The first movie reviewed in our new Is it worth a Redbox rental category!
I am a big Will Smith fan. Liked him as a rapper in the 80's, as a tv character on NBC, and as he moved in and became an A list actor. Ima say became in past tense, tho but not because of this movie. Will Smith has been flirting with career suicide for a while now. I will trace it back to the Pursuit of Happiness when he started chasing that Oscar. That was a good movie and he deserved that nomination but choices after that got shaky with Men in Black 3 and Seven Pounds, mixed around hits like Hancock and I am Legend. Then came After Earth which sent his career into a tailspin and his next feature winds up being Focus.
The movie is ok. I can see why it was not super successful in the theaters, tho( made about 55 million). Will Smith plays a con man who meets Margo Robee and essentially teachers her all the tricks but also falls in love with her. To save her his lifestyle, he leaves her but on a new con, they meet up again and its a lot of back and forth and wondering who is on who's team and who is lying and what is the truth. It does have a Hancock feel to it in the sense that a white woman is Will Smith's kryptonite
The latter part of the movie drags on and on and takes away from a pretty good first half of the movie. I wll try not to spoil too much here.
But overall, a very good Redbox rental. I am glad I did not pay money to see it on the theater. On a scale of 4 stars, I give it!
Since Marvel is not taking the big room at ComicCon, they have sent Kevin Feige out to drop jewels wherever he can about upcoming Marvel projects. One of those projects is Spider-man which is now being shared by Marvel and Sony and will fully integrate Spiderman into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This will first happen with Captain America: Civil War and then move onto a new( again) Spiderman movie starring fill in the blank white actor. All New, All Different?
I have written more than enough about the casting of Spider-man to last a lifetime so I am not going there( at least not yet). In the article, Kevin Feige speaks about how Spider-man and the casting of fill in the blank white actor will be different this time because of the age of the actor cast as Spider-man. HUH? Word? When they cast Tobey Maguire, everyone knew he was way too old to be playing a high school student, yet they placed him in high school anyway. When they cast, Andrew Garfield to play high school Peter Parker, we all knew he was pushing 30 and was way too old to be in high school. Fan can suspend belief. That is why movies are popular, The issue comes up later int he article where he talks about that is the cool part about Spider-man... that a kid, who accidentally got his powers, is one of the most powerful people in the Marvel Universe. I actually agree with that. But that is where is stops- especially when dealing with the upcoming movies. NO ONE wants to sit through another Spider-man origin story. NO ONE! If they start this new series from there, I am out and I wont see it... I mean ever because its been done in the movies twice. Plus, Spider-man... everybody knows how he got his powers and how his uncle died and with great power... We are all familiar with that. Putting him back in high school is a step backwards for the character and almost forces Marvel to have to do some version of his origin in the movie. There is no need for this and is the exact opposite of all new and all different.
The biggest drop from Kevin Feige was how Spider-man will now interact with other heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That makes sense, especially seeing how he also dropped a hint that heroes from the small screen may make their way to the big screen. I wrote about this Who makes the cut?
This could open up Spider-man and New York to new heroes and interactions and even though Spider-man is an Avenger in the comics sometimes, making him an Avenger right away might not make sense. But to see him interacting with other heroes who are looking to keep the city safe, does make sense and also takes away from who will be the villain in this new movie ( which is a whole other topic)
So when Peter Parker makes it back to the big screen, expect him to be puny Parker and back in high school with high school issues and problems. But hopefully he will already have his powers and is working the streets with the Heroes for Hire to make New York safe!
News out of Marvel today from Kevin Feige, who oversees the MCU is that characters from the small screen Marvel tv shows, may begin to show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is no unheard of from Marvel. Characters from the movies such as Agent Coulson, Nick Fury, Agent Hill, Lady Sif, and Peggy Carter have all been on either Agents of Shield or in Peggy Carters case, got her own tv show. Now its cool to see these characters on the tv show but lets keep it 100, its not like we are seeing RDJ as Iron Man or Chris Evans as Captain America on these shows. One of Hollywood's oldest rules is that, "movie stars do not do television". And I don't see that changing for a second. Agents of Shield alludes to the characters all the time and to " New York" but we aint seeing no Avengers on that show!
