Cinco de Mayo... sorta

We had a Cinco de Mayo fiesta today... a couple days early... just because a Monday party was difficult to pull off. So, I'm a tad bit... well, drunk... to be honest...

How can I fill up an entire post without something logical while slightly intoxicated?

It's a challenge to not have a world of typos at this point. The Missus just accused me of denting the wall where I knocked a metal Fleur de Lis off the wall earlier. Sheesh! I'll have to check tomorrow to see if that's actually true or not.

At the moment, I find myself drinking Corona while typing and watching the nephew/niece playing Super Smash Brothers. Good times.

There's a certain amount of blurriness involved but I stand firm, believing that I type like a champion while waitiing for the eyes to straighten out somewhatish.

Word.

So, now you see drunken Blue typing like the King of the World. How's that for ya, bitches?

Suck it, monkeys! I'm going corporate!

Did I stutter?

Top Five Friday: Comic Book Movies

With Iron Man hitting screens this week, it seems like an appropriate time to look back at some of the very best comic book adaptations to hit the big screen.

So, let's!

NOTE: I haven't seen Iron Man yet [but hope to this weekend] so that one won't make the list... yet! Also, I haven't watched Transformers yet so... well, subject to change!

5. Blade

It's odd. As I started thinking of movies to put together on this list, my mind drifted to movies that a lot of people don't even associate as having a comic book as their source materials. Things like 300 or Sin City could've easily made the list as well but just fell short. Another thing that's weird about the list I came up with is that as much of a stickler as I am for staying true to your source material, the majority of the movies that came to mind I had very little familiarity with the original source or the movie was notorious for tossing it aside. Anyways, Blade is just flat out cool. It's a comic I've never read - not even after seeing the movie and really had no desire to. But the movie version of Blade is awesome - although I think it is helped greatly by the tremendous performance of Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost, one of the all-time great movie villains that is criminally overlooked and underappreciated when that discussion comes up.

4. Batman
How could you not like things like the Bat Shark Repellant? Or the zany popups on the screen with "POW!" or "THWACK!"

...

Huh? Oh. Not _that_ Batman.

Gotcha. Well, the Nicholson one was good too. And really, isn't Nicholson the key to the first Batman movie? It may not be the Joker performance that comic book fans were dying to see... and in just a few weeks time, we may discover it's not even the best Joker performance in a movie... but it's Jack being Jack and being Jack to perfection. All the one-liners are gold. "This town needs an enema!" "Never rub another man's rhubarb!" "If you've gotta go, go with a smile!" Michael Keaton is... okay. Keaton was good as the dopey, bumbling side of Bruce Wayne... but Bruce Wayne doesn't have a dopey, bumbling side. Before Batman Begins came out, I used to say that Keaton was a good Batman but a bad Bruce Wayne - Kilmer was a good Bruce Wayne but a bad Batman - Clooney was just plain bad. Christian Bale pretty much broke the mold but more on that later. Anyways, give full credit for this making the list to Jack Nicholson... or a cameo by Lando Calrissian as pre-scarred Harvey Dent.

3. The Crow
Another comic book movie that I've never read the comic book of - despite owning a t-shirt promoting the comic that I bought at Hot Topic as a youth and wore endlessly resulting in many a photo from my youth where I'm wearing the t-shirt... and I never read it... and I shopped at Hot Topic... somebody just wipe all those memories out of my head please. The Crow was an utterly fantastic movie that I just realized I don't own on DVD and felt absolutely sick about it. The epitome of a revenge flick and just about perfect in every aspect. It's dark, it's creepy, but it still tells the story and doesn't get lost in the violence. And if nothing else, it brought two quotes into my world that I love to death. The first? "It can't rain all the time." I spout this one off from time to time when it seems like things just can't get worse - a glimmer of light in a very dark and gloomy world at times. The other? The one that prompted my good friend Poff Daddy to air-hump any light post, mailbox, video game, golf club or anything else that would give him the opportunity to bellow "BANGIN' AWAY ON DARRRRLA!" at the top of his lungs on any number of nights. Ahhh, memories.

