You Go, Girl!

Greetings,

Well, in about 60 days (actually 61 for those who are counting) the very first Wonder Woman movie will hit screens and I can't wait.

It took 76 years for the Amazon Princess Warrior to hit the big screen, even after her male colleagues, Superman and Batman, had multiple films, some good some bad, in the multiplex, she waited her turn - patiently and perhaps angrily as she and those who supported her, knew she could do a better job than the boys at cinematic adventuring.

A great deal rests on her armored shoulders.  Thus far the DC Extended Cinematic Universe has not been very impressive. Ever since the Christian Bale Batman  series, DC has been trying desperately to re-capture that movie and financial magic.  The Superman movie "The Man of Steel" received mixed reviews despite its well-crafted visual wonder and stand-out performances (you can tell I enjoyed it) but the follow-up "Batman v. Superman" was a mess and though it had incredible moments of super heroics (e.g. Batman and Wonder Woman) it fell short of the special event it should have been.  DC's next outing was "Suicide Squad" and again though it had great artistic design elements and dead on performances by Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn  and Viola Davis' Amanda Waller it, too, failed to catch fire and silence those critics who decried DC for its ham-handed attempts at trying to match Marvel  at its super-hero film game.  It seems that DC is on the ropes and that there is no one who can save it.

But just maybe...just maybe there is someone who can lead DC out of this dark night of the cinema soul and save the foundering ship which is the DCEU.

Wonder Woman.

Directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Godot, this first major motion picture featuring the prototype for all of today's female super heroes could be the salvation and resurrection of the DC film Universe.

That is a heavy burden for any hero or film.  The previews thus far have been incredible and if the movie is at least half as good as the trailers then we will have a classic super-hero movie the likes of Christopher Reeve's "Superman: The Movie".

In 60 days we will see if Diana of Themyscira can right the wrongs of the early entries in the DCEU and then lead that Universe into a much brighter and successful chapter of film history.

I believe in Wonder Woman...I always have.

Suicide Squad

Greetings,

Well my summer is nearly over and just as I was getting used to sleeping in, it's time to prep for those early morning wake ups.

Prior to my return to work I have been able to indulge in one of my favorite past-times...MOVIES!

Last week I took in the newest release from Warner Brothers, Suicide Squad.

Here is my review:

SUICIDE SQUAD

The Suicide Squad movie is the latest entry in the growing DC Extended Universe (the first two films in that group being Superman: The Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice).  Suicide Squad is a fun, hectic, mashup of high-octane music and super-villain action.  The conceit of this film is to take a group of bad guys and used them for good.  The Squad is made up of characters such as Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and several other lesser-known anti-heroes,  Also in the film, though in a way too small quantity, is the Joker as played by Academy Award Winner Jared Leto .

This movie has received much hate from the critics and it has the fandom community divided almost as much as the aforementioned Batman v Superman film.

Personally, I loved this movie!  From the start it is visually engaging and while the plot (such that it is) wanders off the rails at times, it is still an entertaining use of one's time.

As a fan of the source material, I found little that I could complain about.  The performances, for the most part were spot on.  Viola Davis is endearingly evil as Squad director, Amanda Waller. Will Smith hasn't been this much fun in a film in ages; he owns the role of Deadshot and is easily among the best aspects of this tale.  Margot Robbie inhabits the persona of Harley Quinn and crushes it as the deranged sweetheart of "Mr. J." better known as the Joker.  Speaking of the Joker, Jared Leto's take on the "Clown Prince of Crime" is unique and actually very good.  He plays the Joker as a crime lord whose insanity makes him unpredictable and frightening. The only problem with the Joker is that we didn't get enough of him.  Frankly, I could go for a whole movie of Harley and the Joker...even a Deadshot movie would be most welcome.

The movie also boasts a couple of very nice cameos by current DCEU heroes; one is Ben Afleck's Batman and the other I'll let you discover on your own but both are way cool.

If the movie has any real downsides they would be the underwhelming main villain and the sometimes jarring editing but otherwise Suicide Squad serves as a nice departure from the somber goings on in the first two DCEU films.

Oh and despite the venom of those previously mentioned critics, Suicide Squad is making bag loads of cold hard cash.  I have no doubt that there will be a second Suicide Squad entry and maybe before that we will get Harley Quinn and Deadshot stand-alone films.

Though Suicide Squad may not have pleased every fan or many critics, it was lots of fun and it did solidify Warner Brothers as a true presence in the Super-Hero Film market and with the spectacular (based on the trailer) Wonder Woman film expected in June 2017, all is well in the DC Extended Universe!