But Mr. Feige was more alluding to characters from the Netflix series appearing on the big screen and that is a more realistic possibility; although this has rarely been done as well. Typically, tv actors who play a role have no show of reprising that role when it heads to the big screen( I'm looking dead at you Smallville and Tom Welling). Often times the thought is that tv actor does not have the ability to star( and makes us money in a big picture so the role is recast with a bigger named actor.
So what to do with the Netflix shows? Daredevil has already premiered and it was great! The character had been establshed in that awful Ben Afflek movie but now more people are going to associate the character with the Netflix series and Charlie Cox. Coming later this year, Jessica Jones will premiere on Netflix. Now, to most novice comic book people, you are gonna be like, "who is Jessica Jones?". And I am with you for that. I had to shake the cobwebs off the character too and in more recent times, she is best known as a detective who also works in Hell's Kitchen, like Daredevil. She often times employs heroes to help her with her detective work. Plus she has a baby by.... Luke Cage, who is going to get a Netflix series sometime in 2016.
Now Luke Cage, AKA Power Man. is generally one of the first Black superheroes most young Blerds know about( except for maybe Black Panther). Dude is super strong, has skin that is as strong as steel, and is a general bad ass! I am looking forward to his Netflix series with great anticipation and hopefully they let him shine on the Jessica Jones show!
But Luke Cage is probably most associated not with his baby mama.... he is most associated with Iron Fist. Danny Rand, is white dude, but has the power and training of a kung fu master.... He is a great comic book character and I am interested in how they handle him on the big screen.
And then, all of these characters together will form the last Netflix mini-series called the Defenders- where I assume they will fight together against crime in New York, specifically Hell's Kitchen.
Whew!!! So who makes the big screen cut? In the comics, all of these characters at some point have been Avengers and I think its safe to say that none of them will be in the Avengers. The screen is already taken up by too many heroes as it is at this point. Guardians of the Galaxy is more of a space story so I don't think they make it in Guardians 2. So what does that leave you with? Spiderman. Yep. Peter Parker is gonna have to share the big screen with these heroes if it ever happens. On the Ultimate Spiderman tv show, Spiderman works with Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones has appeared as well. Along with Nova, Dr. Strange, the Avengers... They are all based out of New York and having a cameo in the Spiderman picture opens up the bigger world that Marvel wants to show how all these heroes and events are somewhat interrelated.
So if Marvel is really thinking of opening up their world, its going to have to be in Spiderman. I cannot see it in any other movies they have scheduled for Phase 3. I'd like to see it happen too. Anything to take away from having another Spiderman origin story!
This article got me thinking alot about Miles Morales and Spiderman. Everyone of you should have seen the information from the Sony Hack detailing all the requirments for Peter Parker and Spiderman- the two biggest being that he must be white and he must be straight. As you can imagine, this made alot of people upset and I even wrote a 1000 word piece about it last week
This comes on top of the news that they picked fill in the blank white actor to play Peter Parker/Spiderman yet they are going to have Miles Morales be Spiderman when the books resume post Secret Wars.
The Vox article talks about how Marvel and Sony COULD do a Miles Morales Spiderman movie but they just don't want to. The author goes into this idea of intellectual properties and shared visions and blah blah blah. Marvel/Sony don't want to do it because they think it will turn off its white fan base and those nerds/geeks (who they value over Blerds) will not support it and they will not make their money. So instead of taking a chance or being a leader in diversity, Marvel takes the safe( white) route to keep cashing Spiderman checks.
I have been clear that I don't think it matters who is under the mask. It really does not matter. Kids and big kids want to see what Spiderman can do, not so much of what is going on in the life of Peter Parker. There have been two Spiderman origin stories in the past 12 years- people know the character and how he got his powers, and with great power comes..... We got it already! But I don't think Marvel and Sony are going to get totally off the hook with this Miles Morales situation and that information from the Sony hack. And I know how tv/movie people work when there is a negative associated with their product- they try to appease without offending and I am willing to bet that is what happens here.
