Showing posts with label Walking Dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walking Dead. Show all posts

Monday, July 25, 2011

News, Death, Comics, Cons, Lines, Money, Stuff



I'm back. I did not go to Comic-Con over the weekend, but I did spend lots of time waiting in line the past few days. So it is basically the same thing. Here's what happened over the weekend.

-Oddly enough, last time I was gone for a weekend, I began my post with an Avengers poster. Here's another (actually, seven more) showing off the characters in all their glory. This is also our first at Mark Ruffalo and the side of his giant face as the Hulk. (slightly better picture Here)

-The final lead-up to the Avengers - Captain America: The First Avenger - did pretty good at the box office. It was number one with $65 million (That's $600,000 less than Thor, which I thought was a flop. It's looking pretty good in hindsight now). $10.50 of that was mine (superior 2-D version), and it was very good. I think Thor was more fun, but this worked a lot better as a movie. It also ties in very well to the other Avengers movies. Big shocker however. The rest of the world doesn't Captain AMERICA that much, as it only made $2 million overseas, despite simply being called The First Avenger in most countries.

-Harry Potter took a big fall, making a mere $47 million domestically in its second week. Don't feel too bad though, it sits at $834 million worldwide.

-Friends With Benefits, the completely fictional movie that made me want to punch my TV every time they ran an ad, was third with $18 million. And now the only reason to see this (Mila Kunis naked) has been debunked as a body double. And no, that wasn't really her topless in Forgetting Sarah Marshall either.

-Amy Winehouse died. I was shocked she was still alive anyway. And since she died at 27 years old, out comes the comparisons to Jimi Hendricks, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, and everyone else who died at the same age. Despite what some people are saying, there is no conspiracy that people die at 27. Also despite what some people are saying, Winehouse doesn't belong in the same sentence as those legends.

-Comic-Con came and went without too many Megaton announcements. The biggest news was Rhys Ifans, who plays the Lizard in the awful looking Spider-Man movie, came to his press conference drunk, pushed some security guards, and blamed America for everything wrong in this world before he was arrested. Sometime in all that, he revealed that the Lizard was a giant Hulk-like beast without a lizard mouth who lives in the sewer. Who can blame him for drinking?

-Robert Rodrigeuz, one of my favorite directors, announced he was finally going to make Sin City 2. He has the script and he hopes to get it done this year (Sin City 1 was completed insanely fast, despite having a huge ensemble cast). He also plans on a Machete Trilogy, one of which has him going to space. He is also doing a new Heavy Metal anthology movie. There won't too many details with that, but he is looking for fan submissions. These four R-rated, borderline NC-17 films, will come out after the family friendly Spy Kids 4-D. That's why I love this director.

-Pee-Wee Herman is trying to get a new movie now that his Broadway show has been such a hit.

-They are making a live action Voltron movie and a live action Captain Planet (!!!) movie. No word yet on whether Ted Tuner is cast in the lead role.  

-Snow White And The Huntsman is a film to keep your eye on. Kristen Stewart is Snow White, Charlize Theron is the Queen, Chris Hemsworth is the Huntsman, and the Dwarfs are Nick Frost, Ray Winstone, Toby Jones, Johnny Harris, Bob Hoskins, Eddie Marsdan, Brendan Gleeson and of course, Ian McShane.

-I compared Spider-Man to Mirror's Edge, a game many of you probably aren't familar with. Well here they are side by side. This actually is pretty sickening. Mirror's Edge is on top, I think.



 -Finally, here's a full trailer for the Walking Dead season 2. It's so good, I almost forgive AMC for the stupid zombie and rock throwing teaser.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Breaking Bad and Box Cutters


Well Breaking Bad Season 4 premiered last night. With 2.6 million viewers, it was the most watched episode of Breaking Bad yet. But if you weren't one of those people, be careful because I'm about to discuss some MASSIVE SPOILERS!!


So I was wrong about a few things. Thankfully, I was correct when I said Breaking Bad is the best show on TV.  I am just blown away at the details and production values put into this show and so many other shows on AMC. Everything down to the blocking is just brilliant, and they again showed they are not afraid to hold anything back.

However, I can't believe Jesse really shot Gale. I watched the end of season three again, and he is indeed pointing the gun at him. They used some trick cinematography (the scientific film-making term is "moving the camera")  to make it look like he moved the gun. Nearly everyone I've talked to thought he pointed the gun away as well. Maybe it is just that Jesse is such a great character - possibly the best tragic hero in modern fiction - and we don't want to see him falling further into darkness. But it's done, and between that, the other dead body, Hank being all grumpy, Saul being uptight, and the major lack of dialog in this episode, this is looking like it will be a very dark season.

About that other dead body, that my be one of the most graphic and disturbing deaths I've ever seen. And on basic cable nonetheless. It wasn't just the throat being slit, but how he held him and the noises he made and...it was intense to say the least. But it was also a nice bookend to the box cutter cutting boxes at the beginning. Speaking of which, the flashback cold openings are always the best, and this was no different. Best part of the episode. But back to the murder, my only complaint of the episode was Gus didn't say anything like "That's what happens when people see you at a crime scene" or "He forgot the aluminum" or something to justify his death. But perhaps, that makes Gus even more terrifying.

Even Skyler, possibly the most unlikable person ever, showed some compassion for once in her miserable life. Yet people are complaining about her scenes, and a bunch of idiots online are even complaining that the episode dragged. I guess a ton of those 2.6 million tuned in for their first ever episode. If an episode where a guy gets shot through the eye and another gets his throat slashed, his body dissolved in acid, and his "soup" shipped to a chicken restaurant - both being betrayed by their own partners, of course - is a slow episode, I would hate to see an exciting episode. Actually, I would love to see that, but I was just following the saying.

Also, best ever use of a Sony Vaio.

The other thing I was wrong about (and trust me, that isn't a phrase I'll use often) was how the Walking Dead teaser may actually be meaningful. It wasn't. While throwing rocks at zombies is surely tons of fun...was that seriously the entire preview? I almost rather have text and BRAAAAAMs.