2. Batman Begins

I just couldn't do it. As much as I wanted to rank this number one for being very close to a perfect comic book adaptation, I just couldn't do it. I love the acting [for the most part,] I love the story, I love the lighting, the set design, the "toys", everything about it. Cillian Murphy as The Scarecrow stole the movie for me actually - he lit up the screen with charisma every time he was on it. I could've done with him as the lone villain in it. I can watch this movie over and over and seemingly never tire of it. So, why didn't it get the top spot?

1. Superman 2

Sigh. How could I not? It was a hard choice, I'll admit. Batman Begins did a worlds better job of sticking to the source material - something I treasure in a comic book movie... hell, any adapted flick generally. But there's something magical about Superman 2. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's Superman making the great sacrifice to be Clark for the rest of his days for his love - only to realize that he was being selfish and society needed him to be Superman. Maybe it's the menacing trio of villains - the brawn, the sexy siren, or the brains. Maybe it's the face that the phrase "Kneel before Zod" is a permanent part of pop culture because of it. I don't really know what it is but I'll be damned if Superman 2 isn't the best comic book movie ever released on Planet Houston.

And that's that.

Updated Concert Calendar

A new month - a newly updated Concert Calendar!

And to make things oh-so-much cooler, I'm actually going to a few of these shows so I have bolded them for your reference or for your jealousy... whichever applies more.

May
---
5/6 - Laura Veira/Liam Finn @ The Echo
5/13 - Port O'Brien, Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin @ The Echo
5/14 - Kate Nash @ Henry Fonda
5/15 - Eisley @ The El Rey
5/17 - Eisley @ Glass House
5/17 - Earlimart @ The Echo
5/19 - The Kooks @ The Wiltern
5/27 - The Police @ Hollywood Bowl
5/28 - Mates of State @ Henry Fonda
5/29 - R.E.M. @ Hollywood Bowl
5/30 - Flight Of The Conchords @ The Orpheum
5/31 - The Cure @ Hollywood Bowl

June
----
6/18 - Rilo Kiley @ Greek Theatre
6/23 - Death Cab For Cutie @ Nokia Theater
6/25 - Tom Petty @ Hollywood Bowl

July
----
7/11-12 - Ricky Gervais @ Kodak Theatre
7/16 - Journey, Heart, and Cheap Trick @ Irvine Meadows
7/28 - Bloc Party @ Glass House

August
------
8/1 - Rod Stewart/Bryan Adams @ The Venue Formerly Known As Irvine Meadows
8/2 - Motley Crue @ Glen Helen Pavillion
8/22 - Tom Petty @ Verizon Wireless
8/23 - Poison w/Dokken, Sebastian Bach @ Universal Amp
8/29-30 - John Williams @ Hollywood Bowl

September
---------
9/6 - Nine Inch Nails @ The Forum
9/20 - Beck w/Spoon, MGMT @ Hollywood Bowl

The G.I. Joe Producer Speaks... INVISIBLE!

A new interview with G.I. Joe movie producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura hit the Interweb today. Let's see if he can soothe some of the butt hurt Joe fans out there... yours truly included.

Here are the highlights:

** When asked about the difference between producing Transformers and G.I. Joe -
"They’re completely different. I mean, to me I don’t look at them as toy properties... I look at them as mythologies. So, G.I. Joe is a really, really in depth mythology... The characters involved and intertwined nature and G.I. Joe it’s very funny how everybody’s very intertwined. It’s very different than in a lot of the comic book mythologies I’ve run into. The lines between good and evil are drawn differently. I think the Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes, it’s a great thing and is Storm Shadow evil? Well, some people think so. I don’t. Is Snake-eyes also righteous in this? I’m not so sure, he’s blaming his buddy for something he may or may not have done, you know, so it’s that interesting duality where the characters live in a world that’s good guys and bad guys but it’s also a gray area."

REACTION: Not a bad answer. He's done some homework at least. And I _really_ hope this means that the Snakes/Stormy/Hard Master storyline will be explored to some extent as the chief conflict between the two.

** When asked the very obvious question on a lot of fans' minds about having too many characters to introduce and flesh out -
"Well, it’s a hard question to answer. We think we’re going to deliver on all the characters. We think the script actually delivers really well and sets up each character. You’re going to understand the back-stories of virtually every major character and then you’re going to understand the roles of the ones you don’t. You may not know everything you know if you’ve read the comic book but you’re going to recognize them if you’ve read the comic book and you’re certainly going to want to know more about them by the end of it which is part of the tease. And there’s some character info that will be new to the comic fans."

