Yeah, yeah – I’ve been a bit behind in getting these TV spots up. You can blame too many games and not enough sleep for that. I blame The Mandarin because it’s a much better excuse at the end of the day (well, at least I think so). Hey, maybe you should try that out the next time you need to get out of trouble. I’ll bet you a penny that it works much better than you’d expect… Continue reading
You’re welcome. I’m actually hoping to heck that this film is closer to two hours or so than shorter, as it seems pack a ton of story in between all that stuff falling apart and exploding (and people leaping off high places). Yeah, I think a lot of movies are too short or over-edited so more screenings can be run during an average day and those of us who like what we see have to end up buying a DVD or Blu-Ray to see what we paid for earlier.
Granted, that’s not a big crime by any means… unless you don’t like buying or renting movies and keep hoping that the trend of “Unrated”, “Uncut” and “Director’s Cut” films all vanish in the same time loop or something. Of course, given that there have been some great films that didn’t get additional footage tacked in just to sell a few million more copies, but hell, not every director can be a Kubrick, right? Wait, I’m mentioning J.J. Abrams and Stanley Kubrick in the same breath? Well, it’s not too far of a swing for genre fans, so I’m not worried one bit…
Anyway, Star Trek: Into Darkness hits a theater near you on May 17, 2013.
The funny thing about this clip is there’s always going to be that ONE guy in the theater when Iron Man 3 hits on May 3 with a slide rule and calculator taking measurements and tapping in numbers just so he can let out a mighty “A-HA!” afterwards and say that the scene was impossible because of the air to mass ratio times the advent of steam or something annoyingly dopey like that. People who do this at films where the goal is to sit down and let your brain enjoy the show for two hours drive me nuts. Applying arbitrary rules of reality to a genre flick such as this should get one immediately bounce ejected from a theater with a big box of Jujubes thrown at the back of that person’s head as they go sailing onto the pavement on a fresh bed of that nasty butter-flavored popcorn that’s sold at the concession stand. Yeah, it’s called a concession stand for a reason – you trade in your hard-earned bucks and in concession, you get some overly salty popcorn swimming in enough chemically laced oil to clog a whale heart. Yuck. Someone call up Tony Stark and ask him to invent a repulsor-powered organic only popcorn machine…
I haven’t followed any of the early reviews and in fact, I don’t even know if there are any out there yet. OK, I did hear about a few today, but I didn’t even bother to peek at one. Yeah, I’m THAT disinterested in some parts of pop culture because (dammit) I really like to be surprised (dammit!). That said, it would be pretty hilarious is this film was really bad when all is said and done. Hey, I’m NOT wishing that on this flick at all, folks. I was at the library today and some kids were having a rather animated conversation about that very thing for some reason and although I wanted to beat them all with a heavy book for yapping so loudly, they made me laugh as well AND get an idea for a post. So, yeah, kids are good for something after all (hee hee)… Continue reading
Hmmm… you know, “Roll out the Barrel” should be playing right about now, what with Marvel in full non-stealth mode dropping all these Iron Man 3 videos. of course, they’re just doing what they need to to get fans excited (well, more excited) and non-fans reaching for the remote or finding a new site to poke around that doesn’t have ads for the film all over it. Good luck with that or even better, just embrace the madness that is marketing. Hell, it’s not as if Marvel is going to send people to your home in order to drag you to that theater…
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Hmmm… you know, Paramount… there’s such a thing as TOO much exposure when it comes to some reveals. Now, I love a good tease once in a while, but I say take a lesson from the late, great Sally Rand and not show it all off all at once. Some things are worth waiting for, so a little anticipation goes a longer way than just whipping everything off all at once. Of course, I’m also wanting to see more, so your little ploy has worked out quite well…
That said, it IS a J.J. Abrams flick, so the template is there and easy to pinpoint. That bodes well for the movie, but also makes it a wee bit too predictable to some longtime fans or those who can catch the telegraphing of plot points a few star systems away as the film hits its thematic notes in their proper order. Granted, THAT part is up to the editing team as well as the director’s skills… but I’m not too worried about either.
On the other hand… if Into Darkness gets too formulaic, it means there’s room for improvement and a writing team (or hell, ONE writer) who can deliver the goods fans of the different Trek franchises can approve of. It’s hard to please so many generations of people who grew up watching or have caught the Star Trek bug over time, but the minute that magic moment happens, the person behind that particular wheel will become an intergalactic treasure of sorts…
Usually, it’s all pompous 1-percenting about tax shelters, how much that gold-plated platinum toilet (with bidet, of course) cost and trying to get legislation passed that keeps the poor from doing no more than scraping the outside of the bottom of the barrel for scraps they toss down, but I bet if Tony Stark were a real guy, he’d be fun to hang around with. Well, provided he wasn’t constantly having people like the Mandarin trying to get rid of him. One minute, you’re talking with him about the possibility of trying on a non-working Iron Man prototype and the next minute, you’re hiding under one of those suits because the ceiling just fell in. Whatever happened to “Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams…”, I say…
Hmm, I wonder what Bill Gates is up to? I’m sure he’s not having crazy guys with too many rings on their fingers putting holes in his property (unless he’s getting a golf course put into the back yard)…
I thought we’d see something like a dozen different ads by now, but Marvel is taking their time on rolling these out it seems. Either that, or it’s because they’ve shown so much of the action scenes in bits and pieces that revealing the actual story would be a bad thing. Of course, as I’m not one of those internet poker-a-rounders digging up every plot point or on-set screenshot out there so I can spoil my screening, I don’t mind the slow reveals one bit. Actually, it would be amazing to see a major motion picture that’s not a Terence Malick film pop up with not so much spolieriffic fanfare and blow audiences away because it was under-hyped and amazing. Eh, like that ever happens these days…
Well, these big press and fan-packed junkets are always weird and often dull as hell for the casts of these blockbusters, but you have to give Robert Downey Jr. a few metric tons of credit for doing his own awesomely quirky thing to shake stuff up. Well, reaction to the film is definitely great overseas, so that enthusiasm will no doubt carry on as the film arrives at a mega-multiplex near you on May 3. Hey, you still have time to finish that Coke can Iron Man outfit you’re working on (yeah, I know you didn’t want me to say anything, but…), so get to it! Just leave the windows open when you’re spray painting, as huffing in those fumes will do you in faster than the Mandarin with his can opener ring…
I happen to like Rob Zombie’s horror films and more particularly, how he’s grown as a director since House of 1000 Corpses, which blended horror and black humor in the style of a bunch of 1970’s genre flicks. The Devil’s Rejects worked even better as a sequel thanks to his darkening the characters and comic relief even more in favor of a relentless sense of dread and some truly shocking violence. The soundtrack was also amazing for its use of classic 1970’s radio songs that drove some key scenes (the ending of the film is particularly brilliant). His takes on the Halloween films were really cool because he gave Michael Myers a back story that made you actually feel for the disturbed kid who’d become the unstoppable killer of your worst nightmares. I keep meaning to see The Haunted World of El Super Beasto on cable, but I keep missing that animated feature or finding it on somewhere in the middle and I want to see it from the beginning. Anyway, The Lords of Salem looks pretty creepy based on the clips and trailer I’ve seen, so I just may have to check this out at some point. Of course, I’m so busy that it’ll probably be on cable late at night with me half hiding under a blanket…
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