Marvel Movie Update

A lot has happened in the time it's been since I wrote about any of this stuff. The four movies that have been confirmed by marvel with dates, directors and all that jazz are as follows. We've got Iron Man 2 running full throttle with Mr. Favreau and Thor has had it's two biggest roles thus far (Thor and Loki) filled by relative newcomers which will hopefully work out. You also got Spiderman 4, multiple reboots and retellings coming down the pipes at Fox and whether or not they take the Avengers route of super crossovers movies that Marvel Studios is taking remains to be seen.

Now the two other movies from Marvel proper are the Captain America movie, and the aforementioned crossover extravaganza that will be the Avengers movie. These movies are still completely up in the air. What we do know is that the Captain America movie will take place during World War II, most likely during the Allied (US) entrance and involvement in the war. I'm crossing my finger for the Red Skull and Cap punching Hitler in the face. The Internet has a billion lists of who should play Captain America, and my vote is still for Mark Valley, but I feel that since they've gone with big names so far for the big name characters, that Brad Pitt should be cast. Seeing him in Inglorious Basterds lets me know he'll have studied WWII US military protocol and his accent in it, with a little more swagger and a little less righteous fury would come across as what I think Cap Sounds like. And I mean the ladies will pour into the theaters to see Brad Pitt ripped on screen. Third place goes to Nathan Fillion just cause I have a man crush on him.

So we got Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor for the Avengers as far as titular movie characters are concerned and with secondary characters in War Machine, Black Widow, Loki bound to show up, it leads me to believe that they will be trying to stick as relatively close to the original avengers story as possible. That leaves out the Wasp and Ant-Man, and makes me wonder if they're gonna unfreeze and stick Cap in there right away. The Ant-Man movie has a writer in Edgar Wright who is absolutely the man, but is best versed in comedy. His best collaborator is Simon Pegg who I, in my fanboy frenzy, have decided must be Hank Pym, as long as he doesn't do any wife beating. As big a fan of the various Avengers books I am, I still don't know enough about Hank Pym and the Ant-Man to make guesses as to who should really play him because it all comes down to how the movie is written.

Another kind of big deal movie wise but not necessarily (yet) Marvel movie wise it the rumors of big time studio mergers.

Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures could merge with Sony Pictures, Universal Studios or another movie studio amid a wave of consolidation in the industry over the next few months, veteran investor Mario Gabelli said in the latest issue of Barron’s.
The chief executive of Gamco Investors Inc, who owns shares of Viacom ( VIA - news - people ), said he expects deal making among movie studios as they seek to cut costs.

Now this is cool and a bummer at the same time because merger is a scary word to the people who work for the companies that will merge. Merge=Layoffs to most people, and while the prices of movie making will come down and things won't get tied up when it comes to choosing a studio, if a ton of people get laid off then their won't be enough people to work on these movies and they'll never get finished. The only real upside at this moment is that Sony owns the rights to Spiderman and I'd kill to have an avenger movie with Spidey in it (hopefully not the Tobey McGuire one).

Thanks for reading and as always be safe.

Some cool Super Mario Pic's for your enjoyment!

NRA= Not really aware

Alexis had an idea for a rant of the day for either my blog or Facebook and while I thought it was a good idea I hadn't really had anything piss me off enough to warrant a post. That is of course until today.

I was delivering on the scoot scoot riot today and I pulled up behind a truck with an NRA bumper sticker that read: "NRA the front line of freedom". I call shenanigans on this self righteous interest group right here right now. The front line of freedom is and always will be the troops in wherever they are. Don't ever presume that owning a gun automatically makes you a patriot that's just recklessly irritating and ignorant. Now to be clear, I find no fault in the NRA by in large. They are a special interest group and thus are prone to bias towards their chosen field and I approve of that just like I approve of the fact that our Constitution allows them the right to bear arms which they champion.




But just like everything else the extremes tend to stick out and the extremes are what get on my nerves. This guy might have been and ex solider of some kind or maybe just affiliated with the armed forces in anyway and if so I would have given him the benefit of the doubt. But as far as I'm concerned this man believed himself on par with those people who have signed their life into the protection of this country and as a person with family who are not only in the military but have been physically effected by it's campaigns, I won't allow for foolhardy bluster to go unchecked.