I am predicting that Miles Morales/Spiderman will wind up on the small screen as a tv movie/Netflix series OR, Miles Morales will be Spiderman in the next animated Spiderman series. He has already made an appearance in that gawd awful Disney Ultimate Spiderman and since Miles is technically the Ultimate verse Spiderman, this would not be that big of a stretch and Disney/Marvel/Sony can pat each other on the back or circle jerk themselves over how they are really pushing Diversity( with animation, not people). Forgive me when I yawn when this happens!
The primary consumer of Spiderman products-outside of comics- are kids and children. Those kids and children, unless you as a bad parent/adult, point it out to them, don't know or care who Spiderman is. They just wanna see Spiderman. I hope in the future, my half black , half latin son can see himself represented by a positive hero on the big screen. I just wont hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
Cap wields Hammer
So this rumor drops yesterday and I posted a brief think on our FB page about it and then I was talking with Bug Hutch about it and the more I thought about it, the more it started to bother me( Geek bother me, not really bother me).
Now the idea of Cap wielding Mjolnir is not unheard of. Cap/Steve Rogers is considered worthy and there is even a nod to that in Age of Ultron in the infamous party scene before Ultron shows up( spoiler alert). But honestly, the comics have been overrun with people/creatures who have wielded the hammer and even used it to beat Thor's ass with it( the brotha equivalent of grandma sending you to get a switch to beat your own ass with)
I mean look at all these
Again, the idea of worthiness in the comics has been watered down so that is not what bothers me.
Winter Solider is great because, even though it stars Captain America, it does not go overboard with the superhero stuff. They present Captain America more as a spy in line with Jason Bourne and his ability to fight and kick ass is enhanced by having the shield and being a super soldier. That's it. When he defeats Winter Solider and even Batroc, he is not using the shield for the most part. He is just being a bad ass!
In Age of Ultron, you get to see him be Captain America-using the shield, having team up moves with Thor and Iron Man.... It makes sense because, ya know, its the Avengers. But Captain America 3 is not an Avengers movie( allegedly even tho all news points to about 100 heroes in it). And I think about what made both Captain America movies special is going to get lost in this idea making sure we get superhero action throughout the movie. And that bothers me. Let Captain America be Captain America. He has a shield as a weapon to use for himself. He does not need Mjolnir . It almost seems that Marvel is looking for for " aww shit" moments at this point instead of crafting stories that build characters around the action.
Sigh... where to begin. Probably for me, I just do not want to see this happen with Fox being in charge. They have these two properties and that is fine, but they clearly do not have a great handle on what to do with the Fantastic Four. As I wrote about previously, the FF movie franchise is really on life support and if this movie fails in August, its done. There will be no more Fox Fantastic Four movies and, to be honest, I am kinda hoping for that! Marvel needs to have all their properties back under their tent. I know their shaky business practices in the past put them in this situation but that was then. Now, they have built an audience that wants to see these movies, along with the fan boys who want to see these movies and being able to make this one, large Marvel Universe requires Marvel to have all their characters under their control. I mean, as great as the Avengers was, that movie is infinitely better if the invading alien race are the Skrulls, as opposed to the Chitauri. But Skrulls belong to Fox and we get what we get and you don't pitch a fit!
The Xmen property is much healthier...sort of. At the end of Age of Apocalypse next year, most of the major players for the franchise are moving on- most importantly Hugh Jackman. AoA is introducing many classic Xmen characters it seems but will that be enough to restart the movie franchise? And if so, should their first movie be a team up against another superhero team? It does not seem to add up! And its so funny because, even though the two teams have fought against each other before, their team up books have actually sucked. Like really sucked!
In the late 80's, the first team up between the two teams happened and it was a convoluted mess. Franklin Richards had a bad dream and his dad takes the book, where the bad dreams are, and that book turns Mr. Fantastic into Dr. Doom.... and then Kitty Pryde can't phase so they seek out help from Reed Richards but he wont help.... then there is a fight between the two teams....Then real Dr. Doom does show up to save Kitty but the Xmen would have to be his slaves..... And then Kitty was going to kill herself.... OMG! This almost sounds like one of those honest trailer movie spots.