Wonder Woman Coming June 2017

What's Wrong With Superman and why can't he catch a break?

Greetings,

For the last 8 years, at least since the release of Marvel Studio's first Iron Man film, superhero movies have been very popular with many earning over or close to a billion dollars in worldwide box office returns.  That said, there have still been a fair share of super-heroic box office failures.  Many of these failures (I am looking at you Lone Ranger) were due to the producers and writers lack of connection with the source material and a basic misunderstanding of  the viewing public's sensibilities.  Some movies, like John Carter, were ruined by incredibly poor marketing.  After-all, John Carter was a very good film but it should have had a better title (I mean at least mention the planet Mars) and a stronger publicity campaign.

The lone Ranger felt like it had been produced by committee with jarringly different feels to various sections of the film, not to mention it was too long and didn't have the proper sense of being a "Lone Ranger" adventure until the last 30 minutes of the movie.  So, not every superhero film has fared well in this renaissance period of special-effects laden epic productions.  Which brings me to Superman.

Superman has always been a tough cinematic nut to crack; but even so, he has been a well-received character with endless fan support almost since his inception.  The serials of the 1940s, followed the television show of the 1950s and thereafter by various small-screen shows both animated and live all through the 1960s and 1970s.  Then came Christopher Reeve's'"Superman: The Movie" whose tag line was "You Will Believe A Man Can Fly"; and we did.  The first couple of Reeve Super films were very successful and no doubt made a star out of its leading man.  The latter Reeve's' efforts were disappointing to be kind and downright awful to be honest.  

After the last Reeve Superman film,  the character went into a deserved though likely forced hibernation and we saw little if anything in the way of superhero films until the release of Tim Burton's Batman in 1989.  Looking back on those Batman films of the late 1980s and early 1990s I am startled at how not great they are...at least not as great as I thought when first I saw them.  Maybe I have become more sophisticated in my viewing tastes or perhaps spoiled by the whiz-bang of today's modern digital effects but I find it difficult if not impossible to sit through a viewing of any of those Batman films no matter how much I enjoy the character.

In 2006 another attempt at bringing Superman to the silver screen was made and while it had some fine moments, its almost slavish attempt to recreate the tone and look of the original Chris Reeve movie was, in a word, unpopular.  Brandon Routh, who has had to live with the failure of "Superman Returns" for ten years is only now beginning to come out from under the unhappy shadow of the film a shadow that he was not entirely responsible for...yea I am calling you out Bryan Singer...your bad on messing up this chance at a new Superman franchise and then causing we fans to wait another 8 years before someone would try again.  Bad Bryan Singer...bad!

The Christopher Nolan Batman films of mid-2000s were all superb, especially 2008's "The Dark Knight" with Heath Ledger's iconic turn as the Joker.  Nolan's Batman trilogy set the stage for the current DC Cinematic Universe. Yet I think that perhaps his gritty and realistic take on Gotham's protector which works so well for those films is a bit too dark for films with characters who primarily work during the daylight hours. And sadly, I think the makers (Snyder) of Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman are trying to emulate the atmosphere and therein the success of the Nolan films. 

That brings me to 2013's Man of Steel directed by Zack Synder.  Finally, we had a Superman movie that fans and those not so well-versed in the lore of Kal El could enjoy.  Henry Cavill was a better than good Superman and the rest of the cast were way above par.  The story was good though it suffered from several plot holes which made long-time fans of "Krypton's Last Son" go apoplectic. 

For instance, the fact that Superman...

SPOILER....

kills General Zod didn't sit well with fans and let us not get started on the massive destruction and apparent loss of life left in the wake of the World Machine and Superman's battle with Zod.  So in the end, "Man of Steel" suffered much invective from fanboy and general movie patron alike.

To paraphrase Batman, "Superman fans got the movie they needed but not the movie they wanted".

Then after three years of production, "Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice" arrived and fans were giddy with anticipation despite the fact that trailers released prior to the film gave away most of the story (I hope whoever promoted that campaign of "spoiler" trailers has found gainful employment as a door greeter at Walmart).  But still the promise of a film showcasing Superman and Batman together for the first time was too much to hope for.  On top of that, we would get Wonder Woman and brief glimpses of the soon to formed Justice League...woot!

What could possibly go wrong with that combo of superhero perfection!  Sad to say...almost everything.