Don't Fear the Apatow

It's seem like we can't go a month without a new movie from people affiliated with the Apatow camp showing up in a movie. To be clear we're talking about Judd Apatow, the producer, writer, director that has had his name or hand in 75% of every comedy movie since Anchorman in '04. And Anchorman while not only being arguably Will Ferrell's funniest movie but one of the most quoted films in comedy history, has brought forth a menagerie of comedic actors from obscurity to the fore front of Hollywood. But some people don't like this. People seem to be increasingly frustrated with seeing all the same faces in every movie just playing different characters. People find it weird that a goofy guy that played the cameraman in Anchorman would go on to star opposite Katherine Heigl in a movie about knocking her up. Another knock on these movies is that there are all to similar, that it's the same kind of jokes over and over and tend to run over into the rest of the movies due in part again the the recurring actors. Trust me I get it, all these points are valid and worth taking a second to think about. But for starters this isn't the first time you've seen people play bit parts in the same movies over and over again. Bill Murray played the arguably the same character in every movie he was in from his starring role in Meatballs for almost the next two decades. And the comedians and writers he worked with over and over again had ties with SNL much like Will Ferrell's and Adam McKay's work with Apatow. And The brat pack I'm sure ring a bell in most peoples minds. All I'm saying is that every movie generation has a group of people that you're gonna see a lot of and these cats in the Apatow squad are our generations group. And these movies are the bee's knee's right now and that's the starting point for a list of reasons why Apatow is great for comedy.

1) His movies are good.

I know it's sounds simple maybe even a little stupid to say but his movies are undeniably funny and even heart warming at times. Of course this brand of comedy comes off a little sophomoric and low brow at times but these characters remind us of people we know just a lot funnier and that allows a connection that doesn't come across in most comedies. If you've got a good formula why mess with it. Almost all the movies that he's made have been big hits. And he's making us laugh and I think that's what most important.

2) Bringing relative unknowns to the forefront and revitalizing careers.

These days saying you don't know who Paul Rudd or Steve Carrel is is like saying what's so important about this Jesus guy. But five years back the best Rudd had done was have a vaguely incestuous relationship with Alicia Silverstone in Clueless and Steve Carell was a lowly correspondent on the Daily Show, which in my opinion is a good job but whatever. Add in him re introducing most of the casts of his two TV shows to the world like Seth Rogen and Jason Segel, who have both worked there way up from background characters in his early movies to Starring roles in current ones and you kinda see the idea. Of course you have to chalk it up to their talent being the reason they're so well known now, but Judd gave em the chance, which brings me to the next reason.

3) He works best with his friends.

I don't know how many of you watched Freaks and Geeks or Undeclared while it was on TV but those shows were some of the funniest and most aware shows I've even seen and if you go back and watch them you'll see so many cameos and the stars of the shows themselves are the people that make his movies great today. He has stayed true to his roots, his friends and the people who helped him get to where he is today and I think that not only does that show his character but it has made his movies all the better.


4) Rush

I love Rush and it seems that if not all the actors in these movies do, that the people writing and producing these movies do and I'm alright with that!

5) Work Ethic

This guy is always working. The shear volume of things coming out each month that have his name attached to it is astounding, and nothing ever comes across as half assed. He's not the guys that do the Stupid spoof movies trying to get at least two movies out a year for as little amount of money as possible. He's really trying to bring quality comedy to the viewers.

So yes, if you go to a movie and the lead roles are filled by anyone from anchorman or the 40 Year Old Virgin, you can expect to see at least 2 more people from either of those movies in it. But it's not gonna go away because these movies are good. Instead of blowing movies off before you see them just because of who's in it, maybe give it a chance because you can rest assured that a few of your friends will love it and quote it for the next month. I guess if you want a better excuse just say you don't have the money. No one's gonna call you out on that.

More Evidence that Auto Tune needs to Die!!!

It's been a while folks but this whole blog thing is gonna be up and running very soon. In the meantime check out this awesome commercial for Wendy's.