( another reason why Marvel needs all their properties back)
So as a comic fan and movie buff, I really want Fantastic Four to do well. I just saw the trailer again while seeing Age of Ultron( again) and I was excited for the movie. Maybe Fox learned their lessons from the first two failures.Hell, maybe they asked Marvel for help or paid attention to what made their movies successful. I don't know! What I do know is this team up has no chance of happening if FF fails in August.
So much information dropped in comics and movies yesterday. It was a bit of a geek overload to be honest with you and we are still catching up trying to get it all for you! This bit dropped yesterday shortly after they announced fill in the blank white actor had just been cast as Peter Parker/Spiderman.
This is not really breaking news. Word had been that Spiderman would make an appearance in Civil War and join the cast of thousands of heroes and villains in that movie already. This article states that its going to be more of a drop in appearance( ala Lil Wayne on every rap track from 2003-2010) for Spiderman but the fill in the blank white actor playing Peter Parker/Spiderman would be reporting to the set immediately.
If you read the Civil War comics, you know Spiderman plays a very important role in the story and is central in the turmoil between Captain America and Iron Man. It also, sadly, gave us the Iron Spider costume( sigh, Marvel. Just sigh). But at this point, I am not sure how much more can they add. My original thought was Spiderman would come in for this scene from the book, at some point, and maybe make another appearance later in the movie.
But the more I think about it, if they reveal his secret identity, that kind of messes things up later for the solo Spiderman movies. So where does that leave us? My guess is that Spiderman comes in and drops like 16 bars and his appearance is very brief. Word on the street is that the conflict between Iron Man and Captain America is based on the fact that the people are ok with the Avengers saving the world but not all the damage they cause. Perhaps a scene in New York City illustrating that with Spiderman coming in talking/fighting on whichever side they place him on makes sense.
Marvel has to figure out a way to do this and not overdo it. People love Spiderman and they love the fact that he will be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe now. But, making him an Avenger or too big of a star in a movie called Captain America, may rub people the wrong way. Plus, Captain America was to be the push out point leading to Black Panther. I hope they don't scrub that to force Spiderman down our throat.
So word on the street is that the makers of the General Lee and its merchandise will not sell merchandise with the confederate flag on it anymore. They will still produce the orange charger and it will still be named the General Lee( werd?) but no longer will have the flag on the hood.
Look, the Dukes of Hazzard came on when I was 8 years old and I loved the Dukes! Many a day was spent playing the Dukes on the playground at Belmont Elementary School running around like we were driving the General Lee. And arguing over who was gonna be Luke and who was gonna be Bo( I was a Bo guy). Man me and my friends( who was all black), even wanted to be Cooter! I even had some Tiger Beats and what not that had Tom Wompat and John Schneider in it. I had a Dukes the picture above as a poster on my wall. I had the Dukes trading cards that once your turned them over formed a picture of Daisy. Side brotha note- my 4th grade teacher( older white dude) confiscated my cards and never gave them back after I had the daisy picture formed. I wonder what he did with em? And for real don't get me started on Daisy and dem shorts. I was a huge Dukes fan and every once and then, if I get lost looking for something to watch, I will still put it on from time to time and watch! Man I watched the Dukes during the tv strike when they had their wack cousins on there( a true Dukes fan)! I was Team Cody( man funk Vance)!
But 8 year old, yankee raise little Hutch didn't know anything about that flag and what it represents. Looking back, I guess its not that surprisingthey could run a show with the General Lee and a car with the confederate flag on it. I didn't see or know anything about it. But as I grew up, and I saw that flag being waved at KKK rallys and skin head rallys, it made me wonder, why they got the flag of the General Lee? Then I got older and read and saw what that flag is and what it stands for and I'm like, " yo eff the General Lee, and them Dukes( even Daisy)!