Superman, once again played by Henry Cavill, was dour, brooding and seemingly unhappy about  being in what was, at least initially, his own sequel; the much-maligned Ben Afleck who many thought would make a horrible Batman actually turned out to be pretty great...and then there was Wonder Woman.  Gal Godot was probably just as raked over for being cast as the Amazon Princess as Afleck was for the Dark Knight, but she proved to be one of the highlights of the film.  People, at the showing I attended and elsewhere, so I've read, cheered when Godot appeared in full Wonder Woman attired to take on the main villain.  But these few moments of film glory couldn't compensate for:

1) A disjointed and over-long movie

2) A terrible twitchy performance by Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor

3) An overall dark and humorless film

4) Too much inside-baseball where average movie goers would be lost at the arcane and unexplained references to DC Universe lore...yes I am speaking of the Para-Demons and the Flash dream sequence.

5) No really good logical reason for Batman and Superman to fight...if they just sat down and had a coffee they could have cleared up their differences pretty quickly.

6) Batman kills people..um bad guys.  I really shouldn't count this but many people do cite it as a problem.  For me the notion that an older, angrier Batman is branding and putting down violent criminals like wild dogs...warms the cockles of my heart.

7) Cramming too much into such a small container.  To fit Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, Superman, Doomsday, Darkseid (via dream sequence with Para-Demons), Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and the death of a major character into one film...just seems so exhausting and appears to be an attempt to catch up with Marvel in terms of building the DC Extended Cinematic Universe.

9) Finally, and maybe most importantly, the movie wasn't fun..just a poorly lit mash-up of too many concepts and characters which in the end wasn't the box-office champion the suits at WB hoped for nor the "out of the park" hit the fans have been clamoring for since 2013.

The only take away from Batman v. Superman is that there is hope...and lots of it!  Wonder Woman was great and her solo film comes out in 2017.  Afleck's Batman was also a high point and pre-production work is already starting on his solo film.  The Justice League Part 1 movie is now in production and hopefully the powers that be at Warner Brothers have heard the fan complaints and tallied their financial losses and understand how to right this ship.  Perhaps the first thing to do is remove Zack Snyder...and while I am not a Snyder hater...I do think that he needs to be reigned in and that other creative voices (e.g. Ben Afleck, Geof Johns) be given an opportunity to help grow this DC Cinematic Universe.

Until the Justice League arrives, I am waiting with baited breath for "Suicide Squad".  I believe that Suicide Squad will be the true start to the DC Extended Universe that it will be crazy good.

Superman, for now, may be from suffering a "standing 8 count" but you can't keep a good hero down and he has come back from worse than this...just ask Doomsday.

George B.

A Tale of Two or More Cities (Sorry, Mr. Dickens).

Greetings,

I hope all is well with you and yours.

As you can see by my output here (or lack thereof) I don't blog often.  I have always thought myself more an Analog than Digitally oriented man and thereby I take some minor pride in avoiding social media except whereas it is needed for work or professional networking.

In the last few years I have undergone some radical changes in my life.  Six years ago, I owned a condo, had two cars, many friends, a great-paying job and was able to travel to Brazil at least twice a year.

Now, I live in a small efficiency apartment, drive an older though, thus far, dependable vehicle, have no friends and work two jobs to make ends meet.  One of these jobs has each of the last four years had a terminating contract which places me each June in the unenviable position of not knowing where my next pay check will come from.

Four years ago I lived in Houston, Texas and I had been a resident of the city for nearly 30 years.  I loved Houston and miss it terribly.  Now I live in Raleigh, NC and while this is a lovely city and state with many positives, it still doesn't feel like home to me.  Five years ago I was able to visit Rio de Janeiro twice sometimes even three times a year; now I can only dream of visiting that marvelous city as my two salaries leave no margin for exotic vacations.

All things considered, I could be worse off.  I know that there are hundreds if not thousands of people my age who are unable to find work of any kind and must depend on government programs or charities for food and shelter.  I certainly do have a perspective on Life and realize that things could be worse...even much worse.

All that stated, I am not about having a "pity party", rather I am constantly seeking ways to achieve a better life. I have been writing and hoping that soon I will be able to publish a work that will begin my career as a professional author.  I am exploring ways to once again travel, if not to Brazil then closer to home where I can enjoy a change of scenery and local cuisine.

Lately, I have been selling off some of my cherished collectibles on eBay.  And as much as it hurts to part with things I have owned for 30-plus years..they are, after-all, just things and at least I have them to sell and then convert them into funds that will pay rent, or bills or buy food.

