Cuppacafe

So, don’t you just hate it when you are in the movies, the theater, or your chosen house of worship and some pinhead’s cell phone rings? Yeah, me too. Well then imagine how much fun it was to be at the Broadway Performance of A Steady Rain the other night an not be the person on the receiving end of a call to their cell phone. Especially when co-star Hugh Jackman became irritated at the insistent ringing and called out to the patron to answer the phone. As it turns out, the awkward moment was captured on an amateur video that appears to have been recorded by someone in the audience.

It shows Jackman breaking character to tell the owner of the ringing cell phone, "You want to get that?" as the audience erupts in cheers. As the ringing persists, Jackman pleads: "Come on, just turn it off." He then paces the stage of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, waits about a minute for the ringing to stop and the play resumes.

You can read more about it here, but it begs the question of how was it that the person shooting the vid (on their cell phone?) managed to capture the right moment. Perhaps they were simultaneous using their cell phone to call another patron of the theater, just to watch what would happen.

Hey, it could happen.

Still, regardless of that, it is still an annoying experience to have that happen. I have since been informed that (I think that it is in in England) that some theaters are starting to broadcast a jamming signal within their building to prevent cell phones from ringing. I’m honestly not sure how legal that is (some folk might legitimately might be on call and need to be reached), but it does have a satisfying, er, ring, to it eh?

Needless to say, a few minutes later, another phone (or the same one) rang and Jackman’s co-star, Danial Craig chimed in for the fool to shut it the Hell up. Now there’s a smart move, piss off both Wolverine and James Bond. Talk about “Shaken” and “Stirred”.

The Perfessor

I don't know if you have seen any of this Summer’s Big Blockbuster Flicks, but if you have, this will be hysterical, if you have only seen the film trailers, this will be hysterical.

There are actually a bunch of these stop-motion shorts all over Youtube, most are very entertaining. This one is one of the best.

The Perfessor

The came, they saw, and they conquered. JJ Abram’s Trek reboot kicked some serious Romulan Ass (with a $76.5 million opening weekend — Wolverine not only had an $87 Opening weekend, but still did pretty well with Trek in the Number one spot). And sure, while there were some detractors (a few with actual, legitimate gripes). Needless to say, it was a high-concept re-imagining of the series where there was more action and adventure than folks standing around discussing the Organian Ambassador and the life of the Angorian fruit fly of Tanadorr-7.

Yep, this one was a wicked-good time that thrilled and wowed the audience. the film elicited laughs and excitement from the folks who were in the theater with me when I saw it., Then the five of us stood around outside the theater for another 45 minutes discussing the film. Yep, I liked it quite a bit, and have since come up with a pit of philosophical insight into these type of films (Wolverine, Trek, and anything else that is built upon a decades-old, dearly-loved franchise of an iconic character).

I’m calling it the Sam Clemens view of adaptations: Never let slavish devotion to previously established continuity get in the way of telling a good story. Do I want the Bridge or the Enterprise to be comprised of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Chekhov, and Scotty? Sure. Do I care that in some long-forgotten, and once-referenced episode that Scotty stated that he hated Andorian fish, and yet I see him chowing down on that particular delicacy? Absolutely-friggin-not!

Tell the story, keep continuity that works and toss the rest. Here we get to see hey Kirk calls McCoy “Bones”, hear the good Dr. say (repeatedly) “I’m a Dr. not a...”. We hear Scotty utter “I’m givin’ her all I got!”, and see Spock twitch his eyebrow. Do I care that some of the finer points of 22nd Century astro physics don’t quite hang? Not at all. Still, best of all, we get to (finally) see how these beloved characters all came to serve on the same Starfleet Ship. Now seriously, how cool was all that?

Oh, and if you silly “get-a-life’s” still feel betrayed and need actual economic to rub salt into your fanboy wounds then here is your reality check, from an article that ran last week, before the film opened:

If the new movie performs as well opening weekend as the $85.1 million reported by Hollywood.com for Wolverine: X-Men Origins, it will have grossed more in its first few days than the total theatrical tallies of all but two of the previous Star Trek films. According to Hollywood.com, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) grossed altogether $109.7 million domestically and Star Trek: First Contact took in a total of a little more than $92 million.