In light of what happened in Charleston, its really long overdue to remove that flag from any and all places. It has no right being flown over state courthouses, no street and memorials should be named after confederate war heroes, none of it. I commend Walmart and Ebay for pulling all Confederate flag merchandise and I commend Warner Brothers for doing the same with the Dukes. Its probably 50 years too late to be honest! Yes it eliminates a part of my childhood that I enjoyed but maybe I shoulda been smarter then anyway,
Let me get this out of the way from the jump so big Hutch doesn't say I wont acknowledge my bias. I am a Marvel guy! I always have been. In my house, DC stood for Dinky Comics and I have held that for the longest( even when Big Hutch was reading Teen Titans and other Pre-Crisis and Post Crisis books in the 80's). Once my son was big enough to watch shows, tho, he has always floated towards DC( much to my chagrin). But through him, I have seen more Superman cartoons and movies, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Young Justice, etc... You get the idea. I have always felts DC's heroes appeal to younger kids because of their God-like powers and its easy to fall into liking them beause they are not as complicated as some of Marvel's heroes.
So over the course of this time, I have learned to appreciate DC, especially their animation. I even have read more of their comics because of my son. I read the Justice League when Jim Lee was doing it, I am still reading the Greg Capullo Batman, which has been one of the best books I have read in the past 15 years. So I have a bias, I don't deny that! But its not as bad as it used to be,
Now this news comes out today that DC is looking to restart the Green Lantern franchise after the disaster that was the Green lantern with Ryan Reynolds. In case you forgot; although the trailer would lead you to believe this is a good movie( its not!)
This man should not get anymore comic book movies.
Hell maybe not anymore regular movies either
But DC, being DC, has the rumor out there that Chris Pine is going to play Hal Jordan. Previous rumors had Tyrese playing Jon Stewart Green Lantern, But the report today states that both will be in the new Green Lantern movie in 2018. Word? There is so much!
1. We don't need or want another Green Lantern movie. Been there, done that. Let it go! GL has great powers that tranlate well to film- but not for 90 minutes. He should be in the Justice League movie but that character does not need another movie.
2. BUT if we gonna have one, why the hell would you go back with Hal Jordan? You did it. It failed! You'd be better having Kilwog star in the movie at this point. DC worked very hard to get us to accept and like Jon Stewart and now, instead of giving him his own movie, he gotta play 2nd fiddle to Hal Jordan? C'mon man!
3.DC fails at diveristy. Look, comics are bad at diveristy anyway, but DC is worse than Marvel. On the count of three, name black DC heroes not named Cyborg or Jon Stewart.... ready.... GO!
Exactly, we got Firestorm, Vixen, Static, Steele.... It starts to get difficult doesn't it. So when there is a chance to cast one of their most established black heroes in a role, they split it between two actors. I'm sorry but bump that! That is weak sauce by DC. They have Cyborg already in the Justice League so 2 brothas woulda been too much? Word? Honestly, Jon Stewart is a better character than
Cyborg who is really more computer than boy now and most people know the character more for this!
Once again given the opportunity to be a leader, DC is a follower. Given the chance to make their product different, they follow and are afraid to take chances. If you want another GL movie, give it to Jon Stewart! You can introduce Hawk Girl and the Thanagarians and the complicated relationship they have. Or introduce Vixen and their relatioinship. Stop giving us the status qou and think we are just going to be ok with it. Ya'll are better than that!
If you are unfamiliar with the TV show Silicon Valley on
HBO, I recommend that you check it out.This show combines all the nerdom of tech geeks and their social
awkwardness in dealing with everyday situations and how they maneuver in
Silicon Valley.As well as their
immersion in dealing with people who are basically trying to create and one up
each other in the tech market.
The plot revolves around 6 male cohorts who are trying to
establish a start up Tech Company called Pied Piper.The company emerges from what was initially meant to be a data
compression app.Richard Hendricks, the
CEO, was offered 5 million dollars to buy out his compression app by a company
called Hooli (Google).However, he turned
down the offer, to establish his own start-up which consist of 5 roommates who
occupy a house in Silicon Valley called The Incubator.The Incubator is run by Erlich Bachman
played brilliantly by T. J. Miller.T.J. Miller has one of those very distinct voices that may be recognizable from
his work in animation, commercials as well as feature films.