Halfway into 2016 and I am facing challenges both personal, and financial but I am always hopeful. Recently, it appears that I have landed a new job which will start in August; between now and then, my boss at my part-time church job is giving me two weeks of full-time work to help cover my bills, and in July I have 16 days of part-time work in the Wake County Public Schools summer school session and after that it appears that I may become the technologist for a brand new school which opens in August.  The principal of this new school has told me she wants to have me as her site technology support...I hope that she is able to swing that...if not then I will likely be an instructional aide at that school.

In the last six years three cities have had major influence on my day to day...and even though it seems that two of those cities are at present in my rear view...I always have thoughts of taking a wide u-turn and returning to them.

So, there you have it.  It's funny how Life can take turns that you least expect but as Elton John sings, "I'm still standing".

2015 - Welcome to the Year of Cinema!

Greetings and fare thee well to 2014:

For me, 2014 was not a year filled with great moments but it was not entirely insufferable either.

I continue to adjust to my current home in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I have yet to really feel at home here but I continue to enjoy blessings and relative good health...so it ain't all bad.

I wish I could do more of the things I used to do in my old life back in Houston, but maybe with time and good fortune I will be able to restore some of the old fun back into my new life.

This new year brings with it a host of great movies!  I am super excited about some of the great genre offerings coming to a theater near me.

I am particularly jazzed about the following:

Furious 7 - April 2015

Avengers 2: Age of Ultron - May 2015

Star Wars - May 2015

Ant Man - June 2015


SPECTRE (The new James Bond film) - November 2015

Beyond those great moments of celluloid (actually more likely digital) joy, I hope to be able to make another trip to Brasil (my first in four years) and attend the wedding of my cousin, Telmo.  So 2015 looks to be a busy and entertaining year.

Seeya 2014, don't let the calendar hit you on the way out!

George B.

50 Years and Counting....

Greetings,

Bond is Back!  On November 9, 2012 (at least here in the USA) the new James Bond film, SKYFALL, opens and you know I will be there...probably first on line.  This year the cinema Jame Bond turns fifty with a current (official) total of 23 feature films; Beginning with Dr. No and running up to the new entry, Skyfall.

The New James Bond Film - Skyfall

Six men have played the movie incarnation of the world's best known secret agent - Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and now, Daniel Craig.

I was six years old when the first James Bond film, DR. NO, hit the screens in 1962 and though I wasn't able to go see it at the time (something about it being too adult for a six year old), I did see the very next one, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the following year.  Later that same year I finally caught a double-feature of Dr. No and Russia so I was up-to-date with secret agent 007.  As a youth, I had no end of hero-worship for Sean Connery and I wanted so much to be like his alter-ego James Bond.  I had all the 007 toys one could imagine and regularly fantasized about being an international man of mystery with a licence to kill.

Even today, when I travel abroad, I think of myself as being a Bondian type character exploring exotic places, meeting exotic women and drinking exotic drinks.  Of course, the truth of my travels is far less exciting than any 007 adventure but one can always hope for the odd moment of excitement or romance where, for a brief time, you leave behind the mundane and cross into the realm of the fantastic.

So, a new James Bond movie hits the screen and early reviews indicate that it is a super exciting and fun ride.  I will no doubt see it numerous times and while I am still not completely on board with Daniel Craig as James Bond (still miss Pierce Brosnan), I am getting more comfortable with his take on the character and as he has signed for two more 007 films...I guess I will finally accept him as Bond, James Bond.

Assembled for One Final Time!

Greetings,

This weekend (May 5 & 6 2012) will be my last full weekend in Houston, Texas.  And it seems appropriate that this final Houston weekend would be the one in which I have my last Houston Movie Party.

I have been holding "Movie Parties" since 1975 with the first movie being "Jaws".  Since that impromptu gathering of college friends, I have had a movie party every year since.  Somewhere, in some long-lost word-processing file, I have a list of all the films that were the centerpieces of those annual parties...not having that list before me, all I can say is that it is long and covers almost every type of movie you can imagine.  Some of the titles that come to mind are, "The Empire Strikes Back", "Goldeneye", "Superman II", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "Poltergeist", "The Rocketeer", "Lady Hawke", "Spiderman", "Captain America: The First Avenger" and many, many more.

This weekend I am getting together a few very close friends to see "The Avengers".  And while I know the movie will be a blast (reviews from last week's London open are fantastic!) the best part of these few hours of movie party madness will be sharing time with my friends...and making memories that I will cherish for all the days of my life.

George B.