REACTION: I don't buy it. There's just no friggin' way to cover that many characters unless they're breaking the two hour mark for the movie by a LOT of screen time. I'm glad they recognize this could be a problem but I just don't think there's a legitimate way to resolve it without a lot of these appearances being just cameos... which I'm fine with to some degree.

** On the level of violence and the rating and target demo and such -
"You know for us, we think the people who grew up with the comic book and the animated show are going to be our core audience. We think that the older audience that identifies with the pre-83 Joe is going to have some education to go through but are going to relate to the title because the values of it are the same. The storytelling is different but if you think about the values, they’re very similar, you know? Integrity, honesty, bravery, courage, you know things like that that I think you just associate with both versions of G.I. Joe. It’s an all audience movie. I mean, there are 2 really strong romances. There are a lot of things in there that’s going to appeal to people. It’s going to be PG-13. Look I’ve been involved with a lot of R-rated movies and a lot of PG-13. You just sort of begin to understand the difference and Stephen Sommers has no intention of making an R-rated movie and it would be silly to do so because you should appeal down to kids."

REACTION: This is all well and good. No one expect G.I. Joe to be like the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, I don't think. It's a war story but largely, it's a comic book war story. I have no issue with this being PG-13. I am curious about the two romances though. It had better be Snakes/Scarlett and Baroness/Destro but I have an itchy suspicion we're going to get hosed on one of those for some romance that didn't exist in the comics or TV show.

** To address the photos of everyone in black leather -
"I would say each character has more than one outfit, by in large, other than of course Snake Eyes, but everybody else has multiple looks. I think our costume designer’s phenomenal and she’s just done a great job in delivering a very varied look. You know, Snake Eyes is a character in black so he would be in black and you know we looked through all the comic books and The Baroness and unless we’re missing something she’s always in black. Every character in the movie is not in black all the way through including - other than Snake Eyes - who has to be in black all the way through. So, you know, there’s multiple looks that for each of those characters that you’ll see them in different color schemes and in different attitudes I’d say."

REACTION: Good answer! If this is true, this eases my mind a bit. Although I really wish the interviewer would have asked about the god-awful Storm Shadow costume. I'm still hoping that's the costume he wears when he goes to a high school dance and slashes some U.S. government official's daughter's throat with a sword. Tell me that scene wouldn't rock your boat!

** When asked to compare the tone of the movie to the comics or TV show -
"That’s an interesting question. I guess it’s definitely a comic book movie and it’s definitely has a great sense of humor, so there’s a lot of humor and a lot of drama and a lot of action. I would say there’s an equal measure of all 3 of those things in the movie."

REACTION: That raises a bit of a red flag to me. The animated show had a ton of humor, for sure, but that's one of the reasons most people didn't like it as well as the comics. If they try to go too funny with this, it'll fall flat and hard.

** THE PIT!
"We built a couple of the levels of The Pit as Stephen has imagined it and Ed Verreaux, our designer, is really gigantic so you couldn’t really build all of it, but so some of it. But we built a full floor of it which is gigantic. I think everybody’s going to be really happy that we took The Pit very seriously and built it to fulfill anybody’s sense of fantasy of what it could be."

REACTION: Surprisingly, I really couldn't give a damn about what The Pit looks like. It's not like X-Men's Danger Room where it's an iconic part of the mythology and has to be done perfectly or people will be up in arms. I mean, I'm sure there are some people that will shit themselves if The Pit doesn't match the diagram that was in one of the old Marvel annuals but I'm not one of them.

** More on Snakes vs Stormy

"We’re really exploring the mythology and we hope that the mythology, if we’re lucky enough to get to a 2^nd film, we want to continue to explore the mythology of the two characters. It’s very rich and this movie explores a lot about how they met at first and how they fell apart. And yes we have shot a fight between the 2 of them and we hope that everybody’s going to agree with us that it’s going to be one of those great battles."