This is a great film, go see it, even if you weren’t one of the original 198 people who watch it debut on TV back at the dawn of recorded time.

The Perfessor

This is hilarious!

There is an old Groucho Marx line where he says that he would never join any organization that would have him as a member. As someone who works in the field of unrepentant fanboys I come across this type of attitude every day. The following clip (courtesy of The Onion), clearly demonstrates this attitude as it relates to new and or different takes on iconic properties.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

This goes double for all thos funnybook fanboys who are decrying Wolverine: X-Men Origins (you know who you are).

The Perfessor

With Wolverine’s new movie still burning up screens all over the country (in spite of what the great unwashed myopic, cult of online fanboy pundit rants may want you to believe). The film is good, and pulling down some truly decent numbers at the box office. Speaking as someone who has been reading comics for close to half a century (yes, even the X-Men), the film does a fairly decent job of bridging the gap between (some 30+ years) of comicbook canon what is filmable (even with CGI), and a two hour time constraint of film audience attention span.

Well, just to prove all of the nay-sayers wrong, the studio has already announced its intention to spin off one of the more popular characters into his own prequel origin-style flick. Yep, the Mutant with a mouth (Wade Wilson A.K.A. Deadpool) is getting his own film:

Deadpool is known as "the merc with a mouth," a character that under Reynolds lived up to his billing in "Wolverine" until the end, when the movie deviated from the comic book persona, imbuing him with several superpowers and sewing his mouth shut.

Yes, kids, Deadpool is going to get the big-screen treatment. Hopefully they will use this opportunity to correct a couple of the — well stupid — things that they did to him in this flick.

It is understood that Reynolds would regain the ability to mouth off, with the movie going back to the roots of the character known for his slapstick tone and propensity to break the fourth wall. The character also was disfigured in "Wolverine," though it's unclear at this time how much the studio would want to mess with Reynolds' handsome mug.

When I got out of college, my first job was with a local radio station. It was then that I realized that there was a difference between sales and marketing. Selling is a tough thing to do, Marketing, however, is rather easier. I felt then that I would have a difficult time doing sales, but marketing, would be quite interesting.

These days, if you want to get your high-octane Summer, popcorn flick out in front of as many eyes as you possibly can, the thing you want to do is set up a tie-in to a fast food franchise, and include collectible tchotchkas (sometime referred to as Cheap Plastic Crap (CPC) by certain members of this household) with the kid meals. Well, while I was seriously disappointed that Wolverine didn’t include a tie-in with someone (as I fully expected it to do — yeah, yeah there were Slurpee cups & straws from 7-eleven, and a special pizza from Papa John’s, but I was really looking forward to Wolverine-related CPCs from Micky D’s).

Well, perhaps as a consolation to me, Burger King has cut a three-picture deal with Paramount Pictures to promote the Summer releases of Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. This makes the first time BK has worked with a single studio on such a rapid-fire spate of films.

"Burger King has been an excellent partner for us because of the volume of customer traffic," says Ms. Stables, who adds that the chain's "global presence" made it a particularly appealing choice.

Movie tie-ins have boosted the fast-food chain's business in the past, says Russ Klein, president of global marketing, strategy and innovation at Burger King. Two summers ago, Burger King and Paramount were promotional partners on the first "Transformers" film, which grossed more than $700 million world-wide. Last summer, they had a similar arrangement for another blockbuster, "Iron Man."

"They have been a proven traffic driver for our business," Mr. Klein says.

The rest of that story can be read here. As for me, I’ve learned that there are some 16 Trek figurines packed with the kid meals, and four glasses. I might not pick up the Transformer or G.I Joe CPCs, but I’m definitely going after the Trek stuff.

Oh yeah, 7-eleven is going from Wolverine to Terminator in their Slurpee cups.

The Perfessor

OK, we went the whole weekend, and the numbers are in. It seems that for its opening weekend, the X-Men proto-flick did $87 million in domestic sales ($160 million worldwide), which puts it just a bit behind Iron Man, and about even with X-Men 2. So in spite of naysayers (Walt) it did pretty good.

