If You See Only One Movie Sequel This Year. . .

Well, chances are it's going to be 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

But if you want to see two movie sequels this year, keep your calender open on 10/12/12 when 'Atlas Shrugged Part II' hits theaters.

Someone Call The Wahbulance!

Because conservatives are taking over Twitter hash tags to make fun of Obama and Gonzalo Cordova isn't going to stand for it.

So instead of pointing out what's funny and what isn't (simple word play, what's funnier?  Fender or bumper?  Normally bumper is funnier but fender is usually better) he just points out a few jokes that fell flat or some that he just did not get.  Which-- as a writer for Comedy Central-- is a bit below his paygrade. 

Countless blogs have already done that for free.  

What a good comedy writer would have done is shown where the funny was and maybe even thrown in a few jokes himself.  After all, even Gonzalo said that:  Everyone in power deserves to be ridiculed.

Unless they are doing their best to carry water for the super cool, hip and sassiest president evah!  Then no ridicule is needed.

Thanks to Beth for the find. 

If You Go See One Movie This Weekend. . .

Chances are it's going to be The Hunger Games or Titanic 3D or The Cabin in the Woods.

But if you can't stand to hear Celine Dion belt out how her heart will go on or think that the teenagers in a remote cabin will wait for the rents and you've seen The Hunger Games, there is an option for you.

Something that still tells a good story and grips you emotionally.  October Baby is the movie for you.
 

Video: Trailer For The Hobbit

An Unexpected Journey. Coming to theaters in December. Of 2012.



I think most people should look up who exactly the dwarfs are before checking out the the movie. There are 13 of them, it would help to track of who is who.

Friday Night Video Dump: John Carter Of Mars Trailer

Via Darleen at Protein Wisdom.

More John Carter Videos

I'm in agreement with her, this could go either way, good or bad.

Hopefully with Andrew Stanton-- of Finding Nemo and Wall-E fame-- at the helm it should help.

Wednesday Night Video Dump: The Movie Trailer Is Afoot

The second trailer for Sherlock Holmes 2 : A Game of Shadows is out.

I'm going to throw this out there and guess that it's going to follow the Hollywood rule for sequels. More explosions, more action and more violence.

Which I'm okay with. The first Sherlock Holmes was a popcorn munching kind of movie. Why monkey around with a successful formula?

A Short Round Up Of Reviews From Premier Week

Premier Week came and went this year with not too many standouts.

On Monday, they put the lid on the coffin regarding Charlie Sheen's character on Two and a Half Men. Literary. After the premier, I'm not sure how long that show has left in it. I don't know the viewing numbers but I'm betting it's just a look in to see what has happened and how the show will carry on.

The Sing Off, however, always seems to show some promise and entertaining musical numbers (Yeah, take my man card. I'm not using it).

Didn't see much on Tuesday or Wednesday night.

For Thursdays, Gray's Anatomy is back. It's about the same as it always has been.

Friday, didn't check out anything.

Saturday, I watched the Law and Order: SVU premier. I think the writers aren't even trying anymore. They'll read about one event in the paper, inject some wishcasting in how they envision a liberal world would work and stir.

It started out with a well groomed man in an expensive suit getting ready to leave his hotel suite. It should have been obvious to most anyone that the plot was a redo of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's allegations that he raped a hotel maid. That and all the detectives are incredible pricks to anyone they happen to be questioning.

And I felt kinda obligated to check out Saturday Night Live. It started out okay. Some good laughs with the cold open of the "7th or 8th- Republican Debate".

It tapered done from there. The funniest bit was after the opening monologue with their 'commercial' of Red Flag by Chanel.

According To Instapundit. . .

. . . This is what is causing the latest buzz around the internet.

Video: Failed Comedian And Failed Sportscaster Talk About Herman Cain

Via The Other McCain.



If fisking MSNBC is considered to be punching down then what would hitting Curret TV be considered?

