumbest person alive on a few fronts. But one has to have principles and mine are simple to a fault. Laugh if you must- I’ll wait. (Cue 1960’s era laugh track).
That said, I keep reading that ALL games/media writers are somewhat corrupt or in on the payola game and they all can be bought with games, movies and other free media. I suppose I’m making a point and a difference here, But someone has to reign it in at some point as it’s just making proper critical evaluation quite the dying art these days. Call me crazy, but some of the old ways and days need to make a return, purely for sanity’s sake. But that’s just me. I guess.
No, this isn’t written from the great beyond (note the date, please). I’ve just been a bit (way, no, really, WAAAAAAAAAY) too occupied, is all. I’m sure you all know the drill these days. Life, being the completely unlicensed steamroller driver it is, runs you over, then backs it up, flashing lights and all, to finish the job. Which it then repeats, no matter which street you’ve decided to cross the next day. I’ve learned to mentally carry a few hastily scribbled cartoon sound effects around for such emergencies, but it seems if if every day. SOMETHING is happening to SOMEONE and it’s less likely to be good (or even good-adjacent) news.
To add to that, all that extra baggage can (and will, trust me) lead one to be all that more under-prepared for those times when the mental load needs a required respite from the other 23.9 hours of lousy news one receives when using “social” media these days. “Socially diseased” is more like it (zing!). On one hand, all one supposes is that all one needs to do is constantly “think positively” and/or just be around to angelically post endless inspirational/motivational platitudes to combat all that negativity. Which more than likely on the other hand, just won’t work realistically with most people living online in their separate, but still shared with too many who desire you stay as miserable as they are individuals and groups. Cue segue, please? (taps fast forward button).
You KNOW you’ve had those moments…
I remember quite a long while back, my mother rolling out some sage commentary that went as follows: “Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it’s good”. Now, if I recall, she was talking about one of my favorite TV shows at the time and I was feeling a little bit personally insulted by this at the time, as you can imagine. But I soon realized this was a healthy discourse and the internet wasn’t around to convince me otherwise. No moral here, other than wisely take a little break from things before they get too far out of hand and outside of your control. No one will miss you (much) and you get to return when you like and feel somewhat more refreshed. OK. maybe some rinsing and repeating in involved, but as they say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Back later with more but less moralizing on this end- I almost forgot I even had a blog for a minute until the renewal notice popped up via my inbox!
It’s both catty and batty, but a fun watch, as long as you don’t take it seriously.
As a horror anthologies go, The Uncanny starts out strong, but it ends with a few eye rolls and a twist when it doesn’t exactly stick the landing in terms of storytelling prowess. The basic setup has Peter Cushing as Wilbur Gray, a superstitious feline-fearing writer who arrives at book publisher Frank Richards’ (Ray Milland) home one night and tries to convince him to print his book about a trio of cat-related homicides that happened over decades. Naturally, abundant skepticism abounds, but Wilbur does his best to back up his tales of terror with plenty of evidence that he relays in three episodes, the first of which in the best in the film, in my opinion.
Ever have one of those nights?
In London, 1912, Susan Penhaligon plays Janet, maid for an elderly woman, Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood!) who’s rewritten her will and left her entire fortune to her cats, shutting out her only surviving relative, Michael (Simon Williams). Of course, Janet and Michael are canoodling and in cahoots to conspire copping that kitty from those kitties because what use do cats have for cash money, right? Let’s just say things go all sorts of wrong for Janet after she offs her employer and tries to get her paws on that will. Instead, the cats get their paws on her and munch on Miss Malkin in the process. Nicely done, overall with just a bit of gore where expected.
The next segment takes place in Quebec 1975, where a young girl named Lucy (Katrina Holden Bronson) is adopted after her parents die in a plane crash by a family that’s not much into cats at all. Lucy just so happens to bring along her black cat, Wellington along with a bunch of books and notes about witchcraft, which belonged to her late mother. Hmmm… you can guess what happens next (mostly). While her new father is initially accepting to Lucy and her cat, both her new mom (Alexandra Stewart) and stepsister Angela (Chloe Franks) are hostile to Lucy and want to get rid of the cat almost immediately. Angela even flies a radio-controlled plane after Lucy and Wellington in one scene (clearly a North By Northwest in-joke).
“Look, I pain-ted a cat!”