Personally, I saw it twice — not because I’m that much of a funnnybook Geek (even though I technically am), but because the first time I saw I did so with my son, and the second time I did it with my nephew and a few funnybook friends after a Free Comic Book Day event. As it turns out, by seeing it twice I saw two of the (three or more) rotating codas on the film. I can tell you that are, but then I’ll have to gut you. At any rate, I did have a couple of additional observations that I wanted to tag onto my original comments (A full-blown review will show up here later, but I still have to write that.

Fair warning, potential spoilers follow.

In no particular order:

• I can’t believe that they cast the perfect actor for Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), and then take away the one thing that makes him an ideal fit for the character, his ability to talk
• Then they further degrade the appeal of the character of Deadpool by taking away (and implanting) his twin swords! (unavoidable aside, those things are simply too long to fit into his forearms).
• when we first meet Remy LeBeau (Gambit) he looks more like the very British Alex from A Clockwork Orange than any Frenchman I’ve ever seen
• Then, of course, he has no French accent.
• Sabretooth’s loping attack style was a bit too much Twilight for my tastes.
• As stated, the opening sequence very Watchmen, only without as cool a soundtrack
• When Logan left the special team of Stryker’s Mercs in Africa I couldn’t help but to flash on a similar image from more than one WildStorm/Image comic featuring Team 7
• Given the “immortal” nature of Logan and Creed, whenever these two wnet at it a little voice in the back of my head kept saying “There can be only One!”
• I really liked the Three Mile Island reference to the story. I think it fit into the time line of Wolverine’s back-story and this film
• Another reviewer questioned why Logan & Creed, as Canadians would keep fighting in U.S. based wars. My response to that is — what other country has been in more wars over the past 150 years?
• When Creed finds Scott Summers at school, Scot is in detention conjugating a Spanish verb 100 times on the blackboard, in a visual that calls up Bart Simpson

Well, that’s about it for my casual observations for the nonce. The rest will follow in my film column, Suspension of Belief.

The Perfessor

Yep, this is my “Just saw it @ Midnight, and I want to talk about it” mini Wolverine chat. I went to the midnight show (with my newly-minted 18-year0-old son) to the film, and he seemed to like it, although he felt that it needed more of the other X-Men involved with the action.

Personally, I felt that while I did enjoy the backstory which let us in on the fact that Wolverine (and his brother, who winds up being Sabertooth), are about 150 years old, and then we watch at the two lads grow up and fight in virtually every single armed conflict from the mid 1800s to Vietnam, which is when the real story begins. (Interestingly enough, the opening sequence felt a bit like the opening to Watchmen, only with not as cool a soundtrack).

Still, there was much snarling and sharp-edged weapons flashed through the film as well as explosions, and cameos of other X-characters (plus not one, but two tacked-on post scripts that run during the ending credits, as well as one surprise big-name reprise).

The film is fast and furious and plays well into the legions of who Wolverine is (hey, I’ve been reading comics since the very early ‘60s and until recently I didn’t know that Wolvie had this much back story (I stopped regularly reading X-Men in the mid ‘90s). Anyway, even though I recognized many of the characters (there were a couple I couldn’t completely place) and was aware of much of the plot threads that ran through the film, and still rather enjoyed what was going on in the film version of his past.

The interaction between Logan (Jackman) and Creed (Liev Schreiber) plays well and you can see some of the animosity that will keep them at each others throats. We get to see how an already clawed Logan has Adamantium (a super-cool, wicked-hard comicbook metal) is infused into his bones, and why and how he lost him memories (which he doesn’t fully regain until the X-Men trilogy).

On the down side, those of you who don’t know as much about his visceral past might find some of this film a tad tedious, plus as this is all prequel there are no colorful costumes, and many of the characters that you might have gotten used to seeing in the first films simply aren’t here. Dylan felt that most views might want to see more of the kind of large-scale action from the first films, which is missing from this film, as it is much more of a personal story.

What surprised me, was that, yeah, it is a “school/work” night but the Midnight show at my local theater was not quite half full, and much of the “crowd” didn’t arrive until just a couple of minutes before the lights went down and the trailers started to play. In years past, I’ve been to these events with theaters so packed that management opened up another screen. I can’t help but to wonder if the crappy economy and the fact that a not-quite-completed-version was leaked online a month or so back hurt sales.

Still, it was a fun ride, and (I believe) still worth the trip out.

The Perfessor