The issues that Janeane Garofalo has with Herman Cain is less ideological than it is her revealing her bigotry.

It's a soft bigotry but it's still bigotry.

Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president so that you go like ‘I love that, that can’t be racist. He’s a black guy, a black guy asking for Obama being impeached.’ Or ‘it’s a black guy whose anti-Muslim. It’s a black guy who is a Tea Party guy

Her noted objections aren't about policy but about the color of Cain's skin. She just can't handle a minority whose politics are different from hers. So what does she do? She closes off her mind to that possibility because it's obviously someone else fault why Cain is conservative.

And I feel like wouldn’t that suit the purposes of whomever astroturfs these things. Whether that be the Koch brothers or Grover Norquist or any anything. It could even be Karl Rove. ‘Let’s get Herman Cain involved so it deflects the obvious racism of our Republican party

Ah ha! The usual list of suspects is trotted out. Because to her, a black man can't have independent thoughts but must conform to the groupthink of the collective. Otherwise, someone has 'gotten' to him.

She can't handle it if they stray off of the Democratic Plantation. Hence her bigoted verbal whipping.

Related: Somehow, the animals always seem to know.

Video: The Teaser For The Amazing Spider-Man

Rebooting the series from scratch.



There are a few things noticeably different from the Toby McGuire Spiderman.

This Spidey will have the normal web-shooters. Not the organic shooters like in the movies before.

The preview showed him saying goodbye to his folks before they died, in an effort to show his detached emotional point of view.

And it's looks like it might be a radioactive spider rather than the genetically modified spider that bit him.

As to see if it's theater worthy yet: The jury is still out.

Video: Conan The Barbarian; The First Gorey Scene

As opposed just the first normal, opening scene.

Not for the squeamish because its Conan, he a barbarian, there are lots of of swords and axes swinging and, consequently, lots of legs and arms find their way separated from their bodies. So fair warning.



It's a remake but it looks rent worthy.

Video: The New Batman Teaser Trailer

The Dark Knight Rises.



Don't have too much more to add other than Nolan's vision of Batman has been the best adaptation of the comic book to make it to the theater.

Sunday Night Movie Trailer Drop

Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows.

The first one was fine as a stand alone movie but had the set up as a franchise. Nice to see it's moving ahead with the sequel.

Two Sequels, Two Animated Movies, Two Reviews In One

It's obvious I have kids because the movies in question are Kung Fu Panda 2 and Cars 2.

Kung Fu Panda 2 has been out in theaters for a while now but this last weekend was the first chance I had to take my kids to see it.

But before I get too much into it, a word about what I've noticed about Dreamworks Animated movies in the past. Too often (The Shrek franchise notwithstanding) their movies have been just a bunch of random, quirky characters put together and stirred. Nothing much by way of a storyline. The Madagascar flicks come to mind especially. That seemed especially guilty of "Hey, we got to have these guys do something to fill an hour and a half".

That being said, I completely expected the first Kung Fu Panda to be along those same veins. So I was surprised when it turned out to have a coherent plot, a multi-tiered story line with themes of revenge, acceptance and redemption. With a few fat jokes and slapstick as well.

There's violence thrown in there-- hence the PG rating-- but what would you expect from a movie that had 'Kung Fu' in the title? And a little bit of mysticism as well but not anymore than the original Star Wars trilogy. If that helps to you something to judge it by.

Also, My wife and I hold Pixar movies to be the gold standard in animated movies. There is the rating system for Pixar movies then that for everyone else. The first Kung Fu Panda movie shattered that glass ceiling in my opinion (How To Train Your Dragon is another one that was well made. Someone must be taking storytelling lessons over there).

Oh yeah. Stick with the credits to the end of the movie for a little gem. Fast forward if you want but it's worth it.

Back to Kung Fu Panda 2.

Po (the panda) is back for another adventure. It's the rule of sequels. Bigger and more. This time they go on a quest to Gongmen City to stop Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman) from taking over China with a brand new weapon-- so powerful that even kung fu can't stand up to it. Along the way Po finds out about his past. Something that everyone else seems to know about but him.