Anyway, their plan to have Wellington disposed of works and Dad shuttles the cat off to be “taken care of”. Lucy finds out, but Wellington returns (I guess he’s been eating 9 Lives) and you guessed it, it’s revenge time in a sequence that combines bits of The Incredible Shrinking Man and some interesting use of a spell which probably wouldn’t work outside of this segment (or, don’t try this at home, folks). The main issue here is yes, the child acting, where every line sounds over-enunciated and frankly, the adults aren’t much better. The funny thing for me was remembering Chloe Franks’ performance in 1970’s The House That Dripped Blood, where she shows a bit more range. At least she’s got a memorable ending here straight out out of an EC Comics horror tale.
“Ham, ham, ham, ham”
The final episode takes place in Hollywood 1936, where hammy horror actor Valentine De’ath Donald Pleasence kills his wife with a guillotine (he’s replaced the rubber blade with a real one) and convinces the studio to hire his new girlfriend Edwina (Samantha Eggar!) as a suitable replacement. Things go from bat to verse when we find out not only that Edwina can’t act to save her life, she’s an awfully awful screamer as well, not a good thing for a horror film. The cat angle comes into play when De’ath tries to dispose of his ex-wife’s cat, then finds out the cat is female and has had a new litter, whereupon he has the babies cruelly dispatched, setting up the revenge part.
Almost everyone camps it up here, to varying degrees of success. Pleasence channels a bit of Vincent Price and even wears a toupee (or is it two?) over his real hair at one point. The main issue for me is the episode seems as if someone gathered whatever spare costumes were leftover from another “period” film and crafted a script around them. When Edwina paraphrases Tweety Bird at one point and is briefly seen reading a modern comic book (likely the same one from the last episode), that “1936” thing gets a tad sketchy. David Ogden Stiers even shows up a few times, but its almost as if he’s acting in another movie, as he mostly plays it seriously while he’s onscreen. The most mind boggling thing, however, occurs right as the chapter starts and we see a photo of Pleasense as Blofeld along with his white cat, which probably cost the studio more to use than the entire episode to shoot. Granted, I did get a laugh at this intro, but I can see some not getting the gag at all in they’re not aware of the link.
“Does he, or doesn’t he?…”
The ending wraps things up for Cushing in a somewhat predictable manner, with kind of a circular, vengeful kitty squad sort of thing happening. Milland has a sort of last laugh (is he on the cat side here?) and the film clocks out at a tidy 88 minutes, which isn’t too bad at all. Your mileage may vary, of course. But on a foul weather weekend, this isn’t a bad choice at all for a double feature starter flick. Amicus lite, if you like that sort of anthology thing happening here.
Apparently, we really can’t have anything fun anymore (part MMII) because some people want to have it their way in every aspect, not seeing the forest for the trees. Anyway, that’s the recently released Super Mario Bros. movie trailer above, which looks like it’s going to be a fun family movie. While I won’t exactly be rushing out so see it in theaters. I’ll hold out for the eventual cable airing at some point in the future as yes, I’m curious as to how it turns out. It certainly looks like it’ll be interesting despite it being a less active experience that sitting down with a controller in hand.
Now to the nontroversy part (ugh). Apparently there are a bunch of folks hating on Chris Pratt’s otherwise fine (albeit intentionally generic) voice acting performance as Mario. I’d planned to write something more substantial on this and even went to the trouble of researching everything I wanted to use an as example, but cutting to the chase is a better use of time here. There’s other and more urgent fish to fry these days and in the grand scheme of things, this is well below stuff I actually care about.
I’d bet a new penny Illumination and Nintendo are simply future-proofing the character against people who want to call Mario’s old faux Italian accent out as insulting to Italians despite it being around for decades.Times change, things move forward. Granted, I’m sure they could also find another actor to pull off that accent, but I’m not sure Chazz Palminteri, Steve Buscemi, Al Pacino or Robert DeNiro would want to take a shot at this one despite the money. Then again, I’m more concerned some otherwise excellent voice actor is not getting a chance at the role of their career, because they can sound just as normal and generic as Pratt’s version and collect a reasonable paycheck at that.
While there’s no word as to whether Nintendo is planning a video game version of the film (which would already need to be in development), this would definitely cement this new version of the character as definitive, should they have him speaking without the accent. We shall see, as usual. Just try not to be surprised if the companies confirm this at some point.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 