The reason this show resonates with me is because it takes
the situations that occur in Silicon Valley and exaggerates them by about 50%,
puts a tech nerd spin on it and shakes it up to see what comes about.It is very cleverly written and presented by
all moving parts involved. However, the boys seem to have a run of bad luck
just about every week and just when you think that things are about to turn
around for them, something else happens.In other words, they take two steps forward and four steps back.Comedy ensues due to some of these
situations, which runs the gamut of deleting data by placing a bottle of
Tequila on the delete button on the computer keyboard to paying $10,000 for a
graffiti artist to create a logo for their company which turns into a
pornographic effigy.
This show is everything that The Big Bag Theory tries to be
but isn’t, which means actually being funny.It manages
to give insight of how you would imagine the movers and shakers
of Silicon Valley interacting on a day to day basis and the shenanigans that
ensue.This encapsulates the
representation of the emergence of the entrepreneur/future billionaires of the
tech industry.
The equivalent of Tech giants such as Google, Apple,
Microsoft , Uber and many others gives you a perspective of how these companies
have come to dictate how we maneuver through the Tech/Internet/Social Media
universe.
So the latest rumor is that the Director of Selma, Ava
DuVernay, has been tapped to direct the Black Panther.This is history making for two reasons, 1.
she is a female director and 2. she is African American, so she fits two
minority groups which have little, if any, representation in the Marvel
Universe.There will be a lot riding on
the outcome of this movie due to this fact. My familiarity with this character
is not that clear, however, I am excited to see the outcome of this project,
because it could be ground breaking for so many reasons.
Black Panther will make his first appearance in Captain
American – Civil War and his solo film will come out on July 6, 2018.Black Panther is the first black superhero in
the Marvel Universe, so his characterization is one based on significance and
importance because of what this character could/should symbolize.Chadwick Boseman has been cast as Black
Panther.Based on his critical success
playing James Brown and Jackie Robinson, he should have no problem portraying
such a pivotal African American character of this stature.
Rumor has it that the reason Duvurney was hired this early
in production, is so that she can familiarize herself with the set of Captain
America – Civil War, which is where Black Panther will be introduced. This will
be the first time she has worked on a production of this size and scope and
being that she is a novice to superheros in general, I think this will allow
her to give this universe a fresh take on an environment that is long overdue
for some diversity.
The story of Black Panther will take us to the fictional
African nation of Wakanda where we’ll see a clash between the American
government (represented by Martin Freeman), white industrialists (represented
by Andy Serkis), and local Wakandians (represented by Boseman) over the
valuable metal Vibranium (represented by Captain America’s shield).
I must admit that I have not seen the movie Selma as of yet,
but definitely plan to check it out.However, she has received many accolades for her work with that
production as well as the movie wining an Oscar for the title song, Glory.I have high hopes for what this piece
can accomplish in the grand scheme of things.
Henceforth, this is a production that could hopefully
open many doors for Marvel Universe.
1.We need the Houses ( Warner Bros., M-House and
Hacked )to slow downon making a crappy Superhero
a month movie. We are getting tired of Paying full ticket price to watch third and fourth string characters getting movies
and TV shows. I like Paul Rudd but Ant Man will be hard to watch outside of it
being one the highest rated movies ever. Aquaman was a running gag on Entourage
and what happens next…. A movie?
2.By Americans for Americans- I’m pulling out the
Monroe Doctrine on this one- I want talented American actors to play these
American Icons. If you drink Tea instead
of coffee or you chase dingos for kicks, GET OUT OF MY SUPERHERO
3.Ban Ryan Reynoldsfrom making movies Period - Especially comic
book movies.
4. .
No matter how much he screams or plays the race,
Oscar Nominated, and/ or reincarnated Hitchcock card,Do not let M.STANK direct a movie you want anyone to watch.
5. .
Nothing to see. Take off Agents of SLEEP.
6.Make all comics 1.50 a month. Who can afford
5.00 a book.
7.Put Funky Flashman in Depends and not in anymore
movies.
8.Can we get Six Degrees of Separation from the
Smith Clan. Dad is Deadshot, Son is Static Shock, Jada is in Gotham. I’m not
weeping