The sensationalized violence is there but again, what would you expect from a movie with 'kung fu' in the title? And about the same amount of mysticism as well.

My issue with the violence is that there isn't any set standard for repercussions from the fighting. Early one, the character of Master Rhino is shot and killed by a cannon round. Later, Po is shot by a cannon as well but survives. Other than Po is soft and was able to absorb the impact of the round much better than a hardened warrior such as Master Rhino, there really wasn't much of a reason why one cannon round killed and the other didn't.

The movie is enjoyable and funny and stands up to the first one. There weren't as many fat jokes in this one. Due to the fact that Po has become the Dragon Warrior. There are more than enough about how Po isn't quite the hardened warrior as everyone else is but that plays into his strength instead of his weakness in the end.

I would give it 8 out of 10 stars.

And now, Cars 2.

It seems that every time I see someone rank the Pixar movies, Cars is always towards the bottom of the list. And 'Merchandising' seems to be the reason why more often than not. Which is okay by me. I'm not sure what their financial situation is right now but I think they are one of the few studio's that is doing well. If merchandising and licensing their intellectually property puts them in firm financial footing where they can make more movies like 'Up', that's fine by me.

That being said, Cars 2 was a disappointment. It entertained the kids but there wasn't any heart to the movie. And it have a very different tone and narrative than the first movie. It fell more along the lines of a Dreamworks movie where they throw a bunch of characters in a blender and hit spin.

Lightning McQueen is challenged to a world wide grand pix of sorts sponsored by an eccentric billionaire, Miles Axelrod. Meanwhile, Mater gets mixed up in a case of mistaken identity of international espionage involving the World Grand Prix.

One thing that did make me visibly cringe was that one character said something about, "Once big oil, always big oil." If only for the reason that whenever I hear moronic leftists protest anything, it's big this or big that. Anyway, I have no idea if this was done because it is accepted to be the politically correct thing to do or if it was because Pixar is nothing but a bunch of dedicated leftists to their core (Please, please let it be option one).

The other thing that surprised me was the amount of violence the movie contained. Several instances of characters yelling out, "Kill him!" and several scenes of car crashes and apparent deaths. Yet this was rated G instead of PG. The only thing I can think of was that this was Pixar movie and not made by anyone else.

Overall, an average movie from a studio that usually delivers much better. Rating it a 5 out of 10. Wait for the DVD is you need to see it.

Some Long Running TV Show Will Come To An End Tomorrow

I remember that fateful night. When Jack battled it out with the Man in Black. And how even though Jack was mortally wounded, he still saved the island and the others were able to finally leave. I will always remember where I was for that last episode of Lost.

And the hour will be seared, seared into my memory when I saw Spike Spiegel stumble down the stairs after his final fight with Vicious. . . And fall-- only to have the credits start to roll and you can't help but ask yourself, "Did Spike live or did he die?" But when you saw the bright star fading at the end, you know. You know.

Oh yeah. Oprah's last show is on Wednesday. Tom Cruise's penchant for jumping on couches hardest hit.

Video: Andrew Klavan And How Liberals Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The War On Terror

Via Instypundit.



And speaking of Steven Colbert:

To make his case that the ruling invites "unlimited corporate money" to dominate politics, Mr. Colbert decided to set up a political action committee (PAC) of his own. So far, though, the joke's been on him.

The hilarity began last month, when Mr. Colbert began to have difficulty setting up his PAC, which is a group that can raise money to run political ads or make contributions to candidates. So he called in Trevor Potter, a former Federal Elections Commission (FEC) chairman who is now a high-powered Washington lawyer.

Mr. Potter delivered some unfunny news: Mr. Colbert couldn't set up his PAC because his show airs on Comedy Central, which is owned by Viacom, and corporations like Viacom cannot make contributions to PACs that give money to candidates. As Mr. Potter pointed out, Mr. Colbert's on-air discussions of the candidates he supports might count as an illegal "in-kind" contribution from Viacom to Mr. Colbert's PAC.

All was not lost, however. As Mr. Potter explained, the comedian might still be able to set up a "Super PAC," a group that can raise unlimited sums of money as long as it spends it only on independent ads, without donating at all to candidates. Super PACs exist because of another case that proponents of campaign-finance law despise, SpeechNow.org v. FEC.

So the newly dubbed "Colbert Super PAC" was off to the races. Mr. Colbert could finally show us how amusing it is to raise unlimited corporate dollars and spend them on political ads.

Or so it seemed. . .

The Kennedy's Become Him

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a love child?

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, separated after she learned he had fathered a child more than a decade ago — before his first run for office — with a longtime member of their household staff.

Obviously some sort of osmosis effect from marrying the Kennedy clan.

Hollywood: We Love The Troops! As Long As They Are Fighting Make Believe Enemies

With as many enemies that America has, why would Hollywood need to resort to aliens if they wanted to make a 'Love Letter' to the Marine Corps?

I first heard about Battle: Los Angeles last year while attending Comic Con in San Diego. As you can imagine, there were quite a few projects being hyped that weekend and, honestly, I didn’t pay too much attention to this particular film. Why? Because, when it comes to projects that feature our military, I’ve been let down too many times before. My first reaction is typically, “Here we go again.”
[. . .]
As the release date neared, I was torn. Do I go see the movie, take my licks and try to enjoy the action aspect of it or do I give it a pass? I decided on the latter. I was not going to pay good money to go watch my brothers and sisters get crapped on again.

Then, last week I read an article in which Aaron Eckhart talked about the film:

“This movie, in my opinion, is meant to be a love letter to the Marines. We had their full cooperation. They had my full cooperation. I tried to get it right. I think this movie is very reverent towards the military and reverent towards the ranks, both the officers and the Marines and the grunts. I don’t see how any Marine can see this movie and feel like they’ve been at all taken advantage of. I think this is going to be an oo-rah moment for them.”

That's fine. I enjoy movies with Marines being bad asses because Marines are, well, bad asses.

But why limit them to fighting blue markers where the effects would be filled in later? Have them kicking butt in the Middle East where there is a real war with real people who hate us instead.

Hollywood can't do that. They can't even finish making a movie without changing out the main villain. Instead of China attacking the US this go around, the producers are switching the bad guys to North Korea.

Yes, they are really changing it so that we are invaded by North Korea. So, as [Little Miss Attila's] husband points out, they are going to make it The Mouse That Roared.

Yes, North Korea.  The one without the lights.

I'm aware that North Korea isn't too keen on the US but are they in any shape able to position themselves for an invation?  I don't thing so.  Not without some serious backing with another country three backing them financially.  *coff*China*coff*


Maybe they like aliens because they can use bigger explosions in the movies.

Sen. Rand Paul From The Late Show

Sen. Rand Paul made it to The Late Show the other day.

I think he held his own against Letterman. Letterman kept making the annoying claim about taxing the rich and Paul kept shooting it down. Keep in mind that Letterman is raking in 45 million a year when he talks about himself as 'middle class' toward the end of the clip.

The other part that I do like about the clip is how Sen. Paul isn't afraid to call the old Republican party what it was the past few years. Basically, Democrat Light.

Movie Clip: Atlas Shrugged

Henry Rearden Comes Home.



To help put the clip into context, Rearden has been working on a new metal alloy to that would help revolutionize the steel industry. His first major pour of it was done that day.

Ten years of blood, sweat and failed formulas went into the planning of Rearden Metal and his wife and family scoffs at his gift to his wife. Calling it "Bondage" and effectively, driving Hank emotionally away.

If they were able to get this scene right, there are hopes for the movie yet. I wasn't quite sold on the trailer for it.