REACTION: Allow me a moment to give a warning that you, Mr. Bonaventura, will never read. If you fuck up this one part of the story, Snakes and Stormy, G.I. Joe fans will never forgive you. It's the one thing you can not afford to blow. You can probably get by with invisible Scarlett... you can probably get by with Destro wearing the mask because of injury... you can probably even get by with metrosexual Hawk... but if you FUBAR Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow's part of the story, you will never recover from it.

And that's that. I probably should've saved this post for tomorrow so I wouldn't have to think of a new topic but... eh, this is what I do for you! This is what I do!

And now you know...

...and knowing is half the battle.

HULKAMANIA!

With all the talk about Iron Man, the new Hulk movie is getting overlooked. There's a lot of... discussion... in the air about this one as Ed Norton is being Ed Norton when it comes to the creative side of the coin.

But... well, this doesn't look too shabby...

Check out Trailer #2 - it's the one that hit the Interweb today.

There Will Be Blood

Whew, the unemployment line is filled with NBA coaches today.

Early breaking word this morning has both Mike D'Antoni and Avery Johnson getting shown the door by their respective franchises.

I can't say that either is a huge surprise but let's take a closer look.

Avery Johnson's days have been numbered for a while. It's been no secret that Mark Cuban has blamed him for the Mavs failures for some time and when Cuban went out and got Jason Kidd for the team and they _still_ couldn't win? You knew someone had to pay the piper for it. It's a tough situation though as the Mavs probably weren't going to beat the Hornets anyways. It's not Kidd's fault that he's old, past his prime, and unable to win in the clutch - okay, well, maybe it is his fault. But it's definitely not Avery Johnson's fault. AJ seemed like a perfectly fine coach to me who was put in an unwinnable scenario. He's sure to catch on somewhere else without much trouble, I'd imagine.

Mike D'Antoni is a bit of a sadder situation. As much as I dislike the guy's on-court histrionics, you can not deny that he instilled a system in Phoenix that for several years made them one of the most successful [and most popular] teams in the league. Sure, he didn't win a championship but not many coaches do. Few people assumed this would be a win-or-you're-out season for D'Antoni but the final nail in his coffin came with the Shaquille O'Neal trade. As much as I don't understand the trade, I understand the trade. On the surface, you question why they would do a deal that would basically cripple the run-and-gun offense that made them successful. They are infamous for getting their shot up within 7 seconds on the shot clock but it takes Shaq 7 seconds to reach the free throw line... on the defensive end of the floor! Of course they weren't going to be able to run-and-gun anymore... but the "realists" pointed out at the time that run-and-gun hadn't won them a title so maybe it was time for a change. You just can't expect a team to change that much in mid-season though. They were designed to run-and-gun and you tied an anchor to their ankle... and crippled the team's future in the process.

So, D'Antoni will be the fall guy because you can't spend that much money on a center, have that big trade publicized so much, and then only manage a weak one victory in the postseason. It's not fair at all to him since it's the Big Cactus that really hurt them but... well, so it goes.

I fully expect George Karl will be the next head to roll.

And don't even ask me to comment on Larry Brown deciding to coach the Bobcats. Unbelievable.

In closing, I would like to take credit for all of these moves [except Brown] on behalf of Mitch Kupchak. He set these dominoes a-tumblin' with the Pau Gasol deal which forced the Western Conference rivals to go out and try to make a big move to compete.

Well, so far, those moves to compete have earned their teams a first round postseason exit and a fired coach.

So it goes.

News And Reaction: Entertainment Edition

NEWS: Guillermo Del Toro inks to direct Hobbit + a surprise
REACTION: I suppose this is a good thing. I don't know that I've seen anything by GDT other than Hellboy [which I enjoyed despite never reading the comics.] Pan's Labyrinth sits unwatched on my DVD shelf still but it looked amazing from the trailers and was a movie I was very stoked about seeing when it came out... just... never... quite did it! Annnnyways, I'm disappointed that Jackson's not directing this himself but he's producing so I'm hoping he has his fingers deep enough in the pie to keep it from going off the tracks. In a bit of a surprise, it was announced that GDT wouldn't just be doing The Hobbit... nor would The Hobbit be split into two movies as was rumored... but rather, he will also be doing a movie that will serve as a "bridge" between The Hobbit and LOTR. That's dangerous ground to tread and I wish him all the luck needed to pull it off. Oh, and to cap it off, he's already saying all the right things by saying he will not recast any role from the original trilogy if the actor is willing and able to be in either the Hobbit or The Bridge.

NEWS: Iron Man early reviews are mixed
REACTION: Fuck that noise. Favreau is money, baby.

NEWS: Seven people were injured Saturday in a collision between a bus and several cars during the filming of G.I. Joe in the center of Prague, reports the AFP.
REACTION: They're blaming braking problems. I'm guessing Scarlett got behind the wheel in her invisible suit, slipped on Destro's mask, and got her mind taken over by nanobites. Happens all the time.

NEWS: Jackman looking at Batman Begins for inspiration for Wolverine
REACTION: Correction. The title of the movie is currently "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

...

I fucking hate people. That's really the name of it? I just really fucking hate people.

Sigh.

Well, the story is that Jackman says the flick will be dark, damn dark... and that it'll be close in tone to Batman Begins. That's a good thing and an appropriate thing... if they can pull it off. After the debacle that was the third X flick, I give these fuckers no benefit of the doubt until they earn it.

The story ends with Jackman saying he feels like he could do 10 or 11 more Wolvie movies right now. Let's just hope the first one is good enough for people to want to see another one before we get all crazy-like!

Alright, that's it for today. But if you made it this far, you deserve a bonus!

By request...

It's always nice to be able to fulfill a request for a topic, right? Right!

So, how about the weekend the Dodgers had?

In case you were in baseball seclusion soaking up the insanity of the NBA Playoffs this past weekend, here's a sample of the bizarre weekend series the Rockies and Dodgers had.

*** The never-ending saga of Nomar Garciaparra and his on-again/off-again torrid love affair with the disabled list continued when he strained a calf muscle in the ninth inning, the same injury that ended his season early last year. While it's sad and/or frustrating to see him go down injured again after just getting off the DL, well... it's Nomar... so what did you expect really? But the two things that resulted because of this injury were far more interesting.

1] Rookie Blake DeWitt was sent down to AAA on Thursday so that he could get regular playing time. His "minutes" had dropped drastically since the return of Nomar from the DL [the first time] so they sent him down to get him steady work. He played on Friday for the Las Vegas 51s, the Dodgers' AAA affiliate. After the game, the 51s gathered in their lounge to watch the big club's game. When Nomar went down, the 51s manager advised DeWitt to hang around and sure enough, the call came. After a less than 24 hour stint back in AAA, the rookie was on his way back to The Show. I love this game.

2] When DeWitt was sent down to AAA, legendary Dodger announcer Vin Scully had speculated several times on the "nightmare scenario." With DeWitt back in AAA, the Dodgers really didn't have a backup 3B if Nomar happened to go down. And since this is Dodgers baseball, you could be almost certain that it would happen. And when it did, what did Joe Torre do to earn his high salary? He walked up to Catcher Russell Martin and asked him what IF position he could play. Thus, Dodger fans got the bizarre sight of Russell Martin in the dugout frantically trying to find a 3B mitt before taking the position for the first time since A ball. As a side note to this, Martin leaving his normal position brought in Dodger backup catcher Gary Bennett... who promptly just flat out missed the first pitch thrown to him, bringing the tying run across the plate and sending the game to extra innings. And to top it all off, Third Baseman Russell Martin got the sac fly in the 13th to give the Dodgers the win.

** With a game like that on Friday night, it couldn't get much weirder on Saturday, right? Well, as Vin Scully would say, "before the seats were warm" the Dodgers erupted for a 10 run bottom of the first inning including the first ever career Grand Slam for Matt Kemp.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

Check out what else happened in this game [and get to see the Slam as well.]



Crazy, right? The guy's okay so we can all laugh about it now. Well, maybe not... but sweet Jesus, that must have hurt.

** Okay, so a crazy Friday... a weird Saturday... Sunday must have been normal, right?

WRONG!

WE'RE GOING BACK TO EXTRA INNINGS!

But the Dodgers won on a James Loney seeing-eye single in the 10th to give them their first sweep of the year and their first three-game win streak.

It's been a long and painful April for the Dodgers but they're oh-so-close to coming out of it in second place and over .500. Keep it up, boys! It's a marathon, not a sprint.

For The Disney Meets Coen Fan In All Of Us