Geek vs Life

I’ll admit it. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is my favorite movie. No, it’s more like a security blanket in celluloid. So, imagine my rage when I found out there was going to be a remake my heart was going to break. When I found out that MTV was going to be in charge, my heart shattered.

Aren’t movie goers tired of going to see recycled redone and often worse than the original movie?

Remakes after a few decades or when the original is out of print don’t bother me as much. But you can not only buy RHPS on DVD or VHS, you can also still see it in many theaters across the country and even other countries. A remake does not need to be done. Worst still, most of the main cast is still alive. (Tim Curry would still be fabulous in drag after all these years!)

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

Growing up, 3D was a gimmick that mostly failed. This was actually kinda cool. Not the best film of the summer, but a fun ride and a worthy matinee for the eye candy alone. Kuddos to the witters on getting a 4.0 in their Geology class.

Bonus Challenge! How many rocks are mentioned in the film?

Pineapple Express

It’s a Cheech and Chong movie mixed with buddy-cop movie.

Kinda funny, more so when baked. As they were when they made it. At this point I’d probably watch a period piece if these guys were involved.

If you’re still unsure, Pineapple Express is about weed. Hence, it will make more money on video.

$158,411,483. That’s a lot of Happy Meals. That still will only buy you under 200 copies of Detective Comics #27 (CGC 9.4 value of $800,000). Holy fuck wad of cash Batman.

So not only did The Dark Knight smash the record established last year by Spider-Man 3 for opening weekend grosses, it also now holds the title of most money earned on opening day, <$67,165,092. It probably helped that the movie was also released on more screens than any other movie, ever: 4,366.

Check out the list of the top ten movie grosses for opening weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

Months ago I was reading various eulogies and “in memory of” type articles on Heath Ledger after his apparent suicide in January 08. The writers would remember such roles as Patrick Verona in 10 Things I Hate About You, Sir William Thatcher in A Knight’s Tale or Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain. It’s unfortunate that one of the best roles that the actor has ever played was one that only shone after he had expired: The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Calling the movie “Heath Ledger’s Dark Knight,” wouldn’t have been too far fetched. As clowns often do, The Joker stole the show. Highly regarded as Batman’s greatest nemesis in the DCU, The Joker does what he is does best: chaos, mayhem and wanton destruction but always with a smile.

Well, this is my first time writing a movie review, so bear with me. ^-^ (or wait, did I do one for Harry Potter? Don’t remember. It’s still my first for a movie that hasn’t yet been released…)

Anyway, I got a chance to attend the advance screening of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian down at Pacific Place theater last night, and man was it awesome. I do consider myself a fan of the books, although, truthfully, I can only remember a definite reading of three of the seven books in the series (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Voyage of the Dawn Traeder, and The Magician’s Nephew). I do have some vague memories of watching at least part of the BBC rendition of Prince Caspian, but that far back and in elementary school is too long ago for me to remember clearly.

I had never been to a screening like this before. There were maybe three reporters in the whole room and the rest of the audience seemed mostly composed of people that were dragged off the streets with a promise of hooch and shelter from the rain. If they promised to laugh, of course. And laugh they did, even when it wasn’t appropriate.

Zombie Strippers is pretty much everything that the title tells you. The set up is funny though. After being reelected to his fourth term in office, George W. Bush is running out of soldiers for his war on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, France, Canada, Mexico and many others, so he enlists the help of his own company called “W” to create unbeatable killing machines. They create with zombies. The infection makes its way in a now illegal, (due to evangelical rules), strip club and hilarity ensues.

Whether you’re a fan of Disney and other American animation or not, an important figure in the world of animation has passed. Ollie Johnston, the last of those known as the “Nine Old Men,” passed away yesterday, at the age of 95, in Sequim, WA.

If you have seen the movie “The Rescuers,” and have seen the character Rufus the Cat, then you’ve seen Ollie, as Rufus was a caricature of him.

If you’ve seen the Fox and the Hound, the Rescuers, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Robin Hood, The AristoCats, The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins, The Sword in the Stone, 101 Dalmations, Sleeping Beauty, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, The Wind in the Willows, Melody Time, Song of the South, Peter and the Wolf, The Three Caballeros, Bambi, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Little Hiawatha, or a number of other Disney works (primarily early ones), then you’ve seen his work.

I remember watching movies in my teenage years, wishing I could be as cool as their main protagonists.

I wanted to be radio pirate like Will Scarlett (Christian Slatter) in “Pump Up The Volume.” I wanted to be a rebel like John Bender (Judd Nelson) in Breakfast Club. I wanted to be singing on a float and outwitting everyone like Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

Now, despite being way out of my teenage years, I want to be Charlie Bartlett in the film that was aptly named after him.

A very well off and enterprising kid, Bartlett (Anton Yelchin from Hearts of Atlantis) is expelled from his umpteenth private school and is sent to public school. In hopes of being socially accepted, he tries to council kids on their problems and prescribes them common anti-depressants such as Xanax and Xoloft during his lunch break.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be able to travel from Seattle to Fiji in the blink of an eye for a glass of water? No 14-hour flight, just poof and you’re there, and then bam, you’re back. If you were a “Jumper,” (in the movie of the same name) then you could. Heck, you could be there and back before your show comes back from a commercial break.

A “jumper” is someone who is gifted with the power to be anywhere at any second. Call it teleportation, call it spatial projection, call it jump gating, whatever, in this movie it’s just jumping. Sounds like an almost godlike power doesn’t it?

The entertainment industry has been pilfering my memories as of late, and quite frankly it has to stop.

Taking 70’s and 80’s properties and re-vamping them for a new/old audience is nothing new: It’s been in practice since time immortal. We take something old, add a new spin to it and market the crap out of it. It has to end before it goes too far.

Take last summer’s biggest films for example. Most of them originated nearly 30 years ago.
“The Transformers” was a toy line, weekday after-school cartoon that ran from 1984 to 1987 in its original run. Last summer, “Transformers” was remade into a live action film with great special effects; but the story was so full of holes, a Mack truck the size of Optimus Prime could drive through it…sideways. Recently, the cartoon that has been in and out of production for the past 20 years mostly in CGI format was also revamped to make it look more like the old 80’s TV show.

Some movies get such an advertising push that when the film fails to deliver, you feel kind of let down. “Evan Almighty,” anyone? Other movies get that push and they rightfully deserve it. Recent favorites that fit that bill include “Juno” and “No Country for Old Men.”

Then you fall into the obscure category of sweet films that slip under that radar. Films like “Definitely, Maybe.”

The plot revolves around a father in the throws of divorce (played by Ryan Reynolds), telling a story to his daughter (Abigail Breslin) on how he met her mother and fell in love. In an effort to keep things “mysterious,” he changes the his wife’s name and tells the story of the three major loves in his life as his daughter tries to figure out which one is her real mother.

The following is the official press release announcing Sakura-Con’s musical guests.

Seattle, WA1-23-2008 Sakura-Con hosts US debut of Ali Project and welcomes musical guests SCANDAL

Sakura-Con 2008, March 28-30th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center will host the Japanese band Ali Project for their first ever US appearance. Also confirmed for Sakura-Con 2008 is the Japanese, all girl band SCANDAL. Both are presented with special thanks to NEU BAUHAUS.

Ali Project is a highly accomplished Japanese band with 19 albums to their credit and songs on over 14 anime soundtracks-including series beloved in the US- such as: .hack//Roots, Clamp School, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Noir, Rozen Maiden (TV, Ouvertüre, Träumend), Wish.

Bandai Visual announced yesterday that they had licensed the popular “Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Hachiyou Shou~” anime (press release here). Now, most people probably won’t care too much (after all, it is a rather “girly” series), but it is my favorite series. And what will impact many people is the pricing structure.

9 DVDs, 2-3 episodes each, subtitled only… $29.99 each.

Yeah… Basically, $10-15 per episode. I don’t like this idea. And no, it’s not the only series Bandai Visual has done this with. The Galaxy Angel Rune DVDs are 3 episodes, subtitled only, and retail for $49.99. I don’t get this. They’re cutting back on costs by not having to hire scriptwriters to convert translations into dub dialogue, nor having to hire actors. So why are their prices so much higher